Broadcasting from Studio A here at Proven Winters Color Joy Shrubs.

It's time for the Gardening Simplified Show with Stacy Hrvilla, me Rick Weist, and our engineer and producer Adrianna Robinson.

Well, today we're going to talk about winter interest the winter garden, because you do need to plan ahead.

Evergreens provide the gravitas, the foundational element, and deciduous plants add framework, but there's so much more than that.

And without some thoughtful plant placement and plant choices and structure in your landscape, well, January and February can be maybe downright depressing.

And so winter's a great time to assess the structure or lack of structure in your landscape.

And here's an important point.

Anywhere in the Midwest to the north.

Snow, of course, can be the great equalizer in our young Once we get some snow, everybody's yards pretty much look the same until we have a thaw.

But without the element of snow cover.

And there are many people who listen and watch our show who go through winter but don't have the snow cover.

There's no hiding.

You can run, but you can't hide.

It's kind of like driving to work for a long day of meetings and you're sipping on some coffee and eating a little snack and you spill on your shirt.

It's going to be there the rest of the.

Day, right, It is true.

Now, I do want to clarify for our listeners.

As you know, neither Rick nor I are big fans of winter, and we're not trying to rush headlong into our least favorite season.

But we did notice that every time we give advice about improving your landscape for winter, it tends to be in winter when you can't do a darn thing about it, and you know, by the time spring rolls around, you're not like, oh, gee, I really want to invest in my winter landscape.

Where is now?

Thinking ahead, you know you can make some decisions that will make your winter a lot more interesting.

And again, as you said, Rick, that's true if you live in a cold climate like us here in Michigan, or if you live in a warm climate.

And I would say that if you live in a warm climate, planning to have green is potentially even more important.

I know, I was really shocked when Judson Lacompte, our new plant, our new product development manager, moved here from Texas lifelong Southerner, he said, I love Michigan in winter.

It's so green.

And I looked at him like he was an alien.

You know, I would think that in the South, that's where it's green, but he said, no, everything is very brown, especially the lawns and everything.

In the South.

You just nail down a perfect point there the turf.

So if you think about the turf in the South, you're looking at Zoisia grass, Bermuda grass, Saint Augustine, and it turns brown in winter.

Now Here in Michigan, or in Canada or northern reaches of the United States, when we get a thaw or we get into winter, the turf can be green.

They're cool seasoned grasses.

And I usually would add to that, I would apply some malorganite, iron and sulfur in fall.

Boy, you've got nice green grass when you don't have snow cover.

Also, I wanted to mention that something that really hit home with me is we've gone through some rough winters.

But that winter of two thy fourteen, it was January to March of two thousand, actually December of twenty thirteen through March of twenty fourteen, unbelievable.

I don't want to talk about it.

It was horrible.

Text it was.

It was horrible.

As a matter of fact, I was looking up here where we live along Lake Michigan.

It reached ninety three point three percent ice cover on March eight, twenty fifteen.

That's how cold it was, and that is very, very unusual.

And by the way, for winter interest in your landscape, you want to do things that attract birds, possibly plants that produce berries for birds.

And open water was a serious problem during that winter for our YouTube viewers.

I've got a couple of pictures from my house where I open the service door to the groage.

You can see how much snow there is, or you couldn't even see the house from the street anymore because of all the snow.

So it made a real impact.

But in the bleakest, coldest, darkest days of winter, structure is super important.

So to add winter interest to your landscape, incorporate plants with colorful stems, bark and berries.

The birds will also love the berries.

The foundational element, could be argued, is going to be evergreens.

You're north star, so to speak.

Year round textures, structure and color, architectural interest is very very important.

And when we think back to our show on fencing and backdrops or pergolas, that sort of thing that all adds great interest, unique branch structure from deciduous plants Stacy.

One of my favorites is weeping Beach in the Wind.

Such a great plant.

I love that, you know.

I think it's important too that we tend people do tend to associate winter interest with just evergreens.

But if you live on like a normal sized residential lot, which is to say, you don't have a ton of space, if you go too heavy on the evergreens, I think it can feel kind of dark and oppressive.

It does, so it's better to have that mix because it's really nice.

Even though you think, okay, well this is a bear tree or a bear shrub that isn't really contributing anything.

It does contribute things.

