Transcript
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Good afternoon and welcome to Smithsonian Gardens Let's Talk Gardens, a weekly webinar
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series that we hope to give you information to turn your brown thumb green. As always we have
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a terrific program for you today but before I introduce our speaker I like to give you
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a few housekeeping tips. Please we're not going to raise our hands or answer raised hands today
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in the presentation but please put your questions in the chat box after the presentation
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we will be calling upon those questions and I'll be giving them to our presenter so that he can
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answer them to his full ability also for optimal conditions make sure that all your other browser
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windows are closed and just have this one open so you'll have the best viewing conditions the
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best video connection possible and if you are in the D.C. area please come down and visit us
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our gardens are open they're gorgeous and the fall colors are really starting to shine. So we invite
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you to come down and visit no time tickets nothing to get in your way just come on down and share
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the beauty with us. We'd love to see you in our gardens. So for today's presentation very timely
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in the mid-Atlantic area we just looked at the weather and it's going to be colder much colder
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this weekend so you need to start thinking about bringing in your tropicals if you haven't already
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and today's presenter Matt Fleming is our tropical specialist at the greenhouse in Suitland. So Matt,
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how are you? Great thanks for having me and everyone for joining the talk today. Well terrific
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we're going to find out a little bit about our audience to help you out during your presentation
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because you and I were talking and we're trying to find out what plants I should bring in, what
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plants you're going to bring in, so I was going to go ahead and share a poll with our audience
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and find out first what do you consider tropical what zone do you live in
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here in the mid-Atlantic area or a strong zone seven maybe even sometimes going into a zone eight
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and then we wanna know what you're bringing in. So I just placed it up on the screen
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if you would please go ahead and vote we'd really enjoy hearing from you and to see where you're
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from and then what you're going to be bringing in that will help out Matt because he has to
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think about bringing advising people the staff downtown to bring all their containers in as
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well as dig some of their favorite tropicals that they overwinter then in the greenhouse. Oh Matt,
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do you see this it looks like most of our visitors are from Zone seven so they're that's great the
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middle Atlantic area so you'll know all about that composition yeah and mostly containers so far
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but they do have a mix of tropicals that they are bringing in so that's pretty cool. We have
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I'm gonna leave this up just for a couple more seconds but then I'll share it with
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our audience so that they can see what's out there we do have some people in zone 9 and zone 10 so
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there are some warmer areas that work with so they might be able to leave everything outside. Let's
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find out with their information so I'm going to end the poll and share the results with our public
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and say 68 is from zone 7 and 81 are looking to bring their containers
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in that have tropicals inside them so. I am going to disappear and leave it up to you please tell
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us more about yourself and your experience and jump right into today's program. Thank you Matt.
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All right, well thank you Cindy and thanks for everyone for joining us today. I hope that
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you get something out of it and if we do have any technical difficulties bear with us but
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knock on wood hopefully we should all be well.
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So we are going to talk about bringing in your tropical plants basically it is going to be
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overwintering and in the simplest form overwintering is the art of not killing things.
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Over the winter and that's basically my job so a couple things about me I have worked at
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Smithsonian Gardens for almost 11 years now 10 of those which have been in the tropical department.
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so I've learned a lot made some mistakes and hope to share some of those things with you all today.
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I hate to weed! It is part of life if you work with plants it's just something I don't like to do
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overall I'm not that good at pronouncing genus and species names so be mindful of
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that when you're talking with friends and everyone that we all make mistakes.
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Yes I have certainly killed plants before a lot of plants and even this awesome one pictured here.
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Luckily it was not too far gone where I was able to take a couple cuttings and we have
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two pieces that are now probably four years old that are I don't know, every bit of a a
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foot a foot and a half tall. So while the mother has since gone we have her baby still alive.
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So I'm assuming most of you over winter tropical plants
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popular choices include hibiscus various tropical vines Pacifloras, mandevillas some succulents
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brugnansia, bananas are another popular one then you have your bulbs, tubers,
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rhizomes, your cannas your cold acacia, dahlias things like that palm trees majesty palms eurekas
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and then also herbs and vegetables as well like rosemary or even pepper plants.
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So the first thing we got to do is we got to decide what to keep and I don't really like to
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think of it as what are we keeping but more why are we keeping it. One of the things to consider
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is maybe it has sentimental value to you. It was your mom's, your grandmother's something like that
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and it has a special place in your heart. So you know no matter the circumstances that's
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getting saved. My wife and I gave out african violets as wedding gifts for our wedding and
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I'm obviously not getting rid of that because I want to stay married and
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just you know if it's important to you and you want to keep it go ahead. It also could be a
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rare species or cultivar it may have taken you a long time to acquire and if you were to get
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rid of it over the winter then it's possible that you wouldn't be able to find it again.
