Another Garden Expo (this year officially “PBS Wisconsin’s Garden & Green Living Expo”) has come and passed.  The event was Friday, February 7 (noon until 7 pm), Saturday, February 8 (9 am until 6 pm) and Sunday, February 9 (10 am until 4 pm).  Yesterday, I finished my final tallies for the event and put my display materials to bed for another year.  It was a great show with total attendance just shy of 13,000. 

As in previous years, I sponsored the UW-Madison Plant Disease Diagnostics Clinic (PDDC) booth at Garden Expo.  Event organizers Amanda Balistreri and Lacey Richgels generously provided me with a double booth for my display at no charge.   I was located directly across from the large UW-Madison Division of Extension Horticulture booth, right near the entrance to the exhibit hall.  This year my booth had a LEGO theme to highlight the building block plant disease models that I formally launched at the end of 2024.  I displayed 10 of the models that I designed (apple scab, Armillaria root disease, bacterial soft rot, bird’s nest fungi, black knot, blossom end rot, cedar-apple rust, corn smut, powdery mildew, and silver leaf) and provided a flier on how to access online information on the models. 

In addition to my custom-designed models, I used official LEGO long-stem roses to decorate the booth and had a bouquet of LEGO sunflowers and daffodils as part of a memorial to Shelley Ryan.  Shelley is the former host of Wisconsin Public Television’s “The Wisconsin Gardener” and the reason Garden Expo exists.  I also used a LEGO poinsettia to discuss how these popular plants are actually diseased.  Poinsettias are infected with a bacterium-like organism called a phytoplasma, which gives the plants their compact, bushy look.  Non-infected poinsettias are lanky and tree-like. 

In my booth, I also provided free UW Plant Disease Facts fact sheets (118 titles) and used these to promote my collectable plant disease medallions (“Read a Fact Sheet!  Take a Quiz!  Earn a Medallion!  Collect Them All!”).  People could also check out my plant disease-themed limerick book (Limerickettsia) and pick up a flier on how to order the book to help support PDDC activities.  I also provided fliers on my department (the UW-Madison Department of Plant Pathology), my monthly “PDDC Plant Disease Talks”, and the “Ask Your Gardening Questions-Live” Q&A sessions that I participate in with colleagues from the UW-Madison Division of Extension Horticulture.  Finally, I provided brochures on how to submit samples to my clinic and brochures that summarize PDDC outreach efforts, as well as brochures from the UW Turf Diagnostic Lab and the UW Soil and Forage Lab. 

My Garden Expo odyssey this year began with set up on Thursday, February 6 (a 4-hour task).  I was back on Friday at 9 am to complete the final touches on my booth and to prep to answer questions (with Lisa Johnson of Extension Dane County) in a live broadcast of “Garden Talk with Larry Meiller” at 11 am.  This was the first time that Larry’s show had ever been broadcast from Garden Expo.  In addition to the radio show, I gave three talks:  “New and Emerging Plant Diseases”, “Growing Healthy Plants:  Basics in Plant Disease Management”, and “Top Ten Plant Diseases of 2024”.  Thanks to Lisa Johnson, as well as Laura Jull and Derrick Grunwald of the UW-Madison Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, and Jared Hanken, a recent graduate of the UW-Madison’s Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, who helped staff my booth when I was off giving presentations.  While I was hanging out at the PDDC booth, I had a constant stream of visitors and pretty much talked with and answered questions for visitors the entire time.  Adding to the festivities, I participated in Garden Expo’s Kid’s Passport program.  Kids could pick up a booklet in the exhibit hall and get their booklet stamped at select Garden Expo booths (including mine).  In addition to the stamp, I gave kids a specially designed, 3D-printed medallion (check out the icon at the beginning of this article to see what the medallion looked like).  A huge shout out to Ted Geibel for frantically printing 400 of these medallions in the two weeks prior to Garden Expo. 

By the end of the Garden Expo, I had distributed 2,829 fact sheets, 701 brochures/informational handouts of various kinds, 199 handouts for my talks, and 270 medallions.  All of the fact sheets, fliers, and brochures were not only educational in nature but were branded with the UW-Madison Division of Extension logo and/or the UW-Madison CALS logo, thus providing advertising for the UW-Madison. 

Overall, I had a wonderful weekend and feel like I provided a valuable service to the public.  I heard numerous positive comments about, and thanks for the services that I provide.  The building block plant diseases appeared to make a particular splash.  All of this positive feedback mentally refreshes me and is part of what keeps me motivated to do the work that I do.  PBS Wisconsin’s Garden & Green Living Expo continues to be, by far, the most important and enjoyable in-person outreach event that I do every year. 

If you’d like to learn more about the PDDC and all of the crazy projects I work on as I try to get people excited about plant diseases, feel free to check out the clinic website at https://pddc.wisc.edu.  Also, feel free to follow the clinic on Facebook, Twitter (X), or Bluesky (@UWPDDC), or subscribe to the clinic’s listserv (UWPDDCLearn) by emailing me at pddc@wisc.edu or (608) 262-2863. 

I’m smiling as I write this article and already planning ahead for Garden & Green Living Expo 2026!