Professional Sections

APGA Professional Sections exist to promote networking among public garden professionals sharing a common interest and to help advance the mission of the Association. Professional Sections are discipline-focused (Education, Plant Collections, Volunteer Management, College and University, Native Plants, etc.), and bring together garden representatives for information sharing and networking opportunities. Professional Section members share their expertise through the Association’s eNewsletter and Public Garden articles as well as presentations at the Annual Conference, and may also assist in developing and providing professional development opportunities for APGA members. Each Professional Section has its own area of the website where it provides useful information and opportunities for interaction among Professional Section members. The Professional Section pages are available to members only.

For information about becoming a member of a Professional Section, email Sarah Maietta, Membership Manager at  smaietta@publicgardens.org, or for information about joining the Association, click on Join APGA located on the left menu bar.

College and University Garden Section
The College and University Garden Section examines the ways in which college and university affiliated gardens can serve their primary audiences of faculty, students , staff, and the general public through the development of collections, educational programs, interpretation, and research efforts.

Conservatory and Support Facilities Section
The C&SF professional section serves as a resource for professionals who grow and exhibit plants for display under glass in a Conservatory or its associated greenhouse support facilities.

Design and Planning Section
The Design Professional Section (DPS) provides a resource for planning and design professionals working in and with public gardens.

Development and Membership*
The Development/Membership Section will provide a framework for fundraising professionals in the public garden industry to network within the industry, to learn from each other’s experiences, and to share best practices.

Education Section
The Education Professional Section supports the overarching mission of APGA by supporting the work, value, and achievements of educators working in public horticulture and plant-based education.

Emerging Professionals*
The Center for Public Horticulture at the University of Delaware is organizing a new APGA Professional Section for Emerging Professionals. This new section will support people new to the profession of public horticulture by providing resources for networking, career development, continuing education and training.

Green Buildings and Landscapes Section
The Green Buildings and Landscapes (GBL) professional section of the APGA serves as a resource for professionals at public gardens throughout North America working to improve the environmental sustainability of their facilities, landscapes, and practices.

Grounds Management Section
The Grounds Management Section collects and disseminates information on all aspects of grounds management including urban forestry, environmentally supportive strategies, and new developments in equipment, chemicals, regulations, and maintenance procedures, to promote grounds management as a profession.

Historic Landscapes Section
The Historic Landscapes Professional Section seeks to promote the importance and understanding of historic landscapes to all professionals in the public garden community and to encourage agreement about one big idea, which is that every public garden is or will be historic in some way, either now or in the future.

Marketing & Communications Section
The MCPS strives to provide opportunities for networking, professional development and act as a resource for marketing and communications experts for APGA members and the general public.

People-Plant Interaction Section
The People-Plant Interaction (PPI) Section of APGA supports the belief that the level of human interaction with plants through work, play, living environments and learning experiences significantly impacts individual health and happiness and community and societal well-being.

Plant Collections Section
The Plant Collections Section focuses on issues related to the curation and display of living plant collections. It promotes professional standards and the dissemination of information on collections acquisition and content, accessioning and labeling, plant exchanges, and coordination of collections to preserve the gene pool.

Plant Conservation Section
The Plant Conservation Section's purpose is to encourage public gardens to focus on plant conservation as a key mission area and to keep them informed of related issues.

Plant Nomenclature & Taxonomy Section
The Plant Nomenclature and Taxonomy Professional Section is a resource for education, information dissemination, research and discussion about plant names.

NAPCC Oak Curatorial Group
The NAPCC Oak Curatorial Group provides a forum for communication among members of the NAPCC Multi-Institutional Quercus Collection to coordinate activities and decision-making.

Native Plants Professional Garden Section
The NANPO professional section is intended to be a resource to organizations that focus on the plants native to North America for display, collections, research, conservation, and land stewardship. This professional section is particularly of value to these organizations because of the, often unique, roles they play in their communities through: stewardship of natural lands and watershed resources; display, living collections, and/or herbaria resources focused on regional flora; involvement with in situ and ex situ efforts to conserve biodiversity; education/interpretation targeting the value of regional biodiversity; leadership in addressing issues of biological invasion and its impacts on natural systems and much more.

Small Gardens Section
The Small Garden Professional Section provides a forum for communication and problem solving issues specific to Small Public Gardens. The challenges facing smaller public gardens are often very different from those of large public gardens.

Technology and Innovation Professional Section (TIPS)
The purpose of the Technology and Innovation Professional Section (TIPS) is to assist and encourage the botanical garden community to make the best use of computer and other information technologies for diverse purposes, including management of collections, natural areas and facilities as well as membership, development, education, research and other purposes that support and strengthen the goals of organizations.

Volunteer Management Section
The Volunteer Management Section continues to provide professional expertise, guidelines and resources for volunteer coordinators at member gardens through the efforts of its Section members, and at its biennial Interaction Conference.

Warm Climate Conifer Curatorial Group
The Warm Climate Conifer Curatorial Group provides a forum for communication between institutions interested in collaborating on the development of a multi-site warm climate conifer collection and applying for NAPCC recognition.

*Pending approval

The APGA is committed to providing networking opportunities for all of our members. If you are interested in creating a new Professional Section, please contact Casey Sclar, Interim Executive Director at csclar@publicgardens.org or (610) 708-3016 to learn how.