Hey everybody, its Tinisha, Spain, host of Mid-American gardener.

And as you can see, we are out of the studio and integrating house.

We're at Danville gardens in Danville, doing our annual spring preview.

That's right, we're going to talk about what plants are going to be hitting the market this year, what you can look for in the nursery when you're going to bring home your healthy plants to put them in your yard.

And of course, what we can start planting now in early spring.

So we've got a lot of ground to cover.

Let's go catch up with Danville gardens owner, Nathan Campbell, and start our tour.

All right now we've moved into the production barn.

You know, most of us take the winters off gardening, but it doesn't stop in here.

There's a lot going on.

We've got the mixer back behind us.

We've got folks getting plants in baskets that we will be purchasing this spring.

So tell us a little bit about what goes on in the offseason.

Okay.

So many people think that we just get the plants in and sell them, but we've got to grow them.

So we'll get a real small plant in.

And then we have to bump it up to another container, a hanging basket or orange pot.

So this takes some time to grow.

The plants just come in there just a small plug.

And so usually in February, we're really ramping up and some of the crops even our earlier some of our firms start in August.

So there's a there's a long crop time it goes into producing this crop.

So how many of these baskets Do you think you'll fill between February and weed opening day, we do over 30,000 of these.

That's a 10 inch hanging basket.

So oh my god, yes.

And then you mix your own potting mix, right, so our own soil, and then we fill all the pots, we have a machine that does that.

But we fill the pots, and then all the planning is done by hand.

So it's a lot of labor.

Now you start bringing folks back, he said around mid February, start creating these baskets.

It's just crazy to think that these will be so full and so beautiful in the next couple of months that they'll be ready to take home.

Well the kind of weather that we've been having a spin up and down, but these guys need long days, and they need the sunshine, and more.

So the longer the days get, the quicker they grow.

And of course, there's a lot of fertilizer and warm temperatures in the greenhouse.

So that makes all the difference.

And there's a lot of moving parts.

I've seen folks back here filling the baskets, we've got folks putting plants in the baskets right, then we've got the full carts going out somewhere.

So I mean, there's this a lot of activities, a lot of manual labor here, people think it's just kind of like a little flower shop.

It is not there's it's very physical.

Sometimes we count how many times we move the parts and it's 10 or 11 times before we sell.

So there's a lot of labor.

So yeah, we fill the pot, plant the pot, put it out, but the hanger on it, and maybe move it a couple times, take it down, ship it or put it in somebody's trunk and send it home with them.

So wow, that's a lot.

Yeah.

And wonder the journey that these plants go on from, you know, seed on the truck to get here and then all the way home to their final destination in my yard.

Exactly, exactly.

Okay, so tell us a little bit more about once these are in the basket.

How long do they have to stay in there before they can be taken home?

Okay, usually it's a 10 to 14 week crop time depending on the plant.

Like I said, sometimes like the ferns or some of the geraniums is longer.

But a lot of the annuals that petunias that were you know, the Super Junior's that we're known for that are all over town.

Those are usually about a 12 week crop from we'll put three to four plants in each hanging basket.

And then about 12 weeks later it's ready to go and of course that plant is going to grow more over the summer but it's a nice selling size for the consumer and then how do you decide on the color mixes?

And yeah, we try to go by what sold well last year and there's always a couple new varieties that we add in and it's it's kind of a guessing game but there's certain colors that pinks and purples always sell well red whites and blues and hopefully all the avenues that we have sell them that they all go he just kind of learned over the years we do like to try to tweak it a little bit and say hey, we sold a little bit more of this last year these were a little bit long on and you know had some luck during the season.

So trim that number and add a little bit more to that color so excellent we talked about giving our plants the absolute best start you guys make your own mixes here right so what is I don't want you to tell all your secrets but what is a good mix?

What does it potting mix, it's pretty simple.

We use peat moss.

That's the brown stuff.

Peat moss, the little white material in that is called perlite in an X for aeration and also holds water.

So that's the two main ingredients.

We also do the minor elements like all your zinc, boron molybdenum, that goes in there, and we put a wetting agent in so it will rewet when you want to the pot.

Gotcha.

That's pretty much it.

