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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Flowering vines are a great way to screen an unwanted garden feature, arch, or beautify an arbor.

Today, we are going to plant some.

Also, systemics give the gardener a way to protect a plant from insects without frequent pesticide applications.

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 TSU Extension Agent in Tipton County and Mr. D will be joining us later.

Hi Joellen!

We have vines here.

- Vines!

- We want to try to cover this fence with these vines.

- With these vines, okay.

- All right.

- And we're next to the garden, here, so we want to attract some butterflies.

- [Chris] Sure.

- And bees and help pollinate the garden.

So, we want somethin' that's gonna bloom throughout the growing season.

And that's what you need to consider when you are selecting a vine.

- [Chris] Okay.

- What is the vine's purpose in your garden?

I mean, is it supposed to just cover a trellis or an entryway?

Is it gonna be around a feature?

Or is it gonna be a standalone plant?

And what are you trying to do?

Are you tryin' to screen something?

Do you need an evergreen vine?

There are several evergreen vines out there.

Carolina jasmine is one.

- [Chris] Yeah, I'm familiar with that.

- And the Clematis armandii is another one.

But that's not our focus, here.

Our focus is to have it blooms as much of the season as we possibly can, so we have chosen two vines.

One's native, is a honeysuckle, and this is a red blooming variety that will bloom the majority of the summer.

- Okay.

- And is sempervirens and I believe this is Mr. Wheeler.

And this one is a Clematis that blooms a large part of the summer.

It may not bloom in the very heat of the summer, but it will when it's not really, really hot outside.

- [Chris] Okay.

- It'll bloom before and then after it.

- After it, okay.

- So, and it's a nice purple color that'll attract birds, and butterflies, and bees.

- [Chris] Yeah, it is pretty.

- And this is called Jackmanii.

(chuckles) And so, we'll plant several of these here around the garden and hopefully it'll attract the bees that we are looking for for our vegetables.

- Okay.

Do vines need a lot of help as far as growing?

I mean, do you have to put fertilizers or, you know?

- Yes, you need to treat them just like you would any of your perennials.

- [Chris] Okay.

- 'Cause they are perennial, they will lose their leaves.

These will lose their leaves, but the stems will still be there.

You're going, we're going to plant them.

They're gonna need well drained soil.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- And I know we have a problem with that in this area, so we're going to add some amendment to raise up the area that we're gonna plant them so we know that they will be well drained.

And then, I would put a little bit of fertilizer with them.

- [Chris] Okay, so you would, okay.

- As when you plant them.

And about once a year fertilize and with a slow-release fertilizer.

In the fall, I'd let them do what they're gonna do.

(chuckles) And I would let them go through the winter and in the spring is when I would, February is when I start looking at trimming them back if I was going to trim them.

- [Chris] Okay, okay.

- Okay.

This one's already staked a little bit and that's good.

We'll leave that in the ground 'til next year so it can start growing up and on the fence.

Once it grows on the fence the next year, this next spring, we can take these off.

- Okay.

So, it's just there for support?

- Just there for support now 'cause, ever the wise they'd be falling everywhere.

- [Chris] Sure.

- That's 'cause it's a vine.

And we want to put it close to this area.

And you notice we have bermuda in here.

(chuckles) We need to get the bermuda grass out, so we'll, since we don't have anymore time we're gonna dig it out.

- [Chris] So, how big of a site are we looking to prepare?

- You wanna go twice the width of the, two to three times the width of the plant, the pot.

We have a one gallon container, so we're makin' a much larger hole than we need.

- [Chris] Okay.

- 'Cause we wanna loosen up all this soil so that the roots of the plant have somewhere to grow into.

This soil is not as good as the bed we planted earlier.

- [Chris] No.

- It's got some pretty-- - It's a big difference.

- Pretty big difference in the soil structure.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- This is why we're going to amend it because this is very tight, pore spaces for the air and water movement and the roots to grow into.

There's not a lot of room here for roots.

- I do see a few worms in there.

- That is good.

- So, that's a good thing.

Eh, there's nice, big clods in there.

So, now, we're about to add (sighs) our soil.

- Add some potting soil.

It's like a little bit of amendment for this.

Try to make it more well-drained.

Get the roots up above the ground a little bit.

- Say when, okay?

- When.

- [Chris] All right.

- [Joelle] You really only wanna put about 20% amendment in your bed.

