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

I'm Chris Cooper.

It's warming up and time to replace the winter flowers with summer color.

Today, we will be planting Coleus, Pentas, and Vinca.

That's just ahead 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.

All right, Joellen?

- Yeah.

- Good to see you.

- You too.

- You know, this is, this is my favorite thing to do, right?

- Yeah, well, look at how beautiful the pansies have grown to be, despite the cold we had.

- Yeah.

- Which really knocked out a lot of pansies all over the city.

And we did have some snapdragons planted.

Look, only one came back.

It did not like the cold at all.

[chuckles] - It's hanging there.

- But it's time.

It's time to change them out to the summer color.

- All right.

- So as beautiful as they are, it's time for them to go.

And it looks like the daffodils also bloomed out - Yeah.

- Very quickly.

So we'll leave those in the ground.

- Okay.

So the daffodils stay.

- Daffodils stay.

- Okay.

- So then come back next year, it looks to me, so I'm looking here and it looks to me like we need to fill in some spots that have gotten bare.

There's one, two, three, four.

At least four or five more bulbs that we need to plant to make in a couple of two rows.

- Okay.

- Like it was.

So, we'll remember that for this fall.

- Right.

- And it looks like there's plenty of mulch in the ground.

So there's some leaves, and we'll just get that up when we're pulling everything out.

- Okay.

Let me ask you about the daffodils.

I remember some time ago, we actually braided those.

Are we gonna do that again this time, or do we have to?

Or is it necessary?

- I would like to just take them and kind of put 'em in knots.

- Okay.

- Just to get 'em out of the way.

I don't wanna get rid of them 'cause they're creating nutrients for the blooms for next year.

- Okay, so just tie them up.

- But we do need them out of the way.

We'll just tie 'em out of the way and they'll be fine.

- Okay, sounds good.

All right.

- And we'll put this, what we pick up, and we'll put it in the compost pile.

- We'll put it in a compost pile.

This is always the hard part for me though.

- I know.

- We're just kind of digging them out, you know.

[Joellen chuckles] All right.

- It has to be done.

- It has to be done.

Hey, Joellen, look what I found here.

- Oh, wow!

It's a snail.

- A nice little shell, huh?

[laughs] - There's snails out here.

As well as worms and everything else that's good.

Well, we haven't seen any damage from them, so it's- - So it's okay.

- There's not too many of them to worry about.

- Pretty cool.

Never know what you might find.

Right?

- Just never know.

- Come on out.

Right.

- All right.

Now let's tie these up just a little bit and get 'em closer together.

- The daffodils.

- Like, I'll take this group like this.

- See if I can follow that.

- And I'll just make a knot here.

- How about that?

- So it will not take up so much room.

- Okay.

- We can plant around it then.

- All right.

- Yeah, we're tying them because the daffodils aren't done.

When they're done, they're brown.

They have, trying to gather enough energy for the bulbs to bloom next year.

And tying them up like this, the sun still gets to these, it still translocates down to the bulbs, so this is not hurting them at all.

And it just gets 'em out of the way so we can plant the next season's colors.

All right, we have three different plants.

Now, we have planted some of these before.

- Okay.

I remember.

- We've had Pentas in here before.

We have had Coleus in here before.

- Like Coleus.

- And we've had Vinca in here before.

- I remember.

- I don't know if we've had these three combinations together in here before, but we will see how this combination does.

- Okay.

- The reason why we change plants that we plant in the bed, you don't want to plant the same flowers every year just like you don't want to put the tomatoes or the corn or vegetables in the garden in the same place because they develop disease problems that then you will never be able to plant there.

- Right.

So little rotation.

- Little rotation.

- Vinca and petunias are probably the worst, but everything should not be, you shouldn't plant the same.

Just because you change color, if it's the same Pentas or the same Vinca, you need to change the entire plant and give yourself at least a three-year, if not a four-year cycle before you plant the same plant back in there again.

- Gotcha.

- Just like you would your vegetable garden.

- Gotcha.

- Now we've got some Coleus we'll plant first 'cause these will get bigger than the rest.

And these happen to be a Main Street variety.

- Main Street, mm-hmm.

