April 13, 2024 • 44 mins
The term "beneficial insects" gets thrown around a lot but what does it really mean? We explore the concept and share which ones you're likely to find in your backyard, and how to best support them. Featured plant: Lo & Behold 'Blue Chip Jr.' butterfly bush.
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(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, today we're going to talk beneficial
insects Stacey. And it's you know, one thing to use them in a
greenhouse setting, and many do.It's a controlled environment and you've got controlled
(00:26):
temperature. But it's another to counton beneficial insects in your yard. Not
a bad idea to try it,but I think causes confusion from people.
Well it does because I think,especially as people have gotten more and more
aware of the plight of honey beesand native bees, you know, just
like we were talking about with MikeConnor last week, they think, okay,
(00:49):
well, bees are beneficial because theypollinate, and so people tend to
think of beneficial insects as pollinating insects, and yes, that is a benefit.
But when we talk about beneficial insectsin this contexts what we usually mean
is that they're benefiting you and thatthey are carnivores who are eating other insects,
or they are invertebrates who are eatingother insects, or are eating insects
(01:11):
in your garden like spiders. Sothe benefit to you from these beneficial insects
is they're doing your past control foryou. You've got it a form of
IPM, well, said Stacy,And so let's talk about it and some
of those beneficial insects that maybe youcan spot and learn more about in your
(01:33):
landscape. Everybody wants to do somethingand possibly do something that's beneficial to nature.
You know, it's no different thanthe guy who walked out out of
his house with a frog on topof his head and his neighbors laughing at
him that he's got a frog onhis head, and he says, you
can laugh, but I haven't beenbit by a mosquito in years. I
(01:53):
wouldn't suggest that technique. But tobe successful in your landscape, you need
diversity. You need some native plants. I think you need some herbs,
because herbs are aromatic. The manyare perennial or regano or thyme or lemon
balm, and especially when they bolt, they make a great situation for beneficial
(02:15):
insects. And those insects love flowersof cilantro or lemon balm. Or dill
is a big one. Native plantsof course, stacey asters, jobpi weed,
ironweed, b balm, milk weed, a lot of different types of
plants that can draw beneficial insects toour landscape. Well, you know,
there's a common thread through a lotof the plants that you just name that
(02:38):
people might not be aware of,and that is that they pretty much all
have very small flowers. At leastthe little fluorax make up a larger inflorescence.
So if you think of something likea dill flower or a cilantro flower
or regano or something like that,all of these plants they have flowers,
small flowers in clusters. And whenwe're talking about beneficial insects are for the
(03:00):
most part talking about some pretty tinylittle guys. Yes we are, and
they can't, you know, getinto a big flower and get the nectar.
They'll drown. They'll fall right inand drown in a nectar pool,
and that's no good. So allof these plants with small flowers, and
you talked about bbalm, he talksabout ironweed and all of these other things,
same exact thing. All of thoseplants are in the astor family.
(03:21):
Astor acy and they're flowers even thoughwe look at them and think, oh,
it's one flower. If you thinkabout a daisy that you think it's
a daisy flower, it's actually awhole bunch of little, tiny florets arranged
in that influorescence. So from aninsect point of view, that's not one
flower. That's like, you know, five hundred flowers, and that's you
know, a bonanza. You know, that's well said and a great point.
(03:43):
So if you're looking to attract beneficialinsects to your landscape, look for
those types of flowers, which arekind of complicated flowers because many numerous florets.
As you said, Stacy, Iwanted to ask you how you feel
about bug food. Of course,you can go online and you can buy
beneficial insects, and then some ofthese sites will recommend that you use bug
(04:03):
food. Essentially, you take sticksin your garden and you paste this bug
food, which is some of themcall it waste paste in other words,
whey and yeast and sugar and brushingthem on these sticks. There's recipes out
there. How do you feel aboutthat? I mean, how I feel
(04:23):
about it is that flowers are morefun. Yes, so you would really
only need to do that if youdidn't have flowers, and a lot of
times, especially like in a greenhousesituation, if you are releasing beneficial insects
to help prey on aphids or spidermites or whatever, then you might need
that because you might not have anythingin flour to feed the adults. And
(04:45):
that's the key. When we talkabout beneficial insects, what we're mostly talking
about are insects that from their larvalstage or their baby stage. Those that
stage preys on insects or spider mites, and the adults want them to stick
around and have their babies in yourgarden, and they eat flowers. So
(05:05):
that's a big difference. So youneed to have that food source for the
adults in order for them to belike, hey, it's cool here,
I can set all there's food there, shelter, you know, I like
it here. If you don't havethat, if you don't have flowers,
which can happen in a greenhouse ordepending on your garden, you know,
you get them in in spring andyou don't have a lot of stuff blooming
or stuff not suitable to these tinylittle guys, then yeah, you might
(05:27):
need to provide some supplemental food likethat. So let me segue off what
you just spoke about. Ladybugs.Yeah, ladybugs dealing with aphids, and
of course you have the Asian ladybugs, and then you have the native
lady bugs, which generally hang outin leaf litter. The Asian ladybugs tend
to hang out in your house overwinter. Oh yeah, and they operate
in clusters. But the point isis the larva almost looks like tiny little
(05:51):
alligators and that's where they do theirdamage. Yeah, and you know,
so many people will see a ladybuglarva for the first time, I'm and
freak out, what is this inmy garden? Is it bad? So
we'll put a picture, of course, on the YouTube version of the show
if you're able to see it,or of course you can just search for
it. But yeah, I've heardalligator, I've heard dragon. People use
(06:14):
all sorts of creative names. Sobasically, you know, I remember being
a little kid and having some sortof little insect land on me and be
like, mom, it's a babyladybug. Well, no, it's not
a baby ladybug, because a babyladybug does not look like an adult ladybug.
It's a kind of wormy alligator lookingthing. It is orange and black.
It's kind of spiky. I imaginepeople are getting some wild imagination.
(06:38):
You know, it's movie. Yeah, it does. It kind of looks
like being alien or something creepy likethat. But they have a voracious appetite
for aphids especially. I mean theadults will eat some, but those adult
ladybugs again, they're going for thenectar. It's those those larvae that you
really need to feed. That's what'swhat's doing your pest control for you.
(06:59):
And we should dive in deep inregards to this subject. I know,
Stacey, you know a lot aboutinsects and love insects, and I don't
blame you. I do too.You know, if we go down the
list, there's beneficial nematodes where we'regenerally dealing with insects in the soil.
Yea larva, you have lace wings. Parasitic wasps. I always in summertime
(07:25):
love to watch the work of parasiticwasps when they lay their eggs on tomato
hornworms. Oh yeah see, Ihave not seen that yet. I've seen
pictures of it. But you know, people think wasps, whoa, whoa
whoa wasps could never be beneficial,and wasps can be a predator of desirable
insect larva as well. So itis important to know that some of these
insects that are considered beneficial insects arereally kind of non discriminate when it comes
(07:47):
to eating, so they can eatsome beneficials. But you know you're talking
about a wasp that if you havea tomato hornworm, which you know,
I'll just come right out and sayit's tomato horn rooms are the only insect
that truly freaks me out. Theyreally do. They're so big, they've
eaten so much of your tomato.I do not like them. I can't
bring myself to squish them. IfI find one, I fling it into
(08:09):
my driveway and let the birds getit. But yeah, sometimes if you
get lucky, you will find onethat's all covered in white eggs. And
basically what that is is the larvaor the eggs of parasitic wasps. And
when those eggs hatch, those larvaare going to go into the insect body
devour it. Got it help burstopen as adult wasps to repeat the cycle.
(08:31):
I've posted pictures in social media andpeople freak out. Yeah, so
it's crazy you have the tacanid fly. I love the scientific name for that
thing, bombie Leopsis abrupt something likethat. We'll post it or maybe Adrian
will put it on the YouTube video. Hover flies and I struggle with that
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word, Stacy. I never knowif it's hover or hover or hover or
hoover. So I always thought itwas hover, you know, because they're
hovering. I'm gonna take your words. So surfed flies. I usually say
surfed flies anyway because it's more funto say. And I don't know,
I just I always say surfing flies. But so another way that people can
think about these is their bee flies, because they do use a bee mimicry,
(09:18):
so they look like bees, butthey are flies. And you can
tell the difference because the surfed flyhas two wings, so flies have two
wings. Bees have four wings.So if you're able to observe it and
you only see the two wings,that is a surfed fly. It's beneficial.
Again, going back to that larvalstage loves to eat all sorts of
nasty stuff and does a great job. And I find the adults really quite
(09:43):
delightful and I love seeing them.I grow a lot of fennel ornamental fenel,
and they love those flowers. Yeah, eats lots of nasty stuff.
That's like some teenagers I know whocan still do that at their age.
Praying mantis, rove beetle are fascinating, learn more about them. There's so
many that we could talk about.And I love the leafhopper. Assassin bugs,
(10:09):
Oh my word, are they verycool. Also, so with a
name like assassin bug, it's gotto be cool. Well. And part
of the reason they call them assassinbug is because they're predatory in all stages.
And that's the interesting thing. Asyou mentioned the lady bugs just in
the larva stage, but with assassinbugs they named them appropriately. Well,
(10:31):
we'll see how Stacey ties this allin in Plants on Trial coming up in
our next segment Here on the GardeningSimplified Show, Proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs
cares about your success in the garden. That's why we trial and test all
of our shrubs for eight to tenyears, making sure they outperform everything else
(10:54):
on the market. Look for themin the distinctive white container at your local
garden center. Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified
show where we are talking about oneof my all time favorite subjects, insects.
