The Wisconsin Gardener

>> In January of 2014 we lost an amazing gardener and a good friend with the passing of Shelley Ryan. Shelley was the host, producer and the driving force behind The Wisconsin Gardener. With her natural curiosity, passion for gardening and a wonderful sense of humor, Shelley and her guests brought us beautiful gardens, great techniques and practical ideas that we could all put to use in our gardens. I'm Kerman Eckes, and for more than 20 years I was fortunate enough to work with Shelley on The Wisconsin Gardener. During that time we traveled a lot, we learned a lot and we laughed a lot as well. Let's take a look at some of those moments from the show and at the impact that Shelley had as The Wisconsin Gardener. >> We are at Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois, one of the most outstanding Japanese gardens in North America. If you've ever traveled between Madison and Green Bay or vice versa, chances are you've taken the shortcut on Highway 26 through Rosendale. We are at West of the Lake Gardens. This is a wonderful place to visit, right on Lake Michigan in Manitowac. I'm with the head gardener, horticulturist Don Cisler. Don, this is a hidden gem. I had no idea this was here! This is one of my favorite garden spots in all of Wisconsin. We're at Ridges Sanctuary at Bailey's Harbor in Door County. Lake Michigan is just a few steps away. This is part of Green Bay Botanical Garden and I'm with Director of Horticulture, Mark Konlock. Thanks, Mark, for letting us come visit. >> Well, Shelley, we've been around and through the mulberry bush and here we are on the other side of the children's garden. >> What a magical way to travel. This is the Riverside International Friendship Garden. We are on the bank of the Mississippi River. Come on an join me. We're going to find out more about this fantastic Garden.

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]laughter] >> The first time I met Shelley I had given a talk about specialty crops you can grow in Wisconsin. She was in the audience and she came up to me said, "Could you be on my TV show?" And I said, "What TV show?" "Well, I haven't started it yet, but I'm going to have a TV show." >> I'm talking with Dr. Astrid Newenhouse, Horticulturist with the University of Wisconsin- Extension. >> She called me up when I was working in Milwaukee County. >> I'm with--

