Ktr H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised
on this program. Welcome to ktr H Garden Line with Scared dirictor just watch
him as you did Clubs Back Chicken. I'm not a sign. The sun
beams starting. Well. Good morning. You are listening to Garden Line and
we're here to talk about all kinds of things gardening. At this hour.
We have a special guest, Dean Nelson from Nelson Plant Food is going to
be here and we're gonna talk about the Randy Lemon Memorial Scholarship. We will
get to that in just a moment. Right now, I've got a callers
holding over for the hour, and that is run out in the League city
run. We're gonna see if we can help you out before we move on
to talking about Randy Scholarship. How are you this morning. I'm doing fine,
skill Thank you much for taking my call. Yes, sir, I've
got an issue with my lawn and I was listening to you last week,
and I know that there was some other people that were kind of a dressing
some things, but I don't know if mine similar to that. But I
thought i'd been able to do you know what you've kind of priesched, and
and that's you know, following the schedule, and and I kind of keep
a diary off when I apply all of the products to the lawn. But
I've got some kind of diseased area in the front lawn. And it's not
by you know, by the curve where the sidewalk is kind of in the
middle, and you were stating last week that it could be from over watering.
So I've I've kind of stopped that. But I do have some flower
beds with a lot of flowers and they demand a lot of water. So
anyway, I've got taken some pictures and I didn't know if it might help
because if you took a look at them. But you know, I've a
couple of months ago I put out the doctoral false of super super Turf nineteen
four ten, put on a merchant, put on the Haze of Might,
and then a month later I put the bug out. And anyway, I
thought I was doing all the right things, and and and just this week
I started putting the content twenty out. So okay, well, yeah,
let's as we hang up here in a minute. I'm gonna put you on
hold and Joshua, get your get you my email address so you can send
me those photos. Just make sure they're in good sharp focus. Let me
see the lawn from a distance, maybe an angle or two, and then
get up real close to a problem area and let me see the grass.
But just check the focus before you send them, because it's the fazy.
I can't help, but yeah, it sounds like you're doing a lot of
good things. I don't know. It could be a disease problem if it's
too If it was too wet when you walk on it, you would know,
I mean it would be you could just tell it was wet, but
too wet or too dry, you know, either way. It's everybody's sprinkler
system puts water out at a different rate. Everybody has different kinds of soil
type, different slope, and it's just really hard to you know, generalize
too much. But about an inch a week should be enough. An inch
of irrigation a week should be about right us as to kind of shoot for
on average, considering all those things I just said, Okay, Well,
in order to keep it anyway out was a sprinkler system for the whole front
yard, and that includes a flower bed so well, I did once or
twice a week. My flowers wouldn't make it. Okay, Well, do
what you gotta do what you got Josh damn if I can get the photos
to you. All right, I'm putting you on hover right now. Thank
you for the call. Well, Dean, welcome at glad to have you
here. Thanks going to be here. Well be a big city here,
that's it, the big city. Uh so. Uh. First of all,
Dean is is the owner and the creator of the Nelson Plant Food Program.
And you you got how long has your company been? Around? October
fourteenth this year will be forty years. Forty years. Yeah, we incorporated
on my mom's birthday. Oh wow, okay, yeah, Julie and I
started it a long time ago. Yeah, no kidding. Well, I
know you guys are you make a lot of good quality products that are available
in a lot of places and used by a lot of folks, especially the
professional industry has recognized that. Yeah, that's most of our business is actually
the growers, uh you know green Leaf Creekside, Verdi Huge Treetown that you
know they changed names Hind's Nurseries that may may remember that I've made all their
pre plant from a eighty six until they closed. And so that's our big
part. And then landscapers do a lot of h oas you know, I
could name fifty HLAs around Houston, First Colonies and Shadow Creek just on and
on. Well, and then we do the homeowner size products. We take
a lot of our grore and landscape products and put it in the jars in
the small backs for homeowners. Yeah, we were just talking about that.
