Located in the lower Hudson Valley, Allyson Levy & Scott Serrano are two obsessed gardeners who garden all year long. We started Hortus Conclusus LLC to support our goal in creating a botanical garden. It is a small family run business that specializes in edible and decorative landscaping, garden consultations and implementations.
Eighteen years ago we started planting a diverse selection of plants on our 3 acre property. From rare native wildflowers, water lotuses, cold hardy cacti and edible fruit from around the world. In 2010 we acquired another 8 acres across the road from our existing gardens and started clearing the land to plant. There is an American woody taxa section; an area focused on ornamental & edible plants from China; a Greenhouse for non-hardy fruiting plants; a hardy cacti bed as well as an area devoted to John Bartram and a future garden area for Frank Kingdon Ward. in Spring 2019 these gardens officially became part of Hortus arboretum & botanical garden, which is operating as a non-profit organization. To learn more about this new development please visit our website hortusgardens.org
We also believe in working with our community and are responsible for the design and implementation of Marbletown Elementary school's edible garden and Rondout Valley's Middle school. Hortus Conclusus acted as a consultant on the Victory garden project at City Hall in Kingston, New York, 2009. In 2011 we were hired to create a 18th century Colonial Dooryard Garden for the Senate House, Kingston, N.Y.
Allyson became a Master Gardener in 2009 and a certified arborist thru the International Soceity of Arborists (ISA) in 2012.
We are often asked how did we start the gardens... We are both artists who began buying plants for our artwork. Scott planted to attract certain moths and insects and Allyson bought plants for their interesting seeds and flowers. When we realized we were buying and planting the same plants we came up with a plan. That is the Hortus Gardens today.
You can view our artwork at Botanicalart.us.
Georgia assists with the Greenhouse.
Moving an established Mulberry tree from the Field garden to the South Garden.
One of our educational missions is to educate young adults in all practices of horticulture techniques, and one of the ways we do that is by hiring them to work with us during the season. We also love our volunteers!!
Articles
The Road to Wellness
KHS Students - Planting out day
Grass Couch