2026 Speakers
Lauren Springer
Keynote Speaker: Lauren Springer received the 2025 American Horticultural Society Landscape Design award. She holds a master’s degree in horticulture and has introduced several dozen plants to the trade, with two upcoming for Plant Select: a large hardy hummingbird trumpet and a lovely hardy meadow muhly. She has written six books, including the bestselling The Undaunted Garden, award-winning Plant-Driven Design, and the upcoming Rocky Mountain Native Plant Primer, coauthored with Bryan Fischer and due out April 9, 2026. Her design work is featured regularly in both the national and international press. She has designed gardens at the Denver Botanic Gardens, Chatfield Farms, the Santa Fe Botanical Garden, and at the Gardens on Spring Creek where she is on staff.
Morgan Hopkins-Crawley
Morgan has spent over ten years in conservation and efficiency programming in Oklahoma, Florida and Colorado, focusing on all things water-wise landscapes and irrigation efficiency. She is passionate about connecting people to their landscapes, providing practical resources and education to encourage behavior change. She is a Master Gardener and a Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper, with a M.S. in Horticulture and B.S. in Environmental Science both from Oklahoma State University.
Kenton Seth
Kenton Seth is a horticulturist and author specializing in western landscapes, garden design, and realistic, sustainable practices.
Lance Ackerman
Lance Ackerman is a senior water conservation specialist with Colorado Springs Utilities. Lance is CLIA and QWEL certified and received a BS in Environmental Horticulture from Colorado State University. In his role with Colorado Springs Utilities, Lance is the program manager for their commercial turf replacement program, irrigation audit program and is active within Colorado’s Green industry. In his time away from work, Lance enjoys the outdoors, especially fishing, and spending time with his family.
Carla Anderson, PLA, ASLA
Carla has been a registered professional Landscape Architect for 38 years and has lived in Colorado since 1992. She has a degree in Botany and became a certified Colorado Master Gardener in 1996.
Her work of site design, planting design, and construction supervision focuses on environmentally responsible landscape solutions. This includes site grading and drainage, sustainable water management practices, use of low maintenance, native, and drought-tolerant plants, conversion of bluegrass turf to native grasses where appropriate, and mitigation of adverse environmental impacts such as challenges with native fauna and erratic weather conditions.