March 9, 2024 • 42 mins
From bugs to bunnies, pests are part and parcel of gardening. And IPM - integrated pest management - gives us the tools to resolve issues using smarts and strategy. Learn what IPM is and how it can help you problem-solve, indoors and out. Featured plant: Ginger Wine ninebark.
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(00:02):
Hello, my friends, It's timefor the Gardening Simplified Show, coming to
you from Studio A. Here atProven Winners Color Choice Shrubs with Stacey Hervella
me, Rick weisst and our engineerand producer Adrianna Robinson. Today we talk
about ip M. Now, IPMis not a technology company. The acronym
(00:24):
does not stand for International Plant Manufacturersor Investment portfolio Manager. No. IPM
is integrated pest management. It's ascience based decision making process that combines tools
and strategies to identify and manage pests. In my opinion, Stacey, if
(00:44):
you were to look up a synonymfor IPM, it would be two words
common sense. Would those were thewords I was going to guess you were
going to say, And I couldnot agree more. And you know,
I think people hear the word IPMare they might be familiar with it from
you know, other things that theymight have heard. But the simple fact
is that there is no better wayto manage any kind of pest. And
(01:07):
this isn't just for the garden.This is also for household pests. YEP.
What IPM basically is is learning everythingthat you possibly can about the pest,
know thin in an enemy and learningeverything you can about it's life cycle,
what it eats, where it lives, where it shelters, when it
reproduces how many times, and thenusing that information to craft a management plan
(01:33):
that's actually based on the pest behavior, not just your behavior, not just
your reaction. Because when you takean IPM or integrated pest management approach to
your problems, you're not just puttinga band aid on the problem. You
are truly resolving the root of theissue. Yeah, exactly, And I'm
glad you mentioned indoors also because oneof the issues with IPM is to set
(01:57):
action thres threshole. When are yougoing to take action? You know,
you think of the person who spotsa spider in the house and it's like
burn the place down, you know, take some crazy action. So setting
action thresholds, monitoring an identifying pests, and we should be out there monitoring
(02:17):
three hundred and sixty five days outof the year, regardless of what your
climate is. Like. Prevention sothings like crop rotation or the health of
the plants to make them less susceptible, and then control and evaluate the proper
control method for effectiveness and risk.In other words, avoid taking a shotgun
(02:42):
to approach absolutely and you know,going back to what you said about observing
and identifying the past, this isso important. And you know, we
hear from so many gardeners all overthe country who say, I want to
preserve the beneficial insects, I wantto preserve the pollinators. But unless you're
out there actually looking at what's inyour garden, don't know what is a
beneficial insect, what's a benign insect, and what's a pest insect. And
(03:05):
a lot of times, especially whenit comes to insects in the garden,
and it's important to understand that IPMdoes not simply deal with insects or animals.
It also includes you know, fungal, bacterial diseases. Even to some
extent one could argue viruses. Youaren't going to know what's good or what's
benign. And with bugs, sometimesyou'll see damage and the insect will actually
(03:28):
only be active at night, butthe bugs that you're seeing on the plant
are beneficial insects that aren't causing thedamage. So it really does take a
lot of you know, commitment tounderstanding the problem. But for me,
that is I don't even want tosay, half the fun, because that's
all the fun. I love researchingthis kind of stuff, and this is
why I have so many facts aboutthings like moles and bats and other insects,
(03:53):
because I just I love learning aboutit and figuring out how I can,
you know, alleviate the problem throughmy behavioral changes and through understanding you
know how those how those animals livein function within my world. Yeah.
It is a matter of your behavior, yes, and paying attention to it,
you know, Stacy. I was, I was in a home depot
(04:15):
the other day and this guy recognizedme, and he had a can of
bug spray in his hand, andhe he sticks the can of bug spray
in my face and he says,is this good for bugs? And I'm
like, no, it'll kill him, right, I love it. Yeah,
So you've got to pay attention toyour personal behavior now, Stacy,
as it relates to IPM, here'smy opinion as a general homeowner. You
(04:40):
know, the science can be kindof blinding for people and kind of difficult,
and some people don't want to getthat deep into the weeds. Right,
So my opinion is this, firstof all, putting a plant in
the right place for that plant sunshade, whatever it may be, is one
step of IPM. This the secondpart is plant diversity. I believe monocultures
(05:03):
are a big problem. I loveall the varieties for example provided by proven
winners, color choice shrubs, andhow these plants have been developed to be
diseased resistant, let's say, orheat resistant. Diversity in your landscape,
I think is one way a homeownercan simply practice IPM definitely. And you
(05:26):
know, having a diversity of plantsnot only gives you a kind of hedge,
no pun intended against big issues,you know, any kind of big
fungal disease or pest issues that mightcome into your garden. It also looks
better and it gives you more tolook at, gives you multiple season interests
rather than just a one hit wondergarden that looks amazing in spring and is
then boring for you know, therest of the season. There's so many
(05:47):
benefits to it, and you know, certainly pest control as one of them.
And there was a huge, verysad, vivid example for many people
in the US when we lost elmsas street trees. You know, we
elms were a very common sat rightfully, so they're elegant. They're beautiful.
And you know here in Grand Haven, for the couple of surviving elms that
we have, I always when Isee one think, oh, imagine if
(06:10):
Dutch elm disease had not taken allof these out, what our city would
look like. Now we do havea diversity of street trees. Now that
helps protect us a bit. Unfortunately, some of those elms were replaced with
ashes, but with as trees.But you know, the diversity helps prevent
a large scale of catastrophe like thatfrom happening again. One way to also
(06:31):
manage IPM integrated pest management, inmy opinion, is to pay attention to
GDD, which is growing degree dayaccumulations. Helps you anticipate problems when they
come along, whether it may bea pest, and again it doesn't necessarily
have to be an insect. Itcan be a disease, it can be
a weed. GDD helps us inhere in Michigan we have something called a
(06:55):
GDD tracker. I'm sure probably inyour community you have it too, but
it helps us anticipate, for example, the emergence of Japanese beetles in summer
and helps us possibly using repellent typesprays that will help with your roses or
other plants that are susceptible to Japanesebeetle. I think that that is one
(07:16):
key Also so as it relates toIPM, biological controls are one facet that
we can use natural enemies. Culturalcontrols are also another one. For example,
again, let's say you do havea lawn area in your yard.
(07:36):
If you raise the deck on themower, simply doing that and providing shade
to the crown of the plant,you're going to use less as far as
pesticides, weed killers and that sortof thing is concerned. Mechanical and physical
controls. We can do that alsotraps and hand picking, and then of
(07:57):
course chemical control. Chemical control isa part of IPM, but we're using
it in a way where we applythe chemicals in a responsible way, in
a way responsible and when they willbe most effective. You know, it
reminds me of a conversation we hada couple weeks ago with a listener who
said she had a huge issue withchiggers, yes, and really didn't want
(08:18):
to use pesticides, but chiggers arebiting her and her family and her pets.
And you know, of course Itotally understand and appreciate people who don't
want to use chemicals, but youknow understanding that a chigger prevention program is
not going to be spraying every weekfor the entire summer, that it's going
to be targeting that phase where usinggrowing degree days, we know that the
(08:39):
eggs have just hatched and they're inthat first instar or baby stage where they're
going to be the do the mostdamage to you and your family, and
if you can treat it, thenthen that alleviates the need to do more.
So it's really about applying them responsiblyin terms of how you actually do
it, and the when is areally important part too. So there isn't
a simple solution to IPM or aone fix fixes it all. It's a
(09:05):
matter of education. It is,truly, I think you can think about
it very similar to organic gardening,which organic gardening is not an issue of
you know what you do and don'tapply in your garden. Organic gardening is
an entirely new approach to your soil, to your garden, to your ecosystem,
to your garden goals, And similarly, IPM is just a totally different
(09:26):
way of approaching the challenges that youface in gardening, and instead of just
going to buy the can of bugspray and calling it good, you're taking
on that responsibility. You're learning aboutit. And to me, there's just
this sort of you know, magicthat happens when you start seeing yourself as
part of this bigger world, notthe boss of it. No, I
agree, So I wrote a limerickto celebrate the occasion. The creepy crawlers
(09:52):
on this stem are engaged in plantmayhem. I need something common, sensible,
something a bit more defensible, maybeconsider IPM. I need something that's
attainable, an action that is explainable. Self control I need to master in
order to avoid disaster. I'm tryingto be sustainable. So let's all get
(10:15):
a head education and continue to learnthroughout the course of the year about IPM.
I love it, you know Iwill be me too. Plants on
Trial coming up next here on theGardening Simplified Ship Proven Winners. Colored Choice
Shrubs cares about your success in thegarden. That's why we trial and test
(10:39):
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. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified
Show. It's the time of theshow. If we put a plant on
trial, that is to say,we're going to tell you all about one
of the three hundred and twenty plusproven winners Color Choice shrubs, and you
(11:01):
get to decide if it's going toearn a spot in your garden or not.
