Broadcasting from Studio A Here at proven Winners, Color Joy Shrubs. It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hrvella, me Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson. Today we talk about big plants. What a great topic. Go big or go home, big shots, the big picture, speak softly and carry a big stick, too big for one's breeches. You get the idea. Ever, put a landscape plant in the ground and it gets much bigger than you expected, or an dissipated.
Uh yes, because I live in a fantasy world where I can plant whatever I want and ignore the spacing. So yes, that has happened to me many times.
And I believe you are not alone. I think about the movie Big with Tom Hanks. Loved that movie, and you know he wishes that he was big, and then he visits what was it? I put it down here Zoltar, the fortune teller machine, the antique fortune teller machine, and suddenly he gets what he wished for. What a great movie. But big landscape plants, it's all relative. Of course, we can talk about big trees, but this is about big landscape plants with big characteristics and size, something that's out
of the routine, so to speak. Now, it's not a definitive list. This is just a conversation because Stacy, I think you and I could probably do three four, five six shows on big plants.
Because I love them. I am going to come right out and say, yeah, we're not talking about like, you know, the giant sequoias out in California, which are obviously extremely amazing and impressive, but like their tree, you know, they're gigantic. For me, what this show is about are those plants that basically go from nothing in spring where there's nothing above ground, and the next thing you know, by the time summer rolls around, they're five six, seven, ten feet tall.
And watching that process of something going from nothing to just this massive plant, it just never gets old from me. I absolutely love it. My garden is full of these types of plants, and yeah, the more I can get, the better I agree.
And no garden is too small for a large leafed plant. The key is knowing how, where and when to use it, all of which depends on the impression that you want to make. But you can punctuate. You can make an impression with big plants. I mean I think off the top of my head. Stacey, we've talked about El Nino desert orchid.
Sample definitely a great example.
The cup plant that you love, and we should talk about that today callicanthus sweet shrub. Any of those types of plants in a shady spot, A hosta is a great example. You have the Shadowland Empress woh Sta hybrid, you have shadow Land Gigantisaurus Hasta hybrid, and of course, Stacey, the old standard summon substance.
Yeah, I love those hostas. Now. Of course I don't have them because I have deer and very little shade and I don't water, and that's how you're going to get the truly impressive results on those is. Yes, plenty of moisture. But boy do I love seeing a well grown giant hosta. Just fills me with envy.
Yeah, it's fantastic. It's like they're saying, stop here, look at me. It's great. And then you can take it to the next level. Plant in mass for impact, where space is not constrained. You take some of these dramatic plants and then plant them in mass I think of the airport here in West Michigan in the entrance where they have a viburnum placatum double file and they get so large and when they bloom and they're in the ent entrance in a drift.
I've never knowniced that. I guess I've never flown out in late spring, but I will have to make some arrangements and see this legendary planting. Yeah, I mean, I think that a lot of people think that big plants are bad because they don't have space. But the fact is, I think that big plants are extremely useful in low maintenance gardening because if you plant one very large plant
and you cite it, well, it's basically no work. Sure, you know, it's like you can just transform an area of your yard from something that you have to mow or trim or whatever and just plant something large and it kind of just takes care of itself. It makes a bigger impression. And you know, I think that in
many ways, big plants are getting harder to find. There is a prevailing assumption in the horticulture industry right now that people want smaller plants, and it is true that people very often have smaller yards, but that doesn't mean is not place for big plants. And you know, a well chosen big plant can make all the difference, especially in the small yard.
Exactly. It can be explosive. But you know what, again, big is relative. You can find big in something like bulbs. You look at bulbs. I was always excited in spring when the big elephant ear bulbs would come in and then you look, you know, there's big as softballs, and you think, wow, the potential that lies in this plant or alium gigantium, or the fritile areas or whatever it may be. I shared with Adriana a picture of met at Koekenhoff trying to fill my big European shoes for
YouTube listeners and viewers. But I'm always on the lookout for something bigger, better, more unusual. I'm a fan of plants with big, tropical showy leaves, so you know I love canas colocacia bananas. I mean, you take something like Mussa bajou, which is the hardy Japanese fiber banana. Even though in the north and I'm in Zone six B, it dies back to the ground if you're able to
keep it alive. The amount of growth, like you said at the outset, Stacey, is quite inspiring that you get in one season have.
