(gentle music) (elegant music) - [Congregation] Welcome to "Oklahoma Gardening".

Yay!

- [Narrator] Today we continue to explore the International Master Gardener Conference by getting a tour of the Monet Garden at Overland Park Arboretum.

We then learn about new plants from Ball Seed.

And finally, Jessica Riggin is back at home cooking up a tasty squash recipe.

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

- So if you're looking for an easy, low maintenance perennial.

(elegant music continues) Have two different types of flowers on one plant.

Capsaicinoids that gives the pepper its heat.

(elegant music continues) Today we are here at the Overland Park Arboretum, which is just south of Kansas City, Kansas, and we are here because they have a beautiful Monet Garden.

And joining me is Gail McRoberts, who is a master gardener here in Johnson County.

- Hi.

- Hello.

Thank you for joining us out here.

- Thank you for inviting me.

This is so exciting and so beautiful.

I feel like I've just walked into France all of a sudden here at the Monet Garden.

- That's exactly the experience we want you to have.

- So tell us a little bit about the role master gardeners play here at the Overland Park Arboretum.

- [Gail] So Johnson County has over 500 active master gardeners, and there's about 40 to 60 probably that work in the Monet Garden.

We support nine gardens around the county.

They're all spectacular, but this one is unique in that it replicates the actual Monet design elements.

And so we have two work days a week and it's a fantastic experience, a feast for the eyes.

- [Casey] And you guys get to really actually be a part of the design of your annual color that you put in here and stuff?

- We do.

It is a wonderful partnership with the city, and there's different bed captions for each of the sections of the garden, and they work tirelessly every year to plan on what new plants they wanna put in to keep the style and the coloration authentic to how it was designed by Monet.

And so it's just a wonderful relationship.

There's a little greenhouse here on site.

The arboretum actually grows many of our plants from seed over the winter and has 'em available for us in the spring.

And then this is what happens.

- It's, I mean, I think we hit it at peak, but it probably looks like this.

I know the poppies are just finishing up, so there's those beautiful seed heads, and the gladiolas are just coming on, so- - It is always a wonderful time to visit Monet.

But you're right, this is pretty peak.

May, June timeframe is really ideal before those real hot, brutal temperatures start.

- So let's talk a little bit about some of those Monet garden design elements that he's so famous for.

- Great.

There are about seven or eight elements that he incorporated into his garden that we tried to replicate here, one, starting with layers.

Monet was big on not just planting obviously at ground level, but also going up, so he had a lot of structures and arbors in his garden.

And so he also wanted to paint the blooms and the flowers with the backdrop of the sky, and so having those arbors and those elements available was important to his design.

The other one was purity of color.

Obviously he's thinking like a painter so all of the gardening he did was with the intention of painting.

So he selected plant materials that were real intense in color, not as opposed to the variegated.

Similar in lighting and back lighting.

He selected florals and plants that were like single petal so that way you'd have the, you know, the illumination.

- Like the poppies, where they sort of glow- - Right, absolutely.

- [Casey] and the light shine through 'em.

Right, okay.

- [Gail] He incorporated white, so he used a lot of different and contrasting colors that are very appealing to the human eye.

And then he used structures into his garden like bridges, boats, and benches.

We've replicated the benches and the bridge.

We are not able to replicate the boats.

(laughs) - [Casey] Well, I know there's a shade garden behind here.

And so you really have played up more of the texture aspect there, right?

- [Gail] Absolutely.

That is such an important part too, richly patterned textures.

When he added the lily pond, which really was the last 20 years of his life gave him inspiration for painting, he used that as his texture garden.

He put his azaleas in there, he put a lot of the ornamentals, and that was an important element as well.

- [Casey] Yeah, and you mentioned the water lilies and the lotus.

Of course, that is Monet.

Classic Monet, right?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

A lot of paintings.

- [Casey] In addition to weeping trees, right?

So- - Yes, and unfortunately we lost our signature weeping willow here a year ago, but we have replanted and it's gonna be a while before it gets back to that Monet style weeping willow.

But absolutely, that's an important part.

- You still have a weeping Norway Spruce back there that looks beautiful.

- We do, we do.

- [Casey] And we do so including some of the trellises and things that you have, the hardscape, you have a lovely sculpture of Monet also.

- [Gail] We do.

There was a generous gift given in 2013, a Utah artist by the name of, I think John Price is his name.

He actually designed this.

And what I love about it is the easel that is being used here in this statue.

- [Gail] Is a replication of the view you're gonna see here when you visit the garden.

- [Casey] So Monet is literally looking at the garden he's painting here.

- [Gail] He is.

He really is.

So he is always with us when we're here watching over us, making sure we are not violating any of his design elements.

