- Hi, thanks for joining us for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South, I'm Chris Cooper.

Orchids give a   sophisticated look to any room,   but there are certain things   you need to do to keep them   happy and flowering.

Also, it will be summer soon,   and that means it's time   to change out the   plants in the flower bed.

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 Randall Bayer, Dr. Bayer is a professor at the University of Memphis, and Joellen Dimond is here.

Ms. Joellen is the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thanks for inviting me.

- Good to be here.

- Alright, Doc, we're glad you're here.

We get a lot of questions about orchid care.

Can you help us out please sir?

- Yes, I will.

Today I'm going to talk about growing on grocery store orchids, which a lot of people buy, and they soon kill them after they've bought them.

They come to me and they ask me why-- - (Chris) Right.

- is it dead?

So I'm going to talk about how to care for this orchid after purchase.

And while it's still flowering as well.

So, orchids like these, mostly grow on trees in the tropics.

Or on rocks.

They store water in pseudo-bulbs like these, or in fleshy leaves like these.

When it rains in the tropics, which is a daily event, the roots of the orchid are like a sponge and they absorb moisture.

The moisture is then maintained there and then it's transferred into the storage organs on the orchids like the leaves, or the pseudo-bulbs.

So after it rains, the habitat dries out quickly, and then the plant waits for the next rainfall.

So each day the roots are wanting to dry out.

So if we look at this orchid here, for example.

This is a Chiloschista orchid.

It's totally leafless.

- (Chris) Wow.

- It has only roots, and stores all the water in its roots.

- (Chris) How about that.

- If you look at this Angraecum orchid from Madagascar It has big, heavy roots, again, the same adaptation.

Storing water in these roots after rainfall, and drying out during the day.

So, having said that, orchids are kind of a bit like cacti if you think about it.

They store water, okay.

They don't want to be sitting in water.

So when you purchase this orchid from your local grocery store, it comes and it's sitting in this ceramic pot usually.

- (Chris) Ah, look a that.

No holes.

- No holes in the bottom.

And it is potted in sphagnum moss, which retains a ton of water.

So, this is fine, if you let this dry out between waterings, so if you stick your finger down in there and it's dry, it's time to water it again.

So when it's flowering, it's ok to leave the plant in this medium, and in this container, making sure you don't leave a lot of water in that and the ceramic container.

- (Chris) Alright.

- But what people often do is they overwater these.

And what that does, is it causes these nice roots to rot.

And the crown of the plant rots as well.

And then the leaves start to droop, ok, and people think it's run out of water-- - (Chris) It needs more water.

- It needs more water.

But what's really happened here is that the roots have rotted off, and the crown's rotted, so the plant can't actually take up any more water because its roots are gone.

Once, it reaches that stage, it's finished.

- (Chris) Ok. - So what we want to do then, is after the plant flowers is to remove it from this medium, and put it in something that will drain much better, and be easy to water so you're not going to overwater it.

So what I would do, and I will just demonstrate here, what we're going to do.

Hopefully, is get the plant out.

And they come in a, it's just a cheap plastic pot that they mass produce these plants in.

And there's the roots, and they're nice and pliable when they're wet.

So orchid roots are stiff when they're dry, you can see that, you can break that.

It crunches.

- (Chris) Yeah, it sure did.

Ok. - These roots are nice and pliable, so you want to make sure that this medium is nice and wet before you try and re-pot it, because the roots will become nice and pliable once you have done that.

So I just remove all this sphagnum.

- (Chris) So if you break some of those roots is that ok?

- Yeah.

- Ok, that's fine.

Ok. - Yeah it's ok, but you probably won't break very many when they're moist.

But make sure, any orchid, make sure you soak it before you go to transplant it because it will make the roots very pliable and then you can position them in the pot afterward.

- (Chris) Oh, good tidbit, okay.

- So, I'm just removing everything in here.

These plants are mass-grown, usually in Florida, in Taiwan and they grown them all at the same stage, so they know how to water them, in a mass greenhouse they water them every third day or something.

They monitor the moisture very carefully.

