June 22, 2024 • 51 mins
Some plants play starring roles in the landscape, while others play supporting ones. Meet these valuable plants and learn to use them in the landscape. Featured shrub: Happy Face White potentilla.
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(00:01):
Success in the garden. Coming toyou from Studio A here at Coved Winner's
Colored Roy Shrubs. It's time forthe Gardening Simplified radio podcast and YouTube show
with Stacy Hervella, me Rick weisstand our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
Today we talk about supporting roles,plants that play supporting roles. They were
(00:24):
an essential element in theater long beforemovies came along, and then when movies
came along, they invented an awardfor supporting roles, and we could argue
that they are very important in moviesand of course very important also in our
landscapes. A supporting role performs arole in a play or a film below
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that of a leading anchor and abovethat of a bit part. So think
of Batman and Robin. Robin wouldbe the supporting role. Think about out
one of my favorite movies, Apollothirteen, Ed Harris. He has been
a great supporting role actor through theyears. He played the role of Gene
(01:11):
Krantz. Tom Hanks of course hadthe lead role in that movie, or
Jonah Hill in Moneyball with Brad Pitttaking the lead role. And then you
have actors and actresses like Meryl Streepor Jack Nicholson who can do both play
a great leading role or play agreat supporting actor. And I'd have to
(01:34):
say, right off the bat Stacythat I personally believe well, the front
runner for supporting role in a landscapehas got to be evergreens. Evergreens the
foundation, the structure, the bonesof a landscape. I think they're the
perfect example. Do you agree.I don't disagree, but that would not
have been my first choice. Thereyou go. I don't think you're wrong
(01:57):
at all. I'm not like,how dare you? But no, I
actually feel in my opinion that evergreenskind of have more of a starring role
because they have your own interest andthey typically have such a distinctive shape,
you know. So to me,a supporting role plant is one that just
kind of does its thing that itlets the stars be the stars. It
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doesn't interfere with their shape, itdoesn't clash with their colors, it doesn't
pull focus, as it were,but it so it lets be themselves and
it doesn't fade into the background.But it doesn't compete either. And I
would say, typically maybe it's justme my I very often goes straight to
the evergreens unless there's something else inflower. Like you know, if you've
got to a landscape with hydrangeas andevergreens and the panicle hydrange's are in full
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bloom, well then that would definitelybe the star at that particular moment.
But I think when I was thinkingabout this, I think about supporting plants.
And have you ever been to theLuriy Garden in Chicago? Have not?
Okay? Oh wow, It's suchan amazing public garden, just beautiful,
designed by consonant plantsman Pete Udolph.And when you go there, I
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think you really get a great senseof what is a supporting role plant.
And he uses a native Euphorbia Euphorbiacoroa lotta as a supporting planet's in bloom
in late summer and fall, andit just has these kind of blue green
leaves and these fluffy clouds of whiteflowers, and it kind of repeats all
through the garden, And that,to me is the supporting role plant.
(03:27):
It doesn't take away from anything elseit has presents, it lets everything do
its own thing, but it justkind of knits everything together. See I'm
liking this. This is a gooddebate because I think evergreens, you know,
you think of junipers or box wouldthey play a filler supporting role,
And yet some evergreens, like let'stalk about Jim fizz juniper or stinging ourbor
(03:52):
viti, they could play a leadrole. The eye is drawn towards those
plants. Foliage or filler plants Ithink often play a supporting role, a
backdrop. And yet even at thatin the shade you could take sun king
Aurelia, you can take hard toheart kalladiums, rex Begonias colius. You
(04:14):
could argue that they play a starringrole also, So this is a good
debate. Well, it really dependson how you're using it. It really
depends on your landscape. And whileyou were, you know, mentioning those
and we're kind of you know,people are familiar with the concept of the
thriller filler spiller as a container designthing. So the plants that we're talking
about as a supporting role are thefiller, which doesn't mean they just sit
around and take up space, notat all. They still have an important
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role too to fulfill here. Butyou know, I was thinking about lantana,
and lantana is a plant that canbe a thriller, filler or spiller,
all depending on how you get it. Sure, you know, you
can get a tree form lantana thatis absolutely a thriller. You can get,
you know, a hanging basket whenit would be a spiller, but
very often it's used as a filler. So sometimes these are There's a lot
(05:00):
of leeway here to say what's what. So the theory here is I'll go
back to it. Meryl Streep orJack Nicholson, both fabulous and either a
leading role or a supporting role.You know. Again, when I think
about supporting role plants, I thinkornamental grasses make a great supporting role plant.
(05:26):
Their dynamic groundcovers play a supporting role. They fill in. I think
of the summer fill ins when youhit June and July and August and it's
hot and you can get those bargainannuals that grow really fast at the garden
center and they fill in. Theyplay a supporting role as a matter of
fact, in summer fun plant togrow cassia or popcorn plant. Have you
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grown that in your life? Ihave not grown it in my own landscape
because it gets a little big formy space. But I do love it.
I've seen it, and whenever Ido see it, I always make
people smell it because it does smelljust like butter popcorn, hot buttered popcorn
at the theater. They grow itin the children's garden here at the Frederick
Meyer Gardens, and so that couldbe a supporting role plant native plants.
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Of course, they don't have toearn top billing, but every garden needs
a supporting cast. I think ofour fire red twig dogwood as a great
example in my mind. But evenyou know, look at flowering annual Superbina
verbina. I love that plant likepink cashmerror, and it could stand on
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its own as a fabulous flowering annual. And yet you put it in combination
baskets, in a container or ahanging basket, that plant plays in incredible.
You know, Biden's is another one, a great supporting role in a
beautiful basket. I think that thatfor me, that characteristic of having almost
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like a hazy type effect is sortof where my brain goes when it comes
to flowering supporting plants. And thesupporting plants don't always need to flower,
like you were saying about like agroundcovered uniper. Yeah, they don't necessarily
have to be center stage. Whenyou look at perennials like you look at
silver lining, artemesia, or aworkhorse like day lilies. They can be
(07:16):
very beautiful. The blooms just lasta day, as the name notes.
However, they are a workhoorse inthe landscape, and I think day lilies
really play a supporting role in thelandscape. Iris and peonies their time in
the spotlight is short, but afterthat they still play some aspect of a
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supporting role. Yeah, definitely theiris now because you know a p and
and foliage eh, you know,it's just kind of there, but iris
foliage is very much of a strongstructural element that you're grateful to have well
beyond the time that the flowers havebloomed. Absolutely so, the supporting role
plants play an important role. Letme give you a limb a rick that
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popped into my head to talk aboutsupporting role plants. No drama, no
diva, no worry wart. Theyknow their role to lend support. Oh
high ranges. They get all thepress to Pogonia's I acquiesce. I'm just
trying to be a good sport.I'm content to support and console according to
(08:20):
a public opinion poll, Roses winthe popularity contest and Jasmine, you've always
impressed. I guess you're just ona roll. And that's what happens,
Stacy, is that plants get ona roll and pretty soon you see everyone
in the neighborhood planting the same thingand not necessarily thinking about the important role
(08:43):
that supporting role plants plan. Youknow, it's so true, and honestly,
that was one of the reasons whyI was very interested in getting into
gardening, because my mom was livingin a newer subdivision. And that's what
happened. One person calls a landscaper, they say, hey, they did
a good job. Everyone starts callingthat landscaper everyone and gets a cookie cutter
landscape. Because people are a littlebit afraid to go out there and choose
(09:05):
plants, They're a little bit afraidto stick their neck out. So it
does end up becoming like kind ofyou know, predictable, because it's it
becomes a little bit of an epidemic. So it's good to think outside the
box and to also understand, likewe've already said that these are not hard
and fast rules. How you usesomething, where you plant something will largely
(09:26):
determine whether it is playing a supportingrole or not. But I think for
myself again, the importance is somesort of like light ethereal texture in the
garden, so it's not like abig blob that's just taking all your attention.
And ideally some soft color that kindof just blends along with everything.
So I happen to have the answer. Here's the winner of the best I
(09:50):
have the envelope. Please, I'mgoing to let you open that up,
Stacy, and let me say thatthe supporting role plant in a landscape ape
does not detract from the leading actor, but rather there you go. There's
our winner. Would treill Us forbest supporting Role. Oh I get it
(10:11):
now, Thank you very much.I should have seen it coming. With
gardenings Simplified Plants trial that's next hereon the gardener Super. I love that
premiere and it could stand on itsown as a fan proven Winner's Color Choice
Shrubs cares about your success in thegarden. That's why we trial and test
(10:33):
all of our shrubs for eight toten years, making sure they outperform everything
else on the market. Look forthem and the distinctive white container at your
local garden center. I think thatthat for me that care green garden friends,
where we are talking about your sayingsupporting roles, and that can mean
a lot of different things, aswe have already determined. But Rick,
(10:54):
you haven't told me what plants playsupporting roles in your garden. Well I
knew would trell us be controversial,but somebody has to win. And I
still think that My favorite supporting roleplants, whether it's in a container or
in my landscape, are ornamental grasses. Okay, whether annual or perennial,
that's mine. Any particular one.Oh, I love miscanthus morning Light.
(11:18):
I love the proven Winn's annual grasscalled Vertigo. I love that plant,
a proven Winner's plant Skyrocket. They'reall great, but I think they play
just this fabulous. You know.They don't detract from the star, the
leading actors that maybe are high Drangersor some other blooming plant, but boy,
(11:39):
they do a great job of supportingthat rotating cast of whoever is the
star at the particular mart. SoI was thinking about what is a supporting
plant in my garden, and there'stwo plants that came to mind for me
that I feel like play a supportingrole Number one is meadow rue the electrum,
so I have a very nice slowingpopulation of that. So it's tall,
(12:01):
it's very thin, and it hasthat again that I just can't get
rid of, this like hazy,like cloudy texture that to me makes it
a supporting role plant. So it'stall, it gets these really dreamy little
flowers, very delicate foliage, andwhat I love about it is that it
just pops up wherever it will go. If I don't want it somewhere,
I just pull it out, Soit kind of has that effect of tying
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everything together. So that's in thevery small, shady part of my garden,
in the sunny part I love.And it has not really fully taken
off from me yet, but I'mhoping that it will flex. So I
don't know if you're familiar, ifyou've ever grown it before, but it
has the most beautiful, amazing blueflowers and that blue so it has like
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kind of a silvery blue foliage,very fine, very easy to you know,
like easy to blend with everything.And then that blue it's just the
particular shade of blue that it is. It goes with everything. I like
that. So you're choosing color tobe that support role like the blue in
flax, whereas with myself ornamental grasses, I choose them because they're good dancers.
