Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Greece and and you know, Scotty and I are staying
here to help out because we can't miss the show.
But we thought, instead of being auto experts, we'd bring
in the expert himself from Oakland.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Nursery expert as in the Ohio State University, John Reiner.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
And uh him and I have a mutual good buddy,
Nick Popa from the retired PEPSI guy. He said it
out loud. We be able to say that, Ron, what's that?
I called you? John? But he Ron's taught me more
about planning than I ever wanted to know. Planning a word?
That would you say? John?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah? Plan It's this time of the year.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
And I will give me moo car washes away for
anyone that calls uh ella Christmas tree.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Question Christmas tree.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So let's do this. We were thinking about that. So
one of the biggest family fights we ever had was
a real tree versus the plastic tree. I'm a plastic
tree guy. My dad grew up poor, my mom grew
up wealthy. My mom was hillbilly rich. But my mom
hated real trees because we had dogs and the trees
(01:08):
we were typical boys were too lazy to water, to
things and a dog like on Christmas vacation would be
over lapping up the or the So we've always been
other maybe four years of my life. I've always been
fake Christmas trees. Okay, how about you?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Uh, fake when I was grown up, Okay, real once
I got out on my own and my wife and
I were real tree people for the longest time. Okay,
and then she found this. I'm not gonna I'm sorry, John.
She found this fake tree that we've had for over
twenty years, and it's the most beautiful things she's ever seen.
(01:45):
Every year we put it out as his wife had
a happy life, happy way, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
All right, yeah, now, John, here's the magic question growing
up over here.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I am also John.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
On my dor side, you got real You guys both
got real trees.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Oh my gosh, artificial Christmas trees. I'm sorry. They're so ugly.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
They make me physically uncomfortable. I didn't put one up
this year. We decided not to put one up. Good really,
and I just don't want to that out. I'm very lucky.
I got thirty foot ceilings and I bought a Walmart
twenty eight foot tree thing and It takes me forever,
and I gotta lay it down and decorate it and
then stand it up. And my my mountain dog.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Way heck has a twenty eight foot I got a
thirty foot ceiling. I wanted the president of Columbus or something.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Of Westerhood, but that's what I have. And we just
don't have time. And I'm just going to go get
one of them odd lots Charlie Brown Christmas tree and
throw it on a table. Okay, oh ugly here you want.
I'm old. My kids are grown on and tell us why.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
We They come at the nursery about two feet tall
with a stand on them, and they're alive. So you
really want to get that? Okay, you want to create oxygen,
but I still got to water it, right, Yeah, but
you put water in the tree stand and you're pretty
much done. You do that about everything.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So I go to Oakland Nursery, which one I go
get a two foot tree? I'll go get one of
the day.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
They have them all. They have hundreds of them. They're
pre done in stands. They help you out. So if
you just want a table tree, it's called okay, And
don't want to go through all the hassle dragging that
dusty tree out of your closet.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Oh, it's already. It's a pre lit one too. I
just plug it in. Once I stick all six pieces,
I usually bleed when I do it.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Now, remember you know, uh, you know, eighty percent of
those were made in communists China unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Well yeah, yeah, a kid with a foot grown out
of his face because of my tree. But he'll be fine.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Right, Okay, let's just let's let's think about that one up.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
You know, hey, but you like real trees really?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Oh it is Christmas?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
What is business?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
No, it's yes, we do. We just put Yeah, we
put two hundred and fifty artificial trees in a children's hospital.
There is a purpose for artificial trees, like if you're
allergic to uh, you know, the scense of a real
tree or something thing or under law, you know, in
a public building, you got to put in.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Artificials, free trees. Absolute.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
We put in the State House tree and it's artificial
inside the building. It's about two stories tall. We decorate it.
We have a company called Oakland Green that takes care
of that kind of thing. They put all the pots
out on the streets that beautify the downtowns and the baskets,
but they handle a lot of and for the law
firms downtown and stuff. They you know, they store their
(04:29):
artificial trees and they redecorate and bring around every year.
And that's what they do.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
They build, They build what they have put up his
twenty eight foot Christmas tree in his house since he
doesn't have time.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I got cars.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
To build, you know, for these grenches that that oh
my goodness. So you know, no, it's it's you know,
you want to make trees, make oxygen. You know, if
you think about governor or President Bush, he got off
the plane at the Rio conference, I think in ninety
two and they ask what could every human being in
(05:02):
the world do to stop you know, the world heating
and all this stuff, and he said, plant a tree. Now,
somehow we forgot that mission because earthwarming would turn back
two point five to two point seven percent if we
planted one trillion trees. There wouldn't be this giant discussion.
So they figured this out a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
But the government doesn't go out and take people out
of jails and have plant trees on empty lots or
do something to help the environment. Because there wouldn't be
this huge discussion that's raging over earth warming and all
this if people just went out and bought a Christmas
tree or any kind of tree.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
So there's three hundred and fifty million Christmas trees right
now being planted in America and our population is only
three hundred and thirty four million. So there's more trees
than there are humans in America. But it takes seven
years for a Christmas tree to grow up. And the
cool thing about a live, living tree creating oxygen and
(06:02):
helping you breathe and all the other stuff that does
the cool The cool thing about it, it's usually grown
on ground. You can't grow wheat or something on you know,
the hills of West Virginia. Uh So it's it's it's
a farm produced object like wheat. And there's I don't know,
one hundred thousand Christmas tree growers out there raising these trees.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
And and so yeah, you're you're, you're, you know, nothing
is more interesting than you talk to somebody and you're
in this environmental discussion and they're raging on about earthwarming
and and all this other stuff and all the gosh,
the rainforests are all being cut down and all these
forests fires out west. And then you walk in their
house and they have an artificial Christmas tree and you
go really critical.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Okay, really, how we go to break?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
So?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I guess this is Ron Garden Show. Unfortunately Ron's out
and boots and Iye, you're stuck with us for the
next John. But you have this great expert John from
Oakland Park Nursery and from the Heartland Bank Studios on
News Radio six to n WTVN.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
It just fell well, if you have a question for us,
we joke about it.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Charlie Brown's Christmas.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
But John, when we answer your question a two to
one nine eight eight six six one two one nine
eight eight six and uh, I'll tho some car washes
your way. But we're talking fake Christmas trees or real
Christmas trees.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
We were talking a little bit off the air. I
want to find out more about where where did the
fake Christmas tree originate from? Where did this come from?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Well, that's you know, that's a really good question. I
think it was the eighties brush company that made toilet
bowl brushes brought out the first artificial Christmas tree.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay, it kind of looks like a big giant toilet
bowl cleaner. If you really think about it's got the
little spune steel the things glued.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, exactly what year was that?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Do you have any idea?
Speaker 3 (08:05):
No, I don't, uh, I some police in my papers.
I do have that.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
I remember back in the day, like in the sixties.
It was really hot, like the tinfoil Christmas trees. Yeah,
and then they had the multi light spinner that was
underneath so they'd be yellow. The balls are so high
you leave your skin on it to them.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That thing was cool though. I remember they were big.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
They're probably worth a ton of money now to find one.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Wonder how they spun up, not got them unplugged?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
No, no, no, the tree didn't spincer. It was a
light dish underneath it.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It's fun that spun Oh, that was so seven.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So cool.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Sixties.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I had line all trains under my tree growing up.
