Speaker 1: Coming to you from Iconic Studio A Here at proven
Speaker 1: winners color Choice shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified podcast,
Speaker 1: radio and YouTube show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist,
Speaker 1: and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, if I
Speaker 1: had a dime for every time somebody asked me about
Speaker 1: flower bulbs and the fact that they bought them in
Speaker 1: fall left them in the trunk of their car or
Speaker 1: in their garage, Now what do I do? Or if
Speaker 1: I had a dime for every time somebody said to me, oh,
Speaker 1: it's early spring and my bulbs are coming up. Are
Speaker 1: they going to freeze? Cause we're going to get cold weather.
Speaker 1: If I had a dime, I'd be a pretty rich guy. Now,
Speaker 1: when people say bulbs, they're often referring to true bulbs
Speaker 1: as well as corms, rhizomes, tubers. Bulbs are kind of
Speaker 1: a tagline in marketing. You know, you're not getting a tissue,
Speaker 1: You're getting a kleenex, You're you know, nothing runs like
Speaker 1: a deer. We know we're talking about tractors. It's a tagline.
Speaker 1: They're bulbs, and the four big keys to success with
Speaker 1: bulbs are well drained soil planting, depth and timing in
Speaker 1: my opinion. Oh and one other thing that is a
Speaker 1: total pet peeve for me with bulbs. If you're purchasing
Speaker 1: them and you're planting them bulbs, rhizomes, corms, tubers, whatever
Speaker 1: they may be. And let me mention that here in
Speaker 1: the North, things like tubers and rhizomes or corms, we're
Speaker 1: lifting them in the fall and we're putting them into storage.
Speaker 1: Cannas and dahlias are a perfect example, or one of
Speaker 1: my favorites, tuberous begonias. They're not really bulbs, they're tubers
Speaker 1: or rhizomes, but we'll just loosely define them as bulbs.
Speaker 1: Back to the pet peas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say, let's not get off of that.
Speaker 2: I don't want to miss out what this is. I'm
Speaker 2: dying over here.
Speaker 1: The pet peeve is again. Having run a garden center
Speaker 1: for years, the size of the bulb matters, and for
Speaker 1: years I would sell only bulk bulbs because people love
Speaker 1: to kind of rummage through the box and dig for
Speaker 1: the bulbs. And for example, take a tulip bulb as
Speaker 1: an example. I believe the tulip bulb should be twelve
Speaker 1: centimeters in size or bigger in order to have a
Speaker 1: good bloom for next spring. My pet peeve is when
Speaker 1: they get put into fancy packages with colorful header cards,
Speaker 1: and all kinds of effort is put into the header card.
Speaker 1: But the size of that bulb, in my opinion, at
Speaker 1: least from what I see out there, in some cases,
Speaker 1: is going to lead to disappointment nextpert.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, so often in gardening, and definitely no
Speaker 2: exception for bulbs, you get what you pay for, yes,
Speaker 2: And you may sit there thinking, oh, I'm getting such
Speaker 2: a bargain. I saw them over at this place and
Speaker 2: they were this much, and here it's the same amount,
Speaker 2: and you know they only cost this much, so I'm
Speaker 2: getting the bargain. Well, there is something that is being
Speaker 2: made up there, and it is the size of the bulb,
Speaker 2: because those bulbs are being raised in the Netherlands, and
Speaker 2: most flower bulbs in the US are actually still imported
Speaker 2: from the Netherlands. It is the capital of bulb production
Speaker 2: in the world. You know, not everything is a top
Speaker 2: grade bulb. There's some smaller bulbs, and they're not just
Speaker 2: gonna throw those away. They're just going to go out
Speaker 2: and sell them at a lower price to you know,
Speaker 2: second tier retailers, and it's perfectly fine, but you just
Speaker 2: need to know what to expect. You're not going to
Speaker 2: get the same results is if you're buying that top
Speaker 2: grade bulb.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, if you take a
Speaker 1: bulb like a tulip bulb and you were to slice
Speaker 1: it with a sharp knife length wise, you would see
Speaker 1: that I'm going to call it embryo within the bulb,
Speaker 1: and that's sitting there, and that is the promise of
Speaker 1: spring sitting right there in your hands, and that's going
Speaker 1: to emerge when the conditions are right now. At the
Speaker 1: risk of being pedantic, I'm using your word here, Stacy,
Speaker 1: at the risk of being pedantic, cooling the bulbs is
Speaker 1: a confusing thing for people, but really, simply put, cooling
Speaker 1: keeps the embryo from emerging at the wrong time, but
Speaker 1: it also provides the opportunity for root formation for the bulb.
Speaker 1: They'rein my case that the depth that you plant at,
Speaker 1: as well as the fact that the soil needs to
Speaker 1: be well drained, is very very important because while that
Speaker 1: bulb is resting throughout the winter, and we're talking here
Speaker 1: about bulbs like daffodils or tulips, or hyacinths, crocus aliums,
Speaker 1: any of those fall planted non tropical bulbs. They need
Speaker 1: an opportunity to root. That's why when we force bulbs
Speaker 1: and we say you need a cooling period, we're not
Speaker 1: talking about frozen soil. We don't want ice frozen soil.
Speaker 1: We're talking about chilled soil. That is number one, going
Speaker 1: to allow the bulb to prepare so that when the
Speaker 1: temperatures are right and when the conditions are right, that
Speaker 1: embryo is going to emerge in spring as a beautiful flower.
Speaker 2: You know, the key to understanding this really is to
Speaker 2: look at the bulb you're interested in, look at where
Speaker 2: it is native to, and look at the climate and
Speaker 2: the terrain there, and that will give you so much
Speaker 2: of a better idea of what you need to try
Speaker 2: to replicate. And shoelips, daffodils, they're native to Central Asia,
Speaker 2: the Near and Far East, and you know they just bake.
Speaker 2: They just bake in rocky, sandy soils all summer. They
Speaker 2: are not equipped to deal with wet, regularly watered perennial beds.
Speaker 2: Eggs where so many people want to plant, it's not
Speaker 2: that you can't plant from there. You can, It's just
Speaker 2: you have to know you're only going to have probably
Speaker 2: a one year display because otherwise the bulb is going
Speaker 2: to rot as you keep your flowers going. And it's
Speaker 2: such an interesting way to do your research and to
Speaker 2: understand how you're growing your plants is to really take
Speaker 2: it back to that area and learn what you can
Speaker 2: and then again do your best to replicate it.
Speaker 1: That's a great point to where they are native, which
Speaker 1: brings up the point for all our Southern listeners and viewers,
Speaker 1: you're in the game here too. Number one. My son
Speaker 1: worked for quite a bit of time in Tennessee, and
Speaker 1: I saw tulips do magnificent in Tennessee. But even further
Speaker 1: south there are tropical and subtropical bulbs that would grow
Speaker 1: well in the South or in Florida. I think of agapanthus.
