Hello everyone, welcome again to Conversations with Tyler. Today, I am very pleased to be chatting with Edwidge Dantika, the Famed Asian American author, also winner of a MacArthur genius fellow, Chip and Edwidge. Thank you for coming on the show. Oh, thank you so much for having me. I have so many questions. Let's start with one about you. Now you moved to the United States from Haiti, I believe, when you were 12. How is it you have learned so much about Haitian history since you didn't do most of your schooling in Haiti? Well, I often say that, you know, and my parents used to say it as well that I left Haiti, but Haiti didn't leave me. And 12 is, I think, young enough to transition somewhat easily, but also to have formed so many memories and to have actually had a, you know, I had actually had a big chunk of like primary education in Haiti, and having learned both oral history and written history. So I brought a lot of that with me to the US and enough that I was curious when I got here to find out more from the side of things. So I think it was part and part of love for Haiti that continued and also a curiosity about history in general, but Haitian history in particular. Now there's a shift, I think, in Haitian cultural history. If you think of the 1960s or 70s, Haitian cultural history is centered in Haiti. So you have Mick Jagger, Jacqueline Kennedy, and as they go to Port-au-Prince, Petionville, they buy paintings, they bring them back. Everything is very Haitian centered. And that seems to end in the 1980s. Why did that happen? Well, yeah, there was a time, even in the, you know, in the 50s where you had cruise ships going to Haiti, which I've always found somewhat interesting because all that time that you had that, you know, the tourism, the sort of that high level of tourism was still doing the dictatorship and so people were going at that time anyway, the folks you mentioned and others. And then in the 1980s, during the AIDS epidemic, you know, the pandemic of AIDS, then Haiti was designated as by the CDC as patients were labeled a high risk group for AIDS. And we were the only ones designated by nationality. It was patients, homophiliacs, herring addicts, and homosexuals. And so that certainly, that came out of some cases of people who had contracted AIDS and who came to a hospital here in Miami and were reported to the CDC.  It was later, you know, after much, you know, demonstrations after a lot of research, it was corrected. But it really killed whatever tourism industry. There was in Haiti, which was already kind of a strange kind of tourism anyway, because, you know, people felt like happy to go at a time of, you know, very strict dictatorship that there was always already something a little strange about that. But, but whatever tourism industry there was was destroyed by the AIDS epidemic. But if you think of Haitian culture today, is it correct to think that the Haitian diaspora is now Haitian culture. So if you think of Haitian painting, well, there's Duval Carrier. But he's lived in Puerto Rico and France in Florida. You are the leading Haitian writer, if one were going to call you that. Sean from Haiti, but now mostly in North America Layla Makala, somewhat even called Basquiat a Haitian artist. I mean, is that now outside of Haiti, what Haitian culture is. Well, I think, I think that would be, that would be incorrect to say because there is still such a, there is a great vibrant culture inside Haiti, and they're wonderful writers inside Haiti as well there's wonderful visual artists musicians.  My work is in English. So naturally, people have more access to it, like more easily.  I'm going to, you know, I appreciate art. I'm, you know, I'm on the, on the Council of the Sancho-Darren Haiti of an esteemed institution that goes back, you know, several decades now. So there is, there's still that culture and it's, it's really a powerful statement, I think, to, to Haitians and Haitian culture, because there's so many obstacles all the time in the way of artists in Haiti, but they, you know, they still are thriving and are very, really wonderful express what's happening very powerfully through their work. Do you think the Haitian diaspora is culturally stable, or do you think it will in essence be absorbed and assimilated into more narrowly Afro-American culture? Well, I think because the, the Haitian diaspora has, because there's often so much happening in Haiti, let's say, that Thai, you know, what we would call that long tweet, you know, the umbilical cord is really married to Haiti. And even over several generations, you know, the Haitians, who I know, I don't want to speak for everybody, remain very connected to Haiti and want their children to know Haiti and want that connection through language, through food, through music. So the diaspora, you know, no diaspora is fully stable. There's, of course, there's integration, there's assimilation, there's, that happens with every immigrant community over the generations, certainly for sure. But there's a certain tie to Haiti that the diaspora has, there's so many diaspora organizations, that neighborhood organizations where people support, you know, schools and the neighborhoods where they come from where they support organizations. And part of it, I think that tie, that connection is connected to the fact that there is, that Haiti is often in crisis, and people in the diaspora are often the first line responders, right? And after people in Haiti inside Haiti, you know, after Haitians in Haiti, Haitians in the diaspora, even within our families, if there's an illness, if there's, you know, and that sometimes extends to the larger community. So I think there will be over, you know, I definitely there's, there's integration, you know, I think, but I don't see, I think we have a diaspora that goes back, you know, further than people know, yet, yet that connection to Haiti throughout the generations has remained.  Do you think there is in fact a natural language for Haitian literature. So if you think of the earlier Haitian classics that you've had a hand in translating, they were written in French. Your work, of course, is written in English. It's been slow to have been translated into Creole. Is it a fundamental fact about the future of Haitian literature that there's not a natural language there? Well, I mean, I, it's, it's such a topic of discussion often among critics of Haitian literature, what language is Haitian literature written in. And I, and I think now people, you know, like I have, I mean, most people, some people, I can't speak for everyone, but I think most people will who study Haitian literature will say that it's now a multi-language literature. There's literature in Creole, certainly, which I, it's probably closer to the language to, to, you know, to the primary language that most Haitians speak Creole. And that was slow to come. There was always like literature in Creole, but not as much as there is now. French was probably, you know, was literature, Haitian literature is mostly written in French. And like you said, we've worked on translating. I've worked with others in translating, for example, Masterpiece of Haitian Literature called Les Pasteurs Simon by Jacques-Stefan Alexie, which we translated with Carol Coates as In the Flicker of an Island. And I edited these two books, Haiti Noir and Haiti Noir 2, in which we translated many contemporary Haitian writers. So, and then we have writers now who are Haitian-American or Haitian-Canadian, like Braxton Gay and William Chan Si, who write directly in English. So it's a, it's a, it's a literature now that it's a kind of multi-language literature through my, you know, immigration and migration. And there we have writers who are writing in Chile in the Dominican Republic, in Spanish. And that's another growing layer of Haitian literature abroad. The Haitian literature, that's so far mostly produced a lot of poetry in Spanish. But there was a novel before by Haitian writer Namislin Giusec, who was, who had written one of the first novels about Haiti in Spanish. So it's a growing, I mean, it's, it's very, it's a linguistically interesting literature and to see all the, like, of the tentacles of it, if you will. What do you think of the, you might call them outsider novels about Haiti? So there's Graham Greene, there's Victor Hugo's Bug Jargal, right, which is about the Haitian Revolution. Are those cultural appropriation, are they bad novels? How do they strike you? Some are good, you know, some are bad. There's some, you know, there's some wonderful ones like Madison Smart Bell's trilogy. Also is rising, you know, in the Haitian Revolution. I think that those were wonderful.   But I wouldn't say to anybody that you can't write about, you know, again, you can't write about anything. I mean, I think, I think really writers should be able to write whatever they want. You should expect people to respond. And I think, you know, if you do it with nuance and care, that's, that's really important. I mean, they're, they're the temptation, you know, there's some tropes that often sometimes people just fall into when they're writing about Haiti, the zombie situation. You know, and they sometimes they approach it like it's never been done before.  Why does Haiti have the very best food in the Caribbean? Well, because we just do.  But I think Haitian food in particular, I love because we have great spices. And even, you know, if the food is a little fad in some cases, you have like the piqués, which is sort of a pickled cabbage carrots, like a spice.  And, and there's stuff that even if you're vegan, you can like like my moulin, which is cornmeal, taspois. This I think it's a very rich and wonderful cuisine, but I am biased. And I think if people who have not had Haitian food, you should definitely, if you know anybody who's Haitian on January 1, go over their house for, when we can go over people's houses again, go for sous jus mou, which is a squash soup that we drink on the first of January to celebrate Haitian independence. Why is Haitian black mushroom rice so good. It's the mushroom. That's the key. And, and actually, you know, I've had, I live in Miami and that gives me a little more access to the juan juan. And so I've had to ship to friends throughout the throughout the states. And there's a key to it in terms of just how you like washing the mushroom and, and just the right they try to make a kind of like cube thing. But the cube thing is just not the same as just like the actual mushroom that you boil and you squeeze and, and if you ever like some people if you're from the north, like my friends from the north will put some cashews in that that's like another level with some cashews. The collective buses and Haiti the tap taps of course, why are they so beautifully painted. Why does that make economic sense. Well, the thing is, I mean it's people who like I and I've gone to Haiti with a lot of blunt, you know, foreigners. When there's a time when I used to go, we had a program for college students every summer. And, and I used to love like when when they land to see the tap taps. So it's just really, it's so it's so striking because it just feels like, Oh, I'm in this world full of art, you know, and it's like, they seem to be moving canvases. And what I love personally, most of our tap tap even after you get used to the to the visual feast that they are. I love the sayings on them. And, and I used to, and you would see like, you know, of course basketball stars from here. I mean, I think at some point like not too long ago, there was a Toni Morrison after she died was on a tap tap. It just, you know, people really soak what's happening around but the sayings are also great.  And then things like that. And that's just really, and also the top tops would on the with the art sometimes like will have messages of gratitude, like, so a top tap might have a message of gratitude to the driver's mother, or to whoever like contributed a lot of them are, you know, to the Jesus to God to the Virgin and, and other religious figures but also to people in the, the person's life who contributed to the business and so it's really a, I always find them very beautiful to look at but also really wonderful moving like moving pieces of art. If I think of the Haitian arts today, I think of painting, possibly is having peaked between the 40s and the 70s. And the most interesting work today tends to be in voodoo sculpture. Why has that shift come about.  