Speaker 1: Coming to you from Studio A here at Proven Winters,
Speaker 1: Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show
Speaker 1: with Stacy Hervella me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and
Speaker 1: producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, Stacy, I love today's topic. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk about lavender. Lavender smells like a spa
Speaker 1: day minus the cost. It's where calm meets color. People
Speaker 1: love lavender. It's also a very misunderstood plant. One of
Speaker 1: those plants that is a perennial but acts like a
Speaker 1: woody shrub. Similar to all the questions we get on
Speaker 1: puning bud Leah's a plant that's a woody shrub that
Speaker 1: acts like a perennial. And I guess I have to
Speaker 1: say Stacy, with all the cultivars. Also, no wonder people
Speaker 1: are confused.
Speaker 2: Yes, lavender was one of my first big gardening mistakes.
Speaker 2: Oh and I have not made it since. But before
Speaker 2: we go into lavender, Rick, it's March first, it's meteorological spring.
Speaker 2: We change the background and it is depending on how
Speaker 2: you count it. And Rick definitely is in the meteorological
Speaker 2: going by the months rather than the equinoxes.
Speaker 1: So happy spring, Happy Spring, boy, I've been looking forward
Speaker 1: to this. We're going to thaw out here in the
Speaker 1: north and enjoy spring for all it's worth. You know,
Speaker 1: lavender is one of those plants Stacey, that you should
Speaker 1: not prune in the fall or in winter. At least.
Speaker 1: My recommendation is, if you want to be successful with lavender,
Speaker 1: prune it in the spring, just as we're starting to
Speaker 1: see some growth.
Speaker 2: Yes, that is the key. Let the plant tell you
Speaker 2: when and where to cut. And you know, lavender is
Speaker 2: a little bit like it is like buddleia. It's also
Speaker 2: a little bit like big leaf hydranges in that when
Speaker 2: you go out into the garden in spring to clean up,
Speaker 2: you look at this mess of sticks with their kind
Speaker 2: of wilted foliage and you go, oh, I couldn't possibly
Speaker 2: be nothing's going to come out of that that looks dead.
Speaker 2: And so you cut it back and there goes your lavendar.
Speaker 2: And that's what I did in my first garden. Okay,
Speaker 2: And the leavender did not come back because I cut
Speaker 2: it back to nothing. There were no buds left to
Speaker 2: come back. But you know, you have to. It's one
Speaker 2: of those plants you have to have a little faith,
Speaker 2: don't prune and as always went in doubt, don't prune.
Speaker 2: And this goes for lavender and spring or anything else
Speaker 2: in spring, just leave it and you can fix it
Speaker 2: later rather than pruning it, which you can't usually fix. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then wait for that new growth to start to emerge,
Speaker 2: and then you know the plant's alive. It's showing you
Speaker 2: where on the stem it is alive, so you know
Speaker 2: exactly where to cut and uh yeah, so you kind
Speaker 2: of have to let the plants show you rather than
Speaker 2: impose your will on the plant.
Speaker 1: Just like bud Leah because budd Leo will show you too.
Speaker 2: Right, absolutely, same exact thing. Yeah, and you know they
Speaker 2: require the same conditions as well, So if you're successful
Speaker 2: with butterfly bush in your garden that they also need,
Speaker 2: you know, really well drained, soilful sun. Chances are you'll
Speaker 2: be successful with lavender. And if you're successful with lavender,
Speaker 2: then you will be successful with.
Speaker 1: Butterfly bush exactly. Because the key here with lavender, if
Speaker 1: I cut to the chase, is that, first of all,
Speaker 1: I think everyone should have lavender in their yard. But
Speaker 1: if you're going to have lavender, you need to understand
Speaker 1: the different types of lavender. That are out there. And
Speaker 1: then secondly, I think the true key is soil that
Speaker 1: is well drained and a good sunny spot and pruning
Speaker 1: it at the right time of the year. And if
Speaker 1: you do those three things, you're going to be successful
Speaker 1: with lavender.
Speaker 2: You know, we're lucky. We live in a great environment
Speaker 2: for growing lavender. And I have a ton of lavender
Speaker 2: in my garden. I'm putting even more in this year
Speaker 2: because it's going to be an inside border to my
Speaker 2: herb garden. Nice and it just thrives here. And you know,
Speaker 2: I don't really harvest it or use it for anything,
Speaker 2: but I love lavender. I love the way it looks
Speaker 2: in the garden. I love its silvery foliage. I love
Speaker 2: its fragrance. You know, my absolute favorite thing is weeding
Speaker 2: around lavender. Oh yeah, the best, just like you just
Speaker 2: get it. Being in the garden. Doesn't get much better
Speaker 2: than that. Just like working, as you know, enjoying it's
Speaker 2: one thing. But like if you're working, you're down there,
Speaker 2: the leaves are brushing your arms and it just smells amazing.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: Like they say, lavender late than never, is that how
Speaker 1: it goes? Yeah, lavender late than never? But you're right.
Speaker 1: It's recommended, for example, to plant under bedroom windows. I
Speaker 1: have some lavender under the bedroom window on the west
Speaker 1: side of the house, so the breezes are predominantly from
Speaker 1: the west, the summertime breezes. And of course lavender is
Speaker 1: noted for its ability to calm nerves, anxiety, all of
Speaker 1: these good things. The reason they put it in sachets
Speaker 1: and and pot pourrie, et cetera, et cetera. Lavender has
Speaker 1: a great It.
Speaker 2: Has a great reputation on mental well being, and of
Speaker 2: course in food it's a little more polarizing. Some people
Speaker 2: love it, some people not so much.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The other thing is pollinators love it. And that's one
Speaker 2: thing that I really really enjoy in the garden is
Speaker 2: when lavender is in bloom and it's just swarming with
Speaker 2: all sorts of bees and butterflies and the color just
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: It's fabulous. Quick limb a rick for you, because yes,
Speaker 1: I too, am inspired, Stacy. In my garden, it's a mainstay.
Speaker 1: It lines each and every walkway. Its presence makes me chill.
Speaker 1: My space is trank. Will Laughender your blues away? Did
Speaker 1: you see what I did? I did see that yeah, Laughender,
Speaker 1: I kind of like that one. Yeah. So it's important
Speaker 1: to understand the different types of lavender. Here in the North.
Speaker 1: Most people are using something we would call English lavender,
Speaker 1: which is confusing because it's really native to England. It's
Speaker 1: native to Mediterranean areas. But then you go beyond that
Speaker 1: and you look at some of the new hybrids, so
Speaker 1: there's a difference between lavender and Lavendin's Phenomenal is a
Speaker 1: great hybrid variety that you can grow in your landscape,
Speaker 1: gets very large, Stacey, as far as English lavender is concerned,
Speaker 1: I planted Sweet Romance in my yard. It's English lavender.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about the angustifolia lavenders, beautiful blooming not
Speaker 1: just on the terminal but a little ways down the stem,
Speaker 1: and very fragrant, very hardy, very tough.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's what it's all about. It's a proven winners perennial.
