Coming to you from Studio A here at proven Winns Color Joy Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, Me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Well Stacy, throughout the years, I have helped people with garden problems. I've been involved in the media for years, and when I'm out and about and people meet me, first thing they'll do is they'll shake
my hand vigorously and introduce themselves. And then the next words out of their mouth are I have a brown thumb. Everything I touch dies. And I say to them, that's a piece of information I would have liked before you shook my name. Are there plants that you can't kill? I say, well, maybe, at least I've tried with certain plants.
And Stacy, I think when you approach the subject, you have to look at plants first of all, considering what is their native habitat, look at their reach, in other words, how large an area across the world does this plant grow? Remember it's all relative. And then finally, look at the roots. Some plants have what we call adventitious roots or rhizotomous roots, and it can make all the difference in the world as it relates to a plant survivability.
There are so many factors that go into a plant's ability to withstand challenges. But I do want to say first that I would think that when most people meet you, the first thing they would say is I've got the perfect pun for you.
They do that too, I have hundreds of them. Some of my best came from listeners.
Okay, just time to get that out of the way. Yes, but there are a lot of different factors. And when I was thinking about this topic, you know what, I feel like there's a differentiation right between plants that are durable, which we talk about a lot. We will say things like, you know, this plant will withstand wet soil, or this plant can withstand high pH or low pH or whatever.
We talk about specific challenges. But to me, these plants that you can't kill can't merely tolerate one extreme condition. They need to be able to tolerate anything that Mother Nature can throw at it.
It's a great point, and there are actually.
A number of those plants because of course you can walk around and see that plants are surviving despite all of the crazy stuff that Mother nature does.
Throw at them.
But the bigger question than is are they nice enough to have in your landscape?
Yes? Exactly. So if I elaborate on that a little bit, let's see how you feel about this, Stacey. For example, I said, look to where they are native. Think about the plants from the Great Plains like Helianthus, cone flowers, switch grass Esclepius two buosa, favorite plant of yours, and think about their root system and what it takes to survive out there on the Great Plains. Can get really hot, can get really cold, et cetera, et cetera. Right, and
then take a look at the range. I think about an interesting tree people don't talk about a lot, and that is ironwood tree. The range of that tree is unbelievable throughout Canada, into the eastern US, all the way down to the Honduras.
Wow, that far down.
So a sizeable reach on that tree. And then remember it's all relative. If you were to go to the search engine of your choice and type in plants that are hard to kill, odds are what's gonna come up? Are houseplants? Yes, because everybody kills houseplants and usually kills them with kindness. Now there are super tough houseplants like ponytail palm or sandsavaria or zz plants. But odds are people kill them left and right. Why Because they overwater them?
You know what?
That is so true In all of my years of helping people garden and answering questions, overwatering has overwhelmingly been the reason that people have killed their plants indoors and out I have so so many people who you know, hear at proven winners plant a lilac or plant a panic lyide range of two of our best sellers. Great plants widely be loved, and they say, and I wanted
to give it a good home. So I dug a hole, and I dumped a big, you know, bag full of composts or potting mix in there, and then I planted it. And I've been watering it every day and now it's wilting, and so I gave it more water, and you know,
there goes a plant. And the thing the bottom line here, whether it's houseplants or outdoor plants, is that plants can generally withstand underwatering more they can withstand overwatering because what they can deal what they can do if they get too much, If they get too little water, it's just go dormant, just boo. Can't deal just conserving my resources, putting it away for a little while. If they get overwatered,
their roots suffocate. It's like, you know, you can live in the desert, but if you drown in the ocean, your your life will be very short.
You might be able to do three.
Days in the desert, if you know, going through there and finding some water, maybe eating a cactus if you're lucky. But yeah, in the ocean, you got to stay afloat. You're gonna drown.
That's why one of my favorite puns is I just wet my plants. But it's true. And with those houseplants, so they kill them with watering. Whereas there are some houseplants if you look at their native habitat their range, their characteristics Philodendron chordatum or pothos, that is a plant. And my daughter is evidence of this because I've watched her houseplants. They can shift from dust dry to soaking wet and survive. So there are a few that are tough,
too very tough to kill. Today's lima rick and by the way, we're gonna call it limb a Eric li MB Thanks to one of our viewers listeners, Randa, thank you very much. Tougher than a choke cherry or a plant grown on the prairie, one's interest is arbitrary of its thorns. You should be wary. Just how does Stacy feel about Barbary Rick?
How dare you don't make me say this on the show? I thought we were doing plants we hate next episode.
Oh okay, we can save it for next week. Then then let me ask you this question. How do you feel about day lilies or jeez? Because boy, here is a perennial that is next to impossible to kill. I've pulled them out of the ground, left them laying for months, and they survived it. And again I go back to what I originally said, Stacy, I think it goes back to the rhizotomous, adventitious thick roots.
Yeah, so that's definitely why day lilies are pretty hard to kill. Because if you dig one up, do you see that they have like a nice fleshy storage root down there where they can keep moisture. And like I just said, because there are deciduous plants, if going really gets tough, they just go dormant and then they come back next year. They store all their nutrients. I do not care for day lilies. This is a widely known fact. But I mean, I don't judge anybody who does like them,
because I do get why people like them. I have a visceral reaction to daylilies because this is this is kind of gross, but I'm gonna say it anyway. The petals remind me of diapers.
Really.
Yeah, they're like so thick and puffy and gross. Sorry, I'm cracking up the studio in here. I can't believe I just said this on air. But yeah, like especially the newer so you know, Sorryboddy in here, it's busted enough.
It all depends. Maybe I should just pamper you some color commentary here anyway.
So, especially the newer varieties of.
Daily Again the same way, I.
