Coming to you from Studio A at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time
for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy, Hervella me Rick Weistin, our engineer
and producer Adrianna Robinson. Stacy to start things off today, a favorite subject
perennials. I don't even know where to begin when we talk about perennials.
I know that I've had some mentors throughout my life that have caused me to
appreciate perennials the way that I do because plants are the common denominator of gardeners,
and gardeners are collectors, and that's the appeal of perennials. They're collectible.
There's constantly new varieties, and they're shareable and they're changing. You know,
all olive gardening is very dynamic. You know what looks what your garden
looks like today, it will look different tomorrow. New things will be in
flower, things will grow, colors will change, and I think perennials are
such an important part of that. You tape of growth and change in the
garden because they typically grow very fast ye and they really bring that kind of
coming and going dimension. Shrubs are great because they're around all year round with
the woody framework. And perennials are great because they go away and they come
back. It's kind of like this great play and opening acting. You know,
different characters come along, and perennials have incredible character. I think about
Russian sage, for example. It's named after the Russian general Va Perovski.
The botanical name is Perovskia atriplusidifolia, something like that, and Stacy would get
it right. And I just took a shot at it. It's pretty good.
Atriplus folia. Wow, it started a little extra syllable in there.
How do you do that? It's just sway my brain works, don't I
don't know. I'm lucky. I guess you're amazing, Stacy. Anyhow,
Perovskia is the botanical name, so it's after this Russian general, and they
say it's because Russian sage is said to smell like the boots of marching Russia
soldiers, a real pungent smell to it. I find it much more pleasant
than that sounds. Not that I've smelled the feet of Russian soldiers marching,
but I like the smell of it. It's it's it's like it is kind
of sage resinous. In summary, I don't I don't mind the smell of
it at all. There's a great variety denim and lace, a proven winners
variety. And of course I another perennial that has great character and I love
is Virginia. People refer to it as pig squeak, where you rub the
leaves in summer and you can make that plant squeal like a pig. However,
practice on your own first, before you do it in front of a
bunch of guests that are visiting your home, so you don't make a fool
out of yourself, or in the garden center or in the garden center exactly.
And of course today also there are amazing daisies. Banana cream is one
that comes to mind, just incredible, incredible color. My mom told me
there'd be daisies like this. I just can't help but love perennial state.
You know I do too. And do you feel like your garden has like
a trademark perennial. It's like that defines your garden. Um. Yeah,
well, in some areas of the garden. Yes, it's nippetta like cats
me our cat's pajamas, only because the deer won't eat it. Yeah,
that's a great one. You know, my garden is characterized very much by
Selfium perfoliatum, a plant, a native perennial known as cup plant, and
it is self sewing, so it recedes itself. So my original clump that
I bought at a garden show, gosh, like seven years ago, it
was like a little one gallon plant. And I was just cutting that thing
back the other day and it is probably a good three feet wide now,
the clump. And the really cool thing about Sylfium perfoliatum, well, there's
two really cool things about it. But one is that it goes from nothing.
So you know, I cut it all back, all the stems are
gone, and the growth goes from nothing from the ground to ten feet tall,
and it's single season, and it's just such an amazing thing to watch
this out of nothing, this huge plant appears. And the second really cool
thing about it is that the leaves surround the square stem. So that's why
it's called the cup plant because it actually collects water in those cup like leaf
formations. And you know, in our last show, we talked to the
gator and this is a great plant for frogs because there's always water in those
cups and so not in my yard, which is very dry, but in
some people's yards they're very good for tree frogs. So that's like I have
a lot of that. That kind of characterizes my garden. If you're keeping
Square at home, we'll put the spelling there on the website Gardening Simplified on
aair dot Com, so you can try to pronounce it just like I do,
because with Stacey it rolls right off her tongue. Well done. Yeah,
you know, there are many that I love. But one of the
things I love about the taller perennials, And I'm going to ask for pronunciation
on this for our listeners too, because it's such a beautiful, beautiful perennial.
Guara g a u d okay guara that is beautiful plants like butterflies and
sway in the breeze and then you throw into the mixed ornamental grasses or fall
in love sweetly Japanese anemone and they waltz along in September. Wow, beautiful.