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Just remember cultivars come and go can be both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because
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certainly new and improved things can come out lots of new things to try. It's bad in the sense
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that maybe you had a hibiscus that you just loved and you know it finally, finally came by
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the wayside after a long time you went to go buy another one and it's not being offered anymore so
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something to think about. Finally maybe it's a large specimen that is going to be hard to replace
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maybe you have a you know 30 or 40 year old jade plant that you know you're not just gonna
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be able to find another one at a local garden center so
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don't want to throw that away . Two pictures I have on here the left one is just a
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picture of kind of how I try to utilize all the space that we have in the greenhouse. We
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have a couple big philodendrons so I stack them up on pallets and then we put the ferns underneath
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because they don't mind the shade but with the philodendrons raised it just allows us to have
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a little more space on the right is probably a 20 foot tall triangle palm brings us back to you
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know a large specimen we're not just going to go to Home Depot and get another one of those
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come spring. So that's obviously something that we're going to keep from year to year
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so seriously though go crazy what what do you have to lose it. It is a tropical and if it's
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going to die you know or you're going to throw it away why not give it a try you can do things
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like whack the root ball back you can chop the top back. You know do whatever you can to make
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it work for you and your situation. Plants want to do two things, live and reproduce.
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They're certainly gonna help you win but it's also okay if you lose as well and the last thing to to
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kind of remember is it doesn't have to look that pretty over the winter and if a friend comes over
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and you're really worried about it hide it for a couple days it will be as awesome as you remember
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it come May and that's all that matters as long as it's alive over the winter that's our goal
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Of course there's going to be a lot of limiting factors on what you can and can't keep
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one of the main probably the most important thing is space. Do you have a greenhouse
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in your backyard sure then you know fill it up and keep whatever you can.
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Maybe you have a two-bedroom apartment where your couch takes up half of your living room then
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you're not going to be able to keep as much and you have to take that into consideration time.
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Your time to do you work 10 hours a day and you know gardening or construction and you just want
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to go home and relax. Maybe you're retired and you have all day to you know take care of things.
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Another thing to think about is how long are you willing to spend watering and performing other
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chores as needed every week and the the plant needs, is it a high or low maintenance plant.
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is it something that you're gonna have to cut back a vigorous vine
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or is it just a succulent that is gonna be slow growing and not gonna need much attention
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obviously the big thing is how much water is it gonna need is something you have to water
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every day maybe it's gonna go dormant and you don't have to worry about it
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and then finally cost and the cost is going to be if you want to replace it come spring
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maybe it's a large specimen like we kind of spoke about and
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if you were to try to find one it would be an arm and a leg to replace
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So what do we do before they come in? Scouting one of the most important things that you can do
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you should obviously be doing that anyway pests a lot of different ways you can take care of,
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things you can simply squash them like if they're aphids or mealybug things. Like that
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you can cut off part of the plant that's infected or you could spray it with a simple soap and oil
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too if you have a little bit of a higher population to knock it back.
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Just remember though a small outbreak outside is gonna equal craziness inside,
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where outside you have birds other insects kind of helping you, inside you're not gonna have
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any of those friends so populations are going to going to go much higher and much quicker as well
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if it does have a disease nine times out of ten. In my opinion you should just trash it
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don't put it in the compost pile though because what you don't want to do is have it over winter
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then come spring you're spreading out your compost and you're giving everyone a little
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phytophthora a little, little pythium for you. Whatever the case so just trash it diseases
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they're just not worth the risk and the hassle risk as in spreading to other plants that you
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may have hassle as in they are not the easiest to get under control. A lot of times you have to
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spray you know two three times in back to back as well as clean up any of the affected leaves so if
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it has a disease and it's not you know something that you can't live without just get rid of it
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fertilizer. Basically we just want to make sure that we have enough so our plants aren't starving
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we don't want them to be pushing growth but you also do want to start with a healthy plant for
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the long winter ahead. One thing you can do is to move plants to a semi-shady location
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just to get a start on acclimating them to the lower light levels that they are going to be
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getting all winter long indoors so make life easier on yourself you know if you can
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cut back any vines or wood a's that do respond well to pruning which is honestly most of them
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it'll save space and water needs at least for a little while and anything that can go dormant
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let it go dormant the ones that most of us know you have your cannas your caladiums colicacias,
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other tubes and bulbs and tubers some that you may or may not know bananas, plumerias
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and pepper plants. So the picture here is just of Acalypha that we have the one on the right is
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how it was sent back to me the one on the left is cut it back and I did the right one as well
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after taking this picture. This is actually a picture I took literally like last week.
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One of the gardens sent back a bunch of their hibiscus and the left picture is how I received it
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root's all a mess you know the top kind of grown out. So what I did is I cut back probably 10 to 12
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inches all around the plant and didn't do too much to the roots because it had a a decent
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root system on it and potted it up and that's what it's going to look like over the winter.
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So let's talk a little bit about dormancy. You know there's a lot of people from different areas
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on here from the pole. It does seem that most of you are kind of in that zone seven area so
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it's going to be very both plant and location specific
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but you know here are some generalities to factor and kind of
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think on. You should probably stop fertilizing about four weeks before the first frost and
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whatever you plan on bringing that plant in you again you don't want to be feeding the heck out of
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them so they're growing like crazy once you bring them obviously you want in bring it in at the
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appropriate time cold sensitivity for the plant we have some plants that you know can stay out till
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Thanksgiving. We have other plants that it gets below 50-55 degrees and it's going to show you
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that it's mad and it will have some cold damage so all going to depend on the plant.
