Tom MacCubbin reassures us on most of our plants are going to come back.

Tom MacCubbin reassures us most of our plants are going to come back.
Teresa's Top Five Spring Flowers that will bloom.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning, Welcome to Better Lawns and Gardens from the
Summit Responsible Solution Studios. I'm Teresa Watkins. I'm your host today.
I thank you for joining us this morning, and we
have a lot to talk about today. We've got great
guests today, so I'm very excited. Good morning, Lizzie. How
are you?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I am doing good?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
What is up?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Everybody's like sending the oogie boogie stories that it's supposed
to have another freeze falling iguanas, What is going on?

Speaker 1 (00:37):
No, No, remember what I said last week that winter's over.
Winter's still over. We're not gonna see any major freezes
this weekend or the beginning of the week. Some parts
of North Florida may see a touch of frost, but
it's not gonna stay. We're gonna be back up into
the sixties by Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday sixties, fifties and

(00:59):
six these sunny weather it's gonna be nice. We need
the rainfall, so this cold Frind's gonna be bringing us
in rainfall, so it's not big a big deal. Some
parts of or Okalla, you know, just if you're right
out there in the boondogs with those micro climates, you
might see a little frost, but your plant should still
be okay. If you haven't cut them back yet, they're

(01:20):
not gonna be affected because the Dorman Sea, the brown
leaves are gonna protect them. And if you did cut
them back, they really haven't started to grow, so you
know you're not gonna see that much damage. So everybody
can just take a chill. We're fine. This is why
we live in Florida. We don't have to shovel sunshine
and and so it's gonna be just great. But I'm

(01:43):
gonna be talking. Our guest this morning is gonna be
Tom mcobbin, and he has seen many a freeze in Florida,
so we're gonna be asking him about it, and he's
got I know, he's just gonna it's just gonna be
a great time. I love talking with Tom, so he
is just the best. Today. If you are in Seminole County,

(02:05):
the Seminole County Extension, the University of Florida, ifits extension
is putting on a expo today from nine am to
three pm. Lots of things going on. If you have
children at home, if you want to get outside for
a great day, then the Seminole County Expo is for you.

(02:27):
They're gonna have museum. The museum is gonna be open
and talking children. Events are gonna have scavenger hunts, coloring stations,
all kinds of things for the children to do. Plus
lots of speakers and talks going on today. You're gonna
be able to learn about bees, about verma culture which
is using worms, growing worms, and native plants expos and

(02:52):
I will be doing a talk. I will be there.
Come out and see me. Ten thirty this morning. I
will be doing a talk on landscape design. Great inspiration
for you if you'll come out, and it's going to
be a wonderful day. Plus I think they have a
plant sale going on too, so they'll be able to
sell some plants, and so it'll be a great day

(03:14):
all the way around. The hot vendors out there, lots
of fun things to do. That's the Seminole County Expo
at the Seminole County Extension Office in Sanford. That's at
two fifty West County Home Road in Sanford from nine
o'clock this morning till three pm this afternoon. You don't
want to miss it, so come out and see me,

(03:34):
and I would love to talk to you and meet you.
Bring me some of your things that you'd like to
talk about. If you have an issue going on in
new yard, or you want me to give you some
design tips by bringing a photograph of it. I I'd
love to see that.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
And the best photographs is you take at least two,
if not three, one from far back and then one
if you have a problem with something a little closer,
and then a third woe on that problem is just old,
little closer of it and make sure it's kind of
not fuzzy.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Thank you. Yeah, that is so good. That is so good.
So the weather this week, I don't want anyone to panic.
Like I said, we're having a cold front come through tomorrow.
We're gonna get some much needed rain, remember our cold
front spring rain, and so starting today, rain in North Florida.
Tomorrow we're gonna get rain in Central Florida and South Florida.

