South vs. North Gardening, Managing Fire Ants, and Garden Photography With Adriana

Hello, my friends across the fruited and rooted plane. It's time for the
Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella me Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna
Robinson. Well, Stacy. Today we're going to talk about north versus South,
or South versus North, a little bit of southern gardening talk. I
was chatting with a friend of mine, Teresa Watkins. She's with NewsRadio WFLA
in Orlando, Florida, has a gardening show she does. She's an author,
she's a garden designer, and we were just chatting about the differences between
southern and northern gardening. And of course we've had viewers and listeners who have
asked us to touch on the subject, a lot of them. Yes,
as the show's gotten some traction, We've heard from listeners all over the US
and all over the world. So we have a lot of fans in hot
climates who are a little bit like, hey, what about me? Well,
and you know, when you think about gardening down south, or landscapes
down I mean, one of the first things I think about when I've been
in, for example, Florida, is the difference as far as turf is
concerned. So there you are looking at things like Zoisia grass, Bermuda grass,
Saint Augustine grass, and appear. In the North, we have those
wonderful, cool, seasoned blends of Kentucky blue and perennial rye and fescues that
you know, you just want to take your shoes off and walk barefoot in
the grass. Not so much down so well, aside from the texture of
their turf, you've also got you know, scorpions and fire ass and snakes
and a lot of things that maybe aren't so pleasant to walk on barefoots.
But here's a pleasant thought. In the South, and Teresa and I talked
about this, you can garden year round, and we have snow that covers
our lawns and is the great equalizer. Everybody's yards look the same in the
winter time. And you know what, it really makes the maintenance industry a
big industry in the South. Also again, if you're gardening year around here.
As far as the maintenance industry is concerned, well, we hang some
Christmas lights and we plow snow, but it's a big deal down there,
it is. And you know, I think that that really gets to the
whole North versus South, or south versus north, is that I think we
look at each other and think, Wow, it'd be so cool to garden
in that climate, but that ultimately it's kind of like the grass is always
greener on the other side, you know, literally and metaphorically. I mean,
I can't even tell you how many times helping home gardeners, I've heard
from them in Texas, in southern California and Florida saying, please tell me
there's a lilac that I can grow here, and I usually the answers no.
I mean, there are some heat tolerant lilacs, which we have talked
about a bit. But I'm also just like, eat a minute, Why
would you want to grow a lilac when you can grow citrus and jasmine and
crotons, ova and all of this really cool stuff that you know, everybody
always wants what they can't have. I get that, but you know,
when they're saying to me, wish I could grow lilacs, I'm going I
wish I could grow lemons. I wish I could grow avocados. That would
be amazing. Well, of course, if you're going to garden in the
south, one of the things you have to pay attention to. Well,
actually, if you're going to garden anywhere, you want to pay attention to
the soil. And in Florida, they they have an interesting kind of soil
type there. It's called Mayaca soil. It's a fine soil. But here's
the point the difference being. And one of Teresa's comments to me was when
you add amendments to the soil, and you add organic matter to the soil,
you have to pay attention to it because it breaks down so much faster
than when we add it to our soils here in the North. Oh,
sure that higher temperature or higher humidity, it's just gonna go cycle right through.
And there are so many unusual soils in warm climates. You know,
growing up in the Midwest and gardening in the Midwest and East Coast, you're
kind of like, oh, it's either you know, like a clay soil
or sandy soil. It's just like that's it. But you know, you're
going down to Arizona, California, you have totally different challenges like boron tolerance.
A lot of soils in California are very high, naturally high and boron
and there's a lot of plants that can't grow in it. You go down
to you know, Arizona, there's not a lot of irrigation, so the
soils tend to get much more alkaline. There's all of these considerations which you
know, provide opportunity but also a little bit of a challenge. Well,
yeah, and think about humidity. Humidity that was another subject that came up.
You know, here in Michigan, we we complain about the humidity in
July and August, but it's like, you know, down there, wow,
in Florida, humidity and that's part of the reason why plants like lilacs
are a problem growing them there. But also watering. And one of the
things that we were looking at is the fact that there's a tendency, for
example, in Florida to overwater your plants. And so I did a little
bit of research and sure enough, Florida is the third highest state in the
United States for rainfall fifty five to sixty five inches a year. Number one
is Hawaii, and you have Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama on the list.
A state such as ours, Michigan, we kind of fall right in the
middle, number thirty two, with about thirty three inches of rain per year.
