(upbeat music) - Well, hello and thanks for joining us for another episode of Mid-American Gardner.

And we've got a great show lined up tonight lots of questions and show and tells and things to get into.

So let's introduce our expert panelists and let them tell you a little bit more about where their interests lies.

So Jennifer Nelson, we'll start with you.

- Hi, I'm Jennifer Nelson.

I'm a horticulturalist and you can find me online at groundedandgrowing.com.

My favorite things to talk about are home vegetable gardens and just general horticulture, as well as house plants.

Those are kind of my three main things, but just love talking plants.

- All right and Jennifer Fishburn.

- Hi, I'm Jennifer Fishburn.

I am employed with the University of Illinois extension.

I'm serving Logan, Menard, and Sangamon counties and the whole rest of the state when we're doing webinars and such.

One of the things I do here is facilitate our Master Gardener Program and our Master Naturalist Program.

I can talk about just about any plants, but my things I like to talk about are vegetables and herbs, native plants, perennials, and much more.

- And as most of you know we celebrated the solstice yesterday, which means we are slowly but surely inching our way back to more sunlight.

I believe it's about two minutes and seven seconds each day that we're gaining.

So keep that in mind as we move through these winter months.

And Jen's already got something very cheery and very spring and summery for her show and tell today.

So what do you got?

- Yeah, I've got a kumquat tree.

I'm feeling really proud of this 'cause I've killed so many citrus trees trying to grow them indoors.

But this is a variegated kumquat.

I don't know if you can see the variegation on the leaves and the fruits themselves actually have some striping on them.

They look pretty chunky for a kumquat, usually you think of a kumquat as being kind of like a grape tomato in shape.

And these are pretty fat.

Kumquats have a sweet skin and the fruit inside is sour.

So you actually eat the peel and all.

But it's one of the citrus that is easier to grow indoors.

I've killed literally probably a dozen citrus trees trying to... 'cause you know, gardeners don't quit, right?

Like I'm gonna keep killing it multiple ways.

I'm gonna figure this out.

But kumquats can handle a cooler indoor temperature than most other citrus.

So in my house we keep it fairly cool.

I don't have a greenhouse or anything.

This is growing in my kitchen window.

It does have some extra lighting on it and we'll talk about that next round of show and tell.

But kumquats and Meyer lemons are the two citrus that I've had success with having fruit indoors with.

'Cause they can just, they're a little more tolerant of what we already have goin' on inside.

You don't have to build a greenhouse to accomplish.

Citrus, as a rule are really susceptible to scale and spider mites, so that's something to really keep an eye on over the winter, but I'm so very proud.

I've got like a boatload of fruit.

- Yeah, you did a great job.

So are those ready?

Are those ripe and ready to be picked and eaten?

- Yeah, they're ready to be eaten.

I'm debating what to do with them, 'cause- - So you eat the peel you said.

Just slice and eat the entire... - You're supposed to eat the entire thing.

These have some seeds in 'em, we've cut and some of 'em open.

Yeah, so they're kinda special, so I wanna do something special with 'em.

- Yeah, that's very neat.

And it's a nice way to sort of, I don't want to say, get through the winter, but when you look at that, you know, it makes you feel kind of tropical and summery.

- Yeah and they probably later this winter will start to flower again and the flowers smell really, really nice.

And so it is really a nice pick me up in the dead of winter.

- Yes.

Excellent.

Okay.

When we come back around, you'll have to show us your lights so that we can know how to get our setup like yours.

Okay, moving to Jennifer Fishburn.

So this is timely as well, right?

As we're sort of getting through it, what have you got?

- One of my new getting through its, it's something I've done on and off for many, many years but is to feed the birds.

And as we know, some of us, I guess had the opportunity to work from home this year in March when it was still cold out and looking out the window and realized I needed to feed the birds.

So I spent the next several months feeding the birds.

This particular one here is a suet feeder, suet cake feeder, it's really easy to refill.

You just simply, unpackage the cake and put it in there.

What I like about this one is it actually... You can put it on here and hang it around the branch of a tree and hang it from a tree.

