The House Plant Craze: Thriving in Small Spaces - Garden America Podcasts & Radio Show [1.27.24] - Garden America - Gardening Podcast & Talk Radio Show

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Well, well, well look who'sback. Who's back? It's us,
We are back. It's Guarden America. I'm Brian Main Tiger Pellafox. Yes,
John Begnasco is here because next weekhe's off. So it's going to
be a great show with John todayand the rest of us. Thank you
for putting up with us not beingon the air last week. I hope
you had a chance to go backand maybe watch or listen to one of
our previous shows, Podcasting, Alexa, whatever that case may be. But

(00:23):
we are here today, no guest, because we have a special show lined
up. As you probably saw priorto West Going Live. We have some
plants in the studio brought in byTiger. On next week, John,
you'll be in have II ConA ConAConA, Kailua area. And what are
you going to do? What doesa guy like you do in Hawaii?
I was telling Tiger the only thingI want to do, because I know

(00:46):
it's the last chance I'll ever haveto do it, is to visit It's
true, It's true, right,visit the Green Sand Beach. This is
your bucket list time, my buckyour bucke's pretty full. Yeah, but
it's a six mile, I'll hikeeach way. You're fine, No,
you're fine. There's no way Shannoncan hike six miles. Three do three?

(01:08):
Yeah? Do three? Carry carryhere then other three? Good idea
Tiger, No, we can't.We did look up and there's a guy
that's usually there with a truck thatfor uh twenty bucks will get you within
two miles. There you go.So it's not really a hike. Yeah,
it's just get us there. Thenthen you know it's like the like

(01:30):
the marathon runners, right, andthen you know when the race is almost
over, they come in and dothe last two miles or so. You
know why the sand is green there, right, Envy? No, it's
a it's olivine, which is asemi precious stone the entire beach. Imagine
if you were a stone and youwere only semi precious and your goal was

(01:51):
to be precious one day, Well, what if you weren't precious at all?
True, there's stones out there thatjust you guys, they're both precious
to me, I gotta tell you. So give us a little more on
that. That's interesting information. Didyou want to elaborate on that? No,
the green sand beach is it oneof those beaches though that it's like
the jungle goes into the beach andthere's the palm trees and shrubbery all the

(02:15):
way around. Or is it oneof those because you were saying as the
dry side also, is it oneof those beaches that it's rocky and all
of that kind of no no shadebeaches is one of the one of the
wide open right, and you've gotto go down the volcanic cliffs to get
to the beach. Oh, okay, you can YouTube. Yeah, looks

(02:37):
good. Cool anyway, Tanya,thanks for the the comment on the pictures.
She liked our throwback pictures. Okay, so everyone knows John is responsible
for the newsletter. And I askedhim where he got the pictures, and
he didn't want to answer the question. Tiger, He goes, don't worry,
I have my ways, and it'skind of a flower child hippie thing

(02:57):
here. And he made me lookthe oldest he he himself looked twenty.
He got photos of us back whenwe went to the Woodstock reunion. Yeah,
exactly, I'm gonna keep my picturethough. I'm keeping that picture I
can. I think it makes youlook good. It makes you look wise.
You know when you talk about agarden guru, that's that is a
garden guru. For as I mentionedto you, you look like one of

(03:20):
the apostles, and Tiger looks likethe son of somebody that was at Woodstock.
Yeah, exactly he was born.I looked like, yeah, yeah,
exactly, I was. I was, I was conceived of Woodstock,
for sure. There were people canCarla's note dead John on Facebook? Oh
Carla, I didn't, I don'tdid not see it. Let me bring

(03:44):
it up here. Yeah, thoseare funny pictures. They're good, giant,
one of your best work. Yeah, well, thank you, one
of your best work. Works worksone of his best works. Yeah,
he's a work in progress. Isee Carlos note here. She said she
loved the flashback photos. When Ifirst saw tigers, I thought, what

(04:05):
kind of guest does that? Thenshe laughed out loud, such handsome hippies.
No, that's fuddy. Yeah,she's definitely been posters on her bedroom
wall. Hey, there you go. I feel after David Cassidy, Right,
Carla, John's is like questionable though, like it kind of looks like

(04:25):
him, but he doesn't. That'sbecause he's you see how young you made
him well and then yours. Waita second, also, I used an
app on yours for mine. Ijust got an old photo? Yeah,
what app are you using? Bythe way, it's one of those things.
It's one of those things that canmake you look young, isn't it
It can? It can kind oftake your No, it's your picture back

(04:46):
in time. It was a hippieapp. Oh, and you have to
put in a photo of yourself andthen there's a couple pre set ones that
you know, make you look likeand then you can play around with it.
Right, that's funny. Dana isis she at the Grand Canyon?
She had a little a little echohello, oh? Is that when we

(05:11):
were not on the yard exactly eightoh six? Oh? I thought it
was earlier Thome on guys at sixlet's go. I thought I messed up
on the audio. I double checkedmyself right now. Hey, Rick in
star Idaho says that one of thelocal nurseries is having an event on house
plants today. It is a houseplan today, right. Get that we
timed it well, right, Whichwas the reason for the hippie the seventh

(05:33):
photos was because of the last houseplantcraze And now and there's another house plant.
And as John mentioned, that's inthat is a photo of him during
the Last outplant houseplant Craze. Youyou were a big houseplant guy, you
know, John? Right? Itwas. My first book was called Plants
for the Home, Volume one.And do you remember the exact number you

(05:55):
told us before when when you livedin Michigan in your little condo apartment,
how many house plants you had?Hundreds? I had almost three hundred.
Yeah, hundred housewens. You knowthe ego this guy had. And it
took me four hours to water them. And it was it was an apartment
or something, right, did yousay it was a condo? Yeah?

(06:17):
Yeah, condo? Okay, youknow the ego this guy has. He
writes a book right, volume one? Yeah, because there's going to be
many more. Oh yeah, no, John, good job on that.
We had house plants, we hadspider plants, wandering jews. What else
did we have growing up in college? In college? In college? Yeah?

(06:39):
Did you did you? Did youhave a false aurelia? That was
the big plant? Also back thenthe is a Gothica Gothica elegant tissima.
Yeah, yeah, it looked likemarijuana. And Kevin wants to know whatever
happened to Creeping Charlie's. They changedthem to tritiscantasias. No, there's some
trance like trantis. Yeah, butdo you know that in Michigan Charlie sounds

(07:01):
kind of weird, doesn't it.Yeah? In Michigan, they weren't called
creeping Charlie's. They were called Swedishivy. Yeah, so you said,
actually creeping Charlie was a piliah ohand new Marowfolia that one. Uh,
but definitely you would never call theSwedish ivy creeping Charlie. I had problems

(07:23):
when I moved from Detroit to SanDiego because of common names. You know,
we're different? Yeah right, yeah, you know, and that is
what we should do. You knowwhat I'm gonna work on. That I'm
gonna work on that is a showwhere we talk about common names of plants

(07:44):
and maybe why we've changed them orthe story behind the common name. Some
part some names are just regional.Like in the South they call impatients busy
lizzies. Right, No one inCalifornia called e never. That's just silky.
Really, that's just a silly name, you know what it is.

(08:05):
It's a joke. All our listenersdown south are turning off the radio.
We're kidding. We just want tosee if you're paying attention. Carla needs
suggestions for house plants that will thrivein lower light, don't we all?
Saveria yeah, will grow anywhere?Or ZZ plant? Do you know what's
the what's the botanical name on thezz culcus ZZ plan that brings energy?

