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

I'm Chris Cooper.

It's getting to be fall   and it's time to plant   the winter annuals.

Today, we are planting   snapdragons and pansies.

Also, want to ward off evil   or discover if you love   would be a good partner?

We'll tell you which   plants you can use.

It's plant superstitions.

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, and Dr. Lelia Kelly will be joining me later.

All right, I know what we about to do, right?

- Yeah.

[Chris laughs] Doesn't it look gorgeous?

The things we planted this year, the vinca, the pentas.

But where is the scaevola, the blue scaevola?

Well, there might be a few left, but the vinca and the pentas really outgrew the scaevola.

But it still looks good.

- Yeah, this is beautiful.

- Now this side is a little bit bigger, taller than this side, and I think that's due to environmental conditions associated with watering because there's an irrigation head over there, but I think it sprays up and over, which means it doesn't get this section of the garden as wet as this one.

- And it actually makes a difference, as you can see.

- Yeah, it does make a difference.

But yeah, now, the vinca and these pentas, because we have, vincas especially, we won't be able to plant them, even though they did well, for about two to three more years because we don't want to develop any kind of disease pressure in this bed because of the vinca.

'Cause the vincas get the diseases.

And if you keep planting the same plant all the time, then you won't be able to plant them anymore.

And we don't want to do that.

We want to be able to plant, because they've done so well, we want to be able to plant them again.

So we have to pull them out to put pansies in because it's that time of year.

If we don't get the pansies in the ground, then they're not going to look good for when it gets really cold in the winter.

- Yeah, and we want them to look good.

- We want them to look good, so it's time to pull these out.

And we'll pull them up, and then we can put them in a bag, and then put them in the compost pile.

'Cause there's nothing wrong with them.

They look great.

- Yeah, this is always tough for me though, you know that right?

- Yes, I know.

And it's hard for some people watch, but yes, it's the time of year to get rid of them.

- God, so beautiful.

All right.

- And I found a scaevola.

- Did you?

- It was trying.

- Oh yeah, it was trying to get out there.

Golly.

- These went to their full potential.

About 12 inches is about right.

It did really good.

- Get that in there.

- I know they look good, but we get that first frost and they'll all turn black.

- Then go to mush.

- They'll just go to mush.

And I hate to pull things up when they're mushy.

It's a lot easier to pull them up when they're nice and alive like this.

- All right, getting close to the end here.

- Yep, a few weeds.

Not much.

- A few spurge, a little dandelion.

- Yeah, which is good because we don't put any pre-emergent in this bed, and the plants got large enough that they shaded the ground so that we didn't get weeds.

We got all the plants up, but look, we got a lot of trash left and it doesn't detract from what we're going to be planting.

We need to clean this up.

So we'll rake it a little bit and pick up what we can't rake up.

And there's not a whole lot.

I don't want to get too much mulch in with this.

I just want to get this debris.

Okay.

Well, to get our pansies and snapdragons a good start, we got quite a bit of mulch here, we'll dress it up a little bit at the end.

But we have to put a little bit of this slow-release fertilizer down in the bed to get the pansies a good start.

There we go.

And let's talk about our pansies we're gonna have.

We got two different kinds of trailing pansies.

We've never used trailing pansies before, so we'll see how they do.

They're really known to be   put in containers because   they will spill   over the side   and get at least 12   inches or more in length.

And they do the same   thing on the ground, so we are going to try them here and see how they fill in.

- We're gonna see how they do.

- And the other thing we're gonna do is we're gonna fill in between them with some snapdragons.

Now, we've never used snapdragons before, and I like snapdragons, the problem is they are a cool-season annual, but they may not be a cold-season annual.

So we'll see how long they last in the garden.

- Okay.

If we get a very cold winter, they probably will not last.

But we'll find out.

- We're gonna to find out.

Yeah, my dad's gonna be watching this and he loves snapdragons, so we'll see.

- I like snapdragons.

I used to have them in my house growing up and yeah, I enjoy them.

So this is a variegated one and this is a purple trailing pansy.

So we will disperse them evenly throughout the bed and see how they do.

- How do the root systems look so far?

- They look pretty good.

In fact, I don't even know if we need to bother tickling them or anything.

So far, I mean, there's none at the bottom, and they're just nicely coming around.

I mean, you just might do that.

They're really nicely rooted.

- Okay.

All right, so what kind of pattern are we going for this time?

- Well, I'm just gonna randomly put them in because with the trailing ones, they'll run into each other.

Course, you know, they come in these plastic pots, and if you just pull up on these, on the plant itself, it's gonna break off.

- Right.

- So I usually turn it upside down, kind of gently hold it between my fingers and squeeze the container, and it releases and it just comes right off.

- Yep, just pops right out.

