05-29-25 Interview - Plum Creek Garden Market - How About Some Glow in the Dark Petunias?

I have Audrey Sharp and I have Matt Nehman, and we are going to talk a little bit about my new hobby as an elderly person now at the age of fifty five, I have decided gardening is going to be my jam. And I loved a gardener on my deck because the deer eat everything. I was just talking to Audrey and Matt about that, and they brought in some beautiful flowers that I will be putting on social media in just a moment.

First of all, guys, welcome to the show.

Thank you mean thanks for having us.

I have to ask, did you become a gardener before you worked for Plum Creek or did you work for plumb Creek because you.

Were a gardener.

I became a gardener even more since I started working for the company. But I think I definitely have those memories of growing up with my grandparents and my mom. I was raised in Alabama, so I remember the smell of honey. Oh yeah, it's very nostalgic to me. I think we've just taken more of a professional step.

And there you go. Matt, were you a gardener first?

I was not.

I do remember when I was a kid in Wichitak kids as my grandfather was a rancher before that, and he would wake up in the morning. We would both get up at about five am, and he would drink his coffee and smoke his camels and as they did this as they did, and we would wander around and is in his gardens after eating ice cream for breakfast.

And that was my earliest memory.

But certainly since COVID and since I've been involved with the company, that has changed dramatically.

I wanted to.

Ask you guys, and we're going to talk about plants, and we've got glowing the dark petunias and all kinds of cool stuff.

But I read something.

Earlier this week that said that young people are now starting to garden in earnest and like my grown kids are a perfect example. He and his wife, they live in Ohio, but they just put in a massive vegetable garden because they want to learn how to start canning and doing all of this stuff. Are you seeing any kind of demographic shift.

In your business.

Absolutely.

I think becoming like a home setder definitely evolved with COVID, But now I think people just stand by it because they're just so proud to know everything that they're growing, everything they're eating.

I mean, I think it's of all ages, but I agree with you.

I think we definitely have a new demographic that have come in that are the younger generations. These are young kids that just are choosing to, you know, spend the night's gardening at their house. I think it's just a new generation of people just more thoughtful and trying to enjoy life in a different way, and gardening is a huge part of it.

Well, it doesn't hurt that everything got so expensive at the grocery store.

You know, we're going out girls for drinks. Yeah, now you have the hour in your garden.

Exactly, exactly.

Let's talk about trends, like look, you know, like everything else, there are trends in gardening. You guys brought in some absolutely gorgeous dolias, and I don't remember seeing as many dahlias because I am a serial peruser of garden stores. I often peruse without even buying anything. I just go visit friends either. Yeah, exactly, and I see a lot of really gorgeous dolias this year. So is that like kind of the thing this year, because I don't recall seeing this many previously.

I think so.

I think that definitely was a demand last year among our markets. So we upped our game and we added a ton more varieties, different heights, different sizes. That selected some beautiful labello, the really good. These are just all summer color. Don't be afraid to deadhead, but you're not wrong. We have doubled probably our selection of Dalia's. It's definitely

So I know, I adopt my new hobby with a great deal of vigor. So I am up to speed on that. So do you guys get feedback? So you just said last year you had a lot of people asking for what are people asking for this year? That you're like, next year, we're gonna have to bring some of that stuff in.

I definitely think more natives, more chout tolerance, people are more waterwise conscious. We have a huge selection among annuals and perennials, mostly perennials. We're talking annuals would mostly be succulents, but perennials. We're really dove into a native selection that is aailable at all five locations, and these are things

I was going to ask you about that specifically because I have a patch of grass that I want to replace with groundcover because it just is crappy dirt. I mean, I just I don't want to deal with it anymore. I want to be able to turn off the sprinklers on that side. But what works for groundcover.

If you do?

Because I you know, I'm my Nita Floridian, so I'm from moisture, right, great, I want green things. I don't love the rock zer escaping. I just it does not work for me esthetically. So is groundcover like a clover or something like that a better option?

You know, I think that could be an alternative for grass cover. Yeah, But if we're talking groundcover. I think people that are like team groundcover, team no mulch is what I mulch. If you want to just have been actually phase it out. It doesn't have to be done overnight, doesn't have to be done in one season. This is something that can take two years. That's three seasons, though by season three most things are established, so it's not that long of a commitment. If you want to think

So it is a nice edger that you.

Can cut instead of mulch.

And it's encouraged do it. Why not?

It gets bigger and better. We have blamium as a big favorite at our house, and I.

Let it do its thing.

At the beginning of June, I probably cut it back and I transplant it elsewhere. I've probably have my whole backyard filled with only two plants I bought. But it expands every year, bigger and better on perennials, and you can just cut it out, transplant it somewhere else you want. To cover you know, that same plant, to cover dirt.

