Uncloaking the Hidden Professional Interest in Public Horticulture in ASHS

ASHS members have been involved in public horticulture matters for many years. University-based arboreta and botanic gardens dot the academic landscape, serving all the familiar missions of land grant and other institutions, specifically teaching, extension/outreach, and research efforts. ASHS members have directed, managed, and utilized their affiliated gardens but have looked towards colleagues and other professional organizations for both guidance and outlets for information dissemination. ASHS will establish a new Working Group in public horticulture to accommodate those members whose number has been estimated at nearly 100 and who often find themselves with related responsibilities in addition to their more conventional professional roles. This effort was initiated with the establishment of the Public Horticulture Task Force at the 2008 national meetings and cultivated with the intention of improved membership education and publication in this field. Early considerations, justification, survey analysis, professional society collaboration, and other events and efforts leading to this new Working Group will be highlighted in this presentation.