Pruning Demystified & How Honey Bees Handle a Weird Spring

Coming to you from Studio A here at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's
time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist,
and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Okay, today we get to talk
about pruning and obviously herbaceous material like your perennials. Well, we pruned them
up and cleaned them up last fall, and if there's still some left,
like ornamental grasses, we can cut them back now. But when we talk
about pruning, as we get to the vertumnal time of the year versusumnl.
Yeah. I threw that in there, Stacey, because a tumnal rolls off
the tongue. But a lot of people don't know of that seventeenth century word
that pertains to spring vertumnol. So I've never heard that word. I hadn't
either, That's why I threw it in. I think it's interesting. So
really, the question is when is the best time of year to prune my
trees and my rub And the reason people can sometimes get confused or hesitate is
because pruning requirements of trees and shrubs will not only vary according to the species,
but also depend on the purpose of the pruning and Stacy, if I
had a dime for every time someone has asked me about how to prune a
bud leah or a hydrangea or a clematis, I'd be a rich guy.
Oh yeah, those are three big stumpers right there. Oh, good one,
big stumpers. Yes. As a matter of fact, my word of
the day hag snare. Oh, hag snare. There's another lost word found
in the Internet archive. It's a stub off which wood has been cut.
Oh, there you go. You can add that one to your portfolio.
Uh So, what's the secret And I'm stealing this one from Stacy? What's
the secret of transitioning from a competent gardener to a confident one pruning? I'd
suggest you watch Stacy's video. And also, Stacy, you produce something called
Pruning Demystified and it's a web page that will link at Gardeningsimplified on air dot
com. It is. It is excellent, Stacy, because again, many
times people become paralyzed knowing that they should prune, afraid to prune because I'm
gonna kill the thing or I'm gonna mess it up. It's so true.
People sort of have this vague notion that gardening or even just having a landscape
requires pruning. So they know these two concepts, but they don't know how
they go together. And you know, I think a lot of people will
drive around they'll see, you know, landscapes at gas stations, and they'll
see those things pruned to within an inch of their lives and they'll say,
that is a well maintained landscape. That's what my landscape should look like.
If it does, everyone knows that I care and I'm taking care of my
plants, and that's what it should look like. And so that's not the
case at all. I mean, pruning is done for specific purposes. A
pruned landscape does not equal a well maintained landscape. It does not equal a
beautiful landscape, certainly. But pruning is a very powerful gardening tool. And
I think for myself, you know that thing that I wrote that you said
in pruning tmstified that it's transitioning from a competent gardener to a confident one when
you do prune properly, and when you see how what you've pruned has impacted
the plant's growth, Yes, it really just kind of distills it all and
it really starts to make sense for you. And so that's why it's so
important to understand what you're doing and not just go out there willy nilly and
just say, Okay, everything looks care for I pruned it. I mean,
that's just you know, it's all about making sense exactly. And Stacy,
I'm in your camp because you have always said don't prune without a reason.
Never, So why do we prune? Well, the reason we prune
is to improve flowering and fruiting, even stem color on plants like dog.
Would ye improve the plants habit or shape, encourage reblooming, neet in a
plant's appearance, rejuvenate it, or maybe if you're really getting into pruning,
forming a hedge or some sort of topiary. But always prune with a reason.
And with that, Stacey, I threw together a very short limerick to
share with you on pruning because it causes so much worry for people. Oldwood,
newwood, deadwood. My to prune or not to prune? I ask
why height and length to measure? I'm really feeling the pressure. Do I
take action or do I just stand by? Ooh? People ask themselves that
in the garden all the time. Right, and you take something like hydranges
or bud Leah's. The fear is I'm going to damage the plant or I'm
going to reduce flowering by pruning. And as we leave winter and head into
spring, there is that risk that you can could prune out flowers with some
plants, right, And there is that risk. Now that is a risk
that is a disappointment certainly for someone who does that. And that's why we
always say, when in doubt, don't prune. If you don't prune something,
it's a lot easy to recover from not pruning then from over pruning.
And you know, it's just if you don't know why you're pruning, then
you don't know what to do. You don't know how much to cut,
you don't know where to make your cuts. That reason why you are pruning
literally informs every other decision that you're going to make in that pruning project.