- And this one is called Rodeo Drive.

- Rodeo Drive, huh?

- Yes.

And these will get larger.

So we would plant them in the center of the bed.

- And again, can you tell us how you do your spacing?

- Well, I know the Coleus will get large.

- Okay.

- We're talking about probably at least 12 inches.

So if you think about a 12 inches, you want at least 12 inches or more on center.

- Got it.

Yeah.

- Because these will get big.

- Okay.

- And you don't want 'em to get too crowded.

- Let me ask you about this, though.

Is it okay if the plants touch?

- Oh, no, we-- - I always get that question.

- I want all of these to grow in together because what it does is then it shades the ground.

- Right.

- So then weeds can't germinate underneath them.

- That's right.

That's right.

- So that's the idea.

- So they can touch, it's fine.

- They can touch, it's fine.

But we don't want 'em to crowd too much.

- Right.

- 'Cause we want them to be healthy.

- Gotcha.

- All right, now before we plant these, we do need to put some slow-release fertilizer down.

So they'll be fed for a few weeks.

- Okay.

- Or months out of the year.

- All right.

- And we'll just use this.

And it doesn't need a whole lot.

We're just trying to get these established.

So we just sprinkle a little bit around.

As my mother would say, "You kind of feed the chickens with it."

- Feed the chickens with it?

[Chris chuckles] - Yeah.

- I like that.

- You don't wanna over-fertilize it.

You just want enough so that they can get some nutrients while they're establishing.

- Okay.

- And that should be plenty.

- All right.

- Now we can start planting these.

The first thing we're gonna do is get 'em out of the container.

And to do that, you kind of hold the top of the plant.

[hand tapping] And you squeeze the sides of the container, and gently guide the plant out.

- Ah.

- Just like that.

And as you can see, these roots are pretty good.

They're not root-bound or anything.

They're gonna grow out.

Every root likes to grow away from the center of the plant.

And when it's in a container, they tend to start circling and take the shape of the container and you wanna break that.

Once you break that, you might break some roots, but the other roots will start going away from the plant again.

- Right.

Yeah.

- And it will stop the circling, which will girdle them.

- Got it.

- So what we'll do is we'll, well, since there's plenty of mulch in here, we'll just move the mulch out of the way.

And these plants are a little bit big.

It might take a couple of scoops, [Chris chuckles] but our soil is really nice and loose in here.

And we'll plant it.

- Now how deep-- - Just at the soil surface.

- Okay.

- You see, you notice the soil, I'm not burying this top of the plant.

This is where the crown is.

We don't wanna bury the crown.

And I put soil.

And then we move the mulch back over it and it's planted.

- Voila.

Okay.

- And we'll do that to every plant.

Well, now we've got the Coleus in, we're gonna put in these nice red Pentas.

And we'll have to get these out of the ground, out of the container.

Again, you're squeezing the sides, and you're gently putting pressure on it and pulling the plant out.

And as you can see, this one has a lot more root-bound - Yeah, it does.

- Than the others.

And we don't want it to keep doing this.

We need for these roots to start going away from the plant to anchor it like it does in nature.

So if we don't move these roots out of the way and get them to start going away from the center of the plant, they will keep going in that same pattern.

Now, you're gonna say, "Well, that, you just took out some of your roots."

[Chris chuckles] It's fine.

There's plenty in here.

And what'll happen is these roots will start growing away from the plant.

And we will, it'll get established and it'll be just fine in the ground.

- Yeah.

Just fine.

- And again, when we're planting these, I'll plant one and then we'll set the rest out.

- Okay.

- You're gonna dig down and set it down.

Don't bury the crown of the plant.

See?

Didn't put dirt up over the top of it.

And we'll put mulch back around it.

And that's how we will keep the crowns of all of the plants from being drowned by the soil.

- Got it.

So, why are you setting them out before they get planted?

- Oh, so we know that they're evenly spaced in the bed.

So the color will look nice from the, read nice from the street or from the sidewalk.

Pentas will get 10 to 12 inches around.

They'll be big and beautiful.

And they will fill in this area with the Coleus.

And I really don't think we need any more.

