Can't-Miss Plants at the Garden Center this Year

Hello, my friends. Coming to you from Studio A at proven Winners Color
Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella Me,
Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. All right, let's imagine
together for a moment. Let's imagine that last Christmas, you got a five
hundred dollars gift card to a favorite garden center or greenhouse. You don't want
to spend it on fertilizer, soil, or tools, but rather you want
some can't miss plants. What do you do? Well, lucky you,
Rick and Stacy are gonna walk along in the garden center and fill up your
cart for you. Would you do that? I would love to do that.
Although I have to say what I always emphasize to people is my taste
is not their taste. I mean, I'm certainly happy to make recommendations,
but I think, especially when it comes to like seasonal annual, it's so
important to make that decision for what you like. It's good to match your
house, it's good to match your containers. Whatever your feeling the vibe for
the season. You know. I like to encourage people to put a personal
stamp on it. But that said, a lot of people like my mother,
love you. Mom. She'll be the first to admit this. Very
nervous in the garden center. She doesn't want to make a bad decision.
She doesn't want to, you know, spend money on something that's not going
to perform like she expects. And so to her, I really learned,
you know, the importance of reassuring and kind of telling that whole story of
each plant. So yeah, I would definitely do that for people. Well
then, so well noted. Let's go down the road of can't miss plants
and then you can decide whether or not it fits your personality. And I
agree with you, Stacy. Some folks get nervous, not just by the
price tag alone. But boy, is this going to work? Can I
do this? Is this going to grow? So right off the bat,
I'll give you a limerick as it pertains to that, I want a plant
more than alive, and not to just simply survive. I need some plants
that can't miss that give me horticultural bliss instead of a dramatic nosedive. Yeah,
give me hardiness with style that will stick around for a while, but
with growth that is scant, it's going to face plant right into my compost
pile. I think a lot of people feel that way, yeah, for
sure. And I think that people are willing to shell out some extra money
for something that seems really appealing, but they want to know it's going to
work. They want to know that what they're seeing in the garden center at
that moment is going to look at least that good or ideally better as the
season goes on. And I think that especially before, when annuals were in,
you know, little tiny six packs and were mostly seed grown, a
lot of things did peter out when it got really hot or if it was
dry, if conditions were remotely tough. That has really changed a lot.
You know. We talked about that a bit with Adam Moseley in our last
episode about Supertunia's things are being developed to be more robust, but still people
want to know. And that's why I think a lot of people end up
going back to the same thing that they've had success with before rather than trying
new stuff. Yeah, very true, very true. So let's dive into
some of those plants and let me tell you two things, two show notes
here. First, first of all of course plants on trial. Our second
segment, Stacey introduces you to a plant every week, and I'm sure that
Stacy has a can't miss plant up your sleep. I've been saving it for
just the right episode, and today is it excellent. Another would be that
at our website, Gardeningsimplified on air dot Com, We're going to make sure
that it's in the show notes and post it elsewhere on the site. Stacy's
list and my list. If hypothetically we were to fill a shopping cart for
you, and I have done it many times for folks who have asked me
to fill their shopping cart. And it's a lot of fun to spend other
people's more. Oh yeah, much more fun than spending your own, all
right. Starting with annuals, let me just quick throw out Truffalo, Pink
Goampfrina Rockin series of Salvia's Verbina, Meteor Shower, Canna Lilies, the TUCNS
series, Coliest, Color Blaze, Euphorbia, Diamond Frost. Many of these
annuals, like you mentioned Stacy, we talked about super Tunia's Last Week or
sun Credible Yellow Sunflower. These plants have been bred, developed, tested,
trialed to ensure the fact that they are going to work in your yard.
They're not seed grown. These plants are guaranteed vigorous, and your results are
going to be good. Yeah, and there's so many unique new choices.
You know. I'm really glad you mentioned the sun Credible sunflower because I think
you know a lot of people have grown sunflowers, whether it was when they
were a little kid in nursery school or you know, as an adult,
a lot of people are familiar with that plant. The seed you spend all
summer, you get a couple flowers and they're spectacular and you love them.
But Suncredible is a container sized sunflower that blooms all summer with sunflower flowers.
Now, of course they're smaller, which can be a good thing if you
enjoy sunflowers and want to enjoy them in a vase because they're at a good
scale. But that is such a revolutionary plant and a lot of people probably
see that and think, oh, sunflowers, I know what those do?
They bloom and then they're done, and then I'm going to be left with
nothing. So a lot of times it does kind of take rethinking what a
plant can do. Absolutely absolutely, Then we move the cart to the nursery
section. I love going over there where we can pick up at last or
oh so easy roses. I gotta have a tough stuff top fun in the
cart. Love that plant, and of course I'll let's dance skyview. Oh
yeah, reblooming Hydrangea, bud Lea's, I love them, Miss Molly,
Miss Pearl, Miss Violet, any of those. I know their favorites.
Of Adrian, I'll also bud Lee of Pugster, clematis, sweet summer love,
all of these types of plants, Stacey are on my list again.