(04:24):
You're gonna be doing great. Tampa. You've got an eighty
percent chance of rain tomorrow. No freezing for you though.
So North Florida's gonna get highs in the fifties and sixties.
Monday is gonna be low's in the thirties. It's not
gonna last long. Back up in the seventies on Wednesday.
Rain again for North Florida on Thursday, so that's gonna
be good. Central Florida we have a sixty percent chance

(04:45):
of rain tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that. Highs are
going to be in the fifties and lows in the
high thirties. No freezing, spotty areas. Okalla, you're gonna have sunshine.
Highs in the fifties. Few areas may see thirty two degrees,
but it won't last long. And Tampa no freezing. Like
I said, South Florida, beautiful weather all week. Highs in

(05:05):
the sixties and seventies. You can wear those those knitted
bikinis down there a little bit, so you know, woolen
bikinis there. Monday and tuendessnight you're going to be in
the forties. But the rest of the week it's going
to be sixties at night.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
No rain.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
So it's just going to be a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
week ahead. And so we're going to after our interview,
Thomas coming on. I'm very excited to talk to him.
He is such a good friend, but he also knows
he's got the experience of the world, and so I
am sure he is going to tell us about what

(05:41):
he has seen and what he thinks is coming up.
I'm interested in hearing that. And so he's going to
be able to provide therapy for our freeze damaged plants.
He's going to be our landscapes because I've been getting
a lot of requests. You know, people want to change out.
They don't want to use tropicals anymore. Okay, no high
biscus hype.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
No no, no, no, don't be like that, because it'll
it'll be all It'll be all good. And the reason
why is not only there is Teresa and Tom know
what they're saying, but you can take it from me,
who will totally mess things up. Okay, but I walked
by my hibiscus and I did the Teresa scraping the
the uh the trunk on my hibiscuses. I don't know
if you'd call a trunk, but whatever, and it was green.

(06:22):
I was like, wow, look at that.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, and you're out in the boom dogs, so you
got really really super cold. So so that's good. What
should you be planting this time of the year. We
are gonna come back and we're gonna tell you that
Tom is gonna come right up. He's with us right now.
I can't wait to talk to him. You're gonna want
to hear him from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios. It's
Saturday morning. You're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm

(06:46):
Teresa Watkus and this is Florida's talk and Entertainment network,

(07:10):
and welcome back to Better Lawns and Gardens. Joining us
right now is Tom mccoven. He was the host of
Better Lawns and Gardens and still is for thirty four years.
He comes in and he is just such a help.
Good morning, Tom, How are you?

Speaker 5 (07:26):
Good morning, Teresa. I am fine. I am in recovery
stage now. All my plants are feeling better.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
That's well. I'm so glad to hear that, Tom, because
we have a little bit of a cold front coming
through on Monday and everyone's starting to panic again. So,
I mean, you have seen a lot. You've lived in Florida.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
How long I've been here for fifty four years, but
I can go back to the eighteen thirty five. I
know you just wanted an old timer this morning to
tell you more about these freezes Welca. Thank goodness for
Henry Swanson's book Countdown for Agriculture. Back in eighteen thirty five,
they had ice across the lakes in Florida.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Wow, that's incredible. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. And
so Florida seeing these kind of winters before. We have
them about every ten to fifteen years, sometimes twenty and
so what so what can you say, are we going
to have another one like next year?

Speaker 5 (08:24):
You know, I don't know. I go a little closer
than you do. I go every five or ten years.
But I went through the eighties, so that was the
toughest eighty three, eighty five, eighty nine, and then in
two thousand and three we had another one. So we've
been fairly lucky last few years. Maybe last five, maybe

(08:45):
seven or eight. We haven't had a really bad freeze.
But you know, we're gonna get these every once in
a while, so we kind of got to get used
to them. I have.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Well, so, so should people plant tropical plants anymore? I'm
getting that question. People are not wanting to use hibiscus
and all kinds of like blue Days, which I think
is an annual, but salvias and things what should they
still be using tropicals?

Speaker 5 (09:10):
Sure, my question to them is why not. I mean,
they're still colorful most years, they're going to survive even
this year. Like Lizzie was saying, her high biscus is
still alive. It's going to come back. It's Mother Nature's
way of doing a little pruning that we're scared to do.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
That's a good thought too, Yeah, because people don't like
to cut back, and so this gives them the opportunity
to do that, and they'll make the plants that are
in denser.

Speaker 5 (09:34):
Yeah, I'd still plan them. I mean, I don't see
why not. Next year might be a late year. It
just kind of tells us what we have to be
ready prepared to do to protect some of these plants.
So sometimes just to cover that's all I used.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Right, And so what kind of damage did you see
in your yard?

