Plants Make Great Gifts! Knowing How to Pick the Right Plants

<v Speaker 1>Broadcasting from Studio A. Here at proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs.
<v Speaker 1>It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella
<v Speaker 1>me Rick Weisten, our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, Stacey,
<v Speaker 1>you and I both love plants and flowers. As a
<v Speaker 1>matter of fact, I'm gifting myself plants and flowers pretty
<v Speaker 1>much every week, and certainly not just on Valentine's Day.
<v Speaker 1>Although I would say Valentine's Day should inspire most people
<v Speaker 1>to grow, let's say, cut flowers in their landscape during
<v Speaker 1>the growing season, maybe to have mixed bouquets, make your
<v Speaker 1>expression of love a cottage garden, because this holiday creates
<v Speaker 1>all kinds of mixed emotions for people. Some people do
<v Speaker 1>not like Valentine's Day, some people ignore it, other people
<v Speaker 1>love it. My favorite thing about Valentine's Day I have
<v Speaker 1>it marked on my calendar. February fifteen. That's when I
<v Speaker 1>hit the stores for that candy that's now sale priced
<v Speaker 1>and I stock up on pink and red Eminem's.
<v Speaker 2>That's okay, I mean, after holiday candy sales are a
<v Speaker 2>very good opportunity, you know. And it's true that especially
<v Speaker 2>cut flowers do become a lot more expensive at Valentine's say,
<v Speaker 2>it's a simple issue of supply and demand. But I
<v Speaker 2>loved your idea about using this notion of bouquets Chigarawa
<v Speaker 2>cut Flower garden, because you could get your Valentine a
<v Speaker 2>bouquet of seeds for cut flowers. Sure, get them twelve
<v Speaker 2>different seed packets probably will come in time and you're
<v Speaker 2>gardening Valentine or yourself. We'll be very happy, you know.
<v Speaker 2>I do want to also say long stem rows are
<v Speaker 2>like the ultimate Valentine's Day plant, right, I don't need
<v Speaker 2>to tell you you live most of your career. I
<v Speaker 2>cannot tell you how many times people have come up
<v Speaker 2>to me and said, I want to grow long stemmed roses.
<v Speaker 2>Which ones should I pick?
<v Speaker 3>Well?
<v Speaker 2>The simple fact is that the long steminess is not
<v Speaker 2>so much a function of the plant itself. It's the
<v Speaker 2>way that it is grown. And with the roses, you know,
<v Speaker 2>they have to get those long stems, so they're taking
<v Speaker 2>off buds and it's much more labor intensive than short
<v Speaker 2>stemmed roses. And I just feel like, you know that whole,
<v Speaker 2>like long stem roses being like the ultimate romantic thing,
<v Speaker 2>Like I don't know that just seems very outdated to me.
<v Speaker 1>It's red and it's romance, so that's the way it is.
<v Speaker 1>And then you get poetry thrown into the mix, you know.
<v Speaker 1>And I was thinking roses are red. This much is true.
<v Speaker 1>But violets are violet and certainly not blue. Remember when
<v Speaker 1>we did the show and on the color blue, and
<v Speaker 1>people would say that's not blue cultural blue, yeah, horticultural.
<v Speaker 2>And also violets are violet and it is a beautiful
<v Speaker 2>color it is.
<v Speaker 1>So it's a reminder that flowers are powerful symbols for
<v Speaker 1>expressing complex emotions. Flowers engage multiple senses sites, smell, sometimes
<v Speaker 1>touch to create a multi sensory experience that can alter
<v Speaker 1>a person's mood. So you can probably tell that, especially
<v Speaker 1>having spent close to fifty years in the retail industry,
<v Speaker 1>I don't get real excited about Valentine's Day, but I'm
<v Speaker 1>going to temper my enthusiasm here and say that I
<v Speaker 1>do realize that Valentine's Day at least creates an awareness
<v Speaker 1>of that multisensory approach and how important flowers are in
<v Speaker 1>our lives.
<v Speaker 2>They really are. And I also would argue that the
<v Speaker 2>timing of Valentine Valentine's Day, which I know is based
<v Speaker 2>on the feast of Saint Valentine and has nothing to
<v Speaker 2>do with the fact that it is the most abysmal,
<v Speaker 2>dismal part of winter. And it's just, frankly a great
<v Speaker 2>time to treat yourself to some plants and greenery to
<v Speaker 2>try to make it through this awful second half of winter,
<v Speaker 2>because like it's pretty much halfway through meteorological winter, right,
<v Speaker 2>can't wait for sure, and I guess it's no. I
<v Speaker 2>guess meteorological winter is December through February. But still, like
<v Speaker 2>we've had a long time of very bad weather. And
<v Speaker 2>if you're going crazy, you've got cabin fever, then yeah,
<v Speaker 2>make things more lively inside, make things more exciting, and
<v Speaker 2>treat yourself to a plant or two or more, or
<v Speaker 2>any plant you want. It doesn't have to be one
<v Speaker 2>of these Valentine's Day gift plants. It can be something
<v Speaker 2>from the houseplants section. It could be going on a
<v Speaker 2>shopping bonanza on an online garden center. There's lots of
<v Speaker 2>different ways that you can kind of, you know, use
<v Speaker 2>the prevalence of plants and flowers at this time of
<v Speaker 2>year to your advantage. Even if you don't, you know,
<v Speaker 2>celebrate Valentines.
<v Speaker 1>That's true, celebrating Valentine's I mean, I've always said that
<v Speaker 1>Valentine's Day is a day when a couple will fall
<v Speaker 1>asleep ten minutes into a movie that they spent an
<v Speaker 1>hour picking out. But there are cool gifts out there.
<v Speaker 1>I mean they have these I Love You stamps that
<v Speaker 1>you can stamp into the toast when you're having a breakfast,
<v Speaker 1>which is kind of cool. They've got these rings you
<v Speaker 1>can buy and you put a dime in there and
<v Speaker 1>then it becomes a dime in ring. Beef jerky with
<v Speaker 1>the heart messages, and you know because in grade school
<v Speaker 1>we always handed out those candies.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, yeah message. They have beef jerky with that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they have beef jerky now too.
<v Speaker 2>Is it heart shaped?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, they're heart shaped beef jerky. Don't edit this out, Adriana.
<v Speaker 1>Let's just be real, you know.
<v Speaker 2>Well, the fact is, as with the plants and flowers,
<v Speaker 2>there's something for everyone. And I'll bet that beef jerky
<v Speaker 2>will be on sale the next day too, So while
<v Speaker 2>you're going for your half priced pink candy, then you
<v Speaker 2>can get those two.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Now, I do want to mention carnations and Alstromeria
<v Speaker 1>for me, are great long lasting cut flowers. Part of
<v Speaker 1>the reason you should also grow them in your landscape.
