Teresa Watkins Receives:

Two 2026 GardenComm Media Awards Silver Laurel Medals of Achievement

Orlando, FL — July 20, 2026 — Teresa Watkins has received two 2026 GardenComm Silver Laurel Medals of Achievement in Speaking & Broadcast presented by GardenComm: Garden Communicators International. The international awards program recognizes individuals and companies that achieve the highest levels of talent and professionalism in garden communications. The 2026 competition drew 146 entries across 43 categories.

Watkins earned the Silver Laurel Medals for Speaking & Broadcast for her radio show, “Better Lawns and Gardens - How to Grow Caladiums” and “Speaking & Broadcast: Radio program: Better Lawns and Gardens - Fall Prep for Winter.”

“The Silver Laurel Medal recipients represent the creativity, skill and professionalism that strengthen garden communications,” said Kathy Jentz, president of GardenComm. “Their work informs, inspires and connects audiences with gardening in meaningful ways, and we are proud to recognize their achievement.”

Since the early 1980s, the GardenComm Media Awards program has recognized outstanding garden-focused work across writing, photography, publishing, digital media, broadcast, podcasting and other communications disciplines.

The 2026 Silver Laurel Medal recipients were announced July 20 during the GardenComm Silver Laurel Media Awards Live Stream. The full list of 2026 winners are available at gardencomm.org/awards/2026-winners. For more information about the awards, contact Chris Sabbarese at info@gardencomm.org.

Teresa Watkins is a landscape designer, horticulturist, and garden author who hosts Better Lawns and Gardens, Florida’s most widely syndicated garden radio show. She broadcasts live every Saturday from 7–9 a.m. EST on WFLA-Orlando, iHeart Radio, on Florida radio stations, with full podcast episodes available on all major platforms. Her show blends Florida‑friendly landscaping, water conservation, sustainable gardening, and monthly how‑to advice, along with interviews, listener Q&A, and her signature “Dirty Word of the Day.

About GardenComm

GardenComm, Garden Communicators International, is an organization of professional communicators in the green and garden industry including book authors, bloggers, staff editors, syndicated columnists, freelance writers, photographers, speakers, landscape designers, television and radio personalities, consultants, publishers, extension service agents and more. No other organization in the industry has as much contact with the buying public as GardenComm members. Learn more at www.gardencomm.org.

Better Lawns and Gardens

Better Lawns and Gardens Hour 1 – Coming to you from the Summit Responsible Solutions Studios. Garden expert and host, Teresa Watkins is joined by Quality Green Specialists Nursery owner, Dana Venrick to talk about excellent trees for Father’s Day gifts. Teresa’ Top Five Pieces of Garden Art. What to plant in June in your landscape. Garden questions include staghorn fern fell – what to do? Can you grow tomatoes in summer in Florida, using moss from trees as mulch, podocarpus declining, is there an olive variety that is pitted and filled with pimento cheese, and more. https://bit.ly/4diIsZH

Better Lawns and Gardens Hour 2 – Coming to you from the Summit Responsible Solutions Studios.  June is National Rose Month! Roses grow well in Florida if they are the right ones. Teresa provides rose care selection, care, and her favorite roses. Teresa’s Dirty Word of the Day is Caliper and DBH. Garden topics and questions include mulberry not looking good,  hibiscus dropping leaves, and propagation, and more. https://bit.ly/4diIsZH

Sign up for Teresa’s monthly gardening newsletter, “In Your Backyard” where you can read Teresa’s what to do in your landscape tips, Landscape Malpractice: How to know when to fire your landscaper,” Teresa’s Design Tips; and more. https://bit.ly/2YRBbsT 

Art in Bloom Garden Tours  Buffalo Garden Walk and Niagara Falls, Canada, The Gardens of Scotland, and The Gardens and Grandeur of the Hudson River Valley. Come join Teresa on incredible garden tours! https://bit.ly/4fe9m62

Graphic credit: Teresa Watkins, 

Listen every Saturdays from 7am - 9am EST on WFLA- Orlando. Call in with your garden questions and text messages on 1-888.455.2867 and 23680, Miss the live broadcast? Listen on Audioboom podcast 24/7. https://bit.ly/3c1f5x7

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Plants with Great Texture

a.      Fatsia Japonica ‘Spider’s Web’

b.      Arizona Cypress, Cupressus arizonica var. ‘Blue Ice’

c.      Alocasia amazonica ‘Polly’

d.      Round-leaf Calathea, Calathea orbifolia

e.      Colocasia esculenta ‘Pharoah’s mask’

Find the plants at your local box store or independent garden center or below:

Fatsia japonica at Southern Living Plant Collection.

Alocasia amazonica ‘Polly at Costa Farms.

Calathea orbifolia at Costa Farms

Have you ever heard of turkeys laying eggs in water? No? Well, Geraldean started laying eggs but only if she has a fresh pan of water to stand in. No babies yet. She is only 5 months old & her eggs shells are rubber.

Now, I am focusing on garden bed prep for January, I want to plant by seed and transplanting turkey-friendly plants, like blackberries, chokeberries, clover, elderberries, Chickasaw and flatwoods plum, greens, mulberries, honeysuckles, white proso millet, oats, and sumac.  I have seeds for the groundcovers.

Staying prepared for hurricanes Helena and Milton made it a lot easier to digest and not stress. Afterwards, I am realizing how lucky we are by making it through them.

Updates through “Lizzie Said What” socials.  Remember, life can be a joyful journey. Enjoying all moments is up to YOU!  

Tom MacCubbin to Retire as Host of Better Lawns and Gardens After 33 Years!

After 33 years of hosting Florida’s most popular radio gardening program Better Lawns & Gardens, Tom MacCubbin has announced his retirement from the show effective at the end of July. Tom and his wife Joan have been the radio companions for gardeners throughout the sunshine state every Saturday morning since May of 1988.

Better Lawns & Gardens is heard on more than 20 radio affiliates including WFLA-AM/FM, Orlando, WSKYFM, Gainesville, WNDB-AM/FM, Daytona Beach, WHNZ-AM, Tampa, among others.

MacCubbin officially retired as Extension Agent with the University of Florida and Orange County in 2007 but continued with the radio show syndicated by iHeartMedia’s Florida News Network in Maitland.

Stepping into the hosting slot post-MacCubbin will be Teresa Watkins. Teresa herself is a veteran gardening show radio broadcaster, horticulturist, and UF/IFAS Master Gardener for more than two decades. Teresa hosted In Your Backyard on Leesburg station WLBE from 1996 through 2019 and continues with a podcast of that show today.

“Better Lawns & Gardens is a heritage name in Florida gardening and the show will continue with Teresa at the helm,” says Jim Poling, Director of Operations at the Florida News Network. “The show name will continue and the basic premise of serving Florida gardeners will continue but that’s where the similarity will end. It will be Teresa’s show,” says Poling. “We hate to lose a legend like Tom MacCubbin, but with Teresa, the program won’t miss a beat.”

According to Teresa, “Over twenty years of working with Tom MacCubbin at the University of Florida Extension and in various media events, such as Florida-friendly workshops and Better Lawns and Gardens, has been the best experience of my life. His knowledge and leadership have trained me, inspired me, encouraged me, and challenged me. While I can never fill Tom’s shoes, I have dreamed of following in his footsteps and being a host of the Better Lawns and Gardens radio show since I first met him. I’m excited and honored to continue Tom’s extraordinary legacy of educating Florida residents on how to have a better lawn and garden.”

Tom’s last Better Lawns & Gardens show will be on July 31st

Tom MacCubbin Teresa Watkins