- [Lauren] You know the phrase everything's coming up roses?

That sums up this rose grower's beautiful backyard.

We're here in May with hundreds of blooms and lots of gorgeous colors.

We'll find out his favorites and get some great gardening tips, too.

And Sherri Gramer visits, "Crowder Fields," where they specialize in field grown ornamental grasses, the consumer makes their selection, and they dig them up for you.

Fun!

Come along.

(happy music) Let's pick up some pointers from a rose aficionado.

(gentle music) - [April] Today, we're in Hendersonville to visit a beautiful, stunning rose garden with over 150 roses.

And I guarantee you, you're in for a treat.

Ron, this is a stunning wall display here.

Could you tell me a little about the tree roses, and this beautiful shrub rose you have here in front?

That's lovely.

- Yes.

"Iceberg," it's a very popular rose.

They grow a lot of 'em in California, and this particular "Iceberg" is what they call a standard or a tree rose, that's a common name for it.

And it's kind of unusual 'cause it's got burgundy, pink, and white on the same bush.

- [April] Yeah, it's gorgeous.

- [Ron] And it's pretty hardy.

I'll leave it out here in the winter.

It don't freeze, but it does real well.

And like I said, it's a real popular rose in landscaping 'cause it does come in a bush form.

- [April] Yeah.

Well, is it, do you have to protect it in any special way?

'Cause I know tree tree roses can be a little daunting for us, here.

- [Ron] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, not this particular one.

I've had that out three or four winters and never had any trouble with it.

Then the shrub rose here is the shrub rose that I recommend to people, and no telling how many I give away to new members at the "Nashville Rose Society."

It's called, "Quietness."

And I think they just described it wrong because it's more of, to me, it looks more of a floribunda or hybrid tea.

- [April] Yeah.

- [Ron] It does grow in clusters.

But it's in constant bloom, I do not spray this rose, it's very hardy, and everybody that comes in here's gotta have one.

- [April] Wow - [Ron] So I've- - [April] And you don't spray it?

- [Ron] No.

- [April] Wow, that's shocking.

Wow.

- [Ron] And so it's, it has a lot of good qualities.

This is just first bloom cycle.

I'll get three bloom cycles off that shrub rose in a season.

- [April] That's amazing.

I would definitely like a start of it.

(April laughing) - [Ron] Yeah.

I will get you one.

- [April] Fantastic.

Ron, can you tell me a little bit about why the soil here is so mounded?

I mean, it's really a high mound here, about, what, a couple of feet at least?

- [Ron] Yeah.

At least that, yes.

I'm 6'3", and so at this point in time, my life, I love raised beds anyway, 'cause roses grow good in raised beds.

- [April] Right.

- [Ron] And plus I have amended soil here.

I use a product called "Holy Cow Soils," which is, they custom blend.

So when I designed this, I wanna make sure I had a raise bed and then I've got drainage underneath.

Then also I've got an irrigation system in there.

It's real easy to run irrigation in a raised bed.

And it showcases your roses.

- [April] What's your favorite one right in here?

And I hate to ask that, but.

- [Ron] Well, you know how it is, your favorite is what's blooming today, but this floribunda here, "Moondance."

- [April] The white one?

- [Ron] The white one there.

- [April] Yeah.

- [Ron] It really does good and very popular.

And whites and yellows are kind of hard to grow anyway.

- [April] Yeah.

- [Ron] But that one does real well and I've had it in here eight years, so it really does grow.

- Well, I bet they look fabulous at night when you're sitting out here with your cup of coffee or your glass of wine.

So it's gorgeous.

- [Ron] Oh yeah, the light, yeah, definitely.

It does that.

It does at Twilight too.

And then early in the morning, I come out here a lot of times early in the morning and enjoy the roses.

- [April] This is a stunning rose that you have trained up the wall, a climber.

Can you tell me a little bit about it?

- [Ron] Yes, yes.

This rose is called, "America."

It's my wife's favorite.

And anytime, her being a non-gardener, I always like to put something that she likes out here.

So she loves this.

It'll bloom three times.

