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

I'm your host, Tanisha Spain.

And joining me in the studio today are two of my pals here to talk about all things green and growing.

We are in the best part of the year, so exciting.

So before we get into all the topics and things, let's have you two introduce yourselves and tell us a little about your speciality.

Alrighty then.

So.

Ms.

Marty, we'll start with you.

Hello, my name is Martie Alagna and I'm just so close to not working for anybody else anymore, but I did landscape for people for a long time and I worked in greenhouses and plant stores.

So a couple things, just go ahead and ask a. Thing or two because you've seen a thing or two.

That's right off of television.

And if I don't know, I will freely admit it.

We love that.

We love that.

All right, Kelly.

Hi, my name is Kelly Allsup, and like Martie, I feel like I'm a really good, well-rounded horticulturist just because I'm interested in all the plants.

So I am really passionate about trees and vegetables and cut flowers.

And then my number one priority is insects and pollinators and beneficial insects.

Really passionate about all that.

So when somebody says, Hey, here's a bug, I'm like, what is it?

And everybody else is screaming, running for their ride for some crazy reason.

Come here, little fella.

Yeah.

Doing.

Alright.

So seasonally, let's talk about where we are and where we should be and where some of us maybe are.

So I don't have all of my plants in the ground, so let's just go around and discuss, because you can put tomatoes in June.

I think we talked about that last time you were here.

So I know Mother's Day is the big goal that everyone's waiting to get to, but let's talk a little bit more about the real actual days.

And sometimes it's not about the date, it's about the temperature and all those things.

So what do you have in Marty?

Nothing.

May 15th is the roast, the frost free day.

And here I am.

I'm a professional.

Don't try this at home.

No, I don't have anything.

I'm running a little behind this year, a little behind.

But see, I reoriented my garden last year to run north and south as per protocol.

And I've had it east and west for a long, long time.

And I ran it north and south for two seasons and it just was terrible.

Really bad.

I'm not familiar with this north and south, east and west.

Business.

So it's like, well, the light can get down the road up and no, I don't.

It's like.

It's.

Light.

It's like when you have a greenhouse and.

They orient.

It north to south.

So they're trying to.

Get.

You've got more.

East to west.

Down through the rows all day long.

Except it was terrible because I have to jockey around a garage and a shade tree and I planted the tree and it's doing really well, which means it shades some of the garden, but that's perfect for broccoli and lettuce in July and August.

But not so much tomatoes, so I have to redo the whole thing, a quarter turn again.

So no, I haven't planted anything yet.

Nothing in.

Yet.

And that's okay.

We.

Have plenty of time.

It hurts me in my heart.

But I plant tomatoes in June all the time.

And you know what?

The ground is warm.

Dig the hole deeper.

Pull the bottom leaves off.

Chunk her in there.

Hello?

And off she goes.

Yeah, they shoot right up.

They catch up because it's hot.

They like it hot.

Okay.

Alright.

Some like it hot.

Some like it hot.

That's what I've heard.

Kelly, what do you have.

Right.

Now?

I'm an impatient person and I like to take risks.

So everything is planted today, everything.

And I'm looking for more garden space or more pots.

So I am growing some cool seasoned vegetables like peas and onions and radishes and spinach.

And I did just pop in a tomato plant yesterday because I feel like it's good.

We're good, we're good, we're good, we're good.

And actually I am going to kick my house plants out of the house this weekend.

I'm thinking she's.

Brutal.

Brutal.

Time.

To go.

Time to go.

Yeah.

I do also plant some annuals, right?

I really love flowers and I have a hummingbird and I really want to entice the hummingbird and the butterflies and the bees.

So I did plant some of those flowers, but then we went to a plant cell and my son picked out coleus.

It blooms.

It's pretty and it's easy to grow, so I can't take that away from it.

It's not my favorite plant to grow.

But we did plant it and it did unfortunately get nipped by the cold.

