Do Plants Repel Mosquitoes? Plus: Why Your Hydrangea Isn’t Blooming, and Meet One That Definitely Does

Hey, it's time for the Gardenings Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella me Rick weisstand
our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. We come to you from the Beautiful Studio
a at proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Mosquitoes are a serious issue. Not
only can they spot you, they can actually detect thermal cues dissipating from your
skin. And one of the most important sense that draws mosquitoes in from far
away is carbon dioxide, the gas that we exhale when we breathe and Stacy,
mosquitoes are not only terribly annoying their vectors for disease, they spread diseases
like malaria, Dengey fever, or West Nile virus, and according to the
CDC, Westnile virus is the leading cause of mosquito born disease in the continental
United States, most commonly spread to people by the bite of an infected mosquito.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just this past week has been
talking about malaria meaning infections. Malaria in the US meaning infections were not linked
to foreign travel but appear to have been transmitted by mosquitos. In the US
carrying the parasite to four cases Florida and Texas. This calls for some serious
personal IPM. I got it, You bet it does. And you know,
we got to pay attention to this. I was surprised. Each year
around two thousand cases of malaria are diagnosed in the US, but they're usually
connected to people who have traveled out of the country. Today's initial topic plants
mosquitos hate. That's right, Stacy. We're going to talk skeeters today.
We may make some comments that may come back to bite us, but we're
going to talk mosquitos and plants that mosquitos hate. And that's a good thing
to identify the plants that mosquitos hate. And I think a big reason for
it, Stacy, is that for many people, they think, well,
all mosquitoes are after is our blood, a blood male. But it's just
the female mosquito, actually bold female and male mosquitos love plant nectar. Yeah,
something we like to talk about. And so taking a close look at
plants probably a good idea if you are plagued by those skeeters. Yes,
especially any plant that holds water, you know, like has leaves a hold
onto a lot of water, like I've talked a bunch about my cup plant.
Yes, I sylphia and porfoliate. I'm one of my favorite pernials in
my garden. But it does have these unique leaf bases that subtend or surround.
This is the big square stems and it makes a cup that holds water
and there's really no ways for it to dump out because it's a plant,
and so yeah, that would not be one to have around if you have
a mosquito problem. Now, I have to say, living where I do,
and probably you have something similar, very dry soil I don't knock on,
would have a huge mosquito issue in my yard between the breezes from the
lake and the super sandy soil, not a huge problem. How about you,
Well, in the same here, being along the beach, and you
know when people will give you mosquito advice, Yeah, they'll say stuff like,
well, pick up the old tires that are in your yard that are
collecting water. And I'm like, what, who's got tires in their back?
A lot of people do. Actually you might be surprised. But you
know, I think that the important point here and where I'm trying at least
to zero in on, is that mosquitoes love plant nectar. As a matter
of fact, mosquitoes need plant nectar, especially the males in the whole reproductive
cycle and process as far as mosquitoes are concerned. Also, where there are
female mosquitos, you're gonna find male mosquitos and they'll be buzzing your ears.
When folks will spray for mosquitoes, let's say you're gonna have a backyard party
or something like that. I remember when my daughter got married in the backyard.
We used this organic spray which essentially was essential oils, lemon, grass,
cinnamon, that sort of thing. It worked quite well, but really
the focus needed to be on the shrubs and the flowering plants that were surrounding
the wedding area because again this whole nectar issue. If you want an element
of control, that's where you're going to have some success. Well and nectar
and shelter. Mosquitoes love to take shelter in cool tall grass. That's one
of their favorite places to hang out during the day while they're waiting for the
night and evening to come back around so they can go out on the prowl.
So you know, any of that tall kind of vegetation is really where
you do need to focus your energy. Now, I think it's important with
social media, and we've talked about this now and then on the show.
There's a lot of memes or little shareable things that you can get an app
on your phone that will play a high frequency sound to keep the mosquitoes away
from you. Yeah, that's a thing. Yeah, it's a thing.
