Speaker 1: Coming to you from Studio A here at Proven Winners
Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified podcast,
radio and YouTube show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist,
and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, it's time
to extend the season. We talked in previous weeks about
how data shows that our growing seasons are getting longer. Well,
you can enjoy the beauty longer with holiday clippings, and
we're thankful for another great growing year, and we harvest
the cuttings from the landscape to celebrate with bows and
arrangements and entry porch pots and swags and wreaths and
indoor arrangements. You can decorate on a budget use landscape clippings. Stacy,
let's keep the party going.
Speaker 2: I agree completely. You know, everybody's running around at the
store getting this, getting that. Need flowers, need points out,
I need this. But really, even if you have, you know,
a very modest kind of landscape or garden, I guarantee
you there as so much potential sitting right there in
your yard that you can use to make all of
these things extra special, or to make them in the
first place. You know, and It just takes little creativity
and a little bit of looking at the plants around you,
maybe with a different eye than you do in the
spring or summer. But I think the most important thing
that people need to know is that, yes, you can
absolutely cut from this stuff within reason. You know, we're
not talking about going out there and scalping your arbor idy,
you know, to make a garland to go down your
dramatic staircase. We're talking about a little bit of clippings
here and there to just spruce up the holiday table.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, or in my limb a rick today I
will address possibly going over to the neighbor's house and
taking a few clippings. But however you do it, Yes,
holiday clippings to make things festive. I personally think holiday
hanging baskets are lots of fun to make. I've made
a lot of them over the course of my life.
I love making holiday hanging baskets because they're almost like
Christmas ornaments hanging there. And we have some pictures of
some of my baskets for the website Gardening Simplified on
air dot com. Of course, if you're watching on YouTube
also you can see these baskets and Stacy. The great
thing about these holiday baskets of clippings you don't have
to water them.
Speaker 2: Oh you gotta love that. You definitely don't want to
be watering anything in winter I slicks underneath. It's just
a bad scene all around.
Speaker 1: So clippings from the landscape, everything from ornamental grasses to evergreens.
As a matter of fact, we'll show you a picture
here too of a dark eyed junko that was on
my miscanthus just picking away at the seeds this week.
The wildlife love it, and of course we can create
some really cool arrangements with it. Stacy rose hips and
calikarpa buried stems. And then of course you know you
got to go to holly holly, whether it's broad leaf
evergreen holly or the deciduous.
Speaker 2: Holly as is depicted here in our arrangement in studio.
If you are on YouTube, you will see that holly
is a great choice. And you know that this winterbury
holly I've talked about it in the past is so
abundant throughout Michigan, just growing wild.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: No, granted, you can't go to someone else's property and
just start cutting their winterbury holly like there's no tomorrow.
But if you happen to be near some that you
can cut, it's a great way to just have a
little bit of color and wildness and all of that
in your holiday table.
Speaker 1: Colors, amazing pine cones, of course, pine and fur. For me,
Christmas is fur. The scent of fur. I just love it.
And of course they have the thick and waxy needles,
so they've got great needle retention too.
Speaker 2: So all those years in the garden center didn't ruin
fur for you.
Speaker 1: Well, Ash, I'll tell you what ruined it for me,
and we're going to cover that in Branching News. I'll
tell you what ruined it for me. The smell of
cinnamon scented pine cone.
Speaker 2: Oh that's the worst. And why do the stores, thank you?
And why do the stores always put them in like
the foyer or like the you know, the opening to
the store. So you're in that tiny, little, you know,
condensed area. The heat's blasting because it's cold outside, and
you just get like overwhelmed with this like fake cinnamon scent.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people walk out with a migraine.
So we'll cover that in Branching News. But I'm so
glad you feel that way, Stacy. Sassafras, red and gold
twig dogwood. Of course, Stacy, you've talked on the show
before about.
Speaker 2: Arctic fire, and yeah, I love Arctic fire. And you know,
the red twig dogwood is another one that grows abundantly
around just around Michigan. You can't hardly throw a stick
without running into into one in a natural area. But
I'm really glad that you mentioned the sassafras because I
think we talked about this last year as well, and
that has also been added to our arrangement in studio
because of you, Rick. And it's not something I would
normally think of including, but it looks so cool. The
stems are kind of green, the buds are very very
unique and noticeable, and you know that's something that like,
you know, sassafras is almost is probably at least as
ubiquitous as red twig dogwood, and a bit more ubiquitous
than the winterbury holly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And there's so many things again, if you're
just creative about it. You know, I mentioned the ornamental
grass inflorescence and seedum's willow panicle, hydrangeous stems, boxwood, southern magnolia, cami, cypress,
birch branches, you know, for outdoor arrangements, not indoors, but
outdoor arrangements, Stacey, I even like to look for branches
that are completely covered in lichens.
