February 7, 2026 • 39 mins
Dana Venrick from Quality Green Specials (our Sponsor) explains how fertilizing in the fall, helped the plants & lawns recover from the freezes in January.
Teresa's Top Five Ornaments plants that survive the Freezes.
Teresa's Top Five Ornaments plants that survive the Freezes.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Good morning from the summit Responsible Solution Studios. Welcome to
Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm your host, Teresa Watkins. I'm
a landscape designer, garden author, horticulturist. Even have a tour company,
garden tour company.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
She's a superhero, Let's just be honest. She's very humble,
you know, and it kind of chokes her up trying
to get out all of her Was it not act?
What is it actually?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And also credentials. But she's a superhero. So if you
have a question and you want to know something, just
look at her text messages from me alone so and so.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
But but I'm here to help and I will tell you. Lizzie,
how are you this week?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I am feeling like this has been the longest week
and I go, oh, I go. I feel like Groundhog's
Day was last week. No, it was like what Monday.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, It's been a stressful week and it really has
a way there along with weather. I think this winter season,
the last week has been more stressful for Floridians than
in decades. And I can't even remember this much panic
when the citrus groves got damaged in the eighties. Yes,
(01:20):
but there's a reason for it. So the weather was bad,
there is a reason to be traumatized, and it's one
for the history books. A bomb sign clone called winter
storm Fern. I don't know how they got the name Fern,
but I gotta find out. Off the East coast, they
triggered snow and severe freezing and it's just been record settings.
(01:43):
So Daytona Beach reached a record low of twenty three
degrees on Sunday. The last time it was that cold
was thirty degrees in nineteen thirty six. Leesburg hit twenty
three degrees, breaking a record thirty nineteen seventy nine. Sanford
that plummeted down to twenty three degrees on Sunday from
a record thirty degrees in nineteen sixty five. Orlando hit
(02:06):
twenty four degrees, breaking records. Fero Beach four Piers all
broke records. Melbourne got down to twenty five degrees, and
Jacksonville hit a new low of twenty two degrees. Gainesville
you got down to twenty which beat the record twenty
five degree low in nineteen oh nine. And then Appleachiccola,
(02:28):
it broke a low of twenty six degrees. So it
has been stressful, and the landscapes look at okay. It
looks like there's been a wildfire that's gone through and
burned everything. That's yeah, a lot of it is the
cold damage, but a lot of it was wind damage.
And I will tell you, Lizzie, one of the nice
things I saw that on Friday, I went to a
(02:51):
client's house and the Simaho just looked terrible, but it
had already started putting out new leaf buds, so it's
already recovering the crime of lily. One looks really bad,
the other one looks really bad, but it was producing
a new leaf just in the last week.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Well, we had you on Good Morning in Orlando on
Thursday because the just the look of my banana trees alone,
they were completely dead.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
But then you're gonna start to see new growth on
them right away. We are approaching. I'm just gonna say
that I'm going to step out on a limb. I'm
just gonna say, and we're gonna have Dana Venrick here's
this morning talking about you know, how to take care
of our landscapes. I'm just gonna step out on a
limb and say winter's over, springtime is going to be here.
It's going to be in the seventies next week through
(03:43):
the end of February. February is going to be above
average winter temperatures. So our last frostrate is March fifteenth.
I don't see anything coming down from Canada that's going
to hit us in the next month.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Good. That's good, and that's really good to hear. He
ANDed to kind of stay positive, kind of looking at
it like, Okay, we survived that. Hopefully it killed off
a lot of mosquitoes and fleas that we don't need exactly.
So yeah, so I really.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
People got to use their fireplaces and fire pits.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Oh my cat love. We have one cat that we
adopted last year and it was crazy because he will
actually sit up on the little brick footing of the
fireplace and he just lays there, full blaze. Yeah, slays there.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
He loves it. Yeah, that's warmth in that heat. So
North Florida, you're gonna be getting cold this weekend. It's
gonna be cool this weekend, forties, some thirties but nothing
really uh freezing, But it's gonna be back in the
high seventies and fifties at night. You're gonna get rain
next weekend. Central Florida, you're gonna be cool this weekend,
(04:46):
forties in the morning, and then it's gonna warm up
to the seventies, seventies all week fifties at low temperatures,
no rain for the next ten days, so you are
gonna have to use your irrigation system. And then South
Florida sunny. It's gonna beautiful weather. South Florida, you just
got it made seventies during the day, sixties at night,
(05:07):
no rain, So it's going to be a wonderful winter weekend, yes,
and week for the house. So you want to just
you know, I'm not gonna even read what to do
in the month of February because this is Super Bowl weekend.
Just take the weekend off. Stress at your plants. It's
enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Dust your shoulders off. We've made it through the horrible weather.
And then as soon as we give you the red
or green light, then you can pack up all of
your winter clothing. But you need to save it before
next year, because I swear I thought that last year
was going to be the last year that we had
four weeks of like forty and thirty degree weather non
stop and had to go buy new jeans and stuff
(05:45):
which I hate. But no, just go ahead and we'll
give you the green light whenever you can start packing
stuff up.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So that's that's it. And I think I'm coming down
with a cold, so thank you to my dear husband
for that. So please oologize if my voice breaks or
I go to be inquired for a minute so I
can cough. Take this week. Look at your plants. You
can remove the dead leaves, okay, cut the dead leaves off,
(06:12):
but don't hack across the stem. Okay, don't cut branches back.
You can spray your palm trees. Definitely spray your palm
trees the emerging spears coming out the top of the
palm tree with a copper fungicide. Spray your lawns. If
you're used to getting fungus in the springtime, you can
go ahead and use a copper fundicide on your plants.
(06:34):
Then wait for new growth. Once you see the new growth,
then you can prove the plants and this will be
the time to cut back all of the dead off
the plants. You want to be cutting your headges back. Well,
in the next few weeks, you'll be able to do that.
If it's Saturday morning. You're listening to Better Lawns and
Gardens from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios. I'm Teresa Watkins
and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back
(07:10):
to Better Logs and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins. This has
been a week of trauma. We are here to help
you recover and recuperate and grow even better plants this spring.
We have with us right now, Dana Venrick. Dana, good morning.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
How are you this morning?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Are you Teresa?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
We are great, We are good. I've got a little
bit of a cold here. But how did Quality Green
Special Surgery? How did DeLand do this week?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Well, we lost a few things with very little There's
a few plants that we enjoy having, you know, out
in the nursery, like like the evergladed tomatoes that look
like they're fried and all washed up. I've removed those.
I've taken a lot of plants out of the woods
(08:00):
that survived pretty well for the most part. And it's
hard to tell as you come in that there was
a frieze. Right now, I've been working hard to redecorate
the front with a brand new little shopping area like
a boomerang shape with hanging baskets around and an olive
tree in a nice box with flowers and a little
(08:25):
picket fence along the front. It looks really nice.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Oh wonderful.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You can tell is one little bear area in the
middle of the nursery where we haven't gotten all the
plants out of the barn yet.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Oh my goodness. So now the everglades tomatoes that kind
of up burned or frost you know, bit can the seeds?
Are the seeds still viable? Should people save those seeds?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Well, of course save the seeds. They weren't hurt at all.
They'll be coming up everywhere in no time. It's hard
to keep it good that every blades tomato back because
they are so aggressive. So most everything will come back,
believe it or not. We even had some little papaya
that survived along the native trail there in the wooded area.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Excellent. What about your mango tree.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
The mango's got some brown leaves, but the stems look
like they're okay, and so we left those on the edge,
you know, of the fence with the trees overhead, so
that helped protect them.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Well, explain to people if they can check their plants.
