Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A here at proven Winns Color Choice Shrubs.
It's the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacey Hervella me, Rick
weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well orange,
you glad that there are orange flowers for your landscape, Stacy.
This is a polarizing topic, the color orange. See. I
think orange is optimistic, enthusiastic, it's bold, it's warm, it's
attention grabbing. But for other people it's too bright and overwhelming.
Some people have a visceral reaction to the color, tending
to either love it or hate it. I mean, if
you think about it, orange can cause you to think
of road construction, barrels, prison jumpsuits, life jackets.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that's all good examples of orange.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love the color orange. It's part of my
Dutch heritage. Of course, as the Prince of Orange, William
of Orange became the natural leader of the Dutch uprising
against Spain. That was a long long time ago, but
orange has been a symbol of national pride in the
Netherlands four years. And of course when I've visited the Netherlands,
nothing like orange, tulips or frittle areas. I love frittle
areas or orange frittle areas with a backdrop. Got a
picture for our YouTube viewers on that. And of course,
at this time of the year, the orange color and
tree leaves comes from the caratenoid pigments which are present
in the leaves all year long. But then, of course
when the green chlorophyll breaks down and fall, the days
get shorter, colder, many of the trees turn a beautiful,
beautiful orange. I was looking at sassafras trees the other
day along the lake shore, just beautiful and I don't
know if it's a fig leaf of my imagination, but
it seems like the moon in October too. I was
taking pictures over Lake Michigan the other day, almost has
this orange color to it, so nothing like the color
of orange in the months of October and November. Orange
on the color wheel sits between red and yellow. So
the question is does orange reflect energy or caution in
your garden? And Stacy, for me, it's one hundred percent energy.
I'm a guy who loves hot weather, so I celebrate
orange in the garden. Orange to me feels like August,
one of my favorite times of the year. And I
also love mojave tangerine perse lane again because I'm a
retired guy, so I can look at it during the day.
But I love the color in my landscape.
Speaker 2: I'm too well, you know. I mean, I've said it before.
I love hot, bright colors. And of course orange does
have a lighter side, which would be called peach. And
we've already done a peach show, yea, so now we're
doing it's you know, Bossier Boulder Bigger sister. I guess
I do love orange in the garden. I don't have
a lot of orange in the garden, I kind of
realized as I was thinking through it. Except for my containers,
my prized containers. My favorite ones are a matched set
of bright orange glate ceramic urns. Oh and that's what
I usually put my vermilionaire in nice because that's a
great combination, it's a good size. I love that those
two plant those together. So yeah, I kind of built
all of my you know, containers that I have around
this pair of orange urns, and therefore all of my
annuals tend to be orange, yellow, purple, or red to
kind of go with that.
Speaker 1: And you bring that up, Koufi a vermilionaire has got
to be at near the top of the list of
orange favorites. Attracts hummingbirds to your landscape. I love that.
This past year I fell in love with the Inca
holland Peruvian lily or the austromerias. Now I have yet
to see whether or not it's gonna overwinter in my garden.
I'm hoping it does. But that color of orange is amazing.
And as you mentioned, Stacy, there are so many different
shades of orange, from pastel colors to bright oranges, and
of course in fall the rust brown types of orange colors,
pumpkin orange. It's a great color. I think it's playful.
I love the pink orange color combination in the landscape
in summer. To me, it feels exotic, it feels like
Miami Beach. It feels tropical and playful. Orange and chartruse
or orange and lime green can do that for me also.
And then in fall, something that has become very popular
or over the past few years is bright orange pansies
with black pants.
Speaker 2: Oh, I love that very Halloween. Yeah, it's a great
I love orange pansies. And you know you don't see
the orange pansies in the spring, so much because spring
they tend to favor the blues and purples and more
of those cool pastel colors. So it's nice that orange
pansies are finally having their day. They deserve it.
Speaker 1: You got it, They deserve it. Orange and navy together
navy blue. Of course, I love blue, but you put
navy blue with orange, it can kind of anchor the landscape.
Speaker 2: No pun in the Detroit Tigers.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Detroit Tigers.
Speaker 2: You're right, that's what I always think of, what I
think of a navy at orange.
Speaker 1: That's a good point. Orange and dark green. Pairing orange
with emerald green brings energy to any space. Of course,
orange and brown rust feels like fall.
Speaker 2: In the seventies and the seventies.
