Coming to you from Studio A at Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hervella, me, Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Hey, you know, we received a note from someone one of our YouTube viewers simply stated, shade is hard. I like that. Yeah, it is hard. Talk about honesty, that's fantastic. You know what's hard? Chicken wire? Two words for you, chicken. Have you ever tried to put up chicken wire? Snags on your
clothes? Cut you up, can't put it up neatly? I think chicken wire? Or watching the squirrels eat the buds off my flowering shrubs after they've made it all winter long. That's hard. Yeah, that's also very hard. You know, this shade issue makes me think of Michael Collins. Of course, I was an Apollo age boy when they were doing the moonshots, and Michael Collins, of course was the pilot in the Command Module Columbia while Buzz and Neil were on the lunar's surface. Took the eagle down there to
kind of look around, and he was the loneliest man on Earth. And when you go around the dark side of the moon, dark cold, total radio silence. You are cut off from everybody. I always think about him when I think about shade. I don't know why that must that must have been much harder than gardening in the shade. I'm just gonna put that out there. But you know, gardening in the shade does. It is tricky, and it is hard, and a lot of times I think shade gardeners
can feel like they're a little bit deprived. But I do just want to start off by saying, shade gardeners have one huge advantage, and that's that no matter what time of the year it is, you can work in your garden. True, it's the middle of summer, You've got a nice shady place to go, and I leisurely pull some weeds, enjoy the cooler temperatures.
I don't have very much shade at all, and so you know, I have to pretty much get my gardening done early in the morning during the summer because I can't be out of my garden in the middle of the day. I'll burn up. You know, it's a good point, Stacy. As a matter of fact, if you look up definitions of shade, shade is a term used to describe some degree of relief from the sun. Yes, so there you go. So maybe shade isn't that hard. Maybe we
need to look at it from a different angle. And by the way, Proven Winners has a great perennial a still be called dark side of the moon. Yes, it's a beautiful I see with purple foliage. Gorgeous chocolate brown, purplish foliage. Yeah, cool plant. Anyhow, all right, let's get into the shade issue here, and I'll get right to the point.
If you want to be successful in the garden in shade, first of all, you use plants adapted to shade conditions, and those are usually plants stacey that have thinner foliage and bigger foliage to be efficient at absorbing the light or photosynthesizing in areas where there isn't a lot of light. Correct, right,
Yeah, big leaves are generally not always characteristic of shade tolerant plants. And one thing that you'll hear very often is that, like for example, with a tree where it's inner leaves or shaded, or a plant that is more subn tolerant and growing in shade, is it will make shade leaves which are naturally much larger, to increase that surface area to try to absorb more light and do a little more photosynthesis. Absolutely, you have to improve the soil,
especially if the soil is poor due to root competition. So think woodland floor. So I like to think of somewhat acidic, humous soils of the forest. Shade plants have adapted to appreciate those types of soils, Stacey. When you're dealing with trees, especially those that have shallow, fibrous roots, that can become a big issue in shade. It's not necessarily the lack of light, it's the root competition, right. Sometimes you just can't get anything
to grow underneath there. It's not an easy situation. So you have to look at the different types of shade and then adjust accordingly. Now, the different types of shade, I think, are the different degrees six degrees in my mind, light shade, partial shade, full shade, deep shade, structural shade, and night. Remember the comedian George Carlin forecast for tonight dark,
continued darkness till morning, then scattered light. I personally, when it comes to shade, I love filtered shade because during the day it seems to dance in the garden, and I like working with filtered shade. Yeah, and that counts pretty much as a part shade conditioner, parts on in supportant to remember that most plant come and these including proof of winners, use part shade in parts sign would be interchangeable, just kind of meaning the same exact
thing. Filtered shade generally occurs under the canopy of a high canopy of a tree, and so not only is it sort of magical and beautiful, it also gives you a little bit more flexibility in what you can do that is the best, but also I would say potentially the rarest for a lot of people who are gardening in shade. Yeah, exactly. Although deciduous trees often can provide some measure of filtered shade, it's the coniferous trees where you can
just really have serious problems. Back off on nitrogen fertilizers when you're trying to grow in the shade, I call them processed foods, use a slow release, and organic fertilizers I'm thinking bacteria, microbes, organic material, lots of it. It really improves your success in the shade. Mulch the plants and then develop a talent with dealing with snails and slugs. I have many different methods we don't have time for. Maybe someday we'll tell you. Do you
