How did the native bees fare over the winter?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, everybody. Welcome. I'm Ron Wilson, and you are
in the garden. He on news radio six ' ten
WTVN eight two to one WTVN eight hundred and six
' ten WTVN talking about yardening and boy, the weather's
gonna break next week. It's gonna be crazy warm. Hit
look at thirty two degrees like his soon and that's
gonna be crazy. Warn to me up into the forties,

(00:22):
maybe fifties. Who knows. We could hit sixty degrees sometime
midweek next week. I'll take it. So there's gonna be
lots going on. We're gonna be starting to think spring.
And as things start to warm up, so does mother nature,
and soaes the wildlife, and so do the bees and
the pollinators. And I thought it would be a great,

(00:43):
great thing to kick off our show this morning to
take a look at our native bees, find out how
they overwintered. What's going to be coming up? What do
we expect? And I want to let you know about
a great webinar coming up this week that you all
are invited to attend, and I think you will totally
enjoy it. And to tell us more about that is

(01:04):
our good friend we always go to for our native
b report. Her website is osmia B O S M
I A B dot com. Just Tina Block, good morning.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Good morning, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Hey. You know I was at the Columbus Home and
Garden Show last Saturday and I missed you.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
It's a great show, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Well, that's where I first met you many many years ago,
if you if.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
You recall, I do recall absolutely you coached me. I
was setting up and that was my first time on
your show. It was very exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah, and we've been in contact ever since, become good friends,
and of course of sharing the word out there, become
messengers with each other to get the word up about
the polliniers. Again. Her website is osmiab dot com. So
real quick looking out there, and we are going to
start to warm up next week now, getting into the
forties fifties, maybe even reach a high of sixty degrees.

(02:04):
And I know, you get a day above forty five
fifty degrees, the honey bees start to come out of
the hives a little bit. I always call it their
poop flight, but they come out and go to the
bathroom and kind of clean things up. A little bit,
you know, and do all that. What about our native bees,
like the mason bees, Where are they? Where are they
in their stages of life at this point?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, they are hybridating. They are solitary, meaning they do
not live in a hive like the colony like honeybees.
So the honey bees are active, they're exactly what you said,
their house keeping and cleaning for the spring and getting ready.
Where are bees? The solitary bees are still sleeping their

(02:46):
dormant until temperatures reach about fifty five degrees and there's
some spring bloom.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
So fifty five okay, fifty five degrees consistently, then we'll
start to see them. Start to me. Now, the native
bees that we're talking about, some like you will explain,
obviously living the ground that a ground dwell, or some
of course living in hollow stems, or in holes and
cracks and crevices and walls and trees and posts. Or

(03:15):
if you happen to put a mason bee house or
orchid be house out in those tubes as well, if
I look in there and I see what looks like cocoons,
are they still in a larval stage there? Or where
are they at this point, Well.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Some aren't, some or not. The Mason B that that
comes with your kit with Osmia B is a full
size adult bee male and females, and they're in a
dormant state until the temperatures reach about fifty five grees
and above. So when the year the spring before they emerged,

(03:56):
the female's mate, she starts foraging and laying her eggs
will finish sheet has enough pollen and nectar, shelly and
eggs steal off that chamber with mud that gives them
the name Mason B. That egg will hatch, the larvae
will consume the pollen provisions it's been a cocoon and
develop into a full size bee within roughly eight weeks.

(04:18):
So it will stay in that stage, the dormant stage,
through the whole winter. So temperatures m.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
M are they so they are a full size bee
before they go into the winter.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yes, they are a full size bee. So if I mean,
I've seen people unfortunately please don't do this, but on
the internet will actually slice open a cocoon in December
January when there's no pollen and a full size bee
will emerge. That will actually emerge awake, fully awake, ready

(04:51):
to work, and so, but unfortunately they don't survive because
there is no there is no bloom outside. But yes,
that's it's a full size bee. Some bees, my leaf
cutting bees are They hibernate over the winter as a larvae,

(05:11):
and they don't start developing until temperatures are about seventy
eight degrees and above.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Okay, So, and going on to your website, and we've
talked about this before, it's osmeabe dot com. If I
go on there, and you obviously sell the bee houses
that they that they reproduce and put their eggs in
like you were just talking about, and all of that
you also provide or we can buy mason bees from you,
So when you ship those out to us and we

