The Holliday Plant Hullabaloo

Skip Richter answers your questions all morning long!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Katie r. H Garden Line with Skip Ricteres
mill the bases.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Here's the basis gas. They can use a trim. Just
watch him as whom gossi gas?

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Can you.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
So many?

Speaker 4 (00:21):
God takes the sapotas in the gay bring the bassis
and gas and again you date Samos gluble back kicking
not a sound in the glasses a gasc.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Soun themon of treating the gasses and gas. Maybe can
you jam starting treating the basses like gas became you did?
Everything is so.

Speaker 5 (00:52):
And see and never thing he is Sunday in the hand.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:35):
I don't know if I've ever listened to that much
of this song. That's a lot there. That song has
been around for a while. I'm telling you Randy brought
it on for garden Line. We kind of held on
to it time to time. I think about, you know,
maybe I'll try some new music here. I don't know,
I just haven't made a decision on it yet. Anyway,

(01:56):
we might do that someday. I guess we could do
a what what is your favorite? What is your favorite
song to put as a bumper on garden Line contesters? Well,
by the way, you're listening to Garden Line. I'm your host,
Skip Richter, and we're here to help you have success
in your gardening. You can call us, we'll answer questions.
If you've got something that you have a photo of,

(02:20):
call my producer, get an email to send it. To
send me the photo and then follow up with a
call and we'll talk about it. Photos are very helpful
because if you're trying if I am trying to identify
a disease or an insect, or a problem, or even
just look at a problematic area, maybe an area you
want to do some planting in, well, take a good

(02:40):
look at it with a picture and we'll be able
to help you a lot better. Glad to have you
with us this morning on a nice Saturday morning. It's
gonna be a good day out there. We have a
little bit of rain the forecast and stuff, but that's okay.
I appreciate having a little bit cooler weather in That
front brought with it a little bit cooler weather that
we're having, so that's what we're going to enjoy. Eventually

(03:00):
we're going to get that first frost or freeze of
the season. I mean it will get here. The question
is just when and are we ready for it? I
was talking last week. I think put together a publication
a few years ago with one of our Texas A
and M specialists, and the title oll The topic basically

(03:21):
is how to protect your plants against frosts and freezes?
We have to deal with those things every year, and
what do we do When I drive around town and
see what people have done or what they're trying to do,
a lot of times it's like, Man, I'm gonna go
knock on the door and go you know what, That
is just not going to work. There's a better way
to do that. However, I'm not quite that nosy so

(03:43):
to kind of stay in my business. But I did
put that publication together so that you can get a
good idea how to go about it. There is a
science to frosts and freezes, you know that. Think about this.
I have a question for you, for those of you
who are awake, maybe this is too much thinking for
this hour of the morning, but we'll get We'll give
it a shot. How can it be that you can

(04:07):
have a frost when you don't have a freeze. Just
think about that for just a minute, Because isn't frost
ice crystals. So how can there be a frost if
there's not a freeze? And there can be You can
have a frost at thirty six degrees, which is, you know,
four degrees above freezing. You might might could go a
tad bit about I don't know what the limit is,

(04:28):
but it's going to depend on humidity and some other
factors as to what temperatures you can have a frost at.
But bottom line, you can have a frost. Let's just
say thirty four degrees. You have a frost. Well, it's
thirty four degrees, how can there be ice? Pause here
for just a minute. Let's absorb that. Think about that.

(04:49):
It's in this publication that I put on my website.
By the way, the website is gardening with Skip dot com.
Gardening with Skip dot com. And the answer to the
question is, well, where are the ice forms? It is
below freezing, but the air the temperature of the air around.
First of all, you know, when the weather says it's

(05:10):
thirty four degrees, well that didn't mean it's thirty four
at your house. That doesn't mean it's thirty four one
hundred feet off the ground or down at ground level
or four feet off the ground. There's variations there, so
it doesn't mean that's the actual temperature. But if you
had a thermometer and it was thirty four degrees and
you were seeing frost form, what's happening is at night,

(05:31):
solid surfaces radiate heat out faster and drop in temperature
faster as a result of them radiating out their heat
than the air around them. So you actually have a
surface that gets a little bit colder than the air
around it. And again there's factors as to just what

(05:52):
temperatures that can occur at. Typically humidity is a big
part of it, but there's other factors. So that surface
of the leaf actually can drop to freezing when the
air around it is thirty four degrees. But what happens
is when you have a cold surface, what happens to
the moisture in the air. Like, let's just make this easy.

(06:15):
We spend more of our time in summer than we
do in cool season. So you got in a summer day,
you got a glass of iced tea, and that glass
is very cold because it's got ice drink inside of it,
and the air has moisture humidity, and what happens it
condenses on the glass. You have little beads of water
on your glass, right, And so what's happening there is

(06:38):
the colder surface of the glass is drawing moisture out
of the air onto the glass. Now, if you were
to take that with a plant, it's also a draw
moisture out of the air that is warmer. Even the
warmer is thirty four than the temperature of the leaf
thirty two, and it condenses and freezes on the surface.
And that's how one of the ways that we end

(06:59):
up with that kind of frost. So you can actually
have a frost when you don't have a freezing. If
you go look at weather data, it'll have our average
freeze dates. But there's also an average frost date and
you can go I tell you all the places to hunt,
but there's weather data online and you can look at
when is the average frost data A number of years ago?
I need to check and see how current this is.

(07:21):
But a number of years ago I did. I was
putting together a vegetable planting chart for Harris County and
I looked at the frost and freeze dates. Do you
know that the first frost of the year on average, No,
this was a few years ago. I may have missed
the very last set of data when I did it,

(07:42):
But anyway, the first frost date at Bush was November thirtieth,
by the way, that's tomorrow. The average first frost date
at Bush Intercontinental Airport is November thirtieth. At Hobby, being
more more in the and more south, it is December twentieth.

(08:05):
It's like twenty that's like three weeks away. But that
was the average first freeze dates for those two. In
the spring, it's kind of flipped the other way. The
last freeze on the average for Hobby is February eighth,
and the last freeze for Bush is March first, So

(08:29):
again a pretty big gap there. So if you're listening
to my voice and you're in Galveston or you're in Huntsville, yeah,
we got to range even greater than those that we
just saw. Plus in the big city you got a
heat island. Heat island just is all the concrete and
things that heat up, and as a result, just it
didn't get quite as cold in some of those areas.

(08:49):
But anyway, those are that's weather nerd stuff. But just
be aware, we have frought. We can have a frost,
our first frost and freeze could be you know, essentially
at the same time, but the first freeze is typically
a little later than the first frost. All right, that's
enough of that. I'll quit the weather when we come back.
Let's take a little break here. I'll be right back,
I guess thanks to you.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Take a Locally five and ten.

Speaker 6 (09:12):
It's blistening once again, are you candy canes and silver
lands and gloom?

Speaker 5 (09:20):
All right, welcome back to guard Line. It is good
to have you with us this morning. Hey, if you'd
like to give me a call, the number is seven
one three two one two five eight seven four seven
one three two one two fifty eight seventy four. Cienamlt
is one of my absolute favorite places to go in
the Greater Houston area for plant related things. Cinamulch, by

(09:43):
the way, for those of you who are listening for
the first time, we got some out there. It is
a place where you get soil, soil blends, nutrients, fertilizers.
You know, I'm talking about the brands I talk about
on Garden like Microlife, Medina, nitrofoss Nelson food Asumite. For sure,
they've got those as well, and all the kinds of

(10:05):
blends you need to have success. Maybe you just want
to accompost to the salt. They've got that. Maybe you
want to create a veggie or a bed and you
want to veggie an herb blend, they've got that, and
on and on down the line. They have really cool items.
Now in terms of gifts, there's some beautiful outdoor landscape art.
You know the metal art that's real, very rustic looking

(10:25):
and cool. Maybe you know somebody that would love one
of those for their landscape, Well you can get it
at Cienamultch. Maybe you're looking for some decorations like the
little shroomies, which are like little ceramic mushrooms that you
put out in the garden. They're all pretty. People will
enjoy those soaps, candles, lotions, all kinds of cool stuff,
as well as the vego beds. They had set up

(10:46):
out front so you can go see them. So whatever
you're looking for, you just need to go by there.
You're going to enjoy it. It's Southea Houston on FM
five point twenty one. Here's the website that tells you
everything you need to know, Sienna multch dot comf you
want to get out there this weekend to it today.
They're open till two and by the way, they open
a seven thirty until two today, close tomorrow it's ennemulch

(11:08):
dot com and then Monday through Friday. All that you need.
Let's go out to the phones. Now we're going to
head to Hockley and talk to Ruthie this morning. Well, hello, Ruthie,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 7 (11:20):
Good morning, Skip.

Speaker 8 (11:21):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (11:22):
First of all, I want to tell you I love
it when you nerd out, so please keep on nerding out.
I say your picture, I hope I did it right.
It is of some antlers, deer antlers, and it has
something growing on it. First I thought it was fall moss,
but it's not. And I'm curious what it is, and
I'm curious how it gets its nutrition.

Speaker 5 (11:43):
Yes, oh, yes, I saw that. That was great pictures.
By the way, that is called liking l ice like.
That's but there's a lot of different kinds of like,
and yours is kind of For everybody listening, I have
to describe this because they can't see the photo you
sent me. Yours has the kind of a grayish almost

(12:05):
like a crape papery frilly edged material, and then it's
got the orange on it, but like it is a
symbiosis that between different organisms like algae and fungi and
things like that, and it just grows on the surface
of tree trunks. Some trees get a lichen that's just
like it almost looks like someone's spray painted white on

(12:28):
the tree. Others get these things that come out and
they look like little trees coming out of the lot
of different games a lichen. But you'll see it on
rocks and fent posts, and in your case, deer antlers.
That's the first time I've ever seen it on deer antlers.

Speaker 7 (12:45):
Yeah, well, how does it get its nutrition?

Speaker 5 (12:47):
I mean they need minerals that well, that's a good question.
It's interesting on your antlers that it's not growing on
the deer skull, but it's growing on the horns. That's right.
Note right there. I've never I've never thought about something
like that, but yeah, it can do that. I don't know,
I'm gonna have to look into that. I suspect that

(13:09):
the substrate itself is providing something, but not a lot,
because it is not a parasite. It is it will
it will not. It's not like mistletoe. Missiletoe is taking
energy out of the tree branch, but this one's not
so is the same way.

Speaker 7 (13:29):
Yeah, I've got it and hate it. Okay, thank you,
very interesting.

Speaker 5 (13:34):
Thanks thanks for the call. You take care. Okay, bye
bye bye bye bye bye. Liking l I c h
E n uh. Lots of different forms of it too,
And it's beautiful, you know if you get up close
to like and what it reminds me of some of them.
What they remind me of is have you ever seen
like people that create this big flat like a sheet

(13:56):
of plywood board that they use little figurines make a
battlefield out of, or maybe it's a race car track
or something, and have a little miniature trees and things
you could use lichens for shrubs and things around the
little scaled house like that or setting anyway. Kind of
cool stuff, but nothing to worry about. If it grows

(14:19):
on a rock, you don't have to worry about it
being a parasite. Now Balmas Ruthy brought up balmas. Balmas
is it attaches to things, but it doesn't draw energy
out of those things either. But if you het enough
bal mas in a tree, it's actually shading. It's shading

(14:41):
out the interior of the tree. Everywhere there's balmas and
sun is being blocked from something down lower, so you
can get so much that it has a negative effect
like that. But again, I've got a picture I took
it oh years ago a high line that was going
across the top of the highway above the high and
it had bombas on it. So bambas needed to suck

(15:04):
things out of the tree to live off of. It
couldn't grow on a power line nor a post, and
I've seen that, but it grows on things those you know,
we have parasites that suck juices out of plants, like
I mentioned mistletoe, which, by the way, speaking of the
holiday season, the mistletoe. And then there's things that live

(15:27):
off dead material. We call those saprophytes, and they live
off dead organisms and things. They're a fungi that kind
of have a function like that. And anyway, I'm not
going to go nerd out on those, but that is
something to think about. It is time to get stocked
up at wild Birds Unlimited. Not just for your birds,

(15:49):
certainly that's the case, but for friends and gifts and things.
Wild Birds Unlimited has beautiful gifts. You know, someone some
people are really into cardinals, for example. And you may
go in there and find a little decorative things you
hang in the house or place in the house that
are just artistically gorgeous that would make a wonderful gift

(16:10):
like that. If you are looking for a quality feeder,
and if you're looking for quality sources of bird seed,
you're not going to eat wild birds unlimited. They have
that when they put bird seed in a bag. It's
stuff birds love. And they'll tell you. They'll say, this
is a blend, and here's all the birds that are
especially fond of this blend. And here's another blend, and
there'll be overlaps. Some birds eat different things, but here's

(16:32):
all the birds that like that, and you can attract
them right up the house with stuff they want to eat,
not the red bebes that are in cheap bird seed.
And I say bbes, I'm talking about those little red
milo seeds. Birds aren't fond of them. And you don't
find that junk and wildbirds unlimited bird seed. Some seeds
are seventy percent up to seventy percent I've seen of
that kind of stuff, And it's just a waste of

(16:54):
money to be spending money on that. You think you're
saving because cheap, but you're spending money because you're the
birds end up getting is pretty high dollar. By the
time you throw out all the bebes, you get the
idea what I'm talking about. Anyway, if you're looking for
winter feeders, maybe some suet feeders. That's the little wire
cage type materials that hold those sweat blocks and the

(17:15):
birds can come peck that out of there. Birds are
going to need a lot from us because as the
days get shorter and the feeding hours therefore are lower,
plus the source of food insects and things are less,
it's important to provide them something. Wild Birds Unlimited has
something called Winter super Blend. Winter super Blend. It's got
high fat and high protein which really help birds out

(17:38):
during these seasons that we're in now. Main thing I
want to tell you, though, is you got to get
by there and look pretty much anybody on your list.
You're going to find some cool stuff for them. Maybe
they would like to attract purple Martins and they would
like a Martin house, or bluebirds or you name it.
Maybe they would like a beautiful pole system to hold

(17:59):
the feeder, you know, the like a black pole that
comes up and it has arms going out and you
can hang feeders at various levels. Maybe they're dealing with
squirrels and they want what I think is the Cadillac,
and that is the Eliminator. I have one and it
works well keeping the squirrels out. But it's an outstanding
feeder that will last you forever. You can take it apart,

(18:21):
you can clean it, it just it's awesome. The Eliminator
from wild Birds Unlimited six stores in the Greater Houston
area wb U dot com forward slash Houston wb you
dot com forward slash Euston. That's where you find your
wild Bird store. The store in Clear like an Elderrod,
or in Cypress on Barker Cypress in Houston. We got

(18:41):
one on bll Air. We also have one on the
west Side on Memorial Drive and then down in Kingwood
on Kingwood Drive in Paarland on East Broadway. All places
where you can find wild Birds unlimiteds Here you you're
listening to Garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter, and
we're here to help you have success with your garden.
Be talking about a number of different things today. If

(19:02):
you have a question something you would like to visit about,
give me a call seven one three, two, one two,
five eight seven four plants for all seasons. Outstanding nursery.
You've been around since nineteen seventy three. Right there where
Luetta comes into Tomball Parkway. It's right on Tomball Parkway,
Hiaway two forty nine. Easy to get in and out.

(19:23):
It just it's just a wonderful place. I love going
there and just looking at the evolution of plant to
flow through there. In other words, in the spring you
got the spring plants, and then the summertime and the
cool seasons, you always have beautiful stuff. If you're looking
for gorgeous pottery, they've got it there. If you're looking
for bulbs, they've got those there. If you're looking for well,

(19:46):
let's talk holidays. What are some of the holiday gift plants?
Maybe we maybe we can talk about those a little
bit here more. But Christmas cactus, Thanksgiving cactus, or you
can just refer to them as holiday cactus because they
different ones blimit different times. And so then there's calancho
or calanchoe.

