- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South, I'm Chris Cooper.

False cypress and Spiraea are great landscape options.

Today we're going to talk about them.

Also if you're thinking about hiring a landscape professional, we have a few tips to help you out.

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 the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis, and Celeste Scott is here.

Celeste is a UT Extension Agent in Madison County.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thanks for having us.

- All right Joellen, we've gotta talk about some great landscape options.

The first one we'll talk about, False cypress.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

- False cypress, yeah, it's the Chamaecyparis.

There's a lot of them.

It's a coniferous evergreen which means it stays green all year long which is nice in the landscape.

There is a very large diverse group.

They are 60-feet plus trees in it.

- That's tall.

- And there are dwarf, miniature plants that only measure in inches.

- That is dwarf!

My gosh.

- It's a very diverse group, and large.

Now some of 'em are fast growing, and some of 'em are slow growing.

The ones that are fast growing tend to be the larger ones.

Some of the rock garden and small ones they don't grow very fast at all, which is why they only stay inches tall.

- That makes sense, OK. - And the larger ones are used like hedges, you know, in the landscape, you know you can get several of them and make a little hedge, get different kinds.

And mix it up with other plants 'cause you don't want a monoculture in a hedge.

And some of the smaller ones, because they're so unique in their shapes and sizes and colors, they're mostly used as specimens.

You can put 'em in a container or just in the landscape but you don't en masse plant them.

It's not one of those kind of plants.

It's more of a specimen specialty plant.

And of course, the Chamaecyparis' that are most used in the South are the obtuse and pisefera varieties and cultivars of those and there are many of them, many, many, many.

A lot of the leaves are curled and twisted.

And some of them are just like little cords.

All very, very interesting and unique in their own shapes and sizes.

They like well-drained soil.

So we don't tend to have that so much in the South in this area.

So try to create a condition where there is a well-drained area.

I have successfully planted these in the ground but I was careful of where I placed them.

And I've had them for years.

But you do have to worry about that.

They do like sun so don't give them too much shade.

- Full sun?

- Not full sun.

- Not full sun.

- Well the larger varieties like full sun.

But the smaller varieties could use some shade here in this area.

- OK. - But they can take quite a bit of sun.

Container's a good place to put 'em in fact the smaller varieties really do well in rock gardens.

And the new hypetufa containers that they're making, they always want a dwarf Chamaecyparis to put in there 'cause they're so unique and they're so small.

They're relatively free of insect pests too, nothing really-- - (Chris) That's a good thing.

- Gets on them.

Now I have seen bagworms.

- Ah.

(laughing) - (Joellen) But of course you know bagworms get on everything.

- They get on everything.

Right.

(laughing) That sounds pretty good though.

- Easy care, I like that, put it in the pot, doesn't need much water.

Can take some sun.

- I think I could do that.

- Cute little specimen plants it sounds exciting.

- Now there's one more I want to mention.

- Go ahead.

- And that is the False cypress that is native to the United States.

- (Chris) Oh, sure.

- There's one that's native, it starts in Maine, goes down to the, it's a coastal plant mostly.

In Maine, down to Florida and then Alabama and Mississippi.

And you'll find it in wet areas which is why it is so unusual because the others don't particularly care for that much water.

- Aha, gotcha.

- But since these are larger cypresses and they like the sunshine, they have figured out they don't wanna be in competition with everything else that's around them so they have found that if they live in a wet area, they can get into full sun.

- (Chris) What's the name of that variety?

- It's... Thyoides.

- OK. - T-H-Y-O-I-D-E-S, thyoides.

Chamaecyparis thyoides.

And it is native to the United States.

And what they're trying to do, there are quite a few cultivars of it that are going, so they're-- might be available but it might be available in a catalog, it may not be a garden center around you.

You should have one or two somewhere, they're just so unusual and interesting.

- All right, so Joellen says get one or two of those.

- You've convinced me, I'm getting one.

- Sounds good, all right.

(laughing) Now let's talk about Spiraeas.

- Yes.

- What do we need to know about planting Spiraeas?

- Spiraeas likes well-drained soil.

- OK, well-drained soil, right.

- But it's really not particular about where it's planted.

