Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A here at proven Winns Color Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified podcast, radio and YouTube
show with Stacy Hervella me Rick Weisten, our engineer and
producer Adrianna Robinson. Today, Stacey, we talk about the color white,
a versatile neutral color and I think arguably designed to
be best appreciated at night or at twilight. There's a
reason right now that moon gardens are so popular, and
moon gardens, of course will make use of white flowers, gray,
silvery cast foliage. But then again, I'm a guy who
loves the moon at night shooting pictures of the moon.
I just find it so fascinating because I'm an Apollo
age boy. I grew up in the sixties during the
Apollo Space Program and drank a lot of tang and
that kind of thing. But that's another story. So white
flowers can also attract nighttime pollinators and are perfect for
your landscape because, well, you've been working all day, you
come home at night, the sun starts to set. You
want to be able to enjoy your landscape some of
the flowers without getting into your what was it moss rows? Analogy?
You're not really into them, right, Yes, that's true, because
they've all closed up the.
Speaker 2: Nothing to enjoy there.
Speaker 1: But white flowers are just so classic and so elegant
in the landscape. I think about the smooth high ranges
flopping over, just gorgeous, full of flower on Cape Cod
where they have the clap boarder cedar shake shingles on
the house, and then there they have the white trim
on these homes, and then those gorgeous white high dranges. Stacy.
White should not be an overlooked color in your landscape
when you're looking at flowers.
Speaker 3: No, not by a long shot. And you know, I
think there's a lot that's said. You read articles, oh
plants and mood garden. White is so amazing at night
in the garden, and it's something that you, I don't
think can fully appreciate until you experience it. And I
have a magnolia I've talked about it on the show before.
Was near death when we moved into our house because
of a walnut and a whole bunch of other things.
And we change the way that the water drains off
our roof, and now it gets water. The walnut's gone,
and this thing has just made a stunning comeback.
Speaker 2: It's huge.
Speaker 3: It was absolutely covered in flowers this year, so magnolia stillata,
so it has white flowers. And every morning when I
would go to make my breakfast before work, it was
just the most ethereal gloe lowing blue in the morning light,
and it's so hard like it's one of those things
you could take a picture which you can never fully
capture what that looks and feels like. And this is
the kind of thing that, Yeah, once you have experienced that,
you're like, I want that at my house right now.
Speaker 2: And you know you don't have to go.
Speaker 3: Full on, you know. Vita Sackville West. Vita Sackville West
is an English gardener who famously designed a white garden
and kind of popularized this entire idea. And if you
ever go to Longwood Gardens, they have a white garden
designed using her principles.
Speaker 2: So you don't have to go full on.
Speaker 3: You don't have to make everything in your garden white
if you love all of that different color, but some
white will really make a huge difference in white flowers,
white foliage, silvery foliage will definitely make a difference in
your garden. And you know, you can just start with
a little bit, and the next thing you know, you're
going to be addicted and want to add a whole
bunch more.
Speaker 1: You know that. That makes me think of years ago,
before air conditioning was invented. They would have get togethers.
They would have meetings, often underneath trees in the evening
hours when it's cooler or in the shade. That's how
Wall Street started in New York. It was underneath a tree.
Thomas Jefferson would have cabinet meetings underneath trees in the shade.
And so you think about that, being able to enjoy
your landscape in your garden in the cool of the
evening hours, and white flowers really put the exclamation point
on an area like that. White is a popular car color. Also,
by the way, get better resale value if your car
is white.
Speaker 2: My first car was white.
Speaker 3: It did not have resale value by the end of
me being done with it as a sixteen year old.
Speaker 1: But yes, and reflex of course heat also. But white
very popular, very versatile, and considered a neutral color. Also
if you use it in your landscape, if you can
find an area where you can provide a black back,
maybe it's a fence, maybe it's a shed done in
white trim that is stunning. And then don't forget a
white bench or white pots in the landscape. Many times
people will overlook white let's say white ceramic pots. They're
ideal for putting combinations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you never have to stick to the same
color combination every single year. You can totally reimagine everything,
you know, Like my containers tend to go onto the
hot side. I have a lot of like orange, bright orange,
which I love, but it does kind of limit me
somewhat correct where. Yeah, I have one white that I love.
Every single year, I'm like, I wish I had more
of this because it's so versatile.