The point is overwatering can become a problem in some of these tropical regions
because it's going to create disease for your plants. It does, and you
know, people think like, oh, it's hot, my plants need more
water. But the fact is, when there is high humidity in the air,
the plants don't lose as much water out of their foliage when they're you
know, undergoing photosynthesis, and so they don't need as much. And people
are thinking, well, it's hot, better water my plants. And I
can't tell you how many warm climate gardeners I've heard from, particularly attempting to
grow limelight panicle hydrangea, who have killed or severely setback their plants, you
know, watering them like they think they should, but just not accounting for
that lower water usage that happens under high humidity conditions. Yeah, I think,
you know, as far as watering is concerned, if you're in Nevada,
Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, Arizona, Idaho, that's
a whole different matter. But in the South, yeah, just because it's
hot doesn't mean you need to pour on more water. Of course, nematodes
also are a problem in the South, and there's a real interest in container
gardening. And when I've spent time in Florida run through some neighborhoods, you
see a lot of container gardens. Of course, you think about Jack Barnwell
and proven Winters, aqua pots and they're in Florida. Their ability to use
both tropical plants and other plants. I asked Teresa the question, what's as
a garden designer, landscape designer, what's one of your favorite plants to use
and containers, because again you're right, Stacy, we think about Croton's and
hybiscus and mandavilla and that sort of thing. She said, Oh soo easy
roses. Oh interesting, she said, roses just do fantastic. The new
roses like OsO easy roses. Also, bud Leah's in containers very popular and
they have a lot of success with them. And then, by the way,
she had also mentioned a perennial that's one of my favorites, whirling butterflies.
That is Guara guara, however you want to pronounce it, it's spelled
gu a r a. That's going to be my word of the day,
guara because it's tough to say, but that's a perennial that's tough as nails
and can handle the heat. Kind of a neat plant to add to your
landscape if you are in the health or even here in Michigan and dealing with
heat. Fun plant to grow. I have grown it a lot of times.
It sold as an annual here in Michigan, but it has been a
short lived perennial for me, like for two or three years, until you
know, some really wet snow kind of takes it out. But I love
that plant. I love those plants that have like a lot of space in
air in them, and I think Gara is a great example of that.
Yeah. Absolutely, And of course if you're watching us or listening to us
down south, I'm jealous because you get to grow annuals in the winter time.
Now, we do try to plant a few pansy's, some ornamental kale,
try and keep them alive a little beyond Thanksgiving Day. But again,
talking to Kevin Hurd from Proven Winners, Kevin said that in many of their
trial gardens, they will plant out annuals in Florida in the winter just to
test their cold tolerance, and they, for example found sweet Caroline Medusa,
the sweet potato vine. I did quite well in the Deep South during the
winter because of course they can get some cold snaps. But talk about fun
being able to plant out annuals. Yeah, it's it is. You really
have to sort of shift your perspective. I know one time I was visiting
San Antonio, Texas in early spring, and I said, oh, these
are the most beautiful petunias I have ever seen. And how long have you
had them planted? They said, oh, those we only grow those a
few weeks weeks. They're a spring annual for us, which for us they're
like the height of summer. And also exactly, yeah, so down south,
pay attention to the feeding. You're going to have to pay attention to
feeding again with a lot of rain and with the humidity and with the growth.
Feeding of course is going to be very very important too. We had
a show a number of months ago about garden fatigue in the North when we
get a little weary of working in the garden. But boy, is it
a commitment. In the South. It's a year round thing. It is.
You never really get a break. Neither do the pests not something we've
touched on, but that can be a huge to shoe for people in the
South. But you know, you get lemons, you get jasmine, you
get so many cool things. I have to say, I'm I'm a little
jealous. Need I say more? 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 Show. It's the
time of the show where we put a plant on trial. That means we're
going to talk about one of our favorite Proven Winners Colored Choice shrubs, and
you get to decide if you're going to try it out in your garden.
And seeing as how today's show is mostly dedicated to our friends in the warmer
climates, naturally I had to feature a shrub that is very, very heat
tolerant. Yes, and that is center stage red crape myrtle. And before
we continue, for our YouTube viewers, you got to show them, Oh
yes, pen you just tapped on the table. All right, this is
my very cool cactus pen that my mom got me at a store called jelly
Land in Las Vegas, and she got me a bunch of cool pens.
The other ones might be a little too distracting to have on air, but
this one doesn't move, so I brought it. Thanks Mom, Just showing
off my cool pen. And it also writes very well, so it's not
just a cool cactus pen. It also does its job. I love it
very well. It has black ink and the center stage crape myrtle has black
foliage. I just had to give a little tie in to bring it back
into plants on trial here. You know. You bring that up though,
Stacey, And when you look for crape myrtle online, there is a lot
of talk about the dark leafed or black leafed crape myrtles and the pursuit of
that. Yes, so I know a lot of our cooler climate listeners are
not going to be necessarily familiar with crape myrtle. There has been more and
more being grown in cooler climates as people sort of experiment and find out,
oh hey, it does pretty well. If you got to downtown Holland,
Michigan, for example, in July and August, you will see quite a
few crape myrtles. That's the holy grail of plant breeding when it comes to
crape myrtle in that is trying to develop cold tolerant crape myrtle, right,
and then the other holy grail is an improved black leaf crape myrtle. So,
now, if you aren't familiar with crape myrtle, or you haven't been
lucky enough to travel somewhere warmer, when they are in full bloom, they
are a sight to behold. There really are, I think fewer few flowering
usually there are a flowering tree ares tend to be more of like a shrub,
multi stammed habit are. There are a few other flowering trees or shrubs
that are just so jaw dropping when they are in bloom. I mean they
are It's just thousands and thousands of flowers and the color is so bright that
I mean you'll stop your car, you know, but it's just it's absolutely
screaming from out in the landscape. So over first, right, right,
a pull over first. But I have been in a situation where I almost
wanted to dis lay them on the brakes because the grape myrtles were so beautiful.
