What the Guild is
The Planters' Guild is an editorial publication for people who actually keep things alive. It's a place for the kind of horticulture writing that doesn't fit in a houseplant book, a YouTube short, or an Instagram reel — writing that takes its time, cites its sources, and assumes you can handle the science.
The Guild publishes for four kinds of people. Growers are the primary audience — people who actively keep things alive and are deepening their craft. Apprentices are people just starting out, fully welcome here. Educators teach what they're learning, whether that's in a Master Gardener program, a plant shop, a science classroom, or just to a friend across the kitchen table. Stewards think about land, climate, and community — the wider context that growing happens inside.
Why a guild
The plant world has a habit of treating expertise as a club. A real guild taught its craft from the ground up — apprentices learned beside masters, asked questions that would seem obvious to anyone further along, and were never shamed for not knowing. The Planters' Guild keeps that tradition. There are no stupid questions, no expertise-as-club, and no assumption that you should already know what an aroid is before you arrive.
The Guild's editorial philosophy is built around being citable, honest about failures, and welcoming to the next person walking in.
What we publish
- Field NotesShort essays from the garden, the balcony, the windowsill, and the propagation shelf. The closest the Guild gets to a journal.
- The Substrate LibraryThe science of growing media, written so it's actually useful in a real potting session. Foundation entries, going-deeper essays, ingredient references.
- Plant ProfilesLong-form portraits of single specimens, treated as botanical subjects. Two profiles live at launch — Alocasia Frydek and Begonia Maculata — with new entries added monthly.
- The Garden ForecastTools, calendars, and timing references for growers planting now. The Grower's Dashboard and Santa Clara Planting Guide are live. Tony Petronio's biweekly weather column for the Bay Area and Mid-Atlantic joins as we grow the pillar.
- The Window BoxFor urban growers in apartments, balconies, kitchens, and small spaces. Honest about what works in a fourth-floor walkup with one south-facing window.
Who's behind it
Christopher Gunnuscio is the founding editor. UC Master Gardener (Santa Clara County), self-taught aroid grower, tissue-culture nerd, and runner of a small home plant sanctuary in San Jose with about 250 specimens — give or take a few plantlets in the back office. Background in technology, with a long-running side life in horticulture; the Guild is the project that ties those two together.
Tony Petronio writes The Garden Forecast. A marine meteorologist by trade, Tony directs ocean-routing operations for cargo ships and is trained on the full range of forecasting. He grew up in Maryland, which is why the Forecast covers the Mid-Atlantic alongside the Bay Area.
Both of us live in San Jose. The Guild is published under Petruscio Farms, the holding company for our editorial and (eventually) commercial work in horticulture.