2025 SHOW JUDGES

Each annual Northwest Flower & Garden Festival brings us an opportunity to select three prestigious professionals from the landscape design and horticulture industry to come together and award the medals to each show garden, to vote on the coveted Founder’s Cup Award (Best in Show), and to select the American Horticulture Society Environmental Award winner. These judges will also be the speakers in the Show’s acclaimed seminar series.

Without further ado, here are the 2025 Northwest Flower & Garden Festival Judges!

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Tony Avent

Author, owner Garden Delights Nursery

Tony Avent is a plant collector, plant explorer, gardener, garden communicator, plant breeder, award-winning garden designer, and founder of Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden. He has taken over 100 plant expeditions and personally killed over 50,000 plant taxa. Tony and his wife Anita have donated their botanic garden, home, and nursery to North Carolina State University.

Neil Lucas

Recipient of RHS Victoria Medal, Executive Director Knoll Gardens, Author;

Neil Lucas is a leading ornamental grass specialist, author, and Director of Knoll Gardens. The gardens are renowned for their naturalistic approach. Along with the nursery he has established a charity, the Knoll Gardens Foundation, which is devoted to a greater understanding of garden biodiversity and related sustainable garden practices. Having been a Member of Royal Horticultural Society Council, and achieved ten consecutive gold medals for the nurseries displays at the Chelsea Flower Show, Neil is a recent recipient of the coveted Victoria Medal from the RHS.

Jacqueline van der Kloet

Jacqueline van der Kloet is an internationally acclaimed garden designer and one of Holland's best-known gardening authorities. She is a pro’s pro, a plant specialist whose advice is sought by other designers and landscape architects. Her designs are prized for their artful naturalized schemes and bold uses of color. Van der Kloet began her career as a designer of private residential gardens. Today, her client list includes some of the most prestigious public gardens in the world. In North America, she teamed with Piet Oudolf for innovative plantings at New York’s Battery Park, New York Botanical Garden and Chicago’s Lurie Garden. Her work across Europe and Asia ranges from Holland’s famous Keukenhof, to the palace Huis ten Bosch in Nagasaki, Japan to the Newport Bay Club at Disneyland, Paris. She has been a contributing designer to many international exhibitions.

Our three Show Judges headline a roster of speakers in our acclaimed Seminar Series. Your ticket to the Show includes all Seminars for FREE!

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