I love them, I love cnom, I love talking about them,
I love learning about them, andI love sharing the few things that I
(11:15):
do know about them, because,just like plants, learning about insects is
open to a whole new world thatyou couldn't even begin to master. Now,
we didn't mention in the first episode, in the first segment when we
were talking about beneficials, you didn'tmention one of my absolute favorite beneficials.
What one would that? Lace wings? Oh, lace swings, You're right,
yes, So I love lace wings. They are beautifully elegant as an
(11:39):
adult, So they have this sortof gorgeous, glowing lime green color and
they're one of the larger, Iwould say, of the of the beneficial
insects. And their wings really arevery lacy and light and see through and
delicate, so beautiful adult. Butwhat I really love about them is the
eggs. And once you know whata lace egg looks like, you do
(12:01):
start to find them everywhere, andthey're typically on the underside of the leaves,
and they are they're just this fine, sort of little hair like structure
with this elegant little egg at theend. So they lay their eggs on
these stalks, and they are typicallyin groups of like maybe five to ten
or something like that. Now,again, this is another case where those
larva are doing much more benefit toyou in terms of eating aphids and all
(12:24):
these other you know, negative insectsin your garden. But whether you have
the eggs or the adults, Ithink they are just so lovely. And
I do want to say, don'tget lace wing confused with lace bug,
because lace bug is a bad insectfor your garden. Some plants are much
more susceptible to it than others.Of course, the azalea lace bug is
(12:46):
a notorious one. Sycamore and Londonplane also get a lace bug. And
lace bugs are not beneficial. Theyactually suck plant juices and can cause some
ugly you know coloration on your plantleaves. But lace wings totally good.
Welcome in, roll out the welcomemat for the lace wings in your guards.
So, in bug talk, thelesser of two weavils, Yeah,
(13:07):
I guess. So, I guessyou could say that although they are not
in the weavil, weavels are typeof beetle. Sorry, I'm gonna get
a little pedanzic when it comes tobugs. I'm very passionate about that.
Well, let's have it so aswe're saying whatever, you know, beneficial
insect that you are trying to encouragein your garden, and I do want
(13:30):
to say this, we should mentionthis. You can buy beneficial insects.
Those are very often sold for usein a greenhouse or something like that.
But typically for most of us asgardeners, we don't need to buy them.
All we really need to do ismake our gardens more hospitable for them
to take up residents and they'll findit on them. These are native for
the most part, insects that justthey're just around the environment. Yeah,
(13:56):
and would you agree with me,Stacy, that dyl is a good choice,
still is a great choice. Okay. The only problem with dill is
that it blooms for a relatively shorttime. I mean, I love dill
flowers. I love dill, Butdill is a plant. You know,
again, we've talked a bit aboutcilantro on. I know we're in plants
on trial and I'm about to gooff on some major tangent here, but
you know, people think because ofhow they buy dill in the grocery store
(14:20):
that it's going to grow one wayand it doesn't grow the way. It's
the same with cilantro. So inthe garden, dill is very lush and
leafy early in the season, andthen as summer comes on and it gets
ready to flower, those leaves kindof peter out and you just get that
long flowering stamp. Great for pickles, perfect timing for when the cucumbers really
start to come in the garden.But really to have a steady supply of
(14:41):
dill, you need to keep sowing. The sea continues sewing so that it's
always coming up because it just naturallyhas that short life cycle. But talking
about dill and having that relatively shortflowering time is the perfect segue into today's
plant on trial, which is lowand behold blue chip junior butterfly bush.
I love that plant. Yeah,I love it too. And you know,
(15:03):
of course, butterfly bushes budleia getall the attention for attracting butterflies.
I mean, it's right there inthe name, so kind of clear why
that would happen. And yes,they do attract butterflies, but the same
reason that butterflies are attracted to them. Are the same reasons that beneficial insects
would be attracted to these plants.They have numerous small flowers, a very
(15:26):
high pollen and nectar count. Andthe great thing about adding, now this
is true of any butterfly bush,but I'm focusing specifically on loan Behold blue
chip junior today, and I'll giveyou some reasons why in a moment.
But the great thing about having abutterfly bush as part of this approach to
encouraging beneficial insects is that they flowerfour months. You know, typically for
us here in Michigan, butterfly bushesare in flour pretty much from like mid
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June all the way up through midSeptember, even late September, depending on
how the weather goes. Compare thatwith dill, where you're going to have
maybe you know, two weeks richnectar flowers. Compare that even to something
like you were talking about milkweed.We talked about bee bomb, fantastic flowers,
but again usually only around for twoor three weeks in the summer.
(16:11):
So I think it brings up thepoint diversity is important, so you can
plant the herbs and that sort ofthing. But your point is with butterfly
bush that all those tiny little flowers, the insects love them, and it's
it does the heavy work, theheavy lifting, because it's blooming for such
a long period of time, right, So it's kind of like having this
all you can eat buffet all summerlong, open twenty four to seven,
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twenty four to seven. And thenyou know, if they're like, hey,
you know, I'm getting a littletired of having buddleia for dinner every
day. Oh but look, heythe bee bomb went and bloom, so
I'm gonna go switch it up.So again, it's so important. And
this is the great thing about thisis it's just as beneficial for you from
an esthetic standpoint as it is forthe insects to have this broad diversity of
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flower colors for times, different nectarcontents, different pollen contents, and so
butterfly bush are just part of thatequation. Preach it. You're on a
roll. So we have a bunchof butterfly bush in the proven Winner's color
choice lines. So of course choosingjust one to cover today is always difficult.
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But I wanted to choose low andBehold blue Chip Junior, So Low
and behold. Butterfly bushes came outabout maybe fifteen ish years ago, and
they were the first non invasive seedlessbutterfly bushes on the market. And not
only were they seedlessen non invasive andwe probably have listeners right now going wait,
what butterfly bush is invasive? Andit's not typically an issue here in
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Michigan, but especially in milder climatesbecause butterfly bush had become so popular and
older varieties are very seedy put outa lot of seed. Like if you
go out west to Oregon or Washington, you are going to see butterfly bush
growing in the ditches like we havepurple LuSE strife. It's kind of a
wild thing to see if you're notused to that, and especially if you
(18:00):
gardening clay soil and are thinking,sesh, I can't even get a butterfly
bush to live in my yard,much less imagine it being invasive. So
for a lot of gardeners, havingthis seedless quality is really important and has
made butterfly bush an opportunity again inareas where it was banned because these particular
varieties don't set seed, but thatdoesn't mean that they don't have nectar that
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they don't have pollen, they stillhave all of that capability of sustaining not
just butterflies, but other beneficial insectsas well. So the original butterfly lo
and Behold blue Chip was kind ofa larger plant. The colors were kind
of the flower color was more oflike a dusty kind of blue. So
the same breeder, doctor Dennis Warnerout of North Carolina State University. He's
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retired now, but he devoted hiscareer to developing sterile, non invasive butterfly
bushes. He selected this one laterbecause it has a much richer blue color.
And what I really like about thisparticular variety is the foliage is kind
of silvery. Of the other oneshave a dark green leaf, which is
still fine, but I think thisone just has that like I love that
(19:06):
Mediterranean kind of drought tolerant look gooddescription, Yeah, exactly, So I
love that color in there. SoI really like the contrast between the flowers
and foliage of Low and Behold blueChip junior butterfly bush. It's also a
little bit smaller than the original bluechip, so it reaches just one and
a half to two and a halffeet tall and wide, and that's pretty
revolutionary for a butterfly bush because oldervarieties are like what eight feet tall and
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you know, five five feet wide, so they would get really really large.
And so doctor Warner's breeding with aLow and Behold series really kind of
helped people reimagine butterfly bush and howit could be used in the garden.
And I think this is such agreat example of it. Another thing about
this one is it is less brittlethan other butterfly bush and butterfly bush.
You know, most plants have someliability somewhere in there. You might not
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discover it depending on how you're usingit. But butterfly bush the wood is
just naturally brittle, and so youknow, very often if you've ever purchased
one and you're bringing it home fromthe garden center, you know it's like
breaking off. You think, ohgeez, I just ruined it. Well,
it's just something that happens with theseparticular plants. So a lot of
improvements over it. But I didsay I want to talk about some of
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the tips about butterfly bush since itis spring and a lot of people are
probably wondering what they do, andpruning, of course is always a huge,
huge issue. So yes, youcan prune your butterfly bush, and
in fact, you should prune yourbutterfly bush because if you don't, you
will end up with a second storyplant that flowers only at the tippy top
where you can't even really see it. Still find for butterflies and beneficial insects,
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but not so great for you.And it doesn't really look that great
either. But the time to pruneyour butterfly bush is when you see the
new growth emerging on the stems.So whenever that happens, that's your signal
to prune. Butterfly bush are oneof those plants where it's not super clear
where you should be pruning. Itdoesn't have really obvious bud points like some
other plants like hydraengos or roses do, So if you wait until that new
(21:02):
growth is actually emerging on the stem, it's telling you, hey, you
can prune me here. I'm alive. Below this, we're good to go.
And what you want to do isprune just above where a large bud
is emerging. The bigger the bud, the more vigorous the growth that comes
from it is, and you wantto try to cut them pretty low.
About as low to the ground asyou can and still just above a bud,
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because this is going to give youthat nice, compact, dense habit
like you see in the pictures onour tags. That's how we take care
of all of our butterfly bushes hereat the nursery, and that will also
help you get good flower coverage allover the plant. Now, if you
don't see new growth emerging on yourbutterfly bush, even if everything else in
your yard is emerging, don't panic. They can be very very late to
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emerge in spring. They can actuallytake all the way until mid June,
especially if you live in a colderclimate. You know, I have so
much more to say about this,you know, bugs butterfly bush. I'm
dying over here. So I'm goingto put the rest of this in the
show notes because we have to takea little bit of break. So visit
Gardening Simplified on air dot com forall the information you need. When we
come back, we're opening up thegarden mail bags, so please stay tuned.
