- Oklahoma Gardening is a production of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Land Grant Mission of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University dedicated to improving the quality of life of the citizens of Oklahoma through research based information.

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

The gardening season isn't over yet.

Today on Oklahoma Gardening we'll learn how to make the best bouquet.

Then we'll also see how to preserve our summer flowers for other purposes.

I'll share with you something that's been pestering us around the garden, and finally it's not too late to start your fall garden.

(ambient music) - It's almost like an ombre of sunset colors.

- It's not the flowers, right?

(ambient music) Today we are here at Petal Pusher Farms and joining me is Jeri Irby.

Jeri is the owner of this cut flower farm, but today we are talking about making a floral arrangement, right, and there's different types of floral arrangements.

Is that correct?

- That's right.

Yeah.

- So what are, what are we doing?

What makes the perfect floral arrangement and cut flower?

- Yeah, so we have these Oklahoma grown blooms here and what we're gonna do is we're gonna do a hand tied bouquet.

- Okay.

- Okay.

So what the mechanics- - Does that mean you tie your hands behind your back?

(both laugh) - No, no, no.

We're going to actually start grabbing stems and we're going to kind of make what you would think of like a bride holding a bouquet of flowers, walking down the aisle.

- Okay.

- Okay and so what I like to do is I like to start off with some of these Marigolds that we cut because they have, they're really upright and they have like that eye catching color.

- Right.

- And so I'm gonna start with this, and then when we are working with our stems, anything green and leafy, we need to make sure we take off the ends because if that's in water, it's going to ruin your cut flowers.

It'll, you know, make your water really cloudy and nasty and grow bacteria, so any green leafy material that's in the water, you gotta get rid of.

- Okay, and that's a big stem, so we're not gonna cut that down any?

- We will eventually cut it down, and once we get the bouquet, how we like it, we'll snip those stems at an angle.

- Okay, but we're gonna leave all of this?

- Yeah.

Yeah.

We like this filler, it just gives it some natural texture in that bouquet.

So we'll grab one of these and if you just wanna start handing me different flowers.

- Okay.

- What we do is we add a flower to our bouquet and then we grab it and turn it.

- Okay.

- Okay, and we just continue doing this until we get, you know, our bouquet, how we like it.

- So any particular ones I should be handing you first?

- You are, I think you're doing a great job.

I really like to put those big, kind of thriller flowers, in the top part of our bouquet, and then when we, oh yeah- - A bigger one or a smaller one?

- I think that's good.

- Okay.

- And then we'll just keep adding, twisting, adding, if you wanna hand me some Lisianthus, let's add those in there, and don't be afraid if they kind of move around on you because eventually we're gonna put a rubber band around this.

- Okay.

- So we'll add this guy right in here.

- I love these, they add a little delicateness to it.

- Right, and so see how I'm trying to keep all of the blooms around the same height and eye level.

- Okay.

- Just keep on doing that.

- So you're, you're ignoring the bottoms of the stem at this point?

- Yes.

Yeah.

So we're just gonna keep adding- - Pop a red in there.

- and twisting.

Ooh, I like that one.

This is a Benary's Giant Zinnia.

Love that.

- Some sunflowers.

- Oh yeah.

- So are all these gonna go or do I need to stop?

(laughs) - It's kind of up to us.

I kind of like the way that's looking.

Do you?

- Yeah, it is pretty.

- Yeah.

Okay, so then when we're ready to finish our hand tied bouquet, what we're gonna do is we're gonna take this rubber band, - Okay.

- and we're gonna bring it up a stem and we're gonna wrap it just tight enough to where we can finish it off on another stem, and so it stays.

- Traditionally tying it all around you're just- - Right.

- Okay.

- And then what we wanna do is we wanna give them another nice cut at an angle because that helps, it's more surface area for the plant to absorb water once it's in water.

So we'll cut it at an angle.

So I don't cut the rubber band.

(both laugh) Careful, and then what we do is we put these flowers in one of our craft sleeves, just like this.

- Oh they smell so good too.

(laughs) - They smell great, and this is what our hand tied bouquets look like.

- Oh, that's beautiful.

- Yeah.

- So now what?

I mean- - Yeah.

- So if somebody comes and you picks, this is what they get to leave with.

- Right.

- But what if I wanna get home with this?

- Sure.

- Needs water, right?

- Right.

Needs lots of water, and in fact, when you get home you might not want your bouquet, this tall in your vase.

- Right.

- So what we always do, you know, you'll take it out of the sleeve and then when you get home- - And you might just tear that sleeve, right?

(laugh) - Yes, for sure, for sure.

- You might have different types of vessels, jars, a lot of people are really loving the Mason jar look right now, or this wide-mouth vase.

So instead of just putting your flowers in like this, to make this vase feel fuller, what you wanna do is cut your stems low enough, so you wanna cut to where the flowers are sitting on top of this vase and I'll show you that so it makes more sense.

