PPA honors 2025 Special Recognition Award recipients
During the Perennial Plant Association’s (PPA) 2025 National Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, three perennial professional individuals were honored for their exceptional contributions to the industry with Special Recognition Awards.
This year’s awards and recipients are:
The Emerging Perennial Professional Award to Ben O’Brien, owner of Wild by Design. This award recognizes an individual who is a talented and diligent newcomer to the perennial plant industry. Wild by Design, founded in 2014, is guided by Ben’s passion for plants and naturalistic planting design, but also by the desire to create gardens and landscapes that provide people with the same simple delights and pleasures as the wild rural landscapes of his youth.
The Perennial Outreach and Education Award to speaker and lecturer Rebecca McMackin, Arboretum Curator of Woodlawn Cemetery, and former director of horticulture of Brooklyn Bridge Park. This award recognizes an individual or organization who has distinguished themselves by advancing perennial plants and the industry through education, advocacy, awareness, outreach, or promotion.
The Perennial Excellence Award to Jack DeVroomen of DeVroomen Holland Garden Products. This award recognizes an individual or organization who has distinguished themselves through their contributions, skills and efforts related to herbaceous perennial plants and the perennial plant industry.
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