We're going to put our lists at Gardening Simplified on air dot com. And
I would suspect you love going through the nursery section. I do. I
love seeing how plants are grown. I love seeing how people respond and what
they're thinking about. And yeah, if I'm in the garden center and people
look like they have questions, I'll be like, hey, I can help
you. The same here. I'm more than happy to help. But that's
what gardening people do. They're more than happy to dole out advice even if
they don't want it. Sometimes I'll just dole it up. And then the
perennial section, when we get over there. You know, I'm big into
ornamental grasses because again I feel that they are can't miss plants. They are
drought tolerant, they're dear resistant, they're beautiful. You take a panicum like
Niagara Falls or a prairie winds lemon squeeze fountain grass. It's a pinacetum with
great color. Love it. Amsnia of course is on our list. Alium
serendepudy. That is a plant that I put it in the absolutely positively can't
miss category. Oh, any of those perennial aliums. I can't get enough
of them. They're so beautiful, they look amazing, they're so low maintenance,
they're mostly deer and rabbit resistant. I've had a little bit of rabbit
chewing on my alium's nessens Glockum. I don't know if you know that one.
It's a little sort of rock garden alium, but I love those every
time you see them. That's a plant that it blooms in July. So
people are going to need to have a little bit of faith when they're in
the garden center and it looks just kind of like a little massive chibes with
round it ends that it's going to turn into something spectacular. And that's when
it's really good to do your research and have recommendations like this that you can
rely on, even if you can't visualize it right there in the garden center
when you're there in early May, that it is going to do something spectacular
eventually. Have Rick Stacey come along. We'll fill your cart for you.
Now, I agree with you, Stacy, sun King Aurelia of course,
the cat's meow and Cat's pajamas nepetas Stacy, I'm not sure if you would
agree with me or not, but I had summarific hibiscus on my list.
Oh come on, Rick, what are you joking me? You know that's
one of my absolute favorite plants. I am crazy about the summerfic hibiscus,
you know, I think, especially if you live in a colder climate,
there's not very many things you can grow that just have such an incredible tropical
look. And in fact, while I was planning today's plant on Trial and
I was thinking about the summer, thinking about plants, I came up with
a new combination for my garden oh, including today's plant on Trial and summarific
hibiscus. So we'll see if I follow through. I look forward to hearing
about that. In that perennial section, I'm going to put a decadence baptizea
on your cart, a Tuscan sun perennial sunflower, your heliopsis, so all
of those types of plants, and of course, if you've got a hot
sunny spot, the rock and round seed them or rock and low yellow brick
roads seed them. All plants that are super easy to grow. And then
Stacy, if we have a couple bucks left and we get to the checkout
area, no, not a candy bar. I'm gonna get you a packet
of seeds. Hyacinth bean seeds. You know that about me. We're gonna
put those in the ground and they're gonna give us all kinds of can't miss
color this summer and just a really unique plant. If you have kids,
it's such a great plant because it's so colorful and interesting and so easy to
grow from seed. On this topic, we could talk for hours literally,
but lucky you, if you're heading to the garden center or greenhouse, we're
gonna put our lists on our website, Gardeningsimplified on air dot com, so
look for it and you can take that list with you to the garden Center
Greenhouse. All right, we're gonna find out what Stacy's can't miss money just
have plant is coming up next in Plants on Trial, Stay tuned. Proven
Winner's Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in the garden. That's why we
trial and test all of our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure
they outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and the distinctive white
container at your local garden center. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to
the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is my pleasure to share my all time
new favorite Proven Winner's Color Choice shrub as today's plant on Trial, and that
is El Nino chatalpa. And that's the end of the story. Thanks for
joining us today. Hell by the enthusiasm and my voice. Nothing not to
say. No, So that is a mouthful. So first of all,
I am saying el nino just like the weather pattern and chitulpa see hit a
lpa. And that is a very funny word that you might not have heard
of. And the reason for that it is an intergeneric hybrid, which I
guess I'm just down a roll with these big hard to understand words today.
Intergeneric means that it is a cross between two different genera or genus of plants,
and those two genera that were crossed to form El Nino Chitalpa were Katelpa,
So our own native Ktelpa that you see, it's not really quite native
this far north, but certainly popular as a landscape and street tree throughout western
Michigan. So our native Katelpa also known as cigar tree, bean tree,
It's probably got some other names that I don't even know about. And Chalopsis,
which is a plant that a lot of our East Coast listeners might not
be familiar with. It is a southwestern native so Texas, Arizona, New
Mexico, southern California. It is known as desert willow. Now these two
genus genera are related. They're in the same botanical family, the big Nannie,
So this is the same family as trumpet vine. And so tom Raini.
Doctor tom Raini, one of our plant breeders from North Carolina State University,
worked some magic crossed these two genera of plants Katalpa and Shalopsis, and
came up with El Nino. So now you kind of have the groundwork late
and you're wondering, well, what is so special about it? Well,
the family Stacey, give that to us again. Big NONIACI, Big Nanniecy,
Yeah, big Nanniecy. That's anyway. If these horticultural terms are going
right over your head, just think of it this way. Take a desert
willow, a katalpa an orchid, and a snap dragon and they walk into
a bar you finish. That's that's a very good Yeah, that's a very
very good analogy there. Because it does have characteristics of all of that,
and because chetalpa is a mouthful to say, we have been using the common
name desert orchid to describe it. But let me now tell you why I
of this plant so so very much. I love hydrangeas. I love roses.