Can't believe I haven't said this to you. I feel like I say this to everybody when they ask me how I feel about daylilies, especially the newer varieties. So you know, newer varieties have more chromosomes. That's what makes them bigger, more, you know, more colorful, everything, more robust, and it also makes the petals even thicker and uh yeah,
I really really don't like daylilies. I mean, besides the fact that I can't even grow them even if I wanted to, because I have deer, and I actually have one day lily, I believe it or not. It is a variegated day lily, and it's kind of interesting. So you know, I knew it would never flower because of the deer, but the I like variegation that's like very neat and tidy, and this is a parallel variegation, so it looks really good. But it is on its last legs between the deer and the dry soil. I'm I'm
close to killing it. But I will say it has been at least ten years that I've had it, and it's been slowly declining. So that's, you know, that's a good up vote.
I love the rainbow, the proven Winter's Rainbow Rhythm dailies, and you can get varieties that have paeony flowers too.
Sorry Walters, sorry to our partners at Walters and the Daily Breeders everywhere. Just not my taste.
I just wet my plants. I think what we'll do is we're going to move the rest of this conversation to segment for today because there's a lot more to set to be said, including sharing some plants that I think you can't kill. Okay, I think people are going to want at least a list of a few plants that you can't kill and don't look like diapers.
That's going to be a very helpful list, Rick, I look forward to.
Let's see what Stacy has in mind next. Plants on trial. That's next here on the Gardening Simplified Show.
Beautify your home and community with proven Winner's Color Choice Shrubs with over three hundred and twenty five unique varieties to choose from. There's a flowering shrub or evergreen for every taste and every space. Just look for the distinctive white container your local garden center or learn more at
proven Winner's Color Choice dot com. Greeting's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we are talking about plants that you can't kill or that they are very hard to kill.
It's not a dare.
We're not actually encouraging you to try to kill these plants. We're just saying they're going to be very forgiving. But I do want to say, speaking of being forgiving and forgiveness. I like many gardeners and people who are passionate about anything in life, have some very strong opinions about plants and gardening, and I certainly do not want to disparage anybody who likes day Lili's. I know they are widely
beloved in the garden world. I know where you're coming from, and you know, I just I just want to say I'm not judging because I like plenty of plants that people despise and would never grow, and you know what, that's just that's just the way it is. So I certainly hope that no one took offense at my little uh day Lily tirade there. I get that they're easy to grow, I get that they're hard to kill, but they're just not for me.
Wait until we talk about Barbers.
Oh boy, we'll see what happens then. But you know, every time we do Plants on Trial, of course, I always try to tie it to the theme of the show, and we're talking plants that are hard to kill, and I try not to repeat a plant that I have used before in Plants on Trial. But of course, now we've been on the air for you know, a good three year so.
It's been a while.
I am repeating a plant on trial for the first time ever.
I think it's appropriate.
It is appropriate because if the topic is plants that are hard to kill, there is one plant that stands head and shoulders above all of the other proven winner's color choice shrubs as being very hard to kill, and so I had to feature it otherwise I would have to do some sort of kakamamie roundabout way of bringing something else in. So I'm revisiting it because it's been a good two three years since we covered it, and today's plant on trial low Skate mound Erronia.
I think it's a great choice and I love that plant. And if you think about it, Stacy, well, I'm sure you've thought about it, and that is that the plant meets my criteria in segment one where it's a native plant, right it is with a wide ring.
That is absolutely true. So this is also we call it low Skate mount Arnia. Ronia is also commonly called chokeberry. I'm not really sure how most people tend to know it. If they know it as aronia or chokeberry. I guess it depends on kind of your framework, because some people do know ronia because they sell ronia as like a juice and nutritional supplement, so you might be familiar with it.
That we prefer the name ronia here at proven Winter's color choice because choke berry just you know, doesn't have the charm and it comes by that name earnestly. It does set big, kind of pithy berries that are so astringent that you will choke on them. It's one of those things that just sucks all the moisture right out of your mouth. Not a pleasant experience, but yes, you're right.
Rick Ronia are an abundant native plant. They basically grow everywhere from Maine as far west as Arkansas, so pretty you know, basically over the entire eastern half of the US and Canada. And when I was reading a little bit more about where they're found in nature, two areas stuck out to me that really kind of account for this, for this endurance that it has. They can be found
in bogs and in dunes, and that is two extremes. Wow, you know, because we live in a dune area and it's extremely dry, very very sandy, we have almost no top soil, very well drained. But of course a bog is you know, basically stagnant water and plants, and so you'll find ironia in all of those areas.
And like I just said, it's also.
Growing everywhere from Maine all the way over to Arkansas, so Arkansas is you know, quite hot. It goes down all the way into Alabama. So we're talking about good, solid USDA Zone eight climates as well as cold you know northern Minnesota and you know far eastern main Zone three climates. So it also has that wide climate adaptability. And you know that's another really important part of a plant that you can't kill, is it's not just can it take really dry conditions and really wet conditions? Can
it take those hot swings? Can it take those cold swings? You know, can it take a snow load? Can it take hot sun? And yes, ronia can do all of those things. But you're probably wondering how does it look? And you could not be blamed, because what's the point of having a plant you can't kill if you don't want to even look at it in your yard?
That's no fun.
Well, I'm telling you, Stacey, both the flower and the fall color are quite appealing to me.
Yes, so it starts. The show starts in spring with little clusters of white flowers. And what I love about the Low Skate Mound Erronea specifically is that the pollen is pink. And that might seem like a really minor detail that you're just like, oh, whoop, do you do pink pollen, but it's actually quite interesting and it's interesting. It just makes the flowers look a little bit more colorful. So you're gonna have those nice white flowers in spring.
