Spring things: what you need to know now in the garden

It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show, coming to you from Studio A here
at proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs with Stacy Hervella, me Rick weisst and our
engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, it's time for a few spring musings
because as the weather warms and starts and fits and starts, I guess is
the way I would put it, At least here in the Midwest, spring
is such a special time and today, by the way, April is always
a big month for planting trees. So coming up on our fourth segment today,
we're going to interview Mike Connor about tree planting and bees. That should
be a kick in the plant absolutely very timely, you bet you so springs
the season, and I guess I got to get started here first with turf
talk. I know, we love to talk about flowers and all that sort
of thing, but there are a lot of people who are into turf,
and of course the green green grass of home is a oneerful thing. Turf
gets a lot of attention in the spring season, and we know that from
all the fertilizer ads we see and hear, and of course there's a lot
of reasons why. Who doesn't love a robin hopping around on the lawn pulling
up worms, or the master's golf tournament that green grass, dandelions, baseball
opening day. All of these contribute to the allure of green and a green
lawn in spring. Somewhat of a controversial topic, especially the past few years,
but still, the green green grass of home is a wonderful thing.
Tom Jones nineteen sixty six. You know, I'm a baby bloomer. I
gotta go down this road. Yep, the green green grass of home,
merry with hair of gold, lips like cherries. It's good to touch the
green green grass of home. But then you wake up and you're in prison.
Exactly. It's a sad saw. Well, then let's move on to
another artist. One of my absolute favorites, Neil Diamond. Oh, as
a baby bloomer, would you expect anything less? I love Neil Diamond and
Oh brother loves Traveling Salvation Show. You know he starts it off with hot
August night and the leaves hanging down and the grass on the ground smelling sweet.
I like sweet smelling grass. Yeah, you know. My pick for
a grass song XTC Grass from the eighties. Oh okay, so I got
an eighties grass themed song and I'm in the seventies, hallelujah. If you're
looking for a grass themed playlist for the weekend, yeah, you know what
add to it. And the Grass won't pay no mind. That was written
by Neil Diamond. Also and Elvis Presley recorded that song. So and the
Grass don't mind anyhow. This is a show about gardening, not about music,
so we'll move on. If you want a great lawn, I believe
it's rooted in what you do in the fall, not in the spring.
That includes weed control, and when it comes to weeds, even crab grass,
the simple step of a sharp more blade and a raised deck on the
more makes all the difference in the world. Stacy, I find that people
struggle because the soils compacted. They need to errate it and they need to
raise the deck on their more because you will naturally prevent a lot of weeds
and have healthier turf if you do that. Well, you know, I
think a lot of people mistakenly think that they need to cut their lawn really
really close, because when they are looking at things like the Master's tournament,
you know, on the TV or they happen to drive by a beautiful lawn
or whatever, they think it looks really short, But actually, if you
were able to inspect that lawn, you would see that most lawns, I
mean, obviously not a putting green or something like that, are maintained much
longer than they would appear to be at first clips. So it's not necessarily
like, oh, you're giving up that beautiful, lush, well cared for
lawn. Look by mowing it longer, you're actually doing yourself a favor.
Yeah. It naturally shades the crown of the plant, it shades out roots,
it provides more leaf surface for photosynthesis. So again it's pretty easy raise
the deck on the moor. And of course a lot of people wondering now
also about crab grass pre emergent. We'll talk about that coming up in the
mail bag segment and I'll make sure to answer that question. And there are
organic weed prevents that you can use. We'll touch on that also. You
know, I find that with the allure of grass Stacey, that a lot
of people feel the need to dump all kinds of fertilizer on their lawns in
springs. In spring because they're seeing all these commercials and actually it's not something
that you want to do. Fall as a fabulous time of the year to
feed your lawn and get deep rooting in spring. If you're really pouring on
that fertilizer, then you're going to be behind the mower a lot more.
And then when you look at no mo May, the annual conservation program that
advocates reducing or temporarily suspending mowing, especially in the month of May, to
keep early spring pollinators safe as they emerge for the spring season. Well,
you know, I think you really hit the nail on the head because so
much of the bad rap that grass is getting and lawns is getting these days
is the assumption that you have a nice lawn, you do need to be
putting a ton of inputs on it. And I think that that is there's
a validity to that, because there certainly is a school of thought that says
that's how you maintain a lawn. But nowadays there are so many interesting alternatives.
There are grasp seed mixes that are much more environmentally friendly and don't require
that. There's also more tolerance. I think that's an important aspect of it.
For example, like if you had clover growing in your lawn. About
thirty percent of your lawn totaled by area was clover or it would take care
of all of your nitrogen needs just by mowing it and leaving it in place,
right, which is kind of amazing. So then you don't actually need
to apply any fertilizers. And if you're growing a healthy lawn, you're gonna
have few, if any, you know, insect and disease problems some as
you might get snow mold if you've had a really hard winter. But you
know, I think that there is a happy medium if you want your grass.
Now, I'm the kind of person who doesn't want my grass and plan
to have it evicted this season. But if you are the kind of person
who wants grass, you know, I think that there is a way to
have that lawn. Whether it's because you have kids or pets, or you
just like the look of it, there is a happy medium that I think
a lot of the people who really villainize lawns aren't acknowledging exists out there.
