Bruce Crawford

Member since: 2017

A graduate of Bucknell and Rutgers University School of Landscape Architecture, Bruce Crawford founded his own landscape design firm, Garden Architecture Inc., in 1983. While still managing his residential landscape business, Bruce also assumed the position of adjunct professor of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers in 1987. A gifted lecturer and horticulturist, Bruce Crawford was picked to head the Rutgers Gardens in 2005. In the 15 years as director, the 180-acre garden has become a resource center for gardeners of any age, for professional landscapers, and for landscape architectural students. The grounds include over 60 acres of designed beds, specialty gardens, tree and shrub collections, lawns and walking paths as well as the adjoining Frank G. Heylar Woods. Rutgers Gardens holds one of the largest collections of American Hollies in the United States, a large grove of bamboo, well known collections of shade, evergreen, and ornamental trees. Under the leadership of Bruce Crawford, Rutgers added the Rain Garden, the Sun and Shade Garden, the Otkens Garden, the Pollinator Garden, and the Farm Market. He has initiated a summer class in Public Gardens Management as part of the summer internship at Rutgers Gardens and has set up a collaborative program with the Central Park Conservancy and Maplewood Township. His current projects include developing a master plan for the gardens with a mission to study the future of horticulture by looking at the past. Ever creative, Bruce and his team at Rutgers will put together a horticultural timeline looking at how the incredible changes in geography and geology in the past 400 million years have influenced the development of plants. In addition to his responsibilities as director, he has lectured at the PHS Jackson Lecture Series, the Hardy Plant Society, the Holly Society, the Shade Tree Commission, Master Gardeners, and many GCA clubs. He has contributed to Home Landscaping, Best of Fine Gardening-Garden Design Ideas, Fine Gardening magazine, and Dig It! and has been interviewed often by local news outlets as well as the New York Times. In the spring 2016 issue of the Bulletin, he wrote a refreshing reminder of the value of trees for not only shade and texture but also for visual depth, subduing noise, and reducing stress in our residential landscapes. In addition, he actively helps select candidates for scholarships given by the New Jersey Committee of the GCA. Recently Bruce Crawford received the Rutgers Gardens Centennial Award of Distinction, the New Jersey Nursery & Landscape Distinguished Service Award, the Medal of the Garden Club of New Jersey, the GCA Zone IV Horticulture Award and the Horticulture Commendation from Rumson Garden Club. He was the Program Leader in Home and Public Horticulture for the NJ Agricultural Experiment Station from 2020-2021 and is currently the Manager of Horticulture for the Morris County Parks Commission, and oversees Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Willowwood Arboretum, Bamboo Brook and the Kay Center. Honorary Member since 2017.