October 26, 2024 • 44 mins
Got a plant that's not working in its spot? Bust a move! We share why fall is ideal for transplanting, and how to do it. Featured shrub: Diamond Ball clematis.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Coming to you from Iconic Studio, a at proven winners
Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified radio
podcast and YouTube show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist,
and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, one of
the fun things to do is impulsively buy some plants,
(00:23):
not knowing where they're going to go, and the next
scene you're walking around your yard with a plant in
one hand a shovel in the other, wondering where you're
going to put that plant. Many of these plants eventually
have to move. Fall is a great time of the
year to move these plants. I say bust to Move
(00:45):
and bust to Move was a big hit song. It
means to boogie or hit the road, leave someplace hastily.
It was hip hop genre nineteen eighty nine Young MC
and I loved Uncandy in the movie Uncle Buck when
he dances to bust to Move. But regardless of that,
(01:07):
there are many reasons to move plants this time of
the year, but the number one reason to move a plant,
in my mind, is usually because it's planted too close
to the house, or it's being shaded by a tree
or another plant. The goal in moving plants is to
move a plant to a better location and minimize root loss.
(01:28):
You provide optimal conditions for regrowth, so the ROI return
on investment is good. Because if you don't move them,
odds are you will have to remove them. So why
not take a chance and bust a move. Many plants
in my landscape Stacey are eligible for frequent Flyer miles.
(01:51):
They've moved so many times.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You know, I think that there is a assumption out
there among people who don't really garden or plants a lot,
that gardeners just get everything right the first time, and
that is definitely not what happens. I have been a
gardener for many years. I've known many gardeners, I have
worked for many landscape designers, and I can tell you
(02:14):
that a garden is never a you know, set it
and forget it kind of thing. It is the way
I see my garden, I've finally come to realize, is
kind of like a never ending audition. And you know,
you are looking at the you're casting the characters in
your garden and figuring out where they're going to be
set and what the scene is going to be, and
(02:36):
and that never really ends. You know, you do have
to keep a critical eye. And the fact is that
most plants can actually withstand being moved pretty well. Yes,
it will set them back, that is true. Some plants
can deal with it better than others. But overall, most
plants they're pretty okay being moved. And if you are
(02:57):
going to be happier if that plan is moved for
an of the reasons that you just mentioned, or just
because you just think it should be at another place.
And that's what happens to me a lot is you know,
I get something, I put it in the garden, I
get to know it, I start seeing, you know, how
it really grows, because the way it looks in the
container isn't necessarily representative of how it's actually going to
be when it's in the ground, and I start to say,
oh gee, well that would be better with, you know,
(03:19):
combined with this plant, or I really need more of
this color in this part of my garden, so I'm
going to move some things around. And any of those
are perfectly valid reasons to move stuff around.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Absolutely. I mean, we can debate timing, but I have
rarely failed at moving a plant late in the season
in fall, in October November. Maybe in some cases it's
maybe not the best thing to do, but again, it's
better than removing the plant all together and moving it
(03:49):
to a better spot.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I'd add, very often better than trying to prune it
exactly to get it to fit into that spot. And
I think that's people's first instinct often is I'll just
cut this. But there are many plants that don't respond
well to pruning or where all of the printing you're
going to need to do is going to disfigure the plant,
and you should just you know, kind of do what
needs to be done and move it.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, that's true. So move them at this time of
the year because the plant is not going to be
putting energy into generating top growth. The soil is warm
and welcoming to new roots, and of course we get
natural rainfall. Also, that's a totally different thing if you're
going to be actually moving the plants to a new location.
Let's say you've sold your home and putting them in pots.
(04:34):
And in that case, if you know it's coming, it's
a good idea to work around the plant with a
sharp shovel, cutting into the roots and then walking away,
watering the plant and hopefully over the course of a
few months starting to establish some new hair roots before
you put it into the pot. But in some cases
that's just not possible. So watering the plant well and
(04:56):
making sure that the plant is not under any drought
stress before you move it, that's important. The other thing
I do like to do is prune back plants when
I move them. It makes it easier for you to
move the plant, and there's less stress on the plant
when you move it. My general rule of green thumb
(05:17):
is take on woody plants, taking fifty percent off the
top of the plant. Now that's just a rule of thumb,
but again it reduces stress on the plant. Obviously, with perennials,
we're going to dig and in some cases use the
opportunity to divide and then replant. And then of course
(05:39):
mulch is a very important thing to apply to these
plants when you move them late in the season, especially perennials,
because they can heave out of the ground if you
have an area where there's going to be frost in
the ground. As a matter of fact, I recommend you
note on your calendar you got to do those winter
walk arounds and inspections you got to get out of
(06:02):
your recliner. I call mine a recliner, but you got
to get out of that recliner, walk the yard, kind
of press them back into the earth. Inspect in winter.
If you're moving some larger plants, Stacy, I like the
tarp and slide method. I have so much fun moving
plants and scheming and late fall and say this is
(06:25):
going to look better over here, and you prepare the
soil in that area, just as if you were planting
a new plant, and the other plant, which can be
rather heavy, you can throw on a tarp after you
dig it up and do the tarp and slide method.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yes, sometimes you got to if it's a really big plant.
You know, I am doing a lot of moving and
transplanting this year. Obviously if you tune into us on YouTube,
there's been a lot of a couple videos about all
of the renovations and stuff I'm doing in my garden.
And I have to move two plants that are generally
not recommended to move.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Oh what are you moving?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Summer of a hibiscus and decadence Baptisia oho. And you know,
everything that I've read says that you should preferably move
the baptisia in the spring, but I'm doing it in fall.
And you know, I often tell people you garden in
the real world. You can sit there and read about
all the ideals that you want, but ultimately you do
(07:24):
garden in the real world. And to me, I've decided
that I would rather move my baptisia in the fall
and you know, give it plenty of chance to grow
roots and hopefully maybe if I'm lucky, still get some
flowers next year. And you know, most of the people,
most are the things that I was reading, and I
did not read anything about anything reliable that I would say,
(07:44):
oh yeah, this is definitely a definitive, you know, take
on moving baptisia. You know, said the reasons that they
say spring over fall is because of the potential for
rot over winter. And I am not worried about that.
In my extremely saying soil yes, and you know, so
I'm not really concerned about that, And you know, I
(08:05):
want to get this head start, so I am going
ahead and taking the risk. I mean, if you've ever
tried to move a baptisia, it is not simple. It
is not easy, even in very sandy soil. So I'm
not looking forward to it the task itself, but I
am looking forward to the results.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
There you go a couple of suggestions. Espoma bioactive plant
food with beneficial bacteria humates and Michael Risey that's something
that I use for enhanced root development. So it's just
a suggestion, but that is a product that I really like.
It's a starter fertilizer that can be helpful. We mentioned
(08:46):
the mulch. And also if you're going to do a
lot of digging and digging some sizable holes, you may
want to call eight one one, the call before you
dig number not a bad idea, and of course that
applies here in the UNI United States eight one one.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And make sure you give them some notice. You can't
just be like I'm doing this tomorrow. They do need
some time because the various utilities do come out individually
and mark your property. So if you're looking at doing
some moving around, do it now call them now.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Good advice. So we'll give you a move. My plant's
limb a rick. I tried to cram a ten foot
plant in an area far too scant. What was I thinking?
That space seems to be shrinking and now it grows
on a slant that bush. It has to go its
boundaries overflow. I think a new location will be that
(09:41):
plant's salvation before it starts to snow. A new location
would behooved to let this shrub find its groove. Its
eventual size wasn't foreseen. It's growing through my windows screen.
It's got to bust a move. So let's get out
there and move some plants. Let's see how Stacey ties
(10:02):
this in with plants on trial that's coming up next
here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
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,
where we are talking today about a topic that definitely
(10:35):
mystifies a lot of people I know. In my years
here working with gardeners who buy Proven Winners plants and
trying to help them find the best success, I have
heard from an awful lot of people who are like,
can I move this? Should I move this? What are
my chances for success? How can I set myself best
for success. It's a very fraught thing. People, you know,
(10:56):
they get very very nervous. If they kill a plant,
it's going to be their fault. They're going to feel
badly about it. And I don't think that for the
most part, people give credit for plants as being as
resilient as they actually are.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
As long as you can take as much of the
root system along with you as you can, in most cases,
you're going to be successful and do it at the
right time of the year. And we're saying this is
a good time of the year.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
To do it right for the same reason it's a
good time to plant something new and fall. And my
number one tip that I don't think it's discussed enough
in terms of moving plants is prepare the new spot
first as far as you can now. Of course, you
don't know how big that root ball is going to
be when you take it out. You can kind of
(11:44):
roughly guess based on the overall size of the plants,
but try to minimize the amount of time the plant
spends out of the ground by digging that new hole first.