It contributes shadow, It lets light come in and really changes that up.

So you shouldn't be too tempted to say, Okay, my solution to a more interesting landscape and winter is just evergreen city.

I agree, for example, and some people are going to argue this, and I've got some neighbors that it really oh boy, it causes horror for them, but pace yourself on the cleanup in fall seed heads on plants, don't cut back the ornamental grasses.

The fall cleanup fanatics aren't going to understand.

And you know, I'm very hopeful for the fall cleanup fanatics.

I think there's been a lot of outreach on the whole leave the leaves movement, and it's kind of becomes one of those things where even if someone is perhaps personally less inclined to say I want to cut everything back, they're afraid of what their neighbors are going to right exactly, Oh so Stacey didn't cut her stuff back?

Again, Well, it turns out I know what I'm doing, and I'm doing it specifically for the bugs and insects and birds and all of that great stuff.

But as we all collectively say, it's better to leave that than we have less of that fear of like, you know, can't do anything for HOA, but at least you can inform your neighbors.

Yeah, just step back, enjoy the panicle hydranges, the ornamental grasses, milkweed, goldenrod, even clematis setoms, those types of plants.

I believe designating some winter paths is important, and of course the voles and mice, it's going to give them fits also.

But some pathways through your landscape in winter, and here's an important one and something you can plan for now for winter interest lighting lighting.

It's spectacular when you have winter landscape lighting that is shooting up through the trees or through an evergreen, or if you have some shrubbery where it's backlitt.

I would recommend going with a lower number as far as the k rate, the kelvin rate, because those are warmer colors.

Go for the warmer colors, but then illuminate your landscape.

It's going to create a winter wonderland and you'll be amazed at what it does for you.

So I'm not just talking Christmas lights here.

I'm talking about for the entire winter.

Backlit or some light through the trees makes a world of difference in your landscape.

We'll be talking throughout the show also about plants that are the stars of winter and everything from dogwoods to holly, and there's many plants that are stars during the winter.

Also, any statuary ornamentation you can put in your yard.

I love Kruth Studios and I have their concrete pieces in my landscape for our YouTube viewers.

I have one that I especially like, giving you the raspberries.

That's how I feel about winter.

But adding anything like that and of course bark on shrubs and trees.

So there.

Yes, there is a lot you can do to create winter interest in your landscape, but you.

Got to do it now.

But you gotta do it now exactly, so start thinking about it.

Here's my winter interest, limb a rick.

Even though I almost froze my nose, my hair, my toes, I'll work on winter interest by dreaming my garden on Pinterest and letting my compost compose.

They tell me I just need to chill, to find something my hours to fill, But I miss my plants, don't want to wear sweat pants.

Warm Weather's what gives me a thrill.

So for winter we need to plan in easy chair and in afghan.

I'm gonna get through it.

I know you already knew it winter.

I'm just not a big fan.

That nailed it.

Yes, that does you know that, Limerick.

Here's how I feel about winter.

That Limerick, right there, I think I wrote in sixty seconds.

I was just right there.

Can you tell I'm passionate on the subject.

I'm actually surprised you could do it without any curse words.

Impressed.

Oh yeah, hitting well except for when it comes to winter.

All right, So we're gonna move on to plants on trial.

I think we're going to do a speed round.

We're doing a speed round.

That's gonna be fun.

That's coming up next here on the Gardening Simplified.

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There's a flowering shrubber evergreen for every taste and every space.

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We're Reading's gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where we are talking about winter, not because we are excited for it, not because we want it to be here sooner, but because we are telling you and you can actually take some control and do something about your winter landscape while you still have plenty of time to plant and fall.

And here we are it's mid September, and you do indeed have plenty of time in Michigan here to plant and fall, you have until at least mid October, possibly even late October.

If you're joining us from a warmer climate, you have well into November, even into December.

So we're giving you this information not because we're trying to hasten its oncoming, but because we want you to be able to use it while you still can.

And you know you've heard a say every fall, right, the garden centers are not just full of plants, they're full of bargains, and it's such a great time to plant, to save money, to invest in a better landscape for fall, for winter, for spring, summer, for all of that.

So that's why we wanted to share this information with you despite the absolutely glorious weather we've been having here in this early autumn.

