Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

On today's show, we visit the Uchi Butterfly Farm to learn about their unique operation.

We also learn some identifying characteristics about poison hemlock.

We then head to the Red Ridge Nature Preserve to learn more about their conservation mission.

And finally, Shelley Mitchell is back with a fun demonstration.

So join us right here on Oklahoma Gardening.

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Today we are in South Tulsa, actually in Leonard, Oklahoma, at the Uchi Butterfly Farm.

And joining me is Jane Breckenridge, the owner and operator of this farm.

And it's a unique farm.

Let's talk about what you're raising and the legacy of this place.

Right.

So we are a working butterfly farm.

The only working butterfly farm in the state of Oklahoma.

And yes, a butterfly farm is a real thing.

It's not like a hippie hobby, although that sounds like something totally I would be into.

But no, we are.

We are.

Some people have livestock that are, you know, cattle or goats or hogs.

I'm just really lucky because my livestock is butterflies.

It's a beautiful operation that you have here.

Thank you.

Let's talk a little bit about the legacy of this place.

Right.

So it wasn't always a butterfly farm, but it has been in our family for 127 years.

This was my great grandmother's original allotment from 1899 when she was 16 years old.

The entire allotment is still in family hands.

As far as we know, it's the last intact allotment in Tulsa County.

And it was they held on to it a great sacrifice.

And so for us to be able to think about how do we honor those sacrifices and how do we do it in a 21st century way.

For some people, point A to B may not be start a butterfly farm, but for us, we feel like it's what she would have wanted.

Right.

And you're carrying on those native roots and traditions, right?

We are.

And working with the indigenous people.

Let's talk a little bit about that.

So we are more than a butterfly farm.

We are the home of the Tribal Alliance for Pollinators, which is the largest native-led grassland restoration organization in all of North America.

We work with tribes and tribal members to restore native plants back to their lands, both to help pollinators, help butterflies, for cultural plants as well.

We have a lot of that.

We work with pretty much all the tribes in Oklahoma and then tribes nationally as well.

We've worked with 91 different tribes so far to restore native plants back to their lands.

Wow.

So let's talk a little bit about how that whole operation works.

You're talking from finding the seeds to growing them out.

Right.

And it's a labor of love.

So we only use locally sourced native seeds.

Yes, you can order seeds on the internet.

That's all very good and well.

But what we want to make sure we're doing is restoring what was actually lost here.

So all of our seeds, and we've got 280 different types of seeds in our seed bank.

Those are all wild collected here locally, and then they're grown out in our hoop houses, and then they go back to tribal lands to restore those.

We've lost over 96% of our native grasslands here in Oklahoma, and that's been devastating for pollinators, for our beautiful butterflies.

And we're just helping the tribes to help the land and help all those species at risk.

So tell me a little bit, you're creating pollinator islands.

Right.

And so most people haven't heard of that, but it's a really cost efficient way to do habitat restoration.

And it was a protocol that was designed by Dr.

Chip Taylor, who was our co-founder of Tribal Lines for Pollinators.

He invented the Monarch Way Station, and then he really expanded the concept outwards to do the pollinator islands.

So with the habitat islands, we go through, we restore in an area about 20 by 20.

We remove the non-native invasives, and then we do a dense planting of 20 plus species of native plants we've grown out in our hoop houses.

And then over time, they recolonize, and we've seen it happen.

We've done thousands of these, and it really does work.

It's a really cost efficient way to do this and bring these species back and do it in a really biodiverse, beautiful way.

And not just for our pollinators and our butterflies, but for our native birds as well.

So tell me a little bit, why was it so important to get the tribal nations involved in this?

Well, that's a really good question, because a lot of people don't understand what the connection is with the tribes and the butterflies.

But when the monarch butterfly population hit its all time record low in the winter of 2013, 2014, the USDA released a map.

Where were the critical zones if we were going to save monarch migration?

And Oklahoma was right in the middle of the bullseye.

That was before the Okies decided they were for monarchs, which I love now, by the way.

But that was back when telling people you wanted to bring milkweed back to the working lands of Oklahoma was pretty controversial.

But at that time, even though we didn't have a lot of other organizations on board, the tribes were ready.

And the only question they ever had was, how are we going to do this?

Not why are we going to do this, but how?

And so they came together, seven tribes, with Chip Taylor from Monarch Watch.

And we set out not only to restore monarch habitat in Oklahoma, but also to build the capacity in this region.

Oklahoma is important with the tribes because the monarch flyway, where the migratory path is, is mostly the eastern two -thirds of the state.

Ninety percent of that area is under dual jurisdiction between tribes and other entities.

Tribes have huge land holdings, a cultural commitment to do that.

And before our program, nobody was really reaching out to them to engage them in this work.

