Speaker 1: Coming to you from the historic halls of Studio A
Speaker 1: here at proven winners, color Choice Shrubs. It's time for
Speaker 1: the Gardening Simplified radio podcast and YouTube show with Stacy
Speaker 1: Hervella Me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well,
Speaker 1: the word nostalgia has its roots in the Greek language
Speaker 1: and was translated in the eighteenth century as acute homesickness
Speaker 1: or homecoming. Of course, today nostalgia is viewed as a natural,
Speaker 1: common and even positive emotion. And then, of course you've
Speaker 1: got the term vintage, which, boy, it can cover a
Speaker 1: lot of gardening trends and designs and styles like architectural
Speaker 1: gardens of Paris, the romantic winding paths of an Italian villa, charming,
Speaker 1: wild and carefree designs of an English country garden. You
Speaker 1: can go on and on. There's a vintage style to
Speaker 1: suit every taste. But Stacy, we do know that homeowners
Speaker 1: say that gardening makes them feel nostalgic, and I guess
Speaker 1: gardening makes you feel nostalgic. It makes me it reminds
Speaker 1: me of it, maybe a simpler time with family. I
Speaker 1: remember my dad and my mom. They loved working out
Speaker 1: in the garden. I loved the thought of a hot
Speaker 1: Fourth of July day and sitting underneath a big shade tree.
Speaker 1: Of course, people have all kinds of nostalgic remembrances of plants,
Speaker 1: like lilacs or a vine that's growing up a wall,
Speaker 1: you know, and even in television you think about the
Speaker 1: Brady Bunch Show and that pathway leading up to the
Speaker 1: welcoming doors. All of these things create this nostalgic feeling
Speaker 1: for us, and gardens and plants can do a great
Speaker 1: job of contributing to a nostalgic type.
Speaker 2: Of feel absolutely, and I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: do start gardening to bring back some of that magic
Speaker 2: for themselves as well as to create some of that
Speaker 2: magic for the next generation. I think as we get
Speaker 2: a little bit older, we start to realize that, you know,
Speaker 2: these shrubs are not going to plant themselves. And if
Speaker 2: we want, you know, our children or neighbors or friends
Speaker 2: or whatever to have these, you know, same kind of
Speaker 2: experiences that we had. You know, someone had to have
Speaker 2: planted those things and created a yard a space where
Speaker 2: you wanted to be because it did have flowers and
Speaker 2: it did have plants, and that that is what is
Speaker 2: so you know, salient in your memory, and yeah, it
Speaker 2: doesn't just happen. If you want that, you have to
Speaker 2: get up and do it, and you can be the one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. A mixed planting can create a real nostalgic
Speaker 1: feel and stacy. You know a lot of people getting
Speaker 1: into wild flows gardens, rambling wildflower gardens because of the
Speaker 1: pollinator issue. But if you go beyond planting it for
Speaker 1: bees and butterflies, a garden like that creates a real
Speaker 1: cottage garden type of nostalgic feel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know it can I feel like thinking
Speaker 2: about my own sort of nostalgia for plants that I
Speaker 2: grew up with. It's interesting to me that some plants
Speaker 2: that I remember from my childhood do not feel nostalgic,
Speaker 2: while others do. So my mom always had a I
Speaker 2: think I just figured this out and answering my own
Speaker 2: question here, had a big old lava rock or near
Speaker 2: our front porch with hens and chicks planted in hens
Speaker 2: and chick yeah. Yeah, So this of course was the
Speaker 2: seventies early eighties, and I love hens and chicks. I
Speaker 2: still grow them. I have a big collection myself, but
Speaker 2: I don't think of those as nostalgic like to me,
Speaker 2: even though I did discover them first as a little child, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't have nostalgia for that, but I do have
Speaker 2: nostlgia for other things my mom grew like bleeding heart.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, definitely a nostalgic plant for a lot
Speaker 2: of people.
Speaker 1: Yeah. For me, it was a neighbor who grew lots
Speaker 1: of dianthus, So diale, that's cool.
Speaker 2: That's a very definitely kind of more of an old fashion.
Speaker 2: I mean in the proven Winn's line, there are tons
Speaker 2: of new dianthus, but dianthas are definitely a plant that
Speaker 2: are nostalgic from recent history as well as very old history.
Speaker 2: I mean you see dianthos also known as pinks, you know,
Speaker 2: in the unicorn tapestries and all sorts of medieval art.
Speaker 2: But yeah, there was a time when they were quite
Speaker 2: quite popular and then they kind of fell off the earth.
Speaker 2: And now our partners at Walter's Gardens and proven Winters
Speaker 2: Perennials are kind of bringing them back.
Speaker 1: And it brings up a good point, whether it's proven
Speaker 1: Winter's Perennials or proven Winters shrubs. What's been fun for
Speaker 1: me to watch is I've been in the garden center
Speaker 1: industry since the seventies, and yes had a strawberry pot
Speaker 1: with hens and chicksen n Okay, and I would have
Speaker 1: to say I'm really not nostalgic about it either. However,
Speaker 1: as far as shrubs are concerned or perennials, these plants
Speaker 1: that give us that nostalgic feeling. Roses, hydranges, paeonies, lilacs, lavender,
Speaker 1: all of these types of plants give you that feel.
Speaker 1: But back then in the seventies in the garden center industry,
Speaker 1: we didn't have the plants that we have today plant breeding.
Speaker 1: As we've talked about being in the golden age of
Speaker 1: plant breeding, I think it's bringing back some of this nostalgia.
Speaker 1: And Stacey, I planted one of the reminiscent roses in
Speaker 1: my landscape and I have to say it really gave
Speaker 1: me a nostalgic feeling with a plant that's bred for
Speaker 1: today and is disease resistant and already.