As close as you can approximate it. Of course, you
can still go in there and finesse it for what
you're actually dealing with after the fact, but that is
the that should be your number one step. Over well,
(12:05):
your number one step should be watering it so it's
not drought stress when you try to transplit. Number two
step is to go ahead and get the new spot
prepared as far as you possibly can, and then start
digging the other plants.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
A great point, and keep the root shaded.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Keep the rootshaded, yeah, like a piece of cheese cloth
or an old sheet or something like that, just because
you know, you don't really see the little tiny root hars,
but those will be sizzling and frying even if you're
doing it on an overcast day because they're they're very sensitive.
And another fun tip for you here for that I
find very helpful when transplanting, especially larger things, is to
(12:42):
take some old tights or nylons, or you can go
to the dollar store and get them super cheap, and
they're really nice. They're soft, they're springy, and you can
use that to just tie your plant up into like
a big ponytail, and you will get be able to
get a lot closer into the plant to are digging it.
It will make it a lot easier to move because
(13:03):
you're handling the whole plant instead of just one stem
which can easily break. So those are my top tips
for transplanting. Now overall, I do think that shrubs are
some of the easiest plants to move. You know, normally,
if there is something that doesn't when people say, oh,
this doesn't take well to transplanting, most often it's because
(13:25):
the plant is tap rooted. So plants have two basic
types of roots. They have fibrous root systems and there
are tap root systems. And a taproot is pretty much
just what it sounds like. You can more or less
imagine like a carrot, and that is kind of more
or less what's happening there. And because those tap roots
are tend to be thick, they tend to be fleshy,
they tend to be deep and very very difficult to
(13:48):
keep intact as you dig, even in sandy soil like ours.
I mean it can you know the sands, the soils
collapsing back in on you. If you have clay soil,
of course, that's just a lot of X you work
and it makes the plant super super heavy.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Try to move a yuckup plant.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh yeah, well, actually that's pretty easy. I've done that
in our in our soil because of the sand. But
but you will leave some behind, you know, But yuckas
are super tough. So yeah, I don't I don't think
you can kill a yucku maybe yeah, I don't even
know if you could kill it through flooding. But anyway,
so overall, shrubs have fibrous root systems that make them
(14:25):
very easy to move. Plus they are multi stemmed. So
even if there's some damage, which of course there will
be no matter how careful you are, there's going to
be some root damage. Shrubs deal very well with being
cut back or you know, you could take out some
of the stems to reduce the amount of you know,
top growth that you have, because of course, the roots
and the top growth grow in proportion to one another.
So if you have reduced the roots, you should ideally
(14:48):
reduce the top to kind of compensate for that root loss,
as Rick said, But of course, even among shrubs, there
are some exceptions. Although today's plant on trial is one
of those exceptions, it's also not exactly a shrub. The
plant on trial today is diamond ball clemitis, and this
(15:10):
is a plant that is in the proven Winter's color
choice shrubs line because it is a woody clematis. So
some clemitists that stand by me cleminists from proven winters,
those are perennial. They actually die back completely to the ground,
so there's nothing left above ground over winter and they
come back from the roots the following year, whereas the
woody vining clematists like we sell like diamond ball, actually
(15:35):
create a very thin but woody stem and that's what
vines and twines around. And overall, Clematis are plants that
you definitely want to plant in their final destination.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, and who doesn't love clematis or clematis I'm good
either way. We can't pronounce it, but who doesn't. I mean,
it's it's like not loving coffee or chocolate or.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Pizza, right, I mean they are beautiful. I think a
lot of people feel very frustrated about clematis because of
the roots. So these same qualities that make it a
plant that's difficult to transplant also make it a plant
that's difficult to kind of make it happy. And so
I've talked about it on the show before. But the
roots of colmatis are not really like anything else that
(16:22):
you see, and all you have to do is plant
one and you will get it an up close and
personal look at what this actually means. So they're very
very thick, they're very fleshy, and they almost look like ropes.
I was trying to think of a corollary when I
was thinking about this for today's show. They're a little
bit like the brace roots on corn. So if you've
(16:44):
ever grown corn, corn has two types of roots. It
has fibrous roots that it starts to help absorb nutrients,
and then it creates these thick, fleshy brace roots anchor
roots that help it prevent from going in the winter.
And it's very much like that with clematis. Like diamond
ball woody clemtist have this base of the plant and
it just has this kind of like octopus tentacle like
(17:05):
outgrowth of roots coming from it. Now, those thick and
fleshy roots establish very very well throughout the soil, and
so you have to it's they're also quite brittle, so
trying to dig them is very hard. You also don't
have the predictability like you have with something like if
you're trying to move say a nine bark or something
(17:27):
like that, where you say, okay, this is roughly the
space that this plant takes up. You know, the clematis
is vining and winding and going all over the place,
so it's much harder to tell, like what that diameter
of the root system is. And then finally, because those
roots are so thick and fleshy, they take a lot
of energy for the plant to grow and produce. So
(17:47):
if they are damaged, and again no matter how careful
you are, they are going to be damaged somewhat takes
a long time for it to recover from any damage
because it takes so much more energy. Do you create
those roots?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
We should say, Stacey that if you're planting a new
clematis or clematis, this is one of those plants that's
notorious for being a sleep creep leaf plant. Probably the
same case if.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
You move it, absolutely same kind of thing that so
sleep clean sleep creep leap takes the plant a while
to develop a good roots system and begin to perform
well for the same reason. So overall, these are just
plants that just need to put a lot of resources
into their roots. Now, I could have picked any of
the proven Winter's Clematists proven Winter's color choice woody clematists
(18:35):
to discuss for today's plan on trial. But I picked
diamond Ball. It's a really interesting clematist. So it has big,
kind of round ball like flowers. It's very doubled, so
highly doubled they almost look like a dahlia really or
something like that. And the flowers are just this beautiful, cool,
(18:56):
icy blue color. You really have to see it to
believe it. And I was inspired today thinking about the
clemitis and a planting that we used to have in
our trial garden where we had a black lace elderberry
and a diamond ball clematis had been allowed to kind
of wind and grow its way through the black lace elderberry,
(19:17):
and the contrast of the icy bluey purple flowers on
diamond bull clematis with a black foliage of the elderberry
was just absolutely beautiful. And so this goes back to
one of those things where you might just say, well, gee,
I have a diamond ball clematist. It's not like doing
that great or I'm not that happy with it, and
you might want to try something else, and you might
(19:39):
want to attempt to transplant a clemitist. Now again, after
everything that I've just said, these are just things you
need to be aware of. I'm not saying it's impossible
to successfully transplant a clematist, but it is something that
is definitely not recommended. So if you're thinking about adding one,
I would say, consider you using a plant that you
(20:01):
already have in your garden as its structure, rather than
you know, trying to get it growing up something else
that you might have to change or move or whatever.
It's just a great way to get a lot more
impact out of a little bit of space. So just
to thought there, if you do want to try moving clemenis,
I would definitely try that in the fall so that
(20:22):
it had a chance to you know, regrow those roots
and recover before tests. To think about, you know, growing
out in the spring. And of course anytime you transplant
something this is important make sure you give it extra
time in spring to leaf out. If you're transplanting in fall,
it very often will take longer to leaf out than
it would have if it had just been undisturbed. But briefly,
(20:43):
since we are talking about diamondball cleminists specifically, you can
see pictures of it on YouTube or in our show
notes at Gardening Simplified on Air dot Com. It's going
to find to roughly four to five feet tall and wide,
hard to USDA zones four through nine, generally pretty dear
resistant kind of plant. And of course well soil is essential,
so don't even think about planting or transplanting a columbus,
(21:05):
and then you can give it very well drained soil.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And like any clematists, you want to mulch at the base, right.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Got a mulch, Although the nice thing is if you
plant it adjacent to a shrub like I was just
talking about with the black lace, that can kind of
also function to shade those roots and keep the plant happy.
So check it out Gardening Simplified on Air dot Com.
We're going to take a little break. When we come back,
we've got the garden mail bags, so please stay tuned.
