Gardening Influences

Rick and Stacey share the stories of those who have influenced their horticultural perspective in life. We'd love to hear about yours!

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Coming to you from Studio A hereat Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's
time for the Gardening Simplified Show withStacy Hervella me, Rick weisst and our
engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. AllRight, Stacy, so you know we
could be considered as garden influencers withwhat we do on a weekly basis,

(00:23):
and we had an individual reach outto us and ask us, well,
Stacy and Rick, let's turn thetables on you who are influencers in your
life? And I think this willbe fun to talk about. I think
it's a great topic because you know, even if you don't have necessarily like
a big gardening support system, likeyour family doesn't garden, you're not surrounded

(00:43):
by gardeners, you do find yourselfinfluenced by gardens that you've visited, things
that you've read, maybe social mediaaccounts that you follow, and that is
how you grow as a gardener.There's a lot of things you can figure
out on your own as you're cobblingyour way through the garden. But most
of the things that I think thatyou learn from people that you respect and
admire and look up to as horticulturists. You know, those people really stick

(01:08):
with you and they are part ofyour journey. Absolutely, I've had many
influences in my life. I'd haveto start off with my dad. My
dad immigrated to the US in themid nineteen fifties from Europe, and my
dad was a big time gardener.He loved to garden, and he instilled
that love in me both. Heinstilled in me a love of taking hikes,

(01:30):
gardening, and birds, those threethings that's lovely. And my dad
is ninety four years old. Hehas a great sense of humor. But
I remember distinctly as a little kid, he gave each of us kids a
little garden plot to get us growingplants and interested in plants. So we
each grew our vegetable plot. Onemorning, to my horror, I walked

(01:53):
into the backyard and all of myplants were uprooted, laying on their side,
dying and withering. Now I immediatelyknew who the culprit was. My
sister, my older sister, Jane, and I think she was just so
curious as to what was going onunderground that she decided to have a look

(02:15):
see. But of course she didn'tpull her plans out. She pulled mine
out and I will never forget itas long as I live, and we
laugh about this to this day,my sister. So basically I tattled on
my sister to my parents, whichupset her, but what did she expect.

(02:36):
So that night when I went tobed on my pillow, there was
a little note from her and itsaid, dear Rick, I hate you,
love Jane. I'll never forget that. So aveiled confession. Other influences
owners of a garden center in WestMichigan, Flowerland, who essentially never let

(02:57):
me get comfortable. Every year theyhad a new project, a new position,
whatever it may be, and challengethe daylights out of me. That
was a huge influence to me.I think that that is a really important
part of why we interact with otherpeople. It's much harder to challenge yourself.
I mean, you can kind ofchallenge yourself, but you know,
when you have other people who arereally encouraging you and pushing you to get

(03:22):
better and to find out the reasonswhy and to think about things a little
bit more deeply, that's you know, that's where that influence comes from.
Yeah. Absolutely, I was influencedby a drama director. I was always
in drama, and I loved,you know, one of the things I
loved was the fact when you're onstage the lights are so bright you cannot

(03:42):
see the audience. It's dark outthere, but you can feel their energy,
you can feel their support, youcan feel their laughter. It's kind
of like putting bulbs in the groundand then you know they're in the dark
earth. You know that potential's there, but you just can't see it.
Is a huge influence on my life. Alan Armitage he's a professor of horticulture

(04:05):
at the University of Georgia and Alanhe's famous for wearing a tilly hat.
Yep. But he was really influentialto me, and I'd recommend you read
his books. I've read his bookscover to cover. He's a guy who
puts humor into gardening. He's aguy who is like, Okay, enjoy

(04:27):
the garden, but we don't haveto be that serious about it. There's
joy in gardening, there's also humor. You have to have a sense of
humor. If you haven't killed anyplants, you're not trying hard enough,
that's for sure. And so Alanwas a huge influence on me well.
And Alan Armitage, of course isa giant in our industry. If you

(04:49):
haven't heard of him before and youare a perennial gardener, you really owe
it to yourself. He is aperennial expert. I mean, he's a
horticultural expert in general, but perennialsare his specialty. Of his books,
he wrote the book on perennials basically, and yeah, just so knowledgeable,
you know. And I love whenyou meet those people, and it's very
common in our industry, I think, to find these people who just have

(05:12):
this incredible base of knowledge and justthis wonderful personality where you just want to
be with them because you learn andyou get inspired, and it's just a
great energy to engage with. Itis, and he influenced me significantly.
And then Hank Prince. Hank Princewas my closest friend and he passed away

(05:32):
twenty eight years ago this June ofbrain cancer. But Hank was very involved
in the horticulture industry, in thegarden center industry, especially conifers and West
Coast conifers. Loved and it's beenfun to watch his three sons grow and
his eldest son, Henry, alsoinvolved in the industry. Loves photography,

(05:57):
loves conifers, evergreens, that sortof thing, and Hank was one of
these people that would always push me. Now, Hank and I started doing
live radio in nineteen ninety three.We did a call in radio show.
We knew nothing about radio. Theyjust rolled us into the studio, put
a microphone in front of our faceand said start taking calls from people.

