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 to talk about all things flowers and insects are two of our panelists that you will surely recognize.

I will have them introduce themselves and then we'll jump in and take off.

So Phil, we'll start with you.

I'm Phil Nixon, I'm an entomologist, retired with the University of Illinois Extension.

So if it crawls, or creeps, I'm a creep dad answer is right up your alley.

And welcome back.

Thank you very much.

Hi, my name is Kelly Allsup.

And I'm a horticulturist.

And I also have like, things that are creepy and crawly.

I'm so fascinated with insects.

But who doesn't love flowers, too?

So I just love it all flowers adjustables.

You brought some of your creepy crawly insects to the show before?

Good Times fruits.

Yeah, let's grow it.

Yeah.

grow some plants.

Okay, cool.

So we've got you guys brought a bunch of stuff.

And we've got lots of questions to get into.

So Phil, we will start with you.

You've got some some breaking news.

Yes, breaking news.

New Field Guide published in 2023.

So pretty recent.

It's insects of North America by Princeton press.

And it's, it's an excellent, excellent book.

It's it is it is not your beginner book.

It's, it's one that if you really want to get into what you see in in, in the yard, or whatever the case may be insect wise, this is something that will really give you answer that sort of thing.

There are various field guides, beginning field guides, things of this nature, that I like to think of kind of identifies insects that are particularly ones that are over an inch long.

But I've just I've described my my career and my life before, as working with everything under a quarter of an inch.

This gets into everything under a quarter of an inch as well as the big ones.

And the interesting thing is, is that essentially, if you have, there are keys associated with pictorial keys to help you identify insects more scientifically than picture booking.

You know, there are various things that you can get on your phone, that if you've got a good photograph of it, they will identify it for you, if it's a common thing, if it's not a common thing, they are very, very wrong a lot of the time, simply because not everything shows that a photograph that you can use and, and it's hard to pick out what part or bug parts versus the other parts.

But this one does get into very nice illustrations that that are actually photographic.

Not a lot of information about the insects, it's more about once you got to identify it, but once you've identified it, then you can go to go to the internet or wherever and learn more about its biology and what it does.

But you know, for years and years and years, the if you were really interested in insects, and really wanted to identify insects.

The one that was the top was the Peterson Field Guide which essentially covered the bulk of the families of insects there are and essentially every 20s All the 27 orders at this time.

Now there are 30 orders.

Many of the others have been changed the new names are in this book.

The other field guides were were very good but the Peterson one stood above the rest as being more academically based and more and very complete concise.

This one's is kind of taking its place and assess to it and one of the things that you can identify in there as we're moving into spring are some of our new spring insects that are coming up.

One that I noticed in my yard in central Illinois, just this last weekend was this insect.

This is the red Admiral butterfly.

It's one of the first butterflies to show up in the spring.

It over winters as a pupil stage, but also will migrate into the area.

It emerges very early in the spring.

So there are new emergence ones.

If you see one that's kind of a light orange color of the over the reddish orange part of on the red part of the Admiral is is kind of lighter orange looking and the wings are tattered.

It's probably one that flew in from the southern state Ah, and but if it's real bright and it's even redder than the Elian I orange, then you're probably looking at one that just emerged from from a pupa chrysalis and these butterflies have about a three inch wingspan, I saw pears duels of I shouldn't say pairs flying around and and either I don't know if they were males sparring with each other over mating territories or if they were males and females sparring over what we do know males Vinos far over.

But at any rate, one or the other was was was happening on and you'll see these are warm afternoons, they kind of look dark from a distance she gets close up, you'll see him but if you see butterflies flying around, I saw two yellow ones yellow ones are going to be offers of probably so little already for this for the for the swallowtails there'll be a five to six inch wide insect, okay, five inches, four to five inches, the most of the solvers are going to be somewhere around about a little bit smaller than these about three inches, two and a half about two and a half inches.

And they're going to they're going to show up pretty early in the spring.

Because the clover they feed on clovers shatter pillars do the clovers are already coming up.

Spring has sprung up spring and spring sprung.

Yes.

Awesome.

Okay, and butterflies are one of my favorite like soon as you see them.

It's like the robins and then the butterflies and then everything is sort of in its place.

So are you happy about spring?

Excellent.

Thank you.

So, all right, Kelly, would you bring us I brought begonias.

I'm constantly trying to predict horticulture trends and I'll though this is the year of the begonia, nobody will think about begonias but hey, maybe I actually do think that begonias are gaining in popularity and it's hard not to love the beautiful flowers.

But there are many different kinds of begonias Here are just three types of begonias in front of you.

