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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Southern magnolias are a staple here in the South.

Today we're gonna talk about some unusual varieties.

Also, we're going to plant bare root strawberries.

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 Dale Skaggs.

Dale is the Director of horticulture here at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

And Mr. D will be joining me later.

Dale, it's always good to see you.

- Always good to see you, Chris.

- Yes, sir.

- Yes.

- It is a blustery day here at the Dixon.

- It is.

- What do you think about that?

- It is.

It's March winds.

- It's March winds right.

- Yeah.

- All right, so-- - Okay, we're gonna talk about magnolias, right?

- Yeah.

This is you know, a lot of people are familiar with, with the classic Southern magnolia.

The evergreen leaves, the blooms that are sort of sporadic all summer.

- Right.

- Very fragrant.

They take up a lot of real estate.

- Uh-huh.

- But beautiful nonetheless.

There are some smaller forms like Little Gem and some others.

- Yeah, I like little gem.

- But this time of year, it's hard to rival the, the beauty of the deciduous magnolias.

And there's a whole host of them.

The star magnolias, Magnolia stellata.

They tend to do real well for us here in the Mid-South.

And then you have the, the saucer magnolias, which are the soulangeana types, big goblet flowers.

Our friend Felder Rushing down in Mississippi, he jokingly always says that whenever the magnolias are freezing, whenever the magnolias are in bloom, it causes a late freeze.

Like it's kind of a cause and effect relationship.

But they do seem to get zapped by the cold quite a bit.

- Yeah.

- Our neighbors across the street have an amazing collection at the Memphis Botanic Gardens.

- Mmhmm mmhmm.

- This is one that's showing off.

The wind is taking care of the petals really quickly though.

So it's fleeting.

But this is one of the little girl series, I think, I believe they were br ed at the National Arboretum, and I was trying to determine this, these were planted before I arrived.

I've been here about 15 years at the Dixon.

- Okay.

- And, this is either Jane or Ann.

And I think consensus is is that it's Ann.

- Okay.

- With these dark petals, and then they fade as they go.

- Yeah, those are pretty though.

- They're actually not petals, they're tepals on magnolias.

But anyway, yeah.

So yeah, it's glorious in the spring and it's deciduous, it loses its leaves, and you have these fuzzy buds that form in the fall, and those carry through the winter.

And, then you're blessed with these beautiful blossoms in the spring.

I love the deciduous magnolias.

- Yeah, they are pretty.

- It's got a white or a lighter color on the inside of the tepal.

For culture, probably keep it out of the hot afternoon sun, but I think morning sun is best for 'em here in the Mid-South.

We're a little warmer, but this plant grows all the way up into New England.

- Okay.

- So it's a perfectly hardy plant.

And quite frankly, further North, a lot of times they have better luck with it because our weather's so sporadic.

- Yes.

- You know, it goes from warm to cold so quick.

So when they warm up, they generally come on out and, and they have less problems with the late freeze than we actually have here in the Mid-South.

- Okay.

Well I guess Dale, we'll go and see if we can find another one, right.

All right, Dale, so tell me about this magnolia.

- This is another one of the deciduous magnolias.

It's one of my favorites.

This is Magnolia Elizabeth.

- Okay.

- And it was the first bred yellow magnolia.

And it was bred for the yellow color by the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

- Oh, wow.

- It's named Elizabeth for their director emeritus.

- Okay.

- Elizabeth Schultz.

She was with the garden for a long time, and I was actually at the garden several years back- - Nice.

- And she was still coming in and volunteering.

- Nice.

- 'Cause she felt so passionately about the garden.

She dedicated much of her life to the gardens, but- So what a, what a fitting tribute, Magnolia Elizabeth.

And they got the yellow from a native Tennessee plant.

Do you know the cucumber tree?

- Yes, I do.

- Magnolia acuminata.

They call it cucumber tree because it has those fruits that look like a little cucumber.

- Right.

- Late in the season.

And they crossed it with some other magnolias to create this.

- It's a beautiful tree.

