Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A. Here at proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella
me Rick Weisten, our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, Stacey,
you and I both love plants and flowers. As a
matter of fact, I'm gifting myself plants and flowers pretty
much every week, and certainly not just on Valentine's Day.
Although I would say Valentine's Day should inspire most people
to grow, let's say, cut flowers in their landscape during
the growing season, maybe to have mixed bouquets, make your
expression of love a cottage garden, because this holiday creates
all kinds of mixed emotions for people. Some people do
not like Valentine's Day, some people ignore it, other people
love it. My favorite thing about Valentine's Day I have
it marked on my calendar. February fifteen. That's when I
hit the stores for that candy that's now sale priced
and I stock up on pink and red Eminem's.
Speaker 2: That's okay, I mean, after holiday candy sales are a
very good opportunity, you know. And it's true that especially
cut flowers do become a lot more expensive at Valentine's say,
it's a simple issue of supply and demand. But I
loved your idea about using this notion of bouquets Chigarawa
cut Flower garden, because you could get your Valentine a
bouquet of seeds for cut flowers. Sure, get them twelve
different seed packets probably will come in time and you're
gardening Valentine or yourself. We'll be very happy, you know.
I do want to also say long stem rows are
like the ultimate Valentine's Day plant, right, I don't need
to tell you you live most of your career. I
cannot tell you how many times people have come up
to me and said, I want to grow long stemmed roses.
Which ones should I pick?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: The simple fact is that the long steminess is not
so much a function of the plant itself. It's the
way that it is grown. And with the roses, you know,
they have to get those long stems, so they're taking
off buds and it's much more labor intensive than short
stemmed roses. And I just feel like, you know that whole,
like long stem roses being like the ultimate romantic thing,
Like I don't know that just seems very outdated to me.
Speaker 1: It's red and it's romance, so that's the way it is.
And then you get poetry thrown into the mix, you know.
And I was thinking roses are red. This much is true.
But violets are violet and certainly not blue. Remember when
we did the show and on the color blue, and
people would say that's not blue cultural blue, yeah, horticultural.
Speaker 2: And also violets are violet and it is a beautiful
color it is.
Speaker 1: So it's a reminder that flowers are powerful symbols for
expressing complex emotions. Flowers engage multiple senses sites, smell, sometimes
touch to create a multi sensory experience that can alter
a person's mood. So you can probably tell that, especially
having spent close to fifty years in the retail industry,
I don't get real excited about Valentine's Day, but I'm
going to temper my enthusiasm here and say that I
do realize that Valentine's Day at least creates an awareness
of that multisensory approach and how important flowers are in
our lives.
Speaker 2: They really are. And I also would argue that the
timing of Valentine Valentine's Day, which I know is based
on the feast of Saint Valentine and has nothing to
do with the fact that it is the most abysmal,
dismal part of winter. And it's just, frankly a great
time to treat yourself to some plants and greenery to
try to make it through this awful second half of winter,
because like it's pretty much halfway through meteorological winter, right,
can't wait for sure, and I guess it's no. I
guess meteorological winter is December through February. But still, like
we've had a long time of very bad weather. And
if you're going crazy, you've got cabin fever, then yeah,
make things more lively inside, make things more exciting, and
treat yourself to a plant or two or more, or
any plant you want. It doesn't have to be one
of these Valentine's Day gift plants. It can be something
from the houseplants section. It could be going on a
shopping bonanza on an online garden center. There's lots of
different ways that you can kind of, you know, use
the prevalence of plants and flowers at this time of
year to your advantage. Even if you don't, you know,
celebrate Valentines.
Speaker 1: That's true, celebrating Valentine's I mean, I've always said that
Valentine's Day is a day when a couple will fall
asleep ten minutes into a movie that they spent an
hour picking out. But there are cool gifts out there.
I mean they have these I Love You stamps that
you can stamp into the toast when you're having a breakfast,
which is kind of cool. They've got these rings you
can buy and you put a dime in there and
then it becomes a dime in ring. Beef jerky with
the heart messages, and you know because in grade school
we always handed out those candies.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah message. They have beef jerky with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they have beef jerky now too.
Speaker 2: Is it heart shaped?
Speaker 1: Yes, they're heart shaped beef jerky. Don't edit this out, Adriana.
Let's just be real, you know.
Speaker 2: Well, the fact is, as with the plants and flowers,
there's something for everyone. And I'll bet that beef jerky
will be on sale the next day too, So while
you're going for your half priced pink candy, then you
can get those two.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, I do want to mention carnations and Alstromeria
for me, are great long lasting cut flowers. Part of
the reason you should also grow them in your landscape.
