The opportunity

Chris Wiesinger, a Texas A&M-trained horticulturist and founder of Southern Bulb Company, had developed a distinctive approach to horticulture: finding heirloom flower bulbs across the South, cultivating them at his East Texas farm, and introducing those plants to new gardeners. His work connected plant varieties with landscapes, memories, and regional growing knowledge. It also offered an unusually visual subject for an emerging medium: the online video blog.

How we met

Chris and I met when he was invited to teach at a National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT) Cemetery Landscapes workshop at American Cemetery in Natchitoches, Louisiana. He had recently been featured in The New York Times for his pursuit of heirloom bulbs, but what struck me was how unaffected he seemed by that attention. We clicked right away. I was experimenting with social media and online video; Chris wanted to make better use of those tools to share his horticultural work.

That encounter became a collaboration. We traveled together to garden clubs and speaking engagements, where I filmed Chris’s talks, travels, and encounters, then edited the footage into videos for his online channel. His expertise and natural storytelling gave the series its voice; my work helped turn those experiences into a repeatable digital format.

Explore Chris’s current Bulb Hunter website →

The challenge

How do you make specialist horticultural knowledge accessible to people who have never met the person behind the business? A conventional promotional message could describe a catalog of bulbs. Video could show the search, the people, the places, and the personality that gave the work meaning.

The approach

Beginning in September 2008, I helped organize the footage and file-transfer workflow, edit episodes, coach field filming, and develop a digital communications strategy for Southern Bulb Company. The plan wasn’t simply to post promotional videos everywhere. It proposed making the blog the home for useful horticultural stories, inviting customer participation, and treating social networks as ways to reach people and bring them into a continuing conversation.

One distinctive principle was to keep community and commerce connected but separate: make room for questions, shared interests, and practical knowledge instead of turning every interaction into a sales pitch. The strategy also asked who would sustain the work, how to listen and measure results, and how to keep the routine manageable alongside Chris’s constant travel. Those concerns became especially relevant as production later competed with the demands of the business.

The work

The first Spider Lilies episode went through review and revision in October 2008. Chris wanted viewers to see the plants as well as hear him talk about them, and he was interested in reaching people through blogs, iTunes, and social channels. I edited narration, incorporated photographs, advised on camera and audio techniques, and worked with him to develop a repeatable approach to production.

The first Spider Lilies segment was completed and circulated in October 2008. By March 2009 we were developing short, reusable videos about individual varieties and Southern growing practices, with possible recurring features such as gardening tips and a “heritage moment” about the history of places where bulbs were found.

The series followed plants, gardens, and the people involved in collecting and cultivating them. The surviving photographs show some of the landscapes and flowers that shaped its visual storytelling.

What happened — and what can be documented

The record documents real output: the first Spider Lilies video circulated in October 2008, Chris reviewed and approved later cuts, and subsequent videos were prepared for Blip.tv and iTunes distribution. By April 30, 2009, three completed drafts were still awaiting publication. Chris was dealing with order fulfillment, travel, and budget pressures; on June 9 he expressed a desire to bring the videos back. We cannot conclude every finished film was publicly released, nor establish viewership, sales impact, or audience-growth figures.

What remains

Two kinds of heritage meet in this project. The bulbs themselves are living material passed among places and generations. The video recordings are born-digital records of how someone was working to sustain and circulate that living knowledge. Reconstructing the project today shows both the possibilities of early online storytelling and the fragility of the platforms that once carried it.