<v Speaker 1>So Proven Winters has the paint the town series of
<v Speaker 1>Dianthus or pinks as some people call them, and the
<v Speaker 1>Inca series of Peruvian lily, which I love in my landscape.
<v Speaker 2>Right, and so this is your first year trying to overwinter.
<v Speaker 1>It, right, Yes, so we're going to see what right.
<v Speaker 2>I have to say this is a little bit off topic,
<v Speaker 2>but I have been very, very concerned about the temperatures.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I have been very happy with my fig
<v Speaker 2>plant in my garden. It's gotten very large, and now
<v Speaker 2>I'm like kind of dreading what's gonna happen in May.
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure you're feeling the same way about some of
<v Speaker 2>that stuff, you know, but it will be a learning
<v Speaker 2>experience which is just as important, even though it can
<v Speaker 2>be a little bit heartbreaking. But you know, the fact
<v Speaker 2>is the temperatures that we have had lately here and
<v Speaker 2>not just here in Michigan, I mean over most of
<v Speaker 2>the eastern half of the US. It's not just that
<v Speaker 2>it got that cold, it's how long it has stayed
<v Speaker 2>that cold. And that's what's concerning me. You know, a
<v Speaker 2>couple of nights dipping into you know, very cold temperatures.
<v Speaker 2>But you know, during that cold snap, you know, I
<v Speaker 2>woke up that Saturday morning and looked at my phone
<v Speaker 2>and the air temperature was negative three And I have
<v Speaker 2>never I don't think I've ever experience that in my garden.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I'm a little bit concerned. You mentioning your
<v Speaker 2>Alstromeria just reminded me that.
<v Speaker 1>January this year has been two hundred and thirty six days.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know it just makes our spring shopping even
<v Speaker 2>more exciting.
<v Speaker 1>Spring will be so much sweeter. So look for unique
<v Speaker 1>and create a Valentine's Day plant gifts including heart shaped
<v Speaker 1>hoyas a hoya heart, vibrant pink or red, and thuriums
<v Speaker 1>is a great choice in my opinion, trailing string of
<v Speaker 1>hearts that's a fun plant, elegant orchids. We've talked before
<v Speaker 1>about heart to heart kalladiums and for long lasting options,
<v Speaker 1>a philodendron, pink princess. And I even experienced where some
<v Speaker 1>people would reach out to me as a foliage plant
<v Speaker 1>buyer asking for olive trees to signify lasting love.
<v Speaker 2>Oh olive trees are, you know, very cool. Now, if
<v Speaker 2>you are someone who is shopping for a gardener for
<v Speaker 2>Valentine's Say or anytime, you probably aren't listening to the
<v Speaker 2>show the person who is the gardener is. But just
<v Speaker 2>in case, the best thing that you can do for
<v Speaker 2>your plant loving Valentine is to go to the garden
<v Speaker 2>center with them. Don't pick something out if you're like
<v Speaker 2>worried that you're not going to be able to pick
<v Speaker 2>out the right thing. Go to the garden center together,
<v Speaker 2>have a ball looking at all of the plants, get
<v Speaker 2>as excited about the plants as they are if you can,
<v Speaker 2>and then make that purchase together, you know, because it's
<v Speaker 2>a good idea. That's just like a fun thing to
<v Speaker 2>do when we're all cooped up inside and you know,
<v Speaker 2>go into a garden center is at Valentine's sayer anytime
<v Speaker 2>during winter is Honestly, it's just a great way to
<v Speaker 2>kind of give yourself a little bit of hope and
<v Speaker 2>make it over the finish line.
<v Speaker 1>And another suggestion that I would have is don't buy
<v Speaker 1>a milar bloe.
<v Speaker 2>Oh amen to that.
<v Speaker 1>Don't do it. This is coming from mister Valentine here
<v Speaker 1>as a matter of fact, I've written Rick's mylar balloon
<v Speaker 1>rant Limerick, so I'm going to go on a little
<v Speaker 1>rant here, Stacy, I take the occasion to lampoon that
<v Speaker 1>gas bag in a typhoon. Forgive my rant, but buy
<v Speaker 1>a plant and ditch the mylar balloon. Your lover wants
<v Speaker 1>flowers in cash, hand written cards, make a splash, but
<v Speaker 1>forever your birthday lives on at a landfill in Tucson
<v Speaker 1>with other sentimental trash. When your balloon becomes rubble, you've
<v Speaker 1>started some trouble. The transformer blew up, the powers out, Buttercup,
<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry to burst your bubble. You would not believe
<v Speaker 1>the number of milar balloons I pick up walking along
<v Speaker 1>the beach or that come up in the surf.
<v Speaker 2>I shudder to think. But fortunately a lot of places
<v Speaker 2>are banning them, especially on beaches. Yes, but yeah, it is.
<v Speaker 2>It is a huge problem.
<v Speaker 1>Now we'll see how Stacy brings this in for a
<v Speaker 1>landing and ties it all together and plants on trial.
<v Speaker 1>That's coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified.
<v Speaker 2>Show, Beautify your home and community with proven winner's color
<v Speaker 2>choice shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique
<v Speaker 2>varieties to choose from. There's a flowering, shrubber, evergreen for
<v Speaker 2>every taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive
<v Speaker 2>white container your local garden center or learn more at
<v Speaker 2>proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and
<v Speaker 2>welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where obviously the
<v Speaker 2>elephant in the room is Valentine's Day coming up, and
<v Speaker 2>Rick is not a fan, and I have to say
<v Speaker 2>I'm kind of indifferent about it. You know, I don't
<v Speaker 2>need a special holiday to celebrate being in love, because
<v Speaker 2>you know, if you're lucky enough to be with someone
<v Speaker 2>that you love every day is wonderful. And you don't
<v Speaker 2>need to set this out. But I will say it
<v Speaker 2>is an excellent opportunity to buy plants, yes, and that
<v Speaker 2>is where to me the real value is because garden
<v Speaker 2>center's restock, you know, and a lot of people you
<v Speaker 2>know might not want to go out to a garden center. Ah,
<v Speaker 2>this selection is going to be so picked over. I'll
<v Speaker 2>tell you the best election you're going to see of
<v Speaker 2>house plants is probably what the week two weeks before Valentine.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely and a garden center or a greenhouse this time
<v Speaker 1>of the year could use the little boost of you
<v Speaker 1>gracing the door of their establishments too.
