Beautiful, Bountiful Berries for Fall

<v Speaker 1>Coming to you from Iconic Studio a here at proven
<v Speaker 1>winters colored Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified
<v Speaker 1>YouTube radio and podcast show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist,
<v Speaker 1>and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, when it
<v Speaker 1>comes to berry good plants, I'd have to say juneberry
<v Speaker 1>or service berry has to be a favorite of mine.
<v Speaker 1>And blueberries you just can't beat that fall color. But
<v Speaker 1>I love the fruit on dogwoods and viburnums in the fall.
<v Speaker 1>And you've got chokeberry and winterberry that are touted as
<v Speaker 1>excellent native berry producers. Stacey, I think this topic today
<v Speaker 1>is right in your wheelhouse because I know how much
<v Speaker 1>you love plants and you love birds. Fall is a
<v Speaker 1>berry good season.
<v Speaker 2>It is, and you know all of this. It's very
<v Speaker 2>easy for us to look at a beautiful plant laden
<v Speaker 2>in berries and think that's great, but really this is
<v Speaker 2>all about, you know, giving animals the opportunity to stock
<v Speaker 2>up heavily on food and spread those seeds around so
<v Speaker 2>the plants, you know, they know what they're doing, as
<v Speaker 2>it were, and it's all timed. Of course. The june
<v Speaker 2>berry is wonderful, but it's right there. The name that
<v Speaker 2>was months ago. So you know the ones now tend
<v Speaker 2>to be ones that are going to be deposited around
<v Speaker 2>winter and hopefully a fall goes well, some of those
<v Speaker 2>seeds will make it to next spring, you bet you.
<v Speaker 1>And stay tuned because rumor has it the birdman's going
<v Speaker 1>to swoop in today for segment four, and we'll talk
<v Speaker 1>about how birds infall and winter truly rely on these
<v Speaker 1>berries and this fruit. Now, Stacy, some berry producing shrubs
<v Speaker 1>need a pollinator in order to bear fruit. So let's
<v Speaker 1>do a little horticultural terminology here a minute. There's dioecious, right,
<v Speaker 1>and there's monoecious. Now, dioecious shrubs are they bear male
<v Speaker 1>and female flowers on separate plants. So a really good
<v Speaker 1>example of that would be a plant that I love
<v Speaker 1>in fall going into winter, and that is berry poppins.
<v Speaker 2>But you need a pollen, winterberry holide. So this is
<v Speaker 2>a winter berry holly, and it is a deciduous holly.
<v Speaker 2>We've talked about a plenty on the show before. It's
<v Speaker 2>native to Hear in Michigan and through most of the US.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, it's a plant that just becomes positively laiden
<v Speaker 2>with berries, but like other hollies, it is in fact diecious.
<v Speaker 2>So if you want fruit, and certainly in the case
<v Speaker 2>of winterberry holly, you want fruit, there's not much else
<v Speaker 2>to recommend the plant unless you're getting fruit, Whereas if
<v Speaker 2>you know you have your more traditional evergreen holly, the
<v Speaker 2>fruit might be slightly less important because you're still getting
<v Speaker 2>that great, beautiful, glossy evergreen foliage. Then yes, you need
<v Speaker 2>a The plants are separate by male and female, so
<v Speaker 2>only the female plants will get fruit. The male plants
<v Speaker 2>only serve to pollinate it. Both will flower, but the
<v Speaker 2>male flowers only have pollen, whereas the female plants have
<v Speaker 2>an ovary that will get pollinated and develop into a berry.
<v Speaker 2>But you will know if a plant is male or
<v Speaker 2>female based on its name, and a lot of people
<v Speaker 2>will ask us, you know, at proven winters and say, hey,
<v Speaker 2>I want to plant berry poppins winter berry holly, but
<v Speaker 2>how do I know if I'm getting male or female. Well,
<v Speaker 2>the answer is, if you are buying a Berry Poppins
<v Speaker 2>winterberry holly, it is female. If you are buying a
<v Speaker 2>Mister Poppins winter berry holly, then it is a male.
<v Speaker 2>And very often I would say, I can't offhand think
<v Speaker 2>of a case. They're always going to have these kind
<v Speaker 2>of gendered names. That makes it pretty clear no one's
<v Speaker 2>trying to trick you into, you know, buying the wrong thing.
<v Speaker 2>That the female varieties are named something related to female
<v Speaker 2>or fruit or berries, and the male varieties usually have
<v Speaker 2>mister or boy or prince or something like that, so
<v Speaker 2>that you know that they're a male pollinator. And even
<v Speaker 2>though the males of course don't get the berries and
<v Speaker 2>aren't as showy, the good news is that you can
<v Speaker 2>usually use one male to pollinate up to five females,
<v Speaker 2>so you don't need one male for every female in
<v Speaker 2>order to get good berries.
<v Speaker 1>Hello, mister Poppins. And yeah, he's got to be like
<v Speaker 1>within fifty feet proximity.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, fifty feet is sort of the standard number. It's
<v Speaker 2>not like a hard and fast rule, but that number
<v Speaker 2>is based on, you know, how far you can expect
<v Speaker 2>a pollinating insect to fly during foraging trips, because of
<v Speaker 2>course it has to go to the male get pollen,
<v Speaker 2>and then go to the female, and the female tricks
<v Speaker 2>the little pollinating insect into thinking that it has pollen
<v Speaker 2>with these little fake anthers. But it goes over there
<v Speaker 2>and it doesn't do anything but leaves some pollen for
<v Speaker 2>the fruit to germinate.
<v Speaker 1>So umm, yeah, and then of course the monoecius. So
<v Speaker 1>these are shrubs that are gonna bury regardless of whether
<v Speaker 1>or not mister Poppins is around, so to speak. And
<v Speaker 1>there are some great ones, of course, proud Berry, co Gralberry,
<v Speaker 1>beauty berry. And I want you to help me out
<v Speaker 1>with this one. Stacy Pyra, Camellis, pyracommals commalies. Okay. Now,
<v Speaker 1>the reason that I struggle with that one is and
<v Speaker 1>proven Winters colored choy shrubs has a variety called berry.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, what a variety? Yeah, amazing news. So you might
<v Speaker 2>not be familiar with it, but you see this thing,
<v Speaker 2>you're going to want it.
<v Speaker 1>And it's interesting for me because again you've got to
<v Speaker 1>go back to where I came from and in the
<v Speaker 1>garden center industry, and I remember in the seventies and
<v Speaker 1>eighties and nineties we were selling pyracantha or firethorn like
<v Speaker 1>you just would not believe. And this particular plant, as
<v Speaker 1>I understand it is a hybrid between Pyracantha and Ostemeles osteomies. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>ostiamiles very very interesting, which is a warm climate evergreen.
