Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A. Here at proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me,
Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well,
today we're talking national Plants of the Year, annuals, flowering annuals,
and Stacy, the elephant in the room is that for
some people they kind of resist buying annuals because they
only last for a year. And I say, no, that's
because annuals are something that well, you know, garden centers
will take the approach. Annuals die, they don't come back,
so you'll come back, right.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I just think I get everybody's at
a different position in their gardening journey and everything. But
like that's the same as saying, you know, I only
buy pants, not socks, not jewelry, not a scarf. I
only buy, you know, a sofa. I don't buy pillows
or a throw or fun things to have around my house. Like, yes,
annuals are a bit frivolous in that they don't come
back every year, but they are so important for keeping
your garden dynamic, keeping it colorful, giving you an opportunity
to do something different every year, because when we invest
in shrubs and perennials and trees and all of that,
those are somewhat permanent.
Speaker 1: That's exactly where I was going with this preache. It.
I agree, a landscape without annuals is like red velvet
cake without the frosting. I mean, what would you do
without that cream cheese frosting? Right? Otherwise I wouldn't eat
red velvet cake.
Speaker 3: Right, you'd be too freaked out by the food coloring.
Speaker 1: As Marie Antoinette said, let them eat cake. Actually she
didn't say that, but that's a whole, other, whole other road.
It's an important part part of the season. And I
remember Bill Veck, the famous promoter and marketer in Major
League Baseball fifties, sixties and seventies. He was the guy
behind the disco demolition in Chicago that turned into a riot.
Look it up. It's quite fascinating, did it. My brother
in law was that bad game. People were flinging record
albums from the upper deck and the boy it got
pretty bad. But anyhow, he always said, there's two seasons
in the year, winter in baseball or here in Michigan
winter and road construction. Right, basically, annuals are important part
of our growing season, and I think for me, I
have a frame of reference in that working in the
industry in the nineteen seventies and eighties, the annual season
was a short season. We essentially had Mother's Day weekend
for mom, and you had decoration Day or Memorial Day
and people would would decorate the at the cemeteries with flowers.
We are so far past that now with the genetics
and the incredible varieties that are available that bloom all
season long and perform just admirably that Stacey, I'm of
the opinion now that a landscape without annuals is not
a landscape.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that you're missing out as a gardener.
I think you're really missing out on an opportunity. And
you don't have to go crazy, you don't have to spend,
you know, five hundred dollars to get some enjoyment out
of annuals. And I think, you know, another big change
here is it's not simply the genetics. The genetics that
have been introduced by companies like Priven Winners definitely have
made a change. But I think one of the biggest
changes really is the evolution of containers. Yes, you know,
we've talked about it on the show before, and I
know our listeners will remember this as well, many of them.
You know, back in the day, you had the plastic cauldron,
you had the plastic.
Speaker 3: Swan, whiskey bears had a whiskey barrel, and that was
pretty much the extent of it. And now, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, garden centers have these huge selections of beautiful imported pottery,
and there's weatherproof stuff. And so with that advent of
all of these really interesting containers, you needed something to
fill them up, you bet.
Speaker 1: And we'll talk about recipe combinations coming up in segment four.
But you're so right about that. And you add these
great performing varieties. I think about petunias or verbina or kleome,
I mean cleome. Back in the seventies and eighties, I
think the variety was rose queen. Oh yeah, sticky the
odor was awful, reseated itself like mad. You know, now
you've got wonderful to ours that really perform in the landscape.
So everything has changed. I guess that's my point. And
if you're one of those people that resists annuals in
your landscape, I'd take another look I would too.
Speaker 2: And you know, I will come right out and say it.
My husband prides himself on his frugality. He's very frugal
and I appreciate that. And so for many years he
was just very resistant to us growing annuals because he
was just like, oh, you know, they're just going to die,
they only live one season. I won him over by
focusing on annuals that attract hummingbirds. So if you have
this resistant person in your life, try this. Get so
all the annuals that I buy pretty much attract hummingbirds,
almost every single one, And so plant those and then
position them around where you do most of your outdoor sitting.
And the day that a hummingbird hovers at their knee
just inches away, they will be converted.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 3: So that's just a little pro tipic.
Speaker 1: No, you're right, proven winners Salvia Koufia, any of those.
Speaker 2: Those are two of I go too, So I think,
you know, and that also helps me choose because there
are so many annuals that by making sure that I'm
selecting four annuals that attract hummingbirds, not only am I
making us happier and hummingbirds happier, I'm also helping to
kind of curate that enormous selection that you can get.
So even me knowing what I'm working with, knowing what
to expect, yeah, you can get overwhelmed when you see
all those fabulous planks.
