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

I'm Chris Cooper.

Fall is when the garden is winding down, but some plants are at their peak at the end of the growing season.

Today, we're going to look at some exciting fall favorites.

Also, we'll learn how to propagate ferns from spores.

That's just ahead on The Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South.

- (female announcer) Production funding for the Family Plot: Gardening in the Mid-South is provided by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

[upbeat country music] - Welcome to The Family Plot.

I'm Chris Cooper.

Joining me today is Joellen Dimond.

Joellen is a horticulturist, and Kim Rucker will be joining me later.

Joellen, always fun to have you here.

- Thank you.

It's good to be here.

- So we're going to talk about some exciting fall plants, right?

- Yes, we are.

- Right, so let's talk about those exciting fall annuals first.

- Let's talk about the annuals.

The first one I want to talk about is Tithonia.

It's the Mexican sunflower.

It is a late-season pollinator source, and I have seen it covered - Nice.

- In butterflies.

So butterflies that are migrating and butterflies are trying to get their last nectar in for the season.

Bright colors, red, orange, and yellow, but it's tall.

They get four to six feet tall, and they need some support throughout the growing season.

This is one that is going to be best in full sun, or as much sun as you can possibly give it, and you're going to need to give it some support because it does get that tall.

And in the storms in the summer, sometimes they fall over, so you're going to have to get it some support.

- So what kind of support would you use?

- I'd use stakes.

I usually stake and stake the stem to the stake.

- Okay.

- So it's not terrible.

I have let them just fall over.

And there is a dwarf one that is out there, but dwarf is four feet.

So I mean, it's still going to be tall.

But they are drought-resistant, and they are not picky about the soils that they are in.

- That's good.

- And they love the hot weather.

So it's a great plant for the end of the season, and it will keep blooming until the frost takes it.

- Wow.

- So it's a wonderful plant for the fall.

- Sounds good.

- And it's been hot, and the containers are getting a little scary.

Sometimes it's nice to just change them out.

There's some beautiful things available for the fall to change out your summer annuals.

And one of them is Celosia, the cock's comb.

Bright, vibrant colors of orange, red, yellow, pinks and magenta.

They sell them in the containers and they will bloom until frost.

But be careful, they can reseed themselves.

So just, if they're in a container, just try to keep them in a container, and don't let them reseed all over the place.

- Okay.

- And they will mix well with a larger-leafed plant like our last one, which is the croton.

- Yeah, I like crotons.

- Oh, big, huge tropical plant, nice variegated colors.

It will stay just nice until the temperatures start taking it out in the cold and the fall.

They mix well with our garden mums and the Celosia that we talked about.

So all those different textures of coarse, medium and fine.

Like all annuals, all of these plants will go with the frost.

- Okay.

- So cold weather is going to take all of them out.

- But you can enjoy the beauty until then.

- Until then.

Yes, you sure can.

- All right.

So let's talk about some exciting fall perennials.

- Perennials.

Asters.

You cannot talk about fall without have these beautiful asters.

They're zones three to eight.

They get about three to four feet rounded, and they're known for their blue flowers, but they can become in whites and pinks and lavenders and yellows, even.

Now I like the particular one called aromatic aster.

It is one of the last asters to bloom in the fall.

And so you've got pollinators all over it.

Very, very, very nice aster.

And it does very well with drought and soil tolerant.

- So you gave me one a couple years ago.

- I have it.

- It's beautiful.

I love it.

- I divide it, I give it away.

Everybody likes it.

Next one is Sedum Autumn Joy, and/or Autumn Fire.

Both of them are available.

They're fairly tall.

They're zones three through nine.

They get one to two feet tall.

The blooms are either pink to red, and they bloom only in the fall.

So again, another pollinator source.

- Okay.

- They're drought tolerant and they're soil-type tolerant, so you can grow them just about anywhere.

- Can't go wrong.

- No.

And I think their stems and seeds look good dried for the winter interest too, so I like those.

- Okay.

- Next we're going to talk about Amsonia.

- Yeah, I like that one.

- Now Amsonia, the blue star.

They're zones three through nine, it gets two to three feet rounded.

It's got soft, fern-like mound of foliage that turns a brilliant golden yellow in the fall.

- It's gorgeous.

- In the sun, it just glows.

- It sure does.

- It's gorgeous.

Again, drought tolerant and soil tolerant.

- Oh, that's great.

- So you can't go wrong.

