Past Speakers

2023/2024 Speakers

Carolyn Bennett

Researcher and Lecturer Carolyn Bennett presented “Artists in the Shadows: Women Who Turned Gardens into Art.” Carolyn has lectured on topics throughout the country on Garden Conservation, Garden Design and Garden History. She will present “Artists in the Shadows: Women Who Turned Gardens into Art.”

Carolyn Bennett received her master’s degree in the Conservation of Historic Landscapes, Parks and Gardens from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. She has written articles for Garden Design Magazine, Pacific Horticulture and was a contributor to the book Shaping the American Landscape (UVA Press, 2010).


Valerie Rice

Valerie Rice is the author of Lush Life: Food and Drinks from the Garden. In Lush Life, Valerie brings together 156 of her favorite seasonal recipes for entertaining, family meals, snacks, and so much more, including cocktail recipes and wine advice. Rigorously home tested and gorgeously photographed by Gemma and Andrew Ingalls, Lush Life is a California dream of a cookbook that will inspire readers to grow their own, cook it fresh, and pour a luscious beverage.


Erin Schanen

Erin Schanen is a gardener, writer and video creator and the founder of The Impatient Gardener, a trusted source of information and inspiration for over a hundred thousand gardeners. Erin has been gardening for more than two decades and is a master gardener volunteer. She has received multiple awards from GardenComm and for her weekly newspaper column and Instagram. Her garden was featured in the best-selling garden design book American Roots in 2022.

Martyn Lawrence Bullard

Martyn Lawrence Bullard is a much lauded interior designer whose name consistently graces Architectural Digest’s 100 list and Elle Décor’s A-list. He has just released a new book, Star Style. His trademark glamourous style has been featured on the cover of Architectural Digest three times alone this year. His work has appeared in over 4,000 publications worldwide including Architectural Digest, ELLE Décor, House & Garden, W, Vogue, House Beautiful, Harper's Bazaar, Departures, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times. His client roster includes Tommy Hilfiger, Winnie Harlow, RuPaul's, Kourtney Kardashian, Cher, Ellen Pompeo, and Eva Mendes. Martin starred in the Bravo series Million Dollar Decorator.

Nick McCullough

Garden designer Nick McCullough talked about his book American Roots. The book’s unique approach highlights designers and creatives with 20 exceptional home gardens, focused on those who push the boundaries, trial extraordinary plants, embrace a regional ethos, and express their talents in highly personal ways. The book was co-authored with his wife, Allison, and journalist Teresa Woodard.

Signe Nielson

Signe is a Founding Principal of MNLA and has been practicing as a landscape architect and urban designer in New York since 1978. She has designed and supervised the construction of more than $240 million worth of projects, including waterfront parks, large campuses, urban design and transportation improvements, and corporate facilities in the United States and abroad. Signe spoke to Bel-Air Garden Club members about her landscape architectural project, Little Island, and provided a fascinating background on how she planned, implemented, and completed this unique Hudson River Park on behalf of New York and the Diller-Von Furstenberg Family Foundation.

Madeline Stuart

AD 100 Madeline Stuart is a leading member of the Los Angeles design community whose wide-ranging clientele comes from the entertainment industry and the world of business and finance. Stuart stresses the fundamental marriage of integrity and beauty. Her projects reflect a collaborative relationship between architecture and furniture, function and form, client and designer. Madeline discussed her design philosophies, design challenges, and her new book, No Place like Home with Garden Club members.

Stephanie Booth Shafran

Stephanie Booth Shafran is a fifth generation Angeleno and one of Los Angeles’ preeminent hostesses. She serves on the board of UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital and the board of Children’s Institute Inc. She and her family divide their time between Los Angeles, New York City, and Sun Valley, Idaho. Stephanie discussed her book, You’re Invited with Garden Club members.

Melissa Penfold

Melissa Penfold is Australia’s foremost authority on style and design with an unparalleled reputation as one of the country’s most respected and trusted journalists. Her digital platforms have amassed an audience of more than two million viewers. Her new book, Living Well by Design, was a key topic in her engaging presentation to Bel-Air Garden Club members.

