Coming to you from Studio A here at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified podcast, radio and YouTube show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well, it's time to extend the season. We talked in previous weeks about
how data shows that our growing seasons are getting longer. Well, you can enjoy the beauty longer with holiday clippings, and we're thankful for another great growing year, and we harvest the cuttings from the landscape to celebrate with bows and arrangements and entry porch pots and swags and wreaths and indoor arrangements. You can decorate on a budget use landscape clippings. Stacy, let's keep the party going.
I agree completely. You know, everybody's running around at the store getting this, getting that. Need flowers, need points out, I need this. But really, even if you have, you know, a very modest kind of landscape or garden, I guarantee you there as so much potential sitting right there in your yard that you can use to make all of these things extra special, or to make them in the
first place. You know, and It just takes little creativity and a little bit of looking at the plants around you, maybe with a different eye than you do in the spring or summer. But I think the most important thing that people need to know is that, yes, you can absolutely cut from this stuff within reason. You know, we're not talking about going out there and scalping your arbor idy, you know, to make a garland to go down your
dramatic staircase. We're talking about a little bit of clippings here and there to just spruce up the holiday table.
Yeah, exactly, or in my limb a rick today I will address possibly going over to the neighbor's house and taking a few clippings. But however you do it, Yes, holiday clippings to make things festive. I personally think holiday hanging baskets are lots of fun to make. I've made a lot of them over the course of my life. I love making holiday hanging baskets because they're almost like
Christmas ornaments hanging there. And we have some pictures of some of my baskets for the website Gardening Simplified on air dot com. Of course, if you're watching on YouTube also you can see these baskets and Stacy. The great thing about these holiday baskets of clippings you don't have to water them.
Oh you gotta love that. You definitely don't want to be watering anything in winter I slicks underneath. It's just a bad scene all around.
So clippings from the landscape, everything from ornamental grasses to evergreens. As a matter of fact, we'll show you a picture here too of a dark eyed junko that was on my miscanthus just picking away at the seeds this week. The wildlife love it, and of course we can create some really cool arrangements with it. Stacy rose hips and calikarpa buried stems. And then of course you know you got to go to holly holly, whether it's broad leaf evergreen holly or the deciduous.
Holly as is depicted here in our arrangement in studio. If you are on YouTube, you will see that holly is a great choice. And you know that this winterbury holly I've talked about it in the past is so abundant throughout Michigan, just growing wild.
Yes.
No, granted, you can't go to someone else's property and just start cutting their winterbury holly like there's no tomorrow. But if you happen to be near some that you can cut, it's a great way to just have a little bit of color and wildness and all of that in your holiday table.
Colors, amazing pine cones, of course, pine and fur. For me, Christmas is fur. The scent of fur. I just love it. And of course they have the thick and waxy needles, so they've got great needle retention too.
So all those years in the garden center didn't ruin fur for you.
Well, Ash, I'll tell you what ruined it for me, and we're going to cover that in Branching News. I'll tell you what ruined it for me. The smell of cinnamon scented pine cone.
Oh that's the worst. And why do the stores, thank you? And why do the stores always put them in like the foyer or like the you know, the opening to the store. So you're in that tiny, little, you know, condensed area. The heat's blasting because it's cold outside, and you just get like overwhelmed with this like fake cinnamon scent.
And a lot of people walk out with a migraine. So we'll cover that in Branching News. But I'm so glad you feel that way, Stacy. Sassafras, red and gold twig dogwood. Of course, Stacy, you've talked on the show before about.
Arctic fire, and yeah, I love Arctic fire. And you know, the red twig dogwood is another one that grows abundantly around just around Michigan. You can't hardly throw a stick without running into into one in a natural area. But I'm really glad that you mentioned the sassafras because I think we talked about this last year as well, and that has also been added to our arrangement in studio because of you, Rick. And it's not something I would
normally think of including, but it looks so cool. The stems are kind of green, the buds are very very unique and noticeable, and you know that's something that like, you know, sassafras is almost is probably at least as ubiquitous as red twig dogwood, and a bit more ubiquitous than the winterbury holly.
Yeah, exactly. And there's so many things again, if you're just creative about it. You know, I mentioned the ornamental grass inflorescence and seedum's willow panicle, hydrangeous stems, boxwood, southern magnolia, cami, cypress, birch branches, you know, for outdoor arrangements, not indoors, but outdoor arrangements, Stacey, I even like to look for branches that are completely covered in lichens.
