Speaker 1: Coming to you from world famous studio a Here at
Speaker 1: Proven Winters Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening
Speaker 1: Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick weisst and our
Speaker 1: engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, it's a big decision
Speaker 1: to move in together, you and your plants for the
Speaker 1: holiday and winter season. It's going to take some patience,
Speaker 1: a little bit of give and take, some understanding, and
Speaker 1: of course for some holiday decor takes precedence in November
Speaker 1: and December, so the plants are just kind of pushed
Speaker 1: off to the side, and then we go crazy over
Speaker 1: houseplants in January, February and March. But as winter arrives,
Speaker 1: many times we'll stand there and go, I really don't
Speaker 1: want to part with these beautiful annuals that I've babied
Speaker 1: all year long and they look so gorgeous. And it's
Speaker 1: not about it's not about being cheap. It's about just
Speaker 1: developing a relationship with these plants that you've enjoyed all
Speaker 1: season long and hoping that maybe somehow you can stash
Speaker 1: them and they make a phoenix like recovery next spring.
Speaker 1: A lot of people are into.
Speaker 2: That space you know I was going to say the
Speaker 2: exact same thing that you just said. It is about
Speaker 2: a relationship. And for many years I've told people just
Speaker 2: throw it away, there's no harm in that. That's perfectly fine,
Speaker 2: and that is true. If you prefer to throw things
Speaker 2: away or let the frost just take them, that is
Speaker 2: perfectly fine. But I have over the years acquired some
Speaker 2: plants that I do have a relationship with, yeah, and
Speaker 2: I do bring them in. Now, I will say, first
Speaker 2: of all, my house is far from ideal for bringing
Speaker 2: plants indoors. I don't have a whole lot of sunlight,
Speaker 2: I don't have windowsills. But what I do have is
Speaker 2: this amazing alocasia also known as elephant ear yep, that
Speaker 2: I have been bringing in and out for winter for
Speaker 2: three years now. And what's cool about it is it
Speaker 2: has just gotten so big because I keep you know,
Speaker 2: growing it and perpetuating it, and like now I'm the
Speaker 2: house with the giant elephanty here every season, and so
Speaker 2: like it's like kind of building its own thing. And
Speaker 2: I wouldn't think of not bringing this in now. That said,
Speaker 2: it is also probably the easiest plant to bring in
Speaker 2: compared to a lot of other things. People want to
Speaker 2: bring in the tropical hibiscus house plants, all that kind
Speaker 2: of jazz. Bringing in this allocasia, which is basically a bulb,
Speaker 2: basically just means me sticking it in my basement and
Speaker 2: not watering it until January. And I don't have to
Speaker 2: do anything. It doesn't take up any space, it doesn't
Speaker 2: need any light. It just sits there in kind of
Speaker 2: a state of suspended animation, and come next spring, I'm
Speaker 2: the house with the elephanty again.
Speaker 1: You know, It's quite easy, and that's the point. So
Speaker 1: we're moving in tropical like houseplants. We're also moving in
Speaker 1: what we may loosely classify as summer flowering bulbs. I've
Speaker 1: been digging up my canna rizal, yeah, bringing them in.
Speaker 1: Of course you have dahlias. I think that kalladiums are
Speaker 1: the perfect example of this conundrum where you have the
Speaker 1: option to at the end of the season dump them,
Speaker 1: treat them like annuals, or lift them and store them
Speaker 1: like you are with your elephant ear. For a lot
Speaker 1: of people, that's too much trouble. They really don't want
Speaker 1: to do that. Or with kalladiums, you could move them
Speaker 1: inside and treat them as a houseplant. Heart to heart
Speaker 1: kalladiums give you that opportunity, but again not real easy
Speaker 1: and why well, the reasons are, and I think Stacey,
Speaker 1: the big mistakes that I see people make when moving
Speaker 1: plants indoors is number one. You've got to start with
Speaker 1: healthy plants. That's the first thing. If they're unhealthy moving
Speaker 1: in to a low humidity situation, a low light situation,
Speaker 1: things are going to go from bad to worse. So
Speaker 1: you've got to start with healthy plants.
Speaker 2: And you should be aware too of how the plant
Speaker 2: is responding to the natural changing daylights. So you know,
Speaker 2: that could have caused your kalladiums to start to go
Speaker 2: dormant a little bit early, but that doesn't mean they're
Speaker 2: not unhealthy. Now, an unhealthy plant would be something that's
Speaker 2: like all covered in mealy bug, or you know, has
Speaker 2: a virus or something really bad. But don't confuse a
Speaker 2: plant that's merely going dormant due to what it has
Speaker 2: just experienced weatherwise and climate wise, you know, with something
Speaker 2: that can absolutely come inside.
Speaker 1: Very very true. So in the mistakes, I say start
Speaker 1: with the with healthy plants. The second mistake people make
Speaker 1: the soils too wet when you move it inside. That's
Speaker 1: going to cause two problems, rotting roots and also fungus
Speaker 1: gnats so soil that's too wet. I also think if
Speaker 1: you're moving plants inside, let it be a gradual move
Speaker 1: as opposed to an immediate move if you do it immediately,
Speaker 1: moving it from sunlight outdoor air indoors. You know, a
Speaker 1: ficus plant, of course, is the perfect example where you'll lose.
Speaker 1: The plant will shed fifty percent of its leaves. So
Speaker 1: make that transition a little easier by a gradual move
Speaker 1: to where it's going to overwinter. Cleanliness is super important.
Speaker 1: The foliage also a sterile soil fungus gnats. We have
Speaker 1: to pay attention to that, and like I said, if
Speaker 1: the soil's wet you establish fungus gnats, you're going to
Speaker 1: be fighting that battle all winter long. Don't be afraid
Speaker 1: to reduce the size of the plant. And then understand
Speaker 1: the dry heat indoors, lack of humidity can create problems,
Speaker 1: and there are ways that people work around that. Keeping
Speaker 1: plants away from heat registers, maybe an unheated room that's
Speaker 1: brightly lit but doesn't freeze. The whole idea is in
Speaker 1: many cases to keep these plants alive until next spring.
