Bonus Episode – Mailbag Edition

Greetings gardeners, and welcome to a Gardening Simplified extra. We have been getting
so many questions from listeners and we thank everyone who has written in, and
we want to take the time to devote an entire episode just to answering questions.
So this is only going to appear, of course, on YouTube and
our podcast, and we're going to be covering questions from listeners over the past
couple of months. If you have a question for the Gardening Simplified Show,
we are always happy to help. You can email us at help HLP at
Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or just visit Gardenings Simplified on air dot
com. There's a contact form either way it will reach us. You can
attach a photo so you can give us some more context, which is always
important, even though those questions are a little difficult to answer of course on
air. And so we've put together some questions that we think are timely and
interesting and without further ado, let's get started with a first question, which
is from Steve and Mary. They say, after listening to your show on
center Stage, red Crape Myrtle, we'd like to get one. However,
we see that they do better in zone seventh through nine, which in Michigan
we are in zone five. Let us know if this myrtle would work for
us. It is beautiful. I feel Stephen and Mary's pain having lived in
zone five Michigan for years. Yeah, zone five is you know, at
least it's none zone four, because zone four is a lot of stuff drops
off after zone five, Like you're that's kind of like, I don't want
to say you can't grow anything interesting in zone four, but if much blow
zone five, your options get limited, you know, it makes it brings
up a good point though, and that is living in that zone. March
April, what a great time to wander out in the landscape. Start to
look for some swelling buds on the hydranges, the lilacs, crape myrtle,
whatever it may be, and try to determine the amount of die back that
you've had the past winter, because every year is different. It's true,
there's so many factors. You know, people think it's just a matter of
how cold the winter got, but the fact is there are many factors.
It's it's how rainy was the fall, was the fall favorable to growth?
And spring? Do spring come? So does spring come? Early to spring
come late. But you know, overall, I always encourage and I'm sure
you do too, Rick, taking an experimental approach to gardening. I think
that's one of the most fun things that you can do, is to not
necessarily take it so rigid and just say, Okay, this plant's beautiful,
but I can't grow it. Now. There's certain things like, obviously I'm
not going to be able to grow avocado in my yard here in Michigan.
That would be pushing it too far. But the fact is, when it
comes to crate myrtles, they are actually hardy than has hardier than has long
been believed that they actually are. I agree, and I like to take
the Alexander Hamilton approach and take my shot. I really do. I agree
with what you just said. Why not? Yeah? So, I think
for years, because crate did so well in the South, people just assumes
they were Southern plants. And then people started saying, well you, oh
what, hey, I like this, I'm going to give it a try,
and it has really increased everybody's understanding or sort of assumptions about what a
crape myrtle will do. So I don't know where in Michigan and you actually
are. I can say without question. Here on the west side of Michigan
around the lake shore, we can easily grow grape myrtle without a problem.
It does very often die back to the ground, not every year, but
it often does, but it will come right back from the roots and it
will still flower. They flower on new wood, so they spend the season
growing back and then those flowers start to appear in August. Now what you
end up with, rather than the beautiful sculptural tree like crape myrtles that you
see in the south, is something that's going to be more multi stemmed,
shrubbier, smaller, but you are going to get that great color. So
we have excellent success with overwintering center stage red crape myrtle here in Grand Haven.