But before I launch into today's planton Trial, I did want to
address something that you said earlier,and that's that you said, in this
case, IPM does not stand forinvestment portfolio managers, although I think that
as gardeners we could potentially make thecase for ourselves as investment portfolio managers.
(11:24):
Depending on how many plants we havein our garden, they could constitute a
significant investment portfolio. Well said,you've got to manage your portfolio. That's
what that's right, Investment plant man, plant investment manager or something like that.
Anyway, I'm sure a lot ofyou also understand that feeling, because
(11:45):
you know, when we garden,it's hobby time, and it's you know,
we invest a lot of our timeand money into our gardens and hopefully
they're pulling their weight and worth it, and if they're not, well,
that's where IPM comes in, soyou can figure out those problems. And
you know, there's so many resourcesnow. Before I know, when I
was in horticulture school and the internetwas barely a thing. You know,
we had these huge, thick bookson our shelves. That was an investment,
(12:07):
you know, and that was howyou learned about everything, was looking
it up in books. And nowyou can find pictures from all over the
country. This is what this pestlooks like on this plant here, And
you know, it's just never beeneasier. So to me, there's really
no excuse for taking a one sizefits all approach to problem control. Not
only those books Stacy, but alsothe school of hard knocks just experience,
(12:28):
right, Yeah, and once youget zapped by Japanese beetles one summer,
you start to learn about, well, how am I going to manage this
problem? And yes, you've putan investment in these plants. I mean
I've got a green thumb from allthe currency I've handled that garden centers and
greenhouses, buying more plants. Yeah, there's more than one way to have
(12:50):
a green thumb. That's for sure. But speaking of green, today's plant
on trial is not green. Itis red, and it is ginger wine
nine barkiful and it is truly myfavorite of all of the nine barks that
I have ever seen. I've hadit in my garden for years. I
love it because it combines so beautifullywith so many different colors. So ginger
(13:11):
wine is a nine bark and ninebarks are flowering shrubs. They're in the
rose family, although you wouldn't necessarilyknow it from their flowers. Their flowers
sort of resemble more like an appleblossom. Are actually pretty close to an
errone of flower if you're familiar withthat. They're formed in little clusters in
spring. But nine barks are primarilyfoliage plants. And this is sort of
(13:33):
a trend that kicked off maybe twentyfive thirty years ago with Diablo nine bark
came to the US. It waspopular in Europe, the first dark leaf
nine bark. They kind of madeit onto the market and just sort of
cracked this market wide open, andpeople went crazy for them because they are
very attractive, they're very easy togrow. Nine bark is a North American
(13:56):
native species which I know a lotof people really like, and they're just
that's one of those plants that youcan put in and not think too much
about because they generally don't need oreven want pruning. I find personally that
nine barks are best left unpruned andallowed to just grow with their naturally elegant
habit, so low maintenance, easycare. They love the sun. They're
(14:16):
very hearty, and so they're kindof one of those plants that people really
liked. Yeah, and a fewweeks ago, we had a show where
we talked about the art of layeringin your landscape. You know. I
find nine bark where it can bea standalone plant, it can be a
backdrop, like you mentioned, thecolor is great or used as a hedge.
There's a lot of uses for ninebars. Yeah, very much so.
(14:39):
And that's one of the things Ilove about it as well. So
ginger wine is a dark leaf ninebark, but it doesn't have that deep
purple look that Diablo or our bestseller Summer Wine nine Barque has. It's
more of a like sparkling reddish color. It's really bright, it's really lively,
and as much as I love darkleafed plants, sometimes they can create
(15:01):
a black hole in your landscape.You know, if they're too dark and
you don't have the right kind ofplants around them to set them off,
it just kind of creates this likeeye sucking hole in your garden that kind
of detracts you. Now, it'sgood if you mix it in with some
yellow or some pink and mix itup a little bit, but you do
have to be careful about that.But that's not really an issue with a
(15:22):
red foliaged one like ginger wine.Now, with ginger wine, when the
new growth comes out, it's kindof yellow and orange and these beautiful sunset
tones, and then it ages tothat nice red color, and that red
color is going to persist from spring, and it looks beautiful in spring.
When nine barks come out in spring, they just have this sort of ethereal
glow to the foliage. It's acelebration, it really is, and it
(15:45):
looks so good with bulbs, andso that foliage will persist all through spring
summer, and then in fall itturns an even sort of more vivid red,
like more of like a true red. And then the flowers, which
of course have already passed because theybloom in spring turn into these ornamental red
seedheads. They're actually quite interesting.Usually not something that people think a lot
(16:06):
about as an ornamental feature on ninebark, but they are actually very effective.
So this is a great three seasonplant and then come winter, depending
on your perspective, you might stillfind it interesting because that common name nine
bark does come from the fact thatthis plant has exfoliating bark, which is
to say that it peels away fromthe plant totally natural, and the more
I'm sure the stems are, themore you're going to see that peeling effect.
(16:30):
But that's where the term nine barkcomes from. I have not counted
the layers, but apparently there arecan be nine layers of bark, and
that's where a nine bark comes fromin a snowy climate. I like that,
Yeah, sure, I really do. It's the same with oak leaf
Hydrangea or paper bark maple. It'sa great characteristic to have in winter,
definitely. Now the reason that I'mcovering ginger wine is today's plant on trial
(16:55):
on our episode about IPM is becauseI think a lot of people nowadays when
they think of nine barks, theirmind immediately goes to powdery mildew, and
that is certainly an issue that diablohead. And this is often the case that
when a new plant comes onto market, you know, someone has to be
the pioneer, someone has to goout there and say it has these features.
(17:15):
We understand it's not completely you know, done yet, but so a
lot of times nine bark got powderymildew. And to some extent, this
is a natural liability that a lotof nine barques can exhibit. Now it
does not happen with our native versions, which are green. So it's really
these more selected varieties of foliage color, whether that's purple, red, green,
(17:37):
or yellow, those are the onesthat are more likely to get powdery
meldew. And knowing this, andknowing that our mission here at privun Owner's
Color Choice Shrubs is to reduce thosekinds of diseases, we have been really
careful to test our nine barks forpowdery mildew. And I think that ginger
wine is one of the most resistantthat I have seen. But that said,
(18:00):
it's a great example of IPM becauseeven though we select for resistance,
and selecting a disease resistant nine barquewill help you, there's still some things
that you have to do as agardener to mitigate its prevalence because you know,
as you said when we were talkingabout a gardener who had powdery mildew,
the spores are just in the air. So a couple of important things
(18:22):
to do, no matter what typeof nine bark you have is in These
are just basic IPM principles of puttingthe plant in the right place full sun.
So it's very tempting I think whenpeople see a foliage plant to think,
oh, I can put this ina shaded spot because it doesn't really
flower that much, or I don'tcare if it flowers, so nine bark,
if you plant it in too muchshade, you're gonna get muddy color
(18:44):
and you're probably gonna get powdery mildew. Why because in those lower like conditions,
though, any moisture that's on theplant, whether that's from dew or
an irrigation system or it rained,it's going to sit on the plant leaves
longer, and those are the exactright conditions for powdery mildew too. Develop
environment environment yep. So you wantto make sure that they're in a full
sun spot, so that's at leastsix hours of bright sun every single day.
(19:07):
This is another way that you canreduce powdery maildew. And well,
this is true of nine marks,this is also true of any plant that
gets powdery mildew. Proper spacing definitelywant to make sure that you're looking at
that width on a plant tag andthat you are spacing surrounding plants or buildings
an appropriate amount away based on thatwidth. If you if you don't have
(19:27):
your plants too crowded together, youget good air circulation and that again reduces
the incidents of pests and disease.Air circulation the key. Think about a
hot, humid day in summer whenit's just stifling, yeah, and think
about the circulation around plants, right, Like I'm sure any parents know.
You know, it's a hot summerday and your kids hanging off you,
(19:49):
and you're just like it, needsome air circulation similar for a plant,
Give me some space exactly. Andyou know, if you do see a
little powdery mildew pop up here andthere and you can't, you know,
there's certain environmental factors where you cansay, okay, adjust your sprinkler heads
so they're not pelting this plant thatwe know is potentially susceptible if there's things
(20:10):
you can't control, like humidity,like rainfall. If you do see a
little bit come up, just takeoff those leaves or just snip off that
little bit of branch. It willmake a big difference, and especially in
the long term. And I thinkthat's another aspect of IPM that is often
underappreciated, is small gestures can addup. Yeah exactly. A few weeks
ago we had the pruning show andas opposed to taking a little off the
(20:34):
top, maybe taking out some branchesand opening up the plants, yeah exactly.
