Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio a Here at Proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs.
Speaker 1: It's The Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me Rick
Speaker 1: weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Today we
Speaker 1: talk about texture, one of my favorite subjects. It describes
Speaker 1: the surface quality of an object that can be seen
Speaker 1: or felt. And when designing a landscape, it's that visual
Speaker 1: texture as opposed to the tactile touch that probably is
Speaker 1: more important, or is it. My experience in the garden
Speaker 1: center industry for years was watching people as they shop.
Speaker 1: They love to touch plants and texture is important in
Speaker 1: the landscape. Speaking of touch, I'm wearing my retired summer
Speaker 1: washed linen shirt just because it's nice and soft and
Speaker 1: bumpy and I like it and it has great desk.
Speaker 2: It's very nice. Yeah, that's a really great shirt.
Speaker 1: Thank you. So texture is all around us throughout our life.
Speaker 1: I mean, you think about music, you think about all
Speaker 1: the layers in music. I hang around a lot of
Speaker 1: musical people and they often talk about music texture. There
Speaker 1: is such a thing, and if you think about it,
Speaker 1: all the instruments coming together to create something that's emotional
Speaker 1: and beautiful. Layers upon layers. That's texture in music, and
Speaker 1: so it's important there. It's important in our landscape because
Speaker 1: it's going to affect the overall emotion and character of
Speaker 1: your landscape. Proper balance super important, so we look at fine,
Speaker 1: medium and coarse objects. But Stacy, I think for me,
Speaker 1: when we talk about texture, contrast is super super important
Speaker 1: to me. Dynamic harmone kind of creating that spatially pleasing
Speaker 1: outdoor space. I believe that it's the contrast between objects
Speaker 1: that really makes texture an important component of the landscape.
Speaker 2: You are one hundred percent right, And I think that,
Speaker 2: you know, if we're looking at our own gardens or
Speaker 2: containers or whatever in our landscape and something kind of
Speaker 2: feels like it's falling flat, I think most people's first
Speaker 2: instinct is to blame color, right, that it needs more color,
Speaker 2: or the colors off, or you know, something like that.
Speaker 2: But I would say that nine times out of ten,
Speaker 2: it's actually a texture issue and not a color issue.
Speaker 2: It's just that, you know, I think we're not as
Speaker 2: attuned to identifying those issues. But I think if people
Speaker 2: think about, you know, a picture in the of a
Speaker 2: garden or a garden that they actually visit, or a
Speaker 2: moment even in their own garden, that they said they think, wow,
Speaker 2: this really works. I nailed it, or that gardener nailed it.
Speaker 2: It is it ends being that the texture was right.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think there are two super easy
Speaker 2: ways to check yourself on texture.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Number one classic black and white photo. You know, take
Speaker 2: a photo of your garden, take it in black and white,
Speaker 2: or transform it into black and white, one of those
Speaker 2: fun things that we can do nowadays with our phones,
Speaker 2: and and that kind of takes away that color element
Speaker 2: and you can really see those, you know, parts of
Speaker 2: the garden and see what's working. And then you're like, whoa, no,
Speaker 2: wonder this isn't working. All of these plants look the
Speaker 2: exact same exactly. And I think that we tend to
Speaker 2: as gardeners, gravitate towards a texture that we like, and
Speaker 2: we tend to repeat that. At least I do. Maybe
Speaker 2: you don't. I feel like I tend to be kind
Speaker 2: of attracted to like one type of plant, and so
Speaker 2: I very often don't get that contrast.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a great point, Stacy. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, I visited a garden I was so impressed
Speaker 1: that I replicated it in my garden. Essentially what they
Speaker 1: had done throughout the garden is dropped in emerald isle allocations. Wow,
Speaker 1: anyone who's looked at the backside of an emerald Isle allocacia,
Speaker 1: the texture in that plant, the size of the foliage,
Speaker 1: it made all the difference in the world in the landscape.
Speaker 1: And I use that in my landscape too. So it's
Speaker 1: the size of the foliage. I love that black and
Speaker 1: white photo idea that's perfect the size of the foliage,
Speaker 1: but also the texture of that foliage. And you know,
Speaker 1: this is something that I'm sure you can relate to,
Speaker 1: Stacy when you take a look at people who write
Speaker 1: copy or create tags or marketing or that type of thing.
Speaker 1: You read the descriptive copy velvety, satiny, ruffled, rough, fuzzy, lacy, delicate, succulent, leathery, strappy,
Speaker 1: I mean all words I think you'd find in a
Speaker 1: romance now.
Speaker 2: Right for sure. Yeah, because you want to kind of
Speaker 2: get that emotional connection. And I think you know, especially
Speaker 2: nowadays in being such an online world, we want people
Speaker 2: to go to their garden center and look at these
Speaker 2: plants and feel them and see them and smell them
Speaker 2: and everything for themselves. So I think it's really important
Speaker 2: to kind of, you know, get that out there and
Speaker 2: make people go, yeah, I want to check that out.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. So what exactly is plant texture? The word
Speaker 1: texture comes from a Latin word which means to weave,
Speaker 1: So essentially, we're weaving a giant tapestry within our garden.
Speaker 1: And as I had mentioned Stacy, fine, medium, and course
Speaker 1: is one way to look at it. If, for example,
Speaker 1: you have way too many fine foliaged plants, it's going
Speaker 1: to look so busy and so muddled. The eye has
Speaker 1: no place to rest. If you're only using medium size
Speaker 1: plants or medium sized textures, it's fine to you them,
Speaker 1: but the gardens just gonna be lackluster. It's not gonna
Speaker 1: have that pop that you're looking for. And then of
Speaker 1: course you can't. You can overdo it on coarse plants.
