Timing Is Everything! | Timely Garden Tasks and Understanding Plant Growth Rates

<v Speaker 1>Broadcasting from Studio A here at Proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs.
<v Speaker 1>It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella,
<v Speaker 1>me Rick Weist and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
<v Speaker 1>And welcome in. If you're listening to the radio or
<v Speaker 1>our podcast, feel free to tune in on YouTube to
<v Speaker 1>check out our faces and images of the Gardening Simplified Show. Well,
<v Speaker 1>today's show, we're going to take time into account. Plant
<v Speaker 1>selection must consider a plant's growth rate, its mature size
<v Speaker 1>and form, and the maintenance that it's going to require.
<v Speaker 1>Fast growing plants may or may not be desirable depending
<v Speaker 1>on the size of the size of the site or
<v Speaker 1>the design intent and the expected level of maintenance. Timing
<v Speaker 1>is everything. It's important to know the eventual mature size
<v Speaker 1>of a plant so they can be placed in the
<v Speaker 1>right location and space properly when they're installed. And I
<v Speaker 1>think the falling of leaves is a timing and time
<v Speaker 1>factor thing. The shortening day length and oh no, that's right,
<v Speaker 1>daylight saving time. The end of daylight saving time.
<v Speaker 2>Is coming here, yes, very soon. Get that extra hour sleep.
<v Speaker 2>Gotta love that.
<v Speaker 1>Wow. Starts on what back in March right and ends
<v Speaker 1>November two. Gonna have to deal with that darkness because
<v Speaker 1>I love working in the landscape at night. By the way,
<v Speaker 1>I'm very horse today. I feel great, but I have
<v Speaker 1>no voice.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, so please bear with us. Rick is okay. We're
<v Speaker 2>all together in the studio. He's not contagious. He's feeling great.
<v Speaker 2>But we're calling him pony because he is indeed a
<v Speaker 2>little horse.
<v Speaker 1>I think we'll horse around today. This should be fun. Well.
<v Speaker 1>The time factor regarding growth can be affected by looking down,
<v Speaker 1>not up. I always say that when you look at
<v Speaker 1>a plant, look down, not up. Take a look at
<v Speaker 1>the root system and where it's established. And timing is
<v Speaker 1>important with a host of things in the landscape. Whether
<v Speaker 1>it's crawler emergence when you have scale applying crabgrass preventer
<v Speaker 1>in the spring when the soil temperatures are just right,
<v Speaker 1>or b te sprays for spongy moss in the trees
<v Speaker 1>in early May. All of these things require timing, and
<v Speaker 1>of course timing is very, very important to get it
<v Speaker 1>right the first time. Trees are an obvious time factor
<v Speaker 1>in the landscape. What was it that Alexander Hamilton said
<v Speaker 1>about legacy? Legacy? What is a legacy. It's planting seeds
<v Speaker 1>in a garden. You never get to see so planting.
<v Speaker 1>And by the way, Alexander Hamilton would have planted a
<v Speaker 1>sweet gum tree.
<v Speaker 2>By the way, Oh.
<v Speaker 1>He loved sweet gum trees. They were all around his house.
<v Speaker 1>If you visit his home in New York, you'll see
<v Speaker 1>sweet gum trees all around the house. But you think
<v Speaker 1>about trees like metasaquoia, glip to sturboides, the down redwood trees.
<v Speaker 1>Just making the right decision because you're making a time
<v Speaker 1>investment as far as trees are concerned. And as the
<v Speaker 1>leaves start to fall off the trees and fall, you know,
<v Speaker 1>we think a lot about the trees. I was thinking
<v Speaker 1>this past week, Stacey, about the katsuura tree. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if you like that tree. Some people call it
<v Speaker 1>the cake tree.
<v Speaker 2>I love it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. They smell like caramel, candy and fall. They're not
<v Speaker 1>technically supposed to be aromatic, but the fallen autumn leaves
<v Speaker 1>have been varyingly described as smelling of cinnamon, burnt sugar,
<v Speaker 1>or ripe apples. But isn't fall just a great time
<v Speaker 1>of the year.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, And you know the kats are Orcitiphylum japonicum is
<v Speaker 2>not the only tree that does have that kind of sweetness,
<v Speaker 2>which makes sense because what's happening in fall is they're
<v Speaker 2>storing sugars, so those leaves still have you know, sugars
<v Speaker 2>and energy and all of that in them. But it
<v Speaker 2>probably does it better than any other tree. To me,
<v Speaker 2>it smells like fresh baked cookies. M that's like that
<v Speaker 2>when you just take them out of the oven and
<v Speaker 2>then everything's warm, and you mostly only smell it on sunny,
<v Speaker 2>dry days. If it's really wet, cold, you don't typically
<v Speaker 2>smell it. But once those leaves fall, yeah, and they
<v Speaker 2>cover the ground. It is the first time I ever
<v Speaker 2>experienced it. It was like you couldn't even believe that
<v Speaker 2>it was actually real.
<v Speaker 1>Smells like cotton candy.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, it definitely has a strong kind of burnt
<v Speaker 2>sugar smell. Now I'm glad you were talking about time
<v Speaker 2>and mentioned Metasaquoia. Okay, because you want to talk about
<v Speaker 2>a tree out of time, I mean, I could go on,
<v Speaker 2>I won't. But Medaicaicoia, also known as the Don redwood,
<v Speaker 2>was a tree that was only known from the fossil record.
<v Speaker 2>They thought that it was extinct until the nineteen forties.
<v Speaker 2>That recent wow, and some scientists deep in China found
<v Speaker 2>some and were like, oh my gosh, it's not extinct.
<v Speaker 2>And the first plants in the US came to the
<v Speaker 2>Arnold Iboretam and they are still there today. You can
<v Speaker 2>actually see the very first one. And that's just a
<v Speaker 2>great story, you know. Of course, yes, you need time.
<v Speaker 2>It's actually pretty fast growing plants, sure it is. My
<v Speaker 2>friend has one that he planted. His is the yellow
<v Speaker 2>variety called ogon, and I can't believe how fast it grew.
<v Speaker 2>But such a great story, you know, for when people
<v Speaker 2>are visiting your garden, when people ask, hey, your pine
<v Speaker 2>tree over there is lose and leaves everything. Okay, not
<v Speaker 2>a pine tree, but it is a deciduous kind of
<v Speaker 2>for such an amazing plant. Really one of my favorite.
<v Speaker 1>Right and last fall when I was at the Arnold
<v Speaker 1>Arbor Ritam. They're just majestic, huge, beautiful.