So there's a lot of different thingsyou can do. Now, this
is a beautiful plant. I havefound them to be quite deer resistant.
So that's an IPM issue that Ipersonally deal with, is selecting deer resistant
plants so I don't have to bespraying them or going crazy or getting angry
all the time. It is.So it's got good deer resistance, not
(20:57):
the highest, but pretty good.I can certainly grow it. And again
it's also about selecting plants that aregoing to be less susceptible. So that's
something we can do. But we'llmeet you halfway. And then there are
some additional things that you have todo that are just good horticultural practice,
and that's the habits that you needto get into to be a good plant
manager. So if you have anyquestions or want to see pictures of ginger
(21:21):
wine nine mark, you can seeit all at Gardenings Simplified on air dot
com or just catches on the YouTubeversion where you can see footage that the
Adriana cuts in. We're going totake a little break. Why come back,
We're opening up that garden mail bag, so please stay tuned. At
proven Winner's Color Choice, we've gota shrub for every taste and every space.
(21:42):
Whether you're looking for an easy carerose and unforgettable hydrangea, or something
new and unique, you can beconfident that the shrubs and the white containers
have been trialed and tested for yoursuccess. Look for them at your local
garden center. Greeting's gardening friends,and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
Now that it is meteorological spring.We know you've got gardening questions and
(22:06):
we would love to help you withthose gardening conundrums. All you have to
do is reach us at Gardeningsimplified onair dot com. You can also leave
a YouTube comment. You can leavean Instagram comment. We'll get them and
we will help you the best thatwe can to resolve your gardening issues,
whether they are pest related, plantrelated, people related. Although we are
not psychologists, we can certainly giveyou some perspective from our years of experience.
(22:29):
Yeah. And you know, speakingof years of experience, stacy,
thinking of integrated pest management, Ithink of examples like when pe andes are
about to bloom and the buds arejust coated with ants, and some people
will go crazy and empty a canof raid on them, or you know,
just just awful stuff. And againyou have to you have to practice
(22:52):
IP. By the way, asfar as ants are concerned, do you
know how you tell the difference betweena male ant and a female ant?
I don't. Here's a dad jokefor you. You take the ants,
and you take an ant, andyou drop it in water. If it
sinks, it's a girl ant.If it floats, it's buoyant. Yeah,
(23:14):
I guess. So, okay,you want me to get to the
mailbank. Let's do that, allright, So Kim asked the winter and
snow plowing or shoveling is delta heavyweightof snow to my landscape. I intentionally
tried to get and keep the snowweight off my shrubs and it became a
losing battle. So mother nature isforcing a big time printing this season due
(23:34):
to so much damage. Any advice, Well, I am sure that Kim
is not alone. I can tellyou because I have had it happen to
me. And you know, asthe snow started to melt a few weeks
ago, we had a knock atthe back door and I went out and
there was my neighbor standing with basicallyhalf of one of my junipers, and
(23:56):
she just said, I just wantedyou to know I didn't cut this.
It broke from the snow. AndI said, okay. First of all,
if you did have to cut it, that would be okay, I'd
understand. And second of all,oh my gosh. So I wanted to
address this because again, I knowa lot of people are dealing with with
things that either broke or are severelybent or out of shape. Now,
Adrian and I did make a quickYouTube short of this that you can check
(24:18):
on our YouTube channel if you're interestedin that. But I would say if
a plant is broken, like thebranch is literally broken, then you're gonna
have to prune it. And thisis a situation where sort of the advice
on pruning old wood, new wood, prune, and spring prune now kind
of goes out the window because youhave to fix the broken stuff. Do
what you gotta do. You dowhat you gotta do. You don't want
(24:40):
it to fall on anyone. Ifyou don't take care of it, then
chances are it could get worse because, for example, if something's just hanging
and it's really heavy, it couldstrip the bark as it falls and that
would cause even more damage to yourplants. But if something is not broken,
then I would say, if it'sjust bent, start considering how you
(25:00):
might be able to remedy the situationthrough staking or tying the plant up.
And it can be temporary, butI think this can often be effective.
Now, what happens when all ofthat snow weighs down a plant. The
plant cells actually transform to a differenttype of cell in response to all of
that weight. So when you takethat off, you basically need to it's
(25:22):
not just going to pop back upbecause now it has those cells created in
that compression. So you need toactually take the initiative to prop that back
up and now you can do that. A lot of times I have,
especially when I was a rooftop gardenerand actually, you know, getting new
plants up to a garden was anissue. We would often use string,
heavy twine to wrap a plant upand bundle those branches together, and then
(25:47):
they'll naturally start to take on andimprove to growth habit. With some of
my junipers or the one that reallygot damaged badly, what I'm going to
do is tie so I had twoleaders. One was obviously a much more
substantial leader. Now the one's goingto be the new leader. But what
I'm going to do in those branchesthat are kind of now flattened displayed from
(26:08):
losing this is I'm just going totie them up and back into the plant
to kind of reshape it. Andas it has that little bit of training,
I don't need to leave that stringon there forever, maybe just a
season or two, and then thatwill help it to reshape itself. So
sometimes this requires a little bit ofcreativity. You know, you're going to
have to figure out ways that youcan do this. I mean, I've
(26:29):
certainly seen people do weights, youknow, like fishing weights to kind of
try to get things to go acertain direction. I've seen wooden blocks trying
to get a plant to grow ina certain direction. So you kind of
have to use what you have.But if the plant is not broken and
it's just a little bit out ofshape, that doesn't mean you need to
write it off. You might beable to find a creative solution. So
I would encourage you to to thinkcritically about that before you make a rash
(26:52):
decision. But again, if youhave actual broken branches, meeting them up,
cut them off and make sure thatthe damage won't get injure anyone.
And I think this is an issuealso IPM related culturally, in other words,
having lived in a snowy climate mywhole life, but I'm not bitter
about that. I try to plantherbaceous plants along the driveway edge or sidewalk
(27:21):
edge, or if there are woodyplants, pull them forward far enough from
the roof's edge. I think thatthat can make a difference too, because
I feel your pain. It's frustratingwhen you've grown this beautiful plant and the
ice and snow take it out.Yeah, and you know, it's easy
to forget about that potential threat whenit's summer and it's beautiful, and you're
(27:41):
planting and you have a great idea, and then winter comes along and you
find out it's right in the pathof your snow blow or blowout, and
there's all sorts of things that canhappen. So if that is you you
found out that something you planted lastyear is not in such a great space
after all, this spring would bea great time to transplant it. There
you go, plant head. Loraineasks us, I really enjoyed watching your
(28:03):
show on YouTube. Thank you,Vary Mulch. I was hoping you could
help with a dilemma I have.I have an heirloom variety rose bush given
to me from my grandfather. Idon't know the variety though. My issue
is rose chafers eating the blooms.I don't want to use seven to deal
with them. Too poisonous for pollinators. Do you have suggestions? Yeah,
(28:25):
so this is a tough one.So rose chafers are a type of beetle
and they do a number on roses, and a couple of times in the
past when we've been talking about rosesand Japanese beetles and chafers and those kinds
of things, what we have recommendedfor reblooming roses, like Oh So easy
roses or the rise up ros thatwe just talked about a little while ago.
(28:47):
Those can be simply cut back andtrimmed, and because they'll continuously bloom
as they recover from that trim andthe pest has moved on, then you're
able to get those pest free flowers. Now for lorrain, it's impossible to
say, especially not even knowing alot of those more old fashioned roses do
not have that ability to rebloom.If you were to deploy this strategy,
(29:07):
you might not be guaranteed more flowers, but you also might And to me,
this is a perfect example of usingIPM because you look at that time
when the rose chafers are most active, you take away the flowers what attracts
them. Rose chafers don't actually haveas long a life cycle as Japanese beetles,
so they're not feeding as long andso it's worth experimenting with. I
(29:29):
mean, it's certainly better than lookingat a bunch of jagged old rose flowers,
which are only going to attract morerose chafers and Japanese beetles. So
that's the first thing that I wouldrecommend that you at least try, knowing
that you might actually be sacrificing theflowers and that is unfortunate, but it's
worth at least trying. Now.As I researched more about rose chafers to
help Lorraine with this question, itdoes seem that they are one of those
(29:52):
rose pests that have very few alternativeoptions for managing them. Most of the
options just said if you don't wantto use any kind of pesticide, you
have to handpick them, and that'snot super fun, but it is possible,
and you can do it early inthe morning. If you do that
early, they're still kind of sluggish. You don't have to worry about them
flying or crawling all over. Ifyou're squeamish, you can just kind of
(30:15):
take the flowers and shake them intoa bucket of soapy water and they'll just
fall right into that. So handpicking is I think a huge part of
IPM and something that I use alot. But outside of those two options,
I did not find a lot ofoptions for controlling rose chafer. If
you're squeamish about hand picking, somepeople become very skilled using vacuums. Oh,
(30:41):
and I still think using a vacuum, like you said, when they're
sluggish during the day and not suckingthe foliage off the plant. Some people
become very skilled at that. Anotherthing, Stacey, that I would say
my experience with rosechafers is that rosechafersemerge from the soil at a certain point
of the year. We're talking IPMtoday, sometimes cultivation or cultivating at the
(31:07):
base of the plant or in thearea of the plant at that time of
the year, usually mid to lateMay here in Michigan. Most of the
pressure is in June, and thenpyreethering sprays when you really can't control the
issue. Is a spray that I'veused to deal with rose chap you know.
