Speaker 1: Broadcasting from micro Climate Controlled Studio a here at proven Winners,
Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show
with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick weisst and our engineer and
producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, Stacy, you know, this month marks
my fiftieth year in the garden center industry, and I
can tell you I've seen it all. And I have
a friend who is a retired professor from Michigan State University,
and something she said to me a long time ago
has stuck with me through the years in the garden
center industry, and that is that people search for and
buy in a garden center what they're familiar with. In
other words, if you have a whiskey barrel that every
year you put geraniums in it, you're coming in to
get your geraniums for your whiskey barrel.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean that's how I grew up. Love you, mom,
but it's true, and it is one of the things
that made me want to go into gardening is because
I was like, there's so much else and I want
to learn about it. But I get it. People, you know,
especially if you live in a cold climate, you got
a short window of time. You don't want to take
a chance on something that you know may not do
what you expect. You're spending your good money on it.
You're just like I want something that I know and
can predict will will do well and do great for
me all season. But again, the garden center industry has
come a long way since those fifty years ago when
you started. Which congratulations on your momentous anniversary. Thanks like
a golden anniversary.
Speaker 1: I'm just like the bud Leah's in my landscape. I
bleom on old wood. But you know, and thank you.
It's fascinating to me, it really is. You know, Bridget
she was involved in marketing stuff where they were looking
at the feet the ability of a blue geranium, or
they were putting special glasses on people and then trying
to figure out how people shop in a garden center.
But the bottom line is this, and this is what
she drove home with me. My job in the garden center,
our job as broadcasters is to show people what they need,
show them what they need, and it's an easy job.
And it's an easy job because there are so many
incredible varieties of plants available today that have been developed
and by the way. I've been meaning to talk to
you about this, Stacy. Right here at Proven Winners Color
Choice Shrubs. We have some fabulous new plants for garden
centers this year, and that's what today's show is about
what you should look for in garden centers this year.
I was going to ask you about red Zeppelin, sweet
shrub Kelly kanthus.
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, the plant that everybody wants can get.
Speaker 1: Is it gonna happen?
Speaker 2: It is gonna happen, Yes, it is gonna happen. But
now this plant has a very interesting story. And obviously
I cannot tell every story behind every plant or the
show would go so much longer than it already is
has to go. But yeah, So there was a plant,
a purple leaf kelly canthus. And this is a variety
of our native kelly canthus kelly Canthus floridus, also known
as sweet Betsy or sweet trub, carolina all spice. Lots
of great names there. So it was a purple leaf variety.
It was called Burgundy spice. It did not come from us,
and this came out maybe you know fifteen ish years
ago nursery industry went bananas for it. We love this thing.
Could couldn't get enough of it, and they literally couldn't
get enough of it because it was impossible to propagate.
And yes it was a very cool plant, but you know,
it can't be cut, it can't be done by cuttings.
You know, trying to do it any other way was
just not feasible, so it kind of disappeared from the marketplace. Well,
we actually worked with the original breeder of Burgundy spice,
Kelly Canthus, with some of his alternate plants that he
had developed, to get all of those features into a
plant that could actually be propagated, but actually be propagated
for a sweet trub, not talking like a nine bark
or a hydrange of piniculator here that just roots like
you know, we don't even have to think about it.
It is still a difficult plant to propagate, even though
it is much better from a propagation standpoint than the
original Burgundy spice. But yeah, this is going to be
a slow plant to get on the market. Why because
the demand has been so high from you know, all
of our customers, from gardeners, from influencers around the internet.
I know Eric and Christopher from Grow from Me Gardening
are just jonesing for one, and you're on our mind,
Eric and Christopher, but you know, we actually needed to
hold back the plants that we were propagating to take
more cuttings and be able to meet all of that demand.
So it's it's out ish. If you're very lucky, you
might find a small plant online for sales, so it'll
be like a one court, which is it's on a
bad start. Once you have it, it's a fast growing plant.
It's just the propagation that's a problem. But yeah, it
is such a unique, beautiful plant. Now, I do have
to say unfortunately with the onset of that purple foliage,
it did lose its fragrance, so the flowers are not
fragrant like your standard sweet trup. So just in case
anyone's getting any ideas out there, but it's still just
an absolutely beautiful, truly interesting plant. If you like dark
foliage and you like dramatic plants, it's the one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why I bring it up. And I love
the name red Zeppelin. I love that I can hear
Robert Plant singing a whole lot of love because I've
got a whole lot of love for this plant.
Speaker 2: Well, we will see what we can do to get
you on, but you will be on a long list
of special recipients who are eagerly awaiting the plant.