Speaker 1: You're right, appliant kitchen appliants.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, like I'm sure everybody in our
listening audience right now also has like an afghan that
a grandmother or great aunt or someone crocheted them in
the seventies, and it is almost invariably orange and brown.
Adriana is nodding right now for the benefit of our
listeners because it's such a widespread phenomenon.
Speaker 1: It's true, It's true. I think about the red, yellow
and orange combination. And when I see red yellow orange,
I often think of solosia. There's a twisted orange coxcomb
or solosia that's available. But that color of red, yellow
and orange together, of course, is fiery in the landscape
always makes me think of silosia.
Speaker 2: Siloja, I would say, underutilized annual.
Speaker 1: Yes, I agree.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a really cool plant, and I feel
like it's kind of fallen out of favor. You don't
really see a lot of people growing it. If you
get lucky, maybe at a farmer's market you might see
the big coxcomb silosia, which I think are the cooler
ones over the kind of plumy ones. But those are
great too. I mean, I love hot colors, so of
course I love silosia.
Speaker 1: You bet you. In history, of course, the artist Vincent
van Goh used a lot of orange in his paintings,
mixing yellow and red to create unique shades. I should
call him Vincent van grow We go way back, but
he liked orange, and of course with orange, the complementary
color on a simple color wheel is blue. So in
your landscape, if you can combine orange with blue, it
can make quite a statement within your landscape. And in
segment four today will go down the list of some
favorite orange plants that you can use in your landscape.
But again, Stacy, orange is the color of road construction barrels,
and life jackets and prison jumpsuits. Like I said, so
for some people they just don't want it in their.
Speaker 2: Like, well, there's no hiding from orange. That's why all
these things that need high visibility tend to be orange,
because they really stand out. So that can be I
think a problem for some people when it comes to plants,
because there is no escaping it and it will grab
all the attention. It could potentially be seen as you know,
I don't know, tacky or vulgar. I would never see
it that way because I like bold strokes in the garden.
But overall, and i'll talk about this in Plants on Trial,
for hardy plants, there aren't really that many orange shrubs.
It's true, definitely a lot of perennials, and we'll talk
about this later too, But overall, for orange flowering shrubs
that are hardy for those of us in cold climates,
a relatively small number. If you live in a hot climate,
you're spoiled for choice.
Speaker 1: Interesting I we'll dig deeper into that in segment four
and look at some of those plants, because boy, this
morning I was looking at my Kodiak orange der villa,
and boy, that's beautiful this time.
Speaker 2: You know. It has been one of the reasons that
we had the idea to do a show based around
orange is because I don't remember fall ever feeling quite
so orange as it does this year. And I don't
know if it's because of our drought, you know, or
in certain it's bringing out certain pigments, but like tons
and tons of red maples out here over this year
have just turned the most brilliant, beautiful, blazing orange, and
I just don't really remember them being quite so orange.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe it's a figment of a fig leaf of
my imagine.
Speaker 1: There you go, but it's gorgeous. Well, I'll tell you
what to tie into orange. And by the way, when
I think of orange in the landscape, brilliant orange, I
always think of poppies and I think of tuberus pegonias.
Those two plants have some just unbelievably orange blooms. So
for today's limb a Rick, I thought, seeing we're talking
about orange. I'd make it a road construction limb a rick.
Without you, life would be duller. Every day with you
is fuller. You've got my attention. Even though you cause tension, Orange,
you glad that I'm a color. You're far from anything sterile.
You warn me of impending peril. I think you're hot,
even though used a lot as a road construction barrel.
Speaker 2: Aw. Yeah, that was a very nice tribute to the
color orange.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I like orange. Let's see how Stacey ties
this in in plants on trial. That's coming up next
here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: Beautify your home and community with proven Winner's Color Choice
shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties
to choose from. There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for every
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Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome
back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we have one
of our color shows where we're just talking about one
single color and how to use it in the garden,
whether that is with plants or infrastructure. Containers or anything
like that, and that color today is orange. And you know,
I was thinking plants on trial. I always tried to
talk about one of the three hundred and fifty plus
proven Winter's color choice shrubs. Tell you all about it
so you can decide if you want to put it
in your garden. And so I was looking through our
selection of shrubs, and we do have some really great
orange flowers in our line. We've got Double Take orange,
We've got Happy Face orange, and there's also some roses
of course that have orange and peachy type of colors.
We've got orange foliage plants like you mentioned Kodiak orange.
