Hydrangeas and the 2023 Polar Vortex

Coming to you from Studio A here at proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs. It's
time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy, Hervella me, Rick weisst and
our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson Stacy. November sixteen, twenty the Pilgrims got
their first look at the New World when they saw Cape Cod. After a
tortuous sixty six day voyage from England, the Pilgrims reached the mainland of America.
Now, as I learned this past year, they did not land at
Plymouth Rock, but rather they anchored first in Provincetown Harbor, little Sandy,
kind of like a beach. Difficult to farm that area, so they decided
to move along to Plymouth Rock. But the reason that I bring this up
is this past summer I visited the Hydrangea festival on Cape Cod. I know
you have to, Stacy, and they were experiencing something very interesting. In
twenty twenty three, because of a polar vortex that occurred during the month of
February, pretty much most or any of the Macrophilla hydrange of blooms were lost.
And you know Cape Cod and big leaf Hydrange's hydrogenea macrophylla, the kind
of the big pink, blue or purple flowers. They go hand in hand.
I mean, if there's no hydrangees on the Cape, people want their
money back on their summer vacations exactly. So it was, you know,
it was really disappointing. And then I picked up on some of the ways
that people were reacting to it. And I know some of our viewers and
our listeners grow hydranges in containers. So I thought we'd talked about that subject
as we head into the winter months here in Michigan. Of course, I
remember the polar vortex of twenty fourteen and it was cold. Yeah, how
cold was It was so cold my phone's weather at pros and it did actually
no, my phone would it's so cold refrigerators become redundant. Yes, that's
how cold. And that's how cold it got on Cape cod last year.
I think it was February third and fourth, Mount Washington, of course,
which is always cold, forty seven degrees with a wind chill of minus one
hundred and eight, the coldest wind chill ever recorded for the United States.
On February four, twenty twenty three, Boston, Massachusetts, a new record
low minus ten at Logan International Airport and then February fourth, Portland, Maine
all time lowest wind chill at minus forty five degrees. Now, we often
talk on the show about hardiness zones and Cape Cod as I see it is
Zone seven A. That's a sub zone that has a minimum average temperature of
right around zero to five degrees as the coldest as the cold So if you
start getting into some of those kind of temperatures, you are going to see
some damage. And yet Stacey today, hydranges we've talked often about the Let's
Dance series are just so much more well suited to survive that winter period.
The blooms again on Cape Cod with the macrophillis, the plants were not dead,
it's just the blooms were the blooms were, you know, And that
does strike I think at one of the shortcomings of the hardiness zone system,
which is it only tells you, you know, if the plant will survive,
not if you you know, are actually going to be happy with how
it looks at the end. A plant just alive isn't necessarily enough, and
it's certainly not enough when it comes to big leaf hydrangs. If you lose
those flowers because of course they blew on old wood, so big leaf hydrangeas
they have their flower buds right now for the twenty twenty four summer season.
That means they have to make it through all of winter. You know,
all those temperatures, deer, possibly well intentioned family members, landscapers. There's
a lot of things that can threaten those floribus, but weather is not the
least of them, and winter cold is one aspect. And then if assuming
that they make it through the winter cold, then they still got to make
it through spring when they start to leaf out, and you know we get
those late season frost. So it's not an easy life out there for hydrange
of Macrophylla in most North American locations. Now, Cape Cod has traditionally been
an exception because not unlike us here in West Michigan, we have a mitigating
effect from the water, and so it was very unusual, I think,
especially for the Cape to get quite that cold. But yet when we talk
about the let stands hydrangeis those are you know, the hydrangees that we've developed
here in West Michigan. What we're really looking for is exactly what they dealt
with in Cape Cod. Even if you garden under the best possible conditions for
big leaf Hydrange's, there's still so much it can go wrong. And what
we're really working towards in a number of different ways, is how can we
improve on this plant's survivability, it's thriveability so that when those things happen that
are out of our control, like weather, when things happen that are sensibly
in our control, but we weren't there to intercept the kid home from college
who was cutting back your garden, or the well intentioned landscape which I have
seen so so many times that even then they will still bloom. And that's
really our goal is to kind of work with a variety of different characteristics inherent
in the plant, to select for those, and I guess you could say
fool proof them in a way, yeah, exactly. Now on Cape Cod,
there's a gentleman there called the hydrangea guy Mail Condon, and Male's strong
belief is that a worthy garden is indeed a work in progress throughout gardener's lifetime.
