The Plantastic Podcast

BOTANIC BOOTCAMP

Grow your gardening skills with Dr, Jared's Botanic Bootcamp! 

LIS MEYER BIO

This month’s episode of The Plantastic Podcast is Lis Meyer, a senior lecturer in the Dept. of Horticultural Science at NC State, where she has taught for the past 14 years. She currently teaches several courses in Plant Propagation, her favorite horticultural topic! As a native of North Carolina, she is grateful for the opportunity to pursue her passion for teaching at the best university in her home state.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.  

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

PATRICK CULLINA BIO

Patrick Cullina is an award-winning horticulturist, landscape designer, photographer, lecturer, and organizational consultant with more than twenty-five years of experience in the landscape field. He runs a design and consulting business that is dedicated to the innovative and sensitive integration of plants and materials into a diverse range of compelling designs, drawing inspiration from the both the natural world and constructed environments alike.

Previously, he was the founding Vice President of Horticulture and Park Operations for New York City's High Line; the VP of Horticulture, Operations & Science Research at Brooklyn Botanic Garden; and the Associate Director of The Rutgers University Gardens in affiliation with the school's Department of Landscape Architecture.

Throughout his career, he has served as a consultant and advisor to an array of public and private clients and projects and has lectured throughout the U.S. and abroad for universities, public gardens, garden clubs, horticultural organizations, museums, libraries and professional organizations on the subjects of plants, living environments, horticulture, landscape design, landscape maintenance and the urban experience.
His consulting work provides services to a host of private, municipal, corporate and conservancy clients and to a number of leading landscape architecture and architecture firms. His work in horticulture has been recognized by organizations like the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Garden Club of America (Zone Horticultural Commendation, 2010), and the Garden Club of New Jersey (Gold Medal, 2005).

You can learn more about Patrick Cullina through his website and on Instagram @pjctwo.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

ERIN PRESLEY BIO

A lifelong Wisconsin girl, Erin Presley grew up in the rural center of the state and has a bachelor’s degree in Horticulture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has worked as a boots-on-the-ground gardener for more than two decades, both in the private sector and as a horticulturist at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison since 2014. Her interests include native woodland plantings, sedges, low-maintenance and drought-tolerant gardening styles, recycling woody debris, and all things related to herbs, vegetables, and cooking. In addition to teaching at Olbrich Botanical Gardens, Erin loves talking plants and collaborating with herb societies, master gardeners, and local community organizations. Never shy when it comes to sharing the joy of gardening, she has appeared on the nationally syndicated podcast Cultivating Place and Wisconsin Public Radio’s Garden Talk and is a contributor publications such as Fine Gardening and Edible Madison. Learn more about Erin by visiting her Instagram @presleyspreferredplants, listening to her interview on Cultivating Place, interviews on Garden Talk with Larry Meiller, the PBS presentation with Rita Peters, and visit Olbrich Botanical Gardens

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing! 

GARY LEWIS BIO

Gary Lewis has had a life-long interest in plants and gardening. His retail and mail order nursery, Phoenix Perennials, located in Richmond, BC, offers more than 5000 different plants. Gary authored The Complete Book of Ground Covers: 4000 Plants that Reduce Maintenance, Control Erosion, and Beautify the Landscape and has written for various garden magazines including Fine Gardening and has been a frequent guest on local and regional radio and television stations in British Columbia. He speaks regularly to garden clubs around BC and the Pacific Northwest and has presented at conferences across North America. In 2013 he was selected as Communicator of the Year by the BC Landscape and Nursery Association and in 2014 as one of Canada’s Top 10 Horticultural Professionals under 40 by Greenhouse Canada magazine. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Perennial Plant Association and is a committee member of Great Plant Picks.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

POLLY NICHOLSON BIO

Specialist flower grower and tulip expert, Polly Nicholson is the owner of Bayntun Flowers in Wiltshire – growers of organic flowers cultivated in walled gardens and a one-acre field at the foot of the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire. Nicholson holds the National Collection of Tulipa (Historic) with Plant Heritage, and has been featured on BBC Gardener’s World, Radio 4, in Gardens Illustrated, Country Life, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, The World of Interiors, and House & Garden.  Learn more about Polly through her book The Tulip Garden, her Instagram @bayntunflowers, and her website Bayntun Flowers.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

PRESTON MONTAGUE BIO

Preston Montague is a landscape architect and artist working to strengthen relationships between people and the natural world. His eponymous studio focuses on creating a flow between the arts, horticulture, and landscape architecture in the pursuit of building places that have meaning and ecological depth. When not in the studio, Preston enjoys teaching landscape architecture at North Carolina A&T University and hiking the wilder places. You can connect with Preston Montague via his website, Instagram, or LinkedIn.  Learn more about Polly through her book The Tulip Garden, her Instagram @baintonflowers, and website Bayntun Flowers provide more information about her work.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

