First and foremost, I garden. One of those fortunate individuals, my avocation and vocation morph into one and the same. Thus I garden for my own pleasure, and consult with home gardeners, providing design suggestions and planting guides to refine and improve their personal landscapes. I consult for commercial clients, offering specialized guidance on plant selection, maintenance, and design. A popular instructor, I teach at the New York Botanical Garden and for the Continuing Education Program of Cook College at Rutgers, the University of New Jersey. I lecture within my home state of New Jersey and across the United States, and have lectured abroad: Canada, England, Holland, and Japan. I write books and magazine articles. And other plant- and garden-related activities have a way of sprouting.
If you are interested in inviting me to give a lecture, teach a class, design a garden, or write an article, please feel free to Contact Me
to residential clients and commercial design / build firms, offering plant selection, maintenance, and designs incorporating native and exotic plants.
I bring a diversity of interests, experience, and study to my work, from participation in an intensive seminar in Japanese Garden Art and Design in Kyoto, Japan; lectures and workshops on native North American plants; observations in gardens visited across the United States, in the UK, Holland, Japan.
My services range from a simple consultation to site overview and garden design. My work addresses each individual's concerns: herbaceous border design, a focus on native plants, attracting birds and butterflies, a meditative garden - always with attention to year-round beauty in the garden, as well as subsequent maintenance requirements. I am pleased to work with enthusiastic gardeners looking for some guidance in plant selection, rearrangement of existing plants, scheduling of maintenance, as well as those who prefer someone else to do the work, supervising their landscape help.
I consult with selected landscape architects and firms.
Foliage for Beds and Borders Instructor at The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY teaching popular courses on bulbs, native plants, herbaceous border design, naturalistic design, seasonal gardening, and more.
Faculty Coordinator teaching in the Cook College Continuing Professional Education Program of Rutgers University. Subjects include native plants, plants for problem sites, and more.
Author: Writer: published within the United States and abroad. My work has appeared in
The American Gardener
Garden Columnist, 1991-1998, 2000, 2001: Hersam/Acorn Newspapers Guest editor/contributor
Contributor
Horticultural Expert accompanying tours exhibition at the Gallery of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden, on display from 7 October 2006 through 7 January 2007. Sumptuous illustrated folios, some dating back to the 17th century and original artwork from the Library's holdings include masterpieces of botanical art by renown artists such as Georg Dionysus Ehret, Pierre-Joseph Redoute, and Walter Hood Fitch. Of particular interest to the home gardener, the exhibition includes both well-known and unusual bulbs for garden use in the Northeast, illustrating practical uses of these beautiful and versatile plants.
The theme for Case One is What's a Bulb? depicting and describing true bulbs, corms, tubers, and rhizomes.
Rhizome. A hand-colored engraving of Iris odoratissima from Nikolaus Joseph Jacquin's
Tuber. Hand-colored lithograph of Arum guttatum from Nathaniel Wallich's
The theme for Case Two is Beginning with Bulbs in Your Garden. The frontispiece, Garden View in spring, from Crispin van der Passe' lovely, lively, appealing Hortus floridus, published in Utrecht, in 1615.
Case four, Tulipomania, explores the fevered madness for diseased tulips that took place in 18th century Holland.
