Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morning. Welcome to Let's Garden with Scott Berlin. It is
(00:04):
a beautiful Saturday here in Cincinnati. Let me introduce myself.
I am the manager of Botanical Garden Outreach at the
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and a Lifeline Lifelong Gardener.
Good news website might be in the works more soon
on that. In the meantime, you can reach out to
me at Scott b e u E R L E
(00:27):
I n at iHeartMedia dot com, or on my personal
website it's Scott b e u E R L E
I n IF In doubt just add another E. You
can see my garden, my writing on gardener Rant and
at hort Magazine. All of that's online. Podcasts of this
show can be found on any source of podcasts in
(00:50):
the country, or just google Let's Garden with Scott Berlin.
Join Ron Rothis and friends on the Facebook page in
the Garden and Today we do want your calls at
a one hundred eighty three eighty two fifty five I
have in the studio with me Sarah Geiger Beam.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Welcome, good morning.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yep, you're here again.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I am here again.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That meant you did well and I like you oh,
two things.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Okay, yeah, well yeah, I mean it takes a lot
for me to get up at six o'clock on a Saturday.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But you know, talking with you about plants is a reason, is.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
A good motivation. I got to add, you are qualified.
I hope you are a designer at Wimburg Landscaping. That's
Wimburg Landscaping dot com here in Cincinnati. Owner of the
brand new vertigree plant farm where you grew all kinds
of interesting, beautiful, functional, and often hard to find plants
(01:47):
from seats. Look for your company to explode in the
next couple of years and then go public at twenty
thirty and make you a trillionaire, the next world's trillionaire.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
That's one business plan.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That is the model, right, that is it. You are
also a Master Landscape Technician with the Ohio Green Industry Association.
That's impressive that not very many people have gotten all
of the qualifications for that. You're a beekeeper, veteran of
the Peace Corps, and you hold an intimidating array of
(02:20):
college degrees and the debt to prove it well.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I bounced around a little bit before I settled on horticulture.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I took the Grand tour.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
You're a second career person like I am.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yes, yes, and.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Also like our guest at eight o'clock this morning, also
a second career person, Shannon Curry. She's an educator, writer, speaker,
and a native plant expert, especially when it comes to
grasses and sedges. So yeah, she's really fun and I
think all our listeners will enjoy this a lot. Behind
the wheel this morning, Danny Gleeson will make us sound good. Danny,
(02:57):
if you can turn on that auto tune thing that
removes all the rbs and ums and you knows I
would appreciate yeah, and the US I would appreciate that
very much, so I sound intelligent. Also, if you can
dump all the things I say that are stupid, that
would be awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I'm just going to leave that alone.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I know you are me too. Actually, So we start
every show with the national days of month of week
of and we do this why because if I don't,
we won't know them.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So yes, it's very it's a very SERI I don't
know them yet.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I can't wait to hear.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah. I like to spring them on my guests. Okay,
so we'll just run through June because we've done this
a couple of times. But it's National Safety Month. And
you know what I say when it comes to safety,
what it slows you down too much. That's why I
have had so many injuries along and close calls in
(03:59):
my life. So no, it takes safety seriously, all of you.
The do as I say, not as I do. It's
one of those things. It's also a men's health month.
I should keep that in mind when I shortcut safety
ands PTSD Awareness month, which I suffer because of all
(04:22):
my injuries. It is Pride month. It's Great Outdoors Month
and your garden counts.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah. Yeah, I like to be outdoors in the garden.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah everyone should if they only knew, If everyone only knew.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's the happy place.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
It is the happy place. It brings you all kinds
of joy, closeness with nature, your own creativity, so many
positive things. It's candy month, pollin eaters month.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Just a month. They work all well, not all year.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
They work a lot, they work hard, they.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Work more than a month's worth of Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
We should recognize that during pollinator Month. It's Adopt a
cat Month, it's the worst idea ever. And home Ownership Month,
which means.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
What a garden yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah. Iced Team Month, Caribbean American Heritage Month, Fruit and
Veggie Month, you're growing both, right, I am at your
new farm yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, some strawberries and a lot of edgies.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah yeah. Country Cooking Month, Yeah I can't do that. Yeah.
Camping Month, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, so what you
know again? What I say here is try to figure
out who in your life is causing migraines and headaches
and cast them out of your life. It's National Zoo
and Aquarium Month. Hey, I work at a zoo. Dairy Month,
(05:53):
Soul Food Month, Okay, I do too, American African American
Music Month, like I say again, the headwaters for nearly
all the greatest music.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Accordian conversely, Accordion Month, to take it different, but it's
a weird instrument that can be a very important part
of some really fun and cool music. And also Poka
Portuguese Heritage Month. I don't know a single Portuguese person.
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I've met a Portuguese person, so they do exist for real,
I've met at least two.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Well that's good to know. Yeah, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
It's imaginary place that Spain made up you know, they needed.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
A country to hate, you know that a neighbor that
you blame, that you make fun of. Rose Month like
roses love hate.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yeah, I have a love hate relationship with a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Do me too.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I actually swore that I would never plant a rose
garden after a particularly rough day in the field, and
I went back on that. The David Austin Catalog got
to yah and I ended up with two and it's
like what am I doing? And then every time I
smell them, it's just like, Okay, this is why.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, there's good old fashioned, old fashioned roses. Yeah, they
do with the what do they call that, the cabbage
bloom or the I don't know. There's all kinds of
different blooms. People don't know the vast array of roses.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah. I've never gotten super deep into roses, but yeah there.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Oh it's a world.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
It is a world. It is a big world. Uh.
It's DJ Month, And you know my title here is
actually your DJ.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, I think you should make some cuts.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I have to take all this training of your favorite
I have to take all this training about playing music
on the air that I never play. Oh, okay, Turkey
Lovers Month, that rounds up the month of for June. Okay,
this week in June National Flag Week, National Fishing and
Boating Week, and yeah that's fun. Animal Rights Awareness Week,
(08:09):
Universal Father's Week, and Recycling Workers Week. You know, I'm
in awe honestly of garbage men and women.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That's a marathon they run every day, get the in
and out of the truck, running into the cans, loading them.
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
And then you know, incredibly hard work.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
And also, I mean it's one of the things that's
easiest to take for granted. But look, I lived in
a place without sanitation workers for two years in Peace Corps,
and I mean it's, yeah, what an incredible fact that
people just come to our house take our trash.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Away three in the morning usually. Yeah, yeah, they're awesome.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You don't want to deal with that right on site,
just trust me.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So now we're on to Saturday, June thirteenth. They have
blame someone else day. So was it you who spilled
the coffee in the offices or in the studio this morning?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It wasn't me.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I think it was you.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
No.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Random Acts of Light Day brings awareness to the importance
of finding cures for cancer. Sewing Machine Day. Do you
have a sewing machine?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I don't. My mom has one.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Golf cart Day. And here's when we both can love
Kitchen Clutches of America Day. I should not be allowed
to have nights. I will just say that. And National
Weed your Garden Day. Now there's something we can we're
all probably behind on.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, it does need more than a day, though, it does.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
It needs like a year. The National Year of White
Meadior Garden Sunday Tomorrow National pop goes the Weasel Day,
and like, what the hell? Yeah, that's just ridiculous. It's
National Flag Day, so National Flag Day within National Flag Week. Okay,
taking no chances children in his day? You have kids today,
Deserve It Day.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I'll give them a day.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, you'll give them a day. Luckily it's also a
National Bourbon Day, so.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Depending on how National Kid Day, yeah, how it goes?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Uh, National Strawberry Shortcake Day. I'll just leave the whole
bag treat sing alone for this week. I can too,
But again there's this cabal, there's this conspiracy. It's yeah,
cucumber Day. The hardest thing for me to grow in
the garden. I have no luck really growing cucumbers. Yeah,
they get started and then they just wither away.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Beatles kind of they're the problem.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Get to them.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah yeah, National Big Boy Day. And this breaks my
heart a little bit because almost all of our local
fishes franchises closed through like massively dumb business practices all
at once. They just Yeah, we went from like.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Thirty national is the big Boy?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
I don't know. I think it's pretty national. There's fishes
they're shown.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Has another name, several, I think. Okay, So like we
can claim that our nation knows the big Boy. I
think so okay. Right, if they don't, it's like, you know,
the bad saying, like National Skyline we don't have.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yeah, we're in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
We eat Skyline, which is chili on hot dogs and noodles.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
We're addicted to it.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah, so like that's pretty hyper local. You can't have
a National Skyline Day, right, Well, we.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Can dream about it someday.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Someday we can claim it, but we'll just celebrate it
only here.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Monday is also also National Smile Power Day. I gotta
run through these quick. Megal megaladon Day, Nature Photography Day,
Foam Party Day, Thursday or I'm only on Tuesday National
fud Day. Fudge Day, Wednesday, Eat your Vegetables Day, Roop
your Day, Mascot Day, Apple Strudel Day, Cherry tart Day. Thursday,
(11:58):
Go Fishing Day, Splurge Day, slurge and go fishing. It's
also National want to get Away Day, so splurge and
go fishing away. Dump the pump Day, so a few
less trips to the you know, the cas station. Friday, Juneteenth,
Garfield the Cat Day. Never liked Garfield that much. Wear
(12:22):
Blue Day. This is to support men in your life
to lead healthy lifestyles. And it's going to take a
lot more than somebody wearing blue to get me to
help you. It won't know. And finally, Watch Day, any
old watch, it didn't specify time ax to Rolex. Enjoy
your watch and be sure to tell it how much
it means to you. That's all of the national days
(12:44):
of we are going to break. What a week we
are going to break. When we come back, we are
going to talk about favorite plants. Right now you're listening,
Let's garden with Scott Berlin. Thanks for listening. Come back,
good morning, good morning. We want to talk to you.
Give us a call. Eight hundred eighty two to three five,
and it's time to start talking some favorite plants. Cool
(13:05):
people sometimes ask me, Sarah, they catch me on the street,
they say, first, are you Scott Berlin?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I say, yeah, yeah, that happens.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
To me too, Yeah I did. They ask you if
you're Scott Brown, and they asked, what is your favorite plant?
And first of all, that's an impossible question. Yeah right,
but I should start answering right from you know, starting
with this show. Now, I said, listen to my show,
why don't you because we discuss it favorite plants every
(13:34):
day or every Saturday of every week. And here we are.
It's time, and I'm going to start with Rebeccia maxima.
This came from the back of the pack to the
front in a hurry. Yeah, it shouldn't have because it
has gray foliage and it's really like almost cabbagey blue
(13:55):
basil foliage at the ground. And that's nice by itself.
But right now shot up to six feet with a
big tall stock yeah, and a big beautiful black eyed
seasoned flower at the top, so stunning.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, there is nothing quite like that big long stock
and that big stunning flower, and it just like it
sort of asserts itself in a garden, you know, but
the foliage is not very bushy, so it's not like
it's shading out.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
A lot of its neighbors.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I saw at one point that one of the common
names for that plant is called dumboat ears.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I never heard that before, and.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It's because the foliage is sort of that bluish grayish
round color, especially when it's young, and it does have
kind of a rounded elephant year look to it, which
is very different than you know, the other Rebeccy is.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's certainly a fun plant. You know. First of all,
you get that beautiful flower which the pollinators all come to,
and then a really nice seed head that finches come to,
the goldfinches. Yes, so it's a two for you know,
all the way down the road. And it never flops.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, I've seen it lean a bit, but yeah, I
mean it's pretty. It's pretty upright.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah you want to, I guess in more spare soil and.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
More spare soil, and with a lot of neighbors around it.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
That helps. And it looks great that way.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, it does, it really does.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
What's your plant? Your your first plant?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
The plant that really took my breath away this week
was the native bush honeysuckle dire villa what is that,
dire villa lunis or something.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Dire villa? What do you call it? Bush honeysuckle?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah, bush honeysuckle.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
The new foliage coming out of that at this time
of year is just stunning. It's contrasting with the leaf
and it's like kind of a purplish blush to it,
and then the yellow flowers are really set off nicely
with that.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So it's just a perfect time of year for that plant.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Really tough plant, really tough and adaptable for a lot
of things.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Bad soil shade pretty I think it can take a
fair amount of shade.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, I think. I don't know if they still list
it this way, but I think as of two years
ago it was listed by a proven winners. Is full
sun to full shade really yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And that they hold the most likely the plant you're
going to find in the nursery is one of their plants.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Kodiak Series Black is really nice too, and that was
the one that I saw this week.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And they're good for pollinators, yes, so that's really nice.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's not invasive like the the other bushney suckle.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Right, So when we come back we will continue to
delight ourselves and hopefully everyone else by talking more and
about better plants. Everyone. You're welcome to join in. Tell
us about your favorite plants. You will listen to you
eight hundred two three eighty two fifty five. We'll be
back in just a few minutes. We are back. I
(17:04):
am here with Sarah Geiger being from Wimberg Landscaping. I
am Scott Berline. You're listening to Garden with Scott Burline.
Give us a called eight hundred eight three eighty two
fifty five about any favorite plants or things that you
want to talk about. But we are working our way
through a list of favorite plants right now. Why don't
(17:25):
you go ahead with the next one.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
The next one on my list is butterfly milkweed. That's
the orange blooming one which is blooming right now in
my yard. Common milk weed is also blooming along the
sides of the road. Yeah, I like that one less
for gardens. You know, you need a place for that
one to run, and it kind of has a coarser look.
But butterfly milkweed is very easy to integrate into a
(17:51):
garden setting. For me, the biggest challenge is actually color
a lot of clients don't like orange.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
But I don't get that. I love orange.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's a nice it's a nice contrast,
but it changes the tone of a garden, you know.
So yeah, but in that case, a lot of times
I'll use, uh, swap milkweed, you know, something a little
bit softer. But yeah, butterfly milkweed really is a great
garden plant. Just the street species. There's not I'm not
familiar with any cultivars, but.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
There's a yellow one. I forget what it's hello yellow
or something like that.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Oh that's right. Oh, actually i've grown that before. I forgot.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah. I have found that that's a tough one to
get established, but once you do, it's a forever perennial
m hm h h and kind of a naturalistic one
it does, I don't think would work really well in
a more formal right perennial bad, Yeah, but a really
a good one to mix in with, you know, kind
of in the wilder spots of your garden, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
One thing I've seen with that plant is that it
seems to be really sensitive to salt, so.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Just unusual, kind of ironic because you often see it
along freeways.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Right, but kind of set back, set back, and like
on the slope, not where the salt would be spraying up.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
On now that you mentioned it, Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And it's sort of a shorter plant, so you know,
I think the instinct a lot of times is to
put it on the sidewalk or the front of the bed.
So just yeah, be careful with that. But it's a
great plant.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I'm going to go with Verbena bonariensis or that. It's
got a bunch of names, tall verbena, Brazilian verbena. It's
an annual or maybe a very short lived perennial. It
is just coming into its own so nicely right now.
It's a taller, you know, knee to waist high plant.
(19:35):
Knee high to me, waist high to you. Yeah. Really
a beautiful purple flower that stands up high. It's a
wispy plant, so you want it mixed in with your
other things. Yeah, but it looks really great coming through
other plants.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
It does, and it seems to go with almost anything.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, it really does, even though it's kind of a
pretty sharp purple.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
A pollinator absolute magnet.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Absolute pollinator magnet blooms all season long. If you don't
have a very diverse garden and there's gaps between bloom
times and your garden, annuals are a great way to
do that. And this is an annual that will just
keep the pollinators coming back and so they'll notice when
your next big crop of pollinator plants.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That's right, they'veing them around from now actually a few
weeks ago, all the way to a really hard frost Yep.
You wanted to talk about peppers. I think that's an
interesting idea.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, you know, I was just walking around my garden yesterday, uh,
looking at all the things for what are my favorite
plants at this moment, because it is kind of an
in between time. You know, we don't have all the
big summer blooming things and everything, and you know, I
have this new place where I have these garden plots
and I have way more room to grow peppers and
(20:56):
vegetables and everything than I've ever had in a homegrown
and just the joy of seeing those first peppers.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
And the tomatoes are coming on.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I don't have any ripe tomatoes yet, but like I
was just really struck with like, oh, I remember how
satisfying this was, and I don't even have to eat it,
you know, like I'm such a gardener that I confess
I've actually I've actually grown kale and not harvested it
because it was too pretty and I just enjoyed looking
(21:28):
out of it, looking out my window and seeing that
beautiful kale plant.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
You know, peppers are beautiful plants.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Peppers are beautiful plants.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, so, yep, a good twist on it. I'm going
to throw another twist on that idea because everybody wants
to talk about what's in bloom and you know that
kind of thing. I want to throw out some plants
that probably never get their due, okay, because they don't
have a season per se. Okay, they're just always good. Katsura.
Oh yeah, one of my favorite trees. I always like
(21:56):
to say, if you pulled all the top horticulturists in
the country, favorite tree that would be in the top five,
probably ninety percent of them, and none one of them
could list a reason why it's greater than the sum
of its part.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, you're right, it's not. There's not a single moment
in the year that is.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Just the flowers are kind of the jaw dropping.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Although I will say amazing grace in its winter form
is jaw dropping.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, that's a weeping form. Yeah, but just a great tree.
Yeah that you know, great foliage, cool flower.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, it's so fall color all year.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Round, but it's good the entire season. Same thing with
Medicinquoia or Don Redwood's. Oh yeah, you know, I just
won't get it's due because so much it's consistently good.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yep. I put one of those in a garden this week.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I wanted to just throw it out there that the
southern magnolias are looking really good right now. The foliages
come in there and bloom, yep, yep. I don't want
to dominate. What's your next plant?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Uh wait, let's see.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Oh a canthus bears breeches be yeahh So I have
I have some old canthus plants in my new place
that was planted by the previous gardener, and they're big
and they're vigorous and they're healthy. And I went out
last night and one of them was just in peak
bloom and it was really a saturated purple.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Usually it's ave yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Kind of a yeah, and with the dark leaves and everything,
it doesn't always read very well, like I think it's
a plant that's a little bit hard to design with.
I think it looks better with a lighter background, so
you yeah, I think the the flower gets a little
bit washed out in the shade because it's grown in
the shade and it's always kind of tucked in a
(23:49):
shady corner. And I think it's the whole plant just
kind of turns gray tones. So if you can get
something white or lighter around it, I think.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It works best. But my gosh, what a flower.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And it's so different.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Well, it looks to me like a chiloney flower, like
a turtle head.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Do you think it's Do you know if it's related?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I don't, And that's a good question. I've had it
for years in my garden, and this time of year
the local garden tour has its thing, and I've been
on it a few times, and that plant gets more
questions or comments than anything else in my garden.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
It's a what's it plant?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah? It has such deep green foliage, almost a very
dark green, with jagged sharp edges.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
It looks prehistoric, it does.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
And from that comes this spiny stem that comes up
only maybe sixteen eighteen inches tall, and from those numerous
mauve putted odd looking flowers and it is just such
an eyecatcher. Yeah, and I love it. I moved it
every now and then for me, it kind of weakens
(24:57):
out and I know, okay, move it. I'll dig it up,
move it somewhere else, and from the original spot come
all these new plants.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
So that's how you propagate it. You try to dig
it out.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
You try to get rid of it. It works like that.
So it's really really cool. My iris and Seta or
the Japanese iris. Oh yeah, just came into balloon this week.
And wow, what a pretty flower. Nice, so good. What
do you have again?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Purple cone flour that's starting up looking really good.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
In my home garden.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And butterfly milk weed I just or not I'm sorry,
swamp milkweed. I have to give a shout out to
that because it's just growing so well. And my little
pots in the nursery have monarch butterfly caterpillars eating them
and they don't seem to be minding it.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
You know, these.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Are these are they're not plug size, but they're maybe
I don't know, four inch size, and they're the plants
are growing visibly like they're butting around these little caterpillars,
and I have to wonder, It's like does this surely
there's a point of crossover where it hurts, but like
does the grazing help a little bit? You know?
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Like we've noticed it at the zoo where we grow
Aristolochia or pipevine, and we're going in the nursery to
sell in a native plant sails and these tiny little
plants just get devastated by the caterpillars from the pipevine swallowtail.
It's like, what do you do? You're trying to grow
these plants, right, So we try to cover them, I
(26:36):
think mostly and save them that way.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Kind of the problem with this is, you know, with
the caterpillars feeding on such a small plant, they're going
to run out of food. So if you can, if
you have that situation, I'll.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Move them to the butterfly milkweed. Yeah, off my patio.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Absolutely. So they're easy to move. You just brush them
off into something and set them there. I wanted to
mention purple plants. Now this is you know, I'm not
a big fan of colored plants. I'm definitely not a
big favor of yellow plants. Foliage. Yeah, so everything in moderation.
(27:15):
And I've just been driving around noticing all the Japanese maples,
purple or red red buds with the types with the
purple or red foliage, and also beach and there's probably
others out there, the cherries and a few other things,
but used in moderation as maybe a specimen. You're there.
I think they're fabulous. There is conversation that plants with
(27:38):
purple foliage are not as desirable or not desirable at
all for caterpillars to eat. That's a plus and a minus.
You know, if you're trying to ye to promote pollinators,
a lot of them there stages when they are a caterpillar.
So you know that comes back to being okay with
some holes. And again, if you want a plant, purple
(28:00):
plant and support pollinators, just plant other really good right
somewhere else. Yeah, Yeah, that's an easy answer, right.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
If I use purple usually it says a contrast anyway,
so you know it's not going to be dominating a landscape.
There's plenty of other places for pollinator plants.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Sure, you would hope, you would hope, you would hope.
A couple of very common ones that are really starting
to show off Roseanne geranium. Oh, yes, such a good
plant that came out relatively recently. Was the perennial plant
of the year four or five years back. Just a great,
long blooming geranium.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Long blooming and tough.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, sprawls in through all your other perennials. It looks great.
And then Carl Forster feathery grass, probably the most common
plant in gardens. It's arguably right, but it's because it's
so darn good, right.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
If you're hating on Carl Forster, I mean it's just
because you don't like that it's popular because it is
such the only reason high performing plant, oh year long.
And I think it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
It's stunning, you know. Right now it's in bloom and
the flowers have just a nice touch of pink or
purple too. And then they go into the seedhead stage,
which is just so good, and then sort of the
spent seedhead stage, which is where it gets the feather
regress came from, Yes, And it stands up right all
year round. The foliage is perfect and just a great plant.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
And there's a reason that they put them in, you know,
every parking lot strip in the world. It's because they
make it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, Sarah, we got to go to break. That's the
end of our favorite plants for right now. Did we
leave anything out?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
I do like other plants, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Well maybe we'll give it some time.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
But we're through.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
We're through your list. Yeah, oh okay, well then that's
that's good timing. Then, so we'll take a break. We
gotta pay some bills. I'm here with Sarah Geiger Beam,
and we will nag you when we come back. We
will nag you about all the things you should have
done last week. Got me and Sarah Geiger Beam here
to answer your questions, and we will do so and
(30:08):
give our best possible answers. Sarah, Yeah, how do you
like this radio thing so far?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I like it? Yeah, it's good good.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I love teaching and you know, just talking plants and everything,
and this is like great because I don't have to
like freak out and look at a big audience or anything.
There's like no people, no people.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I just have to look at you, Scott.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I'm sorry about that. I apologize.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I'm getting through.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah. You are a busy woman. You have two children,
you have a business, you have a full time job
as a designer. Yeah, what else? You have a farm,
all these things, certainly you're behind and all your gardening tasks.
What do you mean, So what have you been putting off?
(30:59):
What should you have done last week?
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Oh gosh, there's a lot of things I should have
done last week.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
I still have plants. I need to step up. It
was really Oh yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So, like you start plants in the smaller pot and
then you put it in a bigger pot, and you
know that helps it grow, so it's not too big
of a pot. Yeah, so I need to do that.
Everything's grown really fast this time of year. So just
getting making sure that there's enough shade for my plants. Yeah,
I'm finding is a whole thing. Just doing the shuffle
(31:35):
of moving.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Things around, shuffling speaking of weeds.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yes, the shuffle or the stirrupo. That love that tool. Yeah,
and it's really it's designed to work and buds that
have been tilled that are already kind of loose and
in that next flush of weeds that are coming up
and at the thread stage. But yeah, I actually I
(32:01):
should have done the whole thing last week, but I
did get to like half of it. And man, if
you get the timing right on that. There is just
no better and I think it kind of keeps the
soil fluffy.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
And the aerator it does it keeps it open so water.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, there's any kind of crust or anything that's built up,
then it gets rid of that.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
But speaking of I was one of my items was
to re sharpen your tools. Oh, if you've been out
there scuffling or shuffling.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
With the hoe, I actually, yeah, I take a file
out with me.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
That's something I've picked up in Peace Corps.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Paraguayans take a machete and a file out to the
field and they just sharpen constantly all day long. So yeah,
I am. I am big on sharpening your tools. A
stirrup hooe is useless if it's not sharp. A sod
spade is useless if it's not sharp. I sharpen my
spades and shovels too.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I use a grinder.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, I get them.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Sorry pretty but yeah, you know what a sharp tool
is A safer tool.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Really, it really is.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
And it's easier on your body.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, and you don't tire so much, which means you
make fewer mistakes down the road.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Time to cage tomatoes. Have you done so?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I actually yeah, I planted them in the cages because
they were already bi.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, I still need to do that with some of
mine dead heads. We're getting to the point where some
flowers have finished. Yeah, you could dead head them if
you want. I use a string trimmer because I'm fast
and lazy.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, dead heading is a thing you can do.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
You can do. It's all the best thing to do
because a lot of those seedheads are great for birds, right,
so you might want to leave those yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I mean, I'll be honest, I don't really.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Dead Heading is not something I like to do in
my home garden.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
I got paid to do it for years.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, at work, and you know, I'm a pollinator garden designer,
so I like to leave the seed heads up.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So I mostly don't do it. But there's certain plants
where I do, like daffodils, irises, and a handful of others. Yeah,
And that's if I think of it.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
If if I walk and I've got the pruners on
my hip and I'm looking at that plant and I'm like,
oh that, yeah, that's gonna bloom again nicely. If I
just make this cut speaking of the Chelsea Chop, the
Chelsea ship getting towards the end.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Of the period where you can do that where you
cut this is where you cut back your fall or
late summer blooming perennials. Yes, by a third or half.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah, great technique. I think it's becoming slightly more well
known too. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
I'm talking to clients about it more well.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I mean the gardens that we're designing with pollen eat
or plants sometimes they get tall.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
So Chelsea shop is extra good.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Keep some uniform from flopping a lot of times and
just smaller in the garden.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Any any plant that you went out last year in
August and just had turned into a beast and was
way out of scale, just cut it in half right now,
and it'll branch out and it'll stay up better, and.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
It might even be more floriferous. It might, yes, because
more branching out potentially more flower stems.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
So that's really good. Well you got what else you have?
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Oh, plumbing and irrigation.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
I just feel like probably all of the listeners out
there have been working with their irrigation system and you know,
finding the leaks and it's like, oh, where did I
put the pipe tape and all.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
This line sprung a leak.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
And do I have the fittings for this and the sprinkler. Oh,
I need a new nozzle because this one's leaking out
the top now.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Yeah, and I will recommend heartily the number of relatively
cheap timers you can use for your your irrigation. You
can put on the end of a hose with a sprinkler,
set it for fifteen minutes and it'll turn off by itself. Yeah,
all good stuff. I will want to also mention get
out of the garden if you need to the dinner
or a movie, and as always get back to the garden.
(35:59):
Set very important stuff to do. You are listening to
Let's Garden with Scott Berlin. We are having lots of
fumis Haarah Goetger Beam. We'll have Shannon Curry later. Stay tuned,
we'll be right back.
Morning. Welcome to Let's Garden with Scott Berlin. It is
(00:04):
a beautiful Saturday here in Cincinnati. Let me introduce myself.
I am the manager of Botanical Garden Outreach at the
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and a Lifeline Lifelong Gardener.
Good news website might be in the works more soon
on that. In the meantime, you can reach out to
me at Scott b e u E R L E
(00:27):
I n at iHeartMedia dot com, or on my personal
website it's Scott b e u E R L E
I n IF In doubt just add another E. You
can see my garden, my writing on gardener Rant and
at hort Magazine. All of that's online. Podcasts of this
show can be found on any source of podcasts in
(00:50):
the country, or just google Let's Garden with Scott Berlin.
Join Ron Rothis and friends on the Facebook page in
the Garden and Today we do want your calls at
a one hundred eighty three eighty two fifty five I
have in the studio with me Sarah Geiger Beam.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Welcome, good morning.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yep, you're here again.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I am here again.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That meant you did well and I like you oh,
two things.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Okay, yeah, well yeah, I mean it takes a lot
for me to get up at six o'clock on a Saturday.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But you know, talking with you about plants is a reason, is.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
A good motivation. I got to add, you are qualified.
I hope you are a designer at Wimburg Landscaping. That's
Wimburg Landscaping dot com here in Cincinnati. Owner of the
brand new vertigree plant farm where you grew all kinds
of interesting, beautiful, functional, and often hard to find plants
(01:47):
from seats. Look for your company to explode in the
next couple of years and then go public at twenty
thirty and make you a trillionaire, the next world's trillionaire.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
That's one business plan.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That is the model, right, that is it. You are
also a Master Landscape Technician with the Ohio Green Industry Association.
That's impressive that not very many people have gotten all
of the qualifications for that. You're a beekeeper, veteran of
the Peace Corps, and you hold an intimidating array of
(02:20):
college degrees and the debt to prove it well.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
I bounced around a little bit before I settled on horticulture.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
I took the Grand tour.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
You're a second career person like I am.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yes, yes, and.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Also like our guest at eight o'clock this morning, also
a second career person, Shannon Curry. She's an educator, writer, speaker,
and a native plant expert, especially when it comes to
grasses and sedges. So yeah, she's really fun and I
think all our listeners will enjoy this a lot. Behind
the wheel this morning, Danny Gleeson will make us sound good. Danny,
(02:57):
if you can turn on that auto tune thing that
removes all the rbs and ums and you knows I
would appreciate yeah, and the US I would appreciate that
very much, so I sound intelligent. Also, if you can
dump all the things I say that are stupid, that
would be awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I'm just going to leave that alone.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I know you are me too. Actually, So we start
every show with the national days of month of week
of and we do this why because if I don't,
we won't know them.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So yes, it's very it's a very SERI I don't
know them yet.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I can't wait to hear.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah. I like to spring them on my guests. Okay,
so we'll just run through June because we've done this
a couple of times. But it's National Safety Month. And
you know what I say when it comes to safety,
what it slows you down too much. That's why I
have had so many injuries along and close calls in
(03:59):
my life. So no, it takes safety seriously, all of you.
The do as I say, not as I do. It's
one of those things. It's also a men's health month.
I should keep that in mind when I shortcut safety
ands PTSD Awareness month, which I suffer because of all
(04:22):
my injuries. It is Pride month. It's Great Outdoors Month
and your garden counts.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah. Yeah, I like to be outdoors in the garden.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah everyone should if they only knew, If everyone only knew.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's the happy place.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
It is the happy place. It brings you all kinds
of joy, closeness with nature, your own creativity, so many
positive things. It's candy month, pollin eaters month.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Just a month. They work all well, not all year.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
They work a lot, they work hard, they.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Work more than a month's worth of Yes.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
We should recognize that during pollinator Month. It's Adopt a
cat Month, it's the worst idea ever. And home Ownership Month,
which means.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
What a garden yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah. Iced Team Month, Caribbean American Heritage Month, Fruit and
Veggie Month, you're growing both, right, I am at your
new farm yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, some strawberries and a lot of edgies.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah yeah. Country Cooking Month, Yeah I can't do that. Yeah.
Camping Month, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, so what you
know again? What I say here is try to figure
out who in your life is causing migraines and headaches
and cast them out of your life. It's National Zoo
and Aquarium Month. Hey, I work at a zoo. Dairy Month,
(05:53):
Soul Food Month, Okay, I do too, American African American
Music Month, like I say again, the headwaters for nearly
all the greatest music.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Accordian conversely, Accordion Month, to take it different, but it's
a weird instrument that can be a very important part
of some really fun and cool music. And also Poka
Portuguese Heritage Month. I don't know a single Portuguese person.
I don't think.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I've met a Portuguese person, so they do exist for real,
I've met at least two.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Well that's good to know. Yeah, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
It's imaginary place that Spain made up you know, they needed.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
A country to hate, you know that a neighbor that
you blame, that you make fun of. Rose Month like
roses love hate.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yeah, I have a love hate relationship with a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Do me too.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I actually swore that I would never plant a rose
garden after a particularly rough day in the field, and
I went back on that. The David Austin Catalog got
to yah and I ended up with two and it's
like what am I doing? And then every time I
smell them, it's just like, Okay, this is why.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, there's good old fashioned, old fashioned roses. Yeah, they
do with the what do they call that, the cabbage
bloom or the I don't know. There's all kinds of
different blooms. People don't know the vast array of roses.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah. I've never gotten super deep into roses, but yeah there.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Oh it's a world.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
It is a world. It is a big world. Uh.
It's DJ Month, And you know my title here is
actually your DJ.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, I think you should make some cuts.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I have to take all this training of your favorite
I have to take all this training about playing music
on the air that I never play. Oh, okay, Turkey
Lovers Month, that rounds up the month of for June. Okay,
this week in June National Flag Week, National Fishing and
Boating Week, and yeah that's fun. Animal Rights Awareness Week,
(08:09):
Universal Father's Week, and Recycling Workers Week. You know, I'm
in awe honestly of garbage men and women.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
That's a marathon they run every day, get the in
and out of the truck, running into the cans, loading them.
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
And then you know, incredibly hard work.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
And also, I mean it's one of the things that's
easiest to take for granted. But look, I lived in
a place without sanitation workers for two years in Peace Corps,
and I mean it's, yeah, what an incredible fact that
people just come to our house take our trash.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Away three in the morning usually. Yeah, yeah, they're awesome.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
You don't want to deal with that right on site,
just trust me.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So now we're on to Saturday, June thirteenth. They have
blame someone else day. So was it you who spilled
the coffee in the offices or in the studio this morning?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
It wasn't me.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I think it was you.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
No.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Random Acts of Light Day brings awareness to the importance
of finding cures for cancer. Sewing Machine Day. Do you
have a sewing machine?
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I don't. My mom has one.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Golf cart Day. And here's when we both can love
Kitchen Clutches of America Day. I should not be allowed
to have nights. I will just say that. And National
Weed your Garden Day. Now there's something we can we're
all probably behind on.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, it does need more than a day, though, it does.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
It needs like a year. The National Year of White
Meadior Garden Sunday Tomorrow National pop goes the Weasel Day,
and like, what the hell? Yeah, that's just ridiculous. It's
National Flag Day, so National Flag Day within National Flag Week. Okay,
taking no chances children in his day? You have kids today,
Deserve It Day.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I'll give them a day.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, you'll give them a day. Luckily it's also a
National Bourbon Day, so.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Depending on how National Kid Day, yeah, how it goes?
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Uh, National Strawberry Shortcake Day. I'll just leave the whole
bag treat sing alone for this week. I can too,
But again there's this cabal, there's this conspiracy. It's yeah,
cucumber Day. The hardest thing for me to grow in
the garden. I have no luck really growing cucumbers. Yeah,
they get started and then they just wither away.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Beatles kind of they're the problem.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Get to them.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah yeah, National Big Boy Day. And this breaks my
heart a little bit because almost all of our local
fishes franchises closed through like massively dumb business practices all
at once. They just Yeah, we went from like.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Thirty national is the big Boy?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
I don't know. I think it's pretty national. There's fishes
they're shown.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Has another name, several, I think. Okay, So like we
can claim that our nation knows the big Boy. I
think so okay. Right, if they don't, it's like, you know,
the bad saying, like National Skyline we don't have.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yeah, we're in Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
We eat Skyline, which is chili on hot dogs and noodles.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
We're addicted to it.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah, so like that's pretty hyper local. You can't have
a National Skyline Day, right, Well, we.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Can dream about it someday.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Someday we can claim it, but we'll just celebrate it
only here.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Monday is also also National Smile Power Day. I gotta
run through these quick. Megal megaladon Day, Nature Photography Day,
Foam Party Day, Thursday or I'm only on Tuesday National
fud Day. Fudge Day, Wednesday, Eat your Vegetables Day, Roop
your Day, Mascot Day, Apple Strudel Day, Cherry tart Day. Thursday,
(11:58):
Go Fishing Day, Splurge Day, slurge and go fishing. It's
also National want to get Away Day, so splurge and
go fishing away. Dump the pump Day, so a few
less trips to the you know, the cas station. Friday, Juneteenth,
Garfield the Cat Day. Never liked Garfield that much. Wear
(12:22):
Blue Day. This is to support men in your life
to lead healthy lifestyles. And it's going to take a
lot more than somebody wearing blue to get me to
help you. It won't know. And finally, Watch Day, any
old watch, it didn't specify time ax to Rolex. Enjoy
your watch and be sure to tell it how much
it means to you. That's all of the national days
(12:44):
of we are going to break. What a week we
are going to break. When we come back, we are
going to talk about favorite plants. Right now you're listening,
Let's garden with Scott Berlin. Thanks for listening. Come back,
good morning, good morning. We want to talk to you.
Give us a call. Eight hundred eighty two to three five,
and it's time to start talking some favorite plants. Cool
(13:05):
people sometimes ask me, Sarah, they catch me on the street,
they say, first, are you Scott Berlin?
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I say, yeah, yeah, that happens.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
To me too, Yeah I did. They ask you if
you're Scott Brown, and they asked, what is your favorite plant?
And first of all, that's an impossible question. Yeah right,
but I should start answering right from you know, starting
with this show. Now, I said, listen to my show,
why don't you because we discuss it favorite plants every
(13:34):
day or every Saturday of every week. And here we are.
It's time, and I'm going to start with Rebeccia maxima.
This came from the back of the pack to the
front in a hurry. Yeah, it shouldn't have because it
has gray foliage and it's really like almost cabbagey blue
(13:55):
basil foliage at the ground. And that's nice by itself.
But right now shot up to six feet with a
big tall stock yeah, and a big beautiful black eyed
seasoned flower at the top, so stunning.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, there is nothing quite like that big long stock
and that big stunning flower, and it just like it
sort of asserts itself in a garden, you know, but
the foliage is not very bushy, so it's not like
it's shading out.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
A lot of its neighbors.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I saw at one point that one of the common
names for that plant is called dumboat ears.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I never heard that before, and.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It's because the foliage is sort of that bluish grayish
round color, especially when it's young, and it does have
kind of a rounded elephant year look to it, which
is very different than you know, the other Rebeccy is.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's certainly a fun plant. You know. First of all,
you get that beautiful flower which the pollinators all come to,
and then a really nice seed head that finches come to,
the goldfinches. Yes, so it's a two for you know,
all the way down the road. And it never flops.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, I've seen it lean a bit, but yeah, I
mean it's pretty. It's pretty upright.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah you want to, I guess in more spare soil and.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
More spare soil, and with a lot of neighbors around it.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
That helps. And it looks great that way.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, it does, it really does.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
What's your plant? Your your first plant?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
The plant that really took my breath away this week
was the native bush honeysuckle dire villa what is that,
dire villa lunis or something.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Dire villa? What do you call it? Bush honeysuckle?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah, bush honeysuckle.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
The new foliage coming out of that at this time
of year is just stunning. It's contrasting with the leaf
and it's like kind of a purplish blush to it,
and then the yellow flowers are really set off nicely
with that.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So it's just a perfect time of year for that plant.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Really tough plant, really tough and adaptable for a lot
of things.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Bad soil shade pretty I think it can take a
fair amount of shade.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, I think. I don't know if they still list
it this way, but I think as of two years
ago it was listed by a proven winners. Is full
sun to full shade really yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And that they hold the most likely the plant you're
going to find in the nursery is one of their plants.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Kodiak Series Black is really nice too, and that was
the one that I saw this week.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And they're good for pollinators, yes, so that's really nice.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It's not invasive like the the other bushney suckle.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Right, So when we come back we will continue to
delight ourselves and hopefully everyone else by talking more and
about better plants. Everyone. You're welcome to join in. Tell
us about your favorite plants. You will listen to you
eight hundred two three eighty two fifty five. We'll be
back in just a few minutes. We are back. I
(17:04):
am here with Sarah Geiger being from Wimberg Landscaping. I
am Scott Berline. You're listening to Garden with Scott Burline.
Give us a called eight hundred eight three eighty two
fifty five about any favorite plants or things that you
want to talk about. But we are working our way
through a list of favorite plants right now. Why don't
(17:25):
you go ahead with the next one.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
The next one on my list is butterfly milkweed. That's
the orange blooming one which is blooming right now in
my yard. Common milk weed is also blooming along the
sides of the road. Yeah, I like that one less
for gardens. You know, you need a place for that
one to run, and it kind of has a coarser look.
But butterfly milkweed is very easy to integrate into a
(17:51):
garden setting. For me, the biggest challenge is actually color
a lot of clients don't like orange.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
But I don't get that. I love orange.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's a nice it's a nice contrast,
but it changes the tone of a garden, you know.
So yeah, but in that case, a lot of times
I'll use, uh, swap milkweed, you know, something a little
bit softer. But yeah, butterfly milkweed really is a great
garden plant. Just the street species. There's not I'm not
familiar with any cultivars, but.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
There's a yellow one. I forget what it's hello yellow
or something like that.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Oh that's right. Oh, actually i've grown that before. I forgot.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah. I have found that that's a tough one to
get established, but once you do, it's a forever perennial
m hm h h and kind of a naturalistic one
it does, I don't think would work really well in
a more formal right perennial bad, Yeah, but a really
a good one to mix in with, you know, kind
of in the wilder spots of your garden, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
One thing I've seen with that plant is that it
seems to be really sensitive to salt, so.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Just unusual, kind of ironic because you often see it
along freeways.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Right, but kind of set back, set back, and like
on the slope, not where the salt would be spraying up.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
On now that you mentioned it, Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
And it's sort of a shorter plant, so you know,
I think the instinct a lot of times is to
put it on the sidewalk or the front of the bed.
So just yeah, be careful with that. But it's a
great plant.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I'm going to go with Verbena bonariensis or that. It's
got a bunch of names, tall verbena, Brazilian verbena. It's
an annual or maybe a very short lived perennial. It
is just coming into its own so nicely right now.
It's a taller, you know, knee to waist high plant.
(19:35):
Knee high to me, waist high to you. Yeah. Really
a beautiful purple flower that stands up high. It's a
wispy plant, so you want it mixed in with your
other things. Yeah, but it looks really great coming through
other plants.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
It does, and it seems to go with almost anything.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, it really does, even though it's kind of a
pretty sharp purple.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
A pollinator absolute magnet.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Absolute pollinator magnet blooms all season long. If you don't
have a very diverse garden and there's gaps between bloom
times and your garden, annuals are a great way to
do that. And this is an annual that will just
keep the pollinators coming back and so they'll notice when
your next big crop of pollinator plants.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That's right, they'veing them around from now actually a few
weeks ago, all the way to a really hard frost Yep.
You wanted to talk about peppers. I think that's an
interesting idea.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, you know, I was just walking around my garden yesterday, uh,
looking at all the things for what are my favorite
plants at this moment, because it is kind of an
in between time. You know, we don't have all the
big summer blooming things and everything, and you know, I
have this new place where I have these garden plots
and I have way more room to grow peppers and
(20:56):
vegetables and everything than I've ever had in a homegrown
and just the joy of seeing those first peppers.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
And the tomatoes are coming on.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I don't have any ripe tomatoes yet, but like I
was just really struck with like, oh, I remember how
satisfying this was, and I don't even have to eat it,
you know, like I'm such a gardener that I confess
I've actually I've actually grown kale and not harvested it
because it was too pretty and I just enjoyed looking
(21:28):
out of it, looking out my window and seeing that
beautiful kale plant.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
You know, peppers are beautiful plants.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Peppers are beautiful plants.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Yeah, so, yep, a good twist on it. I'm going
to throw another twist on that idea because everybody wants
to talk about what's in bloom and you know that
kind of thing. I want to throw out some plants
that probably never get their due, okay, because they don't
have a season per se. Okay, they're just always good. Katsura.
Oh yeah, one of my favorite trees. I always like
(21:56):
to say, if you pulled all the top horticulturists in
the country, favorite tree that would be in the top five,
probably ninety percent of them, and none one of them
could list a reason why it's greater than the sum
of its part.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, you're right, it's not. There's not a single moment
in the year that is.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Just the flowers are kind of the jaw dropping.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Although I will say amazing grace in its winter form
is jaw dropping.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, that's a weeping form. Yeah, but just a great tree.
Yeah that you know, great foliage, cool flower.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Yeah, it's so fall color all year.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Round, but it's good the entire season. Same thing with
Medicinquoia or Don Redwood's. Oh yeah, you know, I just
won't get it's due because so much it's consistently good.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Yep. I put one of those in a garden this week.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I wanted to just throw it out there that the
southern magnolias are looking really good right now. The foliages
come in there and bloom, yep, yep. I don't want
to dominate. What's your next plant?
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Uh wait, let's see.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Oh a canthus bears breeches be yeahh So I have
I have some old canthus plants in my new place
that was planted by the previous gardener, and they're big
and they're vigorous and they're healthy. And I went out
last night and one of them was just in peak
bloom and it was really a saturated purple.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Usually it's ave yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Kind of a yeah, and with the dark leaves and everything,
it doesn't always read very well, like I think it's
a plant that's a little bit hard to design with.
I think it looks better with a lighter background, so
you yeah, I think the the flower gets a little
bit washed out in the shade because it's grown in
the shade and it's always kind of tucked in a
(23:49):
shady corner. And I think it's the whole plant just
kind of turns gray tones. So if you can get
something white or lighter around it, I think.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
It works best. But my gosh, what a flower.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And it's so different.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Well, it looks to me like a chiloney flower, like
a turtle head.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Do you think it's Do you know if it's related?
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I don't, And that's a good question. I've had it
for years in my garden, and this time of year
the local garden tour has its thing, and I've been
on it a few times, and that plant gets more
questions or comments than anything else in my garden.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
It's a what's it plant?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Yeah? It has such deep green foliage, almost a very
dark green, with jagged sharp edges.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
It looks prehistoric, it does.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
And from that comes this spiny stem that comes up
only maybe sixteen eighteen inches tall, and from those numerous
mauve putted odd looking flowers and it is just such
an eyecatcher. Yeah, and I love it. I moved it
every now and then for me, it kind of weakens
(24:57):
out and I know, okay, move it. I'll dig it up,
move it somewhere else, and from the original spot come
all these new plants.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
So that's how you propagate it. You try to dig
it out.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
You try to get rid of it. It works like that.
So it's really really cool. My iris and Seta or
the Japanese iris. Oh yeah, just came into balloon this week.
And wow, what a pretty flower. Nice, so good. What
do you have again?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Purple cone flour that's starting up looking really good.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
In my home garden.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And butterfly milk weed I just or not I'm sorry,
swamp milkweed. I have to give a shout out to
that because it's just growing so well. And my little
pots in the nursery have monarch butterfly caterpillars eating them
and they don't seem to be minding it.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
You know, these.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Are these are they're not plug size, but they're maybe
I don't know, four inch size, and they're the plants
are growing visibly like they're butting around these little caterpillars,
and I have to wonder, It's like does this surely
there's a point of crossover where it hurts, but like
does the grazing help a little bit? You know?
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Like we've noticed it at the zoo where we grow
Aristolochia or pipevine, and we're going in the nursery to
sell in a native plant sails and these tiny little
plants just get devastated by the caterpillars from the pipevine swallowtail.
It's like, what do you do? You're trying to grow
these plants, right, So we try to cover them, I
(26:36):
think mostly and save them that way.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Kind of the problem with this is, you know, with
the caterpillars feeding on such a small plant, they're going
to run out of food. So if you can, if
you have that situation, I'll.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Move them to the butterfly milkweed. Yeah, off my patio.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Absolutely. So they're easy to move. You just brush them
off into something and set them there. I wanted to
mention purple plants. Now this is you know, I'm not
a big fan of colored plants. I'm definitely not a
big favor of yellow plants. Foliage. Yeah, so everything in moderation.
(27:15):
And I've just been driving around noticing all the Japanese maples,
purple or red red buds with the types with the
purple or red foliage, and also beach and there's probably
others out there, the cherries and a few other things,
but used in moderation as maybe a specimen. You're there.
I think they're fabulous. There is conversation that plants with
(27:38):
purple foliage are not as desirable or not desirable at
all for caterpillars to eat. That's a plus and a minus.
You know, if you're trying to ye to promote pollinators,
a lot of them there stages when they are a caterpillar.
So you know that comes back to being okay with
some holes. And again, if you want a plant, purple
(28:00):
plant and support pollinators, just plant other really good right
somewhere else. Yeah, Yeah, that's an easy answer, right.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
If I use purple usually it says a contrast anyway,
so you know it's not going to be dominating a landscape.
There's plenty of other places for pollinator plants.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Sure, you would hope, you would hope, you would hope.
A couple of very common ones that are really starting
to show off Roseanne geranium. Oh, yes, such a good
plant that came out relatively recently. Was the perennial plant
of the year four or five years back. Just a great,
long blooming geranium.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Long blooming and tough.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, sprawls in through all your other perennials. It looks great.
And then Carl Forster feathery grass, probably the most common
plant in gardens. It's arguably right, but it's because it's
so darn good, right.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
If you're hating on Carl Forster, I mean it's just
because you don't like that it's popular because it is
such the only reason high performing plant, oh year long.
And I think it's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
It's stunning, you know. Right now it's in bloom and
the flowers have just a nice touch of pink or
purple too. And then they go into the seedhead stage,
which is just so good, and then sort of the
spent seedhead stage, which is where it gets the feather
regress came from, Yes, And it stands up right all
year round. The foliage is perfect and just a great plant.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
And there's a reason that they put them in, you know,
every parking lot strip in the world. It's because they
make it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, Sarah, we got to go to break. That's the
end of our favorite plants for right now. Did we
leave anything out?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
I do like other plants, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Well maybe we'll give it some time.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
But we're through.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
We're through your list. Yeah, oh okay, well then that's
that's good timing. Then, so we'll take a break. We
gotta pay some bills. I'm here with Sarah Geiger Beam,
and we will nag you when we come back. We
will nag you about all the things you should have
done last week. Got me and Sarah Geiger Beam here
to answer your questions, and we will do so and
(30:08):
give our best possible answers. Sarah, Yeah, how do you
like this radio thing so far?
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I like it? Yeah, it's good good.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I love teaching and you know, just talking plants and everything,
and this is like great because I don't have to
like freak out and look at a big audience or anything.
There's like no people, no people.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I just have to look at you, Scott.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I'm sorry about that. I apologize.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I'm getting through.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah. You are a busy woman. You have two children,
you have a business, you have a full time job
as a designer. Yeah, what else? You have a farm,
all these things, certainly you're behind and all your gardening tasks.
What do you mean, So what have you been putting off?
(30:59):
What should you have done last week?
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Oh gosh, there's a lot of things I should have
done last week.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
I still have plants. I need to step up. It
was really Oh yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So, like you start plants in the smaller pot and
then you put it in a bigger pot, and you
know that helps it grow, so it's not too big
of a pot. Yeah, so I need to do that.
Everything's grown really fast this time of year. So just
getting making sure that there's enough shade for my plants. Yeah,
I'm finding is a whole thing. Just doing the shuffle
(31:35):
of moving.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Things around, shuffling speaking of weeds.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yes, the shuffle or the stirrupo. That love that tool. Yeah,
and it's really it's designed to work and buds that
have been tilled that are already kind of loose and
in that next flush of weeds that are coming up
and at the thread stage. But yeah, I actually I
(32:01):
should have done the whole thing last week, but I
did get to like half of it. And man, if
you get the timing right on that. There is just
no better and I think it kind of keeps the
soil fluffy.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
And the aerator it does it keeps it open so water.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, there's any kind of crust or anything that's built up,
then it gets rid of that.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
But speaking of I was one of my items was
to re sharpen your tools. Oh, if you've been out
there scuffling or shuffling.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
With the hoe, I actually, yeah, I take a file
out with me.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
That's something I've picked up in Peace Corps.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Paraguayans take a machete and a file out to the
field and they just sharpen constantly all day long. So yeah,
I am. I am big on sharpening your tools. A
stirrup hooe is useless if it's not sharp. A sod
spade is useless if it's not sharp. I sharpen my
spades and shovels too.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I use a grinder.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, I get them.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Sorry pretty but yeah, you know what a sharp tool
is A safer tool.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Really, it really is.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
And it's easier on your body.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, and you don't tire so much, which means you
make fewer mistakes down the road.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Time to cage tomatoes. Have you done so?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Yep?
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I actually yeah, I planted them in the cages because
they were already bi.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, I still need to do that with some of
mine dead heads. We're getting to the point where some
flowers have finished. Yeah, you could dead head them if
you want. I use a string trimmer because I'm fast
and lazy.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, dead heading is a thing you can do.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
You can do. It's all the best thing to do
because a lot of those seedheads are great for birds, right,
so you might want to leave those yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I mean, I'll be honest, I don't really.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Dead Heading is not something I like to do in
my home garden.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
I got paid to do it for years.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, at work, and you know, I'm a pollinator garden designer,
so I like to leave the seed heads up.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
So I mostly don't do it. But there's certain plants
where I do, like daffodils, irises, and a handful of others. Yeah,
And that's if I think of it.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
If if I walk and I've got the pruners on
my hip and I'm looking at that plant and I'm like,
oh that, yeah, that's gonna bloom again nicely. If I
just make this cut speaking of the Chelsea Chop, the
Chelsea ship getting towards the end.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Of the period where you can do that where you
cut this is where you cut back your fall or
late summer blooming perennials. Yes, by a third or half.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah, great technique. I think it's becoming slightly more well
known too. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
I'm talking to clients about it more well.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I mean the gardens that we're designing with pollen eat
or plants sometimes they get tall.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
So Chelsea shop is extra good.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Keep some uniform from flopping a lot of times and
just smaller in the garden.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Any any plant that you went out last year in
August and just had turned into a beast and was
way out of scale, just cut it in half right now,
and it'll branch out and it'll stay up better, and.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
It might even be more floriferous. It might, yes, because
more branching out potentially more flower stems.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
So that's really good. Well you got what else you have?
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Oh, plumbing and irrigation.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
I just feel like probably all of the listeners out
there have been working with their irrigation system and you know,
finding the leaks and it's like, oh, where did I
put the pipe tape and all.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
This line sprung a leak.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
And do I have the fittings for this and the sprinkler. Oh,
I need a new nozzle because this one's leaking out
the top now.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Yeah, and I will recommend heartily the number of relatively
cheap timers you can use for your your irrigation. You
can put on the end of a hose with a sprinkler,
set it for fifteen minutes and it'll turn off by itself. Yeah,
all good stuff. I will want to also mention get
out of the garden if you need to the dinner
or a movie, and as always get back to the garden.
(35:59):
Set very important stuff to do. You are listening to
Let's Garden with Scott Berlin. We are having lots of
fumis Haarah Goetger Beam. We'll have Shannon Curry later. Stay tuned,
we'll be right back.
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