Coming to you from Studio A here at proven Winter's Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy, Hervella me, Rick weisst and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson Stacy. November sixteen, twenty the Pilgrims got their first look at the New World when they saw Cape Cod. After a tortuous sixty six day voyage from England, the Pilgrims reached the mainland of America.
Now, as I learned this past year, they did not land at Plymouth Rock, but rather they anchored first in Provincetown Harbor, little Sandy, kind of like a beach. Difficult to farm that area, so they decided to move along to Plymouth Rock. But the reason that I bring this up is this past summer I visited the Hydrangea festival on Cape Cod. I know
you have to, Stacy, and they were experiencing something very interesting. In twenty twenty three, because of a polar vortex that occurred during the month of February, pretty much most or any of the Macrophilla hydrange of blooms were lost. And you know Cape Cod and big leaf Hydrange's hydrogenea macrophylla, the kind of the big pink, blue or purple flowers. They go hand in hand. I mean, if there's no hydrangees on the Cape, people want their
money back on their summer vacations exactly. So it was, you know, it was really disappointing. And then I picked up on some of the ways that people were reacting to it. And I know some of our viewers and our listeners grow hydranges in containers. So I thought we'd talked about that subject as we head into the winter months here in Michigan. Of course, I remember the polar vortex of twenty fourteen and it was cold. Yeah, how cold was It was so cold my phone's weather at pros and it did actually
no, my phone would it's so cold refrigerators become redundant. Yes, that's how cold. And that's how cold it got on Cape cod last year. I think it was February third and fourth, Mount Washington, of course, which is always cold, forty seven degrees with a wind chill of minus one hundred and eight, the coldest wind chill ever recorded for the United States.
On February four, twenty twenty three, Boston, Massachusetts, a new record low minus ten at Logan International Airport and then February fourth, Portland, Maine
all time lowest wind chill at minus forty five degrees. Now, we often talk on the show about hardiness zones and Cape Cod as I see it is Zone seven A. That's a sub zone that has a minimum average temperature of right around zero to five degrees as the coldest as the cold So if you start getting into some of those kind of temperatures, you are going to see
some damage. And yet Stacey today, hydranges we've talked often about the Let's Dance series are just so much more well suited to survive that winter period. The blooms again on Cape Cod with the macrophillis, the plants were not dead, it's just the blooms were the blooms were, you know, And that does strike I think at one of the shortcomings of the hardiness zone system, which is it only tells you, you know, if the plant will survive, not if you you know, are actually going to be happy with how
it looks at the end. A plant just alive isn't necessarily enough, and it's certainly not enough when it comes to big leaf hydrangs. If you lose those flowers because of course they blew on old wood, so big leaf hydrangeas they have their flower buds right now for the twenty twenty four summer season. That means they have to make it through all of winter. You know,
all those temperatures, deer, possibly well intentioned family members, landscapers. There's a lot of things that can threaten those floribus, but weather is not the least of them, and winter cold is one aspect. And then if assuming that they make it through the winter cold, then they still got to make it through spring when they start to leaf out, and you know we get those late season frost. So it's not an easy life out there for hydrange
of Macrophylla in most North American locations. Now, Cape Cod has traditionally been an exception because not unlike us here in West Michigan, we have a mitigating effect from the water, and so it was very unusual, I think, especially for the Cape to get quite that cold. But yet when we talk about the let stands hydrangeis those are you know, the hydrangees that we've developed here in West Michigan. What we're really looking for is exactly what they dealt
with in Cape Cod. Even if you garden under the best possible conditions for
big leaf Hydrange's, there's still so much it can go wrong. And what we're really working towards in a number of different ways, is how can we improve on this plant's survivability, it's thriveability so that when those things happen that are out of our control, like weather, when things happen that are sensibly in our control, but we weren't there to intercept the kid home from college who was cutting back your garden, or the well intentioned landscape which I have
seen so so many times that even then they will still bloom. And that's really our goal is to kind of work with a variety of different characteristics inherent in the plant, to select for those, and I guess you could say fool proof them in a way, yeah, exactly. Now on Cape Cod, there's a gentleman there called the hydrangea guy Mail Condon, and Male's strong belief is that a worthy garden is indeed a work in progress throughout gardener's lifetime.
