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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Everyone loves to have beautiful plants in their flower beds.

Today we're going to look at a couple of great options.

Also, horticultural oils are a low impact way to control insects.

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 Mike Dennison will be joining me later.

All right, Joellen, let's talk about some great annual options for the spring garden.

- Yes, it's that time of year again.

- It's that time of the year.

- Starting to see 'em everywhere.

I'm gonna go over a few for each kind of environment, and we're gonna start off with the hot and sunny annuals.

- Okay, I like it hot and sunny.

- Hot and sunny.

Number one, lantana.

- Yes, love lantana.

- It's probably the best for the sun and dry conditions.

Many colors, but they can develop woody stems, and some of them are trailing and some of them are upright, so take your pick.

They can get up to 18 inches tall.

Then next is Portulaca or moss rose or purslane, all of those.

They're yellow, kind of a succulent foliage on them.

They're short.

Yellow, oranges, reds, whites, pinks, vey bright colors.

They stay short, about six inches tall, so they can kind of spill over the edge of a container, but they can take the heat and the sun.

- Good.

- Celosia, next.

Bright colors, yellows, reds, oranges, hot pinks.

They're great, they love everything, but they self seed.

- Yes [chuckling].

- So they can become a nuisance, bu t some people love them.

And they're very easy to grow.

- Yeah, I've grown those all over.

Yeah, they're good.

- And next, marigolds.

Marigolds, yellows, whites, and reds, oranges.

Easy to grow from seed.

One of the last, they bloom all summer long, and they're one of the last of my flowers to die in the frost.

- Ah.

- So I really like them.

Easy to grow.

- I didn't know that.

- They stay around 12 inches.

Next are Zinnias, many bright colors and combinations of colors.

There are small ones that only get about 8, 10 inches tall, and they get up to over two feet tall.

So there's many different kinds.

Easy to grow.

Love the sun.

Then there's Vinca, or periwinkle.

Nice.

Some are spreading varieties.

There's upright varieties.

Color range is usually white, pinks, and reds.

Many of them may need supplemental fertilizer and/or iron during the season.

But the most important thing to remember about planting these, even though people love them, and they're easy to grow, is don't put the same plant there every year.

Vinca, if planted in the ground ev ery year in the same spot, can develop Phytophthora fungal blight in the soil.

- Wow, gotcha.

- And we do not need that in your soil 'cause then you won't be able to plant Vinca again.

So just don't do it.

Rotate your annuals just like you do your vegetable crops.

- Oh, that's a good point.

Mm-hmm.

- Next we're gonna talk about part-shade or part-sun annuals.

- Okay, so when we say part sun, part shade, how many hours are we talking?

- Well, three, three to four hours a day, or sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

- Sometimes a little less.

- They can take quite a bit.

And depending on how much part shade you get with me, how many flowers you get on the plant.

- Ah.

- Sometimes they'll bloom better if they have a little bit more sun in the half of the day, or if it's less than that, then they won't bloom as much.

- Gotcha.

- Then first is Coleus.

Coleus is very easy.

Easy to grow.

Mostly grown for its pattern of colors on the leaves.

They can get big, up to 18 to 24 inches tall, but the blooms then come up on top of the stems But you're not growing for that, so you cut those off, and it keeps the plant shorter, and it keeps the plant wanting to develop those nice pretty leaves rather than going to seed.

- Gotcha.

- Next is Gomphrena.

A lot of people don't know about Gomphrena.

Very good plant.

Magenta, pinks, reds, and whites.

Small, 10 inches to 2 feet tall, depending on what kind you get.

And people don't realize that this is a lot of the filler that's in a potpourri.

It's found in potpourri a lot.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- I didn't know that.

- But it goes well in the garden.

Next is Begonias.

Oh, my goodness.

Begonias, the foliage even is good for color, with Begonia, reds, pinks, whites.

These stay in about 12 inches to 2 feet.

There are some newer varieties of Begonias that are called Big, and they get very large.

[Chris laughing] - They're called Big.

- Yeah, yeah.

And one plant will fill a container easily.

- How about that?

- But, so anyway, but the Begonias are good for a partly shady area.