(22:15):
At proven winner's color choice, We'vegot a shrub for every taste and
every space. Whether you're looking foran easycare rose, an unforgettable Hydrangea or
something new and unique. You canbe confident that the shrubs and the white
containers have been trialed and tested foryour success. Look for them at your
local garden center. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified
(22:37):
Show, where it's the time toanswer your garden questions. If you've got
a garden question, you can reachus at Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
It's so easy. You just clickthe contact tab and send us your
message. And I know some peoplehave mentioned that they had trouble attaching photos,
which very often when you're helping peoplediagnose gardening issues, a photo is
very important. If that's the case, just go ahead and write us and
(22:59):
say I couldn'tach my photot and we'llgive you further instructions from there. But
I know it's a busy time ofyear. We got a lot of questions
in the inbox. So what dowe got on tap this week? Well,
along the lines of questions, Stacy, I just wanted to mention to
your comments about pruning bud Leo werevery, very good And I did live
radio for years and that was oneof the number one questions I'd get pruning
(23:22):
bud leo right, because they lookkind of crummy in spring. Right now,
I can't possibly be meant to lookat this for the next couple of
weeks, and we want to getstarted, all right, Angie writes to
us. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed my indoor Meyer lemon tree
had spider mite's surprise. And thisis the first time I've ever grown a
mayor lemon tree, first time I'veever experienced a pest. And I fear
(23:45):
I noticed too late to save it. So Angie applied some safers and all
the leaves have fallen off. Nowthere's just branches. Any chance of survival
or is it set for the compostPilon Stacy. Anytime that I hear the
word mites, I think dry air, dry air. And if we bring
(24:06):
a lemon tree inside the house andthe heat is running and I'm not sure
where Angie lives, but it couldbe air conditioning too, dry air,
you're gonna have mite problems. Yeah, And I think that you know what
can happen, especially at this timein the year. The plant has been
indoors for what you know, sixmonths now five months. That's a long
time, and that's really going tostart adding up and causing the plant a
(24:27):
lot of stress. Stressure, andwhen a plant is under stress, pest
problems really explode. They can bemanaged just fine all season long, but
then if you get some kind ofmajor stress boom, it just kind of
explodes with them. So I thinkthat's what happened, Angie, that your
plant just kind of is like,I can't take it anymore. I'm giving
(24:48):
up the spider MIT's one. Butthat doesn't mean your plant is dead.
When a plant is very stress,it's not at all uncommon for it to
just be like, Nope, theseleaves aren't doing any good. They're way
too bitten up by spider mites.I'm just going to like row a whole
new set. I'm gonna go mopefor a while. I'm gonna mope.
I'm going to regroup my energy,and I'm going to hopefully be able to
get new foliage out when conditions improve. So the great news, Angie is
(25:11):
I do think it's likely to beokay. I think that just the fact
that the leaves were all dropped doesn'tmean that it's suffering. It just means
that it's stressed and kind of conservingits resources, and you know, probably
has some sense based on the increasinglight that better days are ahead. My
recommendation for you would be to putit outdoors as soon as you reasonably can
(25:32):
without risking, you know, itshealth to any cold. This plant is
going to be so so much happieroutside than inside. And I think that
you know, as you water itand make it happy again, it will
leaf out. I have certainly hadcitrus plants that I've attempted to grow indoors.
I've never had bright enough light toreally do it well, that have
defoliated like that and taken a littlebreak and then with water and you know,
(25:56):
longer days and all of that comeback without a problem. So do
you not give up on it?And then maybe next year, you know,
maybe some missing maybe a preemptive applicationof this safe spray that you put
on to try to control any mitesthat might be coming in on the plants
when you bring it in in winter, move away from any registers when it's
(26:18):
indoors. But two words sunshine andhumidity. But what do I know.
I'm only humid. I love humidweather, so do lemon trees. Cheryl
has a question. I purchased rootedplants of asparagus Jersey Giant and asparagus Mary
Washington. My question where should Iplant them? The package says to plant
in full sun to create a moundin the trench and spreading the roots over
(26:42):
the ridge. The only thing Ido understand is that do not harvest the
spears the first year. And youknow, this is a great question because
asparagus is a perennial vegetable, justlike horseradish or rhubarb. The plants can
last for years, and yes,when we see the spears in spring and
(27:02):
ensuing years once that's done, tolet that fern like foliage grow, Stacey,
I let all the plant, yeah, to photosynthesize the plant. The
foliage is so beautiful. So yeah, that's why the typical recommendation is to
not harvest the first year because thespears that you eat in asparagus are actually
the shoots for the foliage. Soif you take those off, the plant
doesn't have an opportunity to grow foliage, to photosynthesize and increase the size of
(27:26):
that crown. So I'm not exactlysure where your confusion is, Cheryl,
unless it's about the trench because thisis kind of standard recommendation for asparagus.
And if you've ever seen an asparagusroot crown, it's kind of like a
octopus or something like a very tangledball of yarn octopus with a crown,
that's what it is. And sothat trench recommendation is really so that you
(27:49):
can kind of position the crown andtry to spread those roots out the best
that you can. Now, thisisn't like the kind of thing that you
got to fuss over and work reallyare at, but the typical way that
it should be planted is to diga wider hole and then as you place
those crowns into the trench, takethe time to kind of spread out the
(28:10):
roots and that will really help itto establish better. And I'll tell you
it's worth whatever you put into establishingand asparagus planting, because yeah, they'll
last thirty years or longer. They'revery, very long lived. And more
important than the trench, in myopinion, is well drained soil. So
they need moisture, some organic material. We can work in some manure organic
(28:32):
material, but you need well drainedsoil with asparagus. The soil pH is
important. Also, they don't likereally acidic soils, so maybe get a
pH test. You don't have to, but they do like that six point
five range and then side dressing therose with some twelve twelve twelve works great,
(28:52):
but that drainage part is important.And sun, so you definitely want
you know, your direction said sixhours of sun. That doesn't have to
be all at once necessarily like inone block. It can be throughout the
day, but you definitely want sixhours in Cheryl. If you happen to
be here in West Michigan along withus, you've got great conditions for asparagus
as the many many asparagus farms inour area can attest. Yeah. Absolutely.
(29:14):
Now we got a question from anotherShaw says, I have an oak
leaf Hydrangea that is about three hasbeen in my garden for three years,
never bloomed. I bought this varietybecause I was told it would do well
in a shady area. Can youadvise one of my favorite plants? Oak
leaf hydrange me too, Such agreat plant, and I do generally consider
oak leaf hydrangeas the most shade tolerantof hydrangeas. But there are a couple
(29:37):
of reasons your plant might not beblooming. Now number one. I don't
know what size you started with.So if you started with a really small,
like one court plant that you wouldbuy by mail order, it certainly
just needs more time, you know, to mature and be able to grow.
If you have deer. Very oftendeer don't cause a lot of problems
a lot of damage to the plant, but they love to just nip out
(29:59):
that flower bud, especially like inwinter or spring. So if you have
deer, you might not be noticinga lot of damage, but they could
have eaten it. Squirrels will doit too. Oh they will, Yeah,
they will. Oh, I didn'tknow them. They're so cute,
but they can be they can bevery destructive. Sorry, that's okay.
I do. I have a verysoft spot in my heart for squirrels,
or of course if you're pruning it. So they're so cute, they are.
(30:26):
I stand by my point that ifsquirrels were not so ubiquitous, people
would be lining up to go tozoos that had squirrels, Like, they're
so cute and so fun to watchacrobatic. Yeah, they're great to watch.
People would they would be like ameme, you know, people would
love them so much and and sayall these great things about them, but
they're ubiquitous, and so people ignorethem. But we're coming off a mast
(30:48):
year, so we've got them everywhere. They're having a grand old time in
my art. Uh So, anyway, if you're pruning oak, leafier and
just do bloom on old wood,so that means that you should not prune
them, or else would be cuttingoff the flower buds. So I hope
one of those makes sense you,Cheryl. Of course, we'll put this
all in the show notes at GardeningSimplified on air dot Com. All right,
(31:11):
great, Marie, wondering my irisleaves get brown streaks in them?
What is wrong with them? Isthere a way to prevent this from happening?
A classic question? A classic question. Now, there are some fungal
diseases that irises can get, andI will put some links in the show
notes for those two. But almostcertainly, in my experience, the number
(31:32):
one reason that your iris is goingto have streaky foliage is the dreaded iris
bore bingal. Yep, horrible littlething. I mean, I love bugs,
you know I've already been through that. This is a moth and it's
larva in this case, very notbeneficial larva, it lays its eggs.
The moth lays its eggs sort ofat the base of the iris, and
they hatch out and then the caterpillarsgo into the iris foliage, which is
(31:55):
what causes those streaks, and thenwhen they're about ready to pupate, they
go down in to the rhizome.They make a sticky, slimy, horrible
mess of your iris rhizomes. SoI'd say this is most likely what This
is the best time to scout foriris boor is in July, so you
want to get out there and lookaround. They even recommend if you do
(32:16):
have iris bor that you dig upyour clump look through all of the rhizomes.