They're hard to buy they're hard to transport. Well, I think I think that I think if you stayed there you would be reducing like your, your possible level of enjoyment right because what's most in the in that that early period you know the century dark period in the 40s, like the early period where, when the tourism that you were talking about, when people went to Haiti they, what they bought the most was what they call the like the knife primitive art which is a super colorful, really beautiful figures often market scenes and so that that's traveled very well. But there was always at that same time artists who are a little bit more adventurous artists who are like somewhat abstract. At the same time that they were these artists who are like this is what the tourists want that's what I'm going to produce right. And so, throughout the Caribbean, even if you went to other islands, you would see these paintings and, and then they became almost a little bit mass produced and they were, they're gorgeous I have, I have some, but the sculptures you're talking about I think we, those were started actually by, there was an, we used to call them I used to work for Jonathan Demi, the filmmaker, who was a huge collector of Haitian art and in the 20s, whenever we acquired the sculptures, you know, when we bought whichever I traveled the last to Haiti with him. And when he would buy he called them Leo toes, because the original artist was Leo toe, who, and you know, and when I was growing up in cemeteries and you didn't you we had metal flowers really because you would do like a wreath of metal with and it would be metal from oil drums, because that lasted longer right as opposed to like if you have a wreath of just like roses that dies quickly. And so Leo toe was a great he was in from Saint Mark, which is really the, the home of these sculptures. And, and now there's a whole industry in those sculptures, for sure. And, and I have, I have to say like they're very hard I agree to, they can't you can't just like put that in your suitcase and like you would the paintings that were people used to roll them. So, but they're, they're gorgeous. And now they're almost three dimensional, you know, like one Christmas we bought one that was like an activity scene that was just like to be D. But there are other, you know, there are a lot of wonderful young artists. Now that just some of them are moving away from the, the sort of the more primitive naive. There's, there's so many that whose names are escaping me but they're just wonderful artists worth exploring you mentioned Duval Cayet, who is outside of Haiti. But there are quite a few other young artists who were inside Haiti or doing who would use both that style of sculpture, but also do paintings who do installations or doing really, really exciting things. This is Fiona Zobop by Leo to by the way. It's by the fireplace. Oh, wow. Yeah. Why is it you think that black African Americans have not evolved as natural collectors of Haitian art. It seems to be much more than nerdy white guys who buy it, or well to do families.  So, and, and even, you know, friends that again, when we traveled with folks to Haiti, a lot of them were African American.   I have a friend, Karen Fabius, who has a gallery in LA called Galie La Caille. And she has, you know, she has quite it's it's a wonderful gallery because it's in their home, her husband Pascal is an artist who's worked with the artists and ground we who do actually a really amazing urban sculptures with, you know, discarded like dolls and boards and sometimes skulls. They recently had a show here at mocha. And, and kind, for example, I think he's worked with a lot of African American collectors, including, you know, some in Hollywood but some and outside of also, you know, ordinary people who collect as well. I mean, there's, there's been, you know, like, I think also this marriage of African American art in some cases with Haitian art like Lori Malou Jones who went to Haiti, who, you know, who has spent time there, and kind of this this connection there with with some African American artists who, who are very aware of Haitian art as well. How much voodoo inspiration is there in your writing. Well, I, it's part of the, you know, of Haitian culture and it's, you know, and I try one of the things that when you're asking about the outside gaze of on on the Haitian literature.  So I try to in my in my work I tried, you know, I treat as a world view as and, you know, some people might be practitioners, some people might not be, you know, and I also like to show a whole range of religious practices in my characters because not everybody is monolithic, you know, just in there, just as they're not in their behavior, they're not monolithic in their religious practice as well. So I try to show it as a whole range of religious practice.  So like, so to show the whole range of religious practices that there would be in a family like that some of them also, you know, Protestant, and, and, and sometimes that actually leads to some conflicts within some families so I'd like to show the whole of the nuance of all that your novel about the twins on twine isn't that just a voodoo novel. And I mean that as praise. Um, I mean, I, I didn't think of it that way I didn't start up. There's certainly, you know, there's certainly twin laws and and voodoo. And these girls are twins I'd always been fascinated by twins. But I, I, I don't think I, you know, that I think maybe that could be one interpretation but that wasn't. I mean it would be kind of. Yeah, I just, I was in sort of how I end, you know, I started out but I think that could be one interpretation. For me, I just think Marasa when I'm reading it right the whole myth of the twins and the rivalry and beginning the end struggle. Yeah, but I think if you is it, is it because they're Marasa because there are a lot of novels about twins as well but they're written by, you know, by people who are not from Haiti.  But, but again, I, you know, I'm fine with that interpretation. In a world with so much mobile and social media, do you think radio was still of central importance for Haitian politics, as it had been in the past. I think it remains radio remains very important there. For example, there are a lot of, you know, cultural figures, even younger people in Haiti who emerged out of radio culture and now now have a position into more social media, you know, who do lives and Facebook and but who started out in radio radio certainly was very important when I was growing up and they weren't as many other outlets. But now I find, for example, you know, my mother-in-law who's 85, who lives with us, she's in Haiti most of the time, but she, in addition to, you know, the sometimes she'll watch a YouTube video about something that's happening in Haiti, but it will be, it's a YouTube video of someone in a radio station and she can watch on YouTube, someone can send the clip on WhatsApp. So I think radio now is part of a series of like many different ways that people get information. It remains like when we're in the country, if you don't have internet, it remains one way that you get news on the radio, you know, but it's also, people also, I find like even the older people in my life get a lot of news through their phones, through WhatsApp, you know, through also through YouTube clips and so if there's a constant loop of information now that radio is just one part of whereas, for example, when I was younger, it would be, it would just be, it was prime, it was the primary, if not the only source of information that we had. I think with the Haitian background, do you think you have a different perspective on the fake news debates of the United States, because Haiti it seems had a lot of fake news, well before social media. It was a kind of country of rumor in some ways, or not. So you're, you're thinking of this whole thing of maybe that expression, Tilly Joel, which is like the mouth that would go, I guess would be like Tilly. And that was a way that information is spread. I, I think, I don't know. I think every culture has that kind of sort of rumor mill, if you will, I don't think that that would be unique. That would be unique to Haitians. I think what we do, what I, what I recognize in the whole fake news debate is the sort of the gradual slide towards autocracy. Certainly, that is, I, I, that is, those of us who have lived through dictatorship and other moments like that, you recognize the slippery slope, the, you know, the sort of the demonization of media, the, you know, it's just sort of for silencing.  So all that is very familiar in terms of like that whole thing of, of, of diminishing the press, of course, at full autocracy, you know, at full, then you kind of destroy the people who are giving the news. But there are ways now with, with, you know, with the social media to, to do it. Why do you think Haitian political history has shown so much instability in terms of turnover and the number of rulers? Well, you know, I think Haiti's history started, we started as a country with everything against us, right there. The Haitian revolution was an impossibility to so many people. So these enslaved people fought the French, the British, the, you know, the Spanish and to make it, to start the first black republic, the first place in the world really when slave people overcame their masters and started this nation and a world where slavery was the norm. So Haiti was, you know, you know, shunned and, and they had, we had to pay to the French for this independence until into the next century. And so I think there was so much, you know, stacked against us. And then, you know, in the 19 early 1900s, you had the very long US occupation, and then the dictatorship. So I think the, it's just, we were set up in a way to fail because this, you know, was not meant to exist and slave people starting their own country was not meant to exist. It's kind of, you know, a lot of people have said it and historians and have said it, like, how dare you. And I think to this day, Haiti is being told how dare you and many instances when people, you know, when they've elected their own, when they've elected their leaders, when we've elected our leaders, then suddenly there's a coup or there's so I think the instability is not fully the fault of, of, of, of Haitians.  But this, but it's also something that has been set up to, you know, to fail. I think the United States get most wrong and it's 1915 to 1934 occupation of Haiti, being there. Sure, but this better and worse occupations right. Oh, I don't, I don't think the people who have been occupied anywhere would ever say that they are like what a great occupation. I would say Barbados may have gone better than say some other countries in the Caribbean. It's occupation. Um, I would ask, I, you know, I would, I would ask the Barbados, I mean, I think you mean Grenada or well, Grenada also. Yeah. I say they're better than Suriname. The Dutch were more extractive in Suriname than the British were in Barbados. I would ask them. I don't, I don't know. I would ask, I would not speak for them. I think, I think people always want to be in charge of their fate. And the people who come often, you know, I can only, from what I know of the US occupation, it wasn't. And, and, you know, the writers at that time wrote about it, you know, they were like African American scholars who are living the moment who visited who, who, who wrote about it, because it was meant to keep. It was meant for influence in the region. And, you know, and there's one of the heads, I think it's Butler, his name was who wrote about who had a mea culpa many years later who was in charge of not just the occupation of Haiti but also when at that time where there was a common occupation of Haiti in the DR where he said, you know, we were there for the, for city core, we were there for money, like he, that was his mea culpa he was like you. And so, and for example, you know, people there's the example of, and, you know, you've talked about Haitian art with Philo, Philo Meo Ben, who was a Haitian artist from the north has a very famous painting about Shalma Speerad, who was a leader of the Kakos, who fought against the occupation, who was murdered and attached to a door for, you know, as a kind of frightening and, and there were some horror stories and massacres doing the, the occupation and what was left, I mean the was left behind after the occupation, I think both in Haiti and the Dominican Republic was this military structure, right, that went through the generations. And the Dominican Republic side, it became to Rio, who then carried out this 1937 massacre of Haitians. And then on our side went all the way through down through the, the army that the, that ended up in that dictatorship and, and there was also sort of a deeper layering of sort of just basically moving Jim Crow to these islands because then they had to, for the comfort of these people, they had to kind of create these clubs, these sort of to separate people who are light versus people who are dark in terms of how they're interacted with them.  