Ho ho ho. Coming to you from Beautiful Studio A. It's time for
the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacey Hervella, me, Rick Weist, and our
engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. As you can see, it's snowing here in
West Michigan and we're getting into the holiday spirit. I have learned through the
years that holiday branches are a form of aroma therapy. I mean, the
holidays can be stressful, Yes, absolutely, you got to act like an
ornament and just kind of hang in there and chill right, just just hang
hang through it, you know. But evergreens. We know that evergreens smell
good. And I have learned through the years, especially operating a garden center,
that many people will walk in at this time of the year simply for
the aroma to breathe the aroma. And we especially saw that in twenty twenty
during the COVID pandemic and everyone feeling rather claustrophobic walk into the garden center,
into the greens, into the holiday greens. And I'll tell you what,
one of the keys with evergreen branches is to go for a mix, because
all of these evergreen branches have a different aroma to them. Of course,
Douglas fir that citrusy smell, had pine incense, cedar, all of those
beautiful evergreens, and that mix is just fabulous to breathe in. So Stacey,
I consider during the holidays using some evergreen branches and some colorful branches to
be a form of aroma therapy and some therapy as it is, because again,
the holidays can be kind of a hectic time. They can, and
you know, I think because scent is such a strong part of memory.
Scent is a huge part of why people have so many great memories around the
holidays. And you know, particularly the Christmas tree, and that's one of
the reasons why Freezer furs so it's one of the most fragrant of all of
the potential Christmas trees. Absolutely so love that smell. And of course plants
and these branches are associated with Christmas, but they have their origins basically with
the winter solstice and people thinking, wow, those beautiful fall colored leaves.
There's a long period of time between them and when the daffodils and the hellebores
and the crocus start to pop out of the ground. And so it helps
us get through those shorter and colder days. Now I love to decorate window
boxes for Christmas, and of course window boxes have been around since Roman civilization.
Also one of the keys with window boxes I have found is today we
have these beautiful, bright led lights which are basically indestructible, and if you
lay them right on the soil of the window box before you start putting the
branches in, then place deciduous branches in the back with evergreens draped over the
front. It makes for a great window box. And you're bearing in mind
that during the holiday season you're going to be viewing that window box primarily from
inside, so make sure to put those deciduous, leafless branches on the back
for some height. But window boxes are fun, and of course also containers,
which brings us to our word of the day. And you have to
help me with this stacy and help our listeners and our viewers. I'm counting
on you. There is a method called either coppice or copis. I say
coppice, you say coppas all right, So we're going to go with coppice
or coppassing. The English have been growing shrubs and cutting them back hard for
centuries with the express purpose of harvesting the branches for fencing. So if you
think about it, prior to let's say, World War One, we didn't
have a lot of the plastics and steel and that sort of thing around.
People would make fencing, they would make gates out of these branches, they
would use them for roofing, twine them together, and they would coppass.
These trees a variety of trees or shrubs. If you think about it,
these are well established trees or shrubs. So when you prune them back really
hard, they've got a great foundation, a well established root system, and
quickly recover the next year with branches. Right, all of that energy goes
into pushing out those branches. Now, compassing is different than pollarding. So
compassing just means you cut the whole plant back to stumps, like a couple
of inches from the ground, which seems extreme. But again we're talking about
not doing this with the plant you just bought, you know, but with
the mature plant, so it has that huge root mass that acts as an
engine to fire up all that growth. Whereas pollarding is something that you see
more on the West Coast. I feel like, or in sure public gardens
where you have the trunk and then you cut it back to stump. So
with compassing you're going all the way to the ground and making more of a
shrub, and with a polarting it's more like a tree. We're getting the
same effect, but several feet in the air because it starts at the trunk
of the tree, not at the ground. I see a lot more of
the pollarding you're right in the south or the west, And of course when
I was in Europe this spring, saw a lot of it in the Netherlands.
Very popular. Now in this case, compassing is a highly sustainable method
of producing rapidly growing useful wood without the need to replant. Yeah, so
you could cut every year. And of course the best example we have here
at proven Winter's color choice shrubs I'm going to guess Stacey is probably the red
twig or yellow twig dogwoods, right right, So that's a great example of
a shrub that would be coppassed, primarily for esthetic reasons. As we talked
about we just covered Arctic fire yellow red twig dogwood a couple weeks ago,
and as we discuss there, if you let red twig dogwoods there would get
too mature. It turns kind of quirky and barkie and that color disappears.
So what you do is you compass it partially or wholly, depending on how
you're using the plant, and that caused all that colorful new growth to appear.