(08:33):
He take. I think I've toldthis story before on Aaron. Who was
it Carla who asked, Okay,we put ZZ plants in restaurants on you
know, like in a restaurant you'llsee a plant on a shelf and how
do you how do they get tothat shop to water it or anything like
that, and how does it survive? And how does it survive? They're

(08:54):
bringing a hose at night, don'tthey. We put ZZ plants on those
ship elves and will not touch themfor months, and then what we do
is we just wait for it toone day like die and and then we
just swap it out. And becauseit will survive no water, no light
for for months. And so imagineif you actually took care of that,

(09:18):
wouldn't that be a great plant forour first time plant. Person that's never
grown a plant is like, wellkind of like kind of like the san
savaria, the zz plant. Thoughalso if you over take care of it,
they die, So it is aIt is a great plant if somebody
is very neglectful. But if it'sif they're the kind of person that actually

(09:39):
is wanting to take care of houseplants, grow houseplants, they want to
like learn, they want toolved.It's a bad plant for them, right
because they don't know how to likelay off a little bit. But if
nobody's ever grown a plant and saysI I want to start I think I'm
going to start a hobby and Iwant to grow stuff as long as they're
neglectful. Here, we're going togive you one that you don't need to

(10:01):
worry about. Let's see how youdo with that one, because if you
kill that one, you can't dothis. You can't be a gardener.
If you kill that plant. Yeah, a lot of people kill him from
overcare, overwatering. John, Wehave gosh, probably not enough time before
the break for your quote of theweek. Well why don't we do it
when we come back? Good quote, that's a good suggestion. Yeah,
So what we're going to do isWe're going to take a break for our
friends on biz Talk Radio so thatyou can hear all of our great sponsors

(10:24):
on biz Talk Radio. Thank youfor tuning in the rest of you on
Facebook Live. We are coming rightback on. Brian Main, John Begnasco,
Tiger Pellafox, stay with us.We're talking house plants here on Garden
America. We are back from thebreak. We're excited to be back in
studio. Hope you had a goodweek, having a good weekend. We
look forward to next week. ObviouslyJohn is in Hawaii, won't be here

(10:46):
next week. Tiger myself will figuresomething out. Shows going to the birds.
Yeah, across that bridge when weget to it. John's got the
quote of the week, which isan exciting quote. Good quote, John,
the quotes from your buddy Monty Don. Wait a second, it sounds
like the name should be Don Montydoesn't do you know what? That was
running through my head and I thought, I'm not going to say that.

(11:09):
But we think alike often a lotwe do. Yet the Holy Grail guy,
No, you're thinking of Monty pythonye, But Monty Don sounds like
someone took their name and reversed it. Yeah, what's your name? My
name is Don, Monty what's yourname Monty Don? Go ahead, Johnson.
Anyway, he said that when youplant something, you invest in a
beautiful future amid a stressful, chaotic, in at times downright appalling world.

(11:35):
And that was Monty Don. Thatwas is the English gardener, British guard,
British Yeah, yes, Monty Don. He had golden retrievers. I
know who he is now, Yes, got him? All right, good,
We're all set and ready to go. We were we were talking about
plants for low light conditions. Yes. Hermans Stover I think wrote the first

(11:58):
book in San Savaria that came outin the seventies, and she had a
drawing in there of how to makea San Savaria ash tray. What.
Yeah, it's like she would havethe she had a picture of a San
Savaria and then all these these drawingsand arrows and bottle cap goes here.

(12:20):
But yeah, when you put outyour cigarette, you put it here.
Yeah. It's just that they're sotough that you can't kill them. H
do you know? I mean,I I know San Saveria tolerate very low
light situations. Where where are theyyou know where they're native to Africa,
Africa, Yeah, like like jungleAfrica. Though where they do do they

(12:43):
grow? Do they grow in lowlight where they're native to or yes,
but they grow in the plains wherethey're there's usually some type of tall plants
that cover the cover them up,Okay, because I always find that interesting
with low light plants, like wherethey're native to the bottom of the jungle,

(13:07):
right, because yeah, so otherlow light plants would be philodendrons in
pathos. Your pathos has been inhere for Is it still here after five
or six years or whatever it was? I finally get rid of it.
Really it was still alive, youknow when it committed suicide. But this
is a room with no light whatsoeverand all the wrong conditions. Yeah,

(13:31):
and we had it, what fivesix years, and it was just sitting
in water and all the roots atthe bottom. I'd pour the water out,
but maybe every couple of weeks andfill it with water. It just
got two leggy that the roots justlooked terrible. I thought you would put
a fish in there. I usedto have a remember I used to have
beta's in here. Yeah, Ithink better better beta. Yeah, Beta

(13:54):
is uh follows alpha in the Greekalphabet. Yeah it doesn't, it's exactly,
but I think beta is the fish. So Pathos wants me to call
in from Hawaii. Okay, Idon't know if I want to. I
don't want to interrupt your guests.And about the potting soil that you use
for house plants, so I recommendanything very well draining, because you know,

(14:20):
when you're dealing with potted house plants, you know you're watering, you
know, keeping getting them to dryout is sometimes the most challenging thing.
You know, when a plant's outsidein a pot, it will dry out
naturally very easily, because you've gotsunlight, you've got airflow, all of
that stuff working with you. Sometimeswhen you water a plant inside, it

(14:41):
can stay wet for weeks inside,depending on how you keep your home.
You know how to get over thator to pot up so you don't have
to worry about it. What whatwas our friend Tanya right from Florida?
No from a No advertised with uson those little pyramid Oh the I can't

(15:13):
the plant warrior. Yeah warriors,that's what they're called. Yeah, plant
warrior warrior and you can google theinformation. But yeah, if you put
that in the pot, you'll beamazed. You don't have to ever worry
about water logging or overwatering any ofyour plant. And they're a good sponsor
of rus so please support them.It creates a good void airflow in the

(15:33):
bottom of the pot. Yeah,and then you can use any kind of
yes Soil so Plant Warrior. Youcan go to their website. Good sponsor.
The show. We may have forrun again this year. We'll see
what happens. But I think oneof the biggest issues, aside from overwatering
plants with a with a heavy pottingsoil, is the development of gnats.

(15:54):
But again that just comes from keepingthe soil too damp, which which too
damp. People say, oh,only water it once a week, but
it's like, yeah, if itnever dries out, it's still too damp.
Right. And you know what Johnmentioned with the planet where is definitely
a good recommendation because cheap potting soilsthat you'll buy, I mean I don't

(16:15):
want to, you know at thelike some people will just buy potty sealed
from like a grocery store. Nutrients, well it's not just snow nutrients.
They're all like peat based and theyjust they they they hold the moisture and
they they don't they don't not allowthings to naturally drain well, and they're
kind of mucky and muddy and thoseare not good to you. Yes,
so it's the purpose houseplants. Wouldthe thinking there be trying to keep it

(16:40):
moist so you don't have to waterall the time. Yeah, a lot
of people will be like, oh, I'm going to use something like you
know, these these miracle grow soistretained changes soil. The opposite of what
you want to do, because sometimesyou want plans to dry out a little
bit, right, They need to, Yes, they need to, and
in houseplants for sure, because they'lldevelop an odor, they'll bill up gnats.

(17:02):
Again, like I just said,it's not as easy for the plant
to drain. A lot of timesthey drain into a saucer indoors, and
then if that saucer just stays withwater, it wicks back up into the
soil. So if you don't wantto empty the saucer after you've watered it,
if you put pebbles down in thebottom and gravel, then it raises,

(17:25):
it raises the plant up so it'snot sitting in the water and during
the winter months, if you're ina cold area with low humidity, that
would really help raise the humidity aroundthe plant. Yeah. Yeah, it
is a funny thing for house months, right, because we talk about that
where in the summertime, you're coolingyour house and so you actually are watering

(17:48):
your plants sometimes less than in thewintertime when you're heating your house and you're
drying it out, and so youactually have to water your house plants more.
You know, people don't think aboutthat. They go, it's winter,
it's cool, I'm not going towater my plants, And next thing
you know, you look over atall wilty. It's because you've been running
your heater in seventy eight degrees forfive days. He sucked all the moisture
out of the air. What aboutHowston? Did you see his question?

