Speaker 1: Broadcasting from Studio A Here at Proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me,
Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well,
the reality is when push comes to shovel, not everybody
wants to be an entomologist or even have an interest
in entomology for that matter, And for me personally, I
used to just throw something at the wall and see
if it sticks. As it relates to trying to attract
beneficial insects to your landscape, but one of the most
important aspects to understand and attracting beneficial insects to go
to work for you and your garden or your landscape
is diversity to try to have blooms the entire season's spring, summer,
and fall. And one thing that I learned Stacy, when
I say diversity, not only diversity of plants, but diversity
of size and structure. Structure is very important in the
landscape and plays a important role for a landing site
for those beneficial insects we want to attract to our landscape.
Speaker 2: Definitely. You know, we talk a lot on the show
about the concept of IPM Integrated Pest Management, and today's topic,
beneficial insects, is the perfect example of that. We're talking
all about how some insects will actually eat the predatory
insects that are eating your plants, and that's a good thing.
We want to invite more of those into our garden
so that we don't have to work as hard or
you know, stop spraying whatever. So it's really about creating
that balance in your garden that sustains beneficial insects and
gives them a good buffet because a lot of times,
even though beneficial insects by definition eat pest insects very often,
there is some phase of their life cycle where they
actually feed on nectar. Yes, so it's you need the
flowers to have, you know, the pest insects for them
to come for. But also things like take ladybugs for example,
I mean, I think probably the classic example that people
think of when they think of a beneficial insect.
Speaker 1: And voracious predators.
Speaker 2: But primarily as a larval in their larval stage, not
that cute little red ladybug that lands on your finger exactly.
They eat some aphids, but nothing compared to that larval stage,
and it's so funny. I mean you've seen it, I'm
sure so many times. Right, people take a picture or
they bring a leaf in with a ladybug larvae and they.
Speaker 1: Are freaked out exctly.
Speaker 2: They are so freaked out. But that's actually the stage
that you want. But you need to be able to
sustain the adults with nectar.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned two key words there. One is balance,
a good healthy balance. The other one is freak out.
How many times have I seen people freak out? Just
as past weekend in the center, we were looking at
these beautiful hydranges in bloom. As a matter of fact,
they were tough stuff, top fun high rangers, and I
heard this lady's scarem and I'm like, what's wrong? And
she's like, there's a spider on that plant. Do something
about it? Like wow, you know, so that's amazing to me.
Or I think back doing a radio call in show
and a lady called in and was absolutely freaked out
about the fact that she had ants crawling all over
her paeonies and she had emptied out an entire can
of raid on the paeony plant because she was afraid
that the ants were going to make their way inside
the house. And you know, I've always called ants the
Rodney danger Field of the insect world. They get no respect,
but they're important. They role and actually the p and
E is benefiting from the ants. The ants are benefiting
from the p and E. The whole cycle. The balance
is amazing to me to watch. And it's important that
people have in understanding of how important ladybugs, spiders, ants,
all of these various insects are to the ecological balance
of our landscape.
Speaker 2: It really is. You know, I have long said, with
all of this talk and interest in native plants that
that's all fine and good, that's all important, But what
people really need to get on board with growing native plants,
insects need a massive pr campaign.
Speaker 1: Yau.
Speaker 2: People are just they just don't like them. But also,
insects are so much more complicated than just the couple
of pests that we know and identify, and that's what
this episode is really all about.
Speaker 1: You got it, And you mentioned the Larva state. I
think about surfed flies, Oh yeah, and how they look
in the landscape like a boy, a dangerous wasp, somebody
that's looking to They don't even have stingers. I believe
they don't even have stingers, and of course it's in
their larval state where they are taking care of as
a beneficial insect are landscapes, and then in the adult
state looking so menacing, and yet all they're doing is
essentially pollinating our plants and moving from flower to flowers.
Speaker 2: Well, see, this is the perfect example of the pr
campaign that I'm talking about. Surf and flies are really
a great example of this. So if you aren't familiar
with the surf and fly, it looks like a bee,
and from a fly evolutionary perspective, they're like, hey, might
as well look like a bee. No one's going to
mess with me if I resemble a bee. But surfed
flies so they have the little yellow and kind of
dark brown black stripes. Honestly, once you get to know
a surf and fly, they are the cutest freaking little
They are so adorable. You get those big eyes looking
up at you. They're always hovering around flowers. So unlike
a bee, which is gonna kind of, you know, zigzag
and go all over, surfed flies maintain a pretty like
steady hover and a landscape and you can always tell
a surfed fly from a bee. Now I understand this
is easier said than done for a lot of people.
