- I'm Trace Barnett and welcome to "Garden Party."

In this show, we're diving into my favorite family recipes, garden tips and tricks, and some Alabama specialties, all with a swanky Southern twist.

In this episode, we'll be propagating and dividing house plants and perennials, making air-dry clay crafts with my friend Jennifer Wallace Fields, and everything you need to prepare for the incoming migration of hummingbirds, my favorite.

(lively music) (images popping) My house plants and perennials have been taking it easy over the cooler months, just like I have, but it's time for us to both get back to work and out in the garden.

I'm gonna show you how to divide and propagate those plants to really bring some beauty to every corner of your garden.

Let me show you a really great way to garden on a budget, and that's by dividing your perennials and propagating your house plants.

House plants and annuals are extremely easy to propagate, and one of my favorites is just this simple begonia.

This plant is not a perennial.

If you left this in your container, it would completely die back in the winter.

And I've kept this alive in my greenhouse.

You can keep them alive in your windowsill, anywhere frost can't get to them.

And as you can see, it looks rather lanky, like it's waving at you now, but that's exactly what we want.

Now, you're probably thinking I need a haircut and so does this begonia, but the begonia's gonna get one and I'm not.

So I'm gonna hold this almost just like a ponytail, and I'm just going to remove all of those lanky, long branches.

I'm gonna cut any stems here that may be diseased or maybe have a little root rot or have any kind of blight because we do not want that to carry over.

Now the fun part.

Here are our cuttings, and this is just a simple plastic cover from the top of a seed starter.

I've made drainage holes in the bottom.

We wanna use a high-quality potting mix.

This one has some eggshells in it from a previous planting, and that's fine and dandy too.

You don't want to fill this all the way to the top.

We'd want to start these in a container that's rather large versus individual cells because a lot of these will not take, but the majority of them will.

So as they grow, we will remove them and then pot them up.

So we have our cuttings here.

And when you look at your cuttings, you want to look at growth that almost look like a new plant coming up.

So this is a perfect one here, and I'm gonna remove the end, and I'm also gonna remove any large leaves.

So that is the perfect length of stem, and we also have two small leaves.

So I'm going to place that in the dirt, and I'm going to just lightly bring the dirt up around that stem.

So I've clipped this one here, and I'm going to remove the bloom.

The reason we're removing the bloom is because we don't want that plant to put any energy into that bloom.

And I'm not sure if you can see this here, but this leaf has a bit of sun damage on it, and I'm going to pop it off too.

You don't want to remove all of the leaves.

You mainly want to reserve two because that's going to help the plant photosynthesize.

Plant them in a uniform row and run them along your container.

When you're layering your begonia cuttings and propagations into your vessel or whatever you're starting them in, be sure that they don't overlap.

Overlapping leaves will cause moisture to be trapped on them and might be conducive to rotting.

And we're going to repeat this process until our tray is full.

(clock ticking) Once you have your tray adequately filled, go ahead and give that a nice drink of water.

Give them a few weeks and just see what happens without moving them or touching them.

And when they start to put on new growth, simply check the root system by inserting a toothpick and see how they are.

So once your begonias have had sufficient time, simply give it a tug here.

And if you feel a little bit of resistance, you have a little bit of a root system there.

Simply take a little trowel, lift it up like so, making sure you have all of that sufficient root system, and then plant that into your container when all threat of frost has passed.

(images popping) (lively music continues) So another house plant that is ideal for propagating is this Chinese money plant.

I've been growing these money plants for years and I hadn't saw any money, but they're really cute plants.

And this needs to be repotted for the season anyway.

And the best mode for propagating anything that has its own root system from the parent, if it's an offshoot, is remove it from the container, and it's gonna be much easier for you to break apart.

Simply just take your hands and break those roots off.

These are rather large transplants, so they have a full root system handy.

So all you need is just a small container.

Fill that with dirt, and I'm going to plop that little cutie directly in there.

Leave this in there before repotting it.

Let it have a good established root system, and this will be ready to pot up and go somewhere else.

Another great one that actually the root system doesn't require any dirt at all is an airplane plant.

And all you need to do to those is remove it directly off of the parent.

Again, we're gonna do the same thing.

Fill our little plastic container up here and just pop it right into that container.

