- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Today we head down to Langston University to learn more about their day lily research.

We visit with Shape Your Future about Farmers' Market Resources.

We'll share how to handle those pesky mosquitoes.

And then I've got a couple of plants to highlight.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma Green and growing.

Oklahoma Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust shape your future, provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice, the easy choice.

Oklahoma Gardening's 50th anniversary.

I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

- People in Oklahoma love their gardens.

- I feel like this is the People's show.

We all know we're working towards the common goal, and that's to produce the best quality television and information for our audience.

Today we are down here at Langston University to visit with Dr. Matan, who is doing some day lily research.

And you've been working on this for quite a while.

Tell us exactly what it is you're trying to achieve here.

- Oh, yeah.

Thank you very much for, for visiting us here.

Definitely.

Because it's very important to share our secret share with the world, especially the, the staff of Oklahoma, because what we are doing is about - Oklahoma.

Right.

- So what we're doing here is what you see.

We have several cultivars of day lily and when you look around, you will see that oh, where you have a flower and then next to it there is a dying flower at least.

So the reason is day lily simply bloom for 24 hours.

Exactly.

- Hence the name.

Right.

Day Lily.

- Exactly.

The beauty of a day.

So after attending and the witnessing a great contribution of day lily association in Oklahoma here, - We got a lot of people working on day lily breeding here.

- Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

They do tremendous work, but they end up with the same result, 24 hours death.

So at Lang 20, we decided to go for a solution, and the solution is about trying to figure out how we can extend life span of the bloom.

- Right.

- If you compare it to Rose, it takes, it can go up to 10 days.

But day lily is 24 hours - And, and a lot of people might say, my day lily bloom's a long time, but it's not the exact same flower.

Right.

- Good point.

Because many people where they don't know, they wake up in the backyard, they still see the day lily flowers, but what they are seeing are flowers they did not see yesterday.

- Right.

- But is the flowers for today?

Then tomorrow they will see flowers that will broom tomorrow.

Right.

So that's basically a kind of a natural compensation.

- Right.

Which is why a lot of people have bred for having more buds on the plant.

But you're taking a different approach.

- Yes, de definitely.

So what we doing here, we, we still do improvement of day lily, but not in a classical sense because we, we are taking the approach of identifying the genes that are killing because the death of 24, I'm talking about they are basically inherited, they're genetic processes.

So we have basically gone and extract all the genes, active genes, throughout the develop stage of, of the flowering.

- Okay.

- Okay.

And then what we did, we zoomed in the suspect or section or that mean transitioning from bloom to death.

- All right.

- That's basically the suspect section.

- So in the lab you've identified the genes that were responsible for flowering and the genes that are responsible for that flower to wilt and die.

- Exactly.

Okay.

That is correct.

And that felt flowering from the early stage of barring to the death.

Yes.

We, we captured all the genes.

- Okay.

So now that you know that section that you're targeting, what have you done with that?

- Okay.

What we have done with that is that we deliberately went into the suspect group of genes.

So we ate it with 1, 2, 3 letters.

Okay.

At a time by we insert or we cut them out.

- Okay.

- Okay.

So by doing this, although the gene might still produce the product, that product will no longer be the killing agent.

- Okay.

- Of the flower.

- Okay.

- So that's basically what we, we are hoping to, to end up with.

- Okay.

In my head I'm visualizing flipping my breakers, trying to see which one controls the kitchen lights.

Is that sort of essentially what we're looking at in a very simplified manner?

Right.

- Actually you are right.

You are right.

Okay.

Because what we expect is that in the end we will have a series of responses.

- Okay.

- Because what I just wanted to add is that those genes, after editing them, we put them back in plant.

- Okay.

And how do you do that?

- What we do is that we take it the gene that has been already edited and then we put it in the syringe.

There is a special structure called the ovary.

So we deliberately target that ovary because that's where all the os are or female gamuts are, - Which eventually will turn to seeds.

