1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:06,180 Ping Yu: (music) Hello, everyone. 2 00:00:06,260 --> 00:00:13,500 Ping Yu: Welcome to the Blooms and Beyond podcast, a podcast that uncovers plant history, culture and management through the lens of science. 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:15,000 Ping Yu: I'm your host, Ping. 4 00:00:15,420 --> 00:00:16,480 Ping Yu: How's everyone doing today? 5 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:21,180 Ping Yu: Without further ado, here is part two with Dr. Dave Creech. 6 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:22,000 Ping Yu: I hope you enjoy. 7 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:32,380 Ping Yu: (music) Another thing that I remember a lot when I visited the garden, 'cause you guys have a lot of connections in azalea, camellia, 8 00:00:32,420 --> 00:00:34,760 Ping Yu: and Japanese maple, and magnolia, you mentioned. 9 00:00:35,100 --> 00:00:39,460 Ping Yu: Are you saying most of those are from, or connections from Asia? 10 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:43,960 Dave Creech: No, on the azalea world- The azalea world is changing. 11 00:00:44,220 --> 00:00:53,600 Dave Creech: So they are Asian, and Japan, Korea, China, Nepal, etc. There's lots of- Rhododendron's a very, very big (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) genus. 12 00:00:54,220 --> 00:00:59,620 Dave Creech: About half of, or maybe a third of our azaleas really took it on the chin. 13 00:01:00,020 --> 00:01:01,820 Dave Creech: Minus four degrees was too much. 14 00:01:01,900 --> 00:01:04,940 Dave Creech: Some indicas went to the ground, Kurumes were better. 15 00:01:05,780 --> 00:01:06,940 Dave Creech: Some of the hybrid groups. 16 00:01:07,060 --> 00:01:08,900 Dave Creech: So we had, we had a lot of problems. 17 00:01:08,940 --> 00:01:13,160 Dave Creech: And so we did not allow a single pruner in there for over a year. 18 00:01:13,260 --> 00:01:14,660 Dave Creech: I wanted to see the plant. 19 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:23,180 Dave Creech: And so in many cases it would've been better if you'd have gone into the landscape and seen some damage, and just cut it off at the ground and start 20 00:01:23,260 --> 00:01:24,000 Dave Creech: over again. 21 00:01:24,620 --> 00:01:27,600 Dave Creech: But we lost some, we lost some azaleas completely. 22 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:30,140 Dave Creech: The same thing is true on camellias. 23 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:35,000 Dave Creech: We had a lot of edgy camellia species that I was real excited about. 24 00:01:35,060 --> 00:01:41,640 Dave Creech: I'm talking trees 20 feet tall, 15 to 20 feet tall, and now there's a sprout from the ground. 25 00:01:41,740 --> 00:01:43,220 Dave Creech: You know, it's not a pretty picture. 26 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:46,640 Dave Creech: And then the Japanese maples, unaffected. 27 00:01:47,220 --> 00:01:54,940 Dave Creech: Japanese maple's a very special plant, and we got into them in the 1980s, so we now have nearly 40-year-old Japanese maples. 28 00:01:55,020 --> 00:01:57,740 Dave Creech: And they're not like me, they get better with age. 29 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:02,340 Dave Creech: (laughs) The older a Japanese maple it is, the better it is. 30 00:02:02,940 --> 00:02:07,700 Dave Creech: And we just have some of the most beautiful maples, and I knew nothing, Ping, about maples. 31 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:18,500 Dave Creech: And Japanese maples are different in the sense that there's so many cultivars you can't- Cultivars that are this big, and cultivars that are huge, and weeping, and 32 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:20,440 Dave Creech: thin leaf, and thread leaf. 33 00:02:20,500 --> 00:02:22,200 Dave Creech: There's six different types of leaf. 34 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:24,280 Dave Creech: They're all fine for us. 35 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:25,920 Dave Creech: I mean, we do rather well with them. 36 00:02:25,980 --> 00:02:28,860 Dave Creech: We have acid soils under a high canopy pine forest. 37 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:32,120 Dave Creech: We do know one thing, drainage, drainage. 38 00:02:32,180 --> 00:02:36,960 Dave Creech: They have to be- We plant- We don't ever plant a Japanese maple in our bottomland gardens. 39 00:02:37,020 --> 00:02:42,200 Dave Creech: We put it on top of the ground and then build up a berm so it sits on a knoll. 40 00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:46,560 Dave Creech: Drainage will- poor drainage will kill Japanese maples. 41 00:02:47,300 --> 00:02:53,240 Dave Creech: And we've discovered quite quickly that they're- Once they're established, they're very drought resistant here. 42 00:02:54,120 --> 00:03:00,040 Dave Creech: And the quality of the fall show- So we have a fall show that starts the first week of December. 43 00:03:00,300 --> 00:03:10,320 Dave Creech: Never knew this was gonna happen, and it just was by accident, because we planted Japanese maples, a wide range of varieties, and I got the first batch of 50 44 00:03:10,380 --> 00:03:12,760 Dave Creech: from Del's Maple in the Northwest. 45 00:03:13,260 --> 00:03:15,020 Dave Creech: And he said, "What varieties do you want?" 46 00:03:15,540 --> 00:03:17,580 Dave Creech: I said, "Just send me 50 different varieties. 47 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:19,460 Dave Creech: I don't know anything about maples. 48 00:03:19,540 --> 00:03:22,180 Dave Creech: Just send me something that can stand it to be really hot. 49 00:03:22,700 --> 00:03:23,360 Dave Creech: It's Texas." 50 00:03:23,780 --> 00:03:24,380 Dave Creech: And he did. 51 00:03:24,660 --> 00:03:27,440 Dave Creech: And they were $2.95 for grafted liners. 52 00:03:27,780 --> 00:03:27,800 Ping Yu: Mm. 53 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:29,680 Dave Creech: $2.95, nothing. 54 00:03:30,460 --> 00:03:33,660 Dave Creech: And we planted them all out, many of those are still here. 55 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:34,820 Dave Creech: Most of them are still here. 56 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:40,340 Dave Creech: And the other thing that's interesting about Japanese maples is it doesn't seem to have a chilling requirement. 57 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:46,620 Dave Creech: It can grow it in Houston, as long as you have drainage, and you can grow it in Minnesota. 58 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:55,840 Dave Creech: And so what's going on there, it's probably has to do with photoperiod, is what I think, is that it really responds more to the photoperiod than it does to 59 00:03:55,900 --> 00:03:59,360 Dave Creech: the absolute hours under 45 degrees chilling requirement. 60 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:04,520 Dave Creech: And we have really very few problems with Japanese maples. 61 00:04:04,580 --> 00:04:12,840 Dave Creech: Our number one problem that we have is young plants being liberated and taken home by visitors. 62 00:04:12,860 --> 00:04:15,400 Dave Creech: (laughs) And we're working on that right now. 63 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,200 Dave Creech: We do have some cameras up, but that's a real problem. 64 00:04:18,260 --> 00:04:19,500 Dave Creech: People like Japanese maples- (Ping Yu: Oh, yeah.) 65 00:04:19,620 --> 00:04:20,399 Ping Yu: They are, they are pretty. 66 00:04:20,399 --> 00:04:21,500 Dave Creech: And they are pricey. 67 00:04:22,220 --> 00:04:23,040 Dave Creech: Very expensive. 68 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:31,680 Dave Creech: A good size, anything over a two inch is worth a lot of money, $400 or $500 wholesale really, a good sized Japanese maple. 69 00:04:31,780 --> 00:04:35,580 Dave Creech: And we have very few people in Texas that are growing maples. 70 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:41,440 Dave Creech: They're bringing them in from the Northwest nurseries, and they bring them in on tractor trailers. 71 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:45,700 Dave Creech: And they're expensive because of the transportation costs, and that you can't cinch them. 72 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:54,920 Dave Creech: So I don't know if your audience knows what that means, but that means you can't take a tree, put a net over it, and then tighten it up so 73 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:57,720 Dave Creech: that it's just a pole and you can stack them up like poles. 74 00:04:58,340 --> 00:04:59,720 Dave Creech: Japanese maples will break. 75 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:01,620 Dave Creech: They cannot be cinched. 76 00:05:01,660 --> 00:05:05,360 Dave Creech: They have to be fitted (Ping Yu: Yeah) perfectly, and they're real brittle. 77 00:05:05,380 --> 00:05:07,160 Dave Creech: They're- You know, it's a big problem. 78 00:05:08,020 --> 00:05:17,120 Dave Creech: So we've ended up with over 400 varieties of Japanese maple, and then we work with a lady, Jen's Maple, Tennessee, in, in Tennessee. 79 00:05:17,280 --> 00:05:17,680 Ping Yu: I know her. 80 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:19,040 Dave Creech: Yeah, she's awesome. 81 00:05:19,780 --> 00:05:21,560 Dave Creech: She's awe- She comes to IPPS. 82 00:05:21,620 --> 00:05:22,500 Dave Creech: She's awesome. 83 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:27,780 Dave Creech: And we work a little bit with Heritage, and we work with Hidden Hollow. 84 00:05:27,940 --> 00:05:29,680 Dave Creech: We get some stuff out of Hidden Hollow. 85 00:05:29,740 --> 00:05:32,360 Dave Creech: And, and then we do our own, we graft our own. 86 00:05:33,020 --> 00:05:42,940 Dave Creech: And so that's a lot of fun in classes and everything and- But you do have to watch your- watch- You can drown a maple pretty easily in a 87 00:05:43,580 --> 00:05:45,300 Dave Creech: container nursery operation. 88 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:49,760 Dave Creech: And if you skip a watering every now and then, it's probably- They like that variable. 89 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:57,460 Dave Creech: We've ki- we've hurt maples at the nursery here by consistent daily water in a regular nursery shade house. 90 00:05:57,500 --> 00:06:00,640 Dave Creech: And, you know, you can, you can blow their roots away pretty quickly. 91 00:06:00,720 --> 00:06:03,220 Dave Creech: So they are sensitive to wet feet. 92 00:06:03,260 --> 00:06:04,820 Dave Creech: That's a major issue with them. 93 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:11,500 Dave Creech: On the camellia world, we have Bobby Green and Maarten van der Giessen, and have helped us so much in the Mobile area. 94 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:19,280 Dave Creech: And Bobby's introduced a lot of plants that are bulletproof for this freeze as well, but there were a lot of camellias here. 95 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:23,220 Dave Creech: I, I love camellia species, just the straight species. 