Coming to you from Studio A here at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's
only natural that we chat today on the Gardening Simplified show. What's Stacy?
Hervella me, Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Okay,
Stacy, should you only plant native plants? Maybe today is going to be
a little bit of a controversial show. We haven't had this much controversy since
we tried to define the color blue. So let's have at it here and
talk about native plants. Well, I think you've really gotten us off on
a controversial start by saying should you only plant native plants? Because that is
a that is an extreme way to start this discussion. It's an extreme way.
And here's why I said that and phrased it that way. Working in
the garden center and in the greenhouse, I would have people who would come
walk in and say, where are the native plants? And I'm only going
to plant native plants And I'll ask them why and they can't really answer me.
And it's a real struggle for me. As a matter of fact,
Here at Proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs, Tim Wood says, we live in
the Golden Age of plant breeding. That's true, and it's true. He's
right exactly. And so I think about these things. I think about like
someone like Henry Ford when he invented mass production in the vehicle, and it
is said that he was quoted as saying that, you know, did you
consult with people on this? And he said no, if I asked people
what they wanted, they just would have asked for faster horses. Now,
it's arguable whether or not he ever said that, but one thing he did
say, and that is, if you want your car in a certain color,
it's all good as long as you get it in black. Right.
Yes, famously that he did say. Famously, he did say that,
So we live in this golden age. And then, you know, in
American history, I think of somebody like Lady Bird Johnson, the first lady
and wife of Lyndon Baines Johnson, and a person who's totally into native plants.
And when she was asked why she had so much interest in wildflowers and
native plants, she said, well, this is such an amazing, wonderful
country and if I'm going to be in Texas, I want it to look
like Texas. If I'm going to be in Vermont. I want it to
look like Vermont. So, you know, native plants is a fascinating subject.
And you know, I'm glad that you brought up Lady Bird Johnson because
the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is in Austin and is a marvelous I have
not been fortunate enough to visit it, but marvelous place to learn more about
Texas native plants. But their website, wildflower dot org is one of my
absolute, hands down favorite resources for native plants on the entire internet. So
when I'm looking, you know, and I'm trying to help, when I'm
researching the show and I'm trying to help people garden, It's one of my
go to spots to learn about where plants are native to what benefit they have
to wildlife. And I find it to be just an invaluable resource. Yeah,
I agree, it's an amazing thing. So talking to Kevin Hurd yesterday
at Proven Winners, Kevin said to me, I like to use native plants
because of their adaptability, and that doesn't mean that non natives aren't adaptable.
It limits your garden palette if you were to only plant natives. In other
words, I'll come right out and say that I am in the camp and
with my landscape. Also, what I practice is I practice planting both natives
and non natives. And I think as long as you're attuned to which plants
are invasive or could potentially be invasive, and not plant those, not distribute
those, then I think that the native plants and non natives can coexist.
Yeah, they absolutely can. And I think you know that you make a
really good point, and that a lot of people who are very vocal about
native plants do treat it like is an all or nothing issue. You either
have to be a completely native plant gardener or you shouldn't garden at all.
And I think that that is there's no benefit in having such a hard line
stance. And I think you know for myself, I do garden with a
lot of native plants. I value gardening native plants, and I will tell
you why, because I love bugs, and I specifically choose native plants because
what I want out of my garden is to see a variety of insects.
