Podcasts about plant industry

Send us a Text Message.On this inspiring episode of The Plant Movement Podcast, we sit down with Olga Rose Anthony aka Rosey, the dynamic force behind Plant Me Rosey. A passionate advocate for the green industry, Rosey wears many hats: she's a mother, wife, grandmother, and a successful businesswoman. Her mission is to inspire and connect, particularly with women, showing them that they can achieve their dreams and thrive in their endeavors.Rosey's business focuses on biophilic design and sustainability, offering a unique line of home decor made from preserved moss and natural materials. Her work emphasizes the importance of using plant-based products to create beautiful, sustainable living spaces. With a keen eye for design, Rosey's products are strategically placed at the Heritage Market in Homestead, blending seamlessly with the local artists, artisans, and the vibrant community vibe.Additionally, Rosey has been featured on HSN and has spent over three years on Univision, where she showcases her talent for DIY projects and repurposing household items into stunning plant-based creations. Join us as we explore her journey, her innovative product line, and her dedication to sustainability and natural materials.Tune in to Episode 61 for a deep dive into the world of biophilic design and sustainable living with Rosey from Plant Me Rosey. Get ready to be inspired and learn how you too can incorporate these beautiful, eco-friendly practices into your home.Plant Me RoseyContact: info@plantmerosey.comWeb: https://plantmerosey.com/IG: www.instagram.com/plantmerosey--------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Plant Movement Podcast Email: eddie@theplantmovementnetwork.com & willie@theplantmovementnetwork.comCall: (305) 216-5320 Web: https://www.theplantmovement.comFollow Us: IG: https://www.instagram.com/theplantmovementpodcast A's Ornamental NurseryWE GROW | WE SOURCE | WE DELIVERCall: (305) 216-5320Web: https://www.asornamental.comFollow Us: IG: https://www.instagram.com/asornamentalnurseryPlant Logistics Co.(Delivering Landscape Plant Material Throughout the State of Florida)Call: (305) 912-3098Web: https://www.plantlogisticsco.comFollow Us: IG: https://www.instagram.com/plantlogisticsDirected and Produced by Eddie EVDNT Gonzalez Disclaimer: The contents of this podcast/youtube video are for informational and entertainment purposes only and do not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. I can't promise that the information shared on my posts is appropriate for you or anyone else. By listening to this podcast/youtube video, you agree to hold me harmless from any ramifications, financial or otherwise, that occur to you as a result of acting on information found in this podcast/youtube video.Support the Show.

On this episode of The Plant Movement Podcast, your host Willie Rodriguez sits down with the dynamic duo behind Growth Pointe, LLC, Daniel and Joshua. At the tender age of 23, these two entrepreneurs have already made waves in the world of plant enthusiasts by shipping green goodness across the entirety of the United States.Their journey began in 2019 with a serendipitous encounter with a Calathea plant, where their last $30 turned into the seed for what would eventually bloom into Growth Pointe. From humble beginnings to nationwide success, Daniel and Joshua share the inspiring story of how they transformed their passion for plants into a thriving online business.Tune in as they delve into the challenges they faced, the lessons they learned, and the strategies they employed to nurture their business growth. Whether you're a seasoned plant aficionado or just starting to cultivate your green thumb, this episode promises to inspire and motivate with its tale of perseverance, entrepreneurship, and the power of plants.So grab your favorite succulent, settle into your favorite spot, and join us for an insightful conversation with the brilliant minds behind Growth Pointe, LLC.Intro “The Plant Movement Anthem” by MproveCheck him out:linktr.ee/mprove_musicApple Music:music.apple.com/us/artist/mprove/1589394672Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/artist/5I452ZCM63tVcuBDdI2jdc?si=rdqBMeCsRpmpPRVmQ5CuMwGrowth Pointe, LLCContact: 786-554-0647IG: https://www.instagram.com/growthpointellcwww.growthpointe.univer.selinktr.ee/growthpointellcThe Plant Movement Podcast Email: eddie@theplantmovementnetwork.com & willie@theplantmovementnetwork.comCall: (305) 216-5320 Web: https://www.theplantmovement.comFollow Us: IG: https://www.instagram.com/theplantmovementpodcast Visuals and Recording by Eddie EVDNT Gonzalez Audio Production by The one and only Mr. Producer Disclaimer: The contents of this podcast/youtube video are for informational and entertainment purposes only and do not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. I can't promise that the information shared on my posts is appropriate for you or anyone else. By listening to this podcast/youtube video, you agree to hold me harmless from any ramifications, financial or otherwise, that occur to you as a result of acting on information found in this podcast/youtube video.Support the show

On this episode of The Plant Movement Podcast, your host Willie Rodriguez delves into the art of strategizing during those inevitable slow periods in the horticulture, landscape, and garden center industry.Willie starts off by emphasizing the importance of staying positive during downturns. He shares insights on maintaining your enthusiasm and motivation even when the bloom may be off the rose.Next, Willie talks about keeping your product and service quality at a consistent 100%. He'll explore the advantages of maintaining excellence even when business is slower and how it can lead to long-term success.Willie provides valuable tips on advertising and marketing strategies tailored to the horticulture industry, helping you reach and engage your audience effectively.Willie also dives into the significance of community and neighborly relationships in the horticulture business. Discover how building strong bonds with your neighbors can open doors to collaboration and mutual support.The Episode wraps up with a discussion on networking. Willie explores how creating a network within the industry can lead to new opportunities, partnerships, and shared knowledge that can help your business thrive.Whether you're a seasoned expert or just getting started in the horticulture, landscape, or garden center industry, this episode provides valuable insights and actionable strategies for navigating the inevitable ebbs and flows of business. Tune in to The Plant Movement Podcast and get ready to grow your green business, no matter the season.The Plant Movement PodcastCall: (305) 216-5320https://www.theplantmovement.comFollow Us: IG: https://www.instagram.com/theplantmovementpodcastDeliveries - Plant Logistic CoCall: (305) 912-3098https://www.https://www.plantlogisticsco.com/Follow Us: IG: https://www.instagram.com/plantlogisticsPlant Sourcing - PlantAntCall: (800) 433-1758https://www.plantant.comFollow Us: IG: https://www.instagram.com/plantantVisuals and Recording by Eddie EVDNT GonzalezAudio Production by The one and only Mr. ProducerDisclaimer: The contents of this podcast/youtube video are for informational and entertainment purposes only and do not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. I can't promise that the information shared on my posts is appropriate for you or anyone else. By listening to this podcast/youtube video, you agree to hold me harmless from any ramifications, financial or otherwise, that occur to you as a result of acting on information found in this podcast/youtube video.Support the show

In this green-thumb gripping episode of The Plant Movement Podcast, we delve deep into the heart of the plant industry's innovation landscape with a visionary guest, Marc Elliott from Go Material. Get ready to unearth the secrets behind the thriving plant-sourcing platform that has been redefining the way contractors and landscapers discover their greenery treasures.Join your host Willie Rodriguez, as he sits down with Marc to unravel the inspiring journey that led to the inception of Go Material. Discover how Marc and his team seized the opportunity to create a dynamic online platform that not only streamlines the plant sourcing process but also empowers contractors and landscapers with newfound confidence in their green choices.In this episode, you'll learn how Go Material's intuitive interface has become the go-to destination for industry professionals seeking a wide array of plant products. Marc sheds light on the platform's unparalleled contribution to the community, facilitating seamless connections between suppliers and consumers, and accelerating project timelines.Tune in as Willie and Marc discuss the game-changing insights provided by Go Material's blog, which guides users toward the hottest plant products while helping them avoid trends that may be on the decline. Marc explains how this invaluable resource has not only transformed the way professionals source plants but has also solidified Go Material's status as an industry leader.The conversation doesn't stop there—Willie and Marc take a deep dive into the current pulse of the plant industry market. Drawing on their combined expertise as plant brokers, they analyze trends, anticipate shifts, and provide listeners with a unique glimpse into the world of plants as commodities.If you're passionate about the plant industry, a contractor, a grower, a landscaper, or simply a plant enthusiast, this episode is a must-listen. Gain insights into the ever-evolving landscape of plant sourcing, learn about the revolutionary impact of Go Material, and walk away inspired by the dynamic world of plants and business. Join us on The Plant Movement Podcast for an episode that's rooted in knowledge and growth.Go MaterialsCall: (514) 247-4458IG: instagram.com/gomaterialsWeb: https://www.gomaterials.comThe Plant Movement PodcastCall: (305) 216-5320https://www.theplantmovement.comFollow Us: IG: https://www.instagram.com/theplantmovementpodcastIG: https://www.instagram.com/asornamentalnursery/Visuals and Recording by Eddie EVDNT GonzalezAudio Production by The one and only Mr. ProducerDisclaimer: The contents of this podcast/youtube video are for informational and entertainment purposes only and do not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. I can't promise that the information shared on my posts is appropriate for you or anyone else. By listening to this podcast/youtube video, you agree to hold me harmless from any ramifications, financial or otherwise, that occur to you as a result of acting on information found in this podcast/youtube video.Support the show

On this episode of The Plant Movement Podcast, your host Willie Rodriguez andco-host Eddie Gonzalez, dive into the current state of the wholesale plantindustry and what can be expected for the upcoming spring season. We'll alsoexplore the sustainability aspect of the industry and how it is shaping the future ofthe business, giving you a comprehensive look into what to expect.Join us for this insightful episode as we explore the pulse of the wholesale plantindustry and what to expect this spring season. Whether you're a grower,landscaper, enthusiast, retailer, or just curious about the industry, this episodehas something for everyone.The Plant Movement PodcastCall: (305) 216-5320https://www.theplantmovement.comFollow Us:IG: www.instagram.com/theplantmovementpodcastAudio production by Mr. ProducerIG: www.instagram.com/mrproducerusaDisclaimer: The contents of this podcast/youtube video are for informational andentertainment purposes only and do not constitute financial, accounting, orlegal advice. I can't promise that the information shared on my posts isappropriate for you or anyone else. By listening to this podcast/youtube video,you agree to hold me harmless from any ramifications, financial or otherwise, thatoccur to you as a result of acting on information found in this podcast/youtubevideo.

"Middle Ground with JLE L.L.C." Podcast "Where We Treat You Like Family" welcomes Author, President/Owner of The Plant Whisperer's, Inc. Ambassador-at-Large Dr. Angela J. (Dr. Coach A.J.) Nealy, Ph.D. as she shares her journey as a Chemistry/Botany Teacher early on, to becoming an Entrepreneur in the Plant Industry, to advising former NASA Astronaut Dr. Mae C. Jemison, M.D. with curriculum for The Earth We Share International Science Camp.

On today's episode of Plant Industry news we discuss the giant African land snail eradication program. In an interview with Dr. Greg Hodges we answer your questions about the snails, the program and what it all means. Thanks for joining! --- Show Links: Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Division of Plant Industry Don't Pack a Pest DPI Blog GALS --- Social Media: Facebook: @fdacsdpi Twitter: @fdacsdpi Instagram: @fdacsdpi YouTube- FDACS DPI

On this Episode of The Plant Movement Podcast your host Willie Rodriguez and co-host Eddie Gonzalez, give a breakdown of 2022 in a very informative and motivational fashion.  We recap the Plant industry and some of our experiences throughout the year. You're not going want to miss this one.We want to thank everyone who has tuned in and all of our special guest that we've had featured so far.We start next year and season 2 with FIRE!!!The Plant Movement PodcastCall: (305) 216-5320https://www.theplantmovement.comFollow Us:IG: www.instagram.com/theplantmovementpodacstDisclaimer: The contents on this podcast/youtube video are for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. I can't promise that the information shared on my posts is appropriate for you or anyone else. By listening to this podcast/youtube video , you agree to hold me harmless from any ramifications, financial or otherwise, that occur to you as a result of acting on information found on this podcast/youtube video.

