Weeding by Example

Ah, weeds - maybe the #1 thing that discourages people from gardening. But weeds are interesting and become a lot easier to manage when you apply some basic IPM principles. Featured shrub: Sugar Tip rose of Sharon.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Coming to you from Studio A hereat proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's
time for the Gardening Simplified radio podcastand YouTube show with Stacy Hervella, me,
Rick Weist, and our engineer andproducer Adrianna Robinson. All right,
Stacey, weed need to talk.That's right. Weeds can be native or

(00:24):
non native, invasive or non invasive, and noxious or not noxious. Legally,
a noxious weed is any plant designatedby a federal, state, or
county government as injurious to public health, agriculture, recreation, wildlife, or
property. Now, the definition ofa weed is also relative. I've always

(00:47):
said to people, a rose bushis a weed if it's planted in the
middle of a football field. Thatis true. And there are actually some
very severe rose weeds like multiflora roseexactly. Or you have weeds that are
aquatic, terrestrial, or parasitic,like daughter such a strange weed. And
if you want to learn more aboutthese weeds, you could go to the

(01:11):
USDA Federal Noxious Weed List. Now, of course there's the opposite that is
true, and there are people whocelebrate weeds. My friend Lisa Rose,
she wrote the Urban Foraging book,is out there eating burdocks, stinging nettles,
pigweed, and bittercress all the time. And of course weeds are home

(01:32):
to insects like that fascinating spittlebug.I know you like insects too, Stacy,
and the spittlebug just fascinates me.They have this white foam that their
nymphs produce, and it looks remarkablysimilar to a gob of human spit.
That is really the only way Ican put it. They like to end

(01:53):
up on Canada thistle, and somepeople surmise, well, that's where mom
lays her eggs because it offers anatural prickly protection against predators. I guess
all said weeds are fascinating. Weedsare fascinating, and you know you mentioned
a weed that I truly don't like, stinging netle. I have an adverse

(02:14):
reaction to singing netle. Like it, I mean everyone, it bothers everybody,
but like if it pricks my finger, the finger goes down for twenty
four hours and it's an extremely uncomfortablefeeling. But I have gained a new
appreciation for singing netle this year,in fact, because it serves as a
larval host for the red Admiral butterfly. Oh wow. And here in West
Michigan we have had a banner springfor red admiral butterflies. You know,

(02:36):
I mean they were every They stillare, but they were everywhere. And
I realized one of the reasons thatthey can be out so early is because
stinging nettle is so prevalent out inthe woods and wild areas here, and
so it gives them a source.They can be out, and they can
mate, and they can get thoseyoung out there and get them fed real
quick. So I had a verynew appreciation for it after learning that,

(02:57):
and thus the reason for this showour favorite, and I would not favorite.
It's still interesting one. You know. It's all about perspective. Though.
On weeds, I mentioned the Canadathistle. If you think about Canada
thistle or a thistle such an importantplant to American goldfinches, you will see,
as a matter of fact, onYouTube, you'll see a picture that

(03:20):
I took of finches perched on oneof these thistle plants. Not only do
they like the seed, but theyuse the plant for nesting. And this
is a bird that nests later onin summer, not in the spring.
So you develop an appreciation for weeds. I have always said that if I
started a rock band, and I'veoften thought of starting a rock band,

(03:44):
it would be called Teasel and theDames Rockets. Now Dame's Rocket is a
either a loved or hated prolific ceederin the landscape. Has a fabulous botanical
name Hesperis matronalis, I believe ishow it's pronounced, and you'll see that
along the roadways as you drive byat fifty five to seventy miles per hour,

(04:05):
but very very colorful. And thenthere's wild teasel. Now, this
one's got a great botanical name,Dipsicus silvestros. Yeah, that looks like
the caption you would see below Wiliecoyote in a road Runner episode. It's
also known as barber's brush or churchbroom. But therein also I find the

(04:28):
finches just dancing and playing on topof that weed, which is a non
native. Yes, it is nonative. It was actually brought over with
early American colonists because they use itfor woolf processing, and they use it
as culms to process wool and otheranimal hair into fiber. And if you
think from just those few plants thatwere brought over way back when it has

(04:49):
certainly made itself well at home herein North America, no question. And
that's because just like Dame's rocket,weeds have explosive seed capabilities. Think about
garlic mustard and how that has spread. They're very, very competitive, like
the wicked weed of the West,spotted nap weed. There's another one that

(05:13):
comes into the country around the eighteenhundreds. It's a lollopathic, meaning it
alters the soil chemistry around it andinhibits the growth of other plants. When
it comes right down to it,Stacey weeds are highly competitive. That's why
they are successful. That's why theyare weeds and not garden plants. Is
they can outcompete other plants. Andwhether that is that they are less finicky

(05:35):
about soil or conditions or some adaptation, there can be so many of those
adaptations that they can have that justmake them a better competitor. And that
is one case where being a bettercompetitor is not a good thing. You
nicely summarize the whole show right therein one paragram. So let me give
you this week's limb. A rickweed related. Is a weed a weed

