J Schwanke

J Schwanke's love of Flowers began at birth during a Snowstorm at a State Flower Convention in Nebraska. J’s career grew and blossomed… as he joined his family’s Flower business: Green’s Greenhouses Inc. in 1976 and directed the Flower Shop and Garden Center operations starting in 1981. J is a member of the American Academy of Floriculture, the American Institute of Floral Designers, and the Professional Floral Communicators International and the National Speakers Association.

 In 1994 J began an independent career as a flower design consultant, Flower Industry Spokesperson and the foremost Flower Design Expert in the American flower industry. As the HOST of the World’s First Web Broadcast Flower Design Show: JTV! Offering Flower Enthusiasts everywhere the opportunity to have FUN with Flowers and J all the time! J’s Passion for Flowers is far reaching and Infectious. He gives Flower demonstrations in every state in the Union, Canada, and throughout Europe. Critics, sponsors and Flower loving attendees agree J is one of the most sought after experts in the World of Flowers.

Fun with Flowers & J

Floral design at its finest!  Brighten up your home with the beauty of flowers.

Robert P. Fegan Jr.

As leader of DTE Energy's series of Energy Efficency Seminars, Bob Fegan has traveled accross our great state teaching builders and homeowners the true meaning of being Energy Efficient.  His down-to-earth style (pun intended) and realistic attitude reflects the idea that DTE Energy is concerned about the impact overconsumtion has on the environment.  For more information on his past seminars, click here.

Keeping Your Home Energy Efficient

Presented by DTE Energy.  Let Bob Fegan teach you how to reduce your consumption by buying and living smart.  With information for both the homeowner looking to renovate, and the folks looking to build, these seminars are not to be missed!

For a list of helpful websites, visit our Green Living page!

Chefs Angus Campbell & Bob Garlough

With decades of culinary expertise between them, Chefs Robert Garlough and Angus Campbell currently teach at the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education at Grand Rapids Community College.  Along with a program for enrolled students, the department offers nearly forty seminar-styled cooking classes annually to the general public through their Institute for Culinary Enthusiasts (click the link for topics and registration information).  They are also co-authors of the best seller Modern Garde Manger, selected as the IACP Award Winner for 2007 in the Technical Reference Category.  

Chef Robert Garlough came to Michigan in 1980 to establish and coordinate a two-year program in Culinary Arts at Grand Rapids Community College. Hailing from St. Augustine, Florida, where he was the Executive Chef of a restaurant/nightclub in Jacksonville, Chef Garlough has held several other food service management and instructional positions in Michigan, Florida, Ohio and New York.

A City and Guilds Master Craftsmen, with over 29 years of experience, Chef Angus Campbell was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Beginning his professional career, Chef Campbell worked at the Bahamas Hotel Training College where he became the Department Chair for their Culinary Arts Department before moving to Grand Rapids where he currently teaches in the Culinary Arts program as Chef-Instructor in the Heritage Restaurant for lunch service.

Standard Kitchens Cooking Stage Seminars

Seminar times for the Standard Kitchens Cooking Stage coming soon...

Stephanie Cohen - The Perennial Diva

Stephanie Cohen is an adjunct professor of horticulture at Temple University and former director of the school’s Landscape Arboretum. An avid gardener herself, she’s an award-winning speaker, writer, designer, and teacher, and has been a fixture in the horticultural world for more than 20 years. Plant hybridizers readily recognize her knowledge and influence and she has plants named in her honor. Dr. Darrel Apps, the daylily breeder who introduced Happy Returns and scores of other fabulous daylilies, named a particularly short new variety Stephanie Returns with her permission.

She also specializes in high-maintenance plants, those with a short season of interest, perennials that behave like annuals, and other "thugs" of the garden.  She's also light-hearted about her short stature, having named her own perennial place Shortwood Gardens in a tongue-in-cheek nod to nearby Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa.

Bio courtesy of Ann Whitman of Gardener's Supply

Stephanie Cohen Seminar

Speaking one time only!

On the Garden Stage:
Saturday, March 7  -  6pm