(13:07):
They dance in the landscape. Theyprovide movement, which I think really
provides that supporting cast. Yeah,I think air and space is absolutely a
non negotiable on here. What thatlooks like to you is really something to
determine. And I think another importantpart of having a supporting role plant is
repeating it through the garden. Yes, you know, it's not a supporting
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real plan. It's not just likehey, I put one here and now
it's supporting the rest of the garden. The supporting real plan is almost like
a theme. Like you can thinkabout it like if you listen to classical
music in a symphony, there's themein variation. So it's sort of a
theme that unites everything in your gardenthroughout. It can be front to back,
it can be within a single bed. It's an element that's repeated,
(13:50):
I agree, throughout. They justdon't show up in the credits at the
end, like the key grip.Always feel sorry for that person the credits.
You just have to stay till likethe very bitter end to see that
person for what they do. Yes, they definitely should. They work hard.
So as far as plants on trialgo, you know, I think
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very often and a lot of theplants that we have listed already as supporting
role plants are typically perennials or sometimesannuals, but very often they are herbaceous
plants, the ornamental grasses, thetwo that I just mentioned, and so
thinking about shrubs as a supporting roleplant was a little bit of a challenge
for me, but I did thinklong and hard about it, and in
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the previous segment I mentioned that forme, one of the ultimate supporting role
plants, and I wish I couldfind it at a garden center so I
could plant it in my garden toactually have it have a supporting role.
This Euphorbia chloralata just a beautiful whitenative euphorbia with white clouds of flowers in
late season. So that's what I'mgoing for. You know how, nowadays,
don't know if you've seen this,but like if you buy a pack
(14:54):
of markers for coloring, they nowadaysthey come with a blending stick like a
thing that you can use to kindof between the colors and it blends them
together. So that's why I'm sohung up on sort of these cool these
like cool blues and whites, Andso for me, a supporting roll shrub
would be happy face white potentilla.Boy, you surprised me there, I
(15:16):
did. I thought it was goingto be nine berg, that was gonna
be nine bark. Yeah, nineberk oh see. I think of nine
barks is a real kind of ayou know, look at me showstopper,
because they're they're fairly large, andthey're very colorful. Do you have an
envelope for me? I don't.I don't. I wish I would have.
I wish I would have. ButI picked happy face white potentilla because
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it does kind of fill this role. So if you're not familiar with potentilla,
it is a plant that I thinka lot of people will just kind
of, you know, yawn atright, particularly if you were joining us
from Canada, where it is usedvery widely, and especially in gas station
and municipal plantings shops. Yeah,and it deserves more credit than that because
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it is an extreme durable, extremelyhard working plant, and it's native.
It's native to North America. Thereare actually a number of different native potentillas
to North America, and you maybe familiar with some of the ones that
are considered more weedy, but thoseare herbaceous potentillas, so they dive back
to the ground completely, whereas thisis a shrubby potentilla, which was actually
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reclassified by taxonomists into a new genuscalled dazafora. But as is often the
case when taxonomists try to switch thingsup, which they may have a very
good reason for doing so, butthe horticulture industry tends to take umbrage at
these types of changes, and theyjust say, well, no, we're
not using it, like, we'renot changing because people are so familiar with
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potentilla. Didn't daz afora have astarring role in the Batman movie? She
may have, oay. But thething about potentilla that always makes me laugh
is I think most people do knowit as potentilla, but very often on
tags you will see a common ofshrubby sink foil. Yes, I have
never once heard anyone use that term. No, it's not a good name
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and it never stuck. So Ireally don't think daz afora is suddenly going
to come along and supplant potentilla forthese woody potentillas like Happy Face White,
so potentilla it is. We're goingto stick with it. We're gonna acknowledge
that we know about the name change, but sticking with potentilla for right now.
Now. Happy Face White is ofcourse white flowers, so pure white
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flowers. And the thing about theHappy Face series, there's two major features
that make the Happy Face series differentthan other potentilla's so very very large flowers.
The first plant in the series wasa yellow one, so the Happy
Face yellow potentilla. That kind ofgave a series its name. It literally
looks like it could be one ofthose like seventies have a nice day happy
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faces. So that's where the nameoriginally came from, yes exactly. And
since then, as we've added moreand more colors, we've just kept them.
So we have happy Face yellow,Happy Face orange, Happy Face Pink
Paradise, Happy Face Hearts which ispink and white, and Happy Face white.
So I think any of them canplay that supporting role depending on the
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other colors in your garden, becauseall of them have that same sort of
delicate, hazy like quality. Theother thing that makes the Happy Face series
so different. Oh my gosh,you can't stop these things from blooming.
They are the longest. They bloomlike an annual even though they're a shrub.
So for us here in Michigan,they will start blooming at about late
spring and that will not stop untilfrost. And if we get like just
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a single frost that does not keepcoming and take it out, it will
keep going after that. They areextremely extremely long blooming. It's such a
tough plant. We mentioned that atthe beginning. If you're pulling into a
convenient store to get like a slurpyor something, it's hot outside, and
they're usually planted in gravel or Icall them, you know, the riot
(18:55):
rocks or whatever, you know,that between the sidewalk and the street,
and they see to be thriving.Yeah, they are. They're so they
are very hearty. They're hardy downto USDA Zone two, which is extremely
cold tolerant. Yeah. Now,as is often the case with plants that
are extremely hardy, it's not extremelyheat tolerant. So it's only heat tolerant
through about USDA Zone seven. Butin the areas where it can grow,
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so like if you're in Canada andnorthern Michigan, Minnesota, all of that.
It can take the heat in thoseareas, but you're not going to
want to put it in an areawhere you know it's going to be really,
really hot for a very long timein the summer. It's more one
of those things where it's just weget periods of intense heat. But for
us, it blooms all summer withoutstopping. And that, to me,
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I think is another great reason tothink of it as a supporting world plant.
Because it's sitting there and it's foliage. It has palmately compound foliage,
and so what that means is ashape like a hand. So it's a
five little leaflets make up an individualleaf, and they kind of have this
palm shape to them, which givesit that nice soft tech. I love
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how when the foliage comes out,it has a silky, silvery kind of
look, and then you have theseflowers that just really do not stop.
So that's what you're looking for ina supporting role plant. Now it gets
to be two to three feet talland wide, so a low grower,
more of that groundcover type role thatwe were talking about, but you can
freely mix it in with whatever inyour landscape, and I think it's always
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going to do a good job ofaccentuating everything else, letting everything have its
role, letting everything else shine well, just you know, taking up space
and looking great doing it. Goodthing would trell us one before you petitioned
for Happy Faced White potent tilla,you've sold me well. They were competing
in different categories. You know whatTrellis was in the garden structures category,
(20:44):
and now we're talking about best plantin a breast shrub and a supporting role.
Happy Faced White got potentilla. Soreally nice plant doesn't get enough credit
and certainly doesn't get enough credit forhow much heavy lifting it can do as
a design element in your gardens.So take a peek at it on our
YouTube channel or just visit Gardenings Simplifiedon air dot com. I have love
(21:06):
pictures of it there and you cansee it there and supporting in your face.
We're going to take breaker acknowledged gardennow. Happy face White is of
course white flowers, so at provenwinter's color choice. We've got a shrub
for every taste and every space,whether you're looking for an easy care rose
(21:30):
and unforgettable hydrangea or something new andunique. You can be confident that the
shrubs and the white containers have beentrialed and tested for your success. Look
for them at your local garden center. Like seventies, have a nice day,
happy gardening friends, and you welcomeback to that gardening. I like
what's going on out there. Iknow what's going on in my garden.
I know what's going on more orless here in West Michigan and our trial
(21:53):
gardens here at Proven Winter's Color ChoiceShrubs. But I don't know what's going
on in your garden. So Ilove hearing about it, don't I do
too. I love it. Soif you have something going on in your
garden you just want to celebrate,or you have questions, just visit Gardening
Simplified on air dot Com. It'svery simple. You can fill out a
contact form there, and you know, while you're thinking about maybe contacting us,
(22:15):
we want to just give you aheads up that we are going to
be doing a dog scaping show.We're going to be a dog scaping series
all about gardening if you have dogs, making sure you have a dog friendly
yard. I'm sure Adriana will becontributing greatly to this as the dog owner
among our little crew here, butwe'd also like to hear from you and
(22:37):
we want to hear your dog scapingtips, your dog scaping ideas, and
what we really want is your picturesof dogs in your garden and so if
you submit those at Gardeningsimplified on airdot com, we are going to pick
a winner at random to receive aplan Geek t shirt just like this one.
Of course, doesn't have to belike this one. We have one.
(22:59):
It's more of a and a sexstyle. If you don't like the
girly style, it's going to betotally up to you. Whoever the winner
is, we will have your sizeand we will send you that. So
please do send us your submissions thisweek or next so that we can include
those in the dog Scaping show.Yeah, send us your popular pictures.
We want to see a picture ofyou with your dog and your landscape and
(23:21):
dog scaping is a great topic andwe're looking forward to doing these shows.
Many people, of course have dogsas pets, and the dogs have to
coexist with some of your favorite flowersand plants in the landscape and garden.
How do you do that? We'dlove to hear from you. How you
do it, and of course we'llshare with you also pointers on how to
(23:42):
properly dog scape your yard. Yes, no free puppies, just free shirts,
so please do reach out there atGardeningsimplified on are dot com. Very
simple. So Rick, what awe got in the mailbag today? All
right? Tom's writing us today saysHello, I love your show and listen
all the time on Apple podcasts.And of course the Gardening Simplify show is
(24:04):
a radio show, it is apodcast, and it is a YouTube show.
So Tom, thank you very muchfor listening on Apple podcasts. You
both are so knowledgeable. I'm inthe western Chicago suburbs. Can you cover
the topic of growing lavender for peoplethat don't have ideal soil to support it?
(24:26):
How can the soil be changed toaccommodate lavender? Raised beds, till
in amendments, remove soil and adda custom mix. Great question, It
is such a good question, andso many people wish they could grow lavender
and they've had no success with it. And really there is no secret exactly
to growing lavender. There is justone very crucial key and that is good
(24:48):
drainage. Exactly, good drainage,especially in winter. You know, you
don't usually use lose lavender in thesummer from a lack of one. You
can use it from overwatering it.If you have clay soil. Typically when
leaven doesn't survive, it's due towinter wetness. So this is similar to
butterfly bush, similar to carryopter.It's also known as blue miss spyreea.