(05:58):
indeed? Or is it about respectivea flora pedigreed success guaranteed. Do you
view it as defective? Yes?Is a weed a weed indeed, and
is my opinion objective. I'm goingto proceed not be weak need, I
guess I'll just be selective. Inother words, there are weeds out there

(06:20):
that we love, and on thetop of my list, stacy has to
be milkweed. Oh of course,I mean, I you know, I
wouldn't if I was making a listof weeds that A love, I probably
wouldn't have even put milkweed on itbecause I don't think of it as a
weed anymore exactly so. But youare right. It is weed is right
there in the name, which kindof just goes to show you why so
many people do have a bad relationshipwith it, even though it does so

(06:41):
much and it is native, youknow. But yeah, I have ceased
thinking of milkweed as a weed myself. In talks that I give to folks
about plants, and when we getinto the subject of weeds, one of
the things I bring up is thatwe all remember in twenty twenty when we
had the toilet shortage, and that'snot the first time it's happened. In

(07:03):
nineteen seventy three, it happened JohnnyCarson mentioned it on the Tonight Show and
there was a run on toilet paperin the stores. The point is,
I make a list of these naturalweeds that you can use as an alternative
to toilet paper, like giant mullin. Now, I like that plant because

(07:23):
I think it's highly attractive. Ialso agree also known as verbaskom. Yes,
that is a plant that I doactually really enjoy. It is very
stately when it blooms. It's toa biennial. So the first year you
get that beautiful fluffy white leaf rosette, and then the next year you've got
this gorgeous candelabra of yellow. Butthat's also a non native and it's called

(07:45):
also cowboy tissue paper. Oh Iknow that. Yeah, that's the common
name for the plant. So youknow, stick with mullen. Then,
of course there's other favorite weeds likedandelion's joe pie weed borage. Now that
one can get out of hand.It can very easily get out of hand.
It doesn't usually go too far.It takes a long time to march.

(08:05):
But if you have it in yourgarden, you have it in your
garden exactly and for people trying togrow along. Some people believe clover is
a weed. There are other peoplewho are will are you, No,
clover is not a weed, anitrogen fixing plant. But that's got to
be on the list of favorite weedsper Slaine and edible weed. And I've

(08:28):
got a favorite weed just because Ithink it's fun and it's funny. Sticky
Willie. This weed is so stickythat it sticks to you. Interesting weed.
And have a picture for our YouTubeviewers, Rick. This may be
the first time we have to cometo blows in the studio here. Because
I despise this weed. I cameup with my own name for it.

(08:50):
Yes, it is laceration weed becauseit lacerates your skin. So it's a
weak weed. Now, that's thenice thing about it is it's not hard
to pull when you have it,Like the stem that comes out of the
ground is very wimpy, so it'seasy to pull. Ish, it's easy
ish to pull. But if youare pulling it and you have like bare
arms or bare hands and it brushesup against your skin the wrong way,

(09:11):
it just lacerates it and it reallyhurts. It's a fascinating weed. It
is it's an interesting weed. Thename I have more often heard for it,
because laceration weed was my own creation, is cleavers. Oh okay,
because it cleaves to you. Andyes, it is very difficult, not
as bad as like a cactus oryou know, something jumping cat, jumping
choya that they have out west,but like it's not pleasant and it will

(09:33):
stick to you and not only theplanet itself but the seeds too. Making
a note not to bring up StickyWillie anymore. A few more weeds to
the list. Pigweed because it's edible, poke weed because I like the Elvis
Presley song Polk Salad Annie, andit wins the award for the most asked
about weed every year in fall.You, if you are a horticulturist,

(09:54):
I guarantee and people know it.I guarantee you. Come September, everyone's
going to be asking you what isthat plant? And of course Rosa rugosa
in some parts of the country peoplecall it beach tornado invasive, whereas I
love the plant, I love therose hips. So we end this segment
with a quote of the week,and it comes from no one else but

(10:16):
William Shakespeare. He says, Iquote my Uncle Gloucester. Small herbs have
grace. Great weeds do grow apace, and since methinks I would not grow
so fast because sweet flowers are slowand weeds make haste. So true,
We're going to see how Stacey tiesthis all together in Plants on Trial,

(10:37):
and that's coming up next here onthe Gardening Simplified Show. Proven Winter's Color
Choice Shrubs cares about your success inthe garden. That's why we trial and
test all of our shrubs for eightto ten years, making sure they outperform
everything else on the market. Lookfor them in the distinctive white container your

(11:00):
local garden center. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified
Show, where we are talking aboutweeds and so of course before we launch
in today's Plant on Trial. Youknow, I feel like we owe our
listeners a little bit of you know, take home lesson here about weeds rather
than just you know, I mean, it's fun to talk. I could

(11:20):
talk about weeds quite a lot.It was a chore that I hated as
a child, but now it's actuallymy favorite garden shore. I'd call that
weeding by example. I do enjoyweeding because it gets you around the plants.
You can tend to observe a lotof things. You learn a lot
about plants by weeding. But thekey to keeping weeding enjoyable is to making

