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♪(opening music)♪ Good evening and welcome to Making It Grow .

We're so glad that you can join us on this Tuesday night.

We feel very fortunate to have two experts tonight.

One on fruits and vegetables and one on ornamental plants, and so let's start with Tony Melton, saying welcome to him.

Tony, a small fruits and vegetables specialist in the Pee Dee and beyond, and I always say beyond because Tony, any of y'all have met him knows that he will help anybody with questions.

He is so generous with his time and knowledge.

Have you been doing pretty good recently, Tony?

I hope you had a good holiday and all of that.

(Tony) Yes, it's been nice, I mean this cooler weather is, you know, we so use to heat in South Carolina, Amanda.

It's just sometimes it can be really hot here, and this cooler weather, I actually kinda like it.

It kinda cools it down and I have to put on a coat.

I enjoy it.

(Amanda) Well, one thing Tony, it's your house that is insulated with those short logs and my house is freezing cold and not very well insulated, so we have a little bit different attitude towards the cold.

(Tony) That's true.

That's true.

(Amanda) Keith Mearns is the Director of Grounds for Historic Columbia, which is a lot of properties.

Keith, how many properties is that, that you have to worry about, everything from cutting the grass to trimming the shrubbery?

We manage six properties here in downtown Columbia, two of which are full city blocks and together I think it's about fourteen acres.

(Amanda) Whew!

And how many full time helpers do you have?

(Keith) I have one full-time helper and one part-time helper, but I have to mention that I have an excellent corps of volunteers that does help me out twice a week.

(Amanda) And I think they, I've heard that they enjoy it because it's such a wonderful opportunity to learn and to learn new plants, and I think tonight that's one thing that we might get to talk to you about some of the things.

Y'all always seem to have fascinating new plants up there in the garden.

Thanks for taking the time to be with us.

(Keith) Of course.

(Amanda) And Terasa Lott, of course, as many hats she wears, and she's in charge of the Master Gardeners statewide, which is like herding cats on occasion but then she's kind enough to always be working on Making It Grow's social media pages and all of that, and putting together something that we all have come to look forward to so much, and that's the Gardens of the Week.

So Terasa I hope you're not going to disappoint us.

(Terasa Lott) I'll try not to.

Today's Gardens of the Week will focus on a theme, and that is a holiday cactus.

All the photos were shared in response to a post I made of one of my, I'll call it late bloomers.

It was a red flowering variety that flowered after all of my others.

So let's get started.

Diana Picou-Wolin shared a close up, and I love it because you can see the anther is bearing yellow pollen, and that's one indicator that indeed it is a Thanksgiving cactus rather than a Christmas cactus.

Teri Townsend's cactus has flowers with just the tiniest hint of pink to them.

The bright red flowers of Patricia Schaefer's cactus really make a statement, as do those of Nancy McCarrell.

I couldn't share everyone's photos, so I do encourage you to go to the Making It Grow Facebook page, and when we ask for Gardens of the Week, feel free to post your photos.

Please do remember that the photos look best on television if you make them nice and long and horizontal, yes, and horizontal rather than vertical.

So I hope to see your pictures soon, Amanda.

(Amanda) Thank you, Terasa.

And Terasa, one of the things that you try to do for us is, for our viewers and people who look at our Facebook page, you're always answering questions and sometimes you make a list of them and we go to some of our experts.

Have you got something, a question we might start off with tonight, please?

(Terasa Lott) I do.

You know, collards are very popular in South Carolina.

I know I had some for traditional New Year's Day meal, but we have a viewer who's noticed purple leaves on his collards and says, "what is it that's causing that?"

So do we have an answer?

(Amanda McNulty) Well, if we don't have an answer, we might as well hang up extension to go home.

<Laugh> Yes, I don't know of anybody who's had more experience of collards from the time he was knee high to a collard, to today and that's our own Tony Melton.

So Tony, what's going on with these collards?

And is it going to affect the flavor?

Or, how, give us the whole scoop on it, please.

(Tony) Okay.

What happens when it gets cool, the ground gets cool, and especially when it's raining and cool like it has been, it gets really cool in the soil and the plant has a hard time getting phosphorus and even potassium up through the roots, up into the plant, and it causes that purpling because it kinda, those extra sigs in the leaves come out stronger, and you don't have as much chlorophyll there, and it really causes that color to come out, but they're still wonderful.

They actually, a lot of people, the old saying, back when I was young and all, is that collards were not sweet until after the frost, Amanda.

(Amanda) Yep, and so Tony, that doesn't mean that you need to feel like you didn't have enough potassium or phosphorous.

If your soil test said it was fine, then well all it means is that for a certain period of time, the plant wasn't able to take it up and I guess as soon as the soils warm up a little bit and all, the plants will respond.

So don't feel like that's an indication that you should not think your soil test results were correct.

Is that right, Tony?

(Tony) That's right, Amanda.

What I do, even on commercial based and on homeowner based, cut them off.

Let them regrow.

Then you have more collards again, and then we do that in a commercial two or three times.

We'll cut collards off, let them regrow.

Cut him again, and we can produce a lot of tonnage to put in the cans, and that's what you're looking for when you're trying to fill a can.

You want a lot of collards to fill those cans.

And the same thing home.

