Speaker 1: Coming to you from Iconic Studio, a at proven winners,
Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified radio
podcast and YouTube show with Stacey Hervella, me, Rick Weist,
and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, the trees
are going to take some much deserved time off and
we will benefit fall color. My favorites have always been
maples and dogwoods, it Ta and fother Gia which Hazel's
a favorite of mind and of course gink O. I
love Ginko trees, Viburnham, service berry, oak leaf, Hydrangea and
many more as favorites for fall color. And there's many
great choices. As a matter of fact, Stacey, I think
I have a new fall color favorite. Kodiak Orangevella.
Speaker 2: Oh, great choice. That's a great class.
Speaker 1: Just beautiful and also Spice Girl Korean Spice Viburnham. That
would be Viburnham CARLICII. Right, yep, nailed it. I'm hot already.
It's a standout choice for adding spectacular fall color to
your landscape. And we love our fall color. It's a
magical time of the year. One of my favorite fall
color spots is Lake of the Clouds, it's in the
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Michigan. Way up there
in the up you can see the fall color from
dramatic cliffs. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see
some of the pictures that I took, or will put
them in our shown notes. But Stacy, everybody has their
favorite fall color spot.
Speaker 2: I would think, I mean, I don't, No, I don't
like I wouldn't say that I have one particular spot
because it's kind of just like wherever, you know, wherever
I'm going. Yeah, but I do have a favorite fall
color tree.
Speaker 1: You do.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, sugar maple.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's got to be sugar got to be sugar mapole.
The star of northeast US. The color is sugar maples
than the backbone of New England's stunning fall foliage. And
they're talking about its distribution possibly moving further north due
to climate change over the next century. So that would
be let's see if I get this right, Stacey, Acer sacarum.
That's correct, close enough.
Speaker 2: Yes, and not to be confused, even though this is
very confusing with Acer saccharinum, which is the silver maple.
I don't know why taxonomists did this to us. They
must hate us. So acer saicarum, sugar maple good, acersaccharinum
silver maple bad.
Speaker 1: Got it? Got it?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: I love sugar maples. I mean, think about maple syrup,
and of course the fall color. But it's claim to
fame actually because of its tight grain and light color.
It's the kind of wood that makes up twenty nine
of the thirty NBA hardwood basketball courts. That's what they
make basket.
Speaker 2: I did not know that that is interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so there you go. Now it's somewhat autumnated. Did
you see what I did there?
Speaker 2: Well, I read it first, so I had at.
Speaker 1: I know I had it here in my notes. The
timing of color production is quite consistent from year to year,
although unusual weather patterns can affect it, diminish or advance timing.
Of course, this past year we dealt with some drought.
We want sunny days and chili nights to get the
anto cyanins. That's the red color. I mean, I think
it's it's pretty predictable. We're going to get great yellows
and oranges, but that antho cyanin pigment creates the reds.
And if we get rainy and windy weather, it could
affect the color, okay, So we're looking for sunny days
and chilly nights and that will bring out that pigment.
Of course, we love anthocyanins. Anto cyanins are found in
lots of foods like blueberries and grapes, supposed to be
really good for you. You can get your antho cyanins
from a good glass of red wine. So it's a
great fall color.
Speaker 2: Thank goodness for the anthocyanins.
Speaker 1: I love it now. Chrysanthemums are to fall what turkeys
are to Thanksgiving. Fall combinations now have become very very popular,
and I've been hearing more and more people, for example,
using supertunias in fall combinations because petunias are somewhat light
frost tolerant. So it's a great, a great thing to do.
And I like fall color in my perennials too. Hu
karas like the adulce toffee tart and fall in love sweetly.
Japanese anemonies.
Speaker 2: I love Japanese and eemonies are so pretty. They can
be a bit rambunctious, but you know, if you put
them in the right spot, and they don't really make
a pest of themselves. You're so grateful for them because
those flowers are so unbelievably pretty, so abundant. I mean,
it's like a no rainer kind of plant. If you've
got the right spot for it, you're right rambunctious.
Speaker 1: They have a rhizotomous type of root. They look delicate,
but they're very, very tough. And who needs friends when
you've got anemonees.
Speaker 2: Well, you'll need friends because you're going to want to
split them up and share them inspired the wealth around,
so you will need friends.
Speaker 1: In fact, there you go, And I love autumn crocus.
