Yellow Fly Traps & Other Wonders: Plant Conservation on the Coastal Plain
Tom Patrick
Tom Patrick is a botanist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. He studies the rare flowering plants of Georgia and conducts inventories of native plants in natural areas through Georgia. He is responsible for plant collecting permits, maintains data on the distribution of plants of conservation concern, and assists with various research projects on Georgia's native plants. He is particularly interested in trilliums, orchids, and pitcher plant bogs. A native of upstate New York, he received his M.S. in Botany from Cornell University, continued graduate studies at the University of Tennessee, and has been a part of the Georgia Natural Heritage Program since 1986. Mr. Patrick lives in Monticello,Georgia and became a Master Gardener in 2000. He has a growing interest in landscaping with native plants, and currently serves as an officer in the Georgia Botanical Society.

Wildflowers of the Wilderness
Sheila Willis
Of Cherokee descent, Sheila Willis received a B.S. degree in Biology from Valdosta State College (now University) which she has supplemented with additional class and field work in a variety of subjects. Over the last 30 years she has primarily worked as a Naturalist, Park Ranger, Biologist and Lecturer on Native American history and culture for private, state, federal, and educational agencies, resorts, and children's camps.

In recent years she has developed a nature-based and cultural tourism business called "Native American-Naturalist Talks & Tours" which she operates from Waycross.

Propagation of Native Plants
Jan Midgley
Jan is the owner of Wildflower, a nursery selling native herbaceous perennials and ferns. She is the author of Nursery Sources of Native Plants of the Southeastern United States published in 1993 and Southeastern Wildflowers published in 1999 (also available in 7 state versions). She is past director of the Cullowhee Native Plant Conference held in Cullowhee, North Carolina each July. She lectures and writes about the cultivation and propagation of native plants. Jan has been gardening with native plants for more than thirty years, challenged by soils and weather in Missouri, Michigan, Maryland and Alabama. She holds a BSN from the University of Missouri and a MSN from the University of Michigan.

Native Azaleas
David C. Varnadoe
David C. Varnadoe is a native of Colquitt, GA. Before joining the staff at the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center in 1996 as the Landscape Manager, David operated Varnadoe Nurseries, Inc. in Colquitt, GA. Native plants were a big part of the inventory of the nurseries, especially native azaleas. The collection of native and hybrid azaleas found on Ichauway's campus features the life work of David's father, Aaron Varnadoe. David continues with his father's work, propagating azaleas and overseeing the design and care of Ichauway's native gardens which feature many Varnadoe propagules and highlight hybrids of Rhododendron flammeum. top