<v Speaker 2>But because we do know so many people are shopping
<v Speaker 2>for plants at this time of year, whether in person
<v Speaker 2>or online, we do have a special guest in the
<v Speaker 2>last segment of the show coming up, doctor Jessica Turner Scoff,
<v Speaker 2>who is the Associate director of Science Communications at Longwood Gardens,
<v Speaker 2>the infamous Longwood Gardens, is going to be joining us
<v Speaker 2>and talking about plant poaching. Now you might think like what,
<v Speaker 2>but she is going to be telling us how close
<v Speaker 2>really to us, even to the average gardener or plantoffs
<v Speaker 2>plant collector, how close plant poaching really can be. So
<v Speaker 2>it's going to be very interesting, something a little bit
<v Speaker 2>different for the show, but lots of good information, I
<v Speaker 2>am sure, so please be sure to stick around to
<v Speaker 2>the very end. But for now we are talking about
<v Speaker 2>Plants on Trial, which is where we tell you about
<v Speaker 2>one of the three hundred and fifty plus preven winner's
<v Speaker 2>color choice shrubs or trees and give you some reasons
<v Speaker 2>why you might want to plant it in your garden. Now,
<v Speaker 2>today's is a bit of a two fur. The plant
<v Speaker 2>on Trial is Midnight Express Cursus also known as red bud,
<v Speaker 2>and I chose her for two reasons. Number one, because
<v Speaker 2>if you've ever seen one before, any red bud, midnight
<v Speaker 2>Express or otherwise, it is one of the plants that
<v Speaker 2>nature has blessed with almost perfectly heartshe leaves. There are
<v Speaker 2>very few other plants that haven't been you know, bread
<v Speaker 2>or developed that just have such an amazingly perfect heart
<v Speaker 2>shaped leaf. And I think it's really really charming. And
<v Speaker 2>the number the other reason that I chose it is
<v Speaker 2>because I personally love red bud. It is native to
<v Speaker 2>much of the Eastern actually much of the US in general.
<v Speaker 2>The further west you get, the more likely York to
<v Speaker 2>get into a different species than we have over here
<v Speaker 2>on the east side. Surcsus canadensis. But you'll find it growing,
<v Speaker 2>you know, all over from Michigan to Minnesota down to Oklahoma.
<v Speaker 2>It's everywhere. And when it blooms in spring, it has pink,
<v Speaker 2>tiny pink pea shaped flowers, wispy and yeah, just this
<v Speaker 2>beautiful texture. And you know, in our trial garden across
<v Speaker 2>the Grand River, you just see in the woods there
<v Speaker 2>just this haze of pink that just kind of emerges
<v Speaker 2>out of the brown of the woods. And then you know,
<v Speaker 2>at that same time, ammilenkir or service berry is blooming,
<v Speaker 2>and our native flowering dogwood is also blooming, and together
<v Speaker 2>they just make this most magical combination of flowers that
<v Speaker 2>you know, they're early to blooms, are just coming out
<v Speaker 2>of this long winter, and you just see this kind
<v Speaker 2>of floral symphony. I mean, just even thinking about it,
<v Speaker 2>I just get so excited. So I love that.
<v Speaker 1>The magical thing for me, Stacy with redbud is the
<v Speaker 1>fact that the blooms come out before the foliage. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>so you see that. It's it's like these the blooms
<v Speaker 1>are just suspended in mid air. Yes, that's why I
<v Speaker 1>say wispy. I love it.
<v Speaker 2>They call that flowering naked. Yes, if if a plant
<v Speaker 2>flowers without foliage, that is a flowering naked. And yes,
<v Speaker 2>Soursus canadensis, our native redbud flowers naked, and so yeah
<v Speaker 2>without I mean, of course we love green, but without
<v Speaker 2>the green on the plant, that pink just pops so much.
<v Speaker 2>Another really cool thing about Cursus or red bud is
<v Speaker 2>it exhibits a trait called califluory. And yes, that sounds
<v Speaker 2>like cauliflower and has actually spelled much the same c
<v Speaker 2>A U l I f l O r Y calliflory,
<v Speaker 2>and that basically means the phenomenon of flowering directly on
<v Speaker 2>the stem. So whereas you know, most plants will flower
<v Speaker 2>and they'll create growth and then the you know, flower
<v Speaker 2>will appear at the end of the stem, like with
<v Speaker 2>roses or hydranges, what happens with cursus or red bud
<v Speaker 2>is the flowers formed directly on the stem with just
<v Speaker 2>a tiny little stock. And so you can actually find
<v Speaker 2>red buds that look like their trunk is covered in
<v Speaker 2>these bright pink powder puffs, because it makes these really
<v Speaker 2>cool little clusters of flowers directly on the trunk, and
<v Speaker 2>it's just it's just a charming little thing. You don't
<v Speaker 2>all see them do that. But it's just a great plant.
<v Speaker 2>And of course it's native, so I have it close
<v Speaker 2>to my heart. But the other thing, since this is
<v Speaker 2>plant on trials, is I think that red bud is
<v Speaker 2>a fantastic choice for it's a small tree that's perfect
<v Speaker 2>for a specimen tree in your yard.
<v Speaker 1>Yes it is.
<v Speaker 2>It's a great size, It has that really amazing moment
<v Speaker 2>in spring, has the charming foliage some people don't like
<v Speaker 2>the seedheads. I personally do like the seedheads. They look
<v Speaker 2>like kind of dried brown beans hanging from the tree.
<v Speaker 2>I actually like it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm good with it. And the tree provide, you know,
<v Speaker 1>there's filtered light that gets through the tree. And then
<v Speaker 1>if you can take that magical experience you're describing Stacy
<v Speaker 1>and in the location of that tree, have some tulips
<v Speaker 1>in bloom.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, Gilbelila pour it on?
<v Speaker 1>Whoa pour it on? Exactly?
<v Speaker 2>But is pretty as the heart shaped foliage is. You
<v Speaker 2>might be the kind of gardener who wants something a
<v Speaker 2>little bit extra in your red bud, and that is
<v Speaker 2>exactly what Midnight Express Redbud does for you. So this
<v Speaker 2>really cool variety came out of Robinson Nursery in Oregon.
<v Speaker 2>Josh and Chris Robinson of Robinson Nursery developed this plant
<v Speaker 2>or selected it from their very large tree nursery. They
<v Speaker 2>are expert tree growers, and its foliage is a dark
<v Speaker 2>purple black. Now, as we've already said, Cursus does flower naked,
<v Speaker 2>so you're never going to get the combination of the
<v Speaker 2>pink flowers and that dark purple foliage. It would be
<v Speaker 2>fabulous if you did. You're not going to get that.
<v Speaker 2>But that's okay, because what you're gonna get is that
<v Speaker 2>wonderful flower display in spring, and then as the flowers
<v Speaker 2>start to fade, then that dark, purply black foliage comes out,
<v Speaker 2>and then that's going to keep the plant really interesting
<v Speaker 2>all season long.
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to go out on a limb here and
<v Speaker 1>ask you a question. Then, Having worked in the industry
<v Speaker 1>for so many years, the standard was always forest pansy,
<v Speaker 1>how does this compare?
