2026 Gold Country Master Gardener Symposium

Sofia Franzluebbers is the Agriculture and Horticulture Extension Agent with the Lewis and Clark County Extension Office in Helena. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in plant agriculture from the University of Guelph, where her research focused on crop load management in stone fruit.

Sofia's Extension and professional experience spans work in Glasgow, Montana, and Prosser, Washington, as well as botanical gardens, native plant conservation, and pollinator projects, supporting her commitment to practical, research-based education for Montana growers and gardeners.

Dr. Eva Grimme is a dedicated Plant Pathologist specializing in horticultural samples at Montana State University’s Schutter Diagnostic Laboratory in Bozeman. Her work centers on unraveling the mysteries behind plant health—identifying diseases and abiotic stresses—and crafting practical solutions rooted in Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

With a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from MSU, Eva brings a wealth of experience in applied horticulture. She has worked with a diverse range of plants - from annual and perennial ornamentals to woody ornamentals, vegetables, and turfgrass - providing practical solutions for Montana’s unique growing conditions. Passionate about plant health and sustainability, Eva combines diagnostic expertise with outreach to support horticulture across the state.

Bob Hitzeroth first started working in the greenhouse industry as a young boy under his grandfather, Sylvester. Sylvester had immigrated from Lithuania in 1914 when he was just 10. Ves began working in the greenhouse industry and eventually bought his own glass house in the Chicago suburb of Geneva, Illinois in 1963. Although he had little formal education, he had a green thumb and grew annual flowers and vegetables along with cut flowers that he would sell at the markets in downtown Chicago.

Working with his grandfather, Bob developed a passion for growing flowers and went on to study Horticulture at the University of Illinois. After college, Bob and Donna married and a year later in 1976 bought their first greenhouse business, We-Go Greenhouse, in West Chicago, Illinois. Twelve years and three children later, they bought Geneva Greenhouse from Bob’s grandfather. Bob successfully ran both wholesale/retail operations for many years.

In 1993, while traveling the West on vacation, Bob and Donna ran across an abandoned rose range in Helena, Montana. That fall the range was at auction and Bob made the winning bid. High Country Growers was established in the spring of 1994. In the following years, Bob and Donna moved their family west to run High Country Growers. Later, We-Go Greenhouse was sold, and Geneva Greenhouse was closed.

Bob brings years of growing expertise and exceptional quality to all aspects of High Country Growers. Through his hard work and dedication, and the hard work and dedication of our amazing team, we produce quality plants for the Montana gardener.

Cheryl Erdahl joins Bob for his presentation. Cheryl is Bob's daughter and grew up in the greenhouse business. She has always taken an interest in the retail side of things and has been running a cash register at the greenhouse since grade school. She currently manages the Helena Garden Center up at High Country Growers.  

Sarah Holden is the Horticulture Extension Educator for Missoula County with Montana State University Extension, where she has worked for more than two years supporting community gardening, volunteer education, and local food systems. 

A Midwest native who moved to Montana in 1998, Sarah is a graduate of the University of Montana and is currently completing a Master’s degree in Agricultural Education through Montana State University.

With over 25 years of experience working in local, state, and federal government, Sarah brings a practical, community-centered approach to horticulture education. She is a certified herbalist and botanist, a self-described plant nerd, and believes strongly in experiential learning—getting hands in the soil as a pathway to both knowledge and well-being.

Sarah teaches two Master Gardener Volunteer Certification courses each year and works closely with Master Gardener volunteers to expand Missoula County’s horticulture outreach. She finds the growth of the Master Gardener community—and its impact across the county—deeply rewarding.

Outside of work, Sarah enjoys hiking with her dogs, scuba diving, and foraging for medicinal plants. She is the proud mother of two teenage daughters and believes that everyone has a relationship with plants on some level. Her philosophy is simple: gardening doesn’t have to be hard, perfect, or “right”—it just needs to meet your needs and provide abundance. 

Elena Johnson is the owner of Light Song Gardens, a garden coaching, design, and management business based in Helena. Her work centers on relationship-based gardening, using native plants and ecological methods to strengthen connections between people and place. 

