Advanced Annuals, Innovative Plants, Plant a Tree, Save a Bee! - Interviewing a Pollinator Expert

Hello, my friends, across the fruited and rooted plane. It's time for
the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella me, Rick weisst and our engineer and
producer Adrianna Robinson as we broadcast from Studio A Here at proven winners color Choice
Shrugs Today. Initially, Stacy we banter about annual plants. Annual plants,
those one season plants that well die when it gets cold later this year.
They'll germinate flower, some set seed, and then die all in one season.
But they're worth it. And in the flower business we always had a
saying annual plants don't come back, so you come back. I love it.
I love it, and they're worth it. Okay, flowering annuals are
worth it. You think about this. If you go to the movies,
Okay, twelve dollars for a ticket, let's say, eight bucks for popcorn,
six bucks for a soda, five bucks for a box of Skittles,
Nerds or Whoppers. That's thirty one dollars a person for two to three hours
worth of entertainment. You know, that's a great way to look at it.
I sneak chocolate into the theater by the way, I always have a
few twixts under my sleeves. I was going to say, Rick, you're
talent on yourself, because you're pretty recognizable and you know those movie theater managers
are going to see you coming. Fortunately it turned it into a pun.
Well, you know what I think that you know, it's Memorial Day weekend.
This is like the super Bowl of the gardening this season. And you
don't have to twist my arm into to the fact that annuals are absolutely worth
it, you know when you especially, I think if you live in a
cold climate, and I know we have a lot of listeners in warm climates,
but especially for those of us who have relatively short summers, we've got
to make hay will the sunshine, so to speak, and get that color.
We don't have the benefit of colorful flowers like Bouganvillia in the middle of
winter and things like that. So you know, this is our opportunity to
briefly pretend that we live in a warm climate and can have bright, colorful
flowers around it our time to shine. Annuals are great because they're easy to
grow, favorites for both new and experienced gardeners, and you can experiment You're
not making a lifetime commitment here, Okay, You're just having some fun with
annuals, and they're very entertaining. You can experiment with different plants, color
schemes, color, you know, something more risky than gray or beige.
I mean, if you're flipping houses, gray age is fine. But out
in the garden, let's have some fun with annuals. Yeah, it's very
low stakes. And you know, I always said, oh, my mom,
My mom always planted the same thing when I was growing up. She
always planted the same annuals. She planned red geraniums with a spike and white
a listen around it, and it was lovely. And I always said,
as I became a horticulturist, I'm never going to do the same thing.
But I have found myself often repeating my favorites because I love them so much
and I look forward to seeing them like a friend. Every season. I
look forward looking out my back door and seeing my vermilion or kufia in bloom
with a hummingbird swarming at it. And I do try to always try something
new every season, but I do have my standards. So that's vermilion arcoufia
for me. And if I can find it the rock and deep purple salvia
love that another one that's great for hummingbirds. And of course basil, but
Basil's an annual but also kind of an arbsome. We're talking flowering annuals today
though, Now that's fantastic. I remember those geranium days too, when I
was a youngster working in the garden center. As we approached this weekend,
everybody called it decoration day. They did not necessarily Memorial Day. Yeah,
and there's a whole story behind that, but I won't go down that road.
Although you know, years ago I was trained by this wonderful lady,
hard working lady. Her name was Doris, and she served in the Navy
waves nineteen forty three to nineteen forty six. Anyhow, working out there in
the greenhouse and garden center with me, she was my mentor, trained me
in flowering and nules. And those were the days of the big daddy petunias
and the boil boy marigolds and the spikes and the geraniums. But she'd be
out there in the hot weather wearing high heels and a dress, and she
was boy. She led the charge. There was no scuttle butt, There
no mutiny. She ran the show and it was great and you could always
hear her coming that click click click of her heels. And at the start
of the day she'd type up a worklist, and at the end of the
day she'd type up a synopsis or a worklist. Those lists on a typewriter,
tap tap tap looked like a cross between a Western Union telegram and a
ransom note. But I don't know why that popped into my head. Well,
I think it's safe to say that Doris would not be a fan,
perhaps of today's exuberant mixed containers without a lot of organization in them, where
everything's kind of overflowing and competing for space. Which I love that look,
but it is a far cry from the way people used to plant. Well,
and of course things have changed so much since then. And you know,
petunias are a great example. She would have me deadheading those petunias which
were setting seed, that slimy, sweet smell of the smell. You know
what, life is way way too short for petunias. You have to deadhead.