<v Speaker 3>Right?
<v Speaker 2>Ris Panze is also a purple variety. It was one
<v Speaker 2>of the I think it was the first purple variety,
<v Speaker 2>and I remember when it came out, it was all
<v Speaker 2>the right. People went bonkers for it. And it is
<v Speaker 2>a beautiful plant. But it is a plant that resents
<v Speaker 2>anything less than ideal conditions. So if it's not growing
<v Speaker 2>under great conditions, say it's growing in an urban area
<v Speaker 2>where it's going to be hot and maybe not get
<v Speaker 2>regular water, it often gets different diseases. It's kind of
<v Speaker 2>a weak grower. It's harder to propagate and to grow on.
<v Speaker 2>So Midnight Express resolves all of those issues. It's going
<v Speaker 2>to be much more vigorous, much more resistant to disease.
<v Speaker 2>And it's gonna you know, have much brighter color, much
<v Speaker 2>more vivid true colors in that purple black as well.
<v Speaker 2>So it's really just a great choice. And you know,
<v Speaker 2>as with all you know, plant development, we're always looking
<v Speaker 2>for ways to you know, make sure that the plant
<v Speaker 2>performs better for you so that you don't have to
<v Speaker 2>work as hard and you don't say, old, jeezu, why
<v Speaker 2>did I waste my money on this? This plant is
<v Speaker 2>weak and sad. You want your plants to be happy
<v Speaker 2>and robust and healthy, so it's a great choice for that. Now,
<v Speaker 2>I will say that overall, red bud is not dear resistant.
<v Speaker 2>I have tried to grow small plants myself many times
<v Speaker 2>and they always get munched. But one thing I do
<v Speaker 2>really like about them is they do support leaf cutter bees,
<v Speaker 2>and I love leafcutter bees. They are a native bee
<v Speaker 2>that makes this really interesting little notch in the foliage.
<v Speaker 2>So that is a good reason to grow them if
<v Speaker 2>you don't have any deer to contend with. Now, this
<v Speaker 2>is a plant that's going to be for full sun.
<v Speaker 2>If you have a green leafed red bud, you will
<v Speaker 2>be able to get away with it and kind of
<v Speaker 2>part shade because these are understory plants that kind of
<v Speaker 2>grow on the edge of the forest, but that pigment
<v Speaker 2>that makes that deep, purply black foliage really needs full
<v Speaker 2>in order to come to its best. And you know,
<v Speaker 2>because as is the case very often, when you have
<v Speaker 2>a plant with colorful foliage, it can sometimes be more
<v Speaker 2>susceptible to powdery mildew than it's plain green counterparts. So
<v Speaker 2>if it's in too much shade not getting good air circulation,
<v Speaker 2>you know, that could become a problem. So you want
<v Speaker 2>to make sure that it is in full sun in
<v Speaker 2>this case, and if you don't have full sun, just
<v Speaker 2>go ahead and plant the green ones so you get
<v Speaker 2>all of the wonderful qualities of Redbud. Midnight Express is
<v Speaker 2>hardy down to USDAS on five heat tolerant through USDAS
<v Speaker 2>one nine gets to be about twenty to thirty feet
<v Speaker 2>tall and about ten to twenty feet wide. So that's
<v Speaker 2>really a nice scale, you know, for the average kind
<v Speaker 2>of city size lot, suburban lot, and house. And I
<v Speaker 2>think that's really important too. So a very cool plant
<v Speaker 2>that I think you will love at least as much
<v Speaker 2>as I do once you get to know it. So
<v Speaker 2>please do add that two year planting list for this spring.
<v Speaker 2>If it spikes your interest, it will be available at
<v Speaker 2>garden centers this spring and Midnight Express Redbud is also
<v Speaker 2>the twenty twenty seven and twenty twenty eight Tree of
<v Speaker 2>the Year spoiler alert, so it'll be even more abundant
<v Speaker 2>next year. So we're going to take a little break.
<v Speaker 2>When we come back, we're opening up the garden mail bag,
<v Speaker 2>so please stay tuned. At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs,
<v Speaker 2>we know that a better landscape starts with a better shrub.
<v Speaker 2>Our team of experts tests and evaluates all of our
<v Speaker 2>flowering shrubs and evergreens for eight to ten years to
<v Speaker 2>ensure they outperform what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable,
<v Speaker 2>beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style.
<v Speaker 2>Look for Proven Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container
<v Speaker 2>at your local garden center or learn more at proven
<v Speaker 2>Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome
<v Speaker 2>back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we're talking about
<v Speaker 2>our love for plants. And even if you don't love
<v Speaker 2>Valentine's Day, it is still a great time to get
<v Speaker 2>a plant. Get you through the winter and as you
<v Speaker 2>start thinking more and more about gardening, because I feel like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, January is rough, but like I feel like
<v Speaker 2>February is when the spring fever really starts kicking in,
<v Speaker 2>because at that point it's like starting to get closer,
<v Speaker 2>but the weather it's still super crummy.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 1>Well, you know, if you're one of those people who
<v Speaker 1>loves Valentine's Day, more power to you and send your cards,
<v Speaker 1>your notes, your letters to me and change.
<v Speaker 2>My mind and your half price eminem's.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, think and write eminems, bring them on. But I'll
<v Speaker 1>take card shaped chocolates too, and beef jerky, oh a
<v Speaker 1>beef jerky too.
<v Speaker 2>But you know, as we do start to move more
<v Speaker 2>towards the gardening season, and of course cold and snow
<v Speaker 2>and everything pile up, you may have a gardening question
<v Speaker 2>of your own and we would be happy to help you.
<v Speaker 2>All you have to do is reach out to us
<v Speaker 2>at Gardening Simplified on air dot com and there is
<v Speaker 2>a contact forum right there. You can even include some photos,
<v Speaker 2>or you can leave a comment on our YouTube show.
<v Speaker 2>Adriana reads all of those and make sure that everybody
<v Speaker 2>gets an answer and if you need one, so lots
<v Speaker 2>of different ways to reach us, and you don't have
<v Speaker 2>to just share your questions or problems with us. You
<v Speaker 2>can share your celebrations with us. And I loved hearing
<v Speaker 2>from our listener Ruth recently. She says, this is how
<v Speaker 2>I am beating the winter blues. My Pathiopedalum American beauty
<v Speaker 2>Lady Slipper orchid has blossomed. It is so beautiful.
<v Speaker 1>Now.
<v Speaker 2>I have to say, you know, when I was younger
<v Speaker 2>and wanted to, you know, collect rare plants and thought
<v Speaker 2>that like orchids were the coolest thing ever an orchids
<v Speaker 2>still are very cool, but I just don't have any.