Speaker 2: I love seeing that, you know, And I'm going to
Speaker 2: talk about this more when we get to the mailbang
Speaker 2: and I'm sharing a listener story. It is amazing to
Speaker 2: me to really get the perspective on what plant breeding
Speaker 2: has done because people tend to think, oh, it's just
Speaker 2: about having a new color of something, or you know,
Speaker 2: it's a bigger flower, and that's actually not necessarily the case.
Speaker 2: It really kind of all came home to me that
Speaker 2: so much of what plant breeding is is to bring
Speaker 2: gardening within reach of people.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: You know, back in those days, it took a lot
Speaker 2: of effort for someone to grow those dianthus. They needed
Speaker 2: constant dead heading, they needed so much attention, they didn't
Speaker 2: bloom very long. So you would put all this effort
Speaker 2: into something that didn't actually give you all that much
Speaker 2: of a display, you know, over the course of the
Speaker 2: season for the amount of work you had to put in.
Speaker 2: But now plant breeding has dianthus that bloom without you
Speaker 2: don't need to dead head in them, and they're just
Speaker 2: gonna bloom pretty much all summer long. And so what
Speaker 2: plant breeding has done is not just aesthetic, but is
Speaker 2: actually taken away a lot of the work that gardening
Speaker 2: is associated.
Speaker 1: With, exactly, and it has fed this nostalgia boom. You know,
Speaker 1: I remember as a kid, mock orange just a huge,
Speaker 1: unwieldy plant. Not so today. Bridal re spyriea for Scythia's.
Speaker 1: Of course, you've got the show off for Scythia's today,
Speaker 1: smooth annabelle, hydranges, garden flocks and creeping flocks, and of
Speaker 1: course geraniums. They make me feel nostalgic too, only because
Speaker 1: in the seventies that's basically all we sold. At least
Speaker 1: it sure felt that way in the garden center. Spikes, vincavine,
Speaker 1: and geraniums, but balsam ladies, slippers, sweet peas, nasturtium, shasta, daisies, hollyhawks, heliotrope,
Speaker 1: all of these plants really create that feeling of nostalgia.
Speaker 1: And then when you add to it in the landscape,
Speaker 1: some antique or worn or weathered planters, cobblestone in pathways,
Speaker 1: unfinished sculptures, and water features that don't have a painted
Speaker 1: finish on them but just weather naturally wrought iron in
Speaker 1: the landscape is charming and nostalgic. And a picket fence,
Speaker 1: even if you don't have the picket fence up to
Speaker 1: keep your neighbor out or whatever you're using it for,
Speaker 1: the picket fence just really really gives you that nostalgic
Speaker 1: feeling in the garden. Now, for me, one thing that
Speaker 1: gives me a nostalgic feeling in the garden and I'm
Speaker 1: going to talk about it in segment four, and that
Speaker 1: is lawn chairs. An those rotten webbed lawn chair about them,
Speaker 1: and we would sell them in the gardens. Oh, we
Speaker 1: had packages of replacement. Have you ever been to a
Speaker 1: family gathering where some one sat down in one of
Speaker 1: those webbed lawn chairs and when they get up they
Speaker 1: carry the chair with them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen that before, or fallen.
Speaker 1: Through the chair. Oh, my word. And we had these
Speaker 1: trifolding jelly tube strap lawnchairs.
Speaker 2: Now those are no good. Those are no good. The
Speaker 2: old fashioned webbing one's school, the jelly roll one na.
Speaker 1: And there is a certain lawn chair at family gatherings
Speaker 1: again to get nostalgic that when you pick up your food,
Speaker 1: your potato salad, your burger or whatever at this family gathering,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be the last one because you're
Speaker 1: going to be stuck with that chair. I'll talk about
Speaker 1: it in non segment four. But there's something about patio
Speaker 1: furniture and law and maybe it's because of my history
Speaker 1: in the garden center industry that it does that. But
Speaker 1: lawn chairs give me just this unbelievable nostalgic feeling.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, my husband and I collect lawnchairs, okay,
Speaker 2: and we have an enormous not enormous, we have a
Speaker 2: sizable collection. We only take ones that are all aluminum,
Speaker 2: so I never had any wood or plastic. And they
Speaker 2: have to be the type that have the replaceable webbing
Speaker 2: where you can take out the screw and replace the webbing.
Speaker 2: And yeah, you can pick them up at a state
Speaker 2: sales for you know, two or three dollars and some
Speaker 2: of them are really quite attractive and very comfortable.
Speaker 3: So I feel you on.
Speaker 1: That well, and I'm going to find out and segment four,
Speaker 1: then if you have this notorious chairity that I'm referring to.
Speaker 3: Me, sure to find out.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for segment four. First, we'll have plants on trial.
Speaker 1: We'll see how Stacey ties this all together here on
Speaker 1: the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: Proven Winn's Color Choice Shrubs cares about your success in
Speaker 2: the garden. That's why we trial and test all of
Speaker 2: our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they
Speaker 2: outperform everything else on the market. Look for them in
Speaker 2: the distinctive white container at your local garden Center. Greetings,
Speaker 2: gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: The order of the day is nostalgia. And yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean I can't tell you. I don't have to tell
Speaker 2: you because I'm sure that you when you were working
Speaker 2: in the garden centers had people come up to you
Speaker 2: and say, I'm looking for a plant that my grandmother has.
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you when people ask you that,
Speaker 2: how many times out of ten on average was it
Speaker 2: a whigela.
Speaker 1: It was often a Wiejela. But I would truly have
Speaker 1: to say that at the top of the list was
Speaker 1: bridal rea Spyria.
Speaker 2: For whatever Reasonspiria is very lovely.
Speaker 3: I do like it.
Speaker 2: I mean, the flowers last for like three days.
Speaker 1: And they're gigantic.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean that's a plant that I don't
Speaker 2: I think you'd be hard pressed to find them nowadays.
Speaker 2: They kind of have fallen out of fashion. You just
Speaker 2: like see old hedges of them, you know, out in
Speaker 2: the neighbors. But I think Wayjila is one of the
Speaker 2: most popular, you know when people, and I think they're
Speaker 2: more likely to ask about it because they don't know
Speaker 2: what it is.