have a big snail and slug issue here on the lake shore. No, we don't have a much out here because it's fairly dry. But I have certainly, you know, garden when I was gardening in New York. You know, you go to like pull a weed and you stick your fingers right in a sloppy slug. That's no fun. It's a slugfest. I tell you what, And you know what has always worked good for me, just real briefly, and that is roofing shingles. I just got strips of roofing
shingles. Put them underneath the plants. It really helps with the snails and slugs. Now, of course, we can give you a long list of plants to grow in the shade. We can sit here and say, oh, you can grow in the shade. All you got to do is try such and such, and of course there are great plants for shade. But looking at that environment and again, Stacy getting back to the soil, I can't help it. Every time I've tried. That is what makes the difference
between success and failure. Yeah, for sure. And you know that's why a lot of gardeners will refer to dry shade is the most dreaded type of shade because that's the hardest to find things that will grow in it and do well. Now, you kind of course amend the soil. You talked about, adding compost, multing, You can do all of those things. But sometimes you know, if you have dry shade because you have sandy soil like we do out here, or it's dry because it's next to a big tree
that's sucking up all the moisture, that does severely limit your options. Yeah, exactly. Now, ephemerals like wildflowers, of course, are in nature suited to absorb the sunlight while they can before the trees leaf out, may apple, trillium, and many of course wildflowers will go dormant in summer. That's their protective adaptive mechanism in shade and makes all the difference in the world
there too. So again, plants strategies are employed by plants. You know, I've looked at at leaves of plants that love the heat, and it's almost stacked cells thick leaves in shade thin leaves, more mass area to absorb light. Perennials like Virginia brunera, hucara ferns of course hostas stillbies. I've had success with all of them. I did want to ask you, Stacy.
I believe that one of the most underutilized and maybe doesn't have the publicity that some other annuals get, and that is wishbone flower or Catalina Terennia midnight blue or any of the terrannias. Do you like truck I love them they are so this is an annual that you can grow in shade. Great for hanging baskets. I do absolutely love it. And it's called wishbone flower because when you look inside the flower and they have beautiful, rich colors, there's
a tiny little wishbone structure in there that is adorable and delightful. Great plant for kids, and I do love it. And I have a shady front porch, so my house face is north the house the front is shady, so I have tried to grow terinya, thinking oh, yeah, this is great, and the deer also unfortunately loved it. So just a little heads up there if you're thinking, oh, I finally have but it's great for a hanging basket for sure, because very often hanging baskets like on front porches,
are in shade. And that's why you know, the big buston ferns and everything are so popular, you bet. And I know that they're doing a lot of testing on Terrania in Florida and other climates because again I think that it's underrated and something you might want to consider. And then as far as shrubs are concerned, I peaked at what your plant on trial is today,
so I know that I'm not stealing your thunder here. I just wanted to mention that Stacy, both you and Natalie here at proven Winter's color choice shrubs got me very interested in Kodiak orange dear villa, and I have had success growing that in shade. Yeah, it is known to be a shade tolerant plant, and you know, I'll talk a little bit about more about
it when we talk go into plants on trial. But there's a difference between tolerating shade and thriving in shade and doing what you hope it will do in shade, and so we're focused on plants that will do what they say they'll do in shade. There you go. Shade is hard, but we'll talk you through it. Part of the reason we're here on the Gardening Simplified Show,
Prooven Winners Colored Choice Shrubs cares about your success in the garden. That's why we trial and test all of our shrubs for eight to ten years, making sure they outperform everything else on the market. Look for them and the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Greetings, gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show where we're talking about shade. We had
a listener on YouTube say shade is hard, and that is true. But I would like to say that in my many years of helping people garden here in my current job, in my previous job, if there's one universal truth I can say, it's that the grass is always greener on the other side, right, very true. So shade gardeners are like, oh, if only I had a little bit and of sun, And some gardeners are like, boy, it's sure would be nice to have, you know, maybe
a little patch of shade here. I'd love to grow some hostas, I would love to grow some you know, terania, all these different things that actually need shade and you know, we hear from warm climate gardeners who say, oh, I really want to grow lilacs, and we hear from cold climate gardeners who say, I want to grow citrus in avocado. So it is very common, I think for gardeners to wish they had what they don't have. Plant envy, plant envy, and you know it does pay.
