Episode 2806

- [Narrator] A mature rabbiteye blueberry bush should produce more than 10 pounds of blueberries annually. Jeff Poppen visits with a family that has a sizable blueberry patch as part of their home garden. Begonias are among the most popular of cultivated plants, indoors or outdoors. Marty DeHart shows off some beauties. And Sheri Gramer shares a recipe for quick herb mustard. Join us. What was once a specialty crop is now a commodity.

- Blueberries grew where I lived in the Midwest. But when I moved to Tennessee in the early '70s, nobody around here had heard of blueberries. They might have heard of a blueberry muffin or something. So we planted a whole lot of blueberries back then, and they have turned out to be a great crop for Tennessee. It's about a week after the summer solstice at the end of June, and the blueberries are in full production. So today we're in Clarksville at the Reynolds Family Blueberry Patch. Goodness gracious, this is a forest. Look at all these berries. Well hello, Sarah.

- Hello. Hi.

- Nice to see you.

- Good to see you again. Thanks for coming.

- This is a beautiful blueberry patch.

- Thank you.

- How many plants do you think are here?

- We have between 80 and 90 bushes here.

- [Jeff] Wow, and how long have you been growing blueberries?

- [Sarah] We planted the first bushes about 10 years ago and the more recent ones about four years ago.

- [Jeff] Wow, what kind of varieties do you have?

- [Sarah] Most of what we have here are the rabbiteye. They do better in the Tennessee climate.

- [Jeff] I find that too.

- [Sarah] And we have several different ones. We have mostly Premier, then we also have varieties called the Climax and the Bluebell as well.

- [Jeff] So what do you do with all these berries?

- [Sarah] We like to share them. We pick them and for a couple years now I've been selling them at the local farmers market.

- [Jeff] Oh, cool.

- [Sarah] Yes, and then we also have friends and family come and help themselves as well.

- [Jeff] So in your experience do blueberries require a lot of care?

- They're actually pretty low maintenance. We put sulfur in the soil when we first planted them.

- The sulfur helps to make the soil more acidic. Because blueberries have to have an acidic soil.

- [Sarah] But other than that, we don't prune often. We don't have issues with other pests so we don't spray. So they're very low maintenance.

- [Jeff] Honeybees can't pollinate a blueberry flower. The blueberry flower is a bell shape and it's pretty long to get in there and it takes a bumblebee to pollinate blueberries.

- [Sarah] And we have plenty of those.

- [Jeff] And do you have problems with birds getting the berries?

- [Sarah] We did when we first planted them and we tried putting nets around.

- [Jeff] Oh, that's such a pain.

- [Sarah] It was, they got caught, we got caught, all that. So we just planted more and now there's plenty to share. It's not overrun with birds anymore.

- [Jeff] And you have a flock of chickens, they run out here some?

- [Sarah] We do. This is a perfect shady spot for them to take their dust bath and they like to eat blueberries as well. So you may see them dodging in and out. It's a good hangout place for chickens.

- Once you have an established blueberry patch, the rabbiteye blueberries are known to put out suckers that come off the main root. So here's a root going back to the plant. With this root then, you can take a shovel and cut it right here, you do this during the dormant season in the winter, and cut that off and dig this up and put out another plant. This is how you can propagate more blueberries off of your patch. You'll have to keep it well watered, that first summer. Sarah, tell us how you pick the blueberries and how often they need picking.

- Once they start to ripen it's pretty important to pick them throughout the week. They ripen at pretty different rates as you can see here. But they're very easy to pick once they're ready. Just a gentle pull should take it off. But when you're picking you wanna be sure that even certain ones like this aren't quite ready. They still have that pink on the bottom. So you wanna be sure not to tug on those until they're ready. But these are good.

- [Jeff] They just come right off don't they?

- They do. And it's also important to not forget about the ones kind of hidden inside the bush.

- [Jeff] So you have to sort of dig for them a little bit.

- You do. Most of the best berries I find are kind of in the shady parts of the plant and they come off just like that.

- [Jeff] Oh, look at that. Mm, mm. So the blueberry plants send up new younger growth. So your patch being less than 10 years old, you haven't had to take out a lot of your old wood yet. But eventually you will want to take out some of these older branches and let the new branches come in.

- [Sarah] Right, absolutely.

- [Jeff] Well Sarah, I guess you wouldn't want this bush to get much taller, would you?