So I got that and some other bird feeders to feed cardinals and such and a handy dandy bird book with color pictures in the middle and got myself some postcards.

And I would every now and then look out the window and see if anybody new was outside and then I'd write down what I would see.

And of course take some pictures.

And my son, got some really really wonderful pictures from his bedroom window.

But point being, it's a great way to have something to look at during the winter when it's just not quite so exciting out in the garden and also a great thing to do for the birds.

And make sure that you're doing a little bit of homework on what is the right bird seed.

Just because the bird seed is being sold doesn't mean it's the ideal seed for birds.

So do a little bit of work on that and also look for the right feeders to feed 'em.

But that's one of my pick-me-ups to this winter.

- We did some of that in the spring.

We bought a bird feeder and the yellow finches were my favorite.

I had never really seen them, I guess that up close and in person, but I really, really liked those finches.

And I'll tell you, you made a really great point about the feed.

So my first bag, they loved it and they made a mess everywhere and everybody was there all day long and it was great.

Then the next time I went back there was a discounted feed.

And I thought, I'll just get this.

And it's fine, 'cause it's cheaper.

Do you know they refused to eat it?

Refused.

Not even the squirrels.

So I don't know what was in it, but I don't know if I set the pallet too high the first time, but they would not eat the discounted bag of bird feed.

So they've got an expensive palette over this way.

(laughs) Anything else as far as bird feed or feeders?

I've read actually somewhere that crowding, if you put too many in one area, they'll kind of fight and peck.

Any advice there as far as spreading them out?

- You can spread your feeders out.

But I think the other big thing to pay attention to is making sure that, you can't go up and ask each bird, but that they're healthy.

And have you seen anybody that may be doesn't before you refill the feeders clean your feeders and let them air-dry really well.

But there are ways to clean those.

Cornell extension has a really great website on IDing birds, what to feed the birds, how to clean your feeders, and everything you'd want to know just as it is all about birds.

So I wouldn't really recommend that people just take a few minutes to do a little bit of homework ahead of time.

- Excellent.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

I have a show and tell.

Every once in a while I bring something.

So everyone knows I'm in my five-year plan, gardening just really getting serious.

And I have always been completely fascinated with amaryllis bulbs.

I think they're just the coolest plants.

And I have taken it personally that I cannot get one to flower.

Not ever, not once, no matter how many times I try.

So I got this guy out.

He was in my front flower bed until September.

Took him out put him in the garage and let it go dormant.

And recently just woke it back up the week of Thanksgiving and put it in some water.

I've heard conflicting things that the flower stalk will come up first.

I've heard that sometimes the leaves will come first and then the stalk.

So guys, please help me get a flower.

What do I have to do?

- I've had both.

Sometimes I've had the flower come up first and then the leaves and sometimes the reverse.

- Is there any chance this point?

Do you think I'm too far gone?

- I think perhaps.

It's definitely big enough.

- Okay.

Should I remove these two guys and let them do their own thing or let them stay attached for now?

'Cause they're fully... - I was telling you that I had a lab mate in grad school that studied amaryllis and he had an enormous collection and he did breeding with them.

And so I would take his cast offs but he had some huge bulbs that were these huge pots and he left all the little pups, all the little bulblets, and so it was like, they were all flowering size.

So you would just have this big mass.

- Oh wow.

- Like that is like a dream to have.

I'd always heard the rule of thumb someone told me years ago about if you had at least four leaves that you would probably get a flower.

- Okay.

- Looks like you have plenty.

- I do.

I do.

Especially out of the big one, there are four, exactly four coming out of that one so.

- Maybe, I mean, when, if, when you're fertilizing are you fertilizing at what point?

- About every 10 days.

I dump this...

I'm sorry?

- You've been fertilizing from the get go?

- Yes.

- That may be a problem.

- Oh, okay.

Okay.

- Jennifer, what do you think?

I've always read that if you give too much nitrogen... Everything I've ever seen is said to fertilize only after it's done blooming.

- Yeah.

It very well could be that there's too much fertilizer being applied at the time that it's getting ready to flower.

So that would cause it to cause more of that foliage growth than the flowers possibly.

The other thing is light.