Speaker 1: They just can't pronounce it.
Speaker 2: They can't pronounce it, for one, and for two, yeah
Speaker 2: they don't. They just remember that Grandma had this, you know,
Speaker 2: big bush with trumpet flowers on it, lilac.
Speaker 3: They know the name Roses. They know the name.
Speaker 2: And today's plan on trial is not a white gla
Speaker 2: because the point that I'm trying to make is that
Speaker 2: most plants that are truly nostalgic for people do have fragrance, yes,
Speaker 2: because it's not just the visual aspect of being around
Speaker 2: the plant that makes it so nostalgic. And I don't
Speaker 2: even if you aren't acutely aware of this fact, you know,
Speaker 2: I think you still have a sense of it that
Speaker 2: things that you can remember from scent bring back an
Speaker 2: emotion like nothing else. Yes, you know, you can look
Speaker 2: at things, you can touch things. All the other senses
Speaker 2: are pretty good. But when it comes to smell and memory,
Speaker 2: I mean, and it's like you can be taken back
Speaker 2: in time. You know, you can just go back right
Speaker 2: to a moment.
Speaker 1: And they say, if you have that scent as a
Speaker 1: young child, it's imprinted on your brain.
Speaker 2: Yes, And a lot of us that we were going
Speaker 2: to a grandmother's house or a great grandmother's house, you know,
Speaker 2: as young children. So I was thinking about all of
Speaker 2: this and I came across a very interesting article that
Speaker 2: I will link in the show notes at Gardening Simplified
Speaker 2: on air dot com. This is from the Harvard Cazette
Speaker 2: from Harvard University about smell and memory. Smell and memory
Speaker 2: seem to be so closely linked because of the brain's anatomy,
Speaker 2: said Venka Tshmurty, the Raymond LEO. Erickson Life Scientist, Professor
Speaker 2: and Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Speaker 2: at Harvard. So this is not just us riffing on
Speaker 2: the importance so sent and memory. We have credibility here
Speaker 2: from an expert. He goes on to say smells are
Speaker 2: handled by the olfactory bulb, the structure in the front
Speaker 2: of the brain that sends information to the other areas
Speaker 2: of the body's central command for further processing. Odors take
Speaker 2: a wrecked route to the limbic system, including the amygdulla
Speaker 2: in the hippocampus, the regions related to emotion and memory.
Speaker 2: So it's not just a matter of that smell going
Speaker 2: right into your brain, but that the parts of your
Speaker 2: brain that are processing that fragrance or smell are specifically
Speaker 2: linked to emotion and memory, so it just becomes so powerful.
Speaker 2: And when you know, even if we if someone experiences
Speaker 2: plant blindness where they're really unaware of plants and that
Speaker 2: there are different types of plants and the roles that
Speaker 2: they fill around us. I think even them when they
Speaker 2: have these fragrant memories of a lilac or whatever it was,
Speaker 2: that they have that same, you know, immediate emotional and
Speaker 2: memory type reaction.
Speaker 1: I think that's why lilacs are such a big deal
Speaker 1: on Mother's Day.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, and the timing's perfect, so you kind of
Speaker 2: can't argue with that. Although how much longer they.
Speaker 1: Will be perfectly seeing.
Speaker 3: We don't know.
Speaker 2: But so it's obvious now why fragrant plants loom so
Speaker 2: large in our memories, even if there were other plants there.
Speaker 2: And I think some old fashioned fragrant plants are never
Speaker 2: going to go out of style. I don't think as
Speaker 2: long as lilac can be grown in your area, people
Speaker 2: will ever stop growing lilacs. They just they love them
Speaker 2: too much. But some have almost disappeared from the market.
Speaker 2: Some plants that were extremely popular, you know, a couple
Speaker 2: decades ago, a century ago, are almost unheard of literally nowadays,
Speaker 2: and one of those plants is Philadelphis, also known as
Speaker 2: mock orange. As you might guess from the common name,
Speaker 2: it has small white flowers that do indeed smell quite
Speaker 2: a bit like an orange blossom. But this is a
Speaker 2: perfectly hardy plant.
Speaker 3: They are.
Speaker 2: Actually there's species that are native to Canada and very
Speaker 2: cold regions down to Zone three. Most are hardy down
Speaker 2: to USDA Zone four and heat tolerant through USDA Zone eight.
Speaker 2: It's not remotely related to citrus. It's actually more closely
Speaker 2: related to hydranges than to citrus, which is in a
Speaker 2: totally different family. But Philadelphis is a plant that, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think for so many people, the fragrance automatically takes
Speaker 2: you back.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The first time I encountered a truly magnificent memory stirring
Speaker 2: philadelphis was when I lived in New York City and
Speaker 2: we were walking down a street in the East Village
Speaker 2: and there was an old, old, old, old cemetery, cemetery.
Speaker 2: It was close to the public, but it was still
Speaker 2: surrounded by walls and still had, you know, plants and
Speaker 2: stuff from back in the day, and there was a
Speaker 2: philadelphis there that was probably about fifteen feet tall, and
Speaker 2: it had these like elegant arching branches that arched over
Speaker 2: the wall, and the thing was in full bloom. And
Speaker 2: you just turn down this street and you know, it
Speaker 2: blooms in June, so the air is like warm and steamy,
Speaker 2: and just that fragrance on the June air, I mean,
Speaker 2: it was just it was mind blowing. But for all
Speaker 2: of those reasons, the fact that I just described a
Speaker 2: shrub that was at least fifteen feet tall and wide
Speaker 2: is one reason why it may have fallen our favor.
