Holiday Plants w/ Beverly and Angela

Beverly Welch from Arbor Gate and Angela Chandler from Garden Academy fill in for Skip and answer caller questions.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Kat r H Garden Line does notnecessarily endorse any of the products or services
advertised on this program. Welcome tokat r H Garden Line with Scip Richter.
It's chow Trim, just watching asworld thanks to Septa A Sor.

(00:37):
Good morning and welcome to Garden Line. I'm Beverly Wells from the Arbor Gate
and have the privilege to share themicrophone today with my dear friend Angela Chandler
with the Garden Academy. How areyou this one. I'm doing great,
Beverly, and glad to be herewith you. Oh, it's going to
be a great day. Kind ofchilly though, like Nikki said, a
little bit chilly. Thankfully they've kindof moderated the forecast a little bit,

(00:59):
so it may not be quite asbad as we all feared that it could
be last week. But it's stillgonna have a little nip in the air.
Yeah, it's definitely seasonal reds.Yeah, and that's beautiful autumn foliage
that we were enjoying so much.Maybe on the ground by the end of
the day, I think a lotof it might be. You know,
we did the same pattern this yearthat we did last year, where we
had that early little coal spell thatgave us this beautiful fall color. But

(01:23):
we have to understand that in theHouston area it's short lived and we need
to appreciate it while we've got Andit was very beautiful this fall. It
really was. You know, Ithink one of the things that I love
is the gold because we always thinkof the reds, and unfortunately tallow trees
and not so great tree give usthat those red and amber colors. But
the last couple of years, we'vehad these beautiful golds, you know,

(01:47):
in our fall color, and I'vereally appreciated. You know, people overlook
Cravey myrtles, they always think ofthem for sun more color, but they've
been spectacular, they have been.And you have a range of color with
crape myrtles because you have golds andyou have ambers, and you've got you
know, the orange and then thedeep reds. Even some of them that
I've seen turn almost a ruby color. So it's it's been lovely to have
that. And then you know,I've gotten very fond of papause and they

(02:12):
if they get enough cool weather early, they just turn into this gorgeous gold
pyramid, right doesn't like I say, it doesn't last long, but I
really appreciate it well. And youknow, the Trident Maple's had put on
quite a show and they typically againare not one that you can count on
every year, right, But it'sjust we've gotten lucky. We need that
little early cool to trigger our fallcolor, and we've gotten it the last

(02:35):
two years. So you know thismorning, obviously Skiff is not with us,
but and we are most honored tobe standing in for him. They
can call in yeah, seven one, three, two and two five eight
seven four or two and two kt R H. And Josh is on
board to answer the call and passthe question along to us. So we're

(02:57):
more than happy to answer any question. Yeah, we're ready, bring them
on. Yeah, and you know, this is the time of year we
should be gardening. It really isa fabulous time of year to garden.
We have the benefit of cooler temperaturesfor a longer period of time. We're
going to have some cycles, likeright now, we're going to have that
little cold dip. Then it's goingto have a slightly warming cycle, but

(03:21):
it's still not punishing like our summersare. And so we have that long
cool period with a little bit ofadditional moisture. What moisture we add to
the soil doesn't evaporate as quickly.So it's you know, when you think
about things like all of your woodyplants, and so here we're talking about
trees and shrubs and fruits, roses, so many of our perennials, herbs.

(03:46):
We're looking at. All these plantsare ready to be established. And
so some you know, the deciduousthings that lose their leaves, they don't
stop growing just because we don't seetop growth. They're going to put on
an awful lot of root growth duringthe fall and throughout winter. And then
the things that stay green, likesay you're Rosemary's or you know, some

(04:11):
of your citrus and things like that, they still go through a semi dormancy,
so they're not concentrating on top growth, but they are concentrating on root
growth. So this is a perfecttime of year for us to get those
plants in the ground, let themget established. Then they will take if
we have another summer anything like lastsummer, they'll be able to take it

(04:32):
much better if we can get themestablished now. Right, And we're always
so focused on the air temperature andpeople don't realize how warm our soil stays,
especially our transplants that have come downfrom parts north of Dallas. Right,
Yes, you know we just havewarm soil basically year round, right,
we really do. And then withproper mulching we can keep that moderated

(04:55):
even more where we don't have bigswings in our soil temperature. We know,
all these things you keep talking aboutsound like great subjects for the next
few hours. They do. Infact, we'll probably revisit that one again.
Yeah. Absolutely, so I guessthis is why December the tenth,
you we're on the final countdown?Are you ready? Were you ready?
We are ready for Christmas? Well, I can't to truly say that I'm

(05:18):
completely ready for Christmas, but I'mdefinitely in the Christmas spirit. Yeah,
And you know, I think thatright now it's a time for everybody to
sort of start reflecting on that,getting more in tune with family, thinking
about what they plan on for Christmasdinner, finishing their final decorating. Right,
all of those things are in place, so that ties into the garden

(05:39):
too. Oh. Absolutely, it'slike you know, how many and what
colors of point set is? Areyou going to have in your house,
you know. And you know myfavorite it actually is cycleman for the Christmas
flower or the Christmas cactus. Imean, how can you not have Christmas
You really can't beat those. Youtalk about a showy plant. Yeah,
that's a showy plant, right right, easy to grow, good patio plan

(06:00):
for the summer. But points atis are a little bit finnicky, but
they're great here they are, andthey're just such add such beautiful color to
your tables, you know, justtonfor you know. Fortunately we can have
them as a porch display here,so uh, you know, they're a
little tropical, but they'll they'll takemost of our days and we can bring
them in on the knights that arereally too cool for right right. You

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know, I don't know that weever really get ready for Christmas. It
just comes like it or not,it does no matter how early I start.
I could keep going, yeah,you really could. And I think
maybe a lot of us actually getinto Christmas feeling like we're kind of skidding
in the same right, But itis a good time to start reflecting on
it and above all keeping the reallytrue meaning of the season and the joy

(06:48):
that we have spending time with friendsand family. That's one of the most
it is that is the pure joyof Christmas. Absolutely absolutely so. I
I know in the garden we canalso gather so much. And we talked
about the points that is in thecycleman and good good color for But you
know, just going out into thegarden and picking holly branches and and some

(07:13):
of the cedars and junipers, youcan make beautiful displays just from your own
garden. You really can. Andyou know, even things that are bare
branches. One of the prettiest Christmasdecorations my mother ever did was a bare
branch that she wrapped in the littlewhite Christmas lights and it hung above our
fireplace and it was almost magical looking, you know, like something that came
from the forest. Well, mymother spray painted every sweet down ball that

(07:35):
hit the ground or glittered it.So there's there are the pine cones make
beautiful wheeds and garlands, Yeah,they really do. You know. You
get them wet, let them,let them close, and then you can
push them through the wire forms andthen as they dry and open, it
secures them in place. How wonderful. Well, I'm looking forward to the

(07:55):
morning again. Remember the number tocall is seven one, three, two
and two five eight seven four,and you're listening to the garden Line.
Good Sunday morning. Welcome to gardenLine. I'm Beverly good everyone, and
I'm Angela Chandler, and we're heretoday to talk all things gardening. We
certainly are. We have Josh availableto answer your phone call seven to one

(08:18):
three two one two five eight sevenfour. That's seven one three two one
two five eight seven four or katrh we'd love to hear from you this
morning. We're getting ready for Christmas. Angela, we are what is your
favorite Christmas tradition? Well this mightsurprise you, but you know, I'm

(08:39):
a new Mexico girl, right,and so for us getting ready for this
season and followed our chili season almostimmediately. And so for us, it
was making Tamali's and pasole. Okay, you know there we'd have family that
likes green pasoli and family that likesred pisole, and we had a mix
of different Tomali's. So those werealways found traditions for us. That was

(09:01):
always part of our table throughout theChristmas season, especially on Christmas Eve.
So these were just part of ourtradition. And then believe it or not.
When I started having my children,my children always the way I reminded
them the meaning of the season wasthat we baked a birthday cake for the
baby Jesus every year, and sothat was something they participated in and helped

(09:24):
to decorate. So those were fulltraditions that we had. Yeah, that's
nice. You know, I neverreally thought about it, but my daughter
tell me one time, the thingthat she always remembers growing up is that
I would hang bells on the door. I think that's lovely. So sleigh
bells every time the door would openand she'd say Christmas, she'd lay in

(09:45):
bed and wait to hear the bellsthat Santa came. So it's little things
we really don't think about that impactour children and grandchildren that they remember and
carry with them through years. It'sjust really nice. Yeah, I do
think that that means a lot.And so many families have traditions that either
tied to their culture or just thingsthat have been handed down in their family

(10:07):
for years and years. I knowso many families for whom setting up a
crush is particularly important, or gettingout that box of handmade ornaments. You
know that they've been collected through theyears and just looking at you know,
how your children's very first little scribblesof their name on the back of an
ornament that was made at school andhas special those things and those yellowing old

(10:28):
ornaments, they're the most precious forsure. You know. It's funny.
My grandmother was very creative and shewas a master gardener and you know,
just a fabulous gardener. And shewould recycle just about anything she could get
her hands on. And she madeornaments out of ten cans and ten slips,
so if you have to wear heavygloves to do that because they're very

(10:50):
sharp, but she would cut intothem and create little stars. And then
you mentioned the glitter. They wouldhave felt pieces and glitter and you know,
the just all different kinds of littledecorations on them. And I kept
them for many years, you know, knowing that I had to open that
box carefully every year for the sharpedges. Right. Yeah, And you

(11:11):
know, ornaments are one of myfavorite gifts to receive and give because every
year when you do decorate the tree, you remember exactly you gave it to
you and it has such a specialmeaning. Yeah, it really does.
And then my name, being Angela, people often gave me angels, as
you know, although I am noangel, how come on, but you're

(11:31):
a gardening angel, that's for sure. They would give me angels because of
that is, you know, justdifferent things. And so for many years
I have two fabric panels that wehang up and then I'll hang all those
and they come from all over theworld. I have angels from Haiti and
angels from Africa, and angels fromChina, and just you know, they're
very colorful and very happy. Ofcourse they don't match, they're very eclectic,

(11:54):
but it's a lot of fun.Well, I know, I think
I probably maybe know the answer tothis. You do have a fresh tree?
Right? Well, this year wedo not, Oh yeah, terribly,
although that is my favorite thing todo. There's nothing like that smell
in the house. There's just somany wonderful things about it. But we
are actually in the process of redoingour living room this year, so we
are going at Christmas without a livingtree this year. So we're going to

(12:18):
substitute it with a very sweet littletabletop rosemary tree and get vibe with You
do have a fresh tree, then, well, that's true, yeah,
just not thinking of you know,a gorgeous fraser fur or something you know.
Well, you know, the havinga fresh cut tree is really the
greenest thing that you can do.That's something that you can reuse, you

(12:41):
can make in tumulch. A lotof people will pick them up from the
nursery if we have any leftovers,throw them in their ponds for the fish.
So it is very environmentally friendly.They grow. You know, we
carry the fraser furs which are stunningand the furser the very least allergenic type

(13:01):
of truth that you can have.But they grow on on parts of the
mountains, the blue rich mountains wherenothing else we can grow in that intes.
So that is a crop that issustainable there and it is providing shelter
for wildlife as it grows too.Yeah, they really do. And you
know, as for a lot ofhomesteaders, one of the things that we

(13:22):
look at them is when they arestripped of all their ornaments every year.
The goats absolutely love them. Oh, they just love them. To them.
That's a that's an annual that's aChristmas tree. Yes, yep,
pumpkins at Halloween and and then theChristmas trees. Yeah, they're great and
you know, not to be afraidto you if as long as you put
a fresh cut on the tree,get it back into water within an hour

(13:46):
so it doesn't seal off. Theycontinuously drink through the season, so they
really do stay nice and fresh.And as long as you're mindful with your
lighting and leave it on all night, you know, they're really not a
problem. And like you said,that fragrance, Oh, it's just that
it pays into the house. Isjust part of Christmas, it really is.

