Kat r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to kat r H Garden Line with Scip Richter.
It's chow Trim, just watching as world thanks to Septa A Sor.
Good morning and welcome to Garden Line. I'm Beverly Wells from the Arbor Gate
and have the privilege to share the microphone today with my dear friend Angela Chandler
with the Garden Academy. How are you this one. I'm doing great,
Beverly, and glad to be here with you. Oh, it's going to
be a great day. Kind of chilly though, like Nikki said, a
little bit chilly. Thankfully they've kind of moderated the forecast a little bit,
so it may not be quite as bad as we all feared that it could
be last week. But it's still gonna have a little nip in the air.
Yeah, it's definitely seasonal reds. Yeah, and that's beautiful autumn foliage
that we were enjoying so much. Maybe on the ground by the end of
the day, I think a lot of it might be. You know,
we did the same pattern this year that we did last year, where we
had that early little coal spell that gave us this beautiful fall color. But
we have to understand that in the Houston area it's short lived and we need
to appreciate it while we've got And it was very beautiful this fall. It
really was. You know, I think one of the things that I love
is the gold because we always think of the reds, and unfortunately tallow trees
and not so great tree give us that those red and amber colors. But
the last couple of years, we've had these beautiful golds, you know,
in our fall color, and I've really appreciated. You know, people overlook
Cravey myrtles, they always think of them for sun more color, but they've
been spectacular, they have been. And you have a range of color with
crape myrtles because you have golds and you have ambers, and you've got you
know, the orange and then the deep reds. Even some of them that
I've seen turn almost a ruby color. So it's it's been lovely to have
that. And then you know, I've gotten very fond of papause and they
if they get enough cool weather early, they just turn into this gorgeous gold
pyramid, right doesn't like I say, it doesn't last long, but I
really appreciate it well. And you know, the Trident Maple's had put on
quite a show and they typically again are not one that you can count on
every year, right, But it's just we've gotten lucky. We need that
little early cool to trigger our fall color, and we've gotten it the last
two years. So you know this morning, obviously Skiff is not with us,
but and we are most honored to be standing in for him. They
can call in yeah, seven one, three, two and two five eight
seven four or two and two k t R H. And Josh is on
board to answer the call and pass the question along to us. So we're
more than happy to answer any question. Yeah, we're ready, bring them
on. Yeah, and you know, this is the time of year we
should be gardening. It really is a fabulous time of year to garden.
We have the benefit of cooler temperatures for a longer period of time. We're
going to have some cycles, like right now, we're going to have that
little cold dip. Then it's going to have a slightly warming cycle, but
it's still not punishing like our summers are. And so we have that long
cool period with a little bit of additional moisture. What moisture we add to
the soil doesn't evaporate as quickly. So it's you know, when you think
about things like all of your woody plants, and so here we're talking about
trees and shrubs and fruits, roses, so many of our perennials, herbs.
We're looking at. All these plants are ready to be established. And
so some you know, the deciduous things that lose their leaves, they don't
stop growing just because we don't see top growth. They're going to put on
an awful lot of root growth during the fall and throughout winter. And then
the things that stay green, like say you're Rosemary's or you know, some
of your citrus and things like that, they still go through a semi dormancy,
so they're not concentrating on top growth, but they are concentrating on root
growth. So this is a perfect time of year for us to get those
plants in the ground, let them get established. Then they will take if
we have another summer anything like last summer, they'll be able to take it
much better if we can get them established now. Right, And we're always
so focused on the air temperature and people don't realize how warm our soil stays,
especially our transplants that have come down from parts north of Dallas. Right,
Yes, you know we just have warm soil basically year round, right,
we really do. And then with proper mulching we can keep that moderated
even more where we don't have big swings in our soil temperature. We know,
all these things you keep talking about sound like great subjects for the next
few hours. They do. In fact, we'll probably revisit that one again.
Yeah. Absolutely, so I guess this is why December the tenth,
you we're on the final countdown? Are you ready? Were you ready?
We are ready for Christmas? Well, I can't to truly say that I'm
completely ready for Christmas, but I'm definitely in the Christmas spirit. Yeah,
And you know, I think that right now it's a time for everybody to
sort of start reflecting on that, getting more in tune with family, thinking
about what they plan on for Christmas dinner, finishing their final decorating. Right,
all of those things are in place, so that ties into the garden
too. Oh. Absolutely, it's like you know, how many and what
colors of point set is? Are you going to have in your house,
you know. And you know my favorite it actually is cycleman for the Christmas
flower or the Christmas cactus. I mean, how can you not have Christmas
You really can't beat those. You talk about a showy plant. Yeah,
that's a showy plant, right right, easy to grow, good patio plan
for the summer. But points at is are a little bit finnicky, but
they're great here they are, and they're just such add such beautiful color to
your tables, you know, just tonfor you know. Fortunately we can have
them as a porch display here, so uh, you know, they're a
little tropical, but they'll they'll take most of our days and we can bring
them in on the knights that are really too cool for right right. You
know, I don't know that we ever really get ready for Christmas. It
just comes like it or not, it does no matter how early I start.
I could keep going, yeah, you really could. And I think
maybe a lot of us actually get into Christmas feeling like we're kind of skidding
in the same right, But it is a good time to start reflecting on
it and above all keeping the really true meaning of the season and the joy
that we have spending time with friends and family. That's one of the most
it is that is the pure joy of Christmas. Absolutely absolutely so. I
I know in the garden we can also gather so much. And we talked
about the points that is in the cycleman and good good color for But you
know, just going out into the garden and picking holly branches and and some
of the cedars and junipers, you can make beautiful displays just from your own
garden. You really can. And you know, even things that are bare
branches. One of the prettiest Christmas decorations my mother ever did was a bare
branch that she wrapped in the little white Christmas lights and it hung above our
fireplace and it was almost magical looking, you know, like something that came
from the forest. Well, my mother spray painted every sweet down ball that
hit the ground or glittered it. So there's there are the pine cones make
beautiful wheeds and garlands, Yeah, they really do. You know. You
get them wet, let them, let them close, and then you can
push them through the wire forms and then as they dry and open, it
secures them in place. How wonderful. Well, I'm looking forward to the
morning again. Remember the number to call is seven one, three, two
and two five eight seven four, and you're listening to the garden Line.
Good Sunday morning. Welcome to garden Line. I'm Beverly good everyone, and
I'm Angela Chandler, and we're here today to talk all things gardening. We
certainly are. We have Josh available to answer your phone call seven to one
three two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three two one
two five eight seven four or kat rh we'd love to hear from you this
morning. We're getting ready for Christmas. Angela, we are what is your
favorite Christmas tradition? Well this might surprise you, but you know, I'm
a new Mexico girl, right, and so for us getting ready for this
season and followed our chili season almost immediately. And so for us, it
was making Tamali's and pasole. Okay, you know there we'd have family that
likes green pasoli and family that likes red pisole, and we had a mix
of different Tomali's. So those were always found traditions for us. That was
always part of our table throughout the Christmas season, especially on Christmas Eve.
So these were just part of our tradition. And then believe it or not.
When I started having my children, my children always the way I reminded
them the meaning of the season was that we baked a birthday cake for the
baby Jesus every year, and so that was something they participated in and helped
to decorate. So those were full traditions that we had. Yeah, that's
nice. You know, I never really thought about it, but my daughter
tell me one time, the thing that she always remembers growing up is that
I would hang bells on the door. I think that's lovely. So sleigh
bells every time the door would open and she'd say Christmas, she'd lay in
bed and wait to hear the bells that Santa came. So it's little things
we really don't think about that impact our children and grandchildren that they remember and
carry with them through years. It's just really nice. Yeah, I do
think that that means a lot. And so many families have traditions that either
tied to their culture or just things that have been handed down in their family
for years and years. I know so many families for whom setting up a
crush is particularly important, or getting out that box of handmade ornaments. You
know that they've been collected through the years and just looking at you know,
how your children's very first little scribbles of their name on the back of an
ornament that was made at school and has special those things and those yellowing old
ornaments, they're the most precious for sure. You know. It's funny.
My grandmother was very creative and she was a master gardener and you know,
just a fabulous gardener. And she would recycle just about anything she could get
her hands on. And she made ornaments out of ten cans and ten slips,
so if you have to wear heavy gloves to do that because they're very
sharp, but she would cut into them and create little stars. And then
you mentioned the glitter. They would have felt pieces and glitter and you know,
the just all different kinds of little decorations on them. And I kept
them for many years, you know, knowing that I had to open that
box carefully every year for the sharp edges. Right. Yeah, And you
know, ornaments are one of my favorite gifts to receive and give because every
year when you do decorate the tree, you remember exactly you gave it to
you and it has such a special meaning. Yeah, it really does.
And then my name, being Angela, people often gave me angels, as
you know, although I am no angel, how come on, but you're
a gardening angel, that's for sure. They would give me angels because of
that is, you know, just different things. And so for many years
I have two fabric panels that we hang up and then I'll hang all those
and they come from all over the world. I have angels from Haiti and
angels from Africa, and angels from China, and just you know, they're
very colorful and very happy. Of course they don't match, they're very eclectic,
but it's a lot of fun. Well, I know, I think
I probably maybe know the answer to this. You do have a fresh tree?
Right? Well, this year we do not, Oh yeah, terribly,
although that is my favorite thing to do. There's nothing like that smell
in the house. There's just so many wonderful things about it. But we
are actually in the process of redoing our living room this year, so we
are going at Christmas without a living tree this year. So we're going to
substitute it with a very sweet little tabletop rosemary tree and get vibe with You
do have a fresh tree, then, well, that's true, yeah,
just not thinking of you know, a gorgeous fraser fur or something you know.
Well, you know, the having a fresh cut tree is really the
greenest thing that you can do. That's something that you can reuse, you
can make in tumulch. A lot of people will pick them up from the
nursery if we have any leftovers, throw them in their ponds for the fish.
So it is very environmentally friendly. They grow. You know, we
carry the fraser furs which are stunning and the furser the very least allergenic type
of truth that you can have. But they grow on on parts of the
mountains, the blue rich mountains where nothing else we can grow in that intes.
So that is a crop that is sustainable there and it is providing shelter
for wildlife as it grows too. Yeah, they really do. And you
know, as for a lot of homesteaders, one of the things that we
look at them is when they are stripped of all their ornaments every year.
The goats absolutely love them. Oh, they just love them. To them.
That's a that's an annual that's a Christmas tree. Yes, yep,
pumpkins at Halloween and and then the Christmas trees. Yeah, they're great and
you know, not to be afraid to you if as long as you put
a fresh cut on the tree, get it back into water within an hour
so it doesn't seal off. They continuously drink through the season, so they
really do stay nice and fresh. And as long as you're mindful with your
lighting and leave it on all night, you know, they're really not a
problem. And like you said, that fragrance, Oh, it's just that
it pays into the house. Is just part of Christmas, it really is.
There is something very special about that fragrance. Yes, it is,
and they're great to decorate with, even to bows. Yeah, if you
do don't have a situation where you can have a fresh tree, go get
you some fresh cuttings. Yeah, add those into your artificial wreaths and mantle
garlands, and then you still have that fragrance and that feel. Yeah,
the feel of them, I think. Yeah, it's one of the things
that I like to brush. You know, when you walk by certain things,
you want to reach out and brush them because you know you're going to
get that return of the fragrance. And the Christmas trees are very much like
that for me, you know, just like Rosemary and some of the other
wonderful things that we can do well in Rosemary is a great, great one
to have it it is, you know, for tabletops, for shut ins,
you know, for somebody in an apartment. It's a nice substitute,
has a beautiful shape to it, and then of course it can go out
and live in the garden the rest of the year, right right, and
use it on the kitchen table, that's for sure. Also lavender, you
can pick those up right now too. We have got some beautiful lavender Christmas
trees or pyramid shape pruned and lavender is such a great herb for us to
grow. And this again is a great season for these guys as well.
We were talking about this is the time to plant. And there are a
lot of herbs that just absolutely love this weather. This is English England weather.