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Is it going to go completely dormant is it a bulb a rhizome something similar or is it more
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as i just like to say you know is it going to chill and relax over the winter like a lantana
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or plumeria things like that. The key really is to keep the plants in a cool dark place. When I say
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cool about 50 degrees give or take a basement, garage, crawl space things like that often work
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well . Some things do need to be watered from time to time where others need no water at all.
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So we're going to talk about a couple specific things,
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a couple specific plants and anything special that may pertain to them. You'll notice some things are
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kind of repetitive but we'll just talk about those quickly. So your cannas caladiums your dahlias
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things that have a rhizome or a tuber . They're going to go into basically what i call full
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dormancy. So what you should do with those in most cases you want to let a light frost hit them
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then dig them up set them somewhere to dry out for a few days preferably somewhere with a little bit
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of shade. But you do want good air movement around them cut back the foliage to just a couple inches
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then brush as much of the soil off as possible you can store them in dry peat moss sawdust
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wrap them in newspaper and store them in a cool dark place. You're going to hear me
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say cool dark place a lot with dormant plants because that that is important,.
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Remember though it certainly is a good idea to check on them occasionally
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specifically check on any of any of them or rotting you want to remove them the saying
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that one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch is so true with bulbs and tubers and things like that.
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So when you check them you just want to give them a squeeze and if there's any
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any soft spots or anything like that most likely you just want to toss it
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and depending on your situation you can pot them up.
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And start bringing them out of dormancy about four to six weeks before the last frost in the spring
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to get a jump start on larger plants
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So plumeria and brogmansia i consider them kind of more semi-dormant
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you can cut them back especially the brogmansia they respond so well to a hard pruning plumeria
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do as well but you're gonna have about four or five shoots from any pruning that you have
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so you may want to go in and then thin those out when they start to break bud
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again. Keep it in the cold dark place they both will likely lose their leaves and watering wise
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again it's going to depend on how hard you cut it back how big of a pot things like that but about
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two to four weeks depending on your situation. One nice thing about plumeria they have a real fleshy
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thick stem and you can you can squeeze them and if they start to feel mushy you want to water them
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we want a nice hard turgid stem. Bananas are very popular one so if they're in the ground
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you want to dig them up cut back the top to a more manageable size
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clean off some soil around the roots ideally you want to probably store it sideways
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in a basement crawl space something similar
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you can keep it in a pot as well cut it back store it in a cold dark place again. Probably water it
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about once a month or so the soil doesn't pull too far forward away from the edge of the pot.
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I have had some times cut it back to like a foot let's say in the top few inches because there's
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so much water in the banana it starts to rot the growing point so just be careful of that.
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It's another reason why it's important to keep it in a cool dark place but just something i had have
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noticed and ran into time and time again if it does happen a lot of times if you just cut right
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below the rotted part it will flush it will flush new growth and be fine.
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Peppers lantana and some similar plants like that again they're gonna kind of go semi-dormant if it
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was in the ground dig it up throw it in a pot cut it back. They all respond great to pruning
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keep it in a cool dark place they'll likely lose their leaves again water every two to four
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weeks depending on your situation you don't want the soil to completely dry out though.
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Herbs such as rosemary and oregano things like that if it was in the ground they get up and repot
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obviously they respond well to being cut back because
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well we cut them when we use them when we're cooking and you can enjoy herbs over the
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winter . There are some things like rosemary for example that can't be overwintered in the ground
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so in cooler locations it will need to be brought inside and that too can
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kind of be kept semi-dormant over the winter like a lantana or a pepper plant
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things that don't go dormant but you just want to keep
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maybe it's palms, hibiscus, vines things like that if it was in the ground dig it up and repot
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move it to a semi shady location again to get acclimated to the lower light levels
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a week or two is fine you don't need to go too crazy.
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I'm big on whacking things back I've mentioned it a couple times both the shoots and the roots
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as needed and again it's going to come down to your situation and what your needs are and your
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space and things like that. So if you have a plant that is going crazy maybe it's a vine
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just whack it back again. It its getting too big for you or you can simply start over
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collect seeds and replant. A lot of the vines come up very easily from seed and
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they tend to grow fast take cuttings and start fresh before you take cuttings and get rid of
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something you might want to see how how well the cuttings take before getting rid of something.
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If you take a dozen cuttings and none of them take and you already threw away the the plant
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you're certainly not gonna be too happy so maybe keep it for a year and make sure the cuttings take
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if you take a dozen and ten stick then next year you could probably be safe and throwing it away
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a lot of plants can be divided sins of area things like that easy way to save on space give some to
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your friends neighbors things like that just to note to remember some plants do need time
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to heel over so they don't rot before repotting sands of area especially you want to heel over.