Plants are just gonna sit around looking beautiful until late summer, and then those are going to turn into purple like purply black berries, okay, and then in a few more weeks you're gonna have amazing fall color red, orange, yellow,
the whole you know, hot color range there. And the thing that makes Low Skate Mound Erronia special and why it's part of the Proven Winter's Color Choice brand is because compared to our wild ronea, which are gonna be about six feet tall and wide, Low Skate Mound reaches one and a half to three feet tall and wide. So it lives up to that mound name, just kind of growing as a tidy, little tough it there. It doesn't get too tall, and it doesn't.
Really get too wide.
So it's a good landscape friendly size and it's a good landscape friendly habit. That makes it a lot easier to get this durability in a plant that actually works, you know, in your standard residential landscape.
I'm trying to show restraint and not say are you pollen my leg? But I will concur that with low scape mound erronia, the shape of it in a landscape just kind of follows the contour of a landscape, which is part of what makes it such a fantastic plant. And my personal experience with the plant, I had put it in the ground stacy and something came along, either a deer or rabbits and ate it to the nubs.
Oh wow, okay, and.
It bounced back and came back with renewed vigors.
Yes, So I also have my own personal experience with this plant that I can attest makes it hard to kill. So, you know, one of the perks working in the horticulture industry is you tend to get a lot of free plants. You know, it's a good job perk. And so we had a plant giveaway and you know, usually there at the end of the season, and I took three low
skate mounds. You know, of course, with the best intentions their native I have a native plant garden, thinking I'm going to plant them in there, but you know how it is, the season gets in the way, nothing gets planted. So I then overwintered the erronias in their nursery containers. So, you know, something that we tell people not to do. I do it all the time. But it's different when it's a free plant versus when someone has, you know, shelled out money for it. You don't want to just say,
oh yeah, go ahead and risk it. It's not that big of a deal where I'm just like, h if I lose them, you know, not that big of a deal. So I ever wanted them in their nursery containers. They came back and spring, no problem. A whole other season goes by. I still don't plant them because you know, like you think, okay, I'm gonna do this, and then things start to grow and then you're just like, oh, wait, no, that plant looks so good right now. That's why I was going to put it. I don't want to dig
it up right now. And then you know it's too hot. O, it's too hot for do that.
And you know there's always you know how it is. I'm sure our listeners know how it is.
Adrian is also nodding just for reference here, so we're all in the same page. So I never planted them. I did that for three seasons and they never died.
Wow.
I had to finally throw it away because I do have to say, this plant does sucker, and that is like Rick was saying about, you know, having these robust roots. That is one of the reasons that it can be so durable and so able to withstand these challenges is as it's growing, it puts out these kind of stolens and we'll put out shoots not far from the main plant,
but potentially at some distance from the main plant. And that is one of the ways that it's able to really utilize all of the nutrients, all of the moisture, and have the ability to withstand really challenging conditions. So it's not the worst offender when it comes to suckering. And if you don't like the suckers, all you have to do is take a sharp set bade and just
whack them out. Very simple to do, but I think that it does make this plant a great choice for things like slopes where you might have a very you know, wetter at the base and dryer at the top, parking lots, the front walkway area where things can it can be difficult for things to grow. So it's really good. It's fine to including your landscape. You might just have to again plan for those suckers if they pop up where
you don't want them. But yeah, it's a great choice for those really really difficult spots, and especially if you just don't want to have to, you know, ever deal with it. Just let it sucker, let it cover the ground there. It's a great stabilizer for that kind of you know, And we actually recommend it specifically for landscapers who are landscaping parking lots, you know, because imagine how hard it is to be in a parking lot, you know, especially in the Midwest. Here we're stuck with all of
those horrendous mounds of snow. They got plowed together, and even though the snow has been melting on the ground, those snow mounds do not feel like they're going to melt until maybe July. And they're all like gross and dirty and full of garbage. It's really horrendous. But you know what, those massive snowlads can go on top of low skate mound erronia, and when they melt, the thing is going to be there. It's going to flower. It is not even going to be phased.
Yeah, those snow piles here in the north at shopping centers, when they melt in spring, that's when you find those missing shopping carts.
Yeah.
We're very really truly all the time, Stacy. And if you're keeping score at home, Stacy is talking about low scape mound Ronia. Stacy, I would grow this plant just for the fall color. I love the fall tome.
Yeah, it's great fall color, and the flowers are really nice. They do attract pollinators. Of course, this is a native plant, so there just has a lot going for it. Disease resistant. You aren't going to see like nasty leaf spots or powdery mildew or anything like that on this plant. And as you said, Rick, it is not particularly deer resistant or rabbit resistant. I did have them eat flowers off
of my plants. But you know, again, this kind of if so if you have deer or a big rabbit issue, it's a plant you just need to be aware that that's going to happen. But in my experience, they didn't really damage the plant itself. They really just took the flower clusters, which does of course negate the potential for berries. But you know, again, it's just something that's worth keeping in mind if you have those super difficult areas and you just want something that's just going to look good
and you don't have to think about it. I think low skate mound erroneous perk for that, as well as more refined landscapes, especially if you want to work specifically with native species.
It's my stump of approval.
So, like I said, one and a half to three feet tall, hardy USDA Zone three to USDA Zone eight and available at your local garden set up. This spring, we're going to take a little break and when we come back, we're going to be answering some garden questions, so please stay tuned at proven when there's color choice shrubs, we know that a better landscape starts with a better shrub.
Our team of experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs and evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure they outperform what's already on the market for easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style. Look for Proven Winners shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local garden center or learn more at Proven
Winner's Color choice dot com. Creating's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is our pleasure to help you with your gardening questions, and I know they're going to be coming in hot and heavy in these next couple weeks. We've been putting out some we've been filming some pruning videos to try to address some of the questions that people are going to be
having very soon. And of course there's a lot of information on our YouTube channel, so if you're already watching us on YouTube, make sure you check out some of the other content that we have there because there's a very good possibility that we've answered some of your gardening questions with something that's already in there. And of course
our website. And you know, again, if you need an answer right away, because we can't answer every question on radio, we only have a few minutes to do this, please do right into proven Winners dot com. You will always get a personalized answer from one of our horticulturists giving you the help that you need.
And wow, is pruning a big one?
Oh yeah for sure.
Yeah.
And remember if you need to know one piece of advice for pruning when in doubt, don't prune, don't do it just win in doubt, don't So if you're out there you're wondering, we get some nice weather, which we are going to be having here finally in Michigan, you might want to say, I'm gonna get a head start and do some work, win and out, don't prune, just figure it out first, and then you can go back
and fix your things. But you know, we still have the enduring mystery of this, Stephen Mary, great Myrtle, who done it? Our listeners are dying to know if Stephen Mary have a reaction to our suggestions. So Stephen Mary, if you are hearing this, please do right now us back I did not see your message in there, or leave a comment on YouTube and let us know how it's going, because we have people very invested in your mystery, and we have people who are writing in with some
some ideas of their own. So our listener Elyssa says she loves the show. She looks forward to it. She says, we bring joy to her week, which is so sweet. But she says she was listening to the episode on moving plants and wanted to comment on and sympathize with the listener. With the crape myrtles, she says, I've also had bunnies just chew off the branches and leave them scattershot on the ground, so maybe it was a rabbit, although she said nothing as large as what you've described
in the episode. Her most recent victims were four young hazel nut shobs, so sad, I love hazel nuts, the plants and the nuts. She says, I've included a photo you can see how much height they cut back, and she says I was devastated, and honestly I would have been less mad if they'd at least eaten them. The jerks just left them strewn and said flowers and well and all. And then she wisely ends gardening is no
for the faint hearted. And I feel you on that, Alyssa, because I this reminded me that in my succulent garden, the rabbits I have Alium spherrocephalon and the drumstick Alium lovely plant.
I just love it, you know.
It's one of those it's one of the sea through plants. It doesn't take up a lot of space, it just adds height. It's gorgeous. And once they start butting out and growing in my garden, the rabbits do bite them down and then they go, oh, crad, this tastes terrible, and then they leave it on the ground. They can't spit it out, which is you know, one of the things,
so they don't spit it. They just like start to munch it and then they're like, wait, this does not taste good, and then yeah, they just leave it and there's nothing, of course they can do at that point. But yeah, rabbits do sometimes do that. But overall, I do still believe that the crape myrtle, the branches that they cut into just seemed a little too thick for rabbit damage.
Well, and that's something we see here in the north every year also around this time of the year, not rabbits, but quirrels, especially on spruce trees where the you know, those tender buds the sap is moving through the branches. They give a little chew like you the word you used was scattershot all over the ground.
That was Alyssa's word.
Yeah, yeah, and you'll see that, thank you, Alyssa. You'll see that on the ground with spruce branch tips do.
But that's all sorts of things right now.
They're showing at the maples to get the sap that's running and so then you're like, whoa, why is my maple dropping all these flower buds?
But no, it's just squirrels.
Well, maple will get an answer for this mystery at some point. Sure would be nice to know. Chris has a quick question that's a follow up to our recent show about moving plants. You mentioned moving a pawpaw tree. From what I understand, you're supposed to cut around the tree a season ahead to cut the rhizome roots. I'm not sure if you didn't mention that or I missed it. I think I mentioned that, but if I didn't, thank you, Chris. I appreciate that because I think that's wise with trees
that you're going to try to move against. Stacy, I believe people should sharpen their shovels, have a nice sharp edge on it, and Chris, you're right, it makes a lot of sense to me to do that, to create some hair roots at the point where you've cut the roots and intend to move it at some point. The tough conundrum, so to speak, is how far out from the trunk do you cut?
I mean, I would basically say the canopy line. I would agree with you, you know, if you can, but that could be a pretty big ball that could well and you don't necessarily. So basically what this is is the concept of root pruning. So you're going all around the plant that you're especially a tree that you're intending to move, and again, by severing those roots, the plant is then going to concentrate additional root growth into this prospective root ball, and then that just helps it kind
of undergo that transplanting process a little bit easier. It's a very good thing to do if you have the foresights in time to do that. Of course we don't all have that time.
But yes, that.
Would in many cases leave you quite a very large root ball. But you know, what else can you do? If you're going to move a big tree, You might just need to have a pizza party with some friends, and.
That's what you do. You get a big darp and you do that. And coming from the garden center industry, there were a lot of fertilizer companies stacy that would recommend a liquid fertilizer when you make those cuts into the roots. Many of these were like a vitamin B twelve or whatever. I'm not endorsing that. I'm not saying do that. I'd have to do more research on that, but you will see a lot of that out there.
Yeah, it's probably something that can't necessarily hurt, but may not live up to its promises.
Well, I have to dig in a little deeper on that one.
Indeed.
All right, Sunshine writes Hi, Rick and Stacey love your show. I'm struggling with three trees. One in my south sideyard, two in my parkway, all three of Cleveland pairs.
Ooh.
We planted them in twenty twenty because they gave four seasons of interest, but this was before I found out recently how invasive they are, and we want to remove and replace them. The only other tree I can think of to use to get the four seasons of interest we want is Autumn Brilliance service Berry And I'm going to give a big thumbs up and kudos to that suggestion. But we'll see what Stacy has to say written. She writes, here,
I've read they aren't great with road salt. Are there any other trees that you'd recommend for our parkway that can provide four seasons of interest? Can hold up to road salt bonus points for beautiful fall color?
