Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet St. Dr. Martin Stone will present “The Evil House of Roses: Why Josephine Bonaparte is Alive in Your Garden.”
Stone is the Director of the Baker Arboretum at Western Kentucky University where he holds the Leichhardt Professorship of Horticulture.  The Baker Arboretum specializes in conifers and was recently recognized as an American Conifer Society Reference Garden.  He earned his PhD at Texas A&M University. 
Dr. Stone has worked as a senior research scientist in California, a nurseryman in Lindale, Texas where he grew thousands of roses in the wholesale market, worked at a garden center in Port Arthur and owned a garden center in Oklahoma where he grew thousands of roses for the retail market.  For the past twelve years he has been on faculty at WKU.
Stone has published over one hundred popular and scientific articles.  He leads study abroad trips to Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, China and Costa Rica.  He is also a local food organizer who founded a vibrant farmers market in Bowling Green, Kentucky and lives on a farm where he and his family raise blueberries, blackberries, pawpaws and cut flowers.
The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month at SFA’s Pineywoods Native Plant Center. A rare plant raffle will be held after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series fund are always appreciated.
Parking is available at the nearby Raguet Elementary School, 2428 Raguet St., with continual shuttle service to the Brundrett Conservation Education Building.