I mean, I love the majority of the plants in the proven Winter's
color choiceline. I mean, I do personally love them. But you know,
you know how it is. I have deer, I have a lot
of sun. I have very dry soil, So a lot of those plants
that I can get really enthusiastic with, you know, with our listeners,
are not plants that I can actually grow in my landscape. Between all of
those challenges. Al Nino che talpa is not only a fabulous plant, but
it is one that I can and do grow in my landscape. And I
won't lie. The best part about it is the flowers. You know,
it does have other great features. It has very nice foliage and all of
that, but the flowers are the reason to grow this plant. You have
a talent with words describe the flowers to us. So they do have a
bit of a snapdragon the kind of thing going on. But if you've seen
a cautelpa flower, they have a similar shape, but they get their majority
of their flower form from the desert willow parent. So it's a big,
vaguely trumpet shape flower that's really open on the front and has ruffled edges,
and it's just pink. And you know, I am not a pink person.
I've said this many times on the show. It's not my favorite color
to use in the garden. But I will make a heaping exception for El
nino che talpa because it really is that beautiful. So the pink flowers,
and they bloom all summer. So they start for us here in Michigan probably
around like mid to late June, depending on how warm the summer is and
they continue pretty much without stopping until about mid to late August, depending on
the weather. So we get a good two solid months of flowers from this
plant. But what I love even more than the shape and the color is
the fragrance. And the fragrance you really have to just smell it to believe
it, because I'm gonna describe it as vanilla and melon, and you're gonna
go what that really is the best way to describe it, Like fresh vanilla
with fresh ripe melon, like a canalope or honeydew. It's a little bit
hard to describe, but it is such a beautiful and unique scent and be
because it blooms in the summer and those hottest, warmest days of summer,
the scent just sort of wafts on the air. So you know, some
plants that are fragrant, you really need to get in there and get your
nose in there to experience the fragrance. It is not the case with the
Alninyo chitalpa. If you are anywhere within the vicinity of one of these plants
and it's flowering, you will pick up on that fragrance on the air.
And you know, we have many episodes of the Gardening Simplified Show out there.
Watch the YouTube episode where we take the summer tour. That's where Stacey
introduced me to the plant. I stuck my face in there and wow,
great description. Right, you can stick your face in there and you'll get
even more of it. But it's a really unique and beautiful smell. And
again, I just think it's all the better that it blooms in summer,
so you just get that combination of you know, like a lilac can be
super fragrant on a warm spring day, but if it were to bloom in
the summer when it's really really very warm, that's a totally different experience.
So overall, with Nino, what you're getting is more or less the flowers
from the desert willow, the Chialopsis parent, and the foliage and hardiness from
the Katelpa parent. So the flowers do resemble a mix of them both.
But most of the catelpas that we grow on the East Coast are white with
some kind of dark purply maroon and yellow splotches inside. These are pure pink,
and they get that ruffled edge like the Chilopsis has, but the foliage,
the foliage on the Chialopsis is very narrow. That's why it's called desert
willow because it kind of resembles a willow tree, whereas the Kataalpa has those
big, nice, bold heart shaped leaves. So it has those bold,
large heart shaped leaves with these really exotic looking flowers of the chetalpa. And
you know, I love that feeling of finding something in the garden that doesn't
look like it should be growing. They're like, whoa, this looks like
it should be you know, from Miami or something, and it's it just
looks, you know, so exotic and so interesting. But it's actually come
prized about two thirds of North America native species. Wow, So that's kind
of an interesting fact about it. So it is hardy. We consider it
hardy to USDA Zone six. So we have had no trouble with it overwintering
here in West Michigan and our trial gardens. When we have had a very
very severe winter, we have found that it has died back to the ground,
which is not a big deal because if this plant never experiences any die
back or is never pruned, it's going to be eventually every bit of fifteen
feet tall. It blooms on the same year as would Yes, it blooms
on new wood. So even if it dies back, that's a good point.
Rick. Even if it does die back from a harsh winter in USDA
Zone six, you don't have to worry. It will still go on to
flower. I would say, if you are an adventurous gardener, it might
be worth experimenting with in a protected spot in USDA Zone five, especially with
the way our winter was this year, you know, milder like that,
because again, if it dies back, is still going to sprout and it's
still going to go on to flower. But I love the height of this
plant because when you have those flowers and they're so unique and they're so fragrant,
and it's ten feet in the air, you know, four feet above
your head, five feet above your head, just looking into all of those
dangling flowers, it just gives you this kind of amazing Alice in Wonderland feeling.
Do you like this plant? I love this plant. I do.
I do, And I'm so excited about it, and I do have it
in my garden and I get excited every time it blooms. I'm grateful it's
growing around the office. I'm grateful it's in the trial garden. It is
a full sun plant, so another thing that's very handy for me. I
have found so far that it is deer resistant. They haven't touched it,
which is pretty typical for the Catelpa. I can't speak for the chilosis,
but so this checks all the boxes, you know, for me. It
does everything that I need it to do, and it looks really super amazing
while doing it. So if you want to grow it, definitely it is
a drought It's not just dropped tolerant, but it requires very well drained conditions.
