Hello, and thanks for joining us for Mid American gardener.

I'm your host Tinisha Spain and joining me in the studio today are two of our panelists who have things to show you things to tell you and we're going to answer some of your questions today.

So before we jump into that, let's have them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit more about their specialties.

So Kay, we'll start with you.

Okay, I'm a Champaign County Master Gardener.

Volunteer out at Allerton Park.

And my specialties are herbs and vegetables, especially heirloom vegetables.

And anything else that comes along generalist, alright.

Hi, my name is Martie Alanya.

I'm a sort of retired landscaper.

I usually work for residential people, but I have done a couple of commercial jobs and my specialties are not getting your tomatoes off my garden in the summer and letting the weeds take over the clematis.

Call me.

Yeah, that sounds kind of like my Hot diggity.

All right.

So as always, we've got show on tails and all sorts of stuff to get into so it is January which means the catalogs are rolling in.

And I just can't wait.

I've already started circling and dog urine pages about stuff I'm gonna ruin this spring and summer garden.

So Kay is going to talk to us about her catalogs and what's coming in at her house.

Okay, so this first catalog is really not a seed catalog.

It's from Kingsman company and they do all kinds of gardening suck Cerise, your this is where I earn order my core from I order bought blocks a core and but they have all kinds of neat things in here that I'd love to have no room so the roots of these are our seed catalogs.

This one's another favorite of mine and it's from Maine and it's called pine tree and they have a lot of really nice seed varieties.

And all these catalogs have a lot of good information on that type of see the how the plant you're gonna grow and some growing conditions.

Fall kinds of pretty pictures make you want to do is Southern Exposure Seed Company in and again, they're they're a really reliable company.

They're out of Virginia.

So they had tend to have things that do little better in Southern climates, but I've ordered a lot of seeds from them and they do really well here.

I'm leaning toward the pine tree because if it'll grow in Maine, yeah, sorry to hear that I grew up here.

This one is all house catalog.

And they do mostly bulbs.

Okay, so dahlias are they've got gorgeous dahlias to love tulips, daffodils crocus's All the bomb things and their bombs are always really nice and do really well.

I'm addicted to dahlias.

They're beautiful they are and they are surprisingly easy to grow Yeah, I was involved in the ground and yes one time and I'm like okay, I'm done digging you up.

Do you think it's good liver to happy for oh my gosh, I got this tall and this fabulous morning like okay blooms are this they're gross though.

They're fantastic.

Yes, I've heard him mention those before.

And of course the last one I said the dust from last this is seed savers catalog in addition to their yearly book of seeds that people offer they actually have a catalog and sell their seeds and this is a nice because there's some little articles in here about things and like a magazine slash get as it is.

This is already cool.

I got it upside down.

Is about Italian sausage with crushed Oh yeah, they got us a piece of sippy recipes.

You can't beat that so to say in their catalogs, I you know I get the the big ones the gurneys, the dzongs but a couple of those I have not heard of so I'm gonna try to get on the mailing list, I really like them.

They're these these picture killer ones are and they're reliable.

They're, they're seeds.

They're good.

They're nice.

See, now, is it time to order?

Or is this make your list phase of life?

Time, get your orders, I would order pretty soon because sometimes, especially these smaller companies will run out of seeds.

And you know, it's getting time to think about starting the early spring, broccoli and things like that.

If you want to start exciting.

It's January, but we're getting there.

I have a big to do in January.

You can only you know, wipe your towel off and sharpen your space so many times.

I'm ready to get in the dirt.

Okay, it's a good time to think about designing your garden is true, like needs and all that good stuff.

Okay, excellent.

So if you've got catalogs coming in, now is the time to order.

Alright, Marty, we're gonna go to you with some pruning.

Some pruning, there was a question sent in about a tree that got broken?

Or is that your tree that got broken?

That was not my train.

That was a it was a near where it was?

Let's see if I'm gonna find it.

I don't see one about the cold snap.

Hmm.

But there I do.

remember there being a question about if your tree was damaged?

In the cold weather?

Can you can you prune it now?

Or do you wait, I would wait, I would definitely wait to do that.

Because the dead isn't gonna come back to life.

And oddly, and in the spring, you can see exactly how much die back you got.

So where it leaves out, you prune off the dead.

In fact, I would recommend you prune back into the green wood to the next node.

And when I say node, I mean node.

Okay, pretend this is a tree, pretending and it got a good thank you.

And it got some damage.

So you tried to break that off, and then this one's growing down.

