Controversial favorite plant picks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's kind of surreal a little bit. Right now you're
listening to Let's Garden with Scott Berlin. We can't garden.
It's storming, there's smoke, but you can sure listen to
us talk about gardening if you if you care to
us being me and Mark Wessell, my good friend across
from you here at the studio.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Mark, good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
You're chief horticulturist with Gardens Alive correct, which is the
parent company. I think I got them all spring Hill Nurseries, Brecks, Gurnees,
CA Van Borgendane Gardener's Supply, and then also Icley, which
is more or less a wholesale specimen plant nursery on
the West. Yeah, hit the major ones. Anyway, somebody's going

(00:44):
to take offense at that. Yeah, we're not an offense,
Yeah or whatever. Can only know and remember so much.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
That's right. It's hard. I've spent my whole career there
explaining who we are.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I get difficult for me. Yeah, but it's a great company.
Oh absolutely, yep, yep, good company, good, good products.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Good Uh you know, Scott, Uh. So we we acquired
gardener Supply, which is gardening accessories and tools and all this.
So a lot of their material came into our warehouse,
you know, just for photography purposes. And there's some fine
things I just love to borrow, you know, really good.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
They don't give them to you.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
No, no, they don't give them to wow.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, there's some cool stuff. But do really well in
my garden.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
If it were up to me, Mark, I make sure
you get a few things. Yeah, you keep you happy.
I think that's hard. I think you're a little cranky
this morning. Mark, Well, I didn't even go to bed
last night. You traveled three days Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, correct
got in and then went dancing last night.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Went dancing to in the morning here in Mount Lookout
looking and it was every turn there was a tree
across the road or flooded. It took a little longer
than normal to get to from a deer to Mount Lookout.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Parts of Cincinnati got slammed last night. Five inches of
rain in like an hour, hour and a half or something.
In certain parts it was really isolated. It was like
here they got five inches of rain, you got an
inch and a half.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
No, no, no, that was oh early. That was early,
and we I haven't even you know, measured it. Yeah,
because it looks like it's going to be four.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
You got maybe four Yeah, I got a half inch
and I'm what three miles the way the crow.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Flah the way the crow wash.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Yeah, it's yeah, it was amazing. Cars were floating. News
people were out, fire trucks back and forth. Every year.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Summer, you know, these localized storms, but this year it's just,
you know, at a different level.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
It really has been a weird year. And we must
be way above on everage rainfall some people. Yeah, which
is scary because we always finished level. We always finished
right at average, and that probably means we're in for
like a wicked drought here before too long. Oh, I
don't say that. Yeah, I know, I'm hoping if I
say it, it won't happen.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
It is funny how things equal out. It's temperature and rainfall.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, it's just, you know, the oscillations seem more extreme
anymore than they used to be. I looked into the
Canadian wildfires. We're on the edge of the smoke, whereas
you know, Detroit, Minneapolis, Toronto, the east coast getting a
lot more of it. So I looked into it. They

(03:40):
say there's about eight hundred and eighty eight fires. It
seems like a pretty precise number to just pull out
of the air and then say about but anyway, about
eight hundred and eighty eight fires, nearly all started by
lightning aggravated by heat and dry conditions, and a lot
of them are very remote. They really cannot fight them,

(04:02):
you know. So it's gonna depend on rain getting there
to put these out. A lot of them are in Pete.
I didn't know this, in the peat soil they have
where they burn low and slow and nobody even knows
they're there until they reach a point where they ignite.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Boy, that's probably hard to put out a peat fire.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, I would think so. I mean, first of all,
you got to know it, you got to know it's there,
and then it's underground and it's moving like in veins,
and yeah, I don't know if that's even a possibility.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
That fire in like the province of Quebec a few
years ago, it just they just had to let it burn.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
And yeah, it was so remote, like that coal mine
fire in Pennsylvania that's been going on for thirty years,
you know, and with no end in sight there, you know. Yeah,
you didn't know about that. Yeah, And it was an
old coal mine, know, finished when I think, and I
forget how it got started. But it's just burning under

(05:04):
this town, and the town's basically a ghost town now,
not entirely, but it just you know, smoke is coming
out of various parts of the ground and it just
keeps moving through all these old veins, and there's really
nothing they can do about it. Yeah, I mean, the
source of oxygen is from too many places to shut
it all. But we've got I think, a very good