So it's been hugely successful.

It's even included in National Geographic magazine.

And we've been really, really happy and proud to be able to expand on the work to now help our native bees.

We've had 91 different tribes throughout the United States participate in our programming.

So we are very, very proud of it.

So we've got Natives Raising Natives, which is our tribal butterfly farming program that's about sustainable and economic development.

Also youth education, and it's a really cool way to get kids excited about science.

Also a really great way with those butterflies to promote conservation.

We have a food sovereignty program, FIT, our Food Initiative for Tribes, and that's got a teaching kitchen and gardening classes.

We're a prescribed burn association.

We got a lot going on here.

And we are open to the public for tours two days a week.

And people can go to our website at www.nativebutterflies .org and sign up for tours, learn about the work.

We are a working farm, but we also have a nonprofit that lives here as well that does all of our education and conservation work.

You guys are doing so much, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

And I would encourage our viewers to come and visit you guys on your website, at least to get more information.

Yes.

And we'd love to host them for a tour.

We're open for tours two days a week.

Everybody can do their part.

And we'd like to share with people how, so.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

You may be wondering why I'm out in the pasture, but joining me today is Dr.

Laura Goodman.

And we're looking at some weeds that you might even find in those urban environments.

And right here behind us is the infamous water hemlock, right?

Yep.

Right.

So we have both poison hemlock and water hemlock in the state.

And both of them are toxic.

So we, yeah, we want to avoid both of these plants.

You're right.

We have them out in pastures, but we also have them in, you know, the edges of our yards.

Sometimes they can pop up in garden beds.

And this is a plant that we want to be really careful about as far as control.

Okay.

So is this poison hemlock or water hemlock?

I guess I should ask.

This is poison hemlock.

Yep.

And the main difference is just how the leaves look, but it really doesn't matter.

They're both going to be really large flowering plants.

They're in the carrot family.

We have some other plants that look fairly similar, but this is one that you want to make sure that you're fairly careful about because it can be an issue for people, for pets, for livestock.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I see you touching it.

I mean, we're kind of brushing against it a little bit.

It's not like poison ivy that you want to make sure you don't touch it at all, right?

Correct.

Yeah.

So if you were going to be aggressively pulling this plant up, then I would recommend that you wear gloves and a long sleeve shirt.

You want to just try to keep as, you know, minimal contact with the plant.

But the biggest danger is from ingestion.

So ingestion.

And then if you were in here either mowing or weed eating, you know, that could also be a problem.

So if you were going to do that, you'd want to make sure you were wearing eye protection, maybe even a mask.

You don't want to be inhaling a bunch of the pollen and the oils that come off of this plant.

Okay.

And it can cause stomach and heart problems.

It's not like a rash, right?

Yeah.

So it has alkaloids in it and the alkaloids can actually even cause respiratory issues and heart issues.

So you want to be really careful with this plant.

And so that's why we recommend, you know, wearing gloves, all that protective, you know, materials and stuff to keep your skin protected.

And then so you wouldn't get it in your eyes or inhale any of it.

Okay.

Well, and I know it's always a concern with farmers, with livestock and things like that.

What about in the urban environment with pets?

Yeah.

So even if they just ate a few leaves, that could be fatal.

So we don't want our animals eating them.

The flowers and the seeds are actually what's most toxic.

So you know, it would be, you know, they'd have to knock it down because most of the time it's a pretty tall plant, as you can see.

But yeah, we don't want animals eating it for sure.

It would be toxic to any of your pets, but even like chickens, turkeys, pigs, if you had a farmstead or something like that, for sure cattle and sheep.

And it is a pretty flower.

It's got that white umbel, right?

Yeah.

Seems to be a good pollinator plant out here actually too.

But there's one that we often find in the garden that is harmless.

So this is hedge parsley.

So you see this growing all along the highways right now and it's very, very, very common in pastures and will grow in garden beds as well.

It's a smaller plant.

Usually it's going to be much shorter than your poison hemlock or your water hemlock.

The stems do not have those purple splotches on them.

And if you looked really closely, you could even see there's like some little tiny hairs.

And so hedge parsley, Queen Anne's lace, yarrow, a lot of our white flowering plants that grow at the same time as poison hemlock, they're all going to have some type of hair on the stem.

And so that is an excellent feature because the poison hemlock and water hemlock, they're going to be smooth and they're both going to have purple splotches on their stem.

So these have like a sandpaper feel to them a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

And the others are even more hairy than a hedge parsley.

And so that's the easiest way.

There are some differences with the leaves, but that to me is the easiest feature to look at is that stem.

And I feel like the branching structure on the flowers is a little bit more open, whereas these are like tighter flowers.

Yes.

Yes.

That's also true.

Yeah.