It is you know from herbs, Oh my gosh, you know pretty
much everything but basil. Right, it can go in this time of year,
and there are certain herbs that this is the perfect time of year for
them, you know, things like cilantro. I was going to say with
your with your menu, you got to have cilantro in the ground. Parsley
right as another one, right, the fennel yeah, and the deal all
of them appreciate that cool weather. And even if you're not planning for the
for the kitchen plant, those for the butterfly. You know, a lot
of them are host plants, and that is something that I think a lot
of people have been focused on recently. It's a very important thing to be
focused on. Uh. There are certain herbs that you know, we we
know that herbs are beneficial to all of our beneficial beneficial insects, pollinators.
Uh, the the small little wasps that are predatory wasps that help us manage
our you know, pests in our garden. Uh, they're so valuable to
us. The the aromatic oils from them are things that you can use,
you know, when you disturb those oils when you're in the garden. It
does help with your own personal pest control. You can certain plants that you
can use that will you know, deter insects, you know, mosquitos and
things like that flies from bothering you. So it's just it's just lovely to
have them in the garden. And they have all kinds of leaf textures just
you know, tiny beautiful, small but beautiful little blooms. Uh. It
just adds a lot of interest. And so if you have one of those
gardens that is you know a lot of well we call foundational plants, trees
and shrubs of all different kinds. It's wonderful to work these in between those
for both color and texture, right, and I do often. I love
to use a Dylan fennel in the winter color garden. And parsley is beautiful
with pansies. Or that deep green curled parsley with that stark white alyssum is
just a stunning container. And you know, there are several different parsleys we
can use, because Jackie mentioned the very deep, dark curled parsley, which
loves this time of year, looks very full, makes a wonderful border bedding
plant actually, and then the taller, sort of leafy er, the flat
lit atalian parsley. I'm particularly fond of that one. And that one is
one that you definitely want a plant planning on letting it bolt in the landscape
because it's really very attractive to beneficials. And you know, people forget that
a lot of their herbs were landscape plants long before they were in the kitchens.
They were gardens, you know, apothecary gardens. These are the gardens
of our history, gardens of our past. I mean even in the gardens
of kings and queens, right right, Kings and queens. It's pretty nice.
They were they knew they were of good use, right right. Well.
The number to call seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
And I'm Beverly Welch, joined by my dear friend Angela Chandler, and
you are listening to the garden line. Good morning, beautiful day, windy
day, breezy day. Yeah, and I'm Beverly Welch with Arbor Gate.
I have a privilege to be here with Angela Chandler with the Garden Academy,
and we are on the garden Line. If you have any questions, please
give us a call at seven one three two one two five five eight seven
four. That's seven one three two one two five eight seven four. So
gardening weather question from in southwest Houston, great good morning, asks how cold
hardy are both Barbados cherries and seed them? Okay, Barbados cherry is a
tropical cherry, and so it's not terribly cold hardy now in this first little
cold spell that we're going to have here, which depending on what part of
town you're in, Like in my end of town, which is the southeast
side, is going to be about forty tonight. If you're up in the
Cypress area or the northwest part of town, you'll need to look and see
what your expected cold temperature is. But generally they're okay in that forty degree
range. You wouldn't have to worry about them until we got down to true
freezing temperatures, right, And I looked this morning. Of course, I'm
sure it's going to change throughout the day, but I know in the Tamball
area they're predicting around thirty four. Yeah, so that to me is going
to be a frost, especially if you're right and frost yeah right, it's
going to clear off and the wind is going to die down. So I
always but the seedums, it just depends on the variety because some of them
are extremely cold hardy and others are not so much. Green Acres is a
real good one that seems to be very cold hardy. One little one called
mouse Ears we had, you know, it did damage even in the single
digits, but came right back. So a lot of them can be the
old fashioned hen and chicks, very very tough, and in fact, in
this kind of cooler weather, it's got that beautiful rosy glow to it right
now. That's one of the things I love about growing succulents is so many
of them have a little tinge of either orange or pink in the wintertime,
and they're just beautiful. But the true seedums, it does very muchly depend
on the variety, and some of them, like I say, they will
take into that single digits without even looking back, So you kind of have
to gauge it by that. Exactly what seedom do you have? Exactly?
If it's any doubt, you know, lay some frost cloth over it tonight,
throw a layer of leaves over the top of it. A cardboard box
is a great way to protect things. Sure, give it a little protection.
But I love the seedoms, Yes I do too. They are very
good plants. You know, you have the large, large leaved seedoms,
then you have the ones that have the very you know, almost needily look
to them. So it's a big family of plants and they fit very very
well into many parts of our landscape. Absolutely, But that's a great question.
Yeah, it is a good question. Thanks for the call. We
know people are a little concerned about what's going to happen. And then remember
too that according to the longer range, the ten and twelve day prediction,
that we're going to have this little bit of a cool dip, but then
it's going to go right back to our moderate winter temperatures again. So we
don't need to get too excited about this and overprotect things now. For sure,
anything that you do decide to protect, take that protection off when we
have our warmer temperatures off between freezes. Good advice, very good, you
know, just it's a good time to get prepared for the future freeze to
you know, make sure you have a good stock of your frost cloth.
And we were fortunate enough to get in some four and six ounce so some
really heavyweight, heavy duty frost cloth they have available for our customers, as
I'm sure many of the independent garden centers have done, you know. And
the thing too about working with frost cloth and staying away from things like tarps
or plastic material is that you can double it up so when you have the
you know, you're part of your strategy for protection should be to have multiple
layers of the frost cloth. Available. So in a light freeze you can
drop maybe the four ounce over in a heavier freeze, two layers of frostcloth
or a layer of each. Uh. These are good insulators for our plants
and it will get them through the majority of anything that you know Texas has
to dish out well in these light frost too. Share your tip about the
seaweed extract, well, it does make a difference. Basically we call it
gardener's anti freeze, and so folier feeding with that, you know, twenty
four hours ahead or so of a frost is a good strategy. And then
to help plants recover between freezes if they've had light tip damage, getting them
again, because what that does is raises the mineral content, which that gives
them the strength if you want to call it that to be able to get
through and repair themselves somewhat repair that tissue damage. Well, and that leads
to another question. So if we didn't cover, say, and it did
dip down a little co cooler tonight than was expected, and we did see
a little bit of damage, little tip damage on some of our savvias and
woody perennials, we shouldn't remove that. No, don't do anything, because
that damage tissue is going to protect for the next freeze. One it's cover,
but two when you print something back, what happens is that stem acts
like a straw it basically, so that next little bit of cold in.
And so if you'll leave that, and I know it's always hard for people
because we want our yards to look lovely. We don't really want those burnt
brown looking tips, but for the sake of our garden, we need to,
you know, understand that that's better for the garden. Just leave them
and don't don't take any action because you know it's going to happen again in
another ten days or two weeks, right right, which will lead us into
some things we can get into a little bit later in the pogram. Is
that's what the opportunity to plant some of the cold, hardy color around these
guys to kind of camouflage them or hide them if you will. The hot
you know, the fox club, they get some size, the del finium,
the larksburg, the taller snaps, so they can work that in.
Now let's you know, just kind of soften the look, but still leave
that leave that foliage as you should. So let's get into that after the
break, let's talk a little bit more about winter color and the life that
we can bring to our garden in Les Texas. Oh my gosh, there's
so much. I don't know if we have time for it all. I
will try to squeeze into what we can. Yeah, but there's a lot
to do, and there's you know, it's time to look forward to the
next season. I know that sounds crazy, but there's quite a few things
that you need to plant now if you want that beautiful, full bloom garden,
cottage garden for Easter. You know, when you live in a place
that has three hundred and sixty five day a year gardening, you always should
be planning a season ahead. We always thinking about where are we going for
next season? Well, I can't wait till the next segment. I can't
either. Good morning, and welcome to garden Line. I'm Beverly Welch from
the Arborgate and I am Angela chandler with the Garden Academy, and we'll love
to have your questions this morning. Please give us a call at seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three two one
two five eight seven four. So this is as we you know, we
try to hammer this home as often as we can. Gardeners, this is
your season, this is this is truly our spring more than spring. Yeah,
it is time to get in the garden, get away from that hustle
bustle of the season, and go outside and just dig. Yeah. You
know, really I always told people we could should get that mindset that our
gardening season, our spring starts October first, that's so true, goes through
now. And if we were going to choose a season to leave anything fallow,
it would be those hot couple of months of July and August. You
know, we're for our northern neighbors. It's it's this time of year that
their gardens are fallow. So we you know, and Ann Wheeler teaches the
classes. That's that's her big subject is October first is New Year's Day for
earths. That's exactly true, and it's true for a great many of our
plants, right, and so people are always wondering too this time of year,
you know, as the lantanas and a lot of the perennials are going
dormant and kind of taking a break, taking a rest. There is so
much to plant right now, and we were talking about earlier before we left
for the break. You know, you need to plant a certain amount of
plants now for your spring blue. If you don't get them in the ground
now, they don't have enough time before we hit our heat, right,
and that is one of the that is a worrisome thing. So we have
some really great plants that we see in national magazines in spring. They if
we planted them in spring here, we would get nothing out of them because
by the time they're ready to bloom, our summer heat is upon them.
Right. So those plants are winter color plants for us. Right, we
can get them in They tolerate everything that winter has to dish out here.
They bloom beautifully. And then about the time our gardens are starting to resurge
and our perennials are coming into their finest in late spring, these plants are
fading out. And I'll tell you did that more tutor thing, not exactly,
it's how you pull it off. Yeah. So one one is fox
life, so you can plant them by seed. We have them at the
nursery and transplant or you know, plants beautiful and it's it's so nice.
It's a good space taker. If you have really large gardens. It's a
great one. Yeah. Or if you have borders and you need something that's
at the back of the border showstopper. Oh right, you know that's what
these plants are, right, And don't have to worry about the temperatures of
them. In fact, we if we have a very warm winter, sometimes
they don't bloom wealth rice in this point and then by nature a biennials,
they're going to kind of act like that anyway, right. Another one is
delphinium, so gorgeous. You know, I've always loved delphiniums, and we
see these gorgeous pictures of them, and like I say, in all the
national magazines, and so we have to plant them this time of year to
be able to enjoy them. But we do have their native cousins, the
larkspurs, that we can plan as well, right, And you know the
larkspurs, I've had fairly decent success in them reseating themselves. Yes, they
do, our little native does. And they're a very sweet flower and they
come in you know, shades of blues and even some pinks. And one
that I always have to plant in the fall are sweet peas. My mama
always had sweet peas growing on our fence right outside the garage of the back
door, and pig big bouquets of them to have on the table at Easter.
Sweet peas there are to me a must. They really are. They're
a cottage garden plant. They're kind of one of the grandmother plants that we
all we all know known love so much. And they smell so wonderful,
they're such so fair, amazing. And poppies, yeah, especially the big
bread poppies. You know, just cast just rake those seeds in, you
know, and they the nice thing about them is that they will establish themselves
in the garden, so they'll bloom for us in the winter and maybe even
into the early They'll have those seed heads, which are a lot of fun,
all kinds of crafts that you can do with the little seed heads,
and then just let them go and they will the seed will lay there all
summer long, and they'll be back again as soon as the weather is good
for them in the fall. You know. One thing I'd love to plant
in the fall, and it actually has been a very reliable perennial for me,
is cardoon or artichoke. They are showstoppers as the foliage are through the
winter, yep, and then in the spring when you get your choke.
I never pick them, I never eat them. But the flowers are so
flowers amazing they are. They're just beautiful, and it's so much fun to
go out there and watch the bumblebees just buried in those blooms covered in pollen.
I mean, they just love to burrow down in those blooms. So
I agree with you that silvery, velvety foliage and deeply toothed, you know,
very one of the plants that we call architectural. They're just beautiful.
But the blooms are just gorgeous. You know, buy your autochokees at the
grocery store past for the love of the plant. And you know, and
when the heat hits in the summer, don't pull it up, just cut
it back. I and as long as it's in a well drained bad it
will come back for you time October November. You'll start seeing a little life
in that crown and then you'll start getting multiple crowns. Yeah, and they
do look a little mangy in the summertime, but you know that just come
down. That's why I feel about it too. And you know, we
can't forget about using foliages for color in the winter garden, just like we
do in spring and summer. Another one of my favorites is maszuna mustard,
yep, mazuma mustard, the ornamental KALs and cabbages, and then Asian greens.