Oh I love that. Yeah, I would put those inside. Actually, would you like it? I do? I love it? I mean I wish it would last longer, but it's so pretty. And you named a lot of things like the panicle hydrangeas stems that are kind of brown. And if you feel like that is a bit too dismal for your holiday table, you know, you can always just use a little bit of spray paint. Sure, I'm not usually a big fan of gilding the lily when it comes to nature,
as it were. But you know, this is the main thing I think is that all of these ideas are a great way to either keep your kids busy on a holiday when they're sitting around board, you can send them out into the backyard with some inspiration, or you know, just as a way for you to find some solace amid the hecticness of the holiday and to share your garden in a way that you don't usually.
Get to exactly keep the season going for our friends in the South, Nandina is often used, and then stacy. Sometimes you'll see an arrangement sumac, but I don't recommend that because for a lot of people they can get a nasty rash from soup.
Oh is that so? I didn't know that. But it is messy. It is at this time of year. Even if it still has some berries clinging to it, they kind of have those little hairs everywhere and that could be a little bit. No one needs a bigger mess on Thanksgiving. We're not trying to make a bigger mess for you. We're trying to give you a little something to make the day more memorable. And again to bring the garden inside, because it is the end of the season.
It's about harvest, and the harvest isn't just about food, it is about the garden as well.
Yeah, exactly. Now, think about using anti dessicant sprays for your arrangements. It's basically pine resin. Don't use floor wax or hair spray like aquanette. I've seen people do it. I do wrack up.
No, it would just get sticky right and and then like dust and stuff would stick to it.
And don't do that. If you're cutting from your own landscape, be cautious not to cut too much. Like Stacy said, we're just taking some clippings and use some caution toosionally inspect your clippings because well, bugs can be over wintering and you bring them inside that that's going to really add to them.
Yeah, that'll be fun. The cattle go crazy, distract everybody from all the talk of politics at the holiday table. So maybe you do want to bring in the bugs. I don't know. Up to you.
If you clip some evergreen branches, maybe put them in water before you use them in your arrangement. You want to try and keep them nice and hydrated. And along the lines of evergreen branches. I like using mixed evergreens. I think it really adds to both the aroma and the appearance. So if you're mixing spruce with douglas, fur with fur, with pine with juniper, I really think that
that adds to the arrangements. Bearing in mind that shorter needled evergreens like hemlock or spruce tend to lose their needles a lot quicker than let's say, pine or fur. So let me give you my limerick here. And as I said in branching news. We're going to talk about aroma, including cinnamon pine cones. Uh, but let me give you a limerick about pruning your neighbor's plants. For one of these arrangements, I'm pruning well after midnight in my neighbor's
yard with a flashlight. Despite the fact I am nervous, I consider my pruning a service and helpful, not impolite. Once my arrangements are built, before they begin to wilt, I'll bring my neighbor delicious treats, some delectable holiday eats to deal with my nagging guilt.
That you were going a little bit for a grnch vibe there. I was starting to get a little bit worried. I didn't know where it was going.
Actually, I would take care of my neighbor and bring some treats. But if they've got something good to clip in their landscape, I might just be tempted. But you'd ask, but I'd ask.
And they would probably be like, oh, well, that's a good idea, now I want it now.
There are a number of universities that University of Idaho is one that comes to mind where their landscape teams in November will spray trees on campus with a natural repellent of skunk scent and fox urine, as well as a sticking agent to protect them from theft and destruction during the holiday season.
Wow, it's a big business. I guess.
Yeah, that's a big clipping when you go over to an evergreen tree and take the top out of it.
Yeah, so people are like stealing them for small like Christmas trees or that's horrendous.
I know it is. It's terrible. So you know, you you bring something like that into the living room and it's you know, room temperature, that is going to smell very, very bad. Now, they do put up signage that warns people to try to deter thieves in the public from taking a major for green clipping, but just beware.
Well that's good. I'm glad that they do that, because you know, you don't want to be like surprised the trees already damaged and now you have something horribly smelling in your possession that you've got to deal with, So better to just try to hopefully avoid the damage in the first place.
You got it, You got it now. Of course, if you're planting up some clipping containers outdoors, follow the same approach that we've talked about. During the growing season and spring and summer, when planting up a planter, try to work from the center out to the outside, thinking Thriller, Filler, Spiller,
and Stacey. That can just be so much fun, especially you know, you need the soil fod but then you're able to put the branches in and then if we get some hard freezes, the branches will just freeze in place and you're good to go.
