Katie r H Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to Katie r H Garden Line with Skip Richter.
It's crazy Trim. Just watch him as well. The seat blots,
the clubs ticking, they're not a sign sun. Welcome back to Garden Line.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and boy are we looking forward to
talking to you today. We got Kat here on the phone so already waiting
to visit with us about trees. By the way, we are entering into
some time where we're just going to focus on trees, one of the most
valuable plants in your landscape, and you want to get it right. From
picking the tree that will do well in this soil and then this climate,
to choosing trees that fit what you want them to be. Do you want
a blooming tree, do you want a big tree? Do you want a
small tree? And so on planting trees, taking care of trees. And
we got the expert in here, David Williamson from Williamson Tree Farm and RCW
Nursery. Welcome David, Hey, good morning. It is great to have
you. That is me. I'm excited, I'm looking forward to this.
You know at the Extension office we say that the thing that makes the phone
ring, or the three t's trees, turf and tomatoes. You know,
nobody calls me about their co Robbie. If it's a vegetable question, it's
tomatoes, of course. Why is my lawn dying? And you know what's
wrong with my tree? Those are the big ones. Everybody. Everybody's concerned
and for good reason when they have problems with their tree. I'd like you
to start off just tell us a little bit about RCW and Williamson Tree Farm.
And these are two different but connected elements that you're right, you're the
pariah, yeah, the our co proprietor well site. Yeah, my dad,
my family started, yes, and RCW started in seventy nine with two
two gentlemen from Shell Oil. My dad worked for Shell for thirty two years
and and the R sat W stands for Robinson, Cox and Williamson. And
they all worked together, lived in the same neighborhood and they did, you
know, landscaping on the side and then started the nursery in seventy nine.
Uh one got I was pretty young, but one got out early because he
got transferred and the other one got remarried and was working five days for show
and then too much. It was just too much for him, so he
got out. And then my dad took an earlier time in eighty three.
I think he bought the land for the tree farm in eighty three and that
really started going probably in the mid eighties, late eighties he farm did,
and then Plannersville. Right, it's amazing. We've got about fifty acres and
we grow fifteen gallon to two hundred gallon shrubs, ornament trees, large shade
trees, quite a variety. Yeah, and we are starting to you know,
we we were mainly up there just strictly wholesale and selling to nurseries throughout
Texas and landscapers, and but the last year or so we've been opening to
the public. Yeah, mainly on you know, Friday Saturdays, but anytime.
But anybody can make an appointment through the website and make an appointment up
there to go visit at the RCW website or Williamson Tree Farm website. Williamson
Tree Farm, you want to go ahead and give that RL out. Yeah,
it's Williamsontreefarm dot com. Okay, well that's simple our wtfarm dot com
either one. Okay, well good? Uh So over the years, you
know, you I can remember back in I think I came back to Texas
in oh gosh, it was eighty eight, December of eighty eight, and
I was conro and we had a big we have a big Southeast Texas Mercier
Growers Association. Oh yeah, I remember that going strong and lots of growers
and just watching the industry change over the years, you know, and you've
probably seen some changes. What are some of the things you look back at,
kind of from a thirty thousand foot level of changes in that, I
guess most recently, I guess I'm seeing the trees we planted in the eighties
and the nineties. You know, we're some of the faster going. Some
were maples, ash trees. Those trees are not you don't see as much.
They they're giving to their end of life now because there's just short lived
trees and we're trying to you know, over the years, we've just gone
to heartier oak trees and maype you know, the drum and red maple,
different magnolia trees with different species like that. I just those things seem to
be the oak trees especially yea been more popular as a shade tree than then.
Yeah, some of the trash trees that we to grow in the eighties,
right, well, we need to come back to that dash trees and
then here, yeah, and even cottonwoods. We sold cottonwoods. Yeah,
yeah, I know, we'll talk about that. But I've also noticed that
some quality things that used to not exist now are available in the trade and
that's encouraging. Right, visit about those a little bit. Let's go to
the phone right quick. We got Kay out here in Parland, Ka.
Welcome to Garden Line. You're here with me and David waitingson. How can
we help? Oh, I mean, this is a perfect time for me
to call it is I had three three trees planted this week and they recommended
that I water them three or four times a week. I've watered them,
but then I heard you this morning say to put do them medina has to
grow. I will do that also. And is there anything else that you
recommend to do or to watch for. And with your tree expert, he
can maybe chime in on this to give me some Absolutely, that's a good
question. So we planted some trees. They told them to us some adina
hash to grow on them. She wants to know, you know, what
do I do? Where do we go from here? How do we make
sure we have success? Yeah? So when did the trees get planted?
Tuesday? Tuesday? Okay, So you know adina, anything organic like root
activator or medina has to grow our ocean over microlife ocean harvest or microlife seaweed,
any of those things are great. Once a month for the first year
to get the roots established. And then make sure you don't rely on an
irrigation system to water the tree. You know, this time of the year,
once or twice a week, when we're not raining with a hose,
let soak on the tree. You know, slow soaking depends on how big
the tree is. And then unless you have an irrigation system, has a
designated bubbler for that tree that's zoned for that No, no, and they're
about nine or ten feet tall. There's two iecs and a great myrtle.
Good good choices. Yeah, they so, I would say, you know,
probably fifteen to twenty minutes slow soaking on those probably once a week when
it is dry this time of year, and then up to three times a
week. When they when we get the heat, would the tree hugger be
a good thing? Just put on them to for for ten to fifteen minutes.
That's a great way to water because it distributes the water throughout the root
ball. Yes, that's a great okay, great, great item, especially
true as that tree grows. Yeah, first five ten years, being able
to water that hole zone underneath the bread spread as it goes bigger and bigger.
I like that versatility of that product. And you can we also uh
at our nursery, we recommend the reductivator and also microlife every three and we
install with with Microlife that we can. You can put micro life every three
months. It won't burn. It's just a great fertilizer. Are you looking
at the ultimate the blue bag? We use the green bag, the green
bag. Okay, that's a standard one used for by the way, that
kay, that liquid product he was talking about is in a blue bottle,
the Ocean Harvest, right, yes, ocean Hart. I think I have
some. Yeah, it's the blue micro Life color codes. Hey, we're
going to have to take a break if you want to hang on with great
Thank you so much. No, okay, that's great, thanks all right,
thank you. I appreciate that. Call our phone number seven one three
fifty eight seventy four. We're visiting with David Williamson and we're talking all things
trees and we'll be right back. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your
host, Skip Richter. We're here to answer your gardening questions and today we're
talking trees with David Williamson from Williamson Tree Farm and RCW Nursery. David,
welcome back again. You glad you're willing to come in today and talk about
this please. You mentioned the term trash trees before, and uh, boy,
we went through a lot of those over the years, I know,
from the sixties and seventies and unfortunately even beyond then, Uh arizon the ash
was being planted and great when it's young, and boy did it ever fall
apart. And uh, you know Bradford pear. I know the benefits of
them when they're young, they're beautiful, but my goodness, that tree is
trouble. I jokingly say that if you want advice on printing a Bradford pear,
I suggest about an inch above the ground and then have the stump ground
and plant something that wants to do well here does have good fall color though
it does well. And here's another example. Another point is the best fall
color you shouldn't plant here? You know what is it? Chinese tallifant you
can even grow that, just sell it really yeah, Tese tallo Bradford pair.
And for some soil sweet gum can be a problem. You know,
they don't want to They want to be in an eastern forest, not not
you know, high pH black. And it's really unusual because we grow we
grow most of our soil, our trees in a pine bart medium, right.
