Seminar Speaker Biographies

Lucy Warren-Co-author, The California Native Landscape and The Drought-Defying California Garden
Several decades ago, Lucy Warren left her business career to follow her passion for plants and horticulture, becoming a UCCE certified Master Gardener in 1994. As a garden writer, she was editor of California Garden magazine, penned articles and a gardening column on edible plants for the San Diego Union Tribune, and many gardening publications. She collaborated on the University of California public information pamphlet on killer bees. She is co-author of two books on California native plants with Greg Rubin: The California Native Landscape: The Homeowner’s Guide to Restoring its Balance and Beauty (2013) and The Drought-Defying California Garden: 230 Native Plants for a Lush, Low-water Landscape (2016), both from Timber Press. Lucy worked for the flower and garden show at the San Diego County Fair for many years and continues work on the Spring Home/Garden Show. She has served on many boards, including San Diego Horticultural Society, Pacific Horticulture Society, and the California Garden & Landscape History Society. As board member and horticulture chair of Friends of Balboa Park, her ‘Adopt A Plot’ program has resulted in many upgrades in Balboa Park gardens. Lucy has appeared on numerous local television news segments and frequently makes presentations to garden clubs and other organizations

Nicholas Staddon-Horticultural Consultant, spokesperson for TreeTown USA and former Director of New Plants, Monrovia
Nicholas Staddon has been working with plant breeders, hybridizers, and professional plant explorers for 25 years, scouring the globe for new creations and discoveries in the plant world. Born in England, Nicholas received credentials in Agricultural Science from Otley Agricultural College. When he first arrived in the U.S. he managed garden centers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico, “where the vistas will move your heart and the gardening will break it,” he says. He went on to work for Monrovia Growers for 27 years, 15 of which as the leader of the New Plant program. Nicholas resides in Southern California and is working with TreeTown USA as their Spokesperson and Plantsman, supporting their marketing and new plant introduction programs. He is a sought-after speaker and guest for gardening television and radio shows across the country. He works closely with professional garden writers, providing information on plants and sharing his views on garden trends and more. He has created a series of informative ‘Plant Savvy’ videos, available on YouTube, and recently partnered with Kellogg Garden Products for a video series on soil and soil amendments for the garden and landscape. Nicholas is proud to be professionally affiliated with the Royal Horticulture Society, Plant California Alliance, and AmericanHort. He is on the Board of Advisors for the Mediterranean Garden Society of Southern California, Mount San Antonio College Agricultural Sciences program, Climate Ready Landscape Plants, a USDA SCMP Project, and Cal-HIP (California Horticultural Invasives Prevention), which is a voluntary partnership to help gardeners and the horticultural industry to proactively address the problem of invasive plants in the trade.

David Mizejewski – Naturalist and Spokesperson for National Wildlife Federation and author, Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard Wildlife
David Mizejewski is a naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation. He holds a degree in Human and Natural Ecology from Emory University and has hosted television series on both Animal Planet and NatGeo WILD. He regularly appears on NBC’s Today Show and does dozens of other media appearances each year to promote wildlife conservation through natural gardening. He specializes in urban ecology, the role that native plants have on wildlife populations, and helping people restore wildlife habitat in their cities, towns, neighborhoods, backyards, and gardens—which is the subject of his bestsellinggarden how-to book Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard Wildlife.

Scott Daigre – Co-author, Tomatomania and founder, Tomatomania event and owner, Powerplant Garden Design
If you ask Scott Daigre where it all started you might hear, “I was five and planted my first vegetable garden in Denver,” or “my grandfather’s tomato garden on the Mississippi River.” Or maybe “springtime after a winter in Chicago,” or “in a crowded community garden in Hollywood.” But no matter where it actually began, it’s clear that being in and around gardens was a major influence in his life. It eventually became his career. Scott Daigre is an author, garden designer, educator, marketing consultant, event producer, and public speaker. He spent most of his young life in Louisiana then moved to the west coast to start his professional career. He’s led garden tours around the world, spoken at this country’s most influential spring garden shows and designs landscapes throughout Southern California through his company, Powerplant Garden Design. Scott also owns and produces TOMATOMANIA!, a springtime seedling sales event he helped build at the nursery that changed his life’s direction. Since 1999 the event has been held in 5 states and 25 cities, exciting home gardeners each spring via a series of unique pop-up garden seminars. The New York Times called him “A garden designer-turned the Dale Carnegie of tomatophiles.” St. Martin’s Press published Scott’s tomato-growing how-to and cookbook,  TOMATOMANIA! A Fresh Approach to Celebrating Tomatoes in the Garden and in the Kitchen.

