Garden Stage Speakers

MyHomeIdeas & MyRecipes networks

Marketplace»Garden Gurus

Garden Gurus

Don't miss our stellar line-up of Garden Gurus appearing at Celebration Weekend's garden stage on the main lawn.

SATURDAY
10:3o am    Robin Stockwell, Succulent Gardens
Stunning container designs using low-care succulents

11:15 am    Julie Chai, Sunset magazine
Top ten ways to go green in the garden

12:00 pm    Rebecca Jepsen, Growing Green Company
Growing veggies in containers including the Earthbox

1:00 pm    Flora Grubb, Flora Grubb Gardens
High-style, low-water gardens

1:45 pm    Aaron Dillon, Four Winds Growers
Citrus 101: how to grow, care for, and harvest in home landscapes

2:45 pm   Miranda Jones, Sunset magazine
Easy tips for creating beautiful floral arrangements

3:30 pm    Cynthia Sandberg, Love Apple Farm
Tomato questions answered! Tips from a local grower

SUNDAY
11:00 am    Miranda Jones, Sunset magazine
Easy tips for creating beautiful floral arrangements

11:45 am    Julie Chai, Sunset magazine
Top ten ways to go green in the garden

12:30 pm    Cynthia Sandberg, Love Apple Farm
Tomato questions answered! Tips from a local grower

1:30 pm    Hank Jenkins, Lushland Design
Dry gardening: hot plants for a waterwise landscape

2:15 pm    Rebecca Jepsen, Growing Green Company
Growing veggies in containers including the Earthbox

3:15 pm    Robin Stockwell, Succulent Gardens
Stunning container designs using low-care succulents

4:00 pm    Aaron Dillon, Four Winds Growers
Citrus 101: how to grow, care for, and harvest in home landscapes

Back to main page

Aaron Dillon

Fourth Generation Citrus Nurseryman
Four Winds Growers, Fremont, California

Aaron Driggs Dillon is a Fourth Generation Citrus Nurseryman with Four Winds Growers located in Fremont, California. He is proud to carry on his family’s tradition of providing their customers with high quality citrus trees for use in any setting. Four Winds Growers was founded by Aaron’s great grandfather, Floyd Dillon in 1948. Aaron has been a driving force behind expanding Four Winds Growers offerings to include a wider range of edible fruit trees and bushes that can be used for creating sustainable and productive landscapes.

“I am constantly inspired and motivated by the power of gardening and its ability to create positive change. I believe that simply by gardening it is possible for all of us to change the world.” Aaron attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where he studied environmental horticulture. He completed a BA in U.S. History from San Francisco State University in 2000. He is now finishing up an MA in Geography, with a concentration on Environmental Planning and Resource Management at SFSU. Four Winds Growers has enjoyed a long association with Sunset. In the 1960s Four Winds provided a number of dwarf citrus trees that were planted in some of the original Sunset Test Gardens in Menlo Park.

more
Flora Grubb

Owner
Flora Grubb Gardens, San Francisco, California

Flora Grubb started growing plants at age five in Austin, Texas. After 20 years of Texas gardening, she saw the dazzling bloom of a Puya alpestris in Golden Gate Park and soon moved to San Francisco to delve into a horticultural wonderland. In 2001 she started a landscaping company and in 2003 opened a small nursery with her business partner, Saul Nadler, in the city’s Mission District. Distinguished by her selection of exceptional plants suited to an unusual climate, Flora’s neighborhood nursery soon became a source of design inspiration for gardeners and landscape designers.

In 2007 they expanded the nursery into a new facility in the city’s Bayview District, attracting wide recognition as a design-driven gardener’s destination. Here they showcase durable, lush plants in concert with garden furnishings, books, and art, and hosts garden- and art-related events. Flora was named a “Tastemaker” by House and Garden magazine in 2007, and by 7x7 as one of the “Hot 20 Under 40” in 2008. Flora Grubb Gardens has been profiled in Sunset, Garden Design, Travel & Leisure, Domino and Dwell magazines. A vertical garden Flora designed was recently featured in the New York Times.

more
Hank Jenkins

Lushland Design, Berkeley, CA

Hank Jenkins of Lushland Design is an exterior designer based in Berkeley, California. He has a degree in Landscape Architecture and is passionate about planting design. The power of exterior spaces and their ability to be evocative and transport is fascinating to him. His design philosophy is that in order to achieve an environment that resonates you must allow it to evolve at a natural pace. He is influenced by his love of architectural plants in combination with engaging design. When he’s not in the garden he can be found speaking or teaching workshops on succulent gardening, as a part-time merchandising manager contributing to the visually stunning exterior vignettes at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco, or developing his garden and design series for television. He has also been a featured guest on DIY Network’s “The Dirt On…” and been featured in This Old House magazine. Australian plants, succulents (currently Aloes), and creating low maintenance architectural planting palettes for the garden intrigue him.

more
Rebecca Jepsen

President
Growing Green Company

Rebecca Jepsen is a Certified Master Gardener, and is the project lead for The Corporate Outreach Program in Santa Clara County. She designed and manages The Growing Connection Garden at Google’s corporate headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Rebecca is a garden columnist with the San Jose Mercury News; she writes the monthly “Ask A Master Gardener” column as well as the weekly “Green Tips”. Rebecca was a speaker and garden demonstrator in the Victory Garden at San Francisco’s Slow Food Nation last fall. She also taught children’s planting clinics at the very successful Doofapalooza at Google 2007 & 2008 events.

Rebecca has designed and in installed EarthBox gardens for Compass Group in North Carolina, as well as on the 8th floor balcony at Google in New York. In addition to her work in gardening, Rebecca has been in the high tech industry for more than 25 years. She manages her own consulting business that focuses on start-up companies in the areas of sales, marketing, and business development.

more
Cynthia Sandberg

Owner
Love Apple Farm, Ben Lomond, California

Cynthia Sandberg, owner of Love Apple Farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains, is passionate about fine tomatoes. Her farm grows over 100 different kinds each year for sale as tomato starts in the spring and fresh on her farmstand in the summer and fall. Love Apple Farm is the exclusive kitchen garden for world-renowned Manresa Restaurant of Los Gatos. Cynthia is a recognized tomato growing expert, and gives classes at her farm on the subject, as well as vegetable and herb gardening, compost and vermiculture, irrigation installation, chicken keeping, and bee keeping. Love Apple Farm has been featured in Sunset Magazine, the New York Times, In Wine Country and the Coastal Gardener television programs, and numerous other media. Cynthia maintains an informational website, which can be found at www.GrowBetterVeggies.com. Love Apple Farm is located at 9299 Glen Arbor Road, Ben Lomond, CA 95005, and is open to visitors on Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. to 3 pm.

more
Robin Stockwell

Owner
Succulent Gardens, Castroville, California

A grower of succulent plants since 1972, Robin Stockwell’s primary focus with succulents is their functionality and use in landscaping and container gardens. Robin promotes the fact that succulents are very efficient, requiring little water, nutrition, and care, and refers to succulents as “the conservationists of the plant world.” Also quite beautiful, their foliage comes in almost every color of the rainbow and their flowers appear throughout the year.

Robin works with landscape architects and designers who refer to his nursery as “the candy shop.” He has appeared on radio and T.V., and in newspapers and magazines. He gives talks about succulents to garden clubs and at other venues including the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show and Sunset Celebration Weekend. His plants have been in award-winning landscapes. Robin’s nursery, Succulent Gardens, houses more than two acres of plants for sale as well as display gardens. It is open to the public Monday through Saturday.

more