Speaker 2: People don't have that kind of space, and a couple
Speaker 2: of other things. Because it does bloom in June if
Speaker 2: the weather's very hot, not unlike the bridal respyrriea, especially
Speaker 2: older varieties, those blooms would just blast through it just
Speaker 2: you wouldn't be able to enjoy them for very long
Speaker 2: if it's hot and dry. And then finally, and this
Speaker 2: is a weird characteristic, older varieties of mock orange have
Speaker 2: very poor quality foliage. So what would happen is that
Speaker 2: by you know, summer, the foliage would turn kind of
Speaker 2: like a grayish, sickly green color and it would get
Speaker 2: really tattered. So you know, by the time you're in
Speaker 2: like mid to late summer, you've got a pretty crummy
Speaker 2: looking plant on your hands, and it bloomed for you know,
Speaker 2: maybe a week if you were lucky. And that's a
Speaker 2: lot to ask for a relatively small reward. So I
Speaker 2: think a lot of people stopped growing Philadelphis. But Tim Wood,
Speaker 2: our director of new plant Development, loves Philadelphis and when
Speaker 2: he set out to develop the first Philadelphis for the
Speaker 2: proven Winner's color Choice line, which is today's plant on
Speaker 2: trial Illuminati Tower mock Orange Philadelphis, he wanted to resolve
Speaker 2: all of those issues and create a mock orange that
Speaker 2: actually merits its spot in the garden. So the first
Speaker 2: thing that makes Illuminati Tower different is that it lives
Speaker 2: up to its name by growing as a tower like shape.
Speaker 2: So it's very very narrow, it's very upright, and it
Speaker 2: doesn't branch a lot, so you know, whereas most of
Speaker 2: the time you think about a shrub and it's branching
Speaker 2: all over and that gives it a lot of width,
Speaker 2: this does not branch much, so it stays very calumnar
Speaker 2: and narrow, and so compared to the old fifteen to
Speaker 2: twenty foot Philadelphis that used to be grown. This is
Speaker 2: going to reach five to six feet tall and just
Speaker 2: three feet wide, so very small footprint, but still has
Speaker 2: a lot of flower power and that tower habit becomes
Speaker 2: even more dramatic when it flowers because the flowers are
Speaker 2: at the top and they just really accentuate this almost
Speaker 2: four sided look that the plant has. It also has
Speaker 2: very thick, very dark green, deeply ribbed foliage, and this
Speaker 2: will hold up all season long, so you don't get
Speaker 2: that tattered, sad look later in the season. Now, as
Speaker 2: for the flower longevity, that is going to depend on
Speaker 2: the conditions. It will certainly last longer because these other
Speaker 2: qualities have to be brought about by having additional chromosomes
Speaker 2: in the plant to cause them to be beefier and
Speaker 2: stockier and have better quality foliage. That does typically have
Speaker 2: a positive impact on the flowers where they have more
Speaker 2: substance and can be longer lasting. But it has that
Speaker 2: same beautiful, sweet fragrance. And so if you're in the
Speaker 2: market to either redeem some of your own nostalgia or
Speaker 2: perhaps plant some nostalgia for the next generation, I think
Speaker 2: the Illuminati mock oranges are a great choice. Again, we're
Speaker 2: focusing on Illuminati Tower. I really love this variety because
Speaker 2: it's a great space saver, and a lot of us
Speaker 2: just don't have room to just have, you know, things
Speaker 2: like they used to be.
Speaker 1: A couple of years ago. You gave me one. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I planted it. Wow, unbelievable and it's in a tight spot,
Speaker 1: fits perfectly in there. And then this spring when it
Speaker 1: came into flower, I posted pictures in social media. People
Speaker 1: went nuts over it, asking what is that plant? And
Speaker 1: my response to them was, you're just seeing the pictures.
Speaker 1: If you could smell this thing, if this was smell
Speaker 1: a vision, you'd be even more blown away. I love
Speaker 1: that plant staste.
Speaker 2: And I'm so glad you said that, because it is
Speaker 2: a plant that you definitely again because it's fallen out
Speaker 2: of favor and there's no longer this. Of course, you're
Speaker 2: gonna have a mock orange, because everybody has a mock orange,
Speaker 2: and it's a great way to extend the season beyond
Speaker 2: the lilacs because they're not going to overlap. Typically, your
Speaker 2: lilocks will be done blooming and the mock orange can
Speaker 2: come in and take that over. It's deer resistant. You
Speaker 2: probably have yours planet in the compound. But it is
Speaker 2: a good, dear resistant plant, very attractive, full to parts
Speaker 2: on is fine. Although the closer you get to USDA
Speaker 2: Zone eight the end, the hot end of its tolerance,
Speaker 2: the more shade that it is going to want. It
Speaker 2: is drought tolerant, though of course when it's in bloom
Speaker 2: you're gonna want to give it a little extra water
Speaker 2: just to make sure those fabulous flowers last as long
Speaker 2: as possible. So planting time is almost done for most
Speaker 2: of us. But definitely put Illuminati Tower mock orange or
Speaker 2: any of the Illuminati mock oranges on your planting list
Speaker 2: for next spring, and you will be very very glad
Speaker 2: that you did, as well the people who you are
Speaker 2: trying to create nostalgia for. Next We're gonna take a
Speaker 2: little break, and when we come back, we're opening up
Speaker 2: the garden mail eggs.
Speaker 3: I please stay.
Speaker 2: Tuned at proven Winner's color choice. We've got a shrub
Speaker 2: for every taste and every space. Whether you're looking for
Speaker 2: an easy care rose, an unforgettable hydrangea, or something new
Speaker 2: and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and
Speaker 2: the white containers have been trialed and tested for your success.
