- Hi, thanks for joining us for the Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Chrysanthemum are the quintessential flower of fall.

Today, we are learning all about them.

Also, bird watching is a fun way to see what birds visit your garden.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.

And Mary Schmidt will be joining me later.

Always good to see you, Joellen.

- Good to see you.

- We have some beautiful chrysanthemums on the table.

- Aren't they gorgeous?

- They are, they are.

- Yes.

- And you're gonna tell us all about them, right?

- Yeah, we're gonna talk about these.

- Okay.

- Chrysanthemums or mums, garden mums, those are the perennial type of chrysanthemums.

And there are some annual type of chrysanthemums, but usually, you find those in a florist shop, because they're considered florist mums.

They're very decorative, and they will not survive outside.

- Got it, okay.

- The perennial mums will live outside all year long.

You've gotta have the right conditions though, because they are really particular about their soil and their root systems.

But these will bloom up to four to six weeks, depending on the weather.

So you get a really long period of bloom with these mums in the fall.

And then you say, "Oh, I like this yellow one, "but it's fading, and I would like to go get another yellow one."

And there is another yellow one at the store.

And you're like, "Okay, I'll get that one."

That is not the same mum variety, because there are early-, mid-, and late-blooming chrysanthemum varieties.

So you can find the same colors in all of those.

And so you can always have, I just like yellow mums, so I want yellow mums through Thanksgiving.

Well, you can probably find one because there are early-, mid-, and late-blooming ones.

- Okay.

- So, yeah.

- I realize that, that's good.

- And of course, they don't just come in this gorgeous color of yellow.

There's bronzes, there's reds, there's lavenders, there's whites, and all different combinations of those.

So very colorful variety of chrysanthemums.

Now, let's talk a little bit, we've got these gorgeous mums here.

How do you pick a mum?

- Yeah, yeah.

- And you see that there's, from really blooming to somewhat blooming to barely blooming.

And this is what I would do.

If I'm having a party this weekend or tonight, I would get the mum that is in full bloom, 'cause you know it's gonna be in full bloom in a few days.

- Right, right.

- All right.

So maybe, well, I wanna get one, and I don't wanna worry about it, so I'm gonna get it a week ahead of time or so.

Well, then you could pick this other one in the middle that's more open but yet still closed, and it'll get opened up by the time your party shows up.

Now this one here, you got almost a full four to six weeks with this one, because it's just barely opened up.

So it just depends on what you've got going on and what you're buying the mum for.

And you can find all of these kind.

In fact, you can find some mums that don't have any blooms on 'em at all.

They're all tight.

And you gotta really trust the label when it tells you what color those are, because there's no color showing.

- Wow, okay.

- But, I mean, it'll last the longest in the landscape, because it hasn't started blooming.

So you've got a full six weeks out of that.

- So you have time to plan your party, right?

- Yeah, you do.

- You got it.

- You've got it, yeah, it's true.

Now, mums have this beautiful round shape, and they somewhat grow like this, but they get this rounded shape because they have been trimmed.

And usually, sometime in the spring and another time in the summer, but you have to fit, you usually cut 'em about, they get cut about two times, but it has to be before July 4th.

July 4th is the deadline, because if you prune them after July 4th, you're really cutting off blooms, and they need enough time to initiate blooms for it to bloom in the fall.

- Got it, okay.

- So July 4th is a, you don't trim mums after July 4th.

- Okay.

- And that'll give you the shape and they give you this full head of blooms on these mums.

- So how would you trim them?

- You can do it several ways.

I like to take actually hedge shears and just trim 'em.

And I've seen people who have a lot of them that actually take electric shears to them and shape them in round.

- How about that- - In the landscape, they'll do that.

So any way you want to, but this is a sheared form, and it's mechanically done.

- Okay.

- Care of em, see, I just want this pot and I'm gonna buy this and I just wanna set this, 'cause look at this, it's gorgeous.

It's got a nice pretty pot that is on it.

I'm just gonna let that sit on my porch.

Well, you need to, they dry out more in raised areas like this.

But they also, depending if this has a drainage hole or not in it, it may or may not drain real well.

But if you wanna see if it needs water, this is the best tool instrument that I know of - your fingers.