And then while in the landscape working at other gardens, I've seen some other perennials and some shrubs that actually have also been nipped by the cold.

Some of that new hydrangea foliage, I've seen lilacs.

You had a few plants that were nipped by the cold.

I did.

But the thing is, the beauty part, as we all know here at this table is that coleus is in the mint family, hence the square stem and the opposite leaf growth.

So cut it backs, it's coming back.

It can be this tall.

You've seen this, right?

Yeah.

Something eats 'em, whatever.

They're like, I don't care.

And they'll just, they'll come right back.

No, they're fine.

So all.

Hope is not lost.

Heck no.

It's a weed really?

It's a weed I'm sure.

I mean, some plants are persnickety and they're not.

They're.

Like ironclad.

They're a third cousin to creep in Charlie.

Okay, so.

The moral of the story is plant your coleus after the frost free day, and then if you are not that great of a gardener, colius is perfect for you.

There you.

Go.

There you go.

It's iron.

Now when you find plants that have been damaged or knit by the cold, do you need to cut them back?

Do you need to do anything to help them along?

Would you would?

Okay.

If they're pretty wilted and they're not coming, I mean they just look like cooked spinach, cut 'em off, just cut back to the stem like an inch into the green stem or back to a leaf axle depending on where you're at.

See with a lot of plants, I'm careful about that.

With coals, not so much.

Who cares?

Now with the hydrangea, I would not cut that back.

No.

Okay.

No, no, I'm talking about annuals.

Because the hydrangea, you're going to be messing with the flowering period if you cut it back now.

And that actually is one of the questions that we have about hydrangeas is when to cut them back.

Because if you cut a hydrangea back at the wrong time, then you've just taken away all that beautiful flower in.

So usually you either cut them back right after they flower or you cut them back in the beginning of spring, late winter.

And so plants, I mean I've already cut back hydrangea plants in some of the gardens that I work in, but right now I would not cut any of them back because I don't want to mess with the flowering.

So I'm hoping that it just goes past that damage.

It'll be fine.

One of the things that I've was always taught was if a plant goes through stress, give it some fertilizer.

So maybe that hydrangea or that lilac or some of those perennials, give them a little bit of fertilizer and don't feel like you have to fertilize 'em all summer long.

That's a no no.

But maybe one time, one treatment of fertilizer to get 'em past that cold damage is what I personally would do.

Yeah.

Just give 'em a little.

And then we had the question about the.

Hydrangea.

The oak leaf.

Yeah.

We could do that one.

So Ben sent this one in, which is the guy, this is some trivia who owns the blooming idiot.

We went to his flower farm.

He says there's a wall and you'll see the photo here.

It's covered with a climbing hydrangea.

And while the wall of between five and six feet tall, the hydrangea is exceeding eight.

We planned to cut it last fall, but then he said he read an article that is a job best left for spring, and they want to know if this is a good time to doing it and they want to know if we suggest trimming that back now.

So what are your thoughts there?

I'm not sure what his goal is.

I don't know if you showed the picture or not, but they've got a wall and the hydrangea is climbing up the wall, but it's sunny on the other side, so it's very leafy up on the top there.

So I'm not sure if they want to like to inspire growth on the bare legs there, lower or not, or if they just want to reduce the whole thing.

But hydris will go, what, 25 feet?

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

So.

Now where it is leggy there, are you able to flush that out?

Is there anything you can do or is that just chasing light and you kind of just.

I personally would do rejuvenation cutting, but you're missing out on the flowering.

For one season I would cut 'em all the way back to the ground and do rejuvenation cutting to get that lower growth back.

Never going to.

Yeah, won't.

You can't force that to flush out in its current.

State.

You could a little bit, but if you do rejuvenation cutting, it'll just come back with a vengeance really?

Now here we are in May.

It's not the time.

Okay, I was going to ask timing wise, but.

You might as well do it now, right?

