Holly Scoggins
associate professor Emeritus, program manager, blacksburg, virginia
Holly Scoggins, Ph.D., is an associate professor Emeritus from Virginia Tech. She retired in January 2020 after 20 years in the Department of Horticulture with teaching, research, cooperative extension, and administrative responsibilities. Holly received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia and her Ph.D. in Horticultural Science from North Carolina State University. Her passion for teaching and research has been recognized with many honors and awards. After “retirement,” she joined the educational staff at AmericanHort, the horticulture industry’s trade association. Her current role is as Program Manager for NewGen Boxwood, the national brand of Saunders Brothers Inc., a large nursery grower of quality ornamentals in central Virginia. Holly is the past President of the Perennial Plant Association and enjoys sharing her love of plants. She’s outdoors at every opportunity gardening, hiking, fishing, and beekeeping. Because she does not have quite enough horticulture in her life, Holly and her husband Joel Shuman run Bee Berry Farm, a you-pick blueberry farm and apiary in southwest Virginia.
lecture:
Plants I Loved... Until I Didn't
“You MUST try this.” “Here, take some of that with you – let me get the shovel!” Holly falls for it every time. After decades of gardening, she has plenty of favorites, but it’s helpful (and fun) to examine some flops: rowdy spreaders, expensive rarities where the tag becomes a tombstone, and the ol’ right plant, wrong place (whoops). When herbicide proves ineffective, and the failures are starting to stack up…moving away seems a plausible alternative.