Speakers

Featured Speaker

Ray Rogers is currently a freelance author and public speaker. He continues to pursue his horticultural interests as a home gardener in North Brunswick, NJ, and as an amateur hybridizer of Hippeastrum (amaryllis).

Ray is coauthor of The Philadelphia Flower Show: Celebrating 175 Years and author of Pots in the Garden: Expert Design and Planting Techniques and Coleus: Rainbow Foliage for Containers and Gardens. He is now working on a major container-plant encyclopedia.

At the Philadelphia Flower Show, Ray has won 365 blue ribbons and 80 major awards during his 20 years of exhibiting. As part of the Atlock Farm Group, in 2005 Ray received the Certificate of Excellence in Horticulture from the Garden Club of America.

Lots of Pots: Designing Container Plantings
Coleus: Red-Hot, Easy, and Versatile

Nate Bremer is a hybridizer specializing in northern-hardy daylilies, lilies and peonies at Solaris Farms, which he owns and operates. At Solaris Farms, there are more than 2,000 registered daylilies and a test garden of 10,000+ seedlings and new cultivars under cultivation. Recently, Nate has added propagation/ hybridization programs for Peonies and Lilium. Herbaceous and tree peonies, from renowned Wisconsin hybridizer, Bill Seidl, are among the finest plants available today and are available on the farm. Tree peonies (shrub peonies) are a key new element to northern gardens.

Bremer lives with his wife Kimberly, two children and numerous critters at Solaris Farms in Reedsville, WI. When not at work in the lily fields, he teaches middle school science and has been recognized as a Wisconsin Science Teacher of the Year.

Tree Peonies: The Little Shrub with Big Flowers

Linda’s herbal journey began in the early 1980’s after a taste-enlightening lunch at Peter Christian’s Tavern in downtown Hanover, NH.  She purchased their cookbook and created many of their soups, sandwiches, and dressings and continues to try new herbal recipes from other sources, as well as creating her own.  This passion has led her to share growing tips and the subtleties of cooking with fresh herbs at area garden clubs and non-profit organization fundraisers.  She holds a Wisconsin Food Managers License and is owner/operator of Herbs ‘n Such.  An organic grower, Linda starts all of her herb, heirloom tomato and vegetable plants from seed or cuttings and practices companion planting.  As a member of the Kiel, WI Garden Club, Linda compiles the gardening tips, techniques and trivia for the club’s gardening column, “Diggin’ Up Dirt”, in the Tri-County News.

A New Hampshire native, culinary herbalist and Master Gardener, Linda Goodine attended The University of New Hampshire studying elementary education, Clark College, Vancouver, WA studying geology, and later settled on a major in English/Secondary Education with a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Lakeland College, Sheboygan, WI.  She is an Orton-Gillingham Multi-Sensory Tutor (Edgewood College, Madison, WI) teaching Phonics, and is currently enrolled in The Master of Education Program at Lakeland with an emphasis on linguistics and teaching English language learners. 

Culinary Herbs from Seed to Salad

Donna Krischan is a garden photographer and writer. Her photographs have appeared in numerous magazines, calendars and books. She and her husband Tom write the In the Garden column for Milwaukee Home and Fine Living magazine. They tend a one-acre flower and vegetable garden in Big Bend, Wisconsin with their Vizsla dogs - Heather and Zedd.

The Art of Garden Photography

Sandy Livermore is a business woman (UW Madison BA 1980, MBA 1982, Product Manager for Magnavox in Syracuse, NY) wife and mom (greatest joys- awesome husband and three happy kids). She began as a gardener which developed into a landscape designer (MATC design degree 1995) that further evolved into a landscape designer - business owner (Perennial Design). Sandy is the Founder and Chairman of Bookworm Gardens, a new two-acre garden based on children’s literature currently under construction at UW Sheboygan.

The Tale of Bookworm Gardens

Dr. Patti Nagai has been the Horticulture Educator for Racine County UW-Extension since April 1998, serving both consumers and producers of horticultural products. 

She obtained her Ph.D. from Cornell University with a major in Agronomy – Crop Physiology and minors in Plant Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.  Her MS and BS degrees were obtained from Mississippi State University in Horticulture, with emphasis on ornamental horticulture and vegetable crop physiology.

While employed as a Senior Researcher with Japan Tobacco, Inc. in Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan Dr. Nagai learned to appreciate the style of Japanese gardening. In addition, she trained technicians to maintain and grow plants in commercial interiors.

Vegetable Gardening in Small Spaces
Japanese Gardening in the Midwest

Gary Wittenbaugh has lectured extensively throughout the US on the use of conifers, conifer companions and hypertufa troughs in the garden and landscape. Gary is past president of the American Conifer Society Central Region, and was the recipient of the ‘Marvin and Emelie Snyder Merit Award for Service’ from the American Conifer Society in 2005. An Iowa Master Gardener, Gary received the Lifetime Master Gardener award in 2005. Many visitors visit his conifer, companion plants and trough gardens in Iowa. Articles and photos of the garden have appeared in Garden Gate Magazine including the cover of the September/October 2005 issue and Iowa Gardening Magazine cover story fall issue 2006.

Gardening with Conifers
Trough Gardening