Yeah, it's real fuzzy.

- It has more of this goblet shape, which I really like, but it's kind of a lemony yellow.

It works well with all the spring flowers.

And it's, this one's been here, I've been here for like 15 ye ars and this one's been here, it was planted probably five years before I got here.

- Okay.

- So it's not a fast grower.

And so this is kind of a mature specimen for us here in the Mid-South.

But, look at the little fuzzy.

- Yeah, it's so fuzzy.

- That's the fuzzy buds I was talking about earlier.

And you can see it's kinda like, and those kind of break off when the, when the flowers emerge in the spring.

But really just a glorious tree.

Then it has a kind of a matte green leaf the rest of the summer, but now is its time.

- Now is its time.

So what is the range of this magnolia?

- It obviously it goes up into New York, Brooklyn, New York.

So it's got a pretty wide range on it as well.

But this one seems to miss the freezes.

It's a little smarter than the other ones.

The time it comes out is a little, is a little different.

So it actually misses the freezes that's plagued the soulangeanas and the others, so.

- Okay.

- It's a great plant for the Mid-South.

- Yeah.

It's beautiful.

All right.

Let's go see the other one.

All right, Dale.

- Another yellow one.

- Another yellow one.

Beautiful.

What is this?

- This is one called Butterflies.

- Butterflies, how about that?

- Yeah, it's a great magnolia.

It's a beautiful one.

We have several of 'em around the south lawn and, and it does look like butterflies when- - It does.

It brightens this whole area.

- And they're fragrant too, as a bonus.

Yeah, very fragrant.

Anyway, this is another one.

Guess where the yellow came from?

That same Tennessee magnolia, Magnolia acuminata.

And they crossed it with denudata, which I think is probably the same thing they used on the Elizabeth Magnolia.

- Okay.

- And there, there are several other greens.

There's Yellow Lantern and several others.

But, the two that I really like are Elizabeth and Butterflies.

- Elizabeth and Butterflies, okay.

- Little bit larger stature magnolia.

And you notice this one, there's fewer leaves on it.

The leaves are just starting to emerge at the same time with the Elizabeth.

But this one is just bare stems.

There are no leaves whatsoever.

- Right.

- So the leaves will follow right after the flowers.

- Okay.

- And anyway, just a real showy plant in the spring.

The color matches with all the pastel colors of spring.

- Yeah.

- And it's just a wonderful plant to add a lot to the landscape.

You could see, it gets pretty big.

And I actually planted this one so- - Oh, so you planted this one?

How about that?

Yeah.

- So, it's grown fairly- - How long ago?

- It seems probably maybe 12 years ago.

- Twelve years ago wow.

- So it was a decent size when we started.

- Sure.

- But I think that this was a better, faster grower than Elizabeth.

- Okay.

- So, and you can see it's got a little bit more open habit, but it is in a little bit more shade, than Elizabeth's growing in.

- Okay.

And so that's okay that it's growing in the shade?

- Well, it needs morning sun.

You can see morning sun that's the west that way so it gets morning sun.

And you can see it's not really flowering much on the other side.

- Yeah, I see that.

I can see that.

But it's still a beautiful tree.

- It's a beautiful tree hardy from zone nine to five, something like that.

- Okay.

How do we take care of this tree?

- You know, you wanna start off with some, with some good soil when you plant it.

You wanna put in a lot of organic material and compost.

Magnolias have surface roots.

All magnolias have these surface roots.

And actually, if you dig around a magnolia, the roots smell as sweet as the flowers if you break the roots.

- Okay.

- But, so you know when you're disturbing the roots, but you don't wanna disturb the root zone around magnolias after you plant them.

- That's good to know.

- So, but I'd say morning sun.

It can get at least a half day sun here in the Mid-South.

But you know that western baking sun is so tough here - Yes it is.

- In the Mid-South.

- Yes it is.

- But it's tough, I don't know of any insect-- - Any pests anything like that?

- Or any pest problems.

- No no nothing.

So it's a tough, easy to care for plant that'll give you many, many years of pleasure.