So I would say, if you don't have that initial reason, then do
stand by. Then do put the pruners down. Either leave it alone,
write a message to the gardening Simplified Show. Maybe we'll be able to help
you. Read some articles online, ask a gardening friend, but you know,
try to determine that reason, and then you can make your decision,
and if that happens next year, that's perfectly fine. Pruning is is rarely
an issue of like, if I don't prune this, the plant is going
to It's really an esthetic nicety. I mean, unless, of course,
it's like a damage, which we've had a ton of damage this year with
all of that cool, heavy wet snow. You know, if you have
a hanging limb, well then all of this goes out the window. But
in terms of maintaining your landscape, when in doubt, don't prune. As
they say in broadcasting, please stand by the opinions here are not the fault
of your receiver. They're just our opinions and stacy. For me, what
I hate to see with pruning. There's nothing like a plant having a bad
hair day where somebody just takes a little off the top. Now, I
think taking a little off the top sometimes it's necessary, but most of the
time we are far better off again going in with a reason, because when
we prune back on a branch, it forces outward growth, it makes the
plant fuller, or forces blooming. In some cases, we take a branch
all the way out as opposed to taking a little off the top. But
as I drive out and about in neighborhoods or when I'm out running, I
see it all the time, plants where just a little has been taken off
the top, and it drives me nuts. Yeah, it's it's not my
jam, it is not my style, and I don't it's it's you're just
asking yourself, why did someone do this? Even if you do want to
height control your plant, you want it to be shorter. You know,
you're not going to give it the buzz cut. You want to get out
there with your hand pruners and make individual cuts. Don't just take your heads
trimmer and you know, cut it flat so it has a buzz cut.
You want to cut out selectively to maintain a more natural look, especially when
you're just bringing the top. Yeah. Maybe it goes back to my childhood
because I look at pictures now when I was very young, and I think
my mom put a pot on my head and just cut my hair that way.
But it was cheap, so it was it was easy. Uh.
You know, time of the year is a critical issue. In summer,
I'd like to do some maintenance pruning, but in general, step away from
the pruners early in spring. You know, grape vines are a great example.
People will prune grape vines very hard during the months months of February and
March. So early spring or late winter in ideal time because also, Stacey,
there's no insect or disease activity. We get a good look at the
plant and we do a better job of pruning. You know, it's such
a good time to get that, you know, good look at the structure
of the plant. Very often you can see where the buds are emerging or
are going to emerge, which also helps you make the right decisions. So
I think it's a great time. There are a few things, except of
course for those who lime on old wood, which you know, got plenty
of detail for that, you know, on that for you to determine that.
There's few things that aren't best pruned in early spring while there's still somewhat
dormant. Yeah, exactly. Lilacs are one of the first plants that comes
to mind. Not prune lilacs or for scythia, but in general those spring
bloomers, I like to prune them right after they're done blooming. On a
future show, Stacey will talk about the topic of tools, but I do
want to mention in this segment get yourself a good, high quality, clean
bypass pruners. Not one of those mashers, Nope, but a bypass pruner,
as long as you don't lose it. And I do lose them sometimes
I find them with a lawnmower, but I do lose them. Still spend
some money and get a good perner. You know, it's so worth it.
Your hands will thank you, your plants will thank you. And those
mashers they're called anvil pruners. And the issue with those, of course,
they don't make a nice clean cut. They smash the wood. But they're
much cheaper than the bypass pruners. So when people, especially beginning gardeners or
people on a budget, go to the garden center to buy those pruners,
they just say, well, this is pruners. This is ten bucks or
twenty bucks cheaper than the other ones, and they end up with the wrong
pruner. Anvil pruners are often used by foresters because they stay sharp and they're
just doing, like, you know, different kinds of work. They're fine
if you're doing cut flowers, but in terms of pruning from your actual landscape
plants a bypass pruner with a scissor action. There's no other choice. Yeah,
in general, you'll find those cheap pruners have to check out along with
the candy bars for impulse purchases. Get to the tool section and spend some
dough on that bypass pruning. Cheers. Plants on trial coming up next here
on the Gardening Simplified Show, Proven winners. 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 in the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time
where we put a plant on trial, which is to say, we're going
to tell you about one of the three hundred and twenty plus proof Winter's Color
Choice shrubs and you get to decide if it's going to earn a spot in
your garden or landscape or not. Now I'm gonna have to come right out
and say that today's plan on trial is a fabulous one. It's Rise up,
Lilac day's rose. I like that, and you know what, I
can see why you picked it because in the previous segment I mentioned hydranges and
bud leah. But when it comes to pruning rosy, yeah, I mean,
I think roses are the thing. People think roses, they think pruning
even more so than almost anything else, any other kind of plant. And
I wanted to pick Rise Up Lilac days because it is the Rise Up series
are the first ever climbing roses from proven Winter's color Choice shrubs. And I'm
going to get into that in a minute, but it's going to take me
a long time to kind of build up to that, because of course,
you know, I like to tie the plant into the topic of the day,
and it's pruning, and spring is for pruning. People get real antsy,
they want to do the right thing. And again people just think roses
need to be prune, and that is true. And I I have found
in my own personal gardening journey that when I read about pruning roses, when
I learned about the how and why of pruning roses, as we said in
the first segment, things just really crystallized for me. And that was knowledge
I was able to see and apply across other plants as well. Now,
I do want to first say that, you know, we're talking about pruning.
