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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Your garden comes alive in spring, and fall is the time to plant spring-blooming shrubs.

Today we'll talk about some great options.

Also selecting the right rootstock on your fruit tree is as important as getting the right kind of tree.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot, I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is the Director of Landscape at the University of Memphis.

And Mr. D will be joining me later.

All right, Joellen, let's talk about spring-blooming shrubs.

- Yes, I know it's fall, but this is the best time to plant.

We got to plan ahead so you can get those beautiful blooms in the spring.

We are going to be talking about several, most of them that I have in my yard, but most of them are going to be deciduous and most of them are fairly large shrubs, but you're gonna have to prune them.

So the best time to prune all of these shrubs that bloom in the spring, is gonna be right after they finished blooming in the spring.

So it'd be different times of the spring after they finished blooming that you'll have to prune them.

- So let's tell folks what we mean by deciduous.

- Yes deciduous means that they'd lose their leaves in the winter and so they have bare stems in the winter.

And then evergreens, there are a few that are evergreen, which means they retain their leaves all winter long.

So the first we're going to talk about is a Camellia.

They're going to be one of the first to bloom.

Now these are evergreen.

The size is going to depend on what type they are, because they have large shrubs clear down to dwarf sizes.

And it just depends on what kind of hybrid or what kind of cultivar it is as to when it blooms.

They can start in February through April.

The problem they have is the cold temperatures.

So try to place them away from the northwest winds in the winter.

So give them some protection from your yard, from your fences or a building or something like that.

But they are beautiful.

Have all different kinds of colors.

Singles, doubles.

Very, very beautiful.

And next of course, forsythia.

Now everybody knows that it's spring because the forsythia are starting to bloom.

It is a deciduous shrub, and it is zones five through eight.

And one of the first signs of spring, but they are large, so 8 to 12 feet round.

And again, you can cut them after they finished blooming to keep them in control.

And they are best in full sun.

Next are flowering quince.

These are also deciduous.

- They're beautiful, too.

- Zones five through eight.

They are single or double flowers, that they bloom on year old wood, which means they're not going to have flowers at the tips of the stem.

They're going to be flowers down into the base of the plant They can be large shrubs.

There are some dwarf varieties also.

And I really liked them best because they've developed some really nice double color and bright colors with large flowers.

They're real pretty.

But remember all of these have thorns on the stem.

So when you're pruning them, be careful.

And of course they like full sun also.

Next is Fothergilla.

This is a unused one, I think this should be used more.

The dwarf Fothergilla, especially, it's deciduous, which means it loses its leaves.

Zones five through eight.

They're about three foot in height.

They grow very slowly.

Most have white blooms.

There's some of the cultivars have pink and magenta, but they like full sun to partly sunny environments.

They have beautiful fall color.

Very nice plant.

Next is Spiraea.

The Spiraeas that bloom in early summer are all deciduous, and there's zones three through eight.

They get to five to eight feet round, very large shrubs.

Mostly white blooms.

They are very adaptable to soil conditions and they like full sun.

I think they have lots of white blooms all up and down the stem.

Just beautiful!

- I love them.

I actually have this at home, thanks to you!

- Yeah, very, very pretty.

- Actually wet condition.

- Yeah, they can take some wet conditions.

They're very adaptable.

Next is Weigela.

It is also deciduous.

Zones five through eight.

Height of six to nine feet round.

There are many, many, many pages of cultivars and varieties of these and the color range is from whites, pinks, reds, everything in between.

They are very pollution-tolerant, which is good for them.

And they like full sun to partly sunny conditions.

So very nice plant.

The beautybush.

This is one some people don't know about.

It's deciduous, zones four through eight.

Height of 8 to 10 feet.

Pink flowers only on this.

And they bloom on old wood, again.

So that means they're not going to be at the very tips of the stems, they're gonna be down in the plant.

They need room to spread and they like full sun.

- They are pretty.

- Yeah, they are pretty.

Viburnum species.

There are deciduous and evergreen varieties of these.

Zones five through eight.

The one that is really known for spring is the carlesii, the Korean spice.