And I agree with that one hundred percent. But they were stung by
this polar vortex, and I noticed that and I attended a seminar that that
mal put On and Adriana will post some of these pictures on our website,
Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or you'll see them here on YouTube.
As we broadcast, they started putting some of these macropillas into seven gallon pots
or seven gallon fabric containers that they could lift and put into cold frames for
winter. Not necessarily recommending that everybody needs to do that, but again there's
a lot of pressure on them because they're a hydrange of city and people expect
to see those hydranges in bloom in July. Oh absolutely. And you know
that is that has long been an option that if you were absolutely adamant about
preserving your hydrange of blooms, that there were these different types of things that
you could do, but you know, wouldn't it be better if you didn't
have to? And that was sort of how our hydrange of breeding program actually
started, is that we had you know, a huge selection of all sorts
of hydrangees from all over the world in our trial garden, and every year
the owner would cover them up and try to get them through winter, and
then finally one year we just said, well, what if you don't.
What if we let nature take its course and we start seeing what did survive
and we start using that for our plant breeding rather than saying like, oh,
we want to develop a hydrange that's super beautiful, Well dah, that's
easy. You know. What we want is a hydrange that is beautiful,
of course, but more importantly than it performs. And so we started using
that sort of natural selection approach so that you know, you won't have to
actually plant things in a seven gallon container and move it into a greenhouse,
which you know, honestly most people don't really have. And that's fantastic,
And that's why the work that's being done by proven winners colored choice shrubs is
is so important, and it helps assist us in our love and enjoyment of
hydrangs, even if a polar vortex comes along. I put together a little
limb a rick for you on this subject. I like hydranges a lot,
a lot. You should see how many I bought panicle smooth or macrophilla.
I plant them all around my villa. I even plant them in a pot.
I'm not a gardening newcomer, and I just can't wait for next summer.
I laugh, at cold with sarcasm. It can't freeze my enthusiasm.
Yet my heartiness zone is a bummer. Winter just lasts forever. My hydranges
and I say whatever I bundle up in my gortex, they endure a polar
vortex. I think we both are quite clever, so I'm here for you
and will chaperone You won't have to do this alone. We won't lose our
blooms when frigid weather looms. You and I were in the zone. And
that brings me to our word of the day, microclimate. Oh, if
you have hydranges in pots, do you think it's a good idea to move
them to a micro climate for winter? Stacey, I think the most important
thing for hydrangeens and pots over winter is to make sure they are not getting
too much water or snow dropped on them. And this is something I tell
people all the time. Don't position them in a spot where the snow is
going to come falling down on them from your roof, where icicles are going
to be dripping on them. The biggest threat to the majority of plants over
winter in a container is the ice cube that forms in the center of the
container, so that water can't drain through and it causes root rot. And
yeah, of course cold is an issue. And if you're trying to grow
something that's not hardy, then yeah, it might not make it. But
I have found repeatedly that having frozen soil that causes the drainage to back up.
That's what really doesn't mean fantastic. Of course, as always make your
pots have good drainage holes. The bigger the better. In my opinion,
as far as pots are concerned, if you can give them a little bit
of protection in winter, it may help. But I certainly don't want to
discourage anyone from trying to grow hydranges or macrophillas in contain. Absolutely you bet
you plants on trial coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified Show, Prooven
Winter's Color Choice Shrubs cares about your success in the garden. That's why we
trial and test all of our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure
they outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and the distinctive white
container at your local garden center. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to
the Gardening Simplified Show. Today we are talking about hydranges, getting them through
winter. It is probably one of the biggest challenges that people face with hydranges.
