July 26, 2025 • 43 mins
Revelation: a surprising and previously unknown fact, especially one that is made known in a dramatic way. Hear what Stacey and Rick’s “Ah-Ha!” moments have been throughout their gardening journey. Featured shrub: Gatsby Pink oakleaf hydrangea.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Broadcasting from Studio A. Here at proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacey Heravella,
me Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
Today's show revelation. Ooh, this should be interesting. A surprising
and previously unknown fact, especially one that has made known
(00:25):
in a dramatic way. And I had a revelation this
past year, a realization and I'm going to say it
was more so of a slow evolution rather than something
that was a real revelation, but the fact how much
I appreciate plants, not just for the esthetics. In other words,
(00:50):
I love There are so many plants that I love
because they work for me. I mean, it's like making
an investment and earning interest on your investment. I mean
I'm sitting there thinking, you know, I really don't need
to mess with a bird feeder and buying bird seed
and that sort of thing. If I have the right
(01:12):
plants in my landscape and I can point them out
to you, or hummingbirds and a humming bird feeder, I've
got some plants that work for me.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah for sure. And you know, I think that is really,
there are those epiphanies where all of a sudden, the
revelation just hits you upside the head, like a thorny
rose in the face. And then there's those slow ones
that you know you kind of they slowly dawn on you.
And that's really, I think, where the magic happens.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, exactly, you know, they just working smarter, not harder.
And of course we have all these new introductions that,
as as some people would say, bury their dead, in
other words, they deadhead themselves. Nitrogen fixing legumes, cover crops,
plants that feed me, tree leaves that come off the trees,
(02:04):
and how I use them to build my soil. I
guess I just have this huge appreciation for what plants
do for me, as opposed to just stepping back and
enjoying the curb appeal or the aesthetics. So I guess
that's just something that has really struck me.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It is important. I think it's very easy, and I
think many of us do get into gardening initially because
we want to beautify our homes or we want to
look at flowers or whatever that is. But I don't
think there's really any possible way. Whatever your initial reason
for getting into gardening was that you don't find a
way to just marvel at the interconnectedness of everything. Of yeah,
(02:47):
how plants, you know, change the environment, your immediate environment,
how plants change your community, and how you can make
choices of the plants that you chew, of the plants
that you plant, and of course where you place them
in your garden. That can make just a huge difference
and really just change your mind about gardening. Like I
(03:10):
don't think really of gardening as work. I think of
lawn care as work, but I don't think of gardening
as work. And you know, my husband doesn't either. And
when we're out there on a beautiful summer morning and
we're just doing what needs to be done, it doesn't
feel like a chore at all. It feels like enjoying this,
you know, amazing thing that we've created. And it's just
(03:33):
an every day you know, every time I'm out there,
there's just there's new insights, but you have to kind
of be open to hearing them, and it's it's I know,
it's endlessly fascinating and I'm just so grateful that I'm
a gardener.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Honestly, it's an opportunity. It truly is, and I view
it the same way. Do not view it as work,
and in many cases I view it as good healthy exercise.
Some plants right now that are revolutionary to me, Stacy,
and I'm just blown away by this. I love Hydrangea.
Arboresque and smooth Hydrangea makes me think of Cape Cod
(04:09):
and the East Coast. But my word, incredible Stormproof.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Isn't that an amazing plant?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Are you kidding me? This is like wow.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Adriana and I just actually made a video of the
Incredible Stormproof. It is a plant that you know, obviously,
every time we introduce a new Hydrangea it's got to
be pretty special because we've already got a pretty broad
base of excellent hydranges in the proofn Winner's Color Choice line.
But it is truly a stunning plant, and you know
it looked great last year. This year it is just
(04:40):
mind blowing. So you definitely are going to need to
check that out on YouTube. Adriana will add a link
to the show notes so you can take a look
at that too. There's probably even a clip on YouTube
so you can see what it looked like.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I think it's a revolutionary plant. And as long as
we're on that subject, let me quickly mention, just to
wet your appetite, so very scale Erronia. I mean that
checks all the boxes and it's a native plant. And
then I have to mention Paisley pop Lukotha because that's
(05:14):
a plant you introduced me to. And I'll tell you
I was skeptical on that because I just yeah, they
just don't excite me all that much. This plant in
my landscape.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Wow, the variegation on the thing is definitely wild.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah. Uh with lantana. You know, I've grown lantana for years,
but the luscious series of lantana, and of course you
you know I love cannas, and I've got to mention
the two can coral, the blooms on that thing, and
then Pretoria canas. Pretoria cannas have striped foliage, gorgeous blooms.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Wow, that is a really really cool cana.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Another revolutionary plant that I'm looking at. And of course
plant breeders are looking at plants that can tolerate heat
and drought, and that is the Texas Primrose Sunglow Texas Primrose.
I've always liked Onethera or I've always referred to Im
Stacey as evening primroses. But that new variety at Superlafus,
(06:25):
I got to get this right, Superlafis. Yeah, Superlaffice Sunglow
Texas primrose. That's an exciting plant to me, especially if
you live in very hot regions of the United States.
Lemon perfection nepeta, the combination of blue and yellow. And
then this past year planted in my landscape Peruvian lily
(06:47):
Alstromeria hybrids. Again skeptical.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Wow performance, So are you planning for the alstromeiri to
perennialize or host wort oping?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Myself and some friends are watching them, say well, we'll
believe it when we see it, or see it when
we believe it. So has not overwintered yet.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I'm a here to see too. I mean,
it's obviously they are perennial, but there are one of
those plants that just because there's a certain hardiness zone
on them that they can go down to, doesn't mean
that all of those areas are you know, have the
exact right conditions for them to perennialize. But yeah, I
mean elstrameiri if you're not familiar with it, it's that
cut flower that seems to be in every bouquet, unique colors,
(07:30):
just a very cool plant. And imagine you can grow
that as like a big bushy perennial in your own yard.
It would be fabulous.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah. And I've helped people in the garden center for
years who buy plant. This is what I've observed. They
buy plants like you buy a lottery ticket. You know
it's not gonna work, but you go back and you
buy more.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, you know. Yeah, so gardeners are hopeful. That's a
revelation there that gardeners are very helpful people.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Well, let me give you a limb a rick along
that line. Dilemmas that cause palpitations when reality doesn't meet expectations.
Learning the hard way is a lesson today gifting new
insights and revelations. A mistake makes a lesson complete in error.
You don't want to repeat. I tripped on my hose
(08:18):
that I didn't properly dispose, ending up on the backside
of my seat. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, you know, I think it is so important to
realize that this concept of revelation in the garden, you
don't get revelations for things you don't do, you know,
like you do need to try things, and you do
need to have you know, ta be willing to take
an educated risk to do your research and make those decisions,
(08:45):
and you know, just kind of see what happens. And
of course, you know, especially if you're pushing harding it owns,
don't give up too quickly. Wait to see what happens.
Do the best that you can, because you know, you
don't learn in gardening without doing. You know, you can
sit here and listen to us and internalize all of
these things that we say and facts that we share,
but the fact is until you actually go and do
(09:07):
it with your own two hands and put it into practice,
there's just it just doesn't rakin you're.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Right and observe it yourself. You know. I think about
winter die back variability, how plants die back differently from
winter to winter, contingent on what the weather conditions were like,
and how people many times do not consider the position
of the sun in wintertime and the damage that it
can do to plants. The sun changes position over the
(09:37):
course of the seasons. All things that become a revelation
to me. Ripstop nylon m You know, I can't believe
some of the clothes I used to wear in the
garden uncomfortable, hot, miserable, ripstop nylons. Oh. Yes, they use
(09:57):
this material in combat uniforms. They use it in hot
air balloons. And you can purchase those pants and they're
lightweight and they're dry, and they're wonderful and all wonderful revelations.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
We've got to don't put your prunterers in the pocket. No,
try not to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I tend to lose it. We've got a lot more
revelations for you coming up in segment four. We'll see
how Stacey ties this in in plants on trial. That's
next here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
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Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome
(10:55):
back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where the topic for
today is revelations. And you know so, I think that
if you are a gardener and you spend a lot
of time in the garden. Revelations are virtually guaranteed. And
if you haven't had one yet and you've been gardening
for some years, well just wait, because you will have one.
