PAST HORTICULTURIST OF THE YEAR (HOTY) AWARD WINNERS

2025     Melanie Baer Keeley (b. 1957) and Dr. Jon E. Keeley (b. 1949)

Native plant specialist Melanie Baer Keeley received a BS in horticulture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. As manager of the Theodore Payne Foundation, she championed the conservation and horticultural values of California native plants. For The Southern California Gardener newsletter, she wrote and illustrated the “Natives in the Landscape” column and received an award from the Garden Writers’ Association for her feature “The Tree Oaks of Southern California.” After moving to the Sierra foothills, she joined the National Park Service at Sequoia and Kings Canyon, performing ecological restoration of disturbed wildlands.

Baer Keeley started Alta Vista Natives Nursery, offering local genotypes and other heat- and drought-tolerant California flora to the wholesale and retail trades. She has lectured on native plants and habitats, served on the board of the Alta Peak Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, and consulted with the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies on removal of invasive species.

Botanist Dr. Jon E. Keeley is a senior research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, an adjunct professor at UCLA, an Ecological Society of America Fellow, former program director at the National Science Foundation, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. His research has included life strategies of plants from fire-prone ecosystems, fire-stimulated seed germination, invasive species, the taxonomy of Arctostaphylos, and photosynthesis in vernal pool plants.

Keeley is senior author of Fire in Mediterranean Climate Ecosystems: Ecology, Evolution and Management; and has more than 400 frequently cited publications (a number co-authored by Baer Keeley). 

He has spent sabbaticals in all five mediterranean-climate regions of the world. His fire management research is of particular relevance as the planet faces ever-rising rates of extreme weather events. 

Baer Keeley and Keeley have helped many thousands of Southern California gardeners, landscape professionals, nursery owners, and government officials appreciate the beauty and importance of native plants and ecosystems and better understand the nature of wildfires and how to co-exist with them.

2024     Nancy Goslee Power (click here for link to the recording)

(b. 1942) Santa Monica-based garden designer Nancy Goslee Power has stretched the vocabulary of Southern California public and private landscape design with exquisite compositions of plants from summer-dry climates. Of her many collaborations with prominent architects, the elegant installation surrounding the Frank Gehry-designed Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is one of her most admired.

Among other honors, Goslee Power received the Henry Francis du Pont Medal in landscape design and was an artist-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome. Throughout her internationally lauded career, she has mentored young designers, cultivated creative teams, designed numerous children’s gardens, and stressed the importance of hands-on horticultural education. She authored two books: The Gardens of California: Four Centuries of Design from Mission to Modern (with Susan Heeger) and Power of Gardens, an award-winning monograph of her design work.

2023     Richard Schulhof (no recording available)

(b. 1957) Richard Schulhof’s enduring love of plants inspired him to follow many horticultural paths, beginning in and leading back to Southern California. Early work in San Diego and Los Angeles nurseries led to distinguished internships, as well as degrees in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley, botanic garden administration from University of Delaware, and forestry from Harvard University.

In public gardens and their diverse collections, Schulhof found a base for both plant science and community education. He served as deputy director of Harvard’s esteemed Arnold Arboretum, executive director of Descanso Gardens, a fellow at Longwood Gardens, and CEO of the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. Before retirement, he and his team created unique gardens and innovative programs for the LA Arboretum’s 600,000 annual visitors.

Schulhof’s impressive 50-year career steadfastly advocated for garden-based education and the preservation of landscape and garden history.

2022     Dave Fross (no recording available)

(b. 1946) Nurseryman, plantsman, educator and author Dave Fross is a champion of remarkable flora for mediterranean-climate gardens. In 1979, he founded Native Sons, an Arroyo Grande-based wholesale nursery offering mostly California natives. Inventory quickly grew to include a large and varied assortment of garden-worthy gems from California and other mild-winter, summer-dry parts of the world. The nursery’s grasses, succulents, flowering perennials and shrubs are sought-after specialties for both professional landscapers and home gardeners. Popular introductions include Arctostaphylos ‘Austin Griffiths’, Salvia leucophylla ‘Point Sal’, and Sesleria ‘Campo Azul’.