We've got Double Play candy corn, which is orange in spring.
But overall, when I was thinking about the yes, I
realized that our friends in hot climates are the ones
who are really spoiled for choice when it comes to
orange flowers. Because when I was just kind of creating a,
you know, off the top of my head list of
orange flowers, like I was really leaning into the tender stuff,
like have you ever seen Pride of Barbados Sessalpinia pulcarama.
Just a beautiful plant, you see it, It's hardy down
to his own nine. So not party at all, basically,
but you'll see it, I think like in New Orleans.
You'll see it obviously in the very southern, most warm
parts of the kind of us. Just an absolutely gorgeous plant.
It is in the mean family, and the flowers are
orange and red and have these long stamens. Some people
call it peacock flower, even though it's all orange and
red and it has this fine foliage. It's just a
spectacle in a sight to behold when it's in bloom.
Tropical Hibiscus, so many orange tropical hibiscus, especially in the
Hollywood hibiscus line. Tacoma. We have chick lit orange tacoma,
which is a plant that I grew this year in
my annuals. Great plant for hummingbirds. Lantana extra Boogainvillia, Crossandra,
Osmanthus fragrance. There's just so many orange plants.
Speaker 1: Bird of Paradise.
Speaker 2: Bird of Paradise great, one of.
Speaker 1: My favorites when I go to a tropical region.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Strelitzia. So if you live in a warm climate,
plenty of options for orange. But if you live in
a colder climate, uh, you're a little bit more limited
in what you can grow, and I wanted to take
a different obviously already named a bunch of our plants
that do have orange in them, but today's plant on
trial is something that's a little bit different. It's also
fairly new. It is berry box pyrocomialies. Now you remember
pyrocanther r oh sold in the right. So Pyracantha also
known as firethorn, which what an awful common name. Whoever
came up with that was not in my marketing. It
was so popular, like maybe in the eighties and nineties. Yeah,
and you know, people grew it. It had thorns on it, obviously,
so in spring it would bloom with white flowers and
then those would turn into red berries, looking a bit
like a mountain ash, which it's related to because they're
in the same family, the rose family, And so it
was really those berries that it was known for. Now,
I personally have a very fraught relationship with Pyrocantha because
this is really horrible, So a virture ears if you must.
But when I was working as a landscaper in college
in the summer, someone had a big pyracantha against their
wall at the entrance to their condo, and I was
trimming it with heads trimmers, and I cut in half
a huge moth that I did not know was in there.
Of course, I mean, of course I didn't know that
it was in there, and so I'm just going with
the with the hedge tremors, and then this thing starts
flopping and I had just cut I couldn't even tell
you what kind of like one of those really big
hairy moths. So that's what I always think of. I
kind of have this like traumatic response to two pyracantha.
But this isn't a pyracantha. This is a pyrocomialise. And
what that means that it is a hybrid between Pyracantha
and a warm climate evergreen known as Osteomilees. And what
that cross does is it conserves all of the great
features of Pyracantha, with those numerous white flowers in the
spring that turn into numerous orange berries in the summer
and fall with a dwarf habit. So now instead of
having that you know, ten foot tall pyracantha that some
you know, college landscaper has to come along and slaughter
a moth in, you have just like a little one
that you can put anywhere in your landscape. And it
doesn't ever need trimming.
Speaker 1: Beautiful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it gets to be about two to three
and a half feet tall and wide. It is hardy
down to We list it as hardy down to USDA
Zone seven with six B in parentheses. We have had
good survival here in West Michigan, but I always couch
that for other Zone six B gardeners with the fact
that we do have a little bit miles or winters
because of our proximity to Lake Michigan, and we have
reliable snow cover. Because this is an evergreen, that snowcover
can be really really important in helping that foliage survive
the winter because it's got the insallation of the snow.
Whereas if you're in like a Missouri or Kansas USDA
Zone six B and you have really open, exposed winters,
it might not be such a great choice. Then I
would say it's more of a USDA Zone seven. So
the asta Ostia made it smaller but a little bit
less heardier, but it still has a lot of the
great features of a pyracantha, which is to say, I
think it has even more flowers than your standard pyrocantha,
and they're really cool because they're quite small, but very numerous.
They start out white, and then as each individual florette ages,
it turns pink. So it's really like kind of a
multicolor effect with the yellow stamens. It's really really pretty.