So plants are popular. Is that so bad? JC Punongbayan, Maien Vital, and Jeff Arapoc go over what happens when new and booming industries go unregulated. From the "Usapang Econ" podcast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Podchaser Leave a Review   Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee    Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community   Historical Events St. Robert's Day Saint Robert of Molesme ("mo-LESS-mah") was an 11th-century herbalist, abbot, and founder of the Cistercian ("sis-TUR-shin") order - a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines. They are also known as Bernardines ("BUR-nah-deen"), after the highly influential Bernard of Clairvaux, or as White Monks - a reference to the color of the cowl worn over their habits as opposed to the black cowl worn by Benedictines. They are commonly called Trappists. Many common wildflowers are named in honor of St. Robert. Some believe that Herb Robert, or Bird's Eye, the little Wild Geranium, was named in honor of St. Robert.  Another theory is that Herb Robert is named for Robin Goodfellow, a pseudonym for the forest sprite known as Puck.   1852 On this day, Henri Frederic Amiel, Swiss philosopher and poet, wrote in his journal:  I went out into the garden to see what progress the spring was making. I strolled from the irises to the lilacs, round the flowerbeds, and in the shrubberies. Delightful surprise! At the corner of the walk, half-hidden under a thick clump of shrubs, a small-leaved corchorus had flowered during the night... the little shrub glittered before me... Mother of marvels, mysterious and tender Nature, why do we not live more in thee?   1869 Birth of Agnes Chase, American botanist. Agnes was an agrostologist—a studier of grass. She was a petite, fearless, indefatigable person and entirely self-taught as a botanist. Her first position was as an illustrator at the USDA's Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington, D.C., working for the botanist Albert Spear Hitchcock. When Hitchcock applied for funding to go on expeditions, higher-ups approved the travel for Hitchcock, but not for Agnes - saying the job should belong to "real research men." Undeterred, Agnes raised her own funding to go on the expeditions. She cleverly partnered with missionaries in Latin America to arrange for accommodations with host families. She shrewdly observed, The missionaries travel everywhere, and like botanists do it on as little money as possible. They gave me information that saved me much time and trouble. During a climb of one of Brazil's highest mountains, Agnes reportedly returned to camp with a "skirt filled with plant specimens." One of her major works, the "First Book of Grasses," was translated into Spanish and Portuguese. It taught generations of Latin American botanists who recognized Agnes's contributions long before their American counterparts. When Hitchcock retired, Agnes was his backfill. When Agnes reached retirement age, she ignored the rite of passage altogether and refused to be put out to pasture. She kept going to work - six days a week - overseeing the largest collection of grasses in the world in her office under the red towers at her beloved Smithsonian Institution. When Agnes was 89, she became the eighth person to become an honorary fellow of the Smithsonian. A reporter covering the event said, Dr. Chase looked impatient as if she were muttering to herself, "This may be well and good, but it isn't getting any grass classified, sonny." While researching Agnes Chase, I came across this little article in The St. Louis Star and Times. Agnes gave one of her books on grass a biblical title, The Meek That Inherit the Earth. The story pointed out that, Mrs. Chase began her study of grass by reading about it in the Bible. In the very first chapter of Genesis, ...the first living thing the Creator made was grass. ... for grass is fundamental to life. [Agnes] said, "Grass is what holds the earth together. Grass made it possible for the human race to abandon... cave life and follow herds. Civilization was based on grass [and] this significance... still holds."   1954 Birth of Jerry Seinfeld, American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld, which he created and wrote with Larry David. He once joked, Why do people give each other flowers to celebrate various important occasions?  They're killing living creatures?  Why restrict it to plants?  "Sweetheart, let's make up. Have this deceased squirrel."   2017 On this day in 2017, The New York Times tweeted that, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden cherry blossom festival is set for today and tomorrow, regardless of when nature [decided] to push play.   Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Language of Butterflies by Wendy Williams This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets of the World's Favorite Insect. If you're a fan of blue morpho butterflies, you're going to love the cover of Wendy's book because it is covered with a kaleidoscope of blue morpho butterflies. So it's impossibly beautiful. And Wendy's book is a five-star book on Amazon. Now Wendy is an author who loves spending time outdoors. She loves skiing. She loves horseback riding. (In fact, her first bestselling book was called The Horse. And Wendy has traveled the world. She's spent a lot of time in Africa, Europe, and North American mountain chains and prairies. But when it comes to just regular daily life, Wendy lives in Cape Cod in Massachusetts with her husband and her Border Collie, Taff. Now I love the way that Wendy writes because she's very conversational. And I also like how she organized this book into three main sections: the past, the present, and the future. And then, to show you how friendly her writing is, her chapters have very intriguing titles. In the section on the past, there's The Gateway Drug, The Number One Butterfly, and then How Butterflies Saved Charles Darwin's Bacon. (Great chapter.) And then, in the present, chapters include A Parasol of Monarchs, The Honeymoon Hotel, and On The Rain Dance Ranch. Great story there. And then, in the future section, Wendy's chapters include The Social Butterfly, The Paroxysms of Ecstasy, and The Butterfly Highway. And Wendy is right; butterflies are the world's most beloved insects. They've been called flying flowers, and gardeners are passionate about butterflies. And many gardeners today are working to help save the Monarch from extinction. Now The Washington Post said this about Wendy's book, Williams takes us on a humorous and beautifully crafted journey that explores both the nature of these curious and highly intelligent insects. And the eccentric individuals who coveted them. And, of course, most of those folks were scientists and or botanists. So I love this book, and I love all of those stories. This book is 256 pages Of butterflies. It's eye-opening and tender. It's an incredibly profound look at butterflies - it's a butterfly biography. And it examines the vital role that butterflies play in our world. You can get a copy of The Language of Butterflies by Wendy Williams and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $2.   Botanic Spark Here's an excerpt from Karel Ćapek's chapter on The Gardener's April from his book The Gardener's Year (1984). Gardeners have certainly arisen by culture and not by natural selection. If they had developed naturally, they would look differently. They would have legs like beetles, so that they need not sit on their heels. And they would have wings - in the first place for their beauty and secondly, so that they might float over the beds. Those who have no experience can not imagine how one's legs are in the way when there's nothing to stand on. How stupidly long they are... Or how impossibly short they are if one has to reach to the other side of the bed without treading on a clump of pyrethrum (that's chrysanthemum) or on the shoots of Columbine. If only one could hang in a belt and swim over the beds. Or have at least four hands with only a head and a cap and nothing else. But because the gardener is outwardly constructed as imperfectly as other people, all he can do is to show us of what he is capable. To balance on tiptoe on one foot, to float in the air like a Russian dancer, to straddle four yards wide, to step as lightly as a butterfly or a wagtail, to reach everywhere and avoid everything, and still try to keep some sort of respectability so that people will not laugh at him.  Of course, at a passing glance, from a distance, you don't see anything of the gardener but his romp. Everything else like the head, arms, and legs is hidden underneath.   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

Welcome to the new season of The Doers Podcast, where leaders from across the business spectrum share ideas about how to help build your organization whether working in the non-profit, public or private sectors you will hear tips from emerging or recognized leader that is sure to lighten or inspire.   Join our Discord community https://discord.gg/PQGN4U9sVU   Guest: Kewal Risal Co-Founder at I Am The Gardener Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kewal-ris... Guest: Biraj Khadka Co-Founder at I Am The Gardener Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/biraj-kha...   Host: Anup Ghimire Founder and CEO at Viewfinders Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anup-ghim...   As always, we're a new podcast with a lot to learn so send us your thoughts, comments, and suggestions either by email (thedoers.2019@gmail.com)   The audio version of our podcast is also available on: Apple podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Google podcast https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR... Spotify podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/7JYlKL2... Catch us on other social media for more: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedoersnepal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedoersnepal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thed... Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thedoersnepal TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/thedoersnepal Visit our Website: www.thedoresnepal.com   The Doers Nepal, Get Inspired. Be a Doer.

On this Episode of The Plant Movement Podcast, Special guest Rolando (Roly) Andrade speaks about his journey from Serving in the Army, to working in the Oil industry, to now creating Multiple streams of Income in the Plant Industry. This is one of those Power House Episodes filled with Inspiration and knowledge from one of our Young Money Makers.Defender Landscaping - (786)479-4143Instagram - @Defender_landscapeNew Leaf Plant Nursery - (786)479-4143Instagram - @newleafplantnurseryThe Plant Movement Instagram - @theplantmovementpodcastDisclaimer: The contents on this podcast/youtube video are for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. I can't promise that the information shared on my posts is appropriate for you or anyone else. By listening to this podcast/youtube video , you agree to hold me harmless from any ramifications, financial or otherwise, that occur to you as a result of acting on information found on this podcast/youtube video.

