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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Why didn't my hydrangea bloom?

That's a question we wanna get an answer to today.

Also, the heat of summer can stress tomato plants.

Today we are learning how to keep production going all summer long.

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 Celeste Scott.

Celeste is a UT Extension horticulture specialist.

This is gonna be fun, Celeste.

- Yes.

- Why didn't my hydrangeas bloom?

- Oh my goodness, it's the most popular question, and the one that everyone wants to know the answer to.

- They're gonna find out the answer today, right?

- That's right.

So it has to do with a couple different things.

Number one, we need to know what type of hydrangea it is.

- Important.

- Number two, we need to know when that type of hydrangea should be pruned, if we're gonna be doing any pruning in the home garden.

And then also number three, we need to be aware of early spring weather patterns because that can affect bloom potential for some of our hydrangea.

So let's start with Hydrangea species that bloom on current year's growth.

Those include Hydrangea paniculata, those are our sun-loving hydrangeas, and Hydrangea arborescens, our smooth hydrangea.

So for those two hydrangea, we wanna focus on pruning those during the dormant season when they're not actively growing.

And that is not going to affect their potential for bloom on the upcoming season because they're gonna grow new tissue that will bear that current season's flower buds.

- Got it.

- Does that make sense?

- That makes sense, got it.

What does the new growth look like?

- Let me show you.

- Okay.

- Right here we've got a Hydrangea arborescens.

This is smooth-leaf hydrangea, and it blooms on new growth.

So you can see how herbaceous this stem is in nature.

I'm gonna go ahead and bend it just so you can see how pliable it is, right?

So we don't have any woody texture to this stem at all, and that tells us that this is new growth.

If we look down into the base of this plant, you can see that it originates all the way from the crown all the way at the bottom of this plant.

Now, there was old wood.

This particular hydrangea was pruned back in early spring, and so we aren't seeing the stems of the old wood there.

That's not necessary for this particular hydrangea.

Some people like to leave the old wood up, and the new wood will just kind of grow through it and then, and use it kind of as a support system.

- So that's what I do at home, I leave the old wood.

- Yeah?

- I do.

- Just leave it and let this grow through that.

This particular one, all that's been removed.

So all we see here is new growth.

- That's the new growth?

- Yeah.

- Alright, got it.

- On the flip side of that, we have a few other hydrangea.

We've got Hydrangea quercifolia.

That's our oakleaf hydrangea.

We have Hydrangea macrophylla.

That's like our mophead type, right?

And then Hydrangea serrata, mountain hydrangea.

Those are the hydrangea that fall into the category that bloom on old growth, okay?

So old wood.

So if we get too excited with our pruners in spring on those types of hydrangea, we are very likely cutting off all of the wood that bears flower buds for that season's growth, okay?

So if those type need to be pruned at all, we need to delay pruning until after their primary show of flowering, okay?

For an oakleaf hydrangea, this is the one that's here behind us.

- Beautiful.

- It is beautiful.

And it has four full seasons of interest, okay?

- Four?

- Yes, four.

They're gorgeous, you can tell.

They're past their peak bloom.

They bloom white.

As the blooms mature, they turn this reddish pink color, some of them.

This particular one is 'Ruby Slippers'.

So it's definitely developing that deep red color.

This cultivar also has fall foliage color.

Most of our Hydrangea quercifolia will have some type of foliage interest in the fall.

After the leaves fall off, the structure, the limb structure of this plant is gorgeous.

So four full seasons of interest on this wonderful, also native hydrangea for us, okay?

So there's really no perfect time for pruning this.

But if I needed to prune it to control size, I would actually be coming in and doing that right now.

- So you do that now?

- Right.

It's past its peak bloom.

I know it's gorgeous right now, right?

So definitely has interest.

But if this had outgrown its space in the garden, now is the time to come and prune it because it's also putting on its current season's growth, right?

So what's this gonna turn into next year?

Old growth, okay?

Next year, this new growth that's growing right now, next year it's gonna bear flower buds, and will be able to bloom next year.

- You said we can prune now.

So can we go ahead and do that?

- Yes we can.

So let me show you what we would do on this oakleaf hydrangea.

Again, I like the structure of the plant the way it is.

So I don't feel like this actually needs any size reduction.

But in a home setting, if we were needing to bring this plant in, make it a little tighter, we wanna make deep cuts, okay?

