Speaker 1: Coming to you from Beautiful and Floriferous West Michigan and
Studio A here at proven Winns Color Choice Shrubs.
Speaker 2: It's time for the.
Speaker 1: Gardening Simplified podcast, YouTube and radio show with Stacy Hervella me,
Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
Speaker 2: Well, Stacy, let's talk about you got a friend in me.
Speaker 1: Some plants just get along well in the landscape. And
we're not necessarily talking here about companion planting. If you
look that up online, we can. But if you look
that up online, that generally pertains to vegetable growing and
that sort of thing. As a matter of fact, the
Native Americans understood the three sisters concept of corn beans
and squashed together, the beans being a legume. A nitrogen
fixing would add nitrogen to the soil. The corn would
provide support for those beans, and then the squash would
cover the ground and hold back the weeds and cool
the roots. So they understood the importance of plants that
kind of work together in the landscape or in the gardens.
So you've got a friend in me. I'm gonna call
them soil mates. You had me at Aloe Franz right,
frons stick together.
Speaker 2: You know that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think there's a proven winner's fern called France Forever.
In fact, yeah, there you go. But no, I think
those are all really good points, and there is you know,
this whole. I think it's important when you're talking about
companion planting to be very clear that you're not talking
about the claims which have no evidence that you know,
planting X with Y is gonna repel whatever past you know,
and they in the books and articles and so forth
that claim all of this, you know, they just make
it all sound so simple, right, Oh, if you just
plants be to listen around your cabbage, you'll never have
cabbage worms again. Oh really, if it were really that simple,
I would think that cabbage farmers would be probably a
lot happier than they actually are. And so they always
make these like kind of absurd claims and there's nothing
wrong with it, but you certainly can't, you know, follow
this kind of advice with these claims that like, oh,
this is going to make this taste different, or you know,
this is going to repel this pest or whatever. You know,
there might be a nice story there, It might look
perfectly lovely together. But the value I think in this
concept of companion planting is exactly what you just said.
It's about plants with complimentary habits, plants with complimentary colors,
and how you can combine different things in your garden
or in your containers or whatever to get maximum display.
Because you know, if there are anything like us, our listeners,
you're always trying to pack more in, and when you
use complimentary habits, you can actually pack more in.
Speaker 2: That's true, and you're right.
Speaker 1: I have always said that I plant basil around my
tomatoes because it makes the tomatoes taste better. I have
no scientific evidence of that, just made it.
Speaker 3: Up, but it's convenient. It can be very often when
you're going to be harvesting your tomatoes, you're gonna also
harvest basil, and so that makes it a good companion.
It's one stop shop.
Speaker 1: The whole point for plants. As it is in life,
choose your friends wisely. A good friend will both compliment
and contrast you in some ways, especially when you need it.
I have a good friend, good close friend, Skip, who
has always said to me, when you let crazy people
in your.
Speaker 2: Life, your life gets crazy. It's good advice.
Speaker 1: Actually, so but some things just go together. Think about it.
Mustard and hot dogs, ice cream and apple pie, cream
and coffee, spaghetti and meatballs, soap and water, burger and fry.
Speaker 2: The list go Tuesdays in taco. I mean, the list
goes on and on.
Speaker 1: Thelma, Luise Burton, Ernie Lucy and Ricky Batman and Robin
Romeo and Juliet and Stacy. I didn't say peanut butter
and jelly because you and I both do not like
peanut butter and jelly.
Speaker 3: But I get I. You know, I there are probably
companion plants out there that I also don't like, But
I respect that people like peanut butter and jelly. It's
just too squishy for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same here. So think about it.
Speaker 1: What makes a perfect planting pairing or companion contrasting colors
of foliage and flowers. I think is super important shape
and scale of the two plants, with one not overpowering
the other. Maybe it's the year round structure and interest
of pairing an evergreen with a deciduous shrub, or something.
Speaker 2: Like the bright yellow of a spyria.
Speaker 1: Double play candy corn with sweet romance lavender, or think
about this. I love supertunia vista bubblegum. It's been around
for some time, but it's very aggressive and it blooms beautifully. Well,
it'd be an excellent planting partner with graceful grasses vertigo
purple fountain grass because they're both extra vigorous. So they're
friends in the landscape and they work together, and that's
fun to look at. Stacy, I really believe that in
the landscape, if you can get contrasting foliage, contrasting foliage sizes,
or in many cases colors that are opposite of each
other on the color wheel, they make great friends in
the landscape.