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So what to do with them over the winter obviously you want to water at proper times. Each plant is
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going to be different both or plants that are the same but maybe are in different containers
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are going to have different water needs scout and manage any pest, disease issues, to feed or
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not to feed them. In most cases i lean towards no fertilizer over the winter if you see an obvious
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issue you can certainly address it but you just don't want them pushing growth in inside it's
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going to be weak leggy and just not not something you want to try to push. Rotate your plants. We
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don't want any leaning tower of hibiscus. I would say you know get on a good habit of rotating them
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once a week and finally we want to water it the proper times. Oh wait we already talked about
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that didn't we? Yes we did because that's probably the most important thing that you can do over the
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winter is is watering at the proper time you don't want to underwater you don't want to over water.
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So spring is coming. Wwhat you can do is start bringing plants in pots that were dormantthat
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maybe aren't getting planted directly in your garden out of dormancy? Just remember that less
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water is better rot is going to be your biggest enemy for the first month or more things that like
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you cut back maybe or that respond well to a good cut back cut them back again. Hibiscus bromancia
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things like that winter growth is often very weak and leggy. So if you were to put it outside
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get a decent windstorm a lot of those branches are gonna snap on you so give them a good pruning
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timings is going to be very dependent on your needs and the growth of the plant as well.
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Once outside and acclimated you can start to feed but
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don't go too crazy in the beginning you have all season you don't want to burn any of the new roots
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so we'll talk briefly about timing take this with a grain of salt this is basically for me in the
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D.C., Maryland, Virginia area in the greenhouse for gardens that need to be perfect come
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may so usually i'll stop feeding in November i may feed once a month from November , December,
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January and then when the days start to get a little bit longer I'll go to every other week in
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February at about a half of half the normal rate and for us we don't keep any bulbs or tubers in
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like a box or bag or something like that. What we do is we pot them up now basically water
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them once then we won't water them again until basically the last week of February
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and I'll go through and soak everything really heavily and then i won't do anything again for
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two weeks and then i will water them again and if the soil has really started pulling away from the
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outside of the pot. I'll kind of go through and rough up all the edges so the water isn't just
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running right off before i water them again that second time and then i won't water them again
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until the plant tells me it's time and what i mean by that is after that second watering you know a
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week two weeks maybe more. Hopefully, there the bulbs are going to start waking up the caladiums
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are going to start pushing growth we have a lot of amorporphous phallus things like that and
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if you keep watering them they're just going to rot. And even if you do see them pushing growth,
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dig to the side a little bit and check because you know an inch under the top dry level of soil
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it could be wet and those bulbs and tubers obviously had little to no roots all winter.
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So over watering is your biggest enemy at that point. Just a couple things that i cut back
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we cut back a ton of stuff but these are just some examples i pulled at different times
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hibiscus i cut back in mid February. They seem to be a little bit slower
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especially after a hard pruning it takes them a while to break again.
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We have a lot of cane begonias. I'll cut them back to just a couple nodes in mid-March
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shrimp plants in early April the acalypha hat i showed a picture of a lot earlier
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cut them back in mid April and acclimation is all going to be temperature implant dependent and
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it can vary from from year to year but i would say you know mid April is when i try to start bringing
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things outside and getting immaculate acclimated. This is just a picture of euphorbia continifolia.
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The picture on the left was taken right before the one on the right basically i cut it back really
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hard and it will it'll flush growth again and then start to look great come the warmer weather.
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These are two different species of Tibouchina. The one on the left we kind of made into a standard
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the one on the right is just a bush form again all that winter growth is going to be weak and leggy
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so you want to get that out of there a great time to put plants outside depending on the weather
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is right after a hard pruning they won't need to acclimate to full sun so that picture of the
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euphorbia. It's a little bit more cold hardy so basically as soon as i cut it back
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i'll throw it right outside in full sun so the new leaves can be acclimated as they come out
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just saves on on time and in effort of moving them around and finding shade for them.
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So acclimating your plants when they do go back outside this is something we're all
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guilty of I've done it many a times sunburn can certainly be the biggest issue cold obviously
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one thing not to forget is wind you know it may be let's say 48 degrees but if you got 10
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-12 mile an hour winds all day constant it's going to be a lot colder to those plants especially any
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new and tender growth it they'll be a lot more susceptible to cold and or wind damage
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certainly don't want to set them right outside in full sun after they've been indoors all all winter
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if you can put them somewhere where they're going to get a little bit of shade
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if you can't bring them out for a few hours at a time every day slowly working up to all day.
