Addie Hahn lives with her partner and two sons on a brambly patch of land in Oregon with lots of potential and prickly hiding places galore. The family shares their yard with chickens, a Scottish Deerhound and many frogs and is slowly working to replace blackberry canes with edibles, native ferns and giant blue scabiosa plants. Addie works as a hospice massage therapist and writes about some of our greatest human struggles and most profound joys. You can find her at www.addiehahn.com

Dr. Jamie Chan is the Director of Programs and Partnerships at the Gardens of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Jamie has a doctoral degree in educational leadership and an MS in systematic biology. She is a certified UCANR Master Gardener and co-founder of a food security space called Sisterhood Gardens. In her free time, she enjoys urban homesteading and teaching intergenerational garden programs for the BIPOC community.

Rachel Spaeth, Ph.D.  has been the Garden Curator at the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens in Santa Rosa, California since 2008.  She has a Ph.D. in Horticulture & Agronomy from UC Davis, focusing on the reconstruction of pedigree records from leaf tissue samples of Burbank’s Plum (Prunus sp.).  She teaches Plant Propagation and Landscape Maintenance at SRJC. In her spare time, she enjoys grafting fruit trees with the Redwood Empire Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers.

D. R. Miller is a diligent student of his regional flora for the past 43 years. He continues to develop his Flora of Rocky Butte/Pine Mountain region in Northwest San Luis Obispo County.

Elizabeth Appel has lived along the Central Coast for 55 years, enjoying wildlife photography and learning about the flora.

Both authors are cocreators of the Cambria Wildflower Show the last weekend of April, completing its 15th year.

JOE SEALS holds a degree in Environmental Horticulture. He worked his way through retail and wholesale nurseries, as a manager and grower, as well as in landscape design and landscape contracting, then detoured through the corporate gardening book and magazine world, and eventually ended up in the international seed and plant industry as a director in product development, marketing, and sales.

Teaching — off and on — started 40 years ago, with stints at UCLA and adult programs at two other colleges, training of Master Gardeners in three states, and, most recently, the offering up of occasional fun classes within city parks & recreation programs for adults and children.

In addition to client designs he’s done in the varied geographical areas, he’s created his own gardens where he’s lived in California, Wisconsin, Illinois, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington. He currently lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Gardening, of course, has been a passion of his for over 60 years.

Aaron Anderson is a PhD candidate in the Garden Ecology Lab at Oregon State University, and is broadly interested in how ecological function can be incorporated into urban and suburban landscapes. After dabbling in entomology, restoration ecology, and biological control, he became interested in studying urban systems. Aaron is fascinated by native beneficial insect conservation, especially in understanding how these species use urban green spaces as habitat to better inform how we manage these landscapes.

Jennifer is a California licensed Landscape Architect and educator with over 20 years professional experience. Her qualifications include being a LEED Accredited Professional, ReScape CA Qualified Professional and Rater, and Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper.  She grew up in Southern California but earned her BLA in Landscape Architecture from Oklahoma State University. Jennifer is self-employed; she enjoys a wide mix of projects from landscape architectural design work to consulting and public speaking.

Jennifer worked as the Director of Education for a non-profit organization, setting the direction and developing the curriculum for horticultural education programs.  She also developed and taught courses at the college level for the University of Berkeley Extension Landscape Architecture certificate program. When Jennifer goes “pencils down”, she is an avid knitter, yarn dyer, and gardener with an inexplicable fondness for bearded irises. She lives in Oakland, CA with her beloved husband and 3 exceptional cats.

Krystle Hickman is a TEDx Speaker, Artist, Community Scientist, and Photographer based in Los Angeles, California. Through artful photography, Krystle strives to increase awareness of the decline in native bee species as well as highlight their biodiverse ecosystems. Her photography has been featured in The LA Times, children’s books, and scientific journals.

Krystle works with gardens like the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Arlington Garden, regularly photographing and documenting their native habitats. She also collects data on rare bee species in the Mojave Desert, Joshua Tree, Anza-Borrego, the Santa Monica Mountains, yards with native gardens, and more.

Hillary Maurer is a Horticulturist with Portland Parks & Recreation.