- OK. - So, but it doesn't want to be in boggy wet feet.

- (Chris) OK. - The ones you think of the most are the first ones that bloom in the spring, they're usually white.

- Mm hmm.

- There's different varieties of those and they're usually big.

- A lot of people, do they call them like bridal veil?

- Yeah bridal wreath Spiraeas.

- Wreaths, bridal wreaths.

- Is one of them.

- OK. - And those are the older varieties.

- Yes, that's what I always hear, hear about them.

- And they are nice but a lot of people don't have five, seven feet.

- They're big.

- Tall and wide to, a place to plant them.

So, if you want a spring blooming one there is another one that's been developed, it's called Snowmound.

And it blooms when their leaves just start coming out on it but it has these big huge quorums or groups of flowers that are really pretty so they're not single on the stems like the others.

- Oh, OK, like clusters.

- Clusters.

- You go down along it.

- Right.

- And very, very pretty.

- That sounds beautiful, and it's smaller, more compact?

- (Joellen) It's a little bit smaller.

- Oh yeah.

- Maybe four or five feet.

It's still a large shrub, fairly large shrub.

But you can keep it pruned.

But all of those that I've just talked about bloom in the spring so as a rule of thumb, when we prune them is after they finish blooming.

So that's how you can control their height.

- Now didn't we plant some Spiraeas in our Family Plot bed out front?

- Yes and that is what the exciting part of Spiraeass are for me, are the dwarf Spiraeass.

They get about three feet or lower in height.

And the one we planted out front was Anthony Waterer.

It's got that lavender pink bloom on it.

- (Chris) I like that.

- They start blooming in May and June and then they'll bloom, almost the summer until it gets really, really hot.

And then it'll be sporadically.

It just won't be as a full bloom.

- So it's kinda like separate from the other first ones that we talked about.

- Yes, yes.

- And they go a different summer-type Spiraeas.

- Yeah.

Some of them are related to the others but these are the cultivars that they've developed which has really been exciting.

There's one that I liked called Goldflame.

- (Chris) (laughing) Cool name.

- It has a russet red foliage and yellow in the springtime.

And then it has pink flowers on it but the foliage fades as it gets hotter.

So it'll get a little bit more green.

And sometimes ends up being green, mine is green right now because it's gone through the summer.

But in the fall, it picks up the fall colors of russet and orange and yellow.

- (Chris) I like those colors.

- Which is nice.

And it holds its leaves a little bit longer than a lot of other deciduous shrubs.

I like it for the foliage.

To me the flowers are kind of insignificant.

But the foliage is spectacular and there's a lot of people who like it and it's easy to find.

The smallest one that's easy to find in the nurseries and gardening centers is called Little Princess.

And it's really cute, it doesn't get more than around a foot, foot and a half tall.

- Small.

- Yeah it's small.

It has pink flowers, it's got green foliage, nice green foliage and you know, for the modern landscape that doesn't always have space, I mean these smaller Spiraeas will give you blooms in June and July when you know there's not a lot of things-- - Yeah nothing else - Are blooming.

- That's right.

All right well Joellen, we definitely appreciate the good information, good landscape options there.

Thank you much.

[upbeat country music] - Soldier bugs, yeah those are pretty neat.

You know, they are actually a type of stink bug.

So finally a stink bug that's not all bad.

These will eat a lot of different things that we want to get rid of as gardeners.

European corn borer, corn earworm, gypsy moth caterpillars, cabbage loopers, flea beetles, I hate those things.

Colorado potato beetles, fall armyworms, Mexican bean beetles and others.

- Wow, that's a pretty extensive list.

- There's even been some studies where they've tried to lure using pheromones, lure these things into field crops, because once again, it's not real beneficial to catch and release these into your crop, but if you can lure them there, that's great.

These things live five to eight weeks, and a female can lay a thousand eg gs in their lifetime.

You can purchase them online if you have a small greenhouse, and they use a proboscis.

They pierce their prey and suck out the juices, and even their nymphs are predacious in four out of five of the stages.

[upbeat country music] All right Celeste, let's talk about dealing with the landscape pros, right?

- Yes sir.

- OK.

So what do we need to start with that?

