- From the baggy studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA, it's time for another wormy episode of chemical-free horticultural hijinks...

I'm your host, Mike McGrath.

Have your evergreens been bugged by bagworms?

On today's show, we'll help you distinguish between a plant part and a cleverly disguised recreational vehicle for hungry, hungry caterpillars.

Otherwise, it's a fabulous phone call show, cats and kittens.

That's right, potential guests are busy practicing the Ohio State Stomp.

So we will take that heaping helping of your telecommunicated questions, comments, tips, tricks, suggestions and frustratingly frantic felicitations.

So keep your eyes and/or ears right here, true believers, because it's all coming up faster than you can play a round of whack the worm.

Right after this.

In life, we have many kinds of partners, school bus partners, business partners, even gardening partners.

Shouldn't you have one for the most important aspect of life, your health...?

- Support for You Bet Your Garden is provided by the Espoma company offering a complete selection of natural organic plant foods and potting soils.

More information about Espoma and the Espoma natural gardening community can be found at... - Welcome to another thrilling episode of You Bet Your Garden from the studios of Lehigh Valley Public Media in Bethlehem, PA, I am your host, Mike McGrath.

Coming up later in the show, bagworms, the great imposters of the gardening world.

They look like a part of the plant, but actually they're eating the rest of the plant.

We'll tell you all about them after lots of your fabulous phone calls at... Pat, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Thank you.

- Well, thank you, Pat.

How are you doing?

- Doing well today.

How are you?

- I'm just Ducky, thanks for asking.

Ducky always likes to be paid attention to.

Look, I think Ducky is taking over the show.

All right.

Where are you, Pat?

- I'm in... - OK, I know where that is.

And what can we do for Pat in West Chester?

- So I have some inkberry holly bushes, and they're planted in a line to screen the view of my air conditioner condenser to hide that.

And they have grown to over five feet tall.

I've planted them about seven years ago.

And so I have been trimming them each year down to about five feet so I can see over them out my picture window.

And the woody stems at the bottom are becoming more prominent each year.

So little by little, the bottom of the condenser is becoming visible again.

- Mm-hmm.

- So I just wondered if there was any tip or trick that I could apply to stop that trend or if not, then maybe what I could plant between them or what what to do about that.

- Well, it's interesting because we used your story on the Facebook page.

And one one of the things that our Facebook friends said was that hollies of any kind, the Ilex genus, are, they can be cut back to the ground almost, and they will regrow from that.

I used this trick to improve a holly that I have right in front of my house, that it wasn't bare at the bottom, but it looked like a broken umbrella, and it had a side chute that looked really good.

So now I have, after three or four years, a really well-formed holly that seems to be growing to the north.

So, you know, if you ever want to kind of start over with these plants again, you could cut them way back down to about a foot and they would regrow.

And when they would regrow, they would fill in that area underneath.

Now, the warning is that it could take years.

So you'd have to put up a big fence around your air conditioner like everybody else does.

And I believe that when I answered your question on Facebook that I suggested you get a little decorative fence of some kind and just put that around the part that's showing and have it be as tall as the bottom of the green growth just above it, because these are magnificent plants.

They're great food for wildlife.

They're beautiful.

You know, inkberries are just really special forms of the holly plant.

And, you know, what happens with these kind of plants and you've seen this on evergreens all over is the bottom branches start to brown out.

Well, it's not old age or disease or anything.

It's just that the sun can't get down there any longer.

And so the top of the plant is taking over, you know, using all the nutrition it gets from the sunlight for photosynthesis.

And down below, it starts to brown out.

And, you know, in evergreens, I don't mind this.

I just lob them off, so to speak and, you know, that way I'm not banging my head into the lowest branches when I'm out there mowing as well.

But what do you think?

A line of pavers put up there or a little decorative fence of some kind along the bottom?

How much are we talking about, a foot?

- It's about probably a foot and a half now.

- Well, if it were I... - I don't know, I just... - I would not invest.

I would not invest years into, quote, "regrowing" these plants because theoretically the same thing will happen again.

But there should be some kind of interesting fencing or edging or, you know, maybe make a little a little wall out of either bricks or pavers that are turned to the high side, so to speak, and pretend it was always deliberate.

- Mm-hmm.

OK, I'll have to think about it.

I was hoping there was something I could plant in between them.

I tried sedges a couple years ago, but they grow flat, like flat along the ground most of the time, instead of standing up, so they didn't really fill in.

- Yeah, I can't think of any perennials that would cover up that spot in in the winter time.

You know, most of them they either drop their leaves or they're herbaceous and they disappear.

And, you know, I would go a lot of times people just you know, I understand the desire to plant, duh!

I don't have I don't have to make an honest living, thanks for it.

Thanks to it.

But I think sometimes people neglect hardscaping and other solutions which could look really interesting.

And if you want to bring this little wall, and also, if the if the brown area keeps going up, you can make the wall bigger.

But you could also move the wall forward a little bit away from the hollies and fill it with dirt and plant annuals out there.