Sure, sure, and you know we all want a little lawn in order
a little longevity, so to speak. Okay, and so it's not necessarily
a bad thing, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do
it. And again I say, boy, whether it's seating, fertilizing,
weed control, boy, do that in the fall, not in spring,
when you're being deluged with all of these ads, as you call them stacey
inputs. And I think it's because people want instant grassification. That's what they
want. But you're gonna be out on the mowor quite a bit. And
the same stacey applies to mulch, multure plants, multur landscape beds. But
you can overdo a good thing. Oh that is for darn shar Yeah,
just pile it on. You know, I'll see people applying mulch to trees,
these volcanoes up against the bark of trees. It's one of the worst
things that you can do for trees. Also another suggestion in our spring musings
here, and that is prepare your planters with soil amendments, whatever it may
be, before you go to the garden center and the greenhouse, because after
you've been to the garden center and greenhouse and have all those lovely plants,
you're gonna be anxious to jab them in the ground. So do that prep
work first. Yeah, and then that way, if you run out of
something and need more, you can also pick it up while you're doing your
shopping. There you go. I love that. Remember, if you're sending
in a soil test, generally those take some time. Feeding shrubs, roses,
and other broad leaf evergreens in spring and early summer. I like a
slow release fertilizer. We've talked about the Aspoma tone fertilizers before. I like
to do that plan this spring and summer to eat more plants. That's good
for us. Although I've been struggling with the whole plant protein thing. I
can't get enough protein out of my vegetables. I'm a flexitarian, so I'm
not a vegetarian. I'm a flexitarian, but looking for plant proteins in plants
and colorful plants. And then, of course here in the Midwest and north,
make sure you familiarize yourself with anticipated last frost dates in the area.
There are annuals that can really handle some light frosts. As a matter of
fact, thrive everything from a listen to snap dragons, to pansies, even
petunias. Many of these plants can handle some light frost in early spring,
right But one thing to be cautious of with that is it really depends on
where the plants were before they got into your garden. Yes, because if
they were kept in a very warm greenhouse, they are not even if they
could normally withstand a little bit of frost, And you might find that on
the end of the season when the cold weather comes on gradually and they've had
a chance to adapt. Now, if you take something from a nice toasty
greenhouse and plung it in your backyard and just say, oh no, it's
a lissa, it can take a little bit of cold, that could be
an issue. So you might want to cover them just to be safe in
spring. But no that you'll get that longer show in full perfect point.
And in addition to that stacy, generally there's no wind in the greenhouses.
There is that, yes for sure. And then finally check out your area
university for a GDD tracker. Growing Degree Day Tracker. Here in Michigan,
Michigan State University provides an excellent one that helps you anticipate issues in the season.
I find myself looking at the GDD tracker often in spring. Well it
is fascinating growing degree days. We'll actually get more into it. And when
we get to Plants on Trial, Yes, all right, excellent, great
tease, So stay tuned. Plants on Trial is coming up next here on
the Gardening Simplified Show, Proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in
the garden. That's why we trial and test all of our shrubs for eight
to ten years, making sure they outperform everything else on the market. Look
for them and the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's gardening
friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's the time of
the show where we put a plant on trial, which is to say that
we're going to tell you about one of the three hundred and twenty plus proven
Winns Color Choice Shrubs, tell you all about it, and you get to
decide if it's going to earn a spot in your garden or not. And
as is fitting with the season, two days Flowering shrub is a spring flowering
shrub, Yuki snowflake dutsia. It's got a rhythm to it. It does
zippitya and as Rick just asked, it is yuki and not yucky. That
is correct. It is not the first time we've heard that. There's been
plenty of times people have asked us why we named a plant yucky, But
it is yuki, which is actually the Japanese word for snow, So no
one wants to think about snow in spring. But in a romantic kind of
way, I can see that, yeah, because the flowers are white,
and I'm going to get more into what this plant looks like in a moment,
but I want to start off by talking about spring and it's bloom time,
you know. I think Forcythia gets all of the credit sort of for
carrying spring flowering shrubs, and it's hard to ignore them. They're so easy.
They're also one of those plants that if someone planted a Forcythia, you
know, seventy years ago and the homestead gets abandoned, the Forsythia is still
there, blue and it's a little hard with a lilac. And so they
tend to just be really ubiquitous and really long lasting. But there are so
many other flowering shrubs out there that you should consider, and I think that
Yuki snowflake is a great example of that. But what I wanted to mention
is that Doutsia, along with Forsythia and really any spring flowering shrub are plants
that you are going to see flower at very different points in spring. And
it's all based on growing degree days. So Rick started hinting at this at
the first part of the show. So growing degree days is a measure of
how much warmth has accumulated for the season. So basically what they do is,
starting at a certain date, they will record how many degrees the temperature
reaches over fifty five. And if you know, one day the temperature is
fifty seven, there will be two growing degree days, and then if the
next day it's fifty six, then there will be three growing degree days total,
because you have two from the previous day and one from that day,
and so on and so forth. And so basically, what growing degree days
can measure is when plants will bloom, when is the right time to take
cuttings of something for propagation, when insects will emerge, when weeds will emerge.
Because all of this is tied to day length, which of course is
naturally increasing, but those growing degree days, they can vary wildly. Now
this year, we've had way more growing degree days than we have had typically
at this time. In the year. But what happened is we accumulated some
very early, like in February and early March, and then we kind of
stopped accumulating them for a couple of weeks. Oh yeah, fits and starts,
yep, And so that really impacts when something blooms. And I think
that that makes a big difference for people because they're kind of used to,
you know, relying on things at certain times, and that's certainly more true
of summer. By the time summer rolls around, you can count on your
panicle hydrangeas to be in bloom mid to late July, no problem, because
by then those growing degree days don't matter as much. They've already kind of
reached their critical mass. But for this bring stuff, you're going to see
potentially a wild difference in when something blooms. And I've certainly seen that be
the case with all of our DZA. But I wanted to focus on Yuki
snowflake particularly today, because it's not a plant that gets a lot of love.
It doesn't, but you know what, it's one of those great spring
surprise plants because all of a sudden, there and when it blooms, especially
a large swath of them. Wow, I think this is truly one of
the most effective plants en moss in mass however you want to say that,
and I think partly I think that because I fell in love with Dzia and
it was the old variety Nico, which was sort of the gold standard on
the market before Yuki Snowflake came around about seven or eight years ago. At
Chanticleer Gardens in the Philadelphia area, one of my all time favorite public gardens
in the entire country. No matter when you go visit this garden, you're
going to see something fabulous. You're going to see many things that are fabulous,
but you'll obvious see something that's really truly memorable. And on this particularly
particular visit, it was spring and they had it was honestly, it was
in the parking lot of all places, so it's not like, oh,
I went to this, you know, really magical spot in the garden.