You will very clearly see if youhave iris borer, because again,
they just make it into this disgusting, slimy mess. Take out any that
have it, of course, tocrush any of those caterpillars that you see
in your rhizomes, and then replantyour rhizomes. The iris will be none
(32:37):
the worse for it. And then, of course when fall comes and you've
had your frost, at that pointyou want to make sure you remove and
discard all of your irish foliage.Because that will really help to control any
pests or any you know, eggsthat are in the actual foliage or on
the foliage itself. Right, absolutely, you have anything to add it.
(33:00):
We have lots of information about thisto help you diagnose them, understand what
to do, and recognize them.For Marie or anyone else who is struggling
with iris or they are very verycommon, very widespread. I barely have
any irises in my yard and I'vehad them most every year, so I
know the feeling. So anyway,thank you all so much for your questions.
If you have a question, youcan always reach us at Gardening Simplified
(33:22):
on air dot com. We're goingto take a break. When we come
back, we've got branching news,so stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show
is brought to you by proven WinnersColor Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering
shrubs and evergreens have been trialed andtested for your success so you enjoy more
(33:42):
beauty and less work. Look forproven Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive
white container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
It's time for branching news. Andright off the top. Just want
to introduce folks who are not awareof the plant to a plan that's been
around for a long time. Stacy'sgoing to help me with a botanical name.
(34:04):
I'm going to take a shot atit. See Anothus americanus. Yeah,
Snothos close enough, okay good?Also known as New Jersey tea.
Now. I love this native plantbecause it was used as a black tea
substitute during the Revolutionary War when theyhad that little party there in Boston,
that Boston Tea Party, and pitchedit all over the side and they're like,
(34:29):
wow, well, now what dowe do? And that's when they
use the leaves of New Jersey teaplant And it kept the colonist grumpy because
Stacy, there is not caffeine inthose leaves, but they used it as
a substitute. Well back in RevolutionaryWar times, they were pretty much desperate
for anything remotely palatable that they couldin jest. So I have not tried
(34:50):
it myself, but it is abeautiful native plant. I have tried to
grow it, and I found outthat my art is a little bit too
dry for it. But I dolove it. It has white flowers that
attract a ton of pollinators, aninteresting texture on the foliage and if you're
sitting there going hmm, so youknow this that sounds familiar. We have
a number of other natives, soyou know this in North America, but
most of them are native to California. Not remotely hardy, but super popular
(35:13):
landscape plants out in California gorgeous.Sometimes are even called California lilac because they're
just covered in these like hazy,billowy masses of purple flowers so pretty.
We can't grow those here in theMidwest, but we can grow New Jersey
tea, and it's still a verycool plant with a very cool story.
There you go, So put iton your radar. Another thing to put
(35:35):
on your radar. Invaders from theunderground are coming this summer in Cicada Geddon.
Yeah, it's the biggest bug emergencein centuries this spring and unusual.
Cicada double dose is about to invadea couple parts of the United States in
what they're calling Cicada Geddon. Andthe last time these two broods came out
(35:55):
together eighteen oh three, Thomas Jeffersonwrote about them. He referred to them
as locusts. But there's some prettybig broods coming out, as I've seen
at Stacy, Georgia and Illinois beingthe epicenter as I understand, Yeah,
we're not predicted to get much herein Michigan. So hopefully peaceful summer nights
(36:17):
ahead for us, but not somuch for our neighbors. You know,
it's quite a topic for people totalk about, and this week, as
opposed to a limb of rick,I got these two limericks from the Washington
Post who invited people to write aboutcicadas. There was one Cicada's a hard
(36:38):
word to rhyme. It's not oneyou hear all the time, but try
rhyming echoskeleton only a clever felakin.So glad to be on the last line.
Great sense of humor there, greatjob another one. Life is short,
no time to waste sleep for years, then date in haste, flex
(37:00):
those muscles, shed that jacket,find a mate cause a racket. Oh
yeah, i'd said, is acicala Cicada's m O right there. I
like it. This next story stickaround. This is gonna be good.
So for those of you who areon Instagram, I suggest you look up
official stick reviews. I follow thataccount. It has forty five point nine
(37:25):
thousand followers, started about a yearago, and I love the names of
the gentleman who started the account.One his name is boon Hog and the
other is Logan Juggler. And theyall just kind of as a joke.
They loved collecting sticks when they gohiking and they're thinking, Wow, this
is a really cool stick, orthis is a cool quality stick. This
(37:47):
one feels really good in my hand. And they started posting these and they
found that there were a bunch ofother people like me who love collecting sticks
for whatever crazy reason. And thenwe rate sticks on their quality. Now,
I brought along a couple of stickshere. Oh, I wonder,
(38:07):
what do you have a rating forthe Oh, well, these aren't rated.
These are walking sticks. So thisis a driftwood out of Lake Michigan.
Oh is a stick exactly. AndI even taped them for you,
you know, safety first, Soone for Adriana and one for you.
A walking stick. These guys ona hike in moab, Utah. They
(38:30):
filmed their first stick review and postedit online. And I was thinking we
as gardeners would appreciate and love stickstoo, and this thing has gotten out
of control. They now have theMcMurray bend test, they have the Tennyson
(38:51):
curve scale, the Williams Whacker meter, all of these different variations to hast
the sticks. They have Stick ofthe Month, a tournament at the start
of each month, and people postthese sticks. Great webs great site to
visit on Instagram and follow. Yeah, I'm definitely going to add it to
(39:14):
my list. I was just tryingto look for it. I didn't find
it, so I'm gonna have todo a little more digging. But I
am excited to follow the official stickreviews because who doesn't like a good stick?
Yeah, so Adriana have some funwalking out there with your stick too.
What do you call a boomerang thatdoesn't come back a stick? What
do you call a magic one thatdoesn't do magic? A stick? Right?
(39:36):
So? Anyhow do you know thestick on the Ground song? No?
Oh, Adriana is a big fan, so I will not do a
rendition, but we will share thelink for the stick on the Ground song
in the show notes. I loveit. Where there's a willow, there's
a way right there, you go. I'm gonna stick with my dad jokes.
(39:57):
That's what I'm gonna do, allright. Rats are a nice thing
to have in your house. InBoston, rat traps are getting a new
look thanks to some local artists.An art festival in Boston is looking to
bring some beauty to the neighborhood's ratproblem. They're paying artists one hundred dollars
to decorate rat traps that will beplaced in the area, and the event
(40:21):
is aptly named the Rat City ArtFestival. So if you're looking for something
that's well kind of ratical, I'msorry I had to do that this summer.
Boston's the place, the Rat CityArt Festival. Well. Having lived
in New York City and been ahorticulturist in New York City, I have
had more than my share of runins with rats, so I doubt you're
(40:44):
going to go I mean, I'mokay with them. I mean, the
feeling of a rat running over yourshoe is not one that you forget.
But yeah, I have many ratmemories. All right. Now, let's
move from rats to run in myhouse. Gally never had them indoors that
funny outcards Punk Satani, Phil,You know, we always talk about punk
(41:05):
Satani in early February, whether ornot Punk Satany sees its shadow while Phil
and Phyllis have had babies. I'mjust announcing that. Oh that's wonderful.
Yeah, so Phil junior, acouple of Phil juniors, I guess,
and I don't know if someday they'llinherit the mantle and be able to predict
whether or not spring has arrived.But they had, they had babies,
(41:29):
so pretty cool. Yeah, cutelittle groundhog babies only have to work one
day a week, three hundred andsixty four days. It's kind of a
great gig. Nice work if youcan get it, nice work if you
can get it all right, youknow. It makes me makes me think
of a polar bear who walks intoa bar and he says to the bartender,
(41:52):
I'll have a rum and a coke. And the bartender says, why
the big pause, and the polarbear says, well, I was born
with those. Sorry. See Iearned the right to do bad dad jokes.
Okay, I'm old enough to dothem. Have you ever heard of
jacket potatoes? Oh? Yes,they have in the United Kingdom. Really,
(42:14):
oh in the United Kingdom, well, jacket they call it like baked
potato right like it's got the skinon, yeah, exactly. In the
United Kingdom England they love their bakedpotatoes and a lot of people feel that
they do it best. So asopposed to taking a potato that you're going
to bake and poking holes in itso it doesn't explode and then probably what
(42:38):
four hundred degrees for an hour orsomething like that. To bake the potatoes
in England, what they do isthey slice the potato they almost make a
cross in the center, and thenthey bake them for much longer, maybe
two hours at four hundred degrees.The whole concept, the whole idea is
(43:00):
to have them crispy on the outsideand fluffy on the inside. And as
I understand it and England, thesejacket potatoes are the best baked potato you
can have. Oh now, see, my father in law is a devoute
of the long cooked potato school.Oh yes, he has a special clay
pot where he makes them and cooksthem for yeah, at least two hours.
(43:22):
He loves that like super fluffy inside. Now usually he burns the outside
so it's not really edible. It'slike coal. But you know, you
sometimes when he does them, onthe grill. You really only get like
one little scoop out of the potato. The rest is all incinerated. That
is his favorite way to eat them. So I have had this type of
potato many many times myself outstanding.I love that. So I'm gonna try
(43:45):
this jacket potatoes. I'm just beinga commentator here to close out our show.
It's been fun, Stacy. Yeah, wait, I have a question
on a potato things. Yeah.So I usually microwave them because I don't
like to waste that much energy,you know, to just like baked to
potatoes, So usually microwave. I'mto get a head start. Do you
think that's permitted in the jacket potato? You know, I would say no.
(44:07):
Okay, I would say no.We're going for that crispy outside.
No hacks in the jacket potato world. Okay, I got you. Hey
Stacey, it's been a kick inthe plants. Thank you Adrianna, and
thank you Stacy. Most of all, thanks to you for watching us on
YouTube, listening to us on radio, and enjoying our podcast. Have a
great week.
