Speaker 1: Hello, my friends. Broadcasting from Studio a at Proven Winners,
Color Choice Shrubs. It's The Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hirvella, me,
Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well,
you know, I think annuals. Flowering annuals to me, aren't
an investment like a tree. They're more of an opportunity.
They're an event. Investment is traditionally defined as the commitment
of resources to achieve later benefits, and the key word
here is later. See with flowering annuals, we can fill
gaps in our landscape, have instant impact, season long color.
Many annuals are edibles. Of course, pollinators love them. It's
a great way to teach kids, and shopping for them
is an adventure in spring. Just ask Stacy and her month.
Speaker 2: Indeed, it's one of my favorite things that I do
all your life. You know, I think of annuals. It's
interesting that you bring up the investment thing. I don't
know exactly how to classify them, but they're akin to
a party, you know, like going all out with decorations
and food and yeah, sure, it's kind of like a
condensed you know, short term payoff, but it's so worth it.
You have to take advantage of the summer, well you can.
And yeah, shopping for annuals I think is honestly one
of the most fun things. It's even more fun if
you can do it with someone like your mom or
someone that you really love. But it's just it's a delight.
I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it too, and I agree an event
or an opportunity. And then if you think about it,
you know, it used to be we had Decoration Day,
and of course Mother's Day. We can thank Anna Jarvis
and Woodrow Wilson years ago they designated the second Sunday
in May to be Mother's Day. And then of course
we had Decoration Day, which became Memorial Day, with which
became the fourth Monday in the month of May. So
you take those holidays and you throw into the mix
that it's the last projected frost date for many people
in the United States. Throw all those three together and wow,
it becomes a flower festival.
Speaker 2: Yes, a very condensed like four week flower festival, but yeah,
what a great time it is.
Speaker 1: It is a fantasic killing.
Speaker 2: Me over here, it's so far away.
Speaker 1: I go, well, you know, uh, from the perspective of
the garden center industry. We used to years ago, when
I first started out in the industry, we would sell
annuals big time during the month of May and June.
Now I'm finding it is an April to October thing.
The party goes on for the entire spring, summer, and
fall period, and that's what makes annuals so great. All right,
the envelope please, twenty twenty five National Annual of the
Year is super Tunia Mini Vista yellow petunia, What cheerful blooms.
And I have to say they must have consulted with
Stacy on this one, because Stacy, I know how much
you love yellow in your landscape.
Speaker 2: I do love yellow, and I think it is an
interesting choice for the annual of the year because I
think very few people when they think of petunias, yellow
is probably not even remotely part of their mental image,
part of the conversation. People don't really think of yellow petunias,
sure at all. But I have actually grown I haven't
grown this particular one, but I did grow the Supertunia,
saffron finch petunia and beauty, yeah, just beautiful. And I
think it's high time that people start thinking of petunia's
is an opportunity for you. They're not like a Namby
Pamby yellow, not that there's anything wrong with that. They're
like a good, bold, beautiful yellow, and I love it
they are.
Speaker 1: They are sunshine, And of course I love the mini
vista syria of supertunias. They bloom their heads off. They
can handle the heat. Last year I took some many
vistas that were in hanging baskets. Just overflowing the hanging baskets.
I popped the hanging baskets off and plunged them into
the ground. They were fantastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they are one that you can grow in the ground.
A lot of people get confused sort of about what
the difference between supertunias and super bells are. One is
a petunia, one is a Caliber CoA. Superbells is a
Caliber CoA. But the Caliber Coas they don't recommend putting
in the ground because they need such good drainage. They
were made for containers, whereas a supertunias, Yeah, put them
in the ground, make them into a flower filled ground
cover and party it up.
Speaker 1: The wonderful thing about many vista supertunias, or in this case,
the plant of the year. The flowering annual plant to
the year is the fact that they're self cleaning, really
no maintenance.
Speaker 2: So you don't have to worry.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: This is one of those things that I think people
who petunias back in the day are just like, oh,
I'm not growing petunias. You have to deadhead them. It's smelly,
it's sticky, it's horrible. I'm never growing petunias again. But
you know, honestly, and I don't even say that because
I work here, but proven winners really did change all
of that with the supertunias. It's a whole new way
to look at petunias. And if you have been holding
back from growing petunias for those reasons, you have those
you know, bad memories, It's high time that you rethink
it and bring some petunias into your annual plantings.
Speaker 1: It's flower power Supertunia Mini vista yellow petunias. The Kalladium
of the Year envelope please heart to heart, Blushing Bride
and Stacy for kalladiums. I love the fact that many
koladiums now are both sun and shade. They're not just
relegated to the shade. In this case, a strap leaf
kualladium with elongated foliage. That and it's ruffled also, And
so you see these bright pink leaves edged in a
bright green border with patches of white. Can handle sun
or shade, although if you're growing them in the south,
probably better off in shade. But here in the Midwest
or north, sun or shade. Just love kalladiums and the
fact that they're so heat and humidity tolerance.
Speaker 2: You know, Kaladiums are another great example of a plant
that has come so far from where it was. Now.
I know you're going to remember this, but do you
remember back in the day when you ordered kalladiums, your
choices were green, white, pink, or red. There was no variety,
there was no series. You had no idea what you're getting,
just the color. And now it's just what has happened
in the kalladium breeding world, between Heart to Heart and
everything else out there. It's truly extraordinary, and I think
it just really makes people rethink again this plant. And
they do take sun, especially if you live in a
colder climate. But I think especially for gardeners who have
a lot of shade and want to have fabulous containers,
this is a choice that should not be overlooked. You
can stop thinking about, you know, feeling bad that you
don't get flowers. Just pile on these kalladiums. You'll have
tons of color, tons of texture. They are absolutely beautiful. Now,
I unfortunately am having a little pity party over here
since we're talking about parties, because I have tried to
grow heart to heart kalladiums and the deer had other intentions.