The folks out at you know Warrens and Kingwood that got the little things where
you fill up your dug over to spinsters. Well that is good. Well,
folks, if you have a story about Randy, I would like for
you to give me a call. That's what we're gonna do this hour,
is we're gonna hold off on calls about what's wrong with you know, this
or that plan or whatever, and I would like to focus on stuff about
Randy. And if you have a technical question about fertilizer, we can also
talk about that. In fact, I hope we have some time here to
be able to get into a little bit about some of the stuff you probably
don't know about nutrients and how they work and how fertilizers work in the line.
But right now, I just want to talk about the scholarship. You
guys got this set up, and I would like you to tell us a
little bit about that scholarship. Okay, yeah, this is this is a
permanently endowed scholarship, which means it will be once it's fun that it will
give a a this I'm gonna get a little emotional probably this whole thing.
It'll be a money for a student forever. And we got with doctor Dinga.
He'll be on here later ahead of the department up there and the than
M Foundation and they manage it and they will pick And I asked doctor Dana,
I said, when he set this up, I said, you want
to use this for recruiting or to pay a current student? That there he
said recruiting. He said, you would be amazed how much a scholarship will
do to bring in good, solid students in the horticulture industry. And our
concern is we really do need young some younger people coming in. Yeah,
absolutely, absolutely the field of horticulture. There's a wonderful field. But a
lot of people you know that are out there in high school and stuff,
it may not be on their radar and being aware of the quality education they
can get in horticulture and the career opportunities in horticulture. That is an important
thing, and this scholarship will go a long way toward that. Man,
I hate that we just get started talking. We are you gotta go to
another break, but we gotta we gotta do that. But we will be
coming back quick here. If you would like to give us a call again.
I would love to hear some things about Randy, some advice he gave
you, some things you just enjoyed. However you want to talk about it.
It's seven one three, two one two five eight seven four. We'll
be right back with Dean Nelson and we're going to continue to talk about that
scholarship. I could be handy manning a few when your lights have gone,
you can in this way to buy the fireside Sunday morning, go for a
ride, doing the garden, digging the wheels. So good, that's one
more. I'm sixty four. Well, good Sunday morning. You were listening
to Guardline And by the way, do you know how hard it is to
find a barbershop song that talks about gardening? It takes a while. That
was actually skipping me singing there. That's that's it. Actually, we had
two other people that will go on names that were part of the core town.
Oh my gosh, we're here talking to Dean Nelson and we're talking about
the Randy Lemon Memorial Scholarship. And again, I would invite you if you
got any kind of a Randy story, some of you lemon heads out there,
I'm sure you got a lot of Randy stories how he helped you,
some of the influence that he had helping you have a more bountiful garden and
a beautiful landscape. Please give us a call at seven one three, two,
one two five eight seven four. Well, Dean, let's talk a
little bit more about getting that scholarship set up. I think it's a wonderful
idea. And you mentioned the fact that it's in perpetuity, right. It
is an endowment, so that that will just continue. It's not just like
one student gets a scholarship. It just goes every year, ever semester,
they'll get a check. That is a good thing. Well, having been
a student, I can tell you how important that is. Every little bit
really does help and supporting the horticulture industry. It's just it's important we need
quality trained folks. You know, there's a lot of people out giving gardening
advice that maybe didn't have that training, and sometimes you end up with some
interesting advice as a result of that. And of course I'm biased toward n
M because I went there, I made two laps through the place myself.
But I just when I think back on the things I learned in college and
those principles and how they today continue to inform me helping people with things,
I know how important that is. And I can tell you this, Randy
loved NM and I he would he could not be prouder than if he knew
about what's going on right now. Yeah, you you never know when you
get a student in there, that's what that kid is going to end up
doing, you know, like what you're doing, what I'm doing. You
know, we're making I think a pretty get big impact. Stuart Frankie,
I just talked to him on the phone ten minutes ago, owns a medina.