Same thing.

If you've got like an area of grass that's spilling out dirt, just edge it with some groundcover. We'll keep the roots at bay and team no mulch.

Team no molde.

So do you guys at the stores, because these folks are with Plum Creek Garden Market. I keep wanting to call you nursery and it's a garden market. Are the people that work there as knowledgeable as you? Like I can come in and say, hey, I heard Audrey talking about this groundcover on the radio, because that's a big frustration for me when I go into a garden store with a question and I feel like I know more

We do.

Actually, we have a ton of people that have worked in the industry for decades. A lot of them actually are just gardeners that are retired, right and they've been gardening in the Denver area for thirty forty years and they just want a part time job and they want to work with people and gardens and beautiful flowers. So there is a ton of knowledge on our floor with most of the people that you'll talk to them for sure.

That's very helpful.

We encourage you guys to come in.

It's free consulting and you know, a lot of the things that I think we all learn among our staff and among garden it's just we share knowledge as it's the culture of being a gardener. I'm sure when you're in a garden center you don't mind talking to somebody next to you. What is your tricks? What is your tips? And a lot of the base that we learned we were learned. You know, we asked questions to the older people, to our grandma's they've gone through it. They're forty fifty

Work for us.

I'm the only person in my family that has anything endured currently like I am. Like we're like the anti gardening family. So it took me a very long time to even feel confident that I could plant things and grow things, because I was telling them I can't plant.

In my yard.

But the flip side of this is that I'm trying to learn patience to your point about you plant this groundcover and in three years, three seasons seasons only two years time, I know, but it's three seasons. That has been the hardest thing for me to recognize. I replanted to bed last year and I'm not gonna lie. I got so excited when I came out and I was like, oh my gosh, they're coming back. So now I'm here two of my my bed that I've played it last year.

But it is a patience game, and.

It's just that satisfaction you feel you did that, you built, that you grew it, and it came back bigger and better. It just makes you want to put in more. You can always find room in your garden to put more things.

Yes, Matt, let me ask you this. Where do you guys get the plants.

Well, we actually have a sister company that we get eighty or ninety percent of our plants from here in the Front Range. But we have great relationships with four or five different greenhouses and farms that are all on the Front Range. They're small, locally owned. They all select high quality seeds and cuttings to start with. So everything that we sell from any of the farms on the front range that we source everything from. Are the highest quality plants that we can actually source anywhere.

And they're ready for our climate.

They are exactly that Colorado.

Is like, you know, we got a whole thing going on there. What are uh these things that you brought? And I'll put this picture on our social media. I'll send it today, Rod and have a putt on koa social media. We already talked about the dahlias, which are gorgeous. What's in these baskets? Are these petunias as well?

Ar These are.

Beautiful, crazy tune tuna. These are going to be the Johnny Cash petunias.

And you get a flower named after you? How do you get that gig? Like, I'd like a Mandy Connell something.

We all like cactus.

We always say that who gets to name the flowers the craziest names. They've named so many things, so many things that we run out of words, so they just make.

They're just making stuff up.

Okay, So the Mandy Connell dahlia could be a thing we make that happen.

Yeah, there we go. What is that big spiky one?

Is that a that's actually a rocky mountain penstemon? That is a native that.

Looks like a lupine or a snap dragon, but not quite as showy.

And you know you can have color with natives. People think like dry and green when you think native plants. It's a beautiful perennial with the color pop. There's some Glardia blanket flower that stays pretty low that would be

But that's another great groundcover.

Just if you already have mulch, you have to take the mulch out because ultimately mulch.

Will dissolve someday.

So can you just plant this and let it go, or do you have to remove the mulch first.

I definitely think the area that you want to go in the ground, you need to remove the dirt. You should be thrown at some compost, some type of amendment in the soil to begin with, right, and then once you get it in ground, you can recover it with some mulch. But you don't have to get rid of all the mulch. I know it's a big commitment. It's a lot of area. When people want to slowly get rid of mulch, just concentrate on one area at a time.

If it's not you.

Know, feasible to do the whole area in right summer, but you do want to edge out the mulch as you edge in plants.

I got a couple couple of things that people want to know, Mandy. Would you ask your guests what is the best weed kill are there on the market or how do you make the best weed killer?

Because I have weeds, and I've tried all kinds.

Of different solutions and products and nothing's really killing these weeds.

You know that that can be a controversial answer, but there's many ways to approach the weeds that don't have to be chemical wise. Definitely vinegar. I'm sure she's done the holistic options. But the other options that you can do, like you had mentioned earlier, is clover. Things that will fight out the weeds, that will weed them out right.

Clovers.