It's got fragrant blooms and they are gorgeous.

It is one of the smaller ones.

It gets to four to five feet in height and has great fall color before it loses its leaves.

So, I mean, they like full sun, excellent plant.

And some of the viburnums can take some shade, but you won't get as much blooms out of them.

Next are azaleas and Rhododendrons.

I've put these together because the powers that be that do nomenclature, have put them all, lumped them all into rhododendrons, but they're in the same family now.

They are evergreen.

So they're not going to lose their leaves.

There's zones four through eight.

And the height of course depend on the variety.

There are large shrubs and there are dwarf shrubs.

Azaleas have flowers that are white, pink, red, lavender.

And Rhododendron usually have lilac, purple, and white, and red flowers.

They all like well-drained soil.

There's exclamation points behind that.

And they like light shade, but they'd need enough sun in shade to be able to produce flowers.

So just give them enough sun so they can produce flowers.

Next is the lilacs.

Deciduous plant, again.

Zones three through seven.

Height, four to eight plus feet, depending on what variety you have.

Flowers are usually lavender purple, but there are many new cultivars with colors in them.

So they like full sun.

Of course in the south, we really would benefit from some shade, especially in the afternoon.

They don't like the heat and the sun in the afternoon.

So just give them some shade here further south.

Next Ninebark.

Now this this is a deciduous shrub.

Zones two to seven.

Height is three to six feet, depending on the cultivar.

This is a late spring bloomer.

So all these others have bloomed and then these start blooming.

They're usually whites or pinks, but I have really enjoyed the newer varieties of them that have the leaf colors of reds and purples and yellow.

So the dark leaf with pink flowers on them is really pretty.

I like those the best.

Again, because they're so colorful, they need full sun when they're blooming, but they can live in some partly shady areas.

They just won't bloom as much, or be as a tight shrub, it'd be more loose.

Next is Deutzia gracilis, the slender deutzia.

I love this plant, I have this.

It's a deciduous.

Zones four to eight.

Height, two to four feet.

So it is a small shrub to begin with.

It is a late blooming shrub.

When everything else isn't blooming, it has these gorgeous white blooms all up and down the stems.

It really stands out in the garden.

They like well-drained soil.

They can take some drought.

And of course they need a partly shady area.

So I really, really liked that one.

It's one I recommend.

- That's a pretty good list.

So let me ask you this.

What about those plants that bloom on old wood?

When would you need to prune those?

- The same time.

Yeah, but just remember the old wood that standing up there, that's where the blooms are gonna be next year.

So if you're trying to control height, if you cut it back down to where the old wood was, it will just keep growing and producing new growth that will never bloom because it'll keep blooming on the older part.

- That's good to know.

So let's talk a little bit about right plant, right place.

I mean, these are beautiful shrubs that you have given us.

So right plant, right place.

- Yeah, you'll notice notice most of these that are blooming needs sun.

So you're gonna have to give it a sunny condition.

Now, some of them don't.

The azaleas and Rhododenrons, they like some shades.

So do the Camellias.

But you've got to get enough sun or else it's not going to produce flowers.

And that's the whole point of having these is to produce flowers.

You can keep them under control.

I mean, even when it gets 10 feet tall, if you keep pruning it and try to get the most dwarf variety of that particular one, you can.

I don't want you to keep pruning it all to death all the time.

But every year they're producing more and more of these in a dwarf form because they are so pretty.

So I would just look for the newer more dwarf forms, if you want to pick one of these.

- It's the right plant, right place.

- Yes.

- Joellen, thank you.

That's good information, detailed information.

We appreciate that.

- Thank you.

[upbeat country music] - There is a reason why we are not recommending pin oaks anymore.

That reason would be bacterial leaf scorch.

The vector for bacterial leaf scorch is gonna be the tree hopper.

When the tree hopper is feeding on the leaves, it actually deposits a bacteria, which actually helps to inhibit the flow of water through the xylem layer throughout the leaf of the plant.

Which is why the plant will go from a dark green color to a lighter green color, to a dark color.

Almost looks like these leaves have been scorched or burned.

Over time the bacteria would get into the limbs and branches of the tree, which will reduce the canopy.

Which is why we don't recommend it anymore.

You could call a certified arborist to assess the overall tree health.

But again, that might be difficult because I don't know if they're gonna be able to treat for those tree hoppers.

[upbeat country music] All right, Mr. D, let's talk a little bit about rootstocks.

Now let's define that for the people.

What we mean when we talk about rootstocks.

- Rootstocks are usually a seedling plant that you graft more desirable types of plants onto that rootstock and rootstocks are chosen because they are more prolific.

They're hardier, faster growing than the plant that you're grafting on to that rootstock.

You can graft them, you can bud them, there are several different ways of actually creating a plant on rootstock.

But it's very important that you choose plants that need to be on rootstock.

You need to choose a plant that is on rootstock.

And apples and peaches and plums and nectarines and pears are examples of plants that are grafted or budded onto rootstock.

And if you just plant a seed of one of those plants that I talked about, especially with apples and pears, number one, the rootstock is not gonna be very strong.

The tree will probably not grow as fast, it will probably will not do well, and will not last as long as if it had been grafted onto rootstock.

And number two, you don't know what variety it is because they were cross-pollinated.

And the fruit that you get is a cross between the parents of that fruit.

So that's why if you're gonna go to the trouble of planting a peach seed or a pear seed or an apple seed, you know, you'll be a lot better off to go out and buy a grafted variety.

You can order them and you can get the real small plants, they will ship them to you.

And you can stick them in the ground and they'll do really well.

- And that's the route that you would take?

- That's the route I would take.

I would strongly encourage it.

There are some plants that don't require rootstocks.

Let me go down the list here.

And I'll talk a little bit about some of the different terminologies and some of the different names of rootstocks with apples.

We started talking about that.

If you don't have a lot of space and you want to grow an apple tree, then you probably would want to go with one of the dwarf apples.

And dwarf apples are on malling number nine.

It's M-A-L-L-I-N-G, malling 9 or malling 26.

That's the names of the dwarfing rootstocks.

And if you graft a variety on to that dwarfing rootstock, it will be small.

Now you will need to stake or trellis that apple.

And just so it's not gonna be a traditional looking apple tree.

This is going to look more like a vine because it's gonna grow up and you got to support it because the rootstock is not strong enough to support that tree in a standalone situation.

Now, if you go to a different rootstocks, semi-dwarf, malling 7, MM 106 and MM 111 are semi-dwarf.

And those trees, let me see, I believe, yeah, those trees can stand alone and you will prune them to a central leader system.

Just like we've always pruned apple trees.

- So no trellis for those?

- No trellis for the semis or the standard.

And the standard is there several seedlings out there that are rootstock for the seedling trees.

Pears, there's a standard rootstock that almost all pears are grafted to.

So again, you don't need to plant the pear seed, but you need to make sure that you go to the standard rootstock for pears.

Peach and nectarine, two most common, the two standard rootstocks for peaches and nectarines, and that's Lovell and Halford.

Those are the plants, the rootstock plants, that peaches and nectarines are grafted to.

Plums are also grafted to Lovell and Halford.

They're also grafted to a rootstock called Myrobalan.

And, you know, as far as there being a difference, I'd say any of these rootstocks would work.

I would, if I bought something, I would want to make sure that I knew what it was grafted to.

In some situations when I worked and live down in south Alabama, we had a very heavy nematode pressure.

And there was a Nemaguard rootstock that you could buy peaches and plums and nectarines that they were grafted to, which were a little bit more resistant to nematodes.

I don't see that listed in our Tennessee recommendations.

And I'm reading, I'm taking this out of the Home Tree Fruit Plan, Dr. Lockwood, University of Tennessee, came up with this.

I'm just reading out of this publication, SP-307.

And I'm sure you've got that available in your office.

- Yeah, have it.

Let me ask you something else about rootstock.

So does that have anything to do with like disease or insect pest resistance?

- Probably not, I think it has just the most to do with the growth, the hardiness and the length of life for that plant.