So you always wanna cut deeper than you anticipate because pruning stimulates new growth, okay?

So I'm gonna cut down deep.

- Okay, good cut there.

- Good cut.

I've pulled this out so I can show you better up close.

So we always wanna make sure that we make our pruning cuts at a growth juncture right here.

You see we've got this node.

We've got another branch coming off.

This was the main part of the plant.

So if we were gonna prune this off, I would come in and make a nice clean cut right there, okay?

We don't wanna leave stubs on the mother plant.

So from here I wanted to show you what new growth and old growth looks like, the difference between that, okay?

So this obviously is old growth.

This was previous season's growth.

It's turning woody in nature.

The bark, the outer bark is starting to exfoliate and peel away.

- So it peels, okay.

- You can see this was new growth.

It just very... I barely touched it, and that herbaceous, flexible, we'll call that semi hardwood growth, has just come right off.

So definitely this was new growth that was growing off of old wood.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

- That makes sense.

- So again, also looking for indicators on your mother plant of lighter colored leaves.

Terminal branches that don't have blooms on them can also be an indicator of new wood.

- So again, do we have to prune at all, though?

- No, no.

- Is it necessary to prune?

- No, definitely not.

So if your hydrangea is growing within the designated spaces, if you have properly placed it in your landscape, then no, definitely, you do not have to prune unless it's just an aesthetic issue for you or it's outgrown its designated area.

So when it comes to macrophylla hydrangea, or mophead hydrangea, same basic concept.

Most of our newer cultivars of macrophylla are what we call remontant.

That means they have a re-blooming capacity.

They can bloom on previous year's wood, old wood.

They can also bloom on new wood.

- Oh, is this gonna be challenging?

- It's gonna be a little challenging, okay?

So we definitely do not want to do any pruning on those hydrangea during the winter dormant season, okay?

We need to leave those as they are because that is the wood that has potential to bear your spring beauty, right?

That first flush of blooms that they're so renowned for is going to come off of that previous year's growth.

However, sometimes we have late spring freezes, and that can damage the flower buds on that old wood.

What we have in those situations is that we don't have leaf out on any of that old wood growth.

And now we have to rely on all new growth coming up from the crown of that plant to bear blooms.

So we're essentially gonna miss that spring bloom display and then start to get some blooms sprinkled in through late summer.

So we're getting into July and August here in this area of Tennessee.

We're gonna start seeing a few sporadic blooms here and there.

And that's because these newer cultivars, many of them have the potential to bloom on new growth.

- On new growth.

- Okay?

So that second bloom flush is not gonna be as showy as that first spring bloom that's supposed to happen on old wood.

But you definitely are gonna get some blooms later in the summer.

- So you'll get 'em, but it'll just be later?

- That's right, yeah.

- Okay, okay.

- So that's what we're looking at, right?

On our hydrangeas, the oakleaf and the macrophyllas that bloom on old growth primarily, we need to focus on pruning them after their primary flower display so that they still have time to grow current season growth, which will bear blooms next season.

- Celeste, we thank you for the demonstration and explanation, why didn't my hydrangea bloom.

- Yeah.

- We get that question a lot of the time, so thank you for that.

- I hope it helped.

- I hope it helped too.

[upbeat country music] - Let me show you why it's so important that we correct circling roots at planting for woody shrubs and trees.

So we noticed as we were walking by that this tree has an unusual swelling at the base of this trunk.

This is not the same as your typical root flare that you would want to see at the base of a mature tree.

So we came over, did a little excavation, and we have exposed the presence of a very large mature girdling root.

And essentially, this was once a circling root in a small container that wasn't corrected at planting.

And as the tree trunk began to mature, so did those circling roots, they also began to expand in diameter.

Now that circling root has turned into a girdle at the base of this trunk, and it's trapping nutrients and moisture right above that restrictive area, and that's what's creating this bulge.

The tree looks okay right now, but as it continues to mature, that girdling is just going to become worse and worse, and we're gonna see slow decline of this plant over time.

Certified arborists do have an expensive service that they can offer to correct girdling roots, but it's pretty invasive, can be risky for the tree, and again, it's pretty costly.

We even have another root on the opposite side of the tree that's doing the same thing.

So this is why it is so important that we correct circling roots at time of planting to prevent girdling as these trees and woody shrubs mature.