We don't put any topsoil in it we used two years ago, but it's so hard to get.

And to have a sterile weed free material.

We want a nice light fluffy mix.

You want the water to penetrate the roots to be able to penetrate have aeration in there.

But you also want it to hold water at the same time.

You don't want a real McKee, some of the mixes out there are real mucky, and the roots actually kind of suffocate and the plant won't grow well.

Okay, so light, airy mix.

Well draining, well draining Is there any fertilizer in just the minor elements.

When we grow the plant, we add water soluble fertilizer when we water.

And that's where we add the fertilizer.

As the homeowner gets the pot, they need to continue feeding.

That's one of the most common mistakes, people don't fertilize your plants at home.

They look beautiful when they leave.

But then when they get home, if they don't feed him for a month, they're not gonna look good.

That's what I tell people.

If you don't, if you don't eat for a month, you're not gonna look, you're not gonna try to educate them on that.

So occasionally, we'll put some time release fertilizer in there that will last for the summer.

But we do sell that and we sell the watersoluble as well.

So Wow, sorry, and 40,000 Buckets are going to come through just on this size.

Wow, we also have other sizes.

So there's, there's lots of stuff coming through.

That's impressive.

Okay, on to the next thing.

All right, now we are in house one Now, correct me if I'm wrong with this as the original greenhouse, maybe 100 or so years old, was built 1924 25.

So we're pushing the 100 years on this greenhouse.

So I wonder if this If These Walls, right, lots gone on.

So when we're out shopping and looking for our plants to take home, we hear a lot about root health, we hear a lot about kind of taking a look at the plant to make sure that it's okay, before we get home.

So show us what we could do to just take a peek and make sure we're getting a nice healthy plant.

Not everybody's gonna want to take the plant out of the pot.

But if you do on this one, you can see we've got really good healthy roots, for good, nice white roots.

You don't want something that's not rooted out to the soil.

So when you transplant it, it's got a nice start.

And it's not having to work with those roots.

Another thing that we tell people make sure it's well hydrated.

You don't want to start with a wilted plant, it's going to be stressful.

You don't want to talk about some other places.

But sometimes things don't get watered.

And it makes a big difference.

We hear a lot of people say, you know, we bought your plants they took off better.

Hopefully they're starting with a better plan that's been taken care of gotcha, gotcha.

So if you see some black inside the roots, or what do you need to be concerned about?

Sure.

You just want nice healthy green leaves.

You don't want dead leaves or black tissue.

You can tell by the look and usually, hey, this plant looks like what looks healthy and green.

Should they just pop right out of the pot, they should pop right out.

plant that in there.

Usually they're not root bound.

So dig that hole and planet and then way to go.

Now let me ask you this.

What about the lovely sea of green in here now?

But what about blooms?

If you're looking let's let's say it's May sure on do I want something that's full of bugs like this?

Or do I want something that's opened?

How do you how do you choose the color cells, people want the color so it's not always that you have to get a plant that's blooming and some avid gardeners will say I don't want something that has a lot of Blooms because they want to enjoy the bloom.

So we want a little bit of both.

We want a lot of buds on there but some blooms that are there so they can see the color and enjoy the beauty help.

So call ourselves every time Okay, is there anything else any other tips from a shopping perspective that you can think of to tell folks when they're coming in and looking like I said, the biggest thing is probably make sure they're well water.

You don't want to go home with the stress plant needs to be hydrated you know good soil mix and I think you'll be fine.

Excellent.

Alright, now we've moved into house two and we're going to be talking about some annuals and perennials for our growing zone.

We're in zone five B, in Illinois, most of our growing area and our viewing areas in that same.

So first of all, before we get into annuals and perennials, let's talk about the definition of those children.

What the difference is we were just talking about this earlier and people get real confused when they come out especially new gardeners.

They think annuals are going to come back annually every year and that is not the case you buy him annually.

It's just a one time deal.

perennials are plants that will come back in your garden year after year.

Now what's the draw to both of them?

I know there's pros and cons to both.

We sell more annuals as a whole, just because they bloom quicker.

There's more flowers and they will bloom all summer.

A lot of plants will we have several that will bloom six or seven months straight.

