When Mark Kintzel first came under the magic spell of flowers, he was a boy wandering through the meadows and along the roadside near his parents' farm in Pine Grove, Pa.

"I remember picking big bouquets of wildflowers — huge, huge arms-full — in the summer for my mother and taking them home to her," he says. His appreciation for flowers broadened over the years. Now, as a garden designer at Rodale in Emmaus, Pa., he finds that the desire to share a flower's beauty is at the core of his career.

Whether they're grown in a meadow, flower box or flower garden, Kintzel says, flowers usually fill a vase in his office. "People will walk in, and no matter how busy they are, they'll stop when they see them, smile and say how good they smell."