Episode 2805

- [Narrator] You can't get a bouquet with a longer shelf life than one from a local flower farmer. Phillipe Chadwick visits Basil and Bergamot, one such farm that uses bio-dynamic methods to grow their flowers. We'll learn about a variety of Japanese Maples on a tour of a lovely home landscape. Jeff Poppen explains a three sister's garden. Join us. Japanese Maples can create striking focal points in the garden.

- I've been collecting plants, particularly maples and also conifers and Asian plants of all kinds for close to 40 years. I have the distinct pleasure today to be at the garden of Leon Olenick and his son Paul, who is a professional landscaper. Will be introducing us to some of the amazing plants that they have here in Leon's collection.

- Well, let's get started with this particular tree here is an Acer palmatum, Mikawa yatsubusa. In the trade, this could also be called tattooed due to the short stature of this tree. Fall colors and amazing red. What I really love about the tree in the spring is the samaras on here. The colors on this tree are going to generally be green throughout the year. But what also I like about it, is if you look really close at the bark it's got a lot of green to it and that's actually a feature in the winter that I like about this tree also. It's that green with the sap going back down to the root system will intensify and it gives you some winter interest.

- [Paul S] Exactly, because this is deciduous, of course, in the winter. Paul, this is a beautiful specimen here in front of your dad's house. Green foliage and a great canopy, the way it spreads out. Once again, a Japanese Maple.

- Yeah, this is a Murasaki kiyohime yatsubusa. Yatsubusa demonstrates, again, dwarf. This particular tree, I've seen get as big as four and five feet tall. But what's unique about this tree is it gets every bit of 12 to 15 feet wide. The leaves are much, much smaller than that of a normal acer palmatum, but what's really wonderful too is if you see on some on the leaves that get a little bit more sun, they get a dappled bit of red on the outer leaf lobe which is really nice. Paul, one thing that people will normally see when they hear Japanese maple is they'll see this Crimson Queen and they'll say, "Oh, that's the Japanese Maple." Whereas, you look, there's actually hundreds and hundreds of varieties of Japanese Maples. If you look at the leaf on the kiyohime, much different than the look of the dissectum on the Crimson Queen. It's really nice to use these together because of the fact that there's so much different structure. Even this one behind you, this is the Seiryu. Also, this is a dissectum leaf but it's on a palmatum upright tree. Right here you get an idea of three different type of Japanese Maples altogether.

- They got a wonderful airy texture to the leaves which is really, really nice. Incredible color on this one. And once again, the nice soft green of this.

- [Paul O] This will turn into a wonderful deep red in the fall.

- Wow, that's going to be just beautiful. All I have to say is, this is an absolutely incredible setting that we're in here. A full woodland setting, full Asian, Japanese style garden with all these incredible conifers, maples, the hard scape, the rocks. Quite extraordinary, to say the very least. Oh, and what do we have here, Paul?

- This is your Japanese mythology, your shishigashira, this is the female lion's head. It's got kind of a curled leaf to it. What's interesting about the shishigashira and the ojishi is the fact that neither of these trees produce any seeds. So, when you have a tree, they're going to be parent to an original cutting off of your trees that have been over 100 years ago.

- They're sterile in other words, basically.

- Correct, which some people like not having the weeds come out of it but the fall color on the shishigashira is a combination of gold, orange and red. Hence the name, lion's mane. This is acer palmatum ojishi and ojishi is the male form of the lion's mane. This is actually a little different, the leaf's a little larger. Fall color on this is going to be more on the lines of the red mixed with a little bit of orange. Still demonstrates a lion's mane. Again, no samaras, no seeds. So, a true mutation is ojishi and shishigashira.

- Paul, this Japanese Maple has really interesting leaf structure. Very, very thin, very, very linear leaves. Tell us a little bit about it.

- This is a Beni Otake, a ribbon leaf, linearilobum. Some people refer to as a bamboo leaf. Wonderful fall color. This particular tree is around 20 feet tall right now and I'm going to guesstimate that this will probably grow to be about a 30 foot plus tree. But very unique again, in the leaf structure on it and the colors are just phenomenal with that red.

- In comparison to that, this one here.

- Yeah, this is Elegans and Elegans is going to be more of your traditional palmatum. And you see it's going to have five to seven lobes.

- [Paul S] You can see the different in the leaf structure.

- The difference on this particular tree is no different from this Beni Otake. They're both going to get around 30 feet in size. For people looking to get some shade in the garden, these are amazing trees to do that with. Again, it's just going to give you another form different from what all other Japanese Maples look like.

