Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A Here at Proven Winners Color Chroy Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, Me,
Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Today
we talk about heat and humidity. If you can't stand
the heat, get out of the kitchen. That's a phrase
that most people associate with US President Harry Truman. But
we've heard all the phrases, too hot to handle, hot buttons.
Some like it hot. When you're hot, you're hot. When
you're not, you're not. Makes me think of that great
Jerry Red song put your money on the table, Let
them roll again. When you're hot, you're hot. When you're not,
you're not. In Stacy on a Gardening Simplified Show episode
some time ago, you and I were chatting with doctor
Allan Armitage, and it stuck with me when he said
there's really no whether you believe it or not. He said,
as there really are no sun or shade loving plants.
He calls them sun tolerant or shade tolerant plants. And
if it's a sun tolerant plant, it's a plant that
can handle the sun from two to four o'clock in
the afternoon, but a lot of interest in this subject.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, because you know, even if you don't live in
a hot climate, a lot of us in the Midwest
have some very hot days. And you know, people in
the lower Midwest, like down in Missouri, they get really
hot days as well as really cold winters. And so
I think we all really benefit from having plants that
tolerate heat and humidity, even if it's just a couple days,
but especially if there is a lot of heat and humidity.
Do you know what is the most humid major city
in the US.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say Miami.
Speaker 3: Honolulu, Hawaii.
Speaker 2: Wow, they have three hundred and thirty seven even days
of uncomfortable humidity.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: So you know, I know you've been looking for a
place to go. It indulged your your heat loving self.
So Honolulu, Hawaii may just vietnaut You know, a lot
of the states in the American South are also very hot,
but not for the US. No one bet Honolulu.
Speaker 1: Well, there are so many great plant there's many great
plants in Hawaii. Well, there's many great plants for our
landscape that can tolerate the heat and humidity. Stacey I
have to say thank you to you, and you inspired
me because this year I planted a jessamine in my yard,
the juiced orange. It's just starting to bloom. Neighbors are
already asking what is that plant? This is a plant
that we would probably put in that category as a
heat loving plant.
Speaker 2: Right yeah, Juiced orange is a relatively new plant for
us in proven Winner's Colored Choice Shrubs is a you know,
warm climate plant. I think it's hardy down to Usdazon nine,
so not terribly hardy, but these really cool clusters of
kind of bright golden, almost honeycomb like flowers. And I've
grown this also is a container plant and it does great.
I mean it's just flowers all season long, and hummingbirds
love it, and it's just it's a very very cool plant.
And you know, it's not surprising to me that your
neighbors are like, what in the heck is that? Because
it's not a plant that those of us in Michigan
are used to seeing. You know, we'll see mandavilla, we'll
see tropical high biscus, a lot of these patio plants
that have become really popular, but juice storms jutsamine is
not one of them. It's the first time a lot
of people are going to be seeing that plant.
Speaker 1: I wanted to shine the spotlight on the plant because
I love that plant. Another plant that I love is
creeping Time, and I have it growing in the hottest
spot of my landscape right along a side walk edge,
and I looked it up the other other day. Times
or time miss, however it's pronounced, is Greek for courage.
The origin of the word time is from a Greek
word which means courage, and Roman soldiers bathed in time
water to build physical strength. I just thought that was kind.
Speaker 2: That is very interesting, and I would say that the
plant Time, if it's in the right conditions, is also
a very brave and durable plant. I know it's self
sod all over in my garden. Meanwhile, I'm sure a
lot of our friends in humid climates who have wet
soil are having considerably less luck growing Time exactly now.
Speaker 1: He will also expose your soil preparation organic matter anyone.
And I wanted to throw this in Stacy because we've
talked on the show about the fact that I'm the
chipper guy, not that I'm you know, chipper, I mean
I like to chip leaves in the fall and use
him in my landscape. So doctor Thomas Smiley, I've met
him a few times. He's a plant physiotlogists and social
scientists at bartlet Tree Experts. I was at their research
laboratory in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here's the point. He did
a study on extreme temperature swings and the soil and
they used various types of mulch. They used stone multch,
no mulch. They tested or monitored the temperature variance on
concrete itself. The whole point here, Stacey, is that mulch
is important and a good mulch applied properly because there
is a big variation min max. Between heat of the
day temperatures and nighttime temperatures and that wild fluctuation. I
think there was a sixty eight degree differential in a
day on concrete, Oh my god. But with mulch soil,
and we've got the link to that study, we'll share
that with you. But you know, to be successful watering
deep as opposed to just lightly on the surface and
properly mulching plants, it's really going to go a long
ways towards helping you and the plants deal with the heat.
