We're joined today by Dr. Tjite deVries former head of Biology at La Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. A long time friend of John & Susana's and one of the first scientists to be stationed in the Galapagos Islands studying birds. Listen in as he tells us of his history in Ecuador and biology.
Jul 01, 2025•56 min•Season 10Ep. 2
Happy Father's Day everyone! New Dad Chris Fehlhaber sits down with Uli Lorimer and Tim Johnson of the Native Plant Trust to talk about gardening and fatherhood and lessons learned along the way.
Jun 14, 2025
Today's episode is dedicated to John's Dad (Sam) who despite growing up during World War 2 and living in downtown Toledo, Ohio still managed to raise food for his family through always having a 'victory garden', a practice he carried on his entire life and passed on to his children teaching them the importance of being able to raise your own food. Tonight's guest; Maggie Stuckey has authored many books, but tonight, she and John will be discussing her latest; The Container Victory Garden which s...
Jan 31, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 8Ep. 155
Nov 28, 2023
Uli Lorimer is director of Horticulture at Garden In The Woods, in Framingham, Massachussettes. Previously, he was curator of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Native Flora Garden until early 2019. The Delaware native grew up with an interest in all things green, and after receiving an honors degree from the University of Delaware in landscape horticulture, he moved to New York City to become the woodland gardener at Wave Hill.
Aug 13, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 8Ep. 176
Wild Seed Project builds awareness of the vital importance of native plants and provides all people with the tools to restore biodiversity in their own communities. They equip community members, public officials and municipalities, and land-holding individuals and organizations – from farmers to land trusts – with the skills and resources they need to collectively repopulate landscapes with native plants that expand wildlife habitat, support biodiversity, and build climate resilience.
Jul 08, 2023•1 hr•Season 8Ep. 154
John sits down with legendary Landscape Designer Piet Oudolf and discusses his new book- 'at Work', landscape design, working with others and a few other topics. There are even a few dog stories.
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 8Ep. 153
Gardening Author and Landscape Designer Owen Wormser drops by to spread some wisdom on eliminating lawn and replacing it with habitat, just like he does in his book 'Lawns Into Meadows, Growing a Regenerative Landscape'
Jun 02, 2023•47 min•Season 8Ep. 153
OK, so we're not the most organized people in the world- we're sorry. We originally spoke to Don last year, but in an unfortunate sorting incident, we lost the file for a time. We're very glad to have found it though as it is a wonderful piece of entertainment and education. Garden Designer Donald Pell is known for his use of native plants in the landscape and ecological approach to design, but it turns out he also enjoys a good laugh and a craft brew. Welcome to the show Don, we're happy to hav...
May 08, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 8Ep. 152
John & Susana team up to get us started this year by describing a pretty incredible trip to Ecuador over the winter where they visited Antisana and Chimborazo volcanos and the cloudy forest of Papallacta (pronounced- Papayakta). They also update us on co-hosts and joke around a bit while celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. Thanks for joining us once again, we hope you'll enjoy another great season of the Native Plant Podcast.
Apr 26, 2023•55 min•Season 8Ep. 151
One of the most influential landscape architects in practice today, Laurie Olin has created designs for the Washington Monument grounds and the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in Washington, D/.D., Bryant Park in New York City, Getty Center in Los Angeles, and many other iconic landscapes. More recent projects include the AIA award-winning Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Apple Park in Cupertino, and Simon and Helen Director Park in Portland Oregon. All of these works were realized un...
Oct 26, 2022
Jeff Lorenz is the founder of Refugia Design, an ecological landscape design/build and stewardship firm, based out of Narberth, PA. Since 2015, Refugia has been offering distinctive native landscape design for both residential and commercial green spaces throughout the Greater Philadelphia Area and Jersey Shore. Annual major exhibitor and award-winners at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Flower Show, Refugia is known for an immersive, naturalistic design aesthetic and meadow...
Oct 11, 2022
James Golden’s garden design has been featured in national and international magazines, in The New York Times, and in several books on garden design. He has been the recipient of national awards and is widely known in the gardening world through his garden blog View from Federal Twist (www.federaltwist.com). James’ Federal Twist garden regularly appears on tours of the Garden Conservancy, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Hardy Plant Society, and on numerous private tours. Recently ret...
Sep 13, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 7Ep. 150
We’re all about the graminoids this week with our long-time friend and boomerang guest, Shannon Currey. Since taping the show, Shannon has transitioned from her role as marketing director with Hoffman Nursery to pursue a career in horticulture communication, education, and consulting. Her wealth of knowledge when it comes to grasses and sedges for the market (especially natives), has no equal, and we had a great time talking about all our favorites (and some new things to try as well)! We hope y...
Sep 06, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 7Ep. 149
Jared Barnes, Ph.D., started gardening when he was five years old, and since then has enthusiastically pursued how to best cultivate plants and minds. He currently fulfills those passions as an award-winning associate professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. He educates the public with his weekly newsletter PlantEd and more recently through his Podcast- "The Plantastic Podcast". His passion has been recognized by peers in interviews in Organic Gardening...
