- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening as part of our 50th anniversary.

We didn't just wanna look back at the past.

Join us today as we travel to Columbus, Ohio to visit the American Hort Cultivate Conference, where we explore one of the largest horticulture trade shows, discovering new plants, new technology, and see a few familiar faces.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma Green and growing Oklahoma Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Shape your future, provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice, the easy choice.

Oklahoma Gardening 50th anniversary.

I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

- People in Oklahoma love their gardens.

- I feel like this is the People's Show.

We all know we're working towards the common goal, and that's to produce the best quality television and information for our audience.

We're here in Columbus, Ohio at the Cultivate Show, and joining me is Rod Mozelle with American Plant Products, a well-known company in Oklahoma, and you guys have come to this international stage as well and brought a few employees.

Tell me why.

What about Cultivate is so important to come to?

- It's, it's by far the most important American horticultural show.

If you're a greenhouse grower or a nursery grower, and he's placed in that greenhouse or nursery space, including garden centers and even a lot of landscapers, and there's even some florist tracks here.

But in all that horticultural space, this is the biggest and best American show.

It started as the Ohio Nursery show or floor show - Aimed - At just Ohio.

But over the last 50 years, it's grown to become the big national show that this is where we come to reacquaint with all the folks we deal with throughout the year.

So a lot of times, this is the only time we see people in person.

The rest of the year we're dealing with 'em over the phone or through emails or text or some other communication.

So it's, it's really great to renew old friendships.

You get to see all the new products and new varieties that are coming for the next year.

So eight, - Eight acres of trade show.

And then we've got educational tracks that are going on demonstrations, displays.

I mean, it's just everything.

You can't take it all in in one show.

- It's, in fact, if you stay here for the full show, you still can't get past everything.

So, - And you've come here for a few years?

- I've been coming off and on for 50 years.

I tried to add up the other day.

I've probably been here somewhere between 30 and 35 times.

- Okay.

- So I've missed a few years here and there, but it was in Columbus, then it went to Cincinnati, and then it's been back to Columbus for a very long time.

And - So, and the, and the logistics of getting all the stuff here and the displays that they bring in.

And we're not just talking national, I mean, there's a big international audience here as well.

- I haven't, there'll be a report afterwards, but usually there's somewhere like 20 to 30 other countries that are represented.

And one of the big changes the last 10 years is how many international exhibitors there are, particularly in the container space and the white space.

And there's a few categories that the, that there's a particularly high number of foreign exhibitors, but from China and Korea.

And of course the, the main places for horticultural industry are the Netherlands and England and West Germany.

So lots of exhibitors from in the European community - And, and a lot of technology and automation.

Can you talk a little bit about that and how that's affecting the industry?

- Of course, that's one of the things that's really changed in recent years.

And one of the big topics this year in a lot of the educational sessions is how is AI gonna impact horticultural production and horticultural services and even retailing and communication.

So, so you know, everything from drones and AI on the new end to greenhouse controllers and trying to maximize your nutrition programs for feeding the plants.

And you know, besides, there's a lot of attention these days besides traditional chemical controls.

We've used so much in recent years to bio controls and, and, and so there, every, every part of the industry has a lot of change going on right now.

And this is kind of the place to come to see what that change - Is.

Rod, it sounds like there's so much to get in there and see.

So let's go take a look.

- Let's get after it.

- Amongst the thousands of people here at Cultivate, we were able to trek down one of our favorite Mark Andrews with Greenleaf Nursery.

And Mark, you guys are here obviously showcasing many of your plants, but we've got one in particular right here behind us - Yep.

- Called Hearts of Fire.

Tell us a little bit about this new red button.

- Okay, well, what we're doing is, this is the new Varieties area of Cultivate where we introduce new selections.

A lot of companies are here and everything, and we brought Hearts of Fire here to highlight it.

It's a new red bud from Ray and Cindy Jackson of Jackson Nursery in Belvedere, Tennessee.

And this particular tree happened to be a seedling that was found in their fields.

And because of where the seed came from, we know that it is a cross between the Rising Sun Red Bud, which is another one of their selections that they, and Ruby Falls Red Bud, which is a selection bred by Dr.

Denny Werner.

So this particular seedling came up and we watched it.

There's a very similar tree called Flamethrower that is out in the trade.

And Flamethrower was actually bred by Dr.

Denny Warner again.

- Okay.

- Of North Carolina State University.