Speaker 1: Well, I love annuals and I buy lots of them
for my landscape. I enjoy them. So let's take a
look at the national Plants of the Year, and we're
going to start with Annual of the Year. The envelope, please,
it's Safari Dusk, South African Flocks or James Britannia. That's
tough to say, stacy for people to say Safar Dusk, James.
Speaker 2: Britton, James Britannia, Yeah, Britannia. This is definitely one of
the funkiest botanical names out there for sure. Definitely one
of the most unique ones.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: The first time I heard it, I was like, what
did you just say? And it's it is what it
sounds like. It is someone's name. James Britton. Yeah, James Britannia.
South African Flocks definitely rolls off the tongue a little
bit more easily. But it's not a flox, right, It's
not a flox and it's a pretty new annual. So
you've got this weird name that people aren't really familiar with,
and even the common name people aren't really familiar with.
But what an amazing plant.
Speaker 1: It is incredible. It's a relative of soutera or uh
some people would recognize be copa. But copa is one
of those what I consider to be a trigger plant
that you put in hanging baskets or containers. If you
think of snowstorm, giant snowflake. But copa a great plant.
So this is a relative causes me to think that
if I'm in a bar setting or whatever and they
have karaoke that night, I always have to do the
Copa caban. Yeah that's a crowd pleaser, I tell you what.
But anyhow, aside from that, this plant is heat and
humidity tolerant. It blooms through the whole summer without cycling,
very very forgiving. And now it's of course available in
a broader range of colors. Also, you have the Safari dusk,
so glitzy kind of purple blooms with a gold eye,
but you have a lighter lilac Safari sky, Safari dawn.
The blossoms transition through rose pink and lavender shades, and
then Safari lava flow, which is red.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the colors on these plants are really cool, so
anyone who is kind of taking that reference to.
Speaker 3: The copa at face value. They are not white.
Speaker 2: They're all sorts of different colors, and they're multiple colors,
which is very cool to see. And the flowers do
look a little bit like a flux and it's kind
of a mounded e type of habit. So it's a
pretty easy plant to use. I haven't grown it yet,
have you grown it?
Speaker 1: I have not grown.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited to try it. I mean, you get
me red. It's going in my garden.
Speaker 3: That's simple, you bet you.
Speaker 1: And now thanks to Stacey, we know it's Britannia, James Brittannia.
Speaker 3: And it's all one word.
Speaker 2: That's the crazy thing is it's all one even though
it's like one person's name, James Britton. It's all one word,
James Britannia.
Speaker 1: I want to say James Brittania.
Speaker 3: But James, there's no wrong pronunciations, only wrong.
Speaker 1: We thank you.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: Petunia of the Year envelope please super Tunia Hoopla vivid
orchid petunia. And of course this one has been around
for a while. It's a pickle te patterned petunia, so
the edges are different than the flower's base color. In
this case, you're looking at a purple flower with a
white edge, and performs admirably as a supertunia, keeps blooming
its head off all summer long.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think that's so important for this plant,
because so it's like this really vivid kind of purple
or could purple in the center and a crisp white edge,
and that would be pretty cool on its own. But
this is not one of those petunias. It just I
bloom a little bit here, I bloom a little bit there.
It is a mass of blooms. And so when you
get that really wild pattern juxtaposed over the whole plant,
it is eye dazzling, like really just makes a crazy
kind of visual like illusion in the garden.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: It is a polarizing plant. I have to tell you,
it's not my favorite. It's not one that I personally
would grow, but I totally get the appeal and I
see why people like it so much.
Speaker 1: But you put it in a container or a basket
with a super beina may be a white or a
purple superbina. Wow, it's ipop.
Speaker 2: It's a high performance, very unique plant, that's for sure.
There's just so much cool stuff happening with petunias right
now now.
Speaker 1: Part of the reason I grow annuals in my landscape.
And again from these plants you get tremendous performance. I
grow them to impress my neighbors.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean there are a front yard
plant for you.
Speaker 1: Then yeah, front yard, backyard, sideyard, on the deck. It's
I don't know. You impress your neighbors with your flowering annuals.
And so I've written a limerick along that line. To
impress your neighbors with flowering annuals. I want something colorful,
bloomy everywhere, make it feel roomy. Why live with life,
duller when there's season long color. I've had it with
winter long gloomy. I catching perfect combinations. My neighbors will say, congratulations.
I'm telling you it grew my mind when annuals with
others come by to become a form of public relations.
Let me make a pundently clear. See what I did there?