It's not a true crocus. It's culture cum, a group
of fall flowering bulbs in the lily family. Other names
for these plants include meadow, saffron, Naked Lady, and of
course culture com.
Speaker 2: Well. Culture cooms are really such an amazing plant because
they're not a plant that you a color that you
expect to see in fall. They have this like really
crazy pastel kind of color. But the trick with culture coms,
especially coming off the heels of our bulbs show, is
that they are fall planted fall bloomers. Yes, so most
things that are going to plant are going to bloom
later in the season. You're planting in spring like Lily's
and that kind of thing. Whereas culture cum, you're only
going to find it in the fall. You're going to
plant it, it's going to flower, and then it puts
out this really ugly foliage in the spring. They get
super ratty looking, but you got to put up with it.
But it's worth it because when that comes back in fall.
And you know, that's why they call them naked ladies,
is because there is nothing and then all of a sudden,
you go out one morning and there's this purple flower
and you're like, what, I totally forgot a planet this there.
They're an amazing thing, but they are a plant, I
think for savier gardeners who know to look for them
and to plant them in fall. So kind of a
little tricky little trick there to enjoying good culture comes.
Speaker 1: And in fall, like you said, blooming with the I'm
going to call it easter colors. Yes in fall, and yes,
if you can find them. Sometimes in garden centers you'll
find them blooming on display right if they haven't been
cared for, cooled properly. But certainly a great plant to
add to your landscape.
Speaker 2: So say something else interesting about culture. Yeah, so a
lot of people don't realize this, but a chemical derived
from culture culture keene is the original plant mutator chemical
that they used to induce mutations in plant breeding. So
there's been a lot of changes since then, but it
was really the extract from colchicum that was one of
the first things they could treat seed and so forthwith
to try to induce the mutations that would bring about
new colors, new forms, all.
Speaker 1: That kind of stuff that's fascinating, that is really cool. Well,
we get inspired by fall color, and I get inspired
to write a limb of rick. So here it comes,
whether you're ready or not. Colors that compel a visual
ground swell. Fall color is the buzz. We love it
just because falls. Well that ends well, so growing season, goodbye.
The winter Season's nine, So start the coffee debate. Pumpkin
flavor to celebrate. Nope, no more, mister spice guy, I'm
not into pumpkin spice. Are you do you like pumpkin spice?
Speaker 2: You know, I like this spice. This is that accompany
that kind of thing, But no, I do not wish
to have pumpkin in my coffee.
Speaker 1: Yeah, same here, same here, all right, Well, for more
color in fall. Of course, we appreciate and enjoy asters.
I mentioned before mums and asters are just like mums.
I believe it's important to set on your schedule to
pinch those guys in spring into early summer so they're shorter,
squattier and full of flour. In fall, pansies and viola's
of course, crab apples and their fruit. Wow, what great
fall color, and of course dogwood fruit also. Now with pansies,
remember the roots cannot absorb water from frozen soil, so
they will overwinter. But I have found that pansies perform
really well in the north where we get snow covered.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: When you don't get snow cover, sometimes you can lose
the pansy beds because that snow is.
Speaker 2: Yeah and dry out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's insulating for the pansies. So there's many
wonderful ways to add great color. And of course we
have ornamental kale and cabbage, swiss charred, a variety of plants.
And again, Stacy, I see more and more in garden centers,
in greenhouses, combination planters. I'm seeing more of that instead
of just chrysanthemal.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And you know what else has become really popular
over the last several years is the ornamental hot peppers. Yes,
those are very cool to see because those bring a
lot of color and people always say, can I eat them?
And I mean the answer to that is, I guess
if you want. They're not usually developed for flavor, so
a lot of times, you know, what's the breeding goal?
These were developed for color and containers. They might not
be the tastiest pepper. They might be extremely hot, they
might be extremely mild. But yes, in theory, if you
are sure that it is a pepper and not. You know,
I don't think they even sell those Jerusalem cherries anymore.
I remember those back in the day. Yeah, oh yeah,
it's a long time out. Oh but that's another new
cool thing that you see around.
Speaker 1: We'll see what colorful plant Stacy has to share with
us in Plants on Trial. That's coming up next here
on the Gardening Simplified.
Speaker 2: Show, Prooven 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. Greetings,
gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
where the order of the day is fall color. You're
seeing it, We're seeing it. You can't go anywhere without
seeing it. And you know, of course you've got flowers.