<v Speaker 2>And they're folly just described as salmon colored before it falls,
<v Speaker 2>and that is a very good descriptor of it. It's
<v Speaker 2>kind of hard to imagine, but when you see it
<v Speaker 2>in person, with that red bark and that beautiful salmony color,
<v Speaker 2>it's it's like a holy tree. It's really amazing.
<v Speaker 1>So if you need time for your landscape to develop,
<v Speaker 1>I want to remind you using annuals in your landscape
<v Speaker 1>is a great way to fill in your landscape as
<v Speaker 1>plants that you want to develop are maturing. And of
<v Speaker 1>course here in the north, I love tropical plants. But
<v Speaker 1>the bummer is we have to start over every year.
<v Speaker 1>I have a monstrous banana tree in my yard. It's
<v Speaker 1>just spectacular right now. The neighbors comment on it. It's
<v Speaker 1>a northern banana musa bajou, so it'll come back next year.
<v Speaker 1>But it's gonna die all the way back to the ground,
<v Speaker 1>so you have to start all over again. But that's
<v Speaker 1>okay because that's what we do with herbaceous perennials. Also,
<v Speaker 1>and we've all heard about slow cooking Stacy. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I love five galeon pails. I also like crock pots.
<v Speaker 2>Oh do you Yeah? How many do you have one?
<v Speaker 1>Oh?
<v Speaker 2>Well, that's good. It's not to the level of the five.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I'm not collecting pots. I just like cooking in
<v Speaker 1>crack pots.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know, there is talk about an investment in time.
<v Speaker 2>There is nothing quite like putting the time into making
<v Speaker 2>a meal and then putting it in the slow cooker
<v Speaker 2>and coming home to that. Yeah, and it's perfect for fall.
<v Speaker 2>That is like a great thing for fall. I'm glad
<v Speaker 2>you mentioned about annuals. I often recommend that people use
<v Speaker 2>a annual vines on trellises and pergolas and so forth
<v Speaker 2>while they're waiting for their other plants to get established,
<v Speaker 2>because something like a morning glory. I mean, there's so
<v Speaker 2>many interesting vines. Your highest of beans, of course, are
<v Speaker 2>a great choice. That's a nice way to fill something
<v Speaker 2>up while you're waiting for your clematis or you know,
<v Speaker 2>climbing hydrangear or whatever to actually start doing its thing.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's something that people don't really consider very much,
<v Speaker 2>is just taking up space while you wait for things
<v Speaker 2>to fill in. And it's a very handy way to
<v Speaker 2>get more plants in. And who doesn't want that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's a great way to fill in. So what
<v Speaker 1>about slow plants. I like to think about low grow
<v Speaker 1>or slow grow plants. I would market them as plants
<v Speaker 1>that pump the brakes. You know. One that comes to
<v Speaker 1>mind is Japanese maple. Japanese maple has this inappropriate reputation
<v Speaker 1>of being difficult to grow, and it's not, but it
<v Speaker 1>does need to be placed in the right place, and yes,
<v Speaker 1>it isn't going to grow like a weed. So plants
<v Speaker 1>that tap the brakes and we'll talk about those in
<v Speaker 1>segment four. I'm sure you've got something to say about that.
<v Speaker 1>Also in Plants.
<v Speaker 2>Out, Plants on Trial is dedicated to growth rates today,
<v Speaker 2>So hang on to your hat. You know. In Japanese maples,
<v Speaker 2>I think one of the reasons it's, you know, you've
<v Speaker 2>got me thinking it's a little bit like big leaf
<v Speaker 2>hydrangees and that everybody loves them. So they're getting these
<v Speaker 2>plants because they're beautiful and they want one, and then
<v Speaker 2>they're sticking at any old place and they're plants that
<v Speaker 2>aren't necessarily difficult to grow, but they have their specific
<v Speaker 2>needs and if those needs aren't meant, the plant is
<v Speaker 2>not doing what you bought it for. And so yeah,
<v Speaker 2>a lot of times people feel really discouraged with it,
<v Speaker 2>and especially if they buy a really expensive Japanese maple,
<v Speaker 2>because some Japanese maples out there are pretty.
<v Speaker 1>Darn pricey, and of course there's many different types of
<v Speaker 1>Japanese maples too. You have upright, you have mounded, you
<v Speaker 1>have weeping or pendulating Japanese maple. So all of that
<v Speaker 1>comes into play also, So as we talk about timing, Stacey,
<v Speaker 1>I do have to admit that when it comes to
<v Speaker 1>anticipation in the gardening season, I tend to overdo it
<v Speaker 1>a little bit. I do it on the back end
<v Speaker 1>in fall I'm out there in the snow, as well
<v Speaker 1>as on the front end getting out there too soon
<v Speaker 1>in spring. I can't help it. So this week's limerick
<v Speaker 1>is devoted to that planting too early in spring I'd chosen.
<v Speaker 1>Who knows what kind of weather blows in too much
<v Speaker 1>of a rush, turn the plants into mush. Because now
<v Speaker 1>all my begonias are frozen. They tell me. Timing is everything.
<v Speaker 1>It keeps things naturally from spiraling. The calendar says freeze.
<v Speaker 1>But I'm anxious out I squeeze all the growing season
<v Speaker 1>I can ring. I'm out there before winters loosed its grip,
<v Speaker 1>and after falls chill, the leaves strip. If it's muddy
<v Speaker 1>or cruddy, take your chances, good buddy, get out there
<v Speaker 1>and let it rip. That's me in a nutshell, Stacy.
<v Speaker 2>Well, you know, hey, as long as you're willing to
<v Speaker 2>accept those mistakes that are made from your enthusiasm and
<v Speaker 2>not beat yourself up over them. I say, go for it.
<v Speaker 2>I totally get it.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you, very mulch. Let's talk more plant timing coming up.
<v Speaker 1>Plants on trial next here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
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<v Speaker 2>Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome
<v Speaker 2>back to the Gardening Simplified Show. Work Today, we are
<v Speaker 2>talking about time and there's a lot of ways to
<v Speaker 2>think about time in the garden. In fact, a garden
<v Speaker 2>is a physical manifestation of time and space, which is
<v Speaker 2>a really interesting way to think about it. But you know,
<v Speaker 2>as I've said before on the show, we get a
<v Speaker 2>lot of questions from home gardeners around the US and
<v Speaker 2>Canada here at Proven Winners, and we're always happy to
<v Speaker 2>help and to answer those questions. And I cannot even
<v Speaker 2>tell you how many times I have gotten questions about
<v Speaker 2>growth rates, which is a totally normal thing to wonder
<v Speaker 2>people will say. You know, you would think people would ask, hey,
<v Speaker 2>is this a fast growing plan or slow growing plant?