So normally we would be putting a plant on trial here and I would be telling you about one of the three hundred and fifty plus proven Winter's Colored Choice shrubs and you would decide if it's going to earn a spot in your garden.

But I thought, since we have this winter interest topic, we would do a speed round.

Love us fun and speed around.

If you're not familiar, we just try to do it real fast and go over some different categories and off the top of our head.

So we're going to be talking about different categories of winter interest plants and you can use our ideas and suggestions to kind of start your research for winter interest for fall planting.

So, without further ado, let's get to it, Rick, what is your favorite deciduous shrub for winter interest?

So tie between arctic fire dogwood and oak leaf high Oh you.

Know what, okayf Hydrangea is my pick too.

And the reason is, I do want to say this quickly.

I've always loved them.

I mean, they have so much to offer.

They're the only true four season hydrange that looks awesome all four seasons.

But what I really what really stood out to me, especially last year, is I have some really mature oak leaf hydrangeas.

The tan bark makes such a difference in a world of mostly gray bark.

Yes.

You know, when kids draw a picture of a plant, they usually use brown for the trunk and green for the top.

But most bark is pretty gray.

Yes, So when you have something like the oak leaf fyder Angel with that super bright cinnamony kind of colored bar cinnamon exfoliating type bark, it just it just stands out in the landscape like nothing else.

So that was my pick.

Too nice, all right, all right, favorite evergreen shrub.

Might surprise you.

But I'm going to say Rhododendron.

Oh.

I'm going to say rhododendron because it has personality.

It mopes when it gets really cold.

It's got those thick flower buds on it.

It's nice and green or black hat with its color in winter.

So I'm going to say rhododendri.

Okay, I'm going to say Cryptomeria jupon.

Oh No, that's kind of a tree.

Never mind, sorry, back up, backing it up here, I gotta think of a shrub.

I am going to say.

Probably one of my favorite ones is Microbiota oh yes, also known as Siberian cypress.

Now, I will say this does have the liability of often being covered in snow because it is a small ground covering evergreen that kind of gets these beautiful fan like foliage sprays.

So in winter in Michigan, if we have a lot of snow, it can get covered.

Yes, but it has such a beautiful color.

It turns purple in winter.

The texture is gorgeous, and it's one of those plants that if you plant it in your landscape, is a groundcover, and you can look down on it from an upper floor of your home or something like that.

It's just it's just magics.

I love that one, all right.

Your favorite shrub for berries, Now.

This one's so hard because there's so many great choices.

But I'm to say crab apple trees, sugar time or sweet sugar time, crab apple, something like that.

That's a great one.

I do love the yellow ones, especially, you know, they don't tend to last as long, but wow, they're so dynamic.

I am probably gonna have to go with a holly.

My favorite is actually the long sty collie, which you don't see very often, but do you remember that old game high ho cherio, So the just going down memory lane over here they have it.

So it's like the fruits on the long stalk holly remind me of that.

They're like cherries.

They have a very long stalk, and it's an evergreen without spiny leaves.

It's hard to find, but wow, it is an absolutely gorgeous holiwidy.

Nice And of course you know winterberry holly is hard to beat, and you can actually grow that and find it.

Let's play a game of monopoly while we're at.

Okay, what is your favorite?

Now I do have a separate one.

I'll just start here.

Okay, what's your favorite ornamental grass for winter interest?

That's easy.

It's either totem pole or shy in the sky switch grass, either of the two.

Okay, great choices.

Mine is going to be Northern seaots Casanthium latifolium.

Nice.

Now, I love this plant.

It is native, but it's also a pretty aggressive self sower, so I don't always leave all of mine standing for the winter because they are just if I leave all that seed, I have all of that seed.

Well, not all of it.

The birds do a good job of picking up some of it.

But it's a beautiful grass and they just there these neat, kind of linear seed heads.

They do shatter and the birds eat them over time.

But that's probably my favorite.

Now, what's your favorite general perennial for winter interests?

There's many of them, but I'm gonna I'm gonna call a tie again.

One has to be Virginia.

Around Christmas time, that foliage is so red and then hellebores because when I'm completely sick of winter, I'll kind of dig around in the snow and look for those those buds.

I'm gonna say Virginia and hellibores.

Those are great.

You know, I thought about Virginia because these are two evergreen perennials, and most perennials, by their nature go dormant underground.