Because no matter what, you're going to lose the flowering.

They bloom too late in the season to be able to prune 'em hard in the spring or in the summer and let the new growth that comes on harden off for wintertime.

Because when you prune perennials and shrubs particularly like that, too late in the season, it puts on new growth.

But then anybody who's sheared or even hand trim their box wood or anything like that in the late summer, oh we'll just shape 'em up for fall.

And then the autumn is a little bit warm and you get all that new growth and then it all freezes and dies and in the spring everything leafs out and greens up except those little, I'm like, well that looks terrible.

So because you cut 'em too late in the season, the new growth has to be tough enough to be able to make it through the summer.

And the only thing that can toughen it like that is time.

So typically you prune the spring flowering things right after they bloom, like foria and lilac and viburnum, those kinds of things.

You prune those for shape right after, right after they bloom.

But these, this Hydrea are this pity alaris.

They're fabulous.

But I was thinking the same thing.

If you want to be brutal, I mean you could go like a foot below that wall and see if you could force some more green out.

But I agree with Kelly.

If you want it to be green on the wall, I think you're going to have to give it a hard cut.

I mean at least back to a foot or maybe two feet tall.

Would.

You do that at the end of the summer?

I'd do it right.

Now.

Do it now.

Do it now.

I would get rid of the wall.

Dream.

Big.

I meant the wall.

The plant is amazing.

I love oak leaf.

I would grow it if I lived in a big space.

That's what you need.

You need something big.

You need a big area for an oak leaf.

And you see it at churches.

I've seen oak leaf HIA at several churches growing up the side.

Well that.

Is at a church.

It's about it.

Well yeah, it's an old fashioned kind of, I just don't know if people.

Is that a quirk?

It's at St.

Thomas Moore High.

School.

Is it a cofo?

Yeah.

I thought it was a pretty HI was a oak leaf hydrangea.

It's a climber, not a shrub.

It just says climbing hydrangea.

It doesn't say, oh, I thought it was oak leaf.

I'm so.

Sorry.

I also have, I love oak leafs too, and I've got ruby slippers.

Nices, nice little.

We'll dwarf only gets about four feet tall.

Maybe if the rabbits don't murder it.

So they p prune it for me every year, the little print.

Alright.

This is what makes Marty cuss.

So we got to, we on, okay.

It's rodent.

Alright, so let's go to your propagating bouquet.

So I do these things called propagation bouquets, and so I will take cuttings of my house plants because clearly in late winter, early spring, I am chomping at the bit.

I cannot hold myself back.

Sometimes I'll buy plants and I'll know Kelly, but so I will just do water propagation.

My sister and I do this all the time.

We just do VAEs of water and put different house plant, tropical house plants in here we have, and then we have all these roots growing and then we give this kind of gift to our gifty gardening friends, and then they get to pot all these up in the pots and they already have roots growing.

So it doesn't take long for some of these plants to initiate regrowth.

What I do is I just get a long stem.

I remove all the leaves below the stem, below the waterline, and then the roots come on.

This one's called pathos, neon pathos.

And you see the roots are coming from all of the nodes.

So that's where we want.

Now pathos is one of those where it just has bumps everywhere and it's just trying to root even up here.

Then I have what is called the new name for this is called Wondering Dude.

And so this is a nice shade plant.

Look at all those beautiful roots.

See, I'm just making that person really successful by giving them all these roots.

And the backs are purple.

That's an annual, but it makes a great addition to a hanging basket with some blooms because it's a lovely trailer and it's got all that color really nice.

And.

I think the purple and the Chartres.

Yes, lovely.

And then this one is called Alternate Antra, which is called Joseph's coat.

And.

It actually is an annual.

And.

That's what I thought that was.

I'm like, what are you doing with a house plan?

Mean poor professionals.

Do what they want.

So.

I mean, I just grew alternate nara in a pot and I kept it in inside.

Do tell.