<v Speaker 2>But no, No, The common question that I have gotten
<v Speaker 2>goes like this, tell me in number of inches how
<v Speaker 2>many you know? Or tell me exactly how many inches
<v Speaker 2>of growth this plant is going to put on every year?
<v Speaker 2>And I have to think that this is most likely
<v Speaker 2>one type of person. I'm guessing probably an engineer who
<v Speaker 2>is used to working in very predictable kind of scenarios
<v Speaker 2>where you don't have all account or possibly an account.
<v Speaker 2>It's someone who is very you know, used to working
<v Speaker 2>again in these in these detailed scenarios where there's no unpredictability,
<v Speaker 2>and the simple fact is plants are unpredictable. Now, I
<v Speaker 2>don't want people to think that there is not an
<v Speaker 2>inherent genetic component to plant growth. There is a plant,
<v Speaker 2>any specific variety, a species of plant, does have an
<v Speaker 2>element of genetic contribution to its growth rate. It is
<v Speaker 2>naturally slow, it's naturally fast, it's naturally medium ish growth rate.
<v Speaker 2>But really, the reason that we cannot answer those questions,
<v Speaker 2>and I'm sure it drives those innocent, you know, people
<v Speaker 2>crazy when we can't give them that answer. But there's
<v Speaker 2>just so many factors that influence growth rate. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>all of that information that's there on your plant tag
<v Speaker 2>when you buy a new shrub or any kind of plant,
<v Speaker 2>all of those all of that information is directly impacting
<v Speaker 2>the growth rate. The light, the soil, the water, the fertilizing,
<v Speaker 2>the hardiness zones that are also on that tag, All
<v Speaker 2>of those factors are going to influence how fast a
<v Speaker 2>plant grows irrespective of that inherent growth rate that it
<v Speaker 2>just has.
<v Speaker 1>I agree, that's really well said, and it's contingent also
<v Speaker 1>on where the plant is native to.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>You know, you look at sowarro cactus in the desert,
<v Speaker 1>succulents in the desert, or alpine plants up in mountainous ranges.
<v Speaker 1>They naturally are shorter or slower growing.
<v Speaker 2>Right, they can serve their resources. You know, it takes
<v Speaker 2>a lot of resources to grow rapidly. So when you
<v Speaker 2>have plants typically from areas where maybe the growth is
<v Speaker 2>not so favorable, Yeah, they do tend to be smaller,
<v Speaker 2>slower growing because it is a better use of their
<v Speaker 2>resources rather than putting tons of resources into growing, you know,
<v Speaker 2>leaps and bounds every single year. You can use this
<v Speaker 2>to your advantage, and I think that's something that you know,
<v Speaker 2>I certainly do. In my garden. It's very dry, and
<v Speaker 2>I actually appreciate how in many cases that dry soil
<v Speaker 2>can help to manage things. I think a great example
<v Speaker 2>is a plant that I talk about often on the show,
<v Speaker 2>al Nino Chatalpa. So I have this plant in my garden.
<v Speaker 2>I love it. It stays quite manageable despite the fact
<v Speaker 2>that it's now and it's third or fourth year in
<v Speaker 2>my garden. If you were to come here, just outside
<v Speaker 2>of Studio A, there are a number of Alnino chetalpas
<v Speaker 2>planted in front of the building and they are on
<v Speaker 2>drip irrigation, and boy are they taking full advantage of
<v Speaker 2>that extra water. They're enormous, and I think they're even
<v Speaker 2>younger than the plant that I have in my yard.
<v Speaker 2>I think there are planted a year after maybe and
<v Speaker 2>over here, you know, they're skyrocketing to ten to fifteen
<v Speaker 2>feet tall, very wide, where you know mine is probably
<v Speaker 2>around eight feet. And it's not an issue of pruning,
<v Speaker 2>it's an issue of the resources that it gets. So
<v Speaker 2>it we're unable to give like hard and fast answers
<v Speaker 2>to these questions. But as much as I know that
<v Speaker 2>is frustrating for some people, what we can do is
<v Speaker 2>kind of help you understand which plants are going to
<v Speaker 2>be slower growing even under ideal conditions, and which plants
<v Speaker 2>are going to be faster growing. And I think you
<v Speaker 2>know a lot of times people would automatically assume that
<v Speaker 2>faster growing is better, and that's not the case. Of course,
<v Speaker 2>if you want privacy, yes, faster growing is going to
<v Speaker 2>be better. But a lot of times slower growing plants,
<v Speaker 2>like you said, rick, are going to be easier to
<v Speaker 2>care for. You're not going to have to worry about
<v Speaker 2>pruning them, You're not going to have to worry about
<v Speaker 2>them overgrowing the space. Dwarf conifers great example. Dwarf conifers
<v Speaker 2>can actually get quite large. It's just that they are
<v Speaker 2>so slow growing that it takes decades, if not centuries
<v Speaker 2>for them to actually turn into anything that is not
<v Speaker 2>considered dwarf.
<v Speaker 1>It's that way with a number of evergreens, right, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>if you think about bristle cone pine, yeah, right.
<v Speaker 2>Overall, I would say evergreens in general, there are some exceptions,
<v Speaker 2>we're gonna go over tend to be on the slower
<v Speaker 2>side even under ideal growing conditions. Of course, there are
<v Speaker 2>definitely exceptions, like I said, but overall, if someone says
<v Speaker 2>to you, like, hey, what is a slow growing plant,
<v Speaker 2>you can say, most evergreens pretty on the whole, pretty
<v Speaker 2>slow growing. And I would consider personally, I don't know
<v Speaker 2>how you feel about this, but I would consider a
<v Speaker 2>slow growing plant one that is putting on four inches
<v Speaker 2>of growth or less each year. Yeah, does that seem
<v Speaker 2>like a reasonable amount. And this is after they're established.
<v Speaker 2>This is another really important factor is you know, those
<v Speaker 2>first two to three seasons, you're not necessarily going to
<v Speaker 2>see a lot of growth on top, whether the plant
<v Speaker 2>is considered a slow growing plant or a fast growing plant,
<v Speaker 2>because all of those resources are going into the roots.
<v Speaker 2>Like you said at the beginning of the show, Rick,
<v Speaker 2>you have to look down. I mean you can't really
<v Speaker 2>see the roots, but you know they're down there. And
<v Speaker 2>until that root system is developed, the plant is not
<v Speaker 2>going to be able to grow very much because the
<v Speaker 2>root and the top grow in proportion to one another.