(11:41):
sure that you don't have any weedsthat are very difficult or unpleasant to manage.
And so I wanted to talk brieflyabout a concept that we talk a
lot about on the show, whichis IPM Integrated Pest Management. And we
talk about that a lot in termsof pests like bugs and mammals and things
like that, but it does applyfor weeds just as much as it does

(12:01):
for awe for animal tests, andit works specifically, I think from a
weed management perspective, if it helpsif you know what kind of weed you
are dealing with, if it's aperennial weed, if it's an annual weed.
You know, if you have anannual weed and you are lazy or
time crunched or something like that,all you really have to do is prevent

(12:22):
that weed from going to seed.You don't necessarily have to pull out all
of the weeds individually, and thatis why fall is such an important time
for weed control. Yeah, makesure it doesn't go to seed now,
some spring annuals like chickweed. Ofcourse those would be long gone and have
already spread their seed by fall.So it helps to know the life cycle

(12:43):
of the weed that you are dealingwith, to spend a little time looking
it up. And you know,because weeds are so ubiquitous as reck and
I just discover they can have alot of different common names. But you
start googling, you find that scientificname and then you're able to really search
by that and to dive in andget more specific advice. If you have
a perennial weed, you know,you just really have to invest in the

(13:05):
time and effort to get it outof there, because otherwise it's going to
keep coming back and coming back fromthat same root system and getting worse every
year. And you know, oneweed that I've been hearing a lot about,
especially here in West Michigan, althoughI think it's it's pretty well established
throughout Lower Michigan is Epipactus helleborine,also known as the uh wild orid,

(13:26):
the wild orchid. Yeah. Now, people, some people here might be
like freaking out to think that wehave an orchid in Michigan that is a
weed, But we do, wereally do, and This is a horrible
weed, very very difficult to control. It is a perennial weed. It
makes a huge root mass, notreally so much a root mass, I

(13:46):
guess, is like a bunch ofrunners. And it's a really cool looking
plant. So when you see itcome up in your garden, you think,
Ooh, that's cool. I gotsomething really cool growing here. And
then you know, you look itup and you're like, ooh, it's
an orchid. I'm growing an orchid. But you are growing the weed ediest
orchid that is going to make thebiggest pest of itself in your garden.
So my advice if you have epipactto celebrain also known as wild orchid or

(14:07):
false helibor I think some people callit, do not let that thing go
to flower, or if you letit go to flower, because you just
want to see the flowers. Althoughfor as far as orchid flowers go,
it's not actually all that interesting.It's a little interesting. Orchid seeds have
no endosperm, so when you talkabout a seed, like you think about
like a bean seed, all ofthat starchy bean is the endosperm that sustains

(14:31):
the seedling as it grows. Ifyou have a seed without endosperm, like
an orchid, it's very very tiny, it doesn't have all that extra mass,
and so the seeds are essentially likedust. So if you let this
orchid go to seed, you're goingto end up with thousands and thousands and
thousands of those dust like seeds thatare going to go all over your yard,

(14:52):
all over your neighbor's yard, andthen all over your neighborhood and just
make this more and more of aproblem. So if you don't have if
you're out in the garden and yousee this plant and you don't have the
tools or the time to dig thewhole thing out, because it does take
time, and that you know,you can look up how big the root
systems are at least not g itback and prevent it from going to see
the Sometimes having those little tips andtricks absolutely can really help you make a

(15:15):
difference in your outlook on weeding aswell as your time management. Understanding what
a winter annual is or in thecase of this weed, not trying to
pull it up because you're just propagatingit by doing that. Yeah, it's
a it's a big problem. Ihad a guy down the road who asked
me how to deal with it.His whole yard was full of it,
and I told him to move well. He asked for my professional opinion.

(15:39):
It's it is not a weed thatis easy or fund to match so anyway,
so just so you know, ifyou're looking out for that, you
can deal with it slightly better.But let's get to plants on trial.
You know, there were so manydirections I could have gone with this today.
I thought to myself, I couldgo with something that suppresses weed,
that's like a groundcover, so youknow, it doesn't let it grow.

(16:00):
I could grow. I could gowith a sterile version of an of an
invasive plant. But I went witha plant that I would say, if
I'm talking about it to someone inreal life, one of the proven winter's
varieties of this particular plant. Theyall say, oh, I love rows
of sharon, but does it setseed? Because so many people have had

(16:21):
so many bad experiences with older varietiesof Rosa Sharon seeding all over with their
yard. And you know, inurban areas you will see Rosa sharon growing
in alleyways, broken up sidewalks.It's a plant that can really get everywhere.
It's not quite so bad here butcertainly if you have had an older
rows of Sharon in your yard,you know it's going to have a whole

(16:44):
bunch of babies right below it thatyou're going to have to deal with.
And a lot of times woody weedslike a rosa Sharon seedling can be harder
to deal with than something like agrass. It can just pull up.
So we do have one completely sterileso it does a seed, but none
of the seeds are viable. Onecompletely serial rows of Sharon, and that
is polypetite. But we had alreadyfeatured polypetite rows of Sharon as a plant

