This holiday Zoom program will feature 3 professionals that will take questions submitted by you through the Zoom Chat function. Please think about questions that may focus on cacti and other succulents, cultivation, home landscaping and more. For information as to how to access the chat function, please see https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/203650445-In-meeting-chat. Once the chat window appears, look at the base of the window and you will see the word "Everybody". Immediately below that word, please type your question. The panelists will then verbally answer your question in the order received.


Mark A. Dimmitt has a Ph.D. in biology (herpetology) from the University of California at
Riverside after earning an M.S. from UCLA and a B.S. from Pomona College. He worked at the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum from 1979 to 2011, first as Curator of Botany, and eventually as
Director of Natural History (field ecologist). His areas of research included botany and vertebrate
biology, and he is the author of more than 50 scientific and popular publications about ecology
and horticulture. He is a Fellow of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. His major
publication is the plant and ecology chapters of A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert (2000),
and is the senior editor of the revised edition (2015). He is a coauthor of Adenium: Sculptural
Elegance, Floral Extravagance.

Greg Starr has both a BS in Plant Science and an MS in Botany/Plant Science from the
University of Arizona. While working on his MS degree, Greg worked at the University
herbarium under the tutelage of Dr. Charles T. Mason. It was there he learned the details of
taxonomy and nomenclature and honing his skills at plant identification using botanical keys. For
his MS, Greg blended his love of both horticulture and botany to produce a thesis covering the
species of Salvia that had been in cultivation since 1900. Greg opened a small, native or near-
native plant nursery in July 1985 and although he had an interest in cacti and succulents, it took
several years for that interest to become an infection causing him to produce his book, Agaves:
Living Sculptures for Landscapes and Containers, and to be a co-author on the Field Guide to
Cacti & Succulents of Arizona. Currently, Greg spends the heat of summer days in the relatively
cool environment of his house sitting in front of the computer hoping that a random assault of his
hands on the keyboard will result in an article for the CSSA journal or another book.

Jason Wiley grew up on a sod farm cultivating his career in horticulture which inspired
him and to connect people to their environment by creating meaningful experiences in
the landscape. He received his Bachelors of Science in Horticulture from Arizona State
University and also studied Landscape Architecture at Colorado State University. He
has worked in public gardens for 9 years and has been a professional horticulturist for
16 years. He recently received the title of Director of Horticulture at Boyce Thompson
Arboretum. Prior to that, he was a Horticulturist at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
where he maintained the Cactus Garden, Agave Garden, as well as various other
gardens.