Speaker 1: All right, well, at least I have an inside track now.
But yeah, so you know we're going to talk about
more plants throughout the show and into segment four because
there are new annuals, new perennials for you to enjoy,
and of course flowering shrubs. To Stacey, I can't wait
for Kodiak Jet Black, the Spiced Durvilla, and of course
in garden centers and as the name suggest, incredible stormproof
smooth hydranger. We all loved smooth hydranges, but for a
lot of people they don't like the flop fantastic or
powerball HYDRANGEA wow. And for our YouTube viewers, I have
a picture for you of me with Fairy Trail Fresco
in the greenhouse this past weekend. What a great plant
for garden centers for Mother's Day. And these things were
just gorgeous and it was interesting in the picture Stacey
that they were beautiful pink, but I understand you can
get them blue.
Speaker 2: Yes, So Fairy Trail Bride, of course was the original.
That's white can't change its color. Then we had Fairy
Trail White, which is a mophead version of Fairy Trail Bride,
Fairy Trail Green, which is a green one, and then
Fresco just came out, So yeah, this is its first
year in the market and it is the first one
to be able to change color. So it has that
really beautiful, elegant cascading branches that make the cascade hydrangees
so distinctive. But yeah, the flowers can actually change color.
So this is going to be a huge game changer.
Now as far as Mother's Day goes, the Fairy Trail
hydrangs have absolutely just changed the Mother's Day game. Garden
centers love them. Growers are producing them specifically for Mother's Day.
But because Fresco is still a little bit new, it's
not the most prominent one out there. But next year
there will be even more. But yeah, just a really cool,
really special plant.
Speaker 1: Oh. I love it. Of course, in the area of perennials,
I always look for the new grasses that are coming out.
There's a perfect edging tall fescue. There are other ornamental
grasses like october sky switch grass, blue spear, which is
really neat and has an inflorescence on it that is
different than what you are used to with a panicum.
Very exciting to me. Heliopsis athena gold.
Speaker 2: Wow, what a crap pro I think we just learned
what your favorite genre of music is. What's new grass?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yes, I like that. I like that new grass.
Speaker 2: Because you're pretty excited about those grasses. I mean not
everyone listening right now is on YouTube.
Speaker 1: But and you caught me completely off guard, and I'm like,
how am I gonna do this? This?
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 1: I like that a lot.
Speaker 2: Thank you. We have talked a lot already about the
Treasure Trove. Rebeccia one of the new perennials, and this
is such a game changing Rebeccia. And people think, oh,
black eyed Susan, ho haa, you see it everywhere, But
actually there's a very good chance you would not be
seeing black eyed Susan everywhere for very much, much longer
because it's very very susceptible to a leaf spot that
makes it super unsightly. People dig them out if it
doesn't take the plant out entirely. And Treasure Trove is
one that, for over seven years in trial, has never
shown any signs of that leaf spot, so super duper resistant.
It is a beautiful has everything you love about the
regular standard black eyed Susan perennials, but without that leaf
spot issue. So a great choice if you are replacing
ones that you are just tired of, or you had
lost faith in Rebeccia and want to bring it back.
Speaker 1: Fantastic. So on segment four, we're going to jam in
as many annuals perennials and flowering shrubs that you should
be looking for at your garden center this year to
kick this all off and lead us into plants on Trial.
Here's my green thumb limb a rick this week. If
it's new, improved, I'll try it in impulse. I can't
deny it. This fledgling upstar art put it on my cart.
I think I'm gonna buy it. I'm not settling for
home drum when I spend my hard earned income. These
plants give me thrills, So I'm handling dollar bills. It's
how I get my green thumb.
Speaker 2: Love it.
Speaker 1: Plants on Trial is next here on the Gardening Simplified.
Speaker 2: Show, beautify your home and community with proven winner's color
choice shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique
varieties to choose from. There's a flowering, shrubber, evergreen for
every taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive
white container your local garden center or learn more at
Provenwinner's Color Choice dot com. Reeting's gardening friends, and welcome
back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we are talking
all about what is new in your garden centers when
you head out shopping, which I know some people have
already been shopping, and certainly our friends in the warmer
climates have been shopping for a while. But for a
lot of us in cooler climates, even though it's been
an early spring, we're just really starting to go shopping,
you know, for to get all of our plants. And
you still got to be careful. You know that we
can definitely still get a froster freeze here in Michigan,
and I would say most of the Midwest and Northeast.