Sometimes there's small revelations, like exactly. Sometimes the revelations may
(11:18):
be quite small, like you know, oh, hey, planting my
dill in July gives me a much longer supply of
dill than planting my deal in May. Those are the
kinds of revelations you might have. But then there's also,
I think, bigger, more philosophical style revelations that inform your
(11:39):
overall approach to gardening and to the plants that you
choose to bring into your garden and into your life.
And you know, I did have one of those revelations.
And I may have told the story back when we
did our travel show in November. Mean i'll share it
again since it is a topic of today's show. So
(11:59):
I went to Japan for the first time for my
honeymoon way back in two thousand and six. And at
the time I was living in New York City, so
I didn't even really have a garden of my own
to speak of. And of course we were in Japan,
we were in Kyoto, which is where all the famous
temples are, and we went to Rio and G. So
if you're not familiar with Rio and G by name,
(12:21):
you certainly are familiar with it visually. It is the
very famous Japanese garden that's frequently known as a zen garden,
even though that's not really a thing that is made
up of several large rocks in a sort of enclosed
courtyard type of landscape. There's not really a lot of plants.
There's some small ground covery mosses growing around some of them,
(12:42):
but for the most part, it is a garden for
meditation and looking at this composition and opening your mind
to possibilities. So to say that I had a revelation
at Rio and G honestly seems like the most cliche
thing in the entire world. And I can tell you
because I did see this cliche then as well. I
was not expecting to have a revelation there, but I did.
(13:04):
And what happened was we were sitting on the viewing platform,
just you know, looking. It wasn't super crowded because this
was before Instagram and Kyoto got super crazy. So I
was sitting there and you know, the viewing platform is
a couple steps elevated above the garden. So I was
just sitting there and all of a sudden, right there
at the edge of the garden, this praying mantis just
(13:27):
walks by on the edge there, and I just the
light bulb just went off in my head, and I said,
you know what, this is why you garden. You garden
to create a space for life to happen. And that
life can be insects, it can be birds, and of
course it can be human as well, and all of
those things can coexist. And it's really then that I
(13:49):
just realized that, you know, a garden is kind of
a stage. Now I have since sort of revised the
way that I think about this, and nowadays I would
say that gardening is about creating habitat. Gardening is about
creating habitat for animals, insects, birds, and it's about creating
habitat for humans, for yourself, for the other humans that
(14:10):
enjoy your garden. It's not just a place to live.
It is a place to you know, relax and find
inspiration and again to watch life take place, to let
life unfold. And I think that has really informed me
in the way that I have kind of built my
(14:31):
garden and the things that I plant specifically and in
the way that it's all arranged. And so today's plant
on trial is a plant very much fits into that
framework and that looks absolutely amazing right now. And that
plant is Gatsby pink oak leaf hydrangea. Oh.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I love that plant. And by the way, your story
is great and ties in or links well with last
week's show about rejuvenition something.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yes, rejuvenating yourself as well as as your garden. So
Gatsby Pink is actually our background here. It looks better
than you're seeing here. It's just kind of a background
for us. But Gatsby Pink to me really kind of
is one of the plants there are multiple in my garden.
Of course, that really epitomizes this idea of creating habitat
(15:21):
because it is a North American native plant. It is
not native as far north as Michigan, but nonetheless it
is certainly in the top five of plants in my
garden that attract insects and pollinators and birds, and it
is always a hub of activity. And I have seen
so many interesting animals on it, so many interesting insects,
(15:44):
wool carter bees, so oak leafyd ranges, including Gatsby pink,
they grow with this kind of fuzzy indumentum on them.
It's like a fuzz and wool carter bees actually collect
this in little fuzzy bundles in their little legs eggs
and take them back for nesting. So watching a wool
carter bee gather that wool off my plant was pretty amazing. Butterflies,
(16:08):
unique wasps. I mean, I just get excited because when
this plant is in bloom, it's fragrant, it is just
full of nectar and pollen, and it just it brings
so much activity to the garden. Because it is a
larger plant, it hosts a lot of birds, gives a
lot of birds shelter as well, and so I just
love that it's able to, you know, kind of support
(16:31):
all of this and it looks great while doing it.
So for me, it's also a very revelatory plant because
it just looks amazing. So over the past couple of
weeks it has been in flour and it's a lace
cap Hydrangea. That's why one of the reasons why it's
so beneficial, because all of those delicious fertile florets are
easy for the insects to access. But now over the
(16:56):
past couple weeks or a couple of days, really that
the flowering, that the nectar has been collected, the palen's
been collected, and the flowers are drying up. This plant
turns pink. So, as a lot of people know who
listen to the show, panicle hydranges, which are not native,
are also known for turning pink a little bit later
in the season. Well, Gatsby pink is turning the most
(17:18):
glorious shade of pink right now in my garden. And
I have to say I am stunned at the color
and the fact that it is happening right now. Because
West Michigan is officially in a moderate drought. Ken Ottawa
and Allegan Counties are considered in a moderate drought right now,
and so I do not give this plant any supplemental water.
(17:38):
It has been very warm, and this plant is still
turning the most glorious shade of pink. And again that's
a revelation to really watch this transformation take place when
it kind of goes against everything that I know generally
about hydrange is changing color, which is to say that
panicle hydrange is if it's hot. If it's dry, they
(17:59):
will usually try and brown instead of turning pink, and
that pink coloration doesn't start to develop until much later
in the season, so usually mid to late August for
panicle hydranges. So this thing is just a blaze of
glory in my garden. It looks so good and I
am just completely in love with this plant. Have you
(18:20):
grown it?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I'd yes. And what I'd love to add to that,
what you said your description is great is the structural
interest also that the plant provides, from the unique foliage
to the structure of the flowers. And I would argue
for seasons of interest. I mean even in winter it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It is. And that's another thing that really kind of
came through to me, especially this past winter. I realize
that a lot of my woody plants that are in
my garden are kind of gray, and that's fine, but
the wood on the oak leaf Hydrangea is this gorgeous,
warm cinnamon color, and while in a wintery landscape, it
(19:03):
really really stands out and it's peeling on a mature specimen,
so it just has this kind of amazing color and
structure and presence. And I'm glad you brought up structure,
because of course, if you've been listening to the show
for a while, you've also heard me talk amply probably
add nauseum about deer, and of course hydrangs and deer
(19:23):
don't usually get along because deer love to eat high ranges.
So you're trying to get a hydrange at a flower
and the deer like, nah, I'm eating those flower buds. Well,
the cool thing for me about Gatsby pink is it's
a large hydrange. It gets to be six to eight
feet tall and wide, and my Gatsby pink are now
at that height where the deer can't reach them, so
I'm able to kind of coexist with a deer. It's
(19:46):
a plant that I can actually grow that they won't
completely destroy. Some of it is still within their reach,
and of course over winter, you know they do kind
of nibble at those, but that's okay because there's still
probably a good two to three feet above their heads,
which is where all of these flowers are forming. So
it's also a great middle ground. And again that goes
back to this concept of revelation, where it's a revelation
(20:06):
that you know you can kind of grow hydranges in
a way that lets you coexist with this, you know,
challenges of having deer. And you know, as I've said,
I would appreciate the deer a lot more if I
ever got to actually see them, but no, they come
marauding at night, so I never really get to actually
even enjoy them. I only deal with their aftermath. So
(20:26):
it is a beautiful plant and it's one that I
am absolutely thrilled to have in my garden. It had
so much and really goes along with this idea of
creating habitat and creating a space for life to take place.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So would you agree, Stacey that the fall color is spectacular?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And I'm glad you mentioned that because yes, it is
also fabulous fall color.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
So I love them.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Just a great all around plant, you know. For me,
if I had room for only one hydrangea, hands down,
it would be gats be pink. So it is hardy
down to USDA Zone five, heat tolerant through USDA Zone nine.
So a good news there for our warm climate friends.
That fabulous peeling bark. Just a great gray plant, easy
to find. And again, if you only have one room
(21:06):
for one hydrangea, are you've been looking for just that
truly special hydrange that also supports pollinators and life. Can't
do much better than Gadsby Pink. We're going to take
a little break. When we come back, we're going to
be opening up the gardening mail bags, and please stay tuned.