Speaker 1: And believe me, I know because here's a guy who
Speaker 1: loves bananas and cannas and allocacias. And as a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, again, when I was working in the garden
Speaker 1: center industry as a foliage plant buyer, many of the
Speaker 1: people I were working with loved those fine textured plants
Speaker 1: like a maidenhair fern just loved them, and I was
Speaker 1: always gravitating towards the ad Nitia palms, the phoenix Robelini palms,
Speaker 1: you know, big and bold and bananas, so you can
Speaker 1: overdo a good thing.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I was thinking about you, Eric and texture,
Speaker 2: and I was like, wow, you know, Rick is a
Speaker 2: fine texture guy. He loves grasses. Yes, the grasses are
Speaker 2: kind of like the ultimate fine texture plant for the garden.
Speaker 2: He loves grasses. He loves conifers, another typically fine textured plant.
Speaker 2: But then I was like, whoa Stacey, Wait a minute.
Speaker 2: Rick loves crotons, Rick loves allocasia, Rick loves cannas. I
Speaker 2: don't know what Rick is. Rick is a texture mystery.
Speaker 1: He's a complicated guy. Yeah, well think about it. In
Speaker 1: our landscapes, I would say one of the drama queens
Speaker 1: as it relates to texture would be hostas, especially big hostas.
Speaker 1: And I love hostas in fall, just at the stage
Speaker 1: where they're just about to melt into the ground because
Speaker 1: of frost. They look like giant pumpkins to me. Or
Speaker 1: Virginia thick, leathery leaves with fall winter color. But again
Speaker 1: you go back to description. Yes, bananas, I have a
Speaker 1: blood banana in my landscape, which I so love, and
Speaker 1: the description on it is the foliage are paddles with markings.
Speaker 1: I like that description.
Speaker 2: Yeah, bananas are also a great option. I think, you know,
Speaker 2: we gravitate towards those plants naturally, so yeah, it's easy
Speaker 2: to just keep stacking them in. But again you have
Speaker 2: to kind of take that step back and whatever works
Speaker 2: for someone aesthetically, whatever you like works. Like we're not
Speaker 2: saying these are hard and fast rules, but there are
Speaker 2: these times, and it happens to me all the time,
Speaker 2: especially in my native plant garden. I feel like the
Speaker 2: plants that are in there just keep reiterating the same thing.
Speaker 2: And even though I have different heights in different bloom
Speaker 2: times and different colors, it's still just not like that
Speaker 2: you know, big wow moment that you see from you know,
Speaker 2: really talented designers like you know, we've talked a lot
Speaker 2: about Pete Doodolphe, you know, really the master of kind
Speaker 2: of blending in those fine textured moments to get a
Speaker 2: really varied landscape.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, so fun stuff to think about. I mean,
Speaker 1: think about a shade garden, a ligular aya, a big
Speaker 1: green tractor, that foliage with Japanese painted ferns or a
Speaker 1: sun king aurelia next to a hack and a clo
Speaker 1: or maybe dicentra a fern leaf bleeding heart next to
Speaker 1: a hosta. I love shadowland, echo the sun or water slide.
Speaker 1: There's so many different choices to get that contrast. You know,
Speaker 1: my banana tree with the wicked witch colius a eucimus
Speaker 1: pineapple lily, which gives you an exclamation point in the landscape.
Speaker 1: So many opportunities, and we'll talk about that today on
Speaker 1: the show. Let me give you a limb a rick
Speaker 1: here about contrast, because I think contrast is so important.
Speaker 1: It's not my intent to lecture or alter your landscape's architecture,
Speaker 1: just recommend a visual touch. It doesn't take much to
Speaker 1: add some layers of texture. You see, contrast is fundamental.
Speaker 1: Your focus becomes compartmental. It gives plants great poise, and
Speaker 1: you can sort out the noise for something that's quite ornamental.
Speaker 1: So bonjou or manure. Let me give you the tour.
Speaker 1: Spare me conjectures because I like big, bold textures. I'm
Speaker 1: trendy and olt couture.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, you really uh brought out the vocabulary for
Speaker 2: this one, right.
Speaker 1: I'm hot today, I like textures. Let's see how Stacey
Speaker 1: ties it in and plants on trial. That's next here
Speaker 1: on the Gardening Simplified.
Speaker 2: Show, beautify your home and community with proven Winner's Color
Speaker 2: Choice Shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique
Speaker 2: varieties to choose from. There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for
Speaker 2: every taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive
Speaker 2: white container your local garden center or learn more at
Speaker 2: proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and
Speaker 2: welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we are
Speaker 2: talking all about texture. And in the first segment, I said,
Speaker 2: there's two easy ways to check texture. I gave you
Speaker 2: the first one. I didn't give you the second one,
Speaker 2: so I thought I should do that now because don't
Speaker 2: want to leave e anybody hang in. They're like, when
Speaker 2: was the second one? Oh my gosh, I'm dying over here.
Speaker 2: So no, the first one. Yeah, Like I said, just
Speaker 2: take a black and white photo or transform a photo
Speaker 2: in black and white. This is a fun thing to
Speaker 2: do in winter when you're looking at your role of photos.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm assuming everybody has a roll of garden photos, right, yes,
Speaker 2: or it's not just us okay, oh yea cool, and it.
Speaker 1: Was such a great idea. That's why number two just ye.
Speaker 2: So that's an easy way to look at the other way.
Speaker 2: And don't get intimidated when I say this is to
Speaker 2: do a little bit of drawing. Now, you don't need
Speaker 2: to have drawing skills. We're not asking you to like
Speaker 2: make an actual rendition of your garden, but a simple
Speaker 2: sketch kind of outlining those shapes and how the masses
Speaker 2: of your plants work together can also reveal quite a lot.
Speaker 2: And that's a fun thing you can do on a
Speaker 2: nice summer afternoon as you're sitting there looking at your garden.