So this one, like you said, the umbel is a little bit more spread out.

They have fewer that are clustered together.

And so that would be another feature that's different.

And this is a harmless plant, not going to cause any issues.

So not one that you have to worry about controlling.

The branches that come off of here, the bottom of that really wraps around the stem right here.

And that is true of both the poison hemlock and the water hemlock.

And it's not true of most of these other plants that we have that grow in our pastures that are not ones we worry about.

So another feature that can be useful.

The last thing is after flowering, when the plant has the seeds on it, all of the seeds on the ones that are not harmful have little bristles on those little seeds.

And then the poison hemlock and water hemlock, the seeds are smooth.

So there's no little like hooked bristles on the edges.

So these are those little kind of cockaburs that will turn into and grab hold of your socks and stuff like that, right?

One of the many plants unfortunately in Oklahoma, yes.

But these do not do that.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

And definitely that purple splotchy stem is a real good indicator as well.

And we're talking like, you know, six feet tall, eight feet tall?

Yeah.

Sometimes even taller.

Yeah.

This is a good example of just how large these plants grow.

We usually find them in areas that are a little bit damp, but that, you know, the soil holds onto water a little bit longer.

That's where it really likes to grow.

So if you have a creek that runs through your property or behind your home, that's the location where I would expect to find this plant growing.

And these are more in drier and wet conditions?

Yeah, these will grow anywhere.

Anywhere?

Yeah.

Anywhere.

So if you have an overwatered garden or something, or even a dry garden, you might be finding this.

But usually about two to three feet tall.

Is that correct?

Yep.

This one isn't going to be taller than your waist, typically.

It stays pretty small.

Okay.

Well, thank you for clearing this up for us.

Yeah.

No problem.

Today, I'm so excited to be at the Red Ridge Nature Preserve and joining me is Lance Swearengin, the deputy director.

And Lance, this is a private place still, but we're getting a private tour, huh?

That's right.

So tell us, where should we start?

Let's start at the Red Ridge Mansion.

Okay.

Sounds great.

Lance, what a beautiful historic mansion.

What a historic home.

So tell us a little bit about the history of this place.

So this is the Red Ridge Mansion, and it's the old homestead that's the main centerpiece of the Red Ridge Nature Preserve.

This was built in 1933 by R.J.

Edwards and his wife, Sadie Kaysen Edwards.

And it was designed by local architect Harold Jimeno.

And so from 1933, they built this home up here on the ridge, and now we're preserving it for the future.

Wow.

It's beautiful.

And so can you tell us a little bit about what it maybe used, three stories?

Sure.

So this is a Spanish style home, and it's three stories tall, 6,000 square feet, quite a big old home.

It used to house part of the Museum of Art's art collection.

Really?

And so at one time in the 70s and 80s, people came here to see art, and we want to bring that connection between art and nature back here to Red Ridge.

Okay.

And so the Red Ridge Mansion will be restored historically accurate, and then house artistic things that make a connection to nature.

Fantastic.

Well, it's got a family legacy for sure.

And there's a couple of other buildings as well as the drive coming up.

Can you tell us a little bit about the history of the lady that used to live here?

Sure.

So R.J.

Edwards and his wife, Sadie Kaysen Edwards, lived here.

They built this as their homestead, and Sadie Kaysen was a gardener.

She loved to garden, and so there's lots of heirloom bulbs and plants all across the property.

And one famous one is her beautiful daffodils.

So whenever, in the 1940s, she planted daffodils all across this property.

And at one point, she was riding in an open car with her chauffeur along the main driveway, and she would throw daffodil bulbs out the top of her open car, and then her chauffeur would come back and plant those wherever they landed.

And so what that did was create a very nice, naturalized field of daffodils all over Redridge.

And so that is the Redridge logo now, is the geometric daffodil.

Okay.

All right.

Well, it's got quite a history.

But what is the future of this place?

Well, let's go check it out.

We can check out the site of our new conservation center.

Okay.

Great.

So not a far walk from Redridge Mansion, but now we're up on top of the ridge, Casey.

It's a little breezier up here.

A little breezy.

And then this will be the site of our new stewardship center.

Okay.

And so our stewardship center is gonna be the place where we start to restore the property.

This will be the place where we have our horticulture team, our maintenance team, and that's where we'll form our plans for restoring the property.

Okay.

So how big is this property?

So the Redridge Nature Preserve is 133 acres at Northeast 50th and Lincoln, right here on the northeast side of Oklahoma City.

Right.

Which is kind of a unique lot of land to be so wooded in such an urban environment.

That's right.

This is an island for nature and wildlife right in the heart of the city.

Right.

And you're right on the edge of the cross timbers here.

So let's talk about the conservation efforts that you're currently doing.

