It’s almost time to say so long to our long-time Plant Records/Taxonomist, Zac Hill, who will be moving to the Charlotte, NC area in early fall, to take over a similar position with the Bartlett Tree Company Arboretum. Bartlett is a private arboretum/research facility that, under the direction of plantsman Adam Black, holds one of the worlds largest tree collections.
Zac (left) has been with us for just over 15 years, starting in our production division, and subsequently taking over our plant records/taxonomy position in 2015. Since he’s been here, his contributions have been monumental, touching every aspect of our business. Zac has managed our plant database, which tracks all 92,000 plant records, detailing all the plants we’ve grown since 1986. Since COVID, Zac and his team have printed and installed 26,700 permanent, engraved tags in the garden. His knowledge of plants, and ability to identify them, especially North American natives, is extraordinary. During his tenure, Zac has led our work with a number of genera, most notably trillium and aspidistra. Zac, like Patrick McMillan before him, will remain an important JLBG research associate, despite the move to a new city.
We had a huge pool of incredibly talented applicants for Zac’s position, but taking over Zac’s work will be Ben Helde (right). Ben is a Seattle native, who recently finished his BS horticulture studies at Temple University, while also graduating from the Longwood Gardens Professional Horticulture program. Ben has also studied under our West Coast counterpart, Dan Hinkley at both Heronswood and Windcliff. Ben has begun training with Zac, and will be ready to step into his shoes by early fall. Please be sure to welcome Ben at our upcoming Fall Open Nursery and Garden.
Little did I know how rich an experience helping with the plant label production would be. Zac has been my ‘boss’, and I am awed by his knowledge. I will miss him big time. Ben fills big shoes, and I look forward to the path he will create. Another rich experience awaits! Thank you, Zac, for your endless tolerance of many questions!
Congratulations to both.
How exciting for both of you! Hope to hear more about Zac’s work in the future.
Zack will be missed, he is always ready and willing to share his expertise with the layman gardeners that frequent the open house each season. In fact JLBG may need to hire an ‘archivist’ to maintain the massive collections of data, plant material and images collected under Hill, so the new taxonomist can focus on ‘taxonomy’!
Hopefully the new guy, coming from cool-night rhododendron nirvana of the Pacific Northwest can share some insights on growing rhododendron in the southeast, or work with others to bring new robust and heat/humidity tolerant varieties into the trade.
Also, it was very kind to time this change closer to fall, things tend to cool off a bit here in central NC in mid-August; and you’d hate to have the new guy suffer from transplant shock right off the bat.