Coming to you from Studio A at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time
for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist, and
our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Hey, you know, we received a
note from someone one of our YouTube viewers simply stated, shade is hard.
I like that. Yeah, it is hard. Talk about honesty, that's
fantastic. You know what's hard? Chicken wire? Two words for you,
chicken. Have you ever tried to put up chicken wire? Snags on your
clothes? Cut you up, can't put it up neatly? I think chicken
wire? Or watching the squirrels eat the buds off my flowering shrubs after they've
made it all winter long. That's hard. Yeah, that's also very hard.
You know, this shade issue makes me think of Michael Collins. Of
course, I was an Apollo age boy when they were doing the moonshots,
and Michael Collins, of course was the pilot in the Command Module Columbia while
Buzz and Neil were on the lunar's surface. Took the eagle down there to
kind of look around, and he was the loneliest man on Earth. And
when you go around the dark side of the moon, dark cold, total
radio silence. You are cut off from everybody. I always think about him
when I think about shade. I don't know why that must that must have
been much harder than gardening in the shade. I'm just gonna put that out
there. But you know, gardening in the shade does. It is tricky,
and it is hard, and a lot of times I think shade gardeners
can feel like they're a little bit deprived. But I do just want to
start off by saying, shade gardeners have one huge advantage, and that's that
no matter what time of the year it is, you can work in your
garden. True, it's the middle of summer, You've got a nice shady
place to go, and I leisurely pull some weeds, enjoy the cooler temperatures.
I don't have very much shade at all, and so you know,
I have to pretty much get my gardening done early in the morning during the
summer because I can't be out of my garden in the middle of the day.
I'll burn up. You know, it's a good point, Stacy.
As a matter of fact, if you look up definitions of shade, shade
is a term used to describe some degree of relief from the sun. Yes,
so there you go. So maybe shade isn't that hard. Maybe we
need to look at it from a different angle. And by the way,
Proven Winners has a great perennial a still be called dark side of the moon.
Yes, it's a beautiful I see with purple foliage. Gorgeous chocolate brown,
purplish foliage. Yeah, cool plant. Anyhow, all right, let's
get into the shade issue here, and I'll get right to the point.
If you want to be successful in the garden in shade, first of all,
you use plants adapted to shade conditions, and those are usually plants stacey
that have thinner foliage and bigger foliage to be efficient at absorbing the light or
photosynthesizing in areas where there isn't a lot of light. Correct, right,
Yeah, big leaves are generally not always characteristic of shade tolerant plants. And
one thing that you'll hear very often is that, like for example, with
a tree where it's inner leaves or shaded, or a plant that is more
subn tolerant and growing in shade, is it will make shade leaves which are
naturally much larger, to increase that surface area to try to absorb more light
and do a little more photosynthesis. Absolutely, you have to improve the soil,
especially if the soil is poor due to root competition. So think woodland
floor. So I like to think of somewhat acidic, humous soils of the
forest. Shade plants have adapted to appreciate those types of soils, Stacey.
When you're dealing with trees, especially those that have shallow, fibrous roots,
that can become a big issue in shade. It's not necessarily the lack of
light, it's the root competition, right. Sometimes you just can't get anything
to grow underneath there. It's not an easy situation. So you have to
look at the different types of shade and then adjust accordingly. Now, the
different types of shade, I think, are the different degrees six degrees in
my mind, light shade, partial shade, full shade, deep shade,
structural shade, and night. Remember the comedian George Carlin forecast for tonight dark,
continued darkness till morning, then scattered light. I personally, when it
comes to shade, I love filtered shade because during the day it seems to
dance in the garden, and I like working with filtered shade. Yeah,
and that counts pretty much as a part shade conditioner, parts on in supportant
to remember that most plant come and these including proof of winners, use part
shade in parts sign would be interchangeable, just kind of meaning the same exact
thing. Filtered shade generally occurs under the canopy of a high canopy of a
tree, and so not only is it sort of magical and beautiful, it
also gives you a little bit more flexibility in what you can do that is
the best, but also I would say potentially the rarest for a lot of
people who are gardening in shade. Yeah, exactly. Although deciduous trees often
can provide some measure of filtered shade, it's the coniferous trees where you can
just really have serious problems. Back off on nitrogen fertilizers when you're trying to
grow in the shade, I call them processed foods, use a slow release,
and organic fertilizers I'm thinking bacteria, microbes, organic material, lots of
it. It really improves your success in the shade. Mulch the plants and