- Many many years of pleasure.

I can tell you like this magnolia.

- I do.

- Good deal.

[upbeat country music] - Legume.

- Legume, yeah.

You know, Chris I looked that up in the dictionary and I hate it when they do that.

They say a legume is a leguminous plant.

- Yes.

- I'm like, well that cleared that up you know.

But actually a better definition I think would be it's a member of the pea family.

You know, and the legumes all have that nitrogen fixing ability in their roots that makes those nodules.

So they're a green, they're a good green manure crop.

- Right.

- They're ones that don't need a lot of fertilizer.

Particularly nitrogen, because they fix their own.

- That's right.

- So, you know, that means a legume is one of our big food crops.

Of course, the legume family.

Think about soybeans, you know, pinto beans, butter beans, you know, all the things that we eat that are from the legume family.

[upbeat country music] - Mr. D what are we doing out here today?

- I think we're gonna plant some strawberries.

You have some growing and that's good.

We're gonna try not to disturb the ones that are growing because they look a lot better than the ones that we're planting.

- Oh okay.

- And we've got some right here, like this little fellow right here.

- Yeah, I see it.

- I'm gonna be very careful not to disturb him.

So you know, ideally when we're planting strawberries this time of the year, then we're planting them for the matted row system.

- Okay.

- And so ideally you would plant 'em between one and a half, two and a half feet apart.

And if you had enough room, because they're going to have, you know, 50, 60, 70 daughter plants.

- Wow.

That's a lot.

- So you want to have room for them spread out and drop the daughter plants.

This is what this is right here.

These are daughter plants, the daughter plants that are living here now.

- Oh gotcha.

- We don't have that much room here, so we're gonna plant 'em a little bit thicker.

You know, if you have bare root plants you need to make sure that the roots don't dry out.

And that's what we've got here.

And we've got a little bit of water in the bottom of this bucket.

Can't see it very well.

I guess I'll just tilt it here like that a little bit.

But you wanna make sure the roots don't dry out.

And before we do anything else, I'm just gonna let them continue to sit here in this water.

- Okay.

- And we're gonna do a little bit of tillage.

We want to till this- - We're gonna do a little tilling.

- I'm gonna get this out of the way.

- All right.

- Yeah, we need to break this up a little bit.

- Okay.

- And, you know it's in pretty good shape, - Not too bad.

- As far as moisture's concerned.

- Okay.

- You know, that till it up.

- I'm gonna move that out the way here.

- I miss my PTO driven tractor mounted tiller right here.

[Chris laughs] - We're gonna get it broken up pretty good.

- Soil looks pretty good, huh?

- Yeah.

- Not that bad.

- It looks like we've got quite a bit of organic matter there.

When we plant these strawberries, we're going to, after we plant 'em, we're gonna water 'em in.

And the main reason, even though we obviously have adequate moisture in the soil here, but we wanna make sure we have good soil to root contact.

- Okay.

- So we're gonna water, I think each plant probably needs at least a half a pint of water.

- Wow.

Okay.

- When you plant bare root strawberries, it's extremely, extremely important that you plant 'em at the right depth.

If you plant 'em too deep, they will die.

And if you plant 'em too shallow, they will also die.

So you plant 'em, you make sure the roots are covered, but you don't want the crown of the strawberry underground.

- Okay.

- So we're gonna be very, very careful when we plant 'em to make sure we have 'em at the right depth.

If we do that, half the battle will be won.

- Oh that's good.

- Okay, before I pull the plants out, I think I'm gonna go ahead and open up the holes.

Gotta decide how I'm gonna space 'em out.

And like I said, a foot and a half would be ideal.

I'm gonna plant one of 'em right there.

- All right.

- I'm gonna go like a foot, I think, And the leftovers, we'll have a few leftover.

We will go, we will hill them in at another location.

And if we happen to lose one of these that we plant, we'll be able to plant it a little bit later on.

- Okay.

- Okay one, two, three, four.

- That's only, that's four.

- That's four.

They've gotta have a little bit of room for the daughter plants to spread.

- Okay.

- Okay, what we can do here.

- Ah.

- I think there's supposed to be 10 plants in here.

We'll try to be very careful.

- Yeah.

Man, how about that?

- This is one of the plants, the roots.

- Yeah, there you go.

- There's another one.

It's a crown.

I'm gonna lay it back down in the water.

That's another one.

Doesn't look very healthy.

Of course, what's the first thing that we tell you in our Extension publications?

- Better be good healthy plants, right?

- Good healthy plants.

- Good healthy plants.

- That's another one.

Got a little green coming up on that one.

- Yeah.

- I may be glad that we only have four to plant.

That's another one.

- Uh huh.

- Now I've got some life showing up here.

- Ah, yeah, that's a good one.

- Okay, let's, I'm gonna plant one and I'm going to try to, I got a little bit of growth on this one.

Normally, if the plants are vigorous and they have five or six leaves on them, you need to snip off all but two or three of the healthiest leaves.

And then you need to trim the roots a little bit and it makes 'em a lot easier to plant.

- Okay.

- I'm not gonna have to take any leaves off of these.

No, that's not a problem.

- And tell us again why you're pruning off a little bit of those roots.

- So it'll fit in my planting hole better.

- So it'll fit in the hole better.

- For one thing, and also pruning stimulates growth.

So I'm hopefully, I'm gonna do a little bit of both.

So I'm just gonna.

- Look at that.

- It's a little haircut.

[Chris laughs] - Nice little clean cuts.

- Okay.

All right, we need this opened up a little bit more.

Again, I wanna make sure that the crown is above ground and all the roots are underground.

If any of the roots are exposed, it's too shallow.

- Okay.

- And if the crown, this portion right here at the junction of the roots and the stem, if it is underground, it's too deep.

- Okay.

Too deep.

- I'm gonna go make the hole bigger than I need it really.

So I can spread the roots out some.

- Do we need to be concerned with fertilizer or anything like that?

- Not, not right now.

- Not right now.

- I'd give them a a few weeks.

- Okay.

- And then you'll need to, and we'll do that.

- Okay.

- We'll come out here in three or four weeks and give 'em a little shot.

Now I'm gonna hang onto that plant.

- Just backfill.

- When we water it in, we may have to add a little bit more soil if I see some of the roots are exposed.

- Okay, I think we're got everything in the ground here.

I think we're just gonna water 'em in a little bit.

- Yeah hey, looks good, man.

- Yeah, let's see what we got here.

Let me go back to where-- - You going to this side?

- A little water.

[water pouring out] - I guess it'll settle a little bit.

- Mmhmm.

I just don't wanna wash a hole in the ground.

- I understand.

- I don't wanna wash a hole in the ground.

So, and wash the soil away from the roots.

That's why I'm going very slowly, wanna make sure I don't have any more bubbles coming up out of the ground.

- Hmm.

- Now, if I were doing this on a commercial basis, we would've stuck 'em in the ground quick and we would turn the irrigation system on.

- You did that for us.

- Water 'em in.

- You did a good job.

- Yeah, but I'm gonna look, and I don't think if I see any roots exposed, I may have a little bit of exposure right there.

So I'm just gonna- - I don't see much on this one.

- Not much.

I'm just gonna add a little bit of dry soil right there.

Okay.

- All right, Mr. D. Well, we'll see what happens, right?

- Yeah we will.

Time will tell.

- Time will tell.

Thank you, sir.

We appreciate that.

- Okay.

[upbeat country music] - Stop volcano mulching.

This is entirely too much mulch around this tree.

What usually happens is when you have mulch like this piled up against the tree, it keeps the bark wet.

When that bark stays wet, it starts to decay.

Once it starts to decay, then guess what?

You have fungal problems, bacterial problems, and possible pest problems.

So what you should do is start taking the mulch away from the tree.

You want to expose these root flares.

And what you're trying to do with mulch is trying to mimic Mother Nature.

You wanna bring the mulch out to the drip line of the tree if you can.