Speaker 3: They do very often, you know, the contrast I think
is very appealing, although some people like to go more harmonious,
but I think a good contrast is always a good
place to start. And I want to be clear too,
you know, when it comes to these companion plants. You know,
maybe if someone is a very experienced designer and has
been doing it for a long time, they kind of
have this little palette of companion plantings that they do.
But there really are no right answers here except for
you know, of course, matching vigor, so that's important. You
don't want one thing to overcome its neighbor. But for
the most part, you know, these what we discover to
be good companions. Whether it's visual or whether it's the
plant habit is just gardening. It's just how it's things
that we discover as we choose the plants and choose
where to position them in our landscape. And you know,
I have been obviously doing a ton of work in
my garden and moved a bunch of stuff last fall,
and so I had a banana boat carracks. Do you
know that plant? Oh yeah, so bright yellow foliage comes
out in the spring, and so I planted that. It
wasn't very happy where it was, so I moved it
down to this new area and didn't think much about it.
Dormant as soon as I dug it, and didn't even
think about it anymore. And then I planted purple anemone windflower,
you know, the little the anemone blanda for as a
spring bulb. And boy, I tell you this spring when
both of those plants came up, it was glorious. My
husband says, that looks amazing. Did you do that on purpose?
I was like, I cannot play that I did it
on purpose. But that's the thing that's cool too, is
as I think you develop a plant palette that's comprised
more exclusively of things that you really like, you do
find appealing new ways to combine them. So it's you know,
this is not this when we talk about this. It's
not hard and fast rules. There are some suggestions and
some guidelines, But how plants combine I think is really
a matter of personal taste and experience and trial and error.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think if you look at that foliage
factor and sometimes the fact that opposites do attract you look,
had a shaded area sun king aurelia next to a
hack and a claw, the foliage very different but very
bright or lemon coral seed them with a meteor shower verbena.
In my landscape, that that sun king aurelia in shade
combined with a Celtic pride.
Speaker 2: Is just micro? Is it micro?
Speaker 3: I always say microbiota, But yeah, biota. Oh it's a
Siberian cypress, but.
Speaker 1: Just beautiful and they make really really great friends in
the landscape. I mean, think about this in the landscape,
foliage that is afforded by plants draped over rocks or
iron or rocks hard scape materials in the landscape combined
with foliage, they make great friends. Shrubs grown for their
foliage der Villa nine barks by rhea, even with gilla
or elderberry. These plants grown with grown four primarily their foliage,
really make great friends.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and they work so well, you know, with so
many things. So there's a lot I think of the
darker foliage that I have in my garden that I
think really provides a lot of forgiveness. Sometimes you know,
you don't want things to be so clashing. Sometimes are great,
but you know that always adds those dark foliage I
think always adds interest without being to hey, look at me,
I'm distracting exactly.
Speaker 1: So some things just go together, and we're going to
talk about it in segment four. Like high ranges and
hot weather go together. We'll talk about that in segment four.
So I put together a companion's limb a rick today.
You've got a friend in me, a horticultural devotee. So
when things get rough, yes, downright tough, my support, I
guarantee you've got a friend in me. Even when life
gets weighty, when your buds, your own bloom, and the
forecast is gloom. I'm here for you, yepee, no exaggeration,
no hyperbole. I'll be right there asap. When your foliage
wilts and your trellis tilts. You've got a friend in me.
Speaker 3: Cute.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of like that. I love that song.
Speaker 1: By the way, and Toy Story Plants on Trials coming
up next, we'll see what Stacey has in mind today.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned.
Speaker 3: 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. Goore Reading's gardening friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we are
talking about companion planting and no not like the old
stories of planting. You know, deal with cucumbers and some
miraculous thing happens. Sure it's convenient if you are going
to be making pickles to plant your deal and cucumbers together,
and there's nothing wrong with that, but.
Speaker 2: That would be a big deal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But you know, there's just there's Extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence, and there has been a number of extraordinary
claims over the years. And you know, now with the Internet,
we kind of have to take them with a little
bit of a grain of salt.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it would be great if it were true.
I really really wish that I could repel cabbage worms
with by simply planting something next to my plant, but
it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1: Well. The big one, of course, is you can fix
everything by just planting a border of marigolds.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, right, yes, of course.
