Mary Bruce is a lifelong gardener, award-winning designer, and horticulturist. She has a natural talent for growing and caring for plants, but she is most interested in “growing more gardeners.”

 Mary served as president of the Wareham Garden Club in Massachusetts from 2016-2018. She also founded “Don’t Trash Wareham,” a grassroots roadside anti-litter campaign that has removed tons of litter from the streets, beaches and waterways of Cape Cod for 10+ years.

 She relocated from Massachusetts to Tampa, Florida in 2021. Mary now works with the What We Could Be Exchange, a local nonprofit program that teaches the SEEDFOLKids gardening experience. WWCBE currently serves three elementary schools, local summer camps and offers evening adult classes. The programs focus on how to start seeds, plant seedlings, water, fertilize, and harvest plants and then save the seeds to begin again.       Mary also runs Lot 2 Nursery in Tampa, where she specializes in rare and medicinal plants from around the world. Her plants are started from seed and grown organically. You can find Mary either at the Ybor Saturday Market or at the Life Journey Baptist Church on Forbes Rd. in Plant City, where she sells plants and frequently hands out free seeds and plant cuttings. She challenges and encourages everyone to “just give gardening a try…” and has successfully introduced and mentored many eager new gardeners in the Tampa area.    Mary is currently pursuing a degree in agricultural education at the University of Florida so she can continue to advance her passion of growing plants—and people.