then develop a talent with dealing with snails and slugs. I have many different
methods we don't have time for. Maybe someday we'll tell you. Do you
have a big snail and slug issue here on the lake shore. No,
we don't have a much out here because it's fairly dry. But I have
certainly, you know, garden when I was gardening in New York. You
know, you go to like pull a weed and you stick your fingers right
in a sloppy slug. That's no fun. It's a slugfest. I tell
you what, And you know what has always worked good for me, just
real briefly, and that is roofing shingles. I just got strips of roofing
shingles. Put them underneath the plants. It really helps with the snails and
slugs. Now, of course, we can give you a long list of
plants to grow in the shade. We can sit here and say, oh,
you can grow in the shade. All you got to do is try
such and such, and of course there are great plants for shade. But
looking at that environment and again, Stacy getting back to the soil, I
can't help it. Every time I've tried. That is what makes the difference
between success and failure. Yeah, for sure. And you know that's why
a lot of gardeners will refer to dry shade is the most dreaded type of
shade because that's the hardest to find things that will grow in it and do
well. Now, you kind of course amend the soil. You talked about,
adding compost, multing, You can do all of those things. But
sometimes you know, if you have dry shade because you have sandy soil like
we do out here, or it's dry because it's next to a big tree
that's sucking up all the moisture, that does severely limit your options. Yeah,
exactly. Now, ephemerals like wildflowers, of course, are in nature
suited to absorb the sunlight while they can before the trees leaf out, may
apple, trillium, and many of course wildflowers will go dormant in summer.
That's their protective adaptive mechanism in shade and makes all the difference in the world
there too. So again, plants strategies are employed by plants. You know,
I've looked at at leaves of plants that love the heat, and it's
almost stacked cells thick leaves in shade thin leaves, more mass area to absorb
light. Perennials like Virginia brunera, hucara ferns of course hostas stillbies. I've
had success with all of them. I did want to ask you, Stacy.
I believe that one of the most underutilized and maybe doesn't have the publicity
that some other annuals get, and that is wishbone flower or Catalina Terennia midnight
blue or any of the terrannias. Do you like truck I love them they
are so this is an annual that you can grow in shade. Great for
hanging baskets. I do absolutely love it. And it's called wishbone flower because
when you look inside the flower and they have beautiful, rich colors, there's
a tiny little wishbone structure in there that is adorable and delightful. Great plant
for kids, and I do love it. And I have a shady front
porch, so my house face is north the house the front is shady,
so I have tried to grow terinya, thinking oh, yeah, this is
great, and the deer also unfortunately loved it. So just a little heads
up there if you're thinking, oh, I finally have but it's great for
a hanging basket for sure, because very often hanging baskets like on front porches,
are in shade. And that's why you know, the big buston ferns
and everything are so popular, you bet. And I know that they're doing
a lot of testing on Terrania in Florida and other climates because again I think
that it's underrated and something you might want to consider. And then as far
as shrubs are concerned, I peaked at what your plant on trial is today,
so I know that I'm not stealing your thunder here. I just wanted
to mention that Stacy, both you and Natalie here at proven Winter's color choice
shrubs got me very interested in Kodiak orange dear villa, and I have had
success growing that in shade. Yeah, it is known to be a shade
tolerant plant, and you know, I'll talk a little bit about more about
it when we talk go into plants on trial. But there's a difference between
tolerating shade and thriving in shade and doing what you hope it will do in
shade, and so we're focused on plants that will do what they say they'll
do in shade. There you go. Shade is hard, but we'll talk
you through it. Part of the reason we're here on the Gardening Simplified Show,
Prooven Winners 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 where we're talking about shade. We had
a listener on YouTube say shade is hard, and that is true. But
I would like to say that in my many years of helping people garden here
in my current job, in my previous job, if there's one universal truth
I can say, it's that the grass is always greener on the other side,
right, very true. So shade gardeners are like, oh, if
only I had a little bit and of sun, And some gardeners are like,
boy, it's sure would be nice to have, you know, maybe
a little patch of shade here. I'd love to grow some hostas, I
would love to grow some you know, terania, all these different things that
actually need shade and you know, we hear from warm climate gardeners who say,
oh, I really want to grow lilacs, and we hear from cold
climate gardeners who say, I want to grow citrus in avocado. So it
is very common, I think for gardeners to wish they had what they don't
have. Plant envy, plant envy, and you know it does pay.
