In The Garden

Shannon: What's next in garden supply? . Keith: I'm here with Shannon from Garden Supply Company. We're talking about what's next what's next for Garden Supply Company and what the stuff we've got coming in and changes we're making. We're moving away from. Some of the mass produced products and going with more local products a new look. Or an old look if you will, a modern sixties, seventies kinda look. But she's got a long list of stuff that we've, that we're bringing in that Renee and the girls are picking up in Atlanta and from local vendors. But it's exciting. It's, we're changing it up and trying to come up with a new look. Shannon: Yeah, they're really doing an amazing job. Picking out some products turning our boutique more into an outdoor living space. Which is really exciting. Yeah. Keith: And, and working house plants, They go hand in hand. Yeah. Interior furniture with house plants and with. With new modern containers and that kind Shannon: of thing. Absolutely. And also that patio living. Absolutely. We've got some bistro sets coming in, the little table and two chairs. Sure. And then some family gathering type of things like outdoor games. Which can always be fun. Yeah. There tons of fun serving sets. Keith: Yeah. We were just talking about how bad TV was. Yes. So that's getting away from tv, and getting back to board games and things that bring families Shannon: together. Absolutely. Some of that like backgammon almost. Keith: Sure. We did an outdoor living space recently and when I'm not out there, it still makes me really happy because it's I'm viewing it from afar. . But it's, it's a covered space. It's got a ceiling fan and, there's outdoor furniture out there and it's just a, such a relaxing, fun Shannon: space. I've seen it and it really turned out stunning. And then the way you've brought in, Plants, like the white bird of paradise right out there is just, Keith: yeah. And they're thriving out there because they're in the North Carolina humidity and got a fishtail palm out there in, real modern pots. And, that's a way you can change up the look of your, the front porch or the look of your back porch. Is to update the pots and get away from some of the big heavy urns and start incorporating, you know, more modern pots and containers. Shannon: Some of the ones I love that Renee's been able to bring in are those lightstone. Or light white pots, the fiber clay. Yep. It has that look of concrete or ceramic but is so lightweight that I can pick it up all by myself. And Keith: especially like the two that we just talked about that are in my backyard the fishtail palm and the whiteboard of paradise. Both of 'em are six foot plants, seven foot, seven foot plants. In the next week or two I'm gonna be bringing them in because of frost. You can separate the plant from the pot and easily carry both of them inside and give 'em a nice, warm spot for the wintertime. Shannon: Absolutely. And really, even with those type of pots, you don't even need to separate necessarily. Keith: Exactly. They're light enough to. Shannon: for a one or two person job. Keith: Yep. Yeah, you were talking about the bistro sets. And I don't know, it's a folding type chair. I don't know if I'm, if I can destru describe it exactly, but we've got 'em on order now. We've got a couple of 'em in but they're an old sixties chair. Mm-hmm. That kind of folds up a clam shell type of design. We've got 'em in natural Jude and we've got 'em in black. I love the look of that. It's beautiful. It's Mac May material and MACRA Mays come back in with, of course it has with with hanging house plants and wall hangings and that kind of stuff. So that's a fun, fun piece of it. I love Shannon: the palettes that we're bringing too. The colors of all of this. We've got this soft blue sage, green, matte gray, and a blush color right, that are. On point for the trends. They are, Keith: and I, we're talking about updating pots and containers, I...

Keith: So today I've got Shannon here with me from Garden Supply Company., we've talked about unicorn plants plants that are just, you just don't think you're gonna see 'em out there. Things that bloom throughout the year that are evergreen, that will handle wet or dry, that really fit a landscape plant kind of qualification. What are some of your favorites, Shannon? Shannon: So we talked already in the previous one, about sun unicorn plants. Yeah. But now I wanted to talk about shade. Of course camillia is one of the first things that comes to mind, but so many people think about cams as being these huge. Giant shrubs and they don't have to be right. We've got quite a few that are three to four feet tall and wide. The first one that comes to mind is the October Ruby Magic. . That's a great plant. Yeah. Flowers red in the late October to Christmas almost, and stays within that realm. Controllable. Keith: Yeah. So for people that don't know, su sanks are gonna bloom in the fall. And then japonica is bloom in the spring. Su sank was are the smaller leaf cames and japonicas are the larger leaf and flowers that you know. . The su sanks are always the smaller leaf and smaller flowers, but they have more flowers. Japonicas will have great big rose like flowers or piney like flowers. And and then they flower, winter into spring. Shannon: And truly the waxy leaf of that evergreen is so beautiful all year round. It is, it doesn't matter if it's flowering or not, it's a stunning shrub. It's, Keith: it looks perfect 12 months out of the year. Shannon: Exactly. And I know you know this, but I'm from Wisconsin and the only evergreens we have are conifers, right? And it's a very limited number of conifers. Yep. That will stand that zone. And so to be down here with things that will stay evergreen. And flour. To me it truly is a unicorn . Keith: It's the same as a crate myrtle in the middle of the summerside. Exactly. People come down there oh my God, what is that plant? I have to have three of 'em. Yes. The Chails work really well. I The japonica, some of the larger japonicas really work well as a accent plant or something off the corner of the house. And in that case it's a smaller plant in a lot of cases than like in Nellie Stevens, Holly. To . Put off a two story house or a, one and a half story house where you got, you've got the space for it to fill out. Shannon: Absolutely. And they can be worked as a privacy shrub as well. They can in the shade. Yep. Or afternoon. Yeah. Keith: Shade a little bit. The only thing with the chails that, that that people need to know is they're a little bit slow to establish and, but you put 'em in and you take, give 'em some. And they're, they definitely have the value in the end. Shannon: Absolutely. One of my personal favorites, and I can't think of the name of it, is the it's one that flowers, pink, red, and white, but is all completely, Keith: yeah, I can't remember. Okay. It maybe Deb, Debbie to It Shannon: might be, we'll have to circle back to that, but we will the Andromeda? Yeah. Or PIIs. Yep. My ultimate favorite. Yeah. In that Keith: section. That's a great plant. I always tell people to put one of one of 'em in at a time as a more of a specimen plant. , because they'll, they tend to grow on, irregular in shape, which is of the beauty of the plant. Like a Japanese maple almost take, they take character, but if they, if you don't if you put three of 'em in, it's likely one of 'em will be slow to take off and one of 'em will grow really tall and one of 'em will grow really wide. So I always. Like 'em by the ones, but it is, it's a perfect plant. Shannon: It is the veining in that evergreen leaf. It's a narrow leaf, but the veining in the center is really pretty and I love how the new growth comes up. And is either bronze or the mountain fire red? Yep. That comes up. It looks like it's flowering through the summer. Yeah. But that's just the new leaf growth. Yep. And then...

