Norman Singer Endowment Fund

Applications for grants must be received by January 2, 2024. See application form below. Recipients will be announced at the meeting in Oakland, Calif.

Norman

About Our Fund

The NARGS Endowment Fund was set up in 1983 upon the recommendation of Norman Singer, the society’s secretary, and approved by the board in 1984. The interest accruing from the funds in the endowment was restricted to special projects, rather than operations of the society.  In 1992, the NARGS board adopted guidelines for use of the funds and a committee appointed to recommend grants.


Norman held various positions in NARGS including president (1992-1994), and he received numerous awards from the society, including the Award of Merit and the Marvin Black Award.


Norman served in the U.S. Army in World War II, assigned to Bletchley Park (U.K.) as a code breaker. He became a performing arts administrator in New York City, including Lincoln Center, and the Aspen (Colorado) Music Festival. He and his long-term partner, Geoffrey Charlesworth, whom he had met at Bletchley, retired to Sandisfield, Massachusetts, in 1981.


Norman died in 2001, age 80, and the endowment fund was renamed to honor his contributions to NARGS.

How to Apply
Endowment Fund Guidlines
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2025 Application
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Awarded

Year
Amount
Name

2023

$5,000
Marcela Ferreyra (Argentina): Publication and wider distribution of a book titled "Plants of Extra-Andean Patagonia, Patagonia Steppe, and Southern Monte."
$5,000
Don LaFond and Great Lakes Chapter of NARGS. Install a tufa rock garden and hypertufa troughs at the University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Garden.
$5,000
Paige Ransford (Massachusetts): Purchase interpretative educational signage, panels, and plant labels for the restored Franklin Park Zoo Rock Garden, Boston.

2022

$7,000.
Rancho Cistus Botanic Garden. Jeremy Schmidt (North Carolina), Sean Hogan (Oregon), Kenton Seth (Colorado), and Paul Spriggs (British Columbia) installed the first public crevice garden in Portland, Oregon in June 2022 during the annual meeting of the American Public Gardens Association, whose members will visit and see the installation.

2021

$4,000.
Kenton Seth/ Paul Spriggs : A book on crevice gardening in North America.
$5,000.
Tower Hill Botanic Garden (Mark Richardson) Study of rock gardens
$1,600.
Scraps-to-Soil Crevice Garden, Ursula Cruzalegui

2019

$10,000.
Juniper Level Botanic Garden
$1,000.
Evergreen Arboretum
$2,000.
Laurelwood Arboretum

2018

$1,100.
Green Spring Gardens, Fairfax County Park Foundation -Renovate degraded area of the existing rock garden by creating a new crevice garden area.
$1,400.
Jasper Johns: Goal is to elucidate the gene(s) responsible for adaptive alpine dwarfism in Aquilegia jonesii and to identify the genes responsible for growing it (soil drainage, composition, pH, watering and light schedules, etc.). This will contribute to the knowledge of how alpine plants grow in the wild but how they can be optimally cultivated in our homes

2017

$5,000
Juniper Level Botanic Garden (Raleigh, North Carolina) - construction of dry crevice and lime seep garden using concrete slabs to evaluate plants that normally die in southern U.S. gardens.
$2,500
Susann Nilsson (Mariannelund, Sweden) - field work on Pulsatilla in Asia and preparation of monograph.

2016

$5,000
Vojtech Holubec (Prague, Czech Republic) - printing book on flowers of the Tian Shan region of Asia.

2015

-

2014

$1,450
Dart’s Hill Garden, BC: To purchase plants for new tufa garden.
$1,450
Yampa River Botanic Park, CO: Purchase plants for new crevice garden and educational materials.

2013

$2,000
New England Wildflower Society. Funding to cover expenses associated with the recognition of the Trillium collections with the North American Plant Collections Consortium.
$2,000
Susann Nilsson, Amateur botanist with excellent references.  Funding required to cover travel and research in order to write a monograph on the Genus Pulsatilla.

2012

$2,500
JC Raulston Arboretum.
$2,000
Oregon State University Discovery Garden.

2011

$3,000
NARGS Seed Exchange for electronic seed ordering.
$1,500
Allegheny Chapter for installation of rock garden.
$1,500
The Iowa Arboretum for installation of alpine rock garden.

2010

$1,000
Alaska Rock Garden Society, Anchorage, AK- for planting a tufa bed in the Alaska Botanical Garden.
$1,500
Rotary Botanical Gardens, Janesville, WI - for renovation of existing alpine garden.
$3,500
The Fells, Newbury, NH- for continued renovation of the Clarence Hay Rock Garden.

2009

$6,000
Spring Creek Gardens in Ft. Collins, CO for starting the garden.

