Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A Here at proven Winns Color Choice Shrubs.
Speaker 1: It's time for the Gardening Simplified Podcast, YouTube and radio
Speaker 1: show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist, and our engineer
Speaker 1: and producer Adrianna Robinson. Stacy, I thought it'd be fun
Speaker 1: today to talk about trigger plants. Some plants are just
Speaker 1: good communicators. They tell us when something's wrong. Other plants
Speaker 1: are kind of stoic, like squars or succulents. It's like,
Speaker 1: no matter what comes their way, they basically don't tell
Speaker 1: you that something's going wrong. But some plants do.
Speaker 2: You might call them drama queens drama queens, or you
Speaker 2: might call them trigger plants as we are entitling this episode,
Speaker 2: but yeah, I feel like I also would call them
Speaker 2: like signal plants or century plants. They kind of give
Speaker 2: you that, you know, clue that something's going on. For me. Well,
Speaker 2: one of the plants in my guard that I would
Speaker 2: consider one of these plants is a plant called Agastaki nepatoides.
Speaker 2: It is the green, giant green Agastaki, very cool plants,
Speaker 2: but it doesn't really want to grow in full sun
Speaker 2: and dry soil like I have it in it will
Speaker 2: tolerate it. But if it has not rained for a while,
Speaker 2: it's the first plant to be like, whoa, I am
Speaker 2: peacing out. It's the first plant so well then I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: things are really dry. So that's my that's my one
Speaker 2: of my trigger plants. But that kind of shows you
Speaker 2: that the plants that we're talking about may or may
Speaker 2: not trigger something depending on how you grow them in
Speaker 2: good conditions, the conditions it prefers, this plant would not
Speaker 2: really be a trigger plant, would be perfectly happy, Yeah,
Speaker 2: perfectly trying to push it, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I call them read the tea leaves plants. I
Speaker 1: think fortune tellers used to have you drink a cup
Speaker 1: of tea and then the tea leaves that are left
Speaker 1: in the bottom of the cup. They'd interpret them or
Speaker 1: whatever it may be, but reading the tea leaves. So
Speaker 1: for me through the years, one plant in my landscape
Speaker 1: or in landscapes in general, would be impatiens wall arianna okay,
Speaker 1: and often, you know, years ago we would allow them
Speaker 1: to get to the droop stage, so to speak, because
Speaker 1: it put the plant under a little bit of stress
Speaker 1: and they bloomed better that way. But with impatiens wall Ariana,
Speaker 1: when they're being a drama queen and you get out
Speaker 1: there and water them, suddenly they pop right back up.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I guess you know. There are some plants.
Speaker 1: Let's take this as an example. It's finally hot here
Speaker 1: in Michigan.
Speaker 2: It is at long last, and what you.
Speaker 1: Start to hear from people is it's so hot. I'm like,
Speaker 1: we just went through winter. This is what we've been
Speaker 1: waiting for. But there are plants that have dramatic droops.
Speaker 1: So I mentioned impatients Waile Ariana. You add water, that
Speaker 1: distress is gone. You look at house plants spatifhylum or peace.
Speaker 2: That was on my list for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and often you'll see them in office spaces where
Speaker 1: they are being a drama queen and exhibiting that dramatic group.
Speaker 2: Yes, and they are a plant that definitely. The cool
Speaker 2: thing about them is not only are they telling you
Speaker 2: like whoa, hey, I need water, they wilt extremely dramatically,
Speaker 2: and then when you rehydrate them, they're really none the
Speaker 2: worse for the wear. You know, some plants that they
Speaker 2: dry out and will dramatically, they're going to show some
Speaker 2: brown edges around their leaves, and really, you know, kind
Speaker 2: of not like have suffered from it, whereas the peace
Speaker 2: lily is just like, Okay, thanks, just wanted your attention.
Speaker 2: Appreciate that moving right on, life goes out. Yes, now
Speaker 2: for you in the industry, I thought your big trigger
Speaker 2: plant was going to be geraniums oherums.
Speaker 1: But you know what, let me run this one by you.
Speaker 1: I think macrophilla hydrangels.
Speaker 2: Oh, they definitely are rama queens. They are drama queens,
Speaker 2: but you know, I feel like they're not just I
Speaker 2: feel like they have a limitation, right, Okay, So big
Speaker 2: leaf hydrange is hydrange of Macrophylla. It's right there in
Speaker 2: the name. They have big leaves and they're beautiful plants,
Speaker 2: but they are just not that efficient at using water.
Speaker 2: Some plants are very efficient at using water, so our
Speaker 2: aforementioned is bad thephylum you give it that water poof,
Speaker 2: it's totally fine. Whereas the max those big leaves lose
Speaker 2: water faster than the roots can replace it. So it's
Speaker 2: kind of like, I don't know, you know, like you
Speaker 2: just have things running at two different rates. The absorption
Speaker 2: rate and the transferration rate are are two different levels.
Speaker 2: So they're not trying to be dramatic. They just physically
Speaker 2: can't handle, you know, the heat. But they're also fine,
Speaker 2: you know, and so it's a lot of things. What
Speaker 2: I tell people, if you have a big leaf hydrangel
Speaker 2: and it's consistently wilting on hot summer afternoons and you've
Speaker 2: just watered it, don't worryorry about it. It's just trying
Speaker 2: to deal with, you know, what it has to deal with.