And I agree with that one hundred percent. But they were stung by this polar vortex, and I noticed that and I attended a seminar that that mal put On and Adriana will post some of these pictures on our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or you'll see them here on YouTube. As we broadcast, they started putting some of these macropillas into seven gallon pots or seven gallon fabric containers that they could lift and put into cold frames for
winter. Not necessarily recommending that everybody needs to do that, but again there's a lot of pressure on them because they're a hydrange of city and people expect to see those hydranges in bloom in July. Oh absolutely. And you know that is that has long been an option that if you were absolutely adamant about preserving your hydrange of blooms, that there were these different types of things that you could do, but you know, wouldn't it be better if you didn't
have to? And that was sort of how our hydrange of breeding program actually started, is that we had you know, a huge selection of all sorts of hydrangees from all over the world in our trial garden, and every year the owner would cover them up and try to get them through winter, and then finally one year we just said, well, what if you don't.
What if we let nature take its course and we start seeing what did survive and we start using that for our plant breeding rather than saying like, oh, we want to develop a hydrange that's super beautiful, Well dah, that's easy. You know. What we want is a hydrange that is beautiful,
of course, but more importantly than it performs. And so we started using that sort of natural selection approach so that you know, you won't have to actually plant things in a seven gallon container and move it into a greenhouse, which you know, honestly most people don't really have. And that's fantastic, And that's why the work that's being done by proven winners colored choice shrubs is is so important, and it helps assist us in our love and enjoyment of
hydrangs, even if a polar vortex comes along. I put together a little limb a rick for you on this subject. I like hydranges a lot, a lot. You should see how many I bought panicle smooth or macrophilla. I plant them all around my villa. I even plant them in a pot. I'm not a gardening newcomer, and I just can't wait for next summer. I laugh, at cold with sarcasm. It can't freeze my enthusiasm.
Yet my heartiness zone is a bummer. Winter just lasts forever. My hydranges and I say whatever I bundle up in my gortex, they endure a polar vortex. I think we both are quite clever, so I'm here for you and will chaperone You won't have to do this alone. We won't lose our blooms when frigid weather looms. You and I were in the zone. And that brings me to our word of the day, microclimate. Oh, if you have hydranges in pots, do you think it's a good idea to move
them to a micro climate for winter? Stacey, I think the most important thing for hydrangeens and pots over winter is to make sure they are not getting too much water or snow dropped on them. And this is something I tell people all the time. Don't position them in a spot where the snow is going to come falling down on them from your roof, where icicles are going
to be dripping on them. The biggest threat to the majority of plants over winter in a container is the ice cube that forms in the center of the container, so that water can't drain through and it causes root rot. And yeah, of course cold is an issue. And if you're trying to grow something that's not hardy, then yeah, it might not make it. But I have found repeatedly that having frozen soil that causes the drainage to back up.