This morning I've got Shannon with me from Garden Supply Company. She's got a, a couple subjects we're gonna talk about. Shannon, what, what did you have in mind this morning? I wanted to talk about some unicorn type plants that I consider customers who come in and look for something that's evergreen flowering. And can tolerate full sun. Yeah. We get that question all the time. They want, they want something that's bulletproof, that, that flowers all year long, that's evergreen. That handles sun and shade. And there are few of those out there. Isn't that a plastic plant? , I mean, I mean, a plastic plant always works in that situation. Exactly. But sometimes people just don't wanna stick that plastic plant. It gets sun damage after a while. It's kinda fade. Looks like a cemetery. I put a plastic plant in my mailbox thing. You know how that mailbox got plants in the back sometimes. Yeah. And my wife is like, Man, that plant's doing well. I'd just be it. Spot it for my Kia. Yeah. home run Ron. Yeah. So I just wanted to talk about that a little bit. One of my personal favorites is the Laura Petal. Yeah. Laura Pet's a great plant and so many people come in and when I talk about it with them, they immediately think about the 12 foot one that they have in their yard that's overgrown. Yeah. And has been there for years. But there's so many other varieties that will. Actually do what they say they do. Exactly. Yep. That will stay small. Specifically, specifically that purple daydream. Mm-hmm. Purple. Purple Daydream's. A great plant. I love that one. Flowers twice a year stays that beautiful purple dark color. Color. Yeah. The color's a good contrast with just about any other plant in, in the landscape. I think the way it contrasts with that dark. in any other landscape with Boxwoods or Hollys. Yep. Or blue plants or another plant. And I think we, we had talked about in that list is a gold thread, Cypress. Yes. You know, so you take the gold thread cypress and then put the, the lower pedal up against it. Oh, it's stunning. Yeah. Those are two perfect plants. I really love those. And when you mention the sunshade, wet dry, right Nandina, so many people have negative opinions of it. They think it's invasive, right? Because it has that bamboo. Quality. Right. And there is, I mean, there's, the, the, the na and domestic I think is probably seeds itself and spreads a little bit more than other plants. But even that, where I see it naturalized in the woods mm-hmm. , it's not clogging up streams or taking up native habitat. It's just an additional plant in the landscape. Exactly. And not on, like, so I, when I moved in four years ago to my place, there were several of the flirts. and sure some of them have send out babies, but the babies are making it look like a nice full shrub. Exactly. The ones that have become a nuisance, I've just pulled out up the most and it's easy. Yeah. It's so easy, Lord. And Dan is a magical plan. I think I agree. The way the the leaves are bluish silver and then that new growth comes up, that bright red is. It's beautiful. Yeah. And nandina is definitely, you know, there are, there aren't a lot of plants that I think without, without question you can say wet or dry sun or shade. Mm-hmm. , no insect, no disease problems. I mean, pretty hard to beat. The only thing, you know, Van Nandina, when it goes in, it takes a little bit of time. It, you know, it could shed some foliage, it could thin out. You've gotta, you've gotta push it with a little bit of fertilizer. But can handle the drought, can handle the wet, can handle shade. So if you've got a situation where you're the, you know, front of your house isn't mm-hmm. , you know, half sun, half shade, that's a plant that can tie the whole thing in. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I love the way it puts out berries over the winter, so it gives it that seasonal interest. Yeah. And so both of those plants that we've talked about are both I mean, it's a, it's a...

Keith Ramsey: [00:00:00] Hey, Keith Ramsey with the Garden Supply Company. I've been talking a lot lately about hiring and our team, the length of time our team has been there, what a difference a good team makes, and how to manage them. I think it's the key part of a business. It's having the right people and people that enjoy people; owning a local business is a core in the community. You want people to. To look forward to coming out and seeing people they know, you see the same faces. You get the same advice from people, and it's, so it's not all about selling somebody, something. It's about creating a space. Where people can come and enjoy themselves, where they can unwind, people [00:01:00] consistently say garden supplies, their happy place. And when you need to be perked up, going and standing around in a bunch of green and flowers is not bad. It's a great environment. But when you show up there and people that you've known for 25 years. they're seeing the same people, so their friends are theirs. They're their friend that knows how to garden, a friend with an answer. I feel like that's probably like one of the biggest successes we've had is having a really good team. When we're looking for new people, we're looking for people that have a great attitude, that wake up in the morning, excited about going and doing something. And that have an extreme interest in gardening. They garden with their grandmother or they garden with their mother or their father. Stay-at-home moms, that, it's more interest than it is like strong knowledge. And [00:02:00] then, when you have somebody that's excited about the world, excited about waking up and going out and doing so. They'll figure it out. Then we train, we're constantly training people and teaching people, but I just feel like, every time I go into a business that is thriving and that and that you're excited to go to it's because of the team. Yeah. Just, it makes all kinds of difference. , we've got lots of people that'll that it's a second job for 'em, they're they've, a lot of times I'll find people regular customers that I've known for, you know, back to the, how long have you known some of these people? I've known most of my customers I've been there 26 years. So it's they're like friends, they're like family, you're excited to see 'em when they come in. But then there'll be people. They'll come in. They're talking about what's going on in their life. And we just got back with the grandkids. I retired two weeks ago. And I'm like, well, you're gonna get bored. So when you know, it's somebody, I already know, it's a friend, it's, and you know, what kind of gardener they are and how much knowledge they have. And so we'll, I'll talk, people like that into coming into the team. And it's just, I feel like having people that like [00:03:00] people and that and that like plants it creates an environment that's welcoming and people are excited to, to come in and see their friends basically. I just thought that was worth mentioning. I think it is crucial. Making an inviting, fun place in the community where you've got, you've got a friend in the gardening.

