Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A here at Proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella,
me Rick Weist and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
And welcome in. If you're listening to the radio or
our podcast, feel free to tune in on YouTube to
check out our faces and images of the Gardening Simplified Show. Well,
today's show, we're going to take time into account. Plant
selection must consider a plant's growth rate, its mature size
and form, and the maintenance that it's going to require.
Fast growing plants may or may not be desirable depending
on the size of the size of the site or
the design intent and the expected level of maintenance. Timing
is everything. It's important to know the eventual mature size
of a plant so they can be placed in the
right location and space properly when they're installed. And I
think the falling of leaves is a timing and time
factor thing. The shortening day length and oh no, that's right,
daylight saving time. The end of daylight saving time.
Speaker 2: Is coming here, yes, very soon. Get that extra hour sleep.
Gotta love that.
Speaker 1: Wow. Starts on what back in March right and ends
November two. Gonna have to deal with that darkness because
I love working in the landscape at night. By the way,
I'm very horse today. I feel great, but I have
no voice.
Speaker 2: Yes, so please bear with us. Rick is okay. We're
all together in the studio. He's not contagious. He's feeling great.
But we're calling him pony because he is indeed a
little horse.
Speaker 1: I think we'll horse around today. This should be fun. Well.
The time factor regarding growth can be affected by looking down,
not up. I always say that when you look at
a plant, look down, not up. Take a look at
the root system and where it's established. And timing is
important with a host of things in the landscape. Whether
it's crawler emergence when you have scale applying crabgrass preventer
in the spring when the soil temperatures are just right,
or b te sprays for spongy moss in the trees
in early May. All of these things require timing, and
of course timing is very, very important to get it
right the first time. Trees are an obvious time factor
in the landscape. What was it that Alexander Hamilton said
about legacy? Legacy? What is a legacy. It's planting seeds
in a garden. You never get to see so planting.
And by the way, Alexander Hamilton would have planted a
sweet gum tree.
Speaker 2: By the way, Oh.
Speaker 1: He loved sweet gum trees. They were all around his house.
If you visit his home in New York, you'll see
sweet gum trees all around the house. But you think
about trees like metasaquoia, glip to sturboides, the down redwood trees.
Just making the right decision because you're making a time
investment as far as trees are concerned. And as the
leaves start to fall off the trees and fall, you know,
we think a lot about the trees. I was thinking
this past week, Stacey, about the katsuura tree. I don't
know if you like that tree. Some people call it
the cake tree.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They smell like caramel, candy and fall. They're not
technically supposed to be aromatic, but the fallen autumn leaves
have been varyingly described as smelling of cinnamon, burnt sugar,
or ripe apples. But isn't fall just a great time
of the year.
Speaker 2: Yes, And you know the kats are Orcitiphylum japonicum is
not the only tree that does have that kind of sweetness,
which makes sense because what's happening in fall is they're
storing sugars, so those leaves still have you know, sugars
and energy and all of that in them. But it
probably does it better than any other tree. To me,
it smells like fresh baked cookies. M that's like that
when you just take them out of the oven and
then everything's warm, and you mostly only smell it on sunny,
dry days. If it's really wet, cold, you don't typically
smell it. But once those leaves fall, yeah, and they
cover the ground. It is the first time I ever
experienced it. It was like you couldn't even believe that
it was actually real.
Speaker 1: Smells like cotton candy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it definitely has a strong kind of burnt
sugar smell. Now I'm glad you were talking about time
and mentioned Metasaquoia. Okay, because you want to talk about
a tree out of time, I mean, I could go on,
I won't. But Medaicaicoia, also known as the Don redwood,
was a tree that was only known from the fossil record.
They thought that it was extinct until the nineteen forties.
That recent wow, and some scientists deep in China found
some and were like, oh my gosh, it's not extinct.
And the first plants in the US came to the
Arnold Iboretam and they are still there today. You can
actually see the very first one. And that's just a
great story, you know. Of course, yes, you need time.
It's actually pretty fast growing plants, sure it is. My
friend has one that he planted. His is the yellow
variety called ogon, and I can't believe how fast it grew.
But such a great story, you know, for when people
are visiting your garden, when people ask, hey, your pine
tree over there is lose and leaves everything. Okay, not
a pine tree, but it is a deciduous kind of
for such an amazing plant. Really one of my favorite.
Speaker 1: Right and last fall when I was at the Arnold
Arbor Ritam. They're just majestic, huge, beautiful.
