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

I'm Chris Cooper.

The growing season is over.

But today we are going to talk about some great shrub and flower options you can try out.

Also, fruit trees are losing their leaves but there are some things you can do to prepare them for next year.

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 Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis, and Mr. D. is here.

- Howdy.

- Thanks for joining us.

- Hi Ms. Joellen, let's talk about some shrubs that folks should try out.

- Yeah.

- So let's start out with viburnum.

- Viburnums.

- I know you like viburnums.

- Yeah, I like viburnums.

And viburnums are actually a fairly common shrub.

- (Chris) Okay.

- But a lot of people don't know about them.

The reason that they're not more popular is because most of them are very large.

- Okay.

[laughs] - And so it's kind of hard to put, you know, people want foundation plants and things that are small, well, but sometimes it takes a large shrub, you know, in the back corner of your lot or somewhere.

And viburnums would be an excellent addition.

They are all different kinds.

There's one thing that is true about viburnums is that they're not all alike.

As related as they are, they can be trees, shrubs.

They can be evergreen.

They can be semi-evergreen.

- (Chris) My goodness.

- They could be deciduous.

- Look at Mr. D., he's like, wow.

I'm with ya on that, Mr. D. - They can be large, up to 60 feet tall.

They can be short to three feet.

- Oh, okay.

- So, I mean.

- That's quite a range.

- So there's a huge range of viburnums.

So consequently, there's probably one that will fit your situation no matter what you're looking for.

We'll talk about a few of 'em.

- (Chris) Okay.

- But first, the things that they have in common.

They all have white or pink flowers and they bloom in the spring.

- (Chris) Okay.

- They all have red fruit that turns to purple if the birds don't eat it first so it's a good shrub for birds if you want to feed birds.

So it's good for that.

Some of the smaller varieties, though, don't always have berries and flowers.

- (Chris) Okay.

- I don't know exactly why but sometimes it's not reliable for flowering and berries on some of the smaller varieties.

- (Chris) Okay.

- They like full sun.

They like light shade.

And they can grow in some pretty dark shade but they probably won't bloom and they probably won't have berries.

- (Chris) Right, makes sense.

- And they won't grow a whole lot.

So they won't get huge.

- Okay.

- In shade.

One of the best things about them though is they are very tolerant of soils in general.

- Oh, that's a good thing.

[laughs] - That's good for us here in the Mid-South because, you know, we don't have the greatest soils for air and water movement.

- (Chris) Okay.

- 'Cause it's such a tight soil.

But one thing they don't like is wet feet.

So they don't like the roots to stay wet.

So you can't put 'em in an area that holds water.

So if you have that problem you gotta raise 'em up 'cause they don't wanna have wet feet.

But other than that they're not particular, [laughs] which is really good.

- Can you handle that Mr. D.?

- Sound pretty temperamental to me.

[laughs] I'll tell ya.

- Well let's talk about some varieties.

There's one called Viburnum davidii , or David viburnum.

It's the smallest one.

It's about three feet tall.

And it's fairly common.

You see it at garden centers occasionally here and there.

- (Chris) Okay.

- And it will be good for a foundation plant because it doesn't get very big.

- Well... - Evergreen?

- It's evergreen, yeah.

That one is evergreen.

The next one I'm gonna talk about the Viburnum carlesii was the first viburnum I fell in love with.

But it is deciduous.

- (Mr. D.) Ah-hah.

- It loses its leaves.

But look at all you get.

Besides the wood in the winter, which is interesting, and it is a fairly large shrub.

We're talking maybe up to eight feet or so, so it's a big sized shrub, but in the spring it blooms and it has round spheres of blooms that are white and pinkish and fragrant.

- (Chris) Ah-hah.

- So can you imagine that large shrub with fragrance?

And you can smell it a ways away.

So that's why I had fallen in love with it.

And it has gorgeous green foliage in the summer time and in the fall it has nice fall color.

