Music.

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 is John BODENSTEINER, one of our favorite panelists, long time panelists.

Actually, I don't know for sure this.

I've been planning my 30th year.

Might be starting my 31st Wow, 30 years here.

Then you do radio.

You've done that for 30 years.

If you don't know this guy in the plant world, you must be under a rock somewhere.

So John, tell us a little bit about you.

I'm a master of vermin, County Master Gardener.

And like I say, I started one of our people in Danville came over to Champaign to take the Master Gardener show.

And I said, Well, gee, why don't we have that?

So I went to the extension office and asked, and they said, Well, if you can get eight people together, we'll have a class here.

Well, I got eight people, four of us finished, and I'm the only one that's still around.

But the rest is history.

And we've got, we probably have 7580 very, very active Master Gardeners of Birmingham County.

We have many good projects around the county, and it's and we it's just a good yes.

So anybody that wants to become a master gardener, we are signing people up here in Champaign and in and vermin County, all the counties probably are going to have a Master Gardener training class.

So check in with your local extension office if you're interested.

And because it's a great group to be part of.

So anywho, John's here to do a special one on one with us today.

We love John's gadgets.

He always has plant gadgets, and he's always just putting things together uniquely.

So he brought in a few things that he picked up today, and we're just going to talk through them all.

So volunteer at Schlarman High School, and we everyone to all do a project on a desk.

Well, I can't get where I was making mess.

So this, I found these.

And you just, if you pot plants up in the house, you know that you get dirt everywhere.

So this is a great little and the other side's fold up, and you've got a nice little container that's going to hold the water.

If you spill something, hold the door dirt.

You just undo it, hold it up and put it away and and, and you take the mess and clean it up later.

So one of the other things that I have done, and a lot of people bring projects or their plants in during the winter, and they get they're big, and they don't know what to do with them.

So I found that these little devices here, the pot with the cloche, really, really helps.

It's just a little plastic lid.

And what you do is just lay your plants on your in your soil, and then you put this on water it, and then it takes a lot less watering.

And the humidity in here gets very high, so that the transpiration of the plant isn't, isn't to the point where it's laying the rooting and everything like that.

So, and you can already see the moisture build up there in the once, then once it builds up so high it's going to drip back in.

And so, you know, you take the lit, take the cloche off pass the soil.

If it doesn't need watering, you just put it back on, and in no time at all, African Violet leaves.

Any any cuttings, you know, like I said that you bring plants in, you do a stem cutting, or any type of cutting.

These just work so much, so much nice.

And you can get them on the internet.

One of the plants I just found at at a crafts was this little guy.

And if you are familiar with string of pearls, this is called string of turtles.

If you look, I took one piece off, and you can see they're like little they look like little turtles.

They do.

And I just thought it was very unique.

I'm going to be growing a bunch of these.

You just take a piece off and and lay it on, like in this close, covered pot.

And they will they will grow very easily.

If you are interested in propagating these.

How much do you need?

How much of a stem would that be enough?

That would be enough?

This is going to be enough.

And I probably put about three of these in a small pot like that, lay them, you know, so that they're not covering each other.

And all you got to do is make sure that they have, that the stem has got contact of the soil, and water it a little bit.

I usually don't water with a garden hose or anything.

I use a spritz.

I just spray it on and it'll, it'll, and then just tap this so it has contact the soil.

Within a week, you're going to have little, tiny roots going up.

And one of the plants that really is easy.

Easy, easy to propagate as this little guy.

Now, this, this, this, I cut this off of one of our plants in the greenhouse, and it's probably about three feet tall right now.

It's going to get little flowers that hang down.

They look like parachutes.

And this is a mother of 1000s.

It's in the clancia family.

If you have pets, I don't know that this would be something.

They are somewhat toxic to cats, so good to be cautious about that.

But all you have to do is pick up one of these little plant lets.

These are called plant lets, and you can see the roots that are.

I was just going to say those are already roots on there.

So those are all ready.

Those are ready to go all and all you have to do is, again, take one of those little pots, lay this on there, tap it onto the soil so that the roots have contact, and they're going to burrow right down in and I probably have just this little guy here.