Speaker 2: Yes, And you know, can I just take this opportunity
to say how much I am loving this rain. I'm
gonna knock on wood, so I'm not chasing us. But
it has been several years since we have had this
much range in the growing season in Michigan. And the
irony of us doing a heat and humidity show when
we are in some of the coolest temperatures that we
have had at this time of year. But I just
want to say rain loving it. I hope you are too.
Speaker 1: It is great, It really is. Of course, there's lots
of improved varieties, cultivars of plants that help that we
have to use in our landscapes to deal with heat
and humidity. And I think about the annual side Stacey,
where years ago I would sell sweet to Listen and
in April and May it was beautiful when the weather
was cool, and then it would just melt out and
wither in the heat of summer. Now today you have
the Lobularia varieties snow Princess, Violet Night, White Night, very
very heat tolerant. It brings up the point that in
all categories of plants, many new cultivars are now available
including annuals where we're growing color blaze colias out in
the full sun, Salvia's which are widely known as sun
loving mojave per Slaine. It's just amazing to me what
we have at our fingertips today to use it really is.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think you made the point very
well there, which is proven. Winners does sell those new
heat tolerant alyssums not as alyssum, but as lobularia, which
is the scientific name for the plant, in an attempt
to differentiate it from those old fashioned sweet alyssms, which
absolutely did mel I mean, they could not they could
not withstand the heat even like back in the sixties
and seventies, they certainly can't with stand the heat now,
and so they're really trying to distance themselves from that plant.
Not to mention that there is also a scientific genus
a lissum, which is a totally different plant. So it's
one of those really confusing things. But very often you
will see that name change, you know, from the old
common name to something new. So to really help people
understand that this is not that same plant, you can
have a whole new set of expectations.
Speaker 1: You got it not the same old same. Oh well,
put And you know, we mentioned the fact that I
love the heat. Forgive me, I'm only humid, but I do.
And I've had real fascination with this because as a kid,
I would work on the farm all day. Then when
I got home, I would help my dad roof houses
in the middle of summer. Oh my god, that's a
hot job, right, yeah, and then us kids would go
to bed in the upper story bedroom, no air conditioning.
You know, it's August, it's hot. So I've wondered whether
or not I got to the point where I tolerated
the heat or if it was genetic. And I did
some reading on it, and they said probably only about
five percent of it is genetic enjoying the heat. And
then I, with fascination, looked at these Major League Baseball
studies that they had where they studied strikes and balls
and found that the umpires were less accurate as the
temperatures got hotter and hotter. Fascinating stuff. So people are
like plants. Plants are like people, and your plants may
struggle in the heat of summer. Fortunately, as we said,
many great plants will share some of those with you
on today's show and things that you can do to
deal with the heat or beat the heat. So here's
my limerick for today. When you're hot, you're hot. When
you're not, you're not. If your planting's unprepared when the
temperatures flared, it'll be a melting pot. When heat is
to the hilt, causing you and your plants to tilt.
As the temperatures elevate, make sure to hydrate or both
you and your plants will wilt.
Speaker 3: So true, right, so true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's see how Stacey ties this in and plants
on trial. That's coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified.
Speaker 2: Show, Beautify your home and community with proven Winn'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. Creating's Gardening Friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. We were talking
all about heat and humidity and plants that you can
grow in hot and humid conditions. Because you know whether
you live in a hot climate, or you live in
an area where it just sometimes gets a little hot.
You just don't want your plants to let you down
during that, you know, height of the season. Now, if
you are in the category of living in a rather
cool climate but you just have some hot days, you
may find that flowering shrubs like roses kind of take
a little break. Things that bloom normally would bloom for
a really long time, I have to take a little
break when it gets really really hot. If you are
in a hot climate that's always hot, you're gonna find
they're gonna take a longer break. But then as soon
as it starts to cool down and the night starts
to get a little bit longer, they should come roaring back.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Or something as simple as your turf is another grade.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, right, yeah, definitely. It's one of the reasons
why I got rid of my lawn actually, because you know,
I didn't water it and it turned all brown and horrible,
and I just said, I don't need to look at
this anymore. So now I have a lot of plants.