Or you know, people will say like, oh, if you just you
know, eat seven bananas and stand on your head, you know, it's
a surefire way to get rid of mosquitoes. And I think that it's important,
as with many things online, to take all of that with a grain
of salt. And I do want to say we are going to talk about
plants that do sort of have a repellent effect on mosquitoes, but it's so
important to understand that no plant is mosquito cryptonite. You know, if if
solving mosquito problems was as simple as planting a certain plant or a combination of
plants, then you know, there would be a lot of people in this
world who would be a lot better off because they wouldn't have to be spraying
for malaria and all of these things. You know, we're lucky we don't
have that problem here in the US, but you know, mosquitoes are a
huge problem worldwide, and honestly, if the solution to them was as simple
as like planting lavender or mints, then you know, we'd be in a
lot better place. So unfortunately, no matter what you're seeing on Facebook or
Instagram or Pinterest or whatever, it's not quite as simple as just planting something
and walking away. I agree, you know. It brings up the point
there's a difference between citronella and lemon grass. For example, Citronella or mosquito
plants are actually scented geraniums. It's a pelargonium. I hope I got that
right. You did, okay, citrosum, and it's marketed as a mosquito
plant. But just because you have one sitting next to you doesn't mean that
the mosquitoes are not going to bite you. As a matter of fact,
with many of these plants, the leaves need to be crushed. We need
to have those essential oils, actually the foliage crushed and create those essential oils
to put them to work. And we're talking about plants here. Mosquitoes hate
like lavender, marigolds, mint, lemon balm, peppermint, be balm,
adjeratum, basil, cat nip, lantanna, rosemary, fennel. There's a
variety of plants that mosquitoes don't necessarily care for, but just because you're surrounded
by them doesn't mean you're not going to be bit right, no harm.
They're all beautiful plants, useful plants that would look great together, but they
aren't going to be a substitute for, you know, an overall mosquito management
program or approach in your yard, whether that means again emptying out areas where
water might stand, whether or not that's old tires or an old bird bath
or pool cover. I mean, there's a lot of places that when you
really look around your yard, Yeah, so it is. It doesn't hurt.
There's no harm in planting these, but you definitely can't eat it as
though you've resolved a mosquito problem just by doing this. Again, go back
to the point though, mosquitos love the nectar of flowers, and if you
wanted to look at the reverse, some plants that mosquitoes are drawn to because
of the nectar. Examples would be water lilies, jasmine, butterfly bush,
water hyacinths. In many cases. They again love that aroma. But you're
so right that this is kind of a controversial subject because there's just so much
information out there. It's difficult to sort it all out. It is.
And you know, a few weeks ago I talked about sort of one of
my surefire ways to find reliable information online, and that is going to a
search engine, typing in your search terms, and then the command site s
I te colon dot edu, and that's going to limit your results to just
university website. So it kind of helps you cut through the clutter and gets
you to reliable information fast. By doing that, I can give you one
plant that when crushed or extracted absolutely positively does repel mosquitos. Barberry. Oh
no, Calicarpa americana. So our native beauty bush, beauty berry, beauty
yes, thank you, Not beauty bush. Yes. Our native beauty berry
Callicarpa americano, which grows natively throughout the south and southeast, not hardy enough
for us here in Michigan. It's pretty much like a zone six seven plant,
or pretty much a zone seven plant, but it has big bowled berries
and that has been scientifically proven to have an extract in its foliage and fruit
that will repel mosquitoes. But again, this is not a situation where you
can just planet around your house and say good enough, you can make your
own mosquito repellent from it. You might find mosquito repellents that are made from
the callicarpa plant, but that has been shown again and again, and we
actually have a callicarpa in the proven Winner's color choice line, her Pearl glam
Beautiful plant. And when I heard about this, I was really excited about
it. And then not long after a researcher contacted us and said, hey,
I'd like to test your plant see if it has this, and unfortunately
it didn't. So it seems that only the Calicarpa americana are true species.
Native beauty berry can do this, but you can if you have it.
It's a fabulous plant and actually could do a little something for you in the
mosquito realm. So you have to sort it out just like just like we're
doing, and you're right that plant on the list. We'll post some stories
also on the website Gardening Simplified. OnAir dot com, I found a great
story about it. Suggested that the soap you're using maybe attracting mosquitoes. Now
that's kind of that's kind of interesting. At least the mosquito makes a clean
getaway. It cannot lie. Ye if you're going, I know you where
you're going with that, and so, but I don't know if most people
would make that Connectionally. Hebrew University in Israel, they're developing a new kind
of insect repellent, which is a chemical camouflage. That's interesting. We'll put
the story there. And also another study where if you swat at the mosquito
or the mosquito has a memory that you've been swatting and avoid you really are
making that up. No, I'm not making it up. It's here.
