Personally, I was priveledged to add content and clarity to several plant listings and was able to add several plants to the current edition.

Brenzel’s guidance, the newest edition includes 500 new plant listings, larger illustrations and expanded information on organic methods and native plants. It is Kathleen Brenzel who has left us energized. We learned a lot from each other and we wrapped up the evening energized”.ĭuring the past twenty-six years as the Senior Garden Editor for Sunset Publishing, we have learned a lot from Kathy from her writing and from her enthusiasm for the subject. Kathy writes “Over a supper of fried chicken, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, warm muffins and tangy sweet boysenberry preserves, our spirited conversations bounced from the search for a true blue rose, to new shrubs headed our way from Australia, to the hot color bowls flying off nursery shelves on weekends. While reading Kathy’s preface in the newest edition of “the gardener’s bible” she recalled that evening. Hardly enough of a reward for providing countless gardeners with a nearly endless resource of gardening information.įifteen years later I am a now a consultant to the latest edition of the Sunset Western Garden Book. Our small gift was a lapel pin inscribed with the words “Friends through Horticulture”.

One evening some time ago, I had the privilege of presenting a small token of gratitude on behalf of local gardeners to Kathleen Brenzel, editor of the past three editions of the Sunset Western Garden Book. If, like the Academy Awards, there were lifetime achievement awards for gardeners, statuettes would surely be presented to Kathleen Norris Brenzel and Pat Welsh. Nonetheless, two fine ladies of horticulture have had more influence on local gardening than anyone else. Gardening is still the most popular outdoor activity in the country and yet their aren’t any well known gardeners. Gardening in America doesn’t have celebrities.

Kathleen norris brenzel