Speaker 2: Oh I love that. Yeah, I would put those inside. Actually,
would you like it? I do? I love it? I
mean I wish it would last longer, but it's so pretty.
And you named a lot of things like the panicle
hydrangeas stems that are kind of brown. And if you
feel like that is a bit too dismal for your
holiday table, you know, you can always just use a
little bit of spray paint. Sure, I'm not usually a
big fan of gilding the lily when it comes to nature,
as it were. But you know, this is the main
thing I think is that all of these ideas are
a great way to either keep your kids busy on
a holiday when they're sitting around board, you can send
them out into the backyard with some inspiration, or you know,
just as a way for you to find some solace
amid the hecticness of the holiday and to share your
garden in a way that you don't usually.
Speaker 1: Get to exactly keep the season going for our friends
in the South, Nandina is often used, and then stacy.
Sometimes you'll see an arrangement sumac, but I don't recommend
that because for a lot of people they can get
a nasty rash from soup.
Speaker 2: Oh is that so? I didn't know that. But it
is messy. It is at this time of year. Even
if it still has some berries clinging to it, they
kind of have those little hairs everywhere and that could
be a little bit. No one needs a bigger mess
on Thanksgiving. We're not trying to make a bigger mess
for you. We're trying to give you a little something
to make the day more memorable. And again to bring
the garden inside, because it is the end of the season.
It's about harvest, and the harvest isn't just about food,
it is about the garden as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Now, think about using anti dessicant sprays for
your arrangements. It's basically pine resin. Don't use floor wax
or hair spray like aquanette. I've seen people do it.
I do wrack up.
Speaker 2: No, it would just get sticky right and and then
like dust and stuff would stick to it.
Speaker 1: And don't do that. If you're cutting from your own landscape,
be cautious not to cut too much. Like Stacy said,
we're just taking some clippings and use some caution toosionally
inspect your clippings because well, bugs can be over wintering
and you bring them inside that that's going to really
add to them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'll be fun. The cattle go crazy, distract everybody
from all the talk of politics at the holiday table.
So maybe you do want to bring in the bugs.
I don't know. Up to you.
Speaker 1: If you clip some evergreen branches, maybe put them in
water before you use them in your arrangement. You want
to try and keep them nice and hydrated. And along
the lines of evergreen branches. I like using mixed evergreens.
I think it really adds to both the aroma and
the appearance. So if you're mixing spruce with douglas, fur
with fur, with pine with juniper, I really think that
that adds to the arrangements. Bearing in mind that shorter
needled evergreens like hemlock or spruce tend to lose their
needles a lot quicker than let's say, pine or fur.
So let me give you my limerick here. And as
I said in branching news. We're going to talk about aroma,
including cinnamon pine cones. Uh, but let me give you
a limerick about pruning your neighbor's plants. For one of
these arrangements, I'm pruning well after midnight in my neighbor's
yard with a flashlight. Despite the fact I am nervous,
I consider my pruning a service and helpful, not impolite.
Once my arrangements are built, before they begin to wilt,
I'll bring my neighbor delicious treats, some delectable holiday eats
to deal with my nagging guilt.
Speaker 2: That you were going a little bit for a grnch
vibe there. I was starting to get a little bit worried.
I didn't know where it was going.
Speaker 1: Actually, I would take care of my neighbor and bring
some treats. But if they've got something good to clip
in their landscape, I might just be tempted. But you'd ask,
but I'd ask.
Speaker 2: And they would probably be like, oh, well, that's a
good idea, now I want it now.
Speaker 1: There are a number of universities that University of Idaho
is one that comes to mind where their landscape teams
in November will spray trees on campus with a natural
repellent of skunk scent and fox urine, as well as
a sticking agent to protect them from theft and destruction
during the holiday season.
Speaker 2: Wow, it's a big business. I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a big clipping when you go over to
an evergreen tree and take the top out of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so people are like stealing them for small like
Christmas trees or that's horrendous.
Speaker 1: I know it is. It's terrible. So you know, you
you bring something like that into the living room and
it's you know, room temperature, that is going to smell very,
very bad. Now, they do put up signage that warns
people to try to deter thieves in the public from
taking a major for green clipping, but just beware.
Speaker 2: Well that's good. I'm glad that they do that, because
you know, you don't want to be like surprised the
trees already damaged and now you have something horribly smelling
in your possession that you've got to deal with, So
better to just try to hopefully avoid the damage in
the first place.