I agree, And so in the mid nineteen nineties, the wave petunias
come along, but they get overgrown and they're grown from seeds, so then
we now have the Supertunias Vista Supertunias. The roots system plays well with other
plants. They bloom continually because they're sterile. I love the Supertunia series of
petunias. You know, I think that it's not an exaggeration to say that
the Supertunia series, and particularly Supertunias to Bubblegum, has completely changed the way
people think about petunias, because they did think about it. Just like you
said, they smell terrible, they're slimy, they're getting white fly, they
need deadheading, they get scraggily. But the Supertunia series, it really is
not an exaggeration to say that it is a truly innovative plant breeding invention that
completely changes the way we think about it. And anyone who grows them or
has grown them can agree that it's You really have to grow them to see
how floriferous they are, and they don't set seed, so you don't have
to deadhead them, and they just keep flowering. And if you like that
pink, you are in business. Bubblegum Supertunias love them, So, you
know, I look back through the years and I think about flowering annuals I
could talk for hours. I mean, you think about impatience Walleriana and everybody
planted them and they're colorful, and then two and twelve comes along and we
have impatient downy mildew that spreads like wildfire. Changes the market. Now today,
of course we've got Rockapulco, we have Beacon, we have of course
the sun patients. The market continues to change and stacy. We keep seeing
great new varieties. You know, the impatients are another great example. And
you know, back in the day, New Guinea impatients were a thing and
that completely changed the way people think about impatience as well. Now, I
remember one year when I when I was growing up, and my mom would
plant a row of impatience in front of the privet hedge in front of our
little ranch house there in Lavonia, Michigan. And one year she picked these
impatients that set seed. Now you know the impatient seed heads, right,
yeah, Oh my gosh. Yeah, they have this this little funny shaped
seed head that you can pop open when it's ripe. And every morning that
summer, my brother and I would run out front to pop whichever had matured
overnight. And you don't find those very often, which is a good thing
from a gardener perspective, because that means they're putting their energy into flowering instead
of setting those fun seeds. But I always like to find those around in
planters and do a little bit of impatience popping. It is fun. They
have this impatient nature they pop. And by the way, going back to
Doris, you know, at the time she was my mentor, she was
in her mid sixties, oh wow, and I was just a youngster,
and she would call the impatients busy lizzies. That's a very old fashioning,
but it's a fun one, busy lizzies now. Earlier of course, Stacy,
you mentioned the salvia's like blue suede shoes, rock and fucia playing the
blues. I agree. Drawing hummingbirds, you know, annuals are great because
they give you a splash of quick color and talk about plants that help you
draw butterflies, bees and hummingbirds to your garden. That's one of the reasons
that I invest so much time and money into them, because it really is
you know, most of my garden also is a little bit further out in
my yard, and of course I walk out there all the time and see
what's going on. But where we actually spend time, on our patios and
porch, that's where I put the annuals, so they're really right there around
me. It's a great way to be kind of up close and personal with
the plants. Well, and that's my point. You know, the annuals
are going to give you four or five, six, seven months of entertainment
as opposed to that movie ticket. And I'm not picking on the movies.
I like the movies, but flowering annuals and working in your yard is rated
G for gardening, and it's a NonStop adventure. Is NonStop adventure I think
about. You know, I love Verbina, meteor shower Verbina, the sun,
credible yellow sunflowers, the color Blaze, Collius. We could go on
and on, and I want to remind folks if you go to our website,
Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com, Stacy has her top ten list of favorite
annuals there and so do I. So you can take a look at it
and boy do some experimenting. You know, we talked about the impatients.
There's so many great shade choices too, like the Heart to Heart colladiums,
that's an other favorite. So again, talk for hours about this. We
could, and I wish we could, but we got other topics to cover.
We have other topics. As a matter of fact, Plants on trial.
I'm looking forward to Stacy selection today. And stick around too because later
on in the show we're going to talk to a pollination expert. We'll talk
bees and attracting pollinators to your yard. That's all coming up here on the
Gardening Simplified Show. The Gardening Simplified Podcast is brought to you by proven Winners
Color Choice Shrubs with over three hundred flowering shrubs and evergreens, all trialed and
tested for your success. There's one for every taste in every space. See
them all at Proven Winners color Choice dot Com. Gratings. Gorgeous gardening friends,
and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. You know it's the time
of the show where we put a plant on trial and tell you all about
one of the proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. But before we dive in,
I do just want to speak directly to anybody who is out shopping for annuals
this fine weekend, big annual garden center weekend, and that is to just
fun with it. You know, I grew up, my mom would get
so stressed out and I don't know what this is and should I try this?
And I would just encourage people to approach that process much like shopping for
clothes or shopping for something in your home. Look at colors that you like.
