Blooms and Beyond

Tell the Story They Want to Hear: Science Communication with Alexa Lamm Episode Description Alexa Lamm was a 4-H kid who showed livestock and horses and fully expected to go to vet school. Then she realized she liked working with healthy animals, kids and producers a lot more than sick ones. She spent almost ten years as an extension agent just south of Denver, and it frustrated her for years that...

The Camellia of 10,000 Flowers: Dave Creech and 40 Years of SFA Gardens (Part 2) Episode Description Dave Creech says SFA Gardens spent 30 or 40 years waiting for minus four degrees. When the 2021 freeze finally brought it, only two of the garden’s 31 gardenias really survived. The champion was Whispering Pines, a big double that Jim Berry had offered Dave because it didn’t fit his nursery’s produ...

The Bald Cypress Tunnel of Love: Dave Creech and 40 Years of SFA Gardens (Part 1) Episode Description Dave Creech was registering for his second semester of agronomy at Texas A&M when J.B. Storey, a six-foot-four pecan professor, grabbed him in the old basketball coliseum, walked him past every registration table, and introduced him as the next great horticulturist. Dave switched majors. Forty...

Apricot, Honey, and Sunshine: Breeding a Hardier Tea Olive Episode Description Donna Fare, a former ARS researcher, had Lisa Alexander smell a branch of osmanthus. The words Lisa reaches for to describe that scent became the title of this episode: apricot, honey, and sunshine. Lisa is a research geneticist at the US National Arboretum, part of the USDA Agricultural Research Service, and she breeds...

Seven Out of 1,200: The Long Road to a Better Hibiscus Episode Description John Ruter put 1,200 hibiscus seedlings in the ground and kept seven. The other 1,193 got bush hogged. He is the Armitage Professor of Horticulture at the University of Georgia and the director of the UGA Trial Gardens, and this week he walks Ping through everything that happens between a cross and a plant you can actually...

When the Plants Start Talking to You: Breeding New Ornamentals Gamma rays, seedless shrubs, and the unglamorous skill that still beats every fancy technique. Episode Description There is a cobalt source on the Oregon State campus, and Dr. Ryan Contreras uses it on plants. He describes the method with a shrug and a movie line: “The Forrest Gump, life is like a box of chocolates. We never know what...

The Beetle That Moved Into the Nursery: Managing Red-Headed Flea Beetles Episode Description Growers spent years assuming the red-headed flea beetle flew in from the field edge. Dr. Shimat Joseph went looking for it out there and found almost nothing. When his lab sampled the landscapes around Georgia container nurseries, the beetle simply was not present, and nobody was reporting it as a landscap...

IPPS Southern Region: To Seek and to Share Episode Description In 1951, nurseries still grew plants in tin cans, and information on rooting hormones was hard to come by. The society that formed to close that gap, the International Plant Propagators Society, is now the International Plant Production Society, and its Southern Region leads every IPPS region in the world for membership. Dr. Ping Yu si...

From Cherry to Cup: The Science Behind Your Morning Coffee Episode Description Most of us start the day with a cup of coffee and never think about the plant it came from. Dr. Leo Lombardini has thought about it for years. Head of the Horticulture Department at the University of Georgia and former director of the Borlaug Center for World Coffee at Texas A&M, Leo walks Ping through the whole jou...

Episode Description A tag you never have to look at. That’s the promise behind the RFID work Dr. Jim Robbins and Dr. Joe Maja have been chasing for the better part of two decades — a way to walk past a block of containers, or fly over it, and know exactly what’s there without picking up a single pot. In Part 2 of this special two-parter, Ping picks the conversation back up where it left off, this...

Episode Description Sometimes the most interesting plant science doesn’t come from a plant person at all. In this special two-part episode, Ping sits down with two collaborators who’ve spent fifteen years figuring out how drones can work in nursery and greenhouse production — Dr. Jim Robbins, a retired University of Arkansas extension specialist who’s loved plants since he was fifteen, and Dr. Joe...

The Dream Team Behind Cultivate How three women build the education that powers the green industry’s biggest event Episode Description Every July, thousands of growers, retailers, and plant lovers flood Columbus, Ohio for Cultivate — and behind roughly 160 education sessions packed into four days is a team of three. In this episode, Ping sits down with the AmericanHort education team: Meagan Nace,...

It’s Not Garden Therapy: The Real Science of Plants and People Ping calls it “garden therapy.” Dr. Sheri Dorn gently corrects her — and that correction opens up a whole world. Episode Description Ping sits down with her colleague and friend Dr. Sheri Dorn, who took on a new role at the University of Georgia in August as assistant professor of socio-horticulture and horticultural therapy. Within th...

