Episode 2443

- [Voiceover] With a wide array of cheerful, blooming flowers, the African Violet is America's favorite houseplant. Matt Kerske visits Holtkamp Greenhouse, the world leader in the production of these windowsill delights. And we'll see the beauty and practicality of the moss varieties in this hilltop garden. Stay tuned. First, an experienced plant producer who stays on the cutting edge.

- Have you ever wondered what it's like to grow millions of African Violets and other flowering houseplants? I have. It's always been one of my aspirations in life. To make my dreams a reality, I'm here at Holtkamp Greenhouses in Nashville, Tennessee. The world's largest producer of African Violets with 11 acres under production. So I'm here with Russell Kerchner of Optimara. He's one of the key account managers here. I understand you've been with Optimara for quite some time now, huh?

- Yeah, 10 years now. So Matt, welcome to Holtkamp Greenhouses.

- Hey, thanks a lot man It's really great being here and seeing this amazing place. And I understand this is just one of the sections, there's many others where this is more of a finishing house.

- [Russell] Yep, this is section four for finishing of the African Violet.

- [Matt] So from start to finish here, Russell, what are we looking at as far as from seed to a finished product?

- [Russell] Well, the stages vary.

- [Matt] Okay.

- [Russell] My typical average answer is about eight weeks.

- [Matt] Okay.

- [Russell] But like I said, that does vary.

- [Matt] Okay.

- [Russell] That's different stages, combine that to about three different stages. So you're looking at about 24 weeks.

- [Matt] Wow, that's pretty impressive. A little quicker than I thought. Now, tell me, I know Optimara is world's largest grower of Africa Violets. Can you give me an estimation on the number of units that you kick out in a given year?

- [Russell] Well, we do and that's, of course, top secret.

- [Matt] Top secret.

- [Russell] You know, what I always like to say, just millions.

- [Matt] We'll keep it at the millions, and that's large enough for myself. But I understand Optimara didn't always grow African Violets in this location and there was some history to this site, as I understand.

- Yeah, the previous was Tom Joy's Farm and Greenhouse and they were in the early 1900's.

- Early 1900's.

- And they did a lot of cut roses.

- Cut roses.

- And some nursery stock.

- Huh.

- [Russell] Holtkamp's came over from Germany. Holtkamp, Reinhold Holtkamp Sr.

- [Matt] Okay.

- [Russell] Bought this place in the late '70's and tore down some of the older greenhouses here and start, through the early '80's, and built some of these sections you seen now. And got the production of the violets just strong, strong growing with a lot research and development creating some of the color patterns and the different bloom styles that you see. And just did a whole lot of innovation for the African Violet. And the Holtkamps are now working on their fourth generation

- [Matt] Now when you say fourth generation of violets, What, is that have something to do with the lineage of the plant itself or?

- [Russell] Well, it's fourth generation of Holtkamps.

- [Matt] Oh.

- [Russell] For the family.

- Well, Russell we got quite a collection here of African Violets. Are these particular ones that maybe my older generations like my mother or grandmother grew?

- Not these particular ones. These are of the My series, which have been released from Holtkamp in the past five years.

- Pretty, pretty new then.

- These are new varieties.

- What makes them so unique, I guess?

- [Russell] So the center color and then the white outer ring. And there's about seven varieties to that.

- [Matt] Hmm.

- [Russell] So you kinda see different colors but all with that white outer ring in the bloom. And then you kinda look at this one.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- [Russell] Which is a My Joy, but it's not supposed to be that way. It needs to have more white on the outer. So it's kind of a defect. We need to get that one out of the gene pool.

- [Matt] Defect in the gene pool. We gotta clean it up a little bit. And so we got a little bit of solid color leafs and a little bit of variegation in the leafs as well.

- [Russell] Yeah, then a couple of other ones we have a variegated. Optimara has these nice variegation in the leaves. We have a few varieties of that. And then we go to a solid white one, where we have a few solid white varieties.

- [Matt] I gotcha. Well, these are gorgeous. Russell, we're standing in some spectacular African Violets. A little bit more unique than I think I've ever seen. Tell me a little bit about these.

