Hello and thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid American gardener.

I'm your host, Tinisha Spain, and joining me in the studio today are two of our panelists who are going to be discussing all things green and growing with us.

So let's have them introduce themselves, and then we're going to jump right into the show.

So Shane, we'll start with you.

Yeah, hi.

I'm Shane Coulter from country harbors nursing Urbana.

I'm retired from that after 30 years, but now I'm with botany.com and we tell stories about plants.

And so I'm taking 30 years of the working at the nursery, answering questions, seeing all the things I never got to do for sitting at the nursery while you enjoyed all those things.

So I can talk about ornamentals, landscaping, all different kinds of things, and I do gardening for a living, so I'm very fortunate.

Excellent.

All right, Ella.

I'm Ella Maxwell.

I'm from Tazewell County.

I'm a Master Gardener up there, but I'm a horticulturist, and I just worked part time at a nursery.

Now I'm also just loving being at home in my garden.

And I brought some things today to show and I like perennials, trees and shrubs, all right?

And I'm not retired, and I won't be for a very long time, all right, so you guys brought some great stuff in to talk about today, Ella, we'll start with you with your winter flowers.

Okay, I did bring a winter aconite.

I have a picture of what it looks like at home.

This is a hellebore, and it will open with a pure white flower.

This is Helleborus Niger, and this is the one that flowers at Christmas, called the Christmas rose, and then it has a kind of a serrated, smaller leaf.

And then there's the Lenten rose, and that flowers at Easter and has a much bigger leaf.

And this is the one that has larger flowers, double flowers.

Now this is the one that you see all the time, but I really like the purity and just the fact that this is trying to bloom in central Illinois in December.

And so what I have done, and what's worked really well for me, is I have a clear umbrella.

And so in the beginning of December, when I see that the buds are floor forming, I push this umbrella down over this plant to kind of protect it from the storms that we've been having.

And I don't think it really holds the temperature or modifies the temperature that much, but it does kind of protect the flowers, and these will start flowering by the end of December, and flower all through January, into February, and it's just a sweet little different perennial in my yard that's really awesome.

So how not?

How?

But it's just really awesome to think that this can withstand our cold temperatures and our right you know, the lack of sunlight, and how about if it gets buried under a bunch of snow?

If you were to clear all the snow off, would they still be?

Yeah, this is pretty Yes, they will be.

Now, the really cold temperatures can damage the petals of the flower itself.

But you know, once that they're in this little bud here, they're pretty well protected and not sure about the physiology of how they, you know, have antifreeze in their in their cells, but it's, it's a great little plant.

A lot of people don't have it.

It's not one that's readily offered, because the the the later flowered one is getting all the attention.

One more question, if someone was interested in this, do you plant it?

What season do you plant it in?

And then do you get it as a start or do you start it from seed?

Well, actually, you can buy it as a potted plant.

I think that's probably how I got it originally.

It can set seed, but it rarely sets seed because there's not a lot of pollinators.

Now, last year we did have a mild winter, and I did get seed.

So I'm going to see if I can't grow some more, because I really only have one.

You could divide it, but I've just left it as a large clump, very nice.

And it's, they normally sell it in quarts or gallons, okay?

And it's become, you know, Hostas kind of became less popular.

Hostas, excuse me, were all the rage.

And then the hellebore became the collectible.

So there's lots of people that collect them, but you do, it's kind of like tulip bulbs, which we'll talk later.

You don't think about until they actually bloom, right?

So then you're thinking, oh, I want this now, and then you go early spring, but then you don't get it till all the way next year.

So right, think about it during the year, while you're planting.

That's the thing that people forget winter and the coldest season.

It's the longest season we have.

Everybody plants for spring.

Everybody goes for that first bloom, maybe Summer, Fall color.

But winter is our longest season.

So getting things that catch snow, getting evergreens like that, things that survive the winter, that you look out the winter, that's the longest, most important season to do something different.

What I brought for round number two, okay, sounds good.

Okay, so you mentioned the tulips.

You hinted it, yeah.

So that's the thing.

Let's jump in.

Nobody remembers tulips until they're in bloom.

And you go to the yard, or somebody's yard, and you think, oh, I want those.