For 25 years, Fross taught horticulture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he and his students developed the California native collection in the university’s Leaning Pine Arboretum. He has co-authored three books: the award-winning California Native Plants for the Garden, Reimagining the California Lawn (both with Carol Bornstein and Bart O’Brien), and Ceanothus (with Dieter Wilken).

2021     Posthumous awards to Bill Baker, John Dourley, and Virginia Hayes (click for link to recording)

Bill Baker (1947-2009)
William Warren “Bill” Baker was a nurseryman, plant hunter and landscape designer. His San Fernando Valley nursery, California Gardens, was a collector’s paradise of bulbs, bromeliads, cacti, epiphytes and many other specialty plants. He was considered the world’s preeminent breeder of Dyckia and introduced popular hybrids of that genus, as well as Hechtia, Haworthia and Gasteria.

His excursions into Latin America yielded scores of rare bromeliads and succulents, which he donated to The Huntington Botanical Gardens for identification and cultivation. In 1991, a beautiful succulent collected by Baker in Bolivia was described as a new species and named Echeveria bakeri in his honor.

Baker shared his knowledge widely, gave talks, and brought plants to myriad meetings and plant shows. He distributed his creations to other nurseries for evaluation and propagation.

His distinctive residential landscape designs emphasized the joys of California outdoor living with uncommon plants, flowering trees and eye-catching stonework.

John Dourley (1922-2015)
Horticulturist and plantsman John Dourley was born in Scotland and received formal training from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. He emigrated to the United States in 1952, where he oversaw estate gardens in New York and Ohio, and served as superintendent at University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum.

In 1967, Dourley became superintendent of horticulture at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (now California Botanic Garden) in Claremont—and quickly became an expert in California native plants. He held that position for 20 years.

Dourley excelled at keeping plants vigorous and healthy. He influenced how gardeners, designers and nursery growers viewed natives by displaying them as attractive garden plants and by generously sharing his knowledge on how to best grow them.

He also consulted with public and private clients, advising on plant care and maintenance.

Dourley coauthored (with Lee Lenz) the important book California Native Trees & Shrubs: For Garden and Environmental Use in Southern California and Adjacent Areas. A well-loved manzanita was named Arctostaphylos ‘John Dourley’ in his honor.

Virginia Hayes (1950-2018)
Virginia Hayes grew up on a family farm in Modesto, California. Her early horticultural career focused on aquatic plants, landscape design and maintenance. She earned a BS in botany and an MS in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology from UC Santa Barbara and became an authority on Nelumbo (lotus).

For 25 years, Hayes was curator of the living collection at Ganna Walska Lotusland, where she also tended the garden archives and those of the garden’s owner. Hayes developed curricula and public garden protocols and trained every docent during her tenure.

As a teacher, expedition leader and plant collector, Hayes stressed the importance of conservation, provenance and accurate record keeping.

Hayes was active in local, national and international horticultural societies. A prolific writer, her work appeared in botanical journals, Pacific Horticulture magazine, and, for decades, she was a regular columnist in the Santa Barbara Independent and Lotusland publications. She co-authored (with Steve Timbrook) the book The Gourmet Gardener

2020     Posthumous awards to Dara Emery, Denis Kurutz, and Manny and Bert Singer (click for link to recording)

Dara E. Emery (1922-1992) Horticulturist and plant breeder Dara Emery received his degree in horticulture from Cal Poly. He joined the staff of Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in 1955 as its first horticulturist and officially retired in 1990—a remarkable tenure during which he collected and propagated California flora for the garden’s living collections. He launched the garden’s retail nursery, plant sales and plant introduction program, and helped develop the grounds. He also taught professionals and home gardeners how to propagate natives and use them in gardens. He patiently mentored many respected horticulturists.

Emery introduced 20 popular cultivars, among them Arctostaphylos ‘Canyon Sparkles’, nine Heuchera, and the award-winning, much-admired Iris douglasiana ‘Canyon Snow’. Two plants, Fremontodendron ‘Dara’s Gold’ and Salvia ‘Dara’s Choice’, honor him by name.

His book Seed Propagation of Native California Plants, reprinted in 2021, is an invaluable reference.

Emery’s horticultural contributions and interests extended beyond California natives, with leadership in various plant societies, garden clubs and professional organizations, including the International Plant Propagators Society. 