And so we had some swinter slowet sweet come to the farm and this
is one you We shipped them to the nursery probably about a month before it
got cold. And when it got after it got cold, the ones at
the nursery we turned red. The ones at the nurse the farm were yellow.
And you know, forty five miles north. I just I don't know
if it's the water of the pH or ye who knows? Who knows?
Who knew? Why one changes from the other. Slender silhouettes A real cool
tree farm form, right, I really like that and it's popular you drive
through your rever oaks and areas, you know, where they'll just a lot
of those things they put for a little short row. You know, they're
very slender, they grow upright. Yeah. The only the only disadvantage of
them is as they're not evergreen. So yep, that's true. Hey,
let's go out to Fresno and talk to herman. Hello, Herman, how
can we help today? Yell? Hello? I bought a small kum quat
tree years ago costco and after a couple of years I got some small cum
quats and everything like that. This year they're huge. They're like three be
They look like small oranges. What happened? It froze. It's coming back
from the roots. It's not a kumquat anymore. Oh it did freeze.
Yeah, the threems happened, and then every should have been like that,
Wow, well there you go, come quiet. That's a hard one to
freeze. I mean, it's one of our heartier centrists that you've got.
So but that twenty one freeze that killed everything. Yeah, the twenty two
is not bad. It's easy. Yeah. So do I need to cut
it down or what do I do? Well? Wait it out. You
only have two options. My suggestion would be digging up and put it put
something in you want there. It could be another kumquat or something else.
If you're really handy and want to play around with grafting, you could graft
it into something else. But that's gonna be a long term thing, more
for a hobbyist to play with than than a general recommendation. Okay, So
I'll just wait to cut it down alrighty, thank you, you bet,
thank you. And when it when you get a new one in and it
starts fruiting, just bring me about a gallon of kumquats each winter and we'll
call it even okay, my favorite fruit. Thank you, herman. I
appreciate that. You know, when it comes to citrus, the fragrance alone
is worth growing the things. We had a kumquat bush, he said,
he called it a tree. I think of him more of as a bush
just in the habit, but oh my gosh, when the wind wafts through
that thing, it is that in guardenas And I know those they smell great,
and if you get them to get big enough and then fruit, they're
they're awesome. Yeah. Just you know, with our weather, I don't
know where we're going to have in the future, but you just have to
protect them. And you guys carry a lot of citrus out two thumquats one
of the one of the hardest to get really the last two or three years,
they've been very limited from from our vendors. Is it like nagami and
my ware or what kinds of varieties are typical? Now? War? I
think war? Is it a worry? I can't you know the coqu I
don't know all. I don't remember all the ride now there is. They've
been the hardest to get. For those of you who don't know what a
come quite is, just think of a thumb, the end of your thumb
sized centris that the rhine probably tastes better than the inside. You eat the
whole fruit, you meet the whole thing. That the rhine itself is good
for marmalade and whatnot. Let's go out now, we're going to go to
Kingwood and talk to Linda. Hello, Linda, welcome to garden Line.
Well, Hi, it's a pleasure to speak with you. And I desperately
need the information. I'm on a trailed on the trails board in Kingwood and
a school has approached us on trying to plant some trees. Well, we
need to be very careful that we get the right ones because we don't want
it to lift the concrete. We don't want it to be planted in the
shade when it needs sun. Where can I get a list of the trees
that we should plant and the ones we should not, And don't tell me,
please do not tell me to go to a master gardener. I've gone.
Okay, terrible situation. All right, Well, for one, let's
let me make sure I understand you're wanting trees in a natural area kind of
a native area, a forested area or or not. Yes, it's forest
where we have a trail that goes through the forest and it goes from miles
and there's all kinds of stuff on it, like a trice, cams,
blah blah blah. Dogs, people walk there all the time. Gotchas a
lovely place. So as far as watering, is there any kind of watering
system near those No, there is not, and that is another major problem
because we don't want to Yeah, well, those parameters. I'm gonna let
David maybe suggest some ideas for you of what he might recommend. Sounds to
me like you get away with some nice forest blooms, like a redwood,
red budd red buds for the shady areas. Even even like ball cypress be
good in those areas too, because they don't they seem to be tougher through
the through the strips, the heat stress. Well, she mentioned the sidewalks
and things that I think one thing to remember, Linda, is the closer
you put a tree to anything that's a hardscape like that, it is gonna
lift it up. I mean it's not like, you know, you can
just put any tree in there. You get too close to that sidewalk and
you're gonna have problems over time. It may take a while, but you're
gonna have problems. Okay, Yeah, the lace park and the drake elm,
there's several species of those, almost partafolio. But those trees, Uh,
they're good street trees and they don't have a they they don't have an
invasive root system. You see them a lot around, you know, yeah,
driveways and parking lots and do better. They don't. They do better
without messing with the foundation. Yeah, those are in supermarket parking lot islands
and places like that. Yeah, they do get They can get you know,
forty fifty feet tall and you get big, but it is a good
tree that doesn't affect the foundation is bad. Well, we're offline. We're
visiting about Chinese fringe while ago, but there is a native fringe, a
grancy gray beard that grows in the forest of the East Texas and has a
little bit of a not a showy but has a little bit of bloom.
American friends is a great tree and not show you, but it does well
in our in our souls. The Chinese French another great one. Play the
name of it again, please, American fringe tree fringe R f R I
n g E. Yes, ma'am. I'm thinking that maybe in that area,
because it is woods, you know, some native things might be,
you know, part of the natural mix. It doesn't mean you couldn't put
something not native in there. But Texas Mountain Moral is another good one you
could plant in there. Yeah. If the drainage is good, good,
good drainage, that's the key. You can put them in any soil I
found out, but you can't water them. Okay, and that's Texas what
mountain morel Mountain Laura, Oh, okay, I love bud. It's not
a super long lived tree, but it's a very good native tree with beautiful
blooms. Mexican plumbs. Another one, Mexican plumb. Yeah. Yeah,
I can't thank you all enough because we really needed this resource. So thank
you for being there today, all right now, before I'll let you go.
Though, it doesn't matter what you put in there, it's got to
have water the first year. And we're going to talk about that in a
minute, about how to planet a tree right and how to care for them
after planting. But you're going to need, since you don't have an irrigation
system, probably to use something like those gator bags or something you can fill
up with water and they slowly leak out because when the next if you did
it now, when next summer comes, that's going to be a time when
you're gonna have to have some way to get some water in there for those
trees. If you want them to survive and to thrive. Yes, that's
a source of worry and whine. Go to the expense. If it's not
going to survive. There you go, that's it. Thank you. You
also do a burm around them? Yeah, okay, thanks? Yeah.
A burm is just a raised, soiled doughnut. Maybe I don't know,
three or four feet in diameter around the tree, so two feet out in
all directions. You fill it up with water and all the water has to
go straight down, it can't run off to some of the place. Good
information, all right, Linda, thank you, appreciate appreciate that call very
much. Yeah, we were we were talking about some of the trash trees,
but there are some trees that have fall color. When I was out
at RCW visiting with you guys not too long ago, you were talking about
a white oak that got out there, and I was I was very impressed
with the amount of color that thing was putting. It is. It is
maroon right now. It's really it's lost a lot of its foliage, but
it's the quickest out of white oak. It's probably one of my favorite trees.
