Gardening through a heat wave

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personal yard boy, talking about yarding, working our way through
this month of July. It's hot, it's dry in our area.
It's hot. Did I say it was hot. It's hot.
There's no doubt about it. It is hot, Dan. I
don't know if you noticed it or not, but a

(00:21):
little bit. It is a little warm out there. We've
gotten showers here and there, but very sporadic, not a
lot in some areas. More but it just is so
dry now as you know. Now you get those rainfall
now it just kind of runs off. It's hard to penetrate.
So keep this in mind. I always use these as
this time like this as an example of why we're

(00:42):
always encouraging you to add organic matter to the soil
whenever you're gardening, no matter what you're doing, when you're
out there, digging in the ground, doing whatever, prepping a bed,
planting some annuals, planting a new tree core, aerating the lawn.
Wherever you can add or organic manner back to that
soil helps your soil become a better sponge for absorbing

(01:10):
the showers that do move through or absorbing the water
that you do put on it. Especially I look at
the lawns when you core air rate and then you know,
we talk about this all the time, and coming up
this fall is going to be a great time September
October for core air rating. If you core air rate
your lawn, you pull those little plugs out, and you know,

(01:30):
when you're done, it looks like a herd of dogs
went through and dumped on your yard. But then they
dry and you kind of rake them out, and again
it's really helpful because it opens up your soil, puts
little pores in there. But if you can come back
after you did that and rake in very lightly a
very fine compost of some type and rake that back

(01:53):
into those holes, and so you're actually top dressing as
well as trying to get some of that down in
those holes in your lawn. And you do that two
or three years in a row. It's amazing how that
alone helps your lawn out, especially in times like now
when we really start to get hot and dry, because
you know, not only does it now open it up

(02:14):
and lets you that soil absorb what water does run
across the top, but it also encourages your lawn to
root in deeper and better, so you've got a better
root system. You're gonna be mowing it two and a
half to three and a half inches, so higher lawn
so it shades down below. And then you got the
organic matter you've been opening up that soil with you

(02:34):
put those three things together, it really does help in
times where it's dry and water does come through, whether
Mother Nature's bringing it through or you're adding it, and
that really does suck it into the ground. And the
same goes for your beds and you know, your garden
in the whole nine yards. So anytime you can add

(02:55):
organic matter back to the soil, when you have an opportunity,
do that. And that's why I always say, you know,
hopefully you got a compost pile that you're doing making
your own compost Gardener's gold. But if you're not doing
your own composting, okay, that's fine. You should be. It's
it's not that hard. But if you're not doing that,
always have on hand, maybe in the garage or in

(03:16):
the garden, shad or whatever, have on hand some bags
of organic matter. The cow I love that stuff. It's
composted kalmanur with some other compost, maybe a little peede
in there as well. It's great stuff. Uh, don't count
on it so much for the nutritional value. Count on
it for the organic matter that you're adding back to

(03:37):
the soil. But the cow's great. Pine findes f I
ne e s Pine fines or pine soil conditioner. Those
pine fines are a wonderful soil amendment. Again adding organic
matter back to your soil. And these small pine chips
and they're really really small, smells great, looks good. You

(03:58):
can use this as a top dressing if you'd like.
But that's a great way. So every time you dig out,
you add some of that to the soil, twenty thirty percent,
mix it all together, put it back for your backfill,
you know, and use that and use that as a
top dressing as well. You can even put that on
the top. I have taken the cow and pine fines,
mix them together and use that as a top dressing
for beds, and I'm trying to get them a little

(04:20):
bit better than what they are right now, and use
that as a top dressing. And then every time I
dig in there, I add a little more organic matter.
You hear me stay at the end of the show
talking about pampering your worms. Make sure you pamper your worms.
That's one of the ways that you pamper your worms,
all right. And if your worms are happy and you've
got a good worm count in your soils, you know

(04:41):
you're doing a good thing. And if you've got a
good worm count in your soils and the worms are happy,
guess who else is going to be happy? All the
plants that are growing there. So that's why I say
it's important to pamper your worms. Because everything you can
do to make your worms happy and make your worm
populations increase in your soil, the better off if your
plants are going to be as well. So continue to

(05:02):
add organic matter anytime you're planting, and always have a
bag or two or three sitting somewhere that you can
go grab it real quick and mixing in with the soil.
And again we're not don't over mix now, we're talking
using the same soil you take out of the hole
for your backfills, but maybe a twenty or thirty percent
of the organic matter, and then when you're done, maybe
sprinkle around a little bit around the top as well.