- Well, Gail this is just phenomenal and I know there's even more to the Oberland Park Arboretum.

If somebody from Oklahoma wants to come up and visit can you give us a little more information?

- Absolutely.

The arboretum is open every day of the year, and there are lots of events going on in all seasons, even in the wintertime when the actual Monet garden in France is closed.

It's only open from April to October.

Ours is open year round.

So we have to have a lot of winter interests.

And there's luminary walks and wonderful things Arboretum's putting on all the time.

- All right.

Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

- Thank you.

It's a joy to be with you.

- Thank you.

(bright guitar music) - I've found a new gardening thing called crevice gardening.

I'm gonna give that a whirl and you can do it on large scales and very small scales.

So I'm thinking that that would be a great garden to have in our demo garden.

- I am the vice president of our group and so I've attended talks on how to do social media and how to use your iPhone to produce publications and that sort of stuff.

So I'm gonna help our group do a better job of that.

- Bear's breeches.

My gosh.

It's an amazing looking plant and columnar kind of thing.

Oh, I'm talking with my hands again.

(pair laughing) Little purple and white flowers and these huge amazing leaves on it.

It grows in the shade and it'll go great in my yard.

- Or partial sun too.

(bright guitar music) - So we've been able to pull another speaker aside here at the International Master Gardener Conference and joining me is Mike DeRee who is with the Ball Horticulture Seed Company.

So Mike, tell me a little bit about Balls history.

They've been a very prominent figure and providing a lot of our annual color over the years.

- Yes, Casey, Ball has been in business since 1905.

It's privately held company, which is wonderful for me.

And we're now in our third generation about to go into the fourth generation.

So we've been almost 120 years old.

- [Casey] And they've got quite a legacy over these numerous decades really.

And you're based out of Chicago but you provide plants worldwide, right?

- [Mike] That is correct.

The explosion really started about the mid nineties when the third generation, when Anna Ball took over from her father and mother.

And since then she has taken the company global for sure.

- And so really, you guys sell to growers predominantly or tell me a little bit about, because we're talking with consumers and I know consumers have your plants but often they probably get them from their growers and stuff.

Is that kind of how it works?

- That is correct, Casey.

We're one step kind of behind the scenes where we actually in my job, I work with the growers to make decisions of what to grow, what to fill their greenhouses with, what to offer the consumer.

- All right.

And there's always so many that are coming up.

I know I, as a horticultures have a hard time keeping up with all the new varieties.

Can you give us a little teaser of what we're seeing in 2023 and maybe what's to come in 2024 also?

- Oh, that's such a great question.

Generally there's three to 400 new varieties every year.

And a lot of it depends on what the breeders are trying to accomplish.

Whether they're trying to accomplish a concern that the growers are having or whether it's just flat out competition and they're getting beat by something.

So I would say, we always do.

There's a lot of breeding going on in calibrachoas.

There's always a lot of breeding going on in petunias.

- So let's talk about calibrachoas.

They're kind of number one right now.

Is that what I understand?

- [Mike] In North America, Casey, they're definitely the number one selling plant in North America.

By far, which is amazing by far.

- [Casey] And they've got so much variety.

You can get any color under the sun it seems like.

- Yes.

One of the things we discussed or was part of the presentation was that between about the top 10 worldwide breeders, the grower probably has 400 or more varieties to choose from.

Sounds like fun?

- Just of calibrachoa?

- Just of calibrachoa yes.

- For them to kind of narrow down - So that's a lot.

that ultimately gets to the consumer then.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

So - Very challenging.

- I'm sure.

I'm sure.

So let's talk about some of those problems that you were saying people maybe are facing.

So as far as breeding and that sort of stuff they're trying to resolve some of the issues for resistance and stuff.

Can you talk about some of maybe the varieties you have?

- The one that comes to mind right away obviously, is impatiens, and there's different types of Impatiens, but what has always just been the landscape Impatiens in the ground somewhere about a dozen years ago was decimated by Downey mildew.

And Downey mildew actually would stay, unfortunately, once it attacked the plant, the spores could fall into the ground.

If one leaf was in the flower bed and never got cleaned out, the spores could stay in the soil, and to resurrect the next year and destroy the crop again.

And so the breeder spent 10 years, I should say breeders and scientists both, spent 10 years trying to find an answer.

And about three years ago had a, like a major breakthrough and we'll never say they're Downey mildew resistant.

But they're Downey mildew tolerant, which means they can get attacked by the disease but it will not kill them anymore.

They'll grow through it and they'll still perform.

- Okay.

Excellent.

And I know you showed a whole bunch of slides just now, some amazing plants.

So I'm trying to condense this for our viewers a little bit but one of the ones that stood out was what has changed with the Dragon Wing Begonia.

