(minstrel music) (soft music) - Oklahoma Gardening is a production of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the land grant mission of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University, dedicated to improving the quality of life of the citizens of Oklahoma through research-based information.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

Today on Oklahoma Gardening, as we transition out of fall we take a closer look at the wide array of mums that take center stage this time of year.

With holiday travel on a lot of people's minds, we have some special guests that work at our international airports to protect the US horticulture and agriculture industries.

And finally, we close our season as we head to Enid to visit the largest Christmas tree in the world.

(upbeat music) (soil crunching) As we finish out that fall landscape which is so often recognized by the classic mum, especially the Garden Mum that we have, before we head into Poinsettia season, we wanted to stop by King's Mums here, in Sand Springs, Oklahoma to talk with Brian Kanotz.

Brian, thank you for joining us and letting us be here to see your display.

- It's my pleasure, thank you for coming.

- So let's first talk about what King's Mums is and what you guys are actually selling 'cause it's not the flowers, right?

- No, no, we don't sell the flowers.

So we sell small rooted cuttings and we sell to public gardens, mail-order only, public gardens, homeowners, and a lot of cut flower growers.

- [Casey] Yeah, so your product is very small that you're shipping out at this point.

- [Brian] Yeah, it's just a rooted cutting, hopefully, in the three to six-inch range with a root ball about this size, maybe a little bigger than a quarter.

- Okay, so at this point though, I mean, a lot of times we're talking about mums blooming.

A lot of times we've bought our small, round mum for our either pumpkin or Thanksgiving display.

But you've got quite a selection and I know there are a lot of varieties.

Can we talk through some of these?

- Sure, love to.

- So what do we have here?

- So chrysanthemums, people think of the garden type like you're talking about.

The little mounded balls you see everywhere in the fall.

But they're actually classified by flower form kind of like a Daffodil would be.

So we've got 13 different classifications but the last classification is unclassified so those are just ones we like.

- Okay, missed it.

- So yeah.

And this system was taken from Europe.

They're really big into their flowers over there you might have heard.

So we've got all the different classes here, just to give you an idea of what can be seen in chrysanthemums.

A lot of these, people just don't remember or have never seen.

- [Casey] Right, right.

So I mean, it's kind of, if you don't mind, talk through each one of them with us and tell us what we're lookin' at.

- [Brian] We can go through one through 13.

So these are the Irregular Incurves.

I think you remember these as the football mums that people called.

And this is not as big as it can get.

So that's class one.

Class two would be Reflex.

And this one in the front where their petals are reflexing down.

So that's what we're really after in this one.

Class three is Incurve.

It's a smaller Incurve, it's not the really big ones.

- So incurve meaning the petals move up.

- They will incurve down.

So actually these will reflex down.

So, yes.

So yeah, curved in.

We're probably gonna need to redo that one.

Class four is Decorative and this is probably the one people think of the most.

But I wanted to show you some of the different forms with the petals 'cause you wouldn't think of that as a decorative type.

But this is more commonly what you would see is that decorative flower.

So then-- - And these are, these are big, so these aren't the football mums.

- No, those are Incurves, as well.

And that one is a special one I picked out.

That's actually a peacock-type flower.

That's the oldest one we have and it was imported from Europe and it dates back to 1920.

- [Casey] Wow, it's beautiful 'cause it's got these kind of, I've never seen that on petals before.

- Yeah, and you don't see that at all.

There's only a few of them left and as far as I know, I don't know of another one in this country that's being offered.

- And are they all pink like this, too?

- That's the only cultivar I have like that, so.

- And the little button mums?

- Yeah, Pompons, another really common one you see in the florist trade that's commonly grown just because they can last so long.

So people love those.

And then the others, the Single and the Semi-Doubles a daisy-like flower that you're-- - [Casey] Yeah, I was gonna say with the classic eye?

- [Brian] Right, and they're really common again, in the florist trade.

You see those everywhere.

Then we've got the Anemones and we've got some wild forms here, with one that's, it's still in that classification, but to give you an idea of the different forms there.

