1 00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:10,780 Ping Yu: Hello everyone, welcome to the Blooms and Beyond podcast, a podcast that uncovers plant history, 2 00:00:10,980 --> 00:00:16,160 Ping Yu: culture and management through the lens of science. I'm your host, Ping. How's everyone doing today? 3 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:22,360 Ping Yu: I am doing great because I have one of the most successful woody ornamental breeder in the U.S. 4 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:30,340 Ping Yu: My dear colleague and mentor Dr. John Ruter joined me today to talk about his breeding work on hibiscus 5 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:33,420 Ping Yu: and share his enchanting stories behind the scene. 6 00:00:33,700 --> 00:00:38,360 Ping Yu: Without further ado, here is my conversation with Dr. John Ruter. I hope you enjoy. 7 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:48,800 Ping Yu: Well, welcome, John. Welcome to the podcast. But first, I know all the people in our industry 8 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:55,140 Ping Yu: almost would know your name. But first, for those who doesn't know, can we jump start 9 00:00:55,170 --> 00:00:59,680 Ping Yu: off with the introduction? Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do? 10 00:01:00,739 --> 00:01:05,960 John Ruter: Sure, Ping. Yeah, so I'm Dr. John Ruter. I'm the Armitage Professor of Horticulture 11 00:01:06,570 --> 00:01:11,540 John Ruter: at the University of Georgia, Director of the Trial Gardens on campus. I teach three 12 00:01:11,619 --> 00:01:18,340 John Ruter: different courses and also have an ornamental plant breeding program that focuses both on 13 00:01:18,479 --> 00:01:20,000 John Ruter: herbaceous and woody ornamentals. 14 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:25,860 Ping Yu: Yeah, you have been working on the field for I don't know how many years, forever. 15 00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:30,960 Ping Yu: But I know that you didn't start off as a breeder, but can we jump back, trace back 16 00:01:31,060 --> 00:01:32,540 Ping Yu: to your childhood? 17 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:40,260 Ping Yu: Do you say, are you like, what first sparkled your interest in the horticulture? 18 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,380 Ping Yu: How does it come into a radar in the first place? 19 00:01:43,540 --> 00:01:44,460 Ping Yu: Is that always? 20 00:01:44,700 --> 00:01:50,659 Ping Yu: something interests you or this is just something that stumbles through this trajectory? 21 00:01:51,880 --> 00:02:00,619 John Ruter: Sure, so I got interested in horticulture when I was 12 years old and so I grew up in the Los 22 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:08,940 John Ruter: Angeles area, San Fernando Valley, and back then boys and girls had to take a series of shop courses. 23 00:02:09,399 --> 00:02:10,700 John Ruter: that were required. 24 00:02:11,019 --> 00:02:13,819 John Ruter: So the girls took the home economics track 25 00:02:13,860 --> 00:02:18,060 John Ruter: and the boys took just regular shop courses, 26 00:02:18,519 --> 00:02:19,659 John Ruter: drafting, wood. 27 00:02:20,019 --> 00:02:22,120 John Ruter: And then both the boys and girls got to take 28 00:02:22,239 --> 00:02:24,040 John Ruter: a introductory horticulture course. 29 00:02:24,620 --> 00:02:26,879 John Ruter: And that's what lit the spark right there. 30 00:02:27,379 --> 00:02:27,680 Ping Yu: Wow. 31 00:02:27,859 --> 00:02:31,400 Ping Yu: So back then, girls and boys take different courses? 32 00:02:32,379 --> 00:02:33,680 Ping Yu: What is a shop course? 33 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:41,000 John Ruter: So, yeah, so for the boys we had a drafting course that we had to take. 34 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:46,380 John Ruter: So you actually had to draw your house plans for the final project there. 35 00:02:46,450 --> 00:02:50,819 John Ruter: We had general shops and crafts, woodworking, basic electric. 36 00:02:51,100 --> 00:02:55,280 John Ruter: Working with leather, I made belts and assorted things. 37 00:02:55,660 --> 00:03:00,480 John Ruter: And then, both boys and girls took the horticulture course. 38 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:06,720 John Ruter: I believe the young ladies took sewing and some things like that and a cooking course. 39 00:03:07,100 --> 00:03:14,280 Ping Yu: Wow, so you start your horticulture journey in the early days when you were like 12 year old and so 40 00:03:15,060 --> 00:03:20,000 Ping Yu: In that time you already know that you're interested in horticulture. So you just go 41 00:03:20,690 --> 00:03:26,980 Ping Yu: to that direction and finish your high school and a bachelor master all the way to PhD 42 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:33,840 John Ruter: Yeah, so I took this introductory horticulture class in seventh grade. 43 00:03:34,500 --> 00:03:39,340 John Ruter: In ninth grade, I took another horticulture course as an elective. 44 00:03:41,140 --> 00:03:48,340 John Ruter: So by the time I was 14, I was working at a retail wholesale nursery in the San Fernando 45 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:48,800 John Ruter: Valley. 46 00:03:49,300 --> 00:03:53,480 John Ruter: And then my parents moved out to Simi Valley 47 00:03:53,490 --> 00:03:54,860 John Ruter: during my high school years. 48 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:59,500 John Ruter: And so I got a job helping manage a Christmas tree farm, 49 00:03:59,900 --> 00:04:01,820 John Ruter: growing live Christmas trees, Pinus radiata. 50 00:04:02,980 --> 00:04:05,820 John Ruter: And I got involved in the FFA program, 51 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:07,400 John Ruter: Future Farmers of America. 52 00:04:10,140 --> 00:04:16,180 John Ruter: I went to a large high school, about 3,000 students, but unfortunately we didn't have 53 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:18,920 John Ruter: a lot of kids that were interested in horticulture or agriculture. 54 00:04:20,180 --> 00:04:24,300 John Ruter: So some of the competitions, it was me, myself, and I from our team. 55 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:27,039 John Ruter: But that was okay. 56 00:04:27,879 --> 00:04:33,039 John Ruter: And state competition was always at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo every year. 57 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:41,720 John Ruter: So, of course, Cal Poly had a wonderful undergraduate ornamental horticulture program that I got exposed to. 58 00:04:41,919 --> 00:04:44,860 John Ruter: And that's where I decided I wanted to go do my undergraduate. 59 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:51,620 John Ruter: And so I got my bachelor's degree in ornamental horticulture concentration in nursery management 60 00:04:52,580 --> 00:04:56,680 John Ruter: and actually minored in pest management and chemistry. 61 00:04:57,919 --> 00:05:07,600 John Ruter: And I thought that I might want to be a farm advisor in California or have my own business 62 00:05:07,940 --> 00:05:08,120 John Ruter: possibly. 63 00:05:08,940 --> 00:05:12,600 John Ruter: And I went to visit a school that had a master's program. 64 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:21,060 John Ruter: and they basically said that they could teach me to scout cotton, almonds, and vegetables. 65 00:05:22,260 --> 00:05:26,940 John Ruter: And I said, "Well, I kind of like greenhouses, landscapes, and nurseries." 66 00:05:26,940 --> 00:05:30,920 John Ruter: And they said, "Well, we can teach you how to do cotton, vegetables, and almonds." 67 00:05:41,940 --> 00:05:42,980 John Ruter: And so... 68 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:36,160 John Ruter: I said, "Well, thank you for your time." 69 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:39,800 John Ruter: And so I'd never seen a flowering dogwood in California. 70 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:42,680 John Ruter: I'd never seen a balled and burlapped plant. 71 00:05:43,300 --> 00:05:48,400 John Ruter: We grew everything in containers, large wooden boxes, or occasionally some bare root material. 72 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:54,699 John Ruter: So I decided to apply back east for graduate school and got offered an assistantship at 73 00:05:54,699 --> 00:05:55,740 John Ruter: the University of Tennessee. 74 00:05:56,740 --> 00:06:01,500 John Ruter: So I went there and did my master's degree there and then I went to the University of 75 00:06:01,740 --> 00:06:07,400 John Ruter: Florida and did my doctorate in horticultural science, but it was mostly plant physiology 76 00:06:07,479 --> 00:06:08,159 John Ruter: and biochemistry. 77 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:16,260 John Ruter: And when I graduated, there were two positions available in the nursery crop arena. 78 00:06:16,620 --> 00:06:22,840 John Ruter: One was at Cornell and one was a brand new position at the University of Georgia, located 79 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:24,180 John Ruter: down on the Tifton campus. 80 00:06:24,700 --> 00:06:31,260 John Ruter: They wanted a 100% nursery crop researcher, and the position was basically created as 81 00:06:31,260 --> 00:06:36,780 John Ruter: of a federal review that had gone on in the department that said, "We have this large 82 00:06:36,880 --> 00:06:39,160 John Ruter: nursery industry in the southwest corner of the state. 83 00:06:39,940 --> 00:06:42,000 John Ruter: The main campus is five hours away. 84 00:06:42,220 --> 00:06:44,320 John Ruter: You guys aren't doing anything to serve the industry. 85 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:46,940 John Ruter: Put an ornamental horticulturist in Tifton." 86 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:49,200 John Ruter: And so that's how I got to Georgia. 87 00:06:49,580 --> 00:06:50,140 Ping Yu: Yeah, okay. 88 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:54,300 Ping Yu: Yeah, because I was like, well, you talk about the Cornell and Georgia. 