Speaker 2: And they're folly just described as salmon colored before it falls,
and that is a very good descriptor of it. It's
kind of hard to imagine, but when you see it
in person, with that red bark and that beautiful salmony color,
it's it's like a holy tree. It's really amazing.
Speaker 1: So if you need time for your landscape to develop,
I want to remind you using annuals in your landscape
is a great way to fill in your landscape as
plants that you want to develop are maturing. And of
course here in the north, I love tropical plants. But
the bummer is we have to start over every year.
I have a monstrous banana tree in my yard. It's
just spectacular right now. The neighbors comment on it. It's
a northern banana musa bajou, so it'll come back next year.
But it's gonna die all the way back to the ground,
so you have to start all over again. But that's
okay because that's what we do with herbaceous perennials. Also,
and we've all heard about slow cooking Stacy. You know,
I love five galeon pails. I also like crock pots.
Speaker 2: Oh do you Yeah? How many do you have one?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Well, that's good. It's not to the level of the five.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm not collecting pots. I just like cooking in
crack pots.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there is talk about an investment in time.
There is nothing quite like putting the time into making
a meal and then putting it in the slow cooker
and coming home to that. Yeah, and it's perfect for fall.
That is like a great thing for fall. I'm glad
you mentioned about annuals. I often recommend that people use
a annual vines on trellises and pergolas and so forth
while they're waiting for their other plants to get established,
because something like a morning glory. I mean, there's so
many interesting vines. Your highest of beans, of course, are
a great choice. That's a nice way to fill something
up while you're waiting for your clematis or you know,
climbing hydrangear or whatever to actually start doing its thing.
I think it's something that people don't really consider very much,
is just taking up space while you wait for things
to fill in. And it's a very handy way to
get more plants in. And who doesn't want that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great way to fill in. So what
about slow plants. I like to think about low grow
or slow grow plants. I would market them as plants
that pump the brakes. You know. One that comes to
mind is Japanese maple. Japanese maple has this inappropriate reputation
of being difficult to grow, and it's not, but it
does need to be placed in the right place, and yes,
it isn't going to grow like a weed. So plants
that tap the brakes and we'll talk about those in
segment four. I'm sure you've got something to say about that.
Also in Plants.
Speaker 2: Out, Plants on Trial is dedicated to growth rates today,
So hang on to your hat. You know. In Japanese maples,
I think one of the reasons it's, you know, you've
got me thinking it's a little bit like big leaf
hydrangees and that everybody loves them. So they're getting these
plants because they're beautiful and they want one, and then
they're sticking at any old place and they're plants that
aren't necessarily difficult to grow, but they have their specific
needs and if those needs aren't meant, the plant is
not doing what you bought it for. And so yeah,
a lot of times people feel really discouraged with it,
and especially if they buy a really expensive Japanese maple,
because some Japanese maples out there are pretty.
Speaker 1: Darn pricey, and of course there's many different types of
Japanese maples too. You have upright, you have mounded, you
have weeping or pendulating Japanese maple. So all of that
comes into play also, So as we talk about timing, Stacey,
I do have to admit that when it comes to
anticipation in the gardening season, I tend to overdo it
a little bit. I do it on the back end
in fall I'm out there in the snow, as well
as on the front end getting out there too soon
in spring. I can't help it. So this week's limerick
is devoted to that planting too early in spring I'd chosen.
Who knows what kind of weather blows in too much
of a rush, turn the plants into mush. Because now
all my begonias are frozen. They tell me. Timing is everything.
It keeps things naturally from spiraling. The calendar says freeze.
But I'm anxious out I squeeze all the growing season
I can ring. I'm out there before winters loosed its grip,
and after falls chill, the leaves strip. If it's muddy
or cruddy, take your chances, good buddy, get out there
and let it rip. That's me in a nutshell, Stacy.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, hey, as long as you're willing to
accept those mistakes that are made from your enthusiasm and
not beat yourself up over them. I say, go for it.
I totally get it.
Speaker 1: Thank you, very mulch. Let's talk more plant timing coming up.
Plants on trial next 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. Work Today, we are
talking about time and there's a lot of ways to
think about time in the garden. In fact, a garden
is a physical manifestation of time and space, which is
a really interesting way to think about it. But you know,
as I've said before on the show, we get a
lot of questions from home gardeners around the US and
Canada here at Proven Winners, and we're always happy to
help and to answer those questions. And I cannot even
tell you how many times I have gotten questions about
growth rates, which is a totally normal thing to wonder
people will say. You know, you would think people would ask, hey,
is this a fast growing plan or slow growing plant?
