Meet the Team
at Wintergreen Botanicals
Maria Noël Groves, RH (AHG)
Owner & Lead Herbalist
Clinical Herbalist
Maria runs Wintergreen Botanicals as nearly a one woman show. With more than 20 years experience in herbalism, she strives to educate and empower her students, clients, and readers with the foundational belief that Good Health Grows in Nature. Maria opened her private practice full time in 2007, and it continues to thrive. She's registered as a professional herbalist with the American Herbalists Guild. In 2004, she was certified as a clinical herbalist by the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine, where she received an invaluable education from the late, great Michael Moore and his team of guest teachers. Maria also completed Rosemary Gladstar's beginner and advanced programs at Sage Mountain, Foundations in Herbalism with Nancy and Michael Phillips at HeartSong Farm, and the Flower Essence Practitioner Training Program with Christine Tolf at Lichenwood Herbals.
Maria's award winning bestselling book Body into Balance was published in 2016 and continues to be listed as a top herbal book by various sources and core textbook in herbal study programs across the country. Her book Grow Your Own Herbal Remedies was released in March 2019.
She speaks and writes nationally about medicinal herbs for various organizations including the American Herbalists Guild, Maryland University of Integrative Health, Herbal Academy, Mother Earth News Fair, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Herb Quarterly. Her three tiered business focuses on education and empowerment via classes, health consultations, and writing.
Maria's personal and herbal lineage is predominantly European-American/Western herbalism. She's half Sicilian and Nova Scotian (mix of mostly UK/Irish/Scottish/Welch/French Settlers plus a few Mi'kmaq women). Her work as an herbalist focuses on these Western Euro-American traditions. She has an appreciation and respect for herbalism from other cultures and is in an ongoing effort to decolonize her work with herbs to make it more inclusive and honoring for all people, recognizing, supporting, and giving back to communities that have traditionally and currently been marginalized.
When Maria isn't busy working and playing with the plants, she enjoys playing outdoors and eating delicious food. She spends lots of time in the woods with her rescue dog Reishi and enjoys outdoor adventures such as hiking, kayaking, xc skiing, and cuisine with her husband Shannon.
See Maria's full background/resume here.
Ruth Droescher
Education Advisor
Herbalist
Ruth joined the team in 2018 to help Maria with the growing business. As one of Maria's star graduates of the Herbalist Intensive Training Program, Ruth has a keen eye for quality herbal information and provides invaluable support correcting student homework for Maria's series with excellent comments and suggestions. If you're involved with gardening in New Hampshire, there's a good chance you've already met Ruth because she's very active in the community!
Like many backyard herbalists, Ruth’s interest in plant medicine began in the kitchen and then progressed to the garden. Her first piece of furniture was a spice cabinet (purchased with S&H Green Stamps as a teenager!) and her earliest gardens began with thyme, sage, and rue. Although her professional career was primarily associated with traditional western medicine, her interest in using herbs and spices for health and wellbeing developed as she learned more about the benefits of whole plant medicine firsthand. When she met Maria at a plant walk at Wintergreen Botanicals, she became committed to learning as much as she could about the field.
Since then, she has completed all of Maria’s herbalist training sessions, and has also become both an Advanced Master Gardener and a Natural Resources Steward with the University of New Hampshire Extension. She volunteers for them regularly speaking on her favorite topics of pollinator gardens, native plants, and gardening for birds and wildlife. She’s on the board of the Master Gardeners’ Alumni Association and has volunteered at several historic gardens including those at Strawbery Banke and the Canterbury Shaker Village. She also works as a naturalist in local schools to help students learn more about the plants and wildlife in their own area.
Ruth and her husband continue to enjoy the culinary delights of herbs, exploring the many ethnic cuisines through both cooking and cocktails. The initial spice cabinet is now one of several, along with a library of new and old herbals, cookbooks, and gardening manuals that provide inspiration and new herbs to explore. Ruth has gardened in New England since childhood, and in New Hampshire for nearly twenty years. Her current backyard is registered as a Monarch Waystation, and with the National Wildlife Federation as Certified Wildlife Habitat.
Liane Moccia, RH (AHG)
Education Advisor
Clinical Herbalist
Liane’s herbal journey started when she was pregnant with her twin daughters and she began looking at holistic ways to manage her health, as well as the health of her growing family. She soon discovered herbal medicine as a way to help manage the cuts, scrapes, and viral illnesses that are so common with children. As she learned more, and started seeing firsthand the power of plants, Liane realized she wanted to be more than a “home herbalist.” So after spending twenty years in corporate marketing, she jumped into more formal herbal education.
Jenn Jensen
Education Advisor
Herbalist
Jenn began her herbal journey in the kitchen. Like many, it wasn’t an intentional beginning. After all, who doesn’t want their food to be tasty! As a recreational gardener just looking to add to her summer fare, Jenn naturally began adding herbs to her garden beds. The kitchen herbs sure made weeding more of a pleasure with their aromatics, and the bees just kept coming back for more every season! She noticed that the more herbs she planted, the more pollinators appeared, maybe there was more to herbs after all… then she met Maria at a community event in the spring of 2015.
In the summer of 2015, Jenn took her first herbal studies course, the Home Herbalist Series, with Maria and her herbal adventures really took off! The better her understanding of herbs became, the more her intention when working with them became. Each course deepening her understanding and appreciation for our plant allies the importance of herbs and the impacts of their use elevated. In 2019, Jenn completed Maria’s advanced and full herbalist training program. Since then, she has been working with herbal remedies for her family and friends and often finds herself providing friends with suggestions about what plants to grow in their own gardens and how to harvest them for tea(s) or food use. Jenn developed a deeper understanding that herbalism is a community that supports good health and well-being of humans and the world we live in. And it’s a beautiful world.
Jenn has continued her herbal studies, attending the NH Herbal Network’s Herb and Garden Day and meeting and learning from other herbalists. When Jenn is not working as a quality engineer, she enjoys being outside, in the natural world. Walking or running with family and friends, herbal learning or guiding, she finds joy in both. Meditative gardening on her own during quiet time, she finds great joy with the plants and nature. Jenn formally joined the Wintergreen Botanicals team in 2022 as an education advisor to assist in providing feedback on student homework in the Home Herbalist and Beyond series.
Dayna Hutchins
Executive Assistant
Herbalist in Training
Dayna is an Herbalist working towards becoming a Clinical Herbalist. She and her husband have been married for 12 years and have 2 beautiful, busy boys. They live outside of a small town in Oklahoma in the middle of the woods. She has been growing in her herbal knowledge for over 3 years. It started with learning what plants were around her and that grew into pursuing the herbalist path. She has completed the Christopher Hobbs Foundations of Herbalism course and is working through the Home Herbalist Series Class with Maria.
During her second pregnancy, she was curious if there were herbal options for the birthing year and her growing family’s immune health. That curiosity helped her to learn that she enjoys everything about supporting women with natural options. She is especially interested in herbs used during the birthing year and beyond.
She enjoys identifying and foraging for plants on her 20 acres and blending specialized teas. She is constantly learning how to become more self-sufficient through gardening, making natural soap, beauty products and other household items.