But some of them, you know, you can leave the stems standing, like Beptizia, for example, is a good choice.

You know, you can leave those stems standing.

They are dead, they're gonna blow away, or you know, you'll cut them off in spring.

But they have that cool kind of chocolatey black color and the really neat seedheads.

But then there's evergreen perennials that are still herbaceous.

They don't have any wood, but you know, like a hellebore where you have that nice kind of spiky palmate leaf all summer long, all winter long, and you get to look forward to the flowers very shortly after.

Okay, what is your favorite deciduous tree for winter?

Interest?

Easy?

Paper maple.

Ugh, that is such a great choice.

I don't know if I can top that one.

Not that I need to top it, but I mean I wasn't thinking paper bark maple.

You know, I do love a good beach in winter.

A good beach tree in winter, and there's so many around here.

I mean, of course, our native American beach is not quite as spectacular as the European beach, which takes on all sorts of characters, sometimes a very malevolent character.

But you know, our beautiful native beaches in these mixed hemlock and beach forests, just the perfect combination.

Love that on a good winter hike.

What is your favorite evergreen tree for winter interests?

Soft served camisipress.

Oh really was that?

It's just when the snow lays on it, it's just absolutely beauty.

I mean, you could pick so many gin fizz juniper.

I don't want to steal your thunder, but if I have to pick one, it's going to be soft served Cami sippris.

And I can see that because there is something so magical if you live in a climate with snow, you know that sort of the drifts kind of almost like they're like dripping off the plant, and that soft those soft branches just kind of supporting all that snow.

It can be pretty magical if you give it.

That.

My favorite evergreen and it's kind of a tree, kind of a shrub, and I can't grow it.

But this is for all my friends out there and the warm climates.

Is camellia.

If there's one plant that I could grow here in Michigan and we can grow them, okay, but nothing like you can in the south and anyway, my favorite is Camelia japonica, which we definitely can't grow here.

And camellias, their foliage is beautiful, their flowers are beautiful.

I just if I could have one plant from another climate, I might even pick a camellia over a lemon.

Wow, I say it something I know.

Okay, what is your favorite plant for winter decorating?

Oh?

Boy, come from the garden center industry.

I've made so many containers with dogwood branches and birch in it that I can't say that.

So I'm gonna say a tie again between anything that has rose hips and winterberry holly like berry.

That's a great choice.

You know, it's hard to beat.

They do import them from out west if you live here on the eastern part of our country.

But the incense ceder, you know, when they have that in the little decorations and swags and garlands and all of that just so magical.

Who or what is your favorite winter garden visitor.

It's a tie between cardinal couples and woodpeckers.

Oh yeah, I'm going woodpecker all the way on this.

And you know, woodpeckers are always a thrill to see.

But if you put out a suet feeder and that's mostly what you'll get, I mean I get all sorts of things on the sewet feeder.

But you know, it's like, to me, woodpeckers are the winter hummingbirds.

Yes, just like all summer long, you're getting so excited every time you see the hummingbird at your feeder and you have to say like, ooh, hummingbird.

It's like that in the winter when every time there's a woodpecker at your sewet feeder, you have to go, ooh, woodpecker.

And then you know the other your spouse comes running from the other side of the house to see which kind of woodpecker it is.

It's that's it's so fun.

Yes, all right, So we hope that speed round gave you some ideas.

We will have everything down in the caption on YouTube so that you can catch anything that you didn't in our maybe slightly less than speedy speed Round we're going to take a little break.

When we come back, we're going to open up the mail bag and answer your garden questions.

To stay tuned.

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Our team of experts tests and evaluates all of our flowering shrubs and evergreens for eight to ten years to ensure they outperform what's already on the market.

For easycare, reliable, beautiful shrubs to accentuate your home and express your personal style, look for Proven Winners Shrubs in the distinctive white container at your local garden center, or learn more at Proven Winner's Color Choice dot com.

Greeting's Gardening friends, and welcome back to the Gardening Simplified Show, where it is our pleasure to help you with your gardening questions, quandaries and conundrums.

Whatever is puzzling you out there, or perhaps you have a gardening celebration and no one to be as excited about it with you as we will be, then we invite you to reach out to us.

You can go to Gardening Simplified on air dot com.

There is a contact form there.

You can also leave a comment on YouTube.