So in this case, we're not trying to harvest a bunch of straight
sticks for steaks or weaving fences. A lot of people used to compass for
easily harvestable and manageable firewood for indoor cooking, so they didn't have big chunks
of wood. So lots of different reasons to do it. But yeah,
that is probably the application that the most majority of Americans would be familiar with
with the practice of compassing, even though they might not know they're doing it.
And we do it here, of course at this time of the year
for the colorful branches that we like to put in holiday containers. Coming up
on today's show on segment four, we'll talk to landscape designer Deborah Silver about
that and the use of these branches in holiday containers. I like to go
out and cut some branches that I put into holiday containers at this time of
the year. As a matter of fact, you probably figured I put together
a limerick on that. Here it comes Stacey, because I'd love to go
out and cut these branches, pretty branches, put them in containers. I'm
trying to holiday decorate, create something festive, ornate. I'm throwing a bash.
I don't have much cash. My decor motif is cheapskate. I need
a really good price, and my neighbor's landscape is nice. Under the cover
of darkness, they won't notice the starkness. If just a few branches,
I'll splice just a few branches. I'll take my festive planter to make their
bushes my shears chops, and if they don't call the cops, I'll have
them over for fruitcake. Aren't you tempted sometimes to just cut a few branch
because they're so you can't do that, not advising you to do that,
okay, But of course at the end of the season, we can often
get some end of seasoned potting soil that's available at a good price, put
it in containers, and then stick the branches in these containers. Some people
use oasis foam blocks. But whatever way you do it, you know,
in spring, when we plant these containers, we think we work from the
center out Thriller filler, spiller or focal filler, edge or trailer, whatever
it may be. I take a little different approach for holiday containers. I
like to put the thriller in the center first, but then go to the
outside and choose evergreen branches like cedar, and put the spiller in first because
they make great spillers, and then we'll layer in the other components afterwards.
And of course things like pussy willow, red twig, dogwood, birch branches,
southern magnolia leaves. I've even seen ornamental grasses tied to bamboo snakes,
using those as a filler, or ornamental kale, and of course hydrangea blooms.
Just a fun thing to do for the holiday, right, And if
you don't have a red twig, dogwood or something colorful, you know,
you can spray paint something cheaper. It's true, it's not uncommon to do
that. And then you know it's win win. You know. My castor
being plants this past year got to be twelve feet tall, and I pulled
them out of the ground. Of course, the foliage froze, but the
stems were sturdy and they were bright green, and I used them as the
center Thriller in one of my planters, and I love that great. And
then I put some Cedris Atlantica, the blue Atlas cedars. Yeah, I
did a little pruning on mine, not my neighbors. Put it in the
container as my spiller, and then I filled in with some euanimous. Within
two days, the deer had come by and pulled all the euanymous and ate
all of them. Wow, they must have had a cold. They wanted
some hungry mental action. Yeah, I'll set out some Vicks vapor rub for
them. But I mean, it's a fun thing to do, isn't it,
Stacey. And it's great at this time of the year. Again remembering
that originally it was more so based on the winter solstice and not on the
holidays, that these types of containers would be put together to lift the spirits
people. And again that aroma. I just view those evergreen branches as aroma
therapy. Yep, they smell amazing. Coming up next, Plants on Trial.
We'll see what Stacey has on her mind this week here on the Gardening
Simplified Show, Prooven Winner's Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in the garden.
That's why we trial and test all of our shrubs for eight to ten
years, making sure they outperform everything else on the market. Look for them
and the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greetings gardening friends,
and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. You know, I'm not trying
to get the last word in, but I did have a few more things
I wanted to just say about compassing, please, you know, because it's
like you're going off on the holiday thing and I'm going off on the horticultural
thing up in here. So two things. There are other ornamental reasons to
compass. It's something that we used to do. I used to be a
rooftop gardener in New York City for a couple seasons, and it was common
for us to plant things that had really amazing foliage if they were compassed.
So two good examples are not a smoke bush, catinas and also polonia if
you're familiar with that. Some people call it Korean Polonium has purple flowers,
not super hardy, but you do see them here in Michigan as well as
Catalpa. And so when you compass these plants, now what happens is you're
generally removing the flowers so they're not going to flower. But it's that same
concept of using the root mass as an engine to fuel growth. What they
do in response is put out absurdly huge foliage, Like the kind of foliage
it's going to make people, you know, stop in the street and go,
what is that? It's going to be a plant that they're familiar with.