Yeah, you know, he's an aggy and just you just never know
what impact that's going to have on the whole state of Texas. Really,
and uh so we if we need to keep the supply, because you go
to these trade shows. A lot of gray hairs out there, you know,
a lot of gray hairs, and it's it's we need to get some
of these younger kids involved. And Randy, like you said, he he
was always fired up. I don't know, he was always not happy.
He couldn't attend the football games because he has on the radio all the time,
but he just he uh. He always talked about his experience at A
and M. And he when he was working for the publications Department and doing
all the radio shows and he did the Jackie Sheryl Show. I think,
yeah, he was worked with that com Yeah, did a lot of a
lot of stuff with them. And then you know, if anybody was made
for the job he had, it was him. I mean that guy he
was. He was. He was a big personality, which you have to
have, I think, uh to to do what he did, what he
was trying to do when you're writing the books and meeting all the people out
there, and just really I think a lot. And you know I've talked
about this. You know if you go around to other and you used to
mentioned it on the radio the other day that you go to other cities and
they don't have the independent garden centers that we have here. I mean,
you could just name a fifty sixty, you know, you go down the
list, and these people have been in it for a long time, you
know, second third generations now. And I think a lot of the reason
is is Randy promoted the industry. Of course, being in Houston, will
you have all the problems with the landscape, you know, you got to
go to these stores and then gets supplies to help take care of the yard.
But there's also you can grow plants, you know, I grow in
season basically as ten months, maybe maybe even longer, and lots of water
normally yea. And so it's a great area to be involved in horticulture.
And Randy was just a huge, huge part of that. And I know
he I know he made a difference in the lives of a lot of callers.
I mean people they worshiped Randy. He was he was just an icon
for them. I know that same is true for those of you who are
sponsors of the show through the years. That Randy just he was connected,
He understood, he understood products, he understood supplies, he understood the garden
centers and the places that we have, and that connection. When you put
all that together, it just it just really created a unique environment. And
Houston is I do say this that San Antonio's got a couple of really good
garden centers, Austin's got one and a half really good garden centers. Dallas
Fort Worth has one or two up there, but not like Houston. I
mean, it is just unbelievable here. And the enthusiasm you know for garden
line. Uh, you go back in the history, back Bill Zac,
John Burrows, all the folks that Dewey Compton go back that far and all
the people that held that chair. I don't know that anybody did anybody hold
it as long as ran twenty seven years, I believe, I mean it
in recent history, it's all. It's been all about him, the personality
and the way that he uh he just was a natural came to things.
Yeah. Yeah, I remember listening to Due Compton when I was a little
kid out on the rice farm in Tomorrow. Yeah. Medina always Aboudina.
In fact, my brother and I bought our show steers from him run up
in Paris, Texas. He had a ranch up there, and mean we
bought our show steers and I won the Grand champion and my brother won reserve
in nineteen seventy three. Katie fa Liftock show. Wow, Okay, well
that's entry. I was reading one of his u almanacs the other day.
I got a little stack of a few of them, and someone just gave
me one the other day. And a matter of fact, uh and just
going back to look at what people said back then, and you know how
they how they approach things. Well on this scholarship, people can if you're
interested in giving towards this scholarship, it's really simple. I've gone online,
done it myself. You can give. You can do a phone call.
It's nine seven nine eight four to five eight one six one. That's nine
seven nine eight four five eight one six one. Talk to the AMM Foundation
there. They're the one that coordinate all these endowed scholarships. Or if you
want to make it even simpler, just get a pen. You know you're
supposed to listen to Guardenline with a pen and paper in hand. I keep
telling you that, get a pen, piece of paper, write down,
give dot am, give dot am slash Randy Lemon with two ms Randy l
em m m o N give dot am slash Randy lemon and it'll get you
right there where you can do. It's really simple, really easy to do.