You been able to successfully elul Oh, that's cool. How old is yours? Then?
Well, I had one for numerous years until I moved, and now this spring I just planted one, so I'm gonna try again.
So what's your secret to overwintering this? Just keeping it dry?
Okay, Soltz, you've got a mulch. The plant needs a fair amount of water during the growing season in order to produce that growth. But for winter good I'm talking mounded mulch.
Okay, yeah, big. You know, make sure that that that rise them under there is well buried exactly, And then of course you can't risk uncovering it too late, because then you could earth plant right exactly. But it's worth it to have a hardy banana exactly.
One of my favorite big plants in the landscape is rhododendrons, and I think part of the reason for that is because the root system is small proportionately to the top of the plant. And I went out yesterday shot a couple pictures for YouTube viewers of just some neighbors who have gigantic rhododendrons. Well, again, we live on the lake shore here in West Michigan, and the conditions allow us to grow rhododendrons that need moisture and yet need good drainage.
If they sit in water, they're not going to do well. And then you think about rhododendron maximum or great laurel or wild rhododendron. You see a lot of that in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These things get absolutely huge.
Yeah, rhododendron can be very You know the one that goes that meme that goes around about the This is the one hundred year old rhododendron with a lady who planted it. So she apparently planted it as an infant. But it's a good example of how of the truly epic proportions rhododendron can reach.
Yeah, if the conditions are right, you bet rhododendri Rhododendron Dell is a great landscape showcasing all the rhododendrons at Arnold's Arboretum. And I went arnold Arboretum and I went there this past year. Four hundred and forty six rhododendrons in that collection. I think about full speed a hedge and arbor vitie that gets very, very tall and yet
in the garden center. I see a lot of people, Stacey who opt for Thuya placata, which is the green giant or great Western cedar because of deer pressure.
Right, so green giant is actually a hybrid between Placata and Standiscia. Is im a Asian species. But green Giant lives up to its name. It is a big it's tall, but it's also very broad at the base, so it's really it's good for privacy hedging if you have a lot of ground space. Otherwise, something like full Speed Hedge or north Pole from proven Winners are great choices because they take up less ground real estate but can still
give you the privacy. Do you have to space them a little bit more closely, of course to make up for that. But green Giant is a household name, but it is definitely not for every yard. But it's cool, all right.
I'll give you a big plant, Limerick. And by the way, we're going to continue to talk about big plants in segment for it will also be interesting to see Stacey's plant on trial that is chosen this week as we talk about big plants. Here's my limb rick. I need a plant colossal, not something dainty or docile, something downright large that shows it's in charge, as big as a
dinosaur fossil. I want a plant that's big, a leafy, robust, large fig. A plant that's substantial and really consequential, not a wimpy, modest twig. To big plants, I'm deferential that fill my lot residential. Nothing that is passive. Make it really massive with foliage, substantial, something that is enormous. Tell us, please inform us of a plant with impact that isn't compact. It's got to be ginormous.
Nice.
We'll see what kind of impactful plant Stacey shares with us. Next. In Plants on trial 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 shrubber 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. Greetings gardening friends, and
welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show. We're talking about one of my all time favorite topics as well as plants to put in the garden, and that is big plants. I mean, I like small plants. Let's like, not pretend that's not true. I have tons and tons of small plants. I have tiny little seedum's, tiny little supervivum, and I love those as well. But there is just something to me that is so inspiring about something like smarific hibiscus, which you know, comes spring, not a thing to be
found in the ground, no signs of life whatsoever. And then you know, late May, couple little tiny shoots start to poke up and you're like, okay, and then you know, by July you've got a five foot tall plant covered in flowers, and you're just like, how did that happen?
It's exciting, it's explosive. Not only a big plant, big flowers, big flowers.