Speaker 2: And that wilting in the case of the big leaf
Speaker 2: hydrangeas is its attempt to reduce the amount of leaf
Speaker 2: service exposed to the sun. If the plant is photosynthesizing,
Speaker 2: it's stomata on the underside of the leaves are open,
Speaker 2: that's giving off water vapor. When a plant wilts reduces
Speaker 2: the amount of leaf surface exposed to the sun. That
Speaker 2: also covers up the stomata on the underside of the leaf,
Speaker 2: so that preserves some of that water that's transpiring out
Speaker 2: of the stomata. And it's just a survival mechanism. But yeah,
Speaker 2: they're usually just fine in the morning. So if that's
Speaker 2: what you're seeing with your max wilting in the hot
Speaker 2: Sunday afternoon, next morning, everything's fine, and you're like, wait,
Speaker 2: do I need water or not, you probably don't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but a great trigger in the landscape that at
Speaker 1: a glance you can see, oh, things are a little
Speaker 1: hot and a little dry out here. And I'm glad
Speaker 1: you mentioned that because there are plants that have i'm
Speaker 1: gonna call it pronounced mid ribs on the full leaf,
Speaker 1: and it causes that plant to have the ability, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, for the leaf to fold on itself and
Speaker 1: preserve moisture. You know, a great example of that are
Speaker 1: the Pikus trees that we enjoy in our homes as
Speaker 1: a houseplant down in Florida. When they're growing there and
Speaker 1: they're getting a lot of hot sun, they use that
Speaker 1: midrib to cause the foliage to fold on itself a
Speaker 1: little bit to conserve some moisture. On let's say a
Speaker 1: hot summer day. You bring them up to Michigan, put
Speaker 1: them in a home where it's low light. You'll see
Speaker 1: where that foliage starts to flatten. The mid rib is
Speaker 1: not as pronounced, The color goes away from the leaf
Speaker 1: as opposed to that really dark dark green. A perfect
Speaker 1: example of a trigger plant out in the landscape. I
Speaker 1: think dogwood is a great example. Dogwood leaves will curl,
Speaker 1: they will fold on that midrib and they will change
Speaker 1: color to a degree. A dogwood's a great trigger plant.
Speaker 2: I always thought that was from infectives.
Speaker 1: Well that's part of it too, exactly, so it will
Speaker 1: try to tell you what's going on. Let me give
Speaker 1: you a trigger plant, limb a rick. For my every
Speaker 1: well intended action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. Guess
Speaker 1: Newton was right. My plant in hot sunlight is now
Speaker 1: a drooping distraction. Not always what one preconceives. Plant problems
Speaker 1: can be pet peeves. Thank goodness, they communicate before they
Speaker 1: capitulate by wearing their emotions on their leaves. See what
Speaker 1: I did, I thank you. I like that one. But no,
Speaker 1: there are many trigger plants. I always plant, but copa
Speaker 1: with annuals. But copa is a really great trigger plant
Speaker 1: where you can look at a container and at a
Speaker 1: glance you can tell whether or not there are water issues.
Speaker 1: We do that with bridle veil baskets in the greenhouse.
Speaker 1: You can see it at a glance. And again, Stacey,
Speaker 1: coming from the garden center industry, when I walk into
Speaker 1: a garden center and it's hot and dry, and it
Speaker 1: looks like the employees are having difficulty keeping up with
Speaker 1: the watering. One of the first group of plants that
Speaker 1: I walk up to our Shasta daisies. They're usually really
Speaker 1: full in the pot and the leaves will in my
Speaker 1: landscape too immediately exhibit this drooping and again being a
Speaker 1: drama queen, So I think Shasta daisy's too well.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's important to realize about these trigger
Speaker 2: plants is that they aren't just telling you what they need.
Speaker 2: They're also kind of compensating for the plants nearby them
Speaker 2: that maybe don't have that ability. And by the time
Speaker 2: they wilt, it's too late. You know, they're really going
Speaker 2: to be suffering if you see, you know, those plants wilting.
Speaker 2: So these are good plants to have to kind of
Speaker 2: give you that hint, especially if you are like me
Speaker 2: and you don't typically supplemental water and you don't really
Speaker 2: know what's going on. You know, my plants are close
Speaker 2: together in my garden, so they kind of help to,
Speaker 2: you know, shade each other out at the roots. And
Speaker 2: I have a lot of mulch, but yeah, I rely
Speaker 2: on those those cues to know, like, I better get
Speaker 2: to devoting some time to water.
Speaker 1: Exactly a lawn is a perfect trigger and something for
Speaker 1: you to keep an eye on in summertime. I always
Speaker 1: suggest to people just take a walk across your lawn,
Speaker 1: then stop. Look back. If your footprints have a silvery
Speaker 1: cast to them in the grass, you'll be able to
Speaker 1: tell or you've cut the grass and you can see
Speaker 1: that silvery cra you know, just kind of a silvery
Speaker 1: cast to the lawn. You know, things are dry and
Speaker 1: it's time to irrigate, or things are very hot. So
Speaker 1: there are many, many different types of triggers, and we'll
Speaker 1: talk more about them. Give you some good trigger plants
Speaker 1: in segment for to day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we've talked a lot about summer triggers and wilting,
Speaker 2: but there's winter triggers too that we've talked quite a
Speaker 2: bit about, you know, like the rhododendrons decreasing their leaf surface.
Speaker 2: I think the important thing is, you know, to to
Speaker 2: take the time to notice these types of things and
Speaker 2: think about what they might mean. It's a language that
Speaker 2: you pick up on gradually, and that is really part
Speaker 2: of gardening, is it's you know, decoding the language of
Speaker 2: the plants. And you know, I think your thing about
Speaker 2: the silvery lawn makes sense. Someone might be going like,
Speaker 2: I have no idea what he talks about, what he's
Speaker 2: talking about, but one day this summer, you're gonna actually
Speaker 2: notice it. You'll be like, that was what Rick was saying.
Speaker 1: That's right, or the tire tracks, and you're right. The
Speaker 1: macrophila hydranges, those blooms they look grumpy to me. The
Speaker 1: rhododendrons in winter, they just look like they're moping.
Speaker 2: They look very sad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well, let's see how Stacey ties this in
Speaker 1: and plants on trial. That's coming up next here on
Speaker 1: the Gardening Simplified.
Speaker 2: Show, beautify your home and community with proven Winn's Color
Speaker 2: Choice Shrubs. With over three hundred and twenty five unique
Speaker 2: varieties to choose from. There's a flower shrubber evergreen for
Speaker 2: every taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive
Speaker 2: white container your local garden center or learn more at
Speaker 2: proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Youre Reading's gardening friends,
Speaker 2: and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where today's
Speaker 2: topic is trigger plants and basically what we're saying. I
Speaker 2: guess you know, I couldn't quite think of like the
Speaker 2: perfect word for this concept, you know, but they trigger
Speaker 2: an action from you because they are showing you like, oh, hey,
Speaker 2: something's not great in my environment here. Now, for humans,
Speaker 2: of course, if something's not great in our environment, we
Speaker 2: are able to get up and move to better surroundings.