Speaker 1: Of course, also when you're using a lot of white
in the landscape or white plants, I recommend you look
at texture and leaf size. You want variation in varieties
of plants, leaf size and texture, because if you don't
get that, then too much white can become just a
real mess. And so using it maybe somewhat judiciously in
the landscape would not be a bad idea, But it's
great for combining with other plants. For color, I love
the white combination color with lime, green or yellow. I
think about the white and yellow daffodils, for example, so gorgeous.
A pink and white combination is beautiful in the landscape.
You think of all the wonderful panicle hydranges. We talked
about wougilla last week, but also I think an annual
super beina pink cashmere verbina. Wow, and that plant naturally
uses that combination of white and pink in the landscape.
I like that combination, Stacy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it too. With a little bit of
like purply blue in there and it just kind of
white is a great blender. You know, if you have
two colors and you're not really sure how you're going
to kind of make the transition from one to the other,
just throw some white stuff in there, something like a
sweet alyssum, even though it's very small, so some of
that around and it just kind of helps to knit
everything together.
Speaker 1: Add some silvery foliage. Of course, the combination of white
and blue is great to make an area feel cooler.
And Stacey, I planted one of the white reminiscent roses
in my landscape. Talk about a classic just classy style
and design to that plant with that white color. It's
one of my favorites.
Speaker 3: Oh and great fragrance to you on that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I have to give you a limerick on
the color white. But you've got a bear in mind here, folks,
that here in Michigan. So we live in West Michigan,
and I got eighty inches of snow at my house
last winter, just north of us, and sue Saint Marie
they got a hundred ninety eight inches.
Speaker 3: Well that's a fair bit north of us, not fear
north of us, but it's still in mission. It is,
it is. I'm glad we did not get that much.
Speaker 1: The snow started falling in November. We got thunder snow
in December. We got snow twenty seven out of the
thirty one days in January this past year. The snow
continued in March and then April. I'm sorry, I'm not
trying to whine here, but I'm just not into snow.
So I thought, okay, my white limb a rick because
you know, snow white was befriended by woodland animals. You know,
in my landscape, the woodland animals eat my landscapes. So
maybe if you look at the seven dwarfs, I'm grumpy.
I don't know I find snow to be such a
bummer makes my fingers and toes painfully number. So you'll
just have to pardon that. I love white in my
garden as long as it's spring or summer, springs arrive
to be of good cheer. Still don't like snow to
be crystal clear. They say, come on, Rick, just chill.
But you wouldn't like it either until you live with
it half the year. And I was thinking that, Stacey,
it's November through April six months, okay, so now I'm
excited it's spring. Will I put white in my garden? Absolutely,
because I love the color in my garden.
Speaker 3: So what's your favorite white flower you got in your garden?
Speaker 1: Well, i'll tell you what. What's loads of fun for me,
and it's inexpensive. You get some moonflower.
Speaker 2: Seeds, yeah, fabulous.
Speaker 1: Plant them, they vine on some sort of fence and
then when they bloom and the flowers just spiral open.
Moonflower is one of my favorites. And another vine and
some people could poo poo this, but sweet autumn clematis,
I'm sorry. When that's in full bloom, I know it
can be kind of invasive, but when that's in full bloom.
Speaker 3: Wow, pretty impressive and spells amazing as well.
Speaker 1: It's a stunner. We'll see what Stacy has on her
mind for plants on trial. I'm going to assume it's
a white blooming plant, but we'll see. That's coming up next.
Here on the Gardening Simplified.
Speaker 3: Chip, 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
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white container your local garden center or learn more at
proven Winner's Color Choice dot Com. You're Reading's Gardening friends,
and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we
are talking about white flowers. And we've done a couple
of different shows on specific flower colors, but I feel
like white flowers are kind of like the back pocket
solution to like any garden challenge, you know, like if
you don't know what to do, if you know, does
this color go with this color? You know, most of
the time, if you pick a white flower something with
silvery foliage, as we talked about, it's going to function
to kind of help blend everything together. I mean, there
are some exceptions, but usually a little bit of white
in the garden is always welcome. And in my time
in the industry here, I have been on dozens of
different tours with landscapers, landscape designers and you know, gardeners,
and I can tell you from some of the biggest,
most elaborate and extravagant estates that I've ever seen, to
you know, even just a regular nice home that has
had a professional landscape design. If there is one secret
that professional landscape designers have, it is using white flowers.