Speaker 2: Because another really important part of texture is direction. You know,
Speaker 2: you can have plants of varying textures together, but if
Speaker 2: all of the foliage and flowers and everything are kind
Speaker 2: of going in the same direction, it can also fall flat.
Speaker 2: Because a big part sure of successful texture is having
Speaker 2: those textures kind of going out at different angles, different habits,
Speaker 2: you know, perfect example, classic texture plant. I feel like
Speaker 2: every time a garden magazine or a book or whatever
Speaker 2: is like, you know, here's a great combination you know
Speaker 2: what plant. It almost always contains akanakloa Japanese forest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, yes, very true.
Speaker 2: And why because that has a very strong direct It's
Speaker 2: very very soft, fine textured, very strong directional kind of
Speaker 2: you know, aesthetic in the landscape.
Speaker 1: That's such a super important point. If you think about
Speaker 1: a container and dichondra flowing down from the container and
Speaker 1: angel wings in there, you're going two different directions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I like that idea. So that's good concept.
Speaker 2: Those are just two different ways. You can kind of
Speaker 2: start to think about it in your own garden and
Speaker 2: add something, then despice it up and mix it up,
Speaker 2: and you know, you don't have to do these things,
Speaker 2: but it is sort of that is the professional secret,
Speaker 2: right when you look at a professional landscape or a
Speaker 2: very very talented experienced gardener, that is what they're doing.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's very easy to look at someone's
Speaker 2: garden and think, hey, they are just so talented as designers.
Speaker 2: They got this right in the first place. Oh no,
Speaker 2: they didn't. It took them years of refining and taking
Speaker 2: things out and moving things around. And I would also say,
Speaker 2: if you're dealing with a landscape that you know maybe
Speaker 2: doesn't have the option to move things around as much,
Speaker 2: or plants are more mature. You can also break it
Speaker 2: up with you know, ornaments, different like sculptures and that
Speaker 2: kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Hard scaping super important in contrast and texture.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. The other thing about texture is space.
Speaker 2: So texture is not just about what's there in terms
Speaker 2: of the foliage or flowers or whatever. It's also about
Speaker 2: this base in between them. And I think like a
Speaker 2: lot of our plants, a lot of our shrubs, and
Speaker 2: certainly a lot of Proven Winner's Perennials and annuals, they've
Speaker 2: really been developed to be very dense and very cushion like,
Speaker 2: and that can make them feel very coarsely textured or
Speaker 2: bold in the landscape, whereas other counterparts might have a
Speaker 2: little bit more space in them because we're kind of
Speaker 2: really trying to breed those things down. And I find
Speaker 2: that a lot with the Proven Winter's Perennials. It's a
Speaker 2: very nice feature to have, but it does kind of
Speaker 2: change the way that you use them. So for today's
Speaker 2: plants on Trial, where we tell you about one or
Speaker 2: in some cases, and today's case and many of the
Speaker 2: Proven Winner's color Choice shrubs, we're talking about which of
Speaker 2: our shrubs you can use for different textures.
Speaker 1: So if I had to guess, because in my mind,
Speaker 1: I have one shrub that is the king of textures. Okay,
Speaker 1: well I hear it, Yeah I do oheh, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I think that is the king.
Speaker 2: It is definitely. It's sort of one that is always sighted.
Speaker 2: And I think that that really leads into kind of
Speaker 2: the defining feature of coarse plants, which is large foliage,
Speaker 2: large elements, and you know, like you're saying, with all
Speaker 2: of your tropicals, those tend to have very bold foliage.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that is a classic example because oak leaf
Speaker 2: Hydrangea doesn't just kind of symbolize the fine, medium course
Speaker 2: textures in the landscape. It is itself a very textural plant.
Speaker 2: The foliage is really textural. The stems have that, you know,
Speaker 2: wonderful brown fuzz on them. You know, you were talking
Speaker 2: about people wanting to touch plants whenever you go to
Speaker 2: a botanical garden and they have signs that are like,
Speaker 2: don't touch the plants, and you're like, yeah, okay, I
Speaker 2: get it. But also I'm like, don't worry. I'm a
Speaker 2: train horticulture, so I got this. Not that I break
Speaker 2: the rules, but it's really quite difficult when you're used
Speaker 2: to touching plants to like all of a sudden, not
Speaker 2: touch them in any case. So it's about as much
Speaker 2: as what is not there the space in between the leaves,
Speaker 2: as well as what is there. So for fine texture
Speaker 2: in the proven Winter's Colored Choice line, I have a
Speaker 2: great plant that we have not mentioned yet. Japanese maples. Yeah,
Speaker 2: absolutely perfect. Adriana is a big fan of Japanese maples.
Speaker 2: They are really one of the best choices for that
Speaker 2: fine texture. I think when we talk about these concepts
Speaker 2: of you know, fine course in medium textures, Japanese gardens
Speaker 2: are also such a great example of using and mixing
Speaker 2: these different textures in ways that really have a lot
Speaker 2: of impact. It's not like our standard kind of perennial
Speaker 2: or flower garden where you have a whole lot of
Speaker 2: plants all grouped together, but things kind of grouped into
Speaker 2: vignettes and very very well placed. So Japanese maples are
Speaker 2: an awesome choice for fine texture. And we don't tend
Speaker 2: to think of trees as texture plants.
Speaker 1: Right, but they are. They are dissectedol.
Speaker 2: Lemony lace and black lace elder yep. I mean, can't
Speaker 2: beat them. One of my absolutely favorites that's on that
Speaker 2: extreme because we're going to get to supercorus plants right now,
Speaker 2: we're doing the very fine plants, so we'll get there.
Speaker 2: Fine line buckthorn ramness, and this is one of our
Speaker 2: most popular plants. People love it because there's really nothing
Speaker 2: like it, and the foliage is really just kind of
Speaker 2: narrow lines that's really really distinctive in the landscape. Another
Speaker 2: plant I love, love love for fine texture celtic pride microbiota.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's on my list, love it. And that's a
Speaker 1: touchable plant.