(14:07):
There is something very special about thatfragrance. Yes, it is,
and they're great to decorate with,even to bows. Yeah, if you
do don't have a situation where youcan have a fresh tree, go get
you some fresh cuttings. Yeah,add those into your artificial wreaths and mantle
garlands, and then you still havethat fragrance and that feel. Yeah,

(14:28):
the feel of them, I think. Yeah, it's one of the things
that I like to brush. Youknow, when you walk by certain things,
you want to reach out and brushthem because you know you're going to
get that return of the fragrance.And the Christmas trees are very much like
that for me, you know,just like Rosemary and some of the other
wonderful things that we can do wellin Rosemary is a great, great one
to have it it is, youknow, for tabletops, for shut ins,

(14:50):
you know, for somebody in anapartment. It's a nice substitute,
has a beautiful shape to it,and then of course it can go out
and live in the garden the restof the year, right right, and
use it on the kitchen table,that's for sure. Also lavender, you
can pick those up right now too. We have got some beautiful lavender Christmas
trees or pyramid shape pruned and lavenderis such a great herb for us to

(15:13):
grow. And this again is agreat season for these guys as well.
We were talking about this is thetime to plant. And there are a
lot of herbs that just absolutely lovethis weather. This is English England weather.
It is you know from herbs,Oh my gosh, you know pretty
much everything but basil. Right,it can go in this time of year,
and there are certain herbs that thisis the perfect time of year for

(15:37):
them, you know, things likecilantro. I was going to say with
your with your menu, you gotto have cilantro in the ground. Parsley
right as another one, right,the fennel yeah, and the deal all
of them appreciate that cool weather.And even if you're not planning for the
for the kitchen plant, those forthe butterfly. You know, a lot

(15:58):
of them are host plants, andthat is something that I think a lot
of people have been focused on recently. It's a very important thing to be
focused on. Uh. There arecertain herbs that you know, we we
know that herbs are beneficial to allof our beneficial beneficial insects, pollinators.
Uh, the the small little waspsthat are predatory wasps that help us manage

(16:22):
our you know, pests in ourgarden. Uh, they're so valuable to
us. The the aromatic oils fromthem are things that you can use,
you know, when you disturb thoseoils when you're in the garden. It
does help with your own personal pestcontrol. You can certain plants that you
can use that will you know,deter insects, you know, mosquitos and
things like that flies from bothering you. So it's just it's just lovely to

(16:45):
have them in the garden. Andthey have all kinds of leaf textures just
you know, tiny beautiful, smallbut beautiful little blooms. Uh. It
just adds a lot of interest.And so if you have one of those
gardens that is you know a lotof well we call foundational plants, trees
and shrubs of all different kinds.It's wonderful to work these in between those

(17:06):
for both color and texture, right, and I do often. I love
to use a Dylan fennel in thewinter color garden. And parsley is beautiful
with pansies. Or that deep greencurled parsley with that stark white alyssum is
just a stunning container. And youknow, there are several different parsleys we
can use, because Jackie mentioned thevery deep, dark curled parsley, which

(17:30):
loves this time of year, looksvery full, makes a wonderful border bedding
plant actually, and then the taller, sort of leafy er, the flat
lit atalian parsley. I'm particularly fondof that one. And that one is
one that you definitely want a plantplanning on letting it bolt in the landscape

(17:51):
because it's really very attractive to beneficials. And you know, people forget that
a lot of their herbs were landscapeplants long before they were in the kitchens.
They were gardens, you know,apothecary gardens. These are the gardens
of our history, gardens of ourpast. I mean even in the gardens
of kings and queens, right right, Kings and queens. It's pretty nice.
They were they knew they were ofgood use, right right. Well.

(18:15):
The number to call seven one threetwo one two five eight seven four.
And I'm Beverly Welch, joined bymy dear friend Angela Chandler, and
you are listening to the garden line. Good morning, beautiful day, windy
day, breezy day. Yeah,and I'm Beverly Welch with Arbor Gate.

(18:37):
I have a privilege to be herewith Angela Chandler with the Garden Academy,
and we are on the garden Line. If you have any questions, please
give us a call at seven onethree two one two five five eight seven
four. That's seven one three twoone two five eight seven four. So
gardening weather question from in southwest Houston, great good morning, asks how cold

(19:04):
hardy are both Barbados cherries and seedthem? Okay, Barbados cherry is a
tropical cherry, and so it's notterribly cold hardy now in this first little
cold spell that we're going to havehere, which depending on what part of
town you're in, Like in myend of town, which is the southeast

(19:26):
side, is going to be aboutforty tonight. If you're up in the
Cypress area or the northwest part oftown, you'll need to look and see
what your expected cold temperature is.But generally they're okay in that forty degree
range. You wouldn't have to worryabout them until we got down to true
freezing temperatures, right, And Ilooked this morning. Of course, I'm

(19:48):
sure it's going to change throughout theday, but I know in the Tamball
area they're predicting around thirty four.Yeah, so that to me is going
to be a frost, especially ifyou're right and frost yeah right, it's
going to clear off and the windis going to die down. So I
always but the seedums, it justdepends on the variety because some of them
are extremely cold hardy and others arenot so much. Green Acres is a

(20:11):
real good one that seems to bevery cold hardy. One little one called
mouse Ears we had, you know, it did damage even in the single
digits, but came right back.So a lot of them can be the
old fashioned hen and chicks, veryvery tough, and in fact, in
this kind of cooler weather, it'sgot that beautiful rosy glow to it right

(20:34):
now. That's one of the thingsI love about growing succulents is so many
of them have a little tinge ofeither orange or pink in the wintertime,
and they're just beautiful. But thetrue seedums, it does very muchly depend
on the variety, and some ofthem, like I say, they will
take into that single digits without evenlooking back, So you kind of have

(20:55):
to gauge it by that. Exactlywhat seedom do you have? Exactly?
If it's any doubt, you know, lay some frost cloth over it tonight,
throw a layer of leaves over thetop of it. A cardboard box
is a great way to protect things. Sure, give it a little protection.
But I love the seedoms, YesI do too. They are very
good plants. You know, youhave the large, large leaved seedoms,

(21:18):
then you have the ones that havethe very you know, almost needily look
to them. So it's a bigfamily of plants and they fit very very
well into many parts of our landscape. Absolutely, But that's a great question.
Yeah, it is a good question. Thanks for the call. We
know people are a little concerned aboutwhat's going to happen. And then remember
too that according to the longer range, the ten and twelve day prediction,

(21:41):
that we're going to have this littlebit of a cool dip, but then
it's going to go right back toour moderate winter temperatures again. So we
don't need to get too excited aboutthis and overprotect things now. For sure,
anything that you do decide to protect, take that protection off when we
have our warmer temperatures off between freezes. Good advice, very good, you
know, just it's a good timeto get prepared for the future freeze to

(22:03):
you know, make sure you havea good stock of your frost cloth.
And we were fortunate enough to getin some four and six ounce so some
really heavyweight, heavy duty frost cloththey have available for our customers, as
I'm sure many of the independent gardencenters have done, you know. And
the thing too about working with frostcloth and staying away from things like tarps

(22:27):
or plastic material is that you candouble it up so when you have the
you know, you're part of yourstrategy for protection should be to have multiple
layers of the frost cloth. Available. So in a light freeze you can
drop maybe the four ounce over ina heavier freeze, two layers of frostcloth
or a layer of each. Uh. These are good insulators for our plants

(22:49):
and it will get them through themajority of anything that you know Texas has
to dish out well in these lightfrost too. Share your tip about the
seaweed extract, well, it doesmake a difference. Basically we call it
gardener's anti freeze, and so folierfeeding with that, you know, twenty
four hours ahead or so of afrost is a good strategy. And then

(23:12):
to help plants recover between freezes ifthey've had light tip damage, getting them
again, because what that does israises the mineral content, which that gives
them the strength if you want tocall it that to be able to get
through and repair themselves somewhat repair thattissue damage. Well, and that leads
to another question. So if wedidn't cover, say, and it did

(23:34):
dip down a little co cooler tonightthan was expected, and we did see
a little bit of damage, littletip damage on some of our savvias and
woody perennials, we shouldn't remove that. No, don't do anything, because
that damage tissue is going to protectfor the next freeze. One it's cover,
but two when you print something back, what happens is that stem acts

(23:57):
like a straw it basically, sothat next little bit of cold in.
And so if you'll leave that,and I know it's always hard for people
because we want our yards to looklovely. We don't really want those burnt
brown looking tips, but for thesake of our garden, we need to,
you know, understand that that's betterfor the garden. Just leave them

(24:17):
and don't don't take any action becauseyou know it's going to happen again in
another ten days or two weeks,right right, which will lead us into
some things we can get into alittle bit later in the pogram. Is
that's what the opportunity to plant someof the cold, hardy color around these
guys to kind of camouflage them orhide them if you will. The hot

(24:40):
you know, the fox club,they get some size, the del finium,
the larksburg, the taller snaps,so they can work that in.
Now let's you know, just kindof soften the look, but still leave
that leave that foliage as you should. So let's get into that after the
break, let's talk a little bitmore about winter color and the life that

(25:00):
we can bring to our garden inLes Texas. Oh my gosh, there's
so much. I don't know ifwe have time for it all. I
will try to squeeze into what wecan. Yeah, but there's a lot
to do, and there's you know, it's time to look forward to the
next season. I know that soundscrazy, but there's quite a few things
that you need to plant now ifyou want that beautiful, full bloom garden,
cottage garden for Easter. You know, when you live in a place

(25:22):
that has three hundred and sixty fiveday a year gardening, you always should
be planning a season ahead. Wealways thinking about where are we going for
next season? Well, I can'twait till the next segment. I can't
either. Good morning, and welcometo garden Line. I'm Beverly Welch from
the Arborgate and I am Angela chandlerwith the Garden Academy, and we'll love

(25:47):
to have your questions this morning.Please give us a call at seven one
three two one two five eight sevenfour. That's seven one three two one
two five eight seven four. Sothis is as we you know, we
try to hammer this home as oftenas we can. Gardeners, this is

(26:07):
your season, this is this istruly our spring more than spring. Yeah,
it is time to get in thegarden, get away from that hustle
bustle of the season, and gooutside and just dig. Yeah. You
know, really I always told peoplewe could should get that mindset that our
gardening season, our spring starts Octoberfirst, that's so true, goes through

(26:30):
now. And if we were goingto choose a season to leave anything fallow,
it would be those hot couple ofmonths of July and August. You
know, we're for our northern neighbors. It's it's this time of year that
their gardens are fallow. So weyou know, and Ann Wheeler teaches the
classes. That's that's her big subjectis October first is New Year's Day for
earths. That's exactly true, andit's true for a great many of our

(26:52):
plants, right, and so peopleare always wondering too this time of year,
you know, as the lantanas anda lot of the perennials are going
dormant and kind of taking a break, taking a rest. There is so
much to plant right now, andwe were talking about earlier before we left
for the break. You know,you need to plant a certain amount of

(27:14):
plants now for your spring blue.If you don't get them in the ground
now, they don't have enough timebefore we hit our heat, right,
and that is one of the thatis a worrisome thing. So we have
some really great plants that we seein national magazines in spring. They if
we planted them in spring here,we would get nothing out of them because

(27:36):
by the time they're ready to bloom, our summer heat is upon them.
Right. So those plants are wintercolor plants for us. Right, we
can get them in They tolerate everythingthat winter has to dish out here.
They bloom beautifully. And then aboutthe time our gardens are starting to resurge
and our perennials are coming into theirfinest in late spring, these plants are
fading out. And I'll tell youdid that more tutor thing, not exactly,

(28:00):
it's how you pull it off.Yeah. So one one is fox
life, so you can plant themby seed. We have them at the
nursery and transplant or you know,plants beautiful and it's it's so nice.
It's a good space taker. Ifyou have really large gardens. It's a
great one. Yeah. Or ifyou have borders and you need something that's

(28:23):
at the back of the border showstopper. Oh right, you know that's what
these plants are, right, Anddon't have to worry about the temperatures of
them. In fact, we ifwe have a very warm winter, sometimes
they don't bloom wealth rice in thispoint and then by nature a biennials,
they're going to kind of act likethat anyway, right. Another one is

(28:44):
delphinium, so gorgeous. You know, I've always loved delphiniums, and we
see these gorgeous pictures of them,and like I say, in all the
national magazines, and so we haveto plant them this time of year to
be able to enjoy them. Butwe do have their native cousins, the
larkspurs, that we can plan aswell, right, And you know the
larkspurs, I've had fairly decent successin them reseating themselves. Yes, they

(29:07):
do, our little native does.And they're a very sweet flower and they
come in you know, shades ofblues and even some pinks. And one
that I always have to plant inthe fall are sweet peas. My mama
always had sweet peas growing on ourfence right outside the garage of the back
door, and pig big bouquets ofthem to have on the table at Easter.

(29:30):
Sweet peas there are to me amust. They really are. They're
a cottage garden plant. They're kindof one of the grandmother plants that we
all we all know known love somuch. And they smell so wonderful,
they're such so fair, amazing.And poppies, yeah, especially the big
bread poppies. You know, justcast just rake those seeds in, you
know, and they the nice thingabout them is that they will establish themselves

(29:55):
in the garden, so they'll bloomfor us in the winter and maybe even
into the early They'll have those seedheads, which are a lot of fun,
all kinds of crafts that you cando with the little seed heads,
and then just let them go andthey will the seed will lay there all
summer long, and they'll be backagain as soon as the weather is good
for them in the fall. Youknow. One thing I'd love to plant

(30:17):
in the fall, and it actuallyhas been a very reliable perennial for me,
is cardoon or artichoke. They areshowstoppers as the foliage are through the
winter, yep, and then inthe spring when you get your choke.
I never pick them, I nevereat them. But the flowers are so
flowers amazing they are. They're justbeautiful, and it's so much fun to

(30:41):
go out there and watch the bumblebeesjust buried in those blooms covered in pollen.
I mean, they just love toburrow down in those blooms. So
I agree with you that silvery,velvety foliage and deeply toothed, you know,
very one of the plants that wecall architectural. They're just beautiful.
But the blooms are just gorgeous.You know, buy your autochokees at the

(31:03):
grocery store past for the love ofthe plant. And you know, and
when the heat hits in the summer, don't pull it up, just cut
it back. I and as longas it's in a well drained bad it
will come back for you time OctoberNovember. You'll start seeing a little life
in that crown and then you'll startgetting multiple crowns. Yeah, and they
do look a little mangy in thesummertime, but you know that just come

(31:26):
down. That's why I feel aboutit too. And you know, we
can't forget about using foliages for colorin the winter garden, just like we
do in spring and summer. Anotherone of my favorites is maszuna mustard,
yep, mazuma mustard, the ornamentalKALs and cabbages, and then Asian greens.
That's your double duty plant right there. So many of them are so

(31:48):
beautiful, Oh gosh, they havegorgeous foliage color, or they have these
absolutely gorgeous like carved out rosettes likethey were just you know, you look
them and they just almost don't seemreal. They're so perfect in their in
their leaf form, just beautiful,beautiful plants. And then a lot of
those are edible, So this issomething that that you have a true double

(32:09):
duty plant. They're beautiful and thenthey taste delicious at the table. Right.
Well, I hear the music,so I guess it's time to go
to a break. But we didn'teven get halfway through our list here.
No, but we've got another segment. That's right. Katie r h.