And you know, when we think about I know that thousands of you
listening, Randy had a big impact on your life. It's just a small
way to say thank you. And as you were sending, to support the
future of the industry too, which is really important because we need to continue
having good accurate information available, you know, to the industry. Folks that
have a nursery need to be able to hire somebody that's been trained, Folks
like yourself. I mean you've you've hired a few aggies yourself. I believe
I've met a future and you know, it helps to have someone coming in
and they kind of know what's going on, they know what they're doing and
being able to move forward on that and the show. Excuse me, the
show sponsors, you know, we need it and I'm calling, like I
said, I just talked to Stuart, excuse me and us show sponsors need
to really step up because like when I started Carboload, I knew if I
didn't get our turf star, I knew if I didn't get Randy on board,
the stores wouldn't carry me and so I involved him from the very beginning
when I first started coming up with it, and explained to him what we
were trying to do and how it was going to work. And because if
you go into the store, first thing they say, are y'all on garden
Line? Yeah? Yeah, you know, And you know I was talking
to Ryan at Michael Life. Michael wasn't there. He was at the show
with you the next day. And Dan Snyder at Nitro Foss and uh Medina.
Garden Line built those guys. I mean, they got great products,
great marketing, great people. But Garden Line put them on the map,
I think, and me too, my color Star it put it on the
map. So we we have an obligation there. I think. Well,
that's that's well said. I do want to invite you if you'd like to
call in. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight
seventy four seven one three two one two five h seven four r KTRH.
If that makes it easier for you to remember if you would like to don
it, you can also just write a check and mail it to the Texas
A and M Foundation. Again, get that penhandy four oh one. George
Bush Drive College station seven seven eight four zero. That's another way that you
can do that. Uh. You know, Randy, Uh, I can
always remember the few times that I came in and was actually on the on
the show when he was doing the show. Uh. He just he had
a larger than lifness about him. You know, he just had a way
of Uh I don't know, he owned the room, you know what I'm
saying, and people really respected and looked up to him and depended on his
expertise. I was at Hins Nursery, I you know, thirty years ago,
and they had their head pH D guy come out from California helping him
with some problems. And I went in there and they called me and I
went in. I was talking to him about you know, for lager and
fertility and everything. And he called me the next day out of the blue.
I didn't know the guy, and he says, you're famous. I
said, what what? Hey? Yeah, I just hurt you. On
Garden Line Randy Limb was talking about you, and I thought, what in
the heck is a PhD guy? Yeah, into the radio a garden Line
show on a Saturday morning. But everybody does, and everybody everybody like you
said while ago we could all learn something. A lot of people listen.
I'm always surprised, always surprised by that. Uh we uh you know,
it's it's it's just I don't know it. For a lot of people just
over the years, like you're talking about, even back to dey Compton days,
people just it was just part of light to get up and listen to
Garden Line. And that's something that you know, I mean with where Garden
Line was taken by all of the giant Sue shoulders, I stand on in
this seat. Uh you know my goals and I dropped that ball because they
really created a beautiful institution and Randy, I just would say, was the
culmination of it all. He really took it to the next level. Well,
and you brought you your horticultural experience into it too, of all these
years, so you're adding a whole lot to it because you you've been out
there in the field and this is what you do for a living, you
know, and you're bringing that to the radio. No. I appreciate that.
After I have a call here that was from Tumball, is Lee is
going to call in here and talk to us a little bit about some melons.
I think I'm gonna see what Lee's Okay, Hey, Lee, how
are you doing this morning? Just fine. I've been doing a little experimentation
in my garden this year. So this is the first year I've had any
cataloa for watermelon. But I am growing kiwano melon, a jelly melon,
which is native to like I understand, I think Africa in the Middle East.
You seem in the grocery store that these kind of orangey looking things as
spikes. They're about the size I don't have a pair, a little bitter
and so anyway I can. The thing is growing. It's my understanding is
it's native to arid regions, but I can't get the thing to um to
set fruit. It's it's blooming. And so I'm wondering if it's a pollination
issue or if it's the nutrition issue. I tried to hand pollinate some no
go. So I'm just wondering what I'm doing wrong. All right, Lee,
Are you familiar with the difference between a male and a female blossom?
