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Dedicated to improving the quality of life of the citizens of Oklahoma through research based information.

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Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

It's time to pull and store the last of the onions.

We then head down south to the Oklahoma City National Memorial to visit with the people who are taking care of one of the most sacred trees.

And then we travel to Tulsa, to learn more about the important role of the Tulsa Garden Center.

(gentle music) - Almost like an ombre of sunset colors.

(gentle music) It's not the flowers, right?

- No.

(gentle music) (laughing) (gentle music) - As we head out of spring, it's time to begin looking at our onions to see whether they're ready to harvest.

Now, you can often look for some signs that will show you it is that time.

So looking here, you can see that our white onions, or our yellow onions are actually upright still.

However, the shoulders are starting to show of those bulbs.

So that gives you a little bit of an inclination of the size that those bulbs might be.

Also, if you look at our red onions back here, you can see they've sort of flopped over.

Another sign might be that they start to bloom.

A lot of times, if our weather has kind of been back and forth, you might start seeing some flower spikes come up.

And that is a for sure sign that you wanna go ahead and begin to harvest your onions.

Now there's a couple ways to do this, depending on your soil.

You can either kind of gently remove them with your hand, just by giving them a little tug.

Or depending on your soil, again, if it's a little bit denser, you might just get a trowel and kind of lift those onions up out of the ground.

Now, when you harvest them, you can eat 'em right out of the garden, just like this.

You could take this into the kitchen, go ahead and wash it, pull off some of this outer foliage and stuff, and chop it up, take the roots off, and eat it right away.

However, a lot of times, recipes don't call for all of the onions that you might be harvesting.

So in that case, you want to go ahead and cure some of these onions.

And what we're gonna do as we harvest these, we're gonna lift them up out of the ground.

And if you are going to store these long term, you do not want to wash them.

You might just give them a little shake and get some of that soil off.

But what we're gonna do is just put these into a warm, dry location where this outer vegetation, this kind of papery covering on the bulb, can actually sort of dry out.

And that will be the protective coating as you store it.

So we're not gonna chop any of the vegetation off.

We're gonna leave the roots.

Those roots will actually dry up a little bit more.

We have a drying screen right down here that we're gonna put these on as we harvest them.

So we'll just lay these out.

Now, we aren't going to leave this screen out in this full sun.

We're actually gonna put it towards a shadier location, but I've just gotta hear so that I can lay our onions as we harvest them.

(upbeat music) So it's been a week.

We now have dried onions.

Basically, they have been laying out here on this drying rack for about seven days.

Usually, it'll take anywhere from seven to 10 days, depending on your particular location and also your weather during that period.

You can see some of them still have some green stems to 'em, but for the most part, most of 'em, the foliage has dried down.

But the necks are still kind of supple and have a little bit of give to 'em.

And that's what we're looking for in order to be able to braid or string them, that I'm gonna show you how to do here in a second.

Now, before we get to that, we're gonna kind of sort through our onions 'cause there are some onions that should be used sooner, some that are more appropriate for stringing and braiding, and some you're probably just better off putting 'em in a basket on your counter until you're ready to use them.

So a couple examples here we have.

Sometimes onions go ahead and start blooming.

And this is an example of that.

You can see this was the flower stalk here, the stem of that flower.

And they're usually a lot thicker than the vegetation.

So you can see, the vegetation's already dried down, but this is here.

And you wanna make sure to use those onions first because what happens is that actual stem starts to split your bulb.

So the onion bulb is still good to use, but again, something that you don't wanna store long term.

So that's one that we're gonna go ahead and put in our kitchen right away.

Another one that's probably not good for storing is something that looks like this.

This one's probably not good for braiding really because of the long bulb shape that it has.

Again, it just doesn't have a nice round bulb with a thin neck.

So we're not gonna braid this one as well.

And then a couple examples.

You know you always have a few smaller onions, something like this that maybe as it dried down, really lost that neck.

So there's nothing really to even braid on this one.

And then here, we have kind of a really large bulb but again, the vegetation, and you can kind of feel that neck when you press it down, there's really not much to that.

And so I'm afraid, because of the weight of the bulb.

- And how much vegetation, it's sort of a weak point right there that we wouldn't wanna braid that because it would quickly kinda fall outta that braid at this point.