Another important part of managing any beetlesis understanding that beetles have a very
(31:32):
interesting life cycle. They have alife cycle similar to a butterfly exactly.
So their larval stage is the gruband so a lot of times when it
comes to managing adult beetles, eventhough your instinct is to say, hey,
I got to smash this, youknow, armored little guy on my
rose plant, a better solution wouldpotentially be managing grubs in your lawn and
there's a lot of different ways todo that. Now, one thing I
(31:53):
do want to point out most peoplethink grubs I can manage them with milky
spore. This is a non toxicgrub control. Milkie spore is not effective
on rosechafer grubs, so do notIf you use milki spore to manage Japanese
beetles or we're planning on using it, do not count on it to manage
the rose chafers. You'll have tofind another management strategy for rosechafer grubs in
(32:15):
your lawn. But also being awarethat the adults can fly and will for
your delicious, delicious roses. Wedo a little research on the life cycle
of a rosechafer. Well yeah,it definitely helps you feel a little bit
more empowered to deal with it.So hopefully that will work for you.
Lorraine want to thank everyone for theirquestions. If you have a question,
Gardeningsimplified on air dot com is agreat way to reach us and we would
(32:36):
be happy to help you. We'regoing to take a break. When we
come back, we've got branching news. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to
you by proven winners Color Choice Shrubs, our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens
have been trialed and tested for yoursuccess so you enjoy more beauty and less
(32:58):
work. Look for proven winners colorshrubs and the distinctive white container at your
local garden center. Welcome back tothe Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
branching news and Stacey today. Ourfirst story comes from the Los Angeles Daily
News. David Gee's yard. Alot of people pay attention to it,
not because of the plant material,but because of Murray. Murray is the
(33:23):
name of a two and a halfton replica of the Moi figures that you
see on Easter Island. Oh wow, yeah, really cool and you can
check out the pictures at our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
And so his wife, as Iunderstand, that, gave this to him
(33:45):
as a surprise gift. It's sevenand a half feet tall. Murray the
Moi was a surprise gift, sovery very cool. It was fabricated out
of volcanic rock in two thousand andseven. Is a big hit and popular
on Halloween in the neighborhood. Shehad given it to him for Christmas.
(34:08):
Now they're retired, planning to moveto a smaller house. But you can't
really pick up Murray and move Murray, so somebody's gonna have to buy it
or decide they want Murray. Well, this is definitely an answer to what
do you get the guy who haseverything? Yeah, exactly amazing. I
(34:29):
love this statue. And of coursethe market for a second hand MOI is
limited in Los Angeles, are prettymuch anywhere. But I hope that this
story has a happy ending. They'rehaving monumental fatigue is what they're having,
and they can't take they can't takeMurray with them. So here you go
(34:52):
an offer you don't want to take. For granted, here's an interesting story.
According to a post in social mediathe Monroe County, Alabama Sheriff's Office,
residents were told not to be alarmedbecause there was a There was a
(35:12):
post of them throwing pine cones alongthe roadside in the neighborhood, and the
post indicated supposedly that the pine coneswere outfitted with wireless five G mini spy
cameras to enhance their surveillance efforts.This innovative technology, known as conecms,
(35:35):
featured high definition resolution two way audiowith night vision capabilities and operate on a
five G network compatible with Alexa andSiri. Now, a lot of people
bought this. This had to havebeen a hoax, but you could imagine
if you did believe it, howpeople would have gone nuts over this.
(35:59):
Sure, fminds me of one ofthose stories on the NPR New show.
Wait, wait, don't tell mewhere you have to tell which story is
wrong or exactly. This could beon one of those yard to hear first.
Maybe the post was shared hundreds oftimes. They couldn't really confirm who
posted the cone cams story or whowas responsible for it. So just to
(36:22):
be safe, some residents just didsome yard cleaning and cleaned up the cone
cams interest. Maybe I should startthat in my neighborhood because I have a
lot of pine cones in my yardand they are not fun to clean up.
So yeah, and it brings upthe point, don't believe everything that
you read on the internet. Right, Their attempt was controversial? All right?
(36:45):
The oh this is interesting. Iwanted to ask you, Stacy,
if you've ever been here South CoastBotanic Garden. This is in California,
just south of Los Angeles, asI understand it, but they have a
bumpy driveway that leads to this botanicalgarden. It's an eighty seven acre garden,
(37:08):
and the road is bumpy because theentire garden has been built on a
landfill. Trash trash underneath. Theearth continues to shift and compact, and
it causes bumps and divots in thepathways there at this garden. Have you
ever been there? I have not. Sounds interesting eighty seven acres, so
(37:30):
I'm putting it on my radar.South Coast Botanic Garden. Of course,
we're going to put the link thereat Gardening Simplified on air dot Com.
Check that out. It has rowsand rows of colorful roses. But one
of the world's first botanical gardens tobe developed over a sanitary landfill, billing
(37:52):
itself as a masterpiece of creative landreclamation. It's reclaimed marvel that other communities
may be looking at to replicate withtheir own landfills. Also, yeah,
it makes sense for areas where youdon't get snow. A lot of times
landfills are repurposed into ski hills orsledding hills. South of Los Angeles,
(38:13):
you're not getting much snow, sowhy not turn it into a gardener or
bird sanctuary. You know what.I also think they should start turning them
into butterfly sanctuaries, planting a bunchof you know, butterfly plants and just
letting them do their thing. Ilike that. I like that, and
you know, kudos to them.A lot of people don't want to have
to deal with compost. They findit degrading. I'll let that one sink
(38:37):
in a little bit. When itcomes to our health and eating things like
vegetables, we tend to trust ourparents, example, the most. This
is interesting. It's a survey.While growing up proactive approaches like drinking water,
eating healthy foods, eat your vegetables, clear that broccoli off your plate,
going to their doctor for physicals,and taking vitamins and supplements or top
(39:00):
of mind. But at the endof the day, in the survey,
respondents are more likely to trust theirown parents when it comes to their health
and wellness advice than they are ofthat of a best friend or social media.
Do you buy them? I guessit depends on the parent. That's
true. It's no secret we alllearn from our parents, and health routines
(39:24):
are no exception. So I thinkpeople, especially when you're young. Most
people do tend to think of theirparents as having all the answers, whether
or not they actually do, oreven if they try to come across that
way. It's just, you know, that's the person you go to and
they always have an answer for you, whether it's a good answer or a
bad answer, or ask me later, you know, so that we build
(39:45):
that trust up, you know,in a good relationship when we're really young,
and mom can always fix everything.Okay, that's just I mean,
it's why I'm addicted to vix vaporrub. I love vix vapor rub.
I love the smell of it.I use it even when I'm not sick
because my mom her go to wasvix vapole rub. It was either ginger
(40:07):
ale crackers, baking soda, orvix vapole rub. Those are the four
things that fix everything. So thereyou go. A Texas woman is giggling
at a recent mishap that occurred whenshe went to order a bouquet of flowers.
Sarah Hollingsworth, thirty five years oldfrom Austin, Texas, runs a
(40:27):
baby registry company called poppy list Now. She called a local flower shop to
order a bouquet of poppy flowers totake with her to an exhibit in San
Diego, California. She said shewanted some poppy flowers as it's part of
the name of the company and alsoa very important flower in California. So
(40:50):
she picks up the phone and shecalls to order these flowers, and when
she receives them, she's like,WHOA. At first, I was like,
these aren't poppies. She took offthe wrapping. There were weird googly
eyes. What are those things doingthere? The wonderful person at the florist
had misunderstood her and sent two puppiesflower arrangements in the shape of a puppy,
(41:22):
and after her initial shock, shethought, man, I'm so impressed
with this design. She kept thepuppy bouquet, and here's the interesting thing
for her. She posted a videoof the bouquet to TikTok, where it
now has over four point five millionviews and six hundred and seventy eight thousand
(41:43):
likes. Wow, puppies, puppies. So there you have it. Today's
show has been a kick in theplants. Thanks so much, they see.
Thank you Rick, thank you Adriana, and most of all. Thank
you to you for your support ofthe Gardening Simplified Show. Go to our
website Gardeningsimplified on air dot com.The show notes are there for you,
(42:05):
not only of this show, butof previous shows. Also watch us on
YouTube or wherever you get your favoritepodcast. We thank you, We thank
you very much. Have a greatweek.