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It's better to start maybe late morning as opposed to you know two or three o'clock in the afternoon
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when the the sun is at its you know strongest and if you don't have any place to put them under
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shade or anything like that you can certainly bring them out in any overcast or rainy days
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Lastly just to kind of finish up on a few points most of us here are probably all plant dorks
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and we hate to trash a perfectly good plant but there are times when we just don't have any
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other choices again cutting seed those are good alternatives and you're gonna kill some things
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from time to time and that's all right that that's part of being a gardener and honestly if you're
33:46
not killing anything are you really trying it's part of just that you know the business and or the
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the passion that we have try new things if you kill something it gives you more space
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to try something else. Just remember new doesn't always mean better. Just you know as an example it
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seems while it's not a tropical it seems that there are you know 50 new echinacea cultivars
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that come out every year and just because it's new doesn't always mean it's better
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push the limits of your zone if it you know if you don't have room for it and it dies again so what's
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the harm. Not in all winters are created equal and what i mean by that is i think it was maybe two or
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three years ago we had a a really cold cold winter and then i believe last winter it was very mild
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and we had a lot of things in some of the gardens downtown not even die back that normally do die
34:54
back so you know if if you keep something out it's possible that it may live for a couple years then
35:01
we have a really cold winter and it may die but at least you got to enjoy it while you could.
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One last thing remember if you're keeping anything dormant or semi-dormant the
35:14
the key really is to keep plants in the dark and keep them chilly it just kind of helps
35:24
them stay dormant and not want to push growth. So that is all I have.
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I did want to say thank you to everyone that joined us today and Cindy for putting this on.
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I hope everyone has enjoyed all the talks and especially this one so thank you
35:45
thank you matt if you'd stop sharing your screen they can see your face a little bit better and we
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haven't we're we are having a little bit of sound problems with your microphone so just stay close
35:56
to the mic and just make sure that your mic is actually on your shirt on here. So just make sure
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it's unencumbered and that will help out but you are not done because there are a lot of questions
36:08
that people want to know about so i want everybody to know that we may not get a chance to ask your
36:13
specific question but Matt will do his best to answer the questions afterwards and we'll post
36:18
them up on our website but most importantly for specific questions about pests that you may have
36:26
i would look at your extension agents or extension office handouts or on their website because your
36:36
past have different stages like scale you can't take care of unless it's in a specific stage
36:43
and some of the other things so look to see inform yourself first. But
36:47
the one thing that people really want to know what is the right watering routine. How do you tell
36:54
if the if you need to keep it watered or not as in dormant plants or just watering it over the
37:01
winter in general? I think just watering in the winter over general but also hit upon the dormant
37:07
plants so that that is probably one of the most asked questions i get is when do i water or how
37:16
how often should i water and it's probably also one of the hardest questions to answer
37:22
let's say that you have a 20 foot tall palm tree in a 12 inch pot probably not realistic but it's
37:32
going to be all roots and you probably couldn't give that thing enough water whereas if you had a
37:39
newly sprouted seedling where it barely has even true leaves and its cotyledons and you put it in
37:46
a four foot pot you're probably not going to have to water again before it's done before
37:51
it dies. So the biggest thing about watering is get to know your plants and what i mean by that
37:58
is as you kind of check on them every day you'll start to get a good understanding of how fast
38:05
they do dry out and the the two things that i do besides taking into consideration what plant it is
38:14
is it a succulent is it something that grows in you know sandy soils or it needs a lot of water
38:22
is you know your finger stick your finger in in the soil the top couple inches are dry
38:29
most likely needs water you can also lift lift them up if they're not too too heavy
38:36
dry soil weighs a lot less than than heavy wet soil. So
38:41
those are two things but also use your eyes if the soil you know looks dry to you and is
38:47
pulling away it's definitely time to water but again a lot of times the top layer of
38:53
soil inch or so can can be dry but beneath it can be wet so i know that wasn't a specific
39:01
answer but it just varies too much depending on the plant and the container size that it's in
39:08
you know especially with bringing tropicals in if you whack it back cut the roots back a little bit
39:16
it's not going to need a lot of water for you know maybe a month maybe more and if it's wilted
39:24
it may not need water it just may be that the plant is you know suffering
39:28
right now from getting mutilated by cutting back everything so again don't just water based on
39:36
its it's wilting it may not be that that the soil is dry it just can't take up enough water
39:43
because again you cut back a lot of its roots so you gave a really perfect example of what you do
39:51
at the greenhouse because i want everybody to understand we have the gardens downtown in D.C.