So unfortunately these are not very dear resistant. I've never
had any trouble with them eating petunias. I don't think
they like that, you know, kind of stickiness either. But yeah,
I unfortunately is they have actually climbed my front steps
to get to the kalladiums. So just a little word
of warning for those of you who also have to
deal with deer. But if you don't, and you have
shade and you're looking for something just fabulous and interesting,
you can't really do much better than hard to heartkalladiums.
Speaker 1: I agree. Coming up in segment four, we're going to
talk to Noah dear Ohanian. He is the director of
product management with Proven Winners. We're going to talk more
about some of these fabulous varieties that are coming out
this year. Exciting varieties and of course recipe of the
year also for flowering annuals. This year it's Ireland, Champagne,
Toast and Vista View. Now, Stacey, I love the recipe
Ireland because to me, it looks like the flag of Ireland.
You've got goldilocks, rocks, bidens, you have super bells, over
easy Calibrica and then a favorite of many people luscious basket,
tangiglow a Lantana. Now you put all those together, that
recipe almost looks like the flag of Irons.
Speaker 2: And it's a lot of color. Now for our listeners
who maybe aren't familiar with it, proven winners every year
puts out creates these different recipes of combinations of annuals. Now,
for me personally, combining annuals is my favorite thing about
growing annuals. But there's a lot of people who just
want that ready made, fool proof opportunity, and for them,
I think that you know the recipes, whether it's the
recipes of the Year or just one of the many
recipes on the website, it just makes a great starting
point for designing your plants.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these recipes and combinations too, are not a recipe
or a combination where someone's sitting at their desk thinking, oh,
this would be cool. No, these are proven, tested and tried,
and so you know these recipes are going to work
for you. Now. In addition to the annuals of the year,
there are many new introductions this year. We're going to
talk to Noah about it. In segment four. There's a
totally tempted Kufia, which I'm very excited about. Aero Magica
purple heliotrope. This one's fantastic because a lot of people
have heliotrope melt out on them in the heat of summer,
but this one is a fabulous cultivar, and so I
recommend that. And then Stacy, I loved Scavola before it
was popular to love Scavola. And now we have star Diva.
So as opposed to the hand or fan shaped flowers
that were used to we now have star shaped flowers.
So there are so many great new annuals coming down
the line this year. I can't wait for frost free days.
Speaker 2: I know me too. More color, a little less white,
little more color would would not be a bad thing.
Speaker 1: It's coming, folks. Hang on, we'll get there. Plants on
Trial is next. Let's see how Stacey ties this all
together here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: Beautify your home and community with Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs.
With over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties to
choose from. There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for every taste
and every space. Just look for the distinctive white container
your local garden center or learn more at Proven Winner's
Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back
to the Gardening Simplified Show. We're talking the Annual of
the Year. We've been through the shrub of the Year,
we've been through the Perennial of the year, and now
it is time for the Annual of the Year. And
like we've said in previous shows, the plants of the
Year from the Proven Winner's brand are selected by industry experts.
Were each of the partners that does perennials, shrubs and
annuals does it in a slightly different way. The way
that we do it for shrubs is we have some
of the biggest growers in the US vote on that.
Because of course, the important thing and what's really great
about the Plants of the Year is that they're going
to be easy to find. And you know, there's so
many proven winners plants out there that a lot of
times you'll fall in love with something and it can
be hard to find. And so the great thing about
the annuals and perennials and shrubs of the year is
that everybody's on board. They've known about this for a
couple of years. You're only hearing about it right now,
but the industry has known about it for a while,
so the supply is going to be there for you
to actually use and incorporate in your garden. And it's
also just I think, a nice guideline for trying new
things every year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that, you know, and probably a little
easier with as than it is, let's say with perennials
or shrubs. But that's why we see so many new
introductions every year.
Speaker 2: In annuals, right, And that's what we try to do
is just to get people to focus on one thing
because we do have so much great stuff. I mean,
it's hard for me to focus on one plant every
week for plants on Trial because we do have so
many great plants. So that's why I always try to
tie it to whatever our theme of the episode, is,
and you know, thinking about this week's as you already said, Rick,
I love yellow and the garden, and I have found
that yellow in the garden for me is not necessarily
something that I personally select. It's just something that has happened.
And it's partly because I do grow, you know, a lot,
not all, but mostly native plants, and a great number
of North American native flowering perennials and shrubs for that matter,
do happen to have yellow flowers. So by virtue of
you know, sort of a natural selection, I've ended up
with quite a lot of yellow in my garden.
Speaker 1: And I think when spring arrives, to celebrate, we should
do a show where we're both wearing yellow. I'll go
out and find something yellow when the landscape came all.
Speaker 2: Right, it's a deal, okay, all right. So, and I
do have a lot of yellow clothes too, because I
love I love yellow that much. I'm wearing yellow earings
right now. You just can't see him under the headphones.
