Dr. Armitage is well known as a writer, speaker and researcher throughout the world. He has evaluated garden plants in Montreal, Canada, East Lansing, Michigan and now in Athens, GA and has gained an appreciation of plant development in the North and South. He holds his B.Sc from MacDonald College, Quebec, M.Sc. from University of Guelph, Ontario and his Ph.D. from Michigan State.

Bridget Behe (pronounced bee-hee with two long e’s) is currently a Professor of Horticulture at Michigan State University. She teaches classes and conducts research on marketing horticultural products, both edible and ornamental. Each year, she teaches three courses on marketing and management for horticulture majors at Michigan State. Bridget has conducted over 75 consumer & market research projects, written more than 500 publications in the trade press and peer-reviewed journals. One key research project underway is to profile consumer segments with regard to their preferences for locally, sustainably, and organically grown edible and ornamental plants. Bridget speaks to professionals and industry groups regionally and nationally each year. She has been the marketing columnist for GMPro magazine for 14 years and has been the “Ask the Expert” and the “FlowrMD” for the Flower Promotion Organization for the last five years. She is a member of the American Society for Horticultural Science, Ohio Florists’ Assn. (currently serving on the Garden Center Committee), Michigan Floral Assn., and Michigan Nursery & Landscape Assn. She is a member and past-chair of a multi-state USDA project on marketing and economics of ornamental plants (S1051 or The Green Research Consortium), and is a Certified Florist.

Margery Daughtrey is a Senior Extension Associate with the Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University. She has conducted a research and extension program on the management of diseases of ornamental plants since 1978, at Cornell’s Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center in Riverhead, NY. She provides diagnosis and educates growers on management of greenhouse and nursery crop diseases and investigates controls for problems such as powdery mildew, downy mildew, and Pythium and Phytophthora root rot. Daughtrey holds a B.S. degree in Biology from the College of William and Mary and an M.S. in Plant Pathology from the University of Massachusetts. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of APS Press. Daughtrey is coauthor of several books, including Diseases of Herbaceous Perennials, published in 2009 by APS PRESS.

Joe’s career encompasses several years of progressive and innovative leadership in the visual merchandising and special events industries. Baer began his career in Cincinnati, Ohio as a Department Store merchandiser. By 1990, Baer left Ohio and headed to the warm southwest of Arizona and becoming a Regional Visual Manager for Macy’s/The Broadway Stores Inc. In 1996, Baer returned to Ohio to expand his career and develop his own entrepreneurial and philanthropic goals. His experience grew to include specialty store brands including Victoria’s Secret Beauty and Bath & Body Works and retail design with Columbus based Chute Gerdeman Retail Design. Baer realized his goals to own and operate his own creative company and in 1999 Baer started ZenGenius Visual Merchants. ZenGenius has developed into a collective of freelance visual artists and designers that tackle all types of creative and retail projects. ZenGenius Visual Merchants impresses their clients with a dedicated, hard-working team that inspires and reaches new levels in visual merchandising and event décor concepts.

After finishing his Masters in Horticulture Science at VA Tech, Paul worked as a grower at Riverbend Nursery and since 2004 is the Annual & Perennial Production Manager at Saunders Brothers, Inc. where's he's responsible for all aspects of color production from inspiration to finished product. Paul's an amateur photographer, avid fly fisherman, frequent traveler, and a hopeless lover of all things horticulture.