I think too, I've really changed my approach to gardening, you know,
having a house and dealing with a lot of challenges. I never thought i'd
deal very sandy, extremely dry soil deer, which I definitely did not think
was going to be an issue in full full sun. And I have found
for myself that rather than try to mope while I did some moping, rather
than mope a whole lot about what I can't grow and what I can't do,
I've kind of accepted, you know, working with the things that work.
And I find a lot more satisfaction in that because I'm not then,
you know, spending my time and energy trying to change things from what they
are. And I find that I really really appreciate the plants that can tolerate
that that I have to do so little for and look great while they're tolerating
all those challenges. You can't beat them. Join them. Well, that
was the approach that I eventually took. It did take time. I'm not
gonna lie, it's a lot of time. So you know, everybody feels
like what they have is hard. And I will say, for sure,
you do have a more limited plant palette when you have shade, because of
course plants need sun to photosynthesize, and there's obviously less sun in shade for
the plants to photosynthesize enough. And so the number of plants that can actually
thrive in that condition can do again what they're supposed to do, which is
to say, are they going to flower? Are they going to grow?
Well? Are they going to be dense and you know, a compact and
attractive. That's a relatively small number. But the great thing is when you
have the right plant for the right place, with all the challenges, when
everything comes together, you appreciate it so much. And that is where today's
plant on Trial comes in. Okay, all right, that was a long
intro and it's a plant that I yeah, but it's a good point.
It's just like buying a house, location, location, location, Well,
I did have that in mind. When I bought my house, I thought
I had the perfect location. I did not expect the deer, the sun,
the sand, I knew that, but the deer that was not expected.
But today's plants on trial is one that I am going to hazard a
guess that many many of our listeners have never heard of. May be seen,
but I'm I'm guessing most have not heard of it even in the garden
center, folks. Will I watch people who will just walk by it because
it just doesn't reach out and grab you like some of the other plants,
right except for when it is having its shining moment, which we will get
to in a moment. And today's plant on trial is sweet and low,
sweet box. And if you're sitting in there going did she just say sweet
box? Yes? I did. It is known botanically as Sarco coca.
And if you want to know its whole name, which is one of my
absolute favorite botanical names in all of botanical names, it's Sarco coca, Hooker
Yana humulus. Wow, that sounds like an all you can eat lounge that
I visited in Las Vegas. Done Sara Coca? What is it? Sarco
coca? Wow, I've been there, so sweet box. If you can't
get sarco coca, I know that is a long one. And this is
a plant. You know, obviously I could have picked from a number of
plants we offer that can grow in shade and will still flower and still do
some other stuff. But this is a plant that actually needs shade. So
this is the plant for you if you have deep shade and you've been thinking
what do I do? How do I manage this space? Because it actually
wants it, It's not merely tolerating it. In fact, we have it
on our website as needing part to full shade, which is very unusual.
So this plant can basically grow incomplete dark. So people keeping score at home
are probably thinking, Stacey, okay, so ugly and boring, and you
could not be blamed for things that. Now do you want to say it
can't grow in complete dark. It does need to be outdoors. You're not
going to put this in your closet or your guest room that never gets any
sun. But it can grow in full shade. And yes, people probably
do think, okay, well, if it can do all of this,
it's probably one of the ugliest, most boring plants in the history of the
universe. And the answer to that is it is not. It is definitely
not. And I think that one of the things that's so special about it
is that it is a winter and spring blooming shrub. Very few of those,
so another rarity on here. And so it blooms like the warmer your
climate, the more mild your climate, the earlier in winter it will bloom.
So that is why another common name for this plant that you might see
or read about out there is Christmas box because in England and very very mild
of climates like that will actually be in bloom all the way in December.
For us, it usually starts blooming more like February March, and if,
of course, if you're in a warmer climate, probably more in the January
February range. And the flowers are very unique. Most people probably would not
look at it and go, oh, that's a flower, because they're not
the conventional you know, five pedaled flower with the centers. They look like
a little tuft of white threads tipped with red. So they're very interesting.