Not a fast growing tree, but it's a it's a great shade tree,
for it can get up to sixty eighty feet tall. It's a big
tree, but they excellent shade tree, pretty pretty folish in the spring and
summer, and then the great fall color. Yeah, that's good. Any
anything else we got about a minut and a half here, anything else like
fall color that since we were kind of dissing how many bad fall colors there
are? What are some ones that you might suggest to something? Well,
the schumar not all, the schummart for oak and the nut already oak both
good good fall color. The Chinese pistachio gets another good fall yellow. Yellow
just depends and you have it from yellow orange from red actually, but it
just depends on where it's at. You know. Crape myrtles are real popular,
and we have crape myrtles that people just think, I'm gonna buy a
crape myrtle, and I always say, well, how big do you want
it to get? Make sure if you can, it has some powder and
mildew resistance if you don't have to brace them. Uh, And what color
do you want the blooms to be? What bark do you want? You
know, something like a natchez it has that beautiful cinnamon exfoliating bark versus the
typical putty colored bark of crape myrtles. And then the fall color. They
get surprised that the difference in fall color between some of the different culture bars
that are out there. Muscogee seems like the Indian variety names get the better
fall color. The Natchez Muscogee soo yeah, uh, the Tusker world,
you'll get some fall color on all those varieties. Yeah. Well, and
if you if you live in a household where one of you is a long
hard, one of you's an aggie, this is a great tree for mixed
marriages like that because you get both orange and maron on the same tree.
So everybody said happy exactly. We want to take a break here, it's
time for Nicky in the News. We'll be right back to enter your calls.
Mark you'll be first up. Our phone number is seven one three two
one two five eight seven four. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your
host, Skip Richter, and our phone number if you'd like to give us
a call, is seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
Now, I was talking earlier about Christmas gifts and ideas, and I'll tell
you one of the best ones I can think of it, and that is
a Vego modular metal bed. Vego's originator of these modular metal beds here in
America. I just think of a corrugated type of metal, but it's specially
treated so it doesn't rust and doesn't corrode, and then it's painted with the
USDA certified paint and beautiful colors that are muted, kind of earthy tones,
green and tans and things like that. They're gorgeous. And you can get
Vego garden beds. Their modular by the way, so you can make an
L shaped bed, you can make a long, skinny bed, a short
spot square bed if you want. They have ones on wheels. In fact,
I've got one of their rolling planters I really like. And the reason
I like it is because I can grow things in the wintertime and then when
we're going to get a really hard freeze, if one of those shows up,
it just rolls right into the garage and then when it's time, it
rolls back out again. It's really easy to do, easy to move around
now. Vego has a lot of things that would be good Christmas gift editions.
There's a worm composter that can go in your bed, a little tool
holder, there's lighting for the sides of the bed which are really cool.
I've got the Vego soil knife. It is a very nice gift idea.
And then they have a sort of a gardening bag. It's lined with a
sealed material so you can literally carry water in it to pour on your plant
and hold all your gardening tools. Well, I think you get the idea.
Go to Vego garden dot com. You will not go wrong with these.
It is, in my opinion, the best possible bed of all time.
I've tried cinder block beds, I've tried mounds of soil beds, I've
tried beds lined with treated wood, and you're dealing with the warping and things
like that. No Vego Garden beds is just the easiest, cleanest, most
beautiful way to grow a really really productive garden. Vegogarden dot com. Oh
did I mention they are a Houston company, a local company to it.
David Mark's been waiting a while. Let's go check on Mark and Brenham Mark.
How can we help today? Well, gentlemen, I have a question.
I have some acreage out in Washington County and it's got a lot of
native Pecans trees on it, and I'm wanting to know what I can do.
Some of them are extremely mature and heedless, say just my natural regrowth.
There's some smaller ones. What can I do to increase nut production on
those trees? Well, I'll take a stab at that, and if you
won't add anything, feel free to Pecan nut production is based on the health
of the tree and the growth of the tree. Pecans put a lot of
energy into setting buds that will be blooms, which is the little pollen catkins
and the nutlets themselves. And when you have a heavy crop one year,
so much carbohydrate goes into that crop that because it's an end of the year
ripening nut, there's not time for that tree to set buds for the following
spring, like all our fruit trees do. They set buds in late summer
and early fall for the following year, so you get an alternating crop.
One year it's a heavy crop, one year it's not so heavy. And
so with pecans, our goal is to put as much healthy foliage out there
as we can, to capture as much sunlight to make as much carbohydrates.
So that would be number one. Is the tree your quality printing job,
and then providing the nitrogen necessary to get some bigger and those tree that would
be these are all natives, right correct, Okay? Yeah? So with
the natives, yeah, go ahead, No, I just can say,
and the nuts are extremely small, and just so what I was wondering is
is there a natural and organic kind of supplement that I could put around the
root bay or the you know, the flare of the tree to try and
increase size and quality of the nut. Well. I mean you could use
a microlife fertilizer. David was talking about the green bag while ago. That's
the one we recommend for lawns. And to be honest, a three to
one to two ratio is excellent for pecans. It's got a good boost of
nitrogen. You're just gonna want to give it in more than one dose through
the year to keep that vigor. I'd start you could start very early,
early in the spring, late winter, put some down so that it's releasing
as the tree is beginning growth. Having said that pecans are one of the
slowest ones to wake up in the spring, they're smart. They know a
late fraud can come, and so they crawl out of winter a little slowly
and then do it again for your young trees about I would put probably a
pint or two for every inch of trunk diameter. That'd be a good starting
point. So if you've got a little let's say it's a pecond tree the
size of a broom handle, we're going to call that a one inch tree,
that would be a pint or two a fertilizer if it was the size
of the steeringwheel of your car. I don't know how many inches across that
is. That's probably going to be a whole bag of fertilizer to put down
every time you fertilize. Gotcha, Well, there's I mean, there's certainly
trees out there with a forty eight inch caliber, right, there's some huge
trees. Yeah, at that stage, I think you're more fertilizing, you
know, per thousand square feet than around each tree like you would on the
little broomstick sized tree. But you can do it either way. The main
thing, though, is keep the weeds down and low, whether it's grasses
or other weeds. If you let a meadow grow up around those trees,
that will inhibit growth more more than just about anything that in a lack of
water. Now, the longhorns do a great job of keeping that stuff down,
Okay, But I I just, like I said, there is no
practical way to get water to them other than what the Good Lord provides.
Okay. So I just was hoping that I might be able to put some
kind of a natural supplement on there. That would when we do get rain,
it would help to increase the uptake if you will all right well out
in the wild like that. You kind of have to take what you can
get. You may have to have a committee meeting with the squirrels because they're
going to have an opinion about that. But I can tell you this,
the con fed squirrel is some of the best eating you can have. So
that is also a way to make lemonade out of lemons. Thank true,
well, thank you my German shepherd, My German shepherds, enjoy the squirrels
for the case you guys have. You guys, have a great day,
and thanks for the info. Thank you, Mark. I appreciate that very
much. David, we're talking about, you know, quality trees, and
I'd like to talk a little bit about some blooming trees. What are some
species that you think people should consider, even cultivars if you want to go
that far varieties, if people want to have beautiful blooms. As far as
like evergreen trees, I think the Magnoia little gym is probably the best blooming
small medium Magnoia trees For a good evergreen tree, I like the Jaine magnoias.
They do Okay, in the sun they leaves burn up. Even in
the parts shade they get more established. They the leafs are not as bad.
But there you're talking about a deciduous. Yeah, it's a jain like
a saucer, magnolia saucer. And they get the pinkish purples blooms in the
early spring and then they get their leaves on after that. It's a great
tree for one of the first bloomers of the year. Right. And then
the Mexican plums another great bloomer. Not the most prettiest foliage in the summertime,
but it's something you can get some good. It's also good food for
wildlife because the little plums. Yeah, and we can make good jam too.
It's it's a nice little tree. Right. The any crate merdle,
the cratermndles, they keep on coming up with more varieties, uh of cratemurdles.