I want to watch the interaction of the plants, of the insects, of
the birds, and that's where the value and the joy in the garden is
for me, but I think everyone kind of needs to come up with their
own reason for it, and then that will inform it. And I think
that, you know, sometimes limiting your plant palette can actually be a valid
reason. I know that people get very confused when they go to a garden
center and there's you know, thousands of different plants, and you know,
you may walk in and say, where are the native plants? This is
how I am choosing to narrow down these endless options that otherwise I'll all well
walk out of here empty handed because I don't know what to buy. So
there's a lot of different reasons. But I don't think that it has to
be extreme. And I also think that people might have a journey similar to
mine. Whereas once I started growing native plants and I really enjoyed their set
of contribution, I really enjoyed the insects and everything that they brought in,
then I wanted more, and I did get to more. But it doesn't
have to be like, Okay, right now, rip out your entire yard
and transition everything over to native plants, and then you know, put yourself
on the back and sit down for the next twenty years. It's not going
to work that way. Yeah, I agree one hundred percent. I have
a number of native plants in my landscape. But that's the point I'm trying
to make is that I'm not going to go to an extreme as I view
it, and plant all of just one thing. I think that they can
coexist. I benefit from it. I think of plants Stacey, like basil
or hack in the cloa, or hellebores or the red hot pokers that are
in my yard, or even my beloved cannas. Right, if I decided,
well, I'm only gonna plant native, I wouldn't be enjoying those plants
in my yard. And you know, you garden for enjoyment, you garden
for the color. And I think that's really what is the bottom line here
is whatever your gardening decisions are is like searching out the root of that and
then using that to make your decisions. And you know, again realizing it
doesn't have to be an all or nothing kind of thing. And I think,
especially when it comes down to native plants, you start to get into
a you know, issue of like, well, how native is native?
Right? Is it just native to my county? Is it native to my
city? Is it native to my state, is it native to my region?
And those are not questions that we can answer for anybody. If you
are on that native plant journey, those are questions you have to answer for
yourself. What is native enough for you? True? And of course North
America is a big place. It's pretty huge, and so if you are
going down the road of native plants, consult the USDA Hardiness Zone. Man,
when you're putting plants in the ground. I think about something like lavender
native to Mediterranean regions, then moves to Europe, then comes to the States.
I love lavender. I want lavender in my landscape. So just an
an interesting, somewhat controversial subject. And some people will argue that, well,
native plants are lower maintenance than non native plants. Well, you know,
I think that that also gets it. Another issue reaction with that,
with that native plant issue, is that people just they characterize it with these
really broad strokes that really don't do any aspect of the issue. Justice and
lower maintenance is certainly one of them. Yeah, there are absolutely grasses that
I can grow in my West Michigan garden and will be very low maintenance.
But you know, if I grow panicum, a native panicum it's not actually
any lower maintenance than a miscanthus, because they both are going to be cut
back in spring. They're both going to form big clumps all of this,
and it's still going to be an issue of the right plant in the right
place. I could go up to Miskegan State Park, and I should,
no one should do this, but say I wanted to, you know,
in the spring, there's some very interesting carnivorous plants that grow along the shores
there, and that's a native plant. But I cannot take that from Miskegan
State Park and PLoP it into my very sandy, very sunny garden and expect
it to be a low maintenance plant. If I wanted that to stay alive,
it would be extremely high maintenance. So it's always a question of,
just like anything else in gardening, it's the right plant for the right place.
And again going back to that motivation, why this plant? Why is
this resonating for you? Yeah? Exactly, And so then you have a
person like me who begins to struggle because because I'm a plant hoarder, and
many of us become plant hoarders. So I have a limerick for you on
that on this subject before I give you the limerick. Let me say this
though, Stacy, because you made an important point here earlier in this segment,
and that is my experience has been both native and non native plants do
a great job in attracting pollinators. Yes they can. I mean the insects
and mollinators don't actually necessarily know what's native and what isn't. Right, they
just know it's yummy. Yeah, exactly, they know it's yummy. So
here's my limerick. I really want to be accommodative. What's original, what's
imitative? Which of these plants got here first via seeds? Birds inadvertently dispersed?
I'm trying to be natural and native priority in a pecking order. I
have impulsive plant buying disorder. A circle has no beginning. The thought has
one's head spinning for this per perpetual plant order. Oh that's me. Was
that was fantastic? Well, thank you, it was some of your finest
limerick. Well, thank you, very mulch. I appreciate that this is
just a topic that I'm passionate about, and I think I'd like to talk
about it in future weeks because there is so much talk about native plants.
