Virtual Discussion with Joe Hollis on Chinese Medicinal Herbs

For the past 25 years, Joe Hollis has been engaged in developing a Paradise Garden on several acres of mountain woodland in western N. Carolina. 

For Joe, Paradise Garden is both a place to live and a way to live, and, above all ‘visionary ecological theater.’ 

Almost from the beginning, an aspect of this project has been the botanical garden of useful plants in accordance with one possible definition of Paradise: a garden in which everything you need is there for the taking. 

An extensive research project was undertaken to identify the thousand ‘most useful’ plants which might grow in this bioregion. 

Originally, ‘medicinal’ was just another category of useful plants to Joe; but starting about ten years ago it became increasingly obvious that there was a crying need for medicinal plant nurseries in this country and that, based on his collection and Mountain Gardens location, it was an obvious…