But surfed flies are trueflies, so they only have two wings,
whereas bees have four wings. Look them up if you
haven't seen them already. You won't even see the larva
because they're laid in the ground and they're a little
kind of wormy looking things. So most people don't even
see the beneficial stage of the surfed flies. But they're
still wonderful to have around and they accomplish a lot
of pollinations. So it's really about getting to know what
these beneficial insects are, what they eat, and obviously if
they are in your yard, chances are there's something for
them to eat. They don't just happen by because they
just think you have great taste in gardening. You may,
but they also need something to eat in a place
to live, and so that's gonna very by different regions.
But overall, we're talking about kind of the big ones
you know that the people know about, people can buy,
and the ones that you need to identify and know
all your friends, not your foes, so you can create
a more hospitable environment for them.
Speaker 1: You got it. Many For many people, their introduction to
beneficial insects is when they try to grow a couple
of tomato plants in their yard and the bracknid wasp
would lay its eggs or inject venom, so to speak,
into those big, scary tomato hornworms out there. And the
reality is is if you do find that, and it's
quite a sight to see, you're best off just leaving
that infected let's say, tomato hornworm in the landscape, because
the bracknid wasp again a beneficial insect in our lands.
Speaker 2: Would you believe I have never had the pleasure of
having a parasitized tomato hornworm in my brain. Yes, I
get tomato horn rooms, don't get me wrong, But I
have never yet had the pleasure of seeing one completely
covered in eggs and knowing that it will meet it's
untimely demise. Now Here is my confession for twenty twenty six,
because I say this every year. I love insects. I
am into gardening for the insects. They're a huge part
of it. For me. The only insect I absolutely positively
cannot abide by is a tomato horn room. It freaks
me out. They're so big and leshi.
Speaker 1: They sneak up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, you can hear them chewing on
a good day in the garden, and that's pretty horrendous. Yeah,
that is the one thing that like I just cannot
deal with in the garden. If I find them, I
usually will throw them into the driveway in the hopes
that a bird will come along, because I can't even
bring myself to like step on them, you know, like
I will smash Japanese beetles bare handed. But when I
see those tomato horn rooms, it's like all of my
stomach to get them off the plant and like hurriedly
fling them into a piece of pavement in the hopes
that something else will eat them. And yeah, I've never
had the wasp, but you know that you have it
because this gross little tomato, gross big tomato horn room
is just completely covered in white eggs sticking out all
over it. And what's gonna happen is those are gonna
hatch out. Those eggs are gonna hatch out. The larva
are going to actually feed on the living caterpillar. You know, people,
those corpse flowers get all of the attention when they bloom,
but this is like happening in everybody's garden every summer.
Those larva hatch out. They feed on the live horn room.
It obviously dies the wasps, which are harmless, stingless, tiny
little wasps you wouldn't even register as a wasp, right,
A lot of people here wasp and they're like whoa.
And this is an everyday occurrence in the summer for
people who grow tomatoes. And it's again, it's that kind
of thing that you need to know what to look for,
and you need to know that's a good thing you
would want to leave the tomato horn room, which, let's
face it, is probably already on the downswing and not
eating that much of your tomatoes for it to be
that infested, if you can exactly it.
Speaker 1: And I want to mention also for the limb a
rick this week. Actually I'm changing it from a limb
a rick to a limb a tick. Oh and of
course I'm not trying to be humorous about ticks. It's
a serious, serious issue in the Midwest Northeast. Of course,
lime disease. We are just leaving the month of May,
which is National Lime Disease Awareness Month. I just found
a tick on the curtain in my office. No, yes,
and I'm like, wow, where did this come? From and
bear in mind that there are animals like possums, which
are very important within the landscape to deal with tick issues.
They clean themselves and they take care of a lot
of ticks. So just a very short limb pick. This
week we embrace the outdoors with affection, but after take
time for inspection. Inspect the kids, dogs and you for
ticks that get through, don't let them escape. Detection and
awareness of the ticks out there also a very important
part as we enjoy our.
Speaker 2: Last and know how to remove them before you're in
the panic situation of finding it on someone that you
care about. Do a little take a moment to look
up a YouTube video on removing ticks so you have
that information internalized, because if you do it wrong, it's
like you never did it at all.