I think too, I've really changed my approach to gardening, you know, having a house and dealing with a lot of challenges. I never thought i'd deal very sandy, extremely dry soil deer, which I definitely did not think was going to be an issue in full full sun. And I have found for myself that rather than try to mope while I did some moping, rather than mope a whole lot about what I can't grow and what I can't do, I've kind of accepted, you know, working with the things that work.
And I find a lot more satisfaction in that because I'm not then, you know, spending my time and energy trying to change things from what they are. And I find that I really really appreciate the plants that can tolerate that that I have to do so little for and look great while they're tolerating all those challenges. You can't beat them. Join them. Well, that was the approach that I eventually took. It did take time. I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot of time. So you know, everybody feels
like what they have is hard. And I will say, for sure, you do have a more limited plant palette when you have shade, because of course plants need sun to photosynthesize, and there's obviously less sun in shade for the plants to photosynthesize enough. And so the number of plants that can actually thrive in that condition can do again what they're supposed to do, which is to say, are they going to flower? Are they going to grow? Well? Are they going to be dense and you know, a compact and
attractive. That's a relatively small number. But the great thing is when you have the right plant for the right place, with all the challenges, when everything comes together, you appreciate it so much. And that is where today's plant on Trial comes in. Okay, all right, that was a long intro and it's a plant that I yeah, but it's a good point. It's just like buying a house, location, location, location, Well, I did have that in mind. When I bought my house, I thought
I had the perfect location. I did not expect the deer, the sun, the sand, I knew that, but the deer that was not expected. But today's plants on trial is one that I am going to hazard a guess that many many of our listeners have never heard of. May be seen, but I'm I'm guessing most have not heard of it even in the garden
center, folks. Will I watch people who will just walk by it because it just doesn't reach out and grab you like some of the other plants, right except for when it is having its shining moment, which we will get to in a moment. And today's plant on trial is sweet and low, sweet box. And if you're sitting in there going did she just say sweet box? Yes? I did. It is known botanically as Sarco coca.
And if you want to know its whole name, which is one of my absolute favorite botanical names in all of botanical names, it's Sarco coca, Hooker Yana humulus. Wow, that sounds like an all you can eat lounge that I visited in Las Vegas. Done Sara Coca? What is it? Sarco coca? Wow, I've been there, so sweet box. If you can't get sarco coca, I know that is a long one. And this is
a plant. You know, obviously I could have picked from a number of plants we offer that can grow in shade and will still flower and still do some other stuff. But this is a plant that actually needs shade. So this is the plant for you if you have deep shade and you've been thinking what do I do? How do I manage this space? Because it actually wants it, It's not merely tolerating it. In fact, we have it on our website as needing part to full shade, which is very unusual.
