Donna Schaper: Donna’s the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Riverhead, New York. Her recent A Book of Common Prayer: Narratives Against the Current (LuraMedia, 7060 Miramar Rd., Suite 104, San Diego, CA 92121) proves she’s not a typical preacher.

Bobby Fountain: This Silsbee, Texan wrote his garden-fever commentary in an English course he took as part of his paralegal training.

T’ao Yung-Ming: Ming lived between 365 and 427 A.D. Late in life, he quit his job as magistrate (he no longer wanted to “crook the hinges of his knee” bowing to superiors) and retired to spend his last “Bright Hours” in the garden.

Liberty Hyde Bailey: Horticulture specialist Bailey (1858-1954) was such a prolific agriculture writer that the stack of books he wrote or edited stood taller than himself.

Reginald Farrer: A British plant-hunter, Farrer roamed the Orient searching for exotic wildflowers. “The Consolation of Flowers” is from his book On the Eaves of the World (Edward Arnold & Co.).

Martha Byrd: Ms. Byrd gardens and writes military history. Her one-volume history of World War II, A World in Flames, is currently being reprinted by W.H Smith, (112 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016).

Rev. Max Coots: To tell the truth, we don’t know who Reverend Max Coots is. We first read his wonderful “Meditation” in an issue of Kent Whealy’s Seed Savers Yearbook. Max, if you see this, let us hear from you.

Geoffrey Charlesworth: A transplanted Englishman and the author of The Opinionated Gardener, Geoffrey is a dedicated alpine gardener in southwestern Massachusetts.

Reggie Spence: This is really a pen name for one of the editors of GreenPrints–who hopes you won’t identify him or his weedy garden.

Charles Dudley Warner: A Harper’s coeditor, Warner gardened in the 19th century (his essay comes from My Summer in a Garden, written in 1870). His writing keeps the period’s sophisticated air, but nonetheless reveals a true passion for the soil.