But you know, as long as you got a blanket,
handy or you know, you don't plant, you just kind
of keep them in an area where you can. But
some people want to get in there for you know,
early and get the best selection.
Speaker 1: And I want to take those risks yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 2: It is. It is really fun. And you know, I
think that even though a lot of people do rely
on the tried and true, there's tremendous interest in what
is new as well. And I know I remember a
customer once asked me, well, you know, tell me what
you have for new varieties, because no one ever comes
in and asks me what's old.
Speaker 1: The dust.
Speaker 2: So there is some interest in what is new, and
certainly you will find some of these at your local
garden center. I know some garden centers are going to
be a little bit risk averse, maybe not go full
on with some new varieties that they aren't sure if
they're going to sell. Some will be like, hey, let's
just make like a whole huge display of what's new
from all different brands, because every brand, not just proven Winners,
is putting out new plants every year. Some are going
to go in between. But you know, I would also say,
if you're hearing about something that you like, or there's
something that you've read about that you like, always ask
at your garden center. It does not hurt to ask,
you know, if you can, if you're if you're there
and you can ask a tree and shrub buyer or
some sort of manager, Hey, can you get this in.
I'm interested in this. They don't know. They're just guessing.
They're not psychic, so your I mean, maybe they are.
I don't. I can't speak for all of them. So
you know your requests and letting them know what you're
looking for, whether that is a specific plant or you're
saying like, hey, I want more native plants or I
want more space sating plants or whatever. These are the
kinds of things you need to communicate so that they
can make those decisions. It's appreciated, Yeah, absolutely so always,
you know, goodeback is always appreciated by everybody. But for
the last several months, when it comes to plants on trial,
I've been making them a little bit more abstract, kind
of more conceptual, talking about bigger things. But I'm bringing
it back to a kind of single plant this week.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: I was really tempted to make this about my favorite
new plant, my favorite new shrubs for twenty twenty six,
but that would have been too long, so I narrowed
it down to a plant, a new plant for twenty
twenty six, new shrub that is a little bit mystifying
and it's a plant that we don't talk about very
often on the show. So you know, usually people we
say all the time they're confused about hydrange as, they
don't know how to take care of them. But another
plant that people are supremely confused about is azaleas. Oh.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yes, they.
Speaker 2: Are very confused about azaleas for a couple of reasons.
Number one, azaleas and rhododendrons are the same genus. Some
all right, how does this go? All azaleas are rhododendrons,
but not all rhododendrons are azaleas, so they're very closely related.
The distinctions between them, it's like the number of stamens
that they have, not something that matters to the average person.
All rhododendrons are evergreen, whereas azalea's may be deciduous, semi evergreen,
or evergreen. So I know that's about as clear as mud.
Most azaleas tend to be smaller. There's a number of
other differences in between them. But I think what a
lot of people what happens is a lot of people
will know about like classic Southern garden and gardens or
you know, and how closely associated the South is with azaleas.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean this past month we had the
Masters yeah and the Masters yeah. And that's all about,
is it right?
Speaker 2: So people see that and they're like, wow, look at
those gorgeous azaleas. I want those at my house. And
they go to their garden center and you know, Wisconsin
or Minnesota or whatever, and they're like, where's all azaleas.
I know I have seen azaleas around my neighborhood. They
didn't quite look like the Masters azaleas, but I'm not
finding them at my garden center. I don't know, Like,
what's going on? Can I just not grow azaleas? And
it is confusing. So the azaleas that kind of get
all the tension. The Masters azaleas, the Southern azaleas, those
are not super hardy plants. They are hardy probably to
about USDA Zone six, and even then it's kind of
a not all USDA Zone six areas. You have to
be pretty mild. You can't have prolonged cold because if
you do, they get a lot of setback. There's Kurume azaleas,
which came from Japan. Those are really popular on the
East coast. Gumpbo Azalea's similar hardiness again, hardy to the
USDA Zone six. And then there's this other group called
the Northern Lights azalea's. Yes, those are developed by the
University of Minnesota and are hardy down to USDA Zone three,
but you don't really see them around all that much anymore.
Speaker 1: I think Northern lights is deciduous.
Speaker 2: Yes, so a lot of these azaleas. If you can
grow them in a colder climate like usdas on six,
they will be deciduous, whereas if you were growing them
in a warm climate there ever, they keep their foliage.
Speaker 1: Let me just quickly mention Stacey that my experience with
azaleas in the north has been I want a spot
that sunny in summer, but provide structural shade in winter
to protect the plants. At least that's how I've.
Speaker 2: Had so Yeah, I mean they are a little bit finicky.