We haven't talked a lot about flowers that are colorful
in fall. But you know, one thing when you're talking
about moms and astors and all of that in the
previous segment, are you familiar with the perennial Sheffield mums?
Speaker 1: Sheffield mums, I've heard of it, not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they are a fall perennial. This is not
today's plant on trial. But I did want to get
this out because you were talking about like how people
over winter try to grow their regular decorative mums as perennials,
and in many cases that is possible. I think that
increasingly a lot of the varieties that they are selling
at the market are just not suited to growing year round,
so people try to overwinter these things grow them permanently
in their garden, and it is possible. But Sheffield mums
are true perennials, and they have like a daisy kind
of shape, a pale pink kind of nice, almost fern
like foliage, and the most beautiful fragrance. And these are
true perennials that will actually spread quite nicely in your garden.
And this is another one, like when we were talking
about bulbs, when we were talking about fall berries. You know,
these are plants that typically suffer from the fact that
they don't look like much when the majority of people
are in the garden. So it's a good idea to
take note of these things. Now, in fact, you might
still be able to get them in the garden center
because now they're like, well, people might actually buy these
since they're covered in flowers. But I would say Sheffield
moms are a perennial that you should definitely keep an
eye out for and consider adding to your garden if
you're looking for more flower color in fall in your garden.
See they're nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, they're nice, And I just looked them up.
They're very nice and you can buy them in a
lot of places.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they just deserved. It's just one of those things,
like the culture, you just need to know that they're
out there and know what you're looking for. So We've
talked about flowers, we've talked about colorful fruit, and fall,
we've talked about colorful foliage because of course that's what
gets all the credit. Fall.
Speaker 1: I think it was munbelievable.
Speaker 2: Yes, but you know one thing that we don't really
talk about is evergreens, broad leaf evergreens getting color because
we talk about fall foliage. And what's happening, of course,
is that the plant is converting taking all of that chlorophyl.
It's been using the chlorophyll to make energy and sugars
all season long, and you know, the shorter days are
triggering that to stop. So it translocates all of that chlorophyll,
stores all that energy to help it get through winter,
and that unmasks all the pigments that were there all along.
So the fall color is there under the green all
season long, and then the green goes away and you
see these amazing colors. But that's not the only way
that foliage can change color, because the cooler temperatures these
shorter days also trigger color change in some broad leaf evergreens.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up. Let me quickly ask
PGM rhododendric, would you agree that's great? Fall color.
Speaker 2: Yeah, PJM. Rhododendron is an evergreen and it turns purple,
like a deep purple. That can be quite interesting. Now,
I think that it tends to be best if you
set it off with something brighter. A lot of those
really dark colors sometimes they just become kind of a
black hole in the garden. But like, imagine pairing that
with something like Msnia hubric dii, which is like that yellow,
and it turns yellow really fine thread like foliage in
fall just beautiful. So there are these other ways that
fall color can develop, and you will certainly see that
in today's plant on trial, which is trace amigos abelia.
Speaker 1: Wow, that plant is a chameleion.
Speaker 2: It is kind of a chamelion and not like that
bed chameleon plant that we've been talking about a bunch
of the summer right, totally different. You don't have to
worry about this and taking over your garden. So okay,
Trace Amigos, as you might be able to guess by
the name three Friends, is really a bunch of different
colors at once. It is a variegated abelia. So under
normal circumstances throughout the summer, the foliage is just going
to be a nice, tidy, kind of mint green and
white variegated. And I know variegation, of course, can be
very polarizing. Some people like it, some people don't. I
do think this is one of those variegations that is
quite neat and tidy, so people do tend to like it.
And in spring, again when the days are shorter and
the temperatures are cooler, as well as in fall, this
plant turns all sort of colors. You really have to
see it to believe it. So most notably, what you're
going to notice is that the top of the new
growth turns a bright pink, so that variegation maintains. It's
just that the white turns a really pretty pink and
just completely lights up the plant. And then as that
starts to age, what happens is that's turning yellow and orange,
and so that white margin is all lit up in
all of these different colors. Now that goes away during
the heat of summer when the days are the longest
and the weather is the warmest. But again in spring
and fall, you get this amazing development of color like
you really haven't seen, and that pink color it's very
similar to what's happening with panicle hydranges later in the
season too. It's just bringing about these changes in the
plant cells that let these colors flourish. And I think
people don't really consider that you can have an evergreen
that's still actually kind of colorful and fall.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very cool. Yes, I guess that's why I
call it a chameleon.