Don't be afraid to try something new. What's the worst that's going to
happen? And with annuals, if you decide that you tried something and you
don't like the way it looks with something else, you can almost always move
it. Exactly. I can't agree more Stacy. Like I said, for
either new or experienced gardeners, it's a great time to experiment, right,
So I have fun with it, and that's what I'm going to be doing
this weekend myself, so see you there. Anyway, when I was thinking
about what plants to put on trial today, I was thinking about everything that
you were saying about supertunias being really innovative. You know, new plants that
have really changed the way that people think about petunias. They're no longer this
fussy little thing that you know, only flowers for a little while and needs
a lot of maintenance. They're really this robot flower machine. And so I
wanted to talk about a shrub that has a similar innovative quality to it,
and that is Steady Eddie Viburnum. Steady Eddy you did, Yeah, my
neighbors named Eddy. But anyway, it's a beautiful plant. So Steady Eddy
is a double file viburnum and double file. If you're hearing this word,
you're probably like, what in the world does that even mean? Well,
it's kind of like a single file line, but double So what double file
by Vernum's got their name because the flower clusters come off the main branch in
a line on either side, So you have a flower cluster coming off of
each side of the branch, but then each of those forms a single file
lines. You have a double file line and it's very, very distinctive.
It's unmistakable when you see these in bloom. They have such a strong geometric
quality. And that's where that funny word double file comes, like a horizontal
tiered type of effect that you see with the flowering. It's gorgeous. Yeah,
it's it's absolutely eye catching and people love them. And Steady Eddie what
makes it so innovative? It is a double file of Yburnum or right burnham
placatum tomintosum, if we're being exact about it. But it is a reblooming
double file viburnum, and I would actually go so far as to say it's
nearly continuous blooming. This is one of the most powerfully reblooming shrubs that is
in our line. I have to tell you, I have been. It's
knocked my socks off. It's impressed me so much. So it blooms in
late spring, as most other double file viburnums do, and here in Michigan
they're blooming now and looking absolutely fabulous. So it blooms now along with the
other ones, and then it takes just a brief little break after that first
round of flowers fades, and it keeps going, and I mean it will
go all the way through summer. I have seen this thing in the middle
of July where you could have sworn, if you didn't see the plants around
it flowering, that you'd be back in May. What a bonus, Because
I grow viburnums more so for the fall color than I do the blooms.
But the blooms, of course are spectacular, and to have it bloom that
long. What a bonus in the landscape it is. And you know people
love flowers, right, We know shrubs are useful, garden plants were useful
in the landscape. However, you need to plant them and make it work
for you. But everyone ultimately is after the flowers. So a viburnum that's
going to give you more flowers, and especially when they are so beautiful and
so showy, steady eddy viburnum is a great choice. Now I'm sure you've
encountered this at the garden center. A lot of people mistake Viburnum placatum tontosum
for hydrangeas, yes, and they say I want one of those spring flowering
hydranges, And they can't be blamed. They do very much superficially resemble hydranges.
The flowers can be lace cap or mophead as hydrange of flowers can,
and particularly the mophead ones, they do look a lot like hydrange of flowers,
but they actually are not remote related botanically, just superficially they have that
resemblance, and so steady Eddie is one of those lace cap types, so
you're getting that more open flower, which is to some people's eye not as
showy as the mophead type, but has the benefit of attracting pollinators because a
lace cap flower has its fertile flowers, the ones that have all of the
pollen and nectar and everything in it to attract pollinators. Those are more exposed.
They're not obscured by the larger, showy or sterile florets, and so
it's much more attractive to pollinators. So if that's important to you, not
only does Steady Eddie do that as a lace cap viburnum, it does it
over a longer period because it's blooming clear through summer. I agree. It's
like a landing pad permission to buzz the tower. You know. That's why
pollinators love them. It's fabulous. And another great thing about Steady Eddie is
it's not as large as you're conventional Viburnum placatum tomatosum, which if you are
seeing those around in your neighborhood or as you're driving around, you're like,
WHOA, that's a that's a big fella. They can be you know,
eight eight to ten feet or larger, certainly if you find a very mature
one, whereas Steady Eddie's going to top out around four to five feet tall
and wide, so it's much more usable in a typical residential landscape. It's
much more in scale with the average home. I love the name of the
plant, Steady Eddie. Well, it's called steady Eddie because it just is
so steadily blooming. Yeah. If I could have a Cliff Claven moment here.
Remember Cliff Claven from Cheers, I do, Yeah, always thinking about
history and these odd facts in his head. When I hear Steady Eddie,
I think of Eddie Murray. It was a first baseman for the Baltimore Orioles.