(06:20):
And we did. And I didthe Flowerland Show for thirty years. But
Hank Prins was a huge influence onme. And when you lose someone like
that at a young age, itreally has a huge impact on your life
because I look at what he's donein the industry, how he loved gardening,

(06:42):
and the influence he had on meand other people. And so then
in your walk in life you payattention to how you treat others and how
you approach your career professionally. Itwas a huge influence for me, Stacy,
and I think it sounds too likesomeone like that, and with Ellen
Armitage, who is very giving oftheir knowledge, that really influences you to

(07:09):
be that same way and to shareyour knowledge. And the interesting thing about
gardening is that there are some hardand fast facts that are just true about
the way plants grow, but there'salso so much of a personal perspective that
you get from what you grow andwhere you grow at and your decisions that
we really need people like that whoare willing to come out and share that

(07:30):
experience and pass that on to youso then you have some context for the
decisions and everything that you want tomake in your garden. And it sounds
like both Hank and Allen have beenthat person to you absolutely. And then
of course for me, a thirdperson in my life lead in life as
a baby boomer, as a babyboomer now and an aging person in rewirement,

(07:54):
So I fill out medicare forms duringthe week and garden. That's basically
what I do. But a keyperson in my life was a gentleman by
the name of Virgil Westdale. VirgilWestdale passed away two years ago at the
age of one hundred and four yearsold. Wow, this is an amazing,

(08:16):
amazing man. And Virgil Westdale isa person who served in the four
hundred and forty second Regimental Combat Teamin World War Two. He overcame discrimination
and was one of the most Hisunit was one of the most decorated units
in American military history. He hada Congressional Gold Medal. He had the

(08:41):
French Legion of Honor award for extremebravery, which was founded in May of
eighteen o two by Napoleon Bonaparte.Twenty five US patents to his name.
Wow. I'd visit him in therest home and there's pictures of him with
US presidents on the wall, twentyfive US patents, the Congressional and you

(09:03):
stand there and you're amazed. Andyou wouldn't know it if you did not
know this gentleman and the story behindhim. Now. I wrote about Virgil
Westdale in my book Operation Rumination,Turning Back the Clock, and if you
want more information on that, youcan go to a link to the book.
You can go to my website.Thank you very mulch dot com.

(09:24):
But Virgil was an amazing gentleman andreally influenced my life, especially in the
past few years, and how Iconduct myself moving forward. Fabulous swing dancer.
I think at the age of likeeighty seven or whatever, he got
bored, so he went to workfor the TSA at the airport. Just

(09:46):
an unre and his story is sounreal and I don't have the time to
get into it. But I didwrite about him in my book, and
a real defining moment for me.Virgil liked coffee at McDonald's, and I'd
take him to McDonald's and we'd sitthere, and it always blew me away.

(10:07):
Here's one hundred and two year old, decorated US military veteran, and
I'm sitting across the table from him, and we both get the senior discount
on our coffee. I thought thatwas really cool. But you know,
I looked across the table at thisamazing man and I said to him,
I said, Virgil, how didyou accomplish what you did in life?

(10:31):
And he did the same thing otherveterans would say to me. They shrugged
their shoulders and they say, well, you just do what you gotta do.
And I said, Virgil, that'snot good enough, and and so
I never forget it. He putthat senior coffee down, he and he
sat there for a moment, andthen he looked at me and he said,
Rick, somebody said it couldn't bedone, but he, with a

(10:52):
chuckle, replied that maybe it couldn't, but he wouldn't be one to say
so until he tried. So hebuckled in with a trace of a grin
on his face if he worried hehit it. He started to sing as
he tackled the thing that could notbe done, and he did it.
Well, that's lovely and I lovethat. So I'll just end with saying

(11:13):
that these influences. Like I waswatching an interview of Jerry Seinfeld recently,
Jerry said, one of the bestthings you can accomplish in your life is
to develop a skill, and youcarry that with you. Skill much more
important than money. Yeah, Sothose were influences in my life, and

(11:33):
that's the approach I take to gardeningtoo. If you haven't killed any plants,
you're not trying hard enough. That'sfor sure. In there and give
it the old college try. We'regonna hear Stacy's influences coming up next here
on the Gardening Simplified Show. ProvenWinner's Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success

(11:54):
in the garden. That's why wetrial and test all of our shrubs for
eight to ten years, making theyoutperform everything else on the market. Look
for them and the distinctive white containerat your local garden center. Greeting's gardening
friends, and welcome back to theGardening Simplified show. You know, normally
at this time of the show,we would be putting a plant on trial,
one of the proven winner's colored choiceshrubs. We tell you all about

