Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Plants (Plants You Want to Touch and Ones You Don’t)

Coming to you from Beautiful Studio A here at proven winners, color choice shrubs.
We're planting ideas in your head. It's the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy
Hervella, me, Rick Weiss, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
You're gonna give her a thank you. I was so thrown by planting ideas
in your head. I don't know if this is a good thing. It
sounds vaguely menacing, So I'm a little is this a good thing? I
you know, I think it's a good thing. And here we grow today.
You know, having been in the retail garden center greenhouse industry for years,
I was involved with studies that basically looked at people while they're shopping for
plants, and what did they do and what did they look at? And
it was interesting in these studies that for a lot of people, what they
wanted to do was touch the plants. Touch the plants. They call it
the endowment effect. When you take a hold of something, you take ownership
of it. But some plants are just so cute that you just want to
pet them. You want to touch them, and what are those touchable plants?
You know, in today's day and age two you think about, oh,
like things that you can buy virtually and physically. Let's take books for
example. You can buy an ebook or you could buy the actual book.
And I've never heard somebody say on a lousy weather day they wanted to curl
up in the corner with a good ebook or iPad. No, you want
to curry, you know, you want that physical touch of the book.
Now, some plants are just paying a plane touchable. Chanel plant is one
of the first plants that comes to mind for me. It's a great example.
Chanel is an interesting plant often used in hanging baskets, and it has
exotic flowers that look like straight hands of Chanel yarn. And you're gonna tell
us what chanel yarn is, right, Well, so chanil is not a
specific type of yarn. It's a technique where they take a yarn and they
secure it to the fabric and then they use a cutter to get that fluffiness.
So it's not a specific I mean, you can't actually buy a Chanel
yarn, but traditionally, like a chanel bread bedspread was made by securing that
yarn then using a special cutter to make it fray and get all fluffy like
that. But the great thing about chanil plant is it's bread. So you
know, most people think of shanil, they think of like a white bedspread
or whatever. The Chanel plant is bright red. I do love it.
Now I have to confess when it is wet, it is not at its
best. That's true, that's true. Now the French word for chanil is
a caterpillar. I believe, caterpillar. But yes, it's soft and it's
touchable. And Chanel plant is one of those plants where in the greenhouse or
the garden center, when it's hanging from the hanging basket, you watch,
you just stand there and watch people. They can't help themselves. They just
walk up and they have to touch those Chanel flowers. I thought I thought
they had named the plant after the captain and Chanil. You remember that Tanil.
That's right. In the mid seventies, they had a big hit called
Muskrat Love. Anyhow, I'm dating myself. Wait, Ariana doesn't know muskrat
Love. You're gonna have to listen to that after the show. Make it
a plant, all right? Well, scientists already know that plants are highly
sensitive to touch. Of any kind, and they even have a word for
this phenomenon. And boy, this is going to be a tough one to
handle. It's thig mo morphogenesis. There we go. It doesn't flow off
my tongue, but it's a word, and it's about how plants respond to
touch. And in the wild, of course, it can happen via wind,
rain drops, rubbing, bypassing animals, or other plant growth. Now,
Stacy, we can't even begin to touch on all of the examples of
plants that you want to touch, But some of the first ones that come
to mind for me are moss. There's a lot of people who love moss.
Steakyas which is lamb's ear is a very touchable plant sent to geraniums,
maidenhair, fern or asparagus fern, ornamental grass inflorescence. There are a lot
of plants that in the landscape you just wanted time right, and I think,
you know, some of them are just like, I really want to
see how that feels. But some of them are also like, wait is
that real? I kind of got to touch it and see if it's real.
Sometimes if something's really shiny, you know, you're not really sure,
or you know, the houseplant, moon valley pilea. Yes, that's one
that I remember being like that doesn't even look like it's real, and you
kind of got African violets. Another one I know my mom used to work
with someone. She had African violets on her desk, and this woman would
come and talk to her and she would stick her fingernails into the African But
my mom had to bring the African violence off so they stood a chance.