Tiger Palafox – Manager, Eco Gardeners at Mission Hills Nursery and co-host, Garden America radio show
Tiger Palafox is the owner of ECO Gardeners in San Diego. His family owns and operates Mission Hills Nursery as well. Coming from a nurseryman upbringing, Tiger used his experiences and knowledge to create a holistic landscape company that doesn’t just mow, blow and go. They start with the soil and create a garden that is serene, natural and good for the environment. ECO Gardeners operates throughout San Diego county and maintains commercial landscapes along with residential properties. Tiger grew up in San Diego and has fun, surfing, hiking and going on adventures with his family.

Janet Sluis – Horticulturist/Director, Sunset Western Garden Collection
Janet Sluis is a Berkeley-based horticulturalist specializing in low water, regionally appropriate, easy care plants. Focused on replacing thirsty, labor intensive varieties with colorful, resilient alternatives, she works with plant breeders all over the world. Her plant collection test garden is featured in The Sunset Western Garden Book of Easy Care Plantings,  and can be visited in person as part of the Sunset test gardens. As a sixth generation member of a Dutch seed family, Janet suspects that plants are in her DNA. After studying marketing, horticulture, and agricultural business, she spent twenty years in production and product development for wholesale plant nurseries in California. When Janet is not traveling in search of new plants, you can find her pulling weeds and battling slugs in her organic Berkeley test garden.

Billy Goodnick – Santa Barbara Landscape Architect, author, Yards: Turn Any Outdoor Space into the Garden of Your Dreams
At the insistence of his parents, Brooklyn-born Billy Goodnick was transplanted to LA at age eight, studied music, and became an in-demand touring and Hollywood studio drummer. “As fate would have it, I stumbled upon the exquisite art of bonsai,” he reports. “I turned my life on a dime, dropped my drumsticks, and started a journey into the world of plants.” For 22 years, Billy Goodnick served as City Landscape Architect for Santa Barbara and now provides customized residential design in the Santa Barbara area. He has taught design at Santa Barbara City College, Master Gardeners and adult education, also traveling the country speaking at botanic gardens and garden shows. As an award-winning designer who worked his way up from swinging a pick to landscape architect, his presentations are enriched by years of professional design practice and animated by his earlier life as an entertainer.

Jessica Cain – Owner and Creator, “In Succulent Love” and author, Stylish Succulent Designs
Jessica Cain is a local San Diegan who started her business by complete accident out of the love she had for succulents. Jessica is owner of In Succulent Love, an online botanical boutique, specializing in succulents, tropical plants, DIY kits, & custom arrangements. The mission of In Succulent Love is to bring joy and happiness to their customers with the love of plants. Jessica ships thousands of plants all across the country. She is also the author of Stylish Succulent Designs & Other Botanical Crafts, a 40-project DIY plant book, which was published by Page Street Publishing in October, 2019. 

Jeff Robbins and Ari Tenenbaum – Co-owners and designers, Revolution Landscape and creators of Instant Plant Food™
For more than a decade, Ari and Jeff have been designing and installing edible and eco-friendly landscapes throughout San Diego. Projects completed by Revolution Landscape have been featured on numerous garden tours and in local publications. In October 2020, the duo launched an eco-friendly fertilizer called Instant Plant Food™ that makes feeding house plants simple and fun. Although not everyone has the luxury of a front or back yard, almost everyone does have a shelf, windowsill, or office desk that could support a green companion. Jeff and Ari are passionate about helping people connect with nature and succeed in growing their own plants inside and out! Prior to starting Revolution Landscape, Ari and Jeff were friends who grew up surfing together throughout San Diego County. Ari has degrees in Plant Science and Landscape Architecture and Jeff holds degrees in Biology and Entrepreneurship. 