So Proven Winters has the paint the town series of
Dianthus or pinks as some people call them, and the
Inca series of Peruvian lily, which I love in my landscape.
Speaker 2: Right, and so this is your first year trying to overwinter.
Speaker 1: It, right, Yes, so we're going to see what right.
Speaker 2: I have to say this is a little bit off topic,
but I have been very, very concerned about the temperatures.
You know, I have been very happy with my fig
plant in my garden. It's gotten very large, and now
I'm like kind of dreading what's gonna happen in May.
I'm sure you're feeling the same way about some of
that stuff, you know, but it will be a learning
experience which is just as important, even though it can
be a little bit heartbreaking. But you know, the fact
is the temperatures that we have had lately here and
not just here in Michigan, I mean over most of
the eastern half of the US. It's not just that
it got that cold, it's how long it has stayed
that cold. And that's what's concerning me. You know, a
couple of nights dipping into you know, very cold temperatures.
But you know, during that cold snap, you know, I
woke up that Saturday morning and looked at my phone
and the air temperature was negative three And I have
never I don't think I've ever experience that in my garden.
So yeah, I'm a little bit concerned. You mentioning your
Alstromeria just reminded me that.
Speaker 1: January this year has been two hundred and thirty six days.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, you know it just makes our spring shopping even
more exciting.
Speaker 1: Spring will be so much sweeter. So look for unique
and create a Valentine's Day plant gifts including heart shaped
hoyas a hoya heart, vibrant pink or red, and thuriums
is a great choice in my opinion, trailing string of
hearts that's a fun plant, elegant orchids. We've talked before
about heart to heart kalladiums and for long lasting options,
a philodendron, pink princess. And I even experienced where some
people would reach out to me as a foliage plant
buyer asking for olive trees to signify lasting love.
Speaker 2: Oh olive trees are, you know, very cool. Now, if
you are someone who is shopping for a gardener for
Valentine's Say or anytime, you probably aren't listening to the
show the person who is the gardener is. But just
in case, the best thing that you can do for
your plant loving Valentine is to go to the garden
center with them. Don't pick something out if you're like
worried that you're not going to be able to pick
out the right thing. Go to the garden center together,
have a ball looking at all of the plants, get
as excited about the plants as they are if you can,
and then make that purchase together, you know, because it's
a good idea. That's just like a fun thing to
do when we're all cooped up inside and you know,
go into a garden center is at Valentine's sayer anytime
during winter is Honestly, it's just a great way to
kind of give yourself a little bit of hope and
make it over the finish line.
Speaker 1: And another suggestion that I would have is don't buy
a milar bloe.
Speaker 2: Oh amen to that.
Speaker 1: Don't do it. This is coming from mister Valentine here
as a matter of fact, I've written Rick's mylar balloon
rant Limerick, so I'm going to go on a little
rant here, Stacy, I take the occasion to lampoon that
gas bag in a typhoon. Forgive my rant, but buy
a plant and ditch the mylar balloon. Your lover wants
flowers in cash, hand written cards, make a splash, but
forever your birthday lives on at a landfill in Tucson
with other sentimental trash. When your balloon becomes rubble, you've
started some trouble. The transformer blew up, the powers out, Buttercup,
I'm sorry to burst your bubble. You would not believe
the number of milar balloons I pick up walking along
the beach or that come up in the surf.
Speaker 2: I shudder to think. But fortunately a lot of places
are banning them, especially on beaches. Yes, but yeah, it is.
It is a huge problem.
Speaker 1: Now we'll see how Stacy brings this in for a
landing and ties it all together and plants on trial.
That's coming up 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
proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where obviously the
elephant in the room is Valentine's Day coming up, and
Rick is not a fan, and I have to say
I'm kind of indifferent about it. You know, I don't
need a special holiday to celebrate being in love, because
you know, if you're lucky enough to be with someone
that you love every day is wonderful. And you don't
need to set this out. But I will say it
is an excellent opportunity to buy plants, yes, and that
is where to me the real value is because garden
center's restock, you know, and a lot of people you
know might not want to go out to a garden center. Ah,
this selection is going to be so picked over. I'll
tell you the best election you're going to see of
house plants is probably what the week two weeks before Valentine.
Speaker 1: Absolutely and a garden center or a greenhouse this time
of the year could use the little boost of you
gracing the door of their establishments too.