Speaker 2: Because it's yeah, right. So you'll certainly see pictures of this,
of course if you're joining us on YouTube, or you
can go to our show notes at Gardening Simplified on
air dot com and see pictures of this, because it
is something that you really are going to want to
see for yourself. Now. I talked about Abelia a couple
months ago when we did our dog show, our show
All about Dogs, because Abelia is a very tough plant,
and I think it's an especially underappreciated plant. Now, partly
it's because it most abelias and Tracey and Migos is
no exception here are more warm or mild climate plants.
Tracey and Migos is hardy down to usda' Zone six
heat tolerant through USDA Zone nine. We have no problem
growing at whatsoever here in Michigan. In the cooler end
of its range is going to be semi evergreen, which
means that it's going to keep pretty much just the
leaves at the tips of the branches, and the inner
leaves will fall off and be replaced next year. In
milder areas than that, it will be completely evergreen and
you will enjoy this color change really probably all through
winter clear until next spring due to those cooler, cooler
temperatures and shorter days. But what I really Abelias are
great foliage plants, but I think that the flowers are
especially something that deserves more attention. Now I have a
hearty abelia in my garden. It's a variety that we
used to offer through proven winners called Ruby Anniversary. The
thing has been flowering now for a solid two and
a half months. The flowers are extremely fragrant, and they
attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and mumblebees like they are just flocking
to this thing. Now. With a plant like Trace a Migos,
because you have this variegated foliage, a lot of times
those flowers just get lost. Because the flowers on Trace
and Migos are white. They're really nice, pure white, and
because it's a variegated plant. You can't really, they're not
popping out of the foliage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And let me ask you real quickly with the
white flowers, to you, does it smell like jasmine?
Speaker 2: I'm yeah, you could probably say that. I would say,
strike one of the closest corollaries to it. It's definitely
like a light floral scent. I would say if I
had to compare it to any other flowering plant, that
would probably be like the closest.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's why pollinators love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they do. And that's what's really cool about
this is you don't necessarily see the flowers, but you'll
smell the flowers, and you will see all of this
activity being attracted to the flowers, and so it's just
kind of like a fun little feature. And I like
personally that Abelia is not one of those plants that
just like has its moment where it's just covered in
flowers and then nothing, like there's something to be said
for that. You should definitely have those plants in your garden,
but you should also have plants like Abelia that just
kind of like always have flowers on them from everywhere
from like June until frost. Because it's really never without
some flowers. It's never like that stop you in your
tracks and you know, can't believe what you're seeing. But
it's just consistently flower I like that, like reliability, it's
something you can turn to and it's going to look really,
really great. Tracing me Abelia comes to us from mine
nurseries in France, where abelia tend to be a lot
more popular and even treated almost as like a gift plant.
So especially like these foliage abelias, they will sell them
at garden centers in colorful little pots that you know,
kind of complement the foliage and just use them as
a tabletop decoration. You know, here we need to, oh God,
dig a big hole in the yard and plants your abelia.
We haven't quite adapted that mentality. Usually if we're like, hey,
this is a shrub, I'm going to want to plant
this in my garden. I want it to be with
me for the rest of my life and I need
to be successful with it. So it kind of has
that novelty feature that had, you know, something that you
just want to buy as an impulse item, as well
as really fantastic presence in the landscape.
Speaker 1: But if I'm going to plant it and have it
with me the rest of my life. Are the deer
going to eat it?
Speaker 2: The deer are not going to eat it. So Abelia
is very deer resistant. The deer have never touched my
ruby anniversary, and I think that tends to be true
of the rest of the Abelias. Their foliage is. They
don't have like a bad smell or you know, hairs
or thorns or any of those things that normally deter deer.
But the foliage is kind of glossy and leathery, and
so maybe they just don't like that it's not toxic.
I don't really know exactly what it is that they
don't like it for, but I will take it because
I'm not going to question. They can go eat all
the toxic taxes that they want and leave the non
toxic abilia alone. That's when when for us as gardeners. So,
like I said, this is going to be hardy down
to Usdzone six, heat tallerant through USDA Zone nine, definitely
going to benefit from some mulch because it has shallow roots.