(33:05):
Garden Line does not necessarily endorse anyof the products or services advertised on this
program. Welcome to Katie r h. Garden Line with skip rictor. It's
shoes, crazy shrimp, just watchingas many birthings to suppy, not a

(33:40):
sun, the sun bemons of goodmorning. Welcome to garden Line. I'm
Beverly Welch of the Arbor Gate,Angela Channer with the Garden Academy, here
to take your calls. We'd loveto hear for me this morning. Seven

(34:00):
to one, three, two andtwo five eight seven four. That's seven
one, three, two and twofive eight seven four, and the sun's
coming up. Sun is peking up. Still a little chilly out there,
but I think it's going to bea good day. It's always a good
day. It's a bit nippy,bit, it's a beautiful day. It's

(34:21):
a beautiful day. We were talkingabout last segment, things to plant now,
and of course, as we keepsaying over and over again, this
is our season to plant. Itreally is get those things in the ground,
let them get established, but forannual winter color that we don't have
to worry about on nippy nights likethe one we have ahead of us.

(34:43):
There's so much to choose from thatreally is we touched on the things that
we need to plant now to getthat beautiful color, that beautiful garden for
Easter and spring. The fox club, the delphinium, the larkspur, the
sweet peas, the poppies. Canyou think of any else English days?
Oh my gosh, yes, aplant. We cannot get through our summers

(35:04):
here, but they're so sweet andso traditional and so pretty and they can
go in right now for sure,absolutely. And of course the pansies.
Everyone has pansies, you know.Colendula, that is a summer I mean,
that is a winter standard, right, beautiful colors. It's actually an
edible plant. Well, it wasactually herb of the Year just a few

(35:27):
years ago. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. And in the old gardening
books when you read about the potmiracle gold, yep, that's colendula.
Like I say, it is anedible plant. The leaves are considered a
pot herb. But you know,it's just something about those little splashes of
gold. It's a happy color.You know. It's the reason we love
sunflowers in the summertime. It's thatjust something about that little bit of glow.

(35:52):
It's just a happy color that kindof wakes you up on a dreary
day. Exactly. That's what Iwas gonna say. It's your sunshine on
a cloudy day. And you know, they have the Dwarf series that is
great if you want to stay seesomething complex inches or so. But then
you have your pacifics that get large, big, bold. They make wonderful,

(36:14):
wonderful cut flowers. Yes they do. And there's there was a new
one out I guess another year ortwo, a year or two ago called
Collexis That is that vibrant orange andit is a stunning bloom. Yeah.
Like I say, it's just somethingabout that color, just a little pop
of something that just makes you happy. Well, and you know, having
those popsy yellows and oranges, evenif you prefer the purples and the deeper

(36:37):
tones, it wakes them up.Yeah, those are complementary colors on the
color wheel, guys, artists know. And that's one of the things that
gardeners don't realize that we are artists, that that's part of what we're doing
in our garden is we're creating artwith a palette of plants. We also
touched on the fact that we've gotsome edibles that definitely should be worked into

(36:58):
your color scheme, like the deepgreen leaves of the curled parsley, the
salad burnett. And for those ofyou that don't know are familiar with salad
burnette, it's one of the mostare one of the few underused herbs.
I think people just don't really realizewhat it is. Your it's your winter
cucumber. Yeah, it's delicious,and that is one of the things that

(37:22):
gardeners often nibble on while we're workingin the gardens. Yeah, yeah,
it's a great it's a great one. And lettuces, yeah, great border
you know, the freckle lettuces,the oak leaf lettuces, the ones that
have a little touch of color,you know, the the all of the
different opal colors. Uh, thoseare those are wonderful in the garden.

(37:42):
And they're so quick, you know, you're talking about a six week crop.
This is something that you can rotatethroughout your garden in the wintertime and
bring all that fresh wonderfulness to thetable. You know. And a lot
of our pollinators are active year round. So Dianthus is a very important one
to have in the garden for thesky. Okay, it's great to have
that dianthus and then that is somethingthat will bloom from now until we start

(38:07):
transitioning into early spring, and soit does give some of that forage to
our pollinators until they have something moredependable, and I think Josh has a
question for it, right let's hearit. We do have a question from
Frank in Seabrook. He's asking whatwould be soil prep for planting medicinal herbs

(38:29):
and where could he purchase them?Okay, soil prep. If you want
to grow medicinal herbs where you needhigh oil content, high mineral content,
all the things that you're looking forfrom those herbs, then you need to
get your soil organic matter up.So the best thing to do is to
work with a compost based potting soilor you know, supplementary soil is the

(38:58):
best thing to do. You wantto get up to at least five percent,
hopefully over you know, one ortwo seasons, up to ten percent
of soil organic matter in your soil. Many of our good quality, locally
available blends are going to have expandedshale in them, which helps increase two
things, both the poor space inyour soil so that we have better drainage

(39:22):
and better aeration. Those are thingsthat you want to do, and those
are things that are great to doright now as far as bedprep is concerned
well, and pick a very sunnyspot, yes, with good airflow,
right, that's very important. Andthen think about that when you're planting your
herbs out as well. You knowthey're spacing so that they have good sun

(39:43):
exposure, good airflow throughout them,maintain good drainage throughout the season. Doesn't
hurt at all to do what Icall planting them with their shoulders up out
of the ground where they dig aslightly shallow hole, and then build up
around them with your supplementary soil andthen also with your your mulch afterwards.

(40:04):
Right, and as far as availability, herb starts are available at all independent
garden centers at the Arbrigade at Plantsfor as seasons RCW, buchanans Wabash,
the list goes on. So justcheck with your local independent garden center for
the good starts and advice on whatto plant. Yeah, that helps as

(40:27):
well, exactly exactly. But it'sa great thing to do, it really
is, and it's and it wasa good question to ask too, because
that is exactly what you need todo, is prepare your soil ahead of
time, allow it to rest abit before planting. So that it has
a chance to equalize. Soil biologyhas a chance to start working, and
then you're you're ready to go whenyour plant's going right right exactly, And

(40:50):
as we were talking earlier, evengo ahead and add that organic time release
food when you're building and prepping thatbag, yes, and starting that in
early even even up to two weeksor more before planting again for that same
purpose of you know, soil biologyis what makes our organics work, and
we know we want to be usingorganics when we're growing herbs of any kind.
That's you know, that's part ofthe whole culture and part of the

(41:13):
whole point of it. Right.Well, that's great information, great question.
You're listening to the Garden Line withBeverly Welch and Angela Chandler, and
we'll look forward to seeing you injust a few minutes. Good morning,
Welcome to Garden Line. I'm BeverlyWelch and i am Angela Chandler. We're

(41:34):
here to take your calls. Thenumber to call is seven one three two
one two five eight seven four.That's seven one three two one two five
eight seven four. You know,last segment we were talking about color of
the plant. Now and I thinkwe got maybe halfway through our list.
I think. So there's a lotthat we can have in our gardens.

(41:54):
There so much, and you knowin the shady garden you do have a
little bit more of a challenge,especially in the winter time with your color
selection. I think my go tois cyclemen. Yeah, cyclemen, so
many colors, such a pretty shape. You know, just everything about it
is good. Yeah. And youknow they have that new one now called

(42:15):
Absolute. Have you seen it yet? No? I haven't. It's one
of the dwarf This so has thetiny bloome. It's white with a bit
of a magenta purple edging to it. It is so fragrant. Oh is
that right? It's not perfume.And when the sun is warm during the
day, I mean feet away,people will stop walking down the aisle and

(42:37):
say, okay, what is thatI smell? Oh that's really I mean
it is frank wow. Yeah.So it's a great one. And you
know you were mentioning the greens too, using them as but that they're fairly
shade tolerant. A lot of them, yeah, a lot of them are.
A lot of them will take eventhat three to four hours of the
sunlight, so they do quite wellwell. Another one that we didn't mention

(43:01):
was now's the time also to plantshoot bulbs. Yes, bulbs for sure.
So I think automatically we think aboutamarillis at Christmas time because it's so
often a gift that's given. It'sa great gift for an officemate or you
know, a girlfriend, or youknow, it's just you know, people
that help you. It's just agreat gift for that. They're pretty when

(43:22):
they're blooming this time of year.They give us that little extra color,
but they do well in the groundhere. They will naturalize for us.
So these can transition from a Christmasgift to a garden plant. You can
have them for years, right right. And another thing right now, we
have so much that's in blooming thelandscape. And one thing we don't often
think about planting, but it's sobeautiful right now. And again, great

(43:44):
for the pollinators are roses. Yeah, roses for sure. You know,
as soon as it cooled off thisyear from that horrible summer we went through,
they just burst into bloom. Ithink they were just waiting because they
just it seemed like as soon asit started turning cool and we got a
couple of rains. They just werein their heyday and they're still just absolutely
gorgeous right now. Oh yeah,this cool weather, the flowers are larger,

(44:08):
the colors more intense, and thefragrances are just deep and rich.
Yeah, they're just really lovely.And that is a definite standard of the
garden. And you know, withso many of the old garden roses now
and then using the old garden rosesand they're good genetics in rose breeding,
we're getting some truly really outstanding Texasvarieties, you know, and a great

(44:30):
again overlooked landscape plant. Yeah,definitely for sure. Yeah when people come
in wanting a blooming shrub, youknow they want that evergreen blooms all year
shrub, Well why don't you geta rose? A rose? You know,
Like I say, they'll back offa little bit in the very very
you know, dog days of summer, as they say, but you know

(44:52):
they'll they'll tolerate the freezes. That'sa plant. We don't have to worry
about it all. And I thinkpeople sometimes they steer away from them because
they think they're fussy and maybe theyremember either grandmother having a spraying cycle on
her roses, you know, orjust the fact of thinking about dead heading
and pruning and again using the oldgarden roses. In rose breeding, which

(45:13):
has been going on now for thirtyyears, we're really coming with some varieties
that don't need any kind of attention. Some of the prettiest roses in my
garden they barely get any attention atall, maybe a light pruning in February.
I don't do a lot of heavypruning. I grow them as large
shrubs because I love that look,and so they're not the fussy plant that

(45:35):
your grandmother fussed with all the time, you know. And a good example
of some of these newer varieties isthe drift. Yes, drift roses are
extraordinary, a true landscape rose.Yeah, absolutely absolutely. The other thing
right now that's so gorgeous is theMexican giant red turks. Yeah. You
know, as we were discussing duringthe break, we used to call that

(45:58):
the Christmas plant because it's got allthose gorgeous turks cap bells hanging down.
They look like ornaments. They're thatbeautiful tomato red of this gorgeous green plant.
So it's just it's just it's dependable. Christmas bloomer. So you know,
I don't know what more you couldask. It's just it's just become
a Christmas plant in the garden.You know. In that selection too.