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: I did a pundently clear It's grow time in spring
each year, Here today, gone tomorrow. But as impressive as
Killeman Jarl. Watch this and please hold my beer. Looking
forward to planting Annuals of the Spring. Let's see how
Stacey ties this in with Plants on Trial that's coming
up next here on the Gardening Simplified.
Speaker 2: Show, Beautify your home and community with Proven Winner's Color
Choice Shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique
varieties to choose from. There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for
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white container your local garden center or learn more at
Proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we're talking
all about the annuals of the year. So our first
show of the year, we did the four Shrubs of
the Year. Second show, actually there's more than four Shrubs
of the Year. Second show Perennials of the Year, and
this week Annuals of the Year. And you know, as
we've said before, of the Year program from Proven Winners
is just a way to help you kind of focus
on a couple of the varieties. We have so many
varieties in the line, and it also helps to ensure
that these plants are going to be pretty abundant in
the marketplace, so they're going to be easy to find. Now,
we were chit chatting so much about our love of
annuals in the first segment that we did not actually
get to announcing all of the annuals of the year,
and Plants on Trial is actually centered around one of
the annuals that we did not get to, and segment
one and we'll talk about it more and segment for
I'm sure, but the landscape annual of the year is
Senorita Rosalita.
Speaker 3: Cleomi.
Speaker 2: Now you said Cleo, I say Cleomi, however you want
to say it again. The bottom line is you got
to walk out of the garden center with the plant
you want and then some but at least the plant
that you wanted. So Cleomi or Cleome, however you want
to say, it is fine. I happen to be. I
happen to be of the mind that I love Rose Queen.
And the old fashioned cliomis that they're they're tall, they
self so everywhere, which I happen to think is an
excellent quality.
Speaker 3: Because I love some people, some people don't.
Speaker 2: I love that kind of free self sewing cottage gardening
kind of feel, so I like that in my plants.
And it's quite tall and it does get quite leggy,
whereas senior Rosalita cleome Cleomi is much smaller and it
is still kind of tall, but it keeps its foliage,
doesn't have smell, doesn't have thorns, and it doesn't have seeds.
So it's a good problem solver, especially if people are
looking for something that is a little bit tidier and
easier to maintain, which is why it is the landscape
annual of the air.
Speaker 1: Doesn't stink and doesn't have thorns.
Speaker 2: Right, which probably means it's not dear resistant. Other cleoi
are probably dear resistant. Can't speak to Seniorita Rosalita, I'm
not sure. But the thing about Kleomi, and it's a
little bit different. You know, when I think of most
proven winner's annuals, or at least the way that I
use annuals, I plant almost entirely in containers.
Speaker 3: What about you, do you plant annuals in the.
Speaker 1: Ground primarily containers. No, I'll put some in the ground,
you know. I'll use miny vista supertunas as a groundcover
to fill an area, right but primarily containers, right.
Speaker 2: And the funny thing about Senorita Rosalita Clomi is it
can be grown in a container. But this is one
of those annuals that I think really is best in
the ground. And the reason for that is it's a
little bit taller and thinner than your average annuals. When
we talk about annuals and containers, we're looking at, you know,
the whole thriller, spiller filler thing, whereas this is really
a plant that is very upright and it flowers very freely,
but it just has such a different habit. You can
grow in a container, and if you look on the
proven Winter's website, you'll see examples of it in a container.
But I really think of Klomi as a landscape annual,
something that goes into the ground. And the reason for
that is it's one of those sea through plants. Yes,
and see through plants might sound like a very bad thing,
but quite the opposite. It's an excellent quality to have.
And a sea through plant basically adds height to your
garden bed without adding bulk. So it adds a light airiness,
It has color, it has texture, it has interest, but
without like plunking itself right down into the middle of
your border and taking up a bunch of space. And
this lets all sorts of fun interactions happen with what's
in front of it, what's behind it, the color as
the plants come and go. I love sea through plants.
And if you don't know what I'm talking about, here's
a fun winter project for you. Spend some time on
your favorite search engine looking up different English perennial borders.
You can look by the different estates like Great Dixter
and Sissinghurst and all of that. You can look up
by the designer Vitascville, West Grutr, Jicyl, Beatrix Potter, etc.
However you want to do this, just you know, get
your source material and that will kind of lead you
down this wonderful rabbit hole. And as you look at
these absolutely brilliant flower beds that these designers have created
and put together, you will see that a central element
for all of them is these sea through plants. That
that is what really keeps them very interesting. And the
sea through plant may actually be the flowers of a
perennial that get very tall. Like you think about you know,
I can't believe I'm going to say this, but it's
the first thing that came to mind at daily where
it has those long, thin scapes that help give it
that sea. You know, when it's just the planet itself,
not see through, but when it starts to flower and
you have those long thin scapes, you get some of
that sea through height.
