Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Today we're taking a look at the garden at the First Americans Museum and learn how they're using it to share their culture.

We also visited with some scientists from Greece and are learning about their plant research.

And finally, our friends at Greenleaf Nursery share some of their new Holly Plant introductions.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

Oklahoma Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future.

A program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Shape Your Future provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice.

The easy choice.

I want.

I'm sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

We're back here at the student farm.

I want to share with you a tropical plant that you might find in some Oklahoma landscapes.

It's important to know which plants we are dealing with so that we can continue to maintain them successfully for years to come.

Today, we're here at the first American Museum.

And joining me is Chef Loretta Oden.

Chef, thank you so much for inviting us out into your kitchen garden, essentially.

But it's full of some really native gummies, right?

Yeah, a bit about the plants we have here.

Oh, absolutely.

You know, we have a lot of herbs, edible flowers.

Most everything that's out here is edible so that we can use it in the kitchen on the flight and all of that.

A lot of things that have to do with our traditional food ways like medicinal teas and to make tinctures and all of that.

Just an overall look at, you know, what we consumed as native peoples in the past and bringing that forward into the future.

And you guys, as a museum are representing all of the nations.

Right.

Or a lot of them anyway.

Well, a lot of them.

We're representing the 39 nations that now call Oklahoma Home that are literally from all over North America.

So we have people from all regions who came here with different food ways, you know, different plants and animals in their particular regions.

And we just kind of all got plopped down in old Indian territory.

So we're just kind of making the best of that.

And this museum is really so exciting.

It's really an opportunity for us to tell the story in our own words.

Right.

And of course, you know, food is always a big part of culture, so there's only so many plants that can grow in our climate of Oklahoma.

But you guys are doing a fabulous job here.

And a lot of the native plants actually have a wide range.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

I love especially what people consider weeds.

I'm going I'm the crazy old lady in the neighborhood that when I smell round up in the air, I go running up and down the street, say, don't spray that.

That's huge in terms of, you know, the plants that you have here and how they're utilized.

Oh, we're using a lot of of wild plants.

We're using a lot of plants that just kind of grow out in the yard.

This is the goldenrod, right?

People think of as ragweed.

Right.

Makes you sneeze.

This is almost a miracle medicine, you know, tinctures, teas, poultice for wounds and all of that.

Just great, great stuff, Sage.

You know, we not only eat it, but we pray with it.

We have several varieties of sage here.

We have amaranth, you know, the beautiful amaranth that's just now getting a good start.

Right.

But, you know, I use a lot of amaranth and quinoa in the kitchen.

Mm hmm.

Those are just kind of superfoods that people are really just now learning about.

So most everything here is edible.

The marigolds, even everyone grows marigolds in their garden thinking, well, it draws the aphids away from the other plants, but it's also edible.

I pull the blossoms off and sprinkle it on my dishes for, you know, for desserts and other dishes.

So I know you guys have this and you obviously are using part of this in the kitchen.

Can you give us a hint of what we might find on the menu?

Oh, my goodness.

You know, we are traditionally pretty much a plant based society.

So of course, the corn, beans and squash, every kind of bean imaginable, chili peppers, tomatoes, people are really not aware of how many foods are indigenous to the Americas.

You know, these foods left our shores and went around the world and came back as Irish potatoes and Swiss chocolate, all of that.

But yeah, we're using this in the restaurant as ingredients, as garnish with the with the edible flowers.

So tell us a little bit about how this garden is utilized by the museum.

So we're using it as a as a teaching garden for the children in farm camp, my target audience, because we've got to get these kiddos young before they get these are weeds.

Yeah, I think we have to get them out here.

They help us plant, they make seed balls, and then when they grow something, they're really intrigued to taste it.

So we've had them eating stuff that they would never have dreamt of eating before.

But as you go through the garden, this is also open to the public all of the time.

In addition to the museum has access to this garden.

And as they go through the garden, we have plant identifiers and we also have QR codes on these little stakes that you can access to get some recipes from Chef Merola on how to use some of these beautiful plants.

Okay.

And I know you've been a chef for a long time and have been working with indigenous plants for a long time as well.

Yeah.

So if somebody is looking for a resource, I think you might have a book you can suggest to us.

I do have a book.

Thank you for mentioning that.

It dropped in October my first after 35 years of doing this, but it's called Corn Dance inspired First American Cuisine.