But you know, so they've been really popular garden plants in the US
for a century at least, if not longer. And you know when a
plant has been around that long, people start to wonder like what's next,
Like, hey, I understand grape myrtles, they're cool, but like I
want something with a little bit of pizzazz. I want something with a little
twist to it. And so these dark leaf or black leaf crape myrtles started
to come out to the market, oh, probably like fifteen twenty years ago,
and they are beautiful. So what you really have to imagine if you're
not familiar with this plant, is really super vivid flowers. So they can
be red, pink, purple, coral white, and then when you mix
that with that dark black foliage, they just pop against. It's really something
to see. But the earliest dark leaf crape myrtles, as beautiful as they
were, they were heat tolerant, but they did not really appreciate the humidity.
So what was opening is these black leaf crape myrtles, we're getting powdery
mildew. Now, when a plant with green leaves get gets powdery mildew.
It doesn't look so hot. But when a plant with black leaves gets powdery
mildew and gets that white, fuzzy growth all over it, you really kind
of got a problem. Yes, there's no hiding that. And so you
know, when it came time for us to think about what was going our
take going to be at Priman Winter's Color Choice shrubs on these black leaf crape
myrtles, we knew that powdery mildew resistance was a non negotiable. It really
was. Our primary goal is to say, hey, you know, getting
good flower color is important. Getting a really nice, rich, dark black
color is also important, But all of that kind of just goes out the
window if we don't have the performance of the plant, the disease resistance that
is actually going to make people want to grow this and not say, oh
I wish that thing wasn't growing because it's just covered in powdery mildew. And
so it took us quite a long time to develop it. But most of
the work on the center stage series of myrtle was done by our plant reader,
Megan Mattie, who was our reader who was our guest last week.
Yep, Megan's a rock star. Megan is a rock star. I like
her a whole lot. And she's also the developer of the Center Stage Great
Myrtles and she specifically mentioned this when we were talking to her last week as
being one of the plants that she is most proud of. And I think
that says a lot. You know, when you have a plant reader who
is devoting their energy to so many different kinds of plants for so long,
and they say, hey, this is one that's truly innovative. This is
one that I'm truly proud of. I think that says a lot about the
plant and for Megan, that is a center Stage series and Center Stage Read
is the one that I picked to highlight in today's Plants on Trial because it
was the first one and because I personally find the combination of that black foliage
and those bright, bright red flowers absolutely irresistible. Have you seen this plant?
Oh, it's stunning. It's absolutely stunning. And of course you can
go to our website, Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com check out the show notes
and if you're keeping score at home, we're talking about center Stage red crepe
myrtle. Yes, I have beautiful Let me quickly ask you a minute for
again, those people scratching their heads riding in the car or at home listening
or watching crape myrtle, cr ape or cr epe. I say cr epe
because the flowers look like crepe paper. That is where the name originally comes
from. I win, I should be on Jeopardy if they have a plant
category, I guarante, or a war history category, you'll be on top.
I don't know about any other categories though, But no, you're right,
so we actually use approven winners the crepe cr ape. Okay, they're
both technically correct. It's kind of just you know, however you want to
say it. But either way, however you spelt it is. The derivation
of the name crepe is because the flowers do resemble crepe. People even use
crepe paper anymore, no idea. I feel like that's a very party store
and kind of thing. All right, Well, hopefully they do, and
hopefully people know what the heck we're talking about when we talk about crape paper
and crape myrtles as well. So anyway, this is a very very heat
tolerant plant. This will easily thrive in USCA Zone ten, which is you
know, almost all of the continental US. It will easily take. Even
the humidity in areas like southern Florida and Texas. It's not going to develop
that powdering mildia that people that might make people a little bit more a gunshy
on darkleaf crape myrtles, And that's really, you know, one of the
reasons that it's so great. But we have discovered over time and trialing here
in West Michigan that it does have a pretty good cold tolerance as well.
So here on the lake shore we have had them with the crape the center
stage series survive for several years. Now, what will happen typically in colder
climates like Michigan USCA zone sex, I've probably probably not going to get a
whole lot of success colder than USCAE six. But don't let me discourage you
if you want to give it a try. You never know. But here
what happens is they die back to the ground. So they act a little
bit like a butterfly bush or Budleia or Chariopterus or something like that. Where
they are dying back to the ground, they're not remaining a shrub that where
the growth is going to come out on those stems that persisted over winter,
but after you know, some warmth in the spring, they will start to
regrow from the roots. And because crape myrtle blooms on new wood later in
the season, they actually do go on to flower and look amazing and by
the time you know, August rolls around, you won't even hardly have noticed
that your plant ever even died back to the ground. It's really fun.