(05:24):
That's a great way to do it, but always keep
adding and adding and adding, and over time it's amazing
how that soil will start to improve and start to improve,
and you see more worms and more activity, and your
plants are looking better and they look at nice and
the whole nine yards and every time you water, they
really react nicely because your soil is soaking it in
and holding it for a while and grabbing that rainfall

(05:45):
that comes through. So keep that in mind. Please also
again remember taking your calls at eight hundred and eight
two three eight two five five. Don't forget our website
Ron Wilson online dot com as well. I do want
to bring up one thing here bottom of the hour
Bachman from our Southern gardner, but I want to bring
this up for anybody in our listening audience, especially locally

(06:06):
here in south western Ohio, Cincinnati area, uh Columbus area, Dayton,
that little area right in there, or anywhere in Ohio
or any state that has boxwood. All right, if you
have boxwood, I want you to listen up. Boxwood has
had you know, had other has had its issues through

(06:28):
the years. We got into a little bit of boxwood
leaf blight worse in some areas. We aren't seeing it
hardly at all here. As a matter of fact, I
haven't heard it reported in a long time. So leaf
blight has not been a major issue for us. Although
everything gets blamed on boxwood blight. It's a nice generic term,
like tomato blight. It's all different leaf diseases and that
it's just tomato blight. Well, the boxwood blite. But we

(06:51):
have seen some of that here and there, right, and
that's seeing more I think in the Southern States, and
it's it's not pretty, you know. We've we've we've always
dealt with the boxwood scyllid that causes that cupping of
the leaf the boxwood leaves at the very ends, not
a big deal, just looks kind of weird. We've dealt
with boxwood leaf minor, which was becoming a little bit

(07:11):
more of a problem because it was causing the tips
of boxwood to really brown out coming out of the
winter going into the spring season. Although you could shear
all that off and encourage new growth and you can
control them, but that was kind of an issue. Well,
then we had that real sudden cold snap three years ago,
and that set them up for all kinds of things

(07:32):
including volutella, which we've always had stem diseases, things like
at cankers in net. We're kind of gotten through all
that stuff now. I'm kind of getting back into the
groove again. But there's a new kid in town and
we've been talking about this bugget Joe and I have
been talking about this for a couple of years now
to try to get the word out there, just so

(07:53):
you know what to look for. And I think it's
you know, it's we're not you know, we just want
to make sure folks know it's out there because this
particular one. If you don't know what you're looking for,
the next thing. You know, your boxwood are history. Well
they some of them are recovering, but they don't look
too good for a long time. Right. It's called a

(08:14):
box tree moth, box tree moth, And like I say,
it's you know, it's nothing new. We've been talking about
it for a couple of years. But we're seeing populations
pop up more and more on the east of the Mississippi.
And you know, it's been in it's been in Europe
for a long time and that's where it came from.

(08:36):
They've been dealing with it boxwood's a native plant in
Europe and they call it box tree moth because boxwood
there actually must of them grow like trees if you
leave them alone, but box tree moth. And they've been
battling it for a long time. But here's this box
tree moth now that came over it we've found in Canada.
It's been in Canada for probably five six years, so
they've been dealing with it for quite some time. And

(09:00):
you know, eventually it's going to continue to move. You
don't hope it doesn't, but it does. And it's in
the United States, and it was in Michigan, and it's
in Michigan. New York has it pretty much all through
New York. It's amazing, Pennsylvania, a little bit, Massachusetts, Delaware,
and like I said, southwestern Ohio has gotten it as well.

(09:25):
And now there's a new report that it's confirmed in
West Virginia. It's called again box tree moth. And if
you want to learn more about it, if you go
and I have this link, and if you email me
Ron Wilson at iHeartMedia dot com. If you email me,
I will send you this link but tells you all

(09:46):
about it. It's a three series info sheet that Buggy
Joe and the folks at OSU Extension put together to
learn about it, how to control it, et cetera, et cetera.
But the reason I'm bringing this up is that it's moving. Fortunately,
you need to learn more about it. If you have
boxwood in our area where I think into the second generation,

(10:07):
can have multiple generations through the year. And what happens
is these caterpillars from this box tree moth. It's a moth.
Here's the basic boil down a moth, all right, They breed,
the female lays eggs on the boxwood leaf, the eggs
hatch out, the caterpillars come out. They are voracious eaters,
voracious heaters. Eight they will, yeah, I'm talking two three days.