See that's what I mean. You just can't help it. I mean,
you take a common example, your lawn. People love to walk barefoot on
the lawn. That is, if you have a northern Kentucky bluegrass. Probably
not in the South with the bermuda, no one wants to, right,
I can share you. Pig squeak berg. Yeah, another that's one that
people want to touch to see if it's real, because it's so glossy,
so thick and leathery that they're kind of like, wait, is that a
fake plant or is that a real plant? And it squeals like a pig
as you rubbed the leaves, so it's a it's a fabulous plant. Of
course. Herbs in general, succulents in general, I love plectranthus, the
servessa and lime is so pretty. I saw a description the other day that
said, with the plectranthus that all the foliage, that interesting foliage stacks and
layers like a farra fawcet hair do I could see that, and it's not
quite so flowy, but it has a decumbent growth so that it's alternating and
like layers in a so you face, it's so much better than I do.
But you're right, Stacy. And of course fair of faucet again,
dating myself from the mid nineteen seventies, everybody had a poster of Faarra faucet,
and I think it is the number one selling poster ever in the history
of selling posters. So that's an amazing thing. Celosia, plumes, alien
blooms, Hydrangea panicles, arber vite, douglas fur. At Christmas time,
I can't help but stick my face right in the tree. It smells so
good and soft. It's so great. Now there's a lot of them that
we don't want to touch. And there's the obvious examples like hogweed or poison
ivy or poison oak. But for me, what makes the hair stand up
on the back of my neck. Hyacinth bulbs, Oh, just the bulbs,
are the flowers the bulbs? Really? Oh my word. Now there
are a lot of people who have this. Again, having worked in the
garden center industry my whole life, you will get this itchy, irritating contact
dermatitis from handling hyacinth. Actually that it happen to me. I thought you
were just about you had a visceral reaction to thinking about them. But no,
you're right, they do. I have had that happen and it is
very, very irritating. Oh it is miserable. And then of course prickly
pear, cactus, sumac, all of those types of plants. But there's
one that drives me crazy, and that's stinging nettle. Oh my gosh,
the worst. Oh, the feeling that you get it. Stinging nettles are
covered with countless tiny hollow hairs, and when something brushes against their hairs,
they're fragile. The tips break off and the remainder of the hair then acts
like a needle and it pierces the skin and it releases this histamine cocktail of
venom that I got goose bumps. Right, I can't blame you, you
know, I also, Yeah, terrible situation. I feel like I have
a very strong reaction to them, and if I get them on my finger,
my finger will feel numb for twenty four hours. So it's not just
that immediate like ouch. And you know, when I was a young pup
learning to garden and landscape and I was working landscaping, no one I'd ever
told me about stinging nettles. So I'm out there weeding these gardens and then
it's just like what in the world just happens? And you know, you
you do find eventually your way to identify them and look out for them.
You know where they are growing, and you can actually pluck them if you
get right at the base there. But you just don't want to grab them,
you know, because it's all over the underside of the leaf. It's
those those little hairs are everywhere. But you know what I have had,
I've had a stinging nettle beer, a stinging nettle beer, yes in uh
win Oh, and it was very good. Yeah, so there's a there's
a plus side, I guess to all of these, so that you were
all right after that. Yeah, No, it tasted very kind of green,
but you know, I had to try it because I feel like singing
nettles an enemy, and you know, I wanted to see how it went
well. Stinging nettle now, of course no relation to dead nettles which are
used in our landscapes or lamium. Of course that plant can get quite invasive,
but used in hanging baskets or in tough areas like underneath shrubbery, so
dead nettles are also used in that way. If you had to pick a
number one plant that you like to touch, stacy off the top of you
because I know for me it's lamb's ear, it's the steakkys. I just
love that. You know, this is a tough one. But I remember
when I was in horticulture school. I would just horticulture school with the New
York Botanical Garden, so huge collection of New World tropicals, and the curator
of the conservatory showed me the specific ginger and she said, whenever I'm stressed,
I come over here and I feel the underside of this ginger. On
top it looked like just like a normal ginger, but on the underside it
was just like flannel silk. It was like thick and silky. And I've
never forgotten that I don't recall which species it was I could find out,
but that was definitely a very memorable plant touching moment for me. That's a
great story. So there you have it, touching plants, And in future
shows we'll talk about the sensory aspects of plants. There are many and part
of the reason we enjoy them so in our landscapes. Coming up next,
plants on trial here on the Gardening Simplified Show, proven winners, Colored Choice
Shrubs. Cares about your success in the garden. That's why we trial and
test all of our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they outperform
everything else on the market. Look for them in the distinctive white container at
your local garden center. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening
Simplified at show. We're going to put a plant on trial. Of course
it is a touchable plant, but I did want to conclude our discussion of
things that you touch in the garden center. Do you know about the Internet's
joke of slapping bales of potting soil? So you know, tell me how
the Internet gets a bunch of people together and people start to like share experiences
and then they're like, whoa, I never knew you wanted to do that.
