Episode 2710

- [Narrator] Native to the jungles and highlands of Southeast Asia, tropical pitcher plants are known for their wide variety of shapes and colors. Phillipe Chadwick finds out what it takes to make these your new favorite houseplant. And Marty DeHart shares the plant list that made this backyard retreat a reality. Join us. To feed this plant, you drop an insect into the pitcher.

- [Phillipe] How cool is this? Do you think you've got what it takes to grow one of these in your home? I'm here in Morrison, Tennessee at Red Leaf Exotics with Domonick. He specializes in growing tropical pitcher plants. They have very particular lighting needs and water needs. Let's start with lighting needs.

- [Domonick] Well, Nepenthes come from the rainforest and near the equator so they like really bright diffused light. They don't like too much full sun, but just anything that's really bright and glowing. I use about 55% shade cloth in here, and after the light, I would say the biggest thing is humidity. The plants love ideally 70% or higher. Which can be a little difficult inside but if you have a spray bottle or humidifier, they'll do just fine. As long as you get that humidity and light, you should really have no problem.

- [Phillipe] I see a lot of difference variations in sizes of the pitchers and colors down to an inch, to gosh, 15 to 18 inches in size.

- [Domonick] It depends on the age of the plant. A lot of those smaller plants are gonna just get the smaller pitchers. But as they mature, some plants depending on what the parents are of the hybrid, some will get huge. Some can get close to two feet.

- [Phillipe] Wow.

- [Domonick] And then some might stay small only a few inches, three or four inches.

- [Phillipe] So this one's got a really huge pitcher on that. Is that because it's an older plant?

- This plant is older. This plant is probably near 12 years old. I had it from a super tiny seedling. But one of the parents in it is truncata. The hybrid is called truncata crossed with vogelii maxima spectabilis. And anything bred with truncata just gives you huge pitchers. They're one of my favorite hybrids to collect. The truncata hybrids.

- Yeah, yeah it's very cool.

- [Domonick] They're super complex in their design, between smell and sugar they produce, like a nectar, which they'll produce under the lid. The bugs can smell that miles away, they come for that, and this lip here is just so slippery and just designed to aim things into the pitcher opening and they open with their own digestive fluids, which will mix with rainwater and stuff, but once the bugs go in there and they fall in, there's no way of getting out. The interior is so slippery and waxy, and then over the course of a week or so they'll just break it down and drink it up like soup.

- You know, I feel like the most common carnivorous plant that people know of is a Venus flytrap. But these don't close, once something's in there.

- No, no these don't move at all to capture, they just stationary and beautiful, and that does the work.

- They are stunning. I do see a few other different types of plants in here. As far as some really interesting bromeliads and some orchids here, I guess that are good companion plants with them.

- [Domonick] A lot of these plants, the tropicals, as long as you have that high humidity, a lot of them can grow together. Bromeliads and orchids are another passion that I flow into, I love them grown all together.

- [Phillipe] So these definitely have a particular type of soil needs that I'm seeing here. This looks like Sphagnum moss, tell me more about this.

- So Nepenthes come from environments with really poor nutrients in the soil. So they they can't really do a rich soil, that's too thick. They love growing in Sphagnum, Sphagnum moss, and in the wild you can find some of them growing in it. It's really moist, it's poor in nutrients, it's acidic, which the plants love. And it really allows the roots to stay moist, but gets some aeration down in there. To me it's the best mix you can use. I use long fiber Sphagnum, mixed with perlite, half and half. And it just gives you this nice airy, kind of crunchy, consistency. I usually will soak the Sphagnum moss in water, and then squeeze it all out so it's fluffy and spongy, not so soaked, and then I'll mix it together.

- Yeah, cool. And a big notable difference too is this pot here, that you've got. Yeah, these are net baskets, which a lot of people use in hydroponics, or for orchids. They add additional aeration to the soil, 'cause a lot of these plants are epiphytic, so they get a lot of air and moisture at the roots. If you're growing inside, the chances are the humidity is pretty low. So I would suggest more of a closed pot so you're not drying out as much.

- Yeah, a closed pot like that.

- Yeah.

- [Phillipe] So what are the feeding needs of these plants? Do they take like a normal fertilizer, or is it a very particular kind?

- [Domonick] If you're growing indoors, some people will go and buy crickets from the pet store, they'll put fish pellets in the pitchers, you can sometimes use Osmocote, but you really have to do your research and test it out before just going and throwing a bunch of this stuff in the pitchers. I don't suggest ever putting dead meat, or hamburger in the plants, a lot of people do that and it's a big mistake. It'll rot the pitchers.

- [Phillipe] And it would smell.