- The finger, right.

- And you simply go into the pot and say, "Hmm, well, that's nice and moist.

"I think the pot says it's fine, it doesn't need water right now."

And when you feel that and it's dry, you go, "Oh, it needs water."

- Right.

- So that's the best way I know to tell you how to water it.

When you plant them in the ground, they're gonna need less watering, because they're not in a container above the ground.

- Yeah.

- And when you are watering them, don't water in the middle.

'cause that's gonna make the foliage really wet and soggy.

And the force of the water will, these stems can be sensitive and it'll break.

So you wanna water them just like you check for them.

You water 'em just over the edge of the pot underneath the foliage.

And that will keep them looking nice and not disturbed the whole time you have them.

- Okay.

- And they, of course, they grow in full sun.

And you're gonna need four to six hours of sun.

Six hours is the best.

Part sunny, four hours.

But in order for it to set bloom, these are grown in fields where there's no shade.

So the more sun it gets, the more full and bigger blooms that you'll have.

And that's true when you're gonna plant it in the landscape and you want it to be a perennial and you want it to bloom next year, you wanna put it in a sunny place with well-drained soil.

Again, that is the number one cause of mums not living in a landscape that are perennial, and it's the roots that get root rot.

- Oh, okay.

- And you know our soils around here are really tight and they don't always drain well.

And I'm afraid that the winter is our wet season.

And so they just simply rot in the ground.

And that's usually the number one cause of death of mums.

And I have had better luck with keeping mums in a raised, in a container.

I've had one for five years now that keeps coming back every summer and blooms.

But it's in a container.

It's well-drained.

- Right.

- So that's the key to chrysanthemums, as perennials, is a well-drained soil.

- Okay.

That's good to know, all right.

- Diseases and pests.

Chrysanthemums really don't have too many pests and diseases because they actually make an insecticide out of chrysanthemums.

- Yeah.

[chuckles] - Called pyrethrum.

- Which is neat, yeah.

- I mean, so there's not a whole lot that bothers these.

The disease that it has a problem with is root rot because from overwatering.

- Right.

- That is the number one disease problem they have.

And the only other bug problem I've ever had when I grew mums all the time was spittlebug.

- Oh, okay.

- And I did not know what it was, but it's a little tiny bug that forms this little casing around it that looks like somebody has spit on the foliage.

And that's why it's called spittlebug.

But chrysanthemums are a staple of fall.

They're gorgeous, they have wonderful colors.

They put a lot of color in the landscape, because just think, fall colors, leaves are changing, everything's going from green to something else.

And this is a nice, bright spot of color in your landscape.

And it just makes you happy and smile when you see all these bright colors of these mums in front of people's houses and in businesses and stuff.

This looks nice.

- Yeah.

I love to see 'em in the fall as well.

- Mm-hmm.

- Thank you.

We can tell you like those mums.

- I love my mums.

[Chris laughing] - Thank you much, Joellen, appreciate that.

[upbeat country music] So we're at the end of the growing season for these beautiful zinnias that have done quite well this year.

I'm looking down here at the leaves, and I see a little powdery mildew.

Powdery mildew is a fungal disease.

It likes moderate temperatures and high humidity.

And guess what, folks?

We've had both.

This is what I would do for a powdery mildew at the end of the season.

Nothing.

I would not spray a fungicide.

What I would do is, once this plant has finished producing, I would take this plant out of the ground.

I wouldn't compost it, I would throw it away.

So I'll practice good sanitation.

Again, not compost it, throw it in the trash.

What I would do over the wintertime is look for resistant varieties.

There are some resistant varieties out there.

Look for those.

And I will plant those the next year and enjoy the beautiful blooms for the rest of that year.

[upbeat country music] Good to see you, Mary, how you doing?

- It's great to see you.

I am so happy to be here talking about one of my favorite things today.

- I know you are, and you and I had a discussion about this just a few weeks back, so we're just glad that you're here.

So let's talk about bird watching, because you did tell me during that conversation that bird watching is becoming wildly popular.

- It is, birdwatching is one of the fastest-growing hobbies in the United States, and you can bird anywhere.

I think a lot of people experienced that over the last couple years, birding from your own house in your backyard, or areas in your neighborhood or in your community.