They can the leaves all look damaged and you know,
front frozen, but they can scrape back the bark layer
to check the cambium. And how would you suggest they
do that?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well, just I would wait, probably wait until next week
and then because you'll have probably some progressive browning and
then check you with their fingernail and see if there's
some green underneath the bark there on that cambium.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Okay, so you definitely wait.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Then we wait to cut them back. We did. I
did cut back one variegated Jeff flea that looks so bad,
but I'm ready to protect it with blankets, freeze blankets
in just in case there's another frame, which I don't
expect exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So now we've had we've had trauma at the Steel
residence and Lizzie's bananas. So are they going to recover?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yes, they will recover. So you could put a little
liquid fertilizer with a little nutrition to feed the roots.
It may look terrible, but probably even the stalk would
be okay because it could have been a lot worse.
I think the spear on the bananas we have is
still green, and so uh cut the leaves off. We'll
(10:51):
cut the leaves off later, you know, about the.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
First of March.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
In the meantime, all those big leaves help protect the
trunk and there is another frost believe it or not,
need you need to protect if there's even a frost.
Sometimes you'll have forty degrees even February of the first
of March, and it'll be a still night and you'll
have frost or cold thirty two degrees at the surface.
(11:16):
It'll be covered with ice the frost if that, if
that occurs, I found that if you run warm water
for a little bit to melt off that ice, you know,
before the sun hits it, just before the sun comes up,
you can prevent the frost damage.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Oh good, Okay, that's good to know. So I was
up at the villages yesterday and plants that did great.
Now this is in the villages data, the Phoenix canariensis
or Silvester's saw palmettos, needle palms, bottle brush. I was
surprised that that koonties and cabbage palms, riopy juniper buckswits,
(11:55):
and crape myrtles all did well. Just they didn't even
look like they they had anything wrong with them. Ones
that didn't fare so well with the pygmy date, some foxtails,
but then split leaf philodendrums got damaged, fire bush cast irons,
see maho hibiscus and gingers got damaged. But they should come.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Back right absolutely. We've we also had some good success
with no damage on other things. Let's see some of
the things we have really good success with. Or the
pineapple guava. You know they'll grow as far far north
as South Carolina. It's not a true guava. A lot
more cold heartiness in the tropical guava. The viburnums, ugustrooms,
(12:38):
crape myrtle, Simpson stopper, you can't stop that. It didn't
show a hint of damage. The magnolia's, holly's and the
same here. The bottle brush we kept out didn't have
any damage. The countia, the figs, Yeah, it looked really good.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Okay, so explained to me. This on the same street,
and this is up in the so you know it
got down in the low twenties, and so same location
on the front of the house, right at the entrance.
Some largest spara sparicus foxtail ferns didn't even have a
frond of brown on them. But then two houses down.
There were some that were completely brown. What was going
(13:18):
on there?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Well, there's so many factors involved. There's wind breaks, you know,
if you can cut the wind. That's a big part
of the damage. Is a strong wind that we had
that even accelerates the heat loss. All plants in a freeze,
everything is dropping a temperature and radiating out heat. If
(13:41):
you have some wind break, or you have some cover
overhead like a or the wall or a lot of stones,
everything is radiating heat and so you have enough heat
to counteract the heat loss from the temperature and the wind.
And it all depends a lot of times on the
(14:02):
exact location. It's just a little bit of change can
make a difference. Like if you go two feet inside
under the canopy, even oak, you won't have damage. To
two feet outside of the canopy, it'll be fried because
of all that you've got the radiation to the sky.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I saw that most definitely now, isn't it also too
We tell people to fertilize in the fall and you know,
get them prepared for winter. But isn't a little bit
they're not. They're not taking care of their plants and
their landscape correctly.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Well, we need to have plants that are fertilized gently
right now, I mean with good quality, fertilized with low
salty index. Look at the label, make sure it has
low chlorine.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Right But what I'm talking about in the fall.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Scent, if you have a high chlorine, if that's an
indication is salty, it's going to burn possibly, so you
is it very lightly, along with some organics that are
slow released that give more heartiness to the plant, like
if you can you know a little bit of a
black strap, glasses, a little bit of of some of
(15:16):
these things like seaweed.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
But what I'm talking about, Dana, is back in the fall,
when we were telling people now the time to fertilize,
to get them prepared for winter. Do you think some
of these plants, the lands the owners actually did do
the correct thing and fertilized with the proper organics.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Absolutely some did, and I'm sure they saw more cold heartiness.
Someone brought in some photographs of how beautiful their vegetables were,
you know, just yesterday. In fact, you know, when you
come in, when customers come in, they're going to see
a beautiful raised bed garden that I did not cover,
(15:57):
and you will not see damage because of the good nutrition,
and so that's really instructive. You know how much help
you can give plants if you give like slow release
or control release fertilizer gently in the fall and right
now until things are warm for sure in march, but
(16:19):
a general application of a good liquid fertilizer and granular
fertilizer will help tremendously with all the things that impart
cold heartiness.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Right because we're gonna be warming up, so we're gonna
see that growth and it's gonna be helpful to encourage it.
So what about watering? How much should people be watering
right now?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Well, you make sure it don't get too dry. Watering
is important because the roots are flushing now. It's every
day is getting longer. You know, the plants are ready
to wake up, like you mentioned about already. You see
little shoots starting to come out. Yeah, and so but
let it dry a little bit first. Don't over water either.
(17:01):
Otherwise you know, some of those brown fronds can get
mushy and start, you know, tart rot. You don't want that, right,
but check it as soon as it starts to a
little dry water. It's really critical to keep the roots healthy.
So they're going to push that new growth, you know,
from the tissue that's still alive at least at the
base of the plant.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So what about winter weeds. Is there anything that they
should be doing right now with winter weeds?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Well, right now, you know you've been helped a lot
by Mother nature because things like Spanish needle and many
others are just completely fried down to the ground. And
so that can help you get ahead with hand weeding
and also to get a head start. You know, when
they start to come up with selective herbicides right now,
(17:48):
you could put something like a pre emergent like pendumethylene
it like pre like prem or Halt. They're sold under
those brand names. Okay, but it's a perfect time because
you're not having any agressive weeds right now. You can
prevent a lot of that, and then when they do
come up, while they're young and tender, then you can
(18:08):
hit them with a selective herbicide like two four D
or some other chemistry based on the type of plant
or type of lawn.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You have excellent so data where can tell people how
to get to quality green specialists and DeLand to come
see you get soil tests, find great native plants and
start planting some trees. It's great to be planting right now.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Absolutely, this is the time everything is waking up. Every
day is getting longer and warmer, and the plant you
can't hold the plants back. Just give the plants a
little encouragement. Come by and see what's possible. We have
a great selection of plants and the great selection of
fruit trees. You will be amazed, and also vegetables and herbs.
(18:57):
We're at three point thirty five West Michigan Avenue, very
close to downtown, just northwest of downtown. You really enjoyed.
It's like attraction to see and inspiration you know, for
your yard. You're home.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
There you go data, Thank you so much, say take care,
We'll see you soon. Quality Green Specialist Nursery is opened
seven days a week, Monday through Sunday. So get down
there and see him and check it out. So from
the Summit Responsible Solution Studios, 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. Welcome back to Better
(19:59):
Lawns and Gardens. Thank you for all the text messages.
