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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Shrubs are the backbone of a landscape.

Today we're gonna look at some reliable favorites.

Also, fall brings a new set of problems to the herb and vegetable 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 the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.

And Natalie Bumgarner will be joining me later.

Good to see you Joellen.

- Good to see you.

- We get to hear about your favorite shrubs.

- Yes.

- You gonna be excited, huh?

- A few of them.

- Just a few of them.

- It's just a few of them.

Yeah.

We're gonna play a little bit of favorites today.

- Okay.

Well let's play your favorites.

Where do you wanna start?

- We're gonna start with dwarf Yaupon holly.

- I like it.

- It is an evergreen shrub.

So means it stays green all year long.

- Okay.

- Nice.

Backbone plant.

It's native to the United States.

It is the one holly that's withstood all the cold, cold temperatures that we had here.

Where a lot of the other hollies defoliated and some of them died, this one stayed green.

It's compact.

If you just let it go, it'll get up to six feet or so tall.

But if you keep it pruned, you can keep it pruned small.

Whatever you want, whatever size you want.

It's got small leaves on it, very adaptable to the soils in the United States.

And it can withstand some moisture.

Like we planted them out front here in our terrible draining front landscape.

But it also can take drought.

So it's very versatile plant.

And it can be in full sun to shade.

Just remember in full sun the leaves will be smaller and it'll be more compact.

- Good point.

- In the shade, it's gonna be larger leaves and less compact.

- That's good.

Okay.

- But it still is a very nice plant, like zones 6 to 10.

- Okay.

Do they produce berries?

- No.

- Okay.

No berries?

- No.

This particular one, now different form of it - Okay.

- That's a tall tree.

Yes, they do.

- Okay.

- But these don't.

- All right.

Got it.

- Second one, hydrangeas - Ah.

- Love hydrangeas.

But they are deciduous, which means they lose their leaves in the wintertime.

The nursery industry is going crazy with hydrangeas, they have been producing lots of different varieties, they're getting smaller and shorter and bloom longer.

And so there's just a myriad of azaleas, I mean, hydrangeas to think of out there.

And believe me, there's more than just the arborescens and the paniculata.

But those are the two main ones that the hybridizers are using to make all these new shrubs for us to choose from.

Very nice.

- Yeah.

I like 'em.

- And they do prefer well-drained soils and a little bit of loose soil, not compact soil.

And depending on the species, they like full sun or shade.

And I have both.

I have some in shade and I have some in full sun.

And they bloom and do well equally in both places.

- That is good.

That's good.

But you know what the major question is about hydrangeas?

It's pruning.

- Pruning.

Yeah, I know, - Right?

- That's why I'm saying, they're really doing something neat with these hybrids.

It doesn't matter when you prune them.

[Chris laughing] - How about that?

- Yeah.

- That makes it a lot easier.

- But during the growing season, the best thing I can say, the best time to prune anything is when it finishes, blooming.

And because some of these bloom for so long, you're not gonna be able to prune it until the next spring.

- Gotcha.

Okay.

Wow.

How about that?

- So yeah.

- Yeah.

I like it.

- There's a lot of new varieties out there.

- Okay.

- And I like to leave the blooms, you know, the dead heads of the blooms in the winter, 'cause that's nice winter interest too.

- Oh, okay.

- You know, it's just real pretty.

But they are zones 3 to 9, so that's a large part of the country.

Like I said, they're developing all these new ones.

Very versatile.

That's number two.

Three Abelia.

- Yeah.

- All of the Abelia species, they are evergreen except in cold situations where they end up being deciduous.

But so part of the country, they'll be evergreen and part of them they will be deciduous.

- Got it.

- They can be a large shrub, but again, they've done a lot of hybridizing and there's a lot of short shrubs out there to choose from, a whole bunch of them.

They are soil adaptable again.

They can take moist soil, they're well drained to start with.

And then after they're established they can take some drought.

- Wow.

- Because a lot of them you see in street medians and exactly that's a hot dry place.

- That's right.

- Even if it has irrigation, it's still a hot, dry place for them to live.

So they're very definitely, and they usually have flowers all over 'em.

All summer long, so.

They bloom all season long.

Once they start in the spring, they like full sun to light shade.

'Cause now in light shade they'll bloom less than they do in full sun, but they're still gonna bloom.

And they're in zones 5 to 9.

And they've even developed one for zone 4 and possibly three, which is called Sweet Emotions.

- Sweet... Nice name.

I like that.

- Yes.

- Nice name, good name for it.

- That is a good name.

- But that's the Abelia.

Then there is Ninebark.

- Aha!

- Physocarpus species.