Yeah, you know, when I've done that in the past, I actually like to start putting down a sort of matte a carpet of something very softly pine, some pine boughs, so that the soil is completely covered, and then build the arrangement over that. You know, we should We're talking a lot about cutting this stuff from your garden, but if you don't have this stuff, or you don't want to cut from your garden, you can buy this in
Flora's shops. It might take looking for someone who's a little bit more specialty, but they do sell these types of things so that you can do this without also cutting from your own If you are so inclined, it shouldn't stop you. If you don't have immediate access to this kind of stuff.
Yeah, garden centers, greenhouses, floral shops, you're right, bundles of boughs and twigs. And of course while you're there too, you could pick up a package of some of these great led lights they have today that are very small, easy to work with, indestructible and they'll really light up your clipping display. Well, let's see how Stacey ties this all together. Coming up next in Plants on Trial. You're listening to the Gardening Simplified Show.
Proven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in the garden. That's why we trial and test all of our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where the order of the day is taking a little something from your garden to make the holidays a bit
more special. And you know that could mean I think sprucing up a store bought arrangement, Like say you buy some nice yellow moms and you're just thinking, well, gee, those are pretty. The color works for me, but it feels kind of summary. You know, you can go and pick some pine boughs or something like that from the yard and mix it together and bring it up a
little more up to season, that kind of thing. But before I get into today's plan on trial, I did want to thank you for bringing up the LED lights because it triggered a memory for me of when I was really little and we didn't usually put Christmas lights up or anything like that, but one year we did. And I was probably like four ish years old or
something like that. And yeah, this would have been like the late seventies, so those winters were really cold, and I remember being out there super bundled up, like to the point where you're just like tottering around you can't even walk. And I believe my mom told me that the lights that my dad was putting up were from my grandparents, so they were like old lights hadn't really been put away, and they were the old kind, you know,
not these new LEDs that are indestructible. Yeah, the big old bulbs, which look amazing have such a retro vibe now. But you know, it was dark, and my brother and I are out with my dad just you know, playing around and we are just stepping on these bulbs left and not on purpose. You know, we can't see anything, we don't know what we're doing, but we're kind of starting to realize that it's kind of cool to step on these and make that sound. And oh man, my
dad was so mad. And I don't believe that we ever did put up the Christmas lights that year. But it's good to know now that the LEDs eliminate that whole thing from happening.
You are not alone because again, working in the garden center industry, Stacey, we sold thousands and thousands and thousands of packages of replacement C nine and SEE seven lights. And the LED lights today today are incredible. When they first came out with them, they had all the warmth and romance of a hospital operating group.
They're so bright and so blue, and now they're much better. Yeah, they've got the warm tones back in there. But you know, when you see one of those holenses with the old C seven bolved, it kind of gives you hits. You right in the fields.
You got it.
But anyway, back to decorating with plants and not lights. So I think that you know, too many people feel like they have to go big when it comes to bringing some of the garden indoors. You know, again, like we were talking about, you don't need to do a reef, you don't need to do a swag. You can do
something really small. And I think one of the nicest things that you can do or do with your kids, or have kids do if you need to get them out of your hair on the holiday, is just send them out to the garden to get little place settings, and you know, have at each place, you know, the plate and on the napkin, just a little something from the garden. And I think that you know, one of the best bases if you are stuck for inspiration in doing this, one of the absolute best bass that you
can use is arbor ding. Oh, I mean, arborvid is so ubiquitous. Now you might have to pull a rix limerick and get some from a neighbor if you don't have some. But you can find arborvity just about anywhere in such large quantities that you know, trimming some of those sprigs isn't really gonna matter. No one will even note that you're there. The foliage is soft, it's not prickly. I love the way that it kind of just naturally lays into a fan, so it just will sit very
nicely on that napkin. And it smells amazing. I adore the smell of arborvidy foliage. It's just it's delicious. There's no other way to describe it, which is why. Of course it's also very popular with deer. But you know, in harbrovid alone might look a little bit lonely. So I wanted to bring in some other ideas. Now we talked about Winterbury holly. Great choice if you have it. Now, Winterbury holly is definitely one of those plants that you should not cut too much off of. It is one
that is quite slow to recover. It's a slow growing shrub, so a spray couple sprigs here and there aren't a problem, but certainly not the kind of thing that you're gonna want to. You know, sheer down to do something major with red and yellow twig dogwoods like Arctic fire red and Arctic fire yellow. Those are all things that you might know. But I wanted to talk about something that you might not consider, and that is rose hips.