That's what really doesn't mean fantastic. Of course, as always make your pots have good drainage holes. The bigger the better. In my opinion, as far as pots are concerned, if you can give them a little bit of protection in winter, it may help. But I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from trying to grow hydranges or macrophillas in contain. Absolutely you bet you plants on trial coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified Show, Prooven
Winter's Color 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. Today we are talking about hydranges, getting them through
winter. It is probably one of the biggest challenges that people face with hydranges. I could, I mean, I could do so many shows about getting hydrangeas through winter. Like I'm trying to streamline this into one single train of thought, and it's hard, but I'll try to do it by framing today's plant on trial, which is tough stuff. Mountain hydrangea in my yard,
one of my favorite plants. It is a great plant. And you know you might be sitting there thinking, well, gee, what's a mountain hydrange You guys were talking about big leaf hydrangea, which are known as hydrange of macrophylla. We've often talked about panicle hydrangees, smooth hydrangees. There's all these different names flying around a couple. You know, probably about twenty years ago or so, mountain hydrangees come on the scene and people are like, oh
great, now another hydrangea to remember. But we're talking about mountain hydrange is today specifically as it relates to what work was talking about with the survival through the polar of war attacks that they experienced on the East Coast last year that we've experienced before. So here's a situation with mountain hydrangs. Mountain hydrangees are known botanically is Hydrangea serrata, and they grow in the exact same areas of
Japan where big leaf hydranges or hydrange of macrophylla also grow wild. So these are occurring endemically wild plants. The difference is that in those areas, which are mountainous islands with very tall mountains, hydrange of macrophylla grows on the seaside,
where it's much more mild. The ocean or bit large bodies of water always have some sort of mitigating effect on the worst of winter weather, whereas hydrange of serrata grows way up in the mountains and on top of the mountain, of course it's much colder than it would be down by the seaside. These are probably like temperate areas. You could think of them as having a climate probably similar to like North Carolina humid summers, hot summers, but not
super cold winters. They get some snow, but not you know, super frigid like we would have up here. So like probably like a roughly like USDA zone seven to eight on the edge of something like that. So these hydranges that are growing up in the mountains are susceptible or suscepted to a lot more cold weather, snow ice, those wild temperature fluctuations when you get a really really sunny day and it's heating up and then the temperature suddenly plunges at
night. Those are all huge challenges for plants, and they are especially challenges for plants that have their flower buds on the stems all through winter during that hardest part to maintain this delicate tissue. It sounds like Michigan or Wisconsin seventy degrees one day and freezing the neck. Yes, and it's true. Our winters have become a lot more you know, variable and fluctuating like that. But what has happened is that Hydrangea serrata or mountain hydrangea has naturally developed a
better tolerance in its flower buds to that cold. Now, this has been happening over a span of thousands and thousands of years, and so basically, since you know, none of those hydrangas individually are going to live forever. If there have, they had not naturally developed this ability to withstand those cold spells, they would have died out because they never would have been able to reproduce from seed because the flower buds would always be getting frozen off, they
would never set seed, and the population essentially would die out. So basically what happened they started from this bigly hydrange on mountain Hydrangea started from the same ancestor, they diverged in their evolution because they were growing in very different areas. Some botanists do consider Hydrangea serrata or mountain hydrangel a subspecies of hydrange of
Macrophylla. Some consider it a totally separate species. But you know, when my boss Tim Wood and Dale Deby, the owner here, started going abroad and looking for hydrangels and noticing this, they really saw the potential for this natural development of better cold tolerance, and so they collected seed legally all above the board here brought it back to the US, and that was how we started to develop the Tough Stuff series from these natural hydrangeas that have developed this
better cold tolerance on their own. We have to at this point a quick shout out to our friends in Japan who listen to the Gardening Simplified and can probably very much relate to this. And yes, Stacey, you know we talked about polar vortex and in twenty fourteen here in Michigan, my tough Stuff's
survived it with flying colors. Yeah, they are really incredible. We do offer them tough Stuff as a USDA Zone four hardy plant, partially again because of its ability to withstand that cold and because they're also rebloomers, so let's say the worst happens, they are still able to rebloom. But yeah, these are hydranges that I have heard from so many gardeners all across the country
that truly do hold their own in a cold climate. Now, if you live in a warm climate, even better, because that means you're going to have even more flowers. You're unlikely to have this issue that we have in cold climates of your plants, you know, losing their flower buds due to that extreme cold. But because they rebloom, you'll just basically end up with hydrange of flowers from you know, June until frost, which is a pretty great deal. It is a great deal, folks. Stacey's talking about tough
stuff hydrange and tough by the way, is spelled tu ff. But you can get the information at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com and of course, Adriana always adds a lot of great stuff to the YouTube video also to take a look at them. Yeah, and this is one. It's so photogenic. I mean, we kind of can't help but have a ton of video and photos of this plant because it's so beautiful. So I do want to talk
a bit about what it looks like. So you're familiar with the big leaves, like we talked about, usually the big orb shaped flowers are pink or blue or purple. Now, tough stuff does have that. The flowers can be pink or blue or purple, but they aren't so orb shaped. Right now, there are no mountain hydrae hydrange of Serrata that are a mophead.
