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 three of our panelists here to answer all of your questions about gardening.

We've got a lot to cover, so let's jump in and have them introduce themselves, and then we're going to get going.

So John, we'll start with you.

I am John Bodensteiner.

I'm a Vermillion County Master Gardener.

I like to grow just about anything, and I like to experiment with different things, just a generalist, if you will.

All right, okay, hi.

I'm Kay Carnes.

I'm a Champaign County Master Gardener, and I like herbs and vegetables and all kinds of plants.

Wonderful.

Chuck.

I am Chuck Voigt.

I'm retired from University of Illinois, where I used to teach master gardeners.

Yes, I remember that over in over in Vermillion County, and so I've been retired for a while now, and vegetables and herbs were my specialty.

But like John, I'm kind of anything that piques my interest, I'm good to go and try it wonderful.

Okay, well, we have a lot to cover, so John, we'll go back down to you which, which would you like to start with?

You know, let's jump in dealer's choice.

Okay, let's go with the this is, a lot of people consider this a weed.

This is Solomon Seal.

This is the one that isn't, supposedly a weed that does spread.

This is the variegated variety.

But I find it interesting.

I like the little the little flowers hanging off of it, and it's blooming right now.

The other thing I brought was my hellebores, and I wanted to talk about that, because right now you're going to find things like this.

This is the flower with the seed buds that are starting to show and you can see right here, they once they ripen, they just pop open and they'll not go far.

And so what I have done, I have taken a breathable bag, and what I'll do is I'll put it around the flower so that once they do pop, I can just gather the bag and I tighten this up against so that, you know, they can't fall out.

And then I'll plant them that way.

You can't wait too long.

You don't want to let the seeds dry or get too old, but they just bloom.

Boom, Bloom.

And there's all different kinds.

This is the there's a new doubles, there's different colors, there's wedding series, there's the honeymoon series.

And then, of course, I had to throw in a hosta leaf, just to show people always say, oh, Hostas are just plain.

Well, this is the Liberty variety.

This is what probably one of my favorite.

And I mean, you have this color throughout the whole year, and, you know, have different flowers, like the hellebores around it, because they both are shade lovers, and hella brings in hellebores a lot.

What is it about them that you like the most?

Is it that you get that long the long blossoms?

I mean, they started blooming in February.

I had honey bees and orchard bees on these.

I went out to look at them, and I heard this buzzing, and there was actually bees.

You know, I had both the orchard bees and the honey bees.

I'm not sure where the honey bees there must somebody must have a hive near me.

But the orchard bees are, I have houses put up for the honey bees.

But they last.

They're still they're still beautiful.

And there's, they're evergreen throughout the year.

Do they require a lot of maintenance?

Do you have to cut them back?

I cut them back as soon as the snow melts, just so that I can see the flowers.

Gotcha, you don't have to.

They'll, they'll just go to the ground and deteriorate, but I do clean them up just to make them look a little bit more attractive.

Okay, all right, we'll come back to you and learn a little bit more.

All right.

Kay, pathetic Dahlia.

I love dahlias.

They're gorgeous flowers.

They get very large and they have beautiful colors.

And there's, and I grown them for years and years and years, and I had a bunch of tubers in a bag that were all dried up, and I had given up on and I looked in there and I saw this one had green coming out of it.

Now, how it did?

It didn't have water, it didn't have its sunlight, but it so I you think this was in that bag for over a year, at least, at least a year.

Wow.

So I'm kind of babying it.

I'm going to get a stick so that I can tie it up and.

Straighten it out a little bit.

The dahlias are really beautiful plants.

Do you think that will bloom this year?

Probably not.

Well, I don't know.

I think so.

You know what?

Now we're all invested chicken to be continued on this guy.

But, you know, we've all done that.

We've all, you know, tossed something to the side and found it later.

And so when you see that green, though, a lot of us, we just can't pitch it.

I was shocked, and I thought, well, a poor thing.

Well, let's see if she can save it.

So I'm working on it, doing pretty good.

You'll have to bring it back for some updates throughout the season, send you pictures.

Please do all right, Chuck, we're gonna go to you.

Okay, you sent in some beauts.

So right?

You You did a remote once from the farm, yes, in Daffodil season.

And this is like an establishing shot.

Originally, there were four rows there.

The one, the second one from the left is kind of not what it once was, but where you see it's filled in between the rows.