Speaker 2: It is, and it's not prickly, so it's a conifer.
Speaker 2: Most conifers, like we said, tend to be on the
Speaker 2: finer textured side, some more than others. But this one
Speaker 2: just has this like beautiful lacy look and we have
Speaker 2: a lovely planting of it in our trial gardens here
Speaker 2: in West Michigan, and whenever we give tours and someone
Speaker 2: sees it, they're like, what is that? And this is
Speaker 2: a plant that I think most people walk by in
Speaker 2: the garden center, but once they see it in sight,
Speaker 2: they are like, I want that. So we also have
Speaker 2: some regularly fine texture chesky gold dwarf birch, very very
Speaker 2: tiny little yellow leaves, really interesting texture plants. It's a
Speaker 2: dwarf birch, so like just imagine like a golden cushion
Speaker 2: of tiny leaves, not a tree form, and it really
Speaker 2: lends itself to sharing. So you can kind of have
Speaker 2: this very fine texture leaf with a very dense habit
Speaker 2: if that is what you are going for. I was
Speaker 2: thinking about butterfly bush, okay, and I thought that this
Speaker 2: is an interesting situation where for the most part they're fine,
Speaker 2: kind of bordering on medium because they you know, those
Speaker 2: spikes come up, they got a lot of space in them.
Speaker 2: The leaves are on the smaller side. And then I
Speaker 2: realized that like certain varieties of butterfly bush like Pugster,
Speaker 2: actually definitely go more into the course because they're bread.
Speaker 2: For those larger flowers you have less space, they tend
Speaker 2: to end up having that blockier kind of impact in
Speaker 2: the landscape. So it really depends on the specific for
Speaker 2: we can't always just generalize on the type of plant.
Speaker 2: Kellikarpa is another plant that I think is a really
Speaker 2: great choice for some fine texture also known as beauty
Speaker 2: berry incredible purple berries. And I say purple berries are
Speaker 2: just like this amazing orchid purple color. We have one
Speaker 2: with dark purple leaves as well as a green one,
Speaker 2: and the berries are so small and on these little stems,
Speaker 2: and they just give a really really cool texture.
Speaker 1: And a great example of how texture is so wonderful
Speaker 1: in the fall.
Speaker 2: Yes, fall is definitely texture time. And you know that
Speaker 2: also comes back to what we were saying about color
Speaker 2: in color. In fall, colors are shifting and changing, so
Speaker 2: you're able to really get that impact that maybe you
Speaker 2: didn't see when everything was just green. Now, I will say,
Speaker 2: as I was looking through our selection of plants, the
Speaker 2: majority of them are medium texture. And that seems like
Speaker 2: kind of a cop out, but the majority of them
Speaker 2: are medium texture. Yeah, I would agree, But let's get
Speaker 2: to the bold textures, the coarse textures, because that's what
Speaker 2: we really love. One of my favorites, and what I
Speaker 2: might think is king in our line is Kelly canthus
Speaker 2: also known as sweet shrub. I have both aphrodite and
Speaker 2: simply sensational, and both of them have a really wonderful
Speaker 2: bold look in the landscape. Aphrodite, the foliage is like
Speaker 2: this big, it's huge, it's lush, the flowers are bold,
Speaker 2: just a great great plant. Big leaf hydrangees also a
Speaker 2: coarse texture plant. And I think with hydranges in general,
Speaker 2: you can kind of get into some fine texture if
Speaker 2: you are dealing with lace cap hydranges, because again that's
Speaker 2: about the space that you're getting in there. So in
Speaker 2: that case, even though the plant itself might be a
Speaker 2: coarse or bold texture, the flowers kind of give it
Speaker 2: a finer texture. So you can have this kind of
Speaker 2: shifting in and out of different textures based on the
Speaker 2: time of year, the blue time and all of that.
Speaker 2: Al Ninho Chitalpa old texture. Great choice. Hollywood hibiscus another one,
Speaker 2: and I was thinking, you know, I think most tropical plants,
Speaker 2: of which Hollywood hibiscuits is a tropical hibiscus, tend to
Speaker 2: be on the boulder side. I would say some palms
Speaker 2: tend to the finer texture because it can be very
Speaker 2: you know, fine leaves. But overall, if you like bold foliage,
Speaker 2: the tropics is for you. I feel like fine foliage
Speaker 2: the prairie might be for you. There you go, or
Speaker 2: you can combine them all into one great garden. We
Speaker 2: are going to take a little break. When we come back.
Speaker 2: We are opening up the mailbag, so please stay tuned.
Speaker 2: At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, we know that a
Speaker 2: better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team of
Speaker 2: experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs and
Speaker 2: evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure they outperform
Speaker 2: what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs
Speaker 2: to accentuate your home and express your personal style, look
Speaker 2: for Proven Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container at
Speaker 2: your local garden center or learn more at Proven Winners,
Speaker 2: Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends and welcome back
Speaker 2: to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is our time
Speaker 2: to help you with your garden questions, quandaries and conundrums
Speaker 2: and of course celebrations compliments. You know not everybody has
Speaker 2: gardening pals to talk about gardening with, and we can
Speaker 2: be that pal for you, So you can leave a
Speaker 2: comment on YouTube or check us out on Facebook or Instagram.
Speaker 2: Always lots of opportunities to share your successes. You can
Speaker 2: also reach us at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com, Proven Winners,
Speaker 2: Color Choice dot com, Proven Winners dot Com. You want
Speaker 2: to reach us. We are everywhere you want to be,
Speaker 2: so don't hesitate to reach out. And I wanted to
Speaker 2: kick things off with a really, really nice note from
Speaker 2: listener Suzanne. This is regarding last week's show. She says, Adriana,
Speaker 2: the most recent episode of Gardening Simplified show was just
Speaker 2: one example of the value your photos bring to the viewers.