So I mean it really is a very versatile plant but it's big and it likes sun so you gotta give it some sun for all that nice wonderful blooms.

- Makes sense.

- So, that's one.

And then there's one that is also grown for its bloom and its fruiting.

It's the doublefile viburnum.

- I've seen those.

- Viburnum plicatum tomentosum .

And it's got horizontal branching and the flowers stand up on the long top of the stems.

They're lace-caps along the top of the stem.

And then those turn into red berries.

And so they're very, very pretty and very popular.

They are large too, so, I mean, you're gonna give them about 8, 10 feet, so these are not small shrubs.

And then there is the one viburnum and it's a hybrid, Viburnum rhytidophylloides.

It's a leather-leaf viburnum and that's what I have in my yard, which is this one here.

And as you can see, it's like a leather leaf.

It's very substantial.

And this particular one blooms pretty white blooms in the spring.

And then it's semi-deciduous.

So what it is the leaves will turn purple color and they'll kind of cling and unless it gets really, really cold and then sometimes some of 'em will fall off but it'll still have some clinging to it and, you know, you can see in ice storms and stuff the leaves are still there and growing.

- I don't see any sign of insect or disease.

- This is, I have never had any problem with this viburnum.

I don't know of any problems they have other than keeping their roots dry, 'cause you know, they don't like wet feet.

So, other than that, I haven't seen no problems with these which is why I don't understand why they're not so popular.

But, you know.

- Almost looks like a little tobacco plant.

[laughs] - The leaves do look alike.

- Well if you feel it, they're real leather and across there's little spines on these too.

- That may be why insects don't bother it.

- Maybe that and, you know, I don't think deer eat this particular one because it's just so spiney.

And if you handle it.

- Joellen, you mentioned earlier about if you handle it, - If you handle it you gotta, you don't want to rub your eyes because these little, everything they have on 'em is just real fuzzy and they can be sharp and irritating but it's a beautiful plant.

It grows, it's nice stiff, the large leaves make a nice texture difference in the landscape and I really like it.

- So Joellen, let's talk about asters.

- Asters.

- Yeah.

- The large family of asters and not only in the United States but across Eurasia and Europe, so it's a large family.

They have done a lot of scientific research on asters because they are so popular.

And they have found out that they are different so they've, the botanists have reclassified the asters and grouped them into the kinds of scientifically DNA tested ones that are more related to each other.

And so that's made it even more, you know, confusing for you.

But most of the popular ones you see in garden centers today are a certain type called Symphyotrichum novi-belgii , and I think that-- - Wow, that's a mouthful.

- It's a huge mouthful, but it's an aster that has been, they've taken some of the European and some of the American asters and they've hybridized them and that's what you see mostly in the garden centers.

And they're beautiful.

And the pictures that you have of asters don't do them justice because they come in ranges of white, there's a creamy yellow, and then all of the colors of blues, purples, pinks, magenta, that you can think of and they're just very vibrant because they are blooming in the fall, this time of year.

And I've had mine bloom clear up until December.

- (Chris) Wow.

- It just depends on the weather.

But they are very good in the wild.

You can find seed catalogs that have native asters in them that you can, of course they're not gonna be called, they may be called asters, but they are going to be of one of these different, you know, classifications of genuses now, but they are asters.

In fact if you take a walk out in the woods and you see something blooming this time of year, usually white, sometimes a little bit on the lavender side, it's going to be an aster.

- (Chris) Hmm, okay.

What kind of conditions do they best grow in?

- They, of course, they like a lot of sun.

- (Chris) Mhmm.

- But they can take some partly sunny, partly shady areas.

But they won't bloom as much and they'll get long and leggy and fall over, 'cause they like sun.

Asters like to be in the sun.

They like well-drained soil, and that's a little bit of the problem we have here, you gotta make sure, you know, I've bought 'em, and I've planted 'em.

I've kept 'em for years.

But they do like to have well-drained soil.

- Okay, yeah usually when I think about asters I think about the weed aster that I have in my Bermuda lawn.

