Coming to you from Studio A. Here at Proven Winters Color Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me Rick weisst and
our engineer and producer aid Rihanna Robinson. Hey, this is gonna be a
fun show. I'll tell you what it's like. The Academy Awards and the
Oscars. The envelope please twenty twenty four National Plants of the Year and Stacy.
If we're going to talk about National Plants of the Year, I have
to say right off the top one of my favorite people, Megan Mattai,
the plant breeder here at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. The Hydranga of the
Year. Let's dance skyview reblooming Hydrangea. Of course we talked about that this
past year. It's an amazing hydrange of for its ability not only to conserve
its old wood buds in the face of well cold and wintry temperatures, but
it's also its ability to continue creating new flower. High praise for Megan for
Proven Winters Colored Choy shrubs, and boy, this is fantastic. Twenty twenty
four National Plant of the Year Hydrangea. Let's Dance Skyview reblooming hydrange It is
such an incredible plant. And you know, it's so complex to tell the
story of our newer Let's Dance hydrangeas like Let's Dance Skyview, because what we
have been doing, and I've talked about it on the show a couple of
times before, is really selecting for the ability for the Hydrangea to set flower
buds lower down on the stem. Yes, old Hydrange's they only set their
flower buds at the tippy top. Now those lower down flower buds, they
don't just make the plant look better, they also get conserved if there is
cold damage. And so Megan's team has been looking out and identifying plants with
those characteristics and then using them to develop really fantastic plants like Let's Stance Skyview.
And you really have to see the color to believe it. It's it
really is the color of like a beautiful summer sunrise, a pink and blue
and all these lovely colors. And when you see the thing at the garden
center, it's just irresistible. It is irresistible and fully adaptable to blue.
This past year, we had a Blue Show where we talked about how blue
is so desirable in the landscape, and this hydrangea really checks that box.
Right. A lot of people don't realize that hydrange's ability to be blue is
inherent. Yes, it does depend on the soil chemistry. You need the
soil to be acidic, you need the soil to have aluminum in it.
But hydrange also has to be able to turn blue in the first place.
And that's where let's stand. Skyview really excels. I get a little blue
in the winter time. But that's a whole other subject. So let's talk
about some flowers. Annual of the Year Supertunia Vista Jazzberry. Now, I
love the Supertunia Vista series. It's incredible to me, As Kevin Hurd would
say, it's a two hundred mile per hour plant because again, I go
back to Petunia's in the old days when I was in the garden center into
and the dead heading and all that kind of stuff. This plant is so
floriferous. Many times you can't even see the foliage. It has so many
blooms on it. Now, when you take Jasberry Supertunia Vista Jasberry, the
twenty twenty four annual Plant of the Year, and you combine it with a
new introduction this past year, a picotee Petunia supertunia, Hoopla Vista orchid.
And you put those two together, Wow, it's quite something else. Yeah,
Hoopla is getting a ton of press, but it is not the flower
of the year. It's not the annual the year that is Jasberry. And
you know, you're right, And I'm really glad that you brought up the
Vista supertunias because they really that whole approach really goes hand in hand with what
we were just talking about the hydrangea with the lets dance hydrangeas, both of
these plants really sort of turn the conventional wisdom about the plant on its head.
Yes, you know, like you said, petunia used to be thought
of as this very fussy thing that you constantly had to deadhead. And they
were making a and if you didn't trim them, you know, they got
whitefly. They were kind of a time. It's kind of amazing that they
were even tolerated because they were not great. And then along comes this Vista
series and it has been developed to not set seed, so you don't have
you know, a bunch of energy going into seed production and as a result,
it's not just like it flowers a little more. I mean, it
is a flowering machine. Unreal, It's amazing. I'll give you one of
my quotes on the plant. If you give it sun, water and fertilizer,
they're like a driverless car. Just keep blooming their heads. That's a
very good analogy. That is what they're like. But the fertilizer is key
because when you have something that has that ability, you got to keep it
gassed up as it were, or charged up however you want to think about
it, well said, and of course Kevin Hurd also said, it's all
about petal substance. So you get hot weather, you get rain, it
stands up to it keeps going. Kalladiums. I love kalladiums, the Heart
to Heart series, Lemon blush shade kalladium, the kalladium of the year,
a shade kalladium. Now there are many hard to heart kalladiums that are now
considered sun or shade and adaptable as houseplants. And that's really exciting for me.