<v Speaker 2>The pathio Pedalum was the one that I always wanted.
<v Speaker 2>This is the one. If you've ever seen like an
<v Speaker 2>orchid show or been to a botanical garden, comes up
<v Speaker 2>on a single stam and just has the most unique
<v Speaker 2>lady slip like flower usually dark kind of maroons and pinks.
<v Speaker 1>And greens and magical.
<v Speaker 2>Oh so beautiful, and hers is blooming. And so that
<v Speaker 2>is a huge accomplishment for you as an orchid grower
<v Speaker 2>or orchid collector. So yeah, way to grow, way to grow,
<v Speaker 2>to grow, and enjoy that because yes, you have truly
<v Speaker 2>accomplished something extraordinary to get a pathiopedulum to rebloom under
<v Speaker 2>normal household conditions. She goes on to say, and last
<v Speaker 2>week i picked up a variegated hoya plant. I'm excited
<v Speaker 2>to see how my hoya plant grows. So we're talking
<v Speaker 2>about the Preven Winter's House Plan of the year, the
<v Speaker 2>pink variegated hoya that they have, So Ruth has herself
<v Speaker 2>a variegated hoya as well. So you know, Ruth got
<v Speaker 2>the right idea. Treat yourself to some great indoor plants.
<v Speaker 2>Don't try to power through February. It's okay to give
<v Speaker 2>yourself a little botanical cushion with some nice houseplants or
<v Speaker 2>cut flowers, or a shopping spree at your favorite seed
<v Speaker 2>or garden website.
<v Speaker 1>Like I said, you're among friends and we appreciate it, Ruth.
<v Speaker 1>And if you have a success story like that, we'd
<v Speaker 1>love to hear from you. That's fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>So let's get to some of those questions. Kelsey asks,
<v Speaker 2>I was gifted a hellibore about a month ago. I'd
<v Speaker 2>like to keep it a live long enough to plant outside.
<v Speaker 2>I live in north central Indiana. The plant has lost
<v Speaker 2>a lot of foliage, though it is still flowering some
<v Speaker 2>and growing some new stems. I'm trying to keep it watered.
<v Speaker 2>It lives in a sunny, south facing windowed room about
<v Speaker 2>eight feet from the windows. But it does not look good.
<v Speaker 2>Please advise.
<v Speaker 1>Oh boy, I love this, and Kelsey, I'll tell you this, Okay.
<v Speaker 1>We've talked about this often me all the years that
<v Speaker 1>I spent in the garden center industry. On February fifteen,
<v Speaker 1>not only do I go out to get pink and
<v Speaker 1>red Eminem's at seventy five percent off, I'll pick up
<v Speaker 1>some of the hellibores that didn't sell on Valentine's Day.
<v Speaker 2>Also they sell helibors or Valentine's.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yes, absolutely, you'll see helibores in the gift wrapped
<v Speaker 1>foil wrapped containers six inch pot so hellibores are part
<v Speaker 1>of the mix. There are a number of greenhouses in
<v Speaker 1>Canada that grow them. And then you'll see some of
<v Speaker 1>these hellibores and grocery stores and so I would pick
<v Speaker 1>those up. Sometimes I would take them and just put
<v Speaker 1>them in an unheated shed or garage area or whatever,
<v Speaker 1>and then in spring plant them.
<v Speaker 2>I feel like this is so you.
<v Speaker 1>Had great success. So you know, I got a seventy
<v Speaker 1>five percent off hellibor and I got some M and ms.
<v Speaker 1>Life is good.
<v Speaker 2>Life is good. Yeah. I mean I have seen this
<v Speaker 2>before too, and I think that you're going to have
<v Speaker 2>much better success getting a hellibor and trying to overwinter
<v Speaker 2>it from Valentine's Day compared to Christmas, because she got
<v Speaker 2>hers at Christmas time. And you know the fact is
<v Speaker 2>that hellabor, as a hardy plant that grows outside, definitely
<v Speaker 2>is going to struggle in your normal indoor conditions. And
<v Speaker 2>it sounds like you're doing everything right, Kelsey, but you
<v Speaker 2>know that's just not the conditions that they want to
<v Speaker 2>be growing in right now. As far as they're concerned,
<v Speaker 2>they should be covered in snow and sound asleep under
<v Speaker 2>the soil, but they're instead growing eight feet from your
<v Speaker 2>window in Indiana. So I would say, you know, definitely,
<v Speaker 2>water sparingly. It's very easy to overwater plants that kind
<v Speaker 2>of want to be dormant. The light sounds like it's fine,
<v Speaker 2>but I would also say that you know, as long
<v Speaker 2>as you are keeping an eye on it, making sure
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't get too dry or too wet, even if
<v Speaker 2>the thing gets so stressed out and does end up
<v Speaker 2>going dormant. I wouldn't give up on it, you know,
<v Speaker 2>because it's probably going through something very similar to what
<v Speaker 2>it would go through outdoors if it had been a
<v Speaker 2>different life cycle, where it's going to go dormant, but
<v Speaker 2>the root, the crown, and the roots are still alive.
<v Speaker 2>The plant has just gone dormant. So I wouldn't totally
<v Speaker 2>give up even if it seems like it has given up,
<v Speaker 2>because very likely that crown is still alive and can
<v Speaker 2>be planted outside. So don't necessarily panic if everything you're
<v Speaker 2>seeing above ground is looking less than spectacular. And if
<v Speaker 2>it does die, you know, know that these are grown
<v Speaker 2>as gift plants.
<v Speaker 1>Yes they are. They're greenhouse grown, but you can do it.
<v Speaker 1>And it is a tough, resilient plant.
<v Speaker 2>It is.
<v Speaker 1>When I was doing garden segments on television every year
<v Speaker 1>in early March, when there's still some snow on the
<v Speaker 1>ground here in Michigan, we would get out there where
<v Speaker 1>we knew hellabores were and just peel back some of
<v Speaker 1>the snow and ice and there they would be just
<v Speaker 1>budding underneath the snow. And that's a great feeling, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>for sure, there are even better than em and ms.
<v Speaker 2>So don't give up Kelsey, but definitely don't overwater it either.
<v Speaker 2>So Beverly Esques, I have some summarific edge of night
<v Speaker 2>hardy hibiscus plans and would like to know if a
<v Speaker 2>Spoma palm tone is a good fertilizer to use on them.
<v Speaker 2>Now I look this up as Spoma palm tone. Obviously
<v Speaker 2>a fertilizer for palm trees is a four to one
<v Speaker 2>five fertilizer.
<v Speaker 1>So what don you think interesting? Well, it's easy to
<v Speaker 1>overfertilize a palm and create problems that way because generally
<v Speaker 1>they don't need so you know, that's that's a pretty
<v Speaker 1>low analysis four one five.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and most I think that most of the Aspoma
<v Speaker 2>products do tend to have kind of that lower analysis.