So, they can grow them like this.

But again, tendency for us is to overwater them, and that leads to the death of the plant.

Especially if you have a greenhouse if you're growing these in a greenhouse where water gets everywhere, it's very hard to keep something dry, you know, when the pot next to it's just been watered.

So that's the other problem.

So, there I've removed-- - (Chris) You did a good job of that.

- I've removed all that sphagnum, and there you can see the healthy root system so it's nice and green.

The root tips are nice and green, so these are healthy roots.

If you see brown roots that means they're dead, and you can remove those as well.

But these are all nice and healthy.

So, what you want to see with an orchid is nice, healthy roots.

And you also generally want to re-pot orchids when the roots are growing, like in the springtime is the best time to re-pot orchids.

So I've got that out of the way, now we can go ahead and pot it.

And I prefer clay pots, for a couple of reasons.

One reason is that the pot breathes easier so you get lots of air exchange, and it will dry out once it's been watered, it will dry out quickly.

These orchid pots are specially made with slots in them so that the water will run out.

So you can buy these at your local home improvement store.

So they're fairly easy to obtain.

If you don't have the orchid pot, you can just use a regular clay pot.

So, I just prefer clay.

Some people like plastic, but I prefer clay because it dries out.

The other thing with clay is that it's heavy.

And, it's not as easy to tip over.

When you have a plant that's in a plastic pot, it's easy to tip over, especially in a greenhouse.

So, the clay gives it that stability that it needs.

So then I go ahead and I put in extra drainage in the bottom of the pot.

I put these pot shards, which are broken up clay pots, so when you break a clay pot, you just save the pieces, or you can use styrafoam pellets, some people like to use.

Anything to provide additional drainage.

Charcoal is another thing you can put in the bottom.

So, I just put that in there for extra drainage, plus it gives the pot extra weight.

So, the pot is now nice and heavy.

Then potting.

I'm going to use orchid bark.

Which is available again at your local home improvement store, it's available online.

It's fir or pine bark, and it's well drained, it's pH balanced, it will last two or three years.

- (Chris) Wow.

- So about every two or three years you have to re-pot the orchid, but it lasts quite a good long time.

So you can buy that in bags at your local home improvement store pretty easily, or online.

So then it's a simple matter of taking the orchid and positioning it in the pot, and getting all the roots down in there.

And then pouring the-- [bark rattles] bark in around here.

Maybe I'll just take it by hand and put it in there.

So the bark will sift down and around the plant.

And you want to make sure you keep the crown of the plant above soil level so it doesn't rot.

So, that's the other thing here that you want to do.

[pot bangs against table] - (Chris) Oh, there you go.

You've done that a couple of times, huh?

- I've done this a few times.

[Chris laughs] So you get all that nice bark in there.

Push it down in nice and firm.

A few more pieces there, okay.

[bark rattles in pot] Ok, so there it's positioned nicely in there, this stake can be re-positioned.

- So we keep the stake right?

- You can keep the stake, yeah.

You may have to re-adjust it a little bit.

The other thing you can use to keep this plant stable while it's becoming accustomed to the new pot and growing into the medium, is to put one of these in there.

Which is a rhizome stake.

So this rhizome stake clips on the edge of the pot, but you put it near, round the base of the plant-- - (Chris) Oh, how about that?

- and just push it down in.

Let me turn this plant around this way.

So I pushed that in there, and that will help the plant stay in position while it begins to take to the new pot.

Then you can remove the rhizome stake later on.

- Then it's ready for watering?

- Then you just water it, and then, this, if it's in the summer time, if you've got it outside in the shade, you could water it every day, and you won't have to worry about it.

In the winter, if you bring it inside and grow it under lights or on a window sill, you can water it every few days.

And you're not going to worry about having that rot.

- Well doc, we're glad you're here.

That was some good information, what did you think about that?

- Very good.

- Good information, learned more about orchids, so thank you much.

- Glad to do it, anytime.

- Alright, thank you.

[upbeat country music] Wet feet.

- Yeah.