Strategic reserves -- everything from Canadian maple syrup to seeds -- are intended to stabilize prices or to help us survive, in both the short and long term.  So what are we keeping and why?  (and what happens if someone steals it?!) Like what you hear?  Become a patron of the arts for as little as $2 a month!   Or buy the book or some merch.  Hang out with your fellow Brainiacs.  Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter,  or Instagram. Music: Kevin MacLeod, David Fesliyan.   Reach out and touch Moxie on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Links to all the research resources are on the website.   In the latter half of the 20th century, American wines finally began to come into their own on the global scene.  It was no longer a social faux pas to be seen drinking California chardonnay.  Hastened by a global recession, consumption of European wines by Europeans dropped precipitously, by nearly 1/2 in France and by almost ⅔ in Italy.  What's a vineyard to do if they've produced more wine than the public is buying?  Put it in the wine lake, of course.  My name's…   A strategic reserve is the reserve of a commodity or items that is held back from normal use by governments, organisations, or businesses in pursuance of a particular strategy or to cope with unexpected events.  Your mind may go immediately to the 35 million barrels or so of crude oil that the US has in storage, but there are all kinds of strategic reserves, sometimes called stockpiles, throughout the world.  Most of those stockpiles are intended to guard against price fluctuations.  Today will trend more toward survival necessities, but if you've ever done any kind of research, you know that start off thinking you're going down one road and wind up goodness knows where.    The rationing, deprivation, and economic collapse that were part and parcel to WWII affected the lives of Europeans so profoundly that the European Economic Community, a precursor to the European Union, began subsidizing farmers.  Farmers have never been raking in the big bucks, even when the are outstanding in their field [rimshot], but they were no longer able to rely on it to support their families, especially on land pock-marked with those pesky bomb craters.  Under-production was endemic to the 1950's.  The Common Agricultural Policy was created in 1962 to pay guaranteed, artificially high prices to dairy farmers for surplus products.  These products were then sold the European public for higher prices, causing a drop in sales.  Attempts by non-EU dairies to get in on these high sale prices were kiboshed by heavy taxes.  A certain portion of products were stockpiled, to guard against crop failures, natural disasters, or in case someone got a wild hair and started WWIII.  In 1986 alone, the EU bought 1.23 million tons of leftover butter.  That's 9,840,000,000 sticks of creamy saturated fat goodness.  While this may sound like a dairy-lover's dream, the general public was not so enthusiastic when word got out of what was termed the “butter mountain,” nor were they keen to learn they were paying inflated prices for their dairy goods.  This program actually cost a lot of taxpayer money, almost 90% of the European Economic Communities entire budget.  Even as recently as 2003, these payments are approximately half of the EU budget, even though farming is only 3% of the overall economy.   It still took until the ‘90s for something to be done about it, however. Instead of paying farmers for their unwanted butter, the EEC switched to paying them to not produce it.  To move away from paying farmers guaranteed minimum prices for surplus goods, the government has shifted to paying to farmers so they won't produce as much.  While it seems counter-intuitive, it's not uncommon for governments to pay farmers not farm.  It's been done here in the US since the 1930's.  Some of the prohibitively high import taxes were rescinded as well.  In 2007, the butter surplus was liquidated, figuratively speaking.  In 2009, however, the global recession did require some of the old policies to be reinstated.  The EU claimed it was only a temporary measure that would result in a smaller butter reserve than before, a butter hill rather than a mountain.  A grass-fed knoll, if you will.  This was no magic butter, of course.  Critics argue that farming subsidies in first-world nations hurt developing countries whose farmers can't compete with the artificial prices.   The 300,000 tons of butter the government bought cost taxpayers a whopping €280,000,000, or about a third of a billion dollars, and public pressure quickly rose to get rid of it again.  As of 2011, a portion of the butter had been donated to the worldwide Food Aid for the Needy program.  They don't have this down pat, though.  Changing medical views about fat are leading people to return to butter rather than vegetable oils or margarine, at a rate that's outpacing production.   Oh, Canada, the great white north, full of polite people, ice hockey, geese, and maple syrup.  There are worse reputations for a country to have.  What a pleasant and wholesome thing maple syrup is, drizzled on pancakes on a sunny Sunday morning.  It lands strangely on the brain to learn that there is a Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve.   The Canadian maple syrup industry produces approximately 80% of the world's pure maple syrup and is the leading global producer of maple products.  The province of Quebec alone has almost 8,000 farms, fulfilling 72% of the worlds sticky sweet needs.   Maple syrup is harvested from the sap of maple trees, shockingly, but the process is even more fickle than your average crop.  Maple trees require nights below freezing and days that are in the low thirties but above freezing to  relinquish their sap in useful quantities.  If the nights are too warm or the days are too cold, production levels can vary wildly based on the weather.  That isn't good news if you're trying to maintain a large-scale industry.  It takes 40 units of sap to get one unit of syrup, though a long boiling process called sugaring off.  Corporate buyers depend on a consist supply.  Since 2000, the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers has been squirreling away barrels of surplus syrup in rich times, in preparation for poor harvests.  The Federation's warehouses have a capacity of 10 million kilos / 22.2 million pounds of syrup, or about two million gallons.  Each barrel weighs about 620 pounds and commands a price of $1,650, almost 20 times the cost of crude oil.     Speaking of oil, some producers claim the Federation runs their operation like OPEC.  Those producers who don't cooperate with the quota system, those with the temerity to find their own buyers, are dealt with harshly.  Small producer Angèle Grenier told reporter Leyland Cecco she will face criminal charges if she doesn't stop selling to a private broker after the courts ordered her to hand her syrup over.  She has three choices: give the Federation her syrup crop, face jail time, or shut down.  “The federation's goal by taking our maple syrup is that by taking our income, we cannot pay our lawyers,” says Grenier.  “If one year we make 45 barrels, and the next year is a very good year and we make 60, we want to get paid for the 60,” she says. Once a producer fills the quota, the surplus, no matter how large, is retained until it is sold.  That lag-time can run into years.  According to Grenier, a neighboring producer is owed almost 100,000 Canadian dollars in unsold syrup.  According to Al Jazeera America, a small Quebec producer described what happened to his family's business: “The agent who came here to seize our syrup said, ‘If you were growing pot, we wouldn't be giving you as much trouble.'    When an accountant went to inventory the barrels in the warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blanford, he was alarms to find a number of the barrels filled with water, while others were plain empty. Because of the sheer volume of syrup, it would take two months to even determine how much was missing.  About 60 percent of the reserve, worth about $18 million at that time, had been stolen.  The thieves had rented space in the same warehouse and when the security guards were out of sight, siphoned the syrup from the barrels over the course of 11 months.  A multi-agency search began.  Hundreds of people were questioned and dozens of search warrants were issued.  It took a year for the 26 people believed to be involved in the robbery to be arrested.  About ⅓ of the syrup would never be recovered.  The mastermind, Richard Vallieres, received an eight-year prison sentence, which will be increased to 14 years if he doesn't pay $9.4 million in fines, the CBC reports.  Vallières was found guilty of theft, fraud and trafficking stolen goods.  His father, Raymond, and syrup reseller Etienne St-Pierre, have also been found guilty.  Speaking of Canada, I'm 100% serious about a virtual watch-party for the Letterkenny season 10 premier, soc med.   To quote the show to make a clunky segue, what's a Mennonite's favorite kind of raisin?  Barn-raisin'.  Yes, Virginia, there is a national raisin reserve.  That's right, raisins, those polarizing wrinkly former grapes.  While most stockpiles are created to protect against shortage, the National Raisin Reserve came to be for the opposite reason.  We were up to our epaulets in raisins, apparently.   During World War II, both the government and civilians bought raisins en masse to send to soldiers overseas, as a sweet, shelf stable taste of home.  Increased demand led to increased production, but when the war ended and the care packages stopped, the raisin market was flooded.   In 1949, Marketing Order 989 was passed which created the reserve and the Raisin Administrative Committee to oversee it, under the supervision of the USDA.  The Committee was empowered to take a varying percentage of American raisin farmers' produce, sometimes almost half, in an effort to create a raisin shortage and artificially drive up the market price. The reserved raisins didn't go to waste.  Much of it was used in school lunches, fed to livestock, or sold to other countries.  If the raisins were sold, the profit was supposed to be shared with the farmers, but those monies could easily be eaten up by operating expenses, leaving nothing for the people who actually grew the grapes.   This program stayed in place, business as usual, for 53 years, until 2002.  That's when farmer Marvin Horne decided that he would rather sell the product he had grown and processed instead of giving it away to the government. The government took exception to this idea.  Private detectives were dispatched to put his farm under surveillance, then trucks were sent to collect the raisins. When Horne refused to let the trucks on his property, he was slapped with a bill for about $680,000, the value of the raisins plus a penalty.  Not one to roll over that easily, Horne sued the government, claiming the forced forfeiture of his crop was unconstitutional.  For years, the case was volleyed from one court to another.  Eventually, it appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, not once but twice.  The first time was to settle the issue of jurisdiction.  Justice Elena Kagan suggested that the question was “whether the marketing order is a Taking or it's just the world's most outdated law.”  The second time was the core issue - was the seizure of raisins a violation of the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the government taking personal property without just compensation?  In 2015, thirteen years after the farce began, the court ruled 8:1 in favor of Horne: For seizures to continue, compensation would have to be paid, that the confiscation of a portion of a farmer's crops without market price compensation was unconstitutional.    While many growers supports Horne in his efforts, even contributing to his legal fees, not everyone thinks of him as a champion of the little guy.  Some who followed the government's orders while Horne defied them resent him for it.  “I lost a lot of my land, following the rules,” said Eddie Wayne Albrecht, a raisin grower in nearby Del Rey, Calif.   He lost so much money in turning in as much as 47% of his crop that his farm, once 1,700 acres strong, is now only 100 acres.  “He got 100 percent, while I was getting 53 percent,” Albrecht said. “The criminal is winning right now.”   What's happening with the raisin reserve now?  The Agriculture Department could abolish it, but they have only hit pause on it, saying “Due to a recent United States Supreme Court decision, [the Volume Control] provisions are currently suspended, being reviewed, and will be amended.” At least that means that in the meantime, no more raisins should be put into the reserve and farmers are free to sell what's theirs.   Bonus fact the first: Golden raisins aren't dried white grapes.  Both regular and golden raisins are made from the same kind of grapes, but with slightly different processes.     MIDROLL   Do you remember how, after like the third time Futurama got cancelled, they did a quartet of movies, which went back and forth in quality like the Star Trek films.  The one, Into the Wild Green Yonder, featured a creature called the Encyclopod, who preserved the DNA of all endangered species.  It's not news that animal species are disappearing at an increasing rate, with a quarter of all known mammals and a tenth of all birds facing possible extinction within the next generation.  Global biodiversity is declining at an overwhelming speed. With each species that disappears, vast amounts of information about their biology, ecology and evolutionary history is irreplaceably lost.  In 2004, three British organizations decided to join forces and combat the issue.  The Natural History Museum, the Zoological Society of London, and Nottingham University joined forces, like highly-educated Planeteers, to create the Frozen Ark Project.     To do this, they gathered and preserved DNA and living tissue samples from all the endangered species they could get their hands on (literally), so that future generations can study the genetic material far into the future.  No, not like Jurassic Park.  I think it's been established that that's a bad idea.  So far, the Frozen Ark has over 700 samples stored at the University of Nottingham in England and participating consortium members in the U.S., Germany, Australia,India, South Africa, Norway, and others.  DNA donations come from museums, university laboratories, and zoos.  Their mission has four component: to coordinating global efforts in animal biobanking; to share expertise; to help to organisations and governments set up biobanks in their own countries; and to provide the physical and informatics infrastructure that will allow conservationists and researchers to search for, locate, and use this material wherever possible without having to resample from wild populations.   The Frozen Ark Project was founded in 2004 by Professor Bryan Clarke, a geneticist at the University of Nottingham, his wife Dr Ann Clarke, an immunologist with experience in reproductive biology, and their friend Dame Anne McLaren, a leading figure in developmental biology.  Starting in the 1960's, Clarke carried out comprehensive studies on land snails of the genus Partula, which are endemic to the volcanic islands of French Polynesia.  Almost all Partula species disappeared within just 15 years, because of a governmental biological control plan that went horribly wrong.  In the late '60s, the giant African land snail, a mollusk the size of a puppy, was introduced to the islands as a delicacy, but soon turned into a serious agricultural pest, because, as seems to happen 100% of the time humans think they know better, the giant snail had no natural predators.  To control the African land snails, the carnivorous Florida rosy wolfsnail was introduced in the '70s, but it annihilated the native snails instead.  As a last resort, Clarke's team managed to collect live specimens of the remaining 12 Partula species and bring them back to Britain.  Tissue samples were frozen to preserve their DNA and an international captive breeding program was established.  Currently, there are Partula species, including some that later became extinct in the wild, in a dozen zoos and a there few been a few promising reintroductions.   The extinction story of the Partula snails resonated with the Clarkes, who realised that systematic collection and preservation of tissue, DNA, and viable cells of endangered species should become standard practice, ultimately inspiring the birth of Frozen Ark.  The Frozen Ark Project operates as a federated model, building partnerships with organisations worldwide that share the same vision and goals.  The Frozen Ark consortium has grown steadily since the project's launch, with new national and international organisations joining every year.  There are now 27 partners, distributed across five continents.  Biological samples like tissue or blood from animals in zoos and aquariums can be taken from live animals during routine veterinary work or from dead animals.  Bonus fact: more of a nitpick, the post-mortem examination of an animal is a necropsy.  Autopsy means examining the self.  The biobanks can provide a safe storage for many types of biological material, particularly the highly valuable germ cells (sperm and eggs).     Their work isn't merely theoretical for some distant day in the future.  One success story of the Frozen Ark, which illustrates the benefits of combining cryobanked material, effective management, and a captive breeding program, is the alarmingly adorable black-footed ferret. The species was listed as “extinct in the wild” in 1996, but has since been reintroduced back to its habitat and is now gradually recovering.  More recently, researchers were able to improve the  genetic diversity to the wild population by using 20-year-old cryopreserved sperm and artificial insemination.     There are many organizations around the world who have taken up the banner of seed preservation, nearly 2,000 in fact.  Most of us have heard of the seed vault at Svalbard, the cool-looking tower sticking out of a Norwegian mountain, where the permafrost ensures the seeds are preserved without need for electricity.  But that's not the seed vault I want to talk about today and fair warning, this one's gonna get heavy, but it's one of those stories I find endlessly fascinating and in a strange way, uplifting.   In September 1941, German forces began to push into Leningrad, before and since called St Petersburg.  They laid siege to the city, choking off the supply of food and other necessities to the city's two million residents.  The siege of Leningrad didn't last a month, or two, or even six.  The siege lasted nearly 900 days.  Among the two million Soviet citizens struggling to survive were a group of scientists ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the good of mankind.  While they did, their leader, Nikolay Vavilov, Russian geneticist and plant geographer, lay dying in a Soviet prison a thousand miles away.    Vavilov had travelled the world on what he called “a mission for all humanity.”   Vavilov led 115 expeditions to 64 countries, to collect seeds of crop varieties and their wild ancestors. Based on his notes, modern biologists following in Vavilov's footsteps are able to document changes in the cultural and physical landscapes and the crop patterns in these places.  To study the global food ecosystem, he conducted experiments in genetics to improve productivity for farmers.  “He was one of the first scientists to really listen to farmers – traditional farmers, peasant farmers around the world – and why they felt seed diversity was important in their fields,” says Gary Paul Nabhan, ethnobiologist and author of ‘Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov's Quest to End Famine', continues: “All of our notions about biological diversity and needing diversity of foods on our plates to keep us healthy sprung from his work 80 years ago.”  His hope was that one day science could work with agriculture to increase each farm's productivity and to create plants that would grow in any environment and bring an end to hunger.  As Russia fought to find its way through undergoing revolutions, anarchy, and, most importantly to Vavilov, famines, he went about storing seeds at the Institute of Plant Industry, also known as the Pavlovsk Experimental Station.  The scientists there collected thousands of varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, and tubers.  Unlike Svalbard and Kew Garden, the seeds a Pavlovsk weren't just stored as seeds, but some were perpetuated as plants in the field.  This is because some varieties do not breed true from seeds, so can't be stored as seeds to get those plants in the future.   There was one obstacle in Vavilo's way.  Two, really, but one was much greater a threat, that being Joseph Stalin.  The other threat was Stalin's favorite scientist, Trofim Lysenkoly.  Lysenko was a dangerously mis-informed scientist.  Rather than survival of the fittest, where the genes that help an organism survive long enough to reproduce are the ones that are passed on, Lysenko believed that organisms could inherit traits the parent acquired during its lifespan.  Instead of believing that the giraffe with the longest neck was able to reach the food and live to have babies, he believed that the giraffe stretched its neck up and its baby would have a longer neck because of that.  He also believed that if you grafted a branch from a desirable tree onto a less desirable tree, the base tree would improve.  His theories about seeds and flowers were equally backwards.  It was garbage science at best.  At worst, well, we don't need to speculate on that.  We saw it happen.  Crops failed under his now-mandatory systems on the new collectivized farms, which themselves reduced productivity.  Lysenko's policies brought on a famine.  But he was in Stalin's favor and in the Soviet Union, that was all that mattered.  In August 1948 when the Politburo outlawed the teaching of and research into classical Mendelian genetics, the pea plant-based genetics we learn about in middle school.  This disastrous government interference in the face of widely-accepted science and its outcomes are called the Lysenko Effect.     There was no way Stalin's favorite scientist was going to take the fall, so Stalin singled out Vavilov, who had been openly critical of Lysenko.  He claimed Vavilov was responsible for the famines because his process of carefully selecting the best specimens of plants took too long to produce results.  Vavilov was collecting seeds near Russia's border when he was arrested and subjected to 1700 hours of savage interrogation.  World War II was in full swing and it was impossible for his family to find out what had happened to him.  Vavilov, who spent his life trying to end famine, starved to death in the gulag.   Back in Leningrad, some scientists from the Institute of Plant Industry were able to get the bulk of the tuber collection, and themselves, to another location within the city.  A dozen of Vavilov's scientists stayed behind to safeguard the seed collection.  At first, it seemed as though they'd only have to contend with marauding enemy troops breeching the city, seeking to steal the seeds or simply destroy the building.  The red army pushed the Germans back as long as they could.  Nothing moved in or out of the city.  “Leningrad must die of starvation”, Hitler declared in a speech at Munich on November 8, 1941.  As the siege dragged on, the scientists then had to contend with protecting the seeds from their own countrymen.  Food was rationed, but once it ran out, people ate anything they could to survive--vermin, dogs, leather, sawdust, and as so often happens in such dark hours, some at the dead.  The scientists barricaded themselves inside with hundreds of thousands of seeds, a quarter of which were edible just as they were, along with rice and grains.   But they did not eat them.  They took turns guarding the store room in shifts, even as they grew weaker, even as they heard the Germans looting and destroying out in the streets.  The only thing that mattered was guarding the collection, safeguarding both the botanical past and future for mankind, and the work of their fallen Vavilov.  One by one, the scientist began to die of starvation.  One man died at his desk; another died surrounded by bags of rice.  In the end, nine of the twelve scientists did not live to see the end of the siege.  But not a single grain, seed, or tuber was eaten.  According to Nabhan, “One of them said it was hard to wake up, it was hard to get on your feet and put on your clothes in the morning, but no, it was not hard to protect the seeds once you had your wits about you.  Saving those seeds for future generations and helping the world recover after war was more important than a single person's comfort.”   Unlike many of the 85 million deaths in WWII, those nine scientists' lives were not wasted.  Today, many of the crops that we eat came from cross-breeding with varieties the scientists saved from destruction.  As much as 80% of all the pre-collapse Soviet Union's fields were sown with varieties that originated in Vavilov's collection.  It's a sad tale, I know, but also an amazing one that so few of us hear.  Which is odd when you consider the thousands of hours of WWII documentaries out there.  The world nearly lost Vavilov's collection a second time, though.  In 2010, the land it sits on was being sold to a developer who planned to build private homes on the site.  The collection can't just be moved; there are all sorts of complex legal and technical issues, including quarantines.  The public called for the site to be preserved and in 2012, the Russian government took formal action to prevent the land from being conveyed to private buyers.  As far as I can find, it stands safely still.    Much to my lasting disappointment, the wine lake was not a physical lake of wine, like Willy Wonka's chocolate river for women with Live, Laugh, Love decor.  In addition to subsidies equivalent to $1.7 billion per year, the EU purchased the vineyards' lower-quality grapes for what it called “crisis distillation,” turning the grapes into industrial alcohol and biofuels, rather than for drinking.  This unfortunately encouraged some growers to produce more inferior grapes, so in 2008, the government just paid growers to dig up vines and abandon fields of surplus grapes.  In 2015, all of the previously enacted programs were phased out, meaning wineries would once again be responsible for their own excesses.  Remember…Thanks…    https://listverse.com/2015/12/14/10-of-the-strangest-items-governments-are-stockpiling/ http://theweek.com/articles/454970/logic-behind-worlds-4-weirdest-strategic-reserves https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/12/20/why-maple-syrup-is-controlled-by-a-quebec-cartel/?utm_term=.8628802d4fe2 http://mentalfloss.com/article/87144/15-strategic-reserves-unusual-products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_mountain https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-27/europeans-eat-into-butter-mountain-in-sign-high-prices-to-linger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omBxXzdBR2Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiZ75XbG7YA https://verdict.justia.com/2015/07/15/raisins-regulations-and-politics-in-the-supreme-court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Raisin_Reserve https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/one-growers-grapes-of-wrath/2013/07/07/ebebcfd8-e380-11e2-80eb-3145e2994a55_story.html?utm_term=.74d6dccd2110 http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/industry-markets-and-trade/market-information-by-sector/horticulture/horticulture-sector-reports/statistical-overview-of-the-canadian-maple-industry-2015/?id=1475692913659 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-01-02/the-great-canadian-maple-syrup-heist https://explorepartsunknown.com/quebec/canadas-maple-syrup-cartel-puts-the-squeeze-on-small-producers/ https://modernfarmer.com/2014/01/illustrated-account-great-maple-syrup-heist/ http://time.com/4760432/maple-syrup-heist-prison-fine/ http://www.ediblegeography.com/syrup-stockpiles-wine-lakes-butter-mountains-and-other-strategic-food-reserves/ http://www.ediblegeography.com/syrup-stockpiles-wine-lakes-butter-mountains-and-other-strategic-food-reserves/ https://www.ft.com/content/982ed0e4-8a1d-11e4-9b5f-00144feabdc0 https://www.guildsomm.com/public_content/features/articles/b/guest_blog/posts/confeusion-a-quick-summary-of-the-eu-wine-reforms http://mentalfloss.com/article/87144/15-strategic-reserves-unusual-products https://listverse.com/2015/12/14/10-of-the-strangest-items-governments-are-stockpiling/ http://www.nww2m.com/2015/06/scitech-tuesday-when-the-rubber-meets-the-road/ https://insideecology.com/2018/01/12/the-frozen-ark-project-biobanking-endangered-animal-samples-for-conservation-and-research/ https://www.researchitaly.it/en/news/the-ice-memory-project-is-underway/#null https://www.arctictoday.com/ice-cores-best-link-ancient-climates-scientists-racing-preserve-still-can/ https://www.rbth.com/blogs/2014/05/12/the_men_who_starved_to_death_to_save_the_worlds_seeds_35135 https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-scientists-who-starved-to-death.html