- Right?

Exactly.

Exactly.

When the, the fuse with the male then become an embryo - And - That embryo will then grow into a new plant.

- Okay.

- So we target that one.

We inject the DNA that has been modified in there.

And the reason we do that, we are not interfering at this point with any natural process of pollination.

Okay.

Because we let it take place so that it activates cell division in that ovary.

And at the same time when the cells are dividing using mitosis, they are at the same time incorporating also our DNA we sneak in into that.

- Okay.

- And then what will come through seeds, and then we will screen which one basically has the marker indicating that it has the genes that we put in there.

- Okay.

So that sounds like though a lot of your research, like you're really busy right now, they're all in bloom.

You're out there trying to get the, the genes in it, but it's very seasonal.

Right.

Which can be problematic, I would imagine for research - What we did is that we have a backup plan.

- Oh, okay.

- Instead of simply relying on a yearly season, we have a greenhouse, then we have the lab where we can use a tissue culture.

Okay.

Tissue culture so that we can work outside, even if it's snowing outside, we, we don't really mind, we just use the tissue and then work in the lab.

- Okay.

- And during the freezing or maybe the winter we have the new plant will will grow in the greenhouse and then recess continues.

- So, so here you've got these, you're waiting for seeds to come and then you actually have to grow those seeds out and that again, takes a process to get that plant to maturity to see if those flowers live longer than 24 hours.

Right?

That is correct.

How, how, how do you do the tissue culture process?

- Oh, the tissue culture process.

We started with before actually reaching to the point of isolating genes because we anticipated this step that at one point or the field work might not work, then the backup plant should be tissue culture.

So the, the tissue culture, we've already studied the whole plant of daily li we know how each tissue reacts and then we cut it and then take the genes, put it inside the bacteria.

That bacteria is called the agrobacterium.

- Okay.

- So, and we take that agrobacterium when we cut the tissue, it is going to release some, some chemicals.

So one of the chemicals basically is going to stimulate that bacteria to release or she, its gene Oh, content with the plant.

- Okay.

- And that's what we are focusing on.

- Okay.

- At this time.

Yeah.

So, - So that bacteria is just a carrier of the genes really?

Right?

- That is correct.

- Okay.

And then that is correct.

Do you leave the bacteria, does it ultimately do anything to that, that - Tissue?

Oh, okay.

It, it can do, let's say if we don't kill the bacteria.

Okay.

After three days, then it'll use tissue to - Survive.

- Oh, okay.

- And then it'll overrun and then definitely the tissue will die.

So that's why after three days, then we transfer the material on the selection medium or that also has one of the selection being targeted is the killing of the bacteria.

Oh, okay.

So we get rid of the - Bacteria.

Okay.

And so then you're waiting for that bud that's got the gene inserted for it to actually start growing a, a stem and a new plant from that?

- Yes, because the exchange will take place where there is a cut.

- Okay.

- So, and then also the signal we put in the medium is for the plant cell to pick up and then respond in forming the new plants.

- Okay.

- So those, among those new plants, we, we, hopefully all of them will pick up the new genes, but very often it's not the case that we expect at least there are a few of them to pick up a the new jeans and then that will be fine with us.

- Well it's, it's fascinating research that you're doing and I think a lot of times we focus on the flower and the color, but it's interesting that you've taken a different approach and are looking at the actual day length of the day.

Lily, thank you so much for sharing this research with us today.

- Thank, thank you very much for actually doing this to help people know what we are doing here at Langston for the people of Oklahoma.

- There's a story we're driving along this road and Laura's on in the back on one side and Steve's on the back on the other side and we're on this little like southeast Oklahoma canopy, but on the road, you know, there's clearing and so there's flowers along the road and Laura goes, - Oh look at the tiger lilies.

And he's like, no Laura, I think those are day lilies.

And I'm like, I think they're Tiger lilies.

