- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

Today, Brenda Sanders shares with us some winter shrubs.

We learn more about essential plant nutrients.

We then visit Brenda's home garden.

And finally, she takes us on a tour of Bear Creek Cut Flower Farm.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma Green and growing Oklahoma.

Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Shape your future provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Oklahoma Gardening 50th anniversary.

I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

- People in Oklahoma love their gardens.

- I feel like this is the people's show.

We all know we're working towards the common goal, and that's to produce the best quality television and information for our audience.

- Well, this, you're shopping around this spring for some shrubs to put in your landscape.

You might want to plan ahead for some winter interest.

And today I wanna show you a few shrubs that have great winter interest.

And first off, I've got a dogwood here.

Now, usually people think of dogwoods as the flowering dogwood with the nice white flowers in the spring, but this is actually a redosier dogwood, and its selling point is this nice red twigs that it has.

This is just beautiful.

Now, this makes a nice show in the landscape, especially in the winter.

And if we get a snow cover, this red color really stands out against that white background.

Now, there's a couple of other red twig dogwoods that you might wanna try, and one of those would be the tarian dogwood and also the dwarf Kelsey Dogwood.

Now, any of these three would make great red color in your landscape, but if you wanna contrast, say you've got a red house and you'd like something else in front, you might like to try something like this.

Yellow twig dogwood, the twigs have this nice yellow color that will stand out.

Great with that background, well, we've got one more shrub that I'd like to show you, and it's got another color altogether, so let's go look at it.

Well, this shrub is known as a Japanese rose, and it has great green winter color.

Notice how these stems just have this nice bright green.

Now it's an early spring flowering shrub.

It's already starting to leaf out.

And in about another month we're going to have beautiful yellow flowers on this.

It's just really a pretty shrub to have in the landscape.

Now what you need to notice on these is that, see down here, we actually cut this off immediately after it flowered last spring, we cut it back down to the ground so that all this new growth would come up out of the ground.

And that's what has the great green color to it.

Now, with our dogwoods, this is important too.

And actually right now is the time that you need to trim those back.

You'll notice on our dwarf, Kelsey Dogwood down here, the old grove has pretty much lost that great color, and it's really quite gray.

But here on the ends, we've got that nice dark maroon color.

And so what we need to do with this is trim it back.

Now, this pruning practice is known as copying, and all that is is cutting it back down, close to the ground, about two inches from the ground to an outward facing bud.

Now this seems very drastic, but we'll have a lot of nice new growth that will come up out of this, and we'll get some great color out of this.

So you'll wanna do this to your dogwoods that you're using for winter interest right now.

But on the Japanese carry, you'll wanna wait until after it flowers and then go ahead and prune it.

Now it'll look like I've really given it a haircut after I get done, but it'll grow back this summer and look really nice.

Well, as you can see, I have cut a lot of wood out of these shrubs, but I still have some left.

And what I've done is taken that old wood out.

So we'll get some more new wood sprouting from the base.

And this is a good idea to do with any of your shrubs that you want to have that winter twig interest.

Now, if these shrubs are growing on really fertile soil and you fertilize 'em, you'll wanna do this every year.

But if it's in a more neglected place, you'll probably only want to do this about every other year.

So just remember when you're shopping for your shrubs this spring, to think about things such as twig color so that you'll have something to look at this winter when the snow flies.

Well, here on Oklahoma gardening, you hear us talk a lot about plant nutrients.

And the big three nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

And these are the ones that you might most likely find deficient in your garden.

And today, we grew a bunch of examples here showing what happens if you grow plants without these essential nutrients.

And first of all, if you look at all of our plants, you notice there's a striking difference between the plants that were grown with a complete fertilizer and the ones that were grown without certain essential nutrients.

And if we look over here at our plants that have been fertilized with complete fertilizer, they have all the nutrients they're supposed to have.

They have a nice green color on the leaves, they have nice blooms, they're large.

And on our tomato here, we've got a lot of nice growth.

And we're even starting to get some flowers here on the top.

Now, we did this example with tomatoes and with marigolds to show you what the differences are between vegetable crops and flowering crops.

Well, if we move over here to our plants that were grown without any nitrogen, you'll notice they're much smaller than the other plants.

And also, if you look here at the leaves, they're markedly lighter green color than the ones that had the nitrogen in it.

And back here on our tomato plants, these have been grown without nitrogen for so long that the tops are actually starting to die.

And you'll notice that the leaves are all very small and the plants are falling over.

They're just not very healthy looking.

So nitrogen is a very important nutrient for plants.