Capucine De Wulf Gooding

Capucine De Wulf Gooding’s unique upbringing, combining old-world Europe with southern whimsy, resulted in her hallmark personality and design aesthetic of French romance with an American sensibility. In 2001, Capucine and her husband, David Gooding, founded Juliska – an acclaimed tableware and home décor company with the motto “Love and the Art of Living Well.” With a grand debut in 2017, Capucine De Wulf Jewelry combines all of Capucine’s great passions – womanhood, home, and heart. Capucine enthusiastically presented excerpts of her book co-written with her husband, David, entitled Together at the Table to Garden Club members. Attendees were also able to view her exquisite jewelry line and designs.

Danielle Dall’Armi Hahn

Awarded as “a Great Rosarian of the World”, Danielle Dall’Armi spoke to Bel-Air Garden Club members and guests about her newest book, The Color of Roses. Her book contains a unique photographic collection of 300 stunning roses that spans the full spectrum of the flower’s shades and hues, creating a breathtaking rainbow that will amaze flower lovers of all kinds. Danielle, her husband, and her family grow more than 30,000 roses on their Rose Story Farm in Carpenteria. The Color of Roses featured roses were selected not only for their glorious and subtle color combinations, but also for optimal availability, repeat blooming, disease resistance, improved vase life, and fragrance.

Past Speakers

Mildred Mathias

A frequent speaker and friend of the Bel-Air Garden Club over the years, Mildred Esther Mathias was a taxonomist and a Professor of Botany at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1962 to 1974. Among her many other accomplishments, she helped establish the United States National Reserve system. In her lifetime, she published over 100 botanical articles and books and received numerous awards. In the years after her retirement in 1974, she led 53 groups in field trips and tours to more than 30 countries. She led her last tour, to Chile, in 1994 at the age of 88. At UCLA, her contributions were honored in 1979 by naming the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden on the Westwood campus.

Nancy Goslee Power

Esteemed garden designer Nancy Goslee Power has been creating gardens for over 40 years. Nancy spoke to the Garden Club about the creation of The Norton Simon Museum Gardens and how she worked in tandem with architect Frank Gehry when he redesigned the museum. She has returned to present several times to the Bel-Air Garden Club. She is the author of the classic book The Gardens of California: Four Centuries of Design from Mission to Modern published by Hennessey and Ingalls. Her monograph, Power of Gardens, was published in 2009 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, for which she was awarded a Silver Award of Achievement from the Garden Writers Association.

Molly Chappellet

Molly Chappellet has spent more than 50 years in Northern California growing wine at the winery she co-founded, while working as a landscape gardener, photographer, and raising a family. She is the author of five books, including A Vineyard Garden, a James Beard Award-winning book that lays out her ideas for entertaining, gardening, and life. Molly spoke to Garden Club members about her book.

Victoria Kastner

Victoria Kastner is a former Hearst Castle historian and curator. She fell in love with the castle’s rich history while touring the estate as a college student. Victoria was a speaker at the Bel-Air Garden Club for her book, Hearst Castle: The Biography of a Country House, with a foreword by George Plimpton. Victoria has also written Hearst’s San Simeon: The Gardens and the Land, and Hearst Ranch: Family, Land, and Legacy, all published by Abrams Books. Victoria has co-authored The Beverly Hills Hotel: The First 100 Years with Robert Anderson. And her most recent book, Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect, is thoroughly researched and provides new information and in-depth insight into Julia Morgan’s life and work that has never been previously published.

Professor Eric Haskell

Professor Haskell has spoken numerous times over the years to our Bel-Air Garden Club audience covering topics such as French Gardens and Private French Gardens in Our Time. Professor Haskell’s courses at Scripps focus on the interdisciplinary study of literature, history, art, architecture, and the history of ideas, as well as on political and social traditions that have shaped France. His publications in English and in French cover a wide range of topics from 19th century poetry to garden history. Dr. Haskell has delivered over 550 public lectures and scholarly papers in 29 states and 12 foreign countries. Venues range from the J. Paul Getty Museum to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and from Harvard to the University of Paris. In 2000, he was the keynote speaker for the Millennium Meeting of Garden Club of America, and he has since been named an Honorary Member of the Garden Club of America. In 2013, the government of France recognized Haskell’s scholarly achievement awarding him with the Ordre des Palmes Académiques and as a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters for his significant contributions.