Just take some of the leaves off.

Back when I was little, Mom and Daddy loved to crop 'em, kinda like you did tobacco, you know.

You'd pull the ones off the bottom, but you can even just go in and cut a whole plant off, leave about five, six inches at the base of it, and it'll regrow.

Just keep fertilizing it and it'll regrow and come back.

And if it happens to bolt on you, and I think I got the pictures there are bolting of some of the turnips and all.

Bolting means flowering, shooting up.

Sometimes that happens after they've been in the field for so long.

Eat those, too.

I got farmers that love those bolts.

They're a little bit stronger.

They're a little bit more tasty.

Some people don't like 'em.

Some people like 'em.

They're stronger flavored, but eat those, too.

They're all edible.

(Amanda) And Tony, also, if you do what you say and cut it off you say about five or six inches then, you know sometimes when I get a collard green at the store, the outside leaves are so tough and I guess if I did it like you're saying, I wouldn't end up with all those top leaves because I'd be getting newer leaves more frequently, wouldn't I?

(Tony) Yes, and you wouldn't have to devein them as much.

A lot of people sit around and pull the veins out of the leaves, and it just takes a long time.

Well if you have your own leaves, you don't have to worry about that.

They just cook up real sweet and good.

Whew!

(Amanda) Well, Tony, I was wondering, 'cause I always think of commercial horticulture is, I mean, I know you have got to be efficient.

Can they, do they have to cut those collards by hand or is there a machine that they've adapted to go in there and cut them?

(Tony) Oh yeah, it's machines and what they do is, they have, some, I got some growers have five or six of them.

They just go through and run a sickle bar.

Cut, it's a sickle bar mower, just like a sickle bar mower cutting hay or whatever.

You cut the plant off, it goes onto a conveyer belt up into a dump cart.

That dump cart drives out to the semi truck and dumps in the back, Amanda.

(Amanda) So it doesn't land on the ground or anything.

It gets, it doesn't, it gets put right on a conveyor and then it's taken out of the field that way.

(Tony) That's right, they keep everything good and clean, the cutters and all that, and everything is just sanitized and very well done.

(Amanda) Well Tony, thank you so much and I'm gonna add that I like a little artichoke pickle with my collard greens.

That's how I got my children to start eating 'em.

(Tony) Oh, that's the way my daddy loved them, too, and artichokes are so pretty to have in your yard.

Those pretty little sunflower flowers.

(Amanda) They sure are.

(Tony) Yes.

(Amanda) Okay.

Terasa, what else have you got for us this week, please?

(Terasa) People are always looking for our suggestions and recommendations of what to put in their landscape.

Tonight, specifically, our viewers would like to know, what can they add to spruce up the otherwise kind of blah winter landscape?

(Amanda) Well, we've already talked about the Queen of Sheba, I think, but there there's just so much of that and we always want something new.

Keith, I'm always amazed at your knowledge of new plants, not necessarily a new plant but a new cultivar variety.

I bet you've got some suggestions for us.

(Keith) Oh yeah, of course.

Winter interest is really important in a garden like Historic Columbia, where we have the public coming in all year round, and so I try to weave these plants in amongst some of the showier summer subtropicals and things and annuals, and then when those plants are not there in the winter, these sort of come out and shine for you.

(Amanda) Keith, let me stop you for a moment because always you can find out what's happening in Historic Columbia by going to y'all's website.

But I believe that people can come and walk through the gardens on certain days, and that there's even some limited number of events going on, and I think you've got a way that if I saw something and said "gosh, that's just the prettiest thing I've ever seen," I don't have to take a picture of it send it and bother Dr. John Nelson, although he's so kind.

I think you got a way that we can see a plant in the garden and then go to a website you've established and find out what it is.

(Keith) Oh, yeah.

So our website is historic Columbia dot org, and you'll find our hours there, which are Tuesday to Sunday, and you can come into our gardens for free during that time, during our open hours, and there's also a website on there, Historic Columbia dot org slash garden database, and that garden database has all our plants in it.

I am diligently working to add photos for everything, but I think I'm getting close.

But even if there's not a photo, it's going to be in there, so if you saw something on our grounds in our gardens and you'd like to go in there and see if you can figure out what it was, there's all kinds of ways you can search for it, all different search terms and categories.

(Amanda) Okay, well let's go back to the original question.

What are some of the things that you think we might start thinking about adding to our yard so that when we're out there next winter, we can say, "you know, I thought the summer garden couldn't be beat, but this garden is perfectly beautiful."

What are some of the recommendations?

(Keith) So these things all talk about are all evergreen.

A lot of people think evergreen plants are just sort of conifers and other things like that, but there's a lot of what we call broadleaf evergreens that are very pretty in the winter garden.

The first plant I'm gonna talk about is an old southern pass along, Aucuba japonica.

A lot of people know this as Japanese laurel, and there are lots of different cultivars of this plant.

One of my favorite is Marmorata, which has these beautiful yellow spots all over it, almost more than there is green on the plant.

It really jumps out in the landscape in the winter, even on a cloudy day, and what I've done is I've paired it in our garden at Hampton Preston with a different plant called Ardisia crenata, or Coral Berry.

And this particular cultivar that you're seeing is called Beni Kujaku, and a lot of these plans are from Japan.

