Council Members full addresses are sent to Members every year.
Linda Beutler, USA
Linda Beutler is a fearless gardener who grows a great number of plants on a simple, flat 50 x 100 foot city lot in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. She was a professional florist for 18 years, and her first love in her own garden was growing flowers and foliage for cutting. That focus started changing 14 years ago, when Linda purchased her first clematis as a misnamed plant. Her personal collection now numbers over 275 separate species and cultivars, grown in many ways. In addition to clematis she collects hardy geraniums, old garden roses (over 90), alliums, hydrangeas, hardy fuchsias and she's never met a corydalis or thalictrum she didn't like.
Linda is a member of numerous gardening organizations (as most gardeners are) including the Ranunculaceae Society, American Hemerocallis Society, North American Lily Society, Pacific Northwest Peony Society, and Oregon State University Master Gardeners. She served eight years on the Board of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon (HPSO), and was the Director in charge of the famous HPSO plant sale for eight years, from 1993 through 2001. Linda is a founding member of both the Pacific Northwest Clematis Society (1999), and the Friends of the Rogerson Clematis Collection (2003). She volunteers at the collection weekly. She is newly appointed to the governing council of the International Clematis Society.
In addition to her floral career, Linda Beutler is the instructor of cut flower growing ("The Flower Arranger's Garden I & II"), as well as the herbaceous perennials class for the horticulture department at Clackamas Community College. She lectures nationally on several gardening topics, and is a garden writer for both local and national publications, including dig, Fine Gardening, Pacific Horticulture, and Birdwatcher's Digest. With Maurice Horn (co-owner of Joy Creek Nursery), Linda co-authored the chapter on growing clematis in North America for Dr. Mary Toomey's book The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Clematis (Timber Press, 2001). Linda has now written her own book, Gardening with Clematis, which debuted for Timber Press in September 2004. It is the first major book about clematis written by a North American for North American gardeners since 1935. Boy, have things changed!
Lyndy Broder, Past President, USA
Lyndy Broder has been a member of the International Clematis Society for over twenty years and is a frequent contributor to the journal and Clematis of the Month on the website. An avid gardener who over the past thirty years has transformed a ten acre cow pasture south of Atlanta, Georgia into a three acre formal garden, one acre for native pollinator perennials, one acre woodlands and five acres of native grasslands. Her formal garden contains several hundred clematis hybrids and has been filmed for the HGTV show "A Gardener's Diary " featuring clematis. Lyndy's passion for native plants has led to an expertise in native clematis of the viorna section. She has an extensive collection of traditional and new species.
Lyndy has served on the board of directors of I.Cl.S. for twelve years as council member and vice president. Other gardening interests have included serving as the President of the Georgia Perennial Plant Association, serving on the Board of Directors for the American Hydrangea Society and Georgia Master Gardeners. She holds a Certificate of Native Plants from the University of Georgia and is a member of the Georgia Native Plant Society and Georgia Botanical Society. Known as the 'Clematis Lady' in the Atlanta area, she has been a frequent lecturer on growing clematis in hot climates, always describing the value of the viorna species.
In her prior life Lyndy was a Licensed Clinical Social Worker spending thirty years working the field of mental health. She was the Regional Executive Director for a twelve-county region for mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse programs. Upon her retirement Lyndy immediately became a master gardener and joined the International Clematis Society. She has trained all ten of her grandchildren on the beauty of clematis and often engages them in the cleaning of clematis seeds for the I.Cl.S. seed exchange.
Amy Chase Herman, USA
Sarah Holme, RHS International Clematis Registrar, UK
“With a background in biological sciences and plant taxonomy, I have enjoyed a variety of plant related jobs throughout my career: maintaining databases on diatom nomenclature; researching Aroid taxonomy; contributing to and editing The European Garden Flora; illustrating books on tropical timber trees and also enjoying time in agricultural research too, on winter wheat and oilseed rape (canola) physiology projects. I have also illustrated the BSBI Handbook no 17: Violas of Britain and Ireland, and Sell and Muriel’s Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, volumes 1 and 2. In August 2019 I was employed by The Royal Horticultural Society as the new Clematis and Lily Registrar. Through my work as the Registrar I am continuously learning a great deal about both these plant groups, becoming particularly fond of the Viorna Group clematis and the Division II (Martagon) and Division VII (Oriental) lilies. One of the aspects of my job that I particularly enjoy is building relationships with the global community of Registrants and helping them with any queries that they might have, and of course welcoming so many beautiful new cultivars!”
Charlene Janes, Membership Secretary, Canada
Lars Jensen, Denmark
"My name is Lars Jensen. I was born in 1965 and live in Denmark, married to Jette and together we have a son. I am a trained baker and have never done anything else. My interest in clematis started in 2008 when I was with Jette at nursery school, where I bought 3 clematis, 'Arabella', 'Rouge Cardinal' and 'Miss Bateman'. This was the start of an obsession and since then many more have been added. Today we have a garden which is 2500 m2. with approx. 600 different clematis, trees and many other plants. My great interest is to collect seeds and get them to germinate and become, perhaps, an exciting clematis. My first clematis from seed is named koreana 'Jette'. My favorites are 'Princess Alexandra', 'Ton Hannink', 'Scented Clem', atragene 'Imke', montana 'Van Gogh', 'Utopia', 'Sweet Summer Love' and of course koreana 'Jette'. Our garden is called Clematisbageren because I am the baker with a passion for clematis. I have no botanical education, all the knowledge I have is self-taught."