Keith Ramsey: [00:00:00] Hey, Keith Ramsey with the garden supply company. I wanted to outline yearly maintenance things we do at our house and recommendations for people. People always call in the middle of spring and want mulching done, that kind of thing. And just laying it out the way I think it should be. Mulching is a, from a company standpoint, if you're paying somebody to do it, it's always an off-season thing. It fills a void when companies are slow. But if you're digging into a mulch pile, that's a hundred degrees. You also don't want to do it in spring or summer heat. And the plants have already broken ground. Perennials are starting to come up, so you're mulching around them. It's something that, that I always recommend that people, [00:01:00] mulch and then and then power wash, get cleaned up for spring. So you know, planning to do that kind of thing. So in the wintertime. Doing some of your plantings, ordering seeds, picking out plants at a garden center, starting to come up with your plan, and then planting in the winter is ideal. So if you do big planting, go ahead and get that out of the way. Disturb the dirt, get, pick your plants out and get the big stuff done while it's fantastic. And the plants can acclimate to the soil. They don't require a lot of water. And then get your mulching done and get it done ahead of daylilies and perennials and stuff like that. That's going to come back up, it can come through the mulch, and it just has a nice, fresh look, and you're ready for spraying. Instead of playing catch up, you're mulching around many different things or mulch, and then try to come back and put plants in. Joe Woolworth: do most people remove last year's mulch or whatever's left, or throw it right on top? Just throw it Keith Ramsey: right on top.[00:02:00] Every once in a while, I like to switch the mulch up. I think it's good for the soil. So if I've used hardwood mulch three or four, three or four times, I'll sometimes switch it up to pine straw to give it a different product going into the soil. But all that stuff, microbes break them down, and they'll build the soil. Mulch is a little bit slower to break down. If I'm trying to get rid of mulch or if it's built up, you should put enough down that there would be a lot left on the ground. If you have Joe Woolworth: a lot of weeds in your mulch bed. Do you put it down? Paper. Yeah. So you can put Keith Ramsey: down paper Joe Woolworth: do you put that right over the old mulch? Or do you have a dig that up or just, you can Keith Ramsey: yeah, just put it right over the old mulch and then put mulch on top. There are lots of new organic chemicals out that you can spray that are A broad. It's going to kill any wide leaps or grassy weeds. So you can spray weeds. You can also apply pre-emergence before you do the mulch. But brown newspaper paper, packing paper, that kind of stuff. If you can put it down over the top of weeds and then mulch it out, it really [00:03:00] helps, but pre-emergence is something that if you put it down twice in the spring and once in the. You can eliminate about 90% of the weeds you have to pull. Which I think is an excellent way, too. My pre-emergence makes pulling weeds fun. When you're getting into spring, I always say you've got your mulching done. Having a prepped annual bed that you change out regularly is super easy. And it gives you that color that carries you through as perennials come and go. Perennials are probably one of the more popular things we sell these days because they correspond with pollinator plants, which are super easy to put in the spring-summer. You can plant 12 months out of the year, but filling in some holes by adding new plants and various native plants is perfect for pollinators. I've recently told people to plant flowers for pollinators and pollinator habitats. And then you'll have hummingbirds, that kind of thing. Show up in your yard. You don't [00:04:00] necessarily have to feed...

Hey guys, Keith, with the Garden Supply Company. Today I wanted to talk to people about all the things that you can do that are close to the garden center. Basically coming over and spending half a day spending the afternoon at the garden center. And in that thought centering it around lunch or going out and getting a drink or. And we've got some really good places around the garden center and, it's, I've been there 25 years, so I frequent all these places pretty often. I thought it that's true. Every time I go to the pizza place, I run into Epic. Exactly. And right down from the pizza place is Phil's Cigar shop, Tobacconists of Cary. I thought I would I would feature some of these businesses, and I think that they're a good combination for swinging over to the garden center and meeting a friend hang out at the garden center, go get lunch or go get lunch and then come take a stroll around the garden center. It's something fun to do a place to. Down, right on the corner of Cary Parkway and Old Apex Road. There are some great businesses. There's a small pharmacy, that's a local business, Bee Well Pharmacy that I frequent pretty often when I need something for, or vaccination or whatever happened to happen to be doing. It's a great little pharmacy. Kinda off-topic, but the tobacconists, if you're a cigar smoker he does a great job. He's got a huge selection. He'll bring in new stuff pretty consistently and fills a wealth of knowledge as far as what he's got in there and grab a cigar and then hit Salvio's Pizza. Salvio is just like two doors down. Yeah. Two doors down Salvio is, it's. It's an old-school pizza place it's been there. As long as we've been there, I think it's about 25 years old. It's my and my family's favorite pizza place in Cary. The other place that I had dinner there or picked up dinner there from last night is the Tangerine Cafe. I walked by for 15 years, for some reason or another. And one day, I was like, I'm tired of Salz. I've been there. , I'd been there two or three times in a short period of time. I'm gonna check this place out. And it's a kind of Asian fusion. Unbelievable food. Great soup, great calamari, all kinds of just great food. I would recommend popping in there. They're just doing takeout right now. Still, it's a great spot to pick something up and bring it over to the garden center. Find a little table or a bench and have your lunch. On the other end of the world. We've got the Abbey Road Tavern and Grill. They're known for their burgers. You can sit out there and have a nice lunch, meet somebody over there. Just a casual environment, And then down the road on Maynard. There's Big Mike's BBQ. And then there's Great Harvest Bread Company. Great harvest bread company is always just a nice fresh sandwich. They've, bread's baked this morning. They do all kinds of typical sandwiches and then And then, and they'll let you sample stuff while you're there. And then you can take a little bread home with you, but both of those are good, really good stops. Pan a day, pick up some food, bring it to the garden center, and do a tailgate. It's a good spot to eat and check out some of these local businesses. I think it's really important that people support local businesses.