Speaker 1: I like that. And if you think about it, and
you talk about designers, think about the interior of the house.
You can have different colors in the room, but that
classic white trim kind of, as you mentioned, ties and
pulls everything together.
Speaker 3: It is yeah, And you know, I think that for
landscape designers, they don't have to worry about offending anyone's
delicate sensibilities with white, it looks good all of the time.
Speaker 2: It's just I.
Speaker 3: Cannot even tell you of seeing literally dozens and dozens
of gardens around the country. White is the thing now
in some places it's definitely way more popular than others.
If you go down to Texas, like an evergreen landscape
with some white accents is like everybody, everybody has that.
But yeah, I mean it just always looks good. It
looks good with any house color because so sometimes you know,
different house colors can be very challenging to have, you know,
to landscape, especially like the orange and red brick, and
you know, white is something that you can always turn
to and will always look great. So yes, of course,
today's plant on trial is going to be a white
flowered plant, and we have quite a few in nature
that white flowers are actually very prominent and prevalent across
many different genera of plants in our garden. But today's
plant on trial, which is actually new at garden centers
this year, is Oh So Easy ice Bay rose. Wow,
and this is a big deal. So I'm just talking
about it like, oh, it's just a white rose. This
is the first ever white rose in the Oh So
Easy series. Now we have introduced We've been offering oh
So Easy roses in the proven Winner's line since well
before I worked here, so I would say at least
sixteen years we have been offering Oh So Easy roses
and it is just now in twenty twenty five that
we actually have a white Oh So Easy rose. And
this may come as a surprise to our listeners, but
in plant general or a different genus of plants, white
is actually the hardest color to develop, and so it
comes natural, you know, Like, try to find a viburnum
with a flower color other than white, you you won't
really be able to do it. Whereas with some plants,
including roses, it is actually very difficult to develop a
white variety that is vigorous and floriferous.
Speaker 1: I love that, and I love Oh So Easy roses
because they're fantastic in the landscape as drifts. So if
you can add a drift of white, wow, right, that
is a deal.
Speaker 3: You know, This is what I've seen consistently with those landscapers.
A nice hedge along the front of a home. Yeah,
a drift, a specimen flanking the front porch. You really
can't go wrong. But it literally did take us at
least sixteen and if you count the you know, time
and development, probably closer to twenty years to actually finally
have a white rows in the Oh So Easy series. Now,
the O So Easy series of landscape roses are all
they're in that series because they are extremely disease resistant,
so they're fluoriferous. They bloom all summer without dead heading.
But forc something to be an o So easy rose,
it really has to have the top of the line
disease resistance, so not getting powdery meldew, not getting black spot,
and it took us a really, really long time to
find that so oh so easy Ice bay is that plant.
I'm super excited that it is available at garden centers
this year for the first time. It has some of
I think the glossiest, darkest green foliage I have ever
seen on any rows, which really just gives it that
extra landscape star power. It looks absolutely amazing. The flowers
are semi double, so when I say semi double, what
that means is that there are multiple layers of petals,
not just a single layer of petals. But you can
still see the center of the of the flower. And
that's really good if you want to tract pollinators, because
if the pollinators can and if you can see the pollen,
so can the pollinators, which means that they will then
be attracted to that. Now, this is a plant that
will bloom all summer long without any need to deadhead it,
which is a good thing, and it is self cleaning,
So if you're not familiar with that term, a self
cleaning rose is simply a rose that as the flower
starts to fade, the petals just kind of bust apart
and fall on the ground themselves. This is an especially
good thing in my opinion when it comes to white roses,
because most white roses, we have to face facts, do
not age gracefully. They turn brown and can look pretty gnarly.
If they're not self cleaning, then you just kind of
get this like big brown sad clump of petals nodding
off of your plants. Whereas as a self cleaning rose,
the paddles just shatter as the bloom ends. That makes
it not a great cut flower, but it does make
an excellent choice for the landscape.
Speaker 1: You're right about that. With a white flower, if it
gets any kind of sort of blemish on it, yeah,
it stands out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And we definitely, I'm sure Adriana can attest. Photographing
white flowers can be very challenging because, yeah, any any
little one that starts to age, the brown really does show.