<v Speaker 2>So if it's slow growing on top, chances are the
<v Speaker 2>roots are also going to be on the slower side,
<v Speaker 2>and it's going to need a little bit more time.
<v Speaker 2>So slow growing we're going to count under four inches
<v Speaker 2>of growth per year. For fast growing, we're going to
<v Speaker 2>take that up to eight plus inches. What do you
<v Speaker 2>think does that seem reasonable with a good guide, because
<v Speaker 2>of course this is all very relative. So slow growing
<v Speaker 2>number one. This is so for plants on trial. We're
<v Speaker 2>just going to give you five slow growers and five
<v Speaker 2>fast growers from the Proven Winner's Color Choice line. Number
<v Speaker 2>one Boxwood. It is honestly surprising to me that boxwood
<v Speaker 2>is as popular as it is given how slow it
<v Speaker 2>is to grow. And it's such a great plant. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>we're really lucky to have it. It's beautiful, it's durable,
<v Speaker 2>but it is slow, and it's especially slow for growers.
<v Speaker 2>So you have to understand that if you are bringing
<v Speaker 2>boxwood into your garden, you're going to be paying a
<v Speaker 2>little bit more for it because you are buying time.
<v Speaker 2>That is, it takes longer to actually produce. Now there
<v Speaker 2>are some faster growing boxwood, like our Sprinter and new
<v Speaker 2>Gen Freedom, which will be new to the Proven Winner's
<v Speaker 2>Color Choice line in twenty twenty six. These are fast
<v Speaker 2>growing for boxwood, so there's also this element of relativity
<v Speaker 2>you know, within there. And the flip side of those
<v Speaker 2>being fast growing boxwood is that you actually have to
<v Speaker 2>prune them because if you don't prune them, they will
<v Speaker 2>get kind of open and floppy without being prune. So
<v Speaker 2>you trade off that lower maintenance where you might never
<v Speaker 2>have to prune a slow growing boxwood if you don't
<v Speaker 2>want to, you will absolutely have to tram these faster
<v Speaker 2>growing varieties. Number two barberry, and this is a plant.
<v Speaker 2>Again I'm so surprised that it is as popular as
<v Speaker 2>it is when it is an absolute bare for growers
<v Speaker 2>to produce. It's so slow. But on the other hand,
<v Speaker 2>that is one of the reasons why it's considered so
<v Speaker 2>low maintenance, because you don't really need to prune it
<v Speaker 2>because it grows so slowly and so much of that
<v Speaker 2>since its stems are covered in thorns, then you don't
<v Speaker 2>have to go fussing around with pruning something and getting
<v Speaker 2>prickled the whole time. Winterbury holly a pretty slow plant,
<v Speaker 2>especially in less than ideal conditions, but overall it is slow.
<v Speaker 2>If you want to grow winterberry holly, I would encourage
<v Speaker 2>you to seek out the biggest plants that you can.
<v Speaker 2>Don't start with those tiny mail order plants unless you
<v Speaker 2>want to do a lot of TLC and a lot
<v Speaker 2>of waiting until you get that fabulous berry display in winter.
<v Speaker 2>Taxis another plant. How is this plant so popular when
<v Speaker 2>it is so slow?
<v Speaker 1>We're not talking about the state of Texas.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, we are talking about you. And interestingly, the smaller varieties,
<v Speaker 2>or the more upright varieties, are the ones that grow
<v Speaker 2>more slowly. So we have stonehenge skinny that is a
<v Speaker 2>very slow growing plant that's going to be much slower
<v Speaker 2>growing because it's tall and narrow compared to stonehenge dark thruid,
<v Speaker 2>which is more of that classic kind of rounded shape.
<v Speaker 2>So the best thing you can do if you're growing these,
<v Speaker 2>start with larger plants so you're not waiting around forever
<v Speaker 2>for them to do anything. Number five upright junipers. Spreading
<v Speaker 2>junipers can actually be fairly reasonably medium growth rate, I
<v Speaker 2>would say, but upright junipers tend to be very slow
<v Speaker 2>again in production as well as in the landscape, and
<v Speaker 2>this is very frustrating for gardeners like me who can't
<v Speaker 2>grow arbivity, which is the ultimate fast growing shrub because
<v Speaker 2>I have deer and of course they love arborvity, and
<v Speaker 2>so you're waiting forever for those upright junipers to turn
<v Speaker 2>into anything. So quickly are fast growing plants, Roses number one,
<v Speaker 2>so easy to grow, easily, putting on eight plus inches
<v Speaker 2>of growth every year. Even smaller varieties like our OsO
<v Speaker 2>easy series are still very vigorous once they're established. So
<v Speaker 2>that's why you can prune roses. That's why it's good
<v Speaker 2>to prune roses because it helps to concentrate that energy
<v Speaker 2>into less of the plants, so they don't grow, you know,
<v Speaker 2>multiple inches on top of what's already very tall big
<v Speaker 2>leaf hydranges. You know, it's a plant that frustrates people.
<v Speaker 2>But they have an extremely fast growth rate, which I
<v Speaker 2>think also plays into that frustration because people are expecting them,
<v Speaker 2>thinking they can prove them, and then they're taking off
<v Speaker 2>the flower buds. Butterfly bush ano, they're extremely fast growing plant.
<v Speaker 2>Even if it dies back to the ground, you've got
<v Speaker 2>stems growing great within a matter of weeks. In the spring.
<v Speaker 2>Dar Villa our Codiacter villa are a very fast, easy
<v Speaker 2>growing kind of established quickly, easy to grow, and then
<v Speaker 2>finally arborvitis that are sold for hedging like spring Grove,
<v Speaker 2>North Pole and of Avliety called full Speed Hedge American
<v Speaker 2>Pillar fastest growing one out there can grow up to
<v Speaker 2>two feet a year with proper care. So make sure
<v Speaker 2>you checks out on YouTube to get that whole list
<v Speaker 2>so you can check it twice and decide if you
<v Speaker 2>want a fast or slow growing plant. We have to
<v Speaker 2>take a little break and when we come back, we're
<v Speaker 2>opening up the mail bag, so stay tuned at Proven
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<v Speaker 2>Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local
<v Speaker 2>garden center or learn more at proven Winner's Color Choice
<v Speaker 2>dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the
<v Speaker 2>Gardening Simplified Show, where it's our time to answer your
<v Speaker 2>gardening questions. And I think we have a show first.