Most plants do not like what we call wet feet,   and that's soil, whether it's   in the ground or in a container   that is continually   wet and soppy,   what we call soppy.

I don't know if that   is a real word or not,   but I believe it is.

But, you know, unless they're a bog plant or an aquatic plant, most plants do not do well with wet feet.

[upbeat country music] - Alright Joellen, so what do you think about our plantings?

- Wow, look at the Dusty Miller!

- They do look good, don't they?

They're big.

- It looks great.

Yes, but you know what, since they are bi-annuals, they are trying to bloom.

But we don't want them to bloom for right now, so we're going to cut 'em off.

- Ok. And what color will those blooms be?

- They would be yellow.

- Yellow, okay.

- So they will be pretty,   and we may want to let them bloom at some point.

- Alright.

- But for right now, we don't want them to bloom.

- Okay.

- So, there we go.

And you know, we had that one here that had a problem.

And if you notice, it did come back, it's still coming back.

- Oh it did, it sure did.

- But we're going to get rid of this dead part out here so, we'll let that keep growing.

- Look at that.

- And as you know, these will last all summer long, so we don't have to spend extra money buying flowers for this area.

But we'll add to it, with some interesting flowers.

First, got to get rid of the pansies.

[Chris sighs] - I know, they look great, don't they?

- They look good.

- But, usually when things look great, it's the time of year, we have to change them out so something else will look great.

- This is always the hard part for me though.

They look so good.

- I know, it's hard for everybody.

- Oh gosh.

Alright, so you want to get to it?

- Yes, let's start pulling them up.

- There's that.

- Nice.

Our amended soil is working.

- Yeah, I was going to ask you what you thought about the soil.

- Yeah, I don't think we need to amend it anymore, I think what we've done is fine.

'Course, this is spring, and we're not going to be tilling up the garden yet.

- Alright Joellen, I think that's it, right?

- Okay, yes.

Now since it's spring, and we're going to start with a new planting, we're going to put a little bit of slow-release fertilizer down where we're going to plant.

And again, we'll just sprinkle a little around the area we're going to plant.

[fertilizer rattling] Not a whole lot.

And the Dusty Miller will benefit from it too.

- Good.

- Very good.

Now we'll get ready to plant our flowers.

- So what are we planting?

- Well, we've got some unusual plants this year.

- Good, we like that.

- We have what they call a bat plant, or bat-faced cuphea.

And if you see the   face of the flower,   looks like the face of a bat.

- Cool.

- So that's where it   gets its name from.

And the most interesting thing about this plant is that hummingbirds love getting the nectar from this plant.

- Ah, even better, how 'bout that.

- Yes, so you get some nice color, and the benefit of feeding hummingbirds.

- Ok, what a cool name as well, right?

- With a cool name.

- Cool name.

- So, we'll set a few of these out.

- Nice root systems?

- Nice roots systems on them.

- Good.

- Not overly root bound or anything, so we'll just be able to plant those right in the ground.

- Okay.

- There we go.

Well, since we've got such larger plants, we're going to go ahead and plant these.

You want a trowel, or you got your own?

- I got my own trusty trowel right here.

- Alright, we'll go ahead and plant these.

- Okay, and do we need to plant them up a little bit, or what are your recommendations?

- The top level of the plant needs to be at the soil surface, so just up to the plant.

- Just up to the plant.

- And next, we're going to put in some Angelonia.

And this one is called Blue, Big Blue.

It should get taller, so we'll put a few of these, just in the back.

- Okay.

- Again, root systems are pretty good, might want to just tickle these a little bit to put them in the ground.

Next, we've got another somewhat unusual plant, that likes the sun.

It's a Diamond Frost Euphorbia.

So a lot of weeds, you know, around here are Euphorbias.

So we know that Euphorbias in general do well in this area.

- Oh they do just fine.

- We'll put a few of these out.

And then we'll go ahead and plant these, and then we'll fill in with red begonias last.

- So any insect or disease problems with these plant materials that we're planting today?

- Have you ever heard of Euphorbias in this area having insect problems?