89 00:06:54,420 --> 00:06:59,500 Ping Yu: I was like, I guess I was guessing which, which offer did he take? 90 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:01,680 Ping Yu: Of course, for some Georgia. 91 00:07:02,380 --> 00:07:03,140 Ping Yu: Go Dawgs! 92 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:03,880 John Ruter: Go Dawgs! 93 00:07:04,180 --> 00:07:04,420 Ping Yu: Yeah. 94 00:07:06,820 --> 00:07:12,979 Ping Yu: Yeah, so you didn't start it, I know your story, you didn't start it as a plant breeder 95 00:07:13,620 --> 00:07:18,740 Ping Yu: and instead as an extension researcher for nursery and greenhouses. 96 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:21,880 Ping Yu: Can you tell us a little bit of how you 97 00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:26,500 Ping Yu: Make yourself, I know your story, but our audience may not. 98 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:30,100 Ping Yu: Can you tell us a little bit how you transfer yourself 99 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:34,400 Ping Yu: from a nursery crop production researcher 100 00:07:34,460 --> 00:07:36,960 Ping Yu: to a very renowned breeder? 101 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:45,660 John Ruter: Thank you. Yes. So yeah, initially I was doing pot-in-pot research, controlled release fertilizers, 102 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:54,340 John Ruter: plant growth regulators, all this production stuff to help the nurseries. And as part of 103 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:57,900 John Ruter: starting at the university, they gave me seven acres. 104 00:07:58,300 --> 00:08:02,860 John Ruter: of land, no water, and told me to do container nursery research. 105 00:08:03,419 --> 00:08:03,979 Ping Yu: In Tifton. 106 00:08:04,099 --> 00:08:04,259 John Ruter: Yeah. 107 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:10,080 John Ruter: So, yeah, so I started doing a lot of on-site research until I was able to come up with 108 00:08:10,159 --> 00:08:14,319 John Ruter: enough money to dig a well to put in an irrigation system and go from there. 109 00:08:15,039 --> 00:08:22,060 John Ruter: But anyway, one of the things I realized early on is that a lot of the recommendations coming 110 00:08:22,060 --> 00:08:23,300 John Ruter: out of Athens. 111 00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:27,879 John Ruter: which was in a different climatic zone, different soil types and everything, 112 00:08:28,539 --> 00:08:30,300 John Ruter: compared to the coastal plain of Georgia, 113 00:08:30,819 --> 00:08:32,800 John Ruter: didn't really apply to the southern part of the state. 114 00:08:33,599 --> 00:08:37,940 John Ruter: And having always just thoroughly enjoyed plants and being a plantsman, 115 00:08:38,399 --> 00:08:42,979 John Ruter: I started putting in collections and doing evaluation studies, 116 00:08:43,740 --> 00:08:45,300 John Ruter: looking at genera. 117 00:08:45,700 --> 00:08:53,060 John Ruter: species, whatever, that would be suitable to grow in the coastal plain region of the southeastern United States. 118 00:08:53,940 --> 00:08:56,940 John Ruter: Which was called Zone 8. Back then it was 8A. 119 00:08:57,260 --> 00:09:01,700 John Ruter: It's now 8B on the new map, but I called it the forgotten zone of horticulture. 120 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:08,060 John Ruter: Because all the basically most of your botanical gardens that would have introduced anything would have been in your major 121 00:09:08,380 --> 00:09:09,440 John Ruter: metropolitan areas. 122 00:09:09,900 --> 00:09:16,400 John Ruter: And you just don't have a lot of large cities necessarily in the southeastern coastal plain region. 123 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:23,180 John Ruter: So anyway, yeah, first study that I put in was collaborating with the U.S. National Arboretum, 124 00:09:23,860 --> 00:09:25,700 John Ruter: looking at red maples and elms. 125 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:28,180 John Ruter: So I was their southernmost cooperator. 126 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:39,240 John Ruter: there. And then, my PhD work was I used Japanese holly, Ilex crenata, as my model plant. And so, 127 00:09:39,300 --> 00:09:44,959 John Ruter: I kind of got interested in the genus Ilex. And before I knew it, I had a collection of 300 128 00:09:45,399 --> 00:09:50,800 John Ruter: different species, cultivars, accessions, you name it, got very active in the Holly Society 129 00:09:51,319 --> 00:09:56,180 John Ruter: of America. And then, having worked with conifers in California, 130 00:09:56,700 --> 00:10:02,960 John Ruter: and having my colleagues tell me that only pine trees grow in South Georgia for conifers, 131 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:11,800 John Ruter: I said, "You know what? I'm going to try and do a conifer collection as well for ornamental purposes, not for timber." 132 00:10:12,340 --> 00:10:18,180 John Ruter: And anyway, so that was a great experience, and that eventually led to co-authoring a book on conifers. 133 00:10:18,500 --> 00:10:19,740 John Ruter: for the southeast. 134 00:10:20,900 --> 00:10:23,040 John Ruter: The interest in breeding came out of 135 00:10:23,380 --> 00:10:24,340 John Ruter: having these collections, 136 00:10:24,700 --> 00:10:26,800 John Ruter: doing the evaluations, seeing the needs, 137 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:28,720 John Ruter: working very closely 138 00:10:28,820 --> 00:10:30,020 John Ruter: with the nursery industry, 139 00:10:30,360 --> 00:10:32,380 John Ruter: seeing where there might be some opportunities 140 00:10:33,380 --> 00:10:34,900 John Ruter: to develop some plant material. 141 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:36,500 John Ruter: We had done some 142 00:10:36,700 --> 00:10:38,400 John Ruter: collaborative stuff with one or two 143 00:10:38,400 --> 00:10:39,900 John Ruter: of the nurseries in south Georgia. 144 00:10:40,300 --> 00:10:42,620 John Ruter: that led to an introduction or two. 145 00:10:42,980 --> 00:10:46,160 John Ruter: But it was really when I got offered the professorship, 146 00:10:46,540 --> 00:10:48,080 John Ruter: the opportunity to move to Athens, 147 00:10:48,959 --> 00:10:50,500 John Ruter: there was, they wanted some teaching, 148 00:10:50,839 --> 00:10:53,480 John Ruter: and they offered, would take over the trial gardens. 149 00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:55,959 John Ruter: But what they really wanted was they wanted 150 00:10:56,060 --> 00:10:59,620 John Ruter: an herbaceous ornamental plant breeder for research. 151 00:11:00,839 --> 00:11:04,040 John Ruter: And so I said, as long as I get to keep my conifers 152 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:05,980 John Ruter: and hollies and camellias, 153 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:10,660 John Ruter: Yeah, I'll give it a shot to become an herbaceous ornamental plant breeder. 154 00:11:10,899 --> 00:11:11,620 Ping Yu: That's cool. 155 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:18,440 Ping Yu: John, I know that for the past, I don't know, 20, 30 years of your career, you have released 156 00:11:19,139 --> 00:11:21,800 Ping Yu: tons of different cultivars and that. 157 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:24,840 Ping Yu: has really shaped our industry. 158 00:11:25,140 --> 00:11:29,640 Ping Yu: I know you have done like a hibiscus, hollies, camellias. 159 00:11:30,700 --> 00:11:32,720 Ping Yu: Recently I know some of your work 160 00:11:32,940 --> 00:11:35,680 Ping Yu: is also focused on Salvia and basil. 161 00:11:36,580 --> 00:11:41,100 Ping Yu: So with all of your released cultivar, 162 00:11:41,500 --> 00:11:43,080 Ping Yu: Do you have a favorite one? 163 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:51,340 John Ruter: I guess one of the real sentimental ones was my first holly release, one called Emerald Colonnade. 164 00:11:51,540 --> 00:11:54,800 John Ruter: And that one has become very popular in the trade. 165 00:11:54,960 --> 00:12:03,240 John Ruter: It's used not only as a standard landscape plant, but as a hedging plant for topiaries and espaliers and planter boxes. 166 00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:07,300 John Ruter: And it's been used as a replacement for boxwoods on estates. 167 00:12:08,100 --> 00:12:14,500 John Ruter: various places and so that was really the first release I had that really took 168 00:12:14,639 --> 00:12:19,800 John Ruter: off and got established and got me all really excited about plant breeding and 169 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:21,019 John Ruter: what the possibilities are. 170 00:12:21,420 --> 00:12:21,639 Ping Yu: Yeah. 171 00:12:24,980 --> 00:12:29,120 Ping Yu: And for hibiscus, I know, 172 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:38,320 Ping Yu: your early stage of your breeding program, which is also a huge success and has made a big impact in our industry. 173 00:12:38,820 --> 00:12:42,200 Ping Yu: Can you tell us how did you start with the hibiscus breeding? 174 00:12:43,820 --> 00:12:50,720 John Ruter: Sure. Yeah, with the hibiscus breeding, so back in the, I'm gonna say the late 2000s, 175 00:12:51,100 --> 00:12:57,959 John Ruter: There was a series of hardy hibiscus from Fleming Brothers nursery out in Nebraska. 176 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:04,060 John Ruter: Very cold hardy, some interesting leaf shapes, purple foliage, some interesting flowers. 177 00:13:04,269 --> 00:13:09,680 John Ruter: They just... shipping season wholesale-wise is pretty much over May 15th. 178 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:11,920 John Ruter: for South Georgia and North Florida. 179 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:15,420 John Ruter: That's about when these plants would start to break dormancy 180 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:18,640 John Ruter: in containers in South Georgia. 