Speaker 1: I grow that here in Michigan, also known as lily
Speaker 1: of the Nile. It's native to South Africa. Of course,
Speaker 1: you have cannas, kala lilies, elephant ear, Colocacia esculenta. Alocasia's
Speaker 1: kalladiums are wonderful, wonderful plants for warm climates. Eucumus, which
Speaker 1: is pineapple lily, eucharis amazon lily, and of course, boy,
Speaker 1: this one always trips me up. But it's zephyra anthees,
Speaker 1: zephyr anthes grand a floor, the rain lily when it
Speaker 1: rains in the south, and all of a sudden, these
Speaker 1: beautiful amaryllis like blooms up here. It's really cool to see.
Speaker 2: Right And you know, if you're sitting there going whoa,
Speaker 2: this is like a lot of information and I'm already
Speaker 2: confused about bulbs. Don't worry. All you have to do
Speaker 2: is shop locally, because if you are going to your
Speaker 2: local garden center, all of the bulbs that you are
Speaker 2: going to be seeing for sale right now in your
Speaker 2: garden center in fault are going to be the ones
Speaker 2: that you should plant.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: There you go, so you enjoy in spring, and then
Speaker 2: a lot of the bulbs that just listed will make
Speaker 2: a resurgence in spring to be planted imediately and then
Speaker 2: go on to bloom in summer. So you don't have
Speaker 2: to worry about knowing all of this. All of these
Speaker 2: are different types of bulbs and corms, and all of
Speaker 2: these are the kinds of plants that have a dormant
Speaker 2: period where all their energy is stored into that fleshy,
Speaker 2: energy packed potato like structure, and they grow and then
Speaker 2: they go dormant again, and all of this combines to
Speaker 2: make them, in my opinion, some of the most rewarding,
Speaker 2: easiest to grow plants. I mean, I've said it already
Speaker 2: this year, but I'm going to say it again. You
Speaker 2: never regret planting bulbs.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm glad you brought that up, because we talked
Speaker 1: about marketing taglines for the Netherlands Bulb Institute or that organization.
Speaker 1: For a long time they had the tagline dig Drop Done.
Speaker 1: I liked that, so you know, and I like that too.
Speaker 1: I think it's great also to your point, Stacy, about
Speaker 1: the bulbs that you find in stores wherever you live
Speaker 1: at this time of the year. Great example of that
Speaker 1: is freezi's now cut flower gardening is very, very popular,
Speaker 1: and we love freezias. In the deep South Florida, you're
Speaker 1: going to be planting freezias and find them in fall,
Speaker 1: whereas here in the north or Midwest, you're going to
Speaker 1: find those in garden centers in spring and would be
Speaker 1: planting them in spring. So freezias are a good example
Speaker 1: of that. Also, here's a little limb a rick for you.
Speaker 1: It's bulb planting time. Whoopee, use your tulips and speak
Speaker 1: to me. They'll sleep in the ground and then spring
Speaker 1: will abound with blooms. I guarantee, and they will, they will.
Speaker 1: Although I do have to mention again that in the past,
Speaker 1: when I planted bulbs, usually what I would do is
Speaker 1: have some old screens around, and after I planted them
Speaker 1: backfilled the soil. I'd throw the screens on the soil
Speaker 1: to keep squirrels from digging because they see that freshly
Speaker 1: dug soil. But you're better off using chicken wire digging
Speaker 1: your hole, putting the chicken wire in plant the bulbs,
Speaker 1: peel the rather wrap the chicken wire around the bulbs,
Speaker 1: then fill with soil. That will work well for you
Speaker 1: when you're planting.
Speaker 2: If you have that issue. You know, surprisingly, despite having
Speaker 2: a number of squirrels in walnut trees around my neighborhood,
Speaker 2: I don't typically have a huge issue with squirrels digging
Speaker 2: them up. Now when things come up, you know, that's
Speaker 2: another issue. I have long since given up growing tulips
Speaker 2: living surrounded by deer. But yeah, that's I mean, that's
Speaker 2: an easy way to make sure that they don't dig
Speaker 2: them up and mess with them, because you know they're
Speaker 2: probably like, hey, another squirrel buried a walnut around here,
Speaker 2: I better get that walnut. Oh crap, it's just a
Speaker 2: bunch of crocuses.
Speaker 1: But they'll eat them in it.
Speaker 2: But they will potentially eat them anyway.
Speaker 1: Yes, a couple of other quick things. First of all,
Speaker 1: as far as deer resistance is concerned, remember iris, daffodils, aliums,
Speaker 1: fritile area. They're great, they're beautiful, and the deer tend
Speaker 1: to leave them alone. Also, I love to naturalize with
Speaker 1: bulbs and drifts and grow them through groundcovers. So if
Speaker 1: you have a groundcover of sweet woodruffer, let's say this
Speaker 1: fall you plant some pansies that will be blooming next spring.
Speaker 1: Plant those bulbs right in with those groundcovers, and then
Speaker 1: when they grow through them in spring, they'll be really pretty.
Speaker 2: They'll be gorgeous, you bet you.
Speaker 1: Let's find out what Stacy has on her mind for
Speaker 1: plants on trial that's coming up next here on the
Speaker 1: Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: Prooven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in
Speaker 2: the garden. That's why we trial and test all of
Speaker 2: our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they
Speaker 2: outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and
Speaker 2: the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's
Speaker 2: gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
Speaker 2: where I am going to give you a little bit
Speaker 2: more on bulbs. But first I do want to say
Speaker 2: Halloween is about a month away and we would love
Speaker 2: to feature your garden horror stories on our Halloween show.
Speaker 2: It's going to be airing right after Halloween. If you
Speaker 2: have a garden horror story, it doesn't have to be
Speaker 2: truly scary. It could be something that was merely alarming
Speaker 2: to you personally or just funny out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2: We all have them sometimes we need a little time
Speaker 2: to think of and we would love to hear that
Speaker 2: from you and be able to read that on the
Speaker 2: air and share it with our other listeners. If you
Speaker 2: have a garden horror story, you can reach us at
Speaker 2: Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. There's a contact form right there.
Speaker 2: You can just type it all in and we will
Speaker 2: add it to our list and share it with our listeners.
Speaker 2: It could be anything from you know, animal related, pest related.
Speaker 2: I had said that I once heard from a listener
Speaker 2: on my previous show who went to put her garden
Speaker 2: glove on and found a mouse was inside it. Yes, stacular,
Speaker 2: you know, unexpected snake sightings, so many possible things. My
Speaker 2: brother wants threw a slug into my hair that was
Speaker 2: very traumatic for me as a child.