It's one of the many things that you can fly. So you're just going
to walk around perennially like this just to hide your bets and you know,
hopefully that'll work for you. Don't believe everything you read on the internet.
All right, They have it coming up next. Plants on trial here on
the Gardening Simplified Ship, 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. Greetings
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,
we're going to tell you all about one of our favorite promo miner's color
choice shrubs, and you get to decide if it's going to earn a place
in your garden or landscape. And you know, I didn't have after all
that talk about mosquitos, I didn't really have a perfect plant to align with
the mosquito thing. Now we, like I said, we do have a
Calicarpa pearlglam It's beautiful. It's the same species as the Calicarpa americana that actually
does repel mosquitos, but it is not the same genus. Therefore it does
not Sorry it's the same genus, it's not the same species and so therefore
it doesn't have That's why I said, at you know what, that's a
plant better saved for fall when it's at its best. Anyway, So what's
cheesy? This plant will be all the buzz it will be and it's one
of my favorites, and it's about to burst into bloom. You're in West
Michigan, and it is incredible blush. Hydrangea a beauty. It is a
beauty, now, incredible blush. When I say hydrangea, it could mean
any number of things. There's a lot of different hydrangeas out there that are
very popular. Incredible blush is what's known as a smooth hydrangea hydrangea arborescence,
also known commonly as an Annabelle type hydrangea or an Annabelle hydrangea. Now usually
we try to kind of avoid that word because Annabelle, as you may know,
is a specific variety of hydrangea arborescents been around since the nineteen sixties,
and this is actually native to North America. In fact, if you travel
through the Southeast and the South, you will find it abundantly. I think
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I saw one in a waffle house parking
lot. One not even planted like in a planter box, just down the
edge where it was surrounded by woods. Love the waffle house, and you
know, it's so cool when you this plant that like you see in your
child gardens at work, and you know, you see our plant readers working
on and trying to create something really interesting and new, and you just go
out to your car at the waffle house and there's a wooded edge and there's
hydrange a harborssens growing there. It's a thing what you have at the waffle
house. It was breakfast, I don't, you know, not waffles.
I'm not really sweets for breakfast kind of person. But so anyway, this
is because it is native. It's it's a very easy to grow hydrangea.
And I'm going to talk a little bit later about some of the confusion surrounding
hydrangees. But this hydrangea blooms on new wood, so you don't have to
worry about if you know, how it survived winter or anything like that.
And it's hardy to USDA Zone three that is really cold. Now let's talk
about that a minute, because I think this is important. Winter is often
a worry for folks that I run into as it relates to hydranges. Oh
yeah, and with this hydrangea, because of how it blooms, winter is
not a worry, not an issue whatsoever, right, not a problem.
And so anyway, it's been popular since the nineteen sixties when Annabelle came out.
Because Annabelle is the first mop head smooth hydrangea. So the wild types
they have a flat, lace kept disc with a lot of pollen, good
for mosquitos, whereas Annabelle was a mop head. So what that means is
that it has those larger sterile florets or showier, but they obscure those nectar
bearing fertile florets and it makes it a lot showier in the eyes of most
humans. So Annabelle took the world by storm, but it had a little
bit of a liability. It flopped. So you get one of those summer
storms and next thing you know, you come out and your annabell Hydrangea is
just laying on the ground flat. Didn't fail as far as marketing is concerned.
It flopped. It physically flopped, but the plant physically flops over it.
It was hugely popular and remains hugely popular to you this day, despite
its liability of literally flopping over after a heavy rain. And you know,
we've always wanted, we had always wanted to find hydrange arborescence. They didn't
have this problem. A lot of people don't it, don't mind it,
but you know, it can definitely detract. And it's always disappointing when you
have a Hydrangea in full bloom and it's looking fabulous and you get a rainstorm
and then the next morning it's just all over the ground. If you have
to cut the grass, and that's WoT, Yeah, what are you going
to do with that? So we first kind of had our first breakthrough with
Incredible Hydrangea, one of our most popular plants, best sellers, and Incredible
not only had stronger stems than Annabelle, it also had larger flowers. We
crossed it with a variety that we used to offer called White Dome that had
very very sturdy stems, and you know, through a series of selection,
we were able to develop those stronger stems as well as bigger flowers. But
as lovely as it was, the flowers are white, they mature to green
um and you know, people who struggle with the more colorful big leaf Hydrangea
is the ones that are pink, purple blue, that kind of color,
but can grow Annabelle. We're kind of like, hey, this is this
is cool and all, but I wouldn't mind if I got a little color.