96 00:06:24,020 --> 00:06:34,120 Dave Creech: And just to confuse your audience, there's two that we got that are yuhsienensis and gauchowensis, and these were in bloom 97 00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:35,780 Dave Creech: when minus four hit. 98 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:39,620 Dave Creech: It knocked the blooms off, but didn't hurt the trees at all. 99 00:06:40,420 --> 00:06:43,820 Dave Creech: So there's some genetics out there (Ping Yu: Yeah), they're Yunnan. 100 00:06:43,860 --> 00:06:49,520 Dave Creech: There's some genetics in the camellia world that's very, very hardy, and we offered them out. 101 00:06:49,540 --> 00:06:52,820 Dave Creech: The minute I saw something like that, what do I do? 102 00:06:52,900 --> 00:06:54,000 Dave Creech: I go propagate them. 103 00:06:54,560 --> 00:07:02,920 Dave Creech: Here's something that can take a minus four event in bloom and just re- kind of came back and had another crop of blooms that had some buds that 104 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:04,120 Dave Creech: didn't get damaged. 105 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:07,880 Dave Creech: So we need to be looking at that constantly. 106 00:07:07,919 --> 00:07:18,220 Dave Creech: And Ping, I always like to tell audiences and people that the best investment that you make is in an arboretum or botanical garden that's involved in long-term 107 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:19,440 Dave Creech: evaluation. 108 00:07:20,180 --> 00:07:24,500 Dave Creech: So we spent 30, 40 years waiting for minus four degrees. 109 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:26,540 Dave Creech: This is a torture test. 110 00:07:26,620 --> 00:07:27,820 Dave Creech: We're waiting on it. 111 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:38,160 Dave Creech: And when you have 31 gardenias that are nice plants in the landscape, 31 different gardenias, we have two that really survived. 112 00:07:38,300 --> 00:07:40,280 Dave Creech: The rest of them, down to the ground. 113 00:07:40,300 --> 00:07:43,860 Dave Creech: And some of them are promoted by the nurseries, not making fun of them. 114 00:07:44,540 --> 00:07:45,700 Dave Creech: Arctic Frost. 115 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:49,500 Dave Creech: Now, doesn't that kind of imply that this thing's gonna be hardy? 116 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:52,280 Dave Creech: Well, it went to the ground and below. 117 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:59,620 Dave Creech: So the point is, is that time is a wonderful friend to a garden, and you can learn a lot about a plant. 118 00:08:00,340 --> 00:08:02,380 Dave Creech: But we still won't learn, in some cases. 119 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:05,460 Dave Creech: Look at Rhaphiolepis indica, Indian hawthorn. 120 00:08:06,020 --> 00:08:15,920 Dave Creech: I've watched it die forever, '83, '89, in 2021, and yet we still gravitate back to it. 121 00:08:15,980 --> 00:08:25,400 Dave Creech: There's huge beds of Indian hawthorn everywhere in Texas, and it takes a year or two, people forget, and the next thing you know it's back in the business trade. 122 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:30,160 Dave Creech: So we really need to look pretty seriously at our shrub world. 123 00:08:30,420 --> 00:08:39,900 Dave Creech: Most of- A lot of our trees, native trees are fine, but our shrub world needs to be- Put an emphasis on trying to find something that is sustainable, and 124 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:44,720 Dave Creech: not just another candidate for debris removal when we have another one of these events. 125 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:55,320 Ping Yu: (music) You mentioned that evaluation is very important to maintain a garden in the long run, 126 00:08:55,400 --> 00:09:04,480 Ping Yu: but what kind of characteristics besides- 'Cause you briefly mentioned the hardness of the plant species over the years. 127 00:09:04,860 --> 00:09:15,399 Ping Yu: Besides that, what are other characteristics that you think g- a garden or people who are interested in those plants should be evaluating, 128 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:16,380 Dave Creech: Very good point. 129 00:09:16,860 --> 00:09:17,060 Dave Creech: Yeah. 130 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:24,420 Dave Creech: Okay, this one, one that we think, that we believe pretty firmly is that East Texas has some fall color. 131 00:09:24,860 --> 00:09:25,340 Ping Yu: Some. 132 00:09:25,420 --> 00:09:25,820 Dave Creech: Some. 133 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:27,520 Ping Yu: Oh, oh, only a little. 134 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:34,280 Ping Yu: (laughs) But it is- Dave Creech: It isn't the northeast, you know, where the whole mountainsides turn ablaze, and we have very few reds. 135 00:09:35,060 --> 00:09:38,220 Dave Creech: And so there's a plant that's been out in America. 136 00:09:38,680 --> 00:09:44,940 Dave Creech: It was discovered in Zhejiang Province, Ping, and it's Parrotia subaequalis. 137 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:45,020 Ping Yu: Mm-hmm. 138 00:09:45,020 --> 00:09:45,780 Dave Creech: Do you know this plant? 139 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:46,700 Ping Yu: No, I don't think so. 140 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:50,520 Dave Creech: This is a shame (laughs) that you don't know this plant. 141 00:09:50,580 --> 00:09:53,020 Dave Creech: This is a Chinese plant, and it's a Parrotia. 142 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:59,580 Dave Creech: It's an ironwood, and it's re- directly related to Parrotia persica, which is Persian witch hazel. 143 00:10:00,340 --> 00:10:10,760 Dave Creech: But all the way across the globe there in China, in Zhejiang is this rare plant that wasn't really described until the 1990s. 144 00:10:10,780 --> 00:10:11,880 Ping Yu: Wow. 145 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,960 Dave Creech: It's faster growing, it's easier to root. 146 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:24,640 Dave Creech: It is fire engine red in the fall, and it has some hardiness built into it that we did not have any troubles with minus four. 147 00:10:25,380 --> 00:10:26,580 Dave Creech: Now get out of the way. 148 00:10:26,740 --> 00:10:31,880 Dave Creech: Do you want a fire engine red foliaged Parrotia ironwood? 149 00:10:32,100 --> 00:10:33,880 Dave Creech: I think that's a wonderful plant. 150 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:34,900 Dave Creech: It's drought resistant. 151 00:10:34,940 --> 00:10:36,720 Dave Creech: It's got a lot of things going for it. 152 00:10:37,220 --> 00:10:40,060 Dave Creech: So that's one of the frustrations as a horticulturist. 153 00:10:40,460 --> 00:10:42,040 Dave Creech: It looks bulletproof to me. 154 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:43,420 Dave Creech: I've scattered it around. 155 00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:45,860 Dave Creech: I don't think it'll do good in College Station. 156 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:50,980 Dave Creech: I think it'll do wonderful in your backyard, but it just needs to be promoted more. 157 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:54,360 Dave Creech: People say, "Parrotia subaequalis, what is that?" 158 00:10:55,180 --> 00:10:57,380 Dave Creech: It doesn't have a common name really. 159 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:02,700 Dave Creech: Ironwood, Chinese ironwood, that doesn't sound (Ping Yu: No) very appealing to me. 160 00:11:03,340 --> 00:11:05,000 Dave Creech: And so you end up with this. 161 00:11:05,060 --> 00:11:10,260 Dave Creech: So I have another plant that I can't seem to get people excited about. 162 00:11:10,300 --> 00:11:12,280 Dave Creech: It's called Myrcianthes fragrans. 163 00:11:12,380 --> 00:11:13,720 Dave Creech: Are you aware of this plant? 164 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:16,120 Dave Creech: Myrcianthes fragrans. 165 00:11:16,540 --> 00:11:17,960 Dave Creech: It's called Simpson's stopper. 166 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:19,160 Ping Yu: Simpson's stopper. 167 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:19,540 Ping Yu: Okay. 168 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:20,920 Dave Creech: Okay. 169 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:30,000 Dave Creech: Now this plant, I had it from- A friend of mine gave me it out, out of University of Florida, and it's actually kind of popular locally around the western 170 00:11:30,060 --> 00:11:34,340 Dave Creech: side (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) of Florida, and it's a sand dune tree to about 12 feet. 171 00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:35,180 Ping Yu: Ah. 172 00:11:35,220 --> 00:11:39,960 Dave Creech: Myrcianthes fragrans is- It's very, very salt tolerant. 173 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:41,900 Dave Creech: So I had one in the garden. 174 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:48,880 Dave Creech: I had one or, or two or three in the garden here that were at SFA, and they grew rather well, and they went down into the lower teens, in 175 00:11:48,920 --> 00:11:50,980 Dave Creech: the high single digits, no problem at all. 176 00:11:51,460 --> 00:11:54,440 Dave Creech: Minus four took it to the ground, but it grew back vigorously. 177 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:56,100 Dave Creech: I've put it at Moody Gardens. 178 00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:05,960 Dave Creech: We have a project, two-acre project at Moody Gardens, a wonderful- Looking for salt tolerant plants for the future, and I put it down there. 179 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:10,700 Dave Creech: And get this, it's evergreen, cleanest foliage you've ever seen. 180 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:12,880 Dave Creech: You can get some clones now. 181 00:12:12,940 --> 00:12:15,600 Dave Creech: There's a variegated, there's a Mexican form. 182 00:12:15,700 --> 00:12:16,780 Dave Creech: I got some from Cuba. 183 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:19,060 Dave Creech: So we're looking at diversity in it. 184 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:20,200 Dave Creech: It has white flowers. 185 00:12:20,260 --> 00:12:22,440 Dave Creech: It covers itself up (Ping Yu: Okay) with pollinator. 186 00:12:23,180 --> 00:12:29,860 Dave Creech: It has this orange fruit, kind of like a long pepp- small pepper, that's bright orangy red. 187 00:12:29,920 --> 00:12:31,920 Dave Creech: That's kind of attractive, evergreen. 188 00:12:32,460 --> 00:12:33,920 Dave Creech: Exfoliating bark. 189 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:38,880 Dave Creech: You can train it like a two-thirds top, and one-third trunks. 190 00:12:38,980 --> 00:12:41,140 Dave Creech: You can have then it's exfoliating bark. 191 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:47,840 Dave Creech: It's rather attractive dark bark, peeling bark, and the fruit cures diarrhea. 192 00:12:48,680 --> 00:12:51,520 Dave Creech: Is there anything more that you need in a plant? 193 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:56,620 Dave Creech: (laughs) If you think about it- This thing is- That's why they named it Simpson's stopper. 