So there's a number of Facebook groups where it's kind of like a running
joke that when you're in the garden center or you know, box store,
that you walk by those stacked up flat bales of potting mix and you just
got to slap them. Wow sounds almost dirty. No, it's just like,
you know, they're so like they're just there, and it's it's a
meme. It is. Slapping potting mix is a meme. So I could
see that. Yeah, I could see that. You know, I've stacked
a lot of bags in my life. And then when you when you set
them on the palette and the last one, yeah, you give it up,
you give it a smack. See here you've done. You're right,
never crushed my mind. I love it. Thank you, Thank you for
sure. Well, I'm glad I've been good company, says It's a little
worried at the beginning of that conversation, but onto plants on trial, and
you know, I was. I was looking at our selection of proven Winner's
Color Choice shrubs. We have around three hundred and twenty five of them,
and there really isn't anything that's like super soft. When we're talking about like
Staki's lambs ears, things that are very very soft. You know, Potentilla
can be quite silky and have some some hairs. But I realize that my
like touching compulsion when it comes to plants, especially around here at the nursery.
Is a full bloom mopet Hydrangea. You know, when you get that
big rounded bloom, you just kind of got to like bounce your hand on
it, and it's kind of a seeing if it's real situation, but also
you just like have to like experience it in that way. But we've done
a big leaf Macrophilla hydranga recently, so I am bringing up another plant,
another hydrangea with a touchable bloom, and that is little lime punch Hydrangea.
That plant is so beautiful because when we did our summer tour through the proven
Winter's Garden, that plant really stood out to me. Yeah, it's it's
very distinctive. So it's a panical hydrangea. And you might your ears might
have perked up at the idea of little limes, So a lot of people
know little lime. It was the dwarf lime light that we introduced a couple
of years ago. And Little Lime Punch is similar, but it does obviously
have some differences. So it's it's similarly small, three to five feet tall
and wide, and the flowers start out white and then turn green, and
then they age to this milange or this mixture of reds and pinks and white,
and it's really just extraordinary. But where the touchability comes in is that
the inflorescences or flowers of Little Lime Punch Hydrangea are so densely packed. The
florets that make up that inflorescence are extremely densely packed within that bloom, and
so it kind of has that same like. You just have to really touch
it, and when you do, you will not believe how solid it is.
It really is very very packed. And you can even see that,
you know, when you when you see the plant, you can tell that
it's blooms, aren't They don't have as much space in them. It's really
really dense. It also has very very sturdy stems. So between this dense
bloom and these very sturdy stems, you know, you can kind of give
that a little whack and see what happens, and see what happens. You
add me at milange, did you say malang I said, malange, yea
milange. That's it's like a mixture. Okay, it's beautiful. It is
a milange of colors. And that is one of the reasons that we selected
it is, you know, it's important to all to us at Provenmenters color
choice shrubs. When we select panicle hydranges, then we are selecting for strong
stems because older varieties don't necessarily have that and this color development of the flowers.
And I think it's safe to say that Little Lime Punch is really one
of the most extraordinary varieties for that fall color development because it does go through
so many changes, a lot of them, like Quickfire, one of my
favorites, will go from basically white to red. You know, some will
go ahead and go pink to a little bit burgundy. Where is Little Lime
Punch. It just has a bunch of different colors on it all at once,
and it's really quite extraordinary. And the pictures really speak for themselves.