I know you're just getting started with some of that, but who are your partners in that?

Right.

So the Redridge Nature Preserve was formed by the Kirkpatrick Foundation to manage and program this property as a nature preserve.

The Kirkpatrick Family Fund purchased the property in August of 2023, and since then we've been putting together a strategic plan to restore, conserve, and preserve the habitats here.

Okay.

And what are some of the things you're seeing out here?

It's beautiful.

So as a cross timbers habitat, primarily post oak and blackjack oak, we're saving those because some of those are quite old.

They've been around for a long time.

We brought in some of our research partners from the University of Arkansas, and they've taken core samples of the majority of our oak trees on the property.

And what they found was that a lot of our oaks are over 150 years old.

So pretty significant history to some of the trees here.

And invasive plants have also taken a hold on the property.

Chinese privet's one of our main culprits.

And so we're working to remove that so we can make room for more native plants.

Okay.

And is that a pile of what you removed already behind you?

This is a pile of privet that we've removed by cutting off at the base of the ground and some of our Eagle Scouts have came in and helped us build a trail recently.

And so this is some of the privet that they've removed.

So this management of invasive plants on the property is just that.

It's a management, not an eradication.

So we'll be managing privet for quite a while.

And I know you mentioned the Boy Scouts, but you're working with a lot of other groups on more the wildlife aspect as well.

That's right.

So we're working with our partners in conservation from the Oklahoma City Zoo to the Oklahoma Ornithological Society.

And they're coming in on the property and doing scouts of organisms, identifying plants, animals, insects.

We have an inventory of what's actually living out here.

Now, for the most part, this place is still closed to the public, right?

I mean, that's part of the point is to preserve it.

That's right.

So it's a nature preserve and a nature preserve is a protected habitat.

So we're limiting access by humans and really creating this space for wildlife and plants.

And you've actually seen a significant difference in the temperature in this nature preserve versus the urban surrounding areas.

That's right.

So as part of the cross timbers, we have a really dense forest canopy.

And what we've been able to tell is that this is a thermal refuge.

So the air is cooler here.

The ground is cooler here because of all this great shade.

And the surrounding city, you can see that it's really hot because there's not that much shade.

So trees are really important to creating a thermal refuge.

And Lance, if somebody wants to help or volunteer, where can they go for more information?

Well, guests can find out more information about Red Ridge on our website at redridgeokc.org.

All right.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

Thank you, Casey.

Today, we're going to talk about how water moves up through trees.

It moves up through trees in tubes called xylem.

So water only moves up.

And as the water molecules get to the edge of the leaves and evaporate off, it pulls all the other water up.

So that's how water moves through trees.

Now sometimes there can be something that prevents it from going all the way up.

Some trees, if they get pruned or they get stressed with drought or there's an infection of a fungus or a pathogen, they do something protective.

They form tyloses.

What happens is the cells that are immediately adjacent to the xylem walls push their insides into the xylem, forming a physical barrier for water.

So in that case, we have some tyloses forming in this xylem, and the water is trying to go up through, and it gets stopped by this physical barrier of the tyloses.

So even though it's preventing water moving up, it's also preventing any kind of pathogen, any kind of sap leaving, anything that would hurt the tree, it's basically blood clotted right there.

So not all trees do this or to the same extent.

So some trees like white oak make a lot more than red oak.

So especially as the living part of a tree gets further and further out, the middle part is more likely to have these tyloses, and then they get filled with resin and gum and stuff.

And so that actually protects the inside heartwood of the tree.

So even a dead tree is not going to rot on the inside because of these tyloses that form.

So an example with the red oak and the white oak is that over time, the white oak, most of their xylem has been filled with tyloses.

The red oak, you can still see the ends of the xylem, so fluids can still go through very easily.

To demonstrate that, I have some soapy water and we're going to see if water can flow through because if these are open, the water should flow through.

So this is white oak.

So white oak should not have anything, very little coming through.

I'm going to put some soapy water here.

There's hardly any bubbles.

This is red oak.

So red oak would have a lot of these openings still, so water and air should be able to go through.

So here is red oak.

So you can see that works.

This is a larger section of red oak and you can see the actual xylem ends and it also will let air through.

So why that's important, if you are aging wine or anything in a barrel and you use an oak barrel, you want to use a white oak barrel because if you use a red oak barrel, it's slowly going to disappear and you're going to have an empty barrel over time.

So if you're going to age something in a barrel, it needs to be white oak.

And as always, if you have questions about today's show, feel free to reach out to your local county OSU Extension office or leave us a comment on social media.

There are many great horticulture activities this time of year.

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

It's summertime and next week will help you identify one plant you definitely do not want in your garden.

So join us right here on Oklahoma Gardening.

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