194 00:12:57,220 --> 00:13:01,080 Dave Creech: So basically- But- So anyway, I don't like- I think that may hurt it. 195 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:05,040 Dave Creech: That's a bad name, so we need to have another name for this plant. 196 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:13,280 Dave Creech: So, for the first time in the history of the world, I found that AgriStarts is starting it with a variety called Geode. 197 00:13:13,340 --> 00:13:16,900 Dave Creech: And so I've packed in some, and we're gonna make some distribution. 198 00:13:16,940 --> 00:13:19,240 Dave Creech: We have a project on Galveston Island. 199 00:13:19,860 --> 00:13:26,240 Dave Creech: Galveston Island is the ultimate torture test for all plants, salt, and wind, and everything leans. 200 00:13:26,300 --> 00:13:26,720 Dave Creech: It's hard. 201 00:13:27,020 --> 00:13:28,640 Dave Creech: It's a treeless island, let's face it. 202 00:13:28,700 --> 00:13:29,400 Dave Creech: It was treeless. 203 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:41,180 Dave Creech: So that's giving these plants that kind of torture test, and plants that perform well in College Station, Texas are getting alkalinity and water quality issue testing 204 00:13:41,220 --> 00:13:42,160 Dave Creech: (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) all the time. 205 00:13:42,820 --> 00:13:52,580 Dave Creech: And so that's the value of a botanical garden, just to look for plant materials that are not gonna fall apart under a freeze or a flood or- 206 00:13:52,660 --> 00:14:02,440 Dave Creech: Because the million, billions of dollars that we spend in debris removal is not a good idea (Ping Yu: Yeah) just in terms of ener- So it's a huge amount. 207 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:02,960 Dave Creech: Oh. 208 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:14,760 Dave Creech: Now, this gardenia, we found these two gardenias, and I've learned a lot about the psychology of this because I think the homeowners, the horticulturists in our communities 209 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:16,680 Dave Creech: and our cities would go for this. 210 00:14:17,540 --> 00:14:27,720 Dave Creech: I have yet to get- There's a gardenia called Whispering Pines, and it was discovered by Jim Berry at Daphne, Alabama, near Daphne, Alabama, in a community called 211 00:14:27,780 --> 00:14:28,840 Dave Creech: Whispering Pines. 212 00:14:29,520 --> 00:14:39,600 Dave Creech: And it was the only- It's a big double, and it's a big plant, and it was 10 or 12 feet tall when minus four hit, and basically it 213 00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:41,940 Dave Creech: was undamaged, and it bloomed fine. 214 00:14:42,020 --> 00:14:43,640 Dave Creech: Never had a lick of problems. 215 00:14:44,500 --> 00:14:47,960 Dave Creech: And the reason Jim selected it, Jim saw it. 216 00:14:48,140 --> 00:14:52,040 Dave Creech: It was behind a house place that had melted down, and it was a giant tree. 217 00:14:52,460 --> 00:14:58,280 Dave Creech: It was giant big bush, and it had big ca- So he knew it'd been through a lot. 218 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:06,320 Dave Creech: He knew it was old, and so he got some wood, and he was growing it at J. Berry Nursery, and I was up there visiting and he said, "Ah, 219 00:15:06,420 --> 00:15:09,620 Dave Creech: Dave," he said, "I like it, but it doesn't fit our product mix. 220 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:12,900 Dave Creech: I don't think there's anything different about it than some other doubles. 221 00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:13,900 Dave Creech: Do you want some? 222 00:15:14,620 --> 00:15:15,480 Dave Creech: Do you want some?" 223 00:15:16,260 --> 00:15:17,400 Dave Creech: I said, "I'll take five." 224 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:28,100 Dave Creech: So I took five back to SFA Gardens, and I planted three of them behind a bench, and that was in 2006 225 00:15:28,140 --> 00:15:29,920 Dave Creech: or '7, somewhere like that. 226 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:36,480 Dave Creech: So 14 years later, it's just a nice gardenia, pretty bloom, doubles, fragrant. 227 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:43,880 Dave Creech: But 2021, it was the champion out of all of the 31 varieties that we have. 228 00:15:44,660 --> 00:15:47,460 Dave Creech: All the others smashed to pieces. 229 00:15:48,300 --> 00:15:52,620 Dave Creech: My point is, is that arboretums and bot gardens can do that. 230 00:15:52,880 --> 00:16:02,920 Dave Creech: We are there to test, evaluate, find plants for the future, and that should be a plant that ends up in the trade, et cetera. 231 00:16:03,379 --> 00:16:11,440 Dave Creech: So Creech, that's me, I thought, "Oh, I'm gonna make a million dollars on this," and I made a lot of cuttings and I distributed them to nurseries and I 232 00:16:11,500 --> 00:16:16,000 Dave Creech: said, "This is really a hardy, a hardy gardenia." 233 00:16:16,540 --> 00:16:26,780 Dave Creech: But Ping, the bottom line on it is that that's an attribute that is not- Surviving a minus four event is not an attribute that perhaps a landscaper or 234 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:29,540 Dave Creech: a nurseryman really values that much. 235 00:16:29,780 --> 00:16:39,780 Dave Creech: The homeowner might, the homeowner might, but a nurseryman probably doesn't- And I've accused them of this in a meeting, that it doesn't bother you so much if a plant 236 00:16:39,860 --> 00:16:47,040 Dave Creech: dies after 10 or 15 years in a hard freeze, 'cause that customer is gonna come back (Ping Yu: That's, that's, that's the-) and wanna buy another plant. 237 00:16:47,060 --> 00:16:52,660 Ping Yu: Because you were like, "If you buy a plant and (Dave Creech: And so why get that-) never come back, how can they make money?" 238 00:16:52,700 --> 00:16:53,820 Dave Creech: Why get that worried about it? 239 00:16:54,260 --> 00:16:59,420 Dave Creech: So, so maybe, maybe I'm wrong, but I just think that we ought to be looking at that. 240 00:16:59,460 --> 00:17:08,400 Dave Creech: 'Cause you just think about all the debris that went out of Houston and Dallas, Fort Worth from all of the trees that have been kicked around in the 241 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:09,120 Dave Creech: environment. 242 00:17:09,199 --> 00:17:10,480 Dave Creech: It's just frustrating. 243 00:17:10,540 --> 00:17:10,700 Dave Creech: Well, 244 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:24,560 Ping Yu: With your experience working in horticulture industry, 'cause I know you work closely with the nurseryman and then the home garden, and you're also the director 245 00:17:24,620 --> 00:17:34,740 Ping Yu: of the, of a garden, what are the, like, big challenges that you think the horticulture, horticulture industry in the US are facing 246 00:17:34,780 --> 00:17:35,260 Ping Yu: right now? 247 00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:40,100 Ping Yu: Have you observed any change or the trend change over the years? 248 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:41,440 Dave Creech: Labor. 249 00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:42,880 Dave Creech: Labor. 250 00:17:43,900 --> 00:17:45,320 Dave Creech: Every level of labor. 251 00:17:45,460 --> 00:17:55,100 Dave Creech: And, and when, you know, if you look at a lot of Europe, Europe is where a lot of technology on robotics (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) et cetera, we're, we're gonna 252 00:17:55,140 --> 00:17:55,760 Dave Creech: have to do it. 253 00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:57,420 Dave Creech: We just have to face up to it. 254 00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:07,480 Dave Creech: It's- And with the present situation with our Hispanic populations, which if you look at nurseries, that's the backbone, that's the foundation (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) of our work, and in 255 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:14,420 Dave Creech: the landscape trade as well, we need to address how do we mechanize, how do we speed up things? 256 00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:17,200 Dave Creech: Can we save some labor here, save some labor there? 257 00:18:17,660 --> 00:18:19,440 Dave Creech: I think we're doing it in the greenhouse already. 258 00:18:19,460 --> 00:18:22,640 Ping Yu: Oh, we, we are- Dave Creech: Robotics is part of it- Ping Yu: are, are doing. 259 00:18:22,700 --> 00:18:24,080 Ping Yu: It depends on where- Yeah. 260 00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:30,320 Ping Yu: It depends on- 'Cause I think that's one of the issues a lot of, like, the nursery and greenhouses are facing. 261 00:18:30,380 --> 00:18:35,100 Ping Yu: Depending on how the original operation are built upon, it's hard. 262 00:18:35,700 --> 00:18:46,280 Ping Yu: If they are, if they have a very straight form, like for instance, if they have, if they take the Netherland mode in- for their greenhouse operation, 263 00:18:46,360 --> 00:18:54,060 Ping Yu: which adapts a lot of automation in the beginning, it's easier for them to involve in terms of automation. 264 00:18:54,360 --> 00:19:04,800 Ping Yu: But if they are in a more like American model, which means that they build greenhouses and nurseries over the years, and so each site 265 00:19:04,860 --> 00:19:14,920 Ping Yu: is different, it'll take some time for them fi- to figure out how to incorporate all those technologies in incorporating the automation system. 266 00:19:15,260 --> 00:19:18,200 Dave Creech: I think the greenhouse nursery is the one that'll do it. 267 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:20,660 Dave Creech: And then the big wholesale nursery's next. 268 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:25,780 Dave Creech: You and I have both been to a lot of these conferences where we see robots moving (Ping Yu: Yeah) plants around. 269 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:29,740 Dave Creech: Jim Berry has robot trailers, J. Berry Nursery. 270 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:32,880 Dave Creech: I was impressed with that, and also doing drone spraying. 271 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:40,700 Dave Creech: And basically trying to save a nickel here and there, because it's a pretty competitive world that's out there. 272 00:19:41,360 --> 00:19:47,240 Dave Creech: So labor is a, a really huge (Ping Yu: Yeah) problem in the fruit, fruit and vegetable industry. 273 00:19:47,300 --> 00:19:56,060 Dave Creech: And anything that can be mechanized in a little better way to- Right now, Ping, I don't know if you know this, but I'm working with kiwifruit- 274 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:57,820 Dave Creech: (Ping Yu: I know that) the fruit and vegetable side. 275 00:19:57,940 --> 00:20:00,080 Ping Yu: I enjoyed the seminar that you gave the other day. 276 00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:07,260 Dave Creech: The math on, on kiwis is very interesting because it's only eight cents a pound to pick. 277 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:12,160 Dave Creech: One human being can pick 500 to 1,000 pounds (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) an hour. 278 00:20:12,220 --> 00:20:14,840 Dave Creech: And they're $2.99 a pound, $2 wholesale. 279 00:20:15,460 --> 00:20:21,300 Dave Creech: So you can do the math, but whereas if you're picking a blueberry, it's crazy. 