A love it.
You know, rose hips have been enjoyed for literally centuries as food as decoration in cosmetics, and they're still popular to this day, especially in the Eastern Europe for food. Like if you go to an Eastern European grocery store, you're gonna see rosep syrup, rose hips in syrup. They're going to find all of these different food supplies. But in the US it's you really know, they're going to see this in more specialty kind of stores. And I think most people, if you were to say rose hips,
they would be like, roses have hips? What are you talking about? And I think a lot of that stems from the fact that, you know, in modern US history, the primary roses that people were growing were hybrid tea roses. So hybrid t roses to issues with them. Number one, the flowers tend to be double, so all of those reproductive organs that would normally become the hip or the fruit the berry of the rose are buried by petals and don't get pollinated, and so you never see any
fruit develop. And overall, they're just not likely to set that fruit anyway, even if insects could access those parts. And also, hybrid t roses need dead heading if you want to have any kind of you know, reasonably good
continuous display, you need to deadhead hybrid tea roses. So you know, I would say there was a good one hundred seventy five to one hundred year span of American garden history where people didn't even think for the most part, the exception of rogosa roses or what they call betroses, of roses having attractive fruit. Now that all changed with
landscape roses. So when landscape roses, these disease resistant landscape roses like are So Easy series, which I know I still haven't told you the name of today's plant on trial. It is not a O So easy rose to stick with me. But when these kind of hit the scene,
it changed all that. Because these were roses that tended to be single or semi double, so those reproductive organs were accessible to pollinators, they didn't need dead heading to bloom continuously, and just for whatever combination of genetics, they tended to actually set fruit like this. So these are some rose hips that are from an oh So easy rose,
and you can see they're really quite nice. The rosehips can vary a lot from being a really cheerful, bright red to kind of more of an orange like this. So obviously the red ones are perfect for Christmas, and these more orangey ones are ideal for Thanksgiving. You can see they still have the klyx there where the flower was attached, so this is the fruit that is developed. They can be round, they can be oblong, they can be big, they can be small. These are probably about
medium size. So there's just a huge diversity.
And I love Rosa rigosa. You mentioned Rosa rigosa, and on the East Coast you'll see a number of them. I have pictures with a bright.
Yellow ooh, that's pretty Yeah. I love the rose. Hips on Rosa rogosa don't have any It is considered the deer resistant rose. I would be hesitant to try that myself, knowing how my local deer are, but I do love Rosa rogosa. But the fact is that pretty much any of these newer roses that don't need deadheading are likely to set fruit like this, as is the case with
today's plant on trial, Ringo double pink rose. Now, we featured a Ringo rose not all that long ago, back in I think it was in August, and we talked about these being a rose that's native to the Middle East, very very drought tolerant. And again I think because these whole temia roses are sort of closer to their wild ancestors, they are more likely to actually set fruit. So ringo double pink is one that sets fruit. They are on
the larger side. There are really really nice orange So all summer long you're getting these beautiful double pink flowers. So it's semi double. I mean you can still see, you know, the organs in there so that the polliniers can access them with a bright red eye. That's where the ringo part comes from. And then you know, these beautiful pink petals and as they fade, it kind of turns more of a purple color. So you're getting a
great display all summer. And then by the time that winds down, you know, come October or thereabouts, they're going to be leaving you these great hips to decorate with or just to enjoy. And of course bar and that if you never cut a single rose hip to enjoy indoors, the birds and squirrels and raccoons and possum and all of those will be very happy to eventually take them
from you. They are one berrier that I have seen kind of tends to stick around until it softens quite a bet, which is nice from a gardening standpoint because you get to enjoy them before they get completely devoured. Now you might be thinking, well, this sounds kind of cool, but aren't those thorny? And the answer to that is
it depends. So this one that I'm holding here from an oh so easy rose, some of the stems a little further down have some tiny, tiny thorns, but you can easily snap those off to go ahead, and you add them to your place settings. But by and large it's not hard to handle. There's just might be a couple of tiny thorns because overall on a rose, the thorns form further down on the thicker part of the shop, not on the skinny little pedicial up here that attaches the flower.
But perfect for a place setting. And I love what you said at the outset that it doesn't have to be massive, you don't have to be hauling in big branches, and this is ideal for it. By the away high in vitamin C too. Oh yes, but you know, and if you think about it, the whole concept of cutting down an entire tree and dragging it into the house, that's that's kind of crazy. So this idea that yeah, place settings and that sort of thing using some rosen I love that idea.