I like that, but it just that's what the result of that,
especially with the polonia, especially with the nine bark. So it's a fun
thing to experiment with, and it kind of is one of those things that
if you perhaps have a plant that's overgrown and you're thinking you're going to take
it out, like why not try to compass it? Especially almost any shrub
can be compassed to some varying degree of results depending on what you want to
do, but you might as well try it rather than, you know,
try to coerce your neighbor with a pickup truck to put a chain on it
and yank out your overgrown shrub. You never know what's going to happen.
I like that, And I would think willow would be really good too,
right. Willow is a very common one, not only for the English fences.
But willow is definitely one of those plants that if it starts to grow
too much, you're not going to get flower. You know, the flowers
are the pussy willows where you can see them, they'll be way up ten
twelve feet up in the air. So if you cut it back, you're
getting that, you know, in a place where you can actually see and
enjoy and harvest. So it's something that cut flower growers do to be able
to harvest stems. And if you are a basket weaver, you're definitely compassing
your willows so you get lots of nice straight stems for basket weaving. Love
it now. One other fun fact about compassing have If you read like a
lot of older fiction or British fiction or even nonfiction, you may be familiar
with the word cops, copcop se. You ever hear this word like a
wooded cops, A cops in the woods, a cops is a coppist force,
a cop a coppast area. So it was so common in many areas
to manage the woods through compassing in England that there is actually a specific term
for an area where the trees and shrubs are managed by compassing, and that
is a cops so it doesn't just mean a poetic, pretty little place in
the woods. It means specifically a coppist area. That's very interesting. And
yes, in my reading I read that in England in those areas, in
many cases they would be using something they called sweet chestnut for those areas.
So very cool. And while you're you know, that's great information to have,
and I'm sitting here thinking, yeah, I took basket weaving one on
one in school, and you took linguistics. That's why you know these things
and I don't. Well, you know, it's a very interesting part of
garden history too, and if you go to colonial Williamsburg you can see this.
They compass their vitex to harvest steaks for their plants in the garden.
That's one of the things that they did early on. So there's a lot
of interesting, useful horticultural reasons for compassing. So if you are so inclined,
I would definitely recommend a deep dive at your local Internet search window.
Vitex is another Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I love it. I
know you love Vitex. Yeah I did. Now, moving on today's plan
on trial, it is not a plant that should be compassed. Let's just
say that right away, coming off of the compassing discussion there now, when
like I said, almost any shrub can be compassed, but you don't want
to generally compass evergreens. They are not gonna rebound from this process as well
as something like a willow et cetera or a dogwood. So we're shifting gears
completely. This is not a plant you hicicappas because it is an evergreen.
And today's plant on trial is fluffy arborvidy. Fluffy fluffy, isn't it a
fun name? I love it. It is a fun name, and it's
the planet itself is actually quite smooth, but it has a sort of fluffy,
glowing appearance in the landscape. Now, fluffy arborvidy is a western arbor
dy. That's Thuya plakata, and so that is basically the West coast version
of a North American native arbor vidy. Now, the East coast version that's
much more commonly planted as hedges and that you'll certainly see growing wild in a
number of areas across the eastern half of the US. That's Thuya occidentalis.
The Eastern arborvity. We're talking here with fluffy. It's a western arbor vidy.
Two notable differences with a western arborvity over an Eastern arbor vity. First,
the foliage almost has like a braided kind of effect. It's a little
bit hard to describe. You kind of have to see it to believe it.
But it's much glossier and the design or the scales of the foliage are
much more distinctive. They really stand out and it gives it a very strong
look. It's glossier as well. The other thing about the western arborvity not
as hardy as the eastern arborvity. So eastern arbivities are generally hardy USDA zones
like three to seven eight. Western arborvity only hardy to USDA zone five.
However, people continue to try and tell me that the thuya plakata or western
arborividy is deer resisting. Well, I would not ever call it deer resistant,
but I would say it's more dear. I would say it's more deer
resistant than the Eastern arborovidy. I agree, And part of that goes back
to fragrance. So we were talking about fragrance and evergreens. Now Eastern Arborvity
three oxidant talents I think has one of the most delightful fragrances of any plant.
