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

• Early experiences with plants in the Philippines

• The influence of PBS shows from Sesame Street to The Victory Garden on Riz’s childhood (and mine!)

• How plants were an early solace in life

• Developing plant skills in the US and becoming a horticulture expert at a young age

• Riz’s ability to connect horticulture to his class assignments for better learning

• Pursuing a horticulture program at University of Washington

• Studying abroad and growing as a horticulturist in Sichuan, China

• Sichuan, the mother of all gardens in the world and a funny story about Epimedium

• Teaching classes at Edmonds Community College

• Work rituals including the use of a whiteboard to organize task priorities and stretching regimens in the morning

• Riz’s skills and passion in floral design

• My post on the IOC’s decision to eliminate flowers at the Olympics

• Slow flowers movement

• Inspiration from Hitomi Gilliam and how gardeners make the best floral designers

• Where Riz gets design inspiration and beauty in floral “compost”

• Floating flowers at Chanticleer (third image down)

• The garden at McMenamins Anderson School

• How to edit a planting

• How GROW: A Family Guide to Plants and How to Grow Them, written by Riz Reyes and illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows, came to be

• Dealing with the western drought with mulch, irrigation, and plant selection

• Why NOT to use ice cubes to water orchids

• How to propagate gardeners by engaging with children, being patient with them, and making gardening simple for them

3. Kim Shearer on Breeding Woodies for the 21st Century

Kim Shearer’s Biography

Kim Shearer is a tree and shrub breeder at the Morton Arboretum where she manages their New Plant Development Program and serves as the Chicagoland Grows® woody plant liaison. Kim advances the arboretum’s mission to make the world a greener, healthier, and more beautiful place by introducing plant selections with broad adaptability, disease resistance, and pest resistance. Kim acquired her bachelor’s of science from NC State University working under the mentorship of Dr. Tom Ranney, and from there she continued her studies at Oregon State University. She is very active in the horticulture industry with the American Society of Horticultural Science and the eastern region of the International Plant Propagators society. In this episode we talk about a wide range of topics from the plants she’s worked on over the years, her passion for quilting, and her love of Maybelle Jones, her beautiful dog. You can find out more about Kim online through her profile page on The Morton Arboretum’s website and her Instagram handle @kimintransit.

Show Notes

• Kim’s introduction to plants (and watering and weeding skills) with her mom

• Kim’s early practice of forest bathing

• NC State CALS news article featuring Kim Shearer

• Bryce Lane’s inspirational class

• Dr. Denny Werner’s Cercis canadensis breeding program

• The lack of awareness of careers in horticulture

• Seed Your Future

• Google’s Ngram viewer

• The role plants and green spaces play for human health

• The importance of internships for Kim in helping her find her career

• Diane Mays and the Marye Anne Fox Science Teaching Laboratory Conservatory

• The internship at the Mountain Crop Improvement Lab with Dr. Tom Ranney

• Kim’s (and my) expedition to Gregory Bald

• Dr. Ryan Contreras’s plant breeding lab

• Kim Shearer’s thesis

• Ethyl methanesulfonate’s mode of action for inducing mutations

• Staying current through memberships in the American Society for Horticultural Science and International Plant Propagator’s Society eastern region

• Attending the Iowa State University Shade Tree Short Course, Minnesota Shade Tree Short Course, and Farwest Show as the woody plant liaison for Chicagoland Grows

• Reading Arnoldia, Digger, and HortScience

• Daily practices including refilling the humidifier for plants and early morning walks with Maybelle Jones

• The importance of weekly meetings, reading books to discuss trees, and talking about a plant group together

• Kim and her passion for quilting with her grandmother

• Legacy Ulmus (elm) breeding program following Dr. George Ware’s work

• The possibilities with lingering ashes (Fraxinus) in areas hit with emerald ash borer in the US

• Black walnut and the effects of juglone on plants

• Helping to propagate gardeners by helping and being kind to gardeners of all backgrounds and contact with people who can change policy

2. Caleb Melchior on Being a Landscape Architect

Caleb Melchior’s Biography

Caleb Melchior is a landscape architect and planting designer with Coastal Vista Design, and he teaches Professional Practice, Theory of Landscape Architecture, and Ecological Planting Design at Florida International University. His practice centers on planting design and materiality, with a focus on wild plant communities of the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. He has experience designing fine gardens, estates, and public spaces throughout the southeast United States including P. Allen Smith and Associates in Little Rock, Arkansas and ASA Engineering in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He collaborates with other designers, horticulture experts, and landscape management teams to make sure that design ideas are realized throughout installation and the ongoing life of projects. Caleb is heavily involved with design communication. He presents frequently at landscape and horticulture-related conferences. His work is regularly published in national and international publications such as The American Gardener, Horticulture, and Land8.

You can find him at his website www.calebmelchior.com and on Instagram at @the_curious_gardener.

SHOW NOTES

• How Caleb got interested in plants

• Lessons learned at Sugar Creek Gardens in Kirkwood, MO 

• The pursuit of landscape architecture at Kansas State University

• Embracing Bauhaus principles in design

• The impact of Konza Prairie

• Caleb’ research on experiential learning and legibility in plant communities in public gardens with his thesis, “Knowledge gardens: designing public gardens for transformative experience of dynamic vegetation”

• Caleb’s research sites at Champan Botanical Garden and The Meadow at Kansas State University

• The importance of working at different places and lessons Caleb learned at Confluence, RS Walsh, P. Allen Smith and Associates, ASA Engineering, and Coastal Vista Design

• The importance of practice in learning, reading, and watching videos like Garden Masterclass and Caleb’s curated list on Land8

• What a typical day looks like for Caleb and the design process at a site

• Designing and planting with regulations

• Growing In Mind, a podcast by Caleb Melchior and Preston Montague

• Oculus Rift technology in the landscape design process

• How the green industry and smaller studios can adopt models and strategies for solving problems

• The importance of communicating with clients and how to improve communication with clients

• Recognizing patterns of thinking in the design process

• How to Make Art at the End of the World by Natalie Loveless

• Understanding what clients want and blending their priorities with the principles of design

• The importance of spaces to sit in the landscape

• Excitement for umbellifers (Apiaceae)

• Cutting herbaceous plants back to improve growth

• The effort to connect horticulture with others by being present in the public

1. Welcome to the Plantastic Podcast!

Listen along to learn why I’m creating The Plantastic Podcast!