While gaining a B.A. in Fine Arts, Angel Guerzon developed a passion for plants. After graduating he found a temporary job in a nursery as he looked for work in his field of art. Twenty years later in the nursery business, Angel finally realized that he should have majored in botany. He has fulfilled his artistic urges through the form landscape design.

In the meantime Angel has established a network of enthusiastic amateur and professional gardeners, horticulturists, nursery people, wholesale growers, landscapers, landscape architects and even a botanist. Angel is one of Santa Cruz’s foremost plant experts and is well regarded for his knowledge. With his extensive plant palette and artistic eye, his plant designs unfold into a beautiful living art form.

Warren Patterson has always had a love for the world of plants. He finds his niche in designing spaces with aspects of classical beauty and clean lines, while pushing the boundaries of the ordinary. Art is at the core of his landscape design with uses of shadow, light, stone, concrete, iron and color. Warren’s focus is to create a hardscape environment that showcases Angel’s plant combinations.

Angel’s strength in generating plant designs is complemented by Warren’s agility in creating hardscapes. The inner workings of Silver Tree Designs is a collaboration between the innovative and resourceful characteristics of two minds to form a flowing, solid and beautiful landscape.

These two designers of plant and stone continuously pour their hearts and souls into the process of creativity.

Anna Kolkhorst
Combining an expansive palette of plants with the creative process of design first enticed Anna into the landscape business. She was raised in an environment strongly influenced by art and horticulture. Anna received her B.A. in History of Art and Visual Culture from UCSC, and her A.S. in Landscape Horticulture from Cabrillo College. Our clients benefit from her ability to engage sight, smell, sound and touch in her work. Anna's sensitivity and responsiveness to subtle details make her a valuable component of Silver Tree Designs.

Helen Maderazo

Even before she received her Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from UC Davis, Helen was very involved in the nursery industry, as a plant propagation manager and California Certified Nursery Professional #3537, and as a Japanese Maple fanatic. After graduating, she was involved with large-scale land use issues, working as a planning commissioner for the city of Fairfield, California. Her interest in creating intriguing landscapes, however, led her to landscape design at all different scales, from large civic projects in San Francisco to working for herself designing and installing small residential projects in the Sierra foothills, then onto community masterplanning and park design in Sacramento. Delighted by the amazing plants that thrive in the Monterey Bay area, Helen comes to Silver Tree with great enthusiasm for creating memorable spaces.

Erica Drew
Continuing her seventh year with the landscape design profession, Erica’s work reflects a continual effort to expand her experience in project styles and refine her skills in design details. She brings well-rounded professional experience to Silver Tree, with a background ranging from large-scale urban works and campuses, to parks and residential projects. Erica received a B.S in Landscape Architecture from UC Davis. Striving to enrich and further develop diversity in her sense of design, she has spent time abroad studying landscape design in both Asia and Europe. She studied in Italy through Cal Poly Pomona and later in Kyoto through UC Davis. She was awarded first place at a landscape design competition held at Kyoto University, received an American Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award for her student work at UC Davis, and is currently a California registered licensed Landscape Architect.