But you know, I think one of the things that
people are rather surprised to find out, and I have
seen this vividly illustrated throughout my fifteen years helping people
grow proven Winter's color choice shrubs is that there are
some very interesting things that happen when you grow in
a humid climate. So plants that are growing in high
humidity over long periods, they actually use less water than
plants that are growing in an arid climate. That humidity
actually limits the amount of water that the plant gives
off during photosynthesis. So during photosynthesis, a plant's stomata on
the underside of its leaves need to be open. When
it's very humid, that differential between the humidity in the
air and the water in the plant is much smaller,
and so it's not giving off as much water vapor.
It's not losing the same amount of water that it
would in our normal climate. And so that means that
the soil then tends to stain moisture because you are
not the plant's not taking that up and using that.
And I would say, you know a lot of people
I think who maybe spend a long time in the
north and move to a hot, humid climate like Texas
or Florida, you know, they want to grow the plants
that they grew up here.
Speaker 3: One of those plants.
Speaker 2: Is so certainly panicle hydranges, and over and over again
when I have seen them suffer, not not the people,
the hydranges, it's been because the soil is too wet,
because the hydrangees aren't using as much water now. So
it's really really crucial to have that well drained soil.
That's interesting, It is very interesting. And you know people
tend to think like, oh, well, hydrangers need a ton
of water, so I'm going to really be you know,
watering this a lot. So it's kind of a unique
challenge that people have in human climates that you know,
those of us who don't live in a human climate
wouldn't really consider.
Speaker 1: And when you talk about humidity, Stacey, one thing that
pops into my head my experience in the garden center
industry selling lots of house plants and humidity indoors, right,
and when you don't have that humidity indoors, the plants
really feel.
Speaker 2: It, yes, and they need a lot of water, right,
they would need outside. So when we talk about heat
and humidity, you know, it's not just like you were
talking about with doctor Ellen Armitage. If you live in
hot climate, you don't want a plant that merely tolerates
heat and humidity. You need something that is going to perform,
you know, like up here, we just want plants to
not die. Right down there, you need a plant to
perform because you're looking at this thing for far longer
than we are up here. Your spring starts earlier, your
winter comes later, so you tend to have a much
longer growing season. Now, a couple of factors that you're
going to want to look for, or what I would
say we look for when we say that a plant
is heat and humidity tolerant. Number one is going to
be disease resistance, because plants growing in humid conditions are
typically going to be a lot more susceptible to fungal
diseases like leaf spot, powdery mildew, black spot, all of those,
so many many diseases that are out there. And that's
important because of course, if like if here, if you
have a plant that gets a little bit of powdery
mildew or a leaf spot, you just kind of say, eh,
all right, it's fine, you can clean it up in
the winter.
Speaker 3: It's not a big deal. But if you live in a.
Speaker 2: Climate that's hot and they're always getting a lot of
leaf spot or a lot of powdery mil do year
after year after year. That will start to really affect
the plant's health because they are less effective at photosynthesis,
so they're not creating as much energy or food for themselves.
So over time, that can really really weaken a plant.
Not to mention that it looks kind of crummy, and
you don't really want that, you know, right in front
of your house in the middle of summer, looking sad.
So that disease tolerance is a really crucial part of
our equation for figuring out if something can grow in
hot human climates. The second factor, again is the ability
to potentially withstand wet soil. Now I'm not talking about
like soggy soil or flooded soil or anything like that,
but because plants in very humid environments are going to
use less water, the soil is going to stay moister,
and so something like a panicle hydrangea, if it's not
using all of the water that's there, it can lead
to root rot. That's a plant that is very sensitive
to root rot. It's actually, along with needing winter chill.
One of the reasons why lilacs tend to struggle so
much in those hotter climates because they also need immaculate drainage.
Can't take it, can't take wet soil whatsoever. And again,
you want a plant that's going to look great all season.
You don't want something that's just gonna peter out or
just be like, WHOA, I need to take a little
break until things get better, because you could be waiting
a really long time and then this plant is not
pulling its weight in your landscape. So for our friends
in the sweltering South, I am going to share a
little list of some of our shrubs that are ideally
suited for your climate. Now, arid tolerant plants are very different.
We are specifically focusing on heat and humidity today. Some
of these plants can do well equally well and in
an arid climate, but really these are ones that kind
of benefit from that humidity and are not set back
by it. So my number one ongoing alphabetical. So it
does happen to be number one, but it also happens
to be a great choice.
Speaker 3: Abelia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that plant.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a very I feel like because they have
really showy foliage. They have like kind of a little
bit of a tropical vibe. And yeah, they're just really
easy to care for and they create all season long.
