0011 | Friends First Friday

Join us each month at the State Botanical Garden for a unique educational opportunity! Every Friends First Friday features a guest lecturer who brings expert knowledge on all things garden and plant related. Friends First Friday is sponsored by the Friends of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia.

July 11 - Meet Me at the Garden – Cora Keber

The garden, in partnership with the Cognitive Aging Research Education (CARE) Center, has been piloting a program called Meet Me at the Garden. This program is designed for people with dementia and their care partners. Dyads come together for socializing, learning about environmental topics, and exploring the outdoors on a sensory walk. Keber will share the history of the partnership, the structure of the program, and goals for the future. Participants will get to engage in some programmatic activities for fun, learning, and connection. 

Cora Keber has been working at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia since the summer of 2007. She has held various positions over the years and has been the director of education since 2016. In this role, she oversees educational programming, implementation, and evaluation for pre-K through lifelong learners.

August 1 – Before There Was the Garden – Roger Collins

Roger Collins has always enjoyed exploring Georgia's landscape and history and is an avid participant in the Thursday morning Nature Ramblers at the State Botanical Garden. He has a passion for researching land use history in the Athens area and surrounding counties. His research includes finding old tax maps, aerial photos, and analyzing tree rings and land formations to interpret the land. Join us as Roger presents a fascinating program on the history of the land the State Botanical Garden occupies as well as the surrounding nearly 2000 acres. He will share information about the three generations of the White family who owned the land. This is the family that created the mill village of Whitehall and built the mansion on the forestry school property of the same name. You will learn how the property eventually came to be a part of UGA.

Roger is a graduate of UGA’s Henry Grady School of Journalism. After working on newspapers in South Carolina and Tennessee, he returned to Georgia to serve as editor of The Oconee Enterprise in Watkinsville. For the past 40 years he followed a career in residential construction as a home builder, electrical and plumbing contractor. He is now semi-retired and lives on Lake Oglethorpe in Oglethorpe County.  

September 5 – Before There Was the Garden – Zoe Prince

Zoë Prince is the curator of the Heritage Garden. The Heritage Garden opened in late 2001 as a showcase of plants of historical interest to Georgia and the Southeast United States. It includes areas of heirloom annuals, perennials, native plants, fruit trees, and row crops. Zoë also takes care of a portion of the Flower Garden. In her talk, she will discuss the history of the Heritage Garden and some of the changes her area has undergone in the last couple of years, including the hillside garden and perennial meadows. She will also discuss her hopes and plans for the future of the Heritage Garden.

Zoë joined the State Botanical Garden in October 2024. She graduated from the University of Georgia in May 2024 with a degree in horticulture. During college, Zoë was closely involved with the Horticulture Club, serving as president in her final year. She has gained most of her horticulture experience in the nursery business, spending time working at a large commercial nursery in her hometown, and later at Athens Wholesale Nursery. Zoë has enjoyed the opportunity to experience plants as a service to the public. She has spent her first year in the Heritage Garden watching how it changes with the seasons, learning its rhythms, and completing a few big projects. Outside the garden, Zoë enjoys traveling with her husband, and her newfound hobby of birding.

October 3 - Breeding Plants for a Crowded Market – David Roberts

David Roberts has a deep love for plant breeding and propagation and hopes to inspire gardeners with exciting new plants that are unique and easy to care for. David acquired his master’s degree in horticultural science from North Carolina State University (Dec 2015) with a concentration in ornamental plant breeding. David worked as a graduate student for Dr. Dennis Werner and Dr. Tom Ranney, where he developed a passion for horticultural science.

Bailey Nurseries, Inc. hired David in 2015 to act as the general manager and head plant breeder for Bailey Innovations. David now serves as the Director of Plant Breeding at Bailey Innovations, where he leads the breeding team and coordinates plant trials from their nursery located in Winterville, GA.

Please join David as he discusses the philosophy, strategy and objectives for various plant breeding projects at Bailey Innovations.

November 7 – Floral Designs for the Holidays – Carol Dyer McKeen

Please join Carol Dyer McKeen as we explore the beauty of seasonal flowers and nature elements to design a simple floral arrangement for fall and winter holidays.

Carol will provide foraged flowers, greenery, and other natural add-on’s to guide you through the basic process of building a floral design. You will leave with your own floral design and hopefully the confidence to design your own arrangements at home!

Carol is the curator for the Tropical Conservatory and the Herb and Physic gardens. She has done floral designs for over 20 years. She learned floral design from the late C.L. Morehead of Flower’s Inc. Retail and did floral design with retired Herb Garden curator, Pam Butts, at her nursery Charmar.

December 5– Tulips in December – Jim Moneyhun

December may seem like an odd time to talk tulips, but it is the perfect time to plant bulbs that will flower next Spring. Jim Moneyhun will provide a brief history of tulips, including the Ottoman Empire’s fascination with the flower and the seventeenth century Dutch Tulip Mania. He will also suggest tulip species and hybrids most likely to return year after year and discuss practices for planting and protecting tulips from herbivory.

Jim is curator of the Flower Garden and a horticulturist at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. The Flower Garden extends from the Heritage Garden to the Day Chapel and down the tiered lawns which host the Sunflower concert series. He and his team, consisting of two part-time staff and 10 regular volunteers, maintain the Flower Garden. He also supervises countless UGA student-volunteers through the Learning-by-Leading program. In the Fall of 2024, the Flower Garden team planted 8,900 tulip bulbs and 5,100 other spring-blooming bulbs. Prior to joining the State Botanical Garden, Jim worked for 20 years in the public sector, writing local, comprehensive plans and administering state and federal grants.