There's probably 5050, plants right here, so you could take this home, and perks of the job, get all kinds of little characters going, okay, one of the other things that, and this does, I didn't bring the cap for this because it was a little tall, but I started this basically the same way.

This, you can start little gardens for like, if you want a little plant area on your desk or, you know, in on your counter, kitchen counter or something, they don't have to be big.

These are all succulents in here.

So they take very little water.

I did take some cut glass and just laid it over so that when I did water it, I didn't splash up.

It doesn't splash keeps the soil off of the plants.

This makes it look nice.

This one here I made so that it's a little bit of holiday and it's they're just fun.

The kids, you know, if you have a couple of kids that you want to sit down, you put your plants in, and then you spritz them, get all the soil off, and then you can lay the rocks, and then or the glass, you know, you could use pea gravel too.

And then you just put your little ornaments around.

And very easy to change.

This is we could change with the seasons.

For strange, yeah, you could put pumpkins in there, put spring flowers in there, whatever.

But it's just that is nice.

And speaking of seasonal flowers, because we've got about two minutes left, we talked about the death of our poinsettias at home, poinsettias.

This is the culprit.

This is the culprit right here.

This is the guy that kills more poinsettias than anything else.

It's because they're waterproof, they have the poinsettias sitting in there.

You take it, you you don't take it to the kitchen.

Or if you take it to the kitchen, you just put it under the faucet, you water it, and you take it back to where it was, because it's not wet underneath.

So what happens is this pot starts to get full of water, and as soon as poinsettias, especially poinsettias Christmas cactus.

They are very prone to root rot.

So take take this out.

Go to the kitchen water, let it sit there for about 15 minutes, any water that's in here, drain it, then take it back to where you're going.

Put it back in your little aluminum, pretty pot cover.

And it's it's going to survive much, much better.

Keep it away from drafts.

It doesn't like direct sun.

Don't let it burn.

Go over.

Water it.

It feels dry.

Go ahead and water it.

And then the last thing I have is these little guys, if you're doing air layering this, and that's real easy to do, rooting, a little bit of rooting compound and put the stem through here and close it little sphagnum moss in here, and leave it for about six weeks, and you'll end up with a whole new plant.

Hot dog, easy as that.

All right, John, thank you so much for coming in now that we're all inside tinkering with our house plants because it's cold outside, you gave us some great tips, and since it's cold out, we went back to delight flower farm and did a little wreath making for the holidays.

Take a look.

Well, hello again.

Hey.

Much different weather than the last time we were here, dressed, different everything.

Okay, so we're making wreaths today.

Yeah, what a change of season.

So what sorts of things do we need?

I love that you're just out here gathering what you've got on the farm.

So what do we what are we looking for?

Yeah, so you want fresh greens.

This is a white pine.

And you know, if, if folks at home watching have trees in their landscape or bushes, a lot of times, there's an evergreen that's suitable for wreath making.

So I just look for branches that might be in the way.

So you can kind of do two things, two things at work.

Yeah, you're harvesting for your wreath making, but you're pruning your trees, which is good time of year to do that, because they're kind of dormant, so it doesn't stress them too much.

So we'll take a big branch like this.

Sure.

And just cut a section of it off, gotcha.

And then when we go into the workshop, I'll show you how we can cut it down.

Now, how many wreaths will you crank out from the farm here?

Close to 200 Oh, wow.

Okay, yeah.

And a lot of the greens that we cut actually go to wreath workshops that we teach around town.

So sometimes the Greens aren't for wreaths that we're selling.

Sometimes they're fur wreaths that other folks in the community are making at one of our workshops.

Gotcha and Taylor, one of our crew members took advantage of one of your workshops not too long ago, so we'll have to show off her work a little bit later too.

Yeah, yeah, she made a dried wreath with some of our dried flowers.

So that's very nice.

Okay, what else do we need?

Well, let's get a couple different kinds of greens.

Okay, this is a blue spruce.

So I would definitely recommend wearing gloves if you're going to harvest a spruce, because it's super well, not just sticky, but it's like, Pokey, low, okay, kind of mean to you.