And, but Denny actually bred the Rising Sun with Ruby Falls - Specifically.

So that was an intentional matchmaking.

So he did an - Intentional - Yeah.

- Cross wires.

This one was done by nature.

- Okay.

- And both trees are very similar.

They have, you know, bright red orange colors as far as spring flush goes all on the new GR bread coming out.

Yeah.

All the new growth coming out and everything.

And then what happens is it transitions back into, you know, other colors as you go back in and as the leaves mature and everything.

Now, the differences between the two trees, even though they're from the same parents, is that flamethrower shows the foliage color a little bit more like the rising - Sun.

Okay.

- Which has yellowish orange tangerine colors.

And so those colors are more predominant on flame thrower, but - Those colors don't always hold up in the summertime very - Well.

Those colors do not hold up well in, especially in Oklahoma heat - Yeah.

- Is what we've noticed.

And so Hearts of Fire is a little bit slower to show that color sometimes in the springtime, but it, you get that bright flush, but then what it does is in summertime, it fades more to this darkish green color.

Okay.

And so what it does is that kind of helps protect the tree a little bit in our heat.

It allows it to get ready to flush out again and fall as soon as we get a temperature break.

And boom, you get that coloration again.

And these are the only two red Bud selections out there with this kind of reddish orange, yellow coloration.

- Okay.

- To the foliage and everything.

- And what about, what about the branching structure?

So I know, so - Branching structure is another way that you can differentiate the two trees.

Flamethrower has kind of, sometimes the branches will be kind of semi pendulous.

- Okay.

- Kind of going ahead and not really weeping, but it kind of gives you that look.

Little - Bit, little, a little bit trait from Ruby Falls, - Right?

Yes.

And that's coming from Ruby Falls.

Hearts of Fire has a little bit more upright branching habit.

So it seems to get its branching habit more from the rising sun.

- Okay.

- Which is a more upright growing type.

- Yeah.

- So those are the two key differences between the two trees.

- Okay.

- And everything.

And, you know, Greenleaf Nursery at Greenleaf Nursery reproduce both of them.

And because you never know, because trees perform differently in different parts of the country.

- Right, right.

And it, and you know, and you need different landscaping purposes.

That's right.

Whether you need a pendulum one or not, maybe - So.

So, you know, so we offer both of them, but we're real high on Hearts of Fire and the way it performs for us and the way it performs in the landscape for us in Oklahoma in particular.

- And, and I know we've talked a little bit about just the process of propagating, so they're both grafted on native rootstock, is that correct?

- Right.

Okay.

Right.

So the way that we produce them, and most other people produce these trees is we produce seedling Red Bud, and then we go ahead and do a process, which is called Budding, which we've highlighted on the show - Before.

Yes.

We've done that before.

Yeah.

- And everything.

And so we bud the trees and, you know, then you train the bud up and you've got your tree going - Alright.

And - Everything.

So, you know, it's, it's pretty much the way everybody is doing it.

They are starting to work on producing these through tissue culture as well.

And both flamethrower and Hearts of Fire are coming through in, in tissue culture very, very well.

They seem to be very stable that way.

And so we're kind of excited to see how that comes out as well.

- All right.

So the propagation process might be changing in the future.

It - Looks like it, it's another, it's another option for people.

And it's kind of exciting to see how that will work, because unfortunately people are not learning how to do the budding process as much as they used to.

So it's becoming almost a lost art form.

We still have plenty of butters that work for us, but we just want to have another option just in case there's an issue.

- Absolutely.

Well, hearts of Fire is a great addition to the collection of plants that you guys provide us.

Thank you so much.

- No problem.

Thank you, Casey.

- It's so great coming to such a large conference and seeing so many friendly faces from Oklahoma.

And joining me next is Kurt Rieger with Smart Pots and Kurt, I mean, this is quite the forum - That you're at.

This is, this is like an incredible forum, Casey, as you know, it's like a thousand exhibitors.

It, this is really the premier show for horticulture in the country.

Yeah.

And entirely fills the convention center, fills eight acres Sure.

Eight acres and fills every hotel room in Columbus.

And, and it's, it's amazing.

And, and great to be here.

- Yeah.

And so you guys are regulars here.

You come - Here lot.

We are regulars here.

We've been here for the Smart pots - Yeah.

- For, for, you know, 15 or 20 years.

So showing our smart pot, we work with our distributors.

All of our distributors are here.

A lot of growers are here.

