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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Bring nature inside   with houseplants.

Today we'll show you   some interesting options.

Also, blackberries are   a tasty garden treat.

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 Jill Mabry.

Jill's a horticulturalist at the Memphis Botanic Garden and Mr. D will be joining me later.

Glad to have you, Jill.

- Thank you for having me, Chris.

Nice to be here.

- Yes, so we're gonna about houseplants.

So I understand houseplants are widely popular now?

- They are, as people have been spending more time at home over the last couple years, a lot of people are rediscovering their home hobbies and things they can get into.

So people who've maybe discovering houseplants for the first time or those who've had plants for a while and they're just starting to get a little more into it, are discovering all the wild and crazy houseplants that are out there that are fun to collect and make a combination of with all the different shapes, colors, patterns on the leaves.

- Okay.

So are houseplants easy to maintain and take care of?

- They can be.

If you know what they need, and you're able to give them the conditions that they need.

They can be quite easy.

For instance a house plant, a snake plant.

The Sansevieria has been a popular houseplant for quite some time.

It's been around for a while.

And this is what we think of as the typical snake plant with some different stripes of green on the leaves.

- Okay.

- And this likes low light all the way up to a bright indirect light, but most importantly is to let it dry in between waterings.

During the summer, I can water these guys maybe once a week, maybe once every two weeks, but during the winter, that'll go down to maybe once a month or once every six weeks or so.

- Okay.

- The soil really needs to dry out in between waterings.

- That's pretty impressive for the wintertime.

You know, once a month, golly.

- It is, well they store water in their leaves.

- Yeah.

- So they need to be able to dry out, to be able to take advantage of that water.

And as I said, this is the typical snake plant, but there are a lot of others out there that are becoming wildly popular these days.

So one of them is this one, the whale fin Sansevieria that grows typically as a single leaf, like this.

As it fills in the pot, it may start to send up a second leaf, but usually it's just gonna be this one great big speckled leaf.

And that's becoming quite a popular, collectable house plant currently.

- It's a pretty impressive leaf.

- It is.

- Pretty good size.

- And another Sansevieria that's popular right now, is this other form that also typically grows as a single leaf.

This is the baseball bat snake plant.

Baseball bat Sansevieria.

And it does grow that way, nearly cylindrical, it's a pretty hefty plant.

And another one to be real sure that you don't overwater.

- Okay.

- 'Cause it does store a lot of water in that leaf.

- Baseball bat, how about that?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- And another, to me an even wilder one.

[Chris laughs] This is called the walking Sansevieria.

- Walking?

- So it grows on these stilt like roofs, it's up above the level of the pot and it spreads by sending out this new little baby plant on a runner, and eventually as this gets a little bigger, it'll send down roots of its own.

So if there's a pot next to it, it'll send down roots into another pot.

And that's how it walks from pot to pot.

- Ah, hey, I like that.

- Isn't that neat?

- Ah, pretty wild.

So tell me this, I understand it to, well, I see that you have rocks in there.

So what are the rocks for?

- Well, I've got a few rocks mixed into the potting medium.

It is a very well draining medium.

The rocks were honestly to help it stay upright when I planted it, it's now gotten pretty well rooted.

- Okay.

- But it does tend to wobble a bit when it's first planted being up on those stilts for roots.

- Ah, that's pretty impressive.

- And this one does have some pretty thorns, pretty sizeable thorns to be aware of.

So if you have maybe a small child in the house that might not be the best bet, but we do have another, this is also a walking Sansevieria that is much easier to have around.

You're not gonna stab yourself on the ends of those leaves.

This is a different species.

This is Sansevieria gracilis.

And it spreads the same way with these long pieces that come out and eventually will send down roots to walk into another pot.

- I like that walk into another pot.

- Isn't that neat?

- Pretty neat.

That is neat.

- So these, all the Sansevieria are considered a type of succulent.

That means that they carry water inside their leaves.

- Okay.

- And another thing people like to collect in their houseplant.

- Ah, yeah.

- Are colors, colorful plants.

So this is an Oxalis.

Some people call it a purple shamrock and we get the benefit of flowers as well as these colorful leaves.

So they're real pretty on top, and they're also colorful underneath.

- Yeah, I love the color.

