COVID-19 AWARENESS: Please note that we are taking all necessary precautions to keep our on-air personalities, interviewees and crew safe during this challenging time. However, we do run repeat stories and segments that were shot last year, before social distancing practices were recommended by health officials. If you see our hosts standing close to someone, please be assured that the segment was shot before March of 2020. We thank you for your concern and your interest in Garden Time.

It is Capitol Subaru Garden Dayz at Capitol Subaru in Salem! We are inviting people to come by and say hi between 11 and 3. It will be a great day with a select number of garden vendors and lots to see and do. We will be giving out gift cards every half hour along with a selection of garden books. There are free sweet pea planting kits for the kids and snacks provided by Capitol Subaru. In addition to garden art and plant vendors, you can have your furry friends trimmed with a complimentary grooming. We hope to see you there.

If you live in the Portland area and watch us on KPDX – Fox12 Plus you will have noticed that we are being moved to 12:30 because of the Grand Floral Parade. This is just another reason for subscribing to our YouTube channel. You will always get the show and stories a few days before everyone else. As some of you know, we are looking at doing some video podcasts after the end of the TV show, at the end of this month. If you are a subscriber to our YouTube channel or Facebook page you will see these podcasts as soon as they come out!

Don’t forget to sign up to enter the drawing for a $200 gift card to Garden Gallery Iron Works before the 19th of this month! You can enter here!

See you today at Subaru Garden Dayz!

This week we featured...

Dancing Oaks Pollinator Plants

June Is National Pollinator Month. Nurseries encourage the planting of pollinator gardens that have nectar and pollen producing plants for bees, birds, bats, and other natural pollinators. One of the great places to visit to learn about pollinator plants is at Dancing Oaks Nursery (503-838-6058). Dancing Oaks always has some great pollinator plants that are welcoming to all pollinators. To see a few we took the scenic drive down to the nursery outside of Monmouth to talk to Leonard. The first plant is one that we are used to seeing as a different cultivar, the Red Hot Poker. This one didn’t have the normal tight cluster of flowers at the end of the bloom stalks. The Kniphofia thompsonii is a native species to South Africa and has its tubular flowers spread out over the stalks. It still had the tall structure that people love in their gardens. Another structure plant that people love are the Sea Hollies (Eryngium alpinum). These bluish/green/grey foliage and early blooms are a great contrast to other brightly colored plants in the garden. The blooms open to a darker metallic blue that the bees just attack. The next plant was just covered in flower spikes. The Chinese Mint Shrub, Elsholtzia stauntonii, should not be confused with the Australian Mint Bush, which is a totally different plant. This one is hardy and is in its glory right now with tall stalks of light purple flowers that will bloom all the way to the fall. The foliage has a nice fragrance too, which makes it deer resistant. The next plant was a smaller ground cover type of plant in the Honeysuckle family called Lonicera crassifolia. It has shiny evergreen foliage and cute little yellow/orange blooms. Next we had a small plant, but watch out! The Fremontodendron – Flannel bush ‘Ken Taylor’ does not stay small for long. It becomes a big shrub in the garden so give it room! The bees love the big showy yellow flowers so, make room for this in your garden. The next plant has gotten a lot of attention the past few years, Asclepias speciose, or Showy Milkweed. This is the plant that you should have if you love butterflies, specifically the Monarch Butterfly. The adults feed on the nectar in the flowers, lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves and when they hatch the larvae eat the leaves. It is a one-stop shop for Monarchs! It also has something for us, showy flowers that are fragrant too. The next plant was a member of the potato and tomato family from South America, the Fabiana imbricate, ‘Violet Pichi’. It has heath or conifer type foliage, but it has really cool tiny blooms. The large plant behind it was the Eucomis bicolor (Pineapple Lily). This is a unique plant because its central flower stalks look like little pineapples when they bud and bloom. The top is unique too. In fact, Eucomis, means ‘good head of hair’ and that is what it looks like too! The final plant was the Arisaema ringens or Cobra Lily. These are also called Jack in the Pulpit for those who may have heard of it before. Some of these species can be a little stinky, but this one isn’t that bad. They have the really cool bloom and unique leaves that make a statement in the garden.

You can drive out to the nursery and pick up some of these great plants, but they also ship as well, so you don’t even have to leave your home!