280 00:20:21,340 --> 00:20:27,140 Dave Creech: You can only pick 150 pounds in a day, and you're gonna pay, what, $50 for $100 a day? 281 00:20:27,220 --> 00:20:34,160 Dave Creech: I mean, it's, it becomes extremely prohibitive, where picking a kiwi is- they're- they rain down. 282 00:20:34,220 --> 00:20:36,840 Dave Creech: You don't have any choices, you just pick. 283 00:20:37,500 --> 00:20:41,700 Dave Creech: And I've watched them in New Zealand and in Chile, and it's just like raining down. 284 00:20:41,780 --> 00:20:43,160 Dave Creech: I mean, it's very fast. 285 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:49,340 Dave Creech: They fill a bag, they drop it in there, they punch a card, and they get, they get it done quick. 286 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,260 Dave Creech: So any crops that have a- 287 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:55,400 Dave Creech: can, you can reduce the amount of labor that's going in there. 288 00:20:55,460 --> 00:21:04,580 Dave Creech: And so blueberries are left to having a big field, 50 to 100 acres, and then you get a machine to pick, and that machine can pick for a dime. 289 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:08,620 Dave Creech: Whereas if you're handpicking, it's probably 40, 50, 60 cents a pound. 290 00:21:09,340 --> 00:21:15,820 Dave Creech: With Mexico bringing in blueberries as we speak, that's not easy (Ping Yu: No) to compete. 291 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:17,200 Dave Creech: They pay 5 to- 292 00:21:17,700 --> 00:21:19,880 Dave Creech: 8 to $10 a day in many cases. 293 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:26,660 Dave Creech: And so we have to look at the crops and see if we can pick them by hand, and when we can, competitively. 294 00:21:26,940 --> 00:21:33,940 Dave Creech: They're paying $20 an hour in New Zealand, so that's lit- I think you can get some hands at $20 an hour. 295 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:36,000 Dave Creech: But maybe not, I don't know. 296 00:21:36,060 --> 00:21:40,340 Dave Creech: It's just- (Ping Yu: Maybe-) labor is a huge issue but (laughs) I don't know. 297 00:21:40,700 --> 00:21:41,140 Dave Creech: I don't know. 298 00:21:41,220 --> 00:21:48,780 Dave Creech: It's, it's not the same world that it used to be, but labor is obviously one of the, the biggest challenges. 299 00:21:49,100 --> 00:21:53,580 Dave Creech: I think new and emerging pest is always a headache, particularly on new crops. 300 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:55,420 Dave Creech: But, you know, we have spot- 301 00:21:55,460 --> 00:21:57,580 Dave Creech: We have a lot of pests that I've never seen before. 302 00:21:57,740 --> 00:21:59,620 Dave Creech: Brown marmorated stink bug is here. 303 00:21:59,820 --> 00:22:01,580 Dave Creech: Spotted wing drosophila is here. 304 00:22:02,120 --> 00:22:03,740 Dave Creech: Ambrosia beetle (Ping Yu: Yeah) is here. 305 00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:10,740 Dave Creech: Just, I saw cal- like, this crape myrtle bark scale that Mengmeng made a career out of here. 306 00:22:11,620 --> 00:22:11,880 Dave Creech: I saw- 307 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:13,440 Dave Creech: I see it on callicarpa now. 308 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:15,480 Dave Creech: And I don't know if you know that. 309 00:22:15,540 --> 00:22:24,160 Dave Creech: But crape myrtle bark scale is on my- Ping Yu: It is the- Dave Creech: That's my native plant- Ping Yu: It is on the host range trial on callicarpa when I was back in 310 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:25,560 Ping Yu: there, so I know it's getting there. 311 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:35,320 Ping Yu: (music) But how do you see, like, the horticulture involving the next maybe 10 to 20 years? 312 00:22:35,900 --> 00:22:43,980 Ping Yu: We mentioned about the automation and adapting more high mechanical into the industry, but what about the climate? 313 00:22:44,460 --> 00:22:52,260 Ping Yu: Or I wouldn't say climate change, but the more severe weather issues and with the globalization. 314 00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:59,860 Dave Creech: I can say, I can say climate change 'cause I'm 77 years old, but we definitely have a change in climate. 315 00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:10,440 Dave Creech: And one of the disadvantages (laughs) or advantages of being ancient is, is that I can remember I had 11 crops in a row in peaches 316 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:14,060 Dave Creech: when I was in business, and I never missed a beat. 317 00:23:14,140 --> 00:23:22,500 Dave Creech: And then I had a freeze, and then I had another freeze, and then I was back to normal, but things have changed and it's the severity. 318 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:29,940 Dave Creech: These late freezes have been a little bit different, but the midwinter low minus four, oh my God, that was devastating. 319 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:30,820 Dave Creech: And then we have... 320 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:38,660 Dave Creech: I used to say in Nacogdoches, for the history that I've been here, 47 years, we'd get a flood every three years where it went out over the bottom. 321 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:41,760 Dave Creech: Now we've had three floods in two years. 322 00:23:42,420 --> 00:23:49,040 Dave Creech: And so it's really, we get these deluges, and so basically you have a more energetic climate. 323 00:23:49,860 --> 00:23:51,580 Dave Creech: You have a lot more energy in the climate. 324 00:23:51,620 --> 00:23:53,340 Dave Creech: The storms are gonna be a little rugged. 325 00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,700 Dave Creech: The long dry spells are gonna be a little rougher. 326 00:23:55,780 --> 00:23:56,860 Dave Creech: The heat, 100 and... 327 00:23:57,580 --> 00:24:07,740 Dave Creech: Everybody wants to block these out of our mind, but 2023, 112 degrees and 40, 42 degrees over College Station that usually 328 00:24:07,780 --> 00:24:09,320 Dave Creech: that just burned it to the ground. 329 00:24:09,380 --> 00:24:10,100 Dave Creech: It was horrible. 330 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:12,940 Dave Creech: So hot and so miserably dry. 331 00:24:13,500 --> 00:24:21,540 Dave Creech: So challenges are there, and I think one other thing I wanted to mention is one of the great issues is I have people come to my office, mom and 332 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:27,480 Dave Creech: dad and the young man or young woman, and they're talking about horticulture, and they want to make it a major. 333 00:24:27,540 --> 00:24:29,340 Dave Creech: And you know what the dad says? 334 00:24:30,100 --> 00:24:31,900 Dave Creech: He says, "How much is Johnny gonna make?" 335 00:24:31,980 --> 00:24:32,220 Ping Yu: Yeah. 336 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,640 Ping Yu: That's, that's what- That's what he wants- is that. 337 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:40,680 Ping Yu: next generation- This the- like, "I wanna go into horticulture or agriculture in general just because I will not be well-paid." 338 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:51,120 Dave Creech: Well, that's the general tone, and I answer it differently 'cause I know he'll pay, make 40 to 55 or 40 to 60, and they want you to work Saturdays. 339 00:24:52,020 --> 00:24:54,540 Dave Creech: And so I know that the jobs are out there. 340 00:24:54,620 --> 00:24:56,080 Dave Creech: We have a lot of jobs. 341 00:24:56,260 --> 00:25:03,180 Dave Creech: It's just they're not that appealing for somebody today who is spending a lot of money to go to college. 342 00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:05,300 Dave Creech: I paid $3 a semester hour. 343 00:25:05,780 --> 00:25:05,920 Ping Yu: Okay. 344 00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:08,120 Dave Creech: And you're paying 300. 345 00:25:08,820 --> 00:25:10,640 Dave Creech: It was, I walked out, no debt. 346 00:25:10,760 --> 00:25:14,000 Dave Creech: We have a lot of students at SFA walking out with a debt load. 347 00:25:14,559 --> 00:25:24,760 Dave Creech: And so you're, you're ending up in a job that you spend $120,000, you know, or $100,000 getting a college degree when you could've gone 348 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:29,060 Dave Creech: and been an electrician in Dallas and made $150,000 a year. 349 00:25:29,140 --> 00:25:31,119 Dave Creech: I mean, there, there's a reality here. 350 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:36,340 Dave Creech: And it's impacting our tr- it's impacting our majors, it's impacting our students. 351 00:25:36,820 --> 00:25:37,400 Dave Creech: So the peak... 352 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:43,400 Dave Creech: A lot of people, young, young professors don't realize the peak in horticulture was 1977. 353 00:25:43,940 --> 00:25:44,700 Dave Creech: Did you know that? 354 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:46,440 Dave Creech: Real numbers. 355 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:48,880 Dave Creech: 650 at Texas A&M. 356 00:25:49,660 --> 00:25:50,480 Dave Creech: Are you sitting down? 357 00:25:50,540 --> 00:25:51,200 Dave Creech: You need to be. 358 00:25:51,260 --> 00:25:52,760 Dave Creech: That's a very high number. 359 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,740 Dave Creech: And a lot of universities had high numbers. 360 00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:58,140 Dave Creech: I had 100 here. 361 00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:02,140 Dave Creech: I wasn't ar- I arrived and it was around s- 80 or 90. 362 00:26:02,660 --> 00:26:11,420 Dave Creech: But the peak was 1977, and then we kinda crashed in the '80s, and then we built back up, and we're leveling off. 363 00:26:11,460 --> 00:26:14,520 Dave Creech: And so I think there's 210 now at Texas A&M. 364 00:26:15,300 --> 00:26:16,480 Dave Creech: They were 140. 365 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:17,360 Dave Creech: They've gone up. 366 00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:18,380 Dave Creech: They've gone up. 367 00:26:19,020 --> 00:26:29,100 Dave Creech: And I think we have 36 or 40 here now at SFA and I've been tracking these enrollments, but I got- most of the universities don't 368 00:26:29,140 --> 00:26:31,220 Dave Creech: have data before 1990. 369 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:33,060 Dave Creech: You can't find the data. 370 00:26:33,820 --> 00:26:42,940 Dave Creech: And- but I've been keeping it at SFA religiously and at A&M, and so I think that we need to do something with the peop- how we get that 371 00:26:43,020 --> 00:26:46,440 Dave Creech: enrollment up and depends on how good you are. 372 00:26:46,500 --> 00:26:49,900 Dave Creech: I always answer the, the father, I say, "Depends on how good he is." 373 00:26:50,460 --> 00:26:54,560 Dave Creech: I have so many former students that own the business, that have money. 374 00:26:54,660 --> 00:26:57,440 Dave Creech: They bought land in San Antonio on the- 375 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:07,680 Dave Creech: or Austin and r- watched it grow for 30 years and so it's not a matter of, of how much your starting salary is, although that's pretty 376 00:27:07,740 --> 00:27:08,580 Dave Creech: darn important. 