Light can affect the flowering and the whole life cycle of that plant as well as the temperatures in a room.

So it likes it a little bit cooler.

- Okay.

All right.

I'll keep trying.

(laughs) This fussy thing.

- Gardeners never quit, Tinisha.

- No, never.

The only plant that I've given up on and you guys have heard me say this a million times, is the African violet.

I just give up, but this one, this is a challenge.

My Norfolk Island pine is still alive.

So that's great.

I think I've got the watering schedule down.

But I'm telling you I will get an amaryllis to bloom before this all over with, I swear it.

- This is war now, isn't it?

- Yes.

Yes it is.

It is.

Okay, so we're back to show and tells, where I think we're back to you, Jennifer Nelson with your lights.

- We're gonna learn about lights, right?

So this is one example of lights, I think, just gotta get it turned on.

This is an LED grow light.

And I can remember several years ago sitting in a seminar with Jennifer Fishburn, where someone was presenting about LED lights where the latest and greatest thing.

And she and I, paying good attention as we do, we were looking up how much they cost on Amazon.

I think we were like, oh no, no way.

'Cause they were like $150 at the time.

It was like a square like a grid pattern of lights and like, oh, no way, forget that.

They've come down in price tremendously.

This one that I just showed, I think costs about $25 and it has a timer built in and it's...

I can show it, it has a clip so you can clip it to a shelf or it can stand on its own.

And I just have it on my kitchen on the kitchen counter for a terrarium and some succulents.

This one has got the red lights and the blue lights and some people don't like that look, but that's covering the wavelengths of light that you need for vegetative growth and flowering growth.

There are some other ones out there that are more of a white light.

So it looks more like sunshine and they're still running in the $20, $30 range for a basic one.

- I bought one at your suggestion and it's awesome.

20 bucks is what I paid for mine.

- Yeah and I bought more of them this year 'cause we had to reconfigure.

I lost some of my plant windows 'cause we did some construction last year.

And you know, we were talking a little bit before the show about maybe plants being an obsession.

And so there was some discussion of that in my house.

Don't think you're going to load all these new windows up with plants.

- Oh yes I am.

(laughs) And I might buy a shelf and make two layers.

- It's who you married, but I bought some more lights.

And so I was able to utilize some corners in my kitchen that otherwise wouldn't have enough light and I set them to 12 hours on and 12 hours off and they do really well and they're not super bright, but they're bright enough.

And they're actually, I think kind of good for us to sit.

I like to sit and have my tea in the morning and just, it feels a little brighter than outside.

- Now do you use the different settings.

Do you use the blue for growth and red when you're hoping for blooms?

- I don't fiddle too much with that because I'm just happy to keep everything looking healthy.

I have this one is actually set near where the citrus plant is, where the kumquat plant is.

It's actually right in front of a window.

So I'm supplementing what natural light they're already getting.

It's not totally dark where that one is.

I do have another light that's in an area that doesn't have really any natural light and the plants are doing really well.

- Good deal.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right, Ms. Fishburn, do you have another show and tell or do you want to go into one of our questions?

- Let's go into the questions.

- All right.

Questions it is.

So let's do 990.

'Cause this is very timely.

This comes with photos, so let's put those up.

Sandra wants us to see her beautiful poinsettias.

She brought her own show and tell.

The first two pictures are my Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti, which are blooming now.

And the third picture is the two poinsettias I got to turn color several winters ago.

If I remember the red one colored up more over time.

My secret to getting them to color up or bloom is the same.

I summer the plants outside.

The poinsettias I had behind the deck behind the stairs.

So they got plenty of light, but not direct sun and the cacti I moved around.

This year they were on the north side of the house, under the shade of the eaves.

I water and fertilize as needed.

I bring them inside when frost threatened and then this takes place.

I attributed to the drastic change in lighting that starts their bloom cycle.

So she's dedicated and committed to making this happen.

They are beautiful though.

I must say.

- They are really pretty.

That is what we would call an advanced gardener.

I don't think there's a lot of you who really want to go through that extra effort because what is unique about poinsettias is is it's all about timing.

It's not a plant that you can just set on your desk and it's gonna do its thing.