(05:37):
get those little cocoons, basically, that's what we're looking at.
Do I have to do anything like right now? If
I order from you today, would I get those also
along with my bee house? Or I get the house
first and then the cocoons later. How does that work?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, if you were ordered today, we would ship out
your bee house with all your nesty materials and instructions. Okay,
we kind of wait to and out our bees probably
the third week of March. So the bees will come.
The cocoons, I should say, will come in a release
tube that you will place in your Osmia bee house

(06:12):
and with instructions to store them. So sometime in March
may not be the right temperatures, you would just place
your release tube with your cocoons inside your refrigerator because
it's some dormant.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Yeah, that's where I was. I was curious. Yeah, I
was curious because if they showed up but it's still
really cold, obviously I don't want to how do I
distribute those? So they're already in the tubes, I either
put them in the native bee house or I put
them in the refrigerator. Just hang on to them until
the temperature start to warm up. Then I bring them
back out and then they take it from there. Can
I actually time it so that I would put some

(06:46):
out at one point and some out at a later
point or is that not recommended?

Speaker 2 (06:51):
That is a great question. Yes, you can, and that
allows you to enjoy your bees longer. So we do
recommend as putting out a few of your bees when
the temperatures reach about fifty five to grease, leave the
resting refrigerator, and about a week later you staggered. The
release is what we're doing. So normally a bee has

(07:11):
a six seven week life cycle, so by doing this,
you can extend your six weeks of enjoying your bees
and pollination by doubling that sometimes so you can spread
them out over three weeks and you get to enjoy
your thees longer. So that was a great question.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yes, and that doesn't That doesn't mess with their life
cycle or reproduction or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
No, it doesn't. It's just because you know different temperatures
around the country. So a lot of times right now
in almonds, they use the Mason bee this odd mad
lign area for almond pollination in California. The bees are
they've been out working since February tenths. It got really warm,

(07:55):
the almond blooms started early, so they went out right away.
They will warm up the bees out there right They
put them in a room and gradually warm up the
bees to a temperature where they start to emerge, so
they're ready to work in the almond fields an almond orchard,
I should.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Say interesting talking with Justina Block. Her website is osmiab
dot com. Be sure and check it out learn more
about these native bees. So I understand that you have
put together working with the Pollinator Partnership, is called the
Pollinator Report. You've got a live webinar coming up this
week that we want to invite all of our listeners

(08:32):
to join in. So let's take a quick break, we
come back and we'll tell everybody all about this cool
webinar coming up on Wednesday, talking with Justina Block here
on news radio six to ten WTVN talking with our
native be expert Justina Block from the Osmia B Company
or a website osmiab dot com. And she's got a

(08:53):
great announcement here. That's a super webinar that everyone is
invited to join in. It's coming up to this Wednesday,
February twenty sixth at one o'clock Eastern Standard time. If
you want to learn learn how to design a be
friendly garden that pollinators, all the pollinators are love, This
one is for you. Tell us about Justina.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yes, we're partnering with Pollinator Partnership and Be Friendly Gardening.
Our guest is Sarah Wittenberg. She's the Bee Friendly Garden
Manager and the topic is how to design a be
friendly garden that pollinators love. So with spring around the corner.
This is a great time, you know to join this
webinar and get some hints on how to design a

(09:36):
garden in your backyard. So we're excited. We also, as
you know that you had mentioned before is we have
a seed mix, so our relationship with Beef Friendly Gardening
is at a portion of our sales from our from
our seed mix that the Panicle B blend will go

(09:58):
to the be Friendly Guarden Name program for education. So,
as you know, we recently completed a research project called
Blooms for Masonbes which was funded by the USDA and
cr sare Farmer Rancher Grant and twenty twenty four And
with this research we developed a fantastic speedmax that pollinators

(10:19):
will love. So we're very excited about this and you know,
please go to our website to purchase it and help
be Friendly Gardening.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
I was going to say that that is available for
everybody on the website. It's osmeabe dot com. Be sure
to check it out. The list of plants that are
in there are both annual and perennial, are phenomenal and
you know, being designed for the bees, both the honeybe
and of course native bees as well, but all the
pollinators are drawn to it as well. I was like

(10:48):
at Joe Bogsa used to do a talk called the
butterfly gardens aren't just for butterflies anymore. And the point
being is, you know, pollinator gardens or bee gardens or
butterfly gardens for all the pollinators out there. Bring them
all together. And it's so easy to do because they
share in a lot of the same flowers. You know,
they all enjoy working together with working over those flowers.

