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

I'm Chris Cooper.

There are many kinds of Magnolias.

Today, we're going to talk about the options.

Also, with winter coming, it is time to prepare the hardworking tools for storage.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis, and Mr. D. will be joining me later.

Hi, Joellen.

- Hi.

- Hi, how's it going?

- It is going really good.

- Well, look, we're gonna talk about Magnolias, right?

And you know you like to talk about Magnolias.

Don't you?

[laughs] - Oh, Magnolias.

I have a whole bunch of 'em.

We're gonna talk about some of 'em today, - Good, good.

- But you know, Magnolias, beautiful, majestic, - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- Magnolias.

There's more Magnolias around with the diverse shapes, sizes, the foliage, - Mm-hmm.

- And their soil adaptability.

- Oh, that's even better.

- So, I mean, and you know, [Chris chuckling] we'll do some generalizations about Magnolias.

Most of them like well-drained soil.

There is an exception that we will talk about, but most of them like well-drained soil.

- Okay.

- And the one other thing that's interesting about Magnolias is they are difficult to transplant.

- Ah.

- So when you get one of the plants, and you've got the root ball or the container, make sure you handle that carefully, and try not to disturb the roots that are in there, because this is the reason why it's difficult to transplant Magnolias.

They have fleshy root system with very few little hairs.

- Ah, okay.

- So they don't hold soil well.

- Right.

- And then, 'cause you know, when you do plant it, make sure you don't have too wet of soil to put it in, and you can push it down to adhere the soil to the roots, and then you water it in to get rid of all the air pockets that could still be left.

- Right.

- But that's, but Magnolias are notorious for being hard to transplant, and now, they've gotten better over the years.

- Okay.

That's good to know.

- There's something that also is interesting about Magnolias, what makes them part of their family, together, they all have fruits that are called follicles.

- Follicles, okay.

- Where their seeds are inside, - All right.

- And some of the seeds are beautiful red.

- Red, yeah, I see red.

- And gorgeous, and you know, there are many, there's so many of 'em.

There's books of Magnolias, - Yeah.

- And there's the Magnolia Society, and there's a website you can go to, magnoliasociety.org, and get a lot of information about Magnolias.

- Okay, we'll be sure to get that on the website.

- Mm-hmm.

- We can do that, okay.

- So let's talk about some of my favorite ones.

- Yeah, let's talk about some of your favorites.

- Magnolia acuminata, the cucumber tree Magnolia.

- Uh-huh.

- It is one of the Magnolias that is deciduous, which means it loses its leaves - Right.

- In the wintertime, and it likes, this is interesting, it likes a soil pH of 7.

It prefers a partly shady area best, because it's found in the woods.

- Oh, okay.

- It's hardiness zones are 3 through 8, and it gets about 50 to 80 feet tall.

It's one of the larger- - That's tall.

- It's one of the larger Magnolias.

It has large leaves too, but there are a couple of cultivars that are very, very nice, 'cause the acuminatas have ye llow, blooming spring flowers- - Mm-hmm, I've seen those- - On them, they're gorgeous, and a couple of varieties are really popular, called Elizabeth and Butterflies.

- Ah, I like it.

- They're gorgeous.

Of course, it's native, this is a native Magnolia, that's found in limestone soils of the Shenandoah Valley in the Blue Ridge Parkway, but it actually is native to the eastern part half of the United States.

- Good, all right.

- It can be found just about anywhere, but it's usually in a forest somewhere.

- Okay.

- Then there is our favorite one.

- Hey.

- The southern Magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora, and it is evergreen.

It means it stays green all year long.

- Mm-hmm.

- Great big tree.

It likes zones 6 through 10, it prefers full sun, but it can take some shady areas.

Its height is variable depending on the cultivar, and most trees are about 50 feet, or bigger.

- Still a good size.

- But there are some that are smaller.

- Okay.

- It blooms with six to eight inch wide blooms in the summertime, usually early summer.

- Yeah, mm-hmm.

- One thing that everybody that's had a southern Magnolia can say, yes, yes, yes, it drops leaves all summer.