Well, moving on over here to our phosphorus, the first thing that you notice is that the leaves appear to be purple.

That is a classic sign of phosphorus deficiencies.

You have the purple leaves.

You'll also notice that the flowers are much further behind.

And here on our tomatoes, you can see where the leaves on the lower parts are actually very dark purple, almost black, and they're starting to fall off because they haven't had any phosphorus.

And phosphorus is also very important for fruit and seed production in plants.

Well, finally, moving on to plants grown without potassium.

You'll notice that they're not quite as bad off as the other two, but they're a little bit lighter in color.

We have smaller flowers.

And here on our tomatoes, you'll notice we've got some scorching here along the leaf margins.

That's a sign of potassium deficiency.

Well, these nutrients not only affect the growth above ground of plants, but they also affect the growth below ground.

Here in our complete marigold, I wanted to show you the roots.

And you'll notice they have nice branching structure.

They're also really long.

So those roots are there.

They can take up the nutrients they need.

Now, if we go over here to the plant grown without nitrogen, the roots, they're branched, but they're all really small.

It's just stunts the overall plant On our phosphorus plant, you'll notice that the roots are really affected.

And that's because phosphorus helps roots grow.

The roots are very long, they don't have much branching.

And so the plant is unable to take up many nutrients at all because the phosphorus hasn't allowed it.

The lack of phosphorus, I mean, hasn't allowed it to two develop a root structure that it needs.

Finally, you'll notice that on our plant grown without potassium, it has a good root structure because potassium affects the top of the plant, the flowering, and the size more than it does the root structure.

Now, all of these nutrients are very important to the plant.

And if you notice that you're having some problems with your plants in your garden, what you probably ought to do, first of all, is get a soil test taken before you start adding anything to your garden.

And that way you'll know if your plants need some essential nutrients.

My advisor, Mike Smith, Dr.

Smith, said, well, they've got an opening out at the garden.

They need someone to be the interim garden manager, because they were both the host and the garden manager had left at the same time.

- Okay, - Was Steve Dobbs and then Alan job.

And so I filled in as garden manager, and Sue Gray was the interim host at that point.

So you know, started learning how to be, you know, do Oklahoma gardening stuff - Or So what year was that?

1996.

- 96?

Yeah.

- Okay.

- And, and so as we were going along and then they start looking for a new host and everything, and Sue was like, you know, you oughta, you ought to try out for that or not try out, but you ought to apply for that position or whatever.

And and I was like, well, okay.

Hello.

Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

I'm your host, Brenda Simons.

Well, today we have a great show for you.

And to start with, we're actually going to be harvesting some of our ornamental sweet potatoes.

It's kind of like having ala in your mouth Jackie savages, that it's like having a wool or a fur coat in your mouth.

It's a very interesting, very bitter taste and it's hard to get out of your mouth.

So once you've eaten an I'm right persimmon.

Well, this is a really fun day.

So let's get started on Oklahoma gardening.

Hello and welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

I'm your former host, Brenda Sanders.

And it's been 13 years now since I was host.

It was from 1996 to 2000.

And thought I'd show you a little bit of what I've been doing.

And my main project has been, this is my son Owen, and he is nine years old and we've had a lot of fun playing in the garden and digging.

And then this is our dog Bungee, and he is a golden retriever and he's probably about six and he likes to dig six.

And we thought we would tell you a little bit about what we're doing.

And Owen wanted to show you his garden.

And Owen, what if you got planted in your garden?

- Well, right back here I have giant sunflowers on the very back row.

And then I have Swiss Charred right here.

And then we're gonna plant zinnia's right about here and the garden.

And then we have Nasturtiums on the very front.

Very good.

- And why did we plant the sunflowers back there in the - Back?

Because they're gonna get really tall so we can like tie them onto this thing to support them so they don't wilt over and snap.

- Exactly.

And we planted some before we planted them in the back bed.

And how tall did they get - Over?

Well, taller than my dad.

And my dad is six foot three.

- Yep.

So we needed to have some kind of support.

So we thought we'd tried that.

And this is where we're gonna talk a little bit about dog proofing.

We had this raised bed and this is Owens.

And so he's decided what to plant in here.

But the other person that likes this bed is bungee because it's nice and easy to dig and moist.

And so it makes it cool.

And what we did is we used some of this, we actually found this at a garage sale, but they're just very easy, kind of instant fence things.

And you can order them online or you can go garage ceiling and look for them.

But anyway, they work really well to keep bungee out of the raised bed.

We have another raised bed right here.

