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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Nurseries are full of all kinds of interesting plants.

Today, we're going to show you how to pick the best plant and some things to watch out for.

Also, stop crape murder.

How to prune crape myrtles correctly.

That's just the head 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 Wes Hopper will be joining me later.

All right, Joellen, what are these bad plants doing here?

- We have to show the bad with the good.

- Oh, so it's the bad with the good?

- Yeah.

- Okay, well, let's talk about some of these bad plants that we have in here.

- Well, the first one here is a beauty, you know it's not in bad shape for a boxwood of this size, but the color is terrible.

It's not green for one thing.

[Chris laughs] And so I would avoid plants in a nursery that are, you know, not a nice solid color green, like they're supposed to be.

- Okay.

- So yeah, I would avoid this plant.

I don't know if it's from winter or cause of disease, it's hard to tell, but I would wait until some nice green ones came in, to choose those.

You would not pick this one.

- You would not pick this one, alright.

- And then this one here, I mean, it's really sparse and you know, you want to shake a plant to make sure there's no white flies on it and inspect them make sure there's no aphids sitting on them.

[Chris chuckles] - Cause that's a common problem in, in nurseries of plants that have been there for a while, that would might look like this.

Also here, they've got some weeds in the top, and then look at the roots are all coming out of the base of the plant.

So that means that this plant is most likely root bound.

And if we can lift it up a little bit you see how root bound it actually is one thing is, though if with the bad roots, there are some good, nice colored roots.

So you might have a possibility with this one but I would rather buy one that doesn't have this many problems.

[Chris laughs] Uh, next we want to make sure there's no leaf spot diseases on them like powdery mildew, or these leaf spot diseases.

And of course this shape is not good.

It's not nice and even, it's not a good coloration, It's got diseases and it's got a few weeds on top, but when you, let's see if we can, - Yeah, can you get it out of there?

- Yeah, this is the thing, you know, it must've been in the nursery a while, cause it's definitely root bound.

And when we take the container off we see there's very few roots that are alive.

They've mostly all got a brown color on them which means they have root rot.

And this plant has got lots of problems.

And I would just try to avoid plants like this in the landscape.

- Wow.

- I don't want to bring it home, but taking the plant out of the container, you should be able to do that at a nursery because you want to look at the root system.

You're buying the root system and the top you want to make sure the root system it doesn't have rotted roots like this one has.

So.

Now you see the circling roots in all of these?

Plants want to anchor themselves in the ground.

So they try to take the roots away from the center of the plant.

Well, what happens when they're in any kind of container, whether it's a round container, a square container they hit the sides of the container and then they start making the shape of the container.

And sometimes you can buy plants that are like this.

If the top looks good and it's got a little bit too many roots in it sometimes I will buy them and then you can score them at least four places cause that stops that circling because all the roots tend to wanna anchor and grow away from the plant.

So when you cut it, it stops that circling pattern.

Old wounds.

If you look, especially the base of trees and large shrubs and make sure there's no old wounds there because you want the plant to take all this energy to establishing in your yard, not fixing old wounds.

And the same is true for suckers on trees and shrubs.

I mean, if you have a whole row to choose from and some have suckers and some don't don't get the ones with suckers because they're going to continue to want to be there.

You would prefer a tree that doesn't have suckers on it.

And severely crossing branches.

They're, you know, you don't want to start with a problem of a crossing branch.

And that also goes with the shape of the plant, too.

So don't get a tree or a large shrub that has crossing branches in it.

Staked plants, oh.

[Chris groans] There's a lot of staked plants and there's nothing wrong with staking but you've got to look for a few things.

If you have a large plant in a container and it has a stake against it that looks old you can actually try to see the stake tie actually getting into the bark of the plant.

- I've seen that.

- If you release it and you look at it you can see the impression of the tie around the bark.

And that's not a good sign.

Some young trees are staked and that's okay.