39:55
around all the different museums and then we have the greenhouse which is the support center for
40:00
all those plants the greenhouse grows most of the annuals that you see down in the gardens downtown
40:06
and the greenhouse also supports all the tropical plants over the winter so you can imagine how many
40:11
plants matt has to water over the winter and getting ready so lifting up the pot is a really
40:18
good suggest because you can't stick your finger in each one of them so lifting up a pot as you
40:23
go down is is really a helpful hint and one that i think more people should take advantage of and i'm
40:29
sure that's what you do with the greenhouse in all your support of the tropical plants from downtown
40:34
yeah and you know Cindy brought up a good point we have three greenhouses chopped full there are some
40:40
things so yes we have three greenhouses chuck full of plants there are things that i water
40:44
every single day we have some tree ferns that once they dry out they're gonna show you their
40:51
mat so i water them every day 365. There are some things that get watered maybe once a week
40:57
then we have other things that the dormant or semi-dormant plants that may not get watered
41:01
for months and it it all depends and the more you grow and become familiar with your plants
41:08
you're going to know you know their needs as well now one group of plants you didn't
41:14
talk about overwintering or citrus plants so i'm wondering if you have any special tips for citrus
41:21
i know i have a lemon tree that you guys grew from seed for one of our programs garbage gardens
41:28
and and it's now a big lemon tree so what do i need to do specifically for that so we have
41:36
a couple citrus that we overwinter we don't have the lemon anymore just because
41:43
for display purposes anytime a lemon would would fruit it would somehow magically get stolen
41:51
and lemons don't look that great without fruit so we ended up getting rid of it but
41:59
citrus aren't much different than anything else you can certainly cut it back as always
42:05
but you know biggest thing would just be to water it at the right time it's it's it's not
42:11
gonna do a whole lot it's obviously a pretty tropical plant so over the winter the day days
42:17
are shorter it's going to be cooler. Basically you just want to keep it alive over the winter
42:23
kind of like i was saying it may not look that great give it as much light as you can
42:28
the more light the better but nothing too special. I would say to be honest with you
42:34
i think the only special thing that i do for citrus but this could be for any plant
42:39
is when you bring it in you might not you might have treated it for pests whatever so you don't
42:44
have a large problem but all of a sudden you have an explosion again say in February
42:49
and that's usually because that buildup has been occurring all along and you don't notice it too
42:54
you have a big amount so for most of my plants i'll put them in my shower maybe once a month or
43:00
so and individually so i can really pay attention to them i do i do this it's it's a a loving
43:07
situation for them and i give them a shower so i hose off all those mealy bugs i hose off all the
43:14
flies all the white flies whatever is the problem and you're right it doesn't look perfect
43:19
but it gives them an opportunity to not have this outburst all the time so you do it because you can
43:25
overhead water really easily in the greenhouse i can't do that in my living room so that's a hint
43:30
i've picked up through the years is give them a shower play some opera they might appreciate
43:35
all the attention to go along with it so and somebody else how do i keep the ants out of my
43:42
home when i bring in my pot so i know what i do what do you do so that's a good question.
43:49
Unfortunately ants are not the only thing that i deal with we get mice sometimes in
43:55
the drainage holes and they'll make a nest and like that first couple times that are all water
44:02
you'll see mice just run it everywhere and it's it's gonna depend on your situation
44:09
if it's a small plant ideally if it was in a pot you i'd take it out and check the roots and before
44:17
i brought it in because if you bring them in it's gonna be a lot harder to to get rid of so but
44:23
there's a lot of products dusts and drenches that one or two applications can take care of it but
44:33
i would say the biggest thing would be to check them before you bring them in i agree because i
44:36
don't get ants i get pill bugs which really entertains my cats but it's not great for
44:43
rats oh and somebody said thank you for warning them about mice
44:46
that's true mice do come in sometimes so hate the greenhouse if you
44:52
that's how if you have a greenhouse and i'm sure most of us are lusting after the greenhouses if
44:59
you saw the wonderful greenhouses that matt works in you would be lusting too
45:03
but do you have to keep those greenhouses heated in the winter time to keep the tropicals alive
45:11
again it's going to depend on what what you're keeping if if all you're doing
45:17
is just trying to kind of keep things alive over the winter and you're not worried about
45:22
how they look again you can force a lot of things into dormancy that you wouldn't think of like
45:29
you know plumeria obviously doesn't go dormant in Hawaii but here we force it into dormancy by
45:35
cutting back on watering it drops all its leaves it helps me space wise and as well pest wise
45:43
so you can kind of force things into dormancy keeping it a lot cooler but if you have you know
45:51
palm trees and and things like that that you know a lot of palms are a lot more cold sensitive than
45:57
than you may realize so it's going to depend on what you want to keep and the temperature more
46:04
at night is going to be the most important factor so it it's again it's hard to answer without it's
46:11
going to be dependent on what you what you want to keep yeah and what zone you're in right yeah
46:16
and i think just the main thing is don't let it freeze so don't actually don't let it get below
46:21
about 45 degrees so that that's an important thing because if they're dormant 45 degrees is still the
46:27
temperature that you want to get the lowest at and of course if it's it's alive it'd be much
46:33
warmer so that's a good tip why here's some banana questions why do you store the bananas sideways
46:44
I don't know why it's done i guess to me it's just to help it for me it just helps them think that