<v Speaker 2>Today we have a question from right here inside the
<v Speaker 2>studio that came up while we were on break. Adriana
<v Speaker 2>was asking as I was finishing up about those slow
<v Speaker 2>and fast growing plants. She was asking, if if a
<v Speaker 2>plant is slow growing, is it easier to transplant, because
<v Speaker 2>of course the roots and the top are growing in
<v Speaker 2>conjunction with each other, so naturally the roots are likely
<v Speaker 2>to spread a lot less far on a plant that
<v Speaker 2>is slower growing and is not going to have as
<v Speaker 2>big of a root system. It's a really good, interesting,
<v Speaker 2>you know, idea, and I would say overall, of course,
<v Speaker 2>there's always exceptions that, yes, they are going to have
<v Speaker 2>a less extensive root system, which may make them easier
<v Speaker 2>to transplant. However, I would say that they're going to
<v Speaker 2>generally be more likely to be set back from having
<v Speaker 2>been transplanted. Although you know that said, and now that
<v Speaker 2>I'm thinking about it, I planted. I transplanted a ton
<v Speaker 2>of box with last spring, and they went off without
<v Speaker 2>a hitch.
<v Speaker 1>But I think there's a lot of validity to that
<v Speaker 1>because the plant that came to mind with Adriana's question
<v Speaker 1>for me was rhododendron, and I put rhododendron in the
<v Speaker 1>slow growing category, and a rhododendron's root system is small
<v Speaker 1>proportionately to the top. So if I do have to
<v Speaker 1>move a rhododendron, I cut it back pretty hard and
<v Speaker 1>it takes time for the road to deny to recover
<v Speaker 1>from that. But it's relatively easy to move because the
<v Speaker 1>root system's small.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and shallow rooted.
<v Speaker 1>And sure.
<v Speaker 2>Another interesting thing too is most of the slow growing
<v Speaker 2>plants that are on that list do tend to be
<v Speaker 2>shallow rooted, which you'd think they'd be deeper rooted, because
<v Speaker 2>I would. But anyway, plants are fascinating and endless mystery,
<v Speaker 2>so hard to generalize, but something worth considering that. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>typically if something is slow growing, it is going to
<v Speaker 2>need a lot more TLC and time time the theme
<v Speaker 2>of the day to recover from that transplanting for.
<v Speaker 1>The mail bag, Speaking of Adriana, she gave me a
<v Speaker 1>butternut squash from her garden. I can't wait to make
<v Speaker 1>some butternut squash soup in my crock pot this week.
<v Speaker 2>It's a nice curious she's a real chap. She knows
<v Speaker 2>her stuff all right. What's our first question for the
<v Speaker 2>mail bag today?
<v Speaker 1>Choi writes to us. Hello, Stacey and Rick, love your show.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you. Early the summer, I encountered bagworms on my
<v Speaker 1>evergreen arbor Vitie. Thank goodness. I caught her early, but
<v Speaker 1>they did some damage on the trees. I researched and
<v Speaker 1>found that BT works if the worms are still in
<v Speaker 1>the early stages. I used Captain Jack's BT from the
<v Speaker 1>pictures the first two arbor vidy you can see still
<v Speaker 1>see the bagworms. All the worms are dead now, I hope.
<v Speaker 1>My question to you is when should I start looking
<v Speaker 1>for the bagworms and start spraying right?
<v Speaker 2>Bagworms are you know, something that no one heard of
<v Speaker 2>hardly at all, you know, fifteen years ago, and now
<v Speaker 2>if you were growing arborvity, especially if you're growing a
<v Speaker 2>lot of arborvity, chances are you have at least some
<v Speaker 2>bag worms. And bagworms are a bit like what their
<v Speaker 2>name says. They're a little kind of caterpillar that as
<v Speaker 2>they feed, they could make this shell kind of for themselves,
<v Speaker 2>real architects out of little bits of twigs and leaves.
<v Speaker 2>Pretty fascinating, and then that protects them and they become
<v Speaker 2>basically invincible on the tree because they have this tree
<v Speaker 2>made shell on them. They're pretty interesting uh pests, But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>they can cause major major damage on arborviding So BT
<v Speaker 2>bacillistheringensis is a non toxic, non toxic except to caterpillars
<v Speaker 2>and grubs and other larvae. Spray that will actually prevent
<v Speaker 2>their development. And so usually if you're trying to control grubs,
<v Speaker 2>you have to inoculate it into your lawn. If you
<v Speaker 2>are controlling something like a bagworm, you can actually spray
<v Speaker 2>the BT onto the affected plant. I don't want to
<v Speaker 2>hit anything that is not a target pest, and that
<v Speaker 2>will actually prevent them from continuing to develop, so it
<v Speaker 2>is effective. You need to be treating from about and
<v Speaker 2>this is assuming the Midwest mid May to mid July.
<v Speaker 2>Once they get to about early to mid July, that
<v Speaker 2>shell that they make for themselves is so developed that
<v Speaker 2>your BT spray will not be able to actually contact
<v Speaker 2>the pest and it will be ineffective. So you really
<v Speaker 2>need to concentrate it in that time period, that two
<v Speaker 2>months period. But the thing about bagworms is right now
<v Speaker 2>they are about ready to settle down if they haven't already,
<v Speaker 2>and just wait out winter. So you can also go
<v Speaker 2>out and pick them all off of your plants. Of course,
<v Speaker 2>for some people who have a really bad infestation, this
<v Speaker 2>may be mission impossible. But for a lot of us,
<v Speaker 2>you know, just going out and picking a few every day,
<v Speaker 2>just put them in the garbage, don't compost them just
<v Speaker 2>you can step on them or just throw them out
<v Speaker 2>in your trash hand picking them. As long as you
<v Speaker 2>do so before early June next year, you will do
<v Speaker 2>substantial help towards eradicating your backrooms.
<v Speaker 1>Hen, thank you for the question. What a great question
<v Speaker 1>for a timing show. Yes, using BT and of course
<v Speaker 1>one of the things that makes BT grade has a
<v Speaker 1>very short residual when you use it, so.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I mean it is. Yeah, So make sure
<v Speaker 2>your particular BT product that you buy should have instructions
<v Speaker 2>on it. You can also reach out to your state's
<v Speaker 2>cooperative extent to find out what their exact timing is
<v Speaker 2>because it will vary based on your temperature. The information
<v Speaker 2>I just shared was from a great page on the
<v Speaker 2>Purdue University website. Your mileage may vary depending on where
<v Speaker 2>you are located.