(46:21):
Those of you that are familiar withturks cap but may not be familiar with
this particular one. That bloom isenormous. Oh that's huge. Yep.
And the plant as well. Yeah, yeah, it gets it would you
know. We cut it back everyspring in March, back to probably twelve
inches or so. Right now itis at least seven eight feet tall,

(46:43):
yeah, and seven to eight feetwide. So if you need something again
to take up some space, giveyou great color, maintenance free and how
many variety of locations too, verytolerant of soils, you know, doesn't
require a lot of water. It'snot a demanding plant. It naturalizes very
very well because it's got native bones, you know, creative heritage, right,

(47:05):
and so it just it's just aplant that doesn't it's no mustno fuss
planted and then just enjoy it.And you know, we plant it under
the edges of pecan trees and it'svery very happy there. Yeah, full
sun departche We've got it planted atthe nursery on the north side. Yeah,
wide open, no protection, wedon't cover anything. It's gone through

(47:28):
i It's gone through Harvey, it'sgone through the event two years ago.
I mean it's taken it all throughoutthis summer twenty eleven, that's how long
it's been in the ground. Yeah, so it's it's a must have.
It really jeans there. They countfor us every time. So many beautiful
native plants. And we can't forgetabout the camelias right now. Camellias for
sure. And you know the lovelything about camellias is we can draw from

(47:52):
both the Sanquas and the Japonicas andwe can get that very months and months
of bloom starting in October all theway through slate late winter. They're they're
so you know, we have singlesand doubles. You know, it's kind
of I call it the Winter Rose, you know, for that reason,
right, you know, just beautifulshades, so many different colors available,

(48:14):
you know, the beautiful glossy foliage. Just it's just everything's wonderful about them.
Well, and you know they musthave right now and this season is
yule Tide, and you talk abouta great gift for a gardener, you'll
tie camella with that open it's oneof the single open blooms. Like you
spoke of. The Sanquas often don'thave the big they don't have the big

(48:35):
formal flower like you see on theJaponicas, but they have twice as many.
Yes, they're so colorful and thebees love those camerias. Yeah,
it's just really good to be ableto know that you're providing something to keep
them going through the right, right, because we need their partnership so much
in our garden right. And thatthe Sanquez you know, are your early
bloomers. They're like November through Januarythen you and they're more sun tolerant yea,

(49:01):
the horse sun tolerant. In fact, they actually bloom better with a
little bit of sun exposure. Theydo. And you can get a lot
of the dwarf varieties like the Shishiand the Bonanza and the hot flash that'll
stay lower so they'll fit into anylandscape as far as size. And then
you have the Japonicas. The Japonicasare gonna definitely require a little bit more

(49:22):
afternoon shade, but again don't putthem in too deep a shade. I
think that's a mistake people. Well, when you think about them in their
natural they like that high shade,so they do get a lot of filtered
sun through them. You know,they're not something that's a that needs dense
shades, So under the canopy oftrees that have been limbed up quite high,

(49:43):
they do better, right, right, And that's that big formal traditional
camellia bloom we think of, andso that's in bloom February March April.
So between the two you're looking atsix months of long season of color.
Yeah, long season of color.And you know it's a way of getting
color into even the semi formal garden, that's true. You know, it's

(50:06):
a way of getting good color intothat that sort of style. Well,
they'll fit in a cottage garden absolutely, but in a formal garden and you
can also hedge them and it's asstunning hedge when in bloom. Yeah,
very very pretty. So what's yourfavorite? Oh my gosh, you know,
I have one that I wish Iknew the name of it, and

(50:29):
I think we all have that,right. Sure, this is kind of
a bridle pink single, but it'sa sussanqua. It blooms very early because
it blooms mid October and it isjust literally covered with these bridle pink blooms
that are about I don't know,maybe two inches or so two and a
half inches and pinks, I don'tknow. You know, I picked it
up years and years ago. Ipicked up five of them. I have

(50:51):
four left. I did lose onenumber of years. It's been in my
garden for years, and I've justalways thought, I just really wish I
knew, you know, which oneit was, because I just they were
irresistible when I picked them up,which is why I wanted that cluster of
them. But that actually is myfavorite over time. And then I love
the new fragrant ones too. Youknow, those are lovely as well.

(51:12):
They are very very pretty. Quintessenceis another one, says Sanka. That's
a dwarf draping fragrant. They're great. Yeah, anything weeping I think has
a little bit of extra interest inthe garden, right. I think my
favorite's got to be yule Tide.Yeah, it's hard to miss that color.
It's been so popular since its introduction, and there's a reason, yeah,
you know, but it's really it'skind of like picking your favorite child

(51:37):
you know, when you when you'rearound them and you have a decent collection
of them in your garden, it'dbe pretty hard to choose. It's pretty
much what you ever when you're lookingat whichever one's in bloom exactly exactly.
I have that when they had peopleask me what's your favorite, it's impossible
to say it is. I thinkthat's true with lots of plants. You
know, we collect plants along theway because we love them. We love

(52:01):
either something that they're doing for usor just the way they make us feel
when we're in are the memory thatit comes with them, Yeah, very
muchly so, especially if it's froma treasured friend. Yeah, And plants
make wonderful Christmas gifts to hint,hint, they really really do. Well.
You're listening to the Garden Line withBeverly Welch and Angeler Chandler, and
we'll be right back after this shortbreak. Good morning, and welcome to

(52:24):
Garden Line. I'm Beverly Welch ofthe Arbor Gate, Angela Chandler with a
Garden Academy, and we are waitingfor your call. Certainly are seven one
three two one two five eight sevenfour seven one three two, one,
two, five, eight seven fourAnd the sun is up. The sun

(52:44):
is up. Now, it's apretty morning. It is a little a
little windy, yeah, little chili, but that's okay. It is winter,
it's supposed to be. It's supposedto be. And actually it's been
a really nice winter and fall sofar. So far we've had you know,
cool spells and then warm spells inbetween, so it hasn't been anything,
you know, drudgery. We haven'thad to worry about panicking to take

(53:05):
in plants or do anything yet.So, you know, so far,
so good. And it looks likeit looks like December, I knockwood,
it looks like December is going tofinish out that way. So that's a
good thing. It's all good.It's all good. And anytime we can
get out in the garden, it'sa it's a beautiful day. Yeah.
And this is such much better weatherfor this than it was this summer.
Right, it was just punishing.And I know we keep beating the drum,

(53:28):
but this is time. This istime dies to get out in the
garden for so many reasons for youand for your garden exactly, much more
comfortable time to work now's the timeto get mulchous down. I mean,
just all all those chores that becomedrudgery in the in the hot time of
year, those can be done now. And as we touched on earlier,
I know we're expecting in outlying areasa bit of a frost and eye,

(53:50):
but just remember our soil temps staywarm, and now is the time you
want to get those plants in theground, even the perennials that will go
dormant later in the in the sea. But when they're going to rest,
it's a good time they can focuson root growth. Right, That's exactly
what they do. You know,during this time period when they're not focusing
on top growth, this is whenthey're developing that root system. And that

(54:13):
good root system, in combination withgood bed preparation, is what's going to
get you through the next hot,hot, dry spell. Right. The
number to call to seven one three, two and two five eight seven four.
That's seven one, three, twoand two five eight seven four.
Well, we've been going through colorlist all morning, yeah, because it's

(54:37):
important to gardners, you know,right exactly, So we've talked about a
lot of the annual color we haven'ttalked much about bulbs, but we touched
on it a bit. But youknow the especially those Southern Airline bulbs,
Yes, Southern Bulbs Company, Yes, this has done a remarkable job.

(54:58):
Yeah. And you know, bulbshave a different characteristic to them than a
lot of the bulbs that we see, both timing wise and the types of
bulbs we plant. We have somefabulous things that can be planted here that
are true queens of the South,things like our crime. Them are so
beautiful, you know, Narcissus,you know this time of year, Yeah,

(55:20):
Lukojum's just you know, we're weare you know, those things are
now coming up right, you know, and so they're poking their little heads
up and just getting ready. That'sthat promise of you know, the bloom
that's going to come for spring andspring and summer. You've got your rein
lily. Yes, I love themso much. Oh my gosh, they're
so pretty. And you forget,you know, I've got these bulbs planted
all over the nursery and I forgetwhat I have where it is. And

(55:43):
like you said, right now,we've got we've got a lot peeking out,
a lot of things are peking upand you know, that's one of
the things I love about planting bulbs, right, is the idea that you
plant them. They do definitely havea cycle of seasons, and then when
you least expect it kind of thing, here they come popping up and you
know, oh that's you know,that's my beautiful iris that's gonna bloom soon.

(56:06):
It's it's just nice. And someof them have truly pretty foliage long
before or after they're bloom. Wehave others that come up and of course
they're going to go through the dieback on the foliage, which is why
we camouflage them and plant them inamong other things. And we allow them
to come up and we enjoy themwhile while they're up, and then we
allow them to go back down.And don't forget those southern bulbs. There

(56:28):
is truly one that blooms every seasonof the year. My favorite one is
the Gladiola natal lensus. Yeah,that one's the Byzantine. Oh my gosh,
And talk about it's so funny.These are bulbs, and so they
are part of what we would considerin the temperate plant groups, right,
and yet here you have the Byzantineand the and the which is the parrot

(56:52):
glad that are true hot, fierytropical colors out they're just so cool.
And then there are varieties of iriswe can grow quite well. The Louisiana
iris do beautifully, the spury ofiris, Japanese iris do well. We
have our little native blue iris.So it's just there is there's something that
you can plant that gives you colorall the time. And I like the

(57:14):
fact that they sort of, youknow, go down and rest for a
little while and then hear they comepopping back up again. And you know,
everybody's sees in the magazines those bigbeautiful dark purple and blue alliums,
yes, that you see up north. But we do have a little native
one. We do have a nativeone. And you know, aliums are
something that with the with choosing theright ones and putting them in the right

(57:35):
spots right, we can really enjoythem. Have a lot of them in
the herb garden, bet I have. You know, they've they've spread themselves
throughout the gardens. But you talkabout activity when they're in bloom. Yes,
again back to our pollinators and ourbeneficials. You know, it's we
we do need them so much inour garden. It is what I call
the essential partnership, and so providingfor them is part of our responsibility if

(58:00):
we want them to return the favorand colonized plants that we want to go
to seed or produce a fruit forus, right right. I'm glad you
brought that up to When people thinkabout pollinators, they always think about fruits
and vegetables, but you need thatfor seed production too. Yes, you
got to have them for seed production. And there's also you know the ideas
of beneficials as well as the pollinators, the little our little army that we

(58:23):
want to be working in our garden, you know, right well. Our
number to call is seven one,three, two and two five eight seven
four. Good morning, Welcome togarden Line. Now, I'm Beverly Well
to the arbor gate. I'm AngelaJenner with the Garden Academy, and we

(58:44):
are so happy to have you withus this morning. Our number to call
is seven one, three two andtwo five eight seven four. That's seven
one, three two and two fiveeight seven four. And I think Josh
has a couple of questions for us, I do, ladies. The first
question comes from Dorothy in Orange,Texas. She has some potting mix that

(59:07):
has a six month suggested wait time, and she wants to know whether or
not it's okay to add fertilizer beforeor after that time. Okay, So
I'm an understanding this as you havea potting mix that has a six month

(59:29):
fertilizer in it, and it woulddepend on how long that's been, how
long you've had it, how longwas it, how long has it been
in storage with you, if it'ssomething that you recently bought. I'm going
to just suggest to you that quiteoften that by the time you purchase these,
they don't have a lot left.So I would plant, I would

(59:51):
watch, you know, if you'regoing to use this as a potting media,
I would keep an eye on thatplant. I would probably water it
in with something that gives you theroot stemu later basis to kind of get
everything started, and then I wouldobserve to see if you see any signs
of nutritional deficiency, meaning any yellowing, not a lot of active growth,

(01:00:12):
that the plant's not really thriving.And I think at that point I would
probably start adding in a slow releaseorganic fertilizer in the soil and then follow
that up with a liquid fertilizer likea fishy mulsion based maybe activating, and
the right to get it started justin case you see a sign. But

(01:00:32):
I think anytime you use something thathas a fertilizer in it but you don't
know what its storage time has been, if you're going to use it,
you need to watch for nutritional deficienciesand use it sooner rather than later.
Yeah, Yeah, don't don't wait. Don't count on it being a full
six months. Yeah, because asyou said, you don't know how long
it's been in the store. Transportationissues so forth right. Would there be

(01:00:59):
a any Mom and Pops stores aroundthe Orange, Texas area that she could
go to for a little bit furtheradvice, maybe some help. Well,
I think she should look up anyof the independent nurseries in her area,
because generally they're going to have awider selection of nutritional support for her and
someone on staff who will know howto guide her towards it. And I

(01:01:21):
bet you there would be an AceHardware. Oh, I'm sure they'd be
Chace Hardware right in the Orange area. Sounds good, all right. Our
next question comes from Donna in Copperfield. She has a potted cyclomen and their
leafs are the leaves are turning colors, so and once one leaf turns a

(01:01:43):
color, it starts browning. Thenthe others kind of follow in suit.
And she has questions on any kindof advice to maybe remedy that issue.
Well, especially if it's the lowerfoliage. A traditionally that's a sign of
overwatering. So they do not havea high water requirement at all, and
especially if they're indoors, so givethem good light, try to keep them

(01:02:08):
in a container without a saucer.If it has a saucer, remove the
pot from the saucer, water itin your sink or on the patio,
let the water drain through, andlet it sit there for a while and
make sure all the moisture is out, and then then replace it back in
the saucer. But it sounds tome like she may be overwatering it a

(01:02:30):
bit. And also be sure towater the soil. You know that plant
is really thick at the crown,and if you water it from the top,
you oftentimes will cause a little bitof rot. So try to water
up under the foliage and water thesoil directly. Yeah, and especially if
it's in a plastic pot. Becausethat retains moisture longer. And make sure

(01:02:51):
the pot has drainholes. Yeah,sometimes they're insufficient, especially the ones that
are given is gifts, right,if it has any foil wrapping or anything
around, and remove that. Forsure, it's pretty, but it's not
good for the plant. No,And a lot of those, even those
baskets that they come in our plasticline. Yeah, so they need to
breathe. Yeah, gotta breathe.That one needs good aeration. That's it
for me, all right, Thankwell, thank you, and our number

(01:03:13):
to call seven one three two onetwo five eight seven four. That's seven
one three two one two five eightseven four. Great questions. Yeah,
really good. When we've been talkingabout color, we talked about Cyclement earlier,
and we talked about what to plantnow to get ready for spring.
So I thought maybe we should tacklemaybe some spring flowering trees, because now

(01:03:38):
is the perfect time. This isthe time to get them planted, especially
if you're counting on them for bloomthis following spring, right right. And
you know, with a lot ofthe smaller landscapes these days too, you
need to be mindful of the growthhabit of what you're planning. You don't
want a plant a giant tree,yeah, and a small lot you know

(01:04:00):
you'll shade yourself out in just afew years. That causes issues with concrete
value. Do you need to checkthat it's always you know, if you
have a vision for your landscape,then when you purchase plants, especially if
you're purchasing plants that are a littleyounger and smaller containers, right, then
you need to have an idea whatis it's mature height, them width going
to be and does that fit withinthe vision that you have for your garden