Yeah, so I love that. I also love, you know, any number of native plants. Like one of my favorites that I have is Agastaki nepatoides. So this is the green hissip and nepatoides means it looks like catnap, which it kind of does, except that it gets to be eight feet tall and it puts on these amazing candelabra type branches and again, I just love seeing that go from like where where even is that plant? To just this massive presence in the landscape. It never it never
gets old for me. And you know, when it comes to shrubs, of course, there's lots of big shrubs. If we were just talking about plants that reach epic proportion as well, I could still go on all day. But there the shrub version of this ability to go from virtually nothing to just a massive in bloom plant I think is best epitomized by butterfly bush.
Yeah.
Now, especially older varieties of butterfly bush. As I said, the industry is largely under the operating under the belief that people want smaller plants, and there's definitely been a tendency to breed smaller and smaller butterfly bush compared to back in the day, when you know, good luck finding a butterfly bush it's under six feet. Now it's more like good luck finding a butterfly bush that's over six feet anymore. And I think there's still a place for that.
But no matter what size butterfly bush you have, they all share this ability to kind of come out of winter looking like they're dead, nearly dead. It's one of the plants that I think people are most likely to give up on because they just look so ghastly, you know, in late winter, early spring, and next thing you know, they're growing and you think, okay, well, I guess it were covered from that winter damage, but it's not going to flower. And then like a week later it's covered
in flowers. I mean, it's amazing, blamo blamo exactly. So today's plan on trial is one of my favorite of our butterfly bush and that is Miss Violet. Oh my gosh, this is a plant that you know, I like Budi. I am definitely choosy about what I put in my garden, but my neighborhood a Miss Violet, and that made me want a Miss Violet because it was so pretty that
I just love the deep purple flowers sow. The Miss series of butterfly bush are developed to be about four to five feet tall and wide and to have kind
of a more elegant habit than your average budlia. So some butterfly bushes can have like a really uh, let's just say habit is not their strong suit, especially some of those older varieties where these really do have like kind of an elegant, vaselike habit and that four to five foot you know, size is nothing to sneeze that that's still quite an appreciable size, but much more versatile than some of those older ones that would you know, just get really really huge.
Yeah, and I'd love that Miss series. It was Adriana who got me excited about Miss Molly. Put it in my landscape.
Love that that's our favorite plant in the whole proven winner's line. Miss Molly is her number one pick. Now, I I have seen the Miss series of butterfly bush undergo this exact same phenomenon that I'm talking about in my own garden. So at my previous home, I had planted a Miss Molly butterfly bush. So this is all from the same breeding series. A breeder named doctor Dennis
Warner out of North Carolina State University. He is now retired, but he was really really passionate about butterfly bush and he devoted the latter part of his career to developing non invasive butterfly bushes because at that point, in certain milder climates, butterfly bush was starting to spread by seed sure it was getting banned, and he really did not want to see that happen. So he devoted his resources
into the Low and Behold series. So some of the earlier Low and Behold butterfly bush, which of course are are low, small growing butterfly bushes, and my favorite the Miss series. So I planted a Miss Molly. It was full. Now, I generally do not recommend that you plant butterfly bush in full. So now that we're here in late spring early summer, especially if you're in a cold clam and you're thinking about adding a butterfly bush to your garden,
now is the time to do it. You want to make sure that it has a nice long season ahead to develop a good root system to help it come back from you know, any damage that it's going to get in winter. So you know, but I work in the industry, so I get free plants. And when you get free plants, you don't just you know, you plant them.
And I worked in the garden center industry, and if you get bargain bin plants in October, you plant them exactly and hope for the best.
Exactly, can't beat the price. So I planted this Miss Mollie, and you know, it looked great at that fall, and then come the following spring, other butterfly bushes that are planted near it coming back without a problem. I'm like, all right, cool, and this Miss Mollie is showing not a sign of life, not a single sign of life now again. And I do have pretty good conditions, but
there's a lot of different things that could happen. So, you know, I kept waiting because I know that butterfly bush are always late to emerge, and the colder or harsher your winter is the harder the slower they are to come back from. That so especially true for people in USBA Zone five and six. So I'm waiting. Still nothing, still nothing. Finally, the second weekend in June rolls around and I think that's it. This thing is not coming back.