In retrospect, do you think the US restoration of our steed in 1994 was a mistake. Was it more colonialism, or was it the best thing that somehow had to be done. Well, I think that was a very difficult moment at that time. I, and I, and there was those generals. And that moment had, you know, during that, that coup d'etat, thousands and thousands of people had been killed. At that time I worked, I was working on a film called Tombele, and we were interviewing many people who had been victimized by the, doing the, the coup d'etat. And one of them was an incredibly brave woman named Alain Belance, who had survived and being really butchered and had lost her arm and other people. So, I think, I think at that time, I mean, the, you know, prison I've seen was part of that decision and he wanted, he wanted to return at that time, I guess, that was the right thing to do because people were really in the generals, they were ready to stay and, and people were dying. And so, you know, I, looking back, I, you know, I think that, that probably was a really, that was the decision that was made in First United States and he, he returned. If you were Minister of Education in Haiti, and had a fair amount of latitude, what would you do? Um, I would, you know, I, I would give the job to, to a woman I know who runs an organization called CYT, and her name is Nejin, and Nejin works with schools, actually she works with educators. Um, I would get people, I, if I were Minister, I, first of all, I would make sure people who are better qualified than me were Minister of Education. But I would, one thing I think would be important to actually make sure every single child is educated and to make sure that Creole is part of the education. It's, it's like, that there is education in Creole, because often children just jump into school in French, and it's, and there's a lot of rote memorization. So, I would, I would just, that would be an important thing, I think, to make sure every child has access to education, because in Haiti, something like a parent's 40, something like 40%, of a parent's income is spent on education, and often not the, you know, the children are not getting the best education, because they're to rote memorization, and, and, but what I know is, there's such a love for education in Haiti that parents really, really sacrifice a great deal to have their children educated that, that every child, of course, deserves an education so I would, I think I would love for every child to have that opportunity. I think that would be the most important thing to have like a good education that could serve them and, and, and help them to function and grow in their, in their country. As a Haitian American, how do you feel your perspective on Black Lives Matter might be different from that of many Black Americans? It's not different, I think, I believe that Black Lives Matter, of course, and, and I think maybe as a, you know, as a Haitian American with the history that I've just outlined to you, you know, with having come out of a culture of revolution, you know, in the constant fight that Haitians have always had, we can certainly identify with that, absolutely. And one thing that's been really wonderful to see with this generation is that as Black immigrants, we can, we, you know, there's no separation, I think, maybe in previous generations, you know, there was that feeling that, oh, this is not my problem.  And certainly, you know, if that cop is not going to be asking you which country you're from, you know, when, when doing these types of encounters. Now, in all of these conversations, there's a segment where I present to the guest my favorite Haitian proverbs, and he or she reacts, are you ready for a few. All right, so you have you, you've been sharing Haitian proverbs with your guests. Here's one, after the dance, the drum is heavy. Oh my God. What does that mean to you? It means that there are consequences to everything, like even, like, even the most joyful thing, right, like, you have to be prepared for the consequences.  So there's always, it's kind of like the morning after hangover situation, and the most joyful outcome, but that, but really that there are consequences to everything. Here's another one. It is the owner of the body who looks out for the body. Oh, this one, you will not believe how much we hear that these days. And it's something that we say a lot now in the coronavirus era. And you hear it on the radio, you hear it, you know, these people say it when they talk to their neighbors, that means that really, you are the best person to take care of yourself.  So it's not the doctor, it's not, you know, they're a loved one. It's the owner of the body who takes care of the body. So it's like, watch out for yourself. It's very good advice these days. When they want to kill a dog, they say it's crazy. Yep. That's that the dehumanization.  It's like, it's connected to the fake news, right?  So that's, that's, that's also a timely one, I think. How about this one, the Constitution is paper, the bayonet is steel. Yes. Again, back to our conversation about, you know, dictatorship in a way, I think, I believe that one was often cited by one of the generals actually doing the 90s doing that, that, that coup d'etat. It might have been even before, but it was, I think it speaks to the fragility of documents, right, like the Constitution. I think yesterday was Constitution Day in the US. So that might also apply here, right, that if it's, it's that whole thing with freedom, right, is freedom is something that is, is always, like, we have to always keep watching out if that doesn't slip away, right, because sometimes we think the, like, these documents or these rules or, you know, are just set in stone. And, and I remember, I think this, this general who kept saying this saying was saying, well, you know, I have the weapons and we can all, like, with weapons, you know, paper, it's kind of paper, paper rock scissors, and which is, which is stronger. When the Mapu tree dies, goats would eat its leaves. Yes. This one I think is about humility, because we, you know, we have this expression that we say when someone has died who has contributed a great deal to, to our culture to the we say that a mapu has fallen in a mapu is a self cotton tree. It's a kind of sacred tree. And it's also a big tree that that's sort of that lasts forever. And so it's a, it's a regal, it's just a, it's an institution a mapu. And so what this one is saying that even, you know, the, it's actually the goat is a kind of meager creature compared to a mapu. And there's no way a goat would actually be able to access the leaves to a mapu, but when it dies, it falls and then it's just saying that we're all, I think it's, I've always heard that proverb as a way of encouraging humility that we're sort of all vulnerable to all our leaves are vulnerable to the goat, if you will. One more proverb beyond the mountain is another mountain. That's a very famous one. Yes. And I actually use that a lot myself, you know, I have a neighbor, one of my neighbors just passed away. And she used to use that proverb a lot. And so I think it means that no matter what we can see there's more. I think it's, it's, but there's more to everything we can actually send this more to everything than what we see. It also speaks to the physical layout of Haiti, because it's a very mountainous place, you know, it, and the arrow are called it it, it actually means land of the mountains. And so, and it's physically true, like if you're traveling across Haiti, literally, there's always a mountain behind the physically behind the mountain. But in a kind of spiritual sense, it also means that there's, there's, there's always more, you know, and, and you know, this this there's this mountain connected saying that I love, you know, which it says, I've never met two mountains, but perhaps you and I, we can meet again. Have you ever been to West Africa? I have not. I have only been to South Africa. And actually this year, we were hoping to to make a trip to different countries in Africa, but we're obviously not able to but that is, I often feel like, you know, I'm 51 now I feel like I should have already made it but it's definitely it's something that I've wanted to do with my with my family with my girls, and, and that hopefully we'll get all to do together. What is special about shock meld and Haiti. Jackman is one thing. There's a wonderful novel by a great patient writer in Haiti Pascals, Adriana in in all my dreams, which was recently translated by kind of my Glover. And that novel will tell you everything you want to know about Jackmail it's sort of a, it's a it's a beautiful place and it's physically like location. It's got both the mountains in the sea. It's got a wonderful waterfall called bassin blue. It's a gorgeous place that it, and after the dance, the book that I wrote is about carnival and Jackman, and it has a spectacular carnival as well. And there's some wonderful artists who live there actually. Who I write about in after the dance one of them will not lose who who still lives there next to a beautiful mountain.    And then your first book is published as an undergraduate. So what accounts for this. What's your own story about the beginnings of your own success. My first book actually was published when I was 24 that's still that's still early, but I loved writing, I love stories, and I loved writing and for me it was always fun. And when I was doing other things I was, you know, studying at school but I love to write. And so, you know that that saying that people say, it's, if you love what you do you've never worked a day in your life. I, I, for me that was just really I, I wanted to write and it started with new connections that journal that I started writing for when I was 14 and went through all my books to this day. I never saw myself so much as I mean I knew that my book was published early and and a lot was made up that I think as when you publish when you're young, but for me it was just always a joy was a something I love doing and I always felt like really blessed to be able to do it and I still feel that way to today. What's your most productive or most unusual work habit. Working at night and at the older I'm getting the harder it is to actually do to stay up all night but I find that writing at night is my is really my most productive time, like because somehow at night you just feel like everybody's, you know, safe in bed that I'm responsible for. And there's not too many distractions the internet is always there but it's, it's, it's just easier to imagine a whole other universe at night so that's, I feel that that's when I'm most productive. And being a Haitian American writer, what criticisms do you feel you get from Haitians, is there any tension there. I, I think there's always attentions, but not so much because of the people who read me I think I think it's the same when you come when you and I have friends who from other groups it's the same. So you're, you seem to be plucked out of your