Stay see to see kalladiums that we can grow in the sun. I
mean, I love kalladiums. Unfortunately so do the deer. So therefore I
do not grow kalladiums, but yeah, there's such an instrumental plant in especially
in warmer climates. You know, it's a nice to have for us.
But in hotter climates they are absolutely essential because they do need plants that brighten
up the shade and maybe can take some sun for those morning, you know,
sunny mornings. And I think kalladiums are so beautiful and another plant that's
just turning the conventional wisdom on its head. They're not just this you know,
green thing with some white speckling. I mean, the proven winners kalladiums
have the most outrageous and unique color combinations that I have ever seen, heart
to heart, and doesn't require a flower to provide you color. And that's
the great thing. They do flower though, Oh kaladiums, they do flower,
but most people don't even really realize that the exactly exactly let's get to
the perennials. I mean that perennial plant of the year, pink profusion perennial
salvia. It's a clump forming, reblooming pink salvia. And what I love
about this one too is it's hardy to Zone three attracts bees, butterflies,
hummingbirds. What's not to like about that plant? You know, Salvia is
such a valuable perennial, and I think so many people they get a may
Night, you know, which is one of the most popular conventional varieties of
salvia, and they go okay, yeah, well that's good enough, you
know, and they don't think, like, WHOA, this plant is such
a great performer. It's deer resistant, it's flowering so much. I wonder
if there's other colors, and so a plant like pink perfusion really starts making
people think, whoa, there's something beyond this, and I can enjoy,
you know, this amazing flower power, sun tolerance, deer resistance, drought
tolerance, it's really got it all. I love them. Yeah, you
bet. And of course, as I've always said, pink plays well in
the garden, So adding pink profusion perennial salvia the perennial plant of the year,
the landscape perennial of the year. I know you'll like this one.
Stacy storm cloud blue star am son Oh yes, deer resistant, hardy desonne
four beautiful blue flowers. Great choice. I adore am Sonia. I have
all sorts of different types in my garden, including storm Cloud. I do
have a bunch of that. It has the black stems, so it looks
really really beautiful when it's been coming out of the ground in spring. Yeah.
Cool. And you know you're talking about blue flowers. Everyone says,
oh, there's no blue flowers that I can grow. Well, am Sonia
is a plant that is extremely durable and easy for pretty much anyone to grow.
So if you want some blue flowers, you can't cut them. It
does have like a milky milkweed kind of substance. It's related to milkweed.
But in the garden it's beautiful. You bet hosta of the year, Well,
the host of the year is Shadowland Hudson Bay. So it's a really
showy, attractive tricolor leaves a hosta with really heavy substance. So that's your
hosta of the year, Shadowland Hudson Bay. But envelope please, flowering shrub
of the year Stacey Wine and Spirits with Jilla. Wow, that's quite a
plant. And I love the plant not just for its blooms, but for
its foliage. And that's another Megan Mattia introduction. And so wine and Spirits
is another one of her masterpieces, And so you know, the flowering shrub
of the year is sort of our catch all. So we have a hydrange
of the year, we have a rose of the year, we have a
landscape shrub of the year, which we'll be discussing in Plants on Trial,
But the flowering shrub of the Year is sort of like, we're obviously not
going to have a Whygeela of the year. I mean, how much farther
can we really take this whole of the year thing. So that's kind of
like when something's not going to be a hydrange or go into one of those
other categories, we use it. We highlight it in this flowering Shrub of
the year. So Wine and Spirits Wygeila is like wine and roses, which
of course is the plant that kind of put our original brand color choice shrubs
on the map, that nice dark black purple foliage, but with white flowers
instead of the pink. Now, the pink is gorgeous, I mean,
don't get me wrong, I love it, but there's something about the contrast
of the white flowers and that dark purple foliage, and I would say that
the foliage on Wine and Spirits is much blacker and darker than wine and roses.
You know, just as we've worked with more plants and brought more of
those qualities out, it is stunning in the garden and really just the white
just adds such a nice touch. It's one of those plants that if you've
got it in your yard and it's blooming, you're gonna have people going,
what is that? And we'll talk more about it in this coming year,
because Stacy, I agree. And with the beautiful white blooms and the dark
foliage in the evening or at nighttime, it's like stars. It's just gorgeous.