(11:10):
But this mix is phenomenal. As a matter of fact,
if somebody was looking to plant different annuals and perennials,
you could go through your list that's here and all.
You know, if you wanted to just put you know,
one or two here and there, don't have room for
all of the you know, using all of the seeds.
Could use that as a plant list as well.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Oh absolutely, it'd be great to take it down to
your favorite nursery, you know, natorps and the experts can
help them, you know, purchase these plants and take them home.
And always starting with a good design is great. Right,
So you want your garden to have a rhythm. You
want early blooming in the summer and until late fall

(11:48):
to provide pollen and nectar resources for your pollinators.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Let me let me guess at your house. You can't
see your home because of all the pollinator plants.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
I have a huge pollinator gardens. Go ahead, sorry, I'm.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Just going to say, I bet little or no lawn
or very very limited lawn and probably lots of pollinators.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yes, very limited lawn. I have a little bit of lawn.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
But not much, kind of have a little bit, al right,
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Of and some blooming trees like a weeping cherry is great.
We have you know, maples, which is a wonderful tree.
Oaks are great trees for pollinators. So it's it's important
to provide, you know, some pollinator plants for your pollinators.
If you live in a small area, you know, uh, container,

(12:40):
you know, growing pollinator flowers and containers is great. Herbs
allow some of the herbs to bloom for the pollinators.
It's just a great resource for them and you get
to enjoy them as well.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah. I always say dinner in a show.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Dinner in a show. I love that. I'm actually going
to steal that.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
And by the way, if you are a you know,
like doing the phonology where you coordinate insect or disease
issues with the When things are in flower, you'll know
that your native bees are getting ready to come out
and start to do their things when the cradgrash starts
to germinate and grow.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yes, that's a good indicator.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, so it's time to put down your pre emergent
orvery size. Well that's it's when you're a native bees
are out and getting ready to come out and about
as well. Talking with Justina Block again. This webinar is
coming up on Wednesday, the twenty six. It's at one
o'clock Easter Standard time. It's absolutely free, but you do
have to register ahead of time, right yes.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
And if you can't make it, we are recording the webinars,
so you'll receive an email in your inbox with the
recording and the resources and links to the resources that
we're discussed during the webinar. So it's a you know,
please sign up. You know, you know, we'd love for
you to be there because we are taking questions live

(13:58):
Sarah be Sarah I will be there to answer them.
We enjoy your comments and where you're tuning in from,
so please join us if you can on February twenty
six at one o'clock Eastern time, plus you.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Get to see the ever lovely just Tina Block how
she hosts this thing. And again you can go to
pollinator dot org or gore to osmiab dot com and
sign up for that. And again it's absolutely free. And
what do you say we get like a thousand people
from Ohio to Central Ohio to jump on board with
this thing and enjoy it, and then if we can

(14:30):
get half the people to come out of there and
do what you're supposed to do, that would be outstanding.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
That would be amazing. I appreciate that, and I thank
you for promoting this. You're always wonderful. So thank you
so much, Ron for promoting our webinar and always bring
me on your show. I always enjoy this.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
I really look forward to it.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
So always fun having you on. You're doing a great job.
I can't believe you, know. I look at when we
first talked together at the Central Ohio Home and Garden
Show and where you were starting at that point and
where you are today and how involved you've gotten in
the projects and the partnerships and this b mix and
the whole nine yards you know, it's just phenomenal. So
we applaud you for all that you're doing and encouraging

(15:11):
others to get more involved in the partnerships and all.
We thank you for what you're doing, and we're glad
that you share that and with everybody that listens to
our show so we know more about what we can
do as well. And again, this is a great, great one.
It's free. It's on Wednesday, February twenty sixth at one o'clock.
Just go to her website is osmiab dot com or
you can go to pollinator dot org youta one, sign

(15:34):
up for it, get registered and enjoy a great class.
You're gonna learn all kinds of things about how to
design a be friendly gardner that all the pollinators are
going to absolutely love. Just Tina Block, always a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Thank you so much, Ron, Thank you for having me
and I'll be seeing you soon.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Sounds good. Take care all right, bye bye, And that's
just Tina Block again. Osmia Osmia B Company dot com
or pollinator dot org. Pollinator dot org should be a good,
a good one. And it's again it's it's free and
it's at one o'clock and it's Wednesday. So if you're
not doing anything at one o'clock on Wednesday, uh, and
get a register first, but sign up for it, and