group, and people think like you consider yourself a representative I've never considered myself a representative for Haitians all Haitians I don't think I speak for all Haitians. Often in the, you know, when you're spoken about in the press, like people put you as a kind of sociologist as a kind of expert on Haiti, when, when I started pretty young and I really was like I just want to tell this story I want to tell that story. And then I started to realize that people were at times over generalizing my stories right like that they would say oh this character in your book does that. And that's what all Haitians do. So, of course, my some of my compatriots didn't like that because they would say, you know people would literally say to me like, oh that person read your book and said that, like I think that's my life too. So I think, and that happens I think with the work of writers of color a lot, you know, for example, Alice Walker that people say oh because she writes this character then she hates black man know because you know that for me they were saying oh because you wrote about this girl whose family really wanted to be a virgin that means like, you know everybody who's Haitian has the same situation I think, I think the people in the mainstream culture sometimes generalized the what we write and so that leads to some tensions within, within, you know, within the culture. But I've had you know I've had some rebuke which is normal again, you know it's kind of like, you know there are circumstances to whatever you write, whatever you do, and, and I learned from that and, and I have to. I started out very young so I think over the years I've also had to learn and how to tell maybe more nuanced stories and how to be conscious of just how what I write will be read by by not just, you know by by different types of people. Now you've taught a history of Haitian cinema class at Ramapo College correct. What did you do in that. Actually, that this we taught that class when with I, it was Jonathan Demi and Haitian journalist John Dominique, and when John was in exile from Haiti. I often wanted to do actually a festival of Haitian cinema, and we use that class as a way of, first of all, finding the films that we would show and then to talk about them so we, there's a Haitian film court, for example, which is about a young girl who's a domestic servant in a home who Haitian singer T corn is featured in it with a, and, and so we would get that film we would show it and we'd talk about it and show who was more versed in Haitian cinema than either of us would speak on it. And then the students would film it so I hope all of this is in the archives at Ramapo College, but it was both a history of cinema class but also a class when which the students got an opportunity to to film what we were what we were doing and we were trying to figure what had been done in Haitian cinema before and, and soon after that, not because of us but there was a kind of explosion of of Haitian video cinema, you know, they were a lot of films made some of them wonderful some not so great but they're a couple of of keepers, you know that, like, if we were doing this project now, for example, we would have a lot more to work with, you know, with the films of La Lupec and, and other filmmakers and inside Haiti. I have two final questions. First, let's say our listeners are thinking of doing a trip to Haiti, by the way, I would recommend strongly, but what tip would you give them for how they can make it somehow manageable and safe, assuming of course they're not Haitian. I mean, a lot of people, you know, go to Haiti. And I think you have to go with an open mind, right. And I would say, try to get out of Port-au-Prince to go outside, go see the countryside. For example, in the, in the, the south, there's some wonderful grottoes or caves, there's some hikes, I think there's to not to try to stay in the urban space but also to go outside. There's, I think it's Palmer's guide to both Haiti and the Dominican Republic that has some wonderful tips in terms of where to go. And there's some also local traveling groups, like try to, try to find a, if you've never been to Haiti and you don't know anybody in Haiti to try to find a group to accompany you. But to go with an open mind, to try to learn and listen and certainly go outside the urban space into, you know, into the countryside, I would recommend that. And to close, finally, if you could give us one more Haitian proverb that is dear and important to you. Well, this one reminds me very much of Jonathan who, though he was not Haitian, we, I probably traveled with him more to Haiti than my own parents, when I worked for him. He always used to say, PTPT, Zwa Zou Fanish, little by little, the bird builds its nest. That was his favorite answer to, like, if you ask him how he was doing, he would say PTPT Zwa Zou Fanish. And unfortunately, as you know, he passed away not too long ago and and that was one of his favorites. And that remains very special to me for that reason, but also what the, what the proverb says, it's really, it's kind of like that, you know, like, but like every journey begins with one step. And so I feel like it's, it's good advice these days to PTPT Zwa Zou Fanish, little by little, the bird builds its nest. Edward Shantikov, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for having me.


Roses have a reputation for being difficult to grow, but our speaker tonight is going to tell us how it's done. Don Kinsler is a native of Lisbon, North Dakota, and after graduating from North Dakota State University in horticulture, Don joined the NDSU Experiment Station in Woody Plant Research, followed by five years in extension horticulture's state office. After he left NDSU, Don and his wife Mary owned and operated a greenhouse business for the next 25 years. So it's a lot of experience. Don's now back with NDSU, which we're all happy about, and he's the extension agent for Cass County Horticulture. Don writes two weekly gardening columns for foreign communications, and he has a weekly radio program on two stations during the growing season. Don, welcome to the forums. Well, good evening. Good evening. And thank you very much for inviting me. And I'm excited. Now, I, I like everything in horticulture all the way from house plants to vegetable gardening and everything in between, and not the least of which is growing roses. So this evening, it's going to be fun to discuss roses. Now, I have, I have grouped rose growing into about 10 steps. And I firmly believe that all of us can grow roses. Now, for example, the roses that you see pictured there are all Canadian developed very winter hardy types. Now, one thing I should mention, feel free to at some point to download the handout that was prepared on growing roses in the upper Midwest, because everything I say during this program is written up on there. So feel free just to sit back and enjoy the show and know that everything that I mentioned, as well as a list of the hardiest roses are all on that handout. But look at the variety of roses that can be grown. Starting from the left is Hope for Humanity, a beautiful called Campfire is Next. The upper right hand is one of my favorite called Canada Blooms. And the lower right is Morden Sunrise. So just look at the variety of very winter hardy roses that we can grow. So if we are looking at having rose success in a northern atmosphere or northern environment like we have, there are really 10 steps. It's a 10 step process. So let's cover those 10 steps. And then I think we can all be highly successful.  My wife, Mary, and I have, I think probably about 15 rose bushes in our yard, and they're wonderful. So step number one is to choose the varieties wisely. Now, the International Rose Society groups roses into a very strict classifications traditionally, starting from the left, you have hybrid teas with the beautiful kind of florist quality blossoms. And then you have the floribundas, grandifloras, hybrid musk, miniature roses, climbing roses, tree roses, wild roses, shrub roses, and a few other classifications. But a maybe better way to classify roses is by winter hardiness. That is really the most useful because in our area, of course, we're all about having our roses survive the winter time. So I've grouped the roses into kind of three categories based on that winter hardiness. And we'll go through each of these in a little more detail.  You know, we'll see they might get a little little bit of winter injury on the tops, but they've come through fine. And many of those were developed in Canada. Hardy Canadian shrub roses. Now a second classification of winter hardiness is what we could call crown hardy. Now crown hardy roses are ones where the canes, the rose branches, often die back to the ground. Now they can regrow from the base, but those are really best covered for winter. A third hardiness classification are roses that we would consider tender. And those freeze out very, very easily. So winter protection on those is a must. And we'll talk about winter protection in a little bit. So let's talk about each of these winter hardiness categories. Let's start with the last one first. The tender roses, several types, like if you're looking through a garden catalog or you're looking at tags in a garden center, you'll oftentimes see these terms.  That particular one pictured there is the peace rose. That is one of my favorite.   Well, peace rose is really a great hybrid tea. And then you see the names like grand of flora, flora bunda, but these types really need winter protection. Next, we move to those that I mentioned were called crown hardy roses. Now the crown of a rose is the spot between the branches and the roots, that spot, that juncture is called the crown. And crown hardy roses will oftentimes have the canes die all the way back down. And so they really need to be covered. Now many of the crown hardy roses are the types sold by the national mass merchandisers. We have to be careful because sometimes on the tag they'll say hardy. Well, what's hardy down in Kansas isn't necessarily hardy in Fargo, North Dakota. So a series that you oftentimes see in this grouping are ones such as the easy elegance series, also easy, carefree beauty, the knockout roses. So do be cautious with these even though the tag says hardy, they maybe aren't hardy for our area.  Next, we get to the stars of the show. And these are the winter hardy roses. These are really my favorites because there are so many different colors and many of these were developed in Canada. Canada has had a very, very good rose breeding program throughout the decades. And I have these listed on the handout. The Canadian roses are, you find them in series like the Parkland series and the Canadian artist series, et cetera. Just for example here, starting on the left are Morden blush. One of my favorites is called Canada blooms. That's the dark pink one. Hope for humanity is the red one. Morden sunrise is that beautiful kind of coppery yellow. And the climbing is William Baffin. So lots of good selection in these types. And they will survive winter better than most other roses. In addition to the ones developed in Canada, there are many very good old roses that survive winter fine. Many of these were found on homesteads such as Persian yellow rose, Grutendorst rose, the Hansa rose, those are good too. The ones developed in Canada tend to have a little better flower form. And many of those bloom recurrently throughout the summer also instead of just being June bloomers. Now step number two in our process. And that is to buy what are called own root roses, if at all possible. Now there are two ways to propagate roses commonly. And one is by grafting. And that is where the upper good flowering part is grafted onto a kind of a non flowering rootstock. And you can tell those by the knobby graft joint in between the branches and the roots. The other type shown on the right are called own root roses. Own root roses were propagated by cuttings. And so the cutting of the rose rooted. And so it has its own roots. The problem with the grafted roses on the left is that if that upper part totally freezes out, the sprouts that live over and come