If you do more than 20% of an amendment in the bed, you're really changing the soil structure too much.

- [Chris] Okay.

- And then you're creating a bowl.

- Mm-hmm.

- That water will stand in and that's gonna defeat the purpose of us loosening it up-- - [Chris] Right.

- For the roots.

- 'Cause we don't want the feet to hang out in the water, right?

- No, we don't want the, the idea is to get 'em a little bit of good drainage.

Mix up all the clods.

- [Chris] Huh.

Now, Joellen, I think you've done this a time or two, right?

- Time or two.

And now, we'll just check.

- [Chris] So, what do you think about the root system?

- The root system is really nice.

It's a little bit tight.

We'll scratch that up a little bit.

- Uh-huh.

- I wanna check for it's height.

- All right.

- And it is above the soil surface existing, so we want, that's about where we want it.

So, now, since this got some circling roots, here, we're gonna just loosen these up a bit so that it'll stop circling.

- [Chris] Okay.

And while you do that, Joellen, I'm gonna take wheat seed, here.

- [Joellen] Oh my, yes it does.

- [Chris] Just take that out of there.

- [Joellen] Root and all, very good.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- Yay!

And we'll look to see where the vines are growing and they're essentially going this way.

So, since we want it to climb the fence we're gonna head those that way.

And we will-- - [Chris] Me hold it?

- [Joellen] Yeah, if you hold that, I'll-- - [Chris] Okay.

- I will fill it in.

Now, what we want to do is put some mulch around this.

It retain soil moisture.

First, we're gonna put down some slow-release fertilizer.

- Ah, yes!

- Like this Osmocote to give it a little bit of food-- - Okay.

- Throughout the growing season.

And remember, you don't have to sprinkle this too far 'cause the roots aren't very far out, so you don't want to over-fertilize...

It.

That should do for now.

- Okay.

- And then, we will put some mulch down.

Now, I will definitely cover all the area that we have dug up and I'm only gonna put it around the plant, less than an inch, and then about an inch or so around the rest of the plant.

I don't want to smother it.

I just want to help retain the moisture in the soil.

And this will also give us a line to keep the bermuda grass away from it.

- [Chris] True.

- [Joellen] So it'll have plenty of room.

- [Chris] This is true.

- To grow.

When it starts to grow, just keep taking these-- - [Chris] All right.

- Towards the fence 'cause they want to catch the fence.

And they'll keep growing up on the fence.

And as you see these and you can put these behind here.

And keep training it towards the fence.

And there you have it!

- All right, Joellen, we appreciate that.

- You're welcome!

- Can't wait to see what it looks like later in the season, huh?

- I can't wait!

[upbeat country music] - Today we're going to be talking about selecting the right tool for the job.

The job we're talking about today is going to be pruning.

With pruning you have either a saw or pruner options.

The pruners are going to offer a cutting action, whereas the saw is going to be a sawing motion.

We have larger versions of these in the loppers and the pole saw.

And if the job is big enough, you may need to resort to a chainsaw.

If you're going to be using a chainsaw, make sure that you have the proper safety equipment.

On this tree we've identified two issues that we are going to deal with.

This smaller branch down here is really for aesthetics.

We're going to take our small pruners.

The diameter of this branch is small enough to where our hand pruners can get them.

You just want to make a cut close to the base of the branch.

Our second branch is a little bit higher.

Before we make our cut, we're going to put on our safety glasses.

And, I've selected the pole saw for this task.

You get close to the base of the branch and begin your cut.

I don't wanna get on a ladder and use a hand saw.

I'd rather stay firmly on the ground and cut from the ground.

Now that you've made your cut, you can take your branch and safely dispose of it.

And, we've seen now in two different situations how, with a small branch, you can use the hand pruners.

With a larger branch up higher, you may use the pole saw.

Selecting the right tool for the job is important in pruning.

[upbeat country music] All right, Mr. D. Let's talk about systemic insecticides.

Real popular now, these days, a lot of people are usin' 'em.

Some folks are not usin' 'em.

So, let's talk about 'em.

- They're just a, they're another tool, there.

In my opinion they're a very useful tool.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- Systemic insecticides are highly soluble in water so the plants can take them up through their vascular tissue and it enables you to be able to treat extremely large trees that you can't spray.

- [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- It also is very selective about the insects that it kills.

You don't broadcast it out there so it's not killin' a lot of different insects.