We talk a lot about shrubs on the show, but really all types
of plants can be pruned for different reasons. So annuals, you know,
you might give your annuals a trim in the middle of the summer to kind
of shorten them, make them a little bit, reinvigorate them. A pinch
to grow an inch, A pinch to grow an inch. Dead Heading is
a type of pruning. So if you're dead heading geraniums or something else,
that is actually also a type of pruning. People prune their perennials. I
know when I was a rooftop gardener in New York City, the designer that
I was working for liked to have his hostas pruned. He didn't like them
to have as many leaves as they were supposed to have. He wanted more
space. So I would go in there and I would yank out hostile leaves,
and that was all also a type of pruning. Of course, we're
going to talk about shrubs and trees. Those are a totally different technique with
a different approach. But when it comes to shrubs. I think roses really
do represent all of the benefits and reasons why you might prune something. So
the reason that we prune roses so regularly, why they have this association with
pruning, is because if you do not prune a rose, what happens is
the growth gets really really tall, it gets really really skinny, and you
just get a few kind of wimpy flowers way up there at the tippy top.
So it's not going to look anything like the pictures that you see on
our plant tags or on our website. It's not going to have that big,
beautiful rose bush, light rose bush look that people like so much.
Now, if you prune a rose, what you do is you do two
things. You take off that apical bud, the top bud, which produces
hormones, which stifles the growth of anything below it, so you keep it
from just one means you grow upward ever skinnier. And by taking off that
top bud, which was produced later in the previous season when the days were
getting shorter and cooler, you're taking the growth back to thicker, sturdier,
more vigorous buds that were created much earlier in the season, when the growing
season was ideal, you know, back in June July. The days are
long hot, and those thicker buds are going to result in thicker, more
vigorous growth, which is going to be stronger, more supportive, It's going
to look better, and most importantly, it's going to flower better. Have
you ever pruned a rose and some of the growth that came after your pruning
was thin and spindily and weak, and some of it was thick and vigorous.
Sure, the reason for that is the size of the bud that you
pruned back to. People get so confused by this. You know, I
thought I did the right thing. Some of the growth is skinny, the
thicker the bud that you prune back to. So you make your cut above
a bud, the thicker that bud is, the thicker and more vigorous the
growth that comes from it is. So with roses, we really want to
prune them at a time when those buds just start to emerge and you can
really clearly see where those buds are, how thick they are, and make
that cut, and then when you see the ensuing growth from those cuts,
that's I think when it really all starts to make sense for people. That's
fabulous advice. You rose to the occasion, Stacey. And when I first
started out in the garden center industry, they always told us to prune back
to the first five leaflet on the stem. To me, that really doesn't
make sense. I like what you're saying there. Yeah, I don't do
the leaflet thing. No, neither do I. And I also know why
they taught me that. Well, you know, there's a lot of pruning
practices especially that have been tossed out the windows since back in the day,
you know, I know, even when I was learning to garden, you
know, back in like the nineteen nineties, people were still saying, oh,
well, you must make the rose cut away from the bud so the
water drains away from it. And when I went to horticulture school, the
instructor was like, are you joking me? Do you see buds rotting everywhere?
Because when nature makes a pruning cut, it's not at a slant and
buds aren't rotting out. And as I've said before on the show, when
you are pruning off the plant, you do want to minimize the surface area
of the wound. You want to leave a smaller wound that's easier for the
plant to heal from. If you make a big, long, slanted cut,
that's a lot more surface area. Stacey, haven't many of these rolls
been thrown out the window because today, in the golden age of plant breeding,
these plants are more vigorous, they're fabulous. Like the plant you're featuring
today. There's that, yeah, a lot, and that does help a
lot, But a lot of these you we've just realized they're they're just not
true. They're just little things that probably people put into their gardening books to
make you buy them and think that they were giving you a little yeah,
hecks give you something a little bit extra. But the other reason that I
don't like cutting back to the five leaflet is, in my opinion, if
you are waiting until the rose has actually leafed out and is not still in
bud, then the rose just wasted all of that energy expanding those buds into
leaves that you're just gonna cut off. Now. It's not going to harm
the plant. These are all like best practices kind of things. So if
you wait, if you do it when they're still in bud, the plant
doesn't put energy into leafing those out. The energy within the roots and the
plants. A vascular system can be concentrated into the much smaller amount of buds
that you have left on the plant. And that's my approach to that.
Now, Oh man, I had so many things I wanted to say about
prunny, I'm not gonna have time, and this is like, it's like
torture to try to get this all into ten little minutes and tell you about
the fabulous Rise Up Lilac Day's rose. Now, all of the approach to
pruning roses is going to be the same. So everything that we're talking about,
you know, early spring pruning back to a thick and vigorous bud,
that's going to be the same. No matter what type of rose you have.