- [Brian] The spoons, and I really try to get you to look at the, it's really at the end, where that spoon tip is?

- [Host] Um hun.

- [Brian] And you see the different sizes and different forms on those.

- [Host] So the petal's actually kind of curls up.

- [Brian] Um hun.

- [Host] And then it opens up at the end.

- [Brian] Yeah, and it's that spoon at the end that makes it that, you can literally take that off and actually you can imagine using it as a spoon, - Right.

- if it would work for that.

(host laughs) - So these are quills, and we have different colors in there and just different sizes and shapes.

So where, again, where the Quill has a tube at the end more.

This one almost is a spoon but it's not quite, it's more lance shaped.

- [Host] Okay, so.

- [Brian] So it's similar to spoon, but a little bit different.

- [Host] All right.

- [Brian] And then these are, my daughter would call these fireworks, but they're the spiders.

- [Host] Um hun.

- And I can see why she calls them fireworks.

- [Host] Fireworks, yeah.

- [Brian] She just loves that.

So that's what I call them now.

And then the- - [Host] Then are those old ones that haven't been in water?

(general laughter) - [Brian] Yeah, these were, the mums were really late this year.

- [Host] Um hun.

- [Brian] But these are what are called, Thistle Brush or thistle types.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Brian] And you really see those in the Japanese style.

- [Host] Okay, so they.

- [Brian] And they love those, yeah, there's just not many open.

And then we've got just the other forms there.

They kind of hit one form or classification or another, but they don't meet all the criteria for classification.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Brian] But they're really pretty.

- [Host] Are they hybrids of some of these?

- [Brian] These are all hybrids.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Brian] Chrysanthemums don't- - [Host] Yeah.

(laughs) - [Brian] Growing them from seed is really, you never know what you're gonna get.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Brian] So once you do a hybridization, if you germinate that seed, they all could be different flowers.

- [Host] Right.

- [Brian] So that's why you don't see them grown from seed much.

- Which is why your role here in this position is so important because you're providing cuttings to gardens all across the country.

- Right.

The gardens, for historical purposes, and then we're maintaining the genes, the genetics.

If we didn't do it, they might be lost in this country because we're about the last supplier of them left.

- Wow, that's amazing.

So as we look at this, obviously they're classified by their flowers, but they each take different forms- - Yeah.

As plants too.

- As plants or, as we want them to take.

- Okay.

- So it just depends on what the plant will do.

- Right.

- Or what you want the plant to do.

- So often when you look at something like this, but you get- - Yes.

- Trailing ones or even some much taller ones.

- Yeah.

And it's again, the height variation and this, this one could actually be even taller, I sprayed it with a growth regulator to keep it a little shorter.

- Okay.

- But when we write 4 to 5 feet, the plants can actually get 4 to 5 feet, taller even, if you have enough time.

I've seen them 8, 10 feet tall.

- [Host] Wow.

- [Brian] So yeah.

- [Host] So obviously they all take on different forms, but some of that is manipulation based off of how you prune them, correct?

Is that?

- Yes.

Yeah.

Pruning or training, tying, all of those things.

So we've got this plant here and this is the football mum that you alluded to earlier.

And we talk about looking at these flowers and they'd be different, but this is just one flower, and this is where we get into this budding, to get a different form.

- Wow.

- So this we just removed all the flowers, where these we didn't, and you can see how much larger that flower is.

- Okay.

- And this isn't even a great example, right?

(host laughs) They can get much larger than that.

That 8 to 12 inches for a football mum is not out of the question.

And it's not fully relaxed yet and open.

- Okay.

So that center mum's usually the biggest?

- Right- - Moves all the other ones.

- Right you can see that right here on this stalk that I left, - Right.

where that middle one's the largest.

- Oh that's the middle, okay.

- Yeah if we had left it, removed all of these, you could do that.

- Right.

And that happens when the buds are very tiny, is that correct?

- Yeah, before they're even open - Okay.

you want to be doing that because otherwise the plant's putting energy into flowers it doesn't, you don't want.

