Meadowlark owner-manager Claire Steede-Butler, a native of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, began her California career by designing with and incorporating eastern woodland perennials into her own landscape installations. She has always loved how her favorites would mysteriously disappear under a carpet of snow in winter, only to re-emerge in spring for a glorious summer display, and she thought that her clients would also enjoy seeing them in their gardens, since many are transplants to California themselves.