Ageratum.

- Yeah.

- Of course, one of the University of Memphis' favorite flowers.

- Oh, really?

- Because it's blue.

- Oh, okay.

Makes sense.

- Yes, and it comes in whites, blues, and sometimes some lavenders and pinks.

Very nice, very nice rounded plant with green foliage.

Nice blue flowers that are very unusual.

'cause it's one color that you don't see a lot in flowers.

So very nice and easy to care for.

- All right.

- Pansies, now- - Oh, pansies.

- In some of the country we pl ant pansies in the wintertime.

A lot of the country, in cooler climates, they plant pansies in the summertime.

- How about that.

- Great way to, many, many colors.

I mean, I can't even begin to tell you how many colors and color combinations of Pansies.

They all do well for partly shady areas, so enjoy.

- Enjoy.

- Petunias, Supertunias, and Calibrachoa, these are different plants that do better in different parts of the country.

I kind of lump them together because they like the same environmental conditions, which is well-drained soils.

These also, Petunias especially, is like the Vinca.

You've got to rotate the crop.

It can develop diseases in the soil that stay there, so you've got to rotate the Petunias.

Then lastly, we have our shade annuals.

- Ah, shade.

- People who have just shady gardens.

And now just remember, if it's too deep a shade, they're not gonna bloom much, so you might wanna thin your trees or do something to put 'em in a little bit more sun.

First of that is Caladiums.

Probably give you a big color splash for a shady area.

You can only find them in the springtime for the summer plantings.

They will get up to 24 inches tall, so keep space for them.

- Yeah, you're gonna need space.

- And just watch.

All of these annuals don't do well with wet root systems, so if you have irrigation systems, just be careful.

Lobelia is another one that does well, very prolific blue and white shades, cascading blooms, does good in containers, but this is also one of those that's better for cooler climates.

It'll bloom all summer long.

Torenia, wishbone plant, another one.

Small, very different color combinations.

Usually bicolor flowers, not one solid color, but there are some vining ones that are solid.

It is only gonna be about eight inches tall, so they're not gonna be big, but they'll be in something bright in the shady landscape.

- Wishbone.

- Wishbone plant, yeah.

Yes, it's the shape of the flower.

- Oh, shape of the flower.

Okay.

- Another one, New Guinea impatiens.

Very bright colors for the shade garden.

Twelve to twenty-four inches tall.

They've got some different varieties of them, so they get different heights.

The only thing, especially the taller ones, you gotta watch.

They might be breaking up in storms at the end of the season, so if you can trim 'em a little bit during the year and keep 'em under 12 feet, that'd be great.

The Beacon or the Bounce impatiens have taken over the regular annual impatiens because of downy mildew, but the Beacon and the Bounce are more resistant to the downy mildew.

They come in bright colors, and they all get about 12 inches tall.

But again, because of the downy mildew, I wouldn't plant impatiens in the same spot every year.

- Okay, it's a theme.

Yeah, it's a rotation theme.

- Rotation theme.

- Not just for vegetables, but for- - And there's one last thing that we can talk about for foliage color, and these live in all shade, part shade, and sun, and that's Dusty Miller.

- Dusty Miller, all right.

- Dusty Miller, well, I mean, it's gonna thrive in one of those conditions more so than the others, but it will do well.

Dichondra, which is a silver trailing vine, that is nice to add to containers and baskets, and it can take any condition like that.

And also sweet potatoes.

- Ah.

- There's chartreuse, and reds, and bronzes, and purples.

All go well in containers and even in the ground.

They'll trail along the ground.

All can take all those conditions.

- All those conditions.

- And those are some of the easiest ones that I know of to plant that you'll have success with in the summer.

- All right, y'all heard this from Joellen herself.

Thank you much, Joellen.

That was good.

[upbeat country music] - I'm a big proponent of using red sand in planting beds.

In the Mid-South, we have heavy clay soils, and those heavy clay soils need the drainage improved.

And you can add a lot of organic matter to it, which helps a lot, especially we use this chunky pine bark that we put in.

But over time, the pine bark's gonna break down, but the sand will not.