46:52
it's kind of dormant time that you know they're cold they're in a a cool location
46:58
i'm not going to lie i don't know why i've just always been told that so you were told to do it so
47:05
that's what you do actually i don't i do a lot of mine and and the reason that i turn mine sideways
47:10
is to remember not to water them and also to it keeps the roots a lot drier and
47:16
if something's in the greenhouse and somebody sees it laying lengthwise they don't want to water it
47:23
so that's i think that's the most important thing so just remember to keep things that are dormant
47:28
not watered as well as you would if you try to keep them alive so the other thing that they
47:34
had a question about and this is something i've learned as an outdoor gardener because i'm more
47:39
of an outdoor horticulturist than a tropical but i have learned that the the question was
47:46
how do they overwinter some of their tropicals outside and this is a real key thing is because
47:56
for our temperatures in zone seven a lot of plants would survive outdoors if you have them
48:03
planted so that they drain really well and they don't get too wet in the wintertime so for your
48:10
bananas somebody's putting mulch bags over top of them that's fine do you find the same thing that
48:16
if it if it stays dryer it seems to live longer in the garden yeah so that's a that's a good question
48:25
in in in bananas and there's a lot of things cannas things like that you can do it with
48:31
wet feet is probably one of the biggest things for any any plant that you're trying to you know
48:37
that's marginally hardy as it is you don't want to keep it wet because then it's not going to have
48:44
a strong root system so but yeah there are certainly things you can do
48:49
dig them up put them against the wall of your house to kind of radiate heat put leaves mulch
48:56
over them different things like that but said it a lot it just depends on where you live the zone
49:06
the plant things like that but as a generality certainly the wet the wet feet is a good
49:14
is a good tip it really is it really does make a difference so if you have
49:18
something that's marginally hardy putting it in well-drained soil that maybe you've
49:25
added some grit or some heavy sand not not the fine sand but the multiple multi-particle size
49:34
sand that seems to help quite a bit and again to keep it dryer by maybe putting a little
49:40
cover on top of it to be able to keep it a little bit drier sure so yeah people go to great lengths
49:47
yeah i mean i've seen people put chicken wire around even like some japanese maples that are a
49:52
little bit more cold and just fill it with leaves over the winter just to give it a couple degrees
49:57
so you know certainly get creative and do whatever you can to keep your babies
50:03
yeah the strangest thing i've ever seen but it worked was to wrap cactuses outside or some of
50:11
the succulents outside wrap them in plastic and put Christmas lights inside of it because for
50:16
the heat from the old-fashioned Christmas lights not the leads they don't do the same thing but
50:20
the old-fashioned Christmas lights will give it enough heat to keep it alive and somebody just
50:24
asked that what is the best way to overwinter cactus on a covered porch so those of you that
50:31
have visited Smithsonian Gardens if you see a gentleman around the hopped garden Michael is
50:37
notorious for doing the the Christmas light trick there are a couple agave and other things that
50:48
again they're kind of marginally hardy and he's been known to come in on a Saturday afternoon he
50:54
puts plastic around it and he'll put the Christmas lights underneath it just to give it you know if
50:59
it's supposed to be in the teens or something like that he'll do that trick and and it does help it a
51:06
lot of times it's a couple degrees can make a big difference so yeah again do do whatever you can to
51:14
to make it work and so the person that asked about the cactus is i would say try one outside
51:20
on your porch not all of them and see what it does because it just depends on how low your
51:26
temperatures get and how how protected your porch is this is another good one what's the
51:32
best type of pot to use to overwinter your plants if you're trying to keep them alive not dormant
51:40
i mean the only thing so there's a couple ways you can look at it if it was in the ground just throw
51:46
it in a cheap nursery pot that you know you you would get an azalea in at a garden center if if
51:55
it was in a you know a nice fancy terracotta or glazed pot as long as it has drainage holes
52:03
in it you're going to be fine the biggest thing is just make sure it has drainage holes
52:09
and a good well-drained mix to be honest with you there's there's not much difference between
52:16
containers in all reality just find one that fits the size of your plant and it is
52:21
appropriate for you know you don't want it too big or too small so i think that's the best key
52:28
fit the size not necessarily the material but the size to your plant i always find that i over water
52:34
so for me terra cotta is best because it dries out a little bit quicker many of us underwater
52:39
so maybe plastic would work better for you i like you have a fancy container i'm gonna call it that
52:46
doesn't have drainage holes in it you could keep it in a nursery pot and then just slip it in and
52:53
out too. So there's the thought because you don't want to bring in anything without drainage holes
52:58
over the winter or you're going to have wet feet and problems yeah because somebody said how do
53:03
you lift your heavy plants to put them in the shower so that's what i do i keep them in the ugly
53:08
nursery pots and then slip them into the fancy pots inside so it's not quite as heavy i know
53:14
i'm gonna have to stop doing this eventually but maybe i'll build a shower on the deck i don't know
53:18
maybe that'll come out or shower like at the beach outdoor shower exactly yeah everything is
53:25
on the deck that's what i do a lot of my things go out on my deck this is a good tip though because
53:30
we're both from zone 7 and zone 8. So Bob wrote to us that there are those of us who are in the
53:36
arid or semi-arid areas too dry for many plants with sustained freezing temps can also be deadly
53:42
for plants that can otherwise be overwintered outdoors and that is very true in fact i found
53:48
that there are people in Massachusetts that can keep things alive in the winter because