You're going to do it this Thanksgiving. I'm going to I'm gonna try to do it too. So of course you can take a look at whatever roses are in your backyard and see if they have hips and consider using those in your holiday arrangements. But if you don't have one, do consider adding one of these roses to your planting list for next spring. Ringo double pink would
be a great choice. You can see photos of it at Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or of course, join us on YouTube and decide if you're going to add it to your garden or not. I hope you will. We're going to take a little break and when we come back, we're going to be opening up the garden
mail bags, so please stay tuned. At proven Winner's color Choice, we've got a shrub for every taste and every Whether you're looking for an easycare rose and unforgettable hydrangea, or something new and unique, you can be confident that the shrubs and the white containers have been trialed and tested for your success. Look for them at your local garden center. Greetings, gardening friends and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we are at the point of the show where
we answer your gardening questions. And even though it's November and I think a lot of what people think of doing in the garden is winding down, I think they sell have questions. You may, in fact have questions about whether you can cut stuff from the garden for Thanksgiving, which we probably won't be able to answer, but you can ask it on YouTube as a comment anyway, and if we can get back to you in time, we
certainly will. But otherwise, think about what you can do in your backyard, take a walk around, get those ideas cooking, and if you do have any questions about that or anything else, you can always reach us at help HLP at Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or just visit Gardening Simplified on air dot com. We've got a contact form there, very handy you can fill and your information.
You can even attach a photo, which we do recommend if you're wondering about something that's going wrong or off the rails, because it's very hard to diagnose without a photo. I don't know how they used to do it.
I don't know about you, But I have a lot of questions year round.
I do well, I have yes, I have a lot of questions and at all gardening really, And that's why I so often tell our listeners when in doubt, don't, because when you are sitting around with those questions, you know, and you don't know what to do, and you feel like you have to do something when in doubt, don't. So what do we got in the mailbag this week?
Well, here's a note from and I believe, and forgive me if I get it wrong. Okay, it's either Gosia or Gassia.
I would say Goosha, but for sure.
Okay, let's go with Ghosha. I'm going to go with Stacy's inclination here, So Goosher writes to us. This year, we had a cicada invasion in Chicago Land and my limelight hydranges especially, and a lot of bushes have lengthwise cuts into the branches from them laying eggs. Ouch. Can I trim now my hydranges? And is that better for them to be trimmed now? I'm afraid the moisture going in through the cuts may kill the plants. I have over one hundred proven winners panicle hydranges.
Wow, that's a lot.
That's fabulous.
That is a lot, and it must be amazing to see. So unfortunately, Gojha did not include a photo of the one hundred proven winners panicle hydrange as. We'd love to see that, but she did include a photo of the cicada damage. And I thought this was a really interesting question because I have to tell you, I if I had seen this on a plant, cicadas would not have been my first thought. No, And I guess I'm just
not familiar with it. And you know, I know we've had some like huge hatches of big broods of cicadas recently, so it would not have been my first thought. I would have thought it was just kind of regular damage. So I'm really glad that Goosha made this connection and is bringing it to people's attention. So please do be sure to check us out on YouTube to see a picture of what this looks like, or of course we'll put it at show notes at Gardening Simplified on air
dot com so you can see it. And it looks just kind of like a regular standard plant injury, you know, like they cut the cicada's cut a little slit into the bark and lay their eggs, and then that bark just kind of heals over it, so it makes that kind of like a hot dog bun shape around where the cicada did that. Now, I would not recommend doing anything at all to this. Now, well, okay, actually, let
me back up. You don't need to worry Gaosha or anyone else about disease or dryness or anything entering that wound. That is not really going to be an issue for the plant. You know, plants get damaged all the time, and if it was really very easy for disease or other things to take hold, we'd have a lot more dead plants on our than we do. So I wouldn't
do it out of those concerns. However, you know, it is important to know that if you knowing that you had a big emergence of cicadas in the Chicago area last year, and knowing that that means that they laid quite a lot of eggs in your one hundred proven winters panicle hydrangeas, it might be wise to reduce those numbers by pruning out these egg laying sites if it's possible. If it's possible, now I don't think that you should go crazy and take out any thick branches that are
going to like dramatically disfigure your plants. But as you can see in Goja's photo, cutting this out is a small branch, and you know, especially as part of your regular spring pruning with your panicle hydrangeas, wouldn't even really go notice a thing.
