MONICA BRANDIES is the author of countless newspaper and magazine articles and about a dozen books. The newest one is Citrus: how to Grow and Use Citrus Fruits, Flowers, and Foliage. Its focus is on special herbal uses along with which citrus types to grow where. Other books include Florida Gardening: the Newcomer's Survival Manual, now in its second edition. She collaborated with Betty Mackey for the third edition of A Cutting Garden for Florida. She wrote a warmly humorous memoir, Bless You For the Gifts, which takes the reader along her path from school to nine babies to living and gardening in Florida.

Monica grew up in Xenia, Ohio, near Dayton, and lived on a farm for most of her childhood. She attended a small Catholic school before studying at the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture, now part of Temple University. For more information and many entertaining articles, go to her website, www.gardensflorida.com.

DUANE CAMPBELL started grubbing in the dirt in the early 70's, beating the gardening craze that swept the nation then by about two weeks. This slight edge made him the local expert, and neighbors started asking his advice. For the past four decades he has been giving it in a column, Green Space, which appears weekly in northeast newspapers. He also for magazines. And now he's the author of the book, Best of Green Space: 30 Years of Composted Columns. Along the way he became a Master Gardener in two states, then a teacher of Master Gardeners. He has taught gardening courses at a community college, made numerous radio and television appearances, including his own radio show, judged gardens for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, spoken to more groups than he can remember, and won several national awards. He is a back yard gardener, a dirty hands generalist with some small knowledge in most areas and a bit more in ornamentals, container growing, and indoor plants, all learned the hard way and shared with naughty humor.

JOYCE FINGERUT is coauthor of the AHS award-winning book, Creating and Planting Garden Troughs. Joyce Fingerut is past President of the North American Rock Garden Society, and has been involved in its International Speakers Tour Project. Currently she is managing its international seed exchange. A Philadelphia native, Joyce Fingerut's horticultural career follows her first degree and career in psychology research and data analysis. She is also a graduate of the program at the Arboretum of the Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pennsylvania, and has taken additional coursework in Landscape Design and Construction at Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture and at Longwood Gardens. She recently edited The Trough Handbook for the North American Rock Garden Society. She gives lectures and workshops in various aspects of trough making and horticulture for organizations and arboreta throughout eastern North America. She authored portions of the book, Rock Garden Design and Construction published by Timber Press in 2003. It, too, won an award from the American Horticultural Society.

BETTY EARL is an author, writer, lecturer, and photographer based in Northern Illinois. Her book is Fairy Gardens: A Guide to Growing an Enchanted Miniature World. It was released here on B. B. Mackey Books and is also featured on Amazon.com. Her articles have appeared in American Nurseryman, Midwest Living Magazine, Small Gardens, Backyard Solutions, Old Farmers Almanac, Nature’s Garden, Chicagoland Gardening Magazine, and elsewhere.

BETTY MACKEY gardens in the shade in Pennsylvania, but became interested in regional gardening after living in Florida. Her best-known book is The Gardener's Home Companion published in hardcover by Macmillan and then in various reprints. Her illustrated book, Gardening Made Easy, came out from Publications International and has reappeared as Consumer Reports info on the web. She co-wrote Cutting Gardens from Simon & Schuster and has been garden columnist for The Hunt Magazine since 1994. She is also a digital painter, active on several art sites. Betty gives lectures on topics such as container gardening, making troughs, papercrete, cutting gardens, natural gardening, and more.  She is a publisher and editor, the founder and owner of B. B. Mackey Books. She was made a Fellow by GardenComm (formerly the Garden Writers Association) in 2018.

REX MURFITT is coauthor of Creating and Planting Garden Troughs. His most recent book is Creating and Planting Alpine Gardens from B. B. Mackey Books. In 2009 it was published for Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader. In 2006 it received a Silver Trowel award from the Garden Writers Association. Rex was the recipient of the Carleton Worth award for writing from the North American Rock Garden Society. Born in England, Rex trained as a nurseryman, later specializing in alpine plants at the famous W. E. Th. Ingwersen, Birch Farm Hardy Plant Nursery at Gravetye, Sussex. There, he trained under Walter Ingwersen VMH and his son Will Ingwersen VMH, who taught him the art of propagation and cultivation of alpine plants. He traveled widely with Will Ingwersen, building rock gardens for clients. From these great gardeners he learned the romance and lore of alpine plants. Eventually he became Head Gardener to Mrs. Constance Spry at Winkfield Place, near Windsor, where plants were grown for her world-famous flower arrangements. He helped develop her white garden, based on the one at Sissinghurst Castle. Under the guidance of Graham Stuart Thomas, he undertook the care of a large collection of old fashioned roses. He later moved to New York, and with Frank and Anne Cabot, started Stonecrop Nurseries Inc., at Cold Spring On Hudson, an alpine nursery based on English traditional methods. Rex Murfitt now lives in Victoria, B.C., Canada and is interested in saxifrages and North American alpines.

NELLIE NEAL is known as The Garden Mama at her lectures and on radio, where she fields queries about everything. This led to her book, Questions and Answers for Deep South Gardeners. She wrote Organic Gardening Down South to explain the benefits of healthy organic gardening with special insight on best organic practices in the hot and steamy southeastern tier states. She is a lifelong gardener, consultant, garden writer, wife, mother and now grandmother. She studied horticulture at Louisiana State University. Her expertise in general horticultural subjects extends across the Southeast in USDA Zones 8, 9, 10 and the coastal areas of California. Nellie knows what works and is not afraid to say so. She grows some of everything from houseplants, perennials, annuals, and roses to trees, shrubs, and vegetables all year long. Nellie co-wrote several books before writing Questions and Answers for Deep South Gardeners. She continues to write for general magazines and nationalgardening.com plus regional magazines, Louisiana Gardener and Mississippi Gardener. Her website address is www.gardenmama.com.

ALEX PANKHURST is a writer, photographer and lecturer. She has a cottage garden in England's picturesque Dedham Vale (Constable Country), and every year breaks her resolve not to buy more plants. Author of many garden articles and the books Who Does Your Garden Grow (biography) and Scoffing the Primroses (a witty novel with a horticultural theme), she has kindly allowed B. B. Mackey Books to bring out her now-classic hardcover book Who Does Your Garden Grow in paperback. It received critical and popular acclaim in England and the USA when it first was printed in hardcover in England and has been well received in its paperback form. In 2012 Alex published a novel about today's art world, Art and the Human Fruit Machine, which is available via Amazon on paper and as a Kindle eBook.

THOMAS POWELL is the author of Aphid in My Eye: Adventures in the Orchid Trade. For forty years, he edited and published The Avant Gardener, an award winning monthly newsletter, now edited by Derek Fell. Thomas Powell is well known for his succinct, informative, and witty writing and speaking style. Tom and his late wife Betty authored many gardening articles and books and were officers of orchid societies. They were executive and publications directors of the Horticultural Society of New York.