Speaker 2: Your photos add so much color to the convent sation
Speaker 2: and content because of the photos and the colors they show.
Speaker 2: I very often click on the proven winner's website while
Speaker 2: watching on YouTube to take a closer look at the
Speaker 2: plants picture to see if they would work in my garden.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Adriana for the inspiration that can be found
Speaker 2: in your beautiful photography. You're here, so you're here. I
Speaker 2: just wanted to say thank you so much for that. Susanne.
Speaker 2: You know you mentioned Adriana. She's back there behind the
Speaker 2: camera and the soundboard every episode. But we love hearing
Speaker 2: her get her roses and she deserves them because she
Speaker 2: spends a lot of time on the show. What a
Speaker 2: talent and she makes it look really easy. And you know,
Speaker 2: of course at this time, I were like, what show
Speaker 2: two five? So she's kind of got it down to
Speaker 2: a science. But on the other hand, it doesn't just
Speaker 2: make itself. She spends many, many hours, and so it
Speaker 2: always means a lot to hear from people who appreciate
Speaker 2: that work. So thank you, Susan.
Speaker 1: Not just the video and the beautiful pictures, it's the editing.
Speaker 1: She can even make somebody like me look good. Thank you, Aden.
Speaker 2: Right, like, people don't even know the mistakes that we're
Speaker 2: making that she has to cut out. They just assume
Speaker 2: that we get in here and you know, like an
Speaker 2: a one take wonder and we dust our hands and
Speaker 2: leave it to her. But we make mistakes. In fact,
Speaker 2: I just made one at the beginning of the segment.
Speaker 2: So yeah, she does a lot for.
Speaker 1: Us, so take care of it.
Speaker 2: Anyway, Adriana is very flattered, and I wanted to make
Speaker 2: sure our listeners heard that little bit of appreciation for
Speaker 2: her efforts, So thank you. Brenda writes, I have a
Speaker 2: bobo Hydrangea that only some of the leaves and flowers
Speaker 2: have opened completely. Any suggestions, now, of course, it's hydrange
Speaker 2: of season here in most of the country. Of course,
Speaker 2: some of you, if you've had a really really hot summer,
Speaker 2: the hydrangees are probably pretty done, brown crispy, just trying
Speaker 2: to struggle through. For us here, it's pretty much peaks time.
Speaker 2: The panical hydrangels are about to turn. Yeah, just really incredible.
Speaker 2: And because it is hydrange of season. I hear from
Speaker 2: a lot of gardeners who have a lot of problems.
Speaker 2: Very often it's why isn't my hydrange of blooming? I
Speaker 2: have to say, I'm seeing less of that. I don't
Speaker 2: know if it's because we're finally like have enough articles
Speaker 2: about hydranges out there that people are finding the information
Speaker 2: without asking us, or you know, because plants like Let's
Speaker 2: stand Skyview are hopefully stopping this issue because that was
Speaker 2: our goal. But one issue I hear from every year
Speaker 2: from people is they have usually a panicle hydrangea and
Speaker 2: it looks like a mutant. The foliage is all contorted
Speaker 2: and twisted, and sometimes it's thick and it's small, and
Speaker 2: especially on some panicle hydrangeas, the flowers just turn into
Speaker 2: these weird leafy appendages. If you're watching YouTube, you will
Speaker 2: see photos of this. You don't have to take my
Speaker 2: maybe less than poetic description at face value. And maybe
Speaker 2: you're seeing this yourself. But I hear from gardeners every
Speaker 2: year who see this in their gardens and it is
Speaker 2: broad mite damage.
Speaker 1: Wow, I thought it was bad hair date.
Speaker 2: It kind of looks that way, so broad So everybody
Speaker 2: knows spider mites, right, people, Ye, spider bites are bad.
Speaker 2: Spider maights have a very distinctive look. Mites are not insects.
Speaker 2: There are more related to spiders. Broad Mites are not
Speaker 2: spider mites. They're equally as bad for plants, but they
Speaker 2: are bad in a different way. They do different things.
Speaker 2: And so the broad mites will feed on the plant
Speaker 2: tissue as it is developing, and when if they feed
Speaker 2: on the flower buds as they are developing, they're feeding.
Speaker 2: I don't know whether it's like an enzyme or something
Speaker 2: like that that comes out of them, or if it's
Speaker 2: just an actual function of the mites which have this
Speaker 2: little tiny piercing mouthpart that goes into the plant tissue
Speaker 2: and sucks out the juice. And if that physical disruption
Speaker 2: of the tissue causes this, but it causes all sorts
Speaker 2: of weird looking mutations, especially on panicle hydrangels, and they
Speaker 2: don't bloom in a normal way. Okay, Now, broad mites
Speaker 2: are tiny. They really can hardly be seen without a microscope.
Speaker 2: You know, you would need maybe a really good magnifying glass.
Speaker 1: If they're tiny, then why do they call them broad mites?
Speaker 2: Well, because they're broad for a mite.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, just wondering.
Speaker 2: And they're so tiny that they just float in on
Speaker 2: the wind. You know, no spidermights. We all know spidermights
Speaker 2: will thrive in stressful conditions plants. That's conditions that stress
Speaker 2: out of the plants, dryness, low air circulation, water, stress
Speaker 2: can encourage mites. They're opportunistic and stuff. They see a
Speaker 2: plant suffering, they're like, oh heck, yeah, here's my chance.