A lot of friendly faces.

So it's, it's always good to be - Here.

It, it's like a reunion coming back a little.

- It's kind of like a reunion coming back.

Yeah.

And we get to show what's new.

Like we have our three packs here, our vegetable planters.

Yeah.

Which is, has, has worked out great.

Get to show things like that.

We get to talk to our distributors and tell 'em what's coming up.

A lot of stores come by growers.

Right.

Commercial growers.

After we break down here, we'll visit some of our commercial grower customers.

So this is, this is a great venue and a great place to meet up.

- Well, you know, we love your product and we've, we've done a whole thing on your - Product, right?

Yeah.

And we appreciate the support it's made right there in Oklahoma.

And it's made in Oklahoma, made in Oklahoma City.

And we appreciate the support of, you know, the Made in Oklahoma.

And there are a few made in Oklahoma, people around here as you, as you know, have seen.

Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- So there we're, we're well represented here.

- Well, it's been at the - Conference, - It's fantastic.

Fantastic.

We, we appreciate everything that you're doing and that you're representing Oklahoma - Here for it.

Well, thank you for, for stopping by.

And I hope you, I hope you've had some good meals here in Columbus, so yeah, thank you so much.

Yeah, great.

Great.

- One of the biggest displays here at Cultivate is provided by Adept Ag and we are joined by Kane to share a little bit about all the machinery you guys have brought in here.

- Yeah.

So we provide solutions for automation, irrigation, and environmental controls.

And that is really driving solutions to understand where we can drive labor costs down, be more efficient, and just overall optimize our customer's performance.

- Right.

So let's, let's talk through some of the machinery that you have here.

Yeah.

Basically a lot of it's for nursery production, right?

So - Nursery, greenhouse, indoor, and some outdoor.

- Right.

So yeah.

So everything from mixing the soil to fill in the pots.

- Correct.

We provide full mixing solutions that can specifically give the grower exactly kind of mix that they're looking for, tailor that to the crop at the same time, deliver that to the production line, transplant the crop into larger containers, provide full solution, - Because one of the things is a big cost.

Correct.

Right.

And so we're trying to reduce some of that in some areas.

Yep.

And obviously planting you have a more consistent product at the end, right?

- Correct.

A lot of times when you see a grower that has invested good practices in automation, you see their quality becomes very consistent outcome throughout the entire greenhouse.

- Very good.

Well, I, I noticed behind us you have like a planter thing and you got fingers moving all over.

Yeah.

Tell us a little bit about that.

- Yeah.

So when you start growing, you generally, you start out in a pluck tray, something that's a smaller cell after say 11 days, you're ready to set that up into the finished product.

So we have a automated transplanting system that's gonna pick up that seedling, transplant that into the finished product, and then go out to the greenhouse.

Everything is a understanding of how much space you have.

So you have to be conscious of I only have so much acreage under glass.

- Yeah.

- So we're gonna stage that product and step it up Okay.

To its lifecycle to make sure that we can save space as much as possible throughout the - Process.

And I'm sure you can adapt that to whatever size pots or whatever size flat.

- Yeah.

We have plug - Trays.

You're Yeah.

- Small grippers, large grippers can definitely step up.

- Yeah.

Fantastic.

And I know one of your biggest machines you were talking about earlier was your soil mixing machine.

So I think a lot of times as consumers, we don't realize what all goes into that, but we're talking large volumes Yeah.

That have to be mixed.

- Right.

So we have anywhere between five to 11 yard hoppers.

So these bins that have the raw material, peat moss bark, but we need to blend all those together so they start off everything separated.

- Yeah.

- But we dispense 'em at different rates to create these different blends that, that growers can use for the individual crops.

- Okay.

And I know you've mentioned technology's kind of changed and how that evolves, right?

Yeah.

Tell us a little bit about that.

- So a lot of the technology that we're focusing on now is, is larger data models, understanding the data that's coming from the machines and then consolidating that into a centralized platform so that we can make sure our growers are more informed of how well the machines are running, how well their operation is, and overall reduced downtime as much as possible.

- Okay.

And, and it kind of keeps track of your inventory as far as your materials you're using - Too?

Yeah.

So like on the recipe, solar system, like you mentioned, anytime we're making a batch of material, we're tracking that through the entire process.

We're understanding exactly when it was made, all the different breakdowns, where does it go.

So we have full traceability from end to end.

- Oh, fantastic.