(17:08):
on trial last summer, so Ihad to go with our second close contender,
which is sugar tip rose of Sharon. Have you seen this plant?
I have seen it. Very interestingplant. Yes, it is a very
interesting plant. So not only isit very very low to no seed,
it is a variegated rows of Sharon, not a plant that most people think
of as having a variegated option.And it's not just variegated. Now I

(17:32):
know, well, variegation can bevery polarizing, right. It's very polarizing
for me because I don't universally likeor dislike variegated plants. It's a very
much a case by case very busy, yes, but I actually do love
this plant. And each leaf isreally interesting. So it has two tones
of green, kind of a darkgreen and a mint green, and then
the edge is usually white or sometimesit's swirled within as well, So each

(17:56):
leaf is very, very different.It makes it really fun to look at.
And there's something to me about theproportions of these three colors that prevents
it from being overly busy or overlyshowy in the landscape where it's constantly like
grabbing your eye or competing with otherplants. And that's a very good thing,
I think for a rose of Sharon, because you know, as much
as people do like roses of Sharon, let's face it, they're only in

(18:18):
flour for you know, maybe twomonths. So you're gonna want something that
does a little bit more in thatyou know, spring to late July timeframe,
and so I think sugartip is agreat choice. Now let's get to
the flowers, because they are beautiful. When this plant is in bloom,
it's so pretty it almost makes myteeth hurt. It has like a it

(18:41):
has like a candy sweetness. Theflowers are like the most like perfectly pink
color, like something that like youthink about pink. It's like that color
of pink, just beautifully pink.And they look like a little powder puff.
I mean, I would say thisplant is just like one of and
I mean this in the best way, one of the girliest looking plants.

(19:02):
It's like the classic, like whatyou would think of so beautiful pink flowers
a fashion east. It's a fashionista, yes it has it definitely is very
stylish, I think, and especiallywhen it's used correctly. So these pink
flowers are fully double. They looklike a powder puff. Just to continue
on with this theme, so they'refull, they look like a little pink

(19:22):
powder puff. And all of thoseextra petals result from the facts that the
reproductive organs have been transformed into petals, and that's how you get that full
flower, and that's why you getfew to no seeds. Fascinating if you're
keeping score at home, Stacy's talkingabout sugar tip rose of Sharon. Possibly
something you may want to plant infront of your office if you're a dentist,

(19:45):
Yes, there you go. Sopretty. It makes your teeth hairt
and so it does. Flower likeI said, so it's not going to
set a lot of seed, andit is a slow growing rosa sharing and
I think that's another thing that willa lot of people will appreciate about it,
because other roses share and get huge, you know, eight to ten
feet tall and wide. So,Stacy, who's the plant breeder genius who

(20:08):
invented this plant? Well, that'sa good question. This is one of
the few plants in the proven Winner'sline that came from a home gardener.
Awesome. Yeah, so we don'thave a lot of those. I mean,
we certainly hear from people who getunusual things popping up in their yard
and they reach out and very oftenwhat happens is that those are what is
called sports, and a sport isa branch mutation. So you've probably seen

(20:30):
this here and there before in yourlife where you'll be looking at a shrub
or a tree and all of asudden, one branch will just be doing
something crazy. It'll be variegated,or it'll be like short and compressed,
or the flowers on it will bea different color. There's a lot of
different ways this can look. Andso basically what's happened is the genes in
that part of the plant have justsomehow switched and made that plant slightly genetically

(20:52):
different from the plant that it wasgrowing on. And typically when a sport
like this an especially if it's variegated, it's not stable. It really can't
live off the mother plant. Sothey send it to us. You know,
we say, hey, this iscool, let's trial it, but
it can't make it through a trialsbecause it can't live on its own.
And sugar Tip, for whatever reason, has the unique ability to survive completely

(21:15):
on its own with almost no reversions. I can't say I have ever seen
a reversion on the plants in ourgardens. And it's slow growing, but
it's still a good vigorous grower,so it resolves I think a lot of
the problems that people have with rosesof Sharon not that attractive outside of their
bloom season two fest growing ceed Sugartipis a great choice if any or all

(21:38):
of those are your complaints about rosesof Sharon. So we're gonna put all
the information and photos, of courseof sugar Tip rows of Sharon on our
website, Gardening Simplified on air dotcom. You can see it there,
and of course you can also finda retailer if you would like to add
a sugar tip rose of Sharon toyour garden. This season, we're gonna
take a little break. When wecome back, we're opening up the garden
mail Bag, so stay tuned atproven winner's color choice. We've got a

(22:07):
shrub for every taste and every space. Whether you're looking for an easycare rose
and unforgettable hydrangea, or something newand unique, you can be confident that
the shrubs and the white containers havebeen trialed and tested for your success.
Look for them at your local gardencenter. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome
back to the Gardening Simplified Show,where we are devoting the rest of the

(22:30):
show to the mailbag. You know, last week we had three amazing guests
and we were so excited to bringthem to you, three hummingbird experts.
I learned so much, but wedidn't get a chance to answer any listener
questions. And we are deep inlistener questions in a season, are we
not, And so we decided tojust double it up today and answer a
whole bunch of your questions. Butbefore we get to them, well,

