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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Deadheading is removing spent flowers from plants.

Today, we're deadheading roses and butterfly bushes.

Also, invasive plants can cause lots of problems for the environment.

That's just the head 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 Rosa Garcia.

- Hi.

- Rosa is a landscape specialist right here at Agricenter.

And Joellen Dimond will be joining me later.

How you doing today, Rosa?

- Doing great, thank you.

- Thank you for joining us today.

- Yes, of course.

It's my pleasure.

- Well, good, we're glad you're here.

We're here at Agricenter International, right in front of the Farmer's Market building.

We have some Knock Out roses here.

- And you're gonna talk to us about deadheading those Knock Out roses, right?

- Exactly.

So these Knock Out roses, they need some care.

- Okay.

- So we're gonna be giving them a little TLC this afternoon.

- Okay.

- So, you know, as you can see, some of the roses, the blooms are already spent.

- Yeah.

- These have been blooming for about two months already.

So, you know, one of the life cycles of the blooming process is already done.

We're starting a new one.

As you can see, we're getting some new blooms already, so we wanna make room for those.

So yeah, so this is, I think, this will be the right time to do some deadheading to them.

- Okay, well, let's get right to it then.

Let's go ahead and deadhead.

- So, like, this bloom right here, you know, these blooms are already done.

The first thing that I wanna do first, and this is the very important step.

- Okay.

- You wanna kind of sterilize your pruners, especially with rose bushes, they're very susceptible to infections.

And this is- - So what are you using to sterilize?

- Just using regular rubbing alcohol.

- Okay.

- You know, so.

And a little bit of some cotton pads, you know.

That's all you need.

And so it's pretty easy, just wipe them off like that.

- Okay.

- That's perfect.

So here we are.

- All right.

- This is the spent bloom.

So what I'm gonna do with this one, I usually cut down two nodes down.

This one is already spent.

So, like, we're not gonna be getting any new blooms on this whole stem.

- Gotcha.

- So I'm just gonna go down all the way and kind of when you do your cut, I don't know if you can see it there, but you do a slanted cut so you don't do it, like, straight.

- Okay.

- Like that, but slanted.

And that prevents any water from collecting on your rose, you know?

- Right.

- So you can do it just like that or just like this.

So either way, but cut it.

- Okay.

So nice, yeah, slanted cut.

Almost 45-degree cut, okay.

- Slanted cut, so you can see that, so.

- Yeah.

- And that's just gonna keep your bush nice and healthy.

- Okay.

- And you just do the same thing with all the other ones.

As you can see, we have others here, and they're in between, you know, the new bloom.

So you kinda wanna look at the bottom and see.

So these are two different ones here.

So I would cut one, two nodes down on this one.

So I would go right there.

- Okay, right.

- That's another slanted cut.

This one here too.

So as you can see, this one's, it's got two stems right there.

So I'm gonna do one, two, so cut slanted.

- Got it.

And you're looking for all of the branches, of course, that have the spent blooms on them.

- Exactly, so this is another one right here.

It's in the back, but there we go, so.

And it's also, you know, shaping your bush.

So it's making it look nicer.

- Sure.

- So I'm like, this one, I see that there's new growth, so I'm cutting above the new growth.

- Right.

- So, and that's some of the others, so yeah.

- So while you're cutting too, you're also encouraging it to grow out.

- Exactly.

- Right, 'cause you don't want it to grow in, right?

- Right, exactly, so whenever you see, you know, like, one of the branches, let me see an example here.

So, you know, so we got branches growing out.

So I don't see the new nodes on this one, see?

So there's, I wanted to show an example.

- Sure, okay.

- Oh, like this one here, like this one has new growth here.

- I see.

- So if I was going to cut it, I would cut it, you know, I would cut this branch off instead of the one that is, you know, growing out.

So this one's growing to the inside.

So that one is cut.

- Okay.

- So yeah, can cut that, you know?

And so that's how you shape your bush.