It is deciduous, so it loses its leaves.

- Okay.

- It is native.

- Okay.

- There are new varieties that are a little more compact 'cause it can be a large shrub.

And there's more compact varieties that they've developed that have beautiful colors all summer long.

Yellows and burgundies and I have a burgundy one myself.

- Okay.

- They're really nice.

They're adaptable to their soil conditions.

They prefer nice moist soil, but they will once established, take some drought.

The one I have has learned to live in droughts because I don't always water it.

- It's learned live in it.

[Chris chuckles] - Yeah.

They all bloom in the spring, but they're very tiny flowers.

They're tiny flowers.

And they're very delicate looking plant.

I really like it.

It likes full sun to part shade and it's in zones 3 to 7.

So that's another large range.

So again, very adaptable.

- I like it.

- Nice plant.

- So, and it has that exfoliating bark a little bit.

- If it gets old enough.

- If it's old enough.

Okay.

Gotcha.

- And the larger varieties, you'll see that better in.

But no, the smaller ones- - They don't.

- Mine has not developed that yet.

Of course, mine is not more than two feet tall, so.

- Oh, okay.

It'll get there.

- It may or may not do that.

And then number five, ornamental grasses.

- I know you love ornamental grasses.

- I have been in love with ornamental grasses since I discovered them in the 1980s.

- Wow!

Okay.

- And so they can be deciduous, they can be evergreen, it depends on which kind of grass you have.

They come in all kinds of different sizes and colors and they can fit into any landscape.

They're just gorgeous.

- Wow!

- They're soil adaptable.

Some of them like moist soils like the, you know, the sedges and the Acorus and things like that.

And others like dry conditions, like the Mexican feathergrass.

And he likes a desert, that's a desert situation.

They like sun to light shade.

And grasses to me mimic water in the landscape.

They rustle in the wind, they move, they're kind of a vase-shaped plant and just bring something different to the landscape.

And I just love all kinds of them.

- Wow.

Now I know how to excite Joellen - Ornamental grass.

- Talk about ornamental grasses.

- Yes.

Yes.

[Chris laughing] And they like Zones 3 to 10.

- That is a- - So it's a large range.

- How about that?

- All over the place.

Just really, really nice.

- Wow!

- Lastly I'm gonna talk about, my sixth one, which is Fothergilla.

I'm talking about him because he is not well known.

- Okay.

- I like the gardenii, the dwarf Fothergilla, 'cause some of 'em get really big.

- Okay.

- It is native.

It has new compact varieties that they're developing.

It's adaptable to soil conditions.

Again, prefers loose, well drained soil, but will take some with drought once it's established.

- Okay.

- It's like sun to part shade.

And it's considered a four-season plant because it has beautiful blooms in the spring.

- Okay.

- It has beautiful foliage in the summertime.

The foliage then turns fall colors yellows and oranges in the fall.

And then in the winter it has these nice twig pattern to it.

So it's considered a four-season shrub.

- Four seasons.

How about that?

And it likes zones 4 to 9, which again is a large part of the country.

So there's a Fothergilla out there for you.

[Chris chuckles] - So there's one just for you.

- Yeah.

And you know, just with these six plants, you can develop a landscape for yourself.

- Wow!

- Because they have different size leaves.

- Okay.

- From coarse to fine textured.

They have different forms from vase shape to round.

Some of them are evergreen, some of 'em are deciduous.

- Alright.

- All except the holly, bloom during the growing season, which attracts pollinators to your garden.

- Okay.

There we go.

Alright.

- Most are native to the United States and they all have similar sun/shade environmental conditions.

So that they all need the same type of moisture and sunlight conditions.

They can all live together in the same place.

And most importantly, they don't have a lot of pests or diseases.

- That was gonna be my question coming up.

- Yes.

- So how about that?

- Yeah.

And in fact - It's a win-win.

- I would say the hydrangeas would probably be the most problematic just because they're hydrangeas.

But they are trying to develop them with disease and pest resistance along with the compactness, so.

- That'd be good, I mean, 'cause the major disease of hydrangeas is gonna be Cercospora leaf spot.

- Yeah.

- For the most part.

- Okay.

Alright.

- But they can all live together.

- They can all live together.

- In a landscape and the landscape will look beautiful 'cause it has all the textures and colors and shapes that you need.

- And they probably all live at your home?

- Yes.

I they- - In the landscape.

- How about that?

- They live at my house.

- A trip to Joellen's house.

How about that folks to see all of her favorite shrubs?

I think that's pretty good.

Thank you Joellen, we appreciate that.

- No problem.

[upbeat country music] What we have here in this area is a pretty thick stand of chamberbitter.