And one year we decided to put the sparkly stuff
the tinsel. Yeah, my mom. One year we finally talked
her into it, and well, the tinsil will fall on
the tracks. Oh and you'd be running your in your
lyne ol O gage. It'd be sparking all my dad's
like you'll burn house down. You done? Yeahr Christmas already?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
You know, yeah, really you gotta say that. You gotta
love them because they're creating oxygen. And I have a
fishing store felt real trees. I please. Bob Grant, a
Southern let's se was a Kentucky architect. He said, let's
go fishing down to It was on the borderline of
Kentucky and Tennessee. And I don't know if it was
Lake Cumberland or or Kentucky Lake. So we go down
(09:31):
there and we're fishing, and we spent three days fishing,
and we caught, I mean, absolutely nothing in three days.
So we're checking out of this cabin, and this lady
that ran the cabin we were in says to this
little boy, Hey, I need two or three hundred fish
tomorrow for the fish fry. Now you go out and
get them. And Bob and I looked at each other
increditlously and we just started laughing, and we said, hey, lady,
(09:54):
there's no fishing.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Fish in that pond.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
No.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And we were sick and tired of driving up and
down it, so we, out of curiosity, we followed the
little boy out of the cabin and he went down
to the dock and he sat down and he put
on a saddle hook and he put minnows on it,
and he immediately caught two fish, and then he caught
two fish, and he started filling up five gallon buckets
with fish. So we said, oh, yes, sir, can we
(10:20):
join you? And he said, yeah, sit down. He's two
Yankees from up north right, sit down. And we said okay.
I said, how is it that you're catching and they're
not even eating the minnows He had them on there
so fast. He said, well, here's how it really works,
you guys. He said, there's about a forty foot cliff
drop off underwater here, and I've taken Christmas trees and
(10:43):
I've tied ropes around him and I've dropped them down
in there, and then I have a lamp also, which helps.
And he said, you know, the Christmas trees are protection
for all the little minnows and things and all the
big fish hang out. So Bob and I fished until
three o'clock in the morning with a saddle hook, and
as soon as you could lower it in the water,
(11:03):
you had two fish, really, and you just kept throwing
them in buckets and the kid got is two or
three hundred fish or the fish fry. So Christmas trees,
when you're done with them, have a lot of good purposes.
They're ground up and use for paths and all kinds
of things. And I like to use them on erosion
control for cliffs. You pound in two steaks and time
to the cliff to keep the hills from a roading
(11:24):
and so okay, so they just you know, so environmentally,
you know, returning them back to nature, which is what
you really should do. So you know, that's a point
for you know, real Christmas trees over artificial Christmas tree.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
But the real Christmas tree doesn't have the easy place
to put the star on the top. That's what I
always or something. Well the fid ones go to a point.
You get up there and you you know, have the
grand kid or whatever. Well mine, I can't because it's
at all. But remember back in the day when my
daughter was a little she always wanted that we made
a tradition she put the star up arrow the angel, right,
(11:59):
we gave you know, the throw the angel up there.
But but I just I have I just can't get
in a real tree.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Well, you know, really the trees are so beautiful now
and so perfect. Every year at a Christmas tree farm,
they got the bulo blade and they trim them. So
you have that top now that you were talking about.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Oh they do that, okay, Oh.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, it's all trimmed in a you know, a pyramidal
fashion now ton of work. And you got to say,
for the price of a Christmas tree, would you raise
a Christmas tree for seven to nine years, water at,
fertilized it, trim it every year And then you look
at the price of a cut Christmas tree at a
nursery and you gotta laugh. It's one of the best
spies gone.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
How much is it seven foot all tree? Approximately?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
They're probably about one hundred and seventy nine bucks or something,
okay for really perfect or one hundred and forty nine
dollars really for really do you guys great them?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Kind of like when you come into your store, it's like, well,
that's an a tree, that's a seat tree.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
The company is really interesting it it has this long
pedigree of after eighty four years, it knows the best
plant of every plant species of two to three thousand
plants and where to buy them. Now we have a
very large farm over in that farm. It's located up
in Sparta, Ohio. That's the coolest spot in Ohio. And
(13:17):
people say, well, you guys are really dumb because you're
raising your plants in the coldest spot in Ohio. Said,
they're not growing very fast, all right, And we do
that with intent actually, because we have the lowest morbidity
rate in the industry. Our plants just don't die. They're
tougher than nails. You've got to abuse them. Either don't
water it during your drought or you do something to it.
(13:38):
So you know, we don't have that many replacements.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Are you talking about plants in general?
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Or Christmas plants? And we have spruces and pines there
are too.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, so plants aren't just plants. I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Oh no, You've got to be careful in America now
because I'd say eighty percent of the plants are born
in or raised now in northern Florida, Texas, Arizona, Mcmnville, Tennessee,
and they're shipped up here. They're shipped over five different
hardiness zones. Now, there should be a federal law against
doing this, but there is.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
About the bugs you move around.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Oh that's why you. You know that disease swept up
and hit the blue spruces that people are talking about.
The guys went down for the hurricanes and did tree trimming,
but didn't clean their chainsaws with like dentured alcohol and
stuff like you, and so they brought these diseases back north.
Those diseases would have taken years and years to ever
come up here.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So anyway back to the discussion on trees and their location.
So if we wanted to and we refuse to do this,
but we can buy these trees down south for like
thirty to fifty percent less. And the reason you can
they have a lot long hot growing season. So the tree,
you know, you can turn the crop two and three
(14:52):
times as fast as you can in Michigan or Ohio
or our heartiness something. So when you're at a big
box or something, you think you're buying shrub, you look
at the they all look alike when they're young, and
then you put them out and the trees don't really grow.
And then sometimes you always clear the warranting if you're
buying the southern stuff, but then it after two or
(15:14):
three years, it sort of dies. It doesn't belong here.
But you could buy it really cheap. So you got
to be careful for big projects where they want low bids.
I need low bids. You know some of the developers
I need low price, they'll they'll buy their trees.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Do you recommend a live tree with the ball on
it and plant it out back? To ask if I'm
going to get a real tree, I want to keep
my money going out front and put it in the ground.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Well, you know that's a good idea. And there's some
families that do that. They'll buy a live Christmas tree,
or they'll buy a fruit tree for every kid's birthday
and they'll plant them in their backyard. It's a lot
of work. You got to do it right. And we
really don't think you should keep in the house from
more than three to seven days. And you should put
it in a tub and pack newspapers around it when
you water at the ball to keep it right. And
you also want to get out early and dig the
(15:59):
hole during war weather. And yeah, in case you get
a freeze.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Christmas, Yeah, you have to prep.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
You get the one nephew is not this smart giving
the spud pole, get my pick axe and spud bars.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
So you know there's a technique to that, but yeah,
it's it's a wonderful thing to do. And you know,
and a lot of people don't know there's a story
for that. There was a congressman and you probably might
know who he is.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
And we'll get right after this. Yeah, yeah, we'll get
right back to that. This is Ron Wilson's Garden Show
with the Boots and Start and John Yeah, filling in
for Ron today. So thank you very much for listening.
This is Heartland Banks Studios on News Radio six n
w TVN. Mister Wilson, mister Wilson.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
All right, so we we Elliott's having a cow right now.
I bet we're in the garden with Ron Wilson and
I am just honored that I get to we get
to fill in for him.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Well, he has been around for twenty thirty year and
he knows and.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
A reminder, so they're given the other hour to l
e PD So all those guys are taken over to eleven.
But Scotty and I had a cow. I called my
buddy Nick Pope. I said, hey, can we get from
Oakland nurseres so cause we can tell you amy about cars.
There's nothing thing about cars we can't handle. But when
it comes to juniper bushes, I have no idea what
(17:24):
I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And before we left this last commercial break, John was
going to fill us in on a Christmas tree story
about a congressman. Oh yeah, yeah, maybe a congressman's wife
was it. I'm not really sugar.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Well, you know, you guys were talking about live trees,
and you know that's a good thing. Go get a
live tree, put it in your house and plant it
in your back.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
You okay, real quick, real quick. What do you put
in the water? Sugar or something?