(25:10):
We've talked about Russian sage. Allof these plants that they need really really
good drainage all year round, butthey especially need good drainage during the time
of the year when it is coldout and the soil is not frozen,
so there can be like cold wetwater just sitting around those roots. That
is the fastest way to kill them. So, you know, for anyone
with clay soil, your challenge isgoing to be making sure that the plant
(25:33):
is not planted too deeply. Youwant to make sure that I usually say
plants it high, so that thebase of the plant is slightly above rather
than even with your soil surface.Now, I would not recommend going crazy
and trying to like change your soil. That to me is just not a
practical thing to do. But definitelyplant high, Definitely plant early, and
(25:56):
This is a really crucial thing.Anytime you have these plants that are susceptible
to winter damage, the earlier inthe season you are able to plant them,
the longer time they'll have to growroots into their home and be able
to better withstand the challenges of winter. And I have certainly fall planted lavender
plenty here in West Michigan, butmy soil is basically like a dune,
(26:17):
so it's very very sandy. Ihave no trouble with that. But plant
early, plant high, and thenbe real, real careful with the water,
so you know, be careful aswhen you're watering it. If you
have clay soil during the season andin the winter especially, be careful that
the plant isn't positioned where it's goingto get dripped on. And a lot
of times if you have it likeunder the eve of a house, or
(26:40):
if you have like downspouts that aregoing to it anything like that, that
can really cause harm to the lavender. Well, I think the key time
with lavender is to make sure firstof all that we have it in a
good sunny spot. We want asmuch sun as possible. And then I'm
in full agreement with Stacey the keyhere is good. Now, I would
suggest what you do in an areawhere you want to plant lavender. Dig
(27:04):
some holes, then go get thegarden holes, fill those holes with water,
then step back and watch what happens. If it drains readily, we
may have a good spot for lavender. If it doesn't, you're going to
have to add organic material and tryand improve the drainage in that area.
Assuming that this is clay soil,and if it is clay soil, don't
(27:27):
add sand and rocks. Adding sandand rocks to clay soil equals concrete.
And I agree with you Stacey,it's fall and winter in early spring when
the damage is done and will losethose plants if they're just floating in water.
Yeah, that's the toughest time forthem. And I did want to
mention that this is a very underratedpart. I said drainage is key,
(27:49):
and that is true. But thesecond key is picking the right lavender,
because not all lavenders are created equal. Some lavenders are much hardier than others,
some are much more tolerant of lessthan ideal conditions. So had Coat
is kind of like the gold standardof hardy lavender for those of us in
the Midwest. Munstead lavender is knownto be a bit hardier, so it's
(28:12):
not quite as attractive or as fragrantas had Coat, but Munstead would be
a good choice to start with.And then there's two newer ones that have
come out over the last say tenyears or so, phenomenal and sensational,
and I have heard nothing but goodthings from people who normally have real challenges
growing lavender. They've both done greatfor me. But I have ideal lavender
(28:33):
conditions, so my experience in thiscase does not really translate. But I
would say, look at those varietiesand maybe plant one of each before you
commit to a big lavender hedge ora big lavender planting, and see how
they do. But you know,I have heard from all sorts of gardeners
who have tried it in cold climatesand clay soil that phenomenal really has done
phenomenal for them. I've had successwith the proven winner's variety. I think
(28:56):
it's Sweet Romance. Sweet Romance,Yeah, yeah, that's Sweet Romance is
a great to great variety. Butdrainage, drainage, dream drainage, and
the right plant for the right place. So this would be a great opportunity
to check out a local garden centerand speak to some experts there on what
they recommend for your area. Aliciais wondering, my Clematis flowers are looking
(29:17):
really chewed up this summer. Canyou tell me what is eating them or
what usually eats them? I'm alsoconsidering a predatory insect order. Websites say
you should release them before it becomesa problem. Which predatory insects should one
order to keep the usual suspects fromgetting out of control? Is there a
best bet insect to get love theshow, especially the mini science and botany
(29:44):
lessons from Stacy. That's fantastic,that's very nice of you, Thank you,
Alicia, and the pronunciation lessons,because right off the bat, it's
either clematis or clematis, that's theother I'm however, as long as you
get the plant on at the endof the day, it's all right.
So, Alicia, I looked upyour I looked this up, and you
(30:04):
know, my first thought when Ilooked at that your clemitist flower was beetles.
Beetles leave a very distinctive damage,and they're pretty generalist food flower predators.
You know, there's a lot ofthings that eat flowers that are very
specific. Oh, I only willeat this flower, whereas beetles are just
like it. It's flower tissue,I'll eat it. But when I started
(30:25):
looking it up, I found thatthe biggest predator of clemitist flowers and the
damage of the pictures I saw onlinelined up exactly with what you're seeing is
earwigs. Oh yeah, you seethe faces in the studio right now if
you're not watching us on YouTube,and so you know. The beetle damage
tends to be. This is gonnasound a little bit funny, but I'll
put some links in the show notesand you can see what I'm talking about.
(30:48):
It tends to be a little moreorganized beetle damage Japanese beetles, notwithstanding
on clematists like from vine weavels,tends to be very neat. It's just
kind of little notches at the edgeof the flowers, whereas the earwig damage
is messy. It very often leavesbrown spots, which we're seeing on alicious
clemenis there. So I believe thisis earwigs, and earwigs are most active
(31:10):
at night, which would also maybeexplain why you haven't really seen the culprit
doing the damage. So I wasreading about earwigs and the number one recommendation
is actually trapping them. I donot know of any beneficial insects that you
can use against earwigs. That doesn'tmean they don't exist. I just don't
know of any offhand. But theysay trapping earwigs much like you would use
(31:32):
a bait for slugs. So yougot the little tuna can or catfood can
or whatever. The ideal bait forearwigs is oil that tuna was in.
Yeah, so not something you're nestless. Oh, you don't want to leave
in the hot garden, but youcan't tuna fish. So the other thing
(31:53):
that you could try was they saidyou can put olive oil with some soy
sauce. If you like to cooktyphoon, you could try some drops of
fish sauce in there. Apparently theylove oil, they love fishy oil.
But I will say Stacey that yearsago, when most people had newspapers delivered
to their home, one of thebest ways is just to roll up some
(32:15):
newsprint at the base of the plantsoaking wet, and the next morning take
a look in there. You'll quicklyknow whether or not it's earwigs that are
causing problem, and look for wherethey're hiding during the day. And since
newspaper's hard to come by right now, maybe get some of those like Penny
Savers at at the Gary Store somethinglike that. So trap for the earwigs,
(32:35):
see what you can find. Ithink ear rings are the culprit here
and just physically removing them from theplant. You'll have to continue to be
vigilant about that, but that shoulddo the trick. We'll put some more
resources for where you got a websiteto a big lavender, you've got to
take a little break. They do. Really, I've had success with the
proven winner's variety. I think it'ssweet romance, Sweet romance. Yeah,
(32:57):
yeah. The Gardening Simplified She isbrought to you by Proven Winners, Color
Choice Shrubs. Our award winning floweringshrubs and evergreens have been trialed and tested
for your success so you enjoy morebeauty and less work. Look for Proven
Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctivewhite container at your local garden center.
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Showtoday for branching news and interview with Don
(33:22):
Snewink. Thornapple Woodlands dot com.Don Snewink has been on the Gardening Simplified
Show before you're familiar with him.A b expert, pollination expert boy,
just all around good guy guy wholoves nature. Just fun. Wow,
(33:44):
thank you. I'm almost blutching overhere. I didn't know where else to
go with that, Don, butit's true. It is just always fun
and fascinating to talk to you.And of course we're doing this for June
is pollinator month. And before Iget into that, boy, you gave
(34:05):
me a heeducation here on the wordpollen and pollinate. You got to make
sure to get it right. Soa pollinator is a biotic agent that moves
pollen from one flower to another,whereas a pollinizer is a plant that provides
fertile pollen. I guess I betterget that straight right off the bat,
(34:27):
right. Well. Wow, I'mreally impressed because I'm still trying to get
that all figured out for myself.You got it right away. And of
course when you talk about pollinator,we use an I, and then when
you talk about pollen we use anE. Well I get a little confused
after a while. What is upwith that? I've always wandered, So
(34:50):
I thought, who better to takeit to than a word guy like yourself.
Well, I'm not necessarily a wordguy. Don I mess words up.
Sticky is the word expert. Thatjust seems strange to me, Stacy
that it'd be p O L LE N and then when we pollinate it
they throw an I in there insteadof an E. Well, you know,
(35:13):
English does crazy things sometimes it takesother words and it you know,
it's obviously a noun versus a verbsituation, and I'm sure if I thought
about it there, I would figureout other words that this has happened to
you where the verb form has anI in it and the noun form has
the e. But you know,fortunately there's autocorrect, so we'll all be
okay. I think there's Isn't therea Latin base involved here too? Somehow?
(35:39):
I? Yeah, I believe sotoo. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
now that we got that out ofthe way, let me ask you
a question Don, and again we'retalking to Don sneink Thorn apple Woodlands and
boy Don shared some YouTube videos withus too that are great. We'll talk
about that in a moment, butjust a few thoughts on pollination I'm going
(35:59):
to ask, you're right off thebat don, why is pollination important?
I mean, I have a goodidea why. But shouldn't we ask that
question from the start? I wouldthink so. And when we're talking about
food, we like to see goodseed production, which allows that plant to
(36:21):
produce a good fruit around those seeds. So the more seeds they produce,
the better the fruiting is. Sopollination is important because it aids in the
production of seeds. It's how plantsreproduce. It's a good answer for me.
You nailed that one. I'm speechless. Okay, So as far as
(36:44):
honeybees are concerned, while they're doingthat, I've heard you use this term
before, flower fidelity. What's thatexactly? Yes, honeybees of flower fidelity,
which means that they are faithful.Fidelity refers to faithfulness, so they're
faithful to one type of blossom foreach trip out of the hive. So
(37:06):
a honeybee flies from the beehive,the first blossom that goes to, let's
say, is a dandelion. Everyblossom that goes to thereafter on that trip
out will be a dandelion. Whenit comes back to the high it unloads
either it's load of nectar, pollenload, whatever it is. It can
go back out and it might goto a different type of blossom the second
(37:27):
time around, but it's going tostick with that type of blossom. So
this is why the orchardists will mowthe fields of dandelions under their orchard so
that the honeybees aren't tempted by dandelions. They go right to the apple blossoms.