So you know, you can cut it.

You can cut it back in an area where there's less of that pokey evergreen.

This is a younger tree, so I probably wouldn't harvest too much off of it, but it adds a nice like color contrast, definitely.

And then over here is some Arborvitae.

This isn't a lot of landscaping.

You're probably familiar with this.

It's also sometimes called, it's a variety, the eastern red cedar, I think, is what it's called.

But it's really nice, and green and bright adds a really nice color, nice seasonal.

I'll be your assistant.

Okay, to the point these trees were put on this property to be a wind break.

I'd say they're doing their jobs out here.

We like to keep the greens here, but for us, they also work as something that we can sell in the winter time from our flower farm.

It's locally harvested.

Most evergreen wreaths that you get like at the grocery store this time of year, those greens are either coming from Canada or the Pacific Northwest, so we like using the relief.

Yes, that's one of the goals here.

Yeah.

So this is arborvitae, and it is a nice, bright green, but it's also one that you probably want to wear gloves when you're harvesting.

Very, pretty, very seasonal.

I can already see the vision coming together.

Great.

Okay, so we've got all of our supplies, dried flowers from the drying room.

We've got our fresh greens from the farm.

And then remind me, what is this?

It's just this a frame.

Yeah, we just call it A Wreath Frame.

It's kind of like it's called a clamp frame because it it has these little pre made, pre fabricated clamps or spots that you could clamp.

And I will say, the first year of being a flower farmer and making wreaths, I didn't have one of these machines and I used pliers.

Oh, my God, that's not the way these are meant to be used, certainly working smarter now, yeah, so now it has this foot pedal operated way of clamping.

It just makes it a lot easier on your wrist.

But there are ways that people can make wreaths at home.

If you get a wire frame from a craft store, something like that, you could just wire the evergreen and dried flowers to it.

And that's pretty easy peasy.

Okay, so we're gonna, essentially, I like to, I guess, because I'm a flower farmer, I like to think about making these into just miniature bouquets, and that's how we'll assemble.

Oh, very cool way to think about it.

So you've got, like, a little evergreen bouquet, and you just lay it in here so that at least a few inches are covered, and these two pieces are right in between here.

And then we just use the foot pedal, and it clamps it right on there.

Voila.

I'll do a couple, and then I'll give you a chance to go the real test.

Yeah, you said you hadn't made one, so you might as well.

These are really pretty.

And you know, when we pick them up from the store or from the florist or wherever we get them from, you don't really realize the work that goes into it, and sort of the intentionality of choosing flowers and choosing greens.

And so this is always really cool to get behind the scenes and see what goes into it, the work that goes into it, yeah, so you want to make a little evergreen bouquet.

Okay, here we go.

Well, let me take a let me take a peek at yours.

Okay, so we're just gonna grab some pieces.

I'm not gonna overthink it, yeah, just nice variety.

How's that?

That's great.

Okay, yeah, and you just want to put it right in between stems here other way, so we kind of overlap, so we hide our mechanics from before.

Got it.

Yep, you got it.

How's that pretty good.

Maybe tuck this guy in there, and then just make sure these are lined up in the track.

So let's move that a little bit, okay, and then clamp it.

Do?

I have to really your finger.

No.

You don't have to drive it too hard.

Did I get it?

Oh, shoot, I don't think so.

Okay, let's try it again.

Okay, let me see.

Let's get that.

There we go.

Yeah, okay, you got it?

Not too bad, not too bad.

Now I'm sticky.

Yeah, it's good to wear gloves for this rookie move, rookie move, and just do that all the way around.

Yeah, you just do that all the way around.

Let's add a little dried flowers to it, so you get a sense of how that looks.

So because dried flowers can be kind of brittle, like they will break easily.

One of the tricks we do, I know it sounds weird, but we dried all these then we actually bring them out of the drying room for a day or two.

Sometimes we put them in our cooler.

Sometimes we just bring them in here, if it's humid enough and it softens them, just makes a little bit pliable and, yeah, less prone to breaking.