(21:27):
At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. We know that a
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(21:49):
your local garden center, or learn more at Proven Winner's
Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back
to the Gardening Simplified Shoe where we're talking about revelations
and if you've had a revelation about your garden, we'd
love to hear from you. You can leave it as
a comment on YouTube or write to us. There is
a contact form at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. So
(22:13):
we'd love to hear from you. And learn what your
garden revelations, large or small, have been. And if you
have a question for us to answer that's not a revelation,
that's fine too. You can actually go to Gardening Civil
Fiight on air dot com and use that same exact
contact form because we can only get to a certain
number of a very small number of questions each week.
If you do have a garden emergency or something that
(22:35):
you're trying to decide what to do and you need
advice sooner, just go to Proven Winners Color Choice dot com.
That's our main website here at Proven Winners Color Choice
Shrubs and hit the contact form there and you will
get a response, not from an AI bot, not from
a auto generated system, but from a real person who
actually gardens and knows our plants. So who else can
(22:56):
do that for you? Not very many people these days.
Everyone's relying on Let me tell you AI doesn't know
anything about gardening. AI have never had a gardening revelation.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Don't get me started on AI.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
All right, well, what do we got to.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
The moment I'm old baby boomer curmudgeon, get off my
lawn guy, But still don't get me started on a Well, especially.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
When it comes to gardening. It is just awful at gardening.
Like you know, it can do your math problems. That's
like pretty cut and dried. But if you ask it
a gardening question, oof, yikes.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Oof okay, Dennis writes from Muggy Kentucky. As Dennis puts it,
Hi there, longtime listener, first time question, ask her. Thank you, Dennis.
I'd like your opinion on using products like orthograss be
gone to control bermuda grass in my flower beds. I've
always been anti herbicide, but it's getting to a point
(23:51):
where I'm having problems keeping up with a hand pulling.
I'm concerned that I will damage the soil microbiome. Well,
you know, this is interesting, and Denis, I can appreciate
what you're saying here, and I am a hand puller,
I truly am. And yet a weedy grass that is
(24:12):
a serious problem in groundcovers and flower beds. As an
example would be quack grass. And when you pull quack grass,
you essentially propagate the plant. And yet it's very just
like with your nuts edge, it's very therapeutic. And I
also agree with Dennis says something like bermuda grass is
(24:34):
going to spread and become it can become difficult to
keep up with it for sure. Now Dennis mentioned here
Orthograss Be Gone. This is a product we've sold in
the garden center industry for years, and it's considered an
over the top herb side and over the top herbicide
as it relates to the fact that you can use it.
(24:56):
It's available and ready to use mixes. You'll see them
listed as rt use ready to use, and you could
spray the grass over the top of ornamental plants without
damaging your ornamental plants, if applied according to labeled directions,
and of course you should always follow label directions. My
(25:17):
experience though with it has been especially with grasses like
bermuda grass or quack grass, is that you get you
get some die back, but you don't get total kill,
and the problem persists so generally, Dennis, what I have
done is I've gone to something that's a little stronger,
(25:37):
a little heavier weight herbicide. When you reach that point
when the over the tops don't necessarily work for you,
I think the key element here is to do it
when the air is calm. We're not going to get
rain for twenty four to forty eight hours. I usually
cut a twenty four inch by twenty four inch square
(26:00):
piece of cardboard. I have it in one hand, I
have the properly mixed herbicide in a pressure yourized tank
in the other hand, and you just work through laying
that herbicide onto the foliage. The foliage absorbs the herbicide systemically,
so you do not have to worry about your soil,
(26:22):
especially if you're not using this herbicide over and over again.
If this is just a one time thing and you
can protect your flowers, your plants with that piece of cardboard,
especially again when the air is calm, maybe early morning,
and spray it onto the foliage. It does work quite well,
(26:44):
So I guess I hope that helps answer the question.
You know, the over the top controls are more lightweight,
they're somewhat effective, but if you're looking for total kill.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Well, you know, I think grasses are always hard, even
if you're willing to use herbicide. Grasses are really hard
to control with herbicides because they tend to have a
very low surface area. You know, I was trying to
think about trying to spray something like a dandelion. It's
got those nice broad leaves. It's like, oh, yeah, spray me,
no problem. I mean not to say that you should
spray Handelions are obviously quite easy to manage my hand,
(27:20):
whereas every time I have had a bad grass infestation
and needed to try to control it with herbicide, it
is very difficult to try to adequately cover a grass
to get that control, just by the nature of the
plant itself. So I would say that first of all,
if your main concern is a soil microbiome, you do
(27:41):
need to also consider what hand pulling is potentially doing,
because every time you pull those up, you're also exposing
you know, the soil microbiome to air and a lot
of the microhisea and beneficial bacteria and all of those
things that compose that soil microbiome can also be quite
sensitive to being exposed to oxygen. Again, this is not like,
oh it's catastrophic. But of course if you're concerned about
(28:03):
soil health, then you know why people do no till,
and so this is kind of like tilling. So as
with everything in gardening, there is a trade off. Now, overall,
I don't have a personal experience with this product, so
it was good to hear that you did. Rick. Overall,
I would say using something that is very selective is
generally better than using something that is more of a
(28:23):
broad spectrum, because the chemical is so targeted towards that
one specific action that it is less likely to have
averse effects on non target organisms. Now that said, I
would encourage you, and this is for anybody. Anytime you
want to use a certain pesticide, look the active ingredient
will be right there on the label for you to
(28:45):
read it. Look it up. Don't just rely on the
instruction manual that is part of that packaging. Look it up,
learn about that chemical because you're going to learn a
lot more context about what it is, what the threats
to non target organisms are. And I know people immediately
like kind of shut down the conversation if you say that,
(29:05):
But there are certainly pesticides that have been formulated to
really be that specific and not have those averse effects
on other things. So does take a bit of research.
But you can also find all of this online. You
don't even need to go to the store. Just look
up the different products on the company's websites, get those
active ingredients, and then research those active ingredients and then
you can make the best decision for your specific issue.
(29:28):
But yeah, bermuda grass is no fun.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, and you're right about the surface area. But that's
the downside the thin blades. The upside is they tend
to be soft and hairy, not glossy, let's say, like
a wild violet, so they will absorb the herbicide systemically.
David writes to us, can you please tell me what
(29:50):
bugs are eating my plants dahlias? How should I prevent
and get rid of these that present a threat and problem? Thanks?
Love your show.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Well, you know I have seen this over the years.
Of course I love insects and find insects and plant
interactions the most interesting thing about gardening for myself, and
anytime you have a plant that is eaten by something
that's not notorious for being eaten by it, right, Like
if you have a rose that is in July and
(30:20):
all of a sudden, the whole the foliage is all skeletonized.
You know, that's Japanese beetles, right, They're like a notorious
pest of roses, where something like dahlia is generally pretty
pest free, not really a huge issue. So what you
have is a generalist feeder, and in my experience this
generally means one of two things. Grasshoppers are beetles, And
(30:40):
I'll tell you, I am shocked at the things that
grasshoppers eat in my garden. Now I'm not talking about
like a plague of biblical proportions or anything like that.
It's just that they like hop around and you know,
they cause a bunch of damage and then they pop
on to something else. But yeah, I've come to be
able to recognize their damage. Now Here is the key
for you, David and anyone else who is like, what
(31:01):
is eating my plant? Don't necessarily think that at the
specific time you're out in your garden noticing the damage,
that you are going to see the pest, Because there
are pasts that are more active early in the morning.
Like we were just talking about the flour lined plant
bug a few episodes ago. You're most likely to see
those early in the morning. Asiatic garden beetles, on the
(31:22):
other hand, which are a terrible pest of basil and
lots of herbs, only active after the sun goes down.
Slugs are only active after the sun goes down. So
if you're trying to kind of get to the bottom
of what your pest is, which you kind of need
to do to be able to resolve the issue. You
can just rely on looking at the garden one time
and seeing, now, I don't see any bugs on it.
