Seminar Speakers
Iftikhar Ahmed
Mian family of Baghbanpura is a Pakistani noble family. It has enjoyed a prominent role in Punjabi and Pakistani politics since the days of the Mughal Empire. One record, this family is the only one which officially received the Royal title of Mian from Emperor Shah Jahan for their prominent contributions in the regions since 711 CE. Belonging to the famous Arain tribe of Indian, they originally owned the land near Baghbanpura on which the Shalimar Gardens were built. The land was handed to the Mughal Emperor and in return custodianship of the gardens was granted to the family, which lasted for more than 350 years. The family ceased custodianship of the site in 1962, after opposing the imposition of martial law in Pakistan by General Ayub Khan. In 1981, Shalimar Gardens was included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the Lahore Fort, under the UNESCO Convention concerning the protection of the world's cultural and natural heritage sites in 1972.
Judy Alleruzzo
Judy Alleruzzo is the co-host of the 'Garden Time' TV show. The show is seen on KPTV-Portland, KEVU-Eugene, and KWVT-Salem, and is the # 1 garden show in the northwest. She has been an active gardener since the age of 10. Her first job in her home town of Chicago was at a tropical plant shop. Her college years found her majoring in horticulture at a small suburban college. Her travels led her to Portland and it was then that she fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. She sold her house in Chicago and move to Oregon. Currently she is the perennial plant buyer for Al's Garden Centers and helps decide which of the 1000 varieties of perennials Al's will offer customers each season. In addition to her college degree, she has become an OSU Master Gardener in Marion County. She is considered a perennial expert and has appeared on various TV and Radio shows.
Glen Andresen
Since 1994, Glen Andresen has been Metro's natural gardening educator. The natural gardening program offers presentations, a summertime garden tour, and information on how to have healthy yards and gardens without the use of pesticides. Glen has been a Master Gardener since 1991.
Since 1985, Glen has tended a 3/4-acre organic garden at a retreat center near Eagle Creek in Clackamas County. He is the host of the 1/2-hour edible gardening show, "The Dirt Bag," heard the second Monday of each month on community radio station KBOO, at 90.7 FM in Portland; he also writes "Ground View," a monthly gardening column for The Portland Alliance newspaper.
Glen is an avid hobbyist beekeeper, keeping approximately 30 colonies of bees - give or take a swarm or bear attack.
He has degrees in economics and music but still would rather play in the dirt.
Brian Bauman
Brian Bauman is the owner and retail manager at Bauman's Farm and Garden, located in the heart of the Willamette Valley at Gervais, Oregon. Brian's family has been farming in Oregon since the late 1800's. His parents dream of selling fresh local produce and plants directly to the public became a reality when they opened a small roadside stand. Today, that small roadside stand has transformed into a multifaceted operation that includes a Bakery, Cider Press, Produce Market, Gift Store, and Nursery. Brian's passion for plants and dedication to a quality helped him become the Oregon Association of Nurseries Retailer of the Year in 2006. His unique vision and willingness to step outside of the box helped him win the Yard Garden and Patio shows Container Fashion Show in 2006. His infectious spirit is a true inspiration to gardeners and non gardeners alike.
Deby Barnhart
Deby Barnhart, Cornell Farm
Nestled in the West Hills of Portland since Mother's Day 1987 is Cornell Farm, a virtual plant Mecca for suburbanites and urbanites alike. In the middle of it all from the very beginning is Deby Barnhart. Barnhart began her career with a degree from Willamette University in urban and regional government and continued on in finance, urban planning and journalism before answering her calling from the nursery industry. With 15 years of many seminars, hands-on experience and Sunset "Western Garden Book" readings under her belt, Barnhart's practical gardening knowledge and professional growing experience filter her personal and public conversations on the subject. The farm has grown from two to 22 or so employees over the years and grows over 1,000 varieties of annuals and perennials year-round.
Jack Bigej
Al Bigej, Jack's father and the founder of what was once Al's Fruit Stand, instilled the spirit of entrepreneurship in his son by having him work in the family business as soon as he could count out a dozen ears of corn consistently. However, it was Jack's passion and love of plants that evolved what was once a fruit stand into Al's Garden Center and Greenhouses. Al's currently consists of a six-acre garden center in Woodburn, a retail store in Gresham, and a 10-acre state of the art garden center in Sherwood with five growing facilities supplying the retail stores with over 90 percent of the company's plant material. In 2006, Al's Garden Centers were awarded the Garden Center of Year by the Garden Centers of America.
