By Ryan McGeeney
U of A System Division of Agriculture
LITTLE ROCK — From the time he was a boy spending summers on his grandparents’ farm, Anthony Bowden knew he was destined for some aspect of agriculture. But it wasn’t until the final semester of his undergraduate studies that he veered from row crop agronomy to horticulture.
NEW HIRE — Dr. Anthony Bowden, extension ornamental horticulture specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. (Division of Agriculture photo.)
“I really thought what I wanted to do was research agronomy,” Bowden said. “But my last semester at Auburn as an undergrad, I took a horticulture course with Dr. Daniel Wells, and realized that this is what I really want to do.
“My grandmother kept pristine flower and garden beds, and I’d help her with that — but as a 10-year-old boy, I just didn’t think it was something I wanted to do as a career,” he said. “But that course changed my thinking.”
In May, Bowden left his position as a research associate with Mississippi State to join Arkansas’ Cooperative Extension Service, the outreach and education arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. As extension’s new ornamental horticulture specialist, Bowden is taking on a role last filled by Jim Robbins, who retired from the Cooperative Extension Service in 2022.
Having worked as a teaching assistant throughout his undergraduate career, Bowden continued teaching as a graduate student at Auburn University in Alabama before pursuing his Ph.D. in plant and soil sciences at Mississippi State University.
“I fell in love with teaching — I was a teaching assistant every semester I was at Auburn,” Bowden said.” I wanted to teach at the college level. I had some of the greatest teachers in horticulture. But everything at Auburn led me to Mississippi State. I was more focused on research there, with Dr. Tricia Knight, also an outstanding horticulture researcher.
“She really fired the passion that had lay dormant in me, to be a horticulture researcher,” he said.
In his new role, Bowden works directly with commercial horticulture retailers and wholesalers across Arkansas.
“That’s everything from greenhouses that produce plants to the retail garden centers that sell them,” he said. “Basically, if they have an issue, I help them figure out what’s going on.”
Wayne MacKay, head of the Division of Agriculture’s horticulture department, said that Bowden was a natural fit for his new position with the Cooperative Extension Service.
“Dr. Bowden’s experience in ornamentals research and extension was exactly what the department was looking for to support the Arkansas ornamentals industries,” MacKay said.
As a research associate in Mississippi, Bowden studied ways to increase labor efficiency for nursery and greenhouse operations. He said he plans to continue research in that area in Arkansas as he works to support horticultural entrepreneurs.
“I’ve looked at it from the propagation angle — plant propagation places a large demand on labor in nurseries and greenhouses,” Bowden said. “If we can address labor efficiency issues at the front end of plant production, we can make the entire business more efficient and profitable.”
Bowden said he also hopes to revive the Arkansas Selects shrub program, previously championed by Robbins.
“It’s a process of evaluating and identifying shrubs that will perform well in Arkansas landscapes,” he said. “It’s similar to the Arkansas Diamonds program — you end up with well-tested plants for the unique Arkansas climate.”
Bowden said that in the 20 years since the Arkansas Selects program was active, many new shrub varieties have been released to the market.
“I’d like to start a study in Hope and Fayetteville and evaluate how certain shrubs handle the heat, drought and other issues we sometimes get,” he said.
In the past week, Bowden learned that the Division of Agriculture’s Southwest Research and Extension Center, located in Hope, was selected as a site to host a display garden for the All-American Selections program. The program, he said, is the oldest, independent testing organization of flower and edible varieties in North America.
“Being selected as a display garden location will be a fantastic resource for both consumer and commercial horticulture in the state of Arkansas,” Bowden said. “Once the garden is planted in 2024, both the industry and the end consumer can visit and see which varieties have been selected as both national and regional winners based on the exhaustive testing each entry into the program undergoes.”
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.