So go out in the morning, kind of sneak attack
(31:44):
them they weren't expecting to see, and then bam, there
you are looking to see what's eating the plants. Go
down in the evening, you know, maybe later in the evening,
and then bring a flashlight out after dark and you
might just catch the culprit. And again, if the feeding
is mild, it's not a cause for concern. I wouldn't
really do anything about it. But of course if it's
starting to get to the point where it's like eating
(32:05):
all of your foliage, then you might have to consider.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Just be observant.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Forgive me, Stacy, forgive me Adriana. A grasshopper walks into
a bar and the bartender says, hey, hey, we've got
a drink named after you. The grasshopper says, you've got
a drink named Doug Johnson, Prissy.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
And on that note, we're going to take a little
break and when we come back, we will be continuing
our conversation about garden revelations, including Rick's latest joke, so
please stay tuned space. Thanks for listening to the Gardening
(32:45):
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 (32:58):
Welcome back to the Gardening sae I Amplified Show where
we share some revelations with you this week, Stacey, just
want to run this past you a minute. Coming from
the garden center industry, I have noticed that people like
what I call the four ends, novelty, nostalgia, new and
native ours. And the novelty thing is kind of interesting
(33:21):
to me because I watched people this past year purchasing
the firefly petunias. Some people saying, no way, I'm not
paying that much for a pot of petunia, other people
embracing it. But I think people as it relates to
plants and gardening, can appreciate novelty, nostalgia, new and native ours.
(33:45):
So that's interesting to me because I've always felt that
people buy what they're familiar with. People buy what they know,
and yet part of the reason for doing a show
like this, for example, is to introduce people to great
new plants, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
New colors, new forms, totally new types of plants that
we haven't grown before. And you know, I wonder, since
we just had a little mini rant about AI not
that long ago, if all of these terrible AI generated
plants are better for business or worse because people tend
to believe the I mean, they're the most outlandish things.
(34:23):
You know, it's like a bright purple alocasia that's like
twenty feet tall or something. Oh, where can I get that?
So I don't know if people are finding, like if
they go to the garden center, they're feeling disappointed and
they walk out that things aren't that outrageous. But where
we're also like, but like, hey, we've got really cool
new plants here. It'll be interesting to see. It's interesting,
(34:43):
Uh what will happen with that? But yeah, new has
never gone out of style, and we've never been at
a better time. If you like new plants to take
offer more new plants, and not just new, but new
versions of things that perform much better. I mean, obviously
with the super tunias, proven is completely changed the way
people think about petunia. So it's like it's a whole
(35:03):
new plant, you bet.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Other revelations for me, you can have success with late
season plantings, picking up those fall late season plantings. I've
had a lot of success with it, Stacey, and it's
it's done well for me, so late season plantings, weed control,
soil improvement, and feeding. I also have gotten into the
(35:29):
habit of digging holes and filling them with water and
then just stepping back and watching what happens. And of course,
thanks to our listeners and viewers, I had my hose
link revelation and now we can't live without it in
our garden.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
You hate water a little bit less, you hate hoses
a little bit less than a little bit less. Every
little bit counts when it comes to us, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Other revelations, the deer issue, it's not going.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Away, no, but you know, I have to say that
is definitely been another revelation for me. I always said, like, oh,
I would never buy a house you know that has
deer because I just I don't want to be limited
by deer. And it has been very revelatory to you know,
learn what they do and don't eat, how to grow
things like For example, I was talking about being able
(36:18):
to grow gatsby pink oak leaf Hydrangea because it's taller
than the deer. But I do have a couple of
interesting older varieties of Hydrangea arborescins that I'm able to
grow because that is a favorite. I mean, you can't
have that within ten feet of a deer without the
meeting it because eventually it started popping up under an
old lilac so it can take the shade. The deer
(36:41):
don't try to browse the lilac and they can't really
reach the plant. So I get like three Hydrangea flowers
a year, And that was kind of a revelation. You
can kind of use the other plants in your garden
to create an area that lets other things maybe grow.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I like that, And that's the revelation finally coming to
the realization this issue isn't going to go away. Yeah,
so we find ways around it and we find ways
to work with it. Another revelation for me how important
proper mulching is. Mulch is not just for esthetics. Even
(37:18):
though again in spring, people by boat loads of mulch
and they'll put orange, mult red mulch, whatever it may
be on their landscape. Mulch isn't for esthetics. It is
very beneficial to the plants. And I like using shredded
hardwood mulch because it breaks down it becomes part of
the landscape and then you don't want to pile it
(37:39):
on year after year and you have to stir your
moult so I guess just good, thank you very mulch.
Good mulch management is important in the landscape if you
want to have nice plants.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
You know. I honestly, I've been talking about the drought
and we really have had so little rain out here.
I can't imagine what my plans would look like right
now if they didn't have a good layer of mulch
on them. I mean, they would just be suffering so
much because I don't want to water, and mulch lets
me get away with very minimal watering, except for you know,
my newer plants, but mature established stuff. You put the
(38:13):
mulch on it. It can serve them moisture. It does
get keeps those roots much cooler and really helps them
to get through stressful summers like this one appears to be.
Unless maybe things change. I'll cross my fingers, but not
hold my breath.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
We can only help, hope and help. Yes, Oh, I'll
tell you what a revelation for me personally, how much
I like five gallon buckets in the garden.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
You never thought you'd be that guy.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Never thought I'd be that guy. I love five gallon buckets.
You can trip over them. They can be hazardous, but
I love them. They're very useful. They come in all
kinds of colors, and when you're especially when you're pulling weeds, grasses, right,
the buckets really great. So five gallon buckets and electric tools.
Cannot believe the quality of electric tools now on the market.
(39:04):
And I have a neighbor across the street who has
an electric lawnmower and it's just quiet and it does
a great job. But I'm impressed.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yeah, we have an electric lawnmower and I have very
little lawn left. But I do love it. I mean again,
I've talked about it. But you never have to look
like the maniac pulling at that string for dear life,
just hoping it starts up. You push a button, you're
ready to go, and it makes like a quiet hum.
You can have a conversation it's great, you know, speaking
of tools that are a revelation Myra tool related revelation,
(39:36):
soil knife, Oh wow, is that a useful thing to
have with you. And my husband too's kind of gone
come to the soil knife side. If we're planting and
you got the trowels all out there, he'll reach for
the soil knife every time because it's a very useful tool,
especially in our sandy soil. If you have clay soil,
maybe not quite so useful, but it's kind of a
great all purpose tool for planting, for weeding, for whatever
(39:58):
you need to do. And I and easy to fit
in your pocket too.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
No, I agree. Another revelation that I had, and I
think we'll do a future show on this, but I
love architectural follies. Architectural follies that are not mass produced.
Again coming from the garden center industry, there are some
yard ornaments and that type of thing that are mass
(40:23):
produced and everybody has them in their yard. And you know,
we can go on and on about these these various
ornaments in the yard that everybody has. But folly is
an English term for foolishness or a lack of good sense.
And during the Great I was reading. During the Great
Famine of eighteen forty five, the Irish government commission the
(40:44):
construction of follies to provide employment and economic relief. For example,
one folly included a road etched between two seemingly random
points in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Yeah, inter it's art, then it's art then exactly. And
so you know, with follies you can have kind of
a playful sense of humor, whether they're Roman columns or
a facade or a building that serves no purpose. Maybe
you know, you can envision years and years ago it
served the purpose as a lookout, for example, but now
(41:22):
in the garden it's just therefore its aesthetic beauty, as
you know, instead of just for function. So I'm getting
into this whole architectural filling.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Oh, eager to see what you do with that. And
you know, people tend to think of that as kind
of a great European garden tradition, and certainly English landscape
gardening is the epitome of the use of follies. But
there are actually a number of amazing gardens here in
the US that make great use of follies, as well
as Chanticleer. Of course, comes to mind with their ruin,
which is fabulous, all brand new but made to look
(41:58):
old and very very cool. Well, the National Arboretum has
a folly. Now. I forget where the columns came from,
but they were saved from another important building and now
they are just basically a folly in the National Arboretum.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Fantastic, And you're so right. In my reading it was
the seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds and primarily Europe, English
and French landscapes. But I see this as really getting
some traction, and it's certainly something that I want to
incorporate in my life.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
I will be very eager to see how you do this.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Yeah, so there you go. Some revelations for you. By
the way, Another revelation I had is how easy compost
is versus dumping.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Yep, make use of it. Yeah, it is very easy.
Just got to keep it wet. That was my compost revelation.
When I was finally able to compost and nothing was happening,
I realized it was just too dry. And if you
do indeed keep it wet as well as as much
as a just wrung out sponge. As kind of the
old wisdom on that you will actually get composts instead
(43:01):
of just a pile of weeds that sits there for
months on end.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, and I'm proud of myself. I behaved myself on
the punnage today.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Yeah you did. I don't even remember barely a single one.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
I maintained my compost.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
You did get the grasshopper joke in though, so I
don't know what that counts for. And on that note,
we want to thank you all so much for joining
us this week. We truly appreciate it, and of course
thank you to Rick, thank you, thank you to Adriana,
and thanks to you all for listening. Hope you have
a great week ahead.
