Proposed by: a member of Garden Club of East Hampton, Zone III

Darrel Morrison has made a lasting impact on public and private landscapes across America and on the science and art of American gardening. He has championed ecological restoration, sustainable design, and native plants across the United States. A revered landscape architecture educator, Darrel has inspired and touched the lives of students at Columbia University, the University of Wisconsin, Rutgers, the University of Georgia, and the New York Botanical Garden. 

Darrel was an early pioneer in the use of native plants in landscape design, studying plant associations and the examination of the complex plant, soil, and weather interactions to create a new sustainable vision of beauty.  Through his teaching and practice, Darrel taught a new generation to incorporate ecology and botany in the use of native grasses in landscape design.

His landscape design work includes Storm King Art Center, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center in Austin, the Native Plant Garden at the University of Wisconsin, the Old Stone Mill landscape at the New York Botanical Garden, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Native Plant Garden Extension. He co-founded Landscape Journal and has been a frequent contributor to Landscape Architecture magazine. 

Darrel is being recognized for his lifetime of garden-related achievements in teaching, publishing, advocacy, conservation, and sustainable design practice.