from the base are just the non flowering rootstock type thing. You've lost your good flowering versus on the right, the own root roses. Even if the tops die back, any sprigs that come from down below are always going to be that good flowering variety. And good news, I've noticed in catalogs and plant tags, I'm seeing more and more that they specify whether a rose is on its own roots or whether it's grafted. And of course the own root roses are going to survive better. They're less apt to be totally frozen out like a grafted rose. So whenever you have the chance, look for what are called owner root roses. They're on their own roots instead of on a grafted rootstock. Step number three on our journey is the location. Roses will bloom best if they are have full sun for at least six hours. And we should avoid hot exposed locations. Roses don't like that. An east exposure is nice because they get the morning sun and then they get shade from the heat of the afternoon and then the flowers tend to last longer. Another important part about location is plant them in an area that gets good snow cover. Snow cover is a great natural insulation where we have some of our rose bushes along the sidewalk. When I shovel the sidewalk, I throw the snow onto the rose bushes. Step number four is to amend the soil. Roses don't like heavy baked clay type soil. They like a soil that is very high in organic material. I like the bales of peat moss because you can find it at almost every garden center and you just mix it down in the soil and it has a fairly good lasting capacity in the soil. I like the baled peat moss for adding or you can use compost. Now instead of just adding a few handfuls down in the planting hole when you're planting, instead work the organic material into the surrounding soil. You know kind of get that so that you have a an entire soil mass kind of surrounding the rose that's a little more root friendly. Organic matter really makes a big difference. It also gives a moisture holding capacity too. Step number five on our journey is to plant the roses deeply. No matter what the tag says for planting depth, in our area it's important to plant them deeply enough because the mass of natural soil will give some insulating benefit and even if the branches die back up above, hopefully there will be some sprigs of growth that'll come from below the soil. So if it's a grafted rose then plant that graft knob four inches below soil surface. If it's an own root rose, plant that crown which is the juncture between branches and roots. Plant that crown area also four inches below. That's a very important first step in winter protection other than choosing a good winter hardy variety. Step six on our journey here is to mulch the roses. Roses love the soil cool and moist and a good mulch of an organic type material such as shredded wood product works really really well and for weed control it should be somewhere between three to five inches. It does kind of pack down together so I would put for weed control. I'd put up to about five inches of wood product mulch. Now that's much more rose friendly than rock mulch. Rock mulch is hot and heavy. It heats up in the summer sun. That's not really what roses like and it's also heavy and tends to compact the soil. So you know maybe skip the rock mulch in favor of a nice shredded wood mulch. Step number seven is the summer care that we give to our roses and a couple of things that we can talk about on summer care. The first is to water the roses properly. Now roses are thirsty. They really should have a good soaking during the summer a couple of times a week. It's better to let the water soak just around this on the soil and let it slowly saturate down around the soil instead of sprinkling overhead. Now the lady there means well but she's not watering the best way and the reason for that is watering above like that where you get the foliage all wet tends to spread foliage diseases. So better to water only the soil and keep the foliage dry. Also water in the morning and then any splashing that does occur will dry up more rapidly instead of watering in the evening where the lower leaves could stay more wet. So water in the morning water only the soil. Second step of summer care is to fertilize. In addition to being thirsty roses are also hungry. They're considered heavy feeders and the fertilizer that you give really does have a noticeable effect on roses increasing the number of blossoms and the size of the blossoms. So starting really in April or May we can apply either a granular type fertilizer or a liquid water soluble type. Now the granular fertilizers do not have to be a rose type. They can be. You can use a fertilizer labeled for roses that's fine or it could be a well balanced type like a 10, 10, 10 fertilizer. Now instead of sprinkling the granular fertilizer on top of the rose bush I might mention you could use a time slow release also but instead of sprinkling that fertilizer on top of the mulch I'd rather brush the mulch back a little bit. Incorporate the granular fertilizer into the top inch or so of soil watered in and then you make sure that that fertilizer is making its way down into the root system instead of getting lost between the fibers of the mulch. It's also important to discontinue fertilizing by July 4th. That will give roses the opportunity during the last half of the summer to slow down a bit. They'll still produce blossoms because they've got residual nutrients but they will slow down a bit.  They will become more hardened by fall and they will survive winter better. Another thing in the summer care of roses is to deadhead the withered flowers removing the spent blossoms and it's best to do that when they just as soon as those flowers have begun to fade. Now it's important to note where we should cut off those spent flowers. Notice in the diagram right below the flower itself the first rose leaflet is composed of only three the first rose leaf is composed of only three leaflets there. If we cut the rose off down to that point the buds that arise after that are usually quite weak sometimes they won't even produce the flower. So instead of that cut down to where you find the first five leaflet leaf. See so you can see by the diagram there there's five leaflets on there sometimes you'll find one that has seven and cut down to that and then the buds that arise the new growth that arises from that point will be more vigorous and will also tend to produce a better flower. And we should stop the deadheading by early August the reason for that is if we leave the flowers on they'll usually turn into a rose hip which is the fruit coming after the flower and that helps to harden off the roses so they'll be more a little more tolerant going into the winter time. So a little more of a winterized rose. Now step number eight is to control insects and diseases let's talk about a couple of those. In the upper left hand corner there's a couple of things going on there that yellowing in between the veins with the green veins is very typical of iron deficiency chlorosis on roses so we wouldn't want to treat that that's a severe case we would want to treat that with an iron compound labeled for roses. The second thing is very interesting notice those kind of neat cutouts in the leaves those are made by an interesting insect called the leaf cutter bee they cut out those circles and use those for nesting. Now the leaf cutter bee is a pollinator so I would not apply an insecticide on there. Usually you don't see quite so many holes in the leaves it doesn't really seem to hurt the rose that much so when I see some leaf cutter bee activity I just leave it alone the roses roses do fine again usually it's not quite that that many. Other insects we've got the rose pear soft lie nibbling on the on the outer leaf surface there and we've got the Japanese beetle luckily they aren't too too too numerous yet in North Dakota because there are tough insects but if you find insects on your roses then treat with a product that's labeled for those. And next we go to rose diseases the two most common rose diseases are black spot and powdery mildew. It's important to note that when rose leaves develop these symptoms those leaves will not revert back to normal no matter what you put on and so it's important with rose diseases to prevent them at the very first sign of this happening before it starts to spread so rose diseases is all about prevention you can you can find some rose varieties as indicated on their labels that are more resistant to diseases so that's always a good thing or you can use some products and again when I mentioned products it's not to endorse them but just to give some suggestions garden fungicides or rose type fungicides applied when the rose foliage is still healthy is very important and don't water from on top as we mentioned before and you can even find some rose and flower care systemic type products that will be taken up by the rose that can help with insects if you've been bothered with with that as well. Step number nine is winter protection on roses. Now even some of the hardy Canadian grown shrub roses there's nothing wrong with giving them some winter protection in a very severe open winter way of no snow cover then they can they can die back a bit usually they come from the lower part just fine but all roses including even the winter hardy ones that benefits from some some cover and with the tender roses or those that are only crown hardy the winter protection is kind of a must now a couple of ways we can do that if you notice over on the left hand side we can just scoop up the the wood product mulch that we have on the rose bed just kind of heat that up around the canes then in the spring uh early April when it's time to remove the mulch just uh you know rake that away and put it back around the base of the rose bushes or you can do as shown in the center photograph you can put a wire mesh or chicken wire and put leaves in that works and on the right is the good old rose cone now rose cones by themselves usually do not provide enough winter protection there's too much free air around the rose canes so instead if you do want to use rose cones uh mound leaves or wood mulch or something up inside that rose cone in order to give a little better protection now number ten uh the step is a very important one and that is pruning in the spring of the year uh well i think about it don't prune roses roses in the fall of the year uh give roses their pruning in the spring uh that's that that's the best time so when we look at uh rose pruning in the spring time what is it we're trying to accomplish uh roses love pruning pruning stimulates good growth fresh growth that is more apt to bloom uh repeatedly and profusely pruning really stimulates nice fresh growth capable of better blooming so what we want to do are two things cutting the height of the rose back to about 18 or 24 inches then the second step in pruning is to eliminate a lot of the weak crisscrossing growth and just eliminate the tangle of canes if we get air and light in the growth that arises will be more vigorous and you'll get better blooms now sometimes a bit of winter injury helps us prune or nowhere to prune in the photo on the left you can see where the winter injury has occurred on some of the canes there is a very sharp demarcation between the black injured cane portion injured by winter and the uninjured portion which is green and so there's no choice other than to cut back that black damaged portion down to the point of where you see green there are a couple of canes there that you see they're going to have to be taken all the way back near ground level and so sometimes uh that will help you thin it out too getting rid of the winter injury and the basic pruning cut should be an angled cut about a fourth inch above a bud and aim the buds so that they're facing outward you know instead of an inward crisscrossing aim them outward and here's one of the most important steps of all and that is to enjoy the roses that you're growing now again here are varieties developed in Canada they have a good amount of winter hardiness you see they're more than blush that campfire is a neat one and you find these at