And this cultivar has wonderful purple leaves and bright red berries at the same time.

It really jumps out at you in the landscape, and those berries will hang on there 'til the birds snatch them all away by the end of the winter, so it's a great plant.

(Amanda) I think I need to start coming to see you when it's hat day, so we're gonna have to make a date for me to come out there because I'm already excited.

Does the Aucuba with that much variation need a certain amount of shade, Keith?

(Keith) Absolutely.

All Aucubas need pretty much full shade.

It might could stand a little bit of morning sun, but pretty much full shade, but really what's great about them is they can handle dry shade, which is on the hard places for your garden, but they're really tough that way.

(Amanda) And you know it's so nice when you have something that's really bright to make that shady area come alive, because sometimes they just seem so dark, and you've got Aspidistra and stuff.

It's nice to have, but it just all seems kind of the same, so this is really a great idea.

Thank you so much.

Well what else do you suggest?

(Keith) You know, there's a really interesting plant that I have at the Robert Mills house property.

A lot of people I know this as Simpson's Stopper, which is kind of a funny common name, but it's in the Myrtle family and it's native to Florida, but what I have is called Stoppermorph.

It's really interesting.

It's a dwarf plant with variegated foliage, and variegation is anything on a plant that makes the leaves look different colored than they would normally.

This one has a white variegation that goes throughout the leaves.

It's a nice tough plant, and it holds that color all year.

(Amanda) And if I'm not mistaken, aren't you putting a lot of natives in at that particular garden?

(Keith) That's correct, yes.

The Robert Mills house garden is an English formal design, but we're turning it all over to native plants within that design, so it's a very interesting project for us.

(Amanda) That's the challenge.

(Keith) It is, but there's a lot of native plants being developed now because so many people want 'em, so... (Amanda) Well, and a lot of times they have benefits as larva food host for certain caterpillars, and so the butterflies and moths that we all enjoy so much, so that's a good reason to put 'em in too.

Well, let's move on to yet something else that's exciting.

(Keith) And it is interesting, Amanda, that you mention Aspidistra.

The normal old Cast Iron plant that we have is usually just Aspidistra elatior.

It's green, which is great because it's a stand by.

But of course, again from Japan there are many, many, many cultivars and actually other species too, but one of my favorites is Aspidistra elatior 'Snow Cap,' and you can see that it has these really beautiful white coloring for probably about the top thirty percent of each leaf, which is really wonderful.

It looks like it has a frosting of snow on the top, and it does hold that color all year, which is really nice, and it's just as tough as the old fashioned Cast Iron plant.

(Amanda) Oh, I was gonna ask you, because I mean, when they first were bringing in some variegated varieties, some of them seem to be awfully tender, but this one is gonna stand up there and take the cold.

(Keith) That's correct.

The species Elatior is really tough, yes.

Some of the other ones are a different species and they're a bit more fussy.

(Amanda) Okay, well that sounds exciting.

Alrighty, well let's have another.

(Keith) Okay, another one a lot of people know is Fatsia.

Sometimes people call it Japanese Aralia, but more often I think we just hear it called Fatsia, and mostly you just see the green kind, which is kind of nice because it had these huge tropical leaves that just hang out all winter, and they look great, but there's a really neat one that I have in our garden at Hampton Preston called Spider Web, and what this plant does differently is that when the new leaves come out in the spring, they are absolutely white, ghost white, and then as the season continues on, they do fade down to a sort of grey green.

They look like they have sort of a frosting or a webbing on them, and it's really interesting, and you can also see that when this particular one blooms, which is what they like to do right about now, the bloom stalk is white as well.

(Amanda) That's one of the things I love about Fatsia, is that satellites, that kind of flower head it has on it, I think it's quite fascinating.

Keith, talk a little bit about how to keep Fatsia at a manageable size because I think it's one of those plants that doesn't like to branch, and so you have to prune it a little bit differently sometimes, is that correct?

(Keith) Yes, yes, you know, it is a tough plant, so sometimes when one gets big, you'll want to cut it.

Now, I wouldn't recommend cutting it when it's real cold, because the wound there might get frozen, but for any time during the warm season, you can go ahead and cut those trunks to your desired height, and what it'll do is go ahead and put out at least two, maybe three new branches from that place where you've cut it, and it really won't hurt the plant at all (Amanda) And that'll keep it from being so leggy, which sometimes it can be.

(Keith) Yes, yeah.

(Amanda) Alrighty, well I think that we talked a lot about beautiful plants, and it's time to get back to something that we can have a nice hearty meal of.

Is there a vegetable garden question that we can throw in here?

(Terasa) There is an edible related question.

I think Tony must've been psychic when he decided to bring the strawberries, because one of our questions was "how is it that winter strawberries are produced?"

That's a great question, one that I have often thought about.

(Amanda) Well Tony, I just don't think there's anything much better than those fabulous winter strawberries.

I got to take a trip up to a sponsor of Making It Grow, my friends at McLeod Farms, and I think my favorite Christmas present that I gave to anybody, was when I took some of those winter strawberries to them.

It's kind of a new deal to us.

I guess it was four or five years ago when you first started telling us about it.

How in the world do they do it, and have they changed some of the production techniques?

