Nicole Gardner is originally from Waterbury, Vermont and received a BS at Brigham Young University in Plant Genetics and Breeding in 2000. She is currently a Master's student doing molecular marker work on clematis. Her project involves identifying ISSR (Inter Simple Sequence Repeat) markers that can distinguish between five herbaceous clematis species (C. heracleifolia, C. integrifolia, C. recta, C. hexapetala and C. integrifolia) to be used in verifying hybrids between these species. She is also identifying specific fingerprints for many of the more popular vining clematis cultivars.