Mark Bigej
Mark Bigej is part of the third generation that has helped grow Al's Garden Center from what used to be a fruit stand, into the multi-million dollar business it is today. Mark grew up in Canby in the heart of Oregon's nursery and agriculture area. At the early age of seven, Mark and his three sisters started their own nursery, called The Little Big E. They grew and supplied what was then called Al's Fruit and Shrub with containers of trees, shrubs and perennials. Mark has always been involved in the business, working beside his dad, Jack Bigej, the owner of Al's Garden Center. In 1992, Mark graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelors of Science in Horticulture. In 1994, Mark began working at Al's full time. He helped bring together his dad's vision of what Al's is today and is now general manager. Throughout this time, Mark Bigej has stayed active in the public and plant community. He has appeared as a regular guest on television and radio was recognized by the Oregon Association of Nurseries as Young Nurseryman of the Year.
Charles Brun
Charles Brun has been the horticultural crops advisor for Washington State University for the past 24 years in which he covers both residential and commercial horticulture. He has a background in production, marketing and pest management of tree fruits, small fruits and medicinal herbs. He holds annual seminars called the Business of Horticulture, is the lead editor for Pacific Northwest Sustainable Agriculture News and oversees the Master Gardener Program.
Darcy Daniels
Darcy Daniels is a garden designer and operates a seasonal specialty nursery in NE Portland. Since launching Bloomtown Garden Design & Nursery eight years ago, Darcy has designed dozens of gardens in the Portland metro area. She is well known for her rich, textural plantings and creative use of small space.
Mike Darcy
Mike Darcy is well known among Portland area gardeners from his weekly radio show 'In the Garden with Mike Darcy'. Heard every Saturday morning from 9am-noon on KXL 750AM, it has been on the air since 1981. He has also done TV shows on KPTV and KATU. Mike has a degree in horticulture and has been involved in some aspect of the gardening community throughout his life. He also currently writes a bi-monthly column for the Oregon Association of Nurseries trade publication, Digger, called 'What I'm Hearing'. Mike and his wife Linda live and garden in Lake Oswego and often open their garden for local organizations.
JJ De Sousa
JJ De Sousa is a garden/interior designer and enthusiast and proprietor of Digs Inside & Out on NE Alberta Street in Portland. At Digs, JJ directs a threefold business that combines a full service interior studio, a garden design studio and a specialty retail shop. She writes a regular column for NW Renovation Magazine and has appeared in Better Homes & Gardens, Home + Garden Northwest, The Oregonian's Home & Garden section and various other publications with her personal home and garden as well as client projects. Armed with her design sense and sense of humor, JJ offers a plethora of unique and creative ideas for inside and outside spaces which are sure to inspire you to entertain in your own space.
Gail Dresner
Before beginning her career in horticulture, Gail Dresner was the executive director for the Texas Zoo. Following the 2002 economic downturn and an anticipated layoff, Gail made a decision to only have one more boss- herself! She earned an AA in horticulture from Clackamas Community College and then passed the Oregon state exam to become a licensed landscape contractor. As owner of Circadian Consulting & Design, she is currently one of only a few practicing Oregon landscape designers that also hold a licensed landscape contractors license. Her designs specialize in sustainability, including native plants and wildlife friendly landscaping. Gail has also won several show awards for her gardens, is the newsletter editor for the Association of NW Landscape Designers and is very active in the community.
Val Easton
Valerie Easton hasn't missed a week of writing her "Plant Life" column for Pacific Northwest Magazine of The Seattle Times in the last twelve years. She contributes articles on gardens, homes, and the people who make them to numerous publications, including Metropolitan Home. Her latest book is "A Pattern Garden: The Essential Elements of Garden Making". She also authored "Plant Life: Making a Garden in the Pacific Northwest, co-authored "Artists in Their Gardens", and she's currently working on a garden murder mystery.
Valerie lectures widely for garden shows and plant societies, as well as teaching writing workshops. She comes to garden writing via a lifetime of gardening, Master Gardener training, and eighteen years as a horticultural librarian at the University of Washington. Valerie lives with her husband, Greg, and Wheaten Terrier Bridget in Seattle, and on Whidbey Island, where she's made a new, smaller, low maintenance garden in the town of Langley. Her new garden has been published in the New York Times, the Dec/Jan 2007 issue of Horticulture, and the July/August 2008 issue of This Old House.