That's your double duty plant right there. So many of them are so
beautiful, Oh gosh, they have gorgeous foliage color, or they have these
absolutely gorgeous like carved out rosettes like they were just you know, you look
them and they just almost don't seem real. They're so perfect in their in
their leaf form, just beautiful, beautiful plants. And then a lot of
those are edible, So this is something that that you have a true double
duty plant. They're beautiful and then they taste delicious at the table. Right.
Well, I hear the music, so I guess it's time to go
to a break. But we didn't even get halfway through our list here.
No, but we've got another segment. That's right. Katie r h.
Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this
program. Welcome to Katie r h. Garden Line with skip rictor. It's
shoes, crazy shrimp, just watching as many birthings to suppy, not a
sun, the sun bemons of good morning. Welcome to garden Line. I'm
Beverly Welch of the Arbor Gate, Angela Channer with the Garden Academy, here
to take your calls. We'd love to hear for me this morning. Seven
to one, three, two and two five eight seven four. That's seven
one, three, two and two five eight seven four, and the sun's
coming up. Sun is peking up. Still a little chilly out there,
but I think it's going to be a good day. It's always a good
day. It's a bit nippy, bit, it's a beautiful day. It's
a beautiful day. We were talking about last segment, things to plant now,
and of course, as we keep saying over and over again, this
is our season to plant. It really is get those things in the ground,
let them get established, but for annual winter color that we don't have
to worry about on nippy nights like the one we have ahead of us.
There's so much to choose from that really is we touched on the things that
we need to plant now to get that beautiful color, that beautiful garden for
Easter and spring. The fox club, the delphinium, the larkspur, the
sweet peas, the poppies. Can you think of any else English days?
Oh my gosh, yes, a plant. We cannot get through our summers
here, but they're so sweet and so traditional and so pretty and they can
go in right now for sure, absolutely. And of course the pansies.
Everyone has pansies, you know. Colendula, that is a summer I mean,
that is a winter standard, right, beautiful colors. It's actually an
edible plant. Well, it was actually herb of the Year just a few
years ago. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. And in the old gardening
books when you read about the pot miracle gold, yep, that's colendula.
Like I say, it is an edible plant. The leaves are considered a
pot herb. But you know, it's just something about those little splashes of
gold. It's a happy color. You know. It's the reason we love
sunflowers in the summertime. It's that just something about that little bit of glow.
It's just a happy color that kind of wakes you up on a dreary
day. Exactly. That's what I was gonna say. It's your sunshine on
a cloudy day. And you know, they have the Dwarf series that is
great if you want to stay see something complex inches or so. But then
you have your pacifics that get large, big, bold. They make wonderful,
wonderful cut flowers. Yes they do. And there's there was a new
one out I guess another year or two, a year or two ago called
Collexis That is that vibrant orange and it is a stunning bloom. Yeah.
Like I say, it's just something about that color, just a little pop
of something that just makes you happy. Well, and you know, having
those popsy yellows and oranges, even if you prefer the purples and the deeper
tones, it wakes them up. Yeah, those are complementary colors on the
color wheel, guys, artists know. And that's one of the things that
gardeners don't realize that we are artists, that that's part of what we're doing
in our garden is we're creating art with a palette of plants. We also
touched on the fact that we've got some edibles that definitely should be worked into
your color scheme, like the deep green leaves of the curled parsley, the
salad burnett. And for those of you that don't know are familiar with salad
burnette, it's one of the most are one of the few underused herbs.
I think people just don't really realize what it is. Your it's your winter
cucumber. Yeah, it's delicious, and that is one of the things that
gardeners often nibble on while we're working in the gardens. Yeah, yeah,
it's a great it's a great one. And lettuces, yeah, great border
you know, the freckle lettuces, the oak leaf lettuces, the ones that
have a little touch of color, you know, the the all of the
different opal colors. Uh, those are those are wonderful in the garden.
And they're so quick, you know, you're talking about a six week crop.
This is something that you can rotate throughout your garden in the wintertime and
bring all that fresh wonderfulness to the table. You know. And a lot
of our pollinators are active year round. So Dianthus is a very important one
to have in the garden for the sky. Okay, it's great to have
that dianthus and then that is something that will bloom from now until we start
transitioning into early spring, and so it does give some of that forage to
our pollinators until they have something more dependable, and I think Josh has a
question for it, right let's hear it. We do have a question from
Frank in Seabrook. He's asking what would be soil prep for planting medicinal herbs
and where could he purchase them? Okay, soil prep. If you want
to grow medicinal herbs where you need high oil content, high mineral content,
all the things that you're looking for from those herbs, then you need to
get your soil organic matter up. So the best thing to do is to
work with a compost based potting soil or you know, supplementary soil is the
best thing to do. You want to get up to at least five percent,
hopefully over you know, one or two seasons, up to ten percent
of soil organic matter in your soil. Many of our good quality, locally
available blends are going to have expanded shale in them, which helps increase two
things, both the poor space in your soil so that we have better drainage
and better aeration. Those are things that you want to do, and those
are things that are great to do right now as far as bedprep is concerned
well, and pick a very sunny spot, yes, with good airflow,
right, that's very important. And then think about that when you're planting your
herbs out as well. You know they're spacing so that they have good sun
exposure, good airflow throughout them, maintain good drainage throughout the season. Doesn't
hurt at all to do what I call planting them with their shoulders up out
of the ground where they dig a slightly shallow hole, and then build up
around them with your supplementary soil and then also with your your mulch afterwards.
Right, and as far as availability, herb starts are available at all independent
garden centers at the Arbrigade at Plants for as seasons RCW, buchanans Wabash,
the list goes on. So just check with your local independent garden center for
the good starts and advice on what to plant. Yeah, that helps as
well, exactly exactly. But it's a great thing to do, it really
is, and it's and it was a good question to ask too, because
that is exactly what you need to do, is prepare your soil ahead of
time, allow it to rest a bit before planting. So that it has
a chance to equalize. Soil biology has a chance to start working, and
then you're you're ready to go when your plant's going right right exactly, And
as we were talking earlier, even go ahead and add that organic time release
food when you're building and prepping that bag, yes, and starting that in
early even even up to two weeks or more before planting again for that same
purpose of you know, soil biology is what makes our organics work, and
we know we want to be using organics when we're growing herbs of any kind.
That's you know, that's part of the whole culture and part of the
whole point of it. Right. Well, that's great information, great question.
You're listening to the Garden Line with Beverly Welch and Angela Chandler, and
we'll look forward to seeing you in just a few minutes. Good morning,
Welcome to Garden Line. I'm Beverly Welch and i am Angela Chandler. We're
here to take your calls. The number to call is seven one three two
one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three two one two five
eight seven four. You know, last segment we were talking about color of
the plant. Now and I think we got maybe halfway through our list.
I think. So there's a lot that we can have in our gardens.
There so much, and you know in the shady garden you do have a
little bit more of a challenge, especially in the winter time with your color
selection. I think my go to is cyclemen. Yeah, cyclemen, so
many colors, such a pretty shape. You know, just everything about it
is good. Yeah. And you know they have that new one now called
Absolute. Have you seen it yet? No? I haven't. It's one
of the dwarf This so has the tiny bloome. It's white with a bit
of a magenta purple edging to it. It is so fragrant. Oh is
that right? It's not perfume. And when the sun is warm during the
day, I mean feet away, people will stop walking down the aisle and
say, okay, what is that I smell? Oh that's really I mean
it is frank wow. Yeah. So it's a great one. And you
know you were mentioning the greens too, using them as but that they're fairly
shade tolerant. A lot of them, yeah, a lot of them are.
A lot of them will take even that three to four hours of the
sunlight, so they do quite well well. Another one that we didn't mention
was now's the time also to plant shoot bulbs. Yes, bulbs for sure.
So I think automatically we think about amarillis at Christmas time because it's so
often a gift that's given. It's a great gift for an officemate or you
know, a girlfriend, or you know, it's just you know, people
that help you. It's just a great gift for that. They're pretty when
they're blooming this time of year. They give us that little extra color,
but they do well in the ground here. They will naturalize for us.
So these can transition from a Christmas gift to a garden plant. You can
have them for years, right right. And another thing right now, we
have so much that's in blooming the landscape. And one thing we don't often
think about planting, but it's so beautiful right now. And again, great
for the pollinators are roses. Yeah, roses for sure. You know,
as soon as it cooled off this year from that horrible summer we went through,
they just burst into bloom. I think they were just waiting because they
just it seemed like as soon as it started turning cool and we got a
couple of rains. They just were in their heyday and they're still just absolutely
gorgeous right now. Oh yeah, this cool weather, the flowers are larger,
the colors more intense, and the fragrances are just deep and rich.
Yeah, they're just really lovely. And that is a definite standard of the
garden. And you know, with so many of the old garden roses now
and then using the old garden roses and they're good genetics in rose breeding,
we're getting some truly really outstanding Texas varieties, you know, and a great
again overlooked landscape plant. Yeah, definitely for sure. Yeah when people come
in wanting a blooming shrub, you know they want that evergreen blooms all year
shrub, Well why don't you get a rose? A rose? You know,
Like I say, they'll back off a little bit in the very very
you know, dog days of summer, as they say, but you know
they'll they'll tolerate the freezes. That's a plant. We don't have to worry
about it all. And I think people sometimes they steer away from them because
they think they're fussy and maybe they remember either grandmother having a spraying cycle on
her roses, you know, or just the fact of thinking about dead heading
and pruning and again using the old garden roses. In rose breeding, which
has been going on now for thirty years, we're really coming with some varieties
that don't need any kind of attention. Some of the prettiest roses in my
garden they barely get any attention at all, maybe a light pruning in February.
I don't do a lot of heavy pruning. I grow them as large
shrubs because I love that look, and so they're not the fussy plant that
your grandmother fussed with all the time, you know. And a good example
of some of these newer varieties is the drift. Yes, drift roses are
extraordinary, a true landscape rose. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. The other thing
right now that's so gorgeous is the Mexican giant red turks. Yeah. You
know, as we were discussing during the break, we used to call that
the Christmas plant because it's got all those gorgeous turks cap bells hanging down.
They look like ornaments. They're that beautiful tomato red of this gorgeous green plant.
So it's just it's just it's dependable. Christmas bloomer. So you know,
I don't know what more you could ask. It's just it's just become
a Christmas plant in the garden. You know. In that selection too.
Those of you that are familiar with turks cap but may not be familiar with
this particular one. That bloom is enormous. Oh that's huge. Yep.
And the plant as well. Yeah, yeah, it gets it would you
know. We cut it back every spring in March, back to probably twelve
inches or so. Right now it is at least seven eight feet tall,
yeah, and seven to eight feet wide. So if you need something again
to take up some space, give you great color, maintenance free and how
many variety of locations too, very tolerant of soils, you know, doesn't
require a lot of water. It's not a demanding plant. It naturalizes very
very well because it's got native bones, you know, creative heritage, right,
and so it just it's just a plant that doesn't it's no mustno fuss
planted and then just enjoy it. And you know, we plant it under
the edges of pecan trees and it's very very happy there. Yeah, full
sun departche We've got it planted at the nursery on the north side. Yeah,
wide open, no protection, we don't cover anything. It's gone through
i It's gone through Harvey, it's gone through the event two years ago.
I mean it's taken it all throughout this summer twenty eleven, that's how long
it's been in the ground. Yeah, so it's it's a must have.
It really jeans there. They count for us every time. So many beautiful
native plants. And we can't forget about the camelias right now. Camellias for
sure. And you know the lovely thing about camellias is we can draw from
both the Sanquas and the Japonicas and we can get that very months and months
of bloom starting in October all the way through slate late winter. They're they're
so you know, we have singles and doubles. You know, it's kind
of I call it the Winter Rose, you know, for that reason,
right, you know, just beautiful shades, so many different colors available,
you know, the beautiful glossy foliage. Just it's just everything's wonderful about them.