Speaker 1: You got it, You got it now. Of course, if
you're planting up some clipping containers outdoors, follow the same
approach that we've talked about. During the growing season and
spring and summer, when planting up a planter, try to
work from the center out to the outside, thinking Thriller, Filler, Spiller,
and Stacey. That can just be so much fun, especially
you know, you need the soil fod but then you're
able to put the branches in and then if we
get some hard freezes, the branches will just freeze in
place and you're good to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, when I've done that in the past,
I actually like to start putting down a sort of
matte a carpet of something very softly pine, some pine boughs,
so that the soil is completely covered, and then build
the arrangement over that. You know, we should We're talking
a lot about cutting this stuff from your garden, but
if you don't have this stuff, or you don't want
to cut from your garden, you can buy this in
Flora's shops. It might take looking for someone who's a
little bit more specialty, but they do sell these types
of things so that you can do this without also
cutting from your own If you are so inclined, it
shouldn't stop you. If you don't have immediate access to
this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, garden centers, greenhouses, floral shops, you're right, bundles of
boughs and twigs. And of course while you're there too,
you could pick up a package of some of these
great led lights they have today that are very small,
easy to work with, indestructible and they'll really light up
your clipping display. Well, let's see how Stacey ties this
all together. Coming up next in Plants on Trial. You're
listening to the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: Proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in
the garden. That's why we trial and test all of
our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they
outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and
the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's
gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
where the order of the day is taking a little
something from your garden to make the holidays a bit
more special. And you know that could mean I think
sprucing up a store bought arrangement, Like say you buy
some nice yellow moms and you're just thinking, well, gee,
those are pretty. The color works for me, but it
feels kind of summary. You know, you can go and
pick some pine boughs or something like that from the
yard and mix it together and bring it up a
little more up to season, that kind of thing. But
before I get into today's plan on trial, I did
want to thank you for bringing up the LED lights
because it triggered a memory for me of when I
was really little and we didn't usually put Christmas lights
up or anything like that, but one year we did.
And I was probably like four ish years old or
something like that. And yeah, this would have been like
the late seventies, so those winters were really cold, and
I remember being out there super bundled up, like to
the point where you're just like tottering around you can't
even walk. And I believe my mom told me that
the lights that my dad was putting up were from
my grandparents, so they were like old lights hadn't really
been put away, and they were the old kind, you know,
not these new LEDs that are indestructible. Yeah, the big
old bulbs, which look amazing have such a retro vibe now.
But you know, it was dark, and my brother and
I are out with my dad just you know, playing
around and we are just stepping on these bulbs left
and not on purpose. You know, we can't see anything,
we don't know what we're doing, but we're kind of
starting to realize that it's kind of cool to step
on these and make that sound. And oh man, my
dad was so mad. And I don't believe that we
ever did put up the Christmas lights that year. But
it's good to know now that the LEDs eliminate that
whole thing from happening.
Speaker 1: You are not alone because again, working in the garden
center industry, Stacey, we sold thousands and thousands and thousands
of packages of replacement C nine and SEE seven lights.
And the LED lights today today are incredible. When they
first came out with them, they had all the warmth
and romance of a hospital operating group.
Speaker 2: They're so bright and so blue, and now they're much better. Yeah,
they've got the warm tones back in there. But you know,
when you see one of those holenses with the old
C seven bolved, it kind of gives you hits. You
right in the fields.
Speaker 1: You got it.
Speaker 2: But anyway, back to decorating with plants and not lights.
So I think that you know, too many people feel
like they have to go big when it comes to
bringing some of the garden indoors. You know, again, like
we were talking about, you don't need to do a reef,
you don't need to do a swag. You can do
something really small. And I think one of the nicest
things that you can do or do with your kids,
or have kids do if you need to get them
out of your hair on the holiday, is just send
them out to the garden to get little place settings,
and you know, have at each place, you know, the
plate and on the napkin, just a little something from
the garden. And I think that you know, one of
the best bases if you are stuck for inspiration in
doing this, one of the absolute best bass that you
can use is arbor ding. Oh, I mean, arborvid is
so ubiquitous. Now you might have to pull a rix
limerick and get some from a neighbor if you don't
have some. But you can find arborvity just about anywhere
in such large quantities that you know, trimming some of
those sprigs isn't really gonna matter. No one will even
note that you're there. The foliage is soft, it's not prickly.
I love the way that it kind of just naturally
lays into a fan, so it just will sit very
nicely on that napkin. And it smells amazing. I adore
the smell of arborvidy foliage. It's just it's delicious. There's
no other way to describe it, which is why. Of
course it's also very popular with deer. But you know,
in harbrovid alone might look a little bit lonely. So
I wanted to bring in some other ideas. Now we
talked about Winterbury holly. Great choice if you have it. Now,
Winterbury holly is definitely one of those plants that you
should not cut too much off of. It is one
that is quite slow to recover. It's a slow growing shrub,
so a spray couple sprigs here and there aren't a problem,
but certainly not the kind of thing that you're gonna
want to. You know, sheer down to do something major
with red and yellow twig dogwoods like Arctic fire red
and Arctic fire yellow. Those are all things that you
might know. But I wanted to talk about something that
you might not consider, and that is rose hips.