(18:10):
Yeah? I did. I did. Our buddy, his Tom wants to
know how many days he can keepa plant indoors. Oh, you know,
it depends if it's a house plantand it's acclimated to low light.
You know, we were just talkingabout how you've had your pathos in here
for five years with no light,and if you've got a window in your
home, and you can keep itnear a window. I would say you
could keep the plant indefinitely. Youhave a dressina at your house, that's

(18:34):
you've had that for how many years? Since two thousand and nine? Wow,
that's a long time. Yeah,it's a long time. And I
just water it, kind of letit do which thing once in a while.
Fertilizer very easy to take care of. P last from my experience.
Yeah. You know a lot ofpeople ask what what kind of plants are

(18:57):
naturally house plants? And there themare? None of them are right,
because you know, we've we've oftensaid if you go in a cave,
what kind of plants do you seein there? And that's what our homes
are as caves. But if you'vegot if you can let in light and

(19:17):
then it's it depends on how muchlight and how much light the plant needs.
Break, we're talking about light,how much light. Reminder plants need,
right, Remind me of that whenwe come back from caves. Yeah,
house or caves to take a break, get rid of the caves.
Radio man, Facebook Live. Yeah, your garden buddies are back here in
garden America. Alrighty, we areback from the break gonna sneeze their tiger.

(19:41):
We were talking about low light,low light break and yeah, plants
that can do well, but alittle bit of light's even better. Maybe
so, right, so we shouldit's time to tell Hastam about cuticles right
for his fingernails. No, no, no, the you know he mentions
about plants losing leaves, right,you know, like your Fycus benjamina behind

(20:03):
you is full of leaves and afew drop but it's also silk. When
you take a Pycus benjamina there yougo, leaves have fallen. This fell
from this beautiful fycus behind me tomy left. When you grow a fycus
outdoors, and this is true ofa lot of plants, in order for

(20:27):
them not to become sunburned, theydevelop a waxy covering over the leaf and
that's called the cuticle, and thatlimits the amount of light that gets a
lot of direct sun that gets intothe plant, so the leaves don't burn.
It would be like if you wentto the beach and you put sunscreen
on you so you don't burn.But when you bring that plant indoors,

(20:51):
it's got a thick cuticle on andnot enough light can get into the plant
to keep it alive. So whatthe plant'll do is drop its leaves,
especially in the case of a fightaspenjamina, it'll lose all its sleeves with
the thick cuticles, and it'll putout new leaves right after that with very
thin cuticles to allow in more light. Then if you take that plant outdoors,

(21:18):
you're gonna end up with burned leavesbecause now and then it'll drop again.
Yeah. Yeah, So not everyplant is like that, but those
are the kinds of things you needto think about, and a lot of
people will make the mistake of they'lldo that. They'll bring that plant inside,
it'll drop its leaves and instantly theythink, oh, I put it
in the wrong spot, right,and then they'll be like, oh,

(21:38):
I'm going to move it again.Well, then in moving into plant again,
it stresses it again, and theydon't realize that if they were just
to have left it where it wasand allowed those leaves to come back,
they would be fine. But peoplefreak out and then they just keep moving
the plant and then it just doesn'twork out for them, and that's where
the old life's tail comes. Thatyou can't move fight a spens of mind.

(22:00):
They hate to be moved or theylose their leaves. Well, it's
not moving them that makes them looserleaves, it's when you shake them violently.
And the light conditions. Brian,you let's make question. Then let's
make sure we're caught up on thequestions. John is okay to know if
solar tubes, the solar tube tunnelsgive enough of the correct light spectrum.

(22:23):
M isn't that just letting in naturallight? It is? It is you
because I mean there's no filters onit, they're just reflective mirrors. I
will say they distribute the night thelight nicely. So solar tubes are good
where with sometimes when you're dealing witha what do they call the sun a

(22:45):
sunroof or moo, what do theycall that in the house, it's sunlight,
skylight, skylight. Sometimes those canlike a window, actually magnify light
and you can get burning. Andthat's kind of a funny phenomenal because it
doesn't always happen in the same spot, Like where you'll have a plant and
maybe one side of it gets burntand you're like, this is so weird.

(23:08):
Why is this one side? Andif you you have to go at
the right time of day and seethe light hitting that plant, because at
that certain time of day, themagnification through the window and everything else,
that'll burn a plant, which iskind of a funny phenomenon. It's kind
of hard to catch. A lotof people will see burning like, well,

(23:29):
the rest of the plant's not burnWhy is this one side the direction
of the sun exactly. It alldepends on how the light's coming through that
window or through sometimes reflecting off ofa mirror. Not to be confused with
burning ants with a magnifying glass.Not to be confused, but the same
principle, prince in a way.Yeah, Kyla said she missed the name
of the potting soil. We didn'tname a potting soil, but you will.

(23:52):
I mean, would you say happy? Would you say happy? Fraud?
Or ocean forest? I mean those? I think those retained contain too
much. That's a good party soil. Yeah, ocean forests might be good.
Does fertile m make any house psils? They do, I don't.
We don't have them. I don'tknow the name off Sorry. By the
way, Fertilome is presenting our showtodayt sponsors of our show, Fertilean,

(24:15):
thank you for your generous support.Please go out and support Fertilean and we'll
get the house plan in Foros.Got some of the in the next couple
of GUS products that are are outthere, and they're only available at independent
garden centers, So don't look forthem at don't go to home Depot or
Lows or someplace. Right that whowill never advertise with us now that she
said that, because I can quicklychange my mind. Yeah, for the

(24:40):
right. Veronica says that she hasa pathos that's been indoors for forty years.
Forty Yeah, wow, greathouse plans. If she doesn't kind of keep
cutting it back, it overtakes herkitchen. Oh it does. Wait,
several years ago we had when weput in the corner and it grew almost
around I like that when people dothat, like crown molding. Yeah,

(25:02):
it was all the way around theroom. Yeah. I think that's so
cool. Yeah, I like Itry to do that in my kitchen now.
When I was in Hawaii doing aone of these jungle tours, we
were out in the back furthest partof the jungle and I'm like, whoa,
look at the size of those leaves. What is that? Yeah?
They grow big here. I meanleaves as big as your head. Yeah.

(25:25):
No, I mean it looks likea variegated split leaf. Philadephia does
great humidity, great temperatures, they'llthrive. Uh let's see. Oh I
was gonna mention since Carla asked aboutshe says, a planting mix or a
potting mix. Make sure that whenyou transplant your houseplants you use a potting

(25:48):
soil. Don't use a planting mix. Planting mixes are made to be used
on outdoor plants in the ground,and they're not complete. They won't support
indoor plants, So use a pottingsoil. Yeah. Hey, Vince has
a question John about the tiger.Why plants and trees are easier to grow

(26:08):
in the Philippines compared to the US. It depends on what you're talking about,
but I would say climate, right, well exactly. That's what it
comes down to, is so youknow, when you're dealing with areas tropical,
you know, Philippines, Hawaii,Asia, you know South America,
Central America, there's things that justnaturally happen there that make it easier to

(26:32):
grow plants. They get water,they don't get too hot, they don't
get too cold, and so plantsthrive in that environment. Now, I
will say, though they can't growa cherry tree in the Philippines, they
can't grow some varieties of pine andand different things like that, and and
then and the other side, theycan't grow a lot of the cactus and

(26:55):
succulents there because they get too muchwater. And you know it doesn't so
you know, it's all relevant.But I will say that that what is
it called the meta the middle ofthe Earth equator along along with skylights.
Yes, I was thinking core whenhe's talking about the middle of the Earth,

(27:18):
not mantle core, but along theequator is the most you know,
neutral areas. You know, itdoesn't get too hot, doesn't get too
cold, they usually have good amountsof rain, and it just makes it
easy to grow plants there because ofthose reasons. Twelve hours of night,
twelve hours of day exactly never changes. Yeah. So so yeah, that's

(27:40):
that's the reason why people would sayit's easier to grow stuff there. But
like I said, they also don'tget some of the things that other places
do because of that reason. Yeah, that's why I think the Mediterranean aspect
of it, like where we are, is a bit of the most versatile
because we can grow some of thosecold things and some of those hot things,
but we also get a fair amountof whether you know, rain,

(28:04):
and our temperatures are not so extreme, so we kind of I think we
you know, we live in anarea where you can grow probably one of
the largest ranges of plants. Thosetropical areas also grow a lot of insects.
Yeah, true, because it's youknow, lots of plants and lots
of conditions that insects thrive in.You know, in Florida, the insects

(28:27):
get so big there's actually crossings.They'll say, you know, spider crossing,
beware or you know, cockroach crossing. They press a button to cross
and then lights start blinking. Idon't you know. I don't like insects
where you can see their facial expressions. That's what I check out. You're
done, you know what. Andif they fly, if it's something that
flies, get me out of there. Yeah, I can run away,

(28:49):
but when they fly, they're gonnacatch you. I the only the only
insect I can't handle is a grasshopper, just because of the way it feels
when it touches you. So mothsand all those other things like I'm like,
oh whatever, like flying cockroach onthe ground, whatever, But a

(29:11):
grasshopper like grips you and it's kindof a little bit like a hornworm.
You feel it. It's holding on. Yeah, it's holding on. You
shouldn't be touching grasshoppers. So that'swhat printing shears are for you. Just
sneak up and cut it right.When I was a kid, I'll never
forget this. It shows what youcan have traumatic events when you're young.