Once you take the mulch back, you should always be able to see the root flares.

Here are your root flares here.

Okay.

Leave those exposed.

And there you have it.

Your tree is gonna thank you for it.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Dale, here's our Q and A segment.

You ready?

- All right, this is gonna be fun.

- This is gonna be fun, man.

These are great questions.

All right, you ready?

- Let's do it.

- All right, let's do it.

I think you'll like the first question.

All right here's our first viewer email.

"I have a seven foot crape myrtle tree, "but I would like to cut it ba ck to maybe four or five feet "to make it a bush.

Can I do this?"

And this is Audrey in Camden, Tennessee.

So can Audrey do this, huh?

- Well, yes Audrey can do this but- - She can do it.

- But, you know, there's a big push.

A lot of big crape myrtle trees are just kinda like, hacked off and they just look ridiculous.

- And what do we call that?

- Crape murder.

crape murder, yeah.

Crape murder.

- Yes.

- I think Jason Reeves with Extension on his emails, he has a tagline that says "Crape Murder.

Stop the Chop."

- Stop the chop.

Yeah, I like that.

- But horticulturally, we've been cutting back trees hard for a long time.

You know, the pollarding, you ever hear that term where they cut the big branches back and so horticulturally, there's nothing wrong with it, but aesthetically it just looks awful.

You know, we like to have that nice shape on a crape myrtle, you know?

- Sure, sure.

- So yes, you can do it.

But don't tell Jason Reeves, no.

[Chris laughs] I mean, I see Jason's point, you know, these big crape myrtles look wonderful when they're tree shaped with, you know, but when you chop 'em, they just look kind of a little bit ridiculous.

And they send out a lot of water shoots, you know?

- Yes, they sure do.

- So anyway, so just see if you can live with it.

Unless it's growing.

You're better off pruning canes out at the bottom that you want to get rid of instead of chopping the top.

- Right, I was gonna say that same thing.

So yeah, that way you can get a four or five foot bush.

Or how about next time dwarf, they have dwarf crape myrtles.

- Yeah, right plant, right place.

- Right plant right place.

- Yeah.

- All right, Audrey, hope that helps you out there.

All right here's our next viewer email.

"What is the best fern for a hanging basket that will grow "full and long?

"Also, how do I care for it?

Thank you."

This is Tim from Statesville, North Carolina.

- Okay Tim, you know, the Boston fern is the common one that's always used.

- Yeah, my mom has one yeah.

- Yeah, hang on the front porch in the south, it's kind of an icon of the south.

- Yeah.

- But those need a little bit of shade.

Or, they'll get a little crispy.

So if you don't have shade, there's one called macho fern that gets big as the name implies, it gets really big and they can be a really full basket for sure.

- Okay.

- So, and they can bring those indoors and take 'em back out as well.

You know, they're not tough enough to stay outside for the winter, is what I'm saying.

So you can bring them indoors, keep 'em inside as a house plant, and then bring 'em back out in the spring.

- Okay, I got it.

- They're gonna be happier outdoors on your front porch though probably than they will in your heated home.

- Yes I'm sure.

Any other ways to care for them, you know, when they are outside or inside?

- Well you know, hanging baskets, they- - Like watering.

What about watering?

- I would say, you know, those hanging baskets probably almost need watering every day.

Especially when they get full like that macho fern.

You'll fill up the basket, it'll be drooping over the edge, but there's not much soil in there because it's all roots.

- Okay.

- A big basket of roots.

But a lot of those ferns actually have a water storage sort of bulbous thing inside that you see whenever you divide 'em.

I've seen that several times.

- Okay, you've seen it okay.

- But, regular watering, probably daily, if not every other day when the heat of the summer is probably required to keep those maintained.

- I would agree with that.

All right, Tim, hope that helps you out there.

Thank you for that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"I have a neighbor who never mows his yard "and his rattlesnake weeds have come over into my yard "and they're impossible to get rid of.

"Do you have any suggestions for getting rid "of rattlesnake weed?

Thank you," And this is Phyllis.