- Can't go wrong.

- Can't go wrong.

- All right.

- And there is one other perennial that's a bulb that I liked in the fall.

And that's a Nerine, the Guernsey lily.

It zones only seven through eight.

I have seen it in 9 and 10.

It's a brilliant burst of color in the fall.

It's either red, and I like the red ones, or the pink and lavender.

What happens is the foliage appears in the early spring, it dies back in the summer, then all of a sudden, the flowers just come up and they bloom in a time of year when a lot of things are not blooming.

So that's a nice perennial.

- I can tell you're excited about that one.

- I like that one.

- You like that one?

Okay, so let's talk about some fall favorite shrubs, right?

They're out there too, right?

- Shrubs, yes.

These are things that you can see in your garden all the time.

First one that comes to my mind is American beautyberry.

It zones 5 through 10.

It gets three to eight feet round, and it's a native shrub.

It's got beautiful magenta berries that are clustered all along the stems of it.

And they are gorgeous.

They really stand out for color, because there's not a lot of color.

It's like a flower, but it's a berry.

Anyway, there's a white variety.

Some people like the white.

But I like the magenta one.

- I've seen both.

- Yeah.

And they're deer resistant, so that's even better.

- That's a good thing, right?

- And they are soil and drought tolerant.

- Again, can't go wrong with that.

- Can't go wrong with that.

Now the one thing that's bad about them, if you have crape myrtle bark scale in your area, they can get crape myrtle bark scale.

- Yes they can.

- And you just treat them just like you would any of the crape myrtles in your yard.

Use the same methods with that, either systemics, insecticide once a year, or you keep spraying them.

- Right.

- So it's one of those.

The second one we're going to talk about is the Caryopteris, the bluebeard.

It zones three through eight, gets three foot round.

It is a native shrub.

It's got pretty blue flowers that encircle the stem in late summer and early fall, when not many plants are blooming.

It attracts pollinators.

It's disease-resistant.

And tough plant, drought-resistant, soil resistant, deer-resistant.

And it blooms on the current season's growth.

So if you want to control the height of it, you cut it down in the spring, and then it comes back up, and it can be a smaller shrub.

- Those are some good shrubs, right?

- Yeah.

- Deer resistant.

- Yeah.

And native.

All of them are native.

- Native.

Pollinator?

- Yeah.

- Those are good.

All right.

Now, how about those exciting fall trees?

- Fall trees.

- And I know you love trees.

- I love trees, yes.

You can't think of fall and not think of maples.

- I sure can't.

- The whole - Sure can't.

I agree with that.

- There's all kinds, Japanese... They can get, they are anywhere from zones three to eight.

They're mostly native, except there are some non, the Japanese maples are non-native, of course, but everybody else is native.

And the Japanese maples are smaller, so about 15 to 25 feet tall.

The other maples are usually taller, and they can get up to 50, 60 feet.

But they're all native.

They're all deer-resistant.

They are drought-tolerant.

They are soil-tolerant.

So just about grow just about anywhere.

- Okay.

- And of course, I have fond memories of the sugar maple.

When I was in eighth grade, my third floor biology class had a sugar maple outside of it.

- You can remember that!

- And I watched it.

Well, I was so impressed, because I watched it turn the fall colors, of all those different colors of orange and yellow and red right in front of me every day, until they fell off the tree, so, yeah.

- How about that?

- Maples.

- So you knew then that you loved maples, right?

- I knew then I liked maples.

Yeah, that's right.

And here's the one that everybody that drives around sees, is that's the smooth sumac.

- Those are pretty.

- Its leaves turn bright red, and it's got that characteristic pyramidal cluster of wineberry colored berries on top of it.

You see it along the roadsides, but you can buy some and put them in your yard.

A lot of people have them in their yards.

And those berries are not really berries, they're drupes because they only have one seed in each one of them.

- Okay.

- They're zones three through eight, sometimes nine.

They are native.

They only get 10 to 20 feet tall.

So this is a small tree, good for a yard.

- Not bad.

- Deer-resistant, drought and soil tolerant.

- Can't go wrong with that.

- Can't go wrong with any of that.

And lastly, the serviceberry, the Amelanchiers.

Man, this is a tree that people are just not planting enough.

Beautiful small tree, yellows, orange and red leaves in the fall.

I particularly like the cultivar called Autumn Brilliance myself, because it's got beautiful.

- That sounds good, doesn't it?