Speaker 1: Super important, and the number of people in North America
who deal with lime disease and other diseases due to
ticks a serious issue. Plants on Trial is next here
on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2: 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 shrub or evergreen for
every taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive
white container your local garden center or learn more at
proven Winners, color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show or Our topic
of the day is beneficial insects. Now, we did end
the previous segment talking about ticks. Ticks are a not
an insect and be in no way beneficial, at least
not as far as humans go. They don't serve as
an important food source for anything, so that was a
little diversion. We are certainly not saying that ticks can
do anything good in your yard, but there are a
lot of beneficial insects that you can invite into your yard,
or really you can make your garden your landscape a
more hospitable place for these insects. And you know the
really important thing I think, obviously, there's two very crucial
things about beneficial insects. Number one, you need to know
what they are so you can identify them and figure
out you know how they how to welcome them into
your landscape. And number two, you really if you are
working with beneficial insects, you really need to change your
entire approach to your landscape because it's no longer an
issue when you're guarding with beneficial insects. It's no longer
an issue of management. It's about striking that balance because
if you completely eliminate the pest insect, then there's nothing
for the beneficial insect to eat, and they either die
or they leave. So what you're really aiming for is
this kind of stasis of beneficial insects with enough food
to keep them around and to keep you know, feeding
their whatever stage they're beneficial in. So you need to
have a little bit of tolerance. And I mean, I
think really this is a very freeing thing for people.
It certainly is for me. It's really a shift in
your mindset from oh my gosh, there's holes in my leaves,
there's missing parts of my leaves, whatever, I have to
go and spray something where No, that's not it at all.
You identify the past. That's the IPM part. You try
to identify what the pest is that's eating your plant.
So then you need to identify if there's any beneficial
insects that can take care of the problem or help
you take care of that problem, and then you just
kind of need to sit back and let the two
do get out in your.
Speaker 1: Garden well and Stacy. That's true, and along that line
of tolerance and balance also comes to the work that
we have to keep the plants as healthy as possible. Yeah,
a plant that's under stress is going to be more
prone to attack.
Speaker 2: That's absolutely true. A lot of people are surprised to
find that out, but stress plants actually emit some kind
of hormonal signals that pest insects can go ooh, here's
my chance an unhealthy plant. I guess I'm going to
go in and see what I can eat.
Speaker 1: Japanese beetles are a great example.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, but I think that they will also eat
healthy plants, all right, they will. It would be nice
if they only ate on healthy plants. So what we're
really talking about today is beneficial insects, what they are,
and how you can welcome them into your yard. I mean,
there are some beneficial insects we know that you can
buy and release into your yard, like ladybugs or praying mantis,
and that's kind of its own separate thing. Those are
always interesting experiences, but not necessarily effective. Really, what we're
trying to do you know, a lot of the insects
that we get in our gardens that are problem insects
are native, and so it's really just a matter of
making knowing who the beneficials are who are going to
eat them, and then making your garden more hospitable to them. Now,
I will say, and I have a question for mailbag.
In the next segment, it's talking a lot about pollinators,
and that will very much cover the types of perennial
flowers that you should be adding to your garden to
help to encourage beneficial insects. But when it comes to shrubs,
and since this is proven Winner's color choice, shrubs, shrubs
are a little bit less helpful, a little bit acting
beneficial insects, primarily because their flowers are big, and the
beneficial insects, for the most part that we're talking about
that need to eat the pollen and nectar, they tend
to be pretty tiny, correct, tiny little guys, And so
because shrub flowers are big, they're not always amenable. With
one big exception, and that is lace cap flowers. So
today's plant on Trial is dedicated to lace caps. Now,
that is a term that gets thrown around a lot
without a lot of people actually explaining what it is.
But basically, the two plants that I know for a
fact this demarcation of lace cap and mop heads are
true for are going to be hydrangeas and viburnums. Those
two groups of plants are not botanically related. I don't
know why this is unique to those two. There may
be other types of plants out there that can do this,
but those are the two that most of us in
North America are going to encounter in our gardens. So
a lace cap version of these plants is basically closer
to what you would find in the wild. So these
types of plants can set two different types of florets.
So a flower is made up of multiple little florets,
So what they can set is fertile florets. These are
going to be tiny, little starry They remind me of
star so I always talk to them, talk about them
as story tiny little starry flowers. They're going to have
both male and female reproductive parts. They're gonna have nectar,
they're gonna have pollen, all that good stuff. That is
where the business of plant reproduction happens is in those
aptly named fertile florets. However, a lot of insects as
they're flying about, zipping around looking for their next meal,
may not notice a plant that has these tiny, little
ster fertile florets way down there. So what a plant
will do is put out some sterile florets, which are
a bigger version, which don't typically contain any reproductive organs.