Speaker 2: They get in there. They feed, they cause damage on
Speaker 2: the plane. The broad mightes are so tiny they just
Speaker 2: float in on the wind. So that makes it a
Speaker 2: little bit more tricky because you can't do anything really
Speaker 2: against them because yeah, they're just floating around and so basically, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: there's really nothing that you can do. Even if you
Speaker 2: could see the mites. They get so deep into the
Speaker 2: bud to feed that you can't really reach them. Like
Speaker 2: it's very difficult to try, even if you were willing
Speaker 2: to use some sort of pesticide, really difficult to get
Speaker 2: in there to get the contact and kill them. So
Speaker 2: the good news is that these broad mites are not
Speaker 2: something that are going to necessarily stay on the plant
Speaker 2: year to year. If you have broad mites in this
Speaker 2: and it's not just hydrangeas, this is going to happen
Speaker 2: on a number of different plants. I've actually had it
Speaker 2: on pepper plants in my garden and just through fertilizing
Speaker 2: and trying to really you know, get vigorous growth on them,
Speaker 2: they've been able to outgrow the mite damage. But on
Speaker 2: the other hand, with the hydrangea, you know, those flora
Speaker 2: buds set and then it's kind of over. So if
Speaker 2: you have broad mites, it will should be fine next year,
Speaker 2: but you will want to make sure that you clean
Speaker 2: up all of that foliage really really well. Once it drops,
Speaker 2: you throw that away because of course that's where all
Speaker 2: the little baby mites are going to stay. Well they're
Speaker 2: not babies anymore, but that's where they're going to stay
Speaker 2: over winter to reinfect the plant next year. Throw that away,
Speaker 2: don't put it in a compost pile. And then you
Speaker 2: will want to make sure you prune these plants in
Speaker 2: spring because the broad mites are going to tend to
Speaker 2: if they overwinter concrete in those uppermost buds. So by
Speaker 2: pruning your panicle hydrangea in spring and taking off that
Speaker 2: top growth and discarding it, you can also get rid
Speaker 2: of a lot of them. So I know that's disappointing.
Speaker 2: This is a similar type of advice I would recommend
Speaker 2: for anything that you have that's getting this kind of
Speaker 2: funky growth.
Speaker 1: So interest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, crazy stuff out there.
Speaker 1: That is crazy.
Speaker 2: I tell you, the more you know about plants, the
Speaker 2: weirder things get.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: Angie writes that they redid their vegetable garden and the
Speaker 2: beds are open to native soil. They're about nine feet
Speaker 2: long three feet wide. They were filled with a garden
Speaker 2: mix from a local garden center that was forty percent
Speaker 2: pete moss compost, twenty percent top soil, and ten percent sand.
Speaker 2: So she's growing in it and this year, she says,
Speaker 2: everything is stunted and not doing well and she's wondering
Speaker 2: why and what she should do.
Speaker 1: Wow. Well, first of all, good candidate to get a
Speaker 1: soil test. Yeah, I'd suggest that they're inexpensive and it
Speaker 1: probably would help you out. But I have seen this before.
Speaker 1: I've seen it with one of the easiest things to
Speaker 1: grow in a vegetable garden. Beans. Now, in some cases
Speaker 1: it was due to the weather. If it was too
Speaker 1: cold in early spring and they were planted, they almost
Speaker 1: become stunted and they don't seem to shake it. I
Speaker 1: don't know why, but that's that's the case. But I
Speaker 1: think you know more importantly as far as my landscape
Speaker 1: is concerned, in my parents soil, again, we've talked about
Speaker 1: this before, but every fall I'm working in all kinds
Speaker 1: of leaves, and wow, did it make a difference. The
Speaker 1: plants were more robust. I think a lot of it
Speaker 1: comes down to the plant's ability to have a persistent
Speaker 1: water supply without too much good drainage, but persistent water supply.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, good drainage is key. I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people don't realize that peat moss is basically
Speaker 2: nutritionally inert.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's true.
Speaker 2: It does not really contribute any nutrition. It's fluff. It's
Speaker 2: a growing you know, strata or media for the roots
Speaker 2: to go into, but it does not add any nutrition
Speaker 2: to the plants. So I would guess that you know
Speaker 2: with the time that you've done this, the nutrients in
Speaker 2: the compost and remember compost is continuing to decompose, so
Speaker 2: it's getting used up by the plants, and so that
Speaker 2: thirty percent compost that your soil mix was is probably
Speaker 2: five percent composts. Now it's used, it's continued to decompose,
Speaker 2: and the plants have used the nutrients. Tap soil nutrient
Speaker 2: rich when you first get it, but the plants are
Speaker 2: going to use that. So I think that, yeah, you're
Speaker 2: going to need to do some soil amending. I think,
Speaker 2: you know, composted leaves is a great option for my
Speaker 2: container soil. I just add composted manure and mix it
Speaker 2: all together and put it back into my containers to
Speaker 2: kind of recharge that soil and keep that you know,
Speaker 2: peat moss as like a again a matrix for the
Speaker 2: roots to grow in. You know, I think this year,
Speaker 2: if things are doing poorly, you can make things up
Speaker 2: by fertilizing, you know, try to push your tomatoes, push
Speaker 2: your peppers, any of that stuff that has yet to fruit.
Speaker 2: You can fertilize and kind of make up for that
Speaker 2: lack of nutrients. But the simple fact here is that
Speaker 2: the nutrients that were in all of that great soil
Speaker 2: that you added, they're used up, so you got to
Speaker 2: put them back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, vegetables are hard workers and they're working morning, noon
Speaker 1: and night, and the days are long. They need to
Speaker 1: be fed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that nutrition that you put into them, they give
Speaker 2: back to you. But you do need to definitely juice
Speaker 2: them up one way or the other. But of course,
Speaker 2: the responsible, long term sustainable thing to do is to
Speaker 2: just keep feeding your soil, whether that is through composts,
Speaker 2: composted leaves, all of the above, keeping things mulched. There's
Speaker 2: lots of different ways to do this and you can
Speaker 2: always contact your local cooperative extension for their recommendations on
Speaker 2: soil fertility in your area. We're going to take a
Speaker 2: little break. When we come back, we're continuing our conversation
Speaker 2: on texture, so please stay tuned. Thanks for listening to
Speaker 2: the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners
Speaker 2: Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens
Speaker 2: are trialed and tested by experts with your success in mind.
