“Up here broadcasting live from Red Butte Garden, one of my favorite places in the world, I’m Joy Bossi, and this is ‘Joy in the Garden’.”

The U’s research park had the joy of having local horticulture lover and expert Joy Bossi broadcasting from Red Butte Garden on Saturday morning.

Joy Bossi is the host of popular radio show “Joy in the Garden,” which airs from 8-10 a.m. every Saturday on KLO Radio.

Bossi actually got her start in botany as a freshman at the U. She said that she was “lucky enough to get a class with Dr. Seville Flowers, his last class undergrad before he went emeritus, but, he made plants be… people. I was just enthralled by that. So that’s where it all started, was here [at the U].”

Unfortunately, at that time the U didn’t have a straight botany major, so Bossi went down south to BYU, got a degree in botany with a zoology minor and a teaching certificate.

“I had every intent of going on to the masters level to teach at a junior college, but then life happened,” Bossi said.

Bossi began broadcasting after several years of her career at various nurseries.

“I was kind of backed into broadcasting,” she said. “I was working at Redwood nursery and teaching classes there, and a sales rep came from Denver and wanted to sponsor a radio botany program. We already had a radio talk program, and we had run it for six or seven years at that point, but the Denver representative thought there was a big enough market for another, so they hired me to do Saturday morning projects and it just grew from there.”

Now, Joy works with 1430 AM, KLO Radio and hosts her program, “Joy in the Garden,” from March to October each year. Previously, she worked with a station where she broadcasted year round and traveled all over the country, broadcasting at locations from Honolulu to Washington, D.C.

“ [Traveling] was a ball, that was fun,” Bossi said. “However, I’m bumping right into the age where you know, me and 70 are going to run into each other real soon and maybe its okay to stay home and do things here. But this is a delight, this is 24 years of my life every Saturday morning.”

Bossi now stays within the valley, broadcasting from sponsored locations around Utah. She adores Red Butte Garden and broadcasts from there at least twice a year.

Bossi has taken a lot of the tours at Red Butte and has taught a number of classes there.

“I watched Red Butte grow from the time it was a pup, or I guess a seedling would be a better way to describe that,” Bossi said. “I never miss a plant sale in the spring, those are wonderful.”

This year Bossi will be missing her plant sale, however, but for a very good reason. After 40 years of horticulture experience, Bossi has been chosen as the Associated Garden Clubs of Utah’s “Person of the Year” for 2016, and has been nominated for the national award, so she will be in Grand Rapids, Mich. accepting those awards.

Bossi’s radio program can be heard every Saturday morning on 1430 AM. She takes questions over the air or at [email protected]

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@meganbhulse1