(image popping) (apple crunching) Dividing perennials kinda gives them a renewed sense of life, so it opens up the plant, it allows them to have the space for a good, healthy root system, and it also is gonna ensure that you have the prettiest and best blooms.

While the price may be a little bit steeper than that of annuals, you're gonna get years of life from this perennial.

When you separate the perennial, it's gonna give you tons of plants that you can propagate, move around your garden, plant here, plant there, which is then gonna draw your eye around the garden.

(image popping) (apple crunching) So now let's get to the fun stuff, dividing perennials.

Some perennials to consider dividing would be irises, which is a good classic and staple in any garden.

Irises are rhizomes that grow almost all over each other.

These have needed to be divided for quite some time.

As you can see, the plants themselves are just very small, and they're not very healthy.

The root systems are for the most part exposed.

When you go into the dirt, no matter what perennial that you are dividing, take a pitchfork or a sharp shovel.

It could even be a handheld shovel.

Just go around the perimeter of your plant with your tool of choice and then lift it up.

That's gonna give you an adequate root system that will easily divide and transplant.

Irises are a really easy one to show because they have really good ample roots.

And with any perennial, the first thing you want to do is start removing the plant itself from the dirt.

So once you have adequately divided your perennial into their individual plants, first look at the root system.

That's a really good one right there.

I'm very proud of that.

(heavenly music) You know a root is healthy and its system is intact when it gives you a little bit of give, it doesn't easily come off from the plant.

You can also look at the color.

I can tell that this is a vibrant living root simply because it has almost like that potato color to it.

I know that's really odd, but that's the color you're looking for.

If the roots have any kind of mushy spots when you give them a little bit of a tug, like this one, and it's also a little brown, simply just use your garden scissors.

That's another dead root there, and remove that.

Follow this process through each bit of the plant, and if you have some of the root that is still on there that may be a little less than desirable, it's not gonna hurt a thing.

You'll want to place this in the ground the very day that you divide it.

So I would put this in the ground almost immediately.

If you're not gonna put that into the ground immediately, then you can take a plastic container that allows for some growth, probably a doubling in growth is what we're looking for here.

And make a little well in your dirt or in your container.

Make sure it can accommodate all of the root system here.

This one may be a stretch, but we're gonna make it work.

And simply rest that plant's crown right on top of the soil.

I'm gonna hold it there with my hand, and I'm going to fill in the dirt around that.

It's really important when you are dividing perennials and also replanting them that you don't bury the crown too deep.

And the crown of the plant is where the plant meets the root system here.

If the crown was buried too deep, say you planted it here, then it would cause the plant to rot, and we do not want our perennials to rot.

Some other great options for dividing perennials would be coneflower, black-eyed Susans, anything that grows in large clumps.

(ducks quacking) While my house plants and perennials are settling into their new homes, I wanna bring the outside in for a dinner party that I'm hosting.

My friend Jennifer Wallace Field's coming over and she's gonna show me some air-dry clay crafts to really take my table to the next level.

- Trace, I know that you love to host, and I've got some great ideas for things that we can make for your next dinner party.

- So you're talking right up my alley.

- Perfect.

Well, have you ever used air-dry clay before?

- I have never used air-dry clay, so ... - Well, it is a really fun, easy, and affordable way to make custom things for your table.

If you were doing, like, a themed dinner party, you could make, like, different things for every place setting.

- You know I love a theme, right?

- I know you do.

- And I love stuff that's free .99.

I feel like we can get a lot of stuff out of this clay too.

- We can.

- Let's get started.

- All right, so the first thing that we're gonna make are these taper candle holders.

And to start, it's really simple.

You just need to grab a big hunk of clay.

- A big ole hunk of clay.

- Yeah.

- A hunk of cold clay.

Tell me about this clay.

What is this made out of?

- Dirt, water, and magic because you don't have to have a kiln or any fancy equipment to make it set into something permanent.

- And see, that's why I've never made anything out of clay necessarily is because I don't have the equipment.

- Right, this is a very accessible way to make very custom things for yourself.

- I went big or went home with mine - Perfect, I love that.

- Go big or go home.

- Get it kind of flat.

And then you can use your rolling pin.

You can also use things around your house to add texture to your clay.

Like, I have this doily here.

- Oh, I love the doily.

What a good idea.

- Yeah.

So you can just drape your doily over your clay.

- And you can use, like, what?