- Right, right.

Okay.

So let's talk a little bit.

You're not after the flower so why have you (Brian laughs) let all of these go to flower at this point?

- I'm checking to make sure they're blooming right.

- Um hun.

- [Brian] Because I'm human.

I make mistakes.

I take cuttings.

I might take the wrong one, which I did this year.

(host laughs) So now I don't have the right plant.

And I don't want to sell that to someone next year.

- [Host] Right.

- [Brian] They're expecting a yellow flower and I send them a pink one.

- [Host] Okay.

- [Brian] So.

- [Host] So what's your season kind of look like?

(Brian laughing) Cause I know most people are looking at buying mums going into fall, but yours are being sold when?

- [Brian] I sell in the spring.

So I open my sales in January.

Depends on when I sell out, cause I can only root so many.

And then I start shipping in March and that goes through to June.

And it just depends on where you live and your facilities on when you might want them.

- [Host] Okay, so yeah, because they'll be growing out longer for their fall.

- [Brian] Right, right.

So generally I recommend if you're a homeowner, get them around your last spring frost date.

- [Host] Okay.

So of course this is Oklahoma, so that could be.

(host laughing) - Who knows, well Brian, hopefully we can make it back in the spring to see some of that propagation in action.

And thank you so much for sharing all of this with us today.

- You're welcome.

I'll see you in the spring hopefully.

- Yes, thank you.

(piano plays blues) (horn begins accompanying) - As the holidays are approaching, many of us are thinking about some upcoming travel plans and you've probably heard there's a lot of new rules and regulations, but one area of aspect that you're not thinking about is probably that fruit or vegetable that you might be packing as a snack.

Today joining us is the US Customs and Border Protection, Chief Agriculture Specialist, Ginger Herrell-Lopez.

- Ginger.

Thank you so much for coming all the way up here to Stillwater.

You guys are out of Dallas.

Am I correct on this?

- That's correct.

We're stationed at Dallas, Fort Worth International Airport.

- So tell us a little bit about what your agency does in protecting agriculture.

- Well, we are CBP agriculture specialists.

It's our job to protect American agriculture and how we do that is by conducting inspections at ports of entry.

We inspect passengers, international passengers, international cargo, mail express consignment, and at seaports as well.

- [Interviewer] So there's a lot going on that's coming into our ports and our airports.

Tell us a little bit about what all y'all are looking for and the volume that you're looking at.

- Exactly, this is the peak time of year for both shipments because of the holiday season and holiday travel.

And one of the things that we look at is prohibited agriculture commodities.

So that could be things that are brought by passengers in their luggage.

Fruits, vegetables, meats, plant seeds.

That could also be cargo.

Things that might ha, might carry agriculture pests.

- [Interviewer] So I think a lot of times, you know, I don't mean any harm.

I'm taking my apple.

I'm going to eat it on the plane, but you might stop me.

Talk to me about why an apple could be harmful.

- Okay, first thing is, a lot of things are regulated and some things are allowed.

Some things are prohibited.

So what we encourage people to do is just declare any agriculture product that you're bringing.

Either at the port of entry when you go through, you might have to go through an automated kiosk.

You can report that on the kiosk, or when you talk to a customs and border protection officer, just tell them what you're bringing.

The apples itself could harbor a plant pest or disease.

A lot of times meat products may harbor a foreign animal disease that we don't have here in the U.S. And so that's something that we want to prevent.

The introduction of foreign disease or pests.

So we will be inspecting agriculture items.

- [Interviewer] So you're not just looking at fruits and vegetables.

You're also looking at seeds, is that correct?

And in holiday decorations even?

- [Ginger] That's right.

Any kind of agriculture product that could be plants, seeds, it could be wooden craft items.

Things for holiday decorations that folks may bring.

All the things we inspect for plant pests and diseases.

- [Interviewer] So what are some of the things that you're looking for?

And I know there's sometimes a potential hazards in Florida that aren't in Oklahoma.