John Beaudry – Award-winning owner, Beaudry Garden Design and author, Garden Sanctuary
John Beaudry connects people to nature. He does this through Beaudry Garden Design, www.beaudrydesign.com, where he creates restorative outdoor living spaces; and through Garden Sanctuary: Designing for Comfort, Wholeness, and Connection, a how-to garden design book that takes readers on a transformative journey of creating their own garden sanctuary. Through his non-profit Community Green (beaudrydesign.com/community-green) John is committed to having every major U.S. city implement green roof infrastructure by 2025, thereby creating green cities for everyone.

Loree Bohl – Author, Fearless Gardening and blogger,  “Danger Garden”
Loree’s popular website, “Danger Garden“, launched in 2009, and she quickly found her tribe. Not only did she connect with gardeners in California and the desert Southwest—she also discovered a network of spiky-plant enthusiasts at home in the Pacific Northwest. In addition to freelance garden writing, speaking engagements, and garden scouting assignments, Loree has served on the boards of directors for the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, and the Pacific Horticulture Society. Garden travel is high on her list of leisure pursuits as she enjoys discovering other regional gardening styles, how climates influence gardeners’ plant choices, and how those plants are grown. She practices the fine art of garden cramscaping and is a firm believer there’s always room for one more plant. Loree’s first book, Fearless Gardening: Be Bold, Break the Rules, Grow What You Love (Timber Press), publishes in January of 2021.

Joe Lamp’l – Producer and Co-Host, “Growing a Greener World TV” on PBS
As host of 3 national television shows and one of the nation’s most popular gardening podcasts as well as creator of the joe gardener Online Gardening Academy, author of several books, and regular appearances on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Weather Channel; Joe Lamp’l is one of the country’s most recognized and trusted personalities in gardening and sustainability. For the past 11 years, has been the Creator, Executive Producer and Host of the Emmy-award winning national PBS series, Growing a Greener World®. Prior to that, Joe hosted Fresh from the Garden on DIY Network as well as on-air contributor to The Today Show, Good Morning America and The Weather Channel. Past awards include The American Horticultural Society’s B.Y. Morrison Communication Award, which recognizes effective and inspirational communication—through print, radio, television, podcasts and other online media and Best On-Air Talent for Television by the Garden Writers Association. Joe is also the founder and “Joe” behind joegardener.com – a garden-intensive website dedicated to all things gardening and horticulture through how-to videos, Apple’s top-rated gardening podcast, online courses, and blog posts.

Lisa Eldred Steinkopf – Author, Houseplants, The Complete Guide to Choosing and Grow In The Dark
Lisa Eldred Steinkopf is The Houseplant Guru, featuring all things houseplants on her blog, thehouseplantguru.com. She is the author of Houseplants, The Complete Guide to Choosing, Growing, and Caring for Indoor Plants; Grow in The Dark, How to Choose and Care for Low-Light Houseplants, and Houseplant Party, Fun Projects and Growing Tips for Epic Indoor Plants. In addition, she has written for Better Homes and Gardens magazine, HGTVgardens.com, Real Simple, Horticulture, and Fine Gardening magazines, the houseplant section of Allan Armitage’s Greatest Perennials and Annuals app, and writes regular columns for Michigan Gardener Magazine. She has been involved in the garden center industry for over 20 years and has been interviewed online, in print, and on TV about houseplants. She cares for hundreds of houseplants in her home, where she lives with her husband John and Henry the kitty.

Susan Morrison, Landscape designer and author, The Less is More Garden and Garden Up!
Author of the award-winning The Less is More Garden, Big Ideas for Your Small Yard, California Bay Area landscape designer Susan Morrison is passionate about gardens large and small. In addition to writing articles and presenting talks on design to garden enthusiasts all over the country, she has shared small-garden strategies on the ground-breaking PBS series Growing a Greener World. Susan is a contributing editor at Fine Gardening magazine and her designs have been in various publications, including the American Gardener, Cottages and Bungalows and The San Francisco Chronicle. Locally, she maintains an active volunteer status as a Master Gardener and serves on the ReScape California Advisory Committee.

