Donn L Todt served as horticulturist for the Ash-land, 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.

Linda Urbaniak, a lifelong gardener and plantaholic, is constantly curious about plants, new and old. She has been a docent at Bellevue Botanical Garden for the past ten years, and is a frequent lecturer on garden subjects and native plants throughout the Puget Sound area. The Woodside-Atherton Garden Club, a member of the Garden Club of America, is a nonprofit group of neighborhood friends devoted to promoting knowledge and appreciation of horticulture, flower arranging, gardening, and conservation. Their largest annual fundraising event is the Plant Sale at the Woodside Library Native Plant Garden.

Anthony Garza Jr is supervisor of horticulture and grounds, and New World Desert horticulturist at the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. A graduate of Cal Poly Pomona, he has a particular interest in plants that will withstand rising sea levels, insect plagues, and germ warfare.

Derick Pitman works with the San Francisco Botanical Gardens at Strybing Arboretum to introduce new Impatiens species into cultivation. Founder of the International Impatiens Society and creator of an educational website, www.mrimpatiens.com, he is an avid and passionate collector and promoter of Impatiens and other perennials for the garden.

Jeff Lowenfels is a garden writer and attorney in Alaska, and a leading proponent of gardening using the concepts of the soil food web. Wayne Lewis is a lifelong Alaskan gardener who has worked with Jeff on many projects, including the national Plant a Row for the Hungry program, which was started in Anchorage by Jeff.

Pria Graves is a botanical artist who frequently depicts the heirloom fruits and flowers growing in her Palo Alto garden. The large oak she shares with neighbors is alive with birds and squirrels and has given her a first-hand opportunity to observe the oak’s importance in our environment.

Steve Brigham and his wife Donna are the proprietors of Buena Creek Gardens, located in San Marcos in northern San Diego County. Steve is a founder of the San Diego Horticultural Society. Both have been active in the nursery industry in California for several decades.

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.

Richard G Turner Jr is the editor emeritus of Pacific Horticulture. After receiving degrees in architecture and landscape architecture from the University of Michigan more than thirty years ago, he escaped to California, where he has worked in the fields of garden design, public garden education and administration, and garden publishing. His small, chemical-free San Francisco garden provides habitat for wildlife while serving as a test ground for mediterranean-climate plants.

William Grant is a garden writer and photographer based in Aptos, California, where he maintains an extensive collection of roses and other plants. An avid rosarian, he lectures around the world on his favorite subject, was a consultant for Botanica’s Roses, and edited the paperback edition.

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.