The Garden is seeking a dynamic Director of Horticulture to engage our visitors by leading the team in all horticulture initiatives to drive year-round attendance and further HBG’s education and conservation mission. The Director must understand the importance of botanic garden collections, conservation, research, sustainability, and display strategies to operate a successful public garden that serves as a resource for a sophisticated local and global community. Serving as an organizational leader, the Director will execute the horticulture priorities and design development with a thoughtful and strategic plan and must be an enthusiastic advocate internally and externally for making the Garden beautiful and engaging for others. As a key public face of the Garden and a steward of the guest experience at the Garden, the Director works in close collaboration with multiple departments to ensure smooth running of fast paced and often overlapping operations including seasonal shows, events, rentals, and programs and reports directly to the President and CEO. The ideal candidate is an educator by nature, passionate about HBG’s mission, well organized and a strategic thinker. The next Director of Horticulture has extensive plant knowledge of the Gulf Coast and/or Texas climate and its particular challenges. This person must be an innovative and inspiring leader who can delegate, manage, and prioritize multiple competing responsibilities with clarity and confidence and must have strong interpersonal and teamwork skills. HBG is looking for a dynamic, forward thinking individual, who enjoys working in a growing organization, to build and expand on the young Garden to deliver Houston Botanic Garden as a garden leader in national public gardens. Main Job Responsibilities: Provide day-to-day leadership, management, and oversight to the HBG horticulture team according to the annual operations plan.Maintain the highest horticulture standards and practices by providing clear direction, training and motivation for the horticultural staff, interns, and volunteers to guide the development and management of garden displays, landscapes, and developing nurseries. Adhere to the design aesthetic informed by HBG’s master plan, mission, and strategic priorities forming a strong foundation for future research.Showcase broad horticultural knowledge, honed skills and depth of expertise through practical, verbal and written forms to diverse public and professional audiences to inspire colleagues, donors, members, guests, funders, and the public with the beauty, wonder and value of plants. Build an appropriate living collection of plants that supports conservation and interpretation to highlight and educate the public on the significance and relevance of the Garden’s collections and research projects.Plan and oversee HBG’s plant production and propagation efforts and nurseries.Collaborate with partners locally and nationally to further HBG’s horticulture and collections priorities. Manage the staff responsible for plant records, mapping, and labeling; plant collection policy.Manage and support overall plant health and soil nutrition strategies for all gardens to include sustainable gardening practices and integrated pest management. Accountable for development and management of the horticulture budget, budget monitoring, strategic planning, and horticulture capital projects. Participate in scholarly research of the collections and publish for the Garden when appropriate. Provide supervision and guidance to staff of 9+ on hiring, training, goal setting and appraisals/reviews. Work with garden volunteers and Community Engagement department to develop long-term productive relationships and grow the number of horticulture volunteers. Collaborate across departments to identify opportunities for funding, programming, interpretation, and community outreach to activate the garden and its audiences. Develop, maintain, and promote positive and professional relationships with internal staff, volunteers, members, vendors, contractors, media, and the general public. Serve as liaison for the Board of Directors’ Horticulture Advisory Committee. Give tours and presentations and provide insight, content, and editorial support for various publications, interpretation, and marketing as needed. Represents HBG with supporters, including garden clubs, plant associations, city and county agencies, and others. Advise the production and management of special events in order to safeguard the collection. Perform additional duties and assume additional responsibilities as delegated by HBG’s President and CEO.