So that Kutelpa parentage, being from the East Coast does contribute some resistance
to humidity. But this is not a plant that you're going to be able
to grow in your low spots, you know, or any place where it's
getting regular water. It's really going to want well drained soil that is dry
the majority of the growing season in summer. So some of course, some
irrigation while it's getting established is always important, but once it is, it
really doesn't need very much more, and one in fact prefer it to actually
be on the dry side. So we've been hearing from forecasters that el Nino
is going away. We can't blame things on El Nino anymore, but you
can add an El Nino Chatalpa. Did I pronounce that right? Yeah?
You did? And the family name again for me, the Big Nanniac.
I want to learn that. It's a fun one. Big Naniac sounds like
a ride at the kernel. So the al Nino might be going away in
the weather patterns, but this is actually Al Nino Chatalpa's first season in the
market at garden centers, so this is definitely a campus plant for our listeners
in warm climates. We have been getting incredible feedback from our university trial partners
in Alabama, in Texas, in Arizona about its performance, so it's one
for almost everybody. Sorry for our cold climate gardeners, we'll get you to
you next time, but please please do check out the YouTube version so you
can see how beautiful this plant is. Check us out at our show notes
Gardening Simplified on air dot com, and be sure you look for at your
local garden center this season when you are going shopping. If you can't find
it, ask if they can bring it in from the grower who supplies them
with proven winner's Color Choice Shrubs. We got to take a little break.
When we come back, we're opening up the garden mail bags, so stay
tuned at proven Winner's color Choice. We've got a shrub for every taste and
every space. Whether you're looking for an easycare rose and unforgettable hydrangea, or
something new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and the white
containers have been trialed and tested for your success. Look for them at your
local garden center. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified
Show. It's the time of the show where we answer your gardening questions.
And I'll tell you the closer we get to the gardening season, the more
questions people have. Right Yes, as you go out there in the garden,
you're wondering what happened here, what's going to happen here? Should I
do this? Should I do that? So we're here to help you as
much as we can. You can reach us at help HLP at Gardening Simplified
on air dot com, or just go to Gardening Simplified on air dot com
and use the contact form to send us a message. You can also leave
a comment on YouTube Adana will pass those along to us as she reads your
comments. Lots of ways to get in touch with us and get help if
you are having a garden quandary. And we have a couple of quandaries this
week, Yes we do. Michael sends us some pictures and says, last
year, my mother in law planted a dogwood tree in her landscape. I
finally got some time to go see it. When I saw it, I
was very skittish to go up to it. My mother in law said,
don't worry, it's all bark and no bite. Oh well done. I
think Michael put that in there just for you, right, Thank you,
Thank you, Michael. Anyways, the specific variety is a venus flowering dogwood.
Over the rest of the summer and fall, it developed what appears to
be a yellow fungus or moss. So the pictures were taken in early March.
Can you identify Michael's in zone six A six B, and he's concerned
if it's harmful to the tree. Now we have pictures. Michael was kind
enough to send pictures, so we will put that in the YouTube version as
well as in our show notes. But you might be able to envision what
Michael is seeing, because this is a common issue, and I want to
first of all say there's absolutely nothing to worry about. Correct. Nature has
just decided to do a little accessorizing for you. So consider yourself lucky.
So what you have, I can't identify it down to a species or anything
like that, but it is very common for lichens, especially to grow on
trees. And in a very simplified version, a lichen is a symbiotic organism
that is a combination of a fungus and an algae. And most people they
hear fungus and they hear plant and they say whoa, whoa, whoa,
that's not cool. But it's totally fine. And lichens or moss, there's
all sorts of things that can grow on trees like this. It primarily happens
in more humid climates, although it will happen in the desert. I have
seen that, But like anytime there's like fog or heavy morning dew, those
are the kind of conditions that tend to favor its development. So if you
go to a humid climate. I know a couple of years ago, I
was in Charleston, South Carolina, and I found this beautiful twig that was
just totally encrusted with all different species of lichens, and so it's not a
problem. It's a totally natural thing. Basically, the tree is just a
structure and the spores have landed on it, and the conditions are right for
it to grow. But it doesn't harm the bark, It doesn't penetrate into
the vascular system of the tree in a way that would cause any harm.
I personally love the look of a tree covered in lichen a lot. Why
it's beautiful, and you know you mentioned symbiotic. I would say it's a
love story. It's a love story between a fungus and analgae, that's basically
what it is, and they help each other out, they kind of hang
out on the tree. And in this case with the pictures that Michael sent,
I call it a sunburst lichen. And again that's not the scientific name.
That's just one I made up. But it's beautiful. And you will
often find these on the north side, not necessarily the north side, but
usually the north side of a tree and slow growing trees. So I'm thinking
dogwood, I'm thinking Japanese maple, I'm thinking magnolia. That's where I often
see those lichens. Yeah, and you do often see them on smooth bark
trees, yes, you know, so rougher bark trees you'll still see them.
If you go in the woods, you'll see some lichen on them,
but this more thick encrusted lichen. Which I say that in the best possible
way, because I love this letter too. Now the trick is if you
also love this look, much like trying to grow moss in your yard.