- [Chris] Right.

- It's killing primarily the insects that suck sap.

- [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- And aphids and scale insects.

- [Chris] Okay.

- It's really good on those types of insects.

When you're in a situation like that and that's what you need, then I don't think you can go wrong by using systemics.

Many of 'em you could, will only take, you'll only need one treatment a year.

- [Chris] Right.

- To break the lifecycle.

But they've been around for a long time.

Some of them are more toxic.

Have higher mammalian toxicity than others.

And so, as with any pesticide, be sure that you follow, read very carefully and follow the label instructions when applying these products.

Some of them, the mammalian toxicity is not any worse-- - [Chris] Mmm.

- Than some of the other pesticides.

But they're a very, very useful tool.

I believe in using technology and systemic insecticides are a product of research, you know, years and years of research and technology and I believe in using it.

And the University of Tennessee also agrees with me.

- [Chris] Yes.

- As do other research based universities and institutions.

- Widely recommended.

Widely recommended.

- [Mike] Very, very widely recommended.

- Now, what are some of those systemic insecticides?

- Imidacloprid is one.

- [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- I've got a list of them here.

Let me make sure.

- And that's probably one that most folks would know.

- Right.

- And Joellen, you're probably familiar with a lot of these as well, right?

- Some, yes.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Mike] And some of the more common ones is Orthene, Acephate has systemic activity.

- [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- [Mike] Imidacloprid, Merit, and Safari-- - [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- [Mike] Are some of the more common products that are out there, insecticides that are out there.

The active ingredient in Safari is, what?

- [Chris] Dinotefuran.

- [Mike] You said that real good.

(laughter) Yeah, uh-huh.

- [Chris] Familiar with it.

- [Mike] And Imidacloprid, Bayer's Tree and Shrub insect control.

And Merit is also Imidacloprid, also.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- And then Orthene.

I still think Orthene or Acephate does most of its killing by stink so bad, smells so bad I think they just die.

- [Chris] Yeah, that stuff is horrible!

- [Joellen] Yes.

(laughter) - [Chris] It does, it smells bad.

- Really bad, has a bad smell to it.

- Now, can we explain again to the homeowners how do these products work, again?

- The way they work is you put them on the ground, you'll mix them with water according to the label directions.

Spray, or are there are any, do you know of any granulars?

- There are.

- [Mike] There are some granulars?

- There are some.

- So, the granular ones you do a little sprinkle on the ground, according to the label direction, under the plant.

When it rains or when you water it they are readily water soluble, so they dissolve in water and the roots then take the product up and it goes through the vascular system and then it's in the sap.

- [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- [Mike] And insecticide is in the sap of the plant and, and... You know, you're good.

The things you need to be careful about using these under, and again, it's not gonna be on the label, but if you're usin' the tree fruits and tree nuts that we eat-- - [Chris] Yeah, sure, right, right.

- You know, you wouldn't want to do that.

There are some products within the commercial pecan industry, systemics that are labeled for use in pecans.

However, you want, they'll tell you not to use that product after April, I mean August 1st or something like that, and that way, because of that that product is completely gone by harvest time.

You've got a harvest goal on those pecan products.

But, again, be careful if you have fruit trees-- - [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- And fruit plants around where you're putting these products, you need to be very careful with that.

But they work really well.

The plant takes it up.

You need to make sure that if it's raining, if you've got a rain event, are getting plenty of rain, then you don't have to do a lot of watering.

But if you put it out there and it's not, you're not getting any rain, then you do need to irrigate, you'd need to water it, then.

Sure.

- [Chris] Right.

- But the label will tell you that.

- Yeah, the label will tell you that.

- The label will tell ya.

- Definitely do that.

And the Bayer product comes in a liquid or granulated form.

- Both ways.

- Both ways.

- Yeah.

- And I've actually used both.

- Either one works.

- They work.

- Either one works.

- Well, and since we're talkin' about systemics, are there any systemic fungicides that you may know about?

- Some of the newer fungicides have some systemic activity and we used to say always, 'cause as a young Extension agent we learned that fungicides were preventative in nature.

- [Chris] Yeah, yeah, that's right.

- Protected treatment and you had to have it out there.

When the spore landed on the plant it had to land on some fungicide and die and if you didn't have that it wouldn't work.

But some of the newer fungicides out there do have some kickback activity, some systemic activity.