But what's so special about them is their fragrance, and it is one of
the most beautiful, intense delightful fragrances you can imagine. So, I mean
just think of being, you know, in your garden or walking around your
yard on a sunny winter day and you get this, you know, whiff
of something that's so fragrant, smells like it could be summer, and it's
arco coca. Man, that is interesting, Stacey. I'm sitting here thinking
this would be a good plant to combine with hellabores in a shape. Oh
my gosh, it would be beautiful with elibors. Yeah, fantastic accommodation right
there. Yeah. And so you were saying Rick that you know people walk
by this plant in the garden center because especially in a garden center situation,
it would have already bloomed by the time people are actually shopping in the garden
center. So they do also don't have that experience of walking by it and
going, WHOA, what was that fragrance from? Whereas if they did,
I think that a lot more of these would be sold. So this is
a plant that you kind of have to know about and seek out. It
eas easy to find, as Rick said, but it's not going to be
the one that just like grabs your attention when you're out in the garden center.
So but it's worth knowing about because it is so special. And so
it isn't evergreen, and it is a ground covering shrub, So this isn't
going to be one of those tall shrubs you're going to be putting Christmas lights
on or anything like that. It naturally grows with a ground covering, suckering
habit. And I know a lot of people here suckering and they think,
whoa, whoa. Absolutely not sounds like it's going to be a nightmare,
and it isn't. It's actually a fairly slow growing ground cover, so it
doesn't make a nuisance of itself. It just over time spreads to form a
really nice colony that is going to keep weeds down, it's going to stabilize
soil, it's going to conserve organic matter, it's going to conserve water for
anything that it's planted by. So it's a really great problem solving shrub that's
just, you know, I think a lot different than people expect for shade.
And so it's called sweet and low Sarco coca because it naturally grows to
be about one and a half to two and a half feet tall, so
you can kind of imagine it's a little bit of a taller ground cover with
a woody base, glossy evergreen foliage botanically speaking related to boxwood. So that
is where the box the box part comes. So if you can imagine a
boxwood, that's what its foliage is kind of going to look like. It's
a bit bigger, but it has that same dark green glossy quality. Doesn't
sink like boxwood, can you know? I know some people have issues with
that. It's only some boxwoods do smell. But if you've smelled a boxwood,
it's not something that you soon forget. So thus the line sweet and
low, sweet and low sweet box yeah sor give it to me a cocca
for those keeping score at home. No, that sounds like those packets of
sugar substitute that you put in your own well that yeah, you know,
we might have been a little inspired on the name by by something else called
sweet and low. But it's sweet because of the fragrance and low growing and
again just a great problem solving shrub that. I don't think that people who
have shade need to feel like they're being tossed like a consolation prize, right
exactly. I can't grow this. I kind of wish I could. It's
pretty great. Now. One thing you do need to know about it,
it does need moist, acidic soil. So going back to that whole thing
about you know, dry shade being the hardest, that is still true.
Unfortunately, sweet and low sweet box is not going to be a solution for
you if you have dry shade unless you amend your soil. It really needs
to be moist and acidic. And if it isn't, what's going to happen
is the plant is going to just really struggle. The folia is just going
to be kind of like yellow and wash out. You can manage all of
that with fertilizeders and iron. But just going back to this notion of like
planting things that want to be there, you know, that are going to
thrive and make less work for you know, this is a low maintenance plant
provided you are able to you know, give it those moist, slightly acidic.
I does have to be super acidic, you know, even somewhere close
to neutral is totally fine. It does like mulch as you were talking about
with with other shade plants, and you know, pretty average water needs doesn't
need pruning since it's just staying at that. You know one and a half
to two and a half feet, you know height, dear resistance, extremely
dear resistant. So what a problem solver? Right? It's beautiful. And
when you have a problem solver that is unique, that gives you a season
of interest beyond what you're normally expecting, you know, to get out of
a plant, I think it's just it's a great gift really to shake gardeners.