And occasionally we'll cheat at the nursery, and we'll plant these up ahead of time and sell them to you.

Very much.

You know, three times the price in a pot and bloom that you can plant.

But the real thing is to buy bulbs.

And there is no better time than right now.

I was at the nursery, and I realized my brother had all the bulbs 50% off.

And I thought, this is the time, you know, we were warm.

We're going to have a little warm period.

Still the grounds not frozen.

This is the time to get your bulbs.

You'll see everybody has them at least 50% off, if not more.

You can go through and make sure to squeeze them to make sure they're all viable.

Look for green tips.

Make sure you're buying live bulbs, because it's not a great deal if they're dead, but if they're if they're alive and you can get 50, 70% off.

This is the time to go out.

Get in there if you want to cheat and dig a big hole and pull them in there, it's okay.

You're getting them for $1 or two.

So get out there and look for those discounted bulbs.

I see lots of tulips left daffodils, always the last one left.

For some reason, people don't like daffodils quite as much, but it's a really good time.

So this is your reminder, if you're watching this, no excuses.

Get out and get your bulbs out and get your tulips in.

So just some hacks for folks who are going to be doing that.

If the ground is not frozen, you still have time.

Is that a good rule?

Okay?

And even if the top part of the ground is frozen a little bit, once you dig down, these bulbs are planted six to eight inches deep, the same way with the daffodils and such, or some of the larger alliums.

So you should be able to dig a hole.

We planted some just last week too, that I got for 75% battle of the deals here.

Listening up, Joe, you might have to go a little deeper.

Another question is, do you plant them in clumps, or is it better to plant one here, one here?

How do you what do you get?

Asking, what the prettiest girl at the dance is?

I know I like the clumps because I'm lazy, because I'll dig a big, shallow trench or hole and I'll put them in there, and sometimes I'll mix them up.

I like a mix of color, but then I just don't do every single one.

And then the other thing, here's the other reason, squirrels.

We talked about squirrels getting our bulbs.

They like them more than we do.

And I like to take we have lots of black crates at the nursery.

We've had them for years.

I'll take that crate, turn it over and put a rock on top of it, wait till the ground does freeze, and then I'll take the crates away.

So that way, once the grounds frozen, the squirrels can't get it, and they're already hibernated.

But when the ground is not they're actively searching.

So that's my I just don't want to dig the, you know, the chicken wire and put that on top and do all that work.

The crate looks a little odd in the beginning, but then I can just take it off.

So that works really well.

And I stole that from my mom's friend.

Yeah, I'm not gonna use that idea low maintenance.

It's so much better than rolling out that wire.

You can be a basket, anything, just to cover it, just just something to keep it until the ground freeze.

And you can remove it and then go, Yeah, after you.

But that works better when you have one section versus bulbs all over there.

You got the whole yard Exactly.

So take from that what you wish exactly.

Okay, Ella always, our resident crafter, is going to show us how to make something really cute for the holidays.

And all of this came from your yard.

Yes, pretty much.

So, okay, so that was the thing that Cheney indicated, is that you Winter is here and the leaves are gone and the flowers are pretty much gone, and what we have left is the beautiful textures of the different evergreens.

And so a lot of people have access to white pine.

I really like white pine.

It's a long needle pine.

It has good needle retention as it dries, it just kind of shrinks up.

And of course, our provided are very are everywhere as either small globe shaped evergreens or as larger, you know, dividers on property lines, and this is one called Green Giant.

This is a Western Arborvitae.

It's a little more open, but you can see that it has kind of a two toned color.

I also have boxwood and.

I like to trim my box woods now, just to add to that.

And then, of course, you can use boughs from fresh cut evergreen.

Oh, and I have juniper and camacy Press, and there's just hemlock.

There's so many different kinds of evergreens that you can discreetly prune.

So what I brought was a couple of things you can make swags.

And I like swags because we're going to make one just by layering different greens in our hand, and how we're going to do that.

And then I always use zip ties.

And so I have a picture of something that I made for my mailbox, where I actually made a star.

So I took these and made three of them, and then put them together, you know, as a as a burst, and decorated it with all of the different artificials that we have.