And she says no seated maples or dwarf trees or anything that drops messy fruit. So you know, I get it. I have to say, what do you call that? So this concept of parkways, what do you call that space? Do you know that term parkways?
Yeah?
I always called it the easement, but everyone in my neighborhood calls it a parkway.
It depends on what part of the country you're in. Most people, I think would call it a parkway.
Okay, well this was like, this is a relatively new term for me. But in any case, that's what means.
If you stick something in the ground there, odds are somebody's going to come along and pull it up.
Well, that can happen with the parkway too.
But I so, yes, I agree that service Berry is an ideal all purpose replacement for Bradford pairs. So Sunshine referred to them as Cleveland pears. That's just a specific cultivar of Bradford pair, but it's all calorie pair, Bradford pair,
Cleveland pair, all the same thing. So I do think service Bury is a stellar replacement for all of these invasive pairs because it flowers at a similar time, it's native, it has great fall color, you can actually eat the fruit, it's delicious, you will have to be fighting the birds off for it. And it's just a beautiful, elegant, easy to grow treat. So when I was looking it up, I did not see anything that says that they're particularly
salt sensitive. And I do want to mention that, you know, road salt, the salts that they use on roads if you live in a cold climate, has changed a lot. You know, way back in the seventies and eighties, the road salt that they used was absolutely catastrophic to.
Planets cool stuff. Now they're mixing in stuff like beet juice.
Yeah, there's all sorts of different things that they do, and so road salt is definitely not as problematic as a lot of us tend to think that it is.
Now.
There's certainly plants that are extremely sensitive to salt, and you would want to avoid them. But you know, I don't think that the issue of what they use nowadays is going to be as big a problem for a service barrier. Amalank here And the other thing you need to know about road salt is as long as you are getting sufficient rainfall and or you have irrigation, those salts leach out of the soil quite easily. So it becomes more of an issue if you aren't having good
rainfall or a droughty season. But overall, I wouldn't necessarily let that scare you away from the service berry. But I did want to write a couple of different options that I thought about. You could try Cursus red bud. That one does have some papery fruits, but they're not really messy. They're not and they don't self sow like maple's do self sewing everywhere. You could try temple of
bloom hepticodium sure, another great choice. Crusader hawthorn is a plant that is in the proven Winter's Color Choice Trees line. It is a thornless hawthorn. It's native. It does have fruit, but the birds will take care of those for you. And then finally, I do have kind of a left field choice for you, and that is Persian spy your Parodia, also known as Persian ironwood, And this is a beautiful tree for fall color and it has amazing foliage. You're
not really gonna get the flowers. It does have quite interesting flowers in late winter. They're brown and red and I love them. But this is definitely one of those tree replaced that your neighbors are not going to have, and I think that most people would really really like. So Persians by your Parodia should be on the market a couple this year, but certainly increasing in the years to come. We got to take a little break and when we come back, we are going to answer a
few more garden questions, so stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested by experts with your success in mind. Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice dot com.
Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified show Plants you Can't Kill Episode. Let's take a look at some of these plants. As promised Stacy, I have bamboo on my list. It has a higher strength to wait ratio than steal and concrete. That's a pretty tough plant.
Yeah, you might wish you could kill it for some people who have planted bamboo. Not so much of an issue for us through the Midwest, but certainly in some milder climates bamboo can be a very problematic, so beautiful and interesting plant.
There will be people out there dealing with weeds that will bemoan ground ivy, which is in the mint family. Many times, you know it's in the mint family when it has a square stem. Or if you're trying to grow one of these cool seasoned grasses here in the North and you get bermuda grass, that's another grass that it feels like you can't kill it. Aga podium, Lily of the Valley. I'm gonna say Lily of the Valley and then send your cards, emails and letters saying, Rick,
don't say Lily of the Valley. But that's a plant you talked about day lilies. I'm going to talk about lily.
Yeah, you can't kill it.
I do you know, I have, as I've talked about on the show before, a personal connection to that plant. But yeah, it's a nightmare if you don't want it. It is an absolute nightmare.
Yeah, violets, adventitious roots, seed pockets underneath the foliage, glossy foliage that repels herbicide. I'm just saying that violets are for a lot of people a plant you can't kill, but.
They're so lovely. And I'll tell you, if you have the good fortune of seeing a baby bunny munching of violets in your yard, you.
Will be very glad it's there. It's really just a delight.
I feel like a terrible person now, No.
It's you know.
I know people hate lawn violets, and if you're trying to grow a beautiful, consistent.
Lawn, yeah, they would definitely be problematic.
But I love the color of violets, and because I have a high tolerance for a bit of weediness, if you know the plant has an esthetic trade off, I'll tolerate some violets in my lawn.
Absolutely. We're in my yard.
Now, let's go down this route. Yuka oof. Yeah, any plant that has a real fibrous nature to it, I think is tough to kill. I've got potentila on the list only because it's so hardy. Chives carracs helibores. I had chokeberry or Erronia on my list. Any plants that grow in the Great Plains, as we mentioned, I'm not going to say bar berry seedum's paeonies are tough to kill. They are snap dragons, nepettas, junipers. Think about Opuntia prickly pear cactus. You find that I looked it up here.
Opuntia is native to the lower forty eight states of the United States.
It grows all over here. You see it quite often. I have some in my garden and it is definitely hard to kill, and we do manage it, but that's not really a fun job because it is extremely spiny. And my Apuncia in my garden is so happy that it also spreads by seed as well as spreading by its you know, foliage. But I love it. It's it's just a cool plant.