And then I just take cuttings of it all winter long and give people, I'll even go get flowers.

Or when I do grow my own flowers, I'll give people flowers within the propagation bouquet.

I love that.

You have to keep busy.

And you are a greenhouse grower too, right?

So it's like it's.

In.

Your blood.

Greenhouse is in my background.

Absolutely.

I think about you every year when we start talking about po settas, and actually you two are kindred spirits because Marty goes and rescues all of the, she rescues 'em all from church.

Well, not kindred spirits.

You would trash 'em.

I would put them in a dumpster.

Dumpster faster than That's right.

Than.

Anything.

That's right.

I forgot your team.

Throw them away and Marty's throw and take them home.

I also get the Easter Easter lilies and plant 'em in the yard and.

Take 'em home.

I love that.

I mean, they're just lilies now.

They're not going to bloom at Easter.

But.

They're just Madonna lilies.

They'll bloom in the summer, 2, 3, 4 feet tall, depending on the variety.

Just stick 'em on the ground, they'll bloom with your other lilies.

Marty, that actually piggybacks off another question.

That's right.

It.

Does.

The tulip question.

It does.

Here we go.

Good idea.

So when you get these amazing plants for Mother's Day blooming tulips or Easter lilies, all these, what do you do with them when they're done?

Plant 'em?

Well, I meant there's two things you can do.

You can go ahead and you can plant them in the ground.

Watch that foliage fade.

You want that foliage to fade to yellow at least six weeks.

And the tulip foliage right now and the landscape is really ugly, but all gardeners know that they can't take that old ugly foliage away or they're compromising next year's tulips.

Now tulips are one of those that is iffy in Illinois anyway.

Meaning.

Most of the time people plant tulips as annuals.

Because.

The subsequent year is not going to have quite as beautiful of a flower and that's just for tulips.

Now daffodils, I blame the schools.

So do they not survive the winter?

Why do tulips struggle?

I think tulips struggle because of root diseases.

Yeah, okay.

It's pretty wet in Illinois in the winter.

And.

They really prefer a little bit drier environ because I will plant.

Heavy and then I'll get like two.

And.

I have a lot of rabbits and squirrels and things in my yard, so I always blame them.

But are there other varieties that will do better in Illinois?

Daffodils.

Daffodil.

Okay, so skip tulip entirely.

I. Mean, daffodils are deer resistant.

Rabbit resistant.

And then that's what you're struggling with, your tulips is deer come over and chomp your tulips down.

I just think daffodils are easier.

They naturalize easier, obviously they're much more aggressive than a tulip is.

Daffodils and cockroaches will be here when the rest of us are, when.

We're all gone.

Black and crisp.

Yes.

Another thing, well I read on the internet that at a university website that if the tulip was forced in a greenhouse, it's not going to come back ever.

But from personal experience, it comes back.

Yeah, they do.

So maybe it's just like I'm telling you, it may not, you may have a 50 50 chance, but another thing that you can do is what I probably would be the person I would do this before I would plant it now is just save it.

Let the foliage die down, put the bulbs in a cool location and plant them in the fall.

I agree with that.

I didn't actually mean to plant them in the spring, although you think you're do that all time, but if you think you're going to forget in October.

So if I got a Mother's Day arrangement, take those once they're spent, do not take the leaves off and put them in the fridge.

Garage in the garage, let 'em dry down.

You can even put 'em in a garage in like a window and let 'em dry down and yellow and then they'll dry and then you can plug them in the ground in October, November.

Just.

Keep em in.

You just want to keep 'em dry.

I mean, you don't want to heat 'em up a cool dry location and then you don't have to worry about cooling it because you're going to alize it in the.

Ground and they may or they may not like ance are a lot more reliable.

When my father passed away 25 years ago, the ladies in my church group gave me a beautiful basket with ance in it, pink and white and a little pot in this figure eight twig basket is beautiful.

And they bloom every spring, every free spring.