Speaker 1: I think of Verbena benarians.
Speaker 2: Verbena banarians is a classic. That is why it became
so popular, and similar to senior Rida rosalita, proven winners.
Verbina anariensis also doesn't seed. So good thing if you
don't want verbinav oriensis everywhere, but not such a good
thing if you prefer that cottage garden.
Speaker 3: Look oh on.
Speaker 1: Those rose queen cleomes or klioni or however we pronounce it.
The following year, the seeds the plant, the little plants
come up like crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's it's prolific.
Speaker 1: It is, yeah, prolific.
Speaker 2: Now it is a some lover, so as the plants
start to grow and other plants around it start to grow,
it will pretty readily get shaded out, so it doesn't
become a huge, huge issue. But again, if you are
the type who doesn't like, you know, randomness and unpredictability
in your garden.
Speaker 3: Not the plant for you, definitely you're gonna want seniority.
Speaker 2: To Rosalita, but because Seniorita Rosalita has this amazing sea
through quality, I wanted to spend plants on trial talking
about some different things in the garden that you could
combine it with, kind of going back to what I
said the beginning about annuals being more of like the
jewelry or the throw pillow or you know, the fun
decor item compared to the structure of your garden. So
I wanted to discuss some of those options to combine
different things for color and for interest. And I'm starting
with an absolutely classic combination roses, not just because of
the name Senorita Rosalita, but because roses and Kleomi. I
don't know, I just feel like they are such a
classic kind of cottage gardening, a English garden combination.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: I would a combination that would just knock your socks
off is Seniorita Rosalita with our reminiscent crema rose. As
the name implies, it is kind of a creamy white rose,
and I just think that white would set it off
so beautifully and you know, I think if you're not
familiar with Kleomi, because it did kind of fall out
of fashion for a while. Used to be everywhere and
then it kind of, you know, fell out of fashion
a little bit. It kind of has this sort of
round funded flower head. It's common name, very unfortunate for
some is spiderflower, does not attract spiders, doesn't even really
look like spiders, but has this kind of like whispyness
to it that earns it that name. So it's kind
of a rounded whiskery flower head. Whisker flower. That would
be a more fun name for it, So Mue should
get on that. So I think that when you pair
it with the roses and that high pedal count, it's
just a really nice contrast. Now, if you want to
more contemporary twist, I think it would look amazing with
ringo double pink rose as for a little bit of
something different. And if you love contrast, then I would
recommend try it out with So Easy lemon zest or
Oh so Easy Sonya rita rose, both of which are yellow,
for some really interesting contrasts and really kind of taking
it over the top.
Speaker 3: So very classic. Now.
Speaker 2: I also love this with panicle hydranges. And the reason
why I think panicle hydrange is out of all of
the different hydrange types that you could plant it with,
are such a good idea is because panicle hydrange of
flowers are pointed most of them, so that point that
kind of rounded football or big ice cream cone shape
I think really counter points nicely with that rounded Kleomi flower.
Adds a lot of texture and interest, and I think
the colors that especially panicle hydrangs turn later on in
the season is just an ideal combination. So you can
pair it with really large, full sized panicle hydrangees like
Limelight Prime or Pinky Winky Prime or quick Fire fab.
These are going to be more in that six to
eight foot range, so they're going to be more of
a backdrop or enclosure type of role, but they also
work really well with small to medium varieties the kleomi
do like little lime, puffer fish or fire like tidbit,
so that things are more covorting on a similar level
rather than way up above it. So I love the
way that it's going to be dynamic, that you're going
to see the colors of the panicle hydrange of flowers
changing through the season and that Cleomi is just going
to keep flowering and flowering and flowering.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that you mentioned that, Stacey. We
have a garden center here in West Michigan called Garden
Crossings which specializes in proven winters plants and in their
landscape in the front every summer, and I've taken pictures
they combine panicle hydranges with either Senorita rosalita or the
Verbina benariensis variety meteor shops. Yeah, and the combination of
the two is fantastic.
Speaker 3: Well, they know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: They know what they're doing.
Speaker 2: They definitely do now for our friends in warm climates,
you could grow most of the plants that I just mentioned.
But wow, wouldn't Senorita rosalita cleomi look absolutely stunning with
any of the purple leafs jazz hands Laura pedulum. Oh yeah,
I mean it's just that is a match made in heaven.