Speaker 1: With summer bulbs, we're lifting them out and again we
Speaker 1: want healthy tubers or healthy rhizomes we're pulling out of
Speaker 1: the ground. And Stacy, I never washed them off because
Speaker 1: I don't want them going into storage wet. I spread
Speaker 1: them out on a tarp, and I let the soil dry,
Speaker 1: and I shake the soil off.
Speaker 2: And then so you're talking about your cannas now, and
Speaker 2: then what do you do with them for winter?
Speaker 1: So then for winter, I put them into crates which
Speaker 1: are open, they're airy, and I put them in an
Speaker 1: unheated area okay that does not freeze, with a little
Speaker 1: burr lap over the top, and away we go.
Speaker 2: So you don't do any like wet newspaper sawdust, any
Speaker 2: of that jazz. Okay. Now, I will say, I thought
Speaker 2: I did the right thing with my cannas that I
Speaker 2: got from the can of King. But I did lose
Speaker 2: a lot. I didn't lose all the bulbs, but I
Speaker 2: did lose a lot. Now, I did everything that you said.
Speaker 2: They went in there dry, they went into my You know,
Speaker 2: I've got a basement with a storage room on the
Speaker 2: front that's under the porch, so very cool. Definitely doesn't freeze.
Speaker 2: And I just threw them in a garbage like a
Speaker 2: paper grocery sack, okay, and put them in there and
Speaker 2: was like, okay, see in spring. And when I saw
Speaker 2: them in spring, I had a lot of moldy dust.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I I think it's because of the paper sack.
Speaker 1: So what I like to use laundry baskets.
Speaker 2: Oh, oh, that's a good idea and they work.
Speaker 1: Great, and that's one of the keys in getting them
Speaker 1: to survive. Now also at the time when you lift
Speaker 1: them out of the soil, you want to grade them.
Speaker 1: So I've got my laundry baskets to my right, I've
Speaker 1: got my wheelbarrow to the left. And if they don't
Speaker 1: make the grade, they go in the wheelbarrow. If they
Speaker 1: make the grade, they go into the laundry baskets.
Speaker 2: So when you say the grade, are you just taking
Speaker 2: the biggest ones? You're taking ones that like don't have
Speaker 2: any crud, you know, roddy bits on them.
Speaker 1: I look for rot I look for eyes on the cannons,
Speaker 1: and yes, the size of the cannons. Also also how
Speaker 1: much work I'm going to want to put into it
Speaker 1: next spring? Oh, planted way too many cannons this year.
Speaker 2: Well, you know the problem with that is it's one
Speaker 2: thing to think that in spring or summer. It's quite
Speaker 2: another to think it and fall when you're like, these
Speaker 2: are all good, I need to keep them all exactly.
Speaker 1: It's tough. It's tough, but you got to be tough
Speaker 1: to get out there and do that grating and it's important.
Speaker 1: I wrote a limerick for plants because plants really can't talk.
Speaker 1: But if plants could talk and you were bringing them inside,
Speaker 1: this is what plants would say, Oh, the weather outside
Speaker 1: is frightful, but your windowsills delightful. Since we've got no
Speaker 1: place to go, let it snow, Let it snow. Might
Speaker 1: I add your plantings insightful? So we're moving in together
Speaker 1: to your living room. I'll tether, but here's a fair warning.
Speaker 1: I'm grumpy on a winter morning. My personality is fair weather.
Speaker 1: Can we survive together till spring? Will you take me
Speaker 1: under your wing by not throwing me in the trash,
Speaker 1: You're gonna be save in some cash. Let's say it together, kuching. Oh,
Speaker 1: I like it, And you know, I try to convince
Speaker 1: myself that it's just because I have the relationship with
Speaker 1: these plants that I'm moving them in, and because I'm cheap,
Speaker 1: you know, I take my grandson Max for an ice
Speaker 1: cream cone. Bill Murray always famously said that if you
Speaker 1: take a kid out for an ice cream cone, eat
Speaker 1: thirty to forty percent of their ice cream, it's a
Speaker 1: great way to teach them about taxation.
Speaker 2: I think all it's gonna leave you with is a
Speaker 2: very disappointed grandson unless you get the extra large. Unless
Speaker 2: you get the extra large cone and they can't eat
Speaker 2: it all. Otherwise, Wow, you don't really do that.
Speaker 1: Yes, I did, but I'm tempted. I'm tempted. It depends
Speaker 1: on the flavor.
Speaker 2: Then there you go. Because yeah, sometimes kids get like
Speaker 2: Superman or some horrendous.
Speaker 1: And it turns your tongue blue and yeah, forget it.
Speaker 1: But if it's like chocolate fudge, might just do that. Anyhow,
Speaker 1: we're moving our plants inside. Let's see how Stacey ties
Speaker 1: this in and plants on trial. That's coming up next
Speaker 1: here on the gardening Simplified.
Speaker 2: Prooven Winters Colored Choice shrubs cares about your success in
Speaker 2: the garden. That's why we trial and test all of
Speaker 2: our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they
Speaker 2: outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and
Speaker 2: the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's
Speaker 2: gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: We're talking about moving your plants indoors, and it is November,
Speaker 2: so this might be a little bit late for some people,
Speaker 2: depending on where you live and depending on the plant
Speaker 2: in question, because of course, some things that people bring indoors,
Speaker 2: tropical plants, houseplant kind of things, are very very tender
Speaker 2: and couldn't even take a little bit of frost, whereas
Speaker 2: a lot of other things that we maybe move in
Speaker 2: can take a little bit of cold, and we haven't
Speaker 2: really had that much cold here in Michigan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as a matter of fact, in Branching News, I'll
Speaker 1: talk about that, how the growing seasons seem to be extending.
