July 19, 2025 • 45 mins
Rejuvenation: the action or process of giving new energy or vigor to something. We talk about ways you can revamp your plants and set them up for future success. Featured shrub: Winecraft Black smokebush.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Coming to you from Studio a Here at Proven Winners
Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show
with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and
producer Adrianna Robinson. Today part two of our four part
series Rejuvenation the action or process of giving energy or
vigor to something. True. Rejuvenation is not merely an occasional event.
(00:27):
It's a practice. It can become a habit, a good habit.
And of course the idea of rejuvenation has inspired countless poets,
philosophers and storytellers. I mean, think about the Fountain of youth.
I'm still looking for.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It right well, Constant Leon did not find it either, so.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But it symbolizes our hope and belief that change is
always possible, no matter the circumstances. And when we talk
about plants and rejuvenation, a plant that I like to
think about, Stacey are perennials. I think rejuvenation is what
makes perennials so popular. This past spring at the Greenhouse,
(01:10):
I made it a point to ask a bunch of
customers what is it that you like best about perennials?
And many people said to me, well, because they come
back year after year. And then I said, what do
you like least about perennials, and they said, well, sometimes
they don't come back here after year.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I would have thought they'd said cutting back.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
But you know, yes, yes, exactly. So splitting perennials, bend
over and split your plants. It's loads of fun. It'll
entertain your neighbors, your plants will benefit. Pruning shrubs, of course,
is a huge issue as it relates to rejuvenation trees
in many ways, and sometimes we don't pay attention to
(01:52):
the trees the way we should, and that's why arbarus
are around. House plant rejuvenation, trickle irrigation, soil rejuvenation, huge
cutting back, ground covers feeding. So I don't know, I
knew you had a zinya. Rejuvenation the topic today and
(02:13):
stacey rejuvenation pruning, heavy pruning. We've got to look at
things like flowering shrubs where rejuvenation type pruning is key.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It is, and it's one of the really unique features
that shrubs have. One of the really unique abilities that
they have, which is to say that you can have
a horrible overgrown shrub in front of your house and
think how in the world. Am I ever going to
get this out. I'm gonna have to hire a professionals
that's going to cost me thousands of bucks. And in fact,
you don't necessarily have to remove it. You can get
(02:43):
the chainsaw out, cut it back to stumps and give
it a literal new lease on life and basically take
it right back to day one and it will regrow
from the ground.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And I'm glad you mentioned stumps because in my mind
there let's test this a moment. I think there's a
differentference between renewal pruning and rejuvenation pruning. So renewal pruning,
maybe let's look at bud lea and cutting a portion
of the plant back to renew it from year to year,
whereas you mentioned stump or stumping taking it to the
(03:17):
point where we actually do a full rejuvenation. Lilacs are
a good example or rhododendrons. As a matter of fact,
for a YouTube viewers, I have a couple pictures. My
neighbor had a huge rhododendron, decided that he was going
to stump it do major rejuvenation, and of course that's
(03:38):
always a shock to the system with something like a rhododendron,
but we have pictures to share with you, and it's
amazing how the plant will overtime, whether it's a lilac
or a rhododendron recover.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, I mean a rhododendron would not be high on
my list of shrubs that I would necessarily rejuvenation prune.
On the other hand, if it were a situation or
it's between deciding is it going to come out because
it's overgrown and causing problems or should we just give
it a try to cut it back and see what happens,
then I would certainly try it. But yeah, lilacs are
a great example why. Jila are another one that definitely
(04:12):
benefits from rejuvenation pruning. Almost any multi stemmed flowering shrub
that can be rejuvenated, and it's a pretty amazing process.
People do it with privet a lot, especially out on
the East Coast where there's you know, big privet hedges.
They get kind of old and woody, and a lot
of times what happens with shrubs they've been growing, they
(04:34):
put on really really thick, you know, old growth, and
then that's just not as productive for that nice leafy
growth that people want, say from a privet I can
tell you when I did live out on the East Coast,
my friend and I used to spend a lot of
marches doing a lot of privet rejuvenation jobs. I actually
bought my sewing machine by doing a privet rejuvenation job
(04:56):
on the Jersey shore.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So well, and you're so right about and you mentioned
a key thing, multi stems, shrubs, and you're so right
about that. So dogwoods hydranges for Scythia's spyrea.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Clear, we're not talking about dogwood trees. Please do not
try this on your dog with trees. We're talking about
the shrubby dog with the red twig dog. Would just
want to make sure no one gets any crazy ideas
out there, because we'd be hearing about it.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Very true, very true. So Arctic fire, yes, exactly, exactly.
So multiple stems from the base, they're well suited to
rejuvenation pruning. But there are lots of examples. And of course,
some plants I have found, like potentilla or Spyreea, not
only do well with the rejuvenation pruning, it almost seems
(05:44):
as though they like it.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
They do, And that's a really good point. I'm glad
you brought it up because very often. You know, I've
kind of made the point that rejuvenation is something you
typically do for very large shrubs that start to overgrow
their space, but it actually works just as well for
very small shrubs like spyreea where yeah, they just you know, again,
as there wood gets older and older, it generally becomes
(06:07):
less productive. And so when you cut that back and
you just leave a couple inches of stem for the
new growth to come out on, it puts out all
that fresh new growth. You might not get a great
year of flowering that first year, but going into the
second year and beyond, you will not believe the difference
that it can make. It really is like giving yourself
a whole new plant.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, another good point because in renewal pruning, maybe you
look for the older wood and cut that all the
way back, and so it's variable, whereas with rejuvenation you
would cut the whole plant back. Let me give you
a limb a rick. It's based on a fictitious gardener
(06:48):
that I have just playing in my mind.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Is his name idiolated? No, he's old Ned, Old Ned, Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Old Ned. There once was a gardener named Ned who's
rubberhead overspread. He began to chop the branches that flop
gave a new look to the homestead. Rejuvenation is good
for you, change a new point of view, thought Ned.
When he looked in the mirror, he reached for his
personal share. Now Ned has a new hair dude.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yes, it is a bit like hair. You know, sometimes
a new haircut can rejuvenate your entire vibe.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It doesn't necessarily cause it to branch out if you
cut it back, but yeah, gives you a new feel
and a new vibe. If we're talking about rejuvenation. And
we'll carry this on into segment four. Also because there
are issues like purging in your landscape or soil rejuvenation.
So important soil texture and organic matter content key properties
(07:51):
that influence the soil's ability to hold water or nutrients.
And it never ceases to amaze me, Stacy now Lance
escaping in sand, the inability of that soil to hold
water and nutrients. It's amazing, it really is.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So I I'm glad you brought this up because I
have a good friend who is also a gardener, and
she gardens in the country and ever since they set up,
they're a big vegetable garden. They have been getting loads
of horse manure delivered via a local horse owner, and
so he just comes to their property anytime dumps off
his truck. So they have been building their soil with
composted manure for years. And she has vegetables beautiful and
(08:33):
finished and harvested like where mine are just like seedlings,
like little tiny seedlings. And the difference between that fertility
that they have built up, that richness, that moisture retention,
it's night and day. It really is shocking to me.
And you know, I amend my soil, but I don't
have the ability to just have some horse owner, you know,
dump off this manure in the middle of the city
(08:54):
anytime I want.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
So I've done it with leaves, you know, grinding leaves
and that sort of thing and fall. But one thing
that I'm looking at we can talk about in a
segment four cover crops, and I'm looking at the dikon radish,
oh yeah, and trying that in the sandy soil. Yeah,
So I'm going to give that a try because I
have landscaped and everything from blue clay to beach sand
(09:17):
and everything in between. Ben successful doing it, But there
is an act of rejuvenating the soil, and it's very important.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Well, but which would you pick if you had to
choose between your blue clay soil and your sandy beachy soil,
what are you picking?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Hands down?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Easy sand, Amen, I love my sandy soil. You know
you don't get so dirty. You know, remember that horrible
feeling of sticking your shovel in the clay and then
the clay doesn't come off and your shovel weighs a
million pounds.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Oof, sucks the boots right off your face the worst.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So yeah, I do it for all. It does have
some liabilities, but I do love my sand.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I've lost landscaping equipment in clay just sucked into the earth.
It's crazy. Of course, there's rejuvenation of houseplants also, and
one of my key tips on houseplants if you're going
to rejuvenate them is do it at a time of
year when you can move them outside to do it,
and pull the plant out of the pot and stick
your face right in the dirt and take a smell.
(10:15):
That smell will tell you a lot about how healthy
your plant is and how you're doing with your houseplants.
We'll continue on in segment four, but let's see how
Stacey ties this in with plants on trial. That's next
here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Beautify your home and community with proven Winn's Color Choice
Shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties
to choose from. There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for every
taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive white
container your local garden center or learn more at proven
Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome
(10:58):
back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where the time. The
topic of today is rejuvenation and as I said, the
ability to rejuvenate themselves from tiny little stumps is actually
a very special feature that flowering shrubs, multi stem flowering
shrubs have now, as we alluded to with the rhododendron,
not all you know, multi stem shrubs respond to rejuvenation
(11:19):
equally well. So if you're thinking about this, and you're
thinking about it for a shrub that we have not
specifically mentioned as being suitable for rejuvenation pruning, of course,
there's many more, we can't list them all. Do a
quick search and just make sure that you're not setting
yourself up for disaster because there are some exceptions, certainly
rhododendrons just more sensitive, slower growing. Of course, if you
(11:39):
view a rejuvenation pruning on say a taxis, you will
be waiting for that rejuvenation for a very very long time.