Do you know by looking at them? Okay, so you know, yes,
tonight. Yeah, I just want to make sure I'm pollinating the right
thing there. Okay, yes, yes, I did do that right.
And by the way, they for whatever reason, unlike my other let my
squash and those things, rather they set a whole lot more female than male
flowers, which is usually the opposite for me. But well that's just what
they do. I got to confess, I have never grown that melon,
the Kawana melon, and so I'm not an extra naunt it. But I
can tell you with melons, for each set, you don't want to overdo
the nitrogen. But you got to get the pollen from the male to the
female blooms. And why that isn't successful for you, I can't tell you.
I would just see, be patient, be patient, keep trying.
I don't know that particular melon if there's some temperature issues that are not but
I'm up against a hard break, so I'm gonna have to go. But
sorry, we can't provide more help for you on that one. Hey,
we're gonna take a break here for the NICKI News Network. In the meantime
seven one three, two, one two five eight, seven four, give
us a call. We're with Dean Nelson talking about the Randy Lemon Memorial Scholarship
today. Well, good morning. You are listening to Guardline on a good
Sunday morning. It's beautiful outside, got a little sunshine now and breeze.
Temperature is still decent to be outside, but we're inside. We're talking about
the Randy Lemon Memorial Scholarship, and Dean Nelson is our guests this morning,
Dean from Nelson Fertilizer, and we are gonna continue to talk a little bit
about Randy again. I'd invite you if you have something you would like to
tell a story. I bet there's some Randy stories out there. I have
a few, but he bribed me never to tell the story from college,
So leave those off. The off, the off, the off the air.
Uh. You know, if you'd like to give towards the scholarship,
it's give dot am slash Randy Lemon. Give dot am slash Randy Lemon.
Now, when you get there, it's going to ask you to select like
a unit or a college because this is for the Holy NM Foundation. Just
select unlisted account. Unlisted account. It's a second item down on the dropdown
menu. I believe, uh, and you you should be able to go
right there and give to Randy. You may have to write in the account
name it's Randy Lemon. Eighty four Class eighty four Memorial Scholarship. But it's
really easy to do, very easy to do, and any amount is helpful.
You know. Dean was sort of challenging some of the sponsors out there
to give and I would challenge you as listeners to, uh, you know,
do something that's a small thing that makes a long, long term difference
and people's lives, and certainly when it comes to horticulture, because you think
about this, you know, all the years that Randy was here given advice,
the years that I'm here given advice, that's all thanks to the fact
that we were able to go through college somewhere and we were able to you
know, get our feet under us and get started. The folks that the
nurseries we have, the garden centers, just certainly the green industry, landscape
industry, the installation and everything else that goes on. It's important to have
people that are trained and this opens the door for that. You know,
college is getting crazy expensive. Yeah, I was in the band in the
core full seven day meal, playing in the dorm and all that, and
my whole whole everything. Four years, eight thousand dollars. Oh my god.
Now it's probably eighty. I think it takes eight thousand dollars just to
go get all your books together to start. Yeah, well, our goal
on this is one hundred thousand dollars to raise and that'll kick all four to
five thousand dollars a year, So four two five per year per year because
it's in doubt. Yeah, that's the They got to hold back zone and
I got to manage it. And okay, so that's our goal. And
in fact, this past spring with our turf Star what we did, we
did it last May and this year we did it all spring. Every bag
of turf Star people bought, we donated two dollars to the Camp Hope that's
the PTSD Foundation. So this fall we're gonna do carbo load and we're gonna
give it to Raindy Scholarship. That is, so every bag will donate two
dollars. Okay, and last year we sold five thousand bags, so I
hope this year will double that. I don't know, Well, well,
I hope so too. I mean, it's a good product, but it's
also a good cause. That's that is that's really good to hear. We
got a call I'm gonna go to this is We're gonna talk to this morning.