Wow, that is fascinating. Ididn't know that. So now when
they venture back out, are theygoing to be like, hey, you
(37:49):
know, I noticed some apples andflour, I'm going to go check those
out at this time? Or isit just like whatever they happen to bumble
into first? Right, All right, well I just landed on an apple.
Yes, I'm harvesting apples for thenext five minutes. I would guess
that there's a hive mind at workhere too, you know. That's why
we call it a super organism,where all the bees work in a kind
(38:15):
of a symbiotic relationship and function togetheras a whole. So some bees are
coming back with loads of nectar orpollen, and they're doing a special dance
inside of that colony, telling theother bees where they ought to go next
and for their next load of pollen. So I think once the honey bees
get fixated on a source of eithernectar or pollen, they'll probably stay with
(38:38):
that source until that source is nolonger available. Well, I'm a little
afraid to ask this, but youknow we've all seen bees, bumblebees,
honeybees carrying loads of pollen. Nowwhere are they carrying the nectar? Are
they literally ingesting it and then bringingit back into the hive and sort of
regurgitating it, or is there somesecret nectar organ that I'm not a yeah,
(39:02):
Yeah, it's the crop we callit, or the Yeah, there's
a honey stomach. So honey beesof two stomachs. They have a honey
stomach and then a I call ita food stomach for lack of a better
term. There's a one way valvebetween the two stomachs. So they're gonna
take a snack and the way home. Open up that valve a little bit,
let some of that nectar go intotheir food stomach. That gives them
(39:24):
energy to get back to the hive. And then yes, Stacey, they
can regurgitate that to another bee.They connect proboscis the part of their mouth.
It's like a straw connect proboscis wherethe receiver bee and that hive one
of the bees live in its firstthree weeks in the hive, transfer that
nectar. Chemicals are added by thebees' bodies and that transfer and that turns
(39:46):
that nectar into honey. Wow.So tiny stomachs they are, I'm sure
they are. But while they're collectingnectar, they're also the pollen is and
attracted to their bodies as well.So yeah, it's a double duty.
Where does the fermentation thing come in? Done so that we can make that's
(40:09):
right. Honey bees cannot digest pollen. The grains they cannot digest. So
the honeybee and this is its proteinsource. Like for the kids listening,
it's eggs, meat, fish,peanut, butter. That's what we eat
for our protein. Honey Bees usepollen for their protein. So they when
(40:30):
they get back, they're carrying thatbig heavy load of pollen in it in
its pollen basket and indentation on itsback legs. Honeybee gets back into the
hive, turns and backs into acell and unloads its pollen from its back
legs. Turn around, using itshead like a ramrod, crams it into
the bottom of that cell. Oncewe get maybe half filled in that cell,
(40:52):
the bees will cap that over witha little bit of honey. That
honey then ferments the pollen cracks openthat pollen green, which allows it then
to be digested by the bees,and we bee keepers call that fermented product
bee bread. Yes, I'm I'mconvinced that using honey for fermentation is a
(41:15):
good thing based on what I knowabout honeybees. It's the oldest, it's
the oldest fermented drink. No themankind and recommentioned it earlier, mead exactly.
So the star of the show isthe queen Bee. And I'm watching
a YouTube video, and Adriana willshare that YouTube video. Of course,
(41:40):
this is a YouTube radio show andpodcast. Those watching on YouTube can watch
it here. Boy, that queenbee is something else. And then this
YouTube video continues, and don you'reout there putting a mark on their back
with a marker. I couldn't believeit. What in the world are you
(42:00):
doing out there? That's right,I'm marking a queen because if I get
a queen in that high that's markedwith a dot then I can spot her
easier in the hive if I needto find her, or if I go
to a program and do a show. I like to have a marked queen
(42:21):
so people can find that queen beein the traveling observation hives better. Plus
it tells me how old that queenis. So when I mark that queen,
I write it in my notebook thatI just freshly marked that queen and
I got a date for that.Because a first year a queen her hive,
their goal is to make enough honeyto live through the winter. A
(42:43):
second year of that queen's life,their goal is to swarm, So we
treat a second year colony totally differentthan a first year colony. Oh,
how swarming party, that's exactly right, Yes, yes, And I did
a lot of things this year.We had a lot of bee hives that
live through the winter this year,a pretty exciting phenomenon which I haven't had
(43:07):
much good overwintering success the last fewyears. So that made my beekeeper life
very busy for the month of Maybecause I had to do things hive manipulations
to keep my hives from swarming.So marking that queen bee, in other
words, you mark the bee obviouslywe can see it in the video,
(43:28):
also being easier to spot. Butso you're a trained professional, But is
it difficult for people who are nottrained in beekeeping to spot or find the
queen? Yes, I would sayit is. It's hard to find her
if you've got a hive full ofbees. Fifty thousand bees could be the
population around fourth of July. It'shard even for a trained beekeeper like myself
(43:53):
to find the queen. But I'mwith practice, With practice, learn what
to look for in your eyes,just kind of hone in on different characteristics
of that hive that seemed to helpthe queen zoom into focus. You would
think the crown and the scepter wouldgive her away, right. I was
going to say, train on where'sWaldo books in the off season? If
(44:16):
you know that's funny, But youknow I really trained on is my indoor
observation hive where I have a tubewhere the bees can fly in and out
of the house through the wall.I'd never I would never cut a hole
in my house for anything, butI did for a tube of bees.
I love it anyway. When whenour kids were little, my son and
(44:37):
I used to sit one on eachside of the observation. We'd race thee
could you know, we play gameswith our kids like that. We'd race
the su you could find the queenthe first, and then we'd sit there
for a while and we'd say switchand we'd both switch sides and look again.
So that trained my eyes to lookfor the queen. And you know
(44:57):
what's interesting. Kids can find aqueen easier than almost anybody. When I
need to find a queen bee,I'd bring one of my kids out to
the r because they just I don'tknow if their minds focus better because they're
not so full of adult clutter.I just don't. I don't know what
it is, but it's amazing.That is interesting, don So. June
(45:21):
is a National Pollinator Month and wefocus on pollinators in the landscape during the
month of June. Any favorites asfar as flowers are concerned, you know,
we talked about the flower fidelity inyour opinion and in your work with
honey bees. Any favorites during themonth of June that you want to point
(45:45):
out. Definitely it would be inthe clover families. And I know that
Clover's not a proven winner, right, I love it too, and the
beehive. It's a proven winner tobe because when the clover starts to bloom,
that's when honey production really kicks in. We've got so many types of
(46:06):
clover. The white Dutch, theall psych looks like white Dutch, except
it's got a per pinkish hue toit. Now, right now, the
yellow sweet clover is blooming. Youwant to look it up. You can
see how that grows on kind ofa stem and that that will bloom every
other year. The first year itgrows and it doesn't bloom it and it
(46:28):
quote unquote dies, but from thatsame root system it grows again the next
year and then it blooms, getspollinated and produces by any Is that what
we call that? Correct? Yes? Correct? Okay, good. Sometimes
I've mispronounced that like bi annual.But it's by any all, isn't it.
So after the yellow sweet clover comesthe king of all and that's the
(46:51):
white sweet clover. It's very similarto the yellow but it's it's more prolific.
The white sweet clover is and thatis a mat for honey bees.
And it blooms in June late frommid June till mid July, right during
peak honeybee population and the warmest timeof the year or the best. It's
(47:15):
not the warmest time of year,but it's a good warm time of year,
so we could a lot of honeybees flying and producing honey like crazy.
I love that with clover. Youknow, if I was to do
marketing for the honey people, Iwould say, June, it ain't over
until it's clover. Oh, that'sright, right, And they said honey.
(47:37):
Yeah, And the clover like whiteDutch blooms from mid May all the
way to the beginning of September.I love that. Bird's foot tree foil
is another one that I really reallylike. Now I have to ask you,
do you are these planted? Didyou deliberately plant these around your property
or are the ubiquitous enough just surroundingyour property that you don't need to do
that and the bees can go outand forage for them on their own.
(48:00):
Typically the honey bees travel from theirhives about two miles, so it's not
what I plant in my yard that'sgoing to give me honey. It's what,
as you said, is ubiquitous inthe area, and there is typically
in the West Michigan in Michigan ingeneral. Usually there's enough stuff blooming in
(48:20):
your area, enough weeds blooming thatthey're going to do okay. And when
we add to that with our plantingsand our gardens and everybody does that,
it's just bonus. Definitely. Donit's June, soon will be July.
Do bees like hot weather? Theydo. Yes, They're a tropical insect,
(48:42):
so it's natural for them to beactive and hot weather. The long
days give them good flight hours perday. So this is prime time.
And I love this time of yearin the beehive because the verroa light which
is a pest to the honeybees.The verroamite population hasn't grown enough that it's
(49:06):
negatively impacting the hives too much,or we as beekeepers have taken care of
the roamites enough to keep their populationlow. But some of the pathogens that
affect honeybees kind of linger in thebackground at this time of year because the
honeybee population is growing faster than thepathogen can grow to do its damage.
(49:30):
So after fourth of July, aftermid late July, that's when we see
the path the bad stuff taking overa little bit more. So this is
a fun time of year to bea beekeeper. You might say it's a
sweet spot. It's the sweet spotperfect. I love it. I love
that perfect way to cap off thissegment. He's all the buzz, Don
(49:52):
snewink Thorn apple Woodlands. Don.I always get inspired when I talk to
you, and I love your enthusiasm. Our website, right is Thornapplewoodlands dot
com. Is that correct? Thatis correct and people are welcome to look
at it. Check out my blog, check out the YouTube channel. It's
been fun adding lots of new materialto the YouTube channel lately. And of
(50:15):
course we'll put that link also atour website, Gardeningsimplified on air dot com,
you'll be able to link to Donand yes, go to his website.
I just love looking at pictures ofyou out there at work, Don,
and appreciate everything you do. Andthanks for joining us again on the
Gardening Simplified show. And I thankyou so much for the opportunity. It's
(50:37):
always a thrill to be with youfolks. Thank you so much, Don,
Thank you. Don. Well,there's nothing like a guest like Don
where you learn something new every timethey come on. More than one thing.
Oh my word, I have tobehive myself when he's on, cause
you just get excited thinking about flowers, plants and bees. Yes, I
certainly am. So thank you Don, thank you Rick, thanks Adrian as
(51:00):
always, thank you so much toall of you for listening. I hope
we have a great week ahead.