181 00:13:19,420 --> 00:13:23,300 John Ruter: I had the idea, maybe we could make them emerge earlier. 182 00:13:24,180 --> 00:13:27,160 John Ruter: And also, the plants tended to want to lodge, 183 00:13:27,780 --> 00:13:29,540 John Ruter: would just send up a few shoots, 184 00:13:29,660 --> 00:13:30,740 John Ruter: and then they would get too big, 185 00:13:30,880 --> 00:13:34,340 John Ruter: and just lodging's an agronomic term for falling over. 186 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:44,400 John Ruter: Anyway, so my initial goal was, okay, maybe we get them to emerge earlier and they don't 187 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:45,620 John Ruter: lodge, they don't get so big. 188 00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:51,140 John Ruter: And so we did a couple rounds of breeding and we started to have some... 189 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:54,380 John Ruter: I'll say purplish red foliage show up. 190 00:13:55,560 --> 00:13:58,560 John Ruter: And I would do a lot of garden club tours and other, 191 00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:01,940 John Ruter: and so we would go out and visit my research plots 192 00:14:02,020 --> 00:14:05,000 John Ruter: and I gave everybody flags and, you know, 193 00:14:05,500 --> 00:14:06,420 John Ruter: go flag your favorites. 194 00:14:07,100 --> 00:14:10,260 John Ruter: So sort of, you know, some consumer help. 195 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:10,880 John Ruter: What do you like? 196 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,460 John Ruter: And it didn't matter if it was the ugliest plant out there. 197 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,440 John Ruter: If it had red foliage, it got flagged. 198 00:14:17,220 --> 00:14:20,300 John Ruter: And so I said, there must be something to this red foliage. 199 00:14:21,279 --> 00:14:28,899 John Ruter: thing that's going on. So right about that time was when I transferred my program from Tifton to 200 00:14:29,459 --> 00:14:35,760 John Ruter: Athens. And so I said, "All right, I'm going to get whatever red germplasm I can get my hands on, 201 00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:40,480 John Ruter: and we're going to make crosses, as many as we can possibly do, 202 00:14:41,300 --> 00:14:46,300 John Ruter: and plant them out." So the first planting was, I think it was over 1,200 seedlings. 203 00:14:46,700 --> 00:14:59,440 John Ruter: We planted out and we rated them for aerial Phytophthora, Cercospora, Alternaria, flower size, color, foliage, all things that would make a good plant. 204 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:04,600 John Ruter: And we ended up picking seven out of 1,200 to keep. 205 00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:10,500 John Ruter: So, it's going to be a breeder, you got to be willing to throw plants away or bush hog them, get rid of them. 206 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:15,500 John Ruter: And so that was our first... 207 00:15:15,500 --> 00:15:21,440 John Ruter: I got a call one day, I'd planted some plants out at our mountain station up in Blairsville, 208 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:29,000 John Ruter: and the station superintendent called and said, "You need to come up and see your hibiscus plants." 209 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:31,680 John Ruter: He says, there's, there's something going on with them. 210 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:37,820 John Ruter: Yeah, so went up there and took a look and they were just thoroughly covered with hibiscus sawfly, 211 00:15:38,220 --> 00:15:42,240 John Ruter: which is a Hymenoptera insect. So Hymenoptera, bee family. 212 00:15:43,380 --> 00:15:45,900 John Ruter: And so it's the larvae that 213 00:15:46,860 --> 00:15:52,280 John Ruter: chew on the foliage. The adults look like a little black fly with a red orange thorax. 214 00:15:53,460 --> 00:15:57,920 John Ruter: Unfortunately, we have four generations a year in Georgia, so that can definitely be a problem. 215 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:08,040 John Ruter: So I said, "Okay, what can we do about building some resistance into these plants?" 216 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:14,740 John Ruter: So like a good plant breeder, I collected all the known species of hardy hibiscus, of which there's six. 217 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:23,860 John Ruter: or five species and two subspecies. Anyway, and I noticed that one of them, Hibiscus grandiflorus, 218 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:30,720 John Ruter: had very hairy leaves, full of trichomes, plant hairs. And when you looked at it under the 219 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:36,020 John Ruter: microscope, it looked like old shag carpet growing on the leaves, and we noticed that they had zero 220 00:16:36,340 --> 00:16:36,600 John Ruter: damage. 221 00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:40,960 John Ruter: So I said, "All right, there's my source of resistance right there." 222 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:52,240 John Ruter: So we made interspecific hybrids out of those, which crossed, but we had a hard time getting 223 00:16:52,420 --> 00:16:53,700 John Ruter: the red foliage trait. 224 00:16:54,200 --> 00:17:00,400 John Ruter: to go over. So we could make the crop. We got red petioles, we got red in the stems. 225 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:06,320 John Ruter: We thought, okay, maybe it's a recessive trait. We got to go to an F2. No, that didn't solve the 226 00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:11,720 John Ruter: problem. And so then we took those F2 plants and then we back crossed them to some of the original 227 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:12,400 John Ruter: reds. 228 00:17:12,699 --> 00:17:19,100 John Ruter: which took out some of the resistance, but we still had some resistance in there to get the red back in it. 229 00:17:19,639 --> 00:17:26,679 John Ruter: Now with that resistance you get more of a matte red-gray colored leaf because the trichomes. 230 00:17:27,659 --> 00:17:33,760 John Ruter: So out of all that initial breeding, we released two of the original crosses that came out of that 231 00:17:34,309 --> 00:17:35,820 John Ruter: 1200, got selected. 232 00:17:36,100 --> 00:17:39,700 John Ruter: And then the other three were these interspecific hybrids. 233 00:17:40,059 --> 00:17:46,240 John Ruter: So we were the first one to release selections that had some resistance to hibiscus sawfly. 234 00:17:46,980 --> 00:17:54,840 John Ruter: And then that's been huge because primary populations of Hibiscus moscheutos are along the eastern coast, often grown. 235 00:17:55,200 --> 00:18:02,639 John Ruter: brackish areas near the shore and a lot of the growers along the eastern shore had given up 236 00:18:02,779 --> 00:18:07,639 John Ruter: growing them because the pest was such a problem, even on the native plants. 237 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:15,120 John Ruter: And so anyway, eventually that led to five plants being selected for the Head Over Heels series. 238 00:18:15,519 --> 00:18:15,799 Ping Yu: Yes. 239 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:17,519 John Ruter: That's been very successful for us. 240 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:21,200 Ping Yu: for any given if you ask any breeder. 241 00:18:21,700 --> 00:18:27,419 Ping Yu: I feel like they're going to give you the number that they initiated, which would be 242 00:18:27,860 --> 00:18:28,220 Ping Yu: thousands. 243 00:18:28,639 --> 00:18:32,399 Ping Yu: And then at the end of the day, they're going to tell you, "Hey, I only got two or three 244 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:36,080 Ping Yu: or five, in your case, five or six out of thousands." 245 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:41,220 Ping Yu: And that's how you actually selected the plant that perfectly for your garden, for your yard, 246 00:18:41,380 --> 00:18:42,080 Ping Yu: for the industry. 247 00:18:42,340 --> 00:18:44,080 Ping Yu: So it's always a number game. 248 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:51,440 Ping Yu: Have you encountered during your hibiscus breeding process, 249 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:54,360 Ping Yu: have you encountered with another specific species, 250 00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:55,920 Ping Yu: Hibiscus mutabilis? 251 00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,240 Ping Yu: It's a native to Asian species, 252 00:18:59,820 --> 00:19:04,660 Ping Yu: but I just haven't seen them in the U.S. yet. 253 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:10,300 John Ruter: Yeah, so an old-timey plant, particularly down in the coastal plains. 254 00:19:10,460 --> 00:19:16,780 John Ruter: You'll see it at, say, older homes, old plantation farm sites. 255 00:19:18,740 --> 00:19:22,300 John Ruter: So yeah, North Florida, South Georgia, it's not that uncommon. 256 00:19:23,430 --> 00:19:25,100 John Ruter: We have done some breeding with it. 257 00:19:25,820 --> 00:19:30,320 John Ruter: It was one of the first ones we ever attempted to make crosses on it. 258 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:33,940 John Ruter: The double-flowered form is very popular. 259 00:19:34,559 --> 00:19:37,620 John Ruter: Of course, this is one that the flowers come out one color 260 00:19:37,780 --> 00:19:40,799 John Ruter: and then they fade to another color by the end of the day. 261 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:45,799 John Ruter: But I always called the plant "flowers on a stick." 