But just remember, again, the principle of apical dominance.

Hopefully there is a central leader, whether it's a shrub or a tree.

I'm talking large shrubs and trees.

You want to make sure there's a central stalk.

If you get multiple stalks coming out from one plant, you want just one single one, preferably.

And you've got to watch if that was staked.

And if you take a couple of the stakes off and the plant starts to flop over, it's been staked too long.

And you can train a small tree that's been like that, but it's harder.

Cause then you'd take it home and you've got to stake it here and here and then try to get to stand up.

Just be careful with small, thin, staked trees, especially that they may fall over once the stake is taken away because they've never had the chance to get a wind to blow it to get reaction wood to be able to stand up straight.

- Oh, sounds like a lot of work.

- It's a lot of work.

It's definitely a lot of work.

And of course there's some plants that are grown as multi-trunked.

Either trees or shrubs or anything like that.

And that's fine.

Just make sure that each one that's coming out of the container is, you know, separated from each other and that they are straight and they're not crooked or have wounds on them or anything like that, hat they're all evenly coming out of the container.

And the root ball integrity.

You know, you got to look at the container and make sure that the plant is, you know, sitting correctly in a container or if it's got a balled and burlapped plant that when you push on the trunk of the tree that it stays in place and doesn't move.

Cause if it moves and the root ball stays in place then it's most likely broken from that root ball and you don't want that.

And of course, you know, the weeds we just don't want weeds.

I have enough weeds at home.

I don't need more weeds.

- You don't wanna introduce any more?

- I don't need any more, and just watched and when there're circling roots and if you see roots at the surface of a container that's a clue that it has been in that container for a long time.

And sometimes the roots, as you can see can cross over other roots and that's gonna end up girdling that tree in, eventually, or that large shrub.

And you can cut those off.

But I bet that it has been in the nursery for a very long time.

And really, I would avoid that if I could and get one that doesn't have surface roots on it.

- So if somebody wanted to try to resurrect these plants I mean, they could?

- They can, yeah.

But just realize, this one's got disease problems and you're going to have to put some fungicide on this.

Root rot is not, because we saw some live roots in this, it does have some hope, but I mean it just depends on what you want to do.

I don't particularly want to introduce more problems to my yard.

- You're right, 'cause spores can spread to other plants.

So yeah, you're exactly right.

All right, Joellen.

That was good.

So don't make these mistakes, right?

- Don't make these mistakes.

Don't buy these ones.

- All right, thank you much.

[upbeat country music] - I have a favorite weed, folks, and this is it.

This is hairy bittercress.

Produces a rosette of leaves.

First on the soil surface, And then up comes the rest of the plant.

This plant has a small white flower and it also produces a pod and inside of the pod are seeds.

So if you brush up against this weed, the seed pod explodes and it actually throws seed 10 feet.

Pretty impressive, huh?

Again, this is my favorite weed.

Hairy bittercress.

[gentle country music] - We're out at the AgriCenter I have Wes Hopper, certified arborist here.

Hey, Wes, we're going to stop the chop.

- Stop the chop, I like it.

- We're going to stop the chop.

That's what Jason Reeds always says.

- Stop the chop.

- Yes, can you show us the correct way to prune these crape myrtles?

- I'll do the best I can.

This looks like it's been a maintenance nightmare [Chris laughs] in the past.

So we're going to look at it like artistic maintenance and try to prune this tree to where next year it won't require so much maintenance.

- Okay.

- I can do it the proper way.

So we'll start by being able to get to the tree.

I use my hand pruners [pruners cutting] and I remove this these water sprouts that are going to poke me in the face as we're working and also, since we're working looking up most of the time, we'll throw our debris away so we don't trip over it while we're working.

And there is a lot of old wounds on here.

- There is a lot.

- If it hits me in the face, I'm cutting it first.

[Chris laughs] And also on this tree, it has multiple stems.

Notice I said tree.