- Right, especially if you're on the shorter side like me. At a certain point you can cut those down.

- And then these lower branches too should be taken off so the berries aren't touching the ground.

- [Sarah] Yes, absolutely.

- Well, I find blueberries to be a gorgeous ornamental plant. So you should plant some in your landscaping just for their beauty. But the real beauty is the delicious berries that you can get with really not a whole lot of trouble. And so we really encourage people to plant blueberries. They're a great crop for Middle Tennessee. We'd love to thank you Sarah for having us out here.

- [Sarah] Thank you.

- Word on the street is that hot house plants are hot and one of the hottest is this plant that is here in front of me. I am with Calvin Owen from Tennessee Tropicals who's gonna tell us all about it.

- This is Variegated Monstera, different varieties and strains. Most popular is the albo-variegata, which is the white and green leaf. This is the it houseplant for everybody now. It's kind of made a renaissance. It was popular back in the '70s, especially the green form.

- [Troy] I can remember my grandmother growing the green form and she called it Swiss cheese plant because it had those openings in the leaf, sometimes holes.

- [Calvin] The holes in the leaves and the openings, it's interesting behind that. The plant naturally grows where it's very windy and it's adapted to thrive in that condition. So the cells in each leaf die selectively as it develops and forms the holes to allow the wind to pass through it so the leaf doesn't get torn.

- [Troy] That's fascinating. It's amazing how plants can adapt in their home environments to withstand things like that.

- Oh, for sure. And it's also a very easy houseplant. They like medium humidity to high humidity. Dry out a little in between watering. Just never keep it soggy and bright, indirect light and it'll grow just fine for you.

- [Troy] And it grows well. Now these are fairly large specimens. You start with something small in maybe a four inch pot or so.

- [Calvin] Usually four or six inch pots. We have six inch pots through the spring and summer. Usually I make a post on my social media pages alerting people to when they become available but I never have enough.

- [Troy] Right, no matter how many you propagate, how many cuttings you take, it's never quite enough.

- [Calvin] Never enough.

- [Troy] It's a fascinating plant. It's obvious though that from a small plant you're going to get something fairly large. So it is something you need to have a little space for.

- [Calvin] Right, you wanna, a good plant for a corner. Where it can kind of get tall. Bathroom, good humidity in there.

- [Troy] And I notice that in some of yours they have what looks like a wood stake or something similar to kind of help it prop up and grow upright.

- [Calvin] Right, they typically climb up a wall or a tree.

- [Troy] A tree trunk.

- [Calvin] Anything like that. So you wanna be able to provide a wooden stake or a moss pole or any of those things to allow it to grow itself up. A lot of people struggle with humidity in their homes.

- [Troy] Right, especially in the winter when we have the heat on.

- [Calvin] For sure, and simply putting a tray underneath the plant, fill it with pebbles, keep that water in there and that evaporation will help increase the ambient humidity around the plant.

- Around the plant. Well, this is a fascinating and beautiful plant and like you said, an old-fashioned plant that has seen a renaissance and the variegated forms of it are just particularly beautiful.

- [Calvin] Very nice. This is definitely one of my favorite plants in the whole greenhouse.

- I like wide open spaces but I have to say it's very enjoyable on this street here in Cooper-Young district of Memphis. And have the opportunity to discuss Becky Frost and Gina Swift's garden and how it's just so beautiful and this time of the day everything is sparkling and I know you put a lot of time and thought into what you've done to make these gardens. How long have you been here and worked on them?

- It will be four years in September that we have been here. And that following spring is when we did all the landscaping and just a complete renovation of the yard. It was pretty bare. It was a clean palate as I like to say. So we could do anything that we wanted with it. And I know we wanted everything to focus around our beautiful ginkgo tree that we have. And I think we've done a great job with that.

- [Annette] I have to say, the first thing that caught my eye were your beautiful white chairs and how pristine that looked on this beautiful patch of green grass. And the second thing that I saw was this tree, your ginkgo tree. What's its story?

- The house was built in 1912 so I would be fair to guess this tree is over a hundred years old. There actually was a story that there were two sisters that lived in this home and planted the ginkgo tree and that they would come out with a watering can and hand water it every day. And I guess with their nurture and love, I mean we have quite the specimen. It's just a beautiful, beautiful tree and it's as you can see, it's a perfect tree for kids to climb, it's very inviting. In the fall is when it's really spectacular. It turns this beautiful gold color and it just radiates.