Speaker 1: I got up one morning in my entire lawn was
Speaker 1: full of plastic forks. I got forked.
Speaker 2: What Yeah, someone did that to you.
Speaker 1: Somebody comes along. It's a prank.
Speaker 2: It's a prank.
Speaker 1: Yeah, plastic forks, thousands of them.
Speaker 2: That sounds like a real pain. So anyway, whatever you're
Speaker 2: the nature of your garden ho ror story, please do
Speaker 2: reach out to us a Gardening Simplified on your dot com.
Speaker 2: We would love to hear from you. Now, before I
Speaker 2: get to today's plant on Trial, I do just want
Speaker 2: to say something. My pet peeve about bulbs, okay, is quantity?
Speaker 2: You know, because you like go out, you buy a
Speaker 2: package of bulbs and you're like, whoa twenty five bulbs?
Speaker 2: And you know that scares some people away and not
Speaker 2: and it shouldn't it shouldn't. This is not like I
Speaker 2: show up to your house and say, here's twenty five shrubs.
Speaker 2: You have to find spots for them and plant them.
Speaker 2: It's not like that. Bulbs are very easy to fit
Speaker 2: in anywhere. And I will tell you what I have
Speaker 2: learned from working in gardens and what I do in
Speaker 2: my own garden. I don't dig twenty five holes. That
Speaker 2: would be ridiculous. Not only would it be more work
Speaker 2: than is necessary, but you're not going to get the
Speaker 2: display that you want because all you have is little
Speaker 2: tiny flowers spread out over like you know, one hundred
Speaker 2: square feet, and that doesn't have the impact. So what
Speaker 2: I do is I will dig one slightly larger hole,
Speaker 2: and I will pack that with all sorts of bulbs.
Speaker 2: Usually i'm looking for things. I tend personally to go
Speaker 2: more with what's known as the minor bulbs, so smaller,
Speaker 2: more unusual things. I do love daffodils. Those are bigger
Speaker 2: and they need a lot more space. You need to
Speaker 2: dig a lot deeper for them. But even if I
Speaker 2: plant a daffodil, you know, I'll dig that hole for
Speaker 2: the daffodils, put in some soil, and then just put
Speaker 2: a handful of mixed minor bulbs, So that could be
Speaker 2: great hyacinth, crocuses, kyona, doxa, pushkinia, I mean so many
Speaker 2: different things. I'll just mix them all up and just
Speaker 2: take a handful and PLoP it right in that hole.
Speaker 2: You know, as I've said before, like is too short
Speaker 2: for proper spacing by and large, and that is no
Speaker 2: more that's no more so true than with bulbs. So
Speaker 2: don't be intimidated by that quantity. You know, there have
Speaker 2: been many years where I have finished up planting bulbs
Speaker 2: and said, okay, I planted about seven hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: bulbs this year, and that seems insane to a lot
Speaker 2: of people. But it's actually a lot faster and a
Speaker 2: lot easier. And as long as you are picking bulbs
Speaker 2: that are appropriate for your area, that are going to
Speaker 2: resist the challenges of your yard, whether that's moist soil
Speaker 2: or deer or whatever, that little investment in time and
Speaker 2: money will last two decades. Yes, you know, a lot
Speaker 2: of those minor bulbs are great for naturalizing. And that's
Speaker 2: what I love.
Speaker 1: That's the look that I'm Mascari's snowdrops. You bet they'll
Speaker 1: keep coming back year.
Speaker 2: After year, So don't be intimidated by the fact that
Speaker 2: bulbs are sold by multiples of twenty five. It's not
Speaker 2: like trying to plant twenty five shrubs or perennials. Just
Speaker 2: go for it. You will never regret planting bulbs. Now,
Speaker 2: all that said, I do love bulbs. You and I
Speaker 2: both love bulbs, but they do have one little liability,
Speaker 2: because of course nothing's perfect, right, and the liability that
Speaker 2: bulbs have is that they do not make their exit gracefully.
Speaker 2: You know. They it's they're very easy to plant, they're
Speaker 2: very easy to maintain, They require almost no work, and
Speaker 2: they come up in spring and they look amazing. You
Speaker 2: get that fresh growth of green right when the snow
Speaker 2: starts to melt, and you're getting super psyched to see
Speaker 2: your bulbs and they bloom and that was great. And
Speaker 2: now all the rest of your garden is coming alive,
Speaker 2: and there is that bulb foliage looking like that dog's
Speaker 2: breakfast and it's yellow and streaky, and it's kind of
Speaker 2: sad really, because you know, again, the rest of the
Speaker 2: garden is just starting to get going and is looking
Speaker 2: fabulous and fresh and beautiful, and here's this foliage just
Speaker 2: like no I'm gonna die now, And it's kind of depressing.
Speaker 1: And you feel guilty chopping it back because you're told
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to do that.
Speaker 2: Well, you shouldn't do that, and I have certainly seen
Speaker 2: bulbs not come back. The reason that you have to
Speaker 2: tolerate this long slope, painful death of the bulb foliage
Speaker 2: is because all of that is photosynthesizing, and photosynthesizing is
Speaker 2: making energy for the plant, and because bulbs do have
Speaker 2: this very very short window in which they are actively growing,
Speaker 2: they need that time to photosynthesize in that foliage translocate
Speaker 2: all of the energy that they're making through the chlorophyll
Speaker 2: in their leaves, and that's why they turn yellow. So
Speaker 2: it's super crucial. Now, some bulbs can withstand it once
Speaker 2: or twice, but if you were to repeatedly cut back
Speaker 2: your bulbs every single year because you're like, I can't
Speaker 2: look at that yellow foliage, you will not have bulbs
Speaker 2: for are very long. They really truly do need that period,
Speaker 2: so you do have to to put up with it. Now.
Speaker 2: Over the years, gardeners have found many interesting ways to
Speaker 2: kind of deal with this little life ability ponytails. The
Speaker 2: people will put them in a little ponytail, gather them
Speaker 2: all up raiding famously, as Martha Stewart did, And those
Speaker 2: are okay. First of all, I think their life is
Speaker 2: too short to probably sit around braiding your daffodil foliage.
Speaker 2: But even if you did want to do that, you know,
Speaker 2: the issue is that that hides a lot of those
Speaker 2: photosynthetic surfaces from the sun so that they're not able
Speaker 2: to fully, you know, make create all the energy that
Speaker 2: they need through this process. So one thing that some
Speaker 2: people do is pair their bulbs with a plant that
Speaker 2: will kind of either grow up to cover the dying
Speaker 2: foliage or distract from it. So daffodils and hostas are
Speaker 2: two very popular choices for doing just that, because the
Speaker 2: foliage is small when the bulbs are active, so it's
Speaker 2: not shading them out or anything like that. And then
Speaker 2: as the bulb foliage starts to die back, their foliage
Speaker 2: is really expanding. But I wanted to propose another idea,
Speaker 2: and that is today's plant on trial. Cody fresh Drvilla
Speaker 2: and so Durvilla is a native shrub North American native.