As, for example, Fredericus Rex, a hand-colored engraving by August Wilhelm Sievert,
Lecturer across the United States and abroad on a wide variety of topics:
September: Northwest Perennial Alliance, Seattle and Whatcom Horticultural Society, Bellingham, Washington
Bulbs for Garden Habitats
April: New England Wildflower Society - Foliage in Garden Design
February: Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, Pennsylvania - Native Plants for Moist to Wet Sites
Cornell Plantations, Ithaca, New York
Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons, Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York
Scott Arboretum, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Rochester, New York
Green Springs, Alexandria, Virginia
Penn State Winter Conference, College Station, Pennsylvania
P.L.A.N.T. perennials symposium, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio
previously
International Stauden Union, Lisse, The Netherlands, July 2002
The Royal Horticultural Society's Great Autumn Show, London, England, September 1993
Bath Botanic Garden, Bath, England, September 1993
Northwestern Hardy Plant Society, Seattle, Washington, May 1993
Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, Portland, Oregon, May 1993
Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, March 1992
Civic Garden Centre, Toronto, Canada, December 1991
March 1998: Penn State Cooperative Extension symposium, Lancaster Pennsylvania
October 1997: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's autumn seminar, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
October 1995: Sixth Great Canadian Gardening Conference, Toronto, Canada
September 1994: Atlanta Botanical Garden (workshop) Atlanta, Georgia
April 1993: Chicago Botanic Garden (co-presenter with Rob Proctor)
Cabin Fever Symposium, Boise, ID, February 2000
Sixth Great Canadian Gardening Conference, Toronto, October 1995
Rochester Garden Center symposium, April 1995
traveling symposium held at
National Wildlife Federation, Vienna, VA; The New York Botanical Garden; Pine Manor College, MA; Atlanta Botanic Garden, November 1994
Millersville Native Plant Conference, Millersville PA: June 1997
The Royal Horticultural Society's Great Autumn Show, London: Sept 1990
Ness and Bristol (England) Botanic Gardens: September 1990
US National Arboretum symposium, Washington, DC: February 1989
New York, Denver and Chicago Botanical Gardens; Arnold Arboretum, Boston; Royal Botanic Garden, Hamilton, Ontario, February/March 1992
Pennsylvania Landscape & Nursery conference: May 1999
Longwood Graduate Program symposium: March 1995
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society: February 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992
Waterloo Gardens contractors symposium, Devon, Pennsylvania, February 1997
Romantic Shade Gardens a travelling symposium held at
Pine Manor College, Massachusetts; Cleveland (Ohio) Botanic Garden; National Wildlife Federation, Vienna, Virginia; Genesee Country Museum, Mumford, New York, January/February 1997
Missouri Botanical Garden's annual Japanese festival weekend, September 1996
North American Rock Garden Society: Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon, May 1993
Alpine Garden Society of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, May 1993
Made for the Shade: Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Seminar, Minneapolis Minnesota, January 2000
Annuals and Tender Perennials: Waterloo (PA) Gardens Trade Seminar, March 1999
Plants for Autumn and Winter Interest: Hardy Plant Society's Autumn Weekend (main speaker): Crewe, England, September 1993
Improving Urban Life with Plants: Kobe, Japan symposium (keynote speaker, May 1992
Naturalistic Design: Chicago Botanic Garden symposium, October 1990
American Horticulturist
Cottage Living
Country Living Gardener
Fine Cooking
Fine Gardening
Flower & Garden
The Garden, Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society
Garden Design
Gardening How-to
Horticulture
National Gardening
Woman's Day Gardening & Outdoor Living
Certificate of Excellence 1993, Garden Writers Association
Brooklyn Botanic Gardens handbook, 1991: "Gardener's World of Bulbs"
Brooklyn Botanic Gardens handbook, 1988: "Plants for Problem Places"Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1998: "The Gardener's Desk Reference", water gardening
Brooklyn Botanic Garden handbook, Summer 1997: "The Natural Water Gardening"
Brooklyn Botanic Garden publication: "Gardener's Desk Reference"
Houghton Mifflin, 1994: "Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening"
Brooklyn Botanic Garden handbook, 1989: "Gardening with Wildflowers and Native Plants"
Houghton Mifflin, 1988: "Taylor's Guide to Garden Design"
Ireland: June 1998; England: May 1995
Holland: April 1997, April 1996
Mississippi river boat cruise: April 2001, April 1999, August 1997, April 1996


Plantarum rariorum Horti Caesarei Schoenbrunnensis, published in Vienna, 1797 - 1804.
Plantae Asiaticae rariores published in London, 1830-1832
Look closely at the fine detail shown in this copperplate engraving.
There are all sorts of bulbs in this springtime garden - tulips, crown imperial, and more.
And the case has some wonderful images.
in Christoph Jacob Trew's Hortus Nitidissimis, published in Nurenberg between 1750 and 1786.