Speaker 3 (17:48):
No, do not use anything. It is no asp in nothing.
It's been proven by the National Christmas Tree Association not
to use a brand. Well, now you want to use it.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Got a.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Rating by the European company.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That raised food.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I was shocked. It's one hundred for one hundred. That's
hard to get. Wow, you guys, you got to know
what yuka is. Yuka is an app where you hold
it up against any kind of barcode and it tells
you this food will kill you. It's as bad good.
It has a rat.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I don't want that.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Can we put that on a Christmas many parts of
this Christmas tree?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
No, that's proper that's out in California has a Prop
sixty five because Christmas trees have a lot of lead
in them coming in from China. So the California's.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Fat not the real ones.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
No, they're out, they're out trying to help you breathe.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So lead in the Why would we lead in Christmas?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That's when the way they make them that way in China. Okay,
you know they're not real sensitive sometimes, so what they're
shipping over here and they're not real good on.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
They have a sticker sake could cause cancer like everything
in California.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
But go ahead, yeah anyway, Okay, so you guys said
the live Christmas trees. You know, So we had a
congressman and he wanted this giant live Christmas tree and
it had a ball on it. It was probably about five
feet across. Okay, So we get it into the house
and it's like, you know, twelve fifteen feet tall, and
the yeah, the wife kept moving and around and the
(19:25):
guys were getting a little aggravated. She'd move it over here,
move it over there.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Oh I don't like it there? Can we try next
to the couch? And they our guys from Oakland Nursery
were moving the tree around and around and around, and
you know, it.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Actually came back to the original came back to the
original spot like twice, and then moved again. So it
was exhausting because this tree was really heavy. Well, we
left with the final solution supposedly for this tree, and
the next day I pick up the dispatch and she
made her husband move it again and he was in
the hospital with her. Yeah, I thought, oh my god, wow,
(20:03):
thank god, thank god, we got out of there.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
So the other thing my father once did, he says,
you've got to drill holes in the bottom of the
tree so the water goes in easier.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
That's that's all at school. Yeah, there's a whole lot
of stuff that's really not fitting. A lot of people
will cut the edges down on their tree to fit
in the stand, or they will want to cut the ice.
Terrible because that outer tissue is where the water is
absorbed up into the tree, the bark just below the bark,
right right, it's right, it's right exactly right, Scott, right
(20:37):
below the bark. And you don't have to cut off
two inches. They've done studies and you only have to
cut off one inch. That's it. To get the water
the tree to draw it up really well. And if
you've been messing around, if you add warm water to
the tree, it actually absorbs it faster.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Interesting. Okay, not hot, but just like a little warm,
warm to the touch, like what you'd feed a baby.
Put it on your wrist. If it doesn't burn you,
you can put it on your tree. That's interest because
I remember when I cut live trees and you drag
it all the way home before you know it, size
it up on the stand. But then before I fix
the stand to it, I'd always cut like an additional
(21:16):
because it like sap over on the ride home, because
it was about half hour forty five minute trip, and
I'd cut off that little bit and then put it
on the stand. Right. But that first couple of days
you're filling it full of water. It's done. I feel
full of water done. It's like wow, without watering it.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
These trees that we have are you could probably not
water them at all, and they never drop their needles.
They're late cut. We cut them real late in the
in the season for sale. And uh, these Fraser furs
are not only they're fabulously fragrant. Got to love that tree, Uh,
and it's just all about Christmas. So Christmas is more
sensory than just visual lights. You know, if you have
(21:55):
the fragrance in your house of a live tree, it's
it's awesome and so you could probably we would not
recommend that, but you could probably get by with it.
And because the needles are really you know at the nursery,
when you're buying a Christmas tree, you want to pull
on the needles. If any of them come off, don't
(22:16):
buy the tree.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
But what last last live tree? I'm taking it outside
as like a tree blew up in my house with
all the needles. Do you sell a plastic bag that
put it in for you drag it out of your house?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Yeah? Yeah, we sell a bag. So you put the
bag down, put the tree skirt around the tree, you
put the bag down, and then when you're done, take
the stand off and just pull the bag up and
throw the tree out on the curb where they'll pick
it up for you.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I don't really get the stand that's a lot of work.
You better have all your sons and daughters helping.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting about that. So my folks
they had a earlier or how would I say at
a point in time they had a place out of
Buckeye Lake. Right, So Mom put up this Christmas tree
and her deal was she had this big bag. You
know it was artificial tree. John, don't get mad. But
so in the end what she would do is Christmas
(23:09):
is over. She just took this big bag, lights, ornaments,
a whole bit and put it up. And you know,
you picked that tree up and she took it out
and put it in the shed there it was so
next fall she bring it out, done, take the bag down,
the trees done. Ready to tell that. It was like, Mom,
where the heck did you find a bag that big?
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You know what on a on a real tree. If
you decorate it with the cheap lights, the stress some
like the nine to ninety nine box, you just throw
all of it away. Yeah, because I don't care who
you are. You wrap up Christmas lights, they're going to
get tangled. I hate those things. You saw lights there?
Oh yeah, I bet you do everything.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Oh yeah. Now at Oakland there you got to say
that they do everything but build your house. They build.
They have a division of landscape architects. I'm real proud
of that team that we had three or four Harvard
guys Sazaki, who's designing the new city for Dublin. You know,
we're almost done with Bridge Street in Dublin. I'm a
(24:10):
city councilman at night, and we're almost done with that.
And that is the longest s curved pedestrian bridge in
the world, that one that connects the old city to
the new city. And so you know, I mentioned Sazaki
and Sazaki was selected to design a new city over
at Metro. So we have had over the years storied,
(24:33):
famous landscape architects and designers in that company. And we
still are on a different system than everybody else. We're
on the German Japanese system. And that means you don't
graduate from college and put on your suit and tie
and get to a high rise. You go into the
field for two years. All the plants, all the stonework,
buy heart, build bridges, do Japanese gardens, Chinese gardens. Like
(24:56):
if you go to New Albany, there's a certain plant
pellop for New Albany fits their architecture. Yeah, yeah, gotta
know all that by heart, two thousand plants. And then
we let you come into the design office once we
think you've learned everything from the ground up. It's like
the old chefs like Hanky and Siebert, you know, these
culinary Olympics. Well, you know, if you talk to him,
(25:17):
they were talking about how tough it was to be,
you know, a chef and the kuff you over the
head and these guys and so you had to chop
an onion and and so you know, our system is
it's an old world system.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Wow, all right, Okay, we got a caller when we
get back by the right. That's it. We got a
collar gene that just called in. So this is not
auto smarts yours. Your ears have not gotten you. This
is in the garden with Ron Wilson, and we are
Scott and Boots and we're here today with John from
Oakland Garden. So if you have a question, please call in.
And we're from the Heartland Banks Studios on news Radio
(25:51):
six ten WTVN. Okay, I do like Christmas, using you do?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I do?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
You're the only person there.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I turned ninety three to nine ninety three point three
on and I listened to.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
It, Corvette Christmas.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I did do Harry Burnouts yesterday and never got to
finish that story because I yelled at me.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Yeah, yella, don't yell at him. Tell your Christmas tree
story now weird?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, I was doing. Jaggs invited me up with my
new C eight, which I'm very lucky to have. I'm
not bringing about it by like cars more humans. But
we had a trist Christmas tree upper and I did
donuts around it is best I could, but the GM
traction was overtaking it automikely comes on even when you
shut it off. So I got some good burnouts with
with TJ Coughlin, one of our top field drags ers,
(26:33):
and we were doing donuts around, having a blast, and uh,
we were trying to decorate the tree from the CARJ
was dressed up like green grin boots and he was
standing up on my top and grinch. It didn't work out,
and I've got critics on Facebook. I'm well, you need
to do right. Well, I know I couldn't help it now.