<v Speaker 1>So what a great plant for berries. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>along that line again years ago in the garden center industry,
<v Speaker 1>I remember when we would sell all kinds of mountain
<v Speaker 1>ash tree. Oh yeah, you know, and they're just so
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, it's it's just prone to problems like
<v Speaker 1>citospera canker and fire blight and leaf spot and they
<v Speaker 1>just fall apart. But I remember back then. To the
<v Speaker 1>point here is that today some of these plants that
<v Speaker 1>we have to produce berries in our landscape are really fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>Right, and the newer varieties are going to be more
<v Speaker 2>adapted to the realities of what it's like to garden exactly. Now,
<v Speaker 2>I do want to mention so manicious plants are plants
<v Speaker 2>that have male and female flowers on the same plant.
<v Speaker 2>So it could be that there are male and female
<v Speaker 2>flowers separate on the plant, or it could be that
<v Speaker 2>every flower contains both male and female parts, which is
<v Speaker 2>the most common. But there is one exception here, because
<v Speaker 2>there's always some exception, right, and that is viburnum. So
<v Speaker 2>viburnum are monecious, which is to say that they have
<v Speaker 2>all the male and female parts they need contained in
<v Speaker 2>one plant. But viburnums will only flower if they have
<v Speaker 2>genetic diversity introduced in pollination, so they are not what
<v Speaker 2>is called self compatible. You actually need two distinct varieties,
<v Speaker 2>so you can't just use like two blue muffin because
<v Speaker 2>those are clones of one another, those will not pollinate
<v Speaker 2>each other. You need a totally different arrowood viburnum from
<v Speaker 2>blue muffin in order to get fruit on blue muffin.
<v Speaker 2>So all the information that you need. Again, this is
<v Speaker 2>not something that you need to know going into the
<v Speaker 2>garden center, but it is something that if you're looking
<v Speaker 2>for a shrup that berries up, you're just going to
<v Speaker 2>want to read the tag and make sure you understand
<v Speaker 2>what is required or not, because there are plenty of
<v Speaker 2>plants that are self fruitful. To make sure you get
<v Speaker 2>those beautiful berries. Because yeah, it's very disappointing to people
<v Speaker 2>when they when they thought they were doing the right
<v Speaker 2>thing and they find out that they weren't.
<v Speaker 1>This subject just inspires me, it really does. Let me
<v Speaker 1>give you a lima rick that's inspired by this berries
<v Speaker 1>a gift beyond measure. They give me so much pleasure,
<v Speaker 1>So please do not whine. They have me on cloud nine.
<v Speaker 1>I've found my buried treasure. I enjoy at my chateau
<v Speaker 1>berries I love to grow. I press them into juice,
<v Speaker 1>then listen as a recluse to Bury Manilol. I love
<v Speaker 1>Barry Manilol. I admit it again. I'm a baby boomer.
<v Speaker 1>I think he's the best.
<v Speaker 2>My mom went to Vegas to see Berry Manilow.
<v Speaker 1>Very Manilo concerts. I love Barry Manilo.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well that's a spell different. It's spell different. It's
<v Speaker 2>not b e r r y. And you know, I
<v Speaker 2>think that it's confusing for a lot of people. And
<v Speaker 2>they a lot of people. They hear berry, they think edible. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>but certainly, especially as we're talking about these ornamental shrubs,
<v Speaker 2>you probably should not eat them. Most of them are
<v Speaker 2>not poisonous, although there's plenty of poisonous berries around and fall,
<v Speaker 2>most notably, of course, the one that everybody asks about.
<v Speaker 2>It just wouldn't be fall unless we mention it at
<v Speaker 2>least once. Poke weed. You know, it's just it's not
<v Speaker 2>fall unless.
<v Speaker 1>You pressly wait, poke salad.
<v Speaker 2>Because everybody's always like, what is that? You know, bright
<v Speaker 2>pink stems, bright, purply blackberries. Do not eat those berries.
<v Speaker 2>As I often say, when in doubt, don't about gardening.
<v Speaker 2>When in doubt, don't, also applies to eating plants.
<v Speaker 1>Walk away and nobody gets hurt. Of course, there's so
<v Speaker 1>many other great plants. I mean, when you think about
<v Speaker 1>holly or the Ilex genus, lots and lots of evergreens
<v Speaker 1>in that genus. Of course, evergreens like juniper's jim fizz
<v Speaker 1>comes to mind. The ornamental value of rose hips. I
<v Speaker 1>love rosatives. They're so decorative, they're so beautiful. And then
<v Speaker 1>of course you have bitter sweet, which is a touchy
<v Speaker 1>subject because you have the native bitter sweet, and then
<v Speaker 1>you have the non native, which is incredibly invasive and
<v Speaker 1>you should not plant.
<v Speaker 2>And if you have it in your yard, you probably
<v Speaker 2>have feet and face and not the native one exactly.
<v Speaker 1>But we'll talk about how the birds spread the love
<v Speaker 1>around coming up in segment four with the Birdman. Prior
<v Speaker 1>to that, Stacy's going to introduce us to a plant
<v Speaker 1>that I'm sure will be berryful. That's coming up next
<v Speaker 1>here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
<v Speaker 2>Prooven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in
<v Speaker 2>the garden That's why we trial and test all of
<v Speaker 2>our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they
<v Speaker 2>outperform everything else on the market. Look for them in
<v Speaker 2>the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greetings,
<v Speaker 2>gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
<v Speaker 2>where the order of the day is berries, because it's
<v Speaker 2>the season for fruit to form on plants. Some of
<v Speaker 2>it's edible, some of it is not. Again, when in doubt,
<v Speaker 2>do you not eat it. Do not attempt to eat it.
<v Speaker 2>Do not let your dogs or children eat it, no
<v Speaker 2>matter how interesting is looks. I mean, I was raised with,
<v Speaker 2>you know, the fear of God about eating eberries because
<v Speaker 2>they were right outside our front door. And my mom
<v Speaker 2>told me from a very young age to never eat those.
<v Speaker 2>So I kind of was like afraid to even touch
<v Speaker 2>the plants. You know, it's like a little bit I
<v Speaker 2>still like it's a prejudice I carry to this day
<v Speaker 2>actually against you.
<v Speaker 1>Well, And when you say you or you bear, why
<v Speaker 1>you right? Why e W not me?
<v Speaker 2>Why e W?
<v Speaker 1>TAXI taxes not Texas taxes US?