Danielle Ferguson
Danielle Ferguson has worked in the nursery industry for 30 years. She began as a wholesale grower and then worked as a horticulturist for Portland Parks and Recreation. In 1996, Danielle followed her heart, took a leap of faith, and started her own retail nursery specializing in fragrant plants, Ferguson's Fragrant Nursery. She shares her passion for gardening through her enthusiasm when helping her customers, by offering a rich selection of classes, and through special events at the nursery featuring musicians, artists and beautiful display gardens, designed to educate her customers about plant traits and color combinations. Danielle's artistic side is on display at the nursery and evident from her numerous awards at Portland's Yard, Garden and Patio Show. She is extremely grateful for her supportive family and for her loyal customers and staff.
Nicole Forbes
Nicole is a lifetime gardener and lover of plants. After University study in cultural anthropology and ethnobotany, she moved to Portland in 1994 and became involved with Oregon environmental politics and community organizing. In 1996, while working for Or. State Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG), she helped run the ballot measure campaign to expand the 1974 Bottle Bill to include non-carbonated beverage containers. She has worked in the nursery industry since 1997. Currently Nicole is the Assistant manager of Dennis' Seven Dees, Lake Oswego location and also orders all trees and shrubs for the LO store. She is an Oregon Certified Nursery Professional and a member of the OAN Education committee. In recent years she has expanded community outreach for the company by teaching classes for LO parks and recreation, doing talks for local garden clubs and providing educational seminars several times a year for Dennis' Seven Dees.
Jim Gilbert
A fifth generation Oregonian, Jim Gilbert grew up in Portland where he attended public schools and Portland State University. While at PSU, Jim served as Student Body Vice President and graduated with a degree in Russian Language.
In 1979 he founded Northwoods Nursery in Hood River and moved his nursery to the Molalla area in 1982. Northwoods Nursery has expanded over the years to the point it now has seasonal employment of up to 50 people and ships nursery stock across the United States and to several foreign countries. In 1994, Jim founded One Green World, a retail/mail-order nursery that publishes 80,000 catalogs annually and sells plants to gardeners in all of the United States.
Jim has traveled extensively in Russia, Ukraine, and other countries of the former Soviet Union as well as in Asia and Eastern Europe. He has introduced many new plants to Northwest gardeners, including Sea Berry, Honeyberry, Magnolia Vine, and Cornelian Cherry.
Jeff Gillman
Jeff Gillman attended Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA before earning his a master's degree in entomology and his doctorate in horticulture from the University of Georgia. He is currently an associate professor in the department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota where he teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in nursery management. He also conducts research and gives talks on the production of woody ornamental plants and the use and abuse of pesticides. Throughout his professional career, Jeff has published numerous papers and articles on subjects that range from how plant hairs affect mites, using soluble silicon to combat plant diseases, and using lime in containers, to how to control deer.
Jeff has a loathing for information that is passed out without concern for the consequences. Hearing self-proclaimed experts spouting things such as feeding syrup to plants gets him so fired up that he decided to do the research on all those common household remedies and write the tell-all book.
Nancy Goldman
As immediate past-president of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, Nancy Goldman is a busy lady. She frequently lectures on art in the garden and garden trips abroad as well as coordinates travel garden tours and is a member of several community gardening groups. She developed and administered the Pacific Northwest Home Garden Program at Portland State University School of Extended Studies, where she retired from in 2000. Goldman's own garden, "Nancyland", has been featured in own garden has been featured in numerous publications and local television shows.
Roger Gossler
Born and raised in Oregon, Roger Gossler is considered an expert in northwest woody plants. His interest in plants has been lifelong. In partnership with his family, Gossler co-owns Gossler Farms Nursery, which specializes in magnolias, winter-blooming trees and shrubs and many other beautiful plants. He is a frequent lecturer throughout the United States and a member of the Magnolia Society, American Rhododendron Society, Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group and the Royal Horticultural Society.
Lane Greer
Lane Greer received her PhD from North Carolina State University and taught at Mississippi State University. She honed her sustainable agriculture skills at the national sustainable agriculture information service (ATTRA) providing information to growers around the country on production and marketing of ornamentals. Simultaneously, she owned a cut flower farm, raising an acre of annuals, perennials, and woody shrubs. Her research has focused on the production and vase life of cut flowers. She has written over a hundred articles for publication in trade literature and on Web sites.