It's kind of like the hardy bananas that we grow. Also, the moosa
bajou I think is the name again, starting over but worth it, Yeah,
you know, I think it's it's one of those things that really shows
you that it pays to be a little bit experimental, yeah, and gardening,
And you know that's one of the things that we do here up proven
winners in our trial gardens or test these things and you know, seeing,
hey will it come back, and yeah, we've had great survival on this.
So it actually is a little bit more cold tolerant than we had initially
thought. We do usually put like a zone seven on it. But I
think if you're experimental and you want to give any of the Center Stage series
a try, if you're in USDA Zone six, you're probably going to have
pretty good luck, especially if you do find sort of a more protected spot
in your yard where you can plan out, but full sun. This is
definitely a full sun plant, especially in colder climates and even in warmer climates.
You're going to want it to be in that full sun so that you
get the full color to develop. Anytime that you have those extra pigments that's
making folio geno black purple of those colors. If it's in too much shade,
it gets to be kind of like a muddy green. You're not getting
like the rich, you know, true kind of tones that you might be
seeing in our photos, which of course you can see at the show notes
at Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com. Yeah, if you want to experiment with
the plant, you're in good company. George Washington did it in the seventeen
hundreds when they produced crape myrtle to the US. He wanted one on his
Mountain Vernon estate. As I understand, I would guess he probably had pretty
good success. I would hope he had good success. And by the way,
in my reading also I found that goldfinches love crape myrtle. The seeds
on the tree at least that's what I understand. So hey, you know
I did not experiment with it. What a beautiful tree. I love the
black or dark leaf, and I love the idea of a yellow and black
goldfinch in the black folias of the center stage a crape myrtle. Wow.
So this is a great plan if you're looking for something really very colorful and
a more unusual color combination. Whether you live in a warm climate or you're
an experimental cold climate gardener, check it out center Stage red crape myrtle,
and you can see more pictures and all the information you need to grow it
at Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com. We're going to take a little bit of
a break. When we come back, we're opening up that garden mail bag,
so please stay tuned. At proven Winner's Color Choice, we've got a
shrub for every taste and every space. Whether you're looking for an easycare rose,
an unforgettable hydrangea, or something new and unique, you can be confident
that the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and tested for your success.
Look for them at your local garden center. Greetings, gardening friends,
and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified show. It's one of my favorite times
in the show where we open up the garden mail bag and hear from our
listeners around the world near and far who have gardening questions. And if you
are one of those listeners who has a gardening question, please don't hesitate to
reach out to us. You can email us at help HLP at Gardening Simplified
OnAir dot com, or just visit Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com. There's a
contact form you can attach a photo, and I have to say, I
really do appreciate it when people have specific questions about what's going on in their
yard. If you can attach a photo, that makes it a lot easier
to help you. So don't hesitate to include that when you reach out to
us. And so, what we got in the mail bag today, Rick,
Well, not only questions but comments. Comment from Sharon again about hoses.
I've got a limerick coming up. Well next week I'll do it for
you, a limerick on hoses. But she among many told us hose link
that's the answer, and Diane like's word of the day and gave us the
word cottawompole or cattiwompole. That's a great word. I love that word.
To travel purposely toward and as yet unknown destination. That's what we as gardeners
do as you walk the garden path and easily yet distracted like you Stacy slamming
on the brakes to see a Craig Merkle Right, I am very easily distracted,
especially to me too. Absolutely also in the mail bag. Thanks.
Marcia sends us a picture. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll see it
here, or you can go to our website Gardening Simplified OnAir dot com.