But the cool thing about yellow in the garden is
I was thinking about it, is that yellow is truly
a seasonless color. I think a lot of other colors
in the garden you know, you think of them as
just being very associated with a season, like you aren't
really seeing like a lot of red flowers or red
stuff outside of summer and fall, and pink is highly
associated with, you know, summer, and purple is highly associated
with that sort of at least in my garden, that
late spring early summer transitional period when you've got your
neepata and your selvia and all of that stuff flowering.
But yellow really is a seasonless color. In the spring,
you've got your daffodils and you're in your forsythia. Of course,
you know summer, as we've just been through all sorts
of stuff. In fall, I mean, of course, so much
yellow in fall, whether you're talking about a ginko or
you know what plants can.
Speaker 1: My favorite yellow ginko.
Speaker 2: It's a great choice. And then on top of all
those yellow flowers, there's also tons of yellow foliage.
Speaker 1: Yes, as a matter of fact, I know where you're
going with this segment. You're going to talk about spyria, right, Spyria.
Speaker 2: I am not going to talk about spyria today. We
do have yellow leaved spyria, but I am talking about
a plant that people aren't used to seeing with yellow foliage,
the mystery thickens, and I won't keep you in suspense
any longer. This week's plant on trial is sky do
gold blueberry.
Speaker 1: What a gorgeous plant.
Speaker 2: It is a very unique plant. So if you live
in West Michigan, of course, blueberries are no stranger to you.
You see them all the time. You kind of can't
not see them if you're driving anywhere around here. But
the homegrowing blueberries are different. You know, they're smaller, they're
more garden friendly, They're not like the big, you know,
six feet tall plants that you'll see out in the
actual blueberry farms. So skydew gold is a gold leaf
ornamental blueberry. And through the show you're gonna hear me
talk about it as an ornamental blueberry, and you might
be thinking, like, well, what exactly does that mean? Does
that mean it doesn't have fruit? And the fact is
it does set fruit, it does flower, and it does
have fruit, and that fruit is edible. But this is
a blueberry that was selected specifically for its looks in
the garden or landscape.
Speaker 1: And I can see why. When we were in the
trial garden, Adriana, you and myself, I saw it in
the distance and Stacy, I was drawn towards it, like
what is that? Right?
Speaker 2: And I have had the same experience in our trial
garden too, where you know, Adrian and I'll be walking
around going to make videos and something will catch your
eye and I'll be like, oh my gosh, what is that?
And we'll go over there, and sure enough it's a sky.
It's happened to us more than once in different spots
in the garden because it is just such a showy plant.
So this is a gold leaf blueberry, and the foliage
starts out kind of green in the spring, with that
kind of pinkish red flush that is common for blueberries.
But then as that foliage expands and starts to mature,
starts to you know, photosynthesize, it creates these bright golden
pigments and those are going to stay present on the
foliage basically from you know, mid to late spring, all
the way until full when the plant then starts to
turn red and yellow. And you know, the interesting thing
to me about this plant, or one of the many things,
is that it's a very vivid and very eye catching
gold yellow. But it's not unnatural looking, you know, and
I think so you know, I think sometimes people want
a really colorful landscape, and there's a lot of plants
out there with colors that were maybe not really used
to seeing in nature where we live or whatever. And
this has all of that pizazz and eye catching, you know,
dazzling kind of look, but not in a way that's
like garish or gaudy, like it's getting all your attention.
It's really bright, it's very interesting and pretty in the landscape,
but it doesn't feel out of place, like it doesn't
feel like you're trying to like scream, it's just like
you're trying to, you know, give a sassy winking something
like that. So, like I said, we call it an
ornamental blueberry because it was selected again for these ornamental characteristics,
not edible characteristics. And when you're going for a blueberry
that you want to produce fruit, you're saying, like, hey,
does this produce earlier late? Are the are the fruits large,
are they smaller? They juicy? Or are they tasty? You're looking
for the qualities of edibility. Now, this does produce fruit,
and the fruits are perfectly delicious, but that was not
our primary selection criteria. That's what makes it a little
bit different than other blueberries. But if you already have blueberries,
you can certainly add this for some pizaz in your
blueberry planting or in your landscape, and other blueberries will
pollinate it and you'll get fruit. So it's kind of
like an added bonus. So for this plant, you should
really think about the fruit. That is the main reason,
and you're growing it, but kind of as a little
added bonus there if you want to have it or
leave it to the animals or whatever you want to
do with it, always a benefit.
Speaker 1: Now do we need lots of sunshine and drainage for
this like we do with blueberries here in Michigan.
Speaker 2: Yes, So everything that you would normally need for properly
sighting a blueberry plant is going to be equally true
for skyd gold. Okay, you're going to want acidic soil.
Of course, this is non negotiable. And a lot of people,
I think, do think of blueberries as high maintenance plants.
And I'm going to get to pruiting in just a second,
but I think, as with everything in the garden, people
tend to think of things as high maintenance when they
are not sighted properly and therefore need a lot of
attention to do what you want them to do. But
with skyde gold blueberry or any other kind of blueberry,
if you plant it in full sun, and this is
cold tolerant down to usdas on four, heat tolerant through
USDA Zone eight, so the warmer your climate, the more
shade it can take. But if you're down there in
zone four five, definitely gonna want full sun for this
for the best color, best fall color, and of course
best flowering and fruiting if you do want some of
those fruits. Acidic soil, well drained soil, super crucial. Blueberries
don't really like wet so they can take moist soil,
but you don't want like the soggy soil that can
lead to all sorts of issues for them. And the
great thing, because this is an ornamental blueberry and not
a production blueberry, you don't have to worry about pruning
at all, you know, overall, if you're trying to grow
blueberries for backyard fruit production, you do need to be
quite careful with the pruning. You need to, you know,
remove the oldest growth, make sure that it has lots
of young, healthy growth for the best flowering and fruiting.
