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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Tulips, boxwood, hydrangeas, and cattails, what do they all have in common?

They are viewer questions we are answering today.

It's "The Q & A Show" next 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.

Every week we receive more viewer questions than we can answer on air.

We just don't have the time.

Today, we're going to show you some questions from the past growing season to help you get ready for spring.

That will be here faster than you think.

Let's start with a common question we get about hydrangeas.

"I have what I think is a big-leaf hydrangea "growing next to my driveway.

"Every year, the plant gets big and looks very healthy, "but I've only had two flowers on it "in the 12 years that I've lived here.

"It was planted by the previous owner, "so I have no idea how old it is.

"What can I do to make my hydrangea bloom?

"I don't cut it back because it gets new growth "on last year's stems.

"I do cut back the old stems once I see "they don't have new growth on them by early summer.

Thank you for any suggestions."

This is Ann from Bethlehem, New York.

Alright, so Ms. Ann, alright Mary, a couple things come to mind for me, right?

So the first thing I'm thinking is winter injury, right?

This is New York.

- Right.

- Okay, so of course the cold weather can actually make those buds abort.

- Right.

- Okay, the second thing I always think about, it's too shady, right?

- Mm-hmm, that's possible.

- Okay, the third thing, low soil fertility, or it could be too much nitrogen fertilizer.

So you're getting a lot of leafy growth, foliage, right, no blooms.

The last thing is this, could pruning be an issue?

- Right, 'cause she did mention she's not cutting back very much.

I think that perhaps if she did a little bit more pruning, she could get some more room and some blooms.

And get a soil test.

- Get a soil test.

So I would definitely get a soil test, you know, 'cause we need to know about the fertility, of course.

But I'm with you on the pruning, right.

Now, the thing about the big leaf hydrangea, you know, it's the Hydrangea macrophylla, is this, so it does bloom on old wood, so she does know that.

So that is real good, right, but you don't want to prune that too late in the summer because that's next year's flowers.

- Right.

- Right, but I like your suggestion as well, some pruning.

- Yeah, I think a little bit of pruning, it might give a little bit more space for her and get some more energy into producing blooms.

- Right, so yeah, if you're gonna prune this though, I would prune it earlier in the summer instead of late in the summer.

So usually, most folks in this area say they wouldn't prune after August the 1st.

So you don't wanna get too late in the summer, okay, 'cause again, that's next year's blooms.

- Right.

- But yeah, get the soil tested.

Let's check on that fertility.

And yeah, so we don't have a picture, we don't know about the light conditions.

But yeah, if you do that, Ms. Ann, we think that'll help you out there.

[gentle country music] "Early this summer I planted four boxwoods.

"Now two of them have brown leaves at the top of the plant, "some leaves underneath the plant remain stable.

"How can I stop my boxwood from turning brown?

Thank you," and this is Polly.

So her boxwood is turning brown.

- Yeah.

- Up top.

- Just planted them.

It appears to me to be an environmental problem, either with even moisture, soil moisture.

Or maybe too much soil moisture.

It's something to do with the environment that it's in.

You gotta watch 'cause too little and too much water will do the same things.

And so, you can cut off the dead.

- That's what I would do.

- I would just cut off the dead and just see how it does.

'Cause it was a very warm summer all across the country, so it may just be stressed from the environment.

- Right, yeah, boxwood do not like wet feet, okay?

And then secondly, just thought of this, make sure you're not planting too deep.

- That's true.

- Right, 'cause you're choking those roots out.

- Yeah, 'cause now the soil level of the container should have been the soil level that they are in right now.

So if you put dirt up over the top, maybe you should go back and try to move that away because they don't like to be buried.

They have to be able to breathe, the roots.

- Yeah, it's best to plant high, you know, 'cause the ground settles over time.

You have mulch to help regulate soil moisture.

But yeah, I'm with you.

I'm thinking it might be environmental stresses, but I would just prune out the dead and just see what happens.

- Sure.

- Yeah, let's see what happens.

[gentle country music] "I just purchased this Cornus kousa, Chinese dogwood, "this summer and planted it in late August.

"I noticed the growth's stunted since then "and now the leaves are turning brown "and look almost like they have a disease or fungus.

"Is this just transplant shock or could it be something more?

"The soil is very clay-like.

"Could it be a drainage issue or a pH level issue?

Any advice appreciated."

This is Christina from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

So how about that?

- Oh, wow!

- Ms. Christina, Celeste is here.