We read all of those and respond when you have questions.

But of course, if you have a question, usually other people have the same question, you know, maybe from other parts of the country or whatever.

So we do invite you to reach out.

And you know, as I always say, we do very much care about making sure you get the information that you need to make the garden decisions that you need to make.

So don't just reach out to us on the show because we have limited time to answer your questions.

But if you go to proven Winners Color Choice dot Com, there is a contact form there and you will get a personalized response, not from an AI, but from an actual human being who cares about your success and knows what they're talking about.

I can assure you of that.

So, uh, what do we got in ma bag?

This week?

Matthew writes to us, Hello, I have twenty acres here in central Wisconsin with thousands of box elder trees.

First of all, can you explain to me what kind of a tree they are?

Second of all, I'm wondering are they a good pollinator for bees?

Boy, I could talk about box elder trees for hours.

Oh well, I'm very curious about your opinion.

Well, I'm gonna say, first of all, it's an acer ace r, right, yep, So you could say that it's in the maple family.

For all intents and purposes, it is a maple.

So we've got that it's a fast growing tree.

It likes wet areas.

And if I recall correctly and correct me if I'm wrong, anybody correct me.

But I think it's dioecious, meaning that the male and female parts are on separate trees.

I'm pretty sure.

If I'm wrong, correct me.

But it does produce copious amounts of samaras or samuras or however you want.

Helicopters helicopters and we'll seed everywhere.

And then of course the knock on box elder trees.

Now, there are some people who love box elder trees.

There are yes and feel that really knock the tree too much.

But the big problem with box elder trees, as long as we're talking about winter preparation, the box elder bugs and how they try to move into your house for winter.

Right, and so most people I think, if they here box elder, even if they don't know what a box elder is, which it's astern agundo as Rick just said they know box elder bugs, and box elder bugs have that name.

I'm not really sure why because they aren't specifically limited to box elders in any way, shape or form.

The box elder plays little to no part in their reproduction or sheltering.

But they're called box elder bugs, and yes they are everywhere coming up in the next couple of weeks.

Don't flame your box elders.

But if you have a box elder.

So let's go back to what Matthew saying.

So if you have a lot of box elders and they are quality trees, which is to say they have, you know, fairly good size on them, then I would leave them and say that's a pretty good plant to have.

They don't really have attractive flowers, they don't get full color.

A lot of people mistake them as poison ivy, especially when they are at a seedling stage, because they do very much look like they could be poison ivy.

You know, most people, if you say, oh, this is a maple, they're thinking of the classic, you know, Canadian flag maple leaf.

This is a maple, and it's a trifolia maple.

So instead of having that familiar palm leaf.

It has like little sets of three leaves, so most people wouldn't even recognize it ever as a maple.

They would think it's it's poison ivy with like maple helicopters on it or something like that.

But yeah, it is weedy.

It is weedy, and it's not particularly high quality wood.

Weak wooded known to drop branches unless you have a really really mature plant.

So not the best plan to have around from a seasonal perspective, from a quality perspective, but if you already have them, they aren't They don't need bees for pollination, they are wind pollinated, but they do produce nectar that is actually used as an early food source for all sorts of insects.

So certainly not the best choice to support pollinators, but not the worst either.

Yeah.

It's kind of one of those things where I certainly would never recommend that someone actually go out and seek out a box elder, But if you have them, and have a couple that are really nice, all major harm in keeping them, except for the fact that you will be pulling out box elder seedlings for the rest of your life.

When I ran a garden center, I had a lady call up.

She was super upset.

She bought a bunch of mult from US, and a few weeks later there were weeds seeds popping up everywhere, I mean thousands of them, and she claimed that it came from our mold.

I went and visited her home.

Very nice lady.

We talked it out.

She had box elder trees all around the arroya and they were seeding in the mulch.

And I pointed it out to her and she understood, but she thought it was my mulch.

Thank you, very mulch.

It was that.

No, no garden center is going to just willingly let a box elder, you know, put its seeds all through their entire mulch pile and make themselves the most hated garden center in town.

Stacy Kelcey writes to US, I garden in Central Wisconsin's on four or five, I was gifted a rows of Sharon.

Started play almost fifteen years ago.

It has grown into a real beauty.

Gets a lot of attention from the neighbors.