I'm going to just pull it out. So I lean over, bend over to pull it out with my bare hands, because this is something you can do when you have very sandy soil. It's really quite a fun benefit. Not everything, but some things. So I reach down to pull it out and I see just this tiny little shoot coming out of the ground, and I thought, all right, all right, we'll give it a whirl. We'll see what you can do from this tiny, little, you know, one inch shoot
and I am not even joking. Three weeks later the thing was fully grown and in bloom.
Wow.
I mean it was insane. It was absolutely amazing and plants just you know, it's one of those plants that just has this ability to, I guess, summon the extensive resources in its roots to come back from even a really really harsh winter, and it's just so amazing to see that kind of comeback.
Yeah, it's true. I have a Missviolet. Two years ago we had a very mild winter, hardly any die back. This past winter, Stacey mine pretty much had. I had die back to the ground, but it's really recovering quickly.
That's the crazy thing is they do recover quickly. And all butterfly bush, especially in colder climates or if you have clay soil and you get cold winters, that is their death knell. They hate that. They will definitely be sat back, if not die. But the thing is, yes, you do have to have faith with these plants because they can come back in such an amazing way. So a couple more tips for success, whether you're growing today's plan on trial Miss Violet with its fabulous purple flowers
or any butterfly bush. Again, plant it sooner than later, especially if you are in a cold climate or you are planting it in less than ideal conditions. So that would be like clay soil, poorly drained soils. You don't want to put it in any soil of its wet. It will not make it. You can plant them in clay soil, but they definitely need a longer time to get established. Because it's not even so much winter that will take out a butterfly bush. It's being cold and wet.
So really the danger times are kind of that late fall where the ground hasn't frozen yet, it's not cold enough to actually like snow or freeze, but we're getting a lot of rain that's terrible for it. And then the same thing happens on the other end of the season in early spring, when you know we're kind of past the worst of the cold, but we get a lot of rain and the soils cold and wet. They
absolutely hate that, so plant early, plants high. If you have a drainage issue, make sure this you're putting it so that's a little bit above the soil surface rather than even with the soil surface and make sure you
prune these things. So this is so important. Butterfly bush is one of those plants that you definitely want to prune to make sure it stays nice and compact, maintains that really nice habit and flowers from top to bottom, because that amazing ability to regrow that we were just discussing also means that if a butterfly bush is not trimmed, it's just going to keep going up and up and up and up and get really tall, really lanky, look super weird, and then you don't even get to enjoy the flowers.
Prune hard and it helps stimulate blooming lass it does, and it's just yeah, it's important.
And if you don't know where to prune it, the best thing to do is to wait until it starts to grow, because then the plant is going to tell you exactly where it is alive. You can cut back to just above there, and then all the energy that the plant has will grow into those you know, remaining shoots or buds, and the plant will start to grow and again and bloom so fast you will not even believe it's possible. I wouldn't have believed it if I saw it myself. So a fascinating plant to have great
summer color, NonStop flowers. You know, that's one of the things I loved about seeing the one in my neighbor's yard. Just that purple, that deep true purple, looks so good with all of summer's colors, all the reds, all the yellows, all that kind of stuff I have in my garden. And of course it attracts butterflies.
Yeah, the butterflies exactly a magnet for and hummingbirds.
So a great plant with unique color and a plant that will, I think inspire you, whether it survives winter without any damage, or for those winters where it might get a little damage but will redeem itself shortly. So you can find it at your local garden center. If you don't know where your local garden center is, visit proven Winter's Color Choice dot com. We've got a list of retailers for you right there. We're going to take a little break. When we come back, we're opening up
the mailbanks. If these stay tuned at proven Winter'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 scentuate 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 Winners color choice dot com. Greetings gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it's time for us to help you with your garden questions, conundrums, and quandaries. And I'll bet they are happening in spades right now. You know, it was a slow start here in Michigan, but we got those couple
of warm days and man, everything has just exploded. There is so much going on, most of it good, but perhaps some of it bad, confusing, not sure what to do, and that's where we come in. So you can reach us at Gardening Simplified on air dot com and we'll be happy to take a look at your question if you do need an answer right away. We do want you to get the help that you need because we only have time for about three questions and sometimes not
even that. So you can also reach us at Proven Winners, color choice dot com and get an answer for your question from a professional horticulturist who actually cares about your success. So we do want to make sure that we are helping you out in a timely manner, So don't hesitate to reach out to us other ways if we can't get to you on this show. Who do we have this week?