(Tony) Amanda, they're just wonderful.

I love these strawberries and they're so flavorful because they are locally produced, you know.

I love South Carolina certified grown, Amanda.

So yes, there's different ways you can produce strawberries.

Strawberries are kind of total power.

They can take the cold to a certain extent.

The plants especially can take really cold weather.

The flowers and the fruit cannot take below freezing very well.

So what they do, depending on which way you want to do it, you can do it outside by using row covers, and I've got some pictures of those.

You cover the plant up, and it prevents the frost and the cold getting down to where the fruit is, and damaging the fruit.

And then another way is you can have a high tone, which a lot of growers are doing that too, and you can also cover them near the ground and up on top, and you can have strawberries all winter long, very good tasting, wonderful strawberries, and you can even put other crops in there, such as squash and different things in the high tunnels.

(Amanda) So some people who want to really preserve space and maybe don't have quite as much area, can kind of pack it, like a square foot garden or something, couldn't they?

(Tony) That's right, they can.

(Amanda) Okay, well and Tony, so you say it'll be several with good care, by covering them up or having them in the protected tunnel, it's several months that we can have these, and when we see these, we know that this is a local product, don't we?

(Tony) That's right, and you can actually start right after Thanksgiving with these winter strawberries and have 'em all the way through the winter, and then the same plants produce again in the spring, so it'll continue on up 'til it gets too hot next year.

The heat is what stops strawberries from producing.

It's that hot weather.

They just stop producing in the heat, so you can have 'em from the fall all the way through the winter, up into the spring, but you have to plant the right varieties.

Most of 'em are day neutral varieties like Albion, that are fruit all the time.

We used to call them Everbearing Strawberries.

(Amanda) Okay.

(Tony) Everbearing Strawberries really don't do too well here outside, but they do wonderful under this type of production.

(Amanda) Okay, well thanks for telling us that, Tony, and eat a few of those strawberries for us.

(Tony) Oh, they're just wonderful, mmmm sweet!

(Amanda) There is a place in Columbia that is adjacent to our Governor's Mansion complex, and it was the first garden that was dedicated to our World War Two veterans, and let's go take a trip to the Memorial Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina.

♪ (gentle music) ♪ I'm speaking with Peggy Little, and Peggy, you're the chairman of the trustees for the Garden Club of South Carolina's Memorial Garden, and tell people, please, what the Memorial Garden is and how it began.

(Peggy) Well, the Memorial Garden was gifted by Sarah Boylston to the Garden Club of South Carolina in 1945 with the understanding and the stipulation that it would be open to the public and be dedicated at that time to veterans of World War Two.

(Amanda) So now, of course, it is used to honor all service members.

(Peggy) All service members.

All branches of service, past and present.

(Amanda) Now the Garden Club of South Carolina wanted to do this, and Mrs. Boylston lived at that time, her private home was adjacent and kind of on the Governor's Mansion complex, and it was very steep, and so she gave the very bottom of her garden, a long rectangular section for this purpose, I believe.

(Peggy) That's correct, that's correct, and it is actually cathedral style garden, and you get the cathedral feel when you walk into the main gate at the front of the garden, and you have the beautiful fountain at the end, and St. Francis to look after the garden at the very end, so just beautiful greenery on both sides.

One thing that I think captures the interest and has maintained special interest, is that the original plan, which has been tweaked but still has been the inspiration, was done by someone with great connections to South Carolina, and that was Loutrel Briggs, I believe.

(Peggy) That's correct, such a renowned landscape architect, and we were thankful to be able to have him to design the garden.

(Amanda) I believe he gave his services and did not charge because he was honored to be a part of something that was so visionary.

(Peggy) Absolutely, and thank goodness there are people in our nation that appreciate veterans and all they've done for our freedom.

(Amanda) On special occasions, because sometimes people have weddings or y'all have special events, there are times when the gates off Lincoln street itself right into the garden are open, and that was the original way that people entered the garden, and it's quite interesting to see that, because Loutrel Briggs had done many narrow gardens in Charleston that his ideas fitted so beautifully, starting with the beautiful wrought iron gate.

(Peggy) Yes, now the front two black wrought iron gates were gifted by the East Piedmont district of the Garden Club of South Carolina, and so we're very proud of those gates, and of course there is a back gate on the Dial wall that Mr.

Dial donated.

(Amanda) As we walk in from the original intended entrance with those beautiful wrought iron gates and the beautiful brickwork, there are two small buildings there for a garden shed and a little office bathroom, and there's some brickwork and boxwoods that kind of define "here's the beginning of something," but then you do enter a large expanse of lawn, and as you said, on either side towering heritage shrubs and trees to give you that cathedral effect.

(Peggy) Absolutely, and the little gate house is beautiful in and of itself, and then the tool shed on the left hand side is one of Loutrel Briggs' designs as well.

I mean, he designed the garden with the gate house and the tool house, and then James Cothran updated the design, and so we're thankful for his contributions as well.

(Amanda) Yes, gardens are not static.

Things have to be replaced and tended and pruned and all those things, and as you reach the front of the garden, there is brickwork, and then slightly raised flagstone area with a beautiful fountain, and again, you said St. Francis watching over the garden.

