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EPIPHANY

When I was young, growing up outside of Washington, DC, there was a lovely hedge of bamboo between our house and our neighbors, the Welden's. Jack Welden was a landscape architect and had planted it as a privacy screen. I was only about 8 years old then, but I was impressed with the Welden's garden and now can appreciate the fact that Jack planted running bamboo, Phyllostachys, and knew enough to install a steel rhizome barrier.

Twenty years later I found myself living in a colder climate, and re-discovering bamboo as a landscape plant. I've spent twenty more years growing, evaluating, and designing with bamboo. My academic training in horticulture began in the arid climate of Colorado, but my professional experience has come from landscape projects throughout the Northeast.

My epiphany was in Japan in 1992, while attending an international bamboo conference. The horticulture of bamboo in Japan is an art. Bamboo is far more than just a plant in Japan, it symbolizes grace, beauty, versatility, and strength. It sways in the breeze, it covers slopes, it defines space, it is a softer kind of evergreen, it is lush and it thrives. It lives long after it is cut, as food,
as utility, as art, as music, as inspiration. It endures.

Since Japan I have traveled the world to see bamboo in its native habitats as well as cultivated gardens and committed myself to this unique group of plants in a myriad of ways. I served on the board for 15 years and am Past President of the American Bamboo Society and currently serve as Executive Director of the World Bamboo Organization and am now Manager of Pioneer Plants, LLC, the U.S. marketing and production company for Bamboo Select, growing selected clones of some of the very best ornamental bamboos.

My background is at the same time focused and varied. I know how bamboo grows, I know what it can do and I think its unique abilities lend it great potential in residential gardens and commercial projects across the U.S. I am uniquely qualified to consult and advise on bamboo use in residential gardens, commercial or municipal projects, educational presentations, cultivation practices, contract installations, maintenance schedules, and sourcing of the most appropriate species.

Bamboo Select
World Bamboo Organization
International Plant Propagators Society

EXPERIENCE

Background:

1992 - Present
Horticulturist, Designer, Landscape Gardener, Consultant.
Commissioned projects include mostly private residential gardens, primarily
in southeastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Boston area.

1982 - 1992
Retail garden center management and landscape design.
General Manager of Morrison’s Home and Garden, Plymouth, MA
with responsibility for product ordering and employee management.
Morrison’s Home and Garden

2010 - present
Member, Board of Directors, International Plant Propagators Society,
Eastern Region

2009
Chair, International Organizing Committee, VIII World Bamboo Congress, Bangkok, Thailand

2009
Co-Editor, VIII World Bamboo Congress Proceedings (electronic)

2002 - present
Director, World Bamboo Organization

2002 - 2004
Vice President, The American Bamboo Society

1997 - 2002
President, The American Bamboo Society

1996 - 1997
Vice President, The American Bamboo Society

1992 - 1996
Secretary, The American Bamboo Society

1998 - 2000
Contributing Editor, bi-monthly newsletter, The American Bamboo Society

1998 - Present
Editor, The Northeast Chapter, American Bamboo Society,
Quarterly newsletter

1994 - 1997
President, Northeast Chapter, The American Bamboo Society

1991 - 1994
Secretary, Northeast Chapter, The American Bamboo Society

Participation in International Bamboo Conferences:

VIII World Bamboo Congress, Bangkok, Thailand 2009
IBC III, Minamata, Japan 1992
IBC IV, Bali, Indonesia, 1995
IBC V, San Jose, Costa Rica 1998
WBC VII, New Delhi, India 2004

Bamboo Collection Trips for USDA importation into the US:

from Japan, 1992
from Europe, 1993, '94, '95, '96, '97, '98, '01, '03, '04
from Yunnan, China, 1997

Affiliations:

The American Bamboo Society, life member
World Bamboo Organization, founding member, Executive Director
The International Dendrology Society, life member
The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, member
The Horticultural Club of Boston, member
International Plant Propagators Society, member
Garden Writers Association, member

LECTURES

October 16, 2009
International Plant Propagators Society, Cleveland, Ohio
“Cold-hardy Non-invasive Bamboos”

September 16-18, 2009
VIII World Bamboo Congress, Bangkok, Thailand

October 11, 2008
Fall Meeting of the Northeast Chapter of the American Bamboo Society, Stonecrop Gardens, Cold Spring, NY
“Propagation of Temperate Bamboo”

May 2, 2008
Annual Meeting of the European Bamboo Society, Dordogne, France
"Bamboo in nature and in the city, American-style"

November 10, 2007
“Bamboo in Japan”, NYBG Continuing Education Department

October 23, 2007
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
“Introduction to Bamboo: Utilization around the World, and more.”
Teaching course for Industrial Design students enrolled in the Bamboo Initiative program headed by Professor Bob O'Neal.