- Hello, Christina.

- So Celeste is gonna let us know all about the Cornus kousa.

- Yes.

- Chinese dogwood.

So what do you think the problem might be?

And good picture by the way, we appreciate that.

- Yeah, that was an excellent picture.

And I feel like this is textbook as far as visual signs here.

- I knew you would like this.

- Yeah, of leaf scorch.

And so, that usually has to do with availability of water.

So I'm not saying that you didn't water it enough, or that you didn't water it enough.

It could have something to do with the soil situation.

I think she mentioned it was a heavy clay- - Heavy clay.

- Based soil.

So sometimes very heavy clay soils can hold on tightly to moisture to the point sometimes where it's not very available to the plant.

So even if you're putting water on, putting water on, putting water on, if we have that very fine soil particle also combined with hot conditions, and possibly windy conditions, we're losing a lot of moisture off of that leaf surface.

We're losing moisture faster than the roots are able to pull that water up into those plant tissues.

And then you end up with scorch and that's where you've got burn, right, on the edges of the leaf.

And that's because if we think about the physiology of a plant, what is the farthest point of that plant from the point of origin where it takes up water.

They take up water through the roots, you know, water's being transported and used throughout the plant.

And then it gets to the very edges of those leaves and it's run out, right, it's just there's no more water.

And so that's why we see the burn starting there on the edges of the leaves.

So, you know, I don't know that there is any magical solution.

I see this year after year on not only these Chinese dogwoods, but flowering dogwoods as well.

- I see it as well.

- So it's pretty common.

So you know, I would just say, water availability, and there may not be anything you can do to fix that.

- Right, just keep it comfortable as possible.

Yeah, 'cause we talked about late August, we don't know what the conditions were, you know, there in Canada at that time.

- I'm wondering if when it was planted, a lot of the roots were disturbed, and so the tree lost some of its ability to pull up.

- Could have.

- Some of those feeder roots, that's a good possibility.

- Water, yeah.

- Could've been.

- So it could grow out of it this next year.

- Like I said, just keep it comfortable as you possibly can.

- Once it kind of gets rooted in and takes hold and gets used to that native soil that's very heavy, you know, they'll sometimes will even out.

And you know, providing a good layer of organic mulch.

- See that's what I was thinking, yeah, put some mulch around it.

- To keep that root zone nice and cool and you know, conserve water that does get down into the profile, so, for sure.

- Yeah, we appreciate that picture, Christina.

And let's do say this, 'cause somebody's probably thinking, so Chinese Dogwood, Canada?

Yeah, you could do that, right?

Because, yeah.

- Well, I'm not sure what the upper most zone is for that.

- 5b.

- Oh, okay, well then- - 5b, so of course, you know, the Cornus kousa can grow best in zones five through eight, and that's 5b.

- 5b, there you go.

- So what is that -15, -20 degrees it should be able to withstand.

God, that's cold.

- That is cold.

- That is pretty cold.

- That's cold.

- So you can grow dogwood in Canada.

- Canada, parts of Canada.

- Yeah, parts of Canada anyway.

Yeah, 'cause again, this is 5b.

- Her part of Canada, yeah.

- But yeah, we do appreciate that question.

Good picture again.

So, yeah, just keep it comfortable, yeah, a nice little layer of mulch, I think that'll get it.

[gentle country music] "Is it best to plant a Japanese boxwood or English boxwood here in the Mid-South?"

And this is Ms. Harris from Memphis, Tennessee.

- Well English boxwood is Buxus sempervirens suffruticosa.

- Okay.

- Okay?

And it does not work well here at all.

I only know of a couple of examples of English box.

It's the box that's the most susceptible to boxwood blight, for one, but it's also never really liked our Memphis heavy clay soils and our hot summers.

So it works well in England, but not here.

- Not here, okay.

- So I always discourage people from planting English boxwood.

And interestingly enough, in Nashville, it seems to grow okay without the boxwood blight, but here, it just doesn't like us.

So I only know of a couple of examples in raised beds where people have been successful, and I think those plants are now dead too, so, anyway.

- Golly.

- But, you know, there are a lot of cultivars of boxwood that are specific.

I think some of the Asian boxwoods are probably better suited to the Mid-South.

Green Beauty is a great one.

Jim Stauffer is another one.

Those are two really strong ones that'll give you that big green rounded form.

Little Missy is a, I think it's a boxwood blight-resistant, a little short form that works well too.