(29:34):
And I was at somebody's office withmy parents or whatever, and this bug
was crawling across the floor that lookedso alien and like nothing I'd ever seen
before, and it scared the heckout of me. Years later I learned
it was a potato bug. Potatopotato bug. Oh no, that's a
so what's the other name the Ithink you're talking about a Jerusalem cricket.

(29:56):
Yes, you're exactly right, Andthey look like, uh, I think
it's something about a baby something.Can you can you look that up and
maybe post a picture of that ifyou can on our feed, Because when
you're five six years old and youstill like humans that have been changed into
right, like a bad be movie. Yeah, we got to take a
break to stay on time for ourfriends on BIZ Talk Radio. Tiger's going

(30:19):
to look for that picture and thatbug picture, potato bug, Jerusalem cricket
is John mentioned, right, John, Yeah, and we're back there.
That's what you're talking about. Itis on BIS Talk Radio. Okay,
that was quite a break. Weare back those on BIS Talk Radio.
We welcome you. Thank you fortuning in each and every week or whenever
you can. We appreciate that,whether it's five minutes or the entire show.
And of course our good friends onFacebook Live, thank you for being

(30:42):
right there. Tiger, you foundthat picture. We're going to try to
post it on our Facebook feed soyou can see this Jerusalem cricket or in
some cases potato bug. Not surewhere I got that from, but I've
heard people say that potato bug.Yeah. The earlier I Rick had commented
about and Tiger's going to be talkingabout the plants that he brought in,

(31:04):
but commented, no African violets,and that was probably a staple back in
the forties and fifties, right sixties, and you don't see African violets as
much anymore, but a lot ofpeople still collect them, and there's a
company in New York that you canorder African violets from year round. They'll

(31:26):
even I've ordered in the middle ofwinter and they ship them out with those
heat packs like they used for fish, you know, if you're ordering aquarium
fish through the mail. Have youever done that? Yes, on or
twice? Yeah, yeah, Andthey put a little heat pack in there
so that they don't freeze, youknow. It's funny. And Rick I

(31:48):
was going to bring in we havesome acrirom viiets in the nursery. They
didn't look that great, right,yeah, so I was like, I
didn't want to bring it in.Well, they don't like the coal,
Yeah, definitely not. And itdoesn't take a lot of hold for them
to And Tiger didn't want people tosee it on camera and go. So
that's what you sell it your nursery. Well, that's one of the you
know, you were talking about partsof Africa, and you were talking about

(32:10):
Equatorial Africa, because an African violetis not drought tolerant, no, and
it's from the equator, from therainforests in Africa, not from the dry
areas, not from the plains.All right, we've got a few questions.
Yeah, let's make sure we can'tgo back up and then start from

(32:31):
Uh, I don't know, startfrom there. Let me see. I
agree, Hey, grass Hobber's holdon one second. Here we go,
all right. Well, Million Napomawants to know if a chef leara will
develop yellow leaves at the bottom ifit's over watered. She says, it's
it's doing fine, and she wantsto know she should wait till the soil

(32:51):
is completely dry to water. Yeah, if the soils moist, Millie,
don't water it. They don't wantto be totally dry like a but they
do like it a little bit onthe dry side. So as long as
it feels damp, don't water.But also remember that Chiffleeras are tropical trees,
and trees develop trunks and so eventually, as the as the plant matures,

(33:16):
some of the bottom leaves will turnyellow and drop off. Anyway,
Yeah, I mean that's the natural, right they release them from the top,
they drop them at the bottom.So I most of the time I
tell people, I they' dropping fromthe bottom. You don't worry, right,
it's the top ones if they startright. However, she gets right.

(33:37):
Overwatering will cost some leaves, butusually it's not just the bottom.
The whole thing doesn't look good.Yeah, and then Leonora asks, one
of these huge insects eats the flowersof my citrus trees every year, preventing
them to flour, and I can'tsee them all the time. Impossible.
Then I don't get fruits. Whatcan I do? So one of these

(34:00):
huge insects. We don't know whatthe insect is to treat it, right,
I don't flowers. What insect wouldhe eat a flower? I don't
know. An insect a rat?Ye eat the fruit? The beetles fruit,

(34:22):
beetles eat flowers. I thought thatwas again with the fruit eats the
flowers. And then you don't care, Yeah, Kevin, I'm sorry.
I don't want to get too farahead here. Yes, honestly, Leonora,
I don't know if I have ananswer for you, because I don't
know of an insect that specifically eatsthe flowers. And then you wouldn't get
fruiting afterwards, So I don't know. Kevin wants to know if there's a

(34:45):
tool to stick in the soil totest the moisture. Four indoor plants you
can't use some moisture meter out youneed a tensiometer. But you know,
I think that your finger is thebest moisture meter. I think you're right.
Yeah, absolutely, And if yougrow plants long enough, you can

(35:06):
just look at them. You know. I don't. I don't have house
plants anymore. My wife likes houseplants, though, so she has a bunch
that she's grown. And I'll besitting on the couchs and I'll say,
hey, have you watered that spathof phylum? And You'll say it's not
looking too good. It looks dry. Look yeah, yeah, you can
tell just by looking. I lookat the plant. If you look good,

(35:29):
I'm gonna leave you alone. Ifyou're peaking, I'm gonna we're gonna
talk about it. We're gonna we'regonna have a discussion, that's right.
Linda asked if we discussed the rainrain in San Diego, and we did
it. We did it. Butit was a lot of rain in a
short amount of time. Yeah.Yeah, Well, we were saying it
was the fourth rainiest day. Andsince they've well I don't know about ever,

(35:52):
but since they've recorded in San Diego. Yeah, so do you have
any flooding around you or any areas. How did you guys know what the
storm? So here's the thing.My two my two locations as far as
at the nursery were on a canyon, So everything just goes into the canyon.
As long as that canyon doesn't fillup, we're good to go to

(36:14):
canyon. Yeah, exactly. Andthen my house is on a canyon,
so again it just goes right downdown the back of the yard and goes
out the back into the canyon.So I've blocked out because there was a
lot of areas in San Diego thatdid not favor well because they're low lying
or they didn't have I sent John, I said, both of you the
picture that my pot was filled withthe water and I had to dump them

(36:40):
both over. And the one picturethat I sent John and you yesterday,
I look in the leaf now justyellow funk. Oh yeah, it's like
they look good for a long time, and all of sud it's like I'm
done, I'm done all the leaves. You know. The tip I gave
you though, is a good onefor our listeners. And it's gonna rain
like that, you know, alot of rain is coming. Just turned
the pot on its side. Yeah, that was good advice. Yeah,

(37:01):
and you don't have to worry aboutit filling up with water. Exactly what
he tells me to do, youdo. He just you're very successful.
So I'm glad he's both of you. Carlos is talking about the cicadas.
Have you heard about this, Thatthere's a massive ulation going to be happening.
Yeah, that there's a double hatchcycle, two different varieties of cicadas,

(37:25):
and I think that one is aseven year locust and one is a
you know, different years, likea seven normally, normally they're operating on
different years, right, but thisyear they're gonna hatch at the same time.
It is even more so probably.Yeah. So anyway, those in

(37:45):
those uh swarms and they brought outthe sun, well it's like they they
do. It's it's yeah, hey, John, what was that? What
were those pigeons that went extinct?That you've passenger pigeons. They're going to
try to bring him back. Iyeah, I know. Well, yeah,
there's a lot of animals are goingto try to bring back and they're
on the list, right. TheMartha was the last one that died,

(38:10):
Yes at the Cincinnati Zoo around nineteeneighteen, nineteen twenty something like that,
talking about blotting out the sky.We have to take a break for our
friends on biz Talk Radio. Newsis coming up. We come back at
six minutes after. Hopefully you cancatch our second hour. Those of you
on Facebook Live a much quicker break. No news coming up, but just
more of us, more house plants, more of your questions, more answers.