So those are a couple examples of ones that you probably want to go ahead and sort out and save those for later.

Now, at this point, what we're gonna do is clean our onions too.

So regardless of whether you're putting 'em in a basket, or if you're braiding 'em or stringing 'em, you don't wanna have all of this vegetation in your kitchen 'cause it can kind of be messy later on.

So what we're gonna do is go ahead and start trimming the roots, first of all.

And so we're just gonna take these back a little bit just a little bit to the closer part of the bulb there, which is called the basil plate where the vegetation meets the roots.

So we're gonna trim that off and we'll do this on all of these as we go through this.

The other thing you wanna do when you're cleaning your onions is also go ahead and remove some of that outer peeling.

So we're gonna go ahead and clean those off.

We are not washing any of these onions because that can lead to mold and mildew.

We're just cleaning 'em up as much as possible with our hands.

And go ahead and removing a little bit of the next, on the ones that you're just storing in a basket.

We're gonna go ahead and save the necks on our other ones.

And when I trim these off, what I'm doing is I'm just trimming a little bit above the bulb.

So this, as it shrinks down, it dries more.

It'll shrink down and kind of create an envelope to close that up even more.

So we've got all of our smaller onions ready to go into the kitchen just on the tray.

And these larger ones, you'll notice that I haven't really cleaned up the vegetation too much, and that's 'cause I'm going to braid them or string them.

I'm gonna show two different options here.

So we've left the whole vegetative stem on these, and what we've got here behind me, it's nice to be able to have kind of a string that's hanging somewhere to be able to work on this.

So it's about a three foot string that I've just tied with a square knot, and we're gonna make a loop.

So we're basically just going to take our string, twist it.

We've got a loop there, and then we're gonna pull that loop up, so you can see we've got a double loop.

We're gonna put our vegetation through that string.

And make sure it's secured down around the neck of that, and then pull it tight as we work it down.

So it'll just kind of hang just like that.

And we're gonna fold our vegetation over to make kind of a hook there.

So at this point, what we're gonna do is just kind of keep working up our string.

And again, you're gonna put one on there.

And then, what you're gonna do is kind of work that vegetation back through it and kind of curl it over, and so that locks it in place.

And we're starting with our smaller onion, or excuse me, we're starting with our larger onions and working our way up.

So at this point, I'm gonna go ahead and stop adding more to this string of onions because it's actually getting pretty heavy.

And so that's one of the important things is getting a good area to start this process somewhere secure.

Now, you can see we've got plenty of that vegetation still hanging out.

If you want at this point to go ahead and trim it outside of those bulbs, that's great, so you don't have to worry about that falling off in your house.

But some people like kind of that raffia look as it hangs through there, so it's your personal choice.

Now, if you wanna take this off of this hook and then you just go and hang it, maybe in like a cool dark cellar or in your pantry somewhere, it really works with the tension of hanging.

So you wanna make sure you are hanging it, and again, that just allows for good airflow to continue storing these, but don't try to store 'em in too much light if possible.

Now the other thing is when you're time to harvest actually out of these for cooking, what you'll do is just come in here with some scissors and basically just cut the stems off and be able to take whichever onion you want at that point.

Now, we have one more method on braiding onions, and if you wanna join me on YouTube or Facebook, you can learn how to braid your onions in order to store them also.

(upbeat music) Today, we are here at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and behind me is one of the most well-known trees especially to people in Oklahoma.

Joining me is Gabriel Taylor who is responsible for maintaining the grounds here.

And we're talking about the survivor tree today.

Gabriel, I know a lot goes into keeping this tree healthy.

Can you tell us a little bit about that daily, weekly, monthly maintenance that happens?

- So yes, I'm the director of facilities here, and I get the honor of being able to take care of the survivor tree.

And that's not just 8-5 job.

That's a 24/7 job.

When I'm not here, we have security watching over it 'cause we have security here 24/7.

So they're also watching the grounds and making sure that during eye storms, stirring storms that nothing's happened to the tree, so they keep an eye.

- On that for us and then call us at all times of night if they have any concerns.

Some of the daily stuff that we do is we walk by and we take a look at the limbs themselves.

And then we also look and make sure that no one's done anything overnight or to the tree itself or shoved anything into the bark.

- Yeah.

