An Infestation of Horticulturists

August 11, 2018January 8, 2022 Mike Nowak Andrea Whitely, Australian gardening, C.L. Fornari, environment, garden myths, Garden Writers Association, gardening, Hall of Fame, indoor plants, James A. Baggett, Mary-Kate Mackey, sustainability, The Mike Nowak Show

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(August 12, 2018) If you’re a garden communicator, you want to be in Chicago this week. Of course, I live here, so that’s easy for me to say. So what am I talking about? I’m talking about the confluence of two annual horticultural events: GWA 2018, the 70th Annual Conference and Expo, and the IGC Show 2018. Those two events lead to an infestation of horticulturists on today’s show.

In case you’re wondering about the alphabet soup, GWA stands for Garden Writers Association. However, that’s not the name of the organization anymore. The real name is the Association for Garden Communicators, which would make the acronym AGC. But they seem to be sticking with GWA, which, I suspect, is a branding thing. GWA is an organization of professional communicators in the green industry including book authors, bloggers, staff editors, syndicated columnists, freelance writers, photographers, speakers, landscape designers, television and radio personalities, consultants, publishers, extension service agents and more.

IGC is a lot easier to figure out. It stands for Independent Garden Center. They have a show on Chicago’s Navy Pier each year, where they feature seminars, keynote speakers and vendors who are all focused on the business of gardening. And this year, they teamed with GWA for a mega-horticultural event…if you happen to already be in the industry. What does it have to do with the average gardener? We’ll find out on the show today. With the overlap of the two show, Chicago will be lousy with horticultural types for almost a week, so strap in.

Garden communicators in studio

And when I say that, I need to include myself, because three garden writers will be invading the 1590 WCGO studios this morning. They are C. L. Fornari (also known as The Garden Lady), Andrea Whitely, who is traveling all the way from Australia just to be on my show (that might be an exaggeration), and Mary-Kate Mackey, who is riding her bicycle from Eugene, Oregon to be here (perhaps another exaggeration).

C.L. Fornari

Let’s start with Ms. Fornari, who is on the show for the third time. In 2015, while I was still podcasting from my dining room table with my beloved cat La Gata at my feet, I interviewed her about her excellent book Coffee for Roses: …and 70 Other Misleading Myths About Backyard Gardening. About a year later, Peggy and I talked to her when we were at Pirate Radio about her book The Cocktail Hour Garden: Creating Landscapes for Relaxation and Entertaining.

She’s appearing at the GWA Conference because she’s gathering a couple of Broadcast Media Awards. One is for her radio show GardenLine, which is broadcast every Saturday morning on WXTK – 95.1 FM, from 8:00 to 10:00 AM Eastern time. The other is for her podcast, Plantrama, which she produces with GWA colleague Ellen Zachos.

Having interviewed Ms. Fornari twice, I know that she is not to be trifled with. Just saying.

Mary-Kate Mackey

Mary-Kate Mackey is an award-winning garden writer whose work has appeared in most major garden publications in the U.S. Her on-going monthly column of gardening advice, “Rooting for You,” is featured on the Hartley-Botanic Greenhouse website. In 2017, she won four 2017 GWA Silver Medals of Achievement for writing work. I note that on her website, she asks, “Does writing make you feel anxious, unprepared, and frustrated?” My answer is “Yeah! So?”

Andrea Whitely

Andrea Whitely wrote to tell me that she has “heaps of radio experience” in Perth where she was one half of a duo called The Soil Sisters on 720 ABC Perth for about 4 years and more recently appearing as a regular guest on 100.1 CurtinFM ‘Let’s Talk Gardening’. She has a garden consultancy based in Perth and writes about all things horticulture for a national magazine Hortjournal not to mention a blog which was awarded in the top30 gardening blogs you must read in 2017. And she keeps it real by having a garden design and maintenance business as well.

And a hall of famer

Those three women will be my anchor for the second hour conversation with James Augustus Baggett, who will be inducted into the GWA Hall of Fame. You might remember that friend of the show Melinda Myers received that honor in 2017. Here’s a partial list of Baggett’s accomplishments.

James has been a magazine editor and writer for more than 30 years. Until 2017, James was the editor of Country Gardens as well as all of the Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications gardening titles, including—for 2017—Gardening for Birds & Butterflies, Best of Country Gardens, Outdoor Living, Vintage Garden Style, Mini Gardens & Terrariums, Easy Garden Projects, Garden Sheds & Retreats, From Garden to Plate, and Garden Basics. James was formerly editor of Perennials and Nature’s Garden magazines for Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications, and the former executive editor of Country Living Gardener and Rebecca’s Garden for Hearst Publications. James is also the author of Flower Arranging, a Best of Martha Stewart Living Book, the former garden editor of American Homestyle & Gardening, and the founding managing editor of Elle Decor.

A crisis in horticulture?

Perhaps we’ll address the question of where the next generation of horticulturists is coming from. According to this article, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of movement in that direction.

“We have more employers calling us than we have students to fill the jobs,” said John Dole, associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University. “We aren’t meeting the needs of the industry.”

According to a 2015 study, nearly 58,000 jobs become available each year in agriculture-related fields, but only 61 percent are filled by qualified graduates.

Yoikes. That can’t be good for gardening radio shows. Today will either feature award-winning material or signal the end of my career. Can’t wait to see which way it goes.