- Yeah, well, but he's native.

- Native, okay.

- It's a wild-- - Then I should let him stay.

- You can let him stay.

It gives you some color.

- Get some color Mr. D. [laughs] - There ya go.

- Back off that lawn mower.

- The bees will come and visit it and anyway, the one that I have that seems to do very well in the Mid-South is the fragrant aster and that's this one here.

And it's a blue color and it's got a woody stem as you can see and what happens when you crush the leaves there's an aroma to them and that's where it gets its name.

- (Chris) Okay.

- And you can see some of these with the yellow parts, the yellow centers, they are the newer ones.

Those are the ones the bees go to.

And then when they get older they turn kind of a purple inside.

And they're, but it's a real pretty, pretty blue.

And there's lots of them out there and there all these asters are clump-forming so when you divide them, probably divide them in the spring because they're blooming in the fall.

You don't want to disturb them when they're blooming.

And they will live for a long time and you can pass 'em along.

- Alright well thanks.

We appreciate that information.

I think Mr. D. really likes that.

Thank you much.

[upbeat country music] - When you talk about a species versus a genus, when you look at the classification of a plant, you know, it starts out in the kingdom and the phylum.

It goes all the way down, you know, to the exact species, which is a two-part name.

Now, the genus is the first part of that name.

For example, Magnolia grandiflora, and see Magnolia is, you can talk about magnolias inclusively to mean star magnolias, southern magnolia, saucer magnolias.

If you just say magnolia, you're saying the whole genus of all of those different species.

The species is that two-part name, for example Magnolia grandiflora.

You know exactly that that's our southern magnolia.

If you'd said Magnolia stellata , that's our star magnolia, and so on down we go.

[Chris laughs] And the genus just happens to be also the common name.

[upbeat country music] Alright Mr. D. Fall fruit tree care, what do we need to know?

- Well, probably one of the best things to do, you know, right now in the fall of the year is to clean up under your fruit trees.

Get rid of any rotten fruit or mummified fruit and leaves, branches that could possibly be infected with diseases or if you had a problem with fire blight.

We had a lot of fire blight pressure this year with all of the rain that we had.

You wanna get all of those leaves and everything out of the orchard if you can or out from under the trees.

And don't put it in your compost bin.

I would get rid of it, either have a bonfire and burn it up if you can legally do that, or bag it, double bag it, and put it in the garbage.

But that's one of the best things that you can do right now.

Another thing that very soon that you can do is start thinking about applying your dormant oil sprays, liquid lime sulfur, in some cases fixed copper.

These are some applications that you can put out during the dormant period that will help control some of, you know, it's a preventative treatment for insects next year, insects some will overwinter as eggs, or even sometimes adults in bark crevices and things like that.

And these treatments will help take care of some of these problems.

Let me kind of go down a list of what some of the products do, what some of the problems that they control.

The dormant oil can be applied any time the trees are dormant when all the leaves are off November through, well, March.

You definitely need to make sure you make at least one application just before bud break in the spring time though in late winter.

Need to follow the label directions on temperature restrictions.

Temperatures, if it's a real cold freeze coming that can create a problem.

So you need to apply it when the temperatures, if you put it out when the temperatures are below thirty-five degrees, you might damage the bark.

But the dormant oil will control aphids, scales, spider mites, and many other insects by desicating or smothering the eggs and larva.

So that's what your dormant oil will do.

Lime sulfur is more for fungal disease and bacterial diseases.

So if you've had a problem with fire blight, scab, bacterial blights, and anthracnose, lime sulfur is the product that you need to do and probably two or three applications over the wintertime, early in the winter, middle of the winter, and then late winter.

- (Chris) Okay.

- Would be a good idea on lime sulfur.

- Any temperature requirements for the lime sulfur?

- Don't see anything on that.

Fixed copper controls canker, a fungal disease, and you may wanna make a couple of applications of that if you've had a problem with canker.