Some people might think they're giving a donation or they're leaving a tribute behind but it actually can cause damage to the tree.

- Yes.

We wanna make sure that it stays healthy and that nothing's inside the bark or anything like that so that it grows in there.

And that's why we have a donation box here for that reason, in case somebody wants to kindly leave a donation for us.

But we take the overall health of it.

And then the weekly items, you know, is we make sure that as the tree develops or during the springtime, we take care of picking up all the seeds.

And when Mother Nature says that it is time to let go of the seeds, we go through there daily and sweep up the seeds.

And then we take those seeds and then we give 'em to Mark Bays to have 'em planted, some of them.

And then some of them, we send off to our supplier to have 'em put into little packets for people to grow their own survivor tree.

- Okay.

Cause I know those are given away at different times throughout the year and to some of the surviving families and different parks around Oklahoma have those as well.

- [Gabriel] Yes.

On April 19th, we give those, we give a certain amount of those away, the saplings.

We are also selling those online at survivortree.com.

- [Reporter] Well, how old, it's an American Elm, right?

- [Gabriel] That is true.

- [Reporter] How old is this tree?

I mean, it's been through a lot, and not to mention the bombing obviously.

We believe, I don't know exactly.

No one can tell us exactly how, but it's quite old.

We don't know.

We've had pictures from 1940 with it in the parking lot or in someone's backyard.

So there's no telling how old exactly that it might be.

- [Reporter] Yeah.

- [Gabriel] But with a guesstimation around a hundred years, maybe.

- [Reporter] So today something special is happening and it's preventative treatment, right?

Tell us a little bit about what's going on today.

- [Gabriel] So it's being treated for Dutch elm disease.

We're not worried about Dutch elm, but we're just doing preventative maintenance.

- [Reporter] Mhm.

We want to be proactive here versus reactive.

- [Reporter] Right.

- [Gabriel] So that'll make sure that it lives on as long as possible.

- Well, thank you Gabriel, for sharing this, and I'm gonna go find Mark Bays to find out a little bit more of the technical information about this treatment, if you don't mind.

- Sounds good.

(folksy guitar music) - [Reporter] So Mark, we just finished up a preventative treatment on the survivor tree.

Tell me a little bit about that process.

- [Mark] Yeah.

So this is an American Elm.

American Elm just across the United States is at risk to get Dutch elm disease.

It does not have Dutch elm disease, but there are some preventative measures that you can take.

We've treated it in the past before and we just thought it was appropriate to again, treat it today.

- Okay.

And is this something that you do in the springtime typically?

I mean... - A really good time is like today, we came here early in the morning.

It's kind of, the sun's out, it's warming, it's early in the spring.

So there's a lot of fluid moving through the tree.

- Okay.

- And so what we did today is we used a fungicide, Arbotect, and folks from Rainbow were nice enough to donate it because it's kind of an expensive product.

So they donated it and we had it mixed.

So there's a mixture, depending on the size of the tree, that you use.

- [Reporter] Uh-huh.

- [Mark] You mix it up, you drill a bunch of holes in the bottom of the tree.

It's not hurting the tree.

- [Reporter] Right.

Right.

- [Mark] These are just very small wounds that you're creating.

- [Reporter] And that, the number of holes is based off of the size of the tree.

Is that correct?

- [Mark] Correct.

- [Reporter] Okay.

- [Mark] So the number of holes that you put in around the circumference or the root flare, you want it down at the bottom and the amount of product that you use is all dependent on the size of the tree.

So we measured this tree earlier, it's 43 inches in diameter.

And so everything that we used was based on that, based on the label of the fungicide that we're using.

- [Reporter] And so then, basically, it's sort of an IV, it just takes it up, right?

- [Mark] Exactly.

A very small amount of pressure was to initially get it started, so 18 to 20 pounds of pressure, they were using.

- [Reporter] Okay.

- [Mark] And that just initiated the process to kind of get it flowing.

And they put in 50 gallons of fluid into the tree here with the mixture.

But then towards the end, we unplugged that, and you could see the fluid moving in.

So the tree's natural system in the xylem moving the fluids up through the tree kind of was sucking it up.

And that's why it's good during the spring, those fluids are moving.

The trees are transpiring, bringing in water from the roots.

So all this now is being moved in throughout the whole crown of the tree.