If you want to try it, I have a couple pieces of advice,
and this is true for not just any for center stage read but anytime
you're pushing the hardiness zone of something you want to experiment with it. That
is, start planted in spring. These are not plants that you want to
plant in fall because they're not going to have enough time to develop a good
root system. Just like we were talking about in this week's show, Gardening
Simplified Show. You want them to have as long as possible time to develop
a good root system that's going to help them withstand all of the challenges that
winter is going to throw at them. So these are definitely plants that you're
going to want to plant in spring and not fall. And you want to
choose a protected spot. Sure, So this is not going to be something
that you're going to put, you know, in the middle of your yard
where it's completely exposed. You're going to want to try to find something that
is protected, especially from the west, where you know the direction of most
of our coldest weather is moving in from. Like if you have a spot
in your house where maybe two walls come together and create that little kind of
nook, those are good locations. If you have a courtyard, sure that's
a good location. And mulch mulch mulch very important establishing that foundation. Microclimates
we often referred to them as microclimates. And what does microclimate mean here in
Michigan. It means, like you said, Stacy, don't put that plant
right out in the middle of the yard or plant it by the road right
put it in a microclan in a more protected spot if you can snuggle it
up against your house, and you know a lot of times too, if
you're really concerned about it. They sell a variety of like frost blankets and
plant protectors online sure that you can use for those first couple of years,
because the more established a plant gets, the better it's able to withstand very
often those challenges of the cold. So again, without knowing where exactly you
are in Michigan, you know, I wouldn't even say, oh, if
you're in the up, it's out, because I think if you're in the
Marquette in Marquette or somewhere you know, along the coast of Michigan and you
have that slightly milder climate because of the lake, you can almost certainly be
successful. You're probably your least success would be like in Smeck in the middle
of Michigan, where it's you know, you're far away from all of those
metagating factors. But if you can find one, it's always worth a try
because the worst it's going to happen is you're going to learn something. Stephen
and Mary take your shot. And by the way, Stacy with the crape
myrtle, what was the proven winner's color choy shrub variety. Again, that
was center stage Red, which is a black leaf crape myrtle with red flowers,
and it is absolutely gorgeous. So I can't blame anyone for wanting to
grow this. And if it turns out that you can't grow it, remember
that you can actually get some similar color combinations from our native lobelia. Cultivars
of our native lobelia have that dark blacky foliage with red flowers. So hopefully
you'll be able to grow center Stage Red and enjoy it. But if not,
see if you can find a lobelia, maybe a minarda something like that
that you can try out instead. Go back through YouTube videos for gardening simplified
show we took a summer garden tour and that was one of the plants you
introduced to me, Stacy, and talk about gorgeous. That's just beautiful,
all right. Grace wrote us back when the wildfires were a big issue in
many areas. She says, I do all container gardening, have always tried
very hard to water the soil and not the foliage, which is great water
at the base. My question is with all the smoke residue from the Canadian
wildfires and the lack of rain, should I wet the foliage to clean that
residue off. I had to kind of chuckle when I read this question,
because I have some friends who own a garden center in California, and when
they visited here in Grand Rapids, they took them for a ride to the
airport and they noticed the snowbrush in my car here in Michigan. They say,
well, we have those in our cars in California too, but we
use them to dust the ash off the car and we leave work take snow.
When wildfires are taking place, I'll take snow. Also, So what
do you think about residue on foliage? Does it really block the functionality of
a plant? It really does, And I mean maybe not to the point
where the plant's going to just straight up die, but absolutely. You know,
the chloroplasts in the plant cells that photosynthesize dust, smoke particles, anything
like that on the foliage mold, you know, sooty mold that happens from
if it's anything that's obscuring those cells from direct contact with the sun will reduce
the efficiency of photosynthesis, and in turn, the plant will make less energy
because it's not as efficient or quick at photosynthesis. So again, it's not
one of those things that you have to like stay up at night worrying about
it. But it is absolutely a good idea to break habit. And I'm
glad that Grace you're in the habit of not perpetually wetting your plants, as
a lot of people are. But yeah, it's totally fine once in a
while to just give it that shower, especially when we when there is wildflower
or wildfire ash, especially when rain was very scarce as it was for us
in May and June, you're doing that once in a while is absolutely no
problem. It's it's basically like you're simulating rain. Yeah, it's a great
explanation, Stacy. I. The analogy that I'd put forth is it's similar
to powdery mildew on plants, where when you get powdery mildew on the foliage,
it's not going to kill the plant, but it certainly weakens the plant
and does not allow that process of photosynthesis to take place as needed. Right,
It's like trying to eat all your food through a straw or something like.
Yeah, you're getting nutrition, but you're just not like exactly getting it.
The best that you can. I wonder if you could clean them off
with a leafblower. Didn't someone ask that and we said, don't do that.
I think we actually feature that. Don't use a leaflow on your plants.