Or even herbaceous perennials, you know, whatever you want to, to whatever you want to do, but I think it would be fun and I think it would look good.

- Right.

I'm going to have to look into the fencing, the availability of different kinds of fencing, because I haven't really done that.

I hadn't thought about it until you said it.

So, yeah, I'll have to look into some opportunities to do the fencing.

- Yeah, or again... - I do have some more perennials.

- Or again, some, you know, a nice wall of bricks, because that can be changed in height or a nice wall of pavers because that can be changed in height.

And if things change dramatically and you wind up removing the hollies to start again or something, the nice thing about pavers and bricks is, you know, you could just move them to wherever you want them and use them for something else.

- Right, right, that sounds good.

I'll have to look into that.

- OK, well, good luck to you.

- You take care.

- Thank you.

- My pleasure.

Bye bye.

- All right.

You too.

Bye bye.

- Number to call... Claire, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hello.

How are you Mike?

I am just Ducky.

Thanks for asking, Claire.

Ducky's getting a lot of head rubs today.

He's a happy, lucky ducky.

How are you doing?

- I'm doing well.

I am in Suwanee, Tennessee.

- So what can we do for Claire?

- Well, I was interested in learning how to transplant daffodils.

I know how to plant them from the bulbs, but we have daffodils growing behind what is now a brush pile and they're nice daffodils.

And so I was wondering how, how and when to transplant them?

- I have daffodils all throughout the woods at the back of my property that I think were planted by evil squirrels.

I also, we had we had some devastating rainstorms and all of the, the way my property is situated, all the water goes down our gravel driveway and at the edge of the driveway was a planting of crocus.

And I was really bitterly disappointed that following spring when no crocus came up and then my wife pointed at the very back of our backyard and said, "Nope, they just moved."

So this season, you're going to enjoy the flowers and then... - And pick them.

- Yeah.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

One thing I've learned about daffodils, though.

If you bring them inside to a vase, don't put other flowers in there because the daffodils secrete something that makes the other plants unhappy.

- Oh, I didn't know that.

- Yeah, yeah.

If you put in daffodils and tulips, which would be, you know, a normal combination, they just won't do well.

So then it's important to let the green leaves turn brown naturally, because what's happening now, now that the flower is done, those green leaves are absorbing solar energy and forming a new flower inside.

And this is also the time.

I mean, you never have to feed daffodils or anything like that.

But if you ever wanted to feed your bulbs, this is when you would do it, after the flower's done but while the leaves are still green.

Then when the leaves turn brown and before you lose track of exactly where they are, then you dig, then you dig them up and bring them inside and don't wash them at all.

Just let them dry naturally and then put them in like a box or mouse proof container with some moist peat moss, not too moist.

And then when we get to, say, Thanksgiving in your area, plant them where you want them.

- OK. - This is a trick I learned from...

I'm trying to remember her name now, she wrote two, well, she wrote a lot of books, but one was called The Tulip, Anna Pavord.

One was called The Tulip, one was called The Bulb.

And Anna gardens in England, where it's always damp, which is not the best thing for spring bulbs.

They like to be dry over the summer.

So she digs them up not to move them, but to protect them.

And then it's also easier to plant annual flowers over where they were.

But she digs them up and brings them in every year, takes them back out.

And in your climate, you would plant them around Thanksgiving.

- And so just bring them in and put them in a mouse-proof container and wait.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Perfect.

OK, all right, then my next question had to do with the same process of transplanting with Lenten rose because our Lenten rose has grown all outside of the area where I planted it.

I wanted to get some of it out and put it somewhere else.

- OK, so do you want to leave the mother plant in the same spot?

- Yes, uh-huh.

- Well, I would say that, you know, right about now, which in my world of taping ahead and everything is April 10th, would probably be a really good time to take some cuttings.

So you would, and obviously you're going to remove more of the plant than you want to use in the future, right?

- Yeah.

- So take some cuttings from the nicest branches, I guess like two feet long, something like that, and then get a couple of regular flower pots and a nice organic seed starting mix, potting soil mix, wet the mix thoroughly and do this in plastic pots, not clay pots, because we need to retain water now.

And then, don't shove the cutting into the potting soil, make a hole with a pencil or a chopstick or your finger, drop it in there and then fill in that spot with more soil.

Do not place this in direct sunshine.

You want it to be in at most dappled shade, but it doesn't need sunshine now.

What it's going to do is you're going to keep that soil moist and you will see when there's new growth and that means there's roots.

And I would probably, in your climate, keep the the the new plants in the pot until we get to like September or November, because you don't want to be planting them in June or July or August in that part of Tennessee.

But as soon as the weather cools down, just take them out of their pots and plant them where you want them to grow.

- Great.

Thanks so much.

I sure enjoy your program.

- Well, thank you so much.

And you take care.

- OK, bye-bye.

- Number to call... Melanie, welcome to You Bet Your Garden.

- Hi.

Hi, Mike.

- Hello Melanie.

How you doing?

- I'm doing really good.

I am calling from Wilmington, North Carolina.

- All right, what can we do for Melanie, who is straddling the Carolinas?

