You've Got a Friend in Me | Companion Plants

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