Now. I loved baseball as a kid. I would listen to a
little transistor radio with an earpiece. Ernie Harwell and Cal Ripken Jr. Was
the shortstop. He was the iron Man. He played more consecutive games than
the iconic Lou Garrig. But Eddie Murray was this guy that was always there,
always dependable, year after year after year, always would get the big
hit. Steady Eddie. Oh is that the same name? Eddie Murray?
Oh? Gotta love it. Yeah, Eddie Murray, which is which is
pretty cool. You know. I liked baseball as a kid. I love
statistics, and I love the history of the game, and I'll leave you
with this. Baseball is the only sport or game where the defense has possession
of the ball. That's why I like it. Think about all other sports
the offense has possession of the ball. All right, this is a gardening
show, not a sporting show. Stacy continue. But you know, gardening
and baseball do go together very well because who doesn't like to work in the
yard and have the ball game on and the smell of the cut grass.
That's like the perfect summer days Americana Americana. Well, speaking of people,
let's talk about where Steady Eddie came from, and that is they won and
only doctor Tom Rainey from North Carolina State University. And you know, an
innovative plant can only come from an innovative breeder, and that is absolutely doctor
Rainey too a te He has developed some of our most innovative flowering shrubs from
Invincible Spirit and the other pink Annabelle type hydrangeas that we have in the Invincible
series. Here at proven winners color choice shrubs, double take thornless double flowered
quints. Oh I love the perfectimundo reblooming azaleas which are not hardy for us
here in Michigan, but are definitely making huge inroads in warmer climates. And
that's just a few of the plants his crew. He and his crew at
the Mountain Horticultural Crops and Research Station in around Ashville, North Carolina, really
just put their heads together to create some of the most spectacular plants that really
solve problems. So similar to what happened with the supertunias, Tom and his
crew Doctor Rainey are really devoting their efforts in their knowledge to plants that do
more for people because they know that that's what people want. And even if
you are really experienced gardener and you say I don't need a reblooming, vibrant
burnum that blooms once, is just perfectly swell for me. I mean,
are you really going to turn down the extra flowers? Of course not.
We're all here for the flowers. So a big accomplishment from them, and
we're really really excited about this plant. It's available on the market now and
if you want to grow it. Like most viburnums, it's pretty versatile and
pretty easy to grow. Viburnums are well known for being very shade tolerant and
steady Eddie, I would say, can easily take part sun or part shade,
so those are interchangeable terms. Any So, that's about four to six
hours of bright sun every day. Any less than that and you're going to
start seeing fewer blooms. It will the plant will live and it will grow,
but you're not going to see as many flowers. You're not going to
see that coverage. So try to give it at least a good four hours
of bright sun every day. Viburnums are generally known to be pretty drought tolerant.
Once they're established, they definitely need some help getting there. But once
you know, after they've been in the ground for two or three years and
have a good root system developed, they don't necessarily need a whole lot of
extra care. A good two to three inch layer of mulch well should easily
provide for all of their water needs. And of course, steady Eddie does
not need to be deadheaded or trimmed or anything like that to keep that flower
show coming. So this is just one of those I hesitate to use this
phrase. When we use it anyway, set it and forget it type of
plants. Now, when it comes to deer, I do want to mention.
Viburnums are known to be deer resistant, and what's one of the things
that really attracts people to them. Now, I did put Steady Eddie in
my yard which is teeming with deer, not at anyone given moment, but
they visit frequently and unfortunately they ate the flowers, so they didn't really damage
the plant much. The plant they left alone, which doesn't surprise me because
Stacy at the outset, you said Placatum tomintosum tomintosum being soft, hairy foliage.
Placatum is what textured rib kind of full, and they do have very
heavily ribbed foliage. That's so it's good to know that, you know,
And that's one of those tricky things about deer resistance is they don't damage the
plant, but they do damage the flowers, So be aware of that.
If you love this plant, which I absolutely do, you could certainly spray
it if you wanted to grow it, or just protect it have it inside
offense. But that's sort of the last bit I have to share right now
on Steady Eddie Viburnum, but you can get lots more on as well as
the beautiful photos of Steady Eddie Viburnum at our website Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com.