Primarily on peaches and plums in our area.

And if you don't have peaches or plum trees then you don't have to worry about the fixed copper.

- Let me ask you about this though.

Going back to the fixed copper and the lime sulfur.

Do you do one or the other?

Or do you do 'em both?

- It's best to do 'em both.

- Both, okay.

- If you have peaches and plums now of course the copper is only for peaches and plums.

The liquid lime sulfur, that would be on all of 'em, apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines.

- But you wouldn't mix the two together would you?

Or would they have to be separate applications?

- That's a very good question.

You know, I don't really see a reason why you wouldn't mix those together.

I would see why you wouldn't wanna mix 'em with the dormant oil.

- (Chris) Yeah.

- 'Cause you might affect the consistency of the dormant oil.

But I really don't see a problem with mixing the fixed copper with liquid lime sulfur.

I don't see a problem with doing that.

And that would reduce the number of times you're out there spraying about 50%.

- It sure would.

- One thing that you see a lot of fruit growers do is they'll paint the base of their tree with white latex paint and what you're trying to do is avoid freeze injury, avoid on the southwest side of that plant, even in any time during the wintertime, if it's real cold and it thaws, the sun thaws the cambium layer or the bark and then it refreezes at night, it can cause that bark to split.

And mixing just white latex paint, you know, mix it with water, cut it 50%- 1 part paint, one part water, and then you paint the trunk and that will act as a sunscreen.

You know, basically repel the sunlight and keep that from happening.

And the commercial growers I know will put a rubber glove on and a cotton glove and just put their hand in the paint and just go up, you know, 20, 30 inches, you know, you don't have to go all, you don't wanna paint the whole tree.

But especially the lower part of the tree it'd be a good idea to do that.

You know, also now is the time to be thinking about ordering and replacing fruit trees.

I lost an apple tree this year and what happened is I planted it in a little bit lower place than the other apple trees and over time soil had washed in around that apple tree and as much as I preach against planting trees too deep that tree actually, soil settled in around it and I got a windstorm and noticed the foliage was much lighter than the rest of my fruit trees and we got a little windstorm and just blew the tree over.

- (Chris) How 'bout that.

- And I looked at it and it was actually planted too deep.

Well, it wasn't planted too deep.

But soiled washed in around it and then the same thing took place so that's one thing that you really need to be careful with.

- (Chris) Okay.

- So but think about, you know, going and ordering, you can order from reputable nurseries and pick out your varieties and go ahead and soil test, you know, if you're gonna plant any.

Make sure you get the pH right.

Your pH needs to be pretty high for almost all fruits except for blueberries.

And if you're gonna plant blueberries you need to get the pH down.

Make it acid enough to burn the soles off the bottom of your shoes.

[Chris laughs] 4.2 to, you know, 5.2.

Very low, very low pH.

- Well Mr. D., we appreciate that good information.

- Okay.

- Thank you sir.

[upbeat country music] - We've got some vinca and marigolds that we planted last year in this container with our rosemary and our parsley.

They have reseeded and have come up again.

So, rather than let 'em sit down there, we're gonna dig them up and put 'em back in our container so we'll have flowers up here.

And we're gonna dig up this marigold first.

[trowel scraping] As you see, the stick fell down and it rooted all the way across the stem.

So, we'll have long, nice roots to add to the container here.

Then, we'll dig up the vinca.

[trowel scraping] There we go.

And we're just planting the roots, we're not trying to bury the stem.

Now that we have finished planting, don't forget to water them.

Now the container has flowers again.

[upbeat country music] - Alright, so Q & A session.

You all ready for these questions?

- Sure.

- Good questions.

Good questions.

Alright lets start with the first viewer email.

"Can you identify this flower?"

And this is from Ms. Sandy.

So, Ms. Joellen, do we know what that flower is?

- After some research, yeah.

- Okay.

[all laughs] - Gentiana.

I guess that's how you pronounce it.

- That's the way I pronounce it.