Sometimes they can, it's not like universal that they never do,
and those will very often in nature be space sort
of in a ring around the fertile florets, so they
are the showier ones. The plant only produces them to
be like, hey, insects over here, I've got look at
this big juicy flower with all these big showy flowers
on them, and then they go down and they immediately
start pollinating the fertile floort. So it's really just a
question of visibility to insects because those sterile florets, those
big showy ones, takes a lot of the plant's energy
to produce those.
Speaker 1: It's almost like a landing pad on top of a
building for a helicopter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you put the little plus sign up there and
then you know you can little color those windsock things.
You're good to get land, right, So it really just
helps to catch insects attention. Now, so in nature, where
a plant's sole purpose and sole existence is for reproduction,
producing seed and ensuring the next generation and ensuring genetic diversity,
so they can withstand any who knows what types of challenges.
Because of course plants can't just pick up and leave
when things get get rough, so they rely on propagation
by seed in nature to help expand their population and
to increase their resistance to whatever challenges come along. But
so in nature, all of all hydranges that you will
see growing out there in the wild are going to
be lace cap hydranges. But of course, at some point
along come humans and they're like, ooh, look at these
very showy sterile florets. I like these way better. And
you know I'm talking something that goes back, you know,
three four hundred years earliest. Plant readers start messing with them,
and they start selecting hydrangeas that have more and more
of these sterile florets, and that is how we get
them Mophead hydrangea. Now mopheed hydrangeas do still have some
fertile florets, but they are just completely covered and obscured
usually by those sterile florets, so they don't really do
anything for pollinators. So when I talk about pollinators, pollinating
is of course a type of beneficial insect. But what
we're really talking about is bugs that eat other bugs.
So if you opt for a lace cap hydrangea when
you are adding hydrangeas or viburnum to your landscape, you
are going to be doing a lot more for these
beneficial insects than if you opt for the mophead. And
I have to say for years I have been saying, hey,
lace caps are going to have their day any moment
now because people are so interested in pollinators, and yet
we always have to drop lace cap hydrangeas in the
proven Matter's color Choice program because no one buys them.
It's really sad because I think they're still lovely. They
definitely have a little bit of a different look. I
would call it more of an informal, woodlandy natural look
than the big, blousy mophead types. But basically all hydrangs
in nature are lace cap and we have several that
you could consider. Now. I do want to talk about first,
incredible stormproof hydrangea, because this is quite an interesting one.
This is new, it's new and garden centers this year.
Incredible Stormproof is a mophead smooth Hydrangea. Only lace caps
with hydrange that we have in the line is in
Vinceibel Lace. Incredible Stormproof is indeed a mophead, but an Adyrana.
Can attest to this because we were out filming with
it and you could hear the bees on this plant
in my microphone. There is something about the fact that
even though it is a mophead, with those big, round,
full flowers, the fertile florettes down there are somehow still
accessible to bees and other pollinators. It does not seem
to bother them in the lease, whereas something like you know,
your standard mophead big leaf Hydrangel, Hydrangel macrophylla. They can't
push through those giant orbs of You know, if it's
the kind of flower that you can like put your
hand on and it feels like a snowball, probably not
going to be good for pollinators. So Incredible Stormproof is
the rare exception. In Vincibel lace is a lace cap.
Flirty Girl and Rose Sensation Climbing hydranges are also lace caps.
Let's Stance Can Do is probably our best selling lace cap,
and it is a very high performer. Let's stance hot
Stepper new but also a lace cap fairy trail bride.
Of course lace cap people love it anyway. And then
when it comes to the panicle hydranges and oak leaf hydranges,
quick fire a little quick Fire, Pinky Winky Pinky Winky
Prime and Gatsby Gale, Gatsby Global and Gatsby Pink. These
are all absolutely stellar pollinator plants to add to your landscape.
They're fragrant, their fertile florettes are so full of nectar that,
on a day when they are in full bloom, you
walk by it, you'll be deafened by the hum of
happy insects. So all the books don't just look to perennials.
Perennials are a great choice for supporting beneficial insects, but
shrubs can play an important role too. You just need
to know which ones to pick. So with that, we
are going to take a little break and when we
come back, we'll be opening up the mail bag. So
please stay tunt 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 Winners 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 I love talking
about insects.
Speaker 1: This is right in your wheelhouse stance. It is.
