Hello, and thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid American gardener.

I'm your host Tinisha, Spain.

And joining me in the studio today are two of our panelists who you'll definitely recognize from being on the show a time or two.

We've got Sarah and Jen here.

So before we get into all the cool stuff that they brought to show you and to talk about, let's have them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about what they do.

So Sarah, we'll start with you.

Yeah.

Hi.

I'm Sarah Vogel.

I'm a Horticulture Educator for Illinois Extension.

I served with Macon in Pike counties.

And I'm glad to be here today.

Excellent.

Jen.

Hi, I'm Jen Nelson.

I am a horticulturalist.

I work as an instructor for the Department of Crop Sciences at U of I.

And just love talking about plants any chance I get?

Yes.

And as you can see, she picked up some new ones for you today to discuss.

Alright, so let's start with you, Sarah.

I love the pictures that you sent in let's talk about tree health where we're finding ourselves outside, it's getting a little sunnier a little warmer.

Now, before you explain, is it time to start looking at our trees for damage for you know, just kind of make just seen how they fared over the winter?

Yes, yeah, it's always time for that always.

It's always time for that.

And you know, with spring already here, and summer is kind of right around the corner, it's really important to kind of take notice of what's going on with our trees.

Some of the defects that can happen might lead to, you know, some of those storms that happen in spring and summer can wreak havoc on our trees.

So taking notice of what defects they already have, might mitigate some of that risk of having a hazard in our yard.

Was there anything during this particular winter that we had that would have caused more damage or stressed trees?

What should we be looking for on our properties?

So yeah, there were some high winds, especially recently, you know, I didn't have an incredible amount of snow, snow load or stress on on limbs, but those high winds really can be.

And of course, frost cracking is another thing that can happen over the winter, where our bark splits from expansion inside.

But some of the things that we want to look for are damage to the roots.

So you kind of want to when you're out in your yard, take your mind off your focus off of your flower garden for a little while and turn around and look at the trees that are providing you shade.

You want to look up into the canopy and the stem.

Look for things like you know big dead branches, especially if they're hanging that can be really dangerous, you know, you want to look for any cracks or splits, you want to look down at the roots.

And as are the first picture I brought shows, this has got just the whole cornucopia of root issues going on.

We've gotten very shallow roots, it's a red maple.

So they're notorious for being shallow rooted.

We've got some exposed roots, you can see they've taken out some damage.

And then up around the trunk, you can see that stem girdling root and those can cause issues because they, they essentially strangle the vascular system of the tree.

And then to pan back out a little bit there to the previous picture, you can see that there's really limited root space, we've got a curb and a street on one side and a sidewalk on the other.

So when we think about how large the root system of a tree is, that tree doesn't have a lot of opportunity to to uptake moisture or nutrients.

So looking for things like this can really help you know kind of assess how your tree is doing overall.

So if we see something like this is there any way that that tree could be saved, or I keep wanting to say things like have a good quality you want to keep your trees vigorous and healthy.

Yeah, surprise surprise.

The first thing I'm going to say is keep your plants healthy, right.

So for that particular tree, I'm not trying to grow grass around there because our grass is going to compete with this the tree for the same moisture and nutrients that are in the soil.

So putting a mulching around it will not only prevent grass and other weeds from growing but also you know it's going to suppress any weeds it's going to add a help the soil retain moisture and and add organic matter back to the soil and keep the line trimmers and mowers away from the stem of the tree from the trunk of the tree.

So that's always helpful we see a lot of trees with mower disease to call it and you know we don't think about it we think trees are these big strong elements which they are but even damage you know again and again in the same place can can cause a big problem over time.

Okay, excellent.

Did you want to go into some more damage?

Do you want to come back?

Sure, hold the whole I'll keep talking about tree Isn't that's where you're going to go into the second picture that you sent in.

So another defect that you might want to look for are cracks or splits in your tree.

So this tree, this hackberry tree is already split apart.

But you can see there were two codominant stems growing together there.

And then it had some decay inside.

And whether it was high winds or a snow load, or just, you know, just what happened that day, that tree actually did split, and you can see a good amount of decay in there.

So codominant stems are something that we want to try and look for when trees are young.