And we were delighted through working with doctor Tom Rainey at the North Carolina
State University Mountain Horticultural Crops and Research Station, that we were able to introduce
a pink version of incredible, and that is incredible blush. So everything you
love about Annabelle, everything you love about Incredible, but pink flowers. I
like that. And the pink is really a very unusual pink when you see
it, you know, I think most people think of like a really candy
pink, like bubble Vista, bubblegum, super tunia. This is I almost
call it like a chrome pink or silvery pink because it has these kind of
metallic tones to it. That's just really really unique and really really beautiful.
It's just kind of a blush. It's kind of like when I get embarrassed
by mispronouncing botanical names. I mean, you get a little blush. I
can tell under all that tan, you're like your summer height tan. Here
it's summer. So this is now is great as it is. That incredible
blush is a pink, smooth hydrangea hardy blooms on new wood, easy to
grow. It will not turn blue or purple or white or any other color.
It's always going to be pink. This is not the type of hydrangea
that, despite the fact that we have a pink version, is going to
change color. So if you get this plant, you're basically going to be
have to be happy that it's pink, and you should because it's lovely.
It's okay, be content, Yeah, exactly, because again the key here
is winter is not a worry and the fact that it's blooming on new wood.
You know, when I tell people a panicled hydrangea, or in this
case, this arborescence hydrangea blooms on new wood, it's almost like they have
this sigh of relief, right because we could prune in late winter or winter,
or we could prune an early spring. Right, Yeah, absolutely no
problem there. We do actually recommend that you do prune. Smooth hydrange is
like incredible blush. We recommend that you cut them back by about a third,
okay, And by doing that, what's going to happen is that you're
continuing to build a sturdy, woody base that's going to give it those nice,
strong stems. But you're also encouraging a lot of new growth for a
lot of flowers. So if that makes sense, because that's a lot like
bug Leah. Also, the new growth tends to be real floriferous, right,
yeah, so you want to have some ability to put on the new
growth. You don't want just that old wood. Now. One of the
things that people often do with Annabelle that will make it flop even worse is
they cut it to the ground. And so basically when you do that,
you're forcing these plants to reinvent themselves. Every year there are a woody plant,
there are a shrub that should have fairly sturdy wood stems. But if
you keep hacking them back every year, they're coming back with herbaceous stems,
not really getting a chance to develop that wood that really keeps those stems nice
and upright. That's super important to make note of. I mean, all
joking aside, that's the key to really enjoying these And I'm sure you put
that in your copy. Oh, yes we do. If you buy an
Incredible Blush, it's in the tag, it's on our websites. We do
our best to make sure that you understand this. And also, some sun
people tend to think of hydrangeas as shade plants, and certainly that's true if
you live in a warm climate. They absolutely positively must have shade during the
hottest part of the day, but some sun, especially in the morning is
really going to help you not only get the strongest stems, but in a
colorful variety like incredible blush, it's also going to help you get the best
color. In too much shade, that color is going to go kind of
muddy, not going to be as clear, and because the stems as they
grow are going to stretch for the light in a very shaded spot, they're
going to be weaker because they're elongated. So good sun at least four hours
of bright sun every day is what we recommend for incredible blush. You can
even in a cooler climate, or if you have irrigation and malt, you
can even take that up to six or more hours of sun each day.
Really not a problem. If you see it in the wild, you're going
to see that it's generally growing sort of on the edge of the woods,
so it's not deep in the forest where it's completely covered by trees and in
deep shade. It's on those edges where it's able to get filtered sunlight but
a little bit of shade and protection from the woods. So I'm going to
represent the folks that don't work with hydranges every day like you, and that
is their eyes start to glaze over and they're like, all this hydrange of
talk. I get confused because newwood, old wood, all these different types
of hydranges. How do I figure that out? Well, folks, that's
why the Gardening Simplified Show is around because in our next segment we're going to
tackle that. We are going to tackle it as best we can in ten
minutes. Ten minutes definitely a ten minute plus topic. But you know,
we've always got our show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot com. We're
gonna take a little break. We're gonna get our bearings. We're gonna get
ready to give you a whole bunch of information about hydranges because it's hydrange of
season. It's July hydrange of season here, so please stay tuned. At
proven Winner's color Choice, we've got a shrub for every taste and every space.