- So I have two really large, mature pecan trees in my front yard.

And we were going to get them maintained and trimmed and cleaned up because they're they're pretty just limb-y and the limbs are always falling off.

We had a couple of hurricanes and, you know, they're just constantly dropping limbs and they need some love.

I was hoping to do this in February and it did not happen.

And I had just read that, you know, you probably shouldn't do it once things start to warm up.

And I was just trying to figure out when I should work on these pecans and get an, I guess an arborist or somebody out here since they weren't able to come in February.

- Yes, you want to have a certified arborist.

And you're correct that, you know, the perfect time for something like this in your location would probably be January or February, but it's not too late.

This is a time of your season, especially that trees can recover from pruning very rapidly.

What you want to avoid is the fall because they're trying to go dormant even in a place like yours.

And definitely you want to avoid the summertime with the heat of the summer.

That's very stressful for the tree.

But I would say you're good.

You're good for the entire month.

But get somebody out there sooner than later and make sure they're certified and you should be good to go.

Are they the trees giving you good pecans?

- Well, the trees do put off some pretty good ones, but the squirrels don't usually let us get to them.

- Ah, evil squirrels again!

- It's always a battle.

- Yeah, yeah.

Boy, I tell you, they are a case.

One thing after you're after you're done with your pruning things as we do get into the into the fall, if you want to try to protect the trees, you can buy a device called a motion activated sprinkler and set it up into the trees aimed at the top of the trees or wherever you generally get the best pecans.

And whenever those devils with long tails go into the tree, they'll set it off and get soaked.

- Yeah, that's great.

Do you have any other, I guess, recommendations?

I've never trimmed these trees before.

And I was just curious, is there anything else aside from having an arborist, you know, that I should keep in mind?

- No, but just the opposite.

I think your your timing is good.

I think your idea is good.

The arborist will know how to structurally kind of repair them.

- Thanks for confirming that.

I appreciate it.

- All right.

You take care.

Good luck to you.

All right.

It is that time again, cats and kittens.

We are up to the Question of the Week, which we're calling... Tim in Cream Ridge, New Jersey, writes... First, those signs are not about insecticides but nasty, foul smelling agents that are sprayed to deter people looking for free Christmas trees.

If you ignore these signs and cut one of the trees and bring it indoors, it will soon smell like 17 skunks held a steel cage match in your living room.

We don't know who won that match, but we can be sure about who lost.

Now, I wish bagworms were that easy to explain, but let's start with the fact that they are not worms and neither are the many other caterpillars whose common name includes the word worm, like the corn earworm, the cabbage worm, tomato horn worm, etc, etc.

For some unknown reason, farmers called these caterpillars worms and the name stuck.

So if something quote "wormy" is attacking your plants, they are caterpillars.

Oh, which is important as we shall soon see.

Bagworm nests look much like pine cones, so they are often ignored when they first show up on coniferous plants like arborvitae and juniper.

Those are their favorites.

But they'll also breed on many other plants, including pines, spruce, apple, box elder, elms, black locust, maple, oaks, persimmons, poplars and willows.

Now that's per the USDA.

I've personally only seen them on arborvitae and juniper.

Now we get to the weird part.

The adult males are hairy moths that emerge from their bags to mate in the fall.

But the adult females are grub-like creatures that have no wings and spend their entire life inside bags constructed of locally available materials that again look just like the host plant produced them naturally.

The adult males mate with these weird grub-like things through an opening in the bag, I'm not making this up.

And then, as is often true in nature, the adults die, but not before the female lays 50 to 100 eggs inside her bag.

That bag, by the way, also has an opening at the south end for the convenience deposit of moth poop.

Ahem!

The eggs will survive winter, and then pupae from the hatched eggs will emerge in early spring, April through June depending on your location and the weather.

They drop down on a thread of silk, and if the wind is right, it can carry them to another host plant.

If it isn't, they'll just feed on the same plant.

Then they begin actively feeding, so this is the time to spray the plant with the old original form of Bt.

This organic caterpillar killer has been around for many decades and only harms caterpillars that are actively feeding on the sprayed plant parts.

It will not affect birds, bees, butterflies, frogs, toads, pets, people, naked mole rats or Mechagodzillas.

While feeding the little worms, actively collect material from the host plant with which they will quickly make their own bags emerging only to feed.

And because the bag is composed of material from the plant they're eating, it is really easy to miss, but you will eventually see the damage they cause.

So if you've had bagworms on a plant in the past, keep a close eye on it for the next couple of months and have your Bt at the ready.

You also can and should prune off any bags you can reach at any time of the year and then do what an Ohio State University extension bulletin calls "the bagworm stomp", which should be self-explanatory.

Well, that's your was some interesting information about bagworms now, wasn't it?

Luckily for yous, the Question of the Week appears in print at the Garden Alive website.

To read it over at your leisure or your leisure, just click the link for the Question of the Week at our website, which is still and will forever be... Gardens Alive supports the You Bet Your Garden Question of the Week and you will always find the latest Question of the Week at the Gardens Alive website.

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Yikes!

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