Of course, they need acidic soil just like a rhododendron wood.
They do appreciate shade, sort of like high dappled shade
is a really great situation for them. But there's another
type of azalea that I think isn't getting nearly enough attention,
and we are trying to change that with this new introduction,
and that is our North American native azaleas.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm sure a lot of people are surprised to
even find out that azaleas are native to North America, unless,
of course they have driven the Blue Ridge Parkway in
spring where it is absolutely covered with them. I think
that the apple, specifically the Blue Ridge Mountains in North
Carolina has to be the epicenter of American native azaleas.
They are just everywhere down there, and we have a
number of beautiful species. My personal favorite is the flame azalea,
which is rhododendron colendulation. How much fun is that to
say colunngulation? And of course I love the color flame
azalea yellow orange or red flowers depending on the native population.
Just fabulous. And so I think with the increasing interest
in native plants, there has been an increasing market for
native azaleas too, And so today's plant on trial is
our native Ish azalea's the sweet Reward azaleas. Now, these
came to us from North Carolina. These were developed in
the Blue Ridge Mountains by Jim Ballington, a breeder at
North Carolina State University. And I'm saying native Ish because
there is a complex parentage among the series. Some of
them are exclusively North American natives species that have been
crossed to create it, so all of their parentage is
Native American. Others have some other species mixed into use,
going for you know, specific colors and that kind of thing.
So it's a little bit hard to generalize, except that
all of them have the same kind of vibe and
aesthetics as the native azaleas once you get them in
your garden. So the native azaleas are different than the
azalees we've just been talking about in that they're a
little bit more wild. People love the cushiony azaleas right,
the button tough at azaleas, So these are a little
bit more wild looking. They're not huge, they are only
these sweet rewards get to be about three to six
feet tall and wide. And the reason for that wide
range is, of course, as we were saying, in cooler
climates it's going to be on the smaller side. In
warmer climates, it's going to be on the taller side,
so six foot so they're hardy to down to USDA
Zone five heat tolerant through USDA Zone eight. But what
makes the native azaleas so special is that they're fragrant
and yeah, wow, because most people don't at all think
of azalea as having any kind of fragrance. They're like, oh,
it's a pretty flower, but it doesn't. And the same
with rhododendrons, you know, they're they're not mostly fragrant.
Speaker 1: So what does it smell like?
Speaker 2: It's a great question. I'm going to describe it in
a way that is potentially unflattering, although it is actually lovely.
It is a very wonderful fragrance. It smells like sweet
water with green peppers.
Speaker 1: Sounds like it.
Speaker 2: Has like the sweetness, really nice sweetness to it, but
it has an unmistakable pepperiness to it, not the kind
that's going to make you want to sneeze, you know.
Speaker 1: It's sweet bell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like a sweet bell pepper, like just that kind
of like fresh greenness to it. It's a little bit
hard to explain, but it is very, very cool and
really lovely. And the other thing about these plants, they
have these amazing long stamens and pistols that just protrude
explode out of the flot They attract hummingbirds and butterflies,
and they're just nothing like those tame, pruned, fussy little azaleas.
They're wild, they're beautiful. The flowers come up on these
really cool candelabra like stems, so instead of again just
being that bun and tough it, they were like poof, poof,
poof with these flower clusters. So there's two varieties right now.
There's Sweet Reward Coral, which is my favorite because it
has a lot of those orange colors in it, like
from our native azaleas. And then they're Sweet Reward pink,
So if your taste tends more to the pink, that
is a great choice. Coral is a lot of different colors,
absolutely beautiful. They're so covered in flowers that you really
can't even see the leaves, which I know is another
thing that people love about azalea's when they bloom. So
just a really unique take on azalea's. And I think
something that you know when you see these, if these
are in bloom, when you go to your garden center
this season, they are going home with you. It is
like a non negotiable. You're gonna love them so much.
As long as you have shade, acidic soil, USDA zones
five through eight, and room for a three to six
foot shrub.
Speaker 1: Wow, And if you're listening to our podcast or the
radio version of our show, make sure to flip on
over to YouTube and watch Stacey describe a flower with
her hands. She demonstrated what I look like. That was spectacular.
I love it. I'm sold.
Speaker 2: Well, it's up to you to decide if my interpretive
dance there matches the photo. But in any case, so
that is sweet reward. Azalea's please do look for them
at your garden center. We're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're opening up the mailbag, so
stay tuned. At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, we know
that a better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our
team of experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering
shrubs in evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure
they outperform what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable,
beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style.
