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

I'm your host Tinisha Spain and we are back in the studio today.

With the familiar face I'm sure you will recognize Kelly also joins us today.

It's been a while since we've seen you so welcome back.

Yes, these times.

It's been a while since we've seen almost anyone I know.

So glad to have you back.

If you could, since it's been a while introduce yourselves and tell the folks a little bit about you.

I am Kelly Allsup.

I am a horticulturist I went to the University of Illinois and got both of my degrees and then I am really passionate about insects and pollinators and beneficial insects.

But you know being a horticulture so I'm passionate about a lot like it's so hard for me to just name it my horticulture knowledge.

But further like the fruit wind when die and no one was here.

I answered a lot of questions about my greenhouse background.

And so, you know, you are kind of a generalist in that sense.

I think we all are we like we love trees.

We love vegetables.

We love beneficial insects and pollinators.

And we love house plants.

We want plants everywhere, right?

Yes, yes, we do.

Well, I'm not a horticulturalist.

But I want plants.

I mean, I think you're a horticulturist.

You know a horticulturist is somebody who grows plants.

Do you grow plants?

Lots of then I think you're a horticulture.

Did you just night me?

I've I feel knighted right now, I think we all should be horticulturist in a way, you know, this whole concept of I'm not good at growing plants.

And I have a I don't have a green thumb I think you know is needs to go needs to go away.

I agree.

Because it's you know, plants can be challenging.

I always say it's like cooking.

Like, if you cook lasagna the first time and you mess it up?

Are you going to stop cooking lasagna?

No, because lasagna is delicious.

Because eventually you're gonna get a good, right.

So if I kill a plant, which we've all killed plants, right Tanisha Have you killed plant lots of them, then you know, it's part of the part of the cycle of learning how to nurture plants and grow them.

And I always think about you around the holidays because everyone wants to hold on to their poinsettia.

And every time I think of Kelly, I'm like, I know I should pitch this.

But I just can't so anywho I'm not I'm not I'm not that I will pitch the poinsettia in a minute.

The day after Christmas the day after?

Yes, it well.

Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah.

So you've been growing some?

Well, you've been growing lots of things.

But this year, you've been focusing on lots of flowers.

And some of them you can eat.

Yes, I've been dabbling with growing edible flowers and you know, how they can be used and what they taste like.

And so we're going to have a tasting test here.

What we're going to start with is these are gladiolas these are, you know, I started them in a raised bed as bulbs in May.

And they're blooming profusely right now.

Well look at how beautiful of that flower is well you can eat this flower and I would think like jellies and desserts, this flower would be perfect, but we're just going to eat a little part because yes, flowers do have a little bit of a consistency thing.

And they really need to be like mixed with other stuff.

It's not like you're gonna just go just bite writing you know kind of like herbs like they're a little bit potent just eating them on their own you kind of mix them so this one has a little bit of a sweet taste.

So I'm just going to pull off a pedal which I think you could use the pedals to and you can go ahead and pull off a pedal of this.

And you're just going to take a little tiny pinch a little tiny pinch not too much.

And just go for it.

Just go for it always have me you know oh my gosh.

I actually think it has a sweet does kind of run outside and taste your Glads garden any taste.

It has like a vegetables sweet vegetable taste to me.

I do taste the sweet I was I was rather surprised with how awesome go glad to our how sweet they were Wow.

So when you eat these are cooked with these what how do you do it?

You put them in something or do you just mix them into a stir fry?

I think they're really for dessert people like cake, cupcakes and cookies.

And then sometimes you can add them into, like, you know, salads like you know if you like for instance we're going to eat this next one This one is called borage, another herb which I actually it's kind of an old fashioned herbs.

And let me tell you the bees love this flower.

And it's supposed to taste like cucumber and I agree.

Okay, we'll go ahead and like we the pedal or the leaf, the pedal the pedal.

And this is borage Blue Orange.

And it has this really like intense blue flower.

Imagine how that would don't really taste anything.

I get the effervescence of the number.

There it is.

It does taste like cucumber.

Wow.

You know, I've seen people freeze these into ice cubes for like summer parties.

Oh, yeah.

To you know, add a little garnish to the drinks.

My friend who I've been working on this project with.

She's been doing freezing with the flowers too.

And I thought that was a really cool idea.

It took a second for this one, but it does taste like cucumber.

And then we have a calendula called pot Marigold, another old flower and maybe all the older type, you know heirloom type of flowers are really and it could be considered an herb too.

And I think this one has a little bit of a sweet taste to calendula calendula, okay, it tastes this one might have to clean your palate.

I'm tasting it, but I'm tasting a little bit of the taste borage.

Now, did you grow these individually?

