- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Join us today as we wrap up at the Cultivate Conference in Columbus, Ohio and get a sneak peek of new plant introductions from proven winners.

Then we stop by the Franklin Park Conservatory before heading home.

- 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's 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.

So here we are with another Oklahoma based company, Anderson injectors.

And tell us a little bit about Anderson injectors and what you guys are doing.

- So we are here selling our verigation equipment, and that means we're injecting liquid chemicals, fertilizer, sanitizer, and like acid for pH correction into water.

That's used to water plants.

- Right?

- So that makes growing plants more efficient - And, and a lot of times we don't even realize this is happening in commercial greenhouses.

And the It's a made in Oklahoma product, you guys are right based in Muskogee, is that correct?

- Correct.

- All manufactured there and everything - All manufactured in the USA, right in Muskogee.

- And you got a long history of that.

Tell us a little bit about your background there.

- So we've been manufacturing this type of equipment since 1955 in Muskogee.

I'm the third generation Anderson who's been doing that.

One of our first horticulture systems was installed right here in Ohio.

- Oh really?

Okay.

- So at at the OSU Horticulture School.

- Okay.

The other OSU.

- The Other OSU.

But speaking of OSU, you're an OSU graduate also, so That's right.

Yeah.

I'm a graduate of the mechanical programs.

Okay.

There's a good contingent of us up here too.

- Very good.

Yeah.

Very good.

And so what does that mean for you guys to be here?

I know there's a lot of international audience here, you know, a lot of sales are happening.

Tell us a little bit about why you come here and that level of sales.

- So the primary reason is to meet new customers.

That used to be our huge main focus, but we have pretty good market share these days.

And there's not all that many new greenhouses or new customers to meet here.

So we've kind of shifted and now the main point of coming to Cultivate is that everybody important in the industry is here in one place.

- Okay.

- At one time.

So we get to see the people we do business with, we get to see our resellers, we get to see our existing customers, we get to talk to people who we may be able to work with and see all of our old friends.

It's, it's a great time.

I, it's work, but I look forward to it every year.

- Yeah, absolutely.

It's got a lot of energy here, a lot of walking.

But one of the things about your company, obviously we have a consumer audience mainly watching our show.

So maybe not, that's not your clientele per se, but we might not even realize when we see your product.

I know some of your injectors are on OSU campus also.

- That's correct.

Yep.

Some of our smaller, smaller models are in the learning greenhouse there on campus.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And yeah, and in several other learning institutions too.

- But, and then you also have outdoor application for your product as well.

Like if, if row crops and things like that.

If you're, - We, we do, one of our larger customers are blueberry farmers.

They use our equipment to adjust the pH for their, the water that they use on their blueberries.

'cause blueberries really like acidic water.

- Yeah.

Okay.

- So that's a very common application for us.

And, - And I never even really thought about it 'cause I think in the horticulture realm, but you also have a lot of applications beyond the horticulture world.

Can you share a little bit of that?

- There are some, we, we have some customers who inject like soaps into washing solutions.

We Tyson's one of our customers, they inject chlorine into their sanitation water that they use.

Okay.

And and things kind of similar to that.

- Yeah.

And I never really thought about that.

So it's so good to know that it's coming Right from Muskogee, Oklahoma, thank you so much for sharing this - With us.

Yeah, thanks.

Thanks for interviewing us.

- We are here now with Dave from Proven winners and I'm telling you they've got a beautiful display.

Dave, tell us a little bit, you've got a lot to introduce here.

- We do.

Thanks Casey.

Yeah.

I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about plants.

Yeah.

So, you know, proven winners we're the number one plant brand.

We're the brand gardeners trust.

We've got annuals, perennials, shrubs, houseplant, all sorts of stuff with gardening products.

But we're gonna talk about annuals today.

It's our biggest category and it's sort of the show Yout most exciting things.

- Right?

A lot of color.

Right?

A hundred - Percent.

So we got some really cool things coming for next spring.

Okay.

That I think gardeners are gonna love.

First one here.

Yes.

Let's talk about some sweet potato vines.

Right.

- We love sweet potato vines.

Super easy for people to grow.

This one here is a groundbreaking new variety with this really interesting two-tone, almost camouflage look to it.

Right.