You didn't want to air us alize all of those particles, and besides,
water will do the job without annoying your neighbors. Very good, All
right, thank you, very mulch And writes to us, I live in
zone five B. Since holly berry is an evergreen, is it better to
plant in spring or can they be planted in the fall? Stacey? Oh,
you know, I am, and we've talked about this on the show,
A huge fan of fall planting. It is so good for so many
reasons, you know, as we were just talking about. The plant can
establish itself without having to sustain a bunch of growth on topic and just put
all of its energy into roots since it's growing dormant. The cooler temperature is,
the more frequent rainfall. All of those things combined to make Fault a
really good planting time with a couple of exceptions. And one of those exceptions
is definitely evergreens, and particularly broadleaf evergreens like holly so a broad leaf evergreen
as a plant that's evergreen but doesn't have like needle foliage like a pine or
a spruce, or scale like foliage like an arbor vite or a juniper.
So broadleaf evergreens are things like rhododendron, laurel pieris and of course holly,
and so I absolutely do not recommend planting broadleaf evergreens in fall in cold climates.
You know that what happens is that even if you do it in early
September and they have what is in theory a long enough time to grow roots,
because you usually want to have at least six weeks of good root growth
before winter starts for ideal fall planting conditions. The difference is that broadleaf evergreens
are going to lose water out of their foliage all winter long. The winter
sun is going to be beating on them, winter winds and all of those
things are causing the foliage to lose water all winter long. Now, if
it does not have the benefit of a really good robust root system to help
it replenish that water anytime the soil is not frozen, then it's going to
desiccate and die. And a lot of times broad leaf evergreens are slower growing,
you pay more for them, and you don't want to invest in something
that is going to look genuinely awful. I'm sure anyone who's ever been to
a city in say February, and has seen those cafes try to plant beautiful
boxwood planters things like that, you've seen what can happen and it is not
pretty. Yeah, I agree with you one hundred and one percent. Great
explanation. I have done it. I have done it. I mean,
when push comes to shovel, if you have to, you could move it,
but you're going to have to coat it with an anti descant. You're
going to have to mulch it well at the base. And yes, your
odds are far lower than with a deciduous plant. So I agree with you,
right, And you know the anti descan thing, it's it's you know,
I'm glad that you mentioned that, because if you're at your garden center,
they might say, oh yeah, i'll just spray it with this.
And sure, if you could a smoke and hot deal on a plant and
you want to mulch it and wiltproof it, then go for it. But
just know that it definitely is much riskier than if you'd planted it in spring,
and mulch, of course, as with most plantings, is very,
very crucial. So similarly, Julie has a question. She asked during our
unusually harsh winter in USDA's one four and Montana, both of my second season
tater Tot arbor Viti died, I know what can I do in the future
to winter protect tator Tot? Should I purchase and plant this fault or wait
until spring? I love those little guys. They have really become one of
our most popular plants. I don't know if it's the name or the plant
or a combination of both. They're just so cute. They are very cute.
They're just a little rounded evergreen. They aren't tater tot shaped, but
they're they're scaled like a tater taught size. Like I guess you like tater
tots. I mean they're okay, yeah, me too. It's kind of
a filler thing, but the plants, but the plant is great. So
as an arbor vity, that means that tater tot is a conifer, So
that puts it in that needle like or scale like foliage that I was talking
about. Now, these lines of evergreens are much better adapted to dealing with
cold than broad leaf evergreens are broadleaf evergreens tend to come from milder climates,
whereas the pine, the spruce, you know, they're basically made for a
snowload. But that said again, you still want that good root system in
place before they're going to be met, you know, or confront all of
those challenges the winter sun, the winter wind, you know, frozen soil
where they can't absorb any water. So the colder your climate, and certainly
for Julie here in USC Zone four in Montana, I would recommend only spring
planting of any evergreens. Definitely mulch very important in climates like Neva or like
Montana where it's you know, it can be very exposed and have a lot
of winter sun, and the sooner you can get those in the ground and
create those ideal root conditions with water, you know, some regular fertilizer through
maybe about late July. That's all going to go into developing that root system
to help it better withstand winter. I'm thinking of those family holiday get togethers.
You always see tater tots on top of casseroles, don't you don't they
kind of dress you know that. It's that and those dried onions I love.
I can never get green bean casserole. I love green bean cassero on.
Then you gotta put a lot of those dried onions on. Well,
I love onions any anyway I can get them. Must be I'm just hungry,
right. I guess all that talking about tater tots really well, you
know, the next question is also about eating rabbits eating, not you eating,
so Mag's writes, I'm having quite a problem with rabbits which have been
eating absolutely all of my plants. It seems other than grasses or evergreens.