Marcia just kind of celebrating her sister in laws old old jade plant, probably
a hundred years old. Many families have either a jade plant or a Christmas
cactus that has been around for a long long time. And this is a
beauty it is. It has such an incredible form. And jade plants are
one of my absolute favorite house plants. They're so easy to grow. They
thrive on neglect, which is one of the reasons they can persist for so
long. So you get that, you know, linkin it's the family chain
there that maybe isn't such a great caretaker of houseplants. They can even survive
them. Yeah, Christmas cactus the same thing and can handle it. It's
kind of like the family fruitcake that's passed on through the years. Rhonda writes
to us and sends a photo she and neighbors and other folks panicking because their
maple trees are losing leaves, dropping leaves like it's fall, and yet the
leaves don't turn color. They're green, and a number of leaves fall to
the turf, and the concern in a course being drought and heat, well,
it's not the case, and no need to panic, no need to
lose your composture. It's something called maple leaf petiole borer and Stacy, I
see this all the time here in the North during well late May, but
usually into the month of June when we see this when maple trees will start
shedding some of their leaves and causing concern for homeowners. This is a soft
fly that emerges from the soil, lands on the petiole or the stem of
a leaf, usually at the base, lays its eggs and then the larva
just kind of tunnels into that petiole and at some point when the wind blows,
causes some of the leaves to fall off, and it's a pretty natural
thing, and then the larva will crawl into the ground and the whole cycle
wi will repeat itself again in the coming year. So maybe if you're keeping
score at home, you want to Google it or use the search engine of
your choice. Mape leaf petiole boor I have to say, when you told
me about this, this is the first I've actually heard of this. I
have never heard of the maple leaf petiole borer before, so it was very
interesting to me to look into it. And you know, stress also can
be a factor though, so it's important to understand that, you know,
that might not be the answer. But fortunately there is a very easy way
to determine if your plant is losing leaves from the maple leaf petiole borer,
and that is that the leaves will not drop at the zone of abcision or
that little area where they cling to the actual tree. It'll just kind of
be like in the middle of the petiole. So if you you know,
go and look at that leaf at the foliage it's fallen under the tree,
examine that petiole or the stem that connects it to the tree. If it's
just kind of like broken off in the center it's probably the maple leaf petiole
bar. No treatment is recommended. The plant can easily withstand losing that foliage.
It has a short lifespan where it's just going to move on. Now,
if you are seeing like the whole leaf is comeing off and you're actually
seeing that leaf base that would attach it to the tree, then you might
have a different cause like stress, and certainly the drought that we have had
here in Michigan would cause that. But again, that's not really like,
oh my gosh, the tree is dying. That's just a tree saying like
WHOA, conditions aren't ideal here, I'm going to drop a few leaves so
I have a little less to support and hopefully that will get me through these
tougher times. And if you are getting like larger branchlets of maple all over
that are actually like attached to the little twig, almost certainly squirrels, yeah,
yeah, they like to go around and sometimes they're building ans, and
sometimes I think they're just being bored. I mean, I don't know the
inside of a squirrel brain, but I swear sometimes they're just out there and
they're just biting them off and letting them fall just for the fun of it.
It's their job to get into trouble and chew the propane gas hoses off
your gas grill on the back deck. So it sounds like you're speaking from
experience there. That's a whole other topic for down the road. Brandon sends
us Ana Garden in West Michigan, Zonne six. A last few weeks,
notice the leaves on my flocks ultraviolet pink have started to turn yellow from the
base of the plant and appear to be moving up. Could this be related
to the warm weather I water when it's needed, or could it be a
fungal issue? And again stacy flocks susceptible to powdery mildew. There are great
garden flocks, tall garden flocks. There are great varieties proven Winners has Luminary
and cover Girl, party Girl, glamour Girl. You know a number of
these flocks that have been bred to be more disease resistant. Yet culturally,
with flocks, you have to be important. You have to be careful watering
at the base of the flocks. And if you start to see yellowing at
the base where we get less light maybe less air, that eventually works its
way up towards being a powdery mildew issue a ten for sure, and Brandon
did include a photo which I will put in the show notes and thank you
for that. Brandon. I don't see in his photo any signs of powdery
mildew, and you know, absolutely this has been such a stressful season for
gardeners as well as gardens, and so when I was looking at Brandon's plants,
my first thought is that it was a water issue. And you know,
sometimes it can be as simple as like it just went a few days
without water, particularly in the spring when the foliage is emerging and it's so
soft, it hasn't yet developed that protective waxy cuticle that makes it better able
to withstand hot and dry conditions, and so that reaction to dryness in that
period is going to look a little bit different than you know, wilting or
something in the summer. I don't see any signs yet, but you know,
Rick's absolutely right, flux is notorious for getting powdery mildew, so I'm
not seeing any of that yet. I would say, definitely keep watering it,
and do bear in mind too that a lot of times plants will grow.
This happens on panical hydranges. Especially as plants grow and get larger,
they start to shade their inner leaves. They're less effective at photosynthesis because they're
not getting as much sun, and so they just drop them and just like,
hey, I don't need to maintain this, you know, not very
functional leaf anymore. It's just it's going away. So not a huge cause
for concerned Brandon. But again we appreciate your message and we'll put your photo
in the answer on the show. Notes brings up a good point to their
stacy, and that is when you initially plant them. Also spacing between the
plants, of course very important. Melissa writes to us hundreds of blooms on
our mior lemon tree and a pot on the back patio, but also has
discovered hundreds of fire ants in the container too, yikes, trying to grow
these lemons as organically as possible. She didn't write yikes, I said,
yikes, do you have a recommendation to get rid of these buggers from my
container? By the way, as far as fire ants are concerned and getting
into the container, I don't know if Melissa's tried this, but a very
fine mesh, I mean super fine mesh over the drainage holes at the bottom
of the pot, or setting the pot on a drainage saucer. Some people
will put a little bit of lemon juice in there, and there's a product
called tanglefoot. There's other names also, but there are sticky substances that you
could potentially put along the top rim of the pot, and that may be
an organic way. Also to help with the fire ants. Well, you
know, I have to say, as much as I am envious of warm
climate gardeners at times, when it comes to fire ants, I am not.