Those are all seedlings, because as I got busy here at the U of I I no longer had time to deadhead three or 4000 daffodils, and so they were just on their own to go ahead and cross pollinate and make all sorts of little babies, and, you know, I probably five or six times.

Now I've marked about a dozen of them that I thought might have some merit.

But then it gets to be June, and it's hot and I'm busy, and they never seem to get dogs.

But that's an establishing shot.

And also to show that I really don't need more daffodils.

But there we go.

This is, this is one that was in my house in Urbana.

I dug those up and planted a row of them up at the farm.

It's, it's more or less of the trumpet sort but with hybridizing and breeding, you get frilling, and some of the trumpets start to open up.

And so they're sort of half cup, half, half, half trumpet.

This, the pink trumpet is, is a little more like a standard trumpet.

And you can see there in the background, they come out sort of a yellow.

And then as they age, it goes more toward that sort of a shell, pink, gotcha, gotcha.

And then you get the cups.

This is a yellow on yellow.

That one is a little past its prime, but, but you can see all that frilling.

That's one called curly.

Just really, really stunning, I think, with that dark orange against the against the pretty white, there's a pink cup.

And you know, they're just okay.

Now I've been on this show, and I've publicly kicked myself for going to the big box store late in the fall and buying daffodils when I didn't need daffodils.

And John talked about, you know, something that interests you.

Well, that's the one, huh.

A, they were really cheap.

And B, they were very interesting.

So, but officially this year, I've stopped kicking myself because they the especially these double pinks, were just magnificent.

And, and, and have have multiplied to the point where even the show in the in the row was was pretty was pretty good.

There you can see that it's like, you know, where, two years ago, there's probably only one per spot.

Now there's three or four or more, and just for and then the other one, the double yellow that looks like, like one of your dahlias.

To me, it's just just amazing.

The one drawback that I found is that in the wind and the rain, that gets incredibly heavy, so in the future, I'm going to have to do some sort of support to keep them upright.

But it's probably going to be worth it, because that's amazing to me.

Yes, it is.

That is very pretty.

Let me get to the next set here.

Okay, and then this past, this past November, my my friend, gifted me with with these 50 little daffodil bulbs that I didn't need and so they 50 turned into 97 Well, pretty much all of them came up in their new little row.

There's only six of them that were flowering.

And since, since this picture was taken, they have opened it's got a white Perry perianth in a kind of a butter yellow cup on it.

So very.

Pretty, and I don't know they didn't come with I don't know if they're all the same or if they're going to turn into multiple different things, but next spring, maybe, maybe we'll know that.

And then the crown Imperial is just always so majestic and beautiful, and you can't smell it in a picture.

So it's really impressive.

I also have yellow ones, and I think there are redder ones as well, but I don't have those.

So crown Imperial Fritillaria imperialis a fussy name for a very pretty flower.

Yes, that's gorgeous, gorgeous.

So there we are, and we'll check in next, next year and tell you how, how Keith's role has just turned out.

I also, I also promised to credit cousin Jill, my designated photographer, on cue, came over on a Monday and shot all these we need to give her producer credits.

I feel like she's the bond Bill arm of this organization.

So well.

Thank you, cousin Jill, thank you for sharing those picks with us.

All right, John, we are back to you.

Well, I brought a couple other things here.

This is my tree peony, and it's blooming right now.

It's the first to bloom compared to the the herbaceous and so it's blooming at full.

There's about a dozen blossoms on the bush right now.

It's a tree peony, and it the reason it's called a tree peony.

It doesn't die all the way back to the ground, and it will come back and get a little bit bigger each year.

I do have another one that's called itu or Ito, i, t, O, H. It's a cross between the tree Peony and the herbaceous.

It'll die all the way to the back.

But it's, it's just beautiful.

Got lots of different colors that are available.

Not blooming yet, but it's the next two or three days, those buds are going to break.

And the one I have is I have a yellow one and a white one, and just gorgeous.

The other thing I have here is a the yellow rose of Texas, and it's not really yellow.

I mean, it's yellow, but it's not a rose, and it is a Caria japonicus.

Is the and, but it's, it's, again, it's a bush that gets to be about five, six feet tall, just covered with these little yellow flowers.

And they're very full.

And didn't you say they come in other colors.

Yes, they do come in and they have they're starting to come in pink and a reddish and a yellow dose.

I like that yellow, though.

That contrasts nicely with the kind of purplishness of three peony.

It does very nice.

And so I posted a picture on our Facebook of three things that we are all most likely seeing in our yard right now.