(10:32):
All of a sudden, your box would start to turn brown.
They pupate, they go and turn in back into a
moth they've made and they start all over again. And
that process takes several weeks. And that's why we say
there are multiple generations in our area. We thinking they
could be three. But anyway, if you don't notice them
and you get them, and then all of a sudden,

(10:52):
three or four days later, you look at your boxwood
and they're turning brown. That's what it was. And you know,
if you had noticed it earlier, could have sprayed. They're
easy to get under control with the sprays, but if
you don't, they'll take them out quickly, very quickly. And
we are seeing some of them responding by cutting them
back leafing back out from down below and coming back
out again. But I just looked at some hedges the

(11:15):
other day in our area because it's really starting to
roll here that were, you know, all three to four
feet high and wide, been there for years, just had
them shear thought that that was what the problem was.
Come to find out it was a box moth. Box
tree moth really did a number on them. I want
to bring it up. No matter where you are east
of the Mississippi and you have boxwood north south, Southern States,

(11:37):
east coast, I don't care. You need to keep your
eyes open for this thing because, like I said, it's
on the move. It's slowly but surely working its way
down from the north, and it can really do a number.
Box tree moth. And if you're in our area, the
Cincinnati area, Dayton area even up. You know right now

(11:59):
it's date Cincinnati that kind of southwest corner, but it's expanding.
If you're in those areas we're really getting I'm seeing
so many reports right now where these boxes are just
getting hammered, So keep that in mind. I've got a
link for you. You can go just google Box Tree Moth.
There's all kinds of information out there for you, but
I've got a good link for you as well. Whatever

(12:20):
it may be, learn about it. Watch your boxwood on
a regular basis. We'll talk more about it as we
go along with this sink, and really do a number
in a flash. Whether it's new boxwood or boxwood you've
had for thirty years, doesn't matter. And it's a it
can do a number. Box tree Moth. Learn more about
it quick break. We come back back, Matt. You're coming

(12:42):
up next. Phone lines are open for you at eight
hundred eight two three eight two five five here in
the Garden with Ron Wilson. Welcome back here in the
Garden with Ron Wilson. Again that toll free number eight
hundred eight two three eight two five five to Ohio
We go. Matt. Good morning, sir.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Good morning. I want to thank you for helping all
those black thumbed people.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
My pleasure I have.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
I call them lilac bushes. They were at my old
home place when I moved in in nineteen sixty nine,
and they looked okay. Last summer with the drought, they
looked rough. But I called bushes because there's many.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Sprouts come off the roots like they do. And there
they leaved out this year had a few blossoms and
now they're black. I mean there's no no live leaves anywhere.

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, and these these have been in a long time.
It sounds like, well, yeah, yeah, six sixty nine.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
I mean well before that. Yeah, yeah, they may have
been there since the eighteen somethings, you know, when the
house was built. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Wow, here's the thing, and I'm assuming it's probably just
the old fashioned common lilac, real nice fragrance, big purple flower,
usually on the very ends of the brain.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Purple.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, there you go. The other's white. There are there
were some white varieties as well. Over time, they can
decline over time. They can get a few things. If
they're get stressed out from drought or whatever it may be.
They could get lilac bore, which is pretty common where
something actually bores into the stem itself and causes the

(14:28):
stems to die, and typically you see individual branches dying out.
They also get lilac scale, which is pretty common. And
if you looked at the stems of the lilac, you
would see not a smooth bark that you normally would
get with the lilac, but you see these little you know,
like little scabs all over the branches. Take a look
for that and see if that's a possibility. The obviously

(14:51):
the board drilling into the stems causes vascular issues and
then eventually they just dry up and they die, the
stems do, and then the scale as a sucking insect,
so over time it just takes everything away from the plant.
Those branches weakend, then they just start dying out one
by one. So I want you to take a look
for both of those to see if that's a possibility.

(15:13):
The other thing to do is if you're if you're
while you're out there, look at the old buds, the
buds that are on the stems right now, and they
should be formed for next year's leaves coming out, So
you'll see the buds there, see if they're still green.
Take your thumbnail and scratch the bark. See if it's
still green. If it is, you know, there's still a
chance that you may be okay as far as you know.