How do you regulate that?

Who tells you what to be checking for?

- [Ginger] USDA, U.S. department of agriculture, sets all of our regulations, the rules and regulations.

CBP just enforces those at ports of entry.

- [Interviewer] So what if a traveler has a question about what they're taking?

Can they find out information somewhere?

- [Ginger] Sure.

CBP has a website, cbp.gov, and there's also a great website called dontpackapest.com.

It also has a great agriculture explanation about our rules and regulations.

- [Interviewer] So when we're talking about what y'all are doing in the airports, is that just international flights or domestic flights too.

- That's correct.

We work international travelers, people that are coming to the U.S. from foreign countries.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

So this is a lot of, I mean, you think about all the flights that are happening, all the cargo coming in.

How many of there are you?

- There's around 2,400 agriculture specialists that are spread throughout the nation.

And they work at various ports of entry.

- Wow.

Okay.

So is it just all manpower, that's inspecting all of this?

- Well, we have a lot of tools at our disposal.

One of those is our beagle brigade.

It's a detector dog system that we use to detect prohibited agriculture products.

- [Mary] This is K9 Merla, and she is trained to sniff out prohibited agriculture products.

Things like fresh fruits and vegetables and meats.

- Okay.

So she is a working dog.

May I pet her?

- Yes.

You can.

- So tell me a little bit about her work day and how that looks.

- So her workday is spent in the baggage area for the most part.

So where you would be coming from an international part, you come in, you pick up your bags.

That's where you're going to see us working.

She works on the belt, as the bags are going by.

If there's luggage on the floor, she works that too.

And she will go up to people carrying their bags, wheelchairs, if people have bags in carts, she will search it all.

She'll try to get to it.

Yes.

- [Interviewer] Excellent.

So tell me, what is.

She's looking for fruits, vegetables, meats.

She's been trained with these different smells.

First of all, why a beagle?

And do you have other dogs that you employ as well?

- [Mary] So beagles were picked because they're very people friendly.

They look non-aggressive, they look approachable, so they're not going to scare any passengers.

They're very food motivated.

So it's easy to train them to find something.

If they get a reward, which is a treat for that.

And they also have great sense of smell being coming from a working dog.

They can smell anything basically.

- [Interviewer] All right.

And do you guys also use other breeds of dogs?

- [Mary] We do.

We use breeds like labs and lab mixes.

And that we use in the cargo areas and on the land border, they're more suited to getting up into cars, into containers, to search for prohibited agriculture products.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

So obviously dogs have a great sense of smell, so they can detect things that maybe we couldn't as humans.

But there's a lot of training that goes into being ready to go into work.

Right?

- [Mary] Yes.

There is.

- [Interviewer] Tell me a little bit about that training that is involved.

- [Mary] So, their training is at a training center.

It's 10 weeks long for when you're a new handler, and you train with your dog.

They're partially trained already.

Basically we start off easy, you know, just the, teach the dog to sit, and then we move it up to teaching the dog to sit on a specific scent.

- [Officer] And then from there we can just extrapolate, you know, start searching.

If they find something that they know, oh, I sit, when I smell this I get a treat, and we just go from there.

And it's a continuous process.

They keep learning, and once we get to the airport where we are, they start trying to sit on things that they weren't trained on to see if they can get a treat.

- [Interviewer] Oh, okay.

- [Officer] Mm hmm.

- [Interviewer] And I would imagine, so the pest list is always changing.

There's new problems that might be encountered in agriculture and other countries.

- Mm hmm.

- How do you keep training that dog?

Is there a continuing ed?

(laughs) - There is.

It's more based on the dog learning.

You can specifically teach them things, but just throughout our day, say, she's never smelled before tree tomatoes.

And she just found that the other day, that's not something she's ever found, but when she smelled the bag, she sat immediately.

And when I looked in, there was nothing in there that she had been trained on.

- Oh, okay.

- Mm hmm.

- But she did recognize it.

- But she recognized that this might be something that I'll get a treat for, yes.