Hen bit creeping charlie and purple dead nettles.

So let's talk about that for a few minutes.

And also, there was a question in this while we're discussing someone said, Is there anything endearing about any of these?

So John, I know you wrote some things down, but feel free Kay and chuck to chime in.

But let's talk about these three.

Well, the hand bed is the one that I've had a couple people ask me, what is in the why is the fields all purple?

Beautiful?

I mean, it's a wonderful color.

And that is the hand bed.

It's in the mint family.

If you look at it.

It's got a square stem.

It is a lot of people get it mixed up with creeping charlie.

Creeping charlie is going to grow along the ground.

This has an ascending growth habit.

It's got opposite leaves.

Another thing that people get it mixed up with is the dead nettle.

Dead nettle has got kind of this type of leaf, this shaped leaf, and the hen bit has got a completely different type of of leaf.

So that's how you can tell the difference between that.

They're what they call winter annuals.

And the hen bit, does somebody ask?

Is there any use they are anti they, and you have to be very careful on using any plant if you don't know what it is, anti rheumatic, anti inflammatory, diaphoretic, which means it'll, if you make a tea out of it, make you sweat.

I don't know why you'd want to do that, but they are edible.

You can add the flowers to a salad, or the greens or make a tea out of it.

So, all right, Chuck anything to add there on the big three here, since they used.

My name in it, creeping charlie was originally used to as a to keep make beer last longer.

Oh, before they used hops, before they used hops to make help but keep so it has.

It has an herbal history.

It's just kind of a pernicious yard weed.

But if, if you don't have to try to control it or worry about it from a distance, about now, it's spectacular in flower, yeah, and it's good when you mow it, sure, yeah.

You get some herbal relief.

And as far as the hen bit, because it is a winter annual, as soon as you get hot weather, it's going to disappear on its own.

And then in a cultivated field, it goes away pretty easily, but it does kind of, as we talked about earlier, act like a cover crop in some of those fields.

And, you know, maybe not.

We don't need every field in the world to be, to be magenta, but it is nice to look off across a magenta field once in a while and just enjoy the color.

And they too bad they don't have the butter, the butter weed and the hen bed at the same time.

That would be that kind of, kind of like your contrast, yeah, not necessarily a bad thing, just a nuisance for people who are wanting to plant in that area, perfect looking lawn, it's going to cause just a little bit of anxiety, all right.

Well, sometimes it's good for the bees.

You know, bees will like it.

Early food, the dandelion, they like that.

Okay, well, leave them if you can.

If you can, let's see Debbie cakeney Page wants to know what your thoughts are on potentilla that I get it.

Potentilla bushes, so I've got a picture up here.

I don't think I've seen these before.

Do you find these in the nurse room?

You do.

Okay, so what do you what are your thoughts on them?

Do you grow these?

Either of you?

I have one.

Another name for it is chin co fill.

It's a native throughout the world.

In the Northern Hemisphere, doesn't do good down south in the heat.

Look for it now.

Plant it in the spring.

The it gets to three to four feet wide and high.

It's got yellow flowers.

And now they've come up with another one that's pink diaphora fruticocia floribunda.

If you if you need to.

Now, the one that you have, does it stay pretty compact?

Does it get wide?

Does it get tight?

I do trim it back in the fall, right after it blooms.

I trim it back so it usually blooms late, mid summer, and so as soon as it's done blooming, I'll trim it back, because I don't want to if I wait too long, then I'm trimming off next year's flowers.

Gotcha.

Okay.

But that is would you, would you recommend it as a good take care of?

It's easy.

It's, it's, there's no, no disease.

I haven't had any disease on it, no insects.

So it's, it's a nice filler in the landscape when it's not in bloom.

Yeah, excellent.

Okay, let's see.

Marlene Francis would like to know where to get some fruit trees, but her specific request is, how do you so she says the big box stores will sell anything, including things that don't grow well here, how do you know or which ones to pick for our area, and is there a nursery or a place that you guys go to where everything is sort of tailored to our zone?

But do you just have to kind of be a savvy shopper when you're out and about?

What you have to do your research?

Yeah, do your research and find out.

Because if she's talking apples, if she just buys one apple tree and it needs a cross, there's certain ones that will work better.

I mean, she still get, may get one or two apples, but if she wants a big crop, she's going to have to have, you know, a cross.

And they usually most, most good ones, will put the two types of apples that you need for them to cross properly.

So if you, if you can, you don't have to, but it's you're going to get a lot better crop and happier.