(15:36):
You're going in there and you kind of cut it
back hard. Have you ever done that before with this lilacs. No,
they'll take a real good pruning. And sometimes lilacs need that.
You need to go in and just clean out the
old stuff, that big old stuff that may be two
inches in diameter, clean that out, totally, cut them back
hard and force them to come back up from the

(15:58):
root system and sit more of that new stuff coming
up this sucker growth to fill back up again. And
you can do that over a couple year period. But
I think right now the thing I'd be doing is
taking a look at the base, see if you notice
anything different. Take a look at the bottom of the
stems and see if you notice any bore holes. Take
a look at the stems themselves and look for scale

(16:19):
and try to do a little detective work. And the
other thing you can do, Matt is if you're still
not sure, take a picture of the lilac. Take a
picture some of the stems. Take a picture where it
comes out of the ground. Email those to me. It's
Ron Wilson at iHeartMedia dot com and let me take
a look at it, and I'll try to help you
out as much as I can, and maybe we can
revive those At this point, I wouldn't give up on

(16:39):
them yet, but let's do a little detective work and
see what we can come up with. All right, all right,
we'll take a quick break. We come back little Southern
Gardening with Gary Bachman Here in the Garden with Ron
will welcome back here in the Garden with Ron Wilson
again that toll free number eight hundred eight two three
eight two five five talking about yardening and it is
hot out there. I'll tell you what to keep up
your watering as best you can, keep yourself cool, keep

(17:00):
drinking those fluids, keep yourself covered, use that the spray
screen and all that you know in the hats and
the whole nine yards. Have you ever had a cancer
screening before skin cancer screening. I went and did that
for the first time in my life this week, and
I can pass with flying colors. And you know, I
was all happy about that. She said, I don't know
what you've been doing, because I've been working out in

(17:21):
the sun all my life, really and I'm bad about
not putting on sunscreen occasionally, and I do wear a
hat as much as I can, but I get the
clear building. But if you haven't done that before, it's
something you should go do. And like she said, if
there's no issues, you don't want to go, you know,
I don't have to go back for two or three
or four years and then have it checked again. But
it's a great thing to do. So you know, if

(17:43):
you get an opportunity, get that done, just to make
sure you're okay, especially if you do spend a lot
of time out in the yard and garden. Unfortunately, we're
trying to connect with Gary, haven't been able to connect
them so far to get our southern gardening going, but
I'm sure he'll connect what's that crikets in the sun out.
I'm sure we'll connect with us here shortly. But in
the meantime, I got I got lots to talk about,

(18:05):
and the phone lines are open for you at eight
hundred eight two three eight two five five. This past week,
you know, I'm you've heard me talk about the the
three Stingers, And of course that's Nina Bagley who is
a queen bee breeder and as lives in Germantown in Columbus.
Barbie Bletcher, who is our queen bee and keeps us
totally informed on all the be situations, what's going on

(18:27):
out there, et cetera, et cetera. And then Teresa Parker,
she also a beekeeper, huge gardener, and they all three
are little group. I call them the Three Stingers and
and their their fun group. But anyway, this week getting
emails from them showing all of the honey they're harvesting
right now. And this is honey harvesting time for the
beekeepers and looks like a pretty good harvest so far

(18:54):
here locally when it comes to honey. So point being
is this and then this hard. This is hard work.
They're showing me pictures they're out. They try to get
out as early as they can in the morning before
it gets too hot in today. But you're carrying all
of those you know that you have to take all
that out and scrape the honey off and then you
spin it and then you put it in jars. It's
a lot of work and they get stung. As a

(19:17):
matter of fact, I'm gonna tell a little story on Nina.
She said in a picture said somebody got mad at
me or one of the ladies, one of her beasts
got it write in a lip, and so she had
this nice little lump on the top of her lip.
It does happen. But my point being is this now
they're they're harvesting honey right now. So there's a lot
of new, good, fresh raw honey out there available for you.