The really bright yellow ones that really are screaming Easter, right, these are your tuberous begonias, and these are some of the ones that gardeners will overwinter the way that they do dahlias, they'll dig them up, because these begonias really do not like cold, even though I have them.

I'm not going to put them out until May because April is too cold for begonias.

So I do have this tuberous begonia so maybe some gardeners are pulling them out now and starting them to put them outside.

For this one, you I would not put this up, I would not touch the roots.

When I buy it in a store like this.

It responds, it does not respond well to over watering or under watering.

Oh, so you have to be the perfect middle water.

If you underwater it it doesn't it does it won't flower.

And if you overwater it then you're gonna have like root issues like butteriness Yes.

So this one I would keep in partial shade, I would just check the watering.

I wouldn't try to plant it in the ground or planted it.

Absolutely not.

It's not going to work.

This other one is is called a wax begonia.

Now it has a fibrous fruit.

Now this is what you do plant in the ground, but they remain short.

Now they don't spread out too much.

So you you'll find them in these like flats and multiple plants.

So but you can also use them in containers and they'll do amazing.

And then we have a begonia Bolivian CES.

I used to call them bonefire.

That was just a kind of a, this one's called Nova yellow.

That was just the kind these, I think big became popular for their trailing habit.

And hummingbirds love them.

So I would definitely put this in a container with maybe another flower or two or I might have a hate make it into a hanging basket.

So and then the other big part, right, the other big part why you want flowers all the time, right?

Yeah.

Do you know what you have to do to get flowers all the time, right?

No, no.

Okay.

I thought I had to fertilize, fertilize.

Okay, so a lot of people really make mistakes when it comes to annuals and they think, oh, it's drought tolerant.

Well, they'll let it go through drought.

Yeah, that's drought tolerant, but then it's going to compromise the flowers.

So you need to like be On top of, you know, giving annuals like these, where you want them lots full of color or flowers all the time, you need to give them like consistent liquid feed, oh my gosh, that's a big word.

Or, you know, every one or two months, one or two weeks, you give them a nice fertilizer treatment, you definitely want to look at the fertilizer for the recommendations.

So, yeah, just uh, what would you put on there?

Like a 1010 10?

Or is there a specific?

I'm not, I would look at the fertilizer label and see what it said for how I would for this one, I would, you know, treat it more like bedding plants.

I mean, even though it technically you could call this kind of a house plant.

You want it to be floriferous.

So you want lots of floriferous?

I'd like that.

Right?

Because you're not gonna always fertilize houseplants because are they flowering?

No, no, no.

And then you're not going to fertilize houseplants until they actively start growing.

When are they actively growing?

Now ish.

hot and sunny.

I've seen a lot of growth actually on my house plants now.

Okay, well, if they're start Yeah, that's good.

It could be the heat.

It could be the sun.

Yeah, I'm ready to kick all the plants out of the house.

As soon as they get kicked out of the house, then you're going to they're going to start to really start actively growing and then you start fertilizing your house plants.

But I wanted to ask the light needs for these two here.

Did you mention those?

They're all supposed to be part shade.

I would say wax and Bolivia answers could go in a little bit more sun.

Okay.

If you did not let them completely dry out.

Gotcha.

Okay, wonderful.

Well, you've got your marching orders for your bonus, and I love this color.

But it's pretty.

It's really pretty.

I like how it hangs.

They're all like really vivid color they always have even though this is why it has that bronze foliage and I never would have thought of a begonia as a trailing Oh, this one does.

Yeah.

Great trailing begonia.

So yeah, you can't just go in there and buy a begonia you have to be oh, what kind of book on Yeah, you must learn the begonias.

Okay, so before we go back to you, I wanted to ask, because I'm chomping at the bit with this leaf litter in my yard, right, it's still short.

I misspoke when I said hot and sunny for houseplants that's not a good thing.

Not a good thing.

They first need warmth, and they do need more light.

But your house plants that have been inside are used to very low light.

And the last thing you want to do is move mountains to sunshine and let them fry out in the shade to where they get more light than they've been getting inside your house.

But not anywhere close to full sun crack.

Because that will tend to blast your plants.

Right you know the but the botany behind that is that the cue cuticle on the leaves hasn't built up enough to handle full sun, right?

And so you're just gonna like, you know, burn those leaves instantly.

It's like you know, when you start seeds and door and you gradually harsh.

It's called hardening them off.

It's that cute and it's that cuticle that it's so yes, I do want to I agree.

So some house plants can take full sun but yes, not immediately have to work up to it.