<v Speaker 1>Stacy Jackie has a great question for you. I have
<v Speaker 1>a little quick fire hydrangea planted in a container. Is
<v Speaker 1>it best to overwinter it outside with protection next to
<v Speaker 1>my home or in my unheated grudge. I live in
<v Speaker 1>western Pennsylvania, Zone six A. I enjoy watching your show
<v Speaker 1>every week. I've learned so much.
<v Speaker 2>Awes nice things, Jackie. Yeah. So, there's so many people
<v Speaker 2>who write to us and think that they should bring
<v Speaker 2>their hardy plants indoors if they are in a container,
<v Speaker 2>And the answer to that is generally no, you should not.
<v Speaker 2>The plant will be stressed and so will you because
<v Speaker 2>you'll be looking at such a stressed out plant that
<v Speaker 2>you won't know what to do with yourself. So if
<v Speaker 2>a plant is hardy and could normally spend winter outdoors
<v Speaker 2>in your garden if it weren't in a container, then
<v Speaker 2>the answer is that it needs to spend winter getting
<v Speaker 2>fresh air, exposure to the changing light levels, and if
<v Speaker 2>you try to bring it in, even in an unheated garage,
<v Speaker 2>it's probably going to get fairly stressed out. Then you
<v Speaker 2>would also need to worry about watering it. Now you're
<v Speaker 2>not ever going to have to water it like you
<v Speaker 2>would in the middle of the summer, but you will
<v Speaker 2>need to check on its water. And I just find
<v Speaker 2>that generally speaking, the plants don't over winter as well,
<v Speaker 2>then if they're outside just getting exposed to fresh air. Now,
<v Speaker 2>a couple of things about this situation. You will need
<v Speaker 2>a container that can stay outside all winter long. So
<v Speaker 2>if you live in a cold climate, you can't really
<v Speaker 2>use terra cotta containers or most ceramic containers, even if
<v Speaker 2>they say their weather proof. I don't know. I just
<v Speaker 2>don't feel good about it. I'm not going to risk
<v Speaker 2>my investment. They're expensive, yeah, and the more expensive ones
<v Speaker 2>are the ones that claim their frost proof because they're
<v Speaker 2>generally higher temperatures, so there's less moisture in them to
<v Speaker 2>freeze and thought and cause the cracking. But overall, you're
<v Speaker 2>gonna want to have anything that you're overwintering outdoors in
<v Speaker 2>a metal, plastic, fiberglass, wood type of container. And you
<v Speaker 2>also want to I always tell people position it so
<v Speaker 2>it's not within the drip line of a roof or
<v Speaker 2>anything like that. And very often people will want to,
<v Speaker 2>you know, put it up near the structure or something
<v Speaker 2>to try to protect it. But very often what happens
<v Speaker 2>is that then the plant will be getting pelted with
<v Speaker 2>snow coming off a roof. It will get dripping water.
<v Speaker 2>You know, when we get those thaws out in late
<v Speaker 2>winter early spring, and then of course everything freezes and
<v Speaker 2>then your plant's all encased in ice. So you want
<v Speaker 2>to avoid keeping it in those kind of conditions if
<v Speaker 2>you can help it overall. You know, I think I
<v Speaker 2>was a rooftop gardener in New York City. I you know,
<v Speaker 2>overwintered plant in big metal containers on you know, floors
<v Speaker 2>as high as like the twenty seventh floor, and that's
<v Speaker 2>some pretty serious, you know, winter cold conditions. And that
<v Speaker 2>includes you know, evergreens like arborvidy junipers. We lost very
<v Speaker 2>very little over winter.
<v Speaker 1>And I think the key element here, Stacey, is that
<v Speaker 1>I believe you've got to allow plants to shut down
<v Speaker 1>naturally and give them the time to do that. For
<v Speaker 1>us as human beings, we know winter is coming. You
<v Speaker 1>walk into a retail store and there's Halloween stuff mixed
<v Speaker 1>in with all the Christmas stuff, and you're like, I'm
<v Speaker 1>not ready for this, And of course it starts to
<v Speaker 1>get cold and it gets dark curly, and we all
<v Speaker 1>have to acclimate. Well, it takes a plant a while
<v Speaker 1>to acclimate. You got to give those plants a chance
<v Speaker 1>to acclimate.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, definitely, And you know you can There are some
<v Speaker 2>plants that will do okay if overwintered in a cool,
<v Speaker 2>dry place, as long as you're checking on water. I've
<v Speaker 2>heard from countless home gardeners who have overwintered big leaf
<v Speaker 2>high ranges, you know, because those are plants that can
<v Speaker 2>get winter damage, and those are a plant that generally
<v Speaker 2>can handle that kind of condition. But you ideally want
<v Speaker 2>it to be light, so you don't want a windowless
<v Speaker 2>garage if you can help it, and you want some
<v Speaker 2>protection from the worst of the weather, but you also
<v Speaker 2>don't want it to be heated, because then the plant
<v Speaker 2>won't go dormant. So really, I think when I give
<v Speaker 2>the advice to try to keep something outdoors if at
<v Speaker 2>all possible, it's because relatively few of us have the
<v Speaker 2>correct indoor conditions for trying to overwinter shrubs and containers.
<v Speaker 2>We have great information on growing shrubs and containers on
<v Speaker 2>priven Winners color Choice dot com and we'll add that
<v Speaker 2>to the YouTube description. Right now, we got to take
<v Speaker 2>a little break and when we come back, we're going
<v Speaker 2>to be finishing up our conversation on timing, so please
<v Speaker 2>stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified podcasts
<v Speaker 2>brought to you by Proving Winner's Color Choice Shrubs. Our
<v Speaker 2>award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested
<v Speaker 2>by experts with your success in mind. Learn more at
<v Speaker 2>Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where this week
<v Speaker 1>we're talking about timing, Stacy, I was doing some reading
<v Speaker 1>from a university in Australia that was studying a gene
<v Speaker 1>response in plants where they feel if you touch a
<v Speaker 1>plant it slows its growth. Kind of interesting, huh really,
<v Speaker 1>So we'll share that on the website. And then of
<v Speaker 1>course as we talk about timing, also, you got to
<v Speaker 1>talk about the difference between hot composting and cold composting
<v Speaker 1>or passive composting, which can take quite some time to
<v Speaker 1>create a workable mulch or soil that you can use
<v Speaker 1>in your landscape, whereas hot composting maybe takes a little
<v Speaker 1>more work, but you can pretty rapidly produce compost for
<v Speaker 1>your garden. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I was really surprised time that I got hot composting right,
<v Speaker 2>how quickly it developed, you know, And the reason that
<v Speaker 2>I hadn't gotten it right previously was I was just
<v Speaker 2>not keeping it wet enough, andah, I was just kind
<v Speaker 2>of letting nature take its course and it was not
<v Speaker 2>enough moisture. But then once I started watering it, I
<v Speaker 2>was like, wow, I got composts already.