And it also encourages, the more deadheading you do, it encourages the rose bush to give you some more blooms.

So, yeah.

- Okay.

So Rosa, before we go over to the butterfly bushes, right, we're gonna be deadheading those as well, why do we need to deadhead?

- Yes.

So first reason would be for aesthetic reasons.

You know, you don't want your rose bush to have all these dead, you know, dead buds already, you know?

- Sure.

- So because we're getting the new cycle of blooming started, we wanna make room for those.

So you know, first to keep your rose bush looking great.

- Right.

- Second reason is because your rose bush needs attention, you know?

And so the maintenance that you give it, it's the more beautiful you're gonna get your rose bush to grow.

So you are looking also to, you know, reshape it and shape it to your liking, you know?

So whenever you don't deadhead your rose bushes, I don't think you get enough or as many blooms as you would like.

And so if you are fertilizing your rose bush, and you're doing all the right things, but you're not deadheading, you know, that could, like, not give you the result that you want.

So I think, you know, that's a good reason for deadheading, yeah, besides just keeping it pretty.

- Right, yeah, yeah, that's good explanation.

So yeah, let's walk over to the butterfly bushes and talk about those, all right?

All right, Rosa, so yeah, beautiful butterfly bushes you have here.

- Yes, and they're at the peak of their blooming right now.

- Okay.

- Yes, so.

But as you can see, some of these blooms are already spent.

- I see that, yeah.

- So, you know, although we are getting, yeah, new blooms, these are already done.

So we want our butterfly bush to look good.

- Okay.

- So you know, so once again, after doing, you know, different plants, you wanna sterilize.

- That's so important, right, to sterilize?

- Yeah, so sterilize anytime.

Don't forget, you know, always bring your alcohol with you.

And I will wipe them off once more.

- Yeah, 'cause we wanna sterilize, you know, we don't wanna pass on any diseases or anything like that.

- Exactly, exactly.

Especially between different plants, you know?

- Right, exactly right.

- That will do it.

- Okay.

- So as you can see, this is one of the spent blooms.

So I like to cut these right here all the way down.

So I would take, you know, the whole stem.

- And this is still at that angle that you told us about before?

- Yes, I still do it at an angle.

So just to make sure the plant will be, you know, free of fungus or anything that might collect, you know, with the water.

- Yeah.

- So that's one.

Here's another one.

- And it allows for, you know, for good air circulation.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah, so you don't have those fungal disease problem.

- Right, right.

- Okay.

- So you wanna leave room, you know, for all that, all the air to circulate around it for sure.

So like this one, these blooms are spent.

So I wanna go two leaves down.

And as you can see, there's new growth all around it.

- Yeah, I can see it, can see it.

- So I will cut it right there in between like that.

- Okay, it's good.

- Pretty easy.

- Good clean cuts too.

That's what you want.

- Yes, yes.

- Not jaded cuts, but clean cuts.

- So make sure, you know, that the stem is not, like, split or anything.

You wanna, you know, keep your pruners, or your scissors, or anything you use nice and sharp so that you don't get, you know, any split stems.

This is the last one on this little bush.

- Okay.

Okay.

- There we go.

So yeah, I'm gonna leave the other ones.

These are still, you know, looking good, so I think I'm gonna leave them a little longer.

And that's it, just like the rose bushes is going to encourage the butterfly bush to keep blooming for you, attracting all those beautiful butterflies and pollinators.

- Yeah, yeah, we definitely wanna attract those pollinators and such.

- Yeah.

- So Rosa, we thank you for that demonstration.

- Yeah, of course.

- Excellent job.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

- All right, yeah.

[upbeat country music] On these purple coneflowers, we have a classic case of powdery mildew.

When I think about powdery mildew, I think about warm days, cool nights, high humidity.

The thing about powdery mildew is this: it is a white mold, it is looking for moisture to help it start its life cycle.

So there's a couple options we have here.

One is you can actually physically remove this coneflower plant, right?

'Cause you don't want it to affect the other coneflowers that are in this area.