I spray, but it seems like it doesn't deter them for longer than a
couple of days. Are there any plants you can recommend that are pretty rabbit
resistant? Ah, that is so frustrating. Hey, you know, I'll
build a little compound and somehow, some way they get in there, and
I don't know how they get in there. No, they're very you know,
they dig, They can do a lot of different things. They can
squeeze through little fence holes, smoozes as I know your smoozes. If you
have some eu se and you know, if they're a little baby bunny,
they can probably hop right through the whole of a chain link fence. Does
not make me happy, but they're so cute. Yeah, now you know,
I'll tell you this past year in one of my compounds that I've built,
they went just after the beans, like you wouldn't believe, the green
beans, but they pretty much left everything else alone. Well, they had
a favorite, yeah, so they just went for the beans. So I
think that there's something to be said here for them not liking certain types of
plants. But I think it'd probably be pretty similar to the deer that you
know, things like allium they're not going to like, whereas tulips delicious,
delicious right now. Alliums are often on lists of plants that rabbits don't eat,
but I can tell you unequivocally rabbits eat my alliumspheracephalon every year, not
all of them. AliOS Pharacephalon is the drumstick allium. So it comes up
as just a single stem in about like early July, long straight stem with
a purple head on the top. Does look a bit like a drumstick,
and those rabbits It's like what they do. They come into the garden where
they have them planted, they show them down at the base, they take
one bite of it, they say, oh I forgot, I hate this.
It tastes terrible, and then they leave the flower, you know,
welting in the garden. Now, I didn't have a terrible year knock on
wood this year, but in previous years they have eaten my allium. But
my little guideline for choosing plants that rabbits will not eat without having to carry
around a massive mental list in your head on your phone is fragrance. And
we've talked about this a bit before. So plants that have any kind of
resinous or strong aroma are generally avoided by rabbits. So that means things like
lavender, any herbs, and you know, maybe people think like, oh,
well, I don't want a bunch of herbs. I'm trying to grow
an ornamental garden. But a lot of herbs are very ornamental. I love
you know, you have with sage. You can have tricolor sage and have
that variegation. You can have purple sage, which is really lovely. There's
a bunch of course, as you know, ornamental oreganos that will be very
rabbit resistant. So while you're shopping, you know, and you're wondering if
something will be rabbit resistance. You know, rub a leaf or break a
leaf, and if it gives off that kind of like resiny, herbal fragrance.
Other examples napidal antanna, perennial geranium, agasaki, then you know it's
pretty much a good choice because rabbits don't really like that that fragrance. And
mix those plants in with your other plants and hopefully you can drive those rabbits
over to your neighbor. But yeah, it is part of the mix.
I mean, you know, you go back to that tatertot casserole example.
I can't help it. I've got this on my mind now. But like
when you go to a dinner and it's all casserole, what do they call
that a pot luck? Right? Oh? Yeah, yeah, a pot
luck. You know, I usually load up on the casseroll like the like
the rabbit does, so that my plate is full and I'm not forced into
taking some of that jello mold stuff because you feel guilty not taking a jello
mold that somebody put the time into and I don't want it, all right,
I just don't like it. And no one wants to a jello mold
anyway, because it's so moldy. I don't know what's in that thing,
which brings up the point there's always more room for jello and plants usually,
yeah, you can, you can. I can usually find more room for
plants, especially in spring before everything's grown in, and then you think,
oh my gosh, what did I do. So, you know, rabbits
are tricky and I've had a pet rabbit and I've observed them eat. And
what they do is, like I was staying with the allium, they cut
plants at the base and then they chow down the stem that they that they
that they just remove. I have seen them stand on their hind legs to
sample things that are a little bit higher. But generally that's how they work.
So if they don't like something, they try it. They typically don't
cause a lot of damage. But if they do like something, they'll just
keep going until that that whole plant is gone, so you know, and
start looking at pepper sprays and that sort. Yeah, And the trick about
sprays is they are effective, but especially at the time where rabbits are most
active in spring and summer. Plants are growing pretty vigorously, and so they're
going to outgrow whatever you sprayed, and that new growth at the plant put
on is going to be especially attractive to the rabbit because it's so tender and
juicy and succulent. So rabbits are tough, but you can definitely outsmart them.