And of course if you want to see the pictures, you can go to
Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com and see that and learn more and link out to
more information about Little Lime Punch. But you know, this plant is still
relatively new. I think this was really its first year in garden center,
so people are just starting to get to know this plant and learn a little
bit more about it. But when they see that picture, it really does
sell itself. And I wanted to talk about it today because you know,
in the same way that it has these unique characteristics of having this very dense
bloom, nice compacts, eyes, really amazing color. Those qualities do combine
to make a little bit different to grow than most panical hydranges. Now it's
certainly not more difficult. It's very easy to grow. It's hardy from USDA
Zone three to USDA Zone eight, so just like all of the other panical
hydrangeas, but there is something about it its composition and the way it grows
to have that density. It is more slowly growing than a lot of other
panical hydrangeas. And you know, it's easy, I think for people to
say, Okay, well I've grown a panical hydrangea before I know what to
expect, and not really consider that there are varying genetics between all of these
different varieties, and so there are some slightly different things to understand and know
what to expect. As you're growing something like little line punch, So it
is slower growing and slower to get established. And I think that's really crucial
because what we have seen and I've certainly witnessed here, you know, observing
the plan over the last five years or so in our trial gardens, it
takes a little bit longer flower. Most pinnical hydrangees will flower in their first
year. A little lime punch might not. It might if you get it,
you know, established, and get that good root system developed so it
can put the energy into growing. And another thing that I have certainly observed
here is that it won't develop its best color until it's similarly established. And
that might sound strange at first, but really when you think about it,
you know, a plant those colorful pigments that you know, we love from
a plant perspective, that's kind of a luxury item. If it has the
energy to produce those pigments, it will, But if it doesn't, it's
not going to and it's going to take to to be able to develop those
resources a good fully developed root system. So until you have that, you're
not going to be seeing optimal performance. So you know, we're definitely hearing
from people who are like, hey, I bought a little lime punch.
It's done great, but it's not doing this yet, and so I have
definitely seen it firsthand. This is a sleep creep leap plant, which is
something we've talked about before. First year sleep, second year creep. You're
going to see some growth, and then in that third year and beyond,
you know, assuming of course that it's in the right conditions, that's when
you're really going to see it start to shine and do its thing. And
I think, you know, that can be a little bit frustrating for people,
but I think that's also sort of the reward of gardening, is sticking
with something, watching it mature, and going on that journey, you know
with that plant. Yeah, maintaining your composture, you know, hanging in
there with it, you know, with this plant, Stacy, it's that
multicolor effect that I just loved. It just really caught my eye. When
we were in the trial garden, I mentioned to you that it made me
think of shaved ice or those snow cones you get at festivals or at carnivals.
And by the way, I was going to mention to you that that
whole shaved ice thing, as I understand. It started in Japan and they
would use natural ice with cooked red beans or mung beans with sugar and milk.
But in Puerto Rico they have something they call a pyroqua, which is
pyramid plus water. So they have these pointy types of snow cones which look
very much like a panicled hydrange. So it must be that's why it made
me feel that. But I love that and that's how my brain works.
But I love that multicolor effect. I just love and that is something that's
very different about Little Lime Punch. And one of the reason for that,
the reason it is able to have these blooms at different stage on the plant
at once, is because once it has that energy built up and can put
it in there, it does keep putting out those new flowers. So since
it's not setting all of its flower buds and blooming at once, you get
some that flowered earlier and are going to be taking on color earlier, and
some that are really just starting to come out now. And that's how you
get that amazing multicolor effects. Yeah. So with the snow cones, they
use colored syrup, but with this hydrange is because the flowers are emerging at
differ different stages just naturally. It's just one of the many unique qualities of
this plan. And I think, you know again, people sort of create
these expectations. They have grown Limelight. I know what to expect from this,
and it's it's always interesting that plants, even when we think we're really
familiar with them, can actually keep us guessing. I like that actually too.
I don't find that frustrating. But there's a lot more to say about
Little Lime Punch. Overall, its care is going to be just like any
other panical hydrangea. You know. Here you can take full sun and cool
climates, part sun in warmer areas to shade well drained soil. Mulch is
always a good idea. All of the instructions for growing this will be on
our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com, along with all those fabulous
pictures of this wonderful hydrange u from proven There's color choice shrubs that you can
get at your garden center right this very minute. And while you're there,
who knows what else you will find that you want to touch. We're going
to take a little break. When we come back. We've got the garden
mail bag to open up, so please stay tanned. At proven winner's color
choice, We've got a shrub for every taste and every space. Whether you're
looking for an easy care rose, 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.
Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
You know, we do try to simplify gardening, even though we get a
little goofy with it and throw in big words like thigmomorphogenesis, which does not
seem simple, but it's about the simple joy of touching plants. And one
of the things we do to try to simplify gardening for you is to answer
your gardening questions. And you know, it's been interesting because when we started
the show about a year ago, we didn't it was fall, people didn't
really have a lot of questions, and so now we have a lot of
questions and they are important to us. Some of them are easier to answer
on air than others, so I just want to encourage you. If we
don't get to your question, you can visit the Proven Winners website, Proven
Winners dot Com and click feedback and ask us questions there. We don't want
anybody waiting, you know, with on important gardening decisions. So if we
don't get to your question, it's not that we don't think it's important.
It's just that we have limited time. And you know that's a shame because
I do love helping people garden. And but if you have a question and
you want to ask us, you can send that to help HLP at Gardening
Simplified on Air dot com, or just visit our website and there's a contact
form there. You can even include a photo if you want, which photos
are always helpful. I don't know how people helped others garden before additional rytographies.
So so what do we got in the mailbag this week? Rick?
All Right? Kate's writing to us this week? Hey, Rick and Stacy,
I love your show. I also love hydranges, and I'm curious to
learn more about them. Which Proven Winner hydranges bloom earliest in the season.
My Firelight Tidbits started flowering in late June, but I've seen the hydranges in
my St. Louis metropolitan area blooming as early as May. Is there a
document with bloom time information somewhere And the answer to that is yes, there
is a document and the way that we have that and I will of course
post that in the show notes at Gardening Simplified on air dot Com. But
the exact week that Hydrangea will bloom is going to vary depending on your climate.
So the way that that chart is organized is that we have basically early
seasons, so the one that you can expect to flower earliest, which of
course is the Quickfire series, all the way to the ones that you can
expect to flower latest, which is more like Pinky Winky, Those tent to
flower later in the season. So the exact week that that's going to happen
is going to be different in Saint Louis than here in West Michigan, and
the same is true for wherever you're growing it. So we can't tell you
a precise month because it will depend on the heat, but we will show
you that now. Again, the earliest blooming panical Hydrangea is definitely quick Fire,
yes, and that was where the name came from because it's quick to
bloom and one of my remains one of my absolute favorites. But to address
what you said about hydranges blooming in May, I have to confess, Kate,
I don't think you're actually seeing hydranges. I think that you were almost
certainly seeing viburnum there. Even you know, you would have to be in
a very warm climate, indeed warmer than Saint Louis to have actual hydranges blooming
in May. But there are a number of viburnums like double filed by Burnham,
snowballed by Burnam. What are some of the other names here? So
you've got the placatum, the carl cephyllum of Viburnham's, there are a number
of viburnums. And working in the garden center at Greenhouse, Stacy, I
get that call during the month of May into June a lot people will call
and say do you have any snowball bushes? And you always question, well,
what are we talking about? You know, are we talking about the
smooth arborescens, hydranges or viburnum's. So when you use a generalization like that,
it can be kind of confusing, right, And you know, the
snowball of viburnums or that, or double file of viburnums, they do look
so much like hydrange as they In fact, they can even be moppet or
lace gaps just like a hydrangea. They have opposite foliage, so the leaves
are position opposite one another on the stem, so they are one could not
be blamed for thinking that a viburnum is a hydrangea. Now, one brief
exception to that is our new fairy trail bride hydrangea because those are very very
early blooming. Those those are those are probably bloom in May, but they
have bigger glossier foliage, leathery foliage that you are going to want to touch.
And then so that kind of gives you some sense max or big leaf
hydrangees in your climate are probably going to bloom more like early July. And
I have found that typically arborescence or the smooth hydrangea of things like incredible usually
are also in bloom by the end of June. So you can really if
you know, I'll put those comparison charts on our website. But with careful
planning and some careful plant selection, you really could have hydrangels in bloom,
you know, essentially from like roughly mid June all the way up to the
first frost. You just have to pick the right ones and mix them in
the right way and then you get that like amazing display. Fantastic. Yeah,
when I was on Cape Cod this summer, the smooth arborescence snowball flowers
were in bloom early July, so I would guess, yes, Saint Louis
probably pretty similar. Yeah, you know, we've had them here bloom as
early as like that last week of July, sometimes going even into the first
or second week of July. It really just depends on how warm your spring
is. Sure, all right? Well, by the way, I got
some questions too from some of our listeners and viewers who asked me where I
got my mister Rogers sweater. Do you remember? I know you've said you've
had it for a long time. Oh, I've had it like thirty or
forty years, but I remember, well, it was my personal tailor that
got me that sweater JC. Yeah, so that's where I got it.