I love native plants. Native plants are so important, but there's an opportunity
here to use both and that's how I feel. Yeah, So send us
your notes, your cards, your letters. Plants on Trials coming up next
here on the Gardening Simplified Show. Proven Winner's Color 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. It's time
for Plants on Trial, and as I always say, I try to tie
it into the topic of the day, which today is native plants, one
of our more controversial topics. But as always, you know, I hope
that it comes across that. You know, what I personally firmly believe is
that gardening is for everybody, and we can make our decisions about how we
garden and what we plant. And as long as we're coming from a point
of educated, you know, reasoning towards that, then you know everything is
potentially about it. It's all a journey and we can all be on different
points in that journey. And some of us might be on a native plant
path and some of us might not be. And you know, it's just
a matter. Gardening is a lifelong learning adventure, it is, and it's
better when we apply common sense. Also, it's always important to apply common
sense. And so you try to wrestle with these issues. And like I
said, Stacy will continue to talk about it, right we definitely will.
And because we are tying plants on trial into today's topic, it might not
come as a surprise that it is what is known in some circles as a
native ar. Now, I will tell you right now, I do not
like this word native ar. No, this isn't going to turn into a
Doctor Seuss inspired Limerick. I do know that I do not like this word
native ar number one because it's a portmanteau. So if you heard this term,
a portmanteau is like when a word is made up of two different words.
So you've substituted something in, swap something in for the other words.
So in this case, it would be cultivar, and they swapped native or
native into it is culta, and so they call it a native ar.
So it's a cultivar, that's native. But a portmanteau should work where the
words are essentially equal, and in this case that is not the case.
So I don't like the word from a linguistic standpoint. But also I've been
portmanteauing whatever. I've been tau portmanteau for years that I just didn't know I
was doing. Well, now you've got a word for it, thank you.
And because most of the time when people talk about native ours, they
are using it as a insult. So a native ar, again, is
just a cultivar or a cultivated variety. So a selection that someone has come
along and said, oh hey, this is pretty swell. It's a little
bit different than the other, you know, individuals in this population, and
so I am going to take it, and I'm going to disseminate it,
and I'm going to call it, you know, rix picker whatever. So
that would be a native ar selection of a native variety. And a lot
of people say, oh, native ours they're not they're not environmentally valuable,
they're not good plants. And it's a much more nuanced situation than that,
because really, if you are not growing native ours, then your only true
alternative is essentially to go out into the woods and dig stuff up and put
it in your yard. And you should not do that because for you probably
be on property where that is not permitted, could get you arrested. And
second weld, then you are disturbing a natural ecosystem to put it into your
artificial ecosystem in your backyard, and that's not cool. It's not a good
thing at all. So, you know, native of ours again, a
lot of people have a bad they have a bad reputation, they mean something
bad to people, but really all it means is a selection of a native
plant. And there can be a lot of different reasons that a native plant
was selected to become a cultivar or native ar. So I think one of
the earliest ones that kind of really set this native ar conversation in a bad
direction was double Echinaesia. So Echinaesia was you know, on the scene.
People were loving it. It's super duper popular, and of course plant breeders
are like, hey, people love echinaesia, what's next for echinesia? And
they came up with these double echinasia. So Echinasia of course are cone flowers
and they have you know, pedals, a big cone in the center and
then petals that go and then the double echinaesias have a second set of pedals
on top, like a little crown. And so people said, well,
pollinators aren't going to recognize these, and these are really bad for pollinators because
now instead of planting Acinasia that are beneficial to pollinators, people are now planting
these double acinaesia, and they aren't as beneficial for pollinators, and that is
a bad thing. But a native ar isn't simply it's flowers. It's not
simply like, oh, well, this is a double flower, or this
is a different color flower. And a lot of the native VARs that we
develop here at proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs, one of our main goals is
actually changing the size of native shrubs so that they are more useful and more
easily incorporated into residential landscapes. Sure, and that's a really important thing because
in this case we're not talking about, hey, we've fundamentally changed something so
it's no longer beneficial to pollinators or wildlife. You wouldn't have probably been able
to plant a lot of our native ours because they were ten feet tall and
wide and you don't have space that in your backyard, so it can mean
a lot of different things. And we have probably about a full third of
the shrubs in the proven Winter's line are selections of our native species that we
have collected over the years, that we have selected through selective breeding. And
the one that I'm talking about today it took a long time for me to
get to day's planet on trial is low scape snowfire ronia. And the reason
that I picked low Escape Snowfire is because it has more of everything that's good
for wildlife. So one of the reasons that this particular ronia also known as
chokeberry chokeberry was selected is because it is an extremely heavy flowering variety. So
what makes it different from our native ronias is that it has probably two or
three times the amount of flowers on it, so that means a lot more
nectar for pollinators. The flowers are just like the native you know species,
so a lot more nectar for pollinators when it's flowering in spring, and then
all those flowers turn into fruit for birds in fall, so then you have
two or three times the amount of fruit for birds. So it's really just
a different way of looking at what is the characteristic that any given plant reader
is trying to bring out of the plant, And how does that when it
comes to native plants, affect the reason that you're growing it in the first
place, which, of course, in my case is insects. So Ronia
is one of those native plants. You know, we talked a little bit
about native to war in the first segment, and ronia is one of those
plants that's native to a huge portion of the United States and Canada. In
fact, if you look at a map basically everything east of the Mississippi aside
from Florida and Louisiana, you will find ronia growing wild so hugely adaptable,
hardy USDA zones three through nine. You'll find it all the way in the
north of Quebec, all the way down to the southern part of Georgia.