262 00:19:47,360 --> 00:19:52,480 John Ruter: Because mutabilis has this problem, and it's this nice six to eight foot shrub 263 00:19:52,540 --> 00:19:56,760 John Ruter: during the year, dies back to the ground, grows vigorously during the summer, 264 00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:02,140 John Ruter: flowers in October. And so most people, one problem with selling it is in 265 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:05,740 John Ruter: October most people are thinking about mums and pumpkins, not necessarily 266 00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:07,640 John Ruter: thinking about flowering hibiscus. 267 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:16,520 John Ruter: But anyway, so when Hibiscus mutabilis goes reproductive, at least with the double-flowered form, which is really popular, it drops all its foliage. 268 00:20:16,900 --> 00:20:17,200 John Ruter: Oh, God. 269 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:24,580 John Ruter: So you end up with these flowers on the end of 6 to 8 foot of, you know, the stem. 270 00:20:24,700 --> 00:20:26,380 John Ruter: So I always go, you know, flowers on a stick. 271 00:20:26,700 --> 00:20:40,799 John Ruter: So what we did is I was able to access Hibiscus taiwanensis, which is a species from the island of Taiwan, which has very nice foliage on it, excellent foliage retention. 272 00:20:41,830 --> 00:20:53,000 John Ruter: It has no cold hardiness whatsoever, it won't even survive in the ground, and flowers under completely short days, like in the greenhouse, it blooms in February. 273 00:20:53,700 --> 00:21:01,120 John Ruter: So I was able to manipulate some mutabilis and taiwanensis to flower at the same time, 274 00:21:01,860 --> 00:21:07,559 John Ruter: got those crossed, so we have a traditional F1 interspecific hybrid. 275 00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:15,899 John Ruter: And boy, perfect example of what we breeders call heterosis or hybrid vigor. 276 00:21:16,300 --> 00:21:20,060 John Ruter: I mean, these things would get 10 to 12 feet tall in one season. 277 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:27,840 John Ruter: And so, and they retain their foliage, single flowers, not the double flowers. 278 00:21:28,380 --> 00:21:32,240 John Ruter: They would start to bloom in August instead of October. 279 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:36,220 John Ruter: But all the nurserymen are like, "Wow, that's cool, but that's way too big." 280 00:21:36,700 --> 00:21:42,059 John Ruter: And so I was able to get my hands on a third species, 281 00:21:44,500 --> 00:21:52,279 John Ruter: Hibiscus makinoi, which is from the archipelago of islands that's south of Japan. 282 00:21:53,220 --> 00:21:55,299 John Ruter: And so I crossed that. 283 00:21:55,600 --> 00:22:04,600 John Ruter: third species in. And so now we have nice bushes, full bloom right now, that are more in, say, the 284 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:13,299 John Ruter: four to six foot range, full of foliage, full of flowers, again, single flowers. I think that the 285 00:22:13,580 --> 00:22:19,960 John Ruter: main thing with the plant is it's flowering when people are not necessarily thinking about going 286 00:22:20,140 --> 00:22:20,559 John Ruter: out and... 287 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:26,340 John Ruter: buying something other than mums and pansies and snapdragons and ornamental cabbage. 288 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,600 John Ruter: Yeah, it's not blooming at the perfect timing. 289 00:22:31,380 --> 00:22:36,620 Ping Yu: Yeah, so the reason I brought up the Hibiscus mutabilis is because when I grow up, 290 00:22:36,620 --> 00:22:39,280 Ping Yu: where I grew up, I can see them every everywhere. 291 00:22:39,620 --> 00:22:41,720 Ping Yu: It's the city flower of Chengdu, my hometown. 292 00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:45,700 Ping Yu: And yeah, it got a very special like... 293 00:22:45,900 --> 00:22:50,980 Ping Yu: feature like you just said, the flower change colors throughout the day. 294 00:22:51,120 --> 00:22:55,840 Ping Yu: So it's tricky, interesting, and then a lot of there are a lot of cultivars that has 295 00:22:56,700 --> 00:23:02,260 Ping Yu: big head, big flower head, and then different color change. And so that's interesting. That's 296 00:23:02,260 --> 00:23:08,700 Ping Yu: the reason why I brought it up. But since you have now different species or different cultivars with 297 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,300 Ping Yu: in the hibiscus breeding program. 298 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:14,840 Ping Yu: When it comes to deciding which species to breed, 299 00:23:15,340 --> 00:23:18,060 Ping Yu: is that easier to work with some of the 300 00:23:18,660 --> 00:23:20,560 Ping Yu: United States native species? 301 00:23:21,500 --> 00:23:24,900 Ping Yu: Plants were, what is the challenge of breeding 302 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:26,200 Ping Yu: for non-native plants? 303 00:23:26,220 --> 00:23:28,360 Ping Yu: But for instance, the two hibiscus species 304 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:29,360 Ping Yu: that you mentioned, 305 00:23:29,600 --> 00:23:34,720 Ping Yu: are some of them native to Asia and some of them are native to the U.S. 306 00:23:35,179 --> 00:23:42,360 Ping Yu: What is the challenge? What's the difference of breeding or working on those non-native species versus the native species? 307 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:49,080 John Ruter: Sure, yeah. So all of our native species are what we call hardy hibiscus, okay? 308 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:54,880 John Ruter: So these are ones that are deciduous, die down to the ground, come back every year. 309 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:59,620 John Ruter: So they sort of fall into that herbaceous ornamental category there. 310 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:05,340 John Ruter: So all the ones that are native to the eastern U.S., those are all diploids, two sets of chromosomes. 311 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:16,900 John Ruter: in there. A lot of the Asian species, so Hibiscus mutabilis, taiwanensis, makinoi, Hibiscus syriacus, 312 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:25,040 John Ruter: the Rose of Sharon, would be the ones that are most commonly known there. Those plants are 313 00:24:25,300 --> 00:24:32,320 John Ruter: generally naturally tetraploids, four sets of chromosomes, and even the base number of chromosomes 314 00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:36,720 John Ruter: So, n equals whatever the base chromosome number is. 315 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:42,380 John Ruter: And then, of course, that doubles to get your diploid or four times that to get your tetraploid, 316 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:43,040 John Ruter: for example. 317 00:24:44,100 --> 00:24:48,160 John Ruter: They're different between the North American and the Asian species as well. 318 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:59,820 John Ruter: So it's not easy to get crosses between Asian and American species because the ploidies are different, the chromosome numbers are different. 319 00:25:00,940 --> 00:25:06,559 John Ruter: There was a cultivar floating around that is a moscheutos by mutabilis hybrid. 320 00:25:07,140 --> 00:25:10,799 John Ruter: It basically looks like a large single-flowered mutabilis. 321 00:25:11,900 --> 00:25:18,160 John Ruter: Having crossed a diploid with a tetraploid with different base chromosome numbers, it's completely sterile. 322 00:25:18,780 --> 00:25:19,440 John Ruter: Oh, okay. 323 00:25:19,740 --> 00:25:24,900 John Ruter: And so I've only ever seen one seed pod on one of these plants. 324 00:25:25,900 --> 00:25:27,300 John Ruter: And it was actually last year. 325 00:25:28,160 --> 00:25:30,260 John Ruter: I was quite surprised to see the seed then. 326 00:25:30,460 --> 00:25:35,740 John Ruter: So grew seed off of it, bloomed them out this year, and there's no genetic variation at all. 327 00:25:36,300 --> 00:25:41,340 John Ruter: at least visible in the phenotype. They all look exactly like the parent plant. 328 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:43,140 Ping Yu: So basically... 329 00:25:43,140 --> 00:25:44,280 John Ruter: And they all seem to be sterile. 330 00:25:44,740 --> 00:25:44,920 John Ruter: Yeah. 331 00:25:45,120 --> 00:25:50,680 Ping Yu: Yeah. So basically if those two species with different lengths of chromosome or different 332 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,620 Ping Yu: number for the, what's it called, the baseline... 333 00:25:55,060 --> 00:25:56,500 John Ruter: The base chromosome number, yeah. 334 00:25:56,580 --> 00:26:02,180 Ping Yu: Yeah. And it's not comparable to cross them and to have a baby. 335 00:26:02,700 --> 00:26:08,039 Ping Yu: for the next generation. Yeah, so yeah, so occasionally you will get the cross to make. 336 00:26:08,340 --> 00:26:13,580 John Ruter: There's probably several examples out there of interspecific hybrids, but then quite often those 337 00:26:13,700 --> 00:26:18,480 John Ruter: interspecific hybrids are what the animal world would call a mule. They're just, they're completely 338 00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:23,260 John Ruter: sterile and cannot reproduce. It's, yeah, it's like how you mate the... 339 00:26:23,260 --> 00:26:23,880 Ping Yu: No. 340 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:27,799 John Ruter: A horse and a donkey. 341 00:26:28,140 --> 00:26:29,280 Ping Yu: Yeah, a horse and a donkey. 342 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:30,380 Ping Yu: That situation. 343 00:26:30,860 --> 00:26:31,020 Ping Yu: Yeah. 344 00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:32,640 Ping Yu: So the next generation... 345 00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:37,100 John Ruter: Yeah, so the initial cross you can make, but then the hybrid is not fertile. 346 00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:42,500 John Ruter: And so, yeah, sometimes it's just incongruity amongst the chromosomes. 