Speaker 2: And you ate marigolds, stinky thing, so you're.
Speaker 3: Probably really glad that's not true.
Speaker 1: And please don't send your cards. If you love marigolds,
more power to you.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: I came from the garden center industry, where I handled
hundreds of thousands of flats and marigolds and went home
smelling like them.
Speaker 3: But you know, I'm really glad that you brought up
the marigolds, because that does come up if you are
searching reputable websites about this phenomenon of companion planting. That
is often said like, oh, if you just plan a
border of marigolds, it will repel this, that and the other,
and it is true that marigolds will repel nematodes in
the soil. So nematodes if you are a SpongeBob fan,
mean one thing. For the rest of us. They are
just these tiny, little microscopic worm like creatures that can
be very detrimental. Now they're not as common up here
in Michigan. They're very very common in the South and
they can be a real problem, especially for farmers. Now,
this marigold study that was done found that they did
in fact repel nematodes, but only when they were grown
to maturity, chopped down and tilled into the soil. Oh,
so it's not a situation where the plot thickens. So
very often what's happened with these is there was some
sort of grain of truth in there, but no one
bothered to find out the whole story. They were just
like marigolds. Nematodes were golden plant the marigoals.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 3: Yes, so very often there is potential there, but it
just doesn't work, you know, like people think that it will.
So not to discourage you by all means, keep practicing
whatever you've been practicing, and keep believing what you've been believing.
But let's not delude ourselves. I guess that companion plantings
are some sort of insect kryptonite, and you know, they're
flying towards your garden and then they're like, oh no,
sweet alyssam, I'm going to turn around. You know, it
doesn't quite work like that. I wish it did. That'd
be cool if it did, but it doesn't.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry for sidetracking us.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear what friend you're going to
introduce us to you?
Speaker 3: Right? Well, well, so I'm definitely going in a very
different direction here, and I'm going with plant that is
I think underused in gardens as a companion plant. Now
it's not underplanted. The plant on trial today is widely
planted in certain situations, but I don't think it's used
creatively enough to fully realize its companion potential. I agree,
and today's plant on trial is happy Jack purple clematis.
So clematis are a plant that, you know, I think
when most people think of it, they immediately conjure up
a mental image of a mailbox. Right. Almost certainly clemitists
growing up the mailbox post, and that is a fine
use of them. Or you know, perhaps a decorative trellis
in the garden, or some sort of obelisk with a
cleminist on it, And those are all perfectly lovely ways
to grow cleminists and enjoy them. But the fact is clematis,
by the nature of the way that it grows, is
an excellent companion plant that can be used in many
more creative ways to bring a lot more interest to
different plantings. And we've talked about this a bit here
and there on the show, but when I was a
rooftop gardener, very often we would plant privacy hedges. So
up there on a rooftop, you know your neighbors are
right there, so you would need privacy hedges just the
same as you do down here on earth. And we
would plant these big boxes full of arborvidy. And you know,
arboridy's cool and all, but it's not the most exciting plant.
And so what the designer that I worked with would
do would be to plant a clematis in the corner
of the box and just let it grow and find
its way all around the arbor idy and using the
arborvids as support. And so it was a really nice
way to get some extra color without taking up extra
space and Clemitists are very well suited to this because
they are woody plants, so their stems are true woody growth.
If you were to cut across one, it would have rings,
just like a tree. So that's what makes something woody.
But it's very light weight. Now, a very mature clemitists
is going to have, you know, a pretty good thick base,
but it's vines that actually go out in bloom are
quite thin and quite light. So I think a lot
of people when they think about trying to grow a
vine up a tree or up another plant, they immediately
think like, oh, that's really bad for the plant, and
that is true with something like ivy. Ivy is definitely
you know, a plant that grows in such a way
that it is intended to kill its support plant by
putting out really really heavy growth, really really dense growth,
and so the tree that it's growing up actually cannot
you know, it's leaves become useless and it eventually dies.
Clemtis doesn't work that way. So it's actually quite delicate
and very easy to grow within these plants, and so
you don't have that threat of it taking over or
knocking it over or breaking something.