So you need to know what you are getting into.
And you know, usually in what we've talked about so
far with rejuvenation is rejuvenation done to kind of give
your plant a new start. There are also ways that
(12:01):
you can kind of take this concept of rejuvenation pruning
and use it yearly, purely for esthetic purposes. And that
is what today's Plant on Trial is all about. So
I have to ask you, rick, are there any smoke
bush in your neighborhood?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
You know what, there are not.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
There aren't no, but you've seen them smoking because they
are smoking right now. They are. I mean, this is
the time of the year to be a smoke bush,
or to see a smoke bush really, because they are
at their absolute best. Also known botanically as catinas, this
is a plant that people absolutely love. You know, it
may not necessarily look like a whole whole lot in
(12:39):
the garden center, but when people see a smoke bush
in a neighbor's house or anything like that. They're like,
what is that? I need to have it? And I
will absolutely agree. A beautiful specimen of a smoke bush,
it's hard to beat. Yeah, there's one in Grand Haven
that I can think of where they actually chose the
pink based on the color of their smoke bush and
(13:04):
pruned it as a small tree and it's just full
of smoke right now and it's absolutely gorgeous. So people
tend to think of smoke bush more as flowering shrubs
or trees. They are a large shrub that can be
prune as a large tree, so it'll be sort of
a small tree, prune so that it has a trunk
rather than all of those multiple stems, and so people
(13:26):
tend to think of it they it flowers. Actually, the
flowers are not super showy. It's the seed pods that
developed after the flowering that are the smoke. But the
smoke gets so much attention that people often forget that
Catinas or smoke bush are excellent foliage plants.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
They're dramatic. They are just absolutely dramatic. It makes me
think of how when I was a kid in the sixties,
we would eat candy cigarettes you know, by nineteen sixty five,
I had a two pack a day habit. It isn't good.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I'm a little younger than you, but I can still
remember trick or Tree getting candy cigarettes, which sounds absolutely
absurd right now, but it did happen. That's okay. So
today's plant on trial is Winecraft black smoke bush, and
this is a perfect example. It has beautiful smoky seed
(14:18):
pods that are at their peak right now here in Michigan.
Of course, if you are one of our listeners in
a warmer climate, they might be on their way out.
If you're in a cooler climate, they might just be
getting going with their smoke. But the foliage on Winecraft
black catinas or smoke bush is absolutely beautiful. And that's
a great feature to have because outside of that, you
know bloom and smoke period sort of in early to midsummer.
(14:43):
It keeps the plant looking really great. But like I said,
people don't tend to think of smoke bush as foliage
plants because of course, the best feature with the seed
pods is right there in the name. But I wanted
to share the idea that smoke bush in whether Winecraft
black or any of the other smoke bushes that are
(15:03):
out there with fabulously colored foliage, they make a great
candidate for compassing. And compassing is basically doing rejuvenation pruning,
which is to say you're cutting it back to little stumps,
but you're doing it every year or perhaps every other year.
And what that does to a smoke bush. You are
(15:24):
not going to get the smoke, I will have to
say that first and foremost. But what you get is
foliage like you have never seen before. And this is
something that I saw quite frequently when I was a
rooftop gardener in New York City. Obviously, we're dealing with
smaller spaces than we are out here in Michigan, where
people tend to have much larger yards. But smoke bush
(15:45):
is a big plant. And if you want this unique
color and the thing about smoke bush foliage, you really
have to see it to believe it. So if you
take a walk and there's a smoke bush in your neighborhood,
don't just go. Don't just be dazzled by the smoke.
Take a closer look at the foliage. It's kind of
I don't know if it's like waxy or satiny. It
just has this really really unique texture and gene. It
(16:05):
beads water, which I think is always really lovely, and
it's really not like anything else. If you touch it,
it's kind of you can feel that it's different. And
so when you take a smoke bush and you compose
it or do this rejuvenation pruning regularly rather than just
to renew the plant, you get the most fabulous foliage
plant you can imagine. And this works great on rooftops
(16:26):
because it kept it really small. Winecraft black smoke bush
today's plant on trial it gets to be eight to
ten feet tall and six to eight feet wide, so
that's a pretty large shrub. Of course, it can be
pruned and very often has to be prune because smoke
bush naturally has this kind of wild and crazy growth habit.
It's just a characteristic of the plant. But by cutting
(16:48):
it back, instead of having that wild and crazy plant,
you just get this rounded kind of pillory column of
just absolutely beautiful foliage. This makes the foliage bigger than
it would normally be if it was allowed to reach
its full size. The color is more intense, and it's
just a really really unique way to treat the plant.
(17:11):
And I would say if you already have a smoke
bush and you're not happy with how it's going, or
you just want to try something new, it might be
worth trying because it really does give it a totally
different role in the garden, especially.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
If it's getting rangy or leggy.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Which they see that. Yeah, they do get that way.
They are definitely a very unique plant. So if you
want to rejuvenation prove or not coppae and compassing basically
just means you're cutting back to stems to get a
lot of new growth. And initially compassing started out in
England as a way to grow steaks or firewood, and
so they would cut it very low and then these
(17:44):
straight stems would come out and that'd be very easy
to grow steaks. A very close component to this is pollarding,
which is instead of cutting it down to little stumps,
you cut it at some higher height. Same kind of
thing crape murder. The pruning of myrtles is actually a
type of pollarting, so you cut it back and that
growth comes all out at the same height. So you
(18:05):
can do that as well if you have a specific
height that you want the plant to reach. So what
you want to do if you're starting new You don't
want to copass your plant right away. You want to
give it a good three years in the ground to
develop a good root system, because a good root system
is crucial to this concept of rejuvenation pruning. Without that
engine below ground to fuel that recovery. From cutting back
(18:29):
so severely, you're not going to get a vigorous recovery.
So you don't want to just start off right away,
even if you generally intend to grow this as primarily
a foliage plant. So let it go for three years.
By that fourth year, then in spring you're just going
to cut it back to stumps and you might be
going like, I don't know, but it will work that again,
that root system is fueling the growth that comes out
(18:51):
of it and all of this really beautiful, colorful new growth.
It's really hard to explain, I think without seeing it,
just how dramatic the impact of doing this really is.
So you would do it in late winter early spring.
You don't really want to wait until the growth starts
to come out and it will just recover, and then
you just go and do the same thing sprague after spring,
after spring, and again. It keeps it in check, It
(19:15):
keeps the plant small, and manageable, especially if you have
a small space and you love this color. It's a
great approach to managing it. And it's, just like I said,
a very different way to do it. Now, if yours
is pruned as a small tree with a single trunk,
I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. It will still come back, but
you'd really be missing out on all those years of
(19:35):
having you know, trained it as a tree, because it
does take some consistent effort to be able to continue
growing catinas as a tree. But the shrub types this
will work great on. Now. Did you know that smoke
bush is a member of the anacardier c family, which
contains mangoes, Cashew's pistachios, and poison ivy.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
What a group I know.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Oh, it's a rose gallery kind of. It's pretty wild
to think, so don't worry, You're not going to get
poison ivy.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
A mad family.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
The sumac family, yes, so also our beautiful saghorn sumac I.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Know, hangs around with some pretty rough characters.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
It's it is pretty wild to think that this hardy
planet is hardy down to USDA Zone four. Heat tolerant
through USDA Zone eight is related to all of these
super tropical plants. But again I have never heard of
anybody having like a contact dermatitis issue with catinas, so
you don't have to worry about going out there and
working on it. It does have kind of a resinous smell,
which I actually quite like. I don't know if you've
(20:34):
ever smelled it before, Yes, I have.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
But the benefit of course Bambi isn't going to chew on.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
It, that's true. It is very very deer resistant and
rabbit resistant, so it's a great plant to have around.
And of course then you can tell all your friends
that hey, this is our you know, hardy relative of
cashews and mangoes. Winecraft black is a full sun plants.
That's today's plan on trial. Winecraft black. It has dark,
purply black. Fully that means it is going to need
(21:01):
full sun. If you don't have full sun, don't despare
the golden version. Winecraft gold can actually take part shade,
so that lack of chlorophyll really helps it to take
part shaded. So there's a lot of different ways. I
think this is what gardening is really all about, that
you can take these tools, these techniques, this knowledge and
mix it up and try new things in your yard
(21:23):
and really find a way to amaze your friends, amaze yourself,
and make the most of your garden.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
We're going to talk about that next week.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I was thinking that too, all right, So Winecraft Black
at Tinys. It's available at your local garden center. If
you don't know where your local garden center is, visit
Proven Winners Color Choice dot Com. We've got a retailer
locator there, and if you want to know more about
Winecraft Black, you can find out more about it there
as well. So we're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're opening the mail bag, so
please stay tuned. At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, we
(22:01):
know that a better landscape starts with a better shrub.
Our team of experts tests and evaluates all of our
flowering shrubs and evergreens for eight to ten years to
ensure they outperform what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable,
beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style,
look for Proven Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container
(22:21):
at your local garden center, or learn more at Proven
Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings, gardening friends and Welcome
back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It is the time
of the show where we can help you with your
gardening questions, quandaries and conundrums, And if you have one,
you can reach us at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com.
