Hello, and thanks so much for joining us for another episode of min American gardener.

I'm your host Tinisha, Spain.

And joining me in the studio today are two panelists that you will definitely recognize we've got Karen and Ella in the house today.

So quickly before we get started, Happy Spring.

Thank you visually, yay.

Introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about you.

Karen, we'll start with you.

Hi, I'm Karen Ruckle.

And I live in the Peoria area and I'm a horticulturist and I like perennials, annuals house plants.

Hello.

I'm Ella Maxwell.

I'm a master gardener and a horticulturist and I'm working part time now that spring is here at the nursery, and my enjoy trees and shrubs, perennials, all kinds of different things.

So back at the nursery, huh?

Yes, I feel good.

At first big whiff, and all that earthy smell.

It's wonderful to see all the new products to see the new plant material coming in.

And and then to see some of my favorite customers coming back every year to get their their faves.

Yep.

Okay.

Well, you guys brought a lot of stuff in to share.

So let's jump in.

Karen, we'll start with you.

And you just start wherever you like.

Um, well, you know, when would you talk just about spring and I brought in my point I thought you know, the point at a visit us last fall or last?

What November I think when we were here, and I talked about that.

And so this is this is you still can have your plant if you do that consistent watering.

So I just brought him as a funny still looking good to know, well, you put this out in the summer or will this remain a house plant?

What's the future for this guy?

Oh, the future does not look to swell for this.

It'll be composted.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Well, thank you, my friend, you think that you could just really just take the this brass stem out and then just let it push out?

Have you see how it turns out.

Okay, bring it back for another update.

All right.

Let's see pressure.

Okay.

All right.

We'll go to Ella Okay, so, all right, well, I brought what am I doing in the garden and so here's a big stock of, of ornamental grasses, and it's very brittle.

Now everything it's breaking up.

And the ornamental grasses that we have in our gardens are there's two types, warm season grass, which means that it starts growing once the soil temperatures and night temperatures are consistently warm and that would be this Miscanthus.

This fountain grass, and then there's cool season grasses like the coral forest or grass.

So anytime in February is pretty much when I'm thinking about cutting them back because they're starting to break up the snow is laid on them and everything.

And so if you haven't got your glasses back, now's a great time to do it.

And I do it with this little handheld.

This a Black and Decker it has a removable so you can put a drill on it.

It's a 12 volt, little battery charger thing.

But the grasses are are kind of tough.

And just to do hand pruners.

Yes, it's and this just makes quick work of it, especially if you've got a mature clump, right.

Yeah, well, and I even tried to make it a little more tidy.

If the clump hasn't fallen apart too much.

I take some twine, right, because I can compost and I bundle it up and then I go buzzing around but I noticed when I was walking my dog yesterday that the coral forest or grasses, they've got growth up about seven to eight inches, right and that's the cool season grass and so those grasses really need to be cut back right away.

Otherwise it's very difficult.

You get the green with the brown brown together.

So these are easy to cut back now and again.

Chopped up composted, hauled off burn whatever, you know you want to do with it, but so it's okay to cut those to the ground right?

Yes, the warm season the worms that the cool season have already started sprouting, so you're really going to delay that so you're really have to look where there's some green coming up and trim to that.

Okay.

So pay attention to which type of grass you have.

Also, when to ask is now then a good time to Divide your grasses, or do you need to wait a little bit longer?

No, I think going ahead, they're very difficult to try to dig up.

You need sturdy.

And I think we've shown some of those different shovels that have the the little point, right rite, and then also serrated on them to try to take that clump out.

And then certainly it can be moved around.

Is there anything else?

While we're talking about just sort of cleaning up?

I know it's early spring has just sprung.

But is it time to rake up those leaves?

Is it time to tidy up those beds?

Or is it still just a little bit too early in the season for that?

And what do you guys do?

Well, you see, I see all the time is that they're saying leave all of that garden material on the garden because of the butterflies and other insects that are overwintering in that leaf matter to leave it there.

I live in a community that has limited landscape pickup and I don't have a compost pile because it's just not me.

And so I've cleaned up because our first pickup is the beginning of April.

And so if I don't get that picked up, I'm storing all that stuff, then sometimes into May if I can't get it to the drop off part.

Gotcha.

So and then I've also noticed that I had some pulmonaria that had sprouted in some deep leaves, and they were pretty yellowed.