Hello, my friends, It's timefor the Gardening Simplified Show, coming to
you from Studio A. Here atProven Winners Color Choice Shrubs with Stacey Hervella
me, Rick weisst and our engineerand producer Adrianna Robinson. Today we talk
about ip M. Now, IPMis not a technology company. The acronym
(00:24):
does not stand for International Plant Manufacturersor Investment portfolio Manager. No. IPM
is integrated pest management. It's ascience based decision making process that combines tools
and strategies to identify and manage pests. In my opinion, Stacey, if
(00:44):
you were to look up a synonymfor IPM, it would be two words
common sense. Would those were thewords I was going to guess you were
going to say, And I couldnot agree more. And you know,
I think people hear the word IPMare they might be familiar with it from
you know, other things that theymight have heard. But the simple fact
is that there is no better wayto manage any kind of pest. And
(01:07):
this isn't just for the garden.This is also for household pests. YEP.
What IPM basically is is learning everythingthat you possibly can about the pest,
know thin in an enemy and learningeverything you can about it's life cycle,
what it eats, where it lives, where it shelters, when it
reproduces how many times, and thenusing that information to craft a management plan
(01:33):
that's actually based on the pest behavior, not just your behavior, not just
your reaction. Because when you takean IPM or integrated pest management approach to
your problems, you're not just puttinga band aid on the problem. You
are truly resolving the root of theissue. Yeah, exactly, And I'm
glad you mentioned indoors also because oneof the issues with IPM is to set
(01:57):
action thres threshole. When are yougoing to take action? You know,
you think of the person who spotsa spider in the house and it's like
burn the place down, you know, take some crazy action. So setting
action thresholds, monitoring an identifying pests, and we should be out there monitoring
(02:17):
three hundred and sixty five days outof the year, regardless of what your
climate is. Like. Prevention sothings like crop rotation or the health of
the plants to make them less susceptible, and then control and evaluate the proper
control method for effectiveness and risk.In other words, avoid taking a shotgun
(02:42):
to approach absolutely and you know,going back to what you said about observing
and identifying the past, this isso important. And you know, we
hear from so many gardeners all overthe country who say, I want to
preserve the beneficial insects, I wantto preserve the pollinators. But unless you're
out there actually looking at what's inyour garden, don't know what is a
beneficial insect, what's a benign insect, and what's a pest insect. And
(03:05):
a lot of times, especially whenit comes to insects in the garden,
and it's important to understand that IPMdoes not simply deal with insects or animals.
It also includes you know, fungal, bacterial diseases. Even to some
extent one could argue viruses. Youaren't going to know what's good or what's
benign. And with bugs, sometimesyou'll see damage and the insect will actually
(03:28):
only be active at night, butthe bugs that you're seeing on the plant
are beneficial insects that aren't causing thedamage. So it really does take a
lot of you know, commitment tounderstanding the problem. But for me,
that is I don't even want tosay, half the fun, because that's
all the fun. I love researchingthis kind of stuff, and this is
why I have so many facts aboutthings like moles and bats and other insects,
(03:53):
because I just I love learning aboutit and figuring out how I can,
you know, alleviate the problem throughmy behavioral changes and through understanding you
know how those how those animals livein function within my world. Yeah.
It is a matter of your behavior, yes, and paying attention to it,
you know, Stacy. I was, I was in a home depot
(04:15):
the other day and this guy recognizedme, and he had a can of
bug spray in his hand, andhe he sticks the can of bug spray
in my face and he says,is this good for bugs? And I'm
like, no, it'll kill him, right, I love it. Yeah,
So you've got to pay attention toyour personal behavior now, Stacy,
as it relates to IPM, here'smy opinion as a general homeowner. You
(04:40):
know, the science can be kindof blinding for people and kind of difficult,
and some people don't want to getthat deep into the weeds. Right,
So my opinion is this, firstof all, putting a plant in
the right place for that plant sunshade, whatever it may be, is one
step of IPM. This the secondpart is plant diversity. I believe monocultures
(05:03):
are a big problem. I loveall the varieties for example provided by proven
winners, color choice shrubs, andhow these plants have been developed to be
diseased resistant, let's say, orheat resistant. Diversity in your landscape,
I think is one way a homeownercan simply practice IPM definitely. And you
(05:26):
know, having a diversity of plantsnot only gives you a kind of hedge,
no pun intended against big issues,you know, any kind of big
fungal disease or pest issues that mightcome into your garden. It also looks
better and it gives you more tolook at, gives you multiple season interests
rather than just a one hit wondergarden that looks amazing in spring and is
then boring for you know, therest of the season. There's so many
(05:47):
benefits to it, and you know, certainly pest control as one of them.
And there was a huge, verysad, vivid example for many people
in the US when we lost elmsas street trees. You know, we
elms were a very common sat rightfully, so they're elegant. They're beautiful.
And you know here in Grand Haven, for the couple of surviving elms that
we have, I always when Isee one think, oh, imagine if
(06:10):
Dutch elm disease had not taken allof these out, what our city would
look like. Now we do havea diversity of street trees. Now that
helps protect us a bit. Unfortunately, some of those elms were replaced with
ashes, but with as trees.But you know, the diversity helps prevent
a large scale of catastrophe like thatfrom happening again. One way to also
(06:31):
manage IPM integrated pest management, inmy opinion, is to pay attention to
GDD, which is growing degree dayaccumulations. Helps you anticipate problems when they
come along, whether it may bea pest, and again it doesn't necessarily
have to be an insect. Itcan be a disease, it can be
a weed. GDD helps us inhere in Michigan we have something called a
(06:55):
GDD tracker. I'm sure probably inyour community you have it too, but
it helps us anticipate, for example, the emergence of Japanese beetles in summer
and helps us possibly using repellent typesprays that will help with your roses or
other plants that are susceptible to Japanesebeetle. I think that that is one
(07:16):
key Also so as it relates toIPM, biological controls are one facet that
we can use natural enemies. Culturalcontrols are also another one. For example,
again, let's say you do havea lawn area in your yard.
(07:36):
If you raise the deck on themower, simply doing that and providing shade
to the crown of the plant,you're going to use less as far as
pesticides, weed killers and that sortof thing is concerned. Mechanical and physical
controls. We can do that alsotraps and hand picking, and then of
(07:57):
course chemical control. Chemical control isa part of IPM, but we're using
it in a way where we applythe chemicals in a responsible way, in
a way responsible and when they willbe most effective. You know, it
reminds me of a conversation we hada couple weeks ago with a listener who
said she had a huge issue withchiggers, yes, and really didn't want
(08:18):
to use pesticides, but chiggers arebiting her and her family and her pets.
And you know, of course Itotally understand and appreciate people who don't
want to use chemicals, but youknow understanding that a chigger prevention program is
not going to be spraying every weekfor the entire summer, that it's going
to be targeting that phase where usinggrowing degree days, we know that the
(08:39):
eggs have just hatched and they're inthat first instar or baby stage where they're
going to be the do the mostdamage to you and your family, and
if you can treat it, thenthen that alleviates the need to do more.
So it's really about applying them responsiblyin terms of how you actually do
it, and the when is areally important part too. So there isn't
a simple solution to IPM or aone fix fixes it all. It's a
(09:05):
matter of education. It is,truly, I think you can think about
it very similar to organic gardening,which organic gardening is not an issue of
you know what you do and don'tapply in your garden. Organic gardening is
an entirely new approach to your soil, to your garden, to your ecosystem,
to your garden goals, And similarly, IPM is just a totally different
(09:26):
way of approaching the challenges that youface in gardening, and instead of just
going to buy the can of bugspray and calling it good, you're taking
on that responsibility. You're learning aboutit. And to me, there's just
this sort of you know, magicthat happens when you start seeing yourself as
part of this bigger world, notthe boss of it. No, I
agree, So I wrote a limerickto celebrate the occasion. The creepy crawlers
(09:52):
on this stem are engaged in plantmayhem. I need something common, sensible,
something a bit more defensible, maybeconsider IPM. I need something that's
attainable, an action that is explainable. Self control I need to master in
order to avoid disaster. I'm tryingto be sustainable. So let's all get
(10:15):
a head education and continue to learnthroughout the course of the year about IPM.
I love it, you know Iwill be me too. Plants on
Trial coming up next here on theGardening Simplified Ship Proven Winners. Colored Choice
Shrubs cares about your success in thegarden. That's why we trial and test
(10:39):
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. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified
Show. It's the time of theshow. If we put a plant on
trial, that is to say,we're going to tell you all about one
of the three hundred and twenty plusproven winners Color Choice shrubs, and you
(11:01):
get to decide if it's going toearn a spot in your garden or not.