Speaker 2: Look for them at your local garden center. Greetings gardening friends,
Speaker 2: and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. You know
Speaker 2: we're going to answer your garden questions, whether they are
Speaker 2: about something that used to be, or something that is
Speaker 2: or something that will be. We're always happy to help,
Speaker 2: So you can reach us at help HLP at Gardening
Speaker 2: Simplified on air dot com, or just visit Gardening Simplified
Speaker 2: on air dot com. There's a contact form there, you
Speaker 2: can attach photos and we're always happy to help with
Speaker 2: whatever is on your mind. And part of the reason
Speaker 2: that we were inspired to do this particular topic for
Speaker 2: the show was a message from a listener. And so
Speaker 2: his name is Randall or Randy Cooper. And here is
Speaker 2: what Randy wrote, attached to to photos of my father's
Speaker 2: flower garden from many years ago. This was in the
Speaker 2: front yard of our house in Parkwin Village in Kalamazoo,
Speaker 2: a neighborhood designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and added to
Speaker 2: the National Register of Historic Places in two thousand twenty two.
Speaker 2: The neighborhood is now seventy years old, seventy seven years old.
Speaker 2: Having grown up there, I'm adding to the history of
Speaker 2: the neighborhood by making some remarks about the garden view
Speaker 2: that caused cars to slow down as they passed by
Speaker 2: on the road. My knowledge of flower names is only modest.
Speaker 2: What flower species do you see in the pictures? If
Speaker 2: you could take the time to respond by email and
Speaker 2: describe what you see flower wise, I'd really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I know some of what's there, but I'd like some
Speaker 2: confirmation as well. Thank you, Randy Cooper. So when I
Speaker 2: opened the two photos that Randy sent, and they were dated,
Speaker 2: so one was dated like around nineteen fifty five and
Speaker 2: one was dated around nineteen sixty five. And I mean,
Speaker 2: if this is one of those situations where if you know,
Speaker 2: you know, and I know you know, if you ever
Speaker 2: had grandparents who you looked at their slides, these photos
Speaker 2: of Randy's just have this vibe that just takes you
Speaker 2: back to what it was like to be there. And
Speaker 2: so I loved seeing the photos and I wrote Randy
Speaker 2: back an extensive Randy, if you didn't get my message,
Speaker 2: please do you reply, because I wrote you everything more
Speaker 2: than you would want to know about the plants in
Speaker 2: your dad's garden. And so the pictures are going to
Speaker 2: be on YouTube of course, as well as in the
Speaker 2: show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot Com. But
Speaker 2: one of the things, probably the number one thing that
Speaker 2: really stood out to me and looking at Randy's photos,
Speaker 2: and they are beautiful though there's so many different plants
Speaker 2: in them, was how hard his dad had to work
Speaker 2: to get to get the garden to.
Speaker 3: Look like that and now it looks beautiful.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's stunning. I mean, there's two different photos. I
Speaker 2: don't know if it's of the same garden at two
Speaker 2: different times or two very different gardens. One is more
Speaker 2: of a perennial garden full of delfinium, and I think
Speaker 2: I saw some red Valerian in there. I had a
Speaker 2: whole list. And the other one is more of a
Speaker 2: sort of traditional annual border, which no one does anymore.
Speaker 1: Right, it looks like something they'd put on the cover
Speaker 1: of one of those old Seas catalogs. I just loved it, Randy,
Speaker 1: It seriously does.
Speaker 2: But you know, back then in the fifties and sixties, again,
Speaker 2: as we were talking about, plant breeding was not what
Speaker 2: it is now, and so gardeners like Randy's dad, Fred,
Speaker 2: they really had to put the time in and This
Speaker 2: is where gardening, you know, I think acquired its reputation
Speaker 2: as just being a ton of work, because for those
Speaker 2: gardens to look like they do in these photos. You know,
Speaker 2: back then, there weren't delphiniums that stood up on their own.
Speaker 2: You had to stake them all, you know. You couldn't there.
Speaker 2: You could get plants mail order, you could buy some
Speaker 2: things locally in small garden centers, but for the most part,
Speaker 2: if you wanted any kind of variety at all in
Speaker 2: your garden, you were growing everything from seed. You know.
Speaker 2: It's not like nowadays where you can just pop down
Speaker 2: and bring a couple of flats back and start planting
Speaker 2: and get some immediate gratification.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the plants are in these plastic trays. Now. I
Speaker 1: remember those days way back when, and they had these
Speaker 1: plants that they started from seed and wooden flats, and
Speaker 1: people would walk around with aprons and butcher wax paper
Speaker 1: and you'd pick out the plant you want and they'd
Speaker 1: trowl it out of the tray, wrap it in butcher
Speaker 1: wax right five cents or whatever the price was on it,
Speaker 1: and wow, I have some pictures of that too, So
Speaker 1: it's amazing and I love looking at that the annual
Speaker 1: bed in the picture that Randy sent, because it does
Speaker 1: bring back memories. As a matter of fact, I remember
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties that there was a movement to
Speaker 1: make marigolds the national flower, and you would see marrigolds everywhere.
Speaker 1: I remember the the petit little dwarf ones. They were
Speaker 1: called boyoboy mix. And then you get the huge African
Speaker 1: marigolds that would be in the back of the bed,
Speaker 1: you know, a good three four, five six feet tall
Speaker 1: in some cases. And yet Stacy, many of these plants
Speaker 1: had to be staked. They didn't have the gravi toss
Speaker 1: that plants today have. But to see that, or there
Speaker 1: was a state fair mix of xenias, they'd get really
Speaker 1: really large, loaded with powdery mildew. So I would guess
Speaker 1: in this case also the gardener was doing a fair
Speaker 1: amount of hand watering. It's just beautiful to see.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the more you think about, you know, the conveniences
Speaker 2: and everything that we take for granted now, not just
Speaker 2: in terms of maintaining a garden, but you know, in
Speaker 2: terms also of the plants themselves, the choices that he made.