Speaker 2: But because we do know so many people are shopping
for plants at this time of year, whether in person
or online, we do have a special guest in the
last segment of the show coming up, doctor Jessica Turner Scoff,
who is the Associate director of Science Communications at Longwood Gardens,
the infamous Longwood Gardens, is going to be joining us
and talking about plant poaching. Now you might think like what,
but she is going to be telling us how close
really to us, even to the average gardener or plantoffs
plant collector, how close plant poaching really can be. So
it's going to be very interesting, something a little bit
different for the show, but lots of good information, I
am sure, so please be sure to stick around to
the very end. But for now we are talking about
Plants on Trial, which is where we tell you about
one of the three hundred and fifty plus preven winner's
color choice shrubs or trees and give you some reasons
why you might want to plant it in your garden. Now,
today's is a bit of a two fur. The plant
on Trial is Midnight Express Cursus also known as red bud,
and I chose her for two reasons. Number one, because
if you've ever seen one before, any red bud, midnight
Express or otherwise, it is one of the plants that
nature has blessed with almost perfectly heartshe leaves. There are
very few other plants that haven't been you know, bread
or developed that just have such an amazingly perfect heart
shaped leaf. And I think it's really really charming. And
the number the other reason that I chose it is
because I personally love red bud. It is native to
much of the Eastern actually much of the US in general.
The further west you get, the more likely York to
get into a different species than we have over here
on the east side. Surcsus canadensis. But you'll find it growing,
you know, all over from Michigan to Minnesota down to Oklahoma.
It's everywhere. And when it blooms in spring, it has pink,
tiny pink pea shaped flowers, wispy and yeah, just this
beautiful texture. And you know, in our trial garden across
the Grand River, you just see in the woods there
just this haze of pink that just kind of emerges
out of the brown of the woods. And then you know,
at that same time, ammilenkir or service berry is blooming,
and our native flowering dogwood is also blooming, and together
they just make this most magical combination of flowers that
you know, they're early to blooms, are just coming out
of this long winter, and you just see this kind
of floral symphony. I mean, just even thinking about it,
I just get so excited. So I love that.
Speaker 1: The magical thing for me, Stacy with redbud is the
fact that the blooms come out before the foliage. Yes,
so you see that. It's it's like these the blooms
are just suspended in mid air. Yes, that's why I
say wispy. I love it.
Speaker 2: They call that flowering naked. Yes, if if a plant
flowers without foliage, that is a flowering naked. And yes,
Soursus canadensis, our native redbud flowers naked, and so yeah
without I mean, of course we love green, but without
the green on the plant, that pink just pops so much.
Another really cool thing about Cursus or red bud is
it exhibits a trait called califluory. And yes, that sounds
like cauliflower and has actually spelled much the same c
A U l I f l O r Y calliflory,
and that basically means the phenomenon of flowering directly on
the stem. So whereas you know, most plants will flower
and they'll create growth and then the you know, flower
will appear at the end of the stem, like with
roses or hydranges, what happens with cursus or red bud
is the flowers formed directly on the stem with just
a tiny little stock. And so you can actually find
red buds that look like their trunk is covered in
these bright pink powder puffs, because it makes these really
cool little clusters of flowers directly on the trunk, and
it's just it's just a charming little thing. You don't
all see them do that. But it's just a great plant.
And of course it's native, so I have it close
to my heart. But the other thing, since this is
plant on trials, is I think that red bud is
a fantastic choice for it's a small tree that's perfect
for a specimen tree in your yard.
Speaker 1: Yes it is.
Speaker 2: It's a great size, It has that really amazing moment
in spring, has the charming foliage some people don't like
the seedheads. I personally do like the seedheads. They look
like kind of dried brown beans hanging from the tree.
I actually like it.
Speaker 1: I'm good with it. And the tree provide, you know,
there's filtered light that gets through the tree. And then
if you can take that magical experience you're describing Stacy
and in the location of that tree, have some tulips
in bloom.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Gilbelila pour it on?
Speaker 1: Whoa pour it on? Exactly?
Speaker 2: But is pretty as the heart shaped foliage is. You
might be the kind of gardener who wants something a
little bit extra in your red bud, and that is
exactly what Midnight Express Redbud does for you. So this
really cool variety came out of Robinson Nursery in Oregon.
Josh and Chris Robinson of Robinson Nursery developed this plant
or selected it from their very large tree nursery. They
are expert tree growers, and its foliage is a dark
purple black. Now, as we've already said, Cursus does flower naked,
so you're never going to get the combination of the
pink flowers and that dark purple foliage. It would be
fabulous if you did. You're not going to get that.
