The man crossing the parking lot with the big red basket full of tools, novel inventions, and jugs full of homemade alchemy is stopped several times before he reaches the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden just yards away.

First by a ice cream-clutching little boy who earnestly wants to shake his hand, then a woman who loves his book, and then another who wants to thank him for saving her favorite plants.

In short order, several fans that just want to greet him before he reaches the metal gates surround him.

Who is this man? A TV star? Sometimes.

A national radio star? Not quite.

A famous author? Yes, but not by design.

It is Seattle's favorite green-thumbed ambassador, Ciscoe Morris, and like any good ambassador, he never lets an opportunity pass to make new friend and no journey is too far to be advocate his cause.

On Aug. 18 that journey led him to the second annual ice cream social on the green turf of the Seattle Rose Society's Rose Garden at the botanical garden.

After a quick and clever introduction by designer Greg Butler, Ciscoe (everybody knows him by his first name) greets the crowd of well over a hundred waiting in the unusual heat with a hearty, "Oh-la-la," and the crowd is putty-- better yet, "potting soil," in his hands.

Many laugh as he regales them with the origin of his famous greeting, a phrase born from an automated French "Honey Bucket" and a desire to save two francs.

Ciscoe then enthusiastically pulls from his oversized red plastic basket one item after another as he shares his "do-it-yourself tips" for great gardening.

He gives a lively litany on everything from his "no poison pesticide" principle, to his advice on keeping your Diablo Ninebark shrubs healthy, all the way down to the mating and breeding habits of aphids (note; they're born pregnant.)

His short list includes, "All good bugs are fast bugs" and "All vitamin B mixtures are bad for plants."

And when in doubt, always "give bugs the el-kabatski treatment with your fingers."

The audience favorite is his highly recommended, beer-baited slug trap. The secret ingredient that drives slugs wild? German Beer.

Anyone who's seen the man can't help but wonder where that enthusiasm for plants comes from?

It started in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin (where he and his accent grew up) when he was 10 years old and helping his grandmother, Maude O'Hare.

"I was big into Little League back then and just down the street from my 'Ganny' was a woman who grew prizewinning peonies that were the pride of the neighborhood." Ciscoe recounts. "Well, two days before the state fair, I was walking past her garden on the way to the ball park when I..."

Then, he draws back his arms in a batter's stance and his gathered fans begin laughing already knowing clearly what happens when an immovable peony meets an irresistible 10-year-old Little Leaguer.

Ciscoe continues, "The neighborhood wouldn't speak to my family for weeks after that and as punishment I had to work for that lady in her garden all summer."

He learned an empathy for people and plants that from watching how heartsick the lady and Ganny were after his impromptu batting practice and how they really cared and nurtured their diverse home gardens.

He began to understand "that these living things may have value."

After that gruff and unmerciful beginning, Ciscoe sought other opportunities to work with plants.

"It was the first time I ever heard a priest swear," he recalls while telling the tale of his earliest apprenticeship. "I went to the neighborhood church and applied for the assistant caretaker job. I don't think he was looking for a 10-year-old boy.

"The priest turned me away five times before finally giving up and giving me the job."

He says this is where he met one of the most influential gardeners in his life--the church caretaker who was an old World War II veteran who had no interest in touching poisons ever again.

"That man taught me how to plant without poison," Ciscoe declared.

Ciscoe answered numerous questions during his presentation at the botanical garden while giving away donated unique potted plants and prizes.

Even as SeaTac parks department workers were removing the last of the chairs, Ciscoe stood at the yellow table, as always the energetic, neighborly, ambassador, full of charitable answers for fans holding undefined twigs or seeking solutions to problems with unknown plant diseases.

Ciscoe writes a weekly column in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, hosts a Saturday radio show on KIRO AM-FM, and appears on KING-TV. He is also the author of "Ask Ciscoe." His Web site is www.ciscoe.com.