Applause Up: WAMC’s On The Road takes Landis Arboretum By Storm

WAMC’s longest-running Vox-Pop fills Arboretum for Garden Show questions & answers. (Stay tuned for Memorial Day airing.)

If Fred Breglia was a tree what kind of a tree would he be?

WAMC Garden Show devotees got that question asked and answered when the NPR affiliate traveled Route 20 from Central Ave, Albany to the Landis Arboretum in Esperance for its first-ever On The Road in Schoharie County–on what else? 

Earth Day.

WAMC’s Garden Show panel preps for its On The Road taping at the Landis Arboretum. From the left: Ray Graff, Greg Ward, Dale-Ila Riggs, and Landis’ own Fred Bregla.

Landis’ Breglia—the oldest member of WAMC’s longest-running Vox-Pop.

The fun started even before the tape started rolling as AMC’s Peter Hughes pulled back the curtain and worked the crowd, spiraling the “practice” applause up, and up, and up. (It’ll be added in later if needed) “You’re part of it. Live and in-person."  

It was SRO and they were all all-in. Breglia, a Garden Show original and Landis’ On the Road host as much as anyone else.

“You can feel the excitement," he said, giddy and grinning in the back of the Arb Meeting House.. “The audience is buzzed. Live...It’s a great feeling.”

Onstage, AMC’s Ray Graff kept things moving as Breglia, and fellow Garden Show-ers Greg Ward (Ward’s Nursery, Great Barrington) and Dale-Ila Riggs (The Berry Patch, Stephentown–she brought tomato plants as props) fielded questions for an hour-plus. (And then informally for even longer afterwards.)

WAMC On The Road producer Peter Hughes gives the Landis audience its cues

What can I do about squash bugs? 

What’s this white stuff on my tree? 

Did my apple blossoms just get zapped?

AMC’s Garden Show is its longest-running Vox Pop, airing twice a month (Breglia: “We could probably do it every week”) and a PR goldmine for Landis. “WAMC is our audience.”

(A little tea? Graf, who plays the Mr. Grumpy card on-air but is much more personal in-person, doesn't like to leave the studio–unless it’s something he’s interested in. Like the Arboretum. He, too, had a blast.)

Stay tuned…the show airs Memorial Day. (But after that? You can listen to it anytime, anywhere.)

Dressed–always–in greens and browns (his license plate? TREEMAN), Breglia has been the face and voice of Landis since 1998, growing his career out of dirt and seed and fertilizer.

That longevity has helped Landis cultivate a laser-focused mission–exposing people to nature–gently leaning away from an Albany-ladies-who-lunch-with-roses vibe into a hip, happening, family-friendly get-away where hundreds of acres of gardens, trees, and trails, co-exist naturally with naturalist-led adventures (Woodcock Search and Sneak-Up, Halloween Owl Prowl, Herp Hikes), concerts (a poetry slam?), Star Watch Parties, Forest 5K, labyrinth and Meditation Garden, drum circles, nature journaling, 2x-a-year Plant Sales…)

All of it intentional, all of it geared toward showing off Landis–and Schoharie County. Thinking global, acting locally. Making connections into the Capital District and the Catskills. Up to Saratoga and down the Hudson.

All of it (and more) done with a few seasonal, part-time staffers and Breglia’s wife, Erin (she’s Landis’ gardener and keeps him on track. A full-time job.) (Also, that what-kind-of-a-tree-is-Fred question? They got married under Landis’ Big Oak.)

Mr. Grumpy—really, AMC’s Ray Graff—poses with fans on the Landis deck before the Earth Day taping. It’ll be broadcast on Memorial Day.

WAMC’s visit to the Landis Arboretum was its first On The Road in Schoharie County.

And as many volunteers as they can find. 

Like any non-profit, “Volunteers are our lifeblood. We try to find their niche. There’s no shortage of great projects but we ask, ‘What works for you?’” (Or you?)

2026 is an anniversary year for Landis–its 75th.

It’s also the 25th anniversary of the Native Plants Trail and the 20th for the Forest 5K. So the calendar’s filled with twice as much as ever. It’s all here:  LandisArboretum.

Breglia: “I do love the job. If I won a billion dollars, I’d keep working. Though I’d probably cut back on my hours.”  

Can’t blame him. A Garden Show fan brought a gift of fresh-picked asparagus to the AMC taping. 

Who gets a gift of asparagus? Breglia does.