If you have a gardening question one triple eight four
or five five two nine sixty seven. If you want
to talk specifically about the plants in your landscape what
to do with them, give me a call. I'd love
to help you. And if you'd like to text two
three six eight zero just like Pinky and Linda, Linda
(20:19):
in Zone eight B got down to nine degrees this week, Lizzie,
Oh that's crazy, that is crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, we've got quite a few text messages. We have
Andrea from Lady Lake and Christine from Cairo. And I
was like, oh, so we have people from Egypt listen
to us, and then Teresa's like, no.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
No, she's either in Cairo of Florida or Georgia or
Georgia one of the two. So we welcome everybody. We
have a lot of new listeners, which I'm really pleased
about this week. Lot a lot of new Facebook followers,
thank you so much. Those have arisen and on my
Facebook page, my personal one, Teresa Watkins, fl you can
(20:56):
follow me there and then also our bloom Garden tours
you can on that and that's all one word too
as well. Yeah, so uh, give us a call. One
triple eight four or five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eight zero. Sometimes
we get so many text messages that I don't catch
them all because they just keep scrolling up. And so
last week we had a Jacksonville text and I don't
(21:21):
think I responded to it. So she had some lantana
that was damaged in the freeze, the first freeze, and yes,
it should recover, not a problem. It may take a
month to six weeks, but lantana will probably come back.
But she also asked she has two very active dogs
and what kind of grass can she put down four
(21:45):
so the dogs can run on it? And there is nothing.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
The hay is probably the only thing that can handle
animals because we've had dogs our whole life. But it's
not going to be pretty.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Going to but compaction. Anytime something's compacted, dogs don't run
all over the place.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Though.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I'm always fascinated by cows. See the cow pasture and
you look at the footpath of the cows and it's
only like eight inches wide, right, And I'm going, how
do they get all four feet going in a row there?
And I mean, just look how then that that cow
pasture path is and dogs are the same way they
just do the same path running around over and over
(22:22):
and over again.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah, because we've got wet we have like a lat path, Yeah,
a lap a lap path around the corner of our house,
down the side of our property, across the front, and
then around our our two gates. It's it's hysterically funny
because it doesn't matter what you do or what you
put down.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
But yeah, they would. So mulch is kind of the
best thing for wherever dogs run a lot, you're not
gonna be able to grow a lot of good grass there.
You might even, you know, even think about just putting
a mulch path that they can run around. So I'm
sorry I didn't get to it last week. Always text back,
and you can always go to the Facebook page and
ask the questions. And we got a lot of great
(22:58):
comments this week on our page. So excuse the voice.
I am coming down with something. So thank you Andrea
for emailing or for texting that. That is great. And
so if you know someone who loves to garden, please
tell them about better lawns and gardens. And if you
only get the second hour, let's see on Sunday, well
(23:20):
tell the radio station you want both hours and if
you don't get both hours, you can always hear it
after the show is uploaded to Better Lawns dot com
and you can hear it on your free iHeart radio
app anytime. So it goes up into the podcast, goes
up into the internet and does well. So let's see
(23:42):
here I want to say about Peterson's Nursery. They have
a class today b YOC, which is bringing your own chair.
They're gonna have a class on vegetable gardens and so
that's at nine point thirty. That's Peterson's Nursery in Lakeland,
So you can check that out and they'd love to
(24:04):
have your stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yes, definitely the vegetable gardening for the spring. So this
is kind of something that you want to plan ahead
and not wait and not do like I do and
then start growing tomatoes and like two months after they
should have already been growing and it's like, oh, why
did I not have tomatoes? So yes, So go to
Peterson's Nursery. They their lectures start at nine thirty and
they have a requirement which is called b y C,
(24:26):
which means bring your own chair, so you're guaranteed you
to have a seat.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And I will be speaking there in March. Yes, so
you can come in the fourteenth. You can come and
see me. I would love to meet you and bring
me your your photos and I'll help you select plans
and yeah, design your landscape.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Definitely, and now hers and March fourteenth, if you're putting
on your calendar, Teresa will not be chatting until eleven
thirty because we have to get off air and then
drive down lak Yeah, get over there.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Eleven thirty and I'll be talking about coloring your world.
So that'll be a lot of fun. Okay, go to
Donna DeLand. Good morning, don How can I help you?
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Yes, I'd like to be fenceline with a shrub that
will grow fairly tall.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And what the uh, there's several of them. You can
do Lagustrum hedge. You can do the lagustrium shrubs. They
will grow to be about ten to eighteen feet tall,
depending on how you know much you cut them. Viburnams
will also get to be ten to eighteen feet tall.
And then photocarpus. Those are my three favorite shrubs for
(25:37):
Hedgestacarpus potocarpus p O d A or p O d
O c A R p U s no sounds good.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
For me.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Okay, last viburnums.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
What was that second one again?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Viburnhams the as in Victor I be, as in boy
you are and you am by Burnham.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Okay, okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Okay, thank you for listening. Don appreciate that. That was
really easy. That's great, So are our text messages. Coconut
trees survive depends on where you are and how cold
it got and how long it stayed cold, So they
usually don't take freezes. So if you're up here in
central Florida and you have a coconut tree, I would
(26:30):
say it's probably not gonna make it. If it's down
in South Florida, down below Lake Cocachobe, it'll probably recover.
So just gotta let me know. So you need to
send a perfect text message, give me your name, where
you're located, and your question. That will help me out
better because I'll know exactly where you are and I
(26:51):
can give you more specific directions. So coconut palm trees,
they don't do well here in such Florida. In fact,
I saw a lot of damage. Pigmy day palms, queen palms,
foxtail palms all got damaged in this storm. They don't
take freezes, and those of you who insist on having them,
(27:12):
then you know, you just got to make sure that
you buy cheap ones so that you can throw away.
I did have the one of our callers last week.
He had a coconut palm and he was going to
dig it up and put it in his garage. That's
what I recommended. It's only five feet tall. He could
have done that. Hopefully he did, and it'll save it.
If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawton Gardens,
(27:33):
I'm Teresa wat because this is Florida's talk and Entertainment Network.
(28:04):
Welcome back up Better Lawns and Gardens and now Teresa's
top five. So just about a week later after this
major bomb cyclone winter storm, fern Top five ornamental plants
not affected by the freeze or wind one African irises.
(28:24):
They still look great all the way up through Okalla.
Two Koonties native shrub wonderful, looks great, three junipers, four
camelias did lovely. Didn't affect the blooms too much. The
blooms some of them were already blooming and so they
fell off. But it looks great and the Number five
(28:45):
is lagustrum hedges laugustum trees. They look great. That's my
top five plants that were not affected by the freeze
or wind. Let's go to Bill in Ormond Beach.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Good morning, Bill, Good morning trees. Hey, So, I've got
a bunch of heliconia and ginger and all, and and
I'm thinking, I know you said do not cut things back,
but those plants are shot and the new growth is
coming from the ground, you know, regardless whether their canopy
is there or not. Right, it would it be okay
(29:19):
to go ahead and cut it.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah back, especially in Norman Beach. And I'm gonna tell
you it's gonna be good weather for the next couple
of weeks. So yeah, So Bill, individually, you can cut
your gingers and all of your rhizome plants back. If
they're already starting to come up with new growth, go
ahead and cut them down to the ground and let
them regrow.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yeah, I've noticed the crime. I've already got three, four
or five new leaves.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Isn't that fascinating. I was so surprised at that because
they really got damaged. I saw them in the public
shopping parking area and they were already spitting out new
leaves just in the in three days. So that's some
pretty incredible.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Yeah. So I was outside uncovering a lot of stuff
yesterday and I noticed that my Chinese fans palms got whacked.