(interviewer laughs) - Mm hmm.

- So maybe she's a little excited to get that treat.

- Oh, very excited yes.

(interviewer laughs) - So tell me a little bit, obviously this involves you training also with her.

- Mm hmm.

- What's kind of your background?

Are you patrol, or you agriculture specialist?

Tell me about your background.

- So I am a CBP agriculture specialist.

My background actually is just in biology.

I have a biology major, and I didn't know about this job until my friend introduced me to it.

And I thought I could do that.

And, here I am.

- [Interviewer] So is there a lot of training that goes into this?

I mean, you're a federal employee, is that correct?

- Yes.

- [Interviewer] And what, what's the process?

If somebody was interested in the college of ag, to go into this career?

- Sure.

Yeah.

The process does take a little while, being a federal job, you can look on usajobs.gov, and you can look for agriculture specialists, just type that in there.

The process is a little long.

You go through a background investigation and everything like that.

And then once you are picked up, you go through more training, and if you pass the training, then you're an agriculture specialist.

So, it does take quite a while.

It's probably more than a year's process.

- [Interviewer] Excellent, well, it's very impressive what you do, and Merla's doing a great job.

Thank you so much for sharing this information with us.

- [Officer] Thank you.

(guitar music plays) - [Interviewer] As we head into the holiday season, many of us are beginning to look for that ideal Christmas tree to put in our living room.

And if you haven't heard, Enid has a very large Christmas tree they've put in the center of their town.

Joining me is Dr. McKinley, who is a retired OSU professor with forestry, and he is part of the committee that helped install this massive Christmas tree.

So Dr. McKinley, thank you for joining us today.

- Thank you.

- I know this has been in the works for a long time.

Tell us a little bit about the beginning of this process and getting this tree here.

- Well, this tree was the idea of Mr. Kyle Williams, and Mr. Williams contacted me about a year ago and wanted to know if I would serve as his forestry director.

And I said, certainly this sounds like a great project.

And then in the intervening time now, the tree has been selected.

It was harvested out of Northern California, and brought here about three weeks ago.

- [Interviewer] So, tell me a little bit about this tree, including what kind of species it is.

- [Dr. McKinley] Well, it's a white fir, and white fir are very nice trees and they grow quite straight.

They have a good color to them naturally.

They also will hold their needles longer than some other species.

So it's a, it's an excellent tree for this use.

- [Interviewer] So tell me a little bit about the specs of this tree.

It's fairly large, obviously.

How tall is it?

- [Dr. McKinley] This tree is 140 feet tall.

- And so how do you get 140 foot tall tree from Northern California to Enid, Oklahoma?

- It was quite a project obviously, but we placed it on one of these trucks that hauls the turbine blades for the windmills on the farm.

- Uh huh.

- And as a result, they have experience in handling large straight objects.

- Yeah.

- And they brought it to us in eight days from Northern California, which was pretty good time.

- Okay.

So it landed here in October.

Is that correct?

About October.

- Yes.

- Okay.

So we're heading into Thanksgiving.

Tell us a little bit about the prep, what it looked like when it got here, and what's been happening since it arrived.

- Well, most of the limbs had been removed in order for the transport.

Those limbs were saved, placed on the same truck brought in at that time.

Several other trees were also harvested to be used as auxiliary limbs for the lower part of the tree, because these trees, as they grow, lose their lower limbs.

Quite often, trees will prune up naturally if they're in what we call dense growing area.

And so several other trees were harvested.

And what we used to fill in the lower part of the bowl here to make it look like a tree that had limbs all the way to the ground.

- [Interviewer] Well, definitely it looks like a beautiful tree.

And I know in that process, you know, obviously this tree was harvested some others, but sustainability was important in this project from the very get-go and, and part of your role.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

As far as the sustainable efforts going forward.

- Well Mr. William's had several requests and that was one of the requests, is that we say if you want to say green, we would replace the tree that we harvested with several other trees.

And so right now my activities involve contacting the landowner, making sure he has seedlings available to plant next year.

It is a private landowner.