If you are in zone six, I would recommend adding
this to your spring planting list rather than trying to
plant it now. But other if you're in zone seven
through nine, definitely plant it now. It's going to reach
two to three feet tall by about three to five
feet wide, so a nice front of the border, front
of the landscape. Plant for just some great color that
you don't really have to do anything at all to enjoy.
So check out our pictures at guard Simplified, on air,
dot com or on YouTube. And if you are interested
in adding Trace Amigos Abelia to your gardener landscape, make
sure you let your local garden center know. We're gonna
take a little break when we come back. We're opening
up the garden mail bank, so please stay tuned. At
proven winner's color Choice, We've got a shrub for every
taste and every space. 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 one of
the ways we try to simplify gardening for you is
by answering your gardening questions and you can send those
to us at Gardeningsimplified on air dot Com. You just
go there. There's a contact us form and you can
even send us pictures if you're dealing with something that
we're going to need to see photos of, which is
always helpful. I don't know how they used to help
people go before digital cameras. I have no idea how
that works.
Speaker 1: They sketch stuff out on a nap.
Speaker 2: They just kind of use their psychic powers or something.
I don't know, but we can definitely get you better
information if you can send us a photo. We're also
still have time to send us a Halloween horror story
if you have one. Halloween garden horror story could be anything.
So far, we've got some interesting ones, nothing involving you know,
ghosts or body parts, so but you know yet, there's
still a chance that you could send it to us,
so you can also just do that through the contact
format Gardenings Simplified on air dot Com.
Speaker 1: You never know what you're going to dig up.
Speaker 2: You never do, I mean, you really don't, you know.
Usually for me it's just like pieces of glass and
broken dishes living in an old house. But you never know.
Speaker 1: Of course, in Europe, you hear all the time people digging.
Speaker 2: Up bombs, Yeah, bombs and World War two, Yeah, old
ruins and entire cities. And usually we don't have anything
quite like that here, but hey, let us know if
you did, so, do reach out to us if you
have a garden horror story to share, or we just
want to ask a question. So what's our first question?
You know that was.
Speaker 1: Really interesting on a bilia. I have a question for
you to start, and that is why do lizards tell
great jokes? Because there's stand up chameleons. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2: I weren't like scales tail and no iguana.
Speaker 1: Stand up kamelia. Okay. Question from Vicky. Any ideas on
why the squirrels are going crazy? This year? We've noticed
frantic digging by at least one squirrel in our yard.
The front yard is half torn up, the backyard one
area mainly, but holes everywhere. Plus we've observed this every
day all day. One morning, just before it was fully light,
I saw a squirrel digging up the area in my backyard.
That's the worst. And this behavior has been observed throughout
the day and into the early evening. Is this a
sign of extreme weather. Is it one crazy maniacal OCD squirrel? Wow?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've observed this, you know, and I have too,
although I would say for myself, I don't think that
the squirrel seemed to be acting any more maniacal than
they do every fall. My neighborhood squirrels, you know, they're
like yesterday I saw a squirrel sitting in the middle
of the street eating a nut, and I'm like, dude,
you're in the middle of the street, will you please move?
They're crazy, like I got eat this saint right now.
But yeah, I mean, I think it all just is
a matter of what you're seeing and when you're seeing them,
and of course of the food supply, because the more
food that they have, the more they're going to try
to bury because they're trying to stockpile it all. And
of course squirrels are quite territorial, so I guess it
also depends on how much they're out competing their fellow squirrel.
Now in my neighborhood, I have several walnut trees, and
they love burying those walnuts they do, and that tastes
a pretty big hole.
Speaker 1: Walnuts and of course oaks. Now I talked I interviewed
once a science writer from USA Today, and he explained
to me had written a book and he explained to
me that a squirrel's mental capacity actually expands in fall.
I think it was the hippocampus or whatever, you know,
a fifteen or twenty percent increase because they've got to
store away these nuts. And I still believe because when
I watched them, they rub it on the side of
their head and then they put it in the ground.
I think that they put their scent on these nuts
that they put in the ground. But last year was
a mass year, and I think these squirrels just innately
understand that, Boy, it was feast last year. Odds are
it's going to be fam in next spring. Let's do
a lot of storage. And I think that's why they're
digging like crazy.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, Plus, the term mass year is most
typically associated with oaks, but there are other trees that
have banner years of fruits. And so certainly if you
have walnuts or other things that they dig and berry
that are having a banner year, then yeah, they're just
going to have more to bury. And that's just preparation.