- And it's pretty.

It blooms this time of year in the fall which is probably why she's wondering, you know, she's seen it out and she wants to know what it is and she's putting it in her garden and, you know, it's native but it is found in the wild but we're about at the southern end of its native area, zone seven, so I'm surprised she actually found it out... - Right.

It is a herbaceous perennial.

I did talk to Ms. Sandy.

She told me she was out walking her dogs in the woods-- - (Mr. Dr.) Where does she live?

- Outside of Bartlett, and she happened across this beautiful plant, she dug it up, brought it home, put it in her landscape, and wanted to know what is it?

- And that's how most, you know, hybrid plants and plants get in neighborhoods because you find it out and you bring it in and they hybridize them.

And the fact that it's blooming this time of year should make it start to be very popular.

- Right, it should.

- Plant.

- And of course, you know, conditions rich, cool, moist, well-drained, acidic soils.

- That's true.

There's a lot of landscapes that fit that description.

We just gotta replicate what was found in nature, where it was found in nature.

And we can grow it.

- So there you have it Ms. Sandy.

Gentiana, right?

- Gentiana.

- Alright, here's our next viewer's email.

"Should I prune my gardenia before I cover it "for the winter?

"My grandfather did that "and his was always so healthy looking.

"My bush is tall but not too full.

"I thought maybe it would increase "the branches in the spring.

Am I wrong?"

And this is from Ms. Edwina.

So she wants to prune her gardenia before she covers it for the winter.

- I don't think that would be a very good idea since gardenias normally bloom on the second year growth.

So she's cutting off the blooms for next year if she trims it.

You're supposed to trim plants' flowers and shrubs that bloom right after they finish blooming so then they have time to grow and produce flowers for next year.

My parents had one and it kept dying down every year and my mother loves gardenias so they dug it up and put it in a pot and they rolled it in and out of the garage.

- (Chris) That's smart.

- And they had beautiful shrubs.

There are hardy varieties, hardy gardenias now and they're smaller.

They're much smaller varieties than the older ones that are huge.

So she might wanna try one of those but I understand it's not as thick as she wants it but maybe next year, after it finishes blooming, she should trim it and fertilize it and make sure it gets enough nutrients.

And I don't know how much light it's getting.

- (Chris) Right.

- They need quite a bit of light to be able to produce all that nice green foliage and blooms.

- Anything to add to that, Mr. D.?

- Just, I don't know of anything that needs to be pruned this time of the year really.

This is normally, your pruning shears need to be oiled and greased and shoved up on the shelf waiting, waiting for late winter.

You need to put 'em up, leave 'em.

I don't know of anything that does well unless you're trying to kill something.

And if you want to kill something, prune it now.

- (Chris) Got that right.

- Stress it really good before it goes into the winter and maybe you'll kill it.

And some thing's you wanna try to kill.

Kudzu.

Now is a really good time to prune kudzu if you wanna kill kudzu.

- Japanese privet?

- Hmm?

- Japanese privet?

- Yeah, yeah, anything you wanna kill.

Now is a good time to really stress it.

- We don't wanna stress that gardenia Ms. Edwina.

So there ya have it from Ms. Joellen.

Alright, but I do have another question for that.

Say she doesn't prune it.

Do gardenias need to be covered up for the winter?

- Well, yes and no.

It depends on what kind she has.

- (Chris) Oh, okay.

- And if she normally covers it, I don't know where she's at in the part of the country, but and maybe it is that she needs to cover it up.

She's not digging it up and putting it inside.

It's one of those that is hurt by the really cold temperatures and not one of the hardy ones then maybe it does need to be covered up.

- Ms. Edwina may be from Buffalo, New York.

- You never know.

- Alright, thanks for that question Ms. Edwina.

Alright so Mr. D., Ms. Joellen, we're outta time.

That was fun.

We're outta time, thank you.

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.

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We have hundreds of videos on all sorts of gardening topics.

I'm Chris Cooper.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]