Broadcasting from Studio A. Here at proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.
It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacey Heravella,
me Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.
Today's show revelation. Ooh, this should be interesting. A surprising
and previously unknown fact, especially one that has made known
(00:25):
in a dramatic way. And I had a revelation this
past year, a realization and I'm going to say it
was more so of a slow evolution rather than something
that was a real revelation, but the fact how much
I appreciate plants, not just for the esthetics. In other words,
(00:50):
I love There are so many plants that I love
because they work for me. I mean, it's like making
an investment and earning interest on your investment. I mean
I'm sitting there thinking, you know, I really don't need
to mess with a bird feeder and buying bird seed
and that sort of thing. If I have the right
(01:12):
plants in my landscape and I can point them out
to you, or hummingbirds and a humming bird feeder, I've
got some plants that work for me.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah for sure. And you know, I think that is really,
there are those epiphanies where all of a sudden, the
revelation just hits you upside the head, like a thorny
rose in the face. And then there's those slow ones
that you know you kind of they slowly dawn on you.
And that's really, I think, where the magic happens.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, exactly, you know, they just working smarter, not harder.
And of course we have all these new introductions that,
as as some people would say, bury their dead, in
other words, they deadhead themselves. Nitrogen fixing legumes, cover crops,
plants that feed me, tree leaves that come off the trees,
(02:04):
and how I use them to build my soil. I
guess I just have this huge appreciation for what plants
do for me, as opposed to just stepping back and
enjoying the curb appeal or the aesthetics. So I guess
that's just something that has really struck me.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It is important. I think it's very easy, and I
think many of us do get into gardening initially because
we want to beautify our homes or we want to
look at flowers or whatever that is. But I don't
think there's really any possible way. Whatever your initial reason
for getting into gardening was that you don't find a
way to just marvel at the interconnectedness of everything. Of yeah,
(02:47):
how plants, you know, change the environment, your immediate environment,
how plants change your community, and how you can make
choices of the plants that you chew, of the plants
that you plant, and of course where you place them
in your garden. That can make just a huge difference
and really just change your mind about gardening. Like I
(03:10):
don't think really of gardening as work. I think of
lawn care as work, but I don't think of gardening
as work. And you know, my husband doesn't either. And
when we're out there on a beautiful summer morning and
we're just doing what needs to be done, it doesn't
feel like a chore at all. It feels like enjoying this,
you know, amazing thing that we've created. And it's just
(03:33):
an every day you know, every time I'm out there,
there's just there's new insights, but you have to kind
of be open to hearing them, and it's it's I know,
it's endlessly fascinating and I'm just so grateful that I'm
a gardener.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Honestly, it's an opportunity. It truly is, and I view
it the same way. Do not view it as work,
and in many cases I view it as good healthy exercise.
Some plants right now that are revolutionary to me, Stacy,
and I'm just blown away by this. I love Hydrangea.
Arboresque and smooth Hydrangea makes me think of Cape Cod
(04:09):
and the East Coast. But my word, incredible Stormproof.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Isn't that an amazing plant?
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Are you kidding me? This is like wow.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Adriana and I just actually made a video of the
Incredible Stormproof. It is a plant that you know, obviously,
every time we introduce a new Hydrangea it's got to
be pretty special because we've already got a pretty broad
base of excellent hydranges in the proofn Winner's Color Choice line.
But it is truly a stunning plant, and you know
it looked great last year. This year it is just
(04:40):
mind blowing. So you definitely are going to need to
check that out on YouTube. Adriana will add a link
to the show notes so you can take a look
at that too. There's probably even a clip on YouTube
so you can see what it looked like.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
I think it's a revolutionary plant. And as long as
we're on that subject, let me quickly mention, just to
wet your appetite, so very scale Erronia. I mean that
checks all the boxes and it's a native plant. And
then I have to mention Paisley pop Lukotha because that's
(05:14):
a plant you introduced me to. And I'll tell you
I was skeptical on that because I just yeah, they
just don't excite me all that much. This plant in
my landscape.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Wow, the variegation on the thing is definitely wild.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah. Uh with lantana. You know, I've grown lantana for years,
but the luscious series of lantana, and of course you
you know I love cannas, and I've got to mention
the two can coral, the blooms on that thing, and
then Pretoria canas. Pretoria cannas have striped foliage, gorgeous blooms.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Wow, that is a really really cool cana.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Another revolutionary plant that I'm looking at. And of course
plant breeders are looking at plants that can tolerate heat
and drought, and that is the Texas Primrose Sunglow Texas Primrose.
I've always liked Onethera or I've always referred to Im
Stacey as evening primroses. But that new variety at Superlafus,
(06:25):
I got to get this right, Superlafis. Yeah, Superlaffice Sunglow
Texas primrose. That's an exciting plant to me, especially if
you live in very hot regions of the United States.
Lemon perfection nepeta, the combination of blue and yellow. And
then this past year planted in my landscape Peruvian lily
(06:47):
Alstromeria hybrids. Again skeptical.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Wow performance, So are you planning for the alstromeiri to
perennialize or host wort oping?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Myself and some friends are watching them, say well, we'll
believe it when we see it, or see it when
we believe it. So has not overwintered yet.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I'm a here to see too. I mean,
it's obviously they are perennial, but there are one of
those plants that just because there's a certain hardiness zone
on them that they can go down to, doesn't mean
that all of those areas are you know, have the
exact right conditions for them to perennialize. But yeah, I
mean elstrameiri if you're not familiar with it, it's that
cut flower that seems to be in every bouquet, unique colors,
(07:30):
just a very cool plant. And imagine you can grow
that as like a big bushy perennial in your own yard.
It would be fabulous.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah. And I've helped people in the garden center for
years who buy plant. This is what I've observed. They
buy plants like you buy a lottery ticket. You know
it's not gonna work, but you go back and you
buy more.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, you know. Yeah, so gardeners are hopeful. That's a
revelation there that gardeners are very helpful people.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Well, let me give you a limb a rick along
that line. Dilemmas that cause palpitations when reality doesn't meet expectations.
Learning the hard way is a lesson today gifting new
insights and revelations. A mistake makes a lesson complete in error.
You don't want to repeat. I tripped on my hose
(08:18):
that I didn't properly dispose, ending up on the backside
of my seat. So there you go.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Well, you know, I think it is so important to
realize that this concept of revelation in the garden, you
don't get revelations for things you don't do, you know,
like you do need to try things, and you do
need to have you know, ta be willing to take
an educated risk to do your research and make those decisions,
(08:45):
and you know, just kind of see what happens. And
of course, you know, especially if you're pushing harding it owns,
don't give up too quickly. Wait to see what happens.
Do the best that you can, because you know, you
don't learn in gardening without doing. You know, you can
sit here and listen to us and internalize all of
these things that we say and facts that we share,
but the fact is until you actually go and do
(09:07):
it with your own two hands and put it into practice,
there's just it just doesn't rakin you're.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Right and observe it yourself. You know. I think about
winter die back variability, how plants die back differently from
winter to winter, contingent on what the weather conditions were like,
and how people many times do not consider the position
of the sun in wintertime and the damage that it
can do to plants. The sun changes position over the
(09:37):
course of the seasons. All things that become a revelation
to me. Ripstop nylon m You know, I can't believe
some of the clothes I used to wear in the
garden uncomfortable, hot, miserable, ripstop nylons. Oh. Yes, they use
(09:57):
this material in combat uniforms. They use it in hot
air balloons. And you can purchase those pants and they're
lightweight and they're dry, and they're wonderful and all wonderful revelations.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
We've got to don't put your prunterers in the pocket. No,
try not to do that.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I tend to lose it. We've got a lot more
revelations for you coming up in segment four. We'll see
how Stacey ties this in in plants on trial. That's
next here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
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Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome
(10:55):
back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where the topic for
today is revelations. And you know so, I think that
if you are a gardener and you spend a lot
of time in the garden. Revelations are virtually guaranteed. And
if you haven't had one yet and you've been gardening
for some years, well just wait, because you will have one.
Sometimes there's small revelations, like exactly. Sometimes the revelations may
(11:18):
be quite small, like you know, oh, hey, planting my
dill in July gives me a much longer supply of
dill than planting my deal in May. Those are the
kinds of revelations you might have. But then there's also,
I think, bigger, more philosophical style revelations that inform your
(11:39):
overall approach to gardening and to the plants that you
choose to bring into your garden and into your life.