If you break a little piece off, and if you have one in
your backyard, by all means go out there and do it. It's just
like a really nice, pleasant, fruity smell. Not something you would expect
it all that resinous like many people associate with evergreens or conifers, but yeah,
just a really light fruity smell. Now, Thua plicata doesn't have quite
as nice of a fragrance, so that might be part of why deer don't
enjoy it. But also it is thicker and glossier, so there's some of
other differences. Now, if you live if your garden like a place where
Rick and I do, where you're surrounded by deer all the time, then
no, probably Thuia plicata is not going to stand any better chance than Thuia
oxidenttalis. But if you have occasional deer, then you might be able to
get away with it, or if you can get it mature enough that they
can't reach it, which sometimes works. Now, I did mention hardiness on
the western arborvidy and I do want to say we know about the hardiness zone
changes, and we are devoting next week's show to it. So if you're
concerned, you're confused, you're wondering what do Stacy and Rick have to say
about the new hardiness zone map, we are going to fill you in next
week, So please market calendar and hope you'll stay tuned. But let's get
back to Fluffy. So I've talked about its texture, why it's fluffy,
Now let's talk about why it's in the show today, and that is because
it is a beautiful, glowing, bright golden color. And you know,
all of the ideas that you were talking about for window Box is whether you're
going indoor or outdoor. And I think it's worth mentioning that a lot of
the holiday decre things that we're talking about they're not just for outdoors. They
can be used indoors. And I think Fluffy is a great example of a
plant that you can grow in your yard and bring indoors, and that golden
color is really just going to bring so much festivity, and it combines so
nicely with other things that you might have in your house, like even a
point setta. So let's say you have a point setta and a container,
you could just kind of dress the surface of the soil with some cuttings of
something like fluffy arborvity, and it would really brighten it up and add a
lot of color. If you get, say as a hostess gift a bouquet
of flowers or something like that, and you want some golden in there,
you can just take some of those branchlets off of fluffy arborvity to bring in
that color. So I think as a color, as a texture, it's
such a useful plant. And I do you know a lot of the things
that we talk about. When we're saying, hey, go into your backyard
and cut the stuff, people are like, WHOA, I don't know.
I might really kind of leave my landscape not looking so hot if I take
everything I need, and I certainly don't take more than you need. But
one of the cool things about arborvitis is the way that they branch. They
kind of have these fan like branchlets all over, and so you don't need
to take a big branch that's going to leave a huge hole. With some
selective pruney and careful looking at your plant. You can take these small or
fan like branchlets, and they can be quite effective. You can really do
quite a lot with them. Yeah, and they're nice to handle too,
Oh yeah you mentioned that. Yeah, no leather gloves required unless you need
them for warmth. They're really easy to harvest, and again, just a
little bit will go a very long way in your holiday decor. Now,
of course you're not gonna if you get a fluffy arborvidy this coming spring.
You're probably not going to be cutting off too much for the twenty twenty four
holiday season, but certainly as it gets more mature, or if you already
have one that's mature in your yard, you know, take a look and
know that you can cut off those those soft branchlets and a little bit can
make a really big impact. I love that. And cedar or arbor vite
again are great as spillers along the edge of a container or a window box
or something like that. Yeah, so you're only limited by your imagination and
of course the size of your arborvidy. Now, if you want to see
pictures of fluffy arborvity or get all the details about growing it, you can
visit Gardening Simplified on air dot Com. We'll put everything there or visit our
Instagram page Gardening Simplified Show, And we're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we've got the garden mail bag with some pressing gardening
questions, so please stay tuned. At proven winner's color choice, we've got
a shrub for every taste and every space. Whether you're looking for an easycare
rose and unforgettable hydrangea, or something new and unique, you can be confident
that the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and tested for your success.
Look for them at your local garden center. Greetings gardening friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time to answer those garden questions.
And even though it is now December and the ground around here is kind
of mostly frozen, although we could get some thawing with this little brief form
spell we're having, people still have gardening questions. People are still wondering,
they're planning ahead, they're wondering what the heck happened in the past season,
trying to make things better for next season. So if you have a gardening
question, you are welcome to reach out to us anytime. You can email
Help HLP at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com or just visit Gardening Simplified on air
dot Com. We've got a contact form there can attach pictures and we will
look at your questions and hopefully be able to answer them on air. So
what have we got in the mail bag today? You're so right, and
I tell you what, as I always say in life, people as well
as gardeners, three types of people. Those who make things happen, those
who watch things happen, and those who wonder what in the world just happened.
Tracy writes to us, al Nino desert orchid is a new and very
special North American native hybrid. I'm trying to better educate myself about our native
species here in Michigan. Anyway, I'm genuinely curious how the al Ninho plant
you posted we posted this in social media can be both a new hybrid yet
native at the same time. I use native and non native plants in my
landscape, including tropical plants. I'm just curious what native means for newly bred
hybrids. Yeah, so this is a great question, and it also happens
to be about my very favorite proven winners Color Choice jobs. Al Nino desert
orchid. It's something that was in our garden tours that we did this past
season, and it's really just a very unique plant. What it is.