Look for Proven Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container
at your local garden center or learn more at Proven
Winner's Color Choice dot com. You're Reading's gardening friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it's our
turn to answer your garden questions, quandaries and conundrums. You
can reach us at Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
A couple things before we get to the mail bag.
Number one on break Adriana perfectly described what the fragrance
of the sweet reward azaleas is like pepper jelly. Yeah,
and Adriana actually makes pepper jelly, so she would know.
But yeah, it has that kind of like sweet like
you get all of that like sugary sweetness, but that
fresh green, peppery kind of note in there. Yeah, it's great.
So you know, not everyone has a fragrant as elia,
so that's pretty cool. So pepper jelly if that's a
better frame of reference than whatever crazy stuff I was
just saying in the segment speaking of crazy stuff that
I say thank you so much to everybody who answered
and weighed in on my pergola question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Yes, we had a lot of comment too, a lot
of emails as well, so thank you all so much
for taking the time to share that the verdict is mixed.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, what's the decision.
Speaker 2: The verdict is highly mixed. There was some great suggestions.
Someone said, hey, you could just kind of make like
a narrow screen so you can sit next to your
grapes rather than under them. I thought that was kind
of a cool idea. Someone said, if you're putting up
a pergola, make sure it can withstand the winds in
your area, because we had to secure ours, and I
do live in a very windy area, so I certainly
appreciate that bit of advice. And it would be basically
directly exposed to the western winds, so definitely a big consideration.
Some people said, I've never had a single problem some person.
Some people said I have to clean my furniture anytime
we want to go sit down out there. Some people
say it's beautiful, but I can't stand the wasps and hornets.
There is just a little fuzzy like floating right of
my face.
Speaker 1: Sorry, don't edit that olid Adriana.
Speaker 2: Anyway, not out of ospar hornet, just a little fuzzy.
Some people said spiders, which I do find spiders fascinating,
don't necessarily want them landing in my dinner. So yeah,
it was all over the place, and I think that
where my husband and I are at in this decision
is we're just going to go ahead and build the
patio and add the thing in later if we want.
Speaker 1: To, which is how I did it.
Speaker 2: Because it's not going to be hard. You know, our
patio is not going to be poured concrete or anything.
We're not gonna have to go and get a jackhammer.
It's just going to be pavers, and so we can
just take up a group of pavers to install the pergola.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but if you're keeping square at home with the
pergola that I built, the concrete slab was already there,
so I just used a drill to drill holes in
the concrete and you can get these footings that you
put the posts in. So yeah, it works.
Speaker 2: So there's even a way to do that, except, of course,
then you couldn't plant, because that would be a problem
I have.
Speaker 1: You'd have to jackhammer grape expectations for your projects.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna table the pergola in favor of an
umbrella to give us some shade there. And thank you
so much for the people who said consider getting a
covered one so you can be out there when it rains.
That is a great idea. But we do also have
a covered front porch, so we usually spend our time
out there when it rains, and then that gives us
a chance to enjoy the front. So I do love
the idea and thank you all so much for sharing
your opinions and experience with us. It means a lot.
So what have we got in the mail bag?
Speaker 1: I wanted to mention quickly at the start with the
mail bag, Stacy, I don't think it's a fig leaf
of my imagination. For folks who are in the north,
A lot of die back from the polar vortex, as
it relates to bud Lea's. You know, every year it's
different and mine have started butting out and it's low
down on the stems. So I did have a lot
of die back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so don't panic if you have a lot of
die back, it will be fine, exactly. But this is
why you wait to prune your butterfly bush until you're
actually seeing that growth come out, and then you can
prune where the growth is, rather than you know, having
to prune again when it doesn't come out along the
whole stems. But you know, I know, you know, Rick,
But it's so amazing to me when you have a
butterfly bush that was seriously set back for whatever reason.
How quickly it will grow once it starts getting warm.
It's like by the time you know, mid June rolls around,
you'll forget it was ever set back, because it'll be
like nothing happened.
Speaker 1: You got to maintain your composture, all right, Gen writes,
For the past few years, I've been buying bags of
blackwood mulch. However, I've heard that the black dye isn't
great to use. I really like to look at the
dark mulch though, and a few other gardeners that I
follow I've mentioned using compost as mulch. There's a garden
center close to me that sells compost in bulk. Wondering
if it's a good approach to take. I really want
to do what's best for the health of the garden.
I'm fortunate to have good soil, so I'm not concerned
about amending it at all. I just want something that
has the benefits of mulch, is good for the plants,
and if it looks good too. In an added bonus,
great question for the jen.