So if you are anywhere within this huge range of states, it is native
for you. Birds and animals have done a good job spreading the love right
because of those well we call them chokeberries because the fruit it will not make
you choke, but it has a strong astringency that will suck all the moisture
out of your mouth. If you've ever like put alum in your mouth.
It's that kind of thing just like makes you pucker up. But the birds
love it, and so do other animals, and therefore ronia has made its
way and is considered native to again about half of the US. Try some
in my morning smoothie time. Okay, let us know how that goes.
Probably won't go too well, but you probably will not want to load up
on the ronia. It's it's very healthy, has huge amount of vitamin I
can imagine. But the flavor is definitely better for the birds than for your
average human. But stacy the benefit of the plant also, and the cultivar
to us, to people aside from pollinators and animals in our landscapes. A
few weeks ago I took pictures of a ronia in fall color. Oh yeah,
it is knock your socks off, yes, and snowfire. That's where
the fire part of snowfire's name comes from. Is because it has incredible fall
color. I mean, all ironias have good fall color, and so if
you planted an ronia in your landscape, you would never plant a burning bush
again, which is considered invasive in some states. Yeah, so yeah,
just knock yourself right. So there's again It kind of really shows how there's
just so much nuance into this conversation. But low scape Ronia is also very
very easy to grow, very adaptive. We talked about adaptable. Native does
not necessarily automatically mean adaptable, but in many cases, and certainly in the
case of Ronia, it does. This is a plant that can tolerate pretty
much any kind of soil. Wet, dry, not a problem. pH
prefers a cidic, but not going to be too finicky about it. You
got road salt, no problem. You got clay, no problem, you
got sand, no problem. It really there's a almost there's few, if
any challenges except deer, of course. Now the deer. I have grown
ronia in my deer ridden yard and they eat the flowers, which is kind
of a mummer. I moved mine in the compound, yours is now in
the compound. Yeah, so it's in the rose family, So most members
of the rose family are relished by deer. But it's a really beautiful plant.
And again, it has benefits to humans and it has benefits to animals,
and it's I think it's just a great example of how plant breeding,
a native ar, selecting for a native ar does it necessarily mean it's taking
something away from nature. It can actually I don't want to say improving it
because that's not the goal, but it can actually do more in your yard
for you and for animals. So if you want to see pictures of low
scapesnow fire ronia, which of course you do. It's a fabulous little plant.
It's three to four feet tall and wide, so very useful in the
landscape. You can go to Gardening Simplified on air dot Com. You'll see
our pictures there. Of course, it'll be on our Instagram and if you
watch us on you you'll see Adriana's fabulous photographs of low scape, snowfire in
our trial gardens. We're going to take a little bit of a break.
When we come back, we're opening up that gardening mail bag, so 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 easy care 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. Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening
Simplified Show. What are the ways that we like to simplify gardening for you
is by answering your gardening questions. Now, I have to say, it's
early November and it seems to me as though the garden questions are on the
proven winner's side. People writing to us starting to dry up. I think
people are are feeling like, hey, the garden is mostly put to bed,
but we still have lots of questions in the inbox. And I tried
to put questions today that would really speak to some concerns that people have now
and over the coming weeks, because I know there's still a lot of confusion
about hey, it's November, can I do this? Shouldn't I do this?