My hell Cat that I did it with a few
years ago. It's a Chrysler product, so the traction doesn't
(26:54):
normally work anyway. So it was fine, but it was
fun doing donuts around a Christmas tree. But I am
going to go down Oakland or down off seventy one
because I'm on my way to Jaggs. I'm going down
there and I'm gonna buy one of your little trees. Now
what do I do? I just want a little two
foot yeah, and I'll get some cheat you have some
expensive white lights, right, oh.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah, And and stop in and get some chili. And
then there's horse rides, so you take there's carriage ride.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Want to ride a horse?
Speaker 3 (27:18):
No, it's it's good for you.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
You get out in the fresh air, you know, yeah,
my part of it.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And then go through the giant Santa House.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Who do I see when I'm there, Like, who's your house?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
No, they're all they're all good.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
They're all good.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Now like a Sally Popa working there or something.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Oh yeah, yeah she's great.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, she'd be awesome at that job.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
But stop in the Santa House. It's worth walking through.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Where is the Santa House?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Seven houses in the conference center inside that nursery and
there's like I don't know seven eight nine rooms all
decked out with animals. And it was the address there
eleven fifty six Oakland Park on Park there we go, yeah,
fifty six, but then at the end there's Santa and yay,
And that was to replace the Lazarus window. We decided
(27:59):
that when the Lazarus to win, that was sort of
a neat thing for us all to do and to
go look at the largest window and then look at
the state auto Nativity set. So when the Lattice window disappeared,
we started building the Santa House for people to come
to at Christmas time. Okay, so it was a replacement
for that.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
So is there a charge to go through there?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
No?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
No, No, let's go to Gene. Yeah, let's put Jane through.
What thanks, Ella? What's what's Jeane got for us?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Hey? I got something?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Kay?
Speaker 5 (28:26):
Should I thought of something else after I had called? First,
if you go and cut your own tree somewhere instead
of thrown out on the curve. If you know anybody
that has goats, Goats love pine trees good. And if
you get one from some yeah, if you get one
from somewhere and then they don't paint them or anything
to make them greener. Also, I mean they're filled with
(28:49):
vitamin C for goats.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
They're great for them.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Yeah, it's great. Yeah, nothing, nothing's better than goat cheese
and stuff for you half.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Yeah. Another thing Oakland has like satellite locations where they're
selling trees. I think there's one on two fifty six,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, there's there's eleven different satellite locations.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah for Christmas tree.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
That one on fifty six, that one up on two
fifty six. When I retired from the Air Force, I
moved here in two thousand and two, that was the
first place I bought a Christmas tree. And I have
bought my Christmas tree at that same place every single
year except one one year we bought we actually cut
our own tree down and everything. But today I'm going
(29:31):
up to two fifty six and buying my Christmas tree
from Oakland Nursery. Every year I've gotten great trees up there.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Well, thank you, you know, I really want to thank you.
I'm a veteran too, and Oakland's a veteran run an
owned company, and I want to thank you for your service.
We need more people in the military with commitment, So
thank you very much. Yeah, that now, and thanks for
your loyalty. We're on like go gee, three or four
(29:58):
generations of people were landscape their houses, did Grandpaul's house
and the Christmas tree thing, and well, thank you just
very much appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
So let's talk Oakland Park Nursery.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
I've always gotten good trees up there, so.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Well, we try to cut them real late and uh
so so you don't have to worry about them, uh
losing their needles.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
So hey, Genie, awesome Christmas. If I can, I can
put you on We'll put you on hold. I'll all
get your address. I'll send you some goodies and a
mail for calling in Thank you, perfect love that.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
So let's talk Oakland Urkley, Oakland Nurseries. Why am I
having such a hard When I was doing the break
last time, I said Oakland Gardens and then you after,
you know, on the commercial break, you were said, Hey,
that kind of is all inclusive, because what all do
you folks do?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
The company is interesting. It's got a really storied history,
uh for central Ohio. It it well one thing that
everybody's familiar with. It landscaped and redesigned the Franklin Park
Conservatory and did the entire landscape in two weeks and
got it in because there was going to be a
frieze and all those trees were there from all over
the world and they were in semis. But it has
(31:08):
and it started the beautification uh program, for downtown Columbus.
In nineteen ninety three, Oakland went down to talk to
the mayor. They got letters and we went door to
door from Broad Street to High Street to plant put
pots out with color and plants hanging off a post.
And Oakland started that program for the city to beautify
the city because there was a donut thing going on
(31:30):
in urban planning and inner cities are dying and people
were moving to the suburbs, and we tried to upgrade that.
You know, we learned all this stuff from Europe. The
great Gus Gigi, who was like top guy, came over
from Europe. He was in top of his class in horticulture,
and he brought all these real progressive ideas to us
here in the Midwest.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Me. I mean, I interrupt you because I went run
had a time wreath across America. Aren't you big in
the Columbus market for that? Because I remember when of
you you guys were hanging out for Mike Shettinger and
I to put them on all the Dublin.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Cool that's going to be next Saturday, and I'll be
giving a talk at Dublin at the Cemetery. Yeah, that's
a wonderful program to honor our veterans. Yeah, it's a great,
great program, and.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Uh it's really cool. So thank you for that. I
wanted to bring that up. I didn't want to forget
and you know, you knew that. Oh I knew that.
Pope and I are best buddies.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
You know, we tell everything, so Shuttinger doesn't. They did
a lot, Mike.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Mike's great people too.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah, a lot of good things for our community.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
So well that's amazing because you guys are doing a
whole lot more than what I ever realized. I thought
you were just the Garden Center over in Oakland Park.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
No, they won the National International Award ten years in
a row for the best landscapes in America, best office Buildings,
and it almost got tired of bringing that award home
from Hawaii or Mexico coverage.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
The struggles real. So we got about a minute. How
do people get a hold of you? What's the most
of our listeners are Columbus. But where would you go
to day to buy some good Christmas stuff or some
anything that you guys wan ow.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Any of the four garden stores are the outlets? All
the other outlet stores and uh no, it's it's a
you know, God love it. It's the greatest tradition in
the world.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
From your face, it's a laborer.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
He's excited. I can think it really is. Well, I
will have a real tree this year. From you guys,
I'm leaving here and going to.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
The way to go great. Gush worked seven days a week,
love the industry, and he could always tell when somebody
came in the nursery and he didn't have the money
to buy a plant, and they'd have their hands in
their pocket and they'd be staring at and staring at you.
Always just gave him the plant. Wow, to get out
of here. Have a plant, you know you.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
So does Oakland Nurses have a website?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Yeah, yeah they do.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
What is it all right? I don't know, you know,
you type in yeah that's something.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, that's it. So Ron Wilson, sorry that we tried
our best. We did our best.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
L e p ds. Next, yeah, we'll knock that out.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
So this is Scott and Boots for Ron Wilson's starting show.
Always got done.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
In my life because that.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Oakland Nursery dot com, Oakland dot he's just the owner,
you know, that's right. And we were protected by the Undefeated.
American made tattletale alarm systems from the Heartland Banks Studios
on News radio six, n W, t V, N
Greece and and you know, Scotty and I are staying
here to help out because we can't miss the show.