But no, No, The common question that I have gotten
goes like this, tell me in number of inches how
many you know? Or tell me exactly how many inches
of growth this plant is going to put on every year?
And I have to think that this is most likely
one type of person. I'm guessing probably an engineer who
is used to working in very predictable kind of scenarios
where you don't have all account or possibly an account.
It's someone who is very you know, used to working
again in these in these detailed scenarios where there's no unpredictability,
and the simple fact is plants are unpredictable. Now, I
don't want people to think that there is not an
inherent genetic component to plant growth. There is a plant,
any specific variety, a species of plant, does have an
element of genetic contribution to its growth rate. It is
naturally slow, it's naturally fast, it's naturally medium ish growth rate.
But really, the reason that we cannot answer those questions,
and I'm sure it drives those innocent, you know, people
crazy when we can't give them that answer. But there's
just so many factors that influence growth rate. I mean,
all of that information that's there on your plant tag
when you buy a new shrub or any kind of plant,
all of those all of that information is directly impacting
the growth rate. The light, the soil, the water, the fertilizing,
the hardiness zones that are also on that tag, All
of those factors are going to influence how fast a
plant grows irrespective of that inherent growth rate that it
just has.
Speaker 1: I agree, that's really well said, and it's contingent also
on where the plant is native to.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, you look at sowarro cactus in the desert,
succulents in the desert, or alpine plants up in mountainous ranges.
They naturally are shorter or slower growing.
Speaker 2: Right, they can serve their resources. You know, it takes
a lot of resources to grow rapidly. So when you
have plants typically from areas where maybe the growth is
not so favorable, Yeah, they do tend to be smaller,
slower growing because it is a better use of their
resources rather than putting tons of resources into growing, you know,
leaps and bounds every single year. You can use this
to your advantage, and I think that's something that you know,
I certainly do. In my garden. It's very dry, and
I actually appreciate how in many cases that dry soil
can help to manage things. I think a great example
is a plant that I talk about often on the show,
al Nino Chatalpa. So I have this plant in my garden.
I love it. It stays quite manageable despite the fact
that it's now and it's third or fourth year in
my garden. If you were to come here, just outside
of Studio A, there are a number of Alnino chetalpas
planted in front of the building and they are on
drip irrigation, and boy are they taking full advantage of
that extra water. They're enormous, and I think they're even
younger than the plant that I have in my yard.
I think there are planted a year after maybe and
over here, you know, they're skyrocketing to ten to fifteen
feet tall, very wide, where you know mine is probably
around eight feet. And it's not an issue of pruning,
it's an issue of the resources that it gets. So
it we're unable to give like hard and fast answers
to these questions. But as much as I know that
is frustrating for some people, what we can do is
kind of help you understand which plants are going to
be slower growing even under ideal conditions, and which plants
are going to be faster growing. And I think you
know a lot of times people would automatically assume that
faster growing is better, and that's not the case. Of course,
if you want privacy, yes, faster growing is going to
be better. But a lot of times slower growing plants,
like you said, rick, are going to be easier to
care for. You're not going to have to worry about
pruning them, You're not going to have to worry about
them overgrowing the space. Dwarf conifers great example. Dwarf conifers
can actually get quite large. It's just that they are
so slow growing that it takes decades, if not centuries
for them to actually turn into anything that is not
considered dwarf.
Speaker 1: It's that way with a number of evergreens, right, I mean,
if you think about bristle cone pine, yeah, right.
Speaker 2: Overall, I would say evergreens in general, there are some exceptions,
we're gonna go over tend to be on the slower
side even under ideal growing conditions. Of course, there are
definitely exceptions, like I said, but overall, if someone says
to you, like, hey, what is a slow growing plant,
you can say, most evergreens pretty on the whole, pretty
slow growing. And I would consider personally, I don't know
how you feel about this, but I would consider a
slow growing plant one that is putting on four inches
of growth or less each year. Yeah, does that seem
like a reasonable amount. And this is after they're established.
This is another really important factor is you know, those
first two to three seasons, you're not necessarily going to
see a lot of growth on top, whether the plant
is considered a slow growing plant or a fast growing plant,
because all of those resources are going into the roots.