(01:04:21):
exactly, so that you don't putsomething in a space that it ends up
being so much larger than you expectedthat it throws your entire vision off balance,
or that it's much smaller than youexpected and doesn't give you the impact
that you're looking for in your landscape. So you kind of have to make
sure that you know exactly what thatis before you get it planted. Well,

(01:04:42):
there's so many examples or so manytrees that we can plant in our
area. We're so fortunate. Oneof my favorites is Saucer magnolia. They're
so pretty, Oh my gosh,they really are beautiful and over the to
me. Over the years as theyage, they get prettier and prettier,
they really do. You can getthem single trunk form. You can get

(01:05:02):
them that get as big as likethe black tula, a yellow bird,
as tall as forty to fifty feet, or you can stay closer, you
know, to around a ten tofifteen foot multi trunk, so they can
be a specimen and a large flowerbeds. Just beautiful and just remember that
it's a deciduous magnolium. Yes,and so when that bloom, people call

(01:05:26):
them tulip trees. When they bloomin the spring, and they bloom very
early, Yes, they do bloomvery early before there's foliage. And one
of the lovely things about them isthey give us something that we don't always
have with a lot of our bloomingtrees, and that is the carpet of
color when the petals fall. Seethat place is you know like Washington,

(01:05:47):
you know Washington State and you knowAsian gardens, but we don't have a
lot of that here. But I'dlove when the petals fall and we have
that beautiful carpet of color underneath themagnolias. When you talk about those gardens
that the cherry blossoms. We canwe can grow the okami cherry. Yes,
and so that's a little small,small understory type tree that blooms Pink's

(01:06:11):
the soft cherry blossom. Pink.The Okami is a gorgeous little tree.
Yeah, you know, they're entirekind of a little handful of the beautiful
prunus that we can plant here thatdo that, the flowering plums, flowering
apricots, things like that that wecan plant here. They're not a traditional
fruit tree, so don't expect fruitafterwards, but they have a gorgeous period

(01:06:33):
of bloom in our landscape. Well, it sounds like we need to take
a break. We did well,continue this after this short break sounds good
to me. We'll see you then. Kat r H Garden Line does not

(01:07:31):
necessarily endorse any of the products orservices advertised on this program. Welcome to
kat r H Garden Line with SkipRichter's Shoes Crazy. Can you watch a
trip? Just watch him as thanksto sept Crazy, it's again your day,

(01:08:05):
Good morning, Welcome to the GardenLine. I'm Beverly Welch of the
Arbor Gate and i am Angela Chandlerwith the Garden Academy. We have the
privilege of sitting in this morning forour dear, good good friends, Skip
rickor Absolutely, it is an honor, it is and it's a beautiful day.
Count down to Christmas, yes,count down to Christmas. And some

(01:08:25):
lovely weather ahead of us, alittle bit of a cool dip, but
not say anything scary, So that'snice, very seasonal, very good.
Don't have to panic, yep.And our number to call this morning is
seven one three two one two fiveeight seven four. That's seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. We'd love to hear from you.
And it is a great gardening day. We closed out the last segment talking

(01:08:49):
about the smaller flowering trees that youmight want to get it well, not
might want to. You need toget into the ground now if you want
to enjoy their bloom spring. Absolutely, they need that time to start establishing
a good root system, both forstructural reasons and for their nutrition reasons,
so that they'll be off to agood start for next year. And no

(01:09:11):
concern about col weather not absolutely not. In fact, many of these trees
will benefit from the cool weather we'regoing to have exactly that's why makes them
bloom so well. Yeah, weneed it. They need the chill,
and they need those those cooler temperaturesin which to get established well, and
so that you don't you can plantthem when be worry free. You know,
immediately after planting, things can losea little bit of their cold tolerance.

(01:09:36):
So I always look at the longrange schedule and if the next week
or ten days is you know,nothing scary is predicted, then even young,
containerized, unestablished trees are going tobe fine. Exactly. The only
thing that you might worry about isif you had a really deep freeze coming,
then I might leave it in itscontainer until that passes and then plant

(01:09:57):
it then. But other than thatlittle window in which they, you know,
are a little bit more susceptible,there's no reason to worry. Now.
It's a perfect time to plant.It's easier on them, and you
definitely that part definitely much nicer todig a hole now. Exactly. So
we we've touched on the saucer magnoliusand how gorgeous they were. We talked

(01:10:19):
on the prunas family, the floweringflowering plums, flowering apronc because and then
you have your native Mexican plum.Yes, and no other than the fact
that it's a cloud of white inthe spring, and we keep mentioning plants
that are good for pollinators because it'sgoing to be a buzz with them.

(01:10:40):
You have that very dark bark thatoffsets that white bloom, and that's one
of the lovely things about that.It's not a huge tree, right,
It kind of has a tendency tomake a nice wider canopy, so it
fits very well in the garden.It just it develops a nice shape on
its own without a lot of heavypruning and training. There's a lot of

(01:11:03):
pluses to the mow, and itdoes produce a fruit. It does.
It's not it's not your grocery storeplum, No, definitely jam and jelly
yeah, material, yeah, definitely. In fact, it makes absolutely beautiful
jelly, right and the birds loveit. They do love it. And
some of these flowering trees that we'rementioning do produce a small fruit that is

(01:11:24):
good for the birds. So that'sthat's something that we have to concentrate on
as well. Another one is redbud, and red buds are so plentiful
through our area and so beautiful andthere are so many new introductions. One
the one that is so stop youin your tracks. Oh my god,
they're a flamethrower. I know that'swhat you're talking about. Yeah, so

(01:11:47):
you not only get that beautiful bloomwith no foliage, but the foliage is
like people will stop on stop andknock at your door and ask you what
this tree is. So it is. It's got lime green, it's got
gold, it's got burgundy, it'sgot orange, and it's got green.
Stop you in your tracks, right. And the lovely thing about these red

(01:12:12):
buds is that they're the perfect treefor the small front yard, right.
You know, they're they're not ayard eater. And so when your hoa
wants you to you know, theywant to plant a live oak in your
in your front yard that's very small. It's just not appropriate, and you
want to replace that. They arenot going to object about this. It's
going to knock on your door andask you what it is, right.

(01:12:33):
Right. And another one too,that was the precursor to the flank throw
was the rising sun just and againdrop dead beautiful, drop dead beautiful,
not only spring but all summer yep. And you know, then you have
your standard Oklahoma, which is triedand true. I mean, that's that's

(01:12:53):
a beautiful but that's more your traditionalred bud foliage. It does, it
does a hazard very and then youknow, again we talked about weeping.
I love the weeping red button twist. And don't forget about the white blooming
right, and it has a lotof character to it. I mean,

(01:13:14):
that is a statement plant. Itdoes. And then let's move to the
fringe tree, both of our favorites. The Chinese French tree is again a
perfect tree for a smaller landscape.The shape of the tree a little bit
more umbrella shaped. The Chinese fringeis more sun tolerant than your native fringe,

(01:13:35):
which definitely has to be an understorytree or a shade loving tree.
And the bloom on the Chinese fringe, the petal is just slightly wider than
on the native but again, acloud. A cloud, that's what they
look like when they're in bloom.They are a cloud. One of my
personal favorites that you don't often see, but we had in our backyard when

(01:13:57):
I was growing up in spring branchis peppermint peach. Ah. Yeah,
and I love your good color.Oh my gosh. Every bloom is different,
every branch is different. You mayhave a branch of this solid well
they're all double blooms. You'll havethis solid red, then you might have
a solid white, then you've gotthis striped. And yeah, every year
people would my mom one year justput a sign under this is what this

(01:14:21):
is because so many people would stopand ask, oh, what is that
tree? But it's it's it's oneyou definitely want to plant if you've got
got space for a small ornamental tree. And you know the crab apples,
Yeah, the flowering crabs, andthere's more than one reason to plant that.
Yeah, it's a pollinator for yourother apples. It definitely is.

(01:14:45):
In fact, a lot of thecrab apples are a universal pollinator. So
if you're in that, you know, in that quandary about what you're going
to do about growing apples, andyou know a lot of people don't think
we can grow apples here on theGulf Coast, and we can. There
are several apples that we can growthat do quite well for us. But
pollination is always the key, especiallyif you only have room for one tree,
what are you going to do aboutthat? So it doesn't have apple's

(01:15:08):
good, Yeah, it doesn't haveto be right next to it either,
So talking about the crab apple andthen into the apple. I think we
should start discussing some fruit trees rightnow. It sounds good to me.
We'll do that right after this break. Good morning, and welcome to Garden

(01:15:28):
Line. I'm Beverly Welch of theArborgate. I'm Angela chandler with the Garden
Academy, and we are here toanswer your calls. Our number is seven
one three two one two five eightseven four. That's seven one three two
one two five eight seven four,And I believe Josh has a couple of
questions for us I do. Firstquestion comes from Bob in New Waverly.

(01:15:54):
He recently got some second hand pulverizedazamite from a friend and he wanted to
ask for some advice on spreading,maybe with sprayers or something a little easier
on his body while spreading. Wouldyou like to go with this one well

(01:16:16):
pulverized. I would like to knowwhat exactly that the powdered. I believe
it said that it was kind oflike a powder. Yes, consistency.
Yes. In my own landscape,I have used the pelletize, but I
am aware that it comes in apowdered form as well, and so my
recommendation to you would be to goto the Azamite website and they have an

(01:16:42):
FAQ section that will give you theproper mixing and application for that. It
can be applied by hand as arock dust, just as we do any
other form of rock dust which comesin a very powdered form, and in
that case she would just you know, pour a portion that you can handle

(01:17:02):
in a bucket, because you know, carrying a big sack round is not
comfortable for any of us, andjust broadcasting that lightly in the landscape.
But I definitely know that there arean educational resources on the as of my
website that would give you a morespecific application, especially if you did want

(01:17:23):
to try to, you know,make a wettable powder out of it.
Sounds good. The next question isfrom Jim in Montgomery. He needs help
identifying a type of irish. Hesays that this type does not have a
bulb and it come and it's gota purple and yellow color with spiky leaves.

(01:17:48):
Sounds like a Louisiana iris. Yeah, and unless he's got the butterfly
irish of the Katrina, he couldhave ad deities of some sort. My
question to him would be, isthe foliage evergreen? Is it up year
round? That would help identify it. He also can email a photo to

(01:18:11):
info at Arburgate dot com and I'llbe happy to look at it, and
I'm sure Angela would take Yeah,just at the Garden Academy dot com.
Yeah, if you can email aphoto of either, you know, to
either one of us, and youknow, assuming this time of year,
that what you have is just thespiky foliage. But there are several iris
that don't have a large bulb atthe bottom of the Spurriya iris or another

(01:18:33):
one that don't have that large bulband come in a huge variety of colors.
But and when you say spiky foliage, that's kind of where I'm I'm
thinking, because the Spurys have avery spiky foliage to them. So I
think a photograph would help a lot. And we glad to help with that.
Awesome, awesome, Okay. Thenext question comes from Stephen and Galveston.

(01:18:58):
He has a question about heat heattreating in the coming possible freeze because
he can't he can't obtain incandescent lightbulb, so he has he's asking for
recommendations on that. Well, dependingon what he is covering, you know,
frost cloth is always a good optionif these are things in the ground

(01:19:24):
and he has access, he hasany deciduous trees, you know, pulling
his leaf litter into the garden tohelp cover the roots. And mainly,
again depending on what he's covering.I'm assuming in Galveston it's a lot it's
more of a tropical landscape. Themain thing is that you keep that root
strong and healthy. If it's ifit's things like gingers and bananas that are

(01:19:49):
going to have a more fluid orliquid in the stalk. If he wants
to protect a banana, he actuallycould even use a cardboard box and fill
the box the cordboard around the trunkand then fill the box with leaves.
That works. It's a good insulation. It's a good insulator and a lot
of things. As long as you'rekeeping the crown, the trunk, the

(01:20:12):
roots healthy, it really doesn't harmthe plant terribly to lose foliage, right,
And if we do have a frieze, that's hard enough that he does
want to do something. And likeyou said, he mentioned that he couldn't
get the incandescent lights and is lookingfor a heat source. They do make
a tape that is used on pipingon your plumbing. The heat tape,

(01:20:33):
yes, it's a heat tape,comes in different links. It's a low
heat source. And so if wehave something, you know, if we
do have a frieze it's coming up, that's going to be that bad Stephen,
and you are concerned about that,I would look into the plumbing tape,
heating tape that you can wrap easilyaround the lower part of your trunk

(01:20:54):
so that you don't you know,you always want to protect that graft,
but you won't need that unless weget one of those harsh Arctic blasts coming
down through here. So we wantto protect our plants, but there is
the danger of over protecting some aswell, so we kind of have to
make sure that we match our protectionprotocols to the degree of the pending freeze

(01:21:16):
that's coming. And you know youmentioned a grafted plant right. Another way
to do that that's so easy todo is with your bagged soils, your
bagged even probably your bagged umulch aswell, if it's a big enough bag,
as long as it's a deep enoughgrind, you know. That's the
key, is that you want somethingthat has some substance to it, which
is why we favor doing it withpotting soil. Those bags, you know,