(12:16):
it and you decide if you're goingto add it to your garden. And
I will attempt to bring this aroundto plants on trial by the end of
it, but we'll see how itgoes. But I did want the opportunity
to talk about my influences as well, and I think, you know,
I hope that this show, thisepisode really helps people think about, you
know, who are the people whoinfluence them as gardeners, as people,
especially as we come up onto Mother'sDay and all of that. Now,

(12:39):
I kept my influences much more tothe gardening side of things. And my
first influence was my grandmother. So, you know, a lot of people,
I think when you are a horticulturist, people assume that you grew up
in this like you know, gardenwonderland, and I did not. I
most certainly did not. My momwas not a gardener. I'll get to
my mom in a moment. Andmy maternal grandmother, Glenna Webb, was

(13:03):
a huge influence on me because shedidn't really garden garden like she had plants.
You know, she had a rosegarden. She used to plant these
huge sunflowers always every year on theside of her garage, and you know,
she had like little things like that. But one of my earliest memories
related to plants is that when Iwas about three years old, she had
a large patch of Lily of theValley on the side of her garage.

(13:26):
I can see it clear as dayright now. And she was telling me
about them, and you know,she told me to smell them, and
that was sort of like where everything. I was just like, this is
amazing. And then she told methat I could pick as many flowers as
I wanted, and that was like, I mean, you know, you're
three years old, you want topick flowers. You're always being told you

(13:48):
can't pick flowers, and so forher to just say to me, like,
you can take as many of theseas you want was life changing.
And if you've ever picked a Lilyof the Valley, I don't think there
is any more satisfying flower to pickbecause the stem, the flower stem just
comes right out of that leaf sheathsure perfectly. It just slides right out

(14:09):
like it was meant to do it, and I just remember that feeling of
like being in that patch and pullingthem out and just like I'm good at
this. Of course I didn't realizeit was the plants just being inherently,
you know, amenable to cutting.And so that really to me was like
I think one of my first experienceswhere plants were not just like a thing

(14:31):
that I saw around me, butsomething that I engaged with and something that
you know, I that were likea part of life. Now to this
day, I always keep some Lilyof the Valley around because of this.
I don't particularly like the plant.I mean, as any gardener can tell
you, it's not the most attractiveplant. It's fabulous when it's you know
that weak or two when it's inbloom, but you know, the foliage

(14:52):
starts to go dormant early, lookssuper crummy. It's way way too aggressive.
The only way I'm able to keepit and check is because my garden
is so dry, so that helpsto keep it from spreading too too much.
But you know, I always willhave Lily in the Valley in my
life to honor my grandma's influence.And I've talked on the show too about
my mom. I mean, somany people when you ask them about what

(15:13):
their gardening influences are going to saya parent, and my mom is a
gardening influence on me, but notin the way most people think. Not
in the way that a lot ofthe other people I'm going to talk about
her are the people you talked aboutwas because you've heard me talk about it
before. My mom is a scaredgardener. Sorry, Mom, you know
it's true. I don't think shewould deny this. She's an uncertain gardener.

(15:35):
And you know I grew up shealways did the exact same plantings every
year. So we had whiskey barrelsin the backyard. They had a spike
in the center, red geraniums anda ring of white alyssa on the outside
every year. And you know,it didn't. It wasn't until I became
a professional horticulturist and she was stillliving in New York. I wasn't living
in Michigan where she was, andshe would call me. There would be

(15:56):
a Saturday morning in May where shewould call me and she'd be like,
I'm at the garden center and Idon't know what to do. I see
this thing it says, it's this, is it good will? I like
this? You know she was.She didn't want to take the risk of,
you know, spending that money andspending that time on things that weren't
going to do well for her,and she had been burned. Of course.
You know, back then, plantsdidn't, especially annuals, didn't perform

(16:18):
like they did now. You'd getlobilia and that thing would peter out,
you know, the second it gotover like seventy five degrees or something.
And so her you know, fearand hesitation really influenced me, I think
in the way that I talk aboutgardening. And as I was learning about
plants and gardening and horticulture school,it influenced me to think more about,

(16:41):
like, how can I share thisinformation in a way that gives people the
same aha moment that I'm having rightnow. So when I'm explaining things,
I often have my mom in mind, whether it's you know, I'm talking
about a shrub or whatever I thinkabout. You know, that same people
approaching those problems with that same kindof fear that my mom had. So

(17:02):
I couldn't, of course, forgethorticulture school. I went to the New
York Botanical Garden, School of ProfessionalHorticulture, and met so many wonderful horticulturists
in that time. But one personwho really sticks out in my mind is
Francesca Couelo. She was the directorof the amazing Helped Conservatory at the New
York Botanical Garden. I mean trulyone of the world class conservatories in our

(17:23):
country and in the world, andit had She's a native of Brazil,
and I think she was native toGuyana, so she was trapped. She
was from tropical areas, and youknow, compared to a lot of the
other people that I encountered in mytime at NYBG. When I was at
the conservatory, fran I think didmore to help me understand, you know,

(17:45):
digging into where plants are from,what that means for how they grow,
how to combine plants, looking seeingplants, you know, not just
looking at plants and saying, Okay, it's this, it's this tall,
the flowers are yellow, blah blahblah. Like she was real tuned into
all of the details and took thetime to sort of point those out and

(18:06):
what they meant from a horticultural perspective. So I think she really took a
lot a much more of a mentoringkind of approach where she was legitimately teaching.
And you know, when I wasin those rotations in horticulture school,
a lot of people were just likefree labor, get out there, and
Fran really took the time to showme things that I would not have otherwise
noticed, and I think that reallyhelped me see plants in a different way.