I got done with 'em.

I did what Kelly was talking about doing, and then I just plugged them in a little bed where I always see 'em and I mean, they are.

Still going.

Oh my gosh.

Still going stronger in cloud.

Gosh, it just depends on every spring.

On the plant, I guess.

Yep, they sure do.

So really, and it's a good spot too, because it's a little high and it doesn't get wet all winter and drains pretty easy, so.

So really if we think about it, the flowering plants that you usually get for your mom, the tulips, the lilies, the one thing that is not going to come back would be a flowering.

You think about these hydrangeas that are beautiful that you buy in your pot for your mom.

Those are called florist ANGs, so they're not going to be winter hardy and they're not going to produce a shrub in our climate.

So they are a flower arrangement with roots.

Maybe in Florida or Costa Rica, but.

It's.

Probably too hot there.

But.

I am tried and true.

Got to give mom flowers for mom's day.

And it doesn't matter if it's a hanging basket, a vase of flowers, a propagation bouquet.

Mom is going to take care of those flowers for the rest of the year and think about you.

What me and my mom do, we trade a basket every year.

Oh, do you?

Yes.

What did you get her this year?

Well, we're actually, we go and do it together at.

The place.

So we haven't had our nursery have picked it out.

We haven't done our nursery appointment yet because Mother's Day was kind of busy, but.

A little.

We've got about five minutes left.

Let's talk about some pitfalls to help people avoid as they're putting their gardens in.

And this could be flowers or food.

What are some common traps that we run into as new gardeners that you see people, I'll start weeds.

I got a solution for you.

When it comes to weeds, one of the things that you can do, raised beds instantly.

No weeds.

Very little weeds.

If you, let's say you buy compost and you get a little weed seed in your compost.

I know that.

Another thing is I do is it's called a shuffle hoe.

A stir up hoe.

I'm going to Google these things.

So I can have.

Them.

And so it is round like this.

And.

So when you are standing straight up.

That's the thing.

And so what you're doing is you're getting all these small weeds and it's going right underneath the roots.

Nice.

And so it leaves the weeds on top of the soil and they dry out and they die.

And I'm telling you.

Easy on the back.

If you get your weeds in the beginning now.

If you do.

Get that shuffle hoe out now start shuffle, hoeing.

It will help.

That's what always gets me.

By July, I'm fighting the weeds so bad and I'm getting in the jungle looking for tomatoes or whatever because I just can't stay on top of the weeds.

A mulch with straw.

I did that last year and it really helped.

Thank.

You very much.

Really.

Really.

And when you do straw, don't shake it up When you cut the strings on 'em.

The full, yeah.

When you cut the strings on a bale of straw, it comes off in little sections about four inches wide called flakes.

Just lay the flakes right there, just lay 'em right down.

That helped a lot.

Last year, edge to edge.

And put it right up next.

Here's the plant.

Put the flake right up there.

I do, when I plant potatoes, I plant the potatoes and I put the flakes of straw all the way down with a crease in the middle of potatoes.

Come right up.

And yeah, it works perfectly.

They stay clean.

It's pretty great.

I'm going to get that tool.

Oh.

Yeah, I'm going.

It should.

It's amazing because at first you'll be like, oh, I don't want to leave all the weeds on top.

It looks ugly, but in a day they're gone.

Nice.

And it's nice to watch them scream so bad.

Yeah, it's in the sun.

Yes.

Don't let them flower.

Don't let them flower if you have to go lawn mow weed.

Eat.

That's, that's another secret.

Never let a weed flower.

And I'm sure you've been attacked by weed flowers before.

Oh.

Yes.

Oh yes.

All right.

On that note, thank you guys so much.

I learned a lot.

As always, I really appreciate your time and talent.

Thank you.

If you've got questions for our experts, send them into us at your garden@gmail.com or search for us on socials.

Just look for Mid-American Gardner and we will see you next time.

Goodnight.