(01:21:42):
when you bring them up around thetrunk of a tree, either two
or three depending on the size ofthe tree, that you can bring around
there and either lean against the trunkor if you have any concerns, tying
them to the trunk. That isa good six or eight inches of dense
insulation right around that graft and reallygood way to protect trees, especially if
you're concerned about losing the top.But you just want to make sure that

(01:22:04):
we don't lose that graph and againbefore freeze, it's always a good idea
to make sure your soil is moist. Yes, absolutely soil is moist,
and then get that folier seaweed outthere so that you get that little bit
of you know, a degree ortwo of protection from that a degree several
degrees of protection from frostcloth, alittle bit of protection. You know,

(01:22:25):
what we're doing is we're adding layers, just the way we add layers when
we're trying to stay warm. It's, you know, not one solution,
it's all these layers of protection thatare going to help our plants. Awesome,
that's all I have. All right, thank you so much, thank
you. And then number to callis seven one three, two one two

(01:22:45):
five eight seven four. That's sevenone three, two, one two five
eight seven four. Great question allof them. Yeah, have been really
good this morning. Absolutely well.We ended the last talking about flowering crab
apple trees, talking about smaller treesfor the smaller landscapes that are now in

(01:23:09):
spring blooming. Get them into theground. Now. Crab apple not only
is a beautiful ornamental tree, butit offers pollination for any other apple.
Another tree that can do a doubleduty, so to say, is flowering
pair. Yes, you know,if you want to grow pears in your
landscape and you're concerned about pollination andyou only have room for one fruiting pair,

(01:23:33):
if your neighborhood has Bradford pairs init flowering pears, which most of
our neighborhoods do, then you don'thave to worry about that. Bees forage
one type of flower per trip outof the hive, So they're going to
visit pears on this trip, andif they visit the Bradford or other flowering
pears in your area and then visityour pears. You're going to get successful

(01:23:57):
pollination, so you can It's whatthey Japanese call the borrowed landscape. So
look around your neighborhood. What doyour neighbors have? You know, do
you have a neighbor a block ortwo away that has an apple tree that's
doing well, or a plum treethat's doing well, or some tree where
it allows you to plant that thefewer trees in your landscape, if that's

(01:24:17):
your what you have space for,but not give up the idea of fruiting
because you're concerned about the space youhave for trees. And people are often
surprised to learn that a bee willtravel three miles. They do, you
know, they can travel up tofive, but that wears a bee out.
She only has a certain number ofmiles in her and so they generally

(01:24:39):
travel in that two to three miles. But when you really do drive around
your neighborhood and see what's there,there's going to be a lot of trees
in a neighborhood that you can drawfrom and count on pollination for your trees.
So if you have room for acrape myrtle, you have room for
a fruit tree, you do,absolutely, And you know, the one

(01:25:00):
good thing about putting fruit in yourlandscape is that largely you are the one
that's in control as to how largeyour tree is going to be. Just
because a catalog says twelve to fifteenfeet high and wide doesn't mean you have
to allow that tree to get twelveto fifteen feet. So if you only
have room for an eight or tenfoot tall tree, you can maintain that

(01:25:21):
tree at that height. It doesn'trequire any additional pruning. You know,
we're going to prune our fruit treesannually anyway, and this doesn't require any
additional pruning. It just requires theidea that you decide how tall you want
your tree to be and that youkeep it at that heighth. So it
does allow people a lot of flexibilityto fill certain spaces in their yard.

(01:25:45):
By the same token, if youhave a tall, narrow space, like
say in your side yard, youcan allow that tree. You can prune
it to be a little narrower andallow it to get a little taller.
So fruit trees give us a lotof flexibility. Now they really are in
control, So don't give one upjust because you're concerned about things like mature
heights or the pollenizers that you needto plant with it. You can do

(01:26:08):
a little bit of research and addressboth concerns. And that's an excellent point.
Because you do put them every year, you really are in control.
And oftentimes these dwarf varieties that youread about in the weekly or the Sunday
newspaper or the magazines really aren't optimalvarieties for our climate. A lot of
times they're not. And the otherthing is dwarfs can outperform their catalog stated

(01:26:33):
size, and they also tend togrow slower, so you have some tradeoffs
and you have to decide which ofthose trade offs is important to you.
Good job, Well, thank youso much, and we'll be back right
after this break. Good morning,and welcome to garden Line. I'm Beverly

(01:26:53):
Well to the Arborgate and Angela Chandlerwith a Garden Academy. Our number to
call this morning is seven one threetwo one two five eight seven four.
That's seven one three, two onetwo five eight seven four. And I
think Josh has a question for us, Angela, I do. This question

(01:27:13):
comes to us from Diana in theWoodlands. She is looking for advice on
how to control or preferably kill thenew yopon growth that is coming up underneath
and right next to the existing yopongrowth. Well, there is a stump
and buying killer that is pretty effective. I would be a little concern though,

(01:27:38):
if it is associated with an existingyopon that she wants to keep.
Yeah, because a concern there is. Most of these herbicides translocate right into
the root system, So if theyhave independent root systems, you might be
okay. But if they have ashared root system, that's not going to
be possible. I won't. Thereis also a product called sucker stop that

(01:28:00):
is very effective on stopping those suckers. You can spray them when they first
emerge. I know we have itin stock as I'm sure all the local
garden centers do as well. Soshe might give that a try. That'll
keep her without having to clip sooften. Yeah, because that does get

(01:28:20):
frustrating. I mean, I dounderstand what the problem is, but you
just it's just without knowing what's goingon with the roots or how adjacent they
are to each other. My concernwould be translocation of that herbicide into the
root system, right, So trythat sucker. It's called sucker literally as
U see kee er sucker stopper.And I've gotten good feedback on it,

(01:28:44):
so that might be worth a try. That's good. Great, that's all
I have, Thank you very much. Our number is seven to one three
two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three two one two
five eight eight seven four. Andplease give us a call. We'd love
to hear from you. Now weclose last segment talking about some flowering smaller

(01:29:09):
trees like the crab apple flowering crabapple. And you mentioned the flowering pear
as being pollinators for our fruiting trees. Yes, and if there is limited
space that you know, not necessarilydepend on getting a dwarf quote unquote dwarf

(01:29:30):
variety, as oftentimes they grow slower. Yes, there's a trade off,
right, And many times they're notreally adequate with chill hours for this area,
right, and they're not as productiveeither. So that does become you
know, problem because when you growfruit, you're generally growing fruit looking for
production, right, and so you'requite often better off buying a what we

(01:29:51):
call standard sized tree. And keepin mind that you know things certain the
rootstocks that work well for us,are not always hu huge trees. For
example, when the apples that webring in here, these are not trees
that become forty forty five foot treesin the first place. These are a
twelve to fifteen foot tree without anymajor attention. So you know, you

(01:30:14):
have to kind of know that aheadof time and what works in your space.
And then, as we said,make up your mind is to you
know what size is going to fitthe space, the vision that you have
for your landscape, and then planto train the tree to fit into that
space. Right, and if youare limited on space, and even if
you are not limited on space,to reduce work, maintenance and multiply your

(01:30:43):
reward your harvest, there is atechnique called high density, right, and
generally this means planting your fruit treesand closer proximity to each other. So
one of the most popular high densitymethods is to plant trees and what we
can call a cluster. So take, for instance, a plum. We

(01:31:05):
know that most plums require a pollenizer. So if you only have space for
one tree, what do you doWell, in this case, you can
plant up to four trees in onetree space where the trunks are about eighteen
inches apart, sort of in asquare of different varieties that will pollenize each

(01:31:27):
other that may give you a longerharvest. So you can plant in early
a mid season and late in yourselections, and then in that one tree
space you can have the solution ofhaving both your pollinators and your different flavors
you know, and longer harvest allin one same space. And the key

(01:31:48):
there is that you'll start training thiscluster of trees in the shape as if
they were one tree. And it'sa relatively simple you know, it may
sound a little complicated, you know, describing it in words, but it's
a relatively simple way to do this. We do have some information on this
at the arbor Gate website. Butyou know, it's just a simple strategy

(01:32:15):
where it's just a matter of whenyou do do your annual pruning. Is
shaping that cluster of trees as usingan imaginary single trunk. That's the best
way to describe it, and thenyou kind of get the you know,
much much more bang for your buck. You know, I have a half
acre lot and at one time Ihad eighty six fruit trees planted on that
one acre lot. Yes, mostof ours were in this cluster planting strategy,

(01:32:41):
and then we had a fairly largecitrus planting. Now I don't have
eighty six trees now because like everyoneelse, I have lost some citrus trees
over the last couple of years.But we are replacing those trees because we
know that not every Texas winter isgoing to be like the really scary winters
that come through, and it's worthit to us to have these have these

(01:33:01):
trees that we're so spoiled having thatwonderful, lovely fruit in our landscape.
So uh, it's just it's justa simple strategy that you can plan on
to add a lot of fruit toyour landscape. And when you start growing
fruit, it becomes a hobby allof itself, especially when you have children
or grandchildren and they get used toharvesting their own fruit out of the landscape.

(01:33:25):
It's wonderful. Well, we're goingto have to explore this more.
Well, can I take a quickbreak and we'll be right back. Good
morning, and welcome to garden Line. I'm Beverly Welch at the arbor Gate
and Angela Chandler with the Garden Academy. And there is some great sunlight coming
in this window right now in theface. Yeah, I have to get

(01:33:47):
my to get my shades on.But it is a beautiful day and we
would love to hear from you.Seven to one, three two and two
by eight seven four. That's sevenone three, two one two five eight
seven four. So we close thelast segment talking about fruit trees, which

(01:34:08):
is a very important subject right now. Everybody is interested in as they should
be and growing a lot of theirown food, and everyone has room for
that, yes, and that's whatwe were talking about as opposed to buying
dwarf varieties that may not be suitedfor our area. You know, we
do have control over the size ofthese plants, correct. We do with

(01:34:31):
our pruning and our planting methods.You talked about high density, and high
density is great if you have limitedspace, but I don't care if you
have twenty acres. It is agreat method to use. It is it
increases production and it reduces labor,and it reduces your watering one space,

(01:34:57):
you're pruning one space, you're feedingone space, and you have a month's
long harvest. You know, evencommercial growers are going to high density methods
now because of those same reasons.That it's increasing production and reducing labor.
So we know that it's important forcommercial operators, but it's very important for

(01:35:18):
a busy family too. You know, the concept that fruit trees are high
maintenance, just like we talked aboutthe roses earlier, that's an old fashioned
concept because we're going to grow thesemuch more like a large shrub in our
landscape than we are, you know, a thirty or forty foot fruit tree
that we have to climb a ladderevery time we want to prune or do

(01:35:42):
any maintenance or harvest the fruit.We're not going to put ourselves in that
position. It's going to be somethingthat everybody in the family can participate in.
You talked about planting in the highdensity method, this kind of a
grid, kind of a square grid, or you could do a circle.
Right, I'm eighteen inches apart.If my only sunny location is maybe against

(01:36:03):
a wall of a house or againstthe fence line, why can't I grow
a fruit tree there instead of avine? Can't they be trained onto trellis?
They sure can, and it's aform called espalier, And there is
a very ancient way of growing fruitexactly for that reason. It kind of
captured both the light and the heatcoming off the wall, and so espalier

(01:36:27):
is basically growing into what we wouldconsider two dimensions rather than one where trees
are are trained to a trellis ortrained to a set of support wires.
It's not suitable to every fruit,but it's suitable to an awful lot of
them. You know, most ofthe major ones that we want to grow.
There are formal espalier forms and informalespalier, and so that allows us

(01:36:49):
to grow things like peaches and citrusin that informal style, where we would
grow things like apples and pears inthe more formal styles espalier. So like
say the narrow side yards, thelittle things that we have to deal with
in the urban landscape, that's verysuited to growing espelier, and it doesn't

(01:37:10):
require a professional landscaper or gardener totrain. This is something that every homeowner
can learn to do. You know, there are really seven forms of what
we would consider high density, andso the most common ones are things like
growing in the clusters, growing withespalier. Container growing is also considered a

(01:37:30):
high density form, and there aremany many fruit trees that can be grown
in containers. Some are more suitedtowards short term in containers, others can
live their entire lives and containers.We also have you know, other forms
that we can grow, you know, trees in that would you know,
allow us to include an awful lotof fruit in the suburban landscape. Things

(01:37:54):
like you think about citrus in normalwinters, Citrus isn't evergreen for us.
So if you have a place whereyou need a hedge for some reason,
you know there's an eye sore,or if it's a privacy issue, Uh,
there's no reason that citrus can't beyour hedge, right, and so
it's here you go where you havethat privacy addressed. You may have an

(01:38:17):
eye sore addressed, but you've gotfruit production and the absolute magnificent fragrance of
the blooms during the bluemin season.Right, So just being it's being a
little bit more creative about how wefit fruit into the landscape. Well,
and speaking on the create creative side, we built that arbor back in the

(01:38:40):
garden area and we're trying to growto pear trees up the arbor, up
and over, and then you planto graft them at their tips when they
when they reach the peak. Yeah, that's often done with spelier as well.
When when the two trees meet eachother, if they're grown in a
row, that they're grafted together atthe tips. And so this will probably

(01:39:01):
be the year in which we selectthe branches that will go over that arbor,
and it's almost time to start doinga little bit of pruning for them
for this coming year. It's gettingclosed. But it's just the idea of
being very creative with your fruit treesthat it's not you know, this is
not your grandfather's fruit tree, asyou know, the ad used to say,
this is something that we can bevery creative with using in the landscape.

