Get to Know
Seven Bends Nursery

About Us

"Planting native, growing together"

Seven Bends Nursery LLC specializes in native plants, with a focus on sustainable horticulture and ecosystem-based landscaping. We provide high-quality plants that support the health of landscapes, our well-being, and the environment.

Our team includes a PhD in plant ecology, a licensed landscape architect, a wildlife habitat specialist, and a dedicated and experienced horticultural team that grow our plant material on site. All this, housed in an award-winning native plant nursery. That means you get beauty that actually functions — and plants that perform.

Founded on a belief, built into a team

Seven Bends Nursery was founded by Dr. Iara Lacher, a plant ecologist who spent years studying native plants and their connection to ecosystem function — while also witnessing how rarely that knowledge reached the people who need it. The landscape industry was specifying the same non-native plants it had used for decades and nurseries were fully stocked with ornamentals from China and Europe, offering little to nothing that supported local wildlife. The public, eager to do something meaningful for the environment, had almost nowhere to turn for credible, science-based guidance.

Seven Bends Nursery was the answer to that gap.

Our Dedicated Team

Get to know the people that propel our mission!

Dr. Iara Lacher

Founder, Plant Ecologist, Sustainable Horticulture, Ecological Landscape Consultations & Designs

An advocate of native plants for nearly twenty years, Dr. Iara Lacher brings the knowledge and experience that comes from degrees in Botany, Environmental Science and Management, and Ecology to Seven Bends Nursery and its customers. She is established in conservation and planning circles in this region through her research at the Smithsonian Institution, where she worked to connect her science to policy in order to help achieve sustainability goals. Iara’s knowledge of native plants, ecological systems, and plant physiology make her a useful resource as you introduce native plants into your landscape, ensuring you get a garden that is both beautiful and ecologically functional.

Passionate about education and outreach, Iara also loves to share her knowledge with others, and is available for workshops and talks on topics involving sustainability and native gardens. She hopes to empower individuals to make positive environmental changes and inspire environmental conservation.

Rebekah Lawrence

Ecological Landscape Designs

A licensed landscape architect, Rebekah found her passion for plants while gardening with her dad as a child and her delight in nature while adventuring along the backyard creek with her brothers as a kid. Rebekah completed a Master’s in Landscape Architecture and a Graduate Certificate in Natural Resources at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center of Virginia Tech. Since graduating she has worked on a variety of projects including reports for the National Park Service, commemorative events for the Olmsted Network, preservation planning, schoolyard plantings, and commercial and residential plant designs. Rebekah is delighted to design with native plants. She firmly believes expanding habitat is vital for maintaining a future where kids of any age can be backyard adventurers experiencing the wonder of a world teeming with life.

Lauria McShane

Marketing and Outreach, Ecological Consultations

Lauria holds a B.S. in Biology from Sweet Briar College. During her studies, her love for native plants was rekindled when she started working at her campus greenhouse, garden, and apiary. This love was further solidified for Lauria when she spent a semester away at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation where she apprenticed at Seven Bends Nursery. Lauria now works for the Piedmont Environmental Council as their Wildlife Habitat Outreach Specialist as well as part of the marketing and outreach team for Seven Bends Nursery! Lauria's passion is to help communities obtain the resources and knowledge they need to appreciate the environment and foster healthier relationships with it.

Andrew Young

Nursery Manager, Sustainable Horticulture

Andrew came to our team at Seven Bends Nursery with experience in the environmental sciences and a love for wildlife. Having an aspiration to work in a field that allowed him to help strengthen the health of our local environment, Andrew found that his mission aligned with that of Seven Bends Nurseries. Andrew enjoys working at the nursery as he loves seeing wildlife and biodiversity flourish as a result of native plants. He has also found a passion in preserving plant species that have evolved with our ecoregion. Andrew is currently studying environmental sciences with a hope to obtain a degree in the natural sciences or music!

Vanessa Lane

Nursery Supervisor, Sustainable Horticulture

After working as a horticulturist for thirty years, Vanessa joined the Seven Bends Nursery team after her retirement from the Montgomery County Parks in Maryland. Vanessa brings a diverse and robust background in caring for plants to our team. After gaining her certificate in Horticulture from the Institute of Applied Agriculture, Vanessa owned and produced plants for Carroll County Maryland farmers market and worked as a horticulturist for Montgomery County Parks. At the root of her vast experience is Vanessa’s lifelong love for growing plants and spending time in nature. Vanessa said that Seven Bends Nursery allows her to combine her two passions in a way that brings joy to the work that she does even in retirement.

Eric Morgan

Infrastructure, Equipment, and Fairs

Eric is an English teacher by training with a long love of hiking and camping. Initially a reluctant gardener, he became impressed when a little cultivation in the yard brought stunning flowers and a lot less lawn to mow! His love for natives was cemented, however, after seeing striped caterpillars chomping away on milkweed, tucking themselves into gorgeous emerald chrysalis, and emerging as stunning Monarch butterflies. Now Eric helps in organization and problem solving wherever an extra pair of hands are needed. He not only helps with sales, he also handles our infrastructure and equipment. Eric knows a little bit about everything within the nursery!

Oscar Phillips

Nursery Technician

Oscar joined the Seven Bends Nursery team summer of 2025 and has enjoyed being part of the nursery! Currently a student at LRCC, Oscar plans to transfer to a four-year college or university to completing his associate degree. Oscar has always been interested in nature and agriculture, but his passion grew after joining their high school's FFA program and horticulture team. Through these experiences Oscar developed a strong appreciation for plants and the natural world.

Lisette Graham

Nursery Technician

Welcome Lisette to the team! Bio coming soon...

BOO

Guardian of the Plants

Boo is a very small chihuahua who loves to help out in the garden while Eric and Iara are hard at work. When he isn’t sunning himself on a lazy summer day, he is chasing butterflies or very small tennis balls into and around native flower beds. He is our trusty guard, keeping the flowers safe from harm.

Kiwi

Official Greeter

Joining us in July of 2024, Kiwi was in training to be our newest branch manager but her sweet and joyful personality immediately solidified her spot as the official greeter! Every person is Kiwis favorite person. She hopes that you stop by the nursery to say hello!

Aldo

Team Morale Manager

Aldo is the newest member of the Seven Bends Nursery pack! Joining us in June of 2026, Aldo spends his days at the nursery day dreaming under cedar trees and being cuddled by staff. Aldo is our constant reminder to slow down and smell the native roses!

Hutch

Branch Manager (Retired)

In loving memory of our branch manager Hutch. From 2019 - 2023 Hutch was Iara's greatest companion who watched the nursery grow from a back yard operation to a brick and mortar nursery. Hutch is missed dearly but his memory lives on in the thousands of natives he once used to run through.