377 00:27:09,300 --> 00:27:17,900 Dave Creech: You can tout, we can tout lots and lots of former students in Ag, in A&M as well, that have gone out and made a huge amount of money, and 378 00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:21,300 Dave Creech: it's because they had a product and they grew and they grew their business. 379 00:27:21,380 --> 00:27:31,420 Dave Creech: And those are the ones that I'm most proud of, are the ones that happen to get a job in Dallas, happen to start their own business, happen 380 00:27:31,460 --> 00:27:35,280 Dave Creech: to grow, happen to buy land, and then the next thing, 30 or 40 years. 381 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:40,020 Dave Creech: Ping, what do you think it's like for me to have so many former students that are retiring? 382 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:41,360 Ping Yu: You should slow down. 383 00:27:41,540 --> 00:27:43,440 Ping Yu: You should slow down, 'cause I was so amazed. 384 00:27:43,500 --> 00:27:49,320 Ping Yu: I was talking to my mom the other day, I was like, "Oh, Dave Creech giving us a seminar on kiwi fruit." 385 00:27:49,860 --> 00:27:53,400 Ping Yu: And I was like, "He's supposed to slow down a little bit. 386 00:27:53,540 --> 00:27:56,000 Ping Yu: He's like in his 70s." 387 00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:58,500 Ping Yu: And then my mom was like, "Yeah, he's- I'm gardening." 388 00:27:58,620 --> 00:27:58,720 Dave Creech: I'm... 389 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:01,500 Dave Creech: No, I'm, I totally understand that. 390 00:28:01,620 --> 00:28:10,820 Ping Yu: I think- Dave Creech: But basically I'm- Ping Yu: the fact about people who was gardening, who are a lot of people who are in this, in your role, similar role like you, they 391 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:11,640 Ping Yu: never retire. 392 00:28:12,340 --> 00:28:13,060 Ping Yu: They just never. 393 00:28:13,140 --> 00:28:18,060 Ping Yu: Even though you're officially retired, you're hurt by- Dave Creech: I'm half time. 394 00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:18,620 Dave Creech: I'm half time. 395 00:28:18,660 --> 00:28:20,940 Ping Yu: You're, yeah, you're half- Dave Creech: I'm not retired, I'm half time. 396 00:28:21,420 --> 00:28:26,620 Ping Yu: You, your workload, you're putting yourself more than like a full-time employee, basically. 397 00:28:26,700 --> 00:28:28,640 Ping Yu: So- Dave Creech: Yeah, but this is... 398 00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:36,240 Dave Creech: You're surrounded by ex- a lot of excitement (Ping Yu: Yeah, I know) and travel, and it doesn't strike me as, as work. 399 00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:38,520 Dave Creech: And I, lot of people say that. 400 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:40,720 Dave Creech: I, they say, "Are you working over 20 hours a week?" 401 00:28:40,900 --> 00:28:41,840 Ping Yu: No, more than that. 402 00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:46,960 Dave Creech: And I say, "I never worked a day in, I never worked a day at, I never worked a day in my life." 403 00:28:49,980 --> 00:28:50,080 Ping Yu: Yeah. 404 00:28:50,100 --> 00:28:55,920 Ping Yu: (music) So you've been working, I know how, like you never stop working. 405 00:28:56,440 --> 00:29:01,780 Ping Yu: But what is your next excitement for horticulture in general? 406 00:29:02,020 --> 00:29:08,960 Ping Yu: Is that, is the golden kiwi your next excitement for horticulture, or are there any other current projects? 407 00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:19,700 Dave Creech: Well, sometimes, Ping, when you're stubborn about a crop, stubborn about it, and you run into these obstacles, and I am pretty stubborn about golden kiwis, and I'm 408 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:23,660 Dave Creech: usually negative, that you can't make any money and blah, blah, blah, this and that. 409 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:32,360 Dave Creech: But I think golden kiwis, we make crops, we have to manage them better, and we did not thin enough this year, so we have plenty of kiwis, but we 410 00:29:32,420 --> 00:29:34,500 Dave Creech: didn't thin enough and so they're small. 411 00:29:35,300 --> 00:29:42,840 Dave Creech: And this is a crop that's very unforgiving, and you need to invest $20,000 an acre, maybe 40 if you get high shade on it. 412 00:29:43,460 --> 00:29:50,120 Dave Creech: But it can use 40, it can make 40,000 to 50,000 pounds on an acre, and they're two bucks. 413 00:29:51,060 --> 00:29:52,520 Dave Creech: And so the, the- 414 00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:54,260 Dave Creech: And it's a restricted market. 415 00:29:54,620 --> 00:29:57,400 Dave Creech: They're basically, it's kind of a monopolized market. 416 00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:08,320 Dave Creech: And producing four to five in a pound pan- a pack, in a clear pack tray is, doesn't seem like would be impossible, but 417 00:30:08,420 --> 00:30:16,900 Dave Creech: it is very hard to get a, an industry off the ground when you're asking somebody to put up 20,000 or $40,000 or something. 418 00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:25,880 Dave Creech: And so whether or not that actually happens here, and I'm even more optimistic because the Golden Kiwi was, it's been tried in California. 419 00:30:26,660 --> 00:30:28,740 Dave Creech: They grow greens out there. 420 00:30:28,780 --> 00:30:39,080 Dave Creech: They, that they own the market for domestic production on greens, and the Golden won't grow in Northern California very well because it's not, it's too dry. 421 00:30:39,900 --> 00:30:41,180 Dave Creech: So the kiwi shrivel. 422 00:30:41,860 --> 00:30:51,940 Dave Creech: Where I stepped off the airplane in Changsha, China, it was the summer, end of the summer, it was 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and I just started sweating, 423 00:30:52,020 --> 00:30:53,100 Dave Creech: it was so humid. 424 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:55,720 Dave Creech: And I said, "I am in Nacogdoches." 425 00:30:56,360 --> 00:31:02,380 Dave Creech: And it is, it's a very similar climate, and the Golden Kiwi is in that area. 426 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:06,080 Dave Creech: The green is a little further north in Wuhan area. 427 00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:16,680 Dave Creech: And so I have a lot of horticultural optimism about the Golden Kiwi, and when you have a crop that can make you that kind of money, you 428 00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:23,940 Dave Creech: can do the things necessary to avoid the frost, sprinkling for frost protection, do this, do that. 429 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:25,660 Dave Creech: There's a lot of things that you can do. 430 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:27,840 Dave Creech: I'm not like that about a lot of crops. 431 00:31:27,940 --> 00:31:30,540 Dave Creech: Most crops I say, "Eh, it's not gonna, it's gonna be tricky." 432 00:31:30,860 --> 00:31:39,460 Dave Creech: Feijoas, I'm working with feijoas now on a TDA project with Texas A&M, Tim Hartmann, and I like it, and I think we can make some feijoas. 433 00:31:39,540 --> 00:31:42,260 Dave Creech: I'm just not too sure that's gonna be a very popular crop. 434 00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:47,840 Dave Creech: But our surveys with people that eat our golden kiwis are- they knock it out of the park. 435 00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:49,700 Dave Creech: The Golden Kiwi is very popular. 436 00:31:49,820 --> 00:31:52,780 Ping Yu: My son, my three-year-old son is a big fan for golden kiwi. 437 00:31:52,860 --> 00:31:58,580 Ping Yu: Every time we go to Costco, every time we pass the aisle, he'll be like, "Kiwi, kiwi, I need one." 438 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:00,220 Ping Yu: I was like, "Okay, we'll get you one." 439 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:05,660 Ping Yu: So every time, every week, we buy, we buy one, at least one, one pack for him. 440 00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:06,759 Dave Creech: You can bear- 441 00:32:07,020 --> 00:32:08,020 Dave Creech: Can you afford it? 442 00:32:08,020 --> 00:32:09,500 Dave Creech: (laughs) They're pretty high. 443 00:32:09,580 --> 00:32:16,740 Dave Creech: I've- (Ping Yu: Yes) $2.99, $3.99, and $4.99 a pound for five or six of them, four to six of them. 444 00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:25,380 Dave Creech: And I'm, I'm amazed, and they pack a million trays a week in, in New Zealand at the pack house. 445 00:32:25,420 --> 00:32:28,280 Dave Creech: It's unbelievable, and they can be stored for four months. 446 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,920 Dave Creech: That's pretty impressive, and that's what makes it a worldwide continuous supply. 447 00:32:33,420 --> 00:32:36,200 Dave Creech: So I remain optimistic about it, but, 448 00:32:37,420 --> 00:32:39,940 Dave Creech: it's a long way from (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) the industry, that's for sure. 449 00:32:40,300 --> 00:32:49,900 Dave Creech: Blueberries I'm not as optimistic about because I think the small farms, the pick your own, the local farms are gonna work, but the Mexico production is, is (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) we 450 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:52,440 Dave Creech: can't compete (Ping Yu: No) with for our life. 451 00:32:55,720 --> 00:33:05,780 Ping Yu: (music) You have been to so many different countries and so many different places, what is the rarest or most unusual plant that you 452 00:33:05,860 --> 00:33:10,400 Ping Yu: have seen, visited, and where did you see them? 453 00:33:10,460 --> 00:33:20,540 Ping Yu: And w- or are you, have you thought about on your wish list what kind of plants that you would wish to see them more here in 454 00:33:20,580 --> 00:33:23,180 Ping Yu: the United States that you have seen overseas? 455 00:33:24,060 --> 00:33:32,600 Dave Creech: Not really on the latter, but there's, the one that I, I'm a little bit of a camellia nut, and I did get, I g- I had an experience 456 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:41,800 Dave Creech: in the Yunnan with my friends, and there was a camellia that's in the mount- near the Himalayas there, and it's near Kunming to the west, and it's called 457 00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:43,500 Dave Creech: the Camellia of 10,000 Flowers. 458 00:33:43,540 --> 00:33:44,500 Dave Creech: Have you heard of this plant? 459 00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:45,000 Ping Yu: Yes. 460 00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:46,080 Dave Creech: You know this plant? 461 00:33:46,700 --> 00:33:47,560 Ping Yu: No, have not. 462 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:49,200 Ping Yu: I am, I'm a Chinese. 463 00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:51,040 Dave Creech: So I asked my- Ping Yu: There's a lot of... 464 00:33:51,040 --> 00:33:56,980 Dave Creech: (laughs) So anyway, I asked my friends, I said, "You know, this, we're close to this area. 465 00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:00,320 Dave Creech: Do you think I could go see the Camellia of 10,000 Flowers?" 