My grandma used to grow Tiger Lilies, I'm pretty sure Tiger Lilies.

He's like, no, those are day lilies.

Okay.

Steve knows his plants.

Steve knows what he's talking about.

- And so all night he is kind of obsessed because Steve would kinda get like that about here.

Hi who he's taught and mentored.

Laura is basic plant between Tiger Lily and day Lily.

Completely different.

- So the next morning as we get up, we're going out the driveway and we've swapped sides now and he's, you know, on the side, I was on the night before and he's like, oh Tiger Lily.

And I'm like, oh day Lily - Aaron off his sides.

- It is always a great day when you get to head to the farmer's market.

And today we are here at the Stillwater Farmer's Market and joining me is Kelsey Nation with Shape Your Future and I Know Shape your future loves farmer's markets as much as I do.

Let's talk about why you support farmer's markets so much.

- Yeah, like you said, we love farmer's markets.

We love the ability to come out with your family and spend time looking at the local produce, getting things that are healthy for your family and being able to do those activities and spend time with your family.

But also, like I said, the health part of it too.

- If you've never been to a farmer's market, there's so many things available.

Everything from baked goods to vegetables, even microgreens down the way to add to your salads.

Pretty amazing.

So farmer's markets are great activities and I know kids would love coming here way more than going to the grocery store, but you guys have made that even more fun with these scavenger hunts.

- Yeah.

At Shape Your Future.

Okay.

Dot com we have a couple different scavenger hunts for kids to use while they're there with their families and it's really great because they can participate in looking for local produce, all - Different things.

Not to just mention like learning the idea of different vegetables and the names of 'em and stuff like that for the younger kids as well.

- Right.

Yes.

- So this is pretty exciting.

But you know, I know farmer's markets look different across the state.

This is Wednesday here in Stillwater.

It will look different on Saturday at different times.

Where can we find more information about finding farmer's markets in different - Areas@sheerfutureok.com.

We also have a farmer's market locator.

So if you're not sure where the nearest farmer's market to you is, you can go on our website and look for that and you can find the most local one.

You can find ones across the state if you're interested in checking out different ones even outside of your area.

And it's, it'll tell you the times, tell you the locations and all the things you need to know to get fresh local produce.

- Excellent.

And of course you guys also offer recipes.

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

So if you find something that you haven't usually cooked before, even if you're looking for things that you have and you find 'em at the Farmer's market, we have recipes on our website too where you can use those and you can help your family eat healthier and use the local produce.

- All right.

Well your website is a great resource not only to enrich your mind but also your stomach.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

Yes.

Thank you.

For more information about Shape Your Future visit their website.

Today we are joined by Dr. Jonathan Cammack who is our extension livestock entomologist.

And today we're talking mosquitoes.

So Dr. Cammack, what do we really need to know about mosquitoes?

It's been a rainy spring, - Right?

It it has, right?

It, there's been no end inside it seems for the rain.

You know, we had a lot of rain early on in the spring.

I saw on the news this past weekend that we were, you know, looking at a very, very, you know, wet stretch, you know, one of the top five, you know, 60 day stretches of rainfall.

- Yeah.

- So there's basically been ample opportunity for us to have mosquito problems.

- Okay.

So just because it's been flooding, that doesn't mean all the larva hass gotten washed away, right?

- No, there are actually some species of mosquitoes that that rely on that that flooding.

Oh, okay.

And we call those flood water mosquitoes.

- Okay.

- So they lay their eggs in areas that they know are prone to flooding, whether that's a long creek beds or, or rivers or, or lakes.

And I mean there are markers that are kind of left on the, the edge of those wet areas in, in periods of dry time.

And so the mosquitoes will lay their eggs there in the hopes that the water levels are going to rise, get them wet and then those eggs will hatch and they can lay dormant for 1, 2, 3, maybe even four years sometimes.

- Oh, fantastic.

Yes.

Yep.

Okay.