Denis L. Kurutz (1942-2003)
Landscape architect Denis Kurutz studied at UCLA and USC. He created major installations worldwide and in Southern California, most notably the landscape at The Getty Villa in Malibu. This meticulously researched re-creation of the gardens surrounding Villa dei Papyri, a Roman country house buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, carefully incorporated classical architectural elements with plants grown in ancient Herculaneum.

With the Los Angeles firm of Emmet L. Wempel and Associates and later his own Pasadena consulting practice, Kurutz was known for his drawing skills, plant knowledge, and devotion to each project. His exquisite sketches, construction documents, and planting plans ensured that every component realized his exact vision and intent.

As landscape manager on the Getty’s Brentwood site, Kurutz specified a buffer of California trees and chaparral shrubs to slow fire and prevent erosion. His career also included work at the U.S. Embassy in Japan, Magic Mountain and other theme parks, Joshua Tree National Park, and many private estates.

Manny Singer (1919-1993) and Bert Singer (1919-1999)
Manny and Bert Singer appreciated the natural sciences, from shells and rocks to animals and plants of all sorts. In 1966, following unrelated careers and with no botanical training, they established Singers’ Growing Things, a nursery specializing in rare and unusual plants, mostly little-known succulents from South Africa, Madagascar, and Baja California, Mexico. Signature offerings included succulent euphorbias and quirky caudiciforms from diverse plant families.

The nursery inventory stayed interesting, thanks to adventurous collecting trips, and plants and seed received from eminent international botanists and plant explorers. Annual illustrated catalogs detailed hundreds of species, with care advice for collectors. The joys of curiosity and learning were shared with horticulturists the Singers mentored and with customers who still treasure long-lived plants purchased from the nursery.

The Singers were active in the Cactus & Succulent Society of America, as well as its Los Angeles and Sunset Succulent chapters. Manny Singer co-founded the San Fernando Valley Bromeliad Society. He was a keen propagator and long-time member of the International Plant Propagators Society.

2019     Mike Evans

(b. 1954) Fresh out of high school, hiker and surfer Mike Evans scored a job at an Orange County retail nursery. He then started his own landscape and nursery enterprise, fascinated by palms and the passionate people who collect them.

Evans quickly pivoted to native flora to become founder and president of Tree of Life Nursery* in San Juan Capistrano, soon to be the state’s largest grower of California natives with some 500 species and cultivars for both landscaping and ecological restoration.

Tree of Life provided lectures and workshops to engage and educate the public, especially upcoming generations, encouraging all to embrace the beauty and ecosystems of California flora and wildlands. The printed nursery catalog, the website that replaced it, and social media have allowed Evans’ plant information, horticultural wisdom, poetry and eloquent essays to reach an even wider audience.

These prized cultivars were introduced by Tree of Life Nursery: Achillea ‘Island Pink’, Arctostaphylos ‘John Dourley’, Epilobium (Zauschneria) ‘Catalina’, and Gambelia (Galvezia) ‘Firecracker’.

Evans teaches popular native plant courses at Saddleback College. Through his leadership, he has affected policy in community efforts, the California Native Plant Society, International Plant Propagators Society, and Society for Ecological Restoration.

* Tree of Life Nursery, established 1980, will close at the end of 2025.

2018     John Schoustra

(b. 1959) As a young entrepreneur in Altadena, John Schoustra sold Burpee Seeds door to door and received a subscription to Organic Gardening magazine for his efforts. He took summer classes at the LA County Arboretum. Following a degree in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley, he started Cal Pacific Landscape, Inc., a design/build/maintenance firm; and Cal Blend Soils, selling amendments, mulches and other landscape materials.

He then became chief horticulturist at historic Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach.  A farmer at heart, Schoustra founded Greenwood Daylily Gardens and settled onto a ranch in Somis, growing high-density, low-water, organic avocados—plus durable flowering plants, primarily for landscape professionals. Signature crops include resilient pelargoniums, and reblooming daylily, iris, and agapanthus. Low-chill lilacs are customer favorites. As orchard manager at nearby Apricot Lane Farms, he currently tends 60 different varieties of fruit trees.

Schoustra belongs to and has led several national and international plant societies. He served on the board of the Nursery Growers Association (now Plant California Alliance) for 20 years.