(38:35):
Do stay with us. I'm BrianMaine, John Begnascar, Tucker Pellafox.
This is Garden America and we're onlyhalfway through. Stay with us.
Hey, welcome back to the show. This is our number two if you're
tuned in on biz Talk Radio,we do appreciate that. Again, a
reminder if you want to hear oneof our previous shows, or actually this
show later on this afternoon, itwill be uploaded to our YouTube channel,
Garden America Radio Show. Also Alexawill have us on later today. Just

(38:59):
ask for the guard in America podcast, the latest version in She'll do that
for you as well. But dogo to Gardenamerica dot com. If you
could do that at least once aday, we'd appreciate that. Hey,
you know, just on a side. We had a little problem last week
and I guess some people tried tosign up for our trip to Costa Rica

(39:21):
and we're told that we had soldout. We do have a few seats
open, right, yes, soif you want to go, just go
to is it on our website?Go to our website. The homepage has
the itinerary for the Costa Rica trip. Right, So we're not sold out
yet, no, nope. Yeah. So if you do get that message
that you are sold out, reachout to this call call that reach out,

(39:45):
tell them reach out to us.We can help you. Out Guard
America sent you or one of us. We can help you as well.
Sure, are you going in aday early? I'm going when you guys
are going. Okay, that's theSunday is Sunday the twentieth, right,
I am not going in a dayI asked Shannon, you know, do
you want to go in day earlyjust to get situated, right, And
she said no, no, Idon't have that many vacation days. I

(40:06):
can you know, let's just gowhen we're supposed to. Then she's looking,
you can stay a day later ata beach, at a beach bungalow.
Yeah, just bopping right. Yeah, I don't know. It was
something about beach Bungalow that just thatphrase said we're staying one extra day.
So if I stand correctly, weleave on a Sunday, which is the
twentieth, yes, and then thetwenty first is when it officially starts on

(40:29):
a Monday. Correct, So Sundayyou would get there and just relax,
check in the lay of the land, and then it officially starts that Monday.
Correct. So we're all going inthe same flight, right right,
I'm San Diego, I think,so. I don't want to be without
you guys. Yeah, scared.Let me tell you, I just I
might nuzzle up to you, snugup a little bit, one of those
little like like what they put onthe kids with traveling alone. So I

(40:51):
just feel better. Whatever's going tohappen, I hope that it happens together,
no matter what, it is,good, better, indifferent. By
the way, Daniel posted a linkright on Facebook. Check it out Coasta
Rica Baby and check out the itinerary. Hey Kathy in Eureka, you know
what, let's give a belated happybirthday to Kathy. Oh, happy birthday?

(41:15):
What two days ago? Happy birthdayCathy. I wished her happy birthday,
did you? Yes? I didon behalf of myself and Dana.
You follow her all over the place. Yeah, she got that restraining arder
a couple of years ago, butit's worn out. It didn't work.
Yeah, happy birthday, Kathy.Longtime listener and viewer. Kathy and Hank
should come with us to coast toCoasta Rica. Kathy, come on,

(41:37):
crocodile's orchids, coffee plantations, volcanoes, beaches, serfs, sun well,
some of their neighbors, Bob andsou Crane. They're going to mention people's
last name, but Bob and Craneradios come on, you think, yeah,
that that ship sailed years ago.So anyway, we miss you Kathy,
uh and hope to see you sometimesoon. We used to see each

(41:57):
other at Yeah plants shows, butyou know there aren't any COVID happened.
And then Kevin, my good buddyKevin from high school in junior high who's
going to Costa Rica with us.He hasn't heard anything back from Colette in
quite a while. I did geta flight schedule, but haven't gotten any
new updates. You probably won't fora while. Any updates right, you

(42:20):
know, And that's a great questionbecause specifically for Kevin, we did have
a question if you were leaving outof San Diego. Yeah, Kevin,
where are you leaving from? Becauseour record show you're leaving out of San
Diego. Yeah, Colette, thanksfor leaving out of San Diego, Kevin,
is that correct? Let us know? Yeah, so yeah, lots
of lots of fun stuff. Andyou know, if you have a question
regarding the Costa Rica trip, youcan reach out to us via our Facebook

(42:46):
and you know, or you canreach out to us via the website and
we can help you out with anykind of information. I have all the
records of everyone that's going and whatthey have as far as flights to the
travel agent for America. I amI'm gonna I'm gonna wear many hats.
You know, you're a good guy, so you know, let me know,

(43:06):
because I know sometimes reaching out tocollect could be a little bit challenging,
especially getting a response or a specificquestion or problem. Sure, but
I can help you out. Andthe whole trip is going to be looking
at house plants. Yeah, basicallyI was going to bring in the coffee.
There was a co we have somecoffee plants in the greenhouse right now
at the nursery. And I thinkI brought him in before. But that's

(43:30):
a house plant. Yeah, yeah, chose some coffee. Our first day
in Costa Rica is going to aannotation right now. Somebody what maybe was
Leonora? A while back? Sheasked what the name of the plant was
in the white pot? Did weanswer that question? White pot? There's
a white pot, white in front. Yeah, let's let me go over
Let's take a look at some ofthese. Let me go over there.
So that by the way, justdum mean interrupt you. But Kevin said

(43:53):
that he is coming into San Diegothe day before, so he will be
flying with us. We've got toget some pictures together in Costa Rica for
our high school friends to see whatwe're up to these days together. So,
yeah, what did you white whitepot plant? Is a ficus.
It's a a Ficus decora. Isthat the I can't see it. It's

(44:19):
the normally they're black. Oh yeah, Ficus elastica elastica or is the black
one? Decora is one of thevarieties. Yeah, this one has a
variegated kind of a different variegation leafon it. Versus that one. But
it's the same Ficus alastica, sokind of fun knocking off leaves already,

(44:45):
kind of a fun different one.Does that one have a name? I
don't have it on here, Okay, yeah, not for me to see.
San Safaria we were talking about that, right, This is this is
a unique sansavaria, or I meanit used to be more unique than they
are today. But cylindrica because ithas these rushy, fleshy round foliage where

(45:13):
normally that the common name for peoplethat know San savaria is mother in law's
tongue because they're these wicked looking,you know, straight strappy leaves that go
vertical. Also snake plant, snakeplant. But this one bost string hemp,
all the all the common names.Do you know why it's called bow

(45:36):
string hemp by the way, becausethey used to make bow strings out of
it, used to make rope outof it, exactly, Yeah, used
to make rope out of it,and they used it to replace cannabis when
cannabis was outlawed. They used thatwas their go to that substitute, right
really, Yeah, In the USDepartment of Agriculture in Florida was setting up

(46:01):
San Savaria plantations for farmers to growit as a crap. Yeah, and
I mean do you know, likebecause there's just these long, strappy leaves,
So did they just like cotton,you know, the cotton gin it
would would they just break it alldown into fiber and then that's what they

(46:22):
would create rope? Right? Yeah, oh interesting. I don't know if
you can do that with the cylindrica. Show them my favorite the bremeilion.
This one here, no money tree, yeah, love that, love that
money tree. So Pakira money tree. This is kind of a different one.
So this would be what what theycall a stump one. You know,

(46:44):
with dresinas, you get you knowstump, you know, different ways
that they grow them. And alot of times, you know these kinds
of plants, you can just takecuttings, pop them and soil and then
they'll just start growing again. Right, and so this is a money tree.
A lot of times you'll see thismore woven and braided. Braided,

(47:07):
yes, because the correct term.And it's a I think Chinese kind of
one of those Chinese not folklore,just traditional traditional thing that just brings brings
you luck with money. And it'sa really fun kind of plant to have.