347 00:26:42,750 --> 00:26:43,740 John Ruter: They don't match up. 348 00:26:44,270 --> 00:26:49,580 John Ruter: And that also leads to how we get sterile triploids sometimes too, where we can take 349 00:26:49,620 --> 00:26:52,360 John Ruter: plants like reproduce with even numbers of chromosomes. 350 00:26:52,800 --> 00:27:00,040 John Ruter: And a simple way to put it is that you cross a plant with two sets of chromosomes with a plant with four sets of chromosomes. 351 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:04,700 John Ruter: The hybrid ends up with three sets of chromosomes and somebody doesn't have a dance partner. 352 00:27:05,940 --> 00:27:06,640 Ping Yu: For sure, yeah. 353 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:13,100 Ping Yu: What is something that people don't realize? 354 00:27:13,500 --> 00:27:19,140 Ping Yu: about professional cultivar development. Can you walk us through the process of the variety 355 00:27:19,420 --> 00:27:24,200 Ping Yu: development from the breeding program from beginning all the way to the market? And I know 356 00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:32,680 Ping Yu: for breeding, I see it as, for breeders, I see it as a fashion designer for our industry because 357 00:27:32,900 --> 00:27:40,020 Ping Yu: It is because you have to start working maybe 10 years ahead for woody plants and to decide, 358 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:46,880 Ping Yu: okay, this plant might make it maybe popular in the next 10 years for this industry. 359 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:52,600 Ping Yu: So you are the next popular fashion icon item for the future. 360 00:27:53,540 --> 00:27:59,160 Ping Yu: So can you walk us through the whole process of how to decide the 361 00:27:59,140 --> 00:28:00,220 Ping Yu: So... 362 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:06,159 Ping Yu: the variety development from the beginning to make the way to the market? 363 00:28:07,539 --> 00:28:10,019 John Ruter: Yeah, yeah, we can use the Hibiscus moscheutos. 364 00:28:10,250 --> 00:28:14,500 John Ruter: That was really the only species in the market in the late 2000s. 365 00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:18,399 John Ruter: I mentioned that the ones that were in the trade at the time 366 00:28:18,539 --> 00:28:21,600 John Ruter: had some flaws that could be improved upon. 367 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:28,000 John Ruter: There were some seed grown varieties. A lot of those I think did well further north. 368 00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,660 John Ruter: I don't think they quite had the vigor we needed in the south. 369 00:28:32,980 --> 00:28:41,620 John Ruter: But we were able to use those in our crosses to get early emergence and dwarf compact traits. 370 00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:47,600 John Ruter: So they were beneficial from that respect in growing those. 371 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:55,120 John Ruter: So we're probably talking about starting this about 2009, for example. 372 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:05,260 John Ruter: And so our first population with crosses with red foliage and all that led to 1,200 seedlings, 373 00:29:05,399 --> 00:29:07,820 John Ruter: those went in the ground in 2000. 374 00:29:08,700 --> 00:29:14,500 John Ruter: I want to say 12 and they were evaluated in 2013. 375 00:29:15,740 --> 00:29:24,840 John Ruter: And I would say commercial selection probably started about 2014, 2015. 376 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:31,500 John Ruter: With the first releases probably being 2017? 377 00:29:32,380 --> 00:29:42,660 Ping Yu: So from 2009 to 2019, it's probably 9 to 10 years of work from starting to the market. 378 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:51,780 John Ruter: Yeah, and so nine, ten years would be for something herbaceous, I think would be fairly 379 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:52,320 John Ruter: normal. 380 00:29:52,500 --> 00:29:56,800 John Ruter: A big change in the industry has been all branding and partnerships. 381 00:29:57,660 --> 00:30:04,220 John Ruter: So now you have Nursery X, which has these brands that they grow, and then they have 382 00:30:04,420 --> 00:30:10,480 John Ruter: other growers around the country that grow specifically some of their branded material. 383 00:30:10,900 --> 00:30:15,420 John Ruter: All right, so that's added another several years into it, 384 00:30:16,060 --> 00:30:18,140 John Ruter: because once company X decides, 385 00:30:18,340 --> 00:30:20,860 John Ruter: okay, we like this, we're gonna put it into our brand, 386 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,220 John Ruter: then they send it out to all their branded growers 387 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:27,620 John Ruter: to evaluate for another three to five years 388 00:30:27,860 --> 00:30:32,720 John Ruter: to see if it's gonna have nationwide adaptability or appeal. 389 00:30:33,300 --> 00:30:34,860 John Ruter: So now you've just added, 390 00:30:35,180 --> 00:30:37,460 John Ruter: you've gone from 10 to 15 years potentially, 391 00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:41,860 John Ruter: before a company finally decides to pull the plug 392 00:30:42,390 --> 00:30:43,840 John Ruter: and say, yes, we're, 393 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:47,180 John Ruter: and then they've got to get with their marketing folks 394 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:50,180 John Ruter: and the sales folks and the production folks. 395 00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:52,600 John Ruter: And one of the challenges that we ran into 396 00:30:52,780 --> 00:30:56,580 John Ruter: with Hardy Hibiscus that I didn't know about 397 00:30:56,780 --> 00:31:00,520 John Ruter: when I started was since it's related to cotton, 398 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:03,860 John Ruter: You can't bring it in from offshore. 399 00:31:04,580 --> 00:31:05,000 John Ruter: Oh. 400 00:31:05,100 --> 00:31:06,880 John Ruter: So most of all of these companies 401 00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,880 John Ruter: that are cutting farms are in Costa Rica, 402 00:31:10,419 --> 00:31:13,139 John Ruter: Central America, South America, Africa, 403 00:31:13,580 --> 00:31:14,360 John Ruter: wherever it might be. 404 00:31:15,100 --> 00:31:17,519 John Ruter: They had to find a domestic propagator 405 00:31:18,559 --> 00:31:20,580 John Ruter: to start bulking up the numbers. 406 00:31:21,159 --> 00:31:23,179 John Ruter: Because again, most people are doing it offshore. 407 00:31:23,620 --> 00:31:23,820 Ping Yu: Yeah. 408 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:27,059 John Ruter: Now, but you can't because of diseases of cotton. 409 00:31:27,500 --> 00:31:33,000 John Ruter: Same thing, if you're breeding ornamental cherries, you've got to send it through Beltsville, 410 00:31:33,100 --> 00:31:38,340 John Ruter: it's got to go through quarantine before you can get any new germplasm in because of viruses 411 00:31:38,620 --> 00:31:41,180 John Ruter: you might bring in that could affect commercial cherries. 412 00:31:42,900 --> 00:31:45,020 John Ruter: Yeah, so, you know. 413 00:31:45,300 --> 00:32:12,880 Ping Yu: Yeah, because one of the observations that I have seen for the past couple years is every time I go to a nursery and even in the garden center, I see more and more people are interested in 414 00:31:58,500 --> 00:32:02,080 Ping Yu: buying patented plants, the trademark on plants, 415 00:32:02,390 --> 00:32:04,420 Ping Yu: even though it takes a little bit longer 416 00:32:04,660 --> 00:32:06,600 Ping Yu: for the industry to develop, 417 00:32:06,890 --> 00:32:10,480 Ping Yu: the popularity has increased among customers. 418 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:12,500 Ping Yu: Do you, can you give us, 419 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:14,620 Ping Yu: can you elaborate a little bit more 420 00:32:14,810 --> 00:32:19,100 Ping Yu: of why people are willing to pay the extra dollar 421 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,000 Ping Yu: or whatever for the patent materials? 422 00:32:22,980 --> 00:32:28,980 John Ruter: Yeah, so in today's market, unless it gets into a branded program, it's not going to 423 00:32:28,980 --> 00:32:31,400 John Ruter: really be marketed out there. 424 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:41,919 John Ruter: And so there's several brands out there, whether it's azaleas or petunias or whatever, that 425 00:32:41,919 --> 00:32:48,539 John Ruter: are in branded programs that people recognize that plants in that branded program do very 426 00:32:48,660 --> 00:32:48,919 John Ruter: well. 427 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,780 John Ruter: and they've been tested around the United States 428 00:32:53,100 --> 00:32:56,320 John Ruter: and there's lots of information on their websites. 429 00:32:56,700 --> 00:32:59,700 John Ruter: Everybody's looking stuff up on their phones now. 430 00:33:00,100 --> 00:33:00,220 John Ruter: Yeah. 431 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:01,300 John Ruter: They go to the garden center. 432 00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:03,760 John Ruter: They're in a branded pot, they stand out. 433 00:33:03,980 --> 00:33:05,800 John Ruter: They've got a really nice hang tag 434 00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:07,620 John Ruter: or something inserted into the pot 435 00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:09,500 John Ruter: that gives even more information. 436 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:10,880 John Ruter: And then you can go to the website 437 00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:12,500 John Ruter: and look up even more information. 438 00:33:12,900 --> 00:33:14,540 John Ruter: about the plant, okay? 439 00:33:15,140 --> 00:33:17,500 John Ruter: There's lots of good landscape plants out there 440 00:33:18,140 --> 00:33:19,900 John Ruter: that aren't in a branded program, 441 00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,800 John Ruter: but you're not gonna find anybody really pushing those. 