Meet Your New Head Gardener

This spring, we are excited to introduce to you the new members of our gardening team. Many of you will meet Patti Dale in person as we open up your gardens for the spring and put together new designs, but here is a quick exposition of her experience, expertise and exceptional personality!

Patti Dale is a native Michigander recently returned from living and working in the Hudson Valley of New York. She began her career as an AmeriCorps member and then volunteer organizer for a social service organization. La vie en rose began with rigorous, English-influenced horticultural training at Stonecrop Gardens, a public botanic garden and former home of horticulturist Frank Cabot. Life would never be the same. After four years, she returned home to spend a season with her alma mater, the University of Michigan, at Matthaei Botanical Garden and the historical Peony collection at Nichols Arboretum. Her style is exuberant, lush, and full but sharply tidy to show bloom and foliage at its best.

Patti most enjoys horticulture for the opportunity to be outside, witnessing the nuances of our daily weather, changing seasons, and flora and fauna. Her favorite time of year is early spring with a particular love for bulbs and other ephemerals. A really rewarding day in her eyes concludes with a scrub of the knees and fingernails. She loves learning and using Latin names, rattling off tongue-twisters or rhyming names because "if you don't use it, you lose it!"

Please test Patti's horticultural expertise as you consult with her about your gardens. We look forward to caring for your gardens as if they were our own this year.