We call it desert orchid. The species is it's got an X in front
of it to indicate that it's a hybrid between two different genera, So two
different genus of plants, Chittelpa, known as desert willow and that is a
southwestern US native, and Coutelpa, which is also known as bean tree.
Sure, I don't know some of the other names that people call it,
but certainly a plant that is very easy to notice everywhere. It grows wild
in June when it blooms here in Michigan, very big and just the most
amazing beautiful white flowers. Also very easy to notice and fall when it gets
these long, thin bean like structures, so it's not in the bean family.
They aren't truly beans, so they're not flat like you would see like
on a black locust, but they're tubular and when you break it open,
a bunch of like maple like kind of helicopter things look like cigars to me.
That's another thing people call it. Yeah, So the the two different
species here ch Chalopsis rather and Cautelpa are both native to North America. And
what doctor Tom Rainy, the plant breeder, did is he collected both plants
and he brought the pollen from one to the female parts of another, and
god seed from that. I don't know exactly which way that worked, but
which one he did first. But so what it actually is is a cross
between two North American native species. So what it is is basically a native
species more so than just simply a native plant. So it's got two different
native species. Now, if they were growing in the same range, and
I'm sure there is some area where their ranges overlap, it would it is
potentially possible for a natural hybrid to occur. And you know your question,
Tracy is does this mean it's still native. That's really up to each person,
I think, to decide. And when we talked about native plants a
few weeks ago, this is basically what we had said is you know,
if you if growing native plants is important to you, then you are the
one who decides how native is native, What is okay, what is not
okay? What's that line you're going to cross? Because for some people,
you know, they say okay, well, I only want plants that are
native to my county, or I only want plants that are native to this
part of my state. Some people will say my whole state. Some people
will say, you know, the whole Eastern US is good enough for me.
So that's really a question that you have to answer on your own.
But I do want to say that intergeneric hybrids like desert like al nino desert
orchid do happen naturally, and sometimes they are so well entrenched that they just
become a new species. And there's this happens a lot with native ferns.
Okay, you know anything that's especially is going to be wind pollinated. You
have no idea. You know that pollen's flying all over, landing wherever it
will, and some for whatever reason could be compatible, and just over time
they become This is basically how new species are developed is through these random pollinations
or hybridizations. So nature does make its own hybrid. Plant readers also make
their own hybrids. And again it's up to you to say, hey,
this is a hybrid of two different native species. This doesn't meet my cut
for what's native or something that I want in my garden or not. Now
I will say, I love this plant so much. I do have it
in my native garden, which is primarily Midwestern, kind of more prairie like
natives, even though it's not prairie. But I love the fragrance of this
plant. It is something like you have never smelled before. And so for
me, when I see this plant, I'm willing to sort of bend my
own rules a little bit and say, no, this wouldn't really I mean,
Catallpa grows around here, but to me, I'm like, I'll bring
it and I love it. So I have one in my garden and it
was flowering all summer. Very drought tolerant, very deer resistant, and a
plant that I personally really like. It's an amazing plant. When I posted
it in social media, the reaction was incredible. People love this plant and
why not. And when we had our native plant show Stacey, we talked
about the fact that North America is a big place. Yes, So for
me again, when you have a cross of these two plants which are native
to North America. For Tracy's purpose here, I would and Tracy's writing to
us from Michigan, I approach the whole native plant thing from a North America
approach, not a regional or a Michigan approach. But that's the way I
wanted it, and that's for everyone to decide. So, if we've peached
your curiosity about El Nino, whether you're interested in its amazing fragrance, which
I think smells sort of like vanilla and melon, it's amazing flowers which you
can kind of guess with a name like desert orchid or what the native aspect.
Just visit Gardening Simplified on air dot Com in the garden Mailbag section.
We will put a link to its page so you can see all those fabulous
photos and get all that information and make your own informed decision. Fantastic,
Thomas writes to us. My questions are regarding canis and kalladiums. I live
in Los Angeles Zone ten. Aight, what's the best way to overwinter these
plants? I grow everything in containers, and previously I divide cannas in the
fall and replant in pots. However, I notice that they get brown yellow
leaves in the summer. Are they overcrowded? I've never overwintered kalladium? Is
there a method to doing this in a container? Or do I need to
remove and store out of the soil. Please help Cana King and Stacy.