(16:13):
I think that you will find some great information there.
These are the types of things. Just think, think how
things have changed over the years.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
This probably would have would have happened anyway, but came
on quicker than usual. Webinars, you know, get in together.
And you know what I know when COVID first hit
hard and nobody could get out, and so all of
a sudden it was a scrambled to what are we
gonna do? How we gonna continue to educate people? And
of course webinars, uh, you know the zoom all that
started to happen more and more, and a lot of
folks are like, man, I don't know. I even said,

(16:42):
I don't know if I can do this, If I
can just sit at my desk or wherever my computer
happens to be or and and watch a class or
something on that I just don't know if I could
do it. Well, guess what it's I can? You can
I do? And it's such a great way to now
get great information sitting right there at home, don't have

(17:03):
to travel, although that's kind of fun. But you don't
have to travel or anything. It's right there for you.
And again, most of these webinars, like she said, they
will record it and you can always go back and
watch it or forward along to some other folks as
well and share all that great information. But it's absolutely outstanding.
But again osmobe dot com or pollinator dot org, get

(17:24):
yourself signed up and check out the let me know
what you think next Saturday. If you watch it again,
it's on Wednesday, February twenty sixth at one o'clock quick break,
we come back. Phone lines are open for you. A
two to one WTVN eight hundred and six to ten
WTVN is all happening here on news radio six '
ten WTVN. So talking you're reading here on news radio

(17:49):
six ten WTVN, and Quirk's talking about those pollinators. I'm
telling you it's you know, you look at the monarch
butterflies possibly going on the you know, the extension list.
You know that you know protection, try to get them
protect a little bit more. You know, bottom line still
boils down with all the native bees and the and
the European honey bee, which by the way, we're seeing

(18:12):
some declines out there all of a sudden with that,
and Barbie Bletcher, our Queen Bee, is getting great information
together to find out kind of what's going on. But
we've seen some pretty good losses out there and we're
working to get that info together and we'll get Barbie
on here to share that with you as well. But
you know, again looking at the birds decline and all that,
it's I tell you, you know, we talk about planting

(18:33):
trees as the like the biggest benefit, you know, the
one thing you could do to really have a major
impact on this mother Earth. What would it be, and
that would be obviously doing all of the great things,
but planting a tree or two or three every year
and very very important and a lot of those trees
very very important to the natural habitat for a lot
of these critters that we're talking about, the bats and

(18:56):
the butterflies, and the and the bees and the and
the birds and the whole nine yards, very very important.
And if you look at the reasons for decline and
all of these, you know, like with the honeybee, you know,
the verroa might it is definitely at the top of
the list. Has been a major issue, no doubt about it.
But they're working on it. But the next one lack

(19:16):
of habitat. Butterflies, lack of habitat, birds, lack of habitat.
Now there are other issues too that are causing the decline,
but it still boils down to lack of habitat. And
that's where it's important for us, all of us, step
up to the plate here and start working to redo
our yards and our gardens. To think more about these

(19:39):
beneficial critters out there. I want to say critters because
I want to include the birds and the bats and
all of the pollinators that are out there. And if
you create a pollinator garden, if you create a butterfly garden,
if you garden for the birds, like we had a
couple of weeks ago, great book on the gardening for birds.

(20:00):
You know, if you do all of that, it all,
it brings all of these beneficials together. It brings all
of them, you know, you help them all out. And
just like going to this webinar on Wednesday and enjoying
that learning more about it, you help all of these
critters out by doing trying to bring back some of
these habitats, whether it be in a container, whether it

(20:21):
be in a window box, whether it be in your
yard and garden your lawn, changing it into more of
a flowering lawn, taking up more lawn and getting rid
of more lawn, and increasing your planting beds. These all
kind and you're, of course you're gardening practices as well,
all come back to help increase the habitat and more
acceptable habitat for bringing these populations back up again. And

(20:44):
it's up to you and me. Nobody else is going
to do it. It's up to you and me to
do that. And we got to work together. Homeowner associations.
You get a meeting, you know, have somebody come in
and talk about this, talk about the things you could
do with your your subdivision, community, your city, your town,
you know, whatever it may be to become more pollinator, beneficial, insect,

(21:07):
bird bat all of those, all of the above friendly,
and again it's up to us and nobody else going
to do it. You and I have to do it.
And that's why we're going to continue to talk about
it as long as we're on this air. Before we
take a break, Luis, good morning, Hello, good morning, good morning.