- [Paul S] Wow, and the top of this tree, we've got incredible purple, new cones coming out. And the gold color on it. Which one is this now?

- [Paul O] This is Picea orientals, Skylands. Those cones actually come out red to start with.

- Wow and then turn pink. Yeah, I remember this species was named for the Skyland Arboretum, which is no longer in existence in New Jersey. I think that's where it was originally found.

- [Paul O] They get about 25 feet. They are perfect tree for privacy.

- [Paul S] It's great to get a splash of yellow in the garden like that. It really, really sets it off.

- [Paul O] It'll keep the yellow year round too.

- [Paul S] I know, I know. That's the amazing part of it. Wow, look at what we have here. Tell me about this maple.

- This is an Acer palmatum, Rhode Island Red. Rhode Island Red is one of your dwarfs to the blood good. This tree will get roughly about eight to 10 feet tall, 10 to 12 feet wide at maturity. This tree in particular is between 15 and 20 years old.

- [Paul S] And look at that beautiful dome on that with the flat bottom. It's absolutely just really a perfect setting. Especially when you pair it with this very, very nice rhododendron.

- [Paul O] This in an Acer japonicum, so when you get the fall color, you get the orange and the red. It's just a lot of different colors going on.

- [Paul S] We're sitting, according to Paul's dad on some teak benches that came from India. And I would guess, looking at the lichens on these things that they must be over 100 years old. But what a perfect setting here. This wonderful little, it's almost a garden in itself right here in this one spot. Paul, this Japanese Maple is amazing reticulated leaves. This is this venation in the leaves that you can see. What species do we have here?

- This again, is and Acer palmatum, but this is called Grandma Ghost. This was actually planted for my mother's mom when she passed away. So, this has a little more meaning in the garden just because of that.

- [Paul S] Wonderful, tribute, yeah.

- [Paul O] Gets around 12 to 15 feet.

- Exceptional variety here.

- This is one of your dwarfs, this is Acer palmatum Sharp's Pygmy. This one will always stay small. Again, this is going to get a little bit of width to it.

- [Paul S] Gets spread out, yeah.

- [Paul O] But the fall color on this is a really nice light red. I've even seen some purple on these before too.

- [Paul S] That's under a fairly big maple. Is it going to still get the fall color with that or not? I mean, the one underneath?

- Yes.

- It will.

- [Paul O] This is what's interesting. You see this tree which is every bit of 30 feet wide, 20 feet tall. Now, if I put these two leaves together, it's really hard to distinguish what's the difference.

- We've got a really interesting conifer here, Paul. You want to tell us a little bit about this weeping guy?

- This is a weeper, this is Picea omorika Gotelli Weeping. Gotelli's Weeping will also product the cones like we've seen on some of the other conifers. But this particular one is great for Tennessee because it's more drought tolerant. Now, when I say drought tolerant, it doesn't mean go buy it, stick it in the ground and never water it, leave it alone. It means after three to five years of establishment, this tree will be good to go.

- It also has interesting silver back on the needles which is kind of a neat feature.

- Well, right now you're seeing the new foliage on it and as that foliage starts to harden, it will give you some of this white, evergreen silver look to it.

- The silvering, which is kind of neat actually. Paul, we got a wonderful cut leaf maple here. You want to give us a little bit of a description on that?

- [Paul O] This is Acer Japonicum and this is Green Cascade. Green Cascade is going to be, it's going to give you nice little flowers that will dangle down in the spring. Gives you some samaras that are quite nice on it too. I love the structure on this particular tree. One of the nicer structures that there is. Fall color on this is just fabulous. Looks like and artist came and just dabbled some orange and red and yellow on it.

- Yeah, I've seen them in the fall, they're really extraordinary. Then just above it here, we've got the blue atlas cedar. The weeping form, which with a great trunk. You see how that trunk is shaped. Just a wonderful setting as we go up the steps in this part of the garden.

- This is actually partially deciduous. Every winter you lose quite of bit of the needles on it and then the spring it pushes a whole new flesh out. This tree will die if it's too wet. So, you see it's built up in a wall area where the drainage is amazing for it.

- [Paul S] Paul, I'm really amazed with the way you have arranged these rocks on this. It almost looks like a cliff out in nature somewhere.

