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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Kudzu, privet, Bradford pear.

They are non-native,   invasive plants   that have gotten   out of control.

Today, we're gonna talk about   what makes an invasive plant.

Also, we'll show how to   take cutting from annuals   to save them for next spring.

That's just the 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 Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.

And Dr. Lelia Kelly will be joining me later.

All right, Joellen.

- Let's talk a little bit about invasive plants, right?

I would say an interesting conversation, right?

- It is very interesting.

And let's start out with a definition.

I mean, what is an invasive plant?

It is plant that causes   some kinda ecological   or economic harm   in a new environment   where it's not native.

- Where it's not native?

- Where it's not native.

Now, invasive plants are capable of doing quite a few things.

They cause extinction of   native plants and animals.

They also reduce   biodiversity in an area.

And of course, they compete   with native organisms   for the limited   resources that are there.

And they alter habitats.

- That's pretty bad.

- So you don't really think about it, but we're gonna talk about enough that maybe people will start thinking about the plants that they buy.

- Okay.

- Of course, plants with the highest invasive potential.

They are prolific seeders.

- Of course.

- They are vigorous growers.

They adapt well to any different kind of environmental conditions to grow in, which sounds like what?

A desirable plant that we all want in our gardens, right?

- It sounds like something you would want.

- Yes, it has all of the qualities that we would like to have for our own garden plant, which is exactly what's happened.

Now, if seeds of these plants leave the garden by wind or wildlife, 'cause sometimes they get attached to wildlife that goes by them and then they get dispersed in another yard.

Or out in the woods, or by birds eating the seeds and then dispersing them other places.

Once they get out there they may out-compete the native plants that are already there.

An example would be the Bradford pear.

That is the perfect example.

Originally it was given the   patent and now it is grafted.

If you look at it,   it is all Bradford pears are   grafted onto a rootstock.

- Okay.

- And when the seeds, they're not real pears,   but they're little seed pears.

Mockingbirds.

I've seen Mockingbirds,   they absolutely love them.

And other birds eat them.

They were supposed   to be not viable,   but unfortunately   they are viable   once they go through the bird.

And so if you go along I-40,   during the spring when   the pears are blooming, you can tell you're coming to an exit before you actually get to it, because they've planted Bradford pears there sometime.

Because the birds have dispersed them and now, the wild pears are growing in that area   and taking over   the native habitat.

Pears, it's a vigorous tree.

These have thorns   and everything else.

So it's not a   desirable native plant.

- Wow.

- So that is the worst one.

- And the thing about the Bradford pear though:   in the spring, they   can be so beautiful.

- Just beautiful.

Beautiful full foliage.

Nice shape, but there are other   varieties like the Cleveland that would be much better to plant.

Has the same attributes.

Maybe not grow as vigorously or get as large, but those seeds are not viable.

- So it's just the Bradford pear that has the bad reputation of having the viable seeds that get dispersed.

- Wow.

And then they break easily.

- Yes.

Yeah.

- The limbs do.

- Yeah.

- All right.

- Well, let's talk about the six top invasive plants in the United States.

And we're talking the whole United States.

- The whole United States.

All right.

- Kudzu.

- Kudzu.

- Number one.

- Number one.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- It was introduced in   the United States in 1876.

It was for an ornamental   or in a forage,   and erosion control plant.

One million acres was   planted in the Southeast   by the Soil Conservation   Service in the 1930s and '40s.

By the 1950s, it was determined   that it was invasive.

So it did not take long   for us to figure out that that was an invasive species.

- Took over pretty quick.

- They did.

'Cause they can grow at   a rate of one foot a day   and 60 feet a year.

- Think about that.

- The vine takes over areas   in the whole Southeast.

It looks like some odd   creatures are out there,   because it just   covers everything.

- Trees, telephone   poles, farm equipment.

- Yeah, it takes over,   smothers everything   and nothing can live   under it, so there you go.

- Kudzu.

All right.

- The second one is Norway maple.

- Okay.

Okay.

- It brought to the US in 1756   from Europe by John Bartram,   who was a famous plant explorer   here in the United States.

So he brought it over.

But see, he did not know that it would end up out-competing the native maples in the Northeast and the Northwest.

- It has very dense canopy.