(Peggy) Yes, and people go into the garden, I'm told, and just meditate, and you have the sound of the water in the fountain.

(Amanda) Yes.

(Peggy) And then you have the camellias on either side, and the actual tree in the back is an actual Ligustrum plant.

I know, Amanda, you've seen them get in tree form.

(Amanda) Yes.

(Peggy) And so it's amazing how it all worked out but it was by design.

(Amanda) And then it was also further honored by being nominated and placed on the national register of historic places, which I think is something to be proud of.

(Peggy) Yes, we're all proud of all the accomplishments, and the fact that we are able to maintain the garden, keep it growing.

It takes a lot of money to replace plants and just maintain the garden.

The state of South Carolina, because of course now, the Caldwell Boylston house is now owned by the Governor's Mansion complex, and so it all kind of ties together, and the state has been very generous.

When you run into problems, you had a big drainage problem that was one of the last things you had to fix because y'all were right smack at the bottom of the hill.

(Peggy) We were, and water is going to go where it wants to go, as you know.

So we had a drainage problem that we had to deal with, and just thanks to the state of South Carolina Admin, I should say, and just all the great people there that we work with, we couldn't ask for better neighbors.

(Amanda) The brick area now has some bricks that have been placed by family members in memory or in honor of veterans, and I noticed that there are some from the Vietnam War, so anyone who is interested in pursuing that and honoring one of their family members, can do that as well.

It was touching when I was there this morning looking to see that they show, of course, the birth date and death of each individual person.

And one, the death date was D-day.

This veteran was killed in the landing, fighting against fascism to preserve democracy.

It's a beautiful garden.

(Peggy) Those brick pavers allow a platform for the fountain, and that's the project now, and there will be projects later on, and I want to say thank you to the presidents and the trustees before my term, that they did all that they did.

Each term they try to build on what the others have done, and so our trustees are just wonderful, and our president and all the club officers are very supportive.

(Amanda) Let me take a moment to explain to people that usually the wrought iron gates are usually kept locked, because sadly, people might come in at night and do vandalism, and so the garden is open most of the time on normal week days, during normal business hours, and to access it you actually walk to the top of Lincoln street and turn into - there's a walkway for pedestrians - into the mall, and so you then go into the Caldwell Boylston garden which is the first house right there, and a lovely garden in its own right, and walk down through that to get to it, and while you're there, you should also walk over to the Lace house.

You cannot go to into the Governor's mansion side, but the mall side, you are allowed to go into, and that is the easiest way, and it's delightful because you just get more and more excited about plants, and then finally you end up in the beautiful Memorial garden.

Thank you so much for the work that you and your fellow trustees, and all the garden clubs in South Carolina have done to let us remember the sacrifices made by those who serve our country.

(Peggy) Well, it's been my honor and thank you so much for bringing attention to our beautiful Memorial Garden, Amanda.

Thank you so much.

( birds chirping ) (Amanda) I want to particularly thank the staff at the Governor's Mansion Complex, the gardeners there who came down and raked the leaves and made everything look so nice for the day that we were there.

It really is a beautiful and restive spot on these days.

On a pretty day, if you'd like to go and take a sandwich and eat there, I think you would find it a place of tranquility and repose, and I encourage you to go there, and while you're there, as we mentioned, the other places that are connected to the mall that's part of the Governor's Mansion is quite beautiful, and again, open during the weekdays during certain hours, during the normal business hours, and Mrs. McMaster is very gracious, loves for people to come and enjoy the beautiful gardens there, so please do put that on your list of something to do.

I was thinking about a hat, and Tony, you'll be proud of me.

I've got some kale in the garden that I've managed to keep the bugs from eating to pieces, and then I certainly don't have anything like the list of beautiful plants that have winter interest, but Keith, I've got a little bit of this Mahonia.

I don't know if it's a soft touch or which one it is, but it has those nice yellow blossoms, and Keith, I've noticed that they're attracted to bees.

You know, the honey bees come out periodically and I think they like to come to these blossoms, don't you?

(Keith) Oh, yeah.

I find the honeybees like the Mahonias and the camellias, almost anything that's gonna be open on our mild winter days.

(Amanda) Yep, and we do get those, don't we?

Well Terasa, what else do you think we should try to head up and talk about a little bit?

(Terasa) Well I know that I personally ignore winter interest and I should not do that, and was really enjoying all of Keith's suggestions, so I'll say I'm being a little selfish, but I'm sure our viewers enjoyed it too, and I'm hoping he has some more information to share about winter interest.

(Amanda) Alrighty, it looks to me like you've taken some nice pictures and done a lot of work on this, so let's go on down your list, please.

(Keith) Sure, yeah.

The next plant I have one on my list is actually a Tea Olive, but most people call it a False Holly, because this species of Tea Olive has pointy, prickly leaves on it, Osmanthus heterophyllus, and this particular one is called Goshiki, and it has this wonderful yellow, speckled variegations, nice and even, and it shows up really brightly in the garden, and the picture you're seeing with this plant is also another plant underneath it.

It has some berries that really sets off the Tea Olive.

Another really neat plant, and this one's a little rarer, it's called Kadsura Vine, Kadsura Japonica.

This particular one is Fukurin, and we got this plant from Ted Stevens down there at Nurseries Caroliniana near North Augusta, and this one grows kinda like your Star Jasmine.