Whether you're looking for an easycare rose, an unforgettable hydrangea, or something
new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and the white containers
have been trialed and tested for your success. Look for them at your local
garden center. Creating's gardening friends and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
We love answering your garden questions, and if you have one, you can
certainly reach out to us at help HLP at Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com,
or just visit Gardening Simplified on air dot com. We've got a contact form
there, and I haven't had a lot of questions come in on the website
yet, but it's July now, and it is the season where the most
common garden question starts to be asked in large numbers, and that is why
is in my hydrangea blooming? And you know, I get it, like
people, Hydrangs are really confusing to people, and I'm going to explain why
that is and help you figure this out. But not only are hydranges a
little bit confusing to people, I don't think that's necessary, so we'll try
to demystify them for you. But they're beautiful and when people plan a hydrangea,
they so look forward to seeing those flowers, so it's a huge disappointment
when they don't, and it's difficult sometimes to understand why it is. People
will go and buy a beautiful hydrangea and then they're like, well, well,
what happens I plant it in? Am I just like not capable of
gardening. No, that's not the case. You're absolutely capable of gardening.
You just need to have an understanding of what you're dealing with. So we're
going to try to break this down for you. The first thing I want
everyone to know is that if you bought a hydrangea last year and it was
flowering when you bought it in say, May, June something like that,
it's not at all unusual that it would not be flowering now. And that's
not because it can't flower its first year after it was planted in the ground.
It's because it bloomed earlier the year that you bought it. As Rick
could certainly tell you. When plants come to the garden center from the grower,
they've usually been taken out of a cold area or put into early heat
so that they start growing and hopefully start flowering. Because everyone knows that you
like to buy plants in bloom, not something that doesn't have any flowers on
it. Well, yeah, and you know it causes people to buy impulsively.
I mean, you know, I'll admit it. I mean, if
it's in bloom and it's beautiful, and who doesn't want to do that?
Walk through a beautiful garden center and be inspired and buy something impulsively. Right,
So, if you bought your hydrangel last year and it's not flowering yet,
don't panic. You were kind of you weren't misled, but it was
not blooming at the same time that it's going to bloom now that it's in
your yard, now that it's been through winter and under more natural conditions.
So don't panic about that. That's a nice easy answer. Those panical hydronical
Yes, yes, if you tend to panic about hydrangeas, panical hydrangeas are
for you. So the next most common reason that hydrangea doesn't bloom is improper
pruning. And this is where things get a little bit hairy, because it
is confusing for people. You know, people tend to approach hydrangeas as a
monolith and they think that all of the hydrangeas that they see in their garden
centers are growing the same way, are going to be treated the same way,
and that's not quite the case. Now, it's not that it's super
complicated and you can't learn it. But it's not like I said, it's
not a monolith where you can just kind of, you know, internalize one
simple fact and then apply that, reiterate that overall of your hydrangeas. So
some hydranges, and we were talking about incredible blush bloom on new wood,
so incredible blush, smooth hydrangeas like that, like Annabelle, like incredible,
like the Invincible series, blooms on new wood, and venacle hydranges like Limelight.
These are also known as peg hydranges. Those also bloom on new wood.