Or is this like a mix Do you have like I'm picturing like a beautiful like English garden where everything is just wild and I have a friend that is just growing them wild and they're just going crazy.

And the more she harvests them the more produce.

I'm not that way.

I'm a greenhouse girl.

So I started them all by seeds and spaced them out brilliantly.

And I harvest my flowers.

Often, what I've noticed is with the calendula it doesn't stay a long time because what I do is I go out in the morning I pop the flowers off, I put them in water and let them soak and then I put them in the refrigerator.

And that's what keeps them going.

Now how long can you keep them in the fridge?

Well, what I've just I've only been experimenting this summer.

And what I've found is that the calendula is the only one that I can't get to keep like I can keep it like a couple of days but the rest I can keep it for a week.

Okay, okay, let's try our next one cut.

This is Johnny jump ups, Viola's you've grown these before there are cool season annual yes I started these from seeds to I don't taste sweet.

I just tasted this one kind of green.

This one's more of an earthy sort of something's there but but which is a shame because it's the prettiest ones pretty but yes, but it could go on a cookie.

Yes.

And then we have a little bit more potent of flowers so you save the potent guys for blacked out this is called its anus but it's not the Anise Hyssop native plant that many gardeners grow in their Illinois gardens.

It is pimpinella is the genus and it's an annus herb and it has these beautiful white flowers and if you pinch off the flowers and is the one that tastes like licorice, okay, okay, so we're going for the flowers on this one little dainty guys too.

It's a really pretty little flower.

Okay, here we go.

Hmm, I would put that in a salad.

Oh yeah hosta salad.

I would put that on cookies too.

I think it would just go Delicious.

It tastes like fennel to me.

That's really good.

You know when you add fennel to them, and it's a beautiful little dainty.

The only reason I don't like it is because it's little tiny flower.

Yes.

But it is rather tasty.

Then you know, sometimes we you know how as gardeners we always tell you pinch your basil don't let it flower.

You can eat the flowers and they're dainty but really quite beautiful.

And so of course they are going to taste like basil is going to ask if basil flower ours tastes like basil.

And I love basil.

Can't go wrong with a good pesto.

So when you're out there pinching all your flowers off, you could, you know, use it as a additional harvest.

Yeah.

So very cool.

And then the last one you get to do on your own.

Okay?

I am not really a spicy person.

Oh boy.

And in fact, it hurts my stomach sometimes.

But this one is called Mr. shum.

Stir Girl by seed.

Another great herb to grow easy.

Come on.

These are easy to grow.

And it is really spicy.

Is it gonna melt my face off because I'm not a spicy girl either.

It's not going to melt your space out your face.

I'll do it.

I'll do it just to show you.

But let's just get a small pick.

Am I going to start sweating?

Like this is the one I think would be awesome in a salad.

Okay.

What's the name of this one again?

Mr. Shum, Mr. Chu?

I'm gonna start nostalgia.

Are you tasting it?

No, that spicy at the end?

take a bigger bite.

Because I feel like this is a setup.

Whoa, feel spicy to me.

I'm getting nothing.

What are you tasting?

All right.

You're not tasting spicy?

I'm not tasting spicy.

And I'm very sensitive to spice.

Like hot salsa, not for me.

Oh, well.

But you know a Okay, so first one we agree on didn't first one we disagree on you know, sometimes people taste differently.

But I think that one would go the little spicy.

On the salad, beautiful home.

I'm so glad we did this.

Yes, I am too.

Got any of these at home, head outside and get to harvest in some of these and make dainty little cookies or freeze them and ice cubes for gas.

And of course, I've not used pesticides, because I'm eating all of this.

And, you know, soaking them in the water washes it, you could go a step further and add a little touch of bleach just to get rid of, you know, any other types of things, but very cool.

Very cool.

Now, while we're talking about pollinators and flower markets and things, we had a question come in folks asking about red bugs that are about the size of a lightning bug on their milkweed.

What do you think that is?

And can you control it?

Well, there's two red bugs that were there's many bugs that feed on milkweed.

Because of that milky sap, it makes them unpalatable to other two birds.

Right?

Their nemesis, right?

What's going to try to eat them.

But these are milkweed bugs.

And then milkweed beetles, gotcha.

milkweed bugs are flat.

They're, they're in the Hemiptera family.

I'm sorry, I just all stop.

And that means called they're halfway and that means half of their wing is hard.

And the other half is soft.

Then there's beetles, milkweed beetles, they're red with black these same color.

And they're called Hard wing.

Their entire wing is hard.

And they're hard to you know if you stepped on him it go Correct.

Yeah, crunch.

But so they they feed in these massive drones of them.