Look for things again that are fragrant. Also things that are very hairy,
like lamb's ear, pulmonaria lungwoart has its like those hairs on it,
and foxglove, which of course is not only hairy but also very toxic.
Hair Today Gone tomorrow. H R. I had to spell that one,
but you got my points. I got your point. He thanks, it
was a good one. Avelia. I hope I got your name right there.
Avelia asks, I'm in Zone nine B and looking for a hydrangea that
has a pink red bloom similar to quick fire or limelight, both of this.
Both of this varieties are zone three to eight. Okay, if I
were to put one of these in my garden, will these perform and bloom?
Accordingly? I read that if they do not get enough cold time,
they may not bloom. So it's a great question, Avelia, and I'm
glad that you asked it. So you said that if they don't get enough
cold time, they may not bloom. Now what you're talking about there is
chilling hours, and there are plants that need a certain number of chilling hours
or temperatures below forty degrees fahrenheit in order to properly develop their buds in bloom.
So lilacs are the most famous examples, but apples, pears, all
of those cold climate fruits are also similar examples. Now, chilling hours are
not what make panicle hydrange is difficult to grow in hot climates. They actually
don't necessarily need those chilling hours. But the trick is that your climate is
just so hot that they really struggle to grow well and more importantly, to
bloom well. So this is true if you live in a very humid climate,
like in the south of Florida. They really struggle in that intense of
humidity. And it's also true if you live in a desert climate, because
they also struggle in that much aridity. So some plants, you know,
they can grow in say you know, southern California where it's arid but not
humid climates like Miami. Some plants like this one, if it gets too
hot, whether it's arid or humid, they can't And one of the issues
here is that the flower will develop and it will start to bloom. But
in hot climates, first of all, this happens much earlier in the season.
For us here in Michigan, panical hydranges are pretty much at peak through
like mid to late July. That means by the time that bloom starts to
fade an age to pink or red, our nights are already getting a lot
longer, our temperatures are already starting to get cooler, and so we're able
to see them undergo that really beautiful color change that makes people like panical hydranges
so much. Whereas in warm climates, because the panical hydrange of blooms are
opening based on how much heats they've experienced, they experienced that quantity of heat
much earlier in the season, so say June in early June instead of mid
to late July, and that means that as those plants are starting to age
their blooms, it is the height of your summer. It's the absolute hottest
part of the season. It's the longest possible nights. So what happens is
the hydrange of can't metabolize the pigments that make that color change happen because the
nights are so hot, because the days are so and so the flowers just
turn brown. So very often you can grow them, but you just have
to expect that that's not that they're not going to develop that color. And
Avelia, it sounds like that's exactly what she wants, is those pink red
blooms. So you know, I have to say you can try it,
but you're just gonna have to have reasonable expectations about what's going to happen.
You will probably have better luck with big leaf hydranges or hydrange of Macrophila and
something like let's dance Big band, which has a really really bright pink flower,
and that will be pink. That one pretty much stays a nice pink
or maybe a little bit lavender. Now, those tend to do well in
hot, humid climates. Those are not going to be good desert plants,
but you'll still be able to get some of that color. They're going to
need shade, you know, during the entire day they're not going to be
able to take a much time, maybe a few hours in the morning,
so you can't grow the panicle hydranges, but you should be okay with some
of the big leafs. And you know, whenever I talk to someone who
is telling me they live in a hot climate and they wish that they could
grow a lilac or a panical hydrant or you know, fill in the blank,
I always try to, you know, tell them that I really wish
I could grow you know, citrus and avocados and a bunch of really cool
Australian natives and bananas. So you know, I know it can be hard,
and we always want when we don't have, But I think no matter
what your climate is, there's always something you can be really excited about that
you can grow that other people can't and really just feels at home in your
climate and performs really well now in that climate. Also, our friend that
we interviewed from Florida a few weeks ago on the Gardening Simplified show said that
she this is a garden designer, Teresa, who said she had a lot
of success with Ohso easy roses also budd lea in that zone. But Stacy,
you know, I often say plants are like people, and people are
like plants, and they're are our plants that really do like those seasons changes?