Speaker 2: And plants don't have that ability. So you know, what
Speaker 2: they're doing is not saying to you like, literally, hey
Speaker 2: I need water, But they are using their survival mechanisms
Speaker 2: to deal with those conditions. And those are not necessarily
Speaker 2: conditions that you notice, we experience life different than plants.
Speaker 2: So they then trigger an action from you. But I
Speaker 2: think it's also important to acknowledge in this conversation that
Speaker 2: some of these trigger plants. You know, it's not necessarily
Speaker 2: a good thing and can trigger from you. The action
Speaker 2: it should trigger is moving it, because what it's actually
Speaker 2: telling you is like, good, I don't really love this,
Speaker 2: you know. And I gave that long example and exactly well,
Speaker 2: I gave that long example in the first segment about
Speaker 2: big leaf hydrangeas, and yeah, it can absolutely withstand that
Speaker 2: afternoon welting. You know, if you are in Michigan and
Speaker 2: you have you know, relatively few hot days, that's not
Speaker 2: going to be a problem. If you are in a
Speaker 2: warmer climate or a hot climate and that's happening, that
Speaker 2: would be to me a signal that you should move
Speaker 2: the plant into an area where it is in afternoon shade.
Speaker 2: Because if that's, you know, happening, like in Michigan, we
Speaker 2: might get you know, no more than ten or twelve
Speaker 2: days where that's probably happening. But certainly if you live
Speaker 2: in a very hot climate and that's happening every day,
Speaker 2: for in July, August, in September, and eventually that plant
Speaker 2: is going to start to suffer from that. So it's
Speaker 2: always worth considering, you know, as you notice these things
Speaker 2: about your plants, if the trigger action should be putting
Speaker 2: it on your fall list to transplant.
Speaker 1: I like your line of thinking there, And the trigger
Speaker 1: essentially helps you make a decision. Maybe it's down the road,
Speaker 1: but make a decision for that plant, because that plant
Speaker 1: can't get up and walk away, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And we often used that phrase or that analogy read
Speaker 1: the tea leaves in running a business. I used it
Speaker 1: for years in running a business because if you look
Speaker 1: at the balance sheet or the financial statement in hale,
Speaker 1: you're essentially reading the tea leaves and making decisions maybe
Speaker 1: for future actions, but you're trying to analyze what's going
Speaker 1: on here and taking the clues that are being presented
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 2: Definitely, and it really is like learning a language. And
Speaker 2: the language that you're going to be learning does include
Speaker 2: the things that Rick and I are sharing today, but
Speaker 2: it also includes the things that you will observe in
Speaker 2: your own garden. And that's really what gardening is all about. Now.
Speaker 2: Most of the plants that we have discussed so far
Speaker 2: as trigger plants. We've been talking about the changes that
Speaker 2: they undergo due to a result of some sort of stress.
Speaker 2: But today's plant on trial is a trigger plant that
Speaker 2: what changes about it is something that actually makes the
Speaker 2: plant more attractive when the trigger happens. I can see
Speaker 2: Adriana's wheels are turning back there. I don't know if
Speaker 2: I'm not explaining this well, but when I announced today's
Speaker 2: plant on trial, in one second, it's going to dawn
Speaker 2: right on her. Because today's plan on trial is pinky
Speaker 2: winky hydrangea. Yes, she's nodding, so pinky winky, if you're
Speaker 2: not familiar with it, is a panical hydrangea, and this
Speaker 2: is one of the earliest panicle high ranges that we introduced.
Speaker 2: Now I have to like take you back in time
Speaker 2: for a moment here Before Limelight came on the market
Speaker 2: in the nineteen nineties, panicle hydranges like PG or tart
Speaker 2: of A, they barely turned color, you know, they kind
Speaker 2: of sort of took on like a little bit of
Speaker 2: pink at the end of the season, but it was
Speaker 2: not a main feature. Since Limelight, there has been a
Speaker 2: real trend over these last couple decades to select panicle
Speaker 2: hydranges that start out white and then take on better
Speaker 2: and better color. And I think you really see that
Speaker 2: across the proven winners color choice hydrangees that are subsequent introductions.
Speaker 2: For the most part, there's a couple exceptions have had
Speaker 2: better and better color and just briefly so I don't
Speaker 2: forget those couple of exceptions don't change color because some
Speaker 2: people don't actually want the color to change. So that
Speaker 2: would really be a puffer fish hydrangea and to a
Speaker 2: lesser extent, Bobo, which does take on some pink, but
Speaker 2: so some people don't like it. But most people when
Speaker 2: they buy that panicle hydrangel, what they really want is
Speaker 2: that pink color and pinky Winky was really I think
Speaker 2: one of the very first panicle hydrangeas to kind of
Speaker 2: make its main benefit or main feature this color. Now,
Speaker 2: let's talk about that trigger, because when you buy a
Speaker 2: pinky Winky hydrangea, it's going to start to flower. It's
Speaker 2: going to have a big, huge, beautiful it's honestly one
Speaker 2: of the biggest panicle hydrange of the flowers are enormous,
Speaker 2: the stems are huge and thick like reebar. Beautiful plant.
Speaker 2: Not a great choice for cut flowers unless you have
Speaker 2: a massive vase. Ask me how I know. But so
Speaker 2: they come out with these beautiful lace cap white flowers
Speaker 2: and then you know, about mid summer, or sorry, about
Speaker 2: mid August, what's going to start to happen is the
Speaker 2: flowers are going to start to shade from the bottom
Speaker 2: towards the top, from deep pink to light pink to
Speaker 2: white at the top, and then gradually, as the season progresses,
Speaker 2: it will go completely pink. Now, when this happens in
Speaker 2: mid August, you're probably on your summer vacation, reading a
Speaker 2: juicy book by the pool or on the beach, and
Speaker 2: you're like, this is the high of summer. This is amazing. Well, actually,
Speaker 2: from the plant's point of view, it's fall, yes, because
Speaker 2: what has triggered this color change is the shorter nights
Speaker 2: and cooler nights that happened by August. Now I wanted
Speaker 2: to kind of get some context for this, and so
Speaker 2: just to help you understand, and this is just just
Speaker 2: using grand Haven, so it will be different in other areas.