- [Domonick] Yeah. So maybe more organic things like live insects. For more advanced care, and again you really have to do your trial and error, fertilizer works amazing. You apply it as a foliar spray. I dilute mine, 1/4 strength. Sometimes even more than that, because they are really good at picking up the nutrients, and you don't want to overpower them. The soils where they grow are poor, so too much nutrients is really gonna shock them. So you just, a nice foliar spray about every two weeks. Only in the growing season, when you're giving them the most light.

- So if you're not sure, it's best to under-fertilize with them.

- Yeah. I would suggest if you're just beginning out, to maybe go the fish pellet, maybe one in a pitcher, every couple weeks, or live insects.

- Mm-hmm. That seems to be the most fun, too, to put like a spider or something in there.

- Yeah, yep, that's why a lot of people--

- Are there any particular insects that are better or worse?

- No, I would say don't put something, like jam something in the pitcher that isn't gonna fit in there. Little small insects, every couple weeks, work so fine. It might seem like you wanna go in and just throw a bunch of bugs in there, but just a little here and there and the plants will thrive on that.

- [Phillipe] How do you augment lighting for them?

- Here in the summer, we use all the natural light. And then in the winter, when the daylight hours are shorter, or if you're inside, grow lights really, the plants love grow lights. I suggest T5, you can find them on eBay, just read the reviews, find out what works best, but everybody sells T5 lights. And a big thing now in the market is LED. They don't produce a lot of heat. But in my experience, T5 are the best. You want to probably put the plants a foot or more below them so they're not getting that heat.

- Okay.

- And keep them on about a 12-hour photo period, 12 hours a day.

- Okay, so kind of, standard daylight hours.

- Yeah. 'Cause they do come from the equator, so they're never really getting the short daylight. So like eight to eight, or seven to seven, something like that.

- Yeah, I usually put them on a timer, and the plants really thrive under grow lights.

- So this is definitely the coolest greenhouse I've been into in a really long time, if not ever.

- Thank you.

- You source these from all over the world, is that correct?

- Yeah, I mainly get them from my friends in Australia, and also in Germany.

- Very cool. So if you're interested in growing these, you can check out Red Leaf Exotics on Instagram, or Facebook, or at redleafexotics.com, yeah. Go ahead and try something new.