(19:38):
Support your local beekeepers. Support your local beekeepers by buying
local honey, and these jars are going to be available
for you here very shortly. As a matter of fact,
I've seen some of it already out there, and we're
already putting some mortars in for some for locally. So
support your local beekeepers by buying local honey. That's how

(20:01):
they help to support their hives and what they're doing
out there, all right. And they don't make a lot
of money out of doing this, if any at all.
It really is to go back in to help support
their beekeeping. So you know, again, as you're out and
about and you're at festivals or produce you know, markets
or whatever it may be, or if you know local
beekeepers that sell their honey, make sure you support them. Okay,

(20:23):
don't take it if you look on the shelves or
where you might buy honey at that favorite grocery store.
Chances are it's not from local honey. It's from somewhere
else and usually not the United States. And a lot
of times it's not even honey. All right, it's labeled honey,
but it's not really honey. Get out there to your
local beekeepers. Support them real honey and the real beekeepers.

(20:48):
It's the real thing, and they need you to support them.
And this is really important because you know, if they
lose a hive here and there that you know, there's
a lot of money has to go back into that
they need you to do that. So again, I've seen
some pictures. I've seen a lot of good harvests going
on right now. A couple of local beekeepers here that
I stay in touch with as well, have indicated they've

(21:08):
taken quite a bit of honey. So this will be
good and this again helps to support them. So over
the next anytime you're buying honey, get it from hopefully
within your own state, when your own community, if you can,
and support those local beekeepers, very very important. By the way,
you know, you talk about we talk about planting for
bees and the pollinators. You know, if you talk about

(21:31):
planting things that you don't have you know, I was
talking about having to water the rubekias that I had
planted earlier in this time of the year. If you're
looking for flowers that you don't have to water very much,
think about flowers that you see along the expressway or
big patches of that typically are not available for watering,

(21:52):
and look at in those patches and try to see
what's growing there. And I'm going to tell you, and
think about it, and you start looking and those are
typically heat loving flowering, mostly annuals. There's the perennials in
there too, with most of the annuals that you know,
the more sun and the more heat, the better they do.
Think about it. Zenius man zenias are a pollinator magnet.

(22:16):
And zenias love the sun and they love the heat.
And there are so many great zenias out there that
they and so many great colors, it's crazy. But zenias
are tough and durable, and again the pollinators absolutely love them. Silosia, again,
so many great silosia out there, and they are pollinator magnets.

(22:37):
Bees love them. They love the sun, take the heat,
take the draft, the whole nine yards once established. So
keep Silosia in mind. You talk about so far two
groups of plants that really give you lots of color.
There's two Cosmos. How often have I ever said Cosmos
on this show, Not very often, But Cosmos great annual,

(23:00):
an old annual, been around forever, and Cosmos comes in
an assortment of colors, very wispy and upright, move in
the wind, and the bees and the pollinators and the
butterflies love Cosmos. And you'll see Cosmos a lot in
those plantings along the expressway in between expressway where they're

(23:24):
just doing these large plantings trying to get some annuals
in there during the summer season. Cosmos is typically one
of the main backbone annual plants that are sewn in
there because they're so darn tough, so darn durable, and
a great show and a great dinner as well for
the pollinators. So keep Cosmos in mind. And yes you'll

(23:44):
find Cosmos sold at your local garden centers. Probably not
as many cosmos as bogonias and impatients and things like that,
but it should be used a lot more and can
be grown in containers as well. But that's Cosmos. So
you've got zeleneus or Zenias cosmos and what other flower
that really stands out that everybody recognizes that's a huge bloomer,

(24:11):
can get a little bit of height to it, and
the pollinators love it, the birds love it, and we
all love it because we know what it is. And
you see them in huge fields and huge patches along
the expressway and once they're planted, they're planted and they're
on their own and they do a great job. I'm
talking about sunflowers, and it's still you know, there are

(24:35):
some sunflowers out there that you can still plant right
now and get a late crop of sunflowers out of those.
But sunflowers and research now showing that pollinators, especially the bees,
are benefiting from sunflowers more than they thought because there
are something in the pollen of sunflowers that helps the
bees medicinally help to fight off fight out some of

(24:57):
the viruses and things like that. So again, keep those
in mind for drought resistant, heat resistant annuals that you
can sow by seed, get them up and growing and
they'll just hang in there for you all summer long.
Give you a great show, dinner in a show great
for the pollinators against zennias, silosia, cosmos, I love cosmos,

(25:19):
and sunflowers. You can't beat all four of those for
heat loving blooms that go all summer long for you.
So keep that in mind. All right, quick break, we
come back. Phone lines are open for you at eight
hundred a two three eight two five five Here in
the garden with Ron Wilson talking yardening at eight hundred

(25:47):
eight two three eighty two five five. Good morning. I
am Ron Wilson. You're first of a yard boy, and
we are talking yarding as we move our weight through
eight hot, hot hot July. Hey, by the way, if
you're looking, uh, you know, you're sitting around, maybe you're retired.
You're saying I'd like to do something, maybe a quick
trip here or there or whatever.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
You like?