Speaker 2: It's native here to Michigan. In fact, you find it
Speaker 2: in many many places, but all over Mackinaw Island if
Speaker 2: you are familiar with that, and it's a relatively plain
Speaker 2: but tidy shrub. It has nice, high quality foliage. And
Speaker 2: what we have been doing here at proven Winter's Color
Speaker 2: Choice Shrubs with Durvilla is trying to capitalize on its
Speaker 2: tendency to have some quite nice color, especially in its
Speaker 2: new growth. And so we have been working with Durvilla
Speaker 2: for a number of years now, and we have Kodiac
Speaker 2: Red Durvilla, which has red foliage. We have Kodiak Orange,
Speaker 2: which has orange. We have Kodiak Black which has nice
Speaker 2: beautiful purple black foliage, and Kodiak Fresh is kind of
Speaker 2: a mix of most of these. So Kodiak Fresh Dravilla
Speaker 2: has chartruse foliage that emerges in shades of red and
Speaker 2: orange and yellow, and it just really lives up to
Speaker 2: its name and has this pretty vivid fresh look. And
Speaker 2: if you were to plant a Kodiak Orange or a
Speaker 2: Kodiak Fresh Terravilla next to your bulb planting, I think
Speaker 2: that you would genuinely find that as this starts to
Speaker 2: come out for spring, and it is so much more colorful,
Speaker 2: even if it is not directly covering your bulb foliage.
Speaker 2: It is easily distracting enough from them because it does
Speaker 2: bring so much color and life that you can kind
Speaker 2: of forget about all of the sadness going on just
Speaker 2: over there with your daff at all.
Speaker 1: Would you call it dogs breakfast?
Speaker 2: I called it the dog's breakfast, Yeah, because it's you know,
Speaker 2: it's like I wouldn't mind so much, like if it happened now.
Speaker 2: And there are some bulbs that actually put their foliage
Speaker 2: out in fall, right and then go on to bloom
Speaker 2: and spring. But you know, it's just kind of like
Speaker 2: insulting that, like here's spring and everything's livening up, and
Speaker 2: the bulbs are like, nope, I'm done. You know, it's
Speaker 2: it's it's a weird thing. So I don't know, I
Speaker 2: feel I guess I kind I find it kind of depressing.
Speaker 2: But I think Kodiak freshtervilla is a great way to
Speaker 2: lighten up the area and forget about that dying foliage.
Speaker 2: And Kodiak dur villas are so incredibly easy to grow.
Speaker 2: Like I said, they are native. There are very very
Speaker 2: durable shrubs. They kind of just grow as a natural
Speaker 2: sort of rounded habit, so you can let them be,
Speaker 2: or if you prefer to have something with a little
Speaker 2: bit more shape. They're very easy to trim and maintain into.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't want to put them into like a tight
Speaker 2: shape like you would a boxwood, but you can easily
Speaker 2: give it like a light trim to give it a
Speaker 2: more rounded, sculpted shape. In summer, it puts out tons
Speaker 2: of yellow flowers, and those attract native pollinators, especially bumblebees. Now,
Speaker 2: one name that you might hear sometimes as a common
Speaker 2: name for durvilla is bush honeysuckle. Now we don't like
Speaker 2: to use that term because it is not a honeysuckle,
Speaker 2: and of course people think honeysuckle and they think wow, invasive,
Speaker 2: even though they are in the same family. You don't
Speaker 2: have to worry about CoDIAK dri villa's being invasive or
Speaker 2: making a pestive themselves in your garden. They will tolerate
Speaker 2: just about any soil. Kodiak fresh is hardy down to
Speaker 2: USDA's own three. All aren't through USCA Zone eight. It
Speaker 2: gets to be two to three feet tall and wide,
Speaker 2: so again just a nice size for adding to your garden.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think much like bulbs, you won't
Speaker 2: regard planting it because it's one of those plants that
Speaker 2: really just looks fabulous without having to do anything to it.
Speaker 1: Love the plant in my landscape and in summary, easy
Speaker 1: to grow, and I love the fall color.
Speaker 2: And you can see all the photos of it on
Speaker 2: Gardening Simplified on air dot com of course, or if
Speaker 2: you're watching us on YouTube, you'll see them there, or
Speaker 2: check us out on Instagram. We're going to take a
Speaker 2: little break. When we come back, we're opening up the
Speaker 2: garden mailbank, so please stay tuned. At proven winner's color Choice,
Speaker 2: We've got a shrub for every taste and every space.
Speaker 2: Whether you're looking for an easycare rose and unforgettable hydrangea,
Speaker 2: or something new and unique, you can be confident that
Speaker 2: the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and
Speaker 2: tested for your success. Look for them at your local
Speaker 2: garden center's Gardening Friends, and welcome back to the Gardening
Speaker 2: Simplified Show, where we try to simplify gardening for you,
Speaker 2: give you the information that you need to understand what
Speaker 2: the heck is going out there in your yard. And
Speaker 2: one of the ways we do that is by answering
Speaker 2: your garden questions and celebrating your garden successes and quandaries
Speaker 2: and conundrums. So if you want to reach us, we
Speaker 2: would love to hear from you. Help HLP at Gardening
Speaker 2: Simplified on air dot com or just visit Gardening Simplified
Speaker 2: on air dot com and there's a contact form where
Speaker 2: you can send us your message. Now you have seen
Speaker 2: a couple of things come across your radar.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, it doesn't have to be a question,
Speaker 1: It can be a comment, it can be a picture.
Speaker 1: And Michio from Tokyo, Japan sent us a picture of
Speaker 1: a hydrangea that she felt was interesting and unique. And
Speaker 1: it is so the folks watching on YouTube you see
Speaker 1: that you'll be able to see it on our website.
Speaker 1: I thought it was very interesting and interesting looking hydrange
Speaker 1: I have no idea what kind of you don't?
Speaker 3: Well? What?
Speaker 2: So it is a smooth hydrangea. Hydrangea are ok.
Speaker 1: And it's flat?