Carl Grimm
Carl Grimm grew up in the gardens of northwest Portland, Ore., and Berkeley, Calif., where he received a Bachelor of Science in conservation and resource studies. He served a combined 15 years at the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners as education director and habitat conservation director. He also developed and led the San Francisco city and county's home-composting program. At Chicago's Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, where Carl served as program director, he launched another home-composting program and worked with myriad partners to help kick-start Chicago's "reen revolution." As an associate planner at Metro, where he has coordinated the popular Gardens of Natural Delights tour, Carl manages natural gardening programs and other initiatives aimed at reducing the home use of toxic materials.
Lucy Hardiman
A longtime Northwest treasure, Lucy Hardiman is a nationally known garden designer, writer and lecturer. The owner and principal designer of Perennial Partners, a local garden design firm, Hardiman specializes in mixed borders, containers, year-round interest, color, small spaces and big, bold plantings. She is a regional contributing editor for Horticulture Magazine and also writes for other national and regional publications including NW Garden News, Fine Gardening and Pacific Horticulture. She serves on the perennial committee for the Great Plant Picks Program, is vice-president of the Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection and is a past president of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. Intent on sharing her passion Hardiman teaches and lectures all over the country. Her own garden has been featured in many publications and books.
Dan Heims
Dan Heims has spent the last 30 years deeply involved in horticulture and his job description dictates that he must "travel the world and seek the newest perennials". He is currently the president of Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc., a company noted for over 500 new introductions to horticulture. Dan's articles and photography have appeared in a number of magazines and he has taught horticulture courses, wholesaled exotic plants, and run his own design and build landscape business. He has hosted a weekly gardening show on radio (KKSN) and has appeared on U.S. (HGTV) and British television (BBC). Dan's garden has been featured in Sunset Magazine, Organic Gardening, and Better Homes and Gardens. His perennial breeding programs have produced many international gold and silver medal winners. He has spoken around the United States, in Japan, England, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Tasmania, Australia, and Canada. Dan has written a book of horticultural humor called The Garden Clerk's Dictionary and one on Heucheras and Heucherellas with Graham Ware of British Columbia.
Toby Hemenway
Toby Hemenway is the author of the first major North American book on permaculture, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, and an adjunct professor at Portland State University. He is also Scholar in Residence at Pacific University. After obtaining a degree in biology from Tufts University, Toby worked for many years as a researcher in genetics and immunology, first in academic laboratories including Harvard and the University of Washington in Seattle, and then at Immunex, a major medical biotech company. At about the time he was growing dissatisfied with the direction biotechnology was taking, he discovered permaculture, a design approach based on ecological principles that creates sustainable landscapes, homes, and workplaces. A career change followed, and Toby and his wife spent ten years creating a rural permaculture site in southern Oregon. He was associate editor of Permaculture Activist, a journal of ecological design and sustainable culture, from 1999 to 2004. His current project is developing urban sustainability resources in Portland, Oregon, where he now lives. He teaches permaculture and consults and lectures on ecological design throughout the country. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Whole Earth Review, Natural Home, and Kitchen Gardener. He is available for workshops, lectures, and consulting in ecological design.
Sean Hogan
Sean B. Hogan started in the nursery industry at the age of 3, rooting boxwood cuttings and succulents in the sandbox of his boyhood home in Portland, Oregon. His family later moved to Sacramento where he pursued his education at American River College and Sacramento State in the areas of horticulture and botany. Early work included mapping rare and endangered plants, mostly Cactaceae and Portulacaceae, for the State of California as well as landscape and design work often revolving around his love of western natives.
From the mid-80's to the mid-90's, Hogan served as Curator of the South African, New Zealand, Australian, New Work Desert, and the California Native Cultivar Gardens of the University of California, Berkeley, Botanic Garden.
In 1995 he and his partner, University of California Davis Arboretum Botanist Parker Sanderson, returned to Hogan's native Portland, starting a design and consultation firm specializing in regionally appropriate plants for the Pacific Northwest. This work eventually evolved into the opening of Cistus Design and Nursery, located outside Portland on Sauvie Island in the Columbia River and widely held to be among the best of the West Coast retail micro-nurseries.
Hogan has lectured extensively in North America and Europe, often about his explorations in South America, South Africa, and the western regions of the United States and northern Mexico. His writing and photographs can be found in a wide range of horticultural and botanical literature and magazines. He edited the 20,000 plus entry Flora, published by Timber Press in October 2003, and his most recent book, Trees for All Seasons: Broadleaved Evergreens for Temperate Climates, was published in 2008 and is currently available from Timber Press.