Speaker 2: But on the summer solstice in grand Haven we have
Speaker 2: almost seventeen hours of day length. That's how long our
Speaker 2: days are. So by our June twentieth or so, little
Speaker 2: under seventeen hours. By the time mid August rolls around,
Speaker 2: we are under fifteen hours, so it's about fourteen hours
Speaker 2: and forty five minutes of day length. So by the
Speaker 2: time mid August rolls around, you have a night that's
Speaker 2: basically longer by ninety or so minutes. And that's what's
Speaker 2: actually triggering that. So's those longer nights and the cooler temperatures.
Speaker 2: Why the cooler temperatures because as I've said many times
Speaker 2: on the show, plants synthesize their pigments at night, and
Speaker 2: when it's cool, they can synthesize their pigments more effectively
Speaker 2: and they get brighter. So this is triggered by long,
Speaker 2: cool nights, not a problem for us here in Michigan. Now,
Speaker 2: many of our friends in warm climates they grow panicle
Speaker 2: hydrangees and they never turn color. They're just so disappointed,
Speaker 2: and they're like, what gives. Well, a couple of issues here.
Speaker 2: First of all, because you live in a warmer climate,
Speaker 2: your panicle hydrange is bloom much earlier than they do
Speaker 2: for us here. For us, panicle hydrangees, the first ones,
Speaker 2: which are the quick fire hydrangs, those will usually be
Speaker 2: first blooming around fourth of July, but most of them
Speaker 2: were looking more like mid to late July for that
Speaker 2: initial bloom. You live in a warm climate, you're looking
Speaker 2: at probably early to mid June. So now what that
Speaker 2: means is that as those blooms are starting to age,
Speaker 2: instead of that happening in August, where your day length
Speaker 2: is now almost two hours shorter than before, it's happening
Speaker 2: in July, during your hottest period of the entire year.
Speaker 2: So your nights are still quite long, your nighttime temperatures
Speaker 2: are still really high, very often in the South, you know,
Speaker 2: typically in the seventies or higher. We're talking about places
Speaker 2: that are too hot to even grow tomatoes, because tomatoes
Speaker 2: can't really grow where nighttime temperatures are consistently in the
Speaker 2: eighties and so you don't get that color. So this
Speaker 2: is a trigger again that you can't control. And I
Speaker 2: know this is sometimes confusing for people because of course hydrangees,
Speaker 2: as we've talked about many times. You know, there's all
Speaker 2: this confusion because they're all different. And some people say, well,
Speaker 2: panicle hydrangees change color, must be the soil chemistry like
Speaker 2: with big leaf hydranges, But no, it's entirely weather and
Speaker 2: day length triggered. So unfortunately, nothing you can really do.
Speaker 2: If you live in a hot climate, you either have
Speaker 2: to resign yourself to not enjoying those beautiful pink colors,
Speaker 2: or if you are an experimental gardener, you could play
Speaker 2: around with pruning it. You could play around with pruning
Speaker 2: it a little bit later in the spring. Don't want
Speaker 2: to go too late. Of course it's too late for
Speaker 2: this now, but you don't want to go too late,
Speaker 2: and that will help to delay the bloom. And if
Speaker 2: you're able to push that bloom further into July so
Speaker 2: that you can kind of take advantage of that downswing
Speaker 2: on the nighttime temperatures, you might be able to enjoy
Speaker 2: that color.
Speaker 1: It's a form of Chelsea chop.
Speaker 2: It is kind of like a Chelsea chop.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And when they turn color like that here in
Speaker 1: the North in August into September, I always get this
Speaker 1: kind of melancholy feel.
Speaker 2: Because you know, you know what it's triggering. Other people
Speaker 2: are like, this is great at summer, and you're like, oh, shoot,
Speaker 2: my hydraene hit turned pink fall is on the way.
Speaker 1: It's like back to school time.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, like moms at the garden center.
Speaker 1: Mom's the word.
Speaker 2: So anyway, it's a great trigger plant. This is a
Speaker 2: case where the trigger works in our favor. And this
Speaker 2: isn't true just of today's plan on trial Pinky Winky.
Speaker 2: I picked Pinky Winky, like I said, because it really
Speaker 2: was the first of all panicle hydranges in the current
Speaker 2: era to really be sold for that color change. But
Speaker 2: there's tons more Pinky Winky prime. The new version of
Speaker 2: it has even better color, so you can find that
Speaker 2: at your local garden center. We're talking about hardy down
Speaker 2: to USDA Zone three heat tolerant through USDA Zone eight.
Speaker 2: They can grow on zone nine, but definitely not getting
Speaker 2: any color in USDA Zone nine, so bear that in
Speaker 2: mind as you decide whether you're going to add Pinky
Speaker 2: Winky or any of the Perfuminer's panicle hydranges to your garden.
Speaker 2: We're gonna take a little break. When we come back,
Speaker 2: we're opening up the mail bag, so please stay tuned
Speaker 2: at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. We know that a
Speaker 2: better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team of
Speaker 2: experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs in
Speaker 2: evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure they outperform
Speaker 2: what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs
Speaker 2: to accentuate your home and express your personal style. Look
Speaker 2: for Proven Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container at
Speaker 2: your local garden center, or learn more at proven Winner's
Speaker 2: Color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back
Speaker 2: to the Gardening Simplified Show, where I'm going to kick
Speaker 2: off mailbag where we normally answer your questions, and we
Speaker 2: will be answering some questions, but I'm going to kick
Speaker 2: it off with a little bit of a rant.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, here we go.