Like you said at the beginning of the show, Rick,
you have to look down. I mean you can't really
see the roots, but you know they're down there. And
until that root system is developed, the plant is not
going to be able to grow very much because the
root and the top grow in proportion to one another.
So if it's slow growing on top, chances are the
roots are also going to be on the slower side,
and it's going to need a little bit more time.
So slow growing we're going to count under four inches
of growth per year. For fast growing, we're going to
take that up to eight plus inches. What do you
think does that seem reasonable with a good guide, because
of course this is all very relative. So slow growing
number one. This is so for plants on trial. We're
just going to give you five slow growers and five
fast growers from the Proven Winner's Color Choice line. Number
one Boxwood. It is honestly surprising to me that boxwood
is as popular as it is given how slow it
is to grow. And it's such a great plant. I mean,
we're really lucky to have it. It's beautiful, it's durable,
but it is slow, and it's especially slow for growers.
So you have to understand that if you are bringing
boxwood into your garden, you're going to be paying a
little bit more for it because you are buying time.
That is, it takes longer to actually produce. Now there
are some faster growing boxwood, like our Sprinter and new
Gen Freedom, which will be new to the Proven Winner's
Color Choice line in twenty twenty six. These are fast
growing for boxwood, so there's also this element of relativity
you know, within there. And the flip side of those
being fast growing boxwood is that you actually have to
prune them because if you don't prune them, they will
get kind of open and floppy without being prune. So
you trade off that lower maintenance where you might never
have to prune a slow growing boxwood if you don't
want to, you will absolutely have to tram these faster
growing varieties. Number two barberry, and this is a plant.
Again I'm so surprised that it is as popular as
it is when it is an absolute bare for growers
to produce. It's so slow. But on the other hand,
that is one of the reasons why it's considered so
low maintenance, because you don't really need to prune it
because it grows so slowly and so much of that
since its stems are covered in thorns, then you don't
have to go fussing around with pruning something and getting
prickled the whole time. Winterbury holly a pretty slow plant,
especially in less than ideal conditions, but overall it is slow.
If you want to grow winterberry holly, I would encourage
you to seek out the biggest plants that you can.
Don't start with those tiny mail order plants unless you
want to do a lot of TLC and a lot
of waiting until you get that fabulous berry display in winter.
Taxis another plant. How is this plant so popular when
it is so slow?
Speaker 1: We're not talking about the state of Texas.
Speaker 2: Yes, we are talking about you. And interestingly, the smaller varieties,
or the more upright varieties, are the ones that grow
more slowly. So we have stonehenge skinny that is a
very slow growing plant that's going to be much slower
growing because it's tall and narrow compared to stonehenge dark thruid,
which is more of that classic kind of rounded shape.
So the best thing you can do if you're growing these,
start with larger plants so you're not waiting around forever
for them to do anything. Number five upright junipers. Spreading
junipers can actually be fairly reasonably medium growth rate, I
would say, but upright junipers tend to be very slow
again in production as well as in the landscape, and
this is very frustrating for gardeners like me who can't
grow arbivity, which is the ultimate fast growing shrub because
I have deer and of course they love arborvity, and
so you're waiting forever for those upright junipers to turn
into anything. So quickly are fast growing plants, Roses number one,
so easy to grow, easily, putting on eight plus inches
of growth every year. Even smaller varieties like our OsO
easy series are still very vigorous once they're established. So
that's why you can prune roses. That's why it's good
to prune roses because it helps to concentrate that energy
into less of the plants, so they don't grow, you know,
multiple inches on top of what's already very tall big
leaf hydranges. You know, it's a plant that frustrates people.
But they have an extremely fast growth rate, which I
think also plays into that frustration because people are expecting them,
thinking they can prove them, and then they're taking off
the flower buds. Butterfly bush ano, they're extremely fast growing plant.
Even if it dies back to the ground, you've got
stems growing great within a matter of weeks. In the spring.
Dar Villa our Codiacter villa are a very fast, easy
growing kind of established quickly, easy to grow, and then
finally arborvitis that are sold for hedging like spring Grove,
North Pole and of Avliety called full Speed Hedge American
Pillar fastest growing one out there can grow up to
two feet a year with proper care. So make sure
you checks out on YouTube to get that whole list
so you can check it twice and decide if you
want a fast or slow growing plant. We have to
take a little break and when we come back, we're
opening up the mail bag, so stay tuned at Proven
Winner's 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 in 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, where it's our time to answer your
gardening questions. And I think we have a show first.