Eamonn Hughes
A native of Ireland, Eamonn Hughes has been designing and constructing water features in Europe and the United States for 36 years. Since moving to Oregon in 1987, he has built hundreds of naturally beautiful water gardens in the Pacific Northwest. In addition, Eamonn has developed Hughes Water Gardens, a 10-acre retail and wholesale nursery near Wilsonville, Ore. where he grows pond plants and sells a full line of pond construction and maintenance supplies. Eamonn received "The Retailer of the Year 2001" award by the Oregon Association of Nurseries for his development of this garden center. He is co-author of the book "Waterfalls, Fountains, Pools & Streams" by Sterling Publishing and contributing author of "Rock Garden Design and Construction" by Timber Press. He has also produced a video titled "Creating your own Water Garden" which guides you step-by-step through the construction of a waterfall and pond.
Ed Hume
Ed Hume, one of the nation's leading gardening authorities, is the host of the regional television show "Gardening in America" and an honoree of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Silver Circle. Hume has authored several articles that have appeared in local, regional and national publications, as well as many books, including the Keep It Simple gardening book series and a special children's book titled How to Plant a Bunch of Stuff. His latest book is Gardening with Ed Hume: Northwest Gardening Made Easy. As a certified nurseryman and master gardener, Hume is very involved in his community and industry. He has served as a governor's appointee to the Washington State Board of Landscape Architects as well as the National Board of Directors of the Garden Communicators of America and has recently been inducted into the Garden Writers Association "Hall of Fame". Through his accomplishments and energetic activities, Hume has made major contributions to the field of horticulture.
John Karseboom
Jonn Karsseboom suffers from an insatiable desire to learn what makes people and plants grow. He has found himself on many occasions full of knowledge, with an iron grip on the answers to life's key questions only to find himself becoming dizzy and confused with the next new person or plant he meets. He currently is president of The Garden Corner, a full service garden center in Tualatin and hopes to eventually own the place when he pays back what is owed to the current true owner: West Coast Bank. He holds no notable honors though he is dangerously learning to become a blogger on www.thegardencorner.com He was awarded a certificate of marriage in 1993.
Dave Leckey
David Leckey owns and operates Oregon Small Trees Nursery, just west of Wilsonville. David is a contributor to Fine Gardening magazine and frequently appears in magazine and newspaper articles regarding both the use of small conifers and also on energy and resource efficiency in plant production. David is a past presenter at the YGP show speaking on small conifers, and regularly conducts tours through his nursery to garden clubs, nursery groups, and community college classes.
Tom Liptan
Tom Liptan is a registered Landscape Architect and Environmental Specialist for the City of Portland, OR, Bureau of Environmental Services, Sustainable Stormwater Management Program. He has been the impetus behind the research and development of new urban design techniques, codes and policies in the city. The success and recognition of these approaches has spread internationally. Tom has lectured at conferences in Sweden, Denmark, England, New Zealand and many cities throughout North America. In 2004 the U.S. Embassy in Denmark sponsored his participation at the Union of Baltic Cities Environmental Workshops, for cities preparing to enter the European Union. He has assisted numerous municipalities, developers, consultants, multi-state corporations and government agencies with acceptance of Ecoroofs and other Landscape Approaches used for stormwater management and healthy city development. He has presented papers at several universities and symposiums, including Harvard University, School of Design. His work has been recognized in various media, and he has received numerous awards. He is contributor of; Handbook of Water Sensitive Planning and Design, Robert France ed. (Lewis Publishers, 2002) and Green Roofs, Ecological Design and Construction, Earth Pledge, Siena Chrisman, ed. (Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2005).
Anne Marsh
Anne Marsh has over 35 years of experience in plant selection and garden design. She and Gary Fear have a garden design business in Portland, OR, Marsh & Fear Garden Solutions. She is currently the President of the Association of NW Landscape Designers.
William McClenathan
William McClenathan is the other co-host of the Garden Time TV show. William's earliest memories are of his grandparent's garden in Pampa, Texas. William holds multiple college degrees including one in theology, but his love of plants has kept him in the horticulture industry for many years. He recently completed classes at GCU, Garden Center University. He has worked for a nursery in Dallas, Texas; grew roses in Florida and owned both a retail and wholesale growing business. He moved to Portland to take care of his parents and started working at Portland Nursery as a buyer. He is currently the store director at Portland Nursery on Division, a position he has held since 2004.