Blah blah blah? So with how further ado? What do we got
to know? Beg right? All right, let's do it. Kathy is
asking us this week, I want to plant paint the town Dianthus in a
shallow garden bed. How deep do the roots go on these plants when fully
mature, so that I ensure they have enough soil real estate for their root
systems. Your help is much appreciated. So this is a question, we
get a lot, and I think because nobody, you know, you don't
see the roots very much, and so they're kind of a mystery to people.
But the bottom line here is that roots generally do not go as deep
as most people think, correct and so usually you can guess about one and
a half time the height. So paint theon Dianthus is a pretty short little
perennial. I wouldn't count the flower stalks in this height, So the little
clump of foliage is probably gosh, about five to eight inches or something like
that. So they go about that deep and about one and a half times
the width of the plant outward. But you know, I think one of
the things that really surprises people when they find out is that plant roots don't
necessarily go very deep because there's no oxygen down there, and plant roots need
oxygen just like anything else. This is why you can kill a plant so
easily through overwatering it, because that replaces all of the oxygen in the soil
pores with water, and the plants literally can't breathe and they suffocate. So
oxygen is super crucial for healthy root growth. And if you get much further
down than about eighteen inches, you're starting to have very very little oxygen for
the roots. Now, some plants do have certain ada adaptations where they can
grow, but I think we said this on the show before. You know,
if you're walking in the woods and you see a tree that is tipped
over from a storm, you might be surprised to see that those roots that
are torn up, you know, they weren't six feet down in the ground.
You're right on with that, Stacey. And aside from the oxygen,
also roots compete for moisture and nutrients. They do that by working their way
up to the surface. I would say with this plant, paint the town
Dianthus, which is a gorgeous perennial. I love this plant. Good drainage.
Just make sure we have good drainage, because if you don't have good
drainage, that's how we're going to lose this plant. As a matter of
fact, you know years ago when we were planting pinks or dianthus in the
landscape, they would melt out in summer due to heat. And this is
one of these plants that was bred and developed for heat tolerance. So I
would just make sure good drainage. Yes, that's true, and I do
want to talk quickly about others, but I want to share a fun fact.
And you said pinks, So you know, Dianthus or pinks have been
around for centuries, very very popular garden plants. And the term pinking shears
for those who sow they're special scissors that you use that make a little zigzag
edge actually comes from Dianthus because the edges have that little serrated kind of zigzaggy
edge. How do you know this stuff? Well, I recently did a
bunch of research on Dianthus and that was one of the many interesting things that
I found out. It's a pinking scissor, pinking pinking shears. Pinking shears,
Yes, so they come. That name comes directly from pinks. Dianas's
working on the list here, native our pedantic Lama, all these. Don't
forget portmanteauteau. I've been doing it for years, just didn't know it.
But Kathy, another thing I want to say is that when it comes to
roots, a lot of plants can actually deal with more restricted root room than
you might think. They are just going to respond by being smaller. So
you can think of something like a bone side tree. You know, in
nature, those trees would be forty fifty eighty feet tall. But if you
take it and you grow it in a tiny little container and you restrict its
roots, it's going to respond in kind by staying small. So you don't
necessarily need to have this idea of optimal you know, real estrate. If
you are willing to say, hey, you know, I don't mind if
this thing stays a little bit smaller. But Rick, You're absolutely right.
Good drainage is key for Dianthus. So, Kathy, I think that it
sounds like your plan for paint the town Dianthus is going to work out.
Justifye. Dana is wondering. I purchased ten quarts of maiden grass? Now
that would be Misscanthus rights? Yep, okay, Miss Canthus to miss Canthus.
She won the Miss America contest? Was it last year? Miss Canthus?
A plant? It's a beauty. It's a grass to plant at a
property in Lake County. I've had them a week and put them in my
greenhouse, thinking I will plant them in spring. Should I plant them now?
Temperatures are falling into the twenties next week. I'm concarn These small court
containers wouldn't do well over winter. So you know, again it's early November
here and people are definitely starting to wonder should I still plant? You know,
the bargains are still out there, they can't resist scooping them up.