Ah. They are such a nightmare and I truly do pity anybody who
has to deal with them, which is most people in the South. So,
Melissa, the key to managing any ants, including fire ants, is
that you have to kill the queen. So you know, Rick gave great
advice and those are all non toxic methods, but honestly, unless you are
doing some sort of control method that actually will kill the queen, she's just
going to keep making new worker ants and new drones to keep coming out,
and you'll keep trapping them, but she'll just keep making more babies. So
unfortunately, I would say this is a situation where, you know, particularly
because fire ants can be harmful to humans and pets a situation where something a
little bit heavier might be in order. Now, the good thing about ant
baits, chemical ant baits is that they really are specific to ants. You
know, they work, they work, they're very effective, and they're not
something that like butterflies are going to be affected by or anything like that.
So if you do a targeted application of an ant bait that's specifically for fire
ants, and you take care of that queen, they eat it, they
eat it, they take it back to the queen, she dies, and
your fire ant infestation has gone. So sometimes that's you know, that's just
one of the principles of integrated pest management is doing the least problematic, most
effective thing. So Melissa, I totally understand, but I think that you
will probably be happier with no fire ants and a little bit of a chemical
application. Then you know, it's no fun when you have ants in your
plants. You know, it really is no fun. Melissa needs something that's
fire resist stand and I think we gave her some well ridded advice. All
Right, Well, hopefully that's helpful. Thank everybody for writing, and invite
you to reach out to us too at Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
We're gonna take a little break. When we come back, We've got branching,
Oh, Branching news with a special guest, so you're going to want
to find out who that is and stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is
brought to you by proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs
and evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty
and less work. Look for Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs in the distinctive white
container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Joe,
It's time for Branching news and without further ado, I've been excited about this.
Can't we get the opportunity to interview the Gardening Simplified Shows Engineer, producer,
videographer, photographer extraordinary Adriana Robinson Stacy who is usually on the other side
of the camera and today she joins us on the Gardening Simplified Show. I
know we're turning the cameras around and we're finally letting the audience enjoy the amazingness
that is Adriana. And of course what better topic for Adriana to talk to
our audience about than photography. Ah, and photographers can freeze time. I
mean, what superpower do you have? Well, Adrianna has all kinds of
superpowers, and of course we thank her every week for the work she does
here on the Gardening Simplified Show. Adrianna, thank you, and it's fun
to be able to chat with you about gardening photography. I know it feels
weird being on camera and having a microphone in front of me, but I
am excited. I'm excited to be here with you guys and talk about it.
You know who are watching on YouTube. You can see the cameras that
I have sitting out on the table here knowing we were going to chat with
you today. Adriana, I was thinking back to when I first started marketing
plants, and that was years and years ago, well, seventies and eighties,
and we were using Polaroid cameras and snapping pictures and then cutting them out
with scissors and gluing them to a piece of paper. It's amazing how far
it has come today. But to Adriana, the work that you do is
fabulous work, not only for proven winners color choice shrubs, but also for
the industry as a whole, because we get to work with subject matter that's
just amazing. That is so true. I can't really imagine besides animals,
probably for me, but I can't really imagine having a better subject to photograph
and plants, which I want to ask right off the bat, do you
have a favorite flower you like to photograph? Is there a favorite plant?
It's a little hard to say. I like, I mean, I love
Budleia, but I think plants that have seasonal interest all year round, so
I love temple of bloom, any plants that attract pollinators. But I can't
say there's any one specific plant. Do you'd like handheld or going tripod?
I mean, when do you choose to use a tripod? So I will
typically do handheld just because I'm on the go so often. But I will
use a tripod anytime I'm filming video because you want it to be stable.
And I will use a tripod if I'm doing any kind of long exposure or
if I need to have that long exposure to let more light in. So
if it's dark out and I need to compensate for that, I'll use a
tripod. So Adriana, I love shooting pictures of flowers and plants, and
I like to get into the worm's i view, get down low and shoot
the picture. Maybe rest my camera on a bean bag. What's I mean?