And then those become green berries, and as the season
goes on, they become orange berries, and it's a really
cool effect. And again, because it does flower so numerously,
this thing is just absolutely a little ball of bright
berries by the time fall rolls around. Now here's another
really cool thing about this plant. It's an orange show.
So the berries are orange right now for Halloween, so perfect.
As it starts to get a little bit colder in
the coming months, it will turn to red. So it's
like a multi holiday plant. Orange in time for Halloween, holidays,
bread and time for Christmas. It's kind of like a
win win.
Speaker 1: Now, do birds like the berries on it as much
as I recall them liking the berries on Piratekantha? So
I remember birds getting drunk?
Speaker 2: Yeah right, yeah, because they wait until they're softened and
fermented at the end of the season. And that's really
a win win. Okay, not because you can watch the
birds get drunk, because they do get drunk because sometimes
they fall out of the tree. Usually they're okay when
they sober up. But so the good thing about that situation, though,
is that they don't eat the berries in the middle
of the season when you can't even enjoy them. You
can actually let enjoy them all season, and then by
the time they've been frozen thought, frozen thought frozen thought.
By the time February March rolls around, they're fermenting on
the tree and you don't need them anymore because by
then you're you know, so deathtails are coming up, right,
So everybody's happy, and it's just it's a it's a
really interesting plant now it is. It does still have thorns.
I mean, we have to go back to the fact
that Pyrocantha has that name firethorn because it is thorny.
It's not like the big, super sharp thorns. But the
cool thing about this compared to Pyrocantha, which again reaches
ten to twelve feet tall and wide, because this is
staying in that two to three and a half foot
range as long as you cite it properly, you never
really have to prune it to have to deal with
those thorns, and you.
Speaker 1: Don't have to provide some kind of structure, solid structure
like you had to with pyro.
Speaker 2: Cant absolutely, so Pyrocantha always needed to have some sort
of lattice type structure. Yeah, this just grows like a
nice little cascading ball kind of shape. It does not
need a pollinator, so that's always a bonus too, because
you don't need to have some sort of separate plant
that you have to go by and find it's self fruitful.
So you only need one, but of course you might
want more. Yeah, that's confusing. Yeah, so this is self fruitful.
You only need one in the foliage. So I said,
it's an evergreen, and the foliage is a narrow and
very glossy and leathery, so it really has a very
different look than a lot of things in the landscape.
And I think it's just a very very landscape worthy plant.
If you live in USDA Zone six B, again, maybe
a protected spot you can give it a try, but
definitely if you're in zones seven through nine. This is
a great, unexpected, really new choice for the landscape that
provides great interest in spring actually year round because it
is an evergreen. Now, whether it is deer resistant, I
don't know, I don't know it has thorns, but of course,
as we all know, roses have thorns and deer adore them,
and it is also in the rose family. So my
general guidance for people who are dealing with deer and
are wondering if something new is deer resistant, if it's
in the rose family, I would normally just say probably
not dear resistant. So don't have any firsthand experience with
that yet, but I have heard that the deer love
plant in the rose ac so much because they're high
vitamin C, so they are undeterred by the thorns or
anything else like that because they're like, oh, this is
so nutritious. I'm just gonna, you know, get prickled in
my mouth and eat it anyway because I gotta do it.
So that is berry box pyrocomiies, again a little bit
of a different plant. It's new and there's a lot
of interest. So I would also look forward in the
future as a holiday decor plant, not having to worry
about it as a landscape plant so much, but just
to enjoy in the winter. There's a lot of potential
for this one. So if you didn't join us on
YouTube to see what it looks like. Make sure you
visit proven Winter's Color Choice dot Com and take a look.
We're going to take a little break and then when
we come back, we're opening up the mailbag, so stay
tuned at Proven Winters 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. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back
to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is our time
and pleasure to help you with your gardening questions, quandaries
and conundrums or celebrations. We always like to say, because
you know, not everyone has fellow gardening friends in their life.
It can get excited about little things that maybe other
people in your life are like, what why are you
excited about that? I don't understand? And it's always good
to have gardening friends anyway, because you can.
Speaker 1: Share plants right exactly.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a it's a big split, your big opportunity,
but we're always happy to hear from you. You can reach
us the Gardening Simplified on air dot com or if
you are watching us on YouTube. I'll just leave a
comment and we answer all of those questions that are
on there, and if it's a good question that's easy
to answer on the air, well, then we might just
add you to that list as well. So lots of
ways to get in touch with us, even though of
course the gardening season is wound down, if not winding
down for most of us. You know, even in hot climates,
these do go dormant, so you kind of get a
little bit of a rest there. But thinking ahead to
next year, you know, we.