Speaker 2: And the rant that I have on this episode is
Speaker 2: about plant id apps. Now, I want to say, first
Speaker 2: of all, I do not begrudge anybody who uses a
Speaker 2: plant ID app anymore than a very serious burder would
Speaker 2: be grudge me for using Merlin, And hopefully you don't
Speaker 2: begrudge me because it is a game changer. And similarly,
Speaker 2: I appreciate that people want to use these apps and
Speaker 2: find out, you know, what the plant is. And they
Speaker 2: have improved immensely. I remember when these things came out
Speaker 2: and they were like a joke, you know. But obviously
Speaker 2: with AI and as more and more data has come
Speaker 2: onto the Internet for them to train these apps off of,
Speaker 2: they have generally gotten better, but they are far from perfect.
Speaker 2: And so I would encourage you, if you are someone
Speaker 2: who uses a plant ID app, to definitely take that
Speaker 2: with a grain of salt. So I had a message
Speaker 2: from a listener and she said that they had cleared
Speaker 2: out a bunch of you know, old weeds and brush
Speaker 2: and everything around their property. Stuff started to recover and
Speaker 2: she didn't know what this one plant was and she
Speaker 2: used her plant Idea app and it said it was
Speaker 2: ground ivy, which is a weed. You know, it's a
Speaker 2: kind of a bad obnoxious weed. Also called creeping Charlie,
Speaker 2: and she said, but I looked that up after it
Speaker 2: said that, and that just doesn't seem like what it is.
Speaker 2: What is it? And it was a native scuttalaria, So
Speaker 2: I mean not like a rare native plant or anything
Speaker 2: like that, but like certainly a plant that is well
Speaker 2: worth keeping. But you know, this plant id app probably
Speaker 2: has identified obviously is a lot more likely to come
Speaker 2: into contact with creeping Charlie than with scuttalarias. So it's
Speaker 2: not really even I don't want to call it mindset,
Speaker 2: but it's not even in its you know, database to access. Now,
Speaker 2: there is another app, and I don't know if you
Speaker 2: get ads for this on Facebook, but they do advertise
Speaker 2: it to me on Facebook, and oh does it make
Speaker 2: my blood boil? So it is a plant id app,
Speaker 2: and it claims that if something is wrong with your plant,
Speaker 2: it will tell you what's wrong with your plant. That's
Speaker 2: all well and good. I mean again, you're gonna have
Speaker 2: to take that with a grain of salt, because there
Speaker 2: are just so many things. And also, as we've ascertained
Speaker 2: on the show, you know, probably at least half the
Speaker 2: time when someone has a plant problem, it's water related.
Speaker 2: So you know, it has a pretty good shot at
Speaker 2: being right if it's telling you that your problem is
Speaker 2: related to the water that the plant is getting. But no, no,
Speaker 2: this particular app takes it one step further and tells
Speaker 2: you what you should do. And the solutions, as have
Speaker 2: been advertised to me in this app have involved things
Speaker 2: like adding sugar to the soil, sprinkle with cinnamon, right,
Speaker 2: and so all they're trying to do is to I
Speaker 2: don't know what they're trying to do. They're there. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: But think about it here a minute. So we live
Speaker 1: in a world of AI.
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, I'm afraid, so, yeah, I'm afraid.
Speaker 1: So and if you ask, for example, I was looking
Speaker 1: at a study. If you ask people like me baby bloomers,
Speaker 1: they essentially think, nah, this stuff is never going to
Speaker 1: take over, you know, care for the garden. It's always
Speaker 1: going to be a people thing. Not everybody feels that way.
Speaker 1: And of course, in the horticulture and agricultural industries, AI
Speaker 1: has really taken a hold sensors for watering, machine vision
Speaker 1: to identify problems, et cetera, et cetera. But that's on
Speaker 1: a big scale. When are we going to get to
Speaker 1: the point where for the general homeowner they're able to
Speaker 1: use this AI technology or apps to truly determine whether
Speaker 1: or not the plant needs to be watered or not,
Speaker 1: or what the problem is. And I would agree with you,
Speaker 1: we're not there yet.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that the main thing is just like
Speaker 2: there is no substitute for experience, and if you are
Speaker 2: a gardener or on your journey to becoming a gardener,
Speaker 2: you know you really don't just want everything to be
Speaker 2: figured out for you. You have to learn it yourself.
Speaker 2: And that's really I think a lot of what the
Speaker 2: trigger plant thing is about, too, is like starting to
Speaker 2: read that language and understand how to fix, how to
Speaker 2: notice when things are going wrong, of the conditions that
Speaker 2: influenced your plants, and and act on them accordingly. So
Speaker 2: by all means, use them, learn from them, take them
Speaker 2: with a grain of salt, and take especially their so
Speaker 2: called solutions to your plant problems with a grain of salt.
Speaker 2: Even more so if you have to pay and they're
Speaker 2: selling you something, well, and.
Speaker 1: You're preaching to the choir. Because I'm a sixty five
Speaker 1: year old man who has been in the garden industry
Speaker 1: for fifty years, I don't want to be replaced by
Speaker 1: an app. I want I like that experience thing. Whatever
Speaker 1: you said, so that, well, you know what fall in
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 2: An app is unlikely knock on wood to have your
Speaker 2: sense of humor. So at least you've got that going
Speaker 2: sense of humous all right, So sorry about that. What
Speaker 2: do we got in the mailbag?
Speaker 1: James writes, Hi, I enjoy watching your show on YouTube
Speaker 1: every week, going back over the last couple of years
Speaker 1: of information, great gardening knowledge and fun. My question is
Speaker 1: about a hosta that's been in the spot for ten
Speaker 1: years keeps getting bigger. I don't divide, it just keeps growing.
Speaker 1: I'm watching with interest this year that a few of
Speaker 1: the leaves are coming in with variegation. Haven't seen this before?
Speaker 1: Is it possible to cross pollinate from other hostas that
Speaker 1: are variegated in my garden? Or is it reverting to
Speaker 1: something else?