It was in the parking lot and it was kind of a slope and they
had the whole thing just planted with Nico Jutsia, and it was, honestly,
it was breathtaking. And the reason why is because Dutsia, whether it's
the old fashioned Nico or Yuki snowflick, which is an improved variety of Nico.
They're flowers, so it's a low growing plant about one to two feet
tall. The flowers come up on these very slender, delicate stems, and
they're white, and they're bell shaped, and the whole effect is basically like
kind of a dreamy mist over the plant. It just has a really magical
look. And you will certainly see this if you visit our website, Gardening
Simplified on air dot com check out the pictures that we'll be sharing there as
well as on Instagram. And of course if you're watching the YouTube version,
you're already seeing how wonderful this plant is. And it really is something that
I think a lot of people would potentially walk by in the garden center.
But if you have the occasion to, you know, plant Yuki snowflake or
another dudezea like Yuki cherry blossom, which is a pink dutsia, although I
really do like the classic white. I think it's just so beautiful and goes
well with so much which I'll get into in a moment. It's just so
effective. Whether you plant one or more, and I do recommend more because
you'll just get that look and it's it's really unforgettable. I noticed that people
in the garden center will walk by it, especially if it's not in flower.
But yes, those gorgeous little bell shaped flowers make me think of Lily
of the valley. Well, you know what I guess would get more people
interested in dutsia or maybe not, is telling them it is in the same
family as hydrangea. Yes, yes, which a lot of people are surprised
about. Yeah, but it's you know, much more fool proof. I
know hydrangea is confused people all the time. This is an easy one.
It just blooms on old wood. You just basically leave it alone and let
it do its thing and it will look fabulous. But you know, people
who love hydrangst might be wondering what else. And I got to tell you
this quick fact. Okay. Dutsia is named, as I understand it,
after a Dutch amateur botanist in the seventeen hundreds named John Vanderdots. Yes,
I liked it, am I right, I guess, so I go on
to speaks Dutch. So John vander DUTs what a great name, and it's
fun to say Dutzia and it doesn't really have a common name aside from dutsia,
so you know, you get you get a two for one there.
You know, the scientific name already going in. So I love that Yuki
snowflake has this white color and you will certainly see this again in the photos
that we're going to share. It goes with everything, and you know so
much I think of spring is associated with like yellow and pink and all these
colors, and I think that having this presence of white, just this flurry
of snowflake like white flowers in spring, it goes with everything. And we're
going to share a picture of it in our trial gardens next to a lilac
and they are in bloom at the same time. And honestly, that picture
is just like that should sell a thousand detas just on its own, because
no matter what you pair it with, it looks amazing. It just has
that fresh, clean spring look. Now it is not fragrant, even though
it kind of looks like it should be, it isn't. And again,
this is a plant that will flower. It's not flowering yet. I have
certainly seen it flower very early a couple of years ago, and we had
a very early spring. But sometimes it will be much later, so it's
really good. It's just going to depend on your growing degree days, how
warm spring is. We aren't seeing any signs of growth on it yet,
but it will because the growing degree days are impacting everything that's planted. You're
still going to get no matter what the weather's like, that symphony of plants
that all come into bloom together and just look absolutely stunning. And fortunately,
this is an extremely durable and very very easy plant to grow. So it's
hardy from USDA Zone five to USCA Zone eight or heat tolerant through USDA Zone
eight. It takes full sun to part shade or to part sun. I
would generally recommend full sun for best flowering, although of course the hotter you
get closer to that USDA Zone eight heat tolerance, the more shade it can
take and it can grow and shade here, but again you're probably not going
to get maximum flowers if it's in a fairly shady space. It is blooms
on old wood, so if you need to prune it, you would pune
it after it flowers, but honestly, it rarely needs it. Maybe every
you know, five years ago, five years or so, you want to
give it a little rejuvenation pruning, and I love its habit. You know,
we talk about a lot of plants, a lot of shrubs on the
show that are bigger and more specimen oriented, but this is a workhourse of
a plant that is perfect for planting around the edge of your landscaping bed,
just to give it like this tidy, nice, finished look great for a
groundcover, fantastic for covering slopes, just like the first time I saw it.
If you plant a bunch of DUTs yet, it will naturally fill in
with this sort of graceful arching habit. The white flowers. I love that
when it is planted on a slope and you kind of look up, it's
just this parade of white flowers, you know, barreling towards you. Really
really beautiful and stacy. Here in the Midwest Michigan, planting some tulips with
it would be ideal too. Tulips would be totally perfect. In fact,
any bulbs that you plant around it would net would just find the perfect companion.
They really I think the habit and texture of the jutsia just goes perfectly
with them. And because the branches are nice and slender and light if you
plant later. So you plant your dutzia and then decides you want to plant
some bulbs this fall around it no problem. Would be very easy to just
lift those branches and let the bulbs come up and do their thing and harden
off, and then you've got the shrub to cover all that decaying bulb.
Fullia, No one likes to look at that. It's when when it's also
dear resistant, which you gotta love. Zippity dousia. There you go,
there you go, and h Yeah. Just a really fantastic underused plant.
Also yuky snowflake compared to the original nico bigger flowers, longer blooming, and
good fall color. It gets a beautiful dark purple fall color, and Dutsia
is not a plant that people typically think of for fall color. So a
great choice if you're looking for something low maintenance but is absolutely fabulous in spring.
Don't let Forcythia have all the fun. Get aducia in your yard.
We'll have all the details on our website at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com,
or just check us out here on YouTube and leave a comment if you have
any questions. We have to take a little break, but when we come
back. We're opening up the garden mailbags, so please stay tuned. At
proven Winter's color Choice, We've got a shrub for every taste and every space.