(22:51):
first of all, before we getto them. If you have a question,
you can reach us at help HLPat Gardeningsimplified on air dot com,
or just go to Gardening Simplified onanar dot com. There's a contact form
there where you can fill it outand reach out to us. You can
even attach some photos if you needsome diagnostics or other assistance, and we
will do our best to help you. And if your question lends itself to

(23:12):
being read on air, we willcertainly do that as well. But we
also love hearing from you when youdon't have a question but just want to
celebrate something in love hearing from that. And we heard this week from Donna,
who a few weeks ago, Iwas talking about my solar fountain.
I said it was almost life changing. So I bought this little solar fountain

(23:33):
that floats in a bird bath.Yes, and I do. I love
it. It's so cool, andyou know, it was inexpensive, and
it transformed this bird bath that thebirds didn't really like because it was way
too deep, into something that wereally like. And now the birds really
like it too because it attracts themmore because of the sound. They can
actually perch on the little floating fountainitself. It's just win win when so

(23:56):
Donna writes, we love the littlesolar fountains and bought several before we gave
up here in Pabulon, Nebraska,the raccoon insisted on chewing the floating material.
I don't know if they witnessed thator if there was just like wet
footprints, wet raccoon footprints leading awayfrom the bird bath. But the raccoon
apparently chewed up the solar fountain,so they're going to try to figure out

(24:19):
a better solution. They have apond with a waterfall that serves many creatures,
but the solar fund was very funto watch. We wish you much
success. Enjoy and Donna shared apicture of her beautiful pond, which you
can see if you are on YouTube, and if you're not on YouTube,
you can go to YouTube, oryou can just go to Gardening Simplified on
your dot com and we will puta picture of Donna's pond in Nebraska there

(24:41):
for you to enjoy. And Iwould make a suggestion, and that is
that the raccoons were probably after thewater and then in their evening we'll call
it trash activities. They get upthere and they find something to chew on,
which is what raccoons do. Thereare a lot of great YouTube videos
to watch, fascinating of how raccoonswill approach a bird bath, put their

(25:03):
front paws on the bowl, andthen lift themselves up to take a drink.
Well, if that bird bath isn'tstable. I know, having worked
in the garden center industry, we'vehad a lot of customers who have replaced
bird bath tops because of raccoon.Oh no, no, I'm worried.
That would be my guest. I'ma little concerned about mine now, because

(25:26):
if a raccoon tries to hoist itselfup on this bird bath, it will
certainly fall and break, and Iwould be very sad. We ran all
kinds of tests. At night,we set out deluxe pizza, hot dogs,
and Cajun chicken. And the nextmorning the Cajun chicken and hot dogs
were left. But the raccoons atethe deluxe pizza. Was it because it

(25:48):
was deluxe? Like it was justa cheese pizza? They wouldn't have you
know, maybe we should try thatall right? What else? We got
an mail bag Rick Randy's having troublewith some new hydrange I need your expertise
about my proven winner's big band hydrangea. The first beautiful blooms are fading drastically,
and I want to prune the bloomsoff. Should I do this?

(26:08):
And how do I do it?Yeah? So if you will put pictures
of that Randy sent of his provenwinner's big band hydrangs, they are indeed
looking really sad, And so whatyou'll see on these photos is that the
blooms have really wilted dramatically. Sothe rest of the plant isn't really wilted,
but the blooms are just really sadand weepy. And very often so

(26:30):
when a bloom of hydrangea bloom agesnaturally, what will happen is it just
kind of dries out as it goes. It doesn't usually shrivel like this.
So to me, this almost certainlyindicates water stress, I agree. And
whether it was as a result oftoo much water or too little water,
I can't say, because it oftendoes the same thing. And when I
looked at the picture, I agreewith you completely, Stacy. When I

(26:52):
looked at the picture in the gardencenter on a hot sunny day, and
if we have some watering issues inthe garden center. That's where I first
see it is in the flowers.Yeah, so Randy, before you cut
them off, I would say,take a look at that root well,
think about how much you have beenwatering it. If you feel like it
maybe has not been as much asit should be, I would recommend before

(27:17):
you cut them off that you justgo ahead and fill up a big tub
with water and bottom water those plantsto thoroughly saturate them, and those flowers
could potentially recover. So I wouldtry that before and then once you get
that root well thoroughly saturated again,hopefully the whole plant will perk up.
But do be aware again that ifit was overwatered, which I think is
unlikely in a nursery container, thatthey might just be gone for good.