So it has a little bit of my story, but it has some really it's geared towards the home cook, so it's not real complicated and some great recipes utilizing our indigenous food.

Well, this is great information and we're so happy that there is this museum here as a resource and that there are people working to preserve these native traditions.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Thank you.

Today, Julie Bisbee, executive director of T Z, is joining us once again.

And one of the beautiful gardens that shape your future has helped establish here in Oklahoma.

Let's talk a little bit about t set and shape your future.

So Tea Said is a state agency that makes grants to improve health.

And one of the things that we focus on is helping to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables and also helping people stay active.

So gardening really is in line with a lot of our goals.

Absolutely.

And here we're learning about how indigenous food is so reliant on some of these native plants and how that helps to better health.

Absolutely.

You see a lot of fresh things that could be grown on a patio.

That's why I think this garden is so great, because it's a small area, it's in an urban setting, but also it is producing vegetables that can be used in the restaurant.

And this also shows our viewers, you know, this is something you can do if you just have a patio.

Right.

And let's talk about the age range that they're able to incorporate into this garden a little bit.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I know they have children that are part of the camps here that come and help.

And, you know, this is something that all ages can do.

And there's there's lots of ways that you can do it with containers and also learning about what our healthy foods where does our food come from?

Well, they have their QR codes out here.

If you're looking for a specific resources about this garden.

But let's talk about some of the resources shape your future has as well.

On Shape your future.

Okay, We have lots of things to do.

Planting schedule, how to start your own garden and recipes for how to use those fresh fruits and vegetables.

So it's really about making it easy.

We know, you know, sometimes in your hectic life it's hard to work those fruits and vegetables in.

But I am a big believer that getting in the garden really does help us de-stress and also helps us improve our health.

Well, not only that, but I've been to a great store where I see some of these vegetables on my go.

What do I do with this?

Right, Right.

So lots of recipes, lots of easy things you can do.

You can have your kiddos help you or just you know, you don't want to cook tonight.

Here are some no cook options.

Awesome.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

Great.

Thank you.

For more information about Shape Your Future, visit their website.

One of the unique things about working at a university is the exposure to so many different cultures and scientists from around the world.

Recently, there were two plant and soil scientists that came to visit OSU, and we had the opportunity to sit down and listen about their university over in Greece and also the research they're conducting.

I am Eirini Catalino, - I am Eirini Katsalirou.

I am an assistant professor of soil science at the Department of Food Science and Technology at the Ionian University at Greece.

I decided long ago to come and do my PhD studies here under Dr. Den, the soil microbiologist at the Plant and Soil Sciences Department back then.

So I have been connected since 2003 with the OSU 2003 with the always you and and my studies lasted for three years here.

Then 2006 I went back home to my university, to my university and since then and since then I served there, soil science and soil science at the outset is connected to food production and quality.

All of the Ionian islands have some kind of agricultural activity.

The major agricultural activity happens on the island of Kefalonia, where my department is.

So what we do produce there, it is, we do have olive groves, so we produce olive oil, excellent quality, and the olive fruits.

We do produce, we do have grape vineyards.

So we do produce excellent wines.

We do have on the islands at least 10 wineries.

We do have on the island churches, ten wineries, not very big scale, not very small scale.

Not very big scale, not very small scale, but their products, their wines are exceptional.

Also, we do have animal husbandry, so we do have production of meat, goat and sheep meat and milk.

And based on this milk, we have cheese production, which is feta cheese mostly, which is of exceptional quality also.

And also we do have fisheries.

And also we do have fisheries.

We do produce organic feast from the island.

We do produce organic fish on the island, is one of the biggest fish farms of the country.

These are one of the biggest fire season farms of the country and it has most of its products And it has most of its products exported all over the world, exported all over the world, including the United States.

including United States.

We have honey production and of course we have all these beautiful little places with smaller production of vegetables, of herbs of vegetables, of herbs and other little things.

and other little things.

So this is the total, in a nutshell, the agricultural of production of the island.

(bright guitar music) the agricultural production of the island climate.

- Kalimera, I'm Aris Gerakis.

I'm an artist, yet I guess I'm a visiting scholar at the Department of Food Science and Technology at the Ionian University in Greece.

I am an agronomist by training.

However, in recent years, we have expanded our research to other fields like botany, both physiology and systematics.