Hey, Keith Ramsey with the garden supply company. I've got Jason here with me today. Many of you guys know Jason as our resident beekeeper, manages our bee department, and takes care of everything related to bees. With a little bit of help from me every once in a while. Jason talked the other day, and swarm season's right around the corner. Jason, what causes a swarm as I Bee Expert: I was going to say, swamp, this natural tendency is to make more bees as they grow in a colony or the cavity or space they're living in. Since that approaching, they will tend to outgrow that bee since that approaching and will naturally divide themselves, which means they'll cast out a queen and about a third to half of the existing bees in that colony. And they'll relocate to another or try to leave [00:01:00] relocate to another location. If you see that, it's a great thing to see. Like in a cartoon, we, the cloud of bees coming through the sky. But when they land, they're going to land into groups all cluster together, usually on a branch or in a shrub or on a Keith: fence post or something like that. So the queen and the queen land on the branch first, and the bees go from what. 40-foot swarm to, kind of get smaller and smaller you all are until it's telling us they're Bee Expert: attracted to the queen. So, when the bees swarm, many workers leave first, and they start to fly around. The activity inside the hive gets chaotic, and the other workers are forced to queen out with them. They all fly up into a cloud or a group into this, in the sky, before flying back until they reach a spot where they can use all cluster together to rest and regroup before moving to their permanent home. Keith: Everything about bees is interesting. It's like a non-stop learning curve. But the old queen leaves, and she goes with all the old. The fun thing about that is [00:02:00] they know what they're doing. They know that the whole deal, and they've all got a position in the hive. And they go pop as much honey as they can too. So they can start building wax and start collecting resources. Bee Expert: Which in that whole process. So they'll engorge themselves with honey. They want to take as many resources with them to the new location. It takes a lot of energy to make wax and rebuild. They're reconstructing the whole. So we're when they've done that, and they are in their resting group. They tend to be relatively docile when they've clustered on the branch. No need to be scared of them, really, as long as you're don't, I wouldn't recommend approaching them necessarily, but they're not going to leap off of where they are and come stinky or attack you. They're in a resting mode. They don't have anything to protect. Home or brewed that they have to defend homeless bees, homeless B. So they're just looking they're in transition. Yep. Keith: Migraine. So, the other thing that I've found interesting is that there are many feral bees left. Bee Expert: No. When people talk about feral bees, it's [00:03:00] usually bees that a beekeeper has been managing or mismanaging, and they've either swarmed, or they've missed the swarm or the colony has left and relocated to another Keith: spot. But Winnie the Pooh tree. They aren't around because of mites, insect problems, or disease problems. Bee Expert: So, these don't tend to live very long in nature. The honeybee is not native to North America in the first. Keith: place. So they need management. They need Bee Expert: management. Absolutely. Because of pests that have been introduced over the years, mostly through commercial beekeeping practices. Have spread to all the bees, and without specific management, they will die. Yeah. Keith: That has to be a bummer if you're a beekeeper. If your swarm leaves, it's they're breaking up with you. Like we're out. Yep. You got one job, beekeeper. Bee Expert: I'd wanted Keith: this one since I had an older customer and it was keeping bees for a couple of years, and...

Keith: [00:00:00] Keith Ramsey with garden supply company. I've got Jason here today. Jason is our full-time beekeeper who manages the bee department. It helps people out with advice and does all of our pollination and honey chasing that we do up in, up, and down the red. Jason, now we'll talk about the difference between nukes and packages. What do you think the biggest difference is between nukes and packages? Jason? Bee Expert: Timing. Timing is the. The advantage of getting an established colony over a loose assortment of bees, which is what a package of bees Keith: are. And so packages usually come at what timeframe Bee Expert: packages are later in the season and are dependent on how the weather gums up through the south because most bees are coming up [00:01:00] from Georgia, and the lady gets them the less time you have to Keith: build. So if you get a package, you're not. You're likely not going to see honey that year. Bee Expert: You be hopeful to build out your colony, fill out all the frames with wax, and have some food stores. You'll be supplementing to get Keith: that. I bought packages initially when I got into beekeeping ten years, 10, 15 years ago. And that was the thing I didn't even know about nukes when I got into it. I knew I knew there were packages available, and I bought packages. But that was probably my biggest thing I learned down the road was that you could put a nuke in, and so our nukes come, what Bee Expert: 1st of March into February typically am. Keith: When you're in and how much, honey, could you harvest from a nuc? It Bee Expert: is an established colony. So you've already got five full frames of these in different stages of development, a queen that's accepted and a colony that's actively working. So you put that into your hive, and in a few weeks, your calling will be filling out their box the amount of space they have to live in, and you [00:02:00] can start to gear them up to make honey. So you can expect to get some honey depending on how well the weather and the season are. Keith: Sure. And the nuc and the queen, and there are many variables, but. The people look at nucs, and I think sometimes things think they're expensive. Or there's always a question of local nucs over Florida nucs. I like Florida nucs because they come early. What's your Bee Expert: thought in general, I'm looking at bees. If I'm looking for something local, I'm probably looking more regional. So I wouldn't buy bees coming out of the Northwest and Northeast. I'd be looking for bees from the south or Southeast. Sure. They don't necessarily have to be from the town I'm in, just from the general area that they're going to be forging on the same types of plants and have the same kinds of weather in Keith: general to deal with. So you, Florida bees that can handle humidity and heat, will thrive in North Carolina. They'll do just fine. Excellent. Versus something that's acclimated to cold weather and, Bee Expert: general in general, any of the bees you're going to get, be it ones that are from more Northern climate or a Southern climate, they're [00:03:00] probably going to do fine. Anyhow, because bees will still go out and do what bees do forage on flowers. Sure. It just, and it all depends on your goals as a beekeeper, too. So if you're looking to grow bees or if you're looking to produce honey for the different types of bees, you may. It May make a difference, but healthy bees are what you want in general. Keith: a healthy full nuc It just gets you that quick start in the spring. We've started nucs in the last few years. Better than 60% of them, 70% of them produced honey. And, sometimes we'll begin to a nuc in a, in an eight frame or a ten frame box and let it build-out and then put a honey super on it and harvest honey depending on where we are with established hives. But the other way you can do it is to build bees and build resources. Bee Expert: There'll be as if you're looking to have...