But before I launch into today's planton Trial, I did want to
address something that you said earlier,and that's that you said, in this
case, IPM does not stand forinvestment portfolio managers, although I think that
as gardeners we could potentially make thecase for ourselves as investment portfolio managers.
(11:24):
Depending on how many plants we havein our garden, they could constitute a
significant investment portfolio. Well said,you've got to manage your portfolio. That's
what that's right, Investment plant man, plant investment manager or something like that.
Anyway, I'm sure a lot ofyou also understand that feeling, because
(11:45):
you know, when we garden,it's hobby time, and it's you know,
we invest a lot of our timeand money into our gardens and hopefully
they're pulling their weight and worth it, and if they're not, well,
that's where IPM comes in, soyou can figure out those problems. And
you know, there's so many resourcesnow. Before I know, when I
was in horticulture school and the internetwas barely a thing. You know,
we had these huge, thick bookson our shelves. That was an investment,
(12:07):
you know, and that was howyou learned about everything, was looking
it up in books. And nowyou can find pictures from all over the
country. This is what this pestlooks like on this plant here, And
you know, it's just never beeneasier. So to me, there's really
no excuse for taking a one sizefits all approach to problem control. Not
only those books Stacy, but alsothe school of hard knocks just experience,
(12:28):
right, Yeah, and once youget zapped by Japanese beetles one summer,
you start to learn about, well, how am I going to manage this
problem? And yes, you've putan investment in these plants. I mean
I've got a green thumb from allthe currency I've handled that garden centers and
greenhouses, buying more plants. Yeah, there's more than one way to have
(12:50):
a green thumb. That's for sure. But speaking of green, today's plant
on trial is not green. Itis red, and it is ginger wine
nine barkiful and it is truly myfavorite of all of the nine barks that
I have ever seen. I've hadit in my garden for years. I
love it because it combines so beautifullywith so many different colors. So ginger
(13:11):
wine is a nine bark and ninebarks are flowering shrubs. They're in the
rose family, although you wouldn't necessarilyknow it from their flowers. Their flowers
sort of resemble more like an appleblossom. Are actually pretty close to an
errone of flower if you're familiar withthat. They're formed in little clusters in
spring. But nine barks are primarilyfoliage plants. And this is sort of
(13:33):
a trend that kicked off maybe twentyfive thirty years ago with Diablo nine bark
came to the US. It waspopular in Europe, the first dark leaf
nine bark. They kind of madeit onto the market and just sort of
cracked this market wide open, andpeople went crazy for them because they are
very attractive, they're very easy togrow. Nine bark is a North American
(13:56):
native species which I know a lotof people really like, and they're just
that's one of those plants that youcan put in and not think too much
about because they generally don't need oreven want pruning. I find personally that
nine barks are best left unpruned andallowed to just grow with their naturally elegant
habit, so low maintenance, easycare. They love the sun. They're
(14:16):
very hearty, and so they're kindof one of those plants that people really
liked. Yeah, and a fewweeks ago, we had a show where
we talked about the art of layeringin your landscape. You know. I
find nine bark where it can bea standalone plant, it can be a
backdrop, like you mentioned, thecolor is great or used as a hedge.
There's a lot of uses for ninebars. Yeah, very much so.
(14:39):
And that's one of the things Ilove about it as well. So
ginger wine is a dark leaf ninebark, but it doesn't have that deep
purple look that Diablo or our bestseller Summer Wine nine Barque has. It's
more of a like sparkling reddish color. It's really bright, it's really lively,
and as much as I love darkleafed plants, sometimes they can create
(15:01):
a black hole in your landscape.You know, if they're too dark and
you don't have the right kind ofplants around them to set them off,
it just kind of creates this likeeye sucking hole in your garden that kind
of detracts you. Now, it'sgood if you mix it in with some
yellow or some pink and mix itup a little bit, but you do
have to be careful about that.But that's not really an issue with a
(15:22):
red foliaged one like ginger wine.Now, with ginger wine, when the
new growth comes out, it's kindof yellow and orange and these beautiful sunset
tones, and then it ages tothat nice red color, and that red
color is going to persist from spring, and it looks beautiful in spring.
When nine barks come out in spring, they just have this sort of ethereal
glow to the foliage. It's acelebration, it really is, and it
(15:45):
looks so good with bulbs, andso that foliage will persist all through spring
summer, and then in fall itturns an even sort of more vivid red,
like more of like a true red. And then the flowers, which
of course have already passed because theybloom in spring turn into these ornamental red
seedheads. They're actually quite interesting.Usually not something that people think a lot
(16:06):
about as an ornamental feature on ninebark, but they are actually very effective.
So this is a great three seasonplant and then come winter, depending
on your perspective, you might stillfind it interesting because that common name nine
bark does come from the fact thatthis plant has exfoliating bark, which is
to say that it peels away fromthe plant totally natural, and the more
I'm sure the stems are, themore you're going to see that peeling effect.
(16:30):
But that's where the term nine barkcomes from. I have not counted
the layers, but apparently there arecan be nine layers of bark, and
that's where a nine bark comes fromin a snowy climate. I like that,
Yeah, sure, I really do. It's the same with oak leaf
Hydrangea or paper bark maple. It'sa great characteristic to have in winter,
definitely. Now the reason that I'mcovering ginger wine is today's plant on trial
(16:55):
on our episode about IPM is becauseI think a lot of people nowadays when
they think of nine barks, theirmind immediately goes to powdery mildew, and
that is certainly an issue that diablohead. And this is often the case that
when a new plant comes onto market, you know, someone has to be
the pioneer, someone has to goout there and say it has these features.
(17:15):
We understand it's not completely you know, done yet, but so a
lot of times nine bark got powderymildew. And to some extent, this
is a natural liability that a lotof nine barques can exhibit. Now it
does not happen with our native versions, which are green. So it's really
these more selected varieties of foliage color, whether that's purple, red, green,
(17:37):
or yellow, those are the onesthat are more likely to get powdery
meldew. And knowing this, andknowing that our mission here at privun Owner's
Color Choice Shrubs is to reduce thosekinds of diseases, we have been really
careful to test our nine barks forpowdery mildew. And I think that ginger
wine is one of the most resistantthat I have seen. But that said,
(18:00):
it's a great example of IPM becauseeven though we select for resistance,
and selecting a disease resistant nine barquewill help you, there's still some things
that you have to do as agardener to mitigate its prevalence because you know,
as you said when we were talkingabout a gardener who had powdery mildew,
the spores are just in the air. So a couple of important things
(18:22):
to do, no matter what typeof nine bark you have is in These
are just basic IPM principles of puttingthe plant in the right place full sun.
So it's very tempting I think whenpeople see a foliage plant to think,
oh, I can put this ina shaded spot because it doesn't really
flower that much, or I don'tcare if it flowers, so nine bark,
if you plant it in too muchshade, you're gonna get muddy color
(18:44):
and you're probably gonna get powdery mildew. Why because in those lower like conditions,
though, any moisture that's on theplant, whether that's from dew or
an irrigation system or it rained,it's going to sit on the plant leaves
longer, and those are the exactright conditions for powdery mildew too. Develop
environment environment yep. So you wantto make sure that they're in a full
sun spot, so that's at leastsix hours of bright sun every single day.
(19:07):
This is another way that you canreduce powdery maildew. And well,
this is true of nine marks,this is also true of any plant that
gets powdery mildew. Proper spacing definitelywant to make sure that you're looking at
that width on a plant tag andthat you are spacing surrounding plants or buildings
an appropriate amount away based on thatwidth. If you if you don't have
(19:27):
your plants too crowded together, youget good air circulation and that again reduces
the incidents of pests and disease.Air circulation the key. Think about a
hot, humid day in summer whenit's just stifling, yeah, and think
about the circulation around plants, right, Like I'm sure any parents know.
You know, it's a hot summerday and your kids hanging off you,
(19:49):
and you're just like it, needsome air circulation similar for a plant,
Give me some space exactly. Andyou know, if you do see a
little powdery mildew pop up here andthere and you can't, you know,
there's certain environmental factors where you cansay, okay, adjust your sprinkler heads
so they're not pelting this plant thatwe know is potentially susceptible if there's things
(20:10):
you can't control, like humidity,like rainfall. If you do see a
little bit come up, just takeoff those leaves or just snip off that
little bit of branch. It willmake a big difference, and especially in
the long term. And I thinkthat's another aspect of IPM that is often
underappreciated, is small gestures can addup. Yeah exactly. A few weeks
ago we had the pruning show andas opposed to taking a little off the
(20:34):
top, maybe taking out some branchesand opening up the plants, yeah exactly.
So there's a lot of different thingsyou can do. Now, this
is a beautiful plant. I havefound them to be quite deer resistant.