And then you have to work them back down so they can handle the darker light.

Yeah, even though in the sunny window inside your house.

So fraction of what you're getting out, even under a shade tree.

Or you can be like me and bring the whole chef Alera player inside and have all 90% of the lower fall off onto the floor.

If that happens.

Yes.

Leave whatever is asking.

Yeah, so I've got you know, like my little Hostas are peeking above the leaves and I want to move the leaf litter but I'm also trying to be a good steward of our pollinators.

So early April, yes or no?

Kelly Shea saying no.

Why?

I'm just ready to get outside and play.

I'm ready.

I want to divide these hosta they're ready to be split.

There.

You're not ready now.

Okay.

All right.

What does leaf litter do?

It also protects your plants from cold.

Yeah, man.

We are.

We still live we although we have gone through one of the warmest winters we've ever had.

Right.

We still live in Illinois.

Yes.

I needed this.

I needed that.

We smacked my hand in Illinois, and it's going to get cold again.

Maybe okay.

I'm still overwintering in there.

Do we have a list of our absolute insect celebrities who are there insects flying all over the place right now when you go out on a warm day?

Lots of them still are hanging?

Yeah, some of your ones that can handle the colder weather, such as flies, which I hope to talk about a little bit later in the show.

And the bees are out.

Yes.

But a lot of the other things even the lady beetles you're Probably not seeing many of they're still hanging down in the vote litter.

And And certainly, you're not seeing a lot of mobs around the lights at night.

Yeah, they're still hanging out in the litter of the and many of those mobs are good pollinators and things of this nature, you don't have to be pretty to be good, okay.

And so and so all of this sort of thing is, is still there and it's still still in the winter stage.

And really, when it's when it's the time when you when you can really start to start, when you really shouldn't be putting out your tomatoes, which is probably mid May or early May even at the at the earliest.

Then you can start moving back mulch and so on.

I've gotta leave it.

I would say leave it for another month.

And if you have things such as hosta coming up, and or dividing, you want to divide that you can certainly move around the mall, you can divide things, you can still put the mulch back.

But of course particularly of hostas, mulch is is what a number one slug food.

So you do need to get that mulch away from those Hostas before the slugs start really counting down on your on your hostas, which they will do it fairly early.

You might I'm not sure what Kelly's opinion is on.

I'm not sure about how the hostas need to have have the right conditions and need that much.

But certainly the slugs will start feeding when the air temperature is probably in the evening in the night is still probably in the still in the 40s they get out and they're active pretty quick.

They're they're out with the worms have bed pretty early in the spring.

That's why I do think is fun for you to divide them hostage, right?

Horses are expensive.

They're beautiful.

They're gorgeous.

They make this amazing ground cover.

But yeah, I'm not a big fan.

I mean, everybody wants to chomp at the bit right now they want to plant those tomato plants.

They want to plant those annuals.

And yeah, it might make it through a cold temperature.

But it's going to just stunt it for almost the rest of its life.

So I don't want to plan I just want to tidy up but I'll wait halfway I'll wait.

They got me I mean what can she do?

What can can you start I can take in about some other detail garden.

Yeah, you can plant early garden and this is not too late to be planting.

Lettuce, potatoes and and your and your and your greens and things such as cabbages and things of this nature can all go in fairly early.

They can handle temperatures down to 20 degrees.

But what's sitting underneath that mulch can't so well.

Like why can't you grow some parsley?

I can.

I just wanted to tidy up you know, like when you see those little shoots coming up, like grow some monies go time and so but I will I will be Have you ever heard of wabi sabi?

Yes.

I have wabi sabi at Japan house.

And I have heard of wabi sabi.

I think one of the things that I know this is often one of the things I love is I love about hydrangeas I love brown hydrate.

Yeah, I think they're just like, stunningly beautiful.

And it's the time of the year.

And when I talk to other people about it, they're like, Oh, they're just ugly.

But you liked them.

I think they're beautiful texture they do.

I and I just like can you think that the hostile leaves poking up through the the not so pretty leaf litter like the dichotomy, the irony, the erosion of the beauty of nature, and no leaves are nourishing, yes.

All right.

life from the dead, whatever you want to say either way, leave it alone.

Sabe back to you.

This is a time of year being spring and things are starting to come out.

And if you have fruit trees, particularly apple trees have to realize that the apple fruit is made by the plant to be eaten.

The only reason it produces nice fruit like that is they want it to be eaten.

And it wasn't made to be necessarily created beaten by people eaten by other critters that would move its seeds around.

And insects take advantage of that good food that's there too.