- Well, really what I like to throw out there first is just the questions that I get in the office so frequently are folks have hired some professionals to come in, do some landscaping around their home, whether it was re-doing something that was old that they didn't particularly like or it's a new home that's being built and they're just not satisfied with it, they've spent the money and the time and the effort to get it done and it's not what, they didn't end up with what they thought they were gonna get if that makes any sense.

And so I just think that it's important to educate people about the different types of professionals that you could hire to do these jobs, plan these jobs, talk about what the differences are in them and then just give some tips on how to be more successful with your end product.

- Well let's talk about those types of professionals then.

- OK. - Let's do that.

- So the first professional that I always wanna bring up is a landscape architect.

So those folks are gonna have advanced degrees in that area.

They don't necessarily have to be plant people, OK?

And we'll get into who might be more plant people oriented, (laughing) in a little bit.

But what they're looking at is the overall master plan.

So they're able to incorporate if you need to make changes to the exterior of your home to make it go along with this master plan, if you're wanting to incorporate some parking.

If you need to keep slope in mind, you need to think about irrigation, install an irrigation, they're kind of seeing the whole picture instead of just looking at what you're gonna plant in your beds, does that make sense?

- (Chris) Makes sense.

- They'd have engineering-- - Right, engineering experience.

- They know how to move a lot of dirt.

- They're architects, exactly.

So they're here to make this big plan.

Then, often times the architects may employ a landscape designer to help them make those particular plant choices and do the plant designs.

Now if your project isn't quite that extensive, I would say you may be able to forego the landscape architect because that will be definitely more pricey.

- (Chris) Yes.

- And then they charge by the hour, or they may charge for an entire project, and then more installments of projects if it's a big situation and they wanna do it in compartments.

So we'll talk a little bit about the difference in architects and designer.

A designer possibly is gonna be more plant-oriented.

They're going to know a lot more about plant material, what's gonna do well in certain sites.

They tend to have more of an artistic kind of flair, you know, hopefully they're gonna be able to communicate well with you and find out what your style is.

It would be really similar to if you had someone come into your home and you wanted them to help you decorate your living room.

They'll look at things you already have, kind of what your style already looks like and then try to implement that.

- That sounds like Joellen.

- Yeah there you go!

(laughing) Help you pick the plants that you need, right plants right place right?

- That's it.

- So again it's gonna be really important to communicate well with them.

So the third professional is a landscape contractor.

- (Chris) OK. - Which, those are the folks who are actually gonna do installments of your projects.

So maybe they're the ones who are preparing the beds, they're the ones who are installing the plants, the ones who are, if you're getting a new patio laid or having lighting installed, they're the people who are gonna be subcontracted out to actually do the work.

Often cases, again, if it's a smaller project, your landscape designer may be willing to do those himself.

And so he's not gonna employ that extra contractor.

But those are the three basic professionals and I just feel like it's really important that everybody understands the difference between each of them.

- That's good, good descriptions.

That's real good stuff.

Now what about the tips for success?

- OK, good.

So I've got quite a few tips.

- OK. - But we'll skim over a few.

I think it's super important that you build a relationship with your designer, contractor, whoever it is that you've chosen to work with.

So when I say build a relationship, you need to be open, and able to communicate clearly with them.

So, I would recommend having a sit down meeting.

You need to have a budget in place before you start making plans 'cause sometimes you know you tell 'em all this stuff you want, and then they tell you how much it's gonna cost and you're like oh never mind.

So you've already started off on the wrong foot.

So let's tell 'em upfront how much we're willing to spend on this project.

That's super important.

Let's be really open about what we want from those areas.

Do we need an area for pets?

Do we need areas for the kids to play?

Are we more interested in having just a basic foundation planning.

Possibly, I hear this a lot, folks are plant collectors.

People who love to garden, they wanna buy plants themselves throughout the years and add them to their landscape.

So if what you need are bones, the bones and the good structure, let's be clear with them on that so that they don't overplant and get it too full and then they haven't left you any room for you to put your own spin on the situation.

So I think those are some good tips as far as being able to build a relationship.

I also like to have a contract with them, make sure we sign contract just concerning budget, timeframe, the guarantees of their work.

