The Plantastic Podcast

JULIE WITMER BIO

Julie Witmer works to create beautiful and ecologically sensitive gardens across the continental United States. She began in perennial production and garden nursery retail before earning a Certificate of Horticulture—Britain’s professional gardener qualification—from the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, UK. She is a popular local speaker, teaching classes for all ages, and is a published garden photographer in books by Timber Press, Kew Gardens, and Rodale. Her own garden, Havenwood, is nearly one acre and divided into fifteen diverse garden spaces which grow a wide variety and succession of plants throughout the year.

With a keen eye for design and place, Julie has worked with private clients for nearly twenty years, helping them realize their own garden dreams, and providing one-on-one coaching in order to grow the skills of the gardener alongside their garden. She shares online classes and garden inspiration on her Substack Julie Witmer Gardens and Instagram at @juliewitmergardens.

You can learn more about Julie by visiting her website juliewitmer.com.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST
The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes. He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.
You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com. He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe. Until next time, #keepgrowing!

SCOTT BEUERLEIN BIOGRAPHY

Scott Beuerlein is the Manager of Botanical Garden Outreach at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. He runs the Zoo’s Botanical Garden educational programs, including three symposiums. He is involved in most of the department’s other outreach and with the plant trialing.

Scott is a 1982 graduate of Xavier University, earning a B.A. in Communication Arts. He is an ONLA Certified Landscape Technician and an ISA Certified Arborist. Scott is also a garden writer and horticultural speaker. He has published hundreds of articles and columns in several gardening and green industry publications. He currently pens two columns in each issue of Horticulture Magazine—the (usually, hopefully!) humorous Deep Roots column and the Garden Views series of interviews. Scott is a partner in the long running and highly respected GardenRant blog and posts about twice a month. Learn more about Scott by visiting his website, by reading his articles on GardenRant and Horticulture Magazine, and learning from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanic Garden's website where there are additional resources, including event details, trialing program brochures, and the plant for pollinators initiative.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes. He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com. He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe. Until next time, #keepgrowing!

JANET DRAPER BIO

Janet Draper has been the sole gardener for Smithsonian’s Mary Livingston Ripley Garden for 26 years. This tiny 1/3 of an acre garden is located on the National Mall and is open 24 hours a day to visitors from around the globe. Janet’s roles in the garden include everything from design and maintenance to cleaning the fountain and answering questions from visitors. Janet’s approach is to try to do something different every year to challenge herself and to keep educating visitors about the amazing diversity of plants!

Janet was raised in a rural farming community in Indiana and always knew she wanted to do something with plants. She pursued a bachelor’s in horticulture from Purdue University in 1987. Afterwards, she sought addition training with a series of internships that took her further than she could ever have imagined. She worked at Mt. Cuba Center for the Study of Native Piedmont Plants in Greenville, Delaware before it was open to the public; Kurt Bluemel’s nursery in neighboring Maryland where she learned the European approach to running a nursery, the famed perennial nursery of Countess von Stein-Zeppelin in Germany’s Black Forest, and Beth Chatto at her amazing Nursery and Garden in Elmstead Market, England.

Once back in the States, she continued to gain experience at numerous nurseries from Long Island to Illinois. After nearly a decade of working in perennial nurseries, she then started putting plants in the ground instead of little black plastic pots as an estate gardener and contractor for Oehme van Sweden where she helped install and maintain their designs. She also helped co-found the Annapolis Horticulture Society. You can learn more by visiting Smithsonian Gardens, by contacting Janet at her email address [email protected], and by following Smithsonian Gardens on Instagram.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes. He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com. He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe. Until next time, #keepgrowing!

DAVID HOFFMAN BIO

David Hoffman is Chief Operating Officer at Hoffman Nursery, Inc. in Rougemont, N.C. Hoffman Nursery is a wholesale nursery specializing in ornamental and native grass liners for the horticultural trade. David grew up on the nursery, which was started in 1986 by his parents, John and Jill. In 2012, David earned his horticulture degree from NC State University. After a two-year internship at Stauden Peters Nursery in Germany, David returned to Hoffman Nursery, where he applied his experience with European automation and quality control techniques. In 2022, David assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer of Hoffman Nursery. He oversees long range strategic planning and the management of operations, sales and marketing, IT, and HR. This position involves decisions and communications across all sectors of the nursery and nursery-managed properties. He is passionate about the role grasses, sedges, and other plants play in nature-based solutions for sustainable environmental management and resilience.

David is a member of the various organizations including Perennial Plant Association (PPA), International Plant Propagator’s Society (IPPS), AmericanHort, American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association (NCNLA). In addition to serving on the board of the JC Raulston Arboretum, David has been honored with the Perennial Plant Association’s Young Professional Award, NC State University’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award, NCNLA’s Bill Wilder Outstanding Young Nursery Professional Award, and a 40 Under 40 Award from Greenhouse Product News. You can learn more about him by visiting his website hoffmannursery.com or their LinkedIn page Hoffman Nursery.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes. He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com. He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe. Until next time, #keepgrowing!

ERIN PRESLEY BIO

A lifelong Wisconsin girl, Erin Presley grew up in the rural center of the state and has a bachelor’s degree in Horticulture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has worked as a boots-on-the-ground gardener for more than two decades, both in the private sector and as a horticulturist at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison since 2014. Her interests include native woodland plantings, sedges, low-maintenance and drought-tolerant gardening styles, recycling woody debris, and all things related to herbs, vegetables, and cooking. In addition to teaching at Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Erin loves talking plants and collaborating with herb societies, master gardeners, and local community organizations. Never shy when it comes to sharing the joy of gardening, she has appeared on the nationally syndicated podcast Cultivating Place and Wisconsin Public Radio’s Garden Talk and is a contributor publications such as Fine Gardening and Edible Madison. Learn more about Erin by visiting her Instagram @presleyspreferredplants, listening to her interview on Cultivating Place, interviews on Garden Talk with Larry Meiller, the PBS presentation with Rita Peters, and visit Olbrich Botanical Gardens

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST
The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes. He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.
You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com. He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe. Until next time, #keepgrowing!