If you live in South Florida, chances are you own a plant. Between landscaping, herbs, and houseplants, most people in this area are surrounded by greenery. We tend to take advantage of the plants that are constantly around us, but this nursery owner helps put the PLANT INDUSTRY into perspective!In this episode, we sit down with Willie from A's Ornamental Nursery to discuss ALL THINGS PLANTS! From his roots, to his growing business, to getting into social media, we discuss all aspects of the plant nursery industry. We help answer YOUR questions about plants, and even give some quick plant tips! Make sure you check out this episode whether you have a green thumb or not!Check out A's Ornamental Nursey on social media @asornamental and online at https://www.asornamentalnsy.com/As always, follow us on social media @flhomeshows and visit our website homeshows.net

Magnanakaw! Magnanakaw! May kumuha ng... halaman ko??? Theft, poaching, and skyrocketing prices are just some of unintended consequences of the thriving ornamental plant industry. Let's learn more from Usapang Econ hosts Maien Vital, Jeff Arapoc, and JC Punongbayan; as well as from a certified plantita, and someone from the Bureau of Plant Industry. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we celebrate the botanical pastimes of two young women in Oklahoma back in 1850. We'll also learn about a female botanical pioneer who specialized in grasses. We’ll hear some thoughts on spring from a beloved American author. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book featuring the letters from a Texas pioneer botanist. And then we’ll wrap things up with the story of an elite wedding and last-minute flower arranging.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy.   The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.   Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Curated News Spring's Splendor: Forsythia | The Flower Infused Cocktail Blog | Alyson Brown   Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you’d search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events April 29, 1850 Here's a post for this day from Hunter’s Home - the only remaining pre–Civil War plantation home in Oklahoma. “Emily and Amanda stayed at Araminta's for much of the day. They had a sweet potato roasting and then gathered flowers for pressing.  Emily kept an herbarium into which she pressed a variety of flowers from her travels. Botany was considered a suitable science for women to learn in the 19th-century and women were expected to understand the nature of the plant as well as classification, etc.  Women published botanical textbooks and used their knowledge to improve their herbal remedies. Like Emily, women also carried their herbaria with them while traveling to better collect new species.”   April 29, 1869   Today is the birthday of a botanist who was a petite, fearless, and indefatigable person: Agnes Chase. Agnes was an agrostologist—a studier of grass. A self-taught botanist, her first position was as an illustrator at the USDA’s Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington, D.C. In this position, Agnes worked as an assistant to the botanist Albert Spear Hitchcock. When it came time to apply for funding for expeditions, only Albert received approval - not Agnes.  The justification was always that the job belonged to "real research men." Undeterred, Agnes raised her own funding to go on the expeditions. She cleverly partnered with missionaries in Latin America and arranged for accommodations with host families. She shrewdly observed, “The missionaries travel everywhere, and like botanists do it on as little money as possible. They gave me information that saved me much time and trouble.” During a climb of one of the highest Mountains in Brazil, Agnes returned to camp with a "skirt filled with plant specimens." One of her major works, the First Book of Grasses, was translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Her book taught generations of Latin American botanists who recognized Agnes's contributions long before their American counterparts. After Albert retired, Agnes became his backfill. When Agnes reached retirement age, she ignored the rite of passage altogether and refused to be put out to pasture. She kept going to work - six days a week - overseeing the largest collection of grasses in the world from her office under the red towers at her beloved Smithsonian Institution. When Agnes was 89, she became the eighth person to become an honorary fellow of the Smithsonian. A reporter covering the event said, “Dr. Chase looked impatient, as if she were muttering to her self, "This may be well and good, but it isn't getting any grass classified, sonny." While I was researching Agnes Chase, I came across this little article in The St. Louis Star and Times. Agnes gave one of her books on grass a biblical title, The Meek That Inherit the Earth. The article pointed out that, "Mrs. Chase began her study of grass by reading about it in the Bible. In the very first chapter of Genesis, ...the first living thing the Creator made was grass. ...In order to understand grass one needs an outlook as broad as all creation, for grass is fundamental to life, from Abraham, the herdsman, to the Western cattleman; from drought in Egypt to the dust bowl of Colorado; from corn, a grass given to Hiawatha..., to the tall corn of Iowa.” [Agnes] said, "Grass is what holds the earth together. Grass made it possible for the human race to abandon his cave life and follow herds. Civilization was based on grass, everywhere in the world."   Unearthed Words What can beat bricks warming up to the sun? The return of awnings. The removal of blankets from horses’ backs. Tar softens under the heel, and the darkness under bridges changes from gloom to cooling shade. After a light rain, when the leaves have come, tree limbs are like wet fingers playing in woolly green hair.  ― Toni Morrison, American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor, Jazz   Grow That Garden Library Life Among the Texas Flora by Minetta Altgelt Goyne  This book came out in 1991, and the subtitle is Ferdinand Lindheimer's Letters to George Engelmann. In this book, Minetta shares the treasure of these letters between two marvelous 19th-century botanists. In 1979, Minetta was asked to translate 32 letters between Ferdinand Lindheimer, the father of Texas botany, and George Engelmann - the man who helped establish the Missouri Botanical Garden and specialized in the Flora of the western half of the United States. The task of deciphering, organizing, and analyzing the Lindheimer Englemann correspondence took Minetta over a decade. This book is 236 pages of a fascinating look at Texas frontier life and botany through the eyes of the German-American botanist Ferdinand Lindheimer. You can get a copy of Life Among the Texas Flora by Minetta Altgelt Goyne  and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $18.   Today’s Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart April 29, 1924 Today is the wedding day of Cornelia Vanderbilt. This year (2021) marks her 95th wedding anniversary. When the Vanderbilt heiress married British nobility, the diplomat John Cecil, the wedding flowers had been ordered from a florist in New York. However, the train carrying the flowers to Asheville, North Carolina, had been delayed and would not arrive in time. Biltmore's Floral Displays Manager Lizzie Borchers said that, "Biltmore’s gardeners came to the rescue, clipping forsythia, tulips, dogwood, quince, and other flowers and wiring them together. They were quite large compositions, twiggy, open, and very beautiful.” If you look up this lavish, classic roaring 20's wedding on social media, the pictures show that the bouquets held by the wedding party were indeed very large - they look to be about two feet in diameter! I'll share the images in our Facebook Group, The Daily Gardener Community. In 2001, the Biltmore commemorated the 75th anniversary of the wedding with a month-long celebration among 2,500 blooming roses during the month of June.   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate one of my favorite botanists and his personal story of love and love of poetry and nature. We'll also learn about an extraordinary gardener who could grow anything - and I mean anything. We’ll hear Rosemary Verey’s thoughts on patterns. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a behind-the-scenes look at the 2009 White House Garden and the modern community garden movement. And then we’ll wrap things up with a celebration that may drive you nuts - but we will celebrate nonetheless.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy.   The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.   Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Curated News Hillside Landscaping Ideas | Better Homes & Gardens     Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you’d search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events January 21, 1854 Today is the birthday of the Washington DC-based USDA botanist Erwin Frink Smith. Erwin had attempted to solve the problem of the peach yellows - a disease caused by a microorganism called a phytoplasma, and it was affecting Peach Orchards. It was called the Peach Yellows disease because the main symptom was that new leaves would have a yellowish tint. Now, if Erwin had solved the Peach Yellows' problem, he would have become world-famous - but he didn't. Years later, it was actually the botanist Louis Otto Kunkel who discovered it was a type of leafhopper that was carrying the disease. Although Erwin didn't solve the Peach Yellows problem, he was a peach of a guy. In researching Erwin, I discovered a rare combination of kindness and intellect. And Erwin was ahead of his time. Erwin developed a reputation for hiring and promoting female botanists as his assistants at the Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington DC. After giving these women tasks based on their strengths instead of their job descriptions, Erwin's team was able to work on projects that charted new territory for female botanists. The happiest day in Erwin’s life was no doubt when he married the pretty Charlotte Mae Buffet on April 13, 1893. Together, Erwin and Charlotte shared an epic love for each other and for reading and poetry. Tragically, after twelve years of marriage, Charlotte was diagnosed with endocarditis. She died eight months later, on December 28, 1906. Erwin dealt with his grief by putting together a book of poetry, stories, and a biography of Charlotte. The book is called For Her Friends and Mine: A Book of Aspirations, Dreams, and Memories. Erwin wrote, "This book is a cycle of my life— seven lonely years are in it. The long ode (on page 62) is a cry of pain."    There's one passage from Erwin describing Charlotte’s fantastic ability to attune to the natural world, and I thought you'd find it as touching as I did when I first read it: “Charlotte’s visual powers were remarkable. They far exceeded my own. Out of doors, her keen eyes were always prying into the habits of all sorts of living things... Had she cared for classification, which she did not, and been willing to make careful records, she might have become an expert naturalist.  Whether she looked into the tops of the tallest trees, or the bottom of a stream, or the grass at her feet, she was always finding marvels of adaptation to wonder at... She made lists of all the birds that visited her neighborhood. She knew most of them by their songs, and some times distinguished individuals of the same species by little differences in their notes... She knew when they nested and where, how they made their nests, and what food they brought to their young. In studying birds, she used an opera-glass, not a shotgun. She was, however, a very good shot with the revolver.”   January 21, 1881 Today is the birthday of the incredible American gardener, plant whisperer, and horticulturist Rae Selling Berry. Almost totally deaf by the time she was an adult, Rae was an excellent lip reader, and many suspect her deafness helped her attune to plants. In the early 1900s, Rae started a new hobby: gardening. Like many gardeners, Rae began gardening with a few pots on her front porch. It wasn’t long before Rae was collecting and growing rare plants - not only on her homeplace - but also on two vacant lots she rented next door. After subscribing to many English garden magazines, Rae ordered her plants and seeds from the world's best nurseries. She also subscribed to exotic plant explorations so that she could get seeds from the top explorers like George Forrest, Frank Kingdon-Ward, and Joseph Rock. Rae wanted the latest and greatest plants - and once she got them, she mastered growing them. In addition to Rhododendrons, Rae had a weakness for Primula. During her lifetime, no one grew Primulas better than Rae Berry Seling. And to illustrate just how much Rae loved Primulas, in April 1932, Rae wrote an article for The National Horticultural Magazine where she profiled the sixty-one species she grew in her gardens - the article was understatedly titled Primulas in My Garden. In 1938, Rae and her husband bought a new property in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The location of the property along a great ridge offered a number of microclimates and growing conditions. Best of all, Rae’s new place included water - springs and small rivers, as well as a marsh and a wetland. Each of these features offered unique advantages as Rae picked locations to situate her incredible rare plants. Now it's often said of Rae that she was in tune with the most finicky of plants. She had an uncanny ability to understand the needs of her various plant specimens, and she put those needs ahead of design aesthetics. Her incredible Rhododendron collection grew happily in simple raised frames behind her house. And in the spring, visitors to her garden were in awe of her beds featuring great masses of blooming rhododendrons. In the 1950s, Rae received a single corm of the Chilean blue crocus (Tecophilaea cyanocrocus "tee-KO-fy-LEE-ah sy-ANN-oh-cro-cus"). Native to the Andes in Chile, this blue crocus is exceptionally rare to see in cultivation… unless you were Rae Berry. Apparently, there was one memorable spring, when seventy-five Chilean blue crocus bloomed in Rae's garden. Can you imagine? It was Rae Selling Berry who said: “You don’t tell a plant where to grow; it will tell you.”   Unearthed Words I enjoy patterns, man-made and natural, and as soon as I start looking around me, they are everywhere. The countryside in winter has tree skeletons silhouetted against the sky — trees without leaves. One day their background is dark grey, another it is clear blue, but there is always a natural pattern of trunk and branches, a lesson in symmetry with variations. As the snow slowly melts, man-made patterns, still filled with snow, scar the fields where the wheel marks of tractors crossed the newly sown corn last autumn, sometimes straight, sometimes following the line of the walls or hedgerows. — Rosemary Verey, gardener and garden writer, A Countrywoman's Year, January   Grow That Garden Library American Grown by Michelle Obama  This book came out in 2012, and the subtitle is The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America. In this book, we are reminded of the wonderful kitchen garden that Michelle Obama planted on the White House’s South Lawn in April of 2009. This book takes us inside the White House Kitchen Garden - from planning and planting to the final harvest.   You’ll learn about Michelle’s worries and joys as a new gardener. Best of all, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at the garden along with the recipes created by White House chefs. Finally, if you have an interest in putting together a school or community garden, there are plenty of tips. There are many inspiring stories of gardens from across the country, including the Houston office workers who make the sidewalk bloom; a New York City School that created a scented garden for the visually impaired; a North Carolina garden that devotes its entire harvest to those in need; and other stories of communities that are transforming the lives and health of their citizens.   This book is 272 pages of gardening that stretches from the recent gardening history of the White House to the great gardening going on in communities across America. You can get a copy of American Grown by Michelle Obama and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $3   Today’s Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart January 21, 2001 Today is National Squirrel Appreciation Day, which was founded in 2001 by Christy Hargrove, a wildlife rehabilitator in Asheville, North Carolina. Christy created the special day to acknowledge that food sources for squirrels are scarce in mid-winter. Gardeners are generally of two minds when it comes to squirrels. They either don't mind them, or they really dislike them. Thanks to their tremendous athleticism, Squirrels are a challenging pest in the garden. For instance, it may seem impossible, but squirrels have a 5-foot vertical. Nowadays, their ability to leap is well-documented on YouTube. Squirrels are also excellent sprinters and swimmers. And they are zigzag masters when they run - a wicked skill that helps them evade predators. A squirrel nest is called a drey. Squirrels make their nests with leaves, and the mother lines the inside of the drey with grass. Now, as squirrels bury acorns and other seeds, they either sometimes forget or simply don't return to some of their buried food. But, lucky for squirrels, they can smell an acorn buried in the ground beneath a foot of snow. As gardeners, we should remember that squirrels perform an essential job for trees. They help the forest renew itself by caching seeds and burying them. In fact, the job that squirrels do in caching seeds is absolutely critical to some trees' survival.   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate the avid gardener who transformed the gardens at what was once the largest private residence in the United States. We'll also learn about the man who created many new citruses through hybridizing. We’ll hear some January advice from a Dig For Victory brochure from WWII. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fun fiction book set on an English estate called Winterfold. And then we’ll wrap things up with the story of the man behind the Wagner Tree.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy.   The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.   Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Curated News Three Friends of Winter Tour | Snug Harbor   Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you’d search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events January 8, 1828 On this day, Eliza Ridgely married her fifth cousin and son of a Maryland Governor, John Carnan Ridgely. The couple lived on the Hampton Plantation built by John's great-uncle Charles  Ridgely III in 1790. After construction, it was the largest private residence in the United States. Eliza was the third mistress of Hampton and an avid gardener. During the decades following their marriage, Eliza and John had five children, and Eliza spent a great deal of time improving Hampton’s gardens and landscape. In 1859, the horticulturist Henry Winthrop Sargent wrote that “[Hampton] expresses more grandeur than any other place in America.” He was not a fan of that grandeur - Henry preferred a more natural garden landscape. Hampton’s garden landscape history dates back to the late 1780s when Captain Charles Ridgely acquired an Irish-born gardener and indentured servant named Daniel Healy. Daniel oversaw the Great Terrace’s creation with its winding path and the 80x50-foot parterres that make up Hampton’s Falling Gardens. Eliza left her mark on the gardens at Hampton by doing something completely different. She fell in love with the Victorian garden trend of “carpet bedding,” which leveraged plant colors to create designs - like diamonds or circles. Other plants just provided contrasting colors. In his book, The Garden Triumphant, David Stuart said, “In the early Victorian bedding system, plant individualities were of no importance, each individual [plant] merely yielding the color of its flowers to the general show… The obsession with ‘show’ with plants merely as a ‘blaze of colors’ was all.” Regarded as an accomplished gardener and horticulturist, Eliza had grand garden dreams. She installed extensive gardens, and her love for carpet bedding would have been a radical departure from gardening etiquette of the time. Because, before this trend, it was considered poor taste to plant a plant next to another one of the same color and variety. That was a big no-no. In fact, in 1839, Henry Winthrop Sargent issued another dig at Eliza’s formal gardens when he said, they"quite disturb one's ideas of republican America.” He was definitely not a fan. Over 4,000 acres surrounded Hampton House, and Eliza had more than enough room to develop impressive greenhouses, which along with the lavish gardens, were tended by slaves. And many people who tour Hampton today are surprised to learn that. They were not aware that slavery existed as far north as Maryland. During their marriage, Eliza and John loved to travel, and on their journeys through Europe and Asia, Eliza collected exotic trees and plants for her Hampton gardens. Eliza’s love of citrus trees led to creating an orangery to help her citrus collection survive the harsh Baltimore winters. Eliza Ridgely added specimen trees to Hampton’s formal landscape. Today a Lebanon Cedar stands on the mansion’s south lawn of the Great Terrace. And Ridgely family history says that Eliza brought the exotic tree to Hampton as a little seedling in a shoebox from the Middle East. Eliza also selected the white and pink Saucer Magnolias that bloom in the spring and the magnificent fan-leafed ginkgo at the corner of the house. But, the oldest trees on the property are catalpas that predate the home. And although they are quite common now, Eliza brought urns to Hampton. Made of Italian marble, Eliza’s fashionable urns surrounded the mansion. Now during Eliza’s lifetime, the urns would have been called “vases,” and they were meant to add classical beauty to the garden. In 1854, American Farmer Magazine wrote that Eliza’s gardens expressed “more grandeur than anything in America.” The magazine also admired her irrigation system, saying that, “a reservoir at the mansion… radiates to different sections of the garden where hydrants are placed, and by a hose, the entire garden can be watered at pleasure.  Last summer, when all other places in the neighborhood were dry and barren, the flower garden at Hampton presented a gorgeous array of bloom… Petunias, Verbenas, Geraniums, and other summer flowering plants, looked as though they lacked no moisture there.” With the end of slavery after the Civil War, the Hampton estate fell into decline as the family struggled to maintain it.  A little while later, Eliza died at the age of 64. She was buried in the family cemetery on the estate. Today the Hampton estate is a National Historic Site. And if you go to visit it someday, it's worth noting that the plants today are different. Many of the plants that are on the property need to be deer-resistant. The famous portrait of the long-necked Eliza Ridgely standing beside her harp was painted by Thomas Sully - it hangs today in the National Gallery of Art.   January 8, 1892 Today is the birthday of the agricultural botanist and plant wizard Walter Tennyson Swingle. Walter was a very popular botanist during his lifetime. Walter introduced the Date Palm to California, and he created many new citruses through hybridizing. In 1897, Walter made the first man-made cross of a Bowen Grapefruit and a Dancy Tangerine in Eustis, Florida. In 1909, Walter created the Limequat, a cross between the Key Lime and the Kumquat. That same year, Walter created the Citrangequat, a trigeneric citrus hybrid of a Citrange and a Kumquat. Walter developed the Citrange, a combination of the Sweet Orange and the trifoliate orange, as he was attempting to breed an orange tree that could withstand colder weather. Walter was born in Pennsylvania. He knew all about cold weather. His family quickly moved to Kansas, where Walter was home-schooled and ultimately educated at Kansas State Agricultural College.  In short order, Walter began working for the government at the United States Bureau of Plant Industry in the Department of Agriculture. And the USDA immediately put him to work, sending him to nearly every country in the world. Walter brought Egyptian Cotton to Arizona and Acala Cotton to California. However, Walter's most significant accomplishment was the introduction of the Date Palm to America. The Date Palm was something swingle discovered during a visit to Algeria. And this is how we know how clever Walter was - he was indeed intelligent and observant because he noticed that Algeria’s climate and soil mirrored that of California. In fact, Walter was optimistic about the Date Palm's chances in California right from the get-go, writing: “No heat is too great and no air too dry for this remarkable plant, which is actually favored by a rainless climate and by hot desert winds.  The Date Palm can withstand great alkali quantities in the soil- more than any other useful plant…  It is probably the only profitable crop that can succeed permanently.’ Now when the Date Palm arrived in California, the Coachella Valley was identified as the perfect spot to grow them. By 1920, over a hundred thousand pounds of Dates were grown in California. Thanks to Walter Swingle, Dates are one of California's main exports. Today, the total value of the Date crop is approaching $100 million every single year.   Unearthed Words January is a time when you should be thinking and planning, ordering your seed potatoes, vegetable seeds, fertilizers, and so on, and making sure that your tools are in good order and that you are ready to begin gardening in real earnest next month, or as soon as local conditions will let you. — Ministry of Agriculture, “Dig For Victory” Pamphlet, January 1945   Grow That Garden Library A Place For Us by Harriet Evans This book came out in 2015, and this is a best-selling fiction book. I bought this book a few years ago when I saw the beautiful alliums on the cover - I love alliums - and along with many of my fiction favorites, the cover is incredibly appealing to gardeners. A Place for Us is, “an engrossing novel about a woman who, on the eve of her eightieth birthday, decides to reveal a secret that may destroy her perfect family.” Kirkus Reviews wrote: "From an English estate called Winterfold, Martha Winter sends out invitations for her 80th birthday party with a puzzling statement:  'There will be an important announcement. We ask that you please be there.'  Only her husband, David, a well-known cartoonist, knows what this announcement might be.  The Winters have been fixtures in their Somerset village for 45 years, raising their three children, Florence, Bill, and Daisy.  Told from the perspectives of various family members as they receive Martha's invitations, it's clear this family's story is full of unanswered questions.” This book is 448 pages of a heartwarming, true-to-life family saga - the perfect book to blissfully carry you away this winter. You can get a copy of A Place For Us by Harriet Evans (and enjoy the beautiful cover) and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $2. Treat yourself!   Today’s Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart January 8, 2000 Today is the anniversary of the death of a leading botanist in the study of ferns, Warren “Herb” Wagner, Jr. Herb was the founder of modern systematics for plants and animals. Biologists still use "Wagner trees” to classify plants and animals based on presumed phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history - DNA hard at work! Herb Wagner once said,  "Deer in the winter are nature's closest thing to actual zombies.  They chew everything in their path."   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Plant Industry News. In this episode, we are joined by our division directors, Dr. Trevor Smith and Dr. Greg Hodges, with a 2020 recap of events. As unusual as this year was, the work did not slow down and the Division of Plant Industry remained as busy as ever. Join us as we highlight a few of the exciting and unexpected events and programs DPI had to tackle this year. Follow us on social media @FDACSDPI. As always, you can find updated versions of our latest publications and papers on our website https://www.fdacs.gov/Divisions-Offices/Plant-Industry . Subscribe and rate us! If you have any questions or suggestions for topics feel free to submit them to DPI-blog@FDACS.gov and we will reference them in the next episode.