It'll move, some of them only move within the leaf.

- [Chris] Mmm.

- They won't move within the total plant.

But they may move from one part of the leaf to the other-- - [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- Within the leaf surface.

It's not as systemic as insecticides and herbicides.

- [Chris] Right.

- Not at that point, yet, but there is some kickback activity in some of the newer fungicides.

- Okay.

I wonder if any of those are available to homeowners?

- They are.

- Yeah, the systemic fungicides?

- I don't know.

- I think some of them.

- I think some.

- Some of the, and I'm not gonna mention trade names.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- But, first on my mind, but I think some of the new ones have a little bit of kickback activity.

Just, if it says that it has some kickback activity, that means it's systemic.

Some systemic activity.

- Okay.

And you're familiar with those products, too, I'm sure, aren't you?

- Yeah, but, like him, I have the commercial ones and I used to use that in the flower beds.

- [Chris] Right, yeah.

- And they would, you know, it took just a very little bit, but it made a big difference.

- [Chris] Okay.

- It really, they did work.

- And I guess, too, using the fungicides, I mean, you don't have to worry about beneficials or anything like that, right, 'cause-- - Right.

- It's not gonna do any harm to 'em.

- No.

- They don't have any-- - Yeah, no activity on 'em.

- Pretty safe.

- Yeah.

- You don't have to worry about killin' beneficial insects.

- [Chris] Right.

- [Joellen] No.

- With the fungicides.

- All right, Mr. D. We definitely appreciate that information.

- Okay.

- All right.

[upbeat country music] - I have just moved up this plant, it's a Digitalis.

But, I also have three or four different colors of Digitalis.

So, in order to remember which color and cultivar this is, I use tags.

You can use, this is a plastic tag that can be reused, or it can just move along with the plant.

This is also an option, a popsicle stick.

As long as you can write on it, this you might need to use a marker.

With these, I use a pencil.

And, what I'll do is just write the scientific name on there.

You don't have to do that, but I do.

And then, I'll put the common name.

This is Camelot Peach.

Most important to me, I like to keep information on my tag.

I will put the date that it was seeded, and then the day that I up-potted, which on the back I will put a T for transplant, and then I will put today's date.

I also keep this tag, I just kinda lives with the plant all the way through.

I will, when I plant it in the ground, I will set it in the ground beside that plant.

And then, I'll put a P on the tag, put the date it was planted, and I actually can keep these and gives me a record of how long it took from the plant to be seeded to when I actually planted it in the ground.

[upbeat country music] - All right, this is our Q and A session.

And Joellen, you help us out, all right?

- Sure!

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

"Is there such a thing as shade-tolerant roses?"

Joellen?

- No.

- And this is from Mr. Joe here in Memphis, so, Joellen?

- I've never heard of a shade-tolerant rose.

Now, I have a shady area and I have roses there.

They don't bloom very well.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- They're green.

I mean, it's enough light that they're green.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- But they're not producing flowers.

Because roses like sun.

- [Chris] Full sun.

- Lots of sun.

- Yeah, yeah.

In the shade, yeah, I can see green foliage and I can see-- - [Joellen] Mm-hmm.

- Smaller blooms, but yeah.

Full sun.

- I'm sorry.

- Yeah, full sun.

All right, Mr. Joe, there you have it.

So, here's our next question.

And guess what?

This is a letter.

And this letter is from Mr. in Millington.

All right, let me get this open, here.

All right.

His question is this, "I have a problem with my pink "flowering dogwood tree.

"It is about two years old and gets plenty of sunshine "in a good drainage area.

"Last week, it was leafing out and looked healthy, "then, this week, it suddenly looked like it was dying.

"It just seemed to be attacked from the top.

"I don't want to lose the tree.

What is going on?"

So, what do we think about that, Joellen?

He doesn't want to lose that tree, the flowering pink dogwood.

- Well, the one thing that I see is sunshine and dogwoods are not known for liking a lot of sunshine.

They are understory trees.

- [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- So, and based on the pictures of the damage that I saw, I would say that it's got in too much sun.

I would say it would do better with some more shade, especially afternoon shade.

And it might, that might help to keep it going.

- Yeah, I would agree, yeah.

Based on the way it looked in the picture-- - [Joellen] Picture.

- It just looked like it was just sittin' out in the yard with no shade.

- [Joellen] Mm-hmm.