One Green World Myrtles

One Green World is known for the variety and uniqueness of their plant offerings. Not only do they carry a broad range of the most popular plants and perennials, they also showcase plants from around the world that most of us are not familiar with. Recently we were able to visit and Sam Hubert educated us on the Myrtaceae, or myrtle family of plants. This is a huge and diverse family of plants that scientists hypothesize came from Gondwana (the Paleocene supercontinent). When the continent split, the family grew more diverse on the different continents. This family includes such different plants as guavas, eucalyptus, pomegranates, bottlebrushes, tea tree, and myrtles. A couple of plants that they have at One Green World included the groundcover ‘Chilean Cranberry Myrtle’ (Myrteola nummularifolia) with its tiny edible cranberry-type fruits, and the taller shrub ‘Pineapple Guava’ (Feijoa sellowiana) with the fleshy flower that is edible and tastes like cotton candy. The fruit is said to taste like pineapples. The next stop was by the much taller shrub/tree, the Chilean Myrtle Berry ‘Luma’. This tree has year round interest. In the spring it is covered with white blooms, causing some to call it the Snowball Tree, followed by fragrant and tasty black fruits and then in the winter the peeling bark creates an entirely different look. These were just a small selection of the plants that you can find at One Green World.

Before we left Judy saw one more interesting tree. This was a Red-Fleshed Apple. The tree we saw had multiple grafts of different red-fleshed apples on it. The apple used to be known as a bitter cousin to the sweet white fleshed apples we have in our gardens, but cross breeding has produced a sweeter apple while still maintaining that red flesh coloring.

These were just a few of the different plants we found at One Green World. Stop by their nursery and we are sure you will find something unique (and tasty) for your garden.

Nursery Pot Protection

Our tip of the week is about protecting your tender seedlings during those hot and sunny spring days. This tip comes from our friend, Ed Cunningham from Fishingham Garden. He used some old black plastic planting pots. These he cut in half and punched holes in the top rim of the pot. These were flipped over and, using landscape staples, fastened to the ground with the pot open facing east, and the pot walls facing west. This allows for the morning sun to enter from the east side to warm the plant. Then when the sun moves over the pot to the west, you have the barrier of the pot to protect the tender seedling from the intense sun and heat. When the plant has established its roots, you can simply remove the pot and put it in storage until next year!

Rose City Garden Railway

If you are looking to try something new in your garden, have you ever considered a garden train? There is a very active club of Garden Railroaders in Portland called the Rose City Garden Railway Society, and next weekend they are having their annual garden tour. We stopped by one of the locations to talk to Bill Derville about his railroad. Bill’s railroad is based on the mining town of Wallace, Idaho and has been growing for over 20 years. It is a labor of love, filling nearly half of the backyard. His layout is based on the mining industry in Wallace and includes a mine and a concentration mill for refining the silver ore. Some of the buildings are based on old photos of the town during its heyday. A new addition is a roundhouse that is still being built. This attention to detail is also shown in the plants that populate the layout. Small trees and shrubs are trimmed and groomed to showcase their trunks and branching, to the point that they look like their much larger cousins! There is also a 50 foot river and waterfall that is powered by pumps that move 150 gallons a minute. The tunnels, buildings, mountains and streams make it look like an old mining town!

Now, if you are interested in seeing this train and would like to see up to 10 more garden railroads, then next weekend is the perfect time. The Rose City Garden Railway Society is having their huge summer garden tour. This tour takes place every year on the Saturday before Father’s Day from 10am to 5pm. Society members open up their backyards to the general public and you can stop by and see these enchanting layouts. There is a booklet that is a self-guided tour of trains from Corbett to Hillsboro. It is also your ticket! The booklet/ticket is available at local hobby shops and garden centers around the area. If you would like to find the location nearest you, check out their website. The cost is only $10 for an entire carload of people. So gather all your friends and pick up a booklet/ticket and start ‘training’.

Orchid Repotting

Growing orchids can be very intimidating, especially if they start to outgrow their container and need a bigger space. Lori from the Oregon Orchid Society (503-632-4884) joined us to show us how easy it is to repot an orchid. She had a brand new method of repotting that uses a container to make a mini terrarium out of your orchid. She filled a vase with small clay pellets half way to the top and then used a wet bark and perlite mix to nearly the top of the vase. Then she placed her orchid with clean roots on top of that, securing it with more bark. She then filled the vase with water to the half way point. This will allow the orchid to reach the water, without sitting in it. This will keep you from over watering your orchid since it will reach down for the water it needs without being soaked.

