In October, 1993, Norman Singer, then President of NARGS and the Board of Directors, discussed the idea of providing internationally known speakers on alpine gardening and related horticultural topics to individual NARGS Chapters. The purpose of this new program was to give the opportunity to chapter members to meet and hear the programs of these outstanding speakers who they might never have the opportunity to meet or hear and assist them in their efforts to attract new members to their chapters. NARGS would organize the Speakers Tours, develop the itineraries and pay for the travel expenses. The individual chapters would be responsible for hosting the speakers while visiting their chapters (including housing and meals, generally in a chapter member's home) and for providing an honorarium to each speaker.

Joyce Fingerut assumed the responsibility for this new program. In October, 1994 Dr. Christopher Grey-Wilson, Editor of the Alpine Garden Society Bulletin and world plant explorer, made the inaugural tour for the first NARGS Speakers Tour. Since that time noteworthy speakers such as Harry Jans, Peter Korn, Josef Halda, Pam Eveleigh, Cliff Booker, Alan Bradshaw, John Grimshaw, Fritz Kummert, Peter Cunningham, Vojtech Holubec, Verna Pratt, John Richards, Steve Hootman, Sean Hogan, John Page, Graham Nichols, Ian Young, Alan Grainger, and many others have provided their programs to NARGS Chapters.

Two speaker's tours per year are provided to NARGS chapters, an international speaker and a speaker from North America. The International speaker is provided alternately to primarily the eastern or western chapters while the North American Speaker visits primarily the opposite coast. Speaker's tours are generally two to three weeks long providing programs generally to six to eight chapters. There are about forty chapters so speakers are available to chapters about every two to three years. The flexibility of chapters as to their meeting times enables speakers to be scheduled for their chapter more readily. Chapters are encouraged to visit this site often and indicate their interest in securing a NARGS STP speaker by contacting the Chair of this committee.

The Speakers Tour is now chaired by Barbara Wetzel with the able assistance of Chuck Ulmann and Philip McDougall. The linked pages below contain the Speakers who have spoken or will speak in the respective years. You will also find a brief biography, the general schedule for their tour and their proposed program topics. As the date of their tour approaches, you will be able to see their specific scheduled dates of visits to individual chapters, the program they will give to each and the contact person and contact information for each chapter. NARGS members are encouraged to visit other chapters to hear speakers if the speaker is not coming to their chapter. It is a good opportunity to hear an outstanding speaker and to meet other NARGS members.

You may express your interest in securing a speaker for your chapter by contacting Harold Peachey at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You may secure more information about hosting a speaker by following this link for the Hosting Guidelines.