They're all lace caps. So basically what that means is they're going to have that flatter, lacier, more open influorescence compared to that big honk and mophead that everyone associates with cape cod of course, but it's still beautiful. And you know, one of the things that I've said on the show before that's
so great about lace cap hydrangeas is that they also sustain pollinators. So with the mopheads, even though a lot of people prefer those just to look at those sterile florets, those big showy sterile florettes obscure the fertile florets where all the pollen and nectar are, and a lace cap those are right out front as nature intended, and so insects and pollinators are really able to get at them. And I personally love the slightly more informal look. It's how I
would describe it of a lace cap over a mophead. It just has it looks very at home in sort of like more Cottagy type situations. Certainly any kind of woodland garden. I mean, I really like it. Do you have a preference very natural, very floriferous, And I agree, And for me and my perspective with the tough stuff high ranges in my landscape, perfect landing pads, oh yeah, for a polony, they're just like right there. And you know, speaking of perfect, they also have a really nice
habit. They naturally grow in a nice tidy, rounded shape, so you don't get Hopefully you aren't tempted to prune it because this is the type again, because it blooms on old wood, you wouldn't be pruning it except to remove any deadwood or old flowers in spring. So now tough Stuff has been around for several years. Again, it came out of our breeding here in
West Michigan. Really stormed on the scene. I mean I think people were probably, of course a little dubious, as you would be with any new plant comes out, but have quickly learned that it does live up to its name and it really is a great choice. So with our plant breeding, you know, we're always looking to improve and so it's kind of I've talked about it before with roses. When you get over one hurdle, which for us, of course was cold tolerance, then you can start looking at more
and more opportunities. And so in the time since the original Tough Stuff has been introduced, we've introduced three additional varieties. So I think that now if you will go to your garden center this spring, I would definitely be keeping my eyes out for anything in the Tough Stuff series, but especially tough Stuff Top Fun. So tough Stuff Top Fun a plant that Tom Cruise would appreciate. Yes, And we were naming this right when that movie was out in
the theaters, the newer one, not the originals. It is quite for speed. Yeah, all right, so you know, all the information on this site. I can barely scratch a service. I mean, there's just always so much to talk about with Hydrange's and I know people are so hungry for knowledge on hydrangees. But we'll put all of this in the show notes
at Gardeningsimplified on air dot com. Give you some links. You can see how beautiful the original tough stuff is, and of course we'll link you out to the newer varieties so you can pick the fit tough stuff Hydrangea for your garden. We're gonna take a little break and when we come back, we've got that garden mail bag to open, so please stay tuned. At proven winner's color Choice, we've got a shrub for every taste and every space.
Whether you're looking for an easy care 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. Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. You know, I love hearing from our listeners and whether we're helping them solve problems
or they just have a comment. About the show. It. You know, when you're in studio a here and it's the three of us and we're just we're talking, you know, we don't we don't know is this going out into the ether? Is anybody out there? So it's always nice to hear that there are people. I love it, especially when people like my cow bell jokes. Thank you, very mulch. I thought that would just go right over the head. But wow, so thank you very mulch.
You weren't joking when you said it was a classic. It's a classic now, Stacey. Along that line, we got a great note from barberas Yeah. So I was checking the inbox and was really really loved what Barbara had to say. She said, thank you for the Native Plant show. I
hope you continue to have shows about this. I don't consider myself a hard core native gardener, but I've shifted my thinking about this and now purchase natives more than other types of plants to help bring back our ecosystem since it's necessary for insects and birds. I feel the more we learned about our ecosystem, the better I learned that we're losing the natural ecosystem because we're overpopulating our gardens
across the US with non native species. I also learned that many birds feed their babies specific types of caterpillars or worms, and those feed only on native plants and trumps. The chickadee is one of those birds. If you don't have the native plant that those insects live on, then the chickay won't be able to feed their babies. I'm also a photographer and love taking images of insects, flowers, and birds. I think the word pollinator is being overused
in marketing, since we need all of the insects. Could not agree more with you there, Barbara. If the insects are not there, then the birds won't be there either. So you know I appreciate that because I do. I don't say it a lot, but you know, I it does bother me a bit that all only the glamorous pollinators, like the honey bees and the butterflies, they get all the credit. But you know, there's
some less glamorous insects out there that are doing some very heavy lifting. So, Barbara, I am glad to hear that you are of the same mind, and we really appreciate you writing in with that comment. Yeah, I love it. I love it. That's great. So, you know, we're talking about hydrangeas, and there's been a topic on my mind, and then this question came through, and I said, oh, this is the perfect time to address this issue. So it is from Ruth and she says,
my hydrangea is blooming late, a few blooms. Then about a week ago, a frost came. I have a lot of blooms ready to pop, but it's too late. Should I just clip those off? Should I just clip off those blooms that didn't flower? All the leaves on the whole plant are gone. I'm not going to cut the stems. Thank you. I love your program. So I have heard from so many gardeners who got really confused this October when their hydrange just started flowering, did not flower all
summer. And then you know, there you are in October, rake in the leaves and you look over and your hydrangea is just blooming like it's July. What gives Well, the simple answer here is that those are reblooming hydranges and you are seeing the new wood flowers, So reblooming hydrangeas bloom on oldwood like you know the other ones. When we're talking about the hydrange of Macrophilla
and the hydrange of Serrata big leaf and mountain hydrangeas here. So they bloom on oldwood, have their flower buds right now for next season, but reblooming hydrange is also bloom on new wood. So as much new growth as they are able to put on during the growing season, they will eventually be able to make a flower bud. And it's just a matter of time how long
it takes them to do that and how long the conditions last. So when you have hydrange of flowers in October, you are seeing those new wood blooms, it's just late, and depending on your growing season, it's if you live in the South, you really don't have to wait that long because things are growing longer and more vigorously, Whereas for a lot of us in the Midwest and north and northeast, we don't have such a long, favorable growing
season, So sometimes it does take until October for those flowers to show their heads. But it's not a cause for concern. And one thing that a lot of people were concerned about when they're seeing this is is it detracting from my flowers for next year? And the answer to that is no, it's not because these are new wood flowers that were put on this year. The hydrange is already making at that point in October now here in November, already
making it's flower buds for twenty twenty four. So it's not impacting those old wood blooms that are going to give you the main show in twenty twenty four. So there's no cause for concern. I don't think that you should trim anything at all off right now, even if you have spent flowers on your big leaf hydrange, especially if you live in a cold climate. I generally recommend that people keep them in place because they do offer a bit of protection
to those buds. It kind of are a little like winter hat for the plant. So Ruth I would say, don't cut anything off, don't worry about it, let your plant be. Mulch is good, and you know, hopefully with a favorable winter, and depending on what type of hydrange you have, you'll hopefully get all those nice old wood blooms next summer and then nice new wood blooms hopefully a little earlier. It does help to fertilize. You know, I'm not the biggest fertilizer, but it does help because that
fertilizer. This is true of any reblooming shrubs. So whether you have like a bloomerang lilac or sonic bloom Whigela, fertilizing in that growth period of like May through late July gives it that extra boost it needs to put on that growth and get those flower buds out. So crucial. It's the ruth. It's the new wood catching up to the old wood. And that's the beauty of reblooming high dranges as well. Who was it? Was it? Cousin Eddie said to Clark, It's the gift that keeps giving. It's that time
of year, so enjoy. Yes. So what else we got in the mailbag here? Oh? Okay, Raquel has a question on growing figs in a cold climate. Oh boy, I received a fig tree cutting in May of this year and it's grown to three feet tall now and has six little figs. I brought it in before temperatures dip below thirty and it's inside under a grow light. I just recently heard about chill times, so I've we
all need some children, It's true. Yeah, So I've tried to do research, but I've only gotten more confused I read it needs about one hundred hours approximately four days of chill time to go dormant. Did I make a mistake bringing it? Should I move it to the garage? I live in Zone five B, Iowa gets pretty cold here. Protect it. I live in a small apartment. Put it in a cool closet. Please clarify.