Whether you're looking for an easycare rose, an unforgettable hydrangea, or something
new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and the white containers
have been trialed and tested for your success. Look for them at your local
garden center. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show,
where we answer your gardening questions right now. I'm sure you have a
lot of them as you gaze out at the yard, whether it's a sunny
day or not so sunny day, wondering what the heck you need to be
doing out there. As always, win in doubt. Don't just wait.
But if if you have a question, we would love to help. You
can reach us at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. There's a contact form.
You can even attach a photo, which is always important for you know,
helping people with their problems. Yeah, Stacy, let me add to that.
Because it's spring, I'd love to have people sending us pictures. Please
do that and send your questions short limerick for you in that regard for our
opinion, for our stance, send us an email and take a chance.
Send us your cards and letters. All you home garden go getters will give
you a swift kick in the plants. I see London, I see France,
I see problems with your plants. Use your tulips. Speak to us.
Remember a picture is a plus for answers, not happenstance, So keep
them coming. That's good. And you know I should say, if you
have a garden celebration and there's no one else in your life to share it
with, you can reach out with us. Reach out to us with that
too. We love to celebrate that alongside of you. And you know not
everyone has other garden people in their life who can be like, I'm so
excited about this, I got to get it off my chest, so you
know, I know that feeling. So what have we got in the mailbag
today? Tim writes to us, when is it a good time to put
crabgrass prevnor on my lawn this season? Or is it too late? The
weather temps have been fluctuating, And I would say to you, Tim,
I get this question a lot at this time of the year, and it
really does not have much to do with air temperature. It has to do
with ground temperature, soil temperature, and for crab grass pre emergent controls that
you would apply to your lawn, eighty percent of germination occurs when the soiled
temperatures at the two inch to surface level are consistently around fifty five to sixty
degrees. You can get a soil thermometer, but most people don't want to
mess with that. There are online sources where you can get the soil temp
Stacey. A lot of people use for scythia as the visual but like we
said, spring can start and stop and fits, so soil temperature is how
you measure it. And by the way, I wanted to mention, there's
a great organic weed preventter by Espoma of some folks, Stacey. There's many
different types of crab grass prevnters. Some have a longer duration in the soil.
I love the corn gluten organic approach. I think it's right. So
corn gluten is just like an agricultural byproduct, and they discovered that it adds
just enough nitrogen. Is that how it works, And it's just enough nitrogen
to the soil that the surrounding plants outcompete it right, so that the crabgrass
can't get a foothold. Now, since we were talking about songs earlier,
Oh, you know, I've always said that if I could sing and play
music, I would write a blues tune to the tune of If it wasn't
for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. But it would be
if it weren't for crabgrass, I would have no grass at all. Because
that is the story of my lawn over these past couple of years, and
it is why my lawn is getting evicted. So, you know, I
think people I know and they write to us all about different things. I
have different tolerance levels for chemicals. But crabgrass really can be a problem in
the yard, and if it gets a foothold, as I can attest,
it will continue to gain ground over all of the other plants. So it
is a good idea to just go ahead and take care of it all.
Most of the crabgrass treatments don't target anything else, and when you have something
that's so specifically targeted, there's very little risk to anything else in your yard.
And that's a really good thing true. And like we mentioned, in
the first segment, I was at the Hancock Turf Research Center at Michigan State
University, and they grow grass in plots where they have different mowing heights.
The grass that was at the tall height was able to fight off crabgrass far
better than those lawns that were cut short. So thanks for your question,
Tim. Randy has a project lined up the spring. Hello Stacey and Rick,
I've become addicted to your show of gardening pointers. Thank you very mulch.
I'm wanting to design a spilled urn or broken flower pot, in other
words, a spill pot. I'd like to get your suggestions on fixing the
soil good flowers to use any website, sources, et cetera. I'd like
to receive any spilling information you have. So this is you know. I
had to research this because I have never done anything like this, and I
will say to you, Randy, you may not be familiar with it,
but I've got one word for you. Pinterest. So pinterest is a social
media site where you can find all sorts of ideas. You don't have to
sign up for an account, but I will tell you all of the good
ideas and all of the useful advice I found about constructing a spill pot was
on Pinterest, and I think one of the things that makes Randy's question a
little bit difficult to answer with just a simple, you know, explanation,
is because it depends so much on the container that you're using. It depends
on how you're going to place that spill. Most of the things that I
saw on Pinterest were kind of just custom jobs that people did with a combination
of like a sturdy wire mesh so like hardware cloth or something like that that
can take some weight, and landscape fabric, so sort of making the spill
depending on how you're doing this if it's coming down from something with that wire,
kind of sculpting it into the shape that you want and then covering that
with landscape fabric, turning up the edges so it can contain the soil,
and then planting all down through there. But it really is going to depend.
I mean, the container itself makes a big difference, does make a
difference, And I would mention, having been in the garden center industry for
years, garden centers greenhouses receive a lot of ceramic pottery. In the spring,
invariably, you break a lot of that ceramic pottery unloading it off the
truck. So go to the bargain section, get yourself some broken pots.
They make perfect spillers that you can plant in the soil, then use some
edging to create the spill in the soil. And one last quick thing,
Stacey, I have found the perfect plant for these spill pots are the super
Tuna Mini vistas like ultramarine or whatever Mini Vista super Man those things. It's
incredible. And I mentioned ultra Marine or yea that variety because bluish purple color,
it looks like water just spilling out of the pot. So I would
say yeah. Also, when you're at your garden center, look up and
any plant that you are seeing in a hanging basket is probably going to work
equally well for this spilling idea that you're trying to accomplish. And I would
honestly pick it based on the color of the container that you're using. You
know, maybe you want to go really contrasty, maybe you want to mimic
water like Rick just suggested, or you know, maybe some people they just
want to look like, oops, my Feller pot spilled, but it just
happened to spill fabulously so you know, there's a lot of different intents here.