Georgia’s Green Industry and the Power of Advocacy Season 2 opens with Lanie Riner — greenhouse grower, farm kid turned Executive Director of the Georgia Green Industry Association, and the person who wrote the letter that helped strengthen Georgia’s Freedom to Farm protections. Lanie runs GGIA while running Thunderwood Farms in Meriwether County, and she brings both perspectives to a conversation...

Thrips Parvispinus — From Quarantine Crisis to Integrated Solutions When an invasive thrips species arrived in Florida and shut down nurseries overnight, Dr. Alexandra Revynthi and her team raced to find answers within a 48-hour window. This is the story of that research — and the integrated solutions that followed. Episode Description What happens when a single insect — just one — can place an en...

Science Translators on the Front Lines: Urban Extension in Metro Atlanta with Gabrielle LaTora and Eric Marlowe Episode Description What happens when two self-described suburban kids with a hunger for nature end up as county extension agents in Georgia’s most populous counties? In this episode, Dr. Ping Yu sits down with Gabrielle LaTora (UGA Extension, Fulton County) and Eric Marlowe (UGA Extensi...

Blooms and Beyond - Season 1, Episode 10 Episode Title: “Botrytis Blight: Gray Mold, Calcium Shields, and Building a Better Box” Episode Description What if the key to fighting one of floriculture’s most persistent enemies isn’t a fungicide — but a nutrient you can buy for $2 an acre? In this episode, host Dr. Ping Yu sits down with Dr. Jim Faust of Clemson University to tackle botrytis blight, th...

Blooms and Beyond - Season 1, Episode 9 Episode Title: “Hopping Into Action: Clemson Scientists Tackle the Two-Spotted Cotton Leafhopper” Episode Description What happens when a tiny, five-millimeter insect from the Old World shows up uninvited across the American Southeast — and starts hammering everything from cotton fields to backyard hibiscus? In this urgent and information-packed episode, Dr....

Blooms and Beyond - Season 1, Episode 8 Episode Title: “Mite Watch: Spider Mite Management Secrets from 45 Years in the Greenhouse with Dr. Lance Osborne” Episode Description What do you get when you combine 45 years of greenhouse research, a PhD on whiteflies, and an unstoppable curiosity about every tiny creature crawling through Florida’s ornamental industry? You get Dr. Lance Osborne—one of th...

Blooms and Beyond - Season 1, Episode 7 Episode Title: “Beyond the Blue Jacket: FFA, Service & Growing the Whole Student with Renee’ Martin” Episode Description What do chainsaw safety, cricket flour brownies, and a grandmother’s unwavering belief in her grandson’s potential all have in common? They’re all part of the extraordinary world of FFA — and in this episode, Renee’ Martin brings that...

Blooms and Beyond - Season 1, Episode 6 Episode Title: “The Queen of Flowers: From HVAC Engineer to Peony Scientist with Dr. Emily Zhou” Episode Description What happens when an HVAC engineer falls in love with plants and earns a PhD studying one of the world’s most beloved flowers? In this episode, Dr. Ping Yu sits down with Dr. Emily Zhou, assistant professor at the University of Central Missour...

Blooms and Beyond - Season 1, Episode 5 Episode Title: “The Plant Hunter: Inside the World of International Plant Exploration with Judson LeCompte” Episode Description Ever wonder how the plants at your local garden center made their way from a breeder’s field in Japan or a mountain in China to your backyard? In this episode, Dr. Ping Yu sits down with Dr. Judson LeCompte, Product Development Mana...

Blooms and Beyond - Season 1, Episode 4 Episode Title: “IPM Basics: Building Your Pest Management Toolbox with Dr. Erich Schoeller” Episode Description What if the secret to healthier plants isn’t reaching for the spray bottle, but building a smarter system? In this episode, Dr. Ping Yu sits down with Dr. Erich Schoeller, an entomologist and IPM specialist at the University of Georgia, to break do...

Blooms and Beyond - Season 1, Episode 3 Episode Title: “Inside the Green Industry: A Lifelong Journey in Horticulture with Dr. Michael Martin” Episode Description What does it take to turn a childhood love of plants into a lifelong career? In this episode, Dr. Ping Yu sits down with her dear friend and colleague Dr. Michael Martin, Science Research and Regulatory Programs Director at American Hort...

Blooms and Beyond - Season 1, Episode 2 Episode Title: “Growing Together: Inside AFE’s Mission for Floriculture” Episode Description What happens when a music major moves to North Carolina and falls in love with plants? In this episode, Dr. Ping Yu sits down with Laura Barth, Research Coordinator for the American Floral Endowment (AFE), to explore how this nonprofit organization supports the entir...