Malcolm is a qualified and enthusiastic teacher who is dedicated to seeing that students do well in his classes and in the field of horticulture. He has taught and worked in the field of horticulture for many years, and students in his classes benefit from his experience.

I had Malcolm as an instructor in two classes. The first of these was Environmental Horticulture 50, Introduction to Environmental Horticulture. As the name suggests, EH 50 is a survey course that covers basic horticultural topics. In addition to lectures, the class consisted of four field trips and frequent hands-on exercises doing things such as planting and transplanting seedlings and mixing fertilizers. Assignments consisted of a brief report on each of the field trips; two reports on articles about horticultural topics; and a project requiring at least eight hours of work. These assignments were not difficult but were still quite useful in enhancing our understanding of topics we covered in class. I did the assigned reading on a sporadic basis. I don't recommend this, as the reading is useful. It is possible, though, to do well on Malcolm's exams without having done the reading. Malcolm is an energetic instructor, so lectures always run until the scheduled end of class.

Malcolm was also my instructor in EH 77, Spring and Summer Plant Identification. This is another good class but considerably harder than EH 50. Most of class time is spent in the field, at the CCSF campus, Strybing Arboretum, and other locations. The class covers 11 or 12 new plants each week, and it takes quite a bit of time to to commit these plants and their characteristics to memory. Students need to keep a record of the plants, typically by pasting plant clippings or photos of the plants on to index cards. This also requires a fair amount of time. As with EH 50, doing the reading is helpful but not necessary to pass the exams.