That's not good.

So it's better I in my opinion, if you take this whole branch off, and when you prune, can you There you go.

When you prune, there's a flat side and a not flat side to your pruners.

Put the flat side next to the plant and cut it off.

Like that.

Don't leave a stump sticking out.

Don't do that.

I mean, there's gonna be a little bit of a collar there where that grew out.

But don't leave like don't do this.

Especially don't do left handed.

So I'll spin it around.

People want to prune and they'll just cut right there.

Okay, this is a dead sticks that don't get all bent out of shape.

Alright, this is this is where if it was a live plant, this would grow out again.

And this would grow out again.

But people cut right in the middle and they cut flat.

Don't do that.

Cut out about a 30 degree angle right above a node.

Can you see that?

And if this were my tree, I'd take this off all together.

But then yeah, if you have dye back in the winter, I just picked this birch branch up out of my yard because I'm a professional Don't try this at home.

Okay, so anything that's crossing, you want to take out when you're pruning, I don't have any crossing branches here.

But this tip is broken.

So I can take it back to this growth node.

And I think that's what I would do.

If I took it back, all the way.

Remember, this is a huge tree and I'm using a pole saw.

So if I took it back to here, this branch is what would grow up.

And it's just not.

It's growing in toward the tree instead of out.

So probably I would take that off as well.

So this is one of those things where you cut and you step back.

Yes.

Yes.

kind of mentally map out.

Not just where the branches are now but like you just did we're going to go yes.

Yeah.

And, and, okay, one more.

If this was your branch, and it died back to here.

Okay, if you have a good strong node, there were those are growing out.

You could cut back to there out of 30 take the whole thing off because it's dead.

Okay, when you get leaves here and you don't get any leaves out here.

That's not gonna get any better.

So take take the whole thing off and go back into the Greenwood like I said an inch, maybe two depending on the size of the of the branch because you want to you know, don't don't just cut the dead off in the sleeve that that's that's not cool.

Now I know you said Wait, but let's, let's say for example, it's been we've had a lot of wind.

Let's say I've got a branch that's hanging, if you got a hanger, you probably need to get it out of there.

Get out of there.

Okay?

Yeah.

So, you know, make it, they can work, however you can make it work.

And then is there a date that we're looking for?

Or do we need to go out and see what the tree is doing and see if buds are forming, and what is that, what I do is, if it's a flowering tree, go out and look for flowers before it leaves out, go back in the spring, just watch it, see when it leaves out.

And if you have dialed back and gotten back into the live would an inch or two, and it's, it's, it's not just cut it off.

You know, like I said, You got to make sure that the the node you cut, cut back to a node cut back to a green, shoot looking thing, okay, we call those notes here.

And, and you get back to that, but make sure it's aim in the way you want the branch to go.

Because if it's hanging down, and it's over your, where you park your car, then it's going to scratch the top of your car or your truck, or it's going to hit you in the head when you're mowing.

Don't do that.

Just think about the structure of the plant.

And, and go from there.

So yeah, if, if you've got Brent is like red buds.

If it's really, really cold, sometimes they'll die back.

They're actually native, a little south of here.

So you get red buds, and you got little purple bars over one nothing.

So take that off, take nothing off, just cut back into the green.

plants that don't flower first that they leave out.

It's the same thing.

Just see where the live growth comes out.

And then print it back into the Greenwood into the new one the live would an inch or two at an angle.

Yeah, at a 30 degree angle.

Do not hack that off, like you get eaten by a shark don't do that.

It's very bad.

All right, back to k. So you know, we just wrapped up the holidays and poinsettias are looking kind of haggard, not this one.

But if you've got ones that are sitting around, maybe that you brought home from church or from other places.

How do you take care of them?

What's the what's the survival plan?

Well, please share your knowledge.

And always try that's what I'm just try.

Oh, golly, Moses.

Yeah.

So pointers are a little complicated.

But you know, if you just want to keep it for a while, and don't want to have tried to have it bloom next year, it just the best thing to do is put it in a south or east window so it gets sunlight.

And just be careful with your watering.

Now when I get this home, I'm going to take the foil off.

Yes, yeah.

And it's in a plastic pot now and I may transport it to a clay pot.

I like clay pots much better.

They breathe and they're easier to tell why you want to make sure you don't over water it kind of let it dry out.

During and feel the soil when it's really dry, go ahead and give it some water.

Ideally, they like temperatures between 65 and 70 degrees.