I've never seen that before. I mean, I'm not going
to lose them, but all those fronds are going to
have to come off at some point, not now, but
(30:20):
they really got burned badly.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I'm surprised because up in the villages in Okalla they
were doing fine. I saw them, I got pictures of them.
But it may have been the wind. So it might
have been the wind damage because the wind got up
to fifty miles per hour.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Yeah, the combination of the two. And there's a garden
that I work at and they've got a bunch of
sugar palms and they did great.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, absolutely, it was fascinating.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
If you could grab me a picture of that, that
would be great.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Okay, Well, then also the you know, when I was
out yesterday, I saw I have a zenia that's actually
blooming right now.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Our greatest the figure that's a that's a little microclimate there.
That's wonderful. Thank you so much. Bill. Okay, take care,
bye bye. Let's go to Beverly and Tallahassee. Beverly, how
can we have morn in? Good morning?
Speaker 5 (31:15):
It's been so cold up here.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
How cold was it?
Speaker 5 (31:21):
It's so cold? My hoses froze.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Oh my goodness, yes, oh no cold.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
My bird bas became ice rinks. I got a big
bird bath that I've been scooping the water out in
the evening and waiting until the next morning to put
water in it.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Uh huh.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
The worst evening I scooped the water out. I got
a big one in a small one, and the next
morning I went out at about seven forty five and
filled up the bird baths with hot, hot water. And
the big one holds almost three gallons, and in fifty
(32:00):
minutes it was iced over the top.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Oh my goodness, gen thirty.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Minutes, it was a solid cube.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
It's just been a remarkable year. I just never seen
it get that cold.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
Me neither. I've lived here sixty years and I've never
it's never been like it. Yeah, and so it's been
so cold. I didn't even go outside for four days.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Wow, that's really cold.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
There you go, which are really good.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
You're doing good nice here and talking to you all.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Right, Beverly, thank you so much on take care bye bye.
I love hearing from all our fans out there. That's wonderful. Yes, so, Lauri,
and say cloud says. My plumri are very large and
planted in the ground. I noticed the tops of frozen
and branches are laying over. But even all the way
down through the rest of the trunk, all the sap
(32:50):
is losing. And I push on the bark and you
could see liquid moving underneath it. When's it time to
cut back? While I do the same scratch test to
see if the bark is green. I guess I'm we're
the whole thing is gonna die.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I did enjoy the cooler air though, well, we enjoyed
it too. The cooler air, it was pretty good. My
northern clients were kind of freaking out. It's not supposed
to get this cold.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Oh yeah, no, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, But so so what you can do, Lorie? The
plumeria may have bitten the dust. Okay, just wait a
couple of weeks. See if you see new growth on it.
It may rot completely. Nothing really you can do to
save it. If it's gotten so frozen that it's it's liquefying, okay,
so just look, try and save a couple of branches
(33:33):
down at the bottom or where you can, and just
replant it next year. So hopefully, I mean you'll be
able to replant it, but I don't think the plumeria
is gonna make it. Let's go to Nancy and marenn Island.
Her text message says, I have a dressina which I
left outside during the coal snap. It's soggy and wilted.
(33:53):
My question is if it will recover or is it
too far gone? She said, thank you so much. She
loves the show. Well, thank you. See we love that
you listen. I don't know, we'll see if it comes
back from the ground. I would just again, wait a
couple of weeks, see if you see any new growth,
and if not, at the end of the month, cut
it down to the ground and let it re sprout again,
(34:16):
and it probably will. You'll probably see more new sprout
submerging from the sides, so that will be great. One
triple eight, four, five, five, two, nine sixty seven. If
you're in the area, we'd love to talk to you.
You can give us a call. We'd love to say
hi to all of our listeners worldwide. We have a
large base in Singapore, Australia, even in Norway. So we
(34:42):
just love everybody listening in and you can go to
our Facebook page and like it. We would love for
you to do that. Please share with your friends and
then also to my Facebook page is Teresa Watkins f
L and they can go to the iHeart Better Lawns
and Gardens Radio app.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yes good. What you can do is you can actually
go to Better Lawns dot com and you can catch
up on everything there. I know Teresa's newsletters are gonna
be coming out here shortly this week. You can get
caught up on some of the past ones if you
do good at Better Lawans dot com because I do
try to rotate those outs, so we have a little
bit of fresh every other week and it's what to
(35:20):
do and uh so there you know, you got the
you know, you've got a variety of stuff to go
and look out on bear LANs dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
So in the next hour we have Dan McParland and
he has a wonderful Valentine's idea. Did you know Valentine's
Day is next week?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, it's like next Saturday.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right Saturday? Right, So if you don't have anything to
do next Saturday, you're gonna want to stay tuned. This
is a great gimme for all of the husbands and
for all the boyfriends that don't have a gift. This
is gonna be the perfect event and uh, it'll make
up for super Bowl weekend.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yes. And the thing yeah exactly. And the thing is
is that I know that uh what was it? They've
done this for a few years around the Valentine's to
Day and it's like been I've actually heard back from
people who have gone to this, and let me tell
you about the perfect gift. The perfect gift is to
be able to take them there and be able to
just you know, catch you know, catch that best gift
(36:20):
right there.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
So go back and yeah, so we're going to be
giving you all the information. Dan will be here. You
want to see that. We're also taking your calls again.
I apologize for my voice, this time for another losson
and more SIPs of my tea. Yes, and thank you
to Let's see who do I have?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
You have a Nancy from merrit Island, Lori from Saint Cloud.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Ristina and Cairo. She talked said about the Sambuki Elderberry syrup.
I'm good. Yes, look some of that up.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yes, I've heard that's really really good stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So definitely you're not sick, so that'll be that'll be
great one triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eight zero. You
can also go to my website www. Dot she s
h E hyphen or dash Consulting dot com. You can
sign up for the newsletter.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
There.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
I talk about what to do each month in your landscape.
It's gonna be particularly important this month as just how
to get through and recover your landscape recovery this this spring. Yes,
and then also to my landscape design tips and landscape
malpractice how to know when to fire your landscaper, and
then also to my plant to the month. So I
(37:39):
have a lot of things in the.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Newsletter, Yes, and you'll like yes, And that's and that's
the good thing about that is the fact that you
know Teresa will recap and not call out the malpractice
of landscapers. Then yeah, I don't call anybody out, but
she does use really good examples and it kind of
makes you scratch your head and go, wow, my yard
does look like that. My yard has looked like bet,
(38:00):
maybe we need to brand attention to our you know.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Oh no, it's important. Sometimes sometimes mistakes are made, yes,
and it's better to be more aware.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah, and we also want to help promote Okay, I
know that we had a lot of this, uh the
crop damage done. So please let's go out and support
our local you know, the blueberry farms and strawberry farms
and the strawberry festivals that are coming up because they
may not have something for you to you know, buy
per se as in right then and there as in
fresh produce, but they have other things that you can
(38:30):
go help support with.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
From the Summit Responsible Solution Studios. This 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 (39:10):
DICTA in Distinct
Speaker 5 (39:19):
Pat
Good morning from the summit Responsible Solution Studios. Welcome to
Better Lawns and Gardens. I'm your host, Teresa Watkins. I'm
a landscape designer, garden author, horticulturist. Even have a tour company,
garden tour company.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
She's a superhero, Let's just be honest. She's very humble,
you know, and it kind of chokes her up trying
to get out all of her Was it not act?