We're going to take a little bit of a break, but when we
come back, we'll be answering your gardening questions. Thanks for listening to the
Gardening Simplified Podcast sponsored by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Learn more about our
trial tested and proven flowering shrubs and evergreens, and find a local retailer at
Proven Winners color Choice dot com Creatings Gardening Friends, and welcome back to the
Gardening Simplified Show. While we were taking a little bit different break, Adriana
and Rick and I were talking about Steady Eddie Viburnham. And Adriana, who
if you didn't know, is also our videographer and photographer for Proven Winner's Color
Choice Shrubs, said that it's one of the plants that she can't stop taking
pictures of because every time she walks by it, whether it's in the greenhouse
or somewhere in our trial gardens, it just always looks so good that her
camera loves it and we all love it. So if that's the kind of
plant you're looking for, Steady Eddie Viburnham, look for it at your local
garden center. The plants a show off and knows a great photographer when it
walks. I guess you could say it works both ways like that. So
this is the part of the show where we answer your gardening questions. We
are in the full swing of gardening season. So Rick, what do we
got in the mailbag today? Well, Diane writes to us, planted two
double play Doozy spy rheas. I love those. They're so beautiful and full
sun with amended soil and mulched. Well, they were planted a week ago.
Today they look wilt temperatures eighty two degrees. I'm in Zone seven B.
Will they adapt to full sun? And if so, is there anything
I can do to help get them established? Or do I move them now
to an afternoon shade location. They were in full bloom one plant, So
thank you so much for your question, Diane. Double Playdoozy is also an
extremely innovative flowering shrub that also comes from doctor Rainey in North Carolina State,
and it is you could almost think of it like the spirea version of Steady
Eddie, and that it also blooms pretty much continuously, so a really great
plant. Again, if you just want a lot of flowers. So Diane's
question, I think is an interesting one. And you know, I have
talked to gardeners over the years, answered tons and tons of questions, and
when they've sent me pictures and said, oh, it's wilting, does it
need more water? Is it getting too much sun? I always have to
ask how much are you watering it? Because one of the really tricky things
about a situation like this is that a lot of plants will wilt if they
are overwatered or underwatered, and it really takes kind of a finely trained eye
to see the difference. And I can discern that from a photo now typically,
but you know, to someone who is not used to seeing plants all
the time and thinking about plants all the time, it could be very,
very difficult to tell the difference between wilting from overwatering and wilting from underwatering.
So, Diane, before you dig anything up or do anything like that,
I would encourage you to get out there and see what's actually going on in
the soil. Now. Only the trick about answering these kinds of questions is
only the person asking it really knows how much water it's getting. I mean,
I don't know how much water it's getting. Even if it's rained,
which we haven't had much rain here in Michigan, you still don't know if
it's actually reaching the plant and saturating the soil in the route ball. So
you really are the one to know, if you have a sprinkler system,
if it's hitting it sufficiently, if you've been watering by hand, how much
water it's getting. And if you aren't sure, then all you have to
do is you take your finger, take a trowel, and just dig around
a little bit just outside where the root ball is, and that will give
you a pretty quick idea of how moist the soil is. Well, and
Diane mentioned amended soil, and I'd like to mention again that when you dig
the hole, don't throw amended soil in a hole and then put the plant
in. Rather mix it fifty fifty with the existing parent soil. That's going
to help with the watering too, and sensing how much water the plant needs.
Plants do experience transplant shock, and often they'll show that via leaf scorch,
especially if the weather is well. She's saying eighty eighty two degrees there
are good water soluble starter fertilizers. Also because Stacy, I guess the whole
key here is giving this plant a little time to establish roots in the soil
right and really investigating what's going on. If you did amend and it wasn't
thoroughly mixed, that can hold a lot more moisture around the root bowl,
as we've talked about before. So Diane, the answer to your question is
that you're going to need to go out there first of all and explore deep
down, not deep down in the soil, but a few inches into the
soil, see how moist it is, see if it's dry. And I
think that that will help to answer your question. I don't think that in
USCA Zone seven that you should have to move, double play douzy at all.
I think it should do just fine in full sun, particularly if it's
mulched. So I would say, look at what is happening with the water.
And this is for Diane and anyone else. If your plant is wilting,
don't just automatically assume it needs more water. There could be other things
at play, So make sure you dig around in the soil before you act.
And I've done this before Diane, and that, as you mentioned,
it was planted one week ago. When we have problems with a plant,
I've gotten to the point where I have dug it up, Yeah, and
taken a look so that I'm sure of what's going on down there, and
then replanted it. If it's only been planted a week ago. Yeah,
that's not a bad idea at all. We got a note from Kenny wondering
we purchased a load of top soil to fill new raised garden beds around our
home. The soil was full of tiny bulbs that produced flat, variegated foliage,
not wild onions. While I'm trying to remove the bulbs by digging them
out, I know I'm not getting them getting them all. Will I keep
the soil too moist for my panicle hydranges if I put cardboard under the mulch
to hopefully suppress the weeds. The soil type is silt and we're talking about
zone seven, Tennessee. And the plant that she planted is a little lime
punch panical hydrangea. And I think I've said it on the show before that
panical hydrangeas are definitely one of those plants that can be very sensitive to too
much moisture in the soil, in particularly conditions where there's too much moisture in
the soil because of landscape fabric or thick, thick layers of mulch keeping that
in. So I would say tentatively yes, but you're going to want to
make sure that this cardboard is kept well away from your panical hydrangea. Sure,
you know, I would say a good two feet around that panical hydrangea.