But Randy, I will put a link to Pinterest if you're not familiar
with it in our show notes so you can check it out. Just type
in you know, container, spilling container. You will find so much inspiration
in different ways that people have resolved their challenges with building these, so you
can figure out the perfect solution for yourself. Great idea, Stacey Mary writes
to us, I love to look at butterfly houses. Do butterflies actually use
them or are there? Are they more for decoration? Well, I want
to thank Mary for this question. It was very interesting to me. I
wasn't super familiar with the concept of a butterfly house. But much like the
bird houses that we talked about last episode with birdman Bill Stovell, they are
intended for butterflies to take shelter in. So most butterflies, especially over here
in cold climates, they i don't overwinter as adults, so they're not typically
being used by butterflies to you know, provide shelter in winter. It's more
like if it's really hot, if it's really cold, if it's raining,
they're intended to provide a shelter and so they are shaped like a little birdhouse,
but instead of a whole, they have narrow slits on them. And
there wasn't a whole lot of information out there on whether butterflies actually use them.
But I did find a very interesting blog entry that cited a research article
from the University of Kentucky, and it said that you know, you might
say, Okay, we'll find butterflies may not use the house. Maybe people
didn't see them, but what's the harm in it? Can't really be that
bad. But this graduate student at the University of Kentucky did a very interesting
piece of work where he was monitoring butterfly houses near pollinator plots on the University
of Kentucky campus down there in Lexington and discovered that almost every every butterfly house
had been occupied by European paper hornets or paper wasps. European paper wasps,
now, European paper wasps are an invasive wasp. They came over from Europe,
as you might guess by the name, and European paper wasps are the
number one biggest predator of monarch butterfly larva. So when those caterpillars are down
there, these wasps are likely to prey upon them. So by putting a
butterfly you know house in your garden right there where all the butterflies ideally are,
you could be kind of opening up a buffet for the wasps inadvertently,
because the same conditions that attract the butterflies you know to take shelter are perfect
for those wasps. Now, these are not the wasps that make the big
hanging lantern like nest. These European paper wasps they make the little small,
free standing combs. So I get them on the underside of my garage overhang
Dirk. Yeah, very easy to knock down. Fortunately, it's not like
you're going to have a big nest crashing down. But the adult builds,
it lays the eggs in those couple of cells, and then it's so they're
basically reproducing. So, you know, with that in mind, I was
looking at some different butterfly houses online. Most of them do not open to
be cleaned or inspected like a bird house would, so if you can't get
in there. Now, if you can get in there, you can easily
take out those wasp nests. You know, if the adult isn't there,
you can just knock down the nest and step on it and it's gone.
But if you can't go in there to monitor it, then you do need
to consider that maybe you're opening up the door for something that's not so great
for butterflies. Yeah, butterflies are terrestrial. I'm told they rest on the
underside of foliage with their eyes open. That's what I'm told. But if
you think about it in your house, what do you find? Stink bugs,
spiders, flies, that sort of thing. You don't see butterflies in
your house. Their tendency is not, in my opinion, to go in
these houses. The only time I've had butterflies in my house was when I
reared some caterpillars and they escaped it, which did happen a couple of time.
But anyway, Mary, I'll have those resources for you in our show
notes at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com, as well as a few other suggestions
on how you can make your garden more friendly to butterflies. We got to
take a little break. When he come back, it'll be time for branching
news, so please 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 and today we have an interview with an arborist and be expert,
Mike Connor. Looking forward to this. As a matter of fact,
Stacey, Mike always says, I'm a tree physician, not a mortician.
He spends his days trying to keep trees alive. And then, of course
his mantra has always been save a bee, plant a tree. And when
you think about it, trees are very efficient, inefficient means of providing pollen
for bees. Well you know, not that many other plants can boast literally
tens of thousands of flowers at a single moment in time, more so than
a tree cancer exactly. Welcome to the show, Mike. Great to have
you on the Gardening Simplified Show. Thank you for that introduction. Rick.
I'm glad you have the memory to remember that trees are really metals in the
sky and they provide more nectar and pollen in a small space than any other
plant. So thanks for the plug. Oh you betcha. Mike, You're
one in a buzzillion being both a tree and a b expert. And I've
chatted with Mike through the years. I've learned so much from him. Mike
uses IPM techniques and he teaches pruning, and Mike, I don't want to
age you here, but you got your first beehive in nineteen sixty six.
Yeah. I hate to do the math on that, but that's right.
I was in a group of old timer beekeepers at a conference last weekend,
and I've had bees longer than anybody among the old timers, and that's kind
of sobering. Well, you know, Mike, you can just go ahead
and say you were beekeeping before it was cool. Yeah, you know,
keeping bees has always been cool, so I'm really glad to do it.
At one point I had two hundred hives, but now I keep it down
to less than camps. Wow, that's great. Well, I've known Mike
for a number of years and he tends to talk about honey producing trees,
and Mike, at one point, you might not remember this, but you
shared with me a picture of tulip trees or leriodendron, and I love those
trees, but you showed how that tree is unbelievable as it relates to its
ability to provide powen for bees. Yeah, that's right. I think that
if you had a woods full of tulip poplar, which I'm glad you pronounced
that. Larriodendron. They're not really a popular tree. They're in the magnolia
family, but they get to be huge trees up to one hundred feet tall,
and when they produce nectar, they produce so much nectar, I don't
think you could have enough bees or pollinators to gather all the nectar. In
fact, I was just reading Rick Michael Durr said that seventy percent of all
the seeds put out by lariodendron are unpollinated because there are enough pollinators to take
care of that huge demand interest. So when you're trying to grow them from
seed, you can automatically expect seventy percent won't germinate. Wow, that's interesting,
because there's still actually quite prolific self sowers. If you've grown a lot,
and imagine if they had more. Well, I think the fact is
that they do produce so much nectar. I mean, we can literally pull
it out with a teaspoon and eat it out of those cups things flowers,
and I've done that, and they're kind of made with a little funnel to
drain off that excess nectar and it drifts away from the flower. And this
is also interesting. The tula poplar will produce nectar before the flower opens,
so it has all these little nectares around the base of the flower. So
the bees and the ants and the native bees are all coming in before that
flower opens. So the morning it opens, the bees are already there.