- Since these are all different kinds, I want to set them out first so that we know what type of pansy would we put where and we can get a nice even pattern going.

And let's put these purple ones in.

These are gorgeous.

The perfect size to plant.

You see how they're trying to trail as we're setting them out?

So I don't mind that at all, 'cause they're all in this container, so they're all next to each other.

They can't flop over and start trailing.

They don't have room.

Oh, and look, we have a weed.

Now you do know, weed is simply a plant out of place.

So these are pansies, so even though this may be another flower seed and plant, it's not in the right place.

So we're going to have to remove it, hopefully roots and all.

- Get all of the roots now.

- And discard it.

- All right.

- All right, well, that's placing out all that I think we're gonna need for this bed, so we can start planting these and then we'll put the snapdragons in.

Well, we will want to pick this up where we've planted it, move the mulch out of the way.

Get down to the dirt and dig a hole.

And since this particular one isn't too bad with the roots, I really don't need to move the roots any, but when we plant it, you don't want to plant it and bury the crown of this plant, because when you bury the crowns of pansies in the dirt, they die, they don't like the crowns buried.

So you just get some dirt to go around the edge, up to the same soil level, and just move some mulch around it.

- All right.

Looks good.

- And then the crown is not buried.

All right, now we will space out these snapdragons in between.

They will be taller.

The pansies are trailing, so there'll be down and the snapdragons will grow up.

These are very small, yet be careful.

The root system isn't real developed in these containers, so we'll have to be careful.

And I noticed some of them have two per container.

Good for us, we got a few more.

- A few more.

That works.

- And there we go, now those are spaced out, and we need to plant those in between the pansies.

Again, move the mulch away, dig your hole in the soil, and plant so the top of the soil is at the top of the soil level in the ground, and then move the mulch over the top.

Keep away from the crown of the plant.

All right, well we've finished planting.

- Finished.

- And as you noticed, some of these pansies have flopped over, but these are trailing pansies, we really want them to do that.

It's not that they need water, that's what they're supposed to do.

But since we just planted them, I would like to get the air pockets out from around the roots.

So we do need to water them in before we leave.

And we'll water them in and we'll see how they trail.

- This is always fun.

- It is.

- I can't wait to see what it looks like.

- Yeah.

[upbeat country music] - Cherry trees have a lot of problems.

One of those problems would be the fungal disease, shot-hole disease.

As you can see, it looked like somebody actually shot these holes.

Look at the little holes in the leaves.

What will happen is   the tree will actually   make these leaves fall.

They would just   drop from the trees.

Now here's the deal, when   they drop from the trees,   here's what you need to do.

Practice good sanitation.

We want you to get   these leaves up   because there still may be   fungal spores on these leaves.

The root systems have enough carbohydrates in them, so this plant should produce leaves next year.

[upbeat country music] Plant superstitions?

- Yeah, kind of creepy.

- Ward off evil spirits and things like that?

- Yeah, we gonna talk about all that stuff, so you want me to start with warding off evil?

- Let's start it.

- Okie-dokie, well, according to legends and superstitions, and I want to make sure that everybody understands that this is not research-based information, this is just purely entertainment purposes only, so y'all don't, you know, take any of this to heart, but it's just fun.

- It's fun, it's fun.

- You know, it's fun.

And plants through the ages have really played into a lot of our religious ceremonies and rites, so there's a lot of interesting, weird stuff about plants out there.

And one of the main things that plants are used for, and were used for long, long ago, maybe still used today, I don't know, in this time of year when the spirits are out, is to ward off evil.

And of course, garlic is well known, you know, to take care of the vampires, and I don't know, all these other demons and things that are roaming the earth.

So you hang that out, you know, around your door.

And then fennel actually is another one.

- I didn't know that.

- That long ago people would put it outside their houses and would stick the seeds in the keyholes.

You know, that's how the spirits get in, you know, is through the keyholes.

So they would stick the seed in there to keep the bad magic away and the black magic and stuff.

And it's kind of interesting though, because now we know fennel has some really good health properties to kind of help maybe boost our immune system.

So actually, you know, we need to be eating this stuff instead of sticking it in keyholes to boost our immune system up so we can better ward off the buggers when they come.

- Right.

[laughs] - And there's a lot of other plants that were used, you know, to ward off evil, but we'll move on to one that is supposed to help you determine whether your partner is worthy.

- Yeah, let's hear about this one.

- Yeah, your romantic partner.

And this one in particular, I think is kind of interesting because it kind of takes the negative instead of the positive.

- Okay.

- So what you do, and everybody knows what basil is, very common, number one selling herb, you know, so what you need to do if you have a perspective romantic person that you're interested in, you need to slip him or her a sprig of basil.

And if it dies or wilts, that's a really good indication that they are impure.