What is it actually?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And also credentials. But she's a superhero. So if you
have a question and you want to know something, just
look at her text messages from me alone so and so.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
But but I'm here to help and I will tell you. Lizzie,
how are you this week?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I am feeling like this has been the longest week
and I go, oh, I go. I feel like Groundhog's
Day was last week. No, it was like what Monday.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, It's been a stressful week and it really has
a way there along with weather. I think this winter season,
the last week has been more stressful for Floridians than
in decades. And I can't even remember this much panic
when the citrus groves got damaged in the eighties. Yes,
(01:20):
but there's a reason for it. So the weather was bad,
there is a reason to be traumatized, and it's one
for the history books. A bomb sign clone called winter
storm Fern. I don't know how they got the name Fern,
but I gotta find out. Off the East coast, they
triggered snow and severe freezing and it's just been record settings.
(01:43):
So Daytona Beach reached a record low of twenty three
degrees on Sunday. The last time it was that cold
was thirty degrees in nineteen thirty six. Leesburg hit twenty
three degrees, breaking a record thirty nineteen seventy nine. Sanford
that plummeted down to twenty three degrees on Sunday from
a record thirty degrees in nineteen sixty five. Orlando hit
(02:06):
twenty four degrees, breaking records. Fero Beach four Piers all
broke records. Melbourne got down to twenty five degrees, and
Jacksonville hit a new low of twenty two degrees. Gainesville
you got down to twenty which beat the record twenty
five degree low in nineteen oh nine. And then Appleachiccola,
(02:28):
it broke a low of twenty six degrees. So it
has been stressful, and the landscapes look at okay. It
looks like there's been a wildfire that's gone through and
burned everything. That's yeah, a lot of it is the
cold damage, but a lot of it was wind damage.
And I will tell you, Lizzie, one of the nice
things I saw that on Friday, I went to a
(02:51):
client's house and the Simaho just looked terrible, but it
had already started putting out new leaf buds, so it's
already recovering the crime of lily. One looks really bad,
the other one looks really bad, but it was producing
a new leaf just in the last week.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Well, we had you on Good Morning in Orlando on
Thursday because the just the look of my banana trees alone,
they were completely dead.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
But then you're gonna start to see new growth on
them right away. We are approaching. I'm just gonna say
that I'm going to step out on a limb. I'm
just gonna say, and we're gonna have Dana Venrick here's
this morning talking about you know, how to take care
of our landscapes. I'm just gonna step out on a
limb and say winter's over, springtime is going to be here.
It's going to be in the seventies next week through
(03:43):
the end of February. February is going to be above
average winter temperatures. So our last frostrate is March fifteenth.
I don't see anything coming down from Canada that's going
to hit us in the next month.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Good. That's good, and that's really good to hear. He
ANDed to kind of stay positive, kind of looking at
it like, Okay, we survived that. Hopefully it killed off
a lot of mosquitoes and fleas that we don't need exactly.
So yeah, so I really.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
People got to use their fireplaces and fire pits.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Oh my cat love. We have one cat that we
adopted last year and it was crazy because he will
actually sit up on the little brick footing of the
fireplace and he just lays there, full blaze. Yeah, slays there.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
He loves it. Yeah, that's warmth in that heat. So
North Florida, you're gonna be getting cold this weekend. It's
gonna be cool this weekend, forties, some thirties but nothing
really uh freezing, But it's gonna be back in the
high seventies and fifties at night. You're gonna get rain
next weekend. Central Florida, you're gonna be cool this weekend,
(04:46):
forties in the morning, and then it's gonna warm up
to the seventies, seventies all week fifties at low temperatures,
no rain for the next ten days, so you are
gonna have to use your irrigation system. And then South
Florida sunny. It's gonna beautiful weather. South Florida, you just
got it made seventies during the day, sixties at night,
(05:07):
no rain, So it's going to be a wonderful winter weekend, yes,
and week for the house. So you want to just
you know, I'm not gonna even read what to do
in the month of February because this is Super Bowl weekend.
Just take the weekend off. Stress at your plants. It's
enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Dust your shoulders off. We've made it through the horrible weather.
And then as soon as we give you the red
or green light, then you can pack up all of
your winter clothing. But you need to save it before
next year, because I swear I thought that last year
was going to be the last year that we had
four weeks of like forty and thirty degree weather non
stop and had to go buy new jeans and stuff
(05:45):
which I hate. But no, just go ahead and we'll
give you the green light whenever you can start packing
stuff up.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So that's that's it. And I think I'm coming down
with a cold, so thank you to my dear husband
for that. So please oologize if my voice breaks or
I go to be inquired for a minute so I
can cough. Take this week. Look at your plants. You
can remove the dead leaves, okay, cut the dead leaves off,
(06:12):
but don't hack across the stem. Okay, don't cut branches back.
You can spray your palm trees. Definitely spray your palm
trees the emerging spears coming out the top of the
palm tree with a copper fungicide. Spray your lawns. If
you're used to getting fungus in the springtime, you can
go ahead and use a copper fundicide on your plants.
(06:34):
Then wait for new growth. Once you see the new growth,
then you can prove the plants and this will be
the time to cut back all of the dead off
the plants. You want to be cutting your headges back. Well,
in the next few weeks, you'll be able to do that.
If it's Saturday morning. You're listening to Better Lawns and
Gardens from the Summit Responsible Solution Studios. I'm Teresa Watkins
and this is Florida's Talk and Entertainment Network. Welcome back
(07:10):
to Better Logs and Gardens. I'm Teresa Watkins. This has
been a week of trauma. We are here to help
you recover and recuperate and grow even better plants this spring.
We have with us right now, Dana Venrick. Dana, good morning.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
How are you this morning?
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Are you Teresa?
Speaker 1 (07:31):
We are great, We are good. I've got a little
bit of a cold here. But how did Quality Green
Special Surgery? How did DeLand do this week?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Well, we lost a few things with very little There's
a few plants that we enjoy having, you know, out
in the nursery, like like the evergladed tomatoes that look
like they're fried and all washed up. I've removed those.
I've taken a lot of plants out of the woods
(08:00):
that survived pretty well for the most part. And it's
hard to tell as you come in that there was
a frieze. Right now, I've been working hard to redecorate
the front with a brand new little shopping area like
a boomerang shape with hanging baskets around and an olive
tree in a nice box with flowers and a little
(08:25):
picket fence along the front. It looks really nice.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Oh wonderful.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You can tell is one little bear area in the
middle of the nursery where we haven't gotten all the
plants out of the barn yet.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Oh my goodness. So now the everglades tomatoes that kind
of up burned or frost you know, bit can the seeds?
Are the seeds still viable? Should people save those seeds?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Well, of course save the seeds. They weren't hurt at all.
They'll be coming up everywhere in no time. It's hard
to keep it good that every blades tomato back because
they are so aggressive. So most everything will come back,
believe it or not. We even had some little papaya
that survived along the native trail there in the wooded area.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Excellent. What about your mango tree.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
The mango's got some brown leaves, but the stems look
like they're okay, and so we left those on the edge,
you know, of the fence with the trees overhead, so
that helped protect them.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Well, explain to people if they can check their plants.
They can the leaves all look damaged and you know,
front frozen, but they can scrape back the bark layer
to check the cambium. And how would you suggest they
do that?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Well, just I would wait, probably wait until next week
and then because you'll have probably some progressive browning and
then check you with their fingernail and see if there's
some green underneath the bark there on that cambium.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Okay, so you definitely wait.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Then we wait to cut them back. We did. I
did cut back one variegated Jeff flea that looks so bad,
but I'm ready to protect it with blankets, freeze blankets
in just in case there's another frame, which I don't
expect exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
So now we've had we've had trauma at the Steel
residence and Lizzie's bananas. So are they going to recover?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yes, they will recover. So you could put a little
liquid fertilizer with a little nutrition to feed the roots.