It twines up, but it's a good bit slower, and it has bigger, variegated leaves.

It's really nice throughout the winter.

(Amanda) Again, is this with variegation, does that mean that we need to give it some afternoon shade or what would you think, Keith?

(Keith) Almost all of these plants that we're going to talk about with irrigation do need some shade.

There are some variegated plants that are okay in the sun, but that's kind of the exception, and that's a great question.

(Amanda) So you got that one from Ted Stevens down there, and he is, of course, renowned from around the world for his exploring trips, and from right down there in Aiken, South Carolina or North Augusta.

(Keith) Mmhmm, that's right.

(Amanda) That makes it even more fun, doesn't it?

Okay, well give us another one then.

(Keith) Okay, the next one is that people might be a little familiar with, people call this Monkey grass sometimes or Aztec grass.

This particular ones in the genius Ophiopogon.

It's not Liriope, but Ophiopogon and this particular one has a really long Japanese cultivar name.

I'm not even going to attempt it, Amanda, but we'll just show that to you.

It just got this beautiful white-gray variegation that goes down the leaves and it's really wonderful and it's clumping so it's not going to take over your yard, but it is pretty tough and it does like the shade, so.

(Amanda) Okay that clumping is important because I know sometimes some of those can be a little bit aggresive.

Yeah yeah.

(Keith)Like Liriope Spicata which can run around everywhere but this one does not do that.

Well behaved.

(Amanda) Great.

I'm glad hear somebody's will behaved these days.

Well, let's move on to, you sent me some notes that I think you've got some plants that have colored foliage.

Let's talk about some of those please.

(Keith) Yes, these are little different.

Some people call them variegated but I don't.

I call them colored foliage because the whole leaf is gonna be a a solid color different than green and that could be really nice.

One of that one of the newest plans to come out is actually a kind of Florida Anise.

Florida Anise shrub which a lot of people might know, Illicium parviflorum, it's usually just green but this particular one is yellow, was really wonderful.

Bold, yellow color.

And it also needs about half a day or maybe just the third day sun.

And this one is kind of crazy.

They sell this one under the name Bananappeal.

<Laughs> That's one word.

I don't know who comes up with these now, but that's what they sell this one under, but it's a dwarf plant so it only grows about half the speed of the normal Florida Anise which is really nice because that can be a real big plant.

(Amanda)Sure can, yeah, yeah, and then again one thing I love about that plant is if you crush the foliage, you get that wonderful scent that just, that refreshes you and says I can stay out here a little bit longer.

(Keith) Absolutely and the deer will not touch it.

<Laughs> (Amanda) Well and that is something of a deer really is deer resistant, a plant really is deer resistant.

Okay, well go ahead.

Go ahead with another one all (Keith) Alright you know a lot of people love our Star Confederate Jasmine, that twines up and gives you those beautiful fragrant flowers in the summer.

This particular one is really useful in the winter well because it again has, well, yellow or what I like to call gold foliage.

Trachelospermum is the genius, Jasmenoides and this one's called Fragrant Gold.

Yeah, it's really nice, a little less vigorous than your normal Confederate Jasmine which is also nice because as we know that can really, that can really pull your Arbor down if you're not careful about it and this one can actually take a good bit of sun it's just gonna be slower than your, than your regular.

(Amanda) We should tell people that they need to provide something for this one to grow on, don't they?

Some kind of wire frame or something because it doesn't have any aerial roots or anything if I'm not mistaken.

(Keith) It does not.

Provide it something to grow, it'll twine up real quick and get over whatever you'd like it to grow on.

Now you can also allow it to scramble across the ground in which case it'll make a kind of a nice ground cover for you, which is the way I'm growing it at Hampton-Preston.

(Amanda) Oh, Okay, well that's a new idea.

Thank you.

Do have it in a confined area with a path with the brick or stone path around it?

(Keith) It is one of our beds surrounded by some concrete pathways and I I am going to limit where it goes keeping it balanced.

(Amanda) And you haven't had any trouble with it growing up into the plants that you have there?

(Keith) Not just yet but we may get there.

(Amanda) Okay.

Well that's a new way of thinking about it.

I like, I like that idea.

I'm sure it's very nice.

Alright well, you got something else fun it's a little bit different to talk about?

(Keith) I always have something else.

Now the next one is really kind of rare but fun and I encourage everybody to come down and see this plant.

Blue Rabbit's Foot Fern.

you might be asking what the world that means.

Sometimes you go into the greenhouse at a local garden center and you'll see what they call a Rabbit's Foot Fern and it has these funny little fuzzy stems that creep along the ground.

That's why they call it that.

This particular species, Phlebodium pseudoaureum is actually technically native to Florida and the Caribbean and they grows on trees and stuff down there but up here it's a it's a understorey plant you want to put this down under underneath the trees in the leaf litter and it has these beautiful fronds that are evergreen, down to about I would say, oh, 24 degrees Fahrenheit.

They'll get a little bit of damage below that but I haven't seen much on and they just as beautiful blue color.

Just really do stand out, these great big fronds.

(Amanda) And so, Keith, if you had that you could just put a cover on it like Tony said the farmers do with the strawberries.

