James A. "Ciscoe" Morris is a gardening expert, TV and radio personality, and author based in Seattle. He is known locally for his TV and radio programs "Gardening with Ciscoe," as well as his enthusiastic demeanor and catchphrase "Oh la la!" Previously, he wrote articles about gardening for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before it ceased print operations and in '' The Seattle Times'' before leaving to focus on his next book.

Biography

Ciscoe Morris was born in

Wauwatosa Wauwatosa (; known informally as Tosa; originally Wau-wau-too-sa or Hart's Mill) is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 48,387 at the 2020 census. Wauwatosa is located immediately west of Milwaukee, and is a pa ...

, Wisconsin to Robert Graham Morris (1909 - 2002) an Insurance Salesman and purported vaudeville performer, and Sarah A. "Sally" Reichhardt (1917 - 2014). He began gardening with his mother and grandmother and by age 10, was working professionally as a gardener for a local church. In 1972, he hitchhiked to Seattle and began working on a fishing boat. He later got a job at

Seattle City Light Seattle City Light is the public utility providing electricity to Seattle, Washington, in the United States, and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, N ...

in Newhalem and studied horticulture at

South Seattle Community College South Seattle College (SSC, formerly South Seattle Community College) is a public community college in West Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1970, it is one of three colleges which make up the Seattle Colleges District. The Seattle Community Colle ...

. In 1980, Morris began working at Seattle University where he introduced the use of

beneficial insects Beneficial insects (sometimes called beneficial bugs) are any of a number of species of insects that perform valued services like pollination and pest control. The concept of ''beneficial'' is subjective and only arises in light of desired outcome ...

rather than

pesticides Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and la ...

. Morris' media career began in the 1980s by filling-in as the host of a gardening question-and-answer radio show on

KIRO Kiro was a colonial post in what is now the Central Equatoria province of South Sudan on the west side of the Bahr al Jebel or White Nile river. It was in part of the Lado enclave. In 1900 there were said to be 1,500 troops from the Congo Free S ...

after joining radio host Jim French on his show. Later that decade his TV career took-off on the

KIRO-TV KIRO-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with CBS and Telemundo. Owned by Cox Media Group, the station maintains studios on Third Avenue in the Belltown section of Downtown Seattle, and it ...

program "Northwest Home and Garden Show", hosted by Jeff Probst. In 2017, clips of Morris were featured in a segment on '' Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'' titled "You wish you loved anything as much as Seattle gardening expert Ciscoe Morris loves everything."

Published works

*''Ask Ciscoe: Oh, la, la ! Your Gardening Questions Answered.'' Seattle: Sasquatch Books (2006). *''Oh, La La! Homegrown Stories, Helpful Tips, and Garden Wisdom.'' Seattle: Sasquatch Books (2020).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Ciscoe Living people American gardeners American garden writers Radio personalities from Seattle Year of birth missing (living people) People from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin