Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy talking about yarding. Don't forget our website,
it's Ron Wilson Online dot com. Of course Facebook page
in the Garden with Ron Wilson as well. Now, every
year we have this young man on our show to
kind of give us an update on well, if you're
into growing giant pumpkins, this is the man we like
(00:21):
to talk to because he is our giant pumpkin growing expert,
and it's always fun to find out how the weather
affects them. Where we are right now, because you know,
sometime in September and October they're going to be harvesting
these pumpkins that way more than a Volkswagen, so we're
gonna find out. Yeah, I am right there, and of
course he has been with us, like I said many
(00:43):
many years. Today's broadcasting to us live from a unnamed
campground in the state of Ohio. We're not going to
tell you where he is because everybody would flock to
find him, but he's camping out this morning. Jerry Rose,
Good morning, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Good morning Ron. A sweet smell me, let me clarify. First,
I'm camping about ten miles from my house because you
can't be too far from the pumpkins. That I'm actually
at home right now getting ready to spray for bugs
and diseases.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Oh well, that was my third question. The first question
was can you smell the blackstone grills firing up already
with pancakes and and bacon.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
That will be in a couple three hours. I it's
my wife knows this time of the year, you don't
go real far away from home because I can put
sixty eight hours, six to eight hours a day into
the plants if I want to, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So I'm just I'm just telling you. This is Jerry Rose,
who also sleeps with his pumpkins. We'll talk more about
that later. Second question was you have to have like
a huge recycling container at your campground for all those
global cans or whatever. You guys decided that.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
There's a few. I had a few around the campfire
last night. Yeah, it's the pumpkin girl. I don't we
don't drink. You ain't got time for that, but you know,
in your camp and you can sit around the fire
and have a few, that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And third then My question was how can you go
camping when you've got those precious pumpkins back at home?
But you've already answered that one.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, It's like I said, I'll be home till probably
about ten o'clock this morning, and I said, as soon
as we hang up, I got water and all my
spray is ready to go for you know, the bugs
and diseases, which haven't been too bad yet. We've been
getting some cucumber, beetles and and other Other than that,
the biggest test I'm having right now, and me and
him are fighting and we're gonna have a war here quickly.
I've already had a war as a groundhog.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Uh uh, yeah, you need to call me in, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That was my I got two strands of electric fence
around the patch the other day, and I got live
traps and cond of bears, and we're gonna we're gonna
get him here eventually.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
You know. That was my nickname back in the when
I was in the school at high school. Yeah, it
was the groundhog. That was my seev name. Because the
farmers actually hired me to help exterminate the groundhogs on
there arms.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I do that too. I mean they can occasionally get
lead poison, but I haven't seen this one long enough
to get him yet yet.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
No, it could be tough talking with Jerry Rose. Of course.
If you want to learn more about all this, go
to Big Pumpkins dot com. Great website. You'll see Jerry's
name and articles and all kinds of stuff on there
for you. So let's get everybody as First of all,
a summary from twenty twenty four, which you when I
saw you in October at the way off in at Oakland,
you were not the happiest camper of all campers when
(03:31):
it comes to the pumpkins. But at the when it
was all said and done, of course, the Stelts did
extremely well.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Uh yeah, he did really well.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh my gosh, Carol did I don't know what Dave did,
but you wound up. You wound up coming in, if
I'm not mistaken, seventy sixth in the world with a
nineteen eighty three and a half pound pumpkin.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah. I wasn't too bad. I was expecting that. You know,
you always hear us talking. We call what we go chart,
go heavy, go light. My pumpkin estimated at nineteen eighty three,
was estimating a little over twenty two hundred pounds, and
you know, I was hoping for at least a two
thousand pounder, and it went what we call light, so
you know it. You know, I think my measurements. When
(04:16):
I took that to our show in Canfield, I was
estimated to be in fourth place and ended up being
an eighth place because some other guys went heavy. I
went light, even though when I had down to Oakland Nursery,
you should have been was just slightly smaller. It should
have been just under twenty two hundred pounds, and it
went eighteen eighty five. So yeah, I was a little frustrated.
I'm trying a few different little things this year with
I don't we don't fur live a lot, but you know,
(04:38):
a few different things. One of the big things that's
talking amongst some of the girls now is getting the
boron levels up in your soil and in your plants
a little bit. You gotta be very careful for borol.
You'll kill them too. But it's also your big what
do they call it the highway. It makes the highway
through the plant to get the calcium and everything. And
we know calcium helps make our pumpkins heavy. If we
can and keep them from splitting two.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Well, and when you say it didn't, you know, it
weighed in the light, and in course they guesstimate before
they weigh these. Uh, there's a reason for doing that.
We won't get into all that, but you know it
came in light. It came in light because of just
didn't have the meat inside that you thought was going
to be there. I mean, is that what the boiler
Dad wasn't.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, must just not as dense. You know. I wish
I knew if I knew what I could do to
make them go heavy. You know Dave when Dave had
that biggest in the world last year at what twenty
seven thirty one, that was only uske to not only
but it was estimating I think around twenty five hundred
pounds or something like that, maybe even a little bit smaller.
So he went what we call way heavy.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Well, yeah, you know, and I was looking at that
because I according to the chart, it was twenty three
to twelve that he was estimate what it was. Yeah,
and it came in at twenty seven thirty one and
a half. Yep. Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
So that's what that's what our ultimate goal is to
get them to go heavy like that, and I'm trying
a few things, and uh, you know, I always pour
the water to them a lot, you know. And then
even though we've out of you know, I'm sure you
guys too, and been one of our wettest springs in
a long time. I'm growing in the high tunnel. I
don't get none of that. So I'm I'm been watering.
(06:10):
But last year I was putting roughly, you know, one
hundred plus gallons a day on each plant, and uh,
but I was noticing a lot of root rot problems
towards the end of the season and that so I'm
cutting back this year to around sixty to seventy gallons
per plant. And because one of the old theories we
all have theories, is the more water you pour to them,
the heavier they're going to be when we go to
(06:32):
that chart, you know, because you know water, hopefully you'll
suck that water up. But I don't think so. A
nice talking to Dave and he said he was only
putting on around sixty to seventy gallons on each plant
last year, So we're going I'm actually gonna cut back
on my watering a little bit this year.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Interesting talking with Jerry Rose. He is our giant pumpkin
grower world known. Everybody knows Jerry Rose and the super
nice guy, and he does sleep with his pumpkins. By
the way, when the time comes along that you're protecting him,
he grabs all the blankets and he's out there and
it's an agreement he and missus Rose have, just like
when they go camping. Then he's got to go ten
(07:05):
miles away so he can come back and check his babies. Now,
you know, before we take a break here, you're talking
about you're growing yours now in a high tunnel versus
in an open field or an open patch. So folks
understand what is a high tunnel.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's just basically a big greenhouse thirty by one hundred
and eighty foot long, thirty foot wide. But mine all
the sides roll up six foot plus on the sides,
so like right now I can I'm standing here, I
can look at it. You know, all my sides are
open and everything. I got a shade cover over the top,
shade cover on the sides to keep it from getting
too hot. And but if it's weather's going to get
(07:41):
bad or it's a really cold night, I can close
the sides down.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
And there's no heat inside there, right you let it? Yeah,
you could have one.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
That's the next thing. Yeah, I guess gotta just gotta
get out there and get a put a put a
furnace in there, especially for the spring and fall.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And the advantages of doing this obviously is that you
can get hopefully an early start and protected from me
the colder weather.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yes, and the rain. I mean it's like as what
as we've had. And you know, my boy Jerry's got
his plants over next door and they're just they're just
swamped out because of you know, a couple of weeks
ago we had like six plus inches over a week,
you know, and even last week we had two or three.
It's this week seems like it's finally drying out a
little bit, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Hm. Wow. Talking with Jerry Rose again in the Big
Pumpkins dot com. If you want to check out the website,
it's absolutely outstanding. You actually, so folks understand this too.
You control everything from the beginning to the end, and
you including in choosing the seeds, starting the plants, choosing
(08:42):
the plants, and even choosing the flowers that stay on
the plant and which ones get pollinated and you do
that as well.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh yeah, we hand pollinate, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I try to look when I cross pollinate. I try
to look for my what cause you don't know what
the plant's going to produce at the end of the year.
So I for traits in that plant to cross with
the female. Take the males off of one plant and
and cross the female. Like this year, one of my
nicest plants was out of Quinn Warners. What do you
call him? The godfather?
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Godfather?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, yeah, And I took the some some piling from
his plant to most of mine because I just really
like the traits and his plant that I'm hoping to
carry on to the next generation.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And as you well, you picked usually two or three
of the males. You peel the flour off and uh
and literally literally roll them around in the.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Female And yeah, but your pumpk is not next to his.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You gotta walk down the paths, you gotta cut him off,
walk down the patch, and you know, and then when
it's all said and downe you put a cool I
put a when he hot like this, I put a
little styrofoam cooler with three three Gatorade bottles of frozen
water in there.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
To keep it cool.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You know, it gets all steamed up and there you
got to keep it cooled off when you're done.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Is it the pumpkin or getting steamed up? I don't want,
I don't want the answer. Giant Pumpkin Grower and of
course Big Pumpkins Dot in the past, and what they're
shooting for this year is take a quick break, we
come back. We'll find out more about where we stand
right now with these giant pumpkins with Jerry Rose here
in the garden with Ron Wilson, special guest this morning.
(10:14):
Mister Jerry Rose is with us. He's our giant pumpkin
grower again Big Pumpkins dot Com. If you want to
check it out, Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I just set up my rain barrels forty five hundred
gallon tanks underneath my gutters and big enough.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I was geez, I was gonna say I was. Actually
that's one of my Are you reading my list of
questions here today? One of my questions was, you know,
with you as much water as you have to provide
those pumpkins, you know, whether you call it actually collected.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Water into the first year, I got a fifty by
seventy five build in a thirty six by eighty build
and plus my house, and I got all the gutters
going into a little volley been there for years, and
I just went to an auction, bought some tanks and
got them all set up. And the thing is, I
set them up just in the last week or so.
(11:03):
We haven't had much rain. I've been able to sell
them up pretty much once and I've already used all
the water, and uh so now I'm back to using
well water. So now now I'm atterly the point where
but hopefully you know, I kind of got them if
I got the mass figured out and we get about
a third of an inch of rain with all my
buildings all fill them tanks.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
So wow, that's unbelievable. So is this the water you're
talking about giving those on a daily basis? Does that
continue right up until you harvest to go to the
to the wayoffs now.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Usually start slowing down towards the end a little bit
because they're not absorbing months don't dry as much. And
that's what I said. I had the root rot problems
last year, and the boy Jerry is like, you know,
you got actually got spots out here in your past
where you got like moss growing on the ground. Yeah,
so I think I'm a little too wet. That's why
we're cutting back a little bit this year.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Got it now, Well, you showed me some pictures last
week so I could get an idea where you were
right now. A couple questions I had when I looked
in there. Obviously I only see a few pumpkin scattered,
and that's off for purpose because it's what one or
two pumpkins per plant, right.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
One per plant. I'm down to one per plant now, ok. Yeah,
and they're growing pretty good. The oldest one is, uh
what am I now? It's a little over two weeks old,
actually a little over twenty days old, and we're probably
about two hundred and fifty pounds.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
That thing is two weeks old.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yep, geez, yep. They're growing. They're growing good right now.
I don't like all these ninety degree days. It kind
of burns a little bit. But you know, eighty I
always say about eighty two, eighty three and then a
sixty three degree nights perfect temperature, and like you know,
just like you guys, I think we've had ninety three
ninety four. Quite a few days in the last couple
of weeks.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You know, I feel the air conditioner coming in that
high tunnel.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
It's not to do that before, for we don't have
air condition of these windows in our house. My wife
will kill me.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, I don't think that would be a good idea.
Talking about Jerry Rose, he is our giant pumpkin grower,
I also noticed a couple of things. One is obviously
there weren't a lot of other flowers. Is going on
in there, And I sent you a picture of our
volunteer again pump pumpkin came up. That thing's of course
right now, flowering like crazy, all mostly males. Every now
and then we get the female. But do you go
(13:11):
through a hand cut all those out of there.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I don't worry about the males, but I do take
all the females. But you know, as any cocurbent plant,
you know, you get your main vine, then we call it,
you get your secondary vines, and anything off the secondary
we called tertiaries. And so we leave the main vine
and the secondaries. And then every three or four days
I go out there and your pension between the leafs
(13:36):
and the and the secondary vine to get that tertiary
vine out before it starts to grow, or just it's
just starting to grow. And a lot of the time
the little male flowers coming up at the same time,
so a lot of the times it does get pinched
off when it's just starting to form there. But I'm
not worried about the males as much as making sure
that all the there's only one female on the plants,
all of them will be gone.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Do you bread those and fry those?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
No?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I know you fulks here, that's cannibalism.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Do you eat pumpkin pie? And Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Sa ain't my favorite, but I have.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I love it. Talking with Jerry Rose our giant pumpkin
grow again Big pumpkins dot com if you want to
check it out. All right, so I got now I
got a personal question. Our pumpkin our volunteer this time
is right by the sidewalk. It was in the landscape
bed for the last couple of years. Now this one's
out by the sidewalk. I can I can do what
you were talking about. I can actually trim the end
of those vines right to keep it going on.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Once you get yeah, oh yeah, you get a pumpkin
set on there first.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, we got about six pumpkins on it already, so well.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
You're gonna bring it into competition and give us some competition.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
These are pie pumpkins. Oh they're little. They're a little. Now,
I'm not in competition. They're little guys. But I can
trip those off so they don't go onto the sidewalk right.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Exactly, exactly, keep them trimmed back, you know. I mean
we even have a contest now, and it's more for
for people that don't have much room, such maybe as
yourself or whatever. They call it one hundred and fifty
square foot contest where your plant can only get to
be one hundred and fifty square foot. You got to
take pictures and document it and everything. And last year
guy on one hundred and fifty square foot plant, I can't.
I'm growing. I'm growing one of them. It's ten by fifteen.
(15:13):
I'm leaving a ten foot wide by fifteen foot long.
But a guy last year had one, I think it
was just shy of fifteen hundred pounds one hundred fifty
square foot pumkin plant.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Wow, that's unbelievable. Hey, Jerry Rose, always great talking with you.
I have so many questions. We were always run out
of time. Again, if you want to learn more about
this and get involved, it's a lot of fun. These
giant pumpkin growers are always available to help you out.
That'll answer questions for you. It's amazing. I mean new
people we meet at the way off at Oakland in
(15:41):
Columbus every year that just started doing it, coming in
with three hundred and five hundred, eight hundred pound pumpkins
for Jerry. If it's just sixteen hundred pounds or less,
it's a throwaway, which just kind of boggles my mind.
And by the way, he does more than that. Last
year he came in eighteenth in the world with a
six point seven pound tomato, which is heard of as well. Hey,
(16:01):
we'll keep us posted. We'll get back with you in
about a month and a half. Find out where we
stand at that stage, and keep working till we get
to uh right before the wayoffs.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
All right, Ron, have a good, good day, stay cool,
all right, have.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
A great weekend. Jerry Rose again, our giant pumpkin grower.
You can learn more about all this at big Pumpkins
dot com and if you go on there you can
see the charting with all the different weights for the pumpkins.
For the field pumpkins, by the way, there's a difference
in the categories there. He's a major contender in the
field pumpkins, the long Gorge. He does all that stuff.
(16:34):
But a six point six pound tomato, uh, seven point
seven that's pretty good sized tomato. Anyway, We'll keep posting
with Jerry as we do in the past, find out
how is the pumpkins are coming along. But I cannot
believe what I saw was only two to three weeks old.
That thing is huge already. All right, quick break, we
come back. The doctor's in town, Doctor Alan apple arm
at Age. Yeah, hit me with us here in the
(16:56):
garden with Ron Wilson, because I promised he is back
with us. Can you believe this, ladies and gentlemen, This
has got to be a record. He's been on our
show so many times. I cannot believe it. You know
who I'm talking about. He's a professor emeritus of Horticulture,
University of Georgia. His latest books, of course, The Field Guide,
especially Cut Flowers, Herbaceous Perennial Plants as Gardening app is
(17:20):
the best ever armed. He just great garden plants, he's
getting another award next week. Unbelievable. Gonna have to bike
a bigger house to put all of his awards. Ladies
and gentlemen, the one, the only, Doctor Alan Apple Armitage,
Sit down, sit down. She's all these Ohio people, they're
(17:44):
all standing and applauding and can't wait for you when
you get into coming to Columbus. What is that in
the week.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yes, it is that the big horticulture show called Cultivate
is in Columbus and gosh, yeah that's next weekend. So yeah,
I'll be, I'll be, I'll be close to your to
your home. Well, we'll no, I'll look forward to seeing
anybody who's out there.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
The population of Ohio will increase knowing that doctor Allan
Armony's will be in Columbus, Ohio. By the way, it
was interesting to learn that you'd rather visit garden centers
than grocery shop.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Well that's a given, isn't it. I mean, I mean,
not only did they look better, they they don't make
you fat.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Here I love that. Here I am watching an interview
with doctor Allan Armonies and he says, you know what,
I just really encourage growers to visit garden centers to
learn more. But I'd rather, you know, I'd visit. I'd
rather do that than go to a grocery store.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Okay, well, well that's the thing is the thing ain't
Roden and many of the listeners you know, just doesn't
be listening to you for so long. Understand that to
get a plant to the local garden center, there's a
whole bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes. Somebody
has to breed, if somebody has to grow, if somebody
has to know do all those things. And as a grower,
(19:04):
and we you know, you and I have been in
many many greenhouses. It's so lovely when your greenhouse is empty.
You know, that means all your product has been sold
and people like it. But most times, I said, most times,
you know, the person who has done the growing and
all not really actually sure what that thing looks like
when it's in somebody's gardens or the garden center. So
that was my point, wasn't you should do anything more
(19:26):
than they're doing. My point is, you know, these plants
that we grow from a seed or from a cutting
or from whatever. Gosh, they're just so sectacular once they
get in the garden and it's nice to sort of,
you know, look and see what you've been doing and
how well you've been doing it.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, and it's you're right. I mean. And the communication
there between growers and garden centers and and the people
to buy the plants and plant them in their own
gardens is a very important chain there to stay in
touch with. So and of course they're the beginning of
the whole thing. So no, I thought it was well taken.
I just well, I just thought, you know, I figured
you'd be the kind of guy I wanted to go
to the grocery store and do some grosser for shopping, like, yeah,
(20:02):
there you go. Do you like to talk to people
with people at Costco?
Speaker 3 (20:04):
So? I mean there you you know, Oh gosh, oh god.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Now what I am expecting in your next interview is
to grab that acoustic guitar that's behind you and sing
a few songs while you're doing the interview.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I'll write a song about this great industry and the
great gardeners and and people we meet. You know. It'll
be calleding. I can't believe who I see. Well, we'll
just have fun. But anyway, I I pitdle around with
a guitar string every now and then and sounds pretty awful.
Susan closes the door, but we have fun.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I don't blame her. I was watching a TV show
last night and I thought of you, because I think
we're going to come up with this show for you.
It was the guy's name is Anthony something. He's a
water garden installer, does pools, and he's from He's from
England or somewhere, but anyway, he's got a hat similar
to yours, I hate to say it, and he's a
(21:01):
really particular but he creates these huge, all natural pools
and ponds. And I said, you know what, that's all
we need to do with doctor Armitage. Get you know,
get him a show that where you come in, you
know how you do that, and you go into somebody's
backyard and turn it into a perennial garden.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
There we go, yeah, yeah, yeah, like yeah, that's it.
And then you know, we'll put a little bit more
g in it. That's all.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, why not? And you have your crew come in
and you know, you'd be real picky about everything, and
you know, and then have him do stuff and then
you only got two days to get it done and
what do you think We'll.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Bring the trucks in and all of a sudden it'll
be just a five in his garden and people won't
know what to do. And what we started.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I good idea. I kept watch I saying we're gonna
do this with doctor Armity's I think it'd be outstanding.
By the way, before you had you on, we had
a friend of mine who was a giant pumpkin grower
on talking about his giant pumpkins. That might be something
else you might want to try in your perennial garden
this year.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Well, I'm having enough trouble with tomatoes. I don't know
if I could do. Pumpkins are ripe, and we're having
great tomato sandwiches. So life is definitely good in the
fascinating Well that's good.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Now see here we're about three weeks behind, so we
are just now starting to find some riping tomatoes in
the garden.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Well, I don't know how you're so far behind. If
you're ninety two degrees, today's let's.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
It's catching up. It's catching up. I'll tell you talk
with doctor Allan Armitage And of course his website is
Alan Armidy's dot net check out all his great books,
and of course that garden app you can't live without it.
And you'll have doctor armitage right there in your back pocket.
So any questions come up, you got it. By the way,
I was impressed when you said coming up a storm,
mister southern man. Coming up with some of those Southern expressions,
(22:41):
they just.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
They just sort of they just catch you by surprise.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So this guy, this guy just throws me off every time.
So all right, I got some serious questions for you,
and then after the break, we'll come back and talk
a little bit about Cultivate and what we're going to
see this year. But I got a couple things for you.
First of all, I'm finishing up our landscape planting after
the show today. I'm installing three more American gold rush Rebecca.
I love that plant.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
That is a five of this plant, and I would
recommend it to anybody who well wants something that blooms
in the summer. It's bright, it works well, it's disease resistant,
it's an American native, that's a native r but it's
American roots. And all I agree with you one hundred percent.
At a great addition.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Great show and low maintenance and you're right. The least spot.
I don't see that on there, and I mean it's
a I think it was a twenty twenty three perennial
of the year.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
If i'm I think you're correct. I think you're correct,
and that means that everybody has it. So that's a
good thank you.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, yeah, you're right. But I have just absolutely loved
that plant and a container are in the ground and
then we're pretty well finished out. But the other ones
I want to throw at you is this time of
the year, I start to hear from folks I want
to hit two different types of perennials. One is it
still being The other one is coral bells. I hear
from folks who still be right now all of a sudden,
starting to get the crispy lee eaves. I'm not doing
(24:02):
so well. I love it still, bey, but I've always
that's always seemed to be a major issue to me.
If they're not maintained. Where do you come from when
it comes to a stillbey?
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Oh no, I'll still be on a scale of one
to ten for me. And again, anybody has ninety three
temperatures for me is maybe a three. And I say
that because it's fabulous in the spring. I mean, it's
Sydney cold, hardy, and it's wonderful in the spring. And
if you have sufficient rains, it loves moisture, it loves
cool and if you have dry heat and it's done
(24:32):
so good. And at this time of year they're getting crispy.
I don't even recommend them at all down here and
worse further south than you are. But even when you are,
I think they're a bit iusy. They're going to look
good for if you can just say, hey, they look
good for a while and then they go away. But
if they get real crispy in the summer, they're not
going to come back next spring. So you just have
to maintain the moisture all the time and then hide
(24:55):
them in some annuals as they get crispy.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah, And it's it's just and I was just curious
with your because I just I'm the same way. I
don't recommend them. I just don't know. And we still
grow a lot, we still sell a lot. Some folks
have success with them. If you don't keep the moisture
to them, they're not gonna They're just not gonna do it.
But it's a great flower, great foliage.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
It's a great plan and there's a lot of cultivars
and all and I think it all came you know,
how well they do in Europe and in England, and
we go visit and we see them and they do
well on the West coast, and they do well, you
know quivts further north. But you know they not all
plants work in all places. That's just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
That's a great point. Talking with doctor Allan Armitage's website
Alan armedys dot net. We come back, we'll talk about
coral bells, kind of the same questions there, and then
we'll talk about Cultivate that's coming up in Columbus, Ohio
in about another week. You can actually go there and
meet doctor Allan Armity. Wich's all happening here in the
Garden with Ron Wilson. Welcome back here in the Garden
with Ron Wilson's special guests. This morning. The doctor is
(25:54):
with us, doctor Allan Apple Armitage his website Alan armedi
dot net. Uh, and we're talking about some perennials here.
We talk about it Stillby, which is one of those
ones you just love to be able to grow, but
boy just don't seem to do all that well in
the our area. And the other one I want to
throw at you today in general, would be coral bells.
How do you feel about coral bells?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Well, you know, coral bells exploded kind of like hostas
home flowers, and they exploded everywhere. There's lots of different
colors of foliage, and so they're out there. I like
them very much. Again, they're a little bit finicky if
it gets real dry or real hot. But in general,
you know, if I that scale of one to ten,
thing for me either about a six or is maybe
(26:38):
a seven. But the key for me and perhaps for you,
or what I recommend people to do, particularly in the
winter or in the fall, is is to kind of
put soil around the crown of the coral bells, and
they then can root into that soil and that just
makes them stronger. Because after a few years they tend
to get a little i don't know what they call
(27:00):
skinny necks, and they kind of flip and flop around
a little bit. But for me, if I get five
years out of them, unhappiest. Heck yeah, well, I wrote,
they're certainly not a long lasting frangle for at least
for me.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, and I wrote that in my notes here, you know,
would you consider them a short lived perennial night three
to five years? I think you're probably right. I never
forget the first time I really grew a patch of
coral bells, and I've did them with multiple colors so
that it looked like I quilt work pattern. After the
second year, I went in there to kind of rake
a little bit in the springtime to kind of clean
out around them. Of course, I pulled half of them
(27:32):
out of the ground, you know. And I guess that's
a good point about putting the soil around there to
get them to root in them a little bit deeper.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
What about Yeah, they're not deeply rooted, that's the thing.
And the other thing too, Ron, is that cross between
yukaro or coral bells and this foamy bells called tiarella
is called you corella.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Wait a minute, that's my next lie, that's my next question.
You're reading my notes too.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
You have noted.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I actually had notes here today.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
O my god.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Well my next question. Well, first of all, one is
you'll find them labeled. And I think this gets very confusing.
You go to any book anyway, they're labeled sun to
part shade. Oh god, yeah, And I really don't look
at them as a sun plant. I mean as a
full sun but yet but yet we all labeled them
as sun to part sun.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah. Well, for what it's worth, And not that I'm
going to let the cat of the bag here, but
you and I are going to talk about this later on.
I have a new book coming out in the fall,
and it's called The Common Sense Gardener, and it's common
sense O here, you know, what the heck does even
sun or shade even mean? But but we'll go there
at another time. So I want to answer those questions
(28:46):
all the time comes. But the fact is, all the
coral bells and the fully bells and all those things,
they are not full sun plants. They absolutely do not
do They do not do well with afternoon sun. You know.
Essentially that's what sun and shade simply mean. Keep them
in or keep them out of afternoon sun. The morning
sun is not an issue. So yeah, I agree with
(29:07):
you one hundred percent. It should not be labeled sun
or it should be labeled keep them out of afternoon sun.
But they'll never get that in thee.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Well, you know, I look at hydny of the hydrange.
It's the same way. I mean, you know, they'll take sun,
but on the same token if you my my recommendation,
morning sun shade in the heat of the day for
all of them, and they'll do so much better for
you in a situation like that.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
So especially with the mop head types, you know, your
grandmother's types of blues and the pinks, they absolutely do.
I mean, they do not tolerate afternoon sun terriby well,
unless they're you know, very mature. The mature plants once
they get you know, five ten years on them, they
probably tolerate anything. But boy, to get them established, keep
them out of the afternoon sun if you can.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
All right, So now let's go back to my other
question I had about here. What about the book they
when they when the tirrellas, and then of course you've
got the fukarellas and you know, you know, seem to
be a little tougher than they're hookaoes.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I in my in my experience, uh tiarella, which is
again our foam flower. Uh you know again another lovely
native plant native to the east to the Midwest. Those
are pretty good. Now they're gonna look pretty rough in
the summertime, they kind of go dormant on you. They
just kind of disappear, but they didn't come back every year. Again,
(30:25):
absolutely need afternoon shade, but these are shade tolerant plants
and they're woodland plants, and that's what you get. I
think they're pretty tough. And I think injecting that gene
tool into the coral bells to make this thing we
call foamy bells, which is yukrella, I think just makes
them tougher.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
So there you go. I'm for what it's hardness, right well,
I mean that's that's exactly what I was looking for.
And again I think it's you know, it's one of
those things where I can't wait to see this book
that the common Sense guarding because again, you know, I
look at some of the signees sometimes and I help
with ours two and that's one of the things I've
been looking to change. And unfortunately we would be the
(31:04):
only ones that say that. But that's the way it
goes because it's common sense, right.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Well, it is God. And so this book is gonna
be very small. It's gonna be less than under page
is guaranteed because common sense doesn't need a whole lot
of words, but turns up there's not a whole lot
of common sense out there when it comes to confusion
in the garden. But anyway, it's it's we'll see how
it goes, but I'll send you an advanced copy when
(31:31):
I when I get this thing done.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
All right, sounds good now, so you'll enjoy it, as
I have all of your books. As a matter of fact,
if you if you don't have any of doctor Armidy's
book you can go to his website learn all about
all of them at Alan Armonis dot net. And I
do suggest getting one of the first ones, and it
may have been the first one you wrote. It. It's
all about the hat because you learn more of where
he's coming from, and every time you listen to him
(31:54):
on our show, you'll understand him a lot more by
reading that book.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Yeah, well that was that was That was. That book
is interesting if you you know again, it's it's a
story about how I got here from there. But uh,
you know, it was fun to write, and people seem
to enjoy it, so thank you. It was. It was good.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
I shall keep waiting for part two of the Naked
Ladies and forgive.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Me nots you know, I keep getting these notes from people,
and then of course my grandmother's grandmother's yea name is
on this thing.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
And then of course it's all about It's all about apples.
I've been waiting for that one forever since we first
started talking.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
That may take a while. I I keep eating the data,
so that may take a while.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, you don't have any apple trees in your garden?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
No, no, no, no, well.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
You know better too.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, I know better. I got I go to the
farmer's market and we'll go get apples there. But tomato
is another cool thing, huh. I mean if we actually
heard how much of tomato costs us from our garden.
We never grow it, but we just do it for
the pleasure.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
It's fun. By the way, is that bacon I smell
on that black stone cooking already?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
I'll tell you what, don't even go there. I'm obsessed
with this thing.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Good. I think everybody my brother's now got a blackstone.
They're all doing their all the it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, it's just it's just fun, you know, because you
can do something quick and there's no smell and no bother.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
There you go. Doctor Allen Armidy's is with us this
morning again. Alan Armonis dot net is the website. So
you're going to be in Cultivate, which is a huge
trade show. We go every year. We learned so much.
It's funny how they started as the Ohio Florist Association
and all came together. Always been very strong with the classes.
They have always done such a great job with that
and have stuck with that. And of course the trade
(33:40):
show is phenomenal. You see a lot of new plants,
et cetera, et cetera. But you will be up there
on Friday to receive another award. Where you're gonna put
these I have no idea but from the garden Colm
on Friday night, which congratulations on that.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Thank you, Thank you the garden communications people. It's award
that says I, right, so that gardeners can understand what's
going on. Here you go, I guess there you go.
You and I are talking like that, right, So anyway,
it's lovely and I normally it's great, and I normally
only go to the Columbus for like one day, but
(34:19):
just because of this, I'm going up a little earlier.
I'm actually taking my wife with me, so that'll be good.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
I saw that. So he's going to be hanging around
Columbus over the weekend and on he's gonna be I'm
gonna let the cat out of the bag. He's going
to be walking the show on Monday. So if you're
looking for him, just stand up a little bit higher
so you can see through the crowd. Look for the
one guy with a strange hat and about one hundred
people around him as they moved like a little cloud
(34:45):
through the through the aisles, looking at all the different
plants that will be doctor Allen Apple Armities right in
the middle of that group.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
No, believe a word of it, ladies and gentlemen. I'll
be there with my hat on. But plays who come
sailor if you happen to be there.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Does missus Armities enjoy Does she go to many of these?
Does she enjoy doing this too?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
No, she has a whole lot more common sense than
most of us. No, she's only coming because I'm done
going a little bit longer. But she this pretty boring
stuff quite truthfully. Unless you're into this stuff anyway, Sure
we'll enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I love it to you, doctor Allan Armitage again. His
website is Alanarmedis dot net. Always a pleasure. We'll see
you in Columbus, sir.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Okay, right, stay in touch and I can't wait to
talk to you again.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
All right, take care, Doctor Allen Apple Armitage again Alan
Armedies dot Net. His garden app's absolutely wonderfully updates it
on a regular basis. I think it's four ninety nine
to download it, but you will love it and you'll
have doctor Allan Armitage in your back pocket.
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy talking about yarding. Don't forget our website,
it's Ron Wilson Online dot com. Of course Facebook page
in the Garden with Ron Wilson as well. Now, every
year we have this young man on our show to
kind of give us an update on well, if you're
into growing giant pumpkins, this is the man we like
(00:21):
to talk to because he is our giant pumpkin growing expert,
and it's always fun to find out how the weather
affects them. Where we are right now, because you know,
sometime in September and October they're going to be harvesting
these pumpkins that way more than a Volkswagen, so we're
gonna find out. Yeah, I am right there, and of
course he has been with us, like I said many
(00:43):
many years. Today's broadcasting to us live from a unnamed
campground in the state of Ohio. We're not going to
tell you where he is because everybody would flock to
find him, but he's camping out this morning. Jerry Rose,
Good morning, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Good morning Ron. A sweet smell me, let me clarify. First,
I'm camping about ten miles from my house because you
can't be too far from the pumpkins. That I'm actually
at home right now getting ready to spray for bugs
and diseases.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Oh well, that was my third question. The first question
was can you smell the blackstone grills firing up already
with pancakes and and bacon.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
That will be in a couple three hours. I it's
my wife knows this time of the year, you don't
go real far away from home because I can put
sixty eight hours, six to eight hours a day into
the plants if I want to, you know.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So I'm just I'm just telling you. This is Jerry Rose,
who also sleeps with his pumpkins. We'll talk more about
that later. Second question was you have to have like
a huge recycling container at your campground for all those
global cans or whatever. You guys decided that.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
There's a few. I had a few around the campfire
last night. Yeah, it's the pumpkin girl. I don't we
don't drink. You ain't got time for that, but you know,
in your camp and you can sit around the fire
and have a few, that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And third then My question was how can you go
camping when you've got those precious pumpkins back at home?
But you've already answered that one.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, It's like I said, I'll be home till probably
about ten o'clock this morning, and I said, as soon
as we hang up, I got water and all my
spray is ready to go for you know, the bugs
and diseases, which haven't been too bad yet. We've been
getting some cucumber, beetles and and other Other than that,
the biggest test I'm having right now, and me and
him are fighting and we're gonna have a war here quickly.
I've already had a war as a groundhog.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Uh uh, yeah, you need to call me in, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That was my I got two strands of electric fence
around the patch the other day, and I got live
traps and cond of bears, and we're gonna we're gonna
get him here eventually.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
You know. That was my nickname back in the when
I was in the school at high school. Yeah, it
was the groundhog. That was my seev name. Because the
farmers actually hired me to help exterminate the groundhogs on
there arms.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I do that too. I mean they can occasionally get
lead poison, but I haven't seen this one long enough
to get him yet yet.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
No, it could be tough talking with Jerry Rose. Of course.
If you want to learn more about all this, go
to Big Pumpkins dot com. Great website. You'll see Jerry's
name and articles and all kinds of stuff on there
for you. So let's get everybody as First of all,
a summary from twenty twenty four, which you when I
saw you in October at the way off in at Oakland,
you were not the happiest camper of all campers when
(03:31):
it comes to the pumpkins. But at the when it
was all said and done, of course, the Stelts did
extremely well.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Uh yeah, he did really well.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh my gosh, Carol did I don't know what Dave did,
but you wound up. You wound up coming in, if
I'm not mistaken, seventy sixth in the world with a
nineteen eighty three and a half pound pumpkin.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah. I wasn't too bad. I was expecting that. You know,
you always hear us talking. We call what we go chart,
go heavy, go light. My pumpkin estimated at nineteen eighty three,
was estimating a little over twenty two hundred pounds, and
you know, I was hoping for at least a two
thousand pounder, and it went what we call light, so
you know it. You know, I think my measurements. When
(04:16):
I took that to our show in Canfield, I was
estimated to be in fourth place and ended up being
an eighth place because some other guys went heavy. I
went light, even though when I had down to Oakland Nursery,
you should have been was just slightly smaller. It should
have been just under twenty two hundred pounds, and it
went eighteen eighty five. So yeah, I was a little frustrated.
I'm trying a few different little things this year with
I don't we don't fur live a lot, but you know,
(04:38):
a few different things. One of the big things that's
talking amongst some of the girls now is getting the
boron levels up in your soil and in your plants
a little bit. You gotta be very careful for borol.
You'll kill them too. But it's also your big what
do they call it the highway. It makes the highway
through the plant to get the calcium and everything. And
we know calcium helps make our pumpkins heavy. If we
can and keep them from splitting two.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Well, and when you say it didn't, you know, it
weighed in the light, and in course they guesstimate before
they weigh these. Uh, there's a reason for doing that.
We won't get into all that, but you know it
came in light. It came in light because of just
didn't have the meat inside that you thought was going
to be there. I mean, is that what the boiler
Dad wasn't.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah, must just not as dense. You know. I wish
I knew if I knew what I could do to
make them go heavy. You know Dave when Dave had
that biggest in the world last year at what twenty
seven thirty one, that was only uske to not only
but it was estimating I think around twenty five hundred
pounds or something like that, maybe even a little bit smaller.
So he went what we call way heavy.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Well, yeah, you know, and I was looking at that
because I according to the chart, it was twenty three
to twelve that he was estimate what it was. Yeah,
and it came in at twenty seven thirty one and
a half. Yep. Wow.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
So that's what that's what our ultimate goal is to
get them to go heavy like that, and I'm trying
a few things, and uh, you know, I always pour
the water to them a lot, you know. And then
even though we've out of you know, I'm sure you
guys too, and been one of our wettest springs in
a long time. I'm growing in the high tunnel. I
don't get none of that. So I'm I'm been watering.
(06:10):
But last year I was putting roughly, you know, one
hundred plus gallons a day on each plant, and uh,
but I was noticing a lot of root rot problems
towards the end of the season and that so I'm
cutting back this year to around sixty to seventy gallons
per plant. And because one of the old theories we
all have theories, is the more water you pour to them,
the heavier they're going to be when we go to
(06:32):
that chart, you know, because you know water, hopefully you'll
suck that water up. But I don't think so. A
nice talking to Dave and he said he was only
putting on around sixty to seventy gallons on each plant
last year, So we're going I'm actually gonna cut back
on my watering a little bit this year.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Interesting talking with Jerry Rose. He is our giant pumpkin
grower world known. Everybody knows Jerry Rose and the super
nice guy, and he does sleep with his pumpkins. By
the way, when the time comes along that you're protecting him,
he grabs all the blankets and he's out there and
it's an agreement he and missus Rose have, just like
when they go camping. Then he's got to go ten
(07:05):
miles away so he can come back and check his babies. Now,
you know, before we take a break here, you're talking
about you're growing yours now in a high tunnel versus
in an open field or an open patch. So folks
understand what is a high tunnel.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's just basically a big greenhouse thirty by one hundred
and eighty foot long, thirty foot wide. But mine all
the sides roll up six foot plus on the sides,
so like right now I can I'm standing here, I
can look at it. You know, all my sides are
open and everything. I got a shade cover over the top,
shade cover on the sides to keep it from getting
too hot. And but if it's weather's going to get
(07:41):
bad or it's a really cold night, I can close
the sides down.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
And there's no heat inside there, right you let it? Yeah,
you could have one.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
That's the next thing. Yeah, I guess gotta just gotta
get out there and get a put a put a
furnace in there, especially for the spring and fall.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And the advantages of doing this obviously is that you
can get hopefully an early start and protected from me
the colder weather.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yes, and the rain. I mean it's like as what
as we've had. And you know, my boy Jerry's got
his plants over next door and they're just they're just
swamped out because of you know, a couple of weeks
ago we had like six plus inches over a week,
you know, and even last week we had two or three.
It's this week seems like it's finally drying out a
little bit, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Hm. Wow. Talking with Jerry Rose again in the Big
Pumpkins dot com. If you want to check out the website,
it's absolutely outstanding. You actually, so folks understand this too.
You control everything from the beginning to the end, and
you including in choosing the seeds, starting the plants, choosing
(08:42):
the plants, and even choosing the flowers that stay on
the plant and which ones get pollinated and you do
that as well.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh yeah, we hand pollinate, you know.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I try to look when I cross pollinate. I try
to look for my what cause you don't know what
the plant's going to produce at the end of the year.
So I for traits in that plant to cross with
the female. Take the males off of one plant and
and cross the female. Like this year, one of my
nicest plants was out of Quinn Warners. What do you
call him? The godfather?
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Godfather?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, yeah, And I took the some some piling from
his plant to most of mine because I just really
like the traits and his plant that I'm hoping to
carry on to the next generation.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
How do you do that?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And as you well, you picked usually two or three
of the males. You peel the flour off and uh
and literally literally roll them around in the.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Female And yeah, but your pumpk is not next to his.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You gotta walk down the paths, you gotta cut him off,
walk down the patch, and you know, and then when
it's all said and downe you put a cool I
put a when he hot like this, I put a
little styrofoam cooler with three three Gatorade bottles of frozen
water in there.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
To keep it cool.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You know, it gets all steamed up and there you
got to keep it cooled off when you're done.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Is it the pumpkin or getting steamed up? I don't want,
I don't want the answer. Giant Pumpkin Grower and of
course Big Pumpkins Dot in the past, and what they're
shooting for this year is take a quick break, we
come back. We'll find out more about where we stand
right now with these giant pumpkins with Jerry Rose here
in the garden with Ron Wilson, special guest this morning.
(10:14):
Mister Jerry Rose is with us. He's our giant pumpkin
grower again Big Pumpkins dot Com. If you want to
check it out, Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I just set up my rain barrels forty five hundred
gallon tanks underneath my gutters and big enough.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I was geez, I was gonna say I was. Actually
that's one of my Are you reading my list of
questions here today? One of my questions was, you know,
with you as much water as you have to provide
those pumpkins, you know, whether you call it actually collected.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Water into the first year, I got a fifty by
seventy five build in a thirty six by eighty build
and plus my house, and I got all the gutters
going into a little volley been there for years, and
I just went to an auction, bought some tanks and
got them all set up. And the thing is, I
set them up just in the last week or so.
(11:03):
We haven't had much rain. I've been able to sell
them up pretty much once and I've already used all
the water, and uh so now I'm back to using
well water. So now now I'm atterly the point where
but hopefully you know, I kind of got them if
I got the mass figured out and we get about
a third of an inch of rain with all my
buildings all fill them tanks.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
So wow, that's unbelievable. So is this the water you're
talking about giving those on a daily basis? Does that
continue right up until you harvest to go to the
to the wayoffs now.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Usually start slowing down towards the end a little bit
because they're not absorbing months don't dry as much. And
that's what I said. I had the root rot problems
last year, and the boy Jerry is like, you know,
you got actually got spots out here in your past
where you got like moss growing on the ground. Yeah,
so I think I'm a little too wet. That's why
we're cutting back a little bit this year.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Got it now, Well, you showed me some pictures last
week so I could get an idea where you were
right now. A couple questions I had when I looked
in there. Obviously I only see a few pumpkin scattered,
and that's off for purpose because it's what one or
two pumpkins per plant, right.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
One per plant. I'm down to one per plant now, ok. Yeah,
and they're growing pretty good. The oldest one is, uh
what am I now? It's a little over two weeks old,
actually a little over twenty days old, and we're probably
about two hundred and fifty pounds.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
That thing is two weeks old.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yep, geez, yep. They're growing. They're growing good right now.
I don't like all these ninety degree days. It kind
of burns a little bit. But you know, eighty I
always say about eighty two, eighty three and then a
sixty three degree nights perfect temperature, and like you know,
just like you guys, I think we've had ninety three
ninety four. Quite a few days in the last couple
of weeks.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You know, I feel the air conditioner coming in that
high tunnel.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
It's not to do that before, for we don't have
air condition of these windows in our house. My wife
will kill me.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, I don't think that would be a good idea.
Talking about Jerry Rose, he is our giant pumpkin grower,
I also noticed a couple of things. One is obviously
there weren't a lot of other flowers. Is going on
in there, And I sent you a picture of our
volunteer again pump pumpkin came up. That thing's of course
right now, flowering like crazy, all mostly males. Every now
and then we get the female. But do you go
(13:11):
through a hand cut all those out of there.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I don't worry about the males, but I do take
all the females. But you know, as any cocurbent plant,
you know, you get your main vine, then we call it,
you get your secondary vines, and anything off the secondary
we called tertiaries. And so we leave the main vine
and the secondaries. And then every three or four days
I go out there and your pension between the leafs
(13:36):
and the and the secondary vine to get that tertiary
vine out before it starts to grow, or just it's
just starting to grow. And a lot of the time
the little male flowers coming up at the same time,
so a lot of the times it does get pinched
off when it's just starting to form there. But I'm
not worried about the males as much as making sure
that all the there's only one female on the plants,
all of them will be gone.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Do you bread those and fry those?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
No?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I know you fulks here, that's cannibalism.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Do you eat pumpkin pie? And Thanksgiving?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Sa ain't my favorite, but I have.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
I love it. Talking with Jerry Rose our giant pumpkin
grow again Big pumpkins dot com if you want to
check it out. All right, so I got now I
got a personal question. Our pumpkin our volunteer this time
is right by the sidewalk. It was in the landscape
bed for the last couple of years. Now this one's
out by the sidewalk. I can I can do what
you were talking about. I can actually trim the end
of those vines right to keep it going on.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Once you get yeah, oh yeah, you get a pumpkin
set on there first.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, we got about six pumpkins on it already, so well.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
You're gonna bring it into competition and give us some competition.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
These are pie pumpkins. Oh they're little. They're a little. Now,
I'm not in competition. They're little guys. But I can
trip those off so they don't go onto the sidewalk right.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Exactly, exactly, keep them trimmed back, you know. I mean
we even have a contest now, and it's more for
for people that don't have much room, such maybe as
yourself or whatever. They call it one hundred and fifty
square foot contest where your plant can only get to
be one hundred and fifty square foot. You got to
take pictures and document it and everything. And last year
guy on one hundred and fifty square foot plant, I can't.
I'm growing. I'm growing one of them. It's ten by fifteen.
(15:13):
I'm leaving a ten foot wide by fifteen foot long.
But a guy last year had one, I think it
was just shy of fifteen hundred pounds one hundred fifty
square foot pumkin plant.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Wow, that's unbelievable. Hey, Jerry Rose, always great talking with you.
I have so many questions. We were always run out
of time. Again, if you want to learn more about
this and get involved, it's a lot of fun. These
giant pumpkin growers are always available to help you out.
That'll answer questions for you. It's amazing. I mean new
people we meet at the way off at Oakland in
(15:41):
Columbus every year that just started doing it, coming in
with three hundred and five hundred, eight hundred pound pumpkins
for Jerry. If it's just sixteen hundred pounds or less,
it's a throwaway, which just kind of boggles my mind.
And by the way, he does more than that. Last
year he came in eighteenth in the world with a
six point seven pound tomato, which is heard of as well. Hey,
(16:01):
we'll keep us posted. We'll get back with you in
about a month and a half. Find out where we
stand at that stage, and keep working till we get
to uh right before the wayoffs.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
All right, Ron, have a good, good day, stay cool,
all right, have.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
A great weekend. Jerry Rose again, our giant pumpkin grower.
You can learn more about all this at big Pumpkins
dot com and if you go on there you can
see the charting with all the different weights for the pumpkins.
For the field pumpkins, by the way, there's a difference
in the categories there. He's a major contender in the
field pumpkins, the long Gorge. He does all that stuff.
(16:34):
But a six point six pound tomato, uh, seven point
seven that's pretty good sized tomato. Anyway, We'll keep posting
with Jerry as we do in the past, find out
how is the pumpkins are coming along. But I cannot
believe what I saw was only two to three weeks old.