Probably lace or anything, a plant -- like foliage, anything you wanted.

- Yeah.

- Look at that.

It's going directly in there.

- Yeah, you just press it down and it makes the pattern.

- [Trace] Oh, that's so cool.

It's almost like a sunburst.

- And I do like to go ahead and pick it up so it's not completely stuck.

And so you could leave it kind of in this free form shape, or if you wanted it to be more symmetrical, you can cut it out just using scissors.

- That's a great idea.

- Or a cookie cutter.

- All right, I'm gonna go in.

I'm gonna try and do, like, some patterns on mine too.

All the mawmaws out here that make these are like, "No, not my..." (Jennifer chuckling) - "Not my doily.

- "Not my knitted doily.

I spent all winter on it."

(Jennifer chuckling) I love that.

So cool.

- So after you have your base, you're gonna repeat the same process.

Try to make a longer piece this time so that we can cut the part that actually holds the candle.

- Okay, I love how you don't have to be so, like, uniform or anything either.

It's just kind of like your own.

- Well, I think that's the beauty of handmade stuff.

I mean, you want people to know that you made it.

Like, otherwise, you could just buy it.

You know, the uniqueness comes through in the way that people make it.

- How's that looking?

Is that okay?

- You might need it to be a little-- - It's not okay.

(Jennifer laughing) - Maybe a little bigger.

- That is a no, people.

(Jennifer laughing) - And so then you can take your candle to measure to see if you have enough to go around.

- And I love that.

Do you know why?

Because when I come across candles that I'm really committed to, and then I bring them home and put them in my holder and they don't fit, that is just the worst.

- Well, that's never gonna happen to you again.

I think that looks great.

- [Trace] I love the little form there.

- I know, it's like little leaves.

And then you just kinda wanna cut it into a rectangle shape.

And then when you get the width that you need it, you just pinch it together.

And it's okay if you mess up your design because since we rolled it-- - [Trace] Why?

I'm messing up my design?

- [Jennifer] Yeah.

It already looks bad anyways.

(Jennifer laughing) - You know what?

I'm just gonna go rogue with mine and I'm just going with it.

- I love that.

Ooh, and I like the way that you wrapped it around the front like that.

- I'm kinda feeling like a log feeling here, like a woodland theme.

- Yes.

So to get the two pieces to attach, you actually need to score both of the surfaces.

- Okay.

- And then we actually need a little water.

- Oh, that's perfect.

Hold on.

(twinkling music) We have the water hand here.

- Amazing.

And not too much, but you just want to, like, add a little bit of water to both of the surfaces and then-- - Oh, wow.

So the texture completely changes.

- It does.

And you can also use the water if you have like cracks or wrinkles in there that you don't like, you can use the water to smooth that out as well.

- What?

It's almost like an eraser.

- It is.

- Ah.

- [Jennifer] But you don't wanna add too much or it turns into mush.

- So cool.

- That's beautiful.

- Speaking of drying, do you just leave this out somewhere to dry?

Or is there a special place?

Does the sun make it dry better or?

- I wouldn't put it directly in the sun because you don't want it to dry too fast.

(Jennifer laughing) - Don't look over here.

- If it dries too fast, it might crack.

So just put it kind of out of the sun and let it dry and in two days, you should be ready to paint.

- How are we gonna decorate these?

- So I have a couple here that I did make a few days ago, and we will just be painting these with acrylic paint.

This is regular acrylic paint, nothing fancy, nothing expensive, just something that you can get at your local craft store.

- Yeah, I'm trying ... Oh, I love that.

That's so '70s.

(Jennifer laughing) - And then I'm gonna do the mustard and the... Or I guess that would be Harvest Gold if I'm going with the '70s.

- Yeah, Harvest Gold and Avocado Green.

I'm gonna add a little bit of this variation here so it looks like moss.

- Oh, yeah.

That's beautiful.

- Beautiful.

- There we go.

We did it.

(hands clapping) - Let's display our candles.

- All right.

- [Trace] Love this little theme here.

I think life should have a theme.

Clearly we're taking a walk in the woods with ours.

Pretty.

- [Jennifer] Beautiful.

(images popping) (lively music continues) - The plants are rooting and the dinner table's set.

I'm gonna show you how to make a simple syrup to feed those hungry hummingbirds buzzing away outside.

