Nancy Ross Hugo
 

Nancy Ross Hugo has been writing, lecturing, and teaching about trees, native plants, and floral design for over 30 years. As the garden columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, she wrote about natural history and gardening. As education manager of the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, she supervised adult and children's education. She is the author of Earth Works: Readings for Backyard Gardeners and, with Dr. Jeffrey Kirwan, of Remarkable Trees of Virginia. Her latest book, Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secret Lives of Everyday Trees, published by Timber Press in 2011, has been described as "a book to change us all into unabashed tree worshipers" (Seattle Times).

Nancy and her husband John live in Howardsville, Virginia, where they manage the outdoor education and retreat center Flower Camp. At Flower Camp some visitors rest and relax; others study field sketching, nature journaling, floral design, and other art forms that take their inspiration from nature. Nancy loves exploring the creative process, particularly in the form of nature journaling, which, she says "helps me keep my thoughts in order, my dates straight, and my eyes open to all things wild and wonderful!"

Contact Nancy Ross Hugo

2047 Selma Road
Howardsville, Virginia 24562 - Phone: 804-798-6364
nancy@flowercamp.org
 

AUTHOR

Seeing Trees:
Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees

Seeing Trees celebrates seldom seen but easily observable tree traits and invites nature lovers to watch trees with the same care and sensitivity that birdwatchers watch birds. Illustrated by fine art photographer Robert Llewellyn, Seeing Trees describes some of the most charismatic tree structures (including leaves, flowers, buds, leaf scars, twigs, and bark) and provides in depth profiles of ten familiar species---including such beloved species as white oak, southern magnolia, white pine, and tulip poplar. Learn more about Seeing Trees and how it was photographed on YouTube.

Remarkable Trees of Virginia

Nancy Ross Hugo, Jeff Kirwan, and Robert Llewellyn spent four years visiting and photographing Virginia's finest trees. Remarkable Trees of Virginia is now in its third printing and available from the University of Virginia Press. The project's website is still up and running, and visitors to the site can not only nominate additional remarkable trees, they can search existing entries by species and locality.

Please visit the Remarkable Trees of Virginia website.

Nancy was a featured guest on NPR's With Good Reason Spring and Fall 2009. To hear that interview visit "Remarkable Trees-and Birds-of Virginia." Remarkable Trees of Virginia was a finalist for the Library of Virginia's Non-Fiction Award in 2009, and it was ranked among the top 25 best-selling books for university presses in 2009.
 

Earth Works:
Readings for Backyard Gardeners

Nancy's first book was a collection of her essays on gardening and natural history. It was published by the University Press of Virginia in October of 1997. To order, contact the University of Virginia Press

 

NATURE JOURNALIST

Because journaling seals memories, Nancy is a strong proponent of nature journaling---in words, images, or even just notes in a field guide. Below are some pages from Nancy's 2009 and 2010 journals.
 
 
 

In May 2011, Nancy began a blog that is another form of journaling. There, each day, she posts a small arrangement (or just a conglomeration of natural objects) that commemorate the day in plant material. Visit Windowsill Arranging at http://windowsillarranging.blogspot.com.

Below is a post from November 13, 2011---a windowsill arrayed with rose hips, green tomatoes, and an Osage orange.


And below is a Japanese maple branch on the windowsill November 16, 2011:

 

Lecturer

Seeing Trees: In her PowerPoint presentation "Seeing Trees," Nancy Ross Hugo shares some of the secrets she and photographer Robert Llewellyn discovered in their intense, two-year investigation of the seeds, catkins, cones, flowers, resting buds, emerging leaves, and other small phenomena usually overlooked on backyard trees. She argues these intimate details are as exciting to watch as birds and that by becoming more familiar with them, observers will better appreciate both the ecological services and landscape value of trees.

Nancy emphasizes the importance of planting long-lived, legacy trees and argues that trees make the best landscape investments. With images by Llewellyn, Nancy illustrates why some trees species, including redbud, American beech, southern magnolia, red maple, walnut, ginkgo, tulip poplar, and even the much-maligned sweet gum, make particularly fine subjects for viewing. From the pollination droplets of the ginkgo to the sticky surfaces of female walnut flowers, striking tree features can be found not just in forests but in backyard and roadside trees within easy reach of anyone willing to look for them.