If you want to use a fungicide, I will use a low-impact fungicide.

Sulphur can be one that you can use.

Neem oil is one.

Or how about copper-based fungicide?

Read and follow the labels on that.

Make sure you get good coverage as well.

And then something else too.

Before you run out and buy another purple coneflower plant, look for resistant varieties.

[upbeat country music] All right, Joellen.

- Yes.

- Let's talk a little bit about invasive plants, right?

Always an interesting conversation, right?

- It is very interesting.

And let's start out with the definition.

- Yes, please.

- I mean, what is an invasive plant?

- Okay.

- It's a plant that causes some kind of ecological or economic harm in a new environment, where it's not native.

- Okay.

Where it's not native.

- Where it's not native.

Now, invasive plants are capable of doing quite a few things.

They cause extinction of native plants and animals.

They also reduce biodiversity in an area.

And of course, they compete with native organisms for their limited resources that are there.

And they alter habitats.

- That's pretty bad.

- So it's, you don't really think about it, but we're gonna talk about enough, then maybe people will start thinking about, you know, the plants that they buy.

- Okay.

- Of course, plants with the highest invasive potential, they are prolific seeders.

- Of course.

- They are vigorous growers.

They adapt well to any, different kind of environmental conditions to grow in, which sounds like what?

A desirable plant that we all want in our gardens, right?

- It sounds like something you would want, for sure.

- Yes, that's all of the qualities that we would like to have for our own garden plant.

- I would agree.

- Which is how they've, which is exactly what's happened.

Now, if seeds of these plants leave the garden, you know, by wind or wildlife.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause sometimes they get attached to, you know, wildlife that goes by them, and then they get dispersed in another yard.

- Okay.

- Or out in the woods, or by birds eating the seeds.

- Yes.

- And then dispersing them other places.

So you know, once they get out there, they may outcompete the native plants that are already there.

An example would be the Bradford pear.

That is the perfect example.

Originally, it was given the patent.

And now, it is grafted.

If you look at it, it is all Bradford pears are grafted onto a root stalk.

- Okay.

- And when the seeds, they're not real pears, but they're little seed pears.

Mockingbirds, I've seen mockingbirds, they absolutely love them.

And other birds eat them.

They were supposed to be not viable.

But unfortunately, they are viable once they go through the bird.

And so if you go along I-40- - Oh.

- During the spring when the pears are blooming, you can tell you're coming to an exit before you actually get to it because they've planted Bradford pears there sometime.

Because the birds have dispersed them, and now the wild pears are growing in that area and taking over the native habitat.

- Right.

- Pears are, it's a vigorous tree, these have thorns and everything else.

- Yeah, with thorns, yeah.

- So I mean, you know, it's not a desirable native plant.

- Wow.

- So that is the worst one.

- And you think about the Bradford pear though, in the spring, they can be so beautiful.

- It's beautiful, beautiful fall foliage.

- Yes, oh my gosh.

- You know, nice shape, but there are other varieties that, of course, that, like, the Cleveland that would be much better to plant has the same attributes.

- Okay.

- May not grow as vigorously or get as large, but those seeds are not viable.

- Okay.

- So I mean, it's just the Bradford pear that has the bad reputation of having the viable seeds that get dispersed.

- Wow, and then they break easily.

Yeah.

[laughs] The limbs do.

- Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

- All right.

- Well, let's talk about the six top invasive plants [Chris chuckling] - This is gonna be good.

- In the United States.

And we're talking the whole United States.

- The whole United States, all right.

- Kudzu.

- Kudzu, I was hoping that- - Number one.

- Number one.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- It was introduced in the United States in 1876.

It was for an ornamental, or an forage, and erosion control plant.

One million acres was planted in the southeast by the Soil Conservation Service in the 1930s and '40s.

By the 1950s, it was determined that it was invasive.

- Oh man.

- So it did not take long for, you know, us to figure out that that was an invasive species.

- It took over pretty quick.