- Again, understory tree has to have shade.

- Yes.

Sorry about that, but yeah.

It looks like it's young and he could move it to where it would-- - It did look relatively young.

- I mean, I saw some other trees in the pictures.

Or maybe they're, can move it closer to the tree line-- - [Chris] Mm-hmm.

- Or some trees that are already there.

- Yeah, it definitely has to have shade.

- [Joellen] Shade.

- All right, Mr. .

Did you have anything you want to add to that?

I see you lookin'.

- Maybe a little umbrella or somethin'.

(laughter) Beach umbrella, how about that?

That would, uh-- - [Chris] To give it a little shade.

- Give it a little shade.

(laughter) Nope, I don't have anything.

- All right.

So, here's our next question.

"What is a good grass that will grow in shade?"

So, what do y'all think about that one?

A good grass that will grow in shade?

- Monkey grass, Liriope.

(laughter) That's not really a grass, but.

- [Joellen] Yeah.

- Good grass.

- That would work.

- Some of the fescues do better.

- Some of the fescues, the five-star blends of the tall fescue will grow in shade, okay?

Still need some sun.

About four hours of filtered sun.

- [Mike] Yeah.

- [Joellen] Mm-hmm.

- And then, there are some Zoysias-- - [Joellen] Yeah.

- Out there that can actually tolerate some shade.

They still need sun.

- [Joellen] Still needs the sun.

- Again, about four hours of filtered sun.

But to put on my Booker T. Lee hat, since he is the grass guy, Palisade has real good shade tolerance.

- [Joellen] Mm-hmm.

- [Chris] Royal has real good shade tolerance.

There's Zenith, Meyers, you know.

- [Joellen] Yeah.

- Which you can find here in the local Tipton County area.

Real good shade tolerance.

But, again, that being said, you still need to have about four hours of filtered sun.

- Yeah.

And there's a new popular thing to do is just have moss under the tree.

There's a lot of very decorative mosses that people are using that make it look green, but it's actually a moss.

- [Mike] And you don't have to mow it.

- And don't have to mow it.

- [Chris] True.

Yeah, you just keep the leaves off of it.

- So, I mean, it just depends on how deep of shade that you have is whether you can have grass or not.

- That's right.

I would agree with that.

But, yeah, you're all right, Mr. D., I mean.

- It's ground cover.

- It's a ground cover.

- [Joellen] And it takes-- - [Chris] That's right.

- Is it really shade?

You don't get four hours of sunlight?

The moss is a ground cover.

- Exactly.

All right, so here is our next viewer email.

"I have a shrub with two different types of leaves on it.

"It looks like another plant has attached itself to it.

What is it?"

And this is from Natalie, east Memphis.

So, what do you think that is, Joellen?

- (chuckles) Well.

- [Chris] Two different.

- Based on the pictures, yes, I would say that they were two different plants growing together.

And one looks to me to be a Euonymus.

And the other one looks like a Cleyera of some type.

- [Mike] Mm-hmm, I would agree with that.

- And I think they're just growin' together.

And they're both woody, so that they, and they look somewhat alike with their green colors, but definitely leaf shade and everything else is completely different.

- [Mike] Completely different.

- They like the same environment, so, I mean, either you can let them live there with each other or take one of them out.

- And I'd recommend taking the Euonymus out because Cleyera doesn't get-- - [Chris] Euonymus scale!

- Euonymus scale.

(laughter) - That's true.

- That's right, I would definitely do that.

There's no doubt about it.

But, yeah, two different types-- - Two different plants, mm-hmm.

- Of leaves, so it's gonna be two different plants.

- I think that they're right.

- Yeah, Euonymus and Cleyera, but yeah.

Euonymus out.

(laughter) Yeah, you won't have to worry about usin' those systemic insecticides that we talked about earlier.

- [Mike] That's right.

- You know, with those scales.

And they're both evergreen.

- [Joellen] Right.

- Yeah.

- Which is also confusing.

- [Chris] Yeah.

- To folks.

- [Chris] That's right.

- The different leaf shapes, they are different plants.

- Different plants.

All right, Natalie, there you have it, different plants.

All right, Joellen, Mr. D., that's all we have time for today.

Good deal.

- All right.

- Thank you.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgraden.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.

To get more information on vines or systemic insecticides or anything else we've talked about on today's show go to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

Thanks for watching!

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]