Tony Spencer is the Canadian writer, photographer, and planting designer known as The New Perennialist. He is recognized and published internationally in the world of naturalistic garden design. Known for this award-winning blog, he also hosts The New Perennialist Talks, a webinar series featuring influential design innovators in the genre. Please note the series is on holiday for 2026 but is slated to return in 2027.
Tony is currently at work on a new solo book project for US publisher Timber Press for a launch in April 2027. He is also a contributing author for The Contemporary Garden published earlier this year by Phaidon Press.
2026 has been a banner year in spite of the world at large. Tony delivered the opening keynote for the 2026 Congress of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects held in Halifax, Nova Scotia and enjoyed the best lobster roll of his life by the ocean at Peggy’s Cove. Most recently, his design work and writing has been featured as International Feature in the summer Planting Issue of Gardens Illustrated. This is the first time in recent memory for a Canadian private garden to be featured in the pages of the word’s leading contemporary garden magazine.
Oh yes, prizes and such. Tony won the 2026 Media Awards Silver Laurel Medal of Achievement for Magazine Feature Writing, awarded by Garden Communicators International. Back in 2024, he won his second top Landscape Design Award of Excellence, this time for his Alvar Green Roof project from the US-based Perennial Plant Association (PPA) while in 2023, he was named PPA Garden Media Promoter of the year.
Day to day, Tony is a puckish ringleader for the naturalistic movement with over 110k followers on his various social media channels. He travels extensively to gardens and symposiums in his primary role as a communicator, documenter and sharer of ideas for this movement.
That’s the official stuff. On a personal note, I encourage you to freely explore my blog – now over (yikes!) twelve-years old and loaded with useful and inspiring free content. Start by searching the archives or select a Talk to more deeply explore this most sublime form of new garden expression – attuned to the greater rhythms of all forms of life.
Follow The New Perennialist on Instagram or the Facebook group Dutch Dreams to keep up with my most current explorations.
The New Perennialist: Talks & presentations
My latest presentations on the themes of Wildscaping and naturalistic design have earned serious kudos and rave reviews from all over the garden universe. I aim to create a visual story experience as special as the gardens themselves. I’ve delivered both live and virtual talks to horticultural clubs, symposia, and conferences for international audiences ranging from landscape professionals to everyday home gardeners.
I’m now booking a limited number of live and virtual gigs for 2027 with engagements already scheduled for the US and Canada. Please email tony@thenewperennialist.com for details about my topics, speaker fees, expectations and avails.
Upcoming: 2027 keynotes & symposia
- The 38th Annual NDAL Symposium (New Directions in the American Landscape), New Jersey, January 28–29, 2027
- Garden Masterclass UK, Green Roof Webinar, Date TBD, 2027
- Sustainable Urban Landscapes Symposium, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical garden, March 18, 2027
- Garden Club of Toronto, 80th Anniversary Keynote, Toronto Botanical Garden, April 22, 2027
- Victoria Hardy Plant Study Weekend Conference, Vancouver Island, B.C., June 25-27, 2027
Recent highlights: International talks
- Keynote: 2026 Congress of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 4-6
- Keynote: Drawing on the Land, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Massachusetts, June 13
- Speaker: 2024 International Landscape Festival, I Maestri del Paesaggio, Bergamo, Italy
- Garden Masterclass: Thursday Chat with Nöel Kingsbury and Annie Guilfoyle, UK
- Guest Seminar: University of Gloucestershire –Department of Landscape Architecture, UK
- Guest Seminar: University of Florence Department of Landscape Architecture, Florence, Italy
- Webinar: Translating the New Perennial Pond Garden, Hokkaido, Japan
USA
- Keynote: 2025 Perennial Plant Conference, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
- Keynote: 2025 Nantucket Garden Festival, Massachusetts
- 2025 Great Lakes Trade Expo, Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Keynote: 2024 Native Plant & Sustainability Conference, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden, Pittsburgh, PA
- Keynote: 2023 Impact Conference – Illinois Landscape Contractors Association, Chicago, Illinois
- Keynote: 2023 Planting like Nature: Detroit, Michigan
- Northern Green Expo, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Winter Symposium: Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, Virginia
- Bellevue Botanical Garden, Bellevue, Washington
- Greater Rochester Perennial Society, New York State
- Michigan Garden Club, Michigan
Canada
- Toronto Master Gardeners, 2025 Technical update, Ontario
- Keynote: 2024 Vancouver Hardy Plant Society Study Day, B.C.
- 2023 Perennial Plant Association Conference, Niagara Falls
- OALA (Ontario Association of Landscape Architects), Toronto, Ontario
- Victoria Horticultural Society Reading Weekend, British Columbia
- The 2022 Planting Symposium: Landscape Ontario
- Landscape Alberta Green Industry Show & Conference
- Alberta Horticultural Association
- Ontario Horticultural Association (various local groups and chapters)
- Canada Blooms, Toronto, Ontario
- Toronto Botanical Garden: presentations and teaching workshops
- The Garden Clubs of Montreal, Westmount and Dorval in Québec
Home garden tours and Open Days 2026
I receive many requests to visit my gardens here at the log house on Elder Hill and experience this kind of wilder-designed garden for themselves.
Please email tony@thenewperennialist.com to ask about scheduling a garden group visit. Or stay tuned to my Instagram account for alerts about occasional small guided tours for garden friends and followers throughout the season.
I also selectively take on professional planting design projects for people keen to create something creative, deep and different in their own private garden worlds.