Making it Grow is brought to you in part by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.

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This family farm offers seasonal produce, including over 22 varieties of peaches.

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♪ [upbeat music] ♪ <Amanda McNulty> Hello and welcome to Making It Grow.

We're so glad you can join us tonight.

I'm Amanda McNulty, a horticulture agent with Clemson Extension.

And this show is a collaborative venture between SCETV and Clemson University.

And we have a wonderful team assembled for you Tonight.

Everyone here tonight happens to be associated with Clemson.

Cory Tanner is the head of the horticulture team and that's a little bit like herding cats because we were very diverse in are interest and orientations, but he keeps us going in the right direction.

And with him today is his daughter Emma Lee.

Emma Lee is six and she is in first grade at Forest Acres Elementary up near Pickens Easley.

Her teacher is Ms. Vincent.

and Emma Lee told me that Ms. Vincent is a really sweet first grade teacher.

Corey's skills, he's a wonderful pruner but he's not a wonderful hairdresser.

Emma Lee, would you show us how beautiful your mother fixes your hair please?

Ahhhh.

And we are so glad that you've had a good first grade experience.

We love having you with us tonight.

I missed seeing you.

We also have Stephanie Turner, who is with Greenwood Extension and you met her last week.

Recently and she is a fairly new member of the team.

Boy, she's hit the ground running and we're so glad that she's now going to be one of our partners with Making It Grow.

Christopher Burtt down in Charleston has several counties for which he's responsible.

We're so glad when he could make time to help us out with Making It Grow.

Of course, Terasa Lott really needs no introduction.

She is the head of the master gardener program and trying to keep all the different extension agents who teach us to garden, together.

And reassuring the master gardeners across the state not to worry about not recording volunteer hours during this difficult time.

Terasa, thank you for pouring oil on the waters and making sure no one's too worried about this, because I know you're working with them and everybody at Clemson is working with all their partners to try to have them not worry about things that just aren't possible right now.

Terasa usually does gardens of the week and I think she has a little bit of a surprise for us tonight.

<Terasa Lott> We do have a little bit of a twist we know that many folks enjoyed bird watching whether in their own personal yards or perhaps out on an adventure.

So this week we will be having a bird theme.

Let's take a look.

We're starting this evening with Desiree Spearman's photo captured in Easley, a tufted titmouse perching on a branch.

A barred owl visited the yard of Cheryl Clary in York County.

I believe Cheryl is one of our administrative assistants.

Ellen Pauly's hummingbird photo was taken last summer in Gaffney and she says this one should be titled who's watching who as it appears the hummingbirds are peering through the window.

Cindy Helton captured a pair of Baltimore Orioles in Manning.

And Extension agent T.J. Savereno helped me out by letting us know that the one on the left is a mature male and the one on the right in the photo is a first fall, so more of an immature male.

And then finally we'll finish up with Ben Stuckey in the Springhill community who captured a hawk on his Feeder.

And he said it would be titled "“Feeder guard"”.

Thanks everyone for sharing your photos with us if you'd like, you can always see the other photos submitted.

Remember we can't show them all on TV but you can find them on our Facebook page and I encourage you to post your photos, yards gardens, birds or even other wildlife when we make the call.

If you have a hard time, you're always welcome to email me and I will do my best to try to include your photos in our gardens of the week.

Amanda, back to you.

<Amanda> Thank you so much.

Terasa, you, Vicky and other agents help people who put questions on our Facebook page or write in.

Is there one that seems like a timely topic for us to ask one of our participants tonight?

<Terasa> There is.

There are always questions when it comes to maintaining our lawns, gardens and landscapes.

This particular one is about controlling an invasive plant.

So, a viewer writes in that she has a large area of English Ivy that has grown out of control.

She recognized it is invasive and is seeking our help for getting this thing back under control and hopefully removing it and preventing it from growing any further.

[Amanda moaning in agony] I tell you that ivy really can get out of bounds very quickly.

Corey, thank goodness I could get it off my neck so I could throw this question to you.

Do you have any suggestions for controlling ivy.

You put out a little bit, sometimes its just all over the place <Corey> Well, unfortunately, Amanda I can relate to the issue because I fight English Ivy along the property line between me and an adjacent property and it's a constant struggle.

The problem with English Ivy like so many of our invasive species is they're just so aggressive and grow so fast of course English Ivy is non native.

It can be pretty in the right setting but if it's not managed and maintained it quickly gets out of control.

And so we really discourage people from planting it because it can really get away from you and it can be a challenge for years to come.

So a lot of people want herbicide options for English ivy, but unfortunately it's not very susceptible to most herbicides.

If you look at a lot of our broadleaf evergreen plants, they have really thick, waxy coatings on their leaves and that wax prevents the leaf from absorbing herbicides very well.