Chamberbitter is also known as little mimosa.

It's a summer annual broadleaf weed.

It actually reproduces by seed and if you look on the backside of the leaves, you can actually see the little seeds.

It also develops a pretty good tap root system as you can see here.

Look how fibrous that is.

It is a very invasive weed, can be very difficult to control.

So the best thing to do is, culturally, you have to make sure you have a thick stand of grass.

If it's in your flower bed, how about using mulch?

'Cause mulch is actually gonna restrict light.

So if you restrict light, then of course it will not grow.

Now if you wanna use a chemical, you can use a pre-emerge.

And a pre-emerge I would use would be one that contains isoxaben, this one, or trifluralin is another one.

If you wanna use a post emergent herbicide, I would probably go with something that contains 2,4-D dicamba and MCPP or your broadleaf weed herbicides, always read and follow the label.

So again, you better control chamberbitter, if not, as you can see, it produces a thick stand of weeds that are hard to get out.

[upbeat country music] Alright, Natalie.

Let's talk a little bit about late season fall garden problems.

All right?

So what do you wanna start off with?

- Well, we know we've been through the summer season, right.

And we've dealt with some of the early blight and the common things that we see sometimes on our tomato plants and things like that.

But I wanted to just talk about some things that maybe aren't as much.

- Okay.

- On our radar.

And basil downy mildew is one of the first ones.

Actually it's a disease that we've been dealing with for less than 10 years - Right - Here in the United States.

And it's something that can certainly take down our late summer to fall herbs pretty quickly.

- Okay.

Now what does the symptoms look like though?

I mean, how do you know that you have?

- Well, one of the confusing things about basil downy mildew is when we first see it on our plants, we may actually mistake it for a nutritional issue.

So of course we're typically gonna be looking at the top of our plants in the top of the leaves.

And where we'll see at first will be a little bit of yellowing between the veins on the top of the leaves.

We may look at that and think, "Oh, low iron or low nitrogen."

- Right.

- You might think fertility.

But what we'll wanna make sure we do is flip over that leaf and look on the underneath side, because lots of times then we'll see that sporulation, you know, that sign of the fungal like organism that causes this disease.

And over time it'll cause a lot worse damage on our basil leaves.

- Okay.

So where does it come from?

- Well, it can be seedborne and it's challenging to control in basil but some seeds are treated, but that can be a potential entry source.

Lots of times it's airborne.

- Right.

Sure.

- And you know it overwinters in very warm places.

But as the season progresses, it moves further up.

And so, if your neighbor has downy mildew on their basil, it won't be very long before it gets to yours.

Yeah.

- Okay.

So what are the most susceptible cultivars?

- Well, this is one of the challenging things about it, because right, we all like- - It's a challenge.

- Genovese basil, some of the sweet basils for our pesto and you know, to eat with our tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.

And those are actually some of the most susceptible cultivars.

- Okay.

- And so there are, if we use a red basil or a cinnamon Thai, a lot of those types of cultivars are actually less susceptible than our sweet basil.

Now we're making some good progress.

There are some sweet basils Eleonora is one that has a little bit more resistance to basil downy mildew than some of our other older cultivars.

Not bulletproof, not complete, but we'll stand up a little bit stronger to disease.

So we can purposefully choose another cultivar.

We can watch our plants closely, you know, high humidity, of course.

You know, we want good air movement.

- Sure.

- And, watch 'em closely.

- Okay.

So treatments, you know, outside of what you just mentioned, if we do some of those things but.

- Yes.

- Any other treatments?

- So of course environmental is some of the best ways to deal with it if we can.

Of course saying maintain low humidity in the late summer is a hard thing to do.

- Yeah, that's gonna be hard.

- But good air movement, you know, not letting our plants get so dense with leaves.

So keep 'em harvested, watch 'em closely.

And if you have a few infected leaves, pull those off quickly and try to, you know, maintain as much sanitation as possible.

Keep those clean.

There are some biological sprays like ACTIV8, things like that that are, you know, organically certifiable that we can use as a protectant.

- Okay.

- You know, as homeowners, there aren't fungicides that work real well for control.

But when we have high humidity, temperatures and things that are, you know, very ripe for infection, then some of the protectants can be a good step.

- Okay.

Yeah.

Always practice good sanitation though.

That's what I tell folks, get those infected leaves outta there.

All right.

So let's move to army worms, right?

- Yeah.

- That's a problem?

- Yeah.

So I'm sure that people are probably pretty familiar with fall army worms.

- Yeah.

Fall.

- One of the issues that I've had in, actually it's been my tomato plots and trials this summer have actually been yellow striped army worms.