Speaker 9 (20:04):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
There's also beautiful, really pretty points that is that they
have in stock, ornamental pippers. You know, there's all kinds
of things you can get at plants for all seasons,
of course, excellent and very wide array of soil products
and fertilizer products there. And these folks are lawn and
garden experts. You show up and they are going to

(20:27):
be able to help you have success. And that's what
we're trying to do is make gardening fun, make it
more enjoyable. Plants for all seasons dot com right where
Luetta comes into Tomball Parkway, just north of that intersection
two eight one three seven six one six four six
two eight one three seven six one six four six.

(20:50):
When we come back, I'm going to talk about holiday plants,
the claims we decorate with and a few tips for that.
So don't go away. In the meantime, if you're looking
for that publication on how to protect your plants against
cold gardening with Skip, that's me Gardeningwithskip dot com. Gardening
with Skip dot com, go there, check out that publication.

(21:12):
I'm asking you to do it now, because I mean,
when frost comes, it's better if you've read it and
thought through it and you've gathered your supplies. When freezes come,
you're ready to go. We're going to take a break
and be right back. Hey, welcome back to garden Line folks.
Good to have you with us Kee. If you are
looking for any kind of transplanting, bulb planning things you

(21:36):
want to be doing right now and you need a
good nutrient source for that, I would recommend Night nutri
Stars Genesis Transplant Mix. That's not the folks at Nelson,
you know, the Nelson family. They've been in Katie areas
and gosh, eighteen hundreds, laid eighteen hundreds and they make
their own fertilizers out there just outside of Houston, and
it's high quality stuff. The Genesis Transplant mix has got

(21:58):
mike rizon bacteria, fungi. In fact, it's their first retail
blend to incorporate Microiza bacteria and fungi to enhance that
soul microbiome. And you just mix it straight in the soil. Normally,
you know, I would say, don't put a fertilizer right
down in the soil. If it's a organic product, if
it's a product that is very slow release, you can

(22:18):
do that. And this, this Genesis Transplant mix is absolutely
safe to do. Put it down, mix it in the
soil around the roots. Basically, the way I look at
it is you take the plant you're going to plant,
and you look at what you're going to plant it in,
and you put the nutri Star Genesis Transplant mix in that.
So that may be a container, you know, I mean,
you may have a patio container you're gonna repot, or

(22:40):
a houseplant that you're going to repot, or maybe you're
putting in a fruit tree or a rosebush or something else.
Put the nutri Star in the hole, mix it in
with the soil they're going to be going into, and
those root systems will establish very very well. And I
have seen really good results from every time that I've
used the Nelson plant food. That's their Nutril Star Genesis

(23:00):
transplot mix from the folks at Nelson. So it's widely
available all through our area. Glad to have you with
us today on garden Line I am. I'm going to
be talking a little bit about gift or cool season
plants for the indoors, the holiday plants specifically for the indoors.
Now the king of the plants when it comes to

(23:23):
holiday decorating, I guess you'd have to say, as a
point set, point SETAs are beautiful plants when you look
at the color you're not looking at flowers. You're looking
at bracts. You're looking at a changing color of those
leaves that are up there near the top, and that
is where they get their color. A point SETA turns

(23:43):
color because the day length is getting shorter as we
move into the fall season. Now, if you were to
just leave a point SETA on its own to turn color,
it would typically not turn color soon enough. So what
they do in the the growers that be in the
day is they bring the point SETA in. Well it's

(24:05):
indoors in a greenhouse, but they start to give it
artificial night early. So let me do it this way.
If you an occasionally I get a question. Someone has
kept the point SETA through the year and now they
want to how do you turn make it turn color
again for the next holiday season. Well, what you do

(24:26):
is you when you go to work at the end
of the day that would be about excuse me, when
you come home from work at the end of the day,
it's about five o'clock. You put a box over it,
you put it in darkness, you stick out in the closet,
you do whatever you're going to do, make it dark, okay,
And then when you get up in the morning to
go to work. You take the box off. That makes

(24:46):
it the easiest way to remember, but you're giving it
a number of hours of darkness, and by doing that,
it triggers the planet to bloom. All are fall bloomers
are that way. So if you have fall aster, if
you have Mexican marigold, if you have mountain sage Salvia rigla,
what am I forgetting? There's a bunch more the sabil account.

(25:10):
The Mexican bush sage is affected by that as well.
These plants all trigger to bloom when the nights get longer, okay,
and we think of it as long nights, not short days,
even though you think those go together. It's the period
of darkness that makes them bloom. So that's what does it.
And they do it professionally as they grow them, so
that they all come to the store looking just beautiful,

(25:33):
ready for use and decoration with a point setta. You
want to make sure and keep the soil evenly moist
but not soggy wet. Typically they're going to come in
a plastic sleeve or a foil sleeve or something along
those lines. And what I do is I take mine
out of the sleeves. Set it in the sink water
really really good. Let it drain well, and once it's

(25:54):
drained for a little while, then go ahead and put
it back in the sleeve. You want to keep them moist,
and you can tell just by picking them up if
they're getting dry or not. A point set of that's
dry is as light as a feather, and a point
set of that's wet. You know it has the water
weight and the soil, So keep it moist. If it
dries out, it's going to cast old leaves off. They'll

(26:14):
even be dropping while they're still shriveling in green. But
you don't want it to do that. Provide if you
can give it a little bit better light, that's nice.
A little cooler temperatures are fine. Our indoor temperature is
perfect for them, though. Just make sure and keep them
adequately moist in order to maintain those things as long
as possible looking good. Let's we'll come back to some

(26:37):
other Christmas plants here in a bit. Let's go to
Westbury this morning and talk to Anthony. Hey, Anthony, welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 10 (26:46):
Good morning, Thank you.

Speaker 9 (26:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (26:49):
Last week he had talked about your prop gate roses
from cutting. Yes, And I was wondering if you can
go over that step by step because I've tried it,
I guess I are about a little over a month
in water and I'm not hitting any root.

Speaker 3 (27:05):
What's your secret?

Speaker 5 (27:08):
Yeah, I will I've never tried it in water, and
I wouldn't recommend it of trying to water propagate roses.
What I'll do is I will get a container that
I can put a clear lid over or a clear
plastic over. However you want to go about doing that,
just figure it out. I will typically use some something

(27:31):
like you know the Okay, this is just an example.
This isn't what you have to use. But have you
ever seen the rotisserie chickens in the grocery store. They've
got the little black tray and then it has a
clear lid that pops down on it. That's a nice
deep Yeah, it's a nice deep try you can put
You only need about two and a half inches or

(27:52):
so of growing of a rooting mix in the bottom
of it. You don't need something five inches deep or anything,
because it's just gonna You're just gonna put them in
there about an inch and a half. The cuttings tay
cuttings are about They could be four inches long or
a little longer if you want uh, and you put
the bottom of the cutting in some rooting hormone. There's

(28:15):
powders and there's liquids, but either way you want to
make sure and get them in rooting hormone. I make
the cutting at the bottom. I cut it at an angle,
like a forty five angle, so it's not flat top
like a telephone pole, but it has an angle to it,
and that creates a larger wound there and that's where
callus forms, and that's where roots are going to form.

(28:35):
So you put that into a moist mix. It's very
well drained. I will use sometimes almost straight pearl light,
the little white pubbably looking things that you see in
potting seal. You can use a little a little bit
of a peat moss blend. That's that's fine, but you
don't need too much. You don't have to be mucky
all the time. But I'll use it kind of a

(28:56):
fifty to fifty mix most of the time and put
them in there and then close the lit down and
keep it as humid as you can because, oh, by
the way, the cutting should have no leaves on the
bottom two thirds of it, and then leaves on the
top two thirds. You don't need many leaves, just a
little bit. And if it stays in a very very
humid condition with lots of light but not direct sun,

(29:17):
no direct sun, just like because you know what to
cook in there. It takes it a while, but it
will root. You have to open it occasionally, check the moisture,
keep it moist. And that's how I do it, and
it works. It works fine for me, all right.

Speaker 11 (29:33):
The gentleman at a garden show, and I recommend it
just microloge liquid organic super sweed and it's zero zero
point zero three. What do you think about that concentrate?

Speaker 5 (29:46):
That's fine, that's fine. Seeweed does have a role. It
has some hormones in it that can be helpful for that. Yeah,
you can do it with that. It won't hurt and
it probably will help. But as far as you know,
people root to just with water, so you can you
just mainly definitely need that rooting hormone. One little final

(30:08):
tip and I got to run to a break here, Anthony.
One final tip is instead of like dusting the cutting
with the rooting hormone and then shoving it into the mix.
I will take a little pencil and make a hole
and then set the cutting at it and gently press
the soil up against the side. And the reason is
you don't want to wipe the powder off as you're
shoving it down through the potting mix to plant it

(30:30):
or the rooting mix. So you know what I'm saying.
Just you got the powder all around it and then
put it in there. Anyway, that's my best recommendation. I'm
gonna have to run, but good luck with that, and
I do thank you for your call. We'll be right back, folks.
All right, comment, Welcome to garden Line. Welcome back to

(30:50):
guarden Line. Glad you're with us this morning. He if
you got a question, give me a call seven one
three two one two five eight seven four. Let's help
you have success or the way I like to put it,
a more bountiful garden, a more beautiful landscape and more
fun in the process. That's what we're aiming for here
in Chanted Gardens down in Richmond Rosenberg area. They're on

(31:11):
the Katie Foolscher side of Richmond, so they're out there
on FM three point fifty nine. If you would write
down this website Enchanted Gardens Richmond dot com. Enchantedgardens Richmond
dot com. There you'll find everything you need to know.
You know, what are the hours, how do I get there?
What's phone number? Anything you need like that, and sign

(31:33):
up for their newsletter. The newsletter keeps you up to
date on all the things that are going on. For example,
if you were keeping track of it, you would know
that today Santa Claus is coming to town and in Chantygardens,
your children, get them there, get them ready to go,
bring a camera and photos they can get pictures, and

(31:53):
make sure they got their list ready to go. Saturday,
November twenty ninth to day from ten am to two,
when I quit talking on garden Line, Santa shows up
and he starts talking there at Enchanted Gardens. And while
you're out there, pick up some of the wonderful cool
season color they have. Oh my gosh, the Christmas trees
are awesome. They look beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Soon you get them,

(32:15):
the fresher and better you're they are going to be,
and the better off you are. And so get out
there to Enchanted Gardens and grab yours. Also grab some
cool season color, like I said, or some cool season vegetables.
Do you know if you want blue bonnets and you
didn't get them planted by sea to a while back,
you can buy transplants of blue bonnets while supplies last.
They've got them there at Enchanted Gardens, Richmond on the

(32:38):
Katie Fulsher side of Richmond. So I talked about point
SETAs and the importance of are the just the facts
behind point settas, how we make them turn color, how
the growers do, and how you can keep them happy
and looking their best in your house. They're very bruttal
plants too, by the way, often come a little string

(33:01):
around them to hold all the branches together because they're
trying to form a plant that is in the shape
that you want, a nice, bushy, beautiful plant or may
it's what they call a standard which is a tall
trunk with a little bushy top on the top. That's
a standard form. They do that with the roses. They
do that points that is and other things. But that's points.

(33:22):
Let's talk a little bit about colancho or calanchoe. I
say at however you want. I've said it both ways
during my life, but that is a plant that's succulent
and it is really easy to grow. It is tough
as a boot. But they have the blooming types now
that have very pretty bright primary color blooms, you know,
yellow and red and so on, and they're very attractive.

(33:45):
You can buy them as little tiny plants that would
make a little gift or something you'd set on the
table for decorations. But Klankoe or calancho is very easy,
very easy to grow. Just don't drowned it, don't keep
the roots submerged for extended periods of time, and water
give it a little moisture, and it is probably one

(34:07):
of the most forgiving ones that we have and our
holiday plant options, So take out check out that one.
It would be nice in a decorative, decorated basket, So
that would be another thing to think about where you
would include it with other plants together to make a
beautiful centerpiece or something along the table, depending on how

(34:31):
your table is oriented. You can come up with some
real cool ideas for that. That's a good plant for that.
I do want to mention the pest bros, the folks
we talk about all the time, I talk about all
summer about their mosquito buckets, because those are those are
a lifesaver love those things. They also do every other

(34:53):
thing you need for past you know, termites, dealing with fire,
ants outside, dealing with the roaches, and other things that
can be on the inside. By the way, if you've
got family coming over for the holidays coming up and
you've got a problem with critters crawling around, well this
is a good way to fix it. Call pest bros.
Two eight one, two oh six forty six seventy. What's

(35:15):
keeping them busy right now? The bit, I would say
probably a top of the list may be going out
to people's houses and pest proofing the houses. It starts
to cool off, and all kinds of critters from squirrels
to rats, to mice to you name it. They got
enough room. You get other things that go bump in
the night up there in the attic. Pest Bros. They
come out, They look at the situation, they figure out

(35:38):
where pests can get in, and they shut that down.
They ask them to show me what you're doing. You'd
be surprised how tiny of an area a mouse can
squeeze through. It is amazing, but they can do it.
Pesh Bros. Got you covered on all of that. Two
eight one, two oh six forty six seventy the pestbros
dot Com. The pest bros dot Com. We're going to

(36:03):
get some music here, so I don't have time to
go into another holiday plant. But when I come back,
I will continue discussing some of the holiday plant options
that we have and how to take care of them.
Why not decorate beautifully this fall. There's so many good
options out there, and it just adds festivity to the endorse.
I think, and like, I like to say I'm biased,

(36:26):
but I don't mean I'm wrong. I think that we
need more plants in the house. We need to create
that warm, inviting environment that plants do create, that ambiance
that plants create. There's a lot of difference between a
sterile room and a room filled with plants filled. It

(36:47):
depends on your definition. I guess for some people, three
plants is a room full of plants. One of my daughters,
if you can walk through the house, it's not full yet,
she loves it's a jungle. Okay, So anyway, you get
the idea. Let's take a little break. We'll be back
after the top of the hour. News stick around if

(37:07):
you'd like to give me a call. Seven one, three
two one, two, five, eight seven.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Welcome to kt r H Garden Line with Skip Rictor.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
It's shoesmill crazy here.

Speaker 6 (37:33):
Gas shrim Just watch him as woods.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Many thinks the sea black basic gassing, not a sad
glass gas sun.

Speaker 5 (38:03):
Hey, welcome back, Welcome back to guard line. I'm your host,
Skip Rickter. Let's get going here. We got plenty to
talk about. Lots of things we're kind of going through,
are we I am going through this morning. A list
of different kinds of plants that we would use for
indoor decorations, some things that you might, I don't know,
you might find attractive and would add to the beauty

(38:28):
of your holiday season. Well, I just say I mentioned poincetts.
We talked about klang cho, klankoe oh ornamental peppers. There
are a number of different types of pepper that set
their pods, their blooms, and their fruit up high on

(38:49):
the plant. You know, you get a typical halopen or something.
You go digging through the plant finding all the fruit.
It's along the branches and stuff. But there's some that
just put them right up on top, right where the
sun can shine on them. And those types are often
grown and sold for the holidays, for decorations. You want

(39:09):
to remember something about holiday plants that are not just cuts,
you know, cut branches and flowers and things, but that
are living plants that normally grow in sunshine. When we
bring them indoors, that is a stressful environment because they're
not getting the light they want. So anytime you have
something like one of those little peppers, the more light

(39:31):
you can give it the better. And so give them
plenty of light. If you are able to go through
the trouble of putting them outside and keeping them watered
during the day, that is good. You just don't want
to subject them to temperatures let's say below the fifties,
even though they're not real happy with fifty degrees, but
it gets below that, I wouldn't put them out there.