- Isn't that pretty?

And they like light.

They can take nearly full sun.

They need pretty strong light, medium to strong light to color up the best and pretty regular water once or twice a week will be fine for them.

The leaves close up at night on these guys, which is a kind of fun little thing to come in at night and see it all closed up, like it's asleep.

- Yeah.

I don't think I've seen the flowers before?

Those are pretty.

- They are pretty.

- Pretty nice.

- Nice pink shade that goes along nicely with the leaf color.

- Okay.

- And-- - These are great plants.

- Similar color is the purple queen, which this is often grown here as an outdoor plant in the summertime, goes by a number of names purple queen, purple heart.

The more sun the better.

It'll color up the best in the sunlight.

And it can take average water.

It likes to dry out a bit in between waterings.

And that is a Tradescantia.

And this is a similar one.

It's also a Tradescantia called pale puma.

And it's a little more green on the outside, it's purple.

The leaves underneath are purple.

And it's a little fuzzy on top.

This one also, if it's in full sun, this has been indoors.

So it's mostly green on top, but outside in full sun, it'll darken up to be as deep purple as this purple queen and still have that fuzzy sheen to it, which is neat.

- Wow!

- Either one of these will trail too, if it's in a hanging basket or a large pot, the stems will eventually grow and hang down out of the pot.

- Yeah.

I usually see these a lot in hanging baskets.

- Hmm, hmm.

Great basket plant, great porch plant.

- Okay.

- Hanging around you, outside of your porch.

- Okay.

- So another similar to these guys is, this other Tradescantia here with the pink and the purple streaks on the leaves.

The variety on that is called Nanouk.

- Nanouk?

- Nanouk.

It's also sometimes called Fantasy Venice.

So very colorful names with some of these guys.

And next to that, we have two different kinds of begonias.

Begonias have really come back into style lately, as people are getting into their plant collections because they have such colorful leaves, colorful and varied leaves.

- Okay.

- The one in the middle is the polka dot begonia and that's become extremely collectible lately.

It likes a decent amount of water, pretty regular waterings and bright light, bright indirect light.

I wouldn't put it in full sun, it'd probably singe the leaves a bit.

And then the one on the other side is called a looking glass begonia.

- Wow!

- It's got a real nice silvery sheen, does look almost like you're looking into a mirror.

- Wow!

- So aptly-named.

And that's another one that can take bright indirect light, and a good amount of water.

You don't want any of these to sit in water.

- Okay.

- Or the roots could rot, but regular water as long as the water drains on out of it.

- Right?

Yeah, so it seems like the biggest takeaway is not to overwater many of your houseplants.

- Yes, with certain house plants like a peace lily, it may enjoy sitting in water, but in most cases, your houseplants are really gonna want to be able to dry out a little bit in between the watering, let their feet get dry before you water it again.

- Good deal, thank you.

Great information.

- You're welcome.

- Great information.

- You're welcome.

[upbeat country music] - I heard an old timer say this, "sour versus sweet."

- Yeah, and you're right on it Chris, because that is an old timer's term.

- It is.

- And those are terms you used   to describe the alkalinity   or acidity of the soil, the   pH, in other words the pH.

- Yes, right.

- And when I got to reading up on it, I found out that it originated when the pioneers crossed the United States going westward to determine where their best home site was.

They would actually taste the soil.

- How about that!

- Yeah, and I hadn't tried that yet, I was gonna do it.

How about now?

I'm not even gonna do that even for Chris Cooper, I'm just not gonna eat dirt.

[Chris laughs] But it said that you could tell the alkalinity or the acidity of soil by the, you know, the way your taste buds reacted and a sweet soil would be more alkaline.

- Wow!

How about that!

- That's amazing!

- Yeah, and it's sweet meaning that it would well be sweet as opposed to sour, which would be like a fizzy.

And it one I did read it where one guy actually did it, and he said that a really acidic soil, or sour soil would taste like those.

What's that candy?

Those rocks that blow up in your mouth, that little candy that's fizzy, really fizzy?

- Yeah, the bubble-- - So it'd be fizzy.

- Okay, I think I know what you're talking about.

- Yeah, yeah.

And it said an alkaline soil or sweet soil would be like taking a dose of milk of magnesia.