- Okay, so the foliage would be right there to come over the edge.

- Correct.

And again, if you are cutting, you can kinda put this next to a table and look at where that's gonna fall on.

So we're gonna cut this guy down and look how much I'm cutting off.

Don't be scared.

It's all good.

Okay, so we cut, cut, cut and then we strip those leaves off 'cause remember what I say about the water?

- Right.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause they'll kind of add to rot and decay, right?

- Exactly.

And then we just place them in, kinda move them around, get 'em a little fuller.

Gotta turn... and that's it.

So there's water in there, you've got a nice arrangement.

We like to tell people to change your water every other day, give it a nice, fresh drink and they'll last for weeks.

- And is there anything you should put in the water and is tap water okay?

- Tap water is perfectly fine.

We do like to use a flower food in our arrangements just because it gives those flowers just another little support, a little vitamin, whatever is in there.

- Right, right.

And one thing I personally do, I know different flowers are different ages so they're gonna die at different times also.

So go ahead and just remove those dead ones, not just throw out the whole bouquet, right?

- Exactly, and some of the flowers that you see here can actually be extended into a dried bouquet.

- Oh, okay.

So you can take these marigolds and even some of the celosia and turn it upside down and dry it and have an everlasting bouquet.

- Oh, okay, really get your money's worth, that way.

- That's right.

- Excellent.

Thank you so much, Jer.

- Thank you!

(upbeat, classy music) - Summer is the best time to be out in the garden, enjoying your plants.

They're growing, they're getting really big, and they're in full bloom right now.

However, some of the days can be really hot and humid and it's not as enjoyable to be outside during the day.

So you wanna bring your plants inside where it's nice and cool and you can spruce up your indoors.

So you could bring in a vase of cut flowers so you get the enjoyment of your blooms inside, but those won't last you very long.

Pressed flowers, on the other hand, will be able to last all year long.

Pressing plants was first used by early explorers to identify different plants that they came across and for scientific study.

I remember in my high school botany class, one of our assignments was to gather a bunch of different leaves from trees so we could make a little book and identify the trees that were in our area.

Another reason that you want to maybe press your plants is to have a book of what plants you have in your garden.

So you can press the different flowers and write down in your little book that you've made what cultivars and varieties you have, so you don't get them confused from year to year.

It's not just for identification, it's not just for learning your different plants, you can also use them for arts and crafts.

So we're going to start with pressing our flowers now.

Whenever you pick out a book, you wanna make sure to use an older book so you don't ruin any pages of your new books.

You could possibly end up with some moldy, mildew pages if you use flowers that have a bunch of moisture in them, but that's not necessarily the case.

All my other pages are absolutely fine from some of the other flowers.

Picking your flowers early in the morning, after the dew's already dried off of them or in the evening whenever it starts to cool off, is the best time to ensure that your flowers are fresh and have the least amount of moisture on them.

If you choose a flower that has more succulent-type leaves or retain a lot of moisture, it could result in this moldy spot in your book, and they won't press as well.

They won't retain their color.

And so, we'll start choosing our flowers.

So whenever you do this, you want to make sure how you lay them in there is the way that you want your flowers to look in the end.

I don't need all this extra stem, so I'm gonna go ahead and cut off the extra part, get it as flat as I possibly can, and then I'm just gonna place it in there face-down.

So I'm starting with the back of the book, that way I can keep pressure on the plants I've already placed in the pages as I continue to fill up the book.

So I'm going to add a few extra flowers in there.

As you can see, these petunias can lay different ways.

Some of these other petunias that I already have pressed, some are just flatter and others are more folded up, and that's just the way that I laid them in the book originally to be pressed.

- So you don't wanna overlap your flowers or your petals or anything just so that way they don't stick to each other.

Close that, and then go on to the next spot.

So you wanna make sure to keep pressure on your book as you're initially pressing your flowers.

I like to put a sticky note on there with the date that I put the flowers in the book, just so that way I know how long that they need to be inside of the book.

You wanna make sure to place your book in a spot that has a lot of air circulation, so that way your flowers have the easy ability to dry out any kind of moisture.

It helps the paper towels bring out the moisture of the flowers and leaves.

And I like to put more heavy objects on top of the book just to make sure that it's weighed down well enough.

So once you have your flowers pressed, you want to keep them in the book for about two weeks at the minimum.

So at two weeks they'll just about be ready to pull out and used for crafts.

I like to leave them in there longer if I can.

The longer they stay in the book, the more that they'll be solidified in the color that you see, and they'll hold that shape a little bit better the longer that they're drying.

So once you have your dried flowers, you are able to start on any kind of projects.

There are so many different things that you can do.

You can put them in picture frames.

One of my favorite, it's really simple, is you can put them inside of these self-laminating sheets.