So, English Ivy is really difficult to manage with herbicides.

It's really hard to do it and be effective.

And so I spent a lot of time and I tend to do this in the winter time and the cooler months, hand pulling.

Those thick mats of English Ivy.

There can be things in there, critters I don't necessarily want to come into contact with.

I know a lot of people think about snakes but for me, it's more of the biting, stinging insects, the wasps and the yellow jackets that can tend to get in that ivy.

I reserve this work for the winter time.

So, usually, like I mentioned, it creeps over to my property line.

Unfortunately, the adjacent property they're not too interested in managing that.

So, the ultimate goal would be to eradicate all of it for both properties.

But for me, all I can really do is beat it back each year and so I do a lot of hand pulling.

And it's a lot of work, but it is very effective.

And so what I'll do and I've got a little video, I shared of the work that I did on a recent Saturday in about an hour or so.

I was able to clear maybe 50 feet of the property line back to where I wanted to.

And I like to go through with a sharp spade first and go back to where I removed the material too and use that spade to cut the stems.

So I'll go through and cut the stems.

If you got really large woody stems, it may be difficult to do.

Then after I'm done, I'll go through with my hand, by hand and use my glove to reach down there and pull up as much of the viney material as I can.

I don't know how well you can see it but I try to get as many of those roots where it roots down at the nodes out as possible and big stems, as well.

<Amanda> Corey, I know you all have some heavier soils up there.

If I'm doing things like that.

If I wait - if it's rained fairly recently, often I feel like I have a better chance of getting it up.

Is that something that you found true in the clay soils, as well?

<Corey> Yes ma'am.

And that's another good reason to do it in the winter season or the dormant season.

Typically, we have a good amount of soil moisture during the cooler months of the year, which we may not have in the summer.

So yeah it definitely matters.

For this to be effective, you really have to get all of these stems and as much of these roots as you can, wherever they're rooted down, because if you leave even the smallest little piece, this is about a foot long section, and if I left a half or a quarter of that, leave any of these nodes where the leaves come out in place, it'll root back down and begin again.

>> Corey, what about times when it's grown up a tree?

Is that a time when you could use a herbicide?

>> Well, it's even more challenging to use an herbicide once it's up in the tree, because you have to get that herbicide up the tree, if you're using a foliar herbicide.

So one thing you can do, especially if you've got a way up in a tree, a lot of times you'll get the large stems on the trunk of the tree.

You can cut those stems and I'll use a machete or a hatchet or you can use pruners.

Be careful not to damage your tree bark or at least minimally damage your tree bark.

Then if you cut out a section, maybe four or six inches, so that it can't fuse back together, then everything up that tree will die usually fairly quickly because it's lost connection to the soil and can't get the moisture from the soil it needs.

It'll turn brown and look ugly for a little while but that doesn't last terribly long.

The leaves will turn brown and fall off and later the dead vines will fall out of the tree as well.

And one thing that you can do that when you've got those cut stems down at the base, you can use a concentrated herbicide, like a brush killer or glyphosate and apply it directly to those cut stems right after they're cut, while they're still fresh and that will translocate through the stem and kill some more of the stem, but be careful not to get it into the trunk of the tree or anything like that.

>> So, if you were going to use something as strong as a machete, be very cautious not to let it go through into the trunk of the tree, just the actual vine itself.

>> That's right.

>> Can you talk a little bit about why ivy, letting it be in a tree is even more problematic than just letting it be on the ground from the standpoint of having it spread.

>> Well, there's a couple of reasons.

So, a lot of people say the vine and other vines will strangle a tree.

And that's not necessarily the case, but what can happen is you get a lot of that foliage up in the tree from the ivy and it creates more wind sail effect, so there's more leaf area because of all the ivy for wind to grab and potentially blow the tree over or break the tree.

Also weight, think about an ice storm.

That's a lot more leaf surface for ice to grab on to if we have an ice storm and it can cause problems with weight, but the other issue is in order to produce seed, flowers and seed - I'll send you a picture.

But this isn't a great picture, but I actually happen to have some.

In order to actually become sexually reproductive to produce flower and seed and fruit, English ivy has to grow vertical.

It's kind of unusual but it will never produce flowers or seed when it's on the ground.

Once it gets to a certain height in a tree it will begin to become mature and will produce flowers and seed and then those seed can be dispersed potentially, as well.

And a neat thing about that is a lot of people wanting to make the connection between the two because the leaf shape changes when it becomes reproductive.

So if you can see this well enough.

This leaf is what you would typically see on the ground.

And this is more of a oval or ovate shaped leaf that you see as a mature vine up in the tree.