Timing is really crucial. It's a lot to remember. Whereas
with skydew gold, you don't have to prune it at
all if you don't want to. In fact, it reaches
just two to four feet tall and three to four
feet wide, so it's really the perfect size for home
landscaping and you won't need to prune it, you know,
for any reason at all, if you don't want to it.
Speaker 1: It sounds like the plant for me, no work, easy
to grow, and giving you a sassy wink.
Speaker 2: If you do want a sassy wink in your landscape,
then yes, this would definitely be a good choice. So overall,
you know, blueberries are not the most deer resisted, they're
not highest up on the list of plants that deer
want to eat, but they will eat them, and they
will particularly eat the young growth in spring, which is
going to be where all those flowers are. It's going
to be soft. They tend to eat it in spring
because of course, you know, they're hungry. They've kind of
exhausted the food supplies out in natural areas. So if
you do have deer, I would definitely protect this plant
with maybe a repellent or some netting, especially for its
first couple of years, and then you know, you should
be okay overall, people don't, you know, Like the blueberry
growers around here, there's plenty of deer and they don't
usually have to worry about them. So the woodier and
more mature they get, the less appealing they are too deer.
But it's something you're definitely going to want to protect
for at least the first couple of seasons.
Speaker 1: I'll bet. On the positive side, the birds love them.
Speaker 2: The birds absolutely love them. Yeah, and so do pollinators.
I mean, because there's the blueberry flowers serve all sorts
of different pollinators, so this is just one of those plants.
It's a little bit different, kind of like a yellow
petunia in that regard, and again just a great way
to bring color like nothing else to your garden and
that great three season interest. So lots going for it
if you're interested. Of course, you can see photos of
it in our YouTube version or on Instagram or on
our show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
You can also find a retailer to look for it
this season and add it to your garden. We're going
to take a little break. When we come back, we're
opening up the garden mail bags, so please stay tuned.
At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, we know that a
better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team of
experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs and
evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure they outperform
what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs
to accentuate your home and express your personal style, look
for Proven Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container at
your local garden center, or learn more at proven Winner's
Color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back
to the Gardening Simplified Show. We are your headquarters for
answering garden questions and apparently Sassy winks so I don't
know where that came from, but it is new to
the to the Gardening it Simplified canon here. So anyway,
one of the things that we really love to do
to help simplify gardening for you is to answer garden questions.
And like I said before, even though it is kind
of the off season, you're probably starting to think about
things that are going wrong. And this week we actually
have a couple of questions about house plants as well,
which is also something that we even though it's not
maybe technically gardening, it's gardening like so you can go
to Gardening Simplified on air dot com and ask us
your questions there. But before we get to the questions
we did, you have a couple comments that I wanted
to share listener Jackie, since today is the annual of
the year show, She writes to us, I love all
capital letters. My super beina. So superbinas are a proven
winners annual like super Tunia, but they are verbina. Do
you let do you grow verbina?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yes? And I love it. And I'll tell you
what the super beinas the fact that they are mildew resistant,
because that was years ago that was the big problem
with verbina was mildew. And they're they're vigorous and they're
mildew reasons.
Speaker 2: Well, that must be why Jackie loves them. She says,
I'll always have it in my garden, and all the
pollinators love it too. They're almost always filled with butterflies
and the hummingbird moths visit regularly. Hummingbird moths. Who doesn't
want hummingbird moss in the garden they're the best. So
she sends some pictures of her super beinas for some
inspiration in the super line of improved Proven Winners annuals.
So do you check us out on YouTube or at
Gardeningsimplified on air dot com to take a look at
those Stacy.
Speaker 1: We also got an interesting comment from listener Tom hardiness
zone is great, but with the environmental changes occurring today,
I feel a strong need for heat zone information on
plants as well. I have had too many plants rated
for my zone failed due to their intolerance to my
heat conditions. I won't purchase a new plant without heat
zone information or a recommendation and Stacey. Back in nineteen
ninety seven, the American Horticultural Society created a heartiness zone
for heat and as I understand it, a heat day
is over eighty six degrees fahrenheit or thirty degrees celsius.
So in zone one you would have no heat days.
In zone twelve could as many as two hundred and
ten or more.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a lot of hot days. It's a lot
of So the AHS system heat zone system is a
great or I should say was a great system, but
unfortunately they have pulled it from their website, and when
I reached out to them to ask them why, because
we were including AHS heat zone information on all of
our tags and all of our websites and everything like that.
So we're like, hey, we can't really send people to
your website and say here's your AAHS find your AHS
heat zone when there's no map anymore. And they said,
you know, the data that we have was two out
of date. We can't stand behind this system anymore. Because
of course the more you know, everybody was freaking out
a year ago about the USDA Heardiness Zone map and
that being changed based on a better, more accurate data set,
so they didn't have the funding or the data to
continue supporting the heat zone system. And you know what
Tom is saying here, I think is really so crucial
to so many gardeners, whether you live in a hot
climate or you live in a cold climate, because there's
plenty of people who, especially in the center of the country,
live in what would be considered a cold climate but
have extremely hot summers, and you really need a plant
that can tolerate both of those things. So Tom, I
feel your pain, even though I don't live in a
hot climate. I understand how valuable this information is to people,
and I totally understand that the heartiness own system has
a lot of shortcomings, particularly for people who live in
hot climates. Unfortunately, at present, there is not really a
better solution. I have a lot of people on our
team here at Perfuminter's Color Choice Shrubs looking for opportunities
to fund research or to fund data so that we
can continue to offer this service. So I wanted to
add this just in case anybody's out there listening to
the show and wants to get in touch. You can
go to Gardening Simplified on air dot com and let's
see how we can work together to give the hot
climate gardeners a little bit more reliable information to pick
their plants.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fantastic. May As I have soil that was
used in a pot for two years now the plant
has gone. I want to know if I should keep
reducing the soil for new plants. There's a lot of
broken up roots and in parts of the soil the
soil is a light brown color instead of a darker black.