Speaker 4 (21:30):
I'm just calling to refresh your memory. Last last year,
I called about day lily's growing in ivy, Yes, and
we whacked them off all year long. And that was
the second year that I've done that, and they were
relatively skimpy, but I got no flowers because I kept

(21:52):
whacking off the leaves as they regrew. And I'm hoping
for them to be pretty much gone. Do you think
that the evolves will be gone at some point or
do you think those keeps keeps coming back despite the
fact that they're not getting the energy from the sun.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Well, the thing about the thing about day lily is
the fact that you know they are tough. They are durable,
as you well know. And even though you're you know,
doing what you can and you're doing the right thing
because you've got the ivy bed, you don't want to
uh to destroy the ivy bed. So you know, just
keeping the foliage from growing is the best thing you

(22:31):
can do because you're starving those roots to death. So
will you get more to pop up? I'll almost I
would probably bet yeah, you're still going to see a
few pop up here and there. But you know, again,
what you're doing is the you know without like I say,
spraying the the ivy is the best way to go
at it now, one thing, early on before the ivy

(22:52):
puts out new growth, and if you can see if
the if the lily starts to pop up in that ivy,
before the ivy starts to put out a new growth,
if you could go down where that's starting to pop
up and put like a I don't know, some kind
of take the bottom out of a one leader pop bottle,
not the big ones, but the one leader pop bottle
and take the top off and slide that over top

(23:14):
of the day lily foliage. And so what you're doing
is you can spray like clean up round up kills
all down in there and spray that foliage without getting
on your ivy. You could go through and spray them also.
Now that goes into the root system as well, and
that'll help you out too. Instead of you know, whacking
them off all the time. You can do that early

(23:34):
on before the new tender foliage comes out on that ivy.
That may help you out a little bit as well.
But I think Luis, you're gonna be I'm gonna I
would bet yes, you're gonna still see a few more
pop up here and there. But the again, as soon
as you see them, make sure you get rid of
that foliage so that we continue to starve those roots
to death and eventually, eventually it will stop growing. But

(23:56):
they're tough, they're durable, they're persistent, but you just have
to be as persistent and even more so. But you
get them under control.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
Well. I actually, I actually have five different areas with
large ivy growth, and it does a heck of a job.
But I actually believe a real small spray bottle then
would let the blief get a little bit more up

(24:25):
in the air and then just walk along and spray spray, spray,
and they might kill him.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Like you said, yep, And you think of it as
with ivy. Is this pretty tough. When you go to
use something like roundup or kills all, you'll burn some
of the leaves that are right there, but you won't
kill out the ivy bed. But I always try to
protect them a little bit with some kind of a
sleeve and you just spray it, pull the sleeve off,
go to the next one, pull the sleeve off, work
your way through. And again, what that's doing for you

(24:51):
is it's also going through the foliage and down into
some of the roots as well, and that's going to
help you out quite a bit too.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
So I just be.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Persistent and keep us posted how and let me know
we get into the spring season, let me know how
many more you see you pop it up. I'm curious.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
I will definitely because we probably have a thousand.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
All right, Well, keep me posted, all right, good talking
with you. Before we take a break. I do want
to say a special thank you to everybody down at
the Central Ohio Home and Garden Show, especially the folks
at Columbus Tree Andrew Miller, Mike Siebert. Appreciate your hospitality
having us there at the Boots, Steve Buzza for having
us down there as well. Had a great time, great

(25:31):
sea in the gardens. It is this weekend today and tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the last day, so if you haven't been
down there yet, check it out. It is definitely spring
at the Central Iile Home and Garden Show. Always have
a great time. It's a great kickoff for the spring
season for me, just smelling that mall, smelling those tulips
and the daffodils and all of those. So you know,

(25:52):
again you got today and you've got tomorrow and they
still have plenty of things going on on the garden
stage and on the home stage as well. Be sure
and check that out. And by the way, folks at
Columbus Tree, again, we appreciate that, and we're going to
be at their site, their location doing our show. I
think that's April twenty six. It's it's the Friday, Saturday
after Arbor Day, so it'll be fun to go out there.