Rose of the year, Oh so easy peasy. We've talked about that
before. I love the ohso roses and they're so floriferous. I really don't
have to add to that. You talk about disease resistance and blooming your head
off. Oh so easy peasy. And like you said, Stacey, we're
going to talk about the landscape shrub of the Year, which I'm very excited
about coming up in Plants on Trial. And then let me quickly mention envelope
please, houseplant of the Year mythic dragonite allocation. I love allocations because the
foliage is incredible and I have found with tropical plants that this is a plant
which really came on the radar for people over the past few years as a
very desirable houseplant. Yeah, and very easy to grow. Easy to grow,
got to love that. So Allocacia mythic dragonite. Okay, Landscape Shrub
of the Year is going to be our plant on trial 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 is time
where we put a plant on trial. It's to say, you get to
decide if you're going to put it in your garden or not. And Asrik
said, today's plant on Trial is indeed the Landscape Shrub of the Year.
One fizzy mizzy idea. But before I dive into that, I do want
to briefly address how the shrubs of the Year are picked, because we probably
have listeners going out there going house plan of the year, well says who.
Shrub of the Year, well says who, And so I wanted to
kind of give you a quick little bit of background into that. So for
shrubs, we actually have our licensed growers, which are some of the largest
growers across the US and Canada. They actually get to vote. We give
them a couple of options of what we think will be good based on,
you know, what we're hearing from people out there, and it's their votes
that determine what will be our hydrange of the Year, Rows of the Year,
Flowering Shrub of the Year, and Landscape Shrub of the Year. Our
partners over Walter's Gardens do something similar, but they actually ask all of their
customers and a bunch of other industry people to vote on their perennial of the
year, and it works similarly with annuals kalladiums and of course a house plant
of the Year as well. I mean, we can't just open it up
for anything, because there's got to be supply. We've got to make sure
that, you know, when everyone gets all excited about these plants, we've
got enough of them on the market that no one's left empty handed. But
we do. It's not just us sitting around going hmmm, let's make this
the shrub of the year exactly. You know, we do get input from
our growers and of course we want these to be plants that people will be
successful, which is really the foundation of the entire Premum Winner's brand. Stacey,
it's great. It's like in sports where all stars are voted by their
peers. That's exactly what it's like. Hey, you're the best of the
best. Yeah, I mean, you know you were good enough to make
the team. So now we're gonna like pull out the all star leagues.
So we have been doing Shrubs of the Year for a couple of years now,
so you'll see that on plant taggs as you are out shopping. Even
if it's no longer Shrub of the Year, you'll still see that it had
been. But that brings us to the Landscape Shrub of the Year. Now.
We talked about wine and spirits, the flowering shrub of the Year.
Now, Landscape Shrub of the Year is a category that we use for plants
that, of course are beautiful and totally worthy of your home landscape. But
these are plants that are especially suitable to professional landscapers, because professional landscapers,
you know, they have slightly different needs than those of us who are just
gardening at home. They need to be able to find things easily and in
quantity for big jobs. They need plants that are reliable and tolerant of the
various conditions, because a landscaper puts in a big job. But after that,
you know, any number of things could happen. And of course it
needs to be something that's like reasonably familiar to landscapers because they don't have the
time to do all of the research. If we were to introduce something like
al ninho chtalpa, beautiful plant, absolutely worth planting in the landscape, But
if you've got a landscaper who's busy, and it's just like I don't have
time to deep dive into what a chetalpa is and why this is a good
plant for me. We want that immediate name recognition, and so that's where
fizzy mizzy Ita comes in, and Ita, I think it's had kind of
an unlikely journey to the landscape and garden trade. It is a native plant,
so it's frequently called Virginia sweet spire. Ita virginica is the botanical name,
so that's where the Virginia Park comes in. And it is indeed native
to Virginia as well as pretty much the entire southeast coast, all the way
down to Florida, all the way over to Texas, and then all the
way up into southern Illinois and Indiana. So it's not native to Michigan,
but through most of the lower Midwest and southeast and central US. And it's
so native plant people recognize it. If it's blooming, it will certainly be
recognizable because that name sweet Spire comes from its flowers, which are long,
spire shaped racemes of flowers, very fragrant. So if you were hiking in
the woods in an it was in bloom, you would definitely know it.
But the great thing here, Stacey, is I'm familiar with it ideas that
have kind of drooping flowers. This one looks very different, right, So
what makes Fizzy Mizzy different is that its flowers point straight up like a true
spire instead of dangling down. Now they are beautiful combined, but that's that
ability for the plant the flowers to point straight up is where the name Fizzy
Mizzy comes from. Because it looks sort of like you just opened a bottle
of coke and all the fizz is coming up from the bottom. Really.