442 00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,380 John Ruter: Whether it be a straight Osmanthus fragrans 443 00:33:27,700 --> 00:33:31,580 John Ruter: or older varieties of Loropetalum that have red foliage 444 00:33:32,020 --> 00:33:35,340 John Ruter: or Ligustrum or boxwood or... 445 00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:42,160 John Ruter: People know these plants and then they'll go buy these plants, but if it's something completely new, novel, 446 00:33:42,780 --> 00:33:47,800 John Ruter: or it's something that you have to differentiate it from other members of its class, 447 00:33:48,630 --> 00:33:56,880 John Ruter: all right, so now it's a dwarf red super cold hardy Loropetalum instead of a big original red Loropetalum. 448 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:01,140 John Ruter: If that's not marketed, people aren't going to know about it. 449 00:34:01,840 --> 00:34:07,760 John Ruter: And so I think that's the big driving factor there that people recognize these brands. 450 00:34:07,930 --> 00:34:13,220 John Ruter: They recognize that plants that are in these brands have been tested and are going to have 451 00:34:13,220 --> 00:34:14,659 John Ruter: a good chance of being very successful. 452 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:19,879 John Ruter: And again, they're popping up when they're looking at their phone or they're on their 453 00:34:20,079 --> 00:34:25,740 John Ruter: computer or they're seeing advertisements on billboards and on the sides of trucks and 454 00:34:26,659 --> 00:34:32,700 John Ruter: Southern Living or Western Gardening or whatever magazines they might be reading. 455 00:34:33,260 --> 00:34:39,639 John Ruter: And so, yeah, the companies are putting a lot of money into advertising, whether it's 456 00:34:39,659 --> 00:34:40,980 John Ruter: on the computer or print. 457 00:34:41,919 --> 00:34:47,960 John Ruter: catalogs, hats, free students love t-shirts and freebies and bags. 458 00:34:48,540 --> 00:34:48,720 Ping Yu: Yeah. 459 00:34:48,800 --> 00:34:53,639 John Ruter: Branded bags that you can use to go to the grocery store with to take to the beach. 460 00:34:54,579 --> 00:34:56,280 John Ruter: You know, carry all your plant catalogs. 461 00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:01,100 John Ruter: So, yeah, I think that's one of the big things that... 462 00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:03,100 Ping Yu: It's about the marketing. 463 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,000 John Ruter: It's marketing and success for the end consumer. 464 00:35:07,500 --> 00:35:07,700 Ping Yu: Yeah. 465 00:35:08,060 --> 00:35:11,720 John Ruter: And then, yeah, I may have this really cool native plant 466 00:35:11,940 --> 00:35:14,660 John Ruter: that most people have never heard of, and it's variegated. 467 00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:15,440 John Ruter: Okay? 468 00:35:16,299 --> 00:35:21,140 John Ruter: And so maybe there's 300 people out there that are going to get all excited about this plant. 469 00:35:21,779 --> 00:35:22,400 John Ruter: That's it. 470 00:35:22,799 --> 00:35:26,099 John Ruter: But that plant's not worth trademarking or patenting. 471 00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:29,700 John Ruter: You're not going to get your returns on it. 472 00:35:29,779 --> 00:35:33,380 John Ruter: Even though there's a small portion of the population that thinks it's just the coolest plant ever, 473 00:35:33,720 --> 00:35:35,400 John Ruter: it's never going to make it at mass market. 474 00:35:35,539 --> 00:35:37,059 John Ruter: People don't know the genus. 475 00:35:37,300 --> 00:35:43,980 John Ruter: on it. They've never heard the common name of the plant, and the market's very limited in a case like that. 476 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:48,420 Ping Yu: Yeah, and then people are willing to pay more for the brand. 477 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:55,800 Ping Yu: I think it's like, again, the fashion industry where you know the logo of a certain brand. 478 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,980 Ping Yu: You're like, "Oh, I would pay an extra amount of money to..." 479 00:35:59,500 --> 00:36:01,760 Ping Yu: for that brand specifically. 480 00:36:04,940 --> 00:36:07,300 Ping Yu: You know, in the breeding world, 481 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:10,500 Ping Yu: I know a lot of like professional breeder like you 482 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:15,680 Ping Yu: and a lot of people like they started as a hobby breeder 483 00:36:16,070 --> 00:36:19,900 Ping Yu: to start with, but one thing that I have noticed, 484 00:36:20,260 --> 00:36:20,980 Ping Yu: it's very funny. 485 00:36:21,300 --> 00:36:25,120 Ping Yu: because when it comes to name the cultivar, 486 00:36:25,740 --> 00:36:29,760 Ping Yu: people tend to have all different ways of naming the plant 487 00:36:29,820 --> 00:36:31,300 Ping Yu: and then they have the right to do it 488 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:32,100 Ping Yu: because they are breeding, 489 00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:34,620 Ping Yu: the cultivar is yours basically. 490 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:37,800 Ping Yu: So can you tell me how you decided 491 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,720 Ping Yu: to name some of your cultivars? 492 00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:44,240 Ping Yu: Like are there any story behind it? 493 00:36:44,240 --> 00:36:48,240 Ping Yu: I know one person, I think it's a camellia 494 00:36:48,500 --> 00:36:57,000 Ping Yu: breeder, Joe from Athens Wholesale, and he told me, yeah, he told me that there was 495 00:36:57,140 --> 00:37:04,120 Ping Yu: one camellia cultivar it has variegated color and he named the cultivar after 496 00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:10,860 Ping Yu: his wife, Mary, because that's how they developed or noticed, selected 497 00:37:11,140 --> 00:37:16,780 Ping Yu: the specific plant but in that case do you have any a specific way of naming 498 00:37:16,780 --> 00:37:17,600 Ping Yu: your cultivars? 499 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:29,740 John Ruter: Yeah, so basically when I started releasing cultivars, the industry has gone to this whole 500 00:37:30,340 --> 00:37:32,260 John Ruter: trademarking marketed names. 501 00:37:33,420 --> 00:37:41,360 John Ruter: And so I had to come up with a system of being able to identify plants from my breeding program, 502 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:45,720 John Ruter: but give it one of these nonsensical cultivar names. 503 00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:52,780 John Ruter: And so in talking it over with the folks at UGARF, the Research Foundation at the university, 504 00:37:53,490 --> 00:37:57,380 John Ruter: we decided that we would, all my cultivars would start with RUT. 505 00:37:58,700 --> 00:37:58,820 Ping Yu: Yeah. 506 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:00,000 John Ruter: So for Ruter. 507 00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:00,420 Ping Yu: Yeah. 508 00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:06,820 John Ruter: And so you will find, so the hibiscus are all RutHib1 through RutHib5. 509 00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:08,800 John Ruter: So my model is... 510 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:16,680 John Ruter: first three letters of my last name, first three letters of the genus, and then so like on the Ilex we're up to 10. 511 00:38:17,580 --> 00:38:27,300 John Ruter: So it's RutIle01 to RutIle10 now. And so as far as the marketing names, 512 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:35,080 John Ruter: Emerald Colonnade was one that I suggested and came up with. Most of the companies 513 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:41,300 John Ruter: Yeah, certainly in the last 10 to 15 years, they want to come up with their own marketing 514 00:38:41,380 --> 00:38:42,260 John Ruter: name for the plant. 515 00:38:43,300 --> 00:38:50,240 John Ruter: They'll take suggestions, but they generally want to come up with, if it's series, like 516 00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:51,320 John Ruter: with the hibiscus. 517 00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,620 John Ruter: or the Ilex or whatever. 518 00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:59,360 John Ruter: So the companies want to name the marketing name, 519 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:02,300 John Ruter: the trademark name, as well as the series name. 520 00:39:02,540 --> 00:39:02,720 Ping Yu: Yeah. 521 00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:05,480 John Ruter: And so we can have input with that, 522 00:39:05,580 --> 00:39:07,500 John Ruter: but if we're just particularly passionate. 523 00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:14,839 John Ruter: about naming something. Again, Emerald Colonnade, I said, "Hey, I really like that name. This is what I want to go with." 524 00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:21,660 John Ruter: But as far as the actual cultivar name that's given to the plant, yeah, there's a method to it. 525 00:39:22,540 --> 00:39:28,260 John Ruter: So you might see something from NC State would start with NC, for example. 526 00:39:28,660 --> 00:39:28,760 John Ruter: Yeah. 527 00:39:29,500 --> 00:39:31,940 John Ruter: And so there's different ways of doing it. 528 00:39:32,300 --> 00:39:37,720 John Ruter: Some of it would be the breeder's three initials and then just some numbered code. 529 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:43,760 Ping Yu: Yeah, well, I always say for all those breeders that I know breeders 530 00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:50,580 Ping Yu: always got something. They never retire. They keep going. They have all the babies to take care of. 531 00:39:54,060 --> 00:40:00,100 Ping Yu: But what are some of the next steps that you are very excited about with your breeding program? 