So not only does it take   over and it's very aggressive   compared to our   other native maples,   but it shades out the wild   flowers that underneath too,   because it's got a   dense canopy on it.

- Wow.

How about that?

And think about that time period again.

17-- - 1756.

- Wow.

Okay.

- Yes.

Long time ago.

- Long time.

Okay.

- Yeah.

The third one, Japanese honeysuckle.

I know we all know that.

- All over the place.

- But it was introduced   in 1806 as an ornamental,   and for erosion control.

It's got a beautiful smell.

In May, around here, it smells   beautiful out in the woods.

But the seeds are   dispersed by birds.

It is now anywhere from   Maine down to Florida,   over to Texas, and   then in spots out West.

It is an aggressive   vine and it can girdle.

When it starts climbing   trees and stuff,   it'll girdle the   trees, it shades them,   and it kinda smothers   other native plants.

So that's- - The honeysuckle, right?

Of course we remember that from our youth.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Oh, golly.

How about that?

- Yeah, it smells beautiful, but yeah, it's a little aggressive.

The fourth one is purple loosestrife.

It's a beautiful perennial.

It's got gorgeous   flowers on it.

It was introduced in the   1800s as an ornamental,   and for medical uses.

It grows aggressively in   most of the United States.

It takes over wetlands,   that's the problem.

It's taking over wetlands.

One plant can produce   two million seeds.

- Ouch!

- And of course,   the plant itself   kinda grows like a bunch.

And so it can grow outward   at least a foot a year,   especially in the wetlands   where it really likes it.

And then there's Japanese barberry.

- Japanese barberry.

- Japanese barberry.

- We talked about that a time or two.

- Yeah, we have.

It was introduced in the 1800s as an ornamental garden plant to be a substitute for the European barberry   that was found to harbor   this black rust stem:   a serious fungus   disease of cereal crops.

So what they did was they ende   up substituting a bad plant   for another bad plant.

This is its problem,   it grows in deep shade,   and it will produce   dense thickets,   especially in the Northeast.

And its seeds are   dispersed by birds.

The very last one is one we all know, is English ivy.

English ivy is   considered one of   the top six worst invasive   plants in the United States.

It was introduced from   Europe in the 1700s   as an easy to grow evergreen   groundcover, which it is.

- It is!

[Chris and Joellen laugh]   But it's an aggressive   vine that can kill trees   by shading and girdling again.

And the seeds, of course,   are spread by birds.

- So how can we make sure that we're not planting any of these non-native, invasive plants?

- Well, every area of the country has their own websites and their own lists.

Tennessee, here we have 64 species on ours.

You can visit our website and see a few of the websites you can visit to look in your area, or use your local state's websites to see if there are invasive plants that are for sale around your area.

And then, just simply don't plant invasive species.

'Cause we can control what's in our garden, what we plant there, but what we can't control is the animals, the insects, the birds, the wind that carries these plants to non-native areas.

- That is good stuff.

How about that?

Interesting.

So those are our top six?

- Those are top six.

[Chris laughs] - All right, thank you much.

Good information.

- You're welcome.

[upbeat country music] - This is classic European corn borer damage.

When you see an even row of holes in a leaf that looks like a pretty large insect created those holes, but that's not the case.

When this leaf was down here in the whirl,   a very, very tiny corn   borer drilled a hole   and fed on this leaf.

Now, as the leaf grows,   the hole gets larger.

But it's classic European corn borer damage.

It's not a caterpillar that big, it's a little-bitty, tiny one in the whirl, way down here in the very center of the plant.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Dr. Kelly.

Easy techniques to root cuttings of some of our favorite annuals.

- Easy and cheap.

- And we like easy and cheap.

- Exactly.

Do it yourself, little projects that we can do.

And every year, we have favorite, really pretty plants that are annuals that we get, and they do really good.

And we always are like, "Oh, golly.

I wish I could keep that over the winter."

But mostly we don't have places to bring in these giant, big old plants, like hibiscus.

The big, old tropical hibiscus, or the big, pretty geraniums that have just done beautifully all summer.

Our big, old inpatients or coleus, or some of these others that just really look nice.

And we're like, "Oh, gee.

I wish I could keep that for next summer."

And there's a way to do that.

Most of these plants root really, really easily.

And so I'm gonna show you how to do that.

So I think I'm gonna demonstrate, I guess first, the coleus.