Success in the garden. Coming toyou from Studio A here at Coved Winner's
Colored Roy Shrubs. It's time forthe Gardening Simplified radio podcast and YouTube show
with Stacy Hervella, me Rick weisstand our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
Today we talk about supporting roles,plants that play supporting roles. They were
(00:24):
an essential element in theater long beforemovies came along, and then when movies
came along, they invented an awardfor supporting roles, and we could argue
that they are very important in moviesand of course very important also in our
landscapes. A supporting role performs arole in a play or a film below
(00:48):
that of a leading anchor and abovethat of a bit part. So think
of Batman and Robin. Robin wouldbe the supporting role. Think about out
one of my favorite movies, Apollothirteen, Ed Harris. He has been
a great supporting role actor through theyears. He played the role of Gene
(01:11):
Krantz. Tom Hanks of course hadthe lead role in that movie, or
Jonah Hill in Moneyball with Brad Pitttaking the lead role. And then you
have actors and actresses like Meryl Streepor Jack Nicholson who can do both play
a great leading role or play agreat supporting actor. And I'd have to
(01:34):
say, right off the bat Stacythat I personally believe well, the front
runner for supporting role in a landscapehas got to be evergreens. Evergreens the
foundation, the structure, the bonesof a landscape. I think they're the
perfect example. Do you agree.I don't disagree, but that would not
have been my first choice. Thereyou go. I don't think you're wrong
(01:57):
at all. I'm not like,how dare you? But no, I
actually feel in my opinion that evergreenskind of have more of a starring role
because they have your own interest andthey typically have such a distinctive shape,
you know. So to me,a supporting role plant is one that just
kind of does its thing that itlets the stars be the stars. It
(02:21):
doesn't interfere with their shape, itdoesn't clash with their colors, it doesn't
pull focus, as it were,but it so it lets be themselves and
it doesn't fade into the background.But it doesn't compete either. And I
would say, typically maybe it's justme my I very often goes straight to
the evergreens unless there's something else inflower. Like you know, if you've
got to a landscape with hydrangeas andevergreens and the panicle hydrange's are in full
(02:45):
bloom, well then that would definitelybe the star at that particular moment.
But I think when I was thinkingabout this, I think about supporting plants.
And have you ever been to theLuriy Garden in Chicago? Have not?
Okay? Oh wow, It's suchan amazing public garden, just beautiful,
designed by consonant plantsman Pete Udolph.And when you go there, I
(03:06):
think you really get a great senseof what is a supporting role plant.
And he uses a native Euphorbia Euphorbiacoroa lotta as a supporting planet's in bloom
in late summer and fall, andit just has these kind of blue green
leaves and these fluffy clouds of whiteflowers, and it kind of repeats all
through the garden, And that,to me is the supporting role plant.
(03:27):
It doesn't take away from anything elseit has presents, it lets everything do
its own thing, but it justkind of knits everything together. See I'm
liking this. This is a gooddebate because I think evergreens, you know,
you think of junipers or box wouldthey play a filler supporting role,
And yet some evergreens, like let'stalk about Jim fizz juniper or stinging ourbor
(03:52):
viti, they could play a leadrole. The eye is drawn towards those
plants. Foliage or filler plants Ithink often play a supporting role, a
backdrop. And yet even at thatin the shade you could take sun king
Aurelia, you can take hard toheart kalladiums, rex Begonias colius. You
(04:14):
could argue that they play a starringrole also, So this is a good
debate. Well, it really dependson how you're using it. It really
depends on your landscape. And whileyou were, you know, mentioning those
and we're kind of you know,people are familiar with the concept of the
thriller filler spiller as a container designthing. So the plants that we're talking
about as a supporting role are thefiller, which doesn't mean they just sit
around and take up space, notat all. They still have an important
(04:38):
role too to fulfill here. Butyou know, I was thinking about lantana,
and lantana is a plant that canbe a thriller, filler or spiller,
all depending on how you get it. Sure, you know, you
can get a tree form lantana thatis absolutely a thriller. You can get,
you know, a hanging basket whenit would be a spiller, but
very often it's used as a filler. So sometimes these are There's a lot
(05:00):
of leeway here to say what's what. So the theory here is I'll go
back to it. Meryl Streep orJack Nicholson, both fabulous and either a
leading role or a supporting role.You know. Again, when I think
about supporting role plants, I thinkornamental grasses make a great supporting role plant.
(05:26):
Their dynamic groundcovers play a supporting role. They fill in. I think
of the summer fill ins when youhit June and July and August and it's
hot and you can get those bargainannuals that grow really fast at the garden
center and they fill in. Theyplay a supporting role as a matter of
fact, in summer fun plant togrow cassia or popcorn plant. Have you
(05:48):
grown that in your life? Ihave not grown it in my own landscape
because it gets a little big formy space. But I do love it.
I've seen it, and whenever Ido see it, I always make
people smell it because it does smelljust like butter popcorn, hot buttered popcorn
at the theater. They grow itin the children's garden here at the Frederick
Meyer Gardens, and so that couldbe a supporting role plant native plants.
(06:12):
Of course, they don't have toearn top billing, but every garden needs
a supporting cast. I think ofour fire red twig dogwood as a great
example in my mind. But evenyou know, look at flowering annual Superbina
verbina. I love that plant likepink cashmerror, and it could stand on
(06:34):
its own as a fabulous flowering annual. And yet you put it in combination
baskets, in a container or ahanging basket, that plant plays in incredible.
You know, Biden's is another one, a great supporting role in a
beautiful basket. I think that thatfor me, that characteristic of having almost
(06:55):
like a hazy type effect is sortof where my brain goes when it comes
to flowering supporting plants. And thesupporting plants don't always need to flower,
like you were saying about like agroundcovered uniper. Yeah, they don't necessarily
have to be center stage. Whenyou look at perennials like you look at
silver lining, artemesia, or aworkhorse like day lilies. They can be
(07:16):
very beautiful. The blooms just lasta day, as the name notes.
However, they are a workhoorse inthe landscape, and I think day lilies
really play a supporting role in thelandscape. Iris and peonies their time in
the spotlight is short, but afterthat they still play some aspect of a
(07:38):
supporting role. Yeah, definitely theiris now because you know a p and
and foliage eh, you know,it's just kind of there, but iris
foliage is very much of a strongstructural element that you're grateful to have well
beyond the time that the flowers havebloomed. Absolutely so, the supporting role
plants play an important role. Letme give you a limb a rick that
(07:59):
popped into my head to talk aboutsupporting role plants. No drama, no
diva, no worry wart. Theyknow their role to lend support. Oh
high ranges. They get all thepress to Pogonia's I acquiesce. I'm just
trying to be a good sport.I'm content to support and console according to
(08:20):
a public opinion poll, Roses winthe popularity contest and Jasmine, you've always
impressed. I guess you're just ona roll. And that's what happens,
Stacy, is that plants get ona roll and pretty soon you see everyone
in the neighborhood planting the same thingand not necessarily thinking about the important role
(08:43):
that supporting role plants plan. Youknow, it's so true, and honestly,
that was one of the reasons whyI was very interested in getting into
gardening, because my mom was livingin a newer subdivision. And that's what
happened. One person calls a landscaper, they say, hey, they did
a good job. Everyone starts callingthat landscaper everyone and gets a cookie cutter
landscape. Because people are a littlebit afraid to go out there and choose
(09:05):
plants, They're a little bit afraidto stick their neck out. So it
does end up becoming like kind ofyou know, predictable, because it's it
becomes a little bit of an epidemic. So it's good to think outside the
box and to also understand, likewe've already said that these are not hard
and fast rules. How you usesomething, where you plant something will largely
(09:26):
determine whether it is playing a supportingrole or not. But I think for
myself again, the importance is somesort of like light ethereal texture in the
garden, so it's not like abig blob that's just taking all your attention.
And ideally some soft color that kindof just blends along with everything.
So I happen to have the answer. Here's the winner of the best I
(09:50):
have the envelope. Please, I'mgoing to let you open that up,
Stacy, and let me say thatthe supporting role plant in a landscape ape
does not detract from the leading actor, but rather there you go. There's
our winner. Would treill Us forbest supporting Role. Oh I get it
(10:11):
now, Thank you very much.I should have seen it coming. With
gardenings Simplified Plants trial that's next hereon the gardener Super. I love that
premiere and it could stand on itsown as a fan proven Winner's Color Choice
Shrubs cares about your success in thegarden. That's why we trial and test
(10:33):
all of our shrubs for eight toten years, making sure they outperform everything
else on the market. Look forthem and the distinctive white container at your
local garden center. I think thatthat for me that care green garden friends,
where we are talking about your sayingsupporting roles, and that can mean
a lot of different things, aswe have already determined. But Rick,
(10:54):
you haven't told me what plants playsupporting roles in your garden. Well I
knew would trell us be controversial,but somebody has to win. And I
still think that My favorite supporting roleplants, whether it's in a container or
in my landscape, are ornamental grasses. Okay, whether annual or perennial,
that's mine. Any particular one.Oh, I love miscanthus morning Light.
(11:18):
I love the proven Winn's annual grasscalled Vertigo. I love that plant,
a proven Winner's plant Skyrocket. They'reall great, but I think they play
just this fabulous. You know.They don't detract from the star, the
leading actors that maybe are high Drangersor some other blooming plant, but boy,
(11:39):
they do a great job of supportingthat rotating cast of whoever is the
star at the particular mart. SoI was thinking about what is a supporting
plant in my garden, and there'stwo plants that came to mind for me
that I feel like play a supportingrole Number one is meadow rue the electrum,
so I have a very nice slowingpopulation of that. So it's tall,
(12:01):
it's very thin, and it hasthat again that I just can't get
rid of, this like hazy,like cloudy texture that to me makes it
a supporting role plant. So it'stall, it gets these really dreamy little
flowers, very delicate foliage, andwhat I love about it is that it
just pops up wherever it will go. If I don't want it somewhere,
I just pull it out, Soit kind of has that effect of tying
(12:24):
everything together. So that's in thevery small, shady part of my garden,
in the sunny part I love.And it has not really fully taken
off from me yet, but I'mhoping that it will flex. So I
don't know if you're familiar, ifyou've ever grown it before, but it
has the most beautiful, amazing blueflowers and that blue so it has like
(12:45):
kind of a silvery blue foliage,very fine, very easy to you know,
like easy to blend with everything.And then that blue it's just the
particular shade of blue that it is. It goes with everything. I like
that. So you're choosing color tobe that support role like the blue in
flax, whereas with myself ornamental grasses, I choose them because they're good dancers.