I do too. I love it. There's some people who just can't stand it.
Of course, you could kill apuntia if it was duet, it would die pretty quickly within short short order, and.
Another one i'd throw again. Just talking about the characteristics of plants that are tough to kill. When you go out to Cape cod and you look at Rosa rugosa, you know, and people will say, don't ever plant and it is. It's listed as an invasive plant. They call it beach tornado or beach tomato because of the hips on the plant, and of course it spreads by suckers and the tomato shaped rose hips. Spiny, tough, durable plant.
So that gives you an idea. Again, I say, you just take a look at where's it native to, what's its reach, what's the root system like, and it's going to tell you a lot about how tough that plant is. We got some male from Trish. Let's see. Trish says, Hello, Stacey and Rick, huge fan of your show. Thank you very Ry Moltstrish, Southeast Pennsylvania, Zone seven A old six B I inherited a very steep slope forty degrees. Wow with our new home. It's densely covered by chameleon plant. Oh boy.
So this is a plant that you can't kill, but wish that you could if you have it. This is our third listener question from someone who is trying to manage chameleon.
Oh interspersed with pe andes azalea huge vibeburnum at the area's edge. So Trish sent along some photos the viburnum successfully shades out the offender. The local extension office told me the only option is to move. No. I threw that the only option is to eradicate the chameleon plant spray with roundup. I garden organically, not an option. I broadcast a pre emergent last spring and cut back the
plants before they set seeds. My question is can I plant taprit plants like Baptisia euphobia to shade out the chameleon plant over time? Professor Google is less than helpful. Thank you very much, Mulch for any advice. So I like your sense of humus, theatrician. I have a solution for Trisha. Well you have well, because it's a forty degree slope. I'd go to a store I would get I would not do the round up thing, and it's not going to work any It.
Doesn't work, if that's what I was going to say too, even if you were open to using herbicide, Trish, it doesn't work on that plant.
It beads.
So this is a semi aquatic plant. They sell it for use in ponds, and you try to put any kind of water on it, and all you're going to have is beads, so it won't even work.
I mean, you can add a spreader sticker, you could spray and fall where it's more effective than the top kill you'd get in spring or summer. But I'm with you, Stacy, I still don't think it's.
Going to work, not completely.
So a forty degree slope. My recommendation is you pull out the nice plants that you have in there, like the aza or some of the other plants our episode Bust a Move, pull them out and then sacrifice the area for a year. Get some heavy thick black plastic with landscape pins, pin it to the ground and let the sun do the work and solarize the area.
Yeah, I mean I have heard if you're looking at the many nightmare stories of people who are trying to deal with chameleon plant also known as houtuna, and it's also sold in Asian markets to.
Eat as fishment.
Yes I read that.
Yeah, so it is edible, but you would have to eat an awful lot of it so you have any effect on yours, And let me tell you you know, we'll have Trish's pictures of course on YouTube. So you can catch them there or in the show notes. It's a lot of whu tunia, and we've heard from other listeners who have had to deal with this plant. It's a lot, a lot that she's trying to deal with, and I think that I've heard that even the solarizing is,
you know, not a permanent solution. And basically you don't have to worry so much about the seeds of this plant. It's primarily spreading through its runners, and its runners are conveniently brittle, so as you try to remove them, they break, and any little tiny piece that you have in there is just going to turn into a new plant. So yeah, this thing is definitely a plant that you can't kill and will wish that.
You had now.
Dryness will certainly help, but you can't really just suddenly change the drainage on your slope. If you could somehow get more sun in there, I think that could help potentially help as well, because that will obviously help the soil be less moist. And I don't necessarily think, as you'll see in the pictures, Trisha's vibranium is quite large
and quite beautiful. I think you can still just you know, kind of put if you want to do the solarization route, just kind of put it around those plants, you know, not too close to their base and those should be fine, and then you can manage it. But yeah, I think overall your best bet is probably going to be hand pulling.
You might be able to look into whether there is a pH level that they can't stand, either more acidic or alkaline, and try changing the pH you know, putting down lime or sulfur to change the pH and see if that helps. But honestly, this is just one of those plants that I really wanted to cover Trisha's question in this episode because it's it really is just that hard to kill.
Yeah, and programming or editorial note I would make is that if you go the solarization route, it's not a situation where you put it on and two weeks later take it off. You are in for the long haul in order to make this work, so at least a.
Year, and I would say in the case of Houtunia, you would probably want to go for maybe even two years. But I wouldn't be surprised if this thing could pop through your plastic, you know, and it would be you would well, you want you don't want to use like a stretchy kind of plastic. You want that really super heavy duty landscape fabric. So that would be a lot of work. But you know, and so we didn't answer a question, which is whether planting deep, tap rooted plants
like Baptisia and Euphorbia could help shade them out. I don't think it could hurt, you know, especially a baptisia because it is taller. So if you plant smaller perennials, I think what's likely to happen is the hutunia is just gonna pop right up in the middle of them. They're not likely to pop in the middle of baptizia, so that is one potential. Obviously she's seeing some success with a vibern I'm shading out the hutunia in its vicinity,
so you could certainly try that. But I would also anytime you're planting out there, or anytime you have some frustrations to get out, I would go out and dig, dig a little houtunia and just make sure you are burning it or you know, throwing it away. Do not ever ever compost this, and don't give it to anybody else. Of Course, tric seems to know what a nightmare it is. But just saying, all right, well.
Lily asks us, my Forcythia has not flowered for me yet in zone five B six with this winter, I feel like it's zone four. Yes, I agree, Lily. It's in a south facing area and this will be its third year that it's over wintered there. If it doesn't flower this spring, what can I do? And I think it's it's too early for cythy.