(18:27):
My former boss at Martha Stewart Living, Andrew Beckman, amazing horticulturist,
just a wonderful guy. And itis from him who he actually learned this
saying from a friend of his,so it wasn't his, and I forget
the person who actually originally said this, but Andrew often repeated it and it
has become a defining mantra for mygarden. And that is the measure of

(18:49):
a good garden is how many placesit has where you want to sit down
and have a drink That is awesome. So it doesn't matter what you're drinking,
water, coffee, anything else,but at you know, idea behind
the garden and having places that it'snot just plants that you just look at,
it's gardens are places that you arein that you spend time in and

(19:10):
you're surrounded by and that's something thatI have, you know, used to
kind of I mean design my gardensuch that it is, but thinking really
about what are these spaces and whenyou incorporate seating areas, and it can
be a small area just it canbe two stumps in a little clearing,
or it can be something much fancierthat encourages you again to engage with your

(19:30):
garden and get out in it andnot just think of it as something that
you look at. So Andrew taughtme so so much about plants, but
that one thing. And he isnow the editorial director at Timber Press,
so you can still partake in hiswork. I don't know that that quote
has gotten out much beyond our departmentwhen I worked at Martha Stewart Living,
but Andrew definitely was a big influenceand I learned so much from him,

(19:52):
and he gave me so many opportunities. And you know, that's another thing
when people give you opportunities like youwere talking about flower land. When when
someone takes the time to give youthat opportunity and sees your potential, that's
you know, just a huge,huge influence in your life, and then
to bring things more up to date. I did want to talk, of
course, about my boss, Timwould Tim is someone who I have learned

(20:15):
so much from. You know,he is a plant breader himself, and
there's a lot of times where Iespecially when I first started here thirteen years
ago, there was things I didn'tknow and he was such an expert and
there were things that I could alwaysask him. And I always found that
when I came to him with aplant problem I was helping someone with,
he always gave me a new perspective. He saw something that I didn't see

(20:37):
in there, and that really helpedme to, you know, give the
person a better answer and better advice. So it really helped me get to
where I am and able to answerthings like all the questions that we get
in the mailbag. He's yeah,he's so knowledgeable. And of course plant
breader Megan the tie, she's myfriend, she's my colleague, and it's
just it's so awesome. She's awesometoo, And it's just so great to

(21:00):
have friends who have the same interestas you and who you're always able to
talk about and grow with and justlearn more from each other's unique perspective.
It's just a huge thing. Sobriefly, I did want to talk about
some famous influences in my life,so you can explore these more if you'd
like. William Robinson, author ofthe book The Wild Garden. The Wild

(21:22):
Garden at Wave Hill one of myfavorite public gardens, favorite spaces in any
public gardens in the world. Hewrote the book on that type of design
and that is what I aspire totoday. You can get it for free
as an ebook if you are interested. It's a little bit old old style
writing, I think it was writtenin like the eighteen hundreds, but absolutely
worth reading and fascinating. Christopher Lloydis my all time favorite garden author.

(21:45):
I love reading him. He hasthis way of incorporating personality with knowledge and
he's just a wonderful, wonderful read. And then Beth Chattow. I don't
know if you read Beth Chadow.Beth Chadow is well known for her two
books, The Damp Garden and TheDry Garden, and so there are different
approaches that she took to her incrediblegarden in the UK, and The Dry

(22:06):
Garden is definitely a handbook for meliving in essentially a very very dry garden.
And then finally I do have tojust give a shout out to Pete
Udolf. Pete Audolf, I don'tknow how you pronounce it, but you
know, when I was in NewYork City and he had just designed the
high Line, you know, NewYork City's hottest park, I realized that

(22:26):
all of these people who when Iwas a horticulturist at Tavern on the Green,
who never paid any attention to ourplants, never paid any attention to
the plants in Central Park. Theywere just ho home regular plants. The
way that Pete Audolf combines plants makespeople sea plants. It makes people pay
attention. And even though I workedin Central Park for three years, I
never heard anybody ask what's that?But when I was on the high Line,

(22:49):
I repeatedly heard what's that? Iwonder what that plan is, I
wonder what that plant is? Andit's just, you know, there's something
about his design that really I thinkmakes people like it helped to mitigate plant
blindness, and I really admire thatin him, and influenced of course by
his plant choices, because he isa fantastic plantsman as well as designer.