Speaker 1: This is a fantastic point and experience that you're sharing
with us, Stacey, because I grow a sweet autumn clematis
through an evergreen and it's spectacular does not affect the
evergreen at all. I think that concept is really cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's a good companion, So you're taking advantage
of the habits of both plants to really get more
out of your planting. Now. The other cool thing though,
Happy Jack purple is a jack Mannii clematis very very
easy to grow. And I think a lot of people,
as much as they like clematis, maybe they had one
bad experience and they think, like, oh, these things are
just way too finicky, way too picky. But it's actually
very easy to do what I'm describing with a plant
like today's plant on trial, happy Jack purple, because it
is very forgiving about pruning and it's very long blooming.
So here's what you would do, just as an example,
So you would plant this in a corner so you
know you can find and identify the base of the plant,
because that's really key. And then this is a clematist
that blooms on old wood and on new wood with
as you might guess, dark purple flowers so a great color.
It's another reason why I picked this one.
Speaker 2: Specific flowers are gorgeous.
Speaker 3: The flowers really are beautiful, so it's a great companion
as far as color goes with the other plants in
your landscape. So all you have to do to prune
this thing each year is just cut it back to
about two ish feet from the ground. You don't even
necessarily have to worry about clearing away the wood that
is in your plants. You can if you want, but
you don't need to. It will just kind of die back,
and you know, if you pull it out easily, great,
If not, no big deal. And then the Colemitus, because
it has the power of that big root system, is
going to come back from that pruning and bloom like crazy.
So all the buds that are contained inside the remaining
parts of the plant are going to go on to
bloom and you'll get new wood plants. So it's not
a fussy plant to prune. It's very very easy and
a very very reliable bloomer as well. Now, if you
have not had success with Clemitis, you can certainly try
one of the proven Winter's varieties. We have selected them
all specifically to be easy care and to be very forgiving.
But that said, there are three very very key facts
you need to know about being successful with clematis. Number one,
the old adage feet in the shade, head in the sun,
So you want to make sure that the roots are
cool and shaded, which makes it another good companion plant
because it's great planted at the base of a shrub
where the shrub itself can offer that shade. Or you
can plant a perennial over to cover the base of
your clematis and provide shade that way, like a hasta
or something like that can work really really well because
those nice broad leaves will provide that shade. And then
you want all of the vines to be in the sun,
so the roots need to stay cool and shaded. The
planet itself needs to be out in the sun to
grow vigorously and to bloom well. So that is really important.
If you don't have those conditions, you need to be
able to approximate them in your garden once you actually plant.
Speaker 2: Cool feet hot tops.
Speaker 3: That's right. So Number two, well drained soil so crucial clematis.
And I've said this so many times on the show
because it amazes me every time I see this. They
have roots like else I have ever seen. They're like ropes.
They're really really different and unique, and they're brittle and
they're fairly delicate. So this is not a plant that
can be disturbed. This is not a plant that can
deal with soggy, wet soil at all, because they are
so thick and fleshy, they are very susceptible to rotting.
So well drained soil is absolutely crucial. Don't even think
about planting this in an area that does not drain well. Finally,
the third thing to know is when in doubt, don't prune.
So my same advice about hydrangeas or anything like that,
clematists don't strictly need pruning. Now, what will happen if
your climatists benefits from pruning and you don't prune it
is it's going to flower just at the tips and
you're not going to get that nice curtainy look. But
that's something that you can actually go on to correct
the following season without a problem. It's not a really
big deal. So when in doubt, don't prune. But if
you do prune, split the difference and go with this.
Roughly two feet sort of pruning level which will give
you some of that old wood as well as some
new wood, and then you can kind of see what happens.
If you remember the name. Of course, you can google
it and figure out, you know what, what kind of
pruning it needs. But when in doubt, don't prune, because
miss prune Clematis can actually be quite harmful to the plant.
But most of these vining clemitists, like happy Jack purple,
are durable, they're easy to grow, and they make a
great companion whose use is really only limited by your
imagination and horticultural realities of your yard.
Speaker 1: So I want people to have confidence to grow clematis
me too. You ever have somebody walk up to you
and you should know their name, but it's like hello you, yes,
you know, you couldn't remember, Yeah, you know it has
happened to me. So this is a friend where you
can't really remember how to pronounce it. Clematis or clematis.
Either way, get out there and plant.
Speaker 3: As long as you're walking out of the garden center
with the plant that you want, we're all good. Hard
at USDs on five heat tolerant through zone nine, vining
to six to eight feet a great companion for your
garden this season. Like for at your local garden center,
we're going to take a little break. When we come back,
we're opening up the garden mail bags, so please stay tuned.
At Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs, we know that a
better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our team of
experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs in
evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure they outperform
what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs
to accentuate your home and express your personal style, look
for Proven 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. Happy gardening season. It's finally here.
It is underway. We are planting, we are planning. We
are looking forward to everything that is yet to come.
But if things aren't going quite the way you expected
in your garden so far this season, you are most
welcome to reach out to us at Gardening Simplify on
air dot com. Do be aware that we only have
a few minutes in every episode to answer gardening questions,
so we can't get to them all. And if you
have something where you need to answer right away, we
are still available to help you. You just need to
go to Proven Winners Color Choice dot com, send an
email through the contact form there. If it's about shrubs,
if it's about perennials or annuals, go to Proven Winters
dot com and you will get an answer from a
real person, not a robot, not a chatbot, not an AI,
a real real person who knows what they're talking about,
to help answer your garden questions. So we are here
for you. What do we got in the mailbag today, Carol.
Speaker 1: Writes to us, I see that Proven Winners has deer
resistant plants on sale for a few days. By the way,
sprinter box would wow popular with people?
Speaker 3: Oh yes, very very popular.
Speaker 2: In the garden center. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have a nice patch of daffodils that I would
like to interplant with something to disguise the dying daffodil foliage.
And wise to be growing daffodils because they are going
to be dear resistant, that's for sure. It is a sunny,
partly sunny area. We have clay though, and digging is
hard for my arthritic back and knees, so something that
spreads rather quickly would be lovely.
Speaker 2: Zone seven.
Speaker 1: I'm considering vermilion, firecracker or red larkspur. I'm thinking of
a plant around two feet tall to provide plenty of
disguise for the dying foliage. Any color is fine if
you have other suggestions. Love your show, and I'm now
listening to episodes from before I found your.
Speaker 2: Podcast, so so nice.
Speaker 1: I have this situation in my front yard too, and
let me just mention that surrounding those daffodils, the plant
that fills in real quickly and spring no work on
my part, and the deer leave it alone. Stacey, is
any of the nepettas like Cat's Pajamas or cats Meow?
Speaker 3: Yep, they are a great choice. I think for sun
hardy geraniums would could work really really well. Tuscan sun heliopsis,
it's going to get a little bit taller than two feet,
Veronica selvia. All of those will be good your resistent choices.
But yeah, as far as spreading fast and you know,
really doing the work for you, I do think that
any nepuda is fine, A great choice. Now, I will
say Carol, that the two plants you're considering planting are annuals.
So if you're looking to reduce your workload in this,
you know, clay soil, it's hard to dig. Don't plant
an annual. Put your effort into a perennial that's going
to come back every single year, so that once you've
done that effort, you're not wasting it, you're not having
to repeat it. And you know, my advice for everybody
who has clay soil, or who needs to limit the
amount of digging that they do for physical reasons or whatever,
is to start small. Now, normally I encourage people to
shop at their local garden center because that's the way
that you're going to get the best plant for the
best value. You're going to get a big plant for
less money, and that's generally what we want. But if
you have clay soil, if you have problems digging, I
actually encourage the opposite. I would say start with the
smaller plants. And sometimes garden centers do have smaller plants,
but typically for most perennials, the smallest you're going to
find is a one gallon, which is fairly small, but
if you have very heavy clay soil and you know ailments,
it's it's going to feel like a very large plant,
Whereas if you order mail order, you're going to get
a one court plant, so that's going to be a
lot smaller. That means you have to dig a much
smaller hole, and that will save you a lot of effort.
So that's one way I think to get around some
of these challenges with clay soil. You know, a one
court is just about four and a half feet tall
and wide, so it'll be very easy to plant. Of course,
you can always see what your local garden center has,
but this would be a good situation I think for
ordering online.
Speaker 1: I think sweet Romance lavender would be a great choice also.
And then if we're dealing with the daffodils in shade,
possibly ferns. There are many wonderful ferns that you could plant,
and I've had success with the virginia I love bridge
r ginia with any of your spring blooming bulbs, and
I think it's doubtful that the deer would nibble on it.
Speaker 3: Maybe they would, yeah, I don't know either. The deer
do sometimes actually nibble my ferns, which is quite infuriating,
and you know this is a sunny spot, as you said, Carol.