They can jump in, they can pollinate it. And then if we get
a rainstorm and that rinses out the nectar, well, you know we've got
some pollination that's already occurred. Mike. Spring is a great time of the
year for trees and the build up for a native bees or honey bees.
Something I learned from you the importance of maple trees, particularly the red maple
tree in early spring. That's exactly right. You know, if you combine
just two trees in the spring. Research has been done. It shows that
just the maples and willows provide about sixty percent of all the pollen in the
month of April in the Midwest. Wow. Wow, just those two and
those two their pollen combined provides most of the essential amino acids that bees,
whether they be native or honey bees, required to raise brood. So if
you had to plant two trees in the spring for a colony build up,
you'd want to plant maples, especially red maples, and willows, especially the
pussy willows, because those two are in bloom today, and if the weather
is warm enough that the bees can leave their colonies, leave their hives,
they will gather pollen and nectar from those trees today. Yeah, you mentioned
the pussy willows. As a matter of fact, I took some pictures in
Ohio a couple of weeks ago when they were in full bloom, and you
know, willow flowers hardly look like flowers at all there and correct me if
I'm wrong, but I'm I think they're called catkins, also named for cats.
It comes, by the way, Stacey, it comes from an old
Dutch word for kittens katakin k A t t e k e n. Well,
that's appropriate that the Dutch were, you know, naming things horticulturally,
even way back when am I right about the catkins. I mean, Mike,
there are some trees that produce catkins, and they can be important for
pollen, like alder birch, the pussy willows or oak, but they also
cause big problems for people with spring allergies. Right, yeah, they do.
You know, the oaks and the poplars wind pollinated and the pussy willows
are insect pollinated. So there's a difference. Putting on my arborous hat a
minute. You know, the tree wants to allocate its resources most efficiently,
so if it's going to be wind pollinated, it doesn't want to use up
a lot of its carbon reserves and it's nitrogen reserves in order to produce a
high protein pollen, because you know, most of it just flows in the
wind and lands on your car lands, you know, anywhere but on another
flower. So the tree doesn't invest a lot of protein into that. So
it's very low in protein. But honey bees will still collect it, and
they don't get much nutrition out of it. They'll also collect Oh you'll see
a bunch of bird feeders. If you're a farmer and you've got corn out
to feed your cattle, you'll see honey bees out there gathering that corn dust
too, because they just need to get pollen. That pollen itself stimulates brood
production inside the high so we get around to a pussy wallow again. The
catkins that are insect pollinated and they're pollen is high in protein. It's close
to twenty percent in protein, so that becomes very valuable for the bees and
they have more of an interest in gathering that pollen than they do like an
old coral, walnuts or some of those other cat can produce in plants.
Interesting, I just had a epiff, honey, have you ever heard that
one night? That's a brand new one. I'm not polling your leg there,
buddy. That's that's just amazing. So uh, you know the whole
spring pollen thing, I mean, allergies are nothing to sneeze at, and
there are some people who just really really suffer. But the bees essentially in
spring, Mike, they're they're having a party. I mean they are,
They're busy bees in spring, right, this is this is prime time.
Well, this is when they're trying to build up their colony strength. You
know, look at honey bees for instance, as opposed to our native bees,
and they're coming through the winter with like five thousand bees in the colony
and that's a lot, but by mid May their colony size will be fifty
five thousand. Wow. So they have to bring in a lot of protein
and a lot of nectar in order to get those populations tied so they can
swarm. That's how they reproduce. Our native bees are a little different.
You know, we have about four thousand species of native bees in the US,
and they're also valuable for pollination, but they come through the winner as
a b not five thousand, but at a colony of one, So they
don't have the even though they're very valuable for pollination and they're much more efficient
at pollination, they just don't have the numbers that we need mechanically to get
out there to pollinate early season flowers. Interesting, so that the honey bees
are having a house swarming party is what they're doing. And I've often thought
about that, Mike, you know, I mean, how many trips does
a bee have to make in order to produce this honey? Because when you're
producing the honey, they're producing honey for the beekeeper, they're producing honey for
the hive, and then of course at some point. They have to produce
honey for over wintering too, so everybody gets a cut, so to speak.
It's no wonder they work so hard they do. And some interesting facts
on that rick are that if you're a typical honeybee colonies in the Midwest,
let's say, because that's why I'm familiar with, you have to produce six
hundred pounds of honey in order to go from spring to spring. Now that's
for brood production, that's for giving the bee keeper, you know, a
bucket of honey, and that's for having enough honey left to get through the
winter, about ninety pounds. And to produce six hundred pounds of honey,
a typical hive has to visit Are you ready for this? One point two
billion that's with a bee. One point two billion flower visits in the season.
That's a lot of visits. It's two million flower business to manufacture one
pound of honey. So it's pretty easy to do the map. But that's
how persructive these bees are. One point two billions for high So when people
put in a small shrub and they put in their their capmen and they say,
well, we're doing great things for the bees. Well, okay,
but you're going to have to plan a lot of them in order to support
one single colony of honey bees. Now, for the native bees, that's
different because native bees don't fly very far, and they're kind of hand to
mouth, so to speak. And so that single plant you may put out
there is very valuable for your native bees. They don't need a lot and
they don't fly very five, and we need to have resources close to where
they emerge, you know, because most of these native bees may only fly,
you know, three underd to one thousand feet away from where they're born,
and a honeybee can go three miles. So we have two different classes
of bees that we're concerned about as bee keepers, our natives and our honeybees.