On this week’s Industrial Hemp Podcast, we talk to Fred Strathmeyer, Deputy Secretary for Plant Industry and Consumer Protection at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture where he oversees the state’s industrial hemp program. We talk about some of the challenges that Pennsylvania farmers and the team at PDA faced this year in terms of sampling, testing, and COVID-19. He also unveils some details about the changes to the hemp program for 2021 — notably the plant minimum and acreage requirements. The permit application process opens December 5, 2020 for mail-in applicants. Online applicants are encouraged to wait until January 2021. We talk about the Pennsylvania Hemp Steering committee and how it was instrumental in shaping the program for next year. Strathmeyer also says why he thinks the USDA will change the 15 day to harvest requirement in the final rule. And of course we talk about this week’s Pennsylvania Hemp Summit, Dec. 8 and 9. Pennsylvania Department of Ag's 2021 Hemp Program https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Plants_Land_Water/industrial_hemp/Pages/default.aspx Pennsylvania Hemp Summit https://pahempsummit.com/ Hemp News Nuggets Cannabis legalization bill set for historic U.S. House vote https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2020/11/30/cannabis-legalization-bill.html Farmers hoping to cash in with Iowa's first legal hemp crop find hard work and risk: Some of it had to be destroyed https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2020/11/24/some-iowas-first-hemp-crop-burned-after-exceeding-thc-limits/6356257002/ Saratoga County-based nursery sues Washington County Sheriff, alleges deputies destroyed legally grown hemp https://dailygazette.com/2020/11/29/saratoga-county-based-nursery-sues-washington-county-sheriff-alleges-deputies-destroyed-legally-grown-hemp/

In the first of a regular insight series with Rupert Craven of Ritchie Bros, Peter Haddock of Content With Media talks to Rupert about how the latest Ritchie Bros UK and European timed online auctions have delivered some surprising results and what this tells us about the state of the industry right now. Rupert also discusses the emergence of used 3D machine control enabled equipment and how Ritchie Bros is making in-depth data available to buyers and sellers. With used equipment seen as a bellwether to the state of the wider industry, his insights tell us a lot about current confidence and the impact lockdown has had on the availability of new equipment. If you want to get in touch to suggest questions for future podcasts with Rupert or want more information, please email content@contentwithmedia.com Thanks for listening --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/contentwithmedia/message

April's All In For Citrus podcast includes timely information, says goodbye to a recognized figure at the University of Florida, and says hello to a new face on the citrus team. Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC) Director Michael Rogers starts off the episode with on update on operations amid COVID-19 restrictions. The citrus team has transitioned to working remotely and continues to be available via telephone and internet. Researchers are still tending to projects in labs on a limited basis while adhering to social-distancing guidelines. Rogers details some of the upcoming digital information that will be available to growers. It's not the ending that Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources Jack Payne thought he would have to his career, but staying home during this pandemic has allowed him to look back on his tenure at the University of Florida. Payne outlines how the industry has changed during his decade at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences helm. He also discusses some of the accomplishments of his team and he makes some predictions on what lies ahead. As the citrus industry says goodbye to Payne, it also says hello to a new citrus Extension agent. Ajia Paolillo brings her enthusiasm to growers in DeSoto, Hardee and Manatee counties. Paolillo did not grow up in agriculture, but she is no stranger to the citrus industry. She worked for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Division of Plant Industry as a citrus nursery Inspector. She also spent time in the CREC lab studying rootstocks. Paolillo talks about how she hopes to take what she learned from some well-known citrus Extension agents and become a trusted source for growers, starting with getting to know the producers in her counties.

In the second episode of our series focused on the agriculture industry, we hear about the challenges that U.S. farms face due to a lack of workers. Ali talks to Fred Strathmeyer Jr., the Pennsylvania Deputy Secretary for Plant Industry and Consumer Protection. Fred talks about his department’s commitment to a sustainable and safe food supply and its connection to immigration.

Click for show notes. Episode 68: Farmers in New Jersey can now grow industrial hemp in the Garden State. In this week’s show, we talk to New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Doug Fisher and the Director of the Division of Plant Industry at the New Jersey Department of Agriculture Joe Zoltowski. We dig into the details of the New Jersey hemp program, including licensing fees and structure, acreage and testing requirements. Then we meet a young entrepreneur from Chester County, Pennsylvania, Charles Streitwieser, founder of Streitwieser Designs and maker of an all hemp product called the Charlie Bag. Links New Jersey Hemp Program Rules and License Applications https://www.nj.gov/agriculture/divisions/pi/prog/nj_hemp.html Make Your Comments to the USDA on the Interim Hemp Rules https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=AMS-SC-19-0042 Streitwieser Designs Email: streitwieserc@gmail.com Online Shop: https://charlie-bag.myshopify.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/streitwieser_designs/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/streitwieser_designs-100621188142238/ Sponsor Links King’s Agriseeds https://www.kingsagriseeds.com/ Cannabis College of America https://cannabiscollegeofamerica.com/