<v Speaker 2>And you know the crazy thing about taxis is in
<v Speaker 2>taxis is not the plant on trial today. I just
<v Speaker 2>spoiler alert. Death is it's so wild to me that
<v Speaker 2>it is easily one of the most toxic plants that
<v Speaker 2>you can grow, and deer devour it. Like, even if
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to grow taxes in my garden, I could
<v Speaker 2>not because despite the fact that even the smallest amount
<v Speaker 2>ingesting even the smallest amount will kill a human, the
<v Speaker 2>deer just show it down to nubs. Life is strange,
<v Speaker 2>but anyway, only too sure things death and tax right well,
<v Speaker 2>Texas fortunately is not a sure thing. Some people love it.
<v Speaker 2>If you go to the UK, you know you're gonna
<v Speaker 2>love it, But over here, I'm a little like, eh,
<v Speaker 2>you know. Anyway, Yeah, so there's a lot of great
<v Speaker 2>plants for full fruit, but a lot of them suffer
<v Speaker 2>from a involuntary affliction, and that is that they don't
<v Speaker 2>look like much in spring when everybody's in the garden center.
<v Speaker 1>Yep.
<v Speaker 2>And as a result, our fall landscapes suffer because people
<v Speaker 2>tend to focus on plants in spring that look really
<v Speaker 2>great at that exact moment in the garden center. And
<v Speaker 2>you know, even though if you think about like all
<v Speaker 2>of the wonderful plants that we have with beautiful berries
<v Speaker 2>like proudberry, coral berry, brandywine, viburnum. You know, we have
<v Speaker 2>nice tags with colorful pictures of what those berries are
<v Speaker 2>going to look like. And you know, my personal belief
<v Speaker 2>is people don't believe it. Yeah, I don't think that
<v Speaker 2>people actually believe that what we show them is going
<v Speaker 2>to happen in terms of berry development, is actually going
<v Speaker 2>to happen for them.
<v Speaker 1>Very true with coral berry, yes, and that's a plant
<v Speaker 1>with a great botanical name. Is it simpole A carpas.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, it is a great name. And so I think
<v Speaker 2>a lot of people they just kind of pass them by.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, sure, right, it's really going to look like that,
<v Speaker 2>you know. And I get that because today's plan on
<v Speaker 2>trial is a calikarpa pearl glam caliicarpa, also known as
<v Speaker 2>beauty berry. And this is a plant that when I
<v Speaker 2>first started getting into gardening, you know, I saw pictures
<v Speaker 2>of it and gardening magazines and books, and I thought, yeah, right,
<v Speaker 2>you know, you see these berries and the berries on
<v Speaker 2>beauty berry, whether it's pearl glam or another of the
<v Speaker 2>many varieties and species that are out there, are a
<v Speaker 2>true orchid purple like you have to see this color
<v Speaker 2>to believe it is truly amazing. And so I would
<v Speaker 2>see these pictures you know, in books, and think, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that's not really gonna happen. Even though it's hardy, I
<v Speaker 2>would just say, like, no, it's probably not gonna happen.
<v Speaker 2>So the first time that I actually saw a calikarpa
<v Speaker 2>in fruit, my jaw dropped because they it was right
<v Speaker 2>there as promise, with just hundreds, if not thousands, of
<v Speaker 2>these small orchid color berries. And it was even more
<v Speaker 2>beautiful than I could have imagined, you know, not least
<v Speaker 2>of all because here is this just marvelous purple color
<v Speaker 2>in fall, and there's red and yellow and orange and
<v Speaker 2>all these colors changing in the landscape and then just
<v Speaker 2>these purple berries. And so it pays to take a
<v Speaker 2>little leap of faith. I can tell you that as
<v Speaker 2>far as proven winter's color choice shrubs goes, we are
<v Speaker 2>not lying to you on those tags. We want you
<v Speaker 2>to be happy. We're not abusing your trust. So when
<v Speaker 2>you're in the garden center, you know, whether it's about
<v Speaker 2>fall fruit or anything else, do take a chances. Know
<v Speaker 2>that whatever it's claiming it's going to do, it will
<v Speaker 2>do in time. Sometimes it needs a little bit of
<v Speaker 2>time to get established. But you know, when we were
<v Speaker 2>talking last week about bulbs, I was talking about how
<v Speaker 2>bulbs are great, but they have a liability. And you know,
<v Speaker 2>just like people, you can have a great person, but
<v Speaker 2>they might have like a little bit of a liability.
<v Speaker 2>And in this case, the liability of keliicarpa or beauty
<v Speaker 2>berry is that they don't really look that interesting for
<v Speaker 2>the rest of the year. They're kind of just like
<v Speaker 2>a plane and nondescript plant and they're just kind of
<v Speaker 2>hanging out being green. They don't even like flower until August.
<v Speaker 2>And that because especially a lot of the older varieties
<v Speaker 2>can be quite large, up to ten feet tall and wide.
<v Speaker 2>You know, that's commanding a lot of space, precious real
<v Speaker 2>estate in your yard for maybe just a few weeks
<v Speaker 2>of interest. So when it came a time for us
<v Speaker 2>here at Peru Wuminer's Color Choice Shrubs to find a
<v Speaker 2>keliicarpa that was going to you know, do more for people,
<v Speaker 2>you know, our first thought of course was foliage. You know,
<v Speaker 2>is how do we get a calicarpa that earns its
<v Speaker 2>keep in your landscape, that is beautiful and interesting enough
<v Speaker 2>to make it worth keeping around for those couple of
<v Speaker 2>glorious weeks in the fall. And the answer to that
<v Speaker 2>again is pearl glam beautyberry. This is a variety that
<v Speaker 2>came to us from doctor Tom Rainey at North Carolina
<v Speaker 2>State University. And there's two things that are well, there's
<v Speaker 2>three things really that are very special about it. Number
<v Speaker 2>one and most important, it's foliage. Is a beautiful, dramatic
<v Speaker 2>purple black. Do you grow this plant?
<v Speaker 1>I do not. I do not have this in my landscape.
<v Speaker 2>So it's a beautiful dark purple black. And that is
<v Speaker 2>going to happen is students. It starts to emerge in
<v Speaker 2>spring all the way through until fall. And so not
<v Speaker 2>only is that ornamental and beautiful on its own, but
<v Speaker 2>it is absolutely fabulous when the flowers, which are the
<v Speaker 2>second unique thing about it, and they are white instead
<v Speaker 2>of the more traditional pink, when it come out amazing
<v Speaker 2>contrast because you get that beautiful, like black and white
<v Speaker 2>tuxedo y kind of look. And that's the same kind
<v Speaker 2>of thing we have on wine and spirits. Why Gila,
<v Speaker 2>So August rolls around, You've got this black foliage plant,
<v Speaker 2>white flowers popping out, and then the fruit develops and
<v Speaker 2>then that beautiful orchid, purple flower, or a fruit is
<v Speaker 2>contrasting with that black foliage. Now, the third great thing
<v Speaker 2>about pearl gram, kelicarpa, or beauty berry compared to other
<v Speaker 2>varieties is that it's a space saver. So I said,
<v Speaker 2>some of those older varieties ten feet tall and wide
<v Speaker 2>take up a ton of space, whereas pearl glam is
<v Speaker 2>about two to three feet wide and four to five
<v Speaker 2>feet tall, so it has kind of a columnar habit.