Speaker 2: I love insects, and I think you know again you
do need to Some people are naturally squeamish. I get it.
It's a big leap for a lot of people to
suddenly start appreciating insects. But I mean, isn't that the
key to appreciating anything. Like I'm pretty terrified of snakes,
but like, I still love seeing them, and I still
have massive respect for everything that they do in the landscape.
I'd never kill one. I mean, I might scream if
I see one, especially if it startles me. I'm grateful
I don't get them in my yard, but I still
understand that they're an important role in the ecosystem.
Speaker 1: Well again, I think the bottom line here diversity and balance,
and those are things we're looking for in the landscape.
And when we see insects, we see things like I
mentioned possums or snakes or whatever it may be. People
freak out over possums.
Speaker 2: They do, and I don't know why. They are adorable.
They are so cute and so fascinating and just I mean,
they are only native marsupial. We have one native marsupial
in the US that is absolutely bonkers, and you know
we should all just be like hugging them instead of
you know, running, screaming, or even worse, running them over.
Speaker 1: I think we should do a possum show sometimes.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, well, Adriana is one hundred percent on board
because I know she shares my love of possums. And yeah,
I mean, you know, it's all about understanding. And once
you change your mindset from being scared to being informed,
you know you may not ever want to huggapossum. I
very much do want to hug apossum, but even if
you never do, it still changes the way you think
about them. To know more about them and their role
in the ecosystem and in their role in your ecosystem,
in your backyard, and that's what this is really all about,
is seeing your little piece of earth as part of
an eco as its own ecosystem as well as part
of the larger ecosystem of where you live. And that's
really what having beneficial insects is about. But it is
our time to answer your gardening questions if you have
any of those, And you can certainly ask us questions
about beneficial insects, because as you can tell, I would
love to talk about bugs, good bugs, bad bugs. I
love it all, except for those smat of horn oroms.
So if you have any questions that you do want
to send us, you can leave them on the YouTube
version of the show. We answer all of those. You
can also reach us at Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
And I feel like we've seen like a real shift
in the questions from you know, people kind of wondering
what's happening in their backyard to kind of wondering what's
going on with stuff they're finding at the garden center
because it is prime shopping time.
Speaker 1: Interesting, right, and yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2: You know. And so you sent me this question that
someone asked you and I thought it was a great question.
So a listener, Steve asked Rick if you could trim
the shoots on his standard limelight hydrange so tree form hydrangea,
and also that he was wondering what he should do
about the steak that came with his panicle hydrange.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Steve sent a picture and it essentially is a
situation where the steaks are tied directly to the trunk
or the standard of this limelight hydrangea. And I see
this all the time where people will move the plant
from the container into the ground in the landscape, leaving
the stakes on that were there essentially for shipping perposeises
or display purposes within the nursery, but not ideal for
providing support to the plant once it's been put in
the ground in the landscape. So my recommendation to Steve
was go ahead and trim off the shoots on the standard,
but then take off those steaks that are tied tightly
to the standard or the trunk of that limelight hydrangea,
because really, your best bet if you're putting a tree
in the ground or something like a hydrangea on a standard,
you want a little wind movement with that plant. It
strengthens the trunk, improves the taper at the base of
the trunk. So I always put in steaks removed a
foot maybe two feet from the standard, and then tie
a tie that won't damage the bark of the plant
but allows a little bit of movement to the trunk.
So take those take those stakes off that shipped with
the product, because it's it's not ideal for the home landscape.
Speaker 2: Right And let's face it, if you were intent, if
you were intended to keep these standard hydranges or lilacs
or physocarpus or whatever, there's lots of different plants that
are grown as a standard or tree form that this
applies to. If you were intended to keep it staked
for its lifetime, it would have been sold with a
lot more durable steak. There's a reason that those are like, yeah,
just like a weak steak that barely seems like it's
appropriate to hold up the plant. It really is just
enough to stabilize it from shipping, because I mean, you
certainly know plants get pretty beat up in the shipping process.
They're going from you know, who knows what state to
your state. It could be several states away at least
a several hour drive, and yeah, they're bouncing around in there.
They get to the garden center, they're being offloaded, and
you know, people are at the truck clamoring give me mine,
give me mine, And so it's not you know, like, yeah,
it's it's only there to get it through that and
of course to keep things organized and nice at the
garden center. But yes, once it is home in your landscape,
assuming that the trunk feels sufficiently sturdy, you should remove
that steak and let it grow without a secuse that
really is the point that it shouldn't always need to
be stife to give it wiggle room.