Like the Rumbling Red series is a really good series with the red leafs
and the Okay, they have a coral called one Coral Boom, one called
Thunderstruck Red that's really pretty. The Rumbling Red is probably my favorite. It's
called Thunderstruck series. Excuse me. And then the Rumbling reds is one of
my favorite ones. Thunderstruck good and then the Uh of course. The Chinese
friench tree is probably one of my favorite trees. For blooming, that's my
favorite. Yeah, it just gets solid white in the springtime. It's beautiful
when you get enough blooms on it and smell of honey like fragrance exactly.
I even like sweet ollars if you put those in a small area and they're
not the prettiest plan of the time, but the bloom, they just they'll
smell up your whole yard. Let's talk about that in a minute. We're
gonna have to take a break here. Mario and Glenn, you're the first
two up when we come back. Thanks for holding. We had so much
to talk about today. Seven fifty seventy four. Our number will be right
back. Welcome back to Garden Line. We are glad you are listening to
us today. I've got David Williamson here from Williams Williamson Tree Farm in RCW
Nursery and we're talking trees today. Everything you might want to know about trees.
You're welcome to give us a call. Seven one three two one two
five eight seven four right now we're going to go to Channel View and talk
to Mario. Hello, Mario, Hello, good morning morning. My question
is about a little jam magnola. They're planning about six years ago and he
just hasn't grown hardly at all, and I'm wondering there's some natural substance that
I can put in it to get it to grow faster. So a couple
of things. How big was the tree when they planted? I want to
say five feet it's probably no more than six seven tops Okay. Was it
in a far better in the grass area? Uh? Right now you mean
yeah? Uh? Okay, it's uh it's in the front yard front of
the house, Okay, in a flower bed or in the long Okay,
So do you remember what size tree it was like container wise for the fifteen
to five thirty g one tree, Well, when I bought it, it
was the biggest pot they had the garness that lit of butter from Yeah,
because sometimes you remember if they don't break up the root, did you plant
yourself? Right? It was installed professionally by somebody. Uh, we did
it, but we did cut, you know, kind of cut the ball
of the roots that way they get spread out. Okay, you did do
that, then that was because sometimes root bound we treating get root bound,
it will stunt its growth. It doesn't get broken up at planning. But
h yeah, what you know, what you can do is you know you
can take it like a like an arth auger or small auger. You can
buy and drill with a drill bit and drew outside that root zone or out
the drip line and then mix up like composts and micro life and put that
as in the whole to help break up that clay if there's any if it's
a heavy clay area. Talking about like about a two inch auger, yeah,
two inch auger that that you can drill around the trip line outside the
hole that was dug and see if you can break down or you know,
just get the roots growing that way. And Mario, the more holes the
better, I mean, you know, if you can do a hole ever
one foot or you I mean you do more than that if you want.
But you need a lot of holes to amend a lot of soil because there's
not just one or two little spots where all the roots are drawing from.
And you can probably go inside the root the drip line a little bit to
see if you know, you can disturb the roots little bit to get them
growing. This is the time to do it. The roots are still growing
this time of year. And I would hit it heavy with some ocean harvest
and after you do that and repeat that about every two or three weeks to
every month. Uh yeah, that's micro Life's blue label liquid. You might
buy the gallon if you want, or there's other sizes, but micro Life
blue label liquid, okay. Ocean hole, Yeah, you just say blue
label. There's only one product that's okay. And how big is that augur
that I need to get. It's about it's about two inch round augur that
you can you can buy them at home home depot ace hardware and you just
put them on your drill bit and you can draw around, drill around and
then just fill it up with composts and micro Life and granulars in that hole
and the whole cost micro Life okay. Yeah, and also heavy feed,
heavy feed in the springtime. I like the Marcrot Life. I would just
hit with more micro Life as well. You're talking about the green bag,
green bag or the all the blue bags. I'm gonna go act. Let's
spend a lot more ultimate ble extra money, So I'll try that, all
right, Mario, good good luck with it, you bet you take care.
Glad to glad to hear that. Uh you were you were discussing,
you know, providing some nutrients and things in the planting hole. Then you
mentioned that circular root problem and would you just talk a little bit about that
issue because that you know, almost all the plant pots on the market are
around, right, and some of them have designs of various types to help
the roots not just go in circles. Right, There's definitely been a new
technology, but that helps keep the roots from circling. Is bad. But
still if you get you get a three inch caliber tree and a fifteen gallon
pot, there's gonna be circling roots. And and the reason for those folks
listening is if that fifteen gallo fifty what did you say, the three inch
caliper tree was growing in the ground, it would have roots, you know,
way out in all directions. And now it's all wound up in a
little pot. Right, So what do we do about that? Well,
the best thing you do for that tree to survive is to just really hack
the roots. And and you only want to do that really probably when something
that big the planet, and to install it is in the wintertime because that's
it's going to give it. You can do in the summertime, but it's
gonna it's gonna struggle and the roots being cut that bunch. When you say
hacking them, you're talking about literally severing the roots. Yeah, just taking
a you know, even taking like a like a not or like a sharpshooter
to got those roots around the side. I've used a box cutter knife for
smaller plants, even things like I say, oh yes, yeah, and
they get a little pot bound. It helps always break them up a lot.
A little box cutter knife can cut in easily, but sometimes you need
prunters. Yeah, and occasionally I found you may need to go inside and
do a little bit of surgery. So you can have a plant that was
in a one gallon pot that has a circling root and then as it gets
bumped up, you don't see that route, right, it's not maybe there's
something on the outside, but there's also that one on the inside. And
so I've talked to treat people that talk about washing the root system. That's
a lot, but you know, the whole idea is to prevent those circling
roots because they inhibit it from establishing well, and I guess in time they
can strangle it. Okay, it can kill a tree if it starts off
as a small circle. R I one time went out to where a group
of this happened to be an Afghan pine. It was central Texas. They
planted a whole row along the roadway to block the dust and the view,
and the trees just looking like they needed watering, and you look at the
grass around them and it was fine. And we went in there and everyone
had been grown in a little pot and it was a pine and the root
was around it and it was embedded into it so far that you couldn't take
a hammer and chisel to get it out. And these things are twelve feet
high. And now you're going back to replant some little thing. You know,
that's tough. What you're recommending, and planning time can really save a
lot of money, down right. Yeah, that's good advice. I think.
I think in any tree, well, you know, whether it's overgrown
or if it's just right, you just make sure you break up that roots
isn't when it's going to a new hole. Okay, So loosen it up,
right, Some trees seem more tolerant of that. I've watched live oaks
sometimes they can have roots that are just kind of climbing over each other,
and they just don't seem to be as inhibited or impacted by that as a
certain other species. Yeah, I think definitely things certain trees stress out.
The oaks seem to be a little bit tougher. Had issues where about cut
red papils, roots want and they really stressed out. Yeah, is that
right? Yeah, Well, spend time of year you mentioned doing it,
and especially in the summertime. I mean we plant year round. They're all
continued to growing trees, but you do have to make sure they're properly planted
and watered. So all right, that's that's a good, very good point.
Don't be afraid to do it. One time I pulled a tree out
of a pot in a garden center. I got permission, I snipped the
roots that were going around, put it back in the pot. Came back
two weeks later, and there were little white roots already coming out, yeah,
going into the pot. So that's exactly what will happened in the planting
hole. It's it's worth worth doing. We do that a lot sometimes on
certain trees at the farm, to pick them up and the cut the roots.