(05:27):
show today. We have David Hoffman coming later on, who
is inherited the the godfather role of Hoffman Nurseries used
to be run by his dad, John, who is retired.
John is a good Both John and David are great
friends of ours. And they are, oh, they have to

(05:51):
be the largest supplier of a wholesale plug supplier of
grasses in the United States, well if the right.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Up there, and they're probably the best known.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, best known. They both get out everywhere. They're so
generous within the industry and their knowledge. They're always trying
new plants and they've pretty much are instrumental in getting
more sedges into the market, which is really a big deal.
Maybe not to you know, typical gardeners, but certainly into

(06:23):
you know, the bigger, campusy new naturalism.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Kind of gardeners. You know, sedges. That's I like sedges.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
But for some of the just average gardeners, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
It's just a green, grassy looking thing.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Not all of them, not all of them. No, there's
a handful that are really showy.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
One of them.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
We will all right, at least one of them, at
least one of them from you know, from me. Oh,
that's right, I have it on my list, and I
shared my list with you this time. That might not
have been a great idea. A reminder if you want
to check out ron Rothis's Facebook age in the Garden
and follow along with people who listening to the show,

(07:05):
you might do that in the Garden on Facebook our
number eight hundred eight two three eighty two fifty five,
especially starting around seven o'clock. We're very happy to take
your calls. Yeah, calls calls. Yeah, we can answer your question.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
No, we make me last time, I guess that's what
it's going to.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
We can take your complaints. We will manage somehow.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Call in and see what kind of hacks we really are.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, no, Mark, we're gonna go ahead and take our
first break. When we come back, we will dive into
the National Days of Why because they have sixteen herbs
and spices. How's that all right?

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Good? Yeahs herbs and.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Spices are great. We'll be right back. You're listening to
Let's Garden with Scott Berlin. I'm listening to Mark Wessell
Blow Snows. Maybe you were that too. I don't know.
Timing is everything, but we're back and our number eight
hundred eighty two, three eighty two fifty five. Reminder. All

(08:11):
the past shows, twenty of them now are available at
Let's Garden Scott Berlin at your favorite source of podcasts.
So time now mark for our National Days of Why
do we do this?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Favorite section?

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah too? Why do we do this? Because sixteen herbs
and spices I mentioned before, but also ten essential vitamins
and minerals. So this is healthy, it's good for you.
Huh yeah? What it doesn't make any sense. Try not
to think that we're going to talk about Earth. Don't
think about it too much. Nah, maybe sometime, but not today,

(08:46):
well maybe today, I don't know, but anyway, National Month
of July fragile X Syndrome Awareness Month, Disability Pride Month.
Independent Retailer Month, Get to your independent retail garden center
and spend money, buy cool plants. We'll talk about cool
plants soon. Cell Phone courtesy month, contract sewing month, Hemp month,

(09:12):
the plant for every occasion, rope fabric cures. Everything is
that where they get CBD from from hemp?

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yes, yes, yours everything. Anti Boredom Month, Coolinary Arts Month.
You like coolinary arts, You're good at that stuff. And
then it's Picnic Month. I know what you're thinking. I
forgot how to do a picnic, haven't done it in
so long? What do I do? They made it easy
for you. So all these other national days just lay

(09:39):
it out on a plate, so to speak. Grilling month,
hot dog month, Baked beans month, Horsehradish month, blueberry month,
peach month, National ice cream month. The week this week
is National zoo Keepers Week. So that's near and dear
to my heart. I know and love a lot of
holiday Yeah, yeah, kind of. Technically I was one at

(10:02):
Sinsint Potanical Garden End zoo it was was you were well,
that was like when you first hire on. That's you.
You're a zoo keeper, even if you're in horticulture, I
thought maybe they fired you. Now they chased me away
from the monkeys or whatever. So, you know, this week
doesn't come with a lot of stuff that I can
work with. It seems like when people are saying, get

(10:26):
all excited about making a national day of you know,
I say, hey, let's make a national day for butter
or whatever it might be. They all want to like
aim at the beginning, they're like, let's do it January first.
You know, It's like, no, it's too soon. Let's make
it January tenth, or you know, March or at the latest.
You know. So it kind of thins out here in July.
But there are a few None of them are really fun,

