VENDOR BIOGRAPHIES
for The Late Show Gardens 2009

Andrew (Andy) Adams is a New England-born carpenter living and working in the Bay Area of California.  Though he has had previous careers as a Musician and Renovation Contractor, his work now focuses on garden structures such as decks, boardwalks, planters and benches.  The benches in particular allow for the easy intersection of art, design and building.  He is interested in collaboration and the process and design of landscape and gardens.

andrew.adams.house@gmail.com

Annie Hayes  Gardener, entrepreneur and self-proclaimed “Flower Floozie,” Annie Hayes started her business, Annie’s Annuals & Perennials, out of her backyard in the late 1980s.  Since then, she has championed growing plants the old-fashioned way, and her 2.5-acre Richmond, CA nursery grows everything from seed or cuttings in the wind, rain and sun of the San Francisco Bay Area (no greenhouses) and without the use of growth regulating hormones. She selects each plant not only for its beauty and fragrance but also for the natural grace and charm it adds to the garden.

Along with an amazing amount of heirloom and cottage garden treasures, “Annie’s” specializes in California natives and Mediterranean climate varieties from around the world, including wondrous South African annuals, perennials and shrubs.

With a flourishing mail-order website and print catalog, “Annie’s” has gained a loyal following of plant-a-holics around the world. Visit www.anniesannuals.com and see for yourself!

www.anniesannuals.com

Tom Bressan is the Founder and President of The Urban Farmer Store, a 28 ­year-old company with stores in San Francisco, Mill Valley, and Richmond, selling efficient landscape irrigation and lighting to landscape professionals, homeowners and municipalities. He has written numerous articles and handbooks on all aspects of sustaining the landscape and the environment, including Sunset magazines and Ortho books, and has served as a consultant for the This Old House book. He has presented lectures to over 500 clubs and organizations. He is currently a board member of the San Francisco Parks Trust, the EBMUD Landscape Advisory Committee and the SFPUC Appeals Board. Sunset and the San Francisco Chronicle have featured his work, and he has also received distributor awards from Hunter and Rain Bird.

www.urbanfarmerstore.com

Saxon Holt is a professional garden photographer whose images are well recognized in hundreds of magazine and book credits. He has been the photographer for more than a dozen garden books and his last two, Hardy Succulents, (Storey 2008) and Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates (EBMUD, 2004), were awarded prestigious prizes as outstanding garden books by both the American Horticultural Society and the Garden Writers of America. Saxon collaborated with John Greenlee on his next book, The American Meadow Garden, due this fall from Timber Press.

The canvas prints that will be shown at The Late Show Gardens were inspired by the layouts in the Hardy Succulents book and were printed by Bob Cornelis at ColorFolio in Sebastopol. Saxon lives and gardens in Novato and writes a regular column about garden photography on the Gardening Gone Wild blog.

www.saxonholt.com

Nancy Schramm is the third generation owner of Carman's Nursery, a small family nursery established in 1937 by Hugh Carman in San Jose, California. With her husband, Bob's help, Nancy has moved the nursery to Gilroy, CA where she continues the tradition begun by her father, Ed Carman, of growing rare and unusual plants. Carman's Nursery specializes in bonsai starters, dwarf conifers, rock garden plants, and unusual fruiting plants. The website www.carmansnursery.com is in the works, but until it is up and running, you can contact Nancy at edgreenthumb@att.net.

Nancy has also been working for over a year in partnership with friend Sherry Hall (Terra Sole Nurseries) to save, re-identify, and rebuild an extensive collection of South African bulbs assembled by Michael Willetts. They hope to soon be able to make these bulbs available through the website www.bulbmania.com.

Terra Sole was founded in 2004 by John and Sherry Hall with the goal of experimenting and growing plants that are adapted to our dry summer climate. We push the limits on water use in our test gardens and use low impact planting and growing methods.  And, we share what we learn with our customers!  We grow a large variety of plants some of which are old-fashioned and some are hot new introductions.  And, lots of good old standby’s in between! We grow our plants as sustainably as possible. Our snails are hand-collected and our containers are recycled. The birdbaths in the nursery encourage bad bug predation by our feathered friends and our weeds are hand-pulled.  And, we have the dirt under our fingernails to prove it! John & Sherry Hall = true plant-a-Hallics!

Deborah Whigham’s time spent in nature sparked her lifelong passion for plants. Earning a degree in Horticulture from North Carolina State University, Deborah also completed a three year textile apprenticeship program in Mendocino, where she resides with her husband, landscape designer Gary Ratway and their fifteen year old daughter, Zoe.

Named for a beloved family dog who just would not stop digging for voles, Digging Dog Nursery is an amazing oasis located in the midst of a redwood forest near the Northern California coast. Visitors are invited to enjoy a leisurely stroll through the one and one- half acre nursery, which includes nine green houses, a large outdoor growing area, impressive border gardens, hedgerows, and a new kitchen garden. On two Saturdays each month, guests can participate in an informative tour focused on plants of the current season.

Traveling throughout the U. S. and abroad in search of exquisite species that need little coddling, Deborah and Gary have discovered, and share with their customers, a vast array of Mediterranean and South African, as well as, European and U.S. species. Many selections offer year-around appeal possessing interesting seed heads, leaves, bark, berries and branches.

Recognized both nationally and internationally for it's outstanding collection of easy to grow, reliable and often rare plants, Digging Dog Nursery has been featured in a variety of publications including 'Martha Stewart Living' and the BBC's 'Garden's Illustrated'. Deborah travels throughout Northern California sharing her interest in late and off season gardening through fascinating presentations to garden clubs and other interested
organizations.