And I know, Stacy, you've got a couple of favorites that you
love. Of course, the summerific hibiscus, and then you also had mentioned
at one time storm cloud or am Sonia. Am I correct in there love
that plant, yep, I love all am sonia. My favorite am Sonia
is Hubrick Dii, which is a native species with a really thin foliage that
it's amazing golden color. There's a new variety from Proveners called string Theory am
Sonia that is coming up. It's that type, but I do have storm
Cloud. Another perennial that I absolutely adore is Baptisia, and it's selling that
up next. As a matter of fact, if I had to pick,
if I was forced to pick a favorite, to be that one, you
know, and you can't do much better. It's extremely long lived, it's
extremely durable, and so I have a double border surrounding my little patio of
Baptisia decadence Baptisia from proven Winners, and the summarific Hibiscus. So on the
inside it's the Baptisia. On the outside it's a summarific and so it kind
of is like a spring moment and then a summer moment on the other side.
And they're two big, bossy plants that you know, like to have
their space, but somehow they get along at least for now, so incredible
again for people keeping score at home, it's the decadence series of proven winners.
Baptisia or some people refer to the plant as false indigo. But of
course today we have so much more than just the blue color with Baptisia.
Yeah. Now, of course, one of the characteristics of perennials is sharing
them with friends and neighbors. And with many of them, we dig them,
and we divide them, and we doubled, triple or quadruple the fun.
I always like to say, you got to get over, get out
there, bend over and split your plants. I got another limerick for you,
Stacy. This one's real short about perennials. Chop, dig, divide
with shovels and sabers. The yearly blooms the fruits of our labors. Just
do the perennial dance, bend over and split your plants. It's going to
entertain your neighbors. Well, you know, not all perennials can be successfully
divided, and many of them are patented and shouldn't be divided. But the
sylfium that I mentioned earlier is a very generous plant. So not only does
the clump itself expand, but it does self so in Adriana, our producers
over there nodding because I have given some to her as well, and Rick,
if you want some, I will give you something. And it's a
very very cool plant. But yeah, it is really fun to be able
to share your joy. And I think it's so easy to fall in love
with a perennial and just to look forward to its blooming every year and and
want to share that and pass that along to your friends and family, and
people in this segment, of course are going to say, hey, you
didn't share my favorite. You know, crocosema for hummingbirds. You've got ferns
for dense shade. Just look at Echinasia and all the development of colors and
flowers, joe pie weed, helianthus of course lavender, we love lavender,
Hella bores in early spring, day lilies, hucuras, there's so many varieties.
It's oh yeah, you can talk all day about poenneals. Really,
hosta La vista baby, it's just incredible. Well, we don't get to
talk too much about hostas and day lilies, you and I because of our
deer issues. But the perennials that we do grow like napoda and sylphium and
lavender. And let's see what else do I have. Pencimen doesn't get eaten,
milkweed doesn't get eaten. I have a lot of different types of milkweed,
which is a great perennial. So if you do find yourself as a
perennial gardener who has deer, don't despair. There are a lot of wonderful
choices out there for you. Yes, and I've often found the perennials that
have a soft, hairy type of foliage. Many times the deer will leave
them alone, so give them a try. Pulmon Areas another one. Oh
yeah, I love pulmonia. I mean I don't have a shade for one,
but I do. It is such a pretty plant whenever I see it.
And you know, I'm kind of at the point in my horticulture career
and right now where I just say, you know what, I can't grow
that, but I'm going to appreciate it when I do see it. So
there that's what I do with pulmonaria. It's way too dry, it's sunny
for it. Soil preparation, of course for your perennials is important. To
create a nice bed of avoid watering over the top wind possible. In other
words, watering at the base if you can. But just good soil preparation
and understanding which ones do well in shade and which ones do well in sun.
And Stacey and I have both put our list of favorite perennials Stacy's favorites
my favorites at our website, Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com, So make sure
to check that out. Yeah, if you need a short list reference,
that's a great place to start. Coming up next, plants on Trial.