That thing is huge already. All right, quick break, we
come back. The doctor's in town, Doctor Alan apple arm
at Age. Yeah, hit me with us here in the
(16:56):
garden with Ron Wilson, because I promised he is back
with us. Can you believe this, ladies and gentlemen, This
has got to be a record. He's been on our
show so many times. I cannot believe it. You know
who I'm talking about. He's a professor emeritus of Horticulture,
University of Georgia. His latest books, of course, The Field Guide,
especially Cut Flowers, Herbaceous Perennial Plants as Gardening app is
(17:20):
the best ever armed. He just great garden plants, he's
getting another award next week. Unbelievable. Gonna have to bike
a bigger house to put all of his awards. Ladies
and gentlemen, the one, the only, Doctor Alan Apple Armitage,
Sit down, sit down. She's all these Ohio people, they're
(17:44):
all standing and applauding and can't wait for you when
you get into coming to Columbus. What is that in
the week.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Yes, it is that the big horticulture show called Cultivate
is in Columbus and gosh, yeah that's next weekend. So yeah,
I'll be, I'll be, I'll be close to your to
your home. Well, we'll no, I'll look forward to seeing
anybody who's out there.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
The population of Ohio will increase knowing that doctor Allan
Armony's will be in Columbus, Ohio. By the way, it
was interesting to learn that you'd rather visit garden centers
than grocery shop.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Well that's a given, isn't it. I mean, I mean,
not only did they look better, they they don't make
you fat.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Here I love that. Here I am watching an interview
with doctor Allan Armonies and he says, you know what,
I just really encourage growers to visit garden centers to
learn more. But I'd rather, you know, I'd visit. I'd
rather do that than go to a grocery store.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Okay, well, well that's the thing is the thing ain't
Roden and many of the listeners you know, just doesn't
be listening to you for so long. Understand that to
get a plant to the local garden center, there's a
whole bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes. Somebody
has to breed, if somebody has to grow, if somebody
has to know do all those things. And as a grower,
(19:04):
and we you know, you and I have been in
many many greenhouses. It's so lovely when your greenhouse is empty.
You know, that means all your product has been sold
and people like it. But most times, I said, most times,
you know, the person who has done the growing and
all not really actually sure what that thing looks like
when it's in somebody's gardens or the garden center. So
that was my point, wasn't you should do anything more
(19:26):
than they're doing. My point is, you know, these plants
that we grow from a seed or from a cutting
or from whatever. Gosh, they're just so sectacular once they
get in the garden and it's nice to sort of,
you know, look and see what you've been doing and
how well you've been doing it.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, and it's you're right. I mean. And the communication
there between growers and garden centers and and the people
to buy the plants and plant them in their own
gardens is a very important chain there to stay in
touch with. So and of course they're the beginning of
the whole thing. So no, I thought it was well taken.
I just well, I just thought, you know, I figured
you'd be the kind of guy I wanted to go
to the grocery store and do some grosser for shopping, like, yeah,
(20:02):
there you go. Do you like to talk to people
with people at Costco?
Speaker 3 (20:04):
So? I mean there you you know, Oh gosh, oh god.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Now what I am expecting in your next interview is
to grab that acoustic guitar that's behind you and sing
a few songs while you're doing the interview.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I'll write a song about this great industry and the
great gardeners and and people we meet. You know. It'll
be calleding. I can't believe who I see. Well, we'll
just have fun. But anyway, I I pitdle around with
a guitar string every now and then and sounds pretty awful.
Susan closes the door, but we have fun.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
I don't blame her. I was watching a TV show
last night and I thought of you, because I think
we're going to come up with this show for you.
It was the guy's name is Anthony something. He's a
water garden installer, does pools, and he's from He's from
England or somewhere, but anyway, he's got a hat similar
to yours, I hate to say it, and he's a
(21:01):
really particular but he creates these huge, all natural pools
and ponds. And I said, you know what, that's all
we need to do with doctor Armitage. Get you know,
get him a show that where you come in, you
know how you do that, and you go into somebody's
backyard and turn it into a perennial garden.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
There we go, yeah, yeah, yeah, like yeah, that's it.
And then you know, we'll put a little bit more
g in it. That's all.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, why not? And you have your crew come in
and you know, you'd be real picky about everything, and
you know, and then have him do stuff and then
you only got two days to get it done and
what do you think We'll.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Bring the trucks in and all of a sudden it'll
be just a five in his garden and people won't
know what to do. And what we started.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I good idea. I kept watch I saying we're gonna
do this with doctor Armity's I think it'd be outstanding.
By the way, before you had you on, we had
a friend of mine who was a giant pumpkin grower
on talking about his giant pumpkins. That might be something
else you might want to try in your perennial garden
this year.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Well, I'm having enough trouble with tomatoes. I don't know
if I could do. Pumpkins are ripe, and we're having
great tomato sandwiches. So life is definitely good in the
fascinating Well that's good.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Now see here we're about three weeks behind, so we
are just now starting to find some riping tomatoes in
the garden.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Well, I don't know how you're so far behind. If
you're ninety two degrees, today's let's.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
It's catching up. It's catching up. I'll tell you talk
with doctor Allan Armitage And of course his website is
Alan Armidy's dot net check out all his great books,
and of course that garden app you can't live without it.
And you'll have doctor armitage right there in your back pocket.
So any questions come up, you got it. By the way,
I was impressed when you said coming up a storm,
mister southern man. Coming up with some of those Southern expressions,
(22:41):
they just.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
They just sort of they just catch you by surprise.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So this guy, this guy just throws me off every time.
So all right, I got some serious questions for you,
and then after the break, we'll come back and talk
a little bit about Cultivate and what we're going to
see this year. But I got a couple things for you.
First of all, I'm finishing up our landscape planting after
the show today. I'm installing three more American gold rush Rebecca.
I love that plant.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
That is a five of this plant, and I would
recommend it to anybody who well wants something that blooms
in the summer. It's bright, it works well, it's disease resistant,
it's an American native, that's a native r but it's
American roots. And all I agree with you one hundred percent.
At a great addition.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Great show and low maintenance and you're right. The least spot.
I don't see that on there, and I mean it's
a I think it was a twenty twenty three perennial
of the year.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
If i'm I think you're correct. I think you're correct,
and that means that everybody has it. So that's a
good thank you.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, yeah, you're right. But I have just absolutely loved
that plant and a container are in the ground and
then we're pretty well finished out. But the other ones
I want to throw at you is this time of
the year, I start to hear from folks I want
to hit two different types of perennials. One is it
still being The other one is coral bells. I hear
from folks who still be right now all of a sudden,
starting to get the crispy lee eaves. I'm not doing
(24:02):
so well. I love it still, bey, but I've always
that's always seemed to be a major issue to me.
If they're not maintained. Where do you come from when
it comes to a stillbey?
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Oh no, I'll still be on a scale of one
to ten for me. And again, anybody has ninety three
temperatures for me is maybe a three. And I say
that because it's fabulous in the spring. I mean, it's
Sydney cold, hardy, and it's wonderful in the spring. And
if you have sufficient rains, it loves moisture, it loves
cool and if you have dry heat and it's done
(24:32):
so good. And at this time of year they're getting crispy.
I don't even recommend them at all down here and
worse further south than you are. But even when you are,
I think they're a bit iusy. They're going to look
good for if you can just say, hey, they look
good for a while and then they go away. But
if they get real crispy in the summer, they're not
going to come back next spring. So you just have
to maintain the moisture all the time and then hide
(24:55):
them in some annuals as they get crispy.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah, And it's it's just and I was just curious
with your because I just I'm the same way. I
don't recommend them. I just don't know. And we still
grow a lot, we still sell a lot. Some folks
have success with them. If you don't keep the moisture
to them, they're not gonna They're just not gonna do it.
But it's a great flower, great foliage.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
It's a great plan and there's a lot of cultivars
and all and I think it all came you know,
how well they do in Europe and in England, and
we go visit and we see them and they do
well on the West coast, and they do well, you
know quivts further north. But you know they not all
plants work in all places. That's just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
That's a great point. Talking with doctor Allan Armitage's website
Alan armedys dot net. We come back, we'll talk about
coral bells, kind of the same questions there, and then
we'll talk about Cultivate that's coming up in Columbus, Ohio
in about another week. You can actually go there and
meet doctor Allan Armity. Wich's all happening here in the
Garden with Ron Wilson. Welcome back here in the Garden
with Ron Wilson's special guests. This morning. The doctor is
(25:54):
with us, doctor Allan Apple Armitage his website Alan armedi
dot net. Uh, and we're talking about some perennials here.
We talk about it Stillby, which is one of those
ones you just love to be able to grow, but
boy just don't seem to do all that well in
the our area. And the other one I want to
throw at you today in general, would be coral bells.