Pamela Berstler, Award-winning Founder and designer, G3 Green Gardens Group
Pamela Berstler is a nationally recognized expert on soil and water management who developed the Watershed Approach, a regenerative landscape strategy, and grew it into a nationwide movement with twelve guidebooks on the subject. Agencies and municipalities throughout the western U.S. have adopted its principles as their landscape standards. For 15 years, Pamela has helmed G3 Green Gardens Group, an award-winning EPA Professional Certifying Organization that educates and certifies property owners, policy makers, and landscape professionals in irrigation and rainwater capture. Prior to G3, Pamela spent a decade as a licensed landscape contractor with an award-winning bespoke design-build firm specializing in innovations for sustainable cities. Pamela also has provided leadership in executive roles with non-profit organizations such as Pacific Horticulture Society, Association of Professional Landscape Designers, and Surfrider Foundation. Drawing on her degree in Psychology and Organization Design from university of Pennsylvania and MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management, Pamela is deeply committed to the reinvigoration of American entrepreneurship through regenerative land management and agriculture.

Debra Lee Baldwin – Author, Designing with Succulents, Succulents Simplified and Succulent Container Gardens
Award-winning garden photojournalist and author Debra Lee Baldwin launched global interest in succulents in 2007 with her first book, Designing with Succulents (now in its completely revised 2nd edition). She also wrote two other Timber Press bestsellers, Succulents Simplified and Succulent Container Gardens. Debra, who lives near San Diego, spent a decade contributing to Sunset magazine and applies the “Sunset aesthetic” to everything she does: books, photos, presentations, newsletters, articles, social media and more. Her YouTube videos alone have over 6,000,000 views. Debra’s own half-acre garden has been in Better Homes and Gardens and other publications. In 2017, the San Diego Horticultural Society presented her with a lifetime achievement award. She has presented to garden clubs and horticultural venues from coast to coast, including Epcot Center and flower-and-garden shows in Seattle, San Francisco and Philadelphia. 

Karen Chapman – Owner, Le Jardinet and award-winning co-author, Fine Foliage and Foliage First
Born in England, Karen grew up with a trowel in her hand. After moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1996, she joined a leading nursery as a garden plant specialist before establishing Le Jardinet in 2006. While initially specializing in custom container gardens, Karen now applies that same attention to detail by designing functional and artistic landscapes. Her designs have been featured in many prestigious publications, including Fine Gardening, Sunset and Better Homes & Gardens. She is co-author of two popular books on foliage: Gardening with Foliage First and Fine Foliage, and her latest book, Deer-Resistant Design, was released in 2019. When not designing gardens or writing about them, Karen is usually teaching landscape and container design in workshops around the country, as well as through a number of online courses. Whether on the stage or the page, Karen’s aim is always to inspire, educate and share the fun of gardening with her audience.

Baylor Chapman – Author, The Plant Recipe Book and Decorating with Plants and owner and designer, Lila B
Every day Baylor Chapman is inspired by the raw beauty of nature, and constantly thinks about ways to bring that beauty into her home – and yours. She believes that nature is handsome more than pretty, and is always searching for an unexpected definition of “beautiful.”  Baylor discovered that she loves working with plants so much that she spent almost 20 years surrounding herself with them. After attending the UC Berkeley extension program for garden design, Baylor founded Lila B., a San Francisco green-certified plant and flower design business. She also created a parking lot garden in the middle of a big city.In 2014 her first book, The Plant Recipe Book (Artisan) was published, and in 2018 she published Decorating with Plants (Artisan). In an initiative to improve guest experiences, she collaborated on a worldwide botanical strategy plan for a major international hotel chain. Her work has also appeared in Sunset Magazine, Good Housekeeping,  and Better Homes and Gardens, and she has been a guest on PBS’ “Growing a Greener World TV” and DIY expert on Sunset.com, HGTV and Houzz.com.