Stacy's going to introduce us to a beauty. Don't miss it. That's next
here on the Gardening Simplified Ship. The Gardening Simplified Podcast is brought to you
by proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs with over three hundred flowering shrubs and evergreens,
all trialed and tested for your success. There's one for every taste in every
space. See them all at Proven Winners color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening
friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. We're going to put
a plant on trial, which is to say, we're going to tell you
all about it and you decide if you're going to put it in your yard
or not. But before we do, I wanted to just add to our
conversation on perennials that one of the other great things about perennials is that they
can, generally, with some exceptions, be easily moved. Yes, and
now is such a perfect time to move perennials. So if you remember from
last year, Hey, these guys were you know, fighting it out for
space, or I didn't really like the way these plants look together, anything
like that, Now is the ideal time, early spring, early to midspring
like this to be digging those up and moving them. So if you've had
something like that on your mind, this is a really good, good time
to do that. Good point, Stacy. I have perennials in my landscape
that are eligible for frequent Flyer miles. They've moved so many times too,
I know the feeling. Now. That said, there are some perennials that
are extremely difficult to move, namely the baptisia. You ever try to move
a baptisia, Yes, very difficult. Yes, I would not call all
the neighbors ask for help. Same thing with ornamental grass. You really need
to call a friend endloader. Frankly, their roots go so deep, and
you should also not move ponies if you can help it. But let's get
on to today's poland on trial, which is a shrub, but it looks
and behaves very much like a perennial. Yeah, it looks just like it,
and that's why I picked it. It is low and behold pink microchip
butterfly bush. And this is one of the absolute smallest butterfly bushes you will
find. Now. A lot of people if you go to the garden center
or you ask gardeners, they actually think of Budleia or butterfly bush as a
perennial and not a shrub. But it is technically a shrub because it does
develop true wood, you know, like concentric rings like a tree has a
lot of times they die back to the ground. However, especially if you
live in a colder climate, they die back to the ground, and so
a lot of people are accustomed to kind of treating them more like a perennial.
But at their heart they are shrubs. So there are woody shrub but
perfect to incorporate into a perennial garden because it's not going to overwhelm the other
plants. Well, that's exactly it, and I think it's it's got such
a tidy, neat little habit and it's just covered in pink flower spikes,
so it looks it looks a lot like a salvia. Salvia is not a
perennial that we got to in our of perennials in the last segment, but
it almost has that similar kind of look. Now, Lo and Behold Pink
Microchip is, like I said, the smallest one that you're going to find,
about eighteen to twenty four inches tall and wide, and that is really
small for budleia and that's what makes it so much like a perennial. And
again, the flowers just kind of come out all over. Another fun fact
about this plant, it is one of our plants with the longest names,
Lo and Behold Pink Microchip Butterfly Bush. And so when Shannon, our designer,
is working on tags or other things that we need for marketing and selling
our plants, this is her test case. Okay, so when she needs
to make sure that the space that she's designed in our tag will fit our
longest possible name, it's either Lo and Behold Pink Microchip butterfly bush, or
it is perfect a mundo double dark pink azaleas. WHOA, all right,
So it's called microchip because they embed this digital memory card in there so the
plant can remember it. No, no, no, it just wins on
letter counts alone. But so I do want to say, you know,
this is an interesting plant because it is small, and it does have great
color, and because like the rest of the Low and Behold series that we
offer it Prooven Winners, Color Choice shrubs. It is non invasive. And
you know, when you say that, a lot of people, particularly here
in the Midwest, think butterfly bush invasive. I can barely get the thing
to grow. What do you mean? It's invasive, and it has become
invasive in some areas. So the need to develop these seedless or noninvasive varieties
has been there for quite some time. And all of the Lo and Behold
series is noninvasive and can actually be sold in states where it was previously banned
because it doesn't set seeds. So you don't have that worry. Now if
you have the other worry, which is that you haven't had a lot of
luck getting butterfly bush to grow well in the first place, I got one
word for you, and that is drainage. You know, there is no
fast way to kill a butterfly bush then to have wet soil. And interestingly,
you know it's not just wet soil in the summer. In the summer,
you know, the soil the moisture is evaporating very quickly because it's hot.