Speaker 2: No, and sometimes they do that. You know, there are
Speaker 2: some that are much more mophead like, like Incredible, which
Speaker 2: is available in Japan, and in fact, a number of
Speaker 2: proven Winner's color choice shrubs are available in Japan. And
Speaker 2: what's so funny about this? Of course, is that Japan
Speaker 2: is like the hydrangic capital of the world. There are
Speaker 2: so so many wonderful hydranges that are native to Japan, Taiwan, Korea,
Speaker 2: and China, and the one that Michio has is a
Speaker 2: North American native. So it's a true example of how
Speaker 2: that grass is always green on the other side.
Speaker 1: And that's probably why she found it in.
Speaker 2: Yes, because it's so much different than although I have
Speaker 2: to say, someone did send me a photo of off
Speaker 2: of Instagram this week of some of our hydranges blooming
Speaker 2: in a park in Japan, so it was invincible spirit
Speaker 2: to Hydrangea and in Vinci beel we white hydrange of
Speaker 2: both of which are available there. Blooming in a park
Speaker 2: with Mount Fuji in the background, absolutely positively took my
Speaker 2: breath away. So we will put a link or some
Speaker 2: shots of that in the YouTube video so you don't
Speaker 2: miss that and miss out on that opportunity to make
Speaker 2: your yard look as fabulous as that is beautiful.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mitchell. We also have a picture a screenshot
Speaker 1: from Wells Orchard here in West Michigan. It's a Facebook
Speaker 1: post that they put up about their apple trees blooming.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Granny Smith apples. So there's apples on the trees, but
Speaker 1: there's also blooms, which is crazy. And Michelle also sent
Speaker 1: us two pictures from the Luddington area of apple blossoms
Speaker 1: in bloom in the fall and lilacs in bloom. Crazy stuff.
Speaker 1: Now we have seen this before. I think it's triggered
Speaker 1: by drought and heat. We've had a lot of drought
Speaker 1: and heat in the Midwest in late summer September Stacy.
Speaker 1: I think that drought and heat can do two things.
Speaker 1: Number one sometimes mess up fall color dominic Yeah, and
Speaker 1: number two mess up the I don't know calendar or
Speaker 1: cycle of spring blooming for some plants, and that in
Speaker 1: itself also could at least diminish a few of the
Speaker 1: bloom's next spring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. It is always very odd to see, but
Speaker 2: it's certainly not unheard of. And it basically what it
Speaker 2: means is that the plant has created flower buds without vernilization,
Speaker 2: and vernilization just means that the plant has gone through
Speaker 2: a cold period much like bulbs, and that's what triggers
Speaker 2: the flowers to open. And so when we have a
Speaker 2: reblooming shrub like we do, improven winters like the bloomerang
Speaker 2: lilacs or lets dans hydrangs. The reason that those are reblooming,
Speaker 2: or why they bloom on new wood as well as
Speaker 2: on old wood, is because those new wood flowers don't
Speaker 2: require vernalization. And so what's happened here is these plants
Speaker 2: are blooming without somewhat without vernilization. They're not, like you know,
Speaker 2: in full bloom and absolutely covered in flowers, just a
Speaker 2: bit here and there, But it is not unheard of.
Speaker 2: Always a little bit distressing, especially when it has been
Speaker 2: as hot and as dry for as long as it
Speaker 2: has been here. But nature does crazy things. What can
Speaker 2: I say, you.
Speaker 1: Bet, carl Assis, Do I need to prune small shrubs
Speaker 1: like arrowood, viburnum or nine bark to make them more
Speaker 1: dense or will they take care of that on their own.
Speaker 1: They were planted last year, so they're in their creep year.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to listen to Stacy and not touch them.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, now you know, I'm not a fan of
Speaker 2: like needlessly pruning stuff just because you want to. But
Speaker 2: it is true that pruning does make shrubs bushier. Every
Speaker 2: time that you prune off the top of a plant,
Speaker 2: it will branch out below that and you will get
Speaker 2: greater bushiness. And I think as more and more people
Speaker 2: sometimes purchase plants online, you're usually getting smaller plants. And when,
Speaker 2: especially with shrubs, when you get a smaller shrub, the
Speaker 2: amount of time that a grower would have spent trimming
Speaker 2: it and building it into a bigger and bushier and
Speaker 2: more full shrub, that's not there to actually do that yourself.
Speaker 2: So it is totally fine. If you feel as though
Speaker 2: they need, you know, a little bit more bushiness, go
Speaker 2: ahead and prune them. But do be aware that both
Speaker 2: aerowood viburnum and nine bark bloom on old wood, So
Speaker 2: if you want to see the flowers, you're gonna want
Speaker 2: to do this after they bloom. If you don't care
Speaker 2: about the flowers and you're just willing to sacrifice it
Speaker 2: for you know, getting a nice full shrub, no problem.
Speaker 2: Just do it in spring with the aerowood viburnum, though,
Speaker 2: do be aware that, of course, because that is a
Speaker 2: flowering and fruiting shrub, that if you prune it after
Speaker 2: it blooms, you will be removing the ability for it
Speaker 2: to actually set fruit. But again, these are just esthetic considerations,
Speaker 2: not plant health considerations, and you can safely prune these
Speaker 2: back by up to half, even a little bit more
Speaker 2: if you need to. It's really going to depend on
Speaker 2: the look that you're going for and what you're dealing
Speaker 2: with already.
Speaker 1: And I agree waiting with the pruning, but go ahead
Speaker 1: and prune. I see no problem with doing that pruning. Stacy.
Speaker 1: Martha sends us a long note here. She's from Zone
Speaker 1: six A and I love this, Martha. Thank you very
Speaker 1: mult She went out and got a soil test based
Speaker 1: on our record.
Speaker 2: I know, I was so excited, so thank you for
Speaker 2: doing that, Martha. That means a lot. It's good to
Speaker 2: know that people are actually doing that. Even though Martha's
Speaker 2: soil test results were maybe not quite ideal, it's still
Speaker 2: good to know what you're dealing with. Because Martha found
Speaker 2: out that her soil is a pH of seven point six,
Speaker 2: which is pretty high.
Speaker 1: That's high.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So anything above seven is alkaline or basic, anything
Speaker 2: below seven is can it be acidic? Most plants prefer
Speaker 2: soil on the acidic side because that is where the
Speaker 2: most nutrients are available to them. She also found out
Speaker 2: that her soil is very high in magnesium, which can
Speaker 2: happen for a number of reasons. It can just be
Speaker 2: your water. It can be due especially if you have
Speaker 2: a hard water in your area. It can be due
Speaker 2: to just the parent material or whatever rock formation it
Speaker 2: was that your soil was created from. Can also be
Speaker 2: created through the use of limestone if you were using
Speaker 2: that to lower or to raise your pitch, which hopefully
Speaker 2: wasn't the case because if so, that was way overused
Speaker 2: to get your soil up into at seven point six.
