Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin State University's SFA Gardens will host a special presentation at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet St. Brent Heath, a third-generation bulb grower, will present "Bulbs of the Deep South."
Brent is a co-owner with his wife, Becky, of Brent and Becky's Bulbs, a Virginia-based wholesale and retail mail-order bulb catalog and website business that offers numerous types of bulbs for sale to botanical gardens, cities, universities, landscape designers and gardeners across the country. The Heaths are daffodil hybridizers and have a number of small, multi-flowered, fragrant hybrids.
The couple has co-authored two books, "Daffodils for North American Gardens" and "Tulips for North American Gardens." The Heaths also have both been featured guests on national television programs, including "The Victory Garden," "Karen's Garden" and "Martha Stewart."
The Heaths have received numerous recognitions, including a Gold Medal of Honor from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in January 2001 and an individual Commercial Gold Medal from the American Horticultural Society in June 2001. In August 2002, the Garden Writer's Association presented the Heaths with a lifetime achievement award by inducting them into the Garden Writer's Hall of Fame.
The Wall Street Journal voted Brent and Becky's Bulbs the "Best Bulb Company in America," and in April 2003, the American Daffodil Society awarded Brent with a Gold Medal of Honor for popularizing and promoting the use of daffodils.
The cost of the seminar is $10, and tickets can be purchased online at sfagardens.sfasu.edu. Parking is available at the nearby Raguet Elementary School, 2428 Raguet St., with continual shuttle service to the Brundrett Conservation Education Building.
For more information, call (936) 468-4129 or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.