But we thought, instead of being auto experts, we'd bring
in the expert himself from Oakland.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Nursery expert as in the Ohio State University, John Reiner.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
And uh him and I have a mutual good buddy,
Nick Popa from the retired PEPSI guy. He said it
out loud. We be able to say that, Ron, what's that?
I called you? John? But he Ron's taught me more
about planning than I ever wanted to know. Planning a word?
That would you say? John?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah? Plan It's this time of the year.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
And I will give me moo car washes away for
anyone that calls uh ella Christmas tree.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Question Christmas tree.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
So let's do this. We were thinking about that. So
one of the biggest family fights we ever had was
a real tree versus the plastic tree. I'm a plastic
tree guy. My dad grew up poor, my mom grew
up wealthy. My mom was hillbilly rich. But my mom
hated real trees because we had dogs and the trees
(01:08):
we were typical boys were too lazy to water, to
things and a dog like on Christmas vacation would be
over lapping up the or the So we've always been
other maybe four years of my life. I've always been
fake Christmas trees. Okay, how about you?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Uh, fake when I was grown up, Okay, real once
I got out on my own and my wife and
I were real tree people for the longest time. Okay,
and then she found this. I'm not gonna I'm sorry, John.
She found this fake tree that we've had for over
twenty years, and it's the most beautiful things she's ever seen.
(01:45):
Every year we put it out as his wife had
a happy life, happy way, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
All right, yeah, now, John, here's the magic question growing
up over here.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I am also John.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
On my dor side, you got real You guys both
got real trees.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Oh my gosh, artificial Christmas trees. I'm sorry. They're so ugly.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
They make me physically uncomfortable. I didn't put one up
this year. We decided not to put one up. Good really,
and I just don't want to that out. I'm very lucky.
I got thirty foot ceilings and I bought a Walmart
twenty eight foot tree thing and It takes me forever,
and I gotta lay it down and decorate it and
then stand it up. And my my mountain dog.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Way heck has a twenty eight foot I got a
thirty foot ceiling. I wanted the president of Columbus or something.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Of Westerhood, but that's what I have. And we just
don't have time. And I'm just going to go get
one of them odd lots Charlie Brown Christmas tree and
throw it on a table. Okay, oh ugly here you want.
I'm old. My kids are grown on and tell us why.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
We They come at the nursery about two feet tall
with a stand on them, and they're alive. So you
really want to get that? Okay, you want to create oxygen,
but I still got to water it, right, Yeah, but
you put water in the tree stand and you're pretty
much done. You do that about everything.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So I go to Oakland Nursery, which one I go
get a two foot tree? I'll go get one of
the day.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
They have them all. They have hundreds of them. They're
pre done in stands. They help you out. So if
you just want a table tree, it's called okay, And
don't want to go through all the hassle dragging that
dusty tree out of your closet.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Oh, it's already. It's a pre lit one too. I
just plug it in. Once I stick all six pieces,
I usually bleed when I do it.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Now, remember you know, uh, you know, eighty percent of
those were made in communists China unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Well yeah, yeah, a kid with a foot grown out
of his face because of my tree. But he'll be fine.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Right, Okay, let's just let's let's think about that one up.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
You know, hey, but you like real trees really?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Oh it is Christmas?
Speaker 2 (03:43):
What is business?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
No, it's yes, we do. We just put Yeah, we
put two hundred and fifty artificial trees in a children's hospital.
There is a purpose for artificial trees, like if you're
allergic to uh, you know, the scense of a real
tree or something thing or under law, you know, in
a public building, you got to put in.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Artificials, free trees. Absolute.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
We put in the State House tree and it's artificial
inside the building. It's about two stories tall. We decorate it.
We have a company called Oakland Green that takes care
of that kind of thing. They put all the pots
out on the streets that beautify the downtowns and the baskets,
but they handle a lot of and for the law
firms downtown and stuff. They you know, they store their
(04:29):
artificial trees and they redecorate and bring around every year.
And that's what they do.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
They build, They build what they have put up his
twenty eight foot Christmas tree in his house since he
doesn't have time.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, I got cars.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
To build, you know, for these grenches that that oh
my goodness. So you know, no, it's it's you know,
you want to make trees, make oxygen. You know, if
you think about governor or President Bush, he got off
the plane at the Rio conference, I think in ninety
two and they ask what could every human being in
(05:02):
the world do to stop you know, the world heating
and all this stuff, and he said, plant a tree. Now,
somehow we forgot that mission because earthwarming would turn back
two point five to two point seven percent if we
planted one trillion trees. There wouldn't be this giant discussion.
So they figured this out a long time ago.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
But the government doesn't go out and take people out
of jails and have plant trees on empty lots or
do something to help the environment. Because there wouldn't be
this huge discussion that's raging over earth warming and all
this if people just went out and bought a Christmas
tree or any kind of tree.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Right.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
So there's three hundred and fifty million Christmas trees right
now being planted in America and our population is only
three hundred and thirty four million. So there's more trees
than there are humans in America. But it takes seven
years for a Christmas tree to grow up. And the
cool thing about a live, living tree creating oxygen and
(06:02):
helping you breathe and all the other stuff that does
the cool The cool thing about it, it's usually grown
on ground. You can't grow wheat or something on you know,
the hills of West Virginia. Uh So it's it's it's
a farm produced object like wheat. And there's I don't know,
one hundred thousand Christmas tree growers out there raising these trees.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
And and so yeah, you're you're, you're, you know, nothing
is more interesting than you talk to somebody and you're
in this environmental discussion and they're raging on about earthwarming
and and all this other stuff and all the gosh,
the rainforests are all being cut down and all these
forests fires out west. And then you walk in their
house and they have an artificial Christmas tree and you
go really critical.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Okay, really, how we go to break?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
So?
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I guess this is Ron Garden Show. Unfortunately Ron's out
and boots and Iye, you're stuck with us for the
next John. But you have this great expert John from
Oakland Park Nursery and from the Heartland Bank Studios on
News Radio six to n WTVN.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
It just fell well, if you have a question for us,
we joke about it.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Charlie Brown's Christmas.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
But John, when we answer your question a two to
one nine eight eight six six one two one nine
eight eight six and uh, I'll tho some car washes
your way. But we're talking fake Christmas trees or real
Christmas trees.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
We were talking a little bit off the air. I
want to find out more about where where did the
fake Christmas tree originate from? Where did this come from?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Well, that's you know, that's a really good question. I
think it was the eighties brush company that made toilet
bowl brushes brought out the first artificial Christmas tree.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay, it kind of looks like a big giant toilet
bowl cleaner. If you really think about it's got the
little spune steel the things glued.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah, exactly what year was that?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Do you have any idea?
Speaker 3 (08:05):
No, I don't, uh, I some police in my papers.
I do have that.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
I remember back in the day, like in the sixties.
It was really hot, like the tinfoil Christmas trees. Yeah,
and then they had the multi light spinner that was
underneath so they'd be yellow. The balls are so high
you leave your skin on it to them.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
That thing was cool though. I remember they were big.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
They're probably worth a ton of money now to find one.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Wonder how they spun up, not got them unplugged?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
No, no, no, the tree didn't spincer. It was a
light dish underneath it.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It's fun that spun Oh, that was so seven.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
So cool.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Sixties.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I had line all trains under my tree growing up.