In the past Lori had shown us the traditional way to repot. Back then we learned that you could repot an orchid to dress it up in a nicer pot or give it more room for growth. We learned that you don’t repot a plant when you first buy it. They are blooming and they don’t like to be messed with while they are blooming. We then looked at a plant that was at the end of its bloom cycle. This one you could just tear off the old root ball and get the plant down to the good firm healthy roots. Cut off all the stray roots with a scissors. You will want to sterilize the scissors first. Next prepare the planting mixture. Lori recommends the bark mixture with perlite. You can make your mix like Lori or you can buy a good commercial product like a professional orchid mix at your local garden center. Remember that the orchid likes what we like; a warm room, good water and sunshine. You can finish by cutting off the old bloom which will send all the plant energy to the roots for future growth.

If you love orchids and want to learn more about them, come by Subaru Garden Dayz this Saturday, June 11th from 11am to 3pm. The Oregon Orchid Society and the Cherry City Orchid Society will be giving orchid potting and mounting demonstrations. They will even have some for sale for you to take home. Orchids are a beautiful and unique flower, come by and learn more!

Fertilizer Numbers

Everyone has seen them... the numbers on the outside of a fertilizer bag. For most people they are the listing of three ingredients for each fertilizer. For those in the garden business they are called N-P-K.

These numbers represent a percentage of these 3 minerals. N = Nitrogen, P = Phosphorus and K = Potassium (K represents Potassium on the Periodic Table of Elements). The numbers listed are the percentages of each element in each bag. People often wonder what each element does to help your plants grow. There is a saying to help you remember their focus, 'Up, Down and All Around'. The first number is nitrogen and it represents 'Up' or foliar growth. That's all the green parts of the plant. When you need to green up your lawn, you pick something with a larger first number. The 'Down' represents root growth and that's the focus of phosphorus. A lot of bulb fertilizers will have this second number as a larger part of the fertilizer mix to give them a boost of root growth for stronger blooms. Some people say that we have enough phosphorus in our soils already, so if you are concerned, get a soil test to figure out what you have. The potassium is the third number and it is for 'All Around' plant health and vigor. This element is said to increase plant vigor and helps a plant fight off insect and disease damage when used correctly. A lot of gardeners use a 'triple 16' or 'triple 10' when fertilizing. These are called Balanced Fertilizers because their numbers are all the same. There are also some fertilizers that are combined with other things. A 'Weed and Feed' fertilizer is one that usually contains a broadleaf herbicide to get rid of the weeds in your lawn while it fertilizes your grass. These need to be used with caution, since, if they are broadcast into your garden beds they will kill or damage your landscape plants. Always read the label before applying.

When you do use a fertilizer you should water your lawn or plants well, then apply the fertilizer and rinse it in after application. The water will make sure that the plants are not stressed before you give them a shot of minerals. To reduce the stress even more, make sure that you don't fertilize when the day is too hot, and once again, always read the label before you apply!

Portland Nursery Spring Berries

Spring is the time for planting and that is especially true for your fruiting plants, and because the spring has been so cool and wet, you still have time to get some great fruiting plants into your garden! We stopped by Portland Nursery on Stark Street (503-231-5050), to talk with Sara about strawberries and raspberries, and fruiting plants in general. She mentioned that with both types of plants you can get June bearing crops, when the fruit all comes at once, and everbearing types, where the crops are much smaller but become ripe throughout the entire summer. June bearing are great when you want a lot of fruit for canning or baking. Everbearing are good if you want to have a small but steady stream of berries for your cereal or as a topping on your ice cream. These are two of the easiest berries to grow. They don’t need much training. Strawberries can spread a little but the runners can be cut off and replanted next to the main plant to keep them contained. Raspberries generally need just a couple wires to keep them from falling on the ground. They grow and fruit, and then you remove those ‘spent’ canes and allow the next set of canes to grow and fruit. There are even newer varieties of both that are on the market that will grow well in containers. Confused on which to buy and grow? Check out the Garden Solutions page on the Portland Nursery website for the varieties they have available and how to grow them.

The fruiting plants available are not just limited to strawberries and raspberries. Both locations of Portland Nursery have a huge selection of fruiting plants from grapes, blueberries, blackberries, gooseberries, currants, and many others. Stop by Portland Nursery and bring the taste of summer to your garden this year.