(10:49):
or a few of them might be. But there's Sour
Candy Day this is today, Sour Candy Day and Caviar Day.
So we're the two extreme and the spectrum of the
food spectrum there. I don't care for either one all
that much. Tropical Fruit Day though, I do like that, yep.
And for Southern listeners, you can even grow some of

(11:09):
those things. That's kind of fun.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, especially if you live in South Florida. You can
grow lots of tropical.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Fruits and enjoy them. Yep. It is also toss away
that could have and should have day? So you know
I'm tossing away that couldn't have and should have is
probably going to become a could have should have for.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, that's I embrace could have should have?

Speaker 1 (11:37):
It makes me who I am? How are you going
to improve if you don't aren't full of could haves
and should have? Woody Wagon Day, So why I get
I don't know what that is? Actually like a call
a stoga wagon? I doubt it, but who knows. I
didn't look it up. I should have. I don't know
what that is. Tomorrow, Sunday, July nineteenth, Ice Cream Day,

(11:58):
Play Day. Sorry too busy, I've got a garden, no
time to play. Dacre Day. I like Words with Friends Day. Now,
this is a day for friendly competition and small wordplay.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Mark.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
I think we should try this after the show.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
I think we do enough here.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
No, I don't think we should try it here. We
might get hurt. Monday, July twentieth, Moonday, come memories the
day man first walked in the moon in nineteen sixty nine.
Oh yeah, what up? How'd they do that? I you
don't know. They're still trying they're having a hard time
figuring it out now, even though we did it. Get

(12:38):
out of the doghouse day. Why I'll just wind up
right back in Pennsylvania Day. I like Pennsylvania, You like Pencave.
I love. It's just too damn long.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
It's very long.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
It's a long long state to drive through. Lollipop Day,
Fortune Cookie Day. I don't even read them anymore. They're
just depressing.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
No, they the quality of the fortunes have. It's on
this factory produced.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
It at it's AI. You know, I think they're.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Just well, even before AI, something happens.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Right, You're right, they just got lazy, took us for granted, right. Yeah.
July twenty first, Tuesday Junk Food Day. Something I can
get behind and something they would go to my behind.
Be someone day. Take seconds to make a difference in
a child's life, or really anyone's life. Why just kids?

(13:32):
Too many things just get wasted on kids. That No, seriously,
if you can make a difference in a kid's life,
do it exactly. Yeah, what you know, doesn't take that
much most of the time. Wednesday, July twenty second Mango
Day and then fragile X Awareness Day. So both the month,

(13:52):
and then the day on Wednesday, and then and then
Panucci Fudge Day. Panucci fudge creamy candy with an Italian name.
I think it might be French, but they say Italian
maple flavor. The oldest fudge ever created, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, milk,
and sometimes nuts. Sounds good.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, fudge.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
And it's also Hammock Day, So Sarah Geigerbeam if you're
out there getting that hammock years yep, Thursday, July twenty third. Oh,
this is a good one. Gorgeous Grandma Day. I'm like,
that's nice, but what about the just the grandma's with

(14:35):
nice personalities? That's gorgeous. Gorgeous.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, you just brought We're all gorgeous and beautiful in
some fashion.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Not everybody's. There's even a nugget in then the worst
of the worst. Yeah, you're an optimist, very very positive guy.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
After I get over the should haves and would have
if I only had, I I am an optimist.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Vanilla ice cream Day, I'm like, Okay, vanilla's great, A
good vanillas is better, but man, I like flavors, you know,
top it with some sprinkles.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Oh, you know, speaking of ice cream and mangoes.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
My mango ice cream is good. I'm going to.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Go get my free Sunday at Greaters.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Because it's your birthday. Yes, happy birthday to you. Oh well,
thank you. Yeah, and I was just gonna tell people
that not insince today that Greaters is like the best
ice cream place in the world.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah. And also back to mango. Sometimes the South Florida
mango crop ripens around my birthday and for a birthday
present to myself sometimes I get a single layer case
shipped in from down there. Fresh mangoes are so del.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
You're so good to yourself, I am. Yeah, you deserve it. Yeah,
even though of ice cold refreshment, especially a nice cold
beer which sounds nice like maybe during the World Cup
game today for third placed, well that's the third place game.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Oh I didn't even know they played, Yeah they do.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Isn't that interesting? And then tomorrow, of course is the
the final, which uh they might be playing it in
you know, campfire smoke. That might be interesting. So also
Lemon Day, finally wrap it up, Friday, Tequila Day, Cousins Day,
I've got great cousins you got yeah, yeah, it's Amelia