So it does take a lot of... A little extra TLC to have them re-bloom.

So right in front of you, you do have a poinsettia.

What I want to point out there is that the flowers are actually in the middle.

Those are the yellow that you see there.

When you go to purchase a poinsettia- - Well, it just feel off.

- Which is a little late now, but you know you might still find them at 75% off at the store.

Do look in the middle there and make sure that those buds aren't dried up, if they're still yellow and open that poinsettia will look beautiful for quite some time.

The actual colors, yeah, the actual, oh, they, yeah they they're a little dry there.

The actual colored part that you see there is actually bracts, those aren't the flowers, but that's what we're most attracted to is the bract color.

So I commend her for getting those to re-bloom.

It does take some extra effort, but it can be done.

But as long as people keep those watered, you can still enjoy those for several months.

We associate it with the Christmas time, but it is just a holiday...

I call it a holiday plant so we can enjoy it for some time.

As long as we keep it watered, away from drafts, don't let it dry out.

It'll look beautiful like that for some time.

- I ordered this one from a fundraiser and it was kind of banged up, a little beat up.

So I kept this one at home with me.

But the flowers, as you mentioned...

When we first picked it up last week, it was perfect and fresh, but they are starting to get a little dry.

What causes this?

So we've got some really great greens like lush, but what happened to these guys?

The ones that have a little bit of discoloration.

Any idea?

Is that normal?

- Looks like they were in the middle of coloring up.

- Ah, okay.

Here's one right on top here.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- So it will change, huh?

- 'Cause bracts are modified leaves.

- So these lighter ones will turn all the way or do you think they'll just kind of stay both colors?

See how that one's green there?

- I think they'll probably stay both colors.

I don't know that they'll completely go the white color, but yeah, as Jennifer said, they're modified leaves.

The bracts are, so it coulda just been one that decided it wanted to go part way and not get all the way.

- I think I'll hang on to this guy for as long as he wants to stick around, 'cause it is pretty.

- Another thing I'll mention on those as well as all of the holiday plants, if you're receiving those, we typically receive them with the foil wrap on.

Do pay attention to your watering.

If you water and the water comes through don't let water sit in that foil.

Drain that off, let it sit for about 10 minutes and then drain it off.

If you leave that water in there it'll cause a root rot situation, which might not be a big deal for the poinsettia but other holiday plants that you want to keep.

If that's difficult for you to remember to do that always remove that foil wrap.

It looks nice for decorative, but it's not beneficial necessarily to the plant.

The whole, how to get your poinsettia to re-flower, There actually is a University of Illinois extension website on poinsettias and if you go to that page, it has all the details on how to get your poinsettia to re-flower.

- Well, you know what?

That could be a winter quarantine project that someone would take up.

(laughs) - I've actually seen some people put them outside in the garden for just some foliage accents in an annual garden.

They can get kind of big and look really showy.

They're not like- - I might try that.

- Staying colored up, but if you just need some greenery somewhere.

- Some texture and I might try that.

I'm not the person that can just chuck it the day after Christmas.

I can't do it.

Like if I find a cutting that's still got a little bit of green, I'm just like, all right, buddy, I'm gonna put you in some water and we'll see what happens.

(laughs) - You are a gardener.

You're a gardener.

- I can't do it.

So we might experiment with that in the spring.

- I usually whack mine back, cut them back pretty hard.

And then they grow back nice and lush.

- Great.

Good advice.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna talk tomatoes, since we're back out in the garden, mentally anyway.

Manuel writes in, how about if the program guest presents the list of the tomatoes they are planning to plant in 2021.

Staying indoors this winter will give me lots of time to get ready for the planting season.

Hey, see if you can get Chuck's choices, too.

See Chuck's got fans.

I always said that when we were in the studio and it's true, Chuck's got fans.

So ladies let's talk tomatoes.

- There's one cherry tomato that we grow every year called sun sugar.

I don't know if you've, I think you've grown it Tinisha, haven't you?

- [Tinisha] The first year I grew tomatoes, I did.

- That's one that my kids will... Those hardly make it inside.

- Just pop 'em off and then they go.