Speaker 2: So it's a great choice. I grow both headcoat and Phenomenal. Okay,
Speaker 2: And you know, it's always interesting to me seeing them
Speaker 2: side by side in my garden because you really can't
Speaker 2: necessarily tell in the garden center, but seeing them side
Speaker 2: of my side in my garden I would describe it
Speaker 2: this way. The English lavender headcoat, which is probably one
Speaker 2: of the most popular varieties, certainly one that you'll find
Speaker 2: at your garden center. It looks English like. It has
Speaker 2: kind of a tidy, well behaved vibe to it. It
Speaker 2: stays very small. It just feels like a proper English garden,
Speaker 2: whereas the Phenomenal kind of has more of like a
Speaker 2: South of France wild kind of vibe, whereas the head
Speaker 2: coat is like kind of more like square, rectangular looking.
Speaker 2: I love how the Phenomenal just makes this big mound
Speaker 2: with this array of flowers coming out of it. So
Speaker 2: I actually use them both in my lavender border, and
Speaker 2: I so it's mostly comprised of hadcoat, but I put
Speaker 2: the Phenomenal at the corners so that looks kind of cool.
Speaker 2: And phenomenals also later it's a little bit later to
Speaker 2: bloom than had coats, so it's kind of like I've
Speaker 2: got this great season extender out there. I love them both.
Speaker 2: I would be hard pressed to pick one over the other.
Speaker 2: And I hope to add even more lavenders to my garden.
Speaker 2: But you know, as you say, not all lavender is
Speaker 2: very hardy, even for us here in zone six. A
Speaker 2: lot of them are zone eight or warmer.
Speaker 1: And for people who are growing lavender just for the
Speaker 1: scent or growing it to use essential oils. Let's say,
Speaker 1: it's important to understand the difference between lavendin's and lavender,
Speaker 1: and so Stacey, Phenomenal, as you mentioned, would be a lavendin,
Speaker 1: and your English lavenders would be obviously lavender. And you're right,
Speaker 1: they almost seem more suited for a formal type garden,
Speaker 1: whereas Phenomenal or some of the English hybrids, so to speak,
Speaker 1: how can I best put it? They don't color within
Speaker 1: the lines.
Speaker 2: Yes, I like that about them, and it's good to
Speaker 2: make them right. So you know, if you're confused about
Speaker 2: what we're talking about with lavendin, well, one thing you
Speaker 2: can do is just look at the heartiness on the
Speaker 2: plant tag, because the lavendons are the hardiest lavenders. And
Speaker 2: not only are they the hardiest, they're the most resilient.
Speaker 2: So if you're growing in a clay soil and you've
Speaker 2: typically had trouble trying to overwinter lavender, one of these lavendons,
Speaker 2: like Phenomenal or its sister plant Sensational, would probably be
Speaker 2: a better choice for you. Whereas the English lavender, lavendula
Speaker 2: and gustifolia. Just look at the tag there no X
Speaker 2: because the lavendons are Lavendula x EnterMedia. So if there's
Speaker 2: no X there, you know you've got a straight species
Speaker 2: like the English lavender exactly.
Speaker 1: And with that English lavender again hot sunshine, well drained.
Speaker 1: I'm growing mine practically in beach sand.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't fertilize them. They do just fabulous. And Stacy,
Speaker 1: you're talking about the different types of lavender. Of course,
Speaker 1: we've talked about the English lavender. There is a French
Speaker 1: lavender it's Lavendula dentata, but it's only hardy to zone eight.
Speaker 1: I have tried growing wooly lavender in my yard and
Speaker 1: I've had some success doing it. But again that's a
Speaker 1: plant that is only to zone eight. I'm six A,
Speaker 1: six B, but I've had some success growing there. You
Speaker 1: have we talked, Yeah, I have, but it's hit and missed.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not pretty the English hybrids as we just
Speaker 1: talked about. And then you have Spanish lavender, which has
Speaker 1: these pineapple shaped type flowers.
Speaker 2: With little buddy ears of petals on the top. I love, love,
Speaker 2: love Spanish lavender. My understanding is that is only hardy
Speaker 2: to USA Zone eight or so as well. It is
Speaker 2: so unfortunately not that's like my dream lavender because that
Speaker 2: one is one of the best ones for perfume and fragrance,
Speaker 2: and it just looks a little bit different. But you
Speaker 2: know what, again, I'll be grateful for what I can
Speaker 2: get here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all same here and when you're growing lavender, I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm trying to sell this to people, but
Speaker 1: I don't think I have to sell it. Lavender is
Speaker 1: much loved Stacey pess diseases or things like rabbits or
Speaker 1: deer generally non fat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't like as much as we like to smell.
Speaker 2: They mercifully do not. And yeah, they don't get any
Speaker 2: pester diseases except unless you give them root rot. And
Speaker 2: I think that's why we kind of do have to
Speaker 2: sell lavender to people, because so many people have loved
Speaker 2: it and had a bad experience, and so you kind
Speaker 2: of knew need to get back on the horse and
Speaker 2: try it again, because it's possible that if you didn't
Speaker 2: know this, you bought the wrong type of lavender for
Speaker 2: your soil, for your conditions. So you know now, especially
Speaker 2: with phenomenal and sensational on the market. I have heard
Speaker 2: great reports from even like farmland in Ohio clay country,
Speaker 2: open exposed areas that they have had great winter survival
Speaker 2: on phenomenal. So you know, times are always changing, the
Speaker 2: golden age of plant breeding, and they're even resolving the
Speaker 2: issues that make lavender unattainable for some people.
Speaker 1: So you've done a lot of copywriting and descriptive writing
Speaker 1: on play ants over the course of your life, Stacey,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to ask you as far as lavender
Speaker 1: is concerned. At the outset, I mentioned that it's a
Speaker 1: perennial that kind of acts like a woody shrub. Would
Speaker 1: you be willing to classify something like that as a
Speaker 1: sub shrub?
Speaker 2: That's exactly what I classified it.
Speaker 1: Really, Why is that because.
Speaker 2: It's only partly shrubby, like partly cloudy but partly shrubby.
Speaker 2: So a subshrub is defined as something that is woody
Speaker 2: at the base but herbaceous for the rest of the plant,
Speaker 2: and that's exactly what lavender is. So you know, the
Speaker 2: top bottom, you know, from the ground up like maybe
Speaker 2: five inches or so, are true wood shrubby, but all
Speaker 2: the growth that it puts on is herbaceous fantastic.
Speaker 1: You know. I was at a trade show, a winter
Speaker 1: trade show, and someone was kind enough to give me
Speaker 1: Proven Winners Sweet Romance English lavender, and I took it
Speaker 1: and threw it in my shed because it gets very
Speaker 1: cold here in Michigan in the winter. Then I planted
Speaker 1: it in a hot, sunny area. That thing made it
Speaker 1: through winter, thrived, continues to thrive, blooms its head off,
Speaker 1: laughs at the deer and the rabbits, and provide so
Speaker 1: much joy and satisfaction. I just can't sing the praises
Speaker 1: of that plant enough.
Speaker 2: I love it, love it.
Speaker 1: Now. I'm interested in seeing how you're going to tie
Speaker 1: this in in plants on trial. That's coming up next
Speaker 1: here on the Gardening Simplified Ship.
Speaker 2: Beautify your home and community with proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs.
Speaker 2: With over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties to
Speaker 2: choose from. There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for every taste
Speaker 2: and every space. Just look for the distinctive white container
Speaker 2: your local garden center or learn more at Proven Winter's
Speaker 2: Color Choice dot com. Greeting's Gardening friends and welcome back
Speaker 2: to the Gardening simplified show where we are celebrating spring.