Yeah, so they don't get so root bound. That's good. We
can shift them or whatever to the next pot or sell them. Yeah,
that's good. Well, we're going to take a break here. We're about
out of time. Glenn. I thank you for holding this long. I'm
gonna promise you will be the first one up when we come back from our
next break. Thanks for listening to the garden Line. We're looking forward to
entering your gardening questions. I'm here with David Williamson from Williamson Tree Farm and
RCW Nursery, and we're picking his brain about all things trees. How do
you plant a tree, what trees do you choose after you've planted it,
How do you take care of it so that you have success? Those are
all important questions and we're going to continue that discussion when we come back from
break. Right now, you're listening to Garden Line. I'm going to remind
you our phone number seven one three two one two fifty eight seventy four.
If you have not gone online and checked out my two garden schedules. I
would like for you to do that, you just simply go to Gardening with
Skip dot com. Simple that gardening with Skip dot Com. And there's the
lawn care schedule that talks about the fertilizing that gives organic and synthetic options for
every month of the year what you do. And then there's the Disease,
weed and Pest Management schedule which offers the same thing both in organic and synthetic
form. KTRH Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome to Katie r H Garden Line with Skip Rictor.
It's shoes crazy trim. Just watch him as so many things to sept
das gas back again not a sound gas. Thank you the sun beamons of
the tweet movie. Welcome back to garden Line. I am glad you're listening
today. We're here to talk about trees specifically today as well as other things.
If you want to give us a call and talk about trees our shrubs.
Uh. We got David Williamson from Moyston Williamson Tree Farm and RCW Nursery
Share and we were picking his brain about all kinds of topics. Glenn out
in full shure. We're heading to you now, and I think you get
the award for the most patient caller today, So thank you for that.
All good? All right? So yeah, quick question. I have my
peach trees, my plum trees, and then it just goes to blackberries.
I have a problem with cutter ants and I cannot get rid of them.
Any suggestions, Well, that's a challenge. There's not good solutions for those.
There is a form of andro bait called ant block. It's different than
regular andro which is hydromethylon and I can't remember what the ingredient and andro ant
block is, but that is supposed to be pretty effective. See, the
problem is what leaf cutters are interested in as food is different than what like
fire ants are interested in as food. But if you will email me,
I'm I'm not going to go through the concoction on the air, but I
will. I will let you know that there's something. You mix that product
with something and you let it sept for a period of time and then you
put it out and use it and it's quite effective. And I've actually had
a number of entomologists who've done research on fire ants talk to me about it,
and so I feel pretty confident, and normally I don't like home remedy
and things, but this one with the store bought product that it'll work pretty
good. Okay, So I'm gonna I'm gonna if you may have more questions
to follow up, but at the end make sure let me know. I'll
put you on hold so you can you can send me that question. I
can go out into more stuff than I can on the air right now.
Sounds good? Okay? Is that it just the answer? What did your
email? Okay? I'm putting you on hole right now and Josh is going
to pick it up and he will take it from there. We want to
go now out to Marcia in Austin County. Marcia, how can we help?
Good morning? In the spring, we planted ten I believe the Eagleston
Holly's. I'd say we a professional company planted them. They're about three to
four feet tall. I was not watching to find out if they broke up
roots, if they were root bound or anything through the drought. Because they're
not all on irrigation, we obviously worked really hard to keep them watered.
We even put out some of the arbor Gate fertilizer on them and worked that
into the soil. Through the course of the summer, every single one of
them started turning brown, dropping their leaves. So is it a lost cause
any idea? Of course, that's very sandy soil down there. If they're
scratching green on the bark at all, they can still come back and strip
the foliage and then you make sure there's green at the green that they can
come back when they're that young there about three foot tall. Yes, okay,
I would check everyone and most nine percent sure it was water. I
know it is because I too much water, No, not enough, not
enough, not enough, and not distributed. Well, you know, when
you get a sprinkler that's spraying and some foliage is blocking the spray, you
have a whole section out from that where that sprinkler should be watering that's not
getting watered. So that can be a factor too. We actually went we
actually went around because it's a farm property with one of the big tanks that
we carry around on on a ATV and handwater these things. Every single one.
My husband was diligent, so we were just at a loss, as
you know, do we do something wrong? Is there something we can do
to say to save them? Yeah? That plan is pretty tough, but
it does. I did see it in the summer. We've lost we had
some of the people lost some and it was most ninety because of the watering
not not enough. Yeah, okay, consistent moist, right right, I'll
check the bark and if I see green, will wait till spring and keep
our hopes up. If not, time for those to go, I guess.
Yeah. And they're heavy, heavy feeders, so you need to make
sure you fly a lot of micro life on them every three months at least.
Okay, good to know, Thank you so much. All right,
good, thank you for the call. Appreciate that. Marsha. Yeah.
I run into those holly questions all the time, and this year it went
further than that. The Southern Magnolias, which are pretty darn top planets,
Boy, they took hammer and they took a beating. Yeah. And the
same thing. Esplanades drying out. I think some of the esplanes got shut
off. I mean they had to. I mean I saw these masses of
them just die. Yeah. But then I see some in the yards that
that are pretty, and then I see you want to know the yard that's
completely brown? Yeah, yeah, well you know Marsha was talking about going
around with a water tank and one water and one problem with watering and standing
there is you think you're putting on a lot of water and it's not getting
very deep. And that's a tough situation. But playing it slowly or putting
a berm around it to hold the water and let it soak in, that
would probably help. If you have that kind of run through a way to
connect a soaker hose going around each one, yeah, would be a better
way to water, nice, gradual, But sounds like to me they're limited
on yeah, you know distance, I mean yeah, yeah. Sometimes sometimes
the colors will throw me eight curves and I can't quite solve this challenge.
It's like, I need a plant. I need a plant that grows fast,
quickly fills its space, stops grewing, doesn't invade uh ballooms a lot,
but you know, twelve months out of the year and is evergreen.
And yeah, it's like, okay, what silk if silk flowers will do
that all that? Yeah, We're kind to go now to Ganel View and
talk to Oliver. Hey, Oliver, how do you I'm well, thanks,
how can we help? I planted a Texas olive tree. The beginning
of this year, it was about two to three feet in height and now
it's over five feet tall and I water it as often as I can,
but the leaves are turning brown and falling off, and I put a footstick
in that my wife bought online, and it still appears to be not thriving.
Well, so what can I do? That's a good question. Well,
I can tell you the leaves falling off and stuff. It's not a
matter of not fertilizing it enough. It's probably a water again, wouldn't you
say? Yeah, most likely it could be a result of the heat stress,
and it's just now showing its signs because sometimes you you can a tree
can stress out through the summer and it really especially something like that, it's
not going to start showing signs till later. So if the soil is adequately
moist, which it probably is right now, just because of the we've gotten
some rains here and the temperatures drop down a little bit, you ought to
be Okay, it's deciduous. Those trees are deciduous, so during the winter
you don't have to worry about them so much. But yeah, it means
the leaves fall off in the winter as opposed to evergreen. You know,
without any leaves on the tree, it's not pumping much water through the system
because it doesn't have leaves. So that's a good thing for a tree that's
been struggling with lack of moisture. Okay, I would watch that. Maybe
dig down, get a little hand trowel and dig down, oh four six
inches down and feel the soil and on different places, and that'll tell you
whether you're watering is enough or not. It ought to soak it pretty good.
You don't want to keep it soggy. That's not a swamp dwelling species.
But when we get into the kind of weather, water, yeah,
go ahead. Also water outside of the area rather than water and say two
feet around the tree, all right, the water outside of that area.