Well, and you know they must have right now and this season is
yule Tide, and you talk about a great gift for a gardener, you'll
tie camella with that open it's one of the single open blooms. Like you
spoke of. The Sanquas often don't have the big they don't have the big
formal flower like you see on the Japonicas, but they have twice as many.
Yes, they're so colorful and the bees love those camerias. Yeah,
it's just really good to be able to know that you're providing something to keep
them going through the right, right, because we need their partnership so much
in our garden right. And that the Sanquez you know, are your early
bloomers. They're like November through January then you and they're more sun tolerant yea,
the horse sun tolerant. In fact, they actually bloom better with a
little bit of sun exposure. They do. And you can get a lot
of the dwarf varieties like the Shishi and the Bonanza and the hot flash that'll
stay lower so they'll fit into any landscape as far as size. And then
you have the Japonicas. The Japonicas are gonna definitely require a little bit more
afternoon shade, but again don't put them in too deep a shade. I
think that's a mistake people. Well, when you think about them in their
natural they like that high shade, so they do get a lot of filtered
sun through them. You know, they're not something that's a that needs dense
shades, So under the canopy of trees that have been limbed up quite high,
they do better, right, right, And that's that big formal traditional
camellia bloom we think of, and so that's in bloom February March April.
So between the two you're looking at six months of long season of color.
Yeah, long season of color. And you know it's a way of getting
color into even the semi formal garden, that's true. You know, it's
a way of getting good color into that that sort of style. Well,
they'll fit in a cottage garden absolutely, but in a formal garden and you
can also hedge them and it's as stunning hedge when in bloom. Yeah,
very very pretty. So what's your favorite? Oh my gosh, you know,
I have one that I wish I knew the name of it, and
I think we all have that, right. Sure, this is kind of
a bridle pink single, but it's a sussanqua. It blooms very early because
it blooms mid October and it is just literally covered with these bridle pink blooms
that are about I don't know, maybe two inches or so two and a
half inches and pinks, I don't know. You know, I picked it
up years and years ago. I picked up five of them. I have
four left. I did lose one number of years. It's been in my
garden for years, and I've just always thought, I just really wish I
knew, you know, which one it was, because I just they were
irresistible when I picked them up, which is why I wanted that cluster of
them. But that actually is my favorite over time. And then I love
the new fragrant ones too. You know, those are lovely as well.
They are very very pretty. Quintessence is another one, says Sanka. That's
a dwarf draping fragrant. They're great. Yeah, anything weeping I think has
a little bit of extra interest in the garden, right. I think my
favorite's got to be yule Tide. Yeah, it's hard to miss that color.
It's been so popular since its introduction, and there's a reason, yeah,
you know, but it's really it's kind of like picking your favorite child
you know, when you when you're around them and you have a decent collection
of them in your garden, it'd be pretty hard to choose. It's pretty
much what you ever when you're looking at whichever one's in bloom exactly exactly.
I have that when they had people ask me what's your favorite, it's impossible
to say it is. I think that's true with lots of plants. You
know, we collect plants along the way because we love them. We love
either something that they're doing for us or just the way they make us feel
when we're in are the memory that it comes with them, Yeah, very
muchly so, especially if it's from a treasured friend. Yeah, And plants
make wonderful Christmas gifts to hint, hint, they really really do. Well.
You're listening to the Garden Line with Beverly Welch and Angeler Chandler, and
we'll be right back after this short break. Good morning, and welcome to
Garden Line. I'm Beverly Welch of the Arbor Gate, Angela Chandler with a
Garden Academy, and we are waiting for your call. Certainly are seven one
three two one two five eight seven four seven one three two, one,
two, five, eight seven four And the sun is up. The sun
is up. Now, it's a pretty morning. It is a little a
little windy, yeah, little chili, but that's okay. It is winter,
it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be. And actually it's been
a really nice winter and fall so far. So far we've had you know,
cool spells and then warm spells in between, so it hasn't been anything,
you know, drudgery. We haven't had to worry about panicking to take
in plants or do anything yet. So, you know, so far,
so good. And it looks like it looks like December, I knockwood,
it looks like December is going to finish out that way. So that's a
good thing. It's all good. It's all good. And anytime we can
get out in the garden, it's a it's a beautiful day. Yeah.
And this is such much better weather for this than it was this summer.
Right, it was just punishing. And I know we keep beating the drum,
but this is time. This is time dies to get out in the
garden for so many reasons for you and for your garden exactly, much more
comfortable time to work now's the time to get mulchous down. I mean,
just all all those chores that become drudgery in the in the hot time of
year, those can be done now. And as we touched on earlier,
I know we're expecting in outlying areas a bit of a frost and eye,
but just remember our soil temps stay warm, and now is the time you
want to get those plants in the ground, even the perennials that will go
dormant later in the in the sea. But when they're going to rest,
it's a good time they can focus on root growth. Right, That's exactly
what they do. You know, during this time period when they're not focusing
on top growth, this is when they're developing that root system. And that
good root system, in combination with good bed preparation, is what's going to
get you through the next hot, hot, dry spell. Right. The
number to call to seven one three, two and two five eight seven four.
That's seven one, three, two and two five eight seven four.
Well, we've been going through color list all morning, yeah, because it's
important to gardners, you know, right exactly, So we've talked about a
lot of the annual color we haven't talked much about bulbs, but we touched
on it a bit. But you know the especially those Southern Airline bulbs,
Yes, Southern Bulbs Company, Yes, this has done a remarkable job.
Yeah. And you know, bulbs have a different characteristic to them than a
lot of the bulbs that we see, both timing wise and the types of
bulbs we plant. We have some fabulous things that can be planted here that
are true queens of the South, things like our crime. Them are so
beautiful, you know, Narcissus, you know this time of year, Yeah,
Lukojum's just you know, we're we are you know, those things are
now coming up right, you know, and so they're poking their little heads
up and just getting ready. That's that promise of you know, the bloom
that's going to come for spring and spring and summer. You've got your rein
lily. Yes, I love them so much. Oh my gosh, they're
so pretty. And you forget, you know, I've got these bulbs planted
all over the nursery and I forget what I have where it is. And
like you said, right now, we've got we've got a lot peeking out,
a lot of things are peking up and you know, that's one of
the things I love about planting bulbs, right, is the idea that you
plant them. They do definitely have a cycle of seasons, and then when
you least expect it kind of thing, here they come popping up and you
know, oh that's you know, that's my beautiful iris that's gonna bloom soon.
It's it's just nice. And some of them have truly pretty foliage long
before or after they're bloom. We have others that come up and of course
they're going to go through the die back on the foliage, which is why
we camouflage them and plant them in among other things. And we allow them
to come up and we enjoy them while while they're up, and then we
allow them to go back down. And don't forget those southern bulbs. There
is truly one that blooms every season of the year. My favorite one is
the Gladiola natal lensus. Yeah, that one's the Byzantine. Oh my gosh,
And talk about it's so funny. These are bulbs, and so they
are part of what we would consider in the temperate plant groups, right,
and yet here you have the Byzantine and the and the which is the parrot
glad that are true hot, fiery tropical colors out they're just so cool.
And then there are varieties of iris we can grow quite well. The Louisiana
iris do beautifully, the spury of iris, Japanese iris do well. We
have our little native blue iris. So it's just there is there's something that
you can plant that gives you color all the time. And I like the
fact that they sort of, you know, go down and rest for a
little while and then hear they come popping back up again. And you know,
everybody's sees in the magazines those big beautiful dark purple and blue alliums,
yes, that you see up north. But we do have a little native
one. We do have a native one. And you know, aliums are
something that with the with choosing the right ones and putting them in the right
spots right, we can really enjoy them. Have a lot of them in
the herb garden, bet I have. You know, they've they've spread themselves
throughout the gardens. But you talk about activity when they're in bloom. Yes,
again back to our pollinators and our beneficials. You know, it's we
we do need them so much in our garden. It is what I call
the essential partnership, and so providing for them is part of our responsibility if
we want them to return the favor and colonized plants that we want to go
to seed or produce a fruit for us, right right. I'm glad you
brought that up to When people think about pollinators, they always think about fruits
and vegetables, but you need that for seed production too. Yes, you
got to have them for seed production. And there's also you know the ideas
of beneficials as well as the pollinators, the little our little army that we
want to be working in our garden, you know, right well. Our
number to call is seven one, three, two and two five eight seven
four. Good morning, Welcome to garden Line. Now, I'm Beverly Well
to the arbor gate. I'm Angela Jenner with the Garden Academy, and we
are so happy to have you with us this morning. Our number to call
is seven one, three two and two five eight seven four. That's seven
one, three two and two five eight seven four. And I think Josh
has a couple of questions for us, I do, ladies. The first
question comes from Dorothy in Orange, Texas. She has some potting mix that
has a six month suggested wait time, and she wants to know whether or
not it's okay to add fertilizer before or after that time. Okay, So
I'm an understanding this as you have a potting mix that has a six month
fertilizer in it, and it would depend on how long that's been, how
long you've had it, how long was it, how long has it been
in storage with you, if it's something that you recently bought. I'm going
to just suggest to you that quite often that by the time you purchase these,
they don't have a lot left. So I would plant, I would
watch, you know, if you're going to use this as a potting media,
I would keep an eye on that plant. I would probably water it
in with something that gives you the root stemu later basis to kind of get
everything started, and then I would observe to see if you see any signs
of nutritional deficiency, meaning any yellowing, not a lot of active growth,
that the plant's not really thriving. And I think at that point I would
probably start adding in a slow release organic fertilizer in the soil and then follow
that up with a liquid fertilizer like a fishy mulsion based maybe activating, and
the right to get it started just in case you see a sign. But
I think anytime you use something that has a fertilizer in it but you don't
know what its storage time has been, if you're going to use it,
you need to watch for nutritional deficiencies and use it sooner rather than later.
Yeah, Yeah, don't don't wait. Don't count on it being a full
six months. Yeah, because as you said, you don't know how long
it's been in the store. Transportation issues so forth right. Would there be
a any Mom and Pops stores around the Orange, Texas area that she could
go to for a little bit further advice, maybe some help. Well,
I think she should look up any of the independent nurseries in her area,
because generally they're going to have a wider selection of nutritional support for her and
someone on staff who will know how to guide her towards it. And I
bet you there would be an Ace Hardware. Oh, I'm sure they'd be
Chace Hardware right in the Orange area. Sounds good, all right. Our
next question comes from Donna in Copperfield. She has a potted cyclomen and their
leafs are the leaves are turning colors, so and once one leaf turns a
color, it starts browning. Then the others kind of follow in suit.
And she has questions on any kind of advice to maybe remedy that issue.
Well, especially if it's the lower foliage. A traditionally that's a sign of
overwatering. So they do not have a high water requirement at all, and
especially if they're indoors, so give them good light, try to keep them
in a container without a saucer. If it has a saucer, remove the
pot from the saucer, water it in your sink or on the patio,
let the water drain through, and let it sit there for a while and
make sure all the moisture is out, and then then replace it back in
the saucer. But it sounds to me like she may be overwatering it a
bit. And also be sure to water the soil. You know that plant
is really thick at the crown, and if you water it from the top,
you oftentimes will cause a little bit of rot. So try to water
up under the foliage and water the soil directly. Yeah, and especially if
it's in a plastic pot. Because that retains moisture longer. And make sure
the pot has drainholes. Yeah, sometimes they're insufficient, especially the ones that
are given is gifts, right, if it has any foil wrapping or anything
around, and remove that. For sure, it's pretty, but it's not
good for the plant. No, And a lot of those, even those
baskets that they come in our plastic line. Yeah, so they need to
breathe. Yeah, gotta breathe. That one needs good aeration. That's it
for me, all right, Thank well, thank you, and our number
to call seven one three two one two five eight seven four. That's seven
one three two one two five eight seven four. Great questions. Yeah,
really good. When we've been talking about color, we talked about Cyclement earlier,
and we talked about what to plant now to get ready for spring.
