Celebrating Plants and a New Year

<v Speaker 1>Broadcasting from Festive Studio A here at proven Winners, Color
<v Speaker 1>Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with
<v Speaker 1>Stacey Heravella, me Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer
<v Speaker 1>Adrianna Robinson. Well, today we talk about New Year's botany
<v Speaker 1>plants that are synonymous with New Year's For example, the
<v Speaker 1>rule of eating twelve grapes at midnight good luck and
<v Speaker 1>fortune for each month of the coming year. A big
<v Speaker 1>deal in Spain Latin America. As I understand it, Maybe
<v Speaker 1>this year I'll pop twelve grapes at midnight.
<v Speaker 2>I like the idea. You have to eat them at
<v Speaker 2>one at a time. You know, you're not just shoving
<v Speaker 2>twelve tripes in your mouth. You do eat them one
<v Speaker 2>at a time. But you know what I really love
<v Speaker 2>about this tradition. It's a great one for kids. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>I won't choke on the grapes.
<v Speaker 1>Fantastic. It makes sense. In parts of Eastern Europe, cabbage
<v Speaker 1>is considered lucky because of its green and it's a
<v Speaker 1>traditional New Year's food. I guess due to the timing,
<v Speaker 1>because cabbage is harvested in late fall and then fermented
<v Speaker 1>and made into Sauer kraut just in time for New
<v Speaker 1>Year's And then, of course there's the Greek tradition of
<v Speaker 1>hanging a bag of onions on your door. Have you
<v Speaker 1>heard that before?
<v Speaker 2>I have not, but I love it. Yeah, I would
<v Speaker 2>love to do this.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, hanging onions on your door. It's meant to symbolize
<v Speaker 1>growth and rebirth. Started back in ancient times when people
<v Speaker 1>realized that onions would sprout even when they were left alone,
<v Speaker 1>so it was the ultimate sign for luck and fertility.
<v Speaker 1>Parents also tapped their children on the head with an
<v Speaker 1>onion on New Year's Day, and I said, tap, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I love this. You know.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't ever hear that, and I've been looking for
<v Speaker 2>something to make my neighbors think I'm even crazier. So
<v Speaker 2>this is really perfect, you know, and be like, what
<v Speaker 2>is that? Is that? A bag of onions on their door?
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, and I love onions too, so it's useful
<v Speaker 2>as well.
<v Speaker 1>I might do that too, Hang the onions and eat
<v Speaker 1>some grapes. Citrus was big when I was a tropical
<v Speaker 1>plant buyer for the industry. Of course, it has a
<v Speaker 1>long history and as I understand it, parents in China
<v Speaker 1>would place fruits like mandarin oranges or per Simmons beside
<v Speaker 1>the pillows of their children, along with red envelopes containing money.
<v Speaker 1>It was to ward off folklore monsters, and then the
<v Speaker 1>children would eat the fruits upon waking the next morning.
<v Speaker 1>And of course per Simmons fascinating. And I'm glad Stacy
<v Speaker 1>is here because I cannot handle that botanical name. And
<v Speaker 1>we'll learn more from her coming up here on the
<v Speaker 1>show about per Simmons.
<v Speaker 2>It's so true. I really really wanted the excuse to
<v Speaker 2>just talk about persimons ten minutes, so I took the opportunity.
<v Speaker 1>I love it. I love it. It's fascinating. It truly is.
<v Speaker 1>You know, we had traditions when I was a kid too.
<v Speaker 1>My parents both immigrated to the US from the Netherlands,
<v Speaker 1>and so we ate something called oly bolin only bolan.
<v Speaker 1>It's basically a deep fried doughnut coated and powdered sugar,
<v Speaker 1>so you get it all over your shirt. But it's
<v Speaker 1>a tradition with Dutch people, and they put apples, dates,
<v Speaker 1>raisins inside these only bolin only bowl translates to oil ball,
<v Speaker 1>so that shows you not very healthy, But you know,
<v Speaker 1>a tradition. Nonetheless, in our household with my parents. I
<v Speaker 1>had a tradition. I lived in a neighborhood a number
<v Speaker 1>of years ago where throughout the neighborhood people were really
<v Speaker 1>into their lawns and green grass and a golf course
<v Speaker 1>type lawn, always working on them. So New Year's Eve
<v Speaker 1>in the neighborhood, we had the tradition of firing up
<v Speaker 1>the lawnmowers at midnight. You did, yeah, we did.
<v Speaker 2>That's fun. Noisy, but fun.
<v Speaker 1>It was noisy. It was smelly, smoke all over the place.
<v Speaker 1>But we you know, it didn't matter if the snow
<v Speaker 1>was a foot or two feet deep. Here in West Michigan.
<v Speaker 1>Everybody opened the garage at midnight, rolled out their lawnmowers,
<v Speaker 1>and we ran the lawnmowers for five minutes. That's great,
<v Speaker 1>kind of dumb, actually, but oh well, you know it's a.
<v Speaker 2>Good bonding thing for the whole neighborhood. And you know, otherwise,
<v Speaker 2>what would you be saying right now, Like you know,
<v Speaker 2>I thought you were gonna say you got together and
<v Speaker 2>made olibolin.
<v Speaker 1>Well we did that. We ate only bowling outside while
<v Speaker 1>we ran the lawnmowers. Now, of course, it's a time
<v Speaker 1>of year New Year's during that time when we remove
<v Speaker 1>Christmas decorations and all of a sudden, the house looks bare.
<v Speaker 1>So it's a huge time not only for retail stores
<v Speaker 1>to sell storage bins, but in addition to that, houseplants.
<v Speaker 1>And I think back again on all of these traditions.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I remember when tinsel was a big thing
<v Speaker 1>on Christmas trees, that toxic, miserable stuff that you can't recycle.
<v Speaker 1>And fortunately a lot of people don't use tinsel anymore.
<v Speaker 1>But everyone would throw their tree out to the curb
<v Speaker 1>side and that tinsel would just be blowing in the winds.
<v Speaker 1>You remember that. I remember that well. Or those speaking
<v Speaker 1>of toxic, those incandescent bulbs, those bubble lights, Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that had the fluid in them, and you had to
<v Speaker 1>get them hot enough so that the fluid would boil.