And then they all like meet up together.

And they're all in the same spot.

But what is the problem is you don't want to spray or kill these, because you may have monarchs on that plant.

And a lot of people who grow milkweed complain about the yellow bucks, the yellow Oleander aphids that get on milkweed in the summer.

And it's just something we just have to take.

Right?

Because we're not going to go over there and spray chemicals and potentially kill our good bugs.

We're just going to have to handle a little bit.

One of the things that I do is it's really really really bad.

Cut the plant back and let the growth come new growth come up.

And you know, there's still a little bit of there's still pollinators right now and allow the the Monarch caterpillars to feed on that new growth which the like they will they will we've got monarchs as you guys know we we raised them at our house and the aphids.

I just rinse them off the leaves.

I mean, they are annoying.

But yeah, when we take a little leaf in for feeding, just rinse them off and some of the other bugs are in insects that I see out there.

They don't seem to be doing any damage to the plant.

Are they?

Do they?

Do they feed on the plants?

Do they chew on the leaves?

The red bugs?

Yeah.

So yeah, they're, they're putting their stylet into the plant.

And they're, they're eating the plant really, I've noticed a little bit of leaf curl on some of them, I wonder if that's a byproduct of the insects feeding on the leaves.

Because sometimes they, they, when they, the reason they all like to be in the same spot is because they've released an enzyme from their mouth, that breaks down the milkweed.

And so why would you go somewhere where it's hard, or somewhere where it's already been broken down?

And so they all slurp from the same area?

Slurp from the same area?

So they're weakening the plant?

Definitely.

But nope, weed is pretty tough.

Yeah.

And everybody's got to survive out there.

Right.

And that's kind of what, you know, integrated pest management and, you know, in, you know, worrying about wildlife and pollinators, that's kind of what you have to do is sometimes you just have to take it, you just have to take it, you just have to take a little bit of damage.

For instance, you know, I have these four raised beds that I've been growing in and I will who was my nemesis?

The rabbits, yes, the rabbits like my seeds, my new germinating seedlings, I like to get in there.

And but as far as I'm concerned, if the seedlings can't take the rabbits, then fine.

I'm just going to keep going survival.

I'm not going to do anything about the rabbit because that's part of my gardening.

And we've also had folks write in about squash bugs and blister beetles in the garden.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, the squash bugs, they really attack everything in the that family that could Courbet family, your cucumbers, your squash, your pumpkins, usually, you really have to get that population early, meaning you're turning over those leaves and you're looking for those cluster of yellow eggs.

And then you take that leaf off and you throw it away and get it out of the garden.

So that's the really organic way to control squash bugs.

Otherwise you do have to get chemicals, and at this part are think it's difficult to control them when they get to the adult phase, they're just harder to kill.

I know I say this all the time is sometimes rotating off crops is a great way to prevent insects that you know you've had in the past.

For instance, you've had squash bugs in your garden this year, next year, you're going to take a break and you're going to grow something different.

A tomato a radish something that's not going to be attacked by squash bugs, and that can you know, prevent future outbreaks.

But there are lots of products out there for squash bugs people hate them the bane of the gardening existence, but checking the undersides of those leaves in like May June even now, you know, I mean, it's usually you know, you know, you know, right when you start seeing the leaves, you know a lot of people start them by seeds.

You start seeing those leads come out, you start checking underneath the leaves.

And if you see any clusters of yellow eggs, just get rid of that leaf because squash has a lot of leaves, they don't need all of them.

And that's the real organic way because I it's hard to use an organic type of chemical to kill those adult ones.

But when they're nymphs, they're a little bit easier.

And then when they're eggs, they're easy to spot and easier.

Okay, noted.

Alright, so you brought some succulents?

I did.

Let's talk about those people very busy.

I know I've been growing a lot of succulents lately.

It's been fun.

I've been growing some of them from small plants, little transplants mix putting me in these mixed bowls.

And then some of them I've actually done cuttings of and so right here are two of them.

I love succulents.

I read an article that said that succulents are out.

And I'm sure you were offended.

I was I was work I put into this.

This is so easy to grow you guys.

It's amazingly easy to grow.

Now, how long have those two arrangements been put together?

are in the pot, I should say?

Eight weeks really?

They look really cozy and moved in.

Right?

And I started with little plants like this.

Oh wow.

And I just I'm really good with my watering.

I let them dry down.

But you know I'm growing.

I'm outside so I can't always control the watering because it's been the rain, we've had lots of rain here in central Illinois at different times, right?

Yes.

And these guys were just like, yeah, we'll take it.

Wow.

Okay, so spin that around.

Tell us some of the, okay.

So this is, this is a little.