And do your research, find out, is it?

Is it zone five?

Is it, you know?

You know.

Okay, I think generally, if you start looking at Midwestern mail order nursery, you'll probably do all right, because they're, they're where we are here in Mid America.

Also, if, if you're in a suburban situation, pollination may become less of a problem, because there may be enough diversity in the other house.

Is not too far away from you, so that the bees can do their, do their thing and be familiar with you know, you may see standard size, you know, depending on what the root it depends on what kind of root stock they put it on, the standard size is going to be up to 30 feet tall.

Possibly they've got some others that only get to six.

They're not as hardy because the roots don't grow as big, so they don't get as they're nice for a small yard.

But again, do your research and and depends on what you want.

I hear a lot of I hear a lot of people talking about their peach trees don't fare well here is that, because this is kind of out of bounds.

No, we've got a couple of peach trees, and they do really well now last year, except where they don't, exactly, yeah, they didn't.

None of their fruit trees, none of them bloomed this year.

They were and this is what I was hoping.

It actually was turned out good because they rusted a year.

And so this year we've got tons of blossoms of all our fruit trees in it, and I can see little, you know, tiny fruit starting to form.

So fingers crossed, but there are two ways you can lose peaches here.

Okay.

One is winter, winter cold, especially as you get later in the winter, when the hardiness is starting to back off.

Then the flower buds are not nearly as hardy as as the vegetative buds, so it can kill off all the flower buds, and then the vegetative buds are still okay.

And then the other thing is, if they come out too soon, they can get frosted, and you lose them that way.

So peaches can be heartbreakers in the Upper Midwest, particularly when they do well, that's great.

Or if you're in the in the lake shadow in southwest Michigan, that's why there.

There's a nice piece of growing area there, which normally would be pretty far north for them.

But because of Lake Michigan influence, they do pretty well there most years, because it they don't get as cold in the winter, and they and they and the lake keeps it cooler in the spring, so they don't come out and bloom too early.

But another thing is, I planted my peach trees on a hillside because they do not like wet feet.

So if I've had some of my peach trees up to 20 years now, and if I did have some work in an area that does not drain well, they lasted two or three years.

So there could be other things going on, not just weather.

We've had ours for several years and never in the yard.

So if it's flat, they tend to attract borers.

Okay?

Before we go, we've got about three minutes left.

Let's talk about your unusual snack.

People always talk about the little helicopters, little helicopters.

And you know, if you don't like what you don't want them to grow in your yard, and they will, as soon as they drop, they tend to this little part here will go down.

It'll helicopter down, and this will get embedded into the ground.

And sure enough, you'll have a little a little maple tree growing well, have the kids go out.

This is pretty labor intensive.

I find them good.

But if you take this little seed out of it, and this is what it looks like.

And got the drop seeds today, but saute those in butter and they taste like roasted pumpkin seeds or and they're actually very nutritious.

They've got lots of carbs and proteins in them.

I could see those on a salad.

Yeah, nice, pretty spring salad.

But it's, you know, you got to really want it all day.

But again, you know, everyone that you eat isn't going to be coming up in your yard, just like with the car.

If you can't beat them, eat them would be hard to make much of a dent in hundreds of 1000s of them that come twirling down.

Better.

Get started on those.

Did we?

I don't.

Did we get through all of your show and tell I think we got to the succulent.

Isn't that one there?

Yes, this is, uh oh.

It is my world.

It's a variegated one.

Yes, it is wonderful.

It holds up in the in the hot summer, gets a beautiful pink flower.

And why?

Why am I not thinking?

You know what?

A good thing for technology, because we'll just edit the name of it right over top of it, like it never happened.

Dorian this.

There you go, and it's you can start them, you know, I could break this off and stick this into the and or stick it in water, and it'll root within three, four days, and then you've got a whole new plant, but they grow over the edge that you know, like some pots you want the flow.

Yes, this is one, and it'll get deer.

Don't seem to like them a lot.

I've had some when they that have been trimmed, but not very often.

So okay, be good spiller for your for your container.

A spiller.

Yeah, I just learned that term.

A couple weeks ago, from Ella... thriller, filler and the spiller.

Thank you guys for coming.

I always learn a lot when you're here.

Thank you so much for watching.

We really appreciate it.

If you've got questions, you can send them in to us at yourgarden@gmail.com, or just look us up on social search for Mid-American Gardener, and we will see you next Time.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Good night.

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