(22:43):
But because we can only get to a certain number
of questions every week and we don't want to leave
you high and dry if you need immediate assistance, which
sometimes you do in the garden, you're out there going
what do I do well? First of all, win in doubt,
don't don't do anything you're not sure about doing right
to Proven Winners instead, will get a personalized response to
you before you make a decision that you could potentially regret.
(23:06):
So you can just reach us at Proven Winterscolor Choice
dot com, or you can also go to Proven Winners
dot com. There's a little purple bar there that says
questions feedback, We're listening, and there you can get questions
about your annuals, your houseplants or galladiums, whatever you have
kicking around in the garden. So a lot of times
people leave questions on our YouTube videos. And the first
(23:28):
we're gonna kick off mailbag today with two questions that
were from YouTube viewers. They were related to last week's
question about someone had daily leaf streak disease, and I
guess I mentioned the disease aster yellows. So someone asked
if we could speak more about aster yellows, and then
someone else asked about rose rosette disease, and I was like, Hey,
(23:52):
this is perfect. I can just go ahead and combine
these into one answer because both astor yellows and rose
rosette disease are caused by a phytoplasma. Wrong, they are not.
They used to. They used to think.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
That's what got driven into our Yeah, that's why I
consider it a Ghostbusters problem in the land.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yes, so they have sense discipts. So rose rosette disease.
Both of these diseases. The reason that they were thought
to be related is because when they are infected, they
result in some wacky growth like growth witches.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Broom dogs and cats living together exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
And so with ast yellows what happens you just see
it most often on like cone flowers or redbeccia, and
it basically creates these weird satellite flowers popping out of
the main flower. And with rose rosette. It causes a
number of different symptoms, but usually the growth becomes really
really thick. The thorns proliferate, so whereas you know normally
they would be kind of spaced apart on this down,
(24:52):
they get really really dense. The flowers form and these
weird little clusters, and so basically these were thought to
be the same thing. But rose rosette has had substantial
scientific resources devoted to its understanding, and they have since
discovered that it is a negative sense RNA virus and
(25:16):
not a phytoplasma.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Oh boy, so I got to reboot my whole brain.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You do. I am not going to get into what
a negative sense RNA virus is. I looked it up.
You can also look it up if you are fascinated
by these things. Yes, it went way way over my head, as.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Doctor Peter Wenkman would say, normally you don't see that
kind of behavior in a major appliance.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yes, but it's fascinating if you're into a virology. So,
a phytoplasma is a type of bacteria that is lacking
a cell wall. So you can, again, if you want
to go in off the deep end here, you can
look into the structure of a bacteria and why this matters.
But a phytoplasma is bacteria like, So instead of actually
(26:01):
being caused by a phytoplasma or this bacteria like thing,
rose rosette is actually caused by a virus. And astro
yellows is still of course caused by the phytoplasma, but
the results are the same and the transmission is similar,
and this is what's really important. Whereas aster yellows is
transmitted by a leaf hopper, which are kind of cute
(26:21):
little buggers that again hop there's a bunch of different
leaf hoppers out there, but they hop onto your plant,
they feed, they have the astra yellows phytoplasma in their
digestive system, they transmit it into your plant mutats like crazy.
Rose rosette is spread by an aerofied mite. So there's
(26:42):
a slightly different method of transition. They are different organisms
that actually cause the infection. The results overall are pretty similar,
and this is what's really important, because this is what people,
of course we're asking for on YouTube. What do you
do if your plant has these? So Number one, you
have to remove it. And I hate to be the
bearer of bad news, but you really do have to
(27:03):
remove these things. They do not recover. Pruning is not
going to make them go away. We talk a lot
about fungal diseases being on the plant and not in
the plant. Will a phytoplasma or a virus. Unfortunately, is
in the plant's vascular system. So even when it goes dormant,
all of that sap, all of that stuff is still
in the plant, so it never can recover. And if
(27:24):
you leave it, all you're doing is making more kind
of an epicenter of more disease to spread to other
plants in your yard, to your neighbors, throughout your community.
So it is really important if you have an infected plant,
you dig it out and you discard it, don't compost it,
just put it straight away in your trash, don't send
it to the city compost or anything like that. You
(27:46):
do want to discard these plants, and then of course
the biggest question after that, can I replace it with
more of the same plant. Now, whether it is the
virus or the phytoplasma do not persist in the soil
at all. They have to live within the digestive system
of the insect or within the vascular system of the plant,
(28:08):
and obviously that doesn't mean soil. However, of course, when
you remove a plant, a lot of times there's living
roots still remaining behind, and so they do recommend that
you plant something different for the following two to three
years until any of those roots die. Now I have
to say, I've thought about it. I think it is
(28:28):
extremely unlikely that by putting the new plant in, it's
going to somehow contact this last little remaining rootlet in
the soil and they're going to unite.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
But you know, however, the area, at least my theory
is the area may be prone to such a problem.
If the mites, for example, on wild multiflora roses, let's say,
then you may want to I think you're wise in
pointing that out, that that maybe you want a plant
to would gel instead of a rose for a period
(29:02):
of time. But I really do think it's to a degree,
at least for me, for my observation, rose rosette has
been a problem in certain areas. Now, I don't know
if that's just a fig leaf of my imagination or
what I mean. I have people who say to me, well,
if you have that problem in your region, don't use
leaf blowers. Around the roses because of the mic I don't.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Know, I mean the mites are going to find a
roses Anya, I agree. It does also tend to indicate
that there is something about that spot or that plant
that is just more appealing to the leaf hoppers or mites.
And if you're investing the time and money into a replacement,
of course you loved your rose, you loved your cone
flower or whatever it was, but it is best to
(29:45):
put something else. You might be able to replace it
again down the line once you know, maybe the bugs
have created a new pattern, but to be safe you
should plant something different. And just in conclusion here before
we move on, it is important to know rose rosett
only affects roses. It doesn't even impact other plants in
the rose family, which are numerous. Whereas astro yellows is
(30:07):
a very non discriminating phytoplasma. It infects a ton of
different plants, not just in the astor family, so potatoes, carrots, trees,
it can get a lot of different things. So if
you are dealing with astro yellows, it's a good idea
to look it up, verify what it is, and find
a plant that's not going to be affected to replace it.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Looked up this quote from Ghostbusters. Ray pretend for a
moment that I don't know anything about metallurgy, engineering or physics.
Just tell me what's going on. Well, we just did.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
We did in a big way. But you know, it's
good to know about these issues so that you can
recognize them if they do pop up in your garden
or a friend's garden, because it really it's going to
take gardeners like you to recognize these problems and hopefully
be able to put a stop to them.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Alison writes, Hello, I was so glad you mentioned the
black Eyed Susan vine on your Elevation episode. I plant
had proven the selection's rose color variety this summer, lots
of leaves and vining growth, but I've only had one
of the pots produce any flowers at all. It was
only one flower planting on my deck in the full sun.
What am I doing wrong? I did add proven Winn's
(31:14):
slow release fertilizer when I initially planted, but haven't fertilized
since because I had read that would encourage too much
leaf growth. Thanks for your information and thank you, Alison.
Appreciate it, and I still contend that you have to
put the plant under some stress. I'm gonna guess that
Alison is just too nice a person and this plant
(31:37):
is too pampered, and a little bit of stress, as
in drought stress would make a difference.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I mean, it is a healthy plant, it's not overly healthy.
It looks good. But I was reading about Thunbergia black
eyes using vine, and every source I said said that's
starting in midsummer it produces those flowers. So I'm not
sure where Alison was located offhand, but I would also say, potentially,
we're just getting to midsummer right now, so it is possible.
(32:07):
And I have seen this with other vining annuals as well,
ye cup and saucer vine. They simply don't start flowering
until well into the summer. So whereas all of your
other summer annuals are kicking it and looking amazing, you're like, hey,
what's going on, You're just foliage. But now that we
have kind of reached this period where we're getting really
(32:28):
really warm temperatures or having warm nights, that is the
kind of thing that triggers these plants to flower. So
I really think you aren't doing anything wrong, you know,
if you were to buy this in flower very often,
that's because the grower put it under those ideal conditions
to get that flowering, and they just haven't occurred naturally yet.
So Allison, I would say, continue to fertilize it as
(32:50):
you have been. I don't think you need to go
crazy just like every two weeks or so. And I
wouldn't be surprised now that we're getting some really summery
weather if you don't see those flowers start aring to
appear very very soon. And the good news is they
will last well into September, so you'll have a good
you know, ten weeks of flowering.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, I agree with you, and I'm not saying that
Allison is over watering it either. I'm just saying I
have learned that if I back off on the watering,
a little bit of drought stress sometimes. You know they
used to do that instead of using growth regularly, so
you know, it's just something to try.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
So yeah, don't worry if you forget watering it once
or twice, see what happens. I don't think you're going
to set it back, but I think it will start
earning its keep very soon. So thank you all for
your questions. We're going to take a little break and
when we come back with continuing our conversation about rejuvenations.
If please stay tuned, Thanks for listening to the Gardening
(33:45):
Simplified Podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.
Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and
tested by experts with your success in mind. Learn more
at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. Our episode this
week on rejuvenation, and I do want to mention we
are at a time of year, or quickly approaching a
time of year when rejuvenation of a lawn or a
turf area can be very effective. I personally believe, especially
(34:19):
if you're in the Midwest and North, as far as
your turf is concerned, the best time of the year
to take a look at rejuvenating turf is from August
to October. That means feeding, seating, whatever it may be.
That window of opportunity is ideal not necessarily spring, but
(34:40):
rather summer, so August to October, so put that on
your calendar if you want to rejuvenate your lawn, and
of course in many ways you can rejuvenate a lawn
also by taking a look at core air rating, and
you can rent a core a Raider. You don't have
to have somebody do it for you if you don't
want it. As a matter of fact, it's quite entertaining.
(35:00):
It's a lot of fun. And when I used to
have turf, I used to do it all the time,
but have no need to do that anymore in beach
sand with no turf. Another form of purging, or rather
rejuvenation would be purging. And I was rereading about this thing,
(35:21):
this Japanese method of decluttering, where you hold something in
your hand and then you ask yourself, do I really
need this? And since I've started doing that, I've gotten
rid of a whole bunch of stuff. All my wind
chimes is bay, some of my lawn chairs, you know, decluttering,
But garden management can almost be like purging stuff out
(35:44):
of your landscape. I mean, because the point is, who
can't stop at a greenhouse or a garden center and
buy something?
Speaker 2 (35:53):
True? I can't, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I always walk out with something. And so at some
point you've got to rear range things and do a
little bit of a little bit of purging.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
You know, sometimes you just get tired of the seeing
the same old, same old things aren't moving around, and
you want to mix things up a little bit. And
that's rejuvenation too, saying, you know what, I'm just sick
and tired of ex plant and it's time it gets
replaced with something new and we spice things up a
little bit up in.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Here, you know, if you're tired of it and you
want to spice things up a little bit. As you said,
what about people rejuvenation? Okay, how about your personal rejuvenation.
When you get to summer and fall in the garden,
you can start to get a little bit of a
little bit of you know, weary. And yet it's a
(36:41):
known fact that gardening really really helps us as people rejuvenate.
Centenarians across the world. I've been reading about where was
it in Okinawa, Japan, the area of the world with
the highest ratio of centenary and they tend to garden
(37:02):
until very late in life. Gardening tends to give them
a key guys, the correct pronunciation their reason for living.
They benefit from a high level of social connectedness and gardening.
So invite someone over to your garden and have a
beverage and sit and talk for Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
You know, it's a good way to kind of get
a new perspective on your garden when you feel a
little fed up with it, to have someone over and
they're like wow, and you're like really, I mean I'm not.
So it's mid July here, mid to late July. I'm
not super crabby about gardening. I'm still loving it, but
I will say I am quickly getting very, very sick
(37:43):
of watering. And we are officially, we are officially in
a moderate drought here in West Michigan. They just announced
that this week. It feels a little more than moderate.
I don't think we've had any appreciable rain to speak
of out here for some time, so I'm not losing
it just yet. But you know, as you can attest,
(38:06):
moving the hose around gets real tiring, and I shudder
to think about my water bill.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I'm just saying, I just wet my plants. Yes, I'm
sick of the hoses too. So think about people rejuvenation,
and I remind myself of that often that the exercise
we get from our gardening. And make sure of course
that you're hydrating properly, you're watering the plants but make
sure you yourself also are hydrating properly. But there's just
(38:34):
so much benefit to gardening and your own personal rejuvenation.
There's another analogy on my mind that as long as
we're waxing poetic or philosophically here for a moment, and
that is ever since I entered rewirement, I call it.
(38:54):
I think of the sports analogy. Now. In sports, when
an athlete makes it to the pro level, many times
they're shocked at how fast the game is, and they
struggle and maybe make some bad decisions, let's say football
or whatever it may be, and so everything just moves
so fast. Here's my point as it relates to gardening.
(39:18):
I observe that in the greenhouse and the garden center
in spring there is a rush to buy everything, plant everything,
get everything done, and then go on vacation. But the
reality is that gardening is a year round activity and
when you garden with purpose like that, everything starts to
(39:40):
slow down a little bit. When you recognize, as it
relates to rejuvenation, how important the fall season is, you
will enjoy your garden more and your plants will benefit
from it. I mention the turf and how fall is
the perfect time to rejuvenate turf. But the same thing
(40:01):
with your soil. Maybe you're planting some cover crops or
moving some plants, feeding some plants. I still contend that
I've had a lot of success in fall, when the
leaves are dropping off the plants, that's when I feed,
and the soil remains warm, the plant is able to
uptake that the nutrients. It's a form of rejuvenation. So
(40:24):
I guess you know. My point is, sometimes I become
frustrated when I see that that wild rush in spring
and carts loaded with plants. Well, that's wonderful, and it's
great for the garden center industry, but what about summer
and what about fall and early winter? You can get
you can get the game to slow down a little
(40:47):
bit for you, and then you're probably gonna see things
better and have better perspective in your landscape. How's that
for philosophical, that's philosophical.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
I feel like if you have a vegetable garden, you
don't really slow down. I mean, I'm just saying, especially
this year, it's going great. I love it. But yeah,
vegetable gardens don't give you a chance to slow down.
But it's true you have to really be And I mean,
are you garden You get annuals because you love the seasonality,
because you love to you know, change things up and
(41:17):
have plants that you can't have in spring, winter and fall.
So do you need to just slow down and take
it all in? And that's why if you ever come
to my garden, you're gonna see a lot of weeds,
because sometimes that's just not how I want to spend
my time in the garden. And they really don't bother
me enough. I mean, you know, uh, yellow nutsedge as
an exception, because I always pull that and crabgrass as
soon as I see them. But I have a slight
(41:40):
problem with oxalis right now. It's kind of firmly in control,
but also it's kind of pretty, so I'm just kind
of letting it do its thing in certain spots in
the garden.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Well. Along that line of weeds though again, and this
concept of having the game slow down on you weed
control in fall is key in my mind, and I
don't do a lot of weeding in spring. I looked
for those weeds in fall when they're in a rosette
stage and dealing with it in fall. So that's a
(42:13):
form of rejuvenation. Here's another form of rejuvenation at this
time of the year. You mentioned the watering, Just a deep,
slow trickle with the hose setting it at the base,
provided you don't forget about the hose.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Right, set a time on your phone. That's what I do,
make sure I don't forget.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
And we had one of our listeners I think, mentioned
to us that along the lines of irrigation, that when
you hand water you develop a more meaningful relationship with
your plants.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Well, you know, they say the best fertilizer is the
gardener's shadow.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
There you go, an understanding of plants. That's good. Here's
another rejuvenation plant in the landscape. You mentioned the vegetable garden,
but what about herbs. I view herbs as one of
the key rejuvenation plants in the landscape. It's almost like
the old cut and come again zenias that we used
(43:07):
to cut and then a few weeks later you come
back and they're loaded with flowers. But take as an
example chives. I'm amazed at the resilience of chibes and
how they can reach a point where they're gorgeous and
then they're so ugly and then you chop them back
and suddenly they're beautiful.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Yeah, it is really incredible, and I don't think enough
people know that they love chives and they're blooming and
they love to harvest them and use them, but then
they're kind of like, oh, chive season is over, and
it doesn't have to be. If you cut it back
right after it flowers, it will regrow. Now, I do
have to tell you, as someone who does very little
supplemental watering, especially in the herb garden, it's not going
(43:46):
to come back unless you're watering it well or you're
lucky enough to have some rainfall, which we don't have
anymore in West Michigan. And I'm only slightly bitter about it.
I'm really trying to keep it together here. But yeah,
it does need a lot of water to help to
regrow from that. But yet if you do that, you
will get a whole new fresh crop of chives and
they will continue to produce for you all through summer
(44:07):
and fall, so you don't you never have to be
without them, and that's a pretty great thing.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Yeah, Oregano is that way also, though I let my
oregano just go into flower and when they bloom, they're beautiful.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
They're beautiful, and they attract so many pollinators. And if
you're a regno is anything like mine, it also self sews.
And I would rather have a regno as a weed
than say, yellow nuts edge, So I let it do
its thing.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
You know, briefly at the end. Here also that you know,
I have some rejuvenation plants that I love in spring
when winter is over, because it's no secret I don't
like winter. I like hot weather, so hellebores and pansies
and magnolia and redbud and amsonia, and you know when
they start to pop up. But when I think rejuvenation too,
(44:50):
A couple plants that I think of our perennial hibiscus.
Isn't it amazing how they just, you know, they're down
to nothing and then huge And.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
I love seeing that. Yeah, it's just it's so wild
to see how they're so late to emerge, you know,
find the Memorial Day weekend you're like, oh, you're growing,
and then by fourth of July you're like, oh, you're huge.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
And you're beautiful, and you're beautiful exactly, or when winter
has done, how gnarly and awful the bud Leah's look.
But then you prune them back and within short order. Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah. Same with my vegetable garden. I planted it and
I was like, oh, it's so little and small, and
now it's you know, everybody's muscling each other out for space.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Rejuvenation's a fun topic, and I hope that you're feeling
some rejuvenation this summer as we head into the important
fall gardening month. Thank you Stacey, thank you Rick, thank
you Adriana, and thank you for watching us on YouTube,
listening to the radio version of the show, or our podcast.