Yeah, that's that's where the name comes from. And when when you see
a plant in bloom and you can see pictures of fizzy missy I TA in
our show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot Com. Yeah, that's that's
where the name came from. Makes sense. So I tap a seven up
and you know, all the bubbles come up. Yeah, So I TA
was you know, sort of not really a popular plant until a variety called
Henry's Garb was selected. And did you know that variety was selected in nineteen
eighty five? Wow? I believe it because I'll tell you what. I
have been promoting iteas for years to people to plant in their yards, primarily
because I've been trying to get people to stop planting burning bushes for fall color.
Because this plant, the fall color is amazing. The fall color is
amazing, and unlike a burning bush, you get flowers and fragrant flowers,
and it's not invasive like a lot of burning bushes are very invasive, so
the foliage doesn't drop off immediately. The foliage tends to hang on, so
great for all the season, and I think that the foliage, in my
opinion, and I would suspect yours as well, Rick is much more handsome,
much more appealing than a burning bush. It's leathery, it's glossy.
So Henry's Garnet was a variety that flowered more than conventional itea had a better
habit. And so Mary Henry, a native plant enthusiast, going back to
nineteen eighty five, which just goes to show you that native gardening may be
trendy, but it is certainly not new. She selected that it was introduced
by Woodlanders Nursery, a wonderful nursery that is still in business today selling all
sorts of interesting native plants and other plants as well, And that kind of
got the whole industry interested in ITA and brought us to Little Henry Ita,
which we introduced way way back when we were just color choice shrubs before we
joined with proven winters, and that was a dwarf form of Henry's Garnet.
Now, the important thing about that is that ITA, for all of its
good qualities, like we said, it's native flowers, gets grateful color fragrance,
so it attracts pollinators tolerant of shade, tolerant of wet soil. I
mean, it's really just a great, great plant. One potential liability,
however, is that if you live in the colder end of its own which
is about USCA Zone five or possibly even six, it often got winter damage.
So even though it's hardy, the plant will serve you know, some
of that, especially if it has more tender growth towards the end of the
season. Older varieties, bigger varieties could get some winter damage. And because
it blooms on old wood, so if you have an idea, it has
its flower buds for the summer right on it right now. Any winter damage
would take off those flowers on older, bigger varieties like Henry's garnet. So
when Little Henry comes along and it's a small, compact, petite variety,
that means in those colder climates, it's very often covered by snow when the
coldest part of the winter hits, so it's less likely to get that damage.
And that was really it's not just that it's a space saving plant.
It is, but it also has this ability to actually bloom and thrive in
colder climates where bigger varieties it would be above the snow line, wouldn't be
able to That's great. It's a great itea is what this plant is.
And Stacy, one of the things that I love about the plant. And
let me ask you this, Aside from winter shade, I'm always looking for
flowering shrubs for the shade. This one seems to work in the shade.
You know, it's a huge issue for people who have a lot of shade.
A lot of times they can feel like they don't have a lot of
options. But this is one that will not just live in shade, but
will actually bloom pretty well and get some good fall color. Now, the
more son it gets, the more blooms you're going to have, the more
vivid and attractive that fall color is going to be. But even if you
have very deep shade, this is a plant that you cannot just grow but
also enjoy. And I think that's so important that there are those options.
That's fantastic. So Stacy's talking about Fizzy Mizzy it ta. And if you're
in your car listening to the podcast, listening to the radio version of our
show and not watching on YouTube, the spelling is I e A. You
may be scratching your head thinking what are they talking about? It's that simple,
it ea simple name. I'm glad you said that because people because personally
I prefer Ia to Virginia suit spire. I mean, that's anouthful and people
probably did think you were saying idea, so that I'm glad you clarified that.
It's also tolerant of wet soil, very wet even standing water, or
at least partially stand you know, if it's if it's very wet at times,
so I wouldn't plant it like in a pond, but if it's an
area that floods occasionally, this is a great choice. And the wetter the
soil, the better the plant is going to do. I can't grow it
at all in my very dry, non irrigated garden. But yeah, if
you have wet soil, clay soil, this is a great plant. It's
a problem solver. It's also deer resistant, and I do want to add
that fizzy mizzy so it has these upright standing flowers that look like you just
opened a bottle of soda. And it's also in that smaller range, so
it reaches two to three feet tall and wide. So it is also one
of those that is typically going to be covered in snow. When you have
that really really cold weather that would take out a taller itea. So if
you live in a cold climate, it's a great choice. If you are
planting in a more exposed area, it's a great choice because it's going to
be again closer to the ground. So I would recommend a good layer of
mulch that's not just going to help with the winter survival, but also with
its water needs because this is not a drought tolerant plant, as many plants
that are tolerant of very wet conditions are. It really won't tolerate the opposite,
so that's not uncommon here in the horticulture world. It's a special plant.