466 00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:01,820 Dave Creech: And so they said fine. 467 00:34:01,860 --> 00:34:02,960 Dave Creech: We jumped in the van. 468 00:34:03,020 --> 00:34:03,600 Dave Creech: We went up there. 469 00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:09,220 Dave Creech: It's about a 45-minute drive, and it's a monastery, and the village around it is the Naxi. 470 00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:15,540 Dave Creech: So anyway, we went around the monastery, and then we went to this plaza, and there it was. 471 00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:16,899 Dave Creech: It was obvious, and it's... 472 00:34:17,540 --> 00:34:22,440 Dave Creech: This camellia was huge, and it's grafted to two clones. 473 00:34:23,140 --> 00:34:29,160 Dave Creech: One of, I can't remember the name of them, and it basically, there's two varieties on it, and it was all woven together. 474 00:34:29,900 --> 00:34:35,440 Dave Creech: If you type in the, on a Google, Camellia of 10,000 Flowers, you can get to my article on it. 475 00:34:35,500 --> 00:34:37,080 Dave Creech: It's really pretty amazing. 476 00:34:37,100 --> 00:34:38,740 Dave Creech: And sitting there is a monk. 477 00:34:38,940 --> 00:34:48,660 Dave Creech: (laughs) And since he was a child, no, I'm not lying, since he was a child in his 20s or 30s, he trained under the monk before. 478 00:34:48,740 --> 00:34:58,580 Dave Creech: This thing goes back to the 1400s, and he's been sitting there, and his job every day is to sit by the tree and protect the tree. 479 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:09,440 Dave Creech: So I got a picture of him, and I was just kinda like in a state of shock that this tree has had a monk sitting by it 480 00:35:10,300 --> 00:35:13,980 Dave Creech: for this many years, and it, it's a different kind of... 481 00:35:14,500 --> 00:35:16,760 Dave Creech: There wasn't an insect on it, that's for sure. 482 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,260 Dave Creech: It's well-protected, and it was in a plaza all by itself. 483 00:35:20,660 --> 00:35:27,280 Dave Creech: This monastery had been invaded twice and burned to the ground by mo- you know, it's been through all this history. 484 00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:36,260 Dave Creech: And the amount of protection and love given this tree by, at this monastery was kinda shocking to me. 485 00:35:36,980 --> 00:35:45,440 Dave Creech: And China has a habit of moving trees that you wouldn't think could be moved, (laughs) and to get 'em out of the way of a highway or off the 486 00:35:45,500 --> 00:35:46,660 Dave Creech: mountains or something. 487 00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,780 Dave Creech: Anyway, it's amazing to me, and I really enjoyed meeting him. 488 00:35:51,620 --> 00:35:52,780 Dave Creech: Although that's a tough job. 489 00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:56,800 Dave Creech: Can you imagine that job, sitting in a tree for your whole life? 490 00:35:57,620 --> 00:35:58,380 Dave Creech: He has passed. 491 00:35:58,540 --> 00:35:59,520 Dave Creech: I found out he has passed. 492 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:00,660 Ping Yu: No, I cannot. 493 00:36:00,780 --> 00:36:06,380 Ping Yu: I'm just like, no, that's definitely (laughs) not gonna be- Dave Creech: That's not your job aspiration. 494 00:36:06,460 --> 00:36:06,600 Ping Yu: No. 495 00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:08,100 Ping Yu: I would be so bored. 496 00:36:08,380 --> 00:36:10,400 Dave Creech: No, that was pretty interesting. 497 00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:12,660 Dave Creech: I don't really have any trees that... 498 00:36:12,900 --> 00:36:22,760 Dave Creech: There are some small trees, some trees here and there that I wish we had in America from other countries, but there's some sophoras in China that we 499 00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:23,220 Dave Creech: don't have. 500 00:36:23,260 --> 00:36:29,960 Dave Creech: The golden sophora that's weeping, a weeping golden Sophora japonica on a tall stem. 501 00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:34,820 Dave Creech: I thought that was pretty good, and a lot of weeping trees that are not in this country yet. 502 00:36:34,980 --> 00:36:44,040 Dave Creech: And there's a lot of breeding lines that are going on in China that, at the institutes of colleges and at the universities that I'd would like to see 503 00:36:44,100 --> 00:36:48,420 Dave Creech: here, but that's, those are minor really in a way. 504 00:36:48,420 --> 00:36:52,800 Ping Yu: (music) So was your... 505 00:36:53,120 --> 00:37:03,140 Ping Yu: Like, 'cause you basically were abroad when you were just only two year old, and then you spent your 14 years abroad before 506 00:37:03,180 --> 00:37:04,860 Ping Yu: you come back to the US. 507 00:37:05,340 --> 00:37:06,660 Dave Creech: I came back on home leave. 508 00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:16,940 Ping Yu: And then after you started your horticultural career, you've been to, I don't know how many places and how many different countries, but with all those 509 00:37:17,740 --> 00:37:20,120 Ping Yu: overseas experience, what... 510 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:31,020 Ping Yu: Can you share one or two stories that you still remember, or in terms of what are the some of the moments that shocked you when you, when you visit 511 00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:32,020 Ping Yu: other places? 512 00:37:32,500 --> 00:37:32,620 Dave Creech: Yeah. 513 00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:34,520 Dave Creech: Well, I can. 514 00:37:34,900 --> 00:37:36,840 Dave Creech: You know, I mean, there are a lot of them. 515 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:44,680 Dave Creech: I was in Pakistan in the, the 1980s as a result of the money coming from USAID into Pakistan. 516 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,140 Dave Creech: The Afghan refugees were coming across. 517 00:37:47,300 --> 00:37:56,260 Dave Creech: Russia was fighting in the valleys, and these, these refugee camps were so big, and they were tents. 518 00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:00,620 Dave Creech: And then I was back there the next year, and they were mud houses. 519 00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:07,180 Dave Creech: And then I was there the next year, and they were houses with nice roofs, and they're, they're just building them right there. 520 00:38:07,260 --> 00:38:09,120 Dave Creech: I was kind of impressed on that. 521 00:38:09,820 --> 00:38:18,460 Dave Creech: And we were going, and I was doing apple trees and peach trees, and they had wonderful orchards there and karezes and ancient irrigation systems. 522 00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:26,980 Dave Creech: And they handed me off to these villages, and he'd come with me, and I'd spend two or three days at a village, and I'd do a pruning demonstration 523 00:38:27,180 --> 00:38:32,440 Dave Creech: and do the, you know, talk, had, had slides back when there was slides. 524 00:38:33,380 --> 00:38:36,960 Dave Creech: Travel is its own punishment to me because it leaves you restless. 525 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:38,440 Dave Creech: Jefferson said that. 526 00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:46,900 Dave Creech: It's a wonderful thing, but it leaves you restless, 'cause there's always a new place that you can go, and you can go see, and you make friends along the 527 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:47,160 Dave Creech: way. 528 00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:52,680 Dave Creech: And some of the best friends I've ever made are still with me today from 40 years ago of travel. 529 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:57,660 Dave Creech: And it's just too bad politics gets in the way, 'cause we all wanna be friends. 530 00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:06,820 Ping Yu: I think it's one of the things that why the horticulture in and of itself brought all the people from different places all together. 531 00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:16,440 Ping Yu: And then when you go visit a place because you wanna go see the plants over there, you'll get to expose the culture, the history, the people there. 532 00:39:16,820 --> 00:39:25,120 Ping Yu: And those experience and the people that you met there, the experience that you had there are really the one that makes your... 533 00:39:25,580 --> 00:39:35,980 Ping Yu: I don't know if that's gonna be, if I'm exaggerating it, but I really think the people or the culture that you see with 534 00:39:36,020 --> 00:39:42,700 Ping Yu: the plant really played a big role in changing your view of the whole world. 535 00:39:42,900 --> 00:39:45,220 Ping Yu: I think that's one of the things I love about- Dave Creech: It's my worldview. 536 00:39:45,300 --> 00:39:46,720 Dave Creech: Well, I, I agree. 537 00:39:46,780 --> 00:39:56,420 Dave Creech: Being raised in Asia and then ending up working there on short-term basis, a month here and a month there, it was, had a huge impact. 538 00:39:56,460 --> 00:40:03,480 Dave Creech: And bringing Janet, my lovely wife, to many countries, and it's opened her eyes (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) and she appreciates it, too. 539 00:40:03,540 --> 00:40:07,780 Dave Creech: She's kinda got a world, world view anyway, and, and we are... 540 00:40:07,820 --> 00:40:16,960 Dave Creech: The more you travel, the more you try to be understanding and kind (Ping Yu: Yeah) each other, and it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just the way 541 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:17,480 Dave Creech: it is. 542 00:40:18,020 --> 00:40:23,020 Dave Creech: Whether or not we could all travel, I always think that everybody should travel and try to meet... 543 00:40:23,080 --> 00:40:24,440 Dave Creech: And I never met a stranger. 544 00:40:24,540 --> 00:40:26,560 Dave Creech: I'll talk to a guy on the street corner. 545 00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:36,780 Dave Creech: And, and one thing about China that's interesting to me, 'cause I've been going there 30-plus years, is that the older you get in China, the 546 00:40:36,940 --> 00:40:38,100 Dave Creech: better you're treated. 547 00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:43,040 Dave Creech: (laughs) And- And I don't know why, but- Ping Yu: There, there's a culture behind that in... 548 00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:53,380 Ping Yu: A, a- But it is true Asia in general, or at least in Eastern Asia, a- we value one, we value one concept, 549 00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:56,300 Ping Yu: that we need to respect the elderly. 550 00:40:56,880 --> 00:41:04,080 Ping Yu: That's just how the society treats the elderly, and everyone was like, we have s- that kind of... 551 00:41:04,380 --> 00:41:14,480 Ping Yu: I don't know if you can call it a ladder or social ladder, so the elder, the older you get, the higher your ladder, your social ladder is, at least 552 00:41:14,660 --> 00:41:17,660 Ping Yu: from the family standpoint. 