So we have a couple extra we can put in a container somewhere else.

- Sure.

How about that?

All right, we'll get to it.

Right?

- And remember to separate the roots.

- Got it.

- Because they're, these are little root-bound.

- You gotta tickle the roots.

Right?

- Yep.

- Or tease the roots as they say.

There you go.

- There.

- Pentas are in the ground.

- Now we got Coleus and we've got Pentas, and we're gonna fill in with the Vinca.

- All right.

- And I know these are in, we've got, we've had all different sized pots.

The way that you get each individual plant out of the container does not change.

- Okay.

- No matter what size the container.

I don't care if it's a three-gallon pot or a one-gallon pot or a quart.

You have four plants in this little container, yet the process is the same.

I kind of hold onto all four of them and I squeeze them.

- Ah.

- And sometimes they just fall out.

And there you have that.

So that's how you get them out.

You don't wanna pull 'em because you'll pull the roots and the plant apart.

And some of these are rooted well, some of 'em need a couple of pinches, but we'll set 'em all out.

- Okay.

- And then we'll plant them.

- And again, we're just filling in the gap with them.

- We're just filling in spaces with these.

- Yeah, my mom loves Vinca.

She'd be happy to see this.

- They're a pretty pink.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Now these are small.

- Right.

- And [exhales] you shouldn't have to dig a whole lot.

In fact, you pick one up and just move the mulch out of the way, you should be able to dig down once and pull the soil aside and set your plant down in here, don't bury it.

And then pull the mulch back over it.

If you cannot do that and you have to dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, your soil needs amending.

- Aha.

- So it needs to be looser, it's too clay.

That's probably why your flowers aren't doing as well.

Do a little amendment to it.

- And what would you amend with?

- Organic matter of some kind.

- Organic matter.

Okay.

- Yes, and you don't have to have a tiller.

Because we didn't have a tiller for this bed.

All we did was take a shovel and turn it over.

- Right.

- And that's all we did.

- That's a good point.

- And we probably will, this fall, we'll probably do that again because we haven't turned it over in a little while.

So it's time to do that again.

- All right.

- Well, there we go!

All three planted.

The bed's ready for the summer.

- I can't wait to see what it's gonna look like.

We had such a beautiful day to plant.

- Oh, we did.

- How about that?

- It is so nice today.

- Yeah.

So thank you, Joellen.

We appreciate that.

- You're welcome.

- All right.

- It was fun.

[upbeat country music] When you get done planting, it's good to water the plants in because you need to get the root system to adhere to the soil and not leave a whole lot of air pockets in the ground.

And sometimes when you water, you'll actually see bubbles come up out of the ground because that's letting the air pockets come out of the soil so that the roots are adhering to the soil surface.

But, so it's very important to make sure that you water everything in after you finish planting.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Joellen.

Here's our Q&A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- These are great questions.

- Okay.

- All right.

Here's our first viewer email.

"I have some Talstar Pro, "active ingredient is bifenthrin that is 10 years old.

"I cannot purchase it anymore.

"Is my 10-year-old insecticide still effective?

"I want to use it to treat a chinch bug infestation.

"After resodding last fall, I am looking to ensure that do esn't happen again this year."

And this is Dan from Canada on YouTube.

So he's using Talstar.

It's 10 years old.

- Yeah.

- He wants to know if it's still effective.

Well, guess what, Mr. Dan?

That's not still effective.

Yeah, so after the third year, it pretty much loses its shelf life.

- Yes.

- Right.

That information should be on the label, but if it's not, three years is pretty much gonna be, you know, the max.

Make sure when you buy another product, of course, if you have to buy another product, keep the cap tight on it, keep 'em in a location that's away from direct sunlight, and then read or follow that label 'cause it should have information on there on how to store the product.

- Yes.

- So would that apply to all insecticides?

- Somewhat, sometimes.

Sometimes not.

There's some chemicals that don't lose their effectiveness.

But, you know, that they're older and they're probably not available anymore, so.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, there's a lot.

Just read the directions on the label.

That's gonna, the label should tell you everything you need to know about that particular chemical.

And, you know, you can always go online, get an SDS sheet.

- That's right.