These actually, I cut these off the same vine.

This is the part that was on the ground and this is the part that was up in the tree and had the flowers and fruit attached.

<Amanda> Thank you and Corey I like to go to Brookgreen Gardens.

It used to be in that beautiful Avenue of Oaks they had ivy as a ground cover and they have now removed all of that.

I think that there's a real push towards doing this.

I want to thank you for explaining to us how we can get started if we got that pretty bad invasive in our yard Appreciate it.

>> My pleasure.

>> Well, thank you for that information.

Terasa have you got any other pressing questions that we might be able to get some information about?

>> I'm not sure this is a pressing question, but there are always questions.

Someone wrote in saying that she always gets sad as the cold weather approaches because the glorious Basil that she's enjoyed all summer is about to succumb to the cold weather and would like to know if there's any way to propagate that and bring it inside.

>> Ohhh...

Dried herbs are wonderful but I've just never found a dried Basil that really tastes like anything.

Stephanie, have you taken some of this out of your garden?

Have you found a way to help it last longer throughout the cold long taste of winter?

>> Yes, well actually I grew quite a bit of things this past summer and I took one and stuck it in This Mason jar here and at the end of the season last year as an example of propagation for one of the master gardener courses I was teaching.

Unfortunately, I have neglected it all winter and you can tell that it's getting a little droopy as of now for lack of nutrients.

I've kept it watered well, but I have not added any fertility.

So what this poor baby probably needs is get prodded up in some fertilizer and it'll perk right back up and I'll have a head start on my summer garden.

<Amanda> How about that?

Well and remember We were offered to take a webinar on the diseases, Downey Mildew is a new disease that has just been wiping out home gardeners' Basil.

I think there's some resistant varieties and isn't it always if you can, isn't it good to search for a resistant variety for something that can be so devastating rather than just taking the first thing you can find at the store, the seed package?

<Stephanie> Sure if you're having problems with Downey Mildew and disease with your basil then the best thing to do is to try to look for one of those disease resistant varieties and head off that disease at the pass before you even get started and then specific varieties have been tested and proven to be able to stand to that disease, so you get off on a good start.

<Amanda> At the end of the season, Stephanie last year, a friend had a lot and I got it and brought it home and ran it through the blender with olive oil and froze it in ice cube trays and then popped it out and put it in a Ziploc.

That's been a nice way to have- It's had a pretty nice, fresh taste when I wanted to add it to soups and things like that.

Other people might want to take that tip as well as like you say just bring it inside and keep it growing.

<Stephanie> Yeah.

That's a great idea or make some pesto and freeze it.

Allow some of it go to bloom too, because mine were just loaded with bees that summer and that's great for the pollinators.

<Amanda> So they really came to it.

Yeah, so they enjoyed it as much as we do.

Maybe they were European honey bees with Italian descent.

<Stephanie> That's right.

[laughs] <Amanda> Thank you so much.

>> You're welcome >> That was very interesting.

Teresa, are there some other topics that you're seeing people having some curiosity about?

>> We did receive a Facebook message from someone that is experiencing a relatively new pest of Crape Myrtle the Crape Myrtle bark scale.

So maybe we could just touch a little about that pest and then are there some alternative trees that might be better suited and have less pest issues.

>> Gosh, well Christopher, I just don't know what Charleston's go do because if you're fortunate enough to find a parking space on a street, you're going to walk past a Crape Myrtle every ten steps.

So give us a real quick talk about what this is and why it's so devastating and what people in the community that you're speaking with are thinking might be good replacement trees.

<Christopher> Absolutely.

So the Crape Myrtle bark scale is kind of a new insect issue that has been- It's not slowly spreading, unfortunately.

It's rather quickly spreading.

It is kind of wiping out a lot of the Crape Myrtles.

Crape Myrtles are one of our consistent flowering trees in the Low Country.

A lot of other our other trees struggle, things like Dogwoods.

And so the Crape Myrtle has been very much a staple and we're seeing kind of a decrease in that.

Of course unfortunately that most of our treatments are really fairly ineffective unless you're kind of doing a consistent insecticidal drench.

Most of the time, the best thing to do is just replace it.

There's quite a few different trees I've heard talks of trying to replace it with, the cabbage palm, which is the palm, the state tree as they say, even though technically palms aren't trees, but that is kind of been a go to when they can find it.

Unfortunately, there's very large demand for cabbage palms.

That's the palmetto tree.

Of course, I'm seeing kind of a push more towards some our natives, things like the Fringe tree, the white fringe tree, as well as the Eastern Red Bud.

<Amanda> Yeah.

<Christopher> Both of those make excellent street trees.

<Amanda> When they're established they don't get too big and they don't have too many- they're pretty once they're established, they're pretty tough trees.