- [Annette] It creates a carpet, doesn't it?

- [Becky] Yes.

- [Annette] This is a great Mondo, the dwarf Mondo.

- [Becky] Obviously grass is very hard to grow there because of the root system so we wanted to have that nice blanket of green underneath it and that miniature Mondo has done wonders. It has really filled it.

- [Annette] You've got a porch that really says welcome.

- [Becky] Thank you.

- And you've got it very well appointed with different things and I like the formality of it. Even though it is welcoming. Now, back here with what you've started as your foundation plants, what did you think about as you chose them, the boxwood.

- Patrick Loughton helped us with making all the selection and choices and we really wanted the boxwoods and especially the shapes of them to kind of anchor these key areas in our yard and the corners, and also right here where you step up onto the porch and also from the street over here on the sidewalk. And also he created a lot of nooks for us where we could have this colorful plantings going on around that you see. So there's all these neat little spaces that we can always add color in the fall with pansies or what it might be and of course impatiens do very well out here in the front with our shade that we have.

- [Annette] And then you can vary those colors. But you're stationary with all the rest of it.

- [Becky] Yes, and like you said a lot of evergreens or the autumn ferns here, they're an evergreen and in the springtime they have these beautiful bronze colored fiddleheads that come up and just add a nice pop of color.

- I can imagine how that Japanese maple, the Bloodgood, when it's really truly red and how the bronze of the new foliage on your fern, how they compliment each other. You know, I just happen to know that there's a backside that's a flip-flop of colors.

- Yes.

- And we're about to go into the shall we say the primary season back here in the back.

- [Becky] Yes, exactly.

- Oh, I see what you mean. I can see it from here. What a welcoming sight.

- Welcome to my backyard.

- Oh, I love the color but you know you started somewhere with your thoughts in this so like the front yard, you just had a few things back here when you moved here right?

- [Becky] Yeah, actually the giant oak was here and everything else was not here. We actually transplanted our azaleas that we have right over here. We transplanted those from the front.

- [Annette] They look like they didn't bother them, did it?

- No, they've done really well. They have beautiful blooms, they're all different colors. We've got a mix of pinks, whites, corals, all of those. And again we have the autumn ferns.

- That autumn fern really does a good job in hiding if you had underpinning or whatever. I didn't realize. That's a nice thick coverage of that. Of course you've used the Liriope grass through here to help.

- [Becky] And then the Aucuba plant.

- [Annette] That's also known in Memphis as what?

- [Becky] The sprite plant. When we cannot remember Aucuba.

- [Annette] I know that you back here rather than going with perennials, some of the plants that you choose then in the summertime, you garden in containers.

- [Becky] Right, right. I keep everything the same. Like you said, all of the mature plants that come back every year and then I like doing things with the color in the different containers, and of course as you can tell by the Adirondack chair color and all that, it's just so cheerful and bright. And reusing some of the old pots like the old galvanized containers and stuff like that.

- [Annette] And you know along your wall that's very lit up over there isn't it with the sun right now. And I love the windows and then you have a fireplace. You go around, oh there's a good thing that would repurpose in my garden or you just randomly go in somewhere?

- [Becky] Well, I actually got the inspiration at the garden walk, the very first one that we had here in Cooper-Young and somebody else had a fireplace mantel and I had to have it and I love it. I think it's such a beautiful centerpiece and then of course we've got the little hanging baskets with all the shade loving plants, the Caladiums and impatiens, and I've got some asparagus fern in there and some ivy. So as it continues on through the summer it'll be draping over the sides of that and really add a lot of nice color. And it's wonderful when you sit out here with friends in the evening having a cocktail or dinner.

- [Annette] I'm sure.

- It really sets a centerpiece and kind of a stage.

- [Annette] And I love that ladder with the yellow rungs on it.

- [Becky] Yes, that actually was a neighborhood find a couple of streets over.

- [Annette] And I can see in the way you've chosen your colors and you plants how that you have an eye for cleanness and simplicity but yet there's high impact in the foundation plants that you've got here. You've got history, too. So you've done I think a wonderful job of making a home that was just a house and now it's a home.

- [Becky] Absolutely, I feel the same way. We love it here.

- [Annette] I appreciate the time and the breeze in your garden tonight is just wonderful.

- [Becky] Yes, it's lovely.

- [Annette] Thank you.

- [Becky] Thank you.