(16:30):
Earhart Day. And then drive Through Day so Tuesday was
Chunk Food Day and now drive through Day. It's too
easy to get oversized or upsized in this country. And
then last but not least, Thermal Engineer's Day. And I'm
glad they get a day because otherwise I wouldn't ever
think of thermal engineers. But they're out there doing their thing.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
They'll never get enough credit, and it certainly.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Improves our lives. You are listening to Let's Garden with
Scott Berline. When we come back, we're going to talk
about our favorite plants right now and some other things.
It'll be awesome, so stick around. Good to have you here.
I'm here with Mark Wessel, chief fordiculturist at Gardens Alive.

(17:15):
All those catalog companies Rex spring Hill help me out,
Gurney's Gardener's Supply, and ca Vaan Borgendy. Yeah. So those
are all the catalog companies that are under the umbrella
of Gardens Alive. What we got here. I wanted to

(17:36):
mention that I am trying to get a Facebook page
up for this show, which will feature the lists and
links and pictures of plants we talk about things like that.
I'll get I try to get that stuff up either, right,
after or right before the show, and maybe, if I'm ambitious,
go back and kind of fill in things from previous shows,

(17:57):
which would be nice to do. Also, I'm thinking on
like fun stuff like photo contests and ways people can
interact with the show. Yeah, a little interaction, little interest.
They won't call in, maybe they can, and we do
want you to call in. Eight hundred eight.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Two three eighty two fifty laying on the guilt trip
too much and being hard.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
I don't think you can lay the guilt trip on
too much at all. That's something that works a lot
of the time. So, uh, hey, let's jump into our
favorite plants right now. And uh, I'm gonna let you
start off because you what you just told me during
the break is very intriguing that all of your plants

(18:35):
are controversial. Yeah, well most all them.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yes, So they're all from my drive to South Carolina
from Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
So on Wednesday you went to we're in South Carolinas.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
That's the city and the universe both.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Okay, yeah, and then uh and then you drove you
you went there to see things on Thursday and then
you yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:56):
Well Wednesday I had other appointments in the area, outing
some of the farms. The commercial growers that are growing
are seedless muscadines.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
And you also saw a peach breeder, which we'll talk about.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Okay, I was in the car looking at a long
time looking at plants. It gets tiring, but I'm just
going to start with a big one. Oh kudzoo. You
know the vine that ate the South, brought over with
good intentions will first cattle right, soil erosion it does

(19:31):
you know, they do feed cattle, you know. So it
was brought over in the mid to late eighteen hundreds
more as an ornamental.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
And that early yeah. Ok. And then the soil.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Conservation people said, hey, district said, and during the dustbol
area started really promoting it as a way to save
your soil and stop erosion.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
And which it does well, I imagine.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah. Yeah, And the rest of history is Yeah, most
people have if they've traveled south, have seen how it
just blankets.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
Literate orange, right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
And it's mostly of disturbed areas. It's not like really invading, yeah,
but it's very visible from the roads, and the way
it covers structures is just it's just amazing how much
that darn thing grows. I Mean, there are some redeeming values.
I mean, it does produce a fair amount of biomass,

(20:34):
it's not as much as it looks like.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
It really, And it's because it looks like a ton.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
And I've been reading a lot about it and then
and it's very complex and I'm having a hard time
understanding a few things. So that's why i'm not even.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
There are a handful of populations here in Cincinnati, which
I was hardened to talk to the green space coordinator
in Anderson Township where I live, and there's a few patches.
There's a four populations and they're working and actually it
was eight and they're working to get all of them removed.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah. Yeah, it were kind of at the northern edge
of its general range. There are a few pockets north
in the country, but basically it just comes.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Up southern Kentucky's where I start to see that.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, well, it just comes over across the Ohio River
Indo Ohio, Okay. So it's most common in the Ohio
River counties and in New Richmond, where I grew up.
There were two patches. One was on Little Indian it's
still and then on Pond Run Road, so it's it's
around yeah, and then I was riding around in this