And the other thing you know to know here is that the cardboard will
decompose. And you're in You're in Tennessee, USCS and seven, so a
pretty humid climate, pretty warm climate. I'm going to go out on a
limb and say that I don't think that cardboard is going to last long enough
in the Tennessee climate to actually do any weed suppression. What do you think?
Yeah, probably not, because we're talking about bulbous weeds. Now it
was mentioned here not wild onions, but maybe it's muscary, grape, hyacinths
or crocus or stripe squill, whatever it may be. And with something like
that, if you do get to the point some point where you decide to
use an herbicide to knock them back rough them up a little bit before you
spray the herbicide. It will make it more effective for a bulbous type weed,
which can be difficult to a radicate. They can be and my first
thought when I hear a bulbous weed, my first thought is Ornithogolum also known
as stars. Yeah. Yeah, I got a couple of those in my
yard that I've got to dig up this week before they do become even more
of a pest. And I could easily see that being the issue here,
And it is going to take some time, and it's going to be difficult,
but I think you can go through the work of putting the cardboard down
leave the clearance for the hydranges, but you might just want to consider putting
that effort into a different method, since I really don't think in a warm,
humid climate the cardboard will last long enough to do the job. Thanks
for your question, Let's get to this, Jim writes to us, we
have five beautiful, incredible hydranges exhibiting the same problem of pairs of leaves rolled
into pillows and fused together. Their organic gardeners want to support wildlife, so
I want to avoid killing the caterpillars, but they want to protect the plants
and sure the blooms. What do they do here? And this is a
great question because this is something we do see. Yeah, we do see
it. I think that it has been increasing for a lot of people.
And the short answer here is that what you're seeing there, Jim, is
the hydrangea leaf tire. And I'm always glad when I can talk about this
problem rather than write about it, because if you write it, it's hydrangea
leaf tier, like a tier of a cake or something like that tier,
and then people are always like a hydrange a leaf tier, what in the
world do you mean? But it's leaf tire because as Jim could unfortunately tell
you, what this little caterpillar does is it makes a cozy little home for
itself, or a pillow in his words, by taking the silk that it
would use to like spin a cocoon or something like that, and tying literally
tying the uppermost pair of leaves specifically on Hydrangea arborescence, so smooth hydrangeas or
annabel type hydrangeas. And that's not surprising why because that is actually a native
species for us. Hydrangea arborescence grows abundantly throughout the Southeast. In fact,
last year I was on a vacation to the southeast, and so one in
growing wild in a Wafflehouse parking lot, just to show you how ubiquitous,
how ubiquitous the plant is. So when we have a plant like that that's
native, it's not surprising that there are these native pests. So they're pretty
easy to manage without spraying. I would honestly just spend you know, fifteen
minutes busting those things open. If you want, you can squish them with
your hand if you If not, all you have to do is open them
up, and the birds will be only too glad to swoop in and pick
out those little caterpillars. I agree with you because it's unsightly, but it
isn't necessarily going to kill the plants. We just want these caterpillars to retire,
that's right, Yeah, And you do want to do that sooner than
later, because this first generation here, it's not really typically going to cause
a lot of harm to the flowers because the flower buds are still quite tiny
for those of us in cold climates. But as the season progresses, if
those caterpillars are allowed to get larger and the bud is getting larger, then
they might start to damage the flower bud. Right now, they're just eating
the little leaf tissue in there, so bust them open. If you want
to crush the caterpillars with your fingers, you can, but like I said,
otherwise, the birds will probably be able to take care of it for
you if you do them the courtesy of opening up those tied up leaves.
So if you have a gardening question for us, we would be delighted to
help you. All you have to do is email us at help HLP at
Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com, or visit Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com. We've
got to take a break, but when we come back, we've got a
guest and it's going to be all about pollinators, So please stay tuned at
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Color Choice dot com. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time
for branching news, not breaking news. And today's branching news, we want
to talk about pollinators. Earlier we were talking about annuals, bright colorful annuals
and drawing pollinators and bees to your yard, and I thought, what better
person to talk to than my friend Honey Tree Arborist Services Mike Connor. He's
a lifetime bee keeper. Be enthusiast. When I say lifetime, Mike,
can I share that's like fifty plus years? Is that correct? I've had
bees for fifty plus years. Yeah, you can do the masrik while we're
kind of in the same group, Mike Connor. Mike, thanks so much
for joining us here on the Gardening Simplified Show. And I knew immediately that
I needed to interview you on the show because, just like Stacy, you
are a huge fan of seven Sons Temple of Bloom hepticodium I am. I'm
so glad that Stacey. I'm glad to hear that you're a fan too.