So what that means is that when they leaf out in spring, they
don't have any flower buds on them. They start to create their flower buds
as spring develops and those flower buds come out. So it's okay to prune
those two types in late winter in early spring because there's no flower buds on
them. Now, the converse of that is some hydranges that bloom on old
wood. And these are big leaf hydranges. So this is the really popular
type with a big pink blue purple flowers with a round flower heads. Oak
leaf hydrangees which you can see here kind of blurry in our background, and
climbing hydrange of vine and mountain hydranges, which are closely related to the big
leaf hydranges. Now, these four types all bloom on old wood. There's
a term that gets thrown at around a lot without a lot of explanation,
but basically what that means is that as soon as they finished blooming or would
have bloomed in the summer, they're going to start making their flower buds four
next summer. So by the time fall rolls around and they're going dormant,
they're actually covered in flower buds. Sure you can't see them, you don't
know they're there, but they are actually present on the plant. And you
know, I love hydrangeas, but I swear they try to tempt people into
cutting them back because they just look so ghastly and fall. They look like
they should be cut back. Correct. This spen, my experience and I
have found with people, is about the time that they start thinking about hanging
Christmas lights on the house and they go out there and they look at the
landscape. Maybe they're going to drape some lights in the shrubbery, and they
see those sticks. Well, let's clean this up, let's chop it back,
and you know, step away from the pruning cheers and nobody gets hurt.
And you know, sticks is exactly right. They look like a pile
of dead sticks. They aren't dead. They have flower buds all over them.
You should not gut the meck. But they really look like they should
be cut back. Its oak leaf less so but certainly the big leaf and
mountain hydranges, they really look like they should be cut back. But if
you do cut the neck, you are removing the flower buds for the following
summer. And that is the number one reason that those type of hydranges don't
bloom. And I'll tell you, I've heard from so many people who are
like, oh, my son was home from college and thought he'd clean up
my garden and he cut them back. Or you know, I hired a
landscape company and they just came through here and treated everything the same as Another
common reason or the deer or the deer for sure happening deer. All hydrangeas
are susceptible too deer damage. Some are more beloved than others. Unfortunately,
the two that bloom on new wood, panicle and smooth hydranges tend to be
the most favored by deer in my experience in my I don't grow big leaf
hydrangeas. My garden's too dry, but a lot of people in my neighborhood
do, and they don't seem to knock on wood bother them all that much.
And I do grow oak leaf hydrangeas, and those have actually reached a
hYP where the deer can't reach them anymore, so they the flowers or they
can reach, and beyond that we're good to go. I have beautiful flowers
this year. I love my mountain hydranges. Now would tough stuff be considered
a mountain ranger? Okay? And I love my mountain hydranges. And for
two years in a row, I had the deer eat them all the way
down to the ground. And they were beautiful plants, but they weren't blooming
the way I wanted them to, generally a very tough hydrangea. When I
moved them to the compound and they got compound status and the deer left them,
wow did they bloom beautifully? Yeah. It was just a great example.
That's like a type of pruning, right, it's just pruning by deer
teeth instead of pruners. So that's another reason. But you know, if
you've already pruned them last fall or spring, and that's why it's not bloing.
There's unfortunately nothing you can really do about it now, but you can
actually know better for next year. So you know, there's always next year.
It's like a gardener's mantra, right, and there's always next year.
And so the third reason, and again this is only going to apply to
these old wood blooming hydranges that keep their flowers on the plant over winter,
is cold damage. Yes, and this is especially true the cool Obviously,
the colder climate you live in, the more likely this is to be the
cause of your hydrange and not blooming. But it does even happen to people
in milder climates, not because of winter cold, but because of spring frost.
And so what happens is, you know, spring starts coming along,
it's getting a little nice, it's getting a little warm. Your plants like,
oh hey, this is great, I'm going to leaf out, and
then blamo, spring frost and it just fries that bud because that bud that's
on the plant has been left increasingly open by that opening foliage. And this
is a this is a problem for people even in you know, like I
said, warmer climates, and it's cold climates and warm climates equally. Now,
the fortunate thing is when it comes to protecting them from those spring frosts,
it's pretty easy. All you have to do is like throw an old
blanket or towel over them just for as long as that frost or freeze threatens.
When it's over, you just take it off. They've been protected,
you know. Just keeping that freezing cold air from contacting that tender foliage and
flower bud protects them sufficiently to preserve the bloom. Yeah, here in the
north, it's usually a couple of weeks. And what I see happens Stacy
here in Michigan. I've seen a number of times is the warm up in
March April gets nice and warrant those buds swell, and usually right around Arbor
Day the end of April, we get one of those nights where it's like
in the mid twenties for five or six hours or yea, that's when we
do that. Damn exactly, so easy to protect against that. Now,
if it's dying from the winter, and the way you're going to know if
your hydrangea is not blooming because of winter cold is that when it does start
to leaf out in you know, March, April or whenever that is.