<v Speaker 2>You know, they're not like a super strong. But what
<v Speaker 2>I think is interesting about this and that the reason
<v Speaker 2>that she probably mentioned hibiscus is when I looked it up,
<v Speaker 2>Aspoma does sell this as a palm and hibiscus fertilizer. True,
<v Speaker 2>Now that middle number one it's a four to one
<v Speaker 2>five fertilizer is phosphorus and tropical hibiscus especially I know
<v Speaker 2>how true This is for you Rosa sharon or perennial
<v Speaker 2>hibiscus like Summarific Edge of Night. But the tropical hibiscus
<v Speaker 2>like Hollywood hibiscus, are very sensitive to high phosphorus. It
<v Speaker 2>ties up other nutrients that they need more. And that's
<v Speaker 2>kind of a problem because people will think like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>I should use a blossom booster on this thing, because
<v Speaker 2>I want to get a ton of flowers, and you're
<v Speaker 2>actually doing exactly what they shouldn't do, which is applying
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of fertilizer of phosphorus, because most blossom boosters
<v Speaker 2>are very high in phosphorus. So I do really like
<v Speaker 2>that this fertilizer is low and phosphorus because the fact is,
<v Speaker 2>as far as residential soils go, in the majority of
<v Speaker 2>the United States, in Canada, we have more than enough
<v Speaker 2>phosphorus in our soils already. You do not need to
<v Speaker 2>add extra phosphorus in most cases in a residential landscape.
<v Speaker 2>And most fertilizers, most commercial fertilizers, are really way too
<v Speaker 2>high in phosphorus, and a plant can't use excess phosphorus
<v Speaker 2>to become better. And this is how as we've talked
<v Speaker 2>about before, a lot of the algael blooms begin is
<v Speaker 2>a fertilizer runoff, all the phosphorus and fertilizers running off
<v Speaker 2>into lakes and ponds and so forth, and that feeds
<v Speaker 2>the algae and causes it to really proliferate in the summer.
<v Speaker 1>True, although most people probably are growing their hibiscus plants
<v Speaker 1>and containers right.
<v Speaker 2>But this is a trap. This is a perennial hibiscus. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>so yes, if you're growing out right. So I would
<v Speaker 2>say that palm tone sounds to me like just the
<v Speaker 2>perfect all purpose fertilizer, you know, for anything. And you
<v Speaker 2>know whether or not the hardy hibiscus from the Summerific
<v Speaker 2>series need low phosphorus or not, I think is pretty
<v Speaker 2>irrelevant because they're getting the phosphorus that they need in
<v Speaker 2>your landscape already. So I would say, go ahead and
<v Speaker 2>get the palm tone. Of course, if you don't live
<v Speaker 2>in a climate where palms grow, you're probably gonna have
<v Speaker 2>to special order it because most likely your garden center
<v Speaker 2>in Michigan is not going to be stocked looking as
<v Speaker 2>poem of palm tone. But you can always look at
<v Speaker 2>the analysis and again, always look for ones no matter
<v Speaker 2>what you're trying to fertilize with that middle number low,
<v Speaker 2>so you're not unnecessarily applying phosphorus. We're going to take
<v Speaker 2>a little break and when we come back, we are
<v Speaker 2>very excited to be talking to doctor Jessica Turner Scoff
<v Speaker 2>from Longwood Gardens, So please stay tuned. Thanks for listening
<v Speaker 2>to the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to you by Proven
<v Speaker 2>Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and
<v Speaker 2>evergreens are trialed and tested by experts with your success
<v Speaker 2>in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
<v Speaker 2>where we are very honored to have a very special guest.
<v Speaker 2>We are joined by doctor Jessica Turner Scoff. She is
<v Speaker 2>the Associate director for Science Communications at the one and
<v Speaker 2>only Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Slovenia. Welcome to the show, Jessica.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you so much to be here. It's incredibly exciting.
<v Speaker 3>This is a great, great podcast slash redeo show, so
<v Speaker 3>I'm very excited to be here.
<v Speaker 2>Oh well, thank you so much for that. Now. I
<v Speaker 2>happened across on LinkedIn a couple months ago a press
<v Speaker 2>release from Longwood Gardens that said that they were joining UH,
<v Speaker 2>they were becoming a partnership with the Illegal Plant Trade
<v Speaker 2>coalition from Botanic Gardens Conservation International, and the press release
<v Speaker 2>went on to say, and this really surprised me. Quote
<v Speaker 2>each year, plants such as cacti, succulents, orchids, psychicads, or
<v Speaker 2>carnivorous plants are trafficked at significantly higher volume than animals,
<v Speaker 2>often without buyers realizing their purchases fuel habitat, destruction and extinction.
<v Speaker 2>So can you tell us more about like what this means.
<v Speaker 2>I think most people, you know, they see the photos
<v Speaker 2>of you know, Customs and Border Enforcement opening a box
<v Speaker 2>and there's a monkey or something inside, And I don't
<v Speaker 2>think people really think of plant poaching as much of
<v Speaker 2>a thing.
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely. You know, animals do tend to get a lot
<v Speaker 3>of attention, but plants are, as you mentioned, they are
<v Speaker 3>being threatened by international trades far more than animals are.
<v Speaker 3>And you know it's oftentimes if you're purchasing from a
<v Speaker 3>social media or a non reputable online sellar, and you're
<v Speaker 3>not asking the questions of where did this plant come from?
<v Speaker 3>You could be doing a lot of disservice to the
<v Speaker 3>ecosystems where those plants are from.
<v Speaker 2>So you know, on the show, we talk a lot
<v Speaker 2>about buying plants, of course, and we're usually talking about
<v Speaker 2>buying plants in the nursery or you know, plants that
<v Speaker 2>have come from a grower, plants that were really produced
<v Speaker 2>as horticultural almost agricultural crops. And this is so different, right,
<v Speaker 2>because what we're talking about with plant poaching is plants
<v Speaker 2>that have come out of the wild.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, illegal poaching is far far different than the plants
<v Speaker 3>that you can purchase from your rect pele garden center
<v Speaker 3>or from a garden shop and a botanic garden. This
<v Speaker 3>is when somebody goes out into the wild, finds the
<v Speaker 3>population of plants and just takes them, and oftentimes it's
<v Speaker 3>taken indiscriminately. Everything is usually pulled up from an area,
<v Speaker 3>roots are disturbed of other species, and so you're having
<v Speaker 3>a really detrimental impact on not just the species that
<v Speaker 3>is being taken and now is lost from the ecosystem,
<v Speaker 3>but the impact of everything else that is happening from
<v Speaker 3>the poaching that's occurring.