- Tree, I did notice.

- These have been trimmed like a hedge.

Crape murder.

Just chopped.

However if you want to categorize it, it's a tree.

When we certify arboretums crape myrtles are allowed on the list.

An arboretum is a place where you can visit to learn how to identify trees.

All right.

Now I mentioned multiple stems.

Put these in my back pocket.

- Tell us what you mean by multiple stems.

- These are the stems right here.

There's a one, two, three, four, five stems on here.

It's getting kind of crowded.

You see how this is clustered up over here?

- Yeah.

- We're going to eliminate this stem and try to eliminate some of the maintenance.

[sawing wood] We're going to cut it in the middle so we don't have any tears Nice and slow.

Put my hand saw back up.

- Nice and clean cut.

- Nice clean cut.

- Look what I've done.

I've opened it up.

We may get this to look like a tree after all.

[Chris laughs] - I usually like to stick with my pruners unless it's a large cut.

I do have a set of loppers over there but with this thin bark tree sometimes your hand saw can actually scuff the bark We try to avoid that.

Now look at me.

I'm pruning on another stem that I feel like should not belong there - So that one's coming off too, right?

- So let's eliminate some more of the maintenance.

We're not going to have the perfect shape of the stems but I'll come back later and cut those rest of the way off.

- You really opened that thing up.

- Now I've got it open.

[pruners cutting] And you can tell that we're around grass.

So that means lawnmowers - Yes, and weed eaters.

- And weed eaters.

So I think they could probably use a little RoundUp at the base to keep the grass from growing around to keep the mowers away.

But in this case, these maintenance guys are going to see these long stems that shoot out as an eye poker And which they are.

We got a bird nest right here.

- Yeah, I saw that.

- I don't think there's anything in it but anytime you have wildlife in the tree, come back to it.

Let the wildlife survive.

We want to eliminate all this epicormic growth.

- And what kind of growth is that?

- Epicormic growth is growth that grows secondary.

It's usually loosely attached, breaks easily - Like water sprouts.

- Like water sprouts.

I don't want to eliminate all of these.

I just want to eliminate the junk.

- You're doing a good job on it, man.

- Does it look the same?

- No way.

[Wes laughs] - Just hope we achieve our goal.

And I'm not just cutting sporadically.

I'm putting my eye on it.

If you're using the hand pruners, definitely make sure that you keep your fingertips away.

It's real easy to get caught up in the blades.

- Yours must be pretty sharp?

- These are pretty sharp.

Do you notice they have a longer handle?

and these get a better cut.

I'm going back a little bit past the growth collar, but we're trying to prevent that succulent epicormic growth and water sprouts from going crazy on it.

See like this as a nub right here.

Can you see that?

- Yeah, I see that - I like to get that a little bit cleaner cause that's going to put out growth That's gonna go [explosion sound] Couple more of these.

Step back and take a look at it.

We've got a broken one at the top.

We're going to, we're going to tend to.

Let's get rid of this one.

Chris, you can see where they came in before and they just went [rushing sound] straight across the top and just completely eliminated the upper canopy.

That's a lot of work.

You can see the piles of what I have on the ground.

As far as the commercial companies go that that tend to the crape myrtles.

I don't know if they get paid by the pound to dump their material or, [Chris Laughs] or what, but if you can eliminate some of the material you have to take to the landfill, then do it.

- All right, Wes, don't give away their secrets, now.

[Wes chuckles] - All right, let me grab my pole pruner here and work on these.

Now, when I prune the upper, outer canopy, I just want to remove the old seed pods.

[metallic grinding] Now these, these are definitely going to put out growth when they come back out and I still may need to come back and take some more off this one's broke.

So let's cut it right there.

And I'm not just randomly cutting.

I'm trying to cut it at a node.

Which a node is a point of where your buds break.

Let's see, then take some of these off completely.

You see that I'm not taking off nearly as much of the canopy as before.