<v Speaker 2>I thought those were pretty darn cool when I was
<v Speaker 2>a kid. I'm not going to lie.
<v Speaker 1>They are cool, but toxic. And today, of course you
<v Speaker 1>can get the led versions, which are cooler and certainly
<v Speaker 1>not as bad for the environ But I love this
<v Speaker 1>time of the year when we remove the Christmas decorations
<v Speaker 1>and house plants take a predominant role in the home,
<v Speaker 1>and I have a few suggestions here. Also with leaf
<v Speaker 1>joy proven winters, foliage plants, a hoya. They have a
<v Speaker 1>hoya endless cascades, seastones. Love that, what a beauty, What
<v Speaker 1>a beauty. And I love philodendrons. They have a philodendron
<v Speaker 1>called Zigzag. What a great addition to your home. And
<v Speaker 1>then shimmering falls a tricolor silver synaptis, you know, hang
<v Speaker 1>in a minute, syndapsis. I had to make sure to
<v Speaker 1>get it correct. And the reason I had to get
<v Speaker 1>it correct is because many people mistake it for a pothos,
<v Speaker 1>but it's not. And it's a beautiful plant indoors. So
<v Speaker 1>house plants are part of New Year's Eve botany and
<v Speaker 1>that people kind of a splurge on houseplants in January, right, And.
<v Speaker 2>I think you know one houseplant that seems to me
<v Speaker 2>that always kind of comes to the forefront around New
<v Speaker 2>Year's is the so called lucky bamboo, Yes, which is
<v Speaker 2>not a bamboo at all. I don't know why they
<v Speaker 2>had to call it bamboo, but it's actually not a bamboo.
<v Speaker 2>It's not even in the grass family, which bamboo is.
<v Speaker 2>And I will tell you this every time I have
<v Speaker 2>tried to grow lucky bamboo. I've never purchased it myself,
<v Speaker 2>but I've gotten it as a gift multiple times. I've
<v Speaker 2>killed it really oh yeah, right away, like and I
<v Speaker 2>don't know why, really yeah, I know, it seems and
<v Speaker 2>I will go to people's you know, you'll go to
<v Speaker 2>like a restaurant and there's like a you know, one
<v Speaker 2>that's been there for like ten years, barely holding on
<v Speaker 2>to life, and here I am killing mine within like
<v Speaker 2>the first month. I don't know what I've ever done, wow,
<v Speaker 2>but I've never been able to keep them alive. So
<v Speaker 2>I have a little bit. They're not good luck in
<v Speaker 2>my book for me personally.
<v Speaker 1>You are right that it is. It is not a bamboo.
<v Speaker 1>It's a dressina Dressina, yes, yes, and a symbol for fortune, health,
<v Speaker 1>and happiness. So yes, that's on the list of lucky plants,
<v Speaker 1>along with jade plant coin like leaves signify wealth and prosperity.
<v Speaker 1>And then we sold many pachuras or money trees.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, yeah, those kind of became really popular in
<v Speaker 2>the last fifteen years or so. And those were really.
<v Speaker 1>Cool, Yeah, braided trunks and so that's that's very cool also,
<v Speaker 1>And then of course citrus a big deal with the
<v Speaker 1>lunar New Year, and citrus plants would always be highly popular.
<v Speaker 2>About how about Kalimandin's and are those still popular?
<v Speaker 1>Yes?
<v Speaker 2>I mean those are Like I feel like the one
<v Speaker 2>citrus that someone can actually be reasonably successful with indoors
<v Speaker 2>unless they have ideal conditions.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, with the small fruit, don't eat them. Boy, they
<v Speaker 1>taste terrible, look great, but they look great, exactly clean.
<v Speaker 1>So I thought i'd give you a holiday rap, Limerick
<v Speaker 1>well w r.
<v Speaker 2>A oh okay, well, non disappointed.
<v Speaker 1>Sorry to disappoint, And just like that, blamo, unplug your
<v Speaker 1>holiday light show, dump in a tupper ware bins, some
<v Speaker 1>ornaments thrown in out the front door. It goes heave hole. Okay, Elves,
<v Speaker 1>that's a holiday rap. What's left is to survive this
<v Speaker 1>cold snap, keeping things in context. Remember springtime is next,
<v Speaker 1>but I think first I'll take a long nap. I'm
<v Speaker 1>looking forward to spring, are you I?
<v Speaker 2>Very much? I feel like when the holidays are over,
<v Speaker 2>then you can just be like, okay, now focus on spring. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>even though it is kind of a long way so
<v Speaker 2>I don't have to be a downer, but it is
<v Speaker 2>kind of a long ways off. But you know, there's
<v Speaker 2>still lots of time to plan and learn, so that's good.
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna make it. Plants on trial coming up next
<v Speaker 1>here on the Gardening Simplified.
<v Speaker 2>Show, beautify your home and community with proven Winn's Color
<v Speaker 2>Choice Shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique
<v Speaker 2>varieties to choose from. There's a flowering shrub or evergreen
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<v Speaker 2>at proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends,
<v Speaker 2>and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we're
<v Speaker 2>celebrating the botany of New Year's and talking all about
<v Speaker 2>the plants that make New Year's special and plants that
<v Speaker 2>are part of New Year's tradition. And if you tuned
<v Speaker 2>in for segment one, you learned about a lot of
<v Speaker 2>various plants and fruits and so forth that are part
<v Speaker 2>of New Year's traditions. And while some of them, like
<v Speaker 2>grapes and citrus, are woody plants or even shrubs and trees,
<v Speaker 2>none of the three hundred and fifty plus proven Winner's
<v Speaker 2>Color Choice shrubs are quite part of a New Year's tradition. Now,
<v Speaker 2>you know, you could say that our double take flowering
<v Speaker 2>quints are an important part of lunar New Year, and
<v Speaker 2>that is true. And we talked a bit, mentioned a
<v Speaker 2>bit about lunar New Year during segment one, but of
<v Speaker 2>course lunar New Year is still like six weeks away,
<v Speaker 2>so not quite ready for that yet. So I was
<v Speaker 2>kind of at a loss. Now I thought to myself, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>I could cover for plants on trial a Hollywood hibiscus,
<v Speaker 2>because one of the special qualities of Hollywood hibiscus is
<v Speaker 2>that the flowers, compared to other tropical hibiscus, open the
<v Speaker 2>blooms open fully, and the petals form a perfect circle.
