30. Gary Lewis on Ground Covers for Every Garden

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. Learn more about Gary by visiting his website phoenixperennials.com, finding him on Facebook, or his Instagram handle @phoenixperennials.

SHOW NOTES

  • A fun memory from Longwood Gardens, running to catch the last bus back to Lancaster while photographing Bruce Munro’s Field of Light

  • Gary's passion for plants began in childhood, influenced by his grandmother, mother and early experiences with wildflowers

  • The challenges of working at a wholesale nursery as a teenager

  • Details his master's research on soil chemistry and plant relationships in serpentine soil ecosystems

  • Buck Creek Barrens in North Carolina

  • Becoming the owners of Phoenix Perennials, a nursery in Richmond, British Columbia, which he acquired during his master's in botany

  • Phoenix Perennials grows a wide selection of plants for retail and provides mail-order services across Canada

  • The importance of managing and inspiring a team in horticulture

  • The diversity and uniqueness of plants available at Phoenix Perennials, including rare succulents and new introductions from breeders worldwide

  • Discussing the value of ground covers in gardens, noting their role in naturalistic planting and ecosystem support

  • Why Gary wrote The Complete Book of Ground Covers: 4000 Plants that Reduce Maintenance, Control Erosion, and Beautify the Landscape

  • Why ground covers are crucial for creating functioning ecosystems within gardens, supporting pollinators, and enhancing habitat complexity

  • Benefits of ground covers fall into three main categories: functional/economic, environmental, and aesthetic

  • Functional/economic benefits include outcompeting weeds, reducing lawn maintenance, protecting tree root zones, acting as green mulch, controlling erosion, and covering difficult-to-maintain spaces

  • Environmental benefits include supporting pollinators and wildlife, reducing the size of lawns, retaining biomass, and improving rain gardens

  • Ground covers impact on aesthetics by creating continuity in garden design, adding magical touches and tying plantings together

  • Different types of ground covers (rhizomatous, stoloniferous, trailing) have specific uses and considerations in garden design

  • What Gary loves about his book on ground covers that is a comprehensive encyclopedia for the temperate gardening world, covering around 4,000 taxa

  • Gary shares a favorite ground cover, Azorella trifurcata 'Nana' highlighting its aesthetic impact in a garden

  • Lewis’s book has been translated into Japanese, reflecting its broad appeal and relevance.

  • David MacKenzie’s Perennial Ground Covers

  • How Gary approached writing the book including extensive research and reviewing nursery lists, catalogs, and existing literature, which resulted in a shortlist of 12,000 species and cultivars which he whittled down to 4,000

  • Gary’s daily curiosity and exploration in horticulture and his always seeking new plants and forms.

  • Discussing the prevalence of "plant blindness" in society and the lack of public awareness and appreciation for plants.

  • The repetitive selection in local garden centers and the need for more diversity and inspiration in plant offerings.

  • Challenges faced include managing diverse plant stocks and navigating seasonal challenges like powdery mildew outbreaks.

  • Recommends Anna Pavord's books The Tulip and The Naming of Names for their captivating insights into plant history and evolution and Dan Hinkley’s books

  • Debunking horticultural myths like the use of pot shards and the necessity of the Chelsea chop in modern gardening.

  • Travel experiences botanizing in South Africa, Western Australia, and exploring garden and wild plant diversity globally

  • Finding Cordyline indivisa (mountain cabbage tree) in the wild

  • The beautiful Hellebore painting in Gary Lewis’s office by Gwen Dirks (image included below)

  • How to propagate more horticulturists by inspiring more people with plant diversity and nurture curiosity in horticulture.

  • Learn more about Gary Lewis by visiting his website phoenixperennials.com, finding him on Facebook, or his Instagram handle @phoenixperennials.

22. Susan Poizner on Growing Fruit Trees

SUSAN POIZNER BIO

Susan Poizner is an urban orchardist in Toronto, Canada and the author of Grow Fruit Trees Fast and Growing Urban Orchards. Susan trains new growers worldwide through her award-winning fruit tree care training program at Orchardpeople.com. Susan is also the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast and an ISA Certified Arborist.