Speaker 1: It's not a fig leaf of your imagination.
Speaker 2: They may not be late this year, it sure isn't.
Speaker 2: I mean, here we are mid November and you know,
Speaker 2: it's fifty degrees and we've had a couple of frosts,
Speaker 2: so you know, probably your most crucial things you've already
Speaker 2: brought indoors. But like I said, you know, my Uh,
Speaker 2: my big elephant ear is still outside. And that one
Speaker 2: I don't actually take out of the soil. I just
Speaker 2: leave it in its container dry because it hasn't been
Speaker 2: watered in a while, and just put it down there
Speaker 2: and it does its thing.
Speaker 1: And you can do that provided you avoid that temptation
Speaker 1: of watering it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I give it like a dribble of water like
Speaker 2: after Christmas. That's like it's Christmas gift. And then after
Speaker 2: that it's after that, it's on its own. But you know,
Speaker 2: it's We've talked about it on the show so many
Speaker 2: times before, and I think that gardeners all people are
Speaker 2: like this, really, but especially when it comes to gardening.
Speaker 2: You know, the grass is always greener on the other side, right,
Speaker 2: We always want what we don't have, And so like
Speaker 2: if you ask me, like, I would love to be
Speaker 2: able to grow avocado and citrus and anything in the
Speaker 2: proteac family, beautiful interesting plants native to Australia and South Africa.
Speaker 2: And as I've said before, I wish I had a
Speaker 2: dime for every hot climate gardener who wrote me saying
Speaker 2: can I please grow lilac? Can I please grow paeonies?
Speaker 2: We always want what we don't have. But this is
Speaker 2: an area where if you are a cold climate gardener,
Speaker 2: things are going to work a little bit more in
Speaker 2: your favor. You might be able to include some of
Speaker 2: these warm climate plants, not all, some of these warm
Speaker 2: climate plants in your garden and bring them indoors for winter.
Speaker 2: Whereas the people who live in hot climates, the reason
Speaker 2: that they can't grow these things is because those plants
Speaker 2: need a cooling period. And you know, frankly, ice is
Speaker 2: not going to cut it, no matter what the people
Speaker 2: at the US Open or the Master's tournament or whatever
Speaker 2: that golf thing is where they say that they delay
Speaker 2: the azalea bluebal rice, right, not the masters, thank you,
Speaker 2: sorry about that. Golf fans. You know, you can't like
Speaker 2: put the thing in your fridge. You can't put ice
Speaker 2: on it. There's really nothing you can do to cool it.
Speaker 2: But there are things that we can do in cold
Speaker 2: climates to grow these things and put them in a
Speaker 2: warmer area.
Speaker 1: Now well, and therein they applied the Moniker house plants.
Speaker 1: They didn't call them prisoners. They called them house.
Speaker 2: Plants, although prisoner would would actually apply to some houseplants
Speaker 2: these days. Healthlay now when it comes to determining what
Speaker 2: you may be able to bring inside. And sometimes, you know,
Speaker 2: we buy things in spring for our garden, use them
Speaker 2: in containers or the gardener or whatever, expecting they're going
Speaker 2: to be annuals. Yes, and then we fall in love
Speaker 2: and we say, hey, you know what, I might try
Speaker 2: to bring this in and just see what happens. And
Speaker 2: that is really I mean that mentality I think is
Speaker 2: the real key to being a gardener in general, is
Speaker 2: like having that curiosity, being willing to try something, and
Speaker 2: most importantly forgiving yourself and not dwelling on it when
Speaker 2: it doesn't work. Lots of people are willing to try,
Speaker 2: but then and if it doesn't work out so well,
Speaker 2: they're just like, I can't garden. I'm giving up. And
Speaker 2: that is not the attitude that you need to have.
Speaker 2: You need to say, what did I learn from this?
Speaker 1: Lots of people do it with Christmas cactus and I
Speaker 1: did it for years with geraniums. I did.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the general rule to keep in mind is
Speaker 2: you're thinking about what is in your garden that you
Speaker 2: might be able to bring in an over winter, is
Speaker 2: that the more cold tolerant the plant is, the less
Speaker 2: likely it is going to be successfully overwintered indoors good points.
Speaker 2: So if something is say harding to USDA Zone six,
Speaker 2: in most cases you're gonna have a lot more trouble
Speaker 2: trying to bring that indoors because that zone six hardness
Speaker 2: really indicates that even though it can't take extreme cold temperatures,
Speaker 2: it still needs winters where it's getting fresh air and
Speaker 2: good air circulation and sunshine and really experiencing the full
Speaker 2: changing day length and all of that. But as we
Speaker 2: get into plants that are from warmer climates that are
Speaker 2: less hardy, those are the ones that may potentially be
Speaker 2: a good candidate to bring indoors. And we have a
Speaker 2: plant in the proven Winter's Color Choice line. And of
Speaker 2: course I've known for years. I've seen it around in
Speaker 2: the trial gardens. I've seen it in our greenhouses. We
Speaker 2: plant it sometimes in the landscape here so our customers
Speaker 2: can see it just as like an example, even though
Speaker 2: we know it's not gonna live. And that plant is
Speaker 2: jazz hands variegated Laura pedalum.
Speaker 1: It's a crazy plant.