Some buddies love clover.

They do. Bunnies love anything that is grass.

We have bunnies.

Those are the only protected animals in our yard. My husband is very fond of the bunnies too, cute, extremely fond of the bunnies.

The implement rock gardens, you can definitely do some like prolific groundcovers for the roots, could maybe beat out the weeds themselves. But that's something that you can come into the market, find somebody, talk to them.

We're talking.

Let them know if you're talking center shade right in a groundcover you're looking for. But there are options can be plants versus chemicals.

And they have five stores.

By the way, plum Creek Guard Market has five stores throughout their front range. Let's talk about these these glow in the dark petunias.

What do we got here?

Oh, these have made it into our market. I think they've been on the market three years. The last few years customers have been asking and we have been a little skeptical, but this year we brought them in and I definitely believe in them. The bread with a mushroom, that's what gets the bioluminescence. And I think they kind of have a built in fertilizer system with those mushrooms. They're pretty vigorous, right, don't need any fill, you don't need any spill. The petunias do their thing in their

I had a listener actually send me a pagraph of their petunias glowing in the dark.

They have a very.

Similar luminescence to the lumin essence you would see in the ocean exactly.

And the butt is actually the brightest part, so as they burst open and bloom, it's kind of a neon green ombree. But they're actually the brightest before they pop open.

I want some of them.

They're so cool wet.

You've got a couple well, I have like railing pots that go over the railing, and I have petunias all in the sides of those because they're so pretty and they get so big and gorgeous. But I was like, man, if I had those, they could provide a little outdoor lighting. How much light do they have to get during the day in order to only because we've had so many cloudy days as it lived.

And you know, they're doing just fine. They'll get caught up if yours, you know, haven't been growing. Everyone's been under some cloud cover. But at least six hours, right full sun needs six hours here and west side facing our altitude. Son, you know, you can creep back to like five or so, but they get their sun in order to grow.

Somebody said, there's a mandy conn, a weed very invasive and prickly.

Probably I can't even say no. Here's a question on seeds. I personally have had zero.

Luck growing things from seeds and then getting them outside. I can grow them from seeds, but then when I take them outside, disaster occurs. Everything dies, and I finally gave it up. So this person said, I ordered some seeds supposed to be morning glory.

I grew them inside and they don't look like what they're supposed to too.

And they said, can you tell me what you think they are? I guess if you brought them to a garden center tell you for sure.

Yeah, that's what we call it gardener's surprise. They always end up being your favorite. Sometimes things get mistagged, but they always end up being your favorite.

But you can never It's like that recipe where you're just winging it and study's like make it again.

You're like, I have no idea what's in this spot right now? So that's kind of the thing.

Shore We definitely cannot pinpoint whatever it is, though.

Yeah, bring in a picture of it or bring the flower in whatever.

Mandy, I just discovered that Lafayette actually has an official flower. It's the wild blue flax. Do other area cities have an official city flower? And is the fireflag glow in the dark petunia available at your guests eerie location that from?

And it sure is okay? So, but do you know about city flowers?

I mean, we definitely blue flax and we love it. I didn't know cities had their own.

You love to know.

I'm just going to give you guys a little marketing idea for free. You go to a jewelry store and they have the little cards that have all the birthstones. You should have all the city flowers should and just be like care, find your city and buy.

Your flo of course you do buy neighborhoods, back Park, wash Park.

There you go, do it, Mandy.

Can you ask her about if they can get the black plant stems with colored flowers saw it in wheat Ridge. Can't find them? Now, that might be a little too vague. It just says black plants and it says stems.

We do have black stemmed can or cannon cali lilies at the beginning black leaves, black blooms, but it's a spring.

Bloom all.

Stockings.

That might be what she's talking about.

Purple bloom, but it's got the black stem. That's why it's called black stockings.

The meadow room maybe. Oh, but if it's all.

Black again, we can we can answer by pictures well.

And also you could just check the Eerie Store as well. Since you're up in Wheat Ridge, I think that's probably the closest one to you. Maybe the one in Littleton, depending.

On where you are.

Mandy, there's an app that my wife uses and identifies the plants, trees and grasses whatever it is.

I use Google or whatever. I use Google Lens all the time.

I agree.

I tell people it's better than any snap app I've ever used, and it's free, and it's more accurate because if you do a picture five times in the plant apps, they're going to give you five different answers.

Exactly. By the way, Matt, that other dude talking should be on the radio. What a voice?

This plant thing?

Does?

It work out?

So guys go find Plumplike plum Creek Garden Market. They have locations in Castle Rock, Eerie, Golden Greenwood Village, and Littleton. And if you need anything for your garden, this is a great place to go. By the way, don't forget to pick up all the stuff that I forget. This is the first year that I went to a garden center and I actually bought the compost that I needed. I bought the fertilizer that I needed. I bought enough dirt. Oh here's the question that I've always want the answer to.