Speaker 2: Right? So interesting situation. What you are seeing there, James,
Speaker 2: is something called a sport and it is a offset
Speaker 2: or a branch. It happens in shrubs and trees as
Speaker 2: well of the plant that just takes on some different genes.
Speaker 2: This is just a genetic phenomenon. It has nothing to
Speaker 2: do with cross pollination, because the only way that like
Speaker 2: cross pollination could happen would be if it grows from seed. Now,
Speaker 2: it is certainly possible for hostas to self sew. It
Speaker 2: happens quite a lot at my in laws house where
Speaker 2: they have a lot of hostas, and I see those
Speaker 2: popping up like weeds everywhere. It's a wild thing to see.
Speaker 2: But no, it's just the plant that you know, it's
Speaker 2: jeans are jumping around. You can read more about it.
Speaker 2: It's called transposons. This is also the cause of like
Speaker 2: those corns that have all the different colors, those are
Speaker 2: also caused by transposons. And it's also how we got
Speaker 2: variegated hostas in the first place.
Speaker 1: Sure, absolutely, and a.
Speaker 2: Lot of varigated plants. I would say most irrigated plants
Speaker 2: do actually start as sports. So it's not reverting, it's
Speaker 2: just doing something different there. And you can, if you wish,
Speaker 2: take out that little part that's variegated, you know, dig
Speaker 2: it out and grow it on its own. It will
Speaker 2: grow better if it's detached from the much more vigorous
Speaker 2: all green version that you have.
Speaker 1: Give it a really cool name, start marketing it, and
Speaker 1: give us ten percent of the royal.
Speaker 2: You never know what it'll turn into, but it's totally
Speaker 2: normal and nothing to be concerned about.
Speaker 1: And usually when you see that variegation, you're so right, Stacey,
Speaker 1: it's not the pollination. Usually you're looking at a genetic mutation,
Speaker 1: or a viral infection, or an environmental change, and nine
Speaker 1: times out of ten, probably a genetic music. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: Susan writes to us Hi, Rick and Stacy. I love
Speaker 1: watching your show every Saturday morning. It's so much fun
Speaker 1: listening to the two of you, and on top of that,
Speaker 1: I learned so much. Well, thank you, Susan, appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I was hoping you could tell me to do it
Speaker 1: or don't do it. Live in Southern Ontario, Canada's on
Speaker 1: six A. Last week, I had twenty six green gem
Speaker 1: boxwoods planted, but I noticed the boxwood are quite pale
Speaker 1: compared to my neighbor's green gem as well as my
Speaker 1: green velvet in my yard. I wondered if some fertilizer
Speaker 1: might help. Do it or don't do it. I'd like
Speaker 1: to trim a little a little, but was suggested I
Speaker 1: wait a year. I'm dying to do it. Do it
Speaker 1: or don't do it. I appreciate your advice.
Speaker 2: Right, So, a couple of things here. To answer your
Speaker 2: first question about the pale foliage, I would not do
Speaker 2: anything about it right now. You have to realize when
Speaker 2: a plant has made the transition, because these are newly
Speaker 2: planted from the garden center to your yard, it has
Speaker 2: undergone a major change in the way that it was kept.
Speaker 2: And boxwood are generally considered a shade crop in growers
Speaker 2: and retailers, and it was probably under shade, and now
Speaker 2: it's out there in the great wild and it's getting sun.
Speaker 2: And the plants actually make different types of chlorophyll depending
Speaker 2: on how much sun or shade they get, so it
Speaker 2: probably has more of what would be known as the
Speaker 2: shade type chlorophyll, and it's trying to adapt to what
Speaker 2: is now a much sunnier spot. And that's why your
Speaker 2: plants that are already established and growing in those conditions
Speaker 2: look perfectly lovely. This plant, meanwhile, needs some time to
Speaker 2: adapt to the conditions and the light levels that it's
Speaker 2: actually growing in. And that's just part of a plant
Speaker 2: getting established.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's part of a plant getting established. And also
Speaker 1: I would say that I have found with boxwood. They
Speaker 1: do like a well drained soil. They don't like to
Speaker 1: sit in water. I'm not saying that that's the situation here,
Speaker 1: but you can get pale foliage if you're not getting
Speaker 1: good drainage. You're going to want to water them well
Speaker 1: initially to get them established.
Speaker 2: But you got to if you especially if you have
Speaker 2: clay soil, you need to make sure that you know
Speaker 2: it's not staying too wet. They also do prefer it
Speaker 2: a little bit more on the neutral to alkaline side.
Speaker 2: But again, when something is new, as long as it's
Speaker 2: not a water issue, I would definitely wait and see.
Speaker 2: You can start fertilizing it next spring, just to help
Speaker 2: it get established more quickly. But I don't think fertilizer
Speaker 2: is likely to be the solution to what you're seeing
Speaker 2: right now. Now. Ask for Susan's question about trimming, what
Speaker 2: would you say.
Speaker 1: I would say, don't trim right now, give them a season.
Speaker 1: You don't want to trim them just before winter and
Speaker 1: stimulate some new growth that's just going to die back anyhow,
Speaker 1: So I just let them go for now, that's my opinion.
Speaker 1: Trim them next.
Speaker 2: Year, yeah, I would say, I understand you're dying to
Speaker 2: do it, Susan, But I would also wait. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's important to realize that when you trim something, you
Speaker 2: expose a lot of stem surface that's going to be
Speaker 2: giving off water vapor, and that can really kind of
Speaker 2: contribute to some stress. The plant's already putting all of
Speaker 2: its energies into growing roots in its new home, so
Speaker 2: in my opinion, the best thing to do for it
Speaker 2: is to try to leave it alone. If there's a
Speaker 2: couple of stems out there that are just really driving
Speaker 2: you're crazy, you have my permission to cut those, but
Speaker 2: I would not get the hedge clippers out, just some
Speaker 2: selective pruting.
Speaker 1: Love it, And we got a note from Mary try
Speaker 1: and move that into a segment four us. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you this question.