He does grow these trees for lumber.

So he will replace one tree with several more and they can grow.

- [Interviewer] So, you obviously were brought in for your expertise on trees, but there is a committee that's involved because it's not just about the tree.

- [Dr. McKinley] Absolutely.

There are several members of this committee.

- Specialty or purpose.

We have an engineer.

We have a person who does the internet work and Facebook work.

We have an individual who is working with the volunteer organizations.

There's another individual who is handling public relations.

We have an overall coordinator.

Altogether, there's about a dozen people involved in this project very actively.

- Well, it was quite a community effort and we thank you for that effort.

- Thank you (jazzy music) - Joining us is Kyle and Carol Williams of Enid, Oklahoma, who came up with this brilliant idea of bringing the largest Christmas tree to Enid, Oklahoma.

Tell us a little bit about how this idea got started.

- Well Casey, it started about two years ago.

And we just wanted to bring something to Enid to provide families in our community and this part of the country with something that they might not be able to see anywhere else in the world.

And it just resonated, we could do this.

And so we began by talking to community leaders.

Everybody was like, "Absolutely."

And then it just kind of morphed.

- It's grown.

It's a community event now, right?

- It's truly grown.

(all giggling) - It's truly grown, yes.

So we've got 140 foot tall Christmas tree behind us.

- Crazy, isn't it?

- Largest in the country, in the world.

- We believe it is.

I'm pretty confident it will be.

In fact, Dr. McKinley let us know that the tallest ever put up in the United States was in 1950, a 221 foot tree.

But I've looked around and I, so far, I've not found another tree in the United States so far that I could find that's above 140 feet.

So this may be possibly the second tallest tree in 71 years.

- [Casey] Wow.

That's fantastic.

So obviously the goal of bringing in a tree was important but did you realize all the infrastructure and what that meant, the logistics and the planning that would go into that?

- Oh my gosh, this week they delivered the decorations.

16 pallets, 4,200 pounds.

Isn't that crazy?

- [Casey] Yeah.

- 4,200 pounds of decoration.

- [Casey] You need a lot of elvs.

- 10,000 ornaments to be tied onto this tree.

20 plus thousand lights, have multicolor LEDs.

It will be stunning.

And so it's very exciting.

It's going to be a big event.

We expect well over a 100,000 people over 42 days to come to Enid to see the world's tallest, fresh cut tree.

And we're hoping for 20, maybe 25,000 people on opening night, November 26, 7:30 when we light this tree, great fireworks going to go off that people will be here to see something they've never seen their lives.

- And we were looking forward to celebrating here in Enid with you guys on the opening, but I would encourage all of the audience to get down here for the lighting of this Christ tree.

It's gonna be a quite an event.

Thank you for sharing with us.

- Thanks for coming.

(jazzy music) - As we put away our gardening tools, that also is a wrap on our 2021 season of Oklahoma Gardening.

Now, while this concludes our regular season, OETA will be in fundraising for the next two weeks and then join us back here on December 11th as we began airing our Best of Shows.

I also want to take this opportunity and thank everyone who has helped make the show what it is, including all of our guests that have been on the show, our garden ambassadors, as well as the garden staff here.

And a special thank you to all of the crew behind the scenes that helps make this show.

From our family to yours.

Happy holidays!

(bright music) - This is like, blooper reel.

We're gonna start doing that.

All right?

- Yeah - [Camerawoman] Hold that high.

(bright music) - Tulips serve as an annual, whereas... (bright music) - A-E-I-O-U.

And sometimes Y.

- [Man] Yeah.

That's beautiful - [Announcer] To find out more information about show topics, as well as recipes, videos, articles, back sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices, be sure to visit our website at oklahomagardening.okstate.edu And we always have great information, answers to questions, photos, and gardening discussion on your favorite social media as well.

Join in on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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

Tune in to our Ok 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 underwriter the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Food and Forestry.

Additional support is also provided by Pond Pro Shops, Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticultural Society and Tulsa Garden Club.

(mellow music)