Hey, Keith Ramsey with the garden supply company. I've got Shannon here. Shannon manages our house plant area of the garden supply company. She does all our buying. She's our go-to person when people have questions about new and unusual plants or plant care. Yeah. Today, we talked about just easy plants to have around a plant that you could buy for your son or your daughter. Something that's for the, an interior designer. My favorite plant what's my favorite plant. Mother-in-law's tongue. It never goes away. It's the easiest plant in the world. If you don't, over-water it, I've got about 20 of them, and there are so many different varieties, colors, and [00:01:00] sizes. It's great. It's excellent put it on a, in a pot, on a buffet, or put it on a pot on a shelf. As long as you don't go over water and I've, overwatered one in the last two or three years and started to lose some, partial part of the plant and had to put a little bit of heavier light on it to get it to come back around. What other bulletproof plants do you like for customers who don't want to mess with plants that much and want to be successful? Snake plans will let me say this real quick something our customers get a kick out of is on our care tag. It says tolerate almost any abuse, and it couldn't be more accurate. Yeah, absolutely. ZZ plants are another one that is very. Similar in care. Yeah, I think that's why it's easy. Plants have gotten so popular because it's another plant that you can stick in a pot. And if you miss it for a week, it's probably not going to kill it. If you water it twice in one week, you might. Dragon trees, from the dressiness family or another one, can just be ignored. Yeah, that's a great plan. So all of these plants are something that you [00:02:00] could pick up, and you can get into the house, plant craze without having finicky plants in your home. Something, they say houseplants they calm your mood. They're great for depression—clean, pure about the air. There are so many positive points to it. So if you want a plant that you, that's not going to create a lot of extra stress in your life that, don't pick up the hardest plant to maintain. Maybe don't start with a rare and unusual $500 Bonzai and worry about every leaf falling off of it. Start there another good one. Yeah. Patho is path is the original house plan. You go to the Mexican restaurant, and there's Panthers binding all over the ceiling. There's a. All, doctor's office, and they're so easy to propagate. So it's fun to take a cutting and watch that turn into a whole new plant for sure. Jade plant is one to me. There's so Jade plant is a pass-along plant. Usually, people that, that are buying water or having. I've, I hear all the time, with all plants but Jay plant in [00:03:00] particular and my grandmother had one for, a hundred years, and she passed it down, or we broke it up and rooted cuttings off of it. So it's a memory sake plant. But that's one that takes very little water and hardly loses a leaf. It's. And it is telling by the leaves when it needs water, how they wrinkle up a little bit. Yeah, exactly. That baby Jade is the other one. I think it is a bonsai plant, but it's also just an just. It's just as easy as a Jade plant. But a different look than that red stem and the green leaves and the variegated ones are also gorgeous. Exactly. Is anything else that, that you have on your list. Succulents for some people, succulent succulents are great if you've got bright light. Absolutely. It's a bright light or lights them up, there's. It has led lights fluorescent lights. It doesn't necessarily have to be an expensive grow light. You can use just a simple two two-bulb shop light and create a situation where, sometimes adding some light to [00:04:00] a room that way, from underneath a table or something, and then having a plant stand there. And that makes seed hymns and succulents thrive. And that's such a great way to. That artistic value in the plant...

Good morning, Keith Ramsey with the garden supply company. I've got Shannon here this morning and wanted to ask her questions about what's trending and houseplants. She manages our houseplant department and garden supply company and does all our buying, and there's just been a massive growth in houseplants, Shannon. What do you think made the house plant trend spike up? I think COVID had something to do with it. It drove people to be at home and stuck and want to bring some life into their home. It also brought in some people with more disposable income and this new generation. Who is starting to like house plants? Millennials seem like they've picked up houseplants. It's a—resurgence of the [00:01:00] the sixties and seventies. I was a kid at that point, but that was a time when houseplants were just huge. Macrame hangers and pathos growing all over, you're taking over your house. We're back to that scenario, especially with young kids. I couldn't agree more. And the macrome trend is also back for sure, but I see the pictures of the people, the customers home, and it is like a greenhouse. That's the thing that gets me most excited is big plant shelves and hanging plants in front of a window and just people's plant collection and how excited they are about their collection of plants. It's been a lot of fun from my perspective as well. Not only these younger people are coming in and teaching them about. Plants and caring for them, but also people who never got into it are now adults and have started to pick enough house plans. Yeah. The thing that amazes me a lot about it is the rare and unusual house plant scenario, and it's, it's gone crazy. It's unbelievable. Yeah. [00:02:00] We brought in last year, like that tie constellation and the pink princesses, and just the opportunity for people to come in and see them was exciting. So these are plants that nobody else has. In many cases, people haven't seen before they're plants that are newly developed or newly crossed plants. And, the first one I purchased them hard to believe that we're buying a house plant for $800. And scary for me too. Yeah. And now we've, we've—two of those in the $500 price range. And of course, there's the same plant available for $10 without the variegation and its uniqueness as a first-time out-of-the-box plan. So everybody can get into houseplants at any price range, but it is truly unique. We've started the rare and unusual plant collectors that are out there. Showcase those and bring in more as they become available from our growers, right in the center of the house plant section. We have a couple of tables that are really [00:03:00] featuring all those right now. And every week we get more on different Fridays. The houseplants do we have currently are just unusual or newer. And you two of my favorite are both anther Rams right now. One is called the king Ethereum, where the leaves will bend forward a little bit. Become about three feet long. There's also. Black cardboard and thorium are spectacular. The black heart-shaped leaf with white veining and even spikes flowers. That's awesome. We're partnering with a couple of other local garden centers as well, too. Be able to buy in more plants that are harder to get, that have to travel a long distance, or you have to buy larger quantities. Go into a local garden center. Not necessarily just a garden supply company, but there are so many of them that are just amazing. Fairview Homewood garden. Logan's garden hut down in a few coy about finding these unusual plants that you're not going to find necessarily a box store or something like that. Absolutely. We [00:04:00] have a couple of them that I have seen a little bit of. Big box stores that were unavailable to us were under trademark. And now we're starting to get some of those in the Ravens easy and that Claudia network. Yeah. Some of the larger, there's an extremely large grower in the states and is rolling out some unusual plants to box...