- Which could be good or bad.

[Chris and Lelia laugh] - Depending on what you want, right?

- And unworthy, you know?

- Unworthy?

- Unworthy, yeah, I like that.

Unworthy and impure.

So yeah, well, maybe you were looking for somebody impure.

So that would be a good test, you know, if you're looking for that kind of stuff.

Okay, let's talk how witches are able to fly.

You ever wonder that?

Well, I'm gonna tell you how to do it.

- All right.

- You take some foxglove, and then you get some lard, animal fat, you make a big balm out of it, you know, like an ointment, and the witches would rub that all over them, rub it on their broomstick, and they could fly.

- And they could fly?

- Yeah, so I don't know whether I'd trust that, though.

Get up on the roof with my broomstick and jump off when I'm covered in lard and foxglove, which you know is a poison, so I don't know.

- Set it on fire, maybe.

- Yeah, maybe that would work.

[all laugh] So you know, when the new world was discovered, you know, it opened up a lot of new plants for the Europeans, and they didn't quite know what to make some of these things.

And see, they had never seen potatoes.

So, you know, Irish potatoes.

- Okay, uh-oh.

- And the thing that bothered the Europeans about the Irish potatoes was that they grew underground.

So they were considered to be the Devil's food.

- The Devil's food.

- The Devil's food.

- How about that.

- They still liked potatoes, so what they had to do to ward off the Devil was to plant them on Good Friday and then water them with holy water.

And then you could eat them and then, you know, the Devil wouldn't get you.

So that makes total sense to me, you know?

- All right, Good Friday.

- Yep, yep.

- Still has too many carbs.

- Yep, exactly.

Well, and there's two interesting things I really want to talk about.

- Okay.

- And one of them is so pretty serious, and that was, you know, the Salem Witch Trials.

Back in 1691, long,   long time ago.

And people have often   wondered what in the world   got into those young women,   those eight young women,   that made them think that   they were possessed by demons   and that they had   been bewitched?

And so now, researchers think that they have found a plausible explanation as to, you know, what caused that.

And there is a fungus that can infect rye.

And rye was known to be grown by the early settlers as, you know, a grain for making a bread and whatever.

And we know that this fungus is called ergot.

And it's still around today.

They are no resistant   strands of rye.

But to keep the spores that   go through the whole process   and wind up in   whatever product,   this causes people to have   hallucinations, seizures,   and to feel like stuff is   crawling on their skin.

So the conditions for this ergot to contaminate a rye crop is wet weather.

And they've gone back through the historical records and found out that that winter was a particularly wet winter in Salem.

People in Europe were just finding out that this was the association of this contamination of rye caused this, you know, so much of these symptoms.

But it never got to the colonies apparently in time.

- Wow.

- So they think that that's a real plausible explanation for what made these girls have all these weird symptoms.

And they think that was it because it came and went so quickly and that there was a wet winter and the symptoms very much mimicked, you know, the symptoms of what can happen when you eat this contaminated grain.

So rye growers now prevent that very easily by just washing the grain in salt water so it kills the fungus, isn't that crazy?

Absolutely crazy.

Okay, the next one I want to talk about is you ever wonder how the legend of vampires got started?

Huh, you ever wondered that?

- I have.

- Okay, good.

That was the answer I was looking for.

[all laughing] - Yes, you have.

- So the thing about it is, you know, you have all of these symptoms of people who are supposed to be vampires.

And when you go back to Eastern Europe and you think about when this kind of started, and Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula", kind of brought it all to a head because he took the symptoms of a known disease that was ravaging Eastern Europe at that time, and it is a disease called pellagra.

- Pellagra.

- Pellagra.

And it's really, really interesting because another, from the new world, corn.

Corn was of course discovered with the Native Americans, and the South Americans used corn as a staple.

But what they did to prevent the pellagra, which happens if you just have corn as your main diet.

Niacin is not available in corn at all, so if you just live on corn, which is, you know, a big grain crop, you can develop this disease called pellagra, which is a vitamin deficiency of niacin.

Well, the symptoms of pellagra are just really bizarre because it gives you this real pale pallor,   you're sensitive to light,   it makes you photo sensitive.

And when you get out in the   light, it causes blisters.

- Does it make you   want to bite people?

- It does, it   does, you're right.

One of the things is dementia.

- Dementia?

- Yeah, dementia.

And aggressiveness.

- Well, there you go.

- Yeah, just being real irritable and ill. And you know, these people would only get around at night and they'd be real mean, and you know, and they were real pale.

And also one of the other symptoms in dogs is called black tongue.

And you can get ulcers in your mouth and you don't want to eat because of all these ulcers, and they bleed and then you get this crust of red, you know, blood around you mouth.

So, you know, people assume, well, they've been sucking blood.