- It just sounds gorgeous.

- Yeah, it does.

- It likes zones three through nine.

It's native.

- Native, okay.

- And it normally stays under 30 feet tall.

So why would you not want that in your yard?

Yeah, plus, it's deer-resistant.

It's soil tolerant.

It has nice white blooms in the spring, has beautiful berries on it that are edible both by human and animals.

- Okay.

- And it has green foliage and then it turns a brilliant fall colors.

It's a four-season tree.

- Yeah, so you get something spring in there.

- It's small.

They would fit in any urban landscape, and it's not used very much.

So try the serviceberry.

- They're going to use it now.

- Let's hope so.

- They're gonna use it now.

So Joellen, thank you so much.

So exciting fall annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees.

- And trees, yes.

- Sounds good.

You're excited about that, huh?

- I love it.

Love fall.

- I know you do.

Thank you so much.

All right.

[upbeat country music] - Well, this is Sedum and the variety, Autumn Joy.

It is a fall-blooming perennial, and it's great for migrating pollinators and pollinators that stay local here in the late fall.

And after this kind of finishes blooming, the Sedum, then you notice that this aromatic aster is just starting to bloom, and it will finish out the season in the perennial garden blooming.

And this will give pollinators a chance to get something to eat before winter sets in.

[upbeat country music] - Yes.

- You'll be talking about ferns, right?

- Yes.

- Okay.

What exactly will you be doing?

- Thank you for having me.

- Oh sure.

- I'm going to do a fern propagation demonstration on how to get more ferns from your existing plants.

Ferns are very ancient plants.

They are vascular plants.

So they do have roots and they do pull up their nutrients and water through a vascular system, which they are the first in the evolutionary chain that do that.

But they do not have flowering parts or cones, so they're evolutionary, less advanced.

They do have two basic forms of the plant.

You have the sporophyte, which is this is what you see out in the woods.

And it's spore-bearing, which is what sporophyte means.

And then you have the gametophyte, which is in here.

And if you can see, it's the little green mossy-looking.

It's not moss, but that is the gametophyte generation.

And so in order to propagate these, you can either divide them by splitting them, wait 'til the crown splits, or some have rhizomes so you can split out the rhizomes.

But what we're going to do is take the spores and propagate that way.

So these are some immature spores on this plant.

And the reason I know they're immature is because they're green.

- Okay.

- Generally what you want to look for are either black or brown spores.

And this usually is going to happen midsummer, late summer.

- Okay.

- So that's when you collect.

And you can collect them and store them for a little while.

What we do to collect them is you will cut off this piece, the frond, when it's ready, and then this is kind of what it looks like.

It dries, and what you can do is take off the individual little leaflets or pinna, and I put them into an envelope and close it up and leave them in that way for a couple of days.

And then I just kind of flick it like this and the spores dry, the sori on the back, the little caps dry out and then they dehisce and the spores come out.

And so what you will get down in the very bottom of the envelope, and it's very fine.

- Very fine.

- Which is good because they're wind-borne.

And so in order in the wild, in nature, to get them, they have to hit the wind and then land in a spot that's optimal for the growing conditions.

What we will do once, you get your fern, labeling, labeling, if you want to know what they are, because on these, my labels are gone.

So what I've done here is just put a number one, several places on here, and then I'll have notes that I take that have the actual name written down, maybe the date that I started them, and possibly where I collected them, Dixon Gardens or whatever.

And then what you're going to do, so you can use any kind of basically clear container that has a lid.

And what we will use is a sterile mix.

And I'm using seeding mix, which is just peat ground very fine with a little bit of vermiculite in it.

It is sterile though.

You don't want to use garden soil unless you sterilize it.

- Right.

- You can do that by baking it in the oven and I don't recommend it because it really stinks.

It's easier just to go by seed mix.

You can get it at any nursery, big box stores.

And so you put just a thin layer down in the bottom like this, and then what you do.

And it also has no fertilizer in it.

You do not want to fertilize it.

- No fertilizer.

- So no fertilizer.

And then you take, this is-- - Vermiculite.

- Horticultural-grade vermiculite.

- Okay.

- So you take a little bit of this.

And vermiculite, one of the properties and why we're using it is because it retains moisture.

So once the germination process of the spore starts, you don't want it to stop.

- Okay.

- And so what I do is just really sprinkle it to one side like that so you kind of have half and half.

