Cheekwood names Peter Grimaldi its new Vice President of Gardens and Horticulture. Grimaldi comes to Cheekwood from the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden in North Carolina, where he served as the Director of Horticulture and Facilities for five years.
In his new role, Grimaldi will serve on a six-person senior leadership team, responsible for ensuring horticultural excellence throughout Cheekwood’s 55-acre campus. He will oversee the design, direction and implementation of four seasonal displays as well as directing plant cultivation and protection, turf and tree care, greenhouse production and maintaining sustainability practices, while upholding the historical integrity of the property.
Having previously played an integral part in developing the children’s garden at Daniel Stowe, Grimaldi will be leading the development of the new Bracken Foundation Children’s Garden at Cheekwood, slated to open in the spring of 2019, as well as overseeing major design enhancements to the institution’s one-mile Carell Woodland Sculpture Trail, scheduled to debut in 2020.
Before his service to public horticulture, Grimaldi worked in commercial landscape construction, where he managed large-scale installations throughout the United States including the restoration of President Lincoln’s Summer Cottage in Washington, D.C.
Grimaldi has a Bachelor’s Degree in Plant Science from Cornell University, the alma mater of Cheekwood’s architect, Bryant Fleming. Grimaldi’s first day in his new role will be July 12, 2017.
For more information about Cheekwood, visit https://cheekwood.org/.
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