And actually, one of the symptoms is you don't want to eat, but you want to suck things.

And you want to eat weird food, you know, like bugs and vermin.

And I mean, it's just really a bizarre disease.

- This was fun.

Halloween stuff, huh?

- Yeah.

- Where's the Stevie Wonder music when you need it?

Very superstitious.

All right, thank you, Dr. Kelly.

Appreciate that.

[laughs] [gentle country music] - Sometimes when you water, you may not have a water breaker for the end of the water, either a hose or a nozzle.

Sometimes, even the end comes off of your water sprinkler.

Well, if you just pour this on the ground, it's gonna really make a mess and possibly bury the crown of your plants even more.

So you don't want to do that, but you could always use whatever means you have.

You can do this with a garden hose or anything, and just carefully and gently break up the water that's coming to the ground with your hands and stay away from the base of the plant and water around it.

That way you won't continue to bury the plants and they will end up getting watered.

And then they'll all be watered.

[gentle country music] - Alright, Joellen, here's our Q and A segment.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- All right.

Good questions we have here today.

- Yes.

- All right, so here's our first viewer email.

"Hello, I have dollarweed   growing in my yard.

"How can it be dealt with?

Thanks," This is Lanny from   Newport, North Carolina.

Well, Lanny, dollarweed is a perennial summer weed.

- Yes.

- It has the umbrella   type leaf, waxy leaf.

- Yeah.

- Culturally, this is   what you have to do,   it likes areas that   are poorly drained,   so you have to   correct your drainage.

- That's right.

- Right, fertilize   according to a soil test,   water appropriately.

- And also, you know, to put some shade on the surface, you can mow the grass a little bit higher in there in order to create some shade.

- Look at you, you sure can.

You can definitely do that.

If you want to use a chemical, there are some out there that you can use, right?

And this, of course, is gonna be in her lawn.

These are gonna be broadleaf weed killers, selective herbicide, which will release the grasses.

Three-way herbicide.

2,4-D, MCPP, Dicamba.

- Yeah.

- Read and follow the label   on that, you should be fine.

But what I would do is correct the drainage, right?

- Yes, definitely.

- Dense stand of grass in that area to crowd out your dollarweed, or pennywort is another name for that, because it will come back as a perennial weed.

- Yeah, any little tiny root that's left will come back.

- It will come back, yeah.

So there you have it, Lanny.

Good luck to you, hope that helps you out.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Can this rhododendron   bush be saved?

"Last year, the blossoms   were all at the bottom,   "but this year it was in   full bloom, best ever.

"And then this.

"What can I do?

Thanks," This is JV from   Morristown, Tennessee.

So what did you think about that rhododendron?

- Well, rhododendrons are evergreen, and this tree, I mean, this shrub does not look like it has a lot of chlorophyll left in it.

And without chlorophyll production, they can't get any reserves in the root system for it to continue.

I'm very skeptical of whether it will even live anymore.

It looks like it's on its way out.

And what caused it, I'm not 100% sure, but it just looks like something vascular to me.

- Yeah, so I'll speculate on that a little bit.

I thought it may have been stem dieback,   because anytime you   have dying branches,   you have dead leaves,   dead leaves that are still   attached to those limbs,   then I'm thinking,   yeah, stem dieback.

You know, it's a   characteristic of stem dieback.

So that could be, you know, one issue.

And then another issue I know that azaleas have a lot, same family, right, would be root rot.

- Definitely, yeah.

- So those are the two things I thought about, yeah.

Because, you know, that stem dieback will produce cankers   which would girdle   the stem, right?

So, yeah.

- Something is all   going on vascularly.

I mean, it's not getting nutrients and then the leaves are not green anymore to produce chlorophyll.

So I kind of think that's not going to survive.

- Yeah, sorry to give you that bad news, JV, but yeah, it just doesn't look like they're gonna survive.

Because again, those dead limbs are just all over the place, right?

And the leaves are just hanging on, you know?

- Right.

- So, yeah.

- And then watch where it is.

I mean, if you want to plant something again in that same spot, is it getting enough shade?

Is it getting enough sun?

I mean, is it the right spot?

Is it too a low area?

Does it need to be raised a little bit when, you know, you replant something else again?

Just watch for those things.

- So yeah, we're talking about your cultural practices.

Yeah, for sure.

Make sure it has adequate drainage or plant it high.

- Yeah.

- Thank you, JV.

Hope that helps you out.

Sorry about that.

- Sorry, yeah.

- All right, Joellen.

That was fun.

- It was good.

- Thank you very much.

Thank you.

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 the snapdragons or pansies Joellen planted, or see what we have planted in that bed in the past, head on over to familyplotgarden.com.

We have over 1,000 videos on that and all sorts of other gardening topics.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]