How do you feel about coral bells?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Well, you know, coral bells exploded kind of like hostas
home flowers, and they exploded everywhere. There's lots of different
colors of foliage, and so they're out there. I like
them very much. Again, they're a little bit finicky if
it gets real dry or real hot. But in general,
you know, if I that scale of one to ten,
thing for me either about a six or is maybe
(26:38):
a seven. But the key for me and perhaps for you,
or what I recommend people to do, particularly in the
winter or in the fall, is is to kind of
put soil around the crown of the coral bells, and
they then can root into that soil and that just
makes them stronger. Because after a few years they tend
to get a little i don't know what they call
(27:00):
skinny necks, and they kind of flip and flop around
a little bit. But for me, if I get five
years out of them, unhappiest. Heck yeah, well, I wrote,
they're certainly not a long lasting frangle for at least
for me.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, and I wrote that in my notes here, you know,
would you consider them a short lived perennial night three
to five years? I think you're probably right. I never
forget the first time I really grew a patch of
coral bells, and I've did them with multiple colors so
that it looked like I quilt work pattern. After the
second year, I went in there to kind of rake
a little bit in the springtime to kind of clean
out around them. Of course, I pulled half of them
(27:32):
out of the ground, you know. And I guess that's
a good point about putting the soil around there to
get them to root in them a little bit deeper.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
What about Yeah, they're not deeply rooted, that's the thing.
And the other thing too, Ron, is that cross between
yukaro or coral bells and this foamy bells called tiarella
is called you corella.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Wait a minute, that's my next lie, that's my next question.
You're reading my notes too.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
You have noted.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I actually had notes here today.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
O my god.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Well my next question. Well, first of all, one is
you'll find them labeled. And I think this gets very confusing.
You go to any book anyway, they're labeled sun to
part shade. Oh god, yeah, And I really don't look
at them as a sun plant. I mean as a
full sun but yet but yet we all labeled them
as sun to part sun.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah. Well, for what it's worth, And not that I'm
going to let the cat of the bag here, but
you and I are going to talk about this later on.
I have a new book coming out in the fall,
and it's called The Common Sense Gardener, and it's common
sense O here, you know, what the heck does even
sun or shade even mean? But but we'll go there
at another time. So I want to answer those questions
(28:46):
all the time comes. But the fact is, all the
coral bells and the fully bells and all those things,
they are not full sun plants. They absolutely do not
do They do not do well with afternoon sun. You know.
Essentially that's what sun and shade simply mean. Keep them
in or keep them out of afternoon sun. The morning
sun is not an issue. So yeah, I agree with
(29:07):
you one hundred percent. It should not be labeled sun
or it should be labeled keep them out of afternoon sun.
But they'll never get that in thee.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Well, you know, I look at hydny of the hydrange.
It's the same way. I mean, you know, they'll take sun,
but on the same token if you my my recommendation,
morning sun shade in the heat of the day for
all of them, and they'll do so much better for
you in a situation like that.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
So especially with the mop head types, you know, your
grandmother's types of blues and the pinks, they absolutely do.
I mean, they do not tolerate afternoon sun terriby well,
unless they're you know, very mature. The mature plants once
they get you know, five ten years on them, they
probably tolerate anything. But boy, to get them established, keep
them out of the afternoon sun if you can.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
All right, So now let's go back to my other
question I had about here. What about the book they
when they when the tirrellas, and then of course you've
got the fukarellas and you know, you know, seem to
be a little tougher than they're hookaoes.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I in my in my experience, uh tiarella, which is
again our foam flower. Uh you know again another lovely
native plant native to the east to the Midwest. Those
are pretty good. Now they're gonna look pretty rough in
the summertime, they kind of go dormant on you. They
just kind of disappear, but they didn't come back every year. Again,
(30:25):
absolutely need afternoon shade, but these are shade tolerant plants
and they're woodland plants, and that's what you get. I
think they're pretty tough. And I think injecting that gene
tool into the coral bells to make this thing we
call foamy bells, which is yukrella, I think just makes
them tougher.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
So there you go. I'm for what it's hardness, right well,
I mean that's that's exactly what I was looking for.
And again I think it's you know, it's one of
those things where I can't wait to see this book
that the common Sense guarding because again, you know, I
look at some of the signees sometimes and I help
with ours two and that's one of the things I've
been looking to change. And unfortunately we would be the
(31:04):
only ones that say that. But that's the way it
goes because it's common sense, right.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Well, it is God. And so this book is gonna
be very small. It's gonna be less than under page
is guaranteed because common sense doesn't need a whole lot
of words, but turns up there's not a whole lot
of common sense out there when it comes to confusion
in the garden. But anyway, it's it's we'll see how
it goes, but I'll send you an advanced copy when
(31:31):
I when I get this thing done.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
All right, sounds good now, so you'll enjoy it, as
I have all of your books. As a matter of fact,
if you if you don't have any of doctor Armidy's
book you can go to his website learn all about
all of them at Alan Armonis dot net. And I
do suggest getting one of the first ones, and it
may have been the first one you wrote. It. It's
all about the hat because you learn more of where
he's coming from, and every time you listen to him
(31:54):
on our show, you'll understand him a lot more by
reading that book.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Yeah, well that was that was That was. That book
is interesting if you you know again, it's it's a
story about how I got here from there. But uh,
you know, it was fun to write, and people seem
to enjoy it, so thank you. It was. It was good.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
I shall keep waiting for part two of the Naked
Ladies and forgive.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Me nots you know, I keep getting these notes from people,
and then of course my grandmother's grandmother's yea name is
on this thing.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
And then of course it's all about It's all about apples.
I've been waiting for that one forever since we first
started talking.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
That may take a while. I I keep eating the data,
so that may take a while.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Yeah, you don't have any apple trees in your garden?
Speaker 3 (32:41):
No, no, no, no, well.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
You know better too.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, I know better. I got I go to the
farmer's market and we'll go get apples there. But tomato
is another cool thing, huh. I mean if we actually
heard how much of tomato costs us from our garden.
We never grow it, but we just do it for
the pleasure.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
It's fun. By the way, is that bacon I smell
on that black stone cooking already?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
I'll tell you what, don't even go there. I'm obsessed
with this thing.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Good. I think everybody my brother's now got a blackstone.
They're all doing their all the it's crazy.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, it's just it's just fun, you know, because you
can do something quick and there's no smell and no bother.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
There you go. Doctor Allen Armidy's is with us this
morning again. Alan Armonis dot net is the website. So
you're going to be in Cultivate, which is a huge
trade show. We go every year. We learned so much.
It's funny how they started as the Ohio Florist Association
and all came together. Always been very strong with the classes.
They have always done such a great job with that
and have stuck with that. And of course the trade
(33:40):
show is phenomenal. You see a lot of new plants,
et cetera, et cetera. But you will be up there
on Friday to receive another award. Where you're gonna put
these I have no idea but from the garden Colm
on Friday night, which congratulations on that.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Thank you, Thank you the garden communications people. It's award
that says I, right, so that gardeners can understand what's
going on. Here you go, I guess there you go.
You and I are talking like that, right, So anyway,
it's lovely and I normally it's great, and I normally
only go to the Columbus for like one day, but
(34:19):
just because of this, I'm going up a little earlier.
I'm actually taking my wife with me, so that'll be good.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
I saw that. So he's going to be hanging around
Columbus over the weekend and on he's gonna be I'm
gonna let the cat out of the bag. He's going
to be walking the show on Monday. So if you're
looking for him, just stand up a little bit higher
so you can see through the crowd. Look for the
one guy with a strange hat and about one hundred
people around him as they moved like a little cloud
(34:45):
through the through the aisles, looking at all the different
plants that will be doctor Allen Apple Armities right in
the middle of that group.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
No, believe a word of it, ladies and gentlemen. I'll
be there with my hat on. But plays who come
sailor if you happen to be there.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Does missus Armities enjoy Does she go to many of these?
Does she enjoy doing this too?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
No, she has a whole lot more common sense than
most of us. No, she's only coming because I'm done
going a little bit longer. But she this pretty boring
stuff quite truthfully. Unless you're into this stuff anyway, Sure
we'll enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I love it to you, doctor Allan Armitage again. His
website is Alanarmedis dot net. Always a pleasure. We'll see
you in Columbus, sir.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Okay, right, stay in touch and I can't wait to
talk to you again.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
All right, take care, Doctor Allen Apple Armitage again Alan
Armedies dot Net. His garden app's absolutely wonderfully updates it
on a regular basis. I think it's four ninety nine
to download it, but you will love it and you'll
have doctor Allan Armitage in your back pocket.
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