Yeah, yeah, they You know, it all depends on where they're
from. And we were talking about that not too long ago too. Is
you know, where is a plant from? That's really going to tell you
about where it grows. But like we said at the beginning of this show,
you should always take an experimental attitude. Learn everything you can. Take
that into account when you make your decision about where you're going to plant it,
how you're going to care for it, and hey, you just might
make a new discovery and up end everybody's expectations of that plant. Sounds good,
all right. Paul is wondering is dietumacious earth safe for supertunias. I
spray my supertunias with nemoil against bugs that eat the leaves. But it seems
that the soil my petunias are in is infested with bugs. So would it
be a good idea to put dietumacious earth around the base of the petunias?
Interesting? Well, it's a great non toxic control. Yep, It's not
going to work on all insects. But I think it's worth a shot if
you're dealing with struggling with that right now. The great thing about dietomatous earth,
like Rick said, is it is non toxic. So it is a
powdery substance that is made of diatoms or prehistoric little creatures that have It doesn't
feel like anything to you if you were to touch it doesn't feel like fiberglass.
But to an insect crawling over it, it does lacerate their exoskeletons and
they dry out and die. So when we talk to Bree Arthur, who
has a big vegetable garden down in North Carolina, she was saying she uses
this a lot as a pest control. But two things you need to know
about dietametious earth. First of all, it's important to understand that it does
kill beneficial insects as well as pest insects. It's non discriminating. Anything that
crawls over it will get lacerated. And second of all, once it gets
wet, all of its power to lacerate evaporates it goes away. That seems
to be a big problem. Yes, yeah, so now it's fine.
You know, it's one thing if it's on top of the plant, on
the foliage, but especially on the soil. I don't think that it's going
to last long enough if you're trying to control insects that are active in the
soil. I don't think it's going to last long enough to actually be effective.
But I think you could try it on the top of the plant.
Be careful about how you're watering. It's inexpensive, so it's not like,
you know, if it gets wet every couple of days or whatever, that
you're going to have to remortgage your house to keep using dietematians earth. It's
it's inexpensive, but you will have to keep applying it. And so I
would say, if you want to go ahead and try a non toxic method,
keep it on top. But you know, it's so important whether you're
dealing with a pest or a disease issue, is you have to try to
get a proper id so you can deal with it properly. And once you
understand an animal's life cycle or a disease is life cycle, that gives you
a lot more ammunition of to think about how you're going to actually deal with
it. So I would say, first of all, do find out what
pests they are if you can, and then make your strategy. And it
can certainly involved dietematia's earth, but I'd keep it on the plant rather than
in this well. You know, it's all part of IPM Integrated Pest Management,
and I would agree, would you, Stacy. We've got to identify
exactly what this insect is. I've I've bypassed dietomaceous earth and used roofing shingles
to deal with slugs, the same kind of concept also. So oh,
and one more thing. If you have a swimming pool, you are probably
familiar with dietsmacious earth. It's often used in pool filters, but you cannot
get the swimming pool grade dietsmacious earth to control insects. It's much finer,
so it doesn't have the lacerating power as diets earth that sold specifically for best
control. Great point, Kim writes to us. My son sent two star
jasmine plants for my birthday. Happy birthday. What a great birthday present.
I had admired the jasmine that he grows in Charleston. I'm in Zone seven,
a Nashville area. Question. Should I go ahead and plant now or
try to keep them in pots over winter. Is seven A too far north?
Well? I can answer that, Oh yeah, what do you think
I wouldn't plant them in seven AM? Now I don't think they're I don't
think they're gonna make it, all right, What do you think I think
they could make it? Now? Take your shot. She already has the
plants. But obviously they're special because they were a gift. And I think,
you know, obviously even though a new USDA harding a stone map came
out about gosh, what is it now, about ten years ago, I
think that a lot of their their conservative estimates right, And so typically I
think Nashville does not maybe get as cold as seven anxious that it could get
as cold as zone seven A. And I think that if Kim has a
protected spot, just like we were talking about earlier with the center stage crape
myrtle here in Michigan, if you have a courtyard, you know, very
often this star jasmine has grown up a wall, sure, and that really
helps to provide some extra warmth of microclimate, like you were describing. So
I would say base your decision on how good of a spot do you have
outdoors to actually plant them in? And you may have like the perfect area.
Say you have like an enclosed brick wall courtyard, that'd be perfect.