Well, so she says that it hasn't flowered in it's in three years. Oh so she's consistently had an issue with it not flowering. And you know, always the number one reason when a shrub isn't flowering, it's almost always improper pruning. And basically what that means is it was pruned at the wrong time. So forth, the earlier a plant blooms in the season in spring, the more likely
it is to have to bloom on old wood. So basically what that means is that last spring, after the Forsythia bloomed or would have bloomed in Lily's case or maybe your case, it took a little rest and then it immediately started making its flower buds for the next year.
So it's going to have those flower buds on it basically June, July, August, you know, all the way through the time that it blooms the following spring, and a lot of people will do, you know, a fall prune as they're kind of doing their garden cleanup, or they will prune it in spring just thinking they're doing, you know, a spring cleanup, And if you cut it either of those times, you are cutting off the flower buds. It
has already made for that season. So the best time to prune, the only time to prune Forcythia without negatively impacting the flowers is immediately after it flowers in spring. So if it's if it is a pruning issue, stop doing that. Your plant should be just fine. But also shade. Now, Forsythia is extremely shade tolerant, but of course the more shade it's in, the less well it will flower.
Well. Lily's saying here, it's on the south side in zone five B, so I'm going to hope that it's getting a fair amount of sun. But you are you are correct, And I have seen with Forsythia in zone five B where if you get a lot of snow above that snow line, the buds are lost, are lost, yeah, fooded temperature and that can happen too. But you're right, Stacey, this is saying three years.
Yeah, and you know, so the winter. That's another good point. And I did want to mention that Lily, and to anyone else who is maybe struggling with the same issue for scythia. Is not all forcythias are the same. They might all look the same when you see them in bloom, but there's actually a lot of variation out there, different varieties, and there are some for Scythia that are not as hardy as others. And so depending on how you got this, where you got this, when you got this, it might
not be as hardy as other varieties. Of course, unless you kept the tag or there's still a tag somewhere on it, there's no way for you to really know that. But I would say if it's still not flowering for you, I would, and you know it's not a pruning issue, I'd consider moving it, you know. Sometimes, you know, as we talked about it in our moving show, there can be different factors that you know, we don't know since
we aren't seeing a picture of the plant. So consider moving at this spring if you still don't see any flowers. But again, hopefully pruning is the answer, because that's the simplest solution.
Or take it out and replace it with a proven winner's variety.
Well, yes, hopefully that would.
I mean, it's certainly ours are nicer and denser in the way that they bloom, but they still can't withstand improper pruning, and ours are hardy to USCA zone five, So that does you know, usually it should be fine, especially for someone who's in like on the edge of five B and six, normally wouldn't be an issue, but you know, it does depend on on where you're located.
But again, I'm hoping it's a pruney issue, because you know, those are always frustrating for the people who said, Oh, I thought I was doing the right thing by puning it. But at least it's easy to solve.
Sure. Roger asked, love your show, I plan to convert a portion of my Zone seven sunny lawn to a perennial bed. My plan is to first kill the grass with herbicide, then apply three inches of compost, then finally transplant my grumpy perennials. He's saying it here, y perennials now in part shade to full sun. Am I on the right track. Any recommendations, I would say that timing is everything, and if I were doing it, I would use the solarization process on grass in August and then
make the move with the plants in September. But that's just how I would do it. Can you spray with an herbicide to kill it off? Absolutely, and the bottle will tell you how soon you can replant afterwards, and it's usually pretty quickly. But you are correct in trying to get that grass taken care of first before we do anything else.
You don't want to start with grass in your bed. I think you are on the right track. Roger. The only thing that I would add, and the reason that I wanted to specifically answer your question today, is that before you spray herbicide, you should mow and put your lower on. Put your mower on the lowest setting. Usually Rick is always like put it high. Make sure that
that grass is shading itself out. So if you want a good looking lawn, I would say, lower your deck as low as it can go so that you're nearly scalping your lawn, and then put your herbicide on because it's going to make it a lot more effective and
really help to kill those roots. Because of course, as the grass comes out, you know it can be difficult to manage it with herbicide because grass is fairly narrow, but by scalping it you're going to get that immediate So mow it really low, immediately, spray your herbicide, let it die, then put down your compost, and then I think you can plant if you want, and if you can't wait until fall, I think it's perfectly fine to
do this in spring urine zone seven. So actually your time to do this is probably not that far off.
Roger, you're setting an example for people because you're recognizing these grumpy perennials need to move, they need more sunshine. So kudos to you for being willing to bust that move. Randy Wright, Stacey, and Rick, I'm truly ready for spring and summer. I have two of your lo and behold blue chip, dwarf, butterfly bush lovely plants. I agree. I'm curious when to or should I trim them back for
the spring In summer, when should I fertilize them? I noticed roughly two weeks ago on one of them, they had already started leafing out. Should I do anything to it now? And Stacy, we addressed this last week in the Lavender Show about how folks have lots of questions on pruning both lavender and bud leans.
Yeah, for sure.
So you know, I always try to tell people when they ask about pruning, No plant strictly needs pruning, but in many cases spending the time to prune will give you a much better looking plant. It will give you a better bloom. And to me, butterfly bush falls firmly in that category. If you don't prune butterfly bush, what happens is they get very tall. So even a dwarf variety like low and behold will get taller. And they don't flower all over. They only flower at the tippy top.
And so you don't get like if you look at the pictures on our plant bags or on our website, or certainly what you're going to be seeing here on YouTube, you can see they're beautiful. They're justlowers and you're not going to get that look unless you prune them. And if you don't believe me, take a walk around your neighborhood. Everyone has like that one house in their neighborhood that's not very well taken care of, you know, or it's like a rental and no one ever does anything.