We're especially interesting in finding ways to cultivate native plants of Ionian islands in Greece, to cultivate native plants of Ioannina Island in Greece were particularly attracted by orchids, native orchids.

we're particularly attracted by orchids, native orchids.

We have more than 220 species in Greece, and they, it is quite a challenge.

It is quite a challenge to cultivate native orchids because they have certain peculiarities in their biological cycle.

And so far we have at least partial success and we hope to succeed more in the future.

and we hope to succeed more in the future.

Other than that, we have a project called Digi Flora, and this is a project to represent and showcase the natural biodiversity of our islands the natural biodiversity of our islands using modern technologies using modern technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality.

such as virtual reality and augmented reality.

So we have traveled all the islands.

We have surveyed certain biotopes of exceptional aesthetic esthetic and environmental value.

and environmental value.

We recorded the plant species that have some unique value, not just aesthetic, but ethnobotanical value that they have, that are connected to local culture, culture, local cuisine, local cuisine, tradition, medicine, and so on.

tradition, medicine and so on.

And through this site, you can experience 360 panoramas, And through this site you can experience 30, 60 panoramas, three dimensional panoramas, three-dimensional panoramas, either on your mobile device or on your computer screen.

The full experience comes with special glasses.

You can wear virtual reality glasses, but you don't have to have those.

You can still experience a lot from your screen.

So you select biotopes, and then you do a virtual tour in these biotopes.

And there you see, And there you see we call them hotspots on particular plants, plant species.

You can click on the hotspot and read ethnobotanical information in two languages, English and Greek about that particular species.

And there is also audio in English and Greek, you can hear the information spoken.

It's primarily targeted of course, to local people, to get to know their own flora, of course, to local people to get to know their own flora, that people who have been raised in the city people who have been raised in the city are not very aware of the natural environment.

So we want to educate the local students, local citizens, and then visitors.

citizens and then visitors.

Visitors can have an experience before they visit our islands.

So from the comfort of their home, they can experience the natural environment.

And then also after they visit, they can use this website, these tools to orient themselves and select trails of particular ecological trails of particular ecological and botanical significance.

and ethnobotanical significance.

Joining us today is Mark Andrews with Green Leaf Nursery.

And we actually got Mark over here to Stillwater today because we're looking at a few new plants that are on OSU's campus called Purple Hollies, and you've got a couple of different cultivars we're going to talk about.

Exactly.

It doesn't look purple to me.

Mark So they're the purple comes from the fact and botanical significance.

that there and botanical significance.

are two series of Hollies that have been out on the market.

and botanical significance.

One is a red Hollies that are Southern, Hollies that are not cold hardy, but they're vigorous, growing, so they make a nice plant.

And then blue hollies are known up north for their cold hardiness and they're real dark foliage, you know, color on those plants.

Okay, So that's just kind of a classification.

And so these are a cross between a red holly and a blue holly.

And so we dubbed them the Purple Hollies.

Excellent.

So we're getting a little bit of the heat tolerance, but also hopefully the cold, hard hardiness as well.

Yes.

And an increased vigor as well.

And really what we've been surprised about is that each one of them is more vigorous and roots easier and grows better than the parent plants do.

So we've kind of in one generation, we've gotten a lot of improvements in an upright holly.

All right.

So you've got four seedlings from those crosses you're kind of introducing to the market, putting it out there.

We've got some on OSU's campus right this one behind us.

Tell us about this one.

So this one is called My Lady, and this one has more of the traditional kind of green, dark green foliage that you associate with an upright holly.

And it's the most vigorous of the four.

So it will grow the largest.

We expect that it'll probably reach maybe 15 or 20 feet tall and 8 to 12 feet wide is what we're kind of anticipating, maybe a little bit wider than that.

And really where we see this one fitting in well is this is a good replacement for Nelly, our Stephens Holly, which is kind of a traditional Holly that most people use as a screening.

Holly.

But it gets way too big for today's landscapes.

And this one is more contained but still offers you fast growth, good color, good full plant.

All four of the selections are what's called Pozen a carpet, which means that they will set berries without a male pollinators.

Okay, I was going to ask about that.

So these will go ahead and set berries.

They're all females.

And if you have a male in the neighborhood, you'll get an even better Berry said.

What color?

Berries, Red, orange.

They'll be green throughout the growing season, and then they'll turn red in the fall and winter time.

Okay.

And the ones behind us that we've got a lot of spring growth coming out on us, right?

So they'll probably get trimmed up.

