About Me

Hello! My name is Mark Dwyer and I’d like to share a little bit about myself. I was born in Portland, Oregon (it was a cloudy day) and grew up primarily in the Chicago suburbs after time in Syracuse, NY and Champaign, IL. I’ve been married for 20 years and have two beautiful, adult daughters. I have lived in the Midwest my entire life with stints in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. My hobbies include gardening, reading, traveling and photography (with horticulture being an emphasis for all four of these activities!). My true passion involves anything with plants and helping share the importance of horticulture in our daily lives with everyone in any circumstance, setting or venue.

I have a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (1993) and a master’s degree in urban forestry from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point (1996). My professional experience includes time spent working at a garden center and nursery (Appleton, WI) followed ultimately by a rewarding transition to public horticulture. I spent two years working at Fernwood Botanical Garden & Nature Preserve (Niles, MI) as a grounds horticulturist in charge of maintaining four garden spaces along with involvement in education and special events. More recently, I dedicated 21 years as Director of Horticulture at Rotary Botanical Gardens (Janesville, WI). In this capacity, I was responsible for the continued development and maintenance of this 20 acre, non-profit botanical garden along with a talented grounds staff and many dedicated volunteers. I designed the last seven gardens at Rotary Botanical Gardens with the most recent being the well-received Wellness Garden. I was heavily involved with volunteer recruitment, management, retention as well as a wide range of special events management and facilitation. In addition, I have consistently been involved with private landscape design (residential and commercial) for over 25 years and enjoy keeping current in landscape design and the use of innovative plant materials and design features for beauty, form and function.

Some Odds and Ends

Instructional Experience

600+ Master Gardener presentations (variable topic, multi-county, multi-state)

1400+ Horticulture Presentations (variable topic, variable audience, multiple keynote presentations)

Landscape Construction (2002) Instructor at Blackhawk Technical College (Janesville, WI)

See a listing of the 80 horticultural topics I currently address at www.greatgardenspeakers.com

Affiliations

Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society

Wisconsin Woody Plant Society

Wisconsin Hosta Society

American Public Gardens Association (APGA)

Perennial Plant Association (PPA)

American Conifer Society (ACS)

North American Rock Garden Society (NARGS)

 Of Interest

Awarded Chanticleer Scholarship in Professional Development (2009) - Funding allowed for research and travel to visit children’s gardens in Los Angeles and New York City

Was selected to live and work at Great Dixter (UK) for four weeks in the late summer of 2015 as an extended part of the Chanticleer Scholarship in Professional Development

Completed the Healthcare Garden Design Certificate Program from the Chicago Botanic Garden (2010)

Completed online graduate courses in horticultural therapy from Kansas State University (2002)

Graduate of Janesville’s Leadership Development Academy (2003)

Graduate of Dale Carnegie Program (2004)

Named one of “The 50 People That Matter” by the Janesville Gazette for accomplishments at Rotary Botanical Gardens

Received the Sustainable Janesville Award in 2016

Received Educator of the Year Award from Forward Janesville (2017)

Wrote a monthly gardening column for the Janesville Gazette for seven years

I’ve maintained a frequent gardening blog for Rotary Botanical Gardens for the past 13 years (3000 posts with over 1 million hits as of 9/30/19)

I was a guest blogger for Wisconsin Gardening Magazine (2012-2019)

I have contributed content to Horticulture magazine, Fine Gardening magazine and The American Gardener (AHS) over many years