"It's all About Your Garden - Questions and Answers"

Come prepared to pick Paul’s brain as he fields your gardening questions and shares his experiences and humorous stories with us.                             

There was a time when I hated gardening,” admits Master Gardener Paul James. “It was when my dad made me dig the Bermuda grass out of his vegetable garden in the middle of August, and I’d sweat in places I never knew I had sweat glands.”

 Paul’s come a long way since then. In 1995, he created “Gardening by the Yard,” a weekly program that airs on the Home and Garden Television (HGTV) network. Much of the show is actually shot at Paul’s home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 “I remember watching gardening shows when I was younger, and I was amazed at how everything was always picture perfect. The soil was soft and crumbly. The plants were pest and disease free. And the host never broke a sweat. So I told the folks at HGTV that I wanted to take a different approach. I wanted to do a show that was real.”

 That realism, plus Paul’s clever writing, zany style, and his commitment to all-natural gardening, have endeared him to millions of viewers who understand that gardening can be both a joy and a challenge. “If I’ve got a spot where the soil is awful, or a plant that’s been riddled by bugs or plagued by some sort of disease, I don’t hide it. I feature it. How else will people know how to deal with their own garden problems?”

 Paul began gardening in earnest in 1979, the year he and his wife, Carrie, got married and purchased their first home. As an undergraduate, Paul received numerous awards for his research in analytical chemistry. He also studied botany, plant physiology, and plant pathology. In 1983, he received his master gardener certification. But the self-confessed gardening fanatic readily admits that most of what he knows about gardening came from “digging in the dirt, and making more than a few mistakes along the way.”

 In addition to writing and producing 26 episodes of “Gardening by the Yard” each year, Paul travels coast to coast making personal appearances. He has also hosted HGTV’s live coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade on HGTV for ten years.

 When he’s not working or spending time in the garden, Paul enjoys being in the kitchen, fishing his favorite trout stream, playing guitar, hanging out with his three kids, and teaching Tae Kwon Do (he currently holds a Kukkiwon-certified third-degree black belt).

"What's new for 2013?" 

Doug Parkinson is the Eastern Regional Sales Manager for EuroAmerican Propagators. His presentation will include NEW from Proven Winners for 2013 (sneak peak) as well as MUST HAVE VARIETIES FROM PROVEN WINNERS.

If you have ever purchased a Proven Winners® plant, you know EuroAmerican Propagators.

In 1992 John Radar of California and Garry Gruber of Germany co-founded EuroAmerican Propagators which specializes in new and innovative plants, and is a leading supplier of the number one plant brand, Proven Winners®, to commercial growers throughout North America. 

Their two companies already shared a commitment to finding new hybrid varieties that would perform well for both growers and consumers. By the summer of 2002, EuroAmerican’s facility, located in Encinitas, CA, encompassed 57 acres, with an estimated 38 acres of actual production area and 300 employees.    

 John and Garry created Proven Winners, an international marketing cooperative, and by 2002 Proven Winners had divisions in the US, Europe, Southeast Asia, and South Africa. Members of the Proven Winners cooperative select the most exciting varieties from around the world and conduct a series of intensive trials in North American markets. Only the most colorful, fastest growing, vigorous, and versatile plants earn the Proven Winners label.