<Christopher> Correct.

Once established, they're fairly easily maintained.

They tend to have pretty, healthy wood.

They don't tend to drop a lot and they can handle a lot of that air pollution that you get in more urban areas.

>> Some of the imported elm trees that were so popular I think we really should try to avoid them because I've seen a lot of issues with those just becoming so weedy that it's not just a problem.

It's almost an invasive issue.

>> Yes, that is correct.

Unfortunately with the absolute decline of the American Elm, which was a beautiful tree we tried to find some replacements.

And of course, the Chinese Lace Bark Elm has been a go to.

It's completely resistant as far as we know to Dutch Elm disease and so that has been very widely Planted.

It is a beautiful tree, but as you mentioned, you are correct.

It is a very weedy actually in a very similar way to Crape Myrtles that I've heard complaints about Crape Myrtles being weedy in that same way.

They re-seed themselves very readily.

And so a lot of times you're seeing saplings pop up especially in established garden beds where you're having to go through and clean them out.

>> Keep us up to date on that, because this is really going to be an issue for South Carolina and southern gardeners in all as the Crape Myrtle has been that standard tree.

Thanks for sharing all your information with us about it.

>> Thank you.

>> Terasa, sometimes people write in and they have a problem because they see one or two things.

There's kind of a fine line between when you treat and when you don't treat.

Do you give people some advice on that sometimes?

Have there been any questions lately that are related to things that are growing in the winter time?

>> Sure, yes you are right.

Just because you see one potentially bad insect, pest doesn't mean we have to completely wipe it out.

And we received a question H.E.L.P.

exclamation mark.

I have aphids on my pansies.

What do I need to do?

>> Well pansies look so delicate and people always worry about them because they seem so sweet and small, but they're relatively tough.

They go through our cold weather, but Stephanie, aphids can become a problem on plants.

Tell me what your take is on aphids on pansies.

And when is control necessary and what you would recommend doing?

Right, with any control situation with a pest you really want to look at how much damage are they doing.

If it's a problem to the point that it's really inhibiting your enjoyment or benefit from the plant.

So for instance, I have a pot of pansies on my front porch that has a aphid population I noticed just this last week.

And it is growing fine and flowering perfectly, beautifully and I took a closer look and there's actually a population of natural predators now preying on those aphids.

And so if I had taken a knee jerk reaction and applied some sort of pesticide or control to that aphid population I would have removed that possibility for that natural predator to come in and handle the problem.

I will say my pot is in a sheltered place on my front porch, where it's not getting very cold at night and so another way you can do is modify the environmental conditions and so if I were to move my pansies out where they were getting exposed more to the frost and the cold that would also knock down that population of aphids for me.

And so there are other methods besides just running to a spray bottle or chemical right away.

>> Okay and the pictures are just fascinating.

And I think we should all of us in the hort team want to give a shout out to J.C. Chong our extraordinarily talented entomologist over at the Pee Dee R.E.C.

that made it possible for us to get this fascinating tool.

>> I really enjoyed it I've been using this microscope it's call the Dino-Lite.

It lets you look and take pictures up close, so you can see some of these things that are in your garden from a different perspective.

<Amanda> Not everybody wants to see insects up close and personal, but I declare, Vicky has sure told us how beautiful they are and it is a fascinating world to go deeper in depth into, isn't it?

<Stephanie> It sure is.

I've been watching.

There's larva attacking the aphids now on my plant and so it's appears to be a syrphid larva.

And they are blindly looking for these little aphids.

And I managed to capture some video of that larva It was actually attacking just the exoskeleton of an aphid, but they don't have a eyes and it's amazing that they can attack these things so quickly.

>> Well, they have a lot of sensory organs in them.

It's so much fun that we see things on this scale.

Thanks so much for sharing that with us.

>> Yes.

Terasa, Corey told us that one reason not to pull ivy in the summer is he doesn't worry about a snake bites so much as the insect sting but if we were in Ireland I think Saint Patrick's - the story is he got rid of all the snakes.

What are some of the other things that are associated with St Patrick?

Is there a horticultural topic?

>> There is and that would be the Shamrock plant which I understand St Patrick used to explain the Holy Trinity as he was trying to bring Christianity to Ireland.

<Amanda> Why would this plant fit into that explanation?

<Terasa> Well, that is a good question.

I can easily answer that It's because it has trifoliate leaves or a single leaf with three leaflets.

What we don't really understand is the exact scientific identity of the particular plant called the Shamrock.

It could have been a trifolium species, so one of the clovers or it could be an oxalis species.

The oxalis is what I have with me today and what you'll see commonly marketed as Shamrocks.

However, most of them are native to Central or South America or Africa.