Speaker 2: It's so clear that Randy Sadfred had such pride in
Speaker 2: this garden. I can't even imagine the countless hours he
Speaker 2: must have spent. And I truly do hope that that
Speaker 2: there were many many cars that stopped and talked to him,
Speaker 2: because you know, when a gardener works that hard for something,
Speaker 2: it means a lot. I will tell you right now,
Speaker 2: I don't work that hard in my garden. If it
Speaker 2: were that much work, I probably wouldn't do it. But
Speaker 2: you know, it definitely says labor of love. And so
Speaker 2: I really thank you Andy for sending those in, and
Speaker 2: thanks to your late father for all of his amazing
Speaker 2: hard work, and yeah for really just kind of showing
Speaker 2: us that gardening nowadays, whether it's annuals or perennials or shrubs, watering, fertilizing,
Speaker 2: buying plants, caring for plants, it is a whole new
Speaker 2: day and we can all shed those you know, biases
Speaker 2: and preconceived notions we have about gardening being a ton
Speaker 2: of work and you can't go on vacation and you
Speaker 2: know you can't do anything but work in your garden.
Speaker 2: It's not like that anymore.
Speaker 1: I just those pictures gave me such a nostalgic feeling.
Speaker 1: By the way, in that bed of annuals. Also the
Speaker 1: red flower that I see in there, I may be wrong,
Speaker 1: but I'm pretty sure it's a salvia. And everybody planted
Speaker 1: that thing, and it was a variety by the name
Speaker 1: of red Hot Sally. Everybody planted red Hot sallye. And
Speaker 1: you know our annual salvia is today Proven Winners has
Speaker 1: the Rocking series, the rock and Fusia. They are incredible.
Speaker 1: These are aggressive plants. They bloom beautifully. They're just unbelievable
Speaker 1: performers in the garden. Red Hot Sally. You'd put it
Speaker 1: out there and yes, it would put out this flush
Speaker 1: of beautiful red flowers. But then we'd get some hot,
Speaker 1: steamy weather, maybe a rain shower, and now it'd be
Speaker 1: red hot stems. It's just a stemfests. So yes, the
Speaker 1: work and the care that he put into that garden
Speaker 1: is evident, and I love those photos.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the salvia Kaksinia or
Speaker 2: red hot Sally, because that is not dissimilar to today's
Speaker 2: plant on trial, the mock orange, where it was a
Speaker 2: plant that was everywhere for a while and then poof
Speaker 2: just disappeared off the face of the earth because people
Speaker 2: were just like, I'm not dealing with that. You know,
Speaker 2: it was just too much work for too little reward.
Speaker 1: Go to say it for our listeners, blam blamo. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there you go.
Speaker 2: And now I feel like it's starting to make a comeback.
Speaker 2: Proven Winners has some new Salvia coxinia that are definitely
Speaker 2: not your grandmother's Salvia coccinia. There's a lot of different
Speaker 2: types of salviaut there, but I'm glad you brought that
Speaker 2: one up because that is definitely that with the marigolds,
Speaker 2: really put that garden in its time.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. All right, real quickly here, Stacey, We've got to
Speaker 1: help Stephanie out. She's in Zone five B, Yorkville, Illinois,
Speaker 1: and my nine of my big leaf hyde ranges are
Speaker 1: starting to put out a second round of blooms. What
Speaker 1: do I do we're seeing that.
Speaker 2: Yes, So basically what is happening here, Stephanie, is that
Speaker 2: you have a variety of reblooming big leaf Hydrangea that
Speaker 2: needs to put on a certain amount of growth before
Speaker 2: it will create those new wood flowers. So those are
Speaker 2: the older types. They need more time to do that.
Speaker 2: And so for a lot of people, especially in the Midwest.
Speaker 2: Our summers just aren't long enough for that rebloom to occur,
Speaker 2: and we know normally never see any of it. Whereas
Speaker 2: this season, because it has been quite mild and and
Speaker 2: much longer, it's giving those older varieties of hydrange a
Speaker 2: chance to actually create that so called rebloom. So all
Speaker 2: this is is buds that it formed back in August
Speaker 2: that did not need vernalization or cold treatment to bloom.
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean it's taking away from next year. It's
Speaker 2: not a problem for the plant. It's not making it
Speaker 2: more sensitive to frost. If you do get a frost,
Speaker 2: those old flowers are just going to turn brown and
Speaker 2: go away, and you can cut them off if you'd like.
Speaker 2: But it's really not a cause for concern. If you
Speaker 2: don't want your reblooming hydranges to start reblooming in late
Speaker 2: October early November, you would actually like that to happen
Speaker 2: in the summer when it counts. Do take a look
Speaker 2: at the Let's Dance reblooming hydranges, particularly the varieties Let's
Speaker 2: Dance Skyview and Let's Dance can Do. Those are our
Speaker 2: fastest rebloomers, and so you will actually be able to
Speaker 2: get rebloom during the summer, rather than waiting all the
Speaker 2: way until fall when you're thinking more about you know,
Speaker 2: moms and missletoe than.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fantastic and a quick thirty seconds here. Nelvia
Speaker 1: wrote to us because I love this plant. I have
Speaker 1: it in my landscape. Oh so easy, lemon zest rose
Speaker 1: Nelvia has an unusual leaf cluster. But this is something
Speaker 1: we see out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know. Unfortunately, and Melvia did include pictures which
Speaker 2: will be on YouTube. Unfortunately, this is pretty much a
Speaker 2: characteristic case of rose rosette disease. And rose rosette disease
Speaker 2: is a I could talk a lot about it. It's
Speaker 2: quite a fascinating disease. There are no known resistant roses
Speaker 2: right now to rose rosette disease because it's not a
Speaker 2: disease like fungus that just blows in on the wind.
Speaker 2: It's actually transmitted by in a little mite, a tiny, tiny,
Speaker 2: little broad might that blows in on the wind, and
Speaker 2: then that guy has some bacteria in its digestive track
Speaker 2: that it transmits to the plant. And once they get
Speaker 2: this rose rosette disease, they cannot recover. The best thing
Speaker 2: that you can do is to take it out and
Speaker 2: discard it, which will prevent it from being preyed upon
Speaker 2: by additional broad mights and they will then get the
Speaker 2: bacteria in their stomach. So it's unfortunate, but it is
Speaker 2: not recommended to keep the plant. It won't recover. You
Speaker 2: should take it out, and they recommend not planting a rose.