2008

$1,500
Oregon Shool for the Blind (Salem, OR) for building rock, bog and crevice gardens. ( Note: School closed summer 2009.)
$2,000
Spencer Crest Nature Center (Corning, NY), Bill Plummer, for buiding a rock garden.
$2,000
JC Raulston Arboretum -  Support of the scree rock garden and roof-top scree garden at NC State University, Raleigh.
$2,500
Berry Botanic Garden (Portland, OR), Kris Freitag, for rock garden renovation.

2007

$1,500
Dianne Reeck for a study of Erythronium revolutum.
$2,150
University of Newfoundland in St. John's for creation of a crevice garden.
$2,875
Toronto Botanical Garden for 3 permanent troughs.
$2,250
U. Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens for rebuilding Marie Azary Rock Garden.

2006

$3,500
The Fells, Newbury, NH - continuation of the rehabilitation of Clarence Hay Garden.
$1,500
University of Wisconsin (Madison), Allen Centennial Gardens for tufa bed.
$800
John Gyer - research on soil of root zone of sessile trillumns.
$4,000
Square Park, New York City - plant propagation.

2005

$2,875
Pacifica, Southern Oregon - construction of rock garden by Josef Halda.
$2,200
Rod Haenni - seed collecting trip to the Atlas Mountains.
$4,600
V. Holubec - to assist in publishing of 'The Caucasus and its Flowers'.
$2,500
Marcel Jouseau - establish growth requirements for various plants.

2004

$5,000
Montreal Botanic Gardens - crevice garden with Lincoln Foster's favorite plants, and first suggested crevice gardens in North America.
$3,000
Malcolm McGregor - study and photograph Saxifrage in North America.
$4,000
Denver Botanic Garden - Mt. Goliath Alpine/Rock Garden expansion.
$1,250
Lakewold Botanic Gardens (Lakewood, WA.) - expand rock garden display.

2003

$4,000
Betty Ford Alpine Rock Garden setting, Vail, CO.
$6,700
Nova Scotia Agricultural College (Truro, N.S.) - assist in completion of new area added at Rock Garden entry.
$4,000
University of British Columbia alpine house renovation/upgrades.

2002

$6,000
Denver Botanic Gardens for renovation of rock alpine garden, Brochure.
$1,500
Professor Rankin, study relationships between members of Gentianaceae and the soil in which they grow.
$2,500
Temple University Landscape Arboretum (Philadephia) to completely renovate rock wall: redesign, new plantings, signage.

2001

$1,600
Dianne and Robert Fincham for Phase 2 construction of Coenosium Rock Garden at South Seattle Community College.
$3,000
Oregon Flora Project for prototype Photo Gallery using 100 rock garden plants as a pilot data set .
$2,000
Rock garden reconstruction at Meadow Book Hall at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan.
$1,500
Justen Whittall for a study of North American Aquilegia diversity.
$1,500
Janis Noyes for photography and study in Europe of Sempervivum which will lead to a book.
$2,000
Marcel Jouseau for a study to establish growth requirements of Aquilegia jonesii Parry and delineate its potential natural distribution.

2000

$3,000
Domaine Joly-De Lotbiniere in Quebec for public alpine garden.
$3,000
Vail Alpine Garden Foundation (Vail, CO) for seed expedition to Chilean Andes.
$1,500
Adirondack Chapter garden construction of memorial for Al Wurster at local Cooperative Extension's Demonstration Garden.
$3,500
Alaska Chapter seed expedition.
$1,500
James Locklear for Phlox monograph.

1999

$1,050
CRAGS for automated sprinkling system in Banff Rock Garden.
$3,500
Alleghany Chapter of NARGS for plants and labels in the rock garden to be installed at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburg.
$2,800
Taylor Sultan Neal for plant exploration in Sierra Buttes, CA.
(Note: Taylor Neal returned the funds as the project did not take place.)

1998

$3,000
New England Wild Flower Society, Framingham, MA., for building a rockfall for Rare and Endangered Plants garden.
$3,000
Darrell Probst for study of Chinese Epimediums.
$1,300
California Native Plant Society for photographs for a book on California native plants.

1997

$1,000
New England Wild Flower Society, Framingham, MA., for renovation of their rock garden in 'Garden in the Woods'.
$2,500
James Locklear for travel to support his research for a book on phlox.

1996

$4,725
City of Eugene, OR for construction of a rock garden.
$1000
John Hay Estate/Garden Conservancy (in the Fells, Newbury, N.H.) to document the history and condition of the rock garden.
$1,500
Paul Jones for botanical expedition to Yunnan, China.

1995

$2,100
Katherine Sauter for photographic documentation of the flora of the Kurile Islands, Russia.
$3,500
Panayoti Kelaidis for a plant expedition to new areas of the Drakensberg in South Africa.

1994

450 pounds UK
Purchase of six shares in the Alpine Garden Society's expedition to collect new plant material in Yunnan and Sichuan, China.