It's really the cold wet soil and fall in early spring that is the
you know, death knell for butterfly bushes. So you have to be really
cautious of that, especially when you're sighting them. I do recommend if you
have clay soil that you plant your budleia so it's a little bit higher than
the ground level. So make sure definitely not that it's lower, but even
almost rather than even with just slightly higher, because that helps moisture kind of
run away from the plant rather than drain toward it. I just wet my
plants. Strainage is very important. And yes, with Budleia, now this
is a little guy that packs a punch. In other words, Stacy like
other budleia, is the flower fragrant. It is fragrant. Yep, all
budleia have fragrant flower or some of them are much more fragrant than others,
particularly of the newer hybrids, but they do all attract butterflies. And I
can't believe I've been sitting here, you know, yammer in a way about
butterfly bushes, and I didn't even I didn't even mention that they do,
indeed attract a lot of butterflies as to a lot of perennials. And I
think that's one of the number one reasons to plant a butterfly bush. And
you know, when we talked about Miss Molly a few weeks ago, Miss
Molly butterfly Bush, we talked about how, you know, there's some controversy
and people say, hey, hey, you know planting a butterfly bush.
Yes, it sustains adults, but it doesn't sustain larva. And so,
just like no single plant is going to be the solution to everything in your
garden, butterfly bush are just one element to attracting butterflies to your garden and
making it more hospitable. And one of the things I love about this is
that it really gives you a wide range of color options, so you don't
just have to be stuck with one because you've only got one boring color.
You got blue, you got white, you got pink microchipped, so a
lot of different options out there. I just was I just looked up the
word yammering, and it is a word. You didn't make that upammering up
to talk foolishly or incessantly, as Popeye would say, I am what I
am yammering. Wow, I'm going to add that one to my well,
hopefully I was more on the incessant side than well, it's just what it
says. But it's a word, yammering. It is the word. Yeah,
I did make that one up. So going back to being successful with
butterfly bush, another thing that you need to know is if you have butterfly
bush in your garden and you live in a colder climate like here in Michigan
or anywhere in the Midwest, don't cut it back as you're doing your spring
garden clean up. I know it's really tempting to just go out there,
and because it is so much like a perennial, a lot of people might
just assume, hey, you got to cut this guy back too. But
probably another aside from poor drainage, another way that people often and unintentionally kill
buddleiah is by cutting it back too hard and too soon, and particularly in
colder climates. You want to let the plant show you where it is still
alive, and that means waiting until that new growth does appear on the stems
and it will have faith. Sometimes that can happen quite late, and then
once you see those little green leaves coming out, then you can cut just
above those and then you know where the plant is alive. You know,
sometimes the plant comes back at the top, sometimes it comes back at the
bottom. Any number of factors can influence that. So this is a plant
that you'll be much happier if you let it tell you what it needs rather
than you imposing your will on it. Yea. As we mentioned in our
beginning, gardeners show a few weeks ago patients patients, yeah, And it
can be hard to have patients in spring when the rest of your garden is
looking amazing and your butterfly bush is just still sitting there, going, yeah,
I'm gonna press a snooze button, not ready to wake up just yet,
And you're like, come on, everybody else is awake. We're waiting
on you. Butterfly bush. Yeah, it's true, but it's just what
it needs, and so do be patient and again let it tell you what
it needs. Now. You know, we've talked about the flowers attracting butterflies,
great color, great fragrance. Unfortunately not a great cut flower. Have
you ever tried to use it as a cut flower? It wilts very quickly.
So this is one that you're definitely going to enjoy out in your garden.
But speaking of enjoy it, you know who won't enjoy it, dear
the deer. This is budleya are by far, Butterfly bush are by far
one of the most deer resistant plants that I have personally grown in my garden
which is teeming with deer. And they have never taken so much as a
nibble. And it's kind of strange. I mean, the leaves are like,
maybe slightly they have like a kind of white flocking on them, but
I wouldn't really consider it like a hairy plant. It's not particularly resinous like
a lot of things they don't eat. But when you're gardening with deer,
of course, you have to take what you can get and be glad that
you have it. And butterfly bush is definitely a very nice plant for you
to to add your landscape if you have and deer and good drainage. So
sunshine a key. Also, sunshine is very key, so we're looking at
at least six hours of bright sun every day. A lot of people ask
if they can grow a butterfly bush in a container and the answer is yes.