And so I usually sandwich it between, so it's like, got a little cushion of greenery, and then we'll just put it as the next little section on here.

Wow.

Now how do you know which the color scheme and the way these are going to take shape?

I guess it's probably just as you're going along.

But do you ever go into it thinking, all right, I would like to make this one for I'm envisioning a Thanksgiving, you know, area or Christmas area.

How do you how do you decide what colors to use and what textures and things?

Yeah, well, because we're making so many we've kind of found over the years, customers tend to have a preference of either a very traditional wreath, which is, you know, either just greens and pine cones and a red ribbon, or like, maybe a little gold or ornaments on it, something like very traditional Christmas, or something that's a little bit more botanical and highlights, you know, different colors and different flowers that we have around the farm.

I always try to remind myself this time of year that the history and tradition of wreaths is very old.

It's pre Christian, actually, so at a time when people lived much closer to the land and spent a lot of time outside, the dark days of winter were hard, so traditions like Christmas trees and having light and candles around was a way to bring light and bring greenery and a sense of hope to the winter, because in the name it's evergreen, so it's green all year when the deciduous trees that are so beautiful drop their leaves and become bare, we have this symbol of life.

We have this green, fresh thing that doesn't fade in winter, and so putting it on the door of your house can be a reminder, you know, of the hope that spring is coming.

And the circle shape specifically, is kind of a it.

It symbolizes what's called the Wheel of the Year.

So spring, summer, fall, winter.

So it continues again and again.

And I think even in modern times, it's so helpful to be reminded of Hope return and that the light will return and sunny afternoons will come.

Yes, well, we didn't know we were going to get a history lesson with our wreath making today.

That's awesome.

I did not know that, but all of that makes sense, the circle, the greenery, the hoping and wishing for warmer days.

Yeah.

So I think some people, whether they know that story, that tradition, they might want to, you know, they might not necessarily be religious or celebrate Christmas, but they may want a symbol of nature in the winter.

And so we do try to make some some reads that are more just botanical and kind of wild and look a little bit more like something, you know, someone, a customer, a few years ago, sent me a photo in like January, of her wreath on her door and a Robin had built a nest.

Oh, really.

Now is there any care that once folks purchase these and they get them home, do you need to spritz them, spray them.

Do you need to do anything as far as maintenance goes the entire winter season that you have it?

Yeah, I would say, if they're outside, probably no, because the elements will keep it.

It's basically a refrigerator outside of winter.

So it'll keep things like a floral cooler really fresh, and if it rains, that's totally fine, but if people are displaying their wreath indoors, which some people do, it's gonna dry out a lot faster with the heat of your house.

So it'll probably maintain its color, but if you touch it'll just crumble and needles will fall everywhere.

So I do suggest, if people are going to put it inside, don't put it on a door, because it's going to be moving all the time and shedding.

Put it on a wall, a stationary place, and you can do like what you were just saying.

You can spray it with like a plant, water or mister.

You can if it doesn't have a lot of dried flowers on it, if it's just evergreen, I'm.

Pine cones or something, you can actually fill up your bathtub and completely submerge it for like, you know, 20 minutes or something, and then take it out, let it drip dry in the shower and hang it back up.

Now, that's like real commitment, and it is, but, you know, it's not terrible.

I mean, we do that with our air plants and other things.

Sometimes you just have to soak them.

And real plant people don't mind filling up the bathtub.

That's true.

So we're getting near to the end of this one.

So I have actually one little spot left, and I always think of like I used to have long hair, but you know, when you pull your hair back in a ponytail and you kind of pull it up to pull it out of your turtleneck or whatever.

That's kind of what we do at the very end, that first piece that I put down, I treat like a ponytail that we're just pulling up out of the way, so that when we get this last little bouquet, let me grab it.

It will be hidden, and you can't really see our previous clamping.

You know, my wheels are turning, and so now I'm picturing a candle in the center.

It's a centerpiece.

Now in my absolutely it's versatile.

It looks I mean, you can do so much with this, yeah, and especially, I mean, this time of year, there's all sorts of parties and gatherings and things.