Speaker 2: It's a crazy plant. So now if you are from
Speaker 2: the South, you're like Laura pedalam whatever, because this plant
Speaker 2: is so ubiquitous in warm climates. It still amazes me
Speaker 2: to this day when I travel down south how ubiquitous
Speaker 2: Laura pedalum really is. And the interesting thing, one of
Speaker 2: the interesting things to me about Laura pedlum is it
Speaker 2: does have a common name of Chinese fringe flower, but
Speaker 2: pretty much someone calls it that. It's everyone calls it
Speaker 2: Laura pedalum, and it gets the name Chinese fringe flower
Speaker 2: because it's flowers look like little silky bundles of bright
Speaker 2: pink streamers.
Speaker 1: They look like witch hazel to me, is it in
Speaker 1: the same family.
Speaker 2: It is in the witch hazel family. Yes, now with
Speaker 2: witch hazel. So witch hazel are native American witch hazel
Speaker 2: blooms in fall, and the Asian one that many of
Speaker 2: us grow blooms in winter. And since both of those
Speaker 2: bloom in a cold time, what they do is they
Speaker 2: roll up their little streamer like flowers for warmth, and
Speaker 2: then on sunny, warm days they will unfurl them. You
Speaker 2: won't really see that happen with the Laura pedulum quite
Speaker 2: as much because by the time they bloom in late
Speaker 2: winter early spring, the goin's good and they're just it's a.
Speaker 1: Great description streamer like flowers or jazz hands.
Speaker 2: That's why we thought of that. I like it so
Speaker 2: it's ubiquitous. People love it because it has most Laura peddlums,
Speaker 2: dark purple foliage and then these bright pink flowers to contrast.
Speaker 2: But jazz Hands variegated just totally takes what's already a
Speaker 2: pretty good foliage plant and turns it into a fabulous
Speaker 2: foliage plant, because once the summer starts to set in,
Speaker 2: the new growth on jazz Hands variegated Laura pedulum is
Speaker 2: just a confetti shower of white and pink and purple
Speaker 2: and cream and all these different colors swirling around the leaves.
Speaker 2: Every single leaf is different, and every single leaf is
Speaker 2: practically a work of art. It's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting here thinking, you're nailing the adjectives today.
Speaker 2: Well, one of the reasons that I'm nailing the adjectives
Speaker 2: and why I chose this particular plant for today's plant
Speaker 2: on trial was because I always thought of it as
Speaker 2: a landscape plant, you know, as a landscape plant for
Speaker 2: warm climates. But I was recently on vacation in Tokyo, Japan,
Speaker 2: and we're gonna be talking about our vacations on a
Speaker 2: coming episode and telling you about all the cool plants
Speaker 2: that we saw. But in Tokyo, I was walking down
Speaker 2: the street in Howard Juku, which is like the fashion district,
Speaker 2: and I looked at this little store and they had
Speaker 2: the most incredible planting seasonal planting that they planted outside
Speaker 2: of their little shop, and it included jazz hands variable
Speaker 2: who And this was not really a plant that I
Speaker 2: had previously thought of as like a splashy container accentle
Speaker 2: when and I'll put the pictures in YouTube as well
Speaker 2: as in our show notes at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com.
Speaker 2: It just completely changed the way that I think about
Speaker 2: how this plant could be used, and it might change
Speaker 2: the way you think about how the plant could be
Speaker 2: used too. So the reason I wanted to make it
Speaker 2: Today's Plant on Trial is because if you live in
Speaker 2: an area where this plant is not hardy, so that's
Speaker 2: basically cooler than usdazone eight or thereabouts, you're not going
Speaker 2: to find it in your garden center. You're going to
Speaker 2: probably need to order one online, and it is available
Speaker 2: from a number of online resellers, and you'll be spending
Speaker 2: probably about twenty to twenty five dollars for a four
Speaker 2: inch plant. Now, that four inch plant is more than
Speaker 2: enough to make a big impact and a mixed container,
Speaker 2: and it will grow fast and look really great. But
Speaker 2: once you've invested that in this plant, you very well
Speaker 2: may want to continue to grow it and try to
Speaker 2: bring it indoors, and it is possible. But what I
Speaker 2: want to do was give you some quick guidelines on
Speaker 2: what that looks like and what to expect. So if
Speaker 2: you want to try bringing jazz Hands, variegated Laura pedlam
Speaker 2: or any of these shrubs that are like zone eight
Speaker 2: or you know, warm or less cold tolerant, you're gonna
Speaker 2: want to put it in your coolest, brightest spot in
Speaker 2: your house. You want to avoid any cold blasts from
Speaker 2: doors that are opening and closing to the outdoors. You
Speaker 2: also want to avoid any hot blasts from radiators, heat vents,
Speaker 2: any of that. So you want to try to get
Speaker 2: like an even cool temperature. You are going to want
Speaker 2: it to have plenty of sunshine the best you can do.
Speaker 2: And if you have a light, that's great. Do you
Speaker 2: add the light for it. That will definitely help. You
Speaker 2: want to water, but not too much, as you were
Speaker 2: just talking about too much water. Plants aren't using that
Speaker 2: much water in winter, even if they aren't totally dormant,
Speaker 2: So fungus hats become a problem because that water's not
Speaker 2: going anywhere. It's certainly not evaporating that much into your
Speaker 2: home's atmosphere, and the plant's not really using it. So
Speaker 2: a little bit of water definitely don't let it dry
Speaker 2: out completely. But if you're going to air on any side,
Speaker 2: make it the drier side. Don't fertilize, not gonna want it.
Speaker 2: And so once you're doing all of these things, I
Speaker 2: think you do need to know that the plant is
Speaker 2: very likely to drop most, if not all, of its leaves.
Speaker 2: And that's not you, it's them. So you really just
Speaker 2: need to be kind of prepared that the broom is
Speaker 2: going to need to be at hand and you're going
Speaker 2: to clean those up. But that doesn't mean that the
Speaker 2: plant is dead. It's just adapting to these less than
Speaker 2: ideal condition It's a defense mechanism. Hey, I need less
Speaker 2: foliage because I'm not as effective at photosynthesizing and growing,
Speaker 2: so I'm going to just kind of conserve my resources.