It's pretty clear that it was probably a trifolium species, a clover species but the world may never know.

[Amanda laughs] <Amanda> Well, we had your plant.

We were trying to put it under some lights when you brought it in today, because you said it has some real definite responses to light which sounded kind of fascinating.

Tell me about that please.

<Terasa> This will get you some points for using a large word and hopefully I can say it correctly.

I believe it's called Nyctinastic.

So that fancy word means that the leaves move in terms of their orientation.

During the daylight hours, the leaves will generally have a more horizontal position and then during the evening hours overnight hours, it would be a more vertical position.

That makes a lot of sense if you think about them being horizontal during the day as terms of receiving sunlight for photosynthesis.

What's a little less clear is why they might be vertical at night.

There are a few different hypotheses I believe about that, but they also will be vertical sometimes during a really cloudy day or an extra bright day.

>> My goodness I can see if it's really, really hot they might just not want to do so much transpiration but it sounds like a fascinating plant.

I'm going to try to learn more about it.

Thank you for sharing that with us Terasa.

<Terasa> You're welcome.

I hope I manage to take care of this one at home.

<Amanda> From the pictures you post of your plants at home, I am not worried, because you are the orchid queen in my book.

I always over water mine.

You seem to know just what plant needs water and which don't.

Corey, Terasa helps so many people with questions about horticulture and she can ID plants.

Then after that fascinating story about shamrocks I think she deserves an honorary horticulture degree.

What about you?

<Corey> I think she's earned that.

>> We'll have to come up with some kind of fancy plaque or something for her.

Barbara Smith is a horticulturist and she is with Clemson's Home and Garden Information Center.

She interestingly, Terasa you should know that she loves white clover, which some people think is a weed, because it's such a great pollinator plant but today we're going to talk to her about a plant that's not a native but it's found in almost every garden in the south.

<Amanda> Today I am fortunate enough to be chatting with my friend and fellow Clemson Extension horticulturist Barbara Smith.

Barbara is at the Home and Harden Information Center.

Barbara, I think you have actually been at home doing home and garden because during this time y'all have been answering calls, hundreds a day but from the safety of your home.

>> Yes, we've been working here since about the 23rd of March.

<Amanda> Tell me about the increase in calls y'all have had.

>> When you look at our calls based on what they were in 2019, to what they were in 2020.

We increased double if not triple.

There were some days I guess my highest record was the day that I answered 52 phone calls.

>> Whew!

>> It's been busy.

But it's nice to be able to help the residents of South Carolina.

But it shows you that people at home have such an interest in gardening right now.

And I do hope it will continue.

I hope that people have been bitten by the gardening bug, which is a good bug to get bitten by.

Don't you think?

>> Yes.

It's not just because I'm home right now and I can't do anything else.

I do hope they enjoy the bug bites like you said, that they enjoy doing this.

So, it's what I always say, "Cut me.

I bleed green.

[Both laugh] >> We have certain things that are just kind of iconic for us.

I think you feel that there's one flower that really is the iconic southern gardener flower.

>> It is.

It's the Camellia japonica.

We have three major species of Camellia that you find in southern gardeners' gardens.

The Camellia japonica that's a winter bloomer.

The Sasanqua which is a fall bloomer and the sinensis which is our very important tea camellia that we have our good ole southern iced tea from.

Today we're going to talk about Camellia japonica.

Camellias for me go way back into my childhood.

My parents were avid Camellia japonica growers Huge Camellias in our yard.

My mother used to love to cut bouquets and take them to people all over the rural town of Ware Shoals where I grew up.

And they loved sharing with them and it was just that love and that memory of having Camellia's in their yard and always a bowl full on the dining room table from the time they started blooming.

That's just southern tradition >> Where do they originate?

>> The Camellia japonicas are basically from Asia, China and Japan.

It is something that was luckily shared and brought when plants were being brought over and shared all around the world.

Luckily our climate is perfect for growing these.

>> I believe that there was a Jesuit priest you sent me some information Georg Joseph Kamel and at that time people were on botanical expeditions, not to find something pretty, but I believe was it more just try to find medicinal plants sometimes?

Medicinal properties of plants because you think about with something like malaria, you didn't have it was a quinine based plant that malaria was treated with.

The thing is Linnaeus.

Good ole, Linnaeus.

with our naming system, honored Kamel by naming the Camellia after him even though Kamel never saw the Camellia itself.

He never saw it in real life.

It was just an honor of the work that he had done in doing all the research for medicinal plants >> I think it went to Europe Then we finally, if I'm not mistaken got him down in Charleston.

>> Well, it's an interesting story.

Andre Michaux was a botanist to King Louie the 16th.

He came to South Carolina.