All Right, we have a good taste. It's a great tree, and
I wish that there were more of them out there. You've got to do
your job promoting these, you know, I try to Yeah, now it's
you know, it's true. And of course it suffers from something that a
lot of really fantastic landscape plants have, which is it blooms late in the
season. So of course, right now it's May, everybody's at the garden
center, and then you know, unfortunately, traffic kind of drops off and
people don't realize that they're walking by a plant that's going to give them so
much later in the season, not just aesthetically, but you know, as
you of course know for the bees and pollinators as well. You know,
let's talk about that for just a moment, because we have so many things
bloom right now. Just dozens and dozens of plants and flowers and trees are
in bloom right now, and then when it comes to the middle of the
summer, there's not much in terms of trees, there's not much in terms
of spectacular except maybe rows of Sharon. And in September, Temple of Bloom,
the hepticodium seven suns comes into full bloom, and it is absolutely a
pollinator magnet. And I was telling Rick earlier that we stopped at a resort
community on Lake Michigan last year, and it was September and there was a
seven suns someone had planted and there were literally thousands of pollinators on that single
tree, including hundreds of monarch butterfly. And that's a good selling point because
monarchs have to feed as they traveled down from up north all the way to
Mexico, and what do we have for them to feed. Well, they
can feed on golden rods, they can feed on whatever elsea's in bloom at
the time, but the skepticodium just seems to draw them by the hundreds.
And I think we could promote those just as as a as a monarch friendly
plant in the fall. Yeah, I'm marking that down. And another great
thing about it is because it is a tree. It's not a super tall
tree, but that's a great thing for people who are afraid of bees,
you know, who know that they're beneficial, but have still have that lingering
fear that some of us develop in childhood. Not me, not Rick,
not Adriana, but some people. And so they're they're way up there,
so you're you're giving them all that benefit, but they're not, you know,
right down there at eye level where they're scaring your kids and scaring your
pets. Stacy, you make such a great point. And since I've known
Mike, Mike is a guy who's mantra is save a bee, plant a
tree. And if you think about it with trees, this is something Mike
taught me. Whatever time of the year it is, we talked about temple
of bloom, but if you talk about alder or red maple early in the
year, we get a chance to go vertical. Just like Maverick in Top
Gun. You know, let's go vertical, let's go ballistic. And Mike,
whether it's the red maples or let's say Linden trees as an example,
you're a guy who really promotes this what Stacy mentioned, because it's an opportunity
to be very efficient with space and provide for our pollinators. And that's very
very important. You know, when you look at a meadow that people will
plant for pollinators or a pollinator garden, it may take up several hundred square
feet for a pollinator garden, and if you were to count the blossoms in
that pollinator garden, I think you'd be surprised when you compare that to a
tree. That a tree with a footprint of a foot foot and a half
can have a larger number of blossoms than a field of pollinator plants. And
they're all out at once. They're producing nectar and pollen all at once,
which is what bees need to gather a crop. And Stacy, I don't
know if you know this that it takes two million flower visits for bees to
make one pound of honey. Wow. Just don't get two million flowers in
a small space or on a catman, or on a small landscape plant.
But you can get two million flowers on a couple of trees that are in
your backyard, and that's really significant. Well, you know the thing about
lindens, and Linden's are one of my hands down favorite trees, and even
though they're spectacular in flower, a lot of people don't really realize that they're
even blooming. They might smell the fragrance in the air, but they don't
look at a linden and go, oh wow, that's in flower that's really
supporting bees. They'll look at a meadow and go oh yeah, great for
the bees. And I think that's what you're saying is such a good thing
for people to learn and internalize, and that is that planting trees and supporting
tree health is such a crucial part of saving not just honey bees but all
pollinators. Absolutely, And you know the linden tree, we don't necessarily see
those flowers unless oh, like it's a little ly flended, and there may
be millions and millions of flowers and the overwhelmed the leaves. But the flowers
on a lot of trees come out after the leaves do. The exception would
be red maples and pussy willows and the early spring flowers. But when the
leaves come out, then we don't notice those flowers. We can smell them,
but we may not necessarily see them. But those trees have thousands,
hundreds of thousands of blossoms on them, and the bees are actively working them.
