Allen expanded Jelitto's business in North America and traveled in search of interesting plants to add to the company's lineup. Now retired, he gardens on two Kentucky properties and writes regularly for GardenRant.com.
SCOTT BEUERLEIN: When did you become interested in horticulture and what was your training?
ALLEN BUSH: I spent my childhood in the woods, at the end of our street, in suburban Louisville. I didn't garden when I was growing up. However, in the first grade, I sowed bush beans in a milk carton. Watching little sprouts push through the soil was, and still is, magical whenever I sow seeds.
I planted my first garden in college. It was a fundamental rite of passage for any early-1970s hippie wannabe. My mentor was a tobacco farmer named Elsie Lowery in rural Jessamine County outside of Lexington. He offered me a space next to his tobacco field. I went through a pile of Organic Gardening magazines the winter before. I imagined an orderly square plot, 20 feet by 20 feet. Elsie plowed my first garden space adjacent to his tobacco field in late April. It was an unruly and peculiar looking garden-one row, 400 feet long.
I began trying to learn wildflowers, trees and shrubs the same year, 1972. I didn't know the difference between an oak and a maple. I was a sociology undergraduate at the University of Kentucky. I have never forgotten watching the fat buds on a buckeye unfurl in early spring along the Palisades of the Kentucky River.
This story is from the March - April 2023 edition of Horticulture.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March - April 2023 edition of Horticulture.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
RIBWORT PLANTAIN
Before you call it a weed, consider its many talents
JARED BARNES - Propagating gardeners
JARED BARNES is an award-winning professor of horticulture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He also hosts The Plantastic Podcast and publishes a weekly e-newsletter called plant ed, both of which can be found at his website, https://www.meristemhorticulture.com. At home, he gardens with wife Karen and daughter Magnolia.
FILMS WITH FLOWERS
Relax with an uplifting garden-themed movie
TOTAL TOMATO GROWING GUIDE
Niki Jabbour's advice for making the most of this grow-at-home favorite
HANGDOG NO MORE
I'M A CURIOUS and impetuous guy. Good at thinking but terrible at remembering. And dammit if I'm not impatient.
LOOKING AHEAD
A colorful, fruitful summer follows winter's well-used days
NEW PLANTS
Pollinator Favorites
PLANTS from PIECES
ALL ABOUT PROPAGATION BY STEM, LEAF & ROOT CUTTINGS
FULL SUN FOLIAGE
IT'S A BIT MORE CHALLENGING THAN IN THE SHADE, BUT WE CAN FIND DELIGHTFUL LEAVES TO EMBELLISH SUNNY SPACES
CHANGE OF PLANS
HOW TO PLAN A GARDEN RENOVATION THAT WORKS WITH THE SITE AND ITS ECOLOGY