JAZMIN ALBARRAN BIO

Jazmin Albarran, MBA, is the Seed Your Future Executive Director with over a decade of change and systems management experience. With a solid knowledge of associations and philanthropy, she will bring her skills and expertise in planning, leading, and managing development projects and programs to the movement. She has experience in a broad range of nonprofit organizations, including those focused on crisis support, youth development, and workforce development. Jazmin will lead Seed Your Future’s next phase of growth, promoting horticulture sectors and the nationwide expansion of career development opportunities with plants.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

JULIE WITMER BIO

Julie Witmer works to create beautiful and ecologically sensitive gardens across the continental United States. She began in perennial production and garden nursery retail before earning a Certificate of Horticulture—Britain’s professional gardener qualification—from the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, UK. She is a popular local speaker, teaching classes for all ages, and is a published garden photographer in books by Timber Press, Kew Gardens, and Rodale. Her own garden, Havenwood, is nearly one acre and divided into fifteen diverse garden spaces which grow a wide variety and succession of plants throughout the year. 

With a keen eye for design and place, Julie has worked with private clients for nearly twenty years, helping them realize their own garden dreams, and providing one-on-one coaching in order to grow the skills of the gardener alongside their garden. She shares online classes and garden inspiration on her Substack Julie Witmer Gardens and Instagram at @juliewitmergardens. 

You can learn more about Julie by visiting her website juliewitmer.com.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

SCOTT BEUERLEIN BIOGRAPHY

Scott Beuerlein is the Manager of Botanical Garden Outreach at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. He runs the Zoo’s Botanical Garden educational programs, including three symposiums. He is involved in most of the department’s other outreach and with the plant trialing.  

Scott is a 1982 graduate of Xavier University, earning a B.A. in Communication Arts. He is an ONLA Certified Landscape Technician and an ISA Certified Arborist.  Scott is also a garden writer and horticultural speaker. He has published hundreds of articles and columns in several gardening and green industry publications. He currently pens two columns in each issue of Horticulture Magazine—the (usually, hopefully!) humorous Deep Roots column and the Garden Views series of interviews. Scott is a partner in the long running and highly respected GardenRant blog and posts about twice a month.  Learn more about Scott by visiting his website, by reading his articles on GardenRant and Horticulture Magazine, and learning from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanic Garden's website where there are additional resources, including event details, trialing program brochures, and the plant for pollinators initiative.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!

JANET DRAPER BIO

Janet Draper has been the sole gardener for Smithsonian’s Mary Livingston Ripley Garden for 26 years.   This tiny 1/3 of an acre garden is located on the National Mall and is open 24 hours a day to visitors from around the globe.  Janet’s roles in the garden include everything from design and maintenance to cleaning the fountain and answering questions from visitors.  Janet’s approach is to try to do something different every year to challenge herself and to keep educating visitors about the amazing diversity of plants! 

Janet was raised in a rural farming community in Indiana and always knew she wanted to do something with plants. She pursued a bachelor’s in horticulture from Purdue University in 1987. Afterwards, she sought addition training with a series of internships that took her further than she could ever have imagined. She worked at Mt. Cuba Center for the Study of Native Piedmont Plants in Greenville, Delaware before it was open to the public; Kurt Bluemel’s nursery in neighboring Maryland where she learned the European approach to running a nursery, the famed perennial nursery of Countess von Stein-Zeppelin in Germany’s Black Forest, and Beth Chatto at her amazing Nursery and Garden in Elmstead Market, England. 

Once back in the States, she continued to gain experience at numerous nurseries from Long Island to Illinois.  After nearly a decade of working in perennial nurseries, she then started putting plants in the ground instead of little black plastic pots as an estate gardener and contractor for Oehme van Sweden where she helped install and maintain their designs.  She also helped co-found the Annapolis Horticulture Society. You can learn more by visiting Smithsonian Gardens, by contacting Janet at her email address [email protected], and by following Smithsonian Gardens on Instagram.

THE PLANTASTIC PODCAST

The Plantastic Podcast is a monthly podcast created by Dr. Jared Barnes.  He's been gardening since he was five years old and now is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX.  To say hi and find the show notes, visit theplantasticpodcast.com.

You can learn more about how Dr. Jared cultivates plants, minds, and life at meristemhorticulture.com.  He also shares thoughts and cutting-edge plant research each week in his newsletter plant•ed, and you can sign up at meristemhorticulture.com/subscribe.  Until next time, #keepgrowing!