Speaker 2: But the high magnesium is a concern because that can
Speaker 2: induce deficiencies of other nutrients because it ties up the
Speaker 2: plant's ability to take up other nutrients. But what Martha
Speaker 2: is actually asking is, you know they gave her, they said, hey,
Speaker 2: use this fertilizer three two zero, And she says, what
Speaker 2: fertilizer should I use? And I have to say, Rick,
Speaker 2: I have never seen a three two zero fertilizer for
Speaker 2: sale in my life. So Extension, I'm sure is well
Speaker 2: meaning and saying this would be the ideal fertilizer, But
Speaker 2: I don't think that most consumers are going to be
Speaker 2: able to find. You know, as a homeowner, you're going
Speaker 2: to be able to find a fertilizer anything like that.
Speaker 2: But you know, definitely read the labels of the fertilizers
Speaker 2: that are available at your gardens ter make sure they
Speaker 2: do not contain magnesium, because some will have trace elements
Speaker 2: or trace nutrients in them. So you're going to want
Speaker 2: one that does not contain magnesium, so that you're sure
Speaker 2: to not you know, increase that issue. But then Martha
Speaker 2: goes on to ask, you know, so I'm sorry, we
Speaker 2: don't have an exact recommendation for you. They're just recommending
Speaker 2: sort of the ideal, so get as close as you can,
Speaker 2: and you know, the low potassium could resolve itself with
Speaker 2: the magnesium going down, which it will in time because
Speaker 2: magnesium does tie up potassium in the soil. So how
Speaker 2: you'll apply that will depend. It will probably be a granular.
Speaker 2: I would personally just broadcast that in probably late March myself,
Speaker 2: and then you ask how Martha asks how soon can
Speaker 2: she plant after the fertilizer has been applied, and I
Speaker 2: would say, again, apply that in about late March when
Speaker 2: your soil is starting to thaw. And if you give
Speaker 2: that probably two to three weeks for you know, rain
Speaker 2: and everything to weather that fertilizer. I think think you
Speaker 2: should be good to plant.
Speaker 1: I'd say, you know, the big issue here for me
Speaker 1: when I look at this is the soil pH at
Speaker 1: seven point six, and I would question it. Now. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying, Martha that the test was not taken appropriately. However,
Speaker 1: in our soil test show, we talked about the fact
Speaker 1: that you want to take multiple samples, and the samples
Speaker 1: that you take are very very important to get a
Speaker 1: good reading on the lawn. Seven point six is pretty high. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're comfortable that the soil test taken was done
Speaker 1: with plenty of samples so that that's an accurate reading
Speaker 1: of the soil, just make sure of that before you
Speaker 1: start applying something like aluminum sulfate to try and bring
Speaker 1: that pH down right.
Speaker 2: And you know, I would also say that plants can
Speaker 2: grow at a soil pH of seven point six. And
Speaker 2: you know, of course you're not going to be growing blueberries,
Speaker 2: You're not going to be growing rhododendrons and all of
Speaker 2: those plants that we know loves. But overall, most plants
Speaker 2: are pretty flexible in their pH as long as it's
Speaker 2: not extreme. So like if you're in that six to
Speaker 2: eight range, you can grow most plants now, if you
Speaker 2: start to see nutrient deficiencies, you will know that those
Speaker 2: are like yellowing foliage or unhealthy growth. You will know
Speaker 2: that's a result of nutrients that are being tied up
Speaker 2: at that pH level and that is something that can
Speaker 2: easily be remedied with by applying fertilizer regularly and eventually
Speaker 2: it will sort itself out. You know, that's not a
Speaker 2: long term solution, but if you if you do want
Speaker 2: to take that pH down, like Rick said, with aluminium sulfate,
Speaker 2: you can use fertilizer on the plants that are showing
Speaker 2: signs of that pH level issue. And of course, for
Speaker 2: at this point in your gardens, steer clear of anything
Speaker 2: that you know is notoriously acid loving. So we're going
Speaker 2: to take a little break. When we come back, we've
Speaker 2: got a special guest, so you won't want to miss it.
Speaker 2: We'll hope you come back. The Gardening Simplified Show is
Speaker 2: brought to you by proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our
Speaker 2: award winning flowering shrubs in evergreens have been trialed and
Speaker 2: tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty and
Speaker 2: less work. Look for proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs and
Speaker 2: the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to The Gardening Simplified Show today for our
Speaker 1: Branching News segment in interview with Jenny Rose Carrie. Jenny
Speaker 1: Rose Carrie is a horticulturist, a speaker, and an author
Speaker 1: a couple of books, Gloria Shade and The Ultimate Flower
Speaker 1: Gardener's Guide. They're currently available for purchase through her website
Speaker 1: Jennyrosecarrie dot com and Amazon. Jenny is working on a
Speaker 1: new book on bulbs to release sometime in September twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. Jenny, thanks so much for joining us on
Speaker 1: The Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. I'm likely to talk about whatever
Speaker 3: we'll end up talking about.
Speaker 1: Thanks for all the work you do as a horticulturist,
Speaker 1: a speaker, and an author. I follow you on Instagram
Speaker 1: and you're the person with that icond of pink hat.
Speaker 1: How did that come along? Every time I see you,
Speaker 1: you're wearing that pink hat's what's the story behind that? Well?
Speaker 3: You know, I'm very into colors altogether, and I have
Speaker 3: had different phases over the course of my life. I
Speaker 3: had a red phase and then a green phase, and
Speaker 3: there's probably a put of phase and you know, and
Speaker 3: then each one of my family, you know, it's like
Speaker 3: two families choose their toothbrushes by color, and you you know,
Speaker 3: it's like, do you know what color your toothbrush is?
Speaker 3: If you do, you're a color person, you know, and
Speaker 3: then it just won't do to have, you know, a
Speaker 3: yellow toothbrush, you know, and then you get muddled up.
Speaker 3: So it was sort of like self preservation that I
Speaker 3: always got my pink toothbrush and my pink hat and
Speaker 3: my you know, I knew it was mine and no
Speaker 3: one else was going to use it. But more to
Speaker 3: the point, I love think it makes me happy, and
Speaker 3: I try and encourage people to do the same thing
Speaker 3: in their gardens, because if you are a color person,
Speaker 3: I know, the color of your toothbrush, then you want
Speaker 3: to go for you know, swaps of your favorite color
Speaker 3: in the garden or accessories or benches, and they'll just
Speaker 3: make you happy every time you go out to your garden.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic. We we were talking on today's show about bulbs,
Speaker 1: and you know, I personally have a real interest in
Speaker 1: bulbs because my parents were from the Netherlands. They survived
Speaker 1: the hunger winter of nineteen forty four forty five. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, my parents ate tulip bulbs to
Speaker 1: stay alive during World War Two. I love bulbs because
Speaker 1: there's such variety and they're so beautiful in our landscape.