- It did, they did that.

'Cause it can grow at a rate of one foot a day and 60 feet a year.

- Think about that.

- The vine takes over areas in this, in the whole southeast.

- Yeah.

- I mean, it looks like some odd creatures are out there because it just covers everything.

- Yeah, trees, telephone poles.

- Yeah, it takes over, and it smothers everything, and nothing can live under it.

- Yeah, man.

- So there you go.

- Kudzu, all right.

- The second one is Norway maple.

- Okay, okay.

- It was brought to the US in 1756 from Europe by John Bartram, who is a famous plant explorer here in the United States.

- Oh, okay.

- So he brought it over, but see, he did not know- - Right.

- That it would end up outcompeting the native maples in the northeast and the northwest.

- Okay.

- And that's where it has, it gets a very dense canopy.

So not only does it take over and it's very aggressive compared to our other native maples, but it shades out the wild flowers that are underneath too, because it's got a dense canopy on it.

- Wow, how about that?

And think about that time period again, 1756, wow.

- 1756, yes.

Long time ago.

- Long time, okay.

- Yeah, the third one, Japanese honeysuckle.

- And oh, I mean, I know we all know that.

- All over the place.

- But it was introduced in 1806 as an ornamental- - Wow.

- And for erosion control.

You know, it's got, like, a beautiful smell.

- Yes, yes.

- In May around here, it smells beautiful out in the woods.

- Yes.

- But the seeds are dispersed by birds.

It is now anywhere from Maine down to Florida, over to Texas, and in spots out west.

It is an aggressive vine, and it can girdle.

You know, when it starts climbing trees and stuff, - I've seen it.

- It'll girdle the trees.

It shades, it shades them, and it kinda smothers other native plants.

So that's [chuckles].

- The honeysuckle, right?

- The honeysuckle.

- Of course, we remember that from our youth.

- Yeah.

- Right?

- Yeah.

- Oh golly, how about that?

All right.

- Yeah, it smells beautiful.

But yeah, it's a little aggressive.

The fourth one is purple loosestrife.

It's a beautiful perennial.

- Yeah, I'm familiar with that.

- It's got gorgeous flowers on it, it was introduced in the 1800s as an ornamental and for medical uses.

It grows aggressively in most of the United States.

It takes over wetlands.

That's the problem, it's taking over wetlands.

One plant can produce two million seeds.

- Ouch!

- And of course the plant itself kinda grows like a bunch.

And so it can grow outward at least a foot a year, especially in the wetlands, where it really likes it.

- Okay.

- And then there's Japanese barberry.

- Japanese barberry.

- Japanese Barberry.

- We talked about that a time or two.

- Yeah, we have.

It was introduced in the 1800s as an ornamental garden plant to be a substitute for the European barberry that was found to harbor this black rust stem, a serious fungus disease of cereal crops.

So what they did was they ended up substituting a bad plant for another bad plant.

- Plant, right.

[laughs] - This is its problem.

It grows in deep shade, and it will produce dense thickets, especially in the northeast.

- Okay.

- And its seeds are dispersed by birds.

The very last one is one we all know is English ivy.

- It's ivy.

Yeah.

- English ivy is considered one of the top six worst invasive plants in the United States.

- Wow.

- It was introduced from Europe in the 1700s as an easy-to-grow, - Easy?

- Evergreen groundcover.

Easy to grow.

- Which it is.

- It is.

[Chris chuckles] - But it's an aggressive vine that can kill trees by shading and girdling again.

- Okay.

- And the seeds, of course, are spread by birds.

- So how can we make sure that we're not planting any of these non-native invasive plants?

- Well, every area of the country has their own websites and their own lists.

Tennessee, here, we have 64 species on ours.

You can visit our website and see a few of the websites you can visit to look in your area or look, like, your local, use your local state's websites to see if there are invasive plants that are for sale around your area.

And just simply don't plant invasive species 'cause we, you know, we can control what's in our garden, what we plant there.

- Sure.