Making hummingbird nectar at home is super, super simple, and it's literally two ingredients.

Pretty much a simple syrup that you would use for yourself and your own cooking or making drinks.

So I have just regular water, as if there are any other kinds.

You don't want to use sparkling water for hummingbirds.

They're not that fancy.

(slide whistle) So I'm gonna put that in a large stockpot here, and then I'm going to add one cup of sugar.

Pour that directly in there, and I'm going to give it a stir.

Now, we're just going to bring this simple syrup up to a boil and just cut it off and remove it from the heat.

You don't want this to just rigorously boil because then it's gonna lose and evaporate.

We just want it warm enough to dissolve all of that sugar for our hummingbirds.

Now, you're probably wondering, there are tons of hummingbird mixes that are pre-made and sold in hardware stores and pet supply stores all over town.

Ignore those.

Don't waste your money on it.

The packaged one have a lot of preservatives.

They have that red dye in it that's not good for hummingbirds, really unhealthy for them.

Save yourself some money and time, and make it yourself.

The hummingbirds themselves are actually attracted to the red of the feeders, not necessarily the red of the food dye inside the feeders.

So our sugar's almost dissolved here, and the water's really thickening up.

Now's a good time for me to throw in you don't want to use any brown sugars, you don't wanna use Sugar In The Raw, turbinado sugar, you don't wanna use honey, it makes it a little too thick.

It's also going to make those holes clog up, and it's really gonna attract more ants, more pests to your feeder.

So fine, granulated sugar, that sucralose there is just what they want.

Also feel real smart again when I use the word sucralose.

So once that sugar's dissolved, remove this from the heat and allow it to sit and become room temp.

And then we'll add it to our feeders for those hungry little hummingbirds humming away outside.

You can probably hear 'em already.

I think they're knocking on the window.

(images popping) Let's talk about hummingbird feeders.

So there are quite a variety of hummingbird feeders out on the market, and my favorite variety would be one like this.

There are all these beautiful hand-blown glass varieties, but I prefer to have them where they have a perch, so the hummingbirds can sit there and have an ample drink.

Another thing to look for when you're looking at hummingbird feeders is look for hummingbird feeders that do not have that little bit of yellow flower on them.

So if there's any kind of yellow flower or attractant on your feeder, that's gonna really entice bees and wasps or anything that may also want to feed on that nectar to just come on up and pull up a seat.

As far as glass and plastic is concerned, you can really go either way.

I prefer a glass hummingbird feeder, even though if they blow over, they might break simply because plastic heats up at a larger rate and also discolors.

And if you keep them for a few years, they might leach out just a little bit of chemicals into your feeder.

So we made our hummingbird food up earlier, and now's the time to fill it.

I would also suggest to buy hummingbird feeders that have a wide mouth end on them.

That makes cleaning up easier.

You can simply get a nice brush down in there and clean every bit of the surface.

That's another thing that's really important is cleaning your hummingbird feeder.

So before we fill it, let's go ahead and cover those bases too.

Don't use regular dish detergent.

I like to do equal parts of warm water and vinegar.

I'll fill a sink or a basin up and just completely submerge my feeder into that basin.

Leave it in there for up to an hour or longer, depending on if it's soiled or not.

You'll want to do this twice a week in the summer simply because any kind of mold or bacteria buildup inside of the feeder will alter your hummingbirds.

It also, the longer this sits in the hot weather, it also ferments a little bit.

So you don't really want a bunch of drunk hummingbirds plowing right into your house or into you.

So I'm going to pour in our simple syrup here, or simple hummingbird syrup rather.

And you don't want to fill your hummingbird feeder all the way up to the rim.

I usually fill mine up just a couple inches below because we don't want it too full where it just gushes over when we decide to hang it up.

And feeders nowadays come with a lot of built-in guards.

For instance, for ants or anything that may crawl down.

And the guard's gonna come on top of your hummingbird feeder, and that reservoir there can be filled with water and will keep those ants away.

(image popping) (apple crunching) You're bringing not only hummingbirds, but an array of pollinators to your garden.

So if you have a large population of hummingbirds, you're also gonna have a large population of honeybees and butterflies and all of the other pollinators 'cause they all go hand in hand together.

It's also remarkable.

I mean, we are sitting right now in Northwest Alabama and the same ruby-throated hummingbirds came all the way, migrated all the way from Central and South America.