So when you're in that, that window, if you're a person that likes to crank up the heat in their house, it's probably not going to be real happy.

We're on the opposite end of the spread.

For our mid to late January, poinsettia, I mean, that guy's looking good.

We'll see what it looks like next month.

Now are you going to cut anything back?

You think you're not yet.

Later on, I will.

If you want to, if you make it to warmer weather, you can actually put them outside, plant them outside and they prefer to be in indirect light.

So you don't want to put them in a really hot sunny spot.

And then if you if they make it for a long time, you can try getting it to rebloom because these these pebbles will drop off and they'll come back green.

So but it's it's a real ordeal.

It is.

So I've heard Kelly one of our panelists.

She's a greenhouse grower.

She's the Chuckit person right?

She's the one that you know, the day after Christmas, throw them in the trash just don't even bother with it.

But the three of us rescued orphan points.

So but the big thing is get them out of the Get them out of the paper there so that they don't get root rot.

You know if you want them to leave them in The plastic pot that's fine and just you've got to be really careful about over watering Gotcha.

Killed a number of they do a whole lot better dry as a bone.

They will they have a sick SAP you notice the poinsettias if they break or something there to get a thick milky sap that will indicate to you that they don't need as much water as plants that have a runny SAP.

So if they get tired and leggy, you can come back.

Yeah, and these actually weren't talking about the flowers.

Oh, yeah.

These, these are the flowers in the middle here.

They haven't turned yellow yet.

They're still kind of green.

So it's got some it's going to bloom soon.

Well, yeah, they'll you know, they'll turn yellow, and the little flowers.

That's the bloom.

These are petals.

These are leaves that turn red that they're referred to as Brax.

And all they do is help the pollinators find the plants.

That's why the tops the top ones turn red.

They're just, they're just trying to help the pollinators come find these teeny weeny little flowers in the middle interests.

So up at the top, they change color, but down at the bottom.

poinsettias will stay green because just around flowers where they need.

You can see this one, like turns around how's it green?

So that's probably a more recent leaf.

That's brackets.

Yeah.

And here's one up turn it this way.

Here's this one.

It's starting.

It's thinking about changing color.

It's kind of purple.

It was green, but now it's kind of going to red.

Going.

Well, best of luck to you, friend.

I hope you guys I my record is two, two and a half years one live two and a half years croaked over the summer was kind of sad because it got really big.

That's impressive.

Yeah, did it turn one other time?

It bloomed one other time and I didn't you know how they you know, they're like, I didn't do anything with it.

And it turned it at a like a very strange time.

And then it died.

And you know, two and a half years though not too shabby.

Do you have more pruning expertise for us?

I don't really.

I want to talk about some guards go to some questions.

All right.

Is there anything on here that just got you so excited?

Marty, any question on here that you're just dying to answer?

Yeah.

Okay.

The darkening after black walnut trees.

Okay.

You can do this.

This person wrote in have three large black walnut trees cut down stumps ground down.

Just this last fall, I'd like to place my two raised garden beds, three feet wide, eight feet long and two feet deep.

Over the area where the trees were the black walnut trees are located by a cement driveway on the other side of the driveway.

Flowers ferns, grasses, volunteer tomato plants Easter Lily grew fine.

I had another raised bed that had flowers and the largest tomato plant that grew fine.

This raised bed was also across the cement driveway and I'm aware black walnut trees send out a toxin to deter other plants from going close to them.

What's your advice regarding placing my raised bed on top of the area where the trees group I do it?

I do it.

I would also think about putting some some garden when we'd met underneath their shield, just because yeah, it's like you put it I hate that stuff.

Okay, let's just start now.

I hate that stuff.

But in this particular case, it has its uses.

So in this particular instance, it could hold down the the toxins from the soil coming up through and I don't think they would I mean, how long as they're gonna volatilize after you chop the I mean, how long are they?

Are they doing this?

Are they still living?

Or are they admitting this toxin as their as their decomposing what is going on under there?

You're gonna want to wait, I think I do the garden mat, the weed mat under the raised beds only because the roots aren't all dead and they will die.

But what as long as the living tissue is receiving in there from that tree at all it's going to be letting putting off this toxin, which it does as a you know, as a self defense mechanism.

If nothing else grows up around it and chokes out if it drops its own nuts and they germinate.

Well, they're fine.

Because they're black walnuts too.

Yeah.

So interesting.

I don't think English walnuts do that.

But our native walnut does.

We have six black walnut trees coming together and my husband never has to mow them.