I know you'd appreciate that, so I will say Thomas, first of all,
you are in Los Angeles, USA, Zone ten. You do not
need to do anything special to overwinter these plants. You don't need to lift
a finger. They will get through your winter absolutely fine. You don't need
to store them, you don't need to dry them. They may go dormant
if it gets very if you have a frost, or it gets very dry,
but they're fine. You won't have to worry about the bulbs themselves getting
damaged by cold, like we would here in Michigan. But to answer your
question about the browning foliage and being overcrowded, I would say this is almost
certainly a water issue, There's no question. Because those rhizomes can get so
thick, so big in the pot, crowd out the soil. It's easy,
especially in a warm climate, to get to the point where they're just
not getting sufficient water. Right. You can tell my husband about it,
because he had a heck of a time trying to pull apart our cannibals that
you gave us. He worked really hard on that. But yeah, I
found the same thing as my can is. Like. At first, it
is very easy to keep the container watered, and they looked lush and beautiful.
But as they increasingly filled out that container, they took up more space,
it was more difficult to keep it watered, and then I was getting
a lot of browning foliage. So, Thomas, perhaps a drip system would
help you, aren't, you know, experiencing those wide shifts in temperature and
causing it to dry out. But as far as overwintering, patch yourself on
the back, because you've got it easy. Yeah, And I think with
the cannas, possibly you may have to go to bigger pots or consider the
use of polymers. I dug up all my cannas a few weeks ago before
this arrived and had them laying out on the floor of the garage. Hundreds
of them. Speak of aroma therapy. Wow did that smell good? Oh
yeah, they have a fragrance. Oh no, the fragrance of the soil
and them up and I'm drying the soil off from me. It just was.
It was wonderful, and it's going to help carry me to spring when
fast snow. Well, you know that smell is actually blue green algae.
But I would say, yeah, I next year, I have learned my
lesson because, as I said during the summer, the canna bulbs you gave
me actually exploded through the container. They burst a hole right in the fiberglass
pot that I was growing them in. So I am not going to pack
them in densely like I did last year. I'm going to spread the wealth
around, make a little mini cana forests in my backyard and hopefully have an
easier time keeping them watered and not by it. Like I said, by
August September, start getting that browning foliage, because it's just even if I
was sitting there with a hose on them all day, well maybe then it
would work, but that's not practical for anyone. So thank you Tracy and
Thomas for your questions. Again, if you have a question for us,
help at Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or just visit our website and
or you can even leave a comment on YouTube and we get a lot of
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Now we're going to take a little break. When we come back, we
have a special guest for Branching News, so please stay tuned. The Gardening
Simplified Show is brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award
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and the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the
Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for branching news and I've been really looking forward
to this segment today because we get a chance to talk to landscape architect and
designer Deborah Silver. Now Detroit Garden Works is a locally beloved and nationally renowned
garden shop devoted to find and unusual garden ornaments and furnishings and specialty plants.
I was there a few weeks ago, and it's just such a beautiful place.
Founded in nineteen ninety six by landscape designer Deborah Silver and landscape architect Rob
Yadenek, and Detroit Garden Works was named one of the top twenty five garden
shops in the United States by Garden Design Magazine. Featured in Better Homes and
Gardens Martha Stewart Magazine, Washington Post and other publications, and I can see
why. And at this time of the year, the store is beautiful because,
as we talked about earlier in the program, we were talking about coppicing
and branches and using those branches as we enter the winter months and the holidays
to enjoy, and in my opinion, no one does it better than Detroit
Garden Works. Deborah, A pleasure to have you on the show, and
thanks so much for joining us. Well, you're very welcome, Thank you,
Debra. What let me ask you right off the top here a minute,
what influenced the look of Detroit Garden Works, Because when you walk in,
it's just, I don't know, it's inspiring. What influenced the look
of your store? Well, we actually saw a picture of a Lanai structure
in a book from Italy, and it had a terracotta floor and lots of
windows and terracotta pots, and there was just something about it that so natural,
the natural materials, so calming and so interesting. But that's where we
jumped off with it. Now the shop now doesn't look anything like that picture
because, of course, our individual taste and our individual buying rob does all
the buying has influenced what we offer. Okay, well, the direction we're
going in, of course today is the holiday season, and I saw that
you have something. Correct me if I'm wrong that you call a branch studio.
People love Christmas holiday containers and Debra, I'm sure you're aware of the
fact that you're pretty popular on Pinterest. When you go on Pinterest, just
beautiful what you do with the arrangements in the in the branch studio. What
inspired all of that with you to develop this business? Well, I had
had a landscape design and installation Businesness for going on thirty five years now,
and then I always wanted a store that would have really terrific things for gardens.
You know, back in the day when I was first starting, the
only ornament you could buy was a golfer fountain. You know, it just
didn't appeal to me this much, and certainly isn't appealing to a serious gardener.