So I thought maybe we should tackle maybe some spring flowering trees, because now
is the perfect time. This is the time to get them planted, especially
if you're counting on them for bloom this following spring, right right. And
you know, with a lot of the smaller landscapes these days too, you
need to be mindful of the growth habit of what you're planning. You don't
want a plant a giant tree, yeah, and a small lot you know
you'll shade yourself out in just a few years. That causes issues with concrete
value. Do you need to check that it's always you know, if you
have a vision for your landscape, then when you purchase plants, especially if
you're purchasing plants that are a little younger and smaller containers, right, then
you need to have an idea what is it's mature height, them width going
to be and does that fit within the vision that you have for your garden
exactly, so that you don't put something in a space that it ends up
being so much larger than you expected that it throws your entire vision off balance,
or that it's much smaller than you expected and doesn't give you the impact
that you're looking for in your landscape. So you kind of have to make
sure that you know exactly what that is before you get it planted. Well,
there's so many examples or so many trees that we can plant in our
area. We're so fortunate. One of my favorites is Saucer magnolia. They're
so pretty, Oh my gosh, they really are beautiful and over the to
me. Over the years as they age, they get prettier and prettier,
they really do. You can get them single trunk form. You can get
them that get as big as like the black tula, a yellow bird,
as tall as forty to fifty feet, or you can stay closer, you
know, to around a ten to fifteen foot multi trunk, so they can
be a specimen and a large flower beds. Just beautiful and just remember that
it's a deciduous magnolium. Yes, and so when that bloom, people call
them tulip trees. When they bloom in the spring, and they bloom very
early, Yes, they do bloom very early before there's foliage. And one
of the lovely things about them is they give us something that we don't always
have with a lot of our blooming trees, and that is the carpet of
color when the petals fall. See that place is you know like Washington,
you know Washington State and you know Asian gardens, but we don't have a
lot of that here. But I'd love when the petals fall and we have
that beautiful carpet of color underneath the magnolias. When you talk about those gardens
that the cherry blossoms. We can we can grow the okami cherry. Yes,
and so that's a little small, small understory type tree that blooms Pink's
the soft cherry blossom. Pink. The Okami is a gorgeous little tree.
Yeah, you know, they're entire kind of a little handful of the beautiful
prunus that we can plant here that do that, the flowering plums, flowering
apricots, things like that that we can plant here. They're not a traditional
fruit tree, so don't expect fruit afterwards, but they have a gorgeous period
of bloom in our landscape. Well, it sounds like we need to take
a break. We did well, continue this after this short break sounds good
to me. We'll see you then. Kat r H Garden Line does not
necessarily endorse any of the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to
kat r H Garden Line with Skip Richter's Shoes Crazy. Can you watch a
trip? Just watch him as thanks to sept Crazy, it's again your day,
Good morning, Welcome to the Garden Line. I'm Beverly Welch of the
Arbor Gate and i am Angela Chandler with the Garden Academy. We have the
privilege of sitting in this morning for our dear, good good friends, Skip
rickor Absolutely, it is an honor, it is and it's a beautiful day.
Count down to Christmas, yes, count down to Christmas. And some
lovely weather ahead of us, a little bit of a cool dip, but
not say anything scary, So that's nice, very seasonal, very good.
Don't have to panic, yep. And our number to call this morning is
seven one three two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. We'd love to hear from you.
And it is a great gardening day. We closed out the last segment talking
about the smaller flowering trees that you might want to get it well, not
might want to. You need to get into the ground now if you want
to enjoy their bloom spring. Absolutely, they need that time to start establishing
a good root system, both for structural reasons and for their nutrition reasons,
so that they'll be off to a good start for next year. And no
concern about col weather not absolutely not. In fact, many of these trees
will benefit from the cool weather we're going to have exactly that's why makes them
bloom so well. Yeah, we need it. They need the chill,
and they need those those cooler temperatures in which to get established well, and
so that you don't you can plant them when be worry free. You know,
immediately after planting, things can lose a little bit of their cold tolerance.
So I always look at the long range schedule and if the next week
or ten days is you know, nothing scary is predicted, then even young,
containerized, unestablished trees are going to be fine. Exactly. The only
thing that you might worry about is if you had a really deep freeze coming,
then I might leave it in its container until that passes and then plant
it then. But other than that little window in which they, you know,
are a little bit more susceptible, there's no reason to worry. Now.
It's a perfect time to plant. It's easier on them, and you
definitely that part definitely much nicer to dig a hole now. Exactly. So
we we've touched on the saucer magnolius and how gorgeous they were. We talked
on the prunas family, the flowering flowering plums, flowering apronc because and then
you have your native Mexican plum. Yes, and no other than the fact
that it's a cloud of white in the spring, and we keep mentioning plants
that are good for pollinators because it's going to be a buzz with them.
You have that very dark bark that offsets that white bloom, and that's one
of the lovely things about that. It's not a huge tree, right,
It kind of has a tendency to make a nice wider canopy, so it
fits very well in the garden. It just it develops a nice shape on
its own without a lot of heavy pruning and training. There's a lot of
pluses to the mow, and it does produce a fruit. It does.
It's not it's not your grocery store plum, No, definitely jam and jelly
yeah, material, yeah, definitely. In fact, it makes absolutely beautiful
jelly, right and the birds love it. They do love it. And
some of these flowering trees that we're mentioning do produce a small fruit that is
good for the birds. So that's that's something that we have to concentrate on
as well. Another one is red bud, and red buds are so plentiful
through our area and so beautiful and there are so many new introductions. One
the one that is so stop you in your tracks. Oh my god,
they're a flamethrower. I know that's what you're talking about. Yeah, so
you not only get that beautiful bloom with no foliage, but the foliage is
like people will stop on stop and knock at your door and ask you what
this tree is. So it is. It's got lime green, it's got
gold, it's got burgundy, it's got orange, and it's got green.
Stop you in your tracks, right. And the lovely thing about these red
buds is that they're the perfect tree for the small front yard, right.
You know, they're they're not a yard eater. And so when your hoa
wants you to you know, they want to plant a live oak in your
in your front yard that's very small. It's just not appropriate, and you
want to replace that. They are not going to object about this. It's
going to knock on your door and ask you what it is, right.
Right. And another one too, that was the precursor to the flank throw
was the rising sun just and again drop dead beautiful, drop dead beautiful,
not only spring but all summer yep. And you know, then you have
your standard Oklahoma, which is tried and true. I mean, that's that's
a beautiful but that's more your traditional red bud foliage. It does, it
does a hazard very and then you know, again we talked about weeping.
I love the weeping red button twist. And don't forget about the white blooming
right, and it has a lot of character to it. I mean,
that is a statement plant. It does. And then let's move to the
fringe tree, both of our favorites. The Chinese French tree is again a
perfect tree for a smaller landscape. The shape of the tree a little bit
more umbrella shaped. The Chinese fringe is more sun tolerant than your native fringe,
which definitely has to be an understory tree or a shade loving tree.
And the bloom on the Chinese fringe, the petal is just slightly wider than
on the native but again, a cloud. A cloud, that's what they
look like when they're in bloom. They are a cloud. One of my
personal favorites that you don't often see, but we had in our backyard when
I was growing up in spring branch is peppermint peach. Ah. Yeah,
and I love your good color. Oh my gosh. Every bloom is different,
every branch is different. You may have a branch of this solid well
they're all double blooms. You'll have this solid red, then you might have
a solid white, then you've got this striped. And yeah, every year
people would my mom one year just put a sign under this is what this
is because so many people would stop and ask, oh, what is that
tree? But it's it's it's one you definitely want to plant if you've got
got space for a small ornamental tree. And you know the crab apples,
Yeah, the flowering crabs, and there's more than one reason to plant that.
Yeah, it's a pollinator for your other apples. It definitely is.
In fact, a lot of the crab apples are a universal pollinator. So
if you're in that, you know, in that quandary about what you're going
to do about growing apples, and you know a lot of people don't think
we can grow apples here on the Gulf Coast, and we can. There
are several apples that we can grow that do quite well for us. But
pollination is always the key, especially if you only have room for one tree,
what are you going to do about that? So it doesn't have apple's
good, Yeah, it doesn't have to be right next to it either,
So talking about the crab apple and then into the apple. I think we
should start discussing some fruit trees right now. It sounds good to me.
We'll do that right after this break. Good morning, and welcome to Garden
Line. I'm Beverly Welch of the Arborgate. I'm Angela chandler with the Garden
Academy, and we are here to answer your calls. Our number is seven
one three two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three two
one two five eight seven four, And I believe Josh has a couple of
questions for us I do. First question comes from Bob in New Waverly.
He recently got some second hand pulverized azamite from a friend and he wanted to
ask for some advice on spreading, maybe with sprayers or something a little easier
on his body while spreading. Would you like to go with this one well
pulverized. I would like to know what exactly that the powdered. I believe
it said that it was kind of like a powder. Yes, consistency.
Yes. In my own landscape, I have used the pelletize, but I
am aware that it comes in a powdered form as well, and so my
recommendation to you would be to go to the Azamite website and they have an
FAQ section that will give you the proper mixing and application for that. It
can be applied by hand as a rock dust, just as we do any
other form of rock dust which comes in a very powdered form, and in
that case she would just you know, pour a portion that you can handle
in a bucket, because you know, carrying a big sack round is not
comfortable for any of us, and just broadcasting that lightly in the landscape.
But I definitely know that there are an educational resources on the as of my
website that would give you a more specific application, especially if you did want
to try to, you know, make a wettable powder out of it.
Sounds good. The next question is from Jim in Montgomery. He needs help
identifying a type of irish. He says that this type does not have a
bulb and it come and it's got a purple and yellow color with spiky leaves.
Sounds like a Louisiana iris. Yeah, and unless he's got the butterfly
irish of the Katrina, he could have ad deities of some sort. My
question to him would be, is the foliage evergreen? Is it up year
round? That would help identify it. He also can email a photo to
info at Arburgate dot com and I'll be happy to look at it, and
I'm sure Angela would take Yeah, just at the Garden Academy dot com.
Yeah, if you can email a photo of either, you know, to
either one of us, and you know, assuming this time of year,
that what you have is just the spiky foliage. But there are several iris
that don't have a large bulb at the bottom of the Spurriya iris or another
one that don't have that large bulb and come in a huge variety of colors.
But and when you say spiky foliage, that's kind of where I'm I'm
thinking, because the Spurys have a very spiky foliage to them. So I
think a photograph would help a lot. And we glad to help with that.
Awesome, awesome, Okay. The next question comes from Stephen and Galveston.
He has a question about heat heat treating in the coming possible freeze because
he can't he can't obtain incandescent light bulb, so he has he's asking for
recommendations on that. Well, depending on what he is covering, you know,
frost cloth is always a good option if these are things in the ground
and he has access, he has any deciduous trees, you know, pulling
his leaf litter into the garden to help cover the roots. And mainly,
again depending on what he's covering. I'm assuming in Galveston it's a lot it's
more of a tropical landscape. The main thing is that you keep that root
strong and healthy. If it's if it's things like gingers and bananas that are
going to have a more fluid or liquid in the stalk. If he wants
to protect a banana, he actually could even use a cardboard box and fill
the box the cordboard around the trunk and then fill the box with leaves.