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Why don't I say, Where are you from? This is Lisa Johnson. Who are you? Where are you from? I'm with Milwaukee County commercial horticulture agent, Lisa Johnson. >> And asked if I would be on the show. I was really excited that she asked me to be on the show, but I was really nervous. She was so good about-- You know, she really helped you feel relaxed. >> Yes, oh, gosh, I was so nervous too. >> Yeah. She said, "Okay, we'll kind of go through a script and we'll write down some talking points. Then we'll just rehearse it a little bit." And of course, you know, every time after that, we never did a script again. But she walked me through it the first time. >> I'm with Neil Diboll, president of Prairie Nursery near Westfield, Wisconsin. Neil, these grasses are just gorgeous. >> In about 1995 Shelley called me up and asked me if I would be on The Wisconsin Gardener. And, wow, this is a really big deal. I'm going to be a TV star! It was really an honor, because at that time native plants were still kind of not really well accepted. They were kind of new and different, and some people still thought they were weeds and such. So to have an opportunity to be on a show like The Wisconsin Gardener was a huge deal for me. They typically will line up north and south. >> They really will? >> It was a really miserably hot day. We were at the nursery and it was July, and so many other prairie flowers are beautiful in July. They were doing great. We were just pouring sweat in the hot sun and dabbing our faces so we wouldn't be reflective, shiny beasts on film. So it was a tough shoot. It really was a tough shoot. But we had fun. >> Phil, these are really awful looking. >> I met Shelley when I was teaching master gardener. Then when the show was starting to come together she talked about it and, you know, the kind of things she had in mind. I said, sure, I'll give it a try. >> I think for me, she called me, and introduced herself and talked about possibly having me on. That was probably my first contact with her, was by phone. >> It would have been 2000. She came to do a segment on bananas. >> And here at Rotary Gardens in Janesville they've really gone bananas on bananas. I'm with the landscape manager, Mark Dwyer. >> I had done a little bit of TV and some radio, but nothing to the extent of, you know, an extended segment. So that was one of the things I thought was the neatest thing about Shelley really, was that for that first segment I was nervous and she made it very comfortable. Every other segment after that was easy as cake because of that rapport we developed immediately. I'm sure she had it with everyone she filmed with. >> I'm with plant disease diagnostician, Brian Hudelson. Brian is with the University of Wisconsin, Department of Plant Pathology. >> I think my first episode was on powdery mildews. It was at the D. C. Smith Greenhouse, and I remember being pretty scared about it. I'd never been on TV before. I'd been in front of groups before, but not on TV. It turned out to be a lot easier and a lot more pleasant than I expected it to be. Shelley, I think, had a big part in that. She made me feel really, really comfortable. It was a lot of fun. >> Shelley came to the gardens quite often and it was great to have her here, because we would communicate in the winter previous to our growing season. I'd talk about our collections and inevitably she'd say, "That sounds neat. Maybe I can turn that into a segment." It wasn't hard to find things that interested both of us that we wanted to share, and learn from each other certainly. I doubt that she ever scripted anything before arriving on site. I knew the topic, I knew you guys were coming, but I never thought, well, I'd better get my points in order. We just started talking, and it just happened. We had an uncanny ability to fill whatever that five or six minutes, or whatever it was. It seemed to work out well. But I attribute that to Shelley and the way she would guide conversations. >> This is kind of a special treat, if you really want to think about it that way. >> Oh, really? >> These critters are called cicada killers, and-- Shelley was very good at pulling the information out that needed to be pulled out, so that you had a full, rounded subject. As I said, with her experience, that's why it was easy. You just kind of sat down and let it roll, and you were done. >> I think we did more, I wouldn't call it scripting, but we talked more about structure when we'd usually get together, like I said, for lunch. We'd kind of map out what we were going to do. But it was never anything really steadfast and it varied from that. After a while we got to point where it's like, what do you want to talk on? Let's talk on such-and-such, and just went and we did it. >> I assumed that everything was going to be edited so that if we made a mistake it could easily be, you know, taken out. When I learned, that basically we just shot though and then we'd do it a couple, three times. Once in a while the challenge was if we had a very small insect to get the right camera work. But most of the time the insects cooperated. That helped. >> Her whole goal was really educating people, but having fun in that process and making it interesting. She always had that bright, sunny outlook. She was always so happy. One of the best parts of filming The Wisconsin Garden with Shelley and the crew was the process of making it happen and preparing for it. And it was well organized to start with, but it oftentimes devolved into chaos because Shelley and I couldn't stop laughing. And because their birds are very delectable to seeds.