Should I just add organic matter to a mend it?
Not sure if the root bits are a problem oh, Stacey,
the old potting soil and sticker shock. When you go
to a garden center and see exactly how expensive potting
soil is and I've got how many pots.
Speaker 2: To fill, I feel you. Yeah, So, as I think
we've talked about on the show, I am a big,
big believer in reusing your potting soil a great and
particularly for houseplants, it can be a little bit easier
than if you're dealing with the scale of outdoor containers.
As I've said before, I just use those great big
plastic storage bins that you get at Costco or whatever
with the yellow tops and nice. Those two of those
will still all of my soil that I use in
my containers. I do mix it up with some nice
composts to recharge it and get some organic matter back,
because asme has noted, when that organic matter starts to
go away, it's going to become more of just like
in peat, muss is in organic matter as well, but
a lot of the other like more water attentive, high
nutrition kind of stuff that they put in there, like
leaf mold. There's all sorts of different things depending on
the soil mix that you're buying. Yeah, I would just
mix that in by hand and use it. I don't
worry about roots in my potting mix at all.
Speaker 1: Same here, I mean I pull out some of the
bigger roots from year to year. If we're talking about
outside containers, but leaving some of the roots in. I
view it as organic matter.
Speaker 2: I do too, Okay, all right, And you know a
lot of people when I've talked about this at you know,
talks or whatever that I've given in various places, I've
said like, well, don't you worry about disease or anything
like that, And the answer to that is no, I
actually don't worry about disease because most root diseases are
are actually going to be problematic in wet conditions. If
the soil is well drained and it's not staying super wet,
you really don't have very much to worry about.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Of course, if you are an orchid grower or you're
doing something that's like, you know, really high value, that
might be a different story. But I would say for
the average home gardener, you have nothing to be concerned about,
and if you are concerned, you don't get rid of
some of it. But yeah, I definitely believe in keeping
your potting soil, treating it like a resource and an investment,
and getting all the life you can out of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I do the same in here in Michigan. Of course,
we have an organic matter amendment called dairy dow d ooh,
and I work a little bit of that into the
old soil too, so I don't empty those pots. Stacey,
I got a green thumb from pinching pennies.
Speaker 2: I guess, well, Patina on there.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, I'm trying to give you a it's not
a snarky wink. What is it?
Speaker 2: A sassy wink?
Speaker 1: A sassy wink? There we go. I was thinking snarky wink.
Speaker 2: Okay, there's those two.
Speaker 1: We can add that one too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's for different things.
Speaker 1: Fey has a question about a popular houseplant. I'd like
to know how to cut a corn plant off, grow
new roots, and replant in fresh soil. It's now hitting
a nine foot ceiling. Yeah, Dressina will do that. They
call them mass canes, if you're keeping score at home
in the industry. And what they do, Stacey, is they
cut canes into various links and root them in pots,
and these Drosina mass canes will grow from it and
the plant is pretty tough and aggressive and eventually can yeah,
bump the ceiling.
Speaker 2: It can easily get to be nine feet in time
and with good care and if it's happy. So yeah,
just to be clear, she says, corn plants, but we
are not talking about the corn that you eat or
corn syrup. It is actually a dressina, very popular houseplant,
and there are different types of drosina as well. So
usually the one that is considered cornplant has the foliage
growing all up it, but then sometimes as it gets older,
that foliage will drop. So there's a lot of different
forms of dressina that you can get. But for the
corn plant, you can easily cut off portions of it
and root them. So what you're gonna want to do
is don't pay, don't take too big of a section.
If you have too big of a section, that's too
much roots or that's too much foliage for it to
try to grow roots to compensate for. So, you know,
I would say probably, you know, something like maybe eight
to ten inches long or thereabout.
Speaker 1: Talking growth, the green growth, yes.
Speaker 2: Correct, not so not the the bare canes where you
have the green growth. I would say aim for eight
to ten inches A little bit more it is fine,
and then peel off the leaves so that you're exposing
a white base. You'll see that as soon as you
start to peel those leaves off. And then if you want,
you can put some rooting hormone on there. You don't
have to, but if you happen to have some laying around,
put some rooting harmone. Put it in a pot with
some nice potting soil that is moist. You might want
to put a nice big bag around that to build
up some humidity. Just make sure that the foliage doesn't
touch the bag, and I would say in a good
six to ten weeks that thing is going to have
roots and be on its way to eventually reaching a
nine foot tall plant itself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen people take the procedure that you just
outlined and even rooted them in a glass of water.
You don't have to do it that way, but you
could produce roots that way too, And that's the foliage
that's growing, the healthy foliage that's growing in the upper
part of the plant. Now. I have seen people root
the canes also. That's a lot tougher. And you know,
from time to time in the garden center industry, we'd
see some plants shipped in that where the cane was
put into soil and had not rooted yet and it
falls out. So the method Stacey's outlining is probably the
best way for you to go.