Speaker 1: A love it.
Speaker 2: You know, rose hips have been enjoyed for literally centuries
as food as decoration in cosmetics, and they're still popular
to this day, especially in the Eastern Europe for food.
Like if you go to an Eastern European grocery store,
you're gonna see rosep syrup, rose hips in syrup. They're
going to find all of these different food supplies. But
in the US it's you really know, they're going to
see this in more specialty kind of stores. And I
think most people, if you were to say rose hips,
they would be like, roses have hips? What are you
talking about? And I think a lot of that stems
from the fact that, you know, in modern US history,
the primary roses that people were growing were hybrid tea roses.
So hybrid t roses to issues with them. Number one,
the flowers tend to be double, so all of those
reproductive organs that would normally become the hip or the
fruit the berry of the rose are buried by petals
and don't get pollinated, and so you never see any
fruit develop. And overall, they're just not likely to set
that fruit anyway, even if insects could access those parts.
And also, hybrid t roses need dead heading if you
want to have any kind of you know, reasonably good
continuous display, you need to deadhead hybrid tea roses. So
you know, I would say there was a good one
hundred seventy five to one hundred year span of American
garden history where people didn't even think for the most part,
the exception of rogosa roses or what they call betroses,
of roses having attractive fruit. Now that all changed with
landscape roses. So when landscape roses, these disease resistant landscape
roses like are So Easy series, which I know I
still haven't told you the name of today's plant on trial.
It is not a O So easy rose to stick
with me. But when these kind of hit the scene,
it changed all that. Because these were roses that tended
to be single or semi double, so those reproductive organs
were accessible to pollinators, they didn't need dead heading to
bloom continuously, and just for whatever combination of genetics, they
tended to actually set fruit like this. So these are
some rose hips that are from an oh So easy rose,
and you can see they're really quite nice. The rosehips
can vary a lot from being a really cheerful, bright
red to kind of more of an orange like this.
So obviously the red ones are perfect for Christmas, and
these more orangey ones are ideal for Thanksgiving. You can
see they still have the klyx there where the flower
was attached, so this is the fruit that is developed.
They can be round, they can be oblong, they can
be big, they can be small. These are probably about
medium size. So there's just a huge diversity.
Speaker 1: And I love Rosa rigosa. You mentioned Rosa rigosa, and
on the East Coast you'll see a number of them.
I have pictures with a bright.
Speaker 2: Yellow ooh, that's pretty Yeah. I love the rose. Hips
on Rosa rogosa don't have any It is considered the
deer resistant rose. I would be hesitant to try that myself,
knowing how my local deer are, but I do love
Rosa rogosa. But the fact is that pretty much any
of these newer roses that don't need deadheading are likely
to set fruit like this, as is the case with
today's plant on trial, Ringo double pink rose. Now, we
featured a Ringo rose not all that long ago, back
in I think it was in August, and we talked
about these being a rose that's native to the Middle East,
very very drought tolerant. And again I think because these
whole temia roses are sort of closer to their wild ancestors,
they are more likely to actually set fruit. So ringo
double pink is one that sets fruit. They are on
the larger side. There are really really nice orange So
all summer long you're getting these beautiful double pink flowers.
So it's semi double. I mean you can still see,
you know, the organs in there so that the polliniers
can access them with a bright red eye. That's where
the ringo part comes from. And then you know, these
beautiful pink petals and as they fade, it kind of
turns more of a purple color. So you're getting a
great display all summer. And then by the time that
winds down, you know, come October or thereabouts, they're going
to be leaving you these great hips to decorate with
or just to enjoy. And of course bar and that
if you never cut a single rose hip to enjoy indoors,
the birds and squirrels and raccoons and possum and all
of those will be very happy to eventually take them
from you. They are one berrier that I have seen
kind of tends to stick around until it softens quite
a bet, which is nice from a gardening standpoint because
you get to enjoy them before they get completely devoured.
Now you might be thinking, well, this sounds kind of cool,
but aren't those thorny? And the answer to that is
it depends. So this one that I'm holding here from
an oh so easy rose, some of the stems a
little further down have some tiny, tiny thorns, but you
can easily snap those off to go ahead, and you
add them to your place settings. But by and large
it's not hard to handle. There's just might be a
couple of tiny thorns because overall on a rose, the
thorns form further down on the thicker part of the shop,
not on the skinny little pedicial up here that attaches
the flower.