- I get that, I knew it.

[Chris laughing] - And it has surface roots.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I know people try to obliviate the surface roots, but that is just the characteristic of southern Magnolias, which is why it is best to let them branch down towards the ground, 'cause when the leaves fall, then you don't have to pick 'em up all the time, and you don't have to worry about tripping over the roots, because they're underneath the canopy.

- Right, right, I get it.

- But sometimes, you can't do that.

- Sometimes you can't do it.

- In some areas.

- I've actually heard somebody say, yeah, long skirt, yeah.

- Long skirts, yeah.

- Like they just don't like to show their knees.

- Right, uh-huh.

- All right.

In this case, the dead leaves that keep falling from it in the summer, and the surface roots.

- Right, that's right, okay.

- Now, there are a few varieties that are of note, and if you can, I wouldn't get the straight variety, I would get one of these, Bracken's Brown Beauty.

It is known to transplant better than any of the others, and it is a more full tree.

- Okay.

- Another good one that I like that I have is D.D.

Blanchard.

It's got some of the darkest green leaves of any Magnolia, and the backside of it is this rich, brown, cinnamon color.

Gorgeous.

- Okay.

- Little Gem is the smallest - Yeah, Little Gem.

- Of the commercially grown.

There are smaller ones, but this is the, Little Gem is the smallest commercially available southern Magnolia.

It gets about 20 feet tall, and of course, it in zone 7 and 8 will produce flowers throughout the summer, - Nice.

- So it blooms longer than probably any of the other Magnolias.

- Okay, yeah, definitely familiar with the Little Gem.

- Yeah, I like those.

- All right, let's see if we can quickly go through some of the other ones that you like.

- Okay.

- All right?

- Magnolia soulangeana, the saucer Magnolia.

- Yeah?

- It's deciduous, partly shady, best, zones 4 through 9, height of 20 to 30 feet.

Flowers emerge before the leaves appear in the spring.

- Yeah, okay.

- Then there's Magnolia macrophylla, the bigleaf Magnolia.

- Yeah.

- It's deciduous, too, and it definitely likes partly shady with an afternoon shade is best.

It's zones 5 through 8, 30 to 40 feet tall.

It is not for a small yard, 'cause the leaves on this could be 12 to 32 inches long, - Oh, so big.

- And 7 to 12 inches wide, so it's got huge leaves on it, and it's really known for its foliage, not really its bloom.

- Yeah, bigleaf, okay.

- Yeah.

- How about that?

- Magnolia stellata, the star Magnolia is deciduous too.

It likes partly shady area, but it's hardiness zone is 4 through 9, and it's a small tree about 15 to 20 feet.

- That is small.

- Not big.

- Yeah, not big.

- It's one of the first trees that blooms in the spring.

In fact, it'll start blooming in February with some of the weather.

- Didn't know that, okay.

- Some cultivars are the Royal Star, which is white, and Waterlily, which got pink buds that turn into white flowers.

And then there's the Magnolia liliflora.

This is probably one of the more popular deciduous lily Magnolias.

It's zones 5 through 8, height up to 15 feet.

- Okay.

- Likes partly shady area with, again, afternoon shade.

It's got lily-shaped flowers, and it's known for the Little Girl series, like the Jane and Susan, [Chris chuckling] - Okay.

- And all of these, so, - Okay.

- But they have some of the really dark colors, like the purples, and the, you know, dark, dark pinks, - Nice.

- So it's really pretty.

Then there's the Magnolia loebneri.

Loebner Magnolia, it is deciduous, it likes full sun - Okay.

- To part shade.

It zones 5 through 9.

It is a tall, slender form of a deciduous Magnolia, and it flowers a little bit later than other deciduous Magnolias, so it rarely gets hit by frost.

- Ah.

- So some people like it better because of that.

- I can see that, okay.

- Mm-hmm.

- Mm-hmm.

- And then the last one we're gonna talk about - Ah, I knew it.

-Is the one that's very popular.

- Magnolia virginiana is a native to the United States.