Yeah, the whole area, Oliver, the whole area beneath and beyond the
branch. Bred. Hey, we got to take a break here our phone
number seven one three, two, two fifty eight seventy four. Chet and
Bob, you'll be first up. Welcome back to garden Line. I'm your
host, Skip Richter, and today we're sitting here visiting with David Williamson from
Williamson Tree Farm and RCW Nurseres and we're talking about all kinds of things related
to trees. I do want to mention I've been talking about Christmas gifts today
and I do want to mention that it is time to choose some things for
the gardeners on your list. But maybe you've got somebody that's not a gardener.
For example, my mother in law, she has one plant. It
is a crown of thorns and it looks great because she has it. And
that's how chronathorns are. They put up with that. But she's not a
gardener. But I tell you what she loved. We got our beautiful little
hummingbird feeder from Wildbirds Unlimited, and it just it's just, you know,
hours in enjoyment. You get to look out the window and see the little
flying flying things coming around and enjoy their antics and things. Wild Birds is
a perfect place to get Christmas gifts. Maybe it's a feeder. They have
every kind. Do you need a platform feeder, a fifth stle feeder.
Do you want some bark butter to smear on the bark for certain birds that
like to come do that? Do you want one that sticks with suction cups
onto your window or one that hangs outside. I've got their squirrel proof feeder,
and that is fun. It gives me a lot of pleasure. Part
of the pleasure is just knowing I'm frustrating squirrels because they can't get into the
thing to steal the feed like they do on some of my others. You
can go to WBU dot com forward Slash Houston WBU dot com forward Slash Houston.
There's seven Wallbirds Unlimited stores here in the Greater Houston area Cyprus. There's
the bell Air Store, the Memorial Store, There's Clare Lake, There's Katie
Kingwood, Paarland. It's easy to find one near you. And when you
get in there, you're going to find gifts for people, even people that
don't garden at Wadbird's Unlimited. Well, I think we're going to head out
now to Tombaugh and talk to chat Hello Chet, Hello. I have a
question. I'm raising several hundred halfghan pines. I have the seeds, and
I don't know the best way for the starting soul and the best way for
potting. Like I've always heard a pine tree as a long, straight tap
root. Is that true? Well from a seed they do. Yeah,
a pine tre a little bit of a challenge. I remember back in the
day when I was in Montgomery County is the agent there. We used to
do Christmas tree grower field days and just putting those little seedlings in the hole
if it had a jay root, if you didn't get it down in the
hole and then kind of shake it and pull it up. Sometimes you dip
them in the the Yeah, the stuff that make well, I can't even
say the word I'm looking for, like jello, you know that sticks to
the roots just to kind of help those roots hold down so when you're bumping
them up. As far as do you guys grow pines, we grow lob
all these We don't have my AFCN Yeah, I dofcan Is more Central Texas,
but yes, I don't know how well. I'm not sure if we
sold them at the nursery the Afghan pines, but we plan everything in a
soil less mixes A pine bark prepare pretty much my pine bark mix is what
we plan in. Yeah, you know, if you're doing it on a
home level there chat, you might want to find some They make containers for
growing tree seedlings that have a hole in the bottom and then when the when
the root hits it at air prunes it and then it branches more. Well,
I've already started playing the seedlings and a lot of the people to come
up. I'm grooming them and growl like and some pots. But I was
trying to get the correct soul preparation. And I just want to know because
I spind them buying some land out in West Texas and I wanted to get
all prepared before a bottle land. Well, I would I would go ahead.
I was saying about auguring a hole in the ground in West Texas when
the trees got big enough, finding a watering system, and I was wondering
if the auger system would be sufficient for the tree route. You just want
to watch the sides of that hole, especially if it's like a callechi,
which is common out there clay type soil. That augur can create a real
slick sided hole, especially if it's a little on the wet side. Uh,
and you you want to break that those sides up a little bit on
that. But other than that, Yeah, a lot of trees get planted
with the augur. I know, use a pine mark mulch and and you
might want to. You might want to call a nursery out there, see
what they grow the af campines in. I just we don't grow them at
our farm, and I'm not sure how well they'll do in them. Yeah,
I think they they'll grow fine. The Forest Service closed its West Texas
nursery, but they still have the one at Indian Mound, Yeah, if
they could. I don't think it's going to be as picky as you might
be thinking. Just a good well, if it drains very very well,
if it's got your providing the nutrients that it needs, I think you're going
to probably be okay. Just don't want something that's real mucky, like a
very fine textured potting soil that packs down and stays soggy and mucky on you.
I'd probably avoid that, But yeah, I don't know other than that
as far as the auger, I knew a guy one time that welded a
little piece of rebar onto his augur so that as it dug, it kind
of ripped the sides of the whole a little bit, just to avoid that
glazed, round sided hole like we were talking about. So your roots still
go sideways, you still have a lot of roots going sideways. You don't
want to just conctret on the taper it right, Yeah, that is true,
you know, you know east and west. So all right, well,
good luck with that. Just watch watch on those afghans. The diseases
in our climate over here. They they're not as tolerant as some of our
more native pines are over here. All right, thank you, all right,
you take care. Good good question. Uh yeah, we've got a
lot of things we're talking about. We see, I was wanting to ask
you a little bit about oh, I know, on the post planning here
we talked about the importance of taking those roots. And you're saying roughing up
the root system. What about the whole the whole depth and the whole width.
So what do you recommend. We've been doing this about forty some years.
We've been digging the whole about six inches wider than the container. So
and then we mix up and we dig it the whole a little bit shallow,
break up the bottom a little bit. Then we mix up native soil
with black music decomposed black humans from lands. Oh really, landscape is prize
and the one we use, and we mix that up with the native soil
packed that down in micro life about midway and then fill back up up to
the with the root balls exposed about two inches, and then we make a
little moat around that and cover up the exposed root ball and then do a
fine molts or black humous mulch on top. Are we talking about about three
or four inches high than? Yeah, we go about two inches and not
two inches two inches root all, but the most usually about three inches on
the outside, and then goes back even with the rootball because we don't want
to cover up the base. The base are too much higher than where the
thirties on the tree. Now, yeah, getting that top route pretty close
to the soil line is important. People sometimes really bury him too deep.
And that's that's right, a good thing. That's good advice. Something I've
done too is you know the old advice if you look at the technical you
know poster, how do you plant a tree? My chiropractor's kids would be
put through college with my dollars if I dug a hole the kind they're talking
twice the size, twice the size and everything. So I have other uses
for more money than putting his kids. See if you have the energy to
do that it's not going to hurt. No, it's a good thing.
But but what I've done is, and I learned this from doctor ed Gilman,
who is an excellent arborous Florida professor and freda, uh, just take
us spading for it and goes straight into the ground outside the hole and just
lean back. We're not turning over the shop. We're just cracking it loose
right and go around a few circles around it. You never stoop over.
You just work it into the ground and crack it open. And that makes
sense because you're sort of loosening that up a little bit, yeah, without
digging it out and then putting it right back in. That's why I try
to telling people to take the earth auger after the first year and then go
around the outside that through hole that exists, doing those holes all hold to
help break down that soil, especially if you're gonna heavy gumbo clay area,
which most of use is yes, it is. How far apart do you
recommend people everything every twelve to eighteen inches or twelve to eighteen Okay, yeah,
good well, We're going to head out now to talk to Bob in
Jersey Village. Hey, Bob, Hey, how y'all are today? We
are well? How are you? I'm well as well. The yeah,
I want to take take just a little different tact on your repairs and your
other little trees that you call crass trees earlier, the Chinese tallow or to
a bee keeper is an important point. That's a good point. It does
produce pollen and nectar for the bees. It sure does not so much for
the crape myrtles. It's just more just a pretty than about all link you
think for them things now, Bradford pears. I like bread red pairs,
And the reason I like bad repairs is because I love to cook over natural
wood, you know, instead of using charcoal natural wood. And you take
a limb that's falling off of a off of a brad repair, or your
trimmings off of bread repair, and you prepare them, you know, enough
to go on your grill, and it makes just a nice sweet smoke for
your meats. That it's just it's just good. Well, Bob, what
you need to do is get your neighbors to plant Bradford pears and then offered
a primum for them, and that way you get the best of both worlds.