(39:52):
But they're very decorative, very beautiful. Just remember they are hot.
Those peppers, like most peppers are hot. And so if
you got little kids that are liable to pick something
and stick it in their mouth, well that wouldn't go well, right,
And so just be aware of that when it comes
to those kind of peppers. Very decorative. There are lots
of colors, lots of bright colors, and the fruit and

(40:14):
I think a nice plant. Pretty much. It goes without
saying now that all these plants they want to have
moist soil, but they don't want soggy soil. And I
keep saying it in different ways. Some of them are
worse about that than others. Points out is, for example,
they get dry and they make you pay for it,
and they don't come back. They don't. They don't come
back in the sense of, oh, I dropped those leaves,

(40:34):
I'm gonna grow you some new ones. When they lose them,
they've lost them, and so that that's a problem. So
ornamental peppers are being are very decorative, and I love
those things. I guess probably my favorite of all the
cool season, I mean the holiday season plants is the

(40:56):
the they call them Christmas cactus, Thanksgiving cactus. There's also
one called Easter cactus, and you can go online and
learn how to tell them. Apart the blooms on Christmas
and Thanksgiving cactus look pretty much the same, the blooms
on Easter cactus are quite different. And so just remember,
don't think take the word cactus out of these plants,

(41:20):
because they don't grow in a desert. They grow in
an environment where they get moisture. Now, these plants can
take a little bit of drought, but when they have
buds on them, and when they have blooms on them,
you do not want to let them get dry. You
want to keep them moist. You don't want to mess
with their light levels much either. I have found that
when I put one where there's just very little light,

(41:43):
and especially if it gets a little on the dry side,
or temperature changes, you know, a hot draft from the
heater vent or something, they don't They don't really like
being messed with like that, So try to keep them
as happy as you can once you know they finish
their blooming season. I have some that I've had for
years just keep coming around, and they go outside in

(42:05):
the summer in a very bright indirect light, not in
the direct sun. They're more of an understory dwelling kind
of plant, and so you just want to make sure
and occasionally water them, keep them, keep them halfway happy
if you want them to grow. But once they get
buds on them, be careful because they'll drop those buds

(42:26):
and heartbeat when they dry out. But oh my gosh,
they are so beautiful, so beautiful, and so easy to grow.
And if if you want to propagate them. Maybe you've
got one with a branch it's a little too long,
and so you want to kind of even the plant out,
and you know, snip off that long one set in
the ground. It will root right where two pads come together,

(42:47):
the little jointed segments of stem, they'll form roots right there.
And so it's very easy to start a new one.
With the Christmas cactus and the Thanksgiving cactus, the real
difference between those is basically that one of them, the
day length preference, the daylength that initiates blooming for one

(43:08):
is a little shorter than the other. So if it's
a Christmas cactus, it's probably going to bloom a little
bit later than a Thanksgiving cactus because it's waiting for
the day length or in this case, the night length
to get real long. Anyway, those are good ones. I
just give them what they want and they'll be very happy.
Those make nice gifts, very nice gifts too. Nelson Nursery

(43:31):
and Water Gardens out in Katie. It's just a one
of a kind place, you know, you know, you can
go out there and get the fish and the fountains
and the disappearing fountains and you know they come out
and they will build a beautiful waterfall for you, just
a showplace of a waterfall. But right now we're looking
at the holiday season and they are set up with

(43:52):
some really nice Christmas trees. They are loaded up on them,
and as always, you want to get them now while
they the picking is best, and they will get them
all bundled up for you seeing take them in your car.
They also have points Settus and they have little four
inch Christmas cactus and six inch Christmas cactus too, So

(44:13):
if you want some of those to decorate with, they've
got you covered. Out there at Nelson Nursery and Water
Gardens and Katie and boy are their plants beautiful. You
just have to go by and see them that indoor.
Don't ever fail to go inside the shop out there
to see the beautiful plants that they have just right
in the big middle of the sales area inside. Really cool.

Speaker 8 (44:36):
Now.

Speaker 5 (44:36):
They're located on Katie Fort Ben Road. You go north
from my ten on Katie Fort Ben Road, just a
little bit up the street. They're on the right hand side,
easy to get to and they are they're ready to go.
So when you're ready to get your Christmas tree. You
need to head out there. Just remember he who hesitates
his loss, So don't put it off. Go ahead and
get those things now and get them set up. Another

(45:00):
holiday plant that is very popular, and this one it's
not so much of a holiday plant as it is
a cool season endoor plant, and that is forced bulbs.
Forced bulbs could be the amarillis. They're really cool, big
beautiful trumpet flowers and shades of red and white and pink,

(45:22):
and variations on coral there too, beautiful plants. Easy to do.
You put the bulb in pebbles with water, and you
foresit and it grows and it does well. Oftentimes they
come in a little pot already with some soil in it.
That's just fine. You can do other kinds of bulbs,
the paper whites and other kinds of bulbs. It can
be forced indoors. That's another option. It just takes a

(45:44):
while to get that done. So if you do it now,
you're probably looking at something, oh, I guess that you
would enjoy. In January. It takes about six weeks after
most of these bulbs are planted to be able to,
you know, put the bloom up and look good. Anyway,
that's another one. That's good for the indoors. Let's take
another little break here, and when we come back, we'll

(46:06):
continue with holiday plants and your calls if you'd like
to give me calls. Seven one three two one two
five eight seven four. Good time. Good to have you
with us. Thanks for listening to guarden Line today. I
hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you're in
a recovery mode from the food coma. If that was

(46:30):
the case, it's it's always good to get together and
be able to enjoy a meal with folks. It didn't
have to be a special holiday to be able to
do that. But I did enjoy that, had some family over,
and that's always good. We got some more celebrating to
do too, by the way, So anyway, uh, you are

(46:50):
listening to garden Line the phone number seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. Uh, this would
be a good time to give me a call. We
don't have a back of it all on the phone.
It's got open lines, so if you want to visit
and ask a question, there's no weight right now. Of course,
when I say that, then three people call it once.
But anyway, this would be a good time, a good
day three sixty. Tree stabilizer is a product made for

(47:17):
attaching to a new tree to hold it in place
so that as wind is blowing hard and pushing one
way or the other and whatnot, that tree has a
chance to get a good root system in and to
stay stable. The a properly planted tree and then with
an attached stabilizer to it is going to be able

(47:37):
to establish strongly. But it's something you're very important to remember.
And this is what I like about the stabilizer. You
do not want to completely motion in a motionless way,
hold a tree still perfectly still all the time. It
is important and nature does this for wind and things
to move that tree around. That creates root strength. So

(48:00):
the tree stabilizers designed so there can be some movement
in that trunk. You set the strap loose, don't strap
it down tight. I see people all the time take
wires and three wires and they honker a tree down
in three directions, and it's like you can't budget all plants.
Like people's muscles get stronger when they're stressed, when they're stretched,

(48:21):
when they're worked, and so you need a little bit
of movement and the tree stabilizer does that. And you
can find tree stabilizers at RCW Nursery. You go over
to Plants for All Seasons or Jorges Hidden Gardens down
in Alvin, go down to sea in a malt south
of Houston, Buchanan's Native Plants in the Heights, or Arbigate
up and Tumble. These are all places that carry the
tree stabilizer. And I don't care what you're planning, maybe

(48:43):
a krpe, myrtle or any kind of tree. You want
to have one of these on hand. They attached to
an iron t post. I mean you attach them to
a regular posts two, but iron t posts really easy.
Drive it in about a foot and a half away
from the tree and attach the stabilizers. There's nothing to
trip o. Virtually ezy and it works. That's the bottom line.

(49:03):
Let's go out to the phones now. We are going
to head to Lake Conroe and talk to Joanne. Hey, Joanne,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 8 (49:11):
Good morning.

Speaker 12 (49:13):
I remember a few weeks ago you talked about your
potato chip trick with the fire ants. Yes, yes, I
don't remember what it is you said to do, but
maybe you could repeat it again soon.

Speaker 5 (49:29):
And I also.

Speaker 12 (49:32):
Go ahead have I have what I've looked at googled
is cordline red sister type of plant, and they're in
big pots and they do well. But I'm wondering over
the winter, if it's good enough that I just pack
the inside with some straw, if that'll protect it instead

(49:54):
of haulowing it into the.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
Burn you're you're wanting to insulate it or what what's
the straw power in your question?

Speaker 12 (50:06):
Kind of pack pack the roots, you know, keep keep
the roots warm that are in the pot, but the
plant is still of course picking up.

Speaker 8 (50:16):
Is that good enough?

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Yeah? No, What you need to do if you cannot
bring a plant into the garage or some protected place
like that, you want to bring them up against the
side of the house, pack them together real tight. If
it's gonna be a really cold freeze, I'd even throw
a little tarp over them, you know, just to create
a dead air space back in there. But that's that

(50:40):
packing together, creating a mass, you know, of the roots
and things is going to be the best way to
protect them. When it sits out there on top of
the patio and air is blown blowing all around it,
it's gonna that root system is gonna cold down cool down.

Speaker 12 (50:53):
Yeah, the three there's three individual big pots, so i'd
have to come together and try to protect them that way.

Speaker 5 (51:04):
Yeah, you know, in the south, especially like on the
south side of a house or something to block the
wind from them.

Speaker 8 (51:10):
Uh and then yeah, and how about.

Speaker 5 (51:17):
The turks CAP's tough, it'll it'll come back out of
the ground no matter what. Here it's fully as they are.

Speaker 8 (51:24):
They look a little weary.

Speaker 5 (51:27):
Yeah, well they'll be all right. Just uh, just make
sure and have adequately moist Are the turks caps in
the ground or are they in containers?

Speaker 12 (51:35):
Yeah, they're in the ground.

Speaker 5 (51:36):
Yes, okay, Yeah, they'll be fine. Don't worry about turk's
cap okay. Yeah, back to the potato chip. Fire ants
like oil. They like protein and oil. And so if
you take an old tuna can lid that you know,
if the tuna was packed in oil, that's attractive to them.
Potato chips are attractive that. Potato chips are easy because

(51:57):
you throw them out there, you can see them on
the lawn and see you know where to go look
for them. Hot dogs and little quarter in slices on
one of those wire flags, a little metal wire that
has a flag on the end. That they mark a
pipeline with you just stick those here and there in
the yard and come back and check those. It takes
about fifteen minutes. On good warm days, we're kind of

(52:18):
cool now the fire ants. When it warms up toward
the end of the day, they're active again. But you know,
like right now, they're not interested in being outside with
that temperature, so they're done hunkered dew.

Speaker 12 (52:27):
There's mounds all over, so I mean I know where
they are.

Speaker 5 (52:32):
Well, you know you got mounds. Just go ahead and
go put up a good bait out and I would wait,
just use the chip or something to make sure they're
out foraging, because you don't want the bait to sit
there for days with You want them to pick it
up and it's freshness. Okay, good lucky, Thank you, thank you,
Thank you, Joanna, you bet. I appreciate your call very much.

(52:55):
RCW Nurseries, Gosh, what a great place. I love going there.
They still have their November sale, but guess what, today's
November the twenty ninth. You are about out of time.
This is your final call. Get that done. Azelles and
Camellias fifteen percent off creat Myrtle's thirty percent off. Select well,
all the citrus trees forty percent off, and then their

(53:17):
yard art, metal, arbors and benches are all thirty percent off.
This is a garden center that always has top quality stock,
and now is the time to plant trees and shrubs,
the most important time of the year to plant them.
Go get a camellia for cool season blooms. They have
a beautiful selection of camellias out there for cool season blooms.

(53:37):
So head out there, check it out. You'll see what
I'm talking about. It is a wonderful place to go shopping.
Uh and they have a good supply right now, and
you got two more days of this sale and then
it's done. Let's go out of Wharton. We're going to
talk to Jeff. Hey, Jeff, welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
Say good morning, Happy Thanksgiving. They said something a couple
weeks ago about a weed that I have been attacking
in my yard. It's it was the first word.

Speaker 11 (54:07):
Was I missed it?

Speaker 3 (54:08):
Aster A S T I R?

Speaker 5 (54:11):
Is that S T E R? Yes?

Speaker 3 (54:15):
Yeah, it's really invasive in the the runners. If you
will run under the same August stine and you just
if you're trying to pull it. You're going to get
some saying or scene also. Anyway, how do you control that?

Speaker 5 (54:29):
Well, you've been pulling it. Hand pulling it is what
you do now, and for the last few weeks, it's
all you could do actually for the last month or so. Uh.
You just it has a single tap route if you
pulled it, you know what I'm talking about, and you
just kind of I grab it at the base, wiggle
it as I pull it. The soil is moist, it

(54:50):
comes up fairly easily, and may some of those will
break off and then you just pull them out. But yeah,
it'll it'll spread out and weave itself through the lawn
and just get it out of there. For those flowers
become little fluffy seeds that are going to recede next year.
A pre emergent herbicide could help prevent it way back

(55:10):
earlier in the summer late or in spring late spring.
But bottom line is now you just just handpull it
because you're shreds and hundreds of seed.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
I think part of that is my neighbor doesn't control
his It's so yeah, that is part of it. A
bit of a north wind. Then they go to seed
across the street and blow into our yard, so it
just drives me.

Speaker 8 (55:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
I know.

Speaker 5 (55:38):
I've got a neighbor same thing, But I actually when
I get mine all pulled up on the side that
have come in from their yard, I'll actually go about
five feet into their yard and pull weeds. I mean
they don't they don't care, but I care because its prolific.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
I think I may do that. And the last quick
question is do you have a an application that can
be used on a smartphone like an iPhone A weed identify?
Is there such? I know that you can google it
and there are lots of them, but is there one
that is kind of recommended?

Speaker 5 (56:14):
The Well, the best is a website and at A
and M the Aggie Turf website Aggie Turf dot t a,
m U dot edu. But just to search for Aggie
Turf and on there at the bottom left, you can
select like I want to know about different types of
turf and so on, and there's a little button for weeds,

(56:34):
and if you click on it, there are a number
of pictures of all the most common weeds that we have,
broad leaf, grassy and sedges and so on, and you
click on it and it tells you more about it.
It doesn't tay out of control them, but it tells
you what the weed is and you can find out
what the name of it is, and you give me
a call and we can talk about what to do
about it. But that's probably the best way for those.

Speaker 3 (56:56):
And your page online and your your schedule. I used
that religiously, and so okay, I know you have lost
their recommendations for hobicides, so I won't keep you any longer.
But yeah, I appreciate that. I generally don't get it
all right. Catch you and you said there's nobody online,

(57:18):
and so I jumped.

Speaker 5 (57:19):
Yes. Well, as we get toward the holidays, it gets
kind of quiet, but that just gives more people a
chance to be able to call. So hey, I got
a run. But thank you very much, Jeff. I appreciate
you call very much. We're going to be back in
a second here Vernon and Needville. You're the very first
up when we come back, and by hanging around, we'll
be right back. Grab you some coffee, I'm gonna do that.

Speaker 13 (57:39):
Welcome back, guys.