So we've been really working with a lot of unique
abelias for those of us in the North, not a
plant we're typically familiar with. There are some hardier abelias
that you can find here and there, but they've just
never kind of taken off in the Midwest. But they're
shade tolerant, they're durable, they're very very deer resistant, fragrant
grape plants. But I'm talking specifically about foliage abelias, like
our varieties Mucho Gusto, which is a beautiful white and
mint green variegated variety. We also have Brilliantina, which is
yellow and green variegated, Poco Loco, which has yellow foliage
with pink red new growth. So it's kind of like
a candy corn spiria double play candy corns spyria of
super colorful plant. People are loving it. This Poco local
abelia is going to give you a kind of similar look.
It's also going to be very very shade tolerant. And
then this is the one I think you'd really love, rick,
and that is trace amigos avilia. Oh yes, it's kind
of got some some croton soft croton vibes for you, white, pink, green,
and yellow, and and all of these plants grow just
as a nice tidy mound. They are evergreen in you know,
hotter areas, semi evergreen and more mild ends of their
hardiness range typically white, sometimes pink flowers trumpet shaped, attract
tons of hummingbirds and butterflies. These are just great workhorse plants.
They don't mind the humidity. They can grow in the shade.
Just durable and interesting and beautiful plants all season long.
Perfect mendo azaleas, the you know, that is one of
those plants that for all of you down there in
the South who are wishing you could grow, you know,
incredible hydrangea and panicle hydrangels like we do and lilacs
in all of that. There are a lot of people
who wish they could grow reblooming azaleas. Perfect in window azaleas.
Speaker 1: They're beautiful. Yes, these are disease resistant.
Speaker 2: Very disease resistant. This is an important factor in our
selection process, is that they're going to be able to
resist leaf spot in all of the diseases that kind
of plagued old door varieties of azaleas. They love the humidity,
no problem whatsoever. They need good drainage, but moist soil
and humidity. They are right at home. And because they're
going to grow so much faster in that environment, you're
going to get that rebloom better and faster because they
rebloom on as much new growth as they are able
to put on after their spring bloom. Now, my personal choice,
if I could garden in a hot, humid climate, my
life would be full.
Speaker 3: Of camellias aw same here yep.
Speaker 2: One of my absolute favorites. And just I mean they're
like the perfect plant, right, just that beautiful glossy foliage,
amazing flowers, dear resistant. You can get small ones, you
can get big ones.
Speaker 3: They're great.
Speaker 2: So we have the Just Chill series, which is going
to flower in the fall, and then the warm Heart series,
which is a Camellia japonica or Japanese Camellia hybrid. These
things bloom. Are you ready for this? Twenty one weeks?
Speaker 3: Oh in the year. Twenty one weeks a year.
Speaker 2: That's five months, So you know that's a great thing
to have if you are in a hot you yes,
absolutely double take quins. We have great reports from all
sorts of hot and arid climates that these plants are
doing really really well for them. One of our favorite
plants here on the show El nino Chtelpa desert orchid.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about that further in a segment four.
Speaker 2: Well, let's do that, because there's a lot to say
about it, and also I'm out of time, so I
can't say anything more about it, and you know that
I want to do that, so I have to take
a little break. When we come back, grant to answer
questions in the mailbag and continue our discussion on heat
tlerant plants.
Speaker 3: To stay tuned.
Speaker 2: At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, we know that a
better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team of
experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs and
evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure they outperform
what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs
to accentuate your home and express your personal style, look
for Proven Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container at
your local garden center or learn more at Proven Winner's
Color Choice dot com. Creating's Gardening friends and welcome back
to the Gardening simplified show worhood is our pleasure to
help you with your gardens questions, quandaries and conundrums, and
of course celebrations, although I think it's maybe a little
early in the season for celebrations just yet.
Speaker 1: We're having some victories.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, like all the rain.
Speaker 2: My garden is looking better at this point than it
has like in the last two or three years, where
we have been in a drought or precipitously close to
a rout. So I count that as a win. But
if you have a question that you would like us
to answer on air, you can leave it as a
comment on our YouTube show, or you can reach us
at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. There is a contact
from there. You can even include some photos. There are
only so many questions we can answer at every episode,
so please do reach out to us at Prevenwinner's Color
Choice dot com if we don't get to your question
on the show, because we do care about getting you
the information that you need. But not everything is suited
for radio because you know, some people actually aren't watching
in YouTube and trying to explain things that they can't
see can be a little bit challenging.
