The Plantastic Podcast

THOMAS RAINER BIO

Thomas Rainer is a registered landscape architect, teacher, and author that lives in Arlington, Virginia. He is a leading voice in ecological landscape design and has designed landscapes for the U.S. Capitol grounds, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and The New York Botanical Garden, as well as over 100 gardens from Maine to Florida. He is a celebrated public speaker who has garnered acclaim for his passionate presentations to audiences across the U.S. and in Europe. Thomas serves as a Principal for the landscape architectural and consulting firm Phyto Studio in Washington, D.C.

Thomas received his Masters Degree from the University of Georgia. Thomas has worked for the firms Oehme, van Sweden and Associates, and was most recently a Principal at the landscape architectural and planning firm, Rhodeside & Harwell. He has a broad range of experience in project types ranging from intimate residential gardens to expansive estates, rooftop gardens, botanical gardens, large-scale green infrastructure design & implementation, and national memorials. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Landscape Architecture Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and Architectural Digest.

While passionate about design and focusing on details, Thomas is a specialist in applying innovative planting concepts to create ecologically-functional designed landscapes. His recent work focuses on the artful interpretation of wild plant communities into designed plantings that thrive in the context of towns and cities.  He also continues to love working on residential gardens, enjoying the intimate collaboration with clients and creating spaces. 

Thomas teaches planting design for the George Washington University Landscape Design program. His recently published book co-authored with Claudia West, Planting in a Post-Wild World, was released in fall 2015 from Timber Press and was selected by the American Horticultural Society as one of the 2016 books of the year.

You can learn more about Thomas on his website thomasrainer.com, his firm Phyto at phytostudio.com, and on Instagram where his handle is @thomasrainerdc.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.  

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter PlantEd, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

ANGELA PALMER

Angela Palmer co-owns Plants Nouveau, a trendy new plant marketing company where she manages the annuals, perennials, and grasses as well as the website, marketing, photography, and social media aspect of the business. 

Angela has a Bachelors of Science in Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design from the University of Delaware. She was a storied career in horticulture.  She worked for many years as the Director of New Products for one of the largest wholesale nurseries on the East Coast, The Conard-Pyle Company, where she was instrumental in introducing Knock Out rose.  She also previously managed the Plant Introduction Program for Chicagoland Grows as well as the staff and development of 1/2 of the collections at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC as well as the arboretum’s Elite Plant Introduction Program.  She also served as the Conference Director for the annual Native Plants in the Landscape Conference held at Millersville University for 12 years.

She currently lives in New England where she has fun gardening in her home garden and pursuing another passion of hers, coaching girl’s lacrosse teams. You can learn more about Angela on her company’s website plantsnouveau.com, and on Instagram her handle is @plantweenie. 

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.  

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter PlantEd, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

RIZ REYES

An early curiosity about fruits and flowers turned a young boy from the Philippines into an award-winning garden designer, floral designer, avid plantsman, and book author in the Pacific Northwest. Riz Reyes immigrated to the United States with his family in 1989 and settled in Shoreline, Washington. He grew up watching television to help learn English and discovered public television in his early years; on top of Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, he discovered the art of Bob Ross, the culinary prowess of Julia Child, and most influential was the gardening series, The Victory Garden.

He collected plant catalogs and familiarized himself with the gardening section of his local public library and grew fond of different types of plants. He set his sights on pursuing horticulture as a future profession. Riz earned a BS in Environmental Horticulture & Urban Forestry from the University of Washington (UW) and worked as a horticulturist for the UW Botanic Garden’s Center for Urban Horticulture from 2007–2015. 

In 2013 he designed his first full show garden at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle, WA. Riz came away with a gold medal, the Golden Palette Award for the Best Use of Color and Plant materials, the American Horticultural Society Environmental Award, and the prestigious Founder’s Cup as the Best Show Garden. Riz was also a featured panel speaker for the first annual Slow Flowers Summit where he contributed to a discussion on the lack of diversity and people of color in the horticulture and floral industries. 

He is currently the gardens manager for the brew pub and hospitality company McMenamin’s Anderson School in Bothell, WA and maintains RHR Horticulture, his own horticultural enterprise where he designs gardens and cut flowers and also teaches and lectures for professional organizations. Riz also authored GROW: A Family Guide to Plants and How to Grow Them, which was illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows. Riz volunteers with the UW Farm spearheading their cut flower program. Other hobbies include caring for a personal collection of rare and unusual plants in his apartment, dancing, figure skating, music, food, and spending time with family and friends.

You can find him online at his website rhrhorticulture.com and on Instagram @rhrhorticulture.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.  

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter PlantEd, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

KIM SHEARER BIO

Kim Shearer is a tree and shrub breeder at the Morton Arboretum where she manages their New Plant Development Program and serves as the Chicagoland Grows® woody plant liaison. Kim advances the arboretum’s mission to make the world a greener, healthier, and more beautiful place by introducing plant selections with broad adaptability, disease resistance, and pest resistance. Kim acquired her bachelor’s of science from NC State University working under the mentorship of Dr. Tom Ranney, and from there she continued her studies at Oregon State University. She is very active in the horticulture industry with the American Society of Horticultural Science and the eastern region of the International Plant Propagators society. In this episode we talk about a wide range of topics from the plants she’s worked on over the years, her passion for quilting, and her love of Maybelle Jones, her beautiful dog. You can find out more about Kim online through her profile page on The Morton Arboretum’s website and her Instagram handle @kimintransit.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.  

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter PlantEd, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

CALEB MELCHIOR BIO

Caleb Melchior is a landscape architect and planting designer with Coastal Vista Design, and he teaches Professional Practice, Theory of Landscape Architecture, and Ecological Planting Design at Florida International University.  His practice centers on planting design and materiality, with a focus on wild plant communities of the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. He has experience designing fine gardens, estates, and public spaces throughout the southeast United States including P. Allen Smith and Associates in Little Rock, Arkansas and ASA Engineering in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He collaborates with other designers, horticulture experts, and landscape management teams to make sure that design ideas are realized throughout installation and the ongoing life of projects. Caleb is heavily involved with design communication. He presents frequently at landscape and horticulture-related conferences. His work is regularly published in national and international publications such as The American Gardener, Horticulture, and Land8.

You can find him at his website calebmelchior.com and on Instagram at @the_curious_gardener.  

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.  

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter PlantEd, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.  

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter PlantEd, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!