I believe that one of the reasons why people commit crape murder or hacking is because it's easier and maybe it is easier on a crape myrtle that's 40 feet tall.

But one thing about crape myrtles is most of the time they're planted in the wrong place.

- That's right.

- And they have to be maintained like that.

Because otherwise it's just going to grow into the house, under the gutter under the soffit and cause damage to your home.

- So what about our shoot down here at the bottom too?

- We're going to eliminate those.

I want to get rid of these two stubs [sawing] using my hand saw.

Again, keep the blade away from you.

- It looks like you've done this a few times.

- A few times.

- You do a good job of that.

- Thank you.

There we go.

- Wow, It looks like a whole different tree.

- Yes.

And now, look, I got very little debris in comparison to what we would have had had we just taken it all the way off.

And I think it looks much better.

- I guess we do have these shoots down here, too.

- Yeah, these are the sucker sprouts.

So you want to get these as low as you can get them.

[pruners cutting] - Now if those keep coming back, what's the best way to get them to slow down and to get them to not come back?

We get that question a lot.

- Personally, from my experience, when they sprout up during the summertime, cut them off then.

It's not so apt to grow back.

And so at the part of the tree that does not produce energy like the rest of it, it'll start slowing down and eventually you hope for it to stop putting out like that.

And these, if they're not cutting down low enough they're definitely going to grow back.

- Oh yes, I've seen that.

- And you can tell, by all these knots down here that there's been a lot of this grow back.

But this is how I feel like they should be pruned.

- All right, Wes, my friend, thank you.

It looks good, man.

- Thanks.

- Appreciate that.

- Yes, sir.

Thank you.

- We'll come back and see what it looks like later, huh.

- I will, I definitely want to see the results.

[gentle country music] - You don't really cut daffodils.

If you wanna bring daffodils inside and put 'em in a vase, you don't cut daffodils, you pick daffodils.

And the reason being is there's a virus that daffodils can get.

And since they're such long-lived plants, you don't want to spread the virus from plant to plant with your tool, your knife, your pruners or whatever.

So, we tell people you pick your daffodils.

And, then you can go back and make a clean cut, and put 'em in warm, tepid water, and put 'em in a refrigerator.

We use a floral cooler here at The Dixon.

But, I'm gonna show you how to do that here.

You reach in, you follow your hand down the stem and go as deep as you can.

And then, it's this snap that you have.

It's a little twist of the wrist, and it'll snap 'em off clean, and it doesn't hurt the bulb.

And, this is a variety, Salon, and it is really tough.

It withstand the rain and the winds, and it's still standing up proud and strong.

This would make a good show flower because of the angle.

It's kinda looking at you.

The face is looking at you, but this is a really good daffodil.

And, just remember, you don't want to spread that virus to all of your daffodils.

So, pick 'em, don't cut 'em.

[gentle country music] - All right, Joellen.

Here's our Q and A segment.

- Yes.

- You ready?

- Yeah, I'm ready.

- These are great questions.

All right, let's start with our first viewer email.

"This is an Encore Azalea that I've had to nurture "but I wonder about the split bark.

"Is this okay?

"Also I have split bark on a tree near these azaleas.

Thank you," and this is from Elizabeth.

A picture there.

So what do we think when we see split bark?

- Well, it could be something that it was caused by the environment, in the winter, it was cold, The sun was on it, it's a thin bark and it may have split and it's caused all that.

The problem is I know she's nurtured it but there are no nutrients going up and down the length of that section, that's been split for the plant to have food and water.

Cause all that's gone.

I mean, it looks fairly healthy, otherwise.

Maybe she could cut it.

It looks like it needs a little bit more, it could get maybe some more light.

Does it bloom, I wonder if it blooms.

- Right?

Yeah.

This will be something good to know.

- Yeah, because if it's not blooming and she's trying to nurture it then maybe it needs a little more light in that particular area.