(21:35):
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 and 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,
(21:55):
and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time
for us to simplify gardening for you by answering your
gardening questions, landscaping questions, plant questions, and so forth and
so on. So if you have a question for us,
please do reach out Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
There's a contact farm right there. You can even attach
a photo. And you know, I know that today's topic
of moving plants is one that people do have a
(22:18):
lot of questions on. And you know, I very typically,
very often have said on the show when in doubt,
don't And I think when it comes to moving plants,
because you do. When you are moving a plant, it's
usually because you have discovered that you know, again, like
you said, it's too big for the area, it's not
(22:38):
doing well, it's not doing as well as you had hoped,
and you think that if it has more sun or
more better drained soil or whatever, that it will do better.
Or you just want to see it in a different
location in your garden. You don't feel like the location
that you originally chose is doing it justice. And you
can take it from Rick and myself that that is
something that happens all the time to gardeners. So you
(22:59):
know you have to all also use your best judgment,
and so you have to kind of think about what
are the parameters that like, what would go into moving
it now, what are the advantages and disadvantage, what are
the risks, what are the benefits versus doing something in spring,
and kind of make a decision based on that. I
know that's not always easy, but if you do have
(23:20):
a question, you can always reach us. And I specifically
picked a bunch of questions about moving plants today.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Oh that's great, and yeah, Cheryl Crow had that great
song A change will do you good. I find that
often with plants. Sometimes if a plant is struggling, if
I move it, I change its environment, it responds.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, because it's different conditions.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, all right, Amy writes to us, would it be
better to move my summerrific high biscus in the fall
or spring?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Great? Question could not be better timed, Amy, since I
am moving a number of summer high biscus myself this fall,
and I am doing it in fall simply because that's
when I have time. And that is often a case
if you have a big garden and have a lot
of different plants. You sometimes move things just when you
have time to do it. And also I feel that
(24:12):
the summerific Hibiscus will benefit from the establishment period for
rooting in the fall, and that will set them up
for a less disappointing from my perspective summer because they're
going to have more rooting time. Or for if I
do it in spring, you know, they're they're starting to grow,
They've they're like, what just happened to me? I just
(24:34):
lost a bunch of roots, Whereas now they can kind
of recover from that, and they will have several weeks
to recover. But of course if you do it in spring,
that is perfectly fine. I have certainly transplanted summarific Hibiscus
in spring, no problem. They didn't necessarily flower super well
that following season, which is again normal, Like you have
to expect when you put a plant through this that
(24:54):
there is going to be some kind of drawback. But
usually I would say I have seen thing bounce back,
you know, after their first year.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
And if you move them right now, air temperatures cooled down.
It's cooling down. It's not the heat of summer, but
the soil's nice and warm, it'll establish roots. I agree
with you. They're off to the races.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
In summer, right, so Amy, I would say, from a
plant health perspective, both fall and spring are equally good
for some horrific hibiscus. So base it on when you
have time as your schedule allows.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Joan writes to us five years ago, I planted a
Japanese maple and a nine bark next to each other
or near each other. Now it is a big block
of red in my garden. Which one should I move?
They are both beautiful.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Ah, she has a real dilemma of paris here. So
I would say, unequivocally move the nine bark. You know,
as I said when I was talking about plants on trial.
As I said when I was talking about plants on trial,
shrubs generally how a fibrous root system. Because they are
(26:03):
multi stemmed, they can recover from being moved a lot
more easily than a single stemmed tree. Is I mean,
think about when you go to a garden center, most
of the shrubs are being grown in containers, and most
of those trees very often are still in ball and
burlap situation. So that kind of shows you that to
(26:25):
move a tree, it's a bigger job. Trees generally have
much bigger, more broad ranging root systems than shrubs do.
Trees also tend to put out big, thick anchor roots
that if those get damaged or though when you're moving something,
you're really going to have some trouble on your hand.
(26:48):
So I would say in this case, the Japanese maple
is going to be far more sensitive to being moved
than the nine bark, which is just going to probably
not even skip a beat. If anything, you'll probably be
grateful that it did get slightly set back because nine
bar can be extremely vigorous shrubs.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Exactly, and a Japanese maple is going to be more
difficult for you to move than a nine bark. A
nine bark you could prune back hard. A nine bark
will respond well to pruning full agreement, move the nine bark.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
So if you find yourself in a similar situation to Joan,
definitely opt for the shrub instead of a tree. You
will be glad that you did.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Stacy Valerie's asking us about let's see interested in knowing
more about the shrubby horse chestnut tree you showed on
one of your episodes.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yes, well I could not resist asking or answering valeries
question here And this was in a garden tour, So
I don't even think it was in a garden tour
that we did this year. I think it was one
that we did last year when Reckon I went out
to our trial gardens and I talked about one of
my favorite favorite plants that is in our trial gardens.
It is not a proven winner's plant, and it is
(27:59):
ess parvaflora, the bottle brush buckeye, and oh it is
one of my all time top five favorite plants. Absolutely
love this thing. It is a native shrub and it's
so it's most people, I think think of buckeyes as trees,
which is not wrong, but this is actually a shrubby
kind of suckering one. And the way that it has
(28:21):
grown in our trial garden is it almost creates kind
of like a little space underneath. And when this thing
is in flower, oh my gosh, it just puts out
these like two foot long flower spikes that are fragrant,
absolutely swarming with pollinators. And then those flowers become buckeyes.
(28:42):
And who doesn't love to pick up a nice buckeye
and walk around with that in your hand. It's it's something.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Well, we do have to tell folks from all over Canada,
across the world here in the United States that in
Michigan the Buckeyes subjects a little bit sensitive. There's this
real rivalry between Michigan and Ohio and sometimes things can
(29:09):
get just downright deflorable.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Well that is true, but I'm not talking about the
Ohio State football team. I am talking about the plant
known as buckeye, scientifically known as esculus uh. And yeah,
it's a great plant. Now, this is a plan I
have to say. I don't have one in my garden
because it is just too big. They are huge and
(29:33):
they start to sucker and form a big, big colony
over a wide area of space. So I don't, unfortunately
have room for it. And that's also why you typically
don't see it in garden centers is because it's really
just one of those plants. It's you know, too big
for most yards. But if you have a native plant
nursery near you, they might sell it. You might be
(29:54):
able to find one online. And if you have a space,
well I'm jealous because it is easily one of my
favorite plants.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
So Fore, people keeping score at home. Can you give
us that botanical name again?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yes, it's Esculus parva flora, the bottlebrush.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Buckeye Aesculus parva flora. That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yes, it's a beautiful plant too.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I love it all right. Mary writes to us, could
you address monarch butterflies and milkweed plants native to our area?
That would help them. I'd love to do my part
in my small backyard. Sorry to see them on the
endangered list. I came across this website, found it helpful.
What do you think, so, Mary writes to us, And boy,
this is a topic that's right in my wheelhouse, Stacey,
(30:34):
because I have monarchs just all over my yard, and
we have a lot of native so that'd be Esclepias syriaca. Yeah, Syriacus, yeah,
syriacus here along the lake shore in Michigan.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah. So there are a number of native milkweeds out there,
and escapist siriacus, of course, is the one that is
most widespread. That is not one you typically see for
sale because you kind of can't not grow it. And
one of the reasons that I really wanted to address
Mary's question is because everyone wants to plant milkweed. But
(31:11):
milkweed is not a plant that does well under nursery production.
And so what happens is people go into the nursery
with grandiose ideas if they're going to plant a milkweed garden,
and then they get there and they're like, ooh, these
plants look awful. I'm not growing this thing. But the
fact is it just does not do well. And the
reason that milkweed does not do well in containers in
(31:31):
a nursery production environment is because it is a tap root.
So on our show all about moving plants, milkweed are
plants that you should not move. They don't take well
to moving because again of that tap roop. So, Mary,
my advice to you would actually be to get seed now.
(31:52):
If you're trying to just grow our native milkweed, which
is great for monarchs, again, you can just go and
take a handful of those and you can plant that
seed right now where you on it to grow, and
it will. Trust me, you will have milkweed next year.
But if you have friends with milkweed, or you can
find other milkweeds in a place where you can collect
the seed, Like I'm thinking of our native orange milkweed
(32:13):
Esclepias tubarosa. The best thing you can do is to
start those from seeds. So if you can order some,
fall would be a great time to plant those. You
could also plant them in spring if you prefer. And
they're pretty easy to plant. The seeds are easy to handle.