(13:07):
They dance in the landscape. Theyprovide movement, which I think really
provides that supporting cast. Yeah,I think air and space is absolutely a
non negotiable on here. What thatlooks like to you is really something to
determine. And I think another importantpart of having a supporting role plant is
repeating it through the garden. Yes, you know, it's not a supporting
(13:28):
real plan. It's not just likehey, I put one here and now
it's supporting the rest of the garden. The supporting real plan is almost like
a theme. Like you can thinkabout it like if you listen to classical
music in a symphony, there's themein variation. So it's sort of a
theme that unites everything in your gardenthroughout. It can be front to back,
it can be within a single bed. It's an element that's repeated,
(13:50):
I agree, throughout. They justdon't show up in the credits at the
end, like the key grip.Always feel sorry for that person the credits.
You just have to stay till likethe very bitter end to see that
person for what they do. Yes, they definitely should. They work hard.
So as far as plants on trialgo, you know, I think
(14:11):
very often and a lot of theplants that we have listed already as supporting
role plants are typically perennials or sometimesannuals, but very often they are herbaceous
plants, the ornamental grasses, thetwo that I just mentioned, and so
thinking about shrubs as a supporting roleplant was a little bit of a challenge
for me, but I did thinklong and hard about it, and in
(14:33):
the previous segment I mentioned that forme, one of the ultimate supporting role
plants, and I wish I couldfind it at a garden center so I
could plant it in my garden toactually have it have a supporting role.
This Euphorbia chloralata just a beautiful whitenative euphorbia with white clouds of flowers in
late season. So that's what I'mgoing for. You know how, nowadays,
don't know if you've seen this,but like if you buy a pack
(14:54):
of markers for coloring, they nowadaysthey come with a blending stick like a
thing that you can use to kindof between the colors and it blends them
together. So that's why I'm sohung up on sort of these cool these
like cool blues and whites, Andso for me, a supporting roll shrub
would be happy face white potentilla.Boy, you surprised me there, I
(15:16):
did. I thought it was goingto be nine berg, that was gonna
be nine bark. Yeah, nineberk oh see. I think of nine
barks is a real kind of ayou know, look at me showstopper,
because they're they're fairly large, andthey're very colorful. Do you have an
envelope for me? I don't.I don't. I wish I would have.
I wish I would have. ButI picked happy face white potentilla because
(15:37):
it does kind of fill this role. So if you're not familiar with potentilla,
it is a plant that I thinka lot of people will just kind
of, you know, yawn atright, particularly if you were joining us
from Canada, where it is usedvery widely, and especially in gas station
and municipal plantings shops. Yeah,and it deserves more credit than that because
(15:58):
it is an extreme durable, extremelyhard working plant, and it's native.
It's native to North America. Thereare actually a number of different native potentillas
to North America, and you maybe familiar with some of the ones that
are considered more weedy, but thoseare herbaceous potentillas, so they dive back
to the ground completely, whereas thisis a shrubby potentilla, which was actually
(16:21):
reclassified by taxonomists into a new genuscalled dazafora. But as is often the
case when taxonomists try to switch thingsup, which they may have a very
good reason for doing so, butthe horticulture industry tends to take umbrage at
these types of changes, and theyjust say, well, no, we're
not using it, like, we'renot changing because people are so familiar with
(16:42):
potentilla. Didn't daz afora have astarring role in the Batman movie? She
may have, oay. But thething about potentilla that always makes me laugh
is I think most people do knowit as potentilla, but very often on
tags you will see a common ofshrubby sink foil. Yes, I have
never once heard anyone use that term. No, it's not a good name
(17:06):
and it never stuck. So Ireally don't think daz afora is suddenly going
to come along and supplant potentilla forthese woody potentillas like Happy Face White,
so potentilla it is. We're goingto stick with it. We're gonna acknowledge
that we know about the name change, but sticking with potentilla for right now.
Now. Happy Face White is ofcourse white flowers, so pure white
(17:30):
flowers. And the thing about theHappy Face series, there's two major features
that make the Happy Face series differentthan other potentilla's so very very large flowers.
The first plant in the series wasa yellow one, so the Happy
Face yellow potentilla. That kind ofgave a series its name. It literally
looks like it could be one ofthose like seventies have a nice day happy
(17:51):
faces. So that's where the nameoriginally came from, yes exactly. And
since then, as we've added moreand more colors, we've just kept them.
So we have happy Face yellow,Happy Face orange, Happy Face Pink
Paradise, Happy Face Hearts which ispink and white, and Happy Face white.
So I think any of them canplay that supporting role depending on the
(18:11):
other colors in your garden, becauseall of them have that same sort of
delicate, hazy like quality. Theother thing that makes the Happy Face series
so different. Oh my gosh,you can't stop these things from blooming.
They are the longest. They bloomlike an annual even though they're a shrub.
So for us here in Michigan,they will start blooming at about late
spring and that will not stop untilfrost. And if we get like just
(18:33):
a single frost that does not keepcoming and take it out, it will
keep going after that. They areextremely extremely long blooming. It's such a
tough plant. We mentioned that atthe beginning. If you're pulling into a
convenient store to get like a slurpyor something, it's hot outside, and
they're usually planted in gravel or Icall them, you know, the riot
(18:55):
rocks or whatever, you know,that between the sidewalk and the street,
and they see to be thriving.Yeah, they are. They're so they
are very hearty. They're hardy downto USDA Zone two, which is extremely
cold tolerant. Yeah. Now,as is often the case with plants that
are extremely hardy, it's not extremelyheat tolerant. So it's only heat tolerant
through about USDA Zone seven. Butin the areas where it can grow,
(19:18):
so like if you're in Canada andnorthern Michigan, Minnesota, all of that.
It can take the heat in thoseareas, but you're not going to
want to put it in an areawhere you know it's going to be really,
really hot for a very long timein the summer. It's more one
of those things where it's just weget periods of intense heat. But for
us, it blooms all summer withoutstopping. And that, to me,
(19:38):
I think is another great reason tothink of it as a supporting world plant.
Because it's sitting there and it's foliage. It has palmately compound foliage,
and so what that means is ashape like a hand. So it's a
five little leaflets make up an individualleaf, and they kind of have this
palm shape to them, which givesit that nice soft tech. I love
(20:00):
how when the foliage comes out,it has a silky, silvery kind of
look, and then you have theseflowers that just really do not stop.
So that's what you're looking for ina supporting role plant. Now it gets
to be two to three feet talland wide, so a low grower,
more of that groundcover type role thatwe were talking about, but you can
freely mix it in with whatever inyour landscape, and I think it's always
(20:22):
going to do a good job ofaccentuating everything else, letting everything have its
role, letting everything else shine well, just you know, taking up space
and looking great doing it. Goodthing would trell us one before you petitioned
for Happy Faced White potent tilla,you've sold me well. They were competing
in different categories. You know whatTrellis was in the garden structures category,
(20:44):
and now we're talking about best plantin a breast shrub and a supporting role.
Happy Faced White got potentilla. Soreally nice plant doesn't get enough credit
and certainly doesn't get enough credit forhow much heavy lifting it can do as
a design element in your gardens.So take a peek at it on our
YouTube channel or just visit Gardenings Simplifiedon air dot com. I have love
(21:06):
pictures of it there and you cansee it there and supporting in your face.
We're going to take breaker acknowledged gardennow. Happy face White is of
course white flowers, so at provenwinter's color choice. We've got a shrub
for every taste and every space,whether you're looking for an easy care rose
(21:30):
and unforgettable hydrangea or something new andunique. You can be confident that the
shrubs and the white containers have beentrialed and tested for your success. Look
for them at your local garden center. Like seventies, have a nice day,
happy gardening friends, and you welcomeback to that gardening. I like
what's going on out there. Iknow what's going on in my garden.
I know what's going on more orless here in West Michigan and our trial
(21:53):
gardens here at Proven Winter's Color ChoiceShrubs. But I don't know what's going
on in your garden. So Ilove hearing about it, don't I do
too. I love it. Soif you have something going on in your
garden you just want to celebrate,or you have questions, just visit Gardening
Simplified on air dot Com. It'svery simple. You can fill out a
contact form there, and you know, while you're thinking about maybe contacting us,
(22:15):
we want to just give you aheads up that we are going to
be doing a dog scaping show.We're going to be a dog scaping series
all about gardening if you have dogs, making sure you have a dog friendly
yard. I'm sure Adriana will becontributing greatly to this as the dog owner
among our little crew here, butwe'd also like to hear from you and
(22:37):
we want to hear your dog scapingtips, your dog scaping ideas, and
what we really want is your picturesof dogs in your garden and so if
you submit those at Gardeningsimplified on airdot com, we are going to pick
a winner at random to receive aplan Geek t shirt just like this one.
Of course, doesn't have to belike this one. We have one.
(22:59):
It's more of a and a sexstyle. If you don't like the
girly style, it's going to betotally up to you. Whoever the winner
is, we will have your sizeand we will send you that. So
please do send us your submissions thisweek or next so that we can include
those in the dog Scaping show.Yeah, send us your popular pictures.
We want to see a picture ofyou with your dog and your landscape and
(23:21):
dog scaping is a great topic andwe're looking forward to doing these shows.
Many people, of course have dogsas pets, and the dogs have to
coexist with some of your favorite flowersand plants in the landscape and garden.
How do you do that? We'dlove to hear from you. How you
do it, and of course we'llshare with you also pointers on how to
(23:42):
properly dog scape your yard. Yes, no free puppies, just free shirts,
so please do reach out there atGardeningsimplified on are dot com. Very
simple. So Rick, what awe got in the mailbag today? All
right? Tom's writing us today saysHello, I love your show and listen
all the time on Apple podcasts.And of course the Gardening Simplify show is
(24:04):
a radio show, it is apodcast, and it is a YouTube show.
So Tom, thank you very muchfor listening on Apple podcasts. You
both are so knowledgeable. I'm inthe western Chicago suburbs. Can you cover
the topic of growing lavender for peoplethat don't have ideal soil to support it?
(24:26):
How can the soil be changed toaccommodate lavender? Raised beds, till
in amendments, remove soil and adda custom mix. Great question, It
is such a good question, andso many people wish they could grow lavender
and they've had no success with it. And really there is no secret exactly
to growing lavender. There is justone very crucial key and that is good
(24:48):
drainage. Exactly, good drainage,especially in winter. You know, you
don't usually use lose lavender in thesummer from a lack of one. You
can use it from overwatering it.If you have clay soil. Typically when
leaven doesn't survive, it's due towinter wetness. So this is similar to
butterfly bush, similar to carryopter.It's also known as blue miss spyreea.