- [Russell] So this is the new variety called My Sensation.

- [Matt] Okay.

- [Russell] Interesting trait for this particular violet is the very long life of the bloom.

- [Matt] Like what are we talking about here?

- [Russell] Three or four times more than the standard.

- [Matt] Huh, almost a couple months then, maybe of color.

- [Russell] Yeah, it's the chlorophyll in the green and kind of the yellowish in there that makes the bloom last tremendously long.

- [Matt] Huh, interesting.

- [Russell] So we could probably go a good two months with this bloom stem like that.

- [Matt] Two months and then after that, I'm sure you cut back on some of the dead flower blossoms.

- Sure, you pull 'em as needed, as they go apart and then, of course, let you violet just continue to grow and continue to bloom for you.

- An average space in between bloom time on an African Violet would be?

- I'm not sure about this particular one 'cause it is a little bit different. But for other ones, you're looking at about six to eight weeks.

- Six to eight weeks. So it's okay if you don't see anything happen after two weeks.

- Oh yeah.

- You got, give your African Violets a little time to sleep and keep 'em fed and keep the highlight on 'em and they're come right back.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- Sounds great. Now, Russell, we are surrounded by beautiful plants here and this is one of the older areas of Holtkamp Greenhouses. Now your typical, standard size in the African Violet is four inch, but around us is something a lot smaller.

- This is the miniature two-inch.

- Gotcha. And so these are also popular as well.

- Oh, very popular. A 5.5 centimeter, a true semi-miniature Optimara African Violet.

- [Matt] Beautiful, even though they're small, they still pack a flowery punch there.

- [Russell] They do, indeed.

- [Matt] And so around the African Violets, we also have an assortment of foliage plants as well. These are some of the other varieties that you grow here.

- [Russell] That's right. We do foliage in the two-inch as well. Strong numbers in foliage and ferns and that kinda caters to the miniature world of gardening and the fairy gardening.

- [Matt] Great for the kids.

- [Russell] Oh, wonderful.

- [Matt] So we're growing millions of African Violets around here, Russell. What kind of tips can you offer the homeowner that brings one of these beautiful things into their house for optimum success?

- Back to the basics.

- Okay.

- The water. The water needs to have a steady feed of fertilization.

- Okay.

- Like a liquid soluble fertilizer.

- Like a once a month or every time you water?

- Every time you water.

- Every time you water.

- Is a good time. Room temperature water. Do not use cold tap water out during the winter time.

- [Matt] Shocks 'em a little.

- [Russell] Yeah, kinda shocks 'em a little bit. So they like room temperatures, optimal, whatever would be a good 70 degrees inside the house.

- [Matt] Okay.

- [Russell] They want lots and lots of light but not direct sunlight.

- [Matt] Not direct sunlight.

- [Russell] Yeah, they need to be--

- [Matt] Strong, filtered light?

- [Russell] Exactly. There you go. And then there's holes on the bottom that, when placed on the table, we flood the tables and so the water soaks up from the bottom.

- [Matt] So water always from the bottom and never from the top. I guess it disrupts their foliage a little bit.

- [Russell] That's right. When you get water on it there and the sun shines through the little beads of water.

- [Matt] Ah.

- [Russell] That's where you get your little magnifying glass--

- [Matt] Yeah, a little magnifying glass leaf burn.

- [Russell] Mm-hm, there you go. The bloom cycle is anywhere from six to eight weeks.

- Six to eight weeks.

- And then you're gonna have a time of rest and then you'll have more buds come through. Now if you follow those three criterias of that. A lot of times you'll have plants that just have a really nice foliage but no blooming, then you need to get some light to it.

- Get some light, maybe some additional fertilizer.

- [Russell] Yeah, there you go, there you go.

- [Matt] I gotcha.

- [Russell] One of the things we do here, is we'll pull the buds from the flowers which people just absolutely hate.

- [Matt] Ah, that would scare most homeowners away.

- [Russell] But that's the process we do. And then we'll take that and you see all the good roots out of there, that's a nice, healthy plant.

