SFA Gardens to Feature Maples

SFA Gardens Lecture to Feature Maples SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 pm on January 8 in the Ina Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet Street, Nacogdoches. Jennifer Tucker, owner of Jensfarm Maples, will discuss “Everything You Wanted to Know about Maples, But Were Afraid to Ask.” Tucker has been the sole owner and operator of Jensfarm Maples in Middle Tennessee since 2001. Growing three hundred different varieties on the property, Jensfarm has become widely known as a highly reliable source of Japanese Maples in the Southeast region of the United States. Tucker has over twenty years of self-taught horticulture and gardening, and she continues to thrive while seeking to both educate and learn from other growers. In 2001, Jensfarm propagated, grew, and sold a variety of landscape shrubs locally while also actively volunteering and speaking in the Tennessee Master Gardener Program. As one of the first graduates of the Tennessee Master Nursery Program in 2012, Tucker has honed her craft growing staples such as boxwoods, junipers, hydrangeas, and more including Japanese Maples. She is also a member of the International Plant Propagator Society. While propagating her variety of shrubs in-house, Jennifer has also developed her grafting technique for the last ten years. Tucker has exclusively built an innovative nursery on five acres with eight greenhouses. Now, she has narrowed her focus to her passion of grafting and growing Japanese Maples, and she is always eager to find new and rare maples to add to her collection. Focusing on wholesale buyers, Tucker has had the pleasure of raising a quality product to share with the world. She is honored to serve The Maple Society as a Committee member and hopes to continue to serve the industry as a source of knowledge. The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month and includes a plant raffle after the program. Attendance is free and open to the public, and donations to the lecture series fund are always appreciated. Parking is available at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center or next door at Raguet Elementary School, 2708 Raguet St. For more information, call (936) 468-4129 or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.