Episode 2917

- [Narrator] Did you know you can set a mood with a fresh bouquet? Hot colors stimulate, cool colors are calming. Troy Marden and J Schwanke show us how to mix or match fresh cuts to fit the occasion. Annette Shrader combines a variety of fun elements into a small farm plot that can feed a family of four during the growing season. This and more, stay tuned. 'Cause excitement or convey calm. The key is the color combination of these fresh cuts.

- I have an unusual treat today. I get to be in the studio and I have a special guest here with me J Schwanke. And J is a florist and he's gonna talk to us a little bit about arranging flowers and I think specifically a little bit about color. And how to use it in your life.

- Right when you and I were talking we were talking about how much we both love color.

- Right.

- You love it for the garden--

- I do.

- And I love it for my flower arrangements.

- Yes.

- And I think it's so interesting because we have that ability to turn people's feelings into flowers.

- Yes.

- Depending upon what we use it's gonna affect the emotion.

- Right.

- That we can create.

- And the way you feel and the way you see it.

- Absolutely absolutely.

- In garden design, a lot of times we talk about cool colors and hot colors and your gonna--

- Right.

- You know how it makes you feel and how you transition in between those things. And really the same thing goes for--

- Absolutely.

- Arranging flowers at home.

- When I think about it, I try I mean we're very fortunate that we have a good color spectrum in the flower world.

- Right.

- And we have stronger colors, purples, pinks things like that we have a lot more of.

- Sure.

- And we have less blue and teal, you know the popularity of teals and aquas?

- Right.

- That's kinda on edge for us.

- Sure.

- But we still have those available to us.

- Right. And I think it's interesting when we talk about cool and hot colors because obviously hot colors stimulate us.

- Right.

- They make us, they may--

- They jump out.

- They can actually raise our blood pressure. They can make us want to eat more. Paint, painting your kitchen red is a bad idea because it will make you want to eat more food

- Yes.

- But it's not, it is also not unusual that many restaurants use reds or oranges in their logo.

- Brighter colors

- To stimulate your appetite.

- Exactly.

- So we can do that with our flowers as well.

- Right.

- Now, the cool ones, calm us down.

- Mhm.

- Purple however though, is color of passion.

- Right.

- And so when we talk about that, people interesting... People who like purple will spend more money on anything, on themselves, on furnishings--

- Interesting.

- On friends. They're extremely generous people, but if they like that color purple that it's the color of passion and it will bubble to the top.

- Okay.

- So I love that and so I think the other thing that people don't think about when we think about an arrangement is--

- Sure.

- We can have an arrangement on a table that will help us set the mood for the event that we're gonna have.

- Right.

- So um when I did weddings I don't do weddings anymore--

- Congratulations.

- right, right, right, right. But when I would do weddings and I would have a bridezilla.

- Yes.

- I would try and encourage monochromatic colors because a monochromatic color scheme will help calm them down.

- Mhm.

- So with that we have tints tones and shades of one color. So if we were talking about that and we peaches here, so we've got tints tones and shades of those colors where we've added white to the color where we have the color pure and where we've added black to the color. So that's gonna calm people down a little bit.

- Right.

- Now if we wanted to make it more friendly we could use analogous colors. And so a good combination there are yellows. My favorite analogous combination is yellows and greens--

- Yellows and greens of course

- But we also know hot pink and orange Rose types. And this is friendly.

- Mhm

- It's like going next door and borrowing a cup of sugar.

- Right.

- So when we utilize those that's very helpful for us as well. Then if we wanna cause excitement, okay?

- Mhm.

- Then we go to those complimentary colors. So that's where we might pick blues and oranges.

- Right.

- And complimentary colors we're talking about colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel.

- Absolutely, so when we have those colors together then we start to create an excitement that can go along with what we're doing. So I brought a little vase today.

- Yeah. Because that's the thing that I do right.

- Exactly.

- Right is we make flowers. So the other thing that I like to encourage with people and I think that is so interesting is we may see a bunch of flowers and we may pick them up at a florist or at a flower seller somewhere and we don't know what to do with them and--

- And we do that.

- That is not what we do with them okay. So I always talk about the short cut.

- Mhm. To a beautiful arrangement is actually the shortcut. So if we take it and we cut the stem short and we drop it down in, so that it sits on the edge of the vase.

- Hugs right down to the top of that vase.

- Absolutely so by shortening those up, then we can get a better arrangement that has a better collective of the blooms in one spot. And by adding a little bit of foliage inside there, we also create structure,

- Right.