And, of course, you've got coleus, they're huge in your garden.

So you just pick a terminal, and you'd come in with this little cheap knife.

I was telling y'all, they're really, really cheap.

And I usually keep a bunch of these around the garden or different places where I can find them.

But then you just go in and you just pinch this dude off or cut it off.

And what you'll wanna do is to, of course, remove these lower leaves.

Because when you put it in the soil, those are probably gonna be below the soil level, and they're gonna rot and fall off and not be a good thing.

So actually, I just usually just take my fingernails and pinch those off.

So see, now we've got a cutting of our little coleus.

And what I do is, I travel some, and in motel or hotel rooms in the bathroom, they always give you this shower cap.

And, "Who wears the shower cap, Seymour?"

So I just have collected these.

I've got like a gazillion of them at home.

And what I do is, I use these to make me a little mini greenhouse, and I'm gonna show you that first.

- How smart is that though?

- Yeah.

Really.

So here is here's my impatiens that I have already stuck prior, about a week ago.

I did these about a week ago.

So they have actually...

I think a couple of them have roots, but I'm not gonna pull it out.

But I did this about a week ago.

And I've just got regular soil mix in there.

And then I just took some prunings from some of my plants and made me some...

These are like my, what do we call that?

The frame of my greenhouse.

And of course, when you take a cutting, you want to...

It's got no roots, so you've got to keep the moisture in the leaves so it won't dry out.

As we talked, in some of the previous section, about desiccation.

So you take your shower cap and you just put it.

And the nice thing about it, some people use like plastic bags.

But see, I like the shower cap cause it's- - Plastic.

- Yeah.

So it keeps the moisture in, and there's your little greenhouse.

And these things, they'll usually root in a couple of weeks.

In at least a month, you've got a rooted cutting.

And the way you can tell if it's rooted, let me just bring over one of these others.

This is, again, the coleus.

Let's look at that one.

Now, this one I took a week ago as well.

And I believe I'll pull this one up, just to see if it had rooted.

And I believe I saw a root.

Now, if you wanna test if one's rooted, you just tug on it a little bit, you don't pinch the stem.

Because if you grab it at the foliage up here, if you pinch it or break it off, it'll probably grow another leaf.

It's not gonna grow another stem if you pinch it too.

And then I usually get something that I can go in and sort of pry it up instead of just pulling it.

- Smart.

- Yeah.

So that way we're not breaking off.

Oh, well.

No, I broke it off.

- Uh-oh.

- I broke off my root.

But if you look at it, you can see tiny, little root initials, which are little bumps all along the stem.

So it won't be long.

But it did have a root on it before I got here.

I got a little vicious with it, I guess, when I pulled it out the first time.

- Let me ask you this.

So what's the best way to water those though?

- I have not had to water them for a week.

[Chris exclaims] Because you get condensation inside this thing.

And another thing, good point.

Another thing, you keep them out of sun, obviously, because you're gonna bake them.

You put them in a little shady kinda area of the garden, or I just keep them on the back steps of my patio, which is shaded.

And so, in just no time at all, this plant will transpire and this will start getting moisture all built up in it.

And so I have not had to water it for a week.

Now, there may be a time that I will before it roots.

But obviously, you can see the soil and it's wet.

So as long as it's wet, I don't worry about it.

But there's another little way if you don't travel and collect your shower caps.

[laughing] But if you drank soda pop, you can just cut one of these two liter soda.

I don't know if that's the right one.

I think this one went on this one.

But you can get the clear bottles, you gotta pick your brand, so that it's a clear bottle, usually.

You can get a green bottle, but I like the clear ones 'cause I wanna be able to see my plants, see what it's doing.

So I cut the top off and that's your little impromptu funnel you can use.

So you might to keep that.

And then this is your little greenhouse.

And you just just basically stick it down, and kinda twist it a little bit to make it a little air tight as you can.

And then there's your little greenhouse.

So it's really easy.

It's not a big thing.

And then when they root... Oh, and here's my hibiscus.

- Right.

- So this was one of the hibiscus that I stuck in there.

And I brought that from a neighbor.

I don't have tropical hibiscus, mine are hardy hibiscus.

So I had to go over to the neighbor, and really kinda snuck over and took some cuttings.

I was actually pruning, it needed pruning.