(25:10):
We've talked about Russian sage. Allof these plants that they need really really
good drainage all year round, butthey especially need good drainage during the time
of the year when it is coldout and the soil is not frozen,
so there can be like cold wetwater just sitting around those roots. That
is the fastest way to kill them. So, you know, for anyone
with clay soil, your challenge isgoing to be making sure that the plant
(25:33):
is not planted too deeply. Youwant to make sure that I usually say
plants it high, so that thebase of the plant is slightly above rather
than even with your soil surface.Now, I would not recommend going crazy
and trying to like change your soil. That to me is just not a
practical thing to do. But definitelyplant high, Definitely plant early, and
(25:56):
This is a really crucial thing.Anytime you have these plants that are susceptible
to winter damage, the earlier inthe season you are able to plant them,
the longer time they'll have to growroots into their home and be able
to better withstand the challenges of winter. And I have certainly fall planted lavender
plenty here in West Michigan, butmy soil is basically like a dune,
(26:17):
so it's very very sandy. Ihave no trouble with that. But plant
early, plant high, and thenbe real, real careful with the water,
so you know, be careful aswhen you're watering it. If you
have clay soil during the season andin the winter especially, be careful that
the plant isn't positioned where it's goingto get dripped on. And a lot
of times if you have it likeunder the eve of a house, or
(26:40):
if you have like downspouts that aregoing to it anything like that, that
can really cause harm to the lavender. Well, I think the key time
with lavender is to make sure firstof all that we have it in a
good sunny spot. We want asmuch sun as possible. And then I'm
in full agreement with Stacey the keyhere is good. Now, I would
suggest what you do in an areawhere you want to plant lavender. Dig
(27:04):
some holes, then go get thegarden holes, fill those holes with water,
then step back and watch what happens. If it drains readily, we
may have a good spot for lavender. If it doesn't, you're going to
have to add organic material and tryand improve the drainage in that area.
Assuming that this is clay soil,and if it is clay soil, don't
(27:27):
add sand and rocks. Adding sandand rocks to clay soil equals concrete.
And I agree with you Stacey,it's fall and winter in early spring when
the damage is done and will losethose plants if they're just floating in water.
Yeah, that's the toughest time forthem. And I did want to
mention that this is a very underratedpart. I said drainage is key,
(27:49):
and that is true. But thesecond key is picking the right lavender,
because not all lavenders are created equal. Some lavenders are much hardier than others,
some are much more tolerant of lessthan ideal conditions. So had Coat
is kind of like the gold standardof hardy lavender for those of us in
the Midwest. Munstead lavender is knownto be a bit hardier, so it's
(28:12):
not quite as attractive or as fragrantas had Coat, but Munstead would be
a good choice to start with.And then there's two newer ones that have
come out over the last say tenyears or so, phenomenal and sensational,
and I have heard nothing but goodthings from people who normally have real challenges
growing lavender. They've both done greatfor me. But I have ideal lavender
(28:33):
conditions, so my experience in thiscase does not really translate. But I
would say, look at those varietiesand maybe plant one of each before you
commit to a big lavender hedge ora big lavender planting, and see how
they do. But you know,I have heard from all sorts of gardeners
who have tried it in cold climatesand clay soil that phenomenal really has done
phenomenal for them. I've had successwith the proven winner's variety. I think
(28:56):
it's Sweet Romance. Sweet Romance,Yeah, yeah, that's Sweet Romance is
a great to great variety. Butdrainage, drainage, dream drainage, and
the right plant for the right place. So this would be a great opportunity
to check out a local garden centerand speak to some experts there on what
they recommend for your area. Aliciais wondering, my Clematis flowers are looking
(29:17):
really chewed up this summer. Canyou tell me what is eating them or
what usually eats them? I'm alsoconsidering a predatory insect order. Websites say
you should release them before it becomesa problem. Which predatory insects should one
order to keep the usual suspects fromgetting out of control? Is there a
best bet insect to get love theshow, especially the mini science and botany
(29:44):
lessons from Stacy. That's fantastic,that's very nice of you, Thank you,
Alicia, and the pronunciation lessons,because right off the bat, it's
either clematis or clematis, that's theother I'm however, as long as you
get the plant on at the endof the day, it's all right.
So, Alicia, I looked upyour I looked this up, and you
(30:04):
know, my first thought when Ilooked at that your clemitist flower was beetles.
Beetles leave a very distinctive damage,and they're pretty generalist food flower predators.
You know, there's a lot ofthings that eat flowers that are very
specific. Oh, I only willeat this flower, whereas beetles are just
like it. It's flower tissue,I'll eat it. But when I started
(30:25):
looking it up, I found thatthe biggest predator of clemitist flowers and the
damage of the pictures I saw onlinelined up exactly with what you're seeing is
earwigs. Oh yeah, you seethe faces in the studio right now if
you're not watching us on YouTube,and so you know. The beetle damage
tends to be. This is gonnasound a little bit funny, but I'll
put some links in the show notesand you can see what I'm talking about.
(30:48):
It tends to be a little moreorganized beetle damage Japanese beetles, notwithstanding
on clematists like from vine weavels,tends to be very neat. It's just
kind of little notches at the edgeof the flowers, whereas the earwig damage
is messy. It very often leavesbrown spots, which we're seeing on alicious
clemenis there. So I believe thisis earwigs, and earwigs are most active
(31:10):
at night, which would also maybeexplain why you haven't really seen the culprit
doing the damage. So I wasreading about earwigs and the number one recommendation
is actually trapping them. I donot know of any beneficial insects that you
can use against earwigs. That doesn'tmean they don't exist. I just don't
know of any offhand. But theysay trapping earwigs much like you would use
(31:32):
a bait for slugs. So yougot the little tuna can or catfood can
or whatever. The ideal bait forearwigs is oil that tuna was in.
Yeah, so not something you're nestless. Oh, you don't want to leave
in the hot garden, but youcan't tuna fish. So the other thing
(31:53):
that you could try was they saidyou can put olive oil with some soy
sauce. If you like to cooktyphoon, you could try some drops of
fish sauce in there. Apparently theylove oil, they love fishy oil.
But I will say Stacey that yearsago, when most people had newspapers delivered
to their home, one of thebest ways is just to roll up some
(32:15):
newsprint at the base of the plantsoaking wet, and the next morning take
a look in there. You'll quicklyknow whether or not it's earwigs that are
causing problem, and look for wherethey're hiding during the day. And since
newspaper's hard to come by right now, maybe get some of those like Penny
Savers at at the Gary Store somethinglike that. So trap for the earwigs,
(32:35):
see what you can find. Ithink ear rings are the culprit here
and just physically removing them from theplant. You'll have to continue to be
vigilant about that, but that shoulddo the trick. We'll put some more
resources for where you got a websiteto a big lavender, you've got to
take a little break. They do. Really, I've had success with the
proven winner's variety. I think it'ssweet romance, Sweet romance. Yeah,
(32:57):
yeah. The Gardening Simplified She isbrought to you by Proven Winners, Color
Choice Shrubs. Our award winning floweringshrubs and evergreens have been trialed and tested
for your success so you enjoy morebeauty and less work. Look for Proven
Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctivewhite container at your local garden center.
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Showtoday for branching news and interview with Don
(33:22):
Snewink. Thornapple Woodlands dot com.Don Snewink has been on the Gardening Simplified
Show before you're familiar with him.A b expert, pollination expert boy,
just all around good guy guy wholoves nature. Just fun. Wow,
(33:44):
thank you. I'm almost blutching overhere. I didn't know where else to
go with that, Don, butit's true. It is just always fun
and fascinating to talk to you.And of course we're doing this for June
is pollinator month. And before Iget into that, boy, you gave
(34:05):
me a heeducation here on the wordpollen and pollinate. You got to make
sure to get it right. Soa pollinator is a biotic agent that moves
pollen from one flower to another,whereas a pollinizer is a plant that provides
fertile pollen. I guess I betterget that straight right off the bat,
(34:27):
right. Well. Wow, I'mreally impressed because I'm still trying to get
that all figured out for myself.You got it right away. And of
course when you talk about pollinator,we use an I, and then when
you talk about pollen we use anE. Well I get a little confused
after a while. What is upwith that? I've always wandered, So
(34:50):
I thought, who better to takeit to than a word guy like yourself.
Well, I'm not necessarily a wordguy. Don I mess words up.
Sticky is the word expert. Thatjust seems strange to me, Stacy
that it'd be p O L LE N and then when we pollinate it
they throw an I in there insteadof an E. Well, you know,
(35:13):
English does crazy things sometimes it takesother words and it you know,
it's obviously a noun versus a verbsituation, and I'm sure if I thought
about it there, I would figureout other words that this has happened to
you where the verb form has anI in it and the noun form has
the e. But you know,fortunately there's autocorrect, so we'll all be
okay. I think there's Isn't therea Latin base involved here too? Somehow?
(35:39):
I? Yeah, I believe sotoo. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
now that we got that out ofthe way, let me ask you
a question Don, and again we'retalking to Don sneink Thorn apple Woodlands and
boy Don shared some YouTube videos withus too that are great. We'll talk
about that in a moment, butjust a few thoughts on pollination I'm going
(35:59):
to ask, you're right off thebat don, why is pollination important?
I mean, I have a goodidea why. But shouldn't we ask that
question from the start? I wouldthink so. And when we're talking about
food, we like to see goodseed production, which allows that plant to
(36:21):
produce a good fruit around those seeds. So the more seeds they produce,
the better the fruiting is. Sopollination is important because it aids in the
production of seeds. It's how plantsreproduce. It's a good answer for me.
You nailed that one. I'm speechless. Okay, So as far as
(36:44):
honeybees are concerned, while they're doingthat, I've heard you use this term
before, flower fidelity. What's thatexactly? Yes, honeybees of flower fidelity,
which means that they are faithful.Fidelity refers to faithfulness, so they're
faithful to one type of blossom foreach trip out of the hive. So
(37:06):
a honeybee flies from the beehive,the first blossom that goes to, let's
say, is a dandelion. Everyblossom that goes to thereafter on that trip
out will be a dandelion. Whenit comes back to the high it unloads
either it's load of nectar, pollenload, whatever it is. It can
go back out and it might goto a different type of blossom the second
(37:27):
time around, but it's going tostick with that type of blossom. So
this is why the orchardists will mowthe fields of dandelions under their orchard so
that the honeybees aren't tempted by dandelions. They go right to the apple blossoms.