<v Speaker 2>And I love these narrow plants because they take up
<v Speaker 2>less ground space, so you get all of that impact,
<v Speaker 2>but they're only taking up a fraction of the ground
<v Speaker 2>space as something else. And of course you know, if
<v Speaker 2>you're taking up less ground space, that means you have
<v Speaker 2>more space for other plants, and who doesn't want that,
<v Speaker 2>especially because it's black foliage contrasts so beautifully with so
<v Speaker 2>many other perennials. It almost has that punctuation mark kind
<v Speaker 2>of look in the landscape, great a foundation planting perennial
<v Speaker 2>bed wherever you want to grow it. You will find
<v Speaker 2>this to be a very very colorful and unique plant.
<v Speaker 2>And again you're going to look at the pictures that
<v Speaker 2>we have on YouTube or on our show notes that
<v Speaker 2>gardening simplified on air and think it's not really going
<v Speaker 2>to do that, but it will, and it actually does
<v Speaker 2>not require a pollinator, so it is monoecious. As we
<v Speaker 2>were discussing at the beginning of the show, it does
<v Speaker 2>not require a second Calicarpa variety in order for that
<v Speaker 2>fruit to form. So one thing it does need is
<v Speaker 2>some maturity. And this isn't uncommon for any kind of
<v Speaker 2>plant that bears fruit, whether it's an actual edible fruit
<v Speaker 2>or just an ornamental fruit. In the case of calikarpa,
<v Speaker 2>they need to have a good root system before they're
<v Speaker 2>going to be able to put the energy into developing
<v Speaker 2>and maintaining that fruit. So a little bit of patients,
<v Speaker 2>but it will absolutely pay off. Now a lot of
<v Speaker 2>our warm climate listeners are probably going, yeah, beauty berry.
<v Speaker 2>I know that because we have a North American native
<v Speaker 2>species of beautyberry Calicarpa americana. And if you have ever
<v Speaker 2>driven anywhere in the South in September, you can't miss it.
<v Speaker 2>You've seen this, right.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, I mean absolutely. And it brings up the
<v Speaker 1>point also that with the plant, this is a plant
<v Speaker 1>that can handle heat. In other words, lots of suns. Yeah, sunshine.
<v Speaker 2>It is a full sun plant at least six hours
<v Speaker 2>of sun every day. And yeah, if you're driving around
<v Speaker 2>the South uh in September, you can't miss it because
<v Speaker 2>you're just driving along the highway and then all of
<v Speaker 2>a sudden there's just like this blamo rub blamo covered
<v Speaker 2>in purple berries. And I think that our native species
<v Speaker 2>and program is not one of our native species. It's
<v Speaker 2>actually a hybrid of the Asian species, which is why
<v Speaker 2>it's able to get that dark black purple foliage. But
<v Speaker 2>the are native one. They're almost like bubbles, so big
<v Speaker 2>and they're so densely packed on the stem that they
<v Speaker 2>almost obscure the stem. I mean, they are truly truly
<v Speaker 2>incredible a site to see. Now, our native variety is
<v Speaker 2>only hardy down to USDA Zone six. Pearlglam is hardy
<v Speaker 2>down to USDA Zone five. But in both of these cases,
<v Speaker 2>the plant may whether you're growing the native variety or pearlglam,
<v Speaker 2>if you have a severe winter, it may die back
<v Speaker 2>to the ground, but that is normal. You don't have
<v Speaker 2>to worry. It will sprout from the roots. And because
<v Speaker 2>it flowers and fruits on new wood, which is to
<v Speaker 2>say not until it starts to grow later in the
<v Speaker 2>season in the sea exactly, you don't have to worry
<v Speaker 2>about missing out on the fruit even if it dies
<v Speaker 2>back to the ground. Now, one caveat I do want
<v Speaker 2>to offer with pearlglam I had it in my garden.
<v Speaker 2>I don't have any mar because I made some changes.
<v Speaker 2>But if it does die back to the ground, when
<v Speaker 2>it starts to finally emerge, it can be quite late
<v Speaker 2>to emerge, and the foliage is so dark that unless
<v Speaker 2>you have it against some light colored mulch, it's very
<v Speaker 2>easy not to see it. And then you're out there,
<v Speaker 2>you're gardening, You're like, yeah, it's spring, this is great.
<v Speaker 2>And then crunch, there goes your caliicarpa. So if your
<v Speaker 2>plant died back to the ground.
<v Speaker 1>Story of my life. Crunch, there goes my caliicarpa.
<v Speaker 2>If you do have one, make sure that you've got
<v Speaker 2>it cordoned off in a way until it starts to
<v Speaker 2>put on a little bit of height, just to make
<v Speaker 2>sure that disaster does not strike so hardy d usd's
<v Speaker 2>on five keep tolerant through USDA Zone eight, no pollinator required,
<v Speaker 2>and extremely deer resistant. It is actually in the Proven
<v Speaker 2>Winner's Color Choice deer Proof program. So this is a
<v Speaker 2>plant that you don't have to worry about deer eating.
<v Speaker 2>It is a great and unique choice sitsld. If your
<v Speaker 2>landscape could use a little spicing up right now, take
<v Speaker 2>a look at Girding Simplified on your dot com and
<v Speaker 2>explore Pearl Glam Beauty Beery. We're gonna take a little break.
<v Speaker 2>When we come back, we're opening up the mailbag, so
<v Speaker 2>please stay tuned at Proven Winner's Color Choice. We've got
<v Speaker 2>a shrub for every taste and every space. Whether you're
<v Speaker 2>looking for an easycare rose, an unforgettable hydrangea, or something
<v Speaker 2>new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs
<v Speaker 2>and the white containers have been trialed and tested for
<v Speaker 2>your success. Look for them at your local garden center.
<v Speaker 2>Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified show.