No, no their grass doesn't even the grass Oh, I've got to this question is about perennials.

This is from Jessica, this came in on Facebook.

With the brutal cold snap that we had in December, I was wondering how concerned I should be about our existing perennials, essentially, those that are for a particular zone, but not colder.

Obviously, the damage is done.

But should I plan for a lot of replacements?

So do you guys, what are your thoughts on this with it being cold?

I mean, we have winter every year, but we did have a pretty it really dried out.

Do you plan on having to replace things?

Or do you just Fingers crossed?

And I just wait and see what, that's what I see.

Because sometimes they'll make it and sometimes they won't.

It's an old plan.

You don't want to buy a bunch of plants, you know, and then the stuff you've already got is healthy.

And I'll just I'll just take this one step further.

I buy lots of plants that never make it into the ground before it freezes.

So it's always interesting to me about April See who's got leaves on courses, Salvy always come through with flying colors and probably the grasses but there's some other things that that languish under my tutelage sadly.

What are some things that are kind of on the line?

What are some things that you know, sometimes they make it and sometimes they don't?

Oh, golly.

When and when they're in the ground or in pots in the house?

Roses might be it might be a little tough on them depends on the variety depends on whether they're grafted or they're on Route.

So they they tend to be a little more tender if they're grafted.

And Bobs will be fine.

The perennials i don't know i would say almost anything that's a sun living for anyone would do just fine.

Okay, like is it salvia grasses?

See them?

AKA Leah.

But basically you Yeah, you're gonna have to wait.

Just it's just a crapshoot.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Okay.

How about?

Let's see Mary pitsee writes in or Pizzi.

Sorry, if I mispronounced your name.

She wants to know what type of fertilizers or different blends of soil so she's playing in her house plants this winter.

So do you fertilize?

What do you use any tips for getting your house plants through winter?

I like fish.

emulsion.

That's that's a liquid right?

That's yeah.

Okay.

But it's kind of stinky.

And it's concentrated?

You can buy it?

Or do you just mix it with some?

Doesn't smell quite used to it.

But it works.

Okay, and then you mentioned using core, do you use core?

That's probably just for seed starting not for you're not necessarily you could mix it with your potting soil.

Keeps it nice and fluffy and from packing down.

Okay.

All right.

So you can use it for more than just starting seed.

Okay, Marty, any any tips, secrets tricks, too, you know, I my, my brother passed away probably 40 years ago, my parents got a rubber tree.

And my mom had it for ages.

And she repeated it occasionally.

And she used garden soil.

Don't do this.

Don't Don't, don't do that.

Not helpful.

It compacts too much in a container, you have to use potting soil.

So But nonetheless, it survived on the sun porch.

I don't know how it did.

And it was about this big and it was kind of the poor thing.

So she moved into an apartment where there were no good windows, particularly not for those kinds of plants.

And then there was a heat register right under the window and like, Mom, I'll just not gonna work out with you.

Okay, I did.

So that's what we did.

And I repeated it at home.

I watched every crumb off of the routes that I could possibly get.

I cut it back like a madman.

And I put it in a new pot with some new soil.

And it's this tall now.

And I'm thinking of pruning it again.

Maybe it did, much to my surprise.

Yeah.

Took off.

Yeah.

And it's like, oh, it's all I need.

I want to prune it because I want it to be a little more columnar.

And since it seems to be happy, now I'm gonna I'm going to because it was like, when I got it, and I'm like, I'm real and they were going every which way you know, so I wanted it to be straighter.

So I'm going to try to start printing it to encourage that too.

And you're talking about what's the point setup with my house plants.

I have big pots and little pots and but remember, don't put A plant this size, when you report it into a big big pot thinking it'll have room, houseplants need to have tight shoes.

And if they don't, there's too much soil when you water and you saturate the soil completely, they're much more prone to root rot because it's just too much dirt.

It's not the earth, you know, that won't dissipate, it'll just sit there and that pot and it's because this doesn't seem to the ordinary mind to be true, but the roots have to have air.

Alright, so there's air in there unless it's not fluffy enough like Kay was saying you can mix that core in there and and make the the the drainage has to be pretty dang good even for things that aren't orchids or something like that.

That needs really excellent drainage.

I guess what?

We're out of time.

We're gonna have to leave it there.

So much for coming in.

Thank you for sending in your questions.

If you've got more, please send us an email to your garden@gmail.com Of course you can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you so much for watching, and we will see you next time.

Goodnight.