But anyway, I took some cuttings.

By the time I got back to the house, it had wilted.

And I'm thinking... 'Cause it didn't have water or anything.

So I'm thinking, "Man, I don't know if that'll make it."

But I got it quickly, and I did my little greenhouse thing.

And within a day, it had straightened up.

And I had these on 'til I got here.

So see, you can see the moisture it's collected in there.

It keeps it moist until the roots come out.

And then when it has rooted, then you can take it inside in the little pot, or you can re-pot it, or you can do whatever.

But the trick is to put it in the right place in the house to get it through the winter.

Because it's not gonna just grow like crazy, because it's not gonna get exactly the right conditions, probably, unless you've got a greenhouse you could put it in.

You'd probably wanna put it in a window that get some really good early morning light or middle afternoon light.

And it'll probably do just really, really, really well through the winter.

And then you can take it out in the spring.

And by the next, this time of year, you can just do the cycle over again.

And perpetuate- - Lookin' like those over there.

- Yeah.

Perpetuate your favorite plants.

Some of these cultivars of some of these coleus, you find one, and there was one called Arkansas Sunset several years ago, they've quit having now.

And it was absolutely gorgeous.

It was like orange and yellow.

It looked like a sunset.

And you can't find it anymore.

And I've had several people ask me, "Where can we find it?"

So that's a way to keep the plants that sometimes they discontinue to offer.

Keep them going.

- That's a good idea.

- Your heirlooms.

Yeah, so.

- Yeah, we appreciate that.

That's good stuff.

Because if you're like me, yeah, at the end of the season, it's like, "Oh, man.

I hate to take that out of the ground."

'Cause I can't take it, I can't bring it into the house.

- Yeah, and as horticulture people, we get asked that sometimes, "I got this favorite plant, you know?

"And it's tender, and I don't have room for it to drag it in.

What can I do to propagate it?"

And some of them will even root in water, but I like to put them soil.

- Because it's good.

- Yeah.

Just seems to work better for me.

- All right, thanks for the good information.

- Sure.

Yeah.

- We appreciate you.

[gentle country music] - Looks like we have a cedar growing here in our ogun.

How did it get here?

Maybe the wind deposited it here, maybe a bird brought it here.

This is what you can do.

If possible, see if you can dig it out.

Get all of the root system that you possibly can.

All right.

Just gonna work with it here a little bit.

Might damage a little bit of the ogun.

Wow.

Look at that.

And if you have a big enough area in your backyard, guess what you can plant?

This cedar.

And look at that root system.

Still intact.

[gentle country music] All right, Joellen.

It's our Q&A segment, you ready?

- I'm ready.

- These are great questions.

- Yes.

- Let's go with the first one.

- Okay.

- All right.

"I do like the way   Italian arum looks.

"So shiny, rich-looking   with the white veins.

"I know it is invasive, but   is there a way to contain it?

"If I were to use   a root barrier,   "would it keep   from spreading?

Thank you."

Diane, from   Webster, New York.

So Italian arum.

- Yes.

Didn't we talk about invasive plants here.

- Yeah.

And it's just been recently that they've decided in the New York area that it is invasive.

- So it is invasive in New York?

- Yes, yes.

So if she looks, it's not on the list yet.

This is the thing.

'Cause it's not on their state list yet.

- Yet.

Okay.

- But it is in the New York area, the city area.

And in fact, the New York Botanic Gardens did a paper on it of how invasive it is getting in their area.

So yes.

And I think we could put both of those on the website for people to look at.

But yeah, no.

I would say no.

- No?

- No.

- So don't worry about the root barrier or anything like that 'cause- - Don't worry about it 'cause it's becoming invasive in the state of New York.

- Well, how about that?

They are beautiful.

- Yeah, they are pretty.

- Wow.

And of course, they're   spread by tubers and seed.

- Yes, They go with   the seed.

Yeah.

- So there we go again.

- I'm sorry.

- Oh, we're sorry, Ms. Diane.

- Sorry.

- Sorry about that, but again, beautiful plant.

- It is.

- All right.

Here's our next of your email.

"I have a whole bunch of   35-year old Norway spruce.

"They started dropping their   limb end tips by the hundreds.

"I tried researching it online   "but found nothing   explaining why.

"A new disease,   some type of pest?

"Any suggestions would   be greatly appreciated.