And if you see a butterfly.
Bush that's like eight feet tall with just a few sparse flowers at the top, you know that is an unprune butterfly bush.
Well, and Stacy, as you know, I'm a runner, so I run through neighborhoods and to keep myself occupied, I mentally score homes as i'm running back.
So watch out if he's running in your neighborhood.
Yeah, and if you have proven winners color choice shrubs in your yard, you automatically get bonus points. Oh I like this all right, there's no prize.
In Watch Out West Michigan. So yes, you should prune them. You don't have to, but I think you'll be much happier with the result, and they should be pruned in spring. So uh, this is a case where much like the lavender, Yes, you should wait until the plant tell you where it wants to be cut back. So once you see that new foliage starting to emerge, you just want to cut above where a very large, healthy bud is emerging. And with a butterfly bush, I would recommend that you cut
back pretty much as far as you can. Don't just cut off like a couple of inches, go to where those lowest buds are emerging, and cut just above those, because that will really help you to keep that nice tidy, you know, very floriferous shape. And don't worry really that one of them seems to be leafing out and the others don't. I see this with butterfly bush all the time.
You know, even here where everything's in the same conditions and being expertly taken care of, there must just be like some very subtle microclimates that we can't pick up on, where one plant seems to, you know, leaf out much earlier than its neighbors, even though they're all the same variety. But just wait until you see that new growth, then go ahead and cut them. If you want to fertilize them,
one application in early spring should be sufficient. The general purpose fertilizer I recommend for shrubs is a rose fertilizer, but you can use whatever you have. It's not that big of a deal. And then that's all. Then you just have to wait and then once the heat comes on you know June July you'll have a fully blooming butterfly bush again.
Deb Rights.
I'm moving to a cul de sac in April, so we call that a court usually here in Michigan. And the road in front of the road I'm moving to is full of trees. I think it's disappointing that the road I'm moving to has no trees and most of the front gardens or parkways have been changed to off road parking.
Wow.
How can I gather community spirit and get each house to plant a small patio tree and have pots and flowers. I appreciate that it can't be a tree lined road, as there's limited space for cars, but that doesn't mean there can't be small potted trees, flowers and more green I would like to have a road that people talk about how pretty it is, a road that gives a real community feel and supports wildlife. Can you help?
Wow?
I mean we're not psychologists. I do want to say this is like a group psy call it question, and I don't know anything about psychology.
Have have a block party? I would start by having a block party, and a cul de sac is the perfect place to have a block party. Yeah, so if you get the neighbors together. That's a place to start.
Number two. So I live on a cul de sac and when I moved into the house, the yard had been neglected, and the neighbors were all watching me because I got in there and I started tearing stuff out, pulling stuff out, and started planting like crazy, and the cannas started coming up, and people started ringing the doorbell asking what's that plant? And what's that plant? And pretty soon most of the neighbors started doing the same.
Well, you know, I think that is really the key is you have to set an example. And once people start to see that, like, oh wow, what deb did looks really great. I don't see her out there slaving over it every single day, so you know, it doesn't seem like it's that hard. I think you set the example first, and then as you get to know your neighbors more and more, you can kind of say, have
you ever thought about this? And I think the important thing to remember for gardening is when you're a gardener, you know, you have all that enthusiasm, but it took you time to get there. You may have had some sort of natural inclination towards gardening, but it takes a long time to start to acquire the knowledge and experience and awareness of plants that you have, and most people don't have that. So it's not necessarily from a lack of wanting to do it. It's from a lack of
not knowing where to start. Yeah, and or not a lack of just not knowing where to start. And you know, Deb, if you have that idea and can kind of be that leader for people, you know, by having this example and saying, hey, if you would like to do this too. You know, I got this at so and So's garden center, which is, you know, a couple miles away. Here's some other plants that you could try. You know, again, I
would assume I would. The best thing that you can do anytime you have to have a difficult situation like this is just assume that the other people have a good intent and are open to your suggestions.
Yeah, and Deb, I would suggest to you again, living
on the cul de Sac, that I do. That's what I started doing, and neighbors really got into it, and pretty soon they're growing cannas and they're growing ornamental grasses, and they're asking me questions and people just kind of get into it, and I would share with you, and I've shared this before on the show that in the garden center industry, we knew that people need that inspiration, and so we'd take a few employees and have them take the store uniform off and put them in civilian clothes,
and then you put some nice plants on a shopping cart and just tell them to go walking around. Well, you'd be amazed. People are like, what's that plan? What's that plan? Where'd you get that plan? You had?
Shopping ringers?
Shopping ringers? It works.
I'm glad to hear it.
It's true people, we're just inspiring people.
Yeah, people need some inspiration, and debit sounds like you are ready to be that inspiration, and you know, I think it's yeah. I think you can do it. Find some photos maybe on Pinterest or online about you know, kind of what you are hoping to achieve, and and slowly, I think once people see the payoff, they should they should come around. But yeah, they have to see how great it is first. Sometimes you do need to to lead by example and show them rather than tell them.
It's going to be great.
I call it exam.
I knew you were going to say that that's why I didn't say it myself, all right.
So with that, I want to thank you Rick, thank you.
I want to thank all of our listeners who wrote in, and all of your listeners out there, and of course thank you so much to Adriana for doing all of this great work.
And.
Through this entire episode, I want to make clear to everybody she has absolutely been a part of the laughter. Even if you can't hear her, she's back there trying to keep it under wrap, so she's not just like staring at us sternly. So anyway, thanks to all of you. I hope you have an absolutely wonderful week ahead. We'll see you next week.