But there's a rootstock for cherries, Mazzard and Mahaleb.

Quince has a, quince is an example of one that you really don't, you can go with rooted cuttings and it's a tough enough plant that it doesn't have to be grafted.

Same thing with a pawpaw.

If you want to grow pawpaw plant, you can go with a seedling or seeds on a pawpaw.

You don't have to graft those.

Mulberry is another example of one that you don't have to graft, and you can go with seedlings or rooted cuttings.

- It's strong enough.

- And then the persimmon, American persimmon, is a very strong plant.

You can plant that American persimmon seed and you will have a good plant.

If you're trying to grow the oriental persimmons, they need to be grafted to American persimmon rootstock.

And that's pretty much all we've got.

Let me mention a couple of things.

Again, I want to repeat that the trees on the malling 7A and malling 26 and malling nine rootstocks should be staked or trellised.

Nine, twenty-six, and seven-A is one of the semi-dwarfs.

So, one of the semi dwarfs needs to be trellised or staked.

So it's, that's again, that's why you need to really make sure you what rootstock your plants are on.

And I mean, you can get all, you can get Jonathan apple on any of these rootstocks, and it's the same apple, the leaf will look the same.

The fruit will be the same, but the size of the tree will be different, based upon the rootstock that its grafted on.

- It's interesting.

- It says they do recommend irrigation, especially on the dwarfing rootstock.

They need irrigation, probably more, because the root system's not strong.

- Right, that makes sense, it does.

- And then just to note here, most apple varieties need to be cross-pollinated by another variety, however, there are three apple varieties that have sterile pollen.

Mutsu, Jonagold, and Winesap have sterile pollen, and they're not any good for pollinating purposes.

Bruce is a plum that has sterile pollen.

And so it's not good for cross-pollination.

Something you need to know if you're planting these things.

- I have a little time left, Mr. D, can you cover for us to make sure you don't mulch over?

- Right, when you plant any of these fruits and plant them in late winter, we recommend planting fruit trees in late winter.

February in the Memphis, Mid-South area.

Late February, early March is the best time to stick them in the ground.

But be very sure that you plant them at the depth that they grew in the nursery.

If it's a bare root plant, there's a difference in color of the tissue.

The rootstock is usually two or three inches above the ground.

And you'll see where that plant was budded or grafted.

It'll kind of come at it kind of an angle, but do not cover that up with dirt.

Do not cover it up with mulch.

Make sure that you plant it at the depth that it grew in the nursery or the depth that it's growing in the pot.

And don't use a post hole digger because you'll dig it too deep.

You'll plant it right, it'll rain, everything will settle down.

The dirt will wash in on it.

You didn't plant it too deep, Mother Nature planted it to deep for it.

So don't dig a wide planting hole, but not too deep.

- And it doesn't have to be amended.

- It doesn't have to be amended.

You can go with the soil that you're growing it in.

You might as well start it out with soil you want it to grow in.

'Cause those tree roots are gonna grow out very quickly.

- Good stuff, Mr. D, we appreciate it as always.

- Thank you much.

[gentle country music] This is our anise shrub that we planted a few years ago.

And after observing the leaves on this shrub, I can tell that something was wrong.

And if you look at this leaf here, it is an iron deficiency.

It's interveinal chlorosis.

Look how pronounced those veins are.

That lets me know that it is an iron deficiency.

It's not like the soil doesn't have any iron in it.

Maybe the iron is not moving through the root systems through the plant.

So what we can do here is, we're gonna add a little iron to the area.

And what you really need to do is, make sure that you spread this around the drip area of the shrub itself.

Now after reading the label directions, and always follow the label directions, it's gonna call for about two tablespoons of this iron product.

So, the important thing here is to make sure that you get it watered in, right, 'cause you wanna move this product through the soil so the roots can pick it up and absorb it.

And hopefully, we'll see some difference in about a few months.

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

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- These are great questions.

- Yes.

- Here's our first viewer email.

"How do I get rid of poison ivy that is growing in my thick Asian jasmine?"