Speaker 2: Okay, sounds good. We'll see if I'm triggered. So we're
Speaker 2: gonna take a little break and when we come back,
Speaker 2: we will be hearing that question as well as continuing
Speaker 2: our conversation on trigger plants. Thanks for listening to the
Speaker 2: Gardening Simplified podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners Color
Speaker 2: Choice Shrubs, our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are
Speaker 2: trialed and tested by experts with your success in mind.
Speaker 2: Learn more at Proven Winners color choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
Speaker 1: branching news. Before we talk further on trigger plants, Stacey
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you a question. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about it this past weekend as I
Speaker 1: was sitting on the the Volvo loader loading car and
Speaker 1: pickup truck and trailer after trailer with bark mulch. We
Speaker 1: got a question from Mary asking about dyed mulch. Mary's
Speaker 1: always used natural triple shredded hardwood and some of that
Speaker 1: almost can be like dust, but she likes the look
Speaker 1: of black mulch in the landscape and wanted to know
Speaker 1: if there's any harm in it. Is it a good
Speaker 1: idea to use black mulch? And you know, I'm thinking
Speaker 1: again about hot weather. Do you think with black mulch
Speaker 1: it puts a little extra stress on the plants or
Speaker 1: do you think probably.
Speaker 2: Not well, whether it stresses the plants, I couldn't say,
Speaker 2: but it absolutely will increase the temperature around the plant.
Speaker 2: There's no question about that, just because just because you
Speaker 2: know black, just like if you go to the beach
Speaker 2: and have a big old black beach towel that you're
Speaker 2: laying on, you will be a lot warmer than if
Speaker 2: you were laying out there on white you know or something.
Speaker 2: And there you go. So it will absolutely raise the temperature.
Speaker 2: And I can tell you as you know, I replaced
Speaker 2: my lawn with mulch as we're kind of refiguring our
Speaker 2: garden and I have lots of lots of beds. I
Speaker 2: really only have mulch paths and then planting surrounded by mulch.
Speaker 2: We actually took a laser thermometer out there and we
Speaker 2: just have regular, regular bark mulch. It's not triple shredded,
Speaker 2: just kind of a coarse landscape bark mulch natural. And
Speaker 2: the difference in temperature was about ten degrees warmer on
Speaker 2: the mulch than on our concrete. So even regular mulch,
Speaker 2: you know, and it's not till decomposing, it's it's you know,
Speaker 2: done mostly decomposing. But mulch, you know, can raise the temperature.
Speaker 2: And so yeah, that black mulch will definitely you know,
Speaker 2: in absorb more heat. Now for us here in Michigan,
Speaker 2: probably not a huge deal. You'd want to be careful
Speaker 2: around any very sensitive plants, of course, But you know
Speaker 2: I would say I am I am a no on
Speaker 2: dyed mulch in general, but could make an exception for
Speaker 2: black mulch because I do get why people like the
Speaker 2: look of it. Okay, you know it can look quite uh,
Speaker 2: quite sophisticated, I suppose. But that said, mulch is not
Speaker 2: necessarily an aesthetic choice. It is a plant health choice.
Speaker 2: And so you know, you got to get into a
Speaker 2: situation where you're like, Okay, I'm just prioritizing what this
Speaker 2: looks like to me, but you know, red dyed mulch
Speaker 2: is an absolute no go. Any brown eyed mulch, like
Speaker 2: what are you even doing? Mulch is going to be
Speaker 2: brown and then kind of age to gray, and of course,
Speaker 2: you know there's some environmental concerns. I think. You know,
Speaker 2: they're putting all this dye onto the mulch and you're
Speaker 2: working in it, and you know there's just no need
Speaker 2: for all of that to leach into the ground. So
Speaker 2: dyed mulch is a definite no for me. Red and
Speaker 2: dyed brown mulch are verboten. Black mulch. I get why
Speaker 2: you'd want to do it. I personally would not, but
Speaker 2: I do understand that.
Speaker 1: I've always used natural hardwood mulch. Now it does bring
Speaker 1: up a point, so hopefully that helps you marry, So
Speaker 1: you could do it, but I think it does bring
Speaker 1: up the temperature a little bit. Yeah, trigger plants a trigger.
Speaker 1: Let's say a trigger fung guy in the landscape is
Speaker 1: slime mold.
Speaker 2: Oh so much slime mold right now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And as the weather gets hot and humid, and
Speaker 1: you can stir it up and then it reshaved. You know,
Speaker 1: really cool stuff. Looks like a bottle of Frenches mustard
Speaker 1: that a dog threw up in the in the bark mulch.
Speaker 1: But it's an indication that maybe your mulch is hydrophobic
Speaker 1: and that you need to stir the mulch. So it's
Speaker 1: a good thing to look for and use that as
Speaker 1: a trigger in the landscape.
Speaker 2: You know what I love about this? So, yeah, this
Speaker 2: is a mulch. This is a mold also known as
Speaker 2: the dog vomit fungus. Every year you hear questions about
Speaker 2: it because people are like, ah, what's going on. It
Speaker 2: is actually a slime mold. It is just living off
Speaker 2: the mulch. So when I see it in my mulch paths,
Speaker 2: which are just there is to basically keep down weeds
Speaker 2: and conserve the soil. I don't worry about it too much.
Speaker 2: I just see that as the as the mult decomposing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I love about it? When it
Speaker 2: starts to like burst open and you water it and
Speaker 2: all that like water runs off, but then the spores
Speaker 2: are coming out. Oh, I love that. I was just
Speaker 2: doing a bunch of that last weekend.
Speaker 1: It is fun. Set up some lawn chairs and watch it.
Speaker 2: Right, but not macrome.
Speaker 1: Lunch on a macro may launchair. Leave that inside that's
Speaker 1: a little warm. The I love drip tips on plants. Now,
Speaker 1: drip tips, that's another phrase of mind. But allocacias, you know,
Speaker 1: we both love the coffee cups allocation. But many tropical
Speaker 1: plants will indicate to you when the weather is very,
Speaker 1: very humid. Not that you need an indicator to know that.