(23:10):
So I'm out of time to windthis into a plant on trial or going
to take a break. Maybe I'llbe able to do that before we answer
questions in the garden mail bag.At proven Winner's Color Choice, we've got
a shrub for every taste and everyspace. Whether you're looking for an easy

(23:30):
care rose and unforgettable hydrangea, orsomething new and unique, you can be
confident that the shrubs and the whitecontainers have been trialed and tested for your
success. Look for them at yourlocal garden center. Greetings, gardening friends,
and welcome back to the Gardening SimplifiedShow. We've just been telling you
about the people who have influenced ourhorticultural careers and our lives. And I

(23:52):
did say I was going to tryto bring it back to a plants on
Trial, and I do want todo that because I do think that if
you have these influences in your life, one of the best ways that you
can honor them is by planting somethingthat you shared. So I talked a
bit about how I will always haveLilia the Valley, even though I think
it's kind of a crummy plant,because because we're going to get cards and

(24:14):
letters and comments on that right,and I you know, I get that,
But there's so many things I thinkyou know that that you can take
the time to think about and ifit, you know, if that influence
you know was a parent, isthere, for example, an old fashioned
shrub like Whigela. I think Ihear from so many people who say that
Whygela always reminds them of their grandparents? Or lilacs, lilacks. I mean,

(24:36):
you cannot go wrong with lilox,and we're going to do a show
in Lilacs coming up soon. Butyou know, of course, any time
there is a scent, scent isof course the closest to your brain.
So those memories are much more,uh, you know, vivid when you
smell that. So I would encourageyou, instead of having today's plant on
trial, to think about, youknow, what are the plants that the

(24:59):
people who influence you in gardening togarden that made you love gardening or taught
you something. What are the plantsthat you can have in your yard to
not only enjoy in their honor,but so that you can pass on that
same knowledge just like that person didfor you. So I encourage you to
think about what that looks like foryou obviously for me, it looks like

(25:21):
Lily of the Valley, even thoughit's not a great plant. But I
have lots of other plants to throwout my garden that remind me of of
different people. Now, I donot plant my mom's red geraniums, though,
just to put that out there rightnow, I'm not going to see
one of those in your ears,not in my yard. They're okay,
They're just not for me. Yourmom is a wonderful lady, and I
have the privilege of meeting her,and that's that's a great story, you

(25:42):
know, part of your story toStacy, a fascinating story. What an
unbelievable education you have and experiences.And Adriana and I like to joke around
that Stacy's the most intelligent person we'veever met in our life, and I
still feel that way. I don'twant to embarrass you, but it's definitely
not true. And every week onthis show, you as well as myself

(26:03):
and Adriana, we get to learna new word. Because you were also
a linguistics major, How did youget into that? It's a good question.
Yeah, I was. I didget my bachelor's in linguistics from the
University of Michigan, and it isamazing. It is one of those things
where, yeah, people and weknow it's even weirder. My uncle has
his PhD in linguistics. Wow,so two linguistics people and one family,

(26:27):
what are the chances Thanksgiving must beinteresting around your place. I was just
really interested in language and the phenomenonof language. And I loved reading and
I loved writing. But you know, I grew up in the Detroit area,
so we used to get a lotof TV from Canada and they would
have commercials in English and French.Not commercial commercials, but like the station

(26:48):
identification and that kind of thing.And so I was aware from a pretty
young age that there was this otherlanguage out there. And you know,
growing up in the suburbs of Detroit, it's not like I was exposed to
all sorts of different languages. ButI started getting a little exposed to French.
And my mother had taken French inhigh school, and so she would
like say things like, oh,well, this is how you say,
you know, apple and French orwhatever. And I just was so fascinated

(27:11):
from a young age at this ideathat there's like this whole other, you
know, set of words that areare describing the same things that I am,
and so I just I loved thatand wanted to study the phenomenon of
language and realized that linguistics was thestudy of that, and so I went
into it. It was a reallyinteresting study. I knew I did not

(27:34):
want to be a linguistics researcher orprofessor, but when people tell me that
I've explained something to them, clearlyI can thank linguistics because it does.
It's writing a lot of long papers, it's doing a lot of research and
parsing that research. So even thoughit's not directly related to what I do,

(27:55):
it does have a huge influence onthe way I explain things to people,
which is really important to me tohelp them understand I think so too,
and we all benefit from it.Stacey, And that's fantastic. You
know. I didn't go to linguisticsschool, but my parents spoke Dutch in
the house when I was a littlekid, so I'll never forget. In
elementary school, one day I wassent home from school with a note because

(28:18):
I was mixing Dutch with my English. Oh couldn't understand me. So yeah,
that was interesting. But hey,to celebrate last week you mentioned that
maybe I should rhyme or do alimerick about a new word. You taught
us a botanical word, ediolated,And I've been working on that all week
long, thinking about ediolated. Nowstacy for our viewers, our listeners,

