STEVEN A.FROWINE

Steven A. Frowine is a professional horticulturist and an active garden writer and speaker. He managed one of the largest orchid collections in the United States at Missouri Botanical Garden---over 10,000 plants. Steve has passionately grown 100's orchids in his home for over 40 years. He now happily resides with his wife, Sascha, and dog, Fiona. in Ajijic, Mexico where he greatly enjoys growing orchids and other tropicals outdoors, year-round. Steve holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in horticulture from Ohio State University and Cornell University respectively.

A native of Portsmouth, Ohio, Steve Frowine has been fascinated with horticulture since his high school days. He was a student in floriculture and horticultural education at Ohio State University, and after graduating from there, he continued his education at Cornell University where he received a Master's in ornamental horticulture and horticultural education.

He then moved to Hawaii to assume the position of Supervisor of Education at Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden where he set up an Apprentice Gardeners Training Program. Steve returned to Ohio and served for three years at The Garden Center of Greater Cleveland as Editor and Activities Coordinator. In Cleveland, he was a regular guest on the popular T.V. Show, The Morning Exchange.

In 1977, Steve became the Director of the Pittsburgh Civic Garden Center in Mellon Park. In Pittsburgh, he was a frequent guest on various radio and TV shows and wrote the weekly garden column for The Pittsburgh Press.

Steve next served five years as the Chairman of Indoor Horticulture at Missouri Botanical Garden. He wrote a weekly garden column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was a frequent guest on local T.V. and radio shows, and contributed to various national horticultural publications.

In 1984 Steve joined the W. Atlee Burpee & Company, the nation's largest mail-order seed business, as its Public Relations Manager and Staff Horticulturist. He wrote articles for various national magazines and newspapers and was a guest on numerous radio and TV talk shows, including appearances on The Today Show and CBS Morning News He later served Burpee as its Nursery Merchandise Director where he developed its new catalogs of trees, shrubs, bulbs, and perennials.

In 1990, Steve joined White Flower Farm, one of the nation's top mail-order nurseries, in Litchfield, Connecticut where he served as Vice-President of horticulture. He later set up his own specialty plant business for two years called The Great Plant Company and then served as Director of Horticulture at Etera.

Steve was vice-president of Horticulture at International Gardening Products where he served as their chief horticultural counsel.

Steve is sought throughout the United States as a horticultural expert. He gives horticultural talks throughout the U.S. and has made various T.V. appearances including ones on Martha Stewart Living, Home Shopping Network, and HGTV. He has given over 500 lectures to horticultural societies, orchid societies, universities, and botanical gardens including lectures at The American Orchid Society Headquarters, The Santa Barbara Orchid Congress, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Chicago Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden, Longwood Gardens, Mohonk Mountain House, Callaway Gardens, Southeastern Flower Show (Atlanta), Charleston Flower Show, Nashville Antique and Garden Show, Sagamore Resort, Cleveland Flower Show, New York Botanical Garden, Williamsburg, Federation of National Wildlife, and the Federated Garden Clubs.

Steve has written over 200 articles for such publications as Fine Gardening Magazine, American Nurseryman, Nursery Business, National Gardening, NMPro, Garden Center Management Magazine, and Country Woman Magazine.

During his career, he has served various professional organizations including being a Board Member of The American Association of Botanical Gardens and Garden Writers of America. Steve completed a six-year term as one of six members chosen from top horticulturists from the U.S. and England to be on the Visiting Committee of Longwood Gardens. He has served as a judge at most of the major Flower Shows in the U.S. including those in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Nashville, and, for several years, served as the Chairman of the Board of The National Gardening Association.

Steve is an avid gardener and is interested in many facets of horticulture and has a special love for orchids and other tropical plants. He has recently written five books on orchids. He wrote the first and second editions of Orchids for Dummies was published by Wiley Press in March of 2005 and March 2022  and another one, Fragrant Orchids, was published by Timber Press in September 2005. Miniature Orchids, was published by Timber Press in Fall of 2007 and Moth Orchids, was published by Timber Press in the Summer of 2008. Steve did most of the photography for these books.

After spending eight very interesting and enjoyable years in Mexico, Steve and his wife Sascha, returned to the US and now reside in the beautiful mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.