Well thank you so much for sharing this with us.

- Thank you.

Interesting.

- Joining me next is Charlie Anderson with Burrow.

And you've got some interesting technology that's kind of shaping the way the nursery industry is performing.

Tell us a little bit about it.

- Yeah, so these are, these are burrows, these are autonomous ground vehicles used in nurseries, vineyards, berry operations, and beyond.

They're used to tow, to mow, to spray, to do a lot of the, the, the boring things that people should no longer have to do.

- Okay.

All right.

- And they're about 550 of them in the wild.

They're in the us, Australia, New Zealand and beyond.

We're selling about 25 to 30 a month right now.

- So what is that?

I mean, it's like a Lego four wheel piece, right?

Yep.

And you put a lot of different functions on top of that.

- Yeah.

So, so I think to a mass audience, this is Disney's Wally for work outdoors in a 1.0 format.

Okay.

More practically what that is, is a vision based ground vehicle.

So something that's, it's sucking in tons of information about the great outdoors as it's driving around and it's doing pretty basic ubiquitous tasks that are all over the place in nurseries, vineyards, berry operations, et cetera.

So, mowing, towing, spraying are these, these basic tasks that are all over the place.

And we tend to come in and replace a small tractor and push the operator to do something that'd rather do than sit in the heat.

- Right.

- And do you know, towing, mowing, spraying and beyond?

- Because we know labor is one of the biggest costs.

Right?

Exactly.

And so if we can transform that and have an AI do that for us Yep.

- Yep.

- That, that leaves the human to go do something more important.

Right.

- Exactly.

I think so.

People are really, really smart.

They're really, really flexible.

Robots are never gonna replace 'em comprehensively, but there's a bunch of stuff that robots can start to do that can free people up to do higher value things.

- Yeah.

- And a lot of nurseries labor can, oftentimes we have to 78% of their costs.

And so if you're able to free up that labor to work in air conditioning or be more thoughtful or do higher value tasks, you can have a boring robot do the thing that people shouldn't have to do.

- Okay.

And of course you got some safety functions.

Oh yeah.

A quiet machine, right?

Yep.

Yep.

'cause it runs on battery.

Is that - Yep.

Yeah.

So they, they run a lithium batteries, they have about 24 sensors and they process about three terabytes of data per hour of runtime.

- Okay.

- Per unit.

So every single system is very, very data acquisitive.

So it's learning conci as it runs.

- Okay.

- They've got cameras, 3D, lidar, what else?

It - Doesn't run lid.

So it doesn't into anything or doesn't - Run.

I think it's, so it doesn't run into anything.

And also if you think about an outdoor settings, there are a lot of things you actually need to drive through.

- Okay.

- So tall vegetation, do you drive through it or stop?

- Yeah, - That's a pretty complicated question.

Okay.

And so these are set up to go into cluttered, you know, cluttered, crazy outdoor environments.

You've got doors and doors and tall grass and ditches and trucks and all of these things.

- Paddle guards - And area Yeah.

Paddle guards.

Exactly.

And to drive safely near people.

Okay.

And it's a lot harder to drive near people than it is to drive far away from people.

'cause people work indoors and outdoors.

They work in areas and there's no GPS.

- Right.

- And so we are, what we specialize in is in driving safely near people, because where there's a lot of people, there's a lot of labor.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, and and tell us a little bit, you guys are fairly new, or have you been around for a while?

- Yeah, so we were founded in 2017, so we've been around for eight or nine years at this point.

Okay.

And we, I believe have the largest fleet of outdoor robots running in agriculture today.

So they're over 550 of these running team is around 55 today.

We're growing quite rapidly.

- Okay.

- And we are, you know, I think when I think about great brands building things that work outdoors, there's Caterpillar, there's Bobcat, there's Deere, there's Toro, there's no great brand for autonomous mobility outdoors yet.

And that brand is gonna be Burrow.

- Okay.

- In my opinion.

- All right.

We'll stick with another animal name for Exactly, - Exactly.

- This is a fabulous thing and, and I think it's really cool what y'all are doing for the industry, and thank you so much for sharing this with us.

Yeah.

- Oh, thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Really appreciate it.

- We came all the way to Columbus, Ohio to meet up with a company right from Muskogee, Oklahoma Acme.

And you guys are responsible for so much ventilation around the world with greenhouses, right?

- That's right.

That's right.

Tell us - A little bit about that.