Speaker 2: So really the key here is to think about doing
Speaker 2: it whether it's Jazz Hands Variegated, Laura Pedulum, or something else.
Speaker 2: The key here is to think about these plants indoors
Speaker 2: for winter, not as an ornamental accent that is going
Speaker 2: to make your house look like it's something straight out
Speaker 2: of an Instagram story, but as storage for the plants
Speaker 2: so that you can grow them again next year. So
Speaker 2: I'm going to put all of these tips in our
Speaker 2: show notes at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. You can
Speaker 2: also see for yourself just how beautiful jazz Hands Variegated
Speaker 2: is either in a landscape or in a container in Japan,
Speaker 2: and you can decide if you're going to put one
Speaker 2: in your garden either next year in the ground or
Speaker 2: perhaps in a container. We're gonna take a little break
Speaker 2: and when we come back, we're going to be opening
Speaker 2: up the garden mail legs, so please stay tuned. At
Speaker 2: proven Winner's color Choice, we've got a shrub for every
Speaker 2: taste and every space. Whether you're looking for an easycare
Speaker 2: rose and unforgettable Hydrangea or something new and unique, you
Speaker 2: can be confident that the shrubs and the white containers
Speaker 2: have been trialed and tested for your success. Look for
Speaker 2: them at your local Garden Center. Greetings, gardening friends, and
Speaker 2: welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we are
Speaker 2: going to take the time to answer your gardening questions.
Speaker 2: We've been hearing from a lot of you with all
Speaker 2: sorts of different questions, and we'd be happy to help
Speaker 2: you with your unique or maybe not so unique garden
Speaker 2: conundrum because chances are if you're having an issue, a
Speaker 2: lot of other people might be having a similar issue.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we're all in this together. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I was thinking you made a great point about how
Speaker 1: these plants do not like drafts, whether it's a hot
Speaker 1: draft or a cold draft. These plants you're bringing inside
Speaker 1: do not want a Heineken or a Budweiser, or a cores.
Speaker 2: No or coffee or coffee. They just need to know.
Speaker 2: You need to do your best to just keep things
Speaker 2: like level. But you know, as I often say, we
Speaker 2: don't garden in the ideal world. We garden in the
Speaker 2: real world where we maybe don't have that ideal space.
Speaker 2: And I think again, the biggest issue with bringing anything
Speaker 2: indoors that you aren't sure if it's going to do
Speaker 2: well is to you know, understand that it's an experiment
Speaker 2: understand that the plant is merely tolerating the conditions, not
Speaker 2: thriving in them, and that's okay. Your goal is just
Speaker 2: to get it to that point where it can go
Speaker 2: back outside again. And every time I've done this successful,
Speaker 2: which is not all the times, you're amazed at how
Speaker 2: quickly it recovers once it gets outside, back into the sunshine,
Speaker 2: and it's just like nothing ever happened.
Speaker 1: To make a great point, Stacy, because I'll hear people
Speaker 1: say that they're going to apply fertilizer, don't fertilize.
Speaker 2: So many people think that fertilizer is the answer to
Speaker 2: plant problems, and I can tell you very rarely outside
Speaker 2: of the vegetable garden environment is fertilizer. The answer.
Speaker 1: Me with verbal supplements, pop those babies. This has gotta work.
Speaker 2: So anyway, if you have a gardening question for us,
Speaker 2: you can reach us at help HLP at Gardening Simplified
Speaker 2: on air dot com, or just visit Gardening Simplified on
Speaker 2: Air dot com. There's a contact form right there. You
Speaker 2: can attach photos or anything like that. You can also
Speaker 2: leave a comment on our YouTube videos. Adriana reads them
Speaker 2: all and we'll pass any along to us that might
Speaker 2: be suitable for answering online. But before we get to
Speaker 2: the questions that people ask for this week, I did
Speaker 2: want to address. Nancy in Washington sent us a photo
Speaker 2: kind of in regards to our Halloween episode last week.
Speaker 2: Even though this isn't really scary, but I just love
Speaker 2: this so much I had to share it. She says,
Speaker 2: this northwestern salamander was strolling through my garden earlier this
Speaker 2: week while enjoying a gentle shower. Well, I don't find
Speaker 2: these spooky. This was the largest one I have ever
Speaker 2: seen in my art. I am so jealous of you, Nancy.
Speaker 2: Adriana is as well. This is an absolutely gorgeous big
Speaker 2: northwestern salamander who is absolutely living its best life in
Speaker 2: Nancy's garden. So we're jealous. Enjoy it and tell salamander
Speaker 2: friend we said hello.
Speaker 1: Thanks Nancy. Appreciate it. Cindy writes to us, a contractor
Speaker 1: scuffed up her tree. What should I do to provide
Speaker 1: the most protection for it? So that's quite a wound done.
Speaker 2: Yes, she did include photos, which you'll see on YouTube
Speaker 2: or on our show notes at Cardening Simplified on air
Speaker 2: dot Com. I opened this and audibly said ouch when
Speaker 2: I looked at it because yeah, it's not great. And
Speaker 2: you know, this kind of thing happens all the time
Speaker 2: if you're having any kind of work done on your home.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of people they just aren't They
Speaker 2: just don't think of trees as like living things that
Speaker 2: can be damaged. But fortunately trees are generally very resilient
Speaker 2: and as bad as this particular scuff is, so basically
Speaker 2: what happens. She has a relatively mature tree with I
Speaker 2: would say probably a good one foot by one foot
Speaker 2: gouge taken out of the side of it. And why
Speaker 2: this really matters, see a lot of people, and this
Speaker 2: is worth're saying, especially at Christmas time as people start
Speaker 2: thinking about getting live trees. Where a tree conducts its
Speaker 2: water is not in the center. It is actually around
Speaker 2: the inside edge of the bark. So there's a thin,
Speaker 2: thin layer. If you look, if you cut a fresh branch,
Speaker 2: you'll see that thin green layer. That's where the xylum
Speaker 2: and the flow them is. That's where all the business happens.
