Paradise Reclaimed: Gardens Real & Imagined
Sat Jun 21, 2025
11AM panel discussion
12 PM- 2 PM plant swap
In conjunction with Aisha Imdad’s The Allegorical Gardens, the program will be a community exchange of greenery and ideas centered on garden design, sustainability of native plants, and the therapeutic power of nature.
The event will begin with a discussion, followed by a friendly plant swap. Guests can bring a potted plant or cutting and swap it for something new to grow at home.
This interactive gathering celebrates the joy of nurturing plants, fostering connections among fellow plant lovers, and underscores the restorative impact of nature on our well-being.
- Andrea DeLong-Amaya oversees the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s gardens and nursery programs and is passionate about sharing the value of
native plants in planned landscapes. She’s been a staff member since 1998 and has over 30 years of experience with Texas native plants in horticulture, ecology and garden design.
She teaches classes in native plant horticulture and has contributed numerous gardening articles to publications such as Taunton’s Fine Gardening, Rodale’s
Organic Gardening, American Public Gardens Association’s Public Garden, Neil Sperry’s Gardens and e-Gardens, Texas Gardener and Wildflower (the Center’s member magazine). Her regionally best-selling book, the Texas Native Plant Primer (Timber Press), was released in March of 2025. - Bindu Nicholson is a landscape designer, gardener, and nature educator. She is passionate about increasing access to urban green spaces for disenfranchised communities. Nicholson aspires to create beautiful and inclusive green spaces where people, plants, animals, and other beings harmoniously coexist. She believes that the way we design our outdoor spaces can help people develop a deeper connection and feeling of belonging to a place, and can empower people to take care of each other and the environment. stewardship, sustainability, and ethics. She strives to design landscapes that allow people to develop a deeper connection and feeling of belonging to a place.
- Marsha Riti is an advocate for mother nature and stewarding native spaces whether big or small. A self-described native plant nerd, she is an artist, children’s book illustrator, landscape educator and specialist at the Elisabet Ney Museum. Riti is also the former vice president of Sunshine Community Gardens, a master naturalist (CAMN class of fall 24), and mother to one smart brave 10 year old girl.
- Elona Rose is the plant specialist and head of garden maintenance for Lattice Studio. She is a native Austinite with a background in sustenance gardening and edible landscapes. Her current fascination is understanding the potential of different local microclimates and the implications of climate change for Texas gardens. Rose is a believer in pessimistic gardening, providing constant opportunities to be thrilled and surprised by success. She has a passion for costuming and ornamentation that carries over into her maximalistic gardening aesthetic. Rose lives in north Austin where she bakes bread and makes jam and quilts with her husband, two children, two cats, and 19 chickens.
- Paloma Mayorga is a Mexican American interdisciplinary artist and independent curator born and based in Austin, Texas. Mayorga’s practice is rooted in exploring movement, place, and cultural identity in relationship to landscape and ancestral uses of plants. By prioritizing intergenerational wisdom, she investigates how collective plant knowledge can provide meaningful alternatives to capitalist systems that have fractured human relationships with the natural world. Currently, Mayorga serves on the Advisory Board for DORF, acts as the Curator and Exhibitions Coordinator for Coronado printstudio, and is working with Women and Their Work as Interim Gallery Manager.