You've got nothing but sticks and you only have like some foliage emerging down at
the base. That means your plant died back from winter cold. And your
solution there is either going to be to protect it with some sort of structure,
you know, like a wire filled with old leaves, or like Rick
did, move it, move it to a more protected spot. It's certainly
worth trying to move it before you just give up on it. Because hydrangees
are one of those plants. You know, most plants that we talk about
pretty easy going. You can pop it in the ground, it's going to
do great. Hydrangees are one that need a little bit of consideration for their
sighting. So we are already out of time. I knew this is going
to happen. There's just so much to tell, but fortunately we have the
show notes with lots of good information, including a link to our hydrange Is
Domistified Info sheet, which is going to give you everything you need to know
to become a hydrange of expert gardening Simplified on air dot com. We're going
to take a little break when we come back. We got branching news.
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Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local gardens and he welcome back to
the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for branching news. Not breaking news,
branching news. But we don't make this stuff up, folks. As a
matter of fact, I'll start right off the top stacy with a study.
We're going to post it at our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
And that is the top sense that people enjoy the most at home.
So there you go, the favorite sense. And what was number one on
the list? Floral sense flowers, potpourri. I like that. I thought
it was going to be like cinnamon, non't floral sense. Yeah, I
was thinking chocolate chip cookies, that's you know, in the oven. Floral
sense. Citrus sense came in number two, lemon and orange. Clean and
sanitizing sense like bleach, chlorine, that sort of thing. I mean,
I guess it's clean and baked goods. There you go, number four.
And then would natural sense like cedar, pine, fresh cut grass, that
sort of thing the top sents that people enjoy most at home. So I
don't know. I guess you can debate it. These people just gave their
two cents, so to speak. I'm wondering, Okay, so citrus is
number two? Does that mean citrus flowers or citrus fruit? Good question?
So the flowers are in the floral sense or is it all in the citrus
categories? Anything that smells like citrus, all right, then probably the flowers
in the flower categories. I love the smell of citrus flowers though, Oh
man, that's amazing. It's amazing. Oh yeah, lemon, It's nostalgic,
is what it is. All right. On a serious note here,
I did want to touch on this in Branching News because it's something I've been
following all spring. But vineyards and apple orchards across the Northeast are still gage
damage from a late seasoned frost in May. So we had a very serious
frost in May that wiped out a third, or for a number of growers,
a huge amount of their crop. This spring. They're saying the worst
frost damage that they have ever seen. Some states are seeking federal disaster declarations
that would make low interest loans and other programs available to affected growers, while
agricultural officials across the region are contemplating together asking the US Department of Agriculture for
direct aid to these farmers. So Stacy in the North Northeast, things like
the vineyards, fruit fruit growers, they really took a hit this spring,
right, sounds like their hydrange and up bloomings least to their worries exactly.
I mean, it was a devastating frost this spring. So our thoughts are
with those folks there in the Northeast and as they try to recover from that
heavy frost. And again that happened like in mid May, so everything was
totally flushed out. Yeah, and that's when you see serious. We had
it. We had it. It got pretty cold for us, but I
know in many areas it was really really bad. So all right, so
here we go. It was a few weeks ago that we did our watering
show. I just wet my plants and I went off on a rant about
sprinklers and hoses and that sort of thing. And I'm amazed at the amount
of feedback that I have received. And interestingly enough and overwhelmingly you felt my
pain and stacy. Folks are telling me to get this hoselink thing. I
looked it up. Did you look at it? I looked at up.
That's an interesting product. It is an interesting product. But it amazed me.
How how folks just I mean too, I mean it was overwhelming.
It was rick hoselink, rick hoselink, and you'll fix your fix your problem.
So to say thank you, I thought I would write a limb,
a rick about hoses and sprinklers as opposed to going off on a off on
a rant. And one of the things that I thought about doing was,
you know, I'm going to try and create a limerick using artificial intelligence.
It's our Ahi is good at rhyming. It crashed and burned. I thought
it was totally lame. Here's what it came up with. There once was
a sprinkler so bold. It's water sprayed freely, untold with a rhythmic spray.
It made flowers sway and turned summer's heat into gold. Yeah, it's
nice, but it's kind of like something you'd find on a Hallmark card.