(26:14):
And if you've never been out there before, it's a
little bit of a drive. But come on out and
see us. Mark your counts for April twenty six, Columbus Tree.
All right, we'll take a quick break when we come back.
Nancy and Dana, you're coming up next, taking your calls
at eight two to one wtv IN here on news
Radio six ten wtv IN. It's a great song to
be doing, like the kitchen shuffle, doing a little cooking

(26:38):
and sliding across the floor, loving it. Talking to you
yarding here on news radio six to ten wtv IN.
By the way, during the break in honor of our
show today with talking about the bees and the pollinator
report and all that, Ella wore her b socks in today.
She has her b socks on all covered with yellow bees.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
Nice, very good sense. I had no idea about you.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
You had you didn't know, and then there you are,
as always your sixth sense, always there for her. But yes,
she got her a be socks on today. So very nice,
very good. I appreciate that pee's chapstick onto jeel peach.
You just you got it all covered bees wax. That
bees wax, I tell you. Let's see, we're gonna go

(27:24):
back to the guarding phone lines. Is this, by chance
one of the nicest ladies in the world, Nancy Walsh?

Speaker 3 (27:31):
This is Nancy, But I don't know that I'm the
nicest lady in the world.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Wow, I put just one of the nicest ones. How's that?

Speaker 5 (27:38):
Well?

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Thank you and I love talking to you and your staff.
It's wonderful. And you know what, I agree with you.
I was at the Home and Garden show yesterday, absolutely wonderful.
I love to smell malt, and then the smell of
those flowers yep, and then the smell of this one
vendor who was rubbing hen cream or joint cream on

(28:00):
everything hurts. I was on sensory smelling overload yesterday.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
Ah.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
I love it. It is fun to go down there.
I'll tell you what it is. It truly is for
me as a kickoff for the spring season.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
Oh it is.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
I have another kickoff for everybody. Okay, now, the Columbus
Park of Roses. Yes, we call it fireworks in February.
What it is, the witch hazel is now blooming. For
people who don't know what witch hazel is, it's a bush,
a shrub, and it has beautiful, beautiful, vibrant colors. And

(28:36):
each little bloom looks like a little exploding firecracker on stems,
and it's unusual looking and it's beautiful and it happens
to be the most colorful, only blooming thing in the
Park of Roses. Right now. It started blooming. Oh usually
middle of February. We'll stay blooming through later into March.

(29:01):
And with this warm weather coming this through this next
week when it warms. When it gets warm, it's a
fantastic citrus fragrance. So you can smell it. If you
can't find it, just get your sniffer up and start smelling.
It's at the whole the length of the garden, on

(29:22):
the far north side. It's not within the garden. It's
on the far north side of the garden. So don't
think it's going to be within the rosebushes. It's far
north side of the garden. Well worth going there walking around,
walk in the past now that they're all cleared off
and just having a great day.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
And of course you can always visit their website. It's
Parkerrooses dot com right or dot org. I always going
to confuse parkerrosest org and guess what our plant of
the week this week? And on our website we always
have a planet pick of the week happens to be
Witch Hazel.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
How wonderful, wonderful.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yeah, So if folks want to see you can go
to our website at Ron Wilson online dot com and
we've got I got a couple of pictures there of
Arnold's Promise and Diane, both of our intermediate types. But yeah,
we happen to pick them because they are starting to
flower in several areas and we'll give us some great
color over the next several weeks. And of course one

(30:24):
of the things that a lot of folks don't realize
with that too, is the fragrant flower. You got to
get up. You know, you can smell them when they're open.
You can smell them and they will close up. When
it gets real cold, it kind of opens and closes.
And if it's forty five to fifty degrees and the
bees are out, guess what they will go to? The
uh to the witch hazel flowers as well. So that's
a good one for a very early feeding. But I

(30:45):
think witch hazel is way underused in the landscape, way.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
Underused, and it's it's beautiful because it's usually the only
thing blooming you know, around it, so it does stand
out fall.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Colors as well. I used to have one and it
was a vally eight on a fence and it got
such a golden yellow spectacu. I mean, it was just
spectacular fall color. You almost had to have sunglasses on
when the thing was in color was so bright. But again,
if you want to see, I got a couple of
pictures posted. But that happens to be our plant pick
of the week also, so you can go to Ron
Wilson online dot com and see what which looks like

(31:20):
if you're not familiar with it, or better yet, visit
it in person at the Columbus Park of Roses.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yes, and my other pitch is for everybody's tend to
get out in their yard if you don't have a yard,
or you want to do more, be a volunteer. This
is my pitch.