Keith: [00:00:00] Good morning, Keith Ramsey with the Garden Supply Company. It's wintertime in North Carolina. And I always start thinking about structure in the garden in the winter. And you look out and you've got all these vacant spaces or dull spaces, and there are all kinds of things you can do to create structure. Japanese maple in the wintertime with no leaves on it creates a fair amount of structure. So you can add plants and create the bones of a garden with hedges and screened plants and that kind of thing. And it, that greens the garden up with evergreen hedges and creates life. That's there 12 months out of the year. And sometimes that plants when you look at plants that are boring it's because they don't do a whole lot, they don't change for the year. Giving them that the green and the [00:01:00] structure 12 months out of the year, really probably do more than something that puts on a big show for two, three weeks, or four weeks. Something like a chameleon that limbs in the wintertime for two to three months. You create a green hedge behind something and it's there 12 months out of the year. Walkways and stonework are other ways to create structure in the garden. It gives you the definition. It gives you something to look at what's there and it's there permanently. When you look at the cost of a walkway or a patio sometimes it's not really, something that's gonna last for 20 years or forever. So it's, the cost is not as much as, adding flowers to a garden or something you're going to, you're going to repeat and do over and over just boulders in the garden. Very low maintenance but create a huge impact. People always hate buying boulders. They always think that you ought to be able to pick them up on the side of the road. Drive out to the mountains and throw on in your trunk, but it's the way that the Boulder and the shipping and the placement of it, but Boulder just adds a great accent to a garden. And then, dry Creek beds, a lot of times solve [00:02:00] a drainage problem it just creates the definition and a backdrop or foreground for planning and adds a lot of winter interest ponds and streams are the same thing, pond and they add a lot of life to a garden. It's you've got the running water and you've got you've created that structure and that backdrop for your plants through the year when they're coming and going. And then, the stone would be a one that's extremely low maintenance, not a whole lot to do with it. Year in, year out. Would is another thing that you can add to do a garden in the wintertime. And when you've got a vacant space or you've got something that's really flat just adding a post or three posts to a garden gives you a place you can grow Vons on gives you some elevation, creating something. That's got a nice finial on top or, a nice cut on. Or a light post so that you're creating some light in the evening so that you can see the garden and then put vines on it or something that's going to climb on its pieces, offenses or to give you some screen or, just even three sections of [00:03:00] fence, short, sorta short section, like a two or three-foot section that goes, it's either hung out there or that's on a post to give you a backdrop for like a perennial garden. And then, gates or entryways are. Into new spaces do the same thing. They just create that structure that then in the spring you can come in or later when, or you can come in and plan around. Yeah. Garden art adds interest. It adds color to all kinds of garden art, probably the most popular garden art that we sell these days is like a window. People are adding that to the garden and that's like a ponder or a fountain and you're adding movement in the garden, which is kinda nice. That's an easy thing to do in the wintertime, and you're not spending a ton of time outside, but come out, look around, pick one out and then you're literally just stepping into the garden. Or sometimes people put it in a little bit of concrete,...

Keith: [00:00:00] Hey, Keith Ramsey with garden supply company. People are always asking what to do in the wintertime in the garden. And there's, there's a long list of, to do's in the winter. Not many people want to go out because we've got such cold weather. One of my favorite things to do while it's cool is spreading mulch. It requires a minor cleanup picking up sticks and debris, raking the beds out, and getting everything ready for spring. You usually want to cut your perennial plants that need cleaning up or pruning. And there's lots of pruning. That can be done during the wintertime, so once you get through some of those projects, we'll touch back on pruning further down, but Once you get all the beds cleaned out. Mulching is a hot process. The mulch itself [00:01:00] creates a lot of heat, and when it's cool out, it's a nice thing to you'll go out with a heavy coat. And, as soon as you get into that mulch pile, you'll be shedding layers. And so it's something I like to do, it's probably not a bad thing this time of year because I don't know about everybody else, but I had way too many calories over Christmas. And that's a calorie-burning project for sure. Get you out, do something good for your heart, and burn calories. Mulch also holds moisture in the ground, and it contains a lot of heat in the ground. So it's good for plant roots. We say our plants repeatedly, but winter, fall, winter, and early spring is the time to plant. You can plant 12 months out of the year. There's no, no better time than when the plants are dormant. But you get a plant in the ground, and it's in the middle of winter, and you put mulch on it. The reason it places this stuff in the ground in the wintertime is so good is that we've got the plants will [00:02:00] grow roots all through the winter. And, but when you mulch it, you're adding heat to the heat, to the ground. You're going to grow a lot more roots, a lot faster. It knocks the edge off of the cold for the plants. So it's an excellent thing for the plant in the wintertime and then suitable for weed control. You're getting ahead of the head of the schedule your molten and things that you might get to germinate that are on the surface. And then the cold weather is going to kill them out. When I'm cleaning up prepping for mulch, a lot of the debris that we have, I've got a fire pit, so I'm picking up sticks and stuff like that. I drop them in the fire pit, and I'm prepping myself. I'll break them up and build a fire at the same time. And it's an excellent way to get rid of that kind of stuff if all, and, or take it, taking it out to the street. But sometimes, when we're working in the yard, depending on the time of the year, if it's cool, I will fire up the fire pit and keep dropping the Dixon or pinecones in as we're working in the yard, makes it a little more enjoyable. And then compost piles. If you've got a, you're raking up leaves and debris, and cutting [00:03:00] perennials back North Carolina soil needs compost probably more than the heavy clay soil benefits from top dressing or digging compost in. It's worth every penny by the bag when you're planting because you don't have. A decent amount of compost and good soil. Plants aren't going to do as well as they could. They'll probably live, but they're not going to do as well as possible. But when you got compost, that's just coming out of your compost pile. A, it's probably more alive than a bag of soil. But B, it's free. And it gives you it's a shorter walk. You don't have. Package it up in a bag and put it at the curb where it has to go to a composting facility, and then you're buying it on the other end. When you start a compost pile, that's a good winter project if that's something. I usually use a little bit of nitrogen in there. Nitrogen-fixing organisms are what break down the compost. Adding just a handful of any fertilizer or just a nitrogen-based fertilizer is good. It's good to get a compass fired up and hot,...