I have them in the neighborhood, and when they do fall and I
can get hold of the branch before somebody else does. I do that.
I've never heard that as a compliment of bread repair, but I believe what
you're saying. I one time read Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Diaries over at
Monticello that a peach tree can keep you in firewood all year. Now,
I think that was a reflection on what kind of peach orchard can keep you
in firewood all I think that's a reflection on what kind of a peachquerry was
more than any tree that produces a fruit in apple, peach, oranges,
I guess, even and nut trees such as hickory and walnut and the con
those woods make some of the best smoke for cooking over I'm not so from
an oak, but it does too. But I just wanted to, all
right, let you know, well, thank you. I appreciate that.
And yeah, we I can, and I know David would agree. There's
some advantages to Bradford when they're young. They're beautiful, they have a beautiful
shape, they have beautiful blooms and stuff. But boy, I tell you,
we just know that we're trying to recommend things that long term people are
going to be real happy with. And I know, boy, you go
up in the Northeast and Midwest and Bradford Pear is like the Chinese tallow of
the South in terms of being invasive and stuff. All right, well,
here we go. It's time for Nicky News Network and I'm gonna turn it
over to her. Our phone number is seven one three two one two fifty
eight seventy four. Welcome back to garden Line. Glad you're listening today.
I'm your host, Skip Richter, and we're talking with David Williamson from Williamson
Tree Farm and r c W Nursher're talking all kinds of things about trees.
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I know you'll agree with that. We are going to now go out to
Gerald in Conroe. Hello. Gerald, Yes, Sair, how you doing
this morning? I'm good, sir. How can we help? Okay?
I just purchased a home and I had four trees installed into my new lot.
And uh, I notice in my front yard that they still got the
burlet bag on it, and they still got the it's like a wire,
a wire thing around it. And when they put it in the ground,
I went on a head on the outskirts of the ring of the tree.
I dug with a post hole there and put some plastic pipes in there would
drill a bunch of hose to kind of keep the water where I can feed
it to the you know, get water to the trees, because I'm trying
to prevent from the roots coming up out of the ground real bad like in
my old house. I had real bad roots system, all right, And
and then the roots are probably about not even four flood away from the sidewalk,
got you, Bronard. I'm trying to prevent that. Uh okay,
well I'm gonna have David tackle that one. On the pur lap trees.
If they make sure the wires cut, let's cut around the trunk that's got
to be off. Uh the wire it is the wire in the ground could
be rust away. The burl apple will be fine. It won't want that
something's restricting the trunk the burl apple rot the Uh. The PBC pipes are
not really necessarily you know, a good deep soaking you know this time of
year or twice a week to three times a week when it gets to hot,
A good deep soaking is good enough to keep your roots, you know.
Uh you know blow a ground. I mean roots come up over time
as they they're searching for water. But uh, the sometimes if you with
the pipe down, it goes to the bottle. Is it pipe perforated or
is it Is it just solid PVC going to their bottom? Uh? It's
it's kind of like what you use on a drain system off your off your
gutter. Okay, and I just drowed a bunch of hose in it.
You know, it's it's not it's not real strong PVC just in case if
I did something wrong, I could pull it back up. Okay, yeah,
that's fine. Just make sure you not you can overwater doing that too,
So just be careful when water in the trees. But you know,
digging down on checking the trees, you know, twelve to forty inches.
How big are these caliper these trees that sound big? Uh? They just
they probably probably in a fifteen gallon jug or a gallon or something like that.
They planned them for me in a new home. So I'm not really
for sure. I can't remember if it's twenty five gallon or what it is.
I can't remember. I'm so sorry. That's okay. How big is
a trunk trump? Probably about an inch and a half okay, yeah,
yeah, so water and you know, probably fifteen twenty minutes, maybe once
or twice a week this time of year when to dry, and then probably
three times a week when it gets hot. Is enough slow soaking? All
right? Gerald, thank you for that call. I hope that helps.
It sounds like you at least got some tips. I know. David Is
also recommended, you know, the fertilizing as it goes into next year.
He was suggesting the green micro life product that they carry, so hopefully that'll
get you off to a good start. We're going to now head out to
Jersey Village and talk to Chris. Hello Chris, Hello, sir, how
are you doing well? Okay, here's my question. Oh, by the
way, the thing about the reach, I wish I had heard that long
time ago. I got two big oak trees up front, and my wife
planted stuff around them, and like you said, the roots go up the
water. We got roots everywhere in the front yard. So I wish i'd
known about that. Anyhow, the reason that I actually called was we had
some wax leaf la gustrooms in the front yard I'm sorry, next to the
house, you know, the flower next to the house, and they all
died and I pulled them up, and now we've got a big gap there.
Well, my wife doesn't want wax leaf la gustrooms there. I like
them, but she doesn't want them. And so I'm wondering, what's some
kind of hedge or privet or whatever that we can stick in there that'll you
know, grow fast and you know, fill in that space. What do
you recommend? Did I I'm a miss Did you talk about it being too
wet there. Oh no, not nothing. It's nothing to do with the
hydration. I mean, okay, it was it was fine. They died
from the heat, okay, all right, Well they might have died from
Yeah, they might have died from me not watering them. I don't know.
Just real quick, Chris, do you want evergreen? And do you
want flowers? No? Flowers? Uh? I don't garden, okay,
I mean that's why, like the wax sleep lagustrooms, we put those in
there, and you know, you leave them alone. You just got to
water them. Their chap is out and and you know, and they do
great. But like I say, we can't. She didn't want toy in
the front yard. So what's an alternative? How tall do you let those?
Did you let the wax mak gushtrom get They're four feet five feet something
like that. You kids them puck a hedge? Then? Yeah, yes,
sir? Yeah. So. Cleara Japonica is another good one. Dwarf
Burford need to point hollies or really good hollies and make good heads. The
ili Agnus is another great one, very low maintenance, real pretty silvery foliage
that'll get pretty good size. Yeah. The uh I was just trying to
think something that's gonna stay sort of the medium height. Yeah, you'll boys
get about ten foot tall. It can grow higher because I mean I can
always trim it. Yeah. Waxbird is another one they plant in lieu of
waxmortl wax augustrum. That's a native and it does really well. All right,
Hey, Chris, we're gonna have to take a break, but hopefully
those are a few that will get you off to a good start for that
area. I think so outstanding. Thank you, sir. Yeah, and
you're up in You're up in Jersey Village, so you're not that far away
from Marshy w You can just run over there and get some more ideas and
see somebody here. I bet you don't maybe know what that one is,
but you could go see one and get an idea if that's what you're looking
about. But before you do that, make sure you take your wife with
you, because I don't know how long you've been married, but it is
very important that you get that right. All right, thank you for the
call. We're going to go to break our number seven one three, two,
one two five eight seven four. Welcome back to Gardenline. I'm your
host, Skip Richtor, and we're here with David Williamson from Williamson Tree Farm
and RCW Nurseries, and we're talking about all kinds of things trees today.