<v Speaker 2>So all of this would kind of imply that there
<v Speaker 2>is some sort of illicit black market for these plants.
<v Speaker 2>But the truth is that this has very much been
<v Speaker 2>a phenomenon enabled by the Internet.
<v Speaker 3>Right, Yeah, yeah, it is. It is in plain sights.
<v Speaker 3>So if you go on to any of the social
<v Speaker 3>media or online marketplaces, typically you can find some rare
<v Speaker 3>or unusual plants that are for sale. And if you
<v Speaker 3>don't know where it came from and you ask and
<v Speaker 3>they can't tell you that it came from a reputable
<v Speaker 3>source or way, than chances are you would be if
<v Speaker 3>you purchase it, you would be contributing to a loss
<v Speaker 3>of biodiversity in the wild.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm sure even with that information, you know, a
<v Speaker 2>lot of our listeners are people who hear this are
<v Speaker 2>thinking that would never happen to me. So just how
<v Speaker 2>close you know, is the average avid gardener or houseplant
<v Speaker 2>collector to you know the availability of these poached plants.
<v Speaker 3>Plants are poached far more than the internet trade of animals,
<v Speaker 3>so you know, it's pretty common, and it's occurring with
<v Speaker 3>a lot of the more popular houseplants like orchid, succulents, psycads, cacti,
<v Speaker 3>carnivorous plants, and oftentimes it's happening with plants that are
<v Speaker 3>really long lived, slow growing, harder to propagate on large scale.
<v Speaker 3>And so that's why a lot of times it's just
<v Speaker 3>easier for people to immediately go out and pull from
<v Speaker 3>the wild. And so we're just asking people to be
<v Speaker 3>really conscientious. And you know, if you're looking for this
<v Speaker 3>really cool, unique plant, especially for like a Valentine's Day gift,
<v Speaker 3>we highly recommend going to make it an experience. Go
<v Speaker 3>to a garden center, go to a botanic garden, and
<v Speaker 3>go to the garden shop, buy from a place that
<v Speaker 3>knows where the plant came from and can guarantee that
<v Speaker 3>it did not come from an illegal source.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know, botanical garden is a great choice because
<v Speaker 2>very often botanical gardens have excellent plant shops with a
<v Speaker 2>lot of really unique plants, and you get to go
<v Speaker 2>to a botanical garden on top of that. Now I'm wondering,
<v Speaker 2>you know how, like obviously in the US, we have
<v Speaker 2>a huge problem with plant blindness, right, like most people
<v Speaker 2>don't even pay attention to plants in the first place.
<v Speaker 2>But yet here we have the situation where you know,
<v Speaker 2>poachers are going out into the wild, and just are
<v Speaker 2>they indiscriminately pulling out plants. Are these knowledgeable you know,
<v Speaker 2>horticulturists or botanists on their own and they are just
<v Speaker 2>you know, trying to make a quick buck on the side,
<v Speaker 2>or are they just pulling up a bunch of stuff
<v Speaker 2>and saying, here, you guys, sorted out and put it
<v Speaker 2>on whatever marketplace.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I think it really it really depends. So
<v Speaker 3>you know, for my dissertation, I did a lot of
<v Speaker 3>work with American gen seine, which is a small medicinal
<v Speaker 3>plant that's poached throughout Appalachia, and oftentimes the people that
<v Speaker 3>are proaching that are incredibly knowledgeable. They know what they're doing.
<v Speaker 3>They may not have a full understanding of the implications
<v Speaker 3>that they're causing. But you know, that's one end of
<v Speaker 3>the scale. And then the other end of the scale
<v Speaker 3>is just mass poaching, just taking everything that you can
<v Speaker 3>because if you don't take it, then you can't make
<v Speaker 3>that money. So along with one of the things that
<v Speaker 3>we really are working on is developing protocols for learning
<v Speaker 3>how to grow some of these really cool, rare or
<v Speaker 3>endangered orchids specifically, and we're learning how to grow them
<v Speaker 3>so we can both conserve them and ultimately, you know,
<v Speaker 3>help offset some of the poaching that is occurring not
<v Speaker 3>just here locally, that around the world.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I'm so glad you said that, because of
<v Speaker 2>course everyone hears Longwood and they think, ooh fountains, ooh gardens,
<v Speaker 2>and they think of it just as this beautiful place
<v Speaker 2>to go, which of course it is, but Longwood is
<v Speaker 2>doing so much more, you know, for botany and for horticulture,
<v Speaker 2>and a lot of people they don't even see that
<v Speaker 2>really when they go to a visit to Longwood, and you.
<v Speaker 3>Know, one of the things that I hope that you know,
<v Speaker 3>thinking Longwood fountains, Longwood beauty, Longwood Global scientific powerhouse. That's
<v Speaker 3>what I'm here to help with.
<v Speaker 2>We love that we're doing our part too, because yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I mean botanical gardens. People just don't really realize that
<v Speaker 2>is such a key part of their mission and that,
<v Speaker 2>you know, it's a great way for us to all
<v Speaker 2>enjoy more plants when you at Longwood are doing that
<v Speaker 2>kind of research. And I do think it's really interesting
<v Speaker 2>you mentioned American gen scene because I have always heard
<v Speaker 2>that that is probably the most poached plant in North America.
<v Speaker 3>I would say that that is probably pretty accurate. Yes,
<v Speaker 3>it is being harvested at really high levels. For again,
<v Speaker 3>it ends up in traditional Chinese medicine, so it ends
<v Speaker 3>up in the other end of the world, and people
<v Speaker 3>are taking it without indiscretion because it is such an
<v Speaker 3>important secondary source of income for people. So it's, you know,
<v Speaker 3>one of those things that we need to work on
<v Speaker 3>helping provide opportunities to learn how to grow these plants,
<v Speaker 3>teaching people these protocols so hopefully we can offset some
<v Speaker 3>of these long term issues. And now we don't do
<v Speaker 3>American gen seen work at Longwood. We are more focused
<v Speaker 3>on orchids and everything like that. But we want to
<v Speaker 3>give people the tools to be able to grow these plants,
<v Speaker 3>cherish them, love them, and keep them alive and happy
<v Speaker 3>in their homes, in their gardens and in the wild.
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to guess that with the advent of social
<v Speaker 1>media and the Internet, this has become a big problem.
<v Speaker 1>You know. I think about people who are on Facebook
<v Speaker 1>marketplace selling something for five dollars that they we're going
<v Speaker 1>to throw in the trash anyhow, you know, and but
<v Speaker 1>the the internet affords the opportunity to do that. So
<v Speaker 1>my question for you would be these nefarious types that
<v Speaker 1>that are into plant poaching. Are there certain regions of
<v Speaker 1>the world that they are targeting where there's a significant biodiversity.
<v Speaker 1>Where are your target areas?