Speaker 5 (57:41):
Good to have you with us this morning on Guarden Line.
Folks at Pierce Takes can turn your place into a
show place. If you are looking for just I don't know,
a complete transformation, renovation or a little bit of a
spruce up chain. They do everything from the services they offer, like,

(58:04):
for example, if you wanted to have once a quarter
for them coming out and spruce up the beds, check
the irrigation, make sure everything's looking good, plenty of weeds
it might be in there, replant flowers when that's needed.
They can do that with Pierscapes. They can also do
big jobs like a nice new beautiful patio or landscape
lighting or improving drainage or whatever you need done. They

(58:27):
are professionals, they have their certifications, they've got their folks
have been with them for a very long time. Average
tenure for their employees is over ten years and the
longest tenured I believe is run twenty seven or eight
years now. The folks have been working with them. They're
certified and everything from pesticide certification to drainage to backflow certification, irrigation,

(58:48):
landscape design, beautiful, beautiful work. Go to pierscapes dot com
see the work that they do. Pierscapes dot com two
eight one three seven h fifty sixty. Let's go out
to Needville. Now we're gonna talk to Vernon this morning. Hey, Vernon,
welcome to Guarden Mine.

Speaker 8 (59:05):
Good morning.

Speaker 13 (59:06):
Hey, I've got a question. I sent you some pictures
of a couple of ferns. Can you tell me what
type of ferns those are?

Speaker 5 (59:13):
All?

Speaker 12 (59:13):
Right?

Speaker 5 (59:14):
Let me see right and pull this up. Was this
one picture that you sent or was there?

Speaker 13 (59:21):
It was three pictures?

Speaker 5 (59:22):
I love them. Okay, I'm gonna have to look at
that closer. Off the top of my head, I was
gonna say, macho firm, but it's not a macho firm.
I'm gonna have to look at what I'll do. I'm
gonna have to in order to give you a read
good answer. I'm gonna need a little time on this one. Uh.
That is a gorgeous fern. Did you Is that at

(59:44):
your house or did somebody else have that?

Speaker 13 (59:47):
That's my house. That's my house I've taken. I've got
probably four of them that I've taken from that one plant.
But I'm just curious how cold hardy it be and
if I could ever trim it back? Does it need
to be trimmed or just leave it let it grow
like it is.

Speaker 5 (01:00:03):
I wouldn't trim it now. But when when we get
to spring, spring time and the frosts and freezes are
past and it's warmed up enough for the fern to
really want to grow, you can you can cut it
back at that time. You can either take out ugly
friends and leave the rest, or you can you can
cut it back even more if you need to. But

(01:00:25):
that is a gorgeous fern you got there. It's pretty happy.

Speaker 14 (01:00:28):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
My guess on it. My guess vernon is that it's
not going to be fully cold hardy. I know some
of the ferns I'm familiar with, but even the ones
that are cold hardy, most of them die back to
the ground. Holly fern, you know, will stay alive above ground,
but it gets looking pretty rady. But a lot of
them when they're in it contained.

Speaker 13 (01:00:51):
I've always moved. I've always moved in the garage. But
this one's getting about three foot tall and four foot round.
It's going to be I'll just move a fridge because
I want to lose it. Real quick question, if I
can ask you about figs. I got a couple of
brown turkey and a couple of celest and after their
second one on the ground and last year I lost them.
I had them covered everything, but I lost about a

(01:01:12):
foot off the end of each one. Is that gonna
happen every year? Or should they? I thought they were
supposed to be cold hardy this the list.

Speaker 5 (01:01:21):
There. They are dependently cold hardy here, but they can freeze.
Uh well, you know, you get the right and it's
not just how cold does it get, but it's how
fast does it get cold on them? But we do
have years where they get killed back. I've seen figs
killed all the way to the ground here. Uh and
the right kind of situation. But yeah, just losing a

(01:01:42):
little bit off the end, that's that's not a very
big loss. But all that you could do is either
let it come back out of the ground or some
people go to great lengths to to kind of cover
it up or pile up stuff around the base to
to keep it a little bit warm. I've seen a
lot of a lot of contraption that people have gone
through to try to protect their.

Speaker 13 (01:02:02):
Fig Okay, I've just seen something that get so huge,
and I wonder how they do because I know they're
not covered them, but they they're just huge trees.

Speaker 5 (01:02:10):
But okay, yeah, there is. There is a range in
hardiness from on them, but in general, there's a lot
of factors. You know, around your yard there's micro climate
spots that are warmer than others and so on.

Speaker 13 (01:02:24):
So yeah, okay, all right, all right, so well, I
appreciate the information.

Speaker 5 (01:02:29):
Thanks, call. I appreciate that vernon you bat you take
care good to visit with you. I'm gonna hunt that
fern down see if I can identify it. That's a
little unusual.

Speaker 15 (01:02:38):
One.

Speaker 5 (01:02:40):
Affordable Tree Care is the go to place from you
here on Guarden Line for you to get your trees
properly pruned and cared for. You know, we we we
go through things. I don't know if you realize how
much of a drought that we've had this year, but
it is continue. You know, some areas have gotten some

(01:03:01):
good rain. We're about to get some more rain, thank goodness.
Most areas, hopefully your areas will. But we've got within
my listening area, we have areas of counties that are
in extreme droughts. I'm in severe drought. Uh and uh
it stresses your trees and having them properly watered, you know.
Martin Spoon Moore from Affordable tree. They do all kinds
of services. Of course, they do pruning, and you need

(01:03:22):
to get on the schedule to have them come out
and do some water pruning. Come out and look at
the trees. First of all, do they need the pruning?
And if so, how how what do they need? How
much pruning did they need? Martin understands trees. He knows
how to do this, and he will make sure your
trees aren't good hands. If you need deeper feeding, if
you need deeper watering, if you need stumps ground. I mean,

(01:03:45):
he's the tree service expert, Affordable tree service. Now you're
going to call seven to one three six ninety nine
two six six three seven one three six ninety nine
twenty six sixty three. And when you do, you're going
to talk to Martin or his wife Joe, or his
mom Judy. If you call and you don't get one

(01:04:05):
of the family members there part of Martin's team, Martin,
his wife Georgey, you've called the wrong place. Some people
will put Unaffordable in their name and misrepresent themselves as
being part of Martin's team, and they're not. If you're
not speaking with Martiner's family, it's not the right affordable
tree service. You need to hang up Dollagan seven to
one three six nine two six sixty three. All right here,

(01:04:32):
let's see I've got to oh, I wanted to talk
about one more plant before we go to a quick break. Here,
we were going through all the Christmas plans point set
as a Christmas cactus forcing bulbs like amillis and paper
white Cycleomen. Cycleman is gorgeous and it's just designed for Christmas.

(01:04:55):
I mean, what are the colors that you've got. Primarily
it's red and white and and there are some other
variations on that with Cyclemen. But a beautiful, beautiful dark
green leaves. You can buy the plants, put them a
little folk and hear something decorative or whatever you want.
They're beautiful for indoor decorating. Just remember they need light
and so when you can give them a little more

(01:05:17):
outdoor light if you want to plant them in the
landscape beds too. By the way, they're fairly hearty and
underneath let's say a big old live oak tree. Word's bright,
but you're not getting the direct sun. So I come
and do real well for that. Really beautiful beautiful plants,
but they also make good indoor decorations as well. Why
not buy a few and have them as gifts that

(01:05:39):
people take home when they come and enjoy a meal
at your place or come for the holidays. They can
just get to take their cyclement home. There you go,
there's an idea. We're going to take a little break,
Mike in Lake Jackson. You will be first up when
we come back. All right, we are bad, We are bad.

(01:06:03):
Welcome back to the garden line. Good to have you
with us. By the way, have you been to Moss
Nursery recently? If it's down there in Seabrook, Texas, And
if you haven't been, you need to go. Moss Nursery
is always a fun place to go, you know. And
I whenever we have a family come into town or something,
I was taken to a garden center and it's just fun.
It's absolutely fun to do. Moss Nursery's greenhouse is outstanding.

(01:06:28):
You wouldn't believe the selection of succulents. Of course that
includes cacti, but many many other succulents. And the string
ofs you know what I mean, string of pearls, all
the different kinds of strings that are out there. Masa
got them all beautiful foliage. Tropical foliage plants look really good.
They are just gorgeous. Remember on December sixth, that's a Saturday.

(01:06:50):
Next Saturday, they're gonna have their open house and market.
They're gonna have arts and craft spenders, game snacks, there'll
be a children's craft table. You get a free Christmas
cactus while supplies last, so don't wait time, waste time
to get there. Tina's Broadworth's House is gonna be out
there for some food. It's just gonna be a good time.
At Moss Nursery, which is on Toddville Road in c Brook, Texas.

(01:07:14):
Here is the phone number two eight one four seven
four twenty four eighty eight. Two eight one four seven
four twenty four eighty eight. Go out there now and
get your dianthus for cool season decorating. That is a cold,
hardy flower. That just gorgeous, gorgeous. Of course, they have
the already forced Amarillus bobs, a little miniature junipers. We're

(01:07:36):
gonna talk about those in a minute, by the way,
and the beautiful points that is as well. At Moss Nursery.
Let's head out in Adeli Jackson and talk to Mike. Hey,
Mike welcome to garden line.

Speaker 14 (01:07:49):
Good Berning and skip.

Speaker 6 (01:07:50):
Hey.

Speaker 14 (01:07:51):
Christ I had my ninety of picon tree hit. It
shed a lot of the comes and only about five
percent of them head meeting them. Yeah, the outside the
hulls look good, but on the inside they were just
all shriveled up. And I didn't know if that was
a pollination issue or water issue or what.

Speaker 5 (01:08:12):
And I have it when you say when you say
when you say outside the holes look good, do you
mean they were the shucks look good while they were
on the tree or do you mean the pecan.

Speaker 14 (01:08:23):
I couldn't see them. I couldn't see them on the tree.
All I could do is, you know, seem after they
hit the ground. But you know, the you know the
regular Yeah, the whole of the time, you know, they
look normal, okay, and already open them up. They were
just I'll dry it up.

Speaker 5 (01:08:39):
Yeah. Well, here here's the deal. A couple of things
can cause that. During the first part of the growing season,
a pecan grows in size, the nut grows in size,
and then once we get to about the beginning of August,
it hardens the shell and it begins to fill the
kernel inside. So if your pecans are small. There was

(01:09:01):
a lack of water early in the growing season, that's
one possible cause. And then if it doesn't fill well,
it could be a lack of water late in the season,
But more often it's due to foliage and shuck diseases.
The nutrients that go into a pecan go through the shuck,
and so if you have various kinds of fungal blights
that can that can cause those black areas on the shuck,

(01:09:25):
it can prevent proper filling of the kernel itself, as
can a lack of leaves. You know, the more leaf
diseases you have, if you've got the black pecan aphid
that are on there causing the splotches and the yellow
and stuff, all of those things are cutting down on
carbohydrate production, which that is what a pecan cornal is
is one hundred percent carbohydrates. Well, right.

Speaker 14 (01:09:49):
Here in the spring, and did all of a sudden
it shut off, and yeah, I didn't know if that
was it? Now bad so away. I have another dady
of pecan that I grafted four years ago from my
granddad's old tree, and this year I got the first
cons off of up of it. Whether it was just

(01:10:09):
a cluster of three and they were all good at.

Speaker 5 (01:10:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:10:14):
Anyway, well that's it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:17):
Something something affected late in the season, either stopped car
hyper production from being what it should or it was
just lack of moisture. But but something like that typically happened.
That's a disappointment though.

Speaker 12 (01:10:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:10:34):
I got a question that a talent is a stupid question.
Question is does that bits and crowded holds the kemp
for deep feeding.

Speaker 5 (01:10:47):
No, not not quite deep enough, but but they do,
they do work. But actually an ant fire bed, it
wouldn't be feeding. But when water happened, it can it
can run down in those those little tune that's just
kind of spot.

Speaker 14 (01:11:08):
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, but that was so proud to
see my granddad's graps working it. Hopefully I'll get a
better crop next year.

Speaker 5 (01:11:18):
So there you go. There you go. All right, Well,
thank you for I appreciate that. Good luck, good luck
getting to the bottom of that. Let's go now to
friends Wood and talk to Bob. Hey, Bob, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 16 (01:11:33):
Morning, Skip. I have three large oak trees in my yard,
and two of them. The one thing I haven't been
very consistent with the care over the years. I know
that's just life got and weight. But I have areas
in the yard that are heating. I'm assuming now's from
big roots developing under the surface. And I have one

(01:11:55):
area under one of the trees where I have like
at least a hundred little stuff's coming up. I didn't
know what I could do to try to remedy that
situation now or is it too late?

Speaker 5 (01:12:09):
Okay? And is this is live oak trees, the almost
evergreen type tree okay? So the roots are the roots.
As they get bigger, they swell and the soil washes
off the top of them, and then they appear to
be coming up out of the ground. It's actually just

(01:12:29):
them growing in diameter, which causes the soil above them
to push off real easily. But there's nothing to do
for that other than gradually add soil in between them,
and that smooths it out. It doesn't mean, though, that
it's easy to grow stuff there. You still have soil
that's full of roots. It's very hard to plant around
an oak tree with all the wood and the soil,

(01:12:51):
if you will, it's hard to find dirt to plant into.
As far as the little ones. A couple of things
could be happening. It could be seen from the acorns
that have fallen and sprouted, but it could also be
sprouts from the roots. And there are some types of
live oaks will create a lot of root suckering, a

(01:13:11):
lot of roots sprouting. Some of the oaks along the
Gulf Coast Louisiana, Alabamasissippi, those live oaks Florida, they will
have one trunk and they don't root sprout very badly.
You go towards central Texas and you see those oak
mots out in the pastures where there's a whole bunch
of oak trunks coming up together. That is a different

(01:13:32):
strain of live oak that is more likely to root sprout.
You never know which one you're getting unless you just
happen to have someone that knows what they're talking about
selling it. But the bottom line is there's not much
you can do for them. You don't want to spray
them because then you'll kill the tree too. So what
you have to do is just mow them back as
far as you can put. Some people will use a

(01:13:54):
heavy landscape fabric and then weigh it down, you know,
could be rock or something like that, just to block
them from coming up. And growing out. Otherwise you're just
left with them. The more you disturb the soil, Bob,
the more you're gonna have problems with that. So watering
a lot at the base of the tree, rototilling or
things that kind of nick the roots and stuff, you're

(01:14:15):
gonna get way more of those sprouts than you would otherwise.

Speaker 16 (01:14:20):
As far as the sprouse, just keep doing what I'm
doing and just be them with the law and larder.
They're out of the yard, so it's not with it.

Speaker 5 (01:14:26):
Yeah, yeah, you can just send them with the lawnmower.
Just don't let them, let them come up. That's about all.
There's not a there's not a practical way to deal
with them, because, like I said, I can tell you,
I could tell you a herbicide that would kill them,
but then it's gonna translocate back into your oak tree too,
so you don't want to do that.

Speaker 16 (01:14:46):
All right, all right, sure we get any information.

Speaker 5 (01:14:50):
Hey, thanks for the call, appreciate that. All right. The
music means we're going to break here, whether I like
it or not. Here we go now the top of
the Yar news break. I'll be back with your calls
at seven one, three, two one two fifty eight seventy
four seven one three two one two five eight seven four.

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
Welcome to Katy r. H. Garden Line with Skip Richard's.

Speaker 6 (01:15:21):
Shoes, basyways the bass gas can trim. You just watch
him as who boss gas.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
Us.

Speaker 6 (01:15:36):
So many good things to suppot basic basis like gas.

Speaker 4 (01:15:43):
Savos bacad not a sign credit basis gas.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
The sun Beamon of three.