- Today I'm going to show you a yard that I designed, as the landscape designer. This is East Nashville, densely populated place. This yard, the client wanted certain specific things, very interesting. Sanctuary, did not want to see your neighbors. Has dogs, wanted a dog-friendly place. Doesn't want flowers, so it's all foliage and texture. I'm gonna show you how I solved these design challenges. As you can see, the perimeter of this yard, which is not very large, is lined with a variety of tall, narrow, mostly evergreen trees. There's one that is not. But this gives this beautiful screening effect that we have here, we've got Green Giant Arborvitae, Emerald Arborvitae, Cryptomeria Radicans, I like that one better than Yoshino, 'cause it doesn't bronze out in the winter. And beautiful Magnolias back there, that's called Alta, A-L-T-A, very beautiful. This gave this sort of green wall, interesting texture and foliage, and the sense of privacy. It really encloses this garden room. In front of this green wall, I've placed plants of interest. Almost everything, because this is such a small yard, it's like everything becomes almost a specimen. No mass plantings here. Everything is a one-off. For example, this Japanese maple is a dwarf variety, it's greening up now. It's brilliant red in the earlier spring. This is called Shaina, and it's a lovely thing, it just basically doesn't get a lot bigger than this, just a little denser and spreads out. Below that, is my current total favorite, Creeping Juniper. I love this plant, this is called Golden Pacific. Blue Pacific's been around for a long time, this is a newer one, I've also seen it sold as All Gold. Either way, what a great looking plant. In the winter, it is bronzy yellow, it is just the most, like amber, it's beautiful. And then in the growing season it gets these delightful yellow tips on it. It'll get yellower as the summer progresses here. Then, once again another specimen. This is a Weeping Deodar Dwarf called Feelin' Blue. And blue it is. Lovely texture and form to this, particularly contrasted against the very vertical backdrop. This is a Little Dwarf Chamaecyparis, which will just make a little ball around here. This is a Coral Bark Maple, and it's placed here because it's against a wall of very dark green, and in the winter when the leaves drop off of this, and those brilliant coral stems show up like beacons against that dark green, it's really stunning to look at from out of the house, out the window, it's really quite the showcase. This whole feature over here, I mentioned she has dogs. And a lot of the density of this planting here is so the dogs have hidey-holes and cool shady places to hang. But this is basically the water dish, but done in a really beautiful way. This is what's called a pondless waterfall. There's a receptacle down below that big flat rock, and that hole is actually natural in that rock, believe it or not. And it also adds a really interesting feature to the garden. Another thing about this whole lot is that it was flat. And I brought in soil and built up this berm here, and bed, so that there was variation, so that you get a lot more sense of depth and interest in the yard. This is such a cool little pine, this is called Schoodic, it's a banksiana pine, which usually goes much further north, but it loves to crawl over rocks like this. Once again, you can see the beautiful textures in the background, it really adds a lot of interest year-round. Magnolia leaves contrasted with that's an Emily Brunner Holly, and the Cryptomeria and the Green Giant Arborvitae. This client also has these magnificent big containers. These are actually copper, I think they're from Thailand, they're boutique dye pots. They're big enough that you can grow really quite striking things. This is a white pine, that is a light green in the summer, and turns brilliant golden tips in the winter, it's called Winter Gold. Very, very, very pretty plant. And it's a lovely contrast, once again, to the very dark green in the back. This whole area over here is a deep part of the bed. And this is really, dog central back here. Great place for them to hang out. This is a lovely little Chamaecyparis, called Split Rock. I love the blue foliage on this, and the frilliness of it. It's really an unusual looking plant. You'll notice that most everything that we've done back here is evergreen, but there are things that are not. For example, this bank of bushes here, is a native holly, Ilex Verticilatta, called winterberry holly, this is Red Sprite. Doesn't get real tall, it's just starting to set berries now, there's a male in there called Jim Dandy which pollinates it. In the winter, this drops all its leaves, but the red berries really show up. Behind it, is a tree that's way bigger than I thought it would get, so, live and learn. We may have to do something about that at some point, but right now it looks pretty cool. That is a Metasequoia called a dawn redwood. And this variety is called Ogon, which actually means gold in Japanese. And that's supposed to be a slow grower, but it's quadrupled in size in four years. We have another Japanese maple over here that sort of complements but doesn't copy the coral bark. This is one called Bihou. Rounder, shorter, and in the winter, drops its leaves, and gets these beautiful, yellow, golden yellow to coral orange twigs. Really striking, very beautiful. And I should mention, that behind all of this, are evergreens. There's another Cryptomeria, there are Nellie Stevens Hollies back in this corner. So when all of this goes down, there's still a green wall to continue the privacy of this backyard. Look at these junipers. This one is really common it's called Daub's Frosted, and it's one of my favorites. But my gosh, look how big it's gotten. This is how they do when they're happy. And it's got these amazing little yellow stems on it. Which give it this interesting, almost bi-toned coloring. Very distinctive. And once again, a nice feathery kind of foliage, lovely contrast both in color and form, with the other things around it. One of which is this Weeping Atlas Cedar. This is Cedrus atlantica Glauca Pendula, people have these all over the place. But it's just such a lovely specimen plant, this kind of powdery, blue-green foliage on here is really terrific. I wanted to mention the magnolia behind it. That one is called Kay Parris. And it is an offspring of Little Gem, which everybody's familiar with. And that thing, four years ago it was six feet tall, so I guess it's a pretty quick grower, I would say. You can see here's another one of these wonderful pots she's got, and this is a tree-form Mugo Pine in here, really really handsome. Nice ball shape, with these spready things and these verticals around it. This last tree on this side, leading back over to the exit gate, this is a lovely tree. This is a Virginia pine, it's a native. This particular variety is called Wate's Golden. And we keep it kind of pruned in a modified Hindu-Pan so you can really see all kinds of structure. This is the biggest container in the yard, and it's a massive thing. And we have a Fernspray Gold Chamaecyparis in here, which we will keep pruned to balance correctly in the pot. And I just love the way this Chartreusian gold bounces off. She's got this lovely kind of lilac color to her house paint, and there's the really nice contrast here that works really well. Obviously containers are her thing. She's got this succulent pot we put in for her, she loves that too. This is one of the few blooming things, and it's probably just about done. This is an Illicium, which is an American plant. This is a hybrid sort, between a Mexican species and the Illicium floridanum which grows further south, but it's perfectly hardy here. This one is called Woodlander's Ruby, and it has these big star-shaped blooms that then produce these seed pods, it's obviously a fertile hybrid. And it blooms in the spring. It's a nice broad-leaved evergreen, and it sure seems happy here. This is a really unusual plant. This is a Bald Cypress, but it's a variety called Peve Minaret. and it is a dwarf for a Bald Cypress form. And it has these extremely dense, close ways of growing. Now, we put this in, it was quite small, this coming winter, I'm gonna prune it back to keep it tighter and make it more the form I want. But for right now, it's doing this like this, and it really fills this corner nice, it takes the curse off that corner of the house. One of her dogs loves to make tunnels in the grass. Where he lived before, he had a little hidey-hole in this big grass clump. So when I put in this yard, I made a grass clump place for him. This is a Miscanthus, this variety is Rigoletto. This is an evergreen, this is Compacta Chamaecyparis, really beautiful. We keep this kind of open. This was in a container for a long time, but we ended up putting it in the ground. In another container here, look at how well this is doing. It's really nice. This is a weeping red Japanese maple, called Red Dragon. And one of the things I like about this variety, is that it keeps its red color really well over the course of the summer. A lot of red Jap maples tend to go dark green when it gets hot. This one keeps its color better than most. And it's certainly happy. One thing I would say is that we fertilize this one pretty heavily, with Holly-Tone, simply because in a pot it hasn't got a lot of foraging room for the roots, so we give it extra good culture. But it seems to certainly be thriving there, and it really fills up. And once again, that color looks so great against the house to my eye, it just really is a pleasing combination. Around this round flagstone patio, I wanted to repeat that elevation change that makes a yard so much more interesting than just a flat palette. So we built up this little berm, brought in some good soil, landscape mix, and put these evergreens in. This is another Golden Pacific Juniper, look how happy it is. Shored it up with some interesting rocks, which is what I've done all over the place, just like at the waterfall. This is a Dwarf White Pine, Eastern White Pine, called Green Twist. Stays low, and you can see why it's called this, it's got these really interesting, the needles twist and turn, unlike just a straight species. So it adds this, once again, a really interesting textural quality to this whole area. But it's not gonna get so tall that from the house it's gonna block her view beyond, to the rest of the yard. But it adds a sense of near and far to a small yard also, so it adds interest in that way. This is a Dwarf Blue Spruce called Montgomery, or Montgomery Blue, I've seen it called both things. And my gosh, what a color. Pretty spectacular. If you look, you've got blue, gold, and then this Kelly green. It's really quite the little showcase right here. So you can see, I think that we've solved most of the design issues that were brought up in putting this yard together. It is a sanctuary, it really gives you a feeling of privacy. Lovely to look at, four seasons of the year, and the dogs dig it. It's a really pleasing place to come to, it's been wonderful to see it unfold and grow, since it was put in. And everybody seems to be pretty happy, including the plants.