(21:40):
golf cart on this hilly farm. You know, I felt
my life was in danger with that.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
I've seen videos people get killed on those.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, yeah, And and this guy was eighty five and
he told me he flipped his tractor thirteen times. Now
how he's alive anyways, So anyway, this little insect lands
on me. Yeah, a little brown thing, and several of
them over this time, and I'm like, hey, what is this?
You know, I'm into bugs, and it's the The common

(22:08):
name they call it is the kudzoo bug. Really, yes,
and it's a little a cud zoo stink bug. And
sure enough, it's this real little thing, about the third
the size of a normal stink bug. And I am like, well,
I can't smell much. Well, it smells just like a stink.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Bug, like sour apples, if that's what you call that.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
So anyway, uh this thing you think, ah, did we
introduce this to uh? You know, it just hitched a
ride rather recently, real kind of a new phenomena, and
it attacks members of the bean family, so soy beans
are susceptible to it. But there were a lot of

(22:54):
these little things flying around.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Because cut to if I remember, it is a lagome, right.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
It's a like gum, and it gets these clusters of
big pea like flowers like kind of like kind of
like wisteria, but it has this super sweet smell.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
It's not blooming yet. Oh oh, the fragrance is like
it's like.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
A candy kind of but.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
It is alarming when you're driving through the South that
you'll you know, come around a bend or something and
then all of a sudden there's a wall of kadzu
for a mile or sometimes it seems like, and it's
all up in the trees and you're looking at it
and you're like, oh, and I know it's a it's
a problem. I don't know if it's a total ecological disaster,
and I don't think so. No, it's because it doesn't

(23:35):
get deep into the woods. It's in these disturbed areas,
but still it's like just another And the thing that
bothers me about it is because it's been known to
have been an invasive plant for a very long time,
and yet eight people or a few at least in
my township, thought oh, it's attractive enough to plant it

(23:57):
in their yard. Or wherever. And now it's you know,
spreading around so people don't play around with invasive plants.
Not good.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Oh, we got to play with them and then find
out if they're invasive.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Smart mark. Yeah, I'm we're in the heat dome. I'm
going to come in and just say once again, shade
trees are my favorite plants right now. Big ones, anything
that provides a lot of shade, maples, oaks, Linden's elms, zkova.
What am I missing? Hookeries? Get those big trees out there,

(24:34):
DIVERSI don't all try red maples. Yeah, okay, well that's
all right, that's all right. Got to put you on
the spot. I'm just gonna mention Esculus part of a
floor a variety satna. I didn't know it was a
sub variety the cult of our rogers because it's blooming now.
It's later than the regular bottlebrush block guys, and it's

(24:55):
just fabulous. It's a big suckering plant, great for screening,
dairy existence, sunshade, moist dry, amazing plan. It's an amazing place.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
It was one of my plants of the week. They're
just the regular species.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Okay about a month, but ago it was blooming when
those were blooming and Rogers, that's a very long panicle.
Yeah and yeah, really big and very fuzzy. And the
polleningter is absolutely loving. What's your next one?

Speaker 1 (25:19):
And I'm looking for something real controversial, real controversial.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Oh okay, Uh the Empress tree po Yeah yeah, yeah, see,
I mean we you see it around here once in
a while, but uh, you travel south, it's crazy. It's
all over. And when you take forty from Knoxville to
Ashville and you're in the mountains, it's all over those rotten.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
And you can see when it's a bloom so easily,
well even not because the leaves are so big.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
Well yeah, and the blooms before the leaves come out,
its very early spring. And then it has these clusters
of seed, spiky seed pods that hang down. Now what
I used to do with it when I was into
state gardening. I would grow it in a garb as
a tropical and you would copass it. You would cut
it down every year, and that thing would.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Grow like twelve feet this messive leaves a year.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
And those juvenile leaves are like five times as big
as the normal leaves.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
They're just giant. It's really cool that way. Yeah, even there,
you're kind of playing with the fire a little bit
because you're noted compass it every year. But you know,
if you move on and somebody leaves it, then it
could grow into a tree and start producing seed and sweating.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
And I'm playing with fire just talking about it.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah you are, You're gonna get calls and hate mail.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
But at the IPM conference in Germany there IPM is
it's this big horticulture trade show in Germany. There was
a company that sells different varieties of it for forest products.
It makes this really durable weight.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Would I first learned about it? I read this article
in Newsweek or something, it was a long time ago,
about how it was actually becoming endangered in Japan because
they make like boxes for brides out of the wood.
It's purple, it's it has the street it's beautiful wood.
And then you know, they started describing the tree like tropical,