And you know, I did have one of those revelations.
And I may have told the story back when we
did our travel show in November. Mean i'll share it
again since it is a topic of today's show. So
(11:59):
I went to Japan for the first time for my
honeymoon way back in two thousand and six. And at
the time I was living in New York City, so
I didn't even really have a garden of my own
to speak of. And of course we were in Japan,
we were in Kyoto, which is where all the famous
temples are, and we went to Rio and G. So
if you're not familiar with Rio and G by name,
(12:21):
you certainly are familiar with it visually. It is the
very famous Japanese garden that's frequently known as a zen garden,
even though that's not really a thing that is made
up of several large rocks in a sort of enclosed
courtyard type of landscape. There's not really a lot of plants.
There's some small ground covery mosses growing around some of them,
(12:42):
but for the most part, it is a garden for
meditation and looking at this composition and opening your mind
to possibilities. So to say that I had a revelation
at Rio and G honestly seems like the most cliche
thing in the entire world. And I can tell you
because I did see this cliche then as well. I
was not expecting to have a revelation there, but I did.
(13:04):
And what happened was we were sitting on the viewing platform,
just you know, looking. It wasn't super crowded because this
was before Instagram and Kyoto got super crazy. So I
was sitting there and you know, the viewing platform is
a couple steps elevated above the garden. So I was
just sitting there and all of a sudden, right there
at the edge of the garden, this praying mantis just
(13:27):
walks by on the edge there, and I just the
light bulb just went off in my head, and I said,
you know what, this is why you garden. You garden
to create a space for life to happen. And that
life can be insects, it can be birds, and of
course it can be human as well, and all of
those things can coexist. And it's really then that I
(13:49):
just realized that, you know, a garden is kind of
a stage. Now I have since sort of revised the
way that I think about this, and nowadays I would
say that gardening is about creating habitat. Gardening is about
creating habitat for animals, insects, birds, and it's about creating
habitat for humans, for yourself, for the other humans that
(14:10):
enjoy your garden. It's not just a place to live.
It is a place to you know, relax and find
inspiration and again to watch life take place, to let
life unfold. And I think that has really informed me
in the way that I have kind of built my
(14:31):
garden and the things that I plant specifically and in
the way that it's all arranged. And so today's plant
on trial is a plant very much fits into that
framework and that looks absolutely amazing right now. And that
plant is Gatsby pink oak leaf hydrangea. Oh.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I love that plant. And by the way, your story
is great and ties in or links well with last
week's show about rejuvenition something.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yes, rejuvenating yourself as well as as your garden. So
Gatsby Pink is actually our background here. It looks better
than you're seeing here. It's just kind of a background
for us. But Gatsby Pink to me really kind of
is one of the plants there are multiple in my garden.
Of course, that really epitomizes this idea of creating habitat
(15:21):
because it is a North American native plant. It is
not native as far north as Michigan, but nonetheless it
is certainly in the top five of plants in my
garden that attract insects and pollinators and birds, and it
is always a hub of activity. And I have seen
so many interesting animals on it, so many interesting insects,
(15:44):
wool carter bees, so oak leafyd ranges, including Gatsby pink,
they grow with this kind of fuzzy indumentum on them.
It's like a fuzz and wool carter bees actually collect
this in little fuzzy bundles in their little legs eggs
and take them back for nesting. So watching a wool
carter bee gather that wool off my plant was pretty amazing. Butterflies,
(16:08):
unique wasps. I mean, I just get excited because when
this plant is in bloom, it's fragrant, it is just
full of nectar and pollen, and it just it brings
so much activity to the garden. Because it is a
larger plant, it hosts a lot of birds, gives a
lot of birds shelter as well, and so I just
love that it's able to, you know, kind of support
(16:31):
all of this and it looks great while doing it.
So for me, it's also a very revelatory plant because
it just looks amazing. So over the past couple of
weeks it has been in flour and it's a lace
cap Hydrangea. That's why one of the reasons why it's
so beneficial, because all of those delicious fertile florets are
easy for the insects to access. But now over the
(16:56):
past couple weeks or a couple of days, really that
the flowering, that the nectar has been collected, the palen's
been collected, and the flowers are drying up. This plant
turns pink. So, as a lot of people know who
listen to the show, panicle hydranges, which are not native,
are also known for turning pink a little bit later
in the season. Well, Gatsby pink is turning the most
(17:18):
glorious shade of pink right now in my garden. And
I have to say I am stunned at the color
and the fact that it is happening right now. Because
West Michigan is officially in a moderate drought. Ken Ottawa
and Allegan Counties are considered in a moderate drought right now,
and so I do not give this plant any supplemental water.
(17:38):
It has been very warm, and this plant is still
turning the most glorious shade of pink. And again that's
a revelation to really watch this transformation take place when
it kind of goes against everything that I know generally
about hydrange is changing color, which is to say that
panicle hydrange is if it's hot. If it's dry, they
(17:59):
will usually try and brown instead of turning pink, and
that pink coloration doesn't start to develop until much later
in the season, so usually mid to late August for
panicle hydranges. So this thing is just a blaze of
glory in my garden. It looks so good and I
am just completely in love with this plant. Have you
(18:20):
grown it?
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I'd yes. And what I'd love to add to that,
what you said your description is great is the structural
interest also that the plant provides, from the unique foliage
to the structure of the flowers. And I would argue
for seasons of interest. I mean even in winter it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It is. And that's another thing that really kind of
came through to me, especially this past winter. I realize
that a lot of my woody plants that are in
my garden are kind of gray, and that's fine, but
the wood on the oak leaf Hydrangea is this gorgeous,
warm cinnamon color, and while in a wintery landscape, it
(19:03):
really really stands out and it's peeling on a mature specimen,
so it just has this kind of amazing color and
structure and presence. And I'm glad you brought up structure,
because of course, if you've been listening to the show
for a while, you've also heard me talk amply probably
add nauseum about deer, and of course hydrangs and deer
(19:23):
don't usually get along because deer love to eat high ranges.
So you're trying to get a hydrange at a flower
and the deer like, nah, I'm eating those flower buds. Well,
the cool thing for me about Gatsby pink is it's
a large hydrange. It gets to be six to eight
feet tall and wide, and my Gatsby pink are now
at that height where the deer can't reach them, so
I'm able to kind of coexist with a deer. It's
(19:46):
a plant that I can actually grow that they won't
completely destroy. Some of it is still within their reach,
and of course over winter, you know they do kind
of nibble at those, but that's okay because there's still
probably a good two to three feet above their heads,
which is where all of these flowers are forming. So
it's also a great middle ground. And again that goes
back to this concept of revelation, where it's a revelation
(20:06):
that you know you can kind of grow hydranges in
a way that lets you coexist with this, you know,
challenges of having deer. And you know, as I've said,
I would appreciate the deer a lot more if I
ever got to actually see them, but no, they come
marauding at night, so I never really get to actually
even enjoy them. I only deal with their aftermath. So
(20:26):
it is a beautiful plant and it's one that I
am absolutely thrilled to have in my garden. It had
so much and really goes along with this idea of
creating habitat and creating a space for life to take place.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So would you agree, Stacey that the fall color is spectacular?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
And I'm glad you mentioned that because yes, it is
also fabulous fall color.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
So I love them.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Just a great all around plant, you know. For me,
if I had room for only one hydrangea, hands down,
it would be gats be pink. So it is hardy
down to USDA Zone five, heat tolerant through USDA Zone nine.
So a good news there for our warm climate friends.
That fabulous peeling bark. Just a great gray plant, easy
to find. And again, if you only have one room
(21:06):
for one hydrangea, are you've been looking for just that
truly special hydrange that also supports pollinators and life. Can't
do much better than Gadsby Pink. We're going to take
a little break. When we come back, we're going to
be opening up the gardening mail bags, and please stay tuned.
(21:27):
At Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. We know that a
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(21:49):
your local garden center, or learn more at Proven Winner's
Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back
to the Gardening Simplified Shoe where we're talking about revelations
and if you've had a revelation about your garden, we'd
love to hear from you. You can leave it as
a comment on YouTube or write to us. There is
a contact form at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. So
(22:13):
we'd love to hear from you. And learn what your
garden revelations, large or small, have been. And if you
have a question for us to answer that's not a revelation,
that's fine too. You can actually go to Gardening Civil
Fiight on air dot com and use that same exact
contact form because we can only get to a certain
number of a very small number of questions each week.