Speaker 2: And if your plant has multiple you know it has
a long area of living, healthy green foliage, you can
do that as many times as you want, so it
isn't just the topmost growth that you need to take.
You can you can do multiple as long as it
has some green growth. Because again, as Rick said, they're
not woody plants, but when you have that kind of quirkier,
woodier growth, it just doesn't root as easily or as well.
And everywhere that you cut it back to eventually with
TLC will sprout a new corn sprout exactly and start
growing as well. So if you have a nine foot
tall corn plant, fay, you have the potential to have many,
many more.
Speaker 1: If you so choose, share with friends and nap.
Speaker 2: Indeed, we're going to take a little break in when
we come back. We are thrilled to have a guest
room proven winners annuals, So please stay tuned. Thanks for
listening to the Gardening Simplified podcast, brought to you by
Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs
and evergreens are trialed and tested by experts with your
success in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice
dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show today for branching
news and interview with Noah Dear o'hanian. He is the
director of product management with Proven Winners and I think
probably just as excited as we are for planting some
flowering annuals this spring and for spring to arrive. Noah,
thanks for joining us on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Noah, I want to get a comment from you. First
of all, Right, off the top annual of the year,
So the chosen annual is Supertunia Mini Vista Yellow Petunia.
How do you feel about that?
Speaker 3: I'm really excited about that as the annual of the year,
primarily because of the benefit that the customer is going
to receive as a Proven Winner product. You're going to
get that long blooming heat tolerant. But the biggest thing
I think for me is the not having the deadhead,
you know, as a as a customer, having that product
on your bench or even having it into your garden
and being able to see those vibrant flowers all season
long is important. And not having to do as much maintenance,
I think is a big factor.
Speaker 1: Well, I know Stacy's happy she's getting the color yellow
in her landscape this year. She loves yellow.
Speaker 2: I do love yellow, and I was I was saying
in the first segment when we were talking about the
annuals of the year that yellow petunias seem to be
kind of like a new on the scene color for petunias.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely going to be It's going to make
the garden top for sure. I think it's just gonna
I think it's gonna bring out a lot of other
beautiful colors in the garden as a nice compliment.
Speaker 2: And it just seems like for years there was you know, pink,
there was white, there was purple, and it didn't really
go into kind of more of the hot color range.
But I know that you guys have been doing a
lot withyellow petunias. Is there some sort of color barrier
that's been crossed there something that allows yellow petunias, So.
Speaker 3: Obviously there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes
with proven winners and the genetics. And I think the
biggest factor of the yellow is the fact that it
holds that color. A lot of other petunities on the
market that are yellow will dull over time.
Speaker 4: No one wants a sad yellow, So I feel that
it's exciting kalladium of the year, Heart to heart, blushing
bride kalladium You're feeling on kalladiums, Noah.
Speaker 3: I think that they are a great centerpiece for containers.
But I think what's really key, and I think a
lot of folks can use, is they also make a
decent houseplant. There are very adaptable as a houseplant. I
think that kind of goes untalked about, but I think
it's going to be making a trend here, So something
to keep in mind.
Speaker 2: So if people want to so say they buy heartheart
kalladiums for the outdoors in the in the spring or
summer for you know, outdoor annuals, and they want to
bring them indoors. A lot of people, I think, know
that kaladiums are a bulbicorm like growth. So should they
let them go dormant and then replant them or should
they bring them inside and try to continue growing them
as a green plant.
Speaker 3: I think as a hobbyist the fun thing to do
and try to bring it out of the cold before
it went dormant and got it inside ideally to keep
that color going.
Speaker 2: And you know, if they're still doing great around the holidays.
I know that Heart to Heart has been doing a
lot of work on kaladiums for Christmas. So if you
can keep it going at least till.
Speaker 3: Then yeah, Christmas kaladiums. I mean, it's definitely it would
work well with the point SETI a market. You know,
bringing that color inside doesn't necessarily have to be a flower,
can be foliage as well.
Speaker 1: Definitely, so many new fantastic annuals coming out this year. Noah,
I'm excited about space Age rex begonias. People love colorful
foliage and space Age rexonas Wow. That's quite a plant.
Speaker 3: Oh oh my goodness. Yeah, I'm very excited about this one.
The size of the foliage, the color palette again, even
one that could be brought indoors. It's one of those
really nice large foliage with its purples and some of
the greens. There are three different varieties of the space
Age you have Triton Europa as well as Black Hole,
and they all bring their own individual personality, but all
kind of work the same with their vigor and in
their folio size.
Speaker 1: What a great plant. I've been talking to Kevin Hurd
with Proven Winners about Aero Magica Purple Heliotrope. He's really
excited about this plant because of the branching, and he says,
as far as the flowers are concerned, they bury their dead,
so it's more of a maintenance free plant. And who
doesn't love the fragrance of a heliotrope. I think there's
a lot of people excited about Aero Magica. Noah, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Definitely agree with Kevin. I know, we've gone on several
trips together, Kevin and I, and he's mentioned how excited
he is about the heliotropium being one of the newest
additions to the Proven Winner's line, and he does have
an extensive background in genetics, which is really awesome to
travel with him. But I definitely agree with him. The aroma,
the fact that it does bury the dead flowers, that
the huge wings, and you.