It may look terrible, but probably even the stalk would
be okay because it could have been a lot worse.
I think the spear on the bananas we have is
still green, and so uh cut the leaves off. We'll
(10:51):
cut the leaves off later, you know, about the.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
First of March.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
In the meantime, all those big leaves help protect the
trunk and there is another frost believe it or not,
need you need to protect if there's even a frost.
Sometimes you'll have forty degrees even February of the first
of March, and it'll be a still night and you'll
have frost or cold thirty two degrees at the surface.
(11:16):
It'll be covered with ice the frost if that, if
that occurs, I found that if you run warm water
for a little bit to melt off that ice, you know,
before the sun hits it, just before the sun comes up,
you can prevent the frost damage.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Oh good, Okay, that's good to know. So I was
up at the villages yesterday and plants that did great.
Now this is in the villages data, the Phoenix canariensis
or Silvester's saw palmettos, needle palms, bottle brush. I was
surprised that that koonties and cabbage palms, riopy juniper buckswits,
(11:55):
and crape myrtles all did well. Just they didn't even
look like they they had anything wrong with them. Ones
that didn't fare so well with the pygmy date, some foxtails,
but then split leaf philodendrums got damaged, fire bush cast irons,
see maho hibiscus and gingers got damaged. But they should come.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Back right absolutely. We've we also had some good success
with no damage on other things. Let's see some of
the things we have really good success with. Or the
pineapple guava. You know they'll grow as far far north
as South Carolina. It's not a true guava. A lot
more cold heartiness in the tropical guava. The viburnums, ugustrooms,
(12:38):
crape myrtle, Simpson stopper, you can't stop that. It didn't
show a hint of damage. The magnolia's, holly's and the
same here. The bottle brush we kept out didn't have
any damage. The countia, the figs, Yeah, it looked really good.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Okay, so explained to me. This on the same street,
and this is up in the so you know it
got down in the low twenties, and so same location
on the front of the house, right at the entrance.
Some largest spara sparicus foxtail ferns didn't even have a
frond of brown on them. But then two houses down.
There were some that were completely brown. What was going
(13:18):
on there?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Well, there's so many factors involved. There's wind breaks, you know,
if you can cut the wind. That's a big part
of the damage. Is a strong wind that we had
that even accelerates the heat loss. All plants in a freeze,
everything is dropping a temperature and radiating out heat. If
(13:41):
you have some wind break, or you have some cover
overhead like a or the wall or a lot of stones,
everything is radiating heat and so you have enough heat
to counteract the heat loss from the temperature and the wind.
And it all depends a lot of times on the
(14:02):
exact location. It's just a little bit of change can
make a difference. Like if you go two feet inside
under the canopy, even oak, you won't have damage. To
two feet outside of the canopy, it'll be fried because
of all that you've got the radiation to the sky.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I saw that most definitely now, isn't it also too
We tell people to fertilize in the fall and you know,
get them prepared for winter. But isn't a little bit
they're not. They're not taking care of their plants and
their landscape correctly.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Well, we need to have plants that are fertilized gently
right now, I mean with good quality, fertilized with low
salty index. Look at the label, make sure it has
low chlorine.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Right But what I'm talking about in the fall.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Scent, if you have a high chlorine, if that's an
indication is salty, it's going to burn possibly, so you
is it very lightly, along with some organics that are
slow released that give more heartiness to the plant, like
if you can you know a little bit of a
black strap, glasses, a little bit of of some of
(15:16):
these things like seaweed.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
But what I'm talking about, Dana, is back in the fall,
when we were telling people now the time to fertilize,
to get them prepared for winter. Do you think some
of these plants, the lands the owners actually did do
the correct thing and fertilized with the proper organics.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Absolutely some did, and I'm sure they saw more cold heartiness.
Someone brought in some photographs of how beautiful their vegetables were,
you know, just yesterday. In fact, you know, when you
come in, when customers come in, they're going to see
a beautiful raised bed garden that I did not cover,
(15:57):
and you will not see damage because of the good nutrition,
and so that's really instructive. You know how much help
you can give plants if you give like slow release
or control release fertilizer gently in the fall and right
now until things are warm for sure in march, but
(16:19):
a general application of a good liquid fertilizer and granular
fertilizer will help tremendously with all the things that impart
cold heartiness.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Right because we're gonna be warming up, so we're gonna
see that growth and it's gonna be helpful to encourage it.
So what about watering? How much should people be watering
right now?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Well, you make sure it don't get too dry. Watering
is important because the roots are flushing now. It's every
day is getting longer. You know, the plants are ready
to wake up, like you mentioned about already. You see
little shoots starting to come out. Yeah, and so but
let it dry a little bit first. Don't over water either.
(17:01):
Otherwise you know, some of those brown fronds can get
mushy and start, you know, tart rot. You don't want that, right,
but check it as soon as it starts to a
little dry water. It's really critical to keep the roots healthy.
So they're going to push that new growth, you know,
from the tissue that's still alive at least at the
base of the plant.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So what about winter weeds. Is there anything that they
should be doing right now with winter weeds?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Well, right now, you know you've been helped a lot
by Mother nature because things like Spanish needle and many
others are just completely fried down to the ground. And
so that can help you get ahead with hand weeding
and also to get a head start. You know, when
they start to come up with selective herbicides right now,
(17:48):
you could put something like a pre emergent like pendumethylene
it like pre like prem or Halt. They're sold under
those brand names. Okay, but it's a perfect time because
you're not having any agressive weeds right now. You can
prevent a lot of that, and then when they do
come up, while they're young and tender, then you can
(18:08):
hit them with a selective herbicide like two four D
or some other chemistry based on the type of plant
or type of lawn.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
You have excellent so data where can tell people how
to get to quality green specialists and DeLand to come
see you get soil tests, find great native plants and
start planting some trees. It's great to be planting right now.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Absolutely, this is the time everything is waking up. Every
day is getting longer and warmer, and the plant you
can't hold the plants back. Just give the plants a
little encouragement. Come by and see what's possible. We have
a great selection of plants and the great selection of
fruit trees. You will be amazed, and also vegetables and herbs.
(18:57):
We're at three point thirty five West Michigan Avenue, very
close to downtown, just northwest of downtown. You really enjoyed.
It's like attraction to see and inspiration you know, for
your yard. You're home.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
There you go data, Thank you so much, say take care,
We'll see you soon. Quality Green Specialist Nursery is opened
seven days a week, Monday through Sunday. So get down
there and see him and check it out. So from
the Summit Responsible Solution Studios, 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. Welcome back to Better
(19:59):
Lawns and Gardens. Thank you for all the text messages.
If you have a gardening question one triple eight four
or five five two nine sixty seven. If you want
to talk specifically about the plants in your landscape what
to do with them, give me a call. I'd love
to help you. And if you'd like to text two
three six eight zero just like Pinky and Linda, Linda
(20:19):
in Zone eight B got down to nine degrees this week, Lizzie,
Oh that's crazy, that is crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, we've got quite a few text messages. We have
Andrea from Lady Lake and Christine from Cairo. And I
was like, oh, so we have people from Egypt listen
to us, and then Teresa's like, no.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
No, she's either in Cairo of Florida or Georgia or
Georgia one of the two. So we welcome everybody. We
have a lot of new listeners, which I'm really pleased
about this week. Lot a lot of new Facebook followers,
thank you so much. Those have arisen and on my
Facebook page, my personal one, Teresa Watkins, fl you can
(20:56):
follow me there and then also our bloom Garden tours
you can on that and that's all one word too
as well. Yeah, so uh, give us a call. One
triple eight four or five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eight zero. Sometimes
we get so many text messages that I don't catch
them all because they just keep scrolling up. And so
last week we had a Jacksonville text and I don't
(21:21):
think I responded to it. So she had some lantana
that was damaged in the freeze, the first freeze, and yes,
it should recover, not a problem. It may take a
month to six weeks, but lantana will probably come back.