So there are a lot of options in boxwood and I think all the breeders are actually switching to a lot of Asian genetics in their breeding because they tend to be more resistant to boxwood blight.

But the English box is kind of the canary in the coal mine.

If you wanna find boxwood blight, it's gonna be the first one.

- It's gonna be the first one, how about that?

So no English boxwood here in Memphis, Tennessee?

- No English boxwood here in Memphis.

[gentle country music] - "Why does my ginkgo tree ha ve brown spots on the leaves?

"It is about three years old.

"It is on the east side of my house and gets full sun until mid-afternoon."

And this is Carla from Bartlett, Tennessee.

So what do you think about that one, Lee?

- Sometimes the ginkgos can get leaf scorch from the excessive heat that we have sometimes in the summertime, or the drought.

That could be potentially a problem, or it could be a bacterial spot that's got occurred on the leaf.

But the good thing about that, it's going to drop its leaves here at the fall and that problem will be gone and probably will not have that problem next year.

It's not something that's organic as far as gonna come back every year.

- Right, right.

- That's a physical damage that's occurred on those leaves.

- Okay, no, that sounds good.

So, yeah, it is a three-year-old tree.

We thank you for the picture.

Yeah, the leaves are gonna fall, practice good sanitation.

- That's right.

- Right, I will pick those leaves up, I will bag those leaves, throw them in the trash, okay.

But yeah, ginkgo trees are susceptible to leaf scorch, so the water's not getting to those leaves, right.

So we just gotta make sure that we're watering.

If you think about it, recently we have been in a drought, so yeah, think about your environmental conditions and weather patterns.

So I would get it watered, but yeah, those leaves are gonna drop, bag them up, put them in the trash, we'll see what happens next year.

[gentle country music] "Do you use the same methods of spraying "and pruning for cherries as you do "for other fruit trees, like peaches and plums?

"I have a Black Tartarian and a Bing cherry tree and I was wondering when to spray and prune these."

And this is Greg from Ilion, New York, all right?

So Celeste, what you think about that?

Is it the same method for spraying and pruning the cherries as it would be for peaches and plums?

- Well, I'm just gonna start with, here in Tennessee, we really don't recommend folks to grow sweet cherry trees, so I don't know a ton about the culture of cherry trees and what would be the appropriate ways to move forward on that, so I'm gonna pass it on to Natalie if she has any thoughts?

- Okay, let's see if she has any thoughts.

We can go with that.

- Yeah, cherries are one of the challenging crops, environmentally, disease-wise.

- Yes, too many diseases.

- Yeah, and so, in general, a lot of orchard tree practices are going to be similar.

Peach trees are often pruned more open, center.

- For airflow.

- And my understanding, yeah, is that cherry trees are often pruned more central leader, like you would an apple.

So, follow those types of pruning guidelines, and a spray program is going to be very important, especially for sweet cherries.

New York, Cornell, got a great land grant.

- There you go.

- A long history of fruit production.

So we would recommend you get some of that spray program that I'm sure they have great publications on.

- I'm sure they have a fruit tree spray guide.

- All laid out in a chart form, I'm sure.

Easy to read, easy to use.

- I'm sure they have that, Greg, and they will probably also have a publication about pruning, 'cause the pruning practices will be different, you know, for peaches and plums versus that of cherries.

Definitely be different.

[gentle country music] "I live in a townhouse and the only garden I have room for is in pots.

We have many mosquitoes.

"Do you have any ideas on how to get rid of mosquitoes "and prevent them from breeding in plant containers?

"I'm looking for something that will not hurt my tropical plants, thank you."

And this is Sandy from western Florida.

So they got mosquitoes down there too, huh?

Yeah, so can we help out Ms. Sandy?

- Mosquitoes have to have standing water.

They have to have standing water somewhere, so that's what I would look for, that.

And if you have standing water in the base of your tropical plants, they gotta have seven days of standing water, so if you can get all that water out once a week- - It'd help.

- You know, that would break the cycle.

If they're breeding in that standing water.

Now, I'd be looking around elsewhere to see if there's standing water elsewhere.

- Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

- In tires or bird waterers.

And then it's okay to have a bird waterer.

Just change the water once a week.

- That's right.

- You know, change the water once a week.

I gotta call out to Graceland a few years ago when I was a county extension agent here in Memphis, and the West Nile virus was a real problem.

- Oh, I remember, yeah.

- And Elvis's horses had a water trough and mosquitoes were breeding in the water trough.