I know so Raquel has kind of the perfect storm of challenges here, but I do want to address first of all, I grow figs successfully here in the US. I just had my best or in the US in Michigan. I just had my best harvest ever I had. We got probably fifteen or twenty figs off it. Now it's a little bit milder here. But fighs are hardier than a lot of people think that they are. Yeah, it's a fig leaf of your imaginaty, No, it's not a fig leaf of
your imagination. They really are a little bit hardier than people think. But you know, now Raquel is in Iowa, so Middle America. You know, it's definitely don't have the benefit of some of the mitigating effects of water like we have. But that doesn't mean that the plant can come indoors either. That's going to be really really stressful on it. So, yes,
the chilling requirement is part of the issue. And figs, like many edible fruits, need to be exposed to some amount of cold temperatures in order to develop their flower buds and eventually fruit. In the case of figs, that's about one hundred hours total of temperatures below forty five. So I know that's not the kind of chill time you're looking for. You prefer it warmer, but definitely under forty five. And of course it's not going to get that.
It's not going to get that in your house. And even with a grow light. You know, plants that everything except like the most tender tropical plants, really needs to be outdoors. It's really difficult for these plants to try to adapt to the indoors. You know, there's the light isn't as strong even if you have a grow light. The air circulation, I think is so crucial. You know, we don't have good air circulation in our houses, and a fan is not really going to cut it either, because
it's not the same as you know, actually being outdoors. And another thing that's so crucial to plant health is the fluctuating day length that they experience outside, you know, going through that whole cycle of waning daylight like we have right now, and then back through increasing daylight after The lands aren't to a static environment, no they're not, so it's really going to struggle indoors.
It could struggle outdoors, but I think that it will be better out there, and I think that you just have to do the best that you can with the facilities that you have. Now. It's not unheard of for people in cold climates who are growing figs to actually dig a trench and put their whole Plantlet grow it in a container and lay it down in the trench. That's an old fashioned thing to do. If you have that garage that you
described, I would put it in the garage. Ideally, hopefully your gridge has some sort of window or light, but I would put it in the garage to kind of protect it from some of the worst of your weather. The trick though, is to make sure that you are checking it for water, because it cannot stay completely dry all winter. That will really be stressful
for it might not live. But on the other hand, you're never gonna water it like in summer where it's coming out the the bottom, so so water it well, put it in your garage, and then check it. I would put a calendar reminder to check it, like every two weeks or so, just to see make sure it's not getting too dry. If you do need to water it, just a bit to moist in the top should
be more than sufficient. And I still can't guarantee that it'll survive, but I think that it will be much happier and you will be much happier, Raquel. Trying to grow it outdoors than in and send us some of those figs. Yeah we have Chicago hardy and yeah, they were absolutely delicious. I was really amazed at what a good crop we got this year and a plant fun to watch grow. Some plants are just fun to watch grow. That's a plant that's it's got sum much history and very very cool plant.