Speaker 1: And if you leave that little bamboo steak in there
tightly tied to the trunk, that's when we see plants
that are subject to wind eventually assume the position of
a forty five degree angle and grow like that within
the landscape, as opposed to being good and straight and
stone right.
Speaker 2: So, if you do feel like your plant needs a
little more time with a steak, definitely cut whatever string
or attachment point that the grower has used solely for shipping,
because that's usually not going to accommodate growth. Put in
something new put in something soft, put it in a
figure eight so that it stays where it is but
has room to grow, and then again, plan to remove
that a year or two at most down the line,
once you feel like it's actually sturdy enough to grow.
The point is that it is sturdy enough to grow
on its own. So we got a question from listener Chelsea,
and she says, what would you recommend for a sunny
yard that blooms the longest in the summer and attracts pollinators.
I don't have much room and I want my garden
to pack a punch. So that's a lot, right, Like,
how can you maximize flowering in pollinators in a small space?
Speaker 1: It is, but I have learned from my experience one thing.
Just as a general broad brushstroke, anything that's in the
astor family has a daisy like bloom. It's kind of
difficult to go wrong there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. That is number one on my list
here for a plant selection criteria. So the big three
when it comes to attracting pollinators are asta acey, which
is the daisy family. So anything that looks like a
regular daisy flower, it doesn't have to be white, can
be typically very much yellow. But you know that really
classic look. And there's some members of the estu Ace
that don't look at all like a classic daisy, like lyatrus.
So you want to look into the asta ace and
the different plants that are in there. Apac which is
the formerly known as the Umbeliffer family. So this is
going to be things like dill parsley, Queen Anne's lace.
These are going to have that umbrella type flower with
lots and lots of tiny flowers.
Speaker 1: And if you're keeping score at home, Stacey, people will
often refer to them as umbo flowers.
Speaker 2: Right, yes, because they look like an umbrellash I use
your imagination. And then the Lammiace or mint family another
big one. This one is easy to tell at the
garden center because they very often have square stems and
they very often are aromatic. Even if they don't smell
like mint, they usually have some sort of aroma. And
then they have these tubular lipped flowers or something like salvia.
Of course, Minarda Agastaki is a great choice, and in fact,
when it comes down to recommending some specific plants for you,
Chelsea Agasaki is one of my number ones. Blue Fortune
Agastaki blooms so long in my garden and it is
just crawling with pollinators.
Speaker 1: Also fantastic. Top of my list you mentioned it.
Speaker 2: Salvia Salvia, I have great choice, lots and lots of
different things to choose from. If you live in a
warm or arid climate, you are spoiled for choice with
fabulous salvias. Those of us here in the Midwest not
quite so lucky, but we can still grow some very
cool ones. So agastaki my number one golden rod gonna
bloom a little bit later, but also a hot spot.
I know. I have a bunch of golden rod in
my landscape, and I have at times counted fifteen or
more different species on the plant at one time. New
England aster another favorite. Something I see pollinators on that
I don't see them on anything else. If you're growing
from seed Zinia, I mean you cannot go wrong with zinya.
I am a full on Zinia convert I could not
believe the hub of activity that my zinias were. Mountain
mint picknanthemum hard to say, getting easier to find. Not
the showiest plant, but wow, that thing is also just
crawling with pollinators in the summer. Coreopsis is another good choice.
There are a lot of choreopsis on the market that
are less puminator friendly, so you want to do some
research and look for some of the more unusual types
of choreopsis to really do the job. I would also
say make sure that you are dead heading or cutting
back the plants. There's a lot of plants like Napata
is a great example. If you trim it back after
it blooms, then it can do summary boom. It's not
going to be like the first bloom, but it will
put on some new growth. Intend to flower against. If
you're intensively managing a small area, doing that dead heading
and trimming can help you get another flush of flowers
out of it. And my number one tip, I know
you're gonna love this one.
Speaker 1: Bulbs got it, Alius, you got a.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I've had hummingbirds on my aliums that are in
bloom right now. It's just been delightful. And bulbs take
up no room. Yeah, so everybody always has room for bulb.
So I hope that was some good choices to get
you started, Chelsea. Also Camassia a bulb that I have
blooming right now that is absolutely gorgeous and crawling with pollinators.
So I could go on because again I'm talking about bugs,
but you have to take a little break right now,
and when we come back, we'll continue our conversation on
beneficial insects, 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 as we talk
about one of Stacy's favorite topics, beneficial insects. And how
about a fun limerick to start off this segment. As
summertime temperatures get hotter, holding a beer in one hand,
you can spot her in a lawn chair is my grandmother?