So if you have a jazz Hands Laura Pedalum in
your landscape, consider looking for the Senorita Rosalita Kliomi to
just kind of plants around it. It's low stakes. You
just buy a couple plants, put it in there, see
if you like it. Next year, you can do something
different or you don't have to do it at all.
And for our cold climate people, I think it would
look amazing with happy faced white potentilla. Yes, So just
some fun different choices for you there to think about
pairing Senorita Rosalita the rather unusual landscape based annual compared
to your more typical container based annual. We're going to
talk a lot more about it in segment four, so
stay tuned because first we're going to have the mail bank.
Speaker 3: At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.
Speaker 2: We know that a better landscape starts with a better shrub.
Our team of experts tests and evaluates all of our
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ensure they outperform what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable,
beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style,
look for Proven Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container
at your local garden center or learn more at Proven
Winner's Color Choice dot com. Reading's gardening friends, and welcome
back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it's time for
us to help you with your garden questions quandaries. And
conundrums should you have any, which you probably do, because
I mean, I've been doing this for a long time
and i still have questions, quandaries and conundrums at all
the time. So if you have any of those and
you want to reach out, you can reach us at
Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. There's a contact form there.
We also welcome your celebrations and that kind of thing, especially,
you know, we love to hear what's going well. We're
not just here to help you solve your problems. We're
here to celebrate your victories as well. So don't hesitate
to reach out as you're looking through the phone roll
on a cold winterry day dreaming of last year's garden
and what is to come this year. Now, speaking of
things to do in winter to keep you busy, we
heard from Cheryl So right before the holidays, Cheryl had
written us with a question about her amaryllis, and she
wrote back to us thanking us for our answer, and
she said she wants to spend the winter. I love this,
so you're going to understand why I chose to include
this in today's show. Cheryl wants to spend the winter
learning botanical names and meanings, which is a great way
to spend winter if you love plants and words and
reading and all of that jazz and I certainly do.
And she was wondering if we had any suggestions for
how to do this.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, well yeah, I have suggestions.
Speaker 3: Okay, what is it?
Speaker 1: And I think it's a I think it's a good
thing to do because I you know, well, my first
suggestion would be watch Stacy her Villa on the Gardening
Simplified Show, because that's where I learn how to pronounce James, Brittania,
Britannia whatever, Kleiomi, Yeah, so I watched Stacey. I get
a lot of help from Stacy. That's number one. Throughout
the years for me, I've always relied on Timber Press
because they have great resources to help you do that.
And then you can start reading and you can start learning,
because you know, Stacy, you are are very adept at this,
whereas with me, you know, the things that I struggle
with are like Pendula, well that makes sense, it's hanging weeping.
But if pendula is hanging weeping, then why does Scandon's
mean climbing? That makes no sense to me. Globosa is rounded,
makes sense Elba is white, Pumila is dwarf, right right,
So this is just crazy stuff. Silvestros means woodland or
vulgaris means common.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got to learn.
Speaker 1: All that stuff. Well, it's got to make sense to you.
Speaker 2: I mean, we call it, you know, botanical nomenclature, but
it is a mix of Latin and Greek and sometimes
other words as well. So that's why sometimes you'll have
synonymous words that, like the translation means the same thing,
in two different words mean the same thing. I guess
it was whatever Carl Lenaeus felt like doing at that
particular moment. We're all at Linaeus's whims now. I do
want to tell you, Cheryl here at work, I rely
on one book. It is excellent. It is David Gledhill's
The Names of Plants. It's from Cambridge Press. It is
rather expensive for a book, even though it's not a
huge book. I think obviously it has a fairly niche audience,
so not necessarily you know Ben Airport bestseller here that
we're talking about, So that one is a little bit
on the pricier side. So you might want to see
if you can find it at you know, a library
or through a used book exchange. Even when I was
just looking for the show, the used ones were still
pretty pricey relatively speaking.
Speaker 3: But that is excellent.
Speaker 2: I love that book because it has an entire basically
encyclopedia of every single genus and species all listed out.
If it's in Greek, it has the Greek spelling and
it goes way into depth about everything that you could
want to know. So that is my main go to
at work, and it's excellent. But yeah, the Timber Press
Dictionary of Plant Names by Alan Coombs is a great
choice as well. That's going to be a little bit
more affordable. I can't vouch for this one, but I
did find it and it was one of the lowest costs.
The Gardener's Handbook of Plant Names by aw Smith from
Dover Publishers, And if you're not familiar with Dover, they
do a number of low cost books and they're always
really fun and interesting and has a very pretty picture
on the front. So that's a good vote in its direction.
But of course you can always start with your local library.
If they don't have something, they should be able to
inner library loan it for you and then that can
help you decide what you actually want to invest your
time and money in for the long haul.