Speaker 1: But perfect for a place setting. And I love what
you said at the outset that it doesn't have to
be massive, you don't have to be hauling in big branches,
and this is ideal for it. By the away high
in vitamin C too. Oh yes, but you know, and
if you think about it, the whole concept of cutting
down an entire tree and dragging it into the house,
that's that's kind of crazy. So this idea that yeah,
place settings and that sort of thing using some rosen
I love that idea.
Speaker 2: You're going to do it this Thanksgiving. I'm going to
I'm gonna try to do it too. So of course
you can take a look at whatever roses are in
your backyard and see if they have hips and consider
using those in your holiday arrangements. But if you don't
have one, do consider adding one of these roses to
your planting list for next spring. Ringo double pink would
be a great choice. You can see photos of it
at Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or of course,
join us on YouTube and decide if you're going to
add it to your garden or not. I hope you will.
We're going to take a little break and when we
come back, we're going to be opening up the garden
mail bags, so please stay tuned. At proven Winner's color Choice,
we've got a shrub for every taste and every Whether
you're looking for an easycare rose and unforgettable hydrangea, or
something new and unique, you can be confident that the
shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and tested
for your success. Look for them at your local garden center. Greetings,
gardening friends and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
where we are at the point of the show where
we answer your gardening questions. And even though it's November
and I think a lot of what people think of
doing in the garden is winding down, I think they
sell have questions. You may, in fact have questions about
whether you can cut stuff from the garden for Thanksgiving,
which we probably won't be able to answer, but you
can ask it on YouTube as a comment anyway, and
if we can get back to you in time, we
certainly will. But otherwise, think about what you can do
in your backyard, take a walk around, get those ideas cooking,
and if you do have any questions about that or
anything else, you can always reach us at help HLP
at Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or just visit
Gardening Simplified on air dot com. We've got a contact
form there, very handy you can fill and your information.
You can even attach a photo, which we do recommend
if you're wondering about something that's going wrong or off
the rails, because it's very hard to diagnose without a photo.
I don't know how they used to do it.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, But I have a lot
of questions year round.
Speaker 2: I do well, I have yes, I have a lot
of questions and at all gardening really, And that's why
I so often tell our listeners when in doubt, don't,
because when you are sitting around with those questions, you know,
and you don't know what to do, and you feel
like you have to do something when in doubt, don't.
So what do we got in the mailbag this week?
Speaker 1: Well, here's a note from and I believe, and forgive
me if I get it wrong. Okay, it's either Gosia
or Gassia.
Speaker 2: I would say Goosha, but for sure.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's go with Ghosha. I'm going to go with
Stacy's inclination here, So Goosher writes to us. This year,
we had a cicada invasion in Chicago Land and my
limelight hydranges especially, and a lot of bushes have lengthwise
cuts into the branches from them laying eggs. Ouch. Can
I trim now my hydranges? And is that better for
them to be trimmed now? I'm afraid the moisture going
in through the cuts may kill the plants. I have
over one hundred proven winners panicle hydranges.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's a lot.
Speaker 1: That's fabulous.
Speaker 2: That is a lot, and it must be amazing to see.
So unfortunately, Gojha did not include a photo of the
one hundred proven winners panicle hydrange as. We'd love to
see that, but she did include a photo of the
cicada damage. And I thought this was a really interesting
question because I have to tell you, I if I
had seen this on a plant, cicadas would not have
been my first thought. No, And I guess I'm just
not familiar with it. And you know, I know we've
had some like huge hatches of big broods of cicadas recently,
so it would not have been my first thought. I
would have thought it was just kind of regular damage.
So I'm really glad that Goosha made this connection and
is bringing it to people's attention. So please do be
sure to check us out on YouTube to see a
picture of what this looks like, or of course we'll
put it at show notes at Gardening Simplified on air
dot com so you can see it. And it looks
just kind of like a regular standard plant injury, you know,
like they cut the cicada's cut a little slit into
the bark and lay their eggs, and then that bark
just kind of heals over it, so it makes that
kind of like a hot dog bun shape around where
the cicada did that. Now, I would not recommend doing
anything at all to this. Now, well, okay, actually, let
me back up. You don't need to worry Gaosha or
anyone else about disease or dryness or anything entering that wound.
That is not really going to be an issue for
the plant. You know, plants get damaged all the time,
and if it was really very easy for disease or
other things to take hold, we'd have a lot more
dead plants on our than we do. So I wouldn't
do it out of those concerns. However, you know, it
is important to know that if you knowing that you
had a big emergence of cicadas in the Chicago area
last year, and knowing that that means that they laid
quite a lot of eggs in your one hundred proven
winters panicle hydrangeas, it might be wise to reduce those
numbers by pruning out these egg laying sites if it's possible.