So this plant can basically grow incomplete dark. So people keeping score at home are probably thinking, Stacey, okay, so ugly and boring, and you could not be blamed for things that. Now do you want to say it can't grow in complete dark. It does need to be outdoors. You're not going to put this in your closet or your guest room that never gets any
sun. But it can grow in full shade. And yes, people probably do think, okay, well, if it can do all of this, it's probably one of the ugliest, most boring plants in the history of the universe. And the answer to that is it is not. It is definitely not. And I think that one of the things that's so special about it is that it is a winter and spring blooming shrub. Very few of those,
so another rarity on here. And so it blooms like the warmer your climate, the more mild your climate, the earlier in winter it will bloom. So that is why another common name for this plant that you might see or read about out there is Christmas box because in England and very very mild of climates like that will actually be in bloom all the way in December. For us, it usually starts blooming more like February March, and if, of course, if you're in a warmer climate, probably more in the January
February range. And the flowers are very unique. Most people probably would not look at it and go, oh, that's a flower, because they're not the conventional you know, five pedaled flower with the centers. They look like a little tuft of white threads tipped with red. So they're very interesting. But what's so special about them is their fragrance, and it is one of
the most beautiful, intense delightful fragrances you can imagine. So, I mean just think of being, you know, in your garden or walking around your yard on a sunny winter day and you get this, you know, whiff of something that's so fragrant, smells like it could be summer, and it's arco coca. Man, that is interesting, Stacey. I'm sitting here thinking this would be a good plant to combine with hellabores in a shape. Oh
my gosh, it would be beautiful with elibors. Yeah, fantastic accommodation right there. Yeah. And so you were saying Rick that you know people walk by this plant in the garden center because especially in a garden center situation, it would have already bloomed by the time people are actually shopping in the garden center. So they do also don't have that experience of walking by it and going, WHOA, what was that fragrance from? Whereas if they did,
I think that a lot more of these would be sold. So this is a plant that you kind of have to know about and seek out. It eas easy to find, as Rick said, but it's not going to be the one that just like grabs your attention when you're out in the garden center. So but it's worth knowing about because it is so special. And so it isn't evergreen, and it is a ground covering shrub, So this isn't going to be one of those tall shrubs you're going to be putting Christmas lights
on or anything like that. It naturally grows with a ground covering, suckering habit. And I know a lot of people here suckering and they think, whoa, whoa. Absolutely not sounds like it's going to be a nightmare, and it isn't. It's actually a fairly slow growing ground cover, so it
doesn't make a nuisance of itself. It just over time spreads to form a really nice colony that is going to keep weeds down, it's going to stabilize soil, it's going to conserve organic matter, it's going to conserve water for anything that it's planted by. So it's a really great problem solving shrub that's just, you know, I think a lot different than people expect for shade.
And so it's called sweet and low Sarco coca because it naturally grows to be about one and a half to two and a half feet tall, so you can kind of imagine it's a little bit of a taller ground cover with a woody base, glossy evergreen foliage botanically speaking related to boxwood. So that is where the box the box part comes. So if you can imagine a boxwood, that's what its foliage is kind of going to look like. It's a bit bigger, but it has that same dark green glossy quality. Doesn't
sink like boxwood, can you know? I know some people have issues with that. It's only some boxwoods do smell. But if you've smelled a boxwood, it's not something that you soon forget. So thus the line sweet and low, sweet and low sweet box yeah sor give it to me a cocca for those keeping score at home. No, that sounds like those packets of sugar substitute that you put in your own well that yeah, you know, we might have been a little inspired on the name by by something else called
sweet and low. But it's sweet because of the fragrance and low growing and again just a great problem solving shrub that. I don't think that people who have shade need to feel like they're being tossed like a consolation prize, right exactly. I can't grow this. I kind of wish I could. It's pretty great. Now. One thing you do need to know about it, it does need moist, acidic soil. So going back to that whole thing about you know, dry shade being the hardest, that is still true.
Unfortunately, sweet and low sweet box is not going to be a solution for you if you have dry shade unless you amend your soil. It really needs to be moist and acidic. And if it isn't, what's going to happen is the plant is going to just really struggle. The folia is just going to be kind of like yellow and wash out. You can manage all of
that with fertilizeders and iron. But just going back to this notion of like planting things that want to be there, you know, that are going to thrive and make less work for you know, this is a low maintenance plant provided you are able to you know, give it those moist, slightly acidic. I does have to be super acidic, you know, even somewhere close
to neutral is totally fine. It does like mulch as you were talking about with with other shade plants, and you know, pretty average water needs doesn't need pruning since it's just staying at that. You know one and a half to two and a half feet, you know height, dear resistance, extremely
dear resistant. So what a problem solver? Right? It's beautiful. And when you have a problem solver that is unique, that gives you a season of interest beyond what you're normally expecting, you know, to get out of a plant, I think it's just it's a great gift really to shake gardeners. I think today's show has been about plants that don't get the recognition that
they should get. They're Rodney dangerfield plants. They get no respect. So anyway, if you have shade and you've been struggling for a nice groundcover or an interesting plant, or maybe just they're tired of what you already have, look for sweetened low Sarco coca at your local garden center this season. Again, you might have to do a little digging because it's not one of those plants. It's going to be like, look at me. But sometimes that's
good. We need those plants in our garden because you can't look at everything all at once. Of course, you'll find more information about sweet and low sarco coca on our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com, or if you're watching YouTube version of our sen it. We're going to take a break and when we come back, we're opening up the garden mail bag. At Proven Winner's Color Choice, We've got a shrub for every taste and every space.