- This used to just be a hillside that had railroad ties. I told my dad, no railroad ties. So, we drug these rocks down by hand, created this outcropping garden. A lot of different spruces were used, Picea abies, Picea koreana, that's the silberlocke up there. If you look closely you can see it. It almost looks like a frosted Christmas tree you could buy. That tree is wonderful and I'm excited that it's doing so well there. What I'm finding is the fact that this gets the end of the day sun and it's really, really well drained. Allows this tree to do well.

- I'm pretty excited about this piece of sculpture. Being a sculptor myself, this is really awesome and it fits so nicely in this vignette. And here at my feet is a dwarf Gingko.

- This is supposed to be more rounded in stature. It'll get as tall as me, but it's still a dwarf in retrospect to what a Gingko can become.

- Sure, most people think of Gingkos when they think of a really, really large tree. There's a whole collection now of dwarf Gingkos, Gnome, Buddy, Mariken.

- They're all very, very similar though.

- Very similar, a lot similar. We've got one more Japanese Maple here that I'm really impressed with. If you'd like to give me an update on this one.

- [Paul O] This is one of your dwarf dissectums, Globe is not relatively used as much, but wonderful orange to yellow fall color and I just love the shape and the curviness. Sometimes you may have a Japanese Maple one year, it just looks so bad, maybe the weather beat it up. Prune off the dead, give it some time, because these start to look amazing as they get some age to them.

- [Paul S] What sort of size is the acreage here on this property?

- [Paul O] It's between a quarter acre and a half acre of actual garden. The thing is, you create little vignettes, little spaces that are to their own in the garden.

- [Paul S] Then a lot of people find they'll start with a small, like you say, a small vignette or a small piece on their property and then they can connect as they decide they want to expand their collection. Until they get something like your dad's place here where we have pretty much a continuous garden area with the pathways and the walkways through it. Believe me, it beats having a lawn. Pretty much takes care of itself with the exception of some pruning.

- [Paul O] One thing that you'll find in a garden of this, he's got the large trees, so weeding is not as bad. However, weeding of trees is what becomes.

- [Paul S] Exactly, the seedlings. They're the seedlings that have to come out. Paul, it's really been a pleasure to come out here today. We've had a glorious day and a glorious garden to walk through. And I can thank you so much for your explanations which have been absolutely incredible. You know an awful lot about them. It makes it a lot easier for folks who are thinking about doing this sort of garden.

- As a floral designer, I'm always looking for the freshest cut flowers. I'm here in White's Creek at Basil and Bergamot with Emily who's been growing flowers for nine years and I'm super excited to see what she's got. This is the greenhouse where they do everything from seed starting to cuttings to propagation year round. I see different stages of things and different sizes of plants. What is the soil mixture that you start with? I think that's really important to discuss, because that's everything.

- I don't mix my own just because I feel like it's a lot of work and I have a lot to do. I go to the farm co-op and I buy the big bales of promix. It's just a general purpose planting medium. It's good for starting seeds, bumping plants up and just using it in containers as well. I like to use the sills for starting seeds just so I can get as many plants per seed packet as I can. I just fill it in with the promix, lay the seeds on the top and just set them out and let them germinate.

- Yeah, I see some that are probably about this stage that look like they're almost ready probably to go outside.

- Yes, they are ready. These are really sensitive to cold though, so I'm kind of waiting until then. Most nights are above 40, but they are definitely ready when you see the little roots that are circling around the bottom. That means they are ready to plant.

- And what are these guys right here?

- These are chocolate cosmos.

- Oh, that's fun.

- [Emily] They're related to dahlias.

- [Phillipe] I was going to say, I saw that little chunky root in there.

- [Emily] They're make a little tuber like a dahlia. And you lift them up and store them like a dahlia tuber too. Really neat.

- [Phillipe] And these are standard cosmos?

- [Emily] These are lemonade cosmos, so they're a pale yellow, so I'm excited about them. It's the first time I've grown them, but they are also ready to go out. It's a nice, easy to transplant plug.

- [Phillipe] Yeah, that is nice. So, as an organic grower, I see that you've got quite a bit of cover crops in here in this transition field.

- Yes.

- So, tell me about this.

- This will be where the summer flowers are going to be planted and possibly the dahlias. Since I plant all year, I want to make sure that I have a time for my soil to rest in between and this one is resting. There's crimson clover, field peas, rye and some kale. And it's just to help fix nitrogen and add organic matter. So, I'll mow this down about two weeks before I'm ready to plant. Then till it under, and then I'll plant in there after. I won't have to amend this much if not at all, with the organic matter of the rye and then the nitrogen. The legume's like pulling up all the nutrients to the surface of the soil.