And I have grown Escleapias tu barosa from seed successfully
and it's done really really well.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
And here on YouTube or on the website if you're
listening to the radio or podcast, I'm going to share
a picture of milkweed seed, a picture I took on
the beach recently of a milkweed pod breaking open. Love milkweed.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, it's such a cool plant, fabulous and I can't
personally resist if I'm walking in the woods or a
field or whatever, I can't resist exit tappen them and
sending that fluff the parachute.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Love that which has a great story behind it too.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Someday we'll tech, we'll get into that. So Mary, lots
of great choices. We have a number of native milkweeds
to Michigan. But again, get your seed grown from seed.
You will be a lot happier with the results and
the cost. So we're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we've got branching news, so please
dey tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you
(33:26):
by proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering
shrubs in evergreens have been trialed and tested for your
success so you enjoy more beauty and less work. Look
for Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive white
container at your local garden center.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
branching news. And today we've talked about moving plants in
your landscape, and it got me to thinking about moving.
And I had recently seen a survey that well, it
caught my eye and the survey the essentially said one
in four Americans consider moving to be a more stressful
(34:07):
endeavor than landing a plane in an emergency.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Oh my gosh, you had me into landing a plane
and emergency. No, I would much rather move. I agree.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I think that's totally ridiculous. However, that's what the survey says.
A recent survey of Americans who have moved in the
last five years investigated the overwhelming task of moving and
found that more than a few startling answers to some
moving related would you rathers came up. Respondents rated moving
(34:39):
as more overwhelming than losing a job, switching careers, and
even running for president. Now, I don't know how many
people have run for president or how they'd know what
it's like to run for president, but that's out there.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Wow, they really hate moving.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I guess. So the average America has already moved five
times in their lifetime, expect to move three more times
in the future. So that's a lot of digging up
of plants and moving them. And let me mention that
any good realtor also is going to remind you that
if you sell your house, you can't just dig up
(35:19):
those plants and take them along with you. You can't
do that unless you've noted that in the agreement prior
to closing the sale on the house. It's tempting to
bring along those babies. I know in my life when
I've moved, generally the fam you know, it's we got
(35:41):
everything cleared out, the families inside the house, reminiscing, thinking
about all the wonderful memories Christmases past, that sort of thing,
getting emotional about leaving this home I'm outside in the
garden getting emotional and saying goodbye to my plan. Yeah,
that's just the way you do.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
See that in certain real estate listings, seller reserves the
right to certain plantings, that kind of thing. I mean,
I would do that now if I moved. I never
had to do that because I didn't. I was renting
before I moved in this house, so I didn't have to.
But yeah, if I move now. But I also think
that probably my garden would be a detriment to any
(36:22):
prospective buyer. They would just be like, there are too
many plants.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I've heard that before from people buying my home, And yeah,
you drive by a year later and seventy five percent
of the plants are gone.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
So their loss.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
It's it's hard. So yeah, you just you're out there
and you're getting kind of emotional about the whole process.
But yes, anything that's a fixed has to stay unless
it's noted in the agreement. So for example, if you
have one of those basketball hoops that you can roll around,
well you can take that with you, but if it's
(36:56):
in the ground, it stays. The poll revealed that the
average American feels anxiety, excitement those topped the list of
emotions felt during the moving process. Joy, hope, and dread
were also on the list. So just fascinating stuff as
(37:18):
it relates to moving. Here's an interesting news story in
Idaho man and I want to try this, and Idaho
man walked over one thousand, one hundred feet with a
running lawnmower on his chin. It's amazing to see. We're
going to put the link at the website Gardeningsimplified on
(37:39):
air dot com. And I throw this in here because
it's probably something for most people they've never thought of.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I would say that I certainly haven't.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Serial record breaker David Rush took a seventy eight foot
and five point seventy three inch walk with a running
lawn balanced on his chin to break a world record.
He's the holder of the most concurrent Guinness World Record titles.
Using an electric more to attempt the record at a
(38:11):
track in Boise, Idaho. The record to beat was two
hundred and thirty four feet, so he smashed it. He
struggled with wins after surpassing the previous record and would
have kept going, but the breeze finally pushed the mower
off his face. An assistant walking alongside. Rush quickly cut
the power to the mower as it fell. So new
(38:33):
world record balancing a lawnmower on your chin.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
I'm not sure that that is worth the risk of injury.
I agree, was there a blade in it? I was running?
But did they say that, yes, but there doesn't have
to be a blade in it?
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Good point. I better go back and sure.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
I'm just curious because it's true.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
What is your motivation? I wouldn't really want to be
in the Guinness Book of World Records that much, not
for that mister Rush does. So there you go. How
about a horticultural history moment. Robert Prince founded the Prince
Nursery in seventeen thirty seven, So this is something to
(39:14):
look up, maybe do a little study on, because this
is a nursery that operated for one hundred and thirty
years until eighteen sixty five. And if you think eighteen
sixty five, well, Civil War period and families of course
were torn apart and that probably was the demise of it.
But it was the first major commercial nursery in the
(39:37):
United States. It was responsible for importing plants from Europe,
sending American plants abroad, especially during the seventeen twenties, thirties forties.
Really interesting how the Prince family there would write letters
to see captains asking for their help obtaining new plants
(39:59):
for I'm abroad. And then of course some very famous
people visited the nursery. President George Washington visited the nursery,
also Thomas Jefferson, So it was a big deal at
the time. And they had the first known ads for
nursery plants and the first catalog which was published in
(40:23):
seventeen seventy one. So the Prince Nursery, So this would
be in New York, the first garden center, nursery, greenhouse,
whatever you want to call it that we all love
to shop at there in history, founded in seventeen thirty seven.
So just something fun to read about in research.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Did they sell in chimes.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
They didn't sell wind chimes. They probably they didn't sell
barberries or cannas well.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
They could have. I suppose it's possible.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I guess they were really big into fruit trees, and
of course that was the big thing at the time.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Well you need you know, it was not a luxury,
it was a necessity then, and you know, water wasn't drinkable,
so everybody was drinking cider. You got it, got to
have your own supply.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah. As a matter of fact, Thomas Jefferson broke away
to visit the nursery and indicated for whatever reason, that
he was taking this trip for health reasons. Yeah, there
you go. Fall is synonymous with the roasted vegetables season.
Do you like roasted?
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Love them?
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Yeah? After months of only craving salads, we want tender
caramelized vegetables, roasted root vegetables, anyone, it's the season. Mix
and match carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, beats, turnips, root of begas.
A British man broke a Guinness World record with a
thirteen pound root vegetable called a solariac. Oh, it's either
(41:51):
weight or length for a giant vegetable. But it's not beauty.
It's pretty ugly, as he joked in a BBC radio interview.
But that's a root vegetable that you don't hear a
lot about.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
No, it's more popular in like Germany. They use it
in a lot of German food and it's delicious. I
do like it, but man, I tell you, they are
pretty obsessed with growing giant vegetables in the Ukay, we've
got our giant pumpkins. That's like the US thing. But
over there it's like you can grow the biggest onion.
Who can grow the biggest it's a brew of baga.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Yeah, it's the biggest cucumber. Yeah, it's a big deal there. Finally,
leave the leaves moment raking up. Of course, my good
friend Neil Sedaka always saying raking up is hard to do.
And unless you've been living under a pile of leaves,
you've no doubt heard about the leave the leaves movement
(42:44):
that's been gaining popularity in recent years. Now it's not
practical to leave the leaves on a lawn. It's going
to smother the lawn, especially under snow. Now you can
grind up the leaves and be successful. I find up
quite a few leaves. If you have a good more
with a ninja blade on it more, which will basically
(43:08):
take the leaves and cut them into fine pieces, then
you can be successful with it. But there's this real
movement of leaving the leaves for beneficial insects. And when
you think about it again, as far as our yards
are concerned, you'll see some yards where it's just cleaned
up meticulously, and it is arguable that that's not necessarily natural.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
It's definitely not natural. Some people prefer that, and they
just have this idea in their head that, like, you know,
when winter comes, the garden should be a wasteland, and
it's not really like that exactly. I leave the leaves.
I mean, I don't have a lot to worry about anymore,
but yeah, I would just mow right before. And you know,
it's better for every It's free fertilizer, especially when you
(43:54):
have lean, sandy soils like ours.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
I recommend people go out and collect leaves like I
do in the fall and use them, grind them up
and use them in your garden and landscape. Yes, money
does grow on trees. Thank you Stacey, it's been fun.
Thank you Adrianna, and thanks most of all to you.
Thanks for watching us on YouTube, listening to the podcast,
(44:15):
listening to us on radio. Make sure to visit our website,
Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. Have a great week.