And like everybody else, we're very late getting our vegetables in with a May 1st frost.

It's like very late.

But, and we were kind of discouraged because the last two summers haven't been just great for gardening.

So we planted a fall garden with Owen's Cub scout den, and that kind of got us reinspired.

And what did we plant Owen?

It was really good.

- Well, we planted carrots, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and I think that's all - Carrots, broccoli, lettuce and radishes.

- And radishes.

- Yeah.

And the radishes were great because they were very fast and we got to see, but we also af, we harvested and we made a salad out of our harvest.

And Owen, what did you guys think about the lettuce that you harvested?

How did it taste?

- Yeah.

Well, compared to the stuff that you buy, it tasted a lot better.

Yeah.

- And so with that, with our fall garden, we kind of got re-inspired.

And so we're planting again a vegetable garden for the spring.

Well, let's go on around to the back and I'll show you a little bit more of our gardening.

Well, this is a our deck that my husband John built for us.

And he made me some raised beds here on the end.

And I also like to do a lot of gardening and pots.

And usually I have pots all over the deck.

But one thing that we found is that bungee also likes to lay in this nice soft dirt.

And so last fall, John thought, why don't we put the pots in the ground?

And so we, we kind of buried them all through here and it's actually worked really well.

'cause bungee doesn't really dig here because there's no place for him to actually lay down.

So we're starting to plant, this is mostly my herb garden.

And then I have a couple tomatoes here.

But I think it's gonna work really well.

And the idea probably will be this fall before I do it, is to put some spinach down here, or maybe some wheat grass or something down here around the pots that'll look a little bit like a living mulch.

And also we can eat it.

So anyway, that's a little bit of what I've been doing since leaving Oklahoma gardening.

And Owen and I have a lot of fun and a bungee too, digging and playing in the dirt.

And we like to plant too, just whatever.

And sometimes we get to harvest it and sometimes it gets stuck up.

But thanks for joining us and have a great gardening year.

Well, today we're actually in a field of cut flowers grown right here in Oklahoma.

We're at Bear Creek Farms and we're talking with the owner.

Vicki, stand back.

And Vicki, thank you for having us out here.

Well, hey Vicki.

It's been a while since I've been here 28 years.

I think a lot's changed.

- Well, a lot has changed.

Welcome back.

First of all, and like in life, the one thing you can count on is things to change.

And so what we've done over the years, we still grow specialty cut flowers, a lot of them.

But we've diversified in many ways because of our customers.

Our customers have asked us to bring things in that we can't grow.

And so we have started shipping things in from California family farms and also product in from Florida as well.

So now we kind of, instead of just a flower grower, we consider ourselves a grower slash wholesaler.

- Okay.

- And since we sell wholesale only that fits in.

Perfect.

The other thing that we have added over the years is we now do wedding garlands for our customers.

Any link made out of anything we've done, done it all.

And we also, in recent years, have added Christmas garlands with fresh Christmas greenery and Christmas Reese as well.

Very nice.

So the - Garlands, you were telling us it's the materials that you have.

Even if you don't grow them here, they're still so much fresher.

- They're very, very fresh.

- And that's, you kind of vet your, your suppliers - For that?

Yes.

Yes.

Our main green supplier out of California, we give them our order on Monday.

They cut it on Wednesday, it gets on the refrigerated truck on Wednesday, and we get it on Saturday.

Oh, wow.

- That's, that's really fresh.

Very fresh.

So, and so the specialty cat flowers that you grow, I think when we visited before you had four acres going.

How much space do you dedicate to that now?

What do you have going?

- Well, we have, I would say a grand total of about 15 acres.

- Wow.

- But some of the things are woody cuts and they take up a lot of space.

And so as far as cut flowers, you know, particularly perennials and annuals, I would say probably closer to six to eight acres.

- Oh, wow.

So that's a lot.

Now you mostly did annuals before, but you've kind of expanded that.

And you said you did woody plant materials that you cut.

Right.

And, and then also you've been leaning on maybe more perennials than you used to.

- We're trying to do incorporate more perennials, because those do come back every year and don't require quite as much care.

And we can do some really different things.

And so all of that together gives us a lot of diversity.

The woody cuts, we have some bulbs, daffodils primarily.

And, and then the perennials too.

- This is a lot to keep watered Most years.

Yes.

Yes.

Now, this year was different, right?

'cause we had a lot of rain, but do you still use drip irrigation?

Is that - All?

We still use drip irrigation on everything greenhouses and in the field, but we use city water and so we pay for our water.

Right.

So this year with all the rain has been an added bonus.