So where there's a will, there's away, Raquel. So use what you have and let us know how it turns out. We're gonna take a little break. When we come back. We've got branching news, so police stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by proven winners Color Choice Shrubs, our award winning flowering shrubs in 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. It's not breaking news, but we do not make this stuff up. And by the way, as Stacy mentioned, we love your notes, your messages,
your mail. Thanks keep it coming. And on YouTube, we had someone mention the googly i video from Saturday Night Live, and I love that. It was a Christopher Walkin' video arguably one of the most iconic, or at least close to I think last week we talked about the blue oyster cult. Yeah, and I need more cow bell. Well this week googly eye
video on Saturday Night Live. A man who is very scared of plants, so Christopher Walkin would put these googly eyes that you can find at craft stores on his houseplants so that he could see what they were up to, because you can only really tell if you look into somebody's eyes. Great stuff.
We'll post the link there at Gardening Simplified on air dot Com. I did find out that googly eyes that you find in the craft stores originated, they believe, from a comic strip from the early nineteen hundreds called Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. So cartoonist Billy de Beck in nineteen nineteen created the character Barney Google, and his defining physical characteristic was a set of very large googly eyes. Do you remember the themes on Barney Google? Yes, to Google googly
eyes. That's right. I was not born in nineteen nineteen, but I have an old soul that is very well done. Nice, thank you way to bring it the good. Who would think that those little plastic do dads that you buy at the craft store could be so much fun? Of course, in this case, Christopher walking and put him on cactus because you cannot turn your back on cactus, nor can you trust cactus, so put some
googly eyes on them. Retired firefighter who built a fire station themed man cave in his back garden has been crowned winner of Britain's Best pubsd of the Year. We're gonna put that link there. Also, it's an engine house that's a pub shed in his yard, complete with oh boy, you can get fire themed beers. A golden ale called brass helmet, a ruby ale called old Steamer, a stout called Smokey. Spent well over three thousand dollars to
put together this shed in his backyard, and he's the winner. This is a big deal in great Britain. Oh yeah, I love looking at the contestants. They do a great job. Oh it's great. So my shed in my backyard, that's where I store my limbo stick. Oh yeah, and it was stolen. It was stolen out of my shed. How low can you go? I was waiting for the punch line. I was believing that you might have a limbo stick, But then the pauses were just a little too suggestive. Yeah, you caught me. I did build a shed
last week, though I nailed it. Okay, not a pigment of your imagination. Growling clacking teeth. The rumble of hoofs as night falls at one of the United states most scenic golf clubs, sinister noises reverberate off the red rock can onion walls. I guess there's a golf course in Arizona Seven canyons and the grass gets torn up all over the place. The pictures are amazing, they say. The perpetrators are javelina, a pig like creature with raking
canine teeth, and they have the capacity for chaos. In the town of Sedona, they've become a viral sensation. Have you ever heard of javelina? Yes, it's pronounced havelina, havelina. Yeah, oh, okay, see, I'd never heard of it. And you know, there are obviously there's a lot going on right now about feral hogs in other areas, but havelinas are actually a native pig to Arizona, and they're pretty pretty interesting creatures.