Rose Marie Nichols McGee
Rose Marie Nichols McGee, the daughter of a nursery owner, grew up with a book in one hand while weeding with the other. This has led to a career in plants, gardening and words. She is the president of Nichols Garden Nursery, a family owned mail order seed company and nursery. McGee is co-author of the "Bountiful Container," the bible for small- space gardeners who want to grow what they eat and author of Basic Herb Cookery. She is an OSU Master Gardener and when not at the nursery or in her own garden she blogs about cooking and gardening on "The Gardeners Pantry".
Linda McMahan
Linda McMahan is associate professor of Horticulture at Oregon State University and Community Horticulture for the Yamhill County Office of the OSU Extension Service in McMinnville. She has a Ph.D. in Botany from The University of Texas at Austin and a lifelong interest in natural resources conservation. Linda represented OSU on a team of professionals from Oregon Association of Nurseries, The Nature Conservancy, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the City of Portland who created GardenSmart Oregon, A Guide to Noninvasive Plants in 2008.
Ron Monnier
Ron Monnier and his wife Debbie have owned and operated Monnier's Country Gardens, LLC in Woodburn since 1993. The nursery and the gardens they have developed showcase an assortment of almost 1300 different varieties of fuchsias. Ron and Debbie have an active fuchsia hybridizing program. They are releasing new varieties to the area. In addition to fuchsias, they have many other collectable plants highlighted through the nursery and gardens. The nursery supplies fuchsias to other growers and garden centers. They supply fuchsias and their collectable plants directly to retail customers through the nursery and on the road at various plant fairs. Ron's expertise comes from experiences in the nursery business, his many years as a gardener, as well as the 20 years spent as a nursery/agricultural consultant with Woodburn Fertilizer. Ron makes regular presentations to garden clubs and groups throughout the Northwest and is seen regularly on TV promoting fuchsias.
Burl Mostul
Burl Mostul founded Rare Plant Research in 1987, which is a wholesale nursery dedicated to introducing new plants to gardeners. He has traveled to many tropical countries searching for new plants. He also breeds plants to develop new hybrids. Rare Plant Research is open to the public only one weekend a year and has become a "spring event" often attracting 1,000 or more people. His latest project is building a stone chateau modeled after a 12th century Romanesque church in Spain that is surrounded by ponds and gardens featuring many rare and unusual tropical and temperate plants.
Vanessa Nagel
Vanessa Nagel is an award-winning designer and the principal of Seasons Garden Design, a local garden design firm that advocates sustainability. She is a certified member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD), the President of APLD's Oregon chapter, member of the Association of Northwest Landscape Designers and a past director for the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. With 30 years design experience, Vanessa serves her community as a member of the City of Vancouver's Design Review Committee and is writing a book for Timber Press.
Kym Pokorny
Kym Pokorny grew up on her dad's wholesale nursery in Northern California. She studied journalism and environmental science in college and graduated with a degree in journalism. She's been a journalist for 25 years, the last 13 as garden writer for The Oregonian in Portland. Kym has served as a regional director for the Garden Writers Association and as chairman of the GWA Foundation Board. She's won a Quill & Trowel Award, two Garden Globes and the Herald Award from the American Nursery & Landscape Association. She lives in Portland where her garden threatens to engulf her 1922 house.
Ron Putz
Ron Putz is the Commercial Oregon Hardscapes Sales and Promotions Representative for Mutual Materials Company's southern region. Mutual Materials Company is the largest manufacturer and distributor of concrete and clay hardscaping products in the Pacific Northwest. For most of the 22-years with the company, Ron has been working with hardscaping products. Ron has training and experience in segmental paver and retaining wall design and construction. He works with engineers, architects, landscape architects, landscape designers, municipalities and various groups of contractors throughout the region.
Kristin Ramstad
Kristin Ramstad has been a field urban forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry's Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program for 17 years. She works with municipalities and tree friendly-citizens throughout western Oregon. This is probably one of the best jobs in State government (in her humble opinion). Over the years, Kristin has been a Master Gardener in Washington State, worked for King County Extension (in Seattle), and has taught numerous Master Gardener and municipal forester training classes in Oregon. Last spring, she taught a class in urban forestry at a local community college. Kristin and her husband also own a small tree farm and home orchard west of Monmouth, and have two young sons. She holds a B.S. in Horticulture and an M.S. in Forest Science.