It's going to be abundant in the marketplace coming up this spring because it
is the landscape shrub of the year. You can find out more about it
at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com, or go to our Instagram channel or our
YouTube channel for lots more pictures. We're going to take a little break and
when we come back, we're opening up the gardening mail bag, so please
stay tuned. At proven Winter'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. Creating's Gardening friends, and welcome back to
the Gardening Simplified Show, where we try to simplify gardening for you as well
as share our opinions about gardening and plants. And we have opinions and we're
happy to share them with you if you have a question for us, and
you won't just get our opinion, you'll also get our experience and knowledge and
information that you can use in your garden. And so we invite you to
write to us if you have a gardening question. Help HLP at Gardeningsimplified on
air dot com, or just visit Gardening Simplified on air dot com and click
the contact tab. You can send us a message there, YouTube, Instagram.
We all work together, so wherever you reach out to us, we'll
hear your question and we will try to answer it. Now, last week
we had a bunch of listener resolutions, which was great. I loved hearing
from everybody, and if you didn't get a chance to listen in, we
pasted all those resolutions into the show notes, so you can read them there
at your leisure. But we have our first question from Ryan, and I
have to say, given the weather that we have this week, I'm feeling
a little guilty that we did not get to Ryan's question last week. Oh
yes, so let's hear what Ryan asked. It's doable. But hey,
and by the way, let me mention we talked about Ita and it popped
into my head that those listening on radio may have thought we were talking about
Ikea and Stacey. That plant requires no assembly, right, No, it
does not die TIA's in Thomas Ea. Ryan said, So, we randomly
received one hundred tulip bulbs in the mail, have no idea where they came
from or what to do with them. With the mild temperatures, can we
get away with planting them now or do we need to wait until next fall?
Ryan and I have done this often throughout my life. I have used
a pickaxe to cut through the frost and dig down twelve inches deep and plant
tulips. Put on some warm clothes and plant them well. You know,
Ryan, if we had gotten to your question last week, when it was
still mild and there was no snow, this probably would have been a much
more appealing proposition than it's going to be right now. But first, I
have a question back to Ryan. You randomly received one hundred tulip bulbs.
I want a friend randomly sends me a hundred tulip bulbs. Although you know,
it did remind me of that story that hit I think it was during
COVID about how people were receiving random packs of seed from China and people were
planting now, which seems crazy to me. But a tulip bulb is a
little less risky, I think, so, Ryan has random tulip bulbs.
If we had answered your question last week, we had a week in the
forties, it was warm, you would have easily been able to plant them.
But the bottom line is that the fall planting bulbs is not like if
you do it anytime outside of that, they won't live. It's really about
the ideal time to plant so that the bulb will put on roots exactly and
be ready to flower in spring. It's kind of, you know, in
sync with the changing light and the temperature So what that fall planting does is
again give it the longest possible time to grow roots, so that when spring
comes it's ready to grow. But it's not like a do or die situation.
I agree, Ryan. Take one of the one hundred sacrifice one.
Take a sharp knife, cut it in half. You'll see that flower,
that potential inside the the bulb has everything it needs in order to bloom next
spring. Right, Like Stacy says, it's just optimum to get them.
So plant them a little deeper. But plant them, Ryan, don't wait
until next Well, plant them if you can. If we do end up
having as much snow as they are potentially calling for here in West Michigan,
I'll come over and help. It's up all right, you can reach trick
at. But I do want to say if you cannot get them in the
ground, if there really is so much snow and it's frozen, I would
not save them. You know, they're not gonna They're not gonna save well,
They're gonna dry out and they're gonna not live. So I would instead
recommend that if you can't get them in the ground, get round up a
bunch of containers. They can be plastic nursery pots whatever. Pot them up
in potting soil, just whatever potting mix you have in the garage or you
can get from whatever garden center is nearby. Pot them up, water them,
put them outside to get the cold treatment. You want them to have
at least six to eight weeks of cold temperatures, and then you can bring
them inside to flour. You can let them flower outside and plant them in
your containers with some pansies. But I definitely would not save them. I'd
either get them in the ground if you can, get them in containers outside
if you can't, and just don't let them go to waste. You got
surprise tulips, Stacy, I would recommend for Ryan he uses the search engine
of his choice and just look up bulb forcing. All right, bulb forcing,
there you go, Kurt writes, Hi, Stacey and Rick. My
garden in England, Zone eight A, and I've had so much rain.
