R. Theo Margelony, Director-at-Large (First Term)

Theo Margelony seems to have spent most of his life in the garden. His earliest memories are of toddling along behind his grandfather in Germany at the age of three or four, clutching his own little red watering can. He hasn’t stopped watering plants since. Before moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2019 to fully pursue his passion for growing—especially his love of fuchsias—Theo spent more than three decades at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, working in the Department of Medieval Art & The Cloisters. There, he often devoted himself to heraldry, his other great and enduring fascination. While living in Manhattan, Theo cultivated Fuchsias in the City, a tiny urban garden measuring just 1/94th of an acre, where he grew a collection of fuchsias and blogged extensively about fuchsias, plants, and gardening. Now based in Portland, he is creating a new home for his fuchsias and their companions in a garden he calls The Fuchsietum. Today, Theo can often be found writing or speaking with fellow gardeners about fuchsias, plants, and the many pleasures—and challenges—of gardening. Shaped by a lifetime of curiosity, cultivation, and exploration, his guiding motto remains “One World, One Garden”.