Speaker 2: If you look out the window and the weather is
Speaker 2: not well, at least it feels like it's on the
Speaker 2: way now that it's March, even though March can be
Speaker 2: a little bit cruel in it's uh in the weather
Speaker 2: it serves out, you know, nice one day and really
Speaker 2: super crowdy the next, as they say, but you know
Speaker 2: it's here, and it does make it feel like it's closer,
Speaker 2: and I am. You know, all this talk about lavender
Speaker 2: has got me so so excited about my new RB garden.
Speaker 2: Now It's going to be a while till I can
Speaker 2: start on my new herb garden in my garden renovation,
Speaker 2: because I have so much other stuff to do before
Speaker 2: I can get to that. But in thinking about lavender
Speaker 2: and thinking about my herb garden, I was remembering so
Speaker 2: in my previous job, I worked for a garden magazine
Speaker 2: if you remember magazines from way back in the day,
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I did was I
Speaker 2: went around to see gardens all over the country and
Speaker 2: to find gardens to feature in the magazine. Obviously a
Speaker 2: pretty great gig if you can get it, and one
Speaker 2: of my absolute favorite gardens that I had ever seen
Speaker 2: was at this beautiful eighteen sixteen farmhouse in rural New Hampshire,
Speaker 2: and yeah, it was amazing. And the garden, you know,
Speaker 2: because this is like way back and goes back to
Speaker 2: like colonial times, it was not uncommon for people to
Speaker 2: have sort of small kitchen gardens very near to their home,
Speaker 2: so they would grow probably medicinal herbs, culinary herbs, yeah,
Speaker 2: some you know, different things that they could use in
Speaker 2: the household and in this garden, and keeping with that tradition,
Speaker 2: the gardener had created a small formal herb garden just
Speaker 2: outside the kitchen door there, and it was made up
Speaker 2: of four square beds, kind of raised beds surrounded by
Speaker 2: thick lumber, and it was all surrounded by flagstone. And
Speaker 2: that kind of gave it this really nice sort of
Speaker 2: push and pull of formality because you had the formality
Speaker 2: of these very rigid square and then the flagstone had
Speaker 2: some you know, different self sowers and stuff growing in
Speaker 2: And I've talked about it before. I love that look
Speaker 2: and what the gardener had done. So the beds are
Speaker 2: full of herbs, and in two of them she had
Speaker 2: planted lilac standards. Okay, So a standard, if you're not familiar,
Speaker 2: is basically a tree form that looks a lot like
Speaker 2: a lollipop y. So lilacs are naturally shrubby. There is
Speaker 2: a tree lock that tree liloc that's a totally separate species.
Speaker 2: We're not going there today. These are lilacs that have
Speaker 2: been trained by the grower to take on a tree
Speaker 2: like form. And so what this gardener did was she
Speaker 2: took those two tree or those two standard lilacs, and
Speaker 2: put them right in the center of two of the beds.
Speaker 2: And this is so memorable to me because it looked
Speaker 2: absolutely amazing. It accomplished several things. So it brought height
Speaker 2: to the herb garden because by and large, most herbs
Speaker 2: that were growing in our herb gardens are not particularly tall.
Speaker 2: There's stuff, certainly like a lavage matures that will get
Speaker 2: to be six feet tall. There's some herbs that get big,
Speaker 2: but mostly they're all kind of you know.
Speaker 1: Little shows show exclamation.
Speaker 2: Exclamation points, right, and they provided this exclamation point without
Speaker 2: providing shade, because of course herbs are sun loving plants,
Speaker 2: and so by having this very sort of small canopy,
Speaker 2: it didn't shade out the plants. Below it, and in
Speaker 2: my opinion, best of all, it also provided flowers and
Speaker 2: color at a time when the herbs weren't really doing
Speaker 2: all that much.
Speaker 1: I can picture it in my mind, you can.
Speaker 2: And then we're going to have a picture of the
Speaker 2: exact garden on our YouTube show show. So if you
Speaker 2: have not tuned into YouTube, you can check us out
Speaker 2: over there. Just search for Gardening Simplified. You will find us.
Speaker 2: Because yeah, this garden was actually featured in the magazine
Speaker 2: that I was working at back then. The trees that
Speaker 2: she had used were Miss Kim lilacs. Because this is
Speaker 2: many years ago, and now my choice is I think about,
Speaker 2: you know, sort of reinterpreting this in my garden. I
Speaker 2: would do this with bloomerang dark purple lilac, and that
Speaker 2: is today's plant on trial. I love that it's a
Speaker 2: great plant, and I'm picking Bloomerang dark purple for a
Speaker 2: couple of reasons. Number one, it's going to be somewhat similar.
Speaker 2: You're going to be able to find it in these
Speaker 2: tree forms because it's been around for quite a long time,
Speaker 2: so growers now know the formula for producing it in
Speaker 2: this tree form shape, so it's pretty easy to find
Speaker 2: compared to any of our other lilacs. As a tree form,
Speaker 2: of course, it's very easy to find. As a shrub form,
Speaker 2: it's very disease resistant, so unlike other lilacs, you don't
Speaker 2: have to worry about like bacterial leaf spot and fungus
Speaker 2: and all those other things that a lot of other
Speaker 2: lilacs get. And it's reblooming.
Speaker 1: So that's just so fabulous. I mean, back in the day,
Speaker 1: I loved Miss Kim lilac. We sold a lot of
Speaker 1: them in the garden center. But this is a great example, Stacey,
Speaker 1: of how things have progressed forward and you just have
Speaker 1: the choices are unreal.
Speaker 2: Right, because why would you choose Miss Kim that only
Speaker 2: flowers once when you can have bloomemering dark purple which
Speaker 2: is going to flower in late spring, but then continue
Speaker 2: to put out those flowers through the summer for just
Speaker 2: a little bit of extra interests and of course attracting
Speaker 2: pollinators and all of that. And the other reason that
Speaker 2: I think lilac is such a great choice for this
Speaker 2: is because lilacs and herbs like similar conditions. They both
Speaker 2: want full sun and they both absolutely demand well drained soil.
Speaker 2: Now there is a divergence here a little bit, because
Speaker 2: bloomering dark purple lilac is hardy down to usdas on three,
Speaker 2: and a lot of the herbs that we're talking about,
Speaker 2: including lavender, are often only hardy to about zone four,
Speaker 2: and some lilacs only choose zone five. It really depends
Speaker 2: on your condition. Certainly, if you have very very well
Speaker 2: drained soil, you might be able to get away with
Speaker 2: growing lavender in USDA zone four. So there might be
Speaker 2: a little bit of a disconnected there. But I absolutely
Speaker 2: loved this combination, and I love Bloomering Dark Purple anyway,
Speaker 2: because it was the second in the Bloomerang series. So
Speaker 2: we introduced the original Bloomerang reblooming lilac way back in Gosh.
Speaker 2: I think it was like twenty ten or something like that,
Speaker 2: and it was a huge hit, and like everything else
Speaker 2: in our program, you know, we continue to develop it
Speaker 2: and refine it and look for improvements, and so Bloomering
Speaker 2: Dark Purple was the next improvement, and it has completely
Speaker 2: overtaken the original Bloomerang. The dark purple comes in, it's
Speaker 2: primarily most visible when the plant is in bud okay.