2017     Randy Baldwin

(b. 1956) South Pasadena native Randy Baldwin earned his BS in environmental studies and botany from UC Santa Barbara while working part-time at a local nursery. Plants of California were a special interest and with burgeoning knowledge, he took a position at San Marcos Growers, a fledgling wholesale nursery in Santa Barbara. He soon became president and general manager, a creative role he has held for 45 years.

Few wholesale nurseries have assembled such a wide-ranging, ever-evolving inventory and achieved such extensive visibility among landscape designers. In addition to San Marcos’ own selections, they worked with other growers to introduce extraordinary landscape plants for California’s mediterranean climate. These collaborations helped customers discover a breadth of succulents, natives, ferns, grasses and grass-like plants, vines, trees, shrubs, perennials, and more.

Professionals and home gardeners alike rely upon San Marcos’ printed catalogs and much-revered, information-packed website. Written by Baldwin, each plant portrait is** an absorbing dive into origins, nomenclature, physical characteristics, garden requirements, botany, and landscape history.

Baldwin is active in the venerable Santa Barbara County Horticultural Society and Santa Barbara Cactus & Succulent Society. He has held key positions in other plant groups and numerous organizations, including the Cactus & Succulent Society of America and California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers.

* San Marcos Growers, established 1979, will close at the end of 2025.
** Baldwin plans to keep the website updated.

2016     Carol Bornstein

(b. 1953) Native plant expert Carol Bornstein received her MS in horticulture from Michigan State and a BS in botany from University of Michigan, then headed west. As horticulturist/propagator at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and with superb mentorship, she rapidly learned native plant identification and cultivation. As director of horticulture, Bornstein managed and enhanced the living collections, retail nursery and plant introduction programs. Among other accomplishments during her nearly three-decade tenure, she transformed the garden’s iconic meadow into a showcase for native bunchgrasses and wildflowers and coordinated design and construction of the innovative Home Demonstration Garden.

Several of her 16 plant discoveries have become popular cultivars, including Corethrogyne filaginifolia ‘Silver Carpet’, Constancea (Eriophyllum)nevinii ‘Canyon Silver’, Salvia ‘Pacific Blue’, and Verbena lilacina ‘De La Mina’.

Bornstein was director of the urban habitat-based Nature Gardens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and managed the Pleistocene Garden at the La Brea Tar Pits. She has written, lectured and taught extensively on native plants and sustainable landscape design, been appointed to myriad advisory committees, and consulted on design projects for cities and universities. Her horticultural contributions were profiled in the book The Earth in Her Hands by Jennifer Jewell.

Bornstein is co-author (with Dave Fross and Bart O’Brien) of two references, the award-winning California Native Plants for the Garden, and Reimagining the California Lawn: Water-conserving Plants, Practices and Designs.

2015     Kathy Musial

2014     Donald R. Hodel

(b. 1953) As a Cal Poly Pomona undergraduate, Don Hodel received the Southern California Horticultural Institute’s (our former name) student scholarship in 1973. He left Cal Poly (BS) and University of Hawai’i (MS) with degrees in ornamental horticulture and worked for the National Tropical Botanic Garden on Kaua’i and Hawaii and California nursery industries before becoming the UC Cooperative Extension Environmental Horticulture Advisor for Los Angeles County.

Hodel retired from UC after 36 years of conducting research projects and creating educational programs for Southern California’s landscaping and tree care professionals, government agencies, residents and homeowners.

Hodel has given more than 1000 presentations on the selection and management of Southern California landscape plants. He has authored or co-authored more than 600 technical and popular articles, as well as nine books, including Exceptional Trees of Los Angeles (funded by SCHS). He is a global expert on palms with extensive field research and has named and described 50 species of palms new to science—sharing specimens for trials and possible introduction at arboreta and botanic gardens.

Hodel’s research, writing and lectures continue in retirement with several new books in the works, furthering his substantial impact on Southern California horticulture.

2013     Dave Lannom

(1945 - 2016) Dave Lannom was a beloved character, a guy from Claremont who earned degrees in ornamental horticulture from Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) and Cal Poly Pomona, where he completed his master’s and first began teaching. He left academia for nursery management to better prepare his students for the industry he loved, then returned to teach at Mt. SAC for the remainder of his career. Professor Lannom, who insisted his students call him Dave, taught with ingenuity, humor and passion. His motivated novices have gone on to run nurseries, supervise parks, work as arborists and earn graduate degrees. 