Uh John D out in League City. Hey, good morning, John
v. D is giving guard in mine put a blush and wonderful Sunday morning
with the sunshine out and sun eyes and and uh, just thoughts of mister
Randy Lemon. H gosh, what a joy and what an experience to be
able to talk to him online. I remember one time it was a ball
game that was going on the night before and what have you. I don't
know which sports was going on, but a whole bunch of sports were going
on, and everyone was so excited of the winds and what have you used?
And so I called in about the amillas that was red and white striped.
I didn't know the species of it. Had it fight for a while
in the front yard, and so he's like, He's like, well,
I don't know, John V. And why don't we call it a clown
clown flower armurillas. So I was like, oh man, I'm in so
much trouble. And I was just like and then and then you know,
he was in the process of co authoring another book, or he had asked
me, He's like, would you like to co author this next book that
I'm getting out of Oh my god, I'm like, I'm going out of
my mind. I was like, whoa holy moth. Well, he was
a character. I know that, Oh my gosh. And I missed us
on the services, and I just first, he's in blessings enormously out to
his family, family, friends and friends, and I we still held him
in memory as his presence is fault here with us today as every day,
as who's in our hearts and our minds and our memories. And yes,
yeah, well good, I appreciate you sharing that that memory with us.
I know a lot of people have our Randy memories to share. Yes,
well, I'll be able to contribute to the memorial. Find I'm really excited
about helping to contribute to this and and and living in his memory and it
will live on for forever. That's absolutely true. Well, thank you,
John V. I appreciate that call. Appreciate you you calling in uh Indean.
Thank you guys for getting this set up just so there's an avenue for
people, makes it real simple. Well, especially for his kids. You
know, they can go up there and meet the student every year and and
that'll that'll be with him forever. Yeah, So that's that's special. And
I just I know I've said this before, but it just I can just
tell you. I know that Randy would have been prouder of this than about
anything we could do. I mean, just the fact that he loved he
loved Daniel, loved the place he was. Of course, we all get
dipped in purple or maroon kool a and we're up there and so uh but
uh, that is that would mean a whole lot to him. Well,
and like you know, the money to the kid, you know, Julie
and I had to we have to. Let I don't know, you don't
know this, but we had to leave graduate school from A and M.
Because I ran out of money, all right. I had to go to
work getting a job. I didn't get my degree. I had everything done
but the thesis, and I had got I gotta feed my family. Oh
well, so you know that. And I have stories of my buddies had
taken their buddies into their house and helped them through school because they didn't have
any money. That's you know, so it's out there. You know,
we need to do what we can. But Randy talks about generosity too.
He had his service and then out at Brookwood when we planted the tree a
couple of months ago. You know, they just kept talking about anytime anybody
needed it. Randy was away, he was he would find out about something
in boot you know, like school needed needed uh, you know, backpacks.
He bought everybody backpacks. You know, he was just so generous with
what he and Evan what all they supported. Yeah, that is that is
really true. We're gonna head to the phones now. Uh and uh talk
to doctor Dingra. Welcome to Garden Line, doctor Dingrad. Thank you.
Oh well, we're we love to have you here. Uh. Doctor Dingra
is the head of Horror Culture department at Texas and M University. And uh,
we were glad you called in because we kind of would like to pick
your brain a little bit about some of the importance of things like scholarships like
this, the horticulture. You know what it's like in terms of recruiting students
and students getting the things they need to have a successful college experience and then
a career going out from that. We're we're about a minute away from a
break, but if you'd like to give us some initial information and if you
can hang on, then we'll continue more in depth. How about that?