Can you tell me a little bit about that newer variety?

It's got like a chartreuse leaf to it.

- Okay.

So within the Dragon Wings, couple of things.

Casey, if you'll allow this.

Is we, and the viewers might find it interesting too, that it actually sat on the shelf for 25 years before anybody knew what to do with it.

So, then it hit the market with a green leaf, pink flower, red flower, red's really kind of an orange, but we call it red.

And then white was introduced, with a green leaf white somewhere.

What you are referring to is that about five years ago, in a greenhouse in Ohio, one dragon wing sported to a chartreuse sprout or branch.

And the young man that owned the greenhouse thought, oh this is pretty cool.

So actually... - And that was just accidental though, right?

- Yeah, total, total accidental.

That's one of those acts of God we talk about.

And he took that it has now become commercially available as Canary wings.

So it's now it's about two thirds the size of Dragon Wing but chartreuse foliage still blooms well.

And does phenomenal.

Yes.

The red bloom, thank you.

And does really, really well in this shade and really brightens a dark, shady spot.

- [Host] Excellent.

Okay.

Well, I know you've got some smaller compact lantanas also that you're offering.

Can you tell us a little bit about those?

- [Mike] Well, one of the things we talked about was breeders are trying to fit all different kinds of niches.

And we see the movement over the last, I don't know, 20 years actually has been out of the ground and into containers.

So the Lantanas of old that were really semi shrubs, kind of lost their luster.

And the other thing with the old Lantanas, is they would cycle in and out of bloom.

And so breeders said, well, there's an opportunity.

They're too big for containers.

So they've worked really hard at two things.

One, breeding them down.

And so now we have small to medium to larger ones, but none of those being larger than the old standbys.

And also the fact that they really worked extremely hard at re-blooming.

So they're always in bloom.

And the easy way to see that in the garden center, is you'll see two blooms, and if you look closely, you'll see the next two.

And sometimes you even see the next two coming.

They're just already coming.

Very cool, very cool.

- Excellent.

And tell us a little bit also you're not just looking at the ornamental world, right?

I mean, there are people that just wanna grow vegetables, right?

And you're trying to help them also.

- Yes.

So it goes back to we're seeing, so this is a generational thing.

And I'll at least put it that way in kind terms.

So we're seeing the younger generation, the millennial generation, if you will, they really love gardening.

It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

But they don't always have the space.

They don't.

And big gardens have obviously for a lot of reasons are not as prevalent as they once were.

So for a millennial that has yet to maybe hit the house or just has a deck, or I mean an apartment even, we're, we're really shrinking and offering a lot of peppers, tomato varieties, and now a new cucumber that can be finished in a small pot and that can actually produce, but understand it's kinda like one and done.

It's kinda like buying the tub of little cherry tomatoes in the store, but what you get with that is you get to grow it yourself.

And then when they're done, the hope at least the millennials in the company believe, that now they'll just go buy another one.

And they can continue to do that over and over and over.

- [Host] So instead of going to the grocery store and buying more tomatoes, you're actually going to the plant nursery and buying another plant for your true vine ripened tomato that way.

- Yes.

Yes.

- But it, you know, at the very least it might be a way to get their toes in the water on gardening right?

- Absolutely.

- So maybe they do then go on and get some bigger tomatoes or something.

- We do know there's a lot of interest in that generation in cooking, in herbs.

And so we're trying to, you know, extrapolate that and go into vegetables and just make it very easy.

- Well, Mike, this is great information.

Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

- Thank you for allowing me to be part of this.

(bright country music) - I wanted to learn more about gardening.

- Exactly.

- I just retired and had more time to devote to it.

(bright country music continues) - It has been a dream retirement because it has evolved into not only gardening but beekeeping.

We became beekeepers four or five years ago, and we've gone from two hives up to over 20.

And I go to farmers markets, which has expanded my gardening experience, and sell honey and just meet more people, make more friends.

It's just really broadened my whole scope of life really.

(camera clicking) (bright country music continues) - [Narrator] For more information on the Oklahoma Master Gardener program, visit this website.

(bright country music continues) - Hi, everybody.

It is squash season, and if you have ever planted a garden with squash in it, you know that once that squash starts coming out of the garden, it is a lot.

And a lot of times, it's more than one family can eat.

And so you might be eating squash every single day.

Probably the most popular way for Oklahomans to eat squash is fried.

And it is delicious fried, but we all know that fried foods are not the healthiest for us.

So I wanted to show you a healthier squash dish that you could use to help eat some of that squash out of your garden.

If you don't have a garden and you wanna try this, just keep in mind that your squash that you buy at the grocery store might be shaped a little bit different.