Because our weather is typically too cold for rose of Sharon.

We had a bunker spring with temperatures in the low seventies in March.

In the high twenties and low thirties through most of May.

So what Kelsey is saying is that she lives in an area where rose of Sharon doesn't typically grow yea, and this particular season was especially crazy because she had really really warm temperatures in March and then really really cold temperatures in mex So basically, what we're looking at here, and she did send pictures you can see those on YouTube, is a Rosa Sharon, a pretty big, pretty mature Rosa Sharon with almost no foliage and very few flowers on it.

So she's obviously trying to kind of troubleshoot this herself.

So she says, how do I move forward with this plants with this plant once it goes dormant?

Can I cut it back to rejuvenate it?

Should I not prune at all and wait to see?

Should I say goodbye to one of my favorite garden plants.

I'm at a loss.

So this is definitely a very stressed plant, but it also has a lot of resources in it, and you're definitely right on the border there, as you say, Kelsey, of Zone four and five.

Rosa Sharon is generally considered hardy to USDA zone five.

It's probably in a little bit of a protected spot.

I don't think it's dying.

I do you worry a little bit that it is getting too much shade, because when I look at Kelsey's pictures, I see that this big, mature Rosa sharon is surrounded by ferns.

It's surrounded by hostas and a bunch of really really shade loving plants.

And Rosa sharon can take a little bit of shade, especially if you live in a hotter climate.

But if it's in too much shade, it will become very sparse, the wood will be very weak, it will flower very little.

Yeah, so that was my first thought that I saw in Kelsey's picture.

You can prune it, and Rosa sharon is actually very amenable to pruning.

I would not, Kelsey, prune it until next spring and wait until you see where that new growth is coming from.

Give it some fertilizer.

You know, I'm not usually the biggest proponent of fertilizing landscape plants, but Rosa sharon is a heavy feeder.

I know here at the nursery they require a lot more supplemental feed than almost any other crop that grow.

They get chlorotic really really easily.

Yeah, looking kind of sickly.

Don't fertilize it now, but this spring, go ahead and cut back any wood that's not showing signs of life.

If you want to cut the whole thing back a little bit too, that's fine too.

Fertilize it.

Then go ahead and give it another dose of fertilizer.

I would say in like late May or something like that, just to help it push back and come back.

And if it turns out that this spot has become too shady for it, I would consider moving it.

You could actually consider moving it even the spring while it's still dormant, if you you know, in spring twenty twenty six, if that is the root that you want to go and you have another spot for it, I'm sure it would appreciate more sun.

I think the plant almost acts like a rose bush as it relates to feeding and wanting food.

Yeah, definitely, the more you give it, the better it will do.

So hopefully that is helpful.

Amy writes to us, My question is where's a good source for purchasing fluorist carnations the big ones as plants.

They're my grandmother's favorite.

Such a hard plant to find and I'd recommend the Paint the Town series from Proven Winners.

But the botanical name you're looking for is Dianthus cariophyllis, and that's a short lived perennial essentially.

It is, so, you know, kind of the ugly truth here, Amy, I don't want to disappoint you, but anytime there are plants that are grown for cut flowers, they are usually a totally separate beast from plants that are grown for landscape.

So the florest carnations that you are buying, as lovely as the flowers are, the plants are not something you would want in your garden at all.

They tend to be grown specifically for the cut flower industry, and what is good for the cut flower industry isn't necessarily good for the horticulture industry.

That's true of roses as well.

You know, the roses that they grow for cut flowers nothing like the roses that we sell for landscape plants.

But all of that said, there are a number so Dianthus, like Rick just mentioned, the Paint the Town series from Proven Winner is very close relative.

The flowers are going to be a little bit smaller, but it does kind of have that same kind of vibe.

But you can if you go to like a really good floral seed supplier like Select Seeds or Johnny's, you can get some garden carnations.

You do need to have a realistic expectation that they're not going to be quite like what you're buying in the store.

But on the other hand, why would you want something exactly like you can buy in the store when you can grow some really cool carnations.

Florette Flower Farm if you're familiar with them, they're out west.

She's an amazing floral designer and grower, and she has tons of information about growing your own carnations that we will share as well.

So have reasonable expectations about what you'll actually produce, and then you can grow your own carnations.

We're going to take a little break.