But that's okay, because what you're gonna get is that
wonderful flower display in spring, and then as the flowers
start to fade, then that dark, purply black foliage comes out,
and then that's going to keep the plant really interesting
all season long.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go out on a limb here and
ask you a question. Then, Having worked in the industry
for so many years, the standard was always forest pansy,
how does this compare?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Ris Panze is also a purple variety. It was one
of the I think it was the first purple variety,
and I remember when it came out, it was all
the right. People went bonkers for it. And it is
a beautiful plant. But it is a plant that resents
anything less than ideal conditions. So if it's not growing
under great conditions, say it's growing in an urban area
where it's going to be hot and maybe not get
regular water, it often gets different diseases. It's kind of
a weak grower. It's harder to propagate and to grow on.
So Midnight Express resolves all of those issues. It's going
to be much more vigorous, much more resistant to disease.
And it's gonna you know, have much brighter color, much
more vivid true colors in that purple black as well.
So it's really just a great choice. And you know,
as with all you know, plant development, we're always looking
for ways to you know, make sure that the plant
performs better for you so that you don't have to
work as hard and you don't say, old, jeezu, why
did I waste my money on this? This plant is
weak and sad. You want your plants to be happy
and robust and healthy, so it's a great choice for that. Now,
I will say that overall, red bud is not dear resistant.
I have tried to grow small plants myself many times
and they always get munched. But one thing I do
really like about them is they do support leaf cutter bees,
and I love leafcutter bees. They are a native bee
that makes this really interesting little notch in the foliage.
So that is a good reason to grow them if
you don't have any deer to contend with. Now, this
is a plant that's going to be for full sun.
If you have a green leafed red bud, you will
be able to get away with it and kind of
part shade because these are understory plants that kind of
grow on the edge of the forest, but that pigment
that makes that deep, purply black foliage really needs full
in order to come to its best. And you know,
because as is the case very often, when you have
a plant with colorful foliage, it can sometimes be more
susceptible to powdery mildew than it's plain green counterparts. So
if it's in too much shade not getting good air circulation,
you know, that could become a problem. So you want
to make sure that it is in full sun in
this case, and if you don't have full sun, just
go ahead and plant the green ones so you get
all of the wonderful qualities of Redbud. Midnight Express is
hardy down to USDAS on five heat tolerant through USDAS
one nine gets to be about twenty to thirty feet
tall and about ten to twenty feet wide. So that's
really a nice scale, you know, for the average kind
of city size lot, suburban lot, and house. And I
think that's really important too. So a very cool plant
that I think you will love at least as much
as I do once you get to know it. So
please do add that two year planting list for this spring.
If it spikes your interest, it will be available at
garden centers this spring and Midnight Express Redbud is also
the twenty twenty seven and twenty twenty eight Tree of
the Year spoiler alert, so it'll be even more abundant
next year. So we're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're opening up the garden mail bag,
so please 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 and 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 Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container
at your local garden center or learn more at proven
Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome
back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we're talking about
our love for plants. And even if you don't love
Valentine's Day, it is still a great time to get
a plant. Get you through the winter and as you
start thinking more and more about gardening, because I feel like,
you know, January is rough, but like I feel like
February is when the spring fever really starts kicking in,
because at that point it's like starting to get closer,
but the weather it's still super crummy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, if you're one of those people who
loves Valentine's Day, more power to you and send your cards,
your notes, your letters to me and change.
Speaker 2: My mind and your half price eminem's.
Speaker 1: Yes, think and write eminems, bring them on. But I'll
take card shaped chocolates too, and beef jerky, oh a
beef jerky too.
Speaker 2: But you know, as we do start to move more
towards the gardening season, and of course cold and snow
and everything pile up, you may have a gardening question
of your own and we would be happy to help you.
All you have to do is reach out to us
at Gardening Simplified on air dot com and there is
a contact forum right there. You can even include some photos,
or you can leave a comment on our YouTube show.
Adriana reads all of those and make sure that everybody
gets an answer and if you need one, so lots
of different ways to reach us, and you don't have
to just share your questions or problems with us. You
can share your celebrations with us. And I loved hearing
from our listener Ruth recently. She says, this is how
I am beating the winter blues. My Pathiopedalum American beauty
Lady Slipper orchid has blossomed. It is so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I have to say, you know, when I was younger
and wanted to, you know, collect rare plants and thought
that like orchids were the coolest thing ever an orchids
still are very cool, but I just don't have any.
The pathio Pedalum was the one that I always wanted.
This is the one. If you've ever seen like an
orchid show or been to a botanical garden, comes up
on a single stam and just has the most unique
lady slip like flower usually dark kind of maroons and pinks.
Speaker 1: And greens and magical.