They would probably do just fine. But if you don't want to risk it
because they were a gift, you can certainly overwinter them in containers. I
would say, do that in a protected but exposed area. That Okay,
that's contradictory. That makes perfect sense to me. I agree. You know,
like if you have a screened in porch or a glassed in porch they
want, they're gonna need some some good sunlight, they're going to need good
outdoor like air circulation, and of course you're going to need to monitor them
for water. But that way they're not getting as exposed to, you know,
the really harsh weather. But they're also kind of like the outdoors.
The other thing you can do is keep them in their container and just keep
a close eye on the weather and move those containers indoors when really bad weather
threatens. Yeah, And the reason I mentioned what I did is having spent
time in between Nashville and Atlanta. The big difference there from what we get
Stacy, is that it can get very very cold in Atlanta or Nashville in
the winter. There can be some extreme cold snaps. The big difference is
up here we have snow insulating the plants. There it's just plain cold,
right, and so you could lose a plant like that. I agree with
you. Looking for some microclimates or maybe taking that enclosed porch approach would be
a good idea. Yeah, or if they're not too big, moving them
in and out as needed, as long as you keep a close eye on
whether, which honestly most gardeners do. So. All right, here's a
question for you, Stacy. Timothy's asking. I held my potatoes one time.
I meant to do it again, but time got away from me.
Oh he's a procrastinator, procrastitator procrast Yeah, boy, that was bad.
I'm sorry, Timothy, h and I don't blame you. We get busy.
What's the purpose of hilling? I've read so they don't burn, but
thought it also promoted more potatoes on the vine that was above the ground.
So what do you think, for Timothy? What do I think? I
have tried hilling and it does not, in my experience, amount to a
hill of beans. Okay, next question, So I know you know what
you see this like on Pinterest and other places, and you see like something
where they've put a bunch of like soft new soil and then they pull it
away and there's just this bonanza of potatoes underneath. That has not been my
experience now, perhaps because I garden in very sandy soil and so it's maybe
it's not necessary now. Maybe if you have really clay soil you will benefit.
But I don't know, what do you think. I think hilling is
a good idea because as they grow, let's say you're growing them in a
bucket. That's a fun thing to do too, but they continue to work
their way up as they grow, and I think that's the primary purpose of
hilling, is to keep just the proper cover over those potatoes so that those
spuds can produce properly. So I think you can go either way. Probably
technically, yes, hilling them as they grow is probably the best approach,
But is it again a deal breaker? Right? Is it going to make
such a huge difference? So, Timothy, I would say, don't beat
yourself up over the lack of hilling this year, and if you are so
inclined and perhaps have more time next season, you can maybe hill one potato,
not hill another, and find out if it makes a difference. Yeah,
there you go. No, you got to try it. Your question
was spud tacul so Andrewa writes, I am reaching out because I think Stacy
mentioned in a recent episode that she uses rose fertilizer on several of the perennials
in her own garden. Assuming I heard correctly, can you give me a
little more information. I have a big tub of rose fertilizer that I'd like
to be able to use on my other perennials, but maybe there are some
I should avoid. I love this question. Why is that? Because in
the garden center or the greenhouse, anytime somebody would walk up to me and
want to feed their macrophilla hydranges, I'd take them to the rose tone yep,
And they're like, are you sure we can do this? I said,
yeah, you have my permission. No, you're right, ranger will
turn into a rose. Don't do it right. Roses are flowering shrubs,
and as such, a rose fertilizer is the perfect flowering shrub fertilizer. But
ultimately, I do think even though I love the aspoma line, and then
a lot of them are very specific. You have, you know, palm
tone and citrus tone, which of course we don't have here in Michigan.