Speaker 2: I know well. Dyed mulch is certainly a contentious topic.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: I am firmly in the no dyed mulch camp myself,
but I think the question for anybody who is struggling
with this is why are you mulching? And compost does
make a great mulch, so let's get that out of
the way right away. Compost would be a great mulch
for people like Rick or I who garden in an
area that's very, very sandy. It helps you increase the
moisture retention of the soil, and it does have that
nice dark look, of course that you like. It's probably
not going to be as good at suppressing weeds as
a bark mulch would be, so if you're using mulch
for weed suppression, compost is not necessarily going to be
a great alternative. The other thing is, of course, both
compost is simply decayed organic matter that has turned into
People think it's soil because it kind of looks like soil,
but compost is purely organic matter that is completely decayed
into something else entirely. Bark mulch is also organic matter.
Of course, it all came from trees, but the composts
because it is much further along in the decay process.
A compost mulch is not going to last as long
as a bark mulch. It's definitely going to erode potentially,
you know, because those particles are really lightweight and it's
going to break down, which is good for the plants.
I mean, don't get me wrong, you definitely want that
to break down and give nutrients to the plants. But yeah,
it's not going to provide the weed control. It's probably
not going to provide great erosion control either, because when
soil erodes from water, like rainfall or something like that,
the lightest particles wash away first. This is why if
you're looking around your yard after all the rain we've
had in Michigan, and you see where there's wash out,
all that's left of sand because sand is the heaviest particle,
So all the silt, all the clay, all the organic matter,
and that gets washed away. That's why you're left with
that little sandpile. So compost is also not going to
hold up to erosion as well as mulch.
Speaker 1: Wow, that was really well said. I like that well done,
and I agree with you one hundred percent. Let me
just add one thing. I got to the point, Stacy
where I started to use shredded hardwood mulch, so it's
not dyed. It's dark, and they shred the daylights out
of it, so it almost has this compost like texture
to it, and it really solved the problem for me.
So really good shredded hardwood mulch that does not have diet. Okay,
good to know that's the route I've gone. Deb Wright's
my proven winter strong box holly of peers to have fungus.
It looked very healthy for the last two years, but
this week when I saw the fungus, I pruned off
a lot of the black spot. I sprayed it with
a fungicide. I cleaned up the area underneath so there's
no leaves left behind, and then sprinkled some boxwood fertilizer
around the drip line. Do you think it has a chance?
Deb is writing to us from Holland, Michigan' Zone six feek.
Speaker 2: Just down the road. Yeah, so believe it or not,
what you are seeing on your strong box holly is
actually winter damage. So the sorry, the inkberry hollies are
pretty susceptible to winter damage, I mean boxwood. So we're
selling these primarily as a boxwood alternative for people who
don't like boxwood because of the odor, or people who
want to plant something native instead of boxwood, or people
who have had issues with boxwood disease. So it looks
like boxwood, but it's a North American native shrub, but
it's not, you know, a perfect substitute. It does have
some issues. It's certainly not as your resists in his
box would and even the boxwood can also get some
fungal diseases. It does because it's native, of course, it's
more susceptible to various diseases you know, that are present
in our soils in our areas. But it is actually
winter damage. So those blackened spots that you are seeing
is actually cold damage and it happened over winter. And
that's why the new growth on your pictures DA does
not show any of those signs because usually when you
have a fungal infection, that new growth starts showing signs
of it pretty quickly. So no worries about what you've done.
That's totally fine. If anyone else has an inkberry holly
that is showing these kind of amorphous black spots, so
not the typical like ring spot that you see for
most fungal diseases, not even like a rose black spot.
It looks very distinctive on the inkberry hollies. It is
cold damage. And what will happen as the plant starts
to grow, it will drop that foliage because it is
not as effective at photosynthesizing as fresh foliage would be,
and it will push out new growth to replace that.
So there's nothing wrong with what you've done. That's totally fine.
It was a great idea to fertilize it. That will
help it. But I think the reason that you're seeing
that now as opposed to the previous two years when
you've had this plant, because we just got out of
a heck of a winter, as you just said. But
la are certainly not the only thing it's impacting. I've
seen damage on Arborvity's rhododener I mean just there's so
many things that got damaged with how cold it was
for how long. So that's why you're seeing that this year.