After it blooms the first time, I'll deadhead it off, but it's just- And actually, they're good to cut and bring in, but really, you know, they're climbers, but they're actually trainers.

They're on a trellis and I tie 'em off.

And when you think of roses, you want climbing roses, you always wanna think about a fan, growing in a fan, and growing.

If you're grow 'em straight up completely, they don't bloom as well.

- [April] Oh yeah, they get more sunlight that way they.

- [Ron] They do, they do.

And they produce more, but my wife loves that rose and she that color.

And when I pick out geraniums and other plants, they have to be that color.

- [April] It is beautiful.

- [Ron] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- [April] It is beautiful.

We're in a beautiful section of Ron's rose garden and it's dedicated to miniatures and it has a beautiful sign here called the "John Curtis Miniature Garden."

Could you explain to me who John Curtis is?

And then I'd love to know about this beautiful red rose.

- Okay, cool.

John Curtis was my mentor 28 years ago.

I ran into him and I was already growing stuff, not a lot of roses, and I kind of followed him around like a puppy dog for 33 years, and my wife thought I was gonna move him in the house as a dependent, but he was just a great teacher, great consulting rosarian, and he turned me on to, not only growing and caring for roses, but how to minister with them.

- [April] Oh, wow, that's beautiful.

- So that's over the years, this particular rose called "Daddy Frank," which was the name of my daddy-in-law, who I worked for for nine years in the construction business.

I had a friend, Robbie Tucker, who used to be one of our presidents of the "American Rose Society" back in the nineties.

He lived in Thompson Station, and he hybridized roses, and was very successful at it.

But the "Daddy Frank," he called me one day.

He said, "I'm gonna send you this plant, and I think you have a relative with that name."

And I said, "Cool."

So we compared the bios of his uncle in Texas and they were identical.

And I said, "I gotta have that rose."

But that was one of his original plants, his mother plants that he sent to me.

So I love that rose.

It's a great show rose.

It's one of the top show roses in the country, and a beautiful, beautiful red.

And miniatures, it can be a big bush, but a small rose.

- [April] Yeah.

Well, it's a beautiful tribute to your family and to your mentor, and I think that's a wonderful.

personal connection in your garden.

- [Ron] Definitely.

And a lot of these roses, John Curtis recommended.

- That's amazing.

And you weren't into roses before then?

- No, I grew vegetables and other flowers.

- I can't imagine that.

- But it's an addiction.

Once you get to grow 'em, you gotta have more of 'em.

- [April] You're not wrong, Ron.

(both laughing) - [Ron] Yeah, yeah.

- [April] You're not wrong.

I wanted to talk a little bit about this bed and, specifically, this gorgeous red rose that we have right here.

Can you tell me about these roses and what they represent?

- Yes, yes.

This is a new shrub rose that come out- Actually, the rose was tested at the Biltmore Trails in Asheville, North Carolina.

I had a little bit to do with it, and it come out several years ago.

I think this was 16, excuse me, 2016 or 17.

So they come out with the red version of it.

- [April] Oh.

- [Ron] And then in 2000, the years to follow, they come out with a pink one.

- [April] Oh, okay.

- [Ron] And now they have a coral one that I'm testing, too.

Also, the pink one's on the far end over there, and the coral's in the middle.

It ain't quite bloomed yet.

So I'm testing that this year, see how it does.

It should do excellent.

But I kinda like 'em, you know, people are really in the "Knock Outs."

This is even better than that.

- [April] Yeah, I agree.

- This is better than "Knock Out.'

- [April] And I recognize that there's definitely some "David Austin English" roses in here.

- [Ron] Yeah.

- [April] That's something that I grow as well.

What do you like about the "Austin" roses?

- [Ron] Well, the "David Austin English" rose is the hottest rose now in the wedding industry.

- [April] Is it?

- [Ron] Oh, it is unbelievable.

Of course they were developing England by David Austin, who's since passed away a couple years ago.

- [April] Yeah, just a couple years ago.

- [Ron] But his sons are growing them.

They are shrub roses.