Speaker 2: And so once that is interrupted by damage, then it
Speaker 2: makes it difficult. It takes away some of the plant's
Speaker 2: ability to conduct water and nutrients through the entire column
Speaker 2: of the.
Speaker 1: Plants exactly loosely defined as the cambium layer. Yes, on
Speaker 1: a tree, and if it's not girdled all the way around,
Speaker 1: you're going to be Okay, this tree is going to survive. Sure,
Speaker 1: it's not great for the tree. Yeah, but I really
Speaker 1: believe Stacy that the important thing here is just keep
Speaker 1: that area clean. Peel away or cut away some additional damage,
Speaker 1: but keep it clean and allow nature to take its course.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't you know the general in the past
Speaker 2: there have been people who have said, oh, you should
Speaker 2: use a wound dressing or wrap it with this tarh Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's all sorts of crazy things out there. The general
Speaker 2: consensus among tree scientists right now is no wound dressing
Speaker 2: at all. So yeah, Nancy, I would or sorry, Cindy Raather,
Speaker 2: I would not do it anything. I know it's painful
Speaker 2: and hard to see, but as the plant will start
Speaker 2: to heal, that will certainly decrease and it will be
Speaker 2: less visible and a little less painful. The only thing
Speaker 2: that I would say you're really going to want to
Speaker 2: consider long term is that is going to be a
Speaker 2: structural defect to some extent in the tree. So it's
Speaker 2: just worth considering, you know, if as it gets larger
Speaker 2: and more mature, if it threatens your home or neighbor's
Speaker 2: home or anything like that, you might just want to
Speaker 2: have it checked out by professional arborus who can give
Speaker 2: you a risk assessment as to whether it was severely compromised.
Speaker 1: So Stacy two for the price of one. From April,
Speaker 1: she writes to us what would cause mum seedlings to
Speaker 1: turn red and how to fix it? I'm wondering if
Speaker 1: the little gnats I see are causing it. And then
Speaker 1: she also asks a question about dead heading hardy high biscus.
Speaker 1: How is this done? Do you just pull the dead
Speaker 1: flour off or trim elsewhere. I'll jump in on the
Speaker 1: mum question the seedlings turning red, because I've seen this before.
Speaker 1: In most cases it's because the soil is too wet.
Speaker 1: And the fact that she has little gnats causes me
Speaker 1: also to believe that the soil is too wet. So
Speaker 1: you get a pithium root rot with mums, And actually
Speaker 1: what it does is anthocyanins in the foliage will cause
Speaker 1: that foliage to turn red. So, in my opinion, not
Speaker 1: looking at the plants myself Stacy. I think April too
Speaker 1: wet on those seedlings, and that's what's causing the problem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the nats.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the fact that you have fungus gnats
Speaker 2: is definitely diagnostic that it is a watering issue, but
Speaker 2: I also don't necessarily it could be a number of things.
Speaker 2: It's also important to realize that whether it's a mum
Speaker 2: seedling or something else, that some varieties do have kind
Speaker 2: of purplish or reddish foliage, so it may be variety dependent.
Speaker 2: It can also be due to an increase or a
Speaker 2: decrease in news so certain nutrient deficiencies or surpluses can
Speaker 2: cause this as well. And finally, pH and you know,
Speaker 2: if the pH is going too acidic or too basic,
Speaker 2: which depending on how much you're watering it and what
Speaker 2: the pH of your water is and what kind of
Speaker 2: soil you use, that can also do it. But you know,
Speaker 2: their April did send a photo of her seedlings and
Speaker 2: they actually look pretty healthy, so they've she's gotten good germination.
Speaker 2: They look healthy, and Okay, it's just something needs to happen.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I would say cutting back on the water
Speaker 2: is definitely going to help a lot, and we'll hopefully
Speaker 2: get rid of those fungus nets. The fungus hats them
Speaker 2: cells are not the problem, but they have their larva
Speaker 2: in the soil, and their larva will eat the roots
Speaker 2: of the plant that is trying to grow, and that
Speaker 2: just sets it back.
Speaker 1: I've also seen it if the soil is too cold.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not saying that's the case here, but you
Speaker 1: will see that also. If the soil is cold, yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes it and then you get stunted plants.
Speaker 2: So just bear all that in mind. I know that's
Speaker 2: a lot to kind of ask yourself which of these
Speaker 2: fis is it? But start with the simplest thing and
Speaker 2: just decrease the water, let them dry out slightly. Certainly,
Speaker 2: the top layer should not always be moist, because if
Speaker 2: it is, that is definitely going to encourage the fungus nets.
Speaker 2: If the top layer can dry out between waterings, that
Speaker 2: will make a big difference.
Speaker 1: So I did some pruning the other day and Stacy,
Speaker 1: I want to ask you when do you dead head
Speaker 1: your high biscus, your hardy high biscus.
Speaker 2: Right, So this is a good question that April asks,
Speaker 2: and I think that we kind of have to determine
Speaker 2: do you mean simply taking off the old flowers or
Speaker 2: do you mean preventing them from going to seed, because
Speaker 2: the old flowers, you know, they look kind of crummy
Speaker 2: on there for a couple days and then they just
Speaker 2: fall off. And in that case, yeah, you can just
Speaker 2: take that. If it's bothering you, those mush mummies, you
Speaker 2: can just take those off, throw them away, put them
Speaker 2: in your compost whatever. Otherwise, just wait for them to fall.