- [Matt] Okay.

- And we'll stick that right into a six-inch so that's how you bump up your size. So then we're sending all the energy to making leafs, and roots and no buds right now. So the plant gets bigger then it puts on a nice set of buds and flowers coming later.

- [Matt] I understand that Optimara is only a grower wholesaler and that you have retail locations that you're shipping them to. Where else can customers find your product?

- [Russell] We have a personal violet online at selectivegarder.com. As well as the local box stores in town and the local retail garden center here in Nashville.

- [Matt] Fantastic. Well, Russell, I really appreciate you helping me make my dreams come true today. I can see we got tables coming at us from all directions. I understand you're the leader in African Violet production. You got a big shipment coming out. I'll let you get back to work and appreciate your time.

- [Russell] Man, it's been a pleasure, real pleasure, thank you sir.

- Whether it was the family owned garden center that he operated for many years, his incredible native plant garden or, now, moss. My friend, Paul Moore, jumps in with both feet anytime he does anything. And what he's done with this beautiful moss lawn in his shade garden is no exception. Well, Paul, I guess it's been about three years since we were up here and we actually featured the garden on the show. And you had just started kind of this little section of moss lawn at that point. Tell us all about your experience with moss and what sort of prompted you to do this moss lawn.

- Well, being on top of a hill like I am the soil's very thin and every year I'd plant grass seed and by middle summer it was dead or dying. So I just got tired, I've tried every grass seed there was. Every miracle blend that was supposed to work through in Nashville.

- Never shade, the heat, the humidity and all that.

- Right, right. And so I just let this one section of area, there was one little patch of moss in it so I said, I'm not gonna do anything, just let that patch of moss grow and just see what it does. I kept the debris off of it, the leaves, and just kept it clean.

- Right.

- And within one year, it had basically filled this area. Now, it wasn't full yet, but I knew it was working.

- But it was coming along.

- It was coming along and with little encouragement. So then I made the, for after about two or three years this really got nice and full so I made the big decision to take on this larger section of lawn that was grass and turn it over into moss.

- And so that is what we're kind of walking into now. And just in two or three years time, because you were still sort of struggling with this area when we were here the last time.

- Right, right.

- So just in two or three years time, it is completely turned into a moss lawn.

- A moss lawn.

- A moss lawn.

- It's worked. Really well. And you know, the thing about it, it just looks good all year round.

- Right.

- Even a slight bit of rain and it'll just pick up this iridescent green and it's just fun to watch in different environmental conditions.

- [Troy] Right.

- [Paul] The majority of this is moss that just was naturally here. Now, I have over in this area an experiment going with adding some different moss. You can see the patchwork.

- [Troy] Yep.

- [Paul] That's hypnum moss, hypnum curvifoleum moss in the little squares. And that little brighter green, over to the right is fern moss, thuidium delecatulum. So I'm kinda adding some others to get a little variety there.

- [Troy] You actually have purchased this moss just like you would purchase plants at a nursery.

- [Paul] Exactly.

- [Troy] And it comes in these little squares like that or does it come in sheets, or how do you--

- [Paul] It comes in sheets and I just kinda cut 'em in more of these uniform squares.

- [Troy] Right.

- [Paul] And just to try to see how quickly it would spread.

- [Troy] Patch it in.

- This soil is just, it's real thin. Again, it's this Fort Payne, talcum powder looking soil.

- Right.

- And it gets bone dry in the summer and I've exposed this moss to everything. I mean, to heat, to drought. You know, if it gets dry it just goes dormant. The first little bit of water, it'll green right back up. And it just, it's just been a lot of enjoyment with not a lot of effort.

- [Troy] Well, you've mentioned a couple of varieties of moss that you have here but I know that around the front of the house, you also have another little experiment going on that I would love to go and take a look at.

- [Paul] Sounds great.

- [Troy] Well the topic of the day is moss but I can't walk past this patch of goldenseal that you have here. How old would you say that that probably is?