SHOW NOTES

  • Susan shares her journey into the world of plants and how her passion developed

  • The pursuit of a certificate in horticulture

  • Her interest evolved into a focus on fruit trees and how planting fruit trees in a public park helped fuel her interest

  • The practice of mulching fruit trees with compost or manure in the early spring

  • The cylces in fruit tree growth

  • The importance of proper pruning for fruit trees.

  • How pruning helps create a strong tree structure and improves fruit production and the timing to encourage growth or slow it down.

  • Getting over the fear of pruning

  • Seeing that fruit trees require an ongoing partnership and how fruit trees need humans to thrive

  • Maintaining nutrition in urban soils is essential for fruit tree health

  • The need to protect fruit trees from pests and diseases and researching and choosing the right fruit tree varieties

  • Holistic sprays as alternatives to chemical pesticides made using simple household items

  • Using holistic sprays for fruit trees

  • Fruit trees sharing resources with soil organisms, creating a mutually beneficial cycle

  • Who is researching holistic sprays like The North American Fruit Explorers and her podcast guests

  • Lessons learned writing her two books Grow Fruit Trees Fast and Growing Urban Orchards

  • Intercropping in orchards and the importance of creating biodiverse environments around fruit trees

  • Pollinator gardens and insectary gardens to support beneficial insects

  • How cover crops can enhance soil health and provide long-term benefits

  • Remedial wood chips, or fungal-oriented mulch, mimic natural processes in forest ecosystems

  • Experimentation and further research are encouraged to optimize orchard management practices

  • Susan hosting The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast discusses various topics related to fruit trees

  • Some favorite episodes featuring holistic sprays with Nigel Palmer and John Kempf.

  • The importance of storytelling in education

  • Susan believes in the power of community, accountability, and planning with orchard management

  • Nigel Palmer’s book The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments

  • Cultivating more gardeners through community involvement

  • Susan's website, orchardpeople.com, offers access to her podcast, articles, and courses and she has a YouTube channel, too

19. Matt Biggs on a Home for Every Plant

MATT BIGGS BIO

Matt Biggs, a graduate of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is a well-known British gardener, broadcaster, and author of fifteen gardening and plant related books.

He has presented numerous television programs, notably Channel 4’s Garden Club, stepped behind the camera to direct Meridian Television’s popular gardening series Grass Roots and worked as Horticultural Consultant for a garden design series on Channel 5.

Matt contributes to several magazines, including the Royal Horticultural Society Journal The Garden, BBC Gardeners’ World, Countryfile, and Gardens Illustrated and leads gardening tours worldwide.

He lectures at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Oxford University Botanic Gardens, the Cookery School of Michelin starred chief Jean-Christophe Novelli, and is course Director of the Plants and Plantsmanship course at the English Gardening School.

Matt is also a regular panelist on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Gardener’s Question Time’.  You can learn more about Matt by visiting his website. 

SHOW NOTES

17. Ann Amato, Seedstress of the Pacific Northwest

ANN AMATO BIO

Ann Amato lives in Portland, Oregon and is a horticulturist and seed propagator at Cistus Nursery and a propagator at Secret Garden Growers in Canby, Oregon. At 18, she published the book Ancient Forests and Western Man: A Pictorial History of the West Coast. Later, she earned a bachelors of arts from Portland State University with a double major in English literature and art history. She has been a garden blogger (amateurbotannist.com) for over a decade and is the recipient of an Oregon Nurseries Foundation Scholarship. Currently, she is the President of the Mount Hood Gesneriad Society, an affiliated chapter of The Gesneriad Society. She been featured in horticulture media like Garden Time TV, The Planthunter in Australia, and the podcast Horticulture Rising. When not working, she tends to her indoor houseplant collection at home where she has over 500 different plants in her indoor collection, many of which are either gesneriads or begonias. She also tends to her small urban garden named Campiello Maurizio: the Garden of One-of-each-ee. You can learn more about Ann by visiting her website Amateur Bot-ann-ist, her store Spiffy Seeds, Facebook, and Instagram.