Speaker 1: And that's when we have to paint pictures with words.
Speaker 2: That's right, in ten minutes, which is the tricky part.
I could do it if I had a lot more time.
But anyway, so what do we got into the mailbag today?
Speaker 1: Rick Carmela writes to us. A few years ago, I
purchased an heirloom seed packet of Nigella sativa from Jefferson's Monticello.
I had no clue what they were, but we're so
wonderfully surprised when the most beautiful, delicate flowers popped up. However,
they've taken over a big chunk of my perennial garden
and some of my lawn. Oh boy, how do I
prevent these nigella from receding? Cut the seed pods off
once they've dried, yanked the stems from the root. I'm
in Zone seven, a long island. Love your show, Thank
you right?
Speaker 2: So, Nigella sativa is also known with the lovely poetic
name of love in a mist. Yes, isn't that such
a great name? And they are beautiful. So they're typically
white or blue, and they have this five petaled flower
and this kind of lacy foliage. I'm look at me
I'm painting a picture with words, and then when the
flower fades, they turn into this cool ballooney like seed pod. Yes,
and I've been trying to get this thing to self
sow in my garden for.
Speaker 3: A couple of years now.
Speaker 2: So Carmela, forgive me if I'm a little jealous, but
as someone who encourages self sowing annuals like this nigella
or love in a mist in my garden, I definitely
know the feeling when things start to get out of control. Now,
I will say most self sowers that we not all,
but most self sowers that we grow in our gardens
that we planted from seed and have managed to establish
themselves and perpetuate themselves year after year. They typically are
pretty easy to remove. You know. We're not talking about
stuff with like, you know, obnoxious like grassroots or things
that go way down and you gotta work hard. Yes,
nothing like that. They're usually pretty shallow rooted and pretty
easy to control. So I do think that hand pulling
is somewhat of a reasonable solution, depending on how many
there are. And I think that you're absolutely right, Carmelo
when you say should I cut the seed pods off
once they have dried, because first of all, I wouldn't
even wait till they dried. I would just go ahead.
You know, if you're sick and tired of this thing,
you probably don't even mind mowing them down when they're
still in flower, and never even mind if they don't
get to the seed stage. But yeah, if they're green
and you can just kind of deadhead them, then you
don't have to worry if that's mowing the lawn at
that time or just in that area to make sure
that you take those heads off so it doesn't self.
So the other thing you could consider is a pre
emergent herbicide, you know, and those are pretty easy to use.
There's typically little risk to non target you know, items
in your garden. It's a granule that you sprinkle around
and it prevents seeds from germinating. Now, the nice thing is,
I think with just one season of this, you're going
to be able to take care of that plant and
it will not be an issue anymore.
Speaker 1: I agree too, And my suggestion was going to be
corn gluten. Oh, I really do believe it works. Corn
gluten is a natural nitrogen source for you. It's an
organic or natural type weed control not that it kills
weeds that are vegetative, but in the seed state and
keeps seeds from growing. And you can buy many different
labels of corn gluten. That's what I do.
Speaker 2: And it's not corn meal, it's corn gluten meal. These
are different things. Yes, now I know that that's been
used extensively for crabgrass. I did know that it was
kind of a general pre emergent. Yes, okay, well there
you have it.
Speaker 3: Give that a try.
Speaker 2: You probably will need to go to some sort of
agricultural specialty store, not something you're likely to find just
at the local hardware store.
Speaker 3: But you never know. What do we got next?
Speaker 1: Next up we have Kathy. She writes, I have a
holy grail summerrific hibiscus.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: I love that plant that has been damaged by herbicide drift.
I live in mid Missouri, Zone six B. I have
no idea where this came from. Also affected my rows
of sharon, tomato and pepper plants. After about three weeks,
I finally can see that new healthy growth that's coming back.
Should I prone off the damage growth on the top?
If so, how far? Also will this affect the flowering season?
Speaker 2: Right? So, herbicide damage is something or herbicide drift damage
is something that I see a surprising amount and a
lot of people don't know what it is. So it's
not necessarily the plant was, you know, accidentally hit with herbicide.
It's that when an herbicide is applied, whether that's you
or your neighbors, or a lawn service, or it could
be someone honestly houses away from you, it doesn't have
to be even really directly in your vicinity, and very
very tiny aerosolized particles of the herbicide drift on the
wind land on your plant and aren't enough to kill it,
but are enough to majorly disrupt to the growth, because
that is what an herbicide is, it is a growth disruptor.