Paul Ries
Paul Ries manages the Urban and Community Forestry program for the Oregon Department of Forestry in Salem, where he helps cities and community groups deal with tree issues. He also serves as an affiliate faculty member in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University and as a public information officer on a state Incident Management Team for wildfires. Paul enjoys helping people learn more about trees and the important but often unappreciated role they play in our lives. He holds a Masters degree from the Ohio State University and is an ISA Certified Arborist. Beyond his passion for trees and spending time with his family, he enjoys hiking, woodworking, cooking, and travel. If he were not a forester, he would want to be either a nature photographer or a celebrity chef on the Food Network. This past year he reached the milestone of having visited all 50 US states during his lifetime.
Paul Sanford
Paul is a natural gardening educator at Metro, the Portland metropolitan area's regional government, where he teaches adults about reducing the use of toxic chemicals in the garden. Paul grew up in southeast Portland, earning an associate degree in horticulture at Mt. Hood Community College. He received a bachelor's degree in biology and minored in environmental science at Washington State University. Paul's past experience also includes training volunteers in the city of Portland's Downspout Disconnection Program, which assists homeowners in helping prevent sewage overflow into the Willamette River. As an instructor for local nonprofit Wolftree, Paul taught environmental science to middle-school students in southwest Washington's Vancouver School District.
Kathy Shearin
Kathy Shearin is the program supervisor for the Sustainable Urban Landscapes program for the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District (EMSWCD). The program is best known for their annual native plant sale and their naturescaping and rain garden workshops. Kathy has degrees in both Sociology and in Plant, Soil and Insect Ecology.
East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District (EMSWCD) is a unit of local government serving the residents and landowners of Multnomah County lying east of the Willamette River by providing conservation education, technical, and financial assistance to private land and home owners, governments, and non-profit organizations. They use a cooperative, non-regulatory approach to preserve our soil and keep our water clean. They've been helping people care for their land for over fifty years. Visit our website for more information: www.emswcd.org.
P. Allen Smith
P. Allen Smith (www.pallensmith.com) is an award winning designer who has created a signature Garden Home style. By blending key elements from the home and garden, he demonstrates ways to live life at its natural best. Catch his weekly television programs: P. Allen Smith Gardens on public TV, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home on commercial TV and his reports on the Weather Channel and monthly appearances on the Today Show.
Kristin Van Hoose
Kristin Van Hoose and her husband, David, own Hydrangeas Plus and Amethyst Hill Nursery in Aurora, Ore. The couple purchased the nursery operation in 1999 and specialize in hydrangeas, azaleas and other ornamental shrubs. The Van Hooses grow more than 250 different varieties and cultivars and are renowned for its vast collection of rare and unusual varieties. Van Hoose grew up in Richland, Wash., and graduated from Washington State University. In her rare spare time, she likes to spend quality time with her two daughters. She currently serves as Vice President for the Oregon Association of Nurseries.
Steve Varga
Steve Varga holds a degree in Horticulture from Colorado State University and has worked in botanic gardens in Georgia and wholesale nurseries in California and Oregon. As the sales manager for ProGrass, he also develops new products and services, most notably the environmentally-based Natural Care program. Varga shares his horticultural expertise and experience through public gardening seminars. Due to his outstanding reputation in the landscaping industry, he is often sought out by the media to comment on gardening and horticultural issues. In his spare time he enjoys camping, photography, off-road driving and the culture of desert plants in his greenhouse.
Ella May Wulff
Ella May Wulff began gardening as a young child and had taken over responsibility for her parents' small Philadelphia garden by the time she was in junior high school. Hobby soon formed to profession when she majored in botany at Smith College, earned a MA degree in biological oceanography from The College of William and Mary in Virginia, and briefly studied landscape architecture at Oregon State University. She belongs to many horticultural societies and has served as an officer of several orchid and heather societies. She is Past President of the North American Heather Society and the Oregon Heather Society, is editorial associate for Heather News Quarterly, and planned the program for the Third International Heather Conference (Victoria, BC, 2008). Ella May has written for national and international gardening periodicals and presented numerous garden club lectures about various horticultural subjects. Her new book, co-authored with David Small, President of The Heather Society (UK), is Gardening with Hardy Heathers (Timber Press, 2008).