With perennials, there's a bloom period of bloom time, anywhere from two to six weeks, depending on the variety.

So you have to plant different perennials to have the color all year with annuals.

You can have that all summer but you do have to do it again next year.

And do you see a lot of people getting the perennials for you know, to put in a bed around the annuals that are going to build a lot of perennials can be a little bit taller, up to you know, two, three feet.

And a lot of your annuals are usually lower or more Vining, several things so you can have perennials in the back or in the middle of a bed and then some use some annuals in with them that way you have continual color.

What are some of the other things that folks come in for when they're looking for perennial?

What are some some big sellers here for our area, we do a lot of hostas, that's a great one for the shade hostas and heucheras have been really popular.

stilbene is another good one for the shape.

People always want to shade if they've got an established neighborhood and they've got big trees, they want some shade things so but on the sunny stuff, we do a lot of day lilies.

eCognition is the route Becky is there.

We mentioned peonies earlier.

There's just a lot of things to salvias.

There's a lot of different perennials, peonies, those things that we were talking about how when they bloom, they're just magnificent joy.

And it's just such a short show.

Whereas if you've got something like impatience or the juniors, they're just going going going especially if you did had them you get more and more and more.

So I understand the draw there.

Sure.

I'm talking about being in zone five.

We're all kind of chomping at the bit to get out there.

Let's talk about some of those things that we can put out early because not everything has to wait until Mother's Day weekend, right?

We've talked about the pansies, there's something that can take a frost can take a freeze.

In fact, we sell those in the fall with our moms and a lot of times they'll come back in the spring and people don't even know that.

That's something that can go out in the spring really early.

We don't open till about the second week of April, but you'll see pansies before then they can go out.

Another thing we talked about where the super genius and people don't know it, but they can go really cold petunias can go into the upper 20s, low 30s.

Can even frost we've had the soil even freeze on hanging baskets that we've had outside and they were just fine two hours later.

It's amazing.

So then we talked about the perennials.

The perennials are, you know, established, and they've been treated with some cold treatments, some highlight, then a lot of the perennials could go by, they'd go out early April to that prompted me to another question.

When you get plants from a nursery.

You don't have to harden them off, do you normally not It depends several greenhouses, if you have a really warm, soft environment, those plants, it can't hurt if you've got a really drastic change if you're taking it home.

And it's 35 or 40.

And they've been in a 60 or 70 degree greenhouse, we tell people you know, watch the first few days, maybe take them in and out of your garage.

You don't want to do that too long, because they need the highlight.

So you don't want to do that too long.

But you know, people will keep stuff sometimes couple of weeks and it's not good they need the outside conditions are the highlight so but if you can harden them off a little bit, watch those first few days, or maybe a really windy day can be stressful one where we don't have the wind in here.

So oh, the wind, that's when people don't watch the wind here.

We hear a lot about the sun and the temperatures.

But yeah, the wind, that's true, it's a good day, if you can plant and you have a day or two where it's not as windy makes a big difference.

When we move our product out to our field outside where our mon patches, we grow about 10 or 15,000 Hanging baskets outside, we make sure the first couple of days it's not too windy.

Because it make a big difference.

It can really it can actually burn your plant more than like a frost or you know a real hard heat or something like that.

But most of the time when you get your basket from the nursery, it's it should be a ring or it should be it's with the wind the sun cold and it's ready to go.

Okay, let's go check out some of those plants that earlier plants authority things that you can put outside sounds great.

And now we've reached the part of the show that many of you have been waiting for.

We're going to talk about what can go in the ground first, those early cool season plants so sure.

All right, what can we do?

What can we work on right here?

I've got a few Viola's there in the family with the pansies.

And you know, people don't always know about Viola's but both of those are very cold hardy could go out early, late March, early April.

We're not open till about the middle of April.

But, you know, we will have an early day and if people want to get some they can get some, okay?

Are these annuals or perennials or just annuals, annuals?

Sometimes they go as biennials.

We do sell them in the fall, and they should overwinter.

You get two seasons, they love it cool.

They don't like the heat.

So they're not going to bloom all summer like some of the other annuals.

They will bloom for a long time in the spring, but they don't always come back.

So you get two seasons out.

And a lot of people don't know that.

