Tony Avent

In addition to running the nursery, Avent is a plant breeder who is best known for his Hosta breeding program, but is actively breeding other genera as well. In addition, Tony Avent travels the world on plant hunting expeditions to search for new, rare, and unusual plants. He is also an avid plant collector with a large collection of rare variegated Agave. He is a prolific writer as well, having authored a book (So You Want to Start a Nursery – 2003, Timber Press) and dozens of newspaper articles, magazine articles, and web articles. Avent was featured in the book, Heroes of Horticulture by Barbara Paul Robinson, 2018; Beautiful Madness by James Dodson, 2006; The Plant Hunter’s Garden by Bobby Ward, Fall 2004, and The Collector’s Garden Book by Ken Druse, 1996. He is currently a contributing editor to Fine Gardening Magazine. In addition, every year travels the country, having given over 800 lectures on gardening topics. He also lectures each year at Plant Delights Nursery. In 2018, Avent was named a Distinguished Alumni at his alma mater, North Carolina State University.

Avent is married to Raleigh business woman and childhood friend Anita Avent, a B.S. and MBA graduate of Meredith College. Anita Avent is also a Mindfulness and Nonduality teacher as well as a Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner. She established the Center for Mindfulness and Nonduality at Juniper Level Botanic Gardens in 2013. She is a former health insurance administrator, regulator, and director with Cigna, the State of North Carolina and a Preceptor and Faculty Associate at the Department of Health Policy and Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and mother to three adult children. She is also an independent business strategist and healthcare industry consultant appointed by Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. in 1996 to serve as a Rules Review Commissioner on the State of North Carolina Rules Review Commission.

Inspired by the late J. C. Raulston, Tony Avent has made over 66 plant expeditions since 1993 and has traveled extensively around the world in search of new, rare and unusual plants.

Tony Avent has breeding and evaluation programs for dozens of genera. He started breeding Hosta in 1984 and has been expanding his palette ever since. Avent currently holds several US Plant Patents; Baptisia 'Blonde Bombshell' PP 26,828, Baptisia 'Blue Towers' PP 27,088, Baptisia 'Ivory Towers' PP 26,827, Hosta 'Tattoo' PP 11,603, Hosta 'Sun Mouse' PP 30,033, Dianthus 'Wicked Witch' PP 19,824. His plant breeding efforts focus on the following plant groups.

Tony Avent attended North Carolina State University and graduated in 1978 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Horticultural Science. He studied under the well renowned horticulturist J. C. Raulston. J. C. Raulston, instilled in him the quest for the newest and best garden plants from around the world. In 1977, he married Michelle Morgan Avent (1957–2012).

In 1978, he began working for the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh as its Landscape Director. He worked there for 16 years until 1994. In addition he worked as a volunteer curator of the Shade Garden at the J. C. Raulston Arboretum from 1985 to 1994. He also worked as a weekly garden columnist for Raleigh's News and Observer newspaper from 1987 to 1998. He established Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Gardens in 1988 and by 1994 the business had expanded enough for him to resign his state job and become a full-time nurseryman.