Angles important when you're shooting shooting flowers? Right? Absolutely. I think
there's a lot of features on a plant that will either get highlighted or hidden
depending on the angle that you're taking the photo at. And I was laughing
when I saw that your worm's eye of view, and I was like,
yeah, you essentially want to think like a beetle, a bird and her
dumb beaver, because I couldn't think of another. You know, you want
to look at You want to take photos from every angle you can, because
a lot of the times it'll surprise you what you'll get from something you really
didn't think would turn out well well. And you know, Stacy, Adriana,
it just really struck me thinking about again the beautiful pictures that you take,
Adriana, and the video work that you do again years ago using these
old polaroid cameras. You know, we worked hard at it. We were
proud of the work that we did. But today cameras. The technology is
on real the editing that can be done, and yet there's a real human
element to photography. You are trying essentially to show others what you are seeing,
what your visualizing, and freezing that moment in time. Absolutely, you
know. I actually went to school for film and videos, so I knew
some things about plants, but I definitely learned a ton since I've been working
here and coming into this job and looking at plants for more of an artistic
kind of viewpoint is different than how Megan, our plant breeder, would look
at her. She would see a more scientific side. So everyone has a
different view of things, and no matter how much technology is going to advance,
it's going to continue doing so there's always got to be some human element.
That's what makes a photo work exactly. You know. I have been
lucky to work with Adriana since she started here over five years ago, and
before she started, we had one person taking you know, almost all of
our photos and they were great photos, perfectly usable photos. And I remember
very quickly after she started, not coming in as a professional horticulturist, just
immediately noticing the difference in the perspective that she was bringing to to plants that
I had seen dozens of times in person, dozens of photos of and you
know, you don't necessarily think that there is so much interpretation to be had
in plant photography. But you know, I guarantee you that you can round
up your whole family on some summer evening, pass a cell phone around,
tell everybody to take a picture of the same flower, and you will be
amazed at the different perspective that people bring and the different results that they get
even using the same materials. And that's what's so fascinating and so interesting about
photography. Yeah, good point. Yeah, I mean I look at it
as like telling a story. Even with if you and I had the same
story, we're going to tell it s lately differently, and that's when it
makes it work. That's a really good way to think about it again,
you know, and I think part of the beauty also of the work that
you do, Adrianna, is again going back to the nineteen seventies and my
polaroid cameras. If you think about Edwin Land, the gentleman that started polaroid
cameras back in the thirties and forties, his inspiration was to take pictures of
his daughter, because he'd shoot pictures of his daughter and she would say to
him, well, where's the picture. I want to see the picture.
And today, of course, we can take a picture and instantaneously see what
we have. Now. There are pitfalls also in that some folks shooting pictures
with their phone may decide to shall we call it filter or overcompensate or saturate
or vibrants or whatever it may be, and then you kind of get a
picture that really doesn't look look real. There's there's an art to editing pictures,
yes, and I am I lean more on the side of less saturation,
less filters, especially when it comes to plants. You know, you're
trying to be authentic and you're trying to show the plant for what it is
most of the time, unless you're being stylistic when you want to add some
sepia or whatever you want to do. But I think that a lot of
people get discouraged with photography because you always have an image in your mind of
what you want the picture to look. Then you go out there and you
take the photo and it's nothing like what you want. And I think that's
discouraging for a lot of people, but I think a lot of people try
to compensate in editing. The advent of digital photography has really taken this plant
photography to another level. It has, and it again is both exciting,
but I know it can be intimidating for people trying to get into any type
of photography really, but plant photography we're talking about here. And I think
a lot of people see all of these, you know, really well done
photos and they think that because they have a better camera, they should be
able to just naturally get a better photo. And it's something that you need
to practice and learn. I started off with an Olympus OM one film camera,
and I think that was good because I had to learn all of the
settings on my camera. I had to learn what they actually do. And
once you understand that, your creativity and your limits just expand so much with
what you can capture. It's amazing how you'll point a camera at some people
and some people will just run. You know, yes, you know,
I realized what I was saying to them, Let me point my cannon at
you and shoot you. And that's probably yeah, But composition is really an
important thing to learn. You know. You mentioned the camera and practicing.
You know, I had that same misconception with golf clubs, you know,
buying an expensive golf club and a bigger golf I'm gonna make me a bet.
No, it takes. It takes practice and work. It's an art.
That is. If I have a couple of tips on photography, and
my first one is to not get discouraged and give up, because it is
so easy to do that, I would not have had any of my successes
that I've had with video or photography if I did not fail a lot.
Yes, well that's the great thing about digital photography. Is this a lot
less expensive to fail? Yes, it used to be better. I think
it's also important to understand that what is a failure for people does vary.