- Okay.

And so that prevents the fungus from developing, or a beetle?

Cause I know it's transmitted through a beetle.

Tell me a little bit about what that prevents.

- Dutch elm disease is spread a couple different ways.

If you have all Dutch elm trees in a row and one tree gets Dutch elm disease, it can actually go through the roots of the tree.

We saw that a lot in the Midwest.

Dutch elm disease was introduced upper part of the middle part of the country back in the thirties, and it's just spread all over the place.

- This is a very isolated Elm, so there's no root connections with other Elm trees.

The one way it could get it is the other way, there's a European bark beetle that is spread.

It helps spread it.

And there's an American Elm beetle that doesn't spread it as much.

So as the European bark beetle that spreads it a little bit more often.

- [Casey] Okay.

- What happens is you have one of these small beetles that emerge as an adult out of an infected tree, because the adults lay their eggs in these dying trees.

And so when those adults emerge, then they fly out and they start eating on uninfected trees.

So that fungus is transmitted by the European beetles inside their body, outside their body.

So when they start chewing on a fresh tree, that's how it can kind of get transmitted into the xylem or the fluid of the uninfected tree.

- Okay, so this is an actual fungicide though, that prevents that fungus pathogen from getting into that tree then.

- Correct.

So this fungicide, now that we've injected it at the base, it's moving up through all the different stems.

A lot of times, you'll see flagging with Dutch Elm disease and you'll see that browning on the very tips.

And that's where the beetles actually like to feed on the unions on those little small branches.

And so with the fungicide up there, the insect will still feed.

But if some of that fungus is transmitted in there, the fungicide is in there to kill the fungus.

- Okay, well, I'm so glad that you're protecting our tree, and I know it's a whole team of people that is taking care of it.

It looks beautiful again.

You would never know you were here this morning.

Because you have this grate around it, right?

So that's kind of what was pulled back, and it's all cleaned up now.

- [Mark] Yeah, so, and that's what was important about this.

And when they first designed this, we knew that we were gonna be having to get in and treat the tree through time.

So the whole design around the promenade here is they made it to where you can remove it to expose those root flares to do this kind of treatment in the future.

And what we did today.

- Okay, so obviously going back to Dutch Elm disease a little bit, it's not typically something we preventatively treat on most just trees that are out there that might be susceptible.

But if a homeowner has a prominent tree that they are concerned about, for whatever reason, or it has value to them, this is something a homeowner could hire an arborist to do?

- Yes.

And you'll have to have a certified arborist come out and do this.

This is a controlled chemical.

You just can't go down to a garden center and buy this.

And there's some technique that you have to do.

There's some special equipment that you have to have to do it.

And then the fungicide itself, nobody can just go and buy it across the counter.

- Right.

- But it is a little expensive, but if you have a very meaningful tree for you and it happens to be an American Elm, then each of us are gonna have to decide whether or not we want to do that on a regular cycle.

In Oklahoma, the average time for treating it is three to four years.

- [Casey] Okay.

- [Mark] So on this particular tree, on the survivor tree, we know that we're in pretty good shape for three or four years.

And then we'll reassess the health of the tree at that time and make that decision then if we need to do it at that time.

- And of course, the health of it will continue to be monitored daily by Gabriel and your staff as well.

So we appreciate you guys taking care of this tree and looking after it.

Thank you so much, Mark.

- You bet.

(upbeat music) - We are standing here in front of the beautiful mansion at the Tulsa Garden Center at Woodward Park.

And joining me today is Laura Chalus, who is the president of the Tulsa Garden Center.

Laura, thank you so much for having us here.

I have been here since I was a kid, and I think so many people have been to an event here or been to the gardens to visit.

But we don't necessarily maybe know the history.

Can you enlighten us a little bit about the history of the Tulsa Garden Center?

- Absolutely.

So the garden center was actually founded in 1950, so many, many decades ago.

We moved here to the Snedden Mansion in 1954, and we have been operating in Woodward Park as the longest standing managing partner of the City of Tulsa for all those years.

- [Casey] Wow, excellent.

So it houses not just gardens, but tell us all the activity that's going on here.

- Well, the unique thing about the Tulsa Garden Center is that we house 19 other non-profit organizations.

So that's why we say we are the horticultural hub of Tulsa.