And you know, the same thing happens with chickadees. That
that's part of Douglas Talumy's work, is that chickadee's their
brain enlargest so that they can remember where they stored
all of those little seeds and stashed them in trees
and so forth. But I wonder what the squirrels think
when they dig it up and they're like, oh, crud,
this was you know, this was Brad's nut that he buried.
Bread's a shirt. I don't want to get in his way,
you know, And they're like, better not touch this one.
I'll but I'll go find one that I buried. I
wonder what goes on in that big squirrel brain question.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, think about how black walnuts staining your
deck or staining their drive, you know, and what does
it do to squirrel's teeth. I mean, man's that's a
good I mean, there's so many things that come to mind.
We better just move along.
Speaker 2: You wish we could have this conversation all day.
Speaker 1: We heard from two listeners that have the same symptoms
on two different trees. Drew writes about his Venus dogwood
in Toronto. Donna writes about her Temple of Bloom hepticodium
in Oklahoma. Both plants show the same damage. Very brown,
very crispy leaf edges with a touch of still healthy
green in the center. What's going on?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I thought this was interesting that they
both came in around the same time, two different trees
with as you'll see on YouTube or in our shown
it's at Gardening Simplified on air dot Com, the damage
on the both plants looks see exact same. And there's
a simple answer in its droughtstress. And basically what's going
to happen when a plant starts to experience severe droughtstress
is of course the leaf edge has a lot of
potential for water loss in it, and it's also the
furthest point from the roots, so it's where the water
is going to basically stop flowing, you know. First, that's
where they're going to start to dry out. They don't
start to dry out from the center out, they start
to dry out from the outer edge in And I
think another important thing to remember about trees, especially in
drought stress, is that the damage actually may have occurred
months prior. Just because it's finally manifesting itself does not
mean that the damage is happening. You know, recently, people
ten that's often the case with plants that wilt, and
trees do wilt. I mean, if you are familiar with
a tree, you can kind of tell when it's you know,
stressed and wilting. But I'd say for the average person,
they don't say, WHOA, that tree's you know, really really wilting.
That's an immediate response. But a lot of this browning
it can be cumulative. It can be due to many
many weeks of you know, dry weather. And remember too,
even if you're watering it, sometimes there's competition from neighboring trees.
There's a lot of reasons why this could happen. But
my advice of fixing it would be to, yeah, provide
supplemental water. Both of these trees are fairly young as well,
so they're going to need a lot more water than
an established tree because their root systems aren't fully developed yet.
And mulch, mulch those babies that will help conserve so
so much water.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a great point that it doesn't happen overnight.
And when I look at the pictures, I see other
plants surrounding the trees that have different water needs, and
people have to be reminded that with these trees, just
a trickle watering for a few hours, a deep watering.
It brings up that old argument frequent light or deep infrequent,
And in the case of a tree, I say deep infrequent.
The other thing, as far as mulch is concerned, there's
existing mulch there, Stir it. By the time we get
into August September long season, that mulch becomes compacted, almost hydrophobic.
Stir it. Make sure that the water is getting down
to the roots, you know.
Speaker 2: And another great thing you see these around us, especially
like in municipal tree plantings, but the tree gators, those
green bags that you see zips around new tree plantings.
If you're not familiar with them, they are basically a
waterproof bag with kind of a pressure sensitive tape on
the bottom that when you fill it up, it just
seeps out over a long period. And those are a
very very effective way to get especially young trees established.
They don't look the best of course in your backyard
when you have this beautiful tree, but you only need
to use them for two or three years, and that
can help a lot, just as long as, of course,
you remember to fill the bag.
Speaker 1: Calli writes to us. I have a piece rose. I
want a plant in the ground. I was away from
home this week, came home to this white stuff on
one branch. Do I cut off that branch or treat it?
CALLI lives in Northeast Texas, Zone eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I don't know for sure whether this is
mealybug or scale. Most likely it looks like mealybug to me.