- Plant nerds like me get into phases where they just love a certain group of plants. Salvias are a good group. Begonias are another. But you don't have to be a plant nerd like me. You can just want a good houseplant and begonias offer so much. I wanna show you today some terrific plants for inside and they also will summer really nicely outside on a shady spot on your patio or deck. I wanna start with some big guys. There's a whole group of begonias called Cane Stem, also known as Angel Wing usually for their shape of the leaf or the way they grow. You can see in this tall one back here. This is called Sophia that the stems are really tall. It grows kind of like a cane, like a bamboo, if you will. Big leaves on this guy. One thing about Cane Stem begonias, Angel Wing is they often have an incredibly wonderful silver spots on the leaves. And Sophia is no different. This one has light pink bloom but the patterns in these are just wonderful. Look at this one. This one is called Miss Mumm. This is just a terrific little tiny pink silvery overlay on the leaf. This one with the deep green leaves, little silver spots, and wonderful red backs to the leaf, another feature of a lot of these begonias. It's called Mozer and it's coming into bloom with these lovely pink blooms. A lot of the Angel Wings are winter blooming. This one completely different, really light pink, almost a pebbled pink flowers and a pebbled very light leaf with a pinky sheen is called Sinbad. Another wonderful medium sized growing Angel Wing begonia. This is called Lois Burk, and this plant will bloom 12 months out of the year, given adequate light. I've had one for over 10 years. You can whack it back when it gets a little big and unruly. Just cut it and it just comes back wonderfully. It's got these nice bright green leaves with it. Once again, that distinctive silver spotting. And these terrific coral-orange flowers that are just delightful in these sprays so typical of the begonia, Angel Wing begonias. I can't say enough good things about this plant. It is just a champ. I winter it in a sunny window and I summer it on my shady deck and it just performs like crazy. A couple more Angel Wing begonias are these shorter guys down here. They're shorter 'cause they're younger. This one's called Looking Glass and you can see why. The leaf is almost entirely silver with just dark green veins. Really spectacular looking and once again, terrific maroon reverse on the leaf. Just a great looking plant. All of these bloom. Not all of them are in bloom right now. But this one which is called Torch is in bloom. Really bright sort of coral-red flowers on this and a really nice, smooth olive green leaf. Really different once again with that red reverse, really pretty. That's another Angel Wing. This one doesn't get that big. There's one for every size. If you want a small plant, you can find one. If you want a large plant, you can get Sophia and basically have almost a tree. There's another group called Rhizomatous. Now most of these are all hybridized anyway but Rhizomatous means they just got a big, thick root stalk that runs along the surface of the ground. And all of these big, thick root stalks on these plants mean they don't need a lot of water. As a matter of fact, you'd kill 'em by over-watering 'em. Which is good for those of us who don't like to water too much. This beautiful one with almost maple-y leaves is called Benitochiba. Beautiful hybrid, spectacular. It's got light pink blooms later in the season. And next to it, I mean you wouldn't even know these were the same genus. They're all begonias. This is a spectacular big fella called Black Taffeta. Great big black green leaves, red reverse, little fuzzy leaf on this one. This is a really vigorous upright plant. And then down below is this shocking green. This is called River Nile. There's a whole group of begonias called Eyelash begonias and this one looks like it's got some of that in the breeding. They've got little hairs on the edges of the leaf hence the common name. And these really beautiful green leaves with this dark edge and almost a very ruffled, rippled pattern. Really nice tight grower, this makes almost a mound of itself. It looks really nice as a solo plant in the middle of a coffee table or something. The last group I wanna talk to you about are lower growing types that make wonderful easy-care houseplants. This first one is kind of an oddball. Well known, this is the Iron Cross begonia. It's a species, not a hybrid. The pebbly leaves with this wonderful dark green pattern. Critical to this is good drainage in the pot and do not over water it, it'll rot out. But if you treat it right, it'll live forever. A really long lived plant. And then there are the Rexes. These are spectacularly colored leaves. This is one called Fireworks. Just wonderful explosive leaf color. This is one called Navajo Sunrise. The leaves open up this beautiful pink with silver. You can see this interesting curl going on where it's coming down to the stem where the stem joins the leaf. And that is super accentuated in this next one which is aptly called Escargot. Escargot means snail in French if you've ever been to a restaurant that serves them, you've probably heard the word. Isn't that a great name for this? Look at this silver path that also reminds me of the yellow brick road where Dorothy is walking out of Munchkin Land. But look at that snail shell curl going right under. That's just a spectacular pattern. And this is called Omaha Beefsteak. It's almost blood red. New growth on this leaf with this dark pattern. Just a spectacular plant and pretty blooms to boot. They all bloom, it's just a question of when. Rexes are grown mostly for their foliage but you do get some really beautiful bloom off. Especially off some of the newer hybrids. I just can't say enough about begonias as a group as great houseplants. Everything from these great, big tall caned stemmed guys to these little mounding Rexes and the species that make terrific houseplants. As a group, they like bright, indirect light. Shade outside in the summer. And they want excellent drainage. The way most people kill these things is by over watering them, not under watering them. They like to be almost completely dry before you water them again. You don't want them wilting but you want them almost to the point of wilt before you water again. They appreciate soft water and an occasional feed with a good all around houseplant food, more in the summer when they're actively growing. And when they're blooming, if they bloom in the winter, feed them a little more. And they're easy. And I gotta tell you, long lived. If you treat them right you'll have them for years, and years, and years. You can give pieces away to your friends. It's a real pass along kind of plant.

