Speaker’s Series
To fulfill a mission of OzMGs, we offer educational opportunities designed to supplement programs of the University of Wisconsin-Extension.
OzMG presentations are usually held at 7 p.m. CDT via Zoom on the fourth Thursdays of February, March, April, June, August, September, and October. Presenters come from all over the country and are experts in their specific field of horticulture. The presentation generally runs one hour. REGISTRATION REQUIRED.
2025 Speaker’s Series
February 27
Are My Plants Listening to Me?
Dr. Simon Gilroy
March 27
Pesticides & Pollinators
Anupreskhka Jain
April 24
Growing, Harvesting, Using Herbs
Nina Koziol
June 26
Good Bug, Bad Bug - PJ Liesch
August 28 - Program TBD
September 25
Native Bee/Citizen Scientist
Susan Carpenter
October 23
Fundamentals of Plant Diseases
Brian Hudelson
Speaker’s Series - February
Are My Plants Listening to Me?
Thursday, February 27 - 7:00 PM (Zoom)
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Plants are amazing. They can even survive a Wisconsin winter! But how much do plants ‘know’ about the world around them? Do plants ‘count’ (yes)? Can they ‘tell’ the time (yes), ‘feel’ you are touching them (yes), or even ‘smell’ that you are mowing your lawn (yes). They can also ‘hear’ the sound of a caterpillar attack, but are they listening to you?
In this talk we will explore these amazing sensory events using time lapse imaging alongside some of the latest visualization techniques used by plant scientists. We will literally see just how sensitive plants really are.
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About Dr. Simon Gilroy
Simon Gilroy has been a professor in the Department of Botany at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 2007. He grew up in the United Kingdom, where “everyone is a gardener” and his work focuses on how plants sense the world around them. Dr. Gilroy’s research group uses time lapse imaging to follow how plants respond married with imaging techniques that allow us to see the action of the very molecules that make the plant work. He pursues these projects in settings that range from his laboratory at UW-Madison to experiments on the International Space Station.