Stacy Scott writes to us, hanging baskets. Our front porch is covered heavy shade, and we struggle keeping hanging baskets looking good beyond a few weeks. This goes for flowers and plants that are supposed to be better in the shade. Example, given two Berus pogonias, what are we doing wrong right?
So? Well, first of all, I think two bris pogonias kind of need their own little exemption carved out of what we're saying. We did recently do a whole show on hanging baskets where we gave a lot of advice. But I know now probably a lot of people who is since that show actually probably have hanging baskets in their yard at this point and are maybe wondering what to do. So I do want to say and Ricky
talked about this in that episode hanging Basket. There are usually the soil less media in them is typically a peat base media and peat moss will become hydrophobic, which is to say it becomes very difficult to rewet if it gets dry and you in the garden center, most hanging baskets are on drip, so they're constantly getting like a low supply of water and that prevents the soil
from drying out once it gets to your house. If that soil service is exposed because it's still young and hasn't filled in fully or whatever, and it dries out, it becomes very very hard to rewet that. So what happens is you're sitting there watering, the water's flowing out the bottom and you're patting yourself on the back that you need did a great job, but you actually have not wet any of the roots whatsoever. So it's something
you need to be really careful of. I would say, if your hanging basket isn't doing well, take it down. You're probably not going to be able to solve any hanging basket issues from the ground when it is up in the air hanging wherever you have place because you can't get a good look at it, and that's the only way you're going to know it's almost certainly a water issue. You know, very rarely is this going to
be any kind of disease. And if it is a disease, then it's a disease that was probably caused by too much water rather than something that was like actually wrong with the plant. So take it down if it has if it's too dry, and you'll be able to tell it when you take it down because they'll feel really light. It's kind of you know, it's a I think a skill you develop, but once you've experimented with it, you
know pretty well. So take it down if it's very dry, dunk it in water, so don't you're not going to leave it in standing water. But that will help to fully rewet the entire volume of soil rather than just you know, dribbling a bit of water from the top. So you can treat it just like you would anything else and use that bottom watering technique to fully saturate it and that will help a lot in terms of actually keeping it healthy.
Now, so sorry ahead, there's plenty of wonderful plants to grow in the shape I agree Stacey that soil or soillest mix can become hydrophobic. Combined with that the roots tend to mass on the surface also, so yes, the water that you think you're applying is hitting the surface heading over to the sides of the basket. If it's dried out. At some point that soil has contracted from the side of the basket and so that water is just simply running down the side and out the bottom.
I agree with taking them down. In the garden center, you're dealing with thousands of hanging baskets. The way we do it is as you walk along, you just push up on the basket. You can tell instantly whether it's dry to wet. It's a good way to monitor. And then when you take it down again for a basket at home, I use the screwdriver method. I just poke some holes. Yeah, in that soil surface. It makes a big difference.
That's a good easy thing to do. I do want to say briefly, though, Scott, about Tuberspegonia's beautiful, but they can be pretty tricky to grow because they are tuberous as the name suggests, and that big old tuber in there is very sensitive to poor drainage and watering. If it gets too wet, it will start to rot. So it's a plant that needs a lot of water. But also if it gets too much water, it can rot really easily. So as gorgeous and tempting as they are, they can be a little bit tricky.
Maybe try some fibrous pogonias instead of tuberous pagonias and that may work better.