Speaker 2: Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show us. Today we
Speaker 1: talk about texture and what a great week to do it.
Speaker 1: It's summerrific week with the perennial hibiscus, talk about foliage
Speaker 1: and flowers and great texture.
Speaker 2: Oh what a plant, you know. I don't get me
Speaker 2: started on these plants. Last night, my husband was out
Speaker 2: in the garden and it was hot, you know, it
Speaker 2: was really sunny and hot. And he came and he
Speaker 2: got his hat. I said, what are you cold sitting
Speaker 2: in the shade? He said, no, I want to sit
Speaker 2: in the sun and look at hibiscus because they were
Speaker 2: looking so good. You know, I think my favorite one
Speaker 2: this year is Summerific evening Rows. Okay, now, you know,
Speaker 2: when we had our color talk, I said, I'm not
Speaker 2: a pink person, but then you look at my garden
Speaker 2: and you're like, okay, whatever, lady, you are definitely a
Speaker 2: pink person. And Summerfic evening Rows has these bright, bright,
Speaker 2: bright futia pink flowers and that kind of dark, purply
Speaker 2: red foliage and it is just an absolutely stunning combination.
Speaker 2: I love the reds. I have all three of the reds,
Speaker 2: and they're beautiful, but that evening rose is really like
Speaker 2: nothing else that you can buy. But yeah, they're all
Speaker 2: in their full glory right now. How about yours?
Speaker 1: Love the love the flowers, and as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I mentioned this morning, boy Stacy's way ahead of mine,
Speaker 1: ahead of me because I only have two flowers. Oh
Speaker 1: my yes, at this point the buds are ready to pop,
Speaker 1: but I don't know I'm behind.
Speaker 2: That's strange. Yeah, I've never seen mine be so early,
Speaker 2: but now this is our second year. Last year was
Speaker 2: their first year after I moved everything and put them
Speaker 2: in a new bed. So I don't know what it is,
Speaker 2: but I mean, I've been growing them for years and
Speaker 2: I've never had them bloom as early as they have
Speaker 2: this year. So and I don't feel like it's been
Speaker 2: particularly unusually hot or yeah, I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the deal is, but I love them.
Speaker 1: And it's a great example of texture in the landscape.
Speaker 1: Always talked about my cannons and bananas, but I've experimented
Speaker 1: with rhubarb and castor beans, all of these types of
Speaker 1: plants that give you fabulous texture within the landscape. And again,
Speaker 1: texture can be touch too, and I was reminded of
Speaker 1: that this morning. I went outside and watered my lantana's.
Speaker 1: I have luscious lantana in containers. They're spectacular and the
Speaker 1: touch of the foliage is almost like sand paper, and
Speaker 1: the deer leave them alone.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, do you like the smell of lantana?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I do like it?
Speaker 2: Okay, I gather you don't. I love the plant. I'll
Speaker 2: still grow it, but when I touch it, I'm like.
Speaker 1: You, but I love that's what the deer says.
Speaker 2: I love that you have the epic combo of canna
Speaker 2: banana on lantana.
Speaker 1: Right there, you go. I like that. Oh that make
Speaker 1: a great song. Yeah, so yeah, that's a great way
Speaker 1: to go. Texture in the fall. I mentioned that. So
Speaker 1: my big four, my top four in the fall would
Speaker 1: be Viburnum, great foliage, texture, father giamm, oak leaf, Hydrangea,
Speaker 1: and witch hazel. Those four, to me are epic texture
Speaker 1: and color plants in fall and I look forward to
Speaker 1: them every year. I also believe in fall that high
Speaker 1: textural plants create a moodiness in the garden. And one
Speaker 1: plant that I would point out are hucreras. Hucreas grown
Speaker 1: for their foliage. Yeah, some people for the flowers, I understand,
Speaker 1: but the foliage. You take, for example, a dark purple
Speaker 1: hucura and the ruffled foliage on it. The texture and
Speaker 1: color combined almost create this moodiness within the garden that
Speaker 1: I think is an important part of texture too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know hugras. If you are like me
Speaker 2: and you have given up on growing hugres because your
Speaker 2: soil is just not right, you don't have enough shade,
Speaker 2: you don't give them enough water, they still make awesome
Speaker 2: container plants just as a foliage accent. And that's a
Speaker 2: wonderful way to be able to enjoy them, or you know,
Speaker 2: to switch over your containers for fall, there's still gonna
Speaker 2: be plenty of those moody hugras in the garden center.
Speaker 2: And I think that makes your fall planting a lot
Speaker 2: more interesting than just you know, plopping a mom or
Speaker 2: cabbage in a container. Mix it up.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a good point. And when you you
Speaker 1: get laid into fall, most of the blooms are gone,
Speaker 1: it's over. But a great garden can use simply foliage
Speaker 1: to create that textural feel. Again, combining fine, medium and
Speaker 1: coarse you create a beautiful landscape without having to use
Speaker 1: those what do you call them tough at mums or yeah.
Speaker 2: Tough it's right, tough, it's but and tough.
Speaker 1: It's I'm still trying to absorb the fact that you
Speaker 1: don't like lantana via lantana or romos.
Speaker 2: Oh it smells. Yeah, I do not like that at all.
Speaker 2: But I love lantana and I love Speaking of texture,
Speaker 2: I love how it's little rectangular buds fold up like
Speaker 2: a little piece of chicklets gum. Oh yeah, and then
Speaker 2: they burst open. Because there's not very many buds that
Speaker 2: are kind of rectangular like that. That's cool, So I
Speaker 2: love them. I actually don't have any this year because
Speaker 2: the Garden Center Ways shop didn't have a great selection
Speaker 2: of them, But I usually have them because they're a
Speaker 2: great hummingbird and butterfly and that's why I plant my annuals.