Speaker 2: Oh so beautiful, and hers is blooming. And so that
is a huge accomplishment for you as an orchid grower
or orchid collector. So yeah, way to grow, way to grow,
to grow, and enjoy that because yes, you have truly
accomplished something extraordinary to get a pathiopedulum to rebloom under
normal household conditions. She goes on to say, and last
week i picked up a variegated hoya plant. I'm excited
to see how my hoya plant grows. So we're talking
about the Preven Winter's House Plan of the year, the
pink variegated hoya that they have, So Ruth has herself
a variegated hoya as well. So you know, Ruth got
the right idea. Treat yourself to some great indoor plants.
Don't try to power through February. It's okay to give
yourself a little botanical cushion with some nice houseplants or
cut flowers, or a shopping spree at your favorite seed
or garden website.
Speaker 1: Like I said, you're among friends and we appreciate it, Ruth.
And if you have a success story like that, we'd
love to hear from you. That's fantastic.
Speaker 2: So let's get to some of those questions. Kelsey asks,
I was gifted a hellibore about a month ago. I'd
like to keep it a live long enough to plant outside.
I live in north central Indiana. The plant has lost
a lot of foliage, though it is still flowering some
and growing some new stems. I'm trying to keep it watered.
It lives in a sunny, south facing windowed room about
eight feet from the windows. But it does not look good.
Please advise.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, I love this, and Kelsey, I'll tell you this, Okay.
We've talked about this often me all the years that
I spent in the garden center industry. On February fifteen,
not only do I go out to get pink and
red Eminem's at seventy five percent off, I'll pick up
some of the hellibores that didn't sell on Valentine's Day.
Speaker 2: Also they sell helibors or Valentine's.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, absolutely, you'll see helibores in the gift wrapped
foil wrapped containers six inch pot so hellibores are part
of the mix. There are a number of greenhouses in
Canada that grow them. And then you'll see some of
these hellibores and grocery stores and so I would pick
those up. Sometimes I would take them and just put
them in an unheated shed or garage area or whatever,
and then in spring plant them.
Speaker 2: I feel like this is so you.
Speaker 1: Had great success. So you know, I got a seventy
five percent off hellibor and I got some M and ms.
Life is good.
Speaker 2: Life is good. Yeah. I mean I have seen this
before too, and I think that you're going to have
much better success getting a hellibor and trying to overwinter
it from Valentine's Day compared to Christmas, because she got
hers at Christmas time. And you know the fact is
that hellabor, as a hardy plant that grows outside, definitely
is going to struggle in your normal indoor conditions. And
it sounds like you're doing everything right, Kelsey, but you
know that's just not the conditions that they want to
be growing in right now. As far as they're concerned,
they should be covered in snow and sound asleep under
the soil, but they're instead growing eight feet from your
window in Indiana. So I would say, you know, definitely,
water sparingly. It's very easy to overwater plants that kind
of want to be dormant. The light sounds like it's fine,
but I would also say that you know, as long
as you are keeping an eye on it, making sure
it doesn't get too dry or too wet, even if
the thing gets so stressed out and does end up
going dormant. I wouldn't give up on it, you know,
because it's probably going through something very similar to what
it would go through outdoors if it had been a
different life cycle, where it's going to go dormant, but
the root, the crown, and the roots are still alive.
The plant has just gone dormant. So I wouldn't totally
give up even if it seems like it has given up,
because very likely that crown is still alive and can
be planted outside. So don't necessarily panic if everything you're
seeing above ground is looking less than spectacular. And if
it does die, you know, know that these are grown
as gift plants.
Speaker 1: Yes they are. They're greenhouse grown, but you can do it.
And it is a tough, resilient plant.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: When I was doing garden segments on television every year
in early March, when there's still some snow on the
ground here in Michigan, we would get out there where
we knew hellabores were and just peel back some of
the snow and ice and there they would be just
budding underneath the snow. And that's a great feeling, Yeah,
for sure, there are even better than em and ms.
Speaker 2: So don't give up Kelsey, but definitely don't overwater it either.
So Beverly Esques, I have some summarific edge of night
hardy hibiscus plans and would like to know if a
Spoma palm tone is a good fertilizer to use on them.
Now I look this up as Spoma palm tone. Obviously
a fertilizer for palm trees is a four to one
five fertilizer.
Speaker 1: So what don you think interesting? Well, it's easy to
overfertilize a palm and create problems that way because generally
they don't need so you know, that's that's a pretty
low analysis four one five.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and most I think that most of the Aspoma
products do tend to have kind of that lower analysis.