If it's possible, now I don't think that you should
go crazy and take out any thick branches that are
going to like dramatically disfigure your plants. But as you
can see in Goja's photo, cutting this out is a
small branch, and you know, especially as part of your
regular spring pruning with your panicle hydrangeas, wouldn't even really
go notice a thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's two factors that play here. Number one,
the cicada in the invasion is cyclical. In other words,
it's this is going to pass. As far as panicle
hydranges are concerned, Stacey, they respond really well to pruning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, they They are very amenable to pruning. They
will basically be unfazed. And you know, you can actually
even prune a panicle hydrangel quite hard if you did
need to take out one of those major branches. But
you know, the branches that I'm seeing this on are
pretty small, pretty minor. And this is you know, obviously,
the panicle hydranges are not particularly susceptible to cicada damage.
This is just the one that Gosha is using as
an example. But they can lay their eggs on anything, tree, shrub,
any plant. They don't really have any particular preference for this.
But that said, we're talking about pruning panicle hydrangees, whereas
some plants, some shrubs, you know, if you were to
prune them very hard, they can really struggle to revive
from that. Like we were talking about with the winterbury, Hellie,
that's not a plant that I would recommend very hard
pruning on.
Speaker 1: But I think, gosh, it's fantastic that you've got one
hundred of these panicle hydranges. And I'm crazy about panico
hydrangees too, Stacy. I just think for the general homeowner,
what a fabulous plant.
Speaker 2: It gives a lot and asks a little exactly so
exactly hard to beat that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Gene writes to us high Stacy and
Rick a garden in Illinois, Zone six B. I recently
noticed a maple tree we planted probably ten years ago,
is losing its bark. The bark is simply sliding off
the tree. I wonder if it was struck by lightning.
What do you think and will it survive? I look
forward to your show every week. Appreciate all the great
garden advice and your sense of humor. I have planted
several plants due to your great advice. Yesterday I planted
in El Nino desert rose chapulta. Why do I want
to always say chapulta, you're hungry.
Speaker 2: I'm hungry.
Speaker 1: Can't wait to smell it next summer. Blam o, thank
you both, very mulch.
Speaker 2: Well, great shall as you have no doubt heard. I
have huge enthusiasm for this plant. It is such a
beautiful fragrance. And mine was actually blooming. Here we are
in late November. Mine was actually blooming up until about
two weeks ago. So tons of interest on there. But
let's talk about your maple, because this is disturbing this.
I mean, if this is happening to my maple, I
would not be happy.
Speaker 1: Well, let me mention that trees, especially if you're into timber,
I like to go to lumber mills, okay, and kind
of nose around and look for lumber.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I don't know, It's just something I enjoy doing. I
went with a friend. And if you're into timber, then
you're really into the quality of the wood, okay. And
people should be aware. I would recommend that you google this.
Look up the fact that trees get the shakes. They
get the shakes. Now we've talked about Southwest disease. Before
frost cracks. It's when the sun shines on the tree,
on the bark of the tree, it gets very very cold.
That expansion, that contraction causes not only splitting, but in
some cases also for bark to fall off. So shakes
in your timber, and there are all different types. There's
cup shakes. I didn't say cupcakes, I said cup shakes,
heart shakes, star shakes, ring shakes, and radial shakes. Wow,
all different types. And I won't get into it right now,
but look it up sometime. It's fascinating people that you know.
I mean, you cut a board, you're going to use
it for furniture. You want the quality to be good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: And so this wood is the structure of it can
change based on temperature, based on sunlight. And I really
think that that's what causes the bark to fall off
some trees. And it's not going to kill the tree,
but it's just active.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Okay, So for those of you who are wondering,
Gene did send a photo and of course that will
be on YouTube as well as on the show. Notes.
And this is not a situation where like some of
the bark is peeling like a river birch or something
like that. I mean, the entire bark has come off
this tree. Uh, and yeah, that is disturbing. Now. I
do have to say, from my limited experience with things
like this, I specifically deliberately girdled a Norway maple in
my yard because I wanted a dead tree. Yeah, I
did this about two years ago.
Speaker 1: I've done that. I don't feel so bad.
Speaker 2: Why would you feel bad?
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: Dead trees are very useful as well. I mean, probably
more useful than a living Norway maple unless you really
need the shade. But it was not a fan of Norway. Okay,
well then not cool. That's not cool. Your neighbors are
probably like, listening to the showguing Ricks seems like such
a nice guy. What are we doing. We're getting to
get one of those ring cameras and watch up for you.
They're afraid you're telling on yourself. But so so we
girdled it deliberately because we wanted a dead tree. Because again,
dead trees are you know. I love to garden for birds.