If it could be there, it already would be there, and trying to
invite it in is difficult. So, like I said, Michael, tell
your mother in law not to worry. To enjoy the tree. It's just
a little extra color to enjoy, especially in winter. And you know,
watch that develop and change. And lichens also go through these kind of fruiting
periods where they get these really unique structures, cup like structures. I think
they're gorgeous. I liken likings. You bet you, they're beautiful. Laura
writes to us, Hi, Stacey and Rick, I love your show.
Thank you very much. It's given me so much confidence as a beginning gardener.
I was checking on my plants today. To my horror, I found
that my rose bushes covered in purplish black splotches. Every rose cane is covered
with spots. I panicked and I almost shovel pruned my poor rose, but
then remembered that I can reach out for some guidance should I dig it out
cut the canes back to the ground where talking New England Zone six A thank
you very mulch for your own right. So and Laura also set pictures,
so we will put those on the show notes and in the YouTube video if
you want to see what she's talking about. But it's very possible if you
have been out to look at your roses this season, you're maybe seeing something
similar. And so basically this does indicate some sort of fungal disease. There
are a number of things it could be. It could be as simple as
powdery mildew or protritis, which is a very common disease of roses. It's
just manifesting itself on the stems. There's some other what's known as canker diseases
that get onto rose stems and other plants. It's not just roses, and
as they progress, they kind of create these openings in the bark that can
leave it exposed to other pests and diseases. It's just a natural thing that
happens. So Laura, I don't think you need to shovel prune it,
which is to say, remove the whole darn thing, unless you are planning
to remove it anyway. But I would try to remove any canes that are
affected the best that you can. You know, if it's seriously going to
disfigure the plant, to try to prune them all out, that's one thing,
but do the best you can. If you leave a couple, you
know, this isn't like the death knell for this rose, not by a
long shot. You know, it's going to put on fresh new growth.
It's going to be okay. It's very possible this was related to your wet
winter, but it's also possible that it's something that developed, you know,
in the south last summer and just is showing up now, or you're just
noticing it now because you're thinking about pruning the roses. But I would say
definitely prune, not out the best. You can. Give your rose some
extra TLC this season. A little fertilizer wouldn't hurt something to help it outgrow
and outpace this. You know, this whatever disease it is. It doesn't
matter too much which specific disease it is, and you can help it grow
more vigorously and outgrow the disease. And it shouldn't really be an issue.
Now. We see black spot on foliage in some way when it's hot and
humid outside. To see black spot on the canes in winter, whatever it
is caused by, not too unusual. I would again not throw in the
trowel, but rather wait until spring we start to get some growth. Like
Stacy said, fertilize, do some pruning. In many cases the plant will
grow up. Yeah. And I do want to add, Laura, just
to be perfectly safe. After you prune this plant, wipe your punters down
or dip them in some pure lightsol or whatever disinfectant kind of thing you have
like that. Just wipe them down or dip the whole blade in there,
just to make sure that you're not spreading it to any other plants. And
of course, if you do compost, just discard those canes. Don't send
them to the landfill, or rather not the landfill, the composting facility.
Send them to the landfill, get them buried, and get them out of
there. Okay, Susan writes to us. I planted this pearl bush four
years ago, and then I planted the moonglow juniper shortly after. Now I
think I put them too close. I love how they look together, but
I'm thinking of transplanting the pearl bush a foot or two away from the juniper
to allow more space. So any advice on transplanting the pearl bush. I
dug around it a bit last fall. The roots are strong and intact.
I'm not even sure that I can transplant it. I love the look of
this plant. I don't want to screw it up. So any ideas,
Yeah, you know, it's it's a common problem, Susan. And I
feel you because I have often been quoted as saying life is too short for
proper spacing, because because I like the way things look close together, and
then yeah, a bumper. Then in a time you say, oh shoot,
I guess I should have actually paid attention to that. So I feel
you on that, Susan. So here's what I would do. I think
that you should try to transplant the pearl bush. But I do think that
you know you've already checked. The roots are pretty well established. It doesn't
mean it's impossible. It just means that probably transplanting this is going to set
it back a bit because you're going to be removing quite a bit of roots.
So normally my recommendation for transplanting shrubs or perennials is to transplant them when
they're dormant. That way, you know the plant doesn't have any you know,
foliage to lose water and cause its stress. But because pearl bush also
known as Execorda, is an early spring blooming plant, I would say,
and if you see Susan's pictures which we'll have on YouTube and the show notes,
it is covered in flower buds, So Susan I would say, by
all means, enjoy that thing in full bloom over the coming weeks, and
then once that flowering is done, then go ahead and transplant. Now I
think it will absolutely survive the transplantation. It's a very tough, very durable
plant. It's in the rose family. But again, give yourself the chance
to enjoy that flowering and know that depending on how severely it gets set back
from the movement or from transplanting, it might be a couple of years till
it flowers again, but it will recover. It will recover, and when
you do remember that there's going to be some root loss, so you want
to compensate with some pruning from the top, so it's not trying to support
the same amount of top growth as it had before, but with much less
root growth. Very well, said Stacy. I've got nothing to add.