Lannom also shared his vast horticultural knowledge in his classes at the LA County Arboretum and Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (now California Botanic Garden). Throughout his career, he collected, propagated and sold palms. 

Lannom was active in the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers (CANGC), International Plant Propagators Society, and Pesticide Applicators Professional Association. The dedicated educator received honors and awards from Mt. SAC, Cal Poly Pomona and CANGC. He was inducted into the Green Industry Hall of Fame in 2015.

2012     Richard Turner

(b. 1946) Multi-talented Richard Turner studied architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Michigan, then moved to California to continue his garden design practice and teach in UC Berkeley’s department of landscape architecture.

An avid plantsman and ace photographer, Turner was education director at Strybing Arboreum, director of the San Francisco Garden Show for several years, and the first executive director of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek.

As long-time editor of the esteemed Pacific Horticulture, Turner ensured the magazine’s beautiful design and accurate content. He spearheaded the well-attended series “Gardening Under Mediterranean Skies.” He also invited and curated more Southern California experts and garden writers than ever before, enhancing the publication’s horticultural reach and relevance.

Turner has lectured widely, traveled extensively, and led horticultural tours across the globe to view indigenous floras and exceptional public and private gardens. He has co-written, edited or advised on numerous books, including The Trees of San Francisco and Golden Gate Park (with Elizabeth McClintock) and the Sunset Western Garden Book.

2011     Gilbert Resendez

(b. 1942) An enduring affection for plants and people energized a lifelong career for Gilbert Resendez at world-famous Monrovia Growers. He began in production as a pruning “craftsman,” moved to sales, then rose to become vice president of sales and marketing, where he fostered one of the industry’s most knowledgeable and best trained sales forces. With expertise in horticulture, landscape design, business management and strategic planning, he became executive vice president and then president of the company.

Under Resendez’s leadership, Monrovia’s plant introduction program blossomed. Attention to the needs of retail nurseries brought branding and huge name recognition, as well as a steady stream of new and appealing plants for gardeners and landscapers in Southern California and beyond. He worked at Monrovia for 55 years and, in retirement, continued to advise as managing director.

Resendez has served on the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (now California Botanic Garden) Board of Overseers, and the LA County Arboretum Board of Trustees, including as its president and as an honorary trustee. His many professional affiliations include state and national nursery and grower associations.

2010     Yvonne Savio

2009     Laurel Woodley

2008     Shirley Kerins

2007    Tom Carruth

2006     James P. Folsom

2005     Bart O'Brien

2004     Joan De Fato

2003     Virginia Gardner

2002     John Greenlee

2001     John R. (Dick) Dunmire

2000     Scott Wilson

1999     Bob Perry

1998     Harold Lachs

1997     Ernest Hetherington & Lili Singer

1996     Don Walker

1995     Robert Smaus

1994     George Harman Scott

1993     Harlan Lewis

1992     Chris Rosmini

1991     Gary Hammer

1990     Elmer Lorenz

1989     Paul Hutchinson

1988     Grace Heintz

1987     Ruth Shellhorn

1986     Morgan (Bill) Evans

1985     Leonid Enari

1984     Fred Lang

1983     John Catlin

1982     Barbara Joe Hoshizaki

1981     David Verity

1980     Horace Anderson

1979     Myron Kimnach

1978     Philip E. Chandler

1977     Edward Hummell

1976     Bill Paylen

1975     Sanford Martin

1974     Harry Johnson

1973     Maria Wilkes

1972     Victoria Padilla

1971     Nuccio's Nursery

1970     Betty Marshall & Donald P. Woolley

1969     Howard Asper

1968     James Giridlian

1967     no award

1966     Valley Knudsen

1965     Lovell Swisher

1964     Fred Roewekamp & Ralph Cornell

1963     Dr. Mildred Mathias (first award dinner)

1962    Samuel Ayres

1952    Theodore Payne

 Past award winners (dates unknown)
           William Hertrich
            Hugh Evans
            Edward O. Orpet
            Percy Everett