They're gonna have, say that these plants aren't gonna die 'cause I've planted them right or we're willing to come in and help fix things if something was installed incorrectly, so on and so forth, different things like that.

So I think it's good to be covered with that.

Some other things to keep in mind are site analysis.

So before you start this project, we need to be able to locate all of our lines, call 811, know where all your buried lines are.

If you are aware of wet areas that can be a huge problem especially with new homes who have a lot of soil that's been brought in that maybe isn't topsoil and it's not gonna drain properly 'cause it's really heavy soils.

So landscape designers, most of them are gonna have some good solutions on how to help you correct those drainage issues before we start planting.

Being able to identify if you have a hardpan, you know, a foot and a half underneath the soil and you've installed all these plants and now it's holding water and they all die, and you're not sure why.

(laughing) So just being able to-- - Yeah that's a good point.

- Kind of analyze some of those site issues before you start would be another tip of mine.

And then I think one of the most important tips that I could say is to identify your own personal garden style.

- Yeah.

- And a lot of times I think it's more important to communicate with them what you don't like, you know, I feel like it's easier sometimes to say I don't like this than this is exactly what I want.

A lot of people are never gonna know exactly what they want or exactly how they want it to look.

But they know what they don't want it to look like for sure.

So I think that that is super important.

If you don't know what your garden style is I say just go to some botanical gardens, go to some local private homes, tour their gardens-- - Do the Master Gardener Garden Tours.

- Do the Master Gardener, Through Our Garden Gates Tours and get some ideas.

- At least go to a nursery.

- Yeah!

- A local nursery and look at the plants there, oh I like this, I like this, write the name down so that you have that to communicate.

- Definitely, definitely.

So I think those are some of the major, major tips that I would have for being successful.

- That's good stuff.

- Yeah thanks.

- Good stuff.

- Yeah, I think that it never hurts to try to prepare as much as you can on the forefront so that you are pleased with what you end up with.

- All right, well they will definitely be pleased.

All right, thank you much, that's good stuff.

- You're welcome.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] Stop volcano mulching.

This is entirely too much mulch around this tree.

What usually happens is when you have mulch like this piled up against the tree, it keeps the bark wet.

When a bark stays wet, it starts to decay.

And once it starts to decay, then guess what, you have fungal problems, bacterial problems, and possible pest problems.

So, what you should do is start taking the mulch away from the tree.

You want to expose these root flares, and what you're trying to do with mulch is trying to mimic Mother Nature.

You want to bring the mulch out to the drip line of the tree if you can.

Once you take the mulch back, you should always be able to see the root flares.

Here are your root flares here.

Leave those exposed.

And there you have it.

Your tree is gonna thank you for it.

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

You ladies ready for these?

- Ready.

- Sure.

- These are good questions.

- Yes they are.

- All right, let's start with the first viewer email.

"What are the best pre-emergents to use for lawns "here in the Mid-South?

When should I apply them?"

And this is from Lou of Southaven, Mississippi.

So Celeste.

- Yeah?

- What are the best pre-emerge herbicides out there?

- Well I hate to be biased but - (Chris) OK. - We've got a lot of options out there so I'll just get real with you.

We've got Pendulum, Dimension, Barricade, these are all common pre-emerge herbicides-- - Yeah very common.

- That are available to homeowners, any residential folks can buy 'em and use 'em.

I think most people in the Mid-South are using pre-emerge to help control crabgrass, annual warm-season grass, in their established Bermuda or warm-season lawns or that's zoysia, what have you.

And these products will work for that.

And if your main objective is crabgrass pre-emerge, application time needs to be around like late February, early March.

And on the label they'll actually have recommendations for a split application so that you can make that control last longer.

So you'll make your second application six to eight weeks after the first one.

And so instead of just getting that 30 to forty-five day control, you're extending it to more like maybe 30, maybe even up to 90-day control.

Some of these products can also have some pre-emergent effectiveness for select broadleaf weeds.

- (Chris) Right.

- So if your issue is more having problems with annual cool-season weeds, henbit, dead nettle, things like that-- - Which is actually germinating now.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- Now.

- Some late summer, July applications might be reasonable.

