Horticulture Field Day 2016

Eric Day is Manager of the Virginia Cooperative Extension's Insect Identification Laboratory at Virginia Tech. As manager of the lab, Eric identifies thousands of insects every year. These insects range from everyday garden pests to exotic species such as Africanized bees. Eric also provides sound advice on how to deal with these insect pests. Eric will speak about new pests, honey bee health, and safe use of systemic pesticides in a presentation titled: "Saving our Bees and our Plants: Dealing with Pests without harming our Pollinators."

Stephanie Huckestein is the Education and Outreach Coordinator at the Hahn Horticulture Garden at Virginia Tech. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Virginia Tech, and, as the Education and Outreach Coordinator of the Hahn Horticulture Garden, she oversees all events at the garden. She also gives tours of the garden; teaches youth and adult programs, including Master Gardener training; coordinates educational programs; and provides outreach to local schools. In addition, Stephanie teaches the Horticulture Department's course on indoor plants.

Doug Jessie, a graduate of Virginia Tech's Horticulture Department, is a certified plant geek who gardens with his wife on half an acre in Roanoke. For 32 years, he worked in the landscape/nursery/garden center industry, and, for 11 years, he designed and installed major exhibits at the Philadelphia Flower Show. Doug currently sells specialty fertilizers for greenhouses, nurseries, fruit and vegetable growers, and home gardeners and feeds his artistic side by creating hypertufa containers and garden art. During the lunch break, Doug will demonstrate how to make sand-casted leaf sculptures.

Joan Maloof is the founder and director of the Old-Growth Forest Network, an organization formed to ensure that each county in the United States capable of supporting forest growth will preserve at least one forest open to the public. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and she is Professor Emeritus at Salisbury University, where she previously taught biology and environmental studies. Dr. Maloof is the author of Teaching the Trees: Lessons from the Forest and Among the Ancients: Adventures in the Eastern Old-Growth Forests. She will discuss old-growth forest, what remains of these never-logged forests, and how the forests might be saved for future generations through the expansion of the Old-Growth Forest Network

Bonnie Satterthwaite is the Southeast Territory Sales Manager for Espoma. She has 30 years' experience in the lawn and garden industry, and she often speaks at garden club and garden center events. She has also been a guest commentator on various radio programs. Bonnie is an avid gardener with a special interest in annuals and perennials, and she maintains a cutting garden at her home in Virginia Beach. Bonnie will speak about organic gardening

Elissa Steeves received her B.S. in Horticulture and her M.S. in Vocational-Technical Education from Virginia Tech. For 30 years, Elissa taught horticulture at the high school level, and she helped author the first Virginia Master Gardener Handbook. Since her retirement eleven years ago, Elissa has devoted herself to gardening, garden travel, and various other horticultural pursuits, and she often opens her garden for tours. She has spoken at Longwood Gardens, Green Springs Garden, Guilford Horticulture Symposium, Abingdon Garden Faire, and Virginia Master Gardener College. Elissa's garden has been featured in Southern Living and Horticulture magazines and the October 2015 issue of Virginia Gardener magazine. Elissa is an adventurous gardener with a love of plants and color. She has been quoted as saying, "I want to die excited, not bored!" The title of Elissa's presentation is: "Aging Gracefully as the Garden Matures."

Paul Westervelt is the Annual & Perennial Production Manager for Saunders Brothers. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Horticulture from Virginia Tech. In 2009, Paul was chosen as the Perennial Plant Association's Young Professional of the Year. He is a member of the 2013 Class of 40 under 40 for Greenhouse Product News, and he is a contributor to Grower Talks magazine. Paul is a frequent traveler to garden destinations domestic and abroad, and, in the fall of 2015, he was fortunate to participate in a private tour of Piet Oudolf's home garden in the Netherlands. Paul was so popular at HFD at Pharsalia in 2014 that the GCV Horticulture Committee is thrilled to welcome him back. The title of Paul's presentation is: "Perennials for Multiple Seasons." 

Pamela Cadmus is a landscape designer and principal of Specialty Garden Design, located in Pilot, Virginia.  Pamela works with clients throughout southwest Virginia, and, while the majority of her work is residential, she has designed for local restaurants, an arts and crafts center, and a public library.  Pamela is especially fond of using ornamental grasses, heaths and heathers, and dwarf conifers in juxtaposition to perennials, flowering trees, and shrubs.  She also designs and plants containers for clients' terraces, walkways, and gardens, and she readies patios and gardens for special events.  In 2005, Pamela won the Town of Blacksburg Award for Design/Landscaping.  In addition to her design work, Pamela maintains a small nursery that specializes in dwarf and slow-growing conifers and ornamental grasses.  The plants Pamela sells have been trialed in her own and in her clients' gardens, and she brings a selection of conifers to Horticulture Field Day.

Janet Davis is the primary owner and operator of Hill House Farm & Nursery, located at the southern base of Bessie Bell Mountain, in Rappahannock County, Virginia.  Janet is dedicated to growing high-quality native plants for gardens, landscape restoration projects, and habitat creation.  Janet sells only plants that she has grown from seed or division or has propagated vegetatively; her plants are never collected from the wild.  Janet chooses plants that occur naturally in the Mid-Atlantic region and are, therefore, well suited to our gardens.  Janet is a graduate of the Virginia Tech Horticulture Department, and she brings her wonderful native plants to Horticulture Field Day

Kari Lemay is the creative force behind A Crooked Little House, a name inspired by the whimsical "crooked" birdhouses she creates with brightly painted wood and crumpled metal roofs.  Kari also makes lamps, mirrors, pocket planters, wall vases, and garden stakes, all out of vintage metal and fancifully hand painted.  Kari has been a fixture on the Historic Roanoke City Market for 22 years, and she also sells her work at a handful of regional art shows.

Walter's Greenhouse is a family-owned and -operated nursery in Hardy, Virginia.  The dynamic duo of sisters Evelyn Elwell and Janet Walter, both graduates of Virginia Tech, continue the business started by their mother thirty years ago to finance her three daughters' college educations.  What started as a single greenhouse has grown to nine.  In addition to vegetable plants and select shrubs and perennials, they offer a vast array of annuals, herbs, and succulents.  The sisters are extremely creative and put together wonderful plant combinations for hanging baskets, containers, and topiaries.  For Horticulture Field Day, Janet will offer a selection of succulents.

Nan Mahone Wellborn, a member of Roanoke Valley Garden Club, is a plein air painter of landscapes.  Nan paints primarily in oils, and her paintings are driven by an emotional and expressive interpretation of her interest in a sense of place.  Nan's current work is a response to feelings and moods the constantly changing light creates in the landscape.  Nan combines painting with her travels south through Virginia, to the marshes of South Carolina and the Florida Keys, and as far as the fields of Provence, France.  Nan's work can be found in public and private collections up and down the East Coast, and she often works on commission

Rachel Yungman is an avid and talented gardener and creator of beautiful ornaments for the garden.  Rachel has been "working in concrete" for 25 years, beginning with hypertufa containers and later expanding her repertoire to include sand-casted leaves, mushrooms, and orbs made from concrete patch.  Rachel often leads how-to workshops, and her work can be found in gardens across the region.