But she also asked she has two very active dogs
and what kind of grass can she put down four
(21:45):
so the dogs can run on it? And there is nothing.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
The hay is probably the only thing that can handle
animals because we've had dogs our whole life. But it's
not going to be pretty.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Going to but compaction. Anytime something's compacted, dogs don't run
all over the place.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Though.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I'm always fascinated by cows. See the cow pasture and
you look at the footpath of the cows and it's
only like eight inches wide, right, And I'm going, how
do they get all four feet going in a row there?
And I mean, just look how then that that cow
pasture path is and dogs are the same way they
just do the same path running around over and over
(22:22):
and over again.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yeah, because we've got wet we have like a lat path, Yeah,
a lap a lap path around the corner of our house,
down the side of our property, across the front, and
then around our our two gates. It's it's hysterically funny
because it doesn't matter what you do or what you
put down.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
But yeah, they would. So mulch is kind of the
best thing for wherever dogs run a lot, you're not
gonna be able to grow a lot of good grass there.
You might even, you know, even think about just putting
a mulch path that they can run around. So I'm
sorry I didn't get to it last week. Always text back,
and you can always go to the Facebook page and
ask the questions. And we got a lot of great
(22:58):
comments this week on our page. So excuse the voice.
I am coming down with something. So thank you Andrea
for emailing or for texting that. That is great. And
so if you know someone who loves to garden, please
tell them about better lawns and gardens. And if you
only get the second hour, let's see on Sunday, well
(23:20):
tell the radio station you want both hours and if
you don't get both hours, you can always hear it
after the show is uploaded to Better Lawns dot com
and you can hear it on your free iHeart radio
app anytime. So it goes up into the podcast, goes
up into the internet and does well. So let's see
(23:42):
here I want to say about Peterson's Nursery. They have
a class today b YOC, which is bringing your own chair.
They're gonna have a class on vegetable gardens and so
that's at nine point thirty. That's Peterson's Nursery in Lakeland,
So you can check that out and they'd love to
(24:04):
have your stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yes, definitely the vegetable gardening for the spring. So this
is kind of something that you want to plan ahead
and not wait and not do like I do and
then start growing tomatoes and like two months after they
should have already been growing and it's like, oh, why
did I not have tomatoes? So yes, So go to
Peterson's Nursery. They their lectures start at nine thirty and
they have a requirement which is called b y C,
(24:26):
which means bring your own chair, so you're guaranteed you
to have a seat.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And I will be speaking there in March. Yes, so
you can come in the fourteenth. You can come and
see me. I would love to meet you and bring
me your your photos and I'll help you select plans
and yeah, design your landscape.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Definitely, and now hers and March fourteenth, if you're putting
on your calendar, Teresa will not be chatting until eleven
thirty because we have to get off air and then
drive down lak Yeah, get over there.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Eleven thirty and I'll be talking about coloring your world.
So that'll be a lot of fun. Okay, go to
Donna DeLand. Good morning, don How can I help you?
Speaker 4 (25:04):
Yes, I'd like to be fenceline with a shrub that
will grow fairly tall.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And what the uh, there's several of them. You can
do Lagustrum hedge. You can do the lagustrium shrubs. They
will grow to be about ten to eighteen feet tall,
depending on how you know much you cut them. Viburnams
will also get to be ten to eighteen feet tall.
And then photocarpus. Those are my three favorite shrubs for
(25:37):
Hedgestacarpus potocarpus p O d A or p O d
O c A R p U s no sounds good.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
For me.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Okay, last viburnums.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
What was that second one again?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Viburnhams the as in Victor I be, as in boy
you are and you am by Burnham.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
Okay, okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Okay, thank you for listening. Don appreciate that. That was
really easy. That's great, So are our text messages. Coconut
trees survive depends on where you are and how cold
it got and how long it stayed cold, So they
usually don't take freezes. So if you're up here in
central Florida and you have a coconut tree, I would
(26:30):
say it's probably not gonna make it. If it's down
in South Florida, down below Lake Cocachobe, it'll probably recover.
So just gotta let me know. So you need to
send a perfect text message, give me your name, where
you're located, and your question. That will help me out
better because I'll know exactly where you are and I
(26:51):
can give you more specific directions. So coconut palm trees,
they don't do well here in such Florida. In fact,
I saw a lot of damage. Pigmy day palms, queen palms,
foxtail palms all got damaged in this storm. They don't
take freezes, and those of you who insist on having them,
(27:12):
then you know, you just got to make sure that
you buy cheap ones so that you can throw away.
I did have the one of our callers last week.
He had a coconut palm and he was going to
dig it up and put it in his garage. That's
what I recommended. It's only five feet tall. He could
have done that. Hopefully he did, and it'll save it.
If it's Saturday morning, you're listening to Better Lawton Gardens,
(27:33):
I'm Teresa wat because this is Florida's talk and Entertainment Network.
(28:04):
Welcome back up Better Lawns and Gardens and now Teresa's
top five. So just about a week later after this
major bomb cyclone winter storm, fern Top five ornamental plants
not affected by the freeze or wind one African irises.
(28:24):
They still look great all the way up through Okalla.
Two Koonties native shrub wonderful, looks great, three junipers, four
camelias did lovely. Didn't affect the blooms too much. The
blooms some of them were already blooming and so they
fell off. But it looks great and the Number five
(28:45):
is lagustrum hedges laugustum trees. They look great. That's my
top five plants that were not affected by the freeze
or wind. Let's go to Bill in Ormond Beach.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
Good morning, Bill, Good morning trees. Hey, So, I've got
a bunch of heliconia and ginger and all, and and
I'm thinking, I know you said do not cut things back,
but those plants are shot and the new growth is
coming from the ground, you know, regardless whether their canopy
is there or not. Right, it would it be okay
(29:19):
to go ahead and cut it.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Yeah back, especially in Norman Beach. And I'm gonna tell
you it's gonna be good weather for the next couple
of weeks. So yeah, So Bill, individually, you can cut
your gingers and all of your rhizome plants back. If
they're already starting to come up with new growth, go
ahead and cut them down to the ground and let
them regrow.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Yeah, I've noticed the crime. I've already got three, four
or five new leaves.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Isn't that fascinating. I was so surprised at that because
they really got damaged. I saw them in the public
shopping parking area and they were already spitting out new
leaves just in the in three days. So that's some
pretty incredible.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
Yeah. So I was outside uncovering a lot of stuff
yesterday and I noticed that my Chinese fans palms got whacked.
I've never seen that before. I mean, I'm not going
to lose them, but all those fronds are going to
have to come off at some point, not now, but
(30:20):
they really got burned badly.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I'm surprised because up in the villages in Okalla they
were doing fine. I saw them, I got pictures of them.