So that's an IPM issue that Ipersonally deal with, is selecting deer resistant
plants so I don't have to bespraying them or going crazy or getting angry
all the time. It is.So it's got good deer resistance, not
(20:57):
the highest, but pretty good.I can certainly grow it. And again
it's also about selecting plants that aregoing to be less susceptible. So that's
something we can do. But we'llmeet you halfway. And then there are
some additional things that you have todo that are just good horticultural practice,
and that's the habits that you needto get into to be a good plant
manager. So if you have anyquestions or want to see pictures of ginger
(21:21):
wine nine mark, you can seeit all at Gardenings Simplified on air dot
com or just catches on the YouTubeversion where you can see footage that the
Adriana cuts in. We're going totake a little break. Why come back,
We're opening up that garden mail bag, so please stay tuned. At
proven Winner's Color Choice, we've gota shrub for every taste and every space.
(21:42):
Whether you're looking for an easy carerose and unforgettable hydrangea, or something
new and unique, you can beconfident that the shrubs and the white containers
have been trialed and tested for yoursuccess. Look for them at your local
garden center. Greeting's gardening friends,and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show.
Now that it is meteorological spring.We know you've got gardening questions and
(22:06):
we would love to help you withthose gardening conundrums. All you have to
do is reach us at Gardeningsimplified onair dot com. You can also leave
a YouTube comment. You can leavean Instagram comment. We'll get them and
we will help you the best thatwe can to resolve your gardening issues,
whether they are pest related, plantrelated, people related. Although we are
not psychologists, we can certainly giveyou some perspective from our years of experience.
(22:29):
Yeah. And you know, speakingof years of experience, stacy,
thinking of integrated pest management, Ithink of examples like when pe andes are
about to bloom and the buds arejust coated with ants, and some people
will go crazy and empty a canof raid on them, or you know,
just just awful stuff. And againyou have to you have to practice
(22:52):
IP. By the way, asfar as ants are concerned, do you
know how you tell the difference betweena male ant and a female ant?
I don't. Here's a dad jokefor you. You take the ants,
and you take an ant, andyou drop it in water. If it
sinks, it's a girl ant.If it floats, it's buoyant. Yeah,
(23:14):
I guess. So, okay,you want me to get to the
mailbank. Let's do that, allright, So Kim asked the winter and
snow plowing or shoveling is delta heavyweightof snow to my landscape. I intentionally
tried to get and keep the snowweight off my shrubs and it became a
losing battle. So mother nature isforcing a big time printing this season due
(23:34):
to so much damage. Any advice, Well, I am sure that Kim
is not alone. I can tellyou because I have had it happen to
me. And you know, asthe snow started to melt a few weeks
ago, we had a knock atthe back door and I went out and
there was my neighbor standing with basicallyhalf of one of my junipers, and
(23:56):
she just said, I just wantedyou to know I didn't cut this.
It broke from the snow. AndI said, okay. First of all,
if you did have to cut it, that would be okay, I'd
understand. And second of all,oh my gosh. So I wanted to
address this because again, I knowa lot of people are dealing with with
things that either broke or are severelybent or out of shape. Now,
Adrian and I did make a quickYouTube short of this that you can check
(24:18):
on our YouTube channel if you're interestedin that. But I would say if
a plant is broken, like thebranch is literally broken, then you're gonna
have to prune it. And thisis a situation where sort of the advice
on pruning old wood, new wood, prune, and spring prune now kind
of goes out the window because youhave to fix the broken stuff. Do
what you gotta do. You dowhat you gotta do. You don't want
(24:40):
it to fall on anyone. Ifyou don't take care of it, then
chances are it could get worse because, for example, if something's just hanging
and it's really heavy, it couldstrip the bark as it falls and that
would cause even more damage to yourplants. But if something is not broken,
then I would say, if it'sjust bent, start considering how you
(25:00):
might be able to remedy the situationthrough staking or tying the plant up.
And it can be temporary, butI think this can often be effective.
Now, what happens when all ofthat snow weighs down a plant. The
plant cells actually transform to a differenttype of cell in response to all of
that weight. So when you takethat off, you basically need to it's
(25:22):
not just going to pop back upbecause now it has those cells created in
that compression. So you need toactually take the initiative to prop that back
up and now you can do that. A lot of times I have,
especially when I was a rooftop gardenerand actually, you know, getting new
plants up to a garden was anissue. We would often use string,
heavy twine to wrap a plant upand bundle those branches together, and then
(25:47):
they'll naturally start to take on andimprove to growth habit. With some of
my junipers or the one that reallygot damaged badly, what I'm going to
do is tie so I had twoleaders. One was obviously a much more
substantial leader. Now the one's goingto be the new leader. But what
I'm going to do in those branchesthat are kind of now flattened displayed from
(26:08):
losing this is I'm just going totie them up and back into the plant
to kind of reshape it. Andas it has that little bit of training,
I don't need to leave that stringon there forever, maybe just a
season or two, and then thatwill help it to reshape itself. So
sometimes this requires a little bit ofcreativity. You know, you're going to
have to figure out ways that youcan do this. I mean, I've
(26:29):
certainly seen people do weights, youknow, like fishing weights to kind of
try to get things to go acertain direction. I've seen wooden blocks trying
to get a plant to grow ina certain direction. So you kind of
have to use what you have.But if the plant is not broken and
it's just a little bit out ofshape, that doesn't mean you need to
write it off. You might beable to find a creative solution. So
I would encourage you to to thinkcritically about that before you make a rash
(26:52):
decision. But again, if youhave actual broken branches, meeting them up,
cut them off and make sure thatthe damage won't get injure anyone.
And I think this is an issuealso IPM related culturally, in other words,
having lived in a snowy climate mywhole life, but I'm not bitter
about that. I try to plantherbaceous plants along the driveway edge or sidewalk
(27:21):
edge, or if there are woodyplants, pull them forward far enough from
the roof's edge. I think thatthat can make a difference too, because
I feel your pain. It's frustratingwhen you've grown this beautiful plant and the
ice and snow take it out.Yeah, and you know, it's easy
to forget about that potential threat whenit's summer and it's beautiful, and you're
(27:41):
planting and you have a great idea, and then winter comes along and you
find out it's right in the pathof your snow blow or blowout, and
there's all sorts of things that canhappen. So if that is you you
found out that something you planted lastyear is not in such a great space
after all, this spring would bea great time to transplant it. There
you go, plant head. Loraineasks us, I really enjoyed watching your
(28:03):
show on YouTube. Thank you,Vary Mulch. I was hoping you could
help with a dilemma I have.I have an heirloom variety rose bush given
to me from my grandfather. Idon't know the variety though. My issue
is rose chafers eating the blooms.I don't want to use seven to deal
with them. Too poisonous for pollinators. Do you have suggestions? Yeah,
(28:25):
so this is a tough one.So rose chafers are a type of beetle
and they do a number on roses, and a couple of times in the
past when we've been talking about rosesand Japanese beetles and chafers and those kinds
of things, what we have recommendedfor reblooming roses, like Oh So easy
roses or the rise up ros thatwe just talked about a little while ago.
(28:47):
Those can be simply cut back andtrimmed, and because they'll continuously bloom
as they recover from that trim andthe pest has moved on, then you're
able to get those pest free flowers. Now for lorrain, it's impossible to
say, especially not even knowing alot of those more old fashioned roses do
not have that ability to rebloom.If you were to deploy this strategy,
(29:07):
you might not be guaranteed more flowers, but you also might And to me,
this is a perfect example of usingIPM because you look at that time
when the rose chafers are most active, you take away the flowers what attracts
them. Rose chafers don't actually haveas long a life cycle as Japanese beetles,
so they're not feeding as long andso it's worth experimenting with. I
(29:29):
mean, it's certainly better than lookingat a bunch of jagged old rose flowers,
which are only going to attract morerose chafers and Japanese beetles. So
that's the first thing that I wouldrecommend that you at least try, knowing
that you might actually be sacrificing theflowers and that is unfortunate, but it's
worth at least trying. Now.As I researched more about rose chafers to
help Lorraine with this question, itdoes seem that they are one of those
(29:52):
rose pests that have very few alternativeoptions for managing them. Most of the
options just said if you don't wantto use any kind of pesticide, you
have to handpick them, and that'snot super fun, but it is possible,
and you can do it early inthe morning. If you do that
early, they're still kind of sluggish. You don't have to worry about them
flying or crawling all over. Ifyou're squeamish, you can just kind of
(30:15):
take the flowers and shake them intoa bucket of soapy water and they'll just
fall right into that. So handpicking is I think a huge part of
IPM and something that I use alot. But outside of those two options,
I did not find a lot ofoptions for controlling rose chafer. If
you're squeamish about hand picking, somepeople become very skilled using vacuums. Oh,
(30:41):
and I still think using a vacuum, like you said, when they're
sluggish during the day and not suckingthe foliage off the plant. Some people
become very skilled at that. Anotherthing, Stacey, that I would say
my experience with rosechafers is that rosechafersemerge from the soil at a certain point
of the year. We're talking IPMtoday, sometimes cultivation or cultivating at the
(31:07):
base of the plant or in thearea of the plant at that time of
the year, usually mid to lateMay here in Michigan. Most of the
pressure is in June, and thenpyreethering sprays when you really can't control the
issue. Is a spray that I'veused to deal with rose chap you know.