The differences are going to come depend on those types of roses. So
with something like a shrub rose, you can actually prune that thing with like
a hedge trimmer or a chainsaw, it's not real fussy. If you have
something like a hybrid t you're probably going to be a lot more delicate and
purposeful about where you make those cuts. And with something like a climbing rose
like Rise Up Lilac Days, then you're going to use a similar strategy,
but you have to understand that climbing roses do not climb on their own,
so they're not like a clematis. They're not like a climbing hydrangea. They're
not like ivy where they are able to climb up on something on their own.
Basically, what they are are roses that have naturally long, flexible canes
and they still still have thorns so they can cling somewhat, but that gives
them the ability to be trained on to a structure. So you know,
you're gonna have to do a little bit of work to get a climbing rose
to actually climb. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't prune it, because what
happens people worry, Hey, I finally got my climbing rose to cover this
thing. Now you're telling me I'm going to prune it like crazy. As
we've said on the show, when you have an established plant, you have
a big, vigorous root system which acts as an engine to fuel that growth.
So the more established your root system is, the more vigorously it is
going to recover from that pruning. So you're still going to want to prune
your climbing roses. Of course, they can get to a point where they're
very difficult to prune. But you want to make sure that you are taking
off that top growth. Otherwise what you're going to have is a climbing rose
with just a few spindly little flowers at the tippy top that you can't even
enjoy. You're not going to get that amazing cape cod rose covered cottage look
that you want by a growing a climbing rose. You're just going to have
like ten sad flowers and they're going to be at the top. Stacy,
I'm realizing we're going to have to do about three or four shows on the
rose topic. We could, we could, I know, it's like I
wish I could say so much more, but I do want to talk about
Rise Up Lilac Days specifically. So it is a what we call a mini
climb. So other climbing roses are gonna maybe have canes that are ten fifteen
feet more tall long, whereas Rise Up Lilac Days and the other roses in
the Rise Up series are about five to eight feet tall. So this is
an ideal size for planting on like a porch, pillar, pergolas, deck
railings, things like that. Of course, maybe a deck ralling isn't so
good because they do have thorns, But any place you're not gonna have to
have your hands. So it's a really nice scale, and I think that's
important. It's not going to take over your house. It's not going to
become a maintenance nightmare. It's just going to give you that beautiful column of
flowers. And the flowers on this plant you have to see them to believe
them. They are purple, and you know, a lot of roses color
kind of gets a little bit maybe exaggerated. They are a true kind of
lilac purple. And the fragrance if you smelled this plant, it is absolutely
stunning. You know, we love roses that have all the disease resistance in
vigor that we want in proven Winter's color choice shrubs, but with fragrance and
with amazing color, and this plant does that. Now, if you don't
have a place to grow a climbing rose, don't fret, because this is
a mini climber. You can actually grow it as a shop rose. It
doesn't strictly need the support, It just can be used that way. So
I really love that versatility because when you see this plant in the garden center
this year, you are going to want to have one for your own garden.
I can guarantee you that. And if you want to see the pictures
of it, you can visit us at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com or check
us out on Instagram, or of course, if you're watching YouTube version,
you're going to see all the fabulous footage that Adriana cuts in so you can
see it for yourself and decide if it is going to earn a spot in
your garden. Rise Up Lilac Day's Rose. We're going to take a little
bit of a break. When we come back, We've got the garden mail
bag to open up, so please 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, an 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. Greetings,
gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. I have
to confess I was quite the rambling rose in plans on trial talking about Rise
Up Lilac Day's Rose. So there was a lot of information. I didn't
even get out half the information that I wanted to get out, So please
do check out our show notes at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. I'm gonna
put in everything that I said, everything that I didn't say, linked to
the page of Rise Up Lilac Day's Rose, so you can see it for
yourself. And we'll also have resources there for you, because you know,
we want you to be successful, and that's why we have the garden mail
Bag so people can write us their questions. And it is definitely getting to
the time of year where people are worried. We have unusual warmth this spring,
so people are freaking out about all sorts of stuff to varying degrees and
you know, thinking ahead to the season and remembering things that they need to
deal with that happened last year. So what a we got in the mailbag
this time? Yeah, with an El Nino winter. As a matter of
fact, I'm going to be on the NBC affiliate here in West Michigan this
week talking about that fact that stuff is popping out of the ground. And
one of our YouTube viewers also asked us which is probably on a lot of
people's minds. My day lilies are emerging already zone five B six A.
Do I need to cover them when it freezes again? Daffodils, day lilies
popping out of the ground. Stacy they are, and you know, I
think that it's not a cause for concern. There are certainly things that are
sensitive too cold. If we have a warm snap and they start to emerge,
that tends to be more shrubs. There's certainly perennials that are susceptible to
that, but day lilies are not one of them. And day lilies are
naturally very early to emerge. And just because that's happening now in late February
instead of late March as it would under a more normal or winter, doesn't
mean that they can't make it. You know, it's they plants emerge based
on day length and warmth, and right now the days are getting longer,
and so you know, to some extent the plants know what they're doing.