That works. It's a good insulation. It's a good insulator and a lot
of things. As long as you're keeping the crown, the trunk, the
roots healthy, it really doesn't harm the plant terribly to lose foliage, right,
And if we do have a frieze, that's hard enough that he does
want to do something. And like you said, he mentioned that he couldn't
get the incandescent lights and is looking for a heat source. They do make
a tape that is used on piping on your plumbing. The heat tape,
yes, it's a heat tape, comes in different links. It's a low
heat source. And so if we have something, you know, if we
do have a frieze it's coming up, that's going to be that bad Stephen,
and you are concerned about that, I would look into the plumbing tape,
heating tape that you can wrap easily around the lower part of your trunk
so that you don't you know, you always want to protect that graft,
but you won't need that unless we get one of those harsh Arctic blasts coming
down through here. So we want to protect our plants, but there is
the danger of over protecting some as well, so we kind of have to
make sure that we match our protection protocols to the degree of the pending freeze
that's coming. And you know you mentioned a grafted plant right. Another way
to do that that's so easy to do is with your bagged soils, your
bagged even probably your bagged umulch as well, if it's a big enough bag,
as long as it's a deep enough grind, you know. That's the
key, is that you want something that has some substance to it, which
is why we favor doing it with potting soil. Those bags, you know,
when you bring them up around the trunk of a tree, either two
or three depending on the size of the tree, that you can bring around
there and either lean against the trunk or if you have any concerns, tying
them to the trunk. That is a good six or eight inches of dense
insulation right around that graft and really good way to protect trees, especially if
you're concerned about losing the top. But you just want to make sure that
we don't lose that graph and again before freeze, it's always a good idea
to make sure your soil is moist. Yes, absolutely soil is moist,
and then get that folier seaweed out there so that you get that little bit
of you know, a degree or two of protection from that a degree several
degrees of protection from frostcloth, a little bit of protection. You know,
what we're doing is we're adding layers, just the way we add layers when
we're trying to stay warm. It's, you know, not one solution,
it's all these layers of protection that are going to help our plants. Awesome,
that's all I have. All right, thank you so much, thank
you. And then number to call is seven one three, two one two
five eight seven four. That's seven one three, two, one two five
eight seven four. Great question all of them. Yeah, have been really
good this morning. Absolutely well. We ended the last talking about flowering crab
apple trees, talking about smaller trees for the smaller landscapes that are now in
spring blooming. Get them into the ground. Now. Crab apple not only
is a beautiful ornamental tree, but it offers pollination for any other apple.
Another tree that can do a double duty, so to say, is flowering
pair. Yes, you know, if you want to grow pears in your
landscape and you're concerned about pollination and you only have room for one fruiting pair,
if your neighborhood has Bradford pairs in it flowering pears, which most of
our neighborhoods do, then you don't have to worry about that. Bees forage
one type of flower per trip out of the hive, So they're going to
visit pears on this trip, and if they visit the Bradford or other flowering
pears in your area and then visit your pears. You're going to get successful
pollination, so you can It's what they Japanese call the borrowed landscape. So
look around your neighborhood. What do your neighbors have? You know, do
you have a neighbor a block or two away that has an apple tree that's
doing well, or a plum tree that's doing well, or some tree where
it allows you to plant that the fewer trees in your landscape, if that's
your what you have space for, but not give up the idea of fruiting
because you're concerned about the space you have for trees. And people are often
surprised to learn that a bee will travel three miles. They do, you
know, they can travel up to five, but that wears a bee out.
She only has a certain number of miles in her and so they generally
travel in that two to three miles. But when you really do drive around
your neighborhood and see what's there, there's going to be a lot of trees
in a neighborhood that you can draw from and count on pollination for your trees.
So if you have room for a crape myrtle, you have room for
a fruit tree, you do, absolutely, And you know, the one
good thing about putting fruit in your landscape is that largely you are the one
that's in control as to how large your tree is going to be. Just
because a catalog says twelve to fifteen feet high and wide doesn't mean you have
to allow that tree to get twelve to fifteen feet. So if you only
have room for an eight or ten foot tall tree, you can maintain that
tree at that height. It doesn't require any additional pruning. You know,
we're going to prune our fruit trees annually anyway, and this doesn't require any
additional pruning. It just requires the idea that you decide how tall you want
your tree to be and that you keep it at that heighth. So it
does allow people a lot of flexibility to fill certain spaces in their yard.
By the same token, if you have a tall, narrow space, like
say in your side yard, you can allow that tree. You can prune
it to be a little narrower and allow it to get a little taller.
So fruit trees give us a lot of flexibility. Now they really are in
control, So don't give one up just because you're concerned about things like mature
heights or the pollenizers that you need to plant with it. You can do
a little bit of research and address both concerns. And that's an excellent point.
Because you do put them every year, you really are in control.
And oftentimes these dwarf varieties that you read about in the weekly or the Sunday
newspaper or the magazines really aren't optimal varieties for our climate. A lot of
times they're not. And the other thing is dwarfs can outperform their catalog stated
size, and they also tend to grow slower, so you have some tradeoffs
and you have to decide which of those trade offs is important to you.
Good job, Well, thank you so much, and we'll be back right
after this break. Good morning, and welcome to garden Line. I'm Beverly
Well to the Arborgate and Angela Chandler with a Garden Academy. Our number to
call this morning is seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
That's seven one three, two one two five eight seven four. And I
think Josh has a question for us, Angela, I do. This question
comes to us from Diana in the Woodlands. She is looking for advice on
how to control or preferably kill the new yopon growth that is coming up underneath
and right next to the existing yopon growth. Well, there is a stump
and buying killer that is pretty effective. I would be a little concern though,
if it is associated with an existing yopon that she wants to keep.
Yeah, because a concern there is. Most of these herbicides translocate right into
the root system, So if they have independent root systems, you might be
okay. But if they have a shared root system, that's not going to
be possible. I won't. There is also a product called sucker stop that
is very effective on stopping those suckers. You can spray them when they first
emerge. I know we have it in stock as I'm sure all the local
garden centers do as well. So she might give that a try. That'll
keep her without having to clip so often. Yeah, because that does get
frustrating. I mean, I do understand what the problem is, but you
just it's just without knowing what's going on with the roots or how adjacent they
are to each other. My concern would be translocation of that herbicide into the
root system, right, So try that sucker. It's called sucker literally as
U see kee er sucker stopper. And I've gotten good feedback on it,
so that might be worth a try. That's good. Great, that's all
I have, Thank you very much. Our number is seven to one three
two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three two one two
five eight eight seven four. And please give us a call. We'd love
to hear from you. Now we close last segment talking about some flowering smaller
trees like the crab apple flowering crab apple. And you mentioned the flowering pear
as being pollinators for our fruiting trees. Yes, and if there is limited
space that you know, not necessarily depend on getting a dwarf quote unquote dwarf
variety, as oftentimes they grow slower. Yes, there's a trade off,
right, And many times they're not really adequate with chill hours for this area,
right, and they're not as productive either. So that does become you
know, problem because when you grow fruit, you're generally growing fruit looking for
production, right, and so you're quite often better off buying a what we
call standard sized tree. And keep in mind that you know things certain the
rootstocks that work well for us, are not always hu huge trees. For
example, when the apples that we bring in here, these are not trees
that become forty forty five foot trees in the first place. These are a
twelve to fifteen foot tree without any major attention. So you know, you
have to kind of know that ahead of time and what works in your space.
And then, as we said, make up your mind is to you
know what size is going to fit the space, the vision that you have
for your landscape, and then plan to train the tree to fit into that
space. Right, and if you are limited on space, and even if
you are not limited on space, to reduce work, maintenance and multiply your
reward your harvest, there is a technique called high density, right, and
generally this means planting your fruit trees and closer proximity to each other. So
one of the most popular high density methods is to plant trees and what we
can call a cluster. So take, for instance, a plum. We
know that most plums require a pollenizer. So if you only have space for
one tree, what do you do Well, in this case, you can
plant up to four trees in one tree space where the trunks are about eighteen
inches apart, sort of in a square of different varieties that will pollenize each
other that may give you a longer harvest. So you can plant in early
a mid season and late in your selections, and then in that one tree
space you can have the solution of having both your pollinators and your different flavors
you know, and longer harvest all in one same space. And the key
there is that you'll start training this cluster of trees in the shape as if
they were one tree. And it's a relatively simple you know, it may
sound a little complicated, you know, describing it in words, but it's
a relatively simple way to do this. We do have some information on this
at the arbor Gate website. But you know, it's just a simple strategy
where it's just a matter of when you do do your annual pruning. Is
shaping that cluster of trees as using an imaginary single trunk. That's the best
way to describe it, and then you kind of get the you know,
much much more bang for your buck. You know, I have a half
acre lot and at one time I had eighty six fruit trees planted on that
one acre lot. Yes, most of ours were in this cluster planting strategy,
and then we had a fairly large citrus planting. Now I don't have
eighty six trees now because like everyone else, I have lost some citrus trees
over the last couple of years. But we are replacing those trees because we
know that not every Texas winter is going to be like the really scary winters
that come through, and it's worth it to us to have these have these
trees that we're so spoiled having that wonderful, lovely fruit in our landscape.
So uh, it's just it's just a simple strategy that you can plan on
to add a lot of fruit to your landscape. And when you start growing
fruit, it becomes a hobby all of itself, especially when you have children
or grandchildren and they get used to harvesting their own fruit out of the landscape.
It's wonderful. Well, we're going to have to explore this more.
Well, can I take a quick break and we'll be right back. Good
morning, and welcome to garden Line. I'm Beverly Welch at the arbor Gate
and Angela Chandler with the Garden Academy. And there is some great sunlight coming
in this window right now in the face. Yeah, I have to get
my to get my shades on. But it is a beautiful day and we
would love to hear from you. Seven to one, three two and two
by eight seven four. That's seven one three, two one two five eight
seven four. So we close the last segment talking about fruit trees, which
is a very important subject right now. Everybody is interested in as they should
be and growing a lot of their own food, and everyone has room for
that, yes, and that's what we were talking about as opposed to buying
dwarf varieties that may not be suited for our area. You know, we
do have control over the size of these plants, correct. We do with
our pruning and our planting methods. You talked about high density, and high
density is great if you have limited space, but I don't care if you
have twenty acres. It is a great method to use. It is it
increases production and it reduces labor, and it reduces your watering one space,
you're pruning one space, you're feeding one space, and you have a month's
long harvest. You know, even commercial growers are going to high density methods
now because of those same reasons. That it's increasing production and reducing labor.
So we know that it's important for commercial operators, but it's very important for
a busy family too. You know, the concept that fruit trees are high
maintenance, just like we talked about the roses earlier, that's an old fashioned
concept because we're going to grow these much more like a large shrub in our
landscape than we are, you know, a thirty or forty foot fruit tree
that we have to climb a ladder every time we want to prune or do
any maintenance or harvest the fruit. We're not going to put ourselves in that
position. It's going to be something that everybody in the family can participate in.
You talked about planting in the high density method, this kind of a
grid, kind of a square grid, or you could do a circle.
Right, I'm eighteen inches apart. If my only sunny location is maybe against
a wall of a house or against the fence line, why can't I grow
a fruit tree there instead of a vine? Can't they be trained onto trellis?
They sure can, and it's a form called espalier, And there is
a very ancient way of growing fruit exactly for that reason. It kind of
captured both the light and the heat coming off the wall, and so espalier
is basically growing into what we would consider two dimensions rather than one where trees
are are trained to a trellis or trained to a set of support wires.
It's not suitable to every fruit, but it's suitable to an awful lot of
them. You know, most of the major ones that we want to grow.
There are formal espalier forms and informal espalier, and so that allows us
to grow things like peaches and citrus in that informal style, where we would
grow things like apples and pears in the more formal styles espalier. So like
say the narrow side yards, the little things that we have to deal with
in the urban landscape, that's very suited to growing espelier, and it doesn't
require a professional landscaper or gardener to train. This is something that every homeowner
can learn to do. You know, there are really seven forms of what
we would consider high density, and so the most common ones are things like
growing in the clusters, growing with espalier. Container growing is also considered a
high density form, and there are many many fruit trees that can be grown
in containers. Some are more suited towards short term in containers, others can
live their entire lives and containers. We also have you know, other forms
that we can grow, you know, trees in that would you know,
allow us to include an awful lot of fruit in the suburban landscape. Things
like you think about citrus in normal winters, Citrus isn't evergreen for us.
So if you have a place where you need a hedge for some reason,
you know there's an eye sore, or if it's a privacy issue, Uh,
there's no reason that citrus can't be your hedge, right, and so
it's here you go where you have that privacy addressed. You may have an
eye sore addressed, but you've got fruit production and the absolute magnificent fragrance of
the blooms during the bluemin season. Right, So just being it's being a
little bit more creative about how we fit fruit into the landscape. Well,
and speaking on the create creative side, we built that arbor back in the
garden area and we're trying to grow to pear trees up the arbor, up
and over, and then you plan to graft them at their tips when they
when they reach the peak. Yeah, that's often done with spelier as well.