Coming to you from Iconic Studio, a at proven winners
Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified radio
podcast and YouTube show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist,
and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, one of
the fun things to do is impulsively buy some plants,
(00:23):
not knowing where they're going to go, and the next
scene you're walking around your yard with a plant in
one hand a shovel in the other, wondering where you're
going to put that plant. Many of these plants eventually
have to move. Fall is a great time of the
year to move these plants. I say bust to Move
(00:45):
and bust to Move was a big hit song. It
means to boogie or hit the road, leave someplace hastily.
It was hip hop genre nineteen eighty nine Young MC
and I loved Uncandy in the movie Uncle Buck when
he dances to bust to Move. But regardless of that,
(01:07):
there are many reasons to move plants this time of
the year, but the number one reason to move a plant,
in my mind, is usually because it's planted too close
to the house, or it's being shaded by a tree
or another plant. The goal in moving plants is to
move a plant to a better location and minimize root loss.
(01:28):
You provide optimal conditions for regrowth, so the ROI return
on investment is good. Because if you don't move them,
odds are you will have to remove them. So why
not take a chance and bust a move. Many plants
in my landscape Stacey are eligible for frequent Flyer miles.
(01:51):
They've moved so many times.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You know, I think that there is a assumption out
there among people who don't really garden or plants a lot,
that gardeners just get everything right the first time, and
that is definitely not what happens. I have been a
gardener for many years. I've known many gardeners, I have
worked for many landscape designers, and I can tell you
(02:14):
that a garden is never a you know, set it
and forget it kind of thing. It is the way
I see my garden, I've finally come to realize, is
kind of like a never ending audition. And you know,
you are looking at the you're casting the characters in
your garden and figuring out where they're going to be
set and what the scene is going to be, and
(02:36):
and that never really ends. You know, you do have
to keep a critical eye. And the fact is that
most plants can actually withstand being moved pretty well. Yes,
it will set them back, that is true. Some plants
can deal with it better than others. But overall, most
plants they're pretty okay being moved. And if you are
(02:57):
going to be happier if that plan is moved for
an of the reasons that you just mentioned, or just
because you just think it should be at another place.
And that's what happens to me a lot is you know,
I get something, I put it in the garden, I
get to know it, I start seeing, you know, how
it really grows, because the way it looks in the
container isn't necessarily representative of how it's actually going to
be when it's in the ground, and I start to say,
oh gee, well that would be better with, you know,
(03:19):
combined with this plant, or I really need more of
this color in this part of my garden, so I'm
going to move some things around. And any of those
are perfectly valid reasons to move stuff around.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Absolutely. I mean, we can debate timing, but I have
rarely failed at moving a plant late in the season
in fall, in October November. Maybe in some cases it's
maybe not the best thing to do, but again, it's
better than removing the plant all together and moving it
(03:49):
to a better spot.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
I'd add, very often better than trying to prune it
exactly to get it to fit into that spot. And
I think that's people's first instinct often is I'll just
cut this. But there are many plants that don't respond
well to pruning or where all of the printing you're
going to need to do is going to disfigure the plant,
and you should just you know, kind of do what
needs to be done and move it.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, that's true. So move them at this time of
the year because the plant is not going to be
putting energy into generating top growth. The soil is warm
and welcoming to new roots, and of course we get
natural rainfall. Also, that's a totally different thing if you're
going to be actually moving the plants to a new location.
Let's say you've sold your home and putting them in pots.
(04:34):
And in that case, if you know it's coming, it's
a good idea to work around the plant with a
sharp shovel, cutting into the roots and then walking away,
watering the plant and hopefully over the course of a
few months starting to establish some new hair roots before
you put it into the pot. But in some cases
that's just not possible. So watering the plant well and
(04:56):
making sure that the plant is not under any drought
stress before you move it, that's important. The other thing
I do like to do is prune back plants when
I move them. It makes it easier for you to
move the plant, and there's less stress on the plant
when you move it. My general rule of green thumb
(05:17):
is take on woody plants, taking fifty percent off the
top of the plant. Now that's just a rule of thumb,
but again it reduces stress on the plant. Obviously, with perennials,
we're going to dig and in some cases use the
opportunity to divide and then replant. And then of course
(05:39):
mulch is a very important thing to apply to these
plants when you move them late in the season, especially perennials,
because they can heave out of the ground if you
have an area where there's going to be frost in
the ground. As a matter of fact, I recommend you
note on your calendar you got to do those winter
walk arounds and inspections you got to get out of
(06:02):
your recliner. I call mine a recliner, but you got
to get out of that recliner, walk the yard, kind
of press them back into the earth. Inspect in winter.
If you're moving some larger plants, Stacy, I like the
tarp and slide method. I have so much fun moving
plants and scheming and late fall and say this is
(06:25):
going to look better over here, and you prepare the
soil in that area, just as if you were planting
a new plant, and the other plant, which can be
rather heavy, you can throw on a tarp after you
dig it up and do the tarp and slide method.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yes, sometimes you got to if it's a really big plant.
You know, I am doing a lot of moving and
transplanting this year. Obviously if you tune into us on YouTube,
there's been a lot of a couple videos about all
of the renovations and stuff I'm doing in my garden.
And I have to move two plants that are generally
not recommended to move.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Oh what are you moving?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Summer of a hibiscus and decadence Baptisia oho. And you know,
everything that I've read says that you should preferably move
the baptisia in the spring, but I'm doing it in fall.
And you know, I often tell people you garden in
the real world. You can sit there and read about
all the ideals that you want, but ultimately you do
(07:24):
garden in the real world. And to me, I've decided
that I would rather move my baptisia in the fall
and you know, give it plenty of chance to grow
roots and hopefully maybe if I'm lucky, still get some
flowers next year. And you know, most of the people,
most are the things that I was reading, and I
did not read anything about anything reliable that I would say,
(07:44):
oh yeah, this is definitely a definitive, you know, take
on moving baptisia. You know, said the reasons that they
say spring over fall is because of the potential for
rot over winter. And I am not worried about that.
In my extremely saying soil yes, and you know, so
I'm not really concerned about that, And you know, I
(08:05):
want to get this head start, so I am going
ahead and taking the risk. I mean, if you've ever
tried to move a baptisia, it is not simple. It
is not easy, even in very sandy soil. So I'm
not looking forward to it the task itself, but I
am looking forward to the results.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
There you go a couple of suggestions. Espoma bioactive plant
food with beneficial bacteria humates and Michael Risey that's something
that I use for enhanced root development. So it's just
a suggestion, but that is a product that I really like.
It's a starter fertilizer that can be helpful. We mentioned
(08:46):
the mulch. And also if you're going to do a
lot of digging and digging some sizable holes, you may
want to call eight one one, the call before you
dig number not a bad idea, and of course that
applies here in the UNI United States eight one one.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And make sure you give them some notice. You can't
just be like I'm doing this tomorrow. They do need
some time because the various utilities do come out individually
and mark your property. So if you're looking at doing
some moving around, do it now call them now.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Good advice. So we'll give you a move. My plant's
limb a rick. I tried to cram a ten foot
plant in an area far too scant. What was I thinking?
That space seems to be shrinking and now it grows
on a slant that bush. It has to go its
boundaries overflow. I think a new location will be that
(09:41):
plant's salvation before it starts to snow. A new location
would behooved to let this shrub find its groove. Its
eventual size wasn't foreseen. It's growing through my windows screen.
It's got to bust a move. So let's get out
there and move some plants. Let's see how Stacey ties
(10:02):
this in with plants on trial that's coming up next
here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
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,
where we are talking today about a topic that definitely
(10:35):
mystifies a lot of people I know. In my years
here working with gardeners who buy Proven Winners plants and
trying to help them find the best success, I have
heard from an awful lot of people who are like,
can I move this? Should I move this? What are
my chances for success? How can I set myself best
for success. It's a very fraught thing. People, you know,
(10:56):
they get very very nervous. If they kill a plant,
it's going to be their fault. They're going to feel
badly about it. And I don't think that for the
most part, people give credit for plants as being as
resilient as they actually are.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
As long as you can take as much of the
root system along with you as you can, in most cases,
you're going to be successful and do it at the
right time of the year. And we're saying this is
a good time of the year.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
To do it right for the same reason it's a
good time to plant something new and fall. And my
number one tip that I don't think it's discussed enough
in terms of moving plants is prepare the new spot
first as far as you can now. Of course, you
don't know how big that root ball is going to
be when you take it out. You can kind of
(11:44):
roughly guess based on the overall size of the plants,
but try to minimize the amount of time the plant
spends out of the ground by digging that new hole first.