Speaker 5 (09:52):
In my yard, the high business was damaged. Of course,
the crotons were frozen way back. They'll probably come back.
I remember I think it was in nineteen eighty three
where the croton froze to the ground and I said, oh,
it's a dead plant. I'll probably pull it out. But
I left it. It took it till July to come back,
but it came back. It was amazing. So the trenettes

(10:15):
of the Cephalnette was frozen way back, but you know
it's going to come back. A lot of those tender
type plants things that made it, believe it or not,
Bird of Paradise. I did throw trash can over top
of them and they came back. Okay, But those type
of plants, crotons, trenettes were pretty heavily damaged.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Well, is it all frost damage or I mean, I
know we had some winds coming through at fifty to
fifty five miles per hour. Are we seeing any wind damage?
Is any of this we're seeing?

Speaker 5 (10:49):
You know, I don't think most of us wind damage,
although where the covers blew up all of my vermeliads,
for instance, I did get some damage. Vermeiliads were amazing.
I had some damage to them, but most of them
made it through and we'll be back without any problem.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Okay. And so people that do have damage from me lands,
what do you suggest they do with them? Cut them
back or just throw them away?

Speaker 5 (11:11):
You know, I think most of them will come back
from the base without any problems. But you're gonna you
have the older plants that the tops are dead and
cut off the old leaves if you want. It depends
on how long you want to wait. I'll be honest
with you. If you don't want to wait very long, Hey,
get new ones. I have a neighbor right now. They

(11:31):
have bought in really nice looking croutons and some other
tropical plants. They're ready to replant.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Wonderful, wonderful. So so what do you advise people who
have birds of Paradise, the giant bird of Paradise, the
travelers palms? What should they do with them?

Speaker 5 (11:47):
You know, I think they're frozen way back once that
button the top has gone. They could they could watch
them for a while. They could either cut them back
to the ground, and I think that's what juice one
of the things you suggest. Uh and just wait for
new shoe to come up from the base, because they will.
Or they can just trim off the old dead fold agence.
See if the plants are able to survive. We're talking

(12:09):
about the same things with bananas. I have bananas. I'm
sure frozen to the ground. I'm not gonna wait for them.
I'll just cut them back.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, bananas will recover. I mean they grow back fast.
So what plant zone should Central Florida, or for Floridians used,
what zone should we use to engage our plans?

Speaker 5 (12:25):
The hardiness zones and newer schedules have moved some of
us into ten, but I am thinking we are all
still nine A and nine B and mainly around the
right heart of Central Florida. I think we're nine B
and that's where I stay.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
That's what I totally agree with you, I certainly do so.
Now does this landscape damage does it affect the timing
of when we should fertilize and how much to fertilize.

Speaker 5 (12:52):
Well, we should probably wait until we see growth coming back.
For instance, with the lawns. I'm just telling people, you know, no,
you need to fertilize and until you see growth coming
back from the lawn or from the other shrubs. My
guess is it's going to be the middle of March
for the lawns in most areas, and a lot of
the shrubs, believe it or not, a lot of things

(13:13):
are coming back right now. I have a lemon tree
that I went down and I saw new buds coming
out on it.

Speaker 6 (13:20):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
And that one was in a semi protected area, and
then lemons are normally very susceptible to cold. This one
here has made it through. Just the tips of it
were damaged, and so I see new growth already. And
if you got new growth, then I think you, Miles,
will go ahead and put down the fertilizer. You talk
about this cold spell coming through, you probably won't to

(13:42):
wait until it comes through and see what happened. But
it doesn't look like it's going to be that bad
in most areas.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Right, That's what I'm hoping. I'm keeping my fingers crossed
because I made a prediction that winter was over last week.

Speaker 5 (13:54):
I predict winter is over. Also, thank you me, we
won't still have some of this chin You know, normally
right around Easter we get another chill and then it's
over with.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay, So that's great news. So what about pre emergence
Usually we put them down at the end of January,
first part of February. Can pre emergence still be used
right now? And then weed killers?