And so I like to make little bookmarks out of them and give them to people as gifts.

And something else you could do is these actually work really well in different size frames.

So they make these sheets in different sizes, and you can put them into picture frames and hang them up on your wall.

You can put some paper inside of this.

I'd use a plain colored paper so that way the flowers really stand out.

Another option is using some kind of epoxy resin to preserve your flowers.

So my favorite project that I've done so far with this is using this coaster mold.

This is just a silicone mold that I bought on the internet.

It takes a few days for this to actually solidify.

I use this mold and put my flowers in there, and you wanna make sure to follow the directions on the epoxy resin so that way you have it completely done right, and it'll set up perfectly for you.

And you can pull those out and begin using them.

You can also use whatever kind of molds you want.

For these little flowers I just found some molds at the store, and you can just put your flower in there with some resin, and you get all kinds of cool shapes.

And then also these ones, they're also some of my favorites just because it gives it a 3D look.

This is a great project to do if you wanna get out of the heat and be indoors.

You can press them now and save them for later for the winter time if you wanna do any projects then.

With a little bit of patience and time, you'll be swimming in pressed flower art.

(upbeat music) - As fruit become more abundant in the garden later in the summer, one thing that always comes with fruit is oftentimes insects.

And one insect that we anticipate every fall, late summer into fall is the red shoulder bug that absolutely love the stand of Western soapberries that we have.

Now, you know when they arrive because it's not just one or two, but it is literally hundreds of these insects that will come out in order to take advantage of the fruit that are now fully ripened on our trees.

Now, in addition to the Western soapberry, you often will find red shoulder bugs on China berries and also golden rain trees.

And surprisingly with the volume of insects that you might find, you would think they would maybe do some damage to the trees, but they don't really do any damage.

They might do some minimal feeding on the foliage.

And then also they're after the fruit, but really they're classified more as a nuisance pest because late in the summertime into fall, they are looking for a place to over winter and get out of the cold, and so to project themselves and find shelter.

And so that's where the nuisance comes in because they're actually invading our homes at this time of year.

They get into your homes, you don't have to worry about them feeding on the wood or anything like that.

They are seeking just shelter.

However, if you do crush them or step on them or smash them, they can stain your walls and your carpet and your flooring.

So be aware of that.

Now, you would think again, with the volume of insects that we have crawling around here and crawling on my shoes right now, that you might think they have multiple generations in one year.

But their life cycle is over winter adults will emerge in early spring, about the time their host plants are starting to bud out.

Then as we go into April and May they're gonna lay their first eggs.

And as those eggs emerge and turn into that first generation and they begin to mature, then they're also going to mate and create a second generation.

And it's that second generation that will then repeat that process of seeking shelter for the winter months in order to stay protected.

So the red shoulder bug, if you look at it, is about a half inch long black bug, and as the name implies, it does have red shoulders.

It also has red eyes to it.

Now, that is the adult form.

However, there are multiple sizes of the nymphs as they grow into maturity.

And so they tend to be a little bit more red because their black wings haven't developed over their body just yet.

- Now there's another insect that is often confused with the red shouldered bug and that is the boxelder bug.

The boxelder bug looks very similar.

It is red and black.

However, in addition to those red shoulders, it actually has three red marks behind its head as well as red margins along its wings.

So it's about the same size.

It has a very similar life cycle to it.

And again, it's classified as a nuisance pest as well.

It tends to prefer feeding on the boxelder tree.

So if you have boxelder trees, it might be that you have the boxelder bug instead of the red shoulder bug.

Now, both of these, like I said, are nuisance pests, so what do I do if they're invading my home?

Well, that's the big question, right?

So the first thing that you can do is actually just look at eradicating the host.

So if you don't care about the tree or the plant that's around there, if it's kind of just a tree that's growing in a fence line, you might go ahead and take out that host plant.

And a lot of times, if you don't have the host plant, you're not gonna have that insect as well.

So of course, we're not going to eliminate our Western soapberries here because we have a beautiful stand of them and maybe that's not an option for you either.

So what next?

Well, the next thing to look at is just physically blocking them from being able to enter your home or your shelter.

So you wanna make sure to check the windows and also the doors and make sure that they're sealing well when they are closed.

So you might use caulk or something like that in order to make sure you have a good seal.

Once you've done that and kind of created a physical barrier from them actually entering your home, if they're still getting into your home, the next thing you can do are a couple of different methods.

So if you want to use chemicals, there's a couple home chemicals that you can use.

There's a Bayer Advanced Home Pest Control as well as an Ortho Home Defense Max.

Those are two products that you can look at using, both in and around your home.

I understand, however, if you don't feel comfortable spraying something in and around your home.

So the next option is just to mechanically remove those insects out of your home.