So it's just kind of enough to do some weirdness
to the plant, and it is weird. If you look
up herbicide drift and do an image search for this,
you're going to see some crazy stuff.
Speaker 1: And it's a scary thing, Stacey. It's something that I'm
really attuned to, and you know, I'll always tell people
you follow the label directions, make sure that the air
is calm if you're going to use this type of
project product know what you're doing. Herbicide drift is the scary.
Speaker 2: Thing it is, and like I said, it doesn't even
have to be you. You could be totally opposed to
using erbsides and never use it and it's just these
tiny little droplets. I do think that a lot of
lawn services are probably the culprit because they are the
ones using more of the high powered equipment that's really
going to be you know, shoving that out at a
higher velocity so that aerosolized particles can drift. Obviously it's
an issue for people who live in more rural areas
around farms and that kind of thing. It can be
very common. So a lot of people will see herbicide
damage and think that it's an insect or a disease.
But it's very common to see this. So she sends
some pictures, so of course those are on our YouTube
channel so that you can see them. And I think,
you know, it can sometimes be mistaken from mite damage,
but I think the fact that it's affected so many
different plants all at once does kind of suggest that
it was indeed herbicide drift. Now, whether a plant grows
out of herbicide drift in the same season or not
depends on many factors, how much it was hit, and
the plant itself. I have seen some reputable sources say
that plants, some plants will never grow out of it
and they'll always be kind of stunted. Whereas I say,
what I have seen help people through this, they typically
have come back. So it's great that it's starting to
put on some fresh new growth. Whether this thing is
going to flower or not this year, I can't say yet.
It's too early for flower buds to start. The nice
thing about the summarific hibiscus, they are indeterminate growers. So
whereas old fashioned perennial hibiscus were determinate, basically they would grow,
they'd reach a certain point, they'd set their a certain
number of flower buds, open those flowers, and that was it.
Speaker 3: They wouldn't keep growing.
Speaker 2: The summarific hibiscus do keep growing, so that's why it's
able to actually hopefully outpace that herbicide damage and continue
to grow. But because they do continue to set their
flower buds on new growth, I would not recommend pinching
this back or pruning it back.
Speaker 1: I agree, you know, August is still a long ways
off early August generally when they bloom, and the plant
being a native plant to North America, it grows pretty aggressively.
I would agree, I would step back and see what happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely would not recommend doing any cutting back
of it. And I think what you can do is
you can give it some fertilizer right now and try to,
you know, make sure that it doesn't get stressed, to
help it more rapidly outpace the damage from the herbicide.
I tend to think that this is especially in a
perennial like this, where it's going to die back to
the ground, it should be fine in the future. You
might miss a year this year, which of course is
always very very unfortunate, but you know, overall, from the
pictures that Kathy sent, they look like surprisingly healthy plants
that weren't really set back. Okay that heart And the
other thing about the herbicide drift is it tends to
impact the new growth. So whatever growth was kind of
in bud at the time of the herbicide drift, that
is a layer that's affected. So you very often will
get a plant that was growing just fine gets the
herbicide drift has this little like blip of weirdness and.
Speaker 3: Then continues to grow out of that.
Speaker 2: So if you're seeing unexplained growth, always something to consider, Stacy.
Speaker 1: I want to get thirty seconds of advice from you, okay,
because I've been looking forward to this question. Amy wrote
to us about sonic bloom wogila. I love those plants.
I love them, have them in my landscape. But she's
asking about pruning. Is it a plant you can prune?
I mean, is there a certain time you should prune them?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: I know people get really confused on reblooming shrubs, But
with a reblooming shrub, whether it's bloomeranging lilac or sonic bloom,
a reblooming white gela, you're going to want to prune
it after its spring bloom. So let it bloom and spring,
finish that up, and then go ahead and do your pruning.
And Amy's asking about shaping her plants. You got a
small mail order plant that hasn't been shaped very well,
so now it would be going on right about now,
it would be a great time to prune that, cut
it back, and then as much new growth as the
plant is able to put on between now. And you know,
creating its buds in about six to eight more weeks.
That's how much it will rebloom.
Speaker 1: Amy, thanks for asking the question, because I had the
same question, and now I.