Essentially, it's two stems that kind of grow together.

And as those those stems get larger in diameter, they grow into each other, and they get what's called included bark inside.

And that essentially serves as a wedge to kind of split those stems apart, as we can see what happened here.

So with this one, what would you do?

Would you go into the one on the left?

Or is there a way to separate them?

What would you do in this instance?

Well, considering the the heartwood is decayed?

So there's no you know, really wood inside.

And it's already split like that.

If this were in the back corner of the yard, or in a wooded area of your yard, it's not really a hazard because there's no target, there's no potential target.

But if it were close to your home or garage or children's play equipment, anything like that, then I would take immediate action call your arborist or tree removal service.

So you would take the whole thing out?

Yeah, you know, because those are the two main stems of the tree taken one off is not really going to make it any more healthy.

It's just going to continue to probably fail.

Gotcha.

Were you going to add something?

No, I was agreeing that yeah, the same similar thing happened at my parents house years ago, it wasn't decayed like that one.

But what it was, there were three trunks and one trunk came down in a storm.

And my dad was on the phone asking me what he should do.

And I was like, I'm two hours away.

But the arborist was advising with one removed, it's even less stable than it was to start.

Right?

Yeah, they can become think about what you know, one sided waited on one side, then you might, if there's anything going on down below, you might experience that lien, which can be indicative of failure to now is that started from, you know, tiny little saplings being too close?

And they just sort of, Yep, yeah.

And so, I mean, who's to say there could have been good structure and maybe a branch fell out early on.

So I don't know that I'm not intimate with that particular tree.

But I can say that younger tree starting them off, right to have a nice straight central leader and scaffold branching, you know, evenly spaced, no double branches coming out from the same area.

You just want one leader.

So probably that happened when it was younger.

And it just continued to grow.

That was actually in a park in Allerton Park.

So they're not maintaining every tree or horticulture really like we would in our yard.

Gotcha.

Okay.

All right, what's the next example?

So uh, you know, I talked about codominant stems.

Some tree species are more prone to this upright growth habit that really causes for those codominant stems.

As you can see, in this picture, this pear tree had three stems growing in the same place.

And just to reiterate, for lots of other reasons, calorie pear are not great choices, including that they're listed as an invasive species currently, not yet regulated by law.

But they have this tendency to form this upright growth and these codominant stems and they just absolutely peel apart in high winds.

I mean, they frequently fail.

Because of things like this.

There is also evidence on this tree of probably being planted too deeply.

You don't see much of a root flare on the tree.

In proper pruning practices, maybe you see a little stub with some epicormic sprouting, that's a you know, an indicator of stress.

But this was an align of calorie pair.

Four out of the 10 had split in that one weather related event.

Wow.

So yeah, not a great choice for landscape trees.

Now those if you're not the first person on the show that's mentioned those in kind of, you know, saying that they're not great.

When did they come into popularity?

Do we know how people just got crazy over them say like 80s 90s.

So they used to be like the tree because everyone likes the shape of them.

They have a really beautiful form and they and they flower?

Yes.

Aren't they pretty?

But then the aesthetics got us all 15 years old range is what I've seen.

They just like your picture, they fall over.

They fail.

Yes, absolutely.

Do and Fireblight Yes, yeah.

Fireblight is another big one, you know, with a lot of our trees that we find in nurseries that are available.

There's just a few species that are out there for sale unless you really go looking for it.

And so I don't know whether that's changed from the consumer side or from the nursery side, you know, growing different things.

But we lots of neighborhoods could really use some diversification in the tree species.

If I see another dead maple in my neighborhood, I'm gonna tell you, but but you'll see that in neighborhoods too, because they were developed at the same time.

And the trees were planted at the same Yes, yes.

I was going to ask is that is that pear tree, a fairly small tree that kind of fits neatly in the landscape?

And if so, what are some suggestions maybe of similar size maybe or similar shape that people you know, if they're going through this that they could pick up?

Yeah, you know, there's lots of native species that are available.

Again, you might have to go looking for some, but smaller size trees.

You know, I don't know our dog woods are still pretty popular.

I really like hop hornbeam or even American hornbeam.

Both of those tree species.