When we come back, we're continuing our conversation about winter interests, so stay uned.

Thanks for listening to the Gardening Simplified Podcast, brought to you by Proven Winners Color Choice Shrubs.

Our award winning flowering shrubs and evergreens are trialed and tested by experts with your success in mind.

Learn more at Proven Winners color Choice dot Com.

Welcome back to the Gardening simplified show, Stacy, as we talk about winter interest, I was thinking about how in the garden center industry, when we got nice weather in November, Christmas lights would sell like hotcakes.

Oh that makes sense.

Because people think, you know, ah, this is the year I'm gonna throw Christmas lights on the shrubs and decorate the house and that type of thing because the weather's nice enough.

In years when it got really cold early, the light sets didn't.

You know, they still sold, but they didn't sell as well.

So it's just a way of me encouraging you that here in September, while we have time before the weather starts to decline, maybe think about the whole garden lighting issue.

Again.

I'm not talking about Christmas lights.

I'm talking about floodlights up through the trees or back lighting shrubbery.

I'll tell you what, on a January February day, you're going to be glad that you did it.

Now I've got a question for you, Stacy, and that is we talk about structure in a landscape.

So containers.

In fall, as you're doing some cleanup, I like to clip some branches, put them in containers.

You enjoy those for winter interest.

In the landscape, a pergola and arch, some statuary.

My question is this, how do you feel about a bench in the winter landscape?

Is a bench depressing or inviting?

A bench is absolutely inviting, oh even and required because you never know when you're going to have one of those lovely winter days where it's sunny.

I mean, you know, it's probably not sitting outside whether for normal people, but we as gardeners are not really normal people.

So yeah, I will absolutely sit on a bench outside on a reasonably nice winter day.

You know, have a nice cozy guinness stout or something like that in the on the sunny afternoon, or cup of hot cocoa.

You might need to get something out of your boot, sit down and get something out of your boot.

So yeah, I think you know, you probably you probably don't want let's say you want ice skating, you need to change out your ice skates.

I don't know, but you probably would not want a metal bench.

No, But if you have some sort of wood bench, then yeah, I think I think it's very handy to have.

I do have a guinness on the bench and then go inside and play high hold cheriot.

There you go, all right?

Now, you know the key to us successful getting through winter.

See, we have fun uh bark bark on trees and plants of course super important.

We talked about paper maple.

Oh and if you get a chance, go to a place like Arnold Arboretum in winter.

Wow where some arboretum or yeah, it's magic.

Yeah, you know, that's a great really, that's great advice, not just to enjoy the trees, but to get out of the house and to do something else.

And you know, even in places with really cold winters, we usually have some days where it's pretty okay to be outside.

It's not too windy, it's not too cold, and you know, if you're out there and you're walking vigorously and yeah, bring the dog, bring the kids.

Everybody burns off some energy.

It's it's win wind.

But yeah, arboretum are great areas to do that, and it would be a great opportunity to support them at a time where you can have it all to yourself too.

You got a love that, I tell you what.

And yes, I am outside all winter long.

We joke about winter, but I am outside all winter long.

And if you're in an area that doesn't get a lot of cold or snow, oh, I've got this pathway.

I love to walk down to the beach, and it can be magical, it can be beautiful.

If you're not from one of the colder areas, I will have to say to you that you will have a tendency as a person who loves plants, to slip your gloves off and find evergreen branches, rub them with your fingers, and then.

Oh yeah, yeah, I don't love that.

But on the bark side, river birch and hepticodium are two that we I don't think we have mentioned would be a great choice.

Climbing Hydrangea I think is really cool in the wintertime.

Magnolia's are nine barks, all great plants for winter.

Of course, here in Michigan, I love witch hazel because you've got the two different types of witch hazel.

When they one that's blooming in November the other one that's blooming in March.

You know, sometimes if you have an older one of those, you will get them where the winter blooming Asian variety has been grafted onto our native fall bloomy here you go hamomialis Virginiana.

And then if sometimes it has happens the understock the hemomalis Virginiana takes over and you have both, then you can get it too.

And one.

I mean, it's not really what it's intended to do, but I wouldn't argue with it if.

It's pretty cool, especially if you don't have a lot of space, it's pretty cool.

Uh, Stacy.

People would say to us, Hey, you got to mention hukarus.