Whether you're looking for an easycare rose, an 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. Spring is in full swing and the questions are rolling in because my goodness, it's that time of year where you're like, what do I do?
Should I shouldn't I h The answer, of course, is always don't walk away from the garden until you can get an answer that you can use. Don't just go doing things without knowing why you're doing them. But we're happy to help you here, and if we can't get to your question, because we do get so many questions, you can always reach out to Proven Winners. Just go to Proven Winners dot com. There's a little place there.
It says questions, feedback, We're listening, and someone one of our horticulturists will get back to you with a personal answer that will help you resolve your issues. But of course you're always welcome to reach out to us, because if you're having a problem, chances are if someone else is having a similar issue or conundrum. So what do we got in the mail bag today? All right, so Sherry writes to us, Hello, I have a vegetable
garden in our backyard. My husband wants to use combination pesticide fertilizer products on the lawn that run alongside the garden. Should I be concerned about the chemicals leaching into the garden making the vegetables unsafe to eat? How large of a perimeter should he leave around the garden so it'll be unaffected. I enjoy gardening,
but also do it to have organic produce? Yeah? So I understand absolutely, And even if your goal is not organic produce, it is important to consider what chemicals are potentially being used around an edible garden, just to
make sure you're not ingesting anything nasty. And you know my answer to you, Sherry, First and foremost, and this is for anybody considering, you know, applying any chemicals in the garden at all, for any purpose, whether they're organic or conventional or whatever is, you have to read that instruction booklet. There is so much information that will answer all of those questions about like how far does it need to be by a vegetable garden, how long?
How soon can I harvest my vegetables if I have used this product. That's all in the guide book to the chemical. Now. The problem, of course, as many of us who have ever used any kind of garden chemicals know, is that all that information is in that silly little sticky book that they put on the back of the container. No, you know, I get it. There's a lot of information that they have to fit into a little tiny space. But so they have. They're doing the best that
they can with what they have. But like you get your reading glasses, you know, don't let it get in the rain or get any you know, product splash it and cause everything to run. The good news is, thanks to the Internet, you can do all of this research ahead of time online where it is readable and you can zoom in and do all of that and you will find everything that you need to know. It should give you information about, you know again, how soon you can harvest, how far
away it should be kept from edible plants, and all of that. Now you know, to be safe. As we've talked about, a plant's roots will generally go about one and a half times its height latterly and about eighteen to twenty four inches in the ground. So if you're thinking about your garden, say you're going to have, you know, a six foot tall tomato plant at the edge there, then I would say that you are going to want to make sure you're leaving about a nine foot buffer just to be perfectly
safe. Well, said Stacy. Read the product label. The whole point here is this, we've been gardeners for a long time. Doesn't matter how long you've been gardening. We read the label. It's there for a reason, and follow the directions. Also, I agree with maintaining a perimeter. I do not like growing lawns right up to the base of a tree. It's not healthy for a tree. I don't like growing turf right up to a vegetable garden. I say, leave a perimeter, a buffer zone of
some bark mulch. I think that's a good way to go. All right, so right, a couple of different things. But again, when in doubt anytime it comes to chemicals, whether they're organic or conventional, make sure you are reading that book and find that book is difficult to deal with, as we all do, then take the time to just look it up online.
You will not only find all of the application instructions, you know, caught precautions and all of that, you'll also find something called the MSDS, which is the Material Safeties and Data Sheet, and that will tell you all about any other potential hazards with the chemicals that are in that particular product, and use the amount they're recommending. Yeah, don't put in a double dose just because you feel like it. Not a good idea. All right?