I could, I mean, I could do so many shows about getting
hydrangeas through winter. Like I'm trying to streamline this into one single train of
thought, and it's hard, but I'll try to do it by framing today's
plant on trial, which is tough stuff. Mountain hydrangea in my yard,
one of my favorite plants. It is a great plant. And you know
you might be sitting there thinking, well, gee, what's a mountain hydrange
You guys were talking about big leaf hydrangea, which are known as hydrange of
macrophylla. We've often talked about panicle hydrangees, smooth hydrangees. There's all these
different names flying around a couple. You know, probably about twenty years ago
or so, mountain hydrangees come on the scene and people are like, oh
great, now another hydrangea to remember. But we're talking about mountain hydrange is
today specifically as it relates to what work was talking about with the survival through
the polar of war attacks that they experienced on the East Coast last year that
we've experienced before. So here's a situation with mountain hydrangs. Mountain hydrangees are
known botanically is Hydrangea serrata, and they grow in the exact same areas of
Japan where big leaf hydranges or hydrange of macrophylla also grow wild. So these
are occurring endemically wild plants. The difference is that in those areas, which
are mountainous islands with very tall mountains, hydrange of macrophylla grows on the seaside,
where it's much more mild. The ocean or bit large bodies of water
always have some sort of mitigating effect on the worst of winter weather, whereas
hydrange of serrata grows way up in the mountains and on top of the mountain,
of course it's much colder than it would be down by the seaside.
These are probably like temperate areas. You could think of them as having a
climate probably similar to like North Carolina humid summers, hot summers, but not
super cold winters. They get some snow, but not you know, super
frigid like we would have up here. So like probably like a roughly like
USDA zone seven to eight on the edge of something like that. So these
hydranges that are growing up in the mountains are susceptible or suscepted to a lot
more cold weather, snow ice, those wild temperature fluctuations when you get a
really really sunny day and it's heating up and then the temperature suddenly plunges at
night. Those are all huge challenges for plants, and they are especially challenges
for plants that have their flower buds on the stems all through winter during that
hardest part to maintain this delicate tissue. It sounds like Michigan or Wisconsin seventy
degrees one day and freezing the neck. Yes, and it's true. Our
winters have become a lot more you know, variable and fluctuating like that.
But what has happened is that Hydrangea serrata or mountain hydrangea has naturally developed a
better tolerance in its flower buds to that cold. Now, this has been
happening over a span of thousands and thousands of years, and so basically,
since you know, none of those hydrangas individually are going to live forever.
If there have, they had not naturally developed this ability to withstand those cold
spells, they would have died out because they never would have been able to
reproduce from seed because the flower buds would always be getting frozen off, they
would never set seed, and the population essentially would die out. So basically
what happened they started from this bigly hydrange on mountain Hydrangea started from the same
ancestor, they diverged in their evolution because they were growing in very different areas.
Some botanists do consider Hydrangea serrata or mountain hydrangel a subspecies of hydrange of
Macrophylla. Some consider it a totally separate species. But you know, when
my boss Tim Wood and Dale Deby, the owner here, started going abroad
and looking for hydrangels and noticing this, they really saw the potential for this
natural development of better cold tolerance, and so they collected seed legally all above
the board here brought it back to the US, and that was how we
started to develop the Tough Stuff series from these natural hydrangeas that have developed this
better cold tolerance on their own. We have to at this point a quick
shout out to our friends in Japan who listen to the Gardening Simplified and can
probably very much relate to this. And yes, Stacey, you know we
talked about polar vortex and in twenty fourteen here in Michigan, my tough Stuff's
survived it with flying colors. Yeah, they are really incredible. We do
offer them tough Stuff as a USDA Zone four hardy plant, partially again because
of its ability to withstand that cold and because they're also rebloomers, so let's
say the worst happens, they are still able to rebloom. But yeah,
these are hydranges that I have heard from so many gardeners all across the country
that truly do hold their own in a cold climate. Now, if you
live in a warm climate, even better, because that means you're going to
have even more flowers. You're unlikely to have this issue that we have in
cold climates of your plants, you know, losing their flower buds due to
that extreme cold. But because they rebloom, you'll just basically end up with
hydrange of flowers from you know, June until frost, which is a pretty
great deal. It is a great deal, folks. Stacey's talking about tough
stuff hydrange and tough by the way, is spelled tu ff. But you
can get the information at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com and of course, Adriana
always adds a lot of great stuff to the YouTube video also to take a
look at them. Yeah, and this is one. It's so photogenic.