And same with like all these beautiful like angel wing pogonias, you know, bonfire and on all of that a great choice. So also the other thing is you might maybe the garden or the area is not as shady as you think it is for the plants, because sometimes, especially when we're dealing with locations close to the house, the house bounces a lot of light back into the plants and it can actually make the spot less shady than you
might assume. So if you're getting something specific, Scott, send us a picture so we know what you're dealing with and can help you specifically. But I would say, whenever anything's going wrong, take it down, get to the root of the problem, and then once you resolved it, then it can go back up.
Many times, people in that situation will default to Boston ferns.
Oh yeah, can't go wrong with the Boston fern. It's a classic.
Suzanne writes, Hello, love the show. I'm a fellow Michigander. Have been listening for the past couple of years. It's therapy in my car. I love the comedian Jim Gaffigan. He asked this past weekend, is there a recovery program for gardening? He did good, quite, yes, he did so. I'm in six B southeast side. These roses were planted in the house I moved into four years ago, learning
about them, started caring for them, attempting, pruning, fertilizing. I believe I did everything right in terms of pruning and fertilizing. They seem to be doing great. Last week with no spots on the foliage. I turned my back for one second. This week, I'm noticing a good spots on the leaves Larva looking things. Hell.
Yes, so what you are experiencing, Suzanne, is definitely common for rose growers in late spring. Everything's going along just fine, and there seems to be this point that they reach where they're well known tendency to attract certain pests explodes. Now aphids. I wouldn't really worry about. You know, I have definitely seen bad aphis on roses where it will cause the buds to actually weep. But you know, their
roses are pretty sturdy. They're easy to like wipe the aphids off of rinse the aphis off, and they really don't cause that much trouble except kind of their stickiness and just general grossness. The other thing that you're seeing is something that if people aren't already seeing it, they will be very soon, and it's confusing pests. It is the rose slug. And I find this one so fascinating because it basically causes two different types of damage when
it so it's called a rose lug. It's like a sawfly. So it's a little larvae and they're clear. So they start eating the rose foliage and they turn the exact shade of your rose foliage. And when they're in this really small, tiny larval state, so after the mother softly laser eggs on the plant, when they're still in that really tiny state, their little jaws are too small and too weak to actually get through the entire leaf surface of the plant, so they can only chew through the
top of the leaf. They can't go all the way through because they're just so little, and it makes us window like damage, this very specific window like damage. And then as they start to age a little bit more, then they can actually get all the way through and they make these kind of meandering sort of sea shape. I don't want to call them. I guess channels is the thing, because they go all the way through and they don't eat the leaf ribs, so you see these
weird kind of meandering channel in that. And it's all the same insect, so it's not like it's a separate thing. It's all the same one. Now, the easiest time to spot these little guys is early in the morning when they're still moving, kind of start just starting to feed, and you have to look on the underside of the leaf. And the first couple times that you look for one, it's going to be tricky. They're very hard to pick out.
But after a couple of times you'll start to pick them out and I just smash them, you know, I smash as many as I see. It's a fairly useful control method if you're not overly squeamish and have a little bit of time on your hands, because that's what gardening is about is just being out there with your plants and checking them out. The other thing you can do if your roses are a disease resistant or continuous blooming landscape rose, then what you can do is go
ahead and just give them a light trim. Because these rose slugs stick on the top most folly and so they don't go way down deep onto the other folaginals. You have a very serious infestation. If you just give it a light trim. I know it's going to be a little bit of a heartbreak. You're probably trimming off flower buds, but not to worry. That will get rid of all of the slugs on your plants. Give the
plant a chance to recover well. The rose slug is like, hey, no new growth here for me to lay my eggs on. I'm gonna go find a rose it does have new growth, and then by the time your plant actually leaves out again, they've moved on.
It's great advice, and I would feed it at the same time. When you do that print.