- [Phillipe] I see these amazing greenhouses behind us with all kind of different things. So, let's go look at those. We're in one of the halfway covered houses and I see a couple different things in here. What's the benefits of growing in here as opposed to the field?

- Growing in a hoop house causes the plants to stretch and be a little bit taller which is great for cut flowers. It also protects them from weather, such as really cold or rain, so that the flowers are perfect, cuts down on diseases and things like that too. I want these to bloom hopefully around mother's day and it also will help extend my season, so that I can get things to bloom. Versus out in the field it'd be a couple weeks later.

- [Phillipe] Okay, gotcha. So these, are these campanulas?

- [Emily] Mm hmm, these are campanula. There's pink and white and then beside you is fox glove.

- [Phillipe] Fox glove. What are some of the other things that you prefer to do in a hoop house.

- Snapdragons are great in a hoop house, because they get really tall. Anything that I grow in the hoop house will be this tall verses this tall in the field. It's really amazing to see the difference when you plant out in both different places, the same thing.

- This is obviously your large production greenhouse. These anemones right here are quite spectacular and with their long stems they really make nice cut flowers.

- [Emily] These are a little open. I try to cut them more like this, so that they will have a longer vase life. But these will still have a really great vase life just because they opened this morning.

- [Phillipe] And their foliage is this green fern?

- [Emily] Yeah, there's not actually very many weeds in here luckily, so most of the green that is in here is the foliage of the anemone.

- [Phillipe] And so, the flower comes from all the way down at the base of the ground. So, you don't have to cut off any of their foliage.

- [Emily] Yeah, it's single stem which is one of my favorite to harvest, because it's one of the easiest.

- [Phillipe] Yeah, and the leaves can sit there and add to the future crop.

- Yeah and you see a new one coming behind the one you cut. That's a little baby there and so that will be the next round of anemones

- What are these next orange and yellow ones? These are unfamiliar to me.

- [Emily] These are butterfly ranunculus. They look more like the buttercup or a wild ranunculus than the traditional very rose flowered ranunculus.

- [Phillipe] I see lots of branching on them too.

- [Emily] Yeah, there's multiple blooms per stem, which is great. This is the best time to harvest, when one is open and these are about to open. It's the best. These are all open here.

- [Phillipe] Yeah, very cool. And of course, one of my favorites too for fragrance are the sweet peas.

- [Emily] Wherever you see netting, there are four rows of sweet peas and there's about 30 different varieties planted throughout.

- [Phillipe] I see some dark reds and some bright pinks probably some whites.

- [Emily] Yes and they're just about to start really expelling, you see all the little buds here. Just a few blooms.

- And how high will they get?

- They'll usually reach the top of the netting by the end of the season.

- Wow, what's the end of their season here?

- June, July, sometimes I can stretch them out.

- Kind of the dead of our summer, it just gets too hot for them.

- It just gets too hot for them, yeah.

- [Phillipe] Then to the queens of the greenhouse, the traditional ranunculus.

- [Emily] The traditional ranunculus. These are salmon ranunculus, so they're that really beautiful orangy peach color.

- [Phillipe] When do you plant these?

- These were planted in November. You pre-sprout them and then you plant them out, and that just makes longer stems and happier plants. I have not had success growing them outside of a hoop house. So, they'll be pretty large through the winter. The plants were about this size January and February and then when it finally warms up, they'll send out the flowers.

- You'll get a flush of green while they're growing.

- They're green all winter.

- Some of these bi-color ones down here are really spectacular. That dipped edge is just so neat.

- They get aphids really bad. I'm always happy to see the lady bugs on them.

- [Phillipe] Oh yeah, beneficial insects. Because you don't spray with anything that's not organic. Is there anything that you feel like you need to spray with at any point?

- They get botrytis very easily so I try to do preventative things because I know they're going to get those. I use neem oil when they start to grow. I also use something called Cease. It's like a beneficial bacteria that is supposed to help them be more vigorous and it attaches to their roots, so that they don't get the botrytis which they're really susceptible to.

- Everything looks really healthy so you are really staying on top of it. It does help to spray everything and get everything before you see it. When you see it, it's almost too late.

- Yes, what's an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

- Yeah, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of flowers.

- Yes!

- I feel like this is what people imagine when they hear a flower farm, the clusters masses of all of the flowers.

- Not in the field, in here.