Really nothing like this on the market where you're getting the dark greens and, and purples and almost blacks.

We're calling it Sweet Caroline sweetheart.

Shadow Storm.

- That's a long name.

- It is a long name.

I've got some of this at my home.

I live up in Chicago and it's mixing it with other plants perfectly.

Okay.

And it just gives a really cool, interesting texture and look that nobody's ever seen - Before.

Is this one gonna trail as much as some or is it more of a clumping one?

- So, so it's right in the middle.

Okay.

So a lot of the early sweet potato vines would almost like take over.

Right.

The garden at times.

The breeders that we work with have really refined that habit to get a good mix of trailing, but not too much.

Gotcha.

So it's gonna be nice.

Well branched.

So you're gonna get lots of stems coming off of it, but it's not gonna take over or be a trip hazard.

Some of those early ones were literally trip hazards for people.

So I'm really excited about that.

All right.

What else?

Another sweet potato bottle here.

Another one here is called Sweet Caroline Medusa Black.

- And look at that texture.

- So what's cool, this also is a second of its kind.

We've got a green version of this.

This one's this dark burgundy.

It's got this really palmate shaped leaf that's never been seen before in sweet potatoes.

- Yes.

- So again, what we've tried to do a approved winners be first to market, be innovative, cutting edge genetics.

And this is another example of that.

This almost gives you a fern look.

You see a lot of fern hanging baskets, but with a much more interesting plant with these colors and textures.

But really cool plant here.

- Yeah.

And so, and some of the newer growth, you're getting some of that bright green - Contrast there.

Yeah.

So the, the young growth will come out a little bit of that green.

It quickly turns to the purple, especially in more sunlight.

We're a little dark in here in a trade show, but a lot of that really rich dark purples will come out.

- Excellent.

All right.

What else you got for us?

- Speaking of another unique breeding breakthroughs.

Caladium.

So especially for you all in the south, these are all bred in Florida.

They love the heat.

It's one of the few plants in the industry that actually gets better.

The hotter it gets.

Right.

A lot of plants just start to will and get freaked out.

These - Actually kind of plant 'em light in the season, so - A hundred percent they don't like the cool temperature.

So you're planning 'em at the right time.

They're gonna thrive all summer.

So breeding breakthroughs, this one here is - Called this one.

I love this one.

- Heart to heart.

Midnight oil.

It's the first ever.

- I thought it was fake ever.

- Exactly.

Yeah.

And and if you feel the leaves, they're really, really thick.

But it's got this really cool deep burgundy, dark green, almost black in full sun.

It's gonna get literally almost jet black.

- And then how does that shine?

Like an oil slick a little bit.

- A hundred percent different colors than that.

Super cool.

- Yes.

- This one here is, we're calling heart to heart creme brulee.

Again, first of its type with this color pattern also lends itself to fall and in the south where you guys have not the cool temperatures that I have at home.

- Right.

- This thing can keep going.

October, November, great for decorating around Halloween Thanksgiving.

- Yeah.

It's got those fall colors in there.

- So, but again, it's gonna take whatever heat you guys can throw at it too, so it tastes hot and like an Indian summer.

- Right.

- Gonna be - Perfect.

Perfect.

So of course Caliber cos petunias have always been on the rage.

Right?

A hundred.

What have we got new though?

- So Supertunia is our lead category within with approved winners annual program.

And we've got supertunias for all different types of gardens, different styles.

This one up here is brand new for this year.

It's called Supera Vista.

Cool Jazz.

Now Supera Vistas, they're our most vigorous patia.

They're groundbreaking in the fact that they both grow up and out at the same time.

Yeah.

They will fill, one plant will fill a four by four foot space.

So in terms of value for the gardener, there's really nothing better - And perfect for containers.

- It's really a hundred percent perfect for containers.

Great in the landscape.

Heat and drought tolerant flowers like crazy.

Never needs deadheading.

That's the other great thing about super, you're not having to pick those flowers off to keep it flowering.

This cool jazz is a new color.

Really sort of a designer pastel type of look to it.

- There's so many colors.

It's almost like you're choosing paint colors in the - Garden.

It's crazy.

I think we've got over 30 different super tune varieties of all different colors.

Great for decorating.

Another cool decorating plant.

Along that line is our super Bells caliber coa.