<v Speaker 2>So instead of being more of like that satellite dish
<v Speaker 2>type of shape where it's kind of curved, they open
<v Speaker 2>more flat and make a perfect circle. And of course
<v Speaker 2>circles are very emblematic and symbolic at the New Year,
<v Speaker 2>which makes perfect sense. So I started writing about the
<v Speaker 2>Hollywood hibiscus, and then I said, you know, I want
<v Speaker 2>to do something different. Rick mentioned per Simmons. I'm going
<v Speaker 2>to spend plants on Trial talking about per Simmons. I
<v Speaker 2>love it because Persimmons a plant that are not very
<v Speaker 2>widely grown in the US. But on a recent episode,
<v Speaker 2>I talked about my recent trip to Japan, and when
<v Speaker 2>I was there in November, all of the per simmons,
<v Speaker 2>and they grow abundantly throughout Japan, had dropped their leaves.
<v Speaker 2>And so everywhere you go in residential landscapes in the wild,
<v Speaker 2>around temples and parks and other things, you see these
<v Speaker 2>trees just absolutely laden with bright orange globes, and it
<v Speaker 2>is so distinctive and so unique. And when you go
<v Speaker 2>to the restaurants, they're often serving per simmons in various dishes. Meanwhile,
<v Speaker 2>us here in the US are mostly like per simon.
<v Speaker 2>What you know, we don't really know much about it,
<v Speaker 2>but they are fascinating plants. And you're about to learn
<v Speaker 2>a whole lot about per simons. So my favorite one
<v Speaker 2>of my I have a couple favorite things about persimons
<v Speaker 2>you're about to hear about, but one of my favorite
<v Speaker 2>things about them is there sientific name dios Pyros.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I see, I struggled with that, thank you.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, you could say diospiros. I don't. I
<v Speaker 2>don't speak ancient Greek, so I don't really know precisely
<v Speaker 2>what the intonation here is. But Dios p y r
<v Speaker 2>o s great thing about this, The literal translation is
<v Speaker 2>food of the gods, So dios like the dios in
<v Speaker 2>Spanish and pyros for food of the gods. So that
<v Speaker 2>is the actual translation and meaning of the Greek name.
<v Speaker 2>Now we're going to talk about eating per simmons, and
<v Speaker 2>if you're if you have experienced eating per simmons and
<v Speaker 2>it was slightly less than close to food of the gods,
<v Speaker 2>we will address that later on in this segment. They
<v Speaker 2>are also in the Ebeneci or the ebony family. So
<v Speaker 2>if you're familiar with ebony, the beautiful ornamental wood that's
<v Speaker 2>very very dark, almost black, that is the family, and
<v Speaker 2>in fact, the plants, the true trees that make ebony
<v Speaker 2>that itself is also known as diospyros, that is the
<v Speaker 2>scientific genus. Although they don't have an edible component like
<v Speaker 2>the actual true personmon it does. So you know, I
<v Speaker 2>think a lot of people hear about persimmons or they
<v Speaker 2>go to the store, you know, and you can find
<v Speaker 2>them at regular grocery stores at certain times, especially in fall,
<v Speaker 2>and certainly if you go to an Asian grocery you
<v Speaker 2>will find them and you will be able to tell
<v Speaker 2>you know by their names, hachiya, fuyo, fuyu. Sorry that
<v Speaker 2>they are from the east and very unfamiliar to us.
<v Speaker 2>But the fact is that we have a native North
<v Speaker 2>American persmon.
<v Speaker 1>That's what I understand. I was doing a little research
<v Speaker 1>and saw American personmon hardiness zone four to nine.
<v Speaker 2>Hardiness zone four to nine. We not only have a
<v Speaker 2>native persimon, we have a very hardy native percimon. Of
<v Speaker 2>this matters because we are going to talk about growing them.
<v Speaker 2>But the Asian persimons, the japan knees persimon Diospyrus khaki,
<v Speaker 2>which cocky or kaki is the Japanese word for persimmon,
<v Speaker 2>are hardy only to USDA zone eight. So that means
<v Speaker 2>a whole lot of us would never have a chance
<v Speaker 2>at growing those per simons. But you can grow our
<v Speaker 2>North America native persimmon Diospyros virginiana. So no worries about
<v Speaker 2>getting confused which one is native. Just look for that
<v Speaker 2>Virginiana and you will know it comes from here in
<v Speaker 2>North America. And this plant has a quite extensive range.
<v Speaker 2>It is endemic from Connecticut down to Florida and East
<v Speaker 2>all the way over to Texas. Now it does not
<v Speaker 2>go quite as north as Michigan. It kind of cuts
<v Speaker 2>off in Indiana and Ohio. Not that it respects state borders,
<v Speaker 2>but you know, it's not really known to be here
<v Speaker 2>at Michigan, at least in an endemic quality, but you
<v Speaker 2>can certainly grow it here.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna try one.
<v Speaker 2>I have one in my garden, and I have a
<v Speaker 2>weeping variety that I got at a Master Gardner conference.
<v Speaker 2>It was in silent auction, fantastic, and I really wanted
<v Speaker 2>that plant. Let's just put it that way. If you've
<v Speaker 2>ever participated in a silent auction and you really wanted something,
<v Speaker 2>you know how that goes. Per Simon is such an
<v Speaker 2>important part of especially Native American culture, that the very
<v Speaker 2>word per semon actually derives from the Algonquin language and
<v Speaker 2>is their word for dried fruit.
<v Speaker 1>That's interesting.
<v Speaker 2>So the whole English speaking, you know, population of the
<v Speaker 2>world uses this term per semon, and it actually derives
<v Speaker 2>from North American Native Americans.
<v Speaker 1>Wow.