(27:44):
But if you want to prove deadheada big leafhydrange, it's very simple.
So you just hold the flower inyour hand and then trace the stemback to
where the first full set of leavesis emerging. So what you'll see if
you look under the hydrange of floweris there's usually one sort of false set
of leaves, two little leaflets underneaththe bloom, and if you follow the
stem back a little further, thereis one full set of leaves, and

(28:06):
you just want to snip that stemright above that and then with a reblooming
hydro angel like, let's stance,big band, you know, keep it
growing vigorously, don't you know?Make sure it doesn't get any water stress.
Maybe a little bit of fertilizer asyou're fertilizing your annuals, and you
should start seeing new flower buds formwithin about six to eight weeks so you
have another chance to enjoy them.There you go. Doc asks, hey,
guys, I love your show.I never miss an episode. I

(28:29):
garden in Central North Carolina seven Bnewly classified as eight B. I have
a question about my purple Veronica.I love this planet brings all sorts of
pollinators to my garden. This yearhas not been an exception. However,
I noticed that this spring has continuedto flower nicely at the top, but
has a good deal of dead foliageat the base of the plant starting to

(28:53):
look leggy. What gives? AndDoc goes on to tell us it's been
a pretty mild winter, normal rainfall, nice spring, and asking if possibly
like with tomato plants when you havethe splashing soil on the foliage whether or
not it's a fungus problem. AndStacey, I think Doc is definitely on

(29:15):
the right track with veronica there.Yeah, I agree. So he does
say it's in full sun, sothat is very good, because of course
it wasn't in full sun. Thatwould be our first suspicion. And again
Doc also set pictures so you cansee that the plants look gorgeous on top
of the flowers look fine, butthe base of the plant is all brown
and bare. And I also suspectsome sort of fungus here. It's telltale.

(29:36):
It could be leaf spot fungus.It could be downy mildew, powdery
mildew, gray mold, any ofthose that will cause that defoliation at the
base of the plant. So Ireally think that there's also a rust that
veronicas can get. So ultimately,even though we just rattled off a whole
bunch of different names of fungal diseases, it doesn't really matter which one it

(29:57):
is all that much because they allhave essentially the same treatment plan, which
is to say that you're going towant to remove any affected foliage now,
because by removing that foliage and discardingit don't compost it. If you have
a compost pile, by removing itand discarding it, you are taking away
a lot of that material. Thefungal spores themselves are going to emerge through

(30:19):
that leaf, So by taking thataway and discarding it, you eliminate the
possibility or at least reduce it forthat disease to continue to spread. And
so this is really important, especiallygoing into fall. But it's not bad
to do that now. Now theplant does look pretty healthy, and there
are plenty of fungal diseases out therethat a plant can have and not really
be you know, severely set backby right, they can walk it off.

(30:41):
Take it for me, Doc,I'm a fun guy, and let
me tell you. A good aircirculation, try to avoid watering over the
top, and good clean up thisfall. All three of those things will
make a big difference. And youknow, in terms of air circulation,
that's a good point, Rick,because this is a big, beautiful patch
of veronica that Doc has nerdured overthe years, So it might be time

(31:02):
to divide it and that would helpall the plants that you can get out
of that patch to get a littlemore air circulation and hopefully reduce this in
the future. But I don't thinkthat that it's a death knell for your
Veronica. I just think you needto keep a little closer eye on the
foliage now and especially going into fall, and maybe put it on your spring
choor list to divide it next year. Every time I hear Veronica, I

(31:23):
think of Veronica Lodge. She wasthe fashionista in the band The Archies.
Do you remember that the Archies.It was a cartoon. It was from
the sixties or seventies. Archie Yeah, Archie comics, Yeah, Veronica Love.
I think of the Elvis Costello song. This might be a generational things.
All right, let's move on toLaura. Says Hi, Stacey and

(31:45):
Rick, thanks for your cheery andencouraging advice. Is my rosa goner?
She sent us a picture. Thismother of pearl rose was doing well,
growing rapidly. Now it seems sickwith yellowing leaves. So let's see if
we can help Laura. Well,I think it is important that Laura goes
on to say it's stems were tooweak to support it, and it has
since toppled, and you'll see thatin these photos, and that to me

(32:09):
certainly implies that it's in too muchshade, and a lot of people don't
realize that shade sort of you know, it compounds over time. Sites tend
to become shadier unless you lose atree, so trees grow surrounding plants grow.
So I honestly think that this plantis in too much shade. I
think that the leaning is evidence ofit, and the yellow spots that you're

(32:30):
seeing are the early signs of blackspot. So I think that I would
actually just go ahead and dig thisthing up and put it in a sunnier
spot. You know, while you'redoing that, a lot of that infected
foliage is just going to naturally shedjust through the process of digging it.
And I think if you can finda full sun spot for this, I
wouldn't worry too much about the blackspot. Just go ahead and clean up

(32:52):
the leaves the best you can.I think if you get it back into
some sun, it should probably beokay, especially if your other plants are
doing fine. I agree, andit's the tell tale sign of black spot.
We don't want to be the bearerof bud news, so I agree
with Stacy. Prune it back andmove it. Yep, let's do it
all right, We're gonna take alittle break and then we come back.
We've got more maldag questions, soplease stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show

(33:21):
is brought to you by proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning
flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialedand tested for your success so you enjoy
more beauty and less work. Lookfor Proven Winners, Color Choice Shrubs and
the distinctive white container at your localgarden center. Welcome back to the Gardening
Simplified Show. A bonus segment ofyour questions, and thanks so much for