Today we have a question from right here inside the
studio that came up while we were on break. Adriana
was asking as I was finishing up about those slow
and fast growing plants. She was asking, if if a
plant is slow growing, is it easier to transplant, because
of course the roots and the top are growing in
conjunction with each other, so naturally the roots are likely
to spread a lot less far on a plant that
is slower growing and is not going to have as
big of a root system. It's a really good, interesting,
you know, idea, and I would say overall, of course,
there's always exceptions that, yes, they are going to have
a less extensive root system, which may make them easier
to transplant. However, I would say that they're going to
generally be more likely to be set back from having
been transplanted. Although you know that said, and now that
I'm thinking about it, I planted. I transplanted a ton
of box with last spring, and they went off without
a hitch.
Speaker 1: But I think there's a lot of validity to that
because the plant that came to mind with Adriana's question
for me was rhododendron, and I put rhododendron in the
slow growing category, and a rhododendron's root system is small
proportionately to the top. So if I do have to
move a rhododendron, I cut it back pretty hard and
it takes time for the road to deny to recover
from that. But it's relatively easy to move because the
root system's small.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and shallow rooted.
Speaker 1: And sure.
Speaker 2: Another interesting thing too is most of the slow growing
plants that are on that list do tend to be
shallow rooted, which you'd think they'd be deeper rooted, because
I would. But anyway, plants are fascinating and endless mystery,
so hard to generalize, but something worth considering that. Yes,
typically if something is slow growing, it is going to
need a lot more TLC and time time the theme
of the day to recover from that transplanting for.
Speaker 1: The mail bag, Speaking of Adriana, she gave me a
butternut squash from her garden. I can't wait to make
some butternut squash soup in my crock pot this week.
Speaker 2: It's a nice curious she's a real chap. She knows
her stuff all right. What's our first question for the
mail bag today?
Speaker 1: Choi writes to us. Hello, Stacey and Rick, love your show.
Thank you. Early the summer, I encountered bagworms on my
evergreen arbor Vitie. Thank goodness. I caught her early, but
they did some damage on the trees. I researched and
found that BT works if the worms are still in
the early stages. I used Captain Jack's BT from the
pictures the first two arbor vidy you can see still
see the bagworms. All the worms are dead now, I hope.
My question to you is when should I start looking
for the bagworms and start spraying right?
Speaker 2: Bagworms are you know, something that no one heard of
hardly at all, you know, fifteen years ago, and now
if you were growing arborvity, especially if you're growing a
lot of arborvity, chances are you have at least some
bag worms. And bagworms are a bit like what their
name says. They're a little kind of caterpillar that as
they feed, they could make this shell kind of for themselves,
real architects out of little bits of twigs and leaves.
Pretty fascinating, and then that protects them and they become
basically invincible on the tree because they have this tree
made shell on them. They're pretty interesting uh pests, But yeah,
they can cause major major damage on arborviding So BT
bacillistheringensis is a non toxic, non toxic except to caterpillars
and grubs and other larvae. Spray that will actually prevent
their development. And so usually if you're trying to control grubs,
you have to inoculate it into your lawn. If you
are controlling something like a bagworm, you can actually spray
the BT onto the affected plant. I don't want to
hit anything that is not a target pest, and that
will actually prevent them from continuing to develop, so it
is effective. You need to be treating from about and
this is assuming the Midwest mid May to mid July.
Once they get to about early to mid July, that
shell that they make for themselves is so developed that
your BT spray will not be able to actually contact
the pest and it will be ineffective. So you really
need to concentrate it in that time period, that two
months period. But the thing about bagworms is right now
they are about ready to settle down if they haven't already,
and just wait out winter. So you can also go
out and pick them all off of your plants. Of course,
for some people who have a really bad infestation, this
may be mission impossible. But for a lot of us,
you know, just going out and picking a few every day,
just put them in the garbage, don't compost them just
you can step on them or just throw them out
in your trash hand picking them. As long as you
do so before early June next year, you will do
substantial help towards eradicating your backrooms.
Speaker 1: Hen, thank you for the question. What a great question
for a timing show. Yes, using BT and of course
one of the things that makes BT grade has a
very short residual when you use it, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean it is. Yeah, So make sure
your particular BT product that you buy should have instructions
on it. You can also reach out to your state's
cooperative extent to find out what their exact timing is
because it will vary based on your temperature. The information
I just shared was from a great page on the
Purdue University website. Your mileage may vary depending on where
you are located.