Those are some big mealy bugs. Even the meali bugs
are bigger down into bigger in Texas apparently. And you know,
it's not uncommon for something to just proliferate like this,
especially in a warm climate, you know, where things could
be moving along fine and like you seem to overnight
have this suddenly appear. So Kelly, I would say, absolutely
cut that thing off, throw it away, wash your hands,
because they're going to have like little eggs and so
forth that you could easily spread. I mean, mellibug is
not the worst that an outdoor plant can have. But
if you can minimize you know what you're putting out
in the garden and how much it spreads, your rose
will certainly thank you. And roses I don't find usually
get mealibugs. So it is strange that this one seemed
to explode, so yeah, that's true. I've never seen one.
Speaker 1: But it's just on one step, so I agree with you.
Let's cut it out and move on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, then the ros will be fine, none the worse
for the wear. So yeah, get that thing off, put
it in the ground, and as in many cases, once
something is in the ground, can spread its roots. Is
getting more regular water, doesn't have the stress of growing
in the container, it will often be able to resist
any of those pest infestations a lot more easily. We're
going to take a little break. When we come back,
we've got branching news, so please stay tuned. The Gardening
Simplified Show is brought to you by proven Winners Color
Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs in evergreens have
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
branching news and Stacy, I thought this story is really interesting.
The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development was the first to
introduce C Coast Viewers now c as an se SA
C Coast Viewers powered by Enchroma to enable color blind
visitors to see the changing colors in fall at twelve
parks and scenic overlooks.
Speaker 2: Isn't that so interesting? Yeah? I wonder how that works.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's fun to research it because they actually
give you the opportunity to see fall colors the way
they appear to someone who's color blind and then compare
it to what you see through these viewers. So really
neat Virginia State Parks are making autumn war vibrant also
for everyone. By installing these special viewfinders for colorblind visitors,
they allow them to see the stunning shades of scarlet
and gold that everyone else gasps at in October. These
nifty viewfinders work magic for those with red green CVD,
making the autumn experience magical whether you're color blind or not.
That is very, very interesting. While people with normal color
vision see more than one million hues and that doesn't
seem right to me. That's a million hues and colors.
I'm gonna have to research that. But the three hundred
and fifty million people in the world with color blindness
only see an estimated ten percent of them. As a result,
their worldview is less vibrant and dull, and some colors
appear muddled or indistinguishable. You know, I was. We talked
in segment one about fall colors, and I mentioned Porcupine
Mountains here in the far north of Michigan and the
up and standing on those cliffs and looking at those
colors usually early October, first or second week of October.
It really truly takes your breath.
Speaker 2: Word it is. It's something you really have to see
to believe. And we've got some of the best fall
color in the world here in the US and Canada,
of course.
Speaker 1: Incredible, Stacy, you shared a story with me that I
thought was really interesting, the invention of the modern chainsaw.
Some time shortly after the end of second the Second
World War, a logger named Joseph Buford Cox was out
in the woods using his axe. He split open a
stump and found it was full of timber worms the
four inch long larva of the timber beetle. Joe took
a minute to look the worms over as they continued
to bore into the stump trying to get away from him.
Sawdust dropped away from their jaws and prodigious streams, and
Joe watched them sink slowly into the stump. Some were
going against the grain, cross cutting, some were going with
it ripping. All of them were going at it at
about the same speed. Joe was watching a bunch of
timber grubs practically falling through a stump, grinding their way
through the way we picture a chainsaw today doing it.
And Joe thought, well, maybe I can learn something about
this that would lead to a better power saw. So
back at his home in Portland, he set up a
little experience station in the basement magnifying glass some timber
worms and he inspected their teeth and noted they had
a C shape, and that started the whole thing. He
worked on a basic design of a timberworm's jaws and
basically sketched out a cutting chain that looked similar to
a motorcycle drive chain with a cutting tooth sticking out
every few links. The cutting teeth were hook shaped chisels
that would bite into the wood and essentially carved the chips.
And then he added a bump in the metal just
in front of the chisel on each link, filing down
the bump, so he could control how big a bite
each chisel took and the rest is a history. This
is right around the mid to late nineteen forties, launched
his company, the Oregon Saw Chain Corporation, with a payroll
of four employees. But boy, it took off from there
and now basic every you know, obviously the patents have
expired and so all kinds of chainsaws are made, but
his bug chain is basically used in every chainsaw in
operation today.