<v Speaker 2>It also has another really wonderful common name. Are you
<v Speaker 2>ready for this? I know Adriana is going to be
<v Speaker 2>ready for this. Possum wood powesome and Adriana and I
<v Speaker 2>share a love of possums, and I don't know why
<v Speaker 2>it's called possumwood exactly, but I'll take it because possums
<v Speaker 2>are great, and so are per semon plants. So they're
<v Speaker 2>very rarely grown here, but like I said, they are
<v Speaker 2>positively ubiquitous in Japan. I could not believe how many
<v Speaker 2>places I saw them, And as I was looking and
<v Speaker 2>researching for this segment, I came across this very three
<v Speaker 2>line poem from the very famous Japanese poet bas Sho.
<v Speaker 2>It's simply this, this old village, not a single house
<v Speaker 2>without persimon trees, whereas here we're like. Persimon trees tend
<v Speaker 2>to be very few and far between, and they are ornamental.
<v Speaker 2>They're really lovely. They have big, glossy leaves. They're beautiful,
<v Speaker 2>bright green. The Japanese species does turn great fall color,
<v Speaker 2>nice reds. The native one here in the US mostly
<v Speaker 2>only a yellow, but still quite attractive. But again, the
<v Speaker 2>cool thing is when those leaves fall, you just have
<v Speaker 2>this tree covered in bright orange globes. The North American
<v Speaker 2>native persimmon our fruits are pretty tiny, whereas the Japanese
<v Speaker 2>ones are about the size of a tomato or an apple.
<v Speaker 2>Ours are about the size of an apricot.
<v Speaker 1>And speaking of which, so with the size of the
<v Speaker 1>fruit in my reading, as I understand it, the fruit
<v Speaker 1>doesn't have a long shelf life if you see it
<v Speaker 1>in stores. In other words, you could compare it to
<v Speaker 1>let's say, bananas or tomatoes, where it's not gonna last for.
<v Speaker 2>A long right, And it does have quite a thin skin, yes,
<v Speaker 2>so that might be part of it. But yeah, ours,
<v Speaker 2>ours are snack sized and you're not gonna find them
<v Speaker 2>in the grocery store because they are so tiny. And
<v Speaker 2>I'll get to more of that in just a moment.
<v Speaker 2>So if you've had a bad experience eating a persimon,
<v Speaker 2>you are not alone. A lot of people would see
<v Speaker 2>them at the grocery store and go, ohm, I want
<v Speaker 2>to try this. This is cool, So fu you per simmons,
<v Speaker 2>which are the ones that are round tomato shape, so
<v Speaker 2>they're shaped like a round kind of small beef steak tomato.
<v Speaker 2>This type can be eaten fresh. It's not necessarily going
<v Speaker 2>to be super sweet, but it'll be crisp and have
<v Speaker 2>good flavor, and that can be eaten as is now.
<v Speaker 2>If you have a hatchia per simon, These are going
<v Speaker 2>to be more shaped like a plum tomato, so kind
<v Speaker 2>of or oval and elongated. If you take a bite
<v Speaker 2>of an unripe Puchia per simon, lord help you. And
<v Speaker 2>it's the same with our native American persimmons as well.
<v Speaker 2>They have that astringent quality and people say a stringent
<v Speaker 2>all the time, like you know, without really qualifying it.
<v Speaker 2>If you take a bite of this thing, it's gonna
<v Speaker 2>suck all the moisture out of your mouth. It is
<v Speaker 2>so sour and it has that like weird texture that
<v Speaker 2>just again like alum. It just sucks all the moisture
<v Speaker 2>out of your mouth. So Hachia persimmons do need to
<v Speaker 2>be ripened. You can put them in a bag with
<v Speaker 2>an apple or a banana or something like that to
<v Speaker 2>speed the process along. And you do not eat Hachia
<v Speaker 2>per simmons until One source I read said they feel
<v Speaker 2>like a water balloon. So you're gonna be waiting a
<v Speaker 2>while till they get to that point and then they're
<v Speaker 2>gonna be soft, but super sweet and luscious. The American persimon,
<v Speaker 2>which I have been fortunate enough to try, is only
<v Speaker 2>edible after it has been frosted or has experienced a
<v Speaker 2>long stretch of cold temperatures.
<v Speaker 1>Now Brussels sprouts, yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Like, yeah, that kind of thing. But they are small
<v Speaker 2>and they tend to cluster at the top of the tree,
<v Speaker 2>so they're not necessarily the easiest thing to harvest and
<v Speaker 2>to try for yourself, although I have been fortunate enough
<v Speaker 2>to try an American per simon in New Jersey. There
<v Speaker 2>was some, and if you get them right after they
<v Speaker 2>fall on the ground, you know, you don't want to
<v Speaker 2>wait too long because you'll also be competing with all
<v Speaker 2>of the raccoons and foxes and pastas and so forth
<v Speaker 2>for that sweet fruit. But yeah, it was actually quite
<v Speaker 2>tasty and very sweet. So if you're going to grow
<v Speaker 2>a per simon and you live in a cold climate,
<v Speaker 2>look for our North American native Diospyros Virginiana. There is
<v Speaker 2>a weeping variety that's what I grow. If you live
<v Speaker 2>in a milder climate, definitely go for that Diospyros khaki,
<v Speaker 2>so you have good, luscious fruits to celebrate New Year's
<v Speaker 2>or really any time of the year. We're gonna take
<v Speaker 2>a little break. There's a lot more I want to
<v Speaker 2>say about for simmons, but we gotta take a break,
<v Speaker 2>so we'll be back in a moment with a mailneg
<v Speaker 2>Stay tuned at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, we know
<v Speaker 2>that a better landscape starts with a better shrub. Our
<v Speaker 2>team of experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering
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<v Speaker 2>look for Proven Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container
<v Speaker 2>at your local garden center, or learn more at Proven
<v Speaker 2>Winner's Color Choice dot com. Creating's Gardening friends, and welcome
<v Speaker 2>back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where, of course I
<v Speaker 2>have a few final words on Persimmon before we can
<v Speaker 2>move on to the mail bag. One of the reasons
<v Speaker 2>that I bid quite high for that per Simon at
<v Speaker 2>the Ohio State Master Gardner Conference many years ago is
<v Speaker 2>one of the reasons that I wanted it is it
<v Speaker 2>is a host of the Luna moth. Now, my yard
<v Speaker 2>is a little bit too small for an oak, which
<v Speaker 2>is their preferred host, but luna moths are one of
<v Speaker 2>my absolute favorite animals in the whole world. I have
<v Speaker 2>never seen one. I dearly wish that I would, but
<v Speaker 2>they're so beautiful. The adults only live for a day.