Wow, that is fascinating. Ididn't know that. So now when
they venture back out, are theygoing to be like, hey, you
(37:49):
know, I noticed some apples andflour, I'm going to go check those
out at this time? Or isit just like whatever they happen to bumble
into first? Right, All right, well I just landed on an apple.
Yes, I'm harvesting apples for thenext five minutes. I would guess
that there's a hive mind at workhere too, you know. That's why
we call it a super organism,where all the bees work in a kind
(38:15):
of a symbiotic relationship and function togetheras a whole. So some bees are
coming back with loads of nectar orpollen, and they're doing a special dance
inside of that colony, telling theother bees where they ought to go next
and for their next load of pollen. So I think once the honey bees
get fixated on a source of eithernectar or pollen, they'll probably stay with
(38:38):
that source until that source is nolonger available. Well, I'm a little
afraid to ask this, but youknow we've all seen bees, bumblebees,
honeybees carrying loads of pollen. Nowwhere are they carrying the nectar? Are
they literally ingesting it and then bringingit back into the hive and sort of
regurgitating it, or is there somesecret nectar organ that I'm not a yeah,
(39:02):
Yeah, it's the crop we callit, or the Yeah, there's
a honey stomach. So honey beesof two stomachs. They have a honey
stomach and then a I call ita food stomach for lack of a better
term. There's a one way valvebetween the two stomachs. So they're gonna
take a snack and the way home. Open up that valve a little bit,
let some of that nectar go intotheir food stomach. That gives them
(39:24):
energy to get back to the hive. And then yes, Stacey, they
can regurgitate that to another bee.They connect proboscis the part of their mouth.
It's like a straw connect proboscis wherethe receiver bee and that hive one
of the bees live in its firstthree weeks in the hive, transfer that
nectar. Chemicals are added by thebees' bodies and that transfer and that turns
(39:46):
that nectar into honey. Wow.So tiny stomachs they are, I'm sure
they are. But while they're collectingnectar, they're also the pollen is and
attracted to their bodies as well.So yeah, it's a double duty.
Where does the fermentation thing come in? Done so that we can make that's
(40:09):
right. Honey bees cannot digest pollen. The grains they cannot digest. So
the honeybee and this is its proteinsource. Like for the kids listening,
it's eggs, meat, fish,peanut, butter. That's what we eat
for our protein. Honey Bees usepollen for their protein. So they when
(40:30):
they get back, they're carrying thatbig heavy load of pollen in it in
its pollen basket and indentation on itsback legs. Honeybee gets back into the
hive, turns and backs into acell and unloads its pollen from its back
legs. Turn around, using itshead like a ramrod, crams it into
the bottom of that cell. Oncewe get maybe half filled in that cell,
(40:52):
the bees will cap that over witha little bit of honey. That
honey then ferments the pollen cracks openthat pollen green, which allows it then
to be digested by the bees,and we bee keepers call that fermented product
bee bread. Yes, I'm I'mconvinced that using honey for fermentation is a
(41:15):
good thing based on what I knowabout honeybees. It's the oldest, it's
the oldest fermented drink. No themankind and recommentioned it earlier, mead exactly.
So the star of the show isthe queen Bee. And I'm watching
a YouTube video, and Adriana willshare that YouTube video. Of course,
(41:40):
this is a YouTube radio show andpodcast. Those watching on YouTube can watch
it here. Boy, that queenbee is something else. And then this
YouTube video continues, and don you'reout there putting a mark on their back
with a marker. I couldn't believeit. What in the world are you
(42:00):
doing out there? That's right,I'm marking a queen because if I get
a queen in that high that's markedwith a dot then I can spot her
easier in the hive if I needto find her, or if I go
to a program and do a show. I like to have a marked queen
(42:21):
so people can find that queen beein the traveling observation hives better. Plus
it tells me how old that queenis. So when I mark that queen,
I write it in my notebook thatI just freshly marked that queen and
I got a date for that.Because a first year a queen her hive,
their goal is to make enough honeyto live through the winter. A
(42:43):
second year of that queen's life,their goal is to swarm, So we
treat a second year colony totally differentthan a first year colony. Oh,
how swarming party, that's exactly right, Yes, yes, And I did
a lot of things this year.We had a lot of bee hives that
live through the winter this year,a pretty exciting phenomenon which I haven't had
(43:07):
much good overwintering success the last fewyears. So that made my beekeeper life
very busy for the month of Maybecause I had to do things hive manipulations
to keep my hives from swarming.So marking that queen bee, in other
words, you mark the bee obviouslywe can see it in the video,
(43:28):
also being easier to spot. Butso you're a trained professional, But is
it difficult for people who are nottrained in beekeeping to spot or find the
queen? Yes, I would sayit is. It's hard to find her
if you've got a hive full ofbees. Fifty thousand bees could be the
population around fourth of July. It'shard even for a trained beekeeper like myself
(43:53):
to find the queen. But I'mwith practice, With practice, learn what
to look for in your eyes,just kind of hone in on different characteristics
of that hive that seemed to helpthe queen zoom into focus. You would
think the crown and the scepter wouldgive her away, right. I was
going to say, train on where'sWaldo books in the off season? If
(44:16):
you know that's funny, But youknow I really trained on is my indoor
observation hive where I have a tubewhere the bees can fly in and out
of the house through the wall.I'd never I would never cut a hole
in my house for anything, butI did for a tube of bees.
I love it anyway. When whenour kids were little, my son and
(44:37):
I used to sit one on eachside of the observation. We'd race thee
could you know, we play gameswith our kids like that. We'd race
the su you could find the queenthe first, and then we'd sit there
for a while and we'd say switchand we'd both switch sides and look again.
So that trained my eyes to lookfor the queen. And you know
(44:57):
what's interesting. Kids can find aqueen easier than almost anybody. When I
need to find a queen bee,I'd bring one of my kids out to
the r because they just I don'tknow if their minds focus better because they're
not so full of adult clutter.I just don't. I don't know what
it is, but it's amazing.That is interesting, don So. June
(45:21):
is a National Pollinator Month and wefocus on pollinators in the landscape during the
month of June. Any favorites asfar as flowers are concerned, you know,
we talked about the flower fidelity inyour opinion and in your work with
honey bees. Any favorites during themonth of June that you want to point
(45:45):
out. Definitely it would be inthe clover families. And I know that
Clover's not a proven winner, right, I love it too, and the
beehive. It's a proven winner tobe because when the clover starts to bloom,
that's when honey production really kicks in. We've got so many types of
(46:06):
clover. The white Dutch, theall psych looks like white Dutch, except
it's got a per pinkish hue toit. Now, right now, the
yellow sweet clover is blooming. Youwant to look it up. You can
see how that grows on kind ofa stem and that that will bloom every
other year. The first year itgrows and it doesn't bloom it and it
(46:28):
quote unquote dies, but from thatsame root system it grows again the next
year and then it blooms, getspollinated and produces by any Is that what
we call that? Correct? Yes? Correct? Okay, good. Sometimes
I've mispronounced that like bi annual.But it's by any all, isn't it.
So after the yellow sweet clover comesthe king of all and that's the
(46:51):
white sweet clover. It's very similarto the yellow but it's it's more prolific.
The white sweet clover is and thatis a mat for honey bees.
And it blooms in June late frommid June till mid July, right during
peak honeybee population and the warmest timeof the year or the best. It's
(47:15):
not the warmest time of year,but it's a good warm time of year,
so we could a lot of honeybees flying and producing honey like crazy.
I love that with clover. Youknow, if I was to do
marketing for the honey people, Iwould say, June, it ain't over
until it's clover. Oh, that'sright, right, And they said honey.
(47:37):
Yeah, And the clover like whiteDutch blooms from mid May all the
way to the beginning of September.I love that. Bird's foot tree foil
is another one that I really reallylike. Now I have to ask you,
do you are these planted? Didyou deliberately plant these around your property
or are the ubiquitous enough just surroundingyour property that you don't need to do
that and the bees can go outand forage for them on their own.
(48:00):
Typically the honey bees travel from theirhives about two miles, so it's not
what I plant in my yard that'sgoing to give me honey. It's what,
as you said, is ubiquitous inthe area, and there is typically
in the West Michigan in Michigan ingeneral. Usually there's enough stuff blooming in
(48:20):
your area, enough weeds blooming thatthey're going to do okay. And when
we add to that with our plantingsand our gardens and everybody does that,
it's just bonus. Definitely. Donit's June, soon will be July.
Do bees like hot weather? Theydo. Yes, They're a tropical insect,
(48:42):
so it's natural for them to beactive and hot weather. The long
days give them good flight hours perday. So this is prime time.
And I love this time of yearin the beehive because the verroa light which
is a pest to the honeybees.The verroamite population hasn't grown enough that it's
(49:06):
negatively impacting the hives too much,or we as beekeepers have taken care of
the roamites enough to keep their populationlow. But some of the pathogens that
affect honeybees kind of linger in thebackground at this time of year because the
honeybee population is growing faster than thepathogen can grow to do its damage.
(49:30):
So after fourth of July, aftermid late July, that's when we see
the path the bad stuff taking overa little bit more. So this is
a fun time of year to bea beekeeper. You might say it's a
sweet spot. It's the sweet spotperfect. I love it. I love
that perfect way to cap off thissegment. He's all the buzz, Don
(49:52):
snewink Thorn apple Woodlands. Don.I always get inspired when I talk to
you, and I love your enthusiasm. Our website, right is Thornapplewoodlands dot
com. Is that correct? Thatis correct and people are welcome to look
at it. Check out my blog, check out the YouTube channel. It's
been fun adding lots of new materialto the YouTube channel lately. And of
(50:15):
course we'll put that link also atour website, Gardeningsimplified on air dot com,
you'll be able to link to Donand yes, go to his website.
I just love looking at pictures ofyou out there at work, Don,
and appreciate everything you do. Andthanks for joining us again on the
Gardening Simplified show. And I thankyou so much for the opportunity. It's
(50:37):
always a thrill to be with youfolks. Thank you so much, Don,
Thank you. Don. Well,there's nothing like a guest like Don
where you learn something new every timethey come on. More than one thing.
Oh my word, I have tobehive myself when he's on, cause
you just get excited thinking about flowers, plants and bees. Yes, I
certainly am. So thank you Don, thank you Rick, thanks Adrian as
(51:00):
always, thank you so much toall of you for listening. I hope
we have a great week ahead.
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