Dean DeSantis, president of DeSantis Landscapes (www.desantislandscapes.com), is the second-generation owner of this landscape design/build/maintenance business, which was founded in Salem, Oregon in 1974. They are the state’s first certified Eco-Biz landscape company and a nationally recognized leader in sustainable landscape practices.

Susan Van Atta is an award-winning landscape architect, based in Santa Barbara. Van Atta Designs is recognized for its work in ecological restoration and environmentally sensitive designs that are both beautiful and sustainable. She shares the office building with her husband, Ken Radtkey of Blackbird Architects.

Russell A Beatty is a consulting landscape architect in Santa Cruz, California, retired from the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for twenty-eight years in the Department of Landscape Architecture. He serves on the Screening Committee for the Garden Conservancy.

Joe Eck is the co-authors of three books, with Wayne Winterrowd that are derived from their garden, North Hill, in southern Vermont; they also lecture widely on garden design. They admit to being heavily influenced by California, its nurseries, and its horticultural community.

Wayne Winterrowd  is the co-authors of three books, with Joe Eck that are derived from their garden, North Hill, in southern Vermont; they also lecture widely on garden design. They admit to being heavily influenced by California, its nurseries, and its horticultural community.

Glenn Withey and Charles Price have been resident curators of Seattle’s Dunn Gardens since 1997. Avid plantsmen with a passion for planting design, they are involved in the planning of the new NPA Borders at the Bellevue Botanical Garden, write and lecture widely, and maintain a garden design business for the horticulturally obsessed.

Charles Price and Glenn Withey have been resident curators of Seattle’s Dunn Gardens since 1997. Avid plantsmen with a passion for planting design, they are involved in the planning of the new NPA Borders at the Bellevue Botanical Garden, write and lecture widely, and maintain a garden design business for the horticulturally obsessed.

Richie Steffen is curator of horticulture for the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden in Seattle, where he manages the rare plant collections and leads the acquisition of new plants. Richie is co-author of The Plant Lover’s Guide to Ferns from Timber Press. He is an active member of numerous horticultural societies in the area and lectures widely about garden-worthy plants.

Frederique Lavoipierre is the creator and author of “Garden Allies,” a series that ran for 10 years in Pacific Horticulture magazine. She also teaches classes and workshops on sustainable landscaping, including ecological principles, habitat gardens, beneficial insects, soil ecology, freshwater ecology, and aquatic invertebrates. Follow her on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Garden.Allies.

Judith M Taylor, a retired Oxford-trained neurologist, now practices history without a license in San Francisco. She has published several books, most recently The Global Migrations of Ornamental Plants: How the World Got into Your Garden (2009). The begonia story is part of a future book on plant breeders and their obsessions.

LINDA BEUTLER is a fearless gardener who grows a great variety of plants on a city lot in Portland, Oregon. Linda has been the curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection at Luscher Farm since 2007, was elected president of the International Clematis Society in 2013, and has taught horticulture at Clackamas Community College for more than 16 years. She is the author of Gardening with Clematis: Design and Cultivation and Garden to Vase: Growing and Using Your Own Cut Flowers (both Timber Press). Her novel, The Red Chrysanthemum, was published by Meryton Press in 2013.

Marie Barnidge-McIntyre is the staff horticulturist for Rancho Los Cerritos in Long Beach, California, and did the majority of the research on trees for the restoration of the historic orchard there. She also operates Gardens by Design, a consulting firm, from her home in Thousand Oaks, California.

Kate Frey is a noted garden designer and eloquent advocate for pollinators. She designed and managed the famous organic public garden at Fetzer Vineyards, the Melissa Garden in Healdsburg, and the landscape at Lynmar Winery in Sebastopol. Her gardens won 2 gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show in London, a rare honor for an American designer. Kate currently writes for the Press Democrat newspaper and Ten Speed Press published her book, The Bee-Friendly Garden, in 2016. Her newest educational venture, The American Garden School (www.americangardenschool.com), debuted in 2017.

Richard G Turner Jr is the editor emeritus of Pacific Horticulture. After receiving degrees in architecture and landscape architecture from the University of Michigan more than thirty years ago, he escaped to California, where he has worked in the fields of garden design, public garden education and administration, and garden publishing. His small, chemical-free San Francisco garden provides habitat for wildlife while serving as a test ground for mediterranean-climate plants.