Elena approaches gardening as a practice that supports personal well-being, community resilience, and ecological awareness. 

Elena has worked in the horticulture field for over a decade. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Horticulture from Montana State University in 2013 and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of New Mexico in 2020. Since then, she has been designing and managing gardens in Helena with a focus on locally adapted, sustainable landscapes.

In 2025, Elena launched Helena Urban Meadows (HUM), a program that guides clients in converting portions of their lawns to native plant meadows. The project also serves as an ongoing research and demonstration effort focused on meadow landscaping suited to Helena’s climate and soils. 

Allison Kosto has been the MSU Extension Agent in Broadwater County since 2015 focusing on agriculture, horticulture, community development and 4-H youth development. 

She has over 17 years of experience in Extension in two states as both a county educator and State 

4-H Specialist. 

She now resides in her hometown of Townsend and enjoys helping on the family ranch, gardening and spending time with her three children. 

Cam Lay is a retired regulatory entomologist. His work experience includes 25 years as a pesticide regulatory official in South Carolina and Maine, dozens of court cases as a private consultant in structural entomology and pesticide use, and a decade of serving as Montana’s state entomologist and apiarist. 

He has obtained two degrees in the process of attending five colleges, which he cites as evidence that you can fool at least some of the people some of the time.   

Lois Olsen joined the Tri-County Firesafe Working Group Board in 2017 after having worked with Tri-County during her career on the Helena National Forest. She retired from the Helena National Forest in 2012 after 34 years of service.

Lois was the Forest Ecologist and Botanist, where she collected and analyzed vegetation data from wildfires, logging, and livestock grazing activities. 

Lois completed the Level 2 Master Gardener program and is a lifelong gardener. She is a strong supporter and volunteer manager of the Public Firewise Demonstration Garden at Montana City Volunteer Fire Station. 

Lois served on Fire Management Teams and participated in prescribed fire activities for many years. She strongly supports the mission and goals of Tri-County Firesafe and is very interested in helping people make their property and home more fire safe.

Abiya (Abi) Saeed is the state Extension Horticulture Specialist at Montana State University. She assists home gardeners, commercial and private green industry professionals, and county and reservation extension offices with horticulture-related programming, questions, troubleshooting, and diagnostics throughout Montana. She is also a writer for the Garden Professors Blog, and a recurring panelist on Montana Ag Live. 

Originally from Pakistan, Abi decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Entomology from the University of Kentucky with a focus on pollinators, and is currently working on her PhD through MSU, with a focus on pollination services and native bees. She has over 15 years of research, education, and outreach experience in pollinator conservation, integrated pest management, native bees, and pollinator health. 

Using her passion for native bees and pollinator conservation, Abi has built pollinator programming and written several publications on the topic throughout her roles in extension horticulture at Montana State University, Michigan State University, and Colorado State University.

Gaining inspiration from her grandmother’s prolific vegetable garden and plentiful root cellar, Rhonda Simmons started her journey as a Montana Master Gardener in 2014. Early in the journey she was introduced to drip irrigation and immediately recognized its benefits. Over the last 12 years she has landscaped a 5-acre portion of her family’s 24-acre arid high mountain desert property solely with drip irrigation (except the lawn, which is her husband’s domain). She strives to spend every waking hour she can tending to the properties’ 250+ individual evergreen, ornamental and fruiting trees and shrubs, a native plant hill, perennials and annuals, plus a 7500 square foot vegetable garden and small-scale cut flower farm, and appreciates the freedom and peace of mind knowing that all the plants are drip irrigated.

Rhonda is proud to have been one of the original MGs that formed the Gold Country Montana Master Gardener Association in 2015, having held multiple positions culminating in serving as President. She was the founding organizer of the Lewis and Clark County Celebration turned Symposium, and was honored to carry the torch for the first eight years. She appreciated being recognized as 2017 Lewis and Clark County Master Gardener of the Year and 2025 Montana Outstanding Master Gardener for her commitment to ongoing learning for herself and others. She is also an Extension Certified Master Food Preserver.