garden centers I should mention too that for these Canadian developed winter hardy roses oftentimes it's the locally owned independent garden centers where you will find these you're less apt to find these at the national chains but look at campfire up there the beautiful rose that's one that Mary and I have growing in our yard and it gives that you know kind of a a multiple colored look beautiful and Alexander McKenzie up in the upper right I mentioned Canada blooms down in the center with that pink one a kind of a different name Canada blooms that one Mary and I like so much because it's got a form that's almost like a hybrid tea and it does have some fragrance and it has a nice kind of an upright oval shape we like that one so much we planted six of that one and Oscar Peterson that's just a very small sampling of probably oh there are 40 or 50 of those Canadian roses now be sure to download the handout that I prepared that Tom put on the website because really everything that I said plus a little more is on that handout and lists many of the good varieties so be sure to download the handout and thank you I've got my email address there feel free to contact me if you have questions about rose growing and those in Cass County feel free to email me about almost anything so I'll give you a second to jot down that email address Donald dot kinsler at ndsu.edu and this has been a privilege to talk about roses now I'm going to stop sharing that and let's see if there are any questions okay Don we have a few questions um you did I see we have a couple questions about pruning the winter hearty roses but you covered that at the end how about Don should you like with the drought and the lack of snow cover are you worried about the roses surviving this winter well as I mentioned roses roses are thirsty and many parts of the state had a very dry fall and so hopefully when we were watering evergreens and other landscape plants hopefully we give our roses a good watering too without that if they went through winter in dry soil and many parts of the state didn't have much snow cover so we didn't have that natural insulation so it could be a tough winter for rose survival how about do you recommend a brand of granular fertilizer for roses no um my favorite fertilizer is actually 10 10 10 for everything from vegetable gardens to shrubbery roses because you find it at so many stores garden centers national chains and the label tells kind of for strawberries raspberries roses it kind of usually gives an indication as to how many cups to put or portions to put over an area and so I really like 10 10 10 fertilizer so I don't have a particular brand now uh the fertilizers that are labeled specifically for roses because they're kind of fine-tuned and so um they're good too but I don't have a particular brand no okay just pay attention to the numbers huh that's more important right now numbers I was not I believe I like that well balanced it gives the leaves some nutrition it gives the flowers some nutrition and the roots some nutrition how about uh with uh friday terese boune said how you say it is that a rugosa rose it is it is way back when I was a young little horticulturist working at the experiment station we used to joke that that was uh terese uh bug net but yeah that's that's been around for a long time that's a pretty rose as well that's uh considered one of the uh hardier shrub type roses well don do you remember when you were just a little young horticulturist how did you prune that particular right how to prune that one very similar to uh the rose pruning that we described uh maybe cut them back by about half and thin out kind of the crisscrossing branches and that will tend to send up more prolific vigorous type shoots that will bloom better so I would prune that similar to what a person would the other roses oh you'll do that in springtime in the springtime um springtime is much favored versus fall type pruning I think fall pruning a roses opens up the canes to desiccation and uh I just feel it uh tenderizes the roses how about uh hansa or hansa rose have you ever grown that oh that's another yeah hansa is that hearty and that's hearty and four hansa is one of the good old I think that's been around since pioneer days one of the really good winter hearty shrub roses again um Canada's breeding program uh kind of took some of the those good old-fashioned shrub roses and kind of kicked them up a notch but yeah hansa uh grew endorsed um the persian yellow those are still great now some of those I I can't quite remember if hansa is just a june bloomer or if that repeats I can't remember I don't I don't know that but that's a big concern about a lot of those roses is there some of the older shrub roses some of the older shrub roses bloomed in june and then they were a shrub the rest of the summer yeah um you know it's very dry outside when should we start watering our rose bushes are they already thirsty you know given the 50 mile an hour wind gusts today I think I would start if we don't get range uh shortly I think I would probably now uh in Fargo here a couple inches down even though it was dry in the fall there there's some moisture below an inch or so so I don't think the roses uh for example in Fargo here I don't think they're desiccating yet but uh boy in a lot of parts of the state even if especially if it's a lighter soil I think I'd probably get some moisture and of course rather than frequent light sprinklings a thorough soaking so we get water down in uh is much better than light frequent sprinklings okay so as I suspected you're gonna get a lot of questions so we're gonna we're gonna answer your uh short and sweet we can do that we can do the lightning that's what I'm talking about okay how about uh this person's moving this spring can they dig up the roses and take them with them yes dig them up before they leaf out dig them up get as much root as you can keep moist peat moss around the roots in a bucket and off you go that was prune them back by at least half or two-thirds that uh increases success greatly so you mentioned that cating explores is there a climber that's hardy yes a couple of really good climbers uh William Baffin and Henry Kelsey are a couple of really good now uh they don't twine around a trellis by themselves they get really nice big long canes so they look like a climber but you do need to take twistoms or something and and fasten those canes to the trellis but they work beautifully I had some photos of those if you noticed uh climbing up trellis I agree how about are any of those Canadian roses fragrant the uh one of my favorites is the one I mentioned called Canada Blooms that pink one that has fragrance um and of course they're they're working on trying to get fragrance in because the hybrid tea roses uh with the wonderful rose fragrance uh the shrub type roses are more subtle fragrance but do try that one called Canada Blooms is the name because that has one of the most fragrant that I've that I I've ever grown there's a question about Canada Blooms how long does a Canada Blooms bush live how well theoretically it should live forever forever no plants live forever but but it has a good uh well let's see uh we've had Canada Blooms now for uh five years sometimes I have to prune prune it well you're supposed to prune it back anyway a little bit but um but it's it's done well for us are there any roses that will tolerate less than six hours of sun not really um the less sun they get the less blooms they get they tend to be a little more weak and less less blooms so I'm not really I don't know of any roses that are really more shade tolerant how do you prune a climbing rose climbing roses uh you can cut them back reduce the height a bit you don't need to go all the way back to 18 to 24 inches uh check for the any dead wood that winter killed so anything that's brown or black cut back to good green and you can just kind of get mostly with climbing type roses get rid of the cluster you know thin them out and you know so remove any black and winter injury and get rid of some of the cluster you know thin out the criss-crossing and get it down to maybe half of the mass okay are yellow roses more prone to powdery mildew well that could be I haven't really seen the correlation but somewhere there's probably a study that's been done on that I I'm not aware of that correlation yeah I don't think so I don't think so that doesn't make sense to me but how about I do you have a yellow climbing rose that you like well I know um you know climbing roses as a group are you know not very hardy you know when you look at a rose catalog and there's climbing roses those generally are not hardy they keep freezing back so when we say the Canadian types that kind of act like climbers William Baff and Henry Kelsey uh but uh there is there's is one I think listed on our list that I happen to not copy off for myself uh but I believe there might be a yellow climber in that group that that acts like a climber hmm okay well we'll have to look at that little consult the handout yeah I'm not aware of any how about uh this person gets orange to red spots on the leaves of the plant it sounds like rose rust um and uh so um if you're bothered by that make sure that you rake up the foliage in the fall and that's good sanitation regardless and um then if you've if you've been bothered by that um in the past maybe treat proactively with a fungicide it sounds like a rust type fungish fungus if they used a rose cone when do they remove the cone uh depends a little bit you know how the spring goes but really protection should be taken off in early April if we're going to get frigid uh you know down into the teens don't go too far with your cover maybe put it back on if uh if it's forecast down into the teens or approaching 10 so don't go too far but we need to start opening those up and get air into the rose by in early April is that true for uh just in general when people cover their roses like how do they decide when to uncover them a best time to cover is usually uh how about uncover how about uncover when should we uncover yep cover them up early November you're gonna get some cold in and then uh really uncover uh as a rule of thumb it's usually late March early April when you start getting warmer weather uh you don't want to let the roses start growing or leafing out underneath so loosen up any mulch or cover so it can get air and sunlight but if it is gonna get frigid again then you know move it back around okay this person uh is buying roses and it says grade one and a half what does that mean yeah roses roses are graded uh and uh the top grade the grade number one will have thicker canes and to grow a little more vigorously from the start the lower the numbers are graded less and so you know one and a half is probably a pretty decent rose um so it will probably do quite well for you and the nice thing about barot roses that you buy they will usually flower the first season such as hybrid teas and etc but again those those will need winter cover how about the David Austin roses David Austin roses aren't winter hardy they're in the group of tender type roses they're very pretty uh well worth growing if you like to kind of work with roses as a hobby but you do need to cover those for the winter with a good mound of mulch etc yeah they're very fragrant too huh oh yes yeah yeah beautiful roses yes how about uh okay what's your three or four favorite canadian roses and we already know about canada blooms canada blooms because it uh has nice form and has some fragrance to it oh golly then it's kind of what you what you favor by color um i like the morden series there's morden centennial morden blush blush pink that morden sunrise is coppery orange so the morden series is really really good and uh you'll see them labeled like that you know morden sunrise morden amur at morden ruby uh there's a white one and so there's a little something for everybody in that morden series i i like them too because they're they are hardy but they really uh they're susceptible to disease don't you find that that's a problem that's one reason i like the canada blooms which is you know i keep harping on canada blooms that's a fairly new