You just want to make sure that it's not too wet in the winter
because that will not be good for it at all. Just sitting here thinking
how many times have I been yammering on this show and you just nicely sit
there and take it now so nice? Well, you know, I like
to let you to make your point and then if I have something else to
say, then I say it. I love it. I love it.
In any case, lo and behold pink microchip butterfly bush. You can learn
all about it in the show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
It's a great plan to add your garden, perennial garden, shrub garden,
any garden at all. We're going to take a little bit of a break
and when we come back, we're answering your gardening questions. So please stay
too. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast sponsored by Proven Winners color
Choice Shrubs. Learn more about our triald tested and proven flowering shrubs and evergreens,
and find a local retailer at Proven Winners color Choice dot Com ratings.
Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. One of the
ways that we try to simplify gardening for you is by answering your gardening questions.
And tis the season indeed for gardening questions. I know there's lots going
on and out there and people are wondering not just about what they do with
the stuff they already have, whether that's the lawn or shrubs or perennials or
anything, but what they are thinking about doing this season, whether that's adding
a new rose or something like that to your landscape, or planning a vegetable
garden or your containers. It is. You know, you never stop learning
with gardening, and so we learn from your questions and that's why we're happy
to help. So if you have a gardening question for us, so we'd
be glad to help, you can in fact email us at help HLP at
Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com, or just visit the site and click the contact
form like these gardeners did, or what's in the mail bag today? Rick
Well Stacy. First of all, Pat writes to us, My ornamental grasses
are supposed to be perennial. They all look dead. What do I do?
That's such a good question. This is great quick because ornamental grasses have
absolutely skyrocketed in popularity over the last like what twenty five thirty years, they
were almost unheard of in gardens and then really started to take off thanks to
some new breeding and things like that that happened. And it is a good
idea to leave your ornamental grasses uncut through winter because that gives you some winter
interest to look at. But then come spraying right about now you're like,
hmm, is everything okay out there? Because now they just look like you
know, dead brown grass. And the answer is they are almost certainly okay.
And now is the time that you cut them back. And you want
to try to cut your ornamental grasses back earlier in the spring rather than later,
because if you start waiting too long and the new growth starts to emerge
under that you know, wig of dead College stubble stubble yep. If the
new growth starts to emerge under there and you trim it, then you cut
off all the tips of the grass, which doesn't really harm the plant,
but looks it looks awkward in my opinion. I mean maybe you won't even
notice, in which case, okay, no problem. But I always feel
like, oh boy, they cut that one back too late, because you're
getting there with your pruners and you can't separate the old growth from the new
growth it's coming up. And so yeah, you give it that little buzz
cut, and then instead of tapering off to a nice tip, all those
blades of grass, they just are like buzz cut straight across. So pat
can cut them back when they're brown and we're going to start seeing that new
growth. Cut them down to stubble. We'll see the new growth. Now.
One word of warning here, having been in the garden center industry for
forty six years, some people purchase what we know as annual grasses the previous
year. There's a penacetam rubrum and there's a variety called Prince Beautiful grasses.
But they're annual and they're not going to come back, So make sure you
know what you have, and if you have one that remains brown and no
new growth, odds are you bought yourself an annual the previous which does happen,
and it depends on which section in the garden center you purchased it from.
Along those same lines, another thing it's really important to know about ornamental
grasses is that a majority of the most popular types of ornamental grass are what's
known as a warm season grass, and they are very late to emerge in
spring, and so people you might think, after Rick says, hey,
hey, you know, these could be annual grasses, you might think,
well, hey, it didn't come back. Yes, it's an annual grass,
but that's not necessarily true. I have prairie wins shy and sky ornamental
grass my garden, beautiful plant. I love it too, and I tell
you every single year, even though I've had it in my garden for probably
ten years now, maybe not quite that long, but quite some time,
every year, I think, yeah, that thing's not coming back this year.
It's neighbors were too close, it's shaded it out. And then it
comes back and it's beautiful. So ornamental grasses do force you to have a
little bit of faith, particularly if they are perennials, but don't give up
on them. They will show their true color sooner or later. And then
once they do, watch out because they just grow so fast. Chop them
back, pat and if you want to have some fun, go on YouTube,
because there's actually some people who don't chop them back. They burn them
back with a torch and set them ablaze. I'm not recommending you do that.