Speaker 5 (01:15:57):
All right, we're back. Let's do this. Welcome back to
garden Line. I'm your host, Skip Richter. We're here to
help you have success and enjoy yourself and the process
that is the key. We're about to get some much
needed rainfall today. That will be nice having that come through.
I enjoy getting outside and just the weather. It's just

(01:16:19):
the temperatures that I like so much. I don't want
to sit out there in the rain, but I love
to be outside when we get to this season of
the year. So many good things to be doing, like
getting planting done. You know, when you're doing planting, where
do you start? What's first quick quiz for Gardenline listeners.
Brown stuff, The soil, always the soil. The soil is

(01:16:40):
a foundation. The soil is where you start, just like
building a house. You don't put two by fours in
the dirt. You create a foundation and put the two
by fours on that to build a house. Same thing
with plants. If you create a beautiful soil, you're going
to have success. And the folks at Nature's Way Resources,
you know John Ferguson, the late John Ferguson, who recently

(01:17:01):
huge loss for the whole industry really, but certainly for family,
for friends, for the folks there at Nature's Way Resources,
he spent a lifetime creating beautiful soil blends for everything.

Speaker 14 (01:17:14):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:17:14):
Do you need a do you want to grow blueberries
or other acid loving plants, He's got a mix for that.
Do you have a rose or other blooming kinds of
shrubs and things, They've got a rose soil just that.
In fact, it was created there at Nature's Way Resources.
Landscaping mixes, garden light mixes, and so on. If you're
looking for mulches, oh my goodness, all kinds of mulch options.

(01:17:37):
If you're looking for leaf mold composts, they have it.
You can get the course type and the fine texture type.
For top dressing. They have fungal based composts. Nature's Way
Resources that is a place to go for quality soil
blends like that. And there's no better way to start
off planting than doing the soil first. Get the brown
stuff done before you do the green stuff. And Nature's

(01:17:59):
Way is where you can do that. Ian Ferguson and
the whole team out there continuing to carry on the
tradition of Nature's Way and that is quality soil blends
for everything you might need or want to plant. Nature's
Way Resources dot Com that's how that's how you can
find out more. I was visiting with Beverly. We're actually

(01:18:25):
chatting text chatting a while back on all the Christmas
trees that they had been bringing in for the season. Oh,
by the way, let me go backwards one second. Nature's
Way Resources is closed this weekend, so for those of
you want to head out there, it is closed this weekend,
but they'll be back open on Monday again. They're regular
eight to five schedule. So anyway, Arbrogate, they have the

(01:18:50):
most gorgeous Christmas trees. I mean they are they're beautiful.
They're they're Fraser Firs. They come from North Carolina, the
Blue Ridge Mountains, and they are so fresh and so gorgeous.
I mean, it's just like it's not hard to find
your perfect tree. They're all perfect trees that they have
in out there. They have other decorations, holiday decorations, you know,

(01:19:12):
for outdoors, for little things. We put in the flower
beds for color and decoration, and whimsay for indoors. The wreaths,
the fabric, the ribbons, the all kinds of beautiful decorations,
and it's all there at Arburgate waiting for you to
show up, and you need to. By the way, it
is always important to write things on your calendar. And

(01:19:35):
the next one you need to write here is on Wednesday,
December third, and again Sunday, December seventh. That's next Sunday.
So this Wednesday and this coming Sunday, not tomorrow, but
next weekend. Santa Claus and Missus Claus. He's bringing the
Missus Whippon. They'll be at Arburgate. Bring your kids, bring
your cameras for sure, even if you want you to

(01:19:57):
have your pets want to take a picture of Santa,
they will accommodate that as well. Out at the arbor gate.
When you're out there, make sure to go home with
your beautiful tree and all kinds of beautiful decorations. Arbrogate's
Place for that place for all kinds of magic. They
are west of tumbul On twenty nine to twenty, west
of two forty nine on Highway or FM twenty nine twenty.

(01:20:20):
And when you get out there, leave room in the
car because there is going to be a lot of
cool stuff. Plants, flowers, herbs, vegetables, you name it. They're
waiting for you out there at Arborgate. You're listening to
garden Line. Our phone number here is seven one three
two one two five eight seven four seven one three
two one two fifty eight seventy four. Give me a call.

(01:20:42):
We'll talk about the things that are of interest to you.
In the meantime, I'm going to continue on my discussion
of plants for decorating indoors for the holidays. We've gone
through point set as in Christmas cactus bulbs for forcing
like amarillis and paper white. We talked about a cycling
and for example, there's another plant. It's not really you

(01:21:03):
don't think of it as a Christmas plant, but it
is theorium. And theorium they had the big flat red
spots on top of you. It's not a flower. It's
like it looks like a big red leaf sitting up
on top. It's got a little white almost pipe cleaner
kind of things sticking out does he may know what
a pipe cleaner is anymore. Anyway, it's about the size

(01:21:24):
of a pencil, a little white sticking out out there. Beautiful.
But the deep, deep, gorgeous, bright red color is what
is so stunning about in theorium. So you can use
them anytime you want. They are beautiful plants, but for
holiday decorating or for holiday gift giving and stuff people
that visit, and theorium would be a nice one. It's

(01:21:45):
a very tough plant and it puts up with It
doesn't need full sun or anything like that. It's not
that difficult to a plant to grow in general. So
Ethereum would be another one that I would add to
the list. Let's take a trip through some foliage types
of plants. Now. The first is junipers and arbor vities.

(01:22:06):
Those are two different things, two different genera of plants,
but juniper and arbor vity both have the same look
and they typically are trimmed to a little bit of
a conical, you know, Christmas tree shape for the holiday season.
You can buy little bitty ones, you know, about eight
ten inches tall. You can buy them even larger than that.

(01:22:28):
If you're going to put one in the yard, you
can buy a small one and bring it in and
decorate it as if it were a little miniature Christmas
tree inside and then take it outside and plant it.
But that those plants are really pretty. You can hang
ornaments in them. You can put those little lights, you know,
little wire lights that have the lights are a little
tiny glowing bulbs that are like manufactured into the wire.

(01:22:52):
I don't know if you know what I'm talking about,
but typically the wires will be golden or something like that,
and you just sort of wrap them around Ellie and
text my golden Retrievers. Don't know this, but they are
going to be sporting lights in those wires on Christmas
this year. We're going They come with a Typically they
come with a little plastic box that is the switch

(01:23:14):
to turn them on and off. You put a couple
of batteries in it, attach those to the dog collar.
You get the idea. Anyway, those are good for decorating
those junipers and those arborvieties during the holiday season. So
you can put that anywhere you want, you don't have
a plug nearby, I just plug them in. But those
are good plants. And again those are plants that can
be put outside. Now for that plant, you definitely want

(01:23:35):
to keep them moist, don't let them dry out. But
you also need to get them outside as much as
you can, because they don't. If you leave them inside
for a month, they are going to have all this
spindly little growth trying to find light coming out, and
they don't look good and it's a stress to the plant.
So give them as much light as you can when
you can. Don't have to go out every single day,

(01:23:56):
but give them as much light as you can to
help keep them looking good, especially if you're wanting to
keep them and plan them out in the landscape. Later.
Let's take a little break. We'll be back. Got open lines,
so if you'd like to get easy access, now's the time.
Seven one three two one two five eight seven four.

Speaker 2 (01:24:14):
That's all right, guard.

Speaker 3 (01:24:18):
Guy.

Speaker 5 (01:24:19):
You know, thanksgivings behind listening Christmas music Christmas earlier, uh
Vernon called Vernon. I don't know if you're still out
there listening or not, but I had sort of dismissed
that fern as being a macho fern, and as I
look closer at it and kind of zoom in on
the leaves, uh, it is a macho fern that I

(01:24:43):
don't There are a number of ferns that are in
the same genus. Boston firm and this macho fern is
are two examples, but there are many types in this genus,
and that's Nephrolepsis for those of you who want to
nerd out on the botanical name now for alepsis. But
macho ferns, just think of think of a Boston fern

(01:25:07):
on steroids. Macho ferns. I've seen them. In fact, I
took a picture in a greenhouse one time with one
hanging above me. I stretched my arms out straight to
both sides and from fingertip to fingertip barely spanned as
wide as this fern. I mean, these things can get
five or six feet wide. They are tropical though they
can't take fross. It'll kill them back, so you need

(01:25:29):
to protect them. But boy, they are gorgeous, gorgeous ferns,
and a lot of people use them in the landscape.
I've seen them used in many areas in the landscape.
Native of the southeast some parts of the southeastern US
you can find this fern, but it's it's a gorgeous ferns,
one of the boldest, biggest, brightest ferns that you're going

(01:25:51):
to have vernon. But anyway, you know that you've had
it for years. But that's I would say that's a
macho I'm about ninety seven percent sure that's a macho
firm that you're looking at. So anyway, I want to
get back to Toja try to hunt that down for you.
If you'd like to give me call, folks, I got
open lines seven one three, two one two five eight

(01:26:11):
seven four, be happy to visit with you with any
questions that you might have. ACE Hardware stores are all
over the Houston area. You can go to ACE Hardwaretexas
dot com, Ace Hardware Texas dot com and find the
ACE Hardware store near youw and there. Like I said,
they're all over the place. When you go to an
ACE Hardware store, you're going to see something that you

(01:26:34):
I don't know. You probably have not seen the modern
Ace hardware stores if you haven't been to one in
a let's say the last ten to fifteen years or so.
Ace Hardware I grew up with ACE Hardware's all around.
This is an amazing store that they If you are

(01:26:55):
looking for Christmas gifts and there is any level of
do it your for ACE Hardware is the place battery
operated equipment, all kinds of quality stuff like that. And
the brands, I mean, we're depending on the Ace Hardware store.
They're independently owned, so they can carry a lot of
different brands, but you're always probably going to find the DeVault.

(01:27:16):
You're going to find brands like stell Steel for example,
the Old Milwaukee. Oh Milwaukee, Oh my god, woo, there's
a slip. I just took myself back to college for
a moment. Not Old Milwaukee, just Milwaukee. You've got those there.

(01:27:38):
And then if you are looking for Christmas gifts for indoors, beautiful,
beautiful things, you know, each one being independently owned, they
have sections that are just stocked with really really cool stuff.
Now you know, when you go to ACE Hardware, you
need to sign up for their ACE Rewards program for
ACE Rewards members, elusive deals right now, some of them

(01:28:02):
are having like a ten dollar a skift card. When
you buy a fifty dollars ACE skift card, that is
a nice return on investment. If you're looking for landscape lighting,
they have it for a landscape meaning Christmas lighting outdoors.
If you're looking for tree lighting another indoor lighting, they've
got you covered. You always kneed batteries when you give

(01:28:23):
a gift, They've got you covered. I tell you you're
not gonna find a better gift than a really high
quality barbecue pit, and ACE carries those. Depending on the store. Again,
you've got brands like Big Green Egg, like Trager, like Rectech,
like Weber, the outdoor pizza ovens, and number of brands
of those. ACE Hardware is just a cool place. I'm

(01:28:46):
telling you you need to go. Please go check them
out before you do your holiday shopping. They've got you covered.
ACE Hardware Texas dot com is where you find my
ACE Hardware stores here in the greater Houston area, my
listening area, which goes all the way to Orange, Texas,
and all the way down to Port Rockport and Port
Aransas and then up north as well. Lots of ACE

(01:29:10):
Hardware stores at ACE Hardware Texas dot com. So let
me give you a few examples. How about All Stars
ACE at Magnolia, how about Crosby ACE on FM twenty
one hundred. How about you Valdy Ace on you Eldi
Road on the east side of Houston. Let's go southeast.
How about Chalmers Ace on Broadway in Galveston or Patco
Ace on West Willis and Alvin. Let's go southwest. How

(01:29:33):
about Bay City ACE on Seventh Street or Wharton Feed
and Ace North Richmond Road on the west side of Houston.
We got single ranch out in south South Mason and
Katie Langham Creek ACE Hardware on five twenty nine, just
right behind Copperfield there, and I'm just naming a few.
There's a lot lot more at ACE Hardware Texas dot Com.

(01:29:55):
We're gonna go to the phones now and talk to
Jeff in North Houston. Hey, Jeff, welcome the garden line.
Good morning.

Speaker 9 (01:30:03):
I have an area that's fifteen by fifteen feet that
was infested with white grubworms killed all the grass.

Speaker 5 (01:30:16):
So I raked up all the.

Speaker 9 (01:30:17):
Grass, dug down with the shovel and saw grubs. So
I got a grub killer I think bug be gone,
and I spread it around and let us sit there
for that's been there for about a week now. I
don't want to put Saint Augustine in again. I want

(01:30:39):
a winter grass seed that you might recommend to spread around.

Speaker 5 (01:30:46):
Okay, that's what I want, and just let what you
might recommend. Yeah, Jeff, if you do the winter grass,
you know when it gets hot again, that's gonna be gone.
So you're gonna have to read Your lawn is going
to need to be based on a warm season grass
or you are you wanting to do that? Are you
hoping for a grass that you can't winter and it

(01:31:07):
lives all year?

Speaker 9 (01:31:09):
Well, a one time like you said, would probably be better.

Speaker 5 (01:31:13):
But I don't know.

Speaker 9 (01:31:14):
Which specific type of grass seed to get and where
to get it at.

Speaker 5 (01:31:22):
Okay, well, Southwest Fertilizer carries a lot of different kinds
of seeds and stuff. That would be one place. Now
that's a distance from you there down in southwest Houston.
You might ask around at some of the feed stores
you've got out there. I don't know exactly where you are,
but I know up in Tomball D and D Feed

(01:31:43):
just west of Tomball, and we have gosh, I'm trying
to think there's plans for all seasons. Had a rye grass,
but I don't know if that's sweet. Well that I
don't know if that would be good or no, that'd
be fine. Rye grass should be fine. There's an annual

(01:32:03):
and a perennial rye. Generally I would say plant a
mix because each has its pro or con between the
two types of rye. But if you put it in,
go ahead and put it in. It's just at next
spring when it warms up sometime probably in April, you're
gonna want to go ahead and pull scratch that out
and mow it off and then resawd that area with

(01:32:26):
grass with warm seas and grass so you can go
through here after hear that would be my suggestion.

Speaker 9 (01:32:33):
Thank you very much, have a good weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:32:35):
Yeah, you've got to talk to them at plants for
all seasons. I'll tell you the rate to put out
for the type of grass seed that they have too.
All right, thanks a lot. There you go. All right,
cool season, if you've got bare areas, you can you
can seed over those. Just remember that in the spring
you're gonna have to get you want to mow that

(01:32:56):
down so your grass can come through, or if it's
a bare area, so that you can put the new
sod in, because we are a warm seasoned grass. Part
of the country. We can oversee and do some things
to cover the dirt, to keep the weed seeds from
coming in and things like that. But that's a temporary hold,
waiting on your warm season turf to come in and
do that thing. Warren Southern Gardens one of my favorite

(01:33:21):
garden center effects a couple of them out there in Kingwood.
There's warm Southern Gardens and there's Kingwood Garden Center. Both
of them just outstanding places. Warren's Southern Garden is on
North Park Drive, Kingwood Garden Centers on Stone Hollow, and
the trees are beautiful, gorgeous trees that they've got. Going
out there. You got to go see their holiday cactus stunning.