So we started out by trying to find things that would represent our aesthetic,
no matter what the cost. You know, if we have something for
seventy five cents, I wanted to be the best looking seventy five cent item
possible. So and then we offer also things that are more serious and more
expensive for people who would rather decorate their garden than fly to the Caribbean.
You know, everyone had as something that they like to spend their discretionary income
and spend their discretionary time on. And we appeal to people who are very
serious about the garden and it shows in the beautiful holiday containers that you create.
I was interested reading your blog Deborah, that once you create a form
for a client, those forms are used for a number of years, recycled
through. The design may change, but those forms are used for a number
of years, making what I have to say are just spectacular Christmas or holiday
arrangements. Well, we like to have maybe a Christmas look in November and
December, and then if we take out some things in January. A lot
of our clients keep their winter pots and the lighting in the winter pots going
all winter. Sure, I get calls in March, in April think you
better come and take this out. January and February are still big. Yeah,
they're very dim months, so I you know, I'm all for keeping
the decor and lights well into into winter so it doesn't get too gloomy.
Now, what are some of your go to materials for these arrangements. You
know, we've talked a lot about the stuff people know, red twig,
dogwood, pine, you know, incense there. But you know, looking
at your designs, they are so different and so interesting. So what are
some of the materials that you look for that really make your work so much
different? The twigs? So once you get past red twig and yellow twig,
there's cardinal red twig, which is a hybrid. There's flame willow,
which is orange cinnamon orange. There's curly flame when willow. There's red bud,
pussy willow, birch. We oftentimes put coppice woods in pots from beach
or other shrubs that are being pruned. We do buy alder branches from out
west and they come in bunches that are oh maybe twenty four inches tall,
and they're discreet but beautiful. Wow. We use it a lot to add
a little airy look to the pot. I could see where older branches are
beautiful and very elegant. Inner yep. There so beach. You know.
I had a client, a good client and friend, who was trimming as
beach and he said, do you want all my trimmings? I said,
oh, yes, A vast majority of what we offer our farmed twigs.
So we have several suppliers, one main supplier and he grows twigs commercially like
other people grow crops, So he will cut his twigs. A percentage of
his twigs back to the ground every year, so there's constantly a refreshing growth
which has the best and most brilliant color. I mean, I'm sure you
know that if you've seen red twig dogwood in the woods, it gets very
dull when it gets old. Yeah, right, but first year growth is
brilliant, glossy, bar just beautiful. And if you're interested in nature and
gardens, how could you not like this? Oh? Exactly exactly. Shrubs
of course that are cut back hard respond with vigorous new growth, and you're
using those in these beautiful holiday containers. We're talking to landscape designer Deborah Silver,
and Deborah, reading your blog, I took note of a comment you
made that I loved. You said height is a welcome addition to a winter
container. Can you give us your perspective on something like proper proportion? How
do you get the proper proportion to a container? Because I love the fact
that you compliment many times over your staff and your employees in your blog.
Very talented people who do this year after year, and they certainly understand proper
proportion correct. Yes they do. I mean I do the design work,
and I'll just say to I have two people who are really leads on our
couple of crews, and I'll say, this is the look I'm after.
These are the materials I want to use. You know, I want this
as tall as possible. I want the branches straight up and down. You
know, there's just a feeling that you're after, and part of that depends
on what we've done for that client in previous years. I like to do
something different every year. Sure the height in the container. Get attention to
your pots from the sidewalk in the street. And it's very friendly. How
it envelops the front door or it complements the front door so that it's welcoming.
One of the major features of the winter pots is creating a sense of
warmth in a season when it's very cold and they're no leaves and the winner
is going to go on for a long time. Yes, the curly willow,
the orange look to it, the gold orange look. When I was
in your store almost looks like a fire in the center of attempt. It's
very warming, Yes it is. It's a beautiful color and very unexpected.
You know. I want people when they come home to their house to look
at their front door and oh, this is my house, and I love
the look, you know exactly. How about adding lights, Deborah? For
some people that's a real struggle. Some people just throwing lights into something.
The lights you put, I think you refer to them as a light burst
spectacular. Any advice for our listeners and our viewers on placing lights in these
holiday containers. Well, the most difficult part of lighting that container are the
vertical sticks. And if you can find someone who sells a light stick which
has a brown plastic covering that has lights on it that look like but they
will look very natural mixed in with your twigs, and we carry those with
brown stems and with white stems. I think it's important during the day that
you don't see all the cords and the paraphernalia with the lighting. I just
like to see the pots. That's good advice, especially regard works carries a
lot of those okay type of things. It's great advice, especially when it's
super cold outside and you're in a hurry. You may, you know,
as an individual, tend to take shortcuts as far as the lights are concerned.