So you can bird anywhere.

And it's a hobby that anybody can do.

- Nice.

- I always say, really, the only thing you need is a little bit of patience and practice.

- All right.

[laughs] - And then it is a lifelong hobby that you can enjoy just about anywhere.

- Okay, so tell us, how do people get started with bird watching?

- People get started a lot of different ways.

One of the easiest ways that people can get started into birding and observing birds is putting up bird feeders in their own yard.

And the one thing I recommend to people putting up bird feeders is put up a quality bird feeder.

So you don't wanna put like a piece of plastic one up there that the squirrels are gonna get into.

So get something that's gonna last for a while.

- Okay.

- And the second thing I recommend is invest in a quality seed.

So sometimes, when you buy the mixes at like a big box store, they have a lot of filler or waste seed that the birds aren't even eating.

They're kicking it out.

And that's how you get weeds coming up under your bird feed feeders.

- Exactly, exactly.

- So if you stick to something like a black oil sunflower seed or safflower and suet, those are not only going to prevent the weeds and get you more bang for your buck, but they're also gonna be attracting a bigger diversity of birds coming to those bird feeders.

So setting up bird feeders is one easy way to start observing birds.

Exploring in your community, taking a walk around your neighborhood, visiting your local nature center.

- Yes.

- Or green space.

- Or parks, yeah.

- Yeah, parks are a great way to get out there and just look and listen and engage with nature.

- Nice, okay.

I can tell you like this so far.

All right, so what equipment is needed to start?

I know you covered some of those.

Are there any other pieces of equipment that we need?

- Yeah, so really, you don't need anything.

But if you really wanna take your birding to the next level, you wanna invest in just a few things.

The first piece of equipment is gonna be a pair of binoculars.

And binoculars can be intimidating for people, right?

Because not only is it a new piece of equipment you have to learn how to use, but there's so many options out there.

So for birding, we recommend looking at a pair that's either an 8x42 or an 8x32.

So what are those numbers, right?

- So what do they mean?

- Yeah.

And you'll find those numbers on every pair of binocular.

So the first number is the magnification.

So when you're looking through your binoculars, for example, these are an eight, when you're looking through your binoculars, what you see is magnified eight times.

- Okay.

- If you have a 10, it's magnified 10 times, okay?

So that's the first number.

- Okay, got it.

- For birding, you don't wanna get too high because then the binoculars, your field of view or what you're seeing is pretty small.

So really, for birding, you wanna stick somewhere between a 6 and a 10.

- Okay.

- You don't wanna get too high above that.

The second number has to do with the objective lens here, and it is the distance of the objective lens.

Okay, so what does that mean?

- Yeah.

[laughs] Help us.

- Yeah.

So that is basically how much light is allowed into your binoculars.

So if you have a bigger diameter, it's gonna allow more light in, but it's also gonna make your binoculars really heavy.

So when you're looking at something, you'll get a little wobble or shake in it.

So really, for the second number, you wanna look at something between like a 30 and a 45.

So those are kind of what those numbers mean.

Other than that, you wanna try and test out a couple pairs, and this is gonna impress you, this big fancy word.

- Okay, I'm already impressed, yeah.

Just learning, you know?

- One of the issues that people have with binoculars is their interpupillary distance, right?

So it's just a big fancy word for saying the distance in between your eyes.

- Okay.

- So everybody's eyes are set a little bit closer or further apart.

- How about that?

- And so with binoculars, you wanna find one that's gonna meet your interpupillary distance.

And so that's basically how close they come to each other or how far apart.

So you really wanna test a few pairs if you can to find that right interpupillary distance.

- How about that's your bird-watching term for today?

- Absolutely, yeah.

- How about that?

- I mean, you can use that word and totally impress your friends.

- I think I will.

[laughs] - Yeah.

So binoculars is the first kind of piece of equipment that most people wanna start with.

The second one is gonna be a field guide.

And field guides, there are field guides for just about everything out there.

Plants, different animals, stars.

And so a field guide is a book that's going to help identify things that you're seeing in the field or outside in nature.

So you wanna invest in a field guide.

There are so many different field guides out there.

And so I have a few recommendations.

- Okay.