So they're very close but can be foliage feeders.

But I've actually had a lot of issues with them feeding on the fruit.

- How about that?

Okay.

- And as you can guess, certainly they'll damage the fruit, but after they feed for a little while, then you get other disease and degradation that can really, really destroy those fruits.

We wanna catch 'em early.

- Sure.

So what does that damage look like?

- Well, it'll actually on the fruit, it'll kinda look like a little circular entry hole.

So they'll be feeding on there.

And in very advanced stages I've actually, found them completing the rest of their lifecycle to get back to moths.

So they're gonna be small moths inside that tomato fruit.

Sanitation can be good, right?

- Sanitation, that's right.

- If we find fruit that we know that they are feeding on and potentially occupying, we wanna get that out of there so they don't become moths and multiple generations, right.

So the more we can- - That's right.

- Control what's currently infecting our plants, the more we can stop it, so.

- Mr.

D is gonna like this so, is that fruit still edible?

[all laughing] - Well, if you catch it early, I guess what do we say there might be some extra protein.

- Protein, protein, protein.

- Yeah.

- Extra protein.

- Yeah.

Sometimes there'll be a little surface feeding that you can work around, but if they're very far tunneling in there, lots of times you'll get some decay in there.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

So I've sprayed with Bt products.

- Sure.

- Right.

So a zero-day pre-harvest interval you can spray that.

Easy to get ahold of Thuricide, DiPel would be a couple of brand names.

Some of the spinosad products and certainly conventional insecticides, 'cause they may have a longer window before you can eat.

- Okay.

Good deal.

Now let's get to these squash bugs.

You know, this is a problem.

You know, we get the question all the time in office about squash bugs.

Your experience?

- Well and I think with squash bugs, lots of times we get to the latter part of the season.

I've had 'em on my winter squash.

Pumpkins tend to be the cucurbits that they like the best and we have lots of large adult populations and by the time we've gotten here, our chances for control are harder.

Right, it's much harder to control the adults.

So what we really wanna be doing is being aware, knowing what the eggs look like, you know.

Looking on the underside of our leaves and being prepared for those infestations before they occur.

Some people will put boards out in their garden, they like cover and making then squish 'em in the morning.

So it's, I mean, that's a good way to start your day.

Right?

Kill some squash bugs and head off to work.

- Right.

- So early control, knowing what you have and treating those with much of this might be a regular insecticide spray.

Because by the time our vines start to die down, then there's not as much for them to feed on.

They're much more likely to start feeding on our fruit, damaging them and reducing their storage life, so.

We wanna watch out for the little ones before the adults get much harder to control.

- And I'll tell you what, those eggs look just like little bronze footballs.

- Yes.

Yeah.

And once you've learned what you're looking for, they're very characteristic.

And in the small garden, you know, raised bed or a container, just squish or pull the eggs off and you can really reduce your populations in small gardens.

- I tell you, at our victory garden, the ladies out there, Ms.

Stephanie and Ms.

Twyla, they actually, wrap tape around their hand and they of course flip the leaf over and they actually, [hands clapping] that's how they get rid of the squash bug eggs with the tape and it actually adheres, it sticks to the tape.

- Take 'em out that way.

- Yeah.

And they just squish 'em.

- Yeah.

Take all, all of those, that whole mass with 'em.

- Yeah.

So it works for them pretty good.

- It's a lot safer than using two bricks for the adult.

[all laughing] You can get your thumbs and painful.

- Yeah.

Those things can be something else.

- Yep.

Get 'em young.

Those adults are hard to control.

- All right Natalie, we appreciate that good information.

Thank you much.

- Thanks for having me.

- Alright.

[upbeat country music] So there's a lot of different ways I've heard about being able to tell if a watermelon is ripe or not when it's on the vine.

I've heard about thumping it, to see if it sounds hollow.

I can't hear the difference.

I've heard about smelling it to see if it smells sweet.

I don't, they just smell like watermelon to me.

So I don't know.

But there's a couple ways that I have found that are very reliable to tell you if your watermelon is actually ripe.

The first one is by the watermelon, just opposite of where the stem comes out is a tendril.

If the watermelon is not ripe, the tendril will be green.

If the watermelon is ripe, the tendril will be brown.

So that's the first way that tells you that your watermelon might be ripe.

The second way you can tell, is flip the watermelon over and look at where it sat on the ground.

This one has a white base and so it's not quite ready.

It's just white right here.

If we look at this one right here, it's heavy.

If I can flip it over, you'll notice it's starting to turn yellow or kind of a beige color.