So obviously there's areas probably in neighborhoods that we can't necessarily control that environment.

Right.

But what can we do about our backyard?

- Yeah.

Things we can do at home are if, if we've got something that is holding water that we don't need to be holding water Right.

You know, kick it over.

Right.

If you've got a bird bath that's, you know, maybe accumulating water and has some algae or something growing in it, make it a habit to maybe dump that out once a week so that way you can give that organic material that's in there, the algae or any leaves that might fall into it.

Don't give them the opportunity to start to rot so the mosquitoes don't have anything to feed on.

Okay.

Or a desire to lay their eggs there.

- So it really is that stagnant sort of old water.

It's not pool water or or fast running water that we're as concerned with.

- Correct.

Yeah.

It's not gonna be your swimming pool.

Okay.

Unless the, you know, the filter or, or something has broken.

So yeah, anything that might be holding water, whether that's a five gallon bucket that's sitting out, you know, in the yard that's gotten full of rain water or you know, even some of the, the basins on our self-watering pots, essentially anything that can hold water for a period of maybe seven to 10 days is going to be kind of our target for getting rid of.

- So obviously we wanna reduce the environment in which they might grow, but is there also a time that they, or season in which they're hatching?

- Yeah, so our flood water species, they're kind of occurring in the spring.

So - Okay.

You - Know, we had all that heavy rainfall starting in what, like March or April or so.

And, and those were kind of our initial boost in the populations.

And now as we've continued to have that rainfall, those populations haven't gone down.

And then the next thing that's led to our, our container species, so those that are gonna be breeding in the bird baths or five gallon buckets or the, the tires, you know, that might be accumulating water.

- Okay.

- And as long as we continue to get these, you know, showers once every seven to 10 days where we get this big downburst of maybe half an inch to an inch and it allows those containers to continue to hold water, we're going to continue to have mosquito problems.

- Okay.

And we don't differentiate, we just think it's a mosquito, but it might actually be a different species or population coming through.

Definitely.

So how do we protect ourselves?

Obviously we get rid of it.

Bug sprays is the best repellent or what can we do at time of day of our - Exposure?

Yeah, so there are certain species of mosquitoes that we call corpuscular and that means they're active at dawn and dusk.

Okay.

Which unfortunately are the same times that we want to be outside enjoying it 'cause it's usually a little cooler.

So if you, you know, do have have to be outside or, or want to be outside, make sure you're wearing some sort of repellent DEET is going to be one of the most effective repellents you can get.

And then there are plenty of other products that you know might be available on the market that are probably a bit less effective than deet, but I, the recommendation would be to wear something with as high of concentration of deet as you are willing to use.

- Okay.

What about the mosquitoes that are out during the daytime or, or I've heard some are more dangerous or some are the ones that maybe are carrying some of the diseases or viruses.

Is that true?

- So most of them that we've got right now, whether they're the, the flood water species or those container breeders are carrying pathogens that can be problematic for, for us, our pets livestock essentially nobody or nothing is safe.

- Okay.

- At any point during the day.

- Okay.

And you, you mentioned pets just now, is that something that we should come, I mean obviously you being the livestock entomologist, I know you're concerned about livestock, but what about pets for homeowners?

- Yeah, definitely they, heartworm is a pathogen that is transmitted to our pets from the bite of a mosquito.

Okay.

So we need to make sure that we're, you know, using the correct products to protect our pets from that.

So most of the kind of combo or plus products, you know, regardless of of you know, what that kind of brand name for the product might be for the kind of flea tick prevention for our pets.

Most of those now have a heartworm prevention as part of them.

So no longer, you know, do we have to give that little chew to the dog once a month or anything.

And and heartworm is very problematic and often untreatable in cats.

So a lot of the newer products for cats actually have a anti heartworm medication already in it to protect them from contracting that.

- Okay.

Does their fur help with that, prevent some of that or not?

Not as much.

- Not really.