We haven't had gigantic water bills.

That's - Always nice.

Yes.

- Yes.

- What is some of your main flowers that you have right now?

- Well, this time of year it's the heat loving things.

So cox comb, socia, sunflowers and xenias are the primary things.

We just finished up with thistle, which also likes the heat too.

That is one of our perennials.

- Very good.

The specialty cut flowers, they have a little bit of a different care.

Yes.

After they're cut.

What's different about - Those?

Well, for all the flowers that we grow, they just go into plain water.

Unlike maybe some flowers that get shipped in, they, they perform the best in plain water.

No flower food at - All.

No flower food at all.

No.

But then you recut the stems and change the water daily?

- Yes.

Okay.

Well that's what the customer should do.

Yeah.

Or the florist should do.

And then we try to pick and, and then sell those flowers the next day.

- Okay.

- So they're So they're really, really fresh.

Yeah.

And then if the, if our customer is holding onto them for any length of time, they need to recut and replenish the water.

Okay.

Well, - Very good.

Well, a lot of things have changed.

One of them being you actually have more help than you used to.

Yes.

You've added added people here.

Yes.

And, and also you've added services that you didn't used to have - Besides the garlands and the Reese.

And then we also do bouquets and we primarily do bouquets for Whole Foods.

And we sell to all the Whole Foods in Oklahoma, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City.

But we also do bouquets for our florist customers too, that request them.

And we have quite a few of them that get 'em weekly.

Oh, great.

Because they're good chop and drop basically.

Yeah.

And so around holidays is when we're really, really busy.

It helps our, our florist customers a lot with say Valentine's, where somebody walks in last minute and instead of them having to design something, they can take one of our bouquets, maybe add a couple of roses or something, and then they've got a great bouquet.

Oh, great.

- One of your specialties now flower preservation, is that right?

Right.

- We've recently added flower preservation to our whole mix.

And Preston Griffith is primarily in charge of that and does that, he puts a little bit of himself in every single one.

And we do flower preservation for wedding bouquets or funeral work, anything that people might want preserved.

- Oh, very cool.

Well, I would like to see that, and I think our viewers would too.

I'm gonna go talk to Preston about that.

Great.

Well, hi Preston.

Hi Brenda.

How are you?

I'm doing well.

It's nice to meet - You.

It's nice to meet - You.

This is amazing.

These flowers are so beautiful.

- Thank you very much.

- And, and you're preserving them.

- Yes, yes.

Yes.

So, - So the process, how does the process work?

- So typically what happens is, like all of these that you see here right now, I'm working on one right now.

Oh my gosh.

Typically these will be like bridal bouquets from weddings.

And what they'll do is they will get them back to their florist that they've done their wedding through, and they'll get the bouquets to us, and then we will put them in silica.

And that's a kind of a time consuming process.

We have to go through each different pedal and make sure that everything's perfectly the shape that we want it.

And then we cover it with the silica sand.

And we leave that for a couple of weeks for everything to dry.

And it preserves the color beautifully as you can see.

Wow.

And so then we take those out and then we make beautiful boxes that they can hang on the wall or CLOs that they can use as coffee table things.

We also do preservation from like funeral mementos, - Flowers - And - Things and things like that.

Yeah.

Anything that's, that's special that people want to keep.

- Well, very nice.

Well, so if someone wanted to preserve their wedding bouquet, they should ask their florist about that.

- Yeah.

That's, that's, they'll direct, that's, that's the best way, okay.

Is you could ask your local florist that you've done your wedding through or, or anyone like that, and then they can get with us and we'll work something out.

- For sure.

This is great.

And just extends the life and the use of the fresh cut flowers.

- Absolutely.

It's beautifully.

And it's something that's, that's really special that people can keep.

Yeah.

Because you know, if you just hang your flowers up to dry, sometimes they kind of curl in on themselves and turn brown.

Yes.

And aren't as beautiful as they could be.

Okay.

We're, we like to preserve memories for people.

- Very nice.

Well, we really appreciate you and Vicki.

- Yes.

- Inviting us back out.

And thank you so much for showing us your operation.

- Thank you for coming.

We really enjoyed having you out here.

- There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

Join us next week right here on Oklahoma Gardening as we bring you the best of former host Steve Owens.

- No, I'm not.

Well, we have a great show you today, stove Stay.

Stove Sticks Well Things in our Heirloom Vegetable Gar bur.

- To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices.

Be sure to visit our website at Oklahoma gardening dot OK state.edu.

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Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OSU is home to our studio gardens, and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater Gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.