(27:10):
look beautiful purple flowers. I'm like, oh, I want me
one of those, you know, and and then uh, you know,
you you you well, then you find out it's it's
an invasive problem. And secondly, it's it despite on paper
looking like a beautiful tree it's not a pretty tree,
and in real life it's usually scraggly and half damaged,

(27:32):
and it.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Just never drops those big old leaves.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, it's a problem. I stopped at some nash Or
State park at Tennessee around Jackson, Tennessee, and it was
riddled with them. I mean, oh yeah, yeah, they were everywhere.
So uh, I'm going to jump in and say a
couple real quick. Uh Lanira reticulated Kinsley's ghost. Uh, just

(27:56):
a great a native honeysuckle. Yeah, I know. I think
the common name is just reticulate honeysuckles. See, you might
as well learn a lot of this. Or it's a
native selection. It's a native selection with blue foliage. It's porfolio,
so the stems go through the foliage. It looks a
lot like a eucalyptus does. Throw it by itself. It's

(28:17):
sort of a shrubby thing, but if it has something
to climb up to, it'll climb well up into a tree.
So it's kind of a neat one cool plant. I
love it. And then garden flocks flocks piniculata. It's hitting
its stride and it is so beautiful. I've got many.
I started out with just a handful of mildew resistant varieties,

(28:37):
and I think they're all gone. You know, the seedlings are,
you know, seeds around a little bit. So I've got
a bunch of seedlings of various colors all over the
garden now and they're all good. They all have the fragrance,
different colors, and I don't see mildew, which is really
nice because that's supposedly a bad problem with other older

(28:59):
varieties and the place.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Eventually it'll get them.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
What's your next one?

Speaker 2 (29:02):
My next one, I'm going with a native Devil's walking,
which you know, who knows what I mean. This is
a semi obscure plant. We once again we're on the
northern part of its range. You can see it in
when you travel like to Adams in Sciota County and

(29:23):
it hits these It's a suckering shrub. I guess you'd
call it. It doesn't. I don't even know that it branches.
It's just steady stock. And it has these really large
compound leaves, so it's more like a leaf like maybe
a Kentucky coffee tree. Let's just say that pinnately compound leaf.

(29:46):
So it has all these leaflets, kind of fine foliage.
And then right now they're starting to bloom. It's this
big panicle like the size of a basketball, of these
tiny white flowers, and it's bees and flies just like
anything in the Aralia family, just flock to it. But

(30:08):
I mean, I want this somewhere nearby, but you have
to be very careful because this does spread by suckers
and it has oh yeah, the double.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Parts thorns, yea, the visis at the the least no yeah,
on the stem.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
And it's just I wish you we could show pictures here.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Yeah, we'll get that Facebook page and colon real quick.
When we come back. We will finish out with some
more favorite plants. You don't want to miss that. Some
of them are actually things you might want in your garden.
Eight eight two three eighty two fifty five. You're listening
to That's Garden with Scott Berlin here with Mark Wessel,
chief horticulturist at Gardens Alive, and uh it has come. Well,

(30:47):
we're still in the midst of our favorite plants right now,
and I'm going to let you go first again. You've
got a doozy of a controversial plant. Well, uh, not
that controversial anymore. From the right, right, right, it's not
too controversial, mimosa. Yeah, just you know, this goes back
to my childhood, those cool, beautid, puffy flowers. And absolutely