- Wow!

- Yeah, coat chalky.

- Okay.

- It kind of coats your tongue, so I'm just taking their word for it.

[upbeat country music] - All right Mr. D, so we have some blackberry plants here.

- We do.

And these are Natchez, semi-erect blackberries.

They were developed by the University of Arkansas.

- Okay.

- An excellent thornless sweet blackberry.

- Thornless.

- So the first thing you look at when you plant blackberries is how large is the plant gonna get?

- Okay.

- Because if you plant these a foot apart and then when this plant's fully grown, it's gonna be five feet tall and four feet wide.

So we've got it, four feet distance between these plants.

So they will be touching when they're fully grown.

- Okay.

- But you do pretty much with a potted plant like this, treat it the same way you would plant a tree.

You wanna dig a wide planting hole.

- Wide but not deep.

- Woo, you got some Bermuda grass sod there.

- Oh yeah.

- A wide planting hole, not a real deep one.

- Okay.

- We don't wanna go any deeper, we wanna plant it at the depth that it grew in the nursery.

So, get some of this turf grass outta the way here.

Let's see if we've seen any cutworms or any grub worms in there.

And we're also looking for earthworms.

We definitely have some good organic matter here on top of the soil.

This is probably Memphis silt loam here.

[Chris laughs] Really a good soil.

- Good stuff.

- The reason you don't dig a really deep planting hole is when you water these in or when the rain waters these in, you have a deep one, everything settles down and soil will wash in around the plant.

And even though you may not have planted it too deeply, that's the net result.

- Right, eventually gets deep, right?

- It's looking, that's pretty close right there.

- Yeah, looks pretty good.

- Now I'm gonna score the side of this planting hole a little bit to make it easier for the roots to penetrate the side and the planning hole.

Let's see if that's about right.

- Okay?

- Set that down in there and see if the top is gonna be about right.

- How you doing?

- Oh yeah, that's perfect.

- You know, right, okay?

- Okay, so let me score the sides with this.

- And again you're doing it because you want the roots to-- - Roots to, you know, more easily be able to penetrate that.

- Okay.

- And let's check this roots, see if it's root bound.

- Yeah, 'cause-- - We're gonna get over this.

- No telling how long it's been in that pot.

It's pretty good size.

Ah-ha.

- Ah, we do have some root.

- Oh yes.

- A little bit root bound.

So I'm gonna take my pocket knife, and make about four cuts.

- Okay.

- So I did a little bit of root pruning there.

But where I made those cuts, it's just like when you prune with pruning shears, wherever you make a cut, basically you're telling that plant to do lateral development.

Where I made those cuts, lateral roots will come out.

Okay, let's get the looser dirt.

We put this in.

- And the dirt goes back in the hole, right?

We don't have to amend that hole with anything else, right?

- Right.

I mean you can.

- You can, okay.

- But I don't think it's necessary.

With soil as good as we have here in, you know, in this area.

- Okay.

- I really don't think it's necessary.

I have Memphis silt loam on my property and I don't add soil amendments to it.

- Now, while you're doing it Mr. D, what do you think about this piece coming out here?

You think that possibly needs to be pruned out?

- That's what you're gonna have.

You're gonna have, these plants are gonna be coming up from the ground, all around this, they'll create a hedge and they will spread just like wild blackberries.

They're not gonna be one little plant here.

- Right, I got you.

- So, I mean, you can try to control it by taking those off if you want to, but in about three or four years, what you're gonna have is a hedge here and you're gonna be trying to contain it.

- Okay.

- What you can do in a lawn situation like this.

- It looks like you've done this a time of two Mr. D. - Oh yeah.

[Chris laughs] - Do you like blackberries?

- I do.

- I do.

- I've got blackberries planted.

- Okay.

- With this variety, you're not even gonna have to trellis it.

I have trailing blackberries and I'm always trying to keep them under control.

I keep trying to leave their area.

They keep infringing on my blueberry plants, and so I have to kind of do some pretty heavy pruning on them from time to time.

Now, I think we're about to get a rain here.

If I didn't think we were gonna get a rain, I would wanna water this in.

- Okay.

- To get the air bubbles out.

- Right.

- Make sure everything's settled down.