When when the two trees meet each other, if they're grown in a
row, that they're grafted together at the tips. And so this will probably
be the year in which we select the branches that will go over that arbor,
and it's almost time to start doing a little bit of pruning for them
for this coming year. It's getting closed. But it's just the idea of
being very creative with your fruit trees that it's not you know, this is
not your grandfather's fruit tree, as you know, the ad used to say,
this is something that we can be very creative with using in the landscape.
And there's just something so special about picking tree ripened fruit, oh oh
my gosh, cheek of its perfection, grown cleanly and organically in your own
landscape, where you know absolutely every input that went into that tree, and
then bringing that fruit to the table. It's a very special thing to do.
Well. You know, we often get tired get asked what do our
plant? You plant what you like to eat? Yes, that's the number
one question when people ask that is what does your family like to eat?
What fruit do you consistently buy at the g grocery store, and in generally
those answers are going to be things like citrus and apples and oranges and pears.
All of those things can be grown in the Gulf Coast garden. Well,
we're going to have to continue on this subject the next next segment,
and we're going to take a quick break and be right back with you.
Thank you. Katie r H. Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of
the products or services advertised on this program. Welcome to kat r H Garden
Line with Skip Rictor It's Crazy Trim. Just watch him as many sup crazy
double a sor. Good morning, Welcome to the Garden Line. I'm Beverly
Welch from the Arbor Gate and Angela Channer from the Garden Academy. We would
love to hear from you this beautiful morning. Our number is seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three, two one
two five eight seven four. You know, we talked about last segment,
almost last hour, about a subject that I think that a lot of people
are very interested in and wanting to try, and that's growing their own fruit
and food. We talked about the different techniques if you're limited or not on
space. The high density home orchard management, growing fruits s by a along
a wall or a fence line, and even being as creative as growing pear
trees over at arbor. Yes, absolutely so, there's so many ways to
do it. We often get asked, so, now I want to grow
some fruit? What do I plant? And my first response is always what
do you like to eat? What does your family buy? What fruits do
you like to bring to the table on a regular basis? And like I
said, fortunately, you know usually the answers are going to be things like
citrus or apples and peaches and pears, and all of those things can be
grown here. The next question in selection is to pick something with a proper
chill hour. People often assume that a chill hour means freezing temperatures. They
do, and it's not. So first of all, let's get some generalizations
in one, chill hours only applies to temperate fruit trees and some things like
berries and grapes, so it's not going to apply to citrus, which is
a semi tropical, so we can kind of take that out of the mix.
You don't have to worry about it there. But with things like your
apples and peaches and plums and pears, things in that category. The deciduous
trees that lose their leaves in the fall and have a complete dormancy, they
require a certain number of hours between thirty two and forty five, so it's
not at freezing or below freezing that we're looking for. In fact, hours
below freezing don't count, so they don't accumulate in our chill in hours over
depending on who you talk to, sixty five or seventy those hours actually subtract
from our chill. So when we have those periods of very warm weather,
we can lose some of our accumulated chill hours. But the lovely thing about
it is when we look at our general average temperatures throughout the winter, we
have an awful lot of hours between thirty two and forty five because we have
those days that hang around forty two forty three degrees, the sort of overcast
days, and so we do accumulate chill. Now, it varies across you
know, Houston's big so it varies muchly from the northwest side down to the
southeast side, and then definitely at the island where we're in the lowest chill
hours good, So you know, you kind of have to know where do
you live and some good sources for this information. I have a generalized article
about chill hours on my website at the Gardenacademy dot com. By the way,
I don't sell anything, so you can go there free and you're not
going to get spammed with a bunch of emails afterwards. And then doctor Bob
Brandle with the Urban Harvest has a website called year Round Gardening dot net and
he has collected chill information by neighborhood around Houston. So if you know what
your subdivision or neighborhood is, you can go to his website and look specifically
and get you know, at least decades worth of chill information there to kind
of match it. And the great thing to know is that our local and
dependent nurseries all carry fruit trees that are suitable for the Gulf Coast area where
we can't count on that necessarily in the national stores. So we want to
make sure that we're buying fruit matched to the chill hours that are suitable for
your part of town. Perfect. I think Josh has a question, great,
let's take it. I do. This one comes from Cordelia the Hobby
Airport area. She has two trees, both about three to four foot tall
as of right now, one a meer lemon and one a satsuma, and
she is asking when is the right time to move them to a larger pot.
What size container are they? Well, she's not there. They are
still in the containers that they came in. Okay, so probably about a
three to five gallon container. If they're that young, I would say they
could stand there at least another year before she would think about moving up.
And when she does move up to a larger container, do not go from
a three or five gallon to a ten or fifteen gallon. That's so important.
You have a smaller root ball that's not going to be able to absorb
the excess moisture and a larger container and drainage is so essential, especially on
a citrus. Yeah, so you might want to step up to a seven.
And then the other thing too is keep an eye on the root ball
because you don't necessarily know how long that tree was in the container before you
purchased it. So there's solid enough by this time that you can kind of
gently knock the container off the sides and take a look at the rootball.
If you still see a good mix of soil content with the roots in it,
the fleshy white roots, you're generally, like Beverly said, good for
another time period. If that has starting to become crowding and your roots are
starting to circulate, then you might want to go ahead and think about stepping
it up. But as far as time of year is concerned, you can
pretty much bump them up. Anytime. Active growing season is the best.
But assuming that you're going to keep it in its sort of nursery conditions and
in protected space, you could even do that now. Apps. Yeah,
that's great, and you know we I think you touched on this last segment.
That's another way to grow any fruit really is in containers. If you're
with the limited space, I think you included containers with the high density program.
They are. They're very much the part of high density because we can
move those containers into all different kinds of logistics in our landscape and things like
the Meyer lemon, that is a tree that's quite happy in a container.
Really for its life, you'll want to step up into containers, you know,
as the tree gains its size and maturity. But lemons grow quite happily
in a container and are very productive in a container for a very long period
of time. And it's a good way to follow the sun. It really
is a very good way to follow the sun. It's also a good way
to find out where in your landscape are these fruit trees the happiest. It's
a good point when they're in a container. You can move them until you
find just the right microclimate for that tree, and then you can make a
decision do you want to keep it in the container or do I want to
go ahead and you know, put it in the ground and ease of maintenance
you you can't be just make sure that you get excellent drainage. Excellent drainage
and mind you're nutrition. Yeah, because fruit tree is in a container,
they don't have the same access to the natural nutrition in the landscape, so
we have to fertilize more often. Thank you so much, and we're going
to take a quick break. We'll be back shortly. Boy, that was
a blast from the past. Sure was. Good morning. Welcome to garden
Line. I'm Beverly Well to the Arborgate. I'm Angela Chandler with the Garden
Academy and welcome, thank you for joining us. Our number to call is
seven one three two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. In the past gosh hour, I
guess we've been focusing on fruit tree, how to plant them, yep,
what to plant to plant yep, a little bit about chill hours, chill
hours, and I think Josh has a question for us I do. This
one comes from Lewis and Brian, Texas. He has a Alice Stobb anemonee
and he is wondering about on how to take care of it. Okay,
Alice Stubb, you're lucky because that's one of the only anemonies that will grow
for us. And it's a very beautiful little plant. So she's happy in
both sun and shade. But she has a slightly different growth habit in sun
than she does in shade. So in the sun it's going to be a
more compact plant, and in the shade she may send out some daughter plants
around it. They like to be very well drained. That's one of the
keys to keeping that one happy. I haven't seen that one in a while,
haven't seen It's a Lynn Lowry introduction is it is, and it's I
would consider really an heirloom plant. It certainly acts like one. If it's
not, it's definitely an air loom plant. Doctor Creech has written some absolutely
lovely articles about alicetoub and it's kind of a Houston heirloom, right, consider
it that way, right, great question, Thank you for the all and
lovely plant, and I wish you very good luck with it. Absolutely.
The number to call this morning is seven one three, two, one two
five eight seven four seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
So I'm going to jump back over to our trees again, our fruit trees
again. Talked about the chill hours. That seems to be confusing to a
lot of people. So you explain that it is thirty two to forty five
degrees and just check your local right Bob Randall, you said, has said
yeah he does. Because it's oriented by by neighborhood, by subdivision. So
that's against you really wired in. And the article on my website is more
general, you know, just based on your general location around town, so
that won't really get you zeroed in. But the main thing is trust that
your local independent nursery is bringing in the right fruit trees for you. Now,
why is it chill hour important? Well, that's you know, scientists
are still trying to figure out the whole mechanism of chill by the way,
but it's what the tree requires during its resting period to be able to trigger
bloom and fruiting the following year. So when you don't get sufficient chill hours,
you'll see things like delayed flowering, delayed foliage set, delayed fruiting because
it's just hasn't hit that happy space. And so in the Houston area we
have a wide variety of chill Like I say, on the island we may
have one hundred and fifty hours, where in the Cypress area we may have
up to four fifty hours. So that's one of the reasons it's a big
challenge for our great local nurserymen to be able to carry trees that are going
to make everybody happen. And that way, that is what dictates what varieties
we do care. Yes, it is absolutely so. If you get if
you live in say our area, the Tombail area, I usually as to
make three fifty to five hundred trill. If you get one lower, say
two fifty, like I love tropics, now everybody does. That is the
best peach I know. But it blooms early, it has a low chill,
so you're rolling the dice. You are rolling the dice. You have
a risk with something like that where you may it may be in full bloom
when we get a late freeze. Right. And so the best thing to
do there is understand we're dealing with nature. Sometimes you kind of have to
roll with the punches, enjoy her in the years that you get good fruit,
and then just understand that occasionally you're gonna you're gonna lose a set of
blooms to a heavy freeze. Right. So when you do the high density
method, then you plant say four peach trees in the area. That might
be when you can sneak in. It might be one you can put in
there, and that way you still will have production. And the other thing
too is when nestling these trees together, they do protect each other, that's
true. And the other good thing about keeping fruit trees lower and not allowing
them to gain some huge size is it's much easier to get you know,
especially like a fourteen by fourteen foot of frost cloth over it, because sometimes
it's not the ambient air temperature that's going to get the blossoms. It's the
frost crystals falling into the open blossoms. So if you can keep that you
know, radiant frost from settling in them, you may save a fruit load.
It's worth a try. Oh always, everything's worth trying once at least.
So fruit is definitely one that we need to plant. We can do
it easily. We've got a lot of varieties to choose from and a lot
of different methods. You introduce me to one and you called it the Fruit
Tree Guild. I have to admit I thought we were joining a club.
It wasn't quite sure. And then doing more research on it, it's so
intriguing. It combines so many companion planting, permaculture, building your soil,
a soil building, just replicating almost nature if you will. Yes, we
really are playing Mother Nature with the Fruit Tree Guild. So the Fruit tree
Guild, instead of being you know, like lollipops and quilting, is gathering
a group of plants around the base of the tree, within the root zone
of that tree that are beneficial to the tree itself while it's growing. And
so it's very much le similar to companion planting and this idea of permaculture.
It can be a wide variety of things can be planted under these trees.
So you look at things like what will it contribute to the tree. Is
it a nitrogen fixer? You know, and that could be everything from black
eyed peas to blue bonnets, you know, is it a nitrogen fixer?
Does it attract beneficials? Is it a chop and drop where I get a
lot of good organic matter can be cut back on a regular basis and dropped
to allow to decay naturally on the ground to continually feed my soil, you
know. Is it something that like a dikon radish or turnips that will dig
a deep you know, root down into the soil and open up that soil
and improve aeration and drainage. So it's always you know, what does this
plant do that's going to contribute to the fruit tree. So studies are showing
now that these fruit tree gilds, which is a combination of things like other
fruiting plants, flowering plants, you know, leaf mass plants. You know
that studies are showing that the fruit trees are they have more longevity, meaning
they're living longer, they're more productive. These are all things that we're looking
for with fruit trees. And then as a gardener, we're always looking for
additional places to garden. So you know, rather than just being that malterring
around my fruit tree, I can have the malts in a little bit of
compost and then in addition to that, work in some herbs and some legumes
and some other things around the base of my plant. Or even with taller
trees, you can do things like plant other berry plants underneath it, so
that you get layers of fruiting, you know, happening in that one same
root zone area. So it's it's pretty interesting. It works very well.