Three years?

Okay, that's good, That's what I guess. Yes, next year, I.

Did get a big thing of compost and mix it all together to sort of.

Yeah and little composts.

Perfect.

Okay, good.

I wondered that Its like I bought new dirt last year, and I thought to myself, how long can I ride this dirt because I save it at the end, And I thought three years.

So there you go on the sweet spot.

Last question, would vinkas with purple flowers be a good groundcover for Colorado?

Really?

What are vinkas owls?

Cunningham is the vinka groundcover that's green with the purple little flowers. Yep, it's gonna be stringy, so people use it for spillers, but it's also a great groundcover option.

Okay, perfect. She's out on the couch. She was going to play of the Day.

Well, I don't know, I don't.

I hate to throw guests who have never like, don't know what of the Day is into the mix. But is this microphone being taken right now? Or can you use that one? Okay, yeah, go grabber. She's out there, I say, Q away my daughter, she's been in here. We play a dumb game at the end of every show. Would you like to play? It's a trivia game.

I would love to Oh.

Are you in sure? Okay? Yeah, it's very very simple.

And while he goes to get my daughter, she's coming in to use the microphone or do you want her to go to the newsroom. Oh, Aro's gonna take care of it. Here's how the game works. It's called of the Day. It's very dumb and Q. You can yell in the world, right, yes, you can. You know how to do it? You know how to yell in the world. I'll make a rod do it.

Okay.

She's totally waving me off like please, God, don't make me do this anyway.

It starts like this, A Rod, you gotta do the yell I go. And now it's time for the most exciting segment all the radio of It's gone. And then the World of the Day. And first we do a dad joke of the day. Oh wait, yeah, you don't have that phrase. Oh we do.

He has had phones hang on one second, heyday, poorly plan, I know, terribly planned. Take hand those to my daughters. She knows what to do today, and I'm gonna give.

You these, and we're going to do this. A Rod is going to tell a joke. Yeah, go ahead and do that dad joke of the day.

I told my boss sorry, I'm late. I was having computer issues. Boss says, har drive. I say, no, the commute was fine. It was my last job.

No, we do Word of the day.

This is where he gives us a really hard word and we have to guess the answer or definition to the word.

It is an adjective, you got it right, Oh.

There you go? Yeah, no, there we go, there you go. Now we're in. It's a majective adjective nascent nascent nascent n A s c e nt.

That is on incline, that's on the decline, something on the downslope.

I think it's the opposite.

It's rising, a.

Formal word you used to describe something that is just beginning to exist or in other words, recently for developed.

Well done, Well done. Now we have a trivia question.

What is the name of the twenty twenty two satirical psychological thrillers TV series that starves Kristen Bell as Anna, a woman who witness is a gruesome crime in her neighborhood and tries to sniff out the killer.

I have no idea.

The woman across the street in the window behind the door, not You're.

On fire right now.

It's close, and I'm gonna give it to you because the actual title is the woman in the house across the street from the girl in the window.

Yes, and.

I'm afraid to tell Matt how to play this last part. Okay, because it's jeopardy. Okay, it's our version of jeopardy, though it's a blood sport. You do not have to wait until the end of the question. You just have to shout out your name if you would like to answer the question.

Who has to wait? Mandy Connell.

I have to wait because you're new and we're being nice. But what is the category.

Four letter words with an X.

Four letter words with an ex.

Start with an X means there's an X in the word.

Okay.

In twenty fifteen, CNN reported thirty teens have broken up or been broken.

Up with this way man, Jay, Matt not text. That is correct.

You got to also answer the four question. I'm going to give you that one that's killing it right now. I'm not letting him play anymore.

Passing this number four on I eighty East in Utah, you might want to be aware that number forty one, the upcoming one is thirty seven.

Matt.

Wait, oh, Matt, Matt, that is correct.

Someone who brings nothing but bad luck might be called a this It's also in the title of a docu series about Robert Durst.

Wrong.

Dang it.

Oh, I watched this one too.

What is a jinx?

If you miss the faery on Fire Island, you can get where you need to go on a water this there's no meter though.

Audrey, Audrey, Go ahead, Audrey, what is the taxi?

Mandy? You about to get shut out?

Yeah? I am about to get casually mentioning to the deli meat guy at Costco that you made it on Jeopardy might be this slang for bragging.

Come on here, this is yours. What is a flag? Well down? Shut out? Well down? Never ever?

I got minus one, I got I got negative.

It was terrible. Thank you so much for coming in. Go see him at Plum Creek Garden Market.