He had a very large piece of property that he made a botanical garden in.

near Henry Middleton Place.

And Michaux brought camellias with him.

So, of course Henry Middleton was extremely interested in Camellias and he shared and there's actually a Camellia that is still in existence, the original plant, there were four of them.

One has made it, but, - I butchered French, I'm sorry, but Reine des Fleurs means queen of the flowers.

It's a plant that is still there, very carefully tended at Middleton Gardens.

Then, Drayton at Magnolia.

Drayton at Magnolia Gardens got extremely interested in it, So, a lot of the Camellias that are on the market now were actually developed at Magnolia.

<Amanda> Isn't that remarkable!

Right here in South Carolina.

<Barbara> In South Carolina.

<Amanda> I would imagine that these because the japonicas need filtered light.

The Sasanqua can take a pretty good dose of the sun.

<Barbara> Long as you provide water with the Sasanqua, it can.

<Amanda> Our japonicas, if I'm not mistaken, Barbara, like filtered light that's what they need to be successful.

Is that correct?

<Barbara> The biggest mistake that people make is that they will buy Camellia japonica.

They will put it on the western side of the house of the south side in full hot afternoon sun and the leaves will turn yellow.

It will not produce well.

It will not grow well.

But this is good, what I call highlight, a good filtered high shade is a perfect situation for them on the shadier side of the house, especially in that hot afternoon sun.

I always say to people when you're planting a plant and it doesn't tolerate hot sun, think about going out on a August afternoon at three or four o'clock and you stand there for about five minutes you're not real comfortable.

You're not happy.

So the Camellia japonicas do have to have that filtered light for them to do well.

<Amanda> Y'all have a tremendous collection at the South Carolina Botanical Garden and you, Fridays, I believe, post often pictures of gardens, many times from the botanical garden and what is the situation there.

Are they under hardwood trees there?

>> There it's a combination of hardwoods but a lot of pine.

And so the pines are extremely old and you get naturally the pine straw from it so they don't have to mulch.

That helps.

That holds in cold winds.

Now in my own landscape because I have a pretty vast collection of Camellias.

Mine are more in hardwoods.

Therefore, I'll get more blossom cold damage quicker then they will at the botanic garden because those pine trees hold heat in.

They can go in both sections.

The light in the winter time is so different from the sun from May to September.

>> Well, if you picked out a place in your yard, I think you need to understand that it came in a three or five gallon pot and it doesn't look too big but as I understand it, they are understory trees in their native land.

They, naturally, want to get relatively large more like a small tree in a big bush.

>> There's some with some of the breeders the new ones, what they have done is hybridize them.

So a lot of times when you look at the scientific name on the label of the plant you'll see Camellia X hybrida or Camellia hiemalis or a number of these different species names on it.

Some of those are bred to be shorter growers.

When you look at a true japonica.

I'm lucky because I've lived at my own home since 1977.

So the camellia's I planted years ago are now 14, 15 feet tall.

They're huge.

And what I also do with my camellia's, which will help in controlling tea scale because I don't use a lot of chemicals in my landscape.

That's just my personal preference, because I really encourage my pollinating insects.

I have a lot of bird life.

That type of thing.

If you will limb up the camellia where you can get good air circulation in it and thin out inner limbs again to allow air circulation, you will greatly reduce your tea scale without having to resort to chemicals.

>> And still had a beautiful plant in the landscape.

So, I would encourage people to read and find out what size it's going to be before they plant it so they won't put it too close to something else.

Don't you think?

>> Definitely That's the mistake a lot of people make.

They'll buy something in a one which to me is too small for a camellia, but usually you're going to find a camellia anywhere from 1 to 7 to a 10 gallon container.

That's the usual weight of it.

The biggest mistake that they make is they don't do their homework.

So they'll put a camellia in front of a window that's 3 feet off the ground.

and of course you are looking through a shrub instead of looking out the window.

So, do your homework.

Ask questions.

You've heard me talk about this before.

When you go to a nursery, there's some very intelligent questions for you to ask.

Know how big your space is, how tall the plant can get at maturity.

If you've got to consistently prune and prune to make something fit into that space, you've chosen the wrong plant for the wrong spot.

<Amanda> You're right.

It gets harder every year, You and I and everybody else gets older, it gets harder to do those pruning chores.

So, make good decisions.

>> Ask questions I mean that's what they're there for.

>> Let's dig a hole and put our camellia in it.

Tell me about taking it out of the pot and getting it into the ground, please.

>> All right.

When you are, any plant, if it's grown in a container, you never stand there and pull it straight up out the pot.

Gently lay the pot on its side.

Tap the container all the way around carefully to loosen it up and then slide it out horizontally.