Speaker 2: Know I've been hearing from a lot of gardeners actually
lately about the sonic bloom whigela in pruning. So you
don't have to prune it, but if you want to
prune it, now is the time. We're going to take
a little break. When we come back, we are continuing
our conversation on heat and humidity tolerant plants, so please
stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast,
brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our
award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested
by experts with your success in mind. Learn more at
Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. As we talk
about heat and humidity and Stacey. For our YouTube viewers,
I'm going to have Adriana drop in a picture of
me crossing the finish line at the Chicago Marathon October ten,
twenty twenty one. You would think in Chicago in October,
the temperatures would be kind of coolish and windy. Temperatures
were close to ninety degrees for the marathon with eighty
seven percent relative humidity.
Speaker 3: Ouch.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. It was memorable. So I ran that
Chicago marathon. And we talked in the first segment about
how I think, growing up as a kid, I was
acclimated to heat and humidity, so it doesn't bother me now.
A lot of plants are that way also, And in
segment two you mentioned one of my favorite plants, el Nino.
Speaker 2: Yes, And you know, it's such an interesting example of
what I was saying in Plants on Trial about plants
being tolerant of arid conditions or humid conditions, or in
some cases both. So el Nino is a hybrid between Chalopsis,
which is a native to the American Southwest, also known
as desert willow, even though it's not really related to
willows at all, is sometimes known as desert willow, so
a very arid climate plant. The other plant, the other
parent is Katelpa, which of course is blooming right now
for us in Michigan. I just saw an absolutely gorgeous
one in flower, and Katalpa is kind of native to
the southeast and south YEP, and it's really used to
the humidity. So by combining these two, the breeder, doctor
Tom Rainey of North Carolina State University, managed to come
to give Chilopsis desert willow the humidity tolerance of Katelpa
and so it's equally as good in hot and arid
climates as it is in hot and humid climates. So
it's a really interesting kind of approach of developing human
midity tolerance because like that's not something a lot of
people think of and they think of plant breeding. They
think we're just looking for different flowers or leaf colors
or sizes or things like that. But you know, this
atmospheric tolerance is a big part of what plant breeders do.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So you look at the native range and I've
been doing some reading on the plant because I love it,
Stacy in my landscape and it said to me, Chalopsis
is what you said, right? Native range south central Texas,
south to Mexico and west all the way to southern
California and Baja California. I want to talk about hot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is amazing, the heart of hot and dry.
Speaker 1: So I've found with heat tolerant plants, many of them
have similar characteristics, whether it's a silvery hairy foliage, succulent foliage,
or maybe thin foliage. I love the super locust, the
Onethra annual, all that proven winters has as a heat
tolerant annual. It's an evening primrose. But many of these
plants have that. You look at Sunny Boulevard, the hypericum
right yea has almost willow like foliage. Or you look
at my loved ornamental grasses, thin leaves with a mid
drib where they can fold on themselves, so they basically
the plant to where their native too, has a tendency
to adapt to this heat. In humidity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we talk a lot about adaptations to cold,
you know, retid in introducing their leaf surface and how
conifers can kind of you know, put their needles in
a little bundle to reduce the surface exposure to cold.
But there are similar adaptations to heat and humidity and
aridity as well.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Scavola one of my favorite annuals. And if you
look at Whirlwind or Star Diva, I understand it. The
plant is native. It's an Australian native and we both
know how hot it can get in Australia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, I always love to talk about
how the proven Winner's brand was actually founded on Scavola. Yes,
because it was popular in Australia. It was a hanging
basket plant, and it was about hanging basket plant down
there that people could grow in that very very hot
climate and it would flower and if you were a
little bit neglectful with the watering, it wouldn't be totally
set back and die. And so, you know, plant explorers
here were like, hey, this would be great for America.
But they were also like, well, with a name like Scavola,
who was going to grow this plant? How are they
going to know what's special about it? And that it's
going to be able to tolerate the seat and then
it has all these great qualities. We need to market
this plant when we bring it over. So we are
going to ask growers to pay a little bit extra
a penny, two pennies, whatever, and we're going to make
a marketing campaign with that extra money to help people
understand everything that this plant can do. And that was
the very first proven Winn's plant was a Scavola.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. I love visiting the Plains states in the
United States, and of course how hot and windy and
dry it can get there in the summer. And you
look at the panicoms, love growing them, or penstemen, all
of these types of plants. I'm excited about dragon slayer
yucca in my landscape. That's a new, proven winter's variety. Also,
I love Gompfrina's as a wonderful annual truffle of pink
in the landscape and stacy. If we're talking about heat
and humidity, we probably should make sure to quickly touch
on herbs also because basil, rosemary time all notorious for
their ability to handle sun and heat.