And some folks even enjoy a fall application of a pre-emerge for some of those that maybe germinate a little later.

Or maybe the seed that aren't gonna come up until January, February.

- (Chris) Right.

- So you have the potential for four applications of pre-emerge but really I wouldn't do all of those I just would identify what my main issue was, is it broadleaf weeds, cool-season or is it those annual warm-season grasses like crabgrass, and then decide accordingly.

- And all of those that you mentioned are readily available to the homeowners.

Please read and follow the label.

- Yes please.

- So there you have it, Ms. Lou, thank you much for the question.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

With a picture.

"I have a granny smith apple tree "in my backyard, it is five years old.

"It has not grown much since I planted it.

"There is a white furry spot on one of the branches.

"Do you know what this is?

"Also, the past couple of years it has what looks like "sores in the bark.

"The affected bark on the br anches are dark and enlarged.

"Early in the year after it puts on new leaves "some of the branches will completely die.

"I would love to save the tree "but am not sure if it is worth saving.

What do I need to do?

Thank you."

And this is from Ms. Debra right here in Cordova.

So let's go back to the first question.

White furry spots on one of the branches.

Do we know what that is?

- I think so.

- Yeah.

- Do you know what that is?

- What do you think it is?

- It's an insect.

- Uh huh.

(laughing) - It's like the spittlebug but it's not it's the wooly... - It's the wooly apple aphid.

- Apple aphid.

- Wooly apple aphid yeah.

- I was just trying to make sure I was on the right path.

- You know that.

(laughing) - Wooly apple aphid yeah.

And it reminds me of the spittlebug 'cause they hide underneath their little white foam or-- - (Chris) Cottony mass is what it looks like.

- (Joellen) Likes to sit there under there and feed on your plant.

- Mm hmm.

Yeah 'cause it has pierce sucking mouthparts.

- Yeah.

- Of course, and it produces those long white waxy strands.

Actually for protection is why it does that.

So it's protection-- - From chemicals.

- From chemicals and predators.

- Yeah.

- I was gonna say they don't want the birds to come down and eat on 'em.

- I think, I know that she's only seen that one spot of those so I don't think, that's probably not causing all these other issues that she's talking about.

But they can be detrimental to young trees.

And there are some root stocks that are actually resistant to the wooly apple aphid so if that were becoming the major problem, I would say a selection of a variety that has appropriate root stock would be the best option there.

- Exactly right.

- But I think there's other things going on here as well.

- Exactly right because again, those aphids will feed on limbs and on the roots.

Yeah that's another issue.

So because she has an affected area, bark, on the branches that are dark and enlarged.

Those are cankers.

- (Joellen) Yeah.

- OK, and those cankers are pretty much formed by black rot fungus.

So what you need to do is get in there and prune those out.

- Mm hmm.

- At least, what would you say, six to eight inches into healthy wood?

- I definitely would.

- Yeah.

- I sure would.

Yeah those need to be pruned out Ms. Debra.

Make sure you don't have any rotten fruit on the tree.

You need to get that off the tree and get them off the ground as well, practice good sanitation.

I think that'll getcha.

- So do you think she should try to save this tree or, it's been five years it hasn't grown much.

- It's been five years.

- I'm thinking I might-- - Depends on how big it is and if it has produced any fruit for her.

- True.

- And if it is and she wants to save it, that's fine.

But I would also suggest, like Celeste said is there's some other varieties.

I have one called-- - And you have-- - Yeah, Enterprise.

It hasn't had any, it's three years old now, it's never gotten anything.

- And it produces?

- And it hasn't produced yet.

- Hasn't produced yet.

Three years old, OK. - We're talking I got it, I actually - Grafted it?

- Grafted it onto a stalk.

And so I've started from zero.

- OK. - But it's three years old now and it's taller than me so that's good.

- All right, so yeah that's another option for you Ms. Debra so I hope this helps you out.

So Celeste, Joellen, thank you it's been fun.

- Thank you!

- Thank you, very good.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is familyplot@wkno.org 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.

Go to FamilyPlotGarden.com to get all sorts of gardening information.

We have over 500 videos and lots of information.

I'm Chris Cooper, be sure to join us next week on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]