I mean, we kind of can't help but have a ton of video and
photos of this plant because it's so beautiful. So I do want to talk
a bit about what it looks like. So you're familiar with the big leaves,
like we talked about, usually the big orb shaped flowers are pink or
blue or purple. Now, tough stuff does have that. The flowers can
be pink or blue or purple, but they aren't so orb shaped. Right
now, there are no mountain hydrae hydrange of Serrata that are a mophead.
They're all lace caps. So basically what that means is they're going to have
that flatter, lacier, more open influorescence compared to that big honk and mophead
that everyone associates with cape cod of course, but it's still beautiful. And
you know, one of the things that I've said on the show before that's
so great about lace cap hydrangeas is that they also sustain pollinators. So with
the mopheads, even though a lot of people prefer those just to look at
those sterile florets, those big showy sterile florettes obscure the fertile florets where all
the pollen and nectar are, and a lace cap those are right out front
as nature intended, and so insects and pollinators are really able to get at
them. And I personally love the slightly more informal look. It's how I
would describe it of a lace cap over a mophead. It just has it
looks very at home in sort of like more Cottagy type situations. Certainly any
kind of woodland garden. I mean, I really like it. Do you
have a preference very natural, very floriferous, And I agree, And for
me and my perspective with the tough stuff high ranges in my landscape, perfect
landing pads, oh yeah, for a polony, they're just like right there.
And you know, speaking of perfect, they also have a really nice
habit. They naturally grow in a nice tidy, rounded shape, so you
don't get Hopefully you aren't tempted to prune it because this is the type again,
because it blooms on old wood, you wouldn't be pruning it except to
remove any deadwood or old flowers in spring. So now tough Stuff has been
around for several years. Again, it came out of our breeding here in
West Michigan. Really stormed on the scene. I mean I think people were
probably, of course a little dubious, as you would be with any new
plant comes out, but have quickly learned that it does live up to its
name and it really is a great choice. So with our plant breeding,
you know, we're always looking to improve and so it's kind of I've talked
about it before with roses. When you get over one hurdle, which for
us, of course was cold tolerance, then you can start looking at more
and more opportunities. And so in the time since the original Tough Stuff has
been introduced, we've introduced three additional varieties. So I think that now if
you will go to your garden center this spring, I would definitely be keeping
my eyes out for anything in the Tough Stuff series, but especially tough Stuff
Top Fun. So tough Stuff Top Fun a plant that Tom Cruise would appreciate.
Yes, And we were naming this right when that movie was out in
the theaters, the newer one, not the originals. It is quite for
speed. Yeah, all right, so you know, all the information on
this site. I can barely scratch a service. I mean, there's just
always so much to talk about with Hydrange's and I know people are so hungry
for knowledge on hydrangees. But we'll put all of this in the show notes
at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. Give you some links. You can see
how beautiful the original tough stuff is, and of course we'll link you out
to the newer varieties so you can pick the fit tough stuff Hydrangea for your
garden. We're gonna take a little break and when we come back, we've
got that garden mail bag to open, so please stay tuned. At proven
winner's color Choice, we've got a shrub for every taste and every space.
Whether you're looking for an easy care rose and unforgettable Hydrangea or something new and
unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and the white containers have been
trialed and tested for your success. Look for them at your local garden center.
Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. You
know, I love hearing from our listeners and whether we're helping them solve problems
or they just have a comment. About the show. It. You know,
when you're in studio a here and it's the three of us and we're
just we're talking, you know, we don't we don't know is this going
out into the ether? Is anybody out there? So it's always nice to
hear that there are people. I love it, especially when people like my
cow bell jokes. Thank you, very mulch. I thought that would just
go right over the head. But wow, so thank you very mulch.
You weren't joking when you said it was a classic. It's a classic now,
Stacey. Along that line, we got a great note from barberas Yeah.