Speaker 4 (31:37):
Now.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
We love volunteers. We had about one hundred volunteers last year.
If your interest is in roses, perennials, herbs or annuals,
you can work in any of those gardens. Again, you
can go to our website. There's a phone number on there.
You can call me at six four or five three

(31:58):
three one. I will help you out. No experience necessary,
and I would say probably the only requirement is that
you need to be able to get down on your
knees and get back up again.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Well, that could be. That could lembits a few of
us there. But you know they have nice gardening stools.

Speaker 3 (32:18):
Yes, and you use those.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yeah, the benches that you can carry on with you.

Speaker 3 (32:23):
We have jobs of raking things like that that you
don't have to be down on your hands and knees.
But it's a wonderful group, very social. They're the happiest
bunch I've ever worked with.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Well, that's because they get to work with you.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
You are so good.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
That's one of the best benefits of the whole thing
is not only you get the experience and working with
a lot of other great people, but you get to
meet Nancy Walsh, who was one of the nicest ladies
in the world.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Thank you. Now I have a personal question for you.
That's my own personal yard. Last year you recommended the
salvia called Victoria to me. I planted about twenty of them.
It was the most beautiful thing in my neighborhood. The
whole bed glowed. It glowed into late fall. So where

(33:14):
they were the annuals. But I left him in there
because you said sometimes they come back, right. I didn't
even have time to cut them back. So they're still standing.
What should I should I go in now, cut them
back and see if they come if they.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Pop up, now I just leave them alone. Let's just
let's just wait for a while. Let's get till the
weather starts to get a little more consistent as far
as breaking and get a little bit warmer, and then
you can go in and see what's left. Usually you
wind up cutting them back to the ground.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Sometimes I've had some of the bottom leaves stay on
there and and look okay, But most of the time
they come right back up from the root system and
it's it, you know, it's it's on a borderline in
a six a six big situation, and if it's protected enough.
I times I've had them come back two or three
years in a row, so I wouldn't do anything yet,
I just kind of hold on. Leave that old foolis there.

(34:06):
Sometimes that kind of helps it stay a little bit
heartier as we go through these ups and downs. But again,
you get into late March or so then and we
seem to be doing okay as far as the weather.
Then I look to cut it back and see what
happens and keep me posting, which I know you will.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
You know what, you have always given me the most
wonderful advice, and I sincerely appreciate it. You are one
of the nicest men that I know.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Oh, here we go. All right, Well, I'll send you
the check. I'll send you the check later.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Okay, have a wonderful day.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
Hey, good talking with you. Always a pleasure. Dana, got
about a minute to go.

Speaker 5 (34:43):
Here's a gentleman who I haven't drive more of the day.
Trust apply, and I'm farming flat or a flight and farm.
You can buy the brush killing pellant or trick killing pelot.
I'm telling them to get them and drop them a
few down my plan and water it in and that
will take care of it and then it'll never come back.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
So you can drop it down in the center of
the plant.

Speaker 5 (35:06):
You have to drop it down right around if you
want to, and just water it in. And well, those
things will kill anything.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
And it doesn't affect the ivy.

Speaker 5 (35:16):
I don't know about that.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
I'd see that.

Speaker 5 (35:18):
I don't know. Well, that's like you said, ivy is
very hardy and they pull come back.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
Yeah, he won't come back, right.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
I have to check and see what that is as
far as a chemical, because yeah, we don't want to
harm on my ivy. But that's a good point, and
that's something you could drop. You can also swipe that
stuff on, you know, if you had the kills all
or whatever, you can also put that on a brush
or on a glove cotton glove and just swipe it
on there too, and that usually keeps it pretty well concentrated.
Good tip.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
Dana.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Appreciate the call. Awakes pleasure hearing from you. All right,
take care, All right, We're going to take a quick
break at top of the hour here and we come back.
Got another book for you. Now, you probably have heard
this book before. If you've been doing any kind of
gardening or reading any books. Because it's been around for
forty years. This is the fourth edition. It's the all
new Square Foot Gardening, fourth edition. And every time they

(36:05):
update this thing, it just gets better and better all
the time. Great projects in here. They update the pictures,
they update the projects and the information so it's more current.
But you know, here's a book that's been around for
forty years. They keep updating. It's still around. I told
you what a great book it is. We'll talk about
that after the break, and you're gonna love it, trust me.

(36:27):
Talking about gardening here on news Radio six y ten
WTVN