It's a sweetbay Magnolia, likes full sun to shade, - Mm-hmm.

- And everything in between.

- Everything in between, okay.

[Chris laughing] - It has hardy through zones 5 through 9.

It gets 20 feet tall in cooler climates, and then up to 60 feet tall in warmer climates.

- That's tall.

- And in the warmer climates, like, it can be, there's a variety called Australis that is kind of semi-evergreen to evergreen, and so sometimes it keeps its leaves, and sometimes it doesn't, so it'll, or it'll keep a few of them on there during the winter.

Very interesting.

It blooms in the early summer, and they're lemon-scented blooms, they're gorgeous.

- Yeah.

- It's a good patio tree, or something to have close to you.

It differs from most Magnolias, - Uh-huh.

- Because it's also known- - Make sure that we say this right.

- It's also known as the swamp Magnolia because it can stand wet soils.

- Okay, swamp Magnolia.

- And in wet, yeah, but it also likes acid soil.

- Okay.

- So, acid soils, - Acid soil.

- And moisture, it can take, and it can take some dry areas too, but it does better in more moist soils.

- That's pretty versatile.

- Yeah, it's a, and it's native to the United States.

- Wow, I like sweetbay Magnolia.

There's actually some right in front of the studio.

- Yes, it is, that's what we have out there.

- Mm-hmm.

That's right.

- And it's a wet area, and they do just fine.

- They do just fine.

- Mm-hmm.

- How about that?

Well, thank you, Joellen, that's good information about those Magnolias, some good options there as well, and yeah, you know, I'm from the state of Mississippi, our state tree.

- Oh, is the Magnolia.

- Magnolia.

- Yes.

- Southern Magnolia, so I'm very familiar with the southern Magnolia, so thank you very much for that.

- You are welcome.

[upbeat country music] - Not all bugs are bad.

This happens to be one of our beneficials in the garden.

This is the larva of a lady beetle.

The lady beetle actually helped us out.

She actually eats aphids, so anytime that you see a larva of a lady beetle, leave it be, actually in there doing some good stuff for us, again, eating those bad bugs, which would be your aphids.

A friend to the garden, so be cautious when you're out there spraying, because this one, you want to save, you want to keep it.

[upbeat country music] All right.

Mr. D., I see we have tools here.

What are you gonna do for us today?

- We have tools.

We're gonna talk about getting them ready for the winter, - Okay.

- And one of the first things you need to do with your sharp tools is to sharpen them.

You know, don't store a dull [Chris laughing] tool in the wintertime.

You go ahead, and just like you, you know, you don't store your lawnmower with dirty oil, and it going... - True.

- Change the oil in your lawnmower.

Get everything in good shape going into the winter.

- Right.

- So we're gonna sharpen a couple of tools here.

I've got a hoe that I can sharpen, I've got an ax that I can sharpen, and the best, [metal clinking] in my opinion, the best tool to use for those jobs is a file.

This is a typical file, 10-inch file.

It's what my dad used back in the old days, and it's what I use.

The reason I like it is I can't, almost can't take off too much metal.

- Mm-hmm.

- If I take this hoe and put it on a grinder, and if I don't know what I'm doing, I can mess it up pretty quickly, and either a side grinder or a fixed grinder, so I really, really like a file, 'cause you can, with a few strokes, you can do a lot of good, you don't take a lot of metal off, and you can sharpen the blade.

So let me get turned around here, I'm gonna get my gloves on, and get turned around here, and get set up, [metal clinking] and sharpen this hoe, [Chris laughing] to get it ready to go into the winter.

- And of course, these are tools that you use around the house, right?

- These are tools I use around the house and in the garden, and every once in a while, I actually take 'em, and use 'em on my job, - Okay.

- Because my tools are better than some of the ones that they [Chris laughing] try to provide for me.

Let me see if I can get turned around here.

- Ah.

Look at the technique.

- You want, it's very important that you secure you the tool that you're working on pretty good.

If you can't do it this way, use a vice.

- Okay.