This, these are called portulaca carea.

called Elephant food is one of the things.

This is a little Senesi.

Yo, this is a crash Allah.

Again, I'm sorry, I'm a horticulturist.

I'm using scientific names because that's what we do.

And you guys would find it too.

This is another Senesi Oh, that's kind of related to this plant.

Here we have a jade another Crassula.

Here's another Crassula right here.

Here's an edge avaria.

And we actually have plant plants for you.

Here's a little tiny edge of area for her.

Now this is all I did was I took a piece.

Let's say I wanted to take a succulent cutting here.

And I wanted to make a nice little thing for my friend, what I did is I just put a hole in the bottom of these cups because I'm cheap, practical, practical, practical guy.

Because I couldn't buy cute little I wanted to make I wanted to make cuttings, but I couldn't buy all these cute little stuff.

And so what I do is I just pinch it off right here.

Brought a pair of scissors.

And then I just take the bottom couple of leaves off, I want at least a node below.

So I have to have at least one node, that's where the roots are going to come from.

And I do like this, let it dry and I let it dry out for like two or three days.

And then I go and stick it.

Now before when you go and stick it, it hasn't grown roots yet, right.

So you need to give it a little bit more water.

But once it has roots, you can back off of the water on it.

But until it has roots, it's a little susceptible, okay to drying out too much.

That's why I like taking off a lot of pedals, I did not know that they need a little bit more water to get started.

Just a tiny bit more.

I mean, you don't want him to write, but you don't want it to dry out completely.

Gotcha.

Now these just got rain, otherwise, I would have dried a mountain.

But you know, see Tanisha could be like, Okay, I want all that to Cali you know, I mean, she could just like, you know, I could do so she could get her little cups and she could start this but this one's a little crush Allah.

I love the green, the white and the pink.

This is a avaria what No, it's a system.

And it's that orangey fire color.

And this is an edge of area.

And those are going to get huge.

Those two, this one's not going to get quite as huge because this one is kind of like Gotcha.

Okay.

So if I were to do an arrangement, I will put that guy in the front, you're gonna get tall.

But I've just been going crazy.

I love that with the with them.

Like, I'll put this one in the metal and I wouldn't have thought to put it in the metal, you know, tactically and it'll look really good in the metal.

This one's called Camp side, crush Allah and it actually gets a little bit darker in the shade.

I've been growing these in full sun, I was just going to ask if they were outside in full size, full sun.

So these have been outside in full sun as well.

So they're prepared for full sun, okay, and you can put them directly in full sun or you could put them up a little bit.

Personally don't put them up too much.

If you want to do something like this, then maybe, you know, add in a couple of your other succulents.

Gotcha.

Okay, and then make your little garden but otherwise I might keep them in those all winter long.

Okay, no, I'm fine with me autumn up next year.

When you take a mountain they have this big.

Yeah.

Wonderful summer to go.

So they can they can stay in this until next year.

Yes, they can.

Okay, then I'm gonna do that.

I've had really good success with just leaving things alone.

Because you know, we get home and you want to put it in a pretty pot and you want to incorporate it into the home.

That is the worst thing they can do.

But I've got as a greenhouse grower, as a greenhouse here, as a greenhouse grower.

I just spent 12 weeks getting those roots to perfection for you.

And the first thing you do is yank it out.

And I wish people would just accept the pot if you want it, put it in a pretty pot.

Just let it pop it into the pot.

Take it to your sink and water it but if you want to put it in a pretty pot just I've learned that it's strap pearls.

Yeah, that was cool.

For me because the first time I bought one I immediately repotted it, it died.

The one that I have now it's been in the nursery pot for a year and it is thriving.

I just took it and popped it right into another pot.

And now it it would be okay.

But it doesn't need to go into what size pot is it that you know mol?

Oh gosh, I'm so like a four or a six?

Yes, yeah.

So we're actually you're gonna go to a six or an eight, you're not going to put it in a 14 inch pot, you're going to gradually go up?

Yes.

Otherwise, if she put these in one of these right now, she'd have to be perfection on the water.

Because otherwise she's gonna drown them out.

Yes.

And then we've got root rot, right, and then your roots are gone.

It's all about root growth.

So people are like when I'm working at greenhouses and people are like, oh, so I can split apart these seven plants.

And I'm like, Oh, don't do that.

I'm like, you could, but why would you want to win?

I, the expert just grew these beautiful routes for you.

Just leave them alone.

Yeah, leave them alone for a little bit.

All right.

Well, Kelly, we are out of time.

Oh, awesome.

They went past it.

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks for coming in and sharing your time and talents.

And thank you for watching and we'll see you next time.

Goodnight.