This is red sand, and in contrast to the white builder's sand, this has multiple sized particles.

It has fine particles and some particles almost the size of small pea gravel.

And so mixing that in the soil improves the drainage of the soil.

It's kind of a pain, I realize, for homeowners to get.

It's expensive because it has to be hauled in.

You can buy it in bags, but make sure you're not getting play sand.

Make sure you're getting red sand.

And I strongly recommend it for gardens.

[upbeat country music] - All right, Mr. D, oils.

- We're gonna talk about oils.

- Let's talk about oils.

- It's a lot of different kinda oils out there.

There are oils that are called superior oils, which you're probably familiar with, but they really aren't.

[Chris laughing] They're inferior oils because they're not as effective as the more highly refined horticultural oils.

The highly refined horticultural oils are 98% pure.

They're less likely to cause injury to new foliage and to sensitive plants than the superior oils.

However, and many of the superior oils are plant-based.

They can be soybean oil, canola oil, sesame seed oil.

Neem oil is example of also a plant-based oil.

We're going to actually, I'm gonna mix up some neem oil and demonstrate how to use it, primarily because neem oil, [clears throat] excuse me, neem oil also has fungicidal activity, especially on powdery mildew.

If you do a good job of coverage, then you can have some control there.

- How about the mode of action of the oils?

- Mode of action, right.

They primarily work by stopping up the spiracles or the breathing tubes of insects and smothering the eggs as the primary mode of control, but it also, as a mode of action, it can disrupt cell membranes, causing the insect or egg to desiccate and dry out.

And so it actually has two modes of action where it's working, but it is imperative that you get 100% control.

You have to have complete control of or complete coverage to get complete control of the insects, and you're trying- - So there's no residual with the oils?

- Absolutely no residual.

And one of the problems, but a benefit, is if you're trying to, if mites or mite eggs are one of your targets you're trying to kill, you're also going to kill the beneficial mites.

- Ah.

- However, because you have no residual, beneficials can come back in there, and they can hopefully build up faster- - Oh, that's a good point.

- Than the bad ones can.

- Gotcha.

Gotcha.

- But it doesn't have any, they're contact only, it's a contact insecticide, which again is why you have to have contact to get control.

These trees that we're standing around here, I'm gonna do a demonstration on the bark just to show how to make sure you get good penetration and good coverage, but I wouldn't be trying to, the only way I would try to spray these trees is with a helicopter [Chris laughing] or an air blast sprayer or something like that because only what I spray, it has any coverage, and on a tree like this, it's 1%.

The neem oil that we've got here, I looked at the label and it's two, we've got a gallon of water already in the sprayer.

- Gallon.

- And the neem oil is, I think, two tablespoons per gallon of water.

And I just happen to have a tablespoon here.

You notice I'm not wearing rubber gloves.

- I see you don't have gloves.

- I don't wear rubber- I'm not wearing rubber gloves.

And if you see me mix up any other pesticide, I've always worn rubber gloves.

But the reason is all of the horticultural oils have no mammalian toxicity.

They're very safe, and so I'm not worried about getting poisoned.

I'm not going to try to inhale [Chris laughing] - Please don't.

- The spray mist because that probably wouldn't do me any good, but they're very safe, very safe to use.

Many plants, there are quite a few plants that are susceptible or can be damaged by horticultural oil, so it's very important that you read the label and follow the label instructions with horticultural oil, just like you would any other pesticide.

But we're gonna put one tablespoon in here.

- Ah.

- And that was a little bit more, so I'll try to do a little bit less here.

- A little less, yeah.

Ah, there you go.

- I think that'll work.

[spoon tapping] - That works.

[spoons jingling] - I'm gonna shake that up good.

The oils are, you know, inherently don't like to mix with water, so it's pretty important that you, if you're spraying an oil that you've mixed with water, [spoons jingling] that you mix, shake it up, you keep it agitated, [liquid agitating] because if it settles out, you may be just spraying water, and the water's not gonna do you any good, or you may be spraying 100% oil, which could damage your foliage or damage your plant.

- Yeah.

Burn it.

- I'm gonna go down here.

[pump squeaking] - Pump it up?