I think today's show has been about plants that don't get the recognition that
they should get. They're Rodney dangerfield plants. They get no respect. So
anyway, if you have shade and you've been struggling for a nice groundcover or
an interesting plant, or maybe just they're tired of what you already have,
look for sweetened low Sarco coca at your local garden center this season. Again,
you might have to do a little digging because it's not one of those
plants. It's going to be like, look at me. But sometimes that's
good. We need those plants in our garden because you can't look at everything
all at once. Of course, you'll find more information about sweet and low
sarco coca on our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or if
you're watching YouTube version of our sen it. We're going to take a break
and when we come back, we're opening up the garden mail bag. 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, an 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. Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
Spring is in full swing and the questions are rolling in because my goodness,
it's that time of year where you're like, what do I do?
Should I shouldn't I h The answer, of course, is always don't walk
away from the garden until you can get an answer that you can use.
Don't just go doing things without knowing why you're doing them. But we're happy
to help you here, and if we can't get to your question, because
we do get so many questions, you can always reach out to Proven Winners.
Just go to Proven Winners dot com. There's a little place there.
It says questions, feedback, We're listening, and someone one of our horticulturists
will get back to you with a personal answer that will help you resolve your
issues. But of course you're always welcome to reach out to us, because
if you're having a problem, chances are if someone else is having a similar
issue or conundrum. So what do we got in the mail bag today?
All right, so Sherry writes to us, Hello, I have a vegetable
garden in our backyard. My husband wants to use combination pesticide fertilizer products on
the lawn that run alongside the garden. Should I be concerned about the chemicals
leaching into the garden making the vegetables unsafe to eat? How large of a
perimeter should he leave around the garden so it'll be unaffected. I enjoy gardening,
but also do it to have organic produce? Yeah? So I understand
absolutely, And even if your goal is not organic produce, it is important
to consider what chemicals are potentially being used around an edible garden, just to
make sure you're not ingesting anything nasty. And you know my answer to you,
Sherry, First and foremost, and this is for anybody considering, you
know, applying any chemicals in the garden at all, for any purpose,
whether they're organic or conventional or whatever is, you have to read that instruction
booklet. There is so much information that will answer all of those questions about
like how far does it need to be by a vegetable garden, how long?
How soon can I harvest my vegetables if I have used this product.
That's all in the guide book to the chemical. Now. The problem,
of course, as many of us who have ever used any kind of garden
chemicals know, is that all that information is in that silly little sticky book
that they put on the back of the container. No, you know,
I get it. There's a lot of information that they have to fit into
a little tiny space. But so they have. They're doing the best that
they can with what they have. But like you get your reading glasses,
you know, don't let it get in the rain or get any you know,
product splash it and cause everything to run. The good news is,
thanks to the Internet, you can do all of this research ahead of time
online where it is readable and you can zoom in and do all of that
and you will find everything that you need to know. It should give you
information about, you know again, how soon you can harvest, how far
away it should be kept from edible plants, and all of that. Now
you know, to be safe. As we've talked about, a plant's roots
will generally go about one and a half times its height latterly and about eighteen
to twenty four inches in the ground. So if you're thinking about your garden,
say you're going to have, you know, a six foot tall tomato
plant at the edge there, then I would say that you are going to
want to make sure you're leaving about a nine foot buffer just to be perfectly
safe. Well, said Stacy. Read the product label. The whole point
here is this, we've been gardeners for a long time. Doesn't matter how
long you've been gardening. We read the label. It's there for a reason,
and follow the directions. Also, I agree with maintaining a perimeter.
I do not like growing lawns right up to the base of a tree.
It's not healthy for a tree. I don't like growing turf right up to
a vegetable garden. I say, leave a perimeter, a buffer zone of
some bark mulch. I think that's a good way to go. All right,
so right, a couple of different things. But again, when in
doubt anytime it comes to chemicals, whether they're organic or conventional, make sure
you are reading that book and find that book is difficult to deal with,
as we all do, then take the time to just look it up online.
You will not only find all of the application instructions, you know,
caught precautions and all of that, you'll also find something called the MSDS,
which is the Material Safeties and Data Sheet, and that will tell you all
about any other potential hazards with the chemicals that are in that particular product,
and use the amount they're recommending. Yeah, don't put in a double dose
just because you feel like it. Not a good idea. All right?
Question from Nancy. Two trees that were meant to be a matched pair.