<v Speaker 3>You know, I think it really comes down to where.
<v Speaker 3>You know, biodiversity hotspots are very often what is targeted.
<v Speaker 3>So you know, those are areas where there's a lot
<v Speaker 3>of life. That's basically what that means, you know. So
<v Speaker 3>and it really depends, like so for cacti, you know
<v Speaker 3>that's going to be in North America in the Southwest.
<v Speaker 3>There's going to be a lot of pressures on them there.
<v Speaker 3>You know, there's going to be pressures. And well, orchids
<v Speaker 3>are prolific and worldwide, so they are incredibly beautiful and
<v Speaker 3>important plants, and I think every single one of them
<v Speaker 3>is listed onto the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species,
<v Speaker 3>so you know, no one should be trafficking them. No
<v Speaker 3>one should be trafficking plants in general. But you know,
<v Speaker 3>it's really where there's high levels of diversity, there's often
<v Speaker 3>a lot more opportunities, especially for some of these plants
<v Speaker 3>that are so beloved.
<v Speaker 1>I mentioned the internet issue because Stacey it's been really
<v Speaker 1>eye opening for me working with proven winners, proven winners,
<v Speaker 1>Color Choice shrubs, the amount of work, investment research in
<v Speaker 1>bringing a plant to the market.
<v Speaker 3>Sure. Yeah, And I you know, like to say too
<v Speaker 3>is just if you're there's a plant that you're super
<v Speaker 3>super interested in, super super once, just give it some
<v Speaker 3>time because you don't want to be the person that
<v Speaker 3>takes the last one. But industry is aware of these trends.
<v Speaker 3>They are, you know, keeping on top of these things.
<v Speaker 3>And you know, I think back to some of the
<v Speaker 3>plants that were so popular during the pandemic, like the
<v Speaker 3>pink princess. Well you know, I waited a couple of
<v Speaker 3>years and I got mine from Costco, so you right there. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So what is the Illegal Plant Trade Coalition doing? Uh,
<v Speaker 2>you know as part of this of this movement globally
<v Speaker 2>because it's not just long what it's it's botanical gardens
<v Speaker 2>from all over the world. You know, what are they
<v Speaker 2>doing to to really reduce and eliminate plant poaching?
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely so we are with the the Panic Gardens Conservation International,
<v Speaker 3>So this is their coalition and we are joining with
<v Speaker 3>partners there's worldwide that are really working to both document,
<v Speaker 3>research and protect species of facing these pressures and these
<v Speaker 3>pressures not just the plant trade, but you know, oftentimes
<v Speaker 3>these plants are being tipped by climate change and habitat.
<v Speaker 3>So we're really trying to work together to bring awareness
<v Speaker 3>to this issue because you know, as you mentioned about
<v Speaker 3>plant findness, Now everybody knows that the issue that this is,
<v Speaker 3>and so let's raise the awareness. You don't want to
<v Speaker 3>be the person to take the last one because you
<v Speaker 3>do not know the implications that that can have long
<v Speaker 3>term ecosystems.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's a scary thought that you could literally be
<v Speaker 2>buying the last one of something, you know, and just
<v Speaker 2>thinking you're.
<v Speaker 3>Any way too much pressure from anybody's bring them like professionals, definitely.
<v Speaker 2>Now, so as we wind down here, what can the
<v Speaker 2>average person do? I know we talked a little bit
<v Speaker 2>about it, but are there specific questions? You know that
<v Speaker 2>if you're interested in a plant that you have come
<v Speaker 2>across on a marketplace that you can ask that you
<v Speaker 2>should ask to kind of help to, you know, winnow
<v Speaker 2>down the possible source. Is it useful to look at
<v Speaker 2>the sellers, say other listings and kind of dig into that.
<v Speaker 2>How can you do your due diligence?
<v Speaker 3>There are a lot of different things that you can do.
<v Speaker 3>First of all, if it's too good to be true.
<v Speaker 3>It probably is. Make sure that you're really having an
<v Speaker 3>understanding of what the plan is you're buying and should
<v Speaker 3>it be listed at that price. You can also ask
<v Speaker 3>about promenads to how it was propagated, if it was
<v Speaker 3>will collected, and you know, really just I like to
<v Speaker 3>think like a scientist, ask questions, try to understand what
<v Speaker 3>you're doing, because you know, you want to think twice
<v Speaker 3>and trade right. You don't want to be buying something
<v Speaker 3>that was removed from it to habitat. You want to
<v Speaker 3>be buying reputable dealers. Go to your local garden shop
<v Speaker 3>and ask the right questions, enjoy the parson that you purchase,
<v Speaker 3>knowing that you did it the right way.
<v Speaker 2>Right, And I think, you know, hopefully just being aware
<v Speaker 2>that this is a possibility is helping to dry up
<v Speaker 2>that market. And I love what you've said that Longwood
<v Speaker 2>is helping to dry up that market by actually making
<v Speaker 2>these plants available. We really appreciate you joining the show
<v Speaker 2>today and helping to raise awareness. If people want to
<v Speaker 2>know more, I know there is a post something at
<v Speaker 2>the Longwood website, but you know, really I hope that
<v Speaker 2>they will just take the lesson to heart that This
<v Speaker 2>is not you know, an arm's length problem. This is
<v Speaker 2>actually a problem that can be quite near to us.
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely, and I recommend also checking out just Longwood Gardens
<v Speaker 3>dot org to read more about some of our conservation
<v Speaker 3>horticulture work.
<v Speaker 2>Well, that sounds like the perfect way to spend a
<v Speaker 2>cold winter afternoon. So thank you so much, doctor Jessica Turner, scoff,
<v Speaker 2>Associate Director of Science Communications at Longwood Gardens. We truly
<v Speaker 2>appreciate your time and your expertise and helping to raise
<v Speaker 2>awareness for this important issue.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you so much.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I hope that wasn't too you know, scary or
<v Speaker 2>too much of a downer, but I know the first
<v Speaker 2>time I learned about this, I was genuinely surprised at
<v Speaker 2>how common it really is. So, you know, we really
<v Speaker 2>wanted our listeners to to know that this isn't just
<v Speaker 2>you know, some far away problem that may never impact them.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe closer than you think.
<v Speaker 1>But you'd have to say, in this internet digital age,
<v Speaker 1>not surprising, that.
<v Speaker 2>Is for sure. Fortunately, So as you do your Valentine's shopping,
<v Speaker 2>please be sure to shop responsibly and locally if you can.
<v Speaker 2>So thank you so much to doctor Jessica Turner. Scoff,
<v Speaker 2>Thank you, Rick, thank you Stacy, thank you Adriana, and
<v Speaker 2>thanks so much to all of you. We hope you
<v Speaker 2>have a wonderful week ahead.