<v Speaker 2>You know we love to hear from you. Whether you
<v Speaker 2>have a question for our mailbag segment, or you just
<v Speaker 2>have something that you want to share and celebrate with us,
<v Speaker 2>we would love to hear from you. You can just
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<v Speaker 2>leave a comment on YouTube. And I do love hearing
<v Speaker 2>from people when they just want to share something amazing
<v Speaker 2>that they've done. And so the first thing that I
<v Speaker 2>want to share with everybody is we heard from a listener, Kim,
<v Speaker 2>who is here in the Grand Rapids area, and she
<v Speaker 2>sent photos of her container combinations outside her business. And
<v Speaker 2>I wrote her back and I said, Kim, it's not
<v Speaker 2>often that I opened an email like this and audibly gasp,
<v Speaker 2>but I did. So this combination you have to see it,
<v Speaker 2>so please go to YouTube or our show notes at
<v Speaker 2>Gardening Simplified on your dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Was that castor bean? I saw?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, it was oh wow. So when you see this,
<v Speaker 2>you won't believe it. The castor bean plants in these
<v Speaker 2>containers are well over ten feet tall, and she has
<v Speaker 2>it combined with vermillion or Kufia, one of our absolute favorites,
<v Speaker 2>some gorgeous sweet potato vines. I mean, this is a
<v Speaker 2>combination that will stop you in your tracks. And she
<v Speaker 2>said that they all started out as very small plants
<v Speaker 2>earlier this year, and she's just been fertilizing and watering
<v Speaker 2>like crazy. And the results speak for themselves. So please
<v Speaker 2>take a moment to look at Kim's gorgeous containers.
<v Speaker 1>I saw a persian shield, Yes.
<v Speaker 2>Persian shield. That was the other thing. I knew there
<v Speaker 2>was something else else. I was forgetting that Strobilanthe's diarrhanus,
<v Speaker 2>a purple foliage tropical.
<v Speaker 1>Plant, an incredible plant.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this is just not something that you would expect
<v Speaker 2>to be growing like this in Michigan, like maybe down
<v Speaker 2>in Miami or something, but nope, it's right here in Michigan.
<v Speaker 2>So amazing, Kim. We love to see it.
<v Speaker 1>Hey, Stacy, we got a lovely comment from a listener, Jennifer.
<v Speaker 1>Love the show. Look forward to each Saturday episode. Stacy,
<v Speaker 1>we wanted to extend support to you regarding your no
<v Speaker 1>lawn project. We are senior sisters that have done the
<v Speaker 1>same thing to our backyard, Texas Zone eight B. We
<v Speaker 1>started over a month ago, pulled up grass, laid down mulch.
<v Speaker 1>We're so thrilled to have your endorsement because you did
<v Speaker 1>it the same way. We weren't sure at first, but
<v Speaker 1>we loved the way the cedar mulch has played out,
<v Speaker 1>kept everything so clean. While we decide on paver replacements
<v Speaker 1>and small garden areas. We are mindful of zone planting
<v Speaker 1>five to nine Zone five to nine parts sun, part
<v Speaker 1>shade and shade as These work best for us because
<v Speaker 1>we have a lot of trees. We've been getting design
<v Speaker 1>inspiration from pinterest Mediterranean patio designs. It'll be a good
<v Speaker 1>project for us. Our front yard will remain a lawn hoa,
<v Speaker 1>but we are now enjoying our water bill being cut
<v Speaker 1>in half. I can imagine in Texas we're looking forward
<v Speaker 1>to seeing your design decisions. That's fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, what are the chances that we were
<v Speaker 2>pretty much doing this exact same project at the same
<v Speaker 2>time and we had the same approach, which is just
<v Speaker 2>that this idea can bias time to work on it
<v Speaker 2>in phases. So I was absolutely tickled to see this
<v Speaker 2>message and know that other people are joining the movement.
<v Speaker 2>And if you aren't familiar, there are videos on our
<v Speaker 2>YouTube channel of what I've done to my yard and
<v Speaker 2>there will be an update out and you can see
<v Speaker 2>where it was at in August and maybe we'll have
<v Speaker 2>another one in spring.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's great and Jennifer, I can't wait to see
<v Speaker 1>updates of your landscape and what you've done, that's fantastic
<v Speaker 1>and it's great. Yeah. I think what you're doing, Stacy
<v Speaker 1>is inspirational. You know I've done the same. I'm lawnless.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, you are very lawless. You have like a lawn.
<v Speaker 1>Path, not lawless, lawnless.
<v Speaker 2>You might be lawless to I.
<v Speaker 1>Fought the lawn and the lawn one. Yeah. Where are we? Oh?
<v Speaker 1>Here it is?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this long question here, Hi.
<v Speaker 1>Stacy and Rick. I absolutely loved the show, been watching
<v Speaker 1>from the beginning. Okay, so there's a backstory here. You
<v Speaker 1>want to share it with us?
<v Speaker 2>So this listeners said a lot of photos that will
<v Speaker 2>have on YouTube or on gardening Simplified on air dot com.
<v Speaker 2>She had a beautiful old silver maple that they had
<v Speaker 2>to cut down because of age. They think it was very,
<v Speaker 2>very old. They were very sad to have to lose it.
<v Speaker 2>But they left the stump and use it as like
<v Speaker 2>a perch for a flower pot, which is a very
<v Speaker 2>nice idea, give it some height and make it a
<v Speaker 2>little more attractive. But now the stump has, of course
<v Speaker 2>continued to rot. This was four years ago, so now
<v Speaker 2>they need it ground down. And what she wants to
<v Speaker 2>do instead is to plant a temple of bloom hepticodium
<v Speaker 2>where the silver maple used to be. But she said
<v Speaker 2>that people are giving her various opinions on whether or
<v Speaker 2>not it will actually grow in this spot. So they're
<v Speaker 2>planning to have the stump ground down, pass soil level,
<v Speaker 2>add top soil loam, and compost back into it even
<v Speaker 2>and out, even though it's sloped. They're going to regrade
<v Speaker 2>it and get it back to basically as if the
<v Speaker 2>tree had not existed near as you can tell above ground.
<v Speaker 2>She says, we're willing to put in the care if
<v Speaker 2>but will it work and will it survive? What should
<v Speaker 2>I do? Or grass? And so she's just wondering what
<v Speaker 2>you can do. And I wanted to say I had
<v Speaker 2>a ash tree removed from my property shortly after we
<v Speaker 2>moved in. Of course, here in Michigan, we were the
<v Speaker 2>epicenter for the emerald ash bor invasion, which is killed,
<v Speaker 2>you know, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of ashes nationwide,
<v Speaker 2>and I unfortunately had the bad luck of having a
<v Speaker 2>very beautiful mature ash in my yard succumbing to it
<v Speaker 2>eventually because it took a little while to get out
<v Speaker 2>here in the West. So when we did have that
<v Speaker 2>taken out. We did have it professionally ground and I
<v Speaker 2>have to say there was not a trace of stump
<v Speaker 2>when this was done.
<v Speaker 1>Same experience for me. You do want to talk to
<v Speaker 1>the people who are doing the grinding of the stump
<v Speaker 1>to make sure they go deep enough take that stump out.