As close as you can approximate it. Of course, you
can still go in there and finesse it for what
you're actually dealing with after the fact, but that is
the that should be your number one step. Over well,
(12:05):
your number one step should be watering it so it's
not drought stress when you try to transplit. Number two
step is to go ahead and get the new spot
prepared as far as you possibly can, and then start
digging the other plants.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
A great point, and keep the root shaded.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Keep the rootshaded, yeah, like a piece of cheese cloth
or an old sheet or something like that, just because
you know, you don't really see the little tiny root hars,
but those will be sizzling and frying even if you're
doing it on an overcast day because they're they're very sensitive.
And another fun tip for you here for that I
find very helpful when transplanting, especially larger things, is to
(12:42):
take some old tights or nylons, or you can go
to the dollar store and get them super cheap, and
they're really nice. They're soft, they're springy, and you can
use that to just tie your plant up into like
a big ponytail, and you will get be able to
get a lot closer into the plant to are digging it.
It will make it a lot easier to move because
(13:03):
you're handling the whole plant instead of just one stem
which can easily break. So those are my top tips
for transplanting. Now overall, I do think that shrubs are
some of the easiest plants to move. You know, normally,
if there is something that doesn't when people say, oh,
this doesn't take well to transplanting, most often it's because
(13:25):
the plant is tap rooted. So plants have two basic
types of roots. They have fibrous root systems and there
are tap root systems. And a taproot is pretty much
just what it sounds like. You can more or less
imagine like a carrot, and that is kind of more
or less what's happening there. And because those tap roots
are tend to be thick, they tend to be fleshy,
they tend to be deep and very very difficult to
(13:48):
keep intact as you dig, even in sandy soil like ours.
I mean it can you know the sands, the soils
collapsing back in on you. If you have clay soil,
of course, that's just a lot of X you work
and it makes the plant super super heavy.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Try to move a yuckup plant.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh yeah, well, actually that's pretty easy. I've done that
in our in our soil because of the sand. But
but you will leave some behind, you know, But yuckas
are super tough. So yeah, I don't I don't think
you can kill a yucku maybe yeah, I don't even
know if you could kill it through flooding. But anyway,
so overall, shrubs have fibrous root systems that make them
(14:25):
very easy to move. Plus they are multi stemmed. So
even if there's some damage, which of course there will
be no matter how careful you are, there's going to
be some root damage. Shrubs deal very well with being
cut back or you know, you could take out some
of the stems to reduce the amount of you know,
top growth that you have, because of course, the roots
and the top growth grow in proportion to one another.
So if you have reduced the roots, you should ideally
(14:48):
reduce the top to kind of compensate for that root loss,
as Rick said, But of course, even among shrubs, there
are some exceptions. Although today's plant on trial is one
of those exceptions, it's also not exactly a shrub. The
plant on trial today is diamond ball clemitis, and this
(15:10):
is a plant that is in the proven Winter's color
choice shrubs line because it is a woody clematis. So
some clemitists that stand by me cleminists from proven winters,
those are perennial. They actually die back completely to the ground,
so there's nothing left above ground over winter and they
come back from the roots the following year, whereas the
woody vining clematists like we sell like diamond ball, actually
(15:35):
create a very thin but woody stem and that's what
vines and twines around. And overall, Clematis are plants that
you definitely want to plant in their final destination.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, and who doesn't love clematis or clematis I'm good
either way. We can't pronounce it, but who doesn't. I mean,
it's it's like not loving coffee or chocolate or.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Pizza, right, I mean they are beautiful. I think a
lot of people feel very frustrated about clematis because of
the roots. So these same qualities that make it a
plant that's difficult to transplant also make it a plant
that's difficult to kind of make it happy. And so
I've talked about it on the show before. But the
roots of colmatis are not really like anything else that
(16:22):
you see, and all you have to do is plant
one and you will get it an up close and
personal look at what this actually means. So they're very
very thick, they're very fleshy, and they almost look like ropes.
I was trying to think of a corollary when I
was thinking about this for today's show. They're a little
bit like the brace roots on corn. So if you've
(16:44):
ever grown corn, corn has two types of roots. It
has fibrous roots that it starts to help absorb nutrients,
and then it creates these thick, fleshy brace roots anchor
roots that help it prevent from going in the winter.
And it's very much like that with clematis. Like diamond
ball woody clemtist have this base of the plant and
it just has this kind of like octopus tentacle like
(17:05):
outgrowth of roots coming from it. Now, those thick and
fleshy roots establish very very well throughout the soil, and
so you have to it's they're also quite brittle, so
trying to dig them is very hard. You also don't
have the predictability like you have with something like if
you're trying to move say a nine bark or something
(17:27):
like that, where you say, okay, this is roughly the
space that this plant takes up. You know, the clematis
is vining and winding and going all over the place,
so it's much harder to tell, like what that diameter
of the root system is. And then finally, because those
roots are so thick and fleshy, they take a lot
of energy for the plant to grow and produce. So
(17:47):
if they are damaged, and again no matter how careful
you are, they are going to be damaged somewhat takes
a long time for it to recover from any damage
because it takes so much more energy. Do you create
those roots?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
We should say, Stacey that if you're planting a new
clematis or clematis, this is one of those plants that's
notorious for being a sleep creep leaf plant. Probably the
same case if.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
You move it, absolutely same kind of thing that so
sleep clean sleep creep leap takes the plant a while
to develop a good roots system and begin to perform
well for the same reason. So overall, these are just
plants that just need to put a lot of resources
into their roots. Now, I could have picked any of
the proven Winter's Clematists proven Winter's color choice woody clematists
(18:35):
to discuss for today's plan on trial. But I picked
diamond Ball. It's a really interesting clematist. So it has big,
kind of round ball like flowers. It's very doubled, so
highly doubled they almost look like a dahlia really or
something like that. And the flowers are just this beautiful, cool,
(18:56):
icy blue color. You really have to see it to
believe it. And I was inspired today thinking about the
clemitis and a planting that we used to have in
our trial garden where we had a black lace elderberry
and a diamond ball clematis had been allowed to kind
of wind and grow its way through the black lace elderberry,
(19:17):
and the contrast of the icy bluey purple flowers on
diamond bull clematis with a black foliage of the elderberry
was just absolutely beautiful. And so this goes back to
one of those things where you might just say, well, gee,
I have a diamond ball clematist. It's not like doing
that great or I'm not that happy with it, and
you might want to try something else, and you might
(19:39):
want to attempt to transplant a clemitist. Now again, after
everything that I've just said, these are just things you
need to be aware of. I'm not saying it's impossible
to successfully transplant a clematist, but it is something that
is definitely not recommended. So if you're thinking about adding one,
I would say, consider you using a plant that you
(20:01):
already have in your garden as its structure, rather than
you know, trying to get it growing up something else
that you might have to change or move or whatever.
It's just a great way to get a lot more
impact out of a little bit of space. So just
to thought there, if you do want to try moving clemenis,
I would definitely try that in the fall so that
(20:22):
it had a chance to you know, regrow those roots
and recover before tests. To think about, you know, growing
out in the spring. And of course anytime you transplant
something this is important make sure you give it extra
time in spring to leaf out. If you're transplanting in fall,
it very often will take longer to leaf out than
it would have if it had just been undisturbed. But briefly,
(20:43):
since we are talking about diamondball cleminists specifically, you can
see pictures of it on YouTube or in our show
notes at Gardening Simplified on Air dot Com. It's going
to find to roughly four to five feet tall and wide,
hard to USDA zones four through nine, generally pretty dear
resistant kind of plant. And of course well soil is essential,
so don't even think about planting or transplanting a columbus,
(21:05):
and then you can give it very well drained soil.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
And like any clematists, you want to mulch at the base, right.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Got a mulch, Although the nice thing is if you
plant it adjacent to a shrub like I was just
talking about with the black lace, that can kind of
also function to shade those roots and keep the plant happy.
So check it out Gardening Simplified on Air dot Com.
We're going to take a little break. When we come back,
we've got the garden mail bags, so please stay tuned.