Today we celebrate the ending of the 1675 coffee shop ban in England and the birthday of a man who devised his own theory of evolution independently of Charles Darwin. We'll learn about one of the fiercest Dutch conservationists and the nurseryman who created the world’s most excellent arboretum. Today’s Unearthed Words feature fabulous one-liners about January. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that helps us grow houseplants - the official greenery of January and February. I'll talk about a garden item that can help you relax, and then we’ll wrap things up with the birthday of a plant wizard who brought the date palm to California. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Curated Articles Gardens: dogwood days | Dan Pearson | Life and style | The Guardian Great post from @thedanpearson about Dogwood & this helpful tip:   “Cornus takes easily from hardwood cuttings. Save prunings and plunge a few pencil-thick lengths into the ground by your mother plant. They will be rooted and ready to lift within a year.”   Top 5 flower trends for 2020, according to Serenata Flowers From @HouseBeautiful We can expect to see more warm palettes and soft neutrals in bouquets. "One particular shade, known as 'neo-mint,' is described as an 'oxygenating, fresh tone,' and expected to be seen much more throughout 2020.   Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There’s no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events 1676   On December 23, 1675, King Charles II issued a proclamation suppressing Coffee Houses in England. The edict lasted 16 days. The public response was so negative that he revoked it on this day, January 8, 1676.   1823   Today is the birthday of the British naturalist Alfred Wallace. Wallace developed his theory of natural selection quite independently of Charles Darwin - although he did send his theory to Darwin. Wallace’s work prompted Darwin to get serious about publishing his 20-year-old idea. In 1858, both Wallace and Darwin’s work was presented to the Linnaean Society. Wallace published a remarkable book called The Malay Archipelago.  The book is considered a classic and covers the flora, fauna, and folks native to the area - now known as Malaysia and Indonesia. Wallace wrote, "Nature seems to have taken every precaution that these, her choicest treasures, may not lose value by being too easily obtained."  Wallace has been obscured by Darwin over the course of history. Yet, when he died at the age of 91, his obituaries praised him as an extraordinary figure. One obituary said, "He was one of the greatest and brightest and clearest thinkers of his age...of one thing I am certain, and that is that never has anybody come more fully within my favorite description of a great man, namely, that 'he is a combination of the head of a man and the heart of a boy.'” A forthcoming children's book about Wallace is titled Darwin's Rival: Alfred Russel Wallaceand the search for evolution by Christian Dorian.   1945  Today is the anniversary of the death of the Dutch conservationist and botanist Jac P Thijsse. Jac founded the Society for the Preservation of Nature Monuments in Holland. His 60th birthday present was a wildlife garden in Bloemendaal near Haarlem. After WWI, a Dutch food company by the name of Verkade (vare-Kah-dah) ask Jac to create some album books on the Flora of the Netherlands. Essentially, the books became a collector series Album with empty spots for photo cards, which were distributed individually with the biscuits. The Dutch would buy their biscuits, and then they would place the card in the space designed for it in the book. These albums were quite trendy among the Dutch and today sell for hundreds to thousands of dollars apiece today on auction websites. Today in the Netherlands, there is a college named after Jac, and he always makes the top 100 Dutchman's list.   1985  Today is the anniversary of the death of conservationist and plantsman Harold Hillier. In 1864, Hilliard's grandfather Edwin began the family Nursery. His son was supposed to take over the family business, but he died during the war, and so it fell to Edwin's grandson Herald to continue his legacy. Harold immediately set about creating a public garden and arboretum alongside the nursery. The site was already home to some magnificent trees -  some of which were at least 200 years old. In an article from 2019, it was revealed that the Hillier Arboretum is home to the largest collection of Champion Trees in all of Britain and Ireland with a whopping total of 611 followed by Kew Garden with 333 Champion Trees. Champion Trees fit into three categories being either the largest, the finest, or the rarest of their species.  Today the Hillier Nursery is putting together a Champion Tree Trail throughout the Arboretum so that visitors can walk to each of the Champion tree specimens. Among some of the Champion Trees are specimen eucalyptus from Australia, rare pine trees from Mexico, and Sequoias from North America. The Hillier Arboretum really began as a propagation holding place for the nursery. If a tree needed to be propagated, the nursery workers would just go out to the Arboretum and take a scion wood or seeds from the tree there. Similarly, if the nursery received some incredible rootstock or seed, they would sell most of it but hold some back for the Arboretum. Today the 180-acre Arboretum is entirely separate from the nursery, and it features about 42,000 plants across 1200 taxa. the Arboretum features 11 National Plant Collections and has magnificent specimens of witch hazel and oak. Hillier died just six days after his 80th birthday. Harold spent his entire life working to save rare and endangered trees and shrubs from Extinction. In 1978 he gifted the Hillier Arboretum with thousands of specimens in plants. When asked by a reporter for his opinion on plant conservation, Hillier famously replied, "While others are talking about it, I am doing it, roots in the ground, planting, planting, planting."    Unearthed Words Today’s Unearthed Words are incredible and unforgettable onliners about January.   January brings the snow, Makes our feet and fingers glow. — Sara Coleridge, English author   "Come, ye cold winds, at January's call, On whistling wings, and with white flakes bestrew The earth." —  John Ruskin, an English art critic, and thinker   "Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius." — Pietro Aretino (“Pee-et-tro Air-ah-TEE-no”), Italian author    O, wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? — Percy Bysshe Shelley, Romantic poet   In seed-time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. — William Blake, English poet   When one reads a poem in January, it is as lovely as when one goes for a walk in June. — Jean-Paul Friedrich Richter, German writer   "Nothing is as easy to make as a promise this winter to do something next summer; this is how commencement speakers are caught." — Sydney J. Harris, Chicago Journalist     Grow That Garden Library Houseplants by Lisa Steinkopf The resurgent interest in houseplants is due primarily to Millennials who are filling every nook and cranny in their homes with houseplants. Those smart millennials! If you (like so many millennials) are filling your house with houseplants - especially during the winter season when they add so much - humidity, green, a touch of the outdoors, and clean air. One of the things I appreciated the most about Lisa’s book is that she divided the 125 houseplants featured in her book into three helpful categories - Easy to Grow, Moderately Easy-to-Grow, and Don’t-Try-This-at-Home-It’s-A-Waste-of-Money-and-Time-and-You-Really-Need-That-New-Pair-of-Shoes. Just kidding. It’s actually just called Challenging to Grow. (Which doesn’t sound so bad now, does it? Still - be careful here.) Now, guess which one Lisa and I spent the most time talking about when we chatted a while back? You’re right, again - the easy-to-grow category. Why? Because that’s where the sweet spot is. These plants give the best return on investment of your time and money. These are also the plants that will provide you with the most personal satisfaction. Here’s what you are going to love about Lisa’s book: she’s down-to-earth, and she’s a conscious competent - she knows how to teach houseplants to anyone (even those without green thumbs!) I’m also betting she must be an incredibly wonderful mom and wife because her understanding family has made room for over 1,000 houseplants thriving under Lisa’s care and supervision. This book came out in 2017. You can get a used copy of Houseplants by Lisa Steinkopf and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $14.   Great Gifts for Gardeners Coloring Fibonacci in Nature by Art Therapy Lab                                                                       Assembled here is a collection of outline illustrations inspired by the Fibonacci number sequence found in nature. They appear everywhere in nature, from the leaf arrangement in plants to the pattern of the florets of a flower, the bracts of a pinecone, or the chambers of a nautical shell. The Fibonacci Sequence applies to the growth of every living thing, including a single cell, a grain of wheat, a hive of bees, and even all of mankind. You can get the coloring book and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $20.   Today’s Botanic Spark 1892 Today is the birthday of the agricultural botanist and plant wizard Walter Tennyson Swingle. Swingle was a very popular botanist during his lifetime. He made the news for several remarkable achievements in the world of horticulture. He introduced the Date Palm to California. He created many new citruses through hybridizing. In 1897, Swing made the first man-made cross of a Bowen grapefruit and a Dancy tangerine in Eustis, Florida. In 1909, Swingle created the limequat, a cross between the key lime and the kumquat. That same year, Swingle created the Citrangequat, which is a trigeneric citrus hybrid of a citrange and a kumquat. Swingle developed the Citrange, a combination of the sweet orange and the trifoliate orange. He was attempting to breed an orange tree that could withstand colder weather. Swingle was born in Pennsylvania. His family quickly moved to Kansas, where he was home-schooled and ultimately educated at Kansas State Agricultural College.  In short order, Swingle began working for the government at the United States Bureau of Plant Industry in the Department of Agriculture. The USDA immediately put him to work, sending him to nearly every country in the world. Swingle brought Egyptian Cotton to Arizona and Acala Cotton to California. However, Swingle's most significant accomplishment was the introduction of the Date Palm to America. The Date Palm was something swingle discovered during a visit to Algeria. Swingle was intelligent and observant, and he noticed that the climate and soil in Algeria mirrored that of California. Swingle was optimistic about the Date Palm's chances in California right from the get-go, writing: “No heat is too great and nor air too dry for this remarkable plant, which is actually favored by a rainless climate and by hot desert winds. It is also shown that the date palm can withstand great quantities of alkali in the soil- more than any other useful plant…It is probably the only profitable crop that can succeed permanently.’ When the Date Palm arrived in California, the Coachella Valley was identified as the perfect spot to grow them. By 1920, over a hundred thousand pounds of dates were grown in California. Today, Dates are one of California's main exports. The total value of the Date crop is approaching $100 million every single year.