Dead trees are very very important to bird and insects
and lots of other creatures that I want in the garden,
and so it was just an oroy maple. I'm not
a huge fan, not a really great plant for other
you know, things that I want a tree for. So
when we girdled it, we just used a razor blade
to cut a bank slit all around the base. And
what happened is a lot of moisture got up under
there and something very similar happened. So it makes sense
that this would potentially be due to frost cracking. But
this I would think is severe enough that the plant
is not going to survive. I mean, basically she has
lost an entire half of the tree in bark. And
as we talked about a few weeks ago, you know,
if the flow of nutrients from the base of the
tree the roots to the top is disrupted in any
substantial way, then that part of the tree will die.
So you might end up with half a living tree,
which you probably will want to take down because that
could become unsafe. So don't know exactly why this happened, Gene.
It's hard to say without you know, talking to you
and knowing more about what the situation are is. But
I would say from what I'm seeing and what I
have experienced, it is unlikely to survive, so you might
think about bringing in arborist in and maybe making some firewood.
We're going to take a little break. When we come back,
we've got branching news to please stay tuned. The Gardening
Simplified Show is brought to you by proven Winners, Color
Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have
been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
branching news and Stacy. I thought that I would talk
about some aromas today we enter the holiday season. I
want to ask you a question. How do you feel
about paper white narcissus? Do you like the aroma?
Speaker 2: I cannot abide by the smell of paper whites. I
love them. I do like the plants a lot. I
think they're beautiful, but oh the smell just makes me nauseous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm the same way. Israel is the world's largest
producer of paper white bulbs, and breeders are currently working
on new varieties with lower levels of indole, also shorter,
non floppy paper white varieties. There's a variety called near
Nire that is shorter, squattier, and doesn't flop like a
typical paper white narcissus would, which is fantastic, but for
a lot of people, that sweet fragrance is just too
strong or overpowering. Now, if you're gonna get some paper
white narcissus, find out what variety you're getting. It makes
a difference. The most fragrant is a variety called ZeVA
Ziva if you like the aroma. But there are some
varieties that are far less fragrant. There's in Ball and
there's also winter Sun. Because paper white fragrance is described
as being indolic, which is pretty unhelpful if you don't
work in the perfume world. But that translates as having
an over ripe character. That's the description thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I could see that. It smells to
me kind of like, I don't know. It's hard to
it is hard to describe, hard.
Speaker 1: To describe exactly, and so they they describe it as indole.
So that's spelled I N D O l E. It's
a sweetness that can both repel and attract us at
the same time. So think paper white and narcissius. Think jasmine,
think gardenias.
Speaker 2: Oh I love that thing, Think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And so it's it's complicated. Think ornamental pair blocks.
Speaker 2: Don't love that.
Speaker 1: Now, not just white for paper whites. Also, there is
a daffodil, a grand soul hedor it's a daffodil heirloom variety.
It dates back to seventeen seventy and you'll get a
lot of orange and yellow flowers on it. But that
one's really going to have a lot of fragrance to it. Also,
now a suggestion for you again, I'm recommending you see
what type of variety you're getting. Because we've often talked
on the show about it being the golden age of
plant breeding, and paper white narcissusts are no different. So
they're developing these paper white narcissusts that do not have
such a strong smell and are shorter and squattier, so
when you plant them in the water and the pebbles
in a dish, they don't get tall to the point
where they fall over. That said, if you have some
of the older varieties of paper white narcissus. This is
what I do, and this is what I recommend an
adult beverage for your paper white. Now, I'm sure this
whole thing started at a holiday party, but I have
done this. You begin with a dilute solution of four
to six inch four to six percent of alcohol when
the shoots are about one to two inches above the bolt,
and don't use beer or wine. There's too much sugar
in it, so you've got to use alcohol. You can
use rubbing alcohol, but otherwise distilled spirits like gin, vodka, whiskey, rum,
even tequila are all fine. So that's interesting. To determine
the correct dilute solution, you take the percentage of alcohol
on the label and you divide by five. So if
you have a bottle of gin that says forty percent alcohol,
forty divided by five is eight. So I need an
eightfold dilution to yield five percent alcohol. So we're going
to do seven parts water, one part gin for your
paper white Narses, and everybody's going to be happy. The
narcissists are going to be happy, your guests are going
to be happy. You're going to be happy.
Speaker 2: Is the season. But don't drink it. Daffodils are toxic,
you know. I remember when this just in case you
were trying to save a bug or two. I remember
when this came out that you could use alcohol. Vodka
was really what they said at the beginning to stunt
as it were narcissus. So they don't flop. Both my
grandmas sent me newspaper clippings. I was in horticulture school
at the time. They both sent me a newspaper clipping
about it.
Speaker 1: There you go, so we have done that. But you
don't have to go the alcohol route if you don't
want to, because there's new varieties. I mean, these things
have been around for ages. There's a there's a story,
a legend of a Dutch merchant who gifted narcissus bulbs
to the lady of Star Castle and she later discarded
the bulbs, mistaking mistaking them for foul tasting onions. She
tried to eat it.