- Okay, so in field guides, they either are gonna have drawings like this one, or they're gonna have photographs, okay?

So what I recommend is I prefer the drawings, because a photograph is just a snapshot of one bird at one time of the year.

And birds change color throughout the year.

As they age, they can vary in color.

So the drawings give you kind of an overview.

- Okay.

- The second thing you wanna look for in a field guide is what area does it cover?

So there are field guides that are broken down by state, and like we were talking about, birds don't see state lines.

So unless you're just really interested in that particular one, I would try to get either an eastern guide for eastern North America, or a western guide for western North America.

Or if you tend to travel or just wanna see what other birds are out there, I recommend one that covers all of North America.

- Nice, okay.

- So field guides, binoculars.

And then the last thing is, how are you gonna keep track of what birds you're seeing?

For some people, that's not important.

For other people, it is.

So there are checklists, and those are done usually by state, or if you visit a wildlife refuge or a nature center, sometimes they have field or checklists just for that site.

And then also, some counties and states will do what's called a seasonal occurrence.

And that's telling you what birds are in that area during what time of year.

- So you were talking about the binoculars earlier.

So what about the scope?

- Oh, right, so when you get into birding and you kind of wanna take it to the next level, especially with things that are kind of far off, like ducks that could be far across a lake or a pond, a spotting scope is going to help you see those birds.

- Spotting scope, okay.

- Spotting scope, yeah.

So when we talked about the binoculars, we talked about keeping it between like a 6 and a 10.

And that's partly because of the weight.

- Okay.

- Well, sometimes, birds are way further away.

So with the spotting scope, you're not gonna be walking through the field trying to hold it up to your eye.

You need a tripod, but it will do a magnification, this one is anywhere from 20 to 60, so you're gonna get a much larger magnification.

But it's not as mobile, so it has its limitations as well.

And then the cost is getting up there a little bit more too.

So it's one of those things like when you decide that birding is gonna be a lifelong hobby, this is something that you can start to invest in.

- Good investment.

Good deal, okay.

Now, let's talk about local organizations.

- Yeah, so here in Memphis, we have a great local organization called the Memphis Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society.

And across the country, there are local bird chapters.

Sometimes, they're associated with ornithological societies, sometimes they're associated with the Audubon Society, but there are bird groups all across the country.

And all people have to do is kind of look up where their birding organization meets.

Usually, they have monthly meetings talking about different topics.

And one of the best things they do is they lead field trips to some of the hot birding spots in that area.

And you can connect with some of your neighbors and some folks in your community that also enjoy birds.

- How about that?

- Yeah.

- Mary, we thank you so much for that good information about bird watching.

- Absolutely, yeah.

- We can tell you're really into it.

- Yeah.

One of my favorite things.

More than happy to come on and talk about it.

- Well, we thank you much, appreciate it.

- Thank you so much.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] - Fall is the time for planting, not necessarily pruning, but there are pruning tests that you can do in the fall.

And one of them would be to get rid of anything that is dead or diseased.

And this canna right here, the top leaves are dead on it.

They're not producing anything, and they look ugly.

So we're gonna go down to where we find a nice healthy leaf that is actually producing chlorophyll to feed the root system.

And we are going to cut just above it and eliminate the dead part of this plant.

And we can continue to do that all around this plant, getting rid of the parts that are not producing chlorophyll and doing any good for us, for the root system.

Now, it looks a lot better.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Joellen, here's our Q&A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- These are some great questions.

Here's our first viewer email.

"Why do my persimmons keep falling off the tree?"

And this is Sophia.

So why do you think the persimmons are falling?

- Well, I have a persimmon tree too.

- Oh, look at you, okay.

- It's one I actually propagated years ago myself.

- Look at you.

- Yeah.

- All right, okay.

- And I liked my persimmon tree.

It's really pretty.

- Okay.

- This part of the country, where was she from?

- Yeah, that we don't know.

- Don't know.

Well, this part of the country, we have a lot of wet condition, gorgeous, wonderful growing conditions- - In early spring.

- In the first part of the spring and into the beginning of the summer.

- Yeah.

- And then it stopped.

It stopped raining.

It stopped.

- Yeah.

And we were in a drought.