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, today we're going to talk beneficial
insects Stacey. And it's you know, one thing to use them in a
greenhouse setting, and many do.It's a controlled environment and you've got controlled
(00:26):
temperature. But it's another to counton beneficial insects in your yard. Not
a bad idea to try it,but I think causes confusion from people.
Well it does because I think,especially as people have gotten more and more
aware of the plight of honey beesand native bees, you know, just
like we were talking about with MikeConnor last week, they think, okay,
(00:49):
well, bees are beneficial because theypollinate, and so people tend to
think of beneficial insects as pollinating insects, and yes, that is a benefit.
But when we talk about beneficial insectsin this contexts what we usually mean
is that they're benefiting you and thatthey are carnivores who are eating other insects,
or they are invertebrates who are eatingother insects, or are eating insects
(01:11):
in your garden like spiders. Sothe benefit to you from these beneficial insects
is they're doing your past control foryou. You've got it a form of
IPM, well, said Stacy,And so let's talk about it and some
of those beneficial insects that maybe youcan spot and learn more about in your
(01:33):
landscape. Everybody wants to do somethingand possibly do something that's beneficial to nature.
You know, it's no different thanthe guy who walked out out of
his house with a frog on topof his head and his neighbors laughing at
him that he's got a frog onhis head, and he says, you
can laugh, but I haven't beenbit by a mosquito in years. I
(01:53):
wouldn't suggest that technique. But tobe successful in your landscape, you need
diversity. You need some native plants. I think you need some herbs,
because herbs are aromatic. The manyare perennial or regano or thyme or lemon
balm, and especially when they bolt, they make a great situation for beneficial
(02:15):
insects. And those insects love flowersof cilantro or lemon balm. Or dill
is a big one. Native plantsof course, stacey asters, jobpi weed,
ironweed, b balm, milk weed, a lot of different types of
plants that can draw beneficial insects toour landscape. Well, you know,
there's a common thread through a lotof the plants that you just name that
(02:38):
people might not be aware of,and that is that they pretty much all
have very small flowers. At leastthe little fluorax make up a larger inflorescence.
So if you think of something likea dill flower or a cilantro flower
or regano or something like that,all of these plants they have flowers,
small flowers in clusters. And whenwe're talking about beneficial insects are for the
(03:00):
most part talking about some pretty tinylittle guys. Yes we are, and
they can't, you know, getinto a big flower and get the nectar.
They'll drown. They'll fall right inand drown in a nectar pool,
and that's no good. So allof these plants with small flowers, and
you talked about bbalm, he talksabout ironweed and all of these other things,
same exact thing. All of thoseplants are in the astor family.
(03:21):
Astor acy and they're flowers even thoughwe look at them and think, oh,
it's one flower. If you thinkabout a daisy that you think it's
a daisy flower, it's actually awhole bunch of little, tiny florets arranged
in that influorescence. So from aninsect point of view, that's not one
flower. That's like, you know, five hundred flowers, and that's you
know, a bonanza. You know, that's well said and a great point.
(03:43):
So if you're looking to attract beneficialinsects to your landscape, look for
those types of flowers, which arekind of complicated flowers because many numerous florets.
As you said, Stacy, Iwanted to ask you how you feel
about bug food. Of course,you can go online and you can buy
beneficial insects, and then some ofthese sites will recommend that you use bug
(04:03):
food. Essentially, you take sticksin your garden and you paste this bug
food, which is some of themcall it waste paste in other words,
whey and yeast and sugar and brushingthem on these sticks. There's recipes out
there. How do you feel aboutthat? I mean, how I feel
(04:23):
about it is that flowers are morefun. Yes, so you would really
only need to do that if youdidn't have flowers, and a lot of
times, especially like in a greenhousesituation, if you are releasing beneficial insects
to help prey on aphids or spidermites or whatever, then you might need
that because you might not have anythingin flour to feed the adults. And
(04:45):
that's the key. When we talkabout beneficial insects, what we're mostly talking
about are insects that from their larvalstage or their baby stage. Those that
stage preys on insects or spider mites, and the adults want them to stick
around and have their babies in yourgarden, and they eat flowers. So
(05:05):
that's a big difference. So youneed to have that food source for the
adults in order for them to belike, hey, it's cool here,
I can set all there's food there, shelter, you know, I like
it here. If you don't havethat, if you don't have flowers,
which can happen in a greenhouse ordepending on your garden, you know,
you get them in in spring andyou don't have a lot of stuff blooming
or stuff not suitable to these tinylittle guys, then yeah, you might
(05:27):
need to provide some supplemental food likethat. So let me segue off what
you just spoke about. Ladybugs.Yeah, ladybugs dealing with aphids, and
of course you have the Asian ladybugs, and then you have the native
lady bugs, which generally hang outin leaf litter. The Asian ladybugs tend
to hang out in your house overwinter. Oh yeah, and they operate
in clusters. But the point isis the larva almost looks like tiny little
(05:51):
alligators and that's where they do theirdamage. Yeah, and you know,
so many people will see a ladybuglarva for the first time, I'm and
freak out, what is this inmy garden? Is it bad? So
we'll put a picture, of course, on the YouTube version of the show
if you're able to see it,or of course you can just search for
it. But yeah, I've heardalligator, I've heard dragon. People use
(06:14):
all sorts of creative names. Sobasically, you know, I remember being
a little kid and having some sortof little insect land on me and be
like, mom, it's a babyladybug. Well, no, it's not
a baby ladybug, because a babyladybug does not look like an adult ladybug.
It's a kind of wormy alligator lookingthing. It is orange and black.
It's kind of spiky. I imaginepeople are getting some wild imagination.
(06:38):
You know, it's movie. Yeah, it does. It kind of looks
like being alien or something creepy likethat. But they have a voracious appetite
for aphids especially. I mean theadults will eat some, but those adult
ladybugs again, they're going for thenectar. It's those those larvae that you
really need to feed. That's what'swhat's doing your pest control for you.
(06:59):
And we should dive in deep inregards to this subject. I know,
Stacey, you know a lot aboutinsects and love insects, and I don't
blame you. I do too.You know, if we go down the
list, there's beneficial nematodes where we'regenerally dealing with insects in the soil.
Yea larva, you have lace wings. Parasitic wasps. I always in summertime
(07:25):
love to watch the work of parasiticwasps when they lay their eggs on tomato
hornworms. Oh yeah see, Ihave not seen that yet. I've seen
pictures of it. But you know, people think wasps, whoa, whoa
whoa wasps could never be beneficial,and wasps can be a predator of desirable
insect larva as well. So itis important to know that some of these
insects that are considered beneficial insects arereally kind of non discriminate when it comes
(07:47):
to eating, so they can eatsome beneficials. But you know you're talking
about a wasp that if you havea tomato hornworm, which you know,
I'll just come right out and sayit's tomato horn rooms are the only insect
that truly freaks me out. Theyreally do. They're so big, they've
eaten so much of your tomato.I do not like them. I can't
bring myself to squish them. IfI find one, I fling it into
(08:09):
my driveway and let the birds getit. But yeah, sometimes if you
get lucky, you will find onethat's all covered in white eggs. And
basically what that is is the larvaor the eggs of parasitic wasps. And
when those eggs hatch, those larvaare going to go into the insect body
devour it. Got it help burstopen as adult wasps to repeat the cycle.
(08:31):
I've posted pictures in social media andpeople freak out. Yeah, so
it's crazy you have the tacanid fly. I love the scientific name for that
thing, bombie Leopsis abrupt something likethat. We'll post it or maybe Adrian
will put it on the YouTube video. Hover flies and I struggle with that
(08:54):
word, Stacy. I never knowif it's hover or hover or hover or
hoover. So I always thought itwas hover, you know, because they're
hovering. I'm gonna take your words. So surfed flies. I usually say
surfed flies anyway because it's more funto say. And I don't know,
I just I always say surfing flies. But so another way that people can
think about these is their bee flies, because they do use a bee mimicry,
(09:18):
so they look like bees, butthey are flies. And you can
tell the difference because the surfed flyhas two wings, so flies have two
wings. Bees have four wings.So if you're able to observe it and
you only see the two wings,that is a surfed fly. It's beneficial.
Again, going back to that larvalstage loves to eat all sorts of
nasty stuff and does a great job. And I find the adults really quite
(09:43):
delightful and I love seeing them.I grow a lot of fennel ornamental fenel,
and they love those flowers. Yeah, eats lots of nasty stuff.
That's like some teenagers I know whocan still do that at their age.
Praying mantis, rove beetle are fascinating, learn more about them. There's so
many that we could talk about.And I love the leafhopper. Assassin bugs,
(10:09):
Oh my word, are they verycool. Also, so with a
name like assassin bug, it's gotto be cool. Well. And part
of the reason they call them assassinbug is because they're predatory in all stages.
And that's the interesting thing. Asyou mentioned the lady bugs just in
the larva stage, but with assassinbugs they named them appropriately. Well,
(10:31):
we'll see how Stacey ties this allin in Plants on Trial coming up in
our next segment Here on the GardeningSimplified Show, Proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs
cares about your success in the garden. That's why we trial and test all
of our shrubs for eight to tenyears, making sure they outperform everything else
(10:54):
on the market. Look for themin the distinctive white container at your local
garden center. Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified
show where we are talking about oneof my all time favorite subjects, insects.
I love them, I love cnom, I love talking about them,
I love learning about them, andI love sharing the few things that I
(11:15):
do know about them, because,just like plants, learning about insects is
open to a whole new world thatyou couldn't even begin to master. Now,
we didn't mention in the first episode, in the first segment when we
were talking about beneficials, you didn'tmention one of my absolute favorite beneficials.