(01:33:45):
I mean, they have so many colors white. You know,
standard you think of a Christmas cactus, holiday cactus is
being kind of a reddish maybe reddish orange color mostly red. Well,
they've got pink, they've got a reddish orange, they've got white,
they have a kind of a coral yellow color that
is really rare and unusual, just gorgeous. But you got

(01:34:08):
to go out there and check them out. They're beautiful.
Kingwood Garden Center, same kind of thing. Kingwood Garden Center
on Stone Hollow Drive. Now, just so you know, next weekend,
not this weekend, next weekend Friday through Sunday, that both
of those stores are going to be closed up for
their inventory. They do this every year. They have to
have a time to kind of regroup, figure out what

(01:34:30):
they got, get everything ready to open up. They'll reopen
up again on December eighth, nine am, refreshed and ready
to go for you to grow something beautiful. So you
can shop between now and Friday. They're gonna be open.
It's closed for next weekend, but get out there get
your Christmas trees. They are absolutely beautiful and you're gonna
find good service. You're gonna find good selection. Everything you

(01:34:51):
need for cool season color as well. There you go,
simple as that. Micro Life fertilizers. What do iavorite fertilizer
products that I've used over the years is Microlife, and
I should say are Microlife because there's so many great
microlife fertilizers. You can use liquids, you can use solids.

(01:35:12):
Right now, I'm doing a lot of indoor gardening with
my growing plants indoors and my house plants and my
seeds starting and stuff. Microlife's orange bottle Biomatrix. I love it.
It's got a good nitrogen boost, gets good growth, works
really really well outdoors. The Microlife Ocean Harvest Blue label

(01:35:33):
or the Biomatrix. Either one would be good. You can
fold your with them, you can drench the roots with them.
The main thing is just get you some good microlife
products that are based on enhancing the microbial qualities of
the soil the populations. That makes plants happy, which makes
you happy. Let's take a little break and we will
be right back with Hank from West U. Yeah, we're bad,

(01:35:59):
We're bad. Welcome back to the guarden line. Good heavy
with us. Let's see here. Let's head out to West
you now and talk to Hank this morning. Hey, Hank,
welcome to garden Line. Hello, Hello, we got Hank there.
Well you know what can you hear? Let's try that? Yeah?

(01:36:21):
I can hear you? Do you hear me?

Speaker 8 (01:36:23):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:36:24):
Get it.

Speaker 17 (01:36:25):
Hey, I've got questions on two different things for you.
One is on I'm considering planting Italian cypress a couple
of Italian cypress trees in a fairly large concrete pot
in the front yard which faces north and gets a
strong north wind. So I want to see if they
will freeze or not. And then the second question has

(01:36:46):
to do with boxwoods regarding the Italian cypresses.

Speaker 5 (01:36:53):
Go ahead, no, no, go ahead, ask ask your question
regarding the ion cypresses.

Speaker 17 (01:37:02):
You think it's a good idea to put it to
try to plant one in a large, medium sized concrete
I'll probably have to move it at some point in time,
but is it possible?

Speaker 5 (01:37:14):
Yeah, Well, I have a couple of concerns there. Number one,
any plant that wants to get bigger in a pot
is going to hit a point where it's barely got
enough root system to support the top. And then if
you go and forget the water a little bit and
it gets into too much of a drought, you're going
to have some burn, die back and whatnot. So that's

(01:37:34):
one concern. The other one is those things are very
just about the vertical type, right that goes straight up
like a column.

Speaker 18 (01:37:43):
Yes, yep.

Speaker 5 (01:37:46):
The wind trying to keep them from blowing over is
a challenge too, if it's in an area where wind
can come through there and do that. But the actually
I said two concerns. My third concern on Cyprus, a
lot of a lot of the cypress types. We have
leaf diseases, foliage diseases, and bagworms that can get on them,

(01:38:08):
but mainly in our wet climate, when we get a
lot of rainfall and you get some fungal problems in there,
it causes little brown patches in them that don't regreen.
They have to close them from the sides, which is
very slow on an Italian cypress. So you know, if
you could keep it kind of small in the pot,

(01:38:28):
that would be fine. But if it's gonna because you
can always replace it if you need to. But they
do have their issues, the bagworms, the spider mites, and
the foliage diseases. Sometimes you get away with that good
for a very long time.

Speaker 8 (01:38:48):
Are the insect problems.

Speaker 14 (01:38:51):
Worse when they're on the ground.

Speaker 17 (01:38:54):
Would the insect problems see less and they're sense they're
in a potting up off the ground.

Speaker 5 (01:38:59):
No, they they're about the same, and it's mainly spider
mites and bagworms. Bagworms create those little they look like
a little hanging ornaments that are shaped like a bullet
hanging down from the from the branches, and there's a
worm inside chewing off all the green needles. Any of
that type of plant I hank the junipers, the cypresses,

(01:39:20):
the arborvieties, they they don't regrow unless there's living needles
to send out buds from. So when you cut back
in let's say you pruned back in it and you
had a little gap in there. Now, most plants, when
you cut the branch off, they just re sprout and
come right back out like our hedges do. Italian cypress specifically,

(01:39:42):
all these I'm talking about can't do that. And so
anything that kills them, whether it's spider mites, bagworms, pruning, whatever,
you got a hold in the plant then and that's
not very attractive.

Speaker 9 (01:39:56):
Okay, Yeah, I'm good.

Speaker 3 (01:39:58):
I think I'll find find another option other than.

Speaker 17 (01:40:02):
The Cyprus take for that.

Speaker 19 (01:40:03):
And then the other question was just kind of a
general general question. I don't have a photo to show you,
but it's I see it all over Houston on people's
box woods. They start getting it, starts turning brown like
one one stem at a time, and then it seems
to spread. And I'm sure everybody you.

Speaker 17 (01:40:26):
Know, there's probably a bunch of different types of problems,
but everybody's got this particular problem.

Speaker 18 (01:40:30):
I'm sure a lot of people do.

Speaker 5 (01:40:32):
How do we put more and more more and more. Typically,
what we're seeing around there is something called boxwood blight.
It's a fungal disease and there's no curing out and
so you just kind of you just have to deal
with it. You print it out and it looks bad
and it's just it continues to happen. That's a fungal disease.
Boxwoods can also have issues with root not nematodes, but

(01:40:57):
that typically doesn't cause you know, perfectly green with this
brown section in the middle, that's more blight symptom than
nematode symptom. So I think that's probably what you're dealing
with in there, and we haven't had any the types
of weather that that would have caused it to be
a stem splits or anything like that.

Speaker 17 (01:41:18):
Is that something that's gotten worse in Houston because over
the last twenty years, I don't remember seeing or having
this problem on boxwoods, and now.

Speaker 5 (01:41:26):
Actually yeah it was it was originally We saw it
more in other places, but it's here and we have
issues with it, and they're trying to breed boxwoods to
be resistant to it, and so people can continue to
use them without that concern and your drive around town
and see box woods that are just fine. They don't
have it. You know, it's it's kind of random in

(01:41:48):
terms of when it's going to hit and wear. But yeah,
that's it. You got it.

Speaker 8 (01:41:53):
Well, all right, appreciate the information skid.

Speaker 5 (01:41:59):
All right, thanks, good luck getting those shrubs all figured out.
You're out there and west U. You know you got
some good garden centers. I would talk to the folks
up at beginnons because you're going to have access to
some native plants that can fill in where some of
these persnickety plants are just not cooperating because of these issues.

Speaker 13 (01:42:22):
All right, Yeah, I'll give them, I'll give them a shell.

Speaker 5 (01:42:25):
Thanks, all right, thanks. I appreciate that Leake City feed
down in Lake City, Texas, of course. In fact, specifically,
if you are go south of Highway ninety six on
Highway three, it's just a little bit south, just a
few blocks south of ninety six, and if you're heading south,
it'll be on the left hand side that's the east

(01:42:46):
side of Highway Highway three. Anyway, it's the old time
feed store. It's what you would expect from a feed store.
But when it comes to plants, they have an unbelievably
good selection. For example, airloom soils. You're going to find
a number of different quality airloom soils products there. At
League City Feed. You have several options. Nelson plant food, microlife, azamite, nitroposs.

(01:43:12):
They carry all of that. Anything to deal with fungus, insect,
spider mites, diseases, all of those kinds of things. They've
got it. Just go into League City Feed, talk to
one of the Thunderbirds. You know, Wes and Madison still
run the place. This is the third generation now Thunderberg's
running League City Feed. They're open Monday through Saturday nine

(01:43:34):
to six, closed on Sunday two eight one three three
two sixteen twelve two eight one three three two one
six one two. Let's take a break and we'll be
right back. All right, we're back, cloaks. Welcome back to
the garden line. Good heavy with us. Listen to Buchanans
Native Plants. Buchanan's Native Plants in the Heights. They're on

(01:43:58):
Eleventh Street. See the Christmas trees they have in they
heard gorgeous and by the way, I don't know many
of you know this, but they deliver. They will deliver
the trees if you need a tree delivered to you,
talk to them. They will bring it to your house
for you. That's kind of cool. Now when you're there,
you're gonna find all the other things you can't live
without for the holidays, like gorgeous point Setus, beautiful, beautiful

(01:44:22):
point Settus. I was talking about different kinds of holiday
plants before, and they've got that. One on one I'm
gonna talk about in a minute is Norfolk Colin Pine.
That is a beautiful plant. And they've got a nice
selection in the gift shop. Unbelievable beautiful ornaments, all kinds
of gifts for whoever's on your list. They've got it. Now.
One thing you need to know, important to know, the

(01:44:45):
holiday open house is coming up. Holiday open House is
next Saturday, December sixth, from ten am to three pm.
That's five hours of live music, kids, crafts, Sanna, drinks
and are Ab Buchanons next Saturday, December sixth, ten am
to three pm. Free. You can't beat that. And while

(01:45:09):
you're there, leave room in the car because you're going
to find a lot of things from Christmas trees. Do
you name it that you're going to order to bring
home with you. Because that is a fun place to shop.
Let's go out to friends would and talk to Jake. Hey, Jake,
welcome to garden Line. Thanks Skip.

Speaker 12 (01:45:26):
Hey.

Speaker 15 (01:45:26):
A question for you.

Speaker 20 (01:45:27):
A couple of months ago, we had installed a whole
house water filtration system. Rain Soft was the brand. It's
charcoal and salts. How is that going to affect my
irrigation for my lawn and also my garden because I
can't put it into which I do.

Speaker 5 (01:45:47):
Yeah. Yeah, they're putting sodium in the soil to soften
the water. I'm sodium in the water to soften the water. Correct.
Not good for the plants, you know, if you use
it a little bit here and there, it's not the
end of the world. But ongoing irrigating with it is
not a good thing. Plus, it's going through the system

(01:46:10):
and so that costs money, and so it becomes even
more expensive watering water when you're having to treat it
and then re stock up on your assault and the
machine and all that kind of stuff. So I would
use it as an emergency, but be careful.

Speaker 20 (01:46:27):
Okay, very well, thank you sir.

Speaker 3 (01:46:30):
I have a wonderful day.

Speaker 5 (01:46:33):
Good thanks for calling. Appreciate that you have a great rest.
Of your holiday season. Appreciate that very much. All right, Well,
let's see here, we've got a little bit of time.
Got a couple of calls coming in. I'm gona give
them a second here, just to ring in. We were
talking about plants for the holidays, and I just mentioned
juniper and arbraviety. Another foliage plant is Norfolk Island pine. Now,

(01:46:57):
I had no idea how tough Norfolk Island pines were.
We've had one for gosh, probably five years, I think.
And listen, don't tell anybody, it's just shoar me. Listen
right now. Anyway, don't tell anybaby. But I'm not kind
to plants. I forget about them, forget to water them.

(01:47:18):
I put this thing out back underneath the shade cover
area that we have. Actually it's a lightice shade overhead,
and I just take it back in the corner there,
and I keep forgetting to water it, you know. I mean,
it'll go days and days in the heat of summer.
It's not getting direct sun, but it, you know, And
then I remember to water it, and the thing just
keeps surviving in that protected spot. It's so big now

(01:47:41):
that we have to put it out during the year
and then we bring it in for the holidays where
it gets lights strung on it and little miniature ornaments
hung from it and everything else. It's a beautiful, beautiful,
wonderful plant.

Speaker 7 (01:47:53):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:47:53):
They grow outside. I mean you can see them done
in galluston. Occasionally we'll get the freeze through here where
it'll it'll hit them back pretty hard hard. But uh,
Norfolk Island pine is a wonderful little house plant. Each year.
You can bring it in decorated or if it's grun
in the house. They just need good light, bright light,
not direct sun. They can take direct sun, but if
you don't have to water so much, just a good

(01:48:14):
bright light and they'll be just fine. That is another
excellent plant for holiday decoration. Let's go out now to
Montgomery and we're going to visit with Marie. Hi, Marie,
welcome to garden Line.

Speaker 18 (01:48:29):
Thank you, good morning. Let's get I have a couple
of questions. Is it too late to plant the a
Cuba Japanica gold dust or the powder pup which you
say Calendria small shrub or a coral honeysuckle vine.

Speaker 2 (01:48:46):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (01:48:46):
No, Coral honeysuckle is a native plant that one that
one will do. It'll do just fine in our weather.
The did you say Japanese? A Cuba? Was the other one?
Another one?

Speaker 18 (01:49:00):
Yes, I think it is Japanese, the Yakuba Japanic gold dust.

Speaker 5 (01:49:08):
Yes, that's another one that's pretty hardy. Yeah, it's pretty
hardy here. I'm not saying you couldn't get some freeze
damage on it at all, but it's fairly hardy. People
usually plant it like up a close to the house,
kind of almost like a little shrub in a shady area,
so that in that area even it's even a little

(01:49:31):
bit more protected.

Speaker 18 (01:49:34):
Okay, And what about a powder puff. It's a Calumbdria.

Speaker 5 (01:49:39):
Mm hm. Kelly undra is a very beautiful little plant.
It does well. It's listed as nine B uh in
its hardiness, which would be about this area, meaning some
years you could get some damage in some years not
on it, but uh, it's that's the that's the hardiness

(01:49:59):
zone that they put it in. It is a nine B.

Speaker 18 (01:50:05):
If I planted them, now maults them, Well, maybe I
need to cover them through a cover if there's going
to be a hard breeze, could.

Speaker 3 (01:50:15):
They possibly survival?

Speaker 18 (01:50:17):
Am I better off waiting until next like summer?

Speaker 5 (01:50:21):
Well, don't wait till summer. Just wait until the end
of winter early spring, and you can put them in
there or anytime in the spring. They you want them
to establish before they have great demands on them, so that's.

Speaker 18 (01:50:32):
Something to keep going, right, Yeah, but you can do
available in the spring.

Speaker 8 (01:50:39):
It was like way late in that early summer.

Speaker 5 (01:50:42):
So that's got you, got you okay. So so the
conservative thing would be to wait to plant, but I
don't think that's necessary. Plus, you got to take care
of the darn thing all winter, you know, and it's
in a container, so you got to water a little
more often to keep it happy. But that's that's an option.
If you put them out there, just be ready to

(01:51:03):
throw a cover over them when we're gonna get below
thirty two, and just to be extra careful with them,
and they should be just fine. Remember that even the
winter time, you're going to keep the soul moist but
not not soggy wet. They need good drainage for doing
your best. All right, sir, you bet thanks for the call.

(01:51:23):
I appreciate that you bet well. We are gonna put
this one in the books. Take a little break here
each you're gonna grab some coffee, I guess in barbecue
going outside. I started it this morning at four am.
I know we got a bunch of people coming and
eat today, so I got to go back out there
and check that stuff and make sure that it's doing good.

(01:51:44):
I wish I could let the scent of the smoke
go through your radio so you could smell so good.
It's brisket, by the way, and there's more on the way.
Why am I talking about what I'm cooking. Thanks for
listening to Guardline. I'm back. Don't go away. We'll be
right back. Oh, Lisa and c Brook your first stuff

(01:52:05):
when we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:52:07):
Welcome to Katie r. H. Garden Line with Skip Ricord Show.

Speaker 2 (01:52:11):
Yes man, crazy gas can trim. You just watch him
as we go. Gas many superb brasy, great.