<v Speaker 2>I have seen a larva, but I've never seen an adult.
<v Speaker 2>So in the hopes that one day I would have
<v Speaker 2>a Luna moth on my per simon in my backyard,
<v Speaker 2>that was why I got it. It is a weeping
<v Speaker 2>per semon, and you do need two per simons for
<v Speaker 2>fruit to form, so they generally have all of the
<v Speaker 2>reproductive parts that they need to form fruits. But like
<v Speaker 2>if I burn them, they need another companion to get
<v Speaker 2>that cross pollination going. So I've never seen fruit. I've
<v Speaker 2>actually never seen flowers even on mine. It's still relatively young.
<v Speaker 2>I'd say I've probably had it for seven or eight
<v Speaker 2>years now, but still a very interesting plant, not super
<v Speaker 2>deer resistant. When it was young, it was often browsed,
<v Speaker 2>but now that it's bigger, they really leave it alone.
<v Speaker 2>And I will say it has shown itself to be
<v Speaker 2>quite drought tolerant in my research. This is definitely one
<v Speaker 2>of those plants that if it gets great growing conditions,
<v Speaker 2>it's going to be much larger than if you give
<v Speaker 2>it slightly tortured growing conditions, which to me is a
<v Speaker 2>good thing. So my very sandy dry soil keeps it
<v Speaker 2>on the smaller side, which works out very well for
<v Speaker 2>having you know, your standard urban yard.
<v Speaker 1>So it's adapted well to the Michigan environment it has.
<v Speaker 2>And they also have a really cool bark. And I
<v Speaker 2>fell in love with the bark of persimon way back
<v Speaker 2>when I was in horticulture school. There was one on
<v Speaker 2>the campus at the New York Botanical Garden. And the
<v Speaker 2>bark of a mature persymmetry kind of fractures into these
<v Speaker 2>very unique square shapes. It's very very distinctive. It's not
<v Speaker 2>like anything else. It's sort of a little bit like
<v Speaker 2>a mature dogwood, a mature corners Florida or flowering dogwood tree,
<v Speaker 2>but much more pronounced. So lots of reasons to grow
<v Speaker 2>up for Simmon, and you know you'll have a again.
<v Speaker 2>It's all about creating your New Year's plant based New
<v Speaker 2>Year's traditions. So uh, speaking of New Year's and winter
<v Speaker 2>and embarking on the long cold nights ahead, Randy has
<v Speaker 2>a question for us that I thought would be absolutely
<v Speaker 2>perfect answer right now.
<v Speaker 1>Hello, Stacey and Rick, I live in Zone seven and
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to put milkweed for the monarch butterflies. Would
<v Speaker 1>you recommend starting with seeds? And when should I plant
<v Speaker 1>the seeds or should I use live plants?
<v Speaker 2>Right, So I wanted to answer Randy's question. Now you
<v Speaker 2>might think why are you talking about this spring is
<v Speaker 2>miles away? Because it is the perfect candidate. Milkweed is
<v Speaker 2>as well as a number of other native perennials for
<v Speaker 2>a seed sowing method called winter zone. And basically what
<v Speaker 2>you do in wintertone Like a lot of people, I
<v Speaker 2>feel like are pretty intimidated by sowing seed, and I
<v Speaker 2>get it, like, if you have a lot of space,
<v Speaker 2>it's easy to lose track of seed that you sow.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe you don't want to start seed indoors because you
<v Speaker 2>don't have the space. You don't want to deal with
<v Speaker 2>the mess. You know it can be tricky. Winter sown
<v Speaker 2>is the answer to all of those problems. So basically
<v Speaker 2>what you do in the winter sewing method is you
<v Speaker 2>take a bunch of milk jugs, so just your regular
<v Speaker 2>translucent milk jug, put some drainage in the bottom, put
<v Speaker 2>in moist potting mix or seed starting mix. Oh, I
<v Speaker 2>forgot to mention that you cut these in about half right, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>about halfway, So you're planting into the bottom and then
<v Speaker 2>the top is just going to serve as kind of
<v Speaker 2>a close or something to keep the humidity in and
<v Speaker 2>the pests out, you know, anyone who might want to
<v Speaker 2>eat your precious little seeds in there. And then you
<v Speaker 2>just put them on your porch, on your deck, on
<v Speaker 2>your patio and leave them and basically the weather does
<v Speaker 2>all of the work. They get enough sun to be
<v Speaker 2>able to germinate. Now as the season progresses, by the
<v Speaker 2>time March is rolling around, you will need to actually
<v Speaker 2>go out and check them and monitor them for anything
<v Speaker 2>that has actually germinated. But I think this is the
<v Speaker 2>ideal way to grow a number of native perennials. If
<v Speaker 2>you're trying to save money, if there's things that you
<v Speaker 2>can't find and you have to start them from seed,
<v Speaker 2>this is really one of the best ways. You also
<v Speaker 2>can just take a sharpie and label each of those
<v Speaker 2>milk jugs with what you've sown in it.
<v Speaker 1>And that's the point. You don't get confused, you don't
<v Speaker 1>lose the seeds. It's perfect for labeling. When you cut
<v Speaker 1>the top half, you're not cutting it completely.
<v Speaker 2>Off, right, you just put a hide.
<v Speaker 1>You're hinging it is what you're doing. Now, you're letting
<v Speaker 1>nature take its course. You know, a few weeks ago
<v Speaker 1>we did a show on Jack Frost and the whole
<v Speaker 1>concept of stratification. So you're just letting nature do.