Speaker 2: It's not in the soil, but because it's most likely
Speaker 2: that the mtes will come back and feed on your
Speaker 2: new roses that are replacing it, they do not recommend
Speaker 2: replacing an infected rossette disease rose with another rose. We're
Speaker 2: gonna take a little break. When we come back, we
Speaker 2: got branching news, so police stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified
Speaker 2: Show is brought to you by Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs.
Speaker 2: Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed
Speaker 2: and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty
Speaker 2: and less work. Look for Proven Winns Colored Choice Shrubs
Speaker 2: in the distinctive white container at your local gardens.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
Speaker 1: branching news and Stacey Today, instead of a limb a rick,
Speaker 1: I need a moment for a lawn chair. Rant. We're
Speaker 1: talking about nostalgia today, and I have lots of nostalgic
Speaker 1: memories of lawn chairs. Folding aluminum webbed lawn chairs. In
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies at the garden Center, we sold them
Speaker 1: for twelve ninety five each and on the fourth of
Speaker 1: July they would be on special for nine ninety five.
Speaker 3: Dang, it's a bargain.
Speaker 1: What a deal. Now, we didn't have Google or YouTube
Speaker 1: or tech support to figure out how to open the
Speaker 1: stupid chair or get out of it. For that matter.
Speaker 1: You couldn't call tech support. And for people who would
Speaker 1: sit on one of these strapped web lawn chairs and you're
Speaker 1: wearing shorts, if you sit on that chair too long
Speaker 1: and then get up and walk away, people will be
Speaker 1: able to tell that you've been sitting in a web
Speaker 1: strap lawn chair. Now, these chairs are amazing. You were
Speaker 1: risking injury or embarrassment every time you put your seat
Speaker 1: in one of those chairs.
Speaker 3: And at that.
Speaker 1: Time, I recall as a kid, in addition to the
Speaker 1: web chairs, we had metal lawn chairs. Now, think July,
Speaker 1: think one hundred degrees, think Son, think shorts. You get
Speaker 1: the picture, right, Yeah, unbelievable. So my point is, when
Speaker 1: I was a kid back in the sixties, we had
Speaker 1: real lawn chairs. The lawn chairs today I call yawn chairs.
Speaker 1: They are equivalent to furniture that you would have in
Speaker 1: your living room. You could take a nap on them.
Speaker 1: They have cushions, They are just so comfortable. We had
Speaker 1: real lawn chairs back in the sixties and seventies. Today
Speaker 1: we have have yawn chairs now, those colorful ribbed chairs,
Speaker 1: those webchairs. Think about it. If you're at a family
Speaker 1: gathering and you pick up a big plate of potato
Speaker 1: salad and your hamburger, and you go to sit down
Speaker 1: in the chairs, and my parents would have all these
Speaker 1: webbed lawn chairs sitting around. By the way, everybody had
Speaker 1: packages of replacement webbing in their garage because they tore
Speaker 1: all the time. Okay, and Uncle Frank was a little
Speaker 1: large and he would do some damage to the chair.
Speaker 1: You have to reweb the chair. But if you got
Speaker 1: your potato salad and your burger, and everyone seated around
Speaker 1: having a great nostalgic time sitting around underneath the shade
Speaker 1: tree and those lawn chairs, and you were late in
Speaker 1: getting your potato salad and Hamburger. There's one chair left.
Speaker 1: It would always be the dreaded Makrom lawn chair.
Speaker 3: Reck Rick, I make these.
Speaker 1: I don't want to sit in a Macrome lawn chair.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm bringing it.
Speaker 3: Ouh man, all right, you're not invited.
Speaker 1: A ninety degree day in chain. Now, how do you
Speaker 1: keep that pattern from like imprinting on your lane?
Speaker 3: Oh you don't. Oh okay, I mean we're pants.
Speaker 1: I guess, so I guess they're not yawn chair.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, you know, I get it. I will
Speaker 2: say that the I've always wanted to do one, and
Speaker 2: so I did one with the actual traditional Macroma cord
Speaker 2: and it's not macrime. People call it macrime because it's
Speaker 2: a Macrome cord, but the actual technique is a combination
Speaker 2: of crochet and weaving. And so I did one and
Speaker 2: it was fun. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: It was actually pretty expensive.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like, I can amaze.
Speaker 2: The idea is that it's not a weaper than the webbing.
Speaker 2: But now it's hard to find webbing, so I think
Speaker 2: they're even more popular now. I am working currently on
Speaker 2: a new version of this using paracord. You know paracord,
Speaker 2: you know it's so the paracord instead of the Macroma
Speaker 2: cord is much softer and it's not as prickly, so
Speaker 2: it's not like as plasticky. It's more suitable for the outdoors.
Speaker 2: So I haven't finished yet to say for sure if
Speaker 2: it's going how it's going to compare. It was similar
Speaker 2: in press. I mean, the Macroma lawn chair is not
Speaker 2: saving you any dough. It's you're spending probably a good
Speaker 2: thirty to forty dollars to replace the webbing with the
Speaker 2: Macroma cord, and for the Paara cord it was probably
Speaker 2: more like forty to fifty.
Speaker 3: So it's a labor of love.
Speaker 2: It's something you do because you enjoy it, and because
Speaker 2: the chairs that I'm working on right now were actually
Speaker 2: are good friends grandmother's chairs really yeah, and they had
Speaker 2: the jelly strap, which I hate, and so those don't have,
Speaker 2: Like the really good vintage lawn chairs have holes for
Speaker 2: screws in the back, so they can be infinitely replaced
Speaker 2: and it's pretty easy and straightforward. So I am pro
Speaker 2: lawn chair. It's hard to find good replacement kits anymore.