Some of 'em have over a hundred pedals on them and they're a lot hardier than your hybrid teas.

- [April] And they're kind of very romantic looking.

I can see why they're hot for weddings.

- [Ron] They are, they are.

- We have this beautiful arbor, pergola here with these wonderful two climbers on it.

I'd like to talk a little bit about those.

And then I wanted to ask about this unusual rose here.

So which of these, what are these?

- This is called "Don Juan," the red is.

A very hardy red rose.

I've been growing it probably, wow, 15, 16 years.

I actually moved this rose from my old garden eight years ago, transferred it.

And then the white one is a kind of shrub slash climber called "Sally Holmes."

It's real popular, real hardy, does real good here.

And I enjoy it, and I like the contrast with the white and the red.

- [April] Yeah, that's beautiful.

- [Ron] I won't take credit for that.

I'll give my wife credit for that.

But I enjoy growing both and they're very hardy and like I said, I'll get three bloom cycles off them.

- [April] Well, it's a beautiful way to sheath this nice, cool structure here.

- [Ron] That's true.

- [April] And then you've got this raised bed with this rose in it.

- [Ron] Yes.

This has always been a hard place for me to grow roses that need four to six hours of sun a day.

- [April] Yeah, and we're on the north here.

- [Ron] We are, we are facing north, and this rose is called "Playboy."

It's been around a while.

It's a floribunda, but it does real- I just planted that by the way, 'cause I had a hard time finding it, and I found two this year, and I was so tickled.

But it kinda looks like, when it bloom, it kinda looks like autumn.

You know, it's got the oranges and looks like a sunset.

But it's a very hardy floribunda and it grows good.

It only gets a little morning sun, no afternoon sun, and look at it blooming.

- [April] No, it's beautiful.

- [Ron] And it does well, so.

- [April] And does it stay at that size or does it get a little bigger?

- [Ron] Oh no, no, no.

By fall, it'll be another 12 inches tall.

- Wow, nice.

And I like how this raised bed you have these in kind of wraps around the structure, and actually adds a little bit of shade in the structure, too.

- [Ron] It does.

And I've got a few hydrangeas slipped in there, here and there, that do pretty good.

- [April] No.

Yeah, your companion planting here in this garden is really nice.

Like there seems to be kind of a certain type of plant you go with for planting under roses.

- [Ron] You do, you do, depending on the sun.

- [April] Yeah.

- [Ron] And what you get, but I enjoy these, and I struggle with this planting this on this north side, but they've done pretty well.

- [April] Yeah.

- You get enough morning sun, especially in the summer.

- And with the climbers, it'll encourage them to grow higher because- - [Ron] Will, if you look on top of this pergola, there's a lot more color going on up there 'cause it's getting that south and west sun.

- [April] Oh, I bet this looks gorgeous from the sky, like when a helicopter- - [Ron] Oh yeah, and from the house upstairs.

- [April] Oh yeah.

That's awesome.

Beautiful.

So along this fence, I see you've been very creative because not only are these roses beautiful from both sides, and passerbys can see them, but what a gorgeous screen for your beautiful garden while everyone gets to enjoy it.

Like, I think that's a fabulous way to do a garden, with a fence that people can see through and get glimpses, but you still have some privacy.

- Absolutely.

And it's been not only a fence, but it's been a conversation piece, too, when people walk by.

- Yeah.

- And they want to know what is that rose, what is this?

- Yeah, yeah.

Well, and I wanna know what this rose is, 'cause that's gorgeous.

- Well, this rose has quite a story.

It's called "Peggy Martin," and Peggy Martin is a real person, and she lived down in New Orleans, and when Katrina skirted the coast, she had a garden across from the beach, or close to it there in New Orleans.

- [April] Oh wow.

- [Ron] Huge acre garden, and the saltwater just destroyed it.

- [April] Oh, bless.

- [Ron] And so in about three or four weeks, Peggy Martin, she had one four times as big as mine growing on a barn, and it started growing back, it started coming back.

- [April] Wow, tough roses.

- [Ron] Yeah, tough roses.

