About
Amber Guetebier is a gardener, landscaper, and nursery professional with 25 years of experience. She began writing for BobVila.com in 2021 and writes about plants and botanical oddities at Rotten Botany, along with other online publications such as Angi, Cubby, and Motherly.
Experience
Amber grew up with dirt under her nails from gathering plants. Some of her earliest memories include watching caterpillars on wild fennel and taking the pollen from her grandmother’s prized calla lilies for “pixie dust.” Most of her knowledge about plants has been gained through hands-on experience: working with herbalists and gardeners, swapping seeds with heirloom plant enthusiasts, and volunteering with botanical conservatories and gardens.
She spent more than 20 years working in retail plant nurseries where she learned extensive plant IDs, botanical nomenclature, and the diagnosis and treatment of common plant problems. This was also where her obsession with strange plants began, thanks in part to the great Bill Barnett, a horticulturist, botanist, and nursery manager. Amber also launched a successful landscaping business, specializing in small urban and container gardens.Â
Relocating from California to the Midwest has been Amber’s greatest botanical challenge. To have a garden that can survive a midwestern winter has required adaptation, ingenuity, and a good indoor greenhouse.
Education
Amber has an associate degree in anthropology with a minor in ethnobotany from City College of San Francisco and completed the professional sequence in editing course from UC Berkeley Extension. She has been both a nursery and landscape professional for more than 20 years.
Highlights
- Specialties and interests: Unusual, rare, and heirloom plants; herbalism; ethnobotany; and botany-specific travel (including botanical gardens, native plants, and indigenous foods)
- Education: Associate degree in anthropology with a minor in ethnobotany from City College of San Francisco; professional sequence in editing course from UC Berkeley Extension
Best DIY Advice
“Gardening for your zone is incredibly important, but that shouldn’t stop you from experimenting. Many tender and unusual plants can survive the winter inside your home. As long as you have bright light (it doesn’t need to be direct sunlight) and a humidifier to combat winter dryness, you can cultivate nearly anything.”
