Rick Darke

2024 Florens DeBevoise Medal

For his outstanding work as a horticulture expert, garden storyteller, and educator

Proposed by: a member of Guilford Garden Club, Zone VI

Rick Darke spent 20 years at Longwood Gardens where he worked his way up to curator of plants. This led him to use his encyclopedic knowledge of plants and ecosystems to travel the world as a plant explorer.

Today he works as an independent landscape design consultant, author, lecturer, and photographer based in Pennsylvania who blends art, ecology, and cultural geography in the creation and conservation of livable landscapes. He has consulted and collaborated on numerous public landscapes from New York’s High Line to Sussex's Gravetye Manor.

A gifted communicator and photographer, Rick shares his love of plants and garden design through numerous books, lectures, talks, and tours.

GCA medalists Piet Oudolf and Doug Tallamy are the co-authors of two of Rick's nine books. His books, The American Woodland Garden and The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes won American Horticultural Society’s Book Awards.

Whether he is teaching students at the University of Delaware or speaking to a garden club, he challenges and engages his audience.

Rick deeply cares for plants and the gardeners who love them and is committed to sharing his vast knowledge to cultivate livable landscapes both large and small for all.

The Florens DeBevoise Medal is awarded for outstanding achievement in horticulture and/or education in horticulture.

The Florens DeBevoise Medal was presented by Sasqua Garden Club, Zone II, in memory of Florens Hutchins Lewis DeBevoise (Mrs. Charles DeBevoise: 1886–1951), a charter member of the club. Florens, cofounder of the American Rock Garden Society, was a botanist and authority on landscaping with alpine plants. Rock garden historian Marnie Flook notes, “She conducted extensive experiments with their propagation at her renowned Cronamere Alpine Nurseries prior to closing in 1941. Many rare herbaceous plants and shrubs imported by the US Agricultural Station were sent to her to determine correct cultivation and hardiness in the East. She also developed methods for dwarfing various types of plants, which she exhibited in miniature gardens.” In 2021, the GCA Executive Board adapted the current award description to encourage a broader application. The award was originally intended "for horticultural achievement in the fields of hybridizing, collecting, or nurturing, with a preference to plant material suitable for rock gardens." The medal was designed in 1954 by Mary Taylor Bryan (Mrs. Alden Bryan).

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