Remarkable Trees of Virginia: In her PowerPoint presentation "Remarkable Trees of Virginia," Nancy Ross Hugo describes the Remarkable Trees of Virginia Project, an initiative to locate and celebrate Virginia's finest trees. Using photographs by fine art photographer Robert Llewellyn, Nancy describes her four-year search, with Dr. Jeffrey Kirwan, to find Virginia's most remarkable trees. Trees illustrated and described include a sample of Virginia's oldest, largest, and most historic trees, as well as important community trees, unique trees, fine specimens, and culturally significant trees. In the course of this presentation, Nancy also describes some of the best, long-lived trees for landscapes and emphasizes the importance of planting legacy trees.

Windowsill Arranging: In this PowerPoint presentation (sometimes accompanied by a demonstration), Nancy Ross Hugo shares what she has learned from creating hundreds of arrangements on the narrow platform of a windowsill. There, in bottles, jars, and other small vases, Nancy showcases leaves, seed pods, flowers, and twigs (sometimes alone, sometimes in combination) in ways celebrate the seasons, and she encourages others to do the same. According to Nancy, this simple, easy form of floral design requires very little plant material but results in lavish learning and a deepening appreciation of natural rhythms. In her slides, Nancy shares some of her own creations (which range from naturalistic to Asian-inspired and contemporary designs), and her talk provides tips on the best containers, techniques, and materials to use (including garden gleanings, others' castoffs, and even kitchen scraps!).

Nancy's presentations can be geared to professionals or amateurs. Previous audiences and venues have included chapters of the Virginia Native Plant Society, Virginia Master Gardeners (Annual Meeting, Virginia Tech), Phi Beta Kappa Lecture (Randolph-Macon College), the National League of American Pen Women, the Virginia Festival of the Book, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Virginia Society of Arboriculture, Virginia Forestry Association, Garden Club of Virginia and Garden Club of America member clubs. Lectures and workshops in 2012/2013:

February 8, 2012: "Treading Lightly on the Land," Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, Virginia
March 2, 2012: “Seeing Trees,” Richmond Horticulture Society, Richmond, Virginia
March 15, 2012: "Seeing Trees," Southern Appalachian Plant Society, Kingsport, Tennessee
March 22, 2012: "The Extraordinary Secret Lives of Everyday Trees," Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, Virginia
March 24, 2012: “Seeing Trees,” Loudon County Master Gardeners, Leesburg, Virginia
April 19, 2012: "Seeing Trees," Capitol One Earth Day Seminar, Richmond, Virginia
June 6, 2012: "Seeing Trees," Penn State Greaty Valley Lecture Series, Malvern, Pennsylvania
July 11, 2012, “Seeing Trees,” The Polly Hill Arboretum, West Tisbury, Massachusetts
August 9, 2012: Windowsill Flower Arranging, Pharsalia, Tyro, Virginia
August 25, 2012: "The Extraordinary Lives of Everyday Trees," Irvine Nature Center, Owings Mills, Maryland
January 10, 2013: “Seeing Trees,” Gardeners Too, Washington, D.C.
January 26, 2013: "Seeing Trees," Master Gardener Conference, Greenville, North Carolina
February 3, 2013: “Seeing Trees,” Prince William Wildflower Society, Woodbridge Virginia
February 6, 2013: “Seeing Trees,” Delaware Center for Horticulture, Wilmington, Delaware
February 20, 2013: “Windowsill Arranging,” Chester Garden Club, Chester, Virginia
February 25, 2013: “Seeing Trees,” St. John’s Church, Warsaw, Virginia
February 26, 2013: Seeing Trees,” Carrier Arboretum, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia
March, 27, 2013: "Seeing Trees," Charlottesville Tree Stewards and Master Gardeners, Charlottesville, Virginia
April 14, 2013: “Seeing Trees,” North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
April 28, 2013: "Seeing Trees," Arbor Day lecture series, Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
May 16, 2013: "Windowsill Arranging," Hot Springs Garden Club, Hot Springs, Virginia
September 20-22: "Arranging for the Joy of It," Shrine Mont, Orkney Springs, Virginia

To schedule a lecture, contact Nancy Ross Hugo at nancyhugo@comcast.net. Fees range from $500 to $2,500 depending on size of the audience and venue.
 

Photo of Virginia's champion swamp white oak by Robert Llewellyn
It grows in Highland County, where Nancy Hugo (standing next to the tree) encountered it.

 

Updated April 3, 2013