This is called Super Bell's Magic Double grapefruit.

Whoops.

We're dropping some water there.

What I'm excited about this is these, you get three colors on the same flower.

Yeah.

So it's almost like you have a recipe, but it's just one plant.

So you get these yellows, these pinks, these pastel colors.

Peaches, - Two color.

Yeah, - Exactly.

So it's almost like you're getting three plants for the price of one.

Again.

Perfect for containers - And a and a double.

It's a double flower - Too.

Yeah, it's a double flower.

Which is also very unique.

Right.

There's not a lot of those on the market.

So it almost looks like a little mini rose bud.

Absolutely.

And again, the perfect container plant, it mixes well with other plants and anybody can have success with it.

Another great plan for your market.

Phlox.

This is called Southern blaze Bright pink.

This is a heat tolerant flocks, actually native to Texas.

Okay.

So it can take any heat that you're gonna have in the south down there.

Flowers all summer long, no deadhead and just is a workhorse in the garden, in the ground, and also in containers.

- And both of those purple in the pancake.

- We got, we got, we got blueberry, we got white.

Okay.

We got bright pink and we've got a red one also.

So there's four colors within that collection.

That is a home run.

Here's another plan I'm really excited about is we're calling it Emerald Aisle alopecia.

So this is new alocasia breeding.

And what's different about this one?

Look at the size of this stalk here.

It's like a tree trunk.

Most alocasias aren't like that.

They're sort of wispy, weak leaves, all that stuff.

We've also shrunk the habit down.

So it's like a goldfish plant.

So let's say you have a a 12 inch container, it'll fill that container and just sort of stop.

Okay.

If you have an 18 inch container, it fills that container and stops.

- So, so it grows to the size of the container.

- That's it.

Exactly.

It's like that soil volume makes a big difference.

But this one, again, tropical look, that's really on trend right now.

It's got these cool scalloped edge to the leaf, big thick leaves.

- It's gonna hold up to our Oklahoma winds - Too.

That a hundred percent perfect.

I mean this thing will not get knocked down.

So I'm excited about that can be used right in the ground as a thriller in a container.

Yeah.

Lots of applications.

And I'm, I'm curious about this one too.

One more last - One.

We can go on one we're gonna on.

I know.

I got so many things.

This is the last one.

Yeah.

So this is called Superlophus Sun Glow.

- Okay.

- It's Anthea, also native.

The common name is Texas Primrose.

Yeah.

Again, super heat tolerant.

Super drought tolerant.

One of my coworkers lives in Austin, Texas.

This thing flowers all summer long in a hundred degree heat.

It handles any kind of drought that you want to throw at - It.

The vegetation's so much smaller than I'm used to seeing though.

- And that's is why, what makes it so drought tolerant?

It it, it's not trying to capture a ton of water.

Right.

With those tiny, it's not gonna lose it as much easier.

Exactly.

So bright, bright yellow flowers covers the canopy of the plant, monoculture in the landscape, mixing with other plants.

Really versatile.

Superlophus SunGlow Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, Dave, this is a pleasure.

- Appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

- Joining us next is Jasmine with Seed Your Future and Seed Your Future is such a great organization.

Tell us all about it.

- Thank you.

So Seed Your Future was created by industry, by horticulture professors to bring awareness of the horticulture industry as a career to students, parents and educators.

Most people know, be a doctor, be a lawyer.

No one knows you can grow these beautiful plants and be a very fulfilling career.

So we're trying to get the message out there.

- Yeah.

And there's so much more to just growing these, right?

Like the horticulture industry just coming here.

You can see - How involved it is right there is from the automation to the soil, to the containers, the transportation, there are so many things that you can do.

So regardless of what your passion is, you can find a career in this industry.

- And this is a big non-profit that you guys have kind of established and everybody has partnered up to make this happen, right?

Because we're looking for the future of who's gonna be driving that horticulture industry, right?

- Yeah.

So we have partners at our university, professors, we have other nonprofit organizations, mostly industry companies, professionals that are invested in figuring out what does that next generation of horticulture look like.

So a lot of these businesses are supporting us by going into schools or setting up field trips and bringing students to their sites, doing career fairs, doing tours of their business with that employer lens of this is who we are as a company, this is where we fit within horticulture.