(21:35):
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 and 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,
(21:55):
and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time
for us to simplify gardening for you by answering your
gardening questions, landscaping questions, plant questions, and so forth and
so on. So if you have a question for us,
please do reach out Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
There's a contact farm right there. You can even attach
a photo. And you know, I know that today's topic
of moving plants is one that people do have a
(22:18):
lot of questions on. And you know, I very typically,
very often have said on the show when in doubt,
don't And I think when it comes to moving plants,
because you do. When you are moving a plant, it's
usually because you have discovered that you know, again, like
you said, it's too big for the area, it's not
(22:38):
doing well, it's not doing as well as you had hoped,
and you think that if it has more sun or
more better drained soil or whatever, that it will do better.
Or you just want to see it in a different
location in your garden. You don't feel like the location
that you originally chose is doing it justice. And you
can take it from Rick and myself that that is
something that happens all the time to gardeners. So you
(22:59):
know you have to all also use your best judgment,
and so you have to kind of think about what
are the parameters that like, what would go into moving
it now, what are the advantages and disadvantage, what are
the risks, what are the benefits versus doing something in spring,
and kind of make a decision based on that. I
know that's not always easy, but if you do have
(23:20):
a question, you can always reach us. And I specifically
picked a bunch of questions about moving plants today.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Oh that's great, and yeah, Cheryl Crow had that great
song A change will do you good. I find that
often with plants. Sometimes if a plant is struggling, if
I move it, I change its environment, it responds.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, because it's different conditions.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Yeah, all right, Amy writes to us, would it be
better to move my summerrific high biscus in the fall
or spring?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Great? Question could not be better timed, Amy, since I
am moving a number of summer high biscus myself this fall,
and I am doing it in fall simply because that's
when I have time. And that is often a case
if you have a big garden and have a lot
of different plants. You sometimes move things just when you
have time to do it. And also I feel that
(24:12):
the summerific Hibiscus will benefit from the establishment period for
rooting in the fall, and that will set them up
for a less disappointing from my perspective summer because they're
going to have more rooting time. Or for if I
do it in spring, you know, they're they're starting to grow,
They've they're like, what just happened to me? I just
(24:34):
lost a bunch of roots, Whereas now they can kind
of recover from that, and they will have several weeks
to recover. But of course if you do it in spring,
that is perfectly fine. I have certainly transplanted summarific Hibiscus
in spring, no problem. They didn't necessarily flower super well
that following season, which is again normal, Like you have
to expect when you put a plant through this that
(24:54):
there is going to be some kind of drawback. But
usually I would say I have seen thing bounce back,
you know, after their first year.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
And if you move them right now, air temperatures cooled down.
It's cooling down. It's not the heat of summer, but
the soil's nice and warm, it'll establish roots. I agree
with you. They're off to the races.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
In summer, right, so Amy, I would say, from a
plant health perspective, both fall and spring are equally good
for some horrific hibiscus. So base it on when you
have time as your schedule allows.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Joan writes to us five years ago, I planted a
Japanese maple and a nine bark next to each other
or near each other. Now it is a big block
of red in my garden. Which one should I move?
They are both beautiful.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Ah, she has a real dilemma of paris here. So
I would say, unequivocally move the nine bark. You know,
as I said when I was talking about plants on trial.
As I said when I was talking about plants on trial,
shrubs generally how a fibrous root system. Because they are
(26:03):
multi stemmed, they can recover from being moved a lot
more easily than a single stemmed tree. Is I mean,
think about when you go to a garden center, most
of the shrubs are being grown in containers, and most
of those trees very often are still in ball and
burlap situation. So that kind of shows you that to
(26:25):
move a tree, it's a bigger job. Trees generally have
much bigger, more broad ranging root systems than shrubs do.
Trees also tend to put out big, thick anchor roots
that if those get damaged or though when you're moving something,
you're really going to have some trouble on your hand.
(26:48):
So I would say in this case, the Japanese maple
is going to be far more sensitive to being moved
than the nine bark, which is just going to probably
not even skip a beat. If anything, you'll probably be
grateful that it did get slightly set back because nine
bar can be extremely vigorous shrubs.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Exactly, and a Japanese maple is going to be more
difficult for you to move than a nine bark. A
nine bark you could prune back hard. A nine bark
will respond well to pruning full agreement, move the nine bark.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
So if you find yourself in a similar situation to Joan,
definitely opt for the shrub instead of a tree. You
will be glad that you did.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Stacy Valerie's asking us about let's see interested in knowing
more about the shrubby horse chestnut tree you showed on
one of your episodes.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yes, well I could not resist asking or answering valeries
question here And this was in a garden tour, So
I don't even think it was in a garden tour
that we did this year. I think it was one
that we did last year when Reckon I went out
to our trial gardens and I talked about one of
my favorite favorite plants that is in our trial gardens.
It is not a proven winner's plant, and it is
(27:59):
ess parvaflora, the bottle brush buckeye, and oh it is
one of my all time top five favorite plants. Absolutely
love this thing. It is a native shrub and it's
so it's most people, I think think of buckeyes as trees,
which is not wrong, but this is actually a shrubby
kind of suckering one. And the way that it has
(28:21):
grown in our trial garden is it almost creates kind
of like a little space underneath. And when this thing
is in flower, oh my gosh, it just puts out
these like two foot long flower spikes that are fragrant,
absolutely swarming with pollinators. And then those flowers become buckeyes.
(28:42):
And who doesn't love to pick up a nice buckeye
and walk around with that in your hand. It's it's something.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Well, we do have to tell folks from all over Canada,
across the world here in the United States that in
Michigan the Buckeyes subjects a little bit sensitive. There's this
real rivalry between Michigan and Ohio and sometimes things can
(29:09):
get just downright deflorable.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Well that is true, but I'm not talking about the
Ohio State football team. I am talking about the plant
known as buckeye, scientifically known as esculus uh. And yeah,
it's a great plant. Now, this is a plan I
have to say. I don't have one in my garden
because it is just too big. They are huge and
(29:33):
they start to sucker and form a big, big colony
over a wide area of space. So I don't, unfortunately
have room for it. And that's also why you typically
don't see it in garden centers is because it's really
just one of those plants. It's you know, too big
for most yards. But if you have a native plant
nursery near you, they might sell it. You might be
(29:54):
able to find one online. And if you have a space,
well I'm jealous because it is easily one of my
favorite plants.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
So Fore, people keeping score at home. Can you give
us that botanical name again?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yes, it's Esculus parva flora, the bottlebrush.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Buckeye Aesculus parva flora. That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Yes, it's a beautiful plant too.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I love it all right. Mary writes to us, could
you address monarch butterflies and milkweed plants native to our area?
That would help them. I'd love to do my part
in my small backyard. Sorry to see them on the
endangered list. I came across this website, found it helpful.
What do you think, so, Mary writes to us, And boy,
this is a topic that's right in my wheelhouse, Stacey,
(30:34):
because I have monarchs just all over my yard, and
we have a lot of native so that'd be Esclepias syriaca. Yeah, Syriacus, yeah,
syriacus here along the lake shore in Michigan.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah. So there are a number of native milkweeds out there,
and escapist siriacus, of course, is the one that is
most widespread. That is not one you typically see for
sale because you kind of can't not grow it. And
one of the reasons that I really wanted to address
Mary's question is because everyone wants to plant milkweed. But
(31:11):
milkweed is not a plant that does well under nursery production.
And so what happens is people go into the nursery
with grandiose ideas if they're going to plant a milkweed garden,
and then they get there and they're like, ooh, these
plants look awful. I'm not growing this thing. But the
fact is it just does not do well. And the
reason that milkweed does not do well in containers in
(31:31):
a nursery production environment is because it is a tap root.
So on our show all about moving plants, milkweed are
plants that you should not move. They don't take well
to moving because again of that tap roop. So, Mary,
my advice to you would actually be to get seed now.
(31:52):
If you're trying to just grow our native milkweed, which
is great for monarchs, again, you can just go and
take a handful of those and you can plant that
seed right now where you on it to grow, and
it will. Trust me, you will have milkweed next year.
But if you have friends with milkweed, or you can
find other milkweeds in a place where you can collect
the seed, Like I'm thinking of our native orange milkweed
(32:13):
Esclepias tubarosa. The best thing you can do is to
start those from seeds. So if you can order some,
fall would be a great time to plant those. You
could also plant them in spring if you prefer. And
they're pretty easy to plant. The seeds are easy to handle.