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It was just a real pleasure to work with Shelley because it was always so much fun, and also very inspirational. And I'd invariably learn something even though I'm being interviewed. By interacting with Shelley I always learned something from her too. >> Next up we go across the road, literally, to visit another garden here in Marshfield. Well, sort of a garden. All I can say is they grow things very large in this part of the state. >> About a year ago we started experimenting with some genetically modified ferrous seeds and came up with these hybrids. Now they won't reproduce, but they seem to bloom forever. >> We are lucky today to be with one of Wisconsin's great plantsmen and educators, emeritus professor of horticulture, Ed Hasselkus. Knowing that you're the curator of Longenecker Gardens at UW-Madison Arboretum, I expected a miniature arboretum in your yard. >> Well, Shelley, it's been trees and shrubs all my life. >> That's true. >> Now that I'm retired I'm having fun experimenting with herbaceous perennials. >> Today's tip actually come from the gardens of Great Britain. We're at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison with the Director of Horticulture, Jeff Epping. Jeff, I understood you took a wonderful trip to England and brought back some great ideas for us. >> Oh, you bet, lots of wonderful gardens. One of the things you saw throughout all the gardens that we visited is a method of staking perennials called pea-staking. >> We're at Northwind Perennial Farm near Lake Geneva, and I'm with one of the owners, Roy Diblik. Roy, you have such a beautiful setting here. I just love coming here and visiting. >> Thanks, Shelley. We're glad you have ya. >> I'm doing it since 1978 and I love it. >> It shows too. >> Her rapport with the crew and how everyone would joke around, it made it very comfortable. There was no tension. It was always just fun. I enjoyed that. >> I think that speaks to Shelley's ability to interact with a variety of different types of people. She just kind of drew people around her that were fun and liked to joke, but were serious about gardening and wanted to produce a good product. That made it so pleasurable. If that hadn't been the atmosphere, I probably wouldn't have done it again. But that was the atmosphere from the get-go, and that's how it went throughout the entire time that I participated in the show. >> This is Compass Plant. It's a great prairie plant if you have clay soils. I'm with University of Wisconsin-- >> We always did three takes, which was fine, but you think, Wow, that first one was really good. Why do we have to do two more? But it didn't matter, because working with Shelley, I could have done ten takes. We would have laughed our way through each and every one. Well, around them, not in them. Except one time, the last one we shot up in Green Bay at a prairie that I'd planted 30 years before. We were on the third take and it was all pretty much-- We knew where we were going, because it was the third time. You had a pretty good feel and you covering the same ground. And towards the end she just drops this ringer joke in there which I was completely not expecting. I just cracked up and looked off camera, and barely recovered. I was thinking, this is a bomb. Forget it, stop now. But the root was brewed as a tea and used as an antidote for rattlesnake bite by Native Americans. >> Okay, see know I'd heard that they'd called it that because the early settlers thought, as they went over the plant in their covered wagons, the sound sounded like the rattlesnake tail. That's the story I heard, and I'm stickin' to it.

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Now you've got another area over here where it's really sinking, and you've got-- >> But I came back and recovered. After that, that was a take that you guys thought was the best. >> I remember when we did Shelley's last segment, the drought segment. We did that in September even though the drought had pretty much ended by then. But we had some places where you could see there was damage. She didn't want anybody to know it was her yard.