It's a very productive way to garden, and a kind of a creative way
to garden. And yes, and gives you a lot of room to experiment
too, right, right, so they and they need to remember too,
these trees are deciduous, right, so they offer sunlight in the winter months,
the cooler months where they would be shadier areas in the summer. So
that would afford us, say, for instance, your bulbs. You can
plant bulbs under the tree or even in a ring around the tree, because
there are some bulbs like the daffodil family, the tazetta and narcissus that repel
things like rabbits and deer. So if you have trouble with that around your
fruit trees, you can always make that combination. Right, So these plants
offer suppression, their suppressor plants like your red clover, right, just to
get people an idea of what we're talking about, squash, strawberries and one
of our favorites nestershams. Yes, then there are attractor plants. So you
have your dill, your fennel, lavender flowers, like your salvias. Even
you could do the nemerosis, you can do the greggy eyes, any of
them. Combining native plants in your fruit tree guild is always a plus because
this is remember that our beneficial insects, they evolved with our indigenous plants,
so their natural partners. Right. And then another one it would be au
You're just such an easy one to grow. Then you have your pest repellers
and like you already mentioned the daffodils that tizeta's for the critter y repelliums aliums
are great gau a regano chive. I mean, the list just goes on
and on. Yeah, it's it's a beautiful small space to experiment in and
you're going to combine annuals and perennials, native plants within this maybe, like
I say, even other things like berries and other fruiting plants. So it's
a it's kind of a gardening laboratory. But it's all with the idea of
what does this plant do for my fruit tree and thinking in that basis,
you know, on a regular basis. Well, I moved as some of
the gingers over to our fruit tree guild the other day and did the chopping
drop X with the foliage, and we planted comfrey that day we knew were
there and it has just taken off. Yeah, we did get that balking
fourteen variety in, but again I haven't really noticed it com for you being
an issue. Yeah, it's it's kind of climate limited, right, I
think so. I think so. But the foliage is great. It's also
you know, it's a weed suppressor. It's a great one to have.
Yep, well, this is great. We will have to continue on after
the break. Thank you for listening. When we return, our number to
call is seven one three two one two five eight seven four. That's seven
one three two one two five eight seven four. Good morning, and welcome
to garden Line. I'm Beverly Welch of the Arborgate and I'm here today with
Angela Chandler of the Garden Academy. We're sitting in very privileged to sit in
for Skip Richter this morning. Our number to call is seven one three two
one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three, two one two
five eight seven four. We got so much to cover, Angelaine, so
little time, I know, but it's so much fun talking about gardening,
well talking at gardeners. So, Josh, I think you have a question
for us iss I do. This question comes from Marshall in the Dayton area.
He asks what types of stone fruit are good to plant in that area
and he also would like you to repeat the websites you used to log the
chill hours, all right, So in your case, you're in that three
hundred and fifty plus zone. So with the stone fruits, you can select
from a lot of peaches. You have the May Pride, the mid Pride,
the Florida series texts, Yeah, text Pride. Just you have tons
that you can grow in that area up there, and then if you like
plums. Pretty much all of the plums will be covered in your chill zone
in that area. And I will tell you that a very good source for
you to read up on the different variety so that you can choose flavor profiles
that you like and also get chill our information is the Urbanharvest website. It's
urbanharvest dot org. Urban Harvest is around to help the Upper Gulf Coast community
learn how to grow food and they have some education pages that doctor Bob Randall
and I wrote and I edited a number of years ago, so they're they're
just If you'll go to the gardening knowledge section of the website, you'll see
information on fruit trees and you'll see a list of common varieties that you're gonna
find in this area and which ones would be more suitable in your chill zone,
and a little bit of idea about you know, yellow peaches versus white
peaches, and you know clean stone clingstone versus freestone. So you can get
a pretty good, pretty good set of information. Doctor Randall has a great
book that is published as well. Yes he does. I know we hear
it, but I'm sure most all the all the independent nurseries carry it.
Yes, he did. It's a very good book and it's it's sort of
been known for a very long time. I'm as the Houston area, you
know, gardening. Go to a nectarine. He can do a few nectrines.
Yeah, he can do nectarines for sure, nectarnes of apricots or you
know that's kind of a in the iffy. Yeah, they I think what
once it may be a three four years you can get dallas before it head
there. You know, I've tried apricots, even though what the low chill
apricots, they bloom, but they don't produce fruit. So I think you're
in the you know, zone eight and above for that one. But he's
he can grow lots of lots of peaches, lots of plums. That's a
great question, and that leads me into another subject. It is fertilization.
Oftentimes people are hesitant to feed this time of year, and that all depends
on a what you're feeding as far as the plant material, but also is
what are you feeding with. Are you feeding with a synthetic is it water
soluble or time rely? Are you feeding with an organic? Is it water
soluble or is it time released? Right? You know, as we were
talking earlier. Nature never stops feeding. No, she doesn't, don't stop
eating right right, So again, based upon what you're feeding and what you
feed with, Yeah, determines on your schedule. It's a big difference,
right. I know, Skip has a great fertilization schedule out that's on the
website. It's Gardening with Skip dot com and so you can get his fertilization
schedules. There list a number of product that are available that are good for
our area. But the other thing is just remember, like I say,
nature doesn't remove nutrients, but she also doesn't you know, force a lot
of growth cycles either. So when you're using slow release fertilizers, especially slow
release organics, you can get on a consistent, basically a year round fertilization
schedule. You know, I practice myself a philosophy of half as much wwis
is often, so I basically fertilize about once a month. And definitely when
I'm in the garden about and changing out plants, something's going to get a
toss of fertilizer around it. Sure, But if I'm going to use a
liquid on something that I'm freshly planting, or I'm actually wanting to stimulate I
wouldn't do that this time of year. You know, that's where we say
with your water solubles, especially your water soluble synthetics, we want to back
off there in October and hold off in weight until we are preparing for active
growth in the spring. So it really does you know, it's not just
one size fits all. You have to know what product are you using,
how does it work in your soil, because you don't want to push that
excess growth that could could be winter killed. But you also want to make
sure that everything has enough nutrition to build that good root growth and good sustained
growth throughout the wintertime. So it really is a balance. Well. And
many synthetics are affected by temperature, right they are extreme cold, extreme heat,
and the organics are unaffected, right. And you know, all fertilizers
are based on their movement a lot on the soil moisture as well, so
we know that they will lock up in dry, warmer soils and they'll be
more plentiful in the cooler moisture soil. So it, like I say,
it's it's really not one size fits all, and you kind of have to
get a good knowledge of your own personal garden and then the products that you're
using and good, you know, use it wherever possible, use a local
products. Definitely, great products available in the Houston area. And then you
know, always get that information from your local garden centers. Yeah, so
again, I thank you for listening. Our number to call is seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three two one
two five eight seven four and we'll be back after this quick break. Good
morning. You're listening to the Garden Line. Sitting in for Skip Richter.
I'm Beverly Welch at the Arbor Gate and I'm Angela Chandler with the Garden Academy
and welcome in Josh. Understanding of a question for us I do? This
question comes from Janice in fullsher she has a fruit tree. She didn't specify
what kind of fruit fruit tree that started blooming in September after the harsh summer,
and she's wondering if it is going to bloom again in the spring.
Okay, it's kind of common, and I'll bet you it was a pear
tree, but it could have been an apple, because pears do this almost
every year now and apples have started doing it as well. But that often
happens after kind of a false dormancy of the drought serious that we had,
so our excess heat and drought in the summer kind of triggers a false dormancy,
and so we'll see a little bit of bloom. Like I say,
for many years now, pairs have been doing this on a consistent basis.
In the last couple of years, apples have been doing it as well.
So you know, when we finally did get some rain in a little bit
of a cool off, it was like a rebirth. Yes, everything bursts
back in right. Everything looked new and fresh and happy and energetic. And
yeah, but not to worry. You will have your regular bloom again in
the spring. They just get fooled by it a little bit and it's just
a reaction to that. But you'll still have your regular bloom. Right.
That's a great question. It is because it happens commonly, and I'm glad
she gave us the opportunity to explain it. Right, And we sort of
ended the last segment talking about fertilization, how important it is. They need
to go and check out Skip's schedule on guarding with Skip dot Com. But
again, base your judgment on what type of product that you use, whether
it's synthetic, organic liquid or granular time released. You know, don't stop
feeding, Yeah, don't stop feeding. Just pay attention to nutrition because a
lot of times that's one of the major issues we see when somebody asks a
question about why something's not performing and you ask them, well, you know,
what have you fertilized with and when did you last fertilized on long time,
Well, I haven't fertilized, and so we don't want to get over
you know, fertilized things, but we want to provide consistent, regular nutrition.
The feast and famine is not the way nature works, so it's really
not what we want to do for our plants. And you know, one
great thing about it, Beverly, is that, like so many of our
show sponsors have websites where people can get this information on a regular basis.
So you know, Nelson Plant Food and the Asamide and micro Life where they
have educational information on their site about each individual product, what the application rates
are, what the recommended application frequency is. So this is something that I
think listeners should get more accustomed to doing, is visiting the websites of show
sponsors on a regular basis taking advantage of the fact that they've provided an awful
lot of good educational material there that's available twenty four to seven, you know,
And then of course Skips website and the Yes Exact and Wabash and RCW
and My's Nursery. I mean, we are very blessed in this area.
Oh my God, to have such a Southwest fertilizer, such a huge selection,
if you will, and even as independence, we all have different specialties,
we all have different products. It's worth, it's worth to drive to
visit us all, you know. I tell people that a regular basis in
my classes is the fact of how lucky Houston is to have so many great
soil yards, you know, who are blending soils that are not just you
know, in a bag suiting a national average, that they are geared towards
the Upper Gulf Coast, that they're perfect for everything that we need to do
here, that they're customized blends, whether you're you know, growing plumerias or
whether you're growing vegetables, you know, whether you're growing in a container or
whether you're building raised beds. We're so fortunate. And then you know,
I don't really know of any place that has the selection of fertilizers that we
have in this area, again custom blended to meet the needs of the Gulf
Coast, which is really a very challenging environment in which to garden. And
then all of our independent nurseries, the Ace Hardware stores where they have knowledgeable
people who can answer your questions on a regular basis, where it's not just
a publication or a handout, that you have somebody there who has personal knowledge
of both the plants and all of the nutrients that we need, maybe even
you know, fertil you know, pest control when you need it. It's
just truly we are we are truly blessed. And then we have the Garden
Academy. Well, thank you very much, and you know you definitely should
watch for Angela's classes. I can't. Well, I do appreciate that,
you know, it's all about the education. For me, I'm a gardener.
I love to talk to other gardeners. That's what you know, doing
the show is all about. And that's really what garden Line is all about,
is just this community of gardeners that we have here in this challenging but
fascinating, you know, very interesting climate. We have a lot of opportunity.
It's a paradise for gardeners because there other than pouring rain, there is
truly not a day and I don't think there is a day that that I
don't go do something. Yeah, in the in the garden. Yeah,
you know, And I tell you we have this vast palette of plants to
draw from it because we live in a bridge between the temperate zone and the
semi semi tropical zone and we can draw from both of those palettes instead of
just being so limited. So it truly is a gardener's paradise. Well,
you know, Angela, it's been a pure joy to be with you today
as always, and I again I love sharing. We have so much more
to talk about it we do. We could do this again, and I
want the listeners to know Skip we'll be back next weekend, so look forward
to that. The podcast of today's show will be available at the end of
the day. But make sure and go visit Gardening with Skip dot com.
Yeah, definitely, and Skip's adding content on a regular basis, so that's
definitely a go to. Absolutely. But it's been a joy, a pleasure.
I can't wait to get back outside. It's a beautiful day. It
is. We have a lot of good gardening days left in the year,
so we should be doing all of them. As we said. This is
as Anne says, New Year's Day for herbs on October first, but this
is our season, so plant planned away. Thank you so much for listening. He didn't