532 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:07,460 John Ruter: So yeah, on the hibiscus front, we got kind of stuck at having the same flower colors. 533 00:40:08,420 --> 00:40:14,360 John Ruter: So we would have white, we have blush, we have pink, and occasionally get red out there. 534 00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:18,340 John Ruter: And so I've got a graduate PhD student now that's, 535 00:40:19,060 --> 00:40:22,120 John Ruter: basically what we've done is we've taken all six species. 536 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:25,300 John Ruter: and crossed everything in both directions, 537 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:28,600 John Ruter: and then grew out the F1 population. 538 00:40:28,940 --> 00:40:30,080 John Ruter: And then this year, 539 00:40:31,060 --> 00:40:33,360 John Ruter: we've actually grown out the F2 population. 540 00:40:33,500 --> 00:40:34,860 John Ruter: So we're starting to see that, 541 00:40:35,260 --> 00:40:37,560 John Ruter: you know, segregation of recessive traits. 542 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:39,340 John Ruter: And so we're getting some, you know, 543 00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:42,620 John Ruter: really novel leaf forms and flower colors. 544 00:40:43,700 --> 00:40:46,740 John Ruter: We've also, you know, we've never really done mutagenesis. 545 00:40:47,300 --> 00:40:50,320 John Ruter: on the plants, whether it be chemical or physical. 546 00:40:51,140 --> 00:40:52,900 John Ruter: And so she's done work on that. 547 00:40:53,740 --> 00:41:02,080 John Ruter: She's doing work with HPLC, liquid chromatography, trying to figure out what the pathways are, 548 00:41:02,180 --> 00:41:10,000 John Ruter: what are the actual flavonols and anthocyanidins that are creating these colors and what are 549 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:11,180 John Ruter: the possibilities. 550 00:41:11,500 --> 00:41:16,040 John Ruter: you know, should we ever get to the point that we could do CRISPR or something like that? 551 00:41:16,140 --> 00:41:16,240 John Ruter: Yeah. 552 00:41:16,620 --> 00:41:23,820 John Ruter: You know, we would know what pathway that we're working with and, you know, what we need to slow down, what we need to speed up, 553 00:41:25,240 --> 00:41:28,400 John Ruter: you know, to get novel colors out of 554 00:41:28,700 --> 00:41:36,540 John Ruter: that material. And then we're also doing some molecular work on them as well. 555 00:41:36,900 --> 00:41:43,000 John Ruter: And so for Hibiscus moscheutos, we're going to be looking at annotating the genome 556 00:41:43,170 --> 00:41:45,200 John Ruter: and then looking at the other species. 557 00:41:46,720 --> 00:41:52,320 John Ruter: doing you know so sort of some molecular guided breeding for the future. 558 00:41:53,540 --> 00:41:57,840 Ping Yu: And you, I know that you have how many, you have more than three students working on different 559 00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:03,260 Ping Yu: projects and then hibiscus is just one of them. Yeah, right now I got five. Gosh. 560 00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:09,520 Ping Yu: And I know one of them are working, I think I met three of them and one of them I know they're 561 00:42:09,720 --> 00:42:15,080 Ping Yu: working on the hibiscus leaf color with HPLC and everything and then another one. 562 00:42:15,500 --> 00:42:21,500 Ping Yu: working on basil or is a basil students graduated? Mountain mint, 563 00:42:21,660 --> 00:42:26,620 John Ruter: Pycnanthemum. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so that's another plant that's not really in the trade. A 564 00:42:26,620 --> 00:42:33,320 John Ruter: few native nurseries are growing it. We have I believe 16 or 17 of the 19 native 565 00:42:33,460 --> 00:42:37,720 John Ruter: species of it. We just completed a four-year garden trial. 566 00:42:38,300 --> 00:42:44,120 John Ruter: Looking at how the different species grow, there's only two named cultivars that we're aware of. 567 00:42:44,500 --> 00:42:51,660 John Ruter: So it's a fantastic pollinator plant. We're trying to get a paper published on what visits the Pycnanthemum plants. 568 00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:53,640 John Ruter: It does definitely bring in the pollinators. 569 00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:59,220 John Ruter: But there's, like with any wild plant, there's some traits. 570 00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:01,720 John Ruter: Some of the species drop their leaves when they go reproductive. 571 00:43:01,980 --> 00:43:05,280 John Ruter: Some of the species get more plant hoppers or whatever. 572 00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:08,600 John Ruter: Some of the species are compact, some of the species lodge. 573 00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:14,380 John Ruter: Some of the species look like they might have cut flower potential for dried cut flowers. 574 00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:18,160 John Ruter: some of the species might have uses for essential oils. 575 00:43:18,860 --> 00:43:24,620 John Ruter: A lot of them smell quite, you can almost tell the species just by the scent of the foliage. 576 00:43:24,900 --> 00:43:28,320 John Ruter: So yes, I have a student working on mountain mint. 577 00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:33,980 John Ruter: I've got another student working on ploidy manipulation, sterility, all that sort of stuff. 578 00:43:34,060 --> 00:43:39,560 John Ruter: And there's nobody I know that ever doubled the chromosomes of evergreen hollies. 579 00:43:40,100 --> 00:43:45,800 John Ruter: And so we've done that with an Asian species and our native Ilex vomitoria. 580 00:43:46,420 --> 00:43:50,680 John Ruter: We're doing some collaborative work, just getting a real program really started looking 581 00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:54,860 John Ruter: at Ilex vomitoria potentially as a native tea plant. 582 00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,200 John Ruter: So it's our only North American native that produces caffeine. 583 00:43:59,060 --> 00:44:00,900 John Ruter: It's a substantial amount. 584 00:44:01,180 --> 00:44:03,560 John Ruter: So collaborations there. 585 00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:08,560 John Ruter: I had a student that was working on American chestnut, trying to do somatic embryogenesis 586 00:44:08,720 --> 00:44:09,920 John Ruter: and other things. 587 00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:15,200 John Ruter: And then final student who should be finishing this fall, she's been working on breeding 588 00:44:15,339 --> 00:44:16,359 John Ruter: Salvia coccinea. 589 00:44:16,720 --> 00:44:16,800 Ping Yu: Yeah. 590 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:22,080 John Ruter: trying to come up with some novel colors and as well as doubling the chromosomes of 591 00:44:22,260 --> 00:44:25,700 John Ruter: Lagerstroemia, crepe myrtle, which has been a challenge. 592 00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:29,540 John Ruter: Not the easiest plant to try and double the chromosomes. 593 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:34,940 Ping Yu: Yeah, so basically in your program, you're like in combination with the traditional breeding 594 00:44:35,660 --> 00:44:40,220 Ping Yu: techniques in combination with some of the new technologies that 595 00:44:40,300 --> 00:44:48,000 Ping Yu: such as CRISPR and other molecular tools to do a different project with your breeding work? 596 00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:54,480 John Ruter: Yeah, so I would consider myself a traditional breeder, intra- and interspecific hybrids, mutagenesis, 597 00:44:54,740 --> 00:44:55,680 John Ruter: ploidy manipulation. 598 00:44:56,200 --> 00:45:04,060 John Ruter: Just now getting into the molecular world, again, doing genotyping by sequencing and various 599 00:45:04,420 --> 00:45:09,500 John Ruter: methods to map the genomes or look at the populations and diversity and relatedness 600 00:45:09,579 --> 00:45:13,300 John Ruter: and those sorts of things to make more educated breeding decisions. 601 00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:18,680 John Ruter: CRISPR's still a ways down the line. I'm not doing any of that yet. 602 00:45:18,860 --> 00:45:24,320 Ping Yu: But if you are going to do that in the future, you need this other base information. 603 00:45:25,460 --> 00:45:29,560 John Ruter: Having the genome annotated and those sorts of things. 604 00:45:29,660 --> 00:45:29,820 John Ruter: Yeah. 605 00:45:30,020 --> 00:45:30,120 John Ruter: Yeah. 606 00:45:33,420 --> 00:45:37,440 Ping Yu: And I don't know how many graduate students have graduated from your breeding program, 607 00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:40,900 Ping Yu: and a lot of them I know are very successful. 608 00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:42,660 Ping Yu: and the fact that 609 00:45:42,800 --> 00:45:46,340 Ping Yu: in one of the ISHS germplasm symposium 610 00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:49,300 Ping Yu: that three of your students got first place, 611 00:45:49,500 --> 00:45:50,760 Ping Yu: second place, and third place 612 00:45:50,780 --> 00:45:53,760 Ping Yu: of all those awards for students, which is great. 613 00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:57,560 Ping Yu: So can you tell us or share some of your suggestions 614 00:45:57,780 --> 00:46:00,720 Ping Yu: for any of those students who wanted 615 00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:03,940 Ping Yu: to become a successful breeder like you 616 00:46:04,220 --> 00:46:08,620 Ping Yu: or for any of other faculty members who are younger? 617 00:46:09,100 --> 00:46:17,120 Ping Yu: junior faculty or breeders out there who wanted to set them up for long-term success. Can you share some of your suggestions? 