And I simply said, get rid of the water trough and put a smaller watering thing out here and come out here, you know, every couple of days and fill that up and, you know, and pour it out and change it.

And that took care of that.

So just change something, you know, if you've got water standing.

You don't have to have standing water that stands longer than seven days.

And that would break the cycle.

- That would break the cycle.

I'm with you Mr. D, yes, the standing water.

And if there is a bird bath or something like that nearby, you can actually use those Mosquito Dunks.

- That's right, you can put that in there.

- Contains Bti.

- That same thing with the ornamental, you know, hardscape, if you've got something like that, right, right.

- You can use those Mosquito Dunks and they'll do the job for you.

- And there are mosquito fish that you can put in ponds and things like that, and then larger standing bodies of water, you know, you've gotta go with something like that.

- Gotta go with it.

All right, Sandy, I hope that helps you out, especially down there in western Florida, right?

- Yeah, there's lots of standing water in Florida.

- There's a lot of standing water down that way.

- That's for sure.

[gentle country music] "What month should I plant tulip bulbs?"

And this is Marissa.

All right, Joellen, you know a little bit about tulip bulbs in our area, but we need to explain that, you know, for other areas as well, other zones as well.

- Other zones, yeah.

Like if you take zones one through three, September is when it should be planted, up until October and into October.

Zones four and five, like late September to the beginning of November.

And then where we are in six an d seven, we're here in seven, they like October to December.

Then zones eight and nine, they say late November into December.

And then zone 10 is early January.

- Wow.

- But, you know, most bulb companies, when you buy bulbs, or nurseries that have bulbs for sale, they usually only have them out, you know, when it's time for you to plant them.

And the problem with tulips is, and all bulbs, they like 60 degree weather in the soil, soil temperatures of 60 degrees to be able to initiate the bloom cycle for the bulb.

So that's the key, is the temperature, and the length of the temperature.

But sometimes in zones 8 through 10 they sell pre-chilled bulbs.

And so that's also a bonus.

- Pre-chilled.

- Yeah, pre-chilled, so they'll have more of the chilling time to initiate the blooms before you plant them.

- Okay, now before we go to Doc, let me ask you this.

So what about the bulbs that we see in the packages, like in the spring, though?

- Well in the spring, they only sell spring-blooming bulbs.

- It's only spring, okay.

- And that needs soil temperatures in the 70s.

- Right, okay.

- So it's a different season- - Got it.

- And temperature requirements for those.

- Good deal, okay, Doc.

- Yeah, I mean she hit it right on the nose as far as I'm concerned, I can't add a whole lot.

But the key is the soil temperature.

You know, if you have warm weather, you know, like we going and we have all this warm weather, and see, when I get my bulbs, you know, she's right, we do it in like October and then on into the fall, see.

What I do is if I get them, and right now they're all on sale, I mean, they're all out there, you know, at all the big garden centers.

And so it's not October.

So I put them in the crisper of my, you know, the vegetable part of my refrigerator, so they still cool, because if you put them in warm soil, you can initiate, you know, them coming on up because this what prompts them to emerge in the spring, is sun, you know, getting a little warmer temperatures so they can prematurely germinate.

- Got it, okay.

- And then that's just depleting, you know, the stores of carbohydrates in the bulbs which produce the flowers.

So I think it's key that if you buy them now to, you know, do what she says and know to put them in the cold soil during these months that it recommends based on your zone, but also be conscious of the weather and the temperature, and then store them if you get them now, you know, in a cool, dry place.

- Good, those are two good points there.

- Yeah, and if you do put them in the refrigerator, make sure you don't have fruit in there- - Oh sure, you have ethylene, yeah.

- The ethylene gas, right.

- The ethylene gas will destroy the bulbs.

- Good point, yes.

- Ripen them for you a little bit, yeah.

- Don't put it in there with an apple or banana.

- And Doc, before we leave this, so tell us, what zone are you in?

'Cause you're in- - I'm seven.

- So you're in seven?

- Yes.

- In Mississippi, Corinth?

- Yeah.

- Okay, how about that?

All right.

[gentle country music] "I would like to plant daylilies near our house foundation "where there are lots of small rocks for drainage, "but there's plenty of sun.

"Can I plant daylilies in a well-drained area with full sun?"

And this is Donna.

So, what you think about that?

You like daylilies.

- Oh, yes.

Oh, yes, of course.

- Of course, she says.