Speaker 1: So yeah, speaking of annuals, you want to add some
Speaker 1: great texture to your landscape for next year, Planning sweet
Speaker 1: potato vine will change the textural element within your landscape
Speaker 1: in short order, inexpensively, quickly, and beautifully. So I would
Speaker 1: recommend also that you take a look at sweet potato.
Speaker 2: Vine uns don't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true along the annual side of it. Also,
Speaker 1: again talking about texture, I believe dancing in the landscape
Speaker 1: is super important, and I think plants that dance and
Speaker 1: have the ability to do that, maybe with fine foliage
Speaker 1: like ornamental grasses, But I'm going to go beyond that
Speaker 1: and say fall Japanese anemones dancing in the breeze. But
Speaker 1: when we look at annuals, Verbina benariensis is fabulous for
Speaker 1: that and an element that I've added throughout my landscape
Speaker 1: and pockets. I mentioned the emerald isle. Allocacia, Wow, the texture,
Speaker 1: but Gomfrina truffle of pink and in pops here and
Speaker 1: there in the garden. By the time you get into
Speaker 1: August and into fall, the stems are long, the flower
Speaker 1: heads are beautiful. When you get a breeze, they dance
Speaker 1: around in the landscape. I think it's all part of
Speaker 1: the texture alone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, all of those plants that you
Speaker 2: just listed are great examples of how texture is also
Speaker 2: about what's not there as well as what is there,
Speaker 2: because you need that space in a plant, and if
Speaker 2: a plant doesn't have a lot of space in it,
Speaker 2: a lot of space in between the branches, in between
Speaker 2: the leaves, it ends up being a coarse texture kind
Speaker 2: of regardless of the size or scale of the foliage
Speaker 2: or flowers. But things like the allocacia lots of beautiful
Speaker 2: space verbing of an ariients. It is the ultimate space plant.
Speaker 2: So it's really important to have those as part of
Speaker 2: your garden to get that layered effect and be able
Speaker 2: to see through those plants so that not everything is
Speaker 2: just you know, a big clump in the landscape.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I want a great way to add some
Speaker 1: texture at low cost and easy. Plant some cosmos in
Speaker 1: your landscape. I think that's a great way to add
Speaker 1: some texture. I'm gonna mention something probably controversial here, but Yukas.
Speaker 1: Some people do not like Yukas. It's just Yukka.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan. I have them, but
Speaker 2: I'm not the biggest fan I have.
Speaker 1: Really, I used to be in that camp. Now I've
Speaker 1: really come around. And then, of course last year I
Speaker 1: planted the new Dragon Slayer and I am really appreciating
Speaker 1: the structural textural element that that's adding to the landscape.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, the thing is, Yucca is a great
Speaker 2: texture plant, and that is why I have some in
Speaker 2: my garden. I just wish Yuka was a little easier
Speaker 2: to manage.
Speaker 1: Easier to mand it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just it gets too big too fast, and
Speaker 2: then you know, if you have it in a bed
Speaker 2: as I do, and it's not just kind of out
Speaker 2: on its own in a big planting. Then you got
Speaker 2: to do something about it, because you know, once the
Speaker 2: yuck of flowers, the mother plant dies, the one that
Speaker 2: just flowered, and then it's got all these offsets, and
Speaker 2: you're like, wait, I only wanted one nice beautiful yechet,
Speaker 2: like I want it to behave like in agave for
Speaker 2: our warm climate listeners. You know, you plant in a gave,
Speaker 2: it just sits there and is a nice, handsome, sculptural
Speaker 2: little agave. I want a Yukka that behaves like that
Speaker 2: instead of this offsetting business going all over the garden.
Speaker 2: And so you know what I do. I'm sharing my
Speaker 2: Yucca management secret with everybody here. Yes, So I take
Speaker 2: a nice sharp shovel and I jam it in the
Speaker 2: ground and I take out the mother plant. And you
Speaker 2: don't have to take out the whole thing. You just
Speaker 2: want to kind of get as far into the root
Speaker 2: as you can and then you rip it out of
Speaker 2: the ground. And then either you take the whole plant,
Speaker 2: which does work because next year this thing is going
Speaker 2: to be back like you never did anything, or you
Speaker 2: leave the offsets and I do.
Speaker 1: The same thing, just not as dramatically as you.
Speaker 2: Oh, I do it dramatically because I love it, because
Speaker 2: I don't love them. I'm like, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: have this, like, oh, I need to take care of you.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you're out, you have overstage. You're welcome. We
Speaker 2: are resetting you back to zero.
Speaker 1: Another great example of how texture adds drama to the landscape.
Speaker 1: How about Kinsley's ghost honeysuckle wow, thread leaf coreopsis any
Speaker 1: elephant ears or kalladiums iris are another good example of
Speaker 1: something that adds real texture to the landscape, and in
Speaker 1: a shady area still be also another great choice. So
Speaker 1: there are so many great choices. I think it's just
Speaker 1: the key making sure that you identify fine medium course
Speaker 1: and then getting them to play together, just like a
Speaker 1: musical composition.
Speaker 2: That's right. You have to diversify your texture, just like
Speaker 2: universify your colors.
Speaker 1: This was fun.
Speaker 2: It was fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Well we hit the topic on many
Speaker 1: different levels texturally, and I'd like to talk about it
Speaker 1: again sometimes because I think we're just scratching the surface.
Speaker 2: We really are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Thanks Stacy, thank you Rick, Thanks Adriana, and thank
Speaker 1: you to you for watching us on YouTube. Tell your
Speaker 1: friends and neighbors for downloading the podcast and listening to
Speaker 1: the radio version of the Gardening Simplified Show. Have yourself
Speaker 1: a great week.