<v Speaker 1>But I had the same thing. I had a very
<v Speaker 1>large oak tree next to my house and it was
<v Speaker 1>too close to the house. It needed to go. I
<v Speaker 1>replanted as soon as we were done grinding that stump out. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>I used a hatchet. I did some digging, making sure
<v Speaker 1>all the roots were gone. You don't want to have
<v Speaker 1>the wood chips left laying around because they're going to
<v Speaker 1>extract or not necessarily extract, but burn up valuable nutrients
<v Speaker 1>for the plant that you put in. But other than that,
<v Speaker 1>and you will see recommendations on the internet not to
<v Speaker 1>plant in an area where you've ground down a tree.
<v Speaker 1>But I've done it successfully a few times.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean I didn't replace this one with a tree.
<v Speaker 2>It was just with a variety of different perennials and
<v Speaker 2>that kind of thing. But I found no issue whatsoever
<v Speaker 2>planting in the area, and especially if they are going
<v Speaker 2>to the landscapers are going to you know, take this
<v Speaker 2>away and put soil. I don't think you should have
<v Speaker 2>any trouble at all planting a hepticodium. And one thing
<v Speaker 2>I would say is that if you are concerned, you
<v Speaker 2>you know, maybe start to dig before you head out
<v Speaker 2>to the garden center, and if worse comes to worse,
<v Speaker 2>start with a one gallon plant. Any time you have
<v Speaker 2>an area that's difficult to dig in, if you can
<v Speaker 2>find a smaller one gallon plant instead of a big
<v Speaker 2>three gallon plant, that means less digging for you, and
<v Speaker 2>chances are the plant is going to be able to
<v Speaker 2>sort it out itself. I mean, this year, four years
<v Speaker 2>after your tree removal, there's not going to be a
<v Speaker 2>lot of living roots in there still trying to take
<v Speaker 2>you know, water and really competing with your new plants.
<v Speaker 2>So I don't personally think it'll be a problem, especially since,
<v Speaker 2>as you've said, you are willing to you know, put
<v Speaker 2>the work in and make sure that it is well
<v Speaker 2>cared for. You're going to be keeping a close eye
<v Speaker 2>on it. I don't personally see any reason, you know,
<v Speaker 2>I don't think that silver maples typically have any kind
<v Speaker 2>of like a lollopathic or you know the effect of
<v Speaker 2>curtailing growth of other plants, like you know, a black walnut.
<v Speaker 1>Might I think if anything, some surface roots remaining. You're
<v Speaker 1>going to see evidence of that with mushrooms sometimes. But again,
<v Speaker 1>you know, the soil could be exhausted, so fertilizing, adding
<v Speaker 1>some nutrients minerals back into the soil probably would be key.
<v Speaker 1>But beyond that, I truly believe that you can replant
<v Speaker 1>in this area.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and you know it is sad as it was
<v Speaker 2>to lose your silver maple. Silver maples are problem trees.
<v Speaker 2>I have a huge one in my front yard. Unfortunately,
<v Speaker 2>I often say that I have the worse luck for
<v Speaker 2>mature trees on my property because it was the silver maple,
<v Speaker 2>a Siberian elm and an ash and it's just like,
<v Speaker 2>couldn't anyone have picked a decent tree at some point
<v Speaker 2>in the history of this home. So things have improved.
<v Speaker 2>But anyway, as sad as that might have been, your sewers,
<v Speaker 2>no doubt thank you for the loss of the silver maple.
<v Speaker 2>So if you have a question, no forget you can
<v Speaker 2>reach out to us at Gardening Simplified on air dot
<v Speaker 2>com and we would always love to hear from you.
<v Speaker 2>We're going to take a little break and when we
<v Speaker 2>come back, the birdman is coming in for a landing,
<v Speaker 2>so stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to
<v Speaker 2>you by Proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning
<v Speaker 2>flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed and tested for
<v Speaker 2>your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work.
<v Speaker 2>Look for Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs in the distinctive
<v Speaker 2>white container at your local garden center.
<v Speaker 1>Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. Today for Branching News,
<v Speaker 1>a show favorite, we have an opportunity to chat with
<v Speaker 1>the birdman. That's right, the birdman, Bill Stovell, swooping in
<v Speaker 1>here on the Gardening Simplified Show. Our topic of course
<v Speaker 1>today has been berries and fall berries and birds love
<v Speaker 1>berries and treat shrubs as an all you can eat buffet.
<v Speaker 1>And it's not an uncommon sight, of course, to see
<v Speaker 1>cardinals or cedar waxwings gulping them down on a wintery day.
<v Speaker 1>When you think about it, a lot of birds, well
<v Speaker 1>they love worms and insects, bugs, but boy, they're not
<v Speaker 1>going to turn down a good berry bill. Thanks for
<v Speaker 1>joining us. On the show, And am I correct that
<v Speaker 1>birds love berries, birds.
<v Speaker 3>Need berries, and we need the birds to need berries
<v Speaker 3>because they also plant them for us.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yeah, and you.
<v Speaker 3>Thought about that and put the birds to work for you.
<v Speaker 1>That's right.
<v Speaker 3>I listened a dozen birds just thinking off the top
<v Speaker 3>of my head. I just love berries, and this is
<v Speaker 3>the time of the year to find them, and you
<v Speaker 3>should have a lot of them all around your own yard.
<v Speaker 1>Well, share some of those with us. Bill, What birds
<v Speaker 1>would you say, really go after the berries?
<v Speaker 3>Well, robins are a lot of fun. They like mountain
<v Speaker 3>ash you know that story about too many mountain ash
<v Speaker 3>berries and they wobble all over the place. Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>blue jays and cedar wax twings and bluebirds and revering blackbirds,
<v Speaker 3>and goldfinches, purple finches, wood thrush, beery song sparrows, chickadees.
<v Speaker 3>Kid might now I've had a few.
<v Speaker 2>I've hit cardinals on a non invasive honeysuckle shrub in
<v Speaker 2>my garden. They seem to really like the fruits of that,
<v Speaker 2>which are in summer, not fall.
<v Speaker 3>Well, that's what I'm thinking about berries. They come on
<v Speaker 3>in all different seasons. You know, we don't pick a
<v Speaker 3>lot of strawberries right now, but we're sure are picking,
<v Speaker 3>uh you know, some of the fall berries. Yeah, and
<v Speaker 3>don't don't miss the crab apples and the flying crabs
<v Speaker 3>and all all the little understory trees that create dogwoods
<v Speaker 3>that create berries for our people down.
