Please join the Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at 7:00 PM in the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1685 W 13th Avenue, Eugene, OR, for our guest speaker program presented by Whitey Lueck. This month’s topic is “Horticulture – Then and Now.”
A lot has changed since Whitey Lueck in 1974 received the L. C. Chadwick Award from the American Society for Horticultural Science as the outstanding horticulture student in the United States. Along the way, Whitey’s “gardening” philosophy changed from a human-oriented approach—where the focus is almost exclusively on visual beauty—to a much broader nature-based approach where visual beauty and ecological function are of equal value.

In this presentation, Whitey will briefly review his own horticultural background—with fun photos from the family archives—before focusing on the nature-friendly approaches to contemporary horticulture he saw when he returned to visit places where he’d lived and worked many years before.

Whitey Lueck is a teacher, horticulturist, ecologist, naturalist, landscape designer, and writer who lives in Eugene, Oregon. (He was also employed at one time as a “male cocktail waitress” at the Oregon Moose Lodge in Corvallis.) Before his retirement in 2023, he taught in the School of Architecture and Environment at the University of Oregon.

For more information about the group or this event, visit our website at www.thehardyplantgroup.org/events or email us at info@thehardyplantgroup.org.

This in-person meeting will also be broadcast live over Zoom to members who are unable to attend in person. The Zoom broadcast will also be recorded, and a viewing link will be sent to members to access within two weeks of receiving it. If you are interested in watching our Zoom broadcast and are not a member, please see the “About” page on our website at www.thehardyplantgroup.org/about to download our membership form to join.

Doors on the east side of the building open at 6:30 PM for refreshments, browsing botanical samples, and socializing. Admission is free for members and $5 for non-members. Membership in the Hardy Plant Group is open to all and is only $30 annually. There is ample parking in the parking lot, accessible from both Chambers Street and W 13th Avenue, with additional parking in the adjacent Looking Glass Center parking lot to the north, but please do not park under their covered entryway. Overflow parking is also available in the first 20 spaces on the east and south side of Redeemer Fellowship Church, just across Chambers Street to the west. View parking map at www.thehardyplantgroup.org/contact.

The Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) volunteer organization for gardeners of all experience levels. The Group is dedicated to educating the community about perennials, shrubs, and other plants for use in the garden, sharing each other’s gardens, and fostering a love of gardening. For more information, visit www.thehardyplantgroup.org.