- And read that.

And that should have information on the chemical makeup of the chemical that he's wanting to apply.

And, you know, and you can always call the manufacturer then.

- Yeah, 'cause the number's there.

So all of that's gonna be on the label, which is why we always tell people read and follow the label.

- Yes.

- 'Cause it will tell you how to store it.

It will also tell you how to dispose of that chemical.

- Yes.

- And then if you happen, you know, to get some of the chemical on you, ingest the chemical, it will give you the number to call.

- Yes.

- For emergency purposes.

So all of that information, Mr. Dan, is going to be on the label.

Chinch bugs are a problem.

This is the correct recommendation that you have here to use to control chinch bugs.

- Yes.

- So, yeah.

But yeah, as far that product goes, three years is going to be the max, all right?

Thank you for that question, Mr. Dan.

We appreciate that.

- Good, good question.

- Yeah, it's a good question.

Thank you much.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What is the best way to water orchids "planted in orchid bark?

"Do you dip them in water for 30 minutes like others suggest?"

And this is Michelle on YouTube.

So Michelle, guess what?

Joellen has done this before, so I'm just gonna sit back and we're gonna listen to her answer this question, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

You know, I have never heard of them soaking it in, but I just water them and with a slow drip, and make sure I get all of the roots.

'Cause sometimes the roots are outside of the pot.

They kind of sit in the air just like they would on the side of a tree.

You know, they kind of go out from the side of a tree where they are native in the tropics.

- Okay.

- And so sometimes the roots don't always go down like most other roots do into the bark.

Sometimes that's why you have to repot them because the roots tend to just go out and over the pots.

- Okay.

Okay.

- But I make sure I water, make sure water gets on all of the roots of it.

And interestingly enough, in nature, it's misted.

You think of the tropics.

It rains a lot.

- Yeah.

- So it gets sporadic water, you know, almost every day.

- Right.

- So you gotta think the, and the leaves also absorb water.

- Right.

- So when I'm watering them, I water the leaves and everything.

And I just make sure that it's wet.

I have several of 'em.

So I'm taking one at a time and putting it under this faucet.

And not, you know, not full force or anything, but just lightly and making sure everything gets watered.

I set it aside and I do the next one, and then I do the next one.

And then I start over again.

I do the next one.

You know, do them a couple of times.

- Sure.

- And once, twice a week and that's all.

'Cause that's all I've found that mine need 'cause they're not in that much light.

- Okay, so you think dipping them in water for 30 minutes may be too much?

- I just don't know if that's necessary.

And I'm worried about the bark leaving the container and then getting down in the drain.

- Right.

Right.

- So the way I do it, I don't want to disturb the bark.

I like to leave it in there so it's not floating up anywhere and yeah.

- Okay.

- And doing that, but make sure it's well-drained.

Don't leave water in the container, 'cause a lot of these are in a container, that's in a solid ceramic container.

And if you leave water in there, that's not good.

They don't like to sit in water.

Because remember, in the wild, they're on the trees and they just get misted.

- So you could potentially rot the roots.

- Mm-hmm.

Yes.

- You know, if they're just sitting in water.

You know, something else as you were talking, you know, about watering your orchids.

You know what I thought about too?

The weight of the pot - Yes.

- Could tell you, you know, what you need to know, right?

If it's heavy, that means it's probably well watered.

When it starts to, you know, feel a little light, maybe.

It's time to consider watering again.

- Yeah, yeah.

And sometimes the plant will tell you because the roots or the leaves will start to shrivel a little bit, and that's really- - Okay.

- That's when it's really dry.

And you really don't want it to get to that point before in between your waterings.

- Okay.

- But overwatering is probably the worst case scenario for orchids because of the way they're used to growing in the wild versus in a container in our house.

- Okay.

Gotcha.

All right, that makes sense to me.

All right, Michelle, thank you for that question.

We appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What can I do to keep insects from eating my hosta plants?

"With the new leaves on them, "I started noticing that they were being eaten.

What can I do or use?"

And this is Edwin from Horn Lake, Mississippi.

So what do you think about that?

Something's eating Edwin's hostas.

- And it must be slugs.