And one year we decided to put the sparkly stuff
the tinsel. Yeah, my mom. One year we finally talked
her into it, and well, the tinsil will fall on
the tracks. Oh and you'd be running your in your
lyne ol O gage. It'd be sparking all my dad's
like you'll burn house down. You done? Yeahr Christmas already?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
You know, yeah, really you gotta say that. You gotta
love them because they're creating oxygen. And I have a
fishing store felt real trees. I please. Bob Grant, a
Southern let's se was a Kentucky architect. He said, let's
go fishing down to It was on the borderline of
Kentucky and Tennessee. And I don't know if it was
Lake Cumberland or or Kentucky Lake. So we go down
(09:31):
there and we're fishing, and we spent three days fishing,
and we caught, I mean, absolutely nothing in three days.
So we're checking out of this cabin, and this lady
that ran the cabin we were in says to this
little boy, Hey, I need two or three hundred fish
tomorrow for the fish fry. Now you go out and
get them. And Bob and I looked at each other
increditlously and we just started laughing, and we said, hey, lady,
(09:54):
there's no fishing.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Fish in that pond.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
No.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And we were sick and tired of driving up and
down it, so we, out of curiosity, we followed the
little boy out of the cabin and he went down
to the dock and he sat down and he put
on a saddle hook and he put minnows on it,
and he immediately caught two fish, and then he caught
two fish, and he started filling up five gallon buckets
with fish. So we said, oh, yes, sir, can we
(10:20):
join you? And he said, yeah, sit down. He's two
Yankees from up north right, sit down. And we said okay.
I said, how is it that you're catching and they're
not even eating the minnows He had them on there
so fast. He said, well, here's how it really works,
you guys. He said, there's about a forty foot cliff
drop off underwater here, and I've taken Christmas trees and
(10:43):
I've tied ropes around him and I've dropped them down
in there, and then I have a lamp also, which helps.
And he said, you know, the Christmas trees are protection
for all the little minnows and things and all the
big fish hang out. So Bob and I fished until
three o'clock in the morning with a saddle hook, and
as soon as you could lower it in the water,
(11:03):
you had two fish, really, and you just kept throwing
them in buckets and the kid got is two or
three hundred fish or the fish fry. So Christmas trees,
when you're done with them, have a lot of good purposes.
They're ground up and use for paths and all kinds
of things. And I like to use them on erosion
control for cliffs. You pound in two steaks and time
to the cliff to keep the hills from a roading
(11:24):
and so okay, so they just you know, so environmentally,
you know, returning them back to nature, which is what
you really should do. So you know, that's a point
for you know, real Christmas trees over artificial Christmas tree.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
But the real Christmas tree doesn't have the easy place
to put the star on the top. That's what I
always or something. Well the fid ones go to a point.
You get up there and you you know, have the
grand kid or whatever. Well mine, I can't because it's
at all. But remember back in the day when my
daughter was a little she always wanted that we made
a tradition she put the star up arrow the angel, right,
(11:59):
we gave you know, the throw the angel up there.
But but I just I have I just can't get
in a real tree.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Well, you know, really the trees are so beautiful now
and so perfect. Every year at a Christmas tree farm,
they got the bulo blade and they trim them. So
you have that top now that you were talking about.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Oh they do that, okay, Oh.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, it's all trimmed in a you know, a pyramidal
fashion now ton of work. And you got to say,
for the price of a Christmas tree, would you raise
a Christmas tree for seven to nine years, water at,
fertilized it, trim it every year And then you look
at the price of a cut Christmas tree at a
nursery and you gotta laugh. It's one of the best
spies gone.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
How much is it seven foot all tree? Approximately?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
They're probably about one hundred and seventy nine bucks or something,
okay for really perfect or one hundred and forty nine
dollars really for really do you guys great them?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Kind of like when you come into your store, it's like, well,
that's an a tree, that's a seat tree.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
The company is really interesting it it has this long
pedigree of after eighty four years, it knows the best
plant of every plant species of two to three thousand
plants and where to buy them. Now we have a
very large farm over in that farm. It's located up
in Sparta, Ohio. That's the coolest spot in Ohio. And
(13:17):
people say, well, you guys are really dumb because you're
raising your plants in the coldest spot in Ohio. Said,
they're not growing very fast, all right, And we do
that with intent actually, because we have the lowest morbidity
rate in the industry. Our plants just don't die. They're
tougher than nails. You've got to abuse them. Either don't
water it during your drought or you do something to it.
(13:38):
So you know, we don't have that many replacements.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Are you talking about plants in general?
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Or Christmas plants? And we have spruces and pines there
are too.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, so plants aren't just plants. I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Oh no, You've got to be careful in America now
because I'd say eighty percent of the plants are born
in or raised now in northern Florida, Texas, Arizona, Mcmnville, Tennessee,
and they're shipped up here. They're shipped over five different
hardiness zones. Now, there should be a federal law against
doing this, but there is.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
About the bugs you move around.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Oh that's why you. You know that disease swept up
and hit the blue spruces that people are talking about.
The guys went down for the hurricanes and did tree trimming,
but didn't clean their chainsaws with like dentured alcohol and
stuff like you, and so they brought these diseases back north.
Those diseases would have taken years and years to ever
come up here.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So anyway back to the discussion on trees and their location.
So if we wanted to and we refuse to do this,
but we can buy these trees down south for like
thirty to fifty percent less. And the reason you can
they have a lot long hot growing season. So the tree,
you know, you can turn the crop two and three
(14:52):
times as fast as you can in Michigan or Ohio
or our heartiness something. So when you're at a big
box or something, you think you're buying shrub, you look
at the they all look alike when they're young, and
then you put them out and the trees don't really grow.
And then sometimes you always clear the warranting if you're
buying the southern stuff, but then it after two or
(15:14):
three years, it sort of dies. It doesn't belong here.
But you could buy it really cheap. So you got
to be careful for big projects where they want low bids.
I need low bids. You know some of the developers
I need low price, they'll they'll buy their trees.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Do you recommend a live tree with the ball on
it and plant it out back? To ask if I'm
going to get a real tree, I want to keep
my money going out front and put it in the ground.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Well, you know that's a good idea. And there's some
families that do that. They'll buy a live Christmas tree,
or they'll buy a fruit tree for every kid's birthday
and they'll plant them in their backyard. It's a lot
of work. You got to do it right. And we
really don't think you should keep in the house from
more than three to seven days. And you should put
it in a tub and pack newspapers around it when
you water at the ball to keep it right. And
you also want to get out early and dig the
(15:59):
hole during war weather. And yeah, in case you get
a freeze.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Christmas, Yeah, you have to prep.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
You get the one nephew is not this smart giving
the spud pole, get my pick axe and spud bars.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
So you know there's a technique to that, but yeah,
it's it's a wonderful thing to do. And you know,
and a lot of people don't know there's a story
for that. There was a congressman and you probably might
know who he is.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
And we'll get right after this. Yeah, yeah, we'll get
right back to that. This is Ron Wilson's Garden Show
with the Boots and Start and John Yeah, filling in
for Ron today. So thank you very much for listening.
This is Heartland Banks Studios on News Radio six n
w TVN. Mister Wilson, mister Wilson.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
All right, so we we Elliott's having a cow right now.
I bet we're in the garden with Ron Wilson and
I am just honored that I get to we get
to fill in for him.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Well, he has been around for twenty thirty year and
he knows and.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
A reminder, so they're given the other hour to l
e PD So all those guys are taken over to eleven.
But Scotty and I had a cow. I called my
buddy Nick Pope. I said, hey, can we get from
Oakland nurseres so cause we can tell you amy about cars.
There's nothing thing about cars we can't handle. But when
it comes to juniper bushes, I have no idea what
(17:24):
I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And before we left this last commercial break, John was
going to fill us in on a Christmas tree story
about a congressman. Oh yeah, yeah, maybe a congressman's wife
was it. I'm not really sugar.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Well, you know, you guys were talking about live trees,
and you know that's a good thing. Go get a
live tree, put it in your house and plant it
in your back.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
You okay, real quick, real quick. What do you put
in the water? Sugar or something?