So I was checking the inbox and was really really loved what Barbara had
to say. She said, thank you for the Native Plant show. I
hope you continue to have shows about this. I don't consider myself a hard
core native gardener, but I've shifted my thinking about this and now purchase natives
more than other types of plants to help bring back our ecosystem since it's necessary
for insects and birds. I feel the more we learned about our ecosystem,
the better I learned that we're losing the natural ecosystem because we're overpopulating our gardens
across the US with non native species. I also learned that many birds feed
their babies specific types of caterpillars or worms, and those feed only on native
plants and trumps. The chickadee is one of those birds. If you don't
have the native plant that those insects live on, then the chickay won't be
able to feed their babies. I'm also a photographer and love taking images of
insects, flowers, and birds. I think the word pollinator is being overused
in marketing, since we need all of the insects. Could not agree more
with you there, Barbara. If the insects are not there, then the
birds won't be there either. So you know I appreciate that because I do.
I don't say it a lot, but you know, I it does
bother me a bit that all only the glamorous pollinators, like the honey bees
and the butterflies, they get all the credit. But you know, there's
some less glamorous insects out there that are doing some very heavy lifting. So,
Barbara, I am glad to hear that you are of the same mind,
and we really appreciate you writing in with that comment. Yeah, I
love it. I love it. That's great. So, you know,
we're talking about hydrangeas, and there's been a topic on my mind, and
then this question came through, and I said, oh, this is the
perfect time to address this issue. So it is from Ruth and she says,
my hydrangea is blooming late, a few blooms. Then about a week
ago, a frost came. I have a lot of blooms ready to pop,
but it's too late. Should I just clip those off? Should I
just clip off those blooms that didn't flower? All the leaves on the whole
plant are gone. I'm not going to cut the stems. Thank you.
I love your program. So I have heard from so many gardeners who got
really confused this October when their hydrange just started flowering, did not flower all
summer. And then you know, there you are in October, rake in
the leaves and you look over and your hydrangea is just blooming like it's July.
What gives Well, the simple answer here is that those are reblooming hydranges
and you are seeing the new wood flowers, So reblooming hydrangeas bloom on oldwood
like you know the other ones. When we're talking about the hydrange of Macrophilla
and the hydrange of Serrata big leaf and mountain hydrangeas here. So they bloom
on oldwood, have their flower buds right now for next season, but reblooming
hydrange is also bloom on new wood. So as much new growth as they
are able to put on during the growing season, they will eventually be able
to make a flower bud. And it's just a matter of time how long
it takes them to do that and how long the conditions last. So when
you have hydrange of flowers in October, you are seeing those new wood blooms,
it's just late, and depending on your growing season, it's if you
live in the South, you really don't have to wait that long because things
are growing longer and more vigorously, Whereas for a lot of us in the
Midwest and north and northeast, we don't have such a long, favorable growing
season, So sometimes it does take until October for those flowers to show their
heads. But it's not a cause for concern. And one thing that a
lot of people were concerned about when they're seeing this is is it detracting from
my flowers for next year? And the answer to that is no, it's
not because these are new wood flowers that were put on this year. The
hydrange is already making at that point in October now here in November, already
making it's flower buds for twenty twenty four. So it's not impacting those old
wood blooms that are going to give you the main show in twenty twenty four.
So there's no cause for concern. I don't think that you should trim
anything at all off right now, even if you have spent flowers on your
big leaf hydrange, especially if you live in a cold climate. I generally
recommend that people keep them in place because they do offer a bit of protection
to those buds. It kind of are a little like winter hat for the
plant. So Ruth I would say, don't cut anything off, don't worry
about it, let your plant be. Mulch is good, and you know,
hopefully with a favorable winter, and depending on what type of hydrange you
have, you'll hopefully get all those nice old wood blooms next summer and then
nice new wood blooms hopefully a little earlier. It does help to fertilize.
You know, I'm not the biggest fertilizer, but it does help because that
fertilizer. This is true of any reblooming shrubs. So whether you have like
a bloomerang lilac or sonic bloom Whigela, fertilizing in that growth period of like
May through late July gives it that extra boost it needs to put on that
growth and get those flower buds out. So crucial. It's the ruth.
