If a person can be designated the ruling monarch of a plant species, Cindy Bolz is the Queen of Acer Palmatum. Cindy purchased her first Japanese maple in 2001. She is now growing over 60 types of these beautiful trees.

Today, we are honoring the queen with the Making a Difference award. Cindy is in the class of 2013 and has amassed over 1000 volunteer hours. She has contributed in multiple areas of the Association including serving as the 2013 class captain, grading for the master gardener school, contributing many, many articles for the DCMGA website and providing descriptions for several hundred plants for the At Home Botanist program. Additionally, Cindy helped write the Safety Manual that won a Search for Excellence award from the Texas Master Gardener Association. She has served on the Speakers Bureau since 2019 and is the “go speaker” when the topic of Japanese maples is requested.

Cindy opened her home to the Garden Tour in 2022. Again she recently stepped up to hosted the spring Japanese Maple Sale pick up point when no location could be secured. Speaking of the Japanese Maple Sale, Cindy has written the descriptions and provided the photos of each cultivar for every DCMGA Japanese Maple Sale since its inception in 2021. This sale is always a sellout and a very successful fundraiser for the Association.

Cindy was featured in the nationally circulated Mr. Maples YouTube show. The segment stars Cindy counting down her top 5 favorite Japanese maples. The segment is very educational, but also contains a shameless plug for Master Gardeners from Cindy!
Cindy has infectious enthusiasm and is consistently generous with her time and knowledge with both the public and her fellow Master Gardeners. She inspires all of us to do more.

Thank you, Cindy and we are excited to honor you.