(33:45):
sending us questions and pictures. Keepthem coming, send them to Gardeningsimplified on
air dot com and Stacy. Wegot one from Brian in North Carolina.
I love this. I love thesebefore and after kind of pictures. These
are from people that I endearingly callentremneurs, and that's a compliment. I

(34:07):
call myself an entremneur. Also greatpictures from Brian. Oh yeah, so
good, got it. You gottasee this, so definitely take the time
to look at us on YouTube ifyou aren't already, or go to the
website and see Brian's photos. Becausethey are just inspiring. Outstanding job,
Brian, you inspired us. Sohe says that he is in Zone eight

(34:27):
A, North Carolina. He's beenworking on the transformation for about a year
now. They moved into their housein June thirty, twenty twenty three,
so he wasted no time. Loveto hear that, Brian, and these
pictures were just taking this past May. He can't wait. He can't wait
to see everything leap at year threeand he's especially excited for his Rainbow Rhythm,
Daily's Little line Punch hydranges and ofcourse Summarific Hardy Hibiscus to come into

(34:52):
bloom and he's going to give usanother update in July. So amazing work,
Brian. Love that you had beforeand afters. And if you're lacking
in garden inspiration or motivation, definitelytake a look at what Brian has accomplished.
And Brian, you're preaching to thechoir because both Stacy and I are
big fans of Summerrific Hardy Hyde business. You know it all right, Mike's

(35:13):
got a question. He bought twoLet's dance can do Hyde ranges and immediately
put them into pots. They didwell in their location, so he overwintered
them, and they're showing a tonof new growth in buds. He says.
I know, I'm not supposed toprune these, being a hydrange of
Macrophilis serrada hybrid, so an oldwood blooming that you wouldn't prune. But
I wanted your opinion, based onthe attached photos. Should I literally leave

(35:34):
them untouched? Will the new growtheventually hide last year's stems? I'm in
zone seven eight. I loved thepicture and it clearly illustrates the dilemma that
many people have with spent blooms onhyde ranges and stacy, I say,
go ahead and clip them off.You don't have to hack the plant all
the way back, but doing somedead heading, I see no problem with

(35:57):
that. Oh, absolutely, Sowhat you're seeing in Mike's photo here is
last year's stems that had some dieback, and those didn't get cut back.
So now a bunch of new growthhas come, It's covered in blooms.
It's gonna look amazing. There's absolutelyno reason to keep any of that
old wood that is not alive onit anymore. It's just taking away.
Will the plan eventually overtake it?Yeah? Probably but why look at all

(36:19):
those dead sticks in the middle ofall your nice plant right now. You
could have done this, you know, back in April or May, when
your plant started leafing out and itwas clear where it was alive and where
it wasn't. It probably would havebeen a little easier. So you're gonna
have to be a touch fIF finickyear now than you would have been back
then. But by all means,get those printers out, clean that thing
up, and start enjoying your hydrangea. You bet you, I agree.

(36:40):
Lauren's writing to us about yarrow.This is a plant that I love to
talk about. I love yarrow,so do I? All right? And
uh so, now that we gotthat out of the way, everyone loves
y'all, but Lauren's Laura, acat in neighbor in Lauren's neighborhood, especially
loves zerrow. She says, Hello, I have a yarrow bush that I
planted last year and it came backbeautifully this year. We have a few

(37:01):
neighborhood cats running around that like touse it as their hideouts. They have
trampled all through my plant and thebranches are bent over. Is it worth
cutting it back to see if itgrows back this summer or should I let
it go? And if you lookat the pictures that Lauren sent, it
literally looks like some cats just straightup made a bed in the middle of

(37:22):
her yarrow. I looked at thepictures and immediately I thought, you know
the problem here, Lauren is youbought those plants from a cat a log
and that's why now it's kitten allover your face. Now that's frustrating,
I'll tell you what, because theydo a lot of trampling. Now.
The first thing I thought about,Stacy when I saw the picture, aside

(37:44):
from those bad jokes, was theChelsea chop, because I think, well,
let's get this out of the wayfirst. Yarrow is also known as
achillea. Is that how you pronounceit? Yeah, I'd say achillia,
okay, thank you. So withachillea, I think that that is one
of the perennials that is a candidatefor a Chelsea chop. Would you agree

(38:06):
with that or I would agree Ithink one of the So a Chelsea chop
basically just means that around the timeof the Chelsea Flower Show in the UK,
you cut your perennials back by abouthalf and what this does is it
forces the energy down into the lowerbuds on the plant, so they bloom
a little bit later, but onmore compact, stronger stems. And I

(38:27):
think one of the challenges for peopledoing a chelsea chop on a yarrow is
if we're doing the chelsea chop,now the thing looks beautiful, I mean,
except for Lawrence, the cats haveflattened, so it can be kind
of hard to bring yourself to dothat, but they will rebloom. And
yarrow is also known, especially oldercultivars of yarrow, for being one of
those plants that splays out like this. Now, obviously the cats did not