So I try to take the approach that let's do what's beneficial for both.
And you know what that is, Rick? What is that? That's
tree? You know, I'm with you here, Mike. Okay, it
may be an election year, and I know you vote for bees because you're
a politician, right, I like that. But you know, a few
weeks ago, we did a show on IPM. Stacey and I sit here
and I listen to Mike talk, and I think, Wow, all that
work, all that effort, no wonder. It's so important for us to
educate ourselves and to apply IPM practices, right. I mean, you can't
make informed decisions without having all of that information. And I think that's where
you know people like Mike who you know, consider yourself a tree, you
know, someone who's trying to keep trees alive. Most people, as seum
arborus, are just out there to make a buck and want to take everything
down. And so it's so great to hear from people like this. But
you know my question, Mike, when you're saying trees are the answer if
you want to support the bees, and I want to also say I really
appreciate you talking about the native bees because honey bees got all of the attention
and people just assumed that they were native because you know, they're ubiquitous.
And I think that it is a great opportunity for those of us who do
care about our native insects and native bees to use all of that interest in
honey bees to say, hey, these guys matter as well. So you
know, when it comes to planting a tree, you know, knowing that
most people live on you know, a standard quarter acre city lot something like
that. What kinds of trees can the average homeowner plant that's not going to
take over their yard, not going to make them a bad neighbor, and
still be supportive of both native bees and honey bees. What a great question.
Thank you for that, because you know in the springtime it's the maple,
especially the red maples. But here's your caveat. Don't plant a maple
tree that has an X in the middle of their scientific name because they're not
productive, such as the ace Rex friemanii. You know, the Freeman maples,
the autumn blaze. Those are hybrids, and the bees don't collect much
or anything from the hybrid maple. There are other trees that there, you
know, are very productive, they are hybrids, but not the maples.
So red maples are very very important, and there's a huge variation from spring
until early summer on maple's bloom. So after the maples, I would say
the next most important tree the plant would be find a corner and put in
some shrub willows and pussy wallows. Again, not the hybrids, but the
put a pussy wallow in your yard and really quite attractive. It's not going
to be the focal point of your yard, but it's so really pretty when
it's in bloom. Then, of course, you know, the ornamental crab
apples very very important for our pollinators. Ornamental crab apples, the ornamental cherries
or fruit apples and fruit cherries, they're all very important for our bees and
our bee population. If you've got an area that's large enough, put in
a tulipoplar. They're a big tree, so you want to put it out
back. You don't want it to be upfront, and yet in the front
you could plant like the lindens, the basswoods. They bloom the fourth of
July or late June early July, and they make great street trees, they
make great yard trees, and they're very very productive. In fact, our
most important honey producing plant in America for many many years was the American basswood.
So if we could reconstruct that in plant more basswood trees the linden trees,
I think we could help support a healthy bee population. And then finally,
Stacy, the one I want to really push is seven Sons. Oh
I love It's such a ke and pollinator magnet in September that I really believe
that everybody should plant a seventh son somewhere in the yard. You can use
them instead of a ornamental crab apple. You can use them instead of an
ornamental cherry. And they're claim to fame is that they are just gorgeous in
September. Then the calyx turns bright red and it stays looking like a second
bloom after the white flower is gone until oh about Thanksgiving. In the Midwest,
it's just such a great tree. I don't know why we don't push
them more. Well, we're working on it. And you know, a
nice thing about the seventh sunflower compared to some of the other plants that you
listed that are popular home landscaping plants, like the crab apple and cherry,
is speaking of someone who struggles mightily with deer. Those are two plants that
are very susceptible with deer, Whereas I have found no damage on seven sunflower
at all. And I think you know, correct me if I'm wrong,
but especially among native plants in seven sunflower is not native. But overall,
when it comes to flowering trees in late summer early fall, we don't necessarily
have a lot of you know, species in certainly in the Midwest that are
going to provide that scale of food at that point in the season. You're
correct. The only thing that we have as a fall that would compete again
in the Midwest would be golden rod. Maybe some asters later on, but
our largest draw we have is that seven Sums. And as I've mentioned to
you before, stay see these things are. They're actually a sentinel tree for
our monarchs since they passed through the Midwest, since they passed through the Midwest
on their way back south. Because I have photos of fifty to seventy five
monarchs at a time on seven Sons as they're going through. They love seven
Sons and we can kind of monitor the population of monarchs from year to year
because last year we didn't have a lot of monarchs in our populations, down
with the year before we had a lot of them. So I think they're
valuable for people who just want to watch and learn what the monarchs are doing,
as well as the other be populations and other butterfly populations. These are
all plants that are beautiful landscaping plants to add your yard that you are going
to love and enjoy. And you know, I think like the tulip poplar
when you see those flowers. I mean, it's hard to believe they're even
real, really much less a native tree. And you know, to me,
being under a full bloom linden on a warm summer night, it just
does not get better than that. That is like the pinnacle of life in
my opinion. They smell so good and they draw so many pollinators that when
in blue, they just hum and you can hear them from half a block
away because they're just humming. And it's not that those bees are aggressive and
going to chase you or your children or your dog. They're busy. They're
in there gathering nectar out of those bees, I'm sorry, out of those
trees, and they are happy there. They're content, and you know,
you can walk up and look at the bees and the butterflies and the native
bees and bumblebees working those linden trees, and it's just truly fascinating. Well,
you know, for anyone who's scared, instead of thinking of that hum
or, that buzz as something threatening, just think of the bees as going
yum oh, I like it. Be yourself and doing your own thing.
I like it. That's very good. That's true. Thank you. I'm
going to use that, but not give you totally fine. We're chatting with
Mike Connor, hearberust and expert Stacey. I wanted to ask you and Mike
together for your opinion for our listeners and our viewers in midsummer Rows of Sharon.