Definitely good advice. Make sure that you give it that little extra boost of energy to help it recover from that pruning. But that is the best, easiest, non toxic way to manage rose slugs because yeah, they can get pretty bad, but I don't know. I find them fascinating a slug fest anyway. Thank you so much for your questions, and if you have a question for us, remember you can reach us at Gardening Simplified on air dot com. We're going to take a break. When we come back,
we're picking up our conversation about big plants. You won't want to miss it, so stay tuned. Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to you by Proven Winner's 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. Today for branching news, we continue talking about big impact plants and I did have to mention to you stay see this story that I saw in the news. Talk about big in your front yard. A Norwegian man managed to sleep through an enormous container ship running aground on his front lawn. Johann Hellberg, who lives in Norway, was woken by his neighbor on Thursday morning and asked if he had noticed a boat outside.
TV two Norway reported when he looked out his door, he saw a four hundred and forty three foot container ship parked.
In his front ear Oh yikes, mm hmm.
We'll give you the link in show notes and here on YouTube. But yes, a container ship ran aground in his front yard. He slept right through.
Well that's not very ornamental.
Yes, you are so right talking about large impact plants and maybe tropical on a budget. How about castor beans?
Oh? I love them, I mean boom.
Can you know the ones I've planted have gotten twelve to fifteen feet in one season. I had some planted next to popcorn plant.
Both of those really going for that tropical.
Yeah, and once the weather gets hot, it's like wow. Other big impact plants, ligular area, the rocket and I like big green tractor. It's also known as tractor seat, big foliage that looks like a tractor seat.
Yeah, tractor seat is what they call it in the South. With the first time I was on some tour with some Southerners, they said something about and I was like, what, I like tractor seat. That's that plant. I was like, that is so funny.
Fun to grow. I have one of my plant, yep rod Jersey. If you've got rich humisy consistently moist soils in part shade. That plant was named after our honors Rear Admiral John Rogers, a distinguished American naval officer who commanded a expedition in the mid eighteen hundreds and the first species of this genus was discovered. You look at other plants we mentioned elephant ear, Your allocacious odora was one that I loved getting into the garden center. It
made a real impact. Always have difficulty pronouncing this one, but I think I got it. Simysifuga.
Oh yeah, that was a very cool plant.
Yeah, did I get that right? Did?
Yeah?
Yeah, there's a cool one called chocoholic. Some people call it snakeroot plant or bugbane in reference to the old differous insect repellent properties of the plant. They look like giant a stillby plants.
Yes, these are all plants that Rick just listed that need moist soil. So if you have shade and you have moist soil, great choices. There's a lot of plants like this. I feel like that are good for moist shade. You know that have the big boffo foliage if you have if you live in a warm climate and you have wet soil, you can also grow gunnera.
Oh, I was just gonna bring that right.
Don't you love gunnara?
It's so jealous some areas, like I think in England, they're trying to get you to not right the plant.
Because it's so invasive.
There, huge foliage. I remember being in Vancouver Queen Elizabeth Park, huge, you know, and everybody wants to get their picture taken time, right, Yeah.
The first one that I saw in real life, I had to have my picture taken in front of Yes, that's right, but definitely not hardy for us here in Michigan.
It makes for a great selfie in social media. Joe Pie Weed and we had a lavender show that we did a few weeks ago. Go back and visit it. But Stacey, we talked about phenomenal lavender. That's you know again, it's all relative. But when it comes to lavender, talk about a big plant. Of course. I love grasses, so the giant misscanthus. I like the ravenna grass or arianthus. North Carolina State University calls it hardy pampas grass, But boy does that thing get big in one season.
It is very cool to see those grasses that get so big and you just you know, one of the things that I think is so fascinating when I'm looking at these plants and this is like, I don't know, such a weird thing to think, but I kind of can't help it as I just think about the number of cells they had to produce to get that big, so many cells.
And how fast it goes.
Yes, it's crazy.
I know. My mind works the same way with steria. What about wisteria. Here's a plant that you got to show whose boss? You know. You think about some of these vines, like trumpet vine or wisteria, I guess if you have the room, if you have the support, well, more power to you. Some people would say I would never plant a trumpet what an invasive. Yeah, I understand, but in some areas, especially if you're willing to neglect the plant or get tough with it, like rit pruning,
which is what I recommend for wisteria. Obviously, get very big, grow very quickly.