Have yourself a great week.
Coming to you from Studio a Here at Proven Winners
Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show
with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and
producer Adrianna Robinson. Today part two of our four part
series Rejuvenation the action or process of giving energy or
vigor to something. True. Rejuvenation is not merely an occasional event.
(00:27):
It's a practice. It can become a habit, a good habit.
And of course the idea of rejuvenation has inspired countless poets,
philosophers and storytellers. I mean, think about the Fountain of youth.
I'm still looking for.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It right well, Constant Leon did not find it either, so.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
But it symbolizes our hope and belief that change is
always possible, no matter the circumstances. And when we talk
about plants and rejuvenation, a plant that I like to
think about, Stacey are perennials. I think rejuvenation is what
makes perennials so popular. This past spring at the Greenhouse,
(01:10):
I made it a point to ask a bunch of
customers what is it that you like best about perennials?
And many people said to me, well, because they come
back year after year. And then I said, what do
you like least about perennials, and they said, well, sometimes
they don't come back here after year.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I would have thought they'd said cutting back.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
But you know, yes, yes, exactly. So splitting perennials, bend
over and split your plants. It's loads of fun. It'll
entertain your neighbors, your plants will benefit. Pruning shrubs, of course,
is a huge issue as it relates to rejuvenation trees
in many ways, and sometimes we don't pay attention to
(01:52):
the trees the way we should, and that's why arbarus
are around. House plant rejuvenation, trickle irrigation, soil rejuvenation, huge
cutting back, ground covers feeding. So I don't know, I
knew you had a zinya. Rejuvenation the topic today and
(02:13):
stacey rejuvenation pruning, heavy pruning. We've got to look at
things like flowering shrubs where rejuvenation type pruning is key.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
It is, and it's one of the really unique features
that shrubs have. One of the really unique abilities that
they have, which is to say that you can have
a horrible overgrown shrub in front of your house and
think how in the world. Am I ever going to
get this out. I'm gonna have to hire a professionals
that's going to cost me thousands of bucks. And in fact,
you don't necessarily have to remove it. You can get
(02:43):
the chainsaw out, cut it back to stumps and give
it a literal new lease on life and basically take
it right back to day one and it will regrow
from the ground.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And I'm glad you mentioned stumps because in my mind
there let's test this a moment. I think there's a
differentference between renewal pruning and rejuvenation pruning. So renewal pruning,
maybe let's look at bud lea and cutting a portion
of the plant back to renew it from year to year,
whereas you mentioned stump or stumping taking it to the
(03:17):
point where we actually do a full rejuvenation. Lilacs are
a good example or rhododendrons. As a matter of fact,
for a YouTube viewers, I have a couple pictures. My
neighbor had a huge rhododendron, decided that he was going
to stump it do major rejuvenation, and of course that's
(03:38):
always a shock to the system with something like a rhododendron,
but we have pictures to share with you, and it's
amazing how the plant will overtime, whether it's a lilac
or a rhododendron recover.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, I mean a rhododendron would not be high on
my list of shrubs that I would necessarily rejuvenation prune.
On the other hand, if it were a situation or
it's between deciding is it going to come out because
it's overgrown and causing problems or should we just give
it a try to cut it back and see what happens,
then I would certainly try it. But yeah, lilacs are
a great example why. Jila are another one that definitely
(04:12):
benefits from rejuvenation pruning. Almost any multi stemmed flowering shrub
that can be rejuvenated, and it's a pretty amazing process.
People do it with privet a lot, especially out on
the East Coast where there's you know, big privet hedges.
They get kind of old and woody, and a lot
of times what happens with shrubs they've been growing, they
(04:34):
put on really really thick, you know, old growth, and
then that's just not as productive for that nice leafy
growth that people want, say from a privet I can
tell you when I did live out on the East Coast,
my friend and I used to spend a lot of
marches doing a lot of privet rejuvenation jobs. I actually
bought my sewing machine by doing a privet rejuvenation job
(04:56):
on the Jersey shore.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So well, and you're so right about and you mentioned
a key thing, multi stems, shrubs, and you're so right
about that. So dogwoods hydranges for Scythia's spyrea.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Clear, we're not talking about dogwood trees. Please do not
try this on your dog with trees. We're talking about
the shrubby dog with the red twig dog. Would just
want to make sure no one gets any crazy ideas
out there, because we'd be hearing about it.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Very true, very true. So Arctic fire, yes, exactly, exactly.
So multiple stems from the base, they're well suited to
rejuvenation pruning. But there are lots of examples. And of course,
some plants I have found, like potentilla or Spyreea, not
only do well with the rejuvenation pruning, it almost seems
(05:44):
as though they like it.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
They do, And that's a really good point. I'm glad
you brought it up because very often. You know, I've
kind of made the point that rejuvenation is something you
typically do for very large shrubs that start to overgrow
their space, but it actually works just as well for
very small shrubs like spyreea where yeah, they just you know, again,
as there wood gets older and older, it generally becomes
(06:07):
less productive. And so when you cut that back and
you just leave a couple inches of stem for the
new growth to come out on, it puts out all
that fresh new growth. You might not get a great
year of flowering that first year, but going into the
second year and beyond, you will not believe the difference
that it can make. It really is like giving yourself
a whole new plant.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, another good point because in renewal pruning, maybe you
look for the older wood and cut that all the
way back, and so it's variable, whereas with rejuvenation you
would cut the whole plant back. Let me give you
a limb a rick. It's based on a fictitious gardener
(06:48):
that I have just playing in my mind.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Is his name idiolated? No, he's old Ned, Old Ned, Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Old Ned. There once was a gardener named Ned who's
rubberhead overspread. He began to chop the branches that flop
gave a new look to the homestead. Rejuvenation is good
for you, change a new point of view, thought Ned.
When he looked in the mirror, he reached for his
personal share. Now Ned has a new hair dude.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Yes, it is a bit like hair. You know, sometimes
a new haircut can rejuvenate your entire vibe.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
It doesn't necessarily cause it to branch out if you
cut it back, but yeah, gives you a new feel
and a new vibe. If we're talking about rejuvenation. And
we'll carry this on into segment four. Also because there
are issues like purging in your landscape or soil rejuvenation.
So important soil texture and organic matter content key properties
(07:51):
that influence the soil's ability to hold water or nutrients.
And it never ceases to amaze me, Stacy now Lance
escaping in sand, the inability of that soil to hold
water and nutrients. It's amazing, it really is.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
So I I'm glad you brought this up because I
have a good friend who is also a gardener, and
she gardens in the country and ever since they set up,
they're a big vegetable garden. They have been getting loads
of horse manure delivered via a local horse owner, and
so he just comes to their property anytime dumps off
his truck. So they have been building their soil with
composted manure for years. And she has vegetables beautiful and
(08:33):
finished and harvested like where mine are just like seedlings,
like little tiny seedlings. And the difference between that fertility
that they have built up, that richness, that moisture retention,
it's night and day. It really is shocking to me.
And you know, I amend my soil, but I don't
have the ability to just have some horse owner, you know,
dump off this manure in the middle of the city
(08:54):
anytime I want.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
So I've done it with leaves, you know, grinding leaves
and that sort of thing and fall. But one thing
that I'm looking at we can talk about in a
segment four cover crops, and I'm looking at the dikon radish,
oh yeah, and trying that in the sandy soil. Yeah,
So I'm going to give that a try because I
have landscaped and everything from blue clay to beach sand
(09:17):
and everything in between. Ben successful doing it, But there
is an act of rejuvenating the soil, and it's very important.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Well, but which would you pick if you had to
choose between your blue clay soil and your sandy beachy soil,
what are you picking?
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Hands down?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Easy sand, Amen, I love my sandy soil. You know
you don't get so dirty. You know, remember that horrible
feeling of sticking your shovel in the clay and then
the clay doesn't come off and your shovel weighs a
million pounds.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Oof, sucks the boots right off your face the worst.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So yeah, I do it for all. It does have
some liabilities, but I do love my sand.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I've lost landscaping equipment in clay just sucked into the earth.
It's crazy. Of course, there's rejuvenation of houseplants also, and
one of my key tips on houseplants if you're going
to rejuvenate them is do it at a time of
year when you can move them outside to do it,
and pull the plant out of the pot and stick
your face right in the dirt and take a smell.
(10:15):
That smell will tell you a lot about how healthy
your plant is and how you're doing with your houseplants.
We'll continue on in segment four, but let's see how
Stacey ties this in with plants on trial. That's next
here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Beautify your home and community with proven Winn's Color Choice
Shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties
to choose from. There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for every
taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive white
container your local garden center or learn more at proven
Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome
(10:58):
back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where the time. The
topic of today is rejuvenation and as I said, the
ability to rejuvenate themselves from tiny little stumps is actually
a very special feature that flowering shrubs, multi stem flowering
shrubs have now, as we alluded to with the rhododendron,
not all you know, multi stem shrubs respond to rejuvenation
(11:19):
equally well. So if you're thinking about this, and you're
thinking about it for a shrub that we have not
specifically mentioned as being suitable for rejuvenation pruning, of course,
there's many more, we can't list them all. Do a
quick search and just make sure that you're not setting
yourself up for disaster because there are some exceptions, certainly
rhododendrons just more sensitive, slower growing. Of course, if you
(11:39):
view a rejuvenation pruning on say a taxis, you will
be waiting for that rejuvenation for a very very long time.