No.

- No.

[chuckles] That would be no.

- That's why you go with the wild flowers, if you keep with plant varieties that are similar and related to the wildflowers and, you know, you can call them weeds, but, of the area, then you're pretty much going to be good with your plants.

- You're good.

Okay.

- Alright, so we're, if you didn't notice, we're kind of going with a red, white and blue theme today.

So, we've got a lot of white, we got a lot of blue, we're going to put a little bit of bright red color in with our red begonias.

- So when you're laying out plants, how do you determine where those plants should go in your landscape?

- Well, I kind of like to think about what their mature size will be.

Not always, a 100% of the time, especially when you're dealing with annuals and perennials.

I mean, you know that some of these are going to get bigger.

Look at the Dusty Miller.

Dusty Miller has taken up a lot of room in our bed.

So we don't need as many flowers as we were originally going to put in this bed, because they're there.

- Okay.

- But when you're doing a landscape like we did on the property earlier, you have to take into account the mature size of those plants, because those are going to be more permanent then these will be.

- Right, that makes sense.

Not as many clods as in years past, right?

- That's right, that's because we amended it and now Mother Nature is taking care of everything, and making the soil really nice for us to plant in.

- Ok, now do we need to mulch?

- Well, now that we're done with that, we left the mulch that was already on the bed on there, and we've got, we pulled away some of it, and now we'll put that back.

- Okay.

- Now we will let those grow in, and see how they do in this bed this summer.

I noticed, you know, all landscapes evolve.

And people want to change things, and look, we've got this beautiful, gorgeous, it's a Coral Bark Japanese Maple.

Beautiful red trunk and branches in the wintertime.

Nice green, chartreuse spring color, and they'll turn green.

Very nice, but, look how close this is to our bed.

- Pretty close.

- And maples are notorious for getting roots and growing very well.

So we will see how well this tree does, because the better this tree does, and the more roots we get into our bed, we may not be able to plant here in a few years because there will be so many roots.

- That's right.

- But we'll just have to see.

- We'll just wait and see, and of course the canopy is going to grow as well, right?

- Yes, it will be shady.

- So it might shade.

- So we'll have to go from sun plants, to maybe shade plants.

So we'll just have to see how things go.

- Yeah, not a bad thing.

- No, not a bad thing, just something different.

- Alright, something different.

Joellen, thank you much.

Can't wait to see what this looks like throughout the season.

- I look forward to it.

- Alright, thank you much.

- You're welcome.

[gentle country music] - If you remember back last November, we planted these pansies in this bed.

We incorporated some cow manure and some slow-release nitrogen fertilizer in this bed.

And, look at how beautiful these pansies are.

It's warmed up a little bit as you can see.

The blooms are very prolific.

Now, we're gonna go take a look at a bed, which we actually planted at the same time, that had no nitrogen.

Now, look at the difference.

These pansies over here are pretty much dead, or if they're not dead, they're dying.

No fertilizer whatsoever.

Here's your difference.

[upbeat country music] - Alright this is our Q & A session.

Doc, you jump in there with us, alright if you have something to say.

- Okay.

- Okay, here's our first viewer email.

"What causes the spots all   over my bearded iris leaves?"

- Well, you know-- - I think I know what that is.

- The things is, you know you're going to have a problem with this when the disease is named after you.

- Oh that's right, that's right.

- Iris leaf spot.

- (Chris) Iris leaf spot.

- And you know, usually it   doesn't really affect it,   but when you are   going to have that,   and you see it on your   plant, you need to cut it out,   because it's only   going to get worse.

And when the leaves die down   you need to get rid of them,   and not just leave them there.

Don't put them in   the compost pile.

You need to get rid of those.

Because if it keeps on, it will... what it is, it's going to take away the chlorophyll in the leaves to be able to have the rhizome have enough energy to live and to bloom.

So you're just taking away that, and it will eventually play itself out, and die.

So yeah, it's, and it might be too wet there.

Because, you know, diseases are usually formed,   you know the disease triangle.

(Chris and Randall) Yes.