Speaker 1: It's fun, you know, it's a great activity summertime, sitting
on the deck and friends are over, you know, with
my family, and you look at a plant and you say,
you know, well, if somebody asks you what it is,
you say, that's Gladisia triacanthos. Enormous, you know, and my
family will roll their eyes and then they'll look at
the guests and say, he just makes that stuff.
Speaker 3: You know, you really didn't.
Speaker 1: You're going to be subject.
Speaker 2: But it's always a fun thing to learn. So for
anybody who wants to spend their winter upping their botanical
nomenclature game, those are great places to start. And if
you are already on our YouTube channel, Adriana and I
made a series of botanical pronunciation and derivation videos, so
you can also take a look at those.
Speaker 1: That's great. Well, I'm still going to use you as
a resource, Stacey, so I appreciate that Tina asks us
on YouTube. I have about a dozen roses, including several
of my favorite at last roses in my Ohio garden.
Every summer I have a few weeks of a beautiful
rose show followed by the rest of summer with black
spots tons of Japanese beetles. Now I think I have thrips.
I want to be very proactive this winter and spring
trying to mitigate this for next summer. My Rose show
is very disappointing last year. Can you advise for a
comprehensive preventative program and Stacey, as far as prevention is concerned,
I'd have to say, there's a sign there if you're
dealing with those issues, that there is some sort of imbalance.
Usually the case maybe water, maybe your irrigation methods, whatever
it may be. But you know, roses can put on
a show well into in Ohio, should be able to
put on a show well into November, right, And.
Speaker 2: You know, I would say that Japanese beetles aside and
will deal with them in a moment. You know, roses,
there are certainly older varieties that are very susceptible to
black spot, but typically, especially if you have more modern
disease resistant landscape roses, if they are getting a lot
of black spot, it does indicate that something is not ideal.
You know, very often we plant something and as the
years go by, it gets kind of shaded out by
its neighbors. Everything's growing, continuing to grow, and so that
can cause some shade trees that you know you didn't
take into account when you planted it because it was
full sun, have grown and shaded it out. So black
spot happens with shade with overhead watering, especially with a
sprinkler system that pelts it every morning, it dries out
all day. Next morning, same time happens again exactly. But
as far as prevention goes, it will do so much
if this spring, before the plant leaves out, but when
the snow has finally melted, if you get out there
and you take away all of the rose foliage that
you can find in your garden. You know, very often
when they when the foliage drops in fall, it just
kind of blows away. But sometimes it drops below the plant,
gets wet, gets matted down. Black Spot spores love, love,
love to live on that fallen foliage and below the plant.
And then when it leaves out in spring, that leaf
is so fresh and so delicate, it doesn't have a
cuticle to protect it from fungal infection, and those spores
just go right up and can reinfect the plant. And
that's called called a disease cycle because you keep getting
this cycle. So removing that will help a lot because
it will take that, you know, all of that fungal
spores and take it away from the plant. Now, it's
not fool proof method because if things are going wrong,
your plant's probably still going to get them, but it
will help. Pruning helps a lot to make sure you're
pruning your ros as well. You know, thrips are a
tiny little insect that cause damage to flowers primarily, and interestingly,
I was reading that thrips are mostly an issue on
lighter colored roses and particularly yellow roses. Interesting so they
like the lighter colors more than the more vibrant boulder colors.
But they can happen on any rows. And trips are
nearly impossible to control because they are so so tiny,
and they get in the flower and they suck and
they cause these little like spots and deformities. They are
probably one of the hardest pests for home gardeners to
control for. But pruning will help a lot. And again,
if you have a landscape rose, whether that's at last
I know so easy rows or any of those landscape
roses that bloom continuously without deadheading, I know this is
gonna hurt, but if you can cut the whole plant back,
even though it has flower buds or flowers on it,
you can actually get it to rebloom outside of the
main invasion time of the thrips. Now again, I know
that's painful and easier said than done, but that is
a good effective way to management. Now, as for Japanese beetles,
I mean, there's really no help for Japanese beetles. I
don't want to be defeatist or you know, disappoint anyone,
but you know, all of the things, it takes a
multifaceted approach and all of the things that people recommend.
You know, you can put milky spore down in your
yard and make sure that the grubs aren't maturing in
your yard, and you don't have a population of Japanese
beetles raised in your yard. But the simple fact is
they fly, and they fly everywhere, and they love roses,
and they're going to come from miles around for your delicious,
delicious rose garden. So it's really really hard to control
for Japanese beetles.