So that tells you that this watermelon between the tendril and the light beige on the bottom tells you this is ready to pick.

[pruners snipping] So, I'm gonna take this watermelon inside and see how it tastes.

[upbeat country music] - Joellen, this is our Q&A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- These are some great questions.

- Yes, they are.

- Here's our first viewer email.

"Can you explain why there's a new leaf growing "out of an existing leaf of my mother-in-law's tongue houseplant?"

And this is Edwinna from Memphis, Tennessee.

So we appreciate the picture.

- I love the picture.

- How about that though?

- Yeah.

- So what are you thinking?

Can you explain that?

- Yeah.

You know, Sansevieria, when something happens to it, it's very easy to start another plant.

And with the tape there, I'm kind of looking at it going, did the branch kind of get a torn or something there?

- That's what I wonder.

- And what it is then the nutrients are coming up and they can't go clear to the end of the leaf.

So they said, "Oh we'll just start a new plant here."

And so it's just a new plant.

It's a way that the Sansevieria propagates itself.

- Right.

- And you can actually take that little part.

I would cut around the leaf where that it's attached to, I wouldn't pull it off the leaf.

I would cut the leaf that is attached to and you put it down in moist soil and it will continue to root and be another plant.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

So you have another plant?

- I love that.

Yeah.

It's making another plant.

Because that's how they propagate each other.

- Right, right.

Because they do grow by rhizomes.

Right.

Yeah.

I was thinking it was coming up, right.

And then there's a tear there, right?

- There's a tear there.

- Yeah.

So it's been compromised.

So it's like, yeah.

- It's like, "Oh I can grow."

- "I can grow through there."

Yeah.

It's kind of force you way through there.

At the end of the day, there you have it.

- Yeah.

- So yeah, you could either leave it or transplant it.

- That's right.

- How about that?

So Edwinna, we appreciate that.

I thought that was pretty cool.

So I hope that answers your question for you.

Yeah, enjoy that.

Enjoy.

- I think that's fun.

I love seeing that.

- I think that's pretty, pretty cool.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"When growing tulips in heavy soil, "should I dig them up each spring, dry them and then replant in the fall?"

And this is Mickey from Chicago, Illinois.

- What do you think about that?

- Oh yes, he can do that.

- Yes.

- The tulips, used to be very perennial, but with all the hybridizing, sometimes they have a little bit of trouble being fully perennial.

- Okay.

- And they do like loose soil.

So he is correct in thinking that, you know, would be a good idea to dig them up.

- To go ahead and dig them up.

- I prefer to let them get yellow foliage so that there's no chlorophyll left.

So all the chlorophyll and food has gone down into the bulb before I dig it up in the spring.

- Right.

- Because it doesn't take long, you know, after they finished blooming for that to happen.

- Okay.

- And then I would dig them up and I put them in a cool dry place, store them for the summer until fall when it's time to plant them back in the ground.

And if he wants to try to make the ground that he was planting them in, that's so heavy, a little more loose, he could, amend that soil for a while.

- Right, right.

And that's what he was also warning too.

I mean, should the ground be amended while the bulbs are out for the summer and we say?

- He can.

Yeah.

That would be fine.

- Yeah.

And I would probably amend that with, you know, compost.

- Compost.

- Leaf mold.

- Yes.

- Pine fines or something like that.

- And you can also buy soil conditioner and things like that.

Compost from the, yeah.

- He can do that.

- Any of that will work.

- Any of that will work.

So you were talking about digging up the bulbs and putting them in a area that's cool, airy.

What would you store the bulbs in?

- I would keep them either in a, you know, you can keep potato bags that have the netting on 'em.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- I would put them in there.

I would make sure that everything's dried.

- Okay.

- You know, roots and everything.

You know, let it all dry out.

Get all the dirt off of it.

'Cause the dirt's gonna harbor the diseases that you don't want them to rot the bulbs with.

- Right.

- And until they're fully dried, I wouldn't put them all together.

I would keep them spaced out until they were dried out.

- Okay.

Okay.

- And then I would put them in the sack.

And store 'em in a cool, dry place, so it doesn't freeze.

- Makes sense.

Okay.

I got you.

- Because I think they store bulbs, around 45, 49 degrees.

I mean it's not cold, but it's not too cool either.

- I got you.

How about that?

Good information, Mickey.

Yeah, I hope that helps you out.

All right.

Thank you Joellen, that was good.

I learned a few things on that one.

Joellen fun as always.

Learn so much, don't we?

- We do.

- That's so good.

So thank you much for being here.

- Thank you.

- 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.

If you want to learn more about anything we talked about in today's show, visit familyplotgarden.com.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]