So I know it sounds old fashioned, but a good old broom and a dust pan or a vacuum are a great way to remove those nuisance pests out of your home.

And after all, while they are a nuisance, just look at it as a sign that cooler weather is on its way.

(lively instrumental music) (lively instrumental music) (lively instrumental music) Well, we've survived another gardening season but gardening doesn't have to come to an end just yet.

In fact, you're probably still getting a lot of peppers and tomatoes off of some of your warm season crops.

Now, if your tomatoes have kind of just never recovered from the heat that we've had and also the drought, then it might be time to go ahead and start looking at your fall garden if you're still wanting to continue on gardening.

I know sometimes, it's a little daunting by this point and it can be difficult to actually find seeds and transplants sometimes in the fall gardening 'cause it's not always as popular as it is in the spring but really, here in Oklahoma, fall gardening, a lot of times you have more success with it because you're growing the plant into the cooler temperatures versus growing the plant into those warmer temperatures that we experience in the spring time.

Now there's two ways to go about fall gardening.

So you can either start with seeds, which is a nice option because you can get a whole array of plants, especially if you get online to some of the reputable seed companies.

You can really select what it is you're wanting to find.

Or you can start with transplants and transplants like what we see here are a nice option because this allows us to kind of get a headstart on those plants.

Of course, you could grow your own transplants as well if you wanted to.

And this time of year, it can kind of be tricky 'cause we can still have days that are in the nineties but we also can have days that are in the seventies.

But the most important thing is usually our nights are starting to cool off which is the important part for our fall garden.

So what we're gonna do, I've got some different plants here.

Depending on what it is that you're wanting to plant, depends kind of on when you need to plant them.

Now, broccoli is one of the longer plants.

It takes to actually produce something on it, takes about a hundred days.

So if you're wanting to grow broccoli at this point, you might wanna think about putting it somewhere where you can put a low tunnel over it, some sort of protection just in case we get one of those really cold nights coming in or perhaps in a hoop house.

In fact, we have some broccoli transplants down here that I think we will end up growing in some smart pots that we can then pull into our hoop house.

Now out here, what I've got here is some cabbage and I'm gonna put about five cabbage plants in our protege garden here that we have in our backyard garden.

Cabbage is going to produce in about, anywhere, depending 60 to 80 days.

And so it's a little bit sooner.

That's the nice thing about a lot of your roots and your leaf crops is they're gonna produce a little bit sooner 'cause we're not necessarily after a fruit or the flower which takes longer to actually be produced by the plant.

So I'm gonna plant some cabbage in here and also I'm going to then seed some red leaf lettuce.

So we just kind of have that contrast of red and green growing here in our protege garden 'cause we're trying to make it aesthetically pretty as well.

- Now the other thing, if you're new to fall gardening, like you can grow carrots and you can grow radishes.

And those are some of the easiest fall garden crops to grow from seed.

In fact, radishes, you can start those, within a month, you will have radishes to harvest, so that's the exciting thing.

Especially if you have young kids or something, they're really fun.

They'll be ready for you in about 20 days.

So these transplants can be very shallowly rooted, so you wanna be gentle when you're pulling them out.

In fact, it's better to really kinda tip the pot over and tap that container in order to get your transplant out.

So you can see we've got some good, healthy, white roots in there.

I'm gonna start out just by planting one of these.

It's kinda tricky with these boxwood in here, but planting one in the center here.

And then I'm gonna probably do another one here, and another one here.

So I'm gonna kind of make this crisscross of cabbage.

And then I'm gonna seed some leaf lettuce in between here.

So we'll start out.

You can see we've got our bed already prepped, because we've pulled out our tomatoes.

At this point, we're starting to kinda really flop over and cover up our boxwood protege hedge that we have here.

And so we pulled our tomatoes, and we're gonna go ahead and start with our cabbage now.

So we've got our center point.

Add another one.

Cabbage you want to plant about six to eight inches apart so that it can form that head on it.

So if you've never tried fall gardening, it's not too late to get out into your garden and plant some seeds or transplants.

(lively Bluegrass 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.

(lively Bluegrass music) (lively Bluegrass music) (lively Bluegrass music) (intense Bluegrass music) (lively Bluegrass music) (Bluegrass music continues) - Next week on "Oklahoma Gardening," as the wind comes sweeping down the plains, we've got a lot of flowers to talk about in the garden.

(lively Bluegrass music) (upbeat acoustic guitar music) (crackling sound) (upbeat acoustic guitar music continues) (crackling sound) - I don't know.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music) - 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.okstate.edu.

(upbeat acoustic music) 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 OKGardeningClassics 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 Stillwater gem.

(banjo music) 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 Debut Plants.

The Tulsa Garden Center at Woodward Park, the Oklahoma Horticultural Society.

Smart Pot and the Tulsa Garden Club.

(upbeat acoustic guitar music)