(47:28):
Now I've never really seen them stumpedlike that very often. I like
the look of that a little bitbetter than the braided I think it works.
I found twenty bucks in my pocketwhen I came into the studio today,
so there might be something to that. Yeah. So these are my
new favorites though. This is abrameliad. Is that aesa? Yeah,

(47:50):
verresia, and and I really justlike these because of the I mean,
without a flower, without look justthe foliage. It looks fake. It
looks like somebody printed this fol is, and it looks like silk on this
plant. But it's real obvious.And the one thing, you know,
we talked about plants, house plantsthat you can't mess up, and you

(48:13):
know, vermeliads are kind of that. Like you can buy a romeliad with
a flower and you can leave itin the house and you can kind of
not water or well, you canleave it in your bathroom and they'll just
stay looking good for months and monthsand then the flower will die off and
then you're like, oh, okay, you to get a new one,
but this one you don't have toget a new one, because the foliage
is all you're really you're getting outof it is what would you call this,

(48:35):
Brian, like a red brown,black, white green, kind of
a rushed maroon green. Yeah,shades of maybe a little magenta in there.
Anyway, it's break time. Yougot to take a break. We're
gonna come back and talk about morehouse plants, So do stay with us
here Guard in America, Facebook Live, BizTalk Radio back after these messages on
Bistok radio. Alrighty, we areback. Hope you had a good break

(48:59):
those on Bistol Talk Radio, FacebookLive talking house plans today. I think
we're caught up on most of thequestions and comments. Yeah, Don and
Sue from led Garden said that they'regoing to leave a day early, going
to Costa Rica so they can Theywant to see San Jose. You want
to see San Jo. Not SanJose, California, but San Jose,
Costa Rica. Yeah, it's alittle different, big little different. What's

(49:22):
the variegated philodendron? Is that anallocasia or a philadela? A philodendron?
Oh no, it is an allocacia. I thought it was a philadendron.
I love alocasia, odora very gana. So that is this one here?
Let's see here, this so sothe alocasia. There's a lot of names

(49:45):
for this one too, right,John, What are some of the common
names for Alocasia matt mask. Well, there's certain varieties like the one that's
kind of black and purple it's calledAfrican masks, and terror tarot you know,
Yeah, it's a food, rightlike people, Well, there's allocacias

(50:05):
and collocacious and neither one. Idon't think either one does great in our
climate because they like humidity, right, But if you're in down south or
as a houseplant, they're okay too. Yeah, but the leaves are unbelievable
on some of them. And youknow, people, you know that tarot
t a r o is a fooda lot of a lot of the places

(50:30):
you'll see tarot on the point exactly, and they grow them in these boggy,
wet fields and that's in allocacia.So it's kind of a neat a
lot. So the plant, likeyou say, John, like they have

(50:50):
a lot of varieties. Some getreally large leaves, some get smaller leaves,
some grow in dryer situations to thegrow you know, talk about larger
how about uh eight feet an eightfoot leaf? Yeah, and maybe four
feet wide. So I feel likethat's the plant that you'll see. Sometimes

(51:14):
you'll see somebody caring one as anumbrella. That leaf. Oh yeah,
you've seen pictures of people like intropics, they'll sometimes do that. I
mean, I think there's a lotof plants that can do that when you
live in those tropicals. There's avariety that I really like. And if
I ever get my house completely landscapeso I have time to fool with those

(51:35):
kinds of things. There's one calledstingray. Have you've seen that one?
You told me about that I reallylike. Yeah, yeah, the leaf
looks like a sting ray. Yeah, it's got the barb at the end.
Yeah, Carlos says, there's abeautiful Talking about the bromelia, she
said, there's a great bermelia collectionat the University of Hawaii and Heloo.

(51:57):
So I think we're going to goaround the whole island. Yeah, that's
all the way on the other sideof where we're staying. It's on the
rainy side. I was going tosay, the more wet side. Yeah,
you got to do the drive.When we were in Kawaii, we
did the drive all the way aroundthe island. Yeah, Kwai is the
lots. Do you know that youcan fit all the Hawaiian islands into the
Big island. That's how much.That's how big it is big island,

(52:22):
bigger than most people think unless you'vebeen there. Yeah, it's huge.
Yeah, it is pretty big.And if you love volcanoes, that's the
island to be on as well.The last time I was, well,
look coming through a living room.We were we were on a tour,
actually on our honeymoon, and wewere on a bus going to the volcanoes

(52:42):
and it had to turn around becauselava was flowing over the road that was
current fifty years ago. Turn around. That's that's crazy. Dealing with Rick
wants to know why you didn't bringany orchids in. There was There was
a few orchids at the nursery,and but they were just calmon failianopsis and
you know some of the commons.It wasn't these I felt were more unique.

(53:07):
So another wasn't anything against Rick,You just decided not to Yeah,
yeah, no, no, Rick, I'm sorry, nothing against you.
Just you know, there's an orchidbehind you. Rick wants to see an
orchid. Well, actually, somebody, Veronica wanted to know what that was
looks great on camera, doesn't it. Yeah, plasticus it's still has bud.

(53:30):
It's still bud. Yeah. Andyou know talk about the plant does
well in here. It just needsa host, which in this case is
a stool. Yeah boom uh butyeah, you know, then what do
we have over there? You mentionedTratascantia earlier, right, that's uh dressina.

(53:51):
You know, little variegation on thatone. It's got the white variegation
to the regular warnichaye dressina warnekaie iskind of thin stripes nowhere ners is outstanding?
Is this one? This one's reallydistinct of what's the stripes. And
there's a lot of varieties that Dressina'snow right, So with stripe, there's
one with lime. Yeah, stripes, Yeah, I think, yeah,

(54:12):
what do they call it? Something? Limes something? But they and then
big leaves, small leaves dressing likeyou say, like something real narrow and
strappy. Some are larger. Andthen that's the plant that I talked about
that they'll sometimes call it stump wherethey'll just they'll they'll take a four foot
tall stick put in the ground andthen out of the side of the top
we'll start a new plant and they'rereally really neat. I remember there was

(54:38):
a gentleman from ABC Nursery here inCalifornia and they used to have a relationship
with a nursery in Hawaii and theyjust used to ship over cargo containers full
of sticks of drosina and sticks ofplumeria and then they plant them up here
and would grow them out. Wasit Rancho vert Nursery. There was Rancho

(55:01):
Verdi and Rancho of Solidad. Bothof them I think brought stuff. Yeah,
I know Solidad brought a lot ofstuff from all over the world.
But yeah, nic Coo WANs toknow what's in the hanging pot. That
is a tratascantia, and that one'sa fun one called pistachio white. Oh
again just I mean, tratascanty isa very common plant. But they're coming

(55:24):
out with you know, you mentionedthe house plank craze when we have our
house plank crazy. They came outwith all kinds of really neat varieties to
keep, you know, peaking people'sinterest. And that one I really like.
There's one that looks just like itexcept for the white substitute. Hot
pink, Hot pink. Yeah,yeah, that one's really cool. Too,

(55:45):
so yeah, I mean the tratascantyis a good hanging plant, cascading
pretty easy to take care of.Yeah, yeah, I do. Oh
yeah, I can stay in thispot for a long period of time.
I do think the light situation withtradiscancia though, they are definitely more of
a room with a skylight windows,that kind of a thing. They'll grow

(56:09):
in low light, but then theylook like, yeah, you know,
they stretch out, they don't.You need to even with more light,
you need to pinch it back occasionally, I think to keep it full.
And what was the thing to youyou we talked about with light with variegation,
the more variegation on a plant,the less light they need, or