Speaker 2: The flower buds are the dark part when they open,
Speaker 2: they're kind of more of a standard lilac color, but
Speaker 2: they really are very impressive when they are in bud
Speaker 2: and it blooms so much. It's just a very very vigorous,
Speaker 2: very easy to grow plant.
Speaker 1: Stacey. Aside from the beautiful blooms, what I love about
Speaker 1: the plant is the foliage. The foliage is in my
Speaker 1: open so much better than what you would find on
Speaker 1: a typical vulgaris line.
Speaker 2: Right, So, Syringa Vulgaris, which is the common eyelac that
Speaker 2: everyone sort of you know, thinks of when they think
Speaker 2: about a lilac, has big, almost sort of heart shaped
Speaker 2: leaves and that provides a totally different texture than the
Speaker 2: bloomerang lilacs, which have a very fine texture small leaves.
Speaker 2: And I think it just works really really well, especially
Speaker 2: in that tree form compared to you know, a regular
Speaker 2: Syringa Vulgaris. You're not going to find in a tree
Speaker 2: form typically because they're just too big and vigorous.
Speaker 1: And so is it fair to say that with the vulgaris,
Speaker 1: odds are you're prone to powdery mildew, but not with
Speaker 1: the bloomerang.
Speaker 2: That is absolutely true. I have never seen a bloomerang
Speaker 2: in our trials with powdery mildew. It is a slightly
Speaker 2: different species. It is a hybrid, and one of the
Speaker 2: sacrifices that you make for that is that the flowers
Speaker 2: are still very fragrant, but they don't have the lilac smell,
Speaker 2: and I do miss that. But you know what, it's
Speaker 2: not a like, you know, know, all or nothing kind
Speaker 2: of proposition. I do have regular traditional lilacs in my
Speaker 2: garden as well, and then there's room for these, so
Speaker 2: you can kind of get the best of both worlds.
Speaker 2: So there is a little bit of a trade off there.
Speaker 2: But you know, it is so much nicer that they
Speaker 2: do rebloom, that they resist disease. It makes them a
Speaker 2: lot lower maintenance. And another great thing about combining them
Speaker 2: with herbs both you're resistant.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, so you don't have to worry have these plants,
Speaker 2: and your herb garden can be like, you know, the
Speaker 2: one place where you don't have to worry about the
Speaker 2: deer messing up with your good life out there.
Speaker 1: I posted that in social media last weekend.
Speaker 2: Oh I saw that. Yeah, that was very cute.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a deer in the yard. And you can
Speaker 1: this time of the year, they're so hungry. You can
Speaker 1: just walk right up to them. They don't even flinch,
Speaker 1: you know, And I'm like, you know, the deer asked me,
Speaker 1: when are the tulips going to be in bloom? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, please don't touch my high ranges.
Speaker 2: Well, I have seen their tracks in the snow, so
Speaker 2: they are obviously they're busy looking, but hopefully they aren't
Speaker 2: going to find too much in my garden, of course,
Speaker 2: until spring comes and everything starts coming out all tender
Speaker 2: and delicious. So, like I said, bloomering, dark purple lilock
Speaker 2: hardy to usdas on three. It's only heat tolerant through
Speaker 2: about USDA zone seven. But I'll tell you, if you
Speaker 2: are one of our hot climate listeners and you're thinking,
Speaker 2: oh shoot, I can't grow this, I'm jealous of you
Speaker 2: because if I lived in your warmer climate, you know,
Speaker 2: my choice would be a bay leaf topiary. Wouldn't that
Speaker 2: be amazing? Yeah, so you could grow that into that
Speaker 2: tree form because bay leafs are hardy two about USCA
Speaker 2: zone eight. So you know, don't despair grow the bay
Speaker 2: leafs and know that I am very, very jealous of
Speaker 2: you and it still works in exactly the same way,
Speaker 2: so there's something for all of us. So when it's
Speaker 2: not in a tree form, bloomering dark purple lilac is
Speaker 2: going to be about four to six feet tall and wide.
Speaker 2: So I just wanted to mention that because the treeform
Speaker 2: shrubs like bloomering dark purple as a standard do tend
Speaker 2: to be quite a bit more expensive because there's a
Speaker 2: lot more time that goes into producing them, so they
Speaker 2: are a little bit more of an investment than a
Speaker 2: shrub form. But if it's not in your budget or
Speaker 2: in your taste, I still think that bloomering dark purple
Speaker 2: makes a great choice as a hedge or specimen to
Speaker 2: combine in your herb garden for all of the same
Speaker 2: reasons that I just mentioned. So whichever way you find
Speaker 2: it or prefer it as a shrub or as a
Speaker 2: standard or small tree, it's going to be a great choice.
Speaker 2: It's going to go well with your garden, it's going
Speaker 2: to go well with your lavender, and it's going to
Speaker 2: be a plant that you will treasure every spring when
Speaker 2: it does start to flower, and it will be in
Speaker 2: your garden center very soon, as we will all be
Speaker 2: heading out there, So if you want more information, more details,
Speaker 2: just visit Gardening Simplified on air dot com. You'll see
Speaker 2: it in the show notes and get everything you need
Speaker 2: to know to find a place for it in your garden.
Speaker 2: So we're going to take a little break. When we
Speaker 2: come back, we're opening up the garden mail bags, so
Speaker 2: please stay tune it At Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs,
Speaker 2: we know that a better landscape starts with a better shrub.
Speaker 2: Our team of experts tests and evaluates all of our
Speaker 2: flowering shrubs and evergreens for eight to ten years to
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Speaker 2: Look for Proven Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container
Speaker 2: at your local garden center or learn more at proven
Speaker 2: Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome
Speaker 2: back to the Gardening Simplified Show. We're celebrating spring by
Speaker 2: talking about a summer blooming plant, lavender. But you know
Speaker 2: it's a good time to plant it in spring, and
Speaker 2: that's another tip for people who maybe haven't had much
Speaker 2: success with lavender in the past. Anytime that you're kind
Speaker 2: of pushing a plant's hardiness zone or winter survival, the
Speaker 2: earlier you can plant it in spring, the better off
Speaker 2: you'll be because then it has more of an opportunity
Speaker 2: to create a good root system before the challenges of
Speaker 2: you know, cold, wet fall and winter set in. So
Speaker 2: put it on your plant list to get it in
Speaker 2: quickly in the spring and hopefully set yourself up for success.
Speaker 1: And I know this segment is about our viewers and
Speaker 1: listeners questions, but quick question for you, Stacy. When I
Speaker 1: see I think it's called lo and Behold blue Chip junior, yep, yeap.
Speaker 1: Love that plant. And when it's along lined along a
Speaker 1: walkway that almost looks like lavender from a day, it.
Speaker 2: Can very much look like lavender. And that was actually
Speaker 2: my first thought for today's Plant on Trial, but I'd
Speaker 2: already done it. Okay, but that's a night. But you know,
Speaker 2: the thing is, like, I can't really necessarily recommend it
Speaker 2: as an alternative to lavender, because I agree, if you
Speaker 2: can grow lo and Behold blue Chip junior buddleia, you
Speaker 2: can also grow lavender because as we've said, they definitely
Speaker 2: require similar conditions, and the butterfly bush is only hardy
Speaker 2: to about usdas on five where you might be able
Speaker 2: to push it a little bit more with some lavender.