I agree with you. If you're going to be digging up those roots right
after it's done blooming, don't be afraid to print it back hard. Yeah,
don't be afraid to print it. Keep up on the TLC through the
rest of the season so it's able to recover. And I would say these
are vigorous enough that within two or three years you probably won't even notice that
it was actually moved. So again, if you have a question for us,
you can find us at Gardening Simplified on air dot com. We're going
to take a little break and we'll be back in a moment. The Gardening
Simplified Show is brought to you by proven winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award
winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you
enjoy more beauty and less work. Look for proven winners, Color t Shrubs
and the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the
Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for our branching news segment and making news today
well an interview. Have been really looking forward to this Keelan Blackwell and Hannah
Bottom Blackwell of Chicago Echo House and Stacy. When I read their story watch
their YouTube video, it was inspirational to me, not only as a former
business owner, but as somebody who loves flowers and plants. What they're doing
in the inner city is fabulous, it really is. And you know,
flowers can change lives, they change moods, and it's not just the people
that are theirs lives are being changed through the Eco House project, but it's
all the people who benefit from all of their work as well, exactly.
So, Hannah and Keelan, welcome to The Gardening Simplified Show. It's an
honor to have you on the show with us today. Thank you. Yeah,
thanks very v Going forward to it, give us an idea of how
Chicago Echo House first started and how we got to where we are today.
So how did things start? What was the inspiration behind Chicago Echo House.
Yeah, so Chicaigo House started back in twenty fourteen, and you know,
really it was inspired by our faith, so both our Christians. And I'm
originally from Mason, Wisconsin. I came here to go to ministry school actually,
and while I was in ministry school, I started tutoring at a local
high school here on the South side Chicago and Englewood. And for me,
like it is really the first time I came face to face with sort of
hardcore inner city poverty. You know, I kind of grew up in a
very you know, affluent home and shielded from a lot of that. So
you know, when you know I sort of saw just like the state of
the inner city, it really affected me. You know, I just really
felt like I had a choice either continued to live my life for myself and
for my own comfort, or I could really decide to you know, take
up my cross and follow him and you know, lay down my life for
you know, the good people of the South Side of Chicago. And you
know, we chose uh or I chose that route. And you know,
our our our passion is really how could we really try to develop some sort
of economic engine here because you know, like all the youth that we'd work
with their families, the number one thing we would hear is, you know,
we really want jobs. We want careers, but specifically community based jobs,
right, And that's really the impetus behind starting Chicago Eco House and our
mission of using sustainability to alleviate InnerCity poverty. Yeah, and it's one thing
to hear about unemployment rates, it's another thing to live it correct, Yes,
definitely, in order to do that, essentially to give people an idea
of where we're going with this, you're using plants and flowers to create an
opportunity for people to both learn, grow and potentially become employed. Is that
correct. Yeah, absolutely, So the idea that we sort of came up,
the reason that we came to Flowers was we were trying really hard to
connect people with jobs in sustainability, but we were finding that they were just
way too far and like Keilan said, you know, it really seemed pretty
evident that we really needed something that was here locally and that would be accessible
to people right here in the community. So there's there. We've just found
that the inner city can be a little insular, and to be able to
create something right here in the community would just be so much easier. It
would have so much easier access. So we looked at what the community had
and there was a lot of vacant land. So you know, the Englewood,
for instance, at its height, had about ninety thousand residents. When
we moved here in twenty fifteen, it was down to thirty thousand, and
I think it's even gone below Keeland right to like twenty three thousand. So
lots of vacant buildings. I think our block actually has more vacant buildings on
it than occupied buildings. And then you know, once a building is vacant
for too long, it's you know, gets demolished eventually, and now there's
just a space, an empty space, and a lot of the fairyous stuff
happens on you know, vacant lots. Drugs are are hidden, you know,
people have their dogs, lose cars or products on it. So we
thought this vacant land, and we thought, you know, what could we
do with that? And of course, first, you know, tried food,
but we really realized that to create you know, a true economic viable
opportunity, we needed to have something that would give us just a little more
money out of it than what food could produce. And that's when we turned
to flowers, and so once we turned to flowers for that reason, there
was all these other things that came out of it. So, like you
said in the intro, you know, you feel different around flowers. So
we would see the youth who would come and they would start working on the
flower farm, and you kind of forget you're in the city and they would
start talking about stuff that they had experienced. Or we you know, put
these on our farms and people are trying honey for the first time right here
in Englewood. So you know, there was just so many benefits that came
from that. There's a lot of toxins in the soil, but as we
know, flowers were immediate soil, and so we are also you know,
we're feeling that that soil and anywhere that we're putting a flower farm where there
used to be a vacant lot. Now it's also benefiting the community. It's
beautifying the space. It's turning what once was used for nefarious activity into something
productive and beautiful. We were turning down spouts from people's homes by our farms
into toads on our farms so that the water doesn't run into their backyard and
their basement, and so there were all these benefits that came out of this
one idea that really we were pursuing for the benefit of job creation and alleviating
poverty, and we just found that there were so many added benefits on top
of it. For sure, you know, showing that level of care to
a community, to a person individually, and certainly to people within the community,
makes such a huge difference. And you say, hey, we care
about this place, and it shows through brightly colored flowers. There's no mistaking
these things didn't just up there overnight. I can only imagine what an impact
that had on the community. Yeah, and I think you know, for
early on, we knew that the work we wanted to do, we wanted
it to be personal, and so the first thing we did was move into
the neighborhood and move right into the middle of the issues that we knew people
were experiencing, because we felt that people really wouldn't see that we were all
in unless we were all in. And so the very first thing was moving
into the community and not doing this as some sort of you know, something
at arms length or something you know, living somewhere else and coming in and
doing it, but really making this our life, and I think that went
a long ways in getting that community buy in and for them to really believe
that we did care and we did you know, the problems that they were
facing were problems we were facing out to and that we really wanted to do
this for the benefit, you know, of of us as a whole.