It's the new wood catching up to the old wood. And that's the beauty
of reblooming high dranges as well. Who was it? Was it? Cousin
Eddie said to Clark, It's the gift that keeps giving. It's that time
of year, so enjoy. Yes. So what else we got in the
mailbag here? Oh? Okay, Raquel has a question on growing figs in
a cold climate. Oh boy, I received a fig tree cutting in May
of this year and it's grown to three feet tall now and has six little
figs. I brought it in before temperatures dip below thirty and it's inside under
a grow light. I just recently heard about chill times, so I've we
all need some children, It's true. Yeah, So I've tried to do
research, but I've only gotten more confused I read it needs about one hundred
hours approximately four days of chill time to go dormant. Did I make a
mistake bringing it? Should I move it to the garage? I live in
Zone five B, Iowa gets pretty cold here. Protect it. I live
in a small apartment. Put it in a cool closet. Please clarify.
I know so Raquel has kind of the perfect storm of challenges here, but
I do want to address first of all, I grow figs successfully here in
the US. I just had my best or in the US in Michigan.
I just had my best harvest ever I had. We got probably fifteen or
twenty figs off it. Now it's a little bit milder here. But fighs
are hardier than a lot of people think that they are. Yeah, it's
a fig leaf of your imaginaty, No, it's not a fig leaf of
your imagination. They really are a little bit hardier than people think. But
you know, now Raquel is in Iowa, so Middle America. You know,
it's definitely don't have the benefit of some of the mitigating effects of water
like we have. But that doesn't mean that the plant can come indoors either.
That's going to be really really stressful on it. So, yes,
the chilling requirement is part of the issue. And figs, like many edible
fruits, need to be exposed to some amount of cold temperatures in order to
develop their flower buds and eventually fruit. In the case of figs, that's
about one hundred hours total of temperatures below forty five. So I know that's
not the kind of chill time you're looking for. You prefer it warmer,
but definitely under forty five. And of course it's not going to get that.
It's not going to get that in your house. And even with a
grow light. You know, plants that everything except like the most tender tropical
plants, really needs to be outdoors. It's really difficult for these plants to
try to adapt to the indoors. You know, there's the light isn't as
strong even if you have a grow light. The air circulation, I think
is so crucial. You know, we don't have good air circulation in our
houses, and a fan is not really going to cut it either, because
it's not the same as you know, actually being outdoors. And another thing
that's so crucial to plant health is the fluctuating day length that they experience outside,
you know, going through that whole cycle of waning daylight like we have
right now, and then back through increasing daylight after The lands aren't to a
static environment, no they're not, so it's really going to struggle indoors.
It could struggle outdoors, but I think that it will be better out there,
and I think that you just have to do the best that you can
with the facilities that you have. Now. It's not unheard of for people
in cold climates who are growing figs to actually dig a trench and put their
whole Plantlet grow it in a container and lay it down in the trench.
That's an old fashioned thing to do. If you have that garage that you
described, I would put it in the garage. Ideally, hopefully your gridge
has some sort of window or light, but I would put it in the
garage to kind of protect it from some of the worst of your weather.
The trick though, is to make sure that you are checking it for water,
because it cannot stay completely dry all winter. That will really be stressful
for it might not live. But on the other hand, you're never gonna
water it like in summer where it's coming out the the bottom, so so
water it well, put it in your garage, and then check it.
I would put a calendar reminder to check it, like every two weeks or
so, just to see make sure it's not getting too dry. If you
do need to water it, just a bit to moist in the top should
be more than sufficient. And I still can't guarantee that it'll survive, but
I think that it will be much happier and you will be much happier,
Raquel. Trying to grow it outdoors than in and send us some of those
figs. Yeah we have Chicago hardy and yeah, they were absolutely delicious.
I was really amazed at what a good crop we got this year and a
plant fun to watch grow. Some plants are just fun to watch grow.
That's a plant that's it's got sum much history and very very cool plant.