Speaker 2: But yeah, they do set a seed afterward, and so
Speaker 2: if you don't want the seed to set, then you
Speaker 2: are going to need to actually take off the entire
Speaker 2: little stem that connects that flower to the main stem
Speaker 2: of the plant. Now, I don't think that that's necessary.
Speaker 2: Speaking for the summarific hibiscus mine, do you set some seed,
Speaker 2: but they don't spread around and it does not seem
Speaker 2: to impact their flower development, So you know some thing,
Speaker 2: so you can deadhead or remove that seed from developing
Speaker 2: and it will keep the plant flowering vigorously, whereas in
Speaker 2: the case of hardy hibiscus, I don't really think that
Speaker 2: is the case. They have set their flowers and you know,
Speaker 2: they just end up getting done by the time the
Speaker 2: days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler
Speaker 2: and everything like that. So if you want to take
Speaker 2: the whole thing off again, trace that stem back to
Speaker 2: the main stem and go ahead and snip that off.
Speaker 2: If all you care about is the mush mummy, you
Speaker 2: can just go ahead and pick those off and throw
Speaker 2: them away. But it's not strictly necessary. This is really
Speaker 2: just a personal preference issue of hygiene and cleanliness in
Speaker 2: how you prefer the plants to look.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like to cut them back whenever the spirit
Speaker 1: moves me. Actually yeah, And I like to leave some
Speaker 1: stubble above ground so I know where they are next
Speaker 1: year when the snow clears. Other than that, i'd agree
Speaker 1: with you one hundred percent. Now.
Speaker 2: I used to cut mine back every fall because where
Speaker 2: we had them planted, we needed to use that area
Speaker 2: for snow removal. But after talking to Laura from Walter's Gardens,
Speaker 2: who was a guest on the show several weeks ago,
Speaker 2: she said she recommends cutting them back in spring. So
Speaker 2: I'm going to try that from now on. But either way,
Speaker 2: it's fine. They're pretty durable place. So we're going to
Speaker 2: take a break. When we come back. We've got branching news,
Speaker 2: so stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to
Speaker 2: you by proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning
Speaker 2: flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed and tested for
Speaker 2: your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work.
Speaker 2: Look for proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs in the distinctive
Speaker 2: white container at your local garden center.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplify Joe. It's time for
Speaker 1: branching news. And are you cooped up in the house
Speaker 1: for winter with your plants? Well, welcome to the latest
Speaker 1: water health craze Okra water.
Speaker 2: I have not I like okra too much to just
Speaker 2: infuse it into water. I'd rather make a nice curry
Speaker 2: out of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I agree with you. And you don't have
Speaker 1: to be from okrahoma don't like it. Some people like,
Speaker 1: you know, water with mint in it and lemon. Some
Speaker 1: people like cucumber water. Well, this is the health craze,
Speaker 1: especially for your digestive system because they say okra is
Speaker 1: a vegetable high in plant. Help me with the pronunciation,
Speaker 1: Stacy muselage, uselage, muselage mucus.
Speaker 2: It's mucilage. It's not mucus. It looks like mucus root
Speaker 2: word does not mean fucus.
Speaker 1: When it's steeped in water. The water basically what happens
Speaker 1: is the okra absorbs the liquid and is great for
Speaker 1: your digestive tract according to some dietitians and nutritionus. But
Speaker 1: it does look really sliny.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the goal is to slice up okra, put
Speaker 2: it in a glass of water, let the mucilage come out,
Speaker 2: and then drink the water.
Speaker 1: And drink the water.
Speaker 2: Do you eat the okra?
Speaker 1: You can do whatever you want with the okra deep
Speaker 1: fried if you want.
Speaker 2: You know, this might actually catch on because okra is expensive,
Speaker 2: so people will think it will actually work. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I could see it being kind of like a cucumber
Speaker 2: water situation, has the same kind of vegetable flavor. I mean,
Speaker 2: I love okra so too.
Speaker 1: I think I might try it too, even though it's
Speaker 1: really it's kind of gross, But if it's good for you,
Speaker 1: maybe I want to give it a try. And lucky
Speaker 1: for you, we're putting the link at our website, Gardening
Speaker 1: Simplified on air dot Com. Stacy jumped out of my
Speaker 1: car the other day and took a picture and a
Speaker 1: parking lot of what I thought was the perfect example
Speaker 1: of what not to do as far as trees are concerned.
Speaker 1: I refer to it as Southwest disease. And for people
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube you can see this example. We can
Speaker 1: put the picture at our website. Also the classic example
Speaker 1: of a tree where the side of the tree that's
Speaker 1: facing south had damage when it was young, and now
Speaker 1: you see that significant damage along the trunk. And it
Speaker 1: was a new development where they had mounded the mulch
Speaker 1: up against the tree and the roots were girdling. You
Speaker 1: could see it. They were above the soil surface. The
Speaker 1: tree was thinning at the top. The perfect example. So
Speaker 1: I just snapped a picture to be able to show that. Also,
Speaker 1: just down the road the next place I went, pulled
Speaker 1: into the parking lot and noticed the maple trees there
Speaker 1: that were loaded with powdery mildew and tarspot.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, tarspot is not unusual on a maple tree, and
Speaker 1: many times again, folks, it's an indication that winters the
Speaker 1: perfect time to have some pruning done on your trees
Speaker 1: to allow additional light and air movement through the trees
Speaker 1: if you're dealing with these problems. But Stacy, in this case,
Speaker 1: the powdery mildew. I found it really fascinating because it
Speaker 1: didn't look like it was dusted on the foliage, but
Speaker 1: rather it was along the veins of the foliage. It
Speaker 1: almost looked like something Jack Frost had done. Interesting, very
Speaker 1: very interesting. But again, if you have powdery mildew, you
Speaker 1: have tar spot on some of these trees that you love,
Speaker 1: or maple trees, it can be an indication that having
Speaker 1: an arborous do some pruning to open up that canopy
Speaker 1: maybe helpful.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And also you know, I am a big proponent
Speaker 2: of leave the leaves in your beds, but if you
Speaker 2: have a tree or shrub or a perennial or anything
Speaker 2: that had a fungal disease, it's a good idea to
Speaker 2: do your best to remove and discard all of that foliage.
