Merrill graduated Cum Laude from Washington State University with a BS degree in Ornamental Horticulture.  Merrill’s career in public horticulture included posts at Idaho Botanical Garden in Boise; The Oregon Garden in Silverton; and Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden in Palo Alto. He currently serves as a reviewer for the Plant Collections Network of the American Public Gardens Association. He couldn’t have dreamed a better job in which to close his professional life than at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum where he worked for 14 years, retiring in 2020 to his bicycle and camera as well as his own personal garden.

Bridget Lamp has been gardening professionally for over ten years at Filoli Center, Lotusland, and the University of California Botanical Garden. She currently propagates plants for Seattle Parks and Recreation. At home, she is always looking for more space to plant edibles in her garden. You can follow her blog at fromgardentokitchen.blogspot.com.

Judith Carlson is an independent nurse consultant whose primary work is with a Minnesota  software company that designs electronic health records (EHRs) for public health and home health agencies. She has authored a number of e-books related to EHRs and standardized clinical terminologies. She enjoys escaping to her garden for much-needed breaks from her computer.

Judy Maier is a garden designer and coach, garden writer, and aesthetic pruner of all landscape trees, but particularly of Japanese maples. She lives in San Jose, but her work takes her throughout the San Francisco Peninsula, the Bay Area, and beyond. Visit her website at www.judysgardens.com or read her blog at www.gardendancing.blogspot.com.

Arnold Markman grew up in a New York City apartment without plants. He fell in love with gardening when he moved to San Diego in 1975. He is now Chief of Occupational Medicine at Kaiser Permanente, a runner, and a backpacker. He also loves to travel to foreign lands to see plants in habitat.

Lucy Tolmach worked at Filoli for 35 years beginning as a gardener in the walled garden before moving on to director of horticulture. She and her husband, Jonathan, have recently relocated to their family’s land in Ojai, California. In addition to planting a large fruit and vegetable garden and caring for the land, they’re excited by the opportunity to bake bread, keep chickens, ducks, pigeons, doves and possibly peacocks, and work in the family winery.  Lucy plans to turn her attention to designing gardens and planting daffodils.

Donn L Todt served as horticulturist for the Ashland, Oregon Parks Department for thirty years. His current research focuses on human roles in plant geography and landscape history. He now serves as head gardener for the landscape around his old house in Corvallis, Oregon.

Carol and Barrie Coate are a dynamic husband and wife team of horticulturists. Barrie worked for many years for the Saratoga Horticultural Research Foundation and is now a highly respected arborist in private practice. Carol continues to serve on the board of directors of the Foundation. Together, they have created a stunning garden in the mountains southwest of San Jose, California.

E. Kirsten Honeyman, a clinical psychologist, includes gardening, writing, and photography among her avocations. She blogs at  LaDolceVitaFresno.blogspot.com where she writes about a mediterranean lifestyle. She has served on the board of Tree Fresno and is active with the Mediterranean Garden Society. She and her husband Bruce garden in Fresno and in Carmel Valley, California.