Wendy Proud

Raised under the sunny skies of Southern California, Wendy Proud grew up fascinated by her childhood garden of cacti, unusual succulents and prolific avocado trees. She quickly developed a passion for all aspects of gardening, from planting seedlings with her mom to driving a tractor with her dad.

Never changing course, Wendy became a career horticulturist and now has over thirty years of sales and production experience in the retail and wholesale nursery industry. Upon earning an ornamental horticulture degree from Cal Poly, Pomona, while gaining experience at several nurseries, she was hired as a sales rep by Monrovia Growers. Promoted to become a grower at the nursery grounds in Central California, Wendy managed production for 300 plant varieties on 125 acres and supervised over 100 employees.

Relocating to Pasadena, Wendy launched and became co-owner of Proud Murphy, a landscape design and installation company focused on proper plant selection and streamlined maintenance programs. She advocated organic gardening practices, offered horticultural coaching, and promoted the ground-breaking concept of quarterly and bi-yearly maintenance for healthier, better-performing plants.

Keen on sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm with the gardening public, Wendy joined the high-end destination nursery Roger’s Gardens in Corona Del Mar. In addition to designing their famously dramatic ready-made planters, she became a So Cal gardening celebrity with her monthly seminars and weekly cable show, “The Proud Gardener.”

In 2009, Wendy opened Proud Plant Sales, representing both Mountain States Wholesale Nursery (MSWN), in Glendale, Arizona, and Rancho Soledad Nurseries, in Rancho Santa Fe, California. She has traveled throughout the West giving presentations to the nursery trade, professional groups and garden clubs, educating audiences about MSWN’s beautiful and diverse low-water-use species from the southwest as well as the vast world of subtropical and tropical plants sold by Rancho Soledad.

Never stopping, in 2023 Wendy went back to her true calling of landscape maintenance, launching Kinship League, a specialized horticultural maintenance company offering simplified intuitive tips and solutions utilizing the energy of Mother Nature.  Through Kinship League, Wendy is focused on educating and helping all levels of plant care professionals to plant enthusiasts alike about the importance of the relationship between proper plant maintenance and the human connection to an outdoor space. 

Wendy has been featured in Sunset, San Diego Home & Garden, and DIY Home & Garden Network. As past president of the Los Angeles chapter of the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers, she has worked to provide scholarships to students pursuing careers in horticulture.

Wendy continues to spread her captivating enthusiasm and vast horticultural knowledge to inspire gardeners and landscapers with site-appropriate plants and common-sense practices to help them thrive.