- [Paul] That clump's probably about four or five years old. I mean, I think it's a great substitute for hosta in the native plant garden. And I'm really into herbal and medicinal plants. So it just, it makes a great plant. The white flowers will turn into a green berry and then a bright red berry in the Fall.

- [Troy] In the Fall. And I can see that it's either spreading or reseeding itself around, probably a little bit of both. So it does make, after a few years, a really nice colony.

- [Paul] Well, it'll make a nice little ground cover.

- Another really nice specimen, and you have several of these in the garden, is this leatherwood. This is a really cool little plant.

- Yeah, and this one's probably about 12 years old, I would say, at least. 12 to 15 years old. Has yellow flowers in the Spring, nice clear yellow Fall color. Needs no pruning whatsoever and the Native Americans used to make hort-age out of the bark. And they can bow strings and some sandals.

- [Troy] Because the bark is so tough and flexible.

- [Paul] And flexible, right.

- So out here in your front garden, you have almost like a little experimental spot. A trial garden, if you will, for mosses. So how did this part of it get started? And tell us a little bit about your experience with these.

- Well, for me, I just got so into moss after doing the moss lawn, I wanted to just to show, as the more I learned about 'em, show their broad spectrum of heights and textures and color ranges. And for me just to learn about the different varieties. And so here, I can really showcase 'em.

- Okay, so you've got five or six different varieties in here?

- [Paul] Probably more like 10 or 12.

- [Troy] 10 or 12, okay. But three or four that you really enjoy having here and that have done well. So let's talk about those.

- [Paul] All right, this is one of my favorites here. This is called tree moss. Climacium americanuum. And it actually looks like a little conifer tree If you were to pull up one, it looks like a little conifer.

- [Troy] Oh yeah, it does. It almost has little branches and--

- [Paul] Little branch-like branches, real easy to grow. Another one that's very unique is this bartramia pomiformis or called apple moss. This really bright green color, you can see the contrast between the two. And this one gets a little sporophytes that look like little green apples. So that's why they call it apple moss. [Troy] Cool. [Paul] And another one of my favorites which I use to patch in on the lawn on the other side is this hypnum curvifoleum moss. It's a type of sheet moss. And it's already starting to kind of grow up on these rocks here. Does really well.

- [Troy] And it's almost, if you look really closely, it almost has a little fern-like leaf to it.

- [Paul] It does. And the other common name is brocade moss. If you look very closely, it looks like brocade.

- [Troy] Yeah, it's beautiful.

- [Paul] This is one I really enjoy here. The common name, one of the common names is, worm moss but it's actually bryoandersonia illecebra. It's a mouthful but it looks like little worms. Very easy to grow and this one's actually growing on a rock.

- [Troy] So they grow in such a wide variety of places. We've seen it in the lawn. We've seen them on rocks. I know they're mosses, I think we typically think of mosses that love shady and damp spots, but they are mosses that grow dry and in the sun. Tell me about the maintenance that they require.

- [Paul] Well, the maintenance is really a lot less than I thought was gone be when I started.

- [Troy] Right.

- Moss doesn't require any fertilizer. You don't have to mow it, so it just stays green year round.

- Right.

- I do manually weed it. From that standpoint, it's a little more labor intensive but with a lawn you've gotta cut grass. You've gotta do leaves. You got the maintenance on the more, you've got the noise.

- [Troy] Sure.

- [Paul] And for the effort I put in, it really rewards me year round.

- [Troy] So the moss really fits into the garden as one piece of a bigger philosophy.

- [Paul] Right. Well, I think one thing for sure is, you really have to be patient with a garden like this.

- Right.

- I want it to look as natural as possible. And so I plant, I space plants where they're allowed to kinda retain their natural shape. I give plants room to grow. I let 'em just kinda strike their own balance and for me, this is basically a springtime garden.

- Sure.

- And that's when I enjoy gardening because, face it, summer gardening in Nashville is brutal.

- [Troy] It's brutal sometimes, it is.

- [Paul] And I don't use any chemicals. I use organic fertilizers and just, when I wanna feed. That way keeps it low maintenance. And again, this is a collection garden where I can really learn about all the native plants. As many as I can possibly grow and just to know 'em.

