With featured speakers like Monticello's Peggy Cornett, popular Mississippi author Margaret Gratz, and Jenny Wegley, Director of Horticulture for The Dallas Arboretum, no other gardening program brings together top quality speakers and historic plantation settings as well as the Southern Garden Symposium in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Known as much for its engaging social events and historic venues as for its outstanding gardening lectures and workshops, the Southern Garden Symposium - now in its 29th year - has become an annual tradition for garden enthusiasts from across the south.

While the symposium’s workshops and lectures provide ideas and inspiration for the gardener, social activities surrounding the event are classic southern elegance at its best. From the home-baked breakfast breads served in the morning, to the sumptuous fare of the evening gala and the delightfully relaxed Saturday afternoon tea, not a single detail of southern hospitality is overlooked.

Located about 45 minutes north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, St. Francisville was established in 1809. Set in a unique location on a bluff of the Mississippi River and often described as a town “two miles long and two yards wide,” the quaint community offers southern hospitality, fantastic shopping, and breathtaking scenery. Symposium events are held at several historic and picturesque locations, both public and private, including Rosale Plantation, Dogwood Plantation, Afton Villa Gardens, Rosedown State Historic Site, Grace Episcopal Church, and more. 


In keeping with our mission, proceeds from the Southern Garden Symposium have funded numerous projects including a major revitalization project for historic Ferdinand Street in St. Francisville.  In just the last five years alone, the Symposium has donated over $23,000 to restoration and beautification efforts at Rosedown and Audubon State Historic Sites, landscaping of West Feliciana parish gateways, and a professorship at L.S.U.'s Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture.  We do hope you will join us and help support these worthy causes!