Couldn't you on a cold night?

(Keith) You absolutely could do that and this one doesn't need to shade for us, so what I've done is I've gotten underneath live oaks.

Now, you know our live oaks I take care of a lot.

I do take a lot of the side branches off to get to get some more light in there, a little bit of thinning here and there but they do love to be on there with the shade and a little bit of a temperature protection from those from that dense canopy.

(Amanda) And if we, what, which garden is that one in?

(Keith) That is at the Hampton-Preston mansion.

(Amanda) Okay all right so look to the live oak and then start looking down on the ground.

(Keith) Yeah, towards the back a little bit there yeah you'll find it.

(Amanda) And I think one thing people need to remember is that if they cover a plant up at night, and it is going to be, you've got to take the cover off when it gets warm the next day because otherwise it might get too hot under there?

(Keith) Yeah, absolutely yeah if if we have the sun come out the next day, it is just gonna cook under there.

Oh yeah.

(Amanda) Well I guess fruits and berries you know we think about us you know you know strawberries and we talked about it we can have those in the winter time now and I imagine there's some ornamental plants that that do the same thing.

(Keith) Absolutely and I know that a couple here that are a little different because I think everybody knows about Hollies, right?

<Sure> We love hollies in our landscape and we use those and they're very popular tough.

Now there's some other things are a little more unusual but I don't think any less tough but maybe not as big.

You know, these are nice plans you can put in your garden and not gonna, They're not gonna take over, become a big ole tree.

Now, what we got the first one here is called Cotoneaster and this in the rose family and this one's called '‘Strieb's Findling' which I know is kind of a funny name but it is evergreen and the fun thing about it is it sort of just crawls across the ground a creates this beautiful evergreen ground cover, and little, tiny white flowers near the end of the summer and now they have these wonderful red berries they're on the plant really beautiful, tough little plant and that is paired again with that we talked about earlier which is nice.

<Yes> And then the Coral Berry we talked a little bit about before was the bright red berries and that purple foliage and another thing to say about this is is I've got in the ground now you can put this plant in a container and great big pot in in an area with enough shade it would really stand out nicely as well.

(Amanda) it does when you get something up and elevates it and and that just gives it more drama and it also lets you appreciate things that are a little smaller with that all that bending over, doesn't it?

(Keith) Exactly.

(Amanda) Okay well that was, that's, this is been just such a delight.

My list is expanding by the minute but I guess you better take a break and I'm get back because I know some people going to want to be thinking about starting some vegetables and so, Terasa, I know you and Eddie do a lot of gardening at home and ya'll probably going to want to start some late vegetables for the late spring garden, aren't you?

(Terasa) We are but I'm glad you brought that up because it doesn't seem possible that it's already time to start thinking about that so goodness, what what should I be thinking about getting started now they can go in in the garden in the relatively near future?

(Amanda) Well I think we've got the expert, don't you?

Let's go to Tony.

(Tony)Yeah, I brought along some flats here that you can buy these little or purchase these little types of flats and you can fill up a a flat full or you can use cups, you can use a lot of things and I always stick them over in a big window I have.

A big window I have in my house and that usually give someone their sun where they come up grow and do well and start planting.

Now my date for planting, it's just my it makes it easier for me Amanda at first.

Planting your spring vegetables or your cold hearted vegetables is Valentine's Day <Okay> February 14th, you know somewhere in the beginning of February.

That's a good bit of time and and I don't forget I hope.

<Laugh> (Amanda) I don't think you'll forget.

(Tony) I better remember that so that's a good time and you want to do plants four to six weeks ahead of that.

And then again the first of April for all the warm season stuff.

The first of April.

Usually that's when the frost is over with and if you do put them out a little early and you have a little bit of frost coming in, cover them with those covers we talked about earlier.

Take them a little while to get him out early and get you some vegetables out before the heat we were talking about earlier, too, that was just it it's just gets hot here and vegetables are do much better in the cooler times of the year even the warm season vegetables you know, tomatoes do not produce well in July and August here.

(Amanda) Do you like to use a potting mix or do you use a seed starting mix?

What do you think is, 'cause some of those some of those seeds are small.

(Tony) That's right.

You don't want to use anything real coarse.

You don't want a lot of pine bark in there because that actually, those big pieces of pine bark will cover up the seed and they don't like to come up very well but as long as it's not a high percentage of pine bark,you can have some pine bark in there and some perlite, but mainly peat moss, you know, most of your most you container material is either peat moss or some fine vermiculite.

(Amanda) Oh, okay.

So we might want to take some time and not just used it we used in our regular pots outside and get something a little specialized for these small seeds.

(Tony) It will be fine.

That's what I use.

(Amanda)and then Tony you don't, a lot of these mixes come with fertilizer.

Do we need that or should we avoid that if we can?

(Tony) Yeah it would be nice to have that fertilizer if you can.

Now organic, they don't use that fertilizer.

They get an organic mix.

You can actually get an organic mix in a lot of places around the state of South Carolina and then you have to use your organic fertilizers, but you can get a mix.

I like the ones with the fertilizer in it 'cause I don't, I just used the straight normal product and that way it'll get a little stark.

They get, you know a little bit of something in the beginning and add some of that phosphorus 'cause when you usually start these plants, it's gonna be cool and like what we're talking about earlier with the collards, with the cool conditions.

