One reason for the interest, perhaps, is that antique bulbs have lots of personality, said Franziska Reed Huxley, a horticultural consultant for Garden Design magazine.

In 2005 the Royal Horticultural Society awarded him the Victoria Medal of Honour (V.M.H) for his work as a garden photographer, horticultural consultant and writer.

Her mother is a horticultural consultant in New York.

Searching for the tree takes a year, said David Murbach, horticultural consultant for Tishman Speyer Properties, the management company for Rockefeller Center.

They must also have warm temperatures, around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Ted Marston, a horticultural consultant for Fischer Geraniums, a Florida wholesale propagator of New Guinea impatiens.

Predicting more problems ahead on a different front, Nancy Cook, a senior horticultural consultant with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service in Valhalla, said that some trees will also be in trouble this summer.

In between travels, Clarke has taught Ecology and Biometrics at James Cook University in Queensland, and worked as a horticultural consultant in Hong Kong.

"Everybody is interested in the esthetics of having a beautiful lawn," said Nancy Cook, senior horticultural consultant with the Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Working with horticultural consultants, she restored the grounds.

"Don't remove any plants until spring," said Lewis Shell, a horticultural consultant at the home and garden information center at the University of Maryland.