And so we have insects and diseases that attack tech, our fruit trees quite a bit.

And an apples we tend to many of the many of the things such as, such as prunes, plums and cherries, peaches, apricots.

These sorts of things don't have near as many paths as apples do.

And so apples are actually times in which you would Apply sprays, and you can respray a few to have a very good crop, you can apply a lot of sprays, and you can do what commercial people do to where they have essentially all harvestable, sellable crop, or you do essentially nothing and have a couple of apples that you eat parts of that are still good.

So it all depends.

But, but if you're going to do some treatment, one of the first things you look at is, is what they call green tip stage.

And you can see that the green leaves are just starting to come out on the tip and down here on the underside.

Okay.

And so that's that's the stage in which many times mighty sides are applied.

If you have mites, most home gardeners are not going to have my problems under trees.

But that's a possibility.

The next stage is what's called the tight cluster stage.

And this is when the flower buds, which are still green at this time, are very tightly clustered together here in the center.

See the leaves are coming out already, but the leaves are out on Apples before the flowers occur.

And so this is going to be a stage in which you have what's called Green cluster or tight cluster stage.

And there are some various herbicides that are not herbicides, fungicides are sometimes used at this stage.

The next stage that we normally look at is is pink tip, or pink bud.

And this is where the flower buds are showing pink on the end, particularly those down towards Kelly's fingers right there are showing a lot of nice pink.

And this is another stage at which there's particularly some fungicides that are applied, it's really early before insecticides, and then you get to full flower.

And this is early flowering.

We've switched in these last two to crab apples from apples in my yard.

But you can see that the blossoms are out, starting to come out.

And this is a time in which you really don't do any spraying at all because pollination is occurring during this time.

And you wait until typically, you would not do any spraying at all until you get to three quarter petal fall, which doesn't mean three quarters of the petals on each flower has fallen it means three quarters of the flowers on a tree have dropped their petals.

And so most of the of the tree is bare when you really get into insect treatments.

And that is it is another fungicide treatment at that point.

But when you get an insect treatments, it's normally when you're getting little fruit.

And they normally look at fruit that are that are 10 to 11 millimeters across the 1210 to 12 millimeters across.

There's 2.5 centimeters or 25 millimeters in an inch.

So a 12 millimeter fruit is just under one half of an inch in diameter, which is typically and in in in central Mid America, Central Illinois and across is typically going to be somewhere around Memorial Day, okay, is typically when you're going to be doing and you're going to be trading not only you're not only going to be spraying apples, but also features and other crop fruit at that same stage because we have an overwintering pest called a plum curculio that likes to lay eggs and have larvae eating the inside of peaches and nectarines.

And they don't the larvae don't survive an apples but you get these little eighth inch to three sixteenths inch wide halfmoon brown shapes on the outside of your apples where they laid eggs in the pressure in the Apple developing smashed a larva and the egg that was trying to hatch and it never developed but that cut created a Bill Maher that will still be there when you hatch Oh pick your hat.

You're You're right.

You can still eat some distasteful appearing that's not real.

And so certainly that and then once you get a net that's once you start getting some app some very small fruit farming maybe even before your half inch stage, your half inch stages really when you start with calling off which is a worm in the apple.

Okay, so yeah, he just he just totally told you why it is difficult to grow apples in Illinois and difficult to grow apples anywhere.

Okay, and which is why when you buy apples in a store, it has been they have been sprayed and they have been sprayed and they have been sprayed and they have been sprayed.

Okay, well now you've got your marching orders for your apples.

Real quick before we end the show.

We had a lady right in her name's bet she wanted to know about the suitability of no mow lawns in central Illinois.

So is this something that you can do here and is it hard to establish?

Yeah, there's this huge trend of using clover and other fescues as your lawn cover I'm, I'm, I don't know a ton about it.

But one of the things that I love is ground covers.

Let me just really quick I love ground covers underneath trees.

One minute.

One I love ground covers underneath trees.

This is called Soft Landings.

Because he she's talking about the overwintering of insects.

What we want these caterpillars to eat the leaves on these trees, and then when they pupate, they fall to the ground and what's underneath that tree lawn.

And we just mow right over them.

So I love the idea of having these extensive ground covers underneath trees.

So I feel like that might be easier but because when you do a no mow lawn, you're you're gonna have to really combat weeds and think about the cover crop and integrate more seeds into it every year.

And it might be a bit difficult compared to ground cover.

That is the show thank you to my two scientists who showed up today and educated us on all the things.

Thank you so much for watching.

If you've got questions for experts, bring them into yourgarden@gmail.com