I guess too, we need to be mindful of what wind to, wind direction and speed.

- Right.

You don't wanna spray yourself.

You don't want the wind to blow it on you.

The finer the droplet the better, and I haven't... [liquid spraying] Let's see what we've got here.

That's pretty fine.

Okay?

So I'm gonna make sure I get in on both sides of the crevices here.

Just spray to the point of runoff.

It doesn't need to, you don't want it to drip.

You wanna make sure you get it wet.

It's important to not spray when the temperature is below 40 degrees, and don't spray when the temperature is greater than 90 degrees.

It's best if the humidity is low because higher humidity can create problems.

It's good if you can spray on a bright, sunshiny day, but if you're out there spraying and you get a little light rain, that's not gonna be a problem 'cause the oil's gonna repel it.

- And again, you said this has contact activity.

- It's a contact insecticide or fungicide.

It even on the powdery mildew, it just kills the spores because by coming into contact.

Now I'm gonna get over here on this side.

As good as the coverage is, as good as this coverage is, even within that bark, there are probably some insect eggs and some scale insects and mite eggs that are not protected.

So I may have to come back, and you may have to treat more than once.

A couple of weeks later, you may wanna come back again, but then you also have to keep in mind that the dormant rate is for when the plants are dormant.

Horticultural oils, you can also spray them, because they're more highly refined, you can spray them during the growing season.

However, your rate per gallon of water will be lighter during the growing season than during the dormant season.

Most of the time the horticultural oils, the rate is 2 to 3% ingredient, or 2 to 3% solution.

And with this neem oil that we mixed up, that was probably only about a 1% solution, so it was a little bit lighter.

- It was lighter.

- Yeah.

But it's very important that you check your label.

I know red maples, Japanese maples, walnuts, hickories, you can't spray with oils.

They're susceptible, and there's quite a few, more plants than you would think, that can be burned.

- Right, like evergreens.

- With these oils.

- And things like that?

- A lot of the evergreens.

- Yeah, a lot of the evergreens.

- Pretty much need to avoid green tissue if you can, except the plants that can tolerate it.

- Right, sure.

- And the plants that can tolerate it in the summertime, it's okay, as long as you go with a lighter rate - Lighter rate.

- According to the label.

- According to the label.

According to the label.

Appreciate that demonstration, Mr. D. - Okay, good deal.

[upbeat country music] - So we're here in the Woodland Garden at the Dixon, and I wanted to show about removing last year's foliage from ferns.

The old foliage, not only does it look unsightly, but you've got new foliage's coming out and these little fiddleheads as the new fronds, the new leaves that are coming out on the fern, so you wanna make sure not to cut those, but you wanna cut this old foliage off.

You have to be very careful, very easy to do.

The lower you cut it, the less you have to deal with later.

Do this early in the spring.

Once you're done, then it allows these new fronds to come up and get established, and you've removed these unsightly leaves from the ferns.

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

Y'all ready?

- Let's do it.

- These are great questions.

All right, here's our first viewer email.

"Can someone please identify the shrub for me?

It's very beautiful and attracts a lot of different birds."

And this is Matt from Kent, Washington.

So Joellen, can we help Matt out with that?

- Yes, we can.

- Oh!

- That is a Viburnum.

- Aha.

- Now which Viburnum it is, I do not know.

- Okay [laughing].

All right.

- But it is a Viburnum.

And, yes, Viburnums, they have blooms.

They have fruit.

They're very attractive to wildlife.

Excellent choice for a shrub in your yard.

- Excellent choice, Matt, for a shrub in your yard.

So what kind of conditions does it like?

- There is a Viburnum for anything, but one thing you gotta know, Viburnums are big shrubs.

They're not small.

It'd be nice if somebody in the nursery industry would make dwarf varieties of them, [Chris laughing] and I think somebody is trying to do that, but they are large shrubs.

And some of them are evergreen, and some of them are not.

- How about that?

- But Viburnums.

- Viburnums, Matt.

- Very, very good plants.

- And the birds like the fruit.

- Birds love them.

Mm-hmm.

- All right, well there you have it, Matt.

Thank you for the picture and for the question.