Speaker 1: It must be that you feel people in general love
Speaker 1: bulbs based on the fact that you're writing a book
Speaker 1: about bulbs. Why do we love them so much? Jenny Well?
Speaker 3: I grew up in England, as you can probably tell
Speaker 3: from the accent, and I think we've been buying bolves
Speaker 3: from the Netherlands for centuries now, you know, because you
Speaker 3: do such a good job of producing them, and there
Speaker 3: is just something special about them because you plant this
Speaker 3: sort of anonymous brown package in the ground and then
Speaker 3: you just like, oh when sometimes sometimes it all you know,
Speaker 3: something will happen, but you go about your day, and
Speaker 3: you go about your you know, next couple of months,
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden you look back at
Speaker 3: that spot and there's a green shoot, and then all
Speaker 3: of a sudden there's an amazing colored flower popping out
Speaker 3: of the ground. And it's sort of like, I don't know,
Speaker 3: delayed gratification or something like that. But also it may
Speaker 3: are just you know, they're in the moment. They're in
Speaker 3: the moment. And one when you look at the daffodil,
Speaker 3: you know it's spring when you look at you know,
Speaker 3: now in my garden, I say dahlia, but no one
Speaker 3: can think that, you know, I can understand what dahlia
Speaker 3: now right now, my you know, my cupping garden and
Speaker 3: my varose gardens are four of dahlia's and I've got
Speaker 3: two barrows out and I've got you know, all these things,
Speaker 3: oh gladiolus. But I popped up on Instagram the other
Speaker 3: day with a lovely white outside and a pink center,
Speaker 3: and you know, there's there's nothing quite like it for
Speaker 3: just a real bloom power.
Speaker 2: And speaking to the season, I think, you know, you
Speaker 2: make a great point because especially nowadays, you know, there
Speaker 2: we live in a kind of largely seasonless society. You know,
Speaker 2: you can get any type of produce anytime of the
Speaker 2: year pretty much, and you know, you can go to
Speaker 2: a florist and find flower out of season for almost anything.
Speaker 2: But you know what, you don't really see daffodils out
Speaker 2: of season, and you know, you don't really have these
Speaker 2: other plants just popping up and they are one of
Speaker 2: those things that truly are just completely rooted in the springtime.
Speaker 3: Well or in their season. So you know, like dailias,
Speaker 3: the best stalyi as you can get are in the autumn,
Speaker 3: you know, summer into autumn, unless you fly them around
Speaker 3: the world, you know, which we're trying not to do.
Speaker 3: We're trying to grow local and use our flowers from
Speaker 3: local you know, growers, and support them. But you know,
Speaker 3: I am a very big proponent, and in all of
Speaker 3: my books, I have sections where I divide up and
Speaker 3: tell you these things are going to be in flower
Speaker 3: at this season and they will go together like this.
Speaker 3: If you put them in the same bed or adjacent
Speaker 3: beds or adjacent pops, you know, these will combine well,
Speaker 3: they'll flower at the same time.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Pick your tall one and your flat one and you're
Speaker 3: run on all these things and then they'll look lovely together.
Speaker 3: So I spend a lot of time encouraging seasonality, especially
Speaker 3: in well produced as well, because like we have a
Speaker 3: strawberry patch, and there's nothing like a fresh strawberry or
Speaker 3: a fresh tomato tomato, you know, to make you understand
Speaker 3: how to relish the moment and exact sort of you know,
Speaker 3: to me, if I buy strawberries all year round, then
Speaker 3: you know, where's the joy in that. It's sort of
Speaker 3: like we are in such a rush and everything like that.
Speaker 3: There's so much going on in the world that makes
Speaker 3: us all anxious and everything like that to have these
Speaker 3: little calming moments of our first you know, the first daffodil,
Speaker 3: you know, the first crotus, the first anything. And that's
Speaker 3: why I really encourage people to plant them, because there's
Speaker 3: nothing like after the winter in particular, as you know,
Speaker 3: going outside there's still a chill in the air, and
Speaker 3: then you just walk outside and you see just a
Speaker 3: little touch of white or purple or yellow, and you're like, oh, yes,
Speaker 3: I think the year is going to be okay, you know.
Speaker 3: Ready as the hope message. Really, I think.
Speaker 1: We're being inspired by Jenny Rose Carey. She's a horticulturist, speaker,
Speaker 1: and author. Jenny I always get a kick out of
Speaker 1: the fact that we kind of loosely define a lot
Speaker 1: of these plants as bulbs, but in reality we're talking
Speaker 1: about corms and tubers and rhizomes and true bulbs. I
Speaker 1: do think it causes some confusion for people.
Speaker 3: Yes, I would agree, and I've spent a long time
Speaker 3: thinking before I wrote the book about this. In the
Speaker 3: gardening world, and for most gardeners, you call them all
Speaker 3: bulbs because they are sort of brownish, maybe a bit
Speaker 3: purple or cream, but they're you know, leaning towards the brown,
Speaker 3: and they are, you know, a discreet like a little
Speaker 3: plant in miniature and you can plant it in the
Speaker 3: in the soil and up it comes and does its
Speaker 3: own thing. So you know, they're all storage units. I
Speaker 3: am a biologist, and my dad and uncle were all botanists,
Speaker 3: and you know, we would debate about whether it was
Speaker 3: a tuberous route. Oh no, it's not a tuberous route.
Speaker 3: It must be a risomotous route, you know. But you know,
Speaker 3: most people couldn't give a hoot about whether it was
Speaker 3: one or the other. So I've called them all bobs
Speaker 3: in the text, I've you know, gone through you know,
Speaker 3: what is a corm for those and those people at
Speaker 3: once know otherwise you skip that bit because it, you know,
Speaker 3: smacks too much of bio one oh one, and you
Speaker 3: move on and look at the pretty pictures. So you know,
Speaker 3: I've given you, I've given it to you. In the book.
Speaker 3: But it's not you know, you don't have to. I
Speaker 3: don't feel like I have to belabor the point because
Speaker 3: they they whatever they do, the plant has figured out
Speaker 3: that it is a wonderful way to get through in
Speaker 3: clement weather. So they all have the same function. Whether
Speaker 3: they are summer dormant or winter dormant, they are all
Speaker 3: a coping mechanism for getting that plant through the time,
Speaker 3: either of hot and dry or cold weather, and then
Speaker 3: allowing it to pop up at the right season of
Speaker 3: the year. So you know, it's a storage unit when
Speaker 3: it boils down to it and what was inside it,
Speaker 3: you know, is less relevant to us than it is
Speaker 3: to the plant.