- [Troy] Right. And obviously, you live in the woods. So the leaves fall, the leaves stay. There's not leaf clean up that happens in most of the places

- [Paul] Well, that's my natural fertilizers, so I just let those leaves fall and decompose.

- [Troy] And decompose.

- [Paul] I put hardwood on the paths.

- Because you do live in a wooded area, how do you just keep the forest from taking completely over, how do you keep it from being nothing but trees?

- Well, I monitor it. That's one of the great joys is just, I walk the garden numerous time a day. And if you work at a little everyday, it's not a big deal.

- Exactly.

- You wait three months, then you've got a problem.

- You've got a problem on your hands. Well, and I do the same thing in my own garden which is a very intensely gardened little spot. But when I'm out in the morning, if I see something, I do it then.

- Right.

- And not, try not to do it six weeks down the road when the problem that was six weeks ago is now ten fold.

- That's right, that's right. Nip it in the bud.

- Nip it in the bud. Well, with all that you have learned about moss, I know that there have to be some good resources out there but probably not very many of them so you have three favorites here.

- [Paul] My ultimate favorite is The Magical World of Moss Gardening by Annie Martin. And it's a real how-to for people just how to garden with moss. And there's just not many resources like that. And it's just an excellent resource, so I highly recommend this one.

- Okay. And then the other two, maybe are a little more scientific in nature or--

- [Paul] This one's actually written by Robin Wall Kimmerer. And what I love about is she's a Native American and she's also a bryologist, so she weaves those two disciplines in just a beautifully written book.

- [Troy] And then and ID source.

- [Paul] And just a great ID source. This is a relatively new one, The Common Mosses of the Northeast and the Appalachians, great book.

- Now, what about sources for moss. Do you collect or do you not collect?

- [Paul] Well, you don't wanna collect from the wild. I mean, I'll move from my own moss, I've moved some from my property and you know.

- [Troy] Sure.

- [Paul] In couple spots. But if you're gonna, if you don't have that resource then Annie Martin has a mossery, they call it a mossery. And it's mountainmoss.com and that's where I bought most of the moss in this area.

- Most of the types that you have?

- Right.

- So there are some resources out there but not very many. But the ones that there and certainly Annie's, I follow her on Facebook and some other places and it's a whole lot of fun to watch what's going on and if you're into moss at all, I think she's sort of the queen of it all right now.

- Yes, she is. And it's important to know that she doesn't wild collect.

- Right.

- She has, she'll go in ahead of where they're doing a bulldozer.

- [Troy] A bulldozer.

- And rescue moss, you might even get it off the roof of a house.

- Right.

- But that's how she gets it and she propagates it as well.

- At the mossery.

- At the mossery.

- The moss nursery.

- That's right, the moss nursery.

- Thank you so much for taking some time to be with us today.

- Well, Troy, thank you so much. And I have to gift you with an official Mossman defender of environment t-shirt.

- [Troy] Awesome, I love it. Can't wait to wear it. This'll be perfect to have out and about and in the garden.

- [Paul] All right, sounds great.

- [Troy] Thanks.

- [Paul] Thanks Troy.

- Even with about a 40% loss of local peaches, we still have plenty of fruit in Tennessee. So we're here at Morning Glory Orchard to pick the finest and eat the best. And we are right here with a peach tree. And Kurt, what I'd like for you to do is tell us, for the home gardener that may be thinking about starting some peach trees in their own yard, what do they need to do? Because this is not a maintenance proof venture.

- Any fruit tree is gonna require a lot of work. And of course, the three key elements to remember, Tammy is, they need light. They need air. And they need to have good nutrients and so forth. So there's two ways, when you get a tree, you're basically gonna have a tree going straight up. You can either let that tree go straight up or do what we call an open, non central liter of peach tree, which takes that center out, lets the branches grow out like a bowl, as you can see up close there, and that allows more light and air into the center of the tree and the fruit then being produced on the outside limbs gets more light, more air and more nutrients.

- When do you take out that center part?