Speaker 1: Stacy Jackie has a great question for you. I have
a little quick fire hydrangea planted in a container. Is
it best to overwinter it outside with protection next to
my home or in my unheated grudge. I live in
western Pennsylvania, Zone six A. I enjoy watching your show
every week. I've learned so much.
Speaker 2: Awes nice things, Jackie. Yeah. So, there's so many people
who write to us and think that they should bring
their hardy plants indoors if they are in a container,
And the answer to that is generally no, you should not.
The plant will be stressed and so will you because
you'll be looking at such a stressed out plant that
you won't know what to do with yourself. So if
a plant is hardy and could normally spend winter outdoors
in your garden if it weren't in a container, then
the answer is that it needs to spend winter getting
fresh air, exposure to the changing light levels, and if
you try to bring it in, even in an unheated garage,
it's probably going to get fairly stressed out. Then you
would also need to worry about watering it. Now you're
not ever going to have to water it like you
would in the middle of the summer, but you will
need to check on its water. And I just find
that generally speaking, the plants don't over winter as well,
then if they're outside just getting exposed to fresh air. Now,
a couple of things about this situation. You will need
a container that can stay outside all winter long. So
if you live in a cold climate, you can't really
use terra cotta containers or most ceramic containers, even if
they say their weather proof. I don't know. I just
don't feel good about it. I'm not going to risk
my investment. They're expensive, yeah, and the more expensive ones
are the ones that claim their frost proof because they're
generally higher temperatures, so there's less moisture in them to
freeze and thought and cause the cracking. But overall, you're
gonna want to have anything that you're overwintering outdoors in
a metal, plastic, fiberglass, wood type of container. And you
also want to I always tell people position it so
it's not within the drip line of a roof or
anything like that. And very often people will want to,
you know, put it up near the structure or something
to try to protect it. But very often what happens
is that then the plant will be getting pelted with
snow coming off a roof. It will get dripping water.
You know, when we get those thaws out in late
winter early spring, and then of course everything freezes and
then your plant's all encased in ice. So you want
to avoid keeping it in those kind of conditions if
you can help it overall. You know, I think I
was a rooftop gardener in New York City. I you know,
overwintered plant in big metal containers on you know, floors
as high as like the twenty seventh floor, and that's
some pretty serious, you know, winter cold conditions. And that
includes you know, evergreens like arborvidy junipers. We lost very
very little over winter.
Speaker 1: And I think the key element here, Stacey, is that
I believe you've got to allow plants to shut down
naturally and give them the time to do that. For
us as human beings, we know winter is coming. You
walk into a retail store and there's Halloween stuff mixed
in with all the Christmas stuff, and you're like, I'm
not ready for this, And of course it starts to
get cold and it gets dark curly, and we all
have to acclimate. Well, it takes a plant a while
to acclimate. You got to give those plants a chance
to acclimate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, And you know you can There are some
plants that will do okay if overwintered in a cool,
dry place, as long as you're checking on water. I've
heard from countless home gardeners who have overwintered big leaf
high ranges, you know, because those are plants that can
get winter damage, and those are a plant that generally
can handle that kind of condition. But you ideally want
it to be light, so you don't want a windowless
garage if you can help it, and you want some
protection from the worst of the weather, but you also
don't want it to be heated, because then the plant
won't go dormant. So really, I think when I give
the advice to try to keep something outdoors if at
all possible, it's because relatively few of us have the
correct indoor conditions for trying to overwinter shrubs and containers.
We have great information on growing shrubs and containers on
priven Winners color Choice dot com and we'll add that
to the YouTube description. Right now, we got to take
a little break and when we come back, we're going
to be finishing up our conversation on timing, so please
stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified podcasts
brought to you by Proving Winner's 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, where this week
we're talking about timing, Stacy, I was doing some reading
from a university in Australia that was studying a gene
response in plants where they feel if you touch a
plant it slows its growth. Kind of interesting, huh really,
So we'll share that on the website. And then of
course as we talk about timing, also, you got to
talk about the difference between hot composting and cold composting
or passive composting, which can take quite some time to
create a workable mulch or soil that you can use
in your landscape, whereas hot composting maybe takes a little
more work, but you can pretty rapidly produce compost for
your garden. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was really surprised time that I got hot composting right,
how quickly it developed, you know, And the reason that
I hadn't gotten it right previously was I was just
not keeping it wet enough, andah, I was just kind
of letting nature take its course and it was not
enough moisture. But then once I started watering it, I
was like, wow, I got composts already.