- Which is wonderful at the same time. And the act of arranging flowers actually relaxes us.

- Mhm So, since you know, when we're digging in the dirt and we're getting those... That soil under our fingernails.

- Yes and there I just read an article recently about the microbes that are in the soil that actually cause a physical reaction in you that calms you down.

- Antidepressant.

- Yes.

- Actually from those flowers. And I think that that's fascinating. So with flower arranging our body releases endorphins.

- Mhm.

- That allow us to have a more zen-like feeling about it. And so then when we gift the flowers, then the person who receives the flowers releases melatonin and it calms them down as well. So it's a great way for us to be able to calm people down so easily by just a little bit of flower arranging. And I think I encourage people to enjoy the process.

- Right.

- You know it's fun.

- You mentioned structure from your foliage and not only is it visible structure to the arrangement--

- Correct.

- As part of a visual thing but it also is creating structure down here in the vase that as you stick more stems in, it helps hold the flowers.

- They crisscross all together.

- All together, yeah.

- And I think that that's the important factor is I think when people start to become intimidated with flowers they don't realize that there's a couple of starting points

- Right.

- And even if we go out into the garden and we grab a stem of viburnum or I have a burning bush in my yard--

- Mmh.

- That I love to use all times of year.

- Mhm And so when we do that and bring those in and add them to the vase first it gives us an armature to start to stick flowers into

- Right.

- To hold those blossoms in place. It's just, it's a perfect opportunity for us. And I think it's fun. And so--

- Yeah.

- You can a little arrangement like that can go to together very easily. And now we're gonna create excitement in the event that we're gonna have.

- So I noticed as you were putting this together you're not using scissors.

- Correct.

- You're using a knife and you're using--

- You're so observant. I like that, that's fun.

- Pruners.

- Right exactly so um as a florist my go-to is a locking blade, Swiss army knife.

- Yes.

- But people get afraid. And so a bypass cutter is best.

- Right.

- So because that.. Because the blade is bypassing the other one then it's gonna give us a good slanted cut. We wanna make sure that we cut an angle always. And then we insert with a scissors we're cutting into it. And what happens is it presses down and--

- Crushes the stem

- Crushes the vascular system of the flour. And that's the biggest problem. And with a knife many times too, people will. I think it's interesting because there's that's kinda.. They'll do this as well.

- Right and you break that stem.

- Yeah and and doing that is not good. You need to have that nice sharp cut.

- Mhm

- And so it's great to do it this way.

- Yeah.

- And so the other great part about that too is when we go into the vase then, and it sits on the bottom there's still room for it to come up the stem,

- Right.

- If it's cut flush, it may sit on the bottom and

- And that'll block those.

- Absolutely.

- So that leads me then to the care of your flower arrangements

- Right.

- How are you going to get the most life, the longest life? Because let's face it, flowers are not inexpensive.

- Correct.

- And we want them when we invest in them to last especially for sending them to somebody else.

- Absolutely.

- You don't want arrangement that 24 hours later is flopped over the side of the vase.

- Correct. we want something that's gonna stick around for a week or two weeks

- Right.

- Or maybe even longer. So, first thing we always wanna make sure that we're using cold water. I know that there's all the old wives tales that we heard. Our grandmothers told us to use warm water.

- Right.

- But with the warm water there's more air in the water.

- Mhm.

- And then also the warm water starts to activate bacteria growth from the stems.

- Right.

- So next thing is you get that little packet of food.

- Mhm.

- Okay use that packet of food because there's some ingredients in here that are gonna help your flowers last longer. Number one, there's food that feeds them so that they can grow bigger and stronger.

- Mhm.

- There's also an antibacterial agent to help keep bacteria down. It's like the chlorine that's in our swimming pool.

- Mhm.

- Okay. So bacteria levels gonna stay down. We have a Vasco dilator that opens up the vascular system kinda like an aspirin, okay.

- Right, right.

- But there's no buffering with it.

- Sure.

- And that's the reason you don't wanna put an aspirin in your--

- Mhm.

- In your arrangement but that opens up the vascular system. And then the other thing is a pH controller.

- Mhm.

- So that we get a pH that's about 4.5 to 5.5 that's where we wanna be.

- So their really kinda an acidic.

- They are they do like that, right?

- To keep those stems clear and drawing water.

- Absolutely.

- So that's what all of those ingredients are for

- Absolutely.

- Is to inhibit bacteria growth and dilate the vascular system.