So where there's a will, there's away, Raquel. So use what you
have and let us know how it turns out. We're gonna take a little
break. When we come back. We've got branching news, so police stay
tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by proven winners Color Choice
Shrubs, our award winning flowering shrubs in evergreens have been trialed and tested for
your success, so you enjoy more beauty and less work. Look for proven
winners, color choice shrubs and the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for branching news.
It's not breaking news, but we do not make this stuff up. And
by the way, as Stacy mentioned, we love your notes, your messages,
your mail. Thanks keep it coming. And on YouTube, we had
someone mention the googly i video from Saturday Night Live, and I love that.
It was a Christopher Walkin' video arguably one of the most iconic, or
at least close to I think last week we talked about the blue oyster cult.
Yeah, and I need more cow bell. Well this week googly eye
video on Saturday Night Live. A man who is very scared of plants,
so Christopher Walkin would put these googly eyes that you can find at craft stores
on his houseplants so that he could see what they were up to, because
you can only really tell if you look into somebody's eyes. Great stuff.
We'll post the link there at Gardening Simplified on air dot Com. I did
find out that googly eyes that you find in the craft stores originated, they
believe, from a comic strip from the early nineteen hundreds called Barney Google and
Snuffy Smith. So cartoonist Billy de Beck in nineteen nineteen created the character Barney
Google, and his defining physical characteristic was a set of very large googly eyes.
Do you remember the themes on Barney Google? Yes, to Google googly
eyes. That's right. I was not born in nineteen nineteen, but I
have an old soul that is very well done. Nice, thank you way
to bring it the good. Who would think that those little plastic do dads
that you buy at the craft store could be so much fun? Of course,
in this case, Christopher walking and put him on cactus because you cannot
turn your back on cactus, nor can you trust cactus, so put some
googly eyes on them. Retired firefighter who built a fire station themed man cave
in his back garden has been crowned winner of Britain's Best pubsd of the Year.
We're gonna put that link there. Also, it's an engine house that's
a pub shed in his yard, complete with oh boy, you can get
fire themed beers. A golden ale called brass helmet, a ruby ale called
old Steamer, a stout called Smokey. Spent well over three thousand dollars to
put together this shed in his backyard, and he's the winner. This is
a big deal in great Britain. Oh yeah, I love looking at the
contestants. They do a great job. Oh it's great. So my shed
in my backyard, that's where I store my limbo stick. Oh yeah,
and it was stolen. It was stolen out of my shed. How low
can you go? I was waiting for the punch line. I was believing
that you might have a limbo stick, But then the pauses were just a
little too suggestive. Yeah, you caught me. I did build a shed
last week, though I nailed it. Okay, not a pigment of your
imagination. Growling clacking teeth. The rumble of hoofs as night falls at one
of the United states most scenic golf clubs, sinister noises reverberate off the red
rock can onion walls. I guess there's a golf course in Arizona Seven canyons
and the grass gets torn up all over the place. The pictures are amazing,
they say. The perpetrators are javelina, a pig like creature with raking
canine teeth, and they have the capacity for chaos. In the town of
Sedona, they've become a viral sensation. Have you ever heard of javelina?
Yes, it's pronounced havelina, havelina. Yeah, oh, okay, see,
I'd never heard of it. And you know, there are obviously there's
a lot going on right now about feral hogs in other areas, but havelinas
are actually a native pig to Arizona, and they're pretty pretty interesting creatures.
Wowe if you're not a golf course manager. Yeah, exactly, because they
say when you come upon them and see them, it's like the Tasmanian devil.