What one would that? Lace wings? Oh, lace swings, You're right,
yes, So I love lace wings. They are beautifully elegant as an
(11:39):
adult, So they have this sortof gorgeous, glowing lime green color and
they're one of the larger, Iwould say, of the of the beneficial
insects. And their wings really arevery lacy and light and see through and
delicate, so beautiful adult. Butwhat I really love about them is the
eggs. And once you know whata lace egg looks like, you do
(12:01):
start to find them everywhere, andthey're typically on the underside of the leaves,
and they are they're just this fine, sort of little hair like structure
with this elegant little egg at theend. So they lay their eggs on
these stalks, and they are typicallyin groups of like maybe five to ten
or something like that. Now,again, this is another case where those
larva are doing much more benefit toyou in terms of eating aphids and all
(12:24):
these other you know, negative insectsin your garden. But whether you have
the eggs or the adults, Ithink they are just so lovely. And
I do want to say, don'tget lace wing confused with lace bug,
because lace bug is a bad insectfor your garden. Some plants are much
more susceptible to it than others.Of course, the azalea lace bug is
(12:46):
a notorious one. Sycamore and Londonplane also get a lace bug. And
lace bugs are not beneficial. Theyactually suck plant juices and can cause some
ugly you know coloration on your plantleaves. But lace wings totally good.
Welcome in, roll out the welcomemat for the lace wings in your guards.
So, in bug talk, thelesser of two weavils, Yeah,
(13:07):
I guess. So, I guessyou could say that although they are not
in the weavil, weavels are typeof beetle. Sorry, I'm gonna get
a little pedanzic when it comes tobugs. I'm very passionate about that.
Well, let's have it so aswe're saying whatever, you know, beneficial
insect that you are trying to encouragein your garden, and I do want
(13:30):
to say this, we should mentionthis. You can buy beneficial insects.
Those are very often sold for usein a greenhouse or something like that.
But typically for most of us asgardeners, we don't need to buy them.
All we really need to do ismake our gardens more hospitable for them
to take up residents and they'll findit on them. These are native for
the most part, insects that justthey're just around the environment. Yeah,
(13:56):
and would you agree with me,Stacy, that dyl is a good choice,
still is a great choice. Okay. The only problem with dill is
that it blooms for a relatively shorttime. I mean, I love dill
flowers. I love dill, Butdill is a plant. You know,
again, we've talked a bit aboutcilantro on. I know we're in plants
on trial and I'm about to gooff on some major tangent here, but
you know, people think because ofhow they buy dill in the grocery store
(14:20):
that it's going to grow one wayand it doesn't grow the way. It's
the same with cilantro. So inthe garden, dill is very lush and
leafy early in the season, andthen as summer comes on and it gets
ready to flower, those leaves kindof peter out and you just get that
long flowering stamp. Great for pickles, perfect timing for when the cucumbers really
start to come in the garden.But really to have a steady supply of
(14:41):
dill, you need to keep sowing. The sea continues sewing so that it's
always coming up because it just naturallyhas that short life cycle. But talking
about dill and having that relatively shortflowering time is the perfect segue into today's
plant on trial, which is lowand behold blue chip junior butterfly bush.
I love that plant. Yeah,I love it too. And you know,
(15:03):
of course, butterfly bushes budleia getall the attention for attracting butterflies.
I mean, it's right there inthe name, so kind of clear why
that would happen. And yes,they do attract butterflies, but the same
reason that butterflies are attracted to them. Are the same reasons that beneficial insects
would be attracted to these plants.They have numerous small flowers, a very
(15:26):
high pollen and nectar count. Andthe great thing about adding, now this
is true of any butterfly bush,but I'm focusing specifically on loan Behold blue
chip junior today, and I'll giveyou some reasons why in a moment.
But the great thing about having abutterfly bush as part of this approach to
encouraging beneficial insects is that they flowerfour months. You know, typically for
us here in Michigan, butterfly bushesare in flour pretty much from like mid
(15:50):
June all the way up through midSeptember, even late September, depending on
how the weather goes. Compare thatwith dill, where you're going to have
maybe you know, two weeks richnectar flowers. Compare that even to something
like you were talking about milkweed.We talked about bee bomb, fantastic flowers,
but again usually only around for twoor three weeks in the summer.
(16:11):
So I think it brings up thepoint diversity is important, so you can
plant the herbs and that sort ofthing. But your point is with butterfly
bush that all those tiny little flowers, the insects love them, and it's
it does the heavy work, theheavy lifting, because it's blooming for such
a long period of time, right, So it's kind of like having this
all you can eat buffet all summerlong, open twenty four to seven,
(16:34):
twenty four to seven. And thenyou know, if they're like, hey,
you know, I'm getting a littletired of having buddleia for dinner every
day. Oh but look, heythe bee bomb went and bloom, so
I'm gonna go switch it up.So again, it's so important. And
this is the great thing about thisis it's just as beneficial for you from
an esthetic standpoint as it is forthe insects to have this broad diversity of
(16:57):
flower colors for times, different nectarcontents, different pollen contents, and so
butterfly bush are just part of thatequation. Preach it. You're on a
roll. So we have a bunchof butterfly bush in the proven Winner's color
choice lines. So of course choosingjust one to cover today is always difficult.
(17:18):
But I wanted to choose low andBehold blue Chip Junior, So Low
and behold. Butterfly bushes came outabout maybe fifteen ish years ago, and
they were the first non invasive seedlessbutterfly bushes on the market. And not
only were they seedlessen non invasive andwe probably have listeners right now going wait,
what butterfly bush is invasive? Andit's not typically an issue here in
(17:40):
Michigan, but especially in milder climatesbecause butterfly bush had become so popular and
older varieties are very seedy put outa lot of seed. Like if you
go out west to Oregon or Washington, you are going to see butterfly bush
growing in the ditches like we havepurple LuSE strife. It's kind of a
wild thing to see if you're notused to that, and especially if you
(18:00):
gardening clay soil and are thinking,sesh, I can't even get a butterfly
bush to live in my yard,much less imagine it being invasive. So
for a lot of gardeners, havingthis seedless quality is really important and has
made butterfly bush an opportunity again inareas where it was banned because these particular
varieties don't set seed, but thatdoesn't mean that they don't have nectar that
(18:22):
they don't have pollen, they stillhave all of that capability of sustaining not
just butterflies, but other beneficial insectsas well. So the original butterfly lo
and Behold blue Chip was kind ofa larger plant. The colors were kind
of the flower color was more oflike a dusty kind of blue. So
the same breeder, doctor Dennis Warnerout of North Carolina State University. He's
(18:42):
retired now, but he devoted hiscareer to developing sterile, non invasive butterfly
bushes. He selected this one laterbecause it has a much richer blue color.
And what I really like about thisparticular variety is the foliage is kind
of silvery. Of the other oneshave a dark green leaf, which is
still fine, but I think thisone just has that like I love that
(19:06):
Mediterranean kind of drought tolerant look gooddescription, Yeah, exactly, So I
love that color in there. SoI really like the contrast between the flowers
and foliage of Low and Behold blueChip junior butterfly bush. It's also a
little bit smaller than the original bluechip, so it reaches just one and
a half to two and a halffeet tall and wide, and that's pretty
revolutionary for a butterfly bush because oldervarieties are like what eight feet tall and
(19:30):
you know, five five feet wide, so they would get really really large.
And so doctor Warner's breeding with aLow and Behold series really kind of
helped people reimagine butterfly bush and howit could be used in the garden.
And I think this is such agreat example of it. Another thing about
this one is it is less brittlethan other butterfly bush and butterfly bush.
You know, most plants have someliability somewhere in there. You might not
(19:52):
discover it depending on how you're usingit. But butterfly bush the wood is
just naturally brittle, and so youknow, very often if you've ever purchased
one and you're bringing it home fromthe garden center, you know it's like
breaking off. You think, ohgeez, I just ruined it. Well,
it's just something that happens with theseparticular plants. So a lot of
improvements over it. But I didsay I want to talk about some of
(20:15):
the tips about butterfly bush since itis spring and a lot of people are
probably wondering what they do, andpruning, of course is always a huge,
huge issue. So yes, youcan prune your butterfly bush, and
in fact, you should prune yourbutterfly bush because if you don't, you
will end up with a second storyplant that flowers only at the tippy top
where you can't even really see it. Still find for butterflies and beneficial insects,
(20:37):
but not so great for you.And it doesn't really look that great
either. But the time to pruneyour butterfly bush is when you see the
new growth emerging on the stems.So whenever that happens, that's your signal
to prune. Butterfly bush are oneof those plants where it's not super clear
where you should be pruning. Itdoesn't have really obvious bud points like some
other plants like hydraengos or roses do, So if you wait until that new
(21:02):
growth is actually emerging on the stem, it's telling you, hey, you
can prune me here. I'm alive. Below this, we're good to go.
And what you want to do isprune just above where a large bud
is emerging. The bigger the bud, the more vigorous the growth that comes
from it is, and you wantto try to cut them pretty low.
About as low to the ground asyou can and still just above a bud,
(21:23):
because this is going to give youthat nice, compact, dense habit
like you see in the pictures onour tags. That's how we take care
of all of our butterfly bushes hereat the nursery, and that will also
help you get good flower coverage allover the plant. Now, if you
don't see new growth emerging on yourbutterfly bush, even if everything else in
your yard is emerging, don't panic. They can be very very late to
(21:48):
emerge in spring. They can actuallytake all the way until mid June,
especially if you live in a colderclimate. You know, I have so
much more to say about this,you know, bugs butterfly bush. I'm
dying over here. So I'm goingto put the rest of this in the
show notes because we have to takea little bit of break. So visit
Gardening Simplified on air dot com forall the information you need. When we
come back, we're opening up thegarden mail bags, so please stay tuned.