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But I remember us trying to find just the right place, and always referring to, sorry Shelley, "the homeowner here," that this damage had taken place. >> If had this idea for a while of doing something on corn smut which is edible. I remember coming up to Shelley at Garden Expo and going, "Shelley, we need to talk smut!" She got a kick out of that. She gave me kind of a strange look, and then she figured out what I was talking about. That became an episode. >> Brian, I just got done learning about corn smut, or -- as it's called, and it's all your fault. >> Yeah, I guess so, isn't it. That's probably my favorite shoot of any of them. >> You know, we had to schedule the shoot dates so far in advance. If the weather wouldn't cooperate or whatnot it really caused some problems. We were doing one on iris borer and it we were doing it at our home. It turns out we had to shoot it in the porch. It just was not the right conditions. Again, I just looked at that segment recently and was amazed at how well it got pulled off considering the circumstances we went in. And Shelley gave me some nice iris to put in my garden, and true to for, the iris borer showed up and took them out within two years. But you know, so it goes. >> At first glance this looks like a beautiful flower bed, and it is. But it's actually more than that, it's a living, edible wall. >> My favorites, I think, probably would fall-- The banana one was great, because that was our first and it brought a lot of people down for a very unique topic. I also enjoyed our ornamental edibles, and the vertical gardening was wonderful. Those were all things that Rotary Botanical Gardens was doing, not new things, but relatively innovative. What a great medium or mechanism to share it with the show. So those were great, and I would say those where my favorites. >> What do you do when you run out of gardening space horizontally? Very simple, you grow up. I'm at Rotary Gardens in Janesville with the director of horticulture, Mark Dwyer, and we are looking at an awesome demonstration of vertical gardening. >> She made it very accessible too, which I think was a big point for the show. It wasn't hoity-toity and it was like, everybody can do this. Her attitude was kind of, "I think this is cool and you should too." I think that came through in the episodes and the people she had on the show. I think that's what-- Part of the reason why the show was so popular was she was very accessible, she seemed like a real person and you could relate to her. >> We're going to practice a little bit of garden magic, and turn this ordinary hosta leaf into a work of art. I'm at Swanstone Gardens in Green Bay with one of the owners, David Calhoon. >> 'Morning, Shelley. >> Good morning. David, these are beautiful! >> Just real quickly make a nice-- >> So that's just water and sand. >> That's just water and sand. >> I can do that. >> I remember one that was time challenging from my perspective is when the emerald ash borer was just going. We really didn't have anything local that we could use to shoot with. But yet again, there are symptoms in other things. So trying to work that show up and have it educational enough. And it worked out fine. We brought a couple of things. But the same thing, I think it was just her kind of always keeping her eyes open for what things would be appropriate for us here in Wisconsin. The trails that they leave behind are 'S' shaped. >> She showed people so many different little gems of places and wonderful people that they might not have known about otherwise. I think that was part of the genius of her idea, was to show people what's kind of in our own backyards, as well as how to do things in different areas of the state. >> Yeah. >> Gardening is like any other form of life, it's constantly evolving and changing. I mean, 20 years ago everybody was trying to kill bugs. Today people are trying to attract bugs, because people are coming to realize how important pollinators our. And you know, 99% of your insects are beneficial or neutral. It's just that 1% that bite of sting that give all the rest a bad name. >> She had a ton of interests. She was interested in fossils and lava and-- >> Beading. >> Beading, and art, of course. Those dyed scarves were beautiful. >> Oh, God! She was an artist. >> And pine needle baskets. >> Uh-huh, yeah >> And twig furniture. I think the impact she had was to create a community of gardeners. That people felt like they could be part of this project, this like aura of enjoying that enthusiasm and the give and take, and just the person to person connection through gardening. Appreciating the art of a garden and the food coming from a garden, and the cultural history. >> Boy, if this is cooking local, I'm going to cook local more often. We're in the home and garden of Jennifer and John Shape, just outside of Mineral Point I am with Karen Vanden Heuvel. We are in Seymour, Wisconsin. And we are looking at their quarry garden. What is this? This is incredible! >> This is an adaptation of a 1750's French garden. >> What they didn't see though was her sense of humor. I mean, the saw some of it, but they didn't get to see everything we got to see. Just, oh, she was a hoot. >> Pat your hair down. >> Me or her? >> Whoop, whoop, whoop. I almost got that down pat. You'd better not be taping. I'll shoot you. >> I am. >> We had a lot of fun shooting as well, because we'd gang up on her. But she could dish it out as well as she took it. She was really good at comebacks when we would give her a hard time. >> She used to tease about her garden going to heck. You know, it never looked as good as the garden she was in. Which I most gardeners would argue, that's the way it works, and the like. As I said, she was always kind of on top of things. I think the one that I really enjoyed, not just the pieces that I did, but watching the show in general, is she showed people the breadth of gardening and came at it from a lot of different directions rather than just specifically, these are the cultivars and whatnot. As I said, I think that really added so much to the show and gave it so much personality. >> I'm with Doug Henderson, part of a gardening team extraordinaire, that has solved a really tough problem. Thanks for letting me come and visit. >> Thank you coming, Shelley. We always love to have you in our garden. >> Well, thank you. Yeah, it's not my visit here. >> Speaking of problems, let me just tell you a couple of them that we do have. One of them is the fact that the lot is 100 feet wide and 420 feet long. It's a very long property compared to the width. What we've had to do is to try to figure out how to garden in that. We've decided that we would make little rooms so that it doesn't look like a giant, long roadway. >> Or water slide or something. We're going to learn a most unusual way to preserve the harvest. We're in Door County at the Bjorklunden, a wonderful lodge and estate, about 400-plus acres on the shores of Lake Michigan in Bailey's Harbor. These are cherries preserved in an odd manner, I think. I'm with Caleb Whitney of Green Side Up landscaping. Caleb, cherries in a jar, this doesn't seem odd to you? >> This is a very old tradition, Door County cherry bounce. >> Can you get-- Never mind.