Speaker 1: Forgive me, I'm only humid. But these tropical plants. Look
Speaker 1: at them once, Alocacias, Ladium's, collocacia, they all naturally form
Speaker 1: foliage that produces a drip tip. And my theory is
Speaker 1: it's because they grow well in hot and humid.
Speaker 2: Areas, and you know, it's just a way to kind
Speaker 2: of funnel the water down towards the roots in an
Speaker 2: area where there could be a very dense undergrowth and
Speaker 2: they would be competing for it. So they're like, hey,
Speaker 2: this is mine. I'm funneling it right down to the roots.
Speaker 2: Or baby, you got it.
Speaker 1: Another trigger plant. My landscape never fails, always works. I
Speaker 1: can walk into my back landscape. I'll walk right up
Speaker 1: to the tractor seat ligularity.
Speaker 2: Ah, yeah, that thing.
Speaker 1: The minute we're starting to see some stress in the landscape,
Speaker 1: that thing choose me out royal. So my tractor seat,
Speaker 1: my tractor seat ligular area caliber coas. I think that
Speaker 1: they're drama Queen's here's a plant that will talk to you, citrus.
Speaker 1: If you have a citrus plant like out on your deck,
Speaker 1: the green veining, the chlorosis in the full citrus plants
Speaker 1: talk to.
Speaker 2: You yes, and mostly what it says is I don't
Speaker 2: like it here and I'm dying.
Speaker 1: I want to go back to Florida. Menarda flocks they
Speaker 1: have a strong pronounced mid rib, but they also wear
Speaker 1: their emotions on their sleeves or on their leaves and
Speaker 1: then you start to see things like powdery mildew.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's you know, that's an interesting one too, because
Speaker 2: I think Manarda is of course notorious for getting powdery mildew,
Speaker 2: even though a lot of the newer cultivars, especially the
Speaker 2: proven Winter's ones, are much more powdery mildew resistant than
Speaker 2: the older ones. If your Manada is consistently getting powdery mildew,
Speaker 2: that probably means it's pretty stressed. And so that would
Speaker 2: be a trigger for you that like, hey, this is
Speaker 2: not a great situation for this particular plant, and you
Speaker 2: want to move it to someplace where you know it
Speaker 2: doesn't undergo water stress. Because that's what I find is
Speaker 2: someone who does give my plants a lot of water stress,
Speaker 2: not on purpose, just because you know, I'm not into
Speaker 2: spending a bunch of money on watering my plants when
Speaker 2: I can just grow stuff that actually tolerates my yard.
Speaker 2: I have found. Yeah, if they if they get too
Speaker 2: dry over and over again, they break out with powdery mildew.
Speaker 2: They're just like, I'm too stressed. The powdery mildew is
Speaker 2: taken over vegetable plants.
Speaker 1: Vegetable plant garden is a great place to look for
Speaker 1: trigger plants. Tomatoes, of course talk to you. The zippering
Speaker 1: of the fruit, the blossom en rot. Maybe it's a
Speaker 1: calcium deficiency. Maybe the problem is that it's drying out
Speaker 1: in between watering. But tomatoes will talk to you. Cucumbers
Speaker 1: squash any of the que curvets when it relates to
Speaker 1: humid weather and downy mildew, powdery mildew, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: I suggest people take a look at their trees. Take
Speaker 1: a close look at your trees, and just don't ignore them.
Speaker 1: You'll look up into the canopy. I saw it this
Speaker 1: past week again, greening of the veins, but yellow foliage,
Speaker 1: or the foliage is thin at the top of the tree,
Speaker 1: or you look up into the canopy and you see
Speaker 1: that telltale sign of tar spot and you recognize that
Speaker 1: you need to increase the light and air movement through
Speaker 1: the canopy of that tree with some pruning and then stacey.
Speaker 1: Of course, when it comes to trigger plants, some of
Speaker 1: the best trigger plants in the landscape are the actual
Speaker 1: weeds themselves.
Speaker 2: Ah, that's a good point. I didn't even think about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, moss will indicate you have compacted soil. If the
Speaker 1: soil shape and shade. If the soil is way too wet,
Speaker 1: you're going to start to see horsetail, white clover. There's
Speaker 1: an indication that your mowing height isn't right. And in
Speaker 1: addition to that, there's a lack of nitrogen in the soil.
Speaker 2: Because it can because it can grow in a lack
Speaker 2: of nitrogen, whereas other plants can't necessarily do that exactly.
Speaker 2: But a lot of people also just like to have
Speaker 2: clover in their lawn because it looks lovely.
Speaker 1: Sure, So a lot of plants I look for, and
Speaker 1: a lot of weeds which are often in indication that
Speaker 1: there's something wrong with the soil. You look at plantain,
Speaker 1: and many times that's growing in nutrient deficient, heavy clay soils,
Speaker 1: a soil that needs to be air rated, black medic
Speaker 1: spurge red soil all indicate very dry soil. So I
Speaker 1: would suggest that you learn more about these weeds and
Speaker 1: use weeds like I do to help you read the
Speaker 1: tea leaves, so to speak as to what's going on
Speaker 1: in your less.
Speaker 2: What does nuts edge mean?
Speaker 1: Nuts edge means very wet, well drained soil.
Speaker 2: Oh see, I don't know what soil at all, and
Speaker 2: I have tons of nutsage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do too, so it's got I.
Speaker 2: Don't think anyone can avoid that sage. It was a
Speaker 2: trick question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's drainage. Though it does like a
Speaker 1: well drained soil.
Speaker 2: It definitely likes my yard and it gets no supplemental water,
Speaker 2: but it does not seem to stop it. The good
Speaker 2: thing is it's easy to pull and kind of satisfying
Speaker 2: to pull too.
Speaker 1: Exactly. I love it too. It's therapeutic. Well, thanks for
Speaker 1: reading the tea leaves with us this week. I hope
Speaker 1: it was helpful and you're seeing some triggers in your landscape.
Speaker 1: Thanks Stacey, thank you Rick, thank you Adriana, and thank
Speaker 1: you to you for watching us on YouTube, listening to
Speaker 1: the radio show version, and looking for us wherever you
Speaker 1: get your favorite podcast. See us soon