Is it's still okay to plant? And the general guideline that I always give
people is that you want to try to have your plants in at least six
weeks before the ground freezes. So it really doesn't matter what kind of frosts
we've had, it's you're looking for that date when the ground actually freezes solid,
because it's at that point that root growth is essentially going to stop because
the ground is frozen. But the trick with that, of course, is
that it's impossible to predict when the ground is going to free solid. I
don't know that that data is out there, and it changes so much these
days from year to year. Sometimes the ground might be frozen and then it
gets warm and then it's not frozen solid. So my general advice, especially
for things that are very hardy and reliable, which would certainly be the case
of Miscanthus it's best if you can to get them in the ground now,
then to try to overwinter them in containers. And certainly don't try to overwinter
them indoors. So if it's a hardy plant, a durable plant like miss
canthus is again, as long as you're within roughly that six weeks before the
ground freezes kind of time frame, I would say, yes, go ahead
and get it in the ground. I agree one hundred percent. I've been
planting in November in Michigan for years with great success. Maybe mulch at the
base, but I think you'll be good. And miss canthus or maiden grass
is very tough, a plant native to Asia, but does really well in
Michigan, northern states here in North America, and highly deer resist them,
very dear resistant. Yeah, just an overall tough plant. But mulch,
of course is a good idea because what mulch is going to do is prolong
that period of optimal root growth, and that's key to getting your plant established
and through winter. What about your next question there, Stations, Oh yeah,
okay, So, in keeping with a theme of a controversial show,
decided to answer this question from a listener, Genevieve. She had very nice
things to say. She says, I love to feed the birds, but
the feral cat population in my neighborhood keeps increasing and they hunker down in my
yard by the bird feeders. I'm worrying that I'm luring the birds to their
demise. Should I stop feeding the birds? What would you do? That's
tough. It is really tough. And you know, I know there's so
much love for cats out there. I also love cats, But I don't
think that there is a scientist on earth, or a biologist or ecologist who
would characterize outdoor cats as anything less than an ecological disaster. I looked up
some data found reliable sources. Outdoor cats are estimated to kill about one billion
birds a year and six billion small mammals. Now, it's one thing.
If you have a cat, an indoor cat that goes outdoors, it's probably
well fed. It's hunting instincts may or may not be the best. It's
still not a good idea to let them out doors. But when it comes
to feral cats, you're definitely going to have cats that, whether or not
someone in your neighborhood is feeding them, they're just going to be much more
attuned with that natural hunting instinct and therefore are going to of course kill birds.
Now, I think if you're really concerned about it. I do think
as heartbreaking as it is, probably the safest thing to do is to stop
feeding birds until the cats stop coming around. But I did find some interesting
solutions out there that you might consider, and so I'm going to share those.
So one of them is that you can use. First of all,
position your feeders in the open. So they recommend ten to twelve feet of
open ground around your feeders. So no plants that far away from your house
or any other structure, no furniture, no storage bins, any place where
a cat could lurk and hide. Keep those feeders out in a good twelve
foot radius of complete openness, And that's what I do. But ten to
fifteen feet away is really good cover afforded to the birds so that they can
stick. Yeah, and thorny plants helps too. They really like to take
shelter in thorny plants, so that's one thing that will help. Scent repellents
will also work, so you can try sprinkling curry powder or cayenne pepper on
the ground where the cats would walk to your bird feeder. Now, the
Dollar Store is a great source for all those. You don't have to go
broke buying them organic spice. Just go to the dollar store, get yourself
a big container. And then there's a bunch of essential oils that can work,
and some different cleaners, especially those formulated with orange peel or orange oil,
that can also function as a scent repellent. And then finally, there's
something known as scat mats, and they can be made out of metal,
they can be made out of rubber, they can made out of plastic,
and they're basically just something that's super uncomfortable for the cat to walk on.
And you would have to combine that perhaps with some other strategies, but the
cats won't walk on it. Just do bear in mind, of course,
the cats can make some pretty impressive leaps, especially if they are food motivated,
So make sure that your follow all of these other recommendations. Familiarize yourself
with organizations in your community that deal with this also, they have ideas.