Speaker 2: But yeah, a great way to get that look different
Speaker 2: fragrance yep, different bloom time, but still a great plant.
Speaker 2: So you know, we understand that not everyone has gardening
Speaker 2: friends to celebrate their horticultural successes and triumphs with or
Speaker 2: commisserate on their horticultural conundrums. So we love hearing from you.
Speaker 2: And one of our listeners, Colin, wrote us he is
Speaker 2: in Central Florida Usdazo nine B, so probably plenty warm
Speaker 2: spring is well underway there, I would imagine, And he says,
Speaker 2: I wanted to share some winter cheer with you here
Speaker 2: in Central Florida. This year, we have a rare phenomenon.
Speaker 2: Two of the most distinctive flowering trees, pink and yellow
Speaker 2: tababuyahs or trumpet trees, are in full bloom. Usually the
Speaker 2: pink ones bloom a month before the yellow ones, but
Speaker 2: this year their bloom times completely coincided. They are in
Speaker 2: the big non yac plant family and are outstanding trees
Speaker 2: for Florida. I hope these beautiful trees brighten up your
Speaker 2: winter gardening feed. And I've included a picture of my
Speaker 2: own garden as well, which is an adorable little Florida
Speaker 2: cottage that I just kind of want to move right into. Sorry, Colin,
Speaker 2: but it's just perfect. And yeah, I would love to
Speaker 2: be a Florida gardener one day. It sounds so fascinating.
Speaker 1: Well, Colin, a big thank you, very mulch to you.
Speaker 1: Those those pictures really warm to my heart. And that
Speaker 1: tree some people call it trumpet flower. I believe they
Speaker 1: call it trumpet flower, and you call it taba boo
Speaker 1: ya tababoya like, but it is a Histeranthus tree, so
Speaker 1: a tree that blooms before the foliage comes out, so
Speaker 1: like red bud or magnolia, and trees notably do that
Speaker 1: because the flowers are more accessible to pollinators or wind
Speaker 1: pollination if they bloom before the leaves emerge. And so
Speaker 1: I love that. And I saw a number of those
Speaker 1: in Costa Rica this past year, but I was not
Speaker 1: there during the dry season, so they were not in bloom.
Speaker 1: Real characteristic to that tree is that the trunk grows
Speaker 1: in contorted shapes in the rainforest or when there's a
Speaker 1: lot of other plants around trying to reach for the sunlight.
Speaker 1: What a gorgeous, fabulous.
Speaker 2: Tree they are. I would love to be able to
Speaker 2: grow these, and it's interesting he mentions that they are
Speaker 2: in the Big noniac So if people tuned into our
Speaker 2: winter garden tour, I talked about our new dress to
Speaker 2: thrill crossvine, Big Nonia Caprioleta Capriolta. Yeah, which the whole
Speaker 2: plant family Big Nonisa is actually named for so and
Speaker 2: if you do grow the standard trumpet vine, it is
Speaker 2: also in that same family, but not obviously a tree.
Speaker 2: It's interesting that these two did bloom at the same time.
Speaker 2: I have seen that happen in certain places, namely Nantucket,
Speaker 2: where things that normally do not bloom together in other
Speaker 2: climates bloom together. I'm not really sure what the explanation
Speaker 2: here is in Florida, but you know what, you got
Speaker 2: to take what you can get and it looks absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2: So please do tune in on YouTube or our show
Speaker 2: notes at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com to check out
Speaker 2: Collins photos. What else we got in the mailbag, And.
Speaker 1: If you're proud of your garden or the way it's looking,
Speaker 1: send us a picture we'd love to see it. That's
Speaker 1: I want to touch on this. Don wrote to us
Speaker 1: weeping Alaskan cedar struggling and losing some of the lower branches.
Speaker 1: So I took a look at the picture that was
Speaker 1: sent to us. Is it doing better after some fertile
Speaker 1: It's doing better after some fertilization in recent years. But
Speaker 1: Don is asking us whether or not the naked bottom
Speaker 1: will fill in, or should I plant something in front
Speaker 1: of the cedar or rip it out and start over.
Speaker 1: So an Alaskan seedar and Stacy I took a look
Speaker 1: at the picture. First of all, this is a plant
Speaker 1: that I absolutely love.
Speaker 2: I love it too.
Speaker 1: Secondly, one of our topics a few weeks ago was
Speaker 1: to move plants in the landscape. I'm going to suggest
Speaker 1: that Don Bust to move Oh wow, now that ain't
Speaker 1: gonna be difficult. This is a large tree. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: if that were my home, I like where he put it.
Speaker 1: It's just too close to the house. I would move
Speaker 1: it out away from the house. Suggests that. But I'm
Speaker 1: going to suggest that Don Bust to move this. This
Speaker 1: tree is so gorgeous. There there are spectacular specimens at
Speaker 1: the Morton Arboretum Michigan State University campus. And then of
Speaker 1: course I remember spending time in Oregon, where along the
Speaker 1: Pacific coast and in the Northwest you see them everywhere,
Speaker 1: usually in wet areas, but just beautiful and being grown
Speaker 1: in the nurseries there that are between Portland or Gresham,
Speaker 1: Oregon and Mount Hood. Stunning. They knock your socks off.
Speaker 1: So I want Don to keep this plant and maybe
Speaker 1: try to bust a move.
Speaker 2: All right, that's a brave because it is a pretty
Speaker 2: big plainton. We'll have pictures, of course in YouTube and
Speaker 2: at Gardening Simplified on air dot com. This is a
Speaker 2: great plant. Now, I don't necessarily feel like it's too
Speaker 2: close to the house because the interesting thing about these
Speaker 2: is that they do very often grow pretty flat, kind
Speaker 2: of like almost in two dimensions, like a piece of paper.
Speaker 2: So they're not one of these big spreading trees. They
Speaker 2: have these sort of flat weeping branches, and people do
Speaker 2: very often use them to fill in small spaces. And
Speaker 2: I love where Don put this because it's a perfect
Speaker 2: example of taking the cues from your house's architecture and
Speaker 2: determining where to put a plant. It put it writes
Speaker 2: back between some windows so it's just a perfect framing
Speaker 2: of this plant. So you can certainly try to move
Speaker 2: it if you would like. I definitely wouldn't get rid
Speaker 2: of it, because I think it is beautiful, and obviously
Speaker 2: you've invested several years in it, because it is mostly
Speaker 2: looking pretty great. The red flag to me that stood
Speaker 2: out here that is possibly accounting for the dieback that
Speaker 2: you've seen on is the steaks. So I don't know,
Speaker 2: Don didn't mention when he planted this, but it looks
Speaker 2: to me like unless he did start with a quite
Speaker 2: large tree, indeed, that it probably doesn't need those steaks
Speaker 2: anymore and they could be girdling the plants.
Speaker 1: Ooh, the steaks are high.