They might be a little bit bigger, and so you may not need as many of them.

I have squash from a backyard garden grown in Tryon, Oklahoma, and they were pretty small.

So I used about four of them.

But again, if you bought grocery store squash that are a little bigger, maybe you only need two, 2 1/2, something like that.

I started by washing the squash.

Anytime you have store-bought produce or produce right out of your backyard garden, you wanna make sure that you give them a rinse in cold water.

Get all of the dirt off and any other unwanted particles.

And then I've sliced them about 1/4 of an inch thick into rounds.

I've got my pan heating on the stove here.

And I'm gonna just heat a little bit of olive oil in it.

I first tried this recipe when I was a dietetic intern, and the dietitian at the Seretean Wellness Center on the OSU campus was doing a healthy foods cooking demonstration and she made this.

And I just thought it was really great and I've been making it ever since.

So I'm gonna put my squash down in a single layer into the hot olive oil, and I'm just gonna sear it on each side.

We don't want it to cook to the point of getting mushy, but we do wanna get a little bit of color on it.

And then I'm gonna flip 'em over and get a little color on the other side as well.

(oil sizzling) So my squash are just lightly browned now, and my pan doesn't hold very many.

So I'm gonna remove these squash to a platter and then I'm gonna load my skillet up again with the rest of my squash.

When I flipped these over, I seasoned them with a little salt and herb blend.

You could just use salt and pepper.

You could use whatever kind of seasoning blend you like.

And just give 'em a light, you know, just a light little shake over the top with my salt blend.

(oil sizzling continues) And then we'll just keep going with the squash.

So now all my squash is lightly browned, and we're gonna move on to the next step and I wanna work really quickly here because I don't want anything to burn at this point.

I'm also going to turn my heat down just a little bit.

I've had it pretty close to high, like medium-high, to get the squash browned.

I'm going to sprinkle in some red pepper flakes.

If you don't like red pepper flakes, if your family does not tolerate spicy food, just leave this part out.

But you just do it to your taste.

Be careful.

If you don't have the sifter on here, don't just go dumping.

Be sure you look.

I've learned that the hard way.

So we're just gonna sprinkle a little bit in my palm and put it in here.

And then I'm gonna add my minced garlic.

Garlic burns very, very fast, so do not walk away from this.

You'll wanna put your garlic in.

We're gonna give it a little bit of a stir in the pan.

As soon as you start to smell it, (oil sizzling) and I smell it, it's time to pour in your liquid so that it doesn't burn.

This recipe calls for white wine.

(wine hissing) Ooh.

- The recipe calls for dry white wine.

Chardonnay works really, really well in this.

If you don't want to use wine, that's okay.

You could use half lemon juice and half water.

That would work really well.

You could use chicken broth or vegetable broth.

That would work well.

I've used dry cooking sherry from the grocery store aisle.

If you do want to use the white wine, I recommend using a wine that you like to drink because it only calls for a fourth of a cup and then you've got the rest of the bottle.

So unless you have plans for the rest of that bottle of wine, you're probably going to drink it.

And so you want it to be something that you enjoy.

So we're just gonna let this simmer I've added all my squash back in with my garlic and my cooking wine and my red pepper flakes.

And we're gonna let it simmer for just a few minutes.

Then we'll put it back on the platter and sprinkle it with feta cheese and chives.

When I first tried this recipe, it was made with goat cheese and that was absolutely delicious.

But I couldn't get goat cheese in my rural grocery store.

And so feta cheese works really well.

Blue cheese would also be really good in this.

So this last step doesn't take very long.

It just needs to simmer for a couple of minutes.

Let that garlic and wine permeate through the squash just a little bit, and we'll put it back on our serving platter here.

You wanna kinda spread it out, make it look pretty.

Cooked squash does get a little bit soft and mushy and it can kind of fall apart.

And so just be careful as you're taking it out so that you don't break it up too much.

And I'll just take my cheese, sprinkle it over the top.

You can use as much or as little as you want really.

And then I've got some fresh chives here that I'm also gonna sprinkle over the top.

The green color just looks really nice and it'll give it a freshness to the flavor.

You could really use any kind of herbs you have handy.

Basil or parsley would also be really great on this.

Or you could do a mix.

And there you have it.

This is my awesome summer squash.

(bright classical music plays) - [Announcer] There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

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

(bright classical music plays) Next week, right here on "Oklahoma Gardening" we'll be back in Stillwater to take a look at how everything is still growing strong in the garden.

(bright classical music plays) - And this has been another episode of "Oklahoma Gardening".

- [Announcer] 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 OklahomaGardening.okstate.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 in to 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 gym.

We would like to thank our generous underwriter, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

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.

(bright classical music plays)