Speaker 1: Well, I think the key with Japanese beetles I have
found is understand when they emerge in your area, and
at that time I spray the roses with something like
a gneam oil or something like that, because if you
can get it early, you know, once Japanese beetles begin
attacking the roses, others join the attack. So if you
can avoid that in the first place. You know, it's
always important to understand the triangle host, pathogen and environment,
and we can control the environment. Maybe the plant it
needs more sunlight, maybe, as you said, irrigation, all key
factors and doing the detective work you need to do
to deal with this.
Speaker 2: And you know, you ken if you have another of
landscape ros again, you can cut it back when you
first start seeing those Japanese beetles. I know it's hard,
but by the time it reblooms in, you know, six
weeks down the line, they're no longer interested and they
can move on. So it is hard to do, but
that is an effective, non toxic way to try to
at least save yourself the heartbreak of seeing your rose
looking like a skeleton in the garden.
Speaker 3: We're going to take a little break when we come back.
Speaker 2: We're continuing our conversation on annuals of the year so
stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast,
brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our
award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested
by experts with your success in mind. Learn more at
Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show as we continue
our conversation on national Plants of the Year flowering annuals
and Stacey, you did a great job of outlining senior
Rita Rosalita, and that is the landscape annual of the year.
Speaker 2: Right, And like I said, you know it is. I
think of Proven Winners Annuals right or wrong, as primarily
container plants. And I really realized thinking about how I
would plant Seniorita Rosalita kleiomi, that I have really only
ever seen kleiomi widespread in the ground. Yeah, and so
it does. That's not the only reason that something is
the landscape Annual of the year. The landscape annual of
the year, like the Landscape Perennial of the Year and
the Landscape Shop of the Year, are plants that are
suitable for landscapers, So you know, kind of bulletproof easy
to plant, easy to maintain. They're going to make you
look like a superstar. And of course it translates great
to home gardeners like us, because we know that reliability
is going to translate just as well into our gardens.
So it's not just that it is suitable for the landscape,
but that landscapers where it meets landscapers needs. And you know,
I feel like I have kind of you know, it's
gotten me thinking about how I could use annuals more
in the ground. I have self sewing annuals. Of course,
as I've already explained, one of my favorite things in
the garden is self sewing annuals and pop up wherever
and you know, kind of create that cottage gardening look
without you having to do much work.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean they're a good problem solver.
Speaker 2: You can fill in little spots while you're waiting for
something to grow in if you started with a very
small plant. And pretty much all annuals, almost all annuals
except for the proven Winner's Superbells or Caliber CoA, are
suitable just as suitable for planting in the ground as
they are in containers. Caliber CoA is the exception because
it needs really really really good.
Speaker 3: Drainage and good moisture.
Speaker 2: So it is really much more suited to containers, hangar
baskets the like. But that is really the only annual
that I can think of offhand that's really only suited
for containers. Everything else, you know, it can go in
the ground. I just rarely put it there.
Speaker 1: Sure, And if you're driving in your car or listening
to the radio version of this show or the podcast,
Cleome or Kleiomi is spelled cl Eome. Okay, let's move
on to Kalladium of the Year. I love the Heart
to Heart series. An envelope please, In this case, Kalladium
of the Year is Heart to Heart Chinook. It's a
sun or shade kalladium. And that's the thing that excites
me is that kalladiums today, and with the Heart to
Heart series, many of them can be grown in both
sun or in shade. And with kalladiums, I've found you
really don't need a lot of fertilizer. You got to
cut back on the fertilizer. You really don't want to
over furtilz lie kalladiums. You can burn the foliage. So
this is a plant in the right conditions and in
a container, even though it can go in the ground,
creates just incredible color. It's a salmon pink kalladium and
really scored high end trials all over the United States.
I on an annual basis, no pun intended, have really
enjoyed growing Heart to Heart kalladiums in my landscape. Yeah.
Speaker 2: They really are so much different than kaladiums used to be.
You know, you used to buy like a bag of
you know, twenty five kalladiums, and the tubers were like
the size of a dime and you were lucky to
get like two leaves if you lived in Michigan. Whereas
the Heart to Heart series is all about those top
quality bulbs and so you don't have to worry so
much about fertilizing them to try to get the growth.
Speaker 3: The growth comes from.
Speaker 2: The quality, top quality bulb that you're starting within the
first place.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I love Heart's Heart kalladiums. They are beauty full.
Speaker 2: I am done trying to grow them because the only
thing that loves them more than me do I do
is the deer.
Speaker 3: Oh oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: And last year I had some I thought, oh, you know,
give it a try on my patio. See how it goes.
And I swear to you, every time those things would
start to put up a new leaf, trying to recover
from the previous time they were devoured to nubs, they
would be like.