Now they do like a little bit of shade where the pair will be full sun.

What are some other ones Jen?

We have a paperbark maple in our front yard.

It's a slow growing maple.

It's a little different than what people are used to seeing because it's got exfoliating bark, and yes, a little different looking leaf.

Yeah.

Okay.

So there are replacements out there, there are suitable replacements.

And we've got lots of, you know, like native tree checklists for trees and shrubs, too.

Okay, we'll have to get the link for that.

Yeah, put it on our website for folks because it's about that time that people are going to be going which one you will use and the most important thing if you're thinking about planting a tree is the right tree for the right site.

So really take into consideration what those soil and sun conditions are not like that first one that's fighting the curb and the street just I have nowhere to go yeah, those and medians and parking lots, you might as well just call them tree coffins, because it's really true.

Truly, truly, okay, what genuine shopping so I am guilty.

Yes, I show the show, the show.

So I've been sort of gradually adding more plants that what I would say are more resilient or more resilient to neglect to lower maintenance would be the nicer way to put it.

So these are both philodendrons.

And I've had really good luck with philodendrons of I just don't have time for fussy plants at my house.

So this is these are both philodendrons that are going to be there's lots of different forms of philodendron.

Some of them are more viney.

This is one that would be more growing just from one central point it's gonna it's called Adam.

It's gorgeous.

It's I'm looking forward to seeing this reach its full potential, it's going to be about a foot tall and wide when it's fully grown.

And I bought things smaller, I could buy a great big one and it would be a lot more than what I paid for him.

I am more of a process gardener I like to watch the things grow and grow into their mature size.

itself.

It's less expensive, but I'm always about like tinkering with something, seeing how well I can grow it.

I'm that way with other things too.

So it's not just the product.

It's the process.

And then this one is Swiss cheese, it's going to have more of a vining nature to it.

I've seen this as really nice hanging baskets or maybe put up on a plant stand where it's kind of cascading down.

But it's got the nice the fenestrations in the leaves these holes.

These are thought have a lot of there's a lot of theories on why plants develop these some of it is about whether they can withstand wind, or whether they can access Sun appropriately if they're an understory plant, which philodendron probably is so it's going to allow these leaves down below to get some sun through the holes.

And then this little tiny one that I got is called its della sperma it's also known as ice plant but this one is called pickle plant because each little leaf looks like a tiny prickly pickle.

And you might recognize the genus or the common name ice plant has its there is a landscape version that's hard to hear.

And it can be kind of finicky.

It's it's a succulent, so it likes dry soil.

So if it gets wet over the winter and stays wet, it tends to rot away.

But these will all flower at some point in time different.

I've seen purple and yellow and white.

These are native to South Africa.

We forget we forget that all these groups somewhere in the world.

They don't just grow it you're going into exactly.

And some people regard certain things as weeds.

Yeah, we were in Puerto Rico and I was just like, I had my face glued to the car window and I'm looking at all these beautiful plants and people were just like, No, those are weeds here and I'm like, how it's just so lush and beautiful.

Oh God might say my students were growing, doing cuttings in the greenhouse and one that we did was trade Scandia in Plants are wandering Jews a common name.

And one of my students from Asia said, Oh, this is what we feed our goats.

She's from a tiny island off of China.

And she's like, Yeah, we feed our goats.

This is weed.

We don't care about that.

That first one.

I forgot what its name was Adam.

It's they're both philodendrons that the waxy it's kind of kind of a thicker leaf it reminds it's more of like the tree philodendron type if you've ever seen those i A friend of mine in grad school had one so big it took three of us to move it in and out of her house for the summer.

It just was enormous.

This is I didn't want anything that big guy wanted something with some size to it, but not like needing you know.

So I'm hoping that this will that this will still have this sort of you don't have to water that often over the winter.

In the summer.

All my stuff goes outside.

Yes, it goes in the sort of depth.

Everybody gets a summer vacation.

One out and don't bring any bugs in on when you come back in the fall.

Or oh my gosh, yes.

Okay, we've got some questions that you guys sent in.

So let's get to those.

Sarah, we'll start with you.

This person wants to know some good shady spot perennials.

So what do you have?

What?

What do you like for shady spots?