So then what I'm going to do is you take distilled water, again, because it's been sterilized basically, and I will moisten it, moisten it.

And this is good also for people to see because once the water hits the vermiculite, it kinda jumps.

It's really kind of cool, so... But I'll just, you just kind of mist it a little bit.

Once you get this going, you put the lid on, and you just can, you don't have to keep misting it unless it really dries out.

But the lid on it, the condensation will just keep it moist.

- So you don't have to put that much water, just as long as it gets a little moisture.

- Just a little moisture.

And what I kind of do is make sure that you can kinda see where the moisture is showing up because it gets darker.

- Okay.

- So then what you do is you just take your little spores.

I'm going to pull the other pieces out that have the sori on them, and then you will basically take it and just drop it in there like this.

And like I said, it's a very fine dust and the only way you really know you got it is it's gone out of your, yeah... Also, if you're really wanting to keep certain species or cultivars separate, I suggest doing them one at a time because they are very fine, and they will blow.

And I've done in the wind, and so you'll get cross-contamination.

- Okay.

- So do one set, and then get rid of those, and then do your next ferns.

So then you just put the lid on it, close it up like this and put it in a window or a well-lit room.

You want it warm, but you don't want direct sunlight on it.

And what you should see even within a short amount of time are condensation droplets on the lid.

And then that's the way it stays moist.

- Gotcha.

- The next thing you need to do is go away on vacation for like two weeks.

Because at least before you check on it, because the first thing that people say is, "Oh, mine didn't work.

I just came back and there's all this green stuff growing all over."

That's what you want.

That's what you want.

So like I showed you before, the green stuff there is the actual, the next stage of the plant.

So this is a sporophyte.

Those are the gametophytes.

And it's actually this little flat heart-shaped disc, and then underneath are the gametes, the male and female.

And they get together and the next thing you know, you've got little ferns like this.

So the next thing you would do is to move them up.

And I usually just, because they're still so small, I would just move them again into germinating mix.

I don't usually put plants that I'm going to put out in the garden in perlite, in a mix that has perlite.

And then once that grows on, and your plant is more established, then I would maybe put it in a bark-base mix and grow it on a little bit before you plant it.

But you do have to be patient, like I said, because these were started about a year ago.

- Wow.

- So it takes about a year to get them to this point.

And it's different for different ferns, but that's your basic.

Once you get them up like this, you can start slowly, you can take the lid off to check them and then you can kind of pull the lid like this.

You want to gradually expose the new little fern to dry air.

- Okay.

- So you may need to pull the lid off, and then mist it a little bit, and then gradually, maybe over a week to two weeks you can open it up more and it gets used to being out in the bright sunlight.

- Okay.

- But that's fern propagation.

- That's fern propagation.

Thank you Ms.

Kim.

We appreciate that demonstration.

[upbeat country music] - About a week ago, we planted broccoli and cauliflower here in the square foot garden, and it's fall.

And the bugs have had all year to build up their population.

And so they tend, with the fall crops, if you have fall brassicas, they tend to attack, and they can skeletonize and kill your plants in a day.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to preventatively spray Bt on these plants so that if any of these cabbageworms or cabbage loopers try to eat these plants, they will very quickly die.

So all I have to do here is I just have to make sure that I have the leaves covered so it doesn't take a lot.

And that was it.

Six plants protected.

Now if any of them land, they'll die.

I'll have to make sure that I keep track of when it rains and come out here and reapply after it rains, so that as the plants grow, they continue to be protected.

[upbeat country music] - All right, here's our Q&A session.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- These are some great questions.

- Yes, they are.

- All right.

Here's our first viewer email.

"How do I relocate my eight-foot-tall apple tree?"

And this is Ed from Oak Point, Texas.

So Mr.

D, can we help Mr.

Ed out?

[Chris laughing] - Only an eight foot apple tree in Texas?

- Only eight, only eight.

Oh, in Texas, right, yeah.

- It's tough.

It's tough.

I mean, if you are serious about relocating that apple tree, you need to get a tree mover that can get as much of the root system as you possibly can and then move it into a hole that you've prepared.

But it's going to be very hard for that tree to survive.

Keeping in mind that the tree roots go out about one and a half to two times the height of the tree.

So you're not going to get all those roots no matter what.

If you do that, you need to prune off at least half, two-thirds to half of the plant to help balance the root system with the tree.

I would probably start over.

I'd probably start over with a new tree.