And these are the careers that we have.

- And I know you guys have a lot of resources and, and provide a lot of resources to people.

Tell us a little bit about some of those.

- For educators, we have a grant page where we can show them these are all of the grants that they can use to apply for if they need different soil or seeds or if they wanna build a garden for students.

We have quite a bit, we have a list of 147 different career profiles that show a description, a career salaries.

There's a, a video that describes a career and the day of that, there's a database of internships.

There's a database of scholarships.

We list all the two year and four year plant size horticulture programs across the country.

So we're building the awareness of these are the careers that are out there, this is where you can go to school for them.

And then we are connecting them with industry professionals where they're located to make that full circle of, and this is how you come into the industry.

- Excellent.

And I know one of the, you mentioned some of the resources for educators and we're not just talking about collegiate educators, we're really talking about that younger group, right?

Getting the younger kids involved early.

- So we started a program called Seed to Stem, where we're bringing high school teachers to a central location to learn about the horticulture industry.

And its different segments.

So plant protection, greenhouse wholesale, what does that look like?

A cut flower world and the landscape public ornamental hoard.

And then they are creating a lesson based on their subject connected to a horticulture career.

And these are on the website for free.

So last year we had 25 science teachers.

Those lessons have already been downloaded over a thousand times.

Wow.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- All right.

So no point in reinvention.

Well, all they gotta do is go to your website, find, - That's all they gotta do a lot more information.

Seizure future.org, they will find information for industry, for parents, for students, and also educators.

And I'm always available to answer questions and help make the connection between the resources that we have, how they can use it in the classroom, or how they can use it as industry to connect with future employees.

- Perfect.

Thank you so much Jessica.

You're sharing this with us.

You're welcome.

Thanks for having me.

- Well in addition to the fun trips, just in the state, you know, to see different gardens and visit with gardeners, we were fortunate enough to attend Ameriflora in 1992.

And it was really a a, a worldwide flower show held in Columbus, Ohio of all things at the Franklin Park Conservatory.

I think it was 80 something acres of just unbelievable gardens.

And it was over a six month period.

But our team of three flew and traveled up to Columbus and we did segments there, which was quite interesting to do those and among all the other people touring the gardens.

But it was beautiful.

And what a, a great opportunity for three boys from Oklahoma.

- We snuck out of the Cultivate conference to head over here to Franklin Park Conservatory.

And joining me is Chase Williams, who is the horticulture manager here.

And it's a beautiful garden.

It's, tell us a little bit about Franklin Park, - If you don't mind.

Yeah.

Welcome.

So Franklin Park is an 88 acre park that sits just east of the downtown area.

And we have a lot of different conservatories here, gardens throughout the Palm House show house original 1890s.

Okay.

So we have some historic, - It's beautiful.

- Yeah.

Conservatories here too, as well as some modern ones as well.

- And you have a couple of different rooms to the conservatories, - Right?

Yes.

Yep.

So we have areas that represent different areas in the world.

So we have a Pacific Islands biome, we have a Himalayan biome, a rainforest, and a desert.

So you kinda get all of the different plant palette here when you come to visit.

- Okay.

And then outside here, beautiful grounds that you've got.

Tell us a little bit about some of the gardens that we're gonna see outside here.

- Yep.

So we're standing in our grand mall.

This is kind of a formal garden with lots of different plantings throughout.

We also have out here are Paul Busi Garden Railway.

And that runs throughout the year and into the early winter.

It's a really cool exhibition that we have.

It's all handmade, all natural materials that make up these miniature houses and all of the different minis throughout the railway there.

They're - Beautiful.

You've got 'em going overhead - Underneath.

They're everywhere.

You gotta look all around to make sure you don't miss one.

- Yeah, absolutely.

And then there's also a similar style of the arches over here.

Tell us a - Little bit about that.

Yeah, so again, Paul Bussey studio built these arches that are representing each individual season.

So as you walk through, you'll see the seasons change from one area to the other.

Again, all natural materials, very neat to walk through with an immersive experience with water and sound and all of the colors on the arches.

- Okay.

And I know you've got a busy kid's children's garden going on.

There's a lot of camps over there, kind of noisy today.

Yep, yep.

But tell us a little bit about that.

- Well, it's about one 30.