- Middle Tennessee is awesomely beautiful with its lush, green rolling hills and hollers. Our fertile soils grow great gardens, and we can turn our worn out soil into good soil, with compost, lime, and a little tender loving care. But gardening in hilly country poses a special problem. Soil erosion. Terracing is a solution. And here is a terrace that was put in back in the 30's. Soil conservation went through a lot of the hills in Tennessee and ran terraces, so that that the water runs laterally, water will seek its own level, and doesn't just wash right down the hill. There's a break in the terrace here, and when get a gully wash of rain, the water carries my precious soil off of the farm. So I need to fix that break in the terrace. We use a transit to find the level lines along the contours of these hillside pastures. I then flag it, and follow the flags will a chisel plow, it's about two feet apart, and the trenches are only three or four inches deep. So as the water then is coming off the hill to go to the creek and away from here, it gets caught in these trenches, and soaks in, and that water then is used later on in our farm to grow pastures when it's dry in the summertime. Here we've laid some old logs on top of each other, held in place by metal fence posts. It's not the prettiest, but it holds back the soil for this blueberry patch. I've brought in compost and good soil to backfill it, because we love blueberries so much. Contour plowing helps to prevent soil erosion. In this bed here, the land falls off at the end, so we're planting in a curve, following the lay of the land, so when we get a rain, the soil doesn't wash off, it's more likely to just stay here. This is a project that I have dreamed of doing for years. On the hillsides it's too steep to grow a garden, so I hired a bulldozer and he took off the topsoil from this little section curves around this fence here, and he piled the topsoil off, put the bulldozer in there, and leveled the subsoil. We spread several tons of sand and lime, and then the bulldozer put the topsoil back on, all in about four hours. After a liberal dose of compost, we grew cover crops to bring the soil back in heart. This garlic was then planted last September. Now for the grand finale. Rocks make the prettiest terrace. This wall is just held in place with sand and gravel. There's no cement in it. And it's holding the soil up here, so it's the terrace for this garden right here. All cultures that last for thousands of years, think of Peru and China and Tibet, they flatten out their hillsides so that their soil stays there. They know how precious that soil is. Form follows function, and beauty is close behind. A terrace saves soil, and creates a feeling of a garden that's well-loved, and it's here to stay.

- [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.