Because that young two-year-old tree that you put in the ground is going to start growing.

But it's just real hard, I mean, it can be done.

I've seen it done.

But the tree will have a hard time recovering from that transplant, that big a tree.

- So when would it be a good time to do that?

- I'd do it in late winter.

Late winter is when I would do that.

- Wow, yeah.

So if you're able to do it, get it in the ground and water, water, water.

- Yep.

- Oh, man.

- Yep.

Put some mycorrhizae in there with it.

And some good transplanting fertilizer.

I mean, but it's still, yeah, it's going to be tough.

- It's a tough, tough thing.

The bigger the tree is, the harder it is to transplant.

- Right.

I understand that's going to be tough.

- Yeah, it's a tough situation.

- It's expensive.

- Oh, boy.

- Good luck, Ed.

- Yeah, good luck, Mr.

Ed.

Yeah, good luck.

We appreciate that question.

All right, here's our next viewer email.

"What is this bug I found on my okra?

Is it bad, or beneficial?"

And this is Carolyn.

So Joellen, is it bad, beneficial?

- That's a bad bug.

That's a harlequin stink bug.

And stink bugs cause the okra to curl and have big little knobs on it.

So you really don't want it.

I have them on my okra, and when I come across them, I just pick them off and smash them.

You could spray for them, but you have to actually hit the bugs.

So it's easier that when you find them, just to get rid of them.

- Yeah, so hand-picking?

- So hand-picking and smashing them is my favorite way to get rid of them.

- It will make your hand stink because they are stink bugs.

- They are stink bugs.

- They are stinky.

- I'm real quick on the ground and stomp.

- Oh, there you are.

- Right.

And something else I would say, make sure you get out there and scout.

- Yeah, scout for them.

- See those eggs.

The eggs look like little barrels on the under side of the leaves of some of these plants.

They really like plants in the brassica family.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, these plants are stressed like they have been because of all the heat, - Yeah.

- Oh, they're coming forward.

No doubt about that.

All right Ms.

Carolyn.

It's a bad bug.

- No, get rid of it.

- Be careful, be careful.

All right, smash it.

Here's our next viewer email.

"How do I get rid of Oxalis in my patch of lily of the valley?"

And this is Janice from Knoxville, Tennessee.

So how does she get rid of that, Joellen?

- This is going to be a long process.

- Okay.

- Because their roots are intertwined with the lily of the valley.

So you can keep pulling it and keep pulling it, and that will help, but you've got to keep on top of that to exhaust all of the carbohydrates in the root system of the Oxalis.

- Yeah.

- People have, depending if there's other areas, you could do the wipe method with a herbicide and just wipe the Oxalis, and then eventually get rid of it that way.

The worst thing that I can think of, the most dramatic would be digging the whole bed up and then getting all of the Oxalis out and then putting all the lily of the valley back.

But that would be a large job depending on how big it is.

I think I would try keeping them pulled and do the herbicide wipe with a cotton glove, or with a paintbrush or something.

Just somehow carefully get it on there.

I usually use a, what is it?

A rubber glove, and then put a cotton glove over the top of it and then just touch it with the Roundup.

- That works good.

- Yeah, that'll work.

It's going to be a lot of work.

- It'll be a lot of work.

- So when is a good time of year to do that?

- Anytime.

- Anytime.

- Anytime she sees the Oxalis out there.

The more you get rid of it, the less likely it's going to keep getting roots on it and you're going to keep exhausting that root system in the Oxalis.

- Yeah, Oxalis is going to be tough, little bulbs.

Yeah, it'll be tough.

- It is.

- All right, Ms.

Janice, got some work for you, all right.

Thank you for the question.

We appreciate that.

All right.

So Joellen, Mr.

D, thank you so much.

We learned so much, don't we?

- Yes, we do.

- All right, thank you so much.

- Good.

- Remember, we love to hear from you.

Send us an email or letter.

The email address is questions@familyplotgarden.com.

And the mailing address is Family Plot, 7151 Cherry Farms Road, Cordova, Tennessee 38016.

Or you can go online to familyplotgarden.com.

That's all the time we have for today.

Thanks for watching.

If you want to learn more about the plants Joellen talked about or propagating ferns, head on over to familyplotgarden.com, or visit our YouTube channel, @FamilyPlotGarden, for thousands of gardening videos.

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

Be safe.

[upbeat country music] [acoustic guitar chords]