- But what we can't control is the animals, the insects, the birds, the wind that carries these plants to non-native areas.

- That is good stuff.

How about that?

Interesting.

So those are our top six.

- Those top six.

[Chris laughing] - All right, thank you much, good information.

- You're welcome.

[upbeat country music] - We have this Russian sage that we had planted about a year ago in this big cement planter box here, and well, it's gotten pretty big and wild.

And we have a maple right here that we planted near our Russian sage.

So what I wanna do, I wanna kinda reshape it to our liking.

You know, we want to get these branches away from the maple.

So I'm gonna go ahead and cut this one.

So I can see, you know, where I'm leaving these here.

So I'm gonna cut right above.

You can kinda see where the new growth of leaves is.

So I'm just gonna cut right above that.

[pruner snipping] And again, as we have done with the other plants, we wanna do a slanted cut.

So I'm going to go ahead and keep cutting the branches at the same distance.

You wanna keep, you know, cutting them at the same length so we can get a uniform shape.

Seem a little cruel with our plants, but it's really a benefit to them.

So I'm just keep cutting branches.

[pruner snipping] All right, so now our Russian sage is now in control and now, it's not touching our Japanese maple anymore.

So that was the goal.

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

Y'all ready?

- Ready.

- All right.

- These are some good questions.

- All right, here's our first viewer email.

"Is there a way to control earwigs in the garden?"

And this is Alicia.

So what do you think about that one, Joseph?

- Yeah, earwigs are, they're pretty tough to control.

Of course, they like moist, dark, covered.

And you got your mulch, and you got all kinds of different perennial plants and annual plants that they can hide under.

They're also attracted to light.

- Yeah.

- So if you kinda reduce some of your outdoor lighting, that could also help.

But a good way to reduce the population is use traps.

So you can take burlap bags, bores, newspapers, and put them around the garden and just let those earwigs come to 'em.

Check 'em daily, if they got something and dump 'em out, get rid of 'em.

So that's a pretty easy way to handle them.

And of course, you've always got chemical control like Sevin.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Permethrin, something like that.

- Yeah, read and follow the label if you're gonna use that.

- Yeah.

- She did say that she replaced the soil in a raised beds to try to get rid of them.

What do you think about that?

- Yeah, she probably got a lot of 'em.

- Trying to change the conditions, right?

- Yeah, she probably got a lot of them out.

But they're tough to get rid of.

I mean, they're just everywhere.

And then sometimes when it gets warm, they'll get inside the house.

And then they'll come back out through cracks.

So sealing up any cracks in your foundation and things like that will help them, keep them from getting in and out.

- Yeah, so the key here is you have to know the conditions that they like to thrive in, right?

So it's damp, moist conditions, so if you have drainage issues, you need to correct the drainage on that.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- If you're gonna use, you know, a pesticide, read and follow the label on that.

- Yep.

- There's something else though.

I actually learned this a couple years ago.

You can use one of those containers, like a cool Miracle Whip container, right?

You can fill it, you know, full of, like, vegetable oil.

- Yeah.

- They're attracted to the smell of vegetable oil.

Cut a top in the lid, yeah, let them drop in.

- Let them drop on in.

That's a good one.

- Yeah, just position them, you know, in the areas around the plants where they're a problem.

They chew holes in the leaves is what they do.

- Yeah.

- Right.

So they can be a nuisance, right?

Then high populations, but those are some good means to correct them.

- Definitely.

- All right, thank you for that question, we appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Why would the edges of my new potted Japanese maples leaves be turning brown?"

And this is from Sheila.

So why do you think that's the case?

- Oh, that sounds like too much water.

I would say, you know, if you're watering your pot, you know, like, because it is potted, so.

- Right, it is potted.

- You know, when it's not in the ground, it's harder for the plants to, you know, stay, you know, with the right moisture.

- Yeah.

- So I would water it less.

So if you're watering it maybe every three days or so, it depends on, like, also the time of year that you- - That's good.

- You know, potted your plant in.