- Summer's here and our gardens are full. The herb gardens look great and we have a real quick and easy thing to do with some herbs out of that garden. It's called Quick and Easy Herb Mustard. All the ingredients are readily available in your grocery store and in your herb garden. It has simple ingredients, actually there's four ingredients. And it's Dijon mustard. And you can use the less expensive, it doesn't matter. We have wine and dry white wine is the best or a rosy wine will be okay like a white Chablis or a white zinfandel, something like that. I tend to like it a little bit sweeter than the dry wine. And your choice of herb. There are several different kinds of herb you can use. Almost really endless variety now that I think about it. I prefer what I'm using today is the garlic chives just because it's more versatile, it goes with more things. But you could use mint, basil, thyme, marjoram, just about anything. It really is a personal preference thing of what your palate enjoys. What we're gonna do today is we're gonna take our garlic chives and you're just gonna snip, and whatever herb you choose and you can use a combination of herbs, but you want a quarter cup whether it be the combination or one singular herb. And I'm just gonna take and I'm gonna snip these herbs and I'm gonna do a quarter cup. You could chop them if it's a different kind but I find the scissors seem to work the best. This is easy to do. You could do it actually even around the holidays and give as gifts if you'd like because you know most of our grocery stores are carrying fresh herbs in the produce section and they have a good variety most of the time. This herb mustard is good on sandwiches, grilled meat, just about anything. You can even marinate some things with it. But again, I'm gonna do a quarter cup. And you are gonna be amazed at how easy this is and it really is delicious when you get it done. If I had more time I'd make sure that the size that I was snipping off was more consistent and also maybe a little bit tinier. But we got a quarter cup here. I'm gonna lay this here. We're gonna put it in a bowl. And then we're gonna take, we have one and a half cups of Dijon mustard. And if you were doing this around the holidays or any gift giving, even the summertime would be great if you're going to a summer picnic or party at someone's house and you wanted a little favor for the hostess, you could make these up ahead of time. You can store this up to about three months in the refrigerator so you can make a good amount ahead of time and then give it as you see fit. Along with the one and a half cups mustard, we're gonna use a one and a half tablespoons of wine. And this is white zinfandel because it's just what I had in the refrigerator. And again, it's what I prefer. And that is it. We're gonna stir it up. And what you do after you stir this up is you can either leave it in one big bowl and let it set for a little bit in the refrigerator and the herbs will kind of be absorbed in the mustard. Or you can go ahead and just put them right in your decorative jars or vases, whatever you have that you wanna give for gift giving. Or you can use even an old mustard jar, an old mayonnaise jar if you're gonna use it for yourself at home in the refrigerator. But I've got some cute little canning jars here and these are just like little jelly jars. You would just fill it up, put the lid on, simple as can be. Stick it in your fridge, and again you can store it up to three months so you can actually do this in the fall and give it around Thanksgiving. It would be okay. You don't need to worry about sealing it because it is gonna be refrigerated and that's the key thing. Just wipe the edges off, stick your lid on, and that is it. Quick and Easy Herb Mustard. You can do a little bit or you can double this recipe, you can make a lot. It's quick, it's easy, it's fun. Give it a try.

- [Narrator] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips, and garden projects, visit our website at volunteergardener.org, or on YouTube at the Volunteer Gardener channel, and like us on Facebook.