Well, I'm not a native purist.

So I like to use some non natives that don't present a problem.

So you know, we see Hostas used so commonly that I would say they're overused maybe sometimes, but if you don't have one, there are some great varieties.

Some of the tried and true a non natives are, you know a still be dicentra or bleeding heart.

We have Japanese painted Fern and Brunnera which is I cannot recall the common name for it long word.

No.

I do not remember I'm sorry.

Brunnera.

At any rate, it's a good one.

It's got really beautiful foliage and small purple flowers on it.

And then some of our natives can be really useful in the garden too.

If you are a purist.

That's okay.

Uh, probably better.

But we have things like you know, some of the spring ephemerals so, our blood route or yellow trout lily, Virginia bluebells which they have a sale you're gonna Allerton park of some of the bluebells there and then I don't know some of the other wildflowers golden Alexander is a pretty good one.

ligularia that's a good list.

That's a really good list.

Do you have any that you would add to that any the hellebores in my garden like really, really good this year?

So Lenten rose or something.

i There are some bluebells peeking up in the yard.

I did move some leaves to find them and my son Bless his heart.

He says, Mom, you told me we weren't supposed to.

And I was like, I know.

I just you know, I want to see if they were there.

But yeah, police are coming.

Man, I started him too young.

And now he knows all the rules.

So.

Okay, well, those are that's a great list for folks.

Jim, we're gonna go to you.

Would you suggest any miniature citrus trees, such as limes or anything like that?

And then you have citrus at your house?

Right?

Yeah.

How do you go from the two that I've had the best luck with our Meyer lemon and kumquat kumquat actually prefers a little cooler temperature and can handle the temperatures in our in a typical house a little easier than than other citrus and Meyer lemon.

Same way.

They both will tend to get scale insects, so you do need to keep an eye out for that.

But I've had the kumquats flower and fruit multiple years.

And that said that particular tree mysteriously up and died and I've no idea why.

So I mean, you can be prepared for disappointment with citrus at home too.

Good.

No.

Yeah.

So know that even the the so called experts kill stuff, too.

That always makes me feel better.

Yeah.

And when you were talking about fussy plants earlier, I can't remember the name of it, obviously, but the one that kind of wilts when you touch it Oh, you have a plant since a sensitive.

No doubt.

I just thought that I treated it like an annual outside.

Oh, god, that was a horrible weed in tropical areas.

The other one that people are like, Why are you growing that if they're from a warm part of the world?

Meanwhile, we're fascinated.

We're like, okay, it's too funny.

Too funny.

Okay.

Sarah, we're gonna get back to you.

Pruning rose bushes.

When do you recommend pruning?

I live in Illinois.

So, it's going to vary a little bit because Illinois is such a long state of course, whether you're in northern southern central, generally, roses or a woody plant.

So generally the timing is the same.

So you late winter, early spring, lots of people wait for the forsythia to bloom to go out prune the roses.

I personally go a little bit earlier because I have less to do in fact be weary then in March.

And then your method of pruning is going to depend on what kind it is whether a shrub rose or a hybrid tea or floribundas.

Got any of those?

So some folks might have already done that, or it and it's okay to do it now, if you haven't, yeah, you want to catch them before?

budbreak before budbreak.

Okay, I was gonna ask if there was any physical thing that you could look at and go, Oh, it's too late or oh, you know?

Yeah.

You're not going.

I mean, essentially, you you can, once they start leafing out, it's not the prime time, but you can still prune them, you're going to lose out on some of the flowers.

Yeah.

And that's a bummer.

Especially when you're growing roses.

That's what you're waiting for.

This one, I'll go and ask it.

It's kind of off season.

But Jen, this person wants to know, often the panel was talking about placing plants and garages or basements.

It will be helpful for me to know more about the spaces that are mentioned when we're talking about overwintering.

So in garages, is it okay, if it's cold in there, if you're doing basements, you know, they just want a little bit more information about the conditions of our overwinter.

If I'm overwintering something in my garage, I know it's gonna get cold, but it's not going to freeze, my garage is attached.

It might be different if you have a detached garage or shed.

So you have to figure that out.