- Right, not in the field, all prepared and ready to go. It is, it's really breathtaking in here. One thing I did notice that stood out to me was the tulips and how you've got them laid out with the bulbs still attached. Why do you do that?

- It keeps the flower fresh and stops it from continuing to bloom like if it was outside. It feeds the flower so it will store longer. It has to be stored dry so that the mold does not or anything happen to it. It looks a little bit thirsty, but as soon are you are ready to harvest them, you just pop the bulb off and then put it in a bucket of water and within 20 minutes it'll be rehydrated. And still have a two week vase life. It's amazing.

- Yeah, the benefits of local flowers. Tell me about this one, I've not seen this.

- [Emily] It's a light variety called prosecco. It's the first time I've grown them. I just planted them out this fall. They smell amazing and some of them have multiple blooms per stem which is great. And they bloom really late. The other ones have been finished for weeks and these just now came up.

- [Phillipe] Right, and that coloration is just so different than anything.

- [Emily] The peach.

- [Phillipe] Usually they're a white or a bright yellow, it's right in the middle.

- [Emily] I fell in love with that color.

- [Phillipe] Of course, ranunculus. Just kind of the queen of the farm I feel like here.

- [Emily] Absolutely, all the petals, the colors that they come in are definitely some of my favorites. These ranunculus here too. Just the difference in the color variation of those is great.

- Another one of my favorite flowers of all time are the anemones, just with that dark center. And this is one that's definitely, I would say, benefits from being local because they don't ship well are the Iceland poppies.

- Yes, when they ship them, they have to be in the cracked, this is called cracked bud stage where this is the perfect time to harvest them. It's really difficult to get them at this stage, especially here in the south because it gets so warm. I'll go out in the morning and cut them, when I try to cut them like this and then I'll got out an hour later and they'll be open. But I'm still getting the day that it opens, so they still have a really great vase life. They almost guaranteed to open if you get them cut local, because I'm getting them at just the right stage verses through shipping them, sometimes they'll cut them a little too early and send it on anyway.

- Yeah, I had some where I've pulled this. Ones shipped in from far away, you kind of have to pull this off yourself and sometimes the flower never fully opens or it stays really kind of crinkled, smooshed because of that. There's so many benefits of buying local flowers. One, from supporting your community, to two, just healthier and better flowers. This has just been a spectacular day. I can't thank you enough, Emily, for showing us around.

- [Emily] Thank you for coming out.

- The people who lived here 500 years ago before the European invasion were great farmers and gardeners. But instead of growing annual crops for their livestock they fed their deer and turkeys with crops that grew on trees. They ringed and felled unproductive trees, but they left the chestnut, oaks, and beeches that provided food for their livestock. It's no coincidence that the eastern hardwood forest was full of these trees when the Europeans arrived. But they did grow some annual crops. I suppose our farm grew corn because we found theses tools for grinding corn in a bluff overlooking the creek. Our farm still grows corn, pumpkins and beans. This year we have them all together in a three sister's patch. This picture was drawn in 1585, long before white people began growing corn. You can see the corn patch here, right next to their pumpkin patch. All of these crops, the beans, pumpkins and corn are easy to grow in our climate and they really grow well together. Farmers and gardeners, love to experiment. That's how we learn more and how to grow things better each year. This is an experiment that I did over the past few years of raising pumpkins in the same furrow that I planted the corn in. You can see how shady it is. These pumpkins will make some fruits, but they're not going to be overly productive because of all the shade that the corn is giving them. Here's the purple bean climbing up the cornstalk. You can see how far apart the leaves are. That's because it's not getting enough sunshine. This may make a few beans but it's not going to be very productive. So, I decided to try a patch with more space. Here we have the rows the same distance apart, about three and a half feet. But we have alternated the corn and the pumpkins, so they're not so tight together. This allows for more sunlight to come in and consequently, we'll have better crops of both the pumpkins and the corn and these beans that are climbing up the corn. The pumpkins here will grow along here and eventually they'll shade this soil, keep the sun off it and keep the soil moist. But they'll stay relatively low to the ground and the corn will rise up above it and the beans climb up the cornstalks. Beans and corns are companion plants. The beans, making nitrogen available and the corn help the beans get phosphorus. Corn's shallow root system doesn't interfere with the tap roots of beans and pumpkins. Which get their nutrients and water from deeper soil levels. Pumpkins are in the same family as the winter squashes, so we can substitute butternuts or acorn squash for the pumpkins. The three sisters method is a fun thing to try in your home garden. Experiment a little and have a good time gardening.