Speaker 1: Dream and ponder three hundred and sixty five days out
of the year, and you.
Speaker 2: Know, since we are here in about mid November, it
is always worth saying if you have bulbs and your
ground is not frozen, yes you can still plant them.
I always want to get that in there because I
don't think we're doing a bulb show this year. I
will probably be planting my bulbs Thanksgiving weekend kind of
a little tradition for me.
Speaker 1: So I've planted them as late as Christmas.
Speaker 2: You said, you've been out there with a pickax in
a headlight, like an old miner, except bulbs. Your richness
is bulbs.
Speaker 1: Sheep, close out bulbs. You put them in the ground. Yeah,
do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2: That's how you increase your collection. All right, So what
do we got in the mailbag today?
Speaker 1: Nita writes to us In March of twenty twenty three,
I planted a bare root, dwarf flat, wonderful peach tree
in my Zone six pe garden in southeast Kansas. Either
there was a mix up or it's really happy, but
it's huge. I trimmed it hard this spring, as I
wanted a small fruit tree I could pick fruit from
without kneeding a ladder. It's doubled in size this summer.
The trunk's four inch in diameter. It's never flowered. I'm
worried it won't be able to tolerate a severe trim
if I cut it back to make it small. Could
I trim like pillarting the branches back to where I
cut last year? Is it possible to get fruit and
keep it small.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the challenge here, Nita, is the same challenge
with any with pruning any berry or fruit bearing plant.
Normally these plants flower on old wood, and if a
plant flowers on old wood, you would do that pruning
after a flower, so like a perfect example would be
like a forsythia or a lilac. The trouble is, if
you cut off the flowers, you cut off the potential
for the fruit to form, which makes pruning or cutting
back anything that's fruiting, whether it is an edible fruit
tree or an ornamental fruit tree, just like the berry
box I just discussed in plants on trial or a
holly or a kelicarpa or anything like that, is yeah,
there's really no good time to prene it. You can't
trim it like you would, you know, like an evergreen
hedge or something like that to keep it small. And
that's a real challenge what I would encourage you to do.
Whether it was a mix up, I can't tell you.
It's all possible a lot of times. When you have
a dwarf fruit tree, the reason it is dwarf is
because it was on a dwarfing rootstock, so the plant
was grafted. Perhaps there was a mix up in the
rootstock or something along those lines. It's hard to say,
and I don't know enough about this specific variety to say.
What I would recommend for Unita is that you look
up the pruning technique of espalier. So normally, an espalier
is a plant that you are growing up against a
celid surface like a house or a fence or something
like that, and you grow it so it's basically flat.
But because it espalier plants are intended to stay within
these very specific parameters, they are basically topped and then
their energy only goes into those lateral branches that comprise
the actual espalier itself. And that's what you're going to
need to do, if you're going to need to establish
a basic framework at the height that you want it
to be and then basically cut off pretty much anything
else so that you're kind of just building these thick,
heavy branches that will bear your peaches without them going,
you know, fourteen or fifteen feet up in the air.
Look it up. It's fairly simple. It is a process
that you will need to repeat year after year after
year to make sure it stays that way, but you
can't trim it. You can't pollart it because pilarting would
mean cutting it back every single year, and that will
eliminate its ability to ever set the fruit. In peach trees,
I would say, as far as fruit goes, fruit trees
go are one of the more ornamental varieties. The foliage
is really quite interesting, but a peach tree that's not
peaching is probably not having around.
Speaker 1: Highly desired nita. I'd suggest you follow Stacy's advice, and
that is pruning after flowering. That's when I would do
the pruning. And being in Zone six B, one of
our big worries, of course, is in spring hard frost
when peaches tend to get zapp and watching the weather forecast,
so prune it. Go ahead and prune it hard, but
do it after it's done.
Speaker 2: Blooming right, and avoid trimming like a regular like you would. Headshareser.
This is more of aloppers and hand pruner's type of job.
Speaker 1: Pat shares an interesting photo and ask what is this?