Speaker 2: The stakes are high and not necessary anymore, and so
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised if it's possible that how whatever
Speaker 2: the staking material was that goes around the trunk is
Speaker 2: starting to cut into that and that's what accounted for
Speaker 2: that branch loss down below. Whether you want to plant
Speaker 2: something in front of it to kind of cover up
Speaker 2: the bare bottom, that is up to you. Don I
Speaker 2: think it looks great just as it is. I would
Speaker 2: just continue the TLC and I think that it will
Speaker 2: eventually be fine, but do check that steaking, and I
Speaker 2: think it can probably be removed entirely. If it's already
Speaker 2: included into the bark, then I would definitely just cut it,
Speaker 2: make sure it doesn't get any worse, and just keep
Speaker 2: an eye on it.
Speaker 1: That's a great catch. You're right, And as far as
Speaker 1: his question is concerned, the branches replacing themselves on the
Speaker 1: lower part of the plant, possibly, but it's going to
Speaker 1: take a long time.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: The biggest issue with that is typically as the plant
Speaker 2: has matured, it starts to shade out its own lower branches,
Speaker 2: and so that's why you don't often see, for example,
Speaker 2: a white pine that's branched all the way to the ground,
Speaker 2: because if that is lost through damage or whatever, the
Speaker 2: upper parts of the plant are so broad that they
Speaker 2: shade out the bottom and it doesn't get enough sun
Speaker 2: to actually recover. So whether or not o'll recover, I
Speaker 2: don't know, but I think it's still beautiful, and I
Speaker 2: think if you just plant something sort of in front
Speaker 2: of it to take, you know, cover up that that
Speaker 2: bare trunk. If you don't like it, then you could
Speaker 2: certainly do that. You could also maybe even try a
Speaker 2: clematis up there to cover it. And you know, if
Speaker 2: you're into into crazy different plant.
Speaker 1: Ideas, because I did that with a weeping blue spruce. Oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't want it in my yard, but it was
Speaker 1: a beautiful specimen. I didn't want the blue spruce and
Speaker 1: my yard, but it was in the dumpster. Somebody dumped it,
Speaker 1: dumped it. So I pulled it out of the dumpster,
Speaker 1: brought it back to life, and I have a clematis
Speaker 1: that's growing through it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like, you know, helping it out there, picking
Speaker 2: up the sluck. And you know, it's a great It's
Speaker 2: exactly what Klementists do in nature. So it's a very
Speaker 2: natural kind of solution to that problem. If you're so inclined,
Speaker 2: I call.
Speaker 1: It divine intervention.
Speaker 2: Do take a look at the picture of Don's landscape
Speaker 2: that we're going to have on YouTube or in our
Speaker 2: show notes, because I think he's made some great choices.
Speaker 2: He clearly has a great love for conifers and a
Speaker 2: great eye for designing his landscape. So I'm really grateful
Speaker 2: that you sent that in, Don, and keep us posted
Speaker 2: on the seater how it goes this season.
Speaker 1: Good job done.
Speaker 2: So that's all we have time for today. You know
Speaker 2: it is important to us to be able to answer
Speaker 2: your gardening questions. So if you have an urgent gardening
Speaker 2: question and you need to get in answer, go ahead
Speaker 2: and write us. We might be able to answer it
Speaker 2: on air, but you can also reach us at Proven
Speaker 2: Winners color Choice dot com and get a personalized answer
Speaker 2: from one for horticulturists, you don't have to wait around
Speaker 2: because unfortunately we seem to always run out of time
Speaker 2: despite our best intentions. We're going to take a little
Speaker 2: break and when we come back, we have got a
Speaker 2: special guest to talk more about using lavender, so please
Speaker 2: stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast,
Speaker 2: brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our
Speaker 2: award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested
Speaker 2: by experts with your success in mind. Learn more at
Speaker 2: Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show today for branching
Speaker 1: news and interview that we've been looking forward to. Prior
Speaker 1: to that, just have to touch on a couple more questions, Stacey,
Speaker 1: I have received messages and emails from people I mentioned
Speaker 1: a week ago that I'm going to be at Plat
Speaker 1: Hill in Chicago on March eighth. For people who are
Speaker 1: interested in my schedule, whether it's stand up comedy or
Speaker 1: for example, this weekend, the Home and Garden Show and
Speaker 1: Grand Rapids, you can find the schedule at thank You
Speaker 1: Very mulch dot com. I'm just gonna simply say that
Speaker 1: we'll put the link there also on our website, so
Speaker 1: it's thank you very mulch dot com. You just click
Speaker 1: on stand up and you'll be able to see the
Speaker 1: big comedy show coming up on March twenty six, or
Speaker 1: if I'm giving talks on gardening, it's all right there
Speaker 1: on the website.
Speaker 3: Nice.
Speaker 1: Yes, and we have a mystery that still needs to
Speaker 1: be solved.
Speaker 2: Yes, we have sparked the internet's biggest newest mystery, apparently
Speaker 2: with our question from Stephen Mary last week about the
Speaker 2: mysterious sudden pruning of their crepe myrtle in a container.
Speaker 1: People are into this.
Speaker 2: Yes they are. I was not expecting that, but when
Speaker 2: I came in on Monday after the show it aired,
Speaker 2: there were a number of people who claim to be
Speaker 2: very invested in the Stephen Mary crepe myrtle mystery. So
Speaker 2: I'm going to reach out to Stephen Mary. We're going
Speaker 2: to see what they think about our answer and some
Speaker 2: of the other theories that were put out there on YouTube,
Speaker 2: and see if we can't get some closure here.
Speaker 1: I love that the Steve and Mary Craipe myrtle mystery.
Speaker 1: Who done it? I love it all right. Tying in
Speaker 1: with our lavender talk today, this is going to be fun.
Speaker 1: A chance again to talk to Lisa Rose. Lisa's an herbalist, forager,
Speaker 1: urban farmer, writer, background in anthropology, and a professional focus
Speaker 1: on community health, food farming, wild plant knowledge. I could
Speaker 1: go on and on, and her books are much loved. Lisa,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us again on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much for having me. And it seems
Speaker 3: like we've got a respectable plant to talk about this
Speaker 3: time instead of one of my dastardly favorite weeds. Lovely lavender.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right. Usually we're talking stinging nettle or something
Speaker 1: like that, but we're talking lavender. Lisa, Do you like lavender?
Speaker 1: Let me start there.
Speaker 3: I do. I think it's lovely.
Speaker 1: And what do you like about lavender?
Speaker 3: I love it's aroma. So in my Grand Rapids garden,
Speaker 3: I have a lovely firm filled with a lavender love variety.
Speaker 3: It's an English lavender and it's you know, when it
Speaker 3: comes into flower at the end of June. It's a
Speaker 3: wonderful pollinator. And it's filled with all sorts of insects
Speaker 3: of course, the variety of bumblebees, natives and even some
Speaker 3: of the dastardly glommers, you know, the wasps and whatnot,
Speaker 3: but they love those. The aroma, just the aromatics of
Speaker 3: the lavender for me, is medicinal. It is uplifting. I
Speaker 3: use it also as a culinary spice, and again just
Speaker 3: for its visual aesthetic beauty. It's gorgeous and I'm very
Speaker 3: lucky to have that burm of lavender because I think
Speaker 3: across my time being a gardener, this is the first
Speaker 3: time that I finally planted it, and it loves where
Speaker 3: it's planted. So I take that as a w in
Speaker 3: my book as a gardener.
Speaker 2: Always good when you get it right. And just like
Speaker 2: you had imagined it. Now, you mentioned using lavender in food,
Speaker 2: so you said that you have a lavendula and gustifully
Speaker 2: in English lavender variety. Are you harvesting that and using
Speaker 2: that in recipes?