And then, the best tool that I can tell people are your fingers.

>> Yeah.

>> You see the magic fingers.

I take my fingers and just really work up the root ball.

Pull it out.

Pull the root system out Feather it out extremely well.

When I'm digging the hole on and I am extremely lucky because with my own landscape where I'm allowed an 8th and a half to landscape in our farm, it's never been far.

So I have two feet of top soil.

I don't have to add any sort of amendment.

I planted in the native soil.

That's always best to do that unless you have extremely red clay, hard packed red clay or if you have pure sand.

Sometimes you may have to add someone amendments.

Normally what Clemson recommends is planting into the native soil.

The other thing is if you do have to add amendments, don't put the plant in the hole and pour the amendments around the root system.

You work in the amendment into the native soil, incorporate it in well and then plant.

The other thing with the camellia I found too is that when you're when you're digging your hole I usually do about one maybe one and a half times deep and two times as wide but then also take my shovel and I notch the edges of my hole.

Don't make what I call, especially in upstate, that straight sided hole to have notches in it so the roots can find their way through it.

The other thing that you want to do is plant your camellia high.

And so I usually have a couple of inches of the root ball above the soil level.

And then I'll put soil around that but not cover the top.

Don't over mulch your plants.

We've all seen these cases where people want to do what I call volcano mulching and they mulch up stem and you never want your mulch touching that, just a couple inches of mulch that holds moisture, it keeps the weeds down.

The other problem is that most nurseries, which is understandable because people don't think about gardening until they get spring fever, so that's when the nursery starts pulling a lot of plant material.

So you buy something in April or May and you get ready to put it in the ground and then you have got to religiously water that plant throughout the hot summer.

Usually when I find something like that I really like truthfully I'll hold it in the container until fall until it's time to plant and just keep it watered before I put it in the ground.

>> There are some shrub bags that are similar to tree bags that I've even resorted to getting a five gallon bucket and putting one or two little holes in the bottom.

and putting it out there.

Just because that's easier for me.

There are different ways to work around that if you need to.

>> You can get alligator bags that you can put around it, but I use that five gallon bucket you're talking about.

>> I like to do that too.

>> I'll drill a hole or two on the side and then just fill it up and let it slowly leak in.

If you spray paint it black, nobody will notice it's - <Amanda> I know that you have favorites and sometimes it's because you have memories of your parents and even grandparents having them.

Would you share some of those photographs and stories with us please?

>> I certainly will.

Just like I said, my parents had some major plants that I had strong memories with.

One was one called purple dawn And when my parents sold their house, I talked to the new owner and said please if you decide you don't want some of these plants because my parents had a pretty extensive yard, please let me know.

My husband has equipment.

We can come pull them up.

They said sure, be glad to but I'm standing near the Purple Dawn when I was talking to the new owner.

And I said do you mind if I get some cuttings off of this one?

Of course, it was only into the fall when I got the cuttings and he said, "Of course!"

So, I got a handful, came home I had one to take.

And it's now about 10, 12 feet tall and covered in vines.

But that's an oldie.

It's some of these that I have.

Another one that I remember so well from my parents' garden was Paulette Goddard who the camellia was named in honor of a 1940s actor, Paulette Goddard.

And I searched and searched and finally found one in a little tiny nursery in Denmark, South Carolina years ago.

So, I have my Paulette Goddard.

Probably if you were going to plant and choose a camellia that you wanted to bloom, just true Camellia japonica, not one of the hybrid crosses, but it's one called Lady Clare and that one blooms just prolifically.

It absolutely drifts.

Mine are probably 15 plus feet tall It has beautiful bright yellow stamens.

Just lovely and I guess if I had to choose one that would be it.

No southern garden would be complete without a Pink Debutante.

I always think of a debutante with her bouquet.

<Amanda> Yeah.

<Barbara> Pink Debutante Camellias and it's a very early bloomer and it is a formal peony form, so just major, major petals in the center of it.

>> The ones that have more of the stamens and all visible are the ones that would be more attractive to the pollinators.

>> Yes.

Good point.

Betty Sheffield's a good one.

Lady Clare is a good one.

There's another one Berenice Boddy is a good one.

Any of these that have the bright yellow stamens.

<Amanda> It's stunning to see how many on a warm day come out.

They need to eat and that camellia is a wonderful source of food for them.

<Barbara> The great beauty about these camellias is that if you choose the correct cultivar, you can, and if you've got enough space for it, you can have them start blooming, the very first one that blooms in my yard is one called Daikagura.

And it usually blooms about the first week or two of November.

By the time it's gone or most of the buds are off of it.

Lady Clare starts kicking in and the Lady Clare will bloom for several months because she has so many blooms all over.

