Two people smiling in front of a colorful eucalyptus tree with palm fronds in the background.

Our Story

Magna Silva offers consultation, design, installation, and management services on residential properties throughout the High Country region of North Carolina. We advocate for the use of native plants in residential landscapes. Our main focus is promoting biodiversity and creating resilient landscapes through ecologically-minded garden design.

As an ode to the awesome Appalachian forests we call home, we named our business “Magna Silva” which in Latin means the “Great Forest.” We figured there’s enough businesses named after people out there, and we’re really ALL about the plants.

We made the move from the piedmont of North Carolina to the mountains in 2018 and spent a summer working on a forest farm in Madison County. By the end of the year, we found ourselves in the High Country working on a farm and in various gardens. At the beginning of 2020, we started Magna Silva and haven’t looked back.

You can find us out hiking the trails, searching for the next native plant in bloom, or overstaying our welcome at the local garden centers and nurseries.

Who We Are

For us, it’s always been all about the plants. We met working at a retail nursery and landscaping company in Greensboro, NC, and perpetually found ourselves scurrying up to the mountains every chance we got. Eventually, we made the move to western North Carolina and now have the opportunity to garden, study the native ecology, and adventure daily in one of our favorite places in the world.

Man in red shirt smiling in lush garden, wearing cap and sunglasses, surrounded by plants and flowers.


  • Horticulturist, Designer, Gardener, Business Owner, Chief Mess-Maker

    I am a professional horticulturist, landscape designer and wannabe amateur ecologist/botanist/taxonomist. My other endeavors include trail running, wilderness backpacking, and navigating lakes and rivers on my SUP. My career started at a retail garden center and landscaping company in Greensboro, NC, where I developed a passion for gardening under the guidance of outstanding mentors. After 9 years in the retail business, I took my show on the road to the mountains of western NC and spent time working and living on farms and homesteads in rural Appalachia. I developed a deep appreciation for wild places and the plants that lived there, and began to see gardens as more than just collections of pretty things to look at.

    My explorations in the forests of the Blue Ridge mountains would fuel my progression towards ecologically informed garden design and landscape management strategies. In 2020, I founded Magna Silva in Boone, NC with my business partner, Rachel. It provides the outlet through which I am able to constantly experiment, learn and grow as a plantsman and artist. I remain committed to horticultural excellence, client engagement, and unparalleled customer service. I will forever strive to integrate cultivated gardens with the natural communities of wild plants all around us.

Person smiling next to a pink camellia flower in a garden with green foliage.

  • Horticulturist, Designer, Gardener, Business Owner

    My love for the outdoors began at a young age growing up near the ocean in Virginia Beach, Virginia. My mom loved to garden, but I didn’t take too much interest in plants until later in life. I loved the beach and swore to never move away until I completed a week long backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail with friends for my senior project in high school.

    I put this sparked interest in backpacking on hold as I attended the University of Virginia. I suppose my curiosity about the outdoors manifested in my pursuit of a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Sciences and a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology. After graduation, I moved to Greensboro, NC where I unknowingly combined my two loves for ecology and digging in the dirt when I began working in the landscape industry. I learned from the ground up and was soon placed on a landscape team with my now business partner, John Dwyer.

    Together we’ve learned about the native flora and ecology of the southeast through gardening, hiking, backpacking, farming, and amateur botanizing. Our interests in the plant world and seeing the High Country’s need for a gardening company whose mission centers around ecology rather than pure aesthetics drove us to create Magna Silva. We’re ever evolving and learning in order to provide the community with the best information and services we can offer.

    In my free time, you can find me hiking, running, backpacking, and doing basically anything outdoors with my friends. I also volunteer with the local Blue Ridge Chapter of the North Carolina Native Plant Society (come join us!) and love taking advantage of any awesome events happening in the Boone community.