If you do have a garden emergency or something that
(22:35):
you're trying to decide what to do and you need
advice sooner, just go to Proven Winners Color Choice dot com.
That's our main website here at Proven Winners Color Choice
Shrubs and hit the contact form there and you will
get a response, not from an AI bot, not from
a auto generated system, but from a real person who
actually gardens and knows our plants. So who else can
(22:56):
do that for you? Not very many people these days.
Everyone's relying on Let me tell you AI doesn't know
anything about gardening. AI have never had a gardening revelation.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Don't get me started on AI.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
All right, well, what do we got to.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
The moment I'm old baby boomer curmudgeon, get off my
lawn guy, But still don't get me started on a Well, especially.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
When it comes to gardening. It is just awful at gardening.
Like you know, it can do your math problems. That's
like pretty cut and dried. But if you ask it
a gardening question, oof, yikes.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Oof okay, Dennis writes from Muggy Kentucky. As Dennis puts it,
Hi there, longtime listener, first time question, ask her. Thank you, Dennis.
I'd like your opinion on using products like orthograss be
gone to control bermuda grass in my flower beds. I've
always been anti herbicide, but it's getting to a point
(23:51):
where I'm having problems keeping up with a hand pulling.
I'm concerned that I will damage the soil microbiome. Well,
you know, this is interesting, and Denis, I can appreciate
what you're saying here, and I am a hand puller,
I truly am. And yet a weedy grass that is
(24:12):
a serious problem in groundcovers and flower beds. As an
example would be quack grass. And when you pull quack grass,
you essentially propagate the plant. And yet it's very just
like with your nuts edge, it's very therapeutic. And I
also agree with Dennis says something like bermuda grass is
(24:34):
going to spread and become it can become difficult to
keep up with it for sure. Now Dennis mentioned here
Orthograss Be Gone. This is a product we've sold in
the garden center industry for years, and it's considered an
over the top herb side and over the top herbicide
as it relates to the fact that you can use it.
(24:56):
It's available and ready to use mixes. You'll see them
listed as rt use ready to use, and you could
spray the grass over the top of ornamental plants without
damaging your ornamental plants, if applied according to labeled directions,
and of course you should always follow label directions. My
(25:17):
experience though with it has been especially with grasses like
bermuda grass or quack grass, is that you get you
get some die back, but you don't get total kill,
and the problem persists so generally, Dennis, what I have
done is I've gone to something that's a little stronger,
(25:37):
a little heavier weight herbicide. When you reach that point
when the over the tops don't necessarily work for you,
I think the key element here is to do it
when the air is calm. We're not going to get
rain for twenty four to forty eight hours. I usually
cut a twenty four inch by twenty four inch square
(26:00):
piece of cardboard. I have it in one hand, I
have the properly mixed herbicide in a pressure yourized tank
in the other hand, and you just work through laying
that herbicide onto the foliage. The foliage absorbs the herbicide systemically,
so you do not have to worry about your soil,
(26:22):
especially if you're not using this herbicide over and over again.
If this is just a one time thing and you
can protect your flowers, your plants with that piece of cardboard,
especially again when the air is calm, maybe early morning,
and spray it onto the foliage. It does work quite well,
(26:44):
So I guess I hope that helps answer the question.
You know, the over the top controls are more lightweight,
they're somewhat effective, but if you're looking for total kill.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Well, you know, I think grasses are always hard, even
if you're willing to use herbicide. Grasses are really hard
to control with herbicides because they tend to have a
very low surface area. You know, I was trying to
think about trying to spray something like a dandelion. It's
got those nice broad leaves. It's like, oh, yeah, spray me,
no problem. I mean not to say that you should
spray Handelions are obviously quite easy to manage my hand,
(27:20):
whereas every time I have had a bad grass infestation
and needed to try to control it with herbicide, it
is very difficult to try to adequately cover a grass
to get that control, just by the nature of the
plant itself. So I would say that first of all,
if your main concern is a soil microbiome, you do
(27:41):
need to also consider what hand pulling is potentially doing,
because every time you pull those up, you're also exposing
you know, the soil microbiome to air and a lot
of the microhisea and beneficial bacteria and all of those
things that compose that soil microbiome can also be quite
sensitive to being exposed to oxygen. Again, this is not like,
oh it's catastrophic. But of course if you're concerned about
(28:03):
soil health, then you know why people do no till,
and so this is kind of like tilling. So as
with everything in gardening, there is a trade off. Now, overall,
I don't have a personal experience with this product, so
it was good to hear that you did. Rick. Overall,
I would say using something that is very selective is
generally better than using something that is more of a
(28:23):
broad spectrum, because the chemical is so targeted towards that
one specific action that it is less likely to have
averse effects on non target organisms. Now that said, I
would encourage you, and this is for anybody. Anytime you
want to use a certain pesticide, look the active ingredient
will be right there on the label for you to
(28:45):
read it. Look it up. Don't just rely on the
instruction manual that is part of that packaging. Look it up,
learn about that chemical because you're going to learn a
lot more context about what it is, what the threats
to non target organisms are. And I know people immediately
like kind of shut down the conversation if you say that,
(29:05):
But there are certainly pesticides that have been formulated to
really be that specific and not have those averse effects
on other things. So does take a bit of research.
But you can also find all of this online. You
don't even need to go to the store. Just look
up the different products on the company's websites, get those
active ingredients, and then research those active ingredients and then
you can make the best decision for your specific issue.
(29:28):
But yeah, bermuda grass is no fun.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, and you're right about the surface area. But that's
the downside the thin blades. The upside is they tend
to be soft and hairy, not glossy, let's say, like
a wild violet, so they will absorb the herbicide systemically.
David writes to us, can you please tell me what
(29:50):
bugs are eating my plants dahlias? How should I prevent
and get rid of these that present a threat and problem? Thanks?
Love your show.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Well, you know I have seen this over the years.
Of course I love insects and find insects and plant
interactions the most interesting thing about gardening for myself, and
anytime you have a plant that is eaten by something
that's not notorious for being eaten by it, right, Like
if you have a rose that is in July and
(30:20):
all of a sudden, the whole the foliage is all skeletonized.
You know, that's Japanese beetles, right, They're like a notorious
pest of roses, where something like dahlia is generally pretty
pest free, not really a huge issue. So what you
have is a generalist feeder, and in my experience this
generally means one of two things. Grasshoppers are beetles, And
(30:40):
I'll tell you, I am shocked at the things that
grasshoppers eat in my garden. Now I'm not talking about
like a plague of biblical proportions or anything like that.
It's just that they like hop around and you know,
they cause a bunch of damage and then they pop
on to something else. But yeah, I've come to be
able to recognize their damage. Now Here is the key
for you, David and anyone else who is like, what
(31:01):
is eating my plant? Don't necessarily think that at the
specific time you're out in your garden noticing the damage,
that you are going to see the pest, Because there
are pasts that are more active early in the morning.
Like we were just talking about the flour lined plant
bug a few episodes ago. You're most likely to see
those early in the morning. Asiatic garden beetles, on the
(31:22):
other hand, which are a terrible pest of basil and
lots of herbs, only active after the sun goes down.
Slugs are only active after the sun goes down. So
if you're trying to kind of get to the bottom
of what your pest is, which you kind of need
to do to be able to resolve the issue. You
can just rely on looking at the garden one time
and seeing, now, I don't see any bugs on it.
So go out in the morning, kind of sneak attack
(31:44):
them they weren't expecting to see, and then bam, there
you are looking to see what's eating the plants. Go
down in the evening, you know, maybe later in the evening,
and then bring a flashlight out after dark and you
might just catch the culprit. And again, if the feeding
is mild, it's not a cause for concern. I wouldn't
really do anything about it. But of course if it's
starting to get to the point where it's like eating
(32:05):
all of your foliage, then you might have to consider.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Just be observant.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Forgive me, Stacy, forgive me Adriana. A grasshopper walks into
a bar and the bartender says, hey, hey, we've got
a drink named after you. The grasshopper says, you've got
a drink named Doug Johnson, Prissy.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
And on that note, we're going to take a little
break and when we come back, we will be continuing
our conversation about garden revelations, including Rick's latest joke, so
please stay tuned space. Thanks for listening to the Gardening
(32:45):
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 (32:58):
Welcome back to the Gardening sae I Amplified Show where
we share some revelations with you this week, Stacey, just
want to run this past you a minute. Coming from
the garden center industry, I have noticed that people like
what I call the four ends, novelty, nostalgia, new and
native ours. And the novelty thing is kind of interesting
(33:21):
to me because I watched people this past year purchasing
the firefly petunias. Some people saying, no way, I'm not
paying that much for a pot of petunia, other people
embracing it. But I think people as it relates to
plants and gardening, can appreciate novelty, nostalgia, new and native ours.