So it's a wild species rose.

We don't know where it originated.

- [April] Wow.

- [Ron] It was passed down in Peggy Martin's family from, she's still alive, she's 87.

And they passed it down and did cuttings on it.

It does cuttings real well.

- [April] Yeah.

- [Ron] And I probably get more questions about this during the spring because people drive up down the road here on the corner, and they'll stop and take pictures of this.

It's neon pink.

- [April] So how did you get a cutting of it?

- [Ron] Oh, when they first come out with the cuttings, I found out about it, and I've got one of the first cuttings from "Chimneys."

- Oh, wow, nice.

- [Ron] And they sent it to me, actually, I moved this garden eight years ago from my old garden.

I moved this "Peggy Martin" from my old garden.

- [April] Wow.

- [Ron] Then I did a cutting of it and planted another one down on the other end.

So my whole goal here is have pink, red, white, pink, white, red.

- Yeah, and you've got the white ones coming up.

"Iceberg," right?

- "Iceberg."

They're brand new, and by the fall, they'll be on top of that fence.

- [April] Wow.

- [Ron] Next spring, they'll be everywhere.

- [April] Stunning, and they're gonna get plenty of sun and fresh air here.

So no problem with, you know, not getting enough airflow or any of that.

- [Ron] No, but you don't spray this rose.

- [April] Yeah, gorgeous.

- [Ron] I do very little care of 'em.

This "Dublin Bay," red one here.

It's very hardy.

It'll take 20, 30 below zero.

And they grow a lot up north.

- So does this re-bloom at all?

- It does.

If you take- - Wow, that's amazing!

- Now, it won't do it a hundred percent, but it'll do 30, 40%.

- [April] That's amazing.

- Like two more times.

- [April] For such an old rose, that's amazing.

Incredible.

- [Ron] Yeah, it's a wild species rose, and they don't know the heritage of it.

- [April] Wow.

- [Ron] And all, but I love it.

And people just comment on it all the time.

So I've given a lot of cuttings away.

- Well, listen, you've given more than that.

So this garden is stunning.

- Thank you.

And I thank you so much for allowing us to come visit it today, and talk to you because you are such a knowledgeable person.

- [Ron] Thank you.

- And I've learned so much in this little time we've had together, so thank you.

- It's a labor of love for me.

And it's, you know, it's like any garden, what does it do?

It connects us with people.

- Absolutely.

A hundred percent.

- Yeah.

- Thanks so much, Ron.

- You're welcome.

(upbeat music) - Blueberries grew where I lived in the Midwest, but when I moved to Tennessee in the early seventies, nobody around here had heard of blueberries.

They might have heard of a blueberry muffin or something.

So we planted a whole lot of blueberries back then, and they have turned out to be a great crop for Tennessee.

It's about a week after the summer solstice at the end of June, and the blueberries are in full production.

So today we're in Clarksville at the "Reynolds Family Blueberry Patch."

Goodness gracious, this is a forest.

Look at all these berries.

Well hello, Sarah.

Hello, hi.

- Nice to see you.

Good to see you.

Thanks for having, thanks for coming.

This is a beautiful blueberry patch here.

Thank you, thank you.

- How many plants do you think are here?

- We have between 80 and 90 bushes here.

- Wow, and how long have you been growing blueberries?

- [Sarah] We planted the first bushes about 10 years ago, and the more recent ones, about four years ago.

- [Jeff] Wow.

Well, what kind of varieties do you have?

- [Sarah] So most what we have here are the rabbiteye.

They do better in the Tennessee climates.

- I found that, too.

- Yes, so, and we have several different ones.

We have mostly premiere.

Then we also have varieties called the "Climax" and the "Bluebelle," as well.

- [Jeff] So what do you do with all these berries?

- [Sarah] We like to share them.

We pick them and for a couple years now I've been selling them at the local farmer's market.

- [Jeff] Oh, cool.

- [Sarah] Yes.

And then we also have friends and family come and help themselves as well.

- [Jeff] So in your experience, do blueberries require a lot of care?

- They're actually pretty low maintenance.

