Proposed by: a member of Millbrook Garden Club, Zone III

Richard Hartlage, founding principal and CEO of Seattle-based Land Morphology, is an author, photographer, passionate horticulturist, and artist who employs plants as his medium. He has created a legacy of award-winning gardens nationwide, known for their fine design and creative problem solving. Hartlage says, “I use plants to reinforce function, intellectual content, themes, green or ecological strategies, and create immersive, emotive experiences.”

Hartlage collaborates with multiple stakeholders to plan garden spaces integrating art and architecture to attract audiences and incorporate sustainable design elements and planting. His public projects include 20-acre Waterfront Seattle, collaboration with Dale Chihuly on the garden design at Chihuly Garden and Glass, revitalization of Leach Botanical Garden in Portland, Oregon, the Castle Gardens at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens in Hartlage’s home state of Kentucky, the Herb Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Edible Garden at JC Raulston Arboretum at Hartlage’s alma mater, North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

Two books by Ray Rogers, Town and Country Garden Club, Zone XI, include Hartlage’s photography. Ray writes, Richard is “a metaphorical painter of creative and thought-provoking planted containers and landscapes.”