Speaker 1: This is right exactly, so Stacy, as far as timing
is concerned, slow grow plants, or as I call them,
plants that tap the brakes in many cases come from
environments or regions where it can be pretty harsh. Again,
you think about the desert and cactus succulents, you think
about alpine plants. One plant that's a favorite of mine,
and I almost consider it kind of like an alpine
plant would be creeping Time, and time would be a
great plant to talk about during anyhow. I love creeping Time.
It's hearty and drought tolerant. Love it in my landscape.
And it's one of those plants that grow slowly. You
can put it in cracks, you can put it in halfways.
And so Creeping Time is certainly one of the plants
on the list. Another plant I'd put on the list,
and you can argue it with me, but it would
be peonies. P and ees are long lived, they can
handle harsh conditions. They like to stay put. Yes, in spring,
when they grow, they can grow rather rapidly and then
they bloom beautifully. But it's one of those long term
plants in the landscape.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I would agree. It's you know, I think
when a lot of people think about the concept of
growth rate, they're thinking, you know, how fast does it elongate?
But it's also kind of how fast does it form
an appreciable plant or an appreciable clump in the case
of pae andies, And well, yes, the physical plant of
the peeny grows relatively quickly. If you start with a
very small peeny, you will be waiting for several years
until you have that kind of nice, big clump. And
that's why you know, when you see those big, well
established clumps at old gardens or old homesteads and that
kind of thing, they've probably been there undisturbed for you know,
thirty fifty years, and by that time they'll form a
really large clump.
Speaker 1: Another plant for the list I have on my list
is rhododendron. We mentioned that earlier, but again what's been
real telling to me Stacy is with rhododendron, again this
factor of slow grow or fast grow to a large
extent is contingent on its environment. Because again, we live
here along the lake shore of Lake Michigan in West Michigan,
and the rhododendrons grow beautifully. Further inland where the winters
can have less snow but be very cold, the rhododendrons
don't grow as quickly a small root system proportionately to
the top of the plant. So again stacy that slow
grow or fast grow things sometimes is contingent on the
environment a plant.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's such a good point and I did to
mention that too when I was talking in plants on trial.
You know, the temperature that a plant experiences throughout the
year can make a huge difference. And that's one of
the reasons why when you buy a proven Winter's color
choice shrubs, there is very often a wide range of
height and width on our plant tags. And we're not
saying that so that we're noncommittal. We're not saying that
to confuse you, but it's because in colder climates where
you're going to have a shorter growing season, that plan
is going to end up on the smaller side, whereas
if you go into warmer climates where the growing season
can be months longer than it is here, then your
eye's obviously going to get bigger because it has a
lot more time to grow every single year. So there's
so many influence, like so many factors like that that
influence a plant's growth rate that you know, again, we're
not trying to be kg and not tell you, but
really I think it goes to show you that there
is an element of nature. But overall, the gardener determines
how fast a plan is going to grow with their
care inciting I.
Speaker 1: Agree, and from my perspective, it's a combination of plant
genetics as well as environment. And let's use an example here,
Della sperma native to eastern and southern Africa. It thrives
in heat, is drought tolerant, virtually maintenance free when given
the right growing condition.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have had a very eye opening experience with
dallasperma this year. It's been really really interesting. I've tried
to get dlasperma established four years and I was always
starting with really tiny plants and they would live, but
they just wouldn't spread very well. And then I was
pretty rough with them through the season, you know, not
giving them supplemental water, you know, and all of that
kind of stuff. But last year I planted the kaleidoscope
delospermas from Perveoener's perennials, and I expected I had one
gallon plant, so I never planted a one gallon dlosperma before,
and I have been amazed and how fast they have grown,
how beautifully they have filled in. And I was also
watering them through last fall and the spring because I
had a lot of other stuff in there that was
new as well, And it has made a huge difference.
And I've found so often that you know, I look
for a situation where I don't have to provide supplemental water,
but if you do not provide that TLC in those
first couple of years to get the plan established to
get that rude growth growing, you know that will make
all the difference in the plant's long term health. And now, yeah,
I can cut all of that back and help the
Dallas ferma to curtail that growth so it's not overtaking
my paving stones, which it's so happy and vigorous now
that it actually is. You know that by by keeping
it dryer, that helps to keep it in check.