We put sulfur on the soil when we first planted them, but.

- And the sulfur helps to make the soil more acidic?

- Yes.

- Which blueberries have to have an acidic soil.

- [Sarah] But other than that, we don't prune often.

We don't have issues with other pests, so we don't spray.

So they're very low maintenance.

- [Jeff] And you have a flock of chickens.

They run out here some?

- [Sarah] We do, yeah.

This is a perfect shady spot for them to take their dust bath.

And they like to eat blueberries as well.

So you may see them dodging in and out.

So yeah, it's a good hangout place for chickens.

- Once you have an established blueberry patch, the rabbiteye blueberries are known to put out suckers that come off the main root.

So here's a root going back to the plant, but this root, then you can take a shovel and cut it right here.

You do this during the dormant seasons and winter, and cut that off, and dig this up, and put out another plant.

And this is how you can propagate more blueberries off of your patch.

You'll have to keep it well watered that first summer.

So the blueberry plants send up new, younger growth.

So your patch being less than 10 years old, you haven't had to take out a lot of the old wood yet, but eventually you will wanna take out some of these older branches and let the new branches come.

- [Sarah] Right, absolutely.

- Well, Sarah, I guess you wouldn't want this bush to get much taller, would you?

- Right.

Especially if you're on the shorter side, like me.

At a certain point, you can cut those down.

- And then these lower branches, too, should be taken off so the berries aren't touching the ground.

- [Sarah] Yes, absolutely.

- Yeah.

Well, I find blueberries to be a gorgeous ornamental plant.

So you should plant some in your landscaping just for their beauty, but the real beauty is the delicious berries that you can get with really not a whole lot of trouble.

And so we really encourage people to plant blueberries.

They're great crop for middle Tennessee, and we'd love to thank you Sarah, for having us out here.

- [Sarah] Thank you.

(happy music) - We're in Louisburg, Tennessee today, visiting "Crowder Fields."

And we've got a treat for you.

This is Ken Crowder and he started this about 15 years ago?

- Well, this particular thing about six years ago.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- But I've been doing ornamental horticulture for almost 40 years.

- [Sheri] What drew you to ornamental grasses?

- [Ken] I think the big thing right now is in landscaping for municipal.

They're doing rain gardens, and a lot of these plants can be used in rain gardens.

- [Sheri] And you dig it by hand?

- [Ken] I do, yes, ma'am.

- [Sheri] You don't use a front end loader or anything?

- [Ken] No.

- [Sheri] And you have what, you said about 30 varieties?

- [Ken] I have probably about 30 varieties of ornamental grasses.

Anywhere from miscanthus to muhly grass, "Pennisetums," "Panicums."

- [Sheri] And most grasses all have the same growing requirements?

- [Ken] Most do, I mean, these all are pretty hardy in any type of soil, but some plants like it a little bit wetter.

Some like it a little drier, but in a person's landscape, they're gonna water pretty much every week, so they'll do fine.

- [Sheri] All right, Ken, tell me all about this plant.

- [Ken] All right.

This is miscanthus gracillimus, and it's a plant that grows, normally, between five to six feet tall during the summer, and then come, oh, about the 1st of September, it's gonna have a feathery plume on top.

And this one differs from other miscanthus' because this one will have a golden plume on the top, where most of the others you see will have a tan plume on top.

- [Sheri] This is tall enough to be a great screen.

- [Ken] It's a good screen.

But, you know, depending on what people want, lots of times, if you wanna screen all year round, you know, you're gonna lose the screen once you cut it back.

- [Sheri] Correct.

- But if it'll grow four to five feet in a couple months, then you've got that little screen back.

I have sold them to people that use around their pool, to screen the pool some, yes, ma'am.

- I love this.

What is this, Ken?

- This is miscanthus sinensis, and it's called "Zebra Grass."

This is a plant that grows, you know, it's variegated, it'll grow to about six or seven feet tall this year.

And then once it starts to put on its plume, it'll get to be about eight foot tall.

- [Sheri] Do you recommend this in back of a border, in the middle of the border, on the sides of a border, or?