While I'm talking about things today, I was mentioning earlier the importance of getting
when you go with a company, especially a service company, finding someone who
gives you the service that you need, that follows through, that keeps their
word. I mean, my goodness, you've experienced that no matter what industry
we're talking about. Well, McGrath pest Control is that kind of pest control
company. Scott's been doing this. I guess that started over what forty nine,
forty eight years ago, something like that, nineteen seventy four. Yeah,
that's right. Well, Scott's dad started it. He keeps going on
it, and he knows passed. I mean whether it's six legged pass or
four legged paths. You know you got those I don't know, squirrels,
And we used to have squirrels in our attic. The darn things we have
had rats up there. Scott can take care of all that mosquitoes during the
summertime. Now when Scott's schedules the time, it's not hey take half your
day off. I may show up like a lot of companies, this is
like I'll be there at four and they show up at four. That's how
they work. That's why they're so highly related related reviewed. They serve the
whole Houston area. And with Scott, it's modern technology and techniques with the
old fashioned customer service that we like. Just go to macgrathpestcontrol dot com or
call him two eight one four six' nine eighty two eighty two forty two
eight one four sixt' nine eighty two forty. By the way, congratulations Scott
on being selected with a curator's pick for the best pest control companies in Houston.
They don't just give those away. You earn that, and he did.
We're going to go out to northwest Houston now and talk to Debbie.
Hello, Debbie, Hi, thank you for taking my call. I am
looking for a Laurel oak tree and I can't find one anywhere. All right,
Well, I'm gonna love David tandle that one. That's a that's a
tough one, Debbie. I I used to grow that tree, and I
don't know why we quit growing it for some reason, But I was looking
for some about three or four weeks for a customer, and the only place
I could find was in Florida. Yeah. Uh, it's a good tree.
Upright green, up upright tree gets a makes a nice shade tree.
And some other options that are similar. Water oaks grow similar to that,
a little slower growing, bigger leaf. A white oak is another great tree.
And the nut all oak and the Schue mart both good red oaks,
a good good fall color. Yeah, yeah, I have, I have
tumar, but this is a great tree. And it's little leaves. You
can mow them into the grass. And why did you guys quit growing?
Then? I have a feeling he's going home to plant summer after the show
because you sort of reminded him of a good tree that maybe ought to carry.
Yeah, the water oak and will oak is probably similar as far as
leaf shape. You know one thing, Debbie, you know what I know
what a water oak does well, will oak does the smaller leaves. Yes,
okay, all right, okay, well okay, well, thank you
so much. I appreciate it. And grow those trees. Thank you.
Thank you for that call. And if you're determined to have a Laura oak,
I hear Boca Rattan is lovely this time of year. We just put
you a flatbed behind the car and kill two birds with one stone. Thanks
for the call, Debbie. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. There
I'll go to Yeah, you know, I talk about ACE Hardware all the
time. I mean ACE is a place for all the fertilizers that I recommend,
any kind of past control product. Do you need a garden host?
I mean they've got it all there at They're the place for your Christmas lighting.
Of course most of you probably got that set up for now. But
ACE is a place for gifts too. I mean, if you have a
handyman on the list, perhaps a sander, a drill, you know,
some other pieceable equipment like that would go well. There's houseware type gifts,
there's all kinds of home enhancing type gifts. Just do me a favor.
Go into an ACE Hardware and walk around. It will not be what you
think from past years of going into ACE from years ago. This is a
whole new deal and they carry all kinds of things. And I promise you,
for anyone on your list, you walk into an ACE and look around,
you're going to find some really good options. You can go to Acehardware
dot Com. That's the website. Just do the store locator and find the
Houston stores. There's forty of them in the Greater Houston area and with the
store locator, you find the ones closest to you. I would highly recommend
that you consider doing that. Well, we're talking today about trees with David
Williamson from Williamson Tree Farm and RCW Nursery, and David, I wanted to
talk a little bit about shade trees. I don't think we've really mentioned.
You mentioned the nuthall oak, and I think that's a great oak. Schumart
is great, especially own real good soils nuts all. Even in some kind
of wet swampy areas. It holds up and does pretty good, does really
well. Yeah, and that's the tree that was planted you guys donated tree
that was planted out in memory of Randy out at Brookwood Community. And so
if you're ever out of Brookwood, you need to go find that tree and
take a look at it because that's a quality, quality red oak species,
very similar leaf shape as a schu Marty. You do have a little more
upright growth pattern to my when I grow up side by side. I can
tell the difference how they grow. They grow a little faster to me than
a smore maybe about you know, foot extra and more year. But it's
still a good, strong, structured lungle tree. Yeah, definitely. What
are some other shade trees that you might like? I like the the Mexican
white oak is another good show. Quirkos Polymorpha Polymorpha Mexican. The name I
was looking it's it's it's pretty much diver green. To get established the first
year or two and the cold, they'll drop leaves, but to get the
roots established they stay every hold on pretty well. Sometimes they'll drop outer leaves
and yeah, some kind of toward the center, the center of it.
And yeah. Another favorite one of mine is the Doman red mapel one we
girls called San Felipe Drummond. So what's special about the San Philippe. The
San Felipe is one that was found by Lenn Lowry off of San Philippey Road.
Oh wow, And my dad got cuttings off that tree and we basically
cloned it. And they're all female. They put that little red seed that
comes down in the early spring. It's beautiful and then it gets a good
fall color. Well, Lynn Lowry was a native plant collector that spent more
time crawling around the mountains of Mexico than pretty incredible. I never met him,
my dad, my dad at home. But San Philippe red maple,
right, yeah, that's a good one. Don't plan a silver maple.
No, No, that's it. We don't have time for anybody to object
here. But silver maple is a trash tree. It I wouldn't even say
it makes good fire, but it's such cheap wood, worthless wood that it
burns like paper and is gone. Right, Okay, there, I trashed
it enough. But the one thing I have I have drum grown the drum
and red maple and the sand flipper right next to each other. And the
sand flippy does grow a little faster than the regular drummond, but it's it's
a really good shape tree. Another good reason. Yeah, and some decent
fall color right right. And of course we talked about the white oak is
another one of my favorite trees. Yes, and I like the Mexican sycamores
too. Uh. They got that real pretty stovery bark when they get old,
and they got a silvery leaf on the back. They're beautiful and they
get the tree, it gets you probably eighty ninety feet tall. Not not
as much problem with the anthracnose now that the regular American bar can get.
You're always gonna have a little bit of a lace bug with when it's a
sycamore can. Yeah, but you've got a tree that's growing so fast and
big that it's like, don't even worry about it. The bark is as
beautiful as as the tree matures. It is. I was when I was
a kid. We had a giant regular sycamore in the backyard and I would
climb to the top of it because I absolutely had no fear or sense,
and that's not a good combination for longevity. But I made it. One
time the neighbor I'd climbed up to where the trunk was the size of my
wrist. I was a kid, and it was moving in the wind,
and the neighbor lady from backyard across this call my mom and I was an
idiot, kime, I said, and I had to come down. But
I tried a lot of things. I took a bed sheet once and jumped
off the house, thinking I could work as a parashote. I didn't work
either, didn't break a leg. That's good. Okay, enough true confessions,
David, Thank you so much, buddy. Hey you guys RCW,
you're having Santa out tomorrow right from twelve to two and Friedo Chili piees Brino
Chili Pie. Why don't we say that first? I mean, I like
Santa be I love Freed me too, My favorite people come out and see
all things you guys got on the lot, all right, and if they're
interested in some of the trees you grow up there, you can they can
just talk to you guys at r W and you can help them out.
Glad to Thanks so much. We really enjoyed this and we're going to play
it again later on the holidays. Folks, if you want to re listen, thanks