Wowe if you're not a golf course manager. Yeah, exactly, because they say when you come upon them and see them, it's like the Tasmanian devil. Scary stuff. And here's another interesting thing about these Okay, I thought they were javelina. That sounded strange to me. Maybe that was just a Disney character from my childhood or something. But they get in there and they
tear up that turf thereafter earthworms. Yeah, and of course there's gonna be boatloads in the golf course where they're watering and fertilizing, and the grass is super lush, especially in a place like Arizona where it isn't otherwise, So I think that they're much less destructive, you know, in natural areas, in most residential areas. But yeah, if you have grass with juicy, juicy earthworms, you better watch out there. So they're kind of like this
cross between a pig and the Tasmanian devil. I don't I'm not so sure I'm gonna run across one of those. Well, I think you would probably be less freaked out really if you saw them. Yeah, they're really very cool creatures. I had I'm pro Healina Okay Good. A new survey explorer to mere cans Love for all Things sweet and Results found indulging in their sweet tooth is the activity most likely to bring back the childlike wonder of the holidays
for fifty six percent of people. So eating sweets and desserts beats out opening presents and playing in the snow. Well a lot of people that get to play in the snow, so that could be skewing the results true, Good point. The results found also that forty eight percent of people have hidden their favorite treats to avoid sharing them with anybody else. That's a very holiday spirit of them. They hide them in kitchen cabinets. A kitchen cabinet that usually
doesn't have food or a bathroom cabinet. So there you go. And the best flavors at the end of the year gingerbread, salted caramel, peppermint, maple, pumpkin, spice, chi cinnamon, and bourbon bourbon I mean, were cranberry, chestnuts, cocoa, egg nut. Yeah, those are all well. Bourbon is often in the eggnogs, and it is one of the main flavors of eggnogs. It's whiskey business, that's what it is. Yes, wow, all right, and you know, of course no water chestnuts
in there. Do you like water chestnuts in seven layer salads? I don't like water chestnuts. Just had to throw that in, all right. They are pretty interesting plants. You know that. We do have an invasive water chestnut in the US that has very cool seedpods but is a terrible invasive plant. But I don't want to eat it. No, No, that's okay, you don't have to. Okay, thank you, you're a grown man.
Pass the flag. Surging olive oil prices, driven in part by two years of drought in Spain, has meant opportunity for criminals across the Mediterranean. Warehouse break ins, dilution of premium oil with inferior product, falsification of shipping data are on the rise in olive growing heartlands of Greece, Spain and Italy. Perhaps worst of all, gangs using chainsaws to steal heavily laden branches and even entire trees from unguarded groups. Oh my gosh, isn't that's sad?
Well, that's not very sustainable business model. No, it's not sustainable, I mean even for a criminal enterprise. But it has added to this shortage and the price going up on olive oil. But they're having some really serious problems of theft of branches. So it sounds like those thieves need a botany
lesson. They do need a botany lesson, they really do. Ah. All right, Let's move on to something a little more fun here, and that is a Christmas trees journey to the living room can take many forms nowadays. Most live trees come from a farm. Others are carefully constructed out of polyethylene or PBC. But the White Mountain Nash Forest, so this is a national forest in New Hampshire and Maine. I believe it crosses the border. Correct me if I'm wrong, But is in that area. They give you
a different option. With a purchase of a five dollars permit, you can cut down your own wild conifer, so you can go off into the White Mountain National Forest and cut yourself a Christmas tree for five dollars. I found that really interesting. It sounds really interesting. That might be one of those things that is easier said than none. Though. Yeah, you can't. You know, you can't go out there and get a Clark w Griswold tree
something that big. As a matter of fact, they say the tree must be less than six inches in diameter at chest height, and the stump left behind must be ten inches or smaller. So yes, it's not the Griswold family Christmas tree. But still for five bucks to be able to have that experience, I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, it could be very interesting, or it could be a disaster. There's always that chance. You've got to bring along a saw. They won't let you use a chainsaw, which
I was thinking about the other day. A great thing for a Christmas list. I have the CD the Texas Chainsaw Orchestra. Have you ever heard them? No? I haven't. Oh my word, they're fantastic. You can
get it for like about twenty six bucks on Amazon. And on the album they play with chainsaws and they do Happy Birthday American Woman, chain gang and I will Always Love you, Wowder reports The Texas Chainsaw Orchestra just one of those things that I like and I think would be great in Christmas stockings, So giving them a little plug here. Hey, it's been fun. It's been a ball as it always is. And Stacey, thanks so much, enjoy doing the show with Thank you Rick, and thanks to Adriana, and
thank you so much to all of you for listening. We appreciate you and hope you have a great week ahead. I have a great week