Hothouse

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Horticulturati: Thawing Out Mar 02, 2021

Show notes

On this Horticulturati, we return from hiatus with tales of the Snowpocalypse -- or Snowmageddon, Snowvid, whatever you want to call it -- to document the record-breaking winter weather that broke Texas' electric grid and ushered in a scary new climate reality for the plants and people of the Lone Star State. Your hosts discuss personal trauma, a jumble of conflicting post-freeze plant advice, and a bunch of anecdotes about what worked and what didn't in preparing our gardens and ourselves for an unprecedented 144 consecutive hours of below-freezing temps in Austin.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Aggie Horticulture Facebook page videos; City Council Member Greg Casar; Resolution Gardens

The Horticulturati: Five Seasons Total Landscaping Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

Autumn has come to Texas at long last! To celebrate, we watched the documentary Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf (2017) by Thomas Piper, and we're now officially card-carrying Piet stans sporting Dutch accents, asymmetrical haircuts, and scythes.

We discuss Oudolf's "mathematics" of design, seasonal ambience, and the art of garden editing. How might we translate Oudolf's temperate palate to the not-so-temperate climate of central Texas? Drop us a line at horticulturati.com or a leave a voicemail at 347-WAP-HORT.

Here's where you can rent the movie: https://shop.fiveseasonsmovie.com/product/single-viewer/

Mentioned in this episode: Oudolf designs at Hummelo; Hauser & Wirth; the Lurie Garden; the High Line; Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury; Medicinal Plants of Texas by Nicole Telkes; and Coopers BBQ in Llano.

Horticulturati: Garden Design Oct 07, 2020

Show notes

On this mega-episode of the Horticulturati, we're tackling garden design--our approaches, our anxieties, and our gripes about "expert" sources of mystifying advice and misleading photography. Garden design books are rife with the jargon of art theory. How well does this translate to the living medium of plants in the landscape? Google Image Search puts pictures of every plant imaginable at our fingertips, which is great...but also not so great. Hashing it out at length, we agree on some basic aesthetic tenets, then throw the rest out the window. Maybe it all comes down to climate, maintenance, and solving problems with plants. First up, Leah describes a real-life botanical nightmare that sends her down memory lane. Last, Colleen shares a listener letter from a Buckeye gardening in the southwest.

Leave a voice message on the new Horticulturati Hotline! The number is 347-WAP-HORT.

Or drop us a line on our website.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg, here's the illustration Leah's referring to, and her 1991 home video of her interview with Chris Van Allsburg; Landscapes in Landscapes by Piet Oudolf; Gardens of Japan by Tetsuro Yoshida, and his excellent illustration of balanced grouping of stones; Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Volume 2 by Brad Lancaster; Texas Wildscapes by Kelly Conrad Bender.

The Horticulturati: Armadillos! Aug 23, 2020

Show notes

Turtle rabbit. Shell possum. Roadkill. Whatever you call it, the nine-banded armadillo is a mysterious, ancient, and unfairly maligned mammal. Find out everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about this Texas icon. Leah traces the armadillo's bizarre migratory history, its role in medical research, and its rise as a symbol of the Austin music scene. We'll bust some armadillo myths, meet some famous champions (including naturalist Roy Bedichek and artist Jim Franklin) and discuss the intractable problem of armadillos in the garden. So, spark up a spliff and fill your pantyhose with worms! The next time one wreaks havoc on your flowerbeds, you may just have a little more appreciation for this humble critter.

Songs: "Dead Armadillo Song" by the Lost Gonzo Band; "Spanish Moss" by Doug Kershaw; "Armadillo Stomp" by Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen; "You Look Like the Devil" by Willie Nelson; "London Homesick Blues" by Gary P Nunn; "Beautiful Texas Sunshine" by Doug Sahm. Here's a Spotify playlist.

Mentioned in this episode:

Pink Fairy Armadillo; Adventures With a Texas Naturalist by Roy Bedicheck; The Amazing Armadillo by Larry L. Smith and Robin W. Doughty; The Armadillo World Headquarters: A Memoir by Eddie Wilson Jessie Sublett ; The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock, by Jan Reid; "The Rise and Fall of the Armadillo World Headquarters" doc; "Poster Art of the Armadillo World Headquarters" doc ; A Poem is a Naked Person, a film by Les Blank; Franklin's story about "You Look Like the Devil" told on Pick Up The Tempo podcast; "Armadillo Man," (The New Yorker, 1971). Managing Armadillo Damage (Texas A&M Agrilife Extension).

The Horticulturati: Crap(e) Myrtles & Cushaw Squash Jun 26, 2020

Show notes

Hothouse is returning from hiatus! From here on out this podcast feed will be all Hothouse, so if you want to keep hearing The Horticulturati, please subscribe to that feed HERE (for Apple Podcasts) or HERE (for Spotify).

Crape myrtles are blooming all over the place and Leah is DISGUSTED. What's triggering this Lagerstroemiaphobia? Perhaps it's not about the crape myrtles at all, but rather the lingering demons of her past in exurban hell. Next, Colleen reports on a storied gourd that vine borers can't touch: the cushaw squash. Domesticated some time around the dawn of agriculture, the obscure cushaw took on special significance to African American foodways as a "slave food" staple. We discuss plants and memory, the merits of "folklore," and the importance of heirloom seeds as "living archives" of cultural information. Happy belated Juneteenth!

See photos of Colleen's cushaw plant and drop us a line at www.horticulturati.com.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Botany Coloring Book; The Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney; Neil Sperry on topping crape myrtles; Nandina 'nana"; the "Pool Party Incident" of 2015; Homestead Heart (YouTube); "The Seeds of Survival" (NYT); Kathe Hambrick-Jackson, The River Road African American Museum (Louisiana); Michael W. Twitty, The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty; Farming While Black, by Leah Penniman.