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Hydrangis you like the way hydras look, especially you're been
up to the northeastern part of the United States and
see the hydrang and you go up there and see
those macro files and all the rest of them, and
you come back wanting hydrangs. Well, guess what you can
turn it all into a quick stays. I just got
this notice this week, and I wish I had known sooner.

(26:30):
Starting tomorrow, so you got to hurry. You don't have
to either get a ticket or hopping a car start driving.
But it's a four day event. It's the cape Cod
Hydrangua Festival. Now does that sound like fun or what?
See all the cape Cod hydro interfestional events and open
gardens information by going to cape Cod Hydrajafest dot com

(26:52):
and you can download a booklet with day by day
list of open gardens, the events they've got going on
and then no hold on yards. So you're in cape
Cod all right, you're enjoying their weather and you get
to go around and visit all kinds of gardens and
see all kinds of hydrangeas to make you jealous as heck,
because they do such a great job with their hydrange

(27:12):
is in the cape Cod area. But again, it starts tomorrow.
And if you know you're just sitting around saying, wow,
I have nothing to do over the next four or
five days, I got it for you. Get up the
cape Cod again. If you want to learn more about
their cape Cod Hydraja Festival, go to cape Cod Hydrangjafest
dot com. And by the way, speaking of hydrangeas, two

(27:33):
things I want to hit here real quick. If you
have oak leaf hydrangea. Oakleaf hydranger one of my favorites
because I love the oak leaf. I love the exfoliating bark.
I like the way the thing grows. It's tough, it's durable,
great winter characteristic. I love the flowers. I love the
fall color. Oak leaf definitely a top of my list

(27:54):
of all the hydrangeas. But if you know, sometimes some
of the varieties alice, some of those older varieties can
get pretty good size. Matter of fact, our next door
neighbors I planted one for her, and I believe it's alice.
I'm pretty sure that's what it was. Is now easily
eight feet tall in the center and probably eight to

(28:14):
ten feet in diameter. And it was cut back severely,
not by me, by a landscaper about two years ago,
and it was about six by six six by eight
at the time they cut it back in. It flowers
like crazy. Those flowers are beautiful white, they stick out.
It's gorgeous, gorgeous hydrangea. But unfortunately they came in and

(28:38):
unbekniced to her, they cut it back to about three
feet off the ground. Now you do that with oakley
phydrangas if you need to rejuvenate them. And as a
matter of fact, Steve Folts from the Cincinni Potanical Garden
and Zoo I remember many many years ago they were
doing some experimenting at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum and

(29:00):
going through and looking at some of these plants like
Oakley phydrangas, the old fashioned lilacs, plants that sucker out
from the base and for rejuvenation pruning literally cutting them
back at or just above ground level. And Oakley Phydrangja
responds really well to that type of a cutback. I'm

(29:20):
not telling you to do that, but it can't. You
can and does respond well. And lilacs are the same way.
For Scythia is that way. There are many flowering plants
out there that'll do that and respond very nicely. But
the problem is is that remember when we talk about
pruning hydrangas, is that if you prune the hydrangea at

(29:42):
the wrong time, depending on what type it is, you
may mess up the flowers for the following season, all right,
Like the macro filos that we're talking about that you
would see when you go to the Cape Cod Hydraja festival,
it starts tomorrow. Up in Cape Cod. Those flower mostly
on old wood, so the wood that overwinters you've got

(30:08):
in the springtime, you just kind of clean those up
a little bit. But the growth that comes off of
that wood is where your flowers come from. And if
you cut them back to the ground or cut them
back hard or they die back to the ground, which
they do in our area, you lose all those flowers.
And that's why they came out with the Endless Summer
series as a rebloomer et cetera, et cetera, and which
still doesn't It takes a long time for it to

(30:29):
flower later in the season, but that's why you lose those.
So if you prune them at the wrong time, some
hydranga just flower on new growth, so you cut them
back in the fall or in the springtime, then they
come right back out again with that new growth and
then you get your flowers on those. So it depends
on which ones you grow as far as when you prune. Well.
Oaklea p. Hydrangea is like the macrofile is not that

