What’s Christmas without a tree? Host Walter
Reeves will show you how to choose a fresh-cut tree and
keep it fresh for the holidays
on “The Georgia
Gardener,” on Georgia Public
Television.
 “The Georgia Gardener” host Walter Reeves |
This new TV series is designed with Georgia gardeners in
mind. A pilot aired on Nov.
18. This second show, geared for the holiday season, is
scheduled for Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.
The series will begin weekly shows next spring.
A featured speaker and best-selling author, Reeves is the
host of WSB
750 AM’s top-rated Lawn & Garden
Show every Saturday morning. His 25 years as a county agent
with the University of Georgia
Extension
Service helps keep the new show’s focus on the gardening
needs of Georgians.
The UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences produces the show, along with GPTV and
Peachtree Film Company.
The Dec. 10 show introduces Charles Berry, president of
the Georgia Christmas Tree
Association. He’ll describe how families can cut their own
trees at choose-and-cut farms.
For those who aren’t keen on cutting trees, Walter visits
Louisa Atkinson and Jane
Zamarippa. They’ll show how to choose and plant a living
Christmas tree.
The two teenagers are vice-presidents of the Society for
Living Christmas Trees. They
tell how living trees planted at their former school form a
grove beside the playground.
One of the features of the Georgia Gardener
is Reeves’ promise to “use the whole state as our garden.”
The holiday show visits Callaway Gardens,
where thousands of poinsettias are grown for the holidays.
Learn how to choose a fresh
plant. Reeves explains the difference between a poinsettia
flower and a bract, the
brightly colored part that makes plant so showy.
Parker Andes, horticulturist at Callaway Gardens, tells
how they manage the poinsettia
coloration process. Want to keep your poinsettias after the
holidays? Parker shows the
complicated process needed to make the plants change color
for next year’s holidays.
Then head to Wilkerson Mill Gardens. There, Elizabeth
Dean shows how to make a holiday
wreath from kudzu and decorate it with berries.
Callaway Gardens educators Patricia Collins and Helen
Phillips show Walter how to use
natural landscape materials (including weeds) to beautify a
home during the holidays.
The Georgia Gardener will offer a toll-free number to get
publications. A World Wide
Web site, <georgiagardener.com>,
will
give more in-depth information.
