David A. Laws enjoys combining his interests in gardening, technology, and travel by photographing and writing about them from his home in Pacific Grove, California. David is semiconductor curator at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California and serves on the board of the California Garden and Landscape History Society.

Mariposa Gardening & Design, Cooperative, Inc. is a Bay Area landscape design company whose highest priority is to create beautiful ecologically conscious outdoor living spaces. We are a group of skilled craftspeople that create dry stack stone and leaning flagstone walls, and drought tolerant and permaculture gardens that provide habitat for songbirds and wildlife. www.mariposagardening.com

Matthew Hoffman is best known for his work in the global peace movement and his work with Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, UN Messenger of Peace. In the spirit of planting seeds of peace, joy, beauty, and food, Matthew and his wife Astrid created The Living Seed Company. They believe the power of people growing food and saving seeds is one of the best ways to achieve both inner harmony and global prosperity.  www.livingseedcompany.com

Chris Woods, a servant of the Goddess Flora and a horticultural gadabout, is Advancement Advisor for Flora of North America Association (FNAA).

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Denise Kelly has worked as a horticulturist in Northern California since 1978, with experience in wholesale and retail nurseries, landscape construction and restoration, environmental consulting, landscape architecture, and estate gardening. Her affinity for native plant communities and gardens with the right plant in the right place also relate to her work as a botanical copy editor—putting the right word in the right place. www.variegatastudio.com

MEREDITH HILDERBRAND lives and gardens on a 50-acre farm near Portland, Oregon. She traces her horticultural roots back to her paternal grandmother who graduated in 1913 from the University of Southern California with a degree in botany. Meredith is a Master Gardener through Oregon State University and a perennial member of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. Transplanted from the Southwest, Meredith plans to remain in the Pacific Northwest—gardener’s nirvana—until she’s pushing up Bellis perennis.

TAMARA PAULAT passionately gardens Chickadee Gardens, a small oasis in Portland, Oregon, where she focuses on sustainable practices and native plants of the Pacific Northwest. She is a Master Gardener and her garden is certified through the Backyard Habitat Certification Program. Tamara completed a Fine Arts degree in 2002 and appreciates good design and color in gardens. She blogs weekly at www.chickadeegardens.blogspot.com.

RICHARD SCHULHOF has served as CEO of the Los Angeles County Arboretum since October, 2009.  He previously served as deputy director of Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum in Boston, and as executive director of Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge. A Southern California native, Schulhof worked in Los Angeles area nurseries and completed internships at the Huntington Botanical Gardens and the Mildred Mathias Botanical Gardens at U.C.L.A.

With a special interest in science education, Schulhof collaborated with public schools in Boston and Los Angeles to develop teacher training programs and life science curricula. Working with the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Park Service, he has launched programs preserving and interpreting public historic sites. He holds degrees in landscape architecture from U.C. Berkeley, in botanic garden administration from the University of Delaware, and in Forestry from Harvard University.

At the Los Angeles County Arboretum, Schulhof focuses on new programs that promote sustainability and water conservation, preserve the Arboretum’s rich history, and make known the essential role of plants in sustaining life on Earth.

LEIGH ADAMS is Artist in Residence at Los Angeles County Arboretum where she serves as a design consultant to the Arboretum Foundation. A former children’s librarian and outdoor education teacher, Leigh is passionate about providing learners of all ages the opportunity to explore and acquire new skills. Leigh’s connection to public art, watershed management, and adaptive education inform her approach to each new garden project.