<v Speaker 1>This is right exactly, so Stacy, as far as timing
<v Speaker 1>is concerned, slow grow plants, or as I call them,
<v Speaker 1>plants that tap the brakes in many cases come from
<v Speaker 1>environments or regions where it can be pretty harsh. Again,
<v Speaker 1>you think about the desert and cactus succulents, you think
<v Speaker 1>about alpine plants. One plant that's a favorite of mine,
<v Speaker 1>and I almost consider it kind of like an alpine
<v Speaker 1>plant would be creeping Time, and time would be a
<v Speaker 1>great plant to talk about during anyhow. I love creeping Time.
<v Speaker 1>It's hearty and drought tolerant. Love it in my landscape.
<v Speaker 1>And it's one of those plants that grow slowly. You
<v Speaker 1>can put it in cracks, you can put it in halfways.
<v Speaker 1>And so Creeping Time is certainly one of the plants
<v Speaker 1>on the list. Another plant I'd put on the list,
<v Speaker 1>and you can argue it with me, but it would
<v Speaker 1>be peonies. P and ees are long lived, they can
<v Speaker 1>handle harsh conditions. They like to stay put. Yes, in spring,
<v Speaker 1>when they grow, they can grow rather rapidly and then
<v Speaker 1>they bloom beautifully. But it's one of those long term
<v Speaker 1>plants in the landscape.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, I would agree. It's you know, I think
<v Speaker 2>when a lot of people think about the concept of
<v Speaker 2>growth rate, they're thinking, you know, how fast does it elongate?
<v Speaker 2>But it's also kind of how fast does it form
<v Speaker 2>an appreciable plant or an appreciable clump in the case
<v Speaker 2>of pae andies, And well, yes, the physical plant of
<v Speaker 2>the peeny grows relatively quickly. If you start with a
<v Speaker 2>very small peeny, you will be waiting for several years
<v Speaker 2>until you have that kind of nice, big clump. And
<v Speaker 2>that's why you know, when you see those big, well
<v Speaker 2>established clumps at old gardens or old homesteads and that
<v Speaker 2>kind of thing, they've probably been there undisturbed for you know,
<v Speaker 2>thirty fifty years, and by that time they'll form a
<v Speaker 2>really large clump.
<v Speaker 1>Another plant for the list I have on my list
<v Speaker 1>is rhododendron. We mentioned that earlier, but again what's been
<v Speaker 1>real telling to me Stacy is with rhododendron, again this
<v Speaker 1>factor of slow grow or fast grow to a large
<v Speaker 1>extent is contingent on its environment. Because again, we live
<v Speaker 1>here along the lake shore of Lake Michigan in West Michigan,
<v Speaker 1>and the rhododendrons grow beautifully. Further inland where the winters
<v Speaker 1>can have less snow but be very cold, the rhododendrons
<v Speaker 1>don't grow as quickly a small root system proportionately to
<v Speaker 1>the top of the plant. So again stacy that slow
<v Speaker 1>grow or fast grow things sometimes is contingent on the
<v Speaker 1>environment a plant.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's such a good point and I did to
<v Speaker 2>mention that too when I was talking in plants on trial.
<v Speaker 2>You know, the temperature that a plant experiences throughout the
<v Speaker 2>year can make a huge difference. And that's one of
<v Speaker 2>the reasons why when you buy a proven Winter's color
<v Speaker 2>choice shrubs, there is very often a wide range of
<v Speaker 2>height and width on our plant tags. And we're not
<v Speaker 2>saying that so that we're noncommittal. We're not saying that
<v Speaker 2>to confuse you, but it's because in colder climates where
<v Speaker 2>you're going to have a shorter growing season, that plan
<v Speaker 2>is going to end up on the smaller side, whereas
<v Speaker 2>if you go into warmer climates where the growing season
<v Speaker 2>can be months longer than it is here, then your
<v Speaker 2>eye's obviously going to get bigger because it has a
<v Speaker 2>lot more time to grow every single year. So there's
<v Speaker 2>so many influence, like so many factors like that that
<v Speaker 2>influence a plant's growth rate that you know, again, we're
<v Speaker 2>not trying to be kg and not tell you, but
<v Speaker 2>really I think it goes to show you that there
<v Speaker 2>is an element of nature. But overall, the gardener determines
<v Speaker 2>how fast a plan is going to grow with their
<v Speaker 2>care inciting I.
<v Speaker 1>Agree, and from my perspective, it's a combination of plant
<v Speaker 1>genetics as well as environment. And let's use an example here,
<v Speaker 1>Della sperma native to eastern and southern Africa. It thrives
<v Speaker 1>in heat, is drought tolerant, virtually maintenance free when given
<v Speaker 1>the right growing condition.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I have had a very eye opening experience with
<v Speaker 2>dallasperma this year. It's been really really interesting. I've tried
<v Speaker 2>to get dlasperma established four years and I was always
<v Speaker 2>starting with really tiny plants and they would live, but
<v Speaker 2>they just wouldn't spread very well. And then I was
<v Speaker 2>pretty rough with them through the season, you know, not
<v Speaker 2>giving them supplemental water, you know, and all of that
<v Speaker 2>kind of stuff. But last year I planted the kaleidoscope
<v Speaker 2>delospermas from Perveoener's perennials, and I expected I had one
<v Speaker 2>gallon plant, so I never planted a one gallon dlosperma before,
<v Speaker 2>and I have been amazed and how fast they have grown,
<v Speaker 2>how beautifully they have filled in. And I was also
<v Speaker 2>watering them through last fall and the spring because I
<v Speaker 2>had a lot of other stuff in there that was
<v Speaker 2>new as well, And it has made a huge difference.
<v Speaker 2>And I've found so often that you know, I look
<v Speaker 2>for a situation where I don't have to provide supplemental water,
<v Speaker 2>but if you do not provide that TLC in those
<v Speaker 2>first couple of years to get the plan established to
<v Speaker 2>get that rude growth growing, you know that will make
<v Speaker 2>all the difference in the plant's long term health. And now, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I can cut all of that back and help the
<v Speaker 2>Dallas ferma to curtail that growth so it's not overtaking
<v Speaker 2>my paving stones, which it's so happy and vigorous now
<v Speaker 2>that it actually is. You know that by by keeping
<v Speaker 2>it dryer, that helps to keep it in check.