Pretty much the entire gardens flooded after rainstorms we've had this last week. I'm
scared all my plants are going to rot. I sent in some photos the
other day to show you the proven winter shrubs I had, but the situation
has gotten worse now will the gardens survive or am I going to have to
start all over again next spring? Maybe you could do a show about plants
and their resistance to floods, which is interesting because we also had a question
this past week if we could do a show on droughts. So everybody's dealing
with something different. So Kurt did send a photo which we will put in
the show notes or on the YouTube version. And ouch is all I have
to say about Kurt's photo. Yeah, it is not pretty. Wow,
it's like a little mini lake there in his backyard. I just wet my
plants, and so I would not give up on the plants yet. But
the thing is that flooding in winter is definitely much worse on the plants than
flooding in summer. Now, flooding in summer is no picnic. That's not
great either. However, what happens in summer is that when the plants have
foliage on them, that foliage is giving off water vapor. So it's able
to sort of take that water if it can stay alive, if the roots
aren't completely suffocated, and sort of off gas that and make and deal with
it a little bit better. Of course, the sun is also helping to
evaporate water. When you have standing water like this in winter, there's really
nothing. The plant is dormant, it's not metabolizing, so all you have
is those roots and all of the airspaces that were full of oxygen are now
full of water. So it is definitely not ideal. Now he is in
England, so a mild climate, they're not getting any freezing. I did
right back to Kurt and recommend that he tried to carefully dig the plants.
Normally you would want to avoid digging in very wet soil, but I think
that without that, there's just no way these plants are going to survive.
So I said, if you've got a pair of waiters or some muck boots
or something and can get out there and gently carefully lift the plants, get
them into a potting mix. I have found that that works well. Something
that's going to get air to those roots, pot them up, let them
recover there, Wait until spring. I mean, I wouldn't write anything off
until spring comes and things start to leaf out. So it's not great,
but I would I think it's worth taking the measures. And I would also
say that even if you're having extreme weather overall, I don't think that it
bodes well for this particular spot for most shops. I mean, you could
plant in ia there, it can take the wet soil. But he also
sent me a list of plants that he had. It's not in this particular
question. Something like a panicle hydrangel will not tolerate that wet soil at all.
So if this, if this area is prone to flooding, I would
rethink what you're planting there and take the stuff that you have planted again,
pot it up to get it through the rest of winter and find a new
place it's more suitable for it for spring, and then maybe you have a
new Year's resolution like Stacy's year, a new year's resolution about great, great
trying to slope some of that water away. Good luck to you. Kirt.
Randy wants to know what's wrong with his arbor viting, and he sent
in a picture of a very tall, well established hedge. One of the
plants in the foreground of the picture has large brown portions. So what's going
on, Stacy? This is a dilemma throughout the years for me. When
somebody comes up to you and has a row of plants, but one of
them's a troublemaker. Why is one struggling or turning brown or dying and the
other one's okay. It's always a mystery, it Well, there's so many
reasons why exactly. There's so many possible reasons why. You know, it
can be a matter of the direction of the wind. There can be things
like underlying bedrock or something buried from back when your house is being constructed.