And what's crazy is they can make a migration of over 800 miles in an 18 to 22-hour period.

So it's important to keep those feeders out, especially during migration season so they can stop and refuel on their way.

(image popping) (apple crunching) So if your hummingbird feeder doesn't come with a built-in ant reservoir, I'm gonna show you how to make one super easy, super simple.

This is just a plastic, regular Tupperware lid.

You can also use smaller plastic lids that come on food containers.

And I'm just simply gonna take a ice pick.

You can use any kind of strong, sharp surface you want, and just simply make a hole right in the middle of that plastic surface there, just large enough for you to run a wire through it.

I'm gonna take our hummingbird feeder, and I'm gonna run our wire just like so, give it a nice little twist.

And then I'm gonna take that same wire and run it up through... I'm gonna run it up through that little bit of plastic there where it rests... Got another one trying to tag along, where our guard rests just on top, just like that.

What I'll do is I'll fill that little lip that's just around that hummingbird feeder with water, and that's gonna deter any ants that may try and climb into our hummingbird feeder.

(images popping) Now let's talk about placing your hummingbird feeders around the garden.

You roughly want about 20 to 25 feet in between your feeders because hummingbirds are very territorial, especially if it's mating season or nesting season.

They kinda wanna reserve all that juice just for themselves, and I can't say that I blame them.

A really good place when you're trying to think about where to scatter them about your garden would be simply under a small overhang, just like so.

I'm gonna wrap that wire just like that around and pull down that, just so it balances there.

Place your hummingbird feeder under an eave because what that's gonna do is it's gonna give your hummingbirds just a little bit of protection as they sit and eat, whether it may come a rain shower or if there's another predator about.

We all want to watch our hummingbirds, so naturally we want them in front of doors and windows.

If you're hanging your hummingbird feeder next to open, clear glass, always adhere something on the inside, maybe some kind of cling something just to allow the hummingbirds to know that there's a glass there.

Another great thing to do is just have house plants sitting in the window.

When they can have that little bit of depth of field, they're not gonna plow directly into the glass here.

Another great way to attract hummingbirds to your garden in addition to feeders is to concentrate on such plants as trumpet vine, cardinal vine, beebalm, any long tubular flowers that are brightly colored, which we also like in our landscape garden because they're so beautiful, those are the hummingbirds' favorites.

Another thing to do too, because hummingbirds are just like any other birds and they also have a need for water, and, you know, they're not the largest birds, so they need a shallow little basin.

So this is simply just a terracotta bottom of a pot.

You would set your pot in this to collect rainwater.

I filled it with some decorative pebbles and stones, and I'm simply just gonna take water, pour into this.

Allow the water to come up to the rim of this terracotta saucer here.

I'm gonna give it a little bit of a... Kinda settle everything in one little layer.

And I will place this on something tall, on a table, on top of a plinth or a pedestal in the garden, and just refill the water as needed because you'll see little hummingbirds come to the side.

They will bathe in the water, they'll take a drink of the water, they'll have everything they need or want in your garden, and you'll have hummers just buzzing around all season long.

Just make sure they just don't buzz right into your head because I've almost been hit a couple times.

Happy humming.

(lively music) Make the most of those house plants and perennials.

Create something unique for your dining table, and enjoy all of those hummingbirds passing through.

The house is officially in bloom.

Thanks for joining us today.

We'll see you next time on "Garden Party."

(lively music ending) You can find all of our recipes, how-tos, helpful blogs, and a whole mess of fun over on our website.

Scan the QR code below, or visit aptv.org/garden-party.

(lively music) (soil rustling) Like zest, bae.

Somebody hit Jess in the head with a rock.

What am I saying again?

Hummeringbirds?

(director laughing) Some other house plants you might want to consider propagating would be ferns.

Um,Ferns.

(Trace laughing) Today, we're talking about hummingbird nectar.

(Trace mumbling) That's so hard to say.

Hummingbird nectar.

Herman crabs.

(director laughing) Super (mumbling)... I've buried my scissors.

(Trace laughing) (vehicle rumbling) I just can't anymore with the vehicles.

I want a stage coach.

Who was that that sneezed?

(people laughing) I think we're done.

- And she's all yours now.

- She's back, the queen.

(lively music ending)