- Well, Acme was started in 1938 and it was actually started right there in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

And the gentleman that started acne was the Buds family.

And I say the Buds family 'cause we're in the fourth generation of ownership now.

And so actually the daughters are running the business now, both Jessica and Julie.

- Okay.

- And that particular organization started from basically a failed drilling operation in the oil field.

And so the, the gentleman started the business through finding some fans at a trade show in Chicago.

Oh.

And he decided, you know, I think I can do that myself.

So he came back, started this, and it's grown into this type of operation.

So now we don't make residential fans anymore, but we do manufacture fans for all industries through commercial heavy industrial agriculture and horticulture.

And so you, it's, it's kind of a three legged stool, you - Know, kind.

Right.

I never really thought about, I always think greenhouses, but Yes, exactly.

You do a lot with agriculture.

Yeah.

Indoor housing systems and things like that and - Sure.

Sure.

So we sell a lot of ventilation product in this particular industry to all the builders.

So all these builders that, you know, design and build these greenhouses, they're our customers.

So that's why we come to this particular show, 'cause we get to see - Everybody.

Yeah.

And we might not even realize it's acne ventilation that we have on our greenhouses, but that you can do some to some of the hobby greenhouse builders as well.

Right?

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

We sell to a wide variety of customer and, but mainly it's to, you know, distributors that manufacture, or if they don't build the greenhouse, they have greenhouse kits Okay.

In certain instances.

So yeah.

Those are our customers.

- Well, excellent.

It's nice to know a product that's made in Oklahoma is so well represented in the industry.

We appreciate what you're doing.

- Thank you so much.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thanks.

- Joining us next is Carrie Wilson with the Garden Media Group and also a former OSU alum, or you are alum now, I guess.

- Yes, - Yes.

So tell us a little bit about that transition.

You graduated from OSU and now you're here as a professional.

- Right.

So I got a degree from OSU in 2023 for public horticulture, and I ended up with a public relations firm that's garden centric, and they appreciated my horticulture knowledge.

- Yeah.

- Obviously I use that every day in my work now, and That's great.

And we work remotely, - Which is awesome.

- So you're - Still in Oklahoma?

- Yes.

Yes.

And here - We are in Columbus meeting.

So tell us a little, it's amazing.

Yeah, it's great.

It's, it's such a reunion of everybody in the industry here.

Yes.

Right.

Tell us a little bit about what a Garden Media Group does and then also specifically your trend report.

- Right.

So Garden Media Group is a public relations firm that's centric to the garden industry.

And we have an annual trends report, and we present that actually for the first time, usually at Cultivate is our debut.

- Yeah.

And so tell us, recap a little bit, 2025, what were some of the trends and how does that influence gardens and things like that?

- So last year was lived in living fences, lived in gardens, a lot of native plants, overgrowth, not perfect manicuring, and then holy moly, which was about houseplant and fenestration.

- Okay.

And we monster.

Yeah.

How much houseplant have really exploded.

- Yes.

- So what are we looking for?

Can you give us a teaser of 2026?

- So 20, 26 times are a little rough right now, and people are looking to have fun.

They're looking for an escape in their garden.

And so the main theme of our trends report, it's about being playful and having fun in the garden.

Okay.

All right.

- So we always need an excuse to get out Yes.

De and have definitely a little play.

Play time out there.

Definitely.

- Right.

Yeah.

- And you always pair it with a color too, right?

- We do.

Last year, our year was tur or color was turquoise.

This year, I'll just let that be a surprise.

Okay.

Our trend report will be out in September.

Once it's out in September, it can be downloaded straight from our website.

- All right.

So and then, and what does this trend report kind of do for the industry when you showcase it here?

- So we're just forecasting what we see, starting to build trends that are starting to build and that we think are gonna get bigger in the next year.

And then we also try to translate that for what garden centers can do to lean into those trends.

- All right.

So you might see some of those themes actually come out at nurseries and garden centers and - Things like that.

Definitely like - That.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well thank you so much, Carrie.

It's good to see you here.

Good to see you too.

A great surprise.

Yeah.

There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

Join us next week as we wrap up our visit to cultivate and visit the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices.

Be sure to visit our website at Oklahoma gardening dot OK state.edu.

Join in on Facebook and Instagram.

You can find this entire show and other recent shows, as well as individual segments on our Oklahoma Gardening YouTube channel.

Tune into our okay Gardening classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OSU is home to our studio gardens, and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater Gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.