Imagine singing karaoke in front of Beyonce and you can’t hold a tune. Or picture playing a round of knockout basketball with Caitlin Clark when you’ve been known to bonk the majority of your free throws. That’s about as humbled as I felt meeting Fred Clarke at the gate of the Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch in Carlsbad, California.

The gardening icon has grown everything from organic herbs to poinsettias to orchids for more than four decades. In fact, the black orchid he created and popularized inspired Tom Ford’s floral, sultry unisex fragrance by the same name. And for the past 20 years as the general manager of Carlsbad’s breathtaking Flower Fields, Clarke has been ensuring 80 million(!) ranunculus blooms thrive.

I, on the other hand, can barely keep a single houseplant alive. However, I’m a lifelong student who is hungry to learn, so I approached Clarke with open ears and an open notebook. As we strolled through the flower-carpeted grounds, I peppered Clarke with questions to learn what gardeners of all abilities (including those of us with less-than-green thumbs) might be able to learn from his vast wisdom gleaned from decades of experience.

The No. 1 Secret for Gardening Success

After exploring how they grow the ranunculus (from seed) to the magic required to keep the colors so sharp (temporary “walls” during certain life stages since this variety is wind pollinated), I cut to the chase and asked Clarke the top lesson he learned the hard way during his grand growing career. His answer?

“It’s invaluable to learn to see and not just look,” Clarke says. “When you look at your garden, a field, or a crop, you’ve got to be able to truly see it. If there’s a disease or a problem, you have to be able to flag that something’s wrong or different. Then from there, you need to have the wherewithal to dig into it and figure it out. The reverse is true, too. If things are going right, you need to observe and take note of what you can repeat. That’s how you get better.”

Recognizing the good and the bad, researching the potential causes for either of those gardening scenarios, then applying your learnings is key, Clarke tells me. “When you’re growing most crops, you only get one chance a year to do so. If you don’t learn from one year’s experience and apply it to the following year, how do you get better? This is the most crucial lesson I’ve learned about gardening.”

Building on Your Gardening Experiences

To become a gardener who grows better by the year, try to approach your plots like a scientific experiment.

• Collect data and take notes. Keep a garden journal to record what you plant and when and where you do so. From there, it can be helpful to track the height, the number of blooms, fertilizer application, watering and rain rates, as well as any flaws or challenges (such as pests or signs of disease) each week for each plant.

• Analyze these details to draw a conclusion. As the season progresses, use a highlighter to pinpoint any positive or negative outliers so you can dive deeper into these later.

• Change only one variable at a time. If one plant produced more blooms than another, for instance, or certain flowers lost their petals quicker than last year, research potential strategies for next time to increase your success. Then, true to the scientific method, adjust just one thing at a time so you can isolate the plant’s response and determine if this is a benefit or a drawback for this variety in your garden.

Keep Growing

Admittedly, it might feel a bit finicky to spend time jotting down notes about your plants. But Clarke promises it will pay off as your ability to see will result in stronger, healthier plants. Plus, even the subpar stems act as an opportunity to learn and embrace the individuality of nature.

“When folks come to our Flower Fields, a lot of them look and just notice the totality of the 55-acre plot that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. But zoom in and every single plant in those fields—all 80 million of them—is grown from a single seed. Seeing each one is such an amazing reminder that there’s beauty in diversity,” Clarke says.

Before I let Clarke get back to overseeing his team of 15 year-round and 450 come harvest time, I couldn’t resist asking him to dish about his favorite variable to adjust to level-up his flower garden at work and at home.

“As the blooms start to open, cut them, and place them in a vase. Then you can enjoy the stunning cut flowers while allowing the plant to redirect the energy into strengthening itself and producing even more blooms,” Clarke says.

The No. 1 Secret to Leveling Up Your Gardening Game, According to A Pro Grower by Karla Walsh | Better Homes & Gardens