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>> Watch me fall off the chair. >> I mean this is a good way, she would be like your favorite bartender. I mean, she just had this effervesce, she was always happy, you know, easy to talk to, never seemed to have agendas. As I said, it was just sit down and you were comfortable. It was an old friend from the beginning. >> We are focusing today on mistakes we have made. We are at Mayflower Greenhouse in Hobart, Wisconsin. I am with the owner, Jan Wos. Jan, people think we don't make mistakes in the garden, ha! >> We do. We are good at that, and nobody kills more plants than we do. >> I think we could have a contest. >> She wasn't afraid to poke fun at herself either in her episodes. I remember one that we shot at her house called "Mistakes I have Made," and that was basically about all the dumb things that both of us had done over the years in attempting to garden. I think that takes somebody who's very confident and is very self-effacing and is very comfortable with people to do something like that. People that are uptight don't want to make fun of themselves. She was never uptight about anything. And I think that shows also that when she had cancer that she came on air and actually discussed it on one of her programs. I give her a lot of credit for having the guts to do that. A lot of people couldn't have done that. >> Before we end today's program I'd like to talk a little about the show and what's been happening in my own life. Some of you may have noticed some drastic changes to my hairstyle and length. Some segments for The Wisconsin Gardener, such as the gorgeous "Tree Peonies," were taped a year ago, back in the summer of 2008 so that we can bring you blooming flowers at exactly the right time of year. Other segments, such as my visit to Vaughn James' garden, were taped just a few weeks ago. Well, between the summer of 2008 and the spring of 2009 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The tumor was very small, but my treatment did include eight rounds of chemotherapy. Now I'm not telling you this so that you'll feel sorry for me, although I can be bribed with chocolate and pie, I'm telling you this in the hopes that women listening to me will get regular, annual mammogram. >> She really cared about what she was doing, and cared about the people that she worked with and cared about her family. >> Yes. >> Very much about her family. And about the people who were going to be watching the show as well. She's just a stand-out. I feel really lucky to have met her. >> Yeah, me too. >> I'm with one of the co-owners, Dan Kordiack. Dan, tell us about the ice cream shop, tell us about your garden. And where are we? >> Well, my buddy Jeff and I came to Alma, Wisconsin five years ago. >> We are in the middle of the Salvation Army parking lot in Appleton. I'm with Susan Richardson, Susan, tell me why we're standing in the middle of a parking lot. It's not my first choice for a vegetable garden. >> You're right, Shelley, and lot of people wouldn't think to grow vegetables in a parking lot. >> No! >> There's no end to the topics, and I think over her 20 years of covering gardening and doing segments throughout the state, what a great representation of those topics. But just the tip of the iceberg. >> I'm with UW-Extension plant pathologist, Brian Hudelson, to talk diseases. >> I miss having her around, because she was always fun to interact with. Her disgusted look when you make fun of her, I always remember that. I'll remember that forever. -- that are really favorable for a lot of diseases to develop. >> We did, I think, five or six show, and there were another five or six that we easily could have done. We always were talking about other ideas and other concepts and other angles to present the use of native plants. So it was really an endless potential, and I wish, I really wish, that we could have done more shows. >> Normally Sherry is known as our soils expert. >> If you never met Shelley and had an interaction and didn't end up being a happier person afterwards. I mean, it was just that kind of thing. We just always had fun joking about things and the like. She was just kind of always up, even during her illness. I mean, that really didn't slow her down. As I said, I just don't have a-- Unpleasant interaction, never. --have an environmental education function. >> There's no way you could ever quantify what the influence was of the show on people, but I bet it created new gardeners, it reinvigorated gardeners, and it brought people outside and into their gardens. What an awesome testimony and tribute to Shelley for doing that. >> How many gardens to you have all total here? >> There's 26 named theme gardens. >> You know, I hope her legacy lives on for a long, long time. She deserves that. She made a lot of friends, made a big impact on a lot of people's lives. >> All right. >> You good? >> Excellent. >> Cool. >> So now we have to do it again... No.

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>> You said it was a one-take this time. >> Hey Harley, how about a kiss? Thanks. There we go, off into the sunset together. Ow!

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Let go!