Speaker 2: Know, I think heliotrope is one of those plants that
a lot of people don't even know because it was
considered such an old fashioned kind of flower, kind of
an out of favor because of the dead heading and
just not great plants overall, and a lot of this
breeding I think brings the potential for this plant to
a whole new audience. And you know, for those of
who were wondering what the magic in the aer magica is,
they smell like vanilla. They have this just delightful, beautiful
vanilla smell. And of course, Heliotrope, the plant is itself
another name for purple so bowl and vanilla. I mean,
sign me up.
Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 3: Also, it's interesting you can it grows in the Grande
absolutely beautifully containers, window boxes, recipes, monoculture's landscape. I mean,
this plant has it all. So it's a great addition.
Speaker 1: If you want to talk about the history and old
fashioned plants. For me, Heliotrope, I in the heat of summer,
I smell a fresh baked cherry pie.
Speaker 2: I can see that too kind of fragrance.
Speaker 1: Does anybody bake pies and put them on the window
sill in summer anymore? Maybe they do, But that's what.
Speaker 3: I too many people floating around exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I mentioned earlier in the show
and Noah that I was a big fan of Scavola
before it became popular, and now as opposed to the
fan shape or hand shaped flowers, you come out with
Star Diva. Wow, what a plan it.
Speaker 3: Yes, so very excited about the start Eva. I am
also a huge Scavla fan. I think the nice thing
for me about Scavola is when you give it to
somebody who may must not necessarily be an avid horticulturalist,
they can let it dry down a little bit and
it pops right back the Star Diva. I mean, the
nice thing about it is it just packs a huge
flower punch. It's going to be used separately than the
WorldWind would be used worldwhend you're going to find in
the baskets. The Star Eva is going to kind of
be a standalone maybe in containers. It doesn't pack is
big of a fill as the WorldWind, so it does
have its place in the market. It's nice to have
a complimentary pair to the Whirlwind in its own right,
you know.
Speaker 2: I like when I'm designing my containers, which I pretty
much do on the spot. It's not like I go
to the garden center with a grand plan in mind.
It's kind of just grabbing whatever, whatever looks cool. You
know a lot of times I thought, oh, I would
love like the color the form of a scavola, but
I just I don't need a trailer. And it's so
cool when you have, you know, that same kind of
look and that same durability and everything, but in a
different habit. It's a great way to kind of do
a theme in variation, create some cohesion in the garden
without just being overly unnecessarily repetitive.
Speaker 3: Exactly. Yes, I like how you put that, for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And if you're thinking about growing scavola in your yard,
if you have a really hot situation or hot sun, boy,
this is the plant for you. It really performs. Okay Kufia,
Am I pronouncing that right? First of all, I think
you are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, see what.
Speaker 1: So it was Stacey who got me really going on vermillionaire.
I mean, I've dabbled in it before, but vermillionaire, I
love that plant was gorgeous in my garden this year.
And then you come out with totally tempted kufias, which
are procumbents. So I'm thinking the plant being a procumbents.
It's it's a more of a trailer or it lies,
it's shorter. Tell us about these new Kufias that are
introduced this year.
Speaker 3: Sure so so some people pronounced it pronounced cufia cfia.
I think either way okay correct. But the nice thing
about this is it just kind of expands our list
of heat tolerant annuals. For sure, it's floriferous. You're still
going to get your pollinators coming in, which is awesome,
as well as it's just a little bit more of
a refined habit and so you're not going to like
you said, it's it's the pro commings. It's not going
to be that standing tall. It's going to be much
round or more mounded, and in still packs that that
that flower, that flower punch that we love in cufia
for sure.
Speaker 2: Now what I did get samples of this last year,
and I grew it. I grew the red one because
the only thing I like better than yellow is red,
and I absolutely the color was just stunning. Now I
did it did get pollinator so not the hummingbirds, like
totally tempted because it doesn't have those cigar shaped flowers
that kind of characterize the Vermilionaire type, but just such
a beautiful plant. And the color. It looks great with
the vermilionaire because it still picks up with kind of
that saturation that you see with that like little bit
of purple. But the color on this plant, I've never
grown anything like it. I absolutely adored it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for people keeping score at home, we're talking about kufia,
so it's cuph ea and then the totally tempted frosted
violets and then richly red. There is also a vivid
violet and a totally tempted water melon wine. I think
these plants are going to be popular.
Speaker 3: Noah, I agree. I agree.
Speaker 1: Now, years ago in the garden center industry, I have
memories of selling moss roses, the multi colored moss roses in.
Speaker 2: Trade cell packs, the old cell packs, the.
Speaker 1: Old cell packs, and a lot of people consider them
as an old fashion annual. But now we've got tangerine,
fusia and mango, the mojave, portia, lacas, these plants especially
for hot sunny areas. Noah, I'm planning on growing some
of these in my landscape this.
Speaker 3: Year, oh for sure. And don't just think of it
as a landscape plant. The way that they work in hangars.
I think is phenomenal growing for some other growers before
venturing into proven winters, A lot of hangars, the eight
inch hangers would be loaded. We have loaded portolaca hangers
and they were just phenomenal, phenomenal and would fly off
the shelf. So don't think of it as just a
landscape plant. It does work well in a as a
mono or a monocombo, two different colors mixed into a
hanging basket.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's very forgiving, so especially for people
who want to grow in containers but travel or have
really difficult conditions, it's such a great choice because it
can really withstand some short term abuse without really suffering
in the flower color at all.
Speaker 3: Agreed. And it's set so many new buds that they're
always ready to emerge. So if you do lose some
flowers water, if you come back from a vacation, like
you said, a few days later, maybe a week later,
you'll have some new flowers emerging.