[upbeat country music] - Hi Alainia.

- Hey there.

- It's good to have you back in the Family Plot garden.

- Back to see the baby tomatoes again.

- Back to see the tomatoes you planted.

So what do you think so far?

- I think they look good.

- Think they look good?

- They look real good.

- All right, so it's been terribly hot here in Memphis this summer.

So let's talk about summer tomato care.

So where do we need to start with that?

- Well, I understand these are on a drip hose drip irrigation, and they look, they look pretty great.

You're getting fruit.

Some of these can be picked ahead of time when they're still a little bit green to ripen indoors.

That might help a little bit with the ripening.

I see one that... In the summer, they're quick to go from almost ripe to way too ripe.

So sometimes you can pick 'em when they're maybe almost done, and even one that's still a little bit green, on the green side.

You could pick something like this.

Just take it inside and set it indoors.

- Okay.

- Upside down like that.

- Upside down, how about that?

- Well, there you go.

[laughs] And they don't have to be in the sun.

Just put them in.

It can be dark, doesn't matter.

- Alright.

- You've got few spent blooms that didn't get pollinated, looks like.

It's just the heat.

They won't pollinate when it's above 90.

The pollen inside the flower, they're self-pollinated, so they've got both the female and the male parts.

They just have to move the pollen inside.

That's gonna be, I saw a bumblebee here earlier that was doing some good deeds.

But you can go through here to sort of help 'em along with the heat.

- Just tap.

- Tap the blooms, shake the whole thing, grab the plant and shake it, I've seen people do, and that'll help, 'cause generally they're wind pollinated, as well as the insect pollinated.

I understand they're getting watered every day, but they look pretty good.

There may be some blight.

Might be a good time to... Of course, there's a lot of heat stress too.

It might be a good time to start some of your chemicals on the, if you wanna go that route for prevention.

- Okay.

And some of those chemicals are, of course, chlorothalonil.

- Then your other field being mancozeb.

But they're preventative.

So maybe seeing maybe just heat stress that's causing them to look a little bit yellowing at the bottom.

- Now, would you remove some of those diseased leaves?

- You could, you could just for good practice and discard 'em outside the garden.

- Okay.

- You wanna look for hornworms.

- Those things are hard to find.

- Especially after the rain, they're hard to find.

- So it's interesting you said after the rain.

- After rain, you can expect them within about a week.

- How about that.

- And the ground's gotta be soft and, 'cause they intend to eat and then go down in the ground to pupate.

So the hawk moth or tomato hawk moth or hummingbird moth will come along and lay like one to three eggs.

So generally if you see one, you've got more.

- Wow, okay.

- But be on the lookout.

And they're hard to see, but you can definitely see when the damage comes along.

- Oh, you can definitely see that.

- You'll still have the stems, but you won't have any of the leaves.

Now, you can treat those, and that's an organic treatment.

It's Bt.

- Okay.

- When the worm eats it, you don't have to worry about them eating anymore.

So it'll kill 'em.

There's also... Of course, we pick 'em off too.

That's the quickest way.

Now there's one hornworm that's a good hornworm that you do not wanna kill.

- It's a good hornworm?

- Nobody thought I'd say that.

If you see a hornworm that looks like it's got granules of rice sticking out of its back- - Ah, right, I know where you're going with this.

- That's parasitic wasp.

Leave that worm alone, it won't eat anymore.

It won't harm the plant at all at this point.

And you want to breed more of those wasps, and they'll go out there and kill 'em for you.

- Okay, that's the braconid wasp.

Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.

- Little wasp, I guess.

And keeping up with the fertilizer.

- Okay, so what kind of fertilizer would you use for this time of the year?

- It would be the same all the way throughout.

Just reading the directions, whether you do a... I generally use the higher dose, so I only have to do it every couple weeks or so.

- Okay.

- But just keep 'em fed.

You can't do anything about the heat.

They'll show some leaf curls sometimes just from stress of the heat, but it'll get better as it cools off.

- Any other diseases?

Anything else we should know about?

- No, I think they look really good.

- Okay.

- A lot of people get blossom end rot.

And that is, they'll say a calcium deficiency, but it's really most... And you don't have any of that.

And I think it's because y'all are watering every morning, and it's just maintaining that moisture.