You can you can figure it out with a maximun thermometer or just going, you know, going out there with any thermometer in the winter and seeing like you were talking about your greenhouse, even though it was in the 30s.

Outside, it was 60 in your greenhouse.

So things like that.

In terms of basements and stuff, you want it cool, but it's not going to freeze.

And whether it's by a window or not depends on what you're overwintering.

Usually you just want things to survive.

You're not looking for things to be necessarily thriving, and growing.

So is light important when you're overwintering.

I would say it depends on what your overwintering.

What do you think, sir?

Yeah, I think it depends.

I mean, there's some things that you don't want to get light you want them to dry out and like completely neglect them be dormant.

So then when you're ready, yeah, exactly when you're ready to force them out.

So yeah, it just, I think depends on what it like, I have a rosemary in my garage, and it was looking really fabulous.

And I thought finally i that is a plant that I've been trying to overwinter and it's like I've successfully done it like one time they are finicky levels here.

And I thought this mild winter, it's going to be fine.

It was looking so good until like two weeks ago.

And now it looks really sad.

And maybe if I print it back and set it outside at this point, it will there's some life in it.

But the mint in the pot next to it, it's going gangbusters just fine.

It's like throw another winter at me.

I'm fine.

I can handle Yes.

So just making sure that they don't get to a freezing temperatures were really a critical point.

It was things that we try to overwinter.

Okay, I hope that answers that question for them.

And let's see passionflower This one's kind of long.

I've had maypop Passion flowers growing in my yard for about 10 years, the area where they grow is on the northeast corner of the yard and there's morning and evening sun and dappled light during the day.

The problem is that over the years, there have only been about two actual passion fruits that have been produced each year.

There are many beautiful flowers, but then they fall off and there's no fruit.

So that's kind of where they their question lies.

Where is the fruit?

Well, and I was really intrigued by this question, because I've tried to grow passionflower and I had beautiful vines and no flowers.

So I guess we always want something more, don't we?

But so I started looking at what are her conditions, she's got kind of morning and afternoon and dabbled in the middle.

What I read is that you need really full sun to get good fruit production on passion flower.

And there's a lot of debate depending on those sorts of how self fertile they are.

Some of them absolutely need another type of passion flower to cross pollinate, kind of like when we talk about fruit trees.

But supposedly maypop is so fertile but what does that actually mean?

Some sources said oh, it's like 2% so fertile.

So 2% of pollinated flowers would actually make a fruit so I guess it depends on what you count as success.

Gotcha.

And I my my personal experience has been kind of poor flower but I'm not.

I'm not stopping I mean every time every once in a while I will find a learning experience.

Like I'll try again and see if I'll try I'll try planting it here or planting it there.

But people that have gotten fruits what I was reading is that they wait until the very as long as possible and it starts to look wrinkled, and kind of soft on the vine before they pick it and some sometimes it falls off on their own but you really need to let it fully ripen.

And I can't remember I think it may have been John, but someone said that they're always fighting the critters for the fruit.

Sure, they'll be there one day, and then they're gone the next day like no trace of it.

So no I'm not I wouldn't be surprised at all, but I would really like to get it.

I have the luxury of having it coming back in my yard.

That sounds really nice.

Alright, can't win them all.

You know, we're doing our best out here.

Okay, any other things you'd like to add?

We've got about a minute and a half left.

I can't any tips any?

Any anything.

Have you guys put in any cool season crops outside or any bought them?

Step one.

They are some four packs of broccoli and cabbage and Brussels sprouts waiting to be dealt with.

Yeah, all right.

Their purchase will take Brussels probably won't produce anything till the fall.

But I put them in the spring, have you?

I haven't grown them.

I've never gotten any.

They don't typically produce well in the spring, but I've planted them in the spring and they haven't done anything.

Well, you'll have to keep us posted on our break beyond brussel sprouts.

I'll bring one to show.

Yes.

Excellent.

Okay.

Well, ladies, thank you so much.

We're out of time.

It goes so fast.

Thank you so much for coming in and sharing your time and talents.

And thank you so much for watching.

And if you've got questions for our panelists, please send them in to us at your garden@gmail.com or you can find us on Facebook, just search for Mid American gardener and we'll see you next time.

Good night.