You know they're being triggered, and yeah, we could have some cold snaps,
but that could happen in April, and it has happened when you know,
even when the dailies are emerging under more normal conditions. Sure, and
remember that part of the reason they're emerging is soil temperature. There is not
frost in many areas in the ground where normally we would have frost. Now
the question should I cover them, Stacy, I say no, don't cover
them. Now. For some people who have plants that are growing too quickly
because of early spring weather, I have had folks who have shaded the plants,
put up a little block create shade. Sun still somewhat low in the
south, and that has helped slow the growth. But I would say,
in the case of daylilies, don't worry about it. Yeah, you can't
kill them. You can't kill I mean you really can. You can try.
And also, they are so tough and vigorous, they have so much
energy stored up in their roots that it's really not a problem. And I
think that people. Now, if you're one of the listeners who are saying,
well, wait a minute, I'm in zone five B six A and
my day lilies aren't emerging. Should I be concerned? What you're going to
see very often is that plants that are near your home are going to emerge
a lot earlier than plants that are further away from your home. Your home
kind of creates a little microclimate. It's a little bit warmer, so it's
not necessarily a cause for concern. It's normal for day lilies to be early.
If you are going to have an unusually cold snap or frost or freeze
and you're concerned, it's not a problem to go out there and drape an
old towel or blanket or something like that. Not plastic, use something cloth.
So if you're concerned, you can do it, But I don't think
it's that you need to, and they'll still be okay. Aaron writes to
us, Oh, and let's tackle this issue. We're going to talk about
chig I call them red bugs. The chiggers have made being outside in the
garden really difficult to do, with miserable bites, even with a good layer
of bug spray. The Garden Center recommends dietamacious earth, but we have a
large yard and garden reapplying is intensive expensive. I'd really prefer not to use
an insecticide. There are a few insecticides out there to kill chiggers. So
are there specific plants I should target? What do I do? What other
bugs eat? Chiggers. Boy, I feel your pain. Eric, Yeah,
it's awful. Now I have to say I don't know anything about chiggers,
so Aaron's comment sent me into a chigger deep dive, and I've learned
more and seen more about chiggers than I had ever hoped to see. Other
bites are horrible. They are horrible. And as a matter of fact,
years ago, there was an entomologist that gave me this limearick of tiggers.
It's real short. The thing called a chigger is really no bigger than the
smaller end of a pin. But the bump that it raises just itches like
blazes, and that's where the rub sets in. Oh yes, I could
see that, very accurate. Yeah, and they it's not a pretty situation.
So I had to do a lot of research on this. I have
not had chiggers now. I do want to say a couple of things though.
So first of all, I think that if you I totally understand and
respect and appreciate anyone who doesn't want to use pesticides. But I think when
it does come down to a question of human life and health and well being,
sometimes we have to make exceptions. And I do want to say,
if you do want to call a professional service, that chiggers are actually not
insects. People think they're insects, but they're actually more closely related to spiders,
scorpions, and ticks. So a lot of times pesticides that will take
care of chiggers are not actually going to harm any insects, true insects that
you're trying to preserve. I know you care a lot about pollinators and want
to preserve them, so I would say find it a professional, ask them
what they use to treat chiggers, and then do your research on those chemicals
to see if they have any impacts on the insects that you're trying to conserve.
Now, if you do get that, you get your yard sprayed.
Remember that only the larval stage take of chiggers will actually bite you. No
other life phase of the chigger causes any harm to humans. So it's kind
of a brief window from when they hatch out in like early to mid spring,
until they feed on you or your pets or whatever, and then drop
off and move on to their next life stage. So if you're able to
get them in that stage, you won't have biting chiggers and you'll be able
to take care of them. Keep your yard clean if possible, of leaf
litter. I know a lot of us like to leave the leaves for different
insects and stuff. But the female chiggers adults lay their eggs in leaf litter.
So if you're able to clean that out now or sometime within the next
couple weeks, you'll remove a lot of potential egg laying sites. They like
shaded areas of soil better. So if you have areas where your plants are
close together and it's creating a nice, cool, shady area for them to
shelter in, put your dietamacious earth there. You don't have to go dusting
your entire yard to try to deal with them. Concentrate it into the types
of areas where they are going to shelter. Yeah, and along that vein
Stacy, I would recommend cutting back taller plants or grasses. Check out your
property. If you have a lot of tall grass surrounding the area, cut
it back. It's going to make a difference. Chiggers or red buds bugs
also love raspberries and blackberries for some reason. Oh really, Yeah, they
like to hang out in a raspberry or BlackBerry patch. And then the other
thing is tight clothes are not good. In other words, areas where your
clothes are tight, the band on your socks or waistband or the sleeve is
generally where they'll get in, get comfortable and do some damage. So think
about that too. Yeah, that's that's really good advice. Now, I
do want to say, if you have irrigation, leave it off for the
season. They tend to prefer humid, moisture environments, so if you're able
to keep your yard drier, that will certainly make them feel a lot less
welcome. And the good news is that all of these measures, whether it's
you know, cutting back your ornamental grasses, preventing things from getting taller,
or overhanging your lawn, keeping your lawn shorter than maybe we would normally recommend
for a healthy lawn, they can all be temporary until you take care of
your infestation and hopefully they won't come back. They don't fly, They just
kind of hitchhike a ride, so you don't have to worry about them,
you know, descending in swarms. Again, if you're able to take care
of this population in your yard right now by taking some of these more drastic
measures. You should be able to protect yourself in the future, hopefully.