But not to worry, you haven't caused any harm and
any remaining bits that you didn't get. As the season
continues to warm up and the days continue to get longer,
new growth will come and replace that and you'll be
good as new bench. All right, we're going to take
a little break. When we come back, we're going to
be talking more about what plants are new in garden
centers this year, so please stay tuned. Thanks for listening
to the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to you by Proven
Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and
evergreens are trialed and tested by experts with your success
in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, Stacey. There are
so many plants for folks to ask for at garden
centers this spring. New plants, great new plants, perennials like
Nepetta lemon perfection, beautiful yellow foliage and blue flowers. The
flowers last for a long time, a continuous bloomer. Nepeta
Catwalk Queen is another great plant. You mentioned the Treasure
Trove and a lot of people are going to have
interest too. In the Dolce Sultry Night Hucara ruffled purple
black leaves. What a great plant.
Speaker 2: I'm a sucker for ruffled hugres. Yeah, I love them.
I mean I can't grow you grow so but I
love seeing him in the garden center.
Speaker 1: I do too. But the great thing about them is
you can use It's a compact plant, so you can
use it in container plants.
Speaker 2: I could grow it in containers. Yeah, and you know what,
that's a great point. If you can't find the right
foliage in the annual section of your garden center, just
go to the perennial section.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And here's a great one, Spigelia. I think
I'm pronouncing that right.
Speaker 2: Spigelia, I say spigelia.
Speaker 1: But spigelia, either of the two orange slices, so beautiful.
Did anybody say hummingbirds? Sun or shade, although you're gonna
want it in the sun in my opinion, but it
can handle sun or shade and a lot of moisture.
Speaker 2: Though, yes, if you have it in the sun, it
needs pretty moist soil.
Speaker 1: But you know, great for attracting pollinators. And many people
also interested in this plant because it is native to
the United States, Eastern and midwestern United States. So that's
that's pretty cool too. Let's see delphinium violets are blue.
A lot of people interested in delphiniums perfect for cottage gardens.
But these new varieties like proven winners. Delphinium violets are blue.
Staking is still recommended, you know, because you're gonna have
some inclement weather now and then, but really stands up
to it, you know. So it's well, you look at
the botanical name, it's Delphinium elatum, and I looked up
elatum is a Latin adjective meaning elevated, raised, or exalted.
So it's an upright plant but really stands up nicely
in the garden compared to let's say, the older varieties
of delphiniums that we're familiar.
Speaker 2: And probably more perennial too, which I know that's kind
of a strange charm to say something is more perennial,
But especially older varieties, we're just not that perennial. You know.
You get a year, two, three years out of them
and then they would just peter out, especially for Delphinium,
so you're constantly having to get new ones. So really
working on increasing the perennialness of delphinium as well as
the stem strength. And I mean, who can resist a
delphinium exactly?
Speaker 1: We love delphiniums. Hearts on fire, old fashioned bleeding heart,
just bright golden yellow foliage with true red heart flowers.
I like this plant, and the other thing that I
love about the plant is it's great for our friends
up in Canada or Minnesota hardy to zone three. Raised
for days Heliopsis double flowering fallse sunflower with double yellow blossoms.
They almost look like Zenia's. What a great plant, especially
if you like to bring cut flowers inside the house.
Rais for days Heliopsis. And then a plant that isn't
used much in the landscape, but barren wart or Epimedium
uh hugs and kisses. And I think the plant is
notable because number one, it has interesting flowers, but number two,
it's great for dry shade, and dry shade is a
condition that a lot of people struggle right now.
Speaker 2: Do you have ep medium in your garden?
Speaker 1: I do not. You don't, I don't.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad that you mentioned it. These are the
first proven winners epimedium, so that is very special. Epimedium
is a great plant. And even though it is closely
related to barbary, I still like it. I love it,
and they're evergreen perennials. They make a great groundcover. They
do thrive in the shade. Although they need some help
getting established, they definitely benefit from some water as they're
getting established as young plants. Once they're established, they're fine.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I do want to say, as someone who was fussing
with my epimediums over the past weekend, if it's not
too late for you and you're in a cool climate,
cut back the old foliage of your epimediums now. Don't
wait until the new stuff starts to you emerge, because
it's very tricky to kind of be in there and
separating the old growth from the new growth. So you
want to get them out before the new groth starts
to emerge. It probably starts sooner than you think. It
started sooner than I thought. And yeah, and then once
you're in there, you know, trying to prune out the
old leaves, the evergreen foliage from last year. It's really
easy to cut into that new growth. And if you
do that, that's it. You lost that new growth for
the year, So no flowers, no foliage from that. So
that's the only drawback that they have. I am crazy
about epimediums. They're so so pretty, they're deer resistant, and
I'm just so excited that we have finally have some
that are good enough to be in the proven winner's line.