Speaker 5 (14:17):
Yeah, I'd use pre emergence now because the temperatures are
warming out. The crabgrass is going to be germinating very quickly.
And my friends in the lawn care business who put
out pesticides. Are watching to see when the crabgrass starts
to germinate, but I think it's going to be germinating
very soon. There's a lot of weed seeds out there
that are already growing. To be honest with yeah, the

(14:39):
regular weed control products, wait until you see some growing
back of the weeds, you know, like the weed and
feed type products. Although there's some that will give you
some pre emergence also, but if you're after the main
growing weeds, wait until you just start to see them
and then put it out.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Okay, that sounds great. So what's the most important thing
for New Floridians Because I think that's who's panicking the most,
the ones that we've just gotten, the new residents from
the last two to three years, four years that have
moved into the state. What's the most important thing for
them to know?

Speaker 5 (15:14):
Now, we're going to continue to get these freezes periodically
every five to ten years, I say, maybe fifteen. But
if you go through the history and you follow along
Henry Swanson's book Countdown for Agriculture, you can see every
five to ten years there's a devastating freeze come through.
And he was monitoring the citrus industry, but the same
thing for the homeowner industry, And so I would go

(15:38):
ahead and use the colorful, attractive plants. I'd still use
them and just be ready to protect them or replant.
Sometimes it's better just to have them killed back and
start over again. But I wouldn't give up on the
croutons and the plants of that nature of tropicals. I
have a ficus, for instance, and a container one of

(15:58):
the big Ficus alastica, and that was frozen back. But
you know what, I see a new leaf already coming
out at the base.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Wow, that's great.

Speaker 5 (16:05):
They they're gonna grow back.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
What about palm trees like the pygmy date palms and
the queen palms and foxtales got really hit.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
The foxtales got hit hard. The robolinies pinmy date palms
are burnt back, but they're okay. I worry about the
foxtails the most, I guess. The Christmas palms, of course,
are heavily damaged. But the foxtails may come back, and
people want to know what to do about them. I
just prove back the fronds that are damaged and sit

(16:36):
and wait and see if that bud in the top
you know, it really depends on what happened to the bud.
If the bud was damaged, it may not come back.
But back in the early eighties, I saw queen palms
killed back and the tops would come out of them
and the bud would still be good and they'd regrow.
But they may want to be putting the copper fungicide

(16:56):
on those to try to protect the new growth in
the center.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, they plan did queen palms all down Orange Avenue
in Orlando, and they're they're all gone. So they did
it also at Howie and the Hills and they're gone.

Speaker 5 (17:11):
So it all depends on what happens to that bud
in the top, and it can take a long time
for that bud to come back out. So you don't know.
But my Queen Sago, for instance, is all burned back,
but I know it's going to survive, so I'll just
cut the fronds off. The king segos I think are
all okay.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Well, So what do you suggest? What are you planting
this year for tomatoes? You what are you putting down?
Because I know you've already probably got started growing.

Speaker 5 (17:38):
Yeah, my tomatoes are up. I will have them ready
for the garden in about a week or two, right
after this cold spell goes through. And I like I
like the cherry tomatoes that's what we eat the most.
And I grow sweet Million that is probably one of
the better ones. Juliet is nice, also a sweet treat.
I've got one this year sugary that I'm growing for

(18:00):
the second year. That was pretty good. If I do
have some Champion Slicer tomatoes and Bella Rosa slicers. Better
Boys always a good pick also, So those are my favorites.
You know, I overdo it. I think I have about
sixteen varieties out there right now.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
Wow, that's pretty cool. That's great. Anie peppers or Anie
peppers or any what other vegetables are.

Speaker 5 (18:26):
A number of peppers I have better Bell, I have Parkswhopper.
I think I have Aristotle Star of the North. But
they all do about the same. I guess if you
had to pick the best that has been the best performer,
Chris that has the most resistance, it'd be better Bell.
And that one was designed by Florida growers.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Excellent. I'm so glad. Well, thank you so much.

Speaker 5 (18:49):
Tom.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
I really do appreciate you coming on. It's always great
to talk to you and thank you. You're going to
be sitting in for me whenever I go on these
garden tours and so you're going to be back every
every month for a while.

