Doctor Clifford Sussman has been gardening for 37 years, since the age of 14 when his grandmother took him to a Fern Society Show. Since then his passion has extended to Tropical and Subtropical trees, shrubs and vines.   Dr Sussman began growing bamboos 10 years ago. His collection now includes over 230 species of tropical and subtropical clumping bamboos with another 50 species in Quarantine at the USDA main facility in Maryland. He shares a collection in Thailand with Mr Dieter Ohrnberger that has about 300 accessions, many of which are undescribed species. His nursery has over 1000 specimens of 200 species that he propagates from cuttings and divisions.  Professionally, Dr Sussman practices Internal Medicine in San Dimas, California. His office building is landscaped with almost 100 species of clumping bamboos. He went to Pomona College for undergraduate studies, Universtity Texas in Galveston for medical school and Loma Linda University for postgraduate training. His patients enjoy the bamboos and hearing about his travels.   Dr Sussman is on the Board of Directors of the American Bamboo Society, the Southern California Chapter of ABS, where he served as President, and is Chairman of the ABS Importation Committee. He has made 8 importations of almost 200 species over the past 6 years.   Dr Sussman has travelled extensively in Asia since 2008 when he was sent as a “Bamboo Ambassador” to Malaysia, Indonesia, Borneo and Australia. Since then he has visited China 3 times, Malaysia several more times, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand 4 times and Vietnam twice. He enjoys seeing nurseries, collecting wild bamboos and photographing collections in Botanic Gardens.