So Dale, rattlesnake weed or Florida betony?

- Florida betony.

- Florida Betony is native to...Florida.

- It's a broad leaf.

- It's a broad leaf, it's a broad leaf.

It's actually a winter perennial.

- Is it?

Okay.

- It grows by tubers.

The tubers look like rattles of a rattle snake.

- That's where it gets it's name.

- That's where it gets it's name, right.

It's very difficult to control.

I always like to start with cultural practices first.

You need a thick, dense lawn.

- Okay.

- To crowd it out, number one.

Number two, you have to mow at the correct height.

- Right, okay.

- And then of course, fertilize according to your soil test.

- Yeah.

- You know, do those things culturally that should help if we're talking- - What about a broad leaf herbicide?

- So if we're talking about chemicals then you can use a broadleaf weed herbicide.

- And, that'll take care of it?

- That'll take care of it, it's gonna be multiple applications though.

- Is that like 2,4-D or something?

- 2,4-D, MCPP and Dicamba.

- Okay.

- That's what you're gonna be looking for.

Those are your three way herbicides.

But read 'em, follow the label on that though.

- Okay.

- Read and follow the label.

But I always like to start with those cultural practices first.

- Right, right.

- Then if you need chemicals, we can get you that too.

- Right.

- So yeah, the old rattlesnake weed can be a problem.

It's in the mint family, did you know that?

It has a square stem.

- Square stem?

Yeah.

- Has a square stem, in the mint family.

So there you go Ms. Phyllis.

Yeah, have fun with that.

That's gonna be difficult, all right.

Here's our next viewer email.

This is interesting, right?

"So I have read that people are using sodium polyacrylate "in their raised gardens and pots.

"This is the same water absorbent material "found in diapers.

"The thought is that it holds moisture "so you don't have to water as much.

"What are your thoughts on this?

"Is it harmful to the plants or soil, "or more importantly, does it work?

Thanks," and this is Craig from Columbus, Ohio.

So what do you think about that?

- Well, it's been around for a while.

Terra-Sorb is one of the brand names, and a lot of people use it if they're planting, like in the heat of the summer.

- Okay.

- And they wanna make sure the plants stay moist.

They put this in the hole.

I think it kind of dissipates over time, but I'm not exactly sure of the long-term implications from using it.

We've used it in containers here at the Dixon.

I've got a really funny story.

- Let's hear it.

- I've got Greg Francis, who used to work here.

He would always do our containers.

And he got some of this material that you're talking about that they use in the diapers, and he mixed it in with the soil that he put in the containers.

And then he planted everything and then he went into water it.

Well, that stuff expands like two times.

- Right.

- So the next morning, all the plants, it was like a volcano had erupted and they were all on the ground.

So I will say moisten the soil before you plant - Yes, please.

- Before you put it in the container.

But, you know, I don't know if there's any long-term implications for it.

But, you know, if you prepare the soil right, and you're putting the right plant in the right place and you're planting the right time of the year, you know, like landscapers, sometimes they're finishing up a construction project and they have to plant in the summer.

You know, if you avoid, if you, seasonality in gardening is such a big thing.

So if you're doing the right thing at the right time- - Got it.

- It makes a huge difference.

So you're not fighting nature as much, right.

- Yeah, I agree with that's good.

- So I would say you shouldn't need it except for in special circumstances.

And, but like I said, we have used it in containers.

But good organic material and you know, proper watering, planting at the right time.

I think you shouldn't need it.

- I think they should get it, Craig.

Yeah, pretty interesting story.

That's a funny story about that.

- Yeah.

- Thank you Dale.

- Uh-huh.

- It's good as always, thank you.

Appreciate that.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is familyplot@wkno.org, and the mailing address is Family Plot 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee, 38016.

Or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all we have time for today.

Thanks for watching.

We're coming up on spring and it's about time to plant the garden.

To get ready, visit familyplotgarden.com.

We have lots of information about soil, bugs, plants, diseases, and so much more.

It's all there to help you have the best garden ever.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]