I don't know if you can get them anymore, and I'm not sharing money,
and I'm not sure that jac Pina is still around. I think they
are. I think the Nikki writes to us, I've gotten lucky enough to
make it this far into the season without the rabbits bothering my impatience. But
now they've discovered them and they are munching away. I read that hot pepper
spray can be sprayed on plants to repel rabbits and other munchers like deer.
Curious if you guys have any experience or luck with hot pepper spray. So
I'm gonna what do you think. I think, yes, I have used
it. I've had experience with it in the garden center. When it comes
to rabbits, you've got to think like a rabbit. Rabbits are timid,
so you want to make you want to create an environment that kind of scares
them. Rabbits think of two things. They're scared and they want to multiply.
So whatever you can do and pep pepper sprays the capsasan in those pepper
sprays, Yeah, is irritating to them. So and generally the rabbits go
after tender foliage. Once that foliage is hardened off, they tend to go
find something else. But when those plants are first coming up, yeah,
yeah, and patients especially now, Ricky, you reminded me of something that
we should mention. This hot pepper spray is not like the hot pepper spray
you carry in your purse to ward off offenders. You don't want to use
that, especially formulated for the garden center industry and for this purpose. But
I always say pepper late then sorry, or something like, Yeah, it
is a good effective repellent. And I would have to say that not all
deer repellents are necessarily going to be effective on rabbits, and they're also very
often much more expensive than something that will work for rabbits. So if you
don't need to worry about deer, hot pepper spray is a good idea.
There are probably recipes online to make it home. Whether or not they work,
I couldn't say, because which you're really I wouldn't mess with it either,
because what you're really gonna want is those juvens or things that they add
to make it stick, you know, so it doesn't just run off.
Yeah, and in your right rick when things hard enough, they're less appealing
to rabbits. But I don't know if that ever really happens with impatients.
So that's true. These commercially bought pepper sprays generally have some kind of waxing,
right, is what they and sometimes they even say hot pepper wax yeah
on them on the package, so they're there. But yeah, they're effective.
They should be inexpensive. You just have to keep up on them because
every time the plant starts to grow, that new growth comes out and once
again could be appealing to rabbits. I'm not going to do any more rabbit
puns. They're just not bunny anymore. We'll take a pause. Uh,
you know, I want to quickly mention before we moved to the next question.
A smooze s m E U s E. That's that small little area
under a hedge where the rabbit runs and the dog chases it. And you
got to look for those smooze areas in your lance that they're using as an
habitual trail. Try to close that off too, That could help. Yeah,
So all right, Kelly's wondering, I like to make sure my boxwoods
are tightly pruned throughout the year. Want to make sure I'm not doing it
so that they can get winterburn or sunburn. Can you let me know the
guidelines of what's best. Thanks so much. I really love all the information
from your show, So you know, Kelly, I'm really glad that you
ask this because I think that the answer to this lies in something that doesn't
really get mentioned enough, and that is that after you do trimming of something
like a boxwood and it's especially if you've done it and it's quite tight,
you gotta water. You know. If the reason that you start to see
that browning after trimming is usually because all those wounds are giving off so much
water vapor, So you know, you think about the plant was just kind
of a closed system. You make all these cuts, you make cuts to
leaves, and you've just opened up a ton of surface area for the plant
to lose water from, and the plant can withstand that, but particularly like
in spring and summer when it's starting to get warm, it can be very
sunny, and if you don't have the plans on irrigation, they can really
start to show that browning. So I think the first answer, Kelly is
definitely to make sure that after you've done a trimming that you're watching them from
moisture over the following weeks as they recover from that wounding, and definitely do
not go too far into fall late summer fall, because you know, first
of all, you don't want to push any new growth and when you trim
something that tends to push new growth, that new growth is just going to
get damaged by cold. So I would say in terms of the end of
the season, the end of the growing season, you're really going to want
to have your last trimming. Don probably like late July, early August.