Yeah, and there's two factors that play here. Number one, the cicada in the invasion is cyclical. In other words, it's this is going to pass. As far as panicle hydranges are concerned, Stacey, they respond really well to pruning.
Yeah, definitely, they They are very amenable to pruning. They will basically be unfazed. And you know, you can actually even prune a panicle hydrangel quite hard if you did need to take out one of those major branches. But you know, the branches that I'm seeing this on are pretty small, pretty minor. And this is you know, obviously, the panicle hydranges are not particularly susceptible to cicada damage. This is just the one that Gosha is using as
an example. But they can lay their eggs on anything, tree, shrub, any plant. They don't really have any particular preference for this. But that said, we're talking about pruning panicle hydrangees, whereas some plants, some shrubs, you know, if you were to prune them very hard, they can really struggle to revive from that. Like we were talking about with the winterbury, Hellie, that's not a plant that I would recommend very hard pruning on.
But I think, gosh, it's fantastic that you've got one hundred of these panicle hydranges. And I'm crazy about panico hydrangees too, Stacy. I just think for the general homeowner, what a fabulous plant.
It gives a lot and asks a little exactly so exactly hard to beat that.
Yeah, all right, Gene writes to us high Stacy and Rick a garden in Illinois, Zone six B. I recently noticed a maple tree we planted probably ten years ago, is losing its bark. The bark is simply sliding off the tree. I wonder if it was struck by lightning. What do you think and will it survive? I look forward to your show every week. Appreciate all the great garden advice and your sense of humor. I have planted several plants due to your great advice. Yesterday I planted
in El Nino desert rose chapulta. Why do I want to always say chapulta, you're hungry.
I'm hungry.
Can't wait to smell it next summer. Blam o, thank you both, very mulch.
Well, great shall as you have no doubt heard. I have huge enthusiasm for this plant. It is such a beautiful fragrance. And mine was actually blooming. Here we are in late November. Mine was actually blooming up until about two weeks ago. So tons of interest on there. But let's talk about your maple, because this is disturbing this. I mean, if this is happening to my maple, I would not be happy.
Well, let me mention that trees, especially if you're into timber, I like to go to lumber mills, okay, and kind of nose around and look for lumber.
Okay.
I don't know, It's just something I enjoy doing. I went with a friend. And if you're into timber, then you're really into the quality of the wood, okay. And people should be aware. I would recommend that you google this. Look up the fact that trees get the shakes. They get the shakes. Now we've talked about Southwest disease. Before frost cracks. It's when the sun shines on the tree, on the bark of the tree, it gets very very cold.
That expansion, that contraction causes not only splitting, but in some cases also for bark to fall off. So shakes in your timber, and there are all different types. There's cup shakes. I didn't say cupcakes, I said cup shakes, heart shakes, star shakes, ring shakes, and radial shakes. Wow, all different types. And I won't get into it right now, but look it up sometime. It's fascinating people that you know. I mean, you cut a board, you're going to use
it for furniture. You want the quality to be good.
Yeah, definitely.
And so this wood is the structure of it can change based on temperature, based on sunlight. And I really think that that's what causes the bark to fall off some trees. And it's not going to kill the tree, but it's just active.
Interesting. Okay, So for those of you who are wondering, Gene did send a photo and of course that will be on YouTube as well as on the show. Notes. And this is not a situation where like some of the bark is peeling like a river birch or something like that. I mean, the entire bark has come off this tree. Uh, and yeah, that is disturbing. Now. I do have to say, from my limited experience with things like this, I specifically deliberately girdled a Norway maple in
my yard because I wanted a dead tree. Yeah, I did this about two years ago.
I've done that. I don't feel so bad.
Why would you feel bad?
I don't.