You're not going to see this like from a distance
in your garden. But when you really start getting in
there and digging in, that's when you'll see it. So
this is a very clean, very just nice looking, attractive
rose that I think is a great problem solver. Now,
like most roses, it is going to need full sun
so that is a minimum of six hours of bright
sunshine every single day, and that will give you the
very best you know flower set as well as that
best disease resistance. That's very important. Even though we test
our plants to be resistant to disease, you know, there
is a part of that of that exchange that depends
on where you plant it and how you care for it.
So that means you're going to plant it with good
air circulation, You're going to follow proper spacing. It does
reach two to three feet tall, and so you're going
to want to put it more space, more on the
two foot range if you are in a cooler climate,
more on the three foot range if you're in a
warmer climate. But proper spacing and good sunshine will do
a whole lot to help you prevent that black spot
and powdery mildew from from developing. Because they have good
air circulation and the foliage will dry out quickly.
Speaker 1: And if you're keeping score at home, Stacy's talking about
oh so easy ice bay rose, and I'm excited about this.
What popped into my head, Stacey, was a was a
marketing approach on this cool uh oh so easy ice
base bay rose. It took us twenty years to get
it white.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 1: I can see it on a bill.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: I am going to pass that along to our ad
writers and we will give you credit for them. Sure,
we would compensate you with a know so easy ice
bay rose. But I know you, like me, have deer, yes,
and yes, Unfortunately the deer do you love this much
to anyone's surprise because it is thorny, But the deer
still do love it?
Speaker 2: Now? Really cool.
Speaker 3: Other thing about this plant hardy down to USDA Zone
three heat tolerant through USDA Zone nine.
Speaker 1: That's cold, that's hot.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean that basically means that like ninety some
percent of this country can grow so easy ice bay rose,
which is very cool. That two to three feet tall
and wide size, very useful for like a low hedge.
You really this is not a plant that you can overdo,
so I think it kind of is really only limited
by your imagination. So if you want to use it
as an edging in a landscape, it works really well
that way. If you want to just add it to
a flower garden, if you want to plant a big
block of it, like you were talking about Rick in drifts,
just very very versatile. And you will see too with
that foliage and Adrian Animals show pictures of it in
the YouTube version, so you can check us out there.
Just the foliage is just so unbelievably glossy, and that
is actually a characteristic that is strongly correlated with disease resistance, yes,
because it means it has a thicker cuticle and then
is less likely to encourage the funngal leaf spots and
so forth to develop on that plant. So it's a
special plant. I'm super excited that it is going to
be finally in garden centers. So if you've been thinking
about adding a rose and you don't know which one
you want and you just want a classic choice, oh
so easy ice Bay is definitely a good one, Rick,
I know you were talking about reminiscent Crama rose. That
one is also a great choice that is going to
be more fragrant, but it's going to have more of
a hybrid t type look, taller, bulkier, fuller flowers. Where
is Oh So easy? Ice Bay is really a workaday
landscape rose that you can put, you know, like you
would any other landscape shrub and enjoy summer's summer flowers
and enjoy flowers all summer long. So please do look
for that at your garden center this season as you
go about your landscape shopping. We're going to take a
little bit of a break. When we come back, We've
got the garden mail bag to open, so stay tuned.
At proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. We know that a
better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team of
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for Proven Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container at
your local garden center or learn more at proven Winner's
Color Choice dot com. Reading's gardening friends and welcome back
to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is time for
us to answer your gardening questions, quandaries and conundrums. And
if you have one of those and you're sitting there
scratching your head and you put the printers down and
you don't know what to do next, you can certainly
write to us at help HLP at Gardeningsimplified on are
dot com, or just visit Gardeningsimplified on are dot com
and write us there. Do get quite a lot of
questions to the show, and not everyone is quite suitable
for a quick little segment on radio here, but we
do want to help you out, so you can write
us there. But you can also write to Proven Winners
Color Choice dot com or Proven Winners dot com and
just click contact on both of those pages and you
will get a personalized answer from a horticulturist so that
you don't have to wonder anymore, because we want you
to be successful. So we've been definitely getting quite a
lot of questions, and I think that Elda's question today
is a perfect way to start.
Speaker 1: Now, big, yeah, this is pretty cool, Elda writes to us.
I really enjoy listening to you from France as I
discover gardening in my new but old garden. Thank you,
thank you, Elda. Elda writes, I planted six quickfire fab
last autumn in twenty twenty four, is part of a hedge.