Nancy sent us a picture. However, one looks like it's struggling. The
other one got broken off in the snow. Should I replace them? And
I did look at these these pictures, Stacey, and one thing I would
mention I noticed in the picture in the fire corner there's some garlic mustard down
there. You might want to go deal with that. Yeah, garlic mustard
is is an invasive weed. Now, I have to say, as far
as invasive weeds go, it is one of the easier ones to manage it.
It pulls up very easily in the rosette stage. Just yank it up.
Yeah, very easy to pull out. But yeah, if you let
it go to seed, you know, forget it out it. So so
do take a look at what garlic mustard looks like if you're not familiar with
that, and get that out. But it does not have anything to do
with why your pines are struggling, Nancy. And you know I thought a
lot about your question. Is I looked at your photos and you know I
have I have two answers, and so there one is a yes answer and
one is a no. One is a yes you should replace them, and
one is a no you shouldn't replace them necessarily. So yes side. You
know, life is just too short to sit around worrying. Well, I
mean when it comes to the garden, you know, I've just it's just
like our growing season's too short, Our time to be outside enjoying the garden
is too short, and life in general is too short to sit there coddling
and worrying about something that just doesn't want to be there. You're here or
you know, certainly with the snow damage, there's not much you can do
about that. But I think the combination of the fact that you know,
the one got snow damage and the other one is struggling means there's something there
that that this particular these pines just aren't happy. Now, one thing that
you can do, especially with the one that's struggling but hasn't gotten broken,
or even the one that's broken, because sometimes you can get something real artistic
and interesting out of that. It's just move them. It's there's any number
of reasons why they might not be that happy in that particular spot, and
you know, Gardener's all over will tell you I move this, just you
know, saying like, hey, it's got one last chance, I'm going
to move it. And that new spot was perfect and it did really well.
So my answer is, yes, you should replace it because they don't
seem that happy and life is too short. But on the other hand,
I do want to just consider that if you can maybe do a little bit
of detective work and thinking about how the surroundings impact this plant, it might
be you might be able to save it so, and I sent Adriana picture
so these will be in the YouTube version. I encourage you to look at
these photos. I'll put them on the website at Gardening Simplified on air dot
com as well. I have a success story, a success story that I
never thought would actually occur. So when I moved into my house, there
was a magnolia, a magnolia stillata, so you know, the white kind
that just finished blooming, and it was doing very poorly. It was two
sticks and it was like, oh, I mean when I say half dead,
that's not an exaggeration. This thing was literally half dead. My neighbor
had a black walnut tree that was you know, right up against it.
And so that we're in you know, submit emits jug loan, which magnolias
are sensitive to the jug loan or the a lellopathic chemical that can suppress growth
of certain plants. And so you know, they took the walnut down because
I wanted to put in a fence for their dogs. That was fine,
and so I thought, okay, it's going to start, you know,
you know, recovering, and you know it's it looked okay. What I
started doing was hanging my hummingbird feeder on it. So that was the only
reason I didn't take it out, because I was going to take it out
because it looked so unhappy. But you know, for the first year,
I was like, I'll just put my hummingbird feeder here, and I'm like,
hey, the bird's kind of like this, And so, you know,
we kept kept the tree, and then we put in a new downspout
for our roof, and just so happened that we directed the water to the
magnolia. If you look at this magnolia to this day, you will not
believe your eyes. This thing has shot up probably ten feet is full.
It was absolutely positively covered in flowers this year. And so the combination of
losing that black walnut and having that supplemental water that it wasn't getting before from
our roof from rainfall made a huge difference, a difference that I never could
have imagined if I hadn't seen it myself. So we're going to share those
pictures. So I think that when you are questioning should I remove this should
I keep it, it's a good idea to say, what can I do
differently that could make a difference in this plant's health. You know Ryl Crow
was right. A change will do you good sometimes, yes, right,
And I looked at the pictures. One I think is umbrella pine can be
notoriously difficult to get started. The other that weeping or pendulating pine tree.
Nancy tells us it was snow and ice, And I believe you, Nancy,
But consider the fact that with those often you'll see squirrels and or birds
perch and they can do damage at the top also. But I would not
throw in the trowel on that thing. I'd see where it goes. Yeah,
see where it goes. Or like I said, if you have another
place to move it, consider that and then put something. Especially if it's
if a plant that you're looking at doesn't do isn't doing well, and it's
in an important spot where you look at it all the time, or your
neighbors or whatever. That might be a time where you say, I'm going
to put something that I think will do better here. I'm going to move
this and give this another chance somewhere else. But again, life is too
short. No one should have to sit there and look at a struggling plant,
because that's just depressing for everybody. So you have it's your garden.