So if I hadn't pulled that off, you know, they just they just wouldn't have been happy.

Where are you?

Well, I am not removing my leaves yet because of the pollinators and the overwintering chrysalis is and that's an and you can start doing that after the night temperatures are moderating at about 50 degrees.

And so the next two weeks, we're still in the 30s actually.

So I think that like I said, cutting back the ornamental grasses.

I don't think that there's any reason not to do that, because I don't think there's a lot of pollinators doing anything there.

And then I also cut back the foliage on my hellebores because I want to enjoy the flower that is already up about six, eight inches.

So I've removed that foliage and composted it.

And then we had I'm trying to think Shane, I think it was Shane or rusty talked about cutting the stems of old coneflowers and things like that, like that's okay to clean up but just leaving the leaf matter.

Well, actually, those stems of coneflowers who want to cut back at maybe eight, eight inches or something because they have a a a pith, a hollow pith that solitary bees could nest and because they're twig dwellers, so the prairie type plant material, I don't even mess with anything for a while yet.

And then, actually, I do kind of rake along the edge of my bed, because that's where I have a lot of my spring bulbs.

And like Karen said, you know, there are some plants that maybe are kind of yellow, because they're been, you know, underneath all underneath.

But again, all those leaves that I rake off go over on something else somewhere, I don't want to send them to landscape waste, because I have a large enough piece of property to be able to absorbed those materials.

Well, and like for me my garden, I have not have not removed mulch from stuff that that's tender.

So every everything that I'm leaving around, I'm just chopping off anything that's dead, broken, the leaves that have blown in through the winter months cleaning.

I like that though.

I like the dichotomy of your answers, you know, leave it or just do just a little bit, you know, and I feel like a lot of people at home are in that same position of, if I don't get rid of this now I'm gonna have to hang on to it for a few months.

So I like that it gives people choices and your, you know, real life.

Okay, what's next?

Well, I've wanted to say, I'm so excited in about 30 to 40 days, we could have our first hummingbirds come back into the area and when you look at the maps, they're moving up from down south, although there's there's a quite discrepancy have a couple of different maps for where they're moving.

But right now they could be about 480 miles away.

So I'm so excited, but thinking about hummingbirds.

For me in my yard.

I just it's always a treat every year as they migrate through I get visited by Baltimore Orioles.

And I've got I know some people that they see them through the whole season but for my area, I just have a migrate through so it's like a week or two of this fondness of all the sudden there Are there and then they eventually move out.

So I'm looking at trying to bring them to my house a little closer so I can get to watch them.

There's pictures somewhere on a jump drive at my house, I can't find them.

But there are commercial Oriole feeders, I stupidly bought one of these, I have never had one of them go to it, but but they're so so shortly at my yard, they will feed a little bit of nectar from my hummingbird feeders.

And then, you know, since they're so heavy, they hang off of them, they drain out a lot.

So I saw a project on the internet for making a homemade one.

And I thought, well, I better do it now because if I don't do it, then it's such a short period.

So what this is, is it's a recycling what you love my reusing, it's an orange juice container that I've put a little hanger cut out a window, so that then the Oreo can get at they love fruit and sweetness, they can get at the orange, and then I could put a dab of grape jelly, that's another thing they really like, for helping to attract to get to just see them for the short time they are, I typically will just do a little saucer on my porch.

Because they'll come up on there and feed on the grape jelly.

And the thing is you have to be pretty proactive, it's a little warmer, you know, these things will spoil quickly.

So it's every couple of days switching out cleaning, so that that you're not having bacteria grow.

And then also with the grape jelly, you just you don't want any weird sweeteners, just regular old corn syrup and sugar with that, but I just thought this was so cute.

This little homemade one because it's orange and orange, they used a screw just a single screw.

It's what about three inches maybe that you went up through the little stick and then into the bottom and then that way you can put the orange on.

I think that's so clever.

And show them how you did the little loop on the top two because people want to know how that happens.

Well I drilled a hole and then I just used a zip tie for the top because it was stuff I had around the house I had a twig I did have to buy the orange juice because I don't drink orange juice.

So I had to get the orange juice.

But just such now I'm ready for when they come through and in my yard.

Typically I see them when my red oak tree is completely leafed out.

And all all of a sudden I'll start hearing this kind of musical little tweeting out there and like oh yeah, hear them before I ever see them and then a day or two later I'll finally be able to spot one so that that's my just little one to two week excitement.

Excellent.

