Jill Vig is a master gardener, certified arborist, and curator of the Water Conservation Garden at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. She is also an instructor at the Arboretum and has taught classes on design, horticultural basics, hedges, trees, and mediterranean-climate gardening.

Charlotte Torgovitsky is a naturalist and amateur lepidopterist who loves to garden, both at home in Novato, California, and at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, where she is the sustainable garden resources and outreach manager. As garden education manager at the Center, she has created habitat gardens, a plant nursery, and extensive educational programs for both children and adults.

Susan Carter is a garden designer and avid plants person. She is involved in the ongoing maintenance of the Borders and are active with the Northwest Perennial Alliance.

Carrie Becker is a professional gardener, designer, consultant, and educator. Carrie and Bob Lilly are two of the original designers of the NPA Borders at the Bellevue Botanical Garden; and she is involved in the ongoing maintenance of the Borders and are active with the Northwest Perennial Alliance.

Bob Lilly is one of the original designers of the Northwest Perennial Alliance Borders at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. By day, he is a sales representative for several major nurseries in the Pacific Northwest. He also maintains the gardens at the houseboat community where he lives on Lake Union.

Kathy Kreiger is a garden writer who has loved roses since cutting a childhood neighbor’s dark red, heavily fragrant roses. She is currently editing a collection of garden pieces from her newspaper days, volunteering at the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, annoying fellow rosarian Bill Grant, and planting even more roses.

Nancy Morin serves on the board of Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens and works on the Flora of North America project from her home in Point Arena, California. A plant taxonomist, she has worked at Missouri Botanical Garden, the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, and the Arboretum at Flagstaff.

Diane S Laird is a former president of the Northwest Horticulture Society and currently serves on the board of the Pacific Northwest Horticultural Conservancy and the board of the newly formed Puget Sound Chapter of the Mediterranean Garden Society. She gardens on a tiny lot in Seattle.

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.

Robert D Raabe is Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at University of California, Berkeley. He introduced a faster method of composting was commonly known as the “Berkeley method” or “fast composting”, this method produces finished compost in as little as 14 to 21 days. He is also the author of The Ortho Home Gardener’s Problem Solver.

Barbara Tuffli has had a life-long interest in gardens and a particular interest in camellias. Her own garden in Atherton, California includes 500 camellias in a beautifully landscaped setting with many other woody plants. She is president of the American Camellia Society.

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.

Carol Bornstein is one of Southern California’s most highly respected native plant specialists and co-author with David Fross and Bart O’Brien of California Native Plants for the Garden (Cachuma Press, 2006). Carol was horticulturist for the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden for nearly thirty years.

Ray Collett is the founder and director emeritus of the Arboretum at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he was responsible for developing the extensive Australian Collection. Among his many interests are the Australian fuchsias (Correa spp.), of which he has introduced several named selections to the nursery trade.