- As early as you can when there are other limbs that are scaffolding. If you plant what we call a whip, a little tree in the beginning, usually doesn't have many limbs so you have to let it develop its limbs and then you can cut that central liter out and once you do, the limbs will then just continue to develop and produce other limbs that are gonna produce your fruit. You then have to make sure that you constantly prune the tree 'cause they will get overgrown. So pruning is an ongoing maintenance item. You'll see, in some cases you'll see limbs that are down close to the ground. You really don't want that because when the fruit gets on there it'll drag that tree down and the fruit will sit on the ground. So you can't have that.

- So, and you're pruning every year. You never miss a year.

- You never miss a year. You have to prune every year. Now, you prune in the dead of winter because the tree goes dormant once it starts freezing. And the tree won't know that you're really pruning it.

- Cool.

- Also, every Spring the tree puts out a lot of new growth and that new growth is needed to support the peaches. But once it's done, some of that growth is growing straight up or growing into the middle and you need to take that out so that you can maintain your open air tree for the next year. So it's a constant battle and there's as much an art to this as there is a science. When Tina and I come out here and prune, she has her way and I have my way. And so we basically take two separate trees and we do our own thing. So you're gonna have to develop your own art and science to your pruning. Just remember, keep it open. Keep it, plenty of light, plenty of air. If you have limbs that are crossing each other, one is gonna shade the other, that's not good. So you take one of those out, pick the best one. Anything that is dead or dying, cut that out, so you leave a healthy tree. And then you have to worry about spraying.

- Yeah, we do have bugs.

- You have bugs, you have fungus, you have all sorts of things that can really take your crop away from you. So this is hard for the homeowner, it's hard for the orchard owner. So you really have to go down to your local co-op or store that provides you the chemicals you need. If you don't spray peaches for brown rot, you will not have a peach on your tree.

- [Tammy] Simple as that.

- [Kurt] Simple as that. That's a fungus that will just eat a peach up once its got it, it's gone. Insects, there are insects that will get on the tree. There's a peach boar. There are other insects that will try to eat the peach before it's mature. You have to kill those bugs or you're not gonna have a peach crop.

- [Tammy] I'm not raising this for the bugs. I'm raising this for me.

- [Kurt] I'm raising it for you, absolutely. So you've gotta take care of it.

- [Tammy] Kurt, let's look at an example, that's right here, of what a typical home orchard might have as a problem. So, versus the tree that we were just looking at, this tree needs probably more pruning done to it, right?

- And this is the nature of all trees. These trees were planted at the same time and were pruned in the same manner. Except this particular tree has put on a whole lot more growth. So this tree, now, from the Spring is out of control.

- [Tammy] Right.

- [Kurt] So I've got to, Tina and I have to come back this winter and put this tree back into control. There are a lot more limbs and a lot more leaves than we need because we're not producing any fruit. So we're gonna have to thin out these limbs. We're going to have to get all of this low stuff that's dragging the ground, we're gonna have to get that out And we're gonna have to make this tree look a little bit more like the first tree.

- [Tammy] So in essence, when you plant fruit trees in your yard, you have just given yourself permanent job security?

- [Kurt] Absolutely. The biggest killer of a peach crop, and that's what we had this year, is a late frost. Peaches are one of the most susceptible fruits to that late frost. The blossoms are susceptible to damage. And so, when you get a late frost, that's one that occurs right in the beginning of April, right after they bloom. You're chances of losing some or all of the crop are very heavy and the southern crop got hurt tremendously this year. Anywhere from 40 to 80% of the crop, 100% of ours got taken out. But you still need to worry about rain. You still need to worry about heat. All of these things. So each year, we are eternal optimists. We think this year's gonna be great and then we deal with whatever the Lord sends us.

- Well, the life of the farmer.

- The life of a farmer.

- It's uncertainty at its best.

- Absolutely. So I think this has been very helpful for the homeowner because I do think that sometimes we think that, oh I'll just plant the tree and then one day I'll go and harvest fruit. But it is work to get that crop. To maintain that tree health. So, remember bowls. Remember pruning. Remember spraying and then you can enjoy eating.

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