introduction some of the newer introductions coming out to canada have better uh disease resistance canada blooms has a nice glossy green leaf fairly free of disease you know what i'm just gonna just uh speak for one second here i just want to thank everybody for their participation tonight and um and we're gonna do this again next week we're gonna talk about environmental topics and the questions are just keep rolling in here for don so we'll say goodbye to everybody who uh who doesn't care so much about roses but for all you rose lovers we'll keep going until uh as long as they keep as long until don walks out gets out of his chair and walks away i guess well i'm in i'm in my office here so i'm i'm good okay how about the powdery mildew issue is the powdery mildew of roses the same powdery mildew of peonies now i i'm not a plant pathologist and they tell me that there are many many many um i think species of powdery mildew many fungus that cause that powdery mildew outbreak but generally the control is the same whether it's on uh peonies or roses or lilacs uh so generally protective fungicides look at the label to see make sure that it protects against powdery mildew uh but generally um keeping the foliage dry and putting the preventative type fungicides should should work regardless of the uh specific powdery mildew species okay do you have any comments about bone meal i i'm not a fan of bone meal our soil bone meal as i understand is uh pretty much calcium and our soils are so plentiful in calcium that i i'm not a fan of applying bone meal i'd rather spend that dollar on a well-balanced fertilizer how do you feel about sulfur oh i i was sulfur i i i like sulfur there are um some fertilizers aluminum sulfate and different uh that that can as i understand can help um mitigate some of the alkaline type situations in our soil and so um uh myself i don't use aluminum sulfate as a fertilizer but i i know of many people that have good success with that okay how about uh have you ever propagated your own roses in your career as a nurseryman you know i i've got a long bucket list uh in in horticulture and one of the things on my bucket list is to propagate roses from cuttings i think i'll do that this uh this summer and um so i've got to bone up on exactly the most successful ways and so i never have okay let's see here how about it ever use neem oil for powdery mildew i've used neem oil on house plants um but i have not used it on powdery mildew i believe it's listed as a control for powdery mildew but i i don't know one way or the other how effective it is have you used that tom neem oil uh i i have i i've used it for insects right um you know what i really focus on uh i focus on prevent like you said prevention's the answer you know proper watering and if possible uh disease resistant cultivars that really makes the huge difference you know good sanitation at the end of the year um but i don't think but neem oil i guess it can have some fungicide will benefit there's other fungicides i guess i would if i was desperate to save my plant i would turn to a more conventional one how about uh have you ever made in is this not on your bucket list too about making tea from rose hips or have you done that yeah no i haven't i have eaten rose hips uh just because they say they're edible so i i've eaten rose uh you know and they're delightful and but no i haven't brewed them into tea but i like the flavor of them they're a little bit bitter but you know roses are in the apple family so um they are edible how about harrison's yellow any experience yes harrison yellow is one of the good old fashioned roses that's one that i think has been around since pioneer days also now harrison yellow is a june bloomer i don't believe it repeats no it's a father's day bloomer these the gardeners out west tell me that they know it's father's day when it's harrison when the harrison yellow rose blooms you know if you when is the best time to move roses if you have to dig them up spring early spring early spring before they leaf out and prune back by uh two-thirds maybe get as many roots move them with the moist peat moss around the roots and the key is to get them before they leaf out how do you how do you winterize a tall climbing rose well that's why it's important to uh choose like the canadian varieties that act like climbers people that have successfully done the tender type of climbing roses put them on a hinged trellis they can lay the whole works down and then cover it over with a mulch of some sort uh and um but otherwise it's very difficult to in place uh protect a climbing type roses so hinge trellis lay it down and cover it over well we're just tapping you so much here from your knowledge here keep it coming how about uh any wisdom about ever blooming flora bundas just any general thoughts about the flora bundas yeah flora bundas are kind of cluster type roses and i think the first one i ever did was one called utin eutin when i was a teenager and that did beautifully uh and um there as i mentioned a cluster type roses uh tender so they do need covering over make sure after the clusters are done blossoming that you cut that back so you'll get a re bloom also you know with that william baffin you mentioned how tall does that thing get william baffin uh will usually get oh probably eight feet eight feet uh you know no reason it probably couldn't keep going but i guess a practical height is probably eight feet uh so if you wanted to cover an archway the best thing is to put one of those william baffin and hillan henry kelsey uh one of those on each side of the arbor and let them go up because in the course of a season then it'll reach the midpoint do you recommend john cabot climbing rose yeah john cabot yes that's another in that series william baffin um henry kelsey john cabot is another canadian uh rose that acts like a climber uh it does need to have the canes fastened to the trellis how about if this person has a south facing stucco wall is that too hot for roses well if you want to grow a rose in that location the sun will be good but make sure you mulch the mulch the soil very good very well and at least five or six inches mulch odds you know odds are that that's a very hot location so the roses are going to like the heat but you can mitigate that by keeping the soil cool okay last one don how about a personal question about someone knows that you grew a morden bell have you ever heard of that morden bell yeah morden bell is in that series uh let's see morden bell let's see i don't have it now we uh we moved uh five years ago and morden bell was one of the ones that i did not take along we couldn't take everything that one was too old uh morden bell is a pretty it's again in that morden series we're not the best disease let's see morden bell was pink is that right um and i think it was a deeper pink uh now the morden series is wonderful uh you know you do have to keep an eye on the foliage for disease okay done you deserve a break thank you for your great talk tonight


determine what they had done. The panicked expression she found there told her everything she needed to know. Miles and Kate Boyer lived in Springfield, Missouri, and had three children, James, Camille, and Lawson. Kate decided that she needed a vacation from the full-time job of raising three kids, but she was hesitant about leaving them alone with their father for an entire weekend. When she voiced her concerns to her husband, Miles, she saw a glint in his eye that she couldn't quite explain. Was he happy that she was leaving? And could he cope without her?  He tossed the to-do list Kate had left him onto the counter. Finally, she was gone and he had absolute freedom and he intended to enjoy every second of it. But first, he needed to get a few supplies. Miles loaded the children into the SUV. The first stop was the local Walmart. Lawson looked dumbfounded as his father threw item after item into the cart, happily whistling all the while. Looking from the quickly-filling trolley to his dad, and then back again, he started to ask a question. But all he got in reply was a rice mile and a shushing finger on his lips. Lawson glanced at his older sister, Camille, but she didn't seem to notice their dad's strange behavior. She walked alongside the shopping cart, lost deep in thought. What did his dad need all this strange stuff for? And why was he being so secretive? Maybe his brother, James, would have the answer. But James was in a world of his own, dashing to and fro through the aisles, giddy with excitement as he eyed the colorful boxes stacked ceiling high. Lawson looked on with a worried expression on his face. He knew from his many shopping excursions with their mom that James' behavior was about to escalate beyond control. Their dad continued to walk like a man on a mission, avoiding all the toy and food aisles with a determined sense of purpose. He had come this far, he just hoped he had the strength to follow through with his daring plan. All the while he wondered, would he get away with it? So far, so good, Miles thought. He had almost completed his secret shopping list. And the children had been angels, so far. Kate must have been exaggerating, he thought, smiling. Any questions they had he would wave away. It was important that his intentions were kept secret.  And there it was. James started to wail uncontrollably and Miles felt his heart sink. The fabled public meltdown he had done his best to avoid was finally upon him. Boredom and blood sugar had taken a toll on James. And it was everything Kate had described, and more. Miles rushed over to his son and tried to quiet him down. Shoppers walked past and tut tut disapprovingly and he felt a flush bloom on his face. He'd have to resort to dirty tricks to get eight-year-old James to comply, and with a flash, he retrieved something from his pocket. How about a snack? Miles asked, hopefully. He expertly pulled the wrapper off one of the twinkies he had loaded into his pockets before they had left. James nodded agreeably as he reached for it, tears forgotten, at least for the time being. Miles sighed. Crisis averted. Now, it was time to get back to the task at hand. He proceeded to the checkout line with his furtive load and brood of three in tow. But had the unwitting father bitten off more than he could chew? As any mother would know, leaving the kids and hubby at home for the weekend could have disastrous consequences. Kate was fully prepared to have to clean more than a few messes when she returned from her trip, but she prayed that the house would look the same as when she left it, more or less. If she could see just what Miles was doing in her absence, she may have rethought her weekend trip. You see, Miles had a grand idea as he diligently got to work on the master bedroom. He dismantled all the furniture that Kate had so carefully picked out and moved it away. Then, he started to tear up the carpet. The children watched in awe as sheets of the concrete floor began to expose themselves. What was he doing? Miles was growing worried now, but it was too late to change his mind. So with a reckless tenacity, he continued on with the plan. Full hearty as that plan may have been, he was determined. Any minute now, Kate could walk through the door. What would she think about what he had done to their bedroom? Miles removed the old brown carpet and began to paint the walls. He worked late into the night, only stopping to make sure the kids had eaten and were bathed before putting them to bed. Then, he hauled in an enormous load of timber. He knew he had to lay it down just right. When the paint on the walls had dried, he set about laying the new floor. Then, he polished the beautiful wood until it gleamed. The next morning, Lawson, James, and Camille were beside themselves with the result. With excited yells, they exclaimed that the room now looked like a dance studio. With no furniture to get in the way, they took turns spinning on their toes and pirueting on the smooth floorboards. Next, Miles began to return the pieces of furniture back to their right places, but not without making a few modifications of his own. He hammered, glued, and cut an enormous rectangular slat of wood before covering