- The vascular system. Mhm.

- So that those flowers are drawing water.

- There also little chlorine tablets that are available too that are people are using now. And many people call them a Gerber tablet.

- Okay.

- And what they... What it is it's an enhanced chlorine tablet like for a swimming pool.

- Mhm

- That lasts for about three days. And what it does is just keeps that bacteria level low.

- Yeah, and the reason we're concerned about bacteria is because they're going to enter the vascular system of the stems.

- Correct.

- Clog it up and then all of a sudden you're gonna come in one morning.

- Deteriorating from inside.

- Yeah.

- Absolutely. And they're gonna be now, if you come in and people are wilted over, cut them again, start over.

- Mmh.

- That's a great thing to do.

- Yeah.

- And roses seem to be the biggest challenge with that. So and I love roses. I think so many of the roses that we have hybridized today, so many of the hybridizes that are out there that are working on roses. Have worked on ones that have a much stronger vascular system. So better performance.

- Better performance--

- Yeah.

- Longer lasting

- Absolutely.

- So "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom."

- Correct.

- Is your show which also airs on public television.

- Absolutely.

- Just like we do--

- We're in good company.

- We are in good company. So you can check your local listings to find out when Jay's program airs in your area and you can enjoy it right along with volunteer gardener.

- Well, welcome to my backyard garden that I'm going to put out in things that I've picked up along the way that I felt could hold plants. They are wooden, or they have holes in them but they're not your typical, plastic pot. And when I'm finished I hope to plant enough things in here that would be food for four people. As long as they are producing. this actually is a bushel basket. And it might be like three fourths of a bushel, but it doesn't matter. And I filled it with some good vegetable garden soil for vegetables and herbs. And then what I'm going to plant in here I'm gonna put my dill, I'm gonna plant peppers, I'm going to put in basil. I'm also gonna put a couple of Marigold plants in there because they kinda make the insects not like what I'm gonna put in here. So I have great plans that this will because I have enough dirt so they can grow a good root system. And I did add some worm castings and some chicken manure to this. Down in front of me this is something that will hold water. So I'm gonna collect rainwater and believe it or not I just poured out a full bucket of this from the winter rains. And so I hope to have rain here. And if I think I have mosquitoes I might put one little drop of bleach in the water to keep this from having mosquito larva in it. Now this is my chicken coop. This is what they haul chickens to market in. And when I got it, didn't know what was gonna do with it. But guess what? I've put me a wooden box in there, put my soil in. This is where I'm gonna plant my cucumbers. And I did get a bush variety. That won't be one. And even if it did with this trellis behind it might have a chance to grow up pool, but anyway I'm waiting for them and I'll train them to come up through this opening. And then behind here I'm gonna have some Daylilies blooming to be a little bit pretty back there. This is is a bucket from a well and it doesn't have a hole in it. So it'll be another water collector for me. Now, then this is another trough. These are all barnyard items. This trough right here does have some holes in it. I may have to put a few more in it but this soil I'm going to put in purple bush green beans. They're called Royal purple pod. And I'm going to try to get at least two, four, six, eight, 10, 12 plants in here. And I estimate that just one plant you can have a yield at least of 12 to 15 beans. So they also continue to bloom, as long as you keep the old things picked off. As with any fruit or vegetables, don't let it go to seed. So I'm expecting that many green beans from there. All right, now this is another quite interesting container. I think these are ammunition boxes. I got them and I thought, what am I gonna do with them? I used them to set plants on, but then I decided, well this is perfect for planting in because it's wooden, it has slats. It has good drainage. And so in these, I'm gonna put Chinese cabbage over here in this one, and I'm going to put my other just regular Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage into these. I will make sure that this top does not fall forward. So I'll have to make improvise something to keep that up there like that. The other thing now I have some arugula, I love arugula, and it does bear well, a lot of the season. And so in this one, right here I'm going to plant arugula. And in this one, I have some carrots. I'm gonna mix a little bit more sand into this. That won't be a lot of carrots but it's a little late, but I have some rainbow mix carrot seeds that I intend to put in there. I think this is just a really neat tip. If you've grown lettuce, you know that snails and slugs can just ruin it. And I've cut open a head of iceberg lettuce before and there they are all intertwined in there. But even just bib lettuce, just single leaf lettuce plant them in a hanging basket and then just put it on your Shepherd's Hook or wherever you can hang from. Plant your lettuce and then you don't have slug problems. Let's talk about squash, squash is one of those vegetables that you think they're gonna give you this big yield, but these are gonna be Straightneck squash plants that I have purchased. But one squash plant in a day might give you one or maybe two young squash. But if you're trying to make a casserole or just a skillet of squash for your family you definitely want more than one plant. This is an old corn planter. It actually would have been pulled by a mule and my friend Ronnie was very happy to bring this and for me to put it in my vegetable garden. So I had squash in it last year and it worked. But now when squash starts to bear, the vine it will run. So I like, some people say you plant them in a hill but I don't plant them in the hill. But the theory of planting a squash in a hill is so that it will have something to fall over on when it starts to get a little bit lanky and starts to trail out. But I'm planning to plant squash in this. And then I have a dough bowl. or this might've been a trough that they fed the hogs out of back here, but this right here will be my squash garden. But of course, in my garden of eating I still have tomatoes to do. And I have enough built up good soil behind me that I will put my tomato plants in. And we're still looking at a scary night or two of low temperatures. And so I'm gonna hold off another week but I'll tell you this I've lived in this home for 40 years. I have seen a Mother's Day where I got up and I had frost on the windshield of my car and I'm the geranium. So it has happened before. So we just have to be wise and watch the weather to protect the things that we want to grow in our garden. And I'm hoping for a good success out of this garden. And I hope yours will be successful also.