I found this growing on a honeysuckle at the back
of our property here in Grand Rapids while cutting back
some grape vines. My guess is its missile toe, but
it's not native to this area. However, we winter in
Texas where it thrives, and when we return there's always
a few pine needles, sweet gum palls, and other residue
around the hood and windshield area of our car. Is
it possible we brought seedback within the residue that the
wind could have carried to the host plant. Interesting?
Speaker 2: Yes, it is interesting, and it is not missletoe.
Speaker 1: Highly unlikely.
Speaker 2: No, no, in missletoe. It's worth mentioning as we especially
as we head into the holiday season. Mistletoe spreads not
by wind but by the berries, and the berries are very,
very sticky. So when birds eat those beautiful red berries,
they're like, oh crud, this thing is stuck to my beak.
I guess I better go wipe it off on a branch,
and in so doing they actually plant the missletoe seed
into the crack of a branch and start a new
missletoe colony.
Speaker 1: I'm just envisioning a bird saying.
Speaker 2: That, No, well, yeah, what happens all the time. You're
just like, oh, well, they can't get this thing off
my beak. It's so annoying. You got to go find
a tree to wipe it off on so it doesn't
spread by to.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 2: What you have is actually a gall that is formed
by a the ohso appropriately named honeysuckle aphid. So not
surprising there. It is a honeysuckle plant that Pat has.
And there there's a photo here on YouTube if you
want to look at it. And so basically what it
looks like is that, yeah, the it was growing normal
and then all of a sudden there's just this proliferation
of growth and it's pink and it looks different. But
it's actually a gall or a witch's broom. And galls
can be caused by all sorts of different things. You know,
there's moss, there's wasps, there's bacteria. It's it's there. They're
actually quite fascinating. Gulls are If you want to, you know,
have some fun topic of conversation for the Thanksgiving table
coming up, just do some research into galls. And I mean, yeah,
but in this case it is caused by the ephit
and the aphid feeds on it, and it's saliva causes
the growth to just go bananas like this and make
these big witches brooms. It will not repair itself. It's
not really a huge deal. The honeysuckle ef it obviously
causes this, but it's not like, oh, it's you know,
honeysuckles are pretty indestructible by and large. As far as
I know, it's primarily an issue of the Japanese invasive honeysuckles,
not you know, the decorative honeysuckles like Arkinsley's Ghost or
you know, Sensation or Major Wheeler, all of those decorative ones.
As far as I know, it doesn't really get that
and you don't actually see the aph it itself. It's
very small. If it's probably long gone by the time
you see this, I would recommend that you cut it off.
It is unlikely to flower, and like I said, it
won't kind of alleviate itself on its own. But yeah,
you've been blessed by the honeysuckle aphid and now you
have a botanical anomaly to show for it.
Speaker 1: Oh the gall of those aphits and writes to us
Hi Rick and Stacey. I purchased a Kinsley's Ghost honeysuckle,
but it does not bloom. I'm in zone seven. I
purchase the plant from Proven Winters. Can you advise me
on how to get the beautiful flowers that I see
on other plants.
Speaker 2: You know, I wanted to answer Anne's question here because
I think it's really useful for all people who have
bought something and been disappointed by it not flowering, you know,
in a timely manner. And there is a quick three
part diagnosis for you if you're wondering why something isn't flowering.
The number one reason that things do not flower is
improper pruning, if they were pruned at the wrong time,
and that takes off the flowers. And by pruning I
do mean humans as well as deer or any number
of other critters that might nibble off your plants. So
that's the most common reason that I see. Number two
most common reason is too much shade. If a sun
loving plant is in too much shade, they just don't
set as many flowers, and therefore they sometimes they don't
send any flowers at all. If they're very sensitive, some
plants are a little bit more amenable. Number three maturity.
A lot of especially when we talk about woody plants,
need to be at a certain age before they will flower.