Speaker 5 (19:01):
Yeah, I'll be back in April. I think it is
excellent for Yeah, but I'm looking forward to it. I
have a Lance Walheim, author of a new Citrus book,
gonna be with me for an interview.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
That is excellent. I'm so excited. I heard he was
writing a new book, so I'm very very excited. I
can't wait to hear him. Thank you so much, Tom.
You have a great weekend.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
Okay, you have a great weekend too, take care of all.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
Right, Bye bye. I love Tom.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
I love too.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
He is so great and he just he just knows everything.
And so I'm glad he's still hosting. So if it's
Saturday morning, we're going to be taking your gardening questions
one triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eight zero Saturday morning.
You're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins,

(19:47):
and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Good morning,
Welcome back to Better lawns and gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins.
I'm your garden expert, landscape designer, garden author, and a

(20:09):
garden tour guide. So we still have a couple of
spots left on our Revolutionary Garden Tour and that is
going to be very exciting for the two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of the United States. We're going to go
to some very historical gardens and just locations and spend

(20:31):
a great time in seeing some private gardens and colonial Williamsburg.
So if you're interested in going with me on a
tour and just geeking out at plants. We love to
go walking through gardens. They inspire me so much, even
as a garden designer. I love to go walk through
gardens and get inspiration. You can go to art in
Bloomgardentours dot com Art and Bloomgardentours dot com and are

(20:57):
trips are filling up fast. We're going to London, that Chelsea,
the historic iconic Chelsea Flower Show, and then also the
Newport Flower Show, which is very exciting. It's the Royalty
of the United States where they lived in gardened and
their pleasure gardens, and then also Buffalo with a side

(21:18):
trip to the Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. Wow,
is very exciting. And then also too the our trip
to France, the artiste gardens of France and then the
Brandywine Valley, and then also for Halloween and for the
fall a trip to the Ethereal Gardens of New Orleans.

(21:41):
Oh wow, So we're gonna have a great time. So
if you're interested in going with us art and bloom
garden tours. Now what should you be planting this time
of the year? Right now, you could be planting beans
and canalog start planting your corn, cucumbers and eggplants, loofah, squash, peppers, pumpkins,
summer squash, tomatoes and watermelon. Get those all down right now.

(22:04):
Herbs are the annis and basil, borage and chives, diyl
and fennel, lemon, balm and mint, oregano and parsley and rosemary, sage,
sweet marjoram, tarragon and thyme. It is a great time
to garden this week. It's going to be great, especially
after the cool the cold front comes through, brings us
that rain the landscape. The soil will be really prime

(22:26):
to be planting this week.

Speaker 5 (22:28):
Now.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
We had a text message two three six eight oh,
if you'd like to text us, and it said will
using the weed killer prene used under bird feeders harm birds?
And the chemical that is used in Prene is called
triflurin and when used according to the label, it is

(22:49):
safe for pets and birds and even people, so it's
not going to harm the birds at all. Always follow
the label. And when they do studies like this on
the you know, the herbicides that we can use in
the gardens, the insecticides, they always use it to what
to the to the size of the insect you would

(23:12):
have to use so much you'd have to have a
pile of it in your yard before it even does
any damage at all. So no Prina is very safe
to use underbird feeders. So that's a great direction. Always
follow the directions. The label is the law. But also
too it's just all you need to use. You don't
want to waste your money and then and it's safe

(23:34):
when used according to the instructions.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Also, we had a caller call in Maryanne from Melbourne.
Huh she was calling a back her jack Aranda tree.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Okay, beautiful tree jack arandas are beautiful. Yeah, no leaves,
no leaves well, it's gonna flush back out again. And
so when she says tree, I'm assuming it's eight to
ten to twelve feet tall, okay, okay, And so if
it is, it's gonna be just fine. It's gonna start
growing new leaves again. So she should look for that.
It's not gonna have been damaged. Is this part?

Speaker 2 (24:07):
I mean, I just looked it up. Can why I
don't have five hundred of these in my yard. I
don't understand why, because I love purple. But are they
part of like a weeping willow family?

