Horticulturist's Bios Chatfield Farms

Cassie Doolittle, Manager of Horticulture at Chatfield Farms, joined the Gardens in 2019. The main focus of her horticulture skills has been the Historic Hildebrand Ranch and Mary Washburn Orchard. Cassie brings more than 20 years of experience in the green industry to Chatfield. Her professional expertise includes landscape design, installation and renovations. After serving in the Peace Corps as an Agricultural Crop Extensionist, Cassie worked in the private landscape sector before transitioning into public horticultural education. Cassie continues to educate the public and share her passion for edible ornamental landscapes found in her gardens at Chatfield. While at the Gardens, Cassie designed and installed the Chatfield Shade Garden and more recently the new Hildebrand Ranch herb garden. A graduate of Colorado State University with a Bachelor of Science in landscape horticulture, she is an Advisory Committee Member for the CSU Annual Trial Garden. Cassie is an ISA Certified Arborist®, member of the International Society of Arboriculture and is a garden liaison for the All- America Selection program of North America.

Grace Johnson, Assistant Manager of Horticulture, Chatfield Farms – After graduating college with an Environmental Science degree, Grace began working in ornamental public horticulture in 2013. At the start of her career, Grace worked at a historic park in St. Louis, Missouri performing all things Victorian Horticulture; large rotating annual displays, installation and care of tropical aquatic plants, perennials, and vegetables. Grace then spent years working in the Whitmire Wildflower Garden at Missouri Botanical Garden’s Shaw Nature Reserve where she gardened exclusively with native plants, assisted with prairie restoration, seed collection, propagation, and controlled burns. Grace currently maintains the Plant Select Demonstration Garden, unirrigated cactus collection, the Labyrinth, the Welcome Center xeric gardens, rock gardens and crevice gardens, and serves as assistant manager to the horticulture team after starting at Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms in 2017.