(28:44):
ediolated means what so edulated et iol a t ed before Rick pollutes your
brain with his version of diolated.It means when a plant gets really thin
and skinny and pale because it's reachingfor the light. So that's ediolation.
I always said stretched, Well thatworks too, yes, But now from
this day forward to the end ofmy life, I'm always going to say,

(29:07):
Eddieolated, how you influenced people.But see, the thing about linguistics
is like it's not about hey,there's all these rules. It's about being
understood. So if you're understood,you can say stretched. If you say
eddiolated, you might not be understood. So just something to keep in mind,
Well, understand how my brain works. I heard that and I wrote
the ode to Eddie olated. Hisplants are stretched and faded. Poor Eddie,

(29:33):
Eddie olated, try as he might, he lacks good daylight. His
daisies are barely foliated. His gardenhas him irritated. Poor Eddie Eddie elated.
His goals are far fetched with plantsthat are stretched and sadly incapacitated.
His home turf is undomesticated. PoorEddie Eddie olated. He needs some support.

(29:56):
He's battling mugwart. He's humiliated andfrustrated. Good will needs to be
cultivated to keep our friend motivated.Send letters, notes and cards of encouragement.
Best regards to Eddie. Poor EddieEddie elated. Wow, Rick I
challenged you to rhyme ediolated and youwent above and beyond the call there.

(30:21):
That was wonderful. That's simply howmy brain works. That's how my brain.
I think we're going to have toput that into an AI to get
an image of what eddiolated actually lookslike, So look for that on the
YouTube version of the show. Sounless you have your own version of ediolated
in your head, you want tokeep that. I love that. I
love it too, of course,Stacy. On our show, we get

(30:42):
questions from folks and pictures and welove that too. As part of our
mail bag set. Yes, andwe heard from a listener Carrie. Carrie
is in her first years of gardeningin central Florida, and gardening there has
brought her to tears many times,she says, even though she was a
heart major in the seventies and herdad built her a greenhouse for her horticulture

(31:03):
graduation, but now she is inthis totally different climate learning a whole and
it is like language. When youhave to go in garden in a new
climate like that, it is likelearning a new language. Learning new plants.
It's like new words, new waysto combine them. But Carrie has
a massive success to share, andshe said, even though she had many
varieties in the greenhouse, she's nowoverjoyed to be able to plant these same

(31:26):
plants in her yard and keep onher outdoor lunai, which is of course
a beautiful shaded patio that are verypopular in Florida. I wanted to share
with you my discovery of my firstpapaya tree in my front garden. I
watches it flowered like crazy, andI waited for fruit. I was amazed
to see with my own eyes howwhite the stephanotis like flower tips that's a
kind of jasmine. Eventually closed upto create the papaya fruit, and she

(31:49):
enclosed some pics of her very firsthome grown papayas. She says she loves
the show, she appreciates the warmzone ideas that we do include, and
she he's a grateful gardener in theSunshine State. So we will put Carry's
pictures of her first papias on ourshow notes at Gardening Simplified on Air dot
Com, and of course they willbe in the YouTube version of the show

(32:09):
as well. I love that andyou know, it makes me think of
a famous person I met, SteveMiller or the Steve Miller band. I
love that group and his song JungleLove. I left a creative papayas by
your front door, right yeah,yeah, yeah, so yeah, So
thanks Carrie. And if you don'thave if you want to celebrate your gardening

(32:31):
successes with us, you can alwaysreach us at help HLP. At Gardening
Simplified on Air dot com, youcan leave a comment on a YouTube video,
you can leave a comment on Instagram, or you can just write a
visit Gardening Simplified on air dot comand click on the contact tab because yeah,
I mean, it's frustrating when youdon't have someone who shares your enthusiasm
for gardening. And you're like,but this is really cool, trust me,

(32:52):
and they're like, okay, youknow. But along that line,
Stacey, we got a note fromSandy I placed in order with proven winners
for my very favorite hosta. It'sthe Shadowland we Whee. I first saw
this beauty at the Michigan State UniversityExtension Garden and Grand Rapids and absolutely fell

(33:13):
in love with it. I dorethe name we and have named mine Maxwell,
after the little piggy with the pinwheelon the Geico commercial. His name
was Maxwell. I'm going to placea pinwheel next to mine in the garden.
I thought you'd get a chucklate.Oh, that's so cute. That
is such a neat hostess. Ifyou're not familiar with it. It has
super duper undulating leaf margins, sothey're really wavy and not just like a

(33:36):
little bit wavy, like very verystrong wavy. And it just gives it
a really unique textural look in thegarden. And when I could grow hostas
in my old house, I didhave that one. But hostas are definitely
a no go for me now betweenthe hot, the dry, the deer,
not a chance, you know exactly. Well, we got to take

(33:57):
a little break. When we comeback, we're going to answer a couple
more garden questions, so please staytuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought
to you by Proven Winners Color ChoiceShrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and
evergreens have been trialed and tested foryour success so you enjoy more beauty and

