The Hoosier Gardener is more than just her gardening

By Tatiana Montavon
Adopting a pen name like “the Hoosier Gardener” is a difficult thing. You find yourself speaking
for and to people you don’t even know. You find yourself representing the state and everyone
who’s associated with it.
As daunting as it might be, it’s also limiting, knowing that the knowledge you have can also
work for anyone across the Midwest. But to the Hoosier Gardener, that didn’t matter: “I don’t
mind being a Hoosier,” she said. “I’m happy with what it is.”
The Hoosier Gardener, known to most people as Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, has a clear passion for
gardening. She grew up in Indianapolis, went to IUPUI for college, and although she left for
Louisville to follow a career in journalism, she came back to write for the Indianapolis Star, and
has lived in Indianapolis since moving back, despite leaving the newspaper in 1997.
But as she sat in front of me in Butler University’s brand-new business building, she seemed to
have grown used to asking the questions and doing the research, rather than answering ones
about herself.
An hour late to our meeting—later telling me “I think I have really good observation skills—
maybe not with the clock”—she answered every question with a thoughtful smile on her face as
she played with her keys in her hand.
Sharp is an accomplished person in all matters—as a journalist, as a speaker, and as a gardener.
But above all else, she tends to leave out details that draw too much attention to herself, such as
the fact that not only is she an active member of Garden Communicators—a international
organization who provides leadership and opportunities for education, recognition, and career
development among other things for professionals in the field of garden communicating--but she
became the president of the organization this past August.
I learned of this through another Garden Communicator Carol Michel, who noted Sharp earning
this presidency as her favorite moment of her. “When she became president of GardenComm,
which is an organization she highly values and she has been involved in for twenty-plus years—
to see her become the president,” Michel said, “it tells how much everybody values her
leadership in that organization.”
Sharp’s road to becoming president of the organization began long before she had even realized
her passion for gardening. Her family consisted of German immigrants who were nurserymen
and growers on the southside of Indianapolis. But Sharp says her passion for gardening didn’t
really start until she got married and had a house. “I read this article in the newspaper about
planting a pot of marigolds, pink geraniums and blue ageratums, and I thought, ‘well that would
be a pretty combination,’ and that was the first thing I planted,” she said. “And it just kind of
went from there.”
Her career began in journalism, finding herself in high school writing for her school newspaper
as a sophomore, despite the fact students were supposed to be juniors or seniors to write for it.
When she went to IUPUI, she wrote for the student newspaper, the Sagamore. Graduating in
1978, she found herself writing in Louisville, covering the court system. She came back to
Indianapolis after a few years, working for the Indianapolis Star until 1997 when she decided to
change the course of career.
She started freelancing, and started a magazine called Indiana Living Green, which acted as the
Hoosier’s guide to sustainable living and ran for five years with her as the editor and part owner
of it. She was also the founding editor of the Iowa Gardener, Michigan Gardening, and
Minnesota Gardener magazines, up until they went out of business this spring.
She laughed at this. “It’s the story of my life, actually, in print,” Sharp said. “I had this column
for thirty years in the Indianapolis Star, a gardening column, a weekly column, and they
discontinued that in August.”
Her column left an impact on many in the Indianapolis area, including Sharp’s friend and avid
Garden Communicator, Wendy Ford. “Unfortunately, it’s gone now, so there’s nothing left to
read in the paper,” Ford said. She laughed, “That was the only thing that kept me reading the
paper.”
Sharp’s passion didn’t stop with the discontinuation of her work in print. She trials about 100
plants a year, sent from plant breeders and marketers. “I consider my landscape a living
laboratory, is how I describe it.” Sharp said. “Design is not its top function.”
She works for a large independent garden center in Indianapolis, Sullivan, selling plants. She
credits her trial runs in aiding her ability to sell the plants.
She also does public speaking across the country, including at the American Community
Gardening Association conference this past September, which was in Indianapolis. While she
can cater to any topic that the group she’s speaking to wants, she loves talking about plants.
And that seems to be the overall theme of my conversation with Sharp. It always comes back to
the plants. Her passion for them is real and genuine. And she credits that to her German heritage.
“I just like plants—I like watching them grow, I like how they form their flowers, I like what
insects bother them or visit them,” Sharp said. “I mean they’re just really interesting to me. I feel
like that’s my German heritage, just in a different way.”