Speaker 1: I love that, and that's well said, really well said.
Speaker 1: You know, I personally have coping mechanisms to get through
Speaker 1: winter this season that I really don't care all that
Speaker 1: much for. But Jenny, a question for you. So you're
Speaker 1: writing this book on Bob's going to be released in
Speaker 1: September twenty twenty five. Jenny has a couple of other books,
Speaker 1: Gloria Shade and The Ultimate Flower Gardener's Guide. Ask you
Speaker 1: an unfair question. So you're working on the bulb book,
Speaker 1: give me two bulbs that are absolute favorites of yours
Speaker 1: that you must have in your garden, regardless of what happens.
Speaker 1: I have to have these two. Share those with our
Speaker 1: viewers and listeners.
Speaker 3: Ooh, can I have three?
Speaker 1: You can have three bonus down.
Speaker 3: I'm a negotiator, okay, I like it. So the one
Speaker 3: that gets me through like the winter months, because I'm
Speaker 3: like you, I really am not a winter plan. And
Speaker 3: you know, so the one I that starts blooming for
Speaker 3: me around Thanksgiving not the same bulb itself, but different
Speaker 3: ones within the snowdrop genus. So that's the genus Galantus
Speaker 3: snow drops. And if you live in the at south,
Speaker 3: then you might grow snow flakes which are very similar.
Speaker 3: They're white and dangly. So they get me through the winter.
Speaker 3: And I have set about whether it has one green dot,
Speaker 3: two green dots, you know, you know, whether it's a double,
Speaker 3: whether it's a single, loose sort of things, and that
Speaker 3: keeps me going through the winter. And then the daffodils
Speaker 3: are a real favorite because no deer eat them, you know,
Speaker 3: no rabbits eat them. And you know, I have a
Speaker 3: lot of wildlife in my garden because my garden for
Speaker 3: wildlife and they come in such a great diversity that
Speaker 3: there's something for every garden, and there's some that you know,
Speaker 3: like cold weather better and some that do well in
Speaker 3: warm weather, like the tazettas. So I can obsess about
Speaker 3: daffodils because I get my first daffodil out usually January
Speaker 3: or February, and then the last one in May, so
Speaker 3: that gives me a good few months for that, and
Speaker 3: so that would get through that bit of the year,
Speaker 3: and then I have to say my dahlias or dahlias
Speaker 3: however you want to announce them that are in full
Speaker 3: bloom right now, because they're in bloom now and you
Speaker 3: always want, well, you know, to obsess about what you're
Speaker 3: looking at this minute. And that really sends me right
Speaker 3: through until we get a very hard frost. So they
Speaker 3: come out starting in usually August, I get my first one,
Speaker 3: and then really through September is the peak, and then
Speaker 3: into October if I'm lucky. So that gives me a
Speaker 3: good eight weeks probably of bloom, if not more of
Speaker 3: you know, we don't get the frost. And again there's
Speaker 3: one for cutting. There's low growing ones that people are
Speaker 3: growing more as an edging in a display garden. So
Speaker 3: you know, I love the cutting ones because I've got
Speaker 3: You won't believe how tall they are this year. I
Speaker 3: don't know why because we had no rain, but they are.
Speaker 3: I would say I've got eight foot nine foot talls Daly.
Speaker 3: And you know how many blooms were on. I really
Speaker 3: should put some up on Instagram, but it's you know,
Speaker 3: there's so many things in bloom. We had garden tours
Speaker 3: this weekend. We had one hundred and thirty five people
Speaker 3: through on a tour on Sunday, group yesterday, another group
Speaker 3: last week. And I really enjoy this time of year
Speaker 3: because there's just so many flowers out. All the ass
Speaker 3: were everything is out, yes, just for a rain. So
Speaker 3: that's my three. Sorry about that.
Speaker 1: Well, Having worked in garden centers my entire life, Jenny,
Speaker 1: I can tell you that I see bulbs as the
Speaker 1: ultimate impulse buy. People buy them impulsively. They don't have
Speaker 1: a shopping list with them. I think that's why the
Speaker 1: colorful pictures are so important, as opposed to buying a
Speaker 1: candy bar or some garden gloves. At checkout, people will
Speaker 1: pick up a package of bulbs, and I think that's
Speaker 1: what keeps it going.
Speaker 3: So I think that's a good that's a good way
Speaker 3: to look at it. But also think about how much
Speaker 3: better it is than a candy bar, because if you
Speaker 3: want a perennial bulb like a daffodil, that will come
Speaker 3: up four years, and if you choose one that's really
Speaker 3: adapted to your conditions, it will be generations. I have
Speaker 3: daffodils in my garden that were in my husband's great
Speaker 3: grandmother's garden that we've that and so, you know, a
Speaker 3: candy bar here and there, as much as I love
Speaker 3: my candy bars, but you know something else, if you
Speaker 3: find the ones that really suit your growing conditions, you
Speaker 3: can dig and divide them after a few years and
Speaker 3: make you know, three clumps instead of one, and give
Speaker 3: one to a friend. And that's the other thing. They're
Speaker 3: so rewarding, because even the things like the dahlias, if
Speaker 3: they do well for you and you can figure out
Speaker 3: how to overwinter in which I've put all of us
Speaker 3: in the book, all the tips and tricks that I've
Speaker 3: learned over the years. Or if you decide not to
Speaker 3: owe with them, that's fine because of treatment as an annual,
Speaker 3: but if you do dig them up and divide them
Speaker 3: you know, usually from one plump, you get two or
Speaker 3: three plumps and then you can share with a friend,
Speaker 3: and the sharing with a friend is always the fun.
Speaker 1: Bitch. Well, I can tell you I have difficulty resisting
Speaker 1: the candy bar at checkout. I do my best, but
Speaker 1: I can't resist a good package of bulbs. Her name
Speaker 1: is Jenny Rose Carrie. She is a horticulturist, speaker and
Speaker 1: author Just a Delight. Look for at Jenny Rosecarrie dot com.
Speaker 1: Look for books also on Amazon Jenny, good luck with
Speaker 1: the bulb book. We look forward to seeing it in
Speaker 1: September of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much. It's been fun talking with you,
Speaker 3: and anytime you want to talk gardening, this is what
Speaker 3: I love to do. So thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1: Thank you so.
Speaker 2: Much, well Rick for a moment there, I thought that
Speaker 2: you were going to say that you can't resist a canna,
Speaker 2: not a candy bar, and I know both things are true.
Speaker 2: So thank you so much to Jenny for your time
Speaker 2: and expertise. Thank you Rick, thank you Adriana, and thanks
Speaker 2: so much to all of you. We hope you have
Speaker 2: a wonderful week ahead.