- Have you ever wanted to start your own little box with trees or shrubs? I've got a quick and easy method. It's called the Texas pot method. What you do is you start with two clay pots. You could use the short squatty ones or the upright ones like this, whatever you have handy, you want one pot smaller. So it's gonna fit inside the larger pot. You wanna get two corks. You're gonna plug up your holes. Obviously the corks, aren't gonna go down all the way and that's fine, if it tippy a little that's okay. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna fill our large pot a little bit on the bottom with just some clay sand. Now we wanna take our smaller pot and just kind of snugly squish it down in there. And now we're gonna fill the perimeter with some more sand. We've almost got enough sand here, let's see. It looks great, just smooth it out with your fingers. If a little bit of sand goes in the interior doesn't matter. Now what you wanna do next. Let me grab this water is as you would want to saturate the sand with your water, this can be messy. So obviously you'd wanna do it someplace that a mess won't hurt. I've tried using wet sand to begin with, and it's just it's too hard to get the other pot down in there with a wet sand it actually takes longer. So we've wet our sand. The next thing you wanna do is you've got this interior pot with nothing in it. You got a cork in the bottom. You're gonna fill this interior pot with just water. And I've got a little bit more water in this container here. Now we've got our little microclimate going for our starters. I've went out and I snipped some fresh boxwood. Let me move this here a little bit for you. We're just gonna go ahead. You can usually just peel off the edges. You wanna start with a fresh cut and you wanna use root hormone. And it's actually the root hormone always works better. If your stem as a little damp, the one I trimmed you just wanna stick it in there, knock off the excess and you're gonna stick it in this wet sand. Now you could do a lot of little starts all the way around here, as you can see. The important thing to do is you wanna always keep the water in the interior pot so that your sand stays moist. Once you've get roots established you can move these starters to little pots, put them in a cold frame in the winter time or actually in your greenhouse or even in your garage. And by spring, you'll have all kinds of fun little boxwoods that you can plant in your garden not only boxwoods work well with this method but you could also do a numerous other plants. Let your imagination run wild, nothing ventured nothing gained. that's what I always say.