Speaker 3 (17:48):
No, do not use anything. It is no asp in nothing.
It's been proven by the National Christmas Tree Association not
to use a brand. Well, now you want to use it.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Got a.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Rating by the European company.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
That raised food.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
I was shocked. It's one hundred for one hundred. That's
hard to get. Wow, you guys, you got to know
what yuka is. Yuka is an app where you hold
it up against any kind of barcode and it tells
you this food will kill you. It's as bad good.
It has a rat.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
I don't want that.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Can we put that on a Christmas many parts of
this Christmas tree?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
No, that's proper that's out in California has a Prop
sixty five because Christmas trees have a lot of lead
in them coming in from China. So the California's.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Fat not the real ones.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
No, they're out, they're out trying to help you breathe.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
So lead in the Why would we lead in Christmas?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That's when the way they make them that way in China. Okay,
you know they're not real sensitive sometimes, so what they're
shipping over here and they're not real good on.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
They have a sticker sake could cause cancer like everything
in California.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
But go ahead, yeah anyway, Okay, so you guys said
the live Christmas trees. You know, So we had a
congressman and he wanted this giant live Christmas tree and
it had a ball on it. It was probably about five
feet across. Okay, So we get it into the house
and it's like, you know, twelve fifteen feet tall, and
the yeah, the wife kept moving and around and the
(19:25):
guys were getting a little aggravated. She'd move it over here,
move it over there.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Oh I don't like it there? Can we try next
to the couch? And they our guys from Oakland Nursery
were moving the tree around and around and around, and
you know, it.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Actually came back to the original came back to the
original spot like twice, and then moved again. So it
was exhausting because this tree was really heavy. Well, we
left with the final solution supposedly for this tree, and
the next day I pick up the dispatch and she
made her husband move it again and he was in
the hospital with her. Yeah, I thought, oh my god, wow,
(20:03):
thank god, thank god, we got out of there.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
So the other thing my father once did, he says,
you've got to drill holes in the bottom of the
tree so the water goes in easier.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
That's that's all at school. Yeah, there's a whole lot
of stuff that's really not fitting. A lot of people
will cut the edges down on their tree to fit
in the stand, or they will want to cut the ice.
Terrible because that outer tissue is where the water is
absorbed up into the tree, the bark just below the bark,
right right, it's right, it's right exactly right, Scott, right
(20:37):
below the bark. And you don't have to cut off
two inches. They've done studies and you only have to
cut off one inch. That's it. To get the water
the tree to draw it up really well. And if
you've been messing around, if you add warm water to
the tree, it actually absorbs it faster.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Interesting. Okay, not hot, but just like a little warm,
warm to the touch, like what you'd feed a baby.
Put it on your wrist. If it doesn't burn you,
you can put it on your tree. That's interest because
I remember when I cut live trees and you drag
it all the way home before you know it, size
it up on the stand. But then before I fix
the stand to it, I'd always cut like an additional
(21:16):
because it like sap over on the ride home, because
it was about half hour forty five minute trip, and
I'd cut off that little bit and then put it
on the stand. Right. But that first couple of days
you're filling it full of water. It's done. I feel
full of water done. It's like wow, without watering it.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
These trees that we have are you could probably not
water them at all, and they never drop their needles.
They're late cut. We cut them real late in the
in the season for sale. And uh, these Fraser furs
are not only they're fabulously fragrant. Got to love that tree, Uh,
and it's just all about Christmas. So Christmas is more
sensory than just visual lights. You know, if you have
(21:55):
the fragrance in your house of a live tree, it's
it's awesome and so you could probably we would not
recommend that, but you could probably get by with it.
And because the needles are really you know at the nursery,
when you're buying a Christmas tree, you want to pull
on the needles. If any of them come off, don't
(22:16):
buy the tree.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
But what last last live tree? I'm taking it outside
as like a tree blew up in my house with
all the needles. Do you sell a plastic bag that
put it in for you drag it out of your house?
Speaker 3 (22:30):
Yeah? Yeah, we sell a bag. So you put the
bag down, put the tree skirt around the tree, you
put the bag down, and then when you're done, take
the stand off and just pull the bag up and
throw the tree out on the curb where they'll pick
it up for you.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I don't really get the stand that's a lot of work.
You better have all your sons and daughters helping.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting about that. So my folks
they had a earlier or how would I say at
a point in time they had a place out of
Buckeye Lake. Right, So Mom put up this Christmas tree
and her deal was she had this big bag. You
know it was artificial tree. John, don't get mad. But
so in the end what she would do is Christmas
(23:09):
is over. She just took this big bag, lights, ornaments,
a whole bit and put it up. And you know,
you picked that tree up and she took it out
and put it in the shed there it was so
next fall she bring it out, done, take the bag down,
the trees done. Ready to tell that. It was like, Mom,
where the heck did you find a bag that big?
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You know what on a on a real tree. If
you decorate it with the cheap lights, the stress some
like the nine to ninety nine box, you just throw
all of it away. Yeah, because I don't care who
you are. You wrap up Christmas lights, they're going to
get tangled. I hate those things. You saw lights there?
Oh yeah, I bet you do everything.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Oh yeah. Now at Oakland there you got to say
that they do everything but build your house. They build.
They have a division of landscape architects. I'm real proud
of that team that we had three or four Harvard
guys Sazaki, who's designing the new city for Dublin. You know,
we're almost done with Bridge Street in Dublin. I'm a
(24:10):
city councilman at night, and we're almost done with that.
And that is the longest s curved pedestrian bridge in
the world, that one that connects the old city to
the new city. And so you know, I mentioned Sazaki
and Sazaki was selected to design a new city over
at Metro. So we have had over the years storied,
(24:33):
famous landscape architects and designers in that company. And we
still are on a different system than everybody else. We're
on the German Japanese system. And that means you don't
graduate from college and put on your suit and tie
and get to a high rise. You go into the
field for two years. All the plants, all the stonework,
buy heart, build bridges, do Japanese gardens, Chinese gardens. Like
(24:56):
if you go to New Albany, there's a certain plant
pellop for New Albany fits their architecture. Yeah, yeah, gotta
know all that by heart, two thousand plants. And then
we let you come into the design office once we
think you've learned everything from the ground up. It's like
the old chefs like Hanky and Siebert, you know, these
culinary Olympics. Well, you know, if you talk to him,
(25:17):
they were talking about how tough it was to be,
you know, a chef and the kuff you over the
head and these guys and so you had to chop
an onion and and so you know, our system is
it's an old world system.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Wow, all right, Okay, we got a caller when we
get back by the right. That's it. We got a
collar gene that just called in. So this is not
auto smarts yours. Your ears have not gotten you. This
is in the garden with Ron Wilson, and we are
Scott and Boots and we're here today with John from
Oakland Garden. So if you have a question, please call in.
And we're from the Heartland Banks Studios on news Radio
(25:51):
six ten WTVN. Okay, I do like Christmas, using you do?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
I do?
Speaker 2 (25:59):
You're the only person there.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I turned ninety three to nine ninety three point three
on and I listened to.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
It, Corvette Christmas.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I did do Harry Burnouts yesterday and never got to
finish that story because I yelled at me.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Yeah, yella, don't yell at him. Tell your Christmas tree
story now weird?