Speaker 1: I love it. Unplugged red salvia and white salvia. Tell
us about this plant. There's there's a great story behind
this plant, and I think this is going to be
very popular in garden centers. This year.
Speaker 3: I agree as well. The salvia is a huge staple
of our of our new new intros coming out. The flowers,
the different colors that we're offering, larger blossoms, greater flower power,
is just impulse appeal at the retail level. It's just
gonna it's gonna be great for all all sorts of
consumers in the gardens.
Speaker 1: And there's unplugged red and unplugged D white, correct, that
is correct.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And again it's going to attract the pollinators, the beast,
the butterfly, hummingbird. And but the nice thing is it
is deer resistance.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, they didn't I had samples of this last
year as well of unplugged red. They didn't touch it.
And this thing, it was a blooming machine, like it
just would not stop. And you know, the the flower clusters,
the spikes, they kind of elongate, so the more the
longer you have it, the longer they get. And by
the end of the season it just looks like this wild.
It kind of like gets back to that more like
wild salvia. Yeah, and in the best way, you know,
like I love that it kind of gets a little yeah,
just a little while, a little rough around the edges.
Speaker 1: I like that nice nice Noah, I of course loved
the supertunias, the performance of supertunias. You have one this year,
Bermuda Beach. This is a a supertunia that I want
to put in a container on my deck and then
pull up my lawn chair with a nice little beverage
and sit by it. What a cool color on that plant.
Speaker 3: For sure. What kind of beverage you think you would have?
Speaker 1: Oh, come on over, We'll mix something up really good. Noah. Actually,
to be honest with you, it would be a it
would be a cilantro and cucumber. Martine, I know you were.
Speaker 2: Going to say that.
Speaker 3: So the supertunia Bermuda Beach, it has been within the
proven winner's realm for a little bit. But this is
an improvement. So when we do make improvements or release improvements,
they are not big. They're not usually big improvements because
we know it's a tried and true crop that our
customers absolutely adore. What we're trying to do is just
pass on some of the benefits of some maybe newer
things that are coming out. So maybe a little bit
larger of a flower, maybe the color is gonna last
a little bit longer. So as far as Bermuda Beach goes,
it's a medium coral pink flower bloom spring to fall
of no dead heading. We all love not having the
dead head flowers. And again it's it's one of those
plants that you could just use window boxes, hanging baster recipes.
You could do whatever you want with this plant. It's indestructible.
It's a great plan and it's a.
Speaker 2: Key element of one of perform Winner's best selling recipes
is that Bermuda Beach or Bermuda skuys with with this
and the and the little blue Labelia's in it.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, correct, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, always. You see that everywhere. I know when that
was I know when that first came out of him,
was like oh wow. And you know, here we are
at least ten years later, and I see it everywhere
I go every single season. People love that combination.
Speaker 1: Noah, before we let you go in, we're talking to
Noah Dear o'hanian. He is the director of product management
with Proven Winners, And Noah, I want to ask you
real quickly because when I'm in the garden center, I
see people going crazy over angelonia. Angel face love that
plant and you have some improved varieties this year.
Speaker 3: That is that is correct. It's gonna be a very
heat resisting variety. It actually it thrives.
Speaker 2: In the heat.
Speaker 3: So think of it as a plant that just thrives
in the heat. So you get into a nice warm area,
it's just going to perform like crazy for you. Just
make sure you obviously you give it the right amount
of water, but in a nice warm area, and they're
gonna explode.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Noah, as director of product management with proven winners,
You're probably not allowed to have a favorite plant, is
that correct? Or do you have a favorite?
Speaker 3: I do have. I was, you know, it's funny, before
we have done this call, I was wondering if that
question was going to come up. And I do have
a fit. I do have a favorite plant. And I
don't know if it's if it's going to bode well
with my colleagues, but I think that to double up.
Pogonia for me is one of my favorite annuals really
growing it. It is such an easy grow. You can
pot it and and forget it and it just does
its thing. It's a very easy product. And I just
absolutely adore that plant.
Speaker 1: I love that and you know, I see a real
resurgence in begonias too. You know, it's a plant that
can handle some dry shade. People love bogonias, and to
have these varieties of begonias available today certainly is a
kick in the plant, so to speak, when we get
out there and start planting.
Speaker 3: Noa, yeah, yeah. Just so everyone knows the rexes are
a this is called a foreshadow. I want to say
that the rexes are just a nice starting point. There's
so many beautiful bogoonis out there for their foliage. Just
keep an eye out from Proven Winners, and we hope
to bring you some really awesome stuff.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Noah, thank you so much for joining us on
the Gardening Simplified Show. A pleasure to talk to you.
Thanks for everything you do for Proven Winners and for
the general public. Boy, we've got some great plants to
look forward to this year.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you for having me and I love sharing
all the information.
Speaker 1: All right, thanks well. Gee.
Speaker 2: I said at the end of segment one that I
was super excited for Garden Center shopping season. Now I'm
even more excited and it's still a couple months away,
so I'm gonna have to figure out something else to
do with all of that plant energy. I'm ready to
go put it into seed shopping or something like that.
So thanks so much Shanoah for sharing all of that
great information about the new PREVUM Winners Annuals for twenty
twenty five. Thank you, Rick, you, thank you Adriana, and
thanks so much to all of you for listening, watching,
and listening to us on podcasts. We really appreciate it
and hope you have a wonderful week ahead.