But I would say, you know, if it really is as bad as
you're talking about and as bad as it sounds, I would say, consider
talking with a professional. Tell them your concerns, ask them what they're going
to be using, do your research, then make those adaptations to your yard.
That's an IPM approach right there. Got it. In an upcoming show,
we will be talking about IPM Integrated pest management Real quickly, Stacy,
Connie's asking you about a Winecraft black smoke bush where some branches growing really tall
and other branches short. Wants to know about how far back to prune a
smoke right now, Connie. This is such a great question because Connie also
mentions that she bought a court size Winecraft black smoke bush, and this is
a beautiful plant. Smoke bush is a very interesting plant. But the court
size is a size that we normally would sell to growers to grow on to
a larger size, and then they would be doing a lot of pruning to
build that plant. When you buy that court size, you need to take
that opportunity to do the pruning yourself. Well. Smoke bush especially if you
look at them right now in the winter, a more mature one. They
have a crazy growth habit. They look like they have like fireworks all over
them. They do this weird branching thing, and so it's just a natural
aspect of their growth is that they have a crazy growth habit. So I
would say, Connie, go ahead and hack that thing back. You're going
to lose your flowers this year, but not a big deal. I would
cut yours back to about probably you know, I saw they're pretty tall,
your stems, and we'll put the pictures in the show notes at Gardening Simplified
on air dot Com. I would say cut it back to you know,
just about a foot or two that's going to cause it to branch or wherever
you want that branching to start. Cut it back, and then you'll kind
of encourage that branching. If you don't encourage branching on a smoke bush,
it's not going to do it until it gets really tall and unruly. I
agree, Connie, show that plant whose boss? Yeah, get those bypass
pruners and hack it down. Thank y'all so much for your questions. We're
going to take a little bit of a break. When we come back,
we have a special guest for Branching News, so please say tuned. The
Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by Proven Winner's 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 Choice Shrubs
and the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the
Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for branching News. Today on Branching News and
interview with our friend Don Snowink from Thornapple Woodlands. And Don always gets me
excited about bees and nature and plants and all that type of thing. His
enthusiasm is fabulous. And Don, you sent me a picture the other day
of some maple trees that were well dripping what you call sapsicles. It's maple's
syrup season and in El Nino year, has it been kind of different this
year? Big time different is an understatement, you know. Usually we tap
the trees around the end of February. I like to say that March is
maple sirup months in Michigan, but with a year like this, we may
be finished by the middle of March easily. Wow, And the season started.
The SAPs started running at the end of January this year. So how
bizarre. Yeah, yeah, and then we see sapsicles. So on today's
show we talked about pruning. This is where a wound or a prune has
taken place, pruning has taken place, and now sapsicles start to form.
Because you know, we have this odd thing here in Michigan or in the
Midwest where we can get the sun to shine. It gets very warm during
the day and then it flash freezes at night. It's very cold that night.
It can be that that causes a sabsaicle or the SAP's been flowing during
the day and then it gets cold at night and freezes. Or more likely
even than that, is this scenario where it's a below freezing day. Let's
say it's thirty degrees for example, but the sun is out, so that
warms up the tree because that bark is dark, and it warms it up
and it gets the sap flowing inside that tree. As the sap comes out,
the wound, whether it's a cut from a human cutting a branch,
or whether a branch broke off in a storm over the winter, the sap
comes out of that cut, freezes and it grows as the sap drips down
there and freezes on that sabsaicle. Wow. Wow, And be honest with
me, don you would do exactly what I would do, right, you'd
snap one off and taste it, right, you better believe it. And
you know what's fascinating to me is this When you do that, immediately there's
a sweetness and then right away that sweetness goes away. So it's almost like
the sugar's on the outside or something. But here's what I am always curious
about too. Did we discover that there's sugar in there by grabbing a sapsicle
and sticking our in our mouth years and years and years ago? How did
this all start? Possibly that's one way. Yeah, you know, it
could have all be gone. Another possibility, of course, is watching the
squirrels, because squirrels love to bite into maple branches, and you see them
having a grand old time up there, just oh yeah, drinking it all
up, and you say, hey, maybe they have the right, adam,
Maybe there's something good in there that's exactly right. Last year when we
pulled our taps. We had still some weather where it froze at night,
got warmed during the day above freezing made the sap flow from that hole that
we vacated when we pulled out the spile, and I saw a squirrel go
out there and drink all that area. Pretty cool. Yeah, it is