(30:51):
they tie back over the winter, not at all, but
the fact that those flower buds come off of the
old wood, so the growth that comes off the last
year or older wood would be the wood that would
carry your flowers for that season. So by cutting her
six foot by eight foot hydrae oakle ifhydrga back to

(31:13):
three or less feet from the ground, they lost all
of the old wood except for right at the bottom.
Last year she got a couple flowers right around the
base on the old wood, and that was it. And
this thing just shot out like an unbelievable new growth.
And now it's all of eight feet tall on the top,
but it's loaded with flowers because there was no pruning

(31:36):
done on it last year, all right, So it's got
two years of growth and it's amazing how it responded.
I don't think I've ever seen a plant respond like
that before. Nevertheless, lots of flowers, none last year for
the most part, So keep that in mind. But when
you have oakly fi dranja, and if it can get
out of hand, there's no doubt. If you go in
right after those white flowers are finished with the white

(31:59):
and start to fade out into the beige or the
pink color, which hers are starting to do right now,
and you go back in and cut back on those
branches a little bit and kind of cut it back
maybe a fourth, kind of clean it up, reduce the
size a little bit. You'll still you'll left a lot
of lash of older wood on there. You'll still have

(32:19):
some pretty good color for next year. So that's the
best way to prone these all right, is right after
that's done, because now that you'll you'll actually get new
growth from here on out that'll come out of there
and you're all set. You're going to sacrifice a few
of the fading flowers for the rest of the season.
But that's the best way to do it. If by

(32:39):
chance it gets way overgrown and you just really want
to cut it back hard and rejuvenate it, it can
be done. Like I just said, they cut it back
really hard. You could have cut it back even more
than that. It flushes back up. But sacrificing flowers for
at least one year, sometimes two, and then you get
back into the groove and it starts all over again.
So again, that can be done. If you have the

(33:01):
oak leave and it's way out of hand and you
like to bring it back and down in size a
little bit. Right now is a good time to go
in and do some end pruning on those about a
quarter of the way back or so. Kind of tighten
them up a little bit and you'll still get a
nice shot of color of flowers next year. Doesn't mess
it up. And by the way, I do have that
tip sheet on pruning hydrangeas for timing and a few

(33:23):
other tips on there as well. Just email me It's
Ron Wilson at iHeartMedia dot com and I'll be more
happy to send that back to you to help you
out a little bit because it can be very confusing.
The other one would be we talked about the tree hydrangeas,
where they are look like a miniature tree, and basically
they're just the bush. Hydrangea is either grafted on or

(33:44):
trimmed up so that they are a bush on top
of a tree trunk. That's what it boils down to.
The problem you get into this time of the year
if they really come out with a lot of growth,
and they really come out with a lot of flowers
on the ends, and they will, those panico varieties can
be very large and very heavy. They can cause that
thing to break or fall over if it's not a

(34:07):
more mature plant. And typically the first four or five
years after you planted that tree hydrangea right, are important
to get that thing rooted in well so it can
support that head, and getting the trunk diameter large enough
to support the head without breaking off. All right, So
what you if you're looking at it right now and

(34:28):
you've got one of those and it's not staked, you
should stake it. You'll wind up keeping those stakes. This
is exception to the rule. Probably I'm guessing three four
or five years, and you're going to keep it staked
to make sure you've got it rooted in well and
that trunk diameter a big enough, and then you can
look to take the steak off possibly at that point.
But if you see it it's just starting to sway

(34:49):
a little bit and it's not staked, i'd get it
staked and then sacrifice a few of the flowers. Cut
some of those out of there, leave some on, but
take some off to read the weight. And you say, well,
I hate to sacrifice all those flowers. Sacrifice a few
flowers to reduce the weight to save the plant. All right,

(35:11):
you'll get more flowers next year. Enjoy the ones that
you leave on there, but let's make sure the plant's
good and don't let it break off. So keep that
in mind as well. But if you like that tip sheet,
Ron Wilson, iHeartMedia dot com and I will send that
the pruiting Hydrangea tip sheet back to you next week.
Quick break we come back. Phone lines are open at
eight hundred eight two three eight two five five. Joe,

(35:31):
hang with us. We'll come right to you after the break.
Don't forget our website, Ron Wilson Online dot com. Our
plants of the week, Rita's zucchini bread, and lots of
postings from Buggy Joe, Bobbs. It's all happening here in
the garden with Ron Wilson.