Question from Nancy. Two trees that were meant to be a matched pair. Nancy sent us a picture. However, one looks like it's struggling. The other one got broken off in the snow. Should I replace them? And I did look at these these pictures, Stacey, and one thing I would mention I noticed in the picture in the fire corner there's some garlic mustard down there. You might want to go deal with that. Yeah, garlic mustard
is is an invasive weed. Now, I have to say, as far as invasive weeds go, it is one of the easier ones to manage it. It pulls up very easily in the rosette stage. Just yank it up. Yeah, very easy to pull out. But yeah, if you let it go to seed, you know, forget it out it. So so do take a look at what garlic mustard looks like if you're not familiar with that, and get that out. But it does not have anything to do with why your pines are struggling, Nancy. And you know I thought a
lot about your question. Is I looked at your photos and you know I have I have two answers, and so there one is a yes answer and one is a no. One is a yes you should replace them, and one is a no you shouldn't replace them necessarily. So yes side. You
know, life is just too short to sit around worrying. Well, I mean when it comes to the garden, you know, I've just it's just like our growing season's too short, Our time to be outside enjoying the garden is too short, and life in general is too short to sit there coddling and worrying about something that just doesn't want to be there. You're here or you know, certainly with the snow damage, there's not much you can do
about that. But I think the combination of the fact that you know, the one got snow damage and the other one is struggling means there's something there that that this particular these pines just aren't happy. Now, one thing that you can do, especially with the one that's struggling but hasn't gotten broken, or even the one that's broken, because sometimes you can get something real artistic
and interesting out of that. It's just move them. It's there's any number of reasons why they might not be that happy in that particular spot, and you know, Gardener's all over will tell you I move this, just you know, saying like, hey, it's got one last chance, I'm going to move it. And that new spot was perfect and it did really well. So my answer is, yes, you should replace it because they don't
seem that happy and life is too short. But on the other hand, I do want to just consider that if you can maybe do a little bit of detective work and thinking about how the surroundings impact this plant, it might be you might be able to save it so, and I sent Adriana picture so these will be in the YouTube version. I encourage you to look at these photos. I'll put them on the website at Gardening Simplified on air dot com as well. I have a success story, a success story that I
never thought would actually occur. So when I moved into my house, there was a magnolia, a magnolia stillata, so you know, the white kind that just finished blooming, and it was doing very poorly. It was two sticks and it was like, oh, I mean when I say half dead, that's not an exaggeration. This thing was literally half dead. My neighbor had a black walnut tree that was you know, right up against it.
And so that we're in you know, submit emits jug loan, which magnolias are sensitive to the jug loan or the a lellopathic chemical that can suppress growth of certain plants. And so you know, they took the walnut down because I wanted to put in a fence for their dogs. That was fine, and so I thought, okay, it's going to start, you know, you know, recovering, and you know it's it looked okay. What I
started doing was hanging my hummingbird feeder on it. So that was the only reason I didn't take it out, because I was going to take it out because it looked so unhappy. But you know, for the first year, I was like, I'll just put my hummingbird feeder here, and I'm like, hey, the bird's kind of like this, And so, you know, we kept kept the tree, and then we put in a new downspout for our roof, and just so happened that we directed the water to the
magnolia. If you look at this magnolia to this day, you will not believe your eyes. This thing has shot up probably ten feet is full. It was absolutely positively covered in flowers this year. And so the combination of losing that black walnut and having that supplemental water that it wasn't getting before from our roof from rainfall made a huge difference, a difference that I never could have imagined if I hadn't seen it myself. So we're going to share those
pictures. So I think that when you are questioning should I remove this should I keep it, it's a good idea to say, what can I do differently that could make a difference in this plant's health. You know Ryl Crow was right. A change will do you good sometimes, yes, right, And I looked at the pictures. One I think is umbrella pine can be notoriously difficult to get started. The other that weeping or pendulating pine tree.