Le Petit Bistro Sustainability

Sustainability is a big buzzword these days. People and businesses try to implement changes to help them be more ‘earth friendly’, but it can be hard and take a lot of effort just to start making a difference. We found a new little business in Hubbard that has taken quite a few steps to do the right thing and it’s paying off! We stopped by and talked with Ann Shultz at Le Petit Bistro (503-982-3195), about the family run business and how they are taking concrete steps to being sustainable. Ann’s mother used to own a café in Woodburn and had a very successful business with delicious recipes on the menu. Ann and her family had thought about bringing the menu back as a coffee shop and small bistro. That dream came true less than a year ago in Hubbard. When the planning for the bistro was happening, Ann’s daughter wanted to become as earth friendly in their approach as possible. To that end they have sourced ethically responsible and sustainable partners including Caravan Coffee in Newberg and Lady Lane Farms in Mulino. They also allow diners to use reusable takeout containers when they pick up their order. These cups and sealed food containers can then be brought back and exchanged for new ones when you pick up your next order. Recently they received a grant from Marion County Environmental Services which has allowed them to expand some of their sustainable efforts. This includes some raised planting beds from Garden Gallery Iron Works, a neighboring business in Hubbard. They will use the produce from these beds in some of their menu items in the near future. Those menu items draw from Ann’s mom and from new combinations that look and smell incredibly tasty.

The next time you are in Hubbard, stop by and see how a successful small business can make a positive change in protecting the environment!

Grimms Summer Mulch

Now is the time to apply a good layer of mulch to your garden or garden bed. Chuck from Grimm’s Fuel (503-636-3623) joined us to talk about the different types of mulches you can get for your garden beds. In the past people liked the red, fresh color of a new Fir or Hemlock mulch. This type will age to a grey color and will help keep the weeds in check. The problem is that they tend to pull nitrogen from your soil as the wood breaks down and that leaves less for your plants. The other problem this year is availability. The wood based mulches are harder to come by due to the housing market and timber harvesting. The new popular mulch is Garden Mulch. This is a nice dark color and it will help your garden by providing nutrients for your plants. A layer of new garden mulch will also help to suppress weeds and keep them from popping up in your summer garden beds. Grimm’s has all the different types of mulches and can deliver them in bulk or can even blow them in so the work is done and you save your back! They even have gravel and other types of covers and fill materials. Check out their website or stop by their facility to see all the choices you have for your garden!

C-Bite Plant Support System

Growing plants sometimes requires support, and we don’t mean the support of friends and neighbors, we are talking structure! For some plants you may need a trellis, arbor or cage to hold them up. This can make the blooms more visible or make it easier to harvest ripe fruit. However, there are limitations. For example a tomato cage only goes so high and when your tomatoes decide to make a break for it, you may not be able to contain them. We found a new product that can help you, no matter how big your plants get.

We met with Morgan Rider the co-founder of Thriving Design, the makers of the C-Bite Plant Support System. Years ago her brother Jason got tired of having plants outgrow his plant cages and trellises. He developed the C-Bite clip. This clip allows you to build plant supports of nearly any size and shape. There are clips that fit steel garden rods and even ones that can work on small bamboo canes as well. The clips are designed to fit together and be used in different combinations so you can construct something as simple as a small trellis or teepee, or even something much larger like a cage, an arbor or an extended longer pole for really tall plants. There are over 140 different combinations of how to use them. Once you are done using them for the season, they can be disassembled and stored for the next season.

Another great thing about the clips is that they have hooks so you can secure netting or cords to your structures. They also have holes in the clip if you need to secure plant ties. We were very impressed! They come in 3 different colors. Sweet Tangerine Orange, Incognito Green (the standard sizes) and Sublime Green for those smaller stakes. You can start by buying a starter kit with poles of different lengths, clips and plant ties. Once you use them you’ll be back to pick up more stakes, clips and ties, which are also sold separately.

If you are tired of a lack of support in the garden (for your plants) check out the C-Bite system. You can find them at many garden retailers in our area, or online at

TOW – Ants on Your Peonies

This is peony season, but if you love peonies you know that they can get covered in ants. This is a normal thing. Ants love the sweet nectar that forms around the top of new buds. This is not a problem. They don’t hurt the plant and they don’t help the plant either. We know this because of our friends at Adelman Peony Gardens (503-393-6185). Jim and Carol are one of the largest growers of peonies in the country and they have a solution for those ant problems so you can enjoy your blooms indoors too. Simply take your buds, right before they bloom and swish them in a bucket of water. This will dislodge the ants and give you a nice clean bloom to display, and because you have the bloom at the beginning of its bloom period you will get to enjoy it longer!