This Week's Podcast: Corn for Cartier and Hortie Hoopla with Joseph Tychonievich
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I’ve known Joseph Tychonievich for 15 years, but we only met in person about a week ago at our annual Hortie Hoopla – the Intern Day for people working in horticulture in the New York City area held at the New York Botanical Garden. 
About 150 young professionals came together for lectures, inspirational stories, behind the scenes tours of the 250-acre garden – and a day that ended with a barbecue. (Joseph at the barbecue, above.)
Joseph was our keynote speaker.
“Plants and gardening are seemingly in my blood, as I was asking for plants and seeds for my birthday from the time I was a very small child. Since then, I've earned a bachelors degree in horticulture from Ohio State University, spent a summer working at Shibamichi Honten Nursery in Japan and wrote a book, Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener.”
Joseph tells us about his impressions of the day at NYBG, and I get to ask about his latest experiments in plant breeding (and how to do it). He tells us about new cold-hardy gladiolas and breeding 
“mother-of-pearl corn” with jewel-like kernels (right).
He has a blog, Green Sparrow Gardens where you can learn more about him and the things he is working with. His next book is due out in the spring of 2015.
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