Pat Welsh

Pat Welsh is an Emmy award-winning garden writer who wrote Pat Welsh’s Southern California Gardening: A Month-by-Month Guide, a TV performer, and professional artist. Welsh’s professional horticultural career began in the mid-1970s teaching courses in home gardening. She’s written countless articles and columns and hosted over 500 television segments and videos. Her current writing project is a book on Southwest Gardening for DK Publishers (New York/London), and the American Horticultural Society. Pat spoke to the Bel-Air Garden Club when her book, All my Edens, was published. A memoir that takes readers on a stroll through the many gardens which Pat has cultivated and loved. Accompanied by a wonderful array of vintage photos, excerpts from letters, and other memorabilia, All My Edens also includes a wealth of practical advice for gardening enthusiasts.

Headshot of Charlotte Moss

Charlotte Moss

With 37 years in the business of design, Charlotte Moss is known for her timeless aesthetic, layered interiors, and southern warmth. She has received numerous honors, including the New York School of Interior Design’s Centennial Medal and The Royal Oak Foundation’s Timeless Design award. Charlotte has used her experience to design licensed collections with Century Furniture, Fabricut, Stark Carpet, Pickard, P.E. Guerin, Soicher Marin, IBU Clothing Artemis Design Company, and more. Charlotte lectures widely and is a prolific author, having published 11 books to date. Her latest, Charlotte Moss Flowers (Rizzoli, 2021), and Home: A Celebration: Notable Voices Reflect on the Meaning of Home (Rizzoli, 2021), which benefits No Kid Hungry.

Art Luna

In 1995, Art Luna expanded his philosophy of shaping and formulating structure with hair design to the garden when he designed his patio area in front of his hair salon. After that, his passion for gardening and creating outdoor spaces became a new profession. His uniqueness in garden design stems from mixing and matching various types of flora typically not combined. Art presented to the Bel-Air Garden Club on the topic of Structure of European Gardens Melded with Casual Californian Sensibility.

Marc Appleton headshot

Marc Appleton

Marc Appleton is the principal of Appleton Partners LLP, an architectural firm in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, and he’s ranked as one of AD’s top 100 designers. He is a graduate of Harvard College and has a Master of Architecture degree from the Yale School of Architecture. He has written, published, or contributed to many books including George Washington Smith: An Architect’s Scrapbook (2001), Robert Winter’s Myron Hunt at Occidental College (2012), and Ranches: Home on the Range in California (2016). Marc lives in Santa Barbara. His design work has received many awards and been widely published in Architectural Digest, Town and Country, and other periodicals. Marc has honored the Bel-Air Garden Club by being a frequent speaker.

Suzanne Rheinstein

Leading interior designer Suzanne Rheinstein is included on Elle Decor’s A-list, and her projects have been published in Architectural Digest and Veranda, as well as in her best-selling book, At Home, about which she spoke extensively during her presentation to Garden Club members. She was the owner of Los Angeles shop Hollyhock and has designed fabric and rug collections for Lee Jofa.

Charlotte Frieze

Charlotte M. Frieze is a contributing editor at Town & Country. A noted garden writer and frequent lecturer, Ms. Frieze was the garden editor at House and Garden for more than nine years. She is a registered landscape architect, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and a member of the New York Botanical Garden Horticultural Committee. Her previous books include Social Gardens and The Zone Garden series. She lives in New York City and gardens in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Charlotte presented her critically acclaimed book, Private Paradise, Contemporary American Gardens, to the Bel-Air Garden Club.

Mark Rios

Formally trained in architecture and landscape architecture, Mark has long viewed the two disciplines as inseparable. Mark founded Rios Associates in 1985 and renamed it RIOS in 2020 to acknowledge its focus on collaboration across design disciplines, including architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, experience design, environmental graphics, and product design. The firm’s client list is as diverse as the services it provides, including entertainment studios, commercial developers, cultural and educational institutions, city agencies, hotels and restaurants, and private individuals. In 2021, Mark established the cafe ware company notNeutral.

His projects have been widely published in over 1,000 national and international books and periodicals. RIOS has received nearly 100 professional design awards, including a 2022 ASLA Award of Excellence for Palm Springs Downtown Park, a 2020 AIA Los Angeles’ “Best of Millennium” recognition for Grand Park, Fast Company’s 2017 Innovation by Design Award recognizing Timeless Public Space for Grand Park, and the 2007 Firm Award by the American Institute of Architects California Council.