it with a piece of material he had carefully picked out. He attached it to the wall and constructed a new headboard for the outdated wooden sleigh-shaped bed. Finally, he was ready to focus on the finer details of the master bedroom. He didn't want a single item to be out of place for the big reveal. Miles stood back and admired his handiwork. But the most important judge was still to come, his wife. But would she appreciate what he had done to the bedroom while she was away? Late on Sunday afternoon, he heard her pulling into the drive and could barely contain his excitement. Dashing to the front door, he lined the children up to greet her. Kate's sixth sense kicked in the minute she saw her family waiting to greet her. Miles had a look on his face that she couldn't quite read, but she knew something was up when he leaned her upstairs to the bedroom. Kate stood in the doorway, dumbstruck. When she had left she had thought that her husband could keep the house in one piece, but now she had come home to this. Miles had done the impossible. Kate squealed and threw her hands to her face. The camera recorded every emotion as it showed, from bewilderment to awe, and then to happy tears. The bedroom had been completely transformed. And it looked absolutely stunning. Gone was the outdated and stained carpet, replaced with new hardwood floors. The walls were a freshly painted shade of cream and gave off a new warmth that made Kate exhale with delight. What the heck? She asked in amazement. The complete bedroom makeover had been a long time dream of Kate's. The boyers had bought a beautiful old farmhouse with all of their savings, but because the house had originally been built in 1891, there was a lot of work that needed to be done. Unable to afford a contractor, Miles resolved to renovate the old house himself. But with full-time jobs and children to look after, Miles and Kate's bedroom renovation found itself on the bottom of the list. So when Kate went away for the weekend, Miles saw his chance to pull off the biggest surprise for Kate yet. And what could be a better gift for his wife than a brand new bedroom? Miles had put blood, sweat, and tears into the renovation, as well as his heart. Her reaction when she returned home made it worth all the hard work, he said in an interview. By the end of the weekend, Miles had replaced the old and wrinkled carpet, laid down a beautiful new floor, replaced the curtains, repainted the entire room, replaced the wall sockets, and built a trendy new headboard from scratch. Not only did he have a complete remodel to contend with, but he also had three children to look after, what an amazing feat. Miles' entire remodel can be watched on a time-lapse video he uploaded to Rumble, and it's been viewed over a million times. People can't get enough of Kate's husband's heartwarming surprise for his wife. And Kate's expression in the video says it all, she is thrilled with her newly revamped bedroom, it was certainly a move that bus moment. But this is not the first time a parent has come home to a house they don't recognize. She knew something was up the minute she pulled up to the house with her husband. The signs were everywhere, and when she got out the car and saw them standing around nervously, it was all over their faces. Her mothering instinct was screaming at her as she scrutinized her daughter's eyes, trying to determine what they had done. The panicked expression she found there told her everything she needed to know. Chip and Karen lived on the idyllic holiday shores of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They had four daughters, Heather, Holly, Hallis, and Haley. Chip and Karen decided that they needed a vacation from the full-time job of raising four daughters, but Karen was hesitant about leaving them alone in the house for an entire week. She knew teenagers, and she knew what impulsive and wild decisions they sometimes make. And her instincts proved to be 100% accurate. Holly and her sisters watched their parents roll away to their holiday destination with glee. Finally, they had gotten rid of their parents, and they would be gone for the whole week. They had absolute freedom, and they intended to enjoy every second of it. Holly had come up with a wild idea now that they had the house to themselves. When Holly's sisters had heard her mischievous plans for the weekend they were awestruck. No teenager they knew had ever done something like this. It was a wild and ambitious endeavor, and it was almost unthinkable even to attempt it. But that is why, in the end, the willful girls knew they absolutely had to do it. There remained one question, though, how would they get away with it? The answer to the question was unclear. The girls didn't know if they could pull off such a momentous stunt without their parents finding out, but they were going to risk it anyway, so they naturally called on a boy for help. He had hosted his fair share of house parties, but when he heard what they intended to do he was filled with anxiety. This would be no easy task. This was more than a simple for a boy party. With the help of some muscle, Holly and her sisters woke early the next day and immediately got to work. They first removed the furniture and then started to pull up the carpeting. Then they unceremoniously tossed the lot out the window.  The girls had prepared for their devious plan tirelessly for the first two days. By now, the kitchen was in an absolute state.  But the kitchen hadn't even begun to take a beating. It would be unrecognizable to unwitting Chip and Karen once the girls were through. The girls were growing worried now, but it was too late to change their minds. So with a reckless tenacity, they continued on with the plan. They had removed all the furniture in the house and it was sitting out on the front lawn, where it had been abandoned. They worked with a desperation only a teen with impending punishment would know. Any minute now, they knew that parental discipline could come raining down on them. Karen and Chip stood, dumbstruck in the doorway. When they had embarked on their relaxing holiday they had thought that the girls could keep the house in one piece, but now they had come home to this.  They were breathless as they passed their nervous daughters and entered the house. The girls had done the impossible. Karen and Chip continued to inspect the house that they loved so dearly. They went from room to room, all while one of their daughters recorded their reaction. The house had been completely transformed. The schoonover sisters had pulled off the biggest DIY project that Chip and Karen had ever seen. The complete home makeover was meant to be a Christmas surprise to the schooner parents from their children. They had collected over a decades worth of clutter, and the house had been in desperate need of some TLC, and the girls seized the opportunity when they had left for their December vacation. They had put all their blood, sweat, and tears into the renovation, as well as their hearts. The hardwood floor had been refinished, the carpets were replaced, and every wall had been painted. They had even replaced the linens in the bedrooms to complete the makeover, and every surface gleamed. They had given the house so much love and attention that it looked brand new. The work that the girls had put in with their own hands was apparent in every room.  Chip was frozen, standing there like a man in a trance. He had been thunderstruck as to how the girls had managed to pull off such a momentous feet, unable to say a single word. The schooner sisters had, luckily, recorded the entire transformation of the house from beginning to end, and posted the video on YouTube. The video has since gotten over a whopping 2 million views, and it's easy to see why the sisters worked tirelessly for an entire week on the project, yielding amazing results. The heartwarming reveal is sure to have everyone move to tears by the selflessness of the girls who wanted to make their parents' dreams come true. The schooners are thrilled with their daughter's efforts, and the house has increased in value because of their hard work. The daughters wanted to do something enormous for their parents to spoil them for Christmas, and with a lot of hard work, they did it. The most rewarding part was how Karen was reduced to tears of gratitude. It certainly was a move that bus moment.


Hello and welcome to the session. In this session we discuss the following question which says find the volume of the largest cylinder that can be inscribed in a sphere of radius r. Let's move on to the solution now. We are given a sphere of radius r. We need to find the volume of the largest cylinder that can be inscribed in the sphere of radius r. Consider this cylinder inscribed in the sphere having radius r. We consider let h be the height of the cylinder inscribed in the sphere. So this is h and we take let this capital R be the radius of the cylinder inscribed in the sphere. So this is capital R. So in this figure we have a is equal to small r, a b is equal to capital R. Now since height of the cylinder is h, so this od would be equal to h by 2. Now let's find out the volume of the cylinder. Let it be v and this is equal to pi capital R square into h. Let this be equation 1. Now next we consider the right triangle oab. In this we have oa square is equal to ob square plus ab square. By the Pythagoras theorem, now putting the values for oa, ob and ab, we get r square is equal to h upon 2 whole square plus capital R square. That is further we get r square is equal to h square upon 4 plus capital R square.  Let this be equation 2. Now next substituting value of capital R square in equation 1 we get that is in this equation we get v is equal to pi into small r square minus h square upon 4 into h. That is v is equal to pi into small r square into h minus h cube upon 4. Now we differentiate this equation with respect to h. So differentiating both sides with respect to h we get dv by dh is equal to pi into r square minus 3x square upon 4. Next we find d2v by dh2 by differentiating this equation again with respect to h. So this is equal to pi into 0 minus 6h upon 4. That is we have d2v by dh2 is equal to minus 6 by 4 pih or 2, 2 times is 4 and 2, 3 times is 6. So this is equal to minus 3 by 2 pih. Now for maxima or minima we have dv by dh equal to 0 that is pi into r square minus 3x square upon 4 is equal to 0. From here we find the value for h. So this further gives us r square is equal to 3x square upon 4 or h square is equal to 4r square upon 3. So this gives us h is equal to 2r upon root 3. So we have got the value for h that is the height of the cylinder. Now next we will find d2v by dh2 at h equal to 2r upon root 3. So this is equal to minus 3 upon 2 pi into the value for h that is 2r upon root 3. This is equal to, now this 2 cancels with this 2 and we have minus root 3 pi r that is we have d2v by dh2 at h equal to 2r by root 3 is minus root 3 into pi r and this is less than 0. Now since we have d2v by dh2 is less than 0 this implies that the volume of the cylinder is maximum and it is maximum at h equal to 2r by root 3. Since we have the volume of the cylinder that is v is equal to pi into r square h minus h cube pi 4 that is we have the volume v is equal to pi into r square h minus h cube upon 4. Now let this be equation 3. Now volume of the largest cylinder inscribed in the sphere of radius r is equal to the volume v at h equal to 2r by root 3 that is in equation 3 we put h as 2r upon root 3. So this is equal to pi into r square into 2r by root 3 minus 2r by root 3 whole cube into 1 upon 4 that is further we get pi into 2r cube by root 3 minus 8r cube by 4 into 3 root 3. Now 4 2 times is 8 so we get this is equal to pi into 2r cube by root 3 minus 2r cube by 3 root 3. So this is equal to pi into 6r cube minus 2r cube this whole upon 3 root 3 that is we have pi into 4r cube upon 3 root 3. Thus we have the volume of the largest cylinder inscribed in the sphere of radius r is equal to 4 pi r cube upon 3 root 3. Thus the required volume is equal to 4 pi r cube upon 3 root 3 cubic units. So this is our final answer. This completes the session. Hope you have understood the solution of this question.