It can be due to a pet or a nearby animal favoring that particular plant
over others. So this plant, for Randy is on the end of the
row. And that can even be for something like an herbicide drift if you
have a neighbor who has a lawn service and then small particles of herbicide can
go into the air and land on the plant. I mean, it's one
of those things that, like it's a big picture thing, it can be
very hard to determine. But looking at Randy's picture, which we will of
course put in the show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot Com, my
suspicion is arburvedy leaf miner. Okay, and arburvedy leaf miner. Now,
if you know what a leaf miner is. If you've ever grown columbine,
you know what a leaf miner is. Columbine very susceptible to leaf miners,
not detrimental, looks a little funky, but not really too bad for the
plant. But it's an insect. It can be a moth, it can
be different types of insects, and it literally they lay the egg in it,
and the leaf miner larva literally burrows between the two layers of the leaves
of the leaf and eats all of that tissue in there. Now, if
you've ever seen an arborvity foliage, you might be thinking, how in the
world is a leaf miner going to do that? But you can look at
pictures of them online. Quite a fascinating insect, I think. But the
damage of arboridy leaf miner when they really get established is very much looks like
what Randy is seeing. So if it is arboridy leaf miner, it's a
well established issue that and I wouldn't be surprised in this case since it is
a moth. They just have easy access to that end plant and they're like,
hey, we're happy here now. They will eventually probably start to spread
to the other plants in the hedgerow. But that's my suspicion. Again,
I would need to see the foliage up close to say for sure. This
is a great opportunity for you to contact your cooperative extension if you know of
that, and they can diagnose it for you from actual samples. But that
is my suspicion based on knowing seeing a lot of arborids with leaf minor in
my time. I think, and you're right, that you have to do
detective work. I mean, this plant is right outside the door of what
looks like a shed, a tool shed, and there's a bag of fertilizer
off to the side. Maybe something got spilled than that one plant, but
you're probably right. I think I would go down that yep. So if
you have any questions again, you can reach us at Gardening Simplified on air
dot com. We're going to take 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 Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs
and evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty
and less work. Look for proven winners, Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive
white container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
It's time for branching news and today and branching news, we'll focus on
trend yes, and we got to start right off the top with congratulations to
proven winners Color Choice Shrubs. Pugster Amethyst bud Leah, a proven winner's Color
Choice variety, has earned the twenty twenty four Flower of the Year award from
the Japan Flowers Selections Association the JFA. In the most recent judging, sixty
one varieties were selected as award winners, and from those, one plant in
each category receives the top award. Flower of the Year. Pugster Amethyst bud
Leah won top honors in the garden plant category. A standard for good flowers
is the motto of the JFA, and it expresses its confidence that Pugster Amethyst
will live up to the billing in Stacey, I can tell them rest assured
it will. What a gorgeous plant it is. I appreciate you saying that,
and of course we appreciate them. I'm saying that as well, because
I mean, obviously we think our plants are pretty great, but it always
means a lot when someone else comes along and recognizes it. And you know,
flowers play such a hugely central role in Japanese life, yes, Japanese
culture, and so you know, knowing that a culture like that that just
really prioritizes flowers and plants in all aspects of life. To recognize one of
our plants, it really is a huge, huge honor, and it's good
to know we're big in Japan. I couldn't have said it better. I
love the people in Japan, and you know, they just have such a
love for horticulture. Oh yeah, it's amazing. And when you talk high
dranges, it's synonymous with Japan. And in this case a bud Leah amethyst
bud Leah pugster, and I suggest you plant it in your landscape. Also.
The pantone color of the year is peach. Fuzzy, peach, fuzz
and appealing peach hue, softly nestled between pink and orange. That's what I
always think of when I see peach. It's like, is it pink?
Is it orange? No, It's kind of pink and orange, best of
both worlds, best of both worlds exactly, a warm and cozy shade highlighting
our desire for togetherness with others or enjoying a moment of stillness and the feeling
of sanctuary that it creates. But it causes me to think of two proven
winners color choice shrubs that I love for this color. One is double take
peach perfect when that blooms wow and thornless right yep. It is a thornless
quints and very important in Japan. It's not very much treasured throughout Asia,
but especially Japan, so I love that. And then of course the fragrant
disease resistant at last rose at least. I don't know if you look at
it that way, Stacey, but I view that as a peach rose.
Yeah, I would say that's a peach rose. Yep. As is our
new flavor ate honey apricot or edible rose okay with honey appricot flavored betals yum
yum. See. You gotta practice what you peach, That's what you gotta
do. And this is the trend this year according to Pantone, the color
peach fuzz. I can see it in clothing already. People will be out
there on the beach in their one peach bathing suits. But you do have
to practice what you peach. As a matter of fact, I created a
limerick to celebrate peach fuzz. The decor world all a buzz. It's what
a trend usually does as a figure of speech. This one is a peach
appealing and covered in fuzz. Now somewhere in between orange and pink. Peach
is the colorful sink. More than nutritious, it's downright delicious when added to
a drink. This development I find to be pivotal a fruit and color,
so mythical and so for a grown I say to peach their own that peach
pun was downright pitiful. There you go, celebrating peaches. Yeah, I
think that was a juicy one, all right. One of the world's top
ten food and beverage flavor manufactures has identified the official twenty twenty four flame of
the Year as ube No, not eBay, Ube yoube. It's a bright,
purple, tuberous root hailing from the Philippines and it's gained international recognition.