Otherwise they're putting all of their resources into growing roots
in their new home and not so much into growing
leaves and subsequently flowers. Flowers take a lot of a
plant's energy to produce, so if that energy is going
to something that's more crucial at that time, it won't
put it into that Your plant and you send a
picture looks healthy and beautiful. I think it just needs
a little bit more time to be able to get big,
especially if you start with a little quart sized plant,
which is what is mostly sold online. If you go
to the garden center and buy a three gallon, you're
probably gonna get flowers that second year. If you're starting smaller,
it's going to take a couple of extra years to
get up to size, but you can enjoy those years
watching your hard work pay off. So thank you all
so much for your questions. We're going to take a
little break and when we come back, we're talking our
favorite orange plants, so please don't miss it. 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 simplify show as we celebrate
the color orange and stacy, how about a fun fact
on the color orange. The shade of orange on the
Golden gate Bridge is International orange, which protects against rust
from the ocean salt and moisture, and from the region's fog. Obviously,
you don't want to run into that bridge. So the
Golden gate Bridge painted an international orange. And the color
was chosen because of the the frequent problems with visibility
and fog in the San Francisco area, so it's safer
for ships to see. And of course it complements the
natural surroundings and the blue sky the ocean. I mean,
it's gorgeous. The color was originally a primer that the
Bridges consulting architect Irving Morrow, advocated to keep forest esthetic
and functional benefits. Interesting, Yeah, I thought that that was.
Speaker 2: In Save the color paint too.
Speaker 1: You got it, You get it? Okay, So orange flowers
in the landscape during Plants on Trial, you mentioned double
take orange. That's a Quint's a quince.
Speaker 2: Yes, I should have probably said that.
Speaker 1: Well, it's fine, but my point here is that is
just such a stunning color when those quints are in
bloom in pots in the garden center. People are drawn
to it.
Speaker 2: They are. And you know, I love the Double Take
Quin series because they are flowering shrubs of colors that
you don't really see in spring. You know, we see
a lot of yellow, we see a lot of pink,
and olten mills are perfectly wonderful. But I love Double
Take scarlet, that bright lipstick red. I love Double Take Orange,
that bright, bright, vivid orange. And I have also heard
that the Double Take Orange attracts Baltimore orioles, oh wow,
because they love orange things. Yes they do. I mean,
it's a very strange phenomenon, but that's why people put
oranges out for them, because they love orange.
Speaker 1: I love it when they're out there in the landscape Baltimore.
Speaker 2: Rowland, Yes, yeah no, and when Double Take orange, yeah.
Speaker 1: Double tank orange. This past summer, I was at Walter's
Gardens proven Winters Perennials here in Michigan, and they were
promoting and I thought it was beautiful. The orange slices Spygellia,
I pronouncing that spigelia, but spigelia. Okay, it's hardy to
zone five. Those tubular flowers appear for weeks and then
we'll follow the ground after bloom, but very popular with
hummingbirds and it's long lived. Once established, full sun is
recommended if you're in the south, maybe some filtered sun,
but orange slices.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Spidela is a beautiful plant, native perennial, just absolutely gorgeous,
but it does need moist soil, therefore it is not
in my garden.
Speaker 1: Okay, got it. Super bells double orange calibricoa, that's a
beauty we mentioned earlier. Kufia vermillionaire. That's just a favorite
of mine. Blooms all season long and the hummingbirds love it.
You mentioned happy face orange potentilla. What a great plant.
But then when we look at cone flowers, and in
recent years, all the cultivars of cone flowers that have
been developed color coded orange orange you awesome, sombrero adobe
orange cone flower fabulous. And then Stacy the juiced orange jessamine.
Is that how you pronounce.
Speaker 2: It, yep, jessamine or i'd say cestrum, which is the
scientific name. But yeah, kind of a cool yellowy orange color,
but really beautiful flowers. If you live in a hot climate,
I know we do have a lot of hot climate listeners.
So some great choices for you. You know, I know
a lot of times our hot climate listeners are like,
you're not telling me stuff I can use. Well, I'm
telling you I am jealous of all of the amazing
orange flowered stuff that you guys can grow in zone
eight and warmer underrated orange perennial I think is GM.
Oh sure, you know, GM is a plant that I
think is definitely about to have a moment, if it's
not already having one, which I guess just depends on
how much you personally like it. But there have been
a lot of really cool, bright orange an orange adjacent
GM's coming out. And that's interesting because you know, today's
plan on trial, Barrybox Pyrocommalies is in the rose family roses.
A lot of the plants that we talked about spyriea
with orange flowers that are hardy or in the rose
family as is GM.
Speaker 1: Oh nice. Yeah, So if you're keeping score at home,
you're driving in your car listening to our radio version
of the show or listening to the podcast GM of
course spelled ge um yes, yeah, pretty simple, right, all right?
Of course I love color Blaze Colius and to me,
I don't know if it's intended to be as such.
But the Sedona sunset colius looks really orange to me
in the land.
Speaker 2: Is that the orange and purple one?