Today we celebrate the plant named in honor of Queen Victoria and the President of Peru and Bolivia. We'll learn about the Mother of Balboa Park and how the world seed bank was saved during WWII. We'll hear the Garden Poem that celebrates the end of the apple-picking season. We Grow That Garden Library with a book from the author who was pulled out of her grief by nature walks with Marion Satterlee.  I'll talk about an on-trend and portable way to display your houseplants, and then we'll wrap things up with a set of botanical stamps that commemorated the bi-centenary of Captain Cook's first voyage to New Zealand.   But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   How to lift and divide herbaceous perennials Now's the time for all good men to come to the aid of their... Whoops - nope - Really now is the perfect time to lift and divide perennials with @GWmag - It's not too late! Dividing or not - you should check out the garden in this video. Swooning now...     11 things to know about the Agius Evolution Garden Here's a Behind the Scenes Look at Kew's Brand New Garden called the Agius. Learn about the mulch @kewgardens makes for the garden, the pergola that supports 26 roses & the drought-resistant asterids - like sages, olives, and rosemary.      What to grow in a medieval herb garden - English Heritage Blog Medieval Herb Gardens grew the tried & true herbs. Learn more about Sage, Betony, Clary Sage, Hyssop, Rue, Chamomile, Dill, Cumin, & Comfrey in this post by @EnglishHeritage featuring a beautiful pic of @RievaulxAbbey     Never Underestimate the Intelligence of Trees Gardens are plant communities that need these pillars of protection- yet many gardens are treeless. As gardeners, we should plant Micro Forests. Dr. Suzanne Simard - Professor of Forest Ecology: Older, bigger trees share nutrients w/ smaller trees & they pay it back later. @NautilusMag    Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck - because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.  So there’s no need to take notes or track down links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.         Brevities     #OTD   On this day in 1849, the very first Victoria cruziana flowered in a custom-built greenhouse at the Duke of Devonshire's estate at Chatsworth.  After that initial bloom, the other specimens began blooming as well. And, one of the blossoms was, appropriately, given to Queen Victoria (Santa Cruz Water Lily). The Victoria cruziana is an exotic plant. It is named in honor of two people: Queen Victoria & Andres de Santa Cruz, President of Peru & Bolivia, who sponsored the expedition where the plants were first collected. In the wild, Victoria cruziana is native to open waters in northern Argentina and Paraguay. Sadly, the Victoria cruziana is endangered due to deforestation. Although in recent years, the Santa Cruz Water Lily has been returning by the hundreds in the Salado River in Paraguay. Locals take tourists out to see them in little canoes. Victoria cruziana produces enormous lily pads that can grow up to 2 meters or almost 7 feet wide. Today, greenhouses grow the Santa Cruz Water Lily from seed. In cultivation, pollination takes place by hand in the evenings when the plant is flowering. But in its native habitat, the pollination process of the Santa Cruz Water Lily is a fantastic spectacle: When the big flower bud  initially opens - it is pure white and it emits a pineapple aroma. Then, as night falls, the flower goes through a chemical change that causes it to heat up.The pineapple scent and the warmth draw flying scarab beetles who venture far into the depths of the flower to find feast of starch. It's likeThanksgiving in there. While they are feasting through the night, the morning sunlight causes the flower to close up, and the feasting scarab beetles are trapped inside. During the day, the flower goes through a tremendous transformation. The pineapple scent goes away, and the flower turns from pure white to pink - all in the course of a single day. What's more, the sex of the flower changes from female to male.  When the Santa Cruz Water Lily flower opens again on the second night, the scarab beetles are ready to go, and they fly off, covered in pollen to find the next freshly opened pineapple scented female flowers. Isn't that incredible? Now the underside of the giant Amazonian water lily, Victoria cruziana, is quite something to see. It consists of this intricate vaulted rib structure, which is perfectly designed by Mother Nature. The air pockets give it the buoyancy and allow it to handle the load of the enormous lily pad. Those ribs are what allows the lily pad to float. This pattern so inspired Joseph Paxton that he incorporated it into his design for Crystal Palace in 1851. And, to illustrate the strength of the lily pads, there's a famous old photo from the 1800s that shows five children sitting on top of individual lily pads - one of them looks to be about three years old, and she's sitting on a rocking chair that was put on top of  the Lily pad, and they are all just calming staring into the Camera. It's quite the image. There is one more surprise for people who get the chance to really study the giant water lily. Everything except the smooth top surface of the lily is ferociously spiny to protect it from being eaten by nibblers under the water.    Back in July, I shared a video in the Facebook Group for the Show from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh which showed their Senior Horticulturist, Pat Clifford, teaching an intern, how to remove older Giant Water Lily pads so the pond doesn't get overcrowded. Using a pitchfork, Pat carefully folded the giant lily pad first in half, then quarters, and then once more. Then he stabbed the large folded pad with the pitchfork, hoists it in the air to let the water drain out, and then flops this huge beast of a pad down on the edge of the pond. Then, the camera zooms in to reveal the incredibly savage thorns that grow on the underside of the lily pad and all down the stem of the plant. For folks who watch that video, It is a shock to see how vicious the thorns are - rivaling any rose.       #OTD   Today is the birthday of American botanist, horticulturist, and landscape architect Kate Sessions, who was born on this day in 1857. As a young woman, Kate had traveled to San Diego to teach, but she ended up following her passion and bought a local nursery in 1885. Before long, Kate owned a flower shop as well. And, she didn't leave her teaching roots behind. Kate is remembered for going from grammar school to grammar school, teaching thousands of young children basic horticulture and botany. In 1892, she managed to convince the City of San Diego to lease her 30 acres of land to use for growing in Balboa Park so that she could grow plants for her nursery. The arrangement required Session to plant 100 trees in balboa park every single year in addition to another 300 trees around the city of San Diego.  Over a dozen years, Kate planted close to 5,000 trees, forever changing the vista of San Diego. The Antonicelli family, who later bought Kate's nursery, said that Kate was tough and plants were her whole life.  "When she would go out on a landscape job, rather than put a stake in the ground, she had these high boots on, and she'd kick heel marks in the ground, and that's where she would tell the guys to plant the trees." Thanks to her nursery and connections, Session planted hundreds of cypress, pine, oak, pepper trees, and eucalyptus. And although she never married or had any children, it was thanks to her dedication to the trees of San Diego that Sessions became known as The Mother of Balboa Park. But there is one tree that Sessions will forever be associated with, and that is the jacaranda, which is a signature plant of the city of San Diego. Sessions imported the jacaranda, and she propagated and popularized it - it which wasn't difficult given its beautiful purple bloom. In September of 1939, Kate broke her hip after falling in her garden. The following march, newspapers reported she had died quietly in her sleep, "At the close of Easter Sunday, when the broad lawns, the groves, the canyons, and the flower beds were aglow with a beauty that has become her monument."   #OTD  On this day in 1941, Hitler gave a speech where he said that "Leningrad must die of starvation.” The following year, that's nearly what happened as hundreds of thousands starved to death in the streets of Leningrad. People were so desperate, that some people attempted to eat sawdust.  As the Nazis arrived in St Petersburg, the dedicated scientists at the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry locked themselves inside the seed vault to protect the world's seed collection, which was housed in bins that went from the floor to the ceiling in 16 rooms. The workers came up with a strategy where no one was allowed to be alone with the seed. They were always paired up, and they guarded the collection in shifts. The siege lasted for 900 days, and one by one, the people in the vault started dying of starvation.  In January 1942, Alexander Stchukin, a peanut specialist, died at his desk. And, ironically, as he was guarding rice, the Botanist Dmitri Ivanov also died of starvation. When the siege ended in the Spring of 1944, nine scientists had starved to death while defending the world's seeds.       #OTD On this day in 1974, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington dedicated the Bluethenthal Wildflower Preserve.   The 10-acre preserve is in the middle of the campus and is home to a marvelous example of unique native plants like the Venus flytrap, sundew, and white and yellow jasmine.   An article reporting on the preserve said,   "In this hurly-burly rush-around world of ours, there are still those who care about the natural beauty of the area and about preserving it for future generations."             #OTD On the same day in 1974, London's famous flower, fruit, and vegetable market moved from Covent Garden to Battersea.   In 1661, King Charles II established Covent Market under a charter. After an incredible transformation from a 9-acre pasture in the heart of London, the streets and alleys of Covent Garden served as a market for Londoners for 305 years. Back in 1974, 270 dealers were buying and selling 4,000 tons of produce every day, as well as flowers and plants worth $28.8 million.   One newspaper reported that when a trader was asked if he would miss the location of the old market, he replied,   "We deal in fruit and vegetables, not sentiment."   Covent Gardens was the spot where Professor Henry Higgins met a flower seller named Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady."   And, in Dicken's story, "The Old Curiosity Shop," a stranger went to the Covent Market, "at sunrise, in spring or summer when the fragrance of sweet flowers is in the air, overpowering even the unwholesome streams of last night's debauchery and driving the dusky thrush, whose cage has hung outside a garret window all night long, half-mad with joy." Unearthed Words "My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree Toward heaven still, And there's a barrel that I didn't fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the night, The scent of apples: I am drowsing off." - Robert Frost, After Apple Picking     Today's book recommendation: How to Know the Ferns by Frances Theodora Parsons Parsons was an American naturalist and author, remembered most for her book on American wildflowers. But her book, How to Know the Ferns, is also a favorite and it's a personal favorite of mine. One of the reasons I'm a huge Parsons fan is because of her incredible life story. After her first husband and baby died, Parsons finally broke her grief when her friend Marion Satterlee managed to get her to take nature walks, which rekindled her love for wildflowers. In 1893, Fanny published her famous book, How to Know the Wildflowers.   It sold out in five days and was a favorite of Theodore Roosevelt and Rudyard Kipling. Three years later, in 1896, Fanny married a childhood friend, a professor, politician, and diplomat, James Russell Parsons. The following year, Fanny gave birth to their son. Parsons was not well off, so Fanny wrote today's book, "How to Know the Ferns" in an effort to financially help her family.    In the first page of the book, Parsons shares this beautiful quote about ferns by Henry David Thoreau:   “If it were required to know the position of the fruit dots or the character of the indusium, nothing could be easier than to ascertain it; but if it is required that you be affected by ferns, that they amount to anything, signify anything to you, that they be another sacred scripture and revelation to you, helping to redeem your life, this end is not so easily accomplished.”   A year after Ferns, Fanny gave birth to their only daughter, Dorothea, who tragically died at two and a half years old five days before Thanksgiving in 1902. Three years later, Fanny's husband, James,  was killed when his carriage collided with a  trolley car.     A widow for the second time, Fanny published this poem in Scribner’s Magazine in 1911: When Laughter is Sadder than Tears.   The marshes stretch to the dunes and the dunes sweep down to the sea, And the sea is wooing the meadow which waits with an open door; Then a melody sweet to the hearer floats up from the murmuring lea Till the sea slips seaward again and the land is athirst as before. And athirst is the heart whose worship is not the worship of yore, Whose visions no magic can conjure, whose plenty is suddenly dearth; And parched as the desert the soul whose tears no grief can restore, Whose laughter is sadder than tears and whose grief is as barren as mirth.   The days are alive with music, the nights their pleasures decree; The vision the morning fulfills is the dream that the evening wore, And life is as sweet to the living as the flower is sweet to the bee, As the breath of the woods is sweet to the mariner far from shore. But singing and sweetness and laughter must vanish forevermore, As the petals fall from the flower, as the waters recede from the firth, When hopes no longer spring upward as larks in the morning soar, Then laughter is sadder than tears and grief is as barren as mirth.   Friend, if shaken and shattered the shrine in the heart that is fain to adore, Then forsake the false gods that have held you and lay your pale lips to the Earth, That in her great arms she may take you and croon you her melodies o'er, When laughter is sadder than tears and grief is as barren as mirth.       Today's Garden Chore Enjoy a portable and dazzling spot for your houseplants by repurposing a bar cart.  Bar carts are super trendy once again, and they offer gardeners a stylish space for displaying houseplants. If you get a cart with glass shelves, light can filter through to plants on the bottom shelf as well. Or, you can use the bottom shelf to store extra soil, horticultural charcoal, pots, and other gear. I've had tremendous luck sourcing bar carts on Facebook Marketplace. I recently put a gold cart in my botanical Library. It's a mid-sized oval cart, and it holds about a dozen small houseplants for me - from Swedish Ivy to a variety ferns. I have to say, my little glass misting bottle looks extra elegant on the bar cart. And remember, if you happen to find a metallic cart - whether it's gold or silver - those are all considered neutrals in interior design. And, don't forget, that you can repurpose ice buckets - whether they are crystal or have a beautifully textured exterior - you can use them as cache pots for your plants. Along with the bar cart, they add a touch of sparkle and glimmer during the holidays.     Something Sweet  Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart On this day in 1969, the Johnson City Press, out of Johnson City Tennessee reported on a new batch of postage stamps out of New Zealand that commemorated the bi-centenary of Captain Cook's first voyage to New Zealand: The 4c stamp featured a side portrait of Captain Cook with the planet Venus crossing the sun - together with an old navigational instrument, the octant. The 6c stamp featured the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks with an outline of the 'Endeavour.' The 18c stamp showed Dr. Solander. He was the botanist aboard the 'Endeavour,' together with a native plant bearing his name and known locally as the Matata. The 28c stamp displayed a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and Captain Cook's 1769 chart of New Zealand.     Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Click for show notes. Episode 58: This week we talk to Dr. Ruth Welliver, the director of the Bureau of Plant Industry at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, which over sees the industrial hemp program in the state. We talk about what PDA got right this year and what lessons it’s learning for next year. Plus we get into how the new USDA interim rules might affect the hemp program in Pennsylvania next year. Then we check in with Erica Stark from the National Hemp Association, who has plenty to say about the new USDA rules and what they’ll mean to farmers and the industry in general. Also, how a shipment of industrial hemp from a farm in Vermont ended up being confiscated by the NYPD. Links Specialty Block Grant Program http://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pabull?file=/secure/pabulletin/data/vol49/49-42/1555.html National Hemp Association https://nationalhempassociation.org/ USDA Hemp Program https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/hemp Hemp Fire Story from Lancaster Online https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/it-s-a-lesson-hemp-farmers-lose-thousands-of-dollars/article_21f256ae-fb23-11e9-bca5-6f64eff270b0.html NY Post Hemp Confiscation Story https://nypost.com/2019/11/05/massive-marijuana-shipment-confiscated-by-nypd-is-legal-hemp-business-owner/ Green Angel CBD https://www.greenangeloil.com/ Tin Bird Shadow https://tinbirdshadow.bandcamp.com/releases

Cutters Edge Total Landscape Solutions show will be about the Invasive Giant African Land Snail and how it affects you landscape, environment, agriculture and our economy. With us today in studio is Julio A. Rodriguez, Staff Assistant Division of Plant Industry for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

One of the greatest atrocities of World War II occurred in the Russian metropolis of Leningrad.  The Nazi army besieged the massive city cutting off supply routes.  “Leningrad must die of starvation,” Hitler declared in a speech at Munich on November 8, 1941.  Estimates are that more than 1.5 million people starved to death across the 900 days of the siege for lack of adequate food.   One group of Russians who starved was particularly noteworthy.  They were botanists and scientists who worked in a seed bank called the “Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry.”  They barricaded themselves in the vaults of that facility with rooms full of rice, corn, oates, and potatoes.  They did so to protect the “seeds” from the hungry citizens and marauding Germans.  They had the food resources to live at their fingertips but died of starvation.   I suppose you would class it a heroic tragedy.  It was heroic that they died to preserve seeds for a better day; but it was tragic that they died unnecessarily.  They had untapped resources within reach.    Could it be that we have all the resources that we need within reach, yet suffer for lack of them?  Absolutely!  Prayer is such a resource!  It puts heaven’s supplies at our disposal but so often we do not take advantage of them.  We do not pray as we ought!  Someone has rightly said, “Nothing is outside the reach of prayer except that which is outside the will of God.”   Jesus wants us to avail ourselves of heaven’s supplies.  God forbid that we fail to have what is needed because we have failed to pray.  What a tragedy that would be!    This Sunday morning we will look at a “primer on prayer” as Jesus teaches us to pray in Matthew 6:5-15.  Join us at Istrouma!   Culture Flip “A Primer on Prayer” Matthew 6:5-15   Jesus challenges our motivations By alluding to our duty By alluding to our devotion By eliminating pagan thinking By embracing proper theology Jesus corrects our mindset By emphasizing the recipient By enumerating the requests Jesus communicates a model  

