A Tribute to our Retiring 
Board Members

One of the great rewards of serving on a board of directors for an organization in whose mission you believe is the caliber of people you have the honor of working with. In my six years on the board of the Pacific Horticulture, this last as President, I’ve met some wonderful people whose hearts, heads, and hands are at work in an astounding number of dimensions to promote the power of horticulture and gardens in this world.

I met Sairus Patel (Palo Alto, California) at my first meeting after joining the board in 2013 when I was paired with him for a group building activity in which we had to discover something about each other that no one else there knew? Sairus shared that as a boy he’d performed a musical number on Radio India, which to this day infuses my understanding of him with an exotic flair. What is no secret to his fellow board members, is Sairus’ deeply considered intelligence and careful attention to detail. A life-long tree enthusiast and passionate gardener, Sairus was guest co-editor for the widely respected Urban Canopy issue of Pacific Horticulture in 2015. And for more than seven years he has provided volunteer editorial support by researching plant names and botanical nomenclature for magazine content. Outside of PHS, Sairus is an editor for the extensive Trees of Stanford website. We’re grateful that Sairus plans to continue contributing his horticultural review expertise for Pacific Horticulture, but his gracious, easy nature and kind wisdom are already missed.

Bob Hyland (Portland, Oregon) heartily maintains, “gardens may be grounded in place but gardeners are free to roam.” With this traveling, free-spirited nature, Bob gardens and designs in and around Portland, where he also owns and operates “Contained Exuberance,” a retail storefront featuring stylish containers and inspired plant combinations. Bob is notoriously active and generous with his horticultural activities around the country, and is an annual organizer of New York City’s winter plant extravaganza known as Plantarama. Bob is also an active member of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. His wry humor, sense of style, adventure, and fun informed his years of contribution to Pacific Horticulture. Most recently he was the PHS board escort on an epic Pac Hort tour to Chile. Thank you, Bob for the generous presence you always brought to the Pac Hort garden table.

Sue Goetz (Tacoma, Washington) is a well-known designer and author who brought her love of Northwest gardens and plants to the PHS board where her insights into the ins and out of being a working plantsperson were invaluable. Sue is an active member of the Northwest Horticultural Society and a popular speaker to gardening groups throughout the West. Pretty sure if there was an award for it, Sue would win for “distributing the most issues of Pacific Horticulture” by way of introducing the society to new audiences. Thank you for your constant outreach and advocacy, Sue. Sue’s newest book, A Taste for Herbs, is newly out from St. Lynn’s Press.