And what she holding in the other her lethal pink
bug swater. You've seen people like that, Yeah, But the
point here is many of these insects are very very
important in our landscape. I'm not sure I don't think
we've mentioned yet the little alligators of the insect world
lace wings to help control mites, aphids, leafhoppers, white flies, thrips,
mealy bugs, we've talked about lady bugs, dragonflies, birds and spiders.
Even fish are natural predators of mosquitoes. Of course fish
when mosquitoes are in the larval state.
Speaker 2: I think we need to go back to the little lions,
the little alligators rather that you call alligator. Lace wings
are easily one of the best and easiest beneficial insects
to attract to your landscape. A lot of people don't
even know what they are. I mean, I feel like,
you know, obviously, I follow a lot of gardening forums,
and I feel like every year there's a bunch of
people who post a picture of a lace wing in
their garden, going what is this? Is this a friend
or a foe? They are absolutely beautiful. They are one
of the most elegant and beautiful insects. There's this beautiful
fresh jade green color, and then they have these marvelous
large wings, even though they're pretty small insects, these marvelous, large,
lacy wings, and they fly so elegantly. And then, of
course the best part is their eggs, because their eggs
are laid on the underside of leaves on a little
elegant stalk with a little egg at the tip and
it's just it's lovely and I get so excited and
I find them all the time, and it's one of
those things that you need to know what you're looking
at to know what it is. Because now that you know,
and you're going to look up a picture and Adriana
will put some I'm sure in the YouTube version of
the show, look for them and you will find them
because they are abundant. They're everywhere, and again it's that
larval stage that is their most loracious. But you want
to make sure that you have the adults there with
pollen so that they can reproduce lay those elegant eggs
in your garden and you can get all of that benefit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you bet. Uh. You know. For me, I like
to attract birds to my yard because I love birds
in my yard. But birds, of course are great for
insect control. And it just causes me to look back
and remember back to the nineteen seventies when our neighbors
or you'd go to the campground, it was like everybody
had a bug zapp Oh yeah, the nineteen seventies bugs
zapper boom. They became backyard staples like the flotron and
the stinger, and they had the ultraviolet lights and then
you'd be sitting there and then there'd be a huge zap,
some big bug would fly into it.
Speaker 2: On the smell, the smell was ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It was horrible using UV like burnt bugs, toasted bugs,
using ultraviolet light to attract you know, and a lot
of people did it for mosquitos, and when you think
about it, completely ineffective. These indiscriminate bug killers were completely ineffective.
A mosquito is going to be drawn to bodies and
heat and sweat. You're better off having Uncle Frank sitting
out there in a lawn chair with his shirt off
holding a can of beer, sweating in the sun, if
you want to try and zap some mosquitos. So it
just causes me to go back and think of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty wild. Those like everybody ad them like
they were doing something besides just indiscriminately zapping who knows
what and then stinking up your backyard barbecue.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some of these plants that you mentioned,
the lace caps, stacy and mumboles. So I think about
Queen Anne's lace or cilantro dill. How do you feel
about planting dill?
Speaker 2: Don't get me started. I love dil. I love, love
love dill as a plant. I love it as a food.
And the only thing that loves dill more than I
do is the pollinators. And yeah, it smells amazing when
you're out there. Itself sows, which is great, so you know,
once you have it, you may not actually need to
plant it again. I do find that I get the
best still for actually using for pickles or whatever by
actually starting fresh seed deliberately every year. But I let
it sow wherever it will. And yeah, you know the
thing about the apac or the Umbill family plants, they
have a lot of tiny flowers, so they're really sized
for all of these small beneficial insects that you know,
they get lost in a big flower. They can't get
the nectar out, so this is really perfect for them.
If you have cilantro, and you know, we should talk
about cilantro because everybody thinks that their cilantro should look
like what they get from the grocery store. Your cilantro
will never grow that way. You will need to sew
cilantro seed every two weeks for the de of the
summer if you want cilantro all season long. But if
your cilantro does start to bolt or go to seed,
let it those flowers. The insects love the flowers, and
then you can also get the seed. You can collect
the seed from that, so you have your own supply
of cilantro seed and you don't have to go refresh
at the seed store every year with fresh cilantro seed
because you may get expensive.