Terry from the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

So I think we talked about this a bit before, right?

- We have some ivy that has poison ivy in it.

And we have, because it's just gotten so out of control, we have spot sprayed it in the ivy.

What you can do is you can try to just make sure you carefully spray it on there or you can use the wipe method.

And I tell you, that is very underused for stuff like this.

You mix up some glyphosate in a container and take a sponge with your gloves on and you touch the sponge in the Roundup and you just simply press it on the leaves of the poison ivy.

And that way you don't harm any of the other vine that you want to keep in there.

- Yeah, the wipe technique is one that I tell people about often.

Because it, glyphosate will translocate.

So yeah, you just wipe it on a leaf or on the stem itself.

It'll translocate down to the root system and kill it that way.

Always read and follow the label, of course.

And yeah PPE is important.

- Very important.

- Long pants, long sleeve shirts and then you did mention gloves.

- Gloves.

Yes, waterproof gloves.

- I would do that, Terry, and hopefully that helps you out.

Here's our next viewer email.

"My whole backyard is full of dog fennel "and I can't kill it.

"How do I get rid of it?

"It's gotten out of hand.

"I read online it can spread from the base underground too.

"It blew in from a neighbor's wooded yard.

I don't know what to do."

This is Tyran, YouTube.

So a couple of different options here.

You better get it when it's young and actively growing.

Because when it matures and gets old, it gets tough and woody.

So you can mow it to exhaust it of his carbohydrates.

But culturally, thick stand of grass, fertilize according to your soil test.

Water appropriately.

That's those are your cultural practices.

If you want to use chemicals, there's a couple that come to mind.

Triclopyr, which is brush killer can be used.

Read and follow the label on that.

Glyphosate, something else that can be used, but you just have to be careful in this setting when you using it.

And then thirdly, you can use something that contains 2,4-D, MCPP, or dicamba.

Those are your three-way herbicides.

Broadleaf weed killers, if you will.

- That won't hurt your grass.

- But it will not hurt your grass, right.

It is a selective herbicide.

So it will release your grasses and only controls broadleaf weeds, which dog fennel is.

It does have an extensive root system.

It's a matted root system.

There's a field across from my home.

Yeah, you try to pull it up, you better get all of those roots.

'Cause if not, it will come back.

So then you have it, Tyran, and hope that helps you out and good luck!

- Yes, definitely!

- Good luck.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What's killing my trees?

"They are dying from the tips.

"The leaves are curling up and it is all varieties, "including my fruit trees, and blueberries, "oaks, maples, hickory, and junk trees.

What's going on?"

Richard from Greenville, Tennessee.

So what do you think?

- Wow.

- That's a lot!

- That's a lot.

My first thing that comes to mind to me is anthracnose.

And if you let it go it'll coat down clear down to the stems of all of those.

But you definitely need to trim them out as soon as possible.

And trim below where it's dark on the stem.

So you get to clear wood to get and get rid of those.

And I would not put those in the compost pile.

I would definitely throw those in the garbage to get them away from the garden.

- So we've had a lot of anthracnose this year because of what?

- It's been wet.

Had a wet spring, and then we've had hot humid conditions and nothing's drying out, you know?

So yeah, perfect, perfect.

You get anthracnose in the spring and in the fall.

- And it spreads like crazy.

- Yeah.

- Oh gosh, he needs, I'm thinking, air circulation.

Maybe he's got so much stuff in his yard, maybe when he needs to start pruning to get some air circulation between the plants and within each plant.

And maybe that will help with the anthracnose.

- Sure, I would agree with that.

And if some of these trees are large trees, you may want to contact a certified arborist-- - Definitely a certified arborist.

- To come in there and do some pruning and assess the overall health of that tree, of those trees.

- And then they can thin them for him.

- Right, because the air circulation is important.

- Very important.

- That was fun.

I enjoyed that.

Thank you, Joellen.

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 joining us.

If you want to learn more about the spring-blooming shrubs Joellen talked about, or learn more about fruit tree rootstock, visit familyplotgarden.com.

While you're there, ask us your gardening questions.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]