And a trick with your artificials, if you want them to last longer, is wrap them with like green electrical tape, because it is waterproof, and that way the paper doesn't you know that you get it at the craft store.

Some of them are really plastic, but some are indoor, outdoor, right?

Because they'll pop if you get it indoor and you put them in the frozen some of the berries will pop, right?

But that is true, but now most of them are.

That's how old I am.

That's how it used to be.

Now they do make some most of them are Styrofoam, but some of them are solid plastic as well.

But you can also take these small pieces that we have here, and you can make individual things.

And so I have a Wreath Frame.

Actually, this is just part of a Wreath Frame.

I took a Wreath Frame and cut it in two so I could make two wreaths.

And this is one from last year, and I saved my wire, i i rewired it up.

And I actually have some cones here that we could take off, but I think they look nice.

All you have to do is you're just going to lay this on the wreath form itself, and you're going to wrap the wire around it to catch it, and then you'll make another handful.

And I think you did this already.

Didn't you guys do this?

We did a wreath making out at delight flower farm.

But it's always nice when you see people do it here, because Maggie is a professional.

And I'm not saying you're not a professional, but we love when we see, oh, I can do that.

I can do that at home.

So you could make a wreath, any size wreath.

Actually this way, you can even make this into roping.

If you put it on a piece of rope, you can just wrap it around, but I like the fact that there's different textural elements with the different greens.

So that's what I'll do.

While Shane answers some more questions, we'll let you work.

Shane's got a gadget, because we love gadgets on the show, anything that makes our gardening lives easier, and I normally don't.

I mean, we at the nursery, we'll sell, like, the additives for the Christmas tree and all the little, I mean, that's Christmas, right?

They want you to buy all the add ons.

You can't just buy the tree.

You can't just buy the wreath, yeah, buy a bow with it.

But I went into the nursery and saw this little gadget here, and I was like, oh gosh, what is Joe selling again?

And then I go to my mom's, and she's got it in the tree as well.

And I thought these guys are all suckers, like everybody's doing this.

And what it is, is it's to water your tree without have a live tree, which is the only kind of tree that I prefer, but the bowl, they drink a lot of water.

So you're out there every day, I'm on my belly, filling up the the, you know, the bowl, tree stand.

Yeah, the tree stand.

And as I get older, that's harder, like I can get down and water it.

But, you know, the carpets leaking, yes, this you put in through the bowels into the bowl, and you can just fill this up, and it fills the bowl and it stays in there.

Or you can take it out.

But they do have ornamental ones where the ends are a little nicer, so it kind of blends into the tree.

It's a lifesaver, like that.

My mom's going to be mad.

This is missing, no, your mom's and they're just a couple dollars.

They really cost hardly anything.

But it is one of the best things, and it's so important to keep that tree watered and they drink, you know, I filled that up three times a bowl, three times a first day, and then I've been filling up the whole week one bowl a day.

So, oh, my god, yeah, like a half gallon a day.

That means I'm on my belly every day underneath that, and then I'm shaking the tree and knocking everything.

I move the presents away, yes, and so.

And every time I do the presents, I think, oh, none.

Of those are from me.

I need to go by so this way I have to do any of that.

I could just fill it up and that just stays in.

It stays in the tree you don't see because the color matches.

And again, there's different forms of these.

I kind of told you before the show, I was thinking about maybe making a bulb that you could open up and then fill it and snap the bulb, and the bulb would look like it's part of the tree, if anybody's watching, this is on record.

It's a really good gadget, and there are some things that just make a live tree is perfect, but they are work.

You do have to keep them watered.

You know, you don't want a hazard.

So this is something that will make your life a lot easier.

And with live trees, for folks who maybe don't know, what are some signs that your tree is a little thirsty?

Well, the easiest is you should just check the bowl.

That is absolutely something I always just literally put my fingers in there.

You don't want it to go dry.

You don't even want to get to that point it's too late.

Then ideally you don't and that is another sign, if you get a tree and it does not drink water, you probably didn't cut the end properly so that it's taking up water, so they sap up really quick.

So when they cut a tree, it naturally puts SAP over the heel of wound, because it thinks it's a wound.