Horticulturati: Metamorphosis & Victory Gardens May 17, 2020

Show notes

On this Horticulturati, we bring you stories of adaptation and change. Leah has been studying up on butterfly holometabolism -- that is, complete metamorphosis -- with assistance from her niece, nephew, and Vladimir Nabokov. Colleen describes the history of Victory Gardens, from World War I to the present day, and outlines three ways to start a "pandemic garden" of your own. But first: we revisit the sleeper masterpiece that is the Secret Life of Plants doc (1979), which is only available in bootleg on YouTube. Watch it here.

Mentioned in this episode:

A color guide to familiar Butterflies Caterpillars and Chrysalides by Josef Moucha; Butterfly Gardening for the South by Geyata Ajilvsgi; Gayata on Central Texas Gardener; photo of a giant swallowtail chrysalis and a monarch chrysalis; Nabokov's 1948 "Butterflies" essay from the New Yorker; Sebastian's rescued chrysalis and newly emerged monarch; National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies of North America; A Brief History of Gardening by Neil Fairbairn; Nature's Garden for Victory and Peace by George Washington Carver; Victory Garden (undated propaganda film); "How to Plant a Victory Garden" (NYT Sunday Style); this article about panic gardening; this article about scallions; and Central Texas Seed Savers.

Many thanks to our young lepidopterists in the field, Sebastian and Margot.

Get in touch with us on our website.

The Horticulturati: Music & Plants Mar 22, 2020

Show notes

Best wishes to everyone! Here is a little plantastic escapism to entertain you. [We recorded this episode on 2/28 and added a little corona check-in intro on 3/21. Episode begins around 4:19.]

Can plants "hear" music? What would plant-generated music sound like? On this episode, Leah and Colleen attend "The Secret Song of Plants," the release party for an album of the same name by music therapist Andrea Cortez. Accompanying Andrea is cellist Henna Chou and… a pothos ivy?!?!

Join us as we dive deep into the world of plant music, plant sentience, and philosophy, from the Plant Wave, to The Secret Life of Plants, to Mort Garson's "Plantasia," and beyond.

Watch the Secret Life of Plants documentary here.

More info at our website: www.horticulturati.com. Email us at info@horticulturati.com. Our theme song is "Plants" by The Horticulturati House Band.

Also mentioned in this episode:

"Inside the Spiritual World of Plant Based Instruments" (Vice magazine, 2016); "Data Garden Quartet" at Philadelphia Museum of Art (2012); Multiple intelligences; "Rock or Bach an Issue to Plants, Singer Says" (New York Times, 1971); In Search of … Other Voices with Leonard Nimoy (TV series, 1977)

PS. In our research, we found several great podcast episodes on the topic of plants and music and tried not to rehash too much territory. Highly recommend you check out: "Smarty Plants" (Radiolab, 2018); "Plants That Sing" (Twenty Thousand Hertz, 2019); "The Secret Life of Plants" (The Organist, 2018), "Are Plants Listening?" (Sound Meditation Radio, 2020).

The Horticulturati: Time-Lapse Photography & Arboriculture Mar 06, 2020

Show notes

How did the invention of time-lapse photography revolutionize our understanding of plants? Leah checks in with Charles Darwin and Barbara Streisand on this subject. Colleen explains how to get certified as an arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture, and brings us up to speed on some Facebook drama. But first, garden updates: it's been a bad year for the roses. Watch the time-lapse videos from the episode at ww.horticulturati.com.

Email us at info@horticulturati.com. Our theme song is "Plants" by The Horticulturati House Band.

Mentioned in this episode: Tree Folks Urban Forest Stewards Program; "The Secret Life of Plants: Visualizing Vegetative Movement 1880-1903" by Oliver Gaycken in Early Popular Visual Culture (Feb 2012); Charles Percy's The Birth of a Flower (1910); The Revolutionary Genius of Plants by Stefano Mancuso; Science in Action: Time Lapse Photography (1964); On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)

The Horticulturati: Xeriscape and the Hundredth Meridian Feb 21, 2020

Show notes

Shake off those umbrellas! On episode 2 of The Horticulturati, Austin-based garden designers Colleen Dieter and Leah Churner discuss Central Texas' mercurial climate. Specifically, the rain. And the lack thereof. Leah explains how longitude is destiny along the Hundredth Meridian (or is it the 98th?), and Colleen examines how "Xeriscape" became "Zeroscape." But first, a garden update: Leah's ripping out landscape fabric and Colleen has a misadventure with a skid-steer.

Email us at info@horticulturati.com and visit us at www.horticulturati.com. Our theme song is "Plants" by The Horticulturati House Band.

Mentioned in this episode:

"Austin's on the Wrong Side of the 100th Meridian," by Christopher Collins in The Texas Observer, The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Path to Power by Robert Caro, this map of the hundredth meridian; Southwest Gardening by Rosalie Doolittle and Harriet Tiedebohl, and "Gravel in the Garden: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" with Elizabeth McGreevy on KLRU's Central Texas Gardener.

Introducing The Horticulturati: New episode Feb 7! Feb 03, 2020

Show notes

Hi Hothouse listeners! Hothouse Season 2 is still in the works, but guess what! I'm launching a spinoff podcast: The Horticulturati!

The Horticulturati is a biweekly gardening talkshow I'm cohosting with my friend, and repeat Hothouse guest, Colleen Dieter. We're a couple of "designing women" here to fill you in on the ups and downs of landscaping life and teach each other about horticultural history and sundry fun plant facts.

Episode 1 is out February 7! Please subscribe to The Horticulturati by following this link right here.

Email us at info@horticulturati.com and visit us at www.horticulturati.com.

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