You don't even know it. Those bees are up high. The bees
are doing their things, the pollinating that the flowers and gathering nectar. Mike
remind me, And don't want to put you on the spot here, but
I'm sure you know about this. Wasn't it linden trees that were inappropriately parade
somewhere in the Northwest that caused this whole movement as far as save the bees
is concerned. There was an incident a number of years ago, correct,
there was a landscaper inadvertently sprayed I believe they were little leaf Lindians for Japanese
beetles and used a mediculprid product if I recall correctly, and that's just absolutely
toxic to the bees and not only affected the bees, but it affected the
bumble bees and the bumble bees the native bees are working these these trees too,
and I think that's where the outcry came from. There was some fault
pressed on that. Some people came out and said, well, linden pollen
is toxic to bees and that's what killed them. No, it was the
spray that killed them. If the linden pollen and nectar was toxic to the
bees, then there wouldn't be much point in the bees going to them and
pollinating them. Sure, and I know there are some exceptions, but some.
Yeah, that was a horrible incident, and I think it raised people's
awareness, you know, the chemical being improperly applied. Had they waited until
the flowers were gone, then there would not have been any bees in the
tree and they could have had gipsy mot I'm sorry, they could have had
um well. I was a pest again Rick Japanese beetles control. And if
they would have done it after the bloom, then there would not have been
that that horrible die off. Yeah, you bet. Now, on a
happier note, there are things that our viewers and listeners can do to attract
pollinators to their yard. I was looking at a list that you had created,
Mike, and we mentioned earlier Stacy's favorite temple of bloom, and I
noticed one of Adriana's favorites, Miss Molly bud Leah is a plant that you
liked. I do. I really really like that. And this is not
a plug for proven winners, but I'll tell you they've really got some good
stuff out there for pollinators. You know. The Miss Molly butterfly bush is
great. Sugar shack button bush is another one that's great, an incredibly incredibly
important plan as a carry aptress to beyond midnight cultivar that just draws bees by
the thousands. And that's another fall bloomer bees and butterflies and bumblebees, native
bees. Not all of these things are just all about honeybees. A lot
of these things are about our native bees and our butterflies, and we have
to take a broad approach on bees and say, you know, we're going
to plant something for all the pollinators, and hey, you know what if
the beekeeper gets a honeycraft off, the tests better yet, Yeah, I
agree completely. You know, it's sometimes I feel a little bit personally indignant
that the honeybees do get all the attention because it's like people only care because
it's affecting their personal food source and not really understanding how, you know,
the whole ecology that our native bees play in our role really supports our entire
food system and basically our entire ecosystem. Yeah, generally, if we say
that a plant is good for our honeybee, it's almost always good for the
native bees. Now, it's not always a reverse of that. You know,
black cherry is not necessarily good for our honeybees because they're not that attracted
to it. But black cherry is very attractive to our native bees, and
so we can plant that and enjoy the beauty of the flower. So so
many plants, so many trees, shrubs that we can enjoy and plant for
pollinators. Mike Stacey and I often talk about this, but avoiding a monoculture.
There are so many opportunities, great opportunities, and we're looking for those
blooming opportunities all season long. And we can do that with the variety that's
available today. We sure ten And that's a very important point. I think
municipalities are finally cut on that. If you plan a whole street scape to
elm, you're going to pay for it. And then to replace those elm
with ash, well, that was a probably not a smart thing to do.
And then after the ashtyke they put in Cleveland select pairs, Yeah,
exactly, and it's like, okay, we have to learn that monoculture is
not necessarily good. It may it may look good, but if we need
diversity for our wildlife, for our bees, and be able to provide something
for you know, for all the pollinators, and in succession, you know,
red maples in the spring, followed by pussy willows, followed by the
sumats, followed by the you know, the the crab apples. All of
these things come in succession, and then all of these things offer a continuous
supply of nectar and pollen for our pollinators. And that's really Fortunes couldn't have
said it better myself. Mike Connor. His name is Mike Connor, Honeytree
Arborist Services, a lifelong beekeeper, be enthusiast. Mike, you always inspire
me when we chat, and we want to thank you for joining us today
on the Gardening Simplified Joe. It's been my pleasure. I really appreciate your
interest in pollin leaders. Thank you very much. Thanks Mike. I told
you he means business. He sure does. He does. Thanks so much,
Mike. Wow, that was great. I am so inspired and so
glad it's the weekend so I can get out there and do some planting myself.
Me too, can't wait, can't wait to plan, and we wish
you all happy planting. Thanks to Rick, thanks to Adriana, and thanks
to Mike for joining us. Have a wonderful week and week ahead.