You know, they're not like a super strong. But what
I think is interesting about this and that the reason
that she probably mentioned hibiscus is when I looked it up,
Aspoma does sell this as a palm and hibiscus fertilizer. True,
Now that middle number one it's a four to one
five fertilizer is phosphorus and tropical hibiscus especially I know
how true This is for you Rosa sharon or perennial
hibiscus like Summarific Edge of Night. But the tropical hibiscus
like Hollywood hibiscus, are very sensitive to high phosphorus. It
ties up other nutrients that they need more. And that's
kind of a problem because people will think like, oh,
I should use a blossom booster on this thing, because
I want to get a ton of flowers, and you're
actually doing exactly what they shouldn't do, which is applying
a bunch of fertilizer of phosphorus, because most blossom boosters
are very high in phosphorus. So I do really like
that this fertilizer is low and phosphorus because the fact is,
as far as residential soils go, in the majority of
the United States, in Canada, we have more than enough
phosphorus in our soils already. You do not need to
add extra phosphorus in most cases in a residential landscape.
And most fertilizers, most commercial fertilizers, are really way too
high in phosphorus, and a plant can't use excess phosphorus
to become better. And this is how as we've talked
about before, a lot of the algael blooms begin is
a fertilizer runoff, all the phosphorus and fertilizers running off
into lakes and ponds and so forth, and that feeds
the algae and causes it to really proliferate in the summer.
Speaker 1: True, although most people probably are growing their hibiscus plants
and containers right.
Speaker 2: But this is a trap. This is a perennial hibiscus. Okay,
so yes, if you're growing out right. So I would
say that palm tone sounds to me like just the
perfect all purpose fertilizer, you know, for anything. And you
know whether or not the hardy hibiscus from the Summerific
series need low phosphorus or not, I think is pretty
irrelevant because they're getting the phosphorus that they need in
your landscape already. So I would say, go ahead and
get the palm tone. Of course, if you don't live
in a climate where palms grow, you're probably gonna have
to special order it because most likely your garden center
in Michigan is not going to be stocked looking as
poem of palm tone. But you can always look at
the analysis and again, always look for ones no matter
what you're trying to fertilize with that middle number low,
so you're not unnecessarily applying phosphorus. We're going to take
a little break and when we come back, we are
very excited to be talking to doctor Jessica Turner Scoff
from Longwood Gardens, 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.
Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
where we are very honored to have a very special guest.
We are joined by doctor Jessica Turner Scoff. She is
the Associate director for Science Communications at the one and
only Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Slovenia. Welcome to the show, Jessica.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much to be here. It's incredibly exciting.
This is a great, great podcast slash redeo show, so
I'm very excited to be here.
Speaker 2: Oh well, thank you so much for that. Now. I
happened across on LinkedIn a couple months ago a press
release from Longwood Gardens that said that they were joining UH,
they were becoming a partnership with the Illegal Plant Trade
coalition from Botanic Gardens Conservation International, and the press release
went on to say, and this really surprised me. Quote
each year, plants such as cacti, succulents, orchids, psychicads, or
carnivorous plants are trafficked at significantly higher volume than animals,
often without buyers realizing their purchases fuel habitat, destruction and extinction.
So can you tell us more about like what this means.
I think most people, you know, they see the photos
of you know, Customs and Border Enforcement opening a box
and there's a monkey or something inside, And I don't
think people really think of plant poaching as much of
a thing.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. You know, animals do tend to get a lot
of attention, but plants are, as you mentioned, they are
being threatened by international trades far more than animals are.
And you know it's oftentimes if you're purchasing from a
social media or a non reputable online sellar, and you're
not asking the questions of where did this plant come from?
You could be doing a lot of disservice to the
ecosystems where those plants are from.
Speaker 2: So you know, on the show, we talk a lot
about buying plants, of course, and we're usually talking about
buying plants in the nursery or you know, plants that
have come from a grower, plants that were really produced
as horticultural almost agricultural crops. And this is so different, right,
because what we're talking about with plant poaching is plants
that have come out of the wild.
Speaker 3: Yes, illegal poaching is far far different than the plants
that you can purchase from your rect pele garden center
or from a garden shop and a botanic garden. This
is when somebody goes out into the wild, finds the
population of plants and just takes them, and oftentimes it's
taken indiscriminately. Everything is usually pulled up from an area,
roots are disturbed of other species, and so you're having
a really detrimental impact on not just the species that
is being taken and now is lost from the ecosystem,
but the impact of everything else that is happening from
the poaching that's occurring.
Speaker 2: So all of this would kind of imply that there
is some sort of illicit black market for these plants.
But the truth is that this has very much been
a phenomenon enabled by the Internet.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, yeah, it is. It is in plain sights.