Okay, I believe I just lost him. So we are going to pretty
quick here go to a break. Please call back. We will get you
back on here as soon as we come back from the break. So,
Dean, the the scholarship, the things are set up where people can give
to it there. It makes it really easy. And then I think it's
a great thing that you guys are doing the what you're doing with the carbo
load coming up this fall, you know, donating toward it. I would
encourage other people to consider other sponsors can consider ways that they might be able
to, uh, you know, promote this scholarship through through some of the
product sales that they're doing as well. I think that'd be good. Yeah,
it's good. Good. It helps everybody out, helps everybody out.
Now that is that is true? Well, we are up against a hard
break. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy
four. If you would like to call in some sort of a story about
Randy, what he meant to you, what he uh, you know.
The benefits are just the enjoyment of being able to talk to him and hear
him on the radio. We when we come back, we will visit with
doctor Dingra, the head of the horticulture department at Texas A and M,
and drill down a little bit more about how these scholarships work and recruiting students
for horticulture. Right now, we're heading to break and we'll talk to you
in just a moment. They had to play. We're both prelate. Well,
good morning. You are listening to garden Line on a beautiful Sunday morning,
and we're about to go take a call from doctor I'm at ding head
of the horticulture department at Texas A and M. Doctor Dingrad's good to have
you back, Glad, thanks for calling back on when we dropped you there.
Don't worried hardly to you all as well as all the listeners. Thank
you for having me on. It's good to have you on. We're talking
about Randy Lemon Memorial Scholarship this morning. Dean Nelson Nelson Plant Food has been
here with us talking about the how to give towards the scholarship, and I'd
like to just hear from you know, horticulture department head a little bit about
the department. How many how many folks kiddos do you have going? I
sound like an old guy. Kiddos, how many students do you have going
through going through horticulture at A and M now and a little bit about recruiting
students and looking at the future of horticulture education. Absolutely, thank you so
much for this chance to discuss this very important and critical matter for our state.
As you know that horticulture is a very important industry for our state.
Totally, it accounts to about sixty billion dollars in impact, and we have
about one hundred and thirty students majors and almost the same amount of students who
are taking a minor in horticulture. And it seems like horticulture seems like a
forgotten word, but it's part of our lives, right we're talking about mister
Lemon. You go to atub you can see fruits, vegetable nuts, flowers,
plants. I mean, that's all horticulture. It's seems like we've dissociated
the word with all these healthful products now. So one of the things we
do with our scholarships and this, you know, I was hearing an earlier
house scholarships changed lives, and you know, keeping in with the legacy and
the mission of mister Lemon. I think these scholarships can really change people's careers
trajectories, and I believe that what we are now utilizing it is that we're
utilizing these fellowships to find students from all parts of the Texas who have a
passion for horticulture and we want to continue doing that in their future as well.
So we've kind of started focusing on that way to bring in more and
more students. My goal is to really grow the undergraduate program major is to
about two hundred and fifty and every ounce of support financial support allows us to
reach that number. You might be wondering why we're not just trying to go
after numbers. I have to the state for the last two years. I'm
a recent transplant from Washington State. Sorry for upon there, but I guess
it's a plant show I can use the word transplant. So the big piece
is that all our industries are facing a crisis in some sense that the younger
general people are not coming in from proper training and horticulture. So this is
where we are really focusing on meeting the needs of all of our horticulture industry
members, be at nurseries, landscape or pecans or fruits and vegetables, you
know, wine, grapes, nuts, anything, you call it. So
that's what the emphasis is right now, and we are trying to provide them
some experiential training that they are job ready and they can meet their desired goals
in life. Some of them want to pursue further education, research, become
leaders. We all are working very hard to replace ourselves. We better do
a good job bringing in smarter people. Well, that is an excellent point.
You always have to be looking toward the future and where we're going with
things. The nice thing about a memorial scholarship like this and an endowment is
that once you get it set up, it just keeps giving. So the
money that people would would donate and Randy's memory toward it. That's not just
like one student gets a scholarship. That is an endowment that Dan Nelson is
set up here, setting up here that we'll just go on for perpetuity.