So they don't go without the calcium intake from like the ground being too dry to take it up in.

- Right, so what if you have some cracked fruit?

- Okay, generally that's from when it rains.

Then we'll get too much rain, it'll have a growth spurt.

And the calcium or just the end, just the normal growth doesn't keep up with the kind of water that we get.

But we can't do anything about that.

But you can mulch and just what you're doing with the, with the morning watering, with irrigation, just being consistent.

And probably after a rain, look for the cracked fruit, knowing that that happens.

And usually you can harvest those, and they might even ripen a little bit before that you can hold onto 'em for a few days.

- Okay, you mentioned mulch a couple of times.

So what type of mulch do you like to use or would you prefer?

- There's so many methods.

Some people use dried hay bales or straw.

I've seen, I use pine needles and I put newspaper up under 'em.

And that way it just keeps the weeds out.

Tomatoes being an annual, I mean, we only have to keep... Around here, it's Bermuda.

But you just have to keep the grass outta there for a few months.

So I try not to use... A lot of people use black plastic, and it makes it easier.

I'm using generally, my garden area, the same one, the same spot every year.

So I try not to use any plastic that's gonna be trouble to get up later.

But putting newspaper down, it will till in and add to the soil.

- Okay.

So it's beneficial.

- Yes.

- Actually.

- And pine needles, pine needles work great.

They dry out and that just keeps the, the soil level with your mulch, it being dry is gonna keep the wet and the disease away from your plants.

- Ah, that's good, and that's what you want.

- Right, and the watering at the bottom like you've got it, that keeps it from, keeps you from getting the plants wet, which is encouraging the disease.

- Yeah, we definitely wanna get the, especially the bottom foliage wet for sure.

All right, Alainia, well, we appreciate that.

Getting us summer tomato care, right?

- Yes.

- And so far so good, like you said, right?

- And they look great.

- So far, so good.

- Look great.

- All right, so thank you much, we appreciate that.

- Okay.

[upbeat country music] - These all fall webworms.

You can actually see the worms in their silk nest.

These will appear in the summer and throughout the fall.

As far as control measures go, there's really no control measures that you really need to do.

What I would do, because you see the nest, which is on the outer end of the tree branch, because you can reach it, get you a stick, I would poke a hole through the nest, which protects the webworms, alright?

I would expose the webworms to birds, parasitic wasps, spiders and other wildlife.

Let them be your control measure.

So again, fall webworms.

Yeah, you see them in the summer and in the fall.

The tree can handle the damage, so don't worry about the tree.

Just open it up, let the parasitic wasps, birds, spiders do their thing.

All right, so here's our Q&A segment.

Y'all ready?

- Yes sir.

- These are some great questions, all right?

Here's our first viewer email.

"This winter we had a hard freeze.

How do I help my fiddle leaf fig recover?"

And this is Karen in Avon Park, Florida.

So Camille, hard freeze.

We know something about a hard freeze, right?

- Mm-hmm.

- So how does she help it recover?

- If your fiddle leaf fig did survive a hard freeze, you could cut it back to any of the growth points.

So it'll have fresh green nodes that are coming, and you can cut it back to that point.

But a fiddle leaf fig probably won't survive a hard freeze.

It'll probably die.

You might be able to get away with that in a few years in Florida, but you should probably put it in a pot and bring it inside if you're gonna get a hard freeze.

It's a tropical plant.

- Right, it's a tropical plant.

- Yeah, depending on where you are in Florida, right?

Are you in the panhandle, are you up north?

Are you way down south?

So definitely depends on your typical weather patterns.

- Typical weather pattern.

And I will say this, I would not fertilize it.

The plant is already stressed, right?

So just let it continue to grow, see if you can grow out of it.

Then maybe the next growing season I would fertilize it, but not just right off.

All right.

Thank you, Karen, we appreciate that question.

Here's our next viewer email.

"Can I leave yellowing Aucuba leaves on the plant?"

This is Melody from Hernando, Mississippi.

She's worried she's being overzealous by immediately removing those leaves.

So what do you think about that?

- Yeah, I would say that you can usually leave yellowing leaves on any plant, and it's not gonna hurt your plant.

That's a natural thing that happens.

Whenever lower leaves are older, they die back and they'll naturally fall off, and that's not gonna hurt your plant.

I wouldn't even think that there was necessarily a problem unless the top new leaves are turning yellow.