Speaker 1: So, as we mentioned, anything in the Aster family, be
balm penstemon, Potentilla heliopsis or fall sunflower of course, daisy
like flowers Coreopsis, sweet alyssum, Galardia. Milkweed, yeah, of course
has to be on the list absolutely, you.
Speaker 2: Know, one of the classics. But in addition to its
crucial role in the life of monarch butterflies, if you
look at any milkweed in bloom on any day, you
will see a whole host of different interesting insects feeding
on those flowers. So it's not for the monarchs, and
you don't have to worry. They're not taking anything away
from the monarchs. They're they're welcome there too. And milkweed
actually hosts a bunch of really interesting insects of its own, sharing.
Speaker 1: In the bounty. Exactly. Redbeccia cone flowers. Of course, cone
flowers very very important, tansy yarrow, and clover. We haven't
mentioned clover yet either. Of course, we had the rabbit
episode and that creates problems of its own right, but
clover also very very important. If you're interested in this topic.
One thing you could do if you're keeping score at home,
you want to go down a rabbit hole, so to speak,
and do some reading. Extra floral nectaries. I got into
that and started digging into that. So it's nectar producing
glands on stems or foliage. Sunflowers are big for extra
floral nectaries. Anything like in the cherry family also will
have extra floral nectaries. Kind of a fun thing, a
fun rabbit hole to go down. And as I was reading,
they also mentioned Stacy Elderberry is one.
Speaker 2: Also that is interesting. You know, it's when we talk
about sort of the daisy family as being you know,
the flag chip for pollinator plants and again for pollinator
by extension, these beneficial insects. A lot of people don't
realize that a daisy is not one flowers. It's an
inflorescence made of many, many, many tiny flowers, and that's
the key. Lots and lots of tiny flowers. The other
great thing. If you look closely at a daisy family
member flower this season, they open over a really long period.
So even though to your eye the flower appears unchanged,
it's just you know, that standard sort of ring of
yellow or white or whatever petals and in the center
it looks the same every day to you. But from
an insect perspective, every single day there are different interior
florets opening, revealing fresh nectar. And that's why there's such
a hub of activity. They tend to bloom a really
long time, so they really are one of those plants
that you can't, you know, can't really go wrong with.
Speaker 1: That's a great way to phrase it, hub of activity.
You're right. I had mentioned ants in the first segment
only because I'm fascinated by ants, and of course ants
are perfect for really bad puns. They are import ant you.
I don't want to anttagonize you with my puns. I'll
stop now. But people really go crazy over ants and
unload a lot of chemical sprays on.
Speaker 2: Ants, and you know, sometimes ants can be a problem.
Speaker 1: They can in your house.
Speaker 2: But you know, really I think ants, you're right, they
should get more respect beneficial because if you have carpenter
ants in your house, the ants aren't the problem. The
wet wood that is bringing the carpenter ants in. And
they're doing you a favor before you have like major,
you know, house damage by saying like, hey, we're here
because you got some wet wood. We'll take care of
that for you. But you might not like what happens next.
So it's really it's they're doing you a favor and
they should be thanked. I mean, I'm just saying. It's
it's like when I say, what people freak out about
the spiders in their house, exactly, don't freak out about
the spiders in the house. Freak out about the reason
the spiders are there, because there is something that is
insufficient supply that they are, you know, making a good existence.
Speaker 1: People always freak out and look at me as though
I'm weird. I always pick up the spider and take
it outside. I don't smash it. No, But anyhow, earwigs
can be beneficial in the garden, natural pest controllers, active decomposers.
When I was in Costa Rica, I love the leaf
cutter and watching them go up and oh boy, and
you know, That's the thing about ants for me that
fascinates me as an insect is they are such hard
workers there. They work so hard. It makes me wonder
why ants always have the time to show up at picnics.
How can they have time to show up at picnics
when they're working so on?
Speaker 2: That's true, but you know it is a good food supply.
They can't resist that anyhow.
Speaker 1: And of course for our friends down south, fire ants
are no joke out scary.
Speaker 2: Definitely. If you have fire ants in your home or
in your yard, you need to manage the fire answers.
Your mileage may vary with ants. It's very difficult to generalize.
There are so so many ants. But as with anything else, IPM,
learn which ants you have, why they're there, what their
life cycle is, and use that information to manage them
intelligently instead of just you know, spying empty.
Speaker 1: I can of Rick exactly beingle Well. This was fun, Stacy,
thank you, thank you, Rick, Thank you Adrianna. Thanks for
watching us on YouTube, listening to the podcast in the
radio version of the show. Have yourself a great week.