Aug 24, 2022
Laurie is a distinguished teacher, author, and one of the most renowned landscape architects practicing today. From vision to realization, he has guided many of OLIN’s signature projects, which span the history of the studio from the Washington Monument Grounds in Washington, DC to Bryant Park in New York City. His recent projects include the AIA award-winning Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Simon and Helen Director Park in Portland, Oregon.
Aug 04, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 7Ep. 148
Sean received a Bachelor's in Horticulture and a Master's degree in Plant & Environmental Science from Clemson University where he focused on nutrient media in tissue culture propagation. His professional background includes private residential horticulture, greenhouse and nursery production, plant nutrient management in soil-less media, and temperate woody plant propagation and conservation. As the Arnold Arboretum's Plant Propagator, Sean continues a 150 year tradition of growing woody tem...
Jul 18, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 7Ep. 147
Before serving as Horticulturist of Haskell Public Gardens, Mc Cullin was the Senior Horticulturalist at The Native Plant Trusts Garden in the Woods. Prior to that, McCullin was selected as a Garden Club of America and Royal Society of Horticulture Scholar to intern at a variety of important public gardens in the UK. She also served as an apprentice at Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum in Boston, and as a Landscape Coordinator at the Central Park Conservancy in New York City. McCullin has a ...
Jul 04, 2022•53 min•Season 7Ep. 147
Jenn Myers drops by to chat with John and Preston about things that landscape companies can do to attract and maintain professional staffs
Jun 11, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 7Ep. 146
Miles Hilton Connors is Director of Parterre Ecological, a specialized division within Parterre Garden Services that integrates principles of ecology and horticulture to protect, promote and restore native plant communities.
May 16, 2022
Chris & John host Andrea Amaya with all of her plant knowledge and work she's helping the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center do, she's a wealth of information.
May 04, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Season 7Ep. 144
Kyle Lybarger is a Forester, a conservation influencer, and a life long outdoorsman from Hartselle, Alabama. Kyle holds a Bachelors degree in Forestry ,with a concentration in Forest Science, from Alabama A&M University. His love for the outdoors and wildlife led him to native plants since they are the foundation of wildlife habitat. With his presence on TikTok (@NativePlantTok) and his passion for managing native ecosystems he has started the Native Habitat Project where he’s continuing to ...
Apr 18, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 7Ep. 143
Emma Marris is the author of Wild Souls: Freedom and Flourishing in the Non-Human World and Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World. She also writes about the human and nonhuman worlds, and the enduringly complex relationships between them for National Geographic, the Atlantic, the New York Times, Wired, and other publications. She lives in Oregon with her husband--with whom she occasionally co-authors environmental philosophy papers--and their two children.
Apr 05, 2022•50 min•Season 7Ep. 142
Dr. Darrel Morrison joins us for the beginning of our seventh season and we couldn't be happier with having him.
Mar 22, 2022•1 hr•Season 7Ep. 142
Saturnia Farm in Clyde North Carolina is a nursery, flower farm, and homestead with growing and land management practices guided by principals of beauty, permaculture, and ecology. Their mission is to provide holistically-grown, affordable, specialty perennials, natives, and edible landscaping plants for the beautification and ecological benefit of Western North Carolina.
Jan 10, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Season 6Ep. 141
Two friends of ours have joined forces to give us all some great suggestions for deer resistant plants for the Northeast United States. Gregg Tepper has been on the podcast before, but this time he brings one of our favorite gardening authors; Ruth Rogers Clausen. The two have combined their knowledge and poured it all into this wonderful book.
Dec 26, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 6Ep. 141
Following in the footsteps of Frank Lloyd Wright, Tony Gomez- Philips helps to update classic design into a more sustainable light at Monona Terrace in Wisconsin.
Nov 25, 2021•1 hr 35 min•Season 6Ep. 140
Jessica Walliser is a former contributing editor for Organic Gardening and a regular contributor to many national gardening publications. Her two weekly gardening columns for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review have been enjoyed by readers for over ten years. Her book, Attracting Beneficial Bugs to the Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control, was awarded the American Horticultural Society’s Book Award. Jessica received her degree in ornamental horticulture from The Pennsylvania State University.
Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 6Ep. 140
Jeff Epping has been Director of Horticulture at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison WI, since 1992 where he oversees horticultural operations and the garden designs of more than 15 inspirational garden areas showcasing fantastic plants for Southern Wisconsin. Jeff and his talented staff have practiced and preached sustainable gardening for years with environmentally conscious cultural practices and innovative, award-winning designs.
Sep 10, 2021
Sam Droege has been spent most of his career at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. He has coordinated the North American Breeding Bird Survey Program, developed the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, the BioBlitz, Cricket Crawl, and FrogwatchUSA programs and worked on the design and evaluation of monitoring programs. Currently he is developing an inventory and monitoring program for native bees, online identification guides for North American bees at www.discoverlife.org, and ...
Sep 01, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Season 6Ep. 139