(56:35):
usually to keep the variegation, youneed more light. That's what it was,
and the reason is to keep theright. The variegated parts, depending
on what color they are, can'tphotosynthesize, so the plant needs more light
in order to make up for this. Yeah, you'll see that if you
put it in too low a light, it'll start just reverting back to green,

(56:57):
right, or the leaves just falloff. Yeah, the we gotta
take a break. Yeah, weshould take a break. Sorry, John,
I want to just happen to lookdown at the clock. Right,
I may never say what I wasthinking. Good, tell me now what
is it? I'll remember for you. I don't remember. I already forgot
two seconds go by. We gotto pay some bills. Our sponsor is
BIZ Talk Radio. And again thoseon Facebook Live, keep those questions comments

(57:21):
coming. We're talking house plants today. Brian Main, John Magnascar, Target
Pelafox here on Guard in America.Back from the break. John still hasn't
remembered just train of thought. That'sbecause I was looking at Lisa's question and
she says she has a talanzia that'sbloomed and will it die. Now.
I'm really glad she asked that becauseI was thinking earlier of explaining this is

(57:45):
bromeliads. After they bloom, theydon't die. It's that main area of
the plant that bloomed turns brown.But the pups come off the side and
they continue to grow, so theplant is still growing. It's just that
part that bloomed ends up turning brownand disappearing, and then the pups on

(58:05):
the side take over. So ifthe tulanzi, it depends what size it
is. But a lot of themhave multiple pups that come around them.
Yeah, and you know for thatit's kind of like you don't leave it
inside or leave it in an areabecause you know they don't look good.
But if you have a back patioor somewhere where the trees, yeah,

(58:28):
trees, you can just put itand leave it. You'll go out there
one day and all of a sudden, like you say, you have three
or four plant, Yeah, comingoff of it with very little care,
with very little effort too. They'lljust naturally do it. And tulansi is
do well, and a lot oftulancis do well in southern California because a
lot of them are native to MexicoBaja area, so those are kind of

(58:53):
cool. And then US Spanish mossis a premillion yep, but that's one
that requires more humidity, so wedon't see usually see Spanish moss growing in
trees. But you can grow it. If you were to have a mystery
in your tree, yeah, wonderful, right, you can make it look
like the out rick. When's toknow the origins of bogonias, the origins

(59:15):
where do they originate? You know, I don't know if they're in different
parts of the world, but alot of them come from South America,
from Brazil in areas like that.I would imagine there's probably some that come
from the Pacific Asia in some ofthose areas, and they do really well

(59:37):
for us here. Yeah, Imean, you know, Bogonias are one
of those plants that we can growvery commonly. Yeah, very common.
But I mean, you know,you get the rex bagonias, you get
all kinds of you know, youknow, varieties of Richmond dentis, and
you know, I mean aside fromthe standard little because that's the thing people
think Bogonians. Some people are thinking, we're talking about the color packs,

(59:58):
color packs going you know, fromthe nursery, and they're like, oh,
yeah, whatever. But there's alot of varieties of bogonia and they
all look different and grow different andsometimes you buy them for the foliage.
Sometimes you buy them for the flower, which brings me to one of the
compts I wanted to mention regarding variegation, and you know, John mentioned it

(01:00:20):
that, so one of the issueswith this thrust of new plants is they
went out to create varieties, andwhat better way to create, you know,
a show stopping thing but put avariegation in the foliage. But a
problem that I see now with allthese new varieties that were introduced, they
didn't really test them or truly breedthem correctly. And what they'll do is

(01:00:45):
they we call revert. So you'llgrow it, it'll be fine for a
while, and then that variegation justgoes away. Because variegation is a mutation,
right John in the Yeah, somepeople, it depends. Some can
be a mutation, some can bea virus. Yeah. And so like
John mentioned, if you put thatplant in a low light situation, the

(01:01:08):
plant knows it needs more sunlight,so it automatically pushes out that variegation to
create a full green leaf. Butsome are just what we call weak.
And if the variegation in the plantis weak for no apparent reasons, it
goes back to the way it was. So people plant these plants thinking,
oh, I'm going to have thislovely, colorful plant, and then a

(01:01:29):
year later that plant's all green again, or or it's just one half of
the plant is green, and thenone half of the plant is variegated.
And that was a big problem becauseformiums are a grass like plant that you
know, became real popular in southernCalifornia, and they released all these new
varieties that had pink stripe, greenstripe, white stripe. Well after a

(01:01:52):
year all of them went back tothe standard green. And it's because they
didn't do the proper breeding to makethat a strong part of the plant.
The what I'm trying to put togethermy mind here is that the original I
don't you want to call it DNAor the original plan for that personal plant

(01:02:16):
was never taken away completely, right. It reverts back because it's still living,
It's still there, still there,it's still in the plant exactly.
So so don't be I would say, you know, people get frustrated,
scourage just you know it can happen. It can happen. So what about
if you get a pink princess pelodendronand you paid thousand reverts, then you're

(01:02:39):
in trouble. That was something thatdid not exist in the hippie days when
we had our first house plant craze, was we didn't have these huge prices
for plants. With the new houseplant craze though, with the era of

(01:02:59):
computer h and people able to seethese things in bid from all over the
world, you had plants that weused to sell for a dollar ninety nine
in the sixties and seventies that nowwere one thousand and two thousand dollars apiece.
Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah,So basically getting back to the original

(01:03:21):
blueprint, never changed, it was, it was there. Would you say
that it was dormant, but it'sthere and then reverse back when Yeah,
I mean, you know, I'msure there's probably way more technical way to
That's a great that's a great wayto explain it. That. It's all
that I find the right words.And when breeders do a good job of
that, they really bring it downto the most minimal number. But in

(01:03:43):
order to do that, they haveto invest a lot of time and they
have to so it's like reprogramming theplant. Well you know, well it's
it's it's kind of like breeding ingeneral, right, meaning, oh,
this plant has a variegation, sonow I'm going to breed another plant with
that very I'm gonna read multiple plantswith that variegation. You have to throw
away all those bad ones, andyou just keep taking from the best,

(01:04:05):
You keep taking for the best,and you have to keep redoing it.
You keep redoing it, you keepredoing it until finally you get to the
point you you filtered out as muchpossible. Well, what happened with this
craze and with this energy and thiseffort for everybody wanting to strive down something
new rather than keep going, Theyjust went to the first level and they're

(01:04:25):
like, here it is, andthen now they're all going back and so
it's kind of you know, abummer. Sounds like marketing to me.
Yeahhold fashioned marketing. Yeah, soyou know that. And then you know
the other thing too is issues withlike root rot or the way they tolerate

(01:04:47):
soils is another big issue you haveto watch out for. That's why with
those with those real high priced exclusiveplants, you you do need to be
careful with what you're planting them inand more care, more energy, because
you know some of them are moresusceptible to certain root rot issues, fungled
disease issues that you want to makesure that you avoid by keeping them,

(01:05:09):
you know, properly, you know, wet, but not overwet. You
want to make sure that maybe they'renot sitting in any water so you don't
have any diseases coming up or anythinglike that. Do you have any house
plants in your home. Oh yeah, do you really? I love them.
I love house once. I've gottwo vermiliads, I've got a zz
plant, I've got two sands ofareas. I've got your desina. I've
got some kind of parlor palm.I've got a a tritascantia. Yeah,

(01:05:39):
I only take care of no idea. Yeah, Jane doesn't got a spatify.
We would have, and I've triedin the past to have house plants,
but we have cats who like toeat them. Yeah, that's tough.
So you go to the fake plantjust to give a good aesthetic look
in the house. They still eatthem. I'm like, it's not real.
Stop chewing on the plastic on this. It's not real. It's like,

(01:06:01):
you know, what are you gonnado. They don't bother bother the
dersina, they don't bother big plants. No, I can't really get up
to him if it's lower on atable or someplace. I've got one in
the bedroom on a stool like it'sdone to play a guitar, that kind
of a stool, and it's fake. It's a green variegated Like what why
is it all bent? And chewed. Don't you give give him kiddy grass?