So you need to know what you are getting into.
And you know, usually in what we've talked about so
far with rejuvenation is rejuvenation done to kind of give
your plant a new start. There are also ways that
(12:01):
you can kind of take this concept of rejuvenation pruning
and use it yearly, purely for esthetic purposes. And that
is what today's Plant on Trial is all about. So
I have to ask you, rick, are there any smoke
bush in your neighborhood?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
You know what, there are not.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
There aren't no, but you've seen them smoking because they
are smoking right now. They are. I mean, this is
the time of the year to be a smoke bush,
or to see a smoke bush really, because they are
at their absolute best. Also known botanically as catinas, this
is a plant that people absolutely love. You know, it
may not necessarily look like a whole whole lot in
(12:39):
the garden center, but when people see a smoke bush
in a neighbor's house or anything like that. They're like,
what is that? I need to have it? And I
will absolutely agree. A beautiful specimen of a smoke bush,
it's hard to beat. Yeah, there's one in Grand Haven
that I can think of where they actually chose the
pink based on the color of their smoke bush and
(13:04):
pruned it as a small tree and it's just full
of smoke right now and it's absolutely gorgeous. So people
tend to think of smoke bush more as flowering shrubs
or trees. They are a large shrub that can be
prune as a large tree, so it'll be sort of
a small tree, prune so that it has a trunk
rather than all of those multiple stems, and so people
(13:26):
tend to think of it they it flowers. Actually, the
flowers are not super showy. It's the seed pods that
developed after the flowering that are the smoke. But the
smoke gets so much attention that people often forget that
Catinas or smoke bush are excellent foliage plants.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
They're dramatic. They are just absolutely dramatic. It makes me
think of how when I was a kid in the sixties,
we would eat candy cigarettes you know, by nineteen sixty five,
I had a two pack a day habit. It isn't good.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
I'm a little younger than you, but I can still
remember trick or Tree getting candy cigarettes, which sounds absolutely
absurd right now, but it did happen. That's okay. So
today's plant on trial is Winecraft black smoke bush, and
this is a perfect example. It has beautiful smoky seed
(14:18):
pods that are at their peak right now here in Michigan.
Of course, if you are one of our listeners in
a warmer climate, they might be on their way out.
If you're in a cooler climate, they might just be
getting going with their smoke. But the foliage on Winecraft
black catinas or smoke bush is absolutely beautiful. And that's
a great feature to have because outside of that, you
know bloom and smoke period sort of in early to midsummer.
(14:43):
It keeps the plant looking really great. But like I said,
people don't tend to think of smoke bush as foliage
plants because of course, the best feature with the seed
pods is right there in the name. But I wanted
to share the idea that smoke bush in whether Winecraft
black or any of the other smoke bushes that are
(15:03):
out there with fabulously colored foliage, they make a great
candidate for compassing. And compassing is basically doing rejuvenation pruning,
which is to say you're cutting it back to little stumps,
but you're doing it every year or perhaps every other year.
And what that does to a smoke bush. You are
(15:24):
not going to get the smoke, I will have to
say that first and foremost. But what you get is
foliage like you have never seen before. And this is
something that I saw quite frequently when I was a
rooftop gardener in New York City. Obviously, we're dealing with
smaller spaces than we are out here in Michigan, where
people tend to have much larger yards. But smoke bush
(15:45):
is a big plant. And if you want this unique
color and the thing about smoke bush foliage, you really
have to see it to believe it. So if you
take a walk and there's a smoke bush in your neighborhood,
don't just go. Don't just be dazzled by the smoke.
Take a closer look at the foliage. It's kind of
I don't know if it's like waxy or satiny. It
just has this really really unique texture and gene. It
(16:05):
beads water, which I think is always really lovely, and
it's really not like anything else. If you touch it,
it's kind of you can feel that it's different. And
so when you take a smoke bush and you compose
it or do this rejuvenation pruning regularly rather than just
to renew the plant, you get the most fabulous foliage
plant you can imagine. And this works great on rooftops
(16:26):
because it kept it really small. Winecraft black smoke bush
today's plant on trial it gets to be eight to
ten feet tall and six to eight feet wide, so
that's a pretty large shrub. Of course, it can be
pruned and very often has to be prune because smoke
bush naturally has this kind of wild and crazy growth habit.
It's just a characteristic of the plant. But by cutting
(16:48):
it back, instead of having that wild and crazy plant,
you just get this rounded kind of pillory column of
just absolutely beautiful foliage. This makes the foliage bigger than
it would normally be if it was allowed to reach
its full size. The color is more intense, and it's
just a really really unique way to treat the plant.
(17:11):
And I would say if you already have a smoke
bush and you're not happy with how it's going, or
you just want to try something new, it might be
worth trying because it really does give it a totally
different role in the garden, especially.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
If it's getting rangy or leggy.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Which they see that. Yeah, they do get that way.
They are definitely a very unique plant. So if you
want to rejuvenation prove or not coppae and compassing basically
just means you're cutting back to stems to get a
lot of new growth. And initially compassing started out in
England as a way to grow steaks or firewood, and
so they would cut it very low and then these
(17:44):
straight stems would come out and that'd be very easy
to grow steaks. A very close component to this is pollarding,
which is instead of cutting it down to little stumps,
you cut it at some higher height. Same kind of
thing crape murder. The pruning of myrtles is actually a
type of pollarting, so you cut it back and that
growth comes all out at the same height. So you
(18:05):
can do that as well if you have a specific
height that you want the plant to reach. So what
you want to do if you're starting new You don't
want to copass your plant right away. You want to
give it a good three years in the ground to
develop a good root system, because a good root system
is crucial to this concept of rejuvenation pruning. Without that
engine below ground to fuel that recovery. From cutting back
(18:29):
so severely, you're not going to get a vigorous recovery.
So you don't want to just start off right away,
even if you generally intend to grow this as primarily
a foliage plant. So let it go for three years.
By that fourth year, then in spring you're just going
to cut it back to stumps and you might be
going like, I don't know, but it will work that again,
that root system is fueling the growth that comes out
(18:51):
of it and all of this really beautiful, colorful new growth.
It's really hard to explain, I think without seeing it,
just how dramatic the impact of doing this really is.
So you would do it in late winter early spring.
You don't really want to wait until the growth starts
to come out and it will just recover, and then
you just go and do the same thing sprague after spring,
after spring, and again. It keeps it in check, It
(19:15):
keeps the plant small, and manageable, especially if you have
a small space and you love this color. It's a
great approach to managing it. And it's, just like I said,
a very different way to do it. Now, if yours
is pruned as a small tree with a single trunk,
I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. It will still come back, but
you'd really be missing out on all those years of
(19:35):
having you know, trained it as a tree, because it
does take some consistent effort to be able to continue
growing catinas as a tree. But the shrub types this
will work great on. Now. Did you know that smoke
bush is a member of the anacardier c family, which
contains mangoes, Cashew's pistachios, and poison ivy.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
What a group I know.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Oh, it's a rose gallery kind of. It's pretty wild
to think, so don't worry, You're not going to get
poison ivy.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
A mad family.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
The sumac family, yes, so also our beautiful saghorn sumac I.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Know, hangs around with some pretty rough characters.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
It's it is pretty wild to think that this hardy
planet is hardy down to USDA Zone four. Heat tolerant
through USDA Zone eight is related to all of these
super tropical plants. But again I have never heard of
anybody having like a contact dermatitis issue with catinas, so
you don't have to worry about going out there and
working on it. It does have kind of a resinous smell,
which I actually quite like. I don't know if you've
(20:34):
ever smelled it before, Yes, I have.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
But the benefit of course Bambi isn't going to chew on.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
It, that's true. It is very very deer resistant and
rabbit resistant, so it's a great plant to have around.
And of course then you can tell all your friends
that hey, this is our you know, hardy relative of
cashews and mangoes. Winecraft black is a full sun plants.
That's today's plan on trial. Winecraft black. It has dark,
purply black. Fully that means it is going to need
(21:01):
full sun. If you don't have full sun, don't despare
the golden version. Winecraft gold can actually take part shade,
so that lack of chlorophyll really helps it to take
part shaded. So there's a lot of different ways. I
think this is what gardening is really all about, that
you can take these tools, these techniques, this knowledge and
mix it up and try new things in your yard
(21:23):
and really find a way to amaze your friends, amaze yourself,
and make the most of your garden.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
We're going to talk about that next week.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I was thinking that too, all right, So Winecraft Black
at Tinys. It's available at your local garden center. If
you don't know where your local garden center is, visit
Proven Winners Color Choice dot Com. We've got a retailer
locator there, and if you want to know more about
Winecraft Black, you can find out more about it there
as well. So we're going to take a little break.
When we come back, we're opening the mail bag, so
please stay tuned. At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs, we
(22:01):
know that a better landscape starts with a better shrub.
Our team of experts tests and evaluates all of our
flowering shrubs and evergreens for eight to ten years to
ensure they outperform what's already on the market. For easycare, reliable,
beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style,
look for Proven Winner's Shrubs in the distinctive white container
(22:21):
at your local garden center, or learn more at Proven
Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings, gardening friends and Welcome
back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It is the time
of the show where we can help you with your
gardening questions, quandaries and conundrums, And if you have one,
you can reach us at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com.