We appreciate that.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"Should I cut back lantana bush in the winter?"

And this is Calvin from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

So what do you think about that one, Joellen?

- Well, you know, yes, he can.

If he wants to wait 'til the plant just starts to break so he knows if anything has died for the winter, and cut back the dead to where it's living if it's just too big and out of control.

I had one of the lantanas that actually is, was a perennial that came back every year, and I understand what he means [chuckles].

I mean it's five feet tall.

You're going, "Oh, my gosh, I've gotta cut this down."

It really liked where I had planted it, so, yes, I can understand wanting to cut it down, but I would just make sure, I usually didn't cut mine until it broke.

Just I could see some green or you can scrape the bark.

- Yeah, because said the stalks are green when scratched.

- Yeah, well, then, if they're green when he scratched 'em, then go in and thin it.

I mean, get the big crossing branches out and cut it back down to a reasonable size that you want it to grow back to, 'cause it's gonna, if it's got that good of a root system, I found when I cut it back severely, it did, just like when we're talking about other plants, so you have good root systems, you got a big plant, you cut it down, it's gonna voom, come right back.

So just be aware of that.

- All right, so, again, the best time to do this would be?

- Well, if he knows that it's green, he can do it in the winter, but a lot of times, 'cause we're in a transitional zone here, sometimes a lot of it would die, and I'd have to cut back to the dead.

I wouldn't cut it 'til it just started breaking green leaves so I could tell where it was alive.

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

Appreciate that.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"How do I help my 5-year-old apple tree bloom?"

And this is Brenda.

So Mr. D, you think we can help Ms. Brenda?

I think I know what you're gonna say.

- Patience.

- Uh huh, I knew you were gonna say it.

- Patience.

Patience.

[Chris laughing] Because even if it's a dwarf or semi-dwarf apple tree, it may take it five years to bloom.

If it's a standard on standard root stock, it will take it at least five years, maybe 10 years to bloom.

So it takes a while for apple trees to bloom.

Other than that, take care of everything that you have control over.

Number one, soil test.

Make sure the soil conditions are what that apple tree likes, slightly acidic pH, and then make sure that you have medium to high levels of phosphorus and potassium in the soil.

But don't, you can't rush 'em.

It's just a baby.

- Yeah, just a baby.

[Chris laughing] - You gotta give it time to reach its physiological maturity before it'll start blooming.

- All right.

All right.

So, Ms. Brenda, patience, patience, patience.

- All right, all right.

Thank you for that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Am I overwatering my prayer plant?"

And this is Latonya.

So what do you think about that one, Joellen?

- Well, judging by the edges of the plant, I would say yes, you are.

- Yes [chuckling].

- Yeah, I used to have a prayer plant, and, I mean, it would be dry and almost to the plant of wilting before I would water it again, but, yeah, it looks like it's stressed from too much water.

- Too much water.

Do you think maybe it's too close to a window too?

I saw some blotches on some of those leaves, so maybe it's getting too much direct sun.

Is that possible?

- That is possible too.

And in the wintertime, the sun changes angles, and if you've had it in the window all summer long, and the sun didn't actually come through the window, then in the wintertime when it actually is coming directly in the window, I would move the prayer plant 'cause they don't like direct sun.

They're understory plants.

So I would move it away from a direct sunlight.

It doesn't actually need direct sunlight, just bright light.

- Just bright light.

Hmm, that's good.

Beautiful leaves on prayer plants.

- Yeah, I love prayer plants.

They're really pretty.

But they don't require that much care.

I mean, you, you don't water 'em too much.

- What is a good way to test your plants to see if they need to be watered?

- I usually, you know, there's moisture meters if you don't want to, but I usually just take my fingers in there, and if it's an inch down and it's still moist, I just let it go for another few days and test it again.

I like it to be on the dry side.

- All right, thank you for that question, Latonya.

We appreciate that.

So, Joellen, Mr. D, we're out of time.

Thank you much.

It was fun.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is qu estions@familyplotgarden.com, 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.

If you want to learn more about the plants Joellen talked about or using horticultural oils in the garden, head on over to familyplotgarden.com.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]