I noticed in spring that a particular plant is planted
too deep to crown, seen to be below the soil level.
So I'm wondering, should I take it out now late April,
do it this fall? If now I think it will
slow down its flowering. If in autumn I think the
roots will be even more disturbed because they would have
extra six months to develop. Also, I consider doing nothing.
But if the plant dies prematurely, then I'm back a
few years in the hedge. Look, so what do you recommend?
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I don't know exactly where in France Elda
is and if it's super warm, but my general recommendation
in these situations is make the correction sooner than later.
And you know, because this plant was just planted this
past fall, it's not going to be rooted in super deeply.
You know, it's really only had you know what, six
eight months or something like that to grow. And really,
you know, after a plant is planted, it's not like
putting on a ton of roots. It's really kind of
just especially in full, just kind of recovering and put
on some root growth, but not a lot. And so
I would say, unless you are in a very very
warm part of France, now would be the perfect time
to go ahead and make that correction. I agree with you, Elda,
that if you wait until fall and you give the
plant an extra six months of root growth, it's just
going to be harder on you and on the plant.
And I don't really think that it will mess up
the flowering very much because I don't think you're really
going to disturb a whole lot of roots, to tell
you the truth, since it was just planted. And even
if it does, you know, somewhat impact the flowering. Yeah,
that's disappointed. But this is definitely a situation where a
tiny bit of short term pain is definitely going to
be worth it for the long term gain. So I'm saying,
put it on clear your schedule and get that done
as soon as possible.
Speaker 1: And kudos to Elda for being observant and looking at
things like this. I think that that's great. I see London,
I see France, I see problems with your plants. You
may use that one, Elda, if you'd like Genie writes
to us, how, Hello, Rick and Stacey. I planted several
Japanese maples last fall. I was very excited to see
the new leaves butting out for spring, But on closer examination,
I noticed something else. They were these very tiny black
bugs all over the tree. Oh yeah, especially on the
undersides of the leaves. Oh yeah, classic case. All four
of my Japanese maple trees were infested with them. Can
you please help identify? Do I need to be concerned?
If they are bad? Pass? How do I get rid
of them? Naturally? Please help?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 3: So I so there are pictures, and of course you'll
see these in the YouTube version of the show, so
you can check it out over there, unless your squeamished
don't like pictures of bugs, which you know, I get.
I actually do like pictures of bugs. These are aphids,
and you know aphids. So we had a question last
week about aphids, and I wanted to make sure that
we answered Genie's question now because spring is aphed season.
Yep aphids adore the soft growth that's coming out right now,
and you know, I think a lot of people, most
gardeners have had to deal with aphids at some point
or another, especially if they grow roses or spiria or
something like that. But I don't think a lot of
gardeners realize that aphids are masters of disguise in the garden.
There it is very difficult to generalize about what aphids
look like because they have a huge range of different
forms that they can take on. Some of them are
going to be that really classic green aphid, and some
of them are going to be like this where they
just look kind of almost like a little miniature beetle
or something and chameleons. Yeah, yeah, And so they're dark black,
they look kind of hard, and they're really concentrated around
the foliage. But you got to think about a maple,
there's just so much sweet and sticky nectar there. This
is like prime time for those aphids to hunker down
and start feeding from your plants. So definitely all very
characteristic of aphids. Fortunately, aphids are overall a pretty easy
pest to manage, if they indeed even need management. In
my opinion, you know, there's I definitely tolerate a lot
of aphids because you know, in an extreme case, on
something like a rose, they can cause some kind of
drooping as they suck the juices out. But by and large,
the biggest threat to aphids, of course, is the mold
that grows on their excrement. If that's around. Yeah, the honey, honey.