- Yeah, so I'll just say keep it as comfortable as possible, you know, see what happens.

So there you have it, Elizabeth.

So just keep doing what you're doing and hopefully you know, everything turns out to be, okay.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What are some beautiful trees like dogwood that can take direct sunlight?"

This is Reginald in Houston, Texas.

- Yeah, the native redbud.

There were so many different varieties of that.

There's white blooming varieties and there's all different kinds of the pink and the purple varieties of that in different color foliage and different shapes.

There's weeping forms, beautiful tree.

- Agree.

- Kousa dogwood.

That is a dogwood, but he's got a dogwood so...

This would bloom after the leaves appear on it.

And it can't take more sun than the Florida dogwoods.

Of course, then there's fringetrees.

- Fringetrees.

- Fringetrees are beautiful - Love them.

- There's both American and Chinese Fringetrees.

And both of them are beautiful.

Of course, now it's hard to recommend cherry trees because of the ambrosia beetles, now.

They take over the the thin bark of cherry trees.

But cherry trees are pretty and they may not be as long lived as some of the other trees this because of all the disease an d things that they get.

- Right, They got a lot of them.

- I mean, there's a lot of stuff, but they're pretty.

And it depends on where it is and how long he wants it to stay there.

But you know, the Kwanzan, you know and the Yoshino cherries that they have around the Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC.

That can work there.

Also there's one called Okame.

It's one of the first ones to bloom in the spring.

That's real pretty.

It might be of the three that would probably be the more hardy of the three and live with less problems.

But they all are thin-barked and the ambrosia beetles attack them and they get the shot hole diseases in their leaves.

And so, you know, it's hard to recommend them but they are pretty.

- They are pretty.

- but they're maybe short-lived, if you don't decide to spray on them, you know, with diseases and insects.

- And I thought about the smoketree.

Do you like the smoketree?

- I love the smoketree.

There's some purple leaf varieties that look nice.

And it's unusual.

It's not a showy bloom.

But the bloom looks like smoke.

So that's where it gets its name.

So I like those also.

- Okay, so again, those are some, you know nice trees that you can grow in direct sunlight.

So thank you for that question, Reginald.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Every time I plant vegetables "like beets and turnips "and in this case, radish "a majority of the plant's roots grow on top of the soil "instead of down into the soil.

"I used raised beds "and have compost in all of them.

What am I doing wrong?"

And this is John in Memphis, Tennessee.

- So is he doing anything wrong?

- Well, yes and no.

No, because you know, he's sown the seeds and they're germinating, but they may not be in the depth of the soil to be able to, you know stand up the way he wants them.

If I had this, what he has there with that picture I would probably just take some more soil and build up around each one of them.

So then it is completely buried.

I mean, I don't see too much wrong with that.

- Right, I would do that, too.

Cause yeah, from the picture, this seems like you could just - Put some more soil on that.

- Put some more soil around it.

Cause we do know the majority of your vegetables have shallow root systems.

- Yes.

- Right?

- Yeah, they don't have deep taproot systems.

Seems like you can - Yeah.

It looks to me like he could take each one of them puts a little bit more soil around all of those so that they would be deeper in the soil.

- Right, right.

Cause you know, Plant depth is going to be key.

Of course.

So yeah, just a little deeper.

- I wouldn't want to plant the seeds any deeper - Not the seeds.

Yeah, right.

- But once they come up and they're doing that, I would like to see more soil.

- Right.

Yeah.

Cause we don't know if these are seeds or transplants, but don't plant the seeds too deep.

But if they're transplants then, yeah.

- Yeah, you can transplant them and put some more - Put some more soil around there, it should be fine.

But he has raised beds and compost, so, yeah, he's doing the right thing.

- He's doing the right thing.

- You're doing the right thing.

So thank you for the question, John.

Joellen, that was fun.

- It was.

- Thank you for being here.

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[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]