(31:07):
we're just planting very tropical looking, yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Very tropical.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
It doesn't look like it belongs here. It does and
it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, but it's just an interesting planet. Seems to be
like the road cuts.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
And yeah that's another legoo right yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
Yeah, and its marginally hardy here some I mean not
more than marginal. Yeah, it still gets.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
And as we get warmer, I think, you know, we
might start seeing it invade more than it is. It
does seed around now, but it does get worse and
down south it's oh, bad.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
News, right, bad news. Yeah, sorry, folks, Yeah, the problem
for you, but here it's.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
One of the things you one of your burdens for
you have to deal with for living in warmer climates.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
That's right, that's right, besides the humidity and uh, chiggers
and snakes and snakes.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
I don't know, I've got I don't even know how
to say this plant and it's a really unusual one,
but Ryan Cospera Colorado good enough. It's called white top sedge.
It's not a sedge. It's something else, but it's such
a funky plant. We're using it at the zoo, and

(32:18):
so I get to see it there, and I've seen
it one other place I can't remember where, but it's
sort of it looks like a sedge, but about three
feet no, not that two and a half two feet high,
with just this really funky little flower that attracts pollinators.
It's really cool. It's one worth looking up. White sedge,
white top sedge, and I'm going to jump in with

(32:39):
cala mints, calamintha, the pita and theapita or cat mints,
not cat net, but cat mints. And there's several varieties
out there, white cloud, blue cloud, mantrous, white marvel at blue, triumphader.
That's what I haven't seen. It can be used as
an herb, it's you know, but basically it's a front

(33:00):
of the border little plant like an alyssa maybe, but
it's perennial.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Perennial seas around, subtle, subtle, like a show stopper, but
a good filler.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
Good filler, and polliniers flocked to it. And it's tough
and it's tough for good hot, dry sites. You got
anything left no you don't. Okay, so I'll carry on
another truce edge kre ex oshi mensa ever rillo. It's
nice from an Irish breeder. I think David Hoffman might

(33:32):
talk about this a little bit when he comes on
it a little bit later in the show. But super
bright gold foliage. It's it's just really good. A little
grassy looking thing maybe six eight inches high, a little
bit of a weep to a little bit of a
curve and uh, you know, if you need that bright
color in a spot to lighten it up or be

(33:52):
a focal point or whatever, it's a really good plant
for that. That's one of those fun new you know,
newest things.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, it comes from Ireland, of all place. I met
the breeder, did you this winter?

Speaker 1 (34:02):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (34:03):
Very interesting man.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
How many of that series are out.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Like at least I've yeah around that.

Speaker 1 (34:09):
Yeah, so there's yeah, one's ever gold ever rillow. They
all have ever in the name, and I don't know
exactly why.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, and you can find them out there.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, they're pretty common. Ye, tropicals, I don't I'm not
a big tropical grower.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
You do a few, yeah, tender perennials, Yeah, they don't.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Fit into my garden really well. But I sure do
appreciate him when I see him around. And it's one
of those groups of plants I don't know that well yet,
so it's kind of like enjoy it without having too
much information in your head. It's kind of a different difference.

Speaker 2 (34:40):
I would like to use some more. I just don't
have the space the sun and.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Yeah, I've got the pool deck area which would look
nice with the tropical but then there's more of a
naturalistic landscape all around, so I think it would fit
in like a sore thumb.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Maybe, yeah, maybe some of these fancy designer people that
you know can help you bridge that gap.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, would be nice. I will rely on them. I
will call them up ten thirty at night or during
dinner time or something and to stay on the line
with them for about an hour, peppering with questions, peppering, peppering.
Who does that? I don't Mangavi's. So these are Hans
Hansen's creation with who is it spring meadow or no?

(35:25):
Walters Walters Walter, and these are crosses between what Agave
and Manfreda Manfreda and they're very cool. They look a
lot like Agave's and they work really well in gardens,
not hardy up north, but you bring them inside really nice.
So yep, that wraps up our favorite plants. Right now,

(35:49):
when we come back, what are we going to talk about, Mark,
We're going to talk about peach breeding and other things
that you saw on your trip down south, and that
will be really interesting. You're listening to That's Garden with
Scott Berline. The podcasts are available. Just google Let's Guard
with Scott Berline and look forward on your favorite source.
We'll be back in just a few minutes. Thank you
for listening, Come back and stick around all that