(34:17):
less work. Look for Proven WinnersColor Choice Shrubs in the distinctive white container
at your local garden center. Welcomeback to the Gardening Simplified Show and extended
version of the mail Bag this week. And Stacy, I've got a question
for you. Actually it's a questionfrom Cindy Banana water madness. You've probably

(34:38):
seen this in social media. Icompost bananas in my garden, but to
soak them in stinky water won't itcause fruit flies? I want to hear
what Stacy thinks of this. Youknow, it's I'm gonna call it a
hack or a trend in social mediato soak banana peels in water and then

(35:00):
water your plants with them, right, And the claim is that it's a
magical in concoction that you could justmake from something you'd otherwise throw away.
And it's gonna do all these wonderfulthings for your plants. So on the
topic of influencers, there are manypositive influences on social media for gardening that
you can engage with, and thereare many negative influences yes, as well.

(35:20):
Now this one, I guess itmight be kind of a stretch to
call it negative because there's probably noharm aside from the gross, smelly,
slimy banana water. And if you'velistened to the show before, you know
neither Rick nor I are fans ofbananas. But even if we were,
we would still be opposed to thisphenomenon of banana water because of what the
claim is is that the banana fullof potassium, and if you soak it

(35:45):
in water and fuse it in water, that potassium is just going to like
come right out of the peel andinfuse the water full of potassium and it's
going to be some sort of superpotion and it's not Potassium is not water
soluble. So when you're soaking thatbanana peel in water, yeah, it's
going to look like something's happening,But all that's happening is like the flesh
is like coming off in the waterand getting like slimy, and it's not

(36:08):
actually adding any potassium to the water. Now, there are definitely gonna be
people out there who say, well, I watered with banana water and my
plants did great. Now, thereis a saying in horticulture that you may
be familiar with, and that isthe best fertilizer is the gardener's shadow.
And that basically means that the moreyou are engaging with your plants, the

(36:30):
better they're gonna do, because you'renot like, oh, I forgot about
that thing in the back forty andit's not getting any water, and it's
just like dying in the sun.If you're watering it, you're looking at
it closely, you're picking up onall those changes. And certainly watering with
banana water is the same as watering. It's still going to get the plant
water and keep it healthy. Butlet's not pretend that it's some sort of

(36:51):
magical concoction. It's not. It'sjust a gross, slimy banana peel in
water. Absolutely, we compost thosebanana peels instead of infusing them in water.
They will do far better in thecompost when the microbes and everything are
able to break them down and turnthem into organic matter, which does have
nutrients, so your banana pil doesn'thave to go to waste. You also

(37:13):
don't need to sit around with adisgusting picture of banana water in your house
for who knows how long. YellowYeah, tell you. You know.
There's also a saying don't follow thecrowd, or in this case, don't
follow the bunch. Yeah, that'sa good one. Yes, Sue,
someone should someone should put that other. But you know, it's true that
a lot of things, so calledhacks or whatever on social media feel like

(37:37):
they could be true. So it'svery tempting to share them and to say
what's the harm in it? Andagain, there's probably not any harm in
banana water. Yes, you arelikely to get fungus nuts, but you're
likely to get fungus nuts if youare overwatering with regular non banana water as
well. So I think it's importantthat we, whatever it is, that

(37:58):
we fact check and into it andsay, you know, is this really
the best way? Is this doingwhat it's claiming to do. It goes
back to our IPM thing, whichis like you want to do the least
harm with the most benefit. Wellsaid Stacy, Let's stick with slimy subjects
here and a note and pictures fromLisa. By the way, we do

(38:19):
our show on radio, podcast andYouTube. Adriana drops wonderful pictures into YouTube
that you can see, including thepictures that Lisa sent us of some worms.
Speaking of a slimy subject, shesays, these are the biggest night
crawlers I've ever seen during the morningslast week. They were out in the
dogs area. When I was outwith the dogs, I counted four or

(38:39):
five of them stretched out in theyard like this. Gonna have a bumper
crop of nightcrawlers. And yes,these are very very long worms. But
I would remind people that worms havecircular muscles and they have longitudinal muscles.
The circular muscles, when they contractthose, that's when an earthworm gets really,

(39:00):
really long. And she put thisearthworm up against a ruler ruler stick,
so you can see that picture,or you can go to our website
Gardening Simplified on air dot com.The longitudinal muscles, when they contract those,
then the worm gets shorter. Soit's not unusual to see worms really
long in the garden. And itcould be a matter of age, it

(39:22):
could be a matter of different speciesof worms because there are a number of
different species, you know, thatwe have. It could be that like
umulched and that created an environment thatwas more friendly to these bigger worms.
So there's a lot of reasons whythat could happen. But yeah, it
sounds like someone needs to get afishing pole. There you go, dip
into that mail bag. Do youhave over there? Oh my gosh,