(33:45):
So that's interesting to me because I've always felt that
people buy what they're familiar with. People buy what they know,
and yet part of the reason for doing a show
like this, for example, is to introduce people to great
new plants, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
New colors, new forms, totally new types of plants that
we haven't grown before. And you know, I wonder, since
we just had a little mini rant about AI not
that long ago, if all of these terrible AI generated
plants are better for business or worse because people tend
to believe the I mean, they're the most outlandish things.
(34:23):
You know, it's like a bright purple alocasia that's like
twenty feet tall or something. Oh, where can I get that?
So I don't know if people are finding, like if
they go to the garden center, they're feeling disappointed and
they walk out that things aren't that outrageous. But where
we're also like, but like, hey, we've got really cool
new plants here. It'll be interesting to see. It's interesting,
(34:43):
Uh what will happen with that? But yeah, new has
never gone out of style, and we've never been at
a better time. If you like new plants to take
offer more new plants, and not just new, but new
versions of things that perform much better. I mean, obviously
with the super tunias, proven is completely changed the way
people think about petunia. So it's like it's a whole
(35:03):
new plant, you bet.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Other revelations for me, you can have success with late
season plantings, picking up those fall late season plantings. I've
had a lot of success with it, Stacey, and it's
it's done well for me, so late season plantings, weed control,
soil improvement, and feeding. I also have gotten into the
(35:29):
habit of digging holes and filling them with water and
then just stepping back and watching what happens. And of course,
thanks to our listeners and viewers, I had my hose
link revelation and now we can't live without it in
our garden.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
You hate water a little bit less, you hate hoses
a little bit less than a little bit less. Every
little bit counts when it comes to us, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Other revelations, the deer issue, it's not going.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Away, no, but you know, I have to say that
is definitely been another revelation for me. I always said, like, oh,
I would never buy a house you know that has
deer because I just I don't want to be limited
by deer. And it has been very revelatory to you know,
learn what they do and don't eat, how to grow
things like For example, I was talking about being able
(36:18):
to grow gatsby pink oak leaf Hydrangea because it's taller
than the deer. But I do have a couple of
interesting older varieties of Hydrangea arborescins that I'm able to
grow because that is a favorite. I mean, you can't
have that within ten feet of a deer without the
meeting it because eventually it started popping up under an
old lilac so it can take the shade. The deer
(36:41):
don't try to browse the lilac and they can't really
reach the plant. So I get like three Hydrangea flowers
a year, And that was kind of a revelation. You
can kind of use the other plants in your garden
to create an area that lets other things maybe grow.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I like that, And that's the revelation finally coming to
the realization this issue isn't going to go away. Yeah,
so we find ways around it and we find ways
to work with it. Another revelation for me how important
proper mulching is. Mulch is not just for esthetics. Even
(37:18):
though again in spring, people by boat loads of mulch
and they'll put orange, mult red mulch, whatever it may
be on their landscape. Mulch isn't for esthetics. It is
very beneficial to the plants. And I like using shredded
hardwood mulch because it breaks down it becomes part of
the landscape and then you don't want to pile it
(37:39):
on year after year and you have to stir your
moult so I guess just good, thank you very mulch.
Good mulch management is important in the landscape if you
want to have nice plants.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
You know. I honestly, I've been talking about the drought
and we really have had so little rain out here.
I can't imagine what my plans would look like right
now if they didn't have a good layer of mulch
on them. I mean, they would just be suffering so
much because I don't want to water, and mulch lets
me get away with very minimal watering, except for you know,
my newer plants, but mature established stuff. You put the
(38:13):
mulch on it. It can serve them moisture. It does
get keeps those roots much cooler and really helps them
to get through stressful summers like this one appears to be.
Unless maybe things change. I'll cross my fingers, but not
hold my breath.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
We can only help, hope and help. Yes, Oh, I'll
tell you what a revelation for me personally, how much
I like five gallon buckets in the garden.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
You never thought you'd be that guy.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Never thought I'd be that guy. I love five gallon buckets.
You can trip over them. They can be hazardous, but
I love them. They're very useful. They come in all
kinds of colors, and when you're especially when you're pulling weeds, grasses, right,
the buckets really great. So five gallon buckets and electric tools.
Cannot believe the quality of electric tools now on the market.
(39:04):
And I have a neighbor across the street who has
an electric lawnmower and it's just quiet and it does
a great job. But I'm impressed.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yeah, we have an electric lawnmower and I have very
little lawn left. But I do love it. I mean again,
I've talked about it. But you never have to look
like the maniac pulling at that string for dear life,
just hoping it starts up. You push a button, you're
ready to go, and it makes like a quiet hum.
You can have a conversation it's great, you know, speaking
of tools that are a revelation Myra tool related revelation,
(39:36):
soil knife, Oh wow, is that a useful thing to
have with you. And my husband too's kind of gone
come to the soil knife side. If we're planting and
you got the trowels all out there, he'll reach for
the soil knife every time because it's a very useful tool,
especially in our sandy soil. If you have clay soil,
maybe not quite so useful, but it's kind of a
great all purpose tool for planting, for weeding, for whatever
(39:58):
you need to do. And I and easy to fit
in your pocket too.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
No, I agree. Another revelation that I had, and I
think we'll do a future show on this, but I
love architectural follies. Architectural follies that are not mass produced.
Again coming from the garden center industry, there are some
yard ornaments and that type of thing that are mass
(40:23):
produced and everybody has them in their yard. And you know,
we can go on and on about these these various
ornaments in the yard that everybody has. But folly is
an English term for foolishness or a lack of good sense.
And during the Great I was reading. During the Great
Famine of eighteen forty five, the Irish government commission the
(40:44):
construction of follies to provide employment and economic relief. For example,
one folly included a road etched between two seemingly random
points in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Yeah, inter it's art, then it's art then exactly. And
so you know, with follies you can have kind of
a playful sense of humor, whether they're Roman columns or
a facade or a building that serves no purpose. Maybe
you know, you can envision years and years ago it
served the purpose as a lookout, for example, but now
(41:22):
in the garden it's just therefore its aesthetic beauty, as
you know, instead of just for function. So I'm getting
into this whole architectural filling.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Oh, eager to see what you do with that. And
you know, people tend to think of that as kind
of a great European garden tradition, and certainly English landscape
gardening is the epitome of the use of follies. But
there are actually a number of amazing gardens here in
the US that make great use of follies, as well
as Chanticleer. Of course, comes to mind with their ruin,
which is fabulous, all brand new but made to look
(41:58):
old and very very cool. Well, the National Arboretum has
a folly. Now. I forget where the columns came from,
but they were saved from another important building and now
they are just basically a folly in the National Arboretum.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Fantastic, And you're so right. In my reading it was
the seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds and primarily Europe, English
and French landscapes. But I see this as really getting
some traction, and it's certainly something that I want to
incorporate in my life.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
I will be very eager to see how you do this.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Yeah, so there you go. Some revelations for you. By
the way, Another revelation I had is how easy compost
is versus dumping.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Yep, make use of it. Yeah, it is very easy.
Just got to keep it wet. That was my compost revelation.
When I was finally able to compost and nothing was happening,
I realized it was just too dry. And if you
do indeed keep it wet as well as as much
as a just wrung out sponge. As kind of the
old wisdom on that you will actually get composts instead
(43:01):
of just a pile of weeds that sits there for
months on end.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, and I'm proud of myself. I behaved myself on
the punnage today.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Yeah you did. I don't even remember barely a single one.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
I maintained my compost.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
You did get the grasshopper joke in though, so I
don't know what that counts for. And on that note,
we want to thank you all so much for joining
us this week. We truly appreciate it, and of course
thank you to Rick, thank you, thank you to Adriana,
and thanks to you all for listening. Hope you have
a great week ahead.
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