<v Speaker 2>It's worked, and it's so easy. You can find tons
<v Speaker 2>of information about this online. Native perennials are not the
<v Speaker 2>only option. You can do cold climate vegetables like cabbage, kale,
<v Speaker 2>all of that kind of stuff. So go online. You
<v Speaker 2>can find lists of all the great stuff you can
<v Speaker 2>sew according to this method, and that I think is
<v Speaker 2>a great way to kind of tide you over I
<v Speaker 2>got spring fever. I would also mention, as I've mentioned
<v Speaker 2>on the show, whenever milkweed has come up, milkweed does
<v Speaker 2>not appreciate the nursery environment, not by a long shot.
<v Speaker 2>So it's fine to buy live plants, but just know
<v Speaker 2>that they're not going to be necessarily looking. It's not
<v Speaker 2>going to be a glamour moment in their life. They'll
<v Speaker 2>be fine once they're in the ground, but they don't
<v Speaker 2>love being in the nursery environment. So and it's easy
<v Speaker 2>to grow by seed. I've grown milkweed by seed accidentally
<v Speaker 2>and on purpose.
<v Speaker 1>And not to milk the concept, but a milk jug
<v Speaker 1>is affordable container.
<v Speaker 2>They go win win.
<v Speaker 1>Carol writes with a request, I'm looking for the simple,
<v Speaker 1>pedaled and soft yellow colored shrub rose I grew up
<v Speaker 1>with in the nineteen sixties on the farm in Drenthe, Michigan.
<v Speaker 1>Can you help me with this? I have been looking
<v Speaker 1>for it for numerous years. I even have an old
<v Speaker 1>photo of myself standing next to it. And boy do
<v Speaker 1>I remember that sixties and seventies, the old hybrid tees
<v Speaker 1>Flora bundas in the garden center, and of course the
<v Speaker 1>piece rose was very, very popular. The piece rose, I believe,
<v Speaker 1>was developed by a French breeder in the nineteen thirties,
<v Speaker 1>and then by nineteen forty five, at the end of
<v Speaker 1>World War Two here in the United States, becomes a
<v Speaker 1>very popular.
<v Speaker 2>Road takes Off, takes Off. I think it's one of
<v Speaker 2>the best selling roses of all time.
<v Speaker 1>I think so too the cultivar that Carol has, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>good question. I mean there was golden mustard, Beatrice, there
<v Speaker 1>was butterscotch gold rush. There were a number of different ones.
<v Speaker 2>Golden mustard is a great name for a rose. If
<v Speaker 2>I saw a rose named golden Mustard, I would be
<v Speaker 2>sorely tempted to buy it. I'm not going to lie.
<v Speaker 1>Upon And I wanted to suggest for Carol, there is
<v Speaker 1>a business in southern Oregon called the Rogue Valley Roses.
<v Speaker 1>It's run by a Rosarian who owns the business. But
<v Speaker 1>if you can put the decade in their website and
<v Speaker 1>then it will pop up roses that came from that decade.
<v Speaker 1>So I'd give sixty to sixty nine a tribe.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I would actually even go a little bit
<v Speaker 2>into the fifties too, because you know it may have
<v Speaker 2>come out in the fifties and only you have been
<v Speaker 2>around and become popular. So you know, give yourself that
<v Speaker 2>nice twenty or so year span of time, and even
<v Speaker 2>if you don't find the exact one, you still have something,
<v Speaker 2>you know, in the spirit of it. So that's cool.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't know that you could search by the decade.
<v Speaker 2>I hoped. You know how far back it goes.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure how far back it goes. I do
<v Speaker 1>know it goes back into the sixties and seventies because
<v Speaker 1>I've perused the site before, just.
<v Speaker 2>For that well trip down memor for all those old
<v Speaker 2>thorn scratches from unloading trucks.
<v Speaker 1>You got it. Let's slip another quick one in here,
<v Speaker 1>Darla wrote, because I'd like to hear what you have
<v Speaker 1>to say, Stacy. What is the best variety of boxwood
<v Speaker 1>to plant if you want to use it for decorations
<v Speaker 1>and wreaths. I mean, do you have a suggested boxwood?
<v Speaker 2>I do have a suggested boxwood, and I am going
<v Speaker 2>to suggest for you, Darla, either Sprinter or new Gen Freedom.
<v Speaker 2>And the reason that I'm suggesting these two is because
<v Speaker 2>they are some of the fastest growing boxwood. Now, they
<v Speaker 2>are fast growing for a boxwood. They're not you know,
<v Speaker 2>speed racers or anything like that. But because they are
<v Speaker 2>fast growing, that's not just a benefit for fast pill
<v Speaker 2>These fast growing box would strictly need pruning. If you
<v Speaker 2>don't prune them, they get floppy, they get leggy. So
<v Speaker 2>these are and it works for boxwood because most people
<v Speaker 2>intend to trim boxwood, you know, when they grow it.
<v Speaker 2>But these two varieties specifically need trimming. So when you
<v Speaker 2>are harvesting them, you know, for your various wreaths and
<v Speaker 2>other decorations, you're also doing the job of you know,
<v Speaker 2>trimming the plant. Now, I will say even the boxwoods
<v Speaker 2>can easily withstand some trimming, regular trimming. If you are
<v Speaker 2>cutting from them very heavily in a way that you're
<v Speaker 2>actually going to make garlands or wreaths or something like that,
<v Speaker 2>these are probably not also going to function as landscape plants.
<v Speaker 2>So you might want to have them, you know, almost
<v Speaker 2>treat them like a cut flower garden or something like that,
<v Speaker 2>where you can have them and you can cut from them.
<v Speaker 2>Perhaps you have three and you cut from one every
<v Speaker 2>third year. You can do it. Just don't expect them
<v Speaker 2>to kind of do double duty of being a decorative
<v Speaker 2>plant in the landscape as well as a decorative plant inside.
<v Speaker 2>We're going to take a little break. When we come back,
<v Speaker 2>we're finishing up our conversation on New Year's plants. To
<v Speaker 2>stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Garden Simplified Podcast,
<v Speaker 2>brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our
<v Speaker 2>award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested
<v Speaker 2>by experts with your success in mind. Learn more at
<v Speaker 2>Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show as we talk
<v Speaker 1>about New Year's botany and Stacy, we're going to put
<v Speaker 1>a rap on the holidays. How do you like my
<v Speaker 1>little Charlie Brown Christmas tree?