Yeah.

- It must be too   wet of an environment,   because iris like to   be on the dry side,   they can have some   good droughting.

- Yes they do, yeah.

- And if you think about our situation with the weather.

It's been cool and it's been wet.

- Cool, and moist.

Very good for fungal growth.

- Very good for fungal growth.

- Yes.

- Could you use any fungicides?

- Yeah, I would say daconil would probably help.

- Yeah, yeah, that's right.

- Or any copper-based fungicide may help as well?

Alright, and that should help correct your problem, so, here's our next viewer email.

"This weed is   growing in my flower bed.

What is it?"

And this is from Deena,   right here in Cordova.

So you know I like   weeds, don't you?

- (Joellen)   Yes, you're the weed person.

- Annual fleabane, or some   people call it daisy fleabane.

I know this weed personally, because it's in my yard presently.

Mature state it can get   three to four feet tall.

It's in the aster   family of course,   reproduces by seeds.

Beautiful flower heads though.

You know, it can be white,   purple, pink, I've seen   alternate leaves.

You better get it when it's young and actively growing because when you wait till it's about three or four feet, then-- (Randall) It's harder to pull it up.

- It's hard to get it out, right?

- And remove the flower heads so you don't have any new seeds for the next year.

If you keep on removing flower heads, you're going to deplete the seed bank.

- 'Cause they produce a lot of seeds.

- They do.

- And believe it or not, some folks used to say you could actually crush up the dried material and it actually repels fleas.

I've heard that.

I don't know how true that is, but I do know this.

You can eat the young leaves.

You cook them like a green, and you can eat 'em.

- (Randall) Well, they're kind of succulent.

- Yeah, so there you have it.

It's not a bad weed, you can eat it.

- Yeah, it's not a noxious weed.

- But how do we control it you think Joellen?

- Well, you know, it's a broadleaf, so, anything that's going to get broadleaf.

Like any kind of thing with 2,4-D, or something like that... - (Randall) 2,4-D, Dicamba... - Right, and it should knock it out.

So there you have it Ms. Deena.

So, fleabane, I like that weed, it's pretty good.

Alright, here's our next viewer email.

"What can I use to   control cabbage loopers?

They are wearing   out my cabbage."

And this is from Mike.

So they're wearing   out Mike's cabbage.

So, how do we control the 'ole cabbage looper that   does the loop-de-loop,   as Mr. D. would say, right?

- (Joellen)   Yeah, well you know, Bt.

- (Chris)   Bt.

- (Joellen)   Real simple, spray it on there.

Now every time, hopefully when you're watering your cabbage you are watering on the soil surface and not on the leaves so that that Bt will stay there.

But when we get a rain event, you're going to have to re-apply that Bt.

- That's right, good point.

That's a good point.

The adult moth of   course, flies at night.

Not during the   day, flies at night.

She will lay single eggs.

Once they hatch, becomes the   larvae starts to eat those   irregular holes on the   underside of the leaves.

Can be real bad   on cabbage though,   because it can actually burrow   into the head of the cabbbage.

And of course, it attacks   everything in the cole family.

Your leafy vegetables   for the most part.

But I always tell people,   look for the fecal waste.

The fecal material.

- (Randall)   Then you know.

Yes, that's a good point.

- (Chris) Then you can find the cabbage looper pretty easily that way.

But Bt works.

- Yeah, and it's so easy to just spray Bt, once you see the signs of it.

Even if you can't find the actual looper, if you see the tell-tale signs of it, little tiny holes, or the fecal matter, then just put the Bt on there, and you'll be safe.

- Yeah, that will do it.

And Bt is safe.

- Yes.

Yes, yes.

- Yes, safe product.

- So I would definitely use that.

Alright, so there you have it Mike.

Good luck.

Okay, so Doc, Ms. Joellen, we're out of time.

That was fun.

- Yes, great.

Good questions.

- 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 joining us.

If you need more information on orchids, or what to know more about the flowers Joellen planted, go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

I'm Chris Cooper, be sure to join us next week for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]