(01:39:24):
And there's just something so special aboutpicking tree ripened fruit, oh oh
my gosh, cheek of its perfection, grown cleanly and organically in your own
landscape, where you know absolutely everyinput that went into that tree, and
then bringing that fruit to the table. It's a very special thing to do.

(01:39:45):
Well. You know, we oftenget tired get asked what do our
plant? You plant what you liketo eat? Yes, that's the number
one question when people ask that iswhat does your family like to eat?
What fruit do you consistently buy atthe g grocery store, and in generally
those answers are going to be thingslike citrus and apples and oranges and pears.

(01:40:06):
All of those things can be grownin the Gulf Coast garden. Well,
we're going to have to continue onthis subject the next next segment,
and we're going to take a quickbreak and be right back with you.
Thank you. Katie r H.Garden Line does not necessarily endorse any of

(01:41:02):
the products or services advertised on thisprogram. Welcome to kat r H Garden
Line with Skip Rictor It's Crazy Trim. Just watch him as many sup crazy

(01:41:33):
double a sor. Good morning,Welcome to the Garden Line. I'm Beverly
Welch from the Arbor Gate and AngelaChanner from the Garden Academy. We would
love to hear from you this beautifulmorning. Our number is seven one three

(01:41:54):
two one two five eight seven four. That's seven one three, two one
two five eight seven four. Youknow, we talked about last segment,
almost last hour, about a subjectthat I think that a lot of people
are very interested in and wanting totry, and that's growing their own fruit

(01:42:15):
and food. We talked about thedifferent techniques if you're limited or not on
space. The high density home orchardmanagement, growing fruits s by a along
a wall or a fence line,and even being as creative as growing pear
trees over at arbor. Yes,absolutely so, there's so many ways to

(01:42:36):
do it. We often get asked, so, now I want to grow
some fruit? What do I plant? And my first response is always what
do you like to eat? Whatdoes your family buy? What fruits do
you like to bring to the tableon a regular basis? And like I
said, fortunately, you know usuallythe answers are going to be things like

(01:42:59):
citrus or apples and peaches and pears, and all of those things can be
grown here. The next question inselection is to pick something with a proper
chill hour. People often assume thata chill hour means freezing temperatures. They
do, and it's not. Sofirst of all, let's get some generalizations

(01:43:21):
in one, chill hours only appliesto temperate fruit trees and some things like
berries and grapes, so it's notgoing to apply to citrus, which is
a semi tropical, so we cankind of take that out of the mix.
You don't have to worry about itthere. But with things like your
apples and peaches and plums and pears, things in that category. The deciduous

(01:43:44):
trees that lose their leaves in thefall and have a complete dormancy, they
require a certain number of hours betweenthirty two and forty five, so it's
not at freezing or below freezing thatwe're looking for. In fact, hours
below freezing don't count, so theydon't accumulate in our chill in hours over

(01:44:05):
depending on who you talk to,sixty five or seventy those hours actually subtract
from our chill. So when wehave those periods of very warm weather,
we can lose some of our accumulatedchill hours. But the lovely thing about
it is when we look at ourgeneral average temperatures throughout the winter, we
have an awful lot of hours betweenthirty two and forty five because we have

(01:44:29):
those days that hang around forty twoforty three degrees, the sort of overcast
days, and so we do accumulatechill. Now, it varies across you
know, Houston's big so it variesmuchly from the northwest side down to the
southeast side, and then definitely atthe island where we're in the lowest chill
hours good, So you know,you kind of have to know where do

(01:44:56):
you live and some good sources forthis information. I have a generalized article
about chill hours on my website atthe Gardenacademy dot com. By the way,
I don't sell anything, so youcan go there free and you're not
going to get spammed with a bunchof emails afterwards. And then doctor Bob
Brandle with the Urban Harvest has awebsite called year Round Gardening dot net and

(01:45:20):
he has collected chill information by neighborhoodaround Houston. So if you know what
your subdivision or neighborhood is, youcan go to his website and look specifically
and get you know, at leastdecades worth of chill information there to kind
of match it. And the greatthing to know is that our local and

(01:45:41):
dependent nurseries all carry fruit trees thatare suitable for the Gulf Coast area where
we can't count on that necessarily inthe national stores. So we want to
make sure that we're buying fruit matchedto the chill hours that are suitable for
your part of town. Perfect.I think Josh has a question, great,

(01:46:03):
let's take it. I do.This one comes from Cordelia the Hobby
Airport area. She has two trees, both about three to four foot tall
as of right now, one ameer lemon and one a satsuma, and
she is asking when is the righttime to move them to a larger pot.

(01:46:29):
What size container are they? Well, she's not there. They are
still in the containers that they camein. Okay, so probably about a
three to five gallon container. Ifthey're that young, I would say they
could stand there at least another yearbefore she would think about moving up.
And when she does move up toa larger container, do not go from
a three or five gallon to aten or fifteen gallon. That's so important.

(01:46:54):
You have a smaller root ball that'snot going to be able to absorb
the excess moisture and a larger containerand drainage is so essential, especially on
a citrus. Yeah, so youmight want to step up to a seven.
And then the other thing too iskeep an eye on the root ball
because you don't necessarily know how longthat tree was in the container before you

(01:47:16):
purchased it. So there's solid enoughby this time that you can kind of
gently knock the container off the sidesand take a look at the rootball.
If you still see a good mixof soil content with the roots in it,
the fleshy white roots, you're generally, like Beverly said, good for
another time period. If that hasstarting to become crowding and your roots are

(01:47:41):
starting to circulate, then you mightwant to go ahead and think about stepping
it up. But as far astime of year is concerned, you can
pretty much bump them up. Anytime. Active growing season is the best.
But assuming that you're going to keepit in its sort of nursery conditions and
in protected space, you could evendo that now. Apps. Yeah,
that's great, and you know weI think you touched on this last segment.

(01:48:05):
That's another way to grow any fruitreally is in containers. If you're
with the limited space, I thinkyou included containers with the high density program.
They are. They're very much thepart of high density because we can
move those containers into all different kindsof logistics in our landscape and things like
the Meyer lemon, that is atree that's quite happy in a container.

(01:48:27):
Really for its life, you'll wantto step up into containers, you know,
as the tree gains its size andmaturity. But lemons grow quite happily
in a container and are very productivein a container for a very long period
of time. And it's a goodway to follow the sun. It really
is a very good way to followthe sun. It's also a good way

(01:48:48):
to find out where in your landscapeare these fruit trees the happiest. It's
a good point when they're in acontainer. You can move them until you
find just the right microclimate for thattree, and then you can make a
decision do you want to keep itin the container or do I want to
go ahead and you know, putit in the ground and ease of maintenance
you you can't be just make surethat you get excellent drainage. Excellent drainage

(01:49:10):
and mind you're nutrition. Yeah,because fruit tree is in a container,
they don't have the same access tothe natural nutrition in the landscape, so
we have to fertilize more often.Thank you so much, and we're going
to take a quick break. We'llbe back shortly. Boy, that was
a blast from the past. Surewas. Good morning. Welcome to garden

(01:49:35):
Line. I'm Beverly Well to theArborgate. I'm Angela Chandler with the Garden
Academy and welcome, thank you forjoining us. Our number to call is
seven one three two one two fiveeight seven four. That's seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. In the past gosh hour, I

(01:49:57):
guess we've been focusing on fruit tree, how to plant them, yep,
what to plant to plant yep,a little bit about chill hours, chill
hours, and I think Josh hasa question for us I do. This
one comes from Lewis and Brian,Texas. He has a Alice Stobb anemonee

(01:50:19):
and he is wondering about on howto take care of it. Okay,
Alice Stubb, you're lucky because that'sone of the only anemonies that will grow
for us. And it's a verybeautiful little plant. So she's happy in
both sun and shade. But shehas a slightly different growth habit in sun

(01:50:40):
than she does in shade. Soin the sun it's going to be a
more compact plant, and in theshade she may send out some daughter plants
around it. They like to bevery well drained. That's one of the
keys to keeping that one happy.I haven't seen that one in a while,
haven't seen It's a Lynn Lowry introductionis it is, and it's I

(01:51:00):
would consider really an heirloom plant.It certainly acts like one. If it's
not, it's definitely an air loomplant. Doctor Creech has written some absolutely
lovely articles about alicetoub and it's kindof a Houston heirloom, right, consider
it that way, right, greatquestion, Thank you for the all and
lovely plant, and I wish youvery good luck with it. Absolutely.

(01:51:23):
The number to call this morning isseven one three, two, one two
five eight seven four seven one threetwo one two five eight seven four.
So I'm going to jump back overto our trees again, our fruit trees
again. Talked about the chill hours. That seems to be confusing to a

(01:51:44):
lot of people. So you explainthat it is thirty two to forty five
degrees and just check your local rightBob Randall, you said, has said
yeah he does. Because it's orientedby by neighborhood, by subdivision. So
that's against you really wired in.And the article on my website is more
general, you know, just basedon your general location around town, so

(01:52:05):
that won't really get you zeroed in. But the main thing is trust that
your local independent nursery is bringing inthe right fruit trees for you. Now,
why is it chill hour important?Well, that's you know, scientists
are still trying to figure out thewhole mechanism of chill by the way,
but it's what the tree requires duringits resting period to be able to trigger

(01:52:27):
bloom and fruiting the following year.So when you don't get sufficient chill hours,
you'll see things like delayed flowering,delayed foliage set, delayed fruiting because
it's just hasn't hit that happy space. And so in the Houston area we
have a wide variety of chill LikeI say, on the island we may
have one hundred and fifty hours,where in the Cypress area we may have

(01:52:50):
up to four fifty hours. Sothat's one of the reasons it's a big
challenge for our great local nurserymen tobe able to carry trees that are going
to make everybody happen. And thatway, that is what dictates what varieties
we do care. Yes, itis absolutely so. If you get if
you live in say our area,the Tombail area, I usually as to

(01:53:10):
make three fifty to five hundred trill. If you get one lower, say
two fifty, like I love tropics, now everybody does. That is the
best peach I know. But itblooms early, it has a low chill,
so you're rolling the dice. Youare rolling the dice. You have
a risk with something like that whereyou may it may be in full bloom
when we get a late freeze.Right. And so the best thing to

(01:53:34):
do there is understand we're dealing withnature. Sometimes you kind of have to
roll with the punches, enjoy herin the years that you get good fruit,
and then just understand that occasionally you'regonna you're gonna lose a set of
blooms to a heavy freeze. Right. So when you do the high density
method, then you plant say fourpeach trees in the area. That might

(01:53:55):
be when you can sneak in.It might be one you can put in
there, and that way you stillwill have production. And the other thing
too is when nestling these trees together, they do protect each other, that's
true. And the other good thingabout keeping fruit trees lower and not allowing
them to gain some huge size isit's much easier to get you know,
especially like a fourteen by fourteen footof frost cloth over it, because sometimes

(01:54:15):
it's not the ambient air temperature that'sgoing to get the blossoms. It's the
frost crystals falling into the open blossoms. So if you can keep that you
know, radiant frost from settling inthem, you may save a fruit load.
It's worth a try. Oh always, everything's worth trying once at least.
So fruit is definitely one that weneed to plant. We can do

(01:54:36):
it easily. We've got a lotof varieties to choose from and a lot
of different methods. You introduce meto one and you called it the Fruit
Tree Guild. I have to admitI thought we were joining a club.
It wasn't quite sure. And thendoing more research on it, it's so

(01:54:57):
intriguing. It combines so many companionplanting, permaculture, building your soil,
a soil building, just replicating almostnature if you will. Yes, we
really are playing Mother Nature with theFruit Tree Guild. So the Fruit tree
Guild, instead of being you know, like lollipops and quilting, is gathering

(01:55:18):
a group of plants around the baseof the tree, within the root zone
of that tree that are beneficial tothe tree itself while it's growing. And
so it's very much le similar tocompanion planting and this idea of permaculture.
It can be a wide variety ofthings can be planted under these trees.

