Our Mission
Magna Silva Gardens provides consultation, landscape design, installation, and long-term management services for residential properties throughout the High Country region of North Carolina. Our work is rooted in ecology, with a strong emphasis on native plants, biodiversity, and the creation of dynamic, resilient landscapes.
Our Story
It truly has always been all about the plants!
Founders, John and Rachel, met while working at a retail nursery and landscaping company in Greensboro, North Carolina, and perpetually found themselves scurrying up to the mountains to hike and explore every chance they got. Eventually, they made the move to Western North Carolina, where they now have the opportunity to garden and explore the landscapes that inspire Magna Silva’s work on a daily basis.
The name Magna Silva, Latin for “Great Forest,” is an ode to the awesome Appalachian forests we all call home. It reflects what truly drives our work: plants, ecosystems, and the landscapes that define this region.
We are committed to designing and managing landscapes that are not only beautiful, but also support wildlife, adapt over time, and connect people to the natural beauty of the Southern Appalachian region.
Our Team
Rachel Knoepfel
Co-Founder, Horticulturist, Landscape Designer
Rachel’s love for the outdoors began at a young age growing up near the ocean in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Her mom loved to garden, but she didn’t take too much interest in plants until after her college years. She loved the beach and swore to never move away until she completed a week-long backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail with friends for her high school senior project.
Rachel temporarily set this interest in backpacking aside while attending the University of Virginia. Her curiosity about the outdoors manifested in her pursuit of a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Sciences and a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology. After graduation, she moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where she unknowingly combined her two loves, ecology and digging in the dirt, by working in the landscape industry. Rachel learned from the ground up and was soon placed on a landscape team with her now business partner, John Dwyer.
Together, Rachel and John deepened their understanding of native flora and ecology throughout the southeastern United States through gardening, hiking, backpacking, farming, and amateur botanizing. Their shared interest in plants, along with seeing the High Country’s need for a gardening company whose mission centers around ecology rather than pure aesthetics, drove them to create Magna Silva Gardens. Rachel continues to evolve as a horticulturist and designer, always learning in order to provide the community with thoughtful, ecologically informed services.
Rachel is especially drawn to the overall composition of a landscape, thinking carefully about how plant forms, textures, and seasonal changes come together over time. She enjoys the creative process of shaping a space and imagining how it will be experienced. She approaches gardening as both a learner and a guide, believing that all gardens are living experiments that invite curiosity and continual observation.
In her free time, Rachel enjoys hiking, running, backpacking, and spending as much time outdoors as possible with friends. She also volunteers with the Blue Ridge Chapter of the North Carolina Native Plant Society and Blue Ridge Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, and serves on the Design Committee for Daniel Boone Native Gardens. She loves participating in events and supporting other local organizations throughout the High Country community.
John Dwyer
Co-Founder, Horticulturist, Landscape DesignerJohn is a professional horticulturist and landscape designer with more than 15 years of experience in the green industry. His career began at a retail garden center in Greensboro, NC, where he developed a passion for plants and gardening under the guidance of outstanding mentors. After nine years in the retail sector, he relocated to the mountains of western NC and spent time working and living on farms and homesteads in rural Appalachia. He began to cultivate a deep appreciation for wild spaces and the plants that lived there, and came to see landscapes as dynamic, living systems rather than collections of pretty things.
His explorations in the forests of the Blue Ridge mountains continue to inform his progression towards ecologically-informed landscape design and management strategies. In 2020, he co-founded Magna Silva Gardens in Boone, North Carolina, with his business partner, Rachel Knoepfel. The business provides the outlet through which he is able to constantly experiment, learn and grow as a plantsman and designer. He remains committed to horticultural excellence, unparalleled client engagement, and the promotion of ecological education. He will forever strive to integrate cultivated gardens with the natural communities of wild plants that surround them.
John’s work is grounded in careful plant selection, site conditions, and long-term performance. He is especially focused on “right plant, right place,” and on how plant communities function and evolve over time. He approaches landscape management as an ongoing process of observation, adjustment, and stewardship.
John values the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals through shared interests and volunteers with organizations such as the North Carolina Native Plant Society, Blue Ridge Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, Daniel Boone Native Gardens, and the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. When he isn’t working or volunteering, he devotes his time and energy to his backyard native plant nursery, trail running, wilderness backpacking, and off-trail misadventures in the remote corners of Pisgah National Forest.
Thinking about working with us?
If our approach to plants, landscapes, and place resonates with you, we’d love to learn more about your site and your goals. Get in touch to schedule a consultation.