Speaker 1: Just made a note of it. Stacey suggests I have
epimedium in my yard. I think I may try that,
thank you. Of course, as far as flowering annuals are concerned,
every year there's all kinds of new productions. This year
is no exception. Super Bell's Magic Grapefruit calibri CoA. This
is a plant caliber, in my opinion, are best for containers,
not in ground planting. But what a cool plant. It's
a color shifting calibricoa. So it opens lemon yellow, then
takes on soft pink tones as it basts in the
summer sun. Of course, there's always new Supertunias. There's Supertunia
Mini vista, pink cloud this is. This plant has really neat,
uniquely ruffled petals that have a color that I would
describe as cotton candy with a white eye. Great plant,
sweet caroline, sweet heart shadows storm. This is a chartreuse
and black. I'm gonna call it variegated foliage on a
potato vine. That's a cool plant.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I look forward to that, like you bet.
Speaker 1: Southern Blaze, bright pink flocks. It's a pollinator friendly native
oar with Texan roots, so it shows you by the
name Southern Blaze bright pink flocks. Here's a plant that
can handle the heat for you this summer.
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people would be surprised
to think of flocks as an animal, because of course,
you know, for those of us in cold climates, we
grow flocks as a perennial. This is you know said
it's from Texas, so it's a tender flocks that you
can grow and it should bloom all season long. So
a little bit of a different take on flocks.
Speaker 1: You bet, both of us love kalladiums and the hard
to heart kalladiums. They have a crem brew lay Ooh,
now this one makes me hungry, torched caramelized hardened sugar
rush coming on. Yeah, hmm, crembrew lay and hard to
heart midnight oil. Unusual kalladium because it has strap like
kind of roughly foliage that blends deep green red tones.
I don't know, it's hard to describe undulating type margins.
I don't know. It's just it is a cool plant.
Hard to heart midnight oil.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have definitely not seen anything quite like it
in the kalladium world.
Speaker 1: Lots of people have enjoyed jazzberry Supertunia's Well, now we
have Supertunia Vista cool Jazz. So if you liked Jazzberry,
try cool jazz. This plant has a lot of promise.
And the Laguna Royale series of Lobilia. Again, as I mentioned,
I've been in the garden center industry for a long time,
and people love lobilia in April and May when the
temperatures are coolish, and then the heat of summer.
Speaker 2: It's like year by by what happens to my lobilia.
Speaker 1: And proven Winters has developed the Laguna Royale series of
lobilia that is far more heat tolerant. So what a
great place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really changes the way that you can use
loubilia in the landscape. Now, if you live in a
really hot climate, it's still gonna peter out. You know
that it is still a cool climate annual or cool
season annual. But for those of us, even in Michigan,
for the most part, they will bloom all summer long
unless we have, you know, extremely hot weather. But and
it's just that color is so there's nothing like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it's beautiful. And they have a lilac a
laguna royale, a beautiful, beautiful plant. Let's take a look here.
Few more to share with you. I'm excited about super
Lofus sunglow onethra. Talk about a drought and heat tolerant plant.
It's basically Texas primrose is what I like to call it.
It's derived from a native Texan species. I mean, this
is a plant stacy that can handle one hundred degree weather.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and big open, sunny yellow flowers. So if yellow
is your thing in the garden, it's going to be
hard to beat this one, that is for sure.
Speaker 1: This one's for you. Ask for it at your garden center.
Surefire cascade red begonias, great for trailing and hanging baskets
or upright containers. And then I'm going to wrap it
right here, Stacy with the one that I have difficulty pronouncing,
and so I'm glad you're sitting right next to me.
Speaker 2: It's a mouthful, So sorry, Lava flow James Britannia.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You say it so much better than It's
a stay different every time.
Speaker 2: It's a very unusual name. It's literally James Britton. I
a at the end, But like it's like someone's name
was James Britton and then they said James Bretenna. So yeah,
a newish plant. I think the name could use a
little marketing campaign there. But very cool. Just it's a
little bit like a super colorful but copa.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's like the copa but heardier, a better filler
spiller than the old fashioned be copa and very humidity,
heat tolerant. Just just a great.
Speaker 2: Great color too. I love the color on these.
Speaker 1: I'm going to use it in my containers this year.
And then when somebody walks through my garden and say,
what is that plant, I'm gonna hand them your phone.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, you could do that.
Speaker 1: Stacy has been fun and it's been super fun.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to getting out into the garden center
this year and filling up my shopping cart. Thank you, Adriana,
and thanks to you for watching us on YouTube, downloading
the podcast, or listening to the radio version of The
Gardening Simplified Show. Have a great week.