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, I was doing. Jaggs invited me up with my
new C eight, which I'm very lucky to have. I'm
not bringing about it by like cars more humans. But
we had a trist Christmas tree upper and I did
donuts around it is best I could, but the GM
traction was overtaking it automikely comes on even when you
shut it off. So I got some good burnouts with
with TJ Coughlin, one of our top field drags ers,
(26:33):
and we were doing donuts around, having a blast, and uh,
we were trying to decorate the tree from the CARJ
was dressed up like green grin boots and he was
standing up on my top and grinch. It didn't work out,
and I've got critics on Facebook. I'm well, you need
to do right. Well, I know I couldn't help it now.
My hell Cat that I did it with a few
years ago. It's a Chrysler product, so the traction doesn't
(26:54):
normally work anyway. So it was fine, but it was
fun doing donuts around a Christmas tree. But I am
going to go down Oakland or down off seventy one
because I'm on my way to Jaggs. I'm going down
there and I'm gonna buy one of your little trees. Now
what do I do? I just want a little two
foot yeah, and I'll get some cheat you have some
expensive white lights, right, oh.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah, And and stop in and get some chili. And
then there's horse rides, so you take there's carriage ride.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Want to ride a horse?
Speaker 3 (27:18):
No, it's it's good for you.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
You get out in the fresh air, you know, yeah,
my part of it.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
And then go through the giant Santa House.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Who do I see when I'm there, Like, who's your house?
Speaker 2 (27:27):
No, they're all they're all good.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
They're all good.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Now like a Sally Popa working there or something.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Oh yeah, yeah she's great.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Yeah, she'd be awesome at that job.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
But stop in the Santa House. It's worth walking through.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Where is the Santa House?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Seven houses in the conference center inside that nursery and
there's like I don't know seven eight nine rooms all
decked out with animals. And it was the address there
eleven fifty six Oakland Park on Park there we go, yeah,
fifty six, but then at the end there's Santa and yay,
And that was to replace the Lazarus window. We decided
(27:59):
that when the Lazarus to win, that was sort of
a neat thing for us all to do and to
go look at the largest window and then look at
the state auto Nativity set. So when the Lattice window disappeared,
we started building the Santa House for people to come
to at Christmas time. Okay, so it was a replacement
for that.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
So is there a charge to go through there?
Speaker 3 (28:17):
No?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
No, No, let's go to Gene. Yeah, let's put Jane through.
What thanks, Ella? What's what's Jeane got for us?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Hey? I got something?
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Kay?
Speaker 5 (28:26):
Should I thought of something else after I had called? First,
if you go and cut your own tree somewhere instead
of thrown out on the curve. If you know anybody
that has goats, Goats love pine trees good. And if
you get one from some yeah, if you get one
from somewhere and then they don't paint them or anything
to make them greener. Also, I mean they're filled with
(28:49):
vitamin C for goats.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
They're great for them.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Yeah, it's great. Yeah, nothing, nothing's better than goat cheese
and stuff for you half.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
Yeah. Another thing Oakland has like satellite locations where they're
selling trees. I think there's one on two fifty six,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, there's there's eleven different satellite locations.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah for Christmas tree.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
That one on fifty six, that one up on two
fifty six. When I retired from the Air Force, I
moved here in two thousand and two, that was the
first place I bought a Christmas tree. And I have
bought my Christmas tree at that same place every single
year except one one year we bought we actually cut
our own tree down and everything. But today I'm going
(29:31):
up to two fifty six and buying my Christmas tree
from Oakland Nursery. Every year I've gotten great trees up there.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Well, thank you, you know, I really want to thank you.
I'm a veteran too, and Oakland's a veteran run an
owned company, and I want to thank you for your service.
We need more people in the military with commitment, So
thank you very much. Yeah, that now, and thanks for
your loyalty. We're on like go gee, three or four
(29:58):
generations of people were landscape their houses, did Grandpaul's house
and the Christmas tree thing, and well, thank you just
very much appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
So let's talk Oakland Park Nursery.
Speaker 5 (30:08):
I've always gotten good trees up there, so.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Well, we try to cut them real late and uh
so so you don't have to worry about them, uh
losing their needles.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
So hey, Genie, awesome Christmas. If I can, I can
put you on We'll put you on hold. I'll all
get your address. I'll send you some goodies and a
mail for calling in Thank you, perfect love that.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
So let's talk Oakland Urkley, Oakland Nurseries. Why am I
having such a hard When I was doing the break
last time, I said Oakland Gardens and then you after,
you know, on the commercial break, you were said, Hey,
that kind of is all inclusive, because what all do
you folks do?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
The company is interesting. It's got a really storied history,
uh for central Ohio. It it well one thing that
everybody's familiar with. It landscaped and redesigned the Franklin Park
Conservatory and did the entire landscape in two weeks and
got it in because there was going to be a
frieze and all those trees were there from all over
the world and they were in semis. But it has
(31:08):
and it started the beautification uh program, for downtown Columbus.
In nineteen ninety three, Oakland went down to talk to
the mayor. They got letters and we went door to
door from Broad Street to High Street to plant put
pots out with color and plants hanging off a post.
And Oakland started that program for the city to beautify
the city because there was a donut thing going on
(31:30):
in urban planning and inner cities are dying and people
were moving to the suburbs, and we tried to upgrade that.
You know, we learned all this stuff from Europe. The
great Gus Gigi, who was like top guy, came over
from Europe. He was in top of his class in horticulture,
and he brought all these real progressive ideas to us
here in the Midwest.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Me. I mean, I interrupt you because I went run
had a time wreath across America. Aren't you big in
the Columbus market for that? Because I remember when of
you you guys were hanging out for Mike Shettinger and
I to put them on all the Dublin.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Cool that's going to be next Saturday, and I'll be
giving a talk at Dublin at the Cemetery. Yeah, that's
a wonderful program to honor our veterans. Yeah, it's a great,
great program, and.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Uh it's really cool. So thank you for that. I
wanted to bring that up. I didn't want to forget
and you know, you knew that. Oh I knew that.
Pope and I are best buddies.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
You know, we tell everything, so Shuttinger doesn't. They did
a lot, Mike.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Mike's great people too.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah, a lot of good things for our community.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
So well that's amazing because you guys are doing a
whole lot more than what I ever realized. I thought
you were just the Garden Center over in Oakland Park.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
No, they won the National International Award ten years in
a row for the best landscapes in America, best office Buildings,
and it almost got tired of bringing that award home
from Hawaii or Mexico coverage.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
The struggles real. So we got about a minute. How
do people get a hold of you? What's the most
of our listeners are Columbus. But where would you go
to day to buy some good Christmas stuff or some
anything that you guys wan ow.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Any of the four garden stores are the outlets? All
the other outlet stores and uh no, it's it's a
you know, God love it. It's the greatest tradition in
the world.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
From your face, it's a laborer.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
He's excited. I can think it really is. Well, I
will have a real tree this year. From you guys,
I'm leaving here and going to.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
The way to go great. Gush worked seven days a week,
love the industry, and he could always tell when somebody
came in the nursery and he didn't have the money
to buy a plant, and they'd have their hands in
their pocket and they'd be staring at and staring at you.
Always just gave him the plant. Wow, to get out
of here. Have a plant, you know you.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
So does Oakland Nurses have a website?
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (33:34):
Yeah, yeah they do.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
What is it all right? I don't know, you know,
you type in yeah that's something.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, that's it. So Ron Wilson, sorry that we tried
our best. We did our best.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
L e p ds. Next, yeah, we'll knock that out.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
So this is Scott and Boots for Ron Wilson's starting show.
Always got done.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
In my life because that.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
Oakland Nursery dot com, Oakland dot he's just the owner,
you know, that's right. And we were protected by the Undefeated.
American made tattletale alarm systems from the Heartland Banks Studios
on News radio six, n W, t V, N
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