There are great people out there who rescue cats, Yes, who take care
of cats. There's some amazing people and organizations out there. Familiarize yourself with
these people. That's some great advice. We're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we've got branching news, so please stay tuned.
The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by proven Winners, Color Choice
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It's time for branching news here on the Gardening Simplified Show, Stacey, we
talked about native plants earlier in this show. Of course, our attention and
the attention of men any people. There's many good people out there who are
dealing with invasive plants and the invasive nature of some of these non native plants
that create a serious problem, and hydrilla is one of them. It's an
aquatic plant and has been detected in our state where we're broadcasting from here in
Michigan for the first time. A real concern. Yeah, you know,
aquatic native or aquatic invasives are extremely problematic because not only are they difficult to
manage, you can't use certain herbicides on them because of course they're going into
the water, but they choke out waterways, They can completely change the biology
of streams, ponds, rivers, lakes, et cetera. So they're really
problematic, but you know, sometimes they can actually turn into something good.
I don't know if you're familiar with water hyacinth. It's a popular ornamental that
people put in their ponds and dish gardens and that kind of thing, and
it's not going to it's not likely to be invasive here because it's very tropical.
But in the tropical areas where water hyacinth is invasive, they actually harve
and use it to make like a kind of fiber that they make into doormats.
So they've made something really good out of something really bad. That's cool.
You know, earlier we were talking about a non native here in North
America, but we use a lot of it, and that is Miscanthus maiden
grass, and they would weave the grasses to make thatched roofs and make something
good out of it. So there you go. Hydrilla so very concerning,
out competes native plants and can quickly fill a lake or a pond. I
hear hydrilla, it makes me think of Godzilla. You remember the Godzilla movies.
Yeah, of course, I don't know how many remakes of Godzilla they
did. And the Blue Oyster Cult did this great song called Godzilla. It's
it's fabulous. Listen to it. Sometimes I'm gonna have Adriana listen to it.
Fun to listen to Blue Oyster Cult Godzilla. So there you go.
As a matter of fact, it was the walk up music for the famous
slugger Hedeki Matsui. Oh yeah, from the New York Yankees. Yeah.
Nice, that's what they call them. You know why I went there?
I have no idea. So let's go here. Here comes Thanksgiving. A
survey of two thousand Americans looked at their social calendars for the holidays and found
the average person will attend five different gatherings this holiday season. So the top
rules when you go to these homes are to clean up after yourselves, help
clean up afterward, and to bring something to the gathering. Don't show up
with nothing. Forty six percent also expect others to take off their shoes before
entering the house. Forty one percent expect guests not to go into closed rooms
without their permission. Wait, who would do that? I mean maybe if
it's like close family, but wow, there are some bad guests out there.
Yesh, my room isn't messy. I just have everything on display.
It's like a museum, all right, check this out. Baskin Robbins has
just announced they'll be releasing a new ice cream flavor inspired by Thanksgiving dinner.
This new flavor, released by Baskin Robbins will be the company's new Flavor of
the month. It arrives just in time for Thanksgiving. The name of the
flavor is Turkey Day Fixin's, but won't actually contain any turkey flavors. Instead,
you'll be able to sample honey corn bread, spiced sweet potato, and
Ocean spray cranberry all in one bite. And they're bringing back Turkey cake.
That's a cake that looks like a turkey, not a turkey flavored cake,
right, I don't know, I want to try. I'm I'm just gonna
pretend that's the case, because I know you ain't seen stuffing yet much ado
about stuffing well anyhow, so it comes to turkey. It's the based idea
ever, It's a great flavor. Newsflash, viral sensation. Claude the leaf
thief Koala Bear now has a partner in crime. Have you seen this story?