We have the Orchid Society, the Rose Society, the Perennial Club, African Violet Society.

You name it, we have a society.

- Yeah.

- So that's the unique aspect.

- And I know actually as a kid, I would come here with my mom to some of these different society groups and stuff.

And also so many people have weddings and senior photos taken.

You had beautiful azaleas blooming a few weeks ago.

Tell us a little bit about what all the property encompasses as well.

- So Woodward Park is just over 44 acres.

And as the managing partner, the Tulsa Garden Center manages all of the permits.

So the photography permits, when people come to take their prom photos.

The event permits if they wanted to get married out in the park or have a graduation ceremony or a class reunion.

But then inside the mansion, we have big weddings, and that helps.

- [Woman in Hat] Fund all of the fun horticultural aspects that we do.

- [Interviewer] And if people have never been inside the mansion, tell us a little bit about what we can find inside that mansion.

- [Woman with hat] The mansion was built in 1920, so we are well over a 100 years old.

And, as much as we can, we keep with the original look and feel that the family who built the mansion, the Travis family, and it's just gorgeous.

- [Interviewer] It is, absolutely.

It still has some of the original bathrooms that you can go in.

- [Woman with hat] It does.

- [Interviewer] And different things.

So let's talk a little bit, I know you guys are so involved in the community with education.

Tell me a little bit about how people can get involved, and what are some of those programs, whether it's a society or something that's being offered in the teaching garden?

- So, yes, we definitely have a lot going on, a lot of ways to volunteer.

So almost exclusively, the park is managed by volunteers.

That's where our programs.

So we have our teaching garden and visitor center.

That, you can volunteer for that.

That's a more intensive program, you know, 12 weeks worth of instructional training.

We have community volunteers that can just come and volunteer in the park.

We have students that come.

So just all across the board.

And then if you wanna get involved in a Plant Society those are free.

You just come to a Perennial Club meeting and you see what you like and you mesh with the people and then you come back.

- And we can't forget the plant cells and shows that are housed here a lot of times.

- Yes.

Between the Perennial Club, let's see last weekend there was a cacti sale the weekend before that it was the Perennial Club sale.

So there is always a sale.

The Bonsai Society, it goes on and on.

- And so if people just wanna come and get information or stroll the gardens that is all free and open 7 days a week?

- Yeah, this is a public park.

So almost everything is 5:00 AM to 11:00 PM.

- Okay.

- Except for the little area behind the teaching garden.

And since that's such a high touch area, we close those gates at 4 o'clock.

- Right.

Well, I know this area has a lot of rich history with the Tulsa area and the Tulsa community.

- [Woman in hat] Right.

- [Interviewer] What's up on the horizon?

Tell us a little bit about where the future is with the gardens here.

- With Woodward Park our board of directors is really looking at a sustainable model for the park for all the historic structures.

So we're looking at incorporating endowment funds and doing some big restoration projects.

Right now we're working on a restoration for the Arboretum.

- Okay.

- [Woman in hat] Which was a 1964 project of the Tulsa garden center.

We went through a restoration in the late 80s and now you know, 30 years later, we need to do another one.

- [Interviewer] Right.

- [Woman in hat] So we're excited that we just kicked that project off.

- Alright.

Well, thank you so much for having us out here and sharing that history with us.

- Glad you were here.

(cheery banjo music) - There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

(cheery banjo music) - Next week, we are covering everything from fluttering friends and foes to Heucheras and Herbariums.

Join us right here on Oklahoma Gardening.

- Stop, start.

- [Man] Whatever.

- It's a lot of start and stop, start and stop.

Ready?

- [Man] Yes.

- Worried about this one.

I almost want to just cut it out now.

- [Woman overheard] Cut it out.

- To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources including a directory of local extension offices.

Be sure to visit our website at OklahomaGardening.ok.state.edu.

Join in on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can find this entire show and other recent shows as well as individual segments on our Oklahoma Gardening YouTube channel.

Tune in to our OK Gardening Classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OSU is home to our studio gardens, and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful still water gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriter, The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Food and Forestry.

Additional support is also provided by Pond Pro Shop, Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Day View Plants.

The Tulsa Garden Center at Woodward Park, The Oklahoma Horticultural Society, Smart Pot and the Tulsa Garden Club.

(cheery music)