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PODCAST

Blooms and Beyond

This is a podcast that explores plant history, culture and management through the lens of science, unfolding plant power through horticultural anecdotal stories and impressive management practices. Each episode features an interview with an expert in horticulture, bringing you the most enchanting stories behind the scenes, the pioneering research shapes the future, and the hidden power enriches our lives. Whether you are a commercial professional looking for management best practices, students in

science natural sciences

All Episodes

54:23

The Camellia of 10,000 Flowers: Dave Creech and 40...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/10/05

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

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53:10

The Bald Cypress Tunnel of Love: Dave Creech and 40...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/09/28

The Bald Cypress Tunnel of Love: Dave Creech and 40 Years of SFA Gardens (Part 1) Episode Description Dave Creech was registering for his second semester of agronomy at Texas A&M when J.B. Storey, a six-foot-four pecan professor, grabbed him in the old basketball coliseum, walked him past every registration table, and introduced him as the next great horticulturist. Dave switched majors. Forty-seven years at Stephen F. Austin State University later, he directs SFA Gardens, 138 acres of mostly

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52:56

Apricot, Honey, and Sunshine: Breeding a Hardier Tea...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/09/13

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

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52:28

Seven Out of 1,200: The Long Road to a Better...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/08/30

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

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52:52

When the Plants Start Talking to You: Breeding New...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/08/16

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

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42:17

The Beetle That Moved Into the Nursery: Managing...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/08/02

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

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48:07

IPPS Southern Region: To Seek and to Share with Brie...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/07/20

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

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55:24

From Cherry to Cup: The Science Behind Your Morning...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/07/06

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

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29:19

Drones Take Flight in the Nursery: RFID, Real-Time...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/06/29

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

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66:21

Drones Take Flight in the Nursery: How Two...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/06/21

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

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55:40

The Dream Team Behind Cultivate

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/06/15

The Dream Team Behind Cultivate How three women build the education that powers the green industry’s biggest event Episode Description Every July, thousands of growers, retailers, and plant lovers flood Columbus, Ohio for Cultivate — and behind roughly 160 education sessions packed into four days is a team of three. In this episode, Ping sits down with the AmericanHort education team: Meagan Nace, Rachel Rawls, and Alejandra Feliciano, Ph.D. They pull back the curtain on what it takes to plan the

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48:38

It's Not Garden Therapy: The Real Science of Plants...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/06/08

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

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50:15

Georgia's Green Industry and the Power of Advocacy...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/06/01

Georgia’s Green Industry and the Power of AdvocacySeason 2 opens with Lanie Riner — greenhouse grower, farm kid turned Executive Director of the Georgia Green Industry Association, and the person who wrote the letter that helped strengthen Georgia’s Freedom to Farm protections. Lanie runs GGIA while running Thunderwood Farms in Meriwether County, and she brings both perspectives to a conversation about what it takes to advocate for an industry that, as she puts it, “puts nature back in place.” Ping

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48:19

Thrips Parvispinus - From Quarantine Crisis to...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/04/13

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

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60:44

Science Translators on the Front Lines: Urban...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/03/29

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

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49:08

Botrytis Blight: Gray Mold, Calcium Shields, and...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/03/16

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

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55:19

Hopping Into Action: Clemson Scientists Tackle the...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/03/02

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

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51:05

Mite Watch: Spider Mite Management Secrets from 45...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/02/16

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

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51:46

Beyond the Blue Jacket: FFA, Service & Growing the...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/02/02

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

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46:46

The Queen of Flowers: From HVAC Engineer to Peony...

Blooms and Beyond ·

2026/01/19

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

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