So if you go on to any of the social
media or online marketplaces, typically you can find some rare
or unusual plants that are for sale. And if you
don't know where it came from and you ask and
they can't tell you that it came from a reputable
source or way, than chances are you would be if
you purchase it, you would be contributing to a loss
of biodiversity in the wild.
Speaker 2: So I'm sure even with that information, you know, a
lot of our listeners are people who hear this are
thinking that would never happen to me. So just how
close you know, is the average avid gardener or houseplant
collector to you know the availability of these poached plants.
Speaker 3: Plants are poached far more than the internet trade of animals,
so you know, it's pretty common, and it's occurring with
a lot of the more popular houseplants like orchid, succulents, psycads, cacti,
carnivorous plants, and oftentimes it's happening with plants that are
really long lived, slow growing, harder to propagate on large scale.
And so that's why a lot of times it's just
easier for people to immediately go out and pull from
the wild. And so we're just asking people to be
really conscientious. And you know, if you're looking for this
really cool, unique plant, especially for like a Valentine's Day gift,
we highly recommend going to make it an experience. Go
to a garden center, go to a botanic garden, and
go to the garden shop, buy from a place that
knows where the plant came from and can guarantee that
it did not come from an illegal source.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, botanical garden is a great choice because
very often botanical gardens have excellent plant shops with a
lot of really unique plants, and you get to go
to a botanical garden on top of that. Now I'm wondering,
you know how, like obviously in the US, we have
a huge problem with plant blindness, right, like most people
don't even pay attention to plants in the first place.
But yet here we have the situation where you know,
poachers are going out into the wild, and just are
they indiscriminately pulling out plants. Are these knowledgeable you know,
horticulturists or botanists on their own and they are just
you know, trying to make a quick buck on the side,
or are they just pulling up a bunch of stuff
and saying, here, you guys, sorted out and put it
on whatever marketplace.
Speaker 3: You know, I think it really it really depends. So
you know, for my dissertation, I did a lot of
work with American gen seine, which is a small medicinal
plant that's poached throughout Appalachia, and oftentimes the people that
are proaching that are incredibly knowledgeable. They know what they're doing.
They may not have a full understanding of the implications
that they're causing. But you know, that's one end of
the scale. And then the other end of the scale
is just mass poaching, just taking everything that you can
because if you don't take it, then you can't make
that money. So along with one of the things that
we really are working on is developing protocols for learning
how to grow some of these really cool, rare or
endangered orchids specifically, and we're learning how to grow them
so we can both conserve them and ultimately, you know,
help offset some of the poaching that is occurring not
just here locally, that around the world.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm so glad you said that, because of
course everyone hears Longwood and they think, ooh fountains, ooh gardens,
and they think of it just as this beautiful place
to go, which of course it is, but Longwood is
doing so much more, you know, for botany and for horticulture,
and a lot of people they don't even see that
really when they go to a visit to Longwood, and you.
Speaker 3: Know, one of the things that I hope that you know,
thinking Longwood fountains, Longwood beauty, Longwood Global scientific powerhouse. That's
what I'm here to help with.
Speaker 2: We love that we're doing our part too, because yeah,
I mean botanical gardens. People just don't really realize that
is such a key part of their mission and that,
you know, it's a great way for us to all
enjoy more plants when you at Longwood are doing that
kind of research. And I do think it's really interesting
you mentioned American gen scene because I have always heard
that that is probably the most poached plant in North America.
Speaker 3: I would say that that is probably pretty accurate. Yes,
it is being harvested at really high levels. For again,
it ends up in traditional Chinese medicine, so it ends
up in the other end of the world, and people
are taking it without indiscretion because it is such an
important secondary source of income for people. So it's, you know,
one of those things that we need to work on
helping provide opportunities to learn how to grow these plants,
teaching people these protocols so hopefully we can offset some
of these long term issues. And now we don't do
American gen seen work at Longwood. We are more focused
on orchids and everything like that. But we want to
give people the tools to be able to grow these plants,
cherish them, love them, and keep them alive and happy
in their homes, in their gardens and in the wild.
Speaker 1: I'm going to guess that with the advent of social
media and the Internet, this has become a big problem.
You know. I think about people who are on Facebook
marketplace selling something for five dollars that they we're going
to throw in the trash anyhow, you know, and but
the the internet affords the opportunity to do that. So
my question for you would be these nefarious types that
that are into plant poaching. Are there certain regions of
the world that they are targeting where there's a significant biodiversity.
Where are your target areas?
Speaker 3: You know, I think it really comes down to where.