Yeah.

So you can kind of tell by looking at them.

We've got the new, the new flush is a lighter grain and as it matures, it matures to that dark green color of these.

And I love the actual leaf shape.

Oh yeah, it's a lot neater than I know.

Exactly.

Yeah, the leaf shape is bigger, it is fuller.

It looks like a fuller plant.

And even though it looks like it has thorns on it, you know, and it looks like it would be sharp and spiny, like some, some hollies can get that way.

These are not real, you know, They're not dangerous, let's put it that way.

They're softer needle.

They certainly remind me of an oak.

The Yes.

So.

Yeah.

So you've got three others.

Zach, real quickly about those others.

Okay.

Monarch is a pretty popular monarch is the other one that we think is going to be real popular.

It's more of a tight pyramidal.

It's slower growing than my lady a little bit, but it's still a good vigorous grower for you.

And that one, we think, will get about 8 to 12 feet tall.

So a little bit smaller stature than my lady and narrower as well.

And where we see that fitting in in the landscape is where people have been using Oakland.

Holly, which is real popular monarch is going to be a replacement in those areas.

It's more cold.

HARDY We're not saying it's another zone cold.

HARDY But we have seen that it is much cold, hardier than the others.

And it has darker foliage.

So when we look at Monarch, you'll see that the foliage on it is a much darker blue green color, almost like you're getting closer to a black color.

And in wintertime it gets even darker oak.

And then the other two, the other two, the third one is Crown Point, which is unique among itself because it's more columnar, so it's more of an upright grower.

Once again, we expect the heights to be, let's say 10 to 15 feet tall somewhere in that range, but much narrower.

So it's going to be one that probably like 3 to 4 feet wide rather than, you know, getting broad.

It's just likes to go upright as a columnar growth habit.

And then the fourth one is called Grace.

And Grace is the newest one.

It's a little bit smaller stature, but ultimately they'll all get very similar as far as size goes.

So Grace and Monarch are going to be very similar sized as far as eight, 12 feet tall, maybe six feet wide, something like that pyramidal shape.

But Grace has even darker foliage.

So it's really, really dark and gets almost totally black in the winter.

Okay.

And so it's a really nice looking plant as well.

Well, it's great to have options, especially here in Oklahoma.

We know we get those extremes of hot and cold right in the wintertime.

So, yeah, looking forward to having some plants that can handle that well.

And that's what we're looking forward to because they have shown us that they can tolerate these conditions much better.

And, you know, even like with the plants that we're looking at right here, the first year that they were in the ground, they suffered a little bit of winter burn.

But the thing about it is that they didn't drop the foliage right away.

They held on to the foliage and then they flushed right out and covered over to where you couldn't tell that they had been injured at all in the previous winter.

So, I mean, that's another big plus in these is that they look good.

Even if they get a little bit of damage, they still look good and will fill in real well where other Holly's they'll drop their leaves and it takes them a long time to recover.

And you guys are trialing these around the country.

Yes, right.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

I mean, obviously we wanted to find out, so we brought them to Stillwater to see how they would do in central Oklahoma and compare it up.

But we've put them in Kansas City, we've put them into West Grove, Pennsylvania, which is just south of Philadelphia.

We've got some in Michigan, we've had them in Wisconsin, Iowa, and we knew we were pushing it.

Right.

And, you know, we found out.

Yes, we find out that there places you can't put them.

Excellent.

But it gives us the idea of, okay, where can we recommend that these will work best?

And we found as they went to the East Coast, they could go further up.

Okay.

Because that ocean temperature, ocean seems to moderate it a lot.

And so even though there's areas up there that are zone five, these are seem to be thriving up there in that condition.

Excellent.

Because they don't have the back and forth like we do.

Right?

Exactly.

They don't get the extremes that we do.

Yes.

But these have held up real well.

These are some of the original ones that we put out.

So now these are like two years old now.

So they've gone through two full winters here in Oklahoma and they've been put through the wringer when they have.

Thank you, Mark, for sharing this with us today.

You're welcome to There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

Join us next week on Oklahoma Gardening as we explore the pollinators that are in native landscapes and you can say right for anymore?

Yeah, okay, that's fine.

That's that's the better way to have it with Julie.

This by not with sorry, we need to find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices.

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Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden At issue is home to our studio gardens, and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, and shape your future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden debut Plant, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club and the Tulsa Garden Center Work.