- [Ken] This is probably best in the back of a border.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Ken] And it's probably best if you layer two or three rows in front of it, since it gets to be so tall.

The variegation is what makes it pretty.

- [Sheri] It's gorgeous.

- [Ken] And there's another plant that's miscanthus sinensis "Strictus" that looks just like this, about, but this one is more weeping where the "Strictus" is more upright, and the "Strictus" is called "Porcupine Grass."

So if you see 'em, like, for sale in places, you'll notice the difference that way, where this one weeps and the other is more upright.

So what you need to do with this as a homeowner is I typically tell people to leave the plant when the frost hits it.

It'll turn brown.

It's not dead.

It's just the top growth is brown.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Ken] Then in the spring, when you start to see some new growth come up at the base, cut the plant back to about six to eight inches, get rid of the dead growth, fertilize the plant.

And typically I tell 'em to fertilize with a balanced fertilizer, 15/15/15, 20/20/20, to get that root growth- - [Sheri] Do you use granulars or do you- - [Ken] Granular.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Ken] Yes, use the granular fertilizer and then sprinkle on the ground.

Rains will water it in and the plant will be fine to go.

- [Sheri] Okay.

Ken, this one's acting pretty for us today.

What is this?

- Yes, this is "Pennisetum" orientale, "Karley Rose," it's an oriental "Pennisetum," and it's one of the first "Pennisetums" to put on its plume.

This plant gets to be, you can see, about two and a half, three foot tall, and it has this plume on it.

It usually starts about the 1st of June, and in the landscape, it'll last through fall with the watering and everything that people will normally do.

- [Sheri] That one's great, now right behind me, I love this blue.

- Yeah, this is, this is a "Panicum."

This is called "Panicum" virgatum "Dewey Blue."

This is a plant that gets to be about four feet tall, and it'll have a plume on it.

Kind of a airy looking plume on it about, oh, I don't know, here in a couple weeks, you'll start to see that plume.

- [Sheri] Is there a lot of varieties of blue or is there only a couple?

- [Sheri] Well, I have about three different colors of blue on the "Panicums."

Most of the other grasses are gonna be green or they're gonna have a little bit of irrigation to it.

- [Sheri] All right.

This grass is showing off for us today, also.

What is this?

- Yeah, this is "Calamagrostis Karl Foerster."

It's a grass that gets to be about three and a half, four feet tall.

- It stays slender?

- It'll stay slender like this.

And people use these in those wetland gardens, like I was telling you about it.

It'll do good in a more moist environment, or it could take a drier environment as well.

- [Sheri] Like as moist as a boggy, boggy, or?

- [Ken] Well, typically what they'll do is they plant them on the perimeter.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Ken] Of the wetland area so that gets that moisture, but not in the middle of the wetland area.

Yes.

- [Sheri] And how old are these plants here?

- This plant here is a two year old plant.

It was transplanted in the ground two years ago.

- And this is the height?

- This is it.

- Okay.

- That's correct.

It may get bigger, you know, over time.

- The clump size, yes.

- Right.

But it's not gonna get any taller than that.

- Okay.

- [Sheri] Ken, this one's pretty.

- Yeah, this is "Pennisetum alopecuroides," and it's a plant that gets to be about two and a half, three foot tall.

- [Sheri] So this is it?

- [Ken] This is it.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- And then in the about this time, you'll start to see it's putting on its bottle brush plume.

And this plume will last until, oh, middle of September.

And if you water it in your landscape, it'll last till fall.

But these are real tight bottle brushes.

Whereas when we saw the "Karly Rose" down there, it was more feathery.

- We were talking about deer tracks, are most grasses- - I don't have any trouble with deer here.

- [Sheri] That's a good plus.

- [Ken] It's a plus.

They don't seem to like 'em, you know, animals don't eat on 'em, I don't have any problem with that.

- [Sheri] Tell me about pests and that sort of thing.

- Yeah.

The ornamental grasses typically have very little problem with pests or diseases.

These plants, when it gets to be real humid, you might see a anthracnose on the leaves some.