Speaker 3: I do in fact, I do an entire suite if
Speaker 3: that balance between cutting it back and like, I love
Speaker 3: to have the pollinators enjoy it. But I really do
Speaker 3: love to do a full cutting of my lavender when
Speaker 3: it's in full aromatic, full bloom in the dry weather
Speaker 3: of this of the summertime, and then I'll bundle it.
Speaker 3: Our viewers are going to be able to see a
Speaker 3: couple images of me just simply bundling it and drying
Speaker 3: it for use across the year. So again I'll use
Speaker 3: it a medicinal plant and then also as a culinary spice,
Speaker 3: both the leaves and the flowers.
Speaker 2: Oh the leaves too, because I how people mostly only
Speaker 2: use the lavender buds in food.
Speaker 3: The entire part of the the aerial parts of the
Speaker 3: plant are usable. I tend to gravitate toward making sure
Speaker 3: that I harvest for culinary use, of course, and medicinal
Speaker 3: use the more tender part of the woody stem and
Speaker 3: the newer growth, and retaining the woodier bits for you know,
Speaker 3: future productivity.
Speaker 1: We're chatting with Lisa Rose. I've had a front row
Speaker 1: seat to be able to watch Lisa over the years
Speaker 1: write these wonderful books that are much loved, including Urban
Speaker 1: Forager and Lisa. Today, I guess my focus is on
Speaker 1: Midwest medicinal plants to identify, harvest and use wild herbs
Speaker 1: for health and wellness. I have to admit to you
Speaker 1: a month or so ago here on the show, I
Speaker 1: sounded kind of nasal because I was dealing with a cold,
Speaker 1: and you came to mind. And as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I walked into the backyard and harvested some pine needles
Speaker 1: and boil them up and started breathing and it helped.
Speaker 1: So you you came to mind there, Lisa.
Speaker 3: That's that's a blessing. And you know, I love that
Speaker 3: that you were able to consider the pine, even though
Speaker 3: we're not talking about pine today. It's that aromatic quality
Speaker 3: that the tips of the of the spruce and pine
Speaker 3: they can be They're different, of course, but they can
Speaker 3: be used interchangeably for an herbal steam. They can open
Speaker 3: the sinuses like I actually also this time of year,
Speaker 3: at the springtime, find pine tips to be extremely helpful
Speaker 3: to kind of scrub the gunk that like we'll get
Speaker 3: the colds that are going around the ends of the
Speaker 3: flu virus or the ends of a you know, a
Speaker 3: cold virus. And that pine tipsy is very aromatic and
Speaker 3: can help open up you know what's just stuck in grime,
Speaker 3: and lavender can honestly behave in the same way in
Speaker 3: the winter. If you're using that dried lavender from your garden,
Speaker 3: you can create an herbal steam. You can bring that
Speaker 3: into the shower in the bathroom, and again it's just aromatic,
Speaker 3: opens up the sinuses. And you can even blend the
Speaker 3: leaves and the dried flowers with other plants for a
Speaker 3: nice aromatic sea if you want to blend it with
Speaker 3: a camomile for a little bit of relax and herb,
Speaker 3: maybe also with some peppermints. There's no shortage of ideas
Speaker 3: on how to blend the lavender into winter wellness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess that's where I was going with the comment,
Speaker 1: is that in many cases, plants Stacey that we love
Speaker 1: in the landscape, including lavender, fragrance or aroma, is just
Speaker 1: so important.
Speaker 2: It sounds like a great care for spring fever too exact.
Speaker 2: You get a little sense of what's down the line
Speaker 2: after a long linter where it seems almost unimaginable in.
Speaker 1: Writing your book, Lisa, whether it's lavender or other herbs,
Speaker 1: sunlight and drainage really important.
Speaker 3: Correct, absolutely, And with the lavender, you know it is
Speaker 3: not it's not a native to you know, in the
Speaker 3: Michigan areas where I am currently so finding that sweet spot.
Speaker 3: It loves the full hot sun and dry soil and
Speaker 3: too much water, too little water, not enough water. Nor
Speaker 3: it's facing it. She will tell you whether or not
Speaker 3: she likes where she's living just by making it through
Speaker 3: the winter. So you know I've I've not given up.
Speaker 3: And finally, like I said, in my garden, I have
Speaker 3: a spot where it's just thriving and it delights me
Speaker 3: with happiness. It's like a little bit of Provence, you know,
Speaker 3: in my in my gardens that gives me quite a
Speaker 3: bit of joy during the summer and then of course
Speaker 3: is dried and preserved for the rest of the year
Speaker 3: in my in my spice cabinet.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you make a great point because lavender
Speaker 2: is definitely one of those plants that needs proper sighting.
Speaker 2: So it's a lot of people will think a lavender
Speaker 2: is difficult to grow, and that's not necessarily true. It's
Speaker 2: just that its needs all are fairly specific, not unusual.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're not bending heaven and earth to try
Speaker 2: to grow it. But you definitely need that good drain,
Speaker 2: and you definitely need that warm sun. And so people
Speaker 2: who may not have had success in the past shouldn't
Speaker 2: just throw up their hands and write it off. They
Speaker 2: should continue to investigate, as you did, you know, whether
Speaker 2: there's potentially a better spot in their yard.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it might come to the fact that that
Speaker 3: might not be in your garden at all. And so
Speaker 3: then it's like that reconciling with well, maybe you know,
Speaker 3: maybe there's another plant better suited to you know, the
Speaker 3: climate and conditions that are in my garden. Sometimes there's
Speaker 3: some acceptance that comes along with that, you know. I
Speaker 3: guess I had kind of resolved that if it wasn't
Speaker 3: going to grow in my sandy well drained, dry burm,
Speaker 3: then I was done. But alas the last one was success.
Speaker 3: So that's given me a lot of joy.
Speaker 2: Like I said, and do you know what varieties or
Speaker 2: variety you planted?
Speaker 3: You know, I'd have to I don't. It might be
Speaker 3: a month set. I'd have to go back at my notes.
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure it's a month said. Admittedly, I'm I'm
Speaker 3: somebody that kind of just I'm an end of season shopper,
Speaker 3: so whatever might be admittedly might be available. I know,
Speaker 3: I'm you know, I am your forager, right like I
Speaker 3: There you go.
Speaker 1: The apple doesn't fall.
Speaker 3: Far from the tree does not, and you know, I
Speaker 3: mean just from an economy sake. And I feel like
Speaker 3: the English lavenders as well have a bit more tolerance
Speaker 3: for some of the variability that we have because there
Speaker 3: is more moisture here, more moisture content in the Great Lakes.
Speaker 3: But that's just that's only my limited experience with a
Speaker 3: wide range of varieties of lavender.
Speaker 1: Lisa as an herbalist. Now that we have inspired people
Speaker 1: on today's show to have more lavender in their landscape,
Speaker 1: and we talked about the different types of lavender, but
Speaker 1: as an herbalist, what are some good companion plays in
Speaker 1: your mind for our viewers and our listeners. I mean,
Speaker 1: what's a few must have herbs to go along with
Speaker 1: that lavender in your garden.
Speaker 3: When I think of a lavender, I do go immediately
Speaker 3: to the more traditional French and English style cottage gardens.