Speaker 1 (24:19):
No, they're not a weeping willow. No, they're not jack Aranda's.
They're a tropical tree. I don't know what family they're in.
Right off the top of my head.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
A little sad weeping willow kind of looks.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Like they have a weeping canopy. Yes, so the canopy
is a weeping So you're correct about that. It's kind
of just you know, it's just hangs down and it's
just lovely. But hers should be just fine.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, don't have a bunch of these in your yard.
I just may come and put up camp and just
stay there.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
They are gorgeous there. They're a great plant. But they're
kind of they're going to get hit when we get
Central Florida is kind of at the outside of their scope.
They are a tropical tree zone for zone ten and
a nine to nine B like Tom and I think
more Central Florida. They're going to get damaged, but they'll recover.

(25:08):
So let's so, Mike and Venice, excuse me, I am
having a little trouble this morning my throat. Good morning, Teresa, Lizzie.
Happy to hear the next cold wave is not going
to be destructive like the last one. Nice to hear
Tom's voice this morning. He was part of our Saturday
morning routine for over thirty years and he will continue

(25:30):
to be. Mike, Yeah, he's so pleased. I love working
with Tom and he was my boss at the University
of Florida and at Extension for over ten years, and
so it's just a he's a great man and I
look forward to it. And Henry Swanson, the gentleman. He
mentioned the Swanson Auditorium and it's very like the Lake

(25:52):
County Extension Office. Henry Swanson was a giant and he
was he was a great man in the early nineteen forties,
these here in central Florida one triple eight four five
five two nine sixty seven, or you can text two
three six eight zero.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Now I did look because Eileen had text me, and
I did look up on this spectrum the the news,
and they're saying for that area and the Polk City,
Ish area, they're going to have a freeze, a mild freeze,
but they may have So do they need to do
any covering if they're gonna you know, again, if you've.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Got something really tropical that was hit and you've cut
it back and you think it's going to get that
cold again, you can go ahead and cover it. Yeah,
I would cover it if you're scared. Better to be safe.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Sorry, Yah, my tomatoes is that, you know? I had
them on the porch. I had all the certain stuff
up on the you know, the screen windows. Thought it
was safe and it came out and they looked like melt.
Looked like someone took a candle, like melted all over
my bell peppers had to pull them all on the ground.
I'm like, come up, you know, but but hey, yeah,
so yeah, bear safe and.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Be safe and sorry if you think you're getting cold,
and so I lead. She lives way out in the boondog.
So she lives out in the country, and so yeah,
you know, it might get down into thirty two. I
don't think it's gonna get colder than that, though, it's
not We're just not gonna have this. I think it's
going to be a bust. That's what I'm praying for.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yes, definitely, it's not.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
It's not like the week before last. No, exactly. No. Well,
and again, you know, this is Florida. It's eighty degrees
one day, fifty you know, twenty five the next day.
So it's really very bipolar. If it's Saturday morning, you're
listening to Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins and
this is Florida's talk and entertainment network.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Welcome back up Better Lawns and Gardens and now Teresa's
top five.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
My top five today is my top five favorite spring
flowers that will not fail. They are very, very successful
in the Florida garden. Number five Salvia blue, black and
blue salvia. This is Salvia goiantica and it is gorgeous.
It's tall. It gets to be about two and a

(28:32):
half three feet tall. It looks gorgeous in the garden.
Butterfli's love it. Number four whirling butterflies Gara Linda Hamurai
and it is beautiful. I love the Siska Yu pink,
the hot pink, the beautiful color, great garden of flower
for your area, and it waves in the wind. It's
just gorgeous. Number three the old fashioned pentas also called

(28:56):
ruby glow. These are the red red peppers pentas that
do not have any kind of hybridized white coloring in them.
They're solid red. They get to be three to five
feet tall. Butterflies love them, hummingbirds love them. Number two
is the rosy periwinkle, and this is the Casaranza Rosia.

(29:17):
Gorgeous plant takes the heat, will grow out of a
sidewalk concrete block. It is wonderful for Florida gardens. And
again butterflies love it. And my number one plant is
the dune sunflower beach sunflowers heliansis debilis. It is gorgeous
in the garden and bright yellow flowers. The butterflies love it.
So those are my top five spring flowers that will

(29:40):
not fail and they look great in your garden. Yellows
and blues and pinks and reds. Yes, it'll be gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.
If you have a question, you can give us a
call one triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eighth zero. Let's
go to Rob in Chris. Good morning, Rob, How are you?