And that's also important. Absolutely, and I'm very grateful to mister Nelson to
really remember mister Lemon and put this fellowship, memorial fellowship together, a scholarship
together. You're absolutely right. Such endowments can really keep on providing this support
to students and perpetuity. And what happens also is that we can also reach
out to other members. It inspires others because all we have as we all
pass on, is leave a legacy. And what a great legacy this will
be. Once we have this type of scholarship coming together, which will you
know, and the name continues, right, we will obviously be able to
recognize. And I never had the good fortune of meeting mister Lemon, but
I've read about him, I've heard about his shows, actually tuned in and
seen past past shows. Amazing. His impact is amazing. I even you
know, yes, I'm head of a department, but there was so much
to learn from what he was saying. Practical experience that he provided regarding holo
growth plants in this area, Yes, that is true. And uh,
you know, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people through this listening
area that were benefit that benefited from Randy's advice, that enjoyed, you know,
just just tuning in and listening. Maybe they didn't call in, they
just listened and learned and had fun and uh, and it just it impacted
Houston in so many ways that Dean and I were just talking about how this
city has I think one of the most unique collection of super quality garden centers
any place I've ever been. You go north, south, east, West,
or Central and Houston and you've got a garden center. We're traveling halfway
across the state just to come see. And that kind of a support for
an industry, that kind of support for the whole green industry really is absolutely
so and it must have brought it must have brought joy to all of the
people who were able to listen to mister Lemon's advice grow those plants beautifully and
just enjoy a nature. Right. We know we learned through the pandemic how
plants really impact our mental one less you know that is so true? Yeah,
go ahead. I was going to say, I wanted to illustrate a
couple of examples some undergraduates how it has really benefited them. There are numerous
examples about such scholarships that can really impact people. But just for the benefits
of benefit of all the people listening in, is it okay if I just
share two examples? Sure? Sure, We've got about a minute and a
half left before this this segment breaks, so please go ahead. Well,
I'll say that we have a student, Mason Marshall, came into an undergrad
Fellowships help them go through school. Now he's pursuing his PhD, working with
Leach Gardens and looking at some ornamental plants. And then also in another student,
Dona Fernandez, who basically ran a flower shop to support our family,
but fellowship is really helping her to pursue her undergrad. You are just two
examples, very recent ones that I've encountered personally. Well, those are those
are good stories, and there are a lot of those. Uh. You
know, we're biased because we're all with the horticulture department and everything. But
I can just tell you that horticulture it changes lives. Doctor Charlie Hall's research
on the benefits of horticulture, the benefits of plants to people, just the
joy of it all. I mean, the health benefits and mental benefits from
kids with add to adults with dementia, to everything else. Horticulture saves the
world. I really do believe that. I'm not just saying that. And
this is this is important because having a good source of good quality information.
I like to refer to A and M as a source of all earthly knowledge,
and I think the Culture Department. That is really true, Doctor Dingra,
thank you so much for being on today. Hey, I look forward.
I hope I get to see you at the t NLA in San Antonio
here before too long. Absolutely, I look forward to singing there all right.
Thank you so much for being on and bringing that perspective. And Dean,
thank you so much. I appreciate you being here today and just the
fact that you guys got this set up and hopefully people will join in and
will do something about this wonderful opportunity. Here it is again. If you'd
like to call for the scholarship, you have to do this during the week
nine seven nine, eight four five five six excuse me, eight four five
eighty one sixty one. There we go, eight five eighty one sixty one.
If you want to give online, give dot am forward slash Randy Lemon
l em m O N select unlisted account and you will be able to put
in Randy Lemon eighty four Memorial Scholarship. I hope you will consider this again,
even if it's just a small amount, Think about not only what Randy
did for you for the community, think about what this kind of gift does
for the future. For who knows who's host of Garden Line after me.
Maybe that person is getting trained at A and M right now. I would
certainly hope to think that