Speaker 2: Yes, and you know, some of those plants are going
to be very They're really going to need good drainage,
and so they can be an issue if you live
in a very very humid climate. You want to make
sure that they're in full sun getting good air circulation
because you know, rosemary, as anyone who is attempted to
grow rosemary indoors can tell you, extremely susceptible to powdery
mildew in less than ideal conditions. But yeah, I mean
they're very, very heat tolerant, and you know, the hotter
it is, the better they do them, and the more
herbs you get to harvest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because they grow.
Speaker 1: More mohave yellow. The per Slaine Porta Laca. I love
that plant. Great annual to use in your landscape. The
Toucan cannas are great and Southern blaze red hot flocks.
It has Texas roots, great for attracting pollinators. I wanted
to ask you, Stacy, are you still proceeding with your
hopes or plans to grow some more zenias in your lands?
Speaker 2: Yes, they are sprouted and growing, and I know it'll
be several weeks yet until I see any action, especially
since I did unfortunately start a little bit later than
I would have liked. So if that was also you,
you're in good company. But yeah, I mean I fell
in love with zindias last year and now I can't
live without them because I want to go into my
garden and see them covered in butterflies. It was just
an amazing moment.
Speaker 1: I love that. And when you talk about trees, of
course you've got a touch on citrus, citrus being a
heat loving tree. But that brings me back to segment
two and plants on trial. I wanted use Stacey to
give us a hed ucation on jazz hands, because this
is one I haven't grown, but I'm thinking about growing
in my.
Speaker 2: Landscape, right so, jazz hands Laura pedlum also known as
Chinese fringe flower, but a super popular plant landscape plant
in the South. I mean, if you are basically anywhere
from Georgia south and even all the way over into
California Arizona. Laura pedlum is an extremely popular landscape plant
because there are green foliage varieties, but it's the purple
foliage people love. And it's a really nice, dark, deep
purple with these cool fringy flowers that look like jazz hands. Yeah,
it's a really beautiful plant. And the Jazz Hands series
came to us from Japan, which I can tell you
is a very hot and humid climate. So it's a
great place for, you know, someone who is looking for
all of those traits, color retention during hot weather, long
lasting flowers, a good shape, new habits, and especially jazz
hands variegated, which is the only variegated Laura pedlum out there,
And that is a great plant, especially, I think for
those of us who are looking for unique patio color,
willing to take a chance on something like that. There's
really no other plant like it. It reminds me a
little bit of a plant that used to be kind
of popular. Is a summer color plant, but you can't
find much more. Brainia also known as Hawaiian snowbush. I
think kind of like really beautiful white foliage with pink
and green dappled variegation. Almost looks like the Corona chiky willow.
But it's a tropical plant, and that I feel like,
was everywhere, you know, twenty some years ago, and now
I haven't seen one in years. So if you're listening
and you are grower, please bring that back. It's a
really cool plant.
Speaker 1: And that's the point. There are so many great plants
for the heat. Luscious Lantana has performed wonderfully in my
landscape in pots. I love lavender. I think lavender does
great in the heat. Guara false sunflower or heliopsis, and
I'm excited about forged in fire. It's a false sunflower
heliopsis that's coming next year, dark burgundy to orange eyes.
And then of course you've got Tuscan sun Tuscan gold
raised for days, touch of blush, all really really great
plants that respond well to the heat. And then you
got to quickly touch on setums. Also, people know them
as stone crop, a large genus of plants hardy, very hearty, hardy,
many of them hardy to USDA Zone three. And then
look at all the great new varieties that are out
there today with dark foliage, the rock and grow seedums
like back in Black, Midnight, velvet, coral, jade, lemon jade, yellow, brick,
road love seedams. The interesting thing about seedams, though, Stacy,
is that I have found they are not dear resisting.
Speaker 2: They are not and they're certainly not rabbit resistant. Yeah.
So the nice thing about them, though, is if a
little critter comes by and prunes off the flowers, at
least you still got a great looking plant.
Speaker 3: That's right, That's what I tell myself.
Speaker 1: That's it. Well, when it's hot, it's hot. When it's not,
it's not. Hopefully you're able to enjoy the heat this
summer and your plants too.
Speaker 3: If it ever does get hot.
Speaker 1: If it ever gets Stacy, thank you, thank you, Rick,
thank you Adriana, and thanks to you for watching us
on YouTube, listening to the radio version of the show,
or finding the podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
Have a great week. M.