Hardy palm expert David A. Francko has recently been a featured guest on such influential American programmes as Martha Stewart Living TV and National Public Radio's Science Friday. Francko is chair of the Department of Botany at Miami University in Ohio and his academic specialty is aquatic plants. He is co-investigator on the university's Hardy Palm Project, and for many years he has experimented with warm-climate plants in his own gardens. Francko's findings have been published in scientific journals and presented at national and international conferences. As part of a network of adventurous gardeners living in cooler regions of the world, Francko refuses to accept the all-too-common belief that "palms won't grow here".