Flowers, who doesn’t love them. And in the seedy season, who doesn’t love saving their seeds? This week, Cultivating Place Host Jennifer Jewell revisits a favorite conversation with crowd-favorite, Erin Benzakein of Floret, in celebration of Floret’s new book: Bloom to Seed! Enjoy... Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm needs little introduction to most garden minded listeners. She has been so instrumental is cultivating a flower-farmer and flower-farming economy in our count

First – a welcoming shout-out to two new public radio stations in the Cultivating Place ecosystem: KHNS in Haines, Alaska and WTXK in Texarkana, Texas – welcome to this growing family. Now, you may have heard of Alcatraz as an iconic site of incarceration, THE ROCK, and you may very well have heard of the Gardens of Alcatraz, historic but also constantly evolving cultivated spaces on Alcatraz Island. More than a century in the creating, from military personnel and their famil

What does accessibility mean in the garden? In a public garden? Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit NJ, an historic estate and garden, has been considering these questions intensely. How to increase accessibility for visitors and yet maintain the equally important sense of being in and with nature. One result of their thoughtful deliberations is their Path For All, which opened in May of 2026. Three members of their team join Jennifer Jewell this week to share more about their 13

This week on Cultivating Place, we continue with our flower theme as we celebrate May, looking toward the most floral of celebrations, Mother’s Day in the US. We discuss not us as gardeners growing flowers, but rather, how flowers shape our world, our cultures, our economies, our thinking, and outlooks. We're in conversation with Christin Geall, author of "Cultivated: Elements of Floral Style"'. We last spoke with Christin about her first book and she joins us again today to

Roses are one of those topics in the garden world: They can be polarizing, they can be energizing, and yet given that there are roses native to most environments of North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and humans have revered them for millennia, they can also be connective tissue for so much–generationally, culturally, environmentally, medicinally, and certainly, aesthetically. This week I am joined by Robin Jennings, rosarian and manager at Heirloom formerly known as Hei

This week, Cultivating Place host Abra Lee explores diplomacy and gardens. She’s in conversation with John Sonnier, Head Gardener at the British Ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. There since 2009, John focuses on organic and sustainable methods of care AND he has created one of the United State’s most significant historic orchid collections. Orchids are known for their extraordinary forms, relationships, and resilience and John, a distinguished horticulturalist, arti

Brenna Estrada is owner and founder of Three Brothers Blooms, a flower farm located on 2.5 acres of Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. Brenna is also the author of "Pansies, How to Grow, Reimagine, and Create Beauty with Pansies and Violas", published by Timber Press just over a year ago. Ben Futa's conversation with Brenna today spans many topics, with pansies as a worthy and common thread. As Ben notes: "Brenna makes a compelling case for revisiting our relationship to

You know the hundreds of thousands of flowers, floral bouquets, candles, and other bits of personal importance that people are called to leave at the physical locations of traumatic events? These flowers and other ephemera, and the human impulse behind them, are what catalyze Tanja Hollander. This week on Cultivating Place, host Ben Futa is in conversation with Tanja, an artist & activist Gardener based in the US Northeast. Tanja works with gardens, social practice, photograp

In a world that needs a great deal from us right now, we can almost never go wrong by igniting our creativity. This week on CP we dive...

This week on Cultivating Place , we celebrate late summer and fall on the horizon in conversation about one of fall’s stars in the...

Hot August nights turn to bright August nights at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI. The Garden's annual GLEAM light show is...

THIS WEEK on CP - OUR NEXT CP LIVE podcast! And we head to Indiana with our very own Ben Futa! Botany & Co. in South Bend, Indiana is...

To welcome the fullness of June, this week on Cultivating Place , Guest host Ben Futa is back and in conversation with Marc Sardi, a...

Sensory and accessible gardens; children enjoying nurturing nature, photo by Francie Randolph all rights reserved. As the summer...

This second week of May, we welcome gardener and plantswoman Holly Shimizu, whose four decades of work in some of America’s notable...

Happy May Day! This week on Cultivating Place, we welcome May, with all of her floral and plant profusion, revisiting a conversation we...

For many religions, Spring is a sacred season of renewal and regeneration. I feel it, don’t you? With this in mind, I am so pleased to...

You might remember Cultivating Place's first conversation with Iowa-based plantsman, Kelly D. Norris, back in 2021, in celebration of...

In celebration of Black History Month and looking forward to Women’s History Month - this week we’re so pleased to air another of our CP...

Many things motivate and drive us in our love of gardening, plants, and nature. Australia’s Michael McCoy, also known as The Gardenist ,...