But it may have been the wind. So it might
have been the wind damage because the wind got up
to fifty miles per hour.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Yeah, the combination of the two. And there's a garden
that I work at and they've got a bunch of
sugar palms and they did great.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, absolutely, it was fascinating.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
If you could grab me a picture of that, that
would be great.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Okay, Well, then also the you know, when I was
out yesterday, I saw I have a zenia that's actually
blooming right now.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Our greatest the figure that's a that's a little microclimate there.
That's wonderful. Thank you so much. Bill. Okay, take care,
bye bye. Let's go to Beverly and Tallahassee. Beverly, how
can we have morn in? Good morning?
Speaker 5 (31:15):
It's been so cold up here.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
How cold was it?
Speaker 5 (31:21):
It's so cold? My hoses froze.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Oh my goodness, yes, oh no cold.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
My bird bas became ice rinks. I got a big
bird bath that I've been scooping the water out in
the evening and waiting until the next morning to put
water in it.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Uh huh.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
The worst evening I scooped the water out. I got
a big one in a small one, and the next
morning I went out at about seven forty five and
filled up the bird baths with hot, hot water. And
the big one holds almost three gallons, and in fifty
(32:00):
minutes it was iced over the top.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Oh my goodness, gen thirty.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
Minutes, it was a solid cube.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
It's just been a remarkable year. I just never seen
it get that cold.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
Me neither. I've lived here sixty years and I've never
it's never been like it. Yeah, and so it's been
so cold. I didn't even go outside for four days.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Wow, that's really cold.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
There you go, which are really good.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
You're doing good nice here and talking to you all.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Right, Beverly, thank you so much on take care bye bye.
I love hearing from all our fans out there. That's wonderful. Yes, so, Lauri,
and say cloud says. My plumri are very large and
planted in the ground. I noticed the tops of frozen
and branches are laying over. But even all the way
down through the rest of the trunk, all the sap
(32:50):
is losing. And I push on the bark and you
could see liquid moving underneath it. When's it time to
cut back? While I do the same scratch test to
see if the bark is green. I guess I'm we're
the whole thing is gonna die.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I did enjoy the cooler air though, well, we enjoyed
it too. The cooler air, it was pretty good. My
northern clients were kind of freaking out. It's not supposed
to get this cold.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Oh yeah, no, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, But so so what you can do, Lorie? The
plumeria may have bitten the dust. Okay, just wait a
couple of weeks. See if you see new growth on it.
It may rot completely. Nothing really you can do to
save it. If it's gotten so frozen that it's it's liquefying, okay,
so just look, try and save a couple of branches
(33:33):
down at the bottom or where you can, and just
replant it next year. So hopefully, I mean you'll be
able to replant it, but I don't think the plumeria
is gonna make it. Let's go to Nancy and marenn Island.
Her text message says, I have a dressina which I
left outside during the coal snap. It's soggy and wilted.
(33:53):
My question is if it will recover or is it
too far gone? She said, thank you so much. She
loves the show. Well, thank you. See we love that
you listen. I don't know, we'll see if it comes
back from the ground. I would just again, wait a
couple of weeks, see if you see any new growth,
and if not, at the end of the month, cut
it down to the ground and let it re sprout again,
(34:16):
and it probably will. You'll probably see more new sprout
submerging from the sides, so that will be great. One
triple eight, four, five, five, two, nine sixty seven. If
you're in the area, we'd love to talk to you.
You can give us a call. We'd love to say
hi to all of our listeners worldwide. We have a
large base in Singapore, Australia, even in Norway. So we
(34:42):
just love everybody listening in and you can go to
our Facebook page and like it. We would love for
you to do that. Please share with your friends and
then also to my Facebook page is Teresa Watkins f
L and they can go to the iHeart Better Lawns
and Gardens Radio app.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yes good. What you can do is you can actually
go to Better Lawns dot com and you can catch
up on everything there. I know Teresa's newsletters are gonna
be coming out here shortly this week. You can get
caught up on some of the past ones if you
do good at Better Lawans dot com because I do
try to rotate those outs, so we have a little
bit of fresh every other week and it's what to
(35:20):
do and uh so there you know, you got the
you know, you've got a variety of stuff to go
and look out on bear LANs dot com.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
So in the next hour we have Dan McParland and
he has a wonderful Valentine's idea. Did you know Valentine's
Day is next week?
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah, it's like next Saturday.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right Saturday? Right, So if you don't have anything to
do next Saturday, you're gonna want to stay tuned. This
is a great gimme for all of the husbands and
for all the boyfriends that don't have a gift. This
is gonna be the perfect event and uh, it'll make
up for super Bowl weekend.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yes. And the thing yeah exactly. And the thing is
is that I know that uh what was it? They've
done this for a few years around the Valentine's to
Day and it's like been I've actually heard back from
people who have gone to this, and let me tell
you about the perfect gift. The perfect gift is to
be able to take them there and be able to
just you know, catch you know, catch that best gift
(36:20):
right there.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
So go back and yeah, so we're going to be
giving you all the information. Dan will be here. You
want to see that. We're also taking your calls again.
I apologize for my voice, this time for another losson
and more SIPs of my tea. Yes, and thank you
to Let's see who do I have?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
You have a Nancy from merrit Island, Lori from Saint Cloud.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Ristina and Cairo. She talked said about the Sambuki Elderberry syrup.
I'm good. Yes, look some of that up.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Yes, I've heard that's really really good stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So definitely you're not sick, so that'll be that'll be
great one triple eight four five five two nine sixty seven,
or you can text two three six eight zero. You
can also go to my website www. Dot she s
h E hyphen or dash Consulting dot com. You can
sign up for the newsletter.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
There.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
I talk about what to do each month in your landscape.
It's gonna be particularly important this month as just how
to get through and recover your landscape recovery this this spring. Yes,
and then also to my landscape design tips and landscape
malpractice how to know when to fire your landscaper, and
then also to my plant to the month. So I
(37:39):
have a lot of things in the.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Newsletter, Yes, and you'll like yes, And that's and that's
the good thing about that is the fact that you
know Teresa will recap and not call out the malpractice
of landscapers. Then yeah, I don't call anybody out, but
she does use really good examples and it kind of
makes you scratch your head and go, wow, my yard
does look like that. My yard has looked like bet,
(38:00):
maybe we need to brand attention to our you know.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Oh no, it's important. Sometimes sometimes mistakes are made, yes,
and it's better to be more aware.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah, and we also want to help promote Okay, I
know that we had a lot of this, uh the
crop damage done. So please let's go out and support
our local you know, the blueberry farms and strawberry farms
and the strawberry festivals that are coming up because they
may not have something for you to you know, buy
per se as in right then and there as in
fresh produce, but they have other things that you can
(38:30):
go help support with.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
From the Summit Responsible Solution Studios. This 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 (39:10):
DICTA in Distinct
Speaker 5 (39:19):
Pat
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Girlfriends: Trust Me Babe
When a group of women from all over the country realise they all dated the same prolific romance scammer they vow to bring him to justice. In this brand new season of global number 1 hit podcast, The Girlfriends, Anna Sinfield meets a group of funny, feisty, determined women who all had the misfortune of dating a mysterious man named Derek Alldred. Trust Me Babe is a story about the protective forces of gossip, gut instinct, and trusting your besties and the group of women who took matters into their own hands to take down a fraudster when no one else would listen. If you’re affected by any of the themes in this show, our charity partners NO MORE have available resources at https://www.nomore.org. To learn more about romance scams, and to access specialised support, visit https://fightcybercrime.org/ The Girlfriends: Trust Me Babe is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/. You can listen to new episodes of The Girlfriends: Trust Me Babe completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “iHeart True Crime+, and subscribe today!