(22:15):
At proven winner's color choice, We'vegot a shrub for every taste and
every space. Whether you're looking foran easycare rose, an unforgettable Hydrangea or
something new and unique. You canbe confident that the shrubs and the white
containers have been trialed and tested foryour success. Look for them at your
local garden center. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified
(22:37):
Show, where it's the time toanswer your garden questions. If you've got
a garden question, you can reachus at Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
It's so easy. You just clickthe contact tab and send us your
message. And I know some peoplehave mentioned that they had trouble attaching photos,
which very often when you're helping peoplediagnose gardening issues, a photo is
very important. If that's the case, just go ahead and write us and
(22:59):
say I couldn'tach my photot and we'llgive you further instructions from there. But
I know it's a busy time ofyear. We got a lot of questions
in the inbox. So what dowe got on tap this week? Well,
along the lines of questions, Stacy, I just wanted to mention to
your comments about pruning bud Leo werevery, very good And I did live
radio for years and that was oneof the number one questions I'd get pruning
(23:22):
bud leo right, because they lookkind of crummy in spring. Right now,
I can't possibly be meant to lookat this for the next couple of
weeks, and we want to getstarted, all right, Angie writes to
us. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed my indoor Meyer lemon tree
had spider mite's surprise. And thisis the first time I've ever grown a
mayor lemon tree, first time I'veever experienced a pest. And I fear
(23:45):
I noticed too late to save it. So Angie applied some safers and all
the leaves have fallen off. Nowthere's just branches. Any chance of survival
or is it set for the compostPilon Stacy. Anytime that I hear the
word mites, I think dry air, dry air. And if we bring
(24:06):
a lemon tree inside the house andthe heat is running and I'm not sure
where Angie lives, but it couldbe air conditioning too, dry air,
you're gonna have mite problems. Yeah, And I think that you know what
can happen, especially at this timein the year. The plant has been
indoors for what you know, sixmonths now five months. That's a long
time, and that's really going tostart adding up and causing the plant a
(24:27):
lot of stress. Stressure, andwhen a plant is under stress, pest
problems really explode. They can bemanaged just fine all season long, but
then if you get some kind ofmajor stress boom, it just kind of
explodes with them. So I thinkthat's what happened, Angie, that your
plant just kind of is like,I can't take it anymore. I'm giving
(24:48):
up the spider MIT's one. Butthat doesn't mean your plant is dead.
When a plant is very stress,it's not at all uncommon for it to
just be like, Nope, theseleaves aren't doing any good. They're way
too bitten up by spider mites.I'm just going to like row a whole
new set. I'm gonna go mopefor a while. I'm gonna mope.
I'm going to regroup my energy,and I'm going to hopefully be able to
get new foliage out when conditions improve. So the great news, Angie is
(25:11):
I do think it's likely to beokay. I think that just the fact
that the leaves were all dropped doesn'tmean that it's suffering. It just means
that it's stressed and kind of conservingits resources, and you know, probably
has some sense based on the increasinglight that better days are ahead. My
recommendation for you would be to putit outdoors as soon as you reasonably can
(25:32):
without risking, you know, itshealth to any cold. This plant is
going to be so so much happieroutside than inside. And I think that
you know, as you water itand make it happy again, it will
leaf out. I have certainly hadcitrus plants that I've attempted to grow indoors.
I've never had bright enough light toreally do it well, that have
defoliated like that and taken a littlebreak and then with water and you know,
(25:56):
longer days and all of that comeback without a problem. So do
you not give up on it?And then maybe next year, you know,
maybe some missing maybe a preemptive applicationof this safe spray that you put
on to try to control any mitesthat might be coming in on the plants
when you bring it in in winter, move away from any registers when it's
(26:18):
indoors. But two words sunshine andhumidity. But what do I know.
I'm only humid. I love humidweather, so do lemon trees. Cheryl
has a question. I purchased rootedplants of asparagus Jersey Giant and asparagus Mary
Washington. My question where should Iplant them? The package says to plant
in full sun to create a moundin the trench and spreading the roots over
(26:42):
the ridge. The only thing Ido understand is that do not harvest the
spears the first year. And youknow, this is a great question because
asparagus is a perennial vegetable, justlike horseradish or rhubarb. The plants can
last for years, and yes,when we see the spears in spring and
(27:02):
ensuing years once that's done, tolet that fern like foliage grow, Stacey,
I let all the plant, yeah, to photosynthesize the plant. The
foliage is so beautiful. So yeah, that's why the typical recommendation is to
not harvest the first year because thespears that you eat in asparagus are actually
the shoots for the foliage. Soif you take those off, the plant
doesn't have an opportunity to grow foliage, to photosynthesize and increase the size of
(27:26):
that crown. So I'm not exactlysure where your confusion is, Cheryl,
unless it's about the trench because thisis kind of standard recommendation for asparagus.
And if you've ever seen an asparagusroot crown, it's kind of like a
octopus or something like a very tangledball of yarn octopus with a crown,
that's what it is. And sothat trench recommendation is really so that you
(27:49):
can kind of position the crown andtry to spread those roots out the best
that you can. Now, thisisn't like the kind of thing that you
got to fuss over and work reallyare at, but the typical way that
it should be planted is to diga wider hole and then as you place
those crowns into the trench, takethe time to kind of spread out the
(28:10):
roots and that will really help itto establish better. And I'll tell you
it's worth whatever you put into establishingand asparagus planting, because yeah, they'll
last thirty years or longer. They'revery, very long lived. And more
important than the trench, in myopinion, is well drained soil. So
they need moisture, some organic material. We can work in some manure organic
(28:32):
material, but you need well drainedsoil with asparagus. The soil pH is
important. Also, they don't likereally acidic soils, so maybe get a
pH test. You don't have to, but they do like that six point
five range and then side dressing therose with some twelve twelve twelve works great,
(28:52):
but that drainage part is important.And sun, so you definitely want
you know, your direction said sixhours of sun. That doesn't have to
be all at once necessarily like inone block. It can be throughout the
day, but you definitely want sixhours in Cheryl. If you happen to
be here in West Michigan along withus, you've got great conditions for asparagus
as the many many asparagus farms inour area can attest. Yeah. Absolutely.
(29:14):
Now we got a question from anotherShaw says, I have an oak
leaf Hydrangea that is about three hasbeen in my garden for three years,
never bloomed. I bought this varietybecause I was told it would do well
in a shady area. Can youadvise one of my favorite plants? Oak
leaf hydrange me too, Such agreat plant, and I do generally consider
oak leaf hydrangeas the most shade tolerantof hydrangeas. But there are a couple
(29:37):
of reasons your plant might not beblooming. Now number one. I don't
know what size you started with.So if you started with a really small,
like one court plant that you wouldbuy by mail order, it certainly
just needs more time, you know, to mature and be able to grow.
If you have deer. Very oftendeer don't cause a lot of problems
a lot of damage to the plant, but they love to just nip out
(29:59):
that flower bud, especially like inwinter or spring. So if you have
deer, you might not be noticinga lot of damage, but they could
have eaten it. Squirrels will doit too. Oh they will, Yeah,
they will. Oh, I didn'tknow them. They're so cute,
but they can be they can bevery destructive. Sorry, that's okay.
I do. I have a verysoft spot in my heart for squirrels,
or of course if you're pruning it. So they're so cute, they are.
(30:26):
I stand by my point that ifsquirrels were not so ubiquitous, people
would be lining up to go tozoos that had squirrels, Like, they're
so cute and so fun to watchacrobatic. Yeah, they're great to watch.
People would they would be like ameme, you know, people would
love them so much and and sayall these great things about them, but
they're ubiquitous, and so people ignorethem. But we're coming off a mast
(30:48):
year, so we've got them everywhere. They're having a grand old time in
my art. Uh So, anyway, if you're pruning oak, leafier and
just do bloom on old wood,so that means that you should not prune
them, or else would be cuttingoff the flower buds. So I hope
one of those makes sense you,Cheryl. Of course, we'll put this
all in the show notes at GardeningSimplified on air dot Com. All right,
(31:11):
great, Marie, wondering my irisleaves get brown streaks in them?
What is wrong with them? Isthere a way to prevent this from happening?
A classic question? A classic question. Now, there are some fungal
diseases that irises can get, andI will put some links in the show
notes for those two. But almostcertainly, in my experience, the number
(31:32):
one reason that your iris is goingto have streaky foliage is the dreaded iris
bore bingal. Yep, horrible littlething. I mean, I love bugs,
you know I've already been through that. This is a moth and it's
larva in this case, very notbeneficial larva, it lays its eggs.
The moth lays its eggs sort ofat the base of the iris, and
they hatch out and then the caterpillarsgo into the iris foliage, which is
(31:55):
what causes those streaks, and thenwhen they're about ready to pupate, they
go down in to the rhizome.They make a sticky, slimy, horrible
mess of your iris rhizomes. SoI'd say this is most likely what This
is the best time to scout foriris boor is in July, so you
want to get out there and lookaround. They even recommend if you do
(32:16):
have iris bor that you dig upyour clump look through all of the rhizomes.
