Andrew Bunting

Chicago Botanic Garden’s Assistant Director Andrew Bunting will be the guest speaker for the SFA Gardens’ monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series, slated for 7 p.m. Nov. 9 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center.


NACOGDOCHES, Texas — Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St. Andrew Bunting, assistant director of the Chicago Botanic Garden, will present “Magnolias: Queen of the Garden.”

For the past 26 years, Bunting has been curator at the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College. From 1991-92, he was curator at Chanticleer in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Bunting is the past president of the Magnolia Society International and the Delaware Center for Horticulture. He also has served as chair of horticulture for the Philadelphia Flower Show and has done committee work for Bartram’s Garden, Tyler Arboretum and Awbury Arboretum.

Bunting has published over 100 articles in American Gardener, Arnoldia, The Hybrid, Fine Gardening, Magnolia Society Journal, Green Scene and Organic Gardening. Bunting’s home garden in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, has been featured in This Old House magazine and in the Wall Street Journal. He published “The Plant Lover’s Guide to Magnolias” in 2016.

The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month and includes a rare-plant raffle after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series fund are always appreciated.

Parking is available at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center and Raguet Elementary School, located at 2428 Raguet St.

For more information, call (936) 468-4129, or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.