And if you go to Christmas tree farm, they cut that for you, so you get a fresh cut and that.

But if you don't get that in the water over the next couple hours, then that seals up.

Gotcha, they'll do that, then they'll put it in water, and won't take up any water.

So that's a bad sign.

So anybody who's had these live trees, if you don't have that first date where it's taking up the whole bowl, you have an issue.

You might need to recut it.

Or one out of 500 you have trees that just don't it's interesting.

You don't get it very often.

It's usually a bad cut, but it does happen, okay, but if it takes in that water, you can get a tree to go all the way till February.

I have trees that live longer as cut trees than they do when I planted them.

They get better care in the house.

Yes, there you go.

There you go.

But if you are thinking about using a live Christmas tree that is potted.

It cannot stay in the house much more than about a week, because the there's no way that you can keep it watered and cool enough to be able to transition it back outside for it to be successful.

Yeah, in that case, I always recommend digging the hole before you even bring it in the house, because you don't know how our winters are going to be.

It could be frozen.

So I dig the hole and have it out there and fill it with leaves, something so nobody falls in.

Bring the dirt into the garage or somewhere warm.

Then I transition tree from outside to garage for a couple days to inside for a week.

Enjoy Christmas, take it into the garage for a little bit, and then transition out, and then use all that fresh dirt to plant it, so that way you're not pickaxing a hole for a tree.

And I love a potted tree.

They're getting really good, like at the nursery, we notice that if we can creep it trimmed right, we can have a bag, a planting bag, that makes a beautiful Christmas tree has great handles, really easy to plant, and then you don't have a tree quit down but, but trees are made to be Christmas tree, so that's right, they're using mountains.

It will never be used for anything but that tree.

So it's not, it's not like an animal farm.

It's a tree farm that's made just for that, just for that.

So you're doing good either way.

Okay, all right, back to you.

Let's see what you Yes.

The other thing is, is that you can paint stems.

So here's some white painted birch.

I like these in porch pots, but we can also put this in our swag.

Or, of course, the red twig dogwood, or yellow twig dogwood.

I like to cut this this time of year, and I will cut these sometimes actually close to the ground, and then next spring, it just, you know, will come and fill right back in again.

So that's kind of just easy spray paint and just right.

Well, actually, I think I used a trough for dipped it, yeah, dipped it.

I used wallpaper, you know, wallpaper paste, where you most wallpaper.

You don't have to do that anymore.

I still have an old trough, and I painted them in that natural Yeah, you don't have to do anything without that one.

But you can see here in our little handheld swag that we made is that the, here's the the zip tie, and we can cut that off close, but I just kind of did it in my hand, and then you put the zip tie around it and tighten it up.

And then we can add, you know, some kind of bow, and we've got some berries or some artificial leaves or whatever.

And then this can be added to our little display.

Okay, Dear Santa, to find good, some of us need a different definition, right?

Yeah, you go.

But just now is the time to think about using this to decorate outdoors.

You can also put different materials together for fresh arrangements in like a container with some oasis.

They make great gifts.

So actually, I'm making a whole bunch of little wreaths with some leftover greens.

And don't be afraid to you know, use some other materials as well, Holly and some of the different broadleaf evergreens.

They all look great outside.

And you know when Christmas is over, you can just take it apart and save it for next year.

Very nice.

And another helpful hint is the anti desiccant if you're going to bring it inside.

Maybe the trade name is often will proof will, and it's a coating of wax, almost like it keeps it from from breathing, but essentially it keeps all the moisture in.

So if you're gonna bring it inside, or you're putting in a storm door, that's the other thing.

People Hang a wreath with a storm door, and then the sunlight comes through.

Just crunch every time, desiccant, it lasts literally three times longer.

So all our Rees all are roping, we dip everything in that ahead of time so that it lasts much longer.

They think ours are more fresh, but really they're just more preserved more and it's natural preserve.

It's not a chemical.

That's right.

And where can you pick this product up at?

If we've got people's attention, yeah, most, most garden centers should have it.

And will proof is the name.

I know country arbors has will proof, but Right?

It's a green bottle.