Speaker 2: That's not good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now along the lines of sense, I've got to
get this out because again we talked on the show
that I've been in the garden center industry for over
forty years, and what do you think about when you
think holiday themed ambient scents. Do you enjoy them, do
you use them? And what are your favorites and your
least favorites. For example, a favorite of mine, like I mentioned,
are fur trees or Douglas fur trees with that citrus scent.
I stick my face right in the needles and I
love them. But I cannot handle these ponderosa pine cones
that are super charged with a cinnamon scent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, they're putting cinnamon on everything, these cinnamon brooms, cinnamon, this,
cinnamon that. And the thing is it doesn't smell like cinnamon.
It smells like fake cinnamon.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, that's part of it. And it hits you
in the face so hard and for some people, you know,
they get migraine headaches. It makes me think of Frank's
Nursery and.
Speaker 2: Crash, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were. They had like I think maybe three
hundred stores in the United States.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, that Franks always smells like fertilizer to me,
though not cinnamon.
Speaker 1: You'd walk in the door and a Franks would smell
like a mix of cinnamon, fertilizer, potting, soil, uh, eucalyptus, yeah, yeah, candles,
the whole. Oh yeah, I mean, it was a may
it would hit you in the face when you walked
in the door. But anyhow, and you know, you talk
about the cinnamon thing and and talk about a hack
h They recommend that you take cinnamon sticks and throw
them in the box when you're packing away your Christmas
decorations so that when you pulled them out next year,
your favorite Garlands, Reese other decorations already smell like the holidays.
Speaker 2: It seems like you'd need an awful lot of cinnamon
sticks to make that effective, but you know, probably can't hurt.
You could also put away your Christmas decorations with a
peppermint oil scented cotton ball, which is said to repel mice.
Speaker 1: Now that sounds better. I like that. Well, you can
buy these little tea bags too that are peppermint oil
and you use them for mice. And yes, you can
throw them in there, So that's probably a better way
to go. But yes, when you walk into the entry
of a store and you get hit blamo lamo in
the face with that smell of cinnamon ponderosa pine cones,
I can do without that. One more thing here, have
you ever tried romanesquo cauliflower.
Speaker 2: I've grown it, have you really? Yes. When I was
a very young gardener, I took one look at that
thing in a seed catalog and I said, I have
got to grow this.
Speaker 1: I'm feeling the same way and I've never grown Oh no.
Speaker 2: And I grew it well. I mean, considering that I
barely knew anything at the time, I grew up pretty well.
Because you know, a lot of times collifloor rockly it
can be a little bit difficult to get the results
that you are, you know, have in your head for yes,
but I found it was easier to grow and yeah,
absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so unique. It's one of the strangest looking
vegetables because of its fractal floor retes. It is fractal,
and so it owns it. It owes its unique shape
to the to the fact that it forms these failed flowers.
And my friends at Botanical Interest seeds, I saw that
they have them available and I wanted to grow it.
Not necessarily to eat it, even though it's very very
healthy for you, but just such unique shape and interest.
I think that's that's something I'm going to add to
my ornamental plants in my God it's kind of a
geometric shape, just such a unique structure and almost sharp
troos and.
Speaker 2: Color, yeah, beautiful shar t color. So if you're not
familiar with this, like I'm imagine a head of cauliflower
that's a beautiful shortrucy lime green, and each little cluster
of florets instead of just being like a round little globe,
someone took it and twisted it and pulled it up,
and so it's kind of like this spinning fractal like
would look really cool under a black light kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. So that's on my
Christmas list.
Speaker 2: All right, So you're what you're dropping a hint here
the way you looked at me, I was, And you know,
if you want to use it, because of course you
will have to eventually cook with it, otherwise it all
just kind of get all stringy and give you more
romanesque seat if you want to continue growing it. Yeah,
you use it basically just like a cauliflower or broccoli
however you prefer. But yeah, very very pretty and not
to be confused with Romesco sauce, which is something totally different.
Speaker 1: I love the fact though, that you've grown this. This
is really cool because it's not something new. As a
matter of fact, I read first noted by Italians in
the sixteenth century. But now it's catching the eye of
gourmet chefs and they say that it has a delicious
nutty flavor and texture similar to culiflower.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very closely related.
Speaker 1: So there we go, romanesquo culiflower. No, you don't have
to gift it to me. I'm going to order mine
from Botanical Interest.
Speaker 2: Sees all right, sounds like a plan.
Speaker 1: Stacy. Always a pleasure to do this show with you.
Thank you, Thank you so much, Adriana Robinson, and thanks
to you for watching on YouTube, listening on radio, or
listening to our podcast, The Gardening Simplified Ship.