Celebrating 25 By Looking Ahead: A Three-Year Strategic Plan To Guide Our Work

The Charleston Horticultural Society Board and staff are pleased to share with you the Three-Year Strategic Plan we have crafted to guide our work. This plan reflects our commitment to ensuring that our mission continues to grow, adapt, and respond to the needs of the Lowcountry community.

A strong strategic plan is essential; it provides direction, sets priorities, and ensures that our efforts have the greatest impact. Just as importantly, it helps us serve our members more effectively and creates

opportunities for deeper engagement and connection. Your support and participation are vital to our success, and we look forward to launching this exciting next chapter with you.

Lexicon

• Vision: A shared, aspirational picture of the future we aim to collectively create for our community.

• Mission: Our charge!

• Core Values: What you can expect of us. What matters most to us.

• Strategic Intentions: Our three big bets, intentions that guide our strategies.

• Community Impact Goals: The impact we aim to have over three years.

• Three-Year Strategies: The primary approaches we are taking.

Our Vision

We envision a Lowcountry where we grow greener together.

Our Mission

We equip garden enthusiasts and horticultural professionals across the South Carolina Lowcountry to cultivate community, resiliency, and beauty through gardening.

Core Values

We believe …

• Digging in the dirt is beneficial to all.

• Being in harmony with nature gives gardens beauty and purpose.

• Community resiliency is built through well-designed green spaces.

• Learning and gardening together fosters strong and vibrant neighborhoods.

• We can each make a difference in our own gardens and beyond.

Strategic Intentions

• Learn - Cultivating the knowledge and love of gardening

• Connect - Collaborating as gardeners, from backyard enthusiasts to

professionals

• Engage - Helping gardeners make a difference in their communities

Community Impact Goals

✓ Lowcountry residents will be better equipped to garden in a changing

climate. More people will identify as gardeners and feel empowered to

contribute to resilient, sustainable green spaces.

✓ Gardeners will have access to resources that encourage

environmental awareness and action. We will all actively contribute to our

region’s environmental health

✓ The Lowcountry will embrace sustainable horticultural innovation

rooted in our rich heritage. Utilizing both traditional and forward-thinking

practices, we will offer effective environmental leadership.

✓ Our communities will be healthier, more connected, and more vibrant

thanks to gardening. Engaged residents will enhance their neighborhoods, contributing to a more beautiful, ecologically resilient, and united Lowcountry.

Three-Year Strategies

1. Relaunch the annual lecture series as “Cultivating Minds,” focusing on

sharing forward-looking, innovative horticultural practices and showcasing the Lowcountry to national leaders.

2. Increase the diversity of learning opportunities to appeal to key

constituents, including younger and newer gardeners, and to enable

participants to dig deeper into horticulturally significant topics.

3. Inspire meaningful connections among members and business

partners through garden tours and gatherings that afford introductions,

nurture relationships, and spark engaging horticultural discussions.

4. Design and host Plantasia and Beneath The Oaks Symposium to

encourage greater shared learning and regional collaboration to strengthen the Lowcountry’s horticultural community.

5. Engage Business Partners in ways that nurture their businesses and

encourage them to support the community with their horticultural resources and expertise.

6. Launch “Growing Greener Together,” a new initiative to support mission-aligned organizations and encourage gardeners to make a difference through their gardening activities.

FY26 Board of Directors:

Madeleine McGee, Board Chair

David Caughran, Vice Chair

Cameron Rickett, Treasurer

Sharon Fowler, Secretary

Kim Ashley, Vine Online Editor

Ben Buckley-Green, Growing Greener Together Initiative

Catharine Gregorie, Plantasia 

Karen Gilson, Behind the Garden Gate Tour / Volunteer Mgmt.

Annabelle Hallam, Cultivating Minds Lecture Series

Claudette Smith, Sponsorships

Gregg Smythe, 25th Anniversary Celebration

Jo Summerall, ACE Basin Tour

Julia Thomas, Membership & Marketing 

Executive Director: Darcy Whalen

Staff: Sherri Abel-Colao, Erin Hunsicker, and Sabinne MacInnes