But sometimes with the clay soil, if it's a wet clay,
you can actually grow things that are more shade tolerant
because as long as they're getting enough water, which they
usually are in clay soil. So another plant that you
could consider, again kind of verging on the shade, would
be a Stelby. I think that would be another really
really nice choice to cover all of that foliage. But
again you have to just be careful that it's getting
sufficient water for the amount of sun, especially down in
a bit warmer usdas on.
Speaker 1: Seven the deer eat your ferns because they know you're
among fronds.
Speaker 3: They're they're not among fronds, not by a long shot.
Speaker 1: Catherine writes to us, Hello, garden friends, I purchased a
dormant el Nino at my local garden center in early spring.
Speaker 2: I've got a story for you.
Speaker 1: Excited as I heard the buzz about this shrub tree,
I planted it in full sun zone eight A on
March twenty second. As the weather warmed, a few leaves
at the tip of the branches started to bud very.
Speaker 2: Small then died back. Now no progress.
Speaker 1: All the companion plants I planted that day are thriving,
reblooming Azalea, verbina's, Euphorbia uanamus. So do I keep waiting
for growth? Branches still feel pliable, but no bud swelling.
Where will the new growth appear along the branch from
the ground?
Speaker 2: Do I move it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? So, you know, Catherine, I wanted to answer your
question because el Nino Chetalpa or desert orchid is a
new plant, and it's not just a new plant to
the proven Winter's line, but there really are no hybrids
of Chilopsis and Katlpa, which that's where the name Chittelpa
comes from out there, to kind of serve as a
reference point. So I have this plant here in USA
Zone six B, and it has been very interesting for
me to see this year how very very late it
is to emerge, and it is late, so it's late
May here and I am only just starting to see
the new growth coming out. And they're just tiny, tiny,
little pinkish purply buds on the plant. And honestly, I
don't think if I didn't know what I was looking for,
I probably wouldn't even notice them. Because they are really
quite nondescript. So what I think happened here, Kathy, Catherine, sorry,
is that the plant was probably underwarm conditions when you
purchased it. It got into your yard, started putting out
that new growth, and then got hit by some cold
and blamo and was like, you know, can't live with this,
and so that tenderfoliage just fried. And you know, very
often when this happens, a plant will wait until, you know,
much longer to make sure that when it deploys those
secondary buds, it's not a waste. They're not going to
get hit by another frost. So sometimes that span of
time in between when it started to grow and when
it regrows can actually be quite long. So I wouldn't
worry about it too much yet, I would say continue
to care for it, and if as long as it
feels pliable, that is definitely a very good sign, because
when it's dead, you know, the wood becomes very very
brittle and breaks easily. But I will say mine is
primarily breaking lower down on the plant, and those lower
buds are going to be a lot slower to emerge
than those terminal buds which originally emerge. But I think
it should be just fine. I can't see any reason
that it would have died in your climates, even with
that little setback.
Speaker 1: I agree, and we experience that Blama event here in
West Michigan often.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, My story, Stacy was that you're the person who
got me excited about this plant, and I put one
in the ground last year, and we had a rough
winter this past winter, so I've been actually I was skeptical.
I was thinking, this thing is not gonna come back.
And I'm Zone six B also. Yeah, but we had
to slow warm up this spring, and then finally by
Mother's Day weekend into the seventies and the eighties budding beautiful.
So I agree with you that the plant thought it
was further into spring than it actually was and blamo.
Speaker 2: But the plant will recover.
Speaker 3: Yeah. This is also a very fast growing plant, so
much like butterfly bush, which also does something similar and
may not emerge until quite late in spring. You know,
you can't give up on it. It does take a
long time, and then you think, oh my gosh, okay,
well here we are a beginning of June. This thing's
finally growing. Well, now what's it going to do? And
then next thing you know, you turn around and it
has just grown by leaps and bounds and is not
set back at all. And this is definitely a plant
too that I mean, this isn't going to happen in
USA Zone eight where you are, Catherine, but it can
I back all the way to the ground and come
back from its roots. So it's not just that it
needs the wood that's above ground to survive.
Speaker 1: So if you're not watching on YouTube, but you're listening
on radio or podcast, Stacy, when we say al Nino,
we're not talking about.