You need to have that phosphorus right there in the root system so we can come out quickly and don't have to search for.

(Amanda) Okay and so you're gonna keep them in a sunny window because and and but not let the sun shine directly on them and burn them.

(Tony) That's right.

(Amanda) Okay.

Alright well I'm gonna give it a try, but that means I got to wash a window, Tony, I don't know if I will get it done or not.

<Laughs> Goodness.

(Tony) Maybe that can work as shade material.

(Amanda) Okay.

Alright.

Keith, what else do you think are some of the, what's another group that you found that's been good to incorporate to, to really keep things from being so boring in the winter time?

(Keith) Well, you know, what I like to call bold foliage is really important.

That is foliage that's either extra shiny or large or something you may not notice otherwise during the rest of the year.

So, there's a couple of things that are really interesting to think about that way.

You know here in South Carolina, we're, we're fortunate to be able to grow up at least a couple of palm species.

They are cold hardy here for us and one of the most interesting ones is actually native to this part of the country is the Needle Palm.

Now this didn't make a trunk like Palmetto Trees do.

It's kind of a mounting palm and it does have these real mean needles right down the center but you usually don't worry about those 'cause there's so many leaves in the way but the species is Rapidophyllum hystrix, really a mouthful, but it has these beautiful bold .... that are there all the time and it's very slow growing so it's not something that's ever going to be in your way or get in the way of anything else but it does look to be in the shade and when things died down quiet the winter you're going to see this, the movement and the bold foliage on this palm in the garden.

(Amanda) Keith, this is one that I have a very large stand of because I put it there 20 years ago and so large you know it's probably 10 feet by 10 now and I think it's truly, truly beautiful and it's very unusual, the color is a wonderful green and I've heard, Keith, that since it's, that it's one that's not propagated that much and maybe is kind of dwindling you know, with habitat destruction we don't have as much of it so I would encourage people to think about planting this one simply because it, it needs, we need to be certain that it, it didn't continues in the, in the College of South Carolina.

Do you think that, I just think we ought to use it more than we did.

(Keith) I really do.

You know, you know because it is so slow you know is it is a little bit more expensive when you first get it and is probably gonna be in a smaller side but then again it's very easy to grow.

So it's something you're gonna plant that, that is going to do well as long as you get it nice and establish so it's a good investment.

(Amanda) Yeah, yeah you know when we think of you know, picking up supper one night what that cost and getting a plant the supper probably is more calories we will we would wish we hadn't picked supper up when we get on the scale and then with the plant just think for years and years and even in the next generation that plant might still be there.

Well what's another one that you think has a good texture, I mean a good foliage aspect to it?

(Keith) You know this one is a really interesting.

A lot of our perennial plants we think of as is being around during the warm season, that is they sprout their leaves up and do their thing you know from spring to fall, but there are some that actually do the reverse and show up for us in the fall and be around during the winter and by the end of spring they're going back to sleep.

<Okay> And one of those plants is Acanthus.

if you've ever seen beautiful Roman columns with the leaves, <Yes> that's the kind of leaves we're talking about and I've got one growing that's really neat because it's a hybrid called "Summer Beauty," which gets a little more bigger and it's out right now and it's got these really big beautiful shiny Acanthus leaves.

Really beautiful for the winter and I have, we have not experienced cold weather to hurt this yet so it's there all winter and then by the end of spring it'll put out these beautiful sort of candle-like bloom stalks.

Just beautiful, Acanthus, Summer Beauty.

(Amanda) It is.

Mine this year did have some of the older leaves were hurt on a real, real cold night, but I just cut it back and the newer leaves seem to hold up a little better and it still is very attractive plant.

I hope everybody will have one.

Okay we've got a little bit of time left.

Can you speak another one in real quick?

(Keith) Sure and I love to talk about this one because I think it's a group of plants that are unused, and this one is for sun.

So you may be familiar with century plants.

Every now and then a century plant will make the news 'cause it's gotten big and it's gonna make this giant flower stalk, but what a lot of people don't know is there a lot of different species of century plant or Agave.

And this one that I've got on here is Agave ovatifolia.

Common name is Whale's Tongue Agave.

(Amanda) Well who would know what a whale's tongue looks like?

But go ahead.

(Keith) I mean if you looking at the plant, you look at those leaves and I guess it sort of brings that image to your mind but this one is not nearly as big growing as the ones we usually see around which is Agave americana.

This one's a bit smaller and a little bit more easier to manage I think in the garden because it doesn't make all those millions of offset babies that come in.

(Amanda) Well Keith that really sounds like it has a lot of things going for it because some of them are just way too big for most people's gardens and also not everybody needs all those pucks I think they called it sometimes.

<No> (Keith) and it doesn't need any extra water and I mean none.

(Amanda) Well, Terasa and Tony and Keith I want to thank y'all.

I've learned so much tonight and I've gotten inspired Tony about having some things in the window for my spring garden and Keith I'm going to be looking for some things to add to to my garden so the next one will be wonderful and Terasa thank you as always for all the things you do and for getting these questions from our viewers and always having those wonderful Garden of the Week's pictures.

It's been great being with all of y'all.

Night, night.

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