Every Plant Has a Story!

by Danny Summers

This is not the typical message you find me sharing here in GROUPtalk. This is...

A Call to Breeders, Growers... and Retailers!

Telling Your Story has been a standard emphasis here in The Group for decades. It began with Robert Hendrickson pushing each Center to tell their story to their audience. For Robert, the idea was to make the connection to the customer and build upon that for years. You could say... life-long relationships.

But the message can go beyond telling the Garden Center story. This is focused on the Plant's Story. Every Plant has a Story!

By the time a plant becomes part of a Grower's production and moves toward the Retailer and is ready for sale to the consumer, almost all the details about the plant seem to be just the plant's general attributes. You know, the typical specs...

Zone, Mature Height and Width, Sun and Water Needs, and other attributes like Pollinator Attractive or Deer Resistant, and more.

But wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to tell the rest of the Plant Story?

A week ago, Karen and I were at our local Pike Nursery store here in Acworth, and I was looking for an Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia 'Alice') to fill in where we lost one of three in our front yard. Oh, wait, I should say... our front yard garden!

The knowledgeable staff person said they didn't have Alice in stock, but then checked to see if they had any on order. In the meantime, he showed me what other Oakleafs they had. Two of the smaller varieties were Munchkin and Ruby Slippers.

I asked the young man if he knew their story and he seemed puzzled by my question. I then said, "Both of these great dwarfs were bread by Dr. Sandra Reed at the US National Arboretum Research Station in McMinnville, TN and she is now retired and moved here to metro Atlanta a few years back."

He replied, "That's wonderful to know. I wish we knew more about who found and developed the plants. It would help to be closer to the plant and make them more special in our gardens."

That conversation has stuck with me all week long.

Last week, I contacted Sandy Reed and asked her to share some memories of her work on these two plants. Here's her words...

"One of the first things I did when I started working at the Nursery Research Station in McMinnville, TN, in 1995 was to meet with the great nurseryman Don Shadow. I wanted to get his input into what would be good breeding projects for me to undertake. One of the plants that he mentioned was oakleaf hydrangea. He said there was a need in the industry for compact selections with more attractive flowers than the existing dwarf cultivars ‘Pee Wee’ and ‘Sikes Dwarf’.

I began the breeding program by hybridizing both of those cultivars (‘Pee Wee’ and ‘Sikes Dwarf’) to ‘Snow Queen’. As everyone who is familiar with oakleaf hydrangeas knows, ‘Snow Queen’ is the gold standard for upright, full inflorescences. That winter, I planted the seeds from these hybridizations in the greenhouse, and by late spring they were ready to transplant to the field. In a couple of summers, it was evident that none of the plants were what I was aiming to find. So I selected 10 to 12 of the best-looking plants of each group, collected and combined the pollen from them, and used it to pollinate flowers from those same plants. Again, the seeds were sown in the greenhouse during the winter and approximately 1000 plants transplanted to the field the next spring.

It was soon obvious that this second generation of seedlings was very different from the first generation. Some plants were tall, others short. Some had large flower heads full of showy sterile flowers, others had small inflorescences with mainly fertile flowers. Over time, this population was thinned to about 100 compact plants with large, upright, showy inflorescences – and then later thinned to 25 of the best plants. These were propagated and further evaluated. The best 6 to 8 plants were selected, propagated and sent out to cooperating nurseries for their evaluation.

The consensus opinion pointed to the plants later named ‘Ruby Slippers’ and ‘Munchkin’ as being the best selections. The flower heads of ‘Ruby Slippers’ age to very deep rose color – this is what brought to mind the use of the word Ruby in the name, and ‘Ruby Slippers’ naturally followed. ‘Munchkin’ is even smaller than ‘Ruby Slippers’ and the name seemed appropriate, continuing in the Wizard of Oz theme."

Why don't WE document, track and share more about the Plant's Story?

The photo of Sandy above is her receiving the Porter Henegar Award from the Southern Nursery Association in 2014 as their Researcher of the Year in the Southeast. I actually took this photo, so you see I even have more connection to Sandy and her Hydrangeas.

If you had either 'Munchkin' or 'Ruby Slippers' planted in your garden, now knowing how Sandy Reed bred them, would you think of Sandy Reed or her story every time you saw these plants? Wouldn't the plants seem more special if you knew their stories? I know they would to me.

I do this already on several plants we have in our garden. One is a Deodar Cedar 'Patti Faye', named by Ralph Rushing (Rushing Nursery) for his wife, Patti.

We also have several Knock Out Roses in our garden, and it's easy to think of Bill Radler, the breeder. In fact...

Have you ever heard Bill Radler tell the story of developing the first Knockout Roses? Click in this video to hear it in his words.

Susan Bacus Morgan, Star Roses & Plants' Marketing Manager, shared this message on when Bill Radler sending the first rose to The Conard-Pyle /Star Roses, back in 1992-READ MORE.

Why don't WE document, track and share more about the Plant's Story?

The entire "chain of custody " of plants should be shared in the Plant's Story. Here's a challenge:

• Breeders should share details of how they found or why they selected the plant to help bring life to the plant's development.
• Growers should share who bred or found the plant and the story behind it.
• Retailers could use each Plant Story to connect their audience to the plant.

Every Plant has a Story, and knowing and sharing the story can help raise the perceived value and connect our audience to the plant.

Maybe, after reading this message, you will think of Sandy Reed when you see Munchkin or Ruby Slippers or Bill Radler when you see a Knockout Rose! The fact is that knowing The Plant's Story can bring the plant's journey alive, along with the people behind them.

If you have influence with either Breeders or Growers (and I know you do), don't just expect the basic plant information, but ask for "The Plant Story!"

I would like to say THANK YOU to Dr. Sandra Reed, Star Roses, and Garden Media Group for sharing details for this message! You can download the US National Arboretum's information on Munchkin and Ruby Slippers. Simply click on their names here.

Danny Summers
[email protected]
Tel: 678-909-7770
Cell: 678-761-7145

REMEMBER: Your interaction (by phone and email) with Group Service Providers such as Tim Quebedeaux, Sid Raisch, John Kennedy, Jean Seawright, and of course Danny Summers are included in your retainer!