Speaker 3 (30:02):
Good morning? I am well, I'm really doing good. I've
got some tomato plants that have been babying, and I
brought them inside during the freeze and they're doing well.
I even have a fruit set on them. But they're
developing a white or a light green coating of some
sort I know how to describe it.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Okay, Well, it's powdery mildew. So where are they now?
Where are they inside or outside?

Speaker 7 (30:27):
They're outside on the front porch.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Okay, so they're in the front porch. Okay, this is
that's probably gonna be one of the reasons why you're
getting it, because powdery mildew is caused by a humidity
and lack of air circulation. Okay, so inside the screen
room the air is still, and so they can they
can develop a fungus, and so you need to spray

(30:50):
them with a fung aside, but I would kind of
suggest that you move them to the outside where they
can get nice, good air.

Speaker 7 (30:56):
I'm thinking about transplanting them into the garden.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Now, sure, sure that'll be good. Spread it with a
fungicide that's labeled for powdery mildew and they should be
just fine.

Speaker 7 (31:06):
Thank you very much, y'all have a great day.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Thank you so much. Rob appreciate a great, great question.
So now in a let's see Nora from Ovido. She says,
my deep red crape myrtle has lots of moss and airplants.
Does it need something extra nutritionally? I'm manually removing what
I can, but they may not be able to reach
higher limbs. Well, I'm thinking that you are near a

(31:30):
lot of trees, okay, and so your crape myrtle needs
full sunlight. And if it is if it's near an
oak tree, or your crape myrtle is in a lot
of shade, it is going to you know, get these tlansias,
these airplants and the moss on them. So I would

(31:51):
just suggest that, if it's possible, if you could move
it or trim back some of the trees in the
area so it has more sunlight. But you can remove
them manually. They're not a problem for the crepe myrtle,
but it's a symptom, a symptom that it's not getting
enough sunlight and that it's too close to trees, and

(32:13):
so the air circulation again is going to be an issue.
So yeah, manually remove them. You can't spray them with
a copper fundicide and that copper will take out the
moss and the air plants. But yeah, it's they're not
going to really damage it as long as it's healthy.
So remove them though, if you can, that'll be great.
Let's go to Allen in Mount Verd. Good morning, Alan,

(32:36):
How can I help you?

Speaker 6 (32:37):
Good morning, Mysteresa. I have a bone to pick with you.
The native born Floridian in the Claremont, Central Florida area
at the age of sixty seven, I do not I
grew up in third.

Speaker 4 (32:50):
Generation citrus and you never fertilize until I know you
won't find this hard to believe.

Speaker 8 (32:56):
After the Central Florida Fair.

Speaker 4 (32:58):
Left the neighborhood because it could be wonderful eighty degree
temperatures in the week of Central Florida Fair, it rained
gotten near to freezing or freezing. And I have lived
my life as do not plant until the weekend after
the Central Florida Fair and I have never lost anything

(33:19):
due to frost.

Speaker 8 (33:20):
I turned is all ready to go, everything's going.

Speaker 4 (33:23):
I'm like, no, you got two more weeks.

Speaker 8 (33:25):
Then it goes in the ground and I can sleep good.

Speaker 4 (33:28):
At night and I'm having to worry about pull it in,
pull it out, cover it up, uncovered.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
There you go, Alan, I so appreciate you. No, I
agree with you. I agree with you. But you know,
people get in seeing they want to do something, and
so you know less he's say in her, and so
you know, i'd certainly greasy. March fifteenth is usually the
date of the last recorded freeze, so mid mid March
is it. But we can start to plant some of

(33:54):
these plants and you know, you know, keep them covered
as they need to be. But I just don't think
we're going to get to freeze in Claremont or here
in this area in the next couple of weeks. I
think I think we're good.