Speaker 4 (01:52:30):
Gasbag, not a sorry glassy.

Speaker 2 (01:52:38):
Gas, Salmon gas.

Speaker 5 (01:52:50):
All right, let's do this. We got some plant talking
to do, and we've got some collars online in Chenna
Forest Garden Center down in the Richmond Rosenberg area, just
south it's actually south of fifty nine or I sixty nine,

(01:53:10):
which we now call it. It's a wonderful garden center.
To go visit it. There's a reason there's Enchanted in
the name. It's it's just fun. You drive up and
it just you just look like, Oh, if you're a
plant person, you're gonna go, oh my gosh, I got
to get in there and see all this stuff. They
got a good selection of Christmas trees, of course right now,
beautiful quality trees. They've got wreaths, they've got one of

(01:53:32):
the most broad selections of point set of colors and
types that you're gonna find just really really looks nice. Now,
I want to remind that Santa's gonna be an Enchanted
forest on today and tomorrow, So that is today and
tomorrow Saturday, November twenty ninth, that would be today and tomorrow.

(01:53:53):
They're gonna do a toy drive, so you we're gonna
bring a toy in for local kiddos. You can do that.
There's gonna be the face painting for the kids and
crafts for the kids, holiday cookie cookies from a group
called or a company called Flowerful. It's really cool mom
and pop shop. And they'll also be doing a succulent

(01:54:15):
make and take that starts at ten am. Now that
one you're gonna have to call and I would recommend
you give them a call make sure that you can
still get in for that one. We're up on the
on the spot here. So the number is two eight
one nine three seven ninety four forty nine. Two eight
one nine three seven ninety four forty nine. What's gonna

(01:54:37):
happen is you're gonna basically go They'll have, of course,
some succulents to work with, and you'll create a beautiful
succulent arrangement that you've put together. And again it's it's
thirty bucks to do that iman they'll be teaching it
starting at ten am today. But you need room in
your car because you need to go home with a

(01:54:58):
Christmas tree. You need to go home with some of
the beautiful decorations that they have for that. And you
also while you're there, why not pick up some cool
season color. They've got it. Why not pick up some
vegetables and herbs. They are stocked up and ready to
go with those. But go out there and have some
fun today at Enchanted Forest Richmond and jenne Forest and Richmond.

(01:55:20):
Here's the website Enchented Forest, Richmond, TX dot com in Chenniforest, Richmond,
t X dot com. We're going to go now out
to Seabrook and talk to Lisa. Hello, Lisa, Welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 12 (01:55:35):
Good, good morning.

Speaker 21 (01:55:37):
I have two large bits with white pinches and white
angelon air, and so they're looking okay. But I'm wondering
for the if it gets colder, can I plant anything
in the middle of them, maybe like snap dragons or
lissam or something, some type of flour they would take
the cold better. And then do I have to do
I turn them down because I've never left them over

(01:55:59):
the winter.

Speaker 5 (01:56:01):
Well, I won't say you couldn't overwinner them with a
protected spot and stuff, but basically, very seldom do I
hear about people pulling pentas or angelonia through the winter.
I would go in with some One of my favorite
plants for cool season that's got hardiness and it's just
a bright, nice color is the Dianthus dianthus. There are

(01:56:25):
some types that are short mounded, little bedding plants, you know,
like most of the little bedding plants are. And then
there's some types that come up gosh, almost knee high
that have beautiful blooms on top, so you could put
those as a backdrop. You could fill in with some
dusty miller, which is a silvery foliage plant that's kind
of in between, and then you could put a complimentary

(01:56:47):
color in front too. You mentioned snap dragons. Those are
a taller option. Of course, they come in different sizes,
but basically they're taller. A lissum is a beautiful white
flowering mounting plant that does pretty well and cold if
we just don't have a just a horrible cold. But
where you're located out there, you're kind of protected. So

(01:57:08):
I think you can get by with a lot of
these cool seasoned color plants.

Speaker 21 (01:57:13):
But depends. Have ever come back, That's what I've never
had them to come back on me.

Speaker 5 (01:57:18):
No, No, I have heard of them coming back. Yeah,
I've heard of them in a protected spot coming back,
very protected from the cold. But they're not they're not
a freeze hardy. Typically a freeze hardy plant. Okay, thank you,
all right, thank you very much for the call. Appreciate that. Lisa.

(01:57:40):
You take care. Let's see here, somebody left the gate open.
Here comes up phone calls. We're going to go to
Fullshore now and talk to John. Hey, John, welcome to
garden Line.

Speaker 8 (01:57:51):
Good morning. Got a question about soul temperatures out a
bunch of tulips bobs, and they said, put them in
the frigerator for about a month to a month and
a half. And when you're sol temperatures you read sixty degrades,

(01:58:12):
you can plan when would that don't.

Speaker 5 (01:58:18):
Don't don't worry about the soil temperature at all on this.
Put them in the refrigerator, make sure and the put
them in the crisper down there. But make sure there's
no apples down in there that actually will mess them up, uh,
the ethylene from the apples, so they get their own crisper.
I mean you can put lettuce or something in there,
but yeah, but don't don't put any And then I

(01:58:39):
would say, John, Uh, let's see you're located in full
Sure you could you could ride after Christmas, you could
put some in the ground, and you could wait about
two weeks, maybe get into the first second week of
January or something, and put some more in the ground
at that time, uh, and let them come on up.
But uh that they're going to be pretty fast in

(01:59:00):
their bloom periods, so by staggering some you extend your
bloom a little bit. Or you can just do them
all at once, if that's what you prefer.

Speaker 8 (01:59:09):
Okay, great, thank you for your here.

Speaker 5 (01:59:13):
That's you bet hey, John. That is one of the
there are certain kinds of horticultural activities that we do
to get us out of the house when family stays
too long. And so if you're needing to get out
of the house, it's a good time to plant tulips.
That's one thing you can always guarantee on during the holiday.
Thanks John, I appreciate bye bye. All right, there you

(01:59:39):
go for sure, Hey, D and D Feed and Tom Ball. Oh,
it's a great feedstore. I love going there. I uh,
it just always number one. They treat you right there.
They've got everything you need there. You know, you go
to D and D and let's say you believe my
mantra about brown stuff before green stuff. Fix the soil.

(02:00:00):
Fix the soil first, Well, do you need airloom soils?
They have a number of different airloom soils by the bag.
There you go. Do you want to fertilize, you want
to get those nutrients up in the soil, Medina products,
Nelson products, microlife products, nitrophossproduce. They're all there at D
and D Feed. They're three miles west of Highway two
forty nine three miles west of Highway two forty nine

(02:00:23):
on twenty nine to twenty outside of Tomball. Here's the
number two eight one three five one seventy one forty four.
Two eight one three five one seventy one forty four.
While you're in there, tell them you heard about this
freeze miser on Garden Line and you they say, well,
I told you they have it, and they do if

(02:00:43):
they haven't sold out. If you wait until the day
before freeze are going to be sold out. I can
tell you that. But go ahead and get in and
get it. You're gonna need them now. And it works
really well. You put them on a fossil you turn
on the water, Uh, nothing comes out, and when it
gets cold is sours dripping, just like faucets are supposed
to when it's too cold, and then when it gets
warm up a little bit, it stops stripping. I mean,

(02:01:04):
how foolproof can that be? D and de Feed's got them.
Go in there and ask for them. That's what you
need to know. Let's go down to Dickinson now and
we are going to visit with Linda this morning. Hey, Linda,
welcome to Garden Line.

Speaker 15 (02:01:20):
Thank you. I'm having some problems with my azilias. At
first the leaves were curling like a leaf mine or
something was in it. And now I notice that I
have brown, brown and yellow spots and black spots, and
it's spreading from the one that started it down the
grow of my aziliens.

Speaker 5 (02:01:40):
Sounds to me like you may have a root rot
going on in the soil. Soggy conditions can promote it,
but you don't have to have soggy to have a
root right something's wrong down in the in the roots.
In my opinion, if you wanted to take a picture
of the symptoms you're seeing on the leaf yeves and

(02:02:00):
send it to me, I'd be happy to take a look.
Maybe I'll see something that my mind's eyes not picturing
right now. But that basically is my assessment with the
information that I have right now.

Speaker 15 (02:02:16):
And is there any cure for that or does it
just kill the plant?

Speaker 9 (02:02:21):
It?

Speaker 5 (02:02:21):
Well, if you catch it early, there are some drenches
that you can find and put out. You're not super
close to Southwest Fertilizer, but over on bis Nutt and
Runwick Bob that Southwest probably has something called ban rot.
I would call him before I go over there, though,
make sure he's got it on hand. But ben rot

(02:02:41):
is it mix you mix it up, and it controls
a couple of different common root rotting fungi that can
attack azelias and other shrubs like that. And it's drenched
over the soil. But if you wait until too much
root damages occur, ban rot doesn't make a dead root
come alive. It just stops the progression of the disease.
So if you're gonna do that, I would do it

(02:03:03):
sooner rather than later. But if you'd like to go
ahead and take a picture, you can. We can talk
later today or you can call me in the morning
if you'll do that. But let me look at let
me look at the let me see all the shrub
from a distance kind of here's what the shrub looks like,
and then up close some of these leaf symptoms that
you're seeing, and we'll make an assessment that way, if
you like.

Speaker 15 (02:03:23):
Okay, okay, I'll do that now, thank you.

Speaker 5 (02:03:27):
All right, I'm gonna put you on I'm gonna put
you on hold, and if you need an email, my
producer will pick it up and give you an email
to send me those photos. All right, thanks, appreciate that.
Oh I've kind of gone past here on a break,
But let's go ahead and take a quick break about
some caller. Tell me who that is saying there? You go,

(02:03:49):
all right, We'll let it be a mystery until someone
tells us. And welcome back guard Line. Here's a phone
number you'd like to ask a question seven one three
two one two five eight seven four. If you have
a photo to send, that is the number for that
seven one three two one two five eight seven four.

(02:04:10):
My producer Nicholas will give you the email address to
send the photo too, and then we can talk about it.
For those of you kind of new to the Garden Line,
you can send me photos. I will help diagnose or
identify or whatever the photo needs. Uh and uh, but
we do ask that you follow up with a phone call.
And here's the deal, because if you uh, just email,

(02:04:32):
I can't type out the answers and stuff at time
just does not allow it with my other horticultural endeavors.
Uh and so I just asked that you followed up
with the phone call Guardlin. It's easy to do. We
get you through and help you find an answer to
that question. It's like a diagnostic service, an e diagnostic ooh,
got come up with a better name for that. But anyway,

(02:04:53):
that's basically what's happening here. We're giving you a digital diagnosis.
That way been going through different kinds of plants, and
I'm gonna come back to that in just a moment.
I wanted to mention again Ciena Maltch south of Houston
on FM five point one is the place to go
for preparing that soil successfully. You can go by there

(02:05:16):
and pick up bulk soil. You can have them fill
a supersack, which is a cubic yard of soil, set
it in your trailer pick up. I guess I'll pick
up what hold those if you got a good size
pickup and take it with you, take it home and
do what you need to do to get those beds made.
Maybe you're just mixing some composts into soil you already have.
They have all those products there at Cinamltch as well

(02:05:38):
as Moltch too. By the way, they will deliver within
about twenty miles. If you introduce supersacks, you got it.
You have three of them to be worth the delivery.
But for bulk delivery they'll do that as well. Typically,
when I do a soil improvement. A yard is not
near enough to get it done. I'm needing several yards
to get that kind of work done. But Cianamultchi have

(02:05:59):
you covered to do exactly what you want with a
quality product. They do carry vego beds as well, and
if you want to fill them with something like the
Airlom Soils Veggie Nerd mix, they carry that. So it's
just like one stop shop. Go by there, check out
those beds, see what they look like. You like them,
They're beautiful. They've got them planted out front, kind of
as a demo for you, and then get you a

(02:06:21):
good mix and go to town grow what you want
to grow. Hey, that'd be a kind of a fun
Christmas present, wouldn't it. Give somebody a vego bed with
a filling of the veggie nerd mix from Heirloom Soils.
And they're they're at Ciena Malts down southe Houston on
FM five point twenty one, Siena Maltz dot com Ciena

(02:06:44):
Malts dot com. We're going through plants with a season.
I talked about Norfolk Island pine last. How about rosemary?
Now there's one they share that thing to look like
a miniature Christmas tree. It is a tough plant. Rosemary
is one of the toughest plant that you can plant.
The one thing that kills rosemary is soggy, wet conditions.

(02:07:05):
If it's in a container and it's you know, wrapped
in that decorative plastic or foil like they typically come
in in the holiday season, and you fill it with
water and it drowns, it's gonna kill it. If you
put it out in the landscape in a poorly drained spot,
it's going to kill it. But if you give it
decent drainage, it is tough. One year, several years ago,

(02:07:25):
we had one of those droughts of record.

Speaker 7 (02:07:28):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:07:28):
And the master Gardener's up in Dallas County that would
be also Dallas City.

Speaker 2 (02:07:32):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:07:33):
They did. They went through I think it was Dallas County.
They've been more than one county. Anyway, they went through
and they looked at plants in the middle of the drought.
What is surviving this uh, And rosemary is one of
the top plants that they had for drought resilience. It's
a tough plant doesn't mean it goes with that water
like a cactus. It means it's tough and it can survive.

(02:07:54):
So you can take that holiday plant out into your
landscape after the holidays and plant and enjoy it out there.
I have some in a big giant container and it's
just really happy, doing really really good. But it's wonderful.
It smells good. So everybody going by and the holidays
can kind of brush against that plant and enjoy that
fragrance of rosemary. Put some lights on it, put some

(02:08:15):
little decorations or bows or ornaments or whatever you want
on it. Rosemary's good rosemary, like I was saying earlier though,
for arbor, vity and junipers need sunlight. And you leave
that rosemary in your house for several weeks and you're
gonna get these spindly little growths trying to come out
to find light. So the more often you can set
it outside and give it really good light during the

(02:08:36):
holiday season bring it back in, the better off that
plant will be, especially if you want to hold on
to it. Remember don't let it dry out completely, but
don't keep it too wet. Let's go now to sugar
Land and visit sugar Elizabeth. This morning. Hey Elizabeth, welcome mcgarden,
my line.

Speaker 22 (02:08:56):
Thanks, thank you, good morning. We have we have something
maybe similar to the earlier azil you call. Although when
we when I beep down into the soil to sort
of break it up a little bit, maybe I'm adding
something there as a white white down all around my roots?

(02:09:19):
Is that the root rot you were describing?

Speaker 5 (02:09:23):
Okay? Is the white is it? Is it like against
the stem like you like the stem is covered in
white or the root itself is covered in white? Or
is it just white in the soil around the roots.

Speaker 22 (02:09:39):
It's white in the soil around the roots.

Speaker 5 (02:09:43):
Okay, that is probably just decomposing fungi rotting the organic
matter in the soil. I don't, I don't. That does
not fit a description of root rot. Root rots typically
are going to be there to be a brown water
soaked or gray water soaked the way I would describe it.

(02:10:06):
If you've ever seen an old cigarette filter that had
that nicotine tar stain on it, that color. When you
see roots that are water soaked or that are that
kind of gray brown black, that's a root right symptom?

Speaker 8 (02:10:18):
Oh?

Speaker 22 (02:10:19):
Okay, Well, I have the same symptom with some of
my azalias.

Speaker 14 (02:10:23):
We're lose.

Speaker 22 (02:10:24):
They're forty years old, so maybe it's just their expiration date,
but they're dying slowly branched by branch seems like some azaleas.