No, I learned something.

We'd like to sell the pansies to.

We've had them blooming in flower beds here at Christmas time.

Oh my god, like they love it cold.

Excellent.

Okay, what else can we get our hands on early and start where we've got a few things in this house too.

We've got the PW color choice shrubs, and we're pushing a few of those early to get some some nice growth.

There'll be some flowers, and as long as it's not freezing, if there's some frosted periods, they would be fine as well.

Hydrangeas, hydrangeas, we've got some lilacs.

There's a few of the small trees are provide us.

Spy RIAs, some things?

You know, again, it's gonna depend on the weather a little bit each year is a little bit different.

The weather we've been having now people are getting pretty antsy.

Oh, I'm sure I need another snow or two.

To make these to kind of calm down a little bit.

Now, when we're talking about, you know, the earlier season plants, if we get like a blizzard?

I mean, is it are these guys gonna be in trouble?

Can they take the snow is actually fine.

It's kind of like acts like an insulator.

People don't know that.

It's more than real hard freezes.

They're really gonna nip things, we always get a question.

And this is probably something that you wonder, you know, there's bulbs and things coming up.

Now some daffodils are already blooming, you know, is a real cold snap gonna hurt those.

And it never kills them, it can slow him down, it can burn some blooms.

But usually it won't kill the stuff.

If it's coming up naturally, it usually can take it now there are some rare instances where you know, some trees died a few years ago, it got so warm, they brought it out and it really zapped him.

But most years, if stuffs coming up on its own, it's probably going to you don't probably need to protect it.

I've got some tulips coming up and some seed them they'll just kind of slow down, you know, that just kind of sit there and kind of get used to those elements and come on as it gets warmer.

So that's pretty neat.

That works.

Well.

It sounds like you guys are poised for a fantastic season.

We're excited.

Everything looks really great in here.

I'd also like to go take a look at some of the retail.

Sure.

Beautiful, beautiful decor pottery.

Is there anything else that I didn't ask you?

Oh, I know what new things are coming to market this year.

We've got a couple of new we talked about the Super tuners.

We've got a couple of new colors.

And those look out for persimmon.

And there's a new improved yellow.

Couple of the things that I can't think of at the moment.

But we've got a few varieties, not necessarily a whole brand new plant, but some new varieties that are coming along that we'd like to showcase.

So you guys did some shopping all over the winter for retail and the retail side.

Tell us a little preview about that.

What What was the theme for this year was there?

I'm not sure we had a theme.

But we do like the garden art and we used to go to Texas.

In January we'll get a load of pottery, and metal works and signs and metal animals.

So it's a it's a broad range.

I think we have something for everybody.

So Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for letting us come in and do this talk today.

Best of luck to you and I will definitely be back.

One thing I want to add this is our 30th year 30 years we just celebrated our 30 year anniversary on our show too.

So 100 years in business 30 years under your ownership.

many more to come.

We love them regardless.

So thank you so much for inviting us thank you being out at a garden center always makes me especially this time of year when we're just so close makes me want to get out there but we've got a lot of plants inside you could probably use a little attention.

Yeah, it's a little too chilly to do a whole lot outside but definitely the right time to start messing around and scratching that itch with indoor plants.

So it's officially okay to start repotting our plants for the upcoming year.

Yep.

Because we're heading right into the spring get them situated as the warm weather starts.

Yep.

Excellent.

All right, Jen.

So tell us what we're going to be doing today.

So what we're going to be doing today is something I've been putting off doing.

This show was great for me to get that stuff checked off my To Do lists, I need to report this ZZ plant And this is one that one of my enabling friends on the show, the team of Ella and Karen showed this during the pandemic, when we were on Zoom still, this is called Raven, and it is a ZZ plant.

You might be more familiar with the green version, this one's kind of a dark purple foliage.

In the dark, the green version gets big, it gets huge, like two to four feet on average, the Raven stays smaller, it stays about two and a half feet tall and wide.

So this I bought probably in the summer of 2020, I think it was definitely like pinned in the pandemic times.

What's also kind of neat is when it it's has new foliage, it comes out this sort of bright green color, and then turns into this deep purple.