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's just orange and kind of burgundy.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that one. And then rain Oh boy,
I don't know if I should bring this up or not. Daylilies.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there's plenty of orange daylilies, no shortage.
Speaker 1: It always conjures up thought of the ditch lilies. Yes,
you know orange lilies growing in the ditch. But there
are gorgeous orange daylilies for your landscape, like Rainbow Rhythm
orange or Rainbow rhythm. Primal scream.
Speaker 2: I was gonna mention primal scream because that one is
that is a plant that you are not going to
walk by without noticing. It is a very showy, bright
orange and it's called primal scream because the petals really
open out like it's a mouth just screaming. So it's
bright orange with a big open petal. And yeah, if
you want attention grabbing plants, that is one of them.
Speaker 1: Speaking of attention grabbing, one of my favorites has always
been in the Land. I've always loved red hot pokers
in the landscape, and there are orange ones, Pyromania, orange blaze, Nipofia,
or I don't know, people just call them.
Speaker 2: Pokersia myself, but I have that orange one, and yeah,
it is an awesome, awesome plant. I mean, I loved
defofia anyway, but that's a great choice. Another orange flower
I head in my yard this year. Didn't even realize
it was nasturtium, not one of your favorites. I realized,
that's true. But great color, just beautiful, rich, pure oranges
and kind of that blue foliage. So a little bit
of that kind of contrast that you were talking about
between blue and orange. Yes, the foliage kind of has
hints of blue. And then I mean, I guess since
we're talking about plants you don't like always got to
talk about marigold's if you're talking about orange, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I didn't have it on my list.
Speaker 2: I know you didn't have it on your list. But
classic orange right there?
Speaker 1: Oh boy, oh boy? Yes, And that's true. That's true. Well,
I remember the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties when we're
selling annuals at that time, before we have the magnificent
cultivars that we have today. But the Walleriana impatience flats
of orange. Boy, was that popular, lots of people planted
orange impatience. Of course, today, the orange ornamental peppers for
fall are spectacular. There's Santos orange, Sedona sun. I purchased
some this fall for decorating. Love orange ornamental peppers, and
who doesn't enjoy dicing up some orange peppers from the
vegetable garden for a stir fry, kebabs or a dish
that you're.
Speaker 2: Cooking up in some Yeah, you know, I talked about
it earlier this season. I talked about growing the habbanata peppers,
and now they you know good by the way, Oh,
I'm glad you liked them. I like them now that
the season is officially over. We've had plenty of hard
frosts here in Michigan, and I had to harvest everything.
I don't know that I have ever grown a more
productive pepper. So habanatas they look like hobbinnero's. They have
that same kind of big lanterning type shape and thin walls,
but they're not at all hot. So they have the
fruity flavor of a hobbit with no heat at all.
And I tell you a single plant that I grew
easily easily produced one hundred and fifty if not more,
fruits on it. It is one of the most productive
and prolific peppers that I have ever grown. Hard to
find in stores, definitely when you're gonna have to grow
by seed on your own, but a unique flavor and
a unique plant, and just it's so prolific that it's
it's ornamental and the fruits ripe into that beautiful, bright orange,
so decorative. Yeah, I've loved that plant.
Speaker 1: We'll be honest with you. I ate them, and I
was thinking, this is gonna be hot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really messes with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it messes it, but you know.
Speaker 2: And I brought them to Adriana to and she started
eating them right in front of someone and they were like, no, stop,
what are you doing? But do you think they're going
to be hot? But they have not even the slightest
bin of heat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really cool. My pretoria cannas were amazing this
summer with bright orange blossoms. Loved it. And is it
possible to get a brighter orange then butterfly weed esclept?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is the classic. You look up orange and
the dictionary exactly beautiful. Love that plant.
Speaker 1: I mentioned of course tubers, pagonia's and poppies prints of orange,
oriental poppy. And then of course I've got another favorite
orange that I love to grow, and that is just
simply orange Gerbera daisies. They are fabulous, what a great
cut flower. Fun in the sun, Stacy, Again, the color
orange makes me think tropical Miami Beach, makes me think summertime, August,
hot weather. So for me, my vote is yes for
orange in the landscape.
Speaker 2: My vote for orange in the landscape is also yes.
Speaker 1: Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, thank you Stacy, thank
you Adriana, and most of all, thanks to you for
watching us on YouTube, listening to our radio show, or
looking for us wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Have
a great week. M