Are freezingly trying to get it done. And I've been there before.
Yes, well, I don't know how many years ago it was. But
we stopped doing all the winter arrangements on site and we do them all in
our garage. We turn on the lights, we turn on the heat,
and that way the people who are creating the arrangements can concentrate on the job
at hand and not be you know, miserable because it's so cold. So
that foam that we use, which is four inches thick and it fits into
the top of the pot. It wedges into the top of the pot.
It makes it possible to create the entire arrangement in the garage and then we
just lift it up, put it on a truck and drop it in.
That's fantastic. Can you talk about that a moment, Because many people will
just stick branches into potting soil or soil that are in a container. But
you're using foam or oasis something like that in order to develop these arrangements.
Right, it's not oasis and it's not styrofoam either it is a foam which
is specifically for dry material, and cut branches are considered dry material. So
the place where we buy them, you know, they it all has to
be custom ordered in a custom size, and they don't sell retail. They
don't sell individual sheets of it, okay, So we do offer it and
we do ship it. But it is a very strong material that we can
use for a number of years. And sometimes if one teeth the form is
disintegrating or deteriorating, we just cut that piece out and glue in a new
little teeth, okay, so we can patch them because we don't want to
throw those away. I mean, sure, they're expensive and it's a lot
of work to make them. And we're talking to landscape designer Deborah Silver Detroit
Garden Works. Deborah, when I was at your store and looking at your
blog, also one thing that caught my eye, Stacy was the fact that
you know, many of us in spring enjoy the pussy willows. But Deborah,
this is something that you utilize to a big degree in the winter landscape
and in these containers. Pussy willows is quite a thriller and a container,
isn't it. Yes, it is. It's really great in a container,
and typically our twigs are cut and stored it under refrigeration until it's time to
ship, and then once the temperature around the twigs warms up, that bud
will start to enlarge, and sometimes we have to stick the pussy willow all
the way through the foemen into the soil, and sometimes in that event the
pussy willow will actually root. Wow, it's amazing. You mentioned in your
blog, Deborah that you personally you have a small urban property and you run
up against the limits of space all the time. How do you deal with
that? Any advice for our listeners, our viewers who live on small urban
properties but obviously love plants like you do and we do. Any advice for
our listeners, Well, I know there are some people who can't turn down
a single plant, but I myself personally don't design that way. I design
for a structure and for interest in all the four seasons, and then if
I want to go crazy with something, I do it in my pots,
spring, summer, winterfall. Sure. Sure, that makes a lot of
sense. That's the part that changes. So I tried to get as big
a pots as I could possibly get, and I sprinkle them all over my
property and on my deck. So that's how I get a little bit of
different look from year to year without having to touch my basic landscape. Deborah,
whenever we interview somebody, I like to ask a very unfair question,
but I'm going to ask it anyhow because our listeners love it. And that
is as a landscape designer, do you have a favorite or let's say two
favorite plants that you could share with us, where you'd say these do?
I know it's not fair, but boy, I'd love to tap into your
experience a couple of plants that you think everybody should have in their landscape.
What would you suggest? Well, I do think the whole family of hydrangeas
are very simple to grow if you give them adequate water, and they're very
showy and they come back a year after year. They're not fussy, and
I am especially fond of Gogo. If you need something that's very short and
compact, it only grows three by three feet, sometimes five by five feet.
And then there are other varieties of hydrangeas that get different heights and different
color blossoms. But I find that the white flowered varieties such as limelight,
which is a big grower. I find that they are the best performers over
a number of years. In the same way I would plant lots of teenings,
They'll be going good forever. Well, thank you for what you do,
Deborah. And for folks who have not visited Detroit Garden Works, what
a wonderful store, inspiring and at the holidays, also with these containers that
are created there. She's landscape designer Deborah Silver. And Deborah again, your
website is it Detroitgardenworks dot com? Am I correct in that, yes,
it is all right, right fantastic. So I'd recommend to our viewers and
our listeners to visit Detroit Garden Works sometime. Make sure to visit their website.
And thank you for all you do, Deborah, for the industry and
especially this time of the year, inspiring us during the holidays. Well,
thank you very much for giving me a call. Take care and have a
good holiday. Thank you to you. So Detroit Gardenworks is an absolute destination
if you are in the Detroit area or visiting the Detroit area, put it
on your list, no matter what time of year it is. Thanks to
Dema, Thanks to you Rich, Thanks to Adriana and of course, as
always, thank you so much to all of our listeners, viewers everywhere.
We hope you have a wonderful week ahead.