Speaker 3: A weather now, we're talking about one of my favorite
plants in the prooven Winter's colored choice line, al Nino
desert orchid. It is a hybrid between Chilopsis, which is
a native plant known as desert willow, and Katalpa, which
of course is a common tree out here. So it's
kind of a small tree, very large shrub pink flowers
in summer that have the most incredible fragrance. I describe
it as vanilla melon, but it's it's very hard to
describe because there's really nothing quite like it, and a
great plant that just blooms for months. For me and
I it's just it's just very different and very interesting,
so definitely worth seeking out and having a little patience
because as I am discovering this year and also send
a I'll take some photos so Aderona can put them
in the video and you can see what mine look
like for comparison. And I'm not worried at all. It's
just just a little slow. So thank you all so
much for your questions. We're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're going to continue our conversation
about companion plants, 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. Today we're talking
about plants that make really good friends.
Speaker 2: And one thing I wanted.
Speaker 1: To ask you, Stacey, was often you'll hear when we
approach our landscape that thirty percent of the landscape should
be evergreens, or a foundation rule.
Speaker 2: You buy into that.
Speaker 3: I don't buy into any rules beyond a long I mean,
you know, I think there's a lot of guidelines like that, like, oh,
you know, your ideal landscape for wildlife should be you know,
seventy percent native and it can be up to thirty
percent exotics or whatever. I mean. And you know, I
also read an article the other day that was like,
box food hedges are out of style. I'm like, okay, well,
I just planted three this weekend, and so too bad
for me. I guess my garden isn't in style. Oh dear,
what will I do? Yeah, I mean, I think it's
evergreens are a great thing to have in the landscape,
of course, and if you don't have any evergreens, you
might be feeling kind of sad about that come winter
when your garden doesn't have much green to look like
to look at. But you know, we all, I think,
end up with plants and landscapes based on what we like.
And you know, you can always make a change, you know,
there's no rules. Come on.
Speaker 1: Well, and the only reason I it up, And I'm
glad I brought it up because now I can go
just about anywhere with this. But evergreens, of course, are foundational,
and so they make a pretty good friend in the landscape.
You mentioned in the first segment. You know that the
color yellow against purple or blue. I love lemon squeeze pennacetum,
and I've found that that's a great companion with with
blue flowers.
Speaker 2: So those are all great choices.
Speaker 1: And it does bring up the point that when you
plant annuals, and I plant a lot of annuals in
my landscape, you can create temporary friendships. It's almost like
a summer fling, right, I mean that when you're when
you're looking at this, this isn't a long term relationship,
but boy do they really add add color and go
well with many different types of plants. Some are sweet
and sweet spire it tea either of those two together
with bud Leah's I guess I think to the summertime.
I mentioned that heat and high ranges go together, and
when you have rows of Sharon and bud Leah and
hydranges in the same landscape, they put on quite a
show when the weather gets hot.
Speaker 3: And you know, that's what it's all about. I love
that moment where just everything is blooming and it's totally
over the top. You know. I go for that really
all season long, and you know, that's I have an
interesting companion planting in my landscape which I've had for
several years now and just expanded it, and that is
an L shaped bed with Baptisia on the outer edge
and then summarific hibiscus on the inner edge. And those
make a good companion because summerific is very late to
emerge every year, so there's nothing to look at until
pretty much June if then, and the Baptisia's really kind
of jump out of the ground in spring and look
really interesting and beautiful and then go on to so
they really kind of do some heavy lifting while the
sumarifics are just getting going, and then when the budly
are done, they still have fabulous foliage. Then the sumarifics
are going and they kind of take over. So it's
kind of a nice, you know, ongoing display. And that's
a good way to combine things too, is to you
can gild the lily and have everything going bonkers at once,
which is amazing, but you can also pair things so
that they have a continuous seison of interests.
Speaker 1: Everyone has their time in the sun, that's true. You
get a chance to take center stage.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: I love tucking plants as friends in the landscape. I
call them tucking plants. Plants that you tuckuples. You can
tuck them between rocks or around the base of plants
like Seatam's or time even carrex or sweet woodruff. They're
tuckabules and they're they're really great friends. Of course, a
cottage garden, I think of the combination of color pink
and purple, has an informal look but kind of a
casual mixture of flowers, herbs, vegetables packed into an area.
Cottage garden is in my mind.
Speaker 2: A friendly garden.
Speaker 3: Yes, I would say friendly, accessible, approachable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's a great way to approach it.
Speaker 2: Also.