(01:06:25):
Yes, oh, our older cat, now we trust him. We
let him outside because he's not gonnago anywhere and just eating grass all the
time. Loves the grass. Doyou do you have one of those tall
cat scratcher home things. Yes,it'd be fun to make it look like
a Swiss family Robinson put it.That's ad in the tree, that's it.
This thing is, This thing isbig. Well, that what I'm
saying. They're usually big, andthey have little places for them to lay

(01:06:48):
in and things like that. Right. I saw someone that had built a
chicken wire tunnel on top of theirfence so the cats can get out and
walk on the fence but not getaway. Yeah, that's a good idea.
I've been to a few of thosehomes. Uh huh. But they
have those minx cats, those catsthat look like a small jaguar or you

(01:07:11):
know those oh yeah, those catsthat are really expensive. But they have
this whole thing where they can gooutside and then come inside. But it's
all controlled because I guess, Iguess if that thing gets loose, oh
yeah, you know what I'll do. Okay, we're gonna take a break.
We have one more segment coming up. Been a good show, good
to house plants show, good topic, good subject, a lot of interest.

(01:07:33):
I do stay with us those onbistalk Radio taking a break, Facebook
Live coming back even quicker it isguarding America. I'm Brian Main, John
Begnasco, Tiger Pellafox back after thesemessages, keep tuned in on Facebook Live
and of course biz Talk Radio.Alrighty ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
we have made it to the finalsegment. Whatever's on your mind on
Facebook Live, get to it.Let us know what's happening. I wonder.

(01:07:57):
I mean, I know our listenersare kind of wrapping up right now,
and I know if people have answered. But the oldest house plant that
they have, who was it thathad the pothos that had been in the
house forthing like fourteen No, itwas like fourteen years or something forty years?
Forty yes, oh my gosh,was that If it wasn't Veronica,
I apologize, Yeah, one ofour great things. I think it was

(01:08:19):
fronic. Yeah, but I meanit's kind of normal to have. I
mean, if you lived in thehome and you can say, oh,
I planted that tree when I wasyou know, five years old and now
you know I've taken this home overfrom my parents, and you know that's
right, that's kind of a normalthing, right, Or even a potted
plant outside where it's like, oh, I brought this from when I was

(01:08:42):
in college and now here and nowthere, and I moved it along with
me. But a house plant,my oldest woes, which will be twenty
years old this year, Green Planet, that's your oldest? Is that your
oldest plant? Probably? Or no, you have you've had, you had
some before Green. No, youknow what I think it might be because
because you've killed everything since then,you know, they committed suicide. I

(01:09:05):
didn't kill him, Yeah, becauseI so that might be your oldest plant
that you have on your patio.Or yes, because I was living with
a roommate in Santee at the timeand I didn't have an area. A
couple of plants here and there.And it was the auction in two thousand
and four where my son bid onit. Yeah, eighty bucks I think
was the winning bid. And itlooks great, it looks fantastic, it

(01:09:27):
looks really healthy. John took cuttings. He was successful. Do you know
your oldest rose like this. You'vehad this rose the longest well for a
while, it was Kennedy, right, Kennedy Rose Kennedy. Oh, I
didn't get that. I thought youwould. Yeah, I was on a

(01:09:48):
completely different wavelengths. Anyway, you'rethe oldest rose, John, I'd have
to think about that. They gotfifteen hundred. Yeah. Got a thing
which there's one that it's like,this is my original rose, because the
oldest one might actually be orange juice. Yeah, I mean it has to
be something I brought from the oldhouse and dug up, so it may

(01:10:12):
be orange juice. I'm having troublewith gophers eating roses now. I had
a huge bush that gophers got to. So far gopher hawk has caught six
gophers this last week. Wow.I have a little bear area where I
lay them out and the hawks orthe coyotes get them to eat them.

(01:10:33):
Yeah. So my oldest plant isfor where I'm at now, is a
lime tree I brought. I hada lime tree at our old house.
I brought it with me and itwas on the verge that as a matter
of fact, I almost killed itbecause I watered it with salt water or

(01:10:56):
something one time, like I accidentallydid something in experimental days. Yeah,
what what salt water will do tomy life? And it was on the
verge of death and now it's thriving. So you know, Marguerite mentions that
this time of year she has apellet stove to keep her warm and because
of that, her plants don't dowell unless she miss them. Yeah,

(01:11:20):
so I wanted to mention to ourlisteners that if you do miss your house
plants, don't use tap water becauseyou'll be adding salts to the soil every
time you or to the belief,every time you missed it, and you'll
end up with burned leaves eventually.So try to use bottled water or reverse

(01:11:42):
osmosis water, something with no saltin it. Capture some rain water,
just keep a bucket of rain wateroutside there before you and you can't use
if you're using a pebble tray andsetting the plant on the pebble tree,
it's okay to use water from theapp Yep. No, that's a good
point. But yeah, the thetap water is is tough on houseplants.

(01:12:08):
Watering with watering them in the soiland watering them on the foliage, it's
a double whammy for sure, withbuilding up of salts and chemicals that they
really don't like. And you know, it'd be nice, you know,
it'd be nice to be able toput milorganized and some of these other organic
fertilizers in your houseplants, but youdon't. You don't like the way it

(01:12:28):
smells, so you end up usingthose water soluble fertilizers. But again you
just go back to adding salt tothe soil. Reminds me the biosalt.
Yeah, you're no. I thoughtsomething died. I go, did the
rodent come in here and die?Yeah? John was mentioning about how the
pathos are so easy to take careof and they do so well, and

(01:12:50):
he's going to start some new onesfrom cuttings nice, putting them in water,
and wants to know if HB oneon one would be good. Yeah,
a few drops in there would reallyhelp it. Never hurt. Yeah,
nothing but good stuff. We've gotabout two minutes, gentlemen. All
right, so John's not here.Next week, you and I are back.

(01:13:11):
We're gonna be talking birds. Ohreally, is it just birds?
The whole wildlife? I mean,we're going to expand, but it is
national. I don't know if it'snational it's nation. That means we have
to bring in orthologist, orthology,ornithologist, right, yeah, that's a
bird guy. Right. An orthonologistwould be a cross between an orthodonist and

(01:13:33):
an ornitho. They just deal withbird mouth. See this is a live
show. I can't take that backand redo it. Hen's teeth, it's
out there. They would deal withHen's teeth. I enjoyed when we were
back in was it Ohio? Yeah, Mary's Ohio, and we had they
had this bird bird food for whereveryou live in the country, regional bird

(01:13:58):
food for the and they took usout there and I thought it was fascinating.
I think it was a Scott's birdfood right, Yeah, it didn't
Scott's own kt B oh maybe,I don't know. It could have been.
They had a an ornithologist on staff. Sure was ornithologist and not what
I said originally was not an orthodona. That is the funny thing, because
that was a big thing that theyjust put They used to just put bird

(01:14:19):
food out for the world, right, and then they didn't realize that regional
it made a difference exact bird likea bird that does not have this food
naturally will not eat this food kindof thing, so then they had right
now, whatever my wife is usingfor bird food for the wild birds,
they love it. Yeah, wegot finches, we've got doves, we've

(01:14:41):
got you name it there. Somepeople will will buy bird food at grocery
stores or home improvement stores where it'sreally cheap. And the reason it's cheap
is because it has my low asa filler and birdston't eat my low,
but it grows. So when youyou see birds as your bird feeder and
they're just kicking everything all over,yeah, they're getting rid of the mile

(01:15:04):
out to the stuff, like,hey, that's gonna do it. Thank
you so much for tuning in today. John is off next week from Hawaii.
Maybe he will call in, maybehe won't. Maybe he'll be on
a hike that's six mile hike withhis wife and other things too. For
the entire crew, I want tothank Daniel, our webmaster, keeps things
going behind the scenes. I'm BrianMain, John Begnasco Tiger Power Fox.

(01:15:24):
Enjoy the rest of your weekend,Be safe and Tiger and myself will do
it again next week right here onGuard in America. Take care,

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The House Plant Craze: Thriving in Small Spaces - Garden America Podcasts & Radio Show [1.27.24]

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