- A surprising number of garden plants have some level of toxicity. Most of them are not terribly toxic and certainly nothing like fatal. But it's important for people with small children and animals that tend to eat plants to be aware of what might be a problem in the garden. Puppies in particular, like to ingest things and toddlers. So I'd like to show you today some plants for you to be aware of and just to keep in mind. This is the plant that most everybody grows in a shady moist spot in the summer it's caladium and caladium won't kill you. It's not terribly fatal, but if somebody made the mistake of eating a leaf, it might paralyze their vocal cords for awhile and produce a terrible burning sensation in their mouth and throat, not a fun thing to do. This is because it has a kind of an acid and that has little crystals in it that affect your throat that way. And there are several plants that have the same oxalate acids in them. This is another one, rhubarb. We eat rhubarb, we eat the red stems. Don't ever go up into the leaf and try to eat it because it will produce the same effect as the caladiums very toxic too. And very violent in its reaction. Once again, it won't kill you, but you would not enjoy it. You'd swear off rhubarb forever and that would be a shame. A common wildflower that people often plant in their Woodland gardens. And it's certainly native to this part of Tennessee and does well here. Is Jack in the pulpit. Once again, the same kind of poison in this plant it'll produce a burning in the mouth and throat and make you unable to talk for a while. Some people might think that's a good thing but I don't recommend it. Ivy, same thing. And this applies to any kind of the English Ivy whether it's the Hardy outdoor type or the type that you use as a houseplant inside, that's more tender. Chewing the leaves will produce a kind of digestive upset that will produce vomiting and on a very painful stomach. And the next group of plants tend to have this digestive problem associated with ingesting them. Lantana, the plant isn't terribly toxic but the berries are after these flowers drop off they'll produce a little cluster of round berries that turn purple black when they're ripe. And they're green when they're unripe, those berries can produce a lot of stomach aches and children find them... Often find them very attractive to eat. And it's a good idea to stay away from those. Different types have different levels of toxicity though. So one type may produce a big stomach ache and another type might produce none. This plant back here. This is a hardy sweet pea and we eat garden peas. And it's exactly the same genus. However, the seeds of the hardy sweet pea and of the annual beautiful sweet pea that people grow for its fragrance. And as a cut flower in the spring the seeds of those are toxic. They will produce once again terrible stomach ache, diarrhea, vomiting that sort of thing. Tomatoes and potatoes and all members of this family. The fruit is mildly toxic when it's tiny and green it loses its toxicity as it gets larger. The leaves are always toxic. Once again, bad cramping stomach ache is what this will give you. This is true of potatoes, eggplant. This is a big family with a lot of vegetables in it that people need to be aware of. Another wild plant that grows around here is this... This is a variegated form of the Solomon seal and this will develop little berries that hang off after it blooms, which are toxic as are all other parts of the plant. It has a big juicy rhizome down there in the ground which might look like something to eat it's not. And the leaves are also to be avoided. This is all gastrointestinal problems. Now we get into the part that caused cardiac problems. Delphinium, delphinium and Larkspur people grow lots of this. It has beautiful blue, pink, or white flowers in this what they call crow's foot type of foliage. It is a heart depressant. It slows down the heartbeat so much that in large amounts, it can prove fatal. You'd have to eat a lot but a little bit would make somebody pretty uncomfortable. Fox glove, this is digitalis And there is a drug manufactured from this plant. It increases the heart rate. So for people who need it, this will stimulate the heart. However, if you don't need it and it's not applied by a doctor, you sure don't wanna give it to yourself. So stay away from this plant. It's a very potent, very powerful in a normal person. If you ate it, it would produce a irregular heartbeat. And if you were given to any kind of heart trouble that would be a bad thing. Same is true of lobelia. This is a beautiful native Cardinal flower. It will get a tall spike of Scarlet flowers, beloved of hummingbirds, and a very showy in the summer garden. But all parts of this plant are toxic and will make you very sick. Probably won't kill you, but very sick. And now we get to the stuff that could actually kill you. This is flowering tobacco and everybody's aware of tobacco and everybody's aware of the nicotine component of tobacco. The flowering type has far less nicotine in it than the type grown for cigars and cigarettes. But the nicotine in it is still a poison. Nicotine is a poison as a matter of fact, as a powerful insecticide. So any part of this plant is to be avoided. Don't let your kids pull the plants and suck the honey out. It's a very fragrant nectar filled plant. These are two of the most toxic plants in the garden. This is Lily of the Valley. Most people don't know this. Don't ever pick this flower and put it on a cake or a cupcake or something as a decoration. This is fatal a little bit 'll kill you. This is castor bean produces big bean like seeds. And two seeds will kill the average sized adult, very toxic. This is often used as a mole repellent. And the last plant I wanna show you is this extremely beautiful mountain, Laurel. This is the alternate name for this. In the Pennsylvania Highlands is sheep kill because if animals graze on it, it just, they fall down and die. It is so toxic. This is a member of the Azalea and Rhododendron family. And all Azaleas and Rhododendrons have varying degrees of toxicity. So just to be aware of that sort of thing, very beautiful plant though. Just don't let, particularly livestock gets killed by this and animals that nibble on things. So I don't wanna scare anybody off because most of the plants that I've shown you today. First off tastes so bad that most nobody would eat them but even so they're mildly toxic. And I only tell you what they will do because toddlers and dogs are the ones that usually get in trouble with these sorts of things. But don't be afraid to plant any of this stuff in your garden because with a modicum of care, everything will workout fine. And there will be no problems at all.