SHOW NOTES

  • Ann’s early experiences with nature in the Pacific Northwest, being mentored by plant enthusiasts, and experiences with her dad

  • Ann’s pursuit of biology at Lewis and Clark College and health issues with hereditary angioedema

  • Publishing Ancient Forests and Western Man: A Pictorial History of the West Coast in college

  • Shifting to studying art history

  • Ann’s interest in critical theory in art history and horticulture

  • Inspiration from the gardens at The Huntington

  • Becoming a propagator at Cistus Nursery and roles at Secret Garden Growers

  • Plants as a solace during her illness

  • Ann’s interest in how people and society engages with plants

  • Landscapes in art history and mimicry

  • “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman

  • The title of Seedstress and the pleasures of germinating seeds

  • Caring about where plants were propagated

  • Different germination stations for seeds

  • Core lessons about germinating seeds including it is complicated, it takes time, success is variable, understanding percentage germinated, and how too much care can lead to failure

  • Deciding on what media to use for seed germination

  • How environmental conditions can influence germination

  • How to experiment sowing seeds by talking to colleagues and societies, splitting batches up, and using chemicals

  • Smoke treating seed

  • Note taking about seed germination in Excel

  • Deciding what seed to sow

  • The epiphany that horticulture is social and the effects of temperature and light on seed growth

  • Staying current from friends that share knowledge with her

  • Underused plants including Begonia, Petunia, and grandma plants

  • The myth that her job is a dream job

  • Why Ann writes in her blog Amateur Bot-ann-ist

  • Being inspired by Beth Chatto’s book The Dry Garden and field guides

  • Propagating more horticulturists by better communication and encouraging more professionalism about gardening

  • Connecting with Ann on her blog Amateur Bot-ann-ist, her store Spiffy Seeds, Facebook, and Instagram

11. Abra Lee on Conquer the Soil

ABRA LEE BIO

Abra Lee is a storyteller, horticulturist, and author of the forthcoming book Conquer The Soil: Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country’s Gardeners, Farmers, and Growers. She has spent a whole lotta time in the dirt as a municipal arborist and airport landscape manager. Her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Fine Gardening, and Veranda Magazine. Lee is a graduate of Auburn University College of Agriculture and an alumna of the Longwood Gardens Society of Fellows, a global network of public horticulture professionals. You can learn more about Abra at her website Conquer the Soil, on Instagram @conquerthesoil, and on Twitter @conquerthesoil.

SHOW NOTES

4. Riz Reyes on GROW and Growing as a Plantsman

Riz Reyes’s Biography

An early curiosity about fruits and flowers turned a young boy from the Philippines into an award-winning garden designer, floral designer, avid plantsman, and book author in the Pacific Northwest. Riz Reyes immigrated to the United States with his family in 1989 and settled in Shoreline, Washington. He grew up watching television to help learn English and discovered public television in his early years; on top of Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, he discovered the art of Bob Ross, the culinary prowess of Julia Child, and most influential was the gardening series, The Victory Garden.

He collected plant catalogs and familiarized himself with the gardening section of his local public library and grew fond of different types of plants. He set his sights on pursuing horticulture as a future profession. Riz earned a BS in Environmental Horticulture & Urban Forestry from the University of Washington (UW) and worked as a horticulturist for the UW Botanic Garden’s Center for Urban Horticulture from 2007–2015. 

In 2013 he designed his first full show garden at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle, WA. Riz came away with a gold medal, the Golden Palette Award for the Best Use of Color and Plant materials, the American Horticultural Society Environmental Award, and the prestigious Founder’s Cup as the Best Show Garden. Riz was also a featured panel speaker for the first annual Slow Flowers Summit where he contributed to a discussion on the lack of diversity and people of color in the horticulture and floral industries. 

He is currently the gardens manager for the brew pub and hospitality company McMenamin’s Anderson School in Bothell, WA and maintains RHR Horticulture, his own horticultural enterprise where he designs gardens and cut flowers and also teaches and lectures for professional organizations. Riz also authored GROW: A Family Guide to Plants and How to Grow Them, which was illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows. Riz volunteers with the UW Farm spearheading their cut flower program. Other hobbies include caring for a personal collection of rare and unusual plants in his apartment, dancing, figure skating, music, food, and spending time with family and friends.

You can find him online at his website rhrhorticulture.com and on Instagram @rhrhorticulture.

SHOW NOTES