- I thought slugs, right?

- Yeah, they're the number one-- I wonder if he sees any trails, slimy trails around the holes or anything.

- Yeah, slimy mucus.

- Yeah, that they're notorious for doing that.

And especially 'cause the snails are just waking up, and the plants are nice and young.

Well, lunch is served.

- Yes, right.

[both chuckle] That's right, buffet.

Right.

- But you have to understand where slugs live.

They like to hibernate during the day and they come out at night.

So you can put diatomaceous earth around the base of each one of the hostas so that when they grow over it, then that, that breaks them up and that'll get rid of them.

I've also seen people put boards down right next to the stem and the slugs will stay the day, sleeping underneath there.

- Yes.

- So you pick up the board and you scrape 'em off and get rid of 'em.

- Okay.

- And, of course, there's always the famous- - Hey, say it.

- Pan of beer.

- Yeah.

- A shallow dish.

- Yeah.

- And they like the smell of it.

They're attracted to it and they go to it, and then they, you know, fall into the liquid and drown.

- Yeah.

- But that's not really good with pets around.

- Sure.

Sure.

So for that, I mean there are some baits - Yeah, there are.

- That you can use.

And one that I know that's less toxic than the rest would be something that contains iron phosphate.

You know, it's gonna be a lot friendlier, you know, for your animals.

- Yes.

- You know, for your pets and your kids that may be in the area.

So that's what I would look fo r if you're gonna use a bait.

- Yeah.

- Iron phosphate.

- Yeah, 'cause some of the baits are, the animals are attracted to 'em too.

And they'll chew on them.

So you gotta watch that.

- Gotta watch that.

So yeah, so knowing the environment, - Yes.

- You know, of those snails and slugs, you know, means a lot, right?

But hostas like that too, right?

[laughs] - Yeah, they do.

- All right.

Thank you, Edwin.

Hope that helps you out.

Appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

Oh, here we go.

"Everything is being blamed on the December freeze.

"But my iris, which usually has many blooms, "has only one or two this year.

"Why are my irises not blooming as much as usual?

"Are they having a hard year after the freeze "or is it because they have not be en divided in five years?

I never fertilize them either."

And this is Pat from Nashville, Tennessee.

So Ms. Pat, I think Joellen had that same issue, right?

- Yes.

- So, December freeze?

- And not dividing them, - Not dividing.

- I say yes to both.

- Yes to both.

Okay.

- Yeah.

And not fertilizing 'em is okay too.

- Yeah.

- I, you know, why should you fertilize something that doesn't need it?

And yeah.

My iris are not blooming as much as they usually do.

And they're much later - Yeah.

- Than they have been in in the past.

So yes to both of those things.

And if she can divide 'em and haven't divide 'em in five years, I would divide them.

- Okay.

- Share them with some folks.

Swap some iris, different colors of iris that everybody has, or just give them some more room to grow and then they will bloom again.

But yeah, I think the cold did hurt it.

- I think so.

I do.

- And I think, you know, being overcrowded is a stressor for them.

So that also could contribute to them not blooming.

- So she wanted to divide them.

When is a good time to do that?

- Actually after they finish blooming.

- There you go.

- The iris societies usually have sales around the end of June or the beginning of July.

So, you know, when it's hot for us, - If it is hot, yeah.

- It's really the best time to divide them.

- Yeah.

Okay.

So there you go, Ms. Pat.

We're thinking both!

- Yeah.

- Yeah, I think both.

- Little freeze and need to be divided.

All right.

- Yeah.

And I haven't even fertilized the ones that I've gotten new either.

So I mean they love the soils here in Tennessee.

That's why they're our state flower.

- Yeah, that's right.

- And so they grow well without a lot of nutrients added to them.

- Good deal.

Share, Ms. Pat.

Yeah, divide and share.

- Yes, divide and share.

- How about that?

We appreciate that question.

- Yeah.

- Joellen, that was fun.

Thank you much.

- That was good.

- Thank you much.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is familyplot@wkno.org.

And the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

If you want to learn more about any of the flowers Joellen planted, head on over to familyplotgarden.com.

Be sure to join us next week for "The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]