I think in a cold climate, harden off and like you said, Stacy,
some mulchion water at the base going into winter. All right, there
you have it. Thank you so much. All for your questions. You
can get all of our answers recapped at Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
We're gonna come back with branching news in just a moment. The Gardening Simplified
Show is brought to you by proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning
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distinctive white container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified
Show. It's time for branching news. Not breaking news, but we don't
make this stuff up. Stacy. I've been following closely you know that.
I went to the Netherlands this past spring to look at the tulips, all
the plants flowering, and boy, if there's anyone that can handle water,
it's the Dutch. Well I should know too, my parents are both from
the Netherlands, but they've had a wetter the normal spring and then summer has
been the same. The month of July it rained nearly every day less,
oh my goodness, in the Netherlands. Now, the point here is that
it does affect the bulb suppliers. Of course, many people get their bulbs
that they're going to be planting at this time of the year from the Netherlands.
You'll have bulbs, but it sure does make it tougher. There may
be some shortages, maybe some of the bulbs won't be as big as they
normally would because our friends over there have just been fighting the weather this year.
So it's it's kind of kind of interesting to think. It is interesting,
and I think a lot of people might be surprised that rain would have
a negative impact on bulbs because they think, oh, well, hey,
a bunch of more water, that means everything's going to be growing gangbusters.
But it's not the case. At all. In fact, the areas where
most of these flower bulbs are native, it's sort of in the like central
Europe were like the medical cases. Yeah, and they have very very hot,
dry summers, and so these bulbs I thrive most ideally in scenarios where
they're bone dry in the summer. And this is why, like if you
plant tulip bulbs in your perennial gardens, a lot of times they don't pun
because they rot because you're watering your perennial garden all the time. Whereas if
you have some you know, off somewhere and they don't get any care,
they can tend to perennialize. So summer moisture is like the biggest enemy of
a bulb that I can think of, after perhaps a squirrel. Yeah,
you're right. And you know, we talk on the show a lot about
areas that are affected by drought. Here we have one that's the exact opposite.
So in the summertime, when you're vacationing in July having rain every day,
Wow, that's amazing to think of. All right, two and three
Americans, sixty seven percent said they could live on sandwiches alone for a full
week. According to new research goes to prove you it's never past your bread
time to have a sandwich. What makes the perfect sandwich? The perfect sandwich
according to a survey of two thousand Americans, and we're gonna put this study
at Gardening Simplified on air dot com. You can check it out yourself,
consists of tomato, cheddar cheese, and black forest ham. That is the
most popular sandwich that people can eat. No boloni here, all right.
And the top five fruits and vegetables people would prefer in a perfect sandwich.
Number one is tomato and onion, followed by cucumber, lettuce, and pickles.
Now that's interesting to me because I would have had pickles at the top
of the list, not necessarily cucumbers. I can see tomato and onion,
but those are the big five Tomato, onion, cucumber, lettuce, and
pickles. What lettuce I can see, you know, tomatoes kind of surprising,
because yes, sandwich with tomato is excellent if it's tomatoes good. But
you know, the span of thyme where we have sandwich worthy tomatoes in the
US is is relatively small. And what's the good of a crummy flavorless yucky
tomato. Not that's you know, but I guess people are just assuming an
ideal world. Assuming all ingredients are at their top quality, then I could
see it. I love it. Well, let us move on. Scientists
turns plants into photos by making prints directly onto leaves. Now we're gonna have
to ask Adriana about this and you if you've ever seen this, But we're
going to put the story on the website. But it's a story that's developing,
so to speak. A popular way to make chlorophyll prints chlorophyll prints is
to expose an existing image onto a leaf, treating the leaf itself like photographic
paper. Once the leaf has been exposed, it must be developed. The
two step process begins with an eight minute boiling alcohol bath to remove the chlorophyll
from the leaf, and then finally an iodine bath exposes the starch granules hidden
beneath the leaf's surface. So these granules are organized according to whatever a person
used to control how sunlight fell on the leaf. My head spinning, but
goodness, it's amazing to me. It was pretty interesting. I did look
at it. Now the leaf was green, so I'm not really sure how
that works. If they if they stripped out all. I didn't. I
didn't look at the whole video, so it was interesting. I'm gonna how
long they last because that seems like a lot of work for something that's not
gonna last very long. So I think we're gonna let Adriana look at that
and then we're going to get an opinion from her on this, because if
you know, if anybody could do a great job of it, it would
be Adriana. And I'm just fascinated by this. So it looks a little
too complicated for me. But anyhow, so we'll share that with you so
you have that information. How about a natural balance? Even before the havoc
of the storms this past spring in California, San Francisco already had one of
the sparsest tree canopies of any major US city, and it's shrinking. Trees
have not been planted to keep up with the rate of removal. Now,
this was interesting. The Department of Public Works assumes an annual four percent street
tree mortality rate. I would have actually thought it might be higher. Yeah,
it kind of surprises me. Four percent. But the spring storms,
you know, they had those atmospheric rivers they called them, created all kinds
of problems, and now there's all kinds of tension because people are suing because
a tree fell on their car or they were injured or whatever it may be.