You have tree tone. Ultimately, you know, fertilizer is fertilizer. And
if you're giving your plants nutrients and none of those numbers the NPK ratio,
the three numbers that are on every fertilizer bagging container, if none of those
are like way out of proportion to the other ones, I mean some of
you'll have a balanced fertilizer where all the numbers are the same. Sometimes you
might get a little variation in between them, but as long as any of
those numbers are not like way out of balance, which would indicate it's got
a very specific purpose. I think fertilizers for the most part, are pretty
interchangeable when it comes to the garden. Well, I think you make a
good point on the balance thing because in this case, also if you were
Andrea, if you were to select a fertilizer that's high in that first number
nitrogen, it will help stimulate a lot of green growth. But if you
get something more balanced, and usually rose fertilizers are balanced, pretty balanced,
I think with confidence you could proceed. Yeah, and that means you don't
have to have you know, a whole pharmacy shelf of fertilizers in your garage,
the inner, you know, and oh no, I gotta go get
this one. Yeah. I find it's a good all purpose fertilizer for any
shrub or perennial as is a Spema garden tone or as is a Spoma plant
tone. And you know, if you have fertilizer, then the good thing
is to use it rather than to go buy a bunch of fertilizers and have
a bunch of half used fertilizers in your graphics. I think it brings up
a good point. I've had that experience in the garden center and with potting
soil, where they want a bag that has a picture. If they're growing
vegetables, it's got to be vegetable soil and it has to say vegetable soil
on the bag. And that's that's really not the not the case. It
is a good marketing approach. And I'm sure that you know the intention is
to make sure that the soil would be good and appropriate for your vegetables.
But it doesn't mean you have to throw in the trowel if they happen to
be out of vegetable soil. Right, And I just something that this off
my chest, that plants are are as picky or as needy as people might
think. And just because there are specialty products out there doesn't mean that something
else isn't equally as appropriate. There you go, you rose to the occasion,
Christina, asking last spring and summer, I bought many proven winter shrubs
in the quart size. Some are still very small planted in the landscape.
I'm wondering if I should trim or pinch them all back to encourage branching,
or there are some that I should just let grow. And also now late
August is it a good time for pinching? Okay, So this is such
a good question, Christina, and it's one that we get a lot because
there are a number of online You won't find these in garden centers, but
there are a number of websites mail order garden centers that sell these quart sized
plants. Now, these same quart sized plants that they're selling are actually plants
that we sell here at Spring Meadow Nursery, the company behind proven Winners Color
Choice Shrubs two wholesale growers to pot up into larger containers and grow on into
the one to three gallon you buy at your garden center. So what they
are really initially intended for is growing on in a container environment from a professional
grower, where they will then be trims two to three, sometimes even more
times as those growers raise them. So what happens is they get the liners
or that one court plant, they pot it up, they water it,
it starts to flush out. Once that growth flush is out, they will
give it a trim all over, and what that's going to do is cause
everything to branch, so you have twice as many branches. They're going to
let that growth grow out. Then they're going to give it another trim,
and now you've got four times as many branches, so usually two to three
trims through a season, and that's how they develop that nice bushy look when
you're actually in a garden center buying like a three gallon one. So with
these little quarts, you have to be that grower exactly. You have to
be the one to go in there and trim them. Now you don't have
to, obviously the plant will grow, but the plant that you're going to
get, if you don't trim it is going to look a lot different than
if you'd gone to the garden center and bought that three out and so a
couple tips for this. I wouldn't recommend that you prune them now. It's
obviously it's late in the season. Wait to do this till next spring.
But no worries. It's not too linked to work on developing that branching.
But you want to keep the cuts onto that thin, soft new growth.
You want to avoid cutting into the actual wood of the plant because that's not
going to encourage that branching and that full lush growth. It's just going to
leave a hole. So keep it too. You know when that new growth
comes out and it's thin and easy to cut, and you know, do
that two or three times next season through space throughout the year, depending on
how much it grows, not throughout the year, but throughout the growing season.
Base your timing and how much it's actually growing. And then after that
you shouldn't have a much happier plant. You make a great point. You
see, in the industry, we would always call that upsizing. So we
would upsize in the container, and then we within the container itself, we
would coat the soil with osma coats or fertilizer prills, and again the whole
intention is to have a good presentable product on the sales floor that would cause
people to sometimes buy impulsively. We would love that. But you're going to
do the work now upsizing this plant, so right, that's great, So
it's not difficult, but it is something that you need to bear in mind
that you are by getting that smaller plant kind of you are you're taking the
role of that of that professional grower a pinch to grow an inch, even
if it isn't that plant's birthday. That's right, all right, So that
was a lot, But I feel good that we've gotten caught up on some
listener questions. Again, if you have a question for us, we'll probably
be future of these because it is important to us that we help you answer
your garden questions and resolve your garden issues. It's one of the ways that
we simplify gardening here on The Gardening Simplified Show. So we want to thank
you for watching or listening however you prefer it. Thanks to Rick, thanks
to Adriana, and thanks to all of you.