Beyond the Garden: How Southern Highlands Reserve is Restoring the Wild

with Robert Balentine

On April 15, 2025, the ICAA was pleased to welcome Robert Balentine, founder of Southern Highlands Reserve, for a talk about the high-elevation native plant arboretum and research center in western North Carolina. In his presentation, Robert tells the story of how this mountain oasis came to be, through his vision, with his wife, Betty, to preserve the incredible biodiversity of 120 acres destined for residential development.

Betty and Robert recently won The Garden Club of America’s highest honor, a national medal, for outstanding achievement in environmental protection. Now a nonprofit leader in reforestation of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, Southern Highlands Reserve is completing construction of the Rachel L. “Bunny” Mellon Greenhouse. The facility, which includes a raingarden and mountain bog as replicable examples of green infrastructure, will be the epicenter for native plant propagation for regional conservation projects with partners including the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Forest Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and many others. Just as Southern Highlands Reserve is providing a model for traditional public and private gardens to lead conservation efforts outside the bounds of the garden, Robert and Betty have created a broader definition of legacy to include preserving natural resources and the magical experience of nature for generations to come.

Robert Balentine is an inveterate, dirt-under-the-fingernails gardener with a rosarian as his father and a Garden Club of America horticulture judge as his mother. His love of the natural world developed at an early age—years spent hiking and camping as an Eagle Scout made him especially keen about the flora and fauna of the Southern Appalachian highlands.

In 2002, Robert and his wife, Betty, founded the Southern Highlands Reserve, a nationally recognized native plant arboretum and research center in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. In 2017, the Library of American Landscape History recognized the Balentines with its Preservation Heroes award and this year, the Garden Club of America presented them with its prestigious Cynthia Pratt Laughlin national medal recognizing their outstanding achievement in environmental protection and for the maintenance of the quality of life.

Robert currently serves as chairman of the Garden Conservancy, and was founding president of the Southeastern Horticultural Society, and chairman of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He is past president of the Rotary Club of Atlanta and a graduate of Washington & Lee University, where he served as a trustee for nearly a decade.

Professionally, Robert is chairman of Balentine, the southeastern-based wealth management firm, where he counsels families on shaping legacies defined by purpose and philanthropy. His book, First Generation Wealth, was published in 2022.

Brought to you by the Bunny Mellon Curricula at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. The ICAA is very grateful to the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation for its generous support of this program, along with the Bunny Mellon Curricula Sponsors:

Lead Sponsor: Hollander Design Landscape Architects
Continuing Education and Public Programs Sponsor: Charlotte Moss

Thank you to our generous sponsors:
Lead Annual Public Programs Sponsor: RINCK
Seasonal Public Programs Sponsor: Dell Mitchell Architects
Seasonal Public Programs Sponsor: Hyde Park Mouldings

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