And I have grown Escleapias tu barosa from seed successfully
and it's done really really well.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
And here on YouTube or on the website if you're
listening to the radio or podcast, I'm going to share
a picture of milkweed seed, a picture I took on
the beach recently of a milkweed pod breaking open. Love milkweed.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, it's such a cool plant, fabulous and I can't
personally resist if I'm walking in the woods or a
field or whatever, I can't resist exit tappen them and
sending that fluff the parachute.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Love that which has a great story behind it too.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Someday we'll tech, we'll get into that. So Mary, lots
of great choices. We have a number of native milkweeds
to Michigan. But again, get your seed grown from seed.
You will be a lot happier with the results and
the cost. So we're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we've got branching news, so please
dey tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you
(33:26):
by proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering
shrubs in evergreens have been trialed and tested for your
success so you enjoy more beauty and less work. Look
for Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive white
container at your local garden center.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
branching news. And today we've talked about moving plants in
your landscape, and it got me to thinking about moving.
And I had recently seen a survey that well, it
caught my eye and the survey the essentially said one
in four Americans consider moving to be a more stressful
(34:07):
endeavor than landing a plane in an emergency.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Oh my gosh, you had me into landing a plane
and emergency. No, I would much rather move. I agree.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I think that's totally ridiculous. However, that's what the survey says.
A recent survey of Americans who have moved in the
last five years investigated the overwhelming task of moving and
found that more than a few startling answers to some
moving related would you rathers came up. Respondents rated moving
(34:39):
as more overwhelming than losing a job, switching careers, and
even running for president. Now, I don't know how many
people have run for president or how they'd know what
it's like to run for president, but that's out there.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Wow, they really hate moving.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
I guess. So the average America has already moved five
times in their lifetime, expect to move three more times
in the future. So that's a lot of digging up
of plants and moving them. And let me mention that
any good realtor also is going to remind you that
if you sell your house, you can't just dig up
(35:19):
those plants and take them along with you. You can't
do that unless you've noted that in the agreement prior
to closing the sale on the house. It's tempting to
bring along those babies. I know in my life when
I've moved, generally the fam you know, it's we got
(35:41):
everything cleared out, the families inside the house, reminiscing, thinking
about all the wonderful memories Christmases past, that sort of thing,
getting emotional about leaving this home I'm outside in the
garden getting emotional and saying goodbye to my plan. Yeah,
that's just the way you do.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
See that in certain real estate listings, seller reserves the
right to certain plantings, that kind of thing. I mean,
I would do that now if I moved. I never
had to do that because I didn't. I was renting
before I moved in this house, so I didn't have to.
But yeah, if I move now. But I also think
that probably my garden would be a detriment to any
(36:22):
prospective buyer. They would just be like, there are too
many plants.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I've heard that before from people buying my home, And yeah,
you drive by a year later and seventy five percent
of the plants are gone.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
So their loss.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
It's it's hard. So yeah, you just you're out there
and you're getting kind of emotional about the whole process.
But yes, anything that's a fixed has to stay unless
it's noted in the agreement. So for example, if you
have one of those basketball hoops that you can roll around,
well you can take that with you, but if it's
(36:56):
in the ground, it stays. The poll revealed that the
average American feels anxiety, excitement those topped the list of
emotions felt during the moving process. Joy, hope, and dread
were also on the list. So just fascinating stuff as
(37:18):
it relates to moving. Here's an interesting news story in
Idaho man and I want to try this, and Idaho
man walked over one thousand, one hundred feet with a
running lawnmower on his chin. It's amazing to see. We're
going to put the link at the website Gardeningsimplified on
(37:39):
air dot com. And I throw this in here because
it's probably something for most people they've never thought of.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I would say that I certainly haven't.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Serial record breaker David Rush took a seventy eight foot
and five point seventy three inch walk with a running
lawn balanced on his chin to break a world record.
He's the holder of the most concurrent Guinness World Record titles.
Using an electric more to attempt the record at a
(38:11):
track in Boise, Idaho. The record to beat was two
hundred and thirty four feet, so he smashed it. He
struggled with wins after surpassing the previous record and would
have kept going, but the breeze finally pushed the mower
off his face. An assistant walking alongside. Rush quickly cut
the power to the mower as it fell. So new
(38:33):
world record balancing a lawnmower on your chin.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
I'm not sure that that is worth the risk of injury.
I agree, was there a blade in it? I was running?
But did they say that, yes, but there doesn't have
to be a blade in it?
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Good point. I better go back and sure.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
I'm just curious because it's true.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
What is your motivation? I wouldn't really want to be
in the Guinness Book of World Records that much, not
for that mister Rush does. So there you go. How
about a horticultural history moment. Robert Prince founded the Prince
Nursery in seventeen thirty seven, So this is something to
(39:14):
look up, maybe do a little study on, because this
is a nursery that operated for one hundred and thirty
years until eighteen sixty five. And if you think eighteen
sixty five, well, Civil War period and families of course
were torn apart and that probably was the demise of it.
But it was the first major commercial nursery in the
(39:37):
United States. It was responsible for importing plants from Europe,
sending American plants abroad, especially during the seventeen twenties, thirties forties.
Really interesting how the Prince family there would write letters
to see captains asking for their help obtaining new plants
(39:59):
for I'm abroad. And then of course some very famous
people visited the nursery. President George Washington visited the nursery,
also Thomas Jefferson, So it was a big deal at
the time. And they had the first known ads for
nursery plants and the first catalog which was published in
(40:23):
seventeen seventy one. So the Prince Nursery, So this would
be in New York, the first garden center, nursery, greenhouse,
whatever you want to call it that we all love
to shop at there in history, founded in seventeen thirty seven.
So just something fun to read about in research.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Did they sell in chimes.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
They didn't sell wind chimes. They probably they didn't sell
barberries or cannas well.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
They could have. I suppose it's possible.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I guess they were really big into fruit trees, and
of course that was the big thing at the time.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Well you need you know, it was not a luxury,
it was a necessity then, and you know, water wasn't drinkable,
so everybody was drinking cider. You got it, got to
have your own supply.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Yeah. As a matter of fact, Thomas Jefferson broke away
to visit the nursery and indicated for whatever reason, that
he was taking this trip for health reasons. Yeah, there
you go. Fall is synonymous with the roasted vegetables season.
Do you like roasted?
Speaker 2 (41:26):
Love them?
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Yeah? After months of only craving salads, we want tender
caramelized vegetables, roasted root vegetables, anyone, it's the season. Mix
and match carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, beats, turnips, root of begas.
A British man broke a Guinness World record with a
thirteen pound root vegetable called a solariac. Oh, it's either
(41:51):
weight or length for a giant vegetable. But it's not beauty.
It's pretty ugly, as he joked in a BBC radio interview.
But that's a root vegetable that you don't hear a
lot about.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
No, it's more popular in like Germany. They use it
in a lot of German food and it's delicious. I
do like it, but man, I tell you, they are
pretty obsessed with growing giant vegetables in the Ukay, we've
got our giant pumpkins. That's like the US thing. But
over there it's like you can grow the biggest onion.
Who can grow the biggest it's a brew of baga.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Yeah, it's the biggest cucumber. Yeah, it's a big deal there. Finally,
leave the leaves moment raking up. Of course, my good
friend Neil Sedaka always saying raking up is hard to do.
And unless you've been living under a pile of leaves,
you've no doubt heard about the leave the leaves movement
(42:44):
that's been gaining popularity in recent years. Now it's not
practical to leave the leaves on a lawn. It's going
to smother the lawn, especially under snow. Now you can
grind up the leaves and be successful. I find up
quite a few leaves. If you have a good more
with a ninja blade on it more, which will basically
(43:08):
take the leaves and cut them into fine pieces, then
you can be successful with it. But there's this real
movement of leaving the leaves for beneficial insects. And when
you think about it again, as far as our yards
are concerned, you'll see some yards where it's just cleaned
up meticulously, and it is arguable that that's not necessarily natural.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
It's definitely not natural. Some people prefer that, and they
just have this idea in their head that, like, you know,
when winter comes, the garden should be a wasteland, and
it's not really like that exactly. I leave the leaves.
I mean, I don't have a lot to worry about anymore,
but yeah, I would just mow right before. And you know,
it's better for every It's free fertilizer, especially when you
(43:54):
have lean, sandy soils like ours.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
I recommend people go out and collect leaves like I
do in the fall and use them, grind them up
and use them in your garden and landscape. Yes, money
does grow on trees. Thank you Stacey, it's been fun.
Thank you Adrianna, and thanks most of all to you.
Thanks for watching us on YouTube, listening to the podcast,
(44:15):
listening to us on radio. Make sure to visit our website,
Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. Have a great week.
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