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The American Horticultural Society (AHS) has been selected as a recipient of a generous grant from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust. The $18,000 grant will fund the schematic design of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Walk, part of the Master Plan for the AHS’s River Farm headquarters.
“This grant will help us move forward with a crucial component of our Master Plan,” says AHS President Katy Moss Warner. “The design will bring us closer to our goal of transforming River Farm into a true celebration of American horticulture.”
River Farm, located halfway between Alexandria and Mount Vernon on the George Washington Parkway in Virginia, was once part of George Washington’s holdings. The 25-acre property includes an early 20th century mansion, historic trees, woodland areas, a three-acre meadow sloping down to the Potomac River, and a popular children’s garden.
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The Liberty Hyde Bailey Walk, named in honor of the botanist whose interest in cultivated plants brought a new scientific rigor to the practice of horticulture in the United States, is the central feature of River Farm’s Master Plan, adopted in 2004 by the AHS’s Board of Directors. When the plan is completed, River Farm will truly be able to serve as a “nation’s capital” of American horticulture, providing a place for leaders in the field to convene and setting an example by its use of environmentally responsible construction and sustainable practices in horticulture.
Currently, AHS is one of the hosts of the first ever Eastern Peformance Trials, which debuted there in September.
The Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust supports horticultural education and research in North and South America. Its mission includes the creation, development, and maintenance of botanical gardens; the promotion of the cultivation and wide dissemination of new plants and those with value to mankind; and assistance with the publication of books and other works devoted to the science of horticulture.