I've Jim Appleby did an experiment.

I think he said that they prefer the off brand jelly.

He tried like Smuckers Welch's and he said that they didn't care for the high end stuff they wanted just like the whatever you could find.

So night, you know just grab any kind that you can find on the shelf and say but make sure you said there's no sweeteners so you don't want artificial sweeteners, just regular old corn syrup, sugar.

And then like I said, it's my maple trees fully leafed out usually that later May.

So it's still a long way out.

But at least now I've got my little homemade project ready to go.

And now what about the hummingbirds?

What's their schedule, um, I document that every year and I in my in my yard, I usually see them a little later than than you guys over here in Champaign Urbana.

But I consistently will have a few birds that always come to my yard and that's going to be anywhere from the end of April to the first week of May, okay, is when it gives us a nice window to look for.

And then any type of hygiene or tips questions about feeders that you guys want to mention, do you I know you're supposed to rinse them but anything else that you want to tell folks that maybe want to get into birding or watching or feeding?

Well, like the Baltimore Orioles, they like a lot of fruit and you could plant shrubs and trees that produce fruit but the thing is, if you're not in an area where they stay, you're not really going to benefit from that the hummingbirds of course go to a lot of tubular shaped flowers so that they're easier to kind of entice into your yard.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Anything to add on that Elena?

No, I don't see the hummingbirds as much because I have more tree cover.

It's more forest the like and again, same way with like monarchs in and some of the butterflies.

I don't really see them as much because I've got a lot of tree cover but out where Karen lives, you know, there's a lot more openness and lots of different house CES and such and they're there.

They're there.

Yeah, I, we get hummingbirds quite a bit at the house and they always tend to gravitate toward I don't have feeders out which I might do that this year.

They like my honeysuckle, and the the clematis they visit those two.

And that's it.

Wow, yeah, they just kind of buzz around them and then take off, I have a friend who's really into it again, he lives in a more suburban subdivision area.

And he has multiple feeders.

And he also puts out cotton, cat tail plumes, because they come and peck at it.

And they use that fluff in nest building.

Oh, and then he also tries to find a old lamb or something that has lichens on it, because they also use lichens for nest builders do and so he can usually have a female nesting somewhere quite near him.

And he's, he sees them daily, and we'll sit outside and watch him, but I don't really see him that often.

But I don't feed them either feeding is the best way to get hummingbirds with a with a I just need to keep up with it.

There's just you know, that's a lot.

That's a whole job.

So yeah, I see you've got some of those bolts.

Yes, I do.

I brought dahlias.

And so right now, in the marketplace, you're seeing these overwintered tubers here in packages, and you want to buy them now.

Because they can begin to sprout once they're starting to sprout.

I don't know that they're that good.

But here, you can get two bulbs and the flowers are just spectacular.

And so this is actually what I've overwintered.

So for me, I don't store them in any sawdust.

I don't store them.

I put them in a cardboard box.

Yeah, there we go.

That's nice.

That's good.

Yep.

So I dig them up in the fall after the Frost has kind of taken down.

And I, I leave the stem here.

And I just shake the dirt off.

But these are actually all planted in the ground.

So dahlias can be grown in a container, or they could be grown in the ground.

And so I have found that they store best at a warm temperature.

So I have my cameras and things down in the basement back room.

It's it can be 50 degrees, give me kind of chilly.

But these, again, I put them in a single layer in a cardboard box, and then just slide that into a paper sack and I store them in an upstairs closet, because you know, in more of 68 degrees instead of 50 degrees, and they they don't seem to dry out the tubers are still real good.

And the way that because I'm planning them in the ground, this is what I think is a good way to do it.

So again after the temperatures are above 50 degrees at night, so probably not until mid April.

I will take a tray plastic tray and align it with newspaper and I'll put some potting soil on the bottom.

And then I have like eight or 10 Different dahlias and I'll just fill the bottom of the tray with the dahlias like a got them stored in the cardboard box.

And then I put soil over the top and I sprout them that way instead of potting each individual one up or going and planting each individual one in the ground, I pre sprout them and you can do that with canas.

You can do that with any of your summer bulbs.

And then I just they they send up shoots and I sent in a picture that we'll be able to see and then once they're growing so about mid May then I just gently take each one out and then planted into the garden into the spots where I want them to be you don't plant that in a clump you are going to pop those off and no no it's this whole thing is planted okay that but it sprouted but there's also in this container large container like 10 Different varieties snug together, together and that way I only have to water one, one tray and then I can just put them in the wheelbarrow and take them out and you know dig a hole All and they're already growing and, and they're, you know ahead of the game, so you can enjoy them sooner.