- Yeah, I don't think it's a problem, do you?

- Yeah, no, I don't either.

Aucubas can be bad about getting some leaf, foliar leaf funguses, but they didn't mention seeing any kind of leaf patterns or spots on those leaves.

So if it's just general yellowing, I think probably older leaves that are being shaded out.

Possibly sitting in a lower area.

So they don't like... They like moist, well-drained soil, but they don't like to sit in soggy soil.

- Yeah, they can get root rot.

- Yeah, so definitely have 'em take a look at that.

That could be causing that leaf yellowing and dropping if it's just kind of happening over the entire plant and not just concentrated there at the bottom.

- Okay, so older leaves, just leave them be.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- It'll naturally fall off.

- If you wanna clean up your garden and remove them, you can, but I would never do extra work I don't have to in the garden.

- I like it.

I like it.

And I would like to add, I wouldn't strip those leaves off either.

'Cause you don't wanna damage the plant.

So don't strip those leaves off.

Alright, Melody, don't be overzealous.

Just let it stay, it'll be fine.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"How do I take care of Boston ferns?"

And this is Brenda from Atoka, Tennessee.

So Camille, how does she take care of those Boston ferns?

- So Boston ferns are gonna want high humidity and bright indirect light.

So you never wanna let the sun be right on their leaves.

In Tennessee, you're gonna wanna put it on a north or east side of like your porch probably or under a tree.

If you're trying to keep it year to year, you have to bring it inside.

It doesn't like temperatures below 60 degrees.

It starts to get unhappy.

And keep it consistently moist.

So check that water.

If the top inch of soil gets dry, water it, but don't let it sit in water is what I'd say.

- I know a lot of folks who like to take their Boston ferns, just they'll put 'em in their garage over winter.

And so most of their fronds will fall off, they'll get kind of dry and crispy, but they're just kind of going into a dormancy state.

And then when temperatures warm back up the next year, they'll bring 'em out, water 'em real good, put some fertilizer on 'em, and they'll just rejuvenate.

So that could be another option.

If you don't have a greenhouse or a space to bring it inside, inside your house during the wintertime, you can definitely do that.

- Alright Brenda, I think we got that answer for you.

Are you listening, Mom?

She has a lot of Boston ferns.

- Oh.

[laughs] - Thank you.

Here's our next viewer email.

"What is this flower?

About five years ago it appeared in my garden."

And this is Diane from Tennessee.

Camille, what is that flower?

Beautiful picture, by the way, Ms.

Diane.

Appreciate that.

- Yeah, that's one of our favorite flowers.

We're growing it here in the gardens, and it grows wild in Tennessee.

It is a passion flower, a purple passion flower vine.

Some people call it maypop.

That's a common name you might hear.

- Which is funny though, because it definitely is not blooming and it's not making fruit in May.

And so it must have gotten that name from somewhere more south of us, right?

'Cause they're referring to the fruit, how the fruit pops open, right?

So it doesn't do that in May here.

[laughs] I just think it's funny.

- That plant is a great butterfly host plant.

We're big on those here.

And so the Gulf fritillary butterfly will lay its eggs on there and be more attracted to your garden if you plant that there.

You can keep it as a garden plant, but it probably ended up there because birds eat the little fruits that it makes.

- And it has vine-type growth.

- Yeah, it's a vine.

You can trellis it if you wanna grow it in the garden.

We have it growing up a stop sign pole in one of our flower beds, and it's just gorgeous.

Gets a lot of interest 'cause it has such a unique flower.

- Yeah, the thing about the flower is you can really see the flower parts.

I mean, look at those anthers.

There's like five anthers in there and the thread-like filaments that are purple and white.

- It looks like a UFO.

It's really unique.

- I think it's cool.

I think it's a cool flower.

Thank you, Ms.

Diane.

That's a beautiful picture, we appreciate that.

Camille, Celeste, that was great.

- Oh yeah, it's always fun to answer questions.

- Thank you.

- Love to hear those garden questions.

- I do too.

- Help people find solutions.

- Hope y'all do.

Thank y'all much.

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.

If you want to learn more about anything we talked about today, you can go to our website, familyplotgarden.com, or head over to our YouTube channel, @FamilyPlotGarden.

Both places have lots more gardening information to help you in your garden.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]