<v Speaker 1>That's a perfect example for today's show and for folks
<v Speaker 1>keeping score at home, if you're listening to the podcast
<v Speaker 1>or radio, And I said podcasts not what I came
<v Speaker 1>out of my mind. When we talk about Dello sperma.
<v Speaker 1>For people who are unfamiliar with the plant, the common
<v Speaker 1>name many people would refer to it as ice plant.
<v Speaker 1>Is that correct?
<v Speaker 2>That's right?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, all right, saxafrage or a rock foil. That's another
<v Speaker 1>really cool plant, and so you know, and it's one
<v Speaker 1>of those plants that people like to touch too, And
<v Speaker 1>of course people love touching plants, but saxafrage is another.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if you have any rock foil in
<v Speaker 1>your life.
<v Speaker 2>I do not have any in my garden. But I
<v Speaker 2>was fortunate enough when I was at the New York
<v Speaker 2>Potanical Garden School of Professional Horticulture in the New York
<v Speaker 2>Potanical Garden, working in a world class rock garden, and
<v Speaker 2>have a lot of experience growing those plants, both in
<v Speaker 2>the formal former rock garden. I don't think it's still
<v Speaker 2>there as well as in the propagation house. And yeah,
<v Speaker 2>those are some plants for patient people, Yes, that is
<v Speaker 2>for sure. You've got to be patient and well organized
<v Speaker 2>to be a rock garden. True Alpine rock gardener. But man,
<v Speaker 2>those are some cool plants.
<v Speaker 1>But these people, and to their credit, they are very passionate.
<v Speaker 2>Oh gosh, yah. Yeah, and the trade plants they have
<v Speaker 2>amazing networks of you know, helping people to get their
<v Speaker 2>plants in just really a fascinating, fascinating thing. You know,
<v Speaker 2>I might join the Rock Garden Society.
<v Speaker 1>There you go, another plant, and I know, I think
<v Speaker 1>this is a favorite of yours, Stacey, And I'm going
<v Speaker 1>to put it in the timing list because it just
<v Speaker 1>appears for a short time but is long lived. And
<v Speaker 1>that is iris reticulate.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Native to Turkey, northern Iraq, and Iran. That's one of
<v Speaker 1>those plants too that once you have it in your landscape,
<v Speaker 1>you fall in love with.
<v Speaker 2>It's so cute and you know, I love that it
<v Speaker 2>brings that blue and purple color at a time when
<v Speaker 2>everything else in your in your lawn seems to be yellow,
<v Speaker 2>you know, daffodils and everything else. And yeah, it's so
<v Speaker 2>happy for me here in West Michigan that you know,
<v Speaker 2>I get a little bag of it at this time
<v Speaker 2>of year once the bulbs start coming on sale. That
<v Speaker 2>was how it started. A single bag that I found
<v Speaker 2>on sale at Meer and now I have multiple clumps
<v Speaker 2>because it's spread so well, it's so happy here in
<v Speaker 2>our sandy soil, and with that lower moisture in the
<v Speaker 2>summer to prevent the bulbs from rotting. Yeah, the time
<v Speaker 2>has given me a very nice population of virus reticulous.
<v Speaker 1>That's fantastic. Some people would put seedums on the list,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm not talking about the upright seedoms, but lower
<v Speaker 1>growing creeping seedums. Some can be relatively small, at least
<v Speaker 1>when put into a rock garden setting. You had mentioned box.
<v Speaker 1>Would I agree with that. I want to run one
<v Speaker 1>by you here a minute. Tater tot erbervitie, because again,
<v Speaker 1>working in the garden center, people love this plant, and
<v Speaker 1>unlike the old globe erborvities, it tends to stay in
<v Speaker 1>check and be relatively slow grown.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I would say that it is slow growing. It's
<v Speaker 2>kind of hard to talk about arborvity as a monolith,
<v Speaker 2>because again there are those very fast growing varieties that
<v Speaker 2>have been developed for rapid hedging, and then there are
<v Speaker 2>these very dwarf ones. And I would say that tater
<v Speaker 2>tot is small, and that that is a good thing.
<v Speaker 2>It's small and it's slow growing. Anna's magic ball, which
<v Speaker 2>is round but golden and a little bit larger. I
<v Speaker 2>would say it's heading more towards a medium growth rate.
<v Speaker 2>And I would say overall, globe arborvitis tend to be
<v Speaker 2>on the slow to medium side. But again, as I
<v Speaker 2>was saying earlier about dwarf conifers, just because it starts
<v Speaker 2>out slow growing doesn't mean it won't eventually not be
<v Speaker 2>so dwarf. You know, Woodward Globe is a great example.
<v Speaker 2>A lot of people buy Woodward globe arborvity. There are
<v Speaker 2>some in my neighborhood that must have been there for
<v Speaker 2>thirty plus years, and those things are five feet by
<v Speaker 2>five feet and not so dwarf anymore. But it took
<v Speaker 2>them thirty plus years to get there.
<v Speaker 1>Sure. Here's an interesting statistic for you. Americans consume approximately
<v Speaker 1>seventy million pounds of tater tots a year.
<v Speaker 2>Oh wow, that's a side of tater tots.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, seventy million pounds.
<v Speaker 2>And we're actually talking about the food here, not the
<v Speaker 2>number of revitis that have been sold, although that would
<v Speaker 2>be amazing if that were true.
<v Speaker 1>Three billion, seven hundred and ten million individual tots per year.
<v Speaker 2>Wowazing, that'd be a lot of tater dots.
<v Speaker 1>So a few other slow plants snake plant inside the
<v Speaker 1>house or Sandsavaria agaves cactus. Of course bonesye, we'd have
<v Speaker 1>to mention boneseye lithops, which are living stones, always a
<v Speaker 1>fun plant to have indoors. Also Clivia flowering plant that
<v Speaker 1>can take a number of years to bloom. Slow growing,
<v Speaker 1>but once it blooms, it's like wow, it was worth
<v Speaker 1>the word.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, for sure.
<v Speaker 1>So Stacy timing is everything. Thanks so much, this was fun.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you, Thank you Adrianna, and thanks most of all
<v Speaker 1>to you. Make sure to tune us in on YouTube
<v Speaker 1>or radio or podcast however you want to get your
<v Speaker 1>version of the Gardening Simplified Show. Have a great week.