And you don't need a lot of a lot of times, plants that have this sort of coloration need a lot of sun to produce that pigment in this just grows in the same.

whatever light you got conditions that ZZ plants tolerate.

So even that new bright green one with no light, it'll darken up to the rest of the foliage.

Yeah, that's fine.

So I noticed last summer that it's starting to distort the pot, I was just going to ask how do you know when it's time for this, I mean, so you've got a few roots coming out the bottom, that's, that's a good indicator.

With a lot of plants, they'll start to wilt in between waterings and that's a sign that they are really starting to get root bound.

ZZ plant is a really low maintenance plant, and it doesn't really wilt like that.

I mean, it's you can set it and forget it for a lot longer than probably is they can take it Yeah, they can take a lot of abuse or neglect or right I've actually seen some in the greenhouse at the U of I actually break the pot.

Oh wow.

They're way beyond needing a bigger pot.

But so this is a good example though.

This is how I bought it, it was in this ceramic pot, and it has no drainage in the bottom.

So I'm gonna get that in the in the shot better.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

You wouldn't want to plant it directly in here because it would have no way for the water to drain out.

But I can plant in Oh, just the nursery pot and set it inside.

And that is just a common thing that I see people have problems with houseplants and it's like the pot was so pretty in a garden and vacation and what Yeah, use it, but use it in a different way.

Yes, yes.

So we're going to try to take this this guy out, and we're gonna put I got a bigger plant pot.

And we were texting and she used this opportunity.

Yes.

To go buy the pot.

Does that for the show?

Yeah, the show I'll go get a plan or a pot for the show.

So do you wait for enabling me?

Yes.

Do you wait until the plant is relatively dry before you report?

Or is it easier?

Or?

I'm always looking for the hack?

Have they watered it a little bit?

I'll be honest, I watered it a little bit thinking that it might help it get out of the pot.

Okay.

Sometimes in situations like this, it can be so tight that you end up having to cut the pot off.

Yeah, I hope not for this because I didn't try it ahead of time.

But I did.

I was guesstimating This is not do as I say not as I do, I was remembering about how big the plant was when I was shopping.

And so I guess pretty well, you don't want to go more than more than an inch or two bigger on all sides when you're choosing a new pot, because you want to avoid having this root bound plant in a sea of soil a ton of soil with no roots in it because that will hold too much moisture and can be bad for the for root rot and that sort of sort of thing.

So the good thing about ZZ plant is it's pretty resilient and it should just just pop right out.

We hope we can squeeze it to try to loosen it up if I have to.

We can we can get pruners and I can tell you can see the bulges?

Yeah, kinda.

It's really just pushing up against the edges there.

I was hoping to reuse this pot and I didn't want to break it but we don't especially because it fits perfectly in that white ceramic pot.

So I am going to just kind of break some of these off that are growing up the bottom not too bad.

You're not You're not wrestling yet.

Here comes loose.

So look at that.

That is definitely a lot of room.

She was ready.

Yeah.

Now this is a plant that a lot of people when I first thought when ZZ plants first came out, I was like there's no way I'm spending $20 on a teeny tiny plant.

They are horribly hard to propagate and that's why they're so expensive.

A friend had one and we tried to divide it up because it looks like it would be dividable and it didn't work did not know it didn't work.

It didn't work at all.

There is on the the kind of see it on here.

There's kind of these almost potato like structures that they grow from and you would think that you could just break one Often, it just did not take really, I did not know that I have not I've never split one of these before, but I just assumed that it grows into really it grows in areas where you have like wet season and dry season.

So it's that's part of its resiliency Gotcha.

But how it's propagated is by these leaflets.

And they actually will grow a new plant from the leaflet and it takes years, the stuff I've read says, about 18 months to go from a leaflet to having a few routes on it.

So you can appreciate the time that goes into producing a plant for sale.

That's why they cost as much as they do because they've spent years in a greenhouse somewhere.

Wow.

Okay, we've got about 30 seconds.

Really, how much soil do you put in the bottom before you figure out how, how high you want it in the flesh with the you want to leave about an inch and a half so that you can water not overflow?

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you for giving us a report tutorial because we've all got reporting to do and thank you so much for watching, and we will see you next time on Mid American gardener.

Good night.