You probably ought to do that anyway, because if you don't, it won't rain.

[Chris laughs] - That's usually the case, right?

- You know, even though you've got a forecast and radar says it's coming, but if you are depending on the rain to water your plant in, it's just not gonna happen.

[Chris laughs] - Now is it a good idea to mulch that once you finish it, you know, do you have to do that?

Or is it necessary?

- You don't have to.

- You don't have to.

- You probably, more than anything, it might help prevent weeds.

One of the, there is a few herbicides you can use around here if, and with this Bermuda grass.

- Yes.

- You're probably gonna need to use Post and it's okay, it won't hurt the blackberries.

You can just spray it right up even on the edge of the plant and it'll take the Bermuda grass out.

It won't control broad-leaf weeds.

- Okay?

- Okay.

- That little fella is okay now.

- I think it's alright.

- You see, I wanna make sure I can see that original soil right there.

And eventually, I mean, we can even pack it down a little bit all right?

- Now Mr. D, while you doing that, we definitely appreciate that demonstration.

- Well, you're most welcome.

- And we'll see what this looks like in years to come.

- It'll be here.

It'll be here after the Bermuda grass is gone I think.

[Chris laughs] Blackberries are very tough.

[gentle country music] - Hey, it's time to plant cauliflower in the Family Plot square foot gardening bed.

When you're out and you have plant material like this, or you're buying this planting material from the store, here's what you should do.

I always like to inspect my plant material, right?

I always check the roots, right?

Slide those plants out of the pot if you will, look at those roots, white fibrous fruits, this is what you're looking for, okay?

All right?

I see a little dead leaf right here, so I'm gonna peel that back, okay?

Take that off, all right?

Now, it calls for just one   cauliflower plant per block.

So this is what I'm gonna do, kind of turn that soil over a little bit with the trowel here.

All right, so here we go.

Let's pull that soil back a little bit.

I like to break apart the root ball just a little bit, encourage those roots to really get out into the soil.

Okay, that's good enough.

Right, so here we go.

Ah, plant that the same depth and it came out of the pot and I think that's about right.

Make sure it's nice and firm under there, okay?

Right?

And I may, I think I'm gonna pinch this leaf off, I don't like it touching the ground there.

There you go.

There you have it.

There's our cauliflower.

We'll get that watered in and we'll see what happens in a few weeks, right?

[gentle country music] All right Jill, here's our Q and A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- These are great questions.

Here's our first one.

"I have a situation with ladybugs.

"In the fall, hundreds of   ladybugs coming to my house.

"What plants can I plant   to keep the ladybugs away?

Thank you," and   this is Maryanne.

So hundreds of ladybugs, but she wants to plant plants that can keep them away, interesting.

- Yes.

- Now what do you think?

- So I have heard of this being a problem lately, and in the fall ladybugs can come in by the hundreds and invade someone's home and gather all over the walls and the windows.

And that is not our native ladybug.

That is actually an invasive species called the Asian lady beetle that was introduced to help control some plant pests, and now it has decided that in the fall, it likes our homes as well.

- Yes.

- Now, I do not know of any plants specifically that you can plant to keep 'em out, but I believe the best way to keep 'em out of your home is to work on sealing any holes that they're coming in, any gaps around windows or doors or gaps in your siting throughout the fall and winter.

If they're already in your home, you can put out sticky traps or the easiest way is probably to vacuum them up and then empty that canister into a sealed bag and throw 'em away.

You could even put 'em into the freezer to make sure they're dead and gone, and then put it into the trash and just keep after 'em with a vacuum cleaner to keep 'em outta your home.

And unfortunately they will bite.

- Yes.

- And they stink like a stink bug.

- Yes.

- So if you try to crush 'em, or if they think you're bothering them, they can just let out a stink and a white, a yellow secretion that can stay in your walls and it's, they're pests.

- They're pests.

You have to be careful with that cracks and crevices.

Get those sealed, if you have what holes in your screens, windows screens, get those repaired.

- Right.

- Weather stripping by the doors, okay.

And yeah, vacuum, right.

And if you want to, yeah, you can take 'em back outside, you know, it's an option as well, but they are beneficial, you know, in the garden because they will go after some of those pests.