553 00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:22,440 Ping Yu: Within a family- Dave Creech: There's a term- There's a term, and you can... 554 00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:24,620 Dave Creech: There's a term, it's called guanxi. 555 00:41:25,340 --> 00:41:29,740 Dave Creech: Guanxi, the art of relationships, time, trust, friendship, experience. 556 00:41:29,820 --> 00:41:30,620 Dave Creech: It's how you... 557 00:41:31,060 --> 00:41:36,880 Dave Creech: Guanxi, that's what they always say, you have good guanxi, you have- Ping Yu: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, guanxi, yeah, basically develop friendship, 558 00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:37,180 Ping Yu: relationship. 559 00:41:37,240 --> 00:41:38,800 Ping Yu: Yeah, it, you're, you're right. 560 00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:39,840 Dave Creech: (laughs) Okay. 561 00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:41,460 Dave Creech: I'm not very good at (Ping Yu: No) pronouncing it. 562 00:41:41,940 --> 00:41:42,660 Dave Creech: How did you say it? 563 00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:43,220 Ping Yu: Guanxi. Dave Creech: Yeah, guanxi? 564 00:41:43,240 --> 00:41:43,420 Ping Yu: Yeah. 565 00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:48,320 Ping Yu: It's, it means, it translates to a relationship, so yeah, you're right. 566 00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:57,280 Ping Yu: (music) The- You have been a inspiration for a lot of people in horticulture, me included. 567 00:41:57,700 --> 00:41:58,540 Ping Yu: Have you... 568 00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:10,020 Ping Yu: If you, if I'm asking you this, who would you think, who has impact you significantly in your career in horticulture? 569 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:17,800 Dave Creech: My advisors at Texas A&M, Hollis Bowen and J.B. Storey, were really inspirational. 570 00:42:17,860 --> 00:42:23,340 Dave Creech: That was at a time when I was young, and I thought they were gods. 571 00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:23,960 Dave Creech: I was... 572 00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:27,660 Dave Creech: We just had a different kinda attitude about professors then. 573 00:42:28,460 --> 00:42:31,660 Dave Creech: And when they said, "Jump," we said, "How high?" 574 00:42:31,740 --> 00:42:33,600 Dave Creech: We never asked, "Oh, I'm over my time. 575 00:42:33,700 --> 00:42:34,460 Dave Creech: I can't work any..." 576 00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:35,160 Dave Creech: We n- we just... 577 00:42:35,660 --> 00:42:40,320 Dave Creech: It was a different philosophy about being a graduate student and being an undergraduate student. 578 00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:47,280 Dave Creech: They ran the roost, and so those two really steered me, and J.B. Storey probably in particular, Hollis Bowen. 579 00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:51,520 Dave Creech: I had a professor at Colorado State as my advisor, Milt Workman. 580 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:55,940 Dave Creech: I did potato tuber physiology, post-harvest phys project. 581 00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:56,920 Dave Creech: Wonderful project. 582 00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:05,960 Dave Creech: Had a lot of fun, but it was the Vietnam War, and we were trying to come home, and I arrived at Colorado State, and Old Main was burned down 583 00:43:06,020 --> 00:43:06,920 Dave Creech: by the mobs. 584 00:43:07,660 --> 00:43:09,340 Dave Creech: There was four dead in Ohio. 585 00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:10,540 Dave Creech: It was Kent State. 586 00:43:10,580 --> 00:43:13,060 Dave Creech: There was a lot of protesting around the campus. 587 00:43:13,720 --> 00:43:21,480 Dave Creech: We had a lot, lot of problems going on associated with the Vietnam War, and I arrived, and this building burned down. 588 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:29,520 Dave Creech: I was out at, it was m- it's called Old Main, and basically it was set on fire by 5,000 or 6,000 kiddos, kids, students. 589 00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:40,880 Dave Creech: And it was a lot of uproar all over the United States when Kent State occurred, and so I'm starting off my master's degree, and my university, 590 00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:47,700 Dave Creech: they're burning down this university building that was there, and I'm worried about my potatoes in the greenhouse. 591 00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:50,400 Dave Creech: You know, I've got some potato breeding things going on. 592 00:43:50,440 --> 00:44:00,020 Dave Creech: And, and I look at Milt Workman, and he had four kids, and he was the kindest professor that I've ever had, and he was very philosophical, and he'd had 593 00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:03,640 Dave Creech: a wonderful career there, and he really helped me. 594 00:44:03,740 --> 00:44:09,560 Dave Creech: He stewarded me through a very wonderful master's degree program. 595 00:44:09,660 --> 00:44:19,680 Dave Creech: So I look at J.B. Storey for what he did to me to get me into horticulture, Hollis Bowen, who was my PhD boss, and 596 00:44:19,740 --> 00:44:22,660 Dave Creech: I was the first of eight (Ping Yu: Mm-hmm) to graduate. 597 00:44:23,300 --> 00:44:24,220 Dave Creech: Did you hear that, Ping? 598 00:44:24,940 --> 00:44:25,860 Dave Creech: Seven had failed. 599 00:44:26,060 --> 00:44:26,340 Ping Yu: Really? 600 00:44:26,660 --> 00:44:27,460 Dave Creech: That's pretty amazing. 601 00:44:27,940 --> 00:44:33,340 Dave Creech: Yeah, there were seven before me, and he told me that the day I started up underneath him. 602 00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,040 Dave Creech: He said, "I don't know if you're gonna make it." 603 00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:36,280 Dave Creech: You know, I mean, he meant it, too. 604 00:44:36,340 --> 00:44:36,600 Dave Creech: It was... 605 00:44:37,020 --> 00:44:38,120 Dave Creech: This is old school. 606 00:44:38,180 --> 00:44:38,360 Dave Creech: This... 607 00:44:38,780 --> 00:44:39,600 Dave Creech: They were tough. 608 00:44:40,020 --> 00:44:42,760 Dave Creech: They tried to break you rather than prop you up. 609 00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:46,100 Dave Creech: And it was a d- different kind... 610 00:44:46,140 --> 00:44:52,800 Dave Creech: But I look back on it now, and I think, "Oh my God," you know, "what a, what a great man," and he b- he had a lot to 611 00:44:52,860 --> 00:44:56,360 Dave Creech: do with my philosophy a little bit. 612 00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:58,620 Dave Creech: Helped me to stay in horticulture, for sure. 613 00:44:58,960 --> 00:44:59,640 Ping Yu: But if- 614 00:44:59,700 --> 00:45:01,780 Ping Yu: Now- Dave Creech: We don't do that now. 615 00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:03,680 Dave Creech: I have to take sensitivity training. 616 00:45:03,860 --> 00:45:10,220 Dave Creech: You do, too. Ping Yu: Oh, we have a lot of- Dave Creech: And so we have to- Ping Yu: We have a lot of training in terms of how we treat students now. Dave Creech: We, these old 617 00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:16,880 Dave Creech: professors would have all gotten an F on sensitivity, 'cause they were pretty hardcore about that. 618 00:45:16,980 --> 00:45:17,080 Ping Yu: Yeah. 619 00:45:17,180 --> 00:45:27,280 Ping Yu: But if, if a young kid or a young man comes to you and say, "Hey, I would, I am interested in horticulture," what kind of suggestions 620 00:45:27,340 --> 00:45:28,440 Ping Yu: that you would tell them? 621 00:45:28,660 --> 00:45:31,780 Dave Creech: If you love what you do, you're, you'll be fine. 622 00:45:32,140 --> 00:45:41,000 Dave Creech: If you get to work three minutes early and leave four minutes late, well, if you're consistently late to work, I've always told students, your bosses may not care that 623 00:45:41,060 --> 00:45:50,220 Dave Creech: much, but if you're consistently late and you're consistently breaking away, then that's- and it, it... 624 00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:52,300 Dave Creech: That to me means you don't love what you do. 625 00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:59,180 Dave Creech: Now, that doesn't mean, like in the peach business you can't move for three, four months, but you can go fishing in the fall. 626 00:45:59,920 --> 00:46:10,060 Dave Creech: And so there's, there's a lot of attitudes about work, and we never had this 20 hours a week for the graduate degree thing when I went to grad 627 00:46:10,180 --> 00:46:11,460 Dave Creech: school at Texas A&M. 628 00:46:11,740 --> 00:46:11,840 Dave Creech: They... 629 00:46:11,860 --> 00:46:19,120 Dave Creech: It was 168 hours in a seven-day week, and the boss had all of it, and we just did what they... 630 00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:20,220 Dave Creech: That was pretty true. 631 00:46:20,260 --> 00:46:27,400 Dave Creech: There was a lot of activity going on after hours, on weekends, et cetera, and it was just kind of a different philosophy. 632 00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:35,460 Dave Creech: Now it's different, and it's probably for the better, because, you know, we have to be sensitive to life balance. 633 00:46:35,900 --> 00:46:36,560 Dave Creech: You've heard of this? 634 00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:38,360 Ping Yu: I- Dave Creech: Have you heard of this thing called life? 635 00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:40,040 Ping Yu: heard that. Dave Creech: And... 636 00:46:40,460 --> 00:46:42,220 Dave Creech: But you and I are gardeners. 637 00:46:42,260 --> 00:46:44,540 Dave Creech: That's not exactly a hard row to hoe. 638 00:46:44,660 --> 00:46:45,600 Dave Creech: I mean, that's not... 639 00:46:46,360 --> 00:46:48,600 Dave Creech: Really, to me, what I do is not really work. 640 00:46:48,660 --> 00:46:49,840 Dave Creech: I'd want to do it anyway. 641 00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:50,960 Dave Creech: I'd want to garden anyway. 642 00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:52,060 Dave Creech: I'd want to plant something. 643 00:46:52,100 --> 00:47:00,700 Dave Creech: And so, I don't know, I've always been confused about this is work, this is play, this is, you know, lining them up in a row. 644 00:47:00,760 --> 00:47:03,720 Dave Creech: To me it's all just part of being alive. 645 00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:06,060 Dave Creech: You have 24 hours in a day and what you do with it. 646 00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:14,000 Dave Creech: I do know my energy level is less than it used to be, and it's something you should think about, and my energy is real good in the morning and 647 00:47:14,100 --> 00:47:16,540 Dave Creech: afternoon, and then I'm, I fade in the evening. 648 00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:17,480 Dave Creech: I'm not very good. 649 00:47:17,540 --> 00:47:18,320 Dave Creech: am- Is that your case? 650 00:47:18,620 --> 00:47:21,500 Ping Yu: I, I, I'm more, I'm a morning person, I would say. 651 00:47:21,700 --> 00:47:26,880 Ping Yu: I, my energy level is way higher in the morning and then in the afternoons. 