Speaker 1: And then Jan Johnson, we've had her on the show before,
a landscape architect. As long as we're on the subject
of friends, she does talk in her book garden Topia
about taking a look at your front door and front
entrance area, having space to mingle, to greet or to
say goodbye to people when they leave, and kind of
paying attention to the plant material that's around the front
steps or the front porch. That makes a lot of
sense to me.
Speaker 3: It does, and you know, I think especially for people
who are maybe a little bit mystified when they go
to the garden center and don't know where to start.
Think about those colors. Yes, you know, I think it's
a really easy point of departure for designing your front
landscape is just what colors your front or what color
is your house? What color are your containers in working
with that? And that makes a really if you look
at I think if people take a moment to look
at a picture of a house or whatever that really
resonates with them, they take a moment to dissect what's
actually working for them. Very often it is working with
those colors that are already in your house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: You know, when I go out speaking to groups, I
often remind people that I believe that there are three
people in this world. Those who make things happen, those
who watch things happen, and those who wonder what in
the world just happen. Those are the three types of people. Well,
plants are the same way. But there are some people
who have the ability to bring a group of people
together kind of you know, they when they show up
at the party, things start happening. Okay, And I kind
of in a landscape where you have a wide diversity
of plants. I find edging to be that way. In
other words, the choice of the right plant for edging
that pulls the whole thing together. So the landscape may
be quite diverse, but this individual or plant, and I'm
thinking Midnight Sun as an edging plant on a landscape.
Speaker 2: Could you see that plant?
Speaker 3: Oh, definitely, yes, an edging plant. I especially I love
that plant with brick, with any cellar of brick. I
think it works really really well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so really, so the type of plant that you
choose for your edging can become a very important friend.
Because again, when you have this diverse group of friends,
let's call them in your landscape, the edging, if it's
a common type plant or a common theme that strings
along the edge, it kind of pulls everything together. So
I think that's that's really important. And then in a
previous show I had mentioned as a as it relates
to annuals. Again, another tuckable is diamond frost Euphorbia. But
also be copa because be copa is a good friend
because it tells you when the other annuals need water.
Because it it just basically shows you, hey, this is
dry and it needs water.
Speaker 3: And recovers once it does, and it recovers.
Speaker 1: Copa, so it's baco Pa has nothing to do with
the copa cabana and Barry Manilo.
Speaker 2: But I think of that song every time I.
Speaker 1: See the plants, you know, as far as friends in
the landscape are concerned. Also, the bulb people really have
a great handle on that. I love muscari, grape, hyacinths
with a fosteriana tulip or for Scythia's with daffodils, or
Virginia with tulips, or pansies with tulips.
Speaker 2: All of these.
Speaker 1: Plants make great friends in the landscape and really create
a pop. Hypostes or polka dot plant also is a
really good friend in the landscape.
Speaker 2: And also ornamental onions.
Speaker 1: Or aliums, hardy tough plants, flowers and foliage, but they
really produce a reliable complementing let's say, contrast for other plants.
If you, for example, take the perennial ornamental aliums like
bobble head or serendipity and you combine them with salvia,
again two very different types of foliage, but the plants
really complement.
Speaker 3: You know. I don't think you can go wrong with
aliums anywhere, anytime they are they might be the ultimate
garden friend. You know, they look great. Most varieties have
very minimal foliage, so compared to other bulbs we're talking
about the bulb aliums, they don't look real shoddy and
you know, kind of bringing your whole garden down. I
plant my succulent gardens throughout with aliums for acephalon drumstick
alium because it just has like fine grass like foliage
looks great. You know, you just you can't get enough aliums.
Aliums just look good with I think everything. I don't
know if I've ever seen a combination where I was like, hmm,
could do without the alium.
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, finding a friend plant that
can both contrast and compliment, in my mind, makes the
perfect plant in a landscape.
Speaker 3: And that's all on you. It all depends on what
you personally like. We've shared some of our ideas, but
ultimately there are no right answers. There's just whatever makes
you happy. So you know, we try to provide some
guidance and inspiration and ideas, but ultimately it's your garden.
You're in charge, and if you have a combination that
you are particularly particularly proud of. We would love to
see it. You can reach out to us at gardening
Simplified on air dot com. So with that, thank you, Rick,
thank you, thank you Adriana, and thanks so much to
all of you for watching and listening. We hope you
have a wonderful week ahead.