<v Speaker 2>So, how is it that a bird is able to
<v Speaker 2>eat a berry, which of course they're eating not for
<v Speaker 2>the seed inside, but for the flesh around the seed,
<v Speaker 2>because that's, of course where all the nutrients are. How
<v Speaker 2>is it that the berry is able to pass through
<v Speaker 2>their digestive system without being digested.
<v Speaker 3>Well, the flesh around the berry is what is taken
<v Speaker 3>off on the inside of the bird, and then the
<v Speaker 3>acids in the stomach of the bird often helped to
<v Speaker 3>break the edge of the outside of the seeds down
<v Speaker 3>and make them those they can sprout, so they actually
<v Speaker 3>go through a planting process by eating them, and.
<v Speaker 2>It comes out with a little fertilizer load conveniently attached
<v Speaker 2>to the seeds. Gives it a perfect little start there.
<v Speaker 1>Well. Of course, berries offer a lot of energy to birds.
<v Speaker 1>They're packed with sugars, fats, and vitamins, but they're kind
<v Speaker 1>of low in protein. But and that protein that of
<v Speaker 1>course they're going to get from insects, you know. I
<v Speaker 1>watch the woodpeckers in my yard. Of course they love
<v Speaker 1>the insects, but boy, they'll go after the berries too.
<v Speaker 1>But it does bring up the point that in the
<v Speaker 1>dead of winter, when those insects aren't around to help
<v Speaker 1>supplement those berries, it's not a bad idea to have
<v Speaker 1>a couple bird feeders set out right.
<v Speaker 3>Well, particularly if you're talking about the protein. I have
<v Speaker 3>a sewet feeder or two around for everybody to come
<v Speaker 3>and nibble on, because that's good protein. But there are
<v Speaker 3>a lot of berries that wind are over. As a
<v Speaker 3>matter of fact, the high bush cranberry is better and
<v Speaker 3>late in the winter and early spring because it's pretty harsh.
<v Speaker 3>It's the first thing in the fall.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, No, we should just clarify for anyone listening
<v Speaker 2>that the high bush cranberry is actually a viburnum, not
<v Speaker 2>a cranberry. It's just as called the cranberry bush because
<v Speaker 2>it has red fruit. But they're actually quite tall ra
<v Speaker 2>as cranberries are low growing, and there are a lot
<v Speaker 2>of viburnums from Asia, but there are also a number
<v Speaker 2>of American Native American viburnums of which the American cranberry
<v Speaker 2>bush is one. And yeah, beautiful jewell like fruit on
<v Speaker 2>there that does resemble its namesake.
<v Speaker 3>I have a gratefully, gratefully been viburnums that are just
<v Speaker 3>growing wild all around my plate too. So they just
<v Speaker 3>just what makes you take its course.
<v Speaker 2>If you can. Yeah, it's a great approach.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 1>Early in fall on these plants, whether it's viburnum, whatever
<v Speaker 1>type of plant it is, those berries can be really
<v Speaker 1>fluorescent and beautiful and ornamental. As the fall progresses, we
<v Speaker 1>start to have some hard frosts. Some of these trees
<v Speaker 1>are still loaded with berries and fruits, but they start
<v Speaker 1>to wrinkle. And I often think Bill about the fact
<v Speaker 1>that some of this fruit is fermenting. Does that cause
<v Speaker 1>problems for birds? Maybe window collisions, that type of thing.
<v Speaker 1>Do we have some Do we experience some difficulty with them?
<v Speaker 3>I'm not sure that that fermentation changes their minds very much,
<v Speaker 3>but it may change their ability to walk or fly, yes,
<v Speaker 3>particularly walk around underneath some of the those But I
<v Speaker 3>don't think there's anything wrong that you can pass a
<v Speaker 3>little bit of alcohol through your system and not be
<v Speaker 3>any of the work.
<v Speaker 2>For wear usually right, and so it does seem that
<v Speaker 2>there is, you know, in my experience, a wide range
<v Speaker 2>of when birds prefer to eat different berries. So some
<v Speaker 2>you know, they'll be taking right and fall when they're fresh,
<v Speaker 2>and then yeah, a lot of them, like crab apples
<v Speaker 2>and the vibernium that you just mentioned, they kind of
<v Speaker 2>want to soften, you know, to have gone through several
<v Speaker 2>freeze thought cycles, so that those fruits start to soft
<v Speaker 2>to soften and get juicy, and they seem to do
<v Speaker 2>they seem to prefer them that way, or it's just
<v Speaker 2>that they have exhausted other food sources so then they
<v Speaker 2>go for those.
<v Speaker 3>I think they prefer them that way. It may help
<v Speaker 3>with the digestion. I don't know, it's part of the system,
<v Speaker 3>but it's consistent. They some wait till later. A lot
<v Speaker 3>of the apples, and just as you talk about, so
<v Speaker 3>there's there's fruit available through most of the season you know, spring, summer, fall,
<v Speaker 3>and winter. But it's it's something that they really depend
<v Speaker 3>on in the winter to have some some berries around
<v Speaker 3>and some of the dogwoods have berries a good last
<v Speaker 3>well into the spring.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, one of the great things about this
<v Speaker 2>sort of you know, range of preferences from a horticultural
<v Speaker 2>standpoint is that as gardeners, that means we get to
<v Speaker 2>enjoy the berries and the birds eating them. So we'll
<v Speaker 2>have all that color, you know, all through late fall
<v Speaker 2>and early winter, and then we get to enjoy the
<v Speaker 2>birds eating them. So it's kind of a win win situation.
<v Speaker 3>Certainly is and the color and just the different I mean,
<v Speaker 3>the red Osier dogwood is the stems are red, but
<v Speaker 3>the berries are white, and it's just constant activity.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you bet beautiful now, Bill. When we talk about
<v Speaker 1>this for our home landscapes, of course, the berries are beautiful,
<v Speaker 1>the birds like to eat the berries, but in essence
<v Speaker 1>we are also providing a service to the birds in
<v Speaker 1>that these types of shrubs you mentioned, the dog wood
<v Speaker 1>or viburnum, they provide some protection also, you know, we
<v Speaker 1>were talking about gin fizz juniper, junipers or evergreens, whatever
<v Speaker 1>plants like this that we add to our landscape. Birds
<v Speaker 1>need some protection in winter also, whether it be hiding
<v Speaker 1>from predators or from maybe the nasty windy cold weather.
<v Speaker 3>Correct cover is real important for birds to break the
<v Speaker 3>wind and hide into and underneath the underneath that cover,
<v Speaker 3>there's often food places to scratch around when the weather's bad, sure,
<v Speaker 3>so landscaping is really important. And to take a look
<v Speaker 3>at what you're going to be planting and how big
<v Speaker 3>it's going to be, and if you can use some
<v Speaker 3>of the shorter understory trees, the dogwoods and some of
<v Speaker 3>the others to plant, it really helps your helps your
<v Speaker 3>garden and helps the looks through everything.