You always have permission to do what you think is right, taking an educated
guess at what the issues surrounding it might be. So do check out our
website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com to see Nancy's conundrum as well as
my success story, which, to be honest, has exceeded my expectations,
as you will see if you get to look at those photos. So we're
going to take a little break. When we come back, Rick's going to
tell you all that branching news, so stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show
is brought to you by proven winners Color Choice Shrubs, Our award winning flowering
shrub and evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more
beauty and less work. Look for proven winners Colored Choice Shrubs and the distinctive
white container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
Stacy. I don't know if you've gotten over the party yet. I
hear they're still cleaning up. And what a party it was, the Arbor
Day celebration. I mean that's a big deal. You know. I went
as Forrest Gump this year. Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. What a
party. They even had Spruce Springsteen there. So you know Arbor Day,
make sure to celebrate it, make sure to send cards to friends and family.
I mean, Arbor Day is a big deal to me. Arbor Day
is a big deal, but you know it is. I understand it's different
in every state. Every state has its own Arbor Day, so we could
all have different I mean, do you celebrate only Michigan Arbor Day? Are
you like, just like having a month of celebration, celebrating every arbor Day.
No, I can't do that. That's too much, all right.
Talking about shade today and our friend who said shade is hard, I wrote
a quick shade lament a limb a rick here it comes. I like the
occasional accolade for the plants around my yard displayed, but praises are diminished.
I think I'm almost finished. I've lost my battle to dent shade. I
enrolled in gardening classes. My plants grow slower than molasses. Lack of light
has left a mark. I'm sitting here in the dark. I lost my
expensive sunglasses. What options? I behoove that my plants would approve. Their
stems are weak and stretched. My dreams are all far fetched, called the
realtor, I'm going to move. And you know, with shade, some
people, Stacy, really start to think of that as a viable option.
Well, yeah, I mean I feel their pain. So I'm curious when
you talked about shade plants becoming long and stretched. You know, the scientific
word for that is ediolated. Did you just not have a rhyme for it,
and you're limerick ediolated? Yeah, did you just not have a a
rhyme for it? Because I would have been impressed if you had gone for
the rhyme with ediolated. I love that, Stacy, I would I would
admit to you. No, not educated in that regard, and so give
us that word again. Ediolated et io L A T E D. Now,
anybody who's tried to grow succulents indoors, particularly like one of those nice
film Rosette succulents, you know what it means. I understand the condition.
I just can't pronounce the word. Yeah, ediolation is the phenomenon of elongating
and getting thinner to stretch. For the life, I'm going to do an
ediolation limerick for you, somebody. Oh, I can't wait, all right.
On a previous show, we talked about beneficial insects. Blocks away from
the French Quarter fine dining stalwarts, the Autubon Insectarium in New Orleans has long
served up an array of alternative insect based treats at its Bug Appetite Cafe overlooking
the Mississippi River. They have things like cinnamon bug crunch, chili fried waxworms,
and crispy Cajun spiced crickets. They're on the menu, green salad with
apple almonds, blueberry vinegarette, and roasted cicadas. They're jumping on this cicada
bandwagon. You know, we talked about that the big summer for cicadas,
and so that's going to be a deal this year. I guess there's menus
and cookbooks, including titles like Cicada Delicious from the University of Maryland. So
there you have it, all right. I guess they're still working out the
bugs on this. You know. I wish them luck because New Orleans certainly
is one of the best food cities in this entire country. And you know,
when you kind of have shrimp atsu fe, I'm not really sure that
the chili fried wax worms are going to be able to compete against New Orleans
legendary food, but to each their own. Yeah, I'll make like Ed
McMahon and say you are correct man, all right, so you know,
being a runner, though, I do eat a lot of bugs inadvertently,
and generally they don't taste like much. And it's also difficult to identify when
you're outside. It's difficult to identify bugs on your granola bar. If you're
eating a granola I can see that. So you probably eat more insects than
you think you do, right, just not deliberately. A whole different thing
when you're like, all right now, I am choosing to eat chili fried
wax worms rather than oh, grud, I just swallowed him. Nat where
I'm paying big money for this. Archaeologists have recently discovered two intact, sealed
eighteenth century glass bottles during mansion revitalization at George Washington's Mountain. I love that
place when I've visited there, and as part of the landmark privately funded forty
million dollar mansion revitalation revitalization project at Mount Vernon, they made a significant discovery
to intact European manufactured bottles in the mansion cellar. They're green glass bottles.