- You can use a vice, but always, safety is the number one thing, but, [gloves rubbing] it's a pretty simple thing.

I use the sharp end of the file to clean [metal scraping] any dirt off of it that I may have.

Pretty good, and then just long strokes, slow strokes.

[metal scraping] - Sharp?

- It's getting there.

- All right.

- Getting there, I think it could do a little damage to a pigweed, - Yeah.

[laughs] - I believe, which has brought...

The herbicide-resistant weeds have brought this thing back in.

- That's right, I've heard.

- Yeah, and they're... - Right.

- And it's... [metal scraping] Some of the farmers have to have hoe crews out there, and it's a lot more expensive - Running a hoe crew than it is spraying a field with herbicide.

- Wow.

[metal scraping] - And I've actually seen some of those crews out in the field, so yeah, you're exactly right.

- Mm-hmm.

Getting in pretty good shape.

- All right.

[metal gently scraping] - I'm gonna get a couple of strokes on there.

[metal scraping] Knock off any burrs.

[metal scratching] Let's see how that feels.

Let me wallop you guys.

- Yeah.

[chuckles] - Yeah, that's pretty good, pretty good shape.

I'm gonna just put some regular penetrating oil, WD-40, any kinda oil like that.

[oil spritzing] Do the trick.

[oil spritzing] Put it right on there.

Yeah.

How about that?

- Now, why do we need to do that, Mr. D.?

- Keep it from rusting.

- Oh, rusting.

- I'm gonna kinda count coat all of the oil with it, and let me... Give it a little bit extra.

You almost can't put too much oil on it.

Ah.

My dad used to keep his burnt cylinder oil in a five gallon bucket.

And the way he stored his tools is he just set these in the burnt cylinder oil - Sit 'em in there, yeah.

- So they'd sit immersed, totally immersed in oil anytime they weren't being used.

Okay, now, as far as the handles are concerned, I always like to get a little fine sandpaper, and I'll just, [sandpaper scraping] put it over these handles, make sure you've knocked any burrs off of it.

I'm not gonna do a lot, because it doesn't need it a lot, but you saw, you noticed something came off.

- Mm-hmm.

- Oh yeah, look at that.

- Feel how that... smooth that is?

- Oh yeah, that is smooth.

- Pretty smooth?

- It sure is.

First, I'm gonna just take a, [metal clinking] this is the same cloth.

I'm gonna put linseed oil on, and rub it down, but I'm gonna kind of rub the sawdust off of these handles a little bit, get it kinda clean.

All right.

- Okay.

- Linseed oil.

Boiled linseed oil.

[Chris chuckling] I don't know whether they have it in any other form.

[Chris laughing] Every can I've seen has been boiled linseed oil.

This is a task that works better if this is kind of warm.

So I don't recommend going outside, you know, when it's 40 degrees, 30 or 40 degrees, and doing this on the bed of your pickup truck, because the wood will absorb the linseed oil much better if it's a little bit warm.

- Okay.

- This can of linseed oil is probably 20 years old.

You buy one can of linseed oil, it's gonna last you a long time, I mean, - Oh my gosh.

- This is all I use it for.

- Do you know what linseed looks like?

- I don't.

- I don't either.

[chuckles] - I don't know what it looks like, do you, Mr. D.?

- I don't.

- The crop?

- Actually, I don't.

- Yeah.

- I don't.

- I've never heard of a lin.

[everyone laughing] - A lin plant?

- Yeah.

- Right.

- I will check that out.

- Yeah, we'll share that with you one day, you know.

In the future, we'll, we'll figure out where linseed comes from.

- I was like, I don't know.

- Hmm.

Very good question.

[handle tapping] Well, folks.

[metal clinking] - Whatever it is, it works - I think we're ready for the wintertime.

- Good.

- Yeah, that looks good.

- That's ready for the winter.

- All right, Mr. D., well, we appreciate that demonstration.

- Oh, you're most welcome.

- All right, and we'll hold you to doing that every year, right, this time?

[laughs] - Yeah.

- Okay, got to.