Speaker 3: Hey, did you hear everybody? Get over here? I think
there's enough to go around. So well, they.
Speaker 1: Look tasty, they look like candy.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, but I was thinking that they're in
the aeroid family, which contains a number of toxic plants.
They have a toxic alkaloid, so even if they're not
going to kill you, they don't taste good. They're really alkaline.
It did not stop the deer, so which feel thinking.
Speaker 1: Keep trying, you know. I like we talked about in
the first segment. The thing that I love about annuals
is every year is a new year. So annuals are
the perfect plant to do some experimentation. Just let your
mind wander and experiment with annuals. That's the fun thing
about them. There are throughout the United States into Canada,
there are many wonderful trial gardens. They call them trial gardens,
and they try these plants and see how they stand
up to the weather and how they do. So Annuals
to a large extent, are about creativity. You know, I
dabble in stand up comedy, and I remind myself all
the time that when it comes to stand up comedy,
you have to be serious about your craft the art
how to do stand up comedy. You have to be
serious about it. At the same time, you can't take
yourself serious, and you have to combine those two factors.
I see it the same way in planting annuals. And
when you plant annuals sometimes you need a little help
with those combinations. And that's why Proven Winners provides recipes
or combinations and has combinations of the year. And again,
these are something that just isn't pulled out of the
hat on a whim. These are trialed and tested. And
there are four great combinations in twenty twenty six Saffron Sunrise,
there's moonlit Lavender, there's pixie powder. I love that, and
there's a kalladium combination called Kindness. And many of those
recipes are set up assuming that you're going to use
a four and a half inch plant container that you
would typically find in a garden center or a greenhouse,
and the combination put into a fourteen inch size container
for example, the combination Saffron sun Rise has two super
Bell's Tropical Sunrise Caliber coas a great spiller, two Safari
dusk South African flocks. Thank you to Stacy, we now
know it's James Britannia as a filler and two super
Tunia Saffron Finch. This is a great supertunia. And I've
always longed for a really good yellow petunia or super tunia,
and Stacey Saffron Finch fills that bill.
Speaker 2: It is such a great plan. I grew it one
year and that thing did not stop flowering, which for
a yellow petunia is really saying something. Now with these,
we're going to continue with the recipes, but I do
want you to know if you are not the type
of person who wants to whip up a garden recipe.
Just like with the annuals and other shrubs and perennials
of the year, these recipes are also going to have
higher availability in the garden center. So this helps garden
centers when they are putting together their combinations to sell
or they're buying them in from a grower. The growers
are focusing on these, so these aren't just things that
you can create yourself. There are also the recipes that
you are going to see in higher quantities this year,
so you can try a new hanging basket, or give
your mom a new hanging basket for Mother's Day, or
you know whatever, you're whatever you're looking for. So these
are recipes that we can use as home gardeners, but
there are also recipes that are given to growers, so
you can kind of work this however you want to.
Speaker 1: I love that point, Staceye. So when you go to
the garden center or greenhouse, uh, let's say Mother's Day
weekend and get a hanging basket for mom our odds
are some of those maybe these types of things, yes,
combinations and you can access them on proven Winner's website.
So a combination like moonlit lavender has two Supertunia Hoopla
vivid orchid petunias, as we mentioned, is the petunia of
the year. You combine with that supertunya men Vista white
and again the Mini Vista series makes such a great
filler in containers in hanging baskets, and then combine that
with a Superbina violet ice verbina. Again, the combination is
knock your socks off. Great Pixie powder has two double
delight apple blossom begonias as spillers, two diamond frost Euphorbia
a classic filler, and two Rockapoco coral reef double impatiens
as a filler. You put these three together, these combinations
of three, and boy, by the time you get to
June here in the North, June July, you've got quite
a presentation.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I can't wait to start putting annuals in
the ground. I love annuals and the season long color
that they provide us. But again, as I mentioned in
segment one, Stacy, the thing that blows me away is
the frame of reference that I have looking back at
the seventies and eighties, the cultivars that we have generally,
you know, the approach where everyone had geranium spike and
vincavine and a container. And what we have today blows
my mind.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure, absolutely, And we're lucky to have it.
So take advantage of it.
Speaker 3: Have fun. Start saving your pennies now.
Speaker 2: If you don't want to spend a lot, then you
can spread out your winter budget and spend it all
in May for your annuals.
Speaker 1: I like that line of thinking. Thanks Stacey, Thanks Rick,
thanks Adriana, and thanks to you. Thanks for watching us
on YouTube or listening to the podcast or our radio
version of the show. Have a great week.