Yeah.

Mosquitoes can feed through just about anything.

- Okay.

Alright.

Well so clean out our containers and that can be anything from like a shallow rock that Right.

A lot of different options with that.

So be vigilant, check our yard.

Thank you so much for this information.

I've got a great little perennial here I wanna introduce you to, if you're not familiar with this, this is Gaura and while this is an improved selection, Gaura is actually native to North America and so it's very tolerant of our southern climate.

It likes our dry rocky soil.

It actually produces a tap root so it really can handle our drought conditions.

In fact, the only time you might see problems is if you over water it.

You can have root rot issues with that.

So if you have heavy clay, you might be cautious of that.

Keep it on the dryer side.

Like I said, it likes that sandy, rocky soil, the native gar, you actually will see growing along the roadside and it has a very similar flower to this, a little bit smaller in stature.

Obviously.

One of the things I like best about this Gaura is sort of just sort of fills in these voids.

And again, we've got some Russian sage in here that's sort of seeded.

So it gives your garden just that natural kind of loose feel to it.

Also known as a wand flower because it produces these long spikes of flowers.

And you can see it just continues to bloom up these spikes.

It's got several more buds, it's gonna continue to produce.

And also down below you can see that it's got newer wands that are being created.

So it'll continue to bloom for you all summer long.

Now this particular one, you can see the flowers are white and they're edged with pink.

They're also are just pure white ones.

There's different shades of pink, but mainly those are what you're gonna see as wide and pink.

This particular one is also green.

However, there are some that have some variation to 'em.

Sometimes a little white variation, some a little pink variation on this foliage also.

So a beautiful plant that's going to, depending on which cultivar you get, anywhere from about 18 inches up to a 30 foot mound that it's going to create, it's gonna kind of stay in its spot.

But you can see it sort of billows out a little bit just because of how much that foliage sort of really grows from that tap root.

Now it can be kind of known as a short-lived perennial.

So don't be too concerned if you see that it doesn't last beyond a few years depending on our weather here.

But most gaura are hardy from zones five to nine.

And again, like that kind of rocky, sandy soil.

So a good one to try in your garden.

I wanna share with you a perennial that we have that's really just stunning.

The crowds right now, and this is Betony, also known as Stachys.

And this particular cultivar is called Summer Crush.

Now there's a lot of other Betonys on the market.

Some of 'em actually have like a, a darker purple or a kind of a brighter purple pink look to 'em.

But this particular one summer crush has this nice soft pink color to it.

Stachys is a, a genus that is in the Mint family.

So it's a big plant family.

But one of the things that is kind of interesting is the stachys is Greek for ear of corn.

And if you look at the flower, it sort of resembles a small corn cob.

And what I like most about this plant is that it gives you that really upright vertical form, but yet it's small.

So it's not gonna be like a tree or anything like that, that you have to, to have in your landscape to have that form.

It's quite small.

And so it really works well in a perennial garden to give you kind of that vertical structure.

When you put this perennial in your landscape, it is hardy from zones four to nine.

So it's pretty taller and of a wide range of temperatures.

And the other great thing is you want to make sure you're putting it in full sun because it is going to thrive in our Oklahoma weather.

Now you can see it'll get to be about two and a half feet tall, especially with these flower spikes coming on.

But it's gonna continue to bloom as it comes up.

Those flower spikes just a beautiful plant.

It is deer resistant and also it can tolerate our clay soils.

So you can see it kind of stays put.

It will spread a little bit through rhizomes, especially in moisture conditions, but a pretty great plant to add to your Oklahoma landscape.

There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

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

Join us next week as we showcase our Youth Gardening Contest Winners right here on Oklahoma.

Gardening and Sachys is a big genre that is in genre genre.

Genre.

Genre.

- That's right.

Is it a genre or is it a genus?

- Genus, but a genre.

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 Oklahoma gardening dot OK state.edu.

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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 Stillwater Gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.