This Week's Podcast: A Replay: Jared Barnes Reaches Out to Tomorrow's Horticulturists and Gardeners
Click on the small black arrow on the bar to listen, or the MP3 to download the show:
Our guest this week is Jared Barnes (soon to be Dr. Jared Barnes). Some people may know him by the name of his alter ego. There is a Youtube video in which Jared burst into a meeting of the North Carolina State University Horticulture Club. 
He is wearing a mask, and a round pale brown costume with a trailing green cape. He announces that he is “Superseed.” He begins to describe a seed’s “radicle” powers. The radicle (r-a-d-i-c-l-e) is the first root produced by a germinating seed.
The crowd is howling, and learning.
Jared is all about teaching and spreading the word of the power of horticulture. He is a familiar presence at symposia and on all manners of social media, including his website (where he claims to satisfy his two "greatest passions in life…plants and people"), and his blog, "Meristem".
“How do we cultivate new gardeners and reach out to new students,” he asks? “…The more we can engage and bring the light to how much fun these things are — highlighting the wonder of plants,” he says. 
Plants and gardens “offer people something tangible, something that is real, something they can touch, something they can smell, something they can taste, something they can eat.”
(Photo, right, Jared gets down to one of the objects of his passion.)
Oh, and that Oxalis he mentioned? It’s fire fern – Oxalis hedysaroides ‘Rubra’.
Go Jared!
Such a sweet guy I had the privilege of meeting just a few months ago.
I wish we had someone like JC Ralston to inspire and mentor this next generation of gardeners.
Oh Ken! That could be you! =)
Great interview!