called that's great. So that proves that sapsicles came first. Pancakes were invented
after sapsicles, and I guess that's how it works, right Don, Hey,
if you say it, I agree. You sent me a video that
we're going to share with our listeners and our viewers at Gardeningsimplified on air dot
com or here on our YouTube edition of the show, and that is of
bees just swarming in I think it was like mid February, and of course
we're here in Michigan in an El Nino winter. Inspired me, Don and
again caused me to think, what effect does an El Nino winter have on
these bees? Yeah, that's a that's really a good question, and I
think it makes me wonder the same. First of all, I think the
warmth during the days we get we get more days above freezing. That allows
those honey bees to vacate the hive to actually fly outside, and then they
defecate. We call that a cleansing flight where they don't go to the bathroom
in the hive for you kids that are listening out there, but they hold
it and then when they get a chance to fly, they're going to go
out and I'll see little brown yellow dots on the snow if there's snow on
the ground. That's from there doing their thing out there, and then they
fly back to the hives. So that's interesting. Interesting when you're on a
long trip with the kids on the expressway, it's it's like looking for a
rest area where you can turn off right exactly and think of the relief for
the bees. So that's on the pot. That's on the positive side for
the bees. Now to me, the negative side of having a warmer than
normal winter is they go through more honey over the winter. They've stored honey
in that hive. Those bees need to heat that five on the cooler days,
you know, they're keeping at ninety five degrees wow. And they do
that by shivering their thoracic muscle, that's the muscle they use to flap their
wings, but they disconnect from their wings keep vibrating that thoracic muscle that generates
heat. But they need a source of energy for that, and that's honey.
So they need to eat more honey. They're probably going to go through
more honey because they're more active, and that means less warmer Sorry man,
Yeah, and that means less for you or does that mean that it starts
to become more of a dire situation for the bees. It's more of the
situation for the bees because we've harvested our honey already at the end of summer,
and then we leave here where we live Michigan. I leave sixty to
eighty pounds of honey on the hives for the winter for the bees. So
in a warmer winter, when we get days in the fifty degree range,
I can go out to a beehive and lift the back of it, lift
the sides, gauge how much honey is in there, and if there's not
enough, I can do certain things to feed them an emergency feeding situation.
Now another concern. Now, obviously there's been so much talk about different paests
and diseases that are impacting honeybees. Do those tend to be worse when you've
had a milder winter. I suspect that they can be I'm not certain on
that, but I would think that a milder winter allows more bees to live
in that five And if any of them have mites like Verroa mites, which
are a carrier or a pathogen we call it for disease, then we may
have higher might loads we'd say, more whites than a hive come springtime,
which could bring on those diseases. So we're talking about honey bees here,
but of course we have our native bees also that are dealing with an al
Nino winter. And as things have gone, we may see things like red
maple blooming earlier this year, or winter aconite, or many of these different
types of plants that are going to produce that first pollen source. So again,
the bees don are going to have to be just like us, let
nature take its course, I would think so. And I think that the
bees are able to do that almost better than we are letting nature take its
course. They're adaptive, They're able to adapt to the kind of weather that
they're having at that time. So and the plants too are responding. Like
you said, the maple, some of the soft maples like the silver maple.
They may be blooming here in a sheltered location. I wouldn't be surprised
to see a silver maple already starting to bloom a little bit. So if
the bees get a flight day, they can a warm day where they can
fly from the hive, they can find that pollen there, or they can
go to skunk cabbage, which is probably blooming right now. So those types
of things should be available. The willows are some early forage plants. You
mentioned ac and i winter aconite snowdrops as well. We've seen them blooming.
Things like that are available. Well, you know, bees are on our
minds because we're all anxious for spring. And of course in California they have
the annual almond tree blossom in February March. They call it the world's largest
pollination event. And boy, they don't have enough native colonies of honey bees
in California and so they got to bring in a lot of bees from elsewhere.
Correct now they do, yes, so many what we call migratory beekeepers,
which are beekeepers that have hives of bees and then they migrate or bring
them to different areas of the country. When certain types of plants are blooming.
Now, it's almonds now, or if we're from northern California, what
would we say almonds in instead? Right, right, But it's a sight
to see. I guess the white blossoms in the orchards of almonds are pretty
astounding. But they need to bring in hives and hives of bees by the
truckload. So imagine that. Yeah, yeah, that is that is crazy.