Another one that is very easy to find in the neighborhood is Professor Sargent.

That one was one that was developed at Magnolia Gardens and was named for all Professor Sargent who was at the Moorten Botanical Gardens at Harvard in honor of him.

>> It's a stunning with those red big flowers all over it.

>> My children- Valentine's day, that's what we would do would get a big box and cut camellias and they would take it to all the teachers at their school, walk around and hand out Professor Sargents.

it was kind of a neat thing to share those.

>> I know it was.

I think you have a few you were going to tell us others that were kind of special So, let's finish up by talking about a couple of the others.

>> One to me is absolutely exquisite is Magnoilaeflora And it honestly it came from Italy back in the mid 1800s or late 1800s and was brought to the United States.

It truly looks like it has been hand crafted from wax.

<Amanda> It's one of my favorites.

It's exquisitely beautiful.

<Barbara> And that pale pink and the bees like it.

It's got the open flower on it.

Another one that I like, Governor Mouton.

It's an interesting, with this one, they think that this one dates back to the early 18th century.

So, a relatively old Camellia.

It was actually an unlabeled camellia in Louisiana in a garden in Louisiana.

So they named it after the owner Alexander Mouton that it got the name, because he was a governor so that's got the name.

they think it dates back really late, the Egao Corkscrew is wonderful.

That's a newer one to me.

I love it because of the growth habit of the plant, because it zig zags funky growth to it.

So, it's interesting.

Another one that I have, It's not a prolific bloomer and the bloom on it is not that spectacular that you'd want to go float you great grandmother's cut glass bowl.

But it's one called Fishtail.

I love it because the leaf on it literally looks like a fish's tail.

So it's cloved.

You'll have three cloves on the base of it.

<Amanda> Yeah.

<Barbara> Just a curiosity to have.

One that I have that really is a special one and my heart is one called White Empress.

My dear friend, Bill Head of Head-Lee Nursery gave this one to me after my mother died.

Bill had known my mother and just my mother was just a neat very neat person and he said that particular Camellia had just reminded him of her.

And so when I when that one blooms I think about my mother but then I also think about Bill giving me that gift in honor of her.

<Amanda> And that your mother and father gardened together and that her family garden - Barbara I think you've given us a wonderful sense of how much they can be a part of the beauty of your heart and also fill your heart with emotions and memories throughout the year.

<Barbara> This is what I call Botanical genealogy.

[Amanda laughs] >> Barbara, you've done a mighty good job with them.

You're so kind to take time to tell us and share your family stories with us.

And I think daffodils might be the next topic.

I just can't wait for that.

>> Just remember whatever's blooming that particular day.

[Amanda laughs)} >> If you have concerns.

Look forward to seeing you and thank you for having me.

>> Thank you for what you and all the wonderful agents at HGIC are doing to help the people in South Carolina.

I know y'all really shouldered a burden.

My hat's off to you.

>> Well, it's been our pleasure.

We certainly appreciate it.

<Amanda> Bye Bye.

<Barbara> Bye Bye.

>> It would be tempting to eat in a restaurant when we're allowed to do things safely again, but first on my list is a trip to Barbara Smith's garden.

I can't wait to see the fruits of her years of labor and her creativity up there right outside of Clemson.

My friends Hank Stallworth and Ann Nolty with whom I refer to often live in Hank's grandfather's house where many generations of people have loved and tended Camellia's and they were sweet enough to share this with me today, As always, thank you for all y'all do, Hank and Ann.

Corey people always use ivy as the go to ground cover for shade.

We don't want that anymore.

What would you recommend as one possible alternative?

>> Amanda, I've actually started using some of our native sedges in shady spots in the garden and sedges are a group of grass like plants.

They kind of look like ornamental grasses, but they're in the genus Carex C.A.R.E.X.

There are a number of species both native and non native that do quite well in shade and they'll also handle damp sites very often as well.

So, but there are a few that will do in dryer shade.

One that's selected right here in South Carolina Bunny Blue Sedge is the nursery name you'll find it under from Mr. Bob Head in Seneca selected that variety.

Also, Appalachian sedge and Pennsylvania sedge also do quite well in shady sites and give a nice green ground cover in shady spots.

<Amanda> If I'm not mistaken they're not going to spread like some of the old liriopes.

That's a great, great idea, because they could get to be rather problematical.

Couldn't they?

<Corey> They could and these will expand in clumps but they don't really run the way some of our other ground covers do.

<Amanda> All right, I want to thank all of our panelists for the great information they shared and thank you at home who joined us tonight.

Hope you'll tune in every Tuesday for Making It Grow.

We'll see you next time.

♪ [Making It Grow closing music] ♪ Making it Grow is brought to you in part by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.

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