Speaker 5 (02:10:35):
Okay, yes, well, the first thing I would do is
when a branch is dying, trace it back and just
check the stem of that branch all the way back
to where it attaches. Look for splits the like, parallel
to the direction of the branch, you know, up and
down the branch splits in the bark. That would be

(02:10:56):
a sign. It could be a canker disease. It could
be a coal damage. Actually even can occur al those
or plenty hardy for area. But something like that I
would look for if the branch is dying, and just
for directions sake. Let's say you're looking at a branch
and over on the east side there's a dying branch,

(02:11:16):
and then also on the east side, some more branches dye,
and then some more and it's working its way across
a plant like that. That sounds like a root rot
to me. If it's one branch over here and one
branch over there, it could be a root rot, but
genses are it may not be, so it's hard to
predict without seeing the specifics of it. But that that

(02:11:39):
is what I would recommend. And you're in Sugarland, you
can go over to Southwest Fertilizer if you want to
be sure, and drench it with a fungicide, look for
something called Subdue. But just call them first and make
sure that they've got it in stock or if not,
they can probably get it. Hopefully they can get it
in a quantity that's affordable. That's the problem with all

(02:11:59):
it's new chemicals now is you know, if they're made
for the industry and somebody's going to treat one hundred
yards with it, that's different when you have two azoya bushes.

Speaker 22 (02:12:09):
Right, all right, all right, well, great info, Thank.

Speaker 3 (02:12:12):
You so much.

Speaker 5 (02:12:14):
All right, let me give you a phone number for
Southwest in case if you've got a pin seven to
one three six six six one seven four four seven
one three six six six one seven four four. I'm
up against a heart of break here, so thank you
for the call, Elizabeth. Appreciate that. Folks. We will be
right back there we go, run run run behind. Hey,

(02:12:39):
good to have you with us. Welcome back to the
guarden line. If you're thinking about planting some fruit trees
this year, you need to run down to Jorges Hidden Gardens.
He's done in Alvin. All of you south of town
uh in that whole region down there. If you haven't
been by Jorges, you need to go buy and check
it out. He's got some really good going now. First

(02:13:00):
of all, if you're looking for something, well, figs, they've
got a great selection of figs. They have a good
selection of blueberries. They've got a good selection of per
summons too. I should talk about per summons more. Maybe
we'll do that next tomorrow. But anyway, Per Simmons a
great fruit. What fruit is going to ripen for you
in the fall season as we go in October November

(02:13:22):
and that season of the year. Per Simmons is the
answer to that, and it is a wonderful, wonderful fruit.
But right now, or Hey has got for this Thanksgiving weekend,
if you want to call it the Black Friday weekend,
he has got a really good sale going on. By
the way, his hours today and tomorrow are eight am

(02:13:45):
to four pm both days eight am to four pm.
Stop by e the day and check out the sale
that he has going on. Really good deals on citrus,
lots of kinds of citrus. Just Or is one of
the best selections of citrus trees that you're going to
find in different sizes, you know, small trees three gallons

(02:14:07):
on up to thirty gallons or I don't know what
all size he has on those. But if it's a
shade tree, if it's a flowering tree, if it's a
fruit tree, or he's got you covered. He is in
the Alvin area. It's actually between Highway six and Alvin.
It's an Alvin address, Elizabeth Street. And if you want
to give him a call, seven one three six three

(02:14:27):
two fifty two ninety seven one three six three two
five two nine zero. Show up on a weekend, and
this is a family operation where he's hitting gardens. By
the way, show up on the weekend. The kids will
probably show up out at the door to greet you
and welcome you. They also like to be part of

(02:14:49):
the team out there along with and his wife. You're
listening to garden Line. The phone number seven one three
two one two five eight seven for the current temperature
of the brisket is one hundred and seventy two degrees.
For those of you who are interested. My producer said,
I'm making him hungry. I'm making me hungry for crying

(02:15:11):
out loud. I smell like smoke. Anyway, there you go.
Ace Hardware stores are just the perfect spot for shopping
for Christmas. And I know you're thinking, wait a minute,
what am I going to do buy a wrench for
my wife for Christmas? Well maybe if she's a do
it your software, But that's not what I'm talking about.

(02:15:31):
I'm talking about all kinds of cool stuff, quality tools,
you know, power tools and things. For example, barbecue pits,
outdoor pizza ovens. Do you know you can get those
at Ace Hardware stores? You can? You can. Each one
is independently owned. Do you need seasonings for brining, seasonings

(02:15:51):
for rub and stuff like that on your barbecue? You
got it. You want one of those little solo stove
bonfire pits. It's a little metal ring that you put
on the patio and it's really really nice. Do you
need coolers, quality brands like Yetti, quality brands like Stanley,
That's what we're talking about. You need power equipment that's

(02:16:13):
battery powered. They've got you covered. How about this, There's
a bunch of people coming and you've got to have
table space. What are you gonna do? You go to
Ace Hardware and you buy you a folding buffet table
and nice plastic table legs fold up stores really easily.
I'm talking about. ACE is the place anything you need
trying to get through the cool season and trying to

(02:16:36):
protect your family and yourself with things like fire alarms,
with things like the fire extinguishers, for example. ACE has
got those. I was wandering through an ACE the other
day just looking trying to make a list of all
the things. I kind of gave a part way through.
A stores are independently owned, and my ACE Hardware stores

(02:16:56):
in the Greater Houston area. You can find all of
them by going to ACE Hardwaretexas dot com. Ace Hardware
Texas dot com. Don't forget the Texas. Go by there,
find your local ACE Harder store and get out there
and see what I'm talking about. I was in an
ACE recently, I think it was a a Brnham Ace
actually specifically, and I was giving it, you know, visiting

(02:17:17):
people coming in, bringing samples, just talking to one of
the appearances, and my wife came by and she said,
I already know what before we leave here we need
to pick up And so sure enough we crossed the
store and We're looking at all the Christmas ornaments and
decorations and just cool stuff that you find at your
local Ace Hardware store. So what are some stores? I

(02:17:39):
would like to give you a few examples. We go
out to Victoria ACE on Navarrel Street. How about that one?
How about Plantation ACE on Mason Road in the Richmond
Rosenberg area, Deep Deer Park ACE on Center Street, Charles Building,
Supply Nor sixteenth and Orange. How about pacco As on
wes Willis or League City ACE on West League City Parkway.

(02:18:00):
Here's another one, Sinkle Ranch ACE on Mason Road, Katie
Hardware on pin Oak and Katie and down in Full
Share Fullshaer Ace on FM three fifty nine. It's another
one of the many Ace Hardware stores you find at
Ace Hardware Texas dot com. We were talking about plants
for the holidays, and I talked about rosemary. What a

(02:18:21):
great plant. Just to have something that's a holiday decoration
and then becomes an awesome it could be a landscape plant.
Rosemary makes a good little low growing shrubbery evergreen. So
there you go. What else do you want? You can
share them however you want too, by the way, or
you can just kind of let them grow in their
own natural form. I've got some of both. We've got

(02:18:44):
a trailing rosemary as a matter of fact, and my
wife's bilco bed planter where she grows up normally. Her
flowers and herbs are all in there and it just
spills over the sides. Really pretty nice little plant. The
trailing taxes bloom more prolifically than the upright type stew.
But that would be a good one. Let's see here,

(02:19:04):
I'll tell you what. Let's go take a phone call
and I'm going to continue on then with some tips
for indoor plant decoration for the holidays. Let's go to
League City now and talk to Stephanie. Hello, Stephanie, Welcome
to garden Line.

Speaker 21 (02:19:18):
Hi, I thank you.

Speaker 23 (02:19:21):
I'd have a I try to send a picture, but
I guess i'll send it later. But I have a
rows of sharing, and it looks like there's like brown,
light brown nubs like all along the stems, like where
the new growth might be.

Speaker 5 (02:19:42):
Okay, do these look like maybe if you took a
dry English pea and split it in half about that
size or a little smaller.

Speaker 23 (02:19:55):
Yeah, I would say they're like little light brown nubs all.

Speaker 5 (02:20:00):
Along Okay, Well, I do need a picture, Stephanie to
give you the most accurate answer. But take your thumbnail
and just see if you can just kind of pop
them off with your thumbnail, and if they completely come off,
that's a type of scale insect on there. So we
would take a certain approach to that. If they don't

(02:20:21):
come off, then it's going to be something else. And
on an aufia or rows of Sharon, there's several things
that it could be, but a good close up photo
and sharp focus is probably the best way to go.
If you get it to me today, we're about out
a time on calling back in, but you could call
back in tomorrow we could talk about it. Or if

(02:20:41):
it's good close up photos, maybe I can just reply
in an email to you what I see.

Speaker 23 (02:20:46):
Okay, So if it is scale, how would I treat that?

Speaker 5 (02:20:52):
If it's a rounded scale that looks like a little turtle,
you know, it's a little mound around mound on the plant,
right type? Yeah, that type probably an oil spray is
going to be what you need to do. Uh, And
you're going to need to do that. You could do
it now, don't do it right before a freeze, but

(02:21:14):
in the spring before the plant starts to push out
new growth, but it's starting to warm up a little bit.
That's a good time to put on a horticultural oil spray.
And to the degree you coat that plant in a
good dense, dormant oil, the better it'll control them. Systemic
insecticides are probably not going to be as effective against
that type of scale.

Speaker 23 (02:21:36):
Okay, okay, okay, we'll all try and get a picture out. Geez,
thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (02:21:42):
All right, you bet, thanks a lot, appreciate that. All right,
there you have it. All right, let's do some plants
that you would cut to put indoors after we come
back from a real quick break. We'll do that in
our last segment of the day. By the way, you've
got time for one more call seven to one three
two p one two five eight seven four. I don't
know somehow beach boys and Christmas, although we do live

(02:22:10):
in southeast Texas where flip flops and flowery shirts are
legitimate Christmas clothing. Yeah, at least we don't have to
shovel snow. There you go, Hey, welcome back to garden
line seven one three two one two five eight seven four.
Got time for another call. If you would like to

(02:22:32):
call in. We'll be back tomorrow morning, by the way,
from six am to ten am, so feel free to
call the too uh Now decorations from outdoor branches that
we cut and bring in. There's a lot of really
cool branches. Some people like to use Southern magnolia branches
for decorating. Really beautiful. You make a table runner, you know,

(02:22:53):
where you kind of string together some foliage and maybe
some other plants and flowers down the table. Really beautiful.
Southern magnolia is that big bowl shape of the leaves.
And we live in the South, so there you go.
That would be a really good one for doing that.
Holly plants, if you are fortunate enough to have burying
holly plants on your property, that would be a good

(02:23:16):
one to bring in. Many different kinds of holly, from
the one of the more common ones we see as
a shrub, to some of the types that make very
tall shrubs or small trees, like American holly. For example,
by the way, Burford was the one I was referring
to smaller shrub type holly's. Those are all good yopon holly's. Also,

(02:23:36):
now there is the regular evergreen yopon holly. And there
is a decidi sometimes called deciduous jopon. Well that is
the name for it, where the leaves fall off and
leave the berries out there. Those are all good for
decorating with. Just keep in mind. The scientific name for yopon.
Are you ready for this is ilex I L e x,

(02:23:59):
which means it's a holly vomitoria, which means don't put
in your mouth or it's coming back up. I looks vomitatoria.
It's a purgative. You don't want that. You don't at
a little kids eating yo pond berries or anything that
might be poisonous. And if it's tiny and red and pretty,
it probably looks kind of like candy to a little one,
So be careful with that. Don't use those for that,

(02:24:21):
but they do make good decorations. There's another plant called
called Pyracantha. I don't know why, but I just have
to get nerdy on these things. Pyracantha from pyra pyro
fire pyro maniac. Pyracantha fire thorn is another name for pyracantha.
Most people just call it pyracantha. If you ever get

(02:24:44):
stuck with a Pyracantha thorn, you know what. It's called
fire thorn. Canthus is from a Latin word for thorn.
By the way, Pyracantha fire thorn. There you go. You
can thank me later anyway. That's a good one. Just
gotta be careful picking those boogers. They are very, very
painful when they poke you, but so as a cactus,
and we grow those sometimes as well. Now, if you

(02:25:07):
have teenage daughters and you need plants for putting under
their bedroom window, oh here I go, my wife says.
If I'm wondering if I should say something, the enters
always know because if I'm wondering, I've already crossed the line. Well,
I'm gonna go ahead on this one. Even if you
have teenage daughters, there's some Pyracanth is a perfect plant
for putting underneath the bedroom window. It's like having a

(02:25:27):
little burglar alarm, and the alarm is the screaming of
the person that got poked by it. By the way,
if you want to know, I have a theory on
all of this, which maybe sometime I'll delve into. But
there's a science to this. There are plants that capture intruders,
like big old what meutabolus roses. That would be a

(02:25:50):
good one of those hooked orange and you can't get
out of there. Yeah, anyway, I should I shouldn't go
any further with this. I had five daughters, so I
speak as one who knows. Have fun listening to garden line,
I am hey. Azomite azo might is a micronutrient supplement

(02:26:11):
for the soil for your plants. We typically talk about
it for lawns. Trace minerals or micronutrients or central minerals
needed in very tiny amounts, and while a soil test
is the best way to know if you are needing
any nutrient, whether it's phosphorus or potassium or magnesium or

(02:26:32):
micronutrients or whatever it is. As a general role on
my schedule, you'll see trace mineral supplements on there, like azomite,
and azomte is a perfect supplement for that. It can
also be using vegetable gardens you're eating the produce you
know as M has over seventy seven known trace minerals,
including all the trace minerals that your plants need, plus

(02:26:53):
many others. You know, our bodies need a lot of
nutrient as well, and various types for various reacts and
building blocks of the body. So there you go. Azamite.
It is omrilisted, which means you can use it in
organic production. It's available all over town feed stores, home
garden centers, you know, the the mom and pops that

(02:27:16):
you hear me talk about all over town are great
garden centers here. Uh. It's also available from Ace hardware
stores or from Southwest Fertilizer places like that. Azomite Texas
dot com if you want more information on that product, amite.
We're about to wrap this up. Oh look here, we
got about a minute before the music starts playing. So

(02:27:38):
let me finish up here with some plants and decorations.
And I mentioned holly's and berries mistletoe. Mistletoe is a
popular thing, you know what the kids eating those berries either.
But you know, mistletoe is hung is decorations all over
the place for obvious reasons. And so if you are

(02:27:58):
decorating with that, that's cool. Just keep it out of
the way of the kiddos. And finally, a tip for decorating,
take plants that are attractive in small containers and put
them together in a bigger container and hide the fact
that they're all in little pots with moss. So imagine this.
You've got a large basket, let's say, or an elongated basket,

(02:28:23):
and you stick these plants in it. One's like I'm
talking about like cyclomen like ethereums like Christmas cactus or
other things, and you put them all together and then
you just fill in with moss and no one knows
they're not planted in there. And if they go picking,
they just slap their hands and I'm to stop that.
And it looks beautiful. And then when the when the

(02:28:43):
event is over, you know, people runt over, take them outside,
put them out, let them get some light, do whatever
you want to do. But you can do that. You
can do that any kind of plant. It could be
just house plants. You know, maybe you have a sense
of area. Mother in law's tongue and you want to
put some other agnonema chin he's ever in with it.
Just put them all together in there and then fill

(02:29:03):
it in with moss. If you have any kind of
a table decoration that goes down a long table where
you got ribbons and things and some greenery and things,
you can hide the plants in like that. And it's
another fun way to get a quick instant result. Without
trying to grow them altogether in a pot, which would
be hard to do. All right, there you go, last

(02:29:24):
up at the day. Hey have a good time. I
gotta go out and check some barbecue. See it them
all morning,