Speaker 2: Because the way fungus works is that you know, it
Speaker 2: drops on the leaves right now and then it sits
Speaker 2: there hanging around all winter. When spring comes it's usually
Speaker 2: very wet, high humidity, cool temperatures, those leaves come out.
Speaker 2: They're so soft they have no protective cuticle on them yet,
Speaker 2: and the fungus is like, now's my chance attack, and
Speaker 2: you know they get on the plant, and people think
Speaker 2: that it's a fall disease because it doesn't show up
Speaker 2: until it's late in the season, but actually the infection
Speaker 2: typically takes place way way back in spring when you
Speaker 2: wouldn't even notice it. So clean up the foliage if
Speaker 2: this is an issue. But I would also say that
Speaker 2: if you have Norway maples, even if you prune them,
Speaker 2: I think that they're just gonna get tar spot. It
Speaker 2: just seems to be what they do, at least here
Speaker 2: in mission.
Speaker 1: Again, well, they're fun guys, just like me. They're opportunists
Speaker 1: looking for the right environment and then it's party time.
Speaker 1: So there you go. Keep an eye out. Also here
Speaker 1: in branching news for zombies this fall in early winter,
Speaker 1: and I'm referring to zombie trees and that's not my description.
Speaker 1: That is the description from the US Forest Service. We're
Speaker 1: going to put the link at our website Gardening sim
Speaker 1: Simplified on air dot com. But the US Forest Service
Speaker 1: is asking the public to help point out live looking
Speaker 1: but actual dead trees because they can pose a safety hazard,
Speaker 1: especially in urban environments. Of course, if it happens in
Speaker 1: the woods, who cares. But in urban environments, if a
Speaker 1: tree is dying from the inside out or rotting or declining.
Speaker 1: You should identify these trees because they do pose a
Speaker 1: safety risk. So as the leaves turn color and fall
Speaker 1: from the trees, you can develop the ability I know
Speaker 1: I have driving through neighborhoods where you can identify some
Speaker 1: of these trees. I also was at an arboretum once
Speaker 1: with arborous who were using drills and drilling into trees
Speaker 1: with long drill bits and determining if the tree was
Speaker 1: hollowed out. So again, look for those zombie trees. It
Speaker 1: is something that the US Forest Service is talking about,
Speaker 1: and you can find that link at our website right.
Speaker 1: Good to know an interesting thing, one thing that I'm
Speaker 1: super interested in, and I could talk about it for hours,
Speaker 1: and I won't. I've got just a couple minutes here.
Speaker 1: But data supports the fact that we are experiencing longer
Speaker 1: growing seasons. Now, if you're in Florida or Georgia, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: it's not as big a deal. It's not as I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe recognizable as it is for example here
Speaker 1: in Michigan or maybe Ohio. And I took a county
Speaker 1: as an example here in Michigan, Kent County, where the
Speaker 1: average growing season over the past fifty years is something
Speaker 1: like one hundred and fifty four days. So we have
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty four days between the last frost
Speaker 1: in spring the first frost first hard frost in fall.
Speaker 1: It's very interesting to look at a study from Purdue
Speaker 1: University and again the link at our website Gardeningsimplified on
Speaker 1: air dot Com. I can sit there with this link,
Speaker 1: with this tool and play with it for hours because
Speaker 1: it's fun. For example, this county that I use as
Speaker 1: an example here in Michigan in nineteen sixty one, they
Speaker 1: had a growing season that was only one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty four days. Wow. The last frost was May twenty eight.
Speaker 1: The first frost was September twenty eight. In nineteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: we had one hundred and thirty eight days. In nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty three, one hundred and twenty nine days. In nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy two, I think I remember this one one hundred
Speaker 1: and nineteen days. The last frost was June twelfth. The
Speaker 1: first frost was October eight, but the shortest on record,
Speaker 1: and I do remember this year nineteen ninety two, one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen days. So the last frost was May
Speaker 1: twenty eight and the first frost was September twenty two,
Speaker 1: So that's less than four months of growing season. And
Speaker 1: if you think about corn, corn needs something like ninety days, right,
Speaker 1: So it's fascinating to think about that. And I also
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two. I remember that well because that very
Speaker 1: short growing season and followed one of the worst droughts
Speaker 1: we had in North America, the nineteen eighty eight to
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety drought. The drought of nineteen eighty eight ranked
Speaker 1: as the worst drought since the dust Bowl. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: And I remember that well. The whole point here to
Speaker 1: wrap it up is this that since twenty twelve in
Speaker 1: this area, we've generally experienced one hundred and sixty to
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty days.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a huge in it's a full.
Speaker 1: Month, that's amazing. And one hundred and eighty days, of
Speaker 1: course is yeah, six months of growing season. So I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a big leaf of your imagination if
Speaker 1: you're living in the Midwest or in the North, that
Speaker 1: you're experiencing longer growing seasons where you can enjoy those
Speaker 1: plants outside longer before you have to bring them inside
Speaker 1: then you used to, let's say forty or fifty.
Speaker 2: Years yeah, said investment in annuals and vegetables even better, exactly.
Speaker 1: We're gonna put the link at the website Gardeningsimplified on
Speaker 1: air dot com. Thank you Stacey, thank you Rix, thank
Speaker 1: you Adrianna, and thanks to you for watching on YouTube,
Speaker 1: listening on radio and listening to our podcast. Have a
Speaker 1: great week.