Right all told or that that was a little bit of a questionable word choice.
Yeah, exactly. So I decided to create my own limb a Rick
because my name is in limb a rick if you haven't caught that already.
So here we go. Here's my limerick as a thank you for all those
hoselink people out there who are going to cause me to buy a hoselingk contraption.
One of my sprinklers is oscillation, the others supposed to be pulsation,
but nothing. Their wedding just stuck on one setting, resulting in my frustration.
Oh my hose is kinked. It's just dripping, and my patients,
well, it's just flipping. I'll buy anything, I'll give it a fling,
just send it my way. I'll pay the shipping. So thanks for
understanding my ordeal. I'll be buying a new hose reel. You could say,
I'm skeptical to buy another receptacle irrigations my Achilles heel. So there's my
limerick for all the advice that folks gave me. I love it. You
know, anything that makes watering easier, whatever your least favorite garden chore is
anything that makes it easy year is worth investing in. Well. I think
they understood just intuitively from watching and listening to the show that, for example,
at home, if there's a plumbing project to be done and I engage
in it, it's generally a disaster. Oh it includes twenty trips back and
forth to the home improvement store and it's still leaking after that. So there
you have it. There's a reason why plumbers are paid. So that's right,
exactly skills, and I'm more than happy to pay them to do the
work. Police officers utilized a YouTube app on their phones to play a series
of mother Duck calls to lure ducklings that had fallen through a storm grate into
the opening. Now this was in New York, I believe it was on
Long Island, and so all four ducklings responded to the sounds and waddled their
way to safety and back to mom. So what a cool thing. These
police officers utilized a YouTube app to get these four ducklings that have fallen to
their peril in through the storm. Great to get them to waddle their way
back to safety and mom. Now that is cool. I love it.
I also love imagining this conversation with the police officers. Danny, what are
you gonna do? Oh, I know, let's try your YouTube video.
And then they're holding it. That's so cute. They all took it in
stride. They said, put it on my bill. You know there was
a quack in the sidewalk. Actually they asked these ducklings to show their proper
documents. I'll stop now. Nah, maybe they'll create a documentary about this.
Okay, watch it serious note here to end up branching news this week,
and I want to ask you this question, Stacy. We'll post the
story at Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com. But why is grass the only acceptable
planting material in the right of way? Now? The right of way,
of course, is that area between a homeowner's sidewalk and the street curb.
You will see some people getting pretty creative and then of course, yeah,
you run the risk that they're going to dig it up, and so you
plant grass. But in Canada a lot of talk about this. I found
an interesting story on it. Will post the story at Gardening Simplified OnAir dot
com. But I mean, is there something better than grass to put in
that right away? In your opinion? Or oh, yes, lots of
things. I mean, I think a lot of people who are gardeners probably
get their gardens in their yard all set and then they start eyeballing that right
away, or the Eastman ills and they're like, hey, you know,
there's a lot more planting space over there. Look kind of cool. Yeah.
So I actually just this morning, in fact, was talking to my
husband about planting some seed them. We just had some construction. They replaced
our water supply line and it's all torn up, and I didn't want to
start grass because it's the middle summer and you know, and so I thought
about planting some like groundcovering seedums in there. That's not a bad idea.
See my problem is come March April, I always have snowplow disease out there.
Yeah you know, I see yucky. Yeah, you know, just
torn up by the snowplow. Well, if it's a groundcover seatum, you
got nothing to worry about the snowplows the troubles, dude, not it's impact
that whatsoever. Finally, on today for Branching News, just want to mention
last week we got a chance to talk to Adriana Robinson, and you know,
I was thinking what would be loads of fun, as if you can
be sending us some pictures also. Okay, we want your questions at Gardening
Simplified on air dot com, but boys send us some stuff too, like
stories or thoughts or and thank you to those of you who have, but
also pictures because I want to see your gardens or maybe your public right of
way show me what I should be planting. Aside from right, it's the
height of the garden season and we would absolutely love to see what you're proud
of and what you've got going and we can share the same. Yeah.
Absolutely, Thank you Stacy, thank you Adrianna, our producer and engineer of
the Gardening Simplified Show, And most of all, thanks to you for tuning
us in on YouTube, listening to the podcast, listening to us on radio,
share it with friends and neighbors, have yourself a great view.