Nancy tells us it was snow and ice, And I believe you, Nancy, But consider the fact that with those often you'll see squirrels and or birds perch and they can do damage at the top also. But I would not throw in the trowel on that thing. I'd see where it goes. Yeah, see where it goes. Or like I said, if you have another
place to move it, consider that and then put something. Especially if it's if a plant that you're looking at doesn't do isn't doing well, and it's in an important spot where you look at it all the time, or your neighbors or whatever. That might be a time where you say, I'm going to put something that I think will do better here. I'm going to move this and give this another chance somewhere else. But again, life is too short. No one should have to sit there and look at a struggling plant,
because that's just depressing for everybody. So you have it's your garden. You always have permission to do what you think is right, taking an educated guess at what the issues surrounding it might be. So do check out our website, Gardening Simplified on air dot com to see Nancy's conundrum as well as my success story, which, to be honest, has exceeded my expectations, as you will see if you get to look at those photos. So we're going to take a little break. When we come back, Rick's going to
tell you all that branching news, so stay tuned. The Gardening Simplified Show is brought to you by proven winners Color Choice Shrubs, Our award winning flowering shrub and evergreens have been trialed and tested for your success so you enjoy more beauty and less work. Look for proven winners Colored Choice Shrubs and the distinctive white container at your local garden center. Welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, Stacy. I don't know if you've gotten over the party yet. I
hear they're still cleaning up. And what a party it was, the Arbor Day celebration. I mean that's a big deal. You know. I went as Forrest Gump this year. Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. What a party. They even had Spruce Springsteen there. So you know Arbor Day, make sure to celebrate it, make sure to send cards to friends and family. I mean, Arbor Day is a big deal to me. Arbor Day is a big deal, but you know it is. I understand it's different
in every state. Every state has its own Arbor Day, so we could all have different I mean, do you celebrate only Michigan Arbor Day? Are you like, just like having a month of celebration, celebrating every arbor Day. No, I can't do that. That's too much, all right. Talking about shade today and our friend who said shade is hard, I wrote a quick shade lament a limb a rick here it comes. I like the occasional accolade for the plants around my yard displayed, but praises are diminished.
I think I'm almost finished. I've lost my battle to dent shade. I enrolled in gardening classes. My plants grow slower than molasses. Lack of light has left a mark. I'm sitting here in the dark. I lost my expensive sunglasses. What options? I behoove that my plants would approve. Their stems are weak and stretched. My dreams are all far fetched, called the realtor, I'm going to move. And you know, with shade, some people, Stacy, really start to think of that as a viable option.
Well, yeah, I mean I feel their pain. So I'm curious when you talked about shade plants becoming long and stretched. You know, the scientific word for that is ediolated. Did you just not have a rhyme for it, and you're limerick ediolated? Yeah, did you just not have a a rhyme for it? Because I would have been impressed if you had gone for the rhyme with ediolated. I love that, Stacy, I would I would admit to you. No, not educated in that regard, and so give
us that word again. Ediolated et io L A T E D. Now, anybody who's tried to grow succulents indoors, particularly like one of those nice film Rosette succulents, you know what it means. I understand the condition. I just can't pronounce the word. Yeah, ediolation is the phenomenon of elongating and getting thinner to stretch. For the life, I'm going to do an ediolation limerick for you, somebody. Oh, I can't wait, all right.
On a previous show, we talked about beneficial insects. Blocks away from the French Quarter fine dining stalwarts, the Autubon Insectarium in New Orleans has long served up an array of alternative insect based treats at its Bug Appetite Cafe overlooking the Mississippi River. They have things like cinnamon bug crunch, chili fried waxworms, and crispy Cajun spiced crickets. They're on the menu, green salad with
apple almonds, blueberry vinegarette, and roasted cicadas. They're jumping on this cicada bandwagon. You know, we talked about that the big summer for cicadas, and so that's going to be a deal this year. I guess there's menus and cookbooks, including titles like Cicada Delicious from the University of Maryland. So there you have it, all right. I guess they're still working out the bugs on this. You know. I wish them luck because New Orleans certainly
is one of the best food cities in this entire country. And you know, when you kind of have shrimp atsu fe, I'm not really sure that the chili fried wax worms are going to be able to compete against New Orleans legendary food, but to each their own. Yeah, I'll make like Ed McMahon and say you are correct man, all right, so you know, being a runner, though, I do eat a lot of bugs inadvertently, and generally they don't taste like much. And it's also difficult to identify when
