ANLA Names New President, Board Members

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Weekly syndicated gardening columnist and San Francisco-based garden center executive Buzz Bertolero was elected president of the American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) during the association’s annual Convention & Learning Retreat in Hawaii earlier this month.

Bertolero will take over in July 2005 for current ANLA President Peter Orum.

Bertolero, also known as the “Dirt Gardener,” is executive vice president of Navlet’s Garden Centers and currently serves on ANLA’s Region IV Board of Directors. He will continue to serve on the board in addition to his president-elect position. Bertolero also serves on the Landscape Advisory Board for East Bay Municipal Water District.

Bertolero writes a weekly syndicated gardening column and appears on a Bay-area TV-news program called “Henry’s Garden.” Bertolero was one of the first 100 certified nurserymen in California.

In other action at the ANLA retreat, three regional directors were elected to the board of directors. New Region IV directors are Tom Courtright, president of California-based Orchard Nursery & Florist, and J. Frank Schmidt III of Oregon-based J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. Greg Schaan of Connecticut-based Imperial Nurseries is the new Region I director.