Once you've seen it, once you'll remember seeing it, and it's a spray or a dip, right?

And it is recommended for treating broadleaf evergreens during the winter we have some wind burn issues or something, so you can spray your box woods, your Holly, something like that.

Now there is another one that's, they call wilt proof is the major brand that you see for treating outdoor plants.

There's a wilt stop that's a little less concentrated for greenery specifically, which also makes it a little less expensive, because will proof is is pretty heavily concentrated, because it's made for outdoors, and that's a great point where your boxwoods tip off, or your evergreens tip off.

You see the little white in the spring, if you would spray those really now or a little earlier, any time that the temperature would not freeze, it needs to dry for about 24 hours, something about 45 so usually recommended around Thanksgiving time is good, and it should last for about three months.

Very versatile product.

All right, we've got just a few minutes left.

Let's get a question in Greg Atterbury wants to know.

He wants to dig up a couple of rose bushes and move them, and wants to know if now is the right time.

I would say not, yeah, I'd say no to Okay, I think roses have, they have a kind of a shallow root system, and I don't think that, because they go dormant so late in the winter they they might not, even in certain areas, be fully dormant yet, especially if they still have leaves on them.

So I would say early spring.

Yeah, if you think about it, we put on Rose cones to protect them anyway.

So that's a rooted plant that we're maybe thinking about protecting a rose.

Think about cutting all the roots off, then you definitely have a problem there.

So in spring, we move them all the time, like right before it starts getting warm, even if I see the first tinge of leaves on it, that's a good time, because it's just a spot to start getting its leaves and start flushing out.

So that's when we get them out and trim them up pretty hard.

So you want to trim them back and then replant it that way.

Okay, this winter, yeah, don't even touch it.

Just let it go.

Not now.

And there are so many roses out there and pots you can get a good deal in the spring, and plenty another one.

Yeah, just add to the collection.

I like that.

I like that idea better.

Two minutes left.

Shane, I want to give you a chance to talk about your honey.

Let's talk about this, because this is, this a new flavor, new flavor.

So the great thing about honey is bees don't really care what flower they get, but if you can find an apiary that actually has big crops, then you can localize the flavor.

And so I've kind of gone across the country looking for apiaries, and I found an apiary that travels that you've seen it probably on TV, where they bring a truckload of bees and they go to the pollinating crops, and that's a good way, because if they're bringing bees to the crops, you know, it's a big crop, right?

So this is a new one.

That's a blueberry.

And I thought they don't taste like the fruit.

You hear all the time, Oh, it's this.

It's not infused, it's raw, it's whatever the flower.

But the flower doesn't always taste like the fruit, but some do.

BlackBerry always tastes like it.

It's like blackberry jam, if you have.

It, and blueberry is not like blueberry, but it has a sweet berry flavor.

So I did it, but I'm always I want every honey that tastes different, like if I have a flavor, there's no sense of getting a different one that tastes just like it.

And blueberry turned out to be really good.

And I will not lie, I accidentally wrote down blueberry, and I meant to order more Blackberry.

I got like, 1000 pounds of blueberry, and I thought, please be good.

Please be good.

And it was delicious or, and I'm not giving to you because I got 1000 pounds, but it turned out to be delicious, so, and it's raw.

Raw honey is so good for you.

That's right, it's just so much better.

And I joked with you before the show that I strain it because it comes in really raw, and there's little bee wings in there, maybe occasional bee head.

You know, it's natural, whatever comes out of the hive.

But I've cleaned it up, so now it's clean.

So what do you dip your honey in for tasting?

I just we have tasting part like Maggie comes to the nursery sometimes, and she'll bring a big thing of spoons, oh, and she'll put it in there, and we just take a little spoon, and everybody tastes.

And we just and we just kind of pick out the flavors, okay, that we like.

It's kind of fun.

Maybe, if you'd have beer with it, if you go that far and have a true social gathering, but honey tasting would be okay.

So like holiday honey taste little demita spoon or something, yeah, the ones you get in the ice cream shop where they never give you very little, All right, guys, thank you so much for coming in.

Thank you so much for watching.

If you've got questions, send them in to us at yourgarden@gmail.com, and we'll see you next time.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.

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