you're outside. It's difficult to identify bugs on your granola bar. If you're eating a granola I can see that. So you probably eat more insects than you think you do, right, just not deliberately. A whole different thing when you're like, all right now, I am choosing to eat chili fried wax worms rather than oh, grud, I just swallowed him. Nat where I'm paying big money for this. Archaeologists have recently discovered two intact, sealed
eighteenth century glass bottles during mansion revitalization at George Washington's Mountain. I love that place when I've visited there, and as part of the landmark privately funded forty million dollar mansion revitalation revitalization project at Mount Vernon, they made a significant discovery to intact European manufactured bottles in the mansion cellar. They're green glass bottles. They smell like cherries. There's a liquid in them that you can even see
some of the cherries still in the bottle. What a cool discovery. Yeah, that's I can't believe it wasn't discovered sooner. Really. Yeah, well they say that, you know, as they remodel and they pull this up. They're very deliberate, intentional about carefully excavating areas of potential disruption, and they find things from time to time. And now they found these bottles that contain liquid and were probably placed there prior to the war for independence. Wow,
amazing, Yeah, that is so cool. That's fantastic. All right. Helsinki, an artisan roastery based in the Finnish capital, has introduced a coffee blend that has been developed by artificial intelligence. We did a show a few weeks back about AI plants. Well, in this case, they took
coffee and essentially made a mix that was AI generated aiicnic blend. Helsinki, Finland and Finland, I guess, a nation of five point six million that consumes the most coffee in the world, at twelve kilograms per capita annually. I did not know that. So they're big coffee drinkers there, and they're using AI to make these coffee roasts. Yes, of the blend, so they're like they used AI to decide which beans and varieties they would blend together.
Now. I was prorised to read this because I was in Helsinki last fall and I actually had coffee and breakfast at this exact roastry and it was it was excellent. You were as I was at that exact roastry. Yeah, Kafa Kafa. I'm sorry if I'm not pronouncing that right, but I was there. I was actually sitting right next to the roasters on the other side of a glass wall. And if they had had the AI blend, I certainly would have tried it, but they did not. That is so
cool. Kafa Roastery. Yeah, is the name. Very cool place. I'd like to go there. So it answers the question, what have you been up to? Well, you've been to Helsinki and you've had this coffee, so pretty cool. Pretty cool? All right? Uh well, latte da look at what we have here, all right. A study published earlier this year in the Journal of Zoology suggests humans are mistaking American black bears for bigfoot. I can see that. So Merriam Webster defines a cryptid as an
animal that has been claimed to ex but never proven to exist. And there's a data scientist called His name is Flow Foxen. Flow Foxen and fond of titling studies. For example, flow Foxen did a study the Lochness monster. If it's real? Could it be an eel? If not a fake? What's in the lake? But isn't this great? So people think that they have seen bigfoot and it's probably a bear at least in his studies, especially in the Pacific Northwest, long believed to be sasquatch in natural habitat. It's
statistically significant associated with black bear populations. For every one thousand bears in an area, they found a four percent increase in the number of bigfoot sighting. Oh interesting, they actually they aren't just theorizing it's most likely a bear. They're saying, we know there's a heavy bear population here, there was also
heavy bigfoot sightings. It therefore is probably yea a bear. And you know if a bear poor thing gets mites or you know, some sort of disease and it can kind of make its head look kind of bald and its snout looked kind of bald. That would be pretty scary. I couldn't blame someone for thinking. But you know what the important thing is if it keeps people away from bears, then we're all the better for it, because people should
stay away from bears and not mess with you. You got that right, no question about it, just personal and if you're out in the woods, you know. I'll close with this just to mention this is sad. Wildfires are already starting in Canada and we'll probably see the effects again this year. A number of wildfires this past weekend, so feel bad for those folks. This would be in British Columbia and so something that we're going to have on
our radar again this summer. Well, you know what, we should do a show on fire skating because that is a big issue for more and more people. And even if it's not an issue where you live, it sure doesn't hurt to plant for alleviating fire. So that'd be a good topic for a future show. Looks like like an issue that, as last year, is going to continue to be an issue moving forward. Love doing the show with you, Stacey, Thanks so much, Thank you, Adriana and most
of all thanks to you. Remember we're on YouTube, podcast, and radio, so make sure to tune in wherever you wish, and thank you very much. Enjoy your week.