[00:00:20] Keith: Hey, Keith Ramsey with garden supply company. We've had a lot of questions recently about weeds how to rid your yard of weeds. And it's a constant problem for sure. The one thing about weeds that I always tell people is, if you just spend a few minutes figuring out what we do have and what the lifecycle is you can actually manage it a little bit better. [00:00:56] Most people don't want to delve in that deep, but like vegetables, you get warm season weeds and cool season weeds. And if you know what stage the weeds you're at, or if it's an annual or if it's a perennial. You can actually manage the problem a little bit easier. [00:01:10] There's things like chickweed that people come in the middle of spring and they said, I've got chickweed all over my yard and it's choking out my grass and I need to do something with it. And, it is choking out your grass and you do need to do something with it. [00:01:23] But the reality is it's not that crazy of a problem because the first hot day it's going to start to fade. it's On its way out. And it's knowing that you need to have the pre-emergence down ahead of that. So you don't get to that point is easier than managing the problem at that point. [00:01:38] And once if you're in a house or you're got a garden space and you've, and you start to understand what weed you have and what the life cycle is you can control them a whole lot easier. I always find that to me. Pulling weeds is a relaxing thing. [00:01:55] It's, you can walk through the garden and you can pull a handful of weeds until you can't walk through the garden and just pull a handful of weeds. You're raking a wheelbarrow loads of weeds, so it's staying ahead of the problem knowing when to put down pre-emergence. [00:02:10] If you put down pre-emergence, you can usually eliminate 90% of the germination and manage the problem and then pulling weeds is not actually painful. And it's something you can do in a short period of time. If you've got a weed problem, if it's a handful of weeds, you pull them before they go to seed. [00:02:27] So that you're not dropping new seeds. And then You just don't want them to get, out of control at that point. So you're going to, you're going to pull all the weeds or you're going to rake the weeds out or the other option is spraying them. And people always shy away from spraying, but there's [00:02:41] There are many organic sprays out there now that you can use. There's an iron-based product that works extremely well. And broadleaf weeds in you can't spray it on, on and around your plants, but it's not going to affect the roots of the plant. So it goes into the leaves. It's basically a toxic level of iron. [00:02:58] So it'll cause the plant to cave in. And then you've added iron to your soil for future say, you're going to have greener plants, which is a benefit. Fatty acids is another one. It basically just Smothers the plant can't take in oxygen. [00:03:11] And then there's all kinds of vinegar products on the market. Vinegar works really well. I recommend using a product that's that is the right percentage and something that's made for weeds over just experimenting in your kitchen, because I think people can cook up these recipes and then you don't really know what you're doing to the microbes in the soil. [00:03:32] You don't know what you're doing to the worms. So using a product that's labeled that's been tested is not a bad idea. There's a clove based product that does the same thing. It'll, take care of any kind of light weeds not a really serious perennial weeds, but it does a good job. [00:03:45] And then there's the standby that everybody's used for years that any more is the scariest thing on the market Roundup. I still think Roundup is a pretty safe product used in moderation. I've used it for years and been around it. I don't see, I don't see it being extremely detrimental in a home garden. [00:04:02] More of an issue when it's sprayed over our...

Keith: [00:00:00] Wintertime in North Carolina is a great time to start prepping your veggie garden, pulling out, finishing up excellent seeds and stuff from the fall. And you can do additional seasonal plannings and cover them, or you can do cover crops, which is a perfect way to get green manure back into the soil. When I do a cover crop, I usually do rye or like annual ryegrass or oats or, or white Clover, medium red Clover. The one thing I wouldn't do that sometimes you'll see in books is Crimson Clover, tall and beautiful in a field. It's beautiful on a farm, but it's big for a, for a residential garden. Joe: And when you say cover crop, I'm not familiar with that. That means when you're not using it as a garden; you put something over the whole thing. [00:01:00] And what's the benefit of that. Keith: You're pulling nitrogen out of the soil. So you're holding the nitrogen at the top level of the soil. So you're, you're pulling nitrogen up into the plant, and then you're creating green manure. So the, in the early spring, you go back in, and you cut it back down, and then you dig it around in, or you don't even have to cut it back down. If it's low enough, you dig it back into the. Joe: So it's better than just leaving it as open dirt. Exactly. Which doesn't look good if it rains and gets all over your lawn. Anyway, that's the one thing I was going to say Keith: sometimes, I'll dig everything out. I'll turn the soil a little bit. I'll rake it smooth. And then I'll take something like oats, winter oats, or annual rye, and I'll broadcast it across the garden. And then I just kind of rake it in with my hands or rake it in with rake water. It well. The other thing about it is it's just watching something grow is nice. And, and so all of a sudden, you, instead of having a garden, that's got an old, dead tomato in the middle of it. You've cleaned it up, and you've seeded it. And then you've got all this incredible green lush growth coming up in the wintertime. So it's nice, it's a nice view too. It's [00:02:00] like watching, you know, new green grass grow in your, in your lawn after the summertime. Instead of a cover crop, the other option you can do is go in. Plant lettuce, mustard, collards, some of the cool season stuff you would typically do in mid-August or February 15th is when you would do things like broccoli and that kind of stuff that needs a cool season to get going, to be able to root in. But going in and doing lettuce, you do the same thing this time of year prep. You prep the soil, you, you rake it out. You, you plant your lettuce, you plant it heavy and then cover it. And the lettuce comes back up. You've got some greens to harvest through the wintertime, and then when you cut it before, you've still got that green manure that you can kind of dig back into the soil, and it keeps the earth alive. It gives the microbes something to break down and start rereleasing nitrogen. The other thing this time of year is the soil test is probably one of the things that I would say 90% of the people don't. [00:03:00] It's perhaps one of the more important things to perfect the soil and optimal plant growth. And that's landscape plants and garden plants. But it's just one of those things. People, you know, data, and another day goes by. And I can't tell you the last time I've done a soil test in my yard, but it does make a difference if you're a new gardener or an older gardener and want to do something exciting. And, and, and something that you'll see. Great results from going ahead and doing a soil test. Then once you get the soil test, people will bring soil tests to us, and we'll go through them with them there. They're not highly complicated if you've got a science mind, but many times, people look at them and glaze over and they don't understand what they're looking at. But adding lime limes, probably the biggest thing that you can always add lime to, to North Carolina soil and, and almost most, I'd say...