Speaker 2: It's amazing, right getting that inspiration from hr I sent
you then after we were talking about the burrs and
Milkrol has another thing that was inspired by by nature.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fast original. A website for you to check out,
because I really enjoy this website, Harvard Forest dot edu.
We're gonna put the link at the website, but it's
just a great a great website for learning about research,
fall colors, trees, whatever it may be, but a great website,
Harvard Forest dot ed U. And I think a great
time also to remind folks because I have used this often, Stacy,
if you can explain again if if there's a certain thing,
maybe it's chainsaws or maybe it's chameleons, that you're really
really interested in using your dot edu.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so this is so helpful, you know nowadays
of course, if you try to search something, who knows
what you're gonna get and you want it to be reliable,
you know, you need to have something that you can
trust and isn't just you know, some up bloggers thoughts
random thoughts on a topic. So to get reliable results,
you can just use this command. Type in your words
that you're gonna use, and then site s I T E.
Colon two dots dot edu and what that's gonna do
is limit all of your results to university websites. So
I typically do this for plants, So I'm going to
use a scientific name and that command, and then everything
I'm getting is from a university website. But depending on
what you're trying to find out, you might want to
use like a dot org website. So this will work
with any type of website extension if you do. If
you live in a foreign country and you only want
to see what results that have your country's suffix in
the URL, it works for that too. And it's just
you know, the more information that comes online, the more
important it is for all of us to be able
to find information that is trustworthy, quickly exactly.
Speaker 1: It's great advice for researching information. Okay. Iceland's Farmers Association
told the BBC that there were shortages of cucumbers and
farmers have been unable to keep up with spiraling demand
for cucumbers. A Canadian TikTok creator whose viral cucumber salad
recipes have received millions of views and shares, is being
blamed for a shortage of the vegetable in Iceland. According
to the BBC, TikTok creator Logan Muffett, who shares videos
with his six million followers, started making cucumber salid content
in July. He suspects his videos are popular because they're
super simple, easy to follow and fast recipes. So I
think next spring in Iceland there will be a lot
of residents who plant maybe a few extra cucumber plants.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's very simple. They're one of the
easiest vegetables to grow, so it's a good thing. But
I can't believe that a Canadian blogger blogger single handedly
bankrupted Iceland of cucumbers. I'm not saying something, but yeah,
everyone should grow cucumbers. They're so easy and it's really
nice to have cucumbers just outside your back door.
Speaker 1: When there's a shortage, it's cucumber something, that's what it is.
So plant more cucumbers. Stacy at this time of the year. Also,
as I enjoy taking leaves and doing some passive composting,
active composting using those leaves in my vegetable garden, I
can't help it. Okay, again, I'm I got a few
years behind me, and as a kid, it takes me
back and I just remember so vividly people raking the
leaves to the curb, squirting some gas on them and
lighting them up and having the smoke in the neighborhood
in late October and November was so thick. I can't
believe that we actually used to do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think for people who are a
little bit older, the smell of burning leaves is the
smell that you associate with fault. Yeah, that is for me.
Speaker 1: And it's just strange and as stange as a kid,
you know, and dangerous, dangerous for many people. But as
a kid too, those glowing embers of leaves, the sunsets,
it's just a spooky haze. And as kids we would
take our bikes and we would ride our bikes through
those burning piles of leaves. Yeah, I know, dumb, but
we would. I've got a couple burn marks as mementos
from that period.
Speaker 2: But yeah, wait, why would you do that? Did it
like spark or do something cool or you're just being
Daredevil's like, what's the appeal here?
Speaker 1: Because the leaves are there, and you've got a bike, okay,
and you got a banana peel bike and you ride
as fast as you can and sometimes it works and
sometimes it doesn't. But just those memories are just unreal
to me. I'm glad we do what we do today,
and that is compost leaves in our garden.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well that or I guess the invention of the
the law and leaf bag.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: It's completely changing. You do see people burn their leaves,
especially you know, out in the country. But you know,
especially if you have a very dry year like we've
had in Michigan or you talked about how dry it
wasn't in Ohio, you know, that can be quite dangerous
because of course they're dry, and they go up very
quickly and they can coast on the wind, and yeah,
it can definitely cause some serious issues amazing.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Stacy, thank you, thank you Adrianna, and most
of all, thanks to you watching on YouTube, listening on
the radio, or listening to our podcast. We appreciate you
and thank you for your support. Have yourself a great week.