You will very clearly see if youhave iris borer, because again,
they just make it into this disgusting, slimy mess. Take out any that
have it, of course, tocrush any of those caterpillars that you see
in your rhizomes, and then replantyour rhizomes. The iris will be none
(32:37):
the worse for it. And then, of course when fall comes and you've
had your frost, at that pointyou want to make sure you remove and
discard all of your irish foliage.Because that will really help to control any
pests or any you know, eggsthat are in the actual foliage or on
the foliage itself. Right, absolutely, you have anything to add it.
(33:00):
We have lots of information about thisto help you diagnose them, understand what
to do, and recognize them.For Marie or anyone else who is struggling
with iris or they are very verycommon, very widespread. I barely have
any irises in my yard and I'vehad them most every year, so I
know the feeling. So anyway,thank you all so much for your questions.
If you have a question, youcan always reach us at Gardening Simplified
(33:22):
on air dot com. We're goingto take a break. When we come
back, we've got branching news,so stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show
is brought to you by proven WinnersColor Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering
shrubs and evergreens have been trialed andtested for your success so you enjoy more
(33:42):
beauty and less work. Look forproven Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive
white container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
It's time for branching news. Andright off the top. Just want
to introduce folks who are not awareof the plant to a plan that's been
around for a long time. Stacy'sgoing to help me with a botanical name.
(34:04):
I'm going to take a shot atit. See Anothus americanus. Yeah,
Snothos close enough, okay good?Also known as New Jersey tea.
Now. I love this native plantbecause it was used as a black tea
substitute during the Revolutionary War when theyhad that little party there in Boston,
that Boston Tea Party, and pitchedit all over the side and they're like,
(34:29):
wow, well, now what dowe do? And that's when they
use the leaves of New Jersey teaplant And it kept the colonist grumpy because
Stacy, there is not caffeine inthose leaves, but they used it as
a substitute. Well back in RevolutionaryWar times, they were pretty much desperate
for anything remotely palatable that they couldin jest. So I have not tried
(34:50):
it myself, but it is abeautiful native plant. I have tried to
grow it, and I found outthat my art is a little bit too
dry for it. But I dolove it. It has white flowers that
attract a ton of pollinators, aninteresting texture on the foliage and if you're
sitting there going hmm, so youknow this that sounds familiar. We have
a number of other natives, soyou know this in North America, but
most of them are native to California. Not remotely hardy, but super popular
(35:13):
landscape plants out in California gorgeous.Sometimes are even called California lilac because they're
just covered in these like hazy,billowy masses of purple flowers so pretty.
We can't grow those here in theMidwest, but we can grow New Jersey
tea, and it's still a verycool plant with a very cool story.
There you go, So put iton your radar. Another thing to put
(35:35):
on your radar. Invaders from theunderground are coming this summer in Cicada Geddon.
Yeah, it's the biggest bug emergencein centuries this spring and unusual.
Cicada double dose is about to invadea couple parts of the United States in
what they're calling Cicada Geddon. Andthe last time these two broods came out
(35:55):
together eighteen oh three, Thomas Jeffersonwrote about them. He referred to them
as locusts. But there's some prettybig broods coming out, as I've seen
at Stacy, Georgia and Illinois beingthe epicenter as I understand, Yeah,
we're not predicted to get much herein Michigan. So hopefully peaceful summer nights
(36:17):
ahead for us, but not somuch for our neighbors. You know,
it's quite a topic for people totalk about, and this week, as
opposed to a limb of rick,I got these two limericks from the Washington
Post who invited people to write aboutcicadas. There was one Cicada's a hard
(36:38):
word to rhyme. It's not oneyou hear all the time, but try
rhyming echoskeleton only a clever felakin.So glad to be on the last line.
Great sense of humor there, greatjob another one. Life is short,
no time to waste sleep for years, then date in haste, flex
(37:00):
those muscles, shed that jacket,find a mate cause a racket. Oh
yeah, i'd said, is acicala Cicada's m O right there. I
like it. This next story stickaround. This is gonna be good.
So for those of you who areon Instagram, I suggest you look up
official stick reviews. I follow thataccount. It has forty five point nine
(37:25):
thousand followers, started about a yearago, and I love the names of
the gentleman who started the account.One his name is boon Hog and the
other is Logan Juggler. And theyall just kind of as a joke.
They loved collecting sticks when they gohiking and they're thinking, Wow, this
is a really cool stick, orthis is a cool quality stick. This
(37:47):
one feels really good in my hand. And they started posting these and they
found that there were a bunch ofother people like me who love collecting sticks
for whatever crazy reason. And thenwe rate sticks on their quality. Now,
I brought along a couple of stickshere. Oh, I wonder,
(38:07):
what do you have a rating forthe Oh, well, these aren't rated.
These are walking sticks. So thisis a driftwood out of Lake Michigan.
Oh is a stick exactly. AndI even taped them for you,
you know, safety first, Soone for Adriana and one for you.
A walking stick. These guys ona hike in moab, Utah. They
(38:30):
filmed their first stick review and postedit online. And I was thinking we
as gardeners would appreciate and love stickstoo, and this thing has gotten out
of control. They now have theMcMurray bend test, they have the Tennyson
(38:51):
curve scale, the Williams Whacker meter, all of these different variations to hast
the sticks. They have Stick ofthe Month, a tournament at the start
of each month, and people postthese sticks. Great webs great site to
visit on Instagram and follow. Yeah, I'm definitely going to add it to
(39:14):
my list. I was just tryingto look for it. I didn't find
it, so I'm gonna have todo a little more digging. But I
am excited to follow the official stickreviews because who doesn't like a good stick?
Yeah, so Adriana have some funwalking out there with your stick too.
What do you call a boomerang thatdoesn't come back a stick? What
do you call a magic one thatdoesn't do magic? A stick? Right?
(39:36):
So? Anyhow do you know thestick on the Ground song? No?
Oh, Adriana is a big fan, so I will not do a
rendition, but we will share thelink for the stick on the Ground song
in the show notes. I loveit. Where there's a willow, there's
a way right there, you go. I'm gonna stick with my dad jokes.
(39:57):
That's what I'm gonna do, allright. Rats are a nice thing
to have in your house. InBoston, rat traps are getting a new
look thanks to some local artists.An art festival in Boston is looking to
bring some beauty to the neighborhood's ratproblem. They're paying artists one hundred dollars
to decorate rat traps that will beplaced in the area, and the event
(40:21):
is aptly named the Rat City ArtFestival. So if you're looking for something
that's well kind of ratical, I'msorry I had to do that this summer.
Boston's the place, the Rat CityArt Festival. Well. Having lived
in New York City and been ahorticulturist in New York City, I have
had more than my share of runins with rats, so I doubt you're
(40:44):
going to go I mean, I'mokay with them. I mean, the
feeling of a rat running over yourshoe is not one that you forget.
But yeah, I have many ratmemories. All right. Now, let's
move from rats to run in myhouse. Gally never had them indoors that
funny outcards Punk Satani, Phil,You know, we always talk about punk
(41:05):
Satani in early February, whether ornot Punk Satany sees its shadow while Phil
and Phyllis have had babies. I'mjust announcing that. Oh that's wonderful.
Yeah, so Phil junior, acouple of Phil juniors, I guess,
and I don't know if someday they'llinherit the mantle and be able to predict
whether or not spring has arrived.But they had, they had babies,
(41:29):
so pretty cool. Yeah, cutelittle groundhog babies only have to work one
day a week, three hundred andsixty four days. It's kind of a
great gig. Nice work if youcan get it, nice work if you
can get it all right, youknow. It makes me makes me think
of a polar bear who walks intoa bar and he says to the bartender,
(41:52):
I'll have a rum and a coke. And the bartender says, why
the big pause, and the polarbear says, well, I was born
with those. Sorry. See Iearned the right to do bad dad jokes.
Okay, I'm old enough to dothem. Have you ever heard of
jacket potatoes? Oh? Yes,they have in the United Kingdom. Really,
(42:14):
oh in the United Kingdom, well, jacket they call it like baked
potato right like it's got the skinon, yeah, exactly. In the
United Kingdom England they love their bakedpotatoes and a lot of people feel that
they do it best. So asopposed to taking a potato that you're going
to bake and poking holes in itso it doesn't explode and then probably what
(42:38):
four hundred degrees for an hour orsomething like that. To bake the potatoes
in England, what they do isthey slice the potato they almost make a
cross in the center, and thenthey bake them for much longer, maybe
two hours at four hundred degrees.The whole concept, the whole idea is
(43:00):
to have them crispy on the outsideand fluffy on the inside. And as
I understand it and England, thesejacket potatoes are the best baked potato you
can have. Oh now, see, my father in law is a devoute
of the long cooked potato school.Oh yes, he has a special clay
pot where he makes them and cooksthem for yeah, at least two hours.
(43:22):
He loves that like super fluffy inside. Now usually he burns the outside
so it's not really edible. It'slike coal. But you know, you
sometimes when he does them, onthe grill. You really only get like
one little scoop out of the potato. The rest is all incinerated. That
is his favorite way to eat them. So I have had this type of
potato many many times myself outstanding.I love that. So I'm gonna try
(43:45):
this jacket potatoes. I'm just beinga commentator here to close out our show.
It's been fun, Stacy. Yeah, wait, I have a question
on a potato things. Yeah.So I usually microwave them because I don't
like to waste that much energy,you know, to just like baked to
potatoes, So usually microwave. I'mto get a head start. Do you
think that's permitted in the jacket potato? You know, I would say no.
(44:07):
Okay, I would say no.We're going for that crispy outside.
No hacks in the jacket potato world. Okay, I got you. Hey
Stacey, it's been a kick inthe plants. Thank you Adrianna, and
thank you Stacy. Most of all, thanks to you for watching us on
YouTube, listening to us on radio, and enjoying our podcast. Have a
great week.
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