All right Ms. Fishburn, what about you?

What are your favorites?

- All kinds of 'em.

I usually plant actually about eight different kinds of tomatoes in my garden in hopes that something will do well.

The only thing I really don't plant are those small little fruited tomatoes just 'cause I don't enjoy necessarily picking them.

(laughs) But my husband always says every year, I don't care what you plant, as long as the tomato is big enough to cover my hamburger.

- There you go.

- But Early Girl is a nice one.

Some of the older ones are, well it's not necessarily an older one, but it's a hybrid.

Some of those are good as well.

- I am not a tomato person, but I do grow them for my family and I stumbled upon making fresh sauces by mistake.

'Cause I had so many and someone said, well if you've got Romas, you can make... And wow the taste difference.

So yes, that is where my tomato growing comes in.

But I've seen Kay on the show, she would bring in the great big ones.

It almost took two hands to hold.

And that got me thinking about your husband's request about big enough for the burger.

- You need the bigger burgers.

- There you go.

(laughs) - I brought a couple of books.

I don't know if they're going to look silly on the camera 'cause they're probably going to be backwards, but this is Epic Tomatoes, How to Select and Grow the Best Varieties of All Time.

And it's just kind of an encyclopedia of different tomatoes.

It's by Craig LaHoullier and I've got one called The Heirloom Tomato by Amy Goldman.

Another one that's kind of got the history of different heirlooms.

I love to grow lots of different kinds.

I try to grow some that are kind of a known.

Like I know how they're going to do, but I'll always have at least a couple of varieties that are something completely different and completely strange.

- If you guys had to guess, and this might be a crazy question, but how many different types of tomato are we talking in the world?

- I think it's over 2000.

- Wow.

That's crazy.

- So what I wanna mention here to go along with what Jennifer is talking about is now is the perfect time of year if you want to start your own tomatoes to start planning to plant your own tomatoes.

You need to get those seed ordered here in the next month or so.

And what better time to do that than in the winter is to take a look at all the lovely garden catalogs that are out on the market right now that you can get ahold of.

You can obviously visit all of these, see all these catalogs online.

But to me, there's nothing better than holding that catalog in my hand and reading those descriptions while I'm sitting on the couch with hot chocolate, dreaming about springtime.

(laughs) - You just described the entire scene for me.

That's what I do too.

I get a big stack and just curl up and just (flicks) like a kid with the Sears catalog.

- But what I want to mention is sometimes it's about taste.

I mean, obviously that's what we're most interested in, but the other thing is as we're growing our own is to pay attention to what type of plant we're growing.

Whether it be a determinate, indeterminate, and then what kind of disease resistance that particular plant has.

So paying attention to the what we call tomato terminology is pretty important.

And the other thing I'll mention, that I think gardeners should mark on their calendars right now is if you're growing these in the ground, so in the soil that's in your yard, I would really recommend late March or so is getting that soil tested.

What I have found is my tomatoes are not doing as well from year to year and a lot of that's because my soil fertility is probably pretty low.

I need to get some manures in there, aged manures in there, or at least be fertilizing a little bit heavier.

So knowing what your soil test results are would be a good idea to be planning for that right now.

So just my tips for growing tomatoes.

- Awesome.

Okay.

We've got about a minute left.

Quickly, what can we do about our Christmas trees?

Just a maybe quick 30 seconds safety spiel, and either one of you take it away.

- I'll go.

So keep them watered until you get them out of your house.

If they're not taking up water anymore, get them out as quickly as you can.

If you can find a way to recycle them, great.

If not put 'em out let the birds use 'em for shelter.

- Okay and check your website, your city's website or your municipality to find out what recycling or options you have there.

Jen, anything to add about Christmas trees?

- No, Jennifer covered it all really well.

We haven't had a real tree for years, so.

- Okay.

I liked the idea of giving the birds a little playground for a couple of months to play in out in the backyard or squirrels or whatever, give 'em a place to hide and get out of the weather.

So.

Okay.

Well thank you guys so much.

Appreciate it.

Merry Christmas.

Happy holidays to all of you.

And we'll be seeing you again real soon.

Goodnight.

(upbeat music)