PORT TOWNSEND — He’s the scientist. She’s the writer.
Both share a love of nature, a vast knowledge of plants and are well-known among North Olympic Peninsula master gardeners.
So David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth combined their skills to write a new book now capturing national attention, What’s Wrong With My Plant? (And How Can I Fix It?): A Visual Guide to Easy Diagnosis and Organic Remedies.
“When people find out I’m a botanist, they will pull a fragment of a plant and ask me what’s wrong with it,” said Deardorff, who, as a plant doctor, advocates using only certified organic methods to treat ailing plants.
That common request for plant information led to the book that carefully describes plants and trees. It navigates the reader to a solution, using information and flow charts to figure out what could be wrong with a tree or a plant.
For example, the book shows how a vine maple that has browning, curled up leaves is the likely result of a lack of water, regardless of whether it is a drought-tolerant tree.
Besides his knowledge of plant life, Deardorff also is an artist who drew all the plant illustrations for the book.
Deliver information
With both gardening into their golden years — he is 69 and she is 57 — the couple decided it was time to lay off the hard work of planting and landscaping and focus more on delivering information about it.
“We said, ‘Let’s write a book. We can do that until the day we die,'” Wadsworth said with a chuckle.
“We not only wanted to write a book that an experienced gardener can use, but a beginning gardener as well.”
They say they now specialize in coaching and garden design, which are far less labor-intensive.
She has also worked as a naturalist, and he earned his doctorate at Washington State University in plant taxonomy.
They are already considering their next book project, possibly naming it, What’s Wrong With My Vegetable Garden.
The couple is headlong into promoting the new book.
They celebrated the book’s release with signing parties at Henery’s Garden Center in Port Townsend on Friday and at Henery’s in Sequim on Saturday.
They have been interviewed by phone for the Ciscoe Morris radio show on KIRO in Seattle and on Martha Stewart Living Radio.
Podcast
A podcast of their interview with Morris can be found on their blog site at www.ddandkw.com.
They have also been interviewed by radio stations in New York City, Boston and Atlanta.
They will be taking the book on tour in March, hitting the three biggest garden shows, the Philadelphia Flower Show, the Seattle Garden Show and the San Francisco Garden Show.
They also plan to hit as many Barnes & Noble bookstores as possible, an arrangement made by their Oregon-based publisher, Timber Press.
Wadsworth said the book is now being translated into French.
Deardorff and Wadsworth met in 1977 in Santa Fe, N.M., then moved to Port Townsend in 1998. They relocated to Hawaii for a few years, then returned to Port Townsend in 2003 to be closer to family.
Deardorff is a plant pathologist and nurseryman as well as an author, photographer and lecturer. He earned a doctorate in botany from the University of Washington and coordinated plant pathology research as a faculty member of the University of Hawaii.
He taught the Master Gardener program while on the water resources faculty at Washington State University, and co-founded Plants of the Southwest in Santa Fe, one of the first native plant nurseries in the U.S.
Wadsworth is a photographer and naturalist who loves to explore the outdoors.
Documentary films
After studying filmmaking and communications at the University of New Mexico, she traveled to make documentary films on topics ranging from the California gray whale to the impact of mining on the Navajo tribe.
She went on to manage eco-tours around the world, from Alaska to Australia. After settling in Hawaii, she co-owned and operated a tissue-culture laboratory and orchid nursery.
Not only do the two teach classes to Master Gardeners from Port Townsend to Sequim, they speak and make presentations to garden clubs, plant nurseries and other organizations who invite them.
They stress the organic approach to gardening.
“Both of us love wildlife and nature and want to tread lightly on the earth,” Wadsworth said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