So you could put a candle in the center of it, and then when the party's over, you get to hang it on your wall or your door.

Let's bling it out a little bit though.

Let's add like a little extra, yeah, definitely.

Final step, the bling bar, yeah.

Okay, so this where we kind of deck it out with adornments.

It could be something like shiny, like this wreath over here starting to get, like, bobbles and ornaments on it, or this one, since we did use some of that celosia, I was thinking maybe just more of a simple, complimentary Red Ribbon could go on there.

And I usually try to find a spot that, like, looks maybe a little sparse, and I'm, for some reason, drawn to this little spot here, and you can make ribbons and bows all different sorts of ways.

I always think of Martha Stewart this time of year when I when I was a kid, I used to watch Martha Stewart, and she has all different ways that you can tie ribbons or bows, but this simple one.

And then we could add, like, just some natural bits.

These are pine cones.

And you can add them, just gives it a nice little pop, and kind of keeps that original theme, that natural nature sort of very pretty, yeah, and I brought a few others to show you this.

So this one's kind of probably done, maybe another pine cone, if we feel like we need it.

It's gorgeous.

But, yeah, this one here has, so this has, like, some juniper berries on it, and more of like a I said, when we made this one yesterday, I'm like, this is, like a country woman's the Pioneer Woman, yeah?

And then this one's really cool, yeah, very non traditional.

It has the sunflowers in it from the drying room.

Very pretty.

And this one really was striking, too, because you use materials that a lot of I'd never seen someone decorate with these before.

Yes, these are the milkweed pods that are just kind of hanging on fence lines around here all the time.

And they're already durable in the winter, so they can hold up.

And we just, yeah, we just add what we want to to make it look a little bit more unique.

I know you can get a wreath pretty much anywhere this time of year.

Grocery stores carry them and stuff, but it's nice to have something that's a little bit more artistic and handmade land made from the area.

And you also do workshops and things with folks.

Tell us a little bit about that, how you can learn to make your own Yeah.

So we are actually this year, we're offering about 10 wreath workshops.

Some of them are for dried wreaths, specifically so they wouldn't have evergreen, they would just have dried flowers, and most of them are evergreen.

People do it as we do some private parties for like teens and offices.

And then we do, I think we're doing sleepy Creek Riggs brewery, Prairie fruits farm and Creamery, a few different locations around town.

And it's just a good way to make a memory and do something with a friend or a family member.

Very nice.

And if folks were interested, how do they get in touch with you?

What's the best way to find out about how to get themselves to a workshop?

Yeah.

So all of the registration, although there's not a lot of spots left, our Allerton class, I think, has a few, and sleepy Creek has a few, but they're all on our website.

Delayflower farm.com, and we are going to be at some of the mistletoe markets this year selling our wreaths and some of the indoor markets.

So information about that is on our newsletter, which people can sign up for, on the on the website as well.

You guys are keeping busy.

And speaking of keeping busy, there's still business to take care of here on the farm.

You know, a lot of people think once the growing season's over, it's pish posh and you pack it.

Up and go in, but there's still a lot of activity going on out here.

So what are some things that you guys do over the winter time to sort of prepare for that following year?

Yeah, so since we have had that really nice fall weather, it's been unseasonably warm.

We've been able to do things like dig up our dahlias so we can start dividing those tubers and have Dahlia tubers for next season.

We've also divided some of our more established Peony plants and take those roots up out of the ground, but most of our work is focused in our hoop houses or our greenhouses.

They're insulated, but they're not heated, and that's where we're planting many of the crops that we harvest in spring.

Wow.

So the work never stops.

Never stops.

There's a little quieter time during the winter, but that's also when a lot of the planning for the farm and the coming season takes place.

When we analyze what was popular this year, what we had requests for, we might edit our crop plan according to that and that is the show this week.

Thanks so much to Maggie and the folks out at delight and to John for stopping in to talk to us about our house plants.

And if you've got any questions, send them in to us at your garden@gmail.com, or you can look for us on socials.

Just search for Mid American gardener, we'll see you next week.

Thanks so much for watching Good night.

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