Another important part of managing any beetlesis understanding that beetles have a very
(31:32):
interesting life cycle. They have alife cycle similar to a butterfly exactly.
So their larval stage is the gruband so a lot of times when it
comes to managing adult beetles, eventhough your instinct is to say, hey,
I got to smash this, youknow, armored little guy on my
rose plant, a better solution wouldpotentially be managing grubs in your lawn and
there's a lot of different ways todo that. Now, one thing I
(31:53):
do want to point out most peoplethink grubs I can manage them with milky
spore. This is a non toxicgrub control. Milkie spore is not effective
on rosechafer grubs, so do notIf you use milki spore to manage Japanese
beetles or we're planning on using it, do not count on it to manage
the rose chafers. You'll have tofind another management strategy for rosechafer grubs in
(32:15):
your lawn. But also being awarethat the adults can fly and will for
your delicious, delicious roses. Wedo a little research on the life cycle
of a rosechafer. Well yeah,it definitely helps you feel a little bit
more empowered to deal with it.So hopefully that will work for you.
Lorraine want to thank everyone for theirquestions. If you have a question,
Gardeningsimplified on air dot com is agreat way to reach us and we would
(32:36):
be happy to help you. We'regoing to take a break. When we
come back, we've got branching news. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to
you by proven winners Color Choice Shrubs, our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens
have been trialed and tested for yoursuccess so you enjoy more beauty and less
(32:58):
work. Look for proven winners colorshrubs and the distinctive white container at your
local garden center. Welcome back tothe Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for
branching news and Stacey today. Ourfirst story comes from the Los Angeles Daily
News. David Gee's yard. Alot of people pay attention to it,
not because of the plant material,but because of Murray. Murray is the
(33:23):
name of a two and a halfton replica of the Moi figures that you
see on Easter Island. Oh wow, yeah, really cool and you can
check out the pictures at our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com.
And so his wife, as Iunderstand, that, gave this to him
(33:45):
as a surprise gift. It's sevenand a half feet tall. Murray the
Moi was a surprise gift, sovery very cool. It was fabricated out
of volcanic rock in two thousand andseven. Is a big hit and popular
on Halloween in the neighborhood. Shehad given it to him for Christmas.
(34:08):
Now they're retired, planning to moveto a smaller house. But you can't
really pick up Murray and move Murray, so somebody's gonna have to buy it
or decide they want Murray. Well, this is definitely an answer to what
do you get the guy who haseverything? Yeah, exactly amazing. I
(34:29):
love this statue. And of coursethe market for a second hand MOI is
limited in Los Angeles, are prettymuch anywhere. But I hope that this
story has a happy ending. They'rehaving monumental fatigue is what they're having,
and they can't take they can't takeMurray with them. So here you go
(34:52):
an offer you don't want to take. For granted, here's an interesting story.
According to a post in social mediathe Monroe County, Alabama Sheriff's Office,
residents were told not to be alarmedbecause there was a There was a
(35:12):
post of them throwing pine cones alongthe roadside in the neighborhood, and the
post indicated supposedly that the pine coneswere outfitted with wireless five G mini spy
cameras to enhance their surveillance efforts.This innovative technology, known as conecms,
(35:35):
featured high definition resolution two way audiowith night vision capabilities and operate on a
five G network compatible with Alexa andSiri. Now, a lot of people
bought this. This had to havebeen a hoax, but you could imagine
if you did believe it, howpeople would have gone nuts over this.
(35:59):
Sure, fminds me of one ofthose stories on the NPR New show.
Wait, wait, don't tell mewhere you have to tell which story is
wrong or exactly. This could beon one of those yard to hear first.
Maybe the post was shared hundreds oftimes. They couldn't really confirm who
posted the cone cams story or whowas responsible for it. So just to
(36:22):
be safe, some residents just didsome yard cleaning and cleaned up the cone
cams interest. Maybe I should startthat in my neighborhood because I have a
lot of pine cones in my yardand they are not fun to clean up.
So yeah, and it brings upthe point, don't believe everything that
you read on the internet. Right, Their attempt was controversial? All right?
(36:45):
The oh this is interesting. Iwanted to ask you, Stacy,
if you've ever been here South CoastBotanic Garden. This is in California,
just south of Los Angeles, asI understand it, but they have a
bumpy driveway that leads to this botanicalgarden. It's an eighty seven acre garden,
(37:08):
and the road is bumpy because theentire garden has been built on a
landfill. Trash trash underneath. Theearth continues to shift and compact, and
it causes bumps and divots in thepathways there at this garden. Have you
ever been there? I have not. Sounds interesting eighty seven acres, so
(37:30):
I'm putting it on my radar.South Coast Botanic Garden. Of course,
we're going to put the link thereat Gardening Simplified on air dot Com.
Check that out. It has rowsand rows of colorful roses. But one
of the world's first botanical gardens tobe developed over a sanitary landfill, billing
(37:52):
itself as a masterpiece of creative landreclamation. It's reclaimed marvel that other communities
may be looking at to replicate withtheir own landfills. Also, yeah,
it makes sense for areas where youdon't get snow. A lot of times
landfills are repurposed into ski hills orsledding hills. South of Los Angeles,
(38:13):
you're not getting much snow, sowhy not turn it into a gardener or
bird sanctuary. You know what.I also think they should start turning them
into butterfly sanctuaries, planting a bunchof you know, butterfly plants and just
letting them do their thing. Ilike that. I like that, and
you know, kudos to them.A lot of people don't want to have
to deal with compost. They findit degrading. I'll let that one sink
(38:37):
in a little bit. When itcomes to our health and eating things like
vegetables, we tend to trust ourparents, example, the most. This
is interesting. It's a survey.While growing up proactive approaches like drinking water,
eating healthy foods, eat your vegetables, clear that broccoli off your plate,
going to their doctor for physicals,and taking vitamins and supplements or top
(39:00):
of mind. But at the endof the day, in the survey,
respondents are more likely to trust theirown parents when it comes to their health
and wellness advice than they are ofthat of a best friend or social media.
Do you buy them? I guessit depends on the parent. That's
true. It's no secret we alllearn from our parents, and health routines
(39:24):
are no exception. So I thinkpeople, especially when you're young. Most
people do tend to think of theirparents as having all the answers, whether
or not they actually do, oreven if they try to come across that
way. It's just, you know, that's the person you go to and
they always have an answer for you, whether it's a good answer or a
bad answer, or ask me later, you know, so that we build
(39:45):
that trust up, you know,in a good relationship when we're really young,
and mom can always fix everything.Okay, that's just I mean,
it's why I'm addicted to vix vaporrub. I love vix vapor rub.
I love the smell of it.I use it even when I'm not sick
because my mom her go to wasvix vapole rub. It was either ginger
(40:07):
ale crackers, baking soda, orvix vapole rub. Those are the four
things that fix everything. So thereyou go. A Texas woman is giggling
at a recent mishap that occurred whenshe went to order a bouquet of flowers.
Sarah Hollingsworth, thirty five years oldfrom Austin, Texas, runs a
(40:27):
baby registry company called poppy list Now. She called a local flower shop to
order a bouquet of poppy flowers totake with her to an exhibit in San
Diego, California. She said shewanted some poppy flowers as it's part of
the name of the company and alsoa very important flower in California. So
(40:50):
she picks up the phone and shecalls to order these flowers, and when
she receives them, she's like,WHOA. At first, I was like,
these aren't poppies. She took offthe wrapping. There were weird googly
eyes. What are those things doingthere? The wonderful person at the florist
had misunderstood her and sent two puppiesflower arrangements in the shape of a puppy,
(41:22):
and after her initial shock, shethought, man, I'm so impressed
with this design. She kept thepuppy bouquet, and here's the interesting thing
for her. She posted a videoof the bouquet to TikTok, where it
now has over four point five millionviews and six hundred and seventy eight thousand
(41:43):
likes. Wow, puppies, puppies. So there you have it. Today's
show has been a kick in theplants. Thanks so much, they see.
Thank you Rick, thank you Adriana, and most of all. Thank
you to you for your support ofthe Gardening Simplified Show. Go to our
website Gardeningsimplified on air dot com.The show notes are there for you,
(42:05):
not only of this show, butof previous shows. Also watch us on
YouTube or wherever you get your favoritepodcast. We thank you, We thank
you very much. Have a greatweek.
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