And so they say, it's no it's a no brainer that in the
right away with those trees, the city is liable and they already have the
sparsest population of trees in the country. So fascinating story to watch develop.
Yeah, that's really a shame because you could grow some really cool trees in
San Francisco. Yeah, you know, but you know, I guess the
four percent mortality rate does make sense after I thought about it a little more.
They don't have a cold winter, so they don't have to worry about
like a lot of cold damage, damage from snowplows and you know all the
snowplow wake and everything. So that's not surprising. But have you ever been
to the Striving Arboretum in San Francisco. Oh, my gosh, one of
the most extraordinary places you'll ever see. The plants there, Oh, they're
just it's heavenly. It's just gorgeous, and it's right there in the middle
of the city. And what did you call the Stribing Arboretum? The striving.
Yeah, it's in Golden Gate Park. Okay, all right, I
gotta check that out. I have not been there. Instead of leaving your
heart in San Francisco, you may be leafing your heart in San fran Clisco.
Yeah, I probably will. I worked on that one for them,
all right. Romulus, Michigan, right here in Michigan. Police in one
Michigan town had anything but an ordinary day when a woman called them to report
she discovered an alligator on the back porch of her Romulus home. She called
the police station and calmly told the sergeant I have a crocodile on my back
patiole. There was laughter in the background. The police officer said, can
you send me a picture? So she snapped a picture and sent it.
The police officer said, well, I'll be and sure enough there was an
alligator on her back porch. So something you see in Florida but not necessarily
here in Michigan often. So is this one of those you know, urban
legends of the people flushing the little baby crowd alligators down the toilet, and
they lived in the sewer and they got huge. Oh and they live a
long time. Alligators live for a long long time. And actually dinosaurs.
That's why there's a high chance you'll see one later. Oh yeah, alligate
kind of feeling that was coming. All right, we'll share that story with
you two. And then finally, with the start of the football season,
upon us this story. A Las Vegas home is for sale. Fifty years
and nearly two thousand collegiate football helmets later, the priceless collection has outgrown the
six thousand square foot a bowl. So the house is full of college football
helmets, and if you want to buy it, you get the helmets.
Oh wonderful. I guess well that's my point exactly. I'm not so sure
that you know you've very much limited your market in selling your home. Now.
Of course, realtors say, plan to take your furniture. Aren't hanging
on the walls, throw a small throw rugs, you're hanging plants, your
beds, your curtains, et cetera. Exterior items like patio umbrella should be
taken with you, but don't take stuff that's attached or planted in the ground
or whatever. You're going to have to negotiate those things and you can't pull
them out of the ground. So if you're into football and you want a
football helmet. We're going to post that story at Gardening Simplified on air dot
com and maybe you can bid for the house. All right, I'll be
curious to see the landscaping. Let me put it that way too, Stacy,
always a privilege and pleasure to do this show with you and Adriana Robinson.
Can't thank you enough for all you do for the Gardening Simplified Show,
And thanks to you who watch on YouTube, listen to our podcast, listen
to us on radio. Thank you, very mulch. Have yourself a great week