We've seen incredible video footage shot by Adriana of native bees or bumble bees
doing the buzz. How do you feel about Rose of Sharon. I mean,
I have personally, I'd be very interested to hear at MI cast to
say mostly only see bumblebees on them, which is a native bee and is
important, but sort of more of a generalist feeder. There's a lot of
different things that they can get, so you know, I don't think that
there's a lot of harm to that, but certainly it's not like you know
the one, but for the time that it blooms, it's a great choice
for supporting bumblebees. That's right. Rose of Sharon is one of those plants
that you really love. Everybody wants one when they're at bloom, yes,
but then when you plant one, then you have a lot of rows of
Sharon because they see it so easily. Yeah, But in terms of the
pollinators working those, I have some great photos where it's native bees and honey
bees and they are literally white from the pollen coming off of those. And
I haven't seen the video that you're speaking of the Agriana has taken, but
I can just picture it where the bees are just rolling around in that pollen
and they're just producing tremendous amounts of pollen that you're taking back to their hives.
It's great, so in that perspective at that time of year, which
is August there for us at least, they are a great little plant to
have in the garden. Yet, and you know, we do have a
number of varieties that do not set seed because we know, of course that
is a problem for so many people. They love it, but they don't
like pulling out all those seedlings. Now, Mike, I don't know if
you have an answer for this, but since we're on the topic, I'm
curious when you see a bumblebee in a Rosa Sharon and it gets so coated
in pollen that it seems like it cannot fly away, Like what happens.
Does it eventually just gain the strength to fly away. Does it shake up
some of the pollen, Because I mean, I've seen this where they try
to lift off and they're like, Nope, can't do it, I got
too much pollen. Yeah, they do, and both both the bumblebees and
the honey bees and some of the real hairy native bees. What they do
is that they will just start to brush that off and they just sit there
patiently. Then they may fly out of the flower and they may go land
on a stem, but they brush it off. They have they have special
little mechanisms inside their legs so they can pull that pollen off of their hair
and push it back into the pollen basket. And once that brushed off,
then they can fly without any issues. But I know what you're saying,
It looks like they can't fly. They may only fly a small distance and
they kind of get their act together. Their eyes are bigger than their stomachs,
or their eyes are bigger than their suns. Yeah. You know that
pollen has an electrostatic charge, and it's the bee flies through the air,
it picks up the opposite charge. So when it lands on the flower,
that pollen sticks to it like those little cyrofoam that you have in packing material,
and then the bees just have to brush it down and often to do
that they have to get some nectar out of that out of that flower,
and they have to wet it down. They have to spit on it,
so to speak, so that it's wet enough to form a ball, especially
on plants like dandelion, because dandalion pollen is extremely attracted to the to the
bodies of pollinators. And you'll see the pollinators covered with dandelion pollen which is
yellow, but when they bring it back to the hive, it's orange because
they've had to add nectar to it, wet it down and push it down
into their onto their back leg pollen baskets. Wow, that is so cool,
m Mike. One last question for you, for our listeners and our
viewers, and again we're talking to Mike Connor, arborist and be expert,
just real simply as it relates to IPM, what, in your opinion is
the most practical thing a homeowner can do to help support the bees, to
support our native bees or honey bees whatever. Maybe what is the one practical
IPM application you find or you think of where you say, if people would
just do this, Well, I can't answer it with a single saying,
Rick, because there are two things I have to do. First of all,
I have to they have to follow the label on their insecticides and on
their fungus sides. Do not spray anything, ever, under any circumstances,
with anything when it's in bloom. I don't care if it's an organic testicide,
because organic testicides are still testicide. They still kill, So I don't
care if it says organic. Don't put it on anything in bloom. And
the same applies to fungicide. Fungus sides kill bees just as much as insecticides
because they they stop that fermentation of nectar and pollen which forms b bread.
So the high will starve because the fungus side is stopping the fermentation that those
bees need in the hive of the pollen and nectar. So that's number one.
Smart when you're applying pesticides of any kind, and just don't spray when
anything's in bloom. Mow your lawn before you put down weed and feed.
You know that's not a big deal. Just take take the tops of those
clover blossoms off before you apply your chemicals to your lawn. That's number one.
Number two is guess what plant a tree? If you want to save
the bees, plant a tree, and I talk to a lot of people
who want to start a hive of bees in order to save the bees.
Nope, don't do that. You know, I appreciate it if you want
to. It's a great hobby. But don't get a hive of bees in
order to save the bees. That's like raising chickens to save the curtlind warbler.
You know if I'm related, No, I get it. I get
it. You're you're saying, apply common sense. That's what IPM is,
applied common sense. And whatever you do, behive yourself right, behive yourself
and be smart. You know it's it's so important, and please go out
and plant. Pollinator plant and our local B club is selling we're selling pollinator
trees as fundraisers. You don't have to buy it from a B club.
Buy it somewhere. Go to your local gardence center. Pick up some of
these seven sons from proven proven winners. There are other smaller plants that you
can put in and not a plug for proven winners. But they've got some
great stuff for pollinators out there. Absolutely, and you know we can do
that. We can help save the bees by giving them enough resources and providing
them with enough nectar and pollen sources that they don't have to compete with each
other, they don't have to starve to death. You know. That's that's
one of the three tripods of successful beekeeping, you know, pest and predator
control, pesticide, and fourage. So let's provide that third leg, which
is fourage. Well, well said Mike, and it's a pleasure to talk
to you. Excited about spring, even more excited about spring now that we've
chatted with Mike Connor. Mike, thanks so much. We appreciate it greatly
and enjoy your spring season. Hope to talk to you soon. I shall
thank you very much, Thanks Mike. All Right, so if our conversation
with Mike inspired you know that this spring is the perfect time to add a
tree to your landscape. So while you're out there in the garden center,
don't forget to check out the tree section and find a tree that you can
use to support your pollinators and beautify your yard. So thanks to Mike,
thank you, Rick, thanks Adriana, and of course thank you so much
to all of you. We hope you have a wonderful week ahead.