Speaker 1: Their bark is worse than their bite.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, But people freak out when they see them,
especially you know, Japanese maples are not usually the cheapest
of trees, so you're are right to be concerned about
your investment. So I believe, as I advised our listener
last week who had aphids on an ice ballet Esclepius,
I would just go out there and just kind of,
you know, rinse them off and rub the insects. They're
very soft bodied, so it's very easy to just get
rid of them. I don't think you really even need
to use any kind of pestis. But you had mentioned
an insecticidal soap last time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would recommend insecticidle So but you make a
good point here, Stacey, and that is, if you're going
to go through the trouble of that, do it when
the air is calm, and you have to get the
undersides of the leaves too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to really get in there, and you'll
see in the pictures that Genie sent that the you know,
Japanese maples, they have very intricate leaves, so a lot
of surface area in there for those little aphids to
kind of hide out. So I really think that trying
to apply something is going to be difficult. So I
would either tolerate them or just try to rinse them
squish them off the best that you can. But overall,
the other thing you can do is what I recommended
to that listener was the ladybugs. Yeah, you can get
ladybugs at most garden centers or order them online delivered
to your house. And if you release these ladybugs, hungry
ladybugs who have just arrived by mail onto a plant
that has aphids, they will make very short work of
them for you.
Speaker 1: Heather has an important question. Hello from British Columbia, Canada.
By the way, I love British Columbia. I've been there
a number of times. What a beautiful place. I recently
found your podcast and I am already a huge fan.
Thank you so much for the wealth of information you've
provided to this new gardener. I planted several plants roughly
two to three feet from where the natural gas line
runs on my property. While many of them have shallow
root systems, others I've second guessed myself conflower, Redbeccia, Latrus, agastaki,
and others. Is this safe or should I move them?
Asap am I doomed to only plant low growing groundcovers
in these areas.
Speaker 3: Great question, Heather, and very timely too, so the first
thing that I would recommend. I did search about this
a little bit, and generally speaking, it seems like most
utility companies are okay with planting near gas line as
long as you're not planting a tree, and trees have
very different systems than anything else. You know, they get
those big, long, stabilizing roots. Those can be very disruptive
to sidewalks and all of that. Where perennials in most shrubs,
it's not really going to be an issue. They don't
put on that type of root system. Different utility systems
do have different guidelines about this, So you might want
to call your local gas company.
Speaker 2: Don't worry.
Speaker 3: I don't think they're gonna say get those plants out
of the ground right now. They're gonna tell you like, okay,
you can be this many you know meters or whatever
from the gas line. I don't think they're gonna that
you're gonna get in trouble or have to dig up
what you grow. But I did want to mention, especially
you know here in spring, when a lot of people
are setting out to do outdoor projects, it is a
good idea if you can to call and have your
utilities marked. I believe you can call eight one to one.
So you can call eight one to one and they
will come out and mark your uh mark the lines
for you so the till you are the cable, the guess,
the electricity, the sewer, the water, all of that is.
And they'll do that free because they don't want their
lines to be damaged anymore than you want to damage them.
And so it's a good idea. And once you do
that once you know, for myself, I had it done
shortly after I moved into my house and I just
took pictures, you know, of where everything was, and you know,
so it's not really I know and I know that
I'm never going to plant anything, you know that's going
to threaten those lines, because once I fund out where
they were, it was like, yeah, I'm not planting in
that area, So it is.
Speaker 1: It eight, I'm not sure about Canada.
Speaker 3: Now, Canada may be a different situation, but certainly for
our viewers in the US, our listeners do call eight
one one first. It's a free service. They do need
some advanced notice, but especially if you're thinking about putting
in a tree, it's a simple and fast way to
just make sure you would continue to do more good
than harm.
Speaker 1: In British Columbia, click before youdig dot com. So there's
a one eight hundred number, all.
Speaker 3: Right, So there you have it. No matter where you are,
we've got you covered. We're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're going to talk about more
of our favorite white flowers, so please stay tuned. Thanks
for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to you
by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering
shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested by experts with
your success in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners color
Choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show today for branching news,
Let's go down the list give you some ideas of
some white flowers that both Stacy and I enjoy in
the landscape. Stacy there's a annual called Biden's Campfire Marshmallow.
Love that thing. I had mentioned moonflowers and then of
course implants on trial. You talked about roses in your
right talk about classic white color in the landscape. For me,
it's pa andies.
Speaker 2: M Yeah, penies are pretty great.
Speaker 1: Oh, when you're talking about white flowers in the garden,
I mentioned sweet autumn clematis. Another fall bloomer that I love.
Are the fall blooming anemones.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Generally you'll find them in pink or mauve, but
you can get white ones and boy are they stunning
white Dutch iris. So you would plant those in fall.