Is being put into dishes to give us that great purple color. Like a
lot of people love the purple potatoes. Those are a lot of fun to
make with food. Puts a lot of color on the plate. So that's
it. The flavor of the year ube spelled ub. Yeah, if you
have ever been to an Asian bakery, you will see baked goods made from
ube and you'll think that they've been made with some you know, ghastly food
additive. But no, it's the actual color. Yeah, it's a wild
color to see. That's great. So, Stacey, the next trend that
I want to share, and it's something that's personal for me because it's what
I cook for breakfast and head it for breakfast this morning, by the way,
and for you view viewers, I'm going it's show and tell time.
I'm gonna set it right there on the table. Buckwheat. Have you had
buckwheat? So I guess now that I've seen this, I have a question.
Is all cream of wheat buckwheat? No? Oh, it's not.
But it's an ancient grain. As a matter of fact, I'll make oat
brand, okay, or you can make steel cut oats, but in this
case it's buckwheat and it's basically one of these ancient grains that has found its
time in the limelight. Of course, buckwheat is a gluten free food.
They use it as a cover crop. Of course, it supports pollinators and
greater biodiversity. So buckwheat's kind of yeah, lumped in that category of ancient
grains. I think it's delicious and it's very very good for you. It's
a stone ground ancient grain. Had it for breakfast this morning, so I'm
just telling you that. On the radar for twenty twenty four, buckwheat is
a plant that has found the spotlight. Well, I have had buckwheat's kasha.
So it's like a whole grain, you know, sort of like you'd
cook like I don't know, other whole like rice or something like that.
It's very commonly served in a Russian dish with it's cooked and then you put
butterfly pasta bow tie pasta, and so I say, the whole thing in
butter, which probably negate some of the health effect, but tastes really great.
That sounds great. Well, I'm going to encourage people to give.
But it's not the ground. It's not the ground. So we're talking the
whole buckwheat growth there. Sure. Well, you know they're always telling you
to eat brand fiber or brand muffins, you know, and you got to
kind of choke that thing down. You know, I have bran branxiety.
Bronxiety, Yeah, bronxiety. There's a good pun for you. But yeah,
buckwheat, give it a try. All right. Everything's better in the
open air. Everything is better even in fitness training if you are in open
air, and of course also gardening. So I'm seeing a lot of trending
here where individuals are insisting on the benefits for the brain, mental health,
cognitive performance by exercising outdoors. Of course this is the time of year when
we all hit the gym, but trying to get some of that physical activity
outdoors. They have found that the neurological benefits are amazing when you exercise outdoors.
And I kind of tie that into gardening also. You know, when
you're out there shoveling, weeding, whatever it may be, and you're in
the fresh air, I think you get the double the benefit with exercise when
you're in the fresh air. That's true, and it's much more enjoyable than
you know, a bunch of sale gym air with a news shouting at you
or whatever. But I have to say, you know, my main form
of outdoor exercise in the winter is indeed shoveling, and I hate winter,
and I hate shoveling. And when it looks over at me and says,
isn't this great exercise, I unfortunately never have anything nice to say in response
to that. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. Well, word of
the day is ninguid, and I'm hoping that I'm pronouncing this right, Stacey.
It's spelled n n g u i d. But ninguid is an ancient
word that means a landscape covered in snow. Oh, I've never heard that
word. Yeah, I hadn't either, and that's why I throw it in
here. Ninguid n I n g u i d a landscape covered in snow.
And we'll leave you with a couple of trends to ponder. One,
I'm seeing this all over the place you mentioned it earlier, Stacy. Certainly,
drought tolerant plantings, and it's not just California and Arizona anymore here in
the United States. This is something that's moved into the Midwest as far as
interest is, and so that's a trend that will continue to look at.
And then the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society recommends planting more grasses and sedges, which kind
of ties into that whole drought tolerant issue also, and I support that because
I'm a huge fan of ornamental grasses and sedges. I think they play a
very important role in the landscape. So there you have it, Stacy,
twenty twenty four is off to the races, it sure is, and we
want to thank you so much for tuning into the Gardening Simplified Show. Thank
you Rick, thanks to Adriana, and we'll see you next week.