They say that nap time's round two.

Oh, okay.

So it might be climbing down a little bit at this point.

But yes, we have our children's garden built in 2018, the Scotts Miracle Grove Foundation Children's Garden.

And there's a lot of different experiences you can have in there.

It's a garden of discovery around every corner.

It's really designed beautifully.

And it's a space for not only kids, but adults alike.

It's a really nice garden to visit and see and get a little respite and hear the kids playing and having fun.

- Yeah.

And so all of this is sort of in the paid experience, right?

Right.

And but you have so much outside of that.

Can you tell us a little bit about outside the fence area?

- Yes.

So like I said, we sit on a 88 acre park and part of it we own.

And then other part is City of Columbus.

So the parks and recreation.

There is a large city park just like you would see in a kind of arboretum setting.

There's a set of waterfalls and lakes out in the western part of the park, as well as a community garden campus with a lot of different demonstration gardens out there, but also plots that people rent out.

And then they grow their own fruits and veggies outta there.

- And I think we're gonna go visit your community garden next, but before we leave, can you tell us if somebody wants to come visit Franklin Park, where can they find more information?

- Yeah, check out our website.

It's updated with all of the different hours and evening hours that we have, as well as our social media.

We're always posting on their fun stuff.

- Excellent.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- We're now in the Scotts Miracle Grow Company Community Garden campus.

And joining me is Katie Spiker, who manages a lot of the area around here, but in particular, this community garden.

It's a huge community garden.

Tell me a little bit about it.

- Yeah, so the community garden campus was installed in 2009.

The space consists about of four acres of gardens.

And in this area where we're at, we mix ornamental and edible horticulture together.

- It's beautiful.

Yeah.

We've got the pollinators flying around us, obviously in the vegetables as well.

So you have kind of divided up into themes in each area.

Can you tell us some of those - Themes?

Yeah.

So yes, like you said, different gardens are designed into different themes.

So we have a cutting garden where the plants primarily in that garden are, are planted to be used as cut flowers.

We have a fragrance garden, so that's designed with a focus on like the plant's fragrance.

We have in the garden that we are in currently, we refer to it as potage, but the French term is potage, so kitchen garden.

And so this is designed kind of in that traditional pot garden design where it's incorporating vegetables and herbs, different flowers that you can use for different purposes.

- Well, you've done it well and and I love that it showcases different ways of growing vegetables.

'cause you also have traditional rows, right?

Yeah.

And then of course the community garden.

Let's talk a little bit about that space.

Yeah.

Where the community actually comes in.

- Yeah.

So the section we're in right now is actually maintained by Franklin Park Conservatory Horticulture staff.

But we do have plots in one section of the community garden campus that community members can rent out and grow vegetables or flowers.

So they maintain that space.

- And then you've got a lot of different programs, outreach that's happening not only here, but also beyond.

Tell us a little bit about some of those programs.

- Yeah.

So within the Community Garden campus, it's kind of the home for a couple different programs.

So we have our Teen Corps program.

They actually have a garden within this space as well.

Teen Corps is a summer program for teens and teaches them different life skills and work skills with a focus on urban agriculture.

- Okay.

- So they actually have a garden space that they maintain.

Then they'll harvest that produce and sell it at our farmer's market that we host weekly on Wednesdays.

- Okay.

And so some of your staff help with that Teen Core program and educate them about gardening or, - Yeah, so our education and community outreach department are the ones who run the program, but then they do rotations.

- Okay.

- And so they work with horticulture staff twice a week during their program.

- Fabulous.

And then also tell me a little bit about this outreach program where you're, you've got kind of a cooperative of other community gardens, it sounds like.

- Yeah, so we have our program called Growing to Green, and that is a program that provides tools and resources and education to different community gardens throughout central Ohio.

So they help to - Establish those gardens.

Well Katie, thank you so much for sharing all of this.

It's just a beautiful garden and you could spend all afternoon really looking around here.

So thank you.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, thanks for coming by.

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

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

- Next week we'll be back in Oklahoma with another great show you won't wanna miss.

- And if, sorry, I wanna give your website a thing real quick, so we'll just redo that Foxwood stuff.

We've got that right.

I'm just gonna say, I'm just gonna say thank you.

Yeah.

Just do the thing 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 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 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.