It's a bulb iris and when they come up and
spring that white color. Again I mentioned in segment one,
I love that white and lime green or white and
yellow combination. You'll find that with many tulip bulbs. Also,
you can find varieties that have that classic color. Now,
if you're looking to add spots of white in your
landscape and planting some annuals, Stacy, I know I've mentioned
it before, but I'm just such a huge fan of
diamond frost.
Speaker 3: You for you, ah, you know that is an all
purpose plant. Well, maybe not quite all purpose. But I
will tell you when I have been I usually put
my containers together in the garden center. You know, I
always have some things I like to get, but you
know you can't count on it. Things are you know,
they change their inventory, your things sell out or whatever,
and so a lot of times I'll have this vision
and I won't be able to find like the exact
right thing to kind of marry everything together. Well, you
know what, there is always diamond frost. It goes with
literally every color, and it just if you if you
aren't familiar with this plant, it's it's a little bit
hard to describe, but it is almost like a little
just puff of mist. The flowers are very very small,
So I think if you know what Euphorbia is, you
might be like, whoa euphorbia? This is very delicate, almost
wiry stems, just little tiny tufts of white and green
flowers at the ends of each of these stems. And yeah,
it is the perfect filler for a container. And it
can marry together any color. So if you've gone, you know,
crazy on your on your colors and your containers, just
introducing some diamond frosts here and there will just kind
of again bring everything together and create that cocie.
Speaker 1: Agree. I've mentioned it on the show before that if
you're doing an outdoor wedding, my daughter Stacy, we used
a lot of diamond frost Euphorbia. It was fabulous for
an outdoor wedding. Hippo white hypostes O folka dot plant.
Speaker 3: I use that in my front where I have a
lot of shade.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and of course kalladiums. There are many white leafed
kalladiums that are beautiful. The Heart to Heart series with
proven winners. They have snow Flurry, White Wonder, White, Star Heart,
all Beautiful, Stacy, Incredible Smooth high Drains.
Speaker 3: Classic classic choice, and now we have Incredible Stormproof, which
is actually going to be officially on the market next year,
so that's going to be a smaller version of Incredible
with even sturdier stems. And then we also have in
vincepell Wee White, So if you're looking for something smaller still,
we've got that one. So you can kind of get
this plant in any size that suits your landscape and
your goals.
Speaker 1: You know, one of my favorite classic white flowers in
the landscape has got to be oak leaf hydrange Oh,
for sure, and I don't have it in my landscape,
but have read about it. Gatsby Moon.
Speaker 3: Oh, Gatsby Moon is a very cool plant. So that
is a mophead oak leaf hydrange Okay, so most oak
leaf hydrangees are going to be lace capin and expose
the fertile florettes to pollinators. Gatsby Moon is a mophead
and the flowers are very, very densely packed together. So
if attracting pollinators is important to you, Gatsby Moon may
not be the best choice. But if you want that big, showy,
unforgettable flower, Gatsby Moon is absolutely gorgeous, really cool plant.
Speaker 1: Well that's great. A lot of people like Namesia in
their landscape because of the delicate flowers. There's Sunsatia coconut
that would be a great addition of white to your landscape.
The Cora white vinkas the boy. You're gonna have to
help me, hear Stacey.
Speaker 2: Is that kathran Catheranthus.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Catheranthus right, yeah, So it's the thing, you know,
these can handle hot sun, a wonderful flowering annual coral white.
And then of course I mentioned the mini vista white supertunias.
I think that if you want to put a blast
of color in your landscape, mini vista supertunias are ideal
and so easy to grow. Now Chardonnay pearls or Yuki snowflake.
Speaker 2: Dutsia yep, classic choice right there.
Speaker 1: Talk about a great plant for a drift.
Speaker 3: Right, yes, And that is an excellent plant as a groundcover,
shrub or for stabilizing a slope or anything like that.
You know when you were listing those annuals, but you
missed one of my favorites, and it's not the best known,
but it is one that I rely on anytime I
can find it, which is unfortunately not every year, and
that is the white browolia.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: I love that plant, right Stacey.
Speaker 1: And we always had difficulty selling it in the garden
center only because it hasn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because people don't know, but it is I think
that a lark. A lot of garden centers have had
trouble selling it, and that's why it's hard to find now.
But this is such a problem solving annual because it
is very shade tolerant and blooms well in the shade,
and it is deer resistant.
Speaker 2: And I will tell you.