652 00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:37,100 Ping Yu: So that's why a lot of times in the morning I would do more productive brain-demanding activities, and in the afternoons I would, I n- tend to set 653 00:47:37,620 --> 00:47:44,120 Ping Yu: schedule meetings that doesn't need a whole lot of thinking in the afternoons, so I can bear with that. 654 00:47:44,580 --> 00:47:50,040 Ping Yu: But, yeah, for- Dave Creech: I can promise you this, Ping, it gets worse as you get older. 655 00:47:50,620 --> 00:47:53,620 Dave Creech: That late afternoon (Ping Yu: Mm) it's gonna be worse. 656 00:47:53,700 --> 00:47:55,320 Dave Creech: It just, you get tireder. 657 00:47:55,380 --> 00:47:55,620 Dave Creech: It... 658 00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:59,140 Dave Creech: And then there's a little bit of philosophy in there, like what's the point? 659 00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:00,700 Dave Creech: This work will be here tomorrow. 660 00:48:01,020 --> 00:48:03,040 Dave Creech: You know, it's not critical. 661 00:48:03,100 --> 00:48:09,040 Dave Creech: If there's a deadline, I'm, you know (Ping Yu: Yeah) that's bad, but still, still, you know, it's, it's... 662 00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:18,680 Dave Creech: When I look back on my career, and this is, I feel so blessed because I've had nothing but fun and I've had so many wonderful students, thousands actually, that 663 00:48:18,720 --> 00:48:20,840 Dave Creech: have come through the courses and everything. 664 00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:30,980 Dave Creech: I used to teach three or four courses a semester, twice a fall and spring, and, and it amazes me to see them at TNLA and the conventions and across 665 00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:31,600 Dave Creech: the South. 666 00:48:31,640 --> 00:48:36,560 Dave Creech: And most horticulturists end up in horticulture, and I think that's really commendable. 667 00:48:36,740 --> 00:48:38,520 Dave Creech: They're not off in some other arena. 668 00:48:38,620 --> 00:48:44,840 Dave Creech: I have had some leave horticulture, but it's always great to see them, and they're always stunned. 669 00:48:44,900 --> 00:48:55,120 Dave Creech: Matter of fact, I was just at TNLA in August, and you were too, and I had a former student I hadn't seen in six or seven 670 00:48:55,180 --> 00:49:01,100 Dave Creech: years, and he came up to me and recognized me and he said, Ping, he said, "You're still alive." 671 00:49:01,180 --> 00:49:03,580 Dave Creech: (laughs) And I thought that was so cute. 672 00:49:04,060 --> 00:49:05,600 Dave Creech: I said, "Yes, I may outlive you. 673 00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:07,620 Dave Creech: My mother lived to 102. 674 00:49:08,180 --> 00:49:09,280 Dave Creech: That's pretty good genes." 675 00:49:10,020 --> 00:49:11,840 Dave Creech: You know, I thought, that's kind of rude. 676 00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:18,660 Dave Creech: But anyway, he was a fun student, and he's out in the industry working hard, making money, got kids, you know. 677 00:49:18,720 --> 00:49:20,360 Dave Creech: And it's... 678 00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:30,000 Dave Creech: As an advisor, as you know, you get to know students for four, five, maybe even six years if they're slow to get out, but those people are with you- 679 00:49:30,100 --> 00:49:30,580 Dave Creech: (Ping Yu: Yeah) forever. 680 00:49:30,620 --> 00:49:31,000 Dave Creech: Yeah. 681 00:49:31,020 --> 00:49:36,240 Dave Creech: 'Cause that's what makes you a professor, and the better they do, the better it makes you feel about it. 682 00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:37,260 Ping Yu: Right. 683 00:49:37,260 --> 00:49:43,040 Ping Yu: (music) So, last comment about the SFA. 684 00:49:43,100 --> 00:49:47,840 Ping Yu: Are you guys providing any resources for, for people who are interested in gardening? 685 00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:51,900 Ping Yu: 'Cause I know you have some series for master gardeners. 686 00:49:52,060 --> 00:49:55,860 Ping Yu: Are there any resources that people wants to look into it? Dave Creech: We do- 687 00:49:56,060 --> 00:49:57,640 Dave Creech: We have a s- we do. 688 00:49:57,680 --> 00:50:02,080 Dave Creech: We have a wonderful building over here, the Ina Brundrett Conservation Education Building. 689 00:50:02,180 --> 00:50:04,040 Dave Creech: I'm at the Native Plant Center right now. 690 00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:12,680 Dave Creech: 40 acres, on the north side of the campus, and part of the campus really, and we have a once-a-month lecture series. 691 00:50:12,740 --> 00:50:17,600 Dave Creech: It's every second Thursday, and we bring in people, and it's endowment that allows us to do that. 692 00:50:17,660 --> 00:50:20,340 Dave Creech: So we can- P- you're coming to speak for me. 693 00:50:20,380 --> 00:50:20,820 Ping Yu: Yes, next year. 694 00:50:21,540 --> 00:50:22,100 Dave Creech: Next year. 695 00:50:22,460 --> 00:50:25,920 Dave Creech: And we pay you well, we feed you, we send you home with plants. 696 00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:27,400 Dave Creech: It's, it's a plan. 697 00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:30,460 Dave Creech: And that's been great. 698 00:50:30,500 --> 00:50:38,280 Dave Creech: And then my staff, we have eight staff, and so we have grafting seminars and workshops. 699 00:50:38,340 --> 00:50:46,520 Dave Creech: We have a number throughout the year, and you can type in SFA Gardens and you can get our website, and it's got all the events, et cetera, for people 700 00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:47,060 Dave Creech: that are local. 701 00:50:47,100 --> 00:50:53,900 Dave Creech: And we, we, we're real pleased to have a lot of horticulturists that enjoy coming here because I send them back with plants. 702 00:50:54,440 --> 00:51:02,800 Dave Creech: I'm not sure they wanna come, but they like the fact that we really do share some of the largess here to send back in terms of the new plants 703 00:51:02,840 --> 00:51:03,920 Dave Creech: that we're working with. 704 00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:05,420 Dave Creech: So I don't know. 705 00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:11,260 Dave Creech: That's- We also have an environmental education program for kids that we're bringing back. 706 00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:18,160 Dave Creech: So we've had 12,000 children a year coming through under Elyce Rodewald, our environmental ed coordinator. 707 00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:20,100 Dave Creech: It went to zero. 708 00:51:20,720 --> 00:51:24,020 Dave Creech: I lost the position, and now we're back. 709 00:51:24,460 --> 00:51:27,220 Dave Creech: We have a new hire, and we're seeing that growing. 710 00:51:27,260 --> 00:51:37,580 Dave Creech: And so these are the third to eighth grader kind of an emphasis, and I think that's really important, trying to stimulate and excite young people about getting 711 00:51:37,620 --> 00:51:42,540 Dave Creech: in the out of doors and working gardens, and we're doing some raised bed projects. 712 00:51:42,580 --> 00:51:45,000 Dave Creech: And actually, there's a ready market for it. 713 00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:48,480 Dave Creech: The teachers like it 'cause we're essential element compatible. 714 00:51:48,540 --> 00:51:52,720 Dave Creech: What we teach they'd have to teach anyway, and so you cover it that way. 715 00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:57,720 Dave Creech: So we're a busy, real busy garden at SFA. 716 00:51:58,580 --> 00:52:07,080 Dave Creech: The University of Texas has been here for about a year, and there are a lot of changes, and so far, we're still standing, so we'll see what 717 00:52:07,139 --> 00:52:07,580 Dave Creech: happens. 718 00:52:07,740 --> 00:52:08,180 Ping Yu: Okay. 719 00:52:08,580 --> 00:52:09,380 Dave Creech: Send me some money. 720 00:52:09,419 --> 00:52:10,960 Ping Yu: That- (laughs) He has all the money. 721 00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:13,020 Dave Creech: No, UT has got a lot. 722 00:52:13,100 --> 00:52:14,180 Dave Creech: It, it does. 723 00:52:14,300 --> 00:52:20,860 Dave Creech: And I- So far what I see on them in terms of how they're handling endowments and fiscal aspects of it, I'm impressed. 724 00:52:20,940 --> 00:52:21,980 Dave Creech: I'm very impressed. 725 00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:24,680 Dave Creech: We operate on nine endowments. 726 00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:34,900 Dave Creech: People have g- been generous to us, and following donor intent is a really important thing to people that are relying on that kind of income, and I 727 00:52:34,940 --> 00:52:39,500 Dave Creech: think UT has a vision in that way that's encouraging for us. 728 00:52:39,620 --> 00:52:39,800 Ping Yu: Yeah. 729 00:52:40,120 --> 00:52:40,400 Ping Yu: All right. 730 00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:51,320 Ping Yu: Thank you, Dr. Dave Creech, for all those wonderful stories and information about plants, about international travels, about everything related to horticulture, 731 00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:52,960 Ping Yu: and thank you so much. 732 00:52:53,100 --> 00:52:54,160 Dave Creech: Enjoyed it a lot. 733 00:52:55,300 --> 00:53:02,260 Ping Yu: Well, thank you, Dr. Dave Creech, for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with us as always. 734 00:53:02,620 --> 00:53:08,580 Ping Yu: Go check with the show notes to learn more about this topic and other topics we feature on the show. 735 00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:11,780 Ping Yu: Make sure you hit the subscription button. 736 00:53:11,980 --> 00:53:16,840 Ping Yu: Consider giving a review for the podcast and donating to the podcast to support the show. 737 00:53:17,500 --> 00:53:18,800 Ping Yu: Thank you for listening. 738 00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:21,700 Ping Yu: Till the next time, stay healthy and go plants. 739 00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:22,480 Ping Yu: Adios. 740 00:53:22,500 --> 00:53:29,260 Ping Yu: (music) Conversation like this only happen when you support the show. 741 00:53:29,560 --> 00:53:35,380 Ping Yu: For more information and find ways to support us, please go to bandbpod.com, 742 00:53:36,740 --> 00:53:38,200 Ping Yu: bandbpod.com. 743 00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:44,000 Ping Yu: If you like what you are hearing, spread the word and share this podcast with the people you love. 744 00:53:44,460 --> 00:53:49,900 Ping Yu: Make sure you hit that subscription button and give a review for the podcast. 745 00:53:50,460 --> 00:54:00,280 Ping Yu: And as always, go check out the show notes to learn more about this topic and other topics we featured on the show at bandbpod.com. 746 00:54:00,580 --> 00:54:01,560 Ping Yu: Thank you for listening. 747 00:54:01,760 --> 00:54:02,700 Ping Yu: Till the next time. 748 00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:04,720 Ping Yu: Stay healthy and go plants. 749 00:54:22,640 --> 00:54:22,900 (music)