Dead trees are very useful as well. I mean, probably more useful than a living Norway maple unless you really need the shade. But it was not a fan of Norway. Okay, well then not cool. That's not cool. Your neighbors are probably like, listening to the showguing Ricks seems like such a nice guy. What are we doing. We're getting to get one of those ring cameras and watch up for you. They're afraid you're telling on yourself. But so so we
girdled it deliberately because we wanted a dead tree. Because again, dead trees are you know. I love to garden for birds. Dead trees are very very important to bird and insects and lots of other creatures that I want in the garden, and so it was just an oroy maple. I'm not a huge fan, not a really great plant for other you know, things that I want a tree for. So when we girdled it, we just used a razor blade
to cut a bank slit all around the base. And what happened is a lot of moisture got up under there and something very similar happened. So it makes sense that this would potentially be due to frost cracking. But this I would think is severe enough that the plant is not going to survive. I mean, basically she has
lost an entire half of the tree in bark. And as we talked about a few weeks ago, you know, if the flow of nutrients from the base of the tree the roots to the top is disrupted in any substantial way, then that part of the tree will die. So you might end up with half a living tree, which you probably will want to take down because that could become unsafe. So don't know exactly why this happened, Gene. It's hard to say without you know, talking to you
and knowing more about what the situation are is. But I would say from what I'm seeing and what I have experienced, it is unlikely to survive, so you might think about bringing in arborist in and maybe making some firewood. We're going to take a little break. When we come back, we've got branching news to please stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by proven Winners, Color
Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work. Look for proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs and the distinctive white container at your local garden center.
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. It's time for branching news and Stacy. I thought that I would talk about some aromas today we enter the holiday season. I want to ask you a question. How do you feel about paper white narcissus? Do you like the aroma?
I cannot abide by the smell of paper whites. I love them. I do like the plants a lot. I think they're beautiful, but oh the smell just makes me nauseous.
Yeah, I'm the same way. Israel is the world's largest producer of paper white bulbs, and breeders are currently working on new varieties with lower levels of indole, also shorter, non floppy paper white varieties. There's a variety called near Nire that is shorter, squattier, and doesn't flop like a typical paper white narcissus would, which is fantastic, but for a lot of people, that sweet fragrance is just too strong or overpowering. Now, if you're gonna get some paper
white narcissus, find out what variety you're getting. It makes a difference. The most fragrant is a variety called ZeVA Ziva if you like the aroma. But there are some varieties that are far less fragrant. There's in Ball and there's also winter Sun. Because paper white fragrance is described as being indolic, which is pretty unhelpful if you don't work in the perfume world. But that translates as having an over ripe character. That's the description thing.
Yeah, I guess I could see that. It smells to me kind of like, I don't know. It's hard to it is hard to describe, hard.
To describe exactly, and so they they describe it as indole. So that's spelled I N D O l E. It's a sweetness that can both repel and attract us at the same time. So think paper white and narcissius. Think jasmine, think gardenias.
Oh I love that thing, Think.
Yeah, exactly, And so it's it's complicated. Think ornamental pair blocks.
Don't love that.
Now, not just white for paper whites. Also, there is a daffodil, a grand soul hedor it's a daffodil heirloom variety. It dates back to seventeen seventy and you'll get a lot of orange and yellow flowers on it. But that one's really going to have a lot of fragrance to it. Also, now a suggestion for you again, I'm recommending you see what type of variety you're getting. Because we've often talked on the show about it being the golden age of
plant breeding, and paper white narcissusts are no different. So they're developing these paper white narcissusts that do not have such a strong smell and are shorter and squattier, so when you plant them in the water and the pebbles in a dish, they don't get tall to the point where they fall over. That said, if you have some of the older varieties of paper white narcissus. This is what I do, and this is what I recommend an
adult beverage for your paper white. Now, I'm sure this whole thing started at a holiday party, but I have done this. You begin with a dilute solution of four to six inch four to six percent of alcohol when the shoots are about one to two inches above the bolt, and don't use beer or wine. There's too much sugar in it, so you've got to use alcohol. You can use rubbing alcohol, but otherwise distilled spirits like gin, vodka, whiskey, rum,
even tequila are all fine. So that's interesting. To determine the correct dilute solution, you take the percentage of alcohol on the label and you divide by five. So if you have a bottle of gin that says forty percent alcohol, forty divided by five is eight. So I need an eightfold dilution to yield five percent alcohol. So we're going to do seven parts water, one part gin for your paper white Narses, and everybody's going to be happy. The narcissists are going to be happy, your guests are going
to be happy. You're going to be happy.
Is the season. But don't drink it. Daffodils are toxic, you know. I remember when this just in case you were trying to save a bug or two. I remember when this came out that you could use alcohol. Vodka was really what they said at the beginning to stunt as it were narcissus. So they don't flop. Both my grandmas sent me newspaper clippings. I was in horticulture school at the time. They both sent me a newspaper clipping about it.
There you go, so we have done that. But you don't have to go the alcohol route if you don't want to, because there's new varieties. I mean, these things have been around for ages. There's a there's a story, a legend of a Dutch merchant who gifted narcissus bulbs to the lady of Star Castle and she later discarded the bulbs, mistaking mistaking them for foul tasting onions. She tried to eat it.