I'm not recommending that. As a matter of fact, if you have
those grasses anywhere nearer home, not a smart thing to do. No,
you gotta be very careful. A para prunters can do. And if your
grass is too big for a pair of hand pruns, a lot of people
will use a hedge trimmer. I used to work with someone in the garden
center who would use a can of AquaNet hairspray and a lighter eek. That
sounds dangerous anyway, Let's move on. Pruners, please bruners, please.
Peg is wondering what to do with a garden favorite. The leaves on my
hu are gone, but there are rosettes standing above the soil. What should
I do? And stacy with hukura? Or could I say coral bell you
can say coral bells are interchangeable, Yeah, interchangeable. That many times in
North States they will retain their foliage older winter. Yep, that's very common
that hugras would have some old foliage and for whatever reason pats did not persist.
I do find that sometimes rabbits will eat any foliage that did persist over
winter. So generally hugra are pretty deer resistant, but I have found that
rabbits will eat them so a lot of times. And of that old growth
that was hanging around liquid in the fall and then gets kind of beaten down
in the winter, they might munch that off. So really, the answer,
Pat is that you're in very good company. This is probably what a
whole lot of people's hukras look like right now, and you don't really need
to do anything. I know, they look super funky right now and like
they shouldn't, like they should be more buried or something like that. But
once that new growth starts to come out, as long as you're seeing those
little tiny baby leaves starting to emerge from the center, which does start to
happen early like at this time of year, as long as you're seeing some
signs of life in the center. It will grow back and then it will
be covered in all those beautiful leaves and you won't even remember that it had
that weird looking rosette stem thing. Give it time, Give it time,
and give it some TLC two. Because they do like moisture, so if
we're having a dry spring, they need good drainage, but they also need
moisture, and so some ideal conditions early in the season will really help them
recover a lot more quickly. Ukra of course known or it's interesting foliage.
There are many. There's one, I think a variety called I don't know,
stoplight, and a multitude of varieties that have just such interesting foliage,
and of course many also stacy that look like fall foliage in the landscape.
Yeah, Hukra has had a revolution and there is no signs of its stopping.
So practically, whatever your heart desires in a Hukra, you who will
find it somewhere out there. Philip asks us, can I use weed proof
fabric covered with river rock instead of the bark mulch for my new lilac bush?
And Philip, I'm really glad that you asked this question. My answer
is a please don't. I'm not going to say no, absolutely not,
but I will tell you why. So I am not a fan of landscape
fabric or wheat fabric. Okay, say the least. And again this goes
back to having helped literally thousands of gardeners in my time here at proving there's
color choice shrubs with their problems. And I can say, you know,
nine times out of town when someone's had a problem with a plant that they've
purchased, it's been due to water, too much water, almost always,
and of about half of those times, it is exacerbated by the presence of
landscape fabric, weed barrier, whatever you call it, because yes, sure
this is intended to prevent weeds from growing up, but in a lot of
cases it also prevents water from evaporating very quickly from the soil surface because obviously
the soil surface is covered and it can in some cases I have seen even
trap carbon dioxide. So the roots are giving off carbon dioxide and that can
build up under the soil and under the under the landscape fabric and effectively poison
the roots. Now all of these conditions, some plants are far more sense
sitive to it than others, and lilac is definitely in that category. Lilacs
strictly require good drainage. If they have wet soil at all, your lilac
is probably going to die or be severely severely setback, or get a lot
of diseases. A lot most of the diseases that lilacs are notorious for having
have something to do with water stress. Whether that's powdery mildew or you know,
pseudomonas. There's all of these different things. They almost all go back
to too much moisture in the soil around the roots. So in this case,
I would say no phill up. I would not recommend this condition for
lilacs. I wouldn't recommend it for panical hydrangeas as well, any plant that
needs good drainage. Now, if you already have landscape fabric, I would
say you can still plant a lilac there, just make sure that you're giving
it a good two foot radius without any fabric, And then I would actually
cover those roots with mult You can bring the rock up to that mulch,
so you have that cohesive look that most people want in their landscape. But
weed, barrier and rock are not going to make for a very happy lilac.