You know, biodiversity hotspots are very often what is targeted.
So you know, those are areas where there's a lot
of life. That's basically what that means, you know. So
and it really depends, like so for cacti, you know
that's going to be in North America in the Southwest.
There's going to be a lot of pressures on them there.
You know, there's going to be pressures. And well, orchids
are prolific and worldwide, so they are incredibly beautiful and
important plants, and I think every single one of them
is listed onto the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species,
so you know, no one should be trafficking them. No
one should be trafficking plants in general. But you know,
it's really where there's high levels of diversity, there's often
a lot more opportunities, especially for some of these plants
that are so beloved.
Speaker 1: I mentioned the internet issue because Stacey it's been really
eye opening for me working with proven winners, proven winners,
Color Choice shrubs, the amount of work, investment research in
bringing a plant to the market.
Speaker 3: Sure. Yeah, And I you know, like to say too
is just if you're there's a plant that you're super
super interested in, super super once, just give it some
time because you don't want to be the person that
takes the last one. But industry is aware of these trends.
They are, you know, keeping on top of these things.
And you know, I think back to some of the
plants that were so popular during the pandemic, like the
pink princess. Well you know, I waited a couple of
years and I got mine from Costco, so you right there. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So what is the Illegal Plant Trade Coalition doing? Uh,
you know as part of this of this movement globally
because it's not just long what it's it's botanical gardens
from all over the world. You know, what are they
doing to to really reduce and eliminate plant poaching?
Speaker 3: Absolutely so we are with the the Panic Gardens Conservation International,
So this is their coalition and we are joining with
partners there's worldwide that are really working to both document,
research and protect species of facing these pressures and these
pressures not just the plant trade, but you know, oftentimes
these plants are being tipped by climate change and habitat.
So we're really trying to work together to bring awareness
to this issue because you know, as you mentioned about
plant findness, Now everybody knows that the issue that this is,
and so let's raise the awareness. You don't want to
be the person to take the last one because you
do not know the implications that that can have long
term ecosystems.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a scary thought that you could literally be
buying the last one of something, you know, and just
thinking you're.
Speaker 3: Any way too much pressure from anybody's bring them like professionals, definitely.
Speaker 2: Now, so as we wind down here, what can the
average person do? I know we talked a little bit
about it, but are there specific questions? You know that
if you're interested in a plant that you have come
across on a marketplace that you can ask that you
should ask to kind of help to, you know, winnow
down the possible source. Is it useful to look at
the sellers, say other listings and kind of dig into that.
How can you do your due diligence?
Speaker 3: There are a lot of different things that you can do.
First of all, if it's too good to be true.
It probably is. Make sure that you're really having an
understanding of what the plan is you're buying and should
it be listed at that price. You can also ask
about promenads to how it was propagated, if it was
will collected, and you know, really just I like to
think like a scientist, ask questions, try to understand what
you're doing, because you know, you want to think twice
and trade right. You don't want to be buying something
that was removed from it to habitat. You want to
be buying reputable dealers. Go to your local garden shop
and ask the right questions, enjoy the parson that you purchase,
knowing that you did it the right way.
Speaker 2: Right, And I think, you know, hopefully just being aware
that this is a possibility is helping to dry up
that market. And I love what you've said that Longwood
is helping to dry up that market by actually making
these plants available. We really appreciate you joining the show
today and helping to raise awareness. If people want to
know more, I know there is a post something at
the Longwood website, but you know, really I hope that
they will just take the lesson to heart that This
is not you know, an arm's length problem. This is
actually a problem that can be quite near to us.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and I recommend also checking out just Longwood Gardens
dot org to read more about some of our conservation
horticulture work.
Speaker 2: Well, that sounds like the perfect way to spend a
cold winter afternoon. So thank you so much, doctor Jessica Turner, scoff,
Associate Director of Science Communications at Longwood Gardens. We truly
appreciate your time and your expertise and helping to raise
awareness for this important issue.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Well, I hope that wasn't too you know, scary or
too much of a downer, but I know the first
time I learned about this, I was genuinely surprised at
how common it really is. So, you know, we really
wanted our listeners to to know that this isn't just
you know, some far away problem that may never impact them.
Maybe closer than you think.
Speaker 1: But you'd have to say, in this internet digital age,
not surprising, that.
Speaker 2: Is for sure. Fortunately, So as you do your Valentine's shopping,
please be sure to shop responsibly and locally if you can.
So thank you so much to doctor Jessica Turner. Scoff,
Thank you, Rick, thank you Stacy, thank you Adriana, and
thanks so much to all of you. We hope you
have a wonderful week ahead.