- Yeah.

- Because if it's in cooler temperatures, like in the spring or in fall, you need to water it less.

- That's good.

- So you know, I would check on the pot every week, once a week.

If the soil is still moist, then I would wait a few more days, about three more days, and then check it again.

That's my rule of thumb, you know?

So, you know, you can wait even in between two weeks or so to water it if it's not too hot outside.

Now, when it's in the summer, then you would water it more often, so maybe twice a week.

So you can just check on your pot once every three to four days.

And I think that will be the solution to that.

- I think that would be good.

That was awesome.

That was real good, real good recommendation there 'cause she did say, "It's sitting in shade."

- Yeah, she did.

- So I mean, it's in the right, you know, light condition for the most part.

- Exactly.

- But I think she's loving it too much.

- So watch the watering on that.

- Exactly.

- Then it's gonna be fine, right?

- Yes.

- 'Cause anytime those leaves brown around the edges, they start to curl up, yeah, there's always a watering issue.

- Yes, don't be afraid to neglect your plant a little bit.

You're not neglecting it, you're actually taking care of it.

- Yeah, just a bit, just a little bit, just a little bit.

And if need be, just stick your finger down in there sometimes.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Right, yeah, I do that a lot.

Just stick that finger in there.

If it comes out with nothing on it, you need to water.

If it's got some little dirt and soil particles on it, probably good.

- Probably good, yeah.

There's your soil moisture meter right here.

- Yeah!

- Right, that's right.

- Thank you for that question, we appreciate that.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What is the best way to control crabgrass in my lawn?"

And this is Greg from right here in Memphis, Tennessee.

So guess what, Greg?

Yeah, we know somebody who knows a little something about crabgrass.

So what do you think about that, Joseph?

- Man, crabgrass is a tough one.

- Yeah.

- It's a tough one to control.

You know, crabgrass is a summer annual weed.

So it means that it dies every winter and then comes back in the spring once the seeds germinate.

You know, when your soil, top two, four inches of soil generally get about 55 degrees for several days, that's when the seeds start germinating.

That's kinda gonna be around your February-March time frame.

So it's good to get a good pre-emergent out at that time.

- You know, actually since you're saying that, right, here's a good indicator when the soil will start to warm up, forsythias.

- Forsythias.

- Forsythia's in bloom, the soil is starting to warm up.

- That's when it's, yeah, soil will start to warm up.

- So crabgrass will start germinating then.

- And when they kinda start dropping their flowers, their blooms, that's the time.

- That's the time.

- Yep, that's the time.

So you know, crabgrass likes to grow in areas that are thin.

So proper height cut your turf grass is important.

They like a lot of irrigation.

They like to be wet.

So controlling that irrigation, you know, water your lawn infrequent, but for longer periods of time.

So instead of doing it three times a week for, you know, 10, 12 minutes, water it once a week for about 30 minutes.

- That's good.

- Get those roots down in there deep.

- So yeah, you're talking about those cultural practices, that's good.

- Yeah, great cultural practices.

And then again, a good pre-emergent around February-March time.

Good ones are like Dimension, Pendulum, and Barricade.

- Yeah.

- Work good.

And then for post-emergent control, good one is Quinclorac, active ingredient.

Again, follow label directions, get that down, and you'll get some good control on that crabgrass.

- All right, probably gonna be multiple applications, yeah.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Yeah, for sure.

- Yeah, you're not gonna get it the first time.

You'll get some, it'll start to turn brown and kinda wilt.

- Yeah.

- And then, you know, you'll come back in at appropriate time, according to the label, and hit it again.

- That old crabgrass, yeah.

- It's tough.

- I usually say, yeah, in my landscape, if it wasn't for crabgrass, I wouldn't have a yard.

There you have it, Grant, appreciate that.

So Rosa, Joe, fun as always.

- Yes.

- We're outta time.

- Hey, thanks for having us on.

- It was fun, thank you.

- All right, thank you.

Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@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.

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[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]