Well, you've honed in on the landscape fabric. I hone in on
the rocks. I'm just really not into the rocks. I call them riot
rocks and reflective, and I'll pick bark mul Jenny day over. Yeah,
it's better for the plants too, because rocks are good in a way that
they don't need to be replaced, but they don't do anything for the soil,
whereas a bark mulch will break down and enrich the soil and help to
enrich soil micro organisms, and it's win win for you and the plant.
Well, I think clean up in spring and fall also is more difficult with
rocks than with mulch my personal opinion. Whatever. Yeah, so fun rock
and roll. In any case, keep your river rock and lanscape viabric,
but do be careful of these sensitive plants like lilac and panicle hydrangia especially.
So thank you all for your questions. Again, if you have a question
for us Gardening Simplified on air dot Com, We're going to take a little
bit of a break and when we come back, we've got branching news at
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color choice dot com. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time
for branching news. Not breaking news. It's branching news. But we don't
make this stuff up, Stacy. I was looking at a poll. The
results found people consider allergy symptoms to be the most frustrating part of springtime.
Well, it's certainly one of the least pleasant. Yeah, compared to spring
cleaning, mosquitos, filing taxes. Right. Survey of two thousand US adults
with allergies discovered other favorite things people would be willing to part with for a
year if they could just get rid of their allergy symptoms, including cake,
chocolate, video games, coffee, and social media. So no coffee for
a year and no allergies, could you do it? I I've bad allergies
at times in my life. I have very severe allergies as a kid.
But you know, I guess I just powered through it. It's not fun,
but it's not fun as a matter of fact, a big deal for
a lot of people. As we enter spring, I think about my grandson.
I'm going to give you a joke here, Stacy. Okay, knock,
knock, who's there? Hatch hatch shoo, kazoon height Oh, thank
you, fluciate it. Allergies have been around since the time of Julius sneezer.
Yeah, and we're just throwing this. By the way, we're gonna
put this survey on the website and you can check it out so you and
you are not alone if you you deal with allergies and not making fun of
this, especially for our friends there and mass choose mass a choose its anyhow,
boy, Okay, let's move on. Bird strikes No, not Robbins
picketing for better work conditions. Birds are facing increasing pressures including habitat loss,
climate change, hunting by cats. It leads to a staggering loss of population.
Some of the numbers out there are unreal. How they know, how
they count them? I have no idea, but amazing now, making windows
more visible to birds is one way to help. However, according to this
study, putting details on the outside of the windows can often require ladders or
scaffolding, but it's more effective than putting them on the inside of windows,
at least this study. There's a couple of links that we have to share
with you. The decails were more effective when on the outside of the window
as opposed to the inside of the window. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Yeah, that seems to make sense when you think about it. You
know that they it looks more real, probably to them. Yeah, I
don't know if they can see in our windows or not. But well,
and when a bird hits the window, um, it kind of wrecks my
day. It's like when you drive to work and you inadvertently hit a squirrel
in the road. It wrecks my day. And then when a bird hits
the window and is lying there on the ground stunned, it's it's a rotten
feeling. It is a rotten feeling. I used to work at Tavern on
the Green, which had a very famous um room which was completely surrounded by
glass, and I witnessed more bird strikes than I care to to reconsider at
this time. But you know, I have to say it also led to
some amazing experiences when the bird was just stunned and I got to hold like
a tiny little chickadee while it got better. That that's kind of amazing,
it is, and it was okay, but some of them did die,
so yeah, okay, sorry, that was sad. Let's watch the ending
to Old Yeller here and it basically, let's let's do a funny story.