Mark was Chairman of Landscape Architecture at USC from 2001 to 2007 and has been on the faculty at UCLA. He was elevated to AIA Fellow in 1999 and to ASLA Fellow in 2006. Mark received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from USC, and both Master of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees from Harvard University.

Kathryn M. Ireland

Kathryn is a British-born actress, author, and Los Angeles-based interior and textile designer. She creates stylish homes for her clientele of celebrities. Having launched her first collection of signature fabrics in 1997, she has since released over 50 patterns. Her clients include actors and playwrights like Steve Martin, Drew Barrymore, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and David Mamet, plus tech entrepreneurs from the Dollar Shave Club and Apple. Kathryn is the author of six best-selling books, including Timeless Interiors, Summers in France, and Kathryn At Home. She has also starred in Bravo TV’s Million Dollar Decorators and on ITV’s Design Wars. She continues to appear on Good Morning America and other morning shows.

Louis Benech

One of France’s most respected landscape designers, Louis Benech is a fixture in his home country’s society scene. After gaining international accolades in 1990 following his renovation of the Tuileries in Paris’ first arrondissement, the Paris-based AD100 landscape designer now has a long client list of names from the cultural establishment—among them Yves Saint Laurent and, more recently, Diane von Furstenberg—and has become known as a designer who can adapt Gallic ideals in different ways for a variety of locations. With a growing team, Louis Benech has created over 300 garden and park projects, both private and public, stretching from Korea to Panama, Peru, Canada, the United States, Portugal, Greece, and Morocco. He has worked for individuals of many different nationalities and many international organizations such as Hermès, Axa, and Suez. He spoke about his book, 12 French Gardens.

Stefano Aluffi-Pentini headshot

Stefano Aluffi-Pentini

A Private View of Italy organizes trips and events that provide access to private collections and historical residences not open to the public. Founded in 1996 by art historian Stefano Aluffi-Pentini and operating throughout Italy, services are addressed to the trustees and major benefactors of international museums, collectors, associations, and foundations. Italy’s historical palaces and villas are in many cases still in private hands, and the grand collecting tradition is still in full force for old masters, decorative arts, and Contemporary Art. Stefano took Bel-Air Garden Club members on a pictorial historical tour of Italian Gardens.

Emma Manners, Duchess of Rutland

Emma resides in Belvoir Castle and is committed to her role as Duchess. She is the mother of five children. Duchess Emma remains Belvoir’s driving force, bringing it into the 21st century as a commercial enterprise, opening its doors to visitors, with a thriving retail village and pizza outlet in the old engine yard.

Bel-Air Garden Club members were able to enjoy her presentation celebrating The Belvoir Castle and the restoration of its historical gardens originally designed by landscape architect Capability Brown.

Emma talked about how she discovered Capability Brown’s plans for Belvoir’s park, lost for over 200 years only to be found atop a dusty shelf ten years ago.

Realizing that Brown’s work was unfinished, she made it her mission to complete it in time for the 300 year anniversary (2016) of Capability’s birth in 1716.

John Phibbs

John Phibbs is the principal of Debois Landscape Survey Group. He began his professional career with the National Trust at Wimpole Hall in Cambridge, and in so doing laid the foundations for the planning and recording of all historic landscapes in England today. He has a long track record of designing and planning for the conservation of historic landscapes and is the leading authority on the work of the greatest English landscape gardener, Capability Brown. He led the celebrations of the tercentenary of Brown’s birth in 2016 and has published two books on Brown: Capability Brown, Designing the English Landscape and Place-Making, The Art of Capability Brown. In 2018, in recognition of his services to landscape architecture, he was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II. He has just finished two companion volumes on Brown’s successor, Humphry Repton. John spoke about his book Capability Brown to Bel-Air Garden Club members.

Sam Hodder

Sam Hodder, President and CEO of Save the Redwood League, spoke about the mandate of protecting redwoods — some of the oldest living things on the planet that still stand today. Hodder discussed the redwoods’ history and the need to continue to protect their survival.