53:53
they have a deep layer of snow where we don't so our temperatures fluctuate too much. Sometimes
54:06
have to be a detective when you're trying to overwinter your plants yeah now the women there
54:12
was a couple other one i really wanted to ask you about there's a good one that someone wrote about
54:19
for those of you that that may not have a basement to store your bulbs and tubers and rhizomes in
54:27
it's going to depend on what you what you have and what you don't have but a garage is certainly an
54:35
option if you don't have a garage simply a closet in maybe a cooler area of the house and trying to
54:44
think of of other things but we have because it's not super cool or dark doesn't mean you can't
54:53
overwinter but you just have to watch them a little bit more especially the rotting and yeah go
55:02
for it again if it's not going to make it either way try a couple different spots in your house
55:06
and see what works out the best and see you know see what works right we have a volunteer that has
55:13
a guest room that she keeps the temperature very low in so that's where all the plants go over the
55:19
wintertime so i always thought that was a great tip too if you have an extra room that nobody
55:23
sleeps in all the time keep the temperature down low it keeps the guess away too so that's good too
55:30
well right now maybe that's not a problem so another one was if you have something outside
55:37
that's getting ready to flower and you've waited all year and now it's going to freeze what do you
55:41
do do you leave it in the ground and take the chance or do you put it up right now
55:49
again i've said it a lot but it's gonna depend on on you really if you can dig it up bring it inside
55:58
maybe just put it in the garage overnight and you know a little space heater whatever the case or
56:04
or you know just leave it out there and fingers crossed but trust me i know how how hard it is
56:12
when when a cold snap comes because everyone's sending things back back to us and but it
56:20
it's hard to give you a good answer but if you can bring it in that that's probably the safest
56:26
but it's gonna depend on what you can and can't do so how big it is things like that so do you have
56:33
a resource and education resource that would list a tropical plant with the temperature that it can
56:40
withstand have you ever seen something like that there's a lot of good places i would trust more
56:46
the .edu's and Missouri Botanic Garden is a great that's probably one of the best
56:55
resources if i just had to pick a random one is Missouri Botanic Garden they have a great
57:03
listing of all their plants that they have in their gardens and it will say minimum
57:06
temperatures and things like and things like that so that that's probably one of the better ones
57:11
yeah excellent that's also where you can find out zones or you can go to the USDA
57:16
plant map with the zones on it if you're going to determine the difference between San Jose,
57:22
San Francisco and Ottawa, Canada to be able to see what your zone is what you're doing so
57:29
another thing is this is this is a different one i never thought about this i know we do it in our
57:35
coolers at the greenhouse Smithsonian Gardens does if you have something like a colocasia or a dahlia
57:42
that you don't have a basement to keep cooler would you put it in a refrigerator
57:47
over the winter. i would make sure i knew what the temperature of that refrigerator was i would
57:58
assume it's probably 35 to 40. i'm just guessing i i truly don't know the actual temperature of
58:05
most refrigerators but i've said it once i'll say it a hundred times it's gonna depend on the plant
58:14
know what you have and what what its heartiness is down to i think that the easiest thing is
58:22
just just put it in the closet over the refrigerator to be honest
58:27
i think it will be fine okay so you have how many plants are you looking forward to receiving
58:34
in the next month that are going to be brought back to the greenhouse so people understand
58:41
what numbers you're working with sure so yeah a quick synopsis of what happens basically about
58:52
now depending on temperature and things like that everything that was on display around the museums
58:57
and our various gardens will either get dug up if it was planted in the ground or if it was kept in
59:03
a decorative pot it'll be shipped back in the pot and my job is to either repot it or keep it
59:11
alive all winter then come spring make sure it's perfect and send it back down again but it it's a
59:22
a task to get some of these you know we have a gardenia that was pretty much a wide load
59:28
hazard that i cut back to like twigs this winter and it really it really is a team effort bringing
59:36
things to and from the facility here in suitland which is about i don't know probably less than
59:42
10 miles from the mall bringing them back and forth but um this year due to Covid a lot of
59:49
our items didn't get put on display unfortunately but in some years you get a early early cold night
59:57
and it's like a mad dash we're making trips back and forth sending as much stuff as we
60:02
can you know i literally just shove it in the greenhouse as long as the door can close
60:08
that's a win so but it's it's it's a challenge bringing things back and forth so i wanted to
60:18
give you all hope when the next couple weeks when you're thinking about bringing in your tropicals
60:24
at least you don't have to do the numbers that matt does so i have confidence in you
60:29
bring in the ones that you love like matt says don't worry about the ones that you don't love
60:34
because next year is always a new year and you can buy more tropicals and put them in your garden so
60:40
i want to thank everyone for joining us today. Thank you Matt for being such a great presenter
60:47
you're starting to sound like a lawyer at the end well it all depends
60:52
hopefully the sound wasn't too bad so no but thank you and we'll see you again next week.
60:57
Next week we get to have our arborist join us and he's going to talk about pruning which is a
61:04
a very timely subject to talk about because people are thinking about what are they going to do over
61:09
the winter to re-enhance their shrubs and trees so thank you for all see you next week. Thank you.
A webinar exploring personal relationships with plants and celebrating garden communities during challenging times.
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