- Yes, yes, they are.

- Okay.

- All right Maryanne, so there you have it.

Yeah, hundreds of those inside of the house, we understand why.

- Yes.

- Thank you for the question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"If you had to pick   one kind of fertilizer   "for garden, flowering shrubs,   and roses, what would it be?

"I've been told   to use triple-10   "as a general   purpose fertilizer.

"I really don't want   "to buy six or eight   different fertilizers.

What do you think?"

And this is Rick from   Corinth, Mississippi.

So he wants one kind of fertilizer for the garden, flowering shrubs and roses.

What do you think?

- Well, that's a reasonable question.

Nobody wants to go buy a ton of different fertilizers.

Now, I do not grow a lot of roses so I don't have a lot of rose experience, but at home, the general purpose fertilizer that I use is typically the triple-10.

- Okay.

- And that seems to work fine on most of my annuals, perennials, shrubs.

I also like to top dress with compost, something like black cow or another composted material, once or twice a year in my heavy blooming beds or my vegetable beds.

But I know roses have some specific requirements.

They do need some specific nutrients that are a little different.

- Yeah.

- So if I were trying to grow something real specific like roses, I might also invest in a specific rose fertilizer, but in general, for most of our plants, I do just go with a triple-10.

- Okay, that's good.

Roses are heavy feeders, okay?

Triple-10, triple-13, triple-15.

General all purpose fertilizer, all right?

'Cause you have each of the elements.

- Right.

- Within that bag of fertilizer, right?

This is what I'm gonna say, for roses, for shrubs and for your vegetable garden or for your flower beds, get your soil tested, right?

Go to your local extension office, get your soil tested that way you would know specifically which fertilizer to use for your garden, for your shrubs, for your roses.

- That's a great idea.

'Cause otherwise you are just guessing.

- You're just guessing.

- And you may be adding something that you have too much of already.

- That's right.

- So you're right.

Getting the soil tested would be a great first step.

- Yeah, 'cause like we always say, why guess, soil test?

- Yes.

- Right.

There you have it, all right.

So it's gonna tell you specifically what you need to add, you know, to your garden, to grow the shrub or the vegetables or whatever it is that you want.

- Good advice, good suggestion.

- All right, so there you have it, Mr. Rick.

Yeah, go down to the Mississippi State Extension Office, get you soil tested.

They'll do that for you and let you know exactly what you need for your garden.

Thank you for that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What type of insect is affecting my ficus leaves?

"They turn yellow and have a white spot "on the underside of the leaf.

"It is too large to take outside to spray.

"So how can I treat it indoors without damaging my hardwood floors?"

So first, there's an insect pest and I actually think it's a mealy bug   from what I can see, you   know, it's kind of distorted,   but it looks like a mealy bug.

I know it's not a scale,   and of course I know   mealy bugs do attack   or feed on ficus plants.

- Yes.

- Right?

They have piercing sucking mouthparts, they're looking for plant sap, okay?

So to treat that, of course you could use something like insecticidal soap.

I like the Neem oils, would be effective on controlling the mealy bugs, but it's indoors and she can't move it outside because it's so large.

So.

- So, for that.

- What would you recommend?

- I would suggest something that's a systemic.

- Okay.

- Something that can be applied to the roots, to the plant pot itself.

- Okay.

- And that way the plant will bring it up through the roots and distribute that insecticide throughout its sap.

And that way she's not gonna have to spray or risk damaging her hardwood floors or anything else inside the home.

- Right.

- It's important to follow the directions on that.

Usually it'll give you an indication, depending on the circumference of the plant as how much you need.

But that way, at least she's gonna be applying it directly to the pot.

- Right.

- To the roots and not risk spraying inside her home.

- Right.

Yeah, so read and follow the label on that product.

And I think that should work for you.

- Yeah, but do be careful, 'cause you're gonna have to add some water, you know, to that pot, right?

- Yes.

- To get that mixture correct.

So yeah, be careful with those hardwood floors.

So thank you for that question.

Jill, that was fun, thank you much.

- You're welcome.

- I appreciate that.

- You're welcome.

- 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, thanks for watching.

If you want information on houseplants or blackberries, head over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

We also have lots of other information about all sorts of plants.

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

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]