Scary stuff. And here's another interesting thing about these Okay, I thought
they were javelina. That sounded strange to me. Maybe that was just a
Disney character from my childhood or something. But they get in there and they
tear up that turf thereafter earthworms. Yeah, and of course there's gonna be
boatloads in the golf course where they're watering and fertilizing, and the grass is
super lush, especially in a place like Arizona where it isn't otherwise, So
I think that they're much less destructive, you know, in natural areas,
in most residential areas. But yeah, if you have grass with juicy,
juicy earthworms, you better watch out there. So they're kind of like this
cross between a pig and the Tasmanian devil. I don't I'm not so sure
I'm gonna run across one of those. Well, I think you would probably
be less freaked out really if you saw them. Yeah, they're really very
cool creatures. I had I'm pro Healina Okay Good. A new survey explorer
to mere cans Love for all Things sweet and Results found indulging in their sweet
tooth is the activity most likely to bring back the childlike wonder of the holidays
for fifty six percent of people. So eating sweets and desserts beats out opening
presents and playing in the snow. Well a lot of people that get to
play in the snow, so that could be skewing the results true, Good
point. The results found also that forty eight percent of people have hidden their
favorite treats to avoid sharing them with anybody else. That's a very holiday spirit
of them. They hide them in kitchen cabinets. A kitchen cabinet that usually
doesn't have food or a bathroom cabinet. So there you go. And the
best flavors at the end of the year gingerbread, salted caramel, peppermint,
maple, pumpkin, spice, chi cinnamon, and bourbon bourbon I mean,
were cranberry, chestnuts, cocoa, egg nut. Yeah, those are all
well. Bourbon is often in the eggnogs, and it is one of the
main flavors of eggnogs. It's whiskey business, that's what it is. Yes,
wow, all right, and you know, of course no water chestnuts
in there. Do you like water chestnuts in seven layer salads? I don't
like water chestnuts. Just had to throw that in, all right. They
are pretty interesting plants. You know that. We do have an invasive water
chestnut in the US that has very cool seedpods but is a terrible invasive plant.
But I don't want to eat it. No, No, that's okay,
you don't have to. Okay, thank you, you're a grown man.
Pass the flag. Surging olive oil prices, driven in part by two
years of drought in Spain, has meant opportunity for criminals across the Mediterranean.
Warehouse break ins, dilution of premium oil with inferior product, falsification of shipping
data are on the rise in olive growing heartlands of Greece, Spain and Italy.
Perhaps worst of all, gangs using chainsaws to steal heavily laden branches and
even entire trees from unguarded groups. Oh my gosh, isn't that's sad?
Well, that's not very sustainable business model. No, it's not sustainable,
I mean even for a criminal enterprise. But it has added to this shortage
and the price going up on olive oil. But they're having some really serious
problems of theft of branches. So it sounds like those thieves need a botany
lesson. They do need a botany lesson, they really do. Ah.
All right, Let's move on to something a little more fun here, and
that is a Christmas trees journey to the living room can take many forms nowadays.
Most live trees come from a farm. Others are carefully constructed out of
polyethylene or PBC. But the White Mountain Nash Forest, so this is a
national forest in New Hampshire and Maine. I believe it crosses the border.
Correct me if I'm wrong, But is in that area. They give you
a different option. With a purchase of a five dollars permit, you can
cut down your own wild conifer, so you can go off into the White
Mountain National Forest and cut yourself a Christmas tree for five dollars. I found
that really interesting. It sounds really interesting. That might be one of those
things that is easier said than none. Though. Yeah, you can't.
You know, you can't go out there and get a Clark w Griswold tree
something that big. As a matter of fact, they say the tree must
be less than six inches in diameter at chest height, and the stump left
behind must be ten inches or smaller. So yes, it's not the Griswold
family Christmas tree. But still for five bucks to be able to have that
experience, I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, it could be very interesting,
or it could be a disaster. There's always that chance. You've got
to bring along a saw. They won't let you use a chainsaw, which
I was thinking about the other day. A great thing for a Christmas list.
I have the CD the Texas Chainsaw Orchestra. Have you ever heard them?
No? I haven't. Oh my word, they're fantastic. You can
get it for like about twenty six bucks on Amazon. And on the album
they play with chainsaws and they do Happy Birthday American Woman, chain gang and
I will Always Love you, Wowder reports The Texas Chainsaw Orchestra just one of
those things that I like and I think would be great in Christmas stockings,
So giving them a little plug here. Hey, it's been fun. It's
been a ball as it always is. And Stacey, thanks so much,
enjoy doing the show with Thank you Rick, and thanks to Adriana, and
thank you so much to all of you for listening. We appreciate you and
hope you have a great week ahead. I have a great week