<v Speaker 2>I think it's lovely. I don't think it's Charlie Brownie.
<v Speaker 2>Like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree is sad with barely
<v Speaker 2>clinging to life. And this is robust and it's got
<v Speaker 2>all these cute little lights on it. I love it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's right. A Charlie Brown tree would just have
<v Speaker 1>one big ornament that's hanging from the tree.
<v Speaker 2>This is like appropriately scaled, That's what I would call
<v Speaker 2>this one.
<v Speaker 1>I love it. Well, we'll turn off the lights here
<v Speaker 1>after the show and move on to spring twenty twenty six.
<v Speaker 1>And looking forward to the shows initially of twenty twenty six, Stacy,
<v Speaker 1>as we explore the national Plants of the Year.
<v Speaker 2>Oh heck yeah, that's what we do every January. Of course,
<v Speaker 2>proove Winners has a number of perennials and annuals and
<v Speaker 2>houseplants and colladiums that all get selected to be Plants
<v Speaker 2>of the Year. And what that means for you as
<v Speaker 2>a home gardener is a supply is going to be
<v Speaker 2>really good in the marketplace. So it's always good to
<v Speaker 2>know you know what you're going to find out there
<v Speaker 2>abundantly and decide if that's something you're going to add
<v Speaker 2>to your garden. So we're going to cover those all
<v Speaker 2>the categories throughout January.
<v Speaker 1>Looking forward to those shows New Year's Botany. One of
<v Speaker 1>the plants we've got to mention here, Stacey, would be pomegranates.
<v Speaker 1>Pomegranates on the floor for New Years is a tradition
<v Speaker 1>in some cultures as I understand it, especially Greek and
<v Speaker 1>Turkish cultures. It symbolizes good luck, prosperity, and abundance for
<v Speaker 1>the coming year. Families smash a pomegranate at the front
<v Speaker 1>door at midnight, scattering at seeds and talk about seeds
<v Speaker 1>of pomegranate.
<v Speaker 2>Goodness, a lot of seeds in a.
<v Speaker 1>Lot of seeds, with more seeds meaning more fortune, representing
<v Speaker 1>wishes for health, wealth and happiness. So there you go.
<v Speaker 1>You can add that one to the list too. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>I'll fire up the lawnmower and smash some.
<v Speaker 2>Pomegran well, I would say, if you're going to be
<v Speaker 2>smashing pomegranates on your front steps, make sure they're not
<v Speaker 2>concrete or anything of a really nice material, because pomegranate
<v Speaker 2>juice stains like nobody's business.
<v Speaker 1>That's true. That's true. So New Year's, of course we
<v Speaker 1>make resolutions. Also, at least a lot of people make resolutions.
<v Speaker 1>I have a friend who has always told me, don't
<v Speaker 1>make resolutions on New Year's because they're forgotten. They feel
<v Speaker 1>the best time to do it is right after a
<v Speaker 1>busy time during the year, or on your birthday. To
<v Speaker 1>do that, update your resume, change the batteries and the
<v Speaker 1>smoke detector, the whole bit, right on your birthday.
<v Speaker 2>That could be any date, you know. I mean, even
<v Speaker 2>New Year's itself is fairly arbitrary.
<v Speaker 1>So now I want to share a New Year's gardening
<v Speaker 1>resolution that I have for the coming year, and I've
<v Speaker 1>already started on it. And it's something that you can
<v Speaker 1>do if you wanted to dealing with the weather in
<v Speaker 1>the winter off season, and that is in my garden.
<v Speaker 1>I'm focusing on paths this year. I realized last year
<v Speaker 1>that I get so excited about plants, and I put
<v Speaker 1>plants in the ground there growing like crazy. And we've
<v Speaker 1>talked about this stacy where in spring you plant them
<v Speaker 1>too close or too many, and then by July August
<v Speaker 1>they're crowding each other out and it's going nuts and
<v Speaker 1>you're thinking, boy, I should have been a little more reserved. Well,
<v Speaker 1>they encroach the pathways and you need that pathway for
<v Speaker 1>your wheelbarrow and all the other things that you're doing
<v Speaker 1>in the garden, ingress egress. So I'm widening pass improving paths,
<v Speaker 1>and have found that this is something I can do
<v Speaker 1>in the fall winter, even into early spring, when you
<v Speaker 1>can't necessarily be dealing with some plants typical of my nature, Stacy,
<v Speaker 1>I created a limb a rick. I've calculated, done the
<v Speaker 1>math while dreaming in my bubble bath. When using my wheelbarrow,
<v Speaker 1>they've become far too narrow. I need to widen my footpath.
<v Speaker 1>So this winter I'm masterminding paths that are wide and winding,
<v Speaker 1>functional and wide suited to my stride with vistas that
<v Speaker 1>are spell binding. So I have two garden resolutions for
<v Speaker 1>the coming year. One improved the paths through my garden
<v Speaker 1>and number two and I've started on this also, and
<v Speaker 1>that is establishing some good vines on the new pergola
<v Speaker 1>that I do.
<v Speaker 2>So who are the lucky vines?
<v Speaker 1>So the lucky vines one you inspired me to grow
<v Speaker 1>Kinsley's Ghosts.
<v Speaker 2>Excellent choice.
<v Speaker 1>I've got one of those. I have a honeysuckle and
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to of course add a hyacinth bean.
<v Speaker 2>Oh nice, So then they can change that every year,
<v Speaker 2>switch it up and love it.
<v Speaker 1>Do you have any New Year's garden resolutions in the
<v Speaker 1>coming year where you've decided this is the year?
<v Speaker 2>You know, I have a lot of loose ends to
<v Speaker 2>tie up. My my yard project is a multi year project,
<v Speaker 2>and you know a lot of things that uh, you
<v Speaker 2>know got started. Eventually it gets too warm to you know,
<v Speaker 2>go out or the garden center has a really too
<v Speaker 2>picked over selection to accomplish certain things that you want
<v Speaker 2>to do. So yes, I need to you know, get
<v Speaker 2>my wrap my head around my herb garden and how
<v Speaker 2>that's going to look. And we need to you know,
<v Speaker 2>resolve our dining patio. But both my husband and I
<v Speaker 2>are just too full of ideas and we can't settle
<v Speaker 2>come to an agreement. No, we can come to an agreement.