618 00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:23,160 John Ruter: Yeah, I think one part is being a good major professor. 619 00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:24,500 John Ruter: you know my 620 00:46:25,100 --> 00:46:31,260 John Ruter: method of doing it is, you know, we agree on a project and then I turn the 621 00:46:31,300 --> 00:46:36,360 John Ruter: students loose to do it. I don't baby them, I don't hold their hand, I don't call 622 00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:41,060 John Ruter: them every day and say this is what you're doing today. I expect them to do 623 00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:46,460 John Ruter: that. If I have the resources available, I actually let them actually hire their 624 00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:47,900 John Ruter: own student labor. 625 00:46:48,500 --> 00:46:54,640 John Ruter: to help them. So that helps them become a manager, which particularly if you're going to go into the industry 626 00:46:55,800 --> 00:47:02,880 John Ruter: or even in academics, you know, it's beneficial to learn how to be a boss and deal with hiring and 627 00:47:04,100 --> 00:47:10,400 John Ruter: letting people go and people not showing up and doing, you know, training them how you want things done and 628 00:47:10,900 --> 00:47:13,319 John Ruter: how to get everything labeled and do all that. 629 00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:16,380 John Ruter: So that's, I think that's one of the things. 630 00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:20,319 John Ruter: Being available when they need you, you know, 631 00:47:20,569 --> 00:47:21,240 John Ruter: within reason. 632 00:47:21,589 --> 00:47:26,740 John Ruter: And so just being there to chat and talk and, you know, 633 00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:28,059 John Ruter: be available, have fun. 634 00:47:28,680 --> 00:47:29,140 John Ruter: Very important. 635 00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:32,500 John Ruter: Yeah, you know, have a good time. 636 00:47:33,180 --> 00:47:38,040 John Ruter: Yeah, getting them getting them out getting them introduced to the different companies 637 00:47:38,380 --> 00:47:42,600 John Ruter: and to meetings and other people in the industry I think is very, very important. 638 00:47:43,410 --> 00:47:47,900 John Ruter: So I tried to take all my students on to professional meetings or. 639 00:47:49,039 --> 00:47:54,039 John Ruter: whether it be something like IPPS or an ISHS meeting or ASHS. 640 00:47:55,359 --> 00:47:58,660 John Ruter: I just had one of my students and my trial garden manager, 641 00:47:58,670 --> 00:48:01,400 John Ruter: we were just up at the International Plant Trialing Conference. 642 00:48:02,220 --> 00:48:05,819 John Ruter: So getting your students as much experience. Whenever breeders come, 643 00:48:06,020 --> 00:48:09,779 John Ruter: or I mean companies, nurseries, programs come by, 644 00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:13,319 John Ruter: if the students are available, I ask them to be out there and participate. 645 00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:16,100 John Ruter: and talk about your crops. 646 00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:17,020 John Ruter: What are you doing? 647 00:48:17,100 --> 00:48:18,140 John Ruter: What are the interesting things? 648 00:48:18,240 --> 00:48:19,020 John Ruter: What have you found? 649 00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:21,080 John Ruter: Show them your elite selections 650 00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,460 John Ruter: and be involved in the whole process. 651 00:48:25,300 --> 00:48:28,080 John Ruter: And I let them come up with ideas 652 00:48:28,780 --> 00:48:31,960 John Ruter: and they can come and talk to me and say, 653 00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:34,040 John Ruter: "Hey, it would be great to have X." 654 00:48:34,200 --> 00:48:37,720 John Ruter: Yeah, I'm like, okay, how are we going to benefit from having X? 655 00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:41,140 John Ruter: If it's affordable and reasonable, I'll get it for the program. 656 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:41,660 Ping Yu: Yeah. 657 00:48:42,599 --> 00:48:49,920 John Ruter: And so I think, and then being available and being firm, but pleasant. 658 00:48:51,420 --> 00:48:51,520 John Ruter: Yeah. 659 00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:53,560 John Ruter: You got to get your work done, but we can have fun too. 660 00:48:53,720 --> 00:48:55,579 John Ruter: I just have a fantastic group right now. 661 00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:55,980 Ping Yu: Yeah. 662 00:48:56,200 --> 00:48:57,640 John Ruter: They all get along with each other. 663 00:48:57,640 --> 00:48:58,780 John Ruter: They all help each other. 664 00:48:59,720 --> 00:49:01,320 John Ruter: they do things outside of. 665 00:49:01,900 --> 00:49:04,940 John Ruter: you know, school and research together. 666 00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:09,339 John Ruter: And they're, you know, they're a blast to travel with. 667 00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:13,240 John Ruter: And I think back when I would only have one or two students 668 00:49:13,339 --> 00:49:15,680 John Ruter: at the time, you know, particularly the PhD students, 669 00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:18,980 John Ruter: I'd usually try to take them on like one big trip. 670 00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:26,440 John Ruter: during their program where we head up the Atlantic or we go along the Gulf Coast and just 671 00:49:27,220 --> 00:49:32,380 John Ruter: introduce them to everybody you can in seven days. Yeah. And visit nurseries and 672 00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:39,500 John Ruter: garden centers and whatever. Yeah and also more importantly I think it's the networking 673 00:49:40,140 --> 00:49:44,619 Ping Yu: because that's where the potential opportunity come out down the road you never know. 674 00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:49,640 John Ruter: Yeah, so I've got a couple students in industry working as plant breeders now. 675 00:49:49,660 --> 00:49:54,320 John Ruter: And it's a lot of it's because, you know, one was that they had outgoing personalities, 676 00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:56,680 John Ruter: but two, getting them introduced to the right people. 677 00:49:57,420 --> 00:50:02,860 John Ruter: Sitting down and having lunch with the right people at some meeting and being able to make 678 00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:06,500 John Ruter: those connections for them and then see their success. 679 00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:07,660 John Ruter: And yeah. 680 00:50:08,100 --> 00:50:15,680 Ping Yu: Yeah, look after your kids. Oh yeah, oh yeah. With that in mind, if people want to keep a finger on 681 00:50:15,740 --> 00:50:20,420 Ping Yu: the pulse of what you are doing, following along with your breeding work, where do you recommend 682 00:50:20,420 --> 00:50:26,460 Ping Yu: they go and look for more? Yeah, the best thing would be to come visit us. You have to be very 683 00:50:26,700 --> 00:50:31,860 John Ruter: careful with plant breeding, of putting stuff up on the internet and... 684 00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:34,760 John Ruter: People are welcome to take pictures when they come visit. 685 00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:37,440 John Ruter: They have to realize that it's for in-house use only. 686 00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:38,240 John Ruter: Yes. 687 00:50:38,700 --> 00:50:45,900 John Ruter: And because, yeah, if somebody posts a picture of something of yours and that is taken as 688 00:50:46,260 --> 00:50:49,760 John Ruter: being for sale, it starts a clock on a patent application. 689 00:50:50,500 --> 00:50:52,060 John Ruter: And you only have a year. 690 00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:55,560 John Ruter: Somebody accidentally puts it in their catalog and doesn't tell you. 691 00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:56,080 John Ruter: You have... 692 00:50:56,300 --> 00:51:01,300 John Ruter: one year from the time that catalog comes out to suddenly get that plant patented and 693 00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:04,020 John Ruter: everybody's really good about doing that and 694 00:51:05,720 --> 00:51:11,600 John Ruter: But yeah, come to meetings where I'm presenting. Come visit us. We're more than happy to give you a tour and 695 00:51:12,100 --> 00:51:29,660 Ping Yu: Yeah, if you're going. Yeah, the trial garden at UGA is just gorgeous, and John is the director of the trial garden, and he also, of course, he's a faculty with University of Georgia. You can always find his profile online. And yeah, that sounds great. Thank you, John. It was great. 696 00:51:30,300 --> 00:51:31,880 John Ruter: Thank you for having me. 697 00:51:32,020 --> 00:51:33,280 Ping Yu: Of course, thank you. 698 00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:39,860 Ping Yu: It's always good to talk about things that you normally wouldn't in other occasions. 699 00:51:44,160 --> 00:51:49,900 Ping Yu: I thank Dr. John Ruter for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with us. 700 00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:55,640 Ping Yu: And as always, go check with the show notes to learn more about this topic and other topics 701 00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:56,840 Ping Yu: we featured on the show. 702 00:51:57,320 --> 00:52:02,820 Ping Yu: Make sure you hit that subscription button, consider giving a review for the podcast, 703 00:52:03,140 --> 00:52:05,740 Ping Yu: and donating to the podcast to support the show. 704 00:52:05,900 --> 00:52:07,059 Ping Yu: Thank you for listening. 705 00:52:07,319 --> 00:52:09,839 Ping Yu: Till the next time, stay healthy and go plants!