That's not good.
Yeah. Now along the lines of sense, I've got to get this out because again we talked on the show that I've been in the garden center industry for over forty years, and what do you think about when you think holiday themed ambient scents. Do you enjoy them, do you use them? And what are your favorites and your least favorites. For example, a favorite of mine, like I mentioned, are fur trees or Douglas fur trees with that citrus scent. I stick my face right in the needles and I
love them. But I cannot handle these ponderosa pine cones that are super charged with a cinnamon scent.
Yeah, you know, they're putting cinnamon on everything, these cinnamon brooms, cinnamon, this, cinnamon that. And the thing is it doesn't smell like cinnamon. It smells like fake cinnamon.
Well yeah, that's part of it. And it hits you in the face so hard and for some people, you know, they get migraine headaches. It makes me think of Frank's Nursery and.
Crash, Oh my gosh.
Yeah, they were. They had like I think maybe three hundred stores in the United States.
Oh yes, that Franks always smells like fertilizer to me, though not cinnamon.
You'd walk in the door and a Franks would smell like a mix of cinnamon, fertilizer, potting, soil, uh, eucalyptus, yeah, yeah, candles, the whole. Oh yeah, I mean, it was a may it would hit you in the face when you walked
in the door. But anyhow, and you know, you talk about the cinnamon thing and and talk about a hack h They recommend that you take cinnamon sticks and throw them in the box when you're packing away your Christmas decorations so that when you pulled them out next year, your favorite Garlands, Reese other decorations already smell like the holidays.
It seems like you'd need an awful lot of cinnamon sticks to make that effective, but you know, probably can't hurt. You could also put away your Christmas decorations with a peppermint oil scented cotton ball, which is said to repel mice.
Now that sounds better. I like that. Well, you can buy these little tea bags too that are peppermint oil and you use them for mice. And yes, you can throw them in there, So that's probably a better way to go. But yes, when you walk into the entry of a store and you get hit blamo lamo in the face with that smell of cinnamon ponderosa pine cones, I can do without that. One more thing here, have you ever tried romanesquo cauliflower.
I've grown it, have you really? Yes. When I was a very young gardener, I took one look at that thing in a seed catalog and I said, I have got to grow this.
I'm feeling the same way and I've never grown Oh no.
And I grew it well. I mean, considering that I barely knew anything at the time, I grew up pretty well. Because you know, a lot of times collifloor rockly it can be a little bit difficult to get the results that you are, you know, have in your head for yes, but I found it was easier to grow and yeah, absolutely gorgeous.
Yeah, it's so unique. It's one of the strangest looking vegetables because of its fractal floor retes. It is fractal, and so it owns it. It owes its unique shape to the to the fact that it forms these failed flowers. And my friends at Botanical Interest seeds, I saw that they have them available and I wanted to grow it. Not necessarily to eat it, even though it's very very healthy for you, but just such unique shape and interest.
I think that's that's something I'm going to add to my ornamental plants in my God it's kind of a geometric shape, just such a unique structure and almost sharp troos and.
Color, yeah, beautiful shar t color. So if you're not familiar with this, like I'm imagine a head of cauliflower that's a beautiful shortrucy lime green, and each little cluster of florets instead of just being like a round little globe, someone took it and twisted it and pulled it up, and so it's kind of like this spinning fractal like would look really cool under a black light kind of thing.
I love it. I love it. So that's on my Christmas list.
All right, So you're what you're dropping a hint here the way you looked at me, I was, And you know, if you want to use it, because of course you will have to eventually cook with it, otherwise it all just kind of get all stringy and give you more romanesque seat if you want to continue growing it. Yeah, you use it basically just like a cauliflower or broccoli however you prefer. But yeah, very very pretty and not to be confused with Romesco sauce, which is something totally different.
I love the fact though, that you've grown this. This is really cool because it's not something new. As a matter of fact, I read first noted by Italians in the sixteenth century. But now it's catching the eye of gourmet chefs and they say that it has a delicious nutty flavor and texture similar to culiflower.
Yeah, very closely related.
So there we go, romanesquo culiflower. No, you don't have to gift it to me. I'm going to order mine from Botanical Interest.
Sees all right, sounds like a plan.
Stacy. Always a pleasure to do this show with you. Thank you, Thank you so much, Adriana Robinson, and thanks to you for watching on YouTube, listening on radio, or listening to our podcast, The Gardening Simplified Ship.