Right?

Right.

And that's what I would do with any of these that you would buy again to is like I would plant these all together and have them labeled and then you know, you can set them out after you know they're sprouting and growing and doing well.

Excellent.

And it's really important that you have this stem attached because these are just like little storage.

Places for for food and things.

But if you would break one of these off, you can't really grow a dahlia from it.

It has to have this stem tissue attached.

Noted.

Okay, great advice.

Thank you.

We've got a question from Anna Joe mounts.

This is about beetles and I know you guys have a beetle bet every year gearing up for what is becoming an annual battle with the Japanese beetles.

Now they've discovered my white birch, I had a service treat the yard for grubs last fall, but I will not be using them again.

What steps should I take this spring?

And how do I determine the timing for any recommended treatments, and they also love my lilies.

So what are your thoughts on helping with her birch and her lilies with Japanese beetles?

Well, I hope for her the same thing that's happened for Ella and I that we have seen a decrease in the amount of Japanese beetles and the damage that we're getting in our yards over the years.

So I hope that comes for her.

But, you know, treating the yard with chemicals for the grubs unless you're getting damaged to your turf that's injurious.

Yeah, you'd have to have the whole community you live in treat your soil to impact the Japanese beetles, because you're just the Beatles that might emerge from your yard aren't all that come to feed on your yard.

They're they're coming from afar.

So your your money spent or your pesticide use might be more used to be best used for targeting that with her birch, she can try some of the systemic insecticides if if she's okay to using those or the application is alright.

I have always had a good good result with using a permethrin spray on my birch tree when I've needed to now I've gotten a little bit less damage that I've actually not sprayed in the last two years, okay?

Because if they haven't eaten down the trees, so I haven't had that many, okay.

And typically, Elena we're talking about, we normally start seeing them around that father's day period, that they'll start emerging, right.

So if you're going to do a systemic to protect the plant, you'd be wanting to get that on in the beginning of May, because a large tree it might take good 30 days to get enough and go up into the tree.

So that then you'll have the chemical into the leaves where the the Japanese beetles would be feeding.

Right?

And and it's really important to if she's going to treat you treat when you first see the beetles, because if you can remove the spread of topicals Yeah, a topical spray contact context sprayed the pipe pipe, or permethrin or any of those types of knock downs.

They they'll kill them immediately drop and and die.

But you want to spray early in the infestation, because it's kind of like a smorgasbord.

And the minute that they start feeding, they're going to release pheromones that just keep attracting more and more and more beetles.

So if you can shut down that first time that they're feeding, hopefully, the rest of them just fly right over and don't realize that here's a good spot.

Okay, we've got about two and a half minutes left anything else that you guys want to show off or show and tell?

So we did we cover all those?

Well, I just I wanted to, you know, we talk L and I always talk and we were like, you know, we were not doing a lot of gardening stuff.

And so what we fill our time with is we took a cookie decorating class at the library.

So that's just some of the fun really tried to do and we did flowers and there was actually a woman, a young girl at the class she drew a praying mantis.

I don't know how she accomplished that with the icing on her egg.

Cookie.

Well, there you have it gardeners.

There are other things you can do to occupy your time.

While you're waiting.

I forgot one question.

This is from Gloria.

She wants to know about getting rid of poison hemlock.

So she wants to get rid of it in the rosette stage.

But the other question is Will treating it affect putting vegetables in that spot later this season, right.

And we have kind of decided that she could go ahead and treat that rosette with Roundup.

And what she could even do is use a like a because it's in the rosette.

And it's it's right on the ground surface rather than just spot spraying that well, you would spots, right but she could take like a dandelion wieder and pop that and spray, just that cut in with a concentrated round up.

And then she could then come back in and plant vegetables.

But if you're going to use some of the other different types of Stump killers, there are other chemicals that will have residuals and they would not be recommended.

But she might be able to just dig it out, physically remove the plant rather than to having tapped to treat it with a herbicide.

Gotcha.

Okay, ladies, always a pleasure.

Thank you so much.

It goes fast.

It goes fast.

But lots of great information.

Thank you so much for coming.

And thank you so much for watching.

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Thanks for watching.

Good night.