(22:43):
But because we can only get to a certain number
of questions every week and we don't want to leave
you high and dry if you need immediate assistance, which
sometimes you do in the garden, you're out there going
what do I do well? First of all, win in doubt,
don't don't do anything you're not sure about doing right
to Proven Winners instead, will get a personalized response to
you before you make a decision that you could potentially regret.
(23:06):
So you can just reach us at Proven Winterscolor Choice
dot com, or you can also go to Proven Winners
dot com. There's a little purple bar there that says
questions feedback, We're listening, and there you can get questions
about your annuals, your houseplants or galladiums, whatever you have
kicking around in the garden. So a lot of times
people leave questions on our YouTube videos. And the first
(23:28):
we're gonna kick off mailbag today with two questions that
were from YouTube viewers. They were related to last week's
question about someone had daily leaf streak disease, and I
guess I mentioned the disease aster yellows. So someone asked
if we could speak more about aster yellows, and then
someone else asked about rose rosette disease, and I was like, Hey,
(23:52):
this is perfect. I can just go ahead and combine
these into one answer because both astor yellows and rose
rosette disease are caused by a phytoplasma. Wrong, they are not.
They used to. They used to think.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
That's what got driven into our Yeah, that's why I
consider it a Ghostbusters problem in the land.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Yes, so they have sense discipts. So rose rosette disease.
Both of these diseases. The reason that they were thought
to be related is because when they are infected, they
result in some wacky growth like growth witches.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Broom dogs and cats living together exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
And so with ast yellows what happens you just see
it most often on like cone flowers or redbeccia, and
it basically creates these weird satellite flowers popping out of
the main flower. And with rose rosette. It causes a
number of different symptoms, but usually the growth becomes really
really thick. The thorns proliferate, so whereas you know normally
they would be kind of spaced apart on this down,
(24:52):
they get really really dense. The flowers form and these
weird little clusters, and so basically these were thought to
be the same thing. But rose rosette has had substantial
scientific resources devoted to its understanding, and they have since
discovered that it is a negative sense RNA virus and
(25:16):
not a phytoplasma.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Oh boy, so I got to reboot my whole brain.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You do. I am not going to get into what
a negative sense RNA virus is. I looked it up.
You can also look it up if you are fascinated
by these things. Yes, it went way way over my head, as.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Doctor Peter Wenkman would say, normally you don't see that
kind of behavior in a major appliance.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yes, but it's fascinating if you're into a virology. So,
a phytoplasma is a type of bacteria that is lacking
a cell wall. So you can, again, if you want
to go in off the deep end here, you can
look into the structure of a bacteria and why this matters.
But a phytoplasma is bacteria like, So instead of actually
(26:01):
being caused by a phytoplasma or this bacteria like thing,
rose rosette is actually caused by a virus. And astro
yellows is still of course caused by the phytoplasma, but
the results are the same and the transmission is similar,
and this is what's really important. Whereas aster yellows is
transmitted by a leaf hopper, which are kind of cute
(26:21):
little buggers that again hop there's a bunch of different
leaf hoppers out there, but they hop onto your plant,
they feed, they have the astra yellows phytoplasma in their
digestive system, they transmit it into your plant mutats like crazy.
Rose rosette is spread by an aerofied mite. So there's
(26:42):
a slightly different method of transition. They are different organisms
that actually cause the infection. The results overall are pretty similar,
and this is what's really important, because this is what people,
of course we're asking for on YouTube. What do you
do if your plant has these? So Number one, you
have to remove it. And I hate to be the
bearer of bad news, but you really do have to
(27:03):
remove these things. They do not recover. Pruning is not
going to make them go away. We talk a lot
about fungal diseases being on the plant and not in
the plant. Will a phytoplasma or a virus. Unfortunately, is
in the plant's vascular system. So even when it goes dormant,
all of that sap, all of that stuff is still
in the plant, so it never can recover. And if
(27:24):
you leave it, all you're doing is making more kind
of an epicenter of more disease to spread to other
plants in your yard, to your neighbors, throughout your community.
So it is really important if you have an infected plant,
you dig it out and you discard it, don't compost it,
just put it straight away in your trash, don't send
it to the city compost or anything like that. You
(27:46):
do want to discard these plants, and then of course
the biggest question after that, can I replace it with
more of the same plant. Now, whether it is the
virus or the phytoplasma do not persist in the soil
at all. They have to live within the digestive system
of the insect or within the vascular system of the plant,
(28:08):
and obviously that doesn't mean soil. However, of course, when
you remove a plant, a lot of times there's living
roots still remaining behind, and so they do recommend that
you plant something different for the following two to three
years until any of those roots die. Now I have
to say, I've thought about it. I think it is
(28:28):
extremely unlikely that by putting the new plant in, it's
going to somehow contact this last little remaining rootlet in
the soil and they're going to unite.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
But you know, however, the area, at least my theory
is the area may be prone to such a problem.
If the mites, for example, on wild multiflora roses, let's say,
then you may want to I think you're wise in
pointing that out, that that maybe you want a plant
to would gel instead of a rose for a period
(29:02):
of time. But I really do think it's to a degree,
at least for me, for my observation, rose rosette has
been a problem in certain areas. Now, I don't know
if that's just a fig leaf of my imagination or
what I mean. I have people who say to me, well,
if you have that problem in your region, don't use
leaf blowers. Around the roses because of the mic I don't.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Know, I mean the mites are going to find a
roses Anya, I agree. It does also tend to indicate
that there is something about that spot or that plant
that is just more appealing to the leaf hoppers or mites.
And if you're investing the time and money into a replacement,
of course you loved your rose, you loved your cone
flower or whatever it was, but it is best to
(29:45):
put something else. You might be able to replace it
again down the line once you know, maybe the bugs
have created a new pattern, but to be safe you
should plant something different. And just in conclusion here before
we move on, it is important to know rose rosett
only affects roses. It doesn't even impact other plants in
the rose family, which are numerous. Whereas astro yellows is
(30:07):
a very non discriminating phytoplasma. It infects a ton of
different plants, not just in the astor family, so potatoes, carrots, trees,
it can get a lot of different things. So if
you are dealing with astro yellows, it's a good idea
to look it up, verify what it is, and find
a plant that's not going to be affected to replace it.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Looked up this quote from Ghostbusters. Ray pretend for a
moment that I don't know anything about metallurgy, engineering or physics.
Just tell me what's going on. Well, we just did.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
We did in a big way. But you know, it's
good to know about these issues so that you can
recognize them if they do pop up in your garden
or a friend's garden, because it really it's going to
take gardeners like you to recognize these problems and hopefully
be able to put a stop to them.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Alison writes, Hello, I was so glad you mentioned the
black Eyed Susan vine on your Elevation episode. I plant
had proven the selection's rose color variety this summer, lots
of leaves and vining growth, but I've only had one
of the pots produce any flowers at all. It was
only one flower planting on my deck in the full sun.
What am I doing wrong? I did add proven Winn's
(31:14):
slow release fertilizer when I initially planted, but haven't fertilized
since because I had read that would encourage too much
leaf growth. Thanks for your information and thank you, Alison.
Appreciate it, and I still contend that you have to
put the plant under some stress. I'm gonna guess that
Alison is just too nice a person and this plant
(31:37):
is too pampered, and a little bit of stress, as
in drought stress would make a difference.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I mean, it is a healthy plant, it's not overly healthy.
It looks good. But I was reading about Thunbergia black
eyes using vine, and every source I said said that's
starting in midsummer it produces those flowers. So I'm not
sure where Alison was located offhand, but I would also say, potentially,
we're just getting to midsummer right now, so it is possible.
(32:07):
And I have seen this with other vining annuals as well,
ye cup and saucer vine. They simply don't start flowering
until well into the summer. So whereas all of your
other summer annuals are kicking it and looking amazing, you're like, hey,
what's going on, You're just foliage. But now that we
have kind of reached this period where we're getting really
(32:28):
really warm temperatures or having warm nights, that is the
kind of thing that triggers these plants to flower. So
I really think you aren't doing anything wrong, you know,
if you were to buy this in flower very often,
that's because the grower put it under those ideal conditions
to get that flowering, and they just haven't occurred naturally yet.
So Allison, I would say, continue to fertilize it as
(32:50):
you have been. I don't think you need to go
crazy just like every two weeks or so. And I
wouldn't be surprised now that we're getting some really summery
weather if you don't see those flowers start aring to
appear very very soon. And the good news is they
will last well into September, so you'll have a good
you know, ten weeks of flowering.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, I agree with you, and I'm not saying that
Allison is over watering it either. I'm just saying I
have learned that if I back off on the watering,
a little bit of drought stress sometimes. You know they
used to do that instead of using growth regularly, so
you know, it's just something to try.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
So yeah, don't worry if you forget watering it once
or twice, see what happens. I don't think you're going
to set it back, but I think it will start
earning its keep very soon. So thank you all for
your questions. We're going to take a little break and
when we come back with continuing our conversation about rejuvenations.
If please stay tuned, Thanks for listening to the Gardening
(33:45):
Simplified Podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.
Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and
tested by experts with your success in mind. Learn more
at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. Our episode this
week on rejuvenation, and I do want to mention we
are at a time of year, or quickly approaching a
time of year when rejuvenation of a lawn or a
turf area can be very effective. I personally believe, especially
(34:19):
if you're in the Midwest and North, as far as
your turf is concerned, the best time of the year
to take a look at rejuvenating turf is from August
to October. That means feeding, seating, whatever it may be.
That window of opportunity is ideal not necessarily spring, but
(34:40):
rather summer, so August to October, so put that on
your calendar if you want to rejuvenate your lawn, and
of course in many ways you can rejuvenate a lawn
also by taking a look at core air rating, and
you can rent a core a Raider. You don't have
to have somebody do it for you if you don't
want it. As a matter of fact, it's quite entertaining.
(35:00):
It's a lot of fun. And when I used to
have turf, I used to do it all the time,
but have no need to do that anymore in beach
sand with no turf. Another form of purging, or rather
rejuvenation would be purging. And I was rereading about this thing,
(35:21):
this Japanese method of decluttering, where you hold something in
your hand and then you ask yourself, do I really
need this? And since I've started doing that, I've gotten
rid of a whole bunch of stuff. All my wind
chimes is bay, some of my lawn chairs, you know, decluttering,
But garden management can almost be like purging stuff out
(35:44):
of your landscape. I mean, because the point is, who
can't stop at a greenhouse or a garden center and
buy something?
Speaker 2 (35:53):
True? I can't, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I always walk out with something. And so at some
point you've got to rear range things and do a
little bit of a little bit of purging.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
You know, sometimes you just get tired of the seeing
the same old, same old things aren't moving around, and
you want to mix things up a little bit. And
that's rejuvenation too, saying, you know what, I'm just sick
and tired of ex plant and it's time it gets
replaced with something new and we spice things up a
little bit up in.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Here, you know, if you're tired of it and you
want to spice things up a little bit. As you said,
what about people rejuvenation? Okay, how about your personal rejuvenation.
When you get to summer and fall in the garden,
you can start to get a little bit of a
little bit of you know, weary. And yet it's a
(36:41):
known fact that gardening really really helps us as people rejuvenate.
Centenarians across the world. I've been reading about where was
it in Okinawa, Japan, the area of the world with
the highest ratio of centenary and they tend to garden
(37:02):
until very late in life. Gardening tends to give them
a key guys, the correct pronunciation their reason for living.
They benefit from a high level of social connectedness and gardening.
So invite someone over to your garden and have a
beverage and sit and talk for Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
You know, it's a good way to kind of get
a new perspective on your garden when you feel a
little fed up with it, to have someone over and
they're like wow, and you're like really, I mean I'm not.
So it's mid July here, mid to late July. I'm
not super crabby about gardening. I'm still loving it, but
I will say I am quickly getting very, very sick
(37:43):
of watering. And we are officially, we are officially in
a moderate drought here in West Michigan. They just announced
that this week. It feels a little more than moderate.
I don't think we've had any appreciable rain to speak
of out here for some time, so I'm not losing
it just yet. But you know, as you can attest,
(38:06):
moving the hose around gets real tiring, and I shudder
to think about my water bill.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I'm just saying, I just wet my plants. Yes, I'm
sick of the hoses too. So think about people rejuvenation,
and I remind myself of that often that the exercise
we get from our gardening. And make sure of course
that you're hydrating properly, you're watering the plants but make
sure you yourself also are hydrating properly. But there's just
(38:34):
so much benefit to gardening and your own personal rejuvenation.
There's another analogy on my mind that as long as
we're waxing poetic or philosophically here for a moment, and
that is ever since I entered rewirement, I call it.
(38:54):
I think of the sports analogy. Now. In sports, when
an athlete makes it to the pro level, many times
they're shocked at how fast the game is, and they
struggle and maybe make some bad decisions, let's say football
or whatever it may be, and so everything just moves
so fast. Here's my point as it relates to gardening.
(39:18):
I observe that in the greenhouse and the garden center
in spring there is a rush to buy everything, plant everything,
get everything done, and then go on vacation. But the
reality is that gardening is a year round activity and
when you garden with purpose like that, everything starts to
(39:40):
slow down a little bit. When you recognize, as it
relates to rejuvenation, how important the fall season is, you
will enjoy your garden more and your plants will benefit
from it. I mention the turf and how fall is
the perfect time to rejuvenate turf. But the same thing
(40:01):
with your soil. Maybe you're planting some cover crops or
moving some plants, feeding some plants. I still contend that
I've had a lot of success in fall, when the
leaves are dropping off the plants, that's when I feed,
and the soil remains warm, the plant is able to
uptake that the nutrients. It's a form of rejuvenation. So
(40:24):
I guess you know. My point is, sometimes I become
frustrated when I see that that wild rush in spring
and carts loaded with plants. Well, that's wonderful, and it's
great for the garden center industry, but what about summer
and what about fall and early winter? You can get
you can get the game to slow down a little
(40:47):
bit for you, and then you're probably gonna see things
better and have better perspective in your landscape. How's that
for philosophical, that's philosophical.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
I feel like if you have a vegetable garden, you
don't really slow down. I mean, I'm just saying, especially
this year, it's going great. I love it. But yeah,
vegetable gardens don't give you a chance to slow down.
But it's true you have to really be And I mean,
are you garden You get annuals because you love the seasonality,
because you love to you know, change things up and
(41:17):
have plants that you can't have in spring, winter and fall.
So do you need to just slow down and take
it all in? And that's why if you ever come
to my garden, you're gonna see a lot of weeds,
because sometimes that's just not how I want to spend
my time in the garden. And they really don't bother
me enough. I mean, you know, uh, yellow nutsedge as
an exception, because I always pull that and crabgrass as
soon as I see them. But I have a slight
(41:40):
problem with oxalis right now. It's kind of firmly in control,
but also it's kind of pretty, so I'm just kind
of letting it do its thing in certain spots in
the garden.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
Well. Along that line of weeds though again, and this
concept of having the game slow down on you weed
control in fall is key in my mind, and I
don't do a lot of weeding in spring. I looked
for those weeds in fall when they're in a rosette
stage and dealing with it in fall. So that's a
(42:13):
form of rejuvenation. Here's another form of rejuvenation at this
time of the year. You mentioned the watering, Just a deep,
slow trickle with the hose setting it at the base,
provided you don't forget about the hose.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Right, set a time on your phone. That's what I do,
make sure I don't forget.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
And we had one of our listeners I think, mentioned
to us that along the lines of irrigation, that when
you hand water you develop a more meaningful relationship with
your plants.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Well, you know, they say the best fertilizer is the
gardener's shadow.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
There you go, an understanding of plants. That's good. Here's
another rejuvenation plant in the landscape. You mentioned the vegetable garden,
but what about herbs. I view herbs as one of
the key rejuvenation plants in the landscape. It's almost like
the old cut and come again zenias that we used
(43:07):
to cut and then a few weeks later you come
back and they're loaded with flowers. But take as an
example chives. I'm amazed at the resilience of chibes and
how they can reach a point where they're gorgeous and
then they're so ugly and then you chop them back
and suddenly they're beautiful.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Yeah, it is really incredible, and I don't think enough
people know that they love chives and they're blooming and
they love to harvest them and use them, but then
they're kind of like, oh, chive season is over, and
it doesn't have to be. If you cut it back
right after it flowers, it will regrow. Now, I do
have to tell you, as someone who does very little
supplemental watering, especially in the herb garden, it's not going
(43:46):
to come back unless you're watering it well or you're
lucky enough to have some rainfall, which we don't have
anymore in West Michigan. And I'm only slightly bitter about it.
I'm really trying to keep it together here. But yeah,
it does need a lot of water to help to
regrow from that. But yet if you do that, you
will get a whole new fresh crop of chives and
they will continue to produce for you all through summer
(44:07):
and fall, so you don't you never have to be
without them, and that's a pretty great thing.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Yeah, Oregano is that way also, though I let my
oregano just go into flower and when they bloom, they're beautiful.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
They're beautiful, and they attract so many pollinators. And if
you're a regno is anything like mine, it also self sews.
And I would rather have a regno as a weed
than say, yellow nuts edge, So I let it do
its thing.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
You know, briefly at the end. Here also that you know,
I have some rejuvenation plants that I love in spring
when winter is over, because it's no secret I don't
like winter. I like hot weather, so hellebores and pansies
and magnolia and redbud and amsonia, and you know when
they start to pop up. But when I think rejuvenation too,
(44:50):
A couple plants that I think of our perennial hibiscus.
Isn't it amazing how they just, you know, they're down
to nothing and then huge And.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
I love seeing that. Yeah, it's just it's so wild
to see how they're so late to emerge, you know,
find the Memorial Day weekend you're like, oh, you're growing,
and then by fourth of July you're like, oh, you're huge.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
And you're beautiful, and you're beautiful exactly, or when winter
has done, how gnarly and awful the bud Leah's look.
But then you prune them back and within short order. Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah. Same with my vegetable garden. I planted it and
I was like, oh, it's so little and small, and
now it's you know, everybody's muscling each other out for space.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Rejuvenation's a fun topic, and I hope that you're feeling
some rejuvenation this summer as we head into the important
fall gardening month. Thank you Stacey, thank you Rick, thank
you Adriana, and thank you for watching us on YouTube,
listening to the radio version of the show, or our podcast.
Have yourself a great week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!