Are you feeling it yet? The urge to get going in the garden?   I was reading a book from 1915 about spring, it started this way, "If you are not dead, you will feel the sap start within you..."   Everyone comes to the garden in their own time.   If you're not yet ready to put your pots together or take on gardening the way you did last year, that's completely fine.   Sometimes the seasons of our lives, don't align with the seasons of the year.   In seasons of loss or grief or depression, we can lose time. We can be out of sync.   If that is happening to you this season, please know it is ok to take a break.   Instead, enjoy the beauty around you in ways that feel right to you... until you feel the sap start within you again...       Brevities #OTD Today in 1510, Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli died.    His painting Allegory of Abundance or Autumn is one of his most elaborate and detailed drawings and it depicts an abundance of flowers and fruits.       #OTD Today in 1874, the horticultural hornet, George Glenny died.  He was 83 years old.   Glenny was an opinionated gardener. Known for his sharp tongue and difficult personality, he was called the horticultural hornet by Will Tjaden.  He was critical of John Claudius Loudon, Joseph Paxton, and Joseph Harrison.  And yet, he was benevolent; assisting the efforts of numerous charities and causes during his time; including the Duke of York Column in London.   Glenny started the Horticultural Journal, which was followed in 1837 with the first garden newspaper, The Gardeners' Gazette. These early accomplishments brought Glenny much satisfaction; he knew his work was taken to heart by his readers and his suggestions were being acted upon. As the editor of his paper wrote,   "There will be few to deny that his vigorous pen has contributed as much as, that of any single writer to the great and ever-increasing popularity of gardening amongst the people." Through it all, Glenny was a devoted garden writer; sharing his knowledge of gardening with the people, week in and week out, through the very first gardening column and through numerous other articles and writings. His books were affordable; anyone could buy them - and they did. During the Victorian age Glenny was an active contributor to garden literature. No doubt Glenny's advice was swirling about in the heads of many new gardeners.       #OTD Today in 1934, The Times Herald out of Port Huron Michigan, shared quite the article about Plant Exploration.   With the onset of commencement season, The USDA Would receive an annual batch of letters asking about "agricultural exploring as a career, what the job Is, how to qualify, and what the future prospect are".   The article shared that answers to those questions would be spelled out this way:   "Knowles A. Ryerson, formerly in charge of the plant exploration before his promotion to Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, recognizes such ambition as the natural outcropping of adventurous spirits, and he sympathizes with the boy whose mind is turning that way.   An agricultural explorer has to be a natural plant lover and must have studied botany and other plant subjects, and must have worked with plants in the field and garden. In addition, he must have a good general education as well as sound technical knowledge.   He must have certain other Indispensable qualities - robust health and a good sense of humor.   He must not only stand hard traveling in rugged countries day after day, but must be able to go to bed on an empty stomach after a trying day's work and sleep on a rough box without feeling abused.   "I see no Indication that plant exploration will become unnecessary, but every indication that the requirements for plant exploration will continue to become even more exacting.    I would not want to discourage any boy from the effort, but there is no denying that it would-be Plant Hunter has a man-sized job ahead of him if he is to prepare himself to qualify for one of the relatively few openings."         #OTD Today is the birthday of Bernadette Cozart born in 1949.   Cozart was a professional gardener and urban gardening advocate.   She founded the greening of Harlem coalition in 1989.  Her efforts transformed Harlem, bringing flower gardens and green spaces.   It was Bernadette Cozart who said,   "Instead of taking children on field trips to see farms and gardens, why not bring nature into the community? I don't think it's fair that they should have to go outside the community to have that experience of seeing things grow."     #OTD Today in Lafayette Colorado, the Colorado School of Clinical Herbalism starts their Rocky Mountain Field Botany Certificate Course.   Designed to provide a thorough introduction to field botany, positive plant identification, wild-crafting ethics, and Sustainable harvesting and preservation techniques, this year they will have an additional focus on wild edible plants.       #OTD Today in New Zealand, there is a one-day interactive workshop open to anyone interested in learning more about the concept of market gardening, creating one for personal food production, or setting one up as a business.   The workshop is sponsored by the Green Cauldron Farm and presented by a range of industry experts including internationally renowned bio-intensive gardening educator and restoration grazing consultant Jodi Roebuck from Roebuck Farm.   This is a unique opportunity to hear and learn from industry leaders about how to start and operate a successful market garden, with the workshop conducted on the 105-acre Green Cauldron Farm, set in the beautiful Tyalgum ("Tal-gum") hills just one hour from the Gold Coast and nestled in the shadow of Mt Warning.   The brainchild of Katie and James Geralds, the farm was established as a research and development hub to realise their goal of innovative and sustainable use of harvests from around the region. It already produces a range of fresh produce supplied to some of the best-known restaurants in South East Queensland and a range of pantry preserves highlighting Australian native ingredients.     Unearthed Words: May and the Poets by James Henry Leigh Hunt A poem naming a handful of the poets to have written about Maytime   There is May in books forever; May will part from Spenser never; May’s in Milton, May’s in Prior, May’s in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer; May’s in all the Italian books:— She has old and modern nooks, Where she sleeps with nymphs and elves, In happy places they call shelves, And will rise and dress your rooms With a drapery thick with blooms. Come, ye rains, then if ye will, May’s at home, and with me still; But come rather, thou, good weather, And find us in the fields together.      Today's book recommendation: “The Golden Circle” (1977) by Hal Borland This is a book of writings for children, arranged by months of the year. I love these month-by-month books.  The drawings in this book are outstanding. Mr. Borland won the John Burroughs Medal, considered the country's highest award for nature writing, in 1968. Two of his books, “Sundial of the Seasons” (1964) and “An American Year” (1973), are collections of his editorials. His other books include “A Place to Begin: The New England Experience” (1976). Today's Garden Chore It's another Photo Friday in the Garden.   Today take pictures of all the trees in your garden. Trees provide your garden with tremendous structure and a ceiling - making your space seem more intimate.         Something Sweet  Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart   After researching George Glenny, I came across his obituary which appeared in Lloyd's weekly newspaper ten days after his passing.   It talked about how for 25 years, Mr. Glenny's Garden article had faithfully appeared in the paper. In fact, he had sent his last column to the editor only a day or two before his death.   Glenny had titled his article "A Few Words For Myself". But, then, he must've had a change of heart because he had crossed that out.  Whatever new title he thought would be better never made it onto the page.  His readers no doubt were moved by his recollections - especially since they them with the knowledge that Glenny was gone. Here's what he wrote about his life:   "Sixty-seven years ago I had a very fine collection of auriculas and of twenty rows of tulips, and visited several good amateur cultivators, from whom I received great encouragement and occasionally presents of flowers and plants.   I cultivated my stock at Hackney.   I was soon old enough to attend floral meetings, and there were plenty of them at Bethnal-green, Hoxton, Islington, Hackney, and other suburban localities.   And from observation of the doings of the most successful amateurs I had become a very successful grower of the auricula, the tulip, ranunculus, polyanthus, and other florists' flowers.   I had learned something from everybody and took many prizes.   I then, at the earnest request of some real friends of floriculture, wrote treatises upon all the flowers I had cultivated, and they were all founded on my own practice."       Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Merriam-Webster gives the following synonyms for the word perennial:   abiding, enduring, perpetual, undying   Those terms can give gardeners unrealistic expectations for their perennials.   They're not eternal.   They will eventually part ways with your garden.   But, for as long as they can, your perennials will make a go of it.   Returning to the garden after their season of die back and rest.   Ready to grow.   Ready for you to see them, and love them, all over again.   Brevities   #OTD It's the birthday of botanist who was a petite, fearless, and indefatigable person: Agnes Chase, bornon this day in 1869. Chase was anagrostologist—a studier of grass. A self-taught botanist, her first position was as an illustrator at the USDA’s Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington, D.C. In this position, Chase worked as an assistant to the botanist Albert Spear Hitchcock. When Hitchcock applied for funding to go on expeditions, authorities approved the assignment for Hitchcock, but would not support Chase - saying the job should belong to "real research men." Undeterred, Chase raised her own funding to go on the expeditions. She  cleverly partnered with missionaries in Latin America to arrange for accommodations with host families. She shrewdly observed, “The missionaries travel everywhere, and like botanists do it on as little money as possible. They gave me information that saved me much time and trouble.” During a climb of one of the highest Mountains in Brazil, Chase returned to camp with a "skirt filled with plant specimens." One of her major works, the "First Book of Grasses," was translated into Spanish and Portuguese. It taught generations of Latin American botanists who recognized Chase's contributions long before their American counterparts. When Hitchcock retired, Chase was his backfill. When Chase reached retirement age, she ignored the rite of passage altogether and refused to be put out to pasture. She kept going to work - six days a week - overseeing the largest collection of grasses in the world in her office under the red towers at her beloved Smithsonian Institution. When Chase was 89, she became the eighth person to become an honorary fellow of the Smithsonian. A reporter covering the event said, Dr. Chase looked impatient, as if she were muttering to her self, "This may be well and good, but it isn't getting any grass classified, sonny."   #OTD On this day in 1924 it was Cornelia Vanderbilt's wedding day.    When the Vanderbilt heiress married British nobility, the diplomat John Cecil, the wedding flowers had been ordered from a florist in New York. However, the train to Asheville, North Carolina had been delayed and would not arrive in time.    Biltmore's Floral Displays Manager Lizzie Borchers said that,  "Biltmore’s gardeners came to the rescue, clipping forsythia, tulips, dogwood, quince, and other flowers and wiring them together. They were quite large compositions, twiggy, open, and very beautiful.”   If you look up this lavish, classic roaring 20's wedding on social media, the pictures show that the bouquets held by the wedding party were indeed very large - they look to be about two feet in diameter! I'll share the images in our Facebook Group The Daily Gardener Community.   In 2001, the Biltmore commemorated the 75th anniversary of the wedding with a month long celebration among 2,500 blooming roses during the month of June.      #OTD On this day in 1980 Alfred Hitchcock died.  On social media, you can see images of a very young Alfred Hitchcock in Italy, on the set of what many believed to be his first feature-length silent film, The Pleasure Garden (1925). He filmed an extravagant “Garden Party" scene in his 1950 film Stage Frightstaring Jane Wyman and Alastair Sim. Then in 1989, the first three reels of Alfred Hitchcock's 1923 silent film "The White Shadow" was discovered in Jack Murtagh's garden shed in Hastings, New Zealand. The film was long thought to be lost. It was Alfred Hitchcock who said, "Places' are the real stars of my films: the Psycho house, the house in Rebecca, the Covent Garden market in Frenzy"   #OTD On this day in 2017 The New YorkTimes tweeted that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden cherry blossom festival was set for today and tomorrow, regardless of when nature [decided] to push play.   #OTD On this day in 2017, Ron MacBain owner of The Plantsman floral shop in Tucson died - just a few days short of his 90th birthday. MacBain was a floral force majeure. One article I read about MacBain began simply, "Ron McBain did the flowers. It's a refrain heard more and more frequently in Tucson. Whether the event is an elegant party or a posh charity ball; whether the bouquet cost $25 and was sent to grandma on Mother's Day or cost $100..." After selling his shop of 25 years in 1999, MacBain turned his to Winterhaven - a home he shared with his longtime partner Gustavo Carrasco, who died in 2011. The garden at Winterhaven was a destination spot for photographers, painters and garden lovers.  In a charming twist, when he could no longer garden, MacBain picked up painting. He said, “I [imagine] I’m in the flower shop... and arrange on canvas the way I would in a vase... The joy [I get] fills me so much, I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”   Finally, tonight at 7pm CT the world is reborn on PBS with their presentation of “Nature: American Spring LIVE," the Emmy- and Peabody-award winning series and it will air three nights starting tonight (April 29) through May 1. Spring is one of nature’s greatest performances – a time of rebirth, renewed energy and dramatic transformations. I'm so looking forward to this. In the three-night event, you can join scientists as they make real-time observations in the field from iconic locations from across America - in ecosystems ranging from the Rockies to the Everglades, from inner-city parks to remote wilderness preserves. The series will include a mix of live and pre-taped footage highlighting some of the most pivotal events in nature’s calendar. Nature executive producer Fred Kaufman says, “Nature throws a party every year, and it’s called spring. It is the most active time in the natural world for plants and animals, from birth and rebirth to migrations to pollination... In addition to witnessing incredible wonders, the goal... is to inspire people to go outside and get involved with science. Everyone can play a part in our natural world.” #AmericanSpringLivePBS Unearthed Words   Here's a beloved poem about Botany Bay from Australian Mary Gilmore (1865 – 1962).   #OTD On this day in 1770, Captain James Cook sailed into a large harbor on the coast of what would become known as Sydney, Australia; he named it Botany Bay. In Mary's poem, you'll hear the words ‘knotted hands’ – meaning the imprisoned hands of convicts who were made to work for Australia. Old Botany Bay “I’m old Botany Bay; stiff in the joints, little to say. I am he who paved the way, that you might walk at your ease to-day; I was the conscript sent to hell to make in the desert the living well; I bore the heat, I blazed the track- furrowed and bloody upon my back. I split the rock; I felled the tree: The nation was- Because of me! Old Botany Bay Taking the sun from day to day… shame on the mouth that would deny the knotted hands that set us high! And, here's another poem from Gilmore about the founders of Australia: Even the old, long roads will remember and say, “Hither came they!” And the rain shall run in the ruts like tears; And the sun shine on them all the years, Saying, “These are the roads they trod” — They who are away with God. Last year, the Australian government announced they were budgeting $50 million to redevelop Cook’s 1770 landing place. The plans include turning the area into a major tourist attraction and include the addition of a $3 million statue of Cook himself. Australia Treasurer Scott Morrison said it would be "a place of commemoration, recognition and understanding of two cultures and the incredible Captain Cook". The redevelopment is slated to be built by 2020, in time to mark the 250th anniversary of the landing.   Today's book recommendation Here's a lovely conversational style gardener's dictionary - Garden-pedia: An A-to-Z Guide to Gardening Terms by Pamela Bennett and Maria Zampini. With more than 200 garden and landscape terms, Garden-pedia is meant to teach, to provide perspectives on terms, and to answer commonly-asked questions. The idea for the book started with Maria Zampini needing to explain basic terms and practices to new hires in the nursery industry and was expanded by Master Gardener Pam Bennett’s experiences with teaching home gardeners.   Today's Garden Chore I'll never forget talking to Peggy Anne Montgomery (The Still Growing Podcast Episode 553). One of her personal garden sayings that she shared with me later is, "Nothing green or brown leaves the property". I've since adopted the same mantra - using all green or brown matter for compost. You don't need to export your nutrient rich leaves and brush to the curb for pickup. Start simply with a chop and drop approach to winter cleanup.    Something Sweet  Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart   While I was researching Agnes Chase, I came across this little article in The St. Louis Star and Times. Chase gave one of her books on grass a biblical title, The Meek That Inherit the Earth. The article pointed out that, "Mrs. Chase began her study of grass by reading about it in the Bible. In the very first chapter of Genesis, ...the first living thing the Creator made was grass.  ...In order to understand grass one needs an outlook as broad as all creation, for grass is fundamental to life, from Abraham, the herdsman, to the Western cattleman; from drought in Egypt to the dust bowl of Colorado; from corn, a grass given to Hiawatha because in time of famine he prayed not for renown but for the good of his people, to the tall corn of Iowa. And to [Chase], as she said, "Grass is what holds the, earth together. Grass made it possible for the human race to abandon his cave life and follow herds. Civilization was based on grass, everywhere in the world." This significance, says this rare scientist... still holds."   Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Pickup Line Duke Out In The Streets; Old CD's; Amazing Race; Pelaton; Did Ya See; Lawn Starter; Plant Industry; Sext Robot

Pickup Line Duke Out In The Streets; Old CD's; Amazing Race; Pelaton; Did Ya See; Lawn Starter; Plant Industry; Sext Robot

Pickup Line Duke Out In The Streets; Old CD's; Amazing Race; Pelaton; Did Ya See; Lawn Starter; Plant Industry; Sext Robot

In this episode of Hemp Can Do It, Kattia and Larry speak with Brian Kuhn of Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection. Brian heads the Bureau of Plant Industry, the department tasked with creating the industrial hemp pilot program for Wisconsin. The post Behind the Scenes of Wisconsin’s Hemp Pilot Program appeared first on WORT 89.9 FM.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Plant Industry News. This episode begins with Director, Dr. Trevor Smith's insight on the recent division strategic planning meeting. He also works to keep us informed about the issues the Division of Plant Industry is facing currently. Enjoy an interview with Carmen Fraccica, one of DPI's Apiary Inspectors as he discusses his journey with the division and his love for buzzing, honey producing creatures. Stay tuned to the end of the podcast to hear our Division Digest. This month we announced the promotion of several of our own in the division. Follow us on social media @FDACSDPI. As always, you can find updated versions of our latest publications and papers on our website at https://www.freshfromflorida.com/Divisions-Offices/Plant-Industry. Subscribe and rate us! If you have any questions or suggestions for topics feel free to submit them to DPI-blog@freshfromflorida.com and we will reference them in the next episode.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Plant Industry News. This episode starts off our warm welcome to the new Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Nicole "Nikki" Fried along with a mention of our gratitude to the previous Commissioner, Adam Putnam for his years of service. Director, Dr. Trevor Smith keeps us informed about the issues the Division of Plant Industry is facing currently. Enjoy an interview with Dr. Patti Anderson, the head Botanist at DPI as she discusses her journey to and with the division and entertains us with an original musical number inspired by her work. Stay tuned to the end of the podcast to hear our Division Digest. This month we announced the retirement of Dr. Xiaoan Sun, our Plant Pathology section head. The Florida State Fair will be held from February 7-18 in Tampa, Florida where DPI will have a booth featuring our Entomology and Apiary sections. Be sure to stop in! Follow us on social media @FDACSDPI. As always, you can find updated versions of our latest publications and papers on our website at https://www.freshfromflorida.com/Divisions-Offices/Plant-Industry. Subscribe and rate us! If you have any questions or suggestions for topics feel free to submit them to DPI-blog@freshfromflorida.com and we will reference them in the next episode.

Welcome to the first episode of the Plant Industry News Podcast. Get to know our director, Dr. Trevor Smith, as he shares a little about himself and the history of the Division of Plant Industry. Enjoy our interview with Brian Alford, a plant inspector at DPI, as he shares his journey to his current position at DPI, as well as his typical day on the job. Brian also shares some of his favorite experiences from his time with the division. Stay tuned until the Division Digest for the announcements of DPI’s fall award winners, a recent retirement and office closures for the holiday season.

The Tim DeMoss Show takes a fun, fun, fun turn with longtime Beach Boy Mike Love with conversation revolving around his new Christmas record Reason For The Season, his upcoming tour dates in the area, and Mike's 2019 nomination for the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Jim Maxim of Acts 4:13 Ministries checks in regarding their leadership prayer breakfast in Wayne, PA this coming Tuesday 12/4 (it's free :))...and Fred Strathmeyer (Deputy Secretary for Pennsylvania's Plant Industry & Consumer Protection) shares tips on how to prevent the spread of invasive species during the holidays (including as you pick out your Christmas tree!).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.