Speaker 1: That's a perfect example for today's show and for folks
keeping score at home, if you're listening to the podcast
or radio, And I said podcasts not what I came
out of my mind. When we talk about Dello sperma.
For people who are unfamiliar with the plant, the common
name many people would refer to it as ice plant.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2: That's right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, saxafrage or a rock foil. That's another
really cool plant, and so you know, and it's one
of those plants that people like to touch too, And
of course people love touching plants, but saxafrage is another.
I don't know if you have any rock foil in
your life.
Speaker 2: I do not have any in my garden. But I
was fortunate enough when I was at the New York
Potanical Garden School of Professional Horticulture in the New York
Potanical Garden, working in a world class rock garden, and
have a lot of experience growing those plants, both in
the formal former rock garden. I don't think it's still
there as well as in the propagation house. And yeah,
those are some plants for patient people, Yes, that is
for sure. You've got to be patient and well organized
to be a rock garden. True Alpine rock gardener. But man,
those are some cool plants.
Speaker 1: But these people, and to their credit, they are very passionate.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, yah. Yeah, and the trade plants they have
amazing networks of you know, helping people to get their
plants in just really a fascinating, fascinating thing. You know,
I might join the Rock Garden Society.
Speaker 1: There you go, another plant, and I know, I think
this is a favorite of yours, Stacey, And I'm going
to put it in the timing list because it just
appears for a short time but is long lived. And
that is iris reticulate.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: Native to Turkey, northern Iraq, and Iran. That's one of
those plants too that once you have it in your landscape,
you fall in love with.
Speaker 2: It's so cute and you know, I love that it
brings that blue and purple color at a time when
everything else in your in your lawn seems to be yellow,
you know, daffodils and everything else. And yeah, it's so
happy for me here in West Michigan that you know,
I get a little bag of it at this time
of year once the bulbs start coming on sale. That
was how it started. A single bag that I found
on sale at Meer and now I have multiple clumps
because it's spread so well, it's so happy here in
our sandy soil, and with that lower moisture in the
summer to prevent the bulbs from rotting. Yeah, the time
has given me a very nice population of virus reticulous.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. Some people would put seedums on the list,
and I'm not talking about the upright seedoms, but lower
growing creeping seedums. Some can be relatively small, at least
when put into a rock garden setting. You had mentioned box.
Would I agree with that. I want to run one
by you here a minute. Tater tot erbervitie, because again,
working in the garden center, people love this plant, and
unlike the old globe erborvities, it tends to stay in
check and be relatively slow grown.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say that it is slow growing. It's
kind of hard to talk about arborvity as a monolith,
because again there are those very fast growing varieties that
have been developed for rapid hedging, and then there are
these very dwarf ones. And I would say that tater
tot is small, and that that is a good thing.
It's small and it's slow growing. Anna's magic ball, which
is round but golden and a little bit larger. I
would say it's heading more towards a medium growth rate.
And I would say overall, globe arborvitis tend to be
on the slow to medium side. But again, as I
was saying earlier about dwarf conifers, just because it starts
out slow growing doesn't mean it won't eventually not be
so dwarf. You know, Woodward Globe is a great example.
A lot of people buy Woodward globe arborvity. There are
some in my neighborhood that must have been there for
thirty plus years, and those things are five feet by
five feet and not so dwarf anymore. But it took
them thirty plus years to get there.
Speaker 1: Sure. Here's an interesting statistic for you. Americans consume approximately
seventy million pounds of tater tots a year.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, that's a side of tater tots.
Speaker 1: Yeah, seventy million pounds.
Speaker 2: And we're actually talking about the food here, not the
number of revitis that have been sold, although that would
be amazing if that were true.
Speaker 1: Three billion, seven hundred and ten million individual tots per year.
Speaker 2: Wowazing, that'd be a lot of tater dots.
Speaker 1: So a few other slow plants snake plant inside the
house or Sandsavaria agaves cactus. Of course bonesye, we'd have
to mention boneseye lithops, which are living stones, always a
fun plant to have indoors. Also Clivia flowering plant that
can take a number of years to bloom. Slow growing,
but once it blooms, it's like wow, it was worth
the word.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: So Stacy timing is everything. Thanks so much, this was fun.
Thank you, Thank you Adrianna, and thanks most of all
to you. Make sure to tune us in on YouTube
or radio or podcast however you want to get your
version of the Gardening Simplified Show. Have a great week.