Welcome to the Far Reaches Botanical Conservancy
The mission of the Conservancy is to facilitate the acquisition and introduction to North America of threatened and vulnerable ornamental plants of known wild provenance as well as from cultivated sources. These plants will be maintained as a living reference collection for public educational and scientific purposes with the goal of conservation through cultivation via distribution to botanic and public gardens, botanists and researchers plus professional and amateur gardeners and horticulturists.
Seamus O’Brien Memorial Lecture Series
Winter 2026
Our newly named webinar series honors a remarkable individual and dear friend who in December passed suddenly at age 55. Seamus curated the plant collection at the National Botanic Garden Kilmacurragh in Ireland and was a peerless garden and botanical historian. Seamus kicked off our inaugural webinar series in 2021 with his presentation “In the Footsteps of Joseph Dalton Hooker and Augustine Henry” and subsequently did two more for us which are archived and available for viewing on our website. A great supporter of the work being done at Far Reaches, when asked for anything he would reply “Kelly and Sue, whatever I can do to help”. He had cheerfully agreed to be our first presenter this year, speaking on the great plant hunter Frank Kingdon-Ward, of whom he was writing a biography. It seemed proper to keep him close at hand through these webinars.
The RSBG 2025 Botanical Foray Among Japan's Incomparable Wild Plants
Friday, March 13 at 5pm PDT
Steve Hootman is Executive Director of Horticulture and Curator of the world's premier collection of Rhododendron species at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden, Federal Way, WA. Steve is one of the leading authorities on the genus Rhododendron and is the recipient of every top award related to Rhododendrons. He is responsible for introducing numerous new species to cultivation, especially through his many expeditions in Asia. Kelly and Sue have been fortunate to have traveled with Steve on seven of these expeditions beginning in 2003 and can attest that he is cut from the same intrepid cloth as the great plant hunters of yore.
Steve will speak on the RSBG's recent trip to the mountains of Japan, searching for not only Rhododendrons, but a tantalizing array of trees, shrubs and herbaceous gems.
Suggested donation is $12 per event, all are welcome.
Webinar Archive
Click HERE to view some of the webinars that FRBC has presented over the years.