Is this the koala bear that destroyed like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
worth of seedlings in a nursery. Yes, I heard about that. Yes,
walks into a nursery. So this is in Australia, Eastern Forest Nursery
near Lismore in the Northern Rivers region. And so they caught Claude, the
koala bear, and Joey feasting on this all you can eat buffet. They're
eating for two and so Claude has been caught on camera and has eaten all
kinds of seedlings. It's cost them a lot of money. And of course
there's a lot of people working there in Australia trying to grow these eucalyptus seedlings
so that they can grow more of them for the koala bears. But they
figured out how to break in and feast in the nursery. Can you imagine
a koala bears or garden pest, I mean, just imagine. They're so
cute and you know that this is a really good interesting thing because of course
eucalyptus is native to Australia, so some fabulous eucalyptus in Australia, but where
it has been planted and it's not native like in California. It's causing huge
problems, contributing to wildfires and has become invasive in some areas. So another
good example of where a native plant is a good thing and where it might
not be well. This nursery obviously has cameras to catch clawed red handed and
they are koalified to grow you eucalyptus plants. Did you catch that? I
did? Kala? Yes, After dinner they had a peanut koala. Oh
this is so bad. I got to move on to Some of the sounds
of cow bells are synonymous with the Swiss countryside. To others, they are
a sleep disturbing nuisance. So there's a village in Switzerland where the regional government
has become involved because the cattle are so noisy wearing these bells. The problem
is is you have some people who say, take the bells off the cows,
this is ridiculous and I can't sleep at night, and other people saying
it's beautiful, it's wonderful. The cows have always had bells. Leave the
bells on the cows, and now this whole thing has escalated to the point
where there's thousands of signatures on a petition and it's going to go to a
vote. Wow. Well, speaking of controversial topics, if I had given
you my opinion on wind time slately again, something that some people think is
the most beautiful sound ever, and some people like me sit there and say,
I'm trying to sleep. Could the metal please stop clanking constantly all evening?
So you know it's up. It's a highly subjective topic. Just made
a note not to give you wind chimes for Christmas? Please don't, Okay,
thank you? So yeah, fascinating and I'm going to be interested to
see how this. The Swiss town is voting next month on whether or not
to protect cow and church bells. Oh well, how are they going to
find the cows if they don't have bells on them? I thought that was
why they wore the bells, right, Cows wear bells because their horns don't
work. You walked right into that one. I've before first that joke I
need more cow bell The old SNL skit with Christopher Walking and Will Ferrell.
It's got to be one of the best SNL skits ever. I wanted to
mention this to you, Stacey. Of course we both love birds so much,
and so does Adriana And and NPR did a story and I found this
fascinating. I'm gonna follow this where they're they're going to rename a lot of
birds. Did you see that. Yeah, like Anna's hummingbird will go away.
They're going to take away human names, English human names off of off
of birds because it can be deemed offensive or exclusionary. Yeah, and you
know, it's really not that useful, so you know, it's I think
it's a good thing they're giving new names out interesting. Of course, Now
when it comes to common names, there is no one authority, so it's
a little bit tricky because with scientific names, you know, there is an
authority and everyone has to agree. But with common names, it's kind of
like you can try, but some names are very very entrenched in the human
psyche, and it would be very difficult to unseat them. Yeah, as
I understand it, the scientific or botanical names or whatever you want. The
scientific names, right, are going to remain the same, yes, of
course, yes, but the common names may change. The project begins next
year and initially focuses on seventy to eighty bird species that occur primarily in the
United States and Canada. So take as an example, uh, Cooper's Hawk,
it would no longer be the Cooper's Hawk. What they're gonna name it,
I don't know, and I would think that this is gonna be kind
of difficult to do. It's it is, But if they were ever going
to do it, the internet's age is the best time to do it.
You can communicate things a lot more quickly, you know. I think it's
a great example of when you know better, you do better. Fascinating.
I'm gonna follow this, and that's why it needed to be in branching News.
I mean, this is a slippery slope when you think about it.
What's next? Woody Woodpecker, Scrooge McDuck, foghorn, leghorn, big bird.
They're gonna rename big Bird. I don't even think big birds is real
name, tweety bird, daffy duck. I don't know. Anyhow, It's
time for us to wing out of here. Boy, this has been quite
a show. Make sure to join us again next week, same channel,
same place. Reminders Stacey Instagram, YouTube, our website, Gardening Simplified on
Air, dot com post. You can find us out there just about everywhere,
so make sure to tune in and share it with friends and neighbors.
A big thank you very much to Adrianna Robinson, our engineer and producer,
and thank you Stece, and thank you and thanks to all of you