Now, our neighborhood, our community. Tell us how you're teaching kids and
teens in the process. In other words, I see that you're practicing things
we talk about on the show like IPM or white clover cover cropping, or
solar powered rain water systems, even chickens and composting. I mean, what
a great educational tool for kids. Yeah. Well, you know, the
heart of this is really to preserve life and all its forms, including not
just human life, but ecological life. So you know, we really wanted
to demonstrate to our youth when you you know, practice growing and farming in
the way that Mother Nature desires, that it really can help to meet your
material needs. So you know, we basically break up our program into there's
our kay through Rate after school education program where we just more introduce young kids
to floor culture, urban egg and more just to get them thinking about you
know, the ideal sustainability, the ideal of flowers, ideal food. And
then we have our workforce Development program, which is geared more towards sixteen to
twenty four to twenty five year olds, where we're doing more you know,
hands on training to train them to be flower farmers as well as high end
florists. And in those programs on the farm side, yeah, they're they're
they're definitely warnings. They're learning integrated pests management, they're learning you know,
composting and you know instead of using herbicides or synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. You
know, they're they're you know, they're learning about how to use range rainwater
catchment systems and uh, you know, solar panel to generate on site power
so that we can drive irrigation system. So you know, these are all
really cutting edge techniques and technologies that our youth are being exposed to. And
you know, like sometimes I don't think they you know, fully appreciate just
you know, how forward thinking, you know, the practices that they're learning
are. But you know, for them, this is like it's it's normal.
You know, they don't you know, and they think of farming you
know, they're not thinking of a giant John Deere tractor and you know,
spraying a bunch of pesticides everywhere. Like for them, you know, this
is how how you farm, right, you farm the way Mother nature does
it. And in the flower shop, you know, we like they're they're
they're they're learning the best you know, floral design techniques, right, Like
you know, we're not just selling flowers in the local community here, like
you know, we're at some of the most exclusive venues in Chicago or at
the Field Museum, the McCormick Place, the High at the Hilton, right,
so they're you know, we're doing big budget weddings. I mean last
year we did a twenty five thousand dollars budget just on the flowers at the
Field Museum. Right. Wow, that's great. That's five times my entire
wedding budget Honeymoon. Oh wow. You know I was going to ask you
about that. The business side of it. Obviously, we've got to we've
got to fuel this engine to do this teaching and this work as a five
oh one c three. As a matter of fact, I had heard rumor
that you guys would even take pies to the face in order to raise money.
Is that correct? Yes, Yeah, so in the early days,
So just here listeners can uh, you know, understand our journey. So
we've been at this for about ten years. We started at zero dollars.
Today we're about two million dollars as an organization. But yeah, like in
the early days when we were starting, you know, we had no We
were trying to think of creative way to raise money to pay for you know,
our five O one C three filing, and we did this pib in
the face thing where we basically told our friends and family that you know,
if you donate one hundred dollars, we'll go to a very public place in
Chicago and take a pie in the face. Right, so we'll go to
places like you know, Buckingham Fountain and do a pie in the face there
and that kind of deal. But yeah, like you know, like are
in terms of like the economics of our organization, we have a pretty robust
social enterprise model where you know, basically the the floral cells supports the the
staff and the labor piece of our work. You know, like this year
we're actually on track to uh, you know, break a million dollars for
the first time. Just in flower cells, which is going to be a
huge milestone for us, and it's you know, we've really been excited at
you know, just the tracks that are getting the marketplace, Like people have
really been rallying around Southside Blooms and Chock Legal House because they see it as
a viable solution to solving a lot of these problems in a more organic way.
It's like one of the that's like one of the top feedback that we
get from our clients that they say like, hey, we love your model
because like it it presents a real end game, Like I can see how
when I purchased flowers from you guys, it's contributing to you know, bringing
these lots back to life and advancing sustainability, helping keeping these kids off the
streets. Like it just makes sense, right. So yeah, we've been
very very fortunate to you know, really enjoy a lot of community buying and
support, which is really made you know, doing our work a lot easier.
So, you know, talking about community support, I'm sure a lot
of our listeners are wondering, like how can I support this kind of thing?
Are you guys selling your flowers at farmers' markets? Are they available only
through florists. Do you do a farm stand model? How can people actually
find your flowers? So we offer everything online and this is intentional. So
a lot of businesses rely on foot traffic, they rely on you know,
local people supporting, and we love our local supporters right here in the neighborhood.
But the truth is Englewood just doesn't have the the the income to support
the kind of jobs we're trying to create. And so if we were only
tapping into our you know, very local market, we really wouldn't be able
to provide the kind of jobs and the kind of change that we're looking for.