Did you fail just because you didn't capture exactly the thing that you thought that
you were going to, But maybe you still got a really good a really
good photograph and you learn something. You know, it's not always about you
know what you think you were going for. It's about sort of what you
ended up with and what that says. Yeah, it's about the journey,
not the destination, I think, but it is it is so much everyone
is their own worst critic myself. I definitely can relate with that, and
I think there's so much serendipitous moments and photography and a lot of the times
that's where my best images of commons just totally unexpected. That's such a good
point too, because there's so much, especially when you're photographing nature, where
you might think like, oh, shoot, this bird flew into it,
or oh, there was people in the background, and then when you actually
go back and look at your photos, it had so much of a sense
of time and placed to it. When you say, oh, yeah,
there were people here, but look what they're wearing. Now, it's really
clear that this was a hot summer day, or you know, all of
those things that you might think that you wanted to avoid can actually bring so
much to a photo in terms of its time and space and all of those
elements that are so much more difficult to capture. You know. It just
goes kind of with that telling a story. Every element that you have in
within the photo is helping to tell the overall story of what you're trying to
show people. So what are some of your other tips so for talking about
lighting? I think that is probably the number, you know, like overwatering
plants. Bad Lighting is probably the number one thing when it comes to photos,
So just a quick tip is avoid harsh shadows and highlights. Shooting in
the morning and the evening is best or cloudy overcast day. Of course,
Golden hour is always great, and that is the first hour after sunrise and
the last hour before sunset. For composition. Something to look into is the
rule of thirds, essentially, as if you had a nine grid on your
photo, putting your subject or what you want people to focus on one of
those meetup points on the grid. It's just a good rule to have balance
in the photo. Overall, I think that there's a real interest Adriana in
shooting pictures of pollinators. I know I find myself doing that all the time,
trying to capture them at work, whether it's a bumblebee or a hummingbird.
Not an easy thing to do, but certainly fun. Yes, no,
that is one of my favorite things to do, finding the little hummingbirds,
little battles that they go through. It. It is a challenge,
but it is fun. And yeah, macro photography has gotten more popular over
the years for sure, and I think it's just a really cool way to
get up close and personal and see details about things we normally don't notice.
There, of course, are different modes also that can be used on a
camera, and I'll be honest with you, I struggle with that, trying
to decide, well, should I shoot this in landscape mode? Should I
use portrait mode? You know what, I'll shoot the same subject in every
mode and just kind of see how it comes out. Yeah, and that's
a great way to do it. It does go back to what you are
trying to convey or what motion or story you were trying to tell with your
photo, right, But as a general rule, if you're taking a wide
shot, like you want to get a photo of your whole garden, landscape
mode so it has a deeper depth of field, so more will be in
focus in general, and then portrait mode is always great for you know,
pollinator shots or any if you're trying to just highlight like a single bloom on
a plant or something, so that has a shallowered up the field and the
background will be more blurred and less distracting, which is what you want when
you're trying to get those detailed shots. So our for our viewers and our
listeners, coming from a professional photographer like you, where do you get your
inspiration? You know, we asked Megan in a show a week ago,
The Plant Breeder, about well, have a cup of coffee when you show
up to work and then I think I'll try and cross this today. What
about you? Do you go out there and just try to get inspired or
you know, how do you approach that? Yeah, plants they're just interesting
in general, so it's not very hard to go out and just be like,
Oh, that looks good, that's interesting, that's pretty. You know.
I really got interested in photography because I was pretty shy as a child,
So it's kind of a way for me to explore and see the world
at a comfortable distance that I would and from that I've been able to learn
so much and notice different details that I never would have before. So it
makes me more excited to go out there and just keep doing it. So
inspiration is everywhere. You know. There's a quote that I share a lot
when I give talks from Orson Wells. The enemy of art is the absence
of limitations. If you have free reign, it can be very hard to
figure out sort of where to focus. So do you find you know,
when we say Hey, we need a shot of this in fall or you
know, we're going to be introducing this plant. Just get as much photography
on it as you can. Is that freeing or is that kind of stifling?
You can answer honestly, it is a bit of both and dependent.
I mean, I would with photography, it's like, yeah, there are
certain shots. I just have that vision in my mind. So I'm going
to, you know, try to plan accordingly and make sure I'm getting whatever
I need to get that shot I have in my mind. But a lot
of times I'll go and just find like what makes this plant unique? What
makes it different? If I just saw this plant, what would interest me
with it? But Aidrianna, you make a great point for our viewers and
for our listeners of The Gardening Simplified Show. And I mean this sincerely that
you know I get. I'm privileged. I get the opportunity to work with
two ladies who are very intelligent and very very creative. And you know,
Stacy, your use of words, your copywriting helps convey to people the benefits
of these plants. And same for you, aid Rihanna. When you're shooting
those pictures through the lens of your camera, you're showing the benefits of whether
it may be a sky view, hydrain Joe or seven Sons Temple of Bloom.
And that's fantastic and it's great for our listeners and our viewers and folks
who appreciate the gardening industry. You need that, we need to be shown
the benefits of these plans. Well, the best part is to be part
of a great team. Yeah, there you go, so true. Yeah,
no, I totally agree. Folks. I hope you've enjoyed this.
This gives you a chance to meet Adrianna Robinson. She's the one who makes
the Gardening Simplified show goes. She does yeah herself. Thanks for your work.
Yes, thank you both. Okay, big, thank you very much
to Adrianna Robinson Stacy. A picture's worth a thousand words, it is,
and I think we got a little bit of both this time. I think
we got an inside look at the Gardening Simplified ship. Again. Thanks so
much to Adrianna for joining us as our guest today. Thanks to Rick,
and thanks to all of you for listening. We hope you have a great week.