(38:50):
help, but it has been abreeding goal, like among the proven winners
yurow and newer varieties to not havethat displaying tendency. So I don't think
the cats alone are to blame forthis. I would cut it back in
this case. The other thing thatyou can consider doing would be to stake
it. Yeah, you know,you could just kind of get some mistakes
and you know, wrap it backup into kind of a bunch. It

(39:14):
can go either way. I havecertainly cut a yarrow back at this time,
and it did go on to rebloomjust fine, I'm just questioning whether
or not the cats are enjoying themedicinal herbal type of aura that this plant
gives. I mean the plant hasIt's an old plant that has been used

(39:37):
through the centuries for medicinal purposes.It has a long line of I'll column
plant sestors, and You're right,some of the newer varieties are a little
squattier. So I think you're gonnaI think what you're gonna have to do
is you're gonna have to put yourthinking cat on and find a way to
make that area less hospitable to catwell. I think probably one of the

(39:59):
issues is that yarrow is a sonlover. Cats are sun lovers, and
their cats like, oh hey,look at this nice, soft, fluffy
plant. I agree that I canjust curl right on up in so Lauren,
I wouldn't give up. You canalso try putting like curry powder or
something in there. I've heard thatthat is effective. Just go to the
dollar store and get that. It'slike a buck and you can just spread

(40:20):
that all over. May have toreapply after it rains, but I've heard
that that is effective against cats.Yeah, there are some repellents that will
cause them to head over to yourneighbors anyway, that's heartbreaking. Sorry,
Lauren, go ahead and try cuttingit back, see if that helps,
and maybe the cats will find anotherplace to hang out while your yarrow is
recovering. So poor Karen here isat her wits end. She's very upset.

(40:44):
Viburnum leaf beetles dun'ta da have discoveredher arrow leaf by burnum's and have
nearly destroyed them. She's tried doingeverything to get rid of them. She
can't do it. She's thinking thateven if she was able to manage it,
you know, if she could findsomething to do, she wouldn't have
to deal with them every year.And can we recommend any viburnums that are
resistant to the past She is readyto, as she says, throw in

(41:07):
the trowel. Well, oh,very good, thank you well, Karen.
My recommendation would be, I've beenfrustrated by these also with viburnums,
I would say that what you wantto do is you want to avoid arrowwood
viburnum or cranberry bush viburnums. BecauseI think Karen answered her own question here,

(41:27):
and she hit the nail on thehead. There are some viburnums that
are more resistant to this problem.Arrowwood and cranberry bush viburnums can be a
problem, and if it persists,I think spraying horticultural oil on the stems
before bud break also sometimes can helpwith this problem. Right, So it

(41:47):
is an Asian past yes, Sowhat generally occurs is that the native American
viburnums are very susceptible to Viburnum leafbeetal damage and the Asian species are not.
They've kind of evolved to live together. So of course, if having
a native American species was important toyou, that's not great news. But
Korean spice viburnum is resistant. Doublefile viburnum, which just finished blooming and

(42:12):
it was absolutely fabulous this year,is also resistant. But I have another
great tip for you that I wouldrecommend trying before you throw in that trowel,
Like you said, Viburnum leaf beetleswhen they lay their eggs this a
little bit later this summer, theyleave very distinctive egg laying sites. And
you can look this up online andyou'll see pictures, and of course we'll
put links in our show notes atGardeningsimplified on Air Dot com but they look

(42:37):
like little pits that the adult beetledigs out and then fills back up with
a mixture of beetlespit and sawdust.Okay, that sounds disgusting, but you
can't really see the beetlespit and it'svery it shows it stands out really strongly
on the plant. And so whatyou can do is, you know,
anytime after the plant goes dormant inlike October November through late when or early

(43:00):
spring, before it leaves out,you can check your plan all over for
these egg laying sites and you canprune them out. Now that may end
up meaning that you prune out quitea bit, which is unfortunate, but
it gives you viburnums. Can easilywithstand that. It might look kind of
crummy for one year. Yeah,but doing that it's not going to kill

(43:20):
your plant. But by doing that, you're going to take out every single
egg that those beetles laid over thelast year. And it typically tends to
be on the younger wood, soit's not way down on the thicker wood,
so you're taking the whole thing down. So again we're going to put
those links so you can research whatthat looks like put it a reminder in
your calendar to get out there inNovember, December, maybe February, March,
something like that, when the plantis still dormant and you can see

(43:44):
it well, get those pruners sharpenedup, cut those stems out, and
send that beetle to the curb.Excellent advice. I like that, very
good, Stace. Thank you allright. So that's it for today's show.
Thanks for all those questions and comments, appreciate it. Keep them coming
Gardening Simplified on air dot com.Make sure to send those pictures along too,

(44:08):
because we want to see them.We want to thank you for watching
on YouTube, listening to our podcast, or listening to us on radio.
So keep those cards, letters,notes, emails, whatever they are,
keep them coming to the Gardening SimplifiedShow. Thanks Stacy, thanks Rick,
thanks Adriana, and of course thankyou so much to all of you who

(44:28):
listen and watch. Have a greatweek.