So when we decided to go to an online model, it meant that
we could pull in money and resources from all over the city, especially really
well resourced areas, and bring it back into the community. And so we
deliver our flowers all the way to northwest Indiana, all the way up to
the north Shore and in the city and to the western suburbs. And this
is pulling money in from all of those areas, all of those areas to
you know, back to our community. And so our online shop is just
at Southside booms dot com. We have several shippable items and We're very excited
because on Mother's Day we are going to be lying national shipping as well,
and that will really give access to people in other places who might have heard
about us to support us through purchasing our products uh and purchasing our flowers,
and all of that money you know as a five O one C three,
one hundred percent of the sale goes back into our program. So that means
more jobs, more offward farms, more vacant lots you know, turned into
productive spaces that benefit pollinators, benefit you know, the land uh and and
also provide you know, a pesticide uh free you know, local option for
people that are looking to really try to get something that's a little more local,
a little a little more natural and bring bring that into their home.
Said. We're chatting with Hannah Bottom Blackwell and Keelan Blackwell of Chicago Echo House.
Let me just real quickly ask you what types of flowers you're growing uh
in this sustainable manner? Is there a certain type of flower that you really
focus on? Yeah, So our model of taking over a vacant land and
using an off grid system means that we are able to turn any vacant lot
into a productive flower farm. So a lot of urban farms, they really
depend on a water source, whether it's a hydrant or installing a water line,
but that really limits where they're able to set up shop, right because
let's say somebody else has access to that hydrant. Now there is no way
that you can access that as well. There's a lot of city codes and
laws around that, and so you know, you would essentially be able to,
you know, be limited in where you could set up or a water
line, for instance, can be a fifty to seventy thousand dollars to set
up, which is extremely cost prohibitive if you're trying to put more money into
really the youth pockets in our case. And so because of this awkward system
that we have, we have been able to say yes to any vacant space
that has been offered to us to farm on. And so that also changes
what we grow, but I think in a in a really good way because
we are also seeing a lot of people, a lot of our customers are
really interested in natives. They're interested in perennials, you know, things that
grow here in our climate that will come back again. And there's an amazing
number of things that you can grow that will come back you know, the
next year, or things that are native. We also look at things that
are drought tolerance, so that we have you know, have to use limited
water, have you know, just using the water that we collect from the
rainy season. And so instead of just sort of saying yes, the things
that people might be used to because of the current, you know, floral
systems of shipping them from overseas where they're being watered, you know, twenty
four to seven. You know, we're really helping people to learn to love
the things that maybe can grow primarily or can be on natives here. The
other thing that we are offering is a year round, year round tulips through
our bulb forcing. So in the winter now we're able to grow tulips that
are solar powered and this provides jobs for our youth year round. We are
able to give our farm team work. But we have just these beautiful tulips
that are coming out right now in the middle of winter. We have these
double tulips, we have fringe tulips, we have parrot tulips, and then
that will lead into our spring flowers, which we do a lot of different
kinds of lilies and gladiolas. When it comes to our field grown flowers,
we love the sunflowers and all the varieties that those offer. We are doing
a variety of amaranths of different colors. We have a whole farm that's paeonies,
which who doesn't love a peony, right, We're going to be planting
more leatris and thistle, which are you know, local native native to this
this area of this climate. And then just other beautiful things like vinyas that
don't ship well and so you really to have a zinya, you have to
buy those locally. We have some new colors that we're trying this year.
We love the marigolds, you know, for those bright colors. We love
cosmos in our bridal bouquet because they're dainty, and you know, people love
movement now they love texture, you know. So we're trying to bring you
know, a lot of those different things in and all of this can be
grown on our off grade farms. And I just love seeing the bounty that
comes from you know, branching out, trying to be innovative and really showing
what can be done when you kind of take the road less travel. Yeah,
that's fantastic We've been talking to Hannah Bottom Blackwell and Keilan Blackwell of Chicago
Echo House before we let you go just real briefly, real quickly here,
I'm gonna start with you, Kielan. I always do this to folks we
interview, give me a favorite flower of yours. What's your favorite? So,
my favorite flower will definitely be the p and e. I like the
p and e number one because it's relatively easy to grow, it's a perennial.
It also is a high dollar crop, and also just it just smells
great, Like I just I just love the smell of it. I love
the colors, the texture of it. So yeah, my personal favorite is
the p andy. That's fantastic. And Hannah, what about you a favorite
flower? So I would have to go with the double tulip if you're not
a fan of tulips. I know Michigan has a lot of beautiful tulips,
but so tulips, there's just so many beautiful varieties, and the double tulip
is just it's it has such beauty, such amazing smell. So I'd have
to go with That's fantastic. Fantastic, Chicago Echo House, what a great
story. Leave our listeners and our viewers with your website so that they can
learn more. For folks who want to support you, yep, you could
just go to Chicago Egohouse dot org. If you want to donate, and
if you want to buy our flowers, go to Southside blooms dot com.
Fantastic, Hannah Keeling, It's what a great story. Yeah, thank you
so much for taking the time to share your story. That was really really
inspiring. Oh thank you. Yeah, thanks for having us, thanks for
covering it well. I have to confess when they when I first heard Chicago
Eco House, I didn't know where the name came from, But after hearing
their story, I totally get at everything is built into a beautiful closed end
system, and I think that is the perfect name for their organization. Thanks
Tequila and Hannah, Thanks to you, Rick, Thanks Adriana, and of
course thanks to all of you so much for listening. Have a great week.