AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY HONORS EDMUND C. SNODGRASS WITH G.B. GUNLOGSON AWARD

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Alexandria, VA (March 24, 2011).

The American Horticultural Society (AHS) is pleased to announce that Edmund C. Snodgrass has been named the 2011 recipient of the Society’s G.B. Gunlogson Award.

The award is one of 12 Great American Gardeners Awards that the AHS presents annually to individuals, organizations, and businesses that represent the best in American gardening. Each of the recipients has contributed significantly to fields such as scientific research, garden communication, landscape design, youth gardening, teaching, and conservation. The G.B. Gunlogson Award recognizes
the innovative use of technology to make home gardening more productive and successful.

Edmund C. Snodgrass is president and founder of Emory Knoll Farms, Inc., and Green Roof Plants in Street, Maryland—North America’s first nursery specializing in plants for green roofs and horticultural consulting. The nursery has supplied plants for more than 400 green roof projects throughout the United States and Canada. Snodgrass collaborates on green roof research with academic institutions
including Pennsylvania State University, North Carolina State University, and Michigan State University, and he advises public gardens, including the Singapore Botanic Garden and the U.S. Botanic Garden, on green roof installations. He has also co-authored two books about green roofs.

On Thursday, June 9, 2011, the AHS will honor Snodgrass and the other 2011 award recipients during the Great American Gardeners Awards Ceremony and Banquet, held at the Society’s headquarters at River Farm in Alexandria, Virginia.

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The Green Roof Manual: A Professional Guide to Design, Installation, and Maintenance

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

The Green Roof Manual: A Professional Guide to Design, Installation and Maintenance is out!  We launched it earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in Washington DC, and Ed took it global, signing books at the World Green Roof Congress in London. While it’s still new to the market, we’re happy with the feedback we’re getting so far.

Our goal with The Green Roof Manual was to bring readers lessons from the field, gleaned from visits to many built projects and interviews with designers, installers, scientists, and other experts. The green roof market, at least here in North America, is so new, and green roofs are so different to what people are used to seeing on top of buildings (asphalt shingles, black waterproofing membranes, rumbling HVAC equipment), that sorting through all of the information can be overwhelming, even for designers.

This green roof with grasses is located on a post office facility on 9th Avenue in New York City. (Photo by Linda McIntyre)

But, after about a decade of growing popularity and installations across the US and Canada, we’re starting to see some factors common to successful green roofs: designs keyed to specific objectives, use of tested and proven materials, plants appropriate to a rooftop environment and the roof’s microclimates, and regular maintenance, especially in the weeks and months just after planting.

An aerial shot of a green roof at Columbia University in New York City. (Photo by Linda McIntyre)

While green roof technology is not a magic solution to all of our environmental problems, it can help cities to manage storm water more effectively and mitigate the impact of heat-absorbing pavement and buildings. Green roofs can also make our built environments more beautiful, bringing plants and wildlife to places previously devoid of them. Let’s build more of them, but let’s build them right!

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