Speaker 4 (34:06):
You mentioned two very special people in me. That's Tom mccoban,
and I happen to know Henry Swanson. My father grew
up with him. Very honorable man. And it's just you
couldn't have asked for a fine, finer County agent than
Henry Swanson, and knew everybody treated you like your first
class and it was fantastic.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
I know him.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
I so agree with you. He was a hero. He
just was just stellar.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
And I was happen to be down south as far
as Stuart and it's like, if you really want to
see what's the plant in your yard, you'd go down
to West Palm Beach and Fort Pearson. You look at
the commercial nurseries and you see everything that's brown, and
you go, oh, don't plant that in Socilia. If it
didn't survive down there and ain't going to survive up here.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Well, you know that's what I tell I would tell
people that. Alan, again, I so appreciate you. I'm saying,
you know, we do get cold here. I've seen to
get down to eighteen degrees in Lake County and the
snow lay on the ground till one o'clock in the afternoon,
and so you know, people don't realize we do get
that cold. But it's the shock of the cold. It's
eighty degrees one day, like you said, and you know,

(35:10):
twenty five thirty degrees the next day. The plans just
don't know what to do.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
You're doing a great job. I'm a long time listening
to Tom and I've been listening to you whenever I can,
and so keep up the good work. We have too
many people who don't know what Florida is really about,
and so you're doing a great job of educating it
until of what not to plant it and when not
to plant it.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
So Rob you, thank you so much. You've made my day. Alan.
I'm sorry, Alan, thank you for calling in. I love
talking with you. Please call back again sometimes that's great.
Bye bye bye. I love talking to Florida residents, and especially.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
If anybody's done any type of agriculture, and they'll have
to be professional, but if they've actually done their own
stuff for quite a while and they've seen the changes,
that does make so well.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
You know, when I was thinking when he was talking,
all I was imagining was the miles, hundreds of miles
of citrus growth through the Claremont area that you would
just go through rolling hills of citrus for for hundreds
of miles. And we don't have that anymore, and that
is so sad. But Henry Swanson and Tomicam they are

(36:17):
just stellar. They just other stars and it's but we
were getting back there. We're growing our crops again. Agriculture
is very big in Florida, and you know, we supply
the country with vegetables and flowers, tropical plants all throughout
the country, and so Florida is still the greatest place

(36:37):
to plant. Yes, and we do appreciate that was a
great call.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
I never thought about that, and that does make sense.
If you are wanting to either like do redo your
landscape or put in something brand new, this would be
the time to go down to a couple counties down
and check to see what's burnt up and be like, Okay,
maybe I didn't really need.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
I'm telling you, you know, we are zone nine. We
will get a freeze every year. And people are planting
those those ten and eleven tropical plants and like Pigmy
Day palms. The villages had all these Pigmy Day palms,
and I'm going, oh, my goodness, gracious, you know, you know.
So here's what I say. If you want to have
tropical plants, just don't buy expensive ones. Okay, those foreheaded

(37:20):
Pygmy Day palms that cost six hundred dollars. You're gonna
lose an investment. Buy the thirty five dollars you know,
Sago palm or you know, not Sagos, but yeah, the
Sagos and the Pigmy Day palms. Just buy a cheap one.
That way, you know, if you lose it, you can
replace it. It's not you know, not a big deal.
You know, call it your seventy five dollars annual and

(37:42):
if it dies then you can just replace it. But
don't spend a lot of money on them.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
So you don't have anything in your hand that you
can throw out the window. And I'm fixing to ask
you this because we have a way. We have a
glass window between us.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
So if for.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Some reason that I my bulbs are still sitting in
my fringe in the garage.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
You can go ahead and plant them. Oh okay, Yeah,
they'll bloom in a couple of weeks. They won't last
as long, but they'll bloom because they'll be eighty degrees
when they start to bloom, and so that'll kind of
knock the wind out of them.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
But I want to go pull the drawers in the
garage and I'm like, oh man, these were supposed to
go on the ground in November. I'm like, oh, manes
is gonna murder me.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
No no, no, no, go ahead and put them in
the ground now. They'll have a long winter chill that
will be great. And so we want to give Tom
thank you so much for calling in and helping us
with our plants. We look forward to having him on
all the time. And uh, you know, we want to
thank our sponsors, Black Cow, some Responsible Solution Studios, quality

(38:41):
green specialists. Go get peach trees right now, peach and nectarines,
all the deciduous trees you could be planting right now.
They will do well in your garden. If it's Saturday morning,
you're listening to Better Lawns and Gardens, I'm Teresa Watkins
and this is Florida's talk and entertainment network.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
You always gonna Better Lawns dot com and recap anything
that you may have missed. You can also check out
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