You know, I'm always fascinated by bees, Stacey. I know you
love insects and studying insects, and you know, some of the reading I
had done this past winter talked about pollen stealing. In other words, in
Italy they have observed honeybees snatching pollen off the backs of bumble bees, and
then honey bees also having, you know, a remarkable ability to adjust their
flight behavior when they're hauling a load of nectars so they don't overheat. Bees
just are simply done fascinating, and I think that's why we're drawn to them,
not only the importance of bees in our landscape, but just the fascination
with them exactly. And I think they're probably the most studied insects studied by
humans. And you can see why I mean, I'm I've got eighteen years
of bee keeping under the belt now, and still I'm fascinated when I learned
something new, like you just mentioned where honey bees are stealing palling off the
backs or from the back legs of a bumblebee. You know, just stuff
like that it makes you shake your head. Or what you just talked about,
how the bees are adapting their flight behavior when they're loaded with pound so
that they don't overheat. Well, that's remarkable. But I almost just nod
my head and smile and think I'm not surprised anymore. You know, the
truth is stranger than fiction when it comes to honeybees. It's totally remarkable.
That's so true. Yeah, and we're all trying to find ways to support
the bees. Of course, the concept of nomo May was started in the
United States in Appleton, Wisconsin. As I understand it, the city suspended
their weed ordinances for the month of May. But in Florida, I have
found that no mo May has been adapted to no mo March and Stacey.
It does bring up the point that there are many things that we can do
for bees, including as we do on this show, encouraging people to plant
more flowers. Things that we can do and things we cannot do, like
Mo and look at the things around us and not judge them as weeds or
nuisances, but as a food source for bees and the other insects around us
that are actually really important. Exactly. Yeah, I mean we have no
shave November, right, why not? No, MO may love it.
It's all the buzz done it is. Yeah. Yeah, So you're looking
forward to the spring season. We're looking forward to some of these plants starting
to bloom. What's the hot buzz the news and the whole bee world and
bee keeping world that we're going to hear a lot about in twenty twenty four.
Why that's a question that I have no idea. Sometimes these things just
evolve and we find something that we didn't know before, and I think that's
terrific too. I know they're working hard at some of the pathogens, Like
there's one of the foul broods we call it. I mean, this is
kind of the dark side of beekeeping, but European fall Root, for example,
there are people that are studying that and trying to figure out ways that
we can eliminate it from our hives. And it's exciting for me to see
that happening because I've struggled with that My bees have struggled with that particular disease.
So yeah, it's been I actually involved some of the people at Michigan
State University that are working on this study just to see what I can learn
from them as well. So it gives me some hope, and I think,
yeah, that's good news. Stacy. When you visit Don at his
house, I've been to Don's house and he gets you a barstool and you
pull that bar stool up to the bar, and then he starts getting out
bottles of various types of honey and some wooden sticks and you start tasting honey.
It is amazing contingent on the plant species that the bee used, or
the time of year, the variance in the flavor of that honey, it's
amazing. Yeah, plants are so incredible. And you know, it's just
I think that when even when we have extremes like this that maybe get us
a little bit concerned about what's going to happen, they're also learning opportunities.
And you know it's like what Donna say is, we don't know, you
know, what's going to happen when we have such a mild winter. Is
this going to be better or worse for viromites? Is this going to be
better or worse for European foul brood? And even though you know we might
have our anxieties and concerns about weather like this and about seasons like this,
there's also a learning opportunity that we can hopefully take away from it and apply
in different, more normal times. So true, And I think we can
take a lesson from the bees and their adapt activity, their ability to adapt
to certain situations, and I think we can adapt as well well. We
can take a lesson from you. Don. Thank you for what you do
and educating people throughout the year on bees very very important work. We celebrate
it and we thank you for what you do. Don. If people want
to learn more about you, what websites should they go to? They can
go to Thornapplewoodlands dot com and see what we do. We do a lot
of educational programs at schools and libraries, things like that, and any event
where there are people gathered and they want to learn either about honeybees or about
maple syrup. And we've added fishing the basics of fishing, whether it's open
water or ice fishing. Oh boy, that that kind of hurts my heart
to talk about ice fishing. Right now, it's not a good winter for
that. But maybe on a future show we could chat worms if that's something
you'd like to talk about. You know, I just started worm farming or
whatever we call it when we raise worms. But I started with European night
crawlers and yep, and I also got some composting worms as well, which
will be smaller than the night crawlers, but they're in two separate bins.
And it's been totally amazing to me to see how the night crawlers have grown
and now they're starting to multiply in there, and oh, it's just a
thrill for me. So any good. Yeah, they'll produce compostor castings,
right, which is and which is terrific for the gardens, and also fishing
bait for me if I want to go bluegill fishing. So it'll be hard
for me to use one of my worms as bait now because I'm starting to
get attached to them. Well, I had to wiggle that in there,
Don, and thank you, we will talk worms. His name is Don
sneink, It's thorn apple Woodlands and Don, thank you so much for joining
us on the Gardening Simplified Show. It's been a pleasure and I thank you
so much for the opportunity. Thank you. Thanks Don. Please tell the
bees and worms that Rick, Adriana and I say hello. All right,
we'll do. Thank you so much. So that's all we have time for
today. We want to thank you all so much for listening. Thank you
Rick, thanks to Adriana, and again thank you all for listening. We
hope you have a wonderful weekend.