Ingrid Kastell, Sweden
"I live in Västerås, Sweden, a city west of Stockholm, and I work as an engineer with district heating and cooling. One of my biggest interest is - and has always been - flowers, plants and gardening. As a little girl, my window-sill was completely full of indoor plants but nowadays the plants I am interested in have grown up, just like me. Now I am more interested in bigger plants such as trees, bushes, conifers, perennials and, of course, clematis. They all have in common that they fit in my passion for being outside working in the garden. Our garden is situated in a slope and has too many big trees. The soil is full of stones - both small and very big ones - and the garden is also very dry so it's a hard work to dig, but fortunately my husband is very helpful. I hope I can use my Council membership to try to raise awareness and increase the interest among the Swedish members to enjoy the activities in the I.Cl.S."
Peter Keeping, Canada
Peter was born in Rochester, Kent, England, moved to Fulham in 1937 where he lived through the war. He worked for Wills and Seagar in Knightsbridge - Florists to Her Majesty. He emigrated to Canada in 1957 with his family. He started a horse ranch and farmed 1500 acres until 1971 when the farm was sold. Peter moved to Grand Valley in Ontario and then to Scarborough in 1980. He started gardening with Clematis in 1986 when most of the children had left home. It was a large garden. He moved to a 1/2 acre property in Bowmanville, Ontario in November 2000, where he and his partner Sheila, had to start the garden from scratch.
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Agnes Kwan, Webmaster for Clematis on the Web, USA
Szczepan Marczyñski, Poland
Szczepan Marczyñski graduated from the Horticulture Faculty at the Warsaw Agricultural University (SGGW) in 1969 and received a doctoral degree in 1973; he completed his post doctorate studies at Cornell University, N.Y., U.S.A. (1977-78). In 1987 - 1988 he spent 8 months at the Research Station for Nursery Stock in Boskoop, Holland. From 1970 to mid-nineties he worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Warsaw Agricultural University in Poland. As an author or a contributor he has published 15 scientific papers, 4 books and over 100 extension and popular articles. He gave several dozen lectures and talks in Poland and in the United States, Canada, China, the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, France and Hungary. In 1988, together with MSc. Władysław Piotrowski, he established a clematis nursery, which is now located in Pruszków (Poland) “Clematis Source Good Climbersâ€. In search of new plants has visited nearly all European countries as well as the U.S.A., Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and China. He has breaded and introduced to the marked more than 50 varieties of Clematis and nine varieties of other climbers. Some of them win prizes at international exhibitions and trials in Poland and abroad. Member of the International Plant Propagators' Society, the International Clematis Society (its President in 2004-2008), the British Clematis Society and the Polish Nurserymen Association (the Chairman in 1997-2000 and in 2009-2012) and an honorary member of the Polish Dendrology Society and Polish Association of Garden Centers.
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Mike Miller, Seed Exchange Administrator and Co-Ordinator, USA
Mike Miller, USA, our USA Seed Exchange Administrator and Co-Ordinator, was co-opted to Council at the Zoom Council Meeting in August 2023, under the powers of the Council to co-opt up to two members independently of a Constitutional General Meeting. He was elected to the council at the C.G.M. in January 2025. Mike has recently retired and hopes to be able to spend more time working for the Society As well as running the Seed Exchange, Mike has been working on the new web site for the Society and has also taken over posting on the Society’s Instagram account.
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Andrzej Rafaląt, Poland
I am a co-owner of Clematis The Source of Good Climbers nursery in Poland. Our nursery is a world-leading producer of Clematis plants. In 2002, I graduated from gardening faculty at Warsaw Horticulture University and since then I have worked for the nursery. I have been involved in production, propagation and protection of Clematis plants for over 20 years. I hope, that thanks to my knowledge and experience related to cultivation of Clematis, I will be able to provide advice and help to other lovers of these plants. I am passionate about gardening and fishing.
Alana Rosen, USA
Laura Watson, Email Manager, USA
"Gardens have always played an important role in my life. My very earliest memory, at age two, is sitting in a neighbor's strawberry patch, enjoying the warmth of the sun on my skin, the earthy smell of the damp ground, and the glorious taste of strawberries in my mouth! I've been gardening ever since. My love for clematis was born when I gardened in Boston in the 1990s. My garden got so full of plants that I could no longer visit nurseries — horrors! Fortunately, I stumbled upon Barry Fretwell's book Clematis as Companion Plants and realized I was not making adequate use of vertical space. I was off to the nurseries again until 50 clematis grew everywhere in my garden. In 2004, I left Boston for the gardening mecca of Seattle and started planting clematis right away. In 2009, I discovered the International Clematis Society (I.Cl.S.) and joined, only to learn that the 2010 International Clematis Conference would be held the following summer in Portland, Oregon — a mere three hours' drive away! I signed up immediately, then spent several months worrying that I would not fit in with all the movers and shakers of the clematis world. Fortunately, I was warmly welcomed by everyone, but most especially by Jan and Marie-Louise van Kuijk from The Netherlands and Gisela and Walter Stäbler from Germany. Attending the annual conferences, being a member of I.Cl.S. and other clematis societies, and the friendships I have gained continually expand my clematis knowledge. Workwise, I'm retired now for the second time after working over forty years doing administrative and editorial work for Boston University, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a Seattle yoga center, and PlantAmnesty, a horticultural nonprofit organization also in Seattle. My clematis articles have been published in the Journal of the International Clematis Society and the PlantAmnesty Newsletter. You can visit my clematis blog at www.clematisinseattle.com."