(01:55:38):
So you look at things like whatwill it contribute to the tree. Is
it a nitrogen fixer? You know, and that could be everything from black
eyed peas to blue bonnets, youknow, is it a nitrogen fixer?
Does it attract beneficials? Is ita chop and drop where I get a
lot of good organic matter can becut back on a regular basis and dropped

(01:56:01):
to allow to decay naturally on theground to continually feed my soil, you
know. Is it something that likea dikon radish or turnips that will dig
a deep you know, root downinto the soil and open up that soil
and improve aeration and drainage. Soit's always you know, what does this
plant do that's going to contribute tothe fruit tree. So studies are showing

(01:56:26):
now that these fruit tree gilds,which is a combination of things like other
fruiting plants, flowering plants, youknow, leaf mass plants. You know
that studies are showing that the fruittrees are they have more longevity, meaning
they're living longer, they're more productive. These are all things that we're looking

(01:56:46):
for with fruit trees. And thenas a gardener, we're always looking for
additional places to garden. So youknow, rather than just being that malterring
around my fruit tree, I canhave the malts in a little bit of
compost and then in addition to that, work in some herbs and some legumes
and some other things around the baseof my plant. Or even with taller
trees, you can do things likeplant other berry plants underneath it, so

(01:57:10):
that you get layers of fruiting,you know, happening in that one same
root zone area. So it's it'spretty interesting. It works very well.
It's a very productive way to garden, and a kind of a creative way
to garden. And yes, andgives you a lot of room to experiment
too, right, right, sothey and they need to remember too,
these trees are deciduous, right,so they offer sunlight in the winter months,

(01:57:36):
the cooler months where they would beshadier areas in the summer. So
that would afford us, say,for instance, your bulbs. You can
plant bulbs under the tree or evenin a ring around the tree, because
there are some bulbs like the daffodilfamily, the tazetta and narcissus that repel
things like rabbits and deer. Soif you have trouble with that around your

(01:57:57):
fruit trees, you can always makethat combination. Right, So these plants
offer suppression, their suppressor plants likeyour red clover, right, just to
get people an idea of what we'retalking about, squash, strawberries and one
of our favorites nestershams. Yes,then there are attractor plants. So you

(01:58:20):
have your dill, your fennel,lavender flowers, like your salvias. Even
you could do the nemerosis, youcan do the greggy eyes, any of
them. Combining native plants in yourfruit tree guild is always a plus because
this is remember that our beneficial insects, they evolved with our indigenous plants,

(01:58:43):
so their natural partners. Right.And then another one it would be au
You're just such an easy one togrow. Then you have your pest repellers
and like you already mentioned the daffodilsthat tizeta's for the critter y repelliums aliums
are great gau a regano chive.I mean, the list just goes on

(01:59:03):
and on. Yeah, it's it'sa beautiful small space to experiment in and
you're going to combine annuals and perennials, native plants within this maybe, like
I say, even other things likeberries and other fruiting plants. So it's
a it's kind of a gardening laboratory. But it's all with the idea of
what does this plant do for myfruit tree and thinking in that basis,

(01:59:26):
you know, on a regular basis. Well, I moved as some of
the gingers over to our fruit treeguild the other day and did the chopping
drop X with the foliage, andwe planted comfrey that day we knew were
there and it has just taken off. Yeah, we did get that balking
fourteen variety in, but again Ihaven't really noticed it com for you being

(01:59:47):
an issue. Yeah, it's it'skind of climate limited, right, I
think so. I think so.But the foliage is great. It's also
you know, it's a weed suppressor. It's a great one to have.
Yep, well, this is great. We will have to continue on after
the break. Thank you for listening. When we return, our number to

(02:00:11):
call is seven one three two onetwo five eight seven four. That's seven
one three two one two five eightseven four. Good morning, and welcome
to garden Line. I'm Beverly Welchof the Arborgate and I'm here today with

(02:00:34):
Angela Chandler of the Garden Academy.We're sitting in very privileged to sit in
for Skip Richter this morning. Ournumber to call is seven one three two
one two five eight seven four.That's seven one three, two one two
five eight seven four. We gotso much to cover, Angelaine, so

(02:00:55):
little time, I know, butit's so much fun talking about gardening,
well talking at gardeners. So,Josh, I think you have a question
for us iss I do. Thisquestion comes from Marshall in the Dayton area.
He asks what types of stone fruitare good to plant in that area
and he also would like you torepeat the websites you used to log the

(02:01:19):
chill hours, all right, Soin your case, you're in that three
hundred and fifty plus zone. Sowith the stone fruits, you can select
from a lot of peaches. Youhave the May Pride, the mid Pride,
the Florida series texts, Yeah,text Pride. Just you have tons

(02:01:43):
that you can grow in that areaup there, and then if you like
plums. Pretty much all of theplums will be covered in your chill zone
in that area. And I willtell you that a very good source for
you to read up on the differentvariety so that you can choose flavor profiles
that you like and also get chillour information is the Urbanharvest website. It's

(02:02:04):
urbanharvest dot org. Urban Harvest isaround to help the Upper Gulf Coast community
learn how to grow food and theyhave some education pages that doctor Bob Randall
and I wrote and I edited anumber of years ago, so they're they're
just If you'll go to the gardeningknowledge section of the website, you'll see

(02:02:27):
information on fruit trees and you'll seea list of common varieties that you're gonna
find in this area and which oneswould be more suitable in your chill zone,
and a little bit of idea aboutyou know, yellow peaches versus white
peaches, and you know clean stoneclingstone versus freestone. So you can get
a pretty good, pretty good setof information. Doctor Randall has a great
book that is published as well.Yes he does. I know we hear

(02:02:50):
it, but I'm sure most allthe all the independent nurseries carry it.
Yes, he did. It's avery good book and it's it's sort of
been known for a very long time. I'm as the Houston area, you
know, gardening. Go to anectarine. He can do a few nectrines.
Yeah, he can do nectarines forsure, nectarnes of apricots or you

(02:03:10):
know that's kind of a in theiffy. Yeah, they I think what
once it may be a three fouryears you can get dallas before it head
there. You know, I've triedapricots, even though what the low chill
apricots, they bloom, but theydon't produce fruit. So I think you're
in the you know, zone eightand above for that one. But he's
he can grow lots of lots ofpeaches, lots of plums. That's a

(02:03:31):
great question, and that leads meinto another subject. It is fertilization.
Oftentimes people are hesitant to feed thistime of year, and that all depends
on a what you're feeding as faras the plant material, but also is

(02:03:53):
what are you feeding with. Areyou feeding with a synthetic is it water
soluble or time rely? Are youfeeding with an organic? Is it water
soluble or is it time released?Right? You know, as we were
talking earlier. Nature never stops feeding. No, she doesn't, don't stop
eating right right, So again,based upon what you're feeding and what you

(02:04:15):
feed with, Yeah, determines onyour schedule. It's a big difference,
right. I know, Skip hasa great fertilization schedule out that's on the
website. It's Gardening with Skip dotcom and so you can get his fertilization
schedules. There list a number ofproduct that are available that are good for
our area. But the other thingis just remember, like I say,

(02:04:40):
nature doesn't remove nutrients, but shealso doesn't you know, force a lot
of growth cycles either. So whenyou're using slow release fertilizers, especially slow
release organics, you can get ona consistent, basically a year round fertilization
schedule. You know, I practicemyself a philosophy of half as much wwis
is often, so I basically fertilizeabout once a month. And definitely when

(02:05:03):
I'm in the garden about and changingout plants, something's going to get a
toss of fertilizer around it. Sure, But if I'm going to use a
liquid on something that I'm freshly planting, or I'm actually wanting to stimulate I
wouldn't do that this time of year. You know, that's where we say
with your water solubles, especially yourwater soluble synthetics, we want to back

(02:05:24):
off there in October and hold offin weight until we are preparing for active
growth in the spring. So itreally does you know, it's not just
one size fits all. You haveto know what product are you using,
how does it work in your soil, because you don't want to push that
excess growth that could could be winterkilled. But you also want to make

(02:05:45):
sure that everything has enough nutrition tobuild that good root growth and good sustained
growth throughout the wintertime. So itreally is a balance. Well. And
many synthetics are affected by temperature,right they are extreme cold, extreme heat,
and the organics are unaffected, right. And you know, all fertilizers
are based on their movement a loton the soil moisture as well, so

(02:06:09):
we know that they will lock upin dry, warmer soils and they'll be
more plentiful in the cooler moisture soil. So it, like I say,
it's it's really not one size fitsall, and you kind of have to
get a good knowledge of your ownpersonal garden and then the products that you're
using and good, you know,use it wherever possible, use a local

(02:06:30):
products. Definitely, great products availablein the Houston area. And then you
know, always get that information fromyour local garden centers. Yeah, so
again, I thank you for listening. Our number to call is seven one
three two one two five eight sevenfour. That's seven one three two one
two five eight seven four and we'llbe back after this quick break. Good

(02:07:00):
morning. You're listening to the GardenLine. Sitting in for Skip Richter.
I'm Beverly Welch at the Arbor Gateand I'm Angela Chandler with the Garden Academy
and welcome in Josh. Understanding ofa question for us I do? This
question comes from Janice in fullsher shehas a fruit tree. She didn't specify

(02:07:21):
what kind of fruit fruit tree thatstarted blooming in September after the harsh summer,
and she's wondering if it is goingto bloom again in the spring.
Okay, it's kind of common,and I'll bet you it was a pear
tree, but it could have beenan apple, because pears do this almost
every year now and apples have starteddoing it as well. But that often

(02:07:44):
happens after kind of a false dormancyof the drought serious that we had,
so our excess heat and drought inthe summer kind of triggers a false dormancy,
and so we'll see a little bitof bloom. Like I say,
for many years now, pairs havebeen doing this on a consistent basis.
In the last couple of years,apples have been doing it as well.
So you know, when we finallydid get some rain in a little bit

(02:08:07):
of a cool off, it waslike a rebirth. Yes, everything bursts
back in right. Everything looked newand fresh and happy and energetic. And
yeah, but not to worry.You will have your regular bloom again in
the spring. They just get fooledby it a little bit and it's just
a reaction to that. But you'llstill have your regular bloom. Right.

(02:08:31):
That's a great question. It isbecause it happens commonly, and I'm glad
she gave us the opportunity to explainit. Right, And we sort of
ended the last segment talking about fertilization, how important it is. They need
to go and check out Skip's scheduleon guarding with Skip dot Com. But
again, base your judgment on whattype of product that you use, whether

(02:08:54):
it's synthetic, organic liquid or granulartime released. You know, don't stop
feeding, Yeah, don't stop feeding. Just pay attention to nutrition because a
lot of times that's one of themajor issues we see when somebody asks a
question about why something's not performing andyou ask them, well, you know,
what have you fertilized with and whendid you last fertilized on long time,

(02:09:16):
Well, I haven't fertilized, andso we don't want to get over
you know, fertilized things, butwe want to provide consistent, regular nutrition.
The feast and famine is not theway nature works, so it's really
not what we want to do forour plants. And you know, one
great thing about it, Beverly,is that, like so many of our

(02:09:37):
show sponsors have websites where people canget this information on a regular basis.
So you know, Nelson Plant Foodand the Asamide and micro Life where they
have educational information on their site abouteach individual product, what the application rates
are, what the recommended application frequencyis. So this is something that I

(02:09:58):
think listeners should get more accustomed todoing, is visiting the websites of show
sponsors on a regular basis taking advantageof the fact that they've provided an awful
lot of good educational material there that'savailable twenty four to seven, you know,
And then of course Skips website andthe Yes Exact and Wabash and RCW

(02:10:24):
and My's Nursery. I mean,we are very blessed in this area.
Oh my God, to have sucha Southwest fertilizer, such a huge selection,
if you will, and even asindependence, we all have different specialties,
we all have different products. It'sworth, it's worth to drive to
visit us all, you know.I tell people that a regular basis in

(02:10:46):
my classes is the fact of howlucky Houston is to have so many great
soil yards, you know, whoare blending soils that are not just you
know, in a bag suiting anational average, that they are geared towards
the Upper Gulf Coast, that they'reperfect for everything that we need to do
here, that they're customized blends,whether you're you know, growing plumerias or

(02:11:11):
whether you're growing vegetables, you know, whether you're growing in a container or
whether you're building raised beds. We'reso fortunate. And then you know,
I don't really know of any placethat has the selection of fertilizers that we
have in this area, again customblended to meet the needs of the Gulf
Coast, which is really a verychallenging environment in which to garden. And

(02:11:35):
then all of our independent nurseries,the Ace Hardware stores where they have knowledgeable
people who can answer your questions ona regular basis, where it's not just
a publication or a handout, thatyou have somebody there who has personal knowledge
of both the plants and all ofthe nutrients that we need, maybe even

(02:11:56):
you know, fertil you know,pest control when you need it. It's
just truly we are we are trulyblessed. And then we have the Garden
Academy. Well, thank you verymuch, and you know you definitely should
watch for Angela's classes. I can't. Well, I do appreciate that,
you know, it's all about theeducation. For me, I'm a gardener.

(02:12:16):
I love to talk to other gardeners. That's what you know, doing
the show is all about. Andthat's really what garden Line is all about,
is just this community of gardeners thatwe have here in this challenging but
fascinating, you know, very interestingclimate. We have a lot of opportunity.
It's a paradise for gardeners because thereother than pouring rain, there is

(02:12:41):
truly not a day and I don'tthink there is a day that that I
don't go do something. Yeah,in the in the garden. Yeah,
you know, And I tell youwe have this vast palette of plants to
draw from it because we live ina bridge between the temperate zone and the
semi semi tropical zone and we candraw from both of those palettes instead of
just being so limited. So ittruly is a gardener's paradise. Well,

(02:13:03):
you know, Angela, it's beena pure joy to be with you today
as always, and I again Ilove sharing. We have so much more
to talk about it we do.We could do this again, and I
want the listeners to know Skip we'llbe back next weekend, so look forward
to that. The podcast of today'sshow will be available at the end of

(02:13:24):
the day. But make sure andgo visit Gardening with Skip dot com.
Yeah, definitely, and Skip's addingcontent on a regular basis, so that's
definitely a go to. Absolutely.But it's been a joy, a pleasure.
I can't wait to get back outside. It's a beautiful day. It
is. We have a lot ofgood gardening days left in the year,
so we should be doing all ofthem. As we said. This is

(02:13:46):
as Anne says, New Year's Dayfor herbs on October first, but this
is our season, so plant plannedaway. Thank you so much for listening. He didn't