Speaker 3: Almost every other annual that I have tried on my
front porch that is shade tolerant. The deer just devour,
but not the Burwellia. And that not only does that
come in white, and it comes into a beautiful blue.
So I usually get both of those and use them
on my front porch if I can find them. And yeah,
I think that's a plant that just you know, has
so much to offer people who have really challenging conditions,
and it is gorgeous and white.
Speaker 2: I really really love it.
Speaker 3: Sorry, anyone, garden centers are listening, and you have some
to sell, reach out to me because I usually can't
find them.
Speaker 1: Sweet Spider, it tea Flirty Girl false high drange. I
love the white blooms on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah you know I love that too. And Florida Girl
is a special plant because it blooms earlier in its
life cycle than other climbing hydranges. And you know talking
about false hydrange of vines also formerly known as sky'safragma,
but now reclassified into hydrangea. Goodness, yes, exactly. There is
one variety. It's not a proven winner's variety, but it
is so special. It is actually called Moonlight and it
has gorgeous silver and green foliage. It does flower, and
the flowers are white and very pretty, but the foliage
on this thing is just stunning. It really really is
a special plant, and that silver in its leaves really
will stand out even at night. So between the flowers
and that foliage, a great choice if you have a
special tree or something like that that you want to
grow a vine up that's not going to be problematic
but still bring you all of that magic.
Speaker 1: Very nice. Other white bloomers that I would consider would
be bottle brush shrub. We've talked about it on the
show often, June berries or service berries, and spring The
white flowers, in my mind, are just gorgeous, happy face
white potentilla, and of course a double file of viburnums,
the viburnum placatums. You have wabi sabi.
Speaker 3: So wabi sabi we used to have. We actually dropped
wabi sabi in favor of steady Eddie. That's right, because
steadi Eddi's reblooming. And when I say steati Eddi is
a reblooming viburnum, I don't just mean like it peters
out a couple more flowers later in the season. This
thing is a powerhouse. You really can barely tell the
difference between its initial bloom late in spring and it's
rebloom through the summer. It is really one of the
most impressive rebloomers I have ever seen. I was tempted
to make it a plant on trial, but I love
it so much I already had, so I had to
find something different.
Speaker 1: So that makes Steady Eddie a perfect choice if you
want to add white flowers to your landscape, Stacy, I
love the look of Kusa dogwoods when bloom.
Speaker 2: Yes, such a great plant.
Speaker 1: Chantilly lace, the runcus or goats beard great. And then
of course there will be people out there saying, you
gotta mention Shasta daisy.
Speaker 2: Oh, like, yeah, of course you do.
Speaker 1: There's so many great.
Speaker 2: Casa Daisy's are such a classic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kali lilies. And then of course I love Scavola
Beautiful annual for hot conditions. The Star Diva series this year,
and there is a Star Diva white along with the
unplugged white salvia. And again, combining white with blue in
the landscape really has a cooling effect.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's what I do on my front porch. Well,
when I can find the Brouellia. I have some really
beautiful royal blue containers and one white footed urn, so
I put the white flowers in the blue containers, the
blue flowers and the white containers, so I like it.
It's a great combination.
Speaker 1: Another flowering annual angel face white improved angelonia a great plant,
and I would recommend you check out some of the
recipes at provenwinters dot com for ideas with white flowers.
Of course, white bleeding hearts, and then of course your
foam flowers like cutting edge and then finally stacy as
we get laid into the season. I love that classic
white look in ornamental kales and ornamental.
Speaker 3: Cap and that's a fun one for sure. Yeah. I
love the foam flowers. I actually like the foam flowers
and the foamy bells more than ukrawe just because I mean,
Hugrew is beautiful, but I love the kind of more
rusticky look of the foam flowers in foamy bells, whereas
the hugar are really shiny and refined. I like these
a little more rougher on the edges.
Speaker 1: That's gorgeous. Well, you know, lots of choices if you
want to add white to your landscape. And why not.
It's a classic approach to your landscape.
Speaker 3: It is, indeed, and I hope that gave you some
inspiration for planting this season as you head out to
the garden center. So thank you Rick for that amazing
list of plant suggestions, thank you Adriana for your talent
behind the camera and soundboard as always, and thanks so
much to all of you for listening and watching. We
truly do appreciate it and hope you have a wonderful
weegad