Speaker 3: And I love my lavender as a border. I love
Speaker 3: it as an adjacent to rose bushes, you know, and
Speaker 3: in general from my point of view as a forager
Speaker 3: and just as someone that looks at a garden space
Speaker 3: and considers the ecological balance, I really love to make
Speaker 3: sure that I have a diversity of plants in my
Speaker 3: garden landscape, so you know, the lavender with the roses
Speaker 3: adjacent to my other culinary herbs. I also then have
Speaker 3: a bit more wild and uncultivated spaces between my rose
Speaker 3: I also so do lots of integration of cover crops
Speaker 3: and my walkways and paths, and that helps again from
Speaker 3: a companion planting, I'm not a landscape architect by training
Speaker 3: at all, and my goodness, if you've seen my garden
Speaker 3: that would validate that statement. I am a forager. Let
Speaker 3: it grow wild, but I feel that, you know, adding
Speaker 3: it adjacent to a diversity of plants in the culinary
Speaker 3: garden and looking for the English style and French style
Speaker 3: gardens is really my favorite inspiration. With the lavender, I.
Speaker 2: Agree, you know, in my garden, I feel like the
Speaker 2: way it looks just takes me on a visual vacation
Speaker 2: because it does feel you know, a lot of my
Speaker 2: gardens are native and wild, and so I'm working on
Speaker 2: this very formal herb garden in the back, which does
Speaker 2: kind of just like have that you know, Mediterranean vibe.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's kind of like the concept of
Speaker 2: garden rooms, right, like a different vibe and different you know,
Speaker 2: move food in every part of the garden. But I
Speaker 2: love it combined with herbs. And you know, for me,
Speaker 2: dialing up that silvery foliage just is what kind of
Speaker 2: transports you from you know, Western Michigan, which is a
Speaker 2: lovely place, but uh, it visually transports you to somewhere
Speaker 2: on the you know, Mediterranean instead of Lake Michigan.
Speaker 3: It does one hundred percent. And I love your concept
Speaker 3: of the garden room. And that's to say that one
Speaker 3: doesn't need a tremendous amount of space. You can style
Speaker 3: these plants, especially lavender. It's got portability where you can
Speaker 3: have it in containers even if your garden might only
Speaker 3: be seasonal, and in patios and use those as beautiful
Speaker 3: pops of you know, the silver green. Like there's just
Speaker 3: something it does have that Mediterranean vibe. And I think
Speaker 3: that northern California. I had lived there for a while, right,
Speaker 3: and so it's even you know, northern Michigan up in
Speaker 3: Leylano County. The lavender has just got that. It's like
Speaker 3: a Christine Madeleine for me as different places that I've
Speaker 3: lived and and it does offset some of the more
Speaker 3: wild and feral, you know, Michigan roots that I have.
Speaker 3: It's it's elegant. Like I said, I'm delighted to have
Speaker 3: been upgraded in status today on the show, Rick.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that. At Lisa, I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you while we had you on. I've had
Speaker 1: a number of people reach out to me recently about
Speaker 1: b balm or Manarda. Is that a favorite of yours?
Speaker 3: It is a favorite. So Manarda all the species, both
Speaker 3: the cultivated, is a common with a variety of different variants.
Speaker 3: Is a common one in all of our greenhouses, right,
Speaker 3: and it's very common in large scale plantings for gardens,
Speaker 3: for buildings, and so it's and then just you know,
Speaker 3: even for the regular home gardener. And what I love
Speaker 3: about it is that it is on the spectrum of
Speaker 3: mint family plants. It's very spicy and aroma and flavor
Speaker 3: like youreregano. And then it's blossom is just stunning. It
Speaker 3: just has this beautiful, flamboyant bloom right around the fourth
Speaker 3: of July that dried for teas. It just holds up
Speaker 3: really nicely and can be beautiful and hand dried tea
Speaker 3: blends and actually does pair very very well, both fresh
Speaker 3: and dried with lavender.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't love that. That's interesting me.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. I always feel inspired after talking to you, Lisa,
Speaker 1: and I'm so anxious for spring, can't wait to get
Speaker 1: it started. Lisa Rose an herbalist, forager, urban farmer and writer.
Speaker 1: Look for her books. Today we've been talking about Midwest
Speaker 1: medicinal plants, identify, harvest and use one hundred and nine
Speaker 1: wild herbs for health and wellness. Lisa, For our listeners
Speaker 1: and our viewers, how can they find you? How can
Speaker 1: they find your books?
Speaker 3: My meanderings and musings can be found on the socials,
Speaker 3: on the instagrams and the book of Faces, and then
Speaker 3: of course with my writings and books. I'm very lucky
Speaker 3: to have a large network of independent booksellers, so I
Speaker 3: do recommend folks pick those up there, but also on
Speaker 3: the big A delivery vans. Those the Amazon booksellers as
Speaker 3: well can get those books into your hand in pretty
Speaker 3: rapid fashion.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Thanks for inspiring us again today, Lisa. We appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All the best to you and look forward to having
Speaker 1: you on the show again down the road.
Speaker 3: It's my pleasure and I'm excited to see maybe potentially
Speaker 3: us again sometime in person where we can whip up
Speaker 3: a foraged and garden cocktail together something.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we need to talk about that a moment. Sure,
Speaker 1: how we do that? You're whipping up some Tom.
Speaker 3: Well, Tom Collins. Yes, one of my favorite little summertime
Speaker 3: treats is is whipping up a little bit of lavender
Speaker 3: simple syrup, which is you know, using i you know,
Speaker 3: using the leaves and the flowers of the lavender create
Speaker 3: that simple syrup which has actually got versatility beyond the
Speaker 3: cocktail cart. You can even driss little over a little
Speaker 3: bit of vanilla ice cream, but mixed in with a
Speaker 3: little bit of gin, a little bit of lemon juice,
Speaker 3: a little bit of club soda, some lemon slices and
Speaker 3: a few fresh lavender sprigs. You know, stir that up,
Speaker 3: have a couple of delicious short bread cookies on the side,
Speaker 3: and maybe a soop of that ice cream, and that's
Speaker 3: a nice June afternoon on the patio in the summertime.
Speaker 1: Do you have this recipe in writing Lisa.
Speaker 3: It is in your inbox, sir, it is in your
Speaker 3: inbox right now.
Speaker 1: Yes, And with our viewers and our listeners, oh boy,
Speaker 1: if they weren't enticed to grow lavender before, they will
Speaker 1: be now.
Speaker 3: So there you go, right out the gate, starting out
Speaker 3: the season with really good, good intentions exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: What a wonderful use for lavender. Thank you so much, Lisa.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Take care of yourself, thank you, and I appreciate the
Speaker 3: both of you as well. Have a great kickoff this spring.
Speaker 2: Thank you too.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: On that note, I am definitely ready for spring and
Speaker 2: pruning my lavender, but not too soon, not until it
Speaker 2: actually starts growing and tells me when it wants to
Speaker 2: be prune. So we want to thank Lisa Rose for
Speaker 2: her time and her great Tom Collins recipe. Thank you, Rick,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you Adriana, and of course thank you
Speaker 2: so much to all of you for listening. We truly
Speaker 2: do appreciate it and help you have a wonderful week
Speaker 2: at