So the tree, it had all its chance to produce a bunch of fruit, and then all of a sudden, there's not enough nutrients and moisture to keep all of them.

And they may have dropped some of them, 'cause I have green fruits around the bottom of my tree.

And then some of 'em on the tree is starting to ripen.

- Right, so natural thinning.

- It's is natural thinning, yeah.

- Right, so the tree can't support all the persimmon, so it's gonna drop some, natural pruning.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- And the other thing, I think, could it be pollination too?

- It could be poor pollination.

- But she had all of them.

Yeah, I'm thinking more it's we had such good weather.

- Yeah.

- And then, it just can't support it with the latter part of the summer, it can't support all the fruit.

- I definitely agree with that.

Yeah, poor pollination is something, you know, that could be a factor.

Heat stress, for sure.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Hot, dry conditions possibly.

And then too much nitrogen fertilizer.

But I don't know if she fertilized or not, but those are the things that come to mind.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, natural thinning is what I really think.

- I think it's more environmental than it is anything else.

But if she is fertilizing, don't fertilize it too much.

- Right, right, right.

And it'll be good.

- Yeah, and it'll be just fine next year.

Hopefully, she'll get enough persimmons to use them as she wants to eat them or bake with them or anything like that.

- Or share with the wildlife.

- Or share with the wildlife, that's true.

- So thank you for the question.

- That's what gets all of mine is wildlife.

- Yeah, the wildlife would get 'em.

Yeah, that's for sure.

Thank you, Sophia, we appreciate that question.

Hope that helps you out.

Here's our next viewer email.

This is a good one.

"I have a small yard.

"What hardy, showy tree can I plant that is disease-resistant and does not drop pieces all over?"

This is Shirley from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

She says she "wants a native conversation piece."

She "likes maples in the fall "and blooming trees in the spring and colorful berries in the winter."

- Oh, wow.

- Very specific.

- Yes.

- Very specific.

You think we can help Ms.

Shirley out?

- I hope so.

[Chris laughing] - Yeah.

- And this is one that most people probably do not think of that is native to this part of the country and to the United States.

And that's serviceberry, the Amelanchier arborea.

- There you go, okay.

- It's native.

And it has beautiful white blooms in the spring.

- Yeah, it does.

- Has gorgeous green foliage.

And then it sets fruit, and it has wonderful fall colors of yellows and oranges, and sometimes a little red, depending on how much sun it gets.

- Check, check, check.

- Check, check, yes.

That is my number one pick for her.

- Wow.

I like it, and it will fit.

- It will fit in a small place, yeah.

They get up to 15, 25 feet.

- Oh, yeah.

- They're small trees and they're multi-stemmed.

- Okay.

- And you want them to be that way because they're very pretty.

- Right, right.

What about soil condition and light condition?

- Sun.

- Okay.

If you want something that blooms and it has berries and has good fall color, you're gonna have to give it some sunlight.

So it's gonna have to be in full sun, and it's gonna have to have well-drained soil.

- Yes, yes.

- We have some planted here, and we have them on a slope.

- Okay.

- And so they've done beautifully on the slope.

- Right.

How about that?

I think that'll work.

- Yeah, that's a, there is another one that's native is redbud.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- But it doesn't have berries.

It has those little pea pods.

- Little pods.

- Because it's part of the pea family.

- Yeah, it is.

- But it does have fruit that hangs on it in the winter and- - Yeah, flowers pretty early.

I have one in the backyard.

- Pink flowers.

And it does turn yellow in the fall.

- The foliage is golden.

- If I had to pick between the two, I would pick the serviceberry.

- Right, right.

I think I would do that.

Yeah, 'cause she's definitely wants colorful berries.

- Yes.

- There you go, Ms.

Shirley.

Right, and yeah, check with your local Extension Office.

- That's true.

- They may have some information that can help you out as well.

- That's right.

- Yeah, good question.

We thank you for that.

Well, thanks again, Joellen.

Always fun.

We always learn so much.

- Yes, we do.

- Thank you for being here.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com, and the mailing address is Family Plot 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee 38016.

Or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

To learn more about chrysanthemums, bird watching, or anything else we talked about today, visit familyplotgarden.com.

We also have links to old shows in case you missed one.

Be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]