Growing Together: A Gardening Podcast · Forum Communications Co.

Make this Valentine's Day extra special with flowers chosen and arranged with care

·43 min·2 clips

A quart Mason jar, underwater stem cuts, and a loose focal center make the arrangement last longer.

1. Growing Together: A Gardening Podcast centers on Valentine's Day flowers and bouquet arrangement for a February gift. 2. John Lamb hosts with Don Kinsler, a lifelong gardener and North Dakota State University Extension horticulturist for Cass County, who brings horticulture experience and floristry training. 3. The episode asks what flowers, colors, and simple steps make a Valentine's bouquet feel more personal than a store-bought bunch. 4. A listener named Penny asks about purple tree collards, and Don says he had never heard of them before checking the plant. 5. Don identifies purple tree collards as part of the cabbage family with kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and kohlrabi, then says they are perennial only in USDA zones 8 and 9. 6. He says purple tree collards can grow up to eight feet tall, like cool weather, and are sold as cuttings or plantlets from Territorial Seeds. 7. Don contrasts that with regular collards, which he treats as annuals that can still be grown and cooked in colder climates. 8. The Valentine's section starts with the idea that a simple cash-and-carry bunch can become a bouquet if the buyer adds a little effort. 9. Don says the effort matters, especially when someone takes time to arrange flowers instead of handing over a plain bundle. 10. He says he learned floral design basics in horticulture school and also from his wife Mary, who was a trained florist. 11. Don explains that lilies can carry funeral associations because they have been used on coffins and at Easter. 12. He says Victorian flower language still matters because flowers and colors can send a message if the recipient recognizes it. 13. Red is the safest Valentine's color because Don links it to romantic love and passionate affection. 14. Pink, white, blue, and purple each carry different meanings, including gratitude, honor, new beginnings, royalty, mystery, and creativity. 15. Yellow and orange signal friendship, so Don advises against using them for a romantic Valentine's gift. 16. He also says roses, sunflowers, daisies, carnations, cleome, and hydrangeas all carry their own traditional meanings. 17. Don then walks through arrangement basics: use a container, remove below-water leaves, recut stems underwater, and place greenery before the focal flowers. 18. He says the focal flowers should sit low in the center, while the outer flowers stay looser and more airy rather than forming one solid mass. 19. The tone is practical and conversational, with John Lamb asking questions and Don giving step-by-step examples, short digressions, and a few personal references to Mary and past greenhouse work. 20. People who like hands-on flower arranging and Valentine's gifting will get the most from it, while listeners wanting advanced design theory or a fast gardening news update may skip it.

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