Lecture to feature highlights of SFA Gardens' 40th year

Lecture to Feature Highlights of SFA Gardens’ 40th Year SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. December 11 in the Ina Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center. Our very own Dr. David Creech, Director of SFA Gardens, will discuss “SFA Gardens Against the Odds: A Year in the Garden.” Creech has been at SFA since September 1978. He received his bachelor’s degree in horticulture from Texas A&M University in 1970, a master’s degree in horticulture from Colorado State University in 1972, and his doctoral degree from Texas A&M in 1978. After a long career in teaching, Creech retired in 2007 but returned to direct SFA Gardens in a part-time position. Creech’s research interests are varied and include fruits and vegetables, evaluating ornamentals for East Texas, conservation horticulture with endangered plants, salinity studies and, most recently, investigating the potential of kiwifruit as a specialty crop for Texas. Since 1981, Creech has accumulated a long list of international work in Pakistan, Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal, Israel and China. In the last 21 years, he has undertaken more than 25 consultancies in China, working with the Blueberry Improvement Program and Taxodium Improvement Program at the Nanjing Botanical Garden, as well as connecting with the new plants arena in the China nursery and landscape industries. He is an advocate of increasing forest cover and smart use of land and plant resources. The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month and includes a plant raffle after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, and donations to the lecture series fund are always appreciated. Parking is available at the PNPC, 2900 Raguet St., or Raguet Elementary School, 2708 Raguet St. For more information, call (936) 468-4129 or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.