- Yeah, and the only thing I can say is if it is really rocky and well drained, like she's talking about, and it gets really sunny, just, in times when there's no rain, just make sure that they're, you know, they'll tell you, they'll start wilting.

But just give them some extra water.

That would be the only thing I'd say.

I think it's a great place for them.

Daylilies like sun.

- Okay.

- And well-drained soil.

- And well-drained soil, so it's okay next to the house foundation.

- Sure.

- You have no problem with that, so they'll be fine?

- No.

- All right, and think about daylilies too, they're versatile, so you can also plant them in wet areas, you know, that's what I do.

- Well, and different kinds do better.

You know, different species and different varieties do better in different areas.

- Right, right, okay.

- So, yeah, and I think she's probably worried about the pH with the lime and stuff, and it should be fine.

- Should be okay?

- Mm-hmm.

[gentle country music] "Plumbers replaced a line in an area "I was considering for a vegetable garden.

:="Now the area has light brown, sandy clay on top.

Will this different soil sustain a vegetable garden?"

And this is Michael from Cincinnati, Ohio.

So what do you think about that one, Mr. D?

So, yeah, the plumbers say you gotta move that now.

And so they have this, you know, this clay that's up there, right, light brown, sandy clay.

What would you do?

- It prob... Might, maybe, I guess we'll say maybe.

You might wanna do a quick soil test on that, but it's definitely different, you know.

And you know, you see this in farmer fields.

You know, especially in the areas where the rivers flood and they wash sand in and you have sandy spots, and it doesn't do as well, it dries out faster.

What I would probably do is get in there with a tiller and try to really, really, really mix this up and spread it out and try to kind of, you know, mix it in the soil.

These are all natural components of soil and they're all valuable natural components of soil.

Clay, very important for water-holding capacity.

Sand, very important for drainage, you know, to get the water out of there.

- It's the perfect combination, right?

- So all of these are, you know, the light brown, sandy clay on top, that's probably got loess and silt, silt sand and clay, you know, the components of soil.

- The components, right, yeah.

- And I'd probably just try to mix it up and spread it out a little bit, and then I'd probably do a quick soil test, - I would agree with that.

- But I think you're probably gonna be all right.

- Yeah, I think it might be all right.

I definitely agree with everything that you've just said.

I would probably add some compost, if you just have some compost.

- Organic matter.

- Organic matter, add some of that in there.

Maybe some manure, you know?

Yeah, and like you said, yeah, get it mixed up pretty good, but I think it'll be fine.

'Cause again, yeah, you're right, I'm looking at this, and you have sandy clay, yeah.

- Yep, yep.

- Sounds good to me.

- Probably gonna be all right.

- I think it'll be all right.

- Because you know, your feeder roots, they're not just gonna be up there on top.

They're gonna be spreading out and they're gonna find, you know, they're gonna go out searching for kind of what they need.

[gentle country music] - "What can I do to get rid of cattails in my front ditch?

They thrive near my sewer drainage."

And this is Menard from Lafayette, Louisiana.

So the young cattails?

- Yeah.

- How about that?

Nice picture, by the way.

- It is a nice picture.

- Yeah, that's gonna be a problem, huh?

So, how would you get rid of cattails?

- Well, sort of like I did the dandelions and the violets.

- Okay, yeah, okay.

- I would dig them up.

I mean, he doesn't have a huge amount of them there, but he might have been trying to, you know, get rid of them by physically removing them.

And he's done a very good job because there's not very many left.

And I would just keep, you know...

There's not very many, I would dig them up.

- I would dig them up, yeah.

Hand pulling, you know, shovel dig, you know, it's moist conditions so it should be easy to dig them up.

Get the root system, rhizomes.

- Rhizomes.

- So you definitely wanna get those.

Don't break them and leave them in the ground, get them all out.

But yeah, so hand pulling, you can kind of cut them down a little bit, that may help.

But I would get a shovel, dig them out.

I wouldn't worry so much about using an herbicide.

- No, because it's in a wet space and it's in a drainage area.

So you don't want that to travel anywhere.

- Right, which is why I would go with the hand pulling-- - Digging.

- Or digging, Cut it down if that helps you out a little bit and dig the rest of it out.

And I think you'll be fine with that.

Yeah, don't worry about those herbicides, just dig it out.

- Yeah.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is familyplot@wkno.org, 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 sending in the questions.

If you want more information about anything we talked about today, head on over to FamilyPlotGarden.com.

We have links to research-based publications on every topic we addressed.

Thanks for watching, I'm Chris Cooper.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]