Yeah, if you have a spot where you can just kind of let it go to a trumpet vine, you will never have more hummingbirds in your entire life. It's worth it. They do need, they do need their space or some aggressive management. But for that reason, I really do wish I could have one, but I don't think my neighbors would appreciate it.
How about bears breeches canthus, I mean that, wow, interesting flowers. Some people will say, hey, don't plant it almost impossible to eradicate out of a planting bed. But when you're talking about bold thistle like foliage, bears breeches is well, it's a It's an architectural presence, is what it is.
Yes, And you know, people think of a canthus as a warm climate plant, and the one that is most often depicted at the in the Grecian columns is actually a warm climate canthus. But there are hardy ones that you can find. They're not usually around in garden centers, but if you are so inclined, you can definitely grow a certain one in cold climates and enjoy it. You might need to find someone who already has one to give you some plants, but they are prickly, but they're very cool.
Sitting in my office the other day, looking out the window and watching the beautiful Baltimore orioles who were feasting on the orange pieces outside of my office on a feeder, and they're so colorful. But it caused me to think about how much I love also the yellow finches, especially in spring, and how bright they are. And then doing a little bit of research, it was strongly recommended that cup plant or sylphium is something you might want a plant if you like finches. What's been your.
Oh gosh experience in late summer, it is the finch hot spot of my entire neighborhood. So they love, love, love the seeds, and these plants do set so much seed, and so they're also your right hand man there in managing this plant, which can spread aggressively from seed because they're eating so many of them. But between the fact that they produce so much seed that the goldfinches love the cup, so the foliage actually surrounds the big, thick, square stem and makes kind of a cup like structure
that will hold rain or irrigation water. So between having that water and all of those seeds, they just they mob it, they mobbit. My neighbor says, she just loves to sit there with her binoculars and just watch the finches just have a field day on my Sofia.
When would you say your plant is in prime?
Uh, probably about the last two weeks of July.
Okay, which is ideal because at that time you start getting some of the globe thistle mm hmm. And the finches breed later in the year or not and spring, and so yeah, that's that's pretty cool.
And plus my neighbors have finch feeders. So between the three things, you know, there they are. They are coming out in drugs and it is a lot of fun to watch. And that's a plant too that you know, it starts from nothing and then you know by the time July rolls around, it's sent feet tall.
Yeah. A plant that I always enjoyed in the Michigan State University Garden was the Rudbeckias, the tall cone flower.
Yeah, Maxima, Yeah, I love that one with a big blue fold. Such a cool plant.
Yeah, that's a great plant. Also to consider, for years I've grown Helianthus like lemon queen. They can just get strikingly large. Just a great plant again if you're looking for that quick size. And I have to mention Stacy that even though this isn't an herbaceous plant or a plant grown from seed. Oh, by the way, just popped into my head. Also, I've got to mention the hyacinth
bean again. If you're on a budget, you want tropical, you want fast, you want size, a great plant to put in the ground for size, But when it comes to size in the landscape, I just feel you cannot beat viburnums. I love viburnums, don't you.
I do. I really do like viburnums. I don't have a lot of them, but I do love them as a foliage plant because sometimes, you know, viburnums are considered derresistent, but they do very often eat the flowers, so they leave the plants alone. So you gotta be if you have dear, you've got to grow a viburnum that you can appreciate for its foliage, because you probably are not going to be able to enjoy the flowers at least that's been my experience exactly.
And then of course I love the bloomerang lilacs, the miss Kim lilacs, because boy, they helped me get control in my landscape. Because those old French lilacs, yes, they're something else and they're fragrant, but boy, I've seen some big ones in my dear Oh.
They do. They can get quite large because they have a suckering habit, so they kind of keep colonizing an area.
Yeah, we'd love to hear about your favorite big plants. The list could go on and on, and maybe we'll do a future show again on more big plants, but certainly a fun thing to talk about. Go Big or Go Home. Thank you Stacy, thank you Rick, Thanks Adriana, and thanks most of all to you for watching us on YouTube, listening to the podcast, listening to us on radio. Have a great week.