Penelope Bianchi

Interior designer Penelope Bianchi shared with Garden Club members her experience of creating her beautiful Montecito home and magical garden from a vacant lot, only to lose it all one night in 2018 to a horrific mudslide. In the months following the devastation, Penny painstakingly refurbished her garden to its original beauty. Penelope began her career in Pasadena and lives in Montecito with her husband, Adam. Her work has been featured in Santa Barbara Magazine, House Beautiful, Traditional Home, and Garden Design.

James Farmer

James Farmer is a Southern author, interior designer, and speaker known for his ability to create beautifully familiar and welcoming homes. James is the author of A Time to Plant; Sip & Savor; Porch Living; Wreaths For All Seasons; A Time To Cook; Dinner on the Grounds; A Time to Celebrate, A Place to Call Home; and Arriving Home. His most recent publication, Celebrating Home, showcases the details and beauty of celebrating life’s special moments.

Wilbur G. Davis Jr.

Wilbur G. Davis Jr., the proprietor of My Son the Florist in Los Angeles, spoke to the Bel-Air Garden Club in November 1983. Wilbur’s plant knowledge stemmed from his degree in Biology and his career was just starting to bloom at the time of his talk. It soon blossomed into a strong following with a fan base with the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Cindra Ladd, Sally Field, Tim Burton, Geena Davis, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Basil Jenkins and Onnalee Doheny holding a treasure from the Fowler Museum collection. 

Basil Jenkins

Fresh out of college, Basil Jenkins was the youngest museum trustee and curator in the United States at the time he provided a special tour of the Fowler Museum to Bel-Air Garden Club members in 1976 when the museum resided in Beverly Hills. Garden Club members were invited to tour the historical and priceless treasures as friends of the Fowler family as Mrs. Fowler was a board member of the Bel-Air Garden Club.

Basil studied Byzantine Studies at U.C. Santa Barbara and at U.C.L.A. The Fowler museum collection was transferred and folded into U.C.L.A. where it thrives today. Basil moved on when the museum relocated and worked as an editor for Manly Hall at the Philosophical Research Center in LA.

Jeff Leatham

Jeffrey Leatham is an American designer who focuses on the art of floral design. He was awarded the Chevalier Legion of Honour from the nation of France in 2014. Jeff Leatham is the creative director of George V Hotel and the Four Seasons Hotels in Beverly Hills and Philadelphia where his flower displays are legendary. Mr. Leatham co-wrote The Art of the Flower, A Photographic Collection of Iconic Floral Installations with Kim Kardashian (2023). The duo also collaborated on the creation of several unique perfumes. Jeff’s books include Flowers by Design (2003) and Revolutionary Floral Art and Design (2014.)

Robert with Olivia de Havilland

Robert Lawrence Balzer

In 1972, Stanford University alumnus and Los Angeles wine columnist Robert Lawrence Balzer began his talk with an account of his experiences with Mr. Howard Hughes while distributing a glass of (donated) Sherry to each member. He then discussed the history of sherry-making and screened film footage of Sherry Land located in Spain. Balzer wrote his wine column for The Los Angeles Times from 1964 to 1995. Cecil B. DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock, Gloria Swanson and Ingrid Bergman were customers of his family’s luxury grocery store, Balzer, where he started as a wine consultant- and drinking companion.

He consulted to and befriended more like President Ronald Reagan, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine, HRH Norodom Sihanouk, Robert Mondavi, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Burgess Meredith, Greta Garbo, Marlon Brando, Wolfgang Puck, Claude Taittinger and the Wente family. He published the first wine guide and developed the concept of a 100-point rating system, long before Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Three years prior to the Judgment of Paris, Mr. Balzer’s tasting In New York presciently judged California Wines as superior to French wines. He conducted wine tours into his ripe 90’s.

Wikimedia: Nafpaktitism

Scott Daigre

Scott Daigre is the owner of Powerplant Garden Design, an author, lecturer and farmer living with his partner, Sam, plus three goats and 90 chickens in Ojai's Upper Valley. He is the owner and producer of Tomatomania!, a series of sales events. Scott is the author of the best selling tomato how-to and cookbook TOMATOMANIA! A Fresh Approach to Celebrating Tomatoes in the Garden and in the Kitchen (St. Martin's Press).