<v Speaker 2>How important are thorny plants in this or plants that
<v Speaker 2>would be you know, more of a deterrent to predators.
<v Speaker 2>I'm thinking specifically cats, because of course there are a
<v Speaker 2>lot of people who have, you know, who are facilitating
<v Speaker 2>feral cats and that kind of thing. I had always
<v Speaker 2>heard that if you do have some nice thorny shrubs
<v Speaker 2>around it, those are extra helpful for birds and escaping
<v Speaker 2>from cats.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know anything about that. I do know that
<v Speaker 3>we have some. I mean, I've got hawthorn here and
<v Speaker 3>it's a beautiful and thorny thing. I've got black locusts
<v Speaker 3>here and it's got thorns on it. But I didn't
<v Speaker 3>think about dissuading cats. I'd just assume they'd be indoors.
<v Speaker 2>Well, ideally they would be, but unfortunately the reality for
<v Speaker 2>many people does not align. And I'm sure, of course,
<v Speaker 2>and your wonderful guard and the birds are very safe
<v Speaker 2>and have no shortage of places to take refuge.
<v Speaker 1>Would you plant a barberry?
<v Speaker 2>Heck?
<v Speaker 1>No, no, yeah, I like, I like.
<v Speaker 3>It was volunteer, but I've got it's probably about eight
<v Speaker 3>feet long and about four feet high in about four
<v Speaker 3>feet wide, and it is filled with berries.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, barbary, barbary, yeah, barbary stuff.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I can do other things for the birds,
<v Speaker 2>then plant of barbary.
<v Speaker 3>Just saying well, red ferries are really good for that
<v Speaker 3>kind of thing too. That's thorny and it creates a
<v Speaker 3>good jam sometimes.
<v Speaker 1>You bet, you bet, Bill. In addition to the berries,
<v Speaker 1>I know you're a big proponent of making sure that
<v Speaker 1>we provide some sort of water source for the birds,
<v Speaker 1>especially as we head into fall and winter, particularly here
<v Speaker 1>in the North and in the Midwest, something that you
<v Speaker 1>need to think about, right.
<v Speaker 3>Bird bets are critical. Birds can find food, they can
<v Speaker 3>fly around and find that, but one thing's freeze over.
<v Speaker 3>They're in trouble if they need to take a drink,
<v Speaker 3>and they need to be clean during the winter as well.
<v Speaker 3>But to have a bird bat year round is a
<v Speaker 3>really good idea. Providing you stump it out on a
<v Speaker 3>regular basis so that you don't breed mosquito.
<v Speaker 1>That's true, Birdman. When we interview people on the show
<v Speaker 1>about plants, we usually ask them the question, do you
<v Speaker 1>have a favorite plant that you want to share with
<v Speaker 1>our listeners? I want to ask you do you have
<v Speaker 1>a favorite bird? If you were forced to say this
<v Speaker 1>is my favorite bird, what bird would it be?
<v Speaker 3>Oh? Rick, I know I can't. I can't choose a
<v Speaker 3>grandchild or a great grand value like I think loons
<v Speaker 3>or affiliated woodpeckers, or I like a flash of a
<v Speaker 3>cardinal Baltimore ools of northern oil. I'm sorry that old school.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and.
<v Speaker 3>I got a lot of little lbj's around, little brown jobs,
<v Speaker 3>little black jobs that are just the activity LBJ. It's LBJ. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>little little brown job used to be president. If you
<v Speaker 3>have difficulty and identification, just look at the color code
<v Speaker 3>and then just state what that's really professional it is LBJ.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know it's it's across disciplines, because I know
<v Speaker 2>an entomology, they have lbm's little brown moths and and yep,
<v Speaker 2>and and Adriana says they have little brown mushrooms. So
<v Speaker 2>she is very interested in mushroom foraging. So she says,
<v Speaker 2>they have LBMs little brown mushrooms. And of course in
<v Speaker 2>horticulture we have the d y c s, the darn
<v Speaker 2>yellow composites, which is there's so many yellow daisy like flowers.
<v Speaker 2>It's just kind of yeah, it's one of those, you know,
<v Speaker 2>it's a it's a good catch all. Might seem unprofessional,
<v Speaker 2>but it is widespread use across academia and lay people alike.
<v Speaker 3>Well, it's gives you a taste of professionalism to be
<v Speaker 3>able to use some interesting terms.
<v Speaker 1>Exactly, I suppose I'm going to just start throwing acronyms
<v Speaker 1>at things, and yes, I'll sound professional and like I
<v Speaker 1>know what I'm talking about.
<v Speaker 3>That thank you just say usually thank.
<v Speaker 1>You before we let you go. Bird Man got to
<v Speaker 1>ask you real quickly. For the people who love the
<v Speaker 1>hummingbirds out there, I've enjoyed them all summer. Long as
<v Speaker 1>we get into fall they start heading out. When should
<v Speaker 1>you take down? I mean a question people often ask,
<v Speaker 1>when do you take down that hummingbird feeder?
<v Speaker 3>I would say, when you stop seeing them and let
<v Speaker 3>us go a couple of weeks. It's not negative to
<v Speaker 3>leave it out. Make sure it stays fresh, don't let
<v Speaker 3>it get stale. But it's not going to keep them here.
<v Speaker 3>The light is what makes them move, not the food.
<v Speaker 3>So they're not going to stay because they're having bird
<v Speaker 3>feeders full right, Yeah, it's time to time to do that.
<v Speaker 3>It's time to keep watching. And then when when you
<v Speaker 3>don't see your humming birds around anymore than you take
<v Speaker 3>it down for the season.
<v Speaker 1>Well, Birdman, I w f it was funs.
<v Speaker 3>Knowing the letters.
<v Speaker 1>Always fun to talk to you folks. That's it's the Birdman,
<v Speaker 1>Bill Stovell. We always love talking to you, and I
<v Speaker 1>know our listeners viewers love it too. Thanks so much, Birdman,
<v Speaker 1>Thank you.
<v Speaker 3>Bill, Well, thanks for thanks for seeing you guys. Talk
<v Speaker 3>with you later.
<v Speaker 2>Well, there is never a dull moment when the Birdman visits,
<v Speaker 2>so we are always grateful to hear from him, and
<v Speaker 2>we hope you are too. So I want to thank Birdman.
<v Speaker 2>I want to thank you Rick, and of course thank
<v Speaker 2>you Adriana, and most of all, thank you all to
<v Speaker 2>you for listening watching the Gardening Simplified Show. We hope
<v Speaker 2>you have a wonderful week ahead.