(39:44):
we have. We have so muchstuff. We have a lot of different
questions and oh, Tina writes,this was an interesting She's also in Florida,
and she was surprised to see thatone of the supertunias she planted last
year returned this spring, and shewas wondering if it's possible to move it.
So when we had Adam Mosley,who's one of the breeders of super
tunias, on the show a coupleof weeks ago, he talked about we

(40:07):
talked a lot about how they canlive in hot climates, and he says
usually they kind of peter out inTexas at least by summer when it's getting
really hot and really dry, andthat's when he loses his But in Florida,
of course, it tends to bemore humid, and so when you
live in these more mild climates,you don't have any frost or cold that
would normally kill the supertunias, andso hers probably just got real small and

(40:29):
kind of went like, you know, a little bit dormant, conserved its
resources, and then when spring cameand it was warm and sunny and everything
again, it's a supertunia lemon sliceor super Bell's lemon slice, and it's
looking great. So by all means, yes, you can absolutely move it,
Tina to someplace else. Looks likeyou just got a little bonus.
Soyah. It's kind of one ofthose things that an annual when we use

(40:51):
when we talked about this a coupleweeks ago as well, when we talk
about the term annual, we useit to mean a plant that we're just
growing for one season. But thereis difference between a true annual one that
goes from seed to seed within oneseason. So that would be like cilantro
or dill. If you've ever triedto grow those, you know, you
plant the seed, you get theplant, and then it goes to seed
and it's gone. Whereas petunias andcaliber Coa's superbells and supertunias are potentially perennial

(41:17):
if they are living in an area. So it's an annual is a horticultural
term, it's not necessarily a botanicalterm that actually describes the behavior of your
plant if all conditions are right.And it's important to note Proven Winters tests
its plants all over the world indifferent conditions, Stacey, to test the
genetics. And when we're talking aboutannuals. In chatting with Kevin Hurd from

(41:39):
Proven Winters, he said to me, part of the reason they do some
of their trialing in Florida is toput some of these annuals under winter conditions
and see how they perform after ahot, sticky, humid summer, again
testing those genetics. Yeah, there'sso many different factors that are worth exploring.

(42:00):
From Chris, and his question isabout new raised garden beds. He
has four of them. They're fourby eight feet long and twenty seven inches
tall. That's a deep bed.Is it okay to fill the bottom of
the raised bed with topsoil and theother half with a special mix from the
garden center. I don't want tofill it with logs and such. And
he says thanks. He enjoys theshow, so you know I have.

(42:23):
I have very many strong feelings abouta mending soil and also with filling garden
beds, so I get that now. Generally speaking, as I've said on
the show, many times, plantroots are concentrated in the top eighteen inches
of soil, So you want togive all of your plants a good solid
eighteen inches of consistent growing media,whether that means topsoil or like a raised

(42:46):
bed soil which you don't need.I mean, you can just fill those
things with topsoil you don't need ifit's a lot more expensive to get something
else. I think topsoil is likelyto be the most cost effective choice in
most areas. Top soil. ButI was going to mention to you some
greenhouses, and including one that Icurrently help out part time, will sell
something called recycled greenhouse soil. Inother words, they're going to have plants

(43:09):
that they don't or plants at theend of the season or whatever, and
instead of just wasting that soil,they put it in a pile and people
can buy it really cheap. Sothat's something to check out at your local
green That's a great idea. Ididn't know about that, So I would
not recommend Chris having two different substrateswithin the bed. One thing that can
happen when you have those different layers. It is better to have the heavier

(43:31):
layer below. But as I've talkedabout on the show, this bathtub effect,
so that light, fluffier soil onthe top has big pores, it
can hold a lot of water.The top soil below it is going to
have smaller pores because it's true soil, so it's going to be more of
a clay or sand based soil.It's going to have much smaller pores.
So you're able to apply a tonof water to that top layer, and

(43:53):
then gravity starts to take its toll. It starts to drain down and all
of a sudden, it's like tryingto like jam a huge crowd through a
little tiny door and it doesn't work, So the water ends up sitting in
that top layer. So I wouldnot recommend using two different things. If
you have, you know, costeffective I would cost effective pricing on one,
I would try to mix them.But otherwise I would say, unless

(44:15):
you can get the recycled greenhouse soil, all topsoil is gonna be your best
bet for filling that raised bed.So if you have any questions for us,
you can always reach us at HelpHLP at Gardening Simplified on air dot
com, or just visit Gardenings Simplifiedon air dot com and click the contact
tab. Or of course, ifyou leave us a comment on YouTube,
Adriana will always pass those on tous so we'll get you an answer.

(44:36):
There's so many ways to reach us, especially as we go into gardening season
and people have a lot of differentquestions about what's going on. But that's
all the time we have for thisweek. We want to thank you all
so much for listening. Thank youRick, thank you Adriana, and again,
thank you all so much for listening. We appreciate you and help you
have a wonderful week ahead.