Speaker 2: I guess too many people had them in the garage
Speaker 2: and they rotted away or they threw them away or whatever.
Speaker 2: But you know, when I see a good webbing replacement
Speaker 2: kit at an estates, all you better believe I snap
Speaker 2: that up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Back in those days, you would see the twisted
Speaker 1: frame of one of those chairs every week out by
Speaker 1: the trash out by the road, right exactly. And the
Speaker 1: patio furniture was yellow and green, large floral print cushions
Speaker 1: that match the color of the appliances in your kitchen.
Speaker 1: And yes, the vinyl jelly tube chase lounges. These are
Speaker 1: trifoled vinyl tube strap lawn chairs, and those things were horrific.
Speaker 1: And what teenagers would do at that time in the
Speaker 1: sixties and seventies totally dumb. But in summer you'd slather
Speaker 1: yourself in baby oh yeah, right to get a good tan,
Speaker 1: and you'd sla between the straps of these tube strap
Speaker 1: lawn chairs. And I guess this just brings back all
Speaker 1: kinds of nostalgic memories for me.
Speaker 2: Well, I can't believe you didn't mention. I feel like
Speaker 2: this was everywhere when I was a kid, that red
Speaker 2: stained wooden patio furniture that, yeah, you know, that was
Speaker 2: that was everywhere.
Speaker 1: Yes, and if you're wearing baby oil, it's not pretty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this stuff just comes back to me. It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: So I'll give Macroma chairs another truck.
Speaker 2: All right, I'll bring you one to sit in. You
Speaker 2: can see what you think. I will say one thing
Speaker 2: that I truly do love about our vintage lawn chairs.
Speaker 2: And we only pick them up at a bargain. You know,
Speaker 2: we're not like looking to do anything crazy, but I
Speaker 2: do appreciate compared to furniture in my garden that I've
Speaker 2: paid much more for that it truly can go anywhere.
Speaker 2: And in a garden, you know, you want to be
Speaker 2: able to move around and sit wherever is looking good,
Speaker 2: you know, at whatever given time. The lawn chairs, you know,
Speaker 2: they're not just called lawn chairs for the sake of it.
Speaker 2: They're called launchers because they can sit in the lawn
Speaker 2: and not go into the lawn, not pick up the soil.
Speaker 2: The weight is distributed so you can really put them
Speaker 2: any place that you want. And so yeah, say some
Speaker 2: you know part of your garden that you don't usually
Speaker 2: sit near is looking great, you put two launchers out there,
Speaker 2: you enjoy it well, last and then you can move
Speaker 2: it to another place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, cause Stacey, they took these aluminum lawn chairs and
Speaker 1: then they took it the next step and they made
Speaker 1: rockers out of them.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: Actually, my original Macrimae is also a rocker.
Speaker 1: I love this. We got to bring one in the
Speaker 1: studio and I got to give it a try.
Speaker 3: We will now.
Speaker 1: Growing up in the garden center industry. Also, I got
Speaker 1: to quickly mention, of course, pink flamingos. In yes, plastic
Speaker 1: pink flamingos. A guy by the name he was a
Speaker 1: twenty one year old arts school graduate. His name was
Speaker 1: Don Featherstone.
Speaker 3: Oh, I love that.
Speaker 1: And he's the one that created this product. And when
Speaker 1: they first came out in the US, you could buy
Speaker 1: a pair of flamingo lawn ornaments for two dollars and
Speaker 1: seventy six cents. I also remember a company called Union
Speaker 1: Products and they would do blow molded plastic stuff. Now
Speaker 1: it's real interesting because they carried it over into Christmas,
Speaker 1: all the blow molded.
Speaker 3: Figures, the Snowman.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and their most famous one was Santa behind the
Speaker 1: reindeer in a sleigh and it was famously depicted by
Speaker 1: the movie National lampoons.
Speaker 3: Christmas pojet, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when Clark W. Griswold goes nuts out on the
Speaker 1: front lawn and starts kicking the antlers off the reindeer.
Speaker 1: But we would sell a lot of Union products and
Speaker 1: their two big items were Dutch kettles and cauldrons.
Speaker 2: Oh, I was going to mention the cauldron. I'm glad
Speaker 2: you brought up the cauldron.
Speaker 1: Yes, and people would plant geraniums in them, not put
Speaker 1: drainage holes in them so they'd drown the plants. Okay,
Speaker 1: you could pour the one, but these black cauldrons and
Speaker 1: Dutch kettles just bring back all kinds of nostalgia for me.
Speaker 1: And then another big one, and I'll end it with
Speaker 1: this because I could talk about this topic for days.
Speaker 1: But the spinning daisies out in the daisy pinwheels, and
Speaker 1: they sold these things to you saying that they would
Speaker 1: solve your problem for underground pests like moles and voles
Speaker 1: by transmitting vibrations into the ground. Ridiculous. And so they
Speaker 1: had all kinds of different colors of daisy pinwheels. And
Speaker 1: I remember, as a young man working in the garden
Speaker 1: center industry, we wouldn't just get a few boxes of these.
Speaker 1: We would get semi loads of these things. We'd sell
Speaker 1: them for ninety nine cents each, and we would say
Speaker 1: thousands of these daisy pinwheels.
Speaker 2: You don't see those anymore now, I have to ask you.
Speaker 2: They're out there on the Union Products thing. Are they
Speaker 2: also the people behind the Swan Planter? Yes, same thing,
Speaker 2: the Swan good Ol Swan Planter.
Speaker 1: Just amazing. Well, I'm feeling nostalgic.
Speaker 3: How about you, I am. You brought back a lot
Speaker 3: of memories.
Speaker 1: Thanks for a fun show, Stacey, and I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to sitting in this studio in a macro a chair.
Speaker 3: Yes, watch out for it on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Adriana, and thanks to you for your support
Speaker 1: and watching us on YouTube, listening to the radio show
Speaker 1: and our podcast. Have a great week.