- Okay, wait a minute.

What is that?

- Anthracnose, it's a fungus.

- Okay, okay.

- Fungus that gets on the plants and you can treat it with a fungicide.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Ken] But it's really typically not a problem.

- [Sheri] It's just cosmetic, so to speak.

- [Ken] That's correct, it's cosmetic.

Very few pests.

You put these in the ground.

You're not pruning them all year long.

They grow, you prune 'em in next spring, and then they grow again.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- This plant is "Miscanthus" sinensis, "Little Zebra," and it differs from the regular "Zebra Grass," because this only gets to be about three, three and a half feet tall.

It'll have the same plume on it that the regular zebra grass does, it's just that you have that smaller size that works better in some landscapes.

- [Sheri] I kinda like this one better.

I think just because of the size.

- Right, it's more rounded.

It's not so upright.

And it's, you know, like I say, it's kind of a mass of a plant instead of just a big upright plant.

- [Sheri] As a homeowner, if this clump got too big, tell me how I go about dividing it.

- Okay.

Now these plants, like all the ornamental grasses, you can take this plant and you can dig it up, and then you can divide it.

You can cut it in half, you cut it into fours, however many plants you want to get out of it.

- [Sheri] Would you dig the whole clump up first?

I would dig the whole clump up.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Ken] And divide it, that way, when you replant it, you're getting it back in the ground good.

And it's like I say, you just dig it up, take your shovel, cut it up, put it in the ground, and water it good, and move on.

- [Sheri] Do ornamental grasses do well in pots also?

- You can do some in pots.

You have to be careful that the pot size isn't too small.

- Okay.

- Because the root system will get to be such a mass eventually that it could bust the pot.

- Do the root systems on most of these ornamental grasses go deep or they're just wide?

- [Ken] Well, most of the root systems on these are real fibrous, so they're not gonna get to be really deep.

I mean, they'll probably be in the ground 18 inches.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Ken] Or so, so when you dig 'em, you dig down about 18 inches to pull 'em up, but the it's just the fiber-nous of them.

They get to be real thick and heavy rooted.

And so if you're in a pot, it may bust that pot out.

You have to make sure, I mean, if you were gonna put this in a pot, you'd have to have like a 30 gallon pot.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Ken] To put it in a pot.

- [Sheri] So the best time of the year to divide these, you think, would be in the spring?

- [Ken] Spring.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- I would divide in the spring.

As soon as you start to see the new growth, divide 'em up, cut 'em up, replant 'em, you know, fertilize everything, and then they're good to go.

When you do divide and move, you need to water.

- [Sheri] Okay.

- [Ken] For about the first couple of months, just to get 'em situated the ground again, once you get 'em situated like that, you don't ever have to water again if you don't want to.

- [Sheri] All right.

That's good for Tennessee.

- [Ken] That's good for Tennessee.

It is.

- [Sheri] Ken, I like this one.

It's real pointy.

- Yeah, this is a "Muhlenbergia."

This is "Muhlenbergia" capillaris "White Cloud."

This plant gets to be about two and a half, three foot tall.

In the fall about the end of September or so, it'll start putting on a plume.

This one will have a white plume different than just regular "Muhlenbergia" capillaris which has a red plume.

This plume will come in, like I say, about the end of September, and it'll last through frost.

So this will help give you some color in the late fall, instead of, you know, chrysanthemums, and things like that.

This will give you that white color, put that in a pot.

These root systems are not as thick as some of the other ornamental grasses.

So it would do well in a pot.

- Well, Ken, I wanna tell you thank you for sharing your wonderful ornamental grasses, and thank you for sharing with the viewers.

- Well, thank you for coming.

I appreciate it.

- This will be great insight for them, and hopefully you'll get some phone calls.

- Well, hopefully they learned a little something.

- I think you're very knowledgeable.

Thank you again.

- Thank you very much.

- [Lauren] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips, and garden projects, visit our website volunteergardener.org, or on YouTube at the "Volunteer Gardener" channel, and like us on Facebook.

(happy music) (cheerful music)