- All right, thank you- - Take care of your equipment, and it'll take care of you.

- That's right.

[upbeat country music] - Okay, this is a seed collection technique that I like to use for flowers that have tall umbels.

Think parsley, dill, fennel, cilantro, even Queen Ann's lace, larkspur.

[bag crinkling] This is a good technique to use for that as well.

You can take a paper bag to help you with seed collection.

Pop it right over the tops [bag crinkling] of those umbels, break 'em away from the plant, then just hold this bag, [seeds rattling] and give it a good shake.

[bag thumping] [bag crinkling] Open that bag up.

We pull out the umbels, and we are left with a beautiful collection of clean seed that are free of trash, [seeds rattling] and we don't have to do a lot of separation.

Once you've harvested those teeny, tiny seed, they are free from trash, mostly, but we've got some really small things in there that we could clean out, so I'm gonna show you a handy little trick.

I'm using styrofoam plates right now.

Styrofoam works great, because it has a static cling.

You could also use sheets of paper, but gently, just use gravity to shake your seeds down that plate onto the second sheet.

And you can see all the trash that was left behind here on the first one.

I'm gonna clean that off, [seeds gently rattling] and I'm just gonna keep doing this back and forth, back and forth, until we're left with the cleanest seed collection possible.

[upbeat country music] So... [seeds rattling] Look, super, super clean.

- All right, Joellen, here's our Q&A session, you ready?

- I'm ready.

- All right.

These are great questions.

- Yeah.

- Here's our first viewer email.

"How do I remove this weed in my lawn?

"It is spreading more and more each year.

"It flowers purple in the spring.

"I put down crabgrass fe rtilizer down early in March.

It seems to help keep it from spreading rapidly," And this is Keith from Darien, Illinois, your home state.

- My home state of Illinois.

- Your home state.

- So can we help Keith out with that?

- Yeah, those are-- - So first of all, what is it though?

- It's a violet.

- It's a violet, it's wild violet.

- Wild violet.

- Okay, all right.

- Very, very tenacious plant.

- It is tough.

- No matter where it is growing.

- It is tough.

That is for sure, yeah.

- Yeah.

And I like the fact that he put crabgrass killer down, and put the fertilizer.

That's got some pre-emergent in it that might... That's why it probably maybe, well, some of the seeds aren't germinating, because of the pre-emergent.

- Yeah.

- But if it's not labeled for it, it's not gonna help very much.

- Yeah.

- And it's not... Crabgrass is grass, and violets are broadleafs.

So really, what he needs is a broadleaf killer to spray on it.

- I would agree.

- And it's a perennial weed, so it's always going to be there until you get rid of it.

And I have to say, in my Illinois yard, [Chris chuckling] when I was growing up, I used to sit, and with a big, you know, lawn weed tool, - Yeah?

[chuckles] - I would pull up and dig up the violets and the dandelions out of the yard, and I was the weed control at my house.

- You did a little weed control.

- Yeah.

[Chris laughing] And you know, over the years, it goes away.

- Yeah.

- You know, the more you keep at it, the, you know, you can just dig 'em up, and they'll eventually go away, but if you wanna do it faster, then [chuckles] you're gonna have to put some broadleaf killer down.

- Yeah, you gotta be persistent with that too, as well.

- Mm-hmm.

- Wild violet, beautiful blooms, - It is pretty.

- Of course.

Perennial, grows rhizomes.

- Yes.

- Has a waxy cuticle.

- Mm-hmm.

- So it's gonna be multiple applications, three-way herbicide, okay?

Something that contains 2,4-D, MCPP, - Yes.

- Dicamba, if you're gonna go that route, read and follow the label, you can use that, triclopyr is something else that you can use, which is a broadleaf weed killer.

Read and follow the label, but I'm all about cultural practices first, - Yeah.

- Right, so wild violets like shady conditions.

- Yeah.

- Shady, moist conditions.

So if you eliminate those conditions, perhaps you can eliminate the wild violets?

- Yeah.

- Right, but you gotta be persistent.

- Oh yes.

- All right, so... - Yeah, I had a job every year.

- Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure, [Joellen laughing] but yeah, waxy cuticles, yeah, so read and follow the label directions, and then you'll be fine, Keith, all right?

Thank you for that question.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"What can I do to get rid of cattails in my front ditch?

They thrive near my sewer drainage," and this is Meynard from Lafayette, Louisiana.

- Ah.

- So the young cattails.

- Yeah.

- How about that?

- Nice picture, by the way.

- It is a nice picture.

- Yeah, that's gonna be a problem, huh?

So how would you get rid of cattails?

- Well, sort of like I did the dandelions and the violets.

- Ah, okay, yeah.

[Joellen chuckling] - I would dig them up.

I mean, he doesn't have a huge amount of them there, - Right.

- But he might have been trying to, you know, get rid of them by physically - Yeah.

- Removing them, and he's done a very good job, because there's not very many left, - Mm-hmm.

- And I would just could keep, you know, I would, there's not very many.

I would dig them up.

- I would dig them up.

- Just get rid of 'em.

- Yeah, hand pulling, you know, shovel, dig, you know, it's moist, - Yeah.

- You know, condition, so it should be easy to dig 'em up, get the root system.

- Yeah, rhizomes.

- Rhizomes.

- So you definitely wanna get those, don't break 'em and leave 'em in the ground.

Get 'em all out, but yeah, so, hand pulling, you can kind of cut 'em down a little bit, that may help, - Yeah.

- But I would get a shovel, dig them out.

I wouldn't worry so much about using an herbicide.

- No, because it's in a wet space.

- Yeah.

- And it's in a drainage area, - Right.

- So you don't want that to travel anywhere.

- Right, which is why I would go with the hand pulling or digging.

- Digging.

- Digging, cut it down.

That helps you out a little bit, and dig the rest of it out, and I think you'll be fine with that.

Yeah, don't worry about those herbicides, just dig it out.

- Mm-mm.

Yeah.

- All right.

Thank you for that question.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"My orchid lost its bloom, "and all the leaves turned yellow and fell off.

Did I overwater the plant?"

And this is William from Corona, California.

So you know a little bit - Ah.

- About orchids, too.

- Yes, I do, I do know about some orchids.

Possibly, because you know, - Yeah.

- If it was bought in a store, and it's in those ceramic, little containers.

- Yeah.

- Those don't drain, and whenever I have those, I take them, there's usually a liner with them in.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I take the liner out, leave the container, and I water that and let it drain out before I put it back in the container.

- Okay.

- And so that's how I keep it so it doesn't get too much water.

- Right.

- And the leaves could be because, yeah, it's too much water.

The other thing that can happen is does he have it in too much sun?

- Ah, okay.

- Direct sunlight on the leaves will also turn them yellow.

- Right, that's a good point.

- And you know, in the nature, orchids are underneath the canopy of a tree.

- Right, so they're shaded.

- They've got a lot of shade.

- Yeah.

- So I usually put mine in east and north windows.

- Okay.

- Depending on what time of year.

Usually east in the wintertime, and north in the summer, because the sun coming in in the east window, - Oh yeah.

- Can be...

Started turning mine yellow, so I put it in the north window - Okay.

- So it wouldn't be such strong light - Okay.

- On it.

- Yeah, that's something to think about, - Mm-hmm.

- Right, yeah, 'cause I automatically think too much water when I think yellow leaves, - Well, it could be either.

- But you're right, in the sun, - It could be either one.

- Yeah, sure could be.

All right, William, yeah, so let's make sure we look at the conditions - Mm-hmm.

- That those orchids are in, and yeah, don't love them too much.

Right?

- Oh, no.

- Not too much.

- No.

- They don't need too much water.

All right, well, we appreciate the question.

All right, Joellen, that was fun.

- It was.

- That was fun.

Thank you much, thank you much.

- You're welcome.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is familyplot@wkno.org, and the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016, or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

If you want to learn more about Magnolias or getting garden tools ready for winter, or anything else we talked about, go to familyplotgarden.com.

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

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]