Thanks."

Bill, from   South Central Ohio.

If you look at the picture, it kinda looks swollen.

- Yeah, the buds and stuff was a little swollen.

- What do you think may have caused that?

- Well, of all the plants that we've looked at over the years, the first thing I think of is some kind of insect, that would do something like that.

And not necessarily a disease, but an insect would cause that kind of deformation.

- Something feeding on it.

- Yeah.

And so you can go with some kind of systemic insecticide or some spray insecticide on it, and see if that helps.

But really, to get an absolute identification of it, if he could just take it to his local extension office for some positive ID on it.

Because some of the bugs that get on spruces are microscopic.

You need a hand lens or something to look at to see them.

- A lot of the mites, adelgids.

- Yes.

Yeah.

So he would get confirmation of that.

And so he would might get the exact recommendation of what the local area recommends he spray it with.

- That's a good recommendation.

Yeah.

I would say that as well.

Because, again, I do think it's something feeding that's caused those buds to look like that, right?

To look enlarged.

So yeah, maybe an adelgid, mites or something like that.

But yeah, get a confirmation from your local extension office.

So I hope that helps you out, Mr. Bill.

Thank you for the question and the picture.

Here's our next of your email.

"What is this   beautiful plant?

"Its leaves are   soft grayish-green   and the flowers are   brilliant magenta."

This is Victoria.

What is that beautiful... Don't you know anything about that plant?

- I have that plant.

The Lychnis coronaria, rose campion.

I have that.

I like it.

I've used it as a ground   cover because it's evergreen,   the little part.

But then the stems   come up and they bloom,   and then they form   seed heads.

Well, the little seed   heads, they're like a cup.

When they get ready, you can just tip them over and pour them out and collect seeds.

And I just let it re-seed itself because it seems to be kinda biannual.

It takes about a year for them to start blooming again.

- Okay, so biannual, which means?

- It means that it doesn't bloom the first year, but then it does the second year.

- Okay.

- And sometimes it dies that second year.

And so sometimes it can come and go.

But it will re-seed itself if you let it.

- And bloom time is?

- It blooms probably in early summer.

And sometimes sporadically until it gets really, really hot outside.

- Okay.

So there you have it, Victoria.

Beautiful plant.

Yeah.

I know Joellen has that plant.

- I like it.

- She likes it.

- All right.

Here's our next of your email.

"How can you kill   morning glories?

"We made the mistake of   planting them on our fence   "and they take   over each summer.

"We can't have a garden   or flower bed there   because of them."

Patricia in   Lexington, Kentucky.

So we're talking about killing or controlling morning glories.

- Another aggressive weed.

- Pretty aggressive.

You can pull it, keep it pulled.

If you want to, keep it weed eated down on the fence row.

What you gotta do is, either when you're gonna pull it, you've got to get rid of the carbohydrate reserves- - You better get rid of all those roots- - Oh my goodness.

The roots.

- 'Cause if you do not, it will come back more aggressively.

- And if it's been there for a while, then the carbohydrate buildup in those root system must be really good.

- Must be, must be.

They take over each summer.

So that tells you something.

So yeah, if you got to pull it, you best get all of the root system out.

- And that might be impossible to do.

- Might be impossible.

You could try to smother it out.

That might be a little difficult.

Lastly,- - Lastly?

- You can try to use herbicide.

- Herbicide.

Yeah.

- Use a herbicide, glyphosate.

Maybe a broadleaf weed killer as well.

There's gonna be multiple applications of that.

But I would be careful using that around your desirable plants.

Read and follow the label, but that is an option.

So just be careful with that, but yeah, it's gonna be tough.

- Yeah, it's an aggressive weed.

- It's gonna be tough.

- Yeah.

- All right.

Ms. Patricia, have fun trying to get that out.

It's gonna be pretty thick, pretty bad.

Yeah, thank you for that question.

All right, Joellen.

That was fun.

- It was.

- Those were good question.

Thank you.

- Remember, we love   to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address   familyplot@wkno.org.

And the mailing   address is Family Plot,   7151 Cherry Farms Road   Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or you can go online   to familypotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for joining us.

If you want to learn more about invasive plants in your area, or anything else we talked about today, head on over to familypotgarden.com.

We have information on these and hundreds of other gardening topics.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]