Then the moose is loose. The moose is loose. A couple of stories
in the news is past week on hungry moose visitations. We know the deer
do a lot of damage in spring after a long winter and are hungry,
but think about the damage a moose can do. In Anchorage, Alaska,
this past week, a moose walked into a medical building. That's kind of
the setup for a bad joke, but it's true. In Anchorage, a
moose walked into the hospital lobby, figured out how to use the automatic doors,
spotted the green house plants in the lobby of a medical building, and
dropped in for a dose of greenery. Wow. You know that cow from
a couple of weeks ago that couldn't get off the tennis courts. It couldn't
figure out how to get out of the automatic doors. I'm I'm very proud
of this moose for figuring that out. It's something else. And then just
south of town, a moose entered a home. There's a lady there and
the town is called sold Dotna. There we go sold Dotna, which is
south of Anchorage. She always leaves the door cracked open when she lets her
dog, Jesse out, and when Jesse comes back in, she knows to
close the door. But this time Jesse brought a friend into her atrium,
a big friend, a moose. She was shocked as the moose was happily
munching on her house plants, with Jesse just sitting down besides the big fella.
Cops a lot of noise, a few broken plant pots later, the
moose was safely out of the house. But what a story to tell.
Yeah, and I saw the video of this, and you know, honestly,
like, I find it hard to believe that this moose found itself indoors
and didn't panic and was just like, oh, apothos perfect because there's pictures
of her house plants in there, and it was just like, oh,
yeah, I guess I'll sample this. I mean, I'm sure they're very
hungry for some fresh greenery at this time of year in Alaska. But I
also have to say, leave your door open in Alaska sounds like a risky
move with all the bears, and so I'd say you consider yourself lucky.
It was just a moose. This moose was famous, is what he was.
He did not he was not going to remain anonymous. Okay, sorry,
I'm on a wild moose chase. You know, there is an old,
unknown proverb though, and this is true. I'll joking aside. The
proverb says, always be yourself unless you can be a moose, then be
a moose. Really, that's how the proverb goes. That's how the proverb
goes, the original one, because I've heard a lot of different versions of
that, always be yourself unless you can be a moose, then be a
moose. What's the advantage of being a moose? No idea, I figured
you'd ask me. I was just trying to be a mousing. Bees are
sentient inside the stunning brains of nature's hardest workers. A new book, What
a Bee Knows, exploring the thoughts, memories, and personalities of bees.
This is fascinating. Some of the work that's being done about the optimism,
frustration, playfulness, fear traits that they're finding that even bees have. The
author, Steve Buckman, is part of a small but growing group of scientists
doing what he calls fringe research to understand the full emotional capacity of bees,
and his research has radically changed the way he relates to insects. He now
avoids killing them in the house, and I can relate to that. I
mean, just this morning, I carried both a spider and a ladybug out
of the house. I don't squash him. I have a tendency to just
carry them. Well, you know, so there's indoor spiders and there's outdoor
spiders, and outdoor spiders don't usually come in if you have indoor spiders,
they're just indoor spiders. And whenever anyone tells me that they have spiders indoors,
I tell them they should be a lot more afraid of what the spiders
are eating in their house than of the spider themselves, because a spider would
not be there if it did not have a food source, And that is
most likely what you should be concerned about, more than the spider itself.
That is true. That is true. Emergency preservation work is being carried out
on one of the few trees remaining from an ancient Scottish forest. The Capon
tree near Jedburg is believed to be about one thousand years old, so this
is an old oak tree. The collapse of one it's surviving one of its
surviving limbs has led to further props and supports. They're trying to save this
ancient tree. It's part of an annual summer festival. But this ancient English
oak is close to dying, with only one limb now showing any life.
But it's a tree of national importance. So the Capon Tree in Jedburgh.
They say that it is believed that much of the historic jed forest was cut
down for ships during attacks by the Spanish Armada in the late sixteenth century.
But this tree is a survivor, and I looked at the pictures and it
is just a spectacular, incredible tree, and not that many trees get to
live for that long. So I hope that they are able to save it.
Although you know, we tend to think of things that live a thousand
years as eternal, and it's it's hard to think that trees actually do have
a lifespan. So it's also possible it's coming to the end of its life,
and hopefully it was a well lived life. It's certainly witnessed a lot
and it's a good reminder for us that yes, trees do have a lifespan,
and this one what a beauty. The tree isn't talking, however,
it doesn't want to die a log. Oh I get it. Sorry,
I thought you're never mind. Okay, Well, end on that note,
Stacy. It's always a privilege and pleasure to do the Gardening Simplified Show with
you. Thank you so much. Likewise, Rich and thanks to Adriana,
and thanks to all of our listeners out there. We hope you have a
wonderful week.