September 26, 2007
Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe, Illinois
“Bamboo 101” - Lecture by horticulturist Susanne Lucas, 7-9pm
Sponsored by the Joseph Regenstein School at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.
{Susanne became obsessed with growing cold hardy bamboo in the 1980's, frustrated by the challenges of Boston winters. She has traveled extensively to see bamboo in the wild to understand what it needs to survive in cultivated gardens. She is past-president of the American Bamboo Society and currently executive director of the World Bamboo Organization, and is manager of BambooSelect U.S. }

September 27-28, 2007
Perennial Plant Symposium at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.
“Non-Invasive Bamboo” - Lecture by Susanne Lucas.
{Non-invasive clumping bamboos (the genus Fargesia) are intriguing and remarkably cold hardy. Evergreen, versatile and fast-growing, these plants merit more attention in American landscapes. Susanne will detail the very best choices, potential uses, siting and companion plants. }

February 2006, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
“Cold-hardy Bamboos for Canada”, Canada Blooms Show

October 2005, Atlantic City, NJ
“New Plant Forum, BambooSelect® introductions,
International Plant Propagators Society Eastern Region, Annual Meeting

September 2005, Winterthur, PA
“Cold Hardy Clumping Bamboo”, GardenFair

May 2005, Kennett Square, PA
“De-Mystifying Bamboo”, Longwood Gardens

May 2004, Boston, MA
“Bamboo Tissue Culture in the U.S.”, Northeast Chapter The American Bamboo Society Spring Meeting

February 2004, New Delhi, India
“Creating a World of Difference – Bamboo”, VII World Bamboo Congress

April 2003, Connecticut
“Temperate Bamboo”, Hardy Plant Society

March 2003, New York, NY
“Fargesia” and “Running Bamboos”, New York Botanical Garden

December 2002, Boston, MA
“Temperate Bamboo”, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University

November 2002, Kennett Square, PA
“Bamboo, Taboo?”, Longwood Gardens

September 2002, New York, NY
“Hardy Bamboo”, MetroHort Society

March 2002, Connecticut
“Bamboos in the Northeast”, Fairfield Westchester Hort Society

February 2002, Ronkonkoma, NY
“Landscaping with Bamboos in the Northeast”,
Long Island Horticultural Conference, Cornell Cooperative Extension

October 2001, New York, NY
“Bamboo - The Quintessential Chinese Plant”, China Institute

April 2001, Albertson, NY
“Bamboo”, Clark Botanic Garden

January 2001, The Bronx, NY
“Bamboo in the Garden, East and West”,
New York Botanical Garden Continuing Education

September 2000, New York, NY
“Bamboo for Northeast Gardens”, BambooFest,
Horticultural Society of New York

June 2000, San Marino, CA
“Bamboo Around the World”, The Huntington Botanic Gardens

January 2000, The Bronx, NY
“Bamboo in the Garden, East and West”,
New York Botanical Garden Continuing Education

October 1999, Saratoga, CA
“Looking at Fargesia in the mountains of Yunnan, China”,
The American Bamboo Society Annual Meeting, Hakone Gardens

October 1999, Falmouth, MA
“Growing, Using, and Maintaining Hardy Bamboos”,
International Plant Propagators Society, Northeast Meeting

August 1999, Hoorn, The Netherlands
“The collection of Fargesia murieliae by Ernest Wilson”,
The European Bamboo Society Annual General Meeting

March 1999, Storrs, CT
“Growing, Using, and Maintaining Hardy Bamboos”,
Perennial Plant Conference, University of Connecticut

January 1999, The Bronx, NY
“Bamboo in the Garden”, The New York Botanical Garden

August 1998, Murten, Switzerland
“Bamboo in American Gardens”,
The European Bamboo Society Annual General Meeting

February 1998, New York
“The Hardy Bamboos - Phyllostachys, Fargesia and Beyond”,
The Horticultural Society of New York

October 1996, The Bronx, NY
“Bamboo in the Garden”, NYBG

October 1995, Savannah, Georgia
“An Introduction to Bamboos in the Landscape and Companion Planting”,
The American Bamboo Society Annual Meeting

January 1994, Wellesley, MA
“Bamboo: An Introduction to their Use Indoors and Outdoors”,
Gardeners and Florists Club of Boston, Wellesley College

Teaching:

New York Botanical Garden Continuing Education Program,
The Bronx, New York.
“Bamboo in the Garden”, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003

PUBLISHED

Articles:

“Bamboo Pioneers”
VIII World Bamboo Congress Proceedings, 2009

Bamboo and the Environment, Chapter,
Bambuseae, Stichting Press, Belgium, 2005

“Defending Bamboo”
Cape Cod & Islands Home magazine, Fall/Holiday issue, 2004

“Foreword, Bamboos for Gardens”
Ted Meredith, Timber Press 2001

“Bamboo: Graceful Grass or Jungle Giant?”
Brooklyn Botanic Garden 21st Century Gardening Series,
Landscaping Indoors, Bringing the Garden Inside, 2000

“Plant Societies”
Martha Stewart Living Special Gardening Issue, March 2000

Assorted articles relating to bamboo in BAMBOO, the newsletter of the
American Bamboo Society, and the Northeast Chapter Quarterly Newsletter.
See Bamboo Select for archives.
www.bambooselect.us

Photography:

Evening Gardens, by Cathy Barash, 1993, Chapters Publishing
Landscape Architecture magazine, 2/99, Volume 89, No. 2
Ortho Books, The Problem Solver, 2000
Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Landscaping Indoors, 2000
Bamboo Style, by Gale Goldberg, 2002, Gibbs-Smith Publisher

EPIPHANY

EXPERIENCE

LECTURES

PUBLISHED

LINKS