33 Garden Design [00:00:20] keith: [00:00:41] We're always talking about garden design and how we're gonna, how we're gonna do things, how we're going to mix plants up and different colors and textures and One of the things that I think comes naturally to me and not necessarily utilizing functional way, but just the natural curves and the things that make it feel easy to walk through a garden not straight lines and no sharp turns. [00:01:05] Not having plants come over the edge of a walkway and make you feel like you've got to lean away to, make it down. Nice, open, airy, inviting gardens. There are a few simple guidelines to help you bring more beneficial energy into your yard. No matter the size. [00:01:23] Size really doesn't matter. In a small garden, you can work with the garden that you have. You can apply different scales to your garden. Having walkways or paths that just have a slow-flowing curve. And not, I'll find a lot of times when I look at a house that people try to follow the house, they try to square everything up with the house. [00:01:44] And so they'll have a walkway that just follows straight down the side of the house or having occur in a nice curve to it. But on the other hand, people start putting curves in a landscape and. They'll put too many curves in the landscape. So it's got to be a kind of a really soft, gentle curve. [00:02:02] Something that you're going to enjoy, walking down. And then have a focal point either a bench or a fountain or a fire pit a big specimen plant and those All bring something different. A bench with plants around it, maybe a birdbath gives you, I find a lot of times people don't even sit on the benches, but it gives you that kind of inviting, walk down here and sit on the bench. [00:02:25] Kind of feeling which relaxing, takes your mind off of everything else. And it just gives you this serene water a lot of times. It, it muffles sound. So if you've got road noise or if you've got noisy neighbors sometimes the sound of water just has really soon. [00:02:41] So adding water to and having that as a focal point. So you see the water, it's a cooling effect. But, it also kinda mellows that space. And then fire, I think always warms the space up or gives you something, a space for entertaining, but again, it can be a focal point. [00:02:58] We just put in a big, hard. And before the Arbor was in and we had a fire pit out there, but the fire pits the center of the Arbor. So when you look out into the yard, it's, it looks like a space that you want to go sit in and cool evenings. Cool, cool. [00:03:12] Saturday. It's a perfect time to have a fire and have that, inviting you to get people over it. It really pulls people out of the house and out to a fire pit. But all of those things, great focal points, they all do something different. And, I've got a friend that I've worked with for 25 years and. [00:03:32] His yard is probably, it's the most intensely landscaped yard I've ever seen. And I left there one day and I was like, he's got something everywhere. Literally something everywhere. And the interesting thing is, you could, you can shift your head and there's a focal point and somebody might say it looks cluttered. [00:03:53] But to me, it was like every time I turned a corner, there was a focal point. There was something else. To look at, which was very interesting to me. It was, I left thinking and it's not cluttered to me at all. It's, there's something else to look at. There's something else to walk towards. [00:04:09] Something else that, engages your mind, which is interesting when you're out in a garden it's not just a boring space. It really pulls you out there and it has energy. And a flow to it. functional way. Doesn't have to be any great science or anything that's extremely complex. [00:04:26] I think sometimes, just the simplicity of a garden and then creating some focal points and having a nice flow to a garden is what functional is all about. The...

[00:00:20] Keith: so when it gets cold outside everybody thinks that gardening comes to a halt, but some of the most interesting plants, in my opinion, bloom during the wintertime or really show off during the winter so it's an interesting time too. It's also a, really good time to plant plants. [00:00:53] They don't get to go through very little stress through the wintertime. People always think they're going to be too cold. They're sitting out in the nursery in a pot. So if you can get that pot down into the soil, it'll start growing roots. We grow roots throughout the winter, so it's a perfect time to plant, but it's also a good time to go to the nursery and look at plants. [00:01:12] There's a lot of plants that bloom all winter long or throughout the winter Camelia is in the south or are one that just consistently bloom. There are two types of chameleons. There's a succinct that starts blooming in the fall. It's a smaller leaf and a little bit smaller flower, but a more profusely. [00:01:31] And, within this as sank as there are hundreds of varieties of pink, white, red, and lots of different size plants, but sank was start blooming in October, November. They'll bloom October, November, December, January for about two and a half, three months. Depending on the variety of the. [00:01:50] And then japonica is, which is a larger leaf, a chameleon and a larger bloom will pick up. And then they start, they bloom on, into the winter and in spring. So they'll start blooming in December, January, February, March, and finish up at the beginning of April. And chameleons are more like the japonicas are more like. [00:02:11] A large rose flower or a peony flower. It's a flower. That's probably four to five inches across six inches across. And full of ' full of color again, whites, pinks and reds yellow stamens woven through the flower. It's a great cut flower to bring in and use a vase or pot, floating. [00:02:33] But the chameleon is even without flowers on them have just dark shiny green leaves. It's a perfect plant, 12 months out of the year, to fill a space in your garden. So because [00:02:45] Joe: it blooms in the winter, does that mean it doesn't [00:02:47] Keith: bloom in the summer? Exactly. But most of the things that bloom in the winter bloom for a long period of time there aren't as many pollinators out so that they need a few warm days. [00:02:59] To get pollinated so they can produce seed. So of most, all of the winter-blooming stuff will bloom a lot longer than summer blooming. Summer blooming will come into bloom and azaleas are a good example. They come into bloom and they bloom like crazy when pollinators are out and then they go out of bloom and they're done. [00:03:17] So you get two to three, four weeks in blooms and then they wrap it up. Chameleons you really. Two to three months of solid bloom time. And that's from one bloom to peak bloom and then back down to one, but a really good show of flowers for a long period of time. [00:03:34] And the other thing that's interesting about winter plants is a lot of them are very fragrant because they need pollinators to pollinate. They're extremely fragrant to get the few pollinators that are out and about in the wintertime to come to them. Daphne is one of those plants. [00:03:50] It's the, it's a plant that smells It's just, it's got probably the most fragrance of anything that out there. I always tell people it smells like fruit loops and it really truly does when you smell it, it's a fruit loop cereal. If you can bring back that that smell, that's what it smells like. [00:04:05] But Daphne will bloom for a long period of time through the wintertime. And it's a plant that needs are a little tricky in our soil that Clay's heavy and if they get overwatered, They get they'll fail. But once you get one established and it's doing well it'll live, 10 years, 20 years. [00:04:23] I always tell people to plant three of them but don't plant them together, plant...