Oh, yes, you do.

I suppose if you can grow them.

I can't, but some people can.

No.

You know, I think when it comes to evergreen perennials, and I was looking up, like, hey, is there any evergreen perennials that I'm not thinking of for this show?

Uh, and Hukara came up.

I mean, Hukara is around in winter, but for most of us, unless you live in a really mild climate, like you know out west where they are native, you know, Oregon, Washington kind of area, they're there, I wouldn't really say for most of us in cold climates that they're contributing a whole heck of a lot.

But I guess they're better than nothing.

They're better than nothing.

They are, they are better than nothing.

That bit of colors is always welcome, but it's certainly not their shiniest moment of the year.

No, that's true.

How about high ranges.

You know, we talk a lot about high ranges, but hydranges I think can just be so beautiful in winter.

And then also I love planting bulbs in fall and looking forward to late winter when you see things like snow drops or glory of the snow bloom.

Wow, so early, you know, it's so important.

And those are not the ones that you're usually going to find on sale or even fine it's like your average box store, So they are worth seeking out from a garden center or a specialty bulb supplier.

You know, even if you have even if you invest in a small amount like say ten or twenty five of each of say snowdrop and aaranthus also known as winter aconite, yep, it's the difference that it will make in your spirits is more than worth it.

And I have found that they typically spread quite well, they naturalize fairly well, so it's not like you only have those ten bulbs and they die.

They live a long time.

They start to spread, and they're slow, and they're dainty and delicate, So I mean they look delicate, but they're actually pretty tough plants.

So yeah, I think they are absolutely worth, you know, seeking out and having some as part of your fall old planting.

When you buy plants during the growing season, do you look at the plant and think, what's this going to look like in winter?

Do you think that far ahead?

Yeah?

I don't either.

I'd like to say that I do, but I don't.

Well, you know, it's even even as we talk about this, and even knowing that you and I, you know, do prioritize having something to look at in winter, ultimately not a whole lot of my landscape is visible from my house, So I really focus on those areas that I see from my kitchen, you know, so that I'm really making sure that those areas I do see aren't just you know, a barren winter wasteland.

But I don't have to think too much about like where my native plant border is, what's going on in there, because I'm just not really going to see it that off.

It's true.

It's a good point.

A plant that many people may not think of as a winter interest plant, but is one for me, and that is color Guard, Yucca.

I have a picture to share with you on YouTube, but that brilliant, bright yellow in winter is fabulous and the plant puts on a show contingent on how bad the winter is.

And what I mean in that regard is deer.

So the deer generally will leave it alone if it's a mild winter.

If it's a harsh winter, yuka cannot be very much fun for a deer to eat, a real stringy, tough but they will lead if the winter is really rough.

But color guard yucca is Wow.

That is a very cool plant.

Definitely.

You know, maybe the deer just get bored and they just want to dare each other.

I dairy to eat that yucca.

You know, I don't know, but yeah, it does not seem like a fun thing to eat.

And usually I found that they kind of try the top and then they go not for me, and they move on to something else.

It's probably equally.

Horrible, exactly.

It's kind of like vegetables on the plate for a kid.

Yeah, yeah, probably poorly cooked vegetable.

A poorly cooked vegetable.

Yes, And Stacy, I love milkweed in winter.

Oh yeah.

I've gone out and photographed it often now again along the lake shore here along Lake Michigan, we're blessed with lots of milkweed.

But I love milkweed, and some of the seed is still hanging out of the pods.

A great plant to photograph in winter and a great plant to enjoy for winter interest.

You know when you get some of those like light fluffy snowfalls and then the snowflakes pile up in the little milkweed seed container and that's just such a cool moment.

I have hundreds of pictures, I believe this, which shows you that in winter, I'm looking for something to do.

It sounds like Hio cherio.

Let's break that game out.

I think it'd be a lot of fun with Adriana will play high hold Cheriot.

I don't know, I hear it's the pits.

Anyway, I'm not going to say anything because that was perfect, So just go for.

It, okay.

Thank thank you so much, Rick for this exciting discussion on winter interest, and hopefully it gave you all some good ideas about what to do.

Thank you Adriana for leading us through all of this, and thanks to all of you for listening.

We truly appreciate it.

Hope you have a wonderfull leak ahead.

Yeah,