<v Speaker 2>It's just like, oh that's a good idea. Oh that's
<v Speaker 2>a good idea. Oh that's a many good ideas. So
<v Speaker 2>we're you know, so hopefully we will be able to
<v Speaker 2>resolve that and get that going because you know, it
<v Speaker 2>would be an important part of enjoying our yard. So
<v Speaker 2>I think those are two very manageable things. You know,
<v Speaker 2>I did a lot of work last year, so I'm
<v Speaker 2>really looking forward to seeing a lot of that stuff
<v Speaker 2>just grow and start to fill in and come into
<v Speaker 2>its own a little bit more. And I definitely resolve
<v Speaker 2>to plant more zinias.
<v Speaker 1>I would agree with you on that. I love.
<v Speaker 2>I know, I've completely fallen in love with them, between
<v Speaker 2>the birds and the butterflies and the hummingbirds and how
<v Speaker 2>much they love eating the seeds on all of the zinias.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, yeah, I'm just crazy about them. So I'm
<v Speaker 2>it's it's zinias from here on out for me.
<v Speaker 1>Perfect cut flower. Another New Year's botany plant would be
<v Speaker 1>black eyed peas.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yes, I always make black eyed peas on New
<v Speaker 2>Year's Day always every year. Yeah. Wow, Yeah, I make
<v Speaker 2>coppinge on every single year.
<v Speaker 1>That's fantastic. Yeah. Legend has it that if you want
<v Speaker 1>to bring good luck in the new year, you need
<v Speaker 1>to eat three hundred and sixty five black eyed peas
<v Speaker 1>on New Year's Day, one for every day of the year.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I have never counted it. Seems like quite a
<v Speaker 2>lot of black eyed peas. I'm not gonna lie that
<v Speaker 2>is a lot. I'm not sure I have ever come
<v Speaker 2>close to that, but yeah, you know, it's a Southern
<v Speaker 2>tradition to have black eyed peas with colored greens representing
<v Speaker 2>money in coins. And I happen to love both of
<v Speaker 2>those foods. So yeah, we make coppinge on every single
<v Speaker 2>New Year's for years now.
<v Speaker 1>That's fantastic. I love that. And yes, you're right, Southern tradition,
<v Speaker 1>So black eyed peas, collared greens, which is the color
<v Speaker 1>of money, right, and something gold. So like some corn bread.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so you can do some corn bread dumplings on
<v Speaker 2>there sometimes I do that someonmes. You make corn brea,
<v Speaker 2>all sorts of different things. You could also just use,
<v Speaker 2>you know, yellow peppers in your hopen John, I love it.
<v Speaker 1>I love it. Now, if you're moving some houseplants into
<v Speaker 1>that area where the Christmas decorations were, you might want
<v Speaker 1>to consider a peace lily or a spathophylum. It symbolizes harmony, purity,
<v Speaker 1>and hope with its white blooms. And then I love Kalathias,
<v Speaker 1>known as the new Beginning plant because it's leaves fold
<v Speaker 1>up at night. It's just like turning over a new leaf,
<v Speaker 1>similar to maranta plants or prayer plants, where the leaves
<v Speaker 1>fold up. And by the way, there's so many great
<v Speaker 1>varieties of Khalathia that you can put in your home.
<v Speaker 1>If the leaves are folding, it's perfectly natural. If the
<v Speaker 1>leaves are curling, it's not and you have a problem.
<v Speaker 1>So you may have a watering problem or an insect
<v Speaker 1>problem if that's occurring. How do you feel stacy about
<v Speaker 1>paper white narcissus.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, they're okay. If I got a gift of them,
<v Speaker 2>I would grow them. I would never seek them out
<v Speaker 2>or attempt to grow them. I am one of the
<v Speaker 2>people who can absolutely not stand the smell. I just
<v Speaker 2>I don't like the smell at all. But you know,
<v Speaker 2>it is nice. It's fun to watch them grow. They're fast,
<v Speaker 2>you know, compared to a lot of other things. And
<v Speaker 2>you know, I think for a lot of people who
<v Speaker 2>enjoy the you know, seeing things grow and having living
<v Speaker 2>things in their house, but they don't want the long
<v Speaker 2>term commitment. Paper whites are the thing for you because
<v Speaker 2>you can get those paper whites, you get them to bloom,
<v Speaker 2>and you can just throw them right out because they're
<v Speaker 2>not hardy. You can't put them in the ground, and
<v Speaker 2>typically after you force them inside in water or something
<v Speaker 2>like that, they don't replenish enough to be able to
<v Speaker 2>bloom for you in the future. So I think they
<v Speaker 2>have their place, it's just not really in my house.
<v Speaker 1>Well, and there's new cultivars now that are shorter and
<v Speaker 1>squattier than some of the older narcissus paper white white
<v Speaker 1>narcissists that would have a tendency to flop over. Or
<v Speaker 1>if you have guests over for New Year's Eve you're
<v Speaker 1>having a couple of adult beverages, just invite them to
<v Speaker 1>pour a little bit in the water in there that's
<v Speaker 1>the paper white dish, because it'll stunt their growth and
<v Speaker 1>at least they won't flop on it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, not a lot of vodka, but a little bit
<v Speaker 2>of clear alcohol in the water for your paper whites
<v Speaker 2>will apparently keep them upright.
<v Speaker 1>One for you, one for me, Happy New Year, Happy
<v Speaker 1>Thank you, Stacy, thank you Rick, thank you Adriana, and
<v Speaker 1>thanks to you. Thanks for your support all year long.
<v Speaker 1>Tell your friends and neighbors to join our little New
<v Speaker 1>Year's Eve party as we move into twenty twenty six,
<v Speaker 1>listening to us on the radio, looking for our podcast
<v Speaker 1>wherever you get your favorite podcasts, and of course on YouTube.
<v Speaker 1>Happy New Year everyone,