They smell like cherries. There's a liquid in them that you can even see
some of the cherries still in the bottle. What a cool discovery. Yeah,
that's I can't believe it wasn't discovered sooner. Really. Yeah, well
they say that, you know, as they remodel and they pull this up.
They're very deliberate, intentional about carefully excavating areas of potential disruption, and
they find things from time to time. And now they found these bottles that
contain liquid and were probably placed there prior to the war for independence. Wow,
amazing, Yeah, that is so cool. That's fantastic. All right.
Helsinki, an artisan roastery based in the Finnish capital, has introduced a
coffee blend that has been developed by artificial intelligence. We did a show a
few weeks back about AI plants. Well, in this case, they took
coffee and essentially made a mix that was AI generated aiicnic blend. Helsinki,
Finland and Finland, I guess, a nation of five point six million that
consumes the most coffee in the world, at twelve kilograms per capita annually.
I did not know that. So they're big coffee drinkers there, and they're
using AI to make these coffee roasts. Yes, of the blend, so
they're like they used AI to decide which beans and varieties they would blend together.
Now. I was prorised to read this because I was in Helsinki last
fall and I actually had coffee and breakfast at this exact roastry and it was
it was excellent. You were as I was at that exact roastry. Yeah,
Kafa Kafa. I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing that right, but I
was there. I was actually sitting right next to the roasters on the other
side of a glass wall. And if they had had the AI blend,
I certainly would have tried it, but they did not. That is so
cool. Kafa Roastery. Yeah, is the name. Very cool place.
I'd like to go there. So it answers the question, what have you
been up to? Well, you've been to Helsinki and you've had this coffee,
so pretty cool. Pretty cool? All right? Uh well, latte
da look at what we have here, all right. A study published earlier
this year in the Journal of Zoology suggests humans are mistaking American black bears for
bigfoot. I can see that. So Merriam Webster defines a cryptid as an
animal that has been claimed to ex but never proven to exist. And there's
a data scientist called His name is Flow Foxen. Flow Foxen and fond of
titling studies. For example, flow Foxen did a study the Lochness monster.
If it's real? Could it be an eel? If not a fake?
What's in the lake? But isn't this great? So people think that they
have seen bigfoot and it's probably a bear at least in his studies, especially
in the Pacific Northwest, long believed to be sasquatch in natural habitat. It's
statistically significant associated with black bear populations. For every one thousand bears in an
area, they found a four percent increase in the number of bigfoot sighting.
Oh interesting, they actually they aren't just theorizing it's most likely a bear.
They're saying, we know there's a heavy bear population here, there was also
heavy bigfoot sightings. It therefore is probably yea a bear. And you know
if a bear poor thing gets mites or you know, some sort of disease
and it can kind of make its head look kind of bald and its snout
looked kind of bald. That would be pretty scary. I couldn't blame someone
for thinking. But you know what the important thing is if it keeps people
away from bears, then we're all the better for it, because people should
stay away from bears and not mess with you. You got that right,
no question about it, just personal and if you're out in the woods,
you know. I'll close with this just to mention this is sad. Wildfires
are already starting in Canada and we'll probably see the effects again this year.
A number of wildfires this past weekend, so feel bad for those folks.
This would be in British Columbia and so something that we're going to have on
our radar again this summer. Well, you know what, we should do
a show on fire skating because that is a big issue for more and more
people. And even if it's not an issue where you live, it sure
doesn't hurt to plant for alleviating fire. So that'd be a good topic for
a future show. Looks like like an issue that, as last year,
is going to continue to be an issue moving forward. Love doing the show
with you, Stacey, Thanks so much, Thank you, Adriana and most
of all thanks to you. Remember we're on YouTube, podcast, and radio,
so make sure to tune in wherever you wish, and thank you very
much. Enjoy your week.