Plantrama - plants, landscapes, & bringing nature indoors

Learn the truth about calcium and the black blossom end rot on your tomatoes, hear about preserving the herbs you've grown, discover a better way to prone large shrubs, and find out why a Cannabis plant isn't budding.

Our sponsor today is Territorial Seeds.

:40 True or False: Lack of calcium in the soil causes blossom end rot in tomatoes 8:05 Eat/Drink/Grow: Preserving Herbs 16:42 Insider Information: Limbing Large Shrubs UP 20:43 Love Letters and Questions: Cannabis not budding

C.L. and Ellen and talk about ways to prepare eggplant, protecting your fall crops from frost, taking cuttings of shrubs and tender plants, and drying white hydrangea flowers.

:47 What's for dinner: Eggplant 11:08 Insider Information: Protecting fall crops if an early freeze is predicted. 16:56 Eat/Drink/Grow: Taking cuttings of woody plants and tender perennials. 26:26 Love Letters and Questions: Kya writes to ask if she can dry her Hydrangea paniculata flowers

In this episode Ellen and C.L. give you a way to identify grasses, sedges and rushes, we discuss the mildew that you might be seeing on various plants, and answer a listener's question about where to find unusual plants.

:39 Plant Noob: Sedges, grasses and rushes.

9:19 Eat/Drink/Grow: A deep dive into MILDEW.

23:44 Love Letters and Questions: Ellen asks where to find the plants we speak about.

Wondering if your zucchini can cross with the neighbor's pumpkins? Want to know about planting where a tree used to grow? Ellen and C.L. talk about those topics plus finding inexpensive plants for shade and curling tomato leaves.

:37 True or False: Zucchini can cross with pumpkins so that you get weird fruit. 3:11 Eat/Drink/Grow: Why a plant might not grow when put near where a tree used to be. 13:27 Plant Noob – Inexpensive plants for shade? An email from Madeline. 16:44 Love Letters and Questions: Ted asks why on some days the foliage on his tomato plant is curled.

Hear about two cocktails that use edible flowers, learn about the ways vines support themselves or climb structures, and discover how to tell which flowers are male or female on your summer squash. Plus we answer a listener's question about fall vegetable plantings.

:45 What's For Dinner: Flower Power Summer Cocktails

6:08 Eat/Drink/Grow: Vines – how they grow, when to go annual or perennial.

16:07 Insider Information: How to tell male from female flowers on summer squash

20:42 Love Letters and Questions: Keri writes saying that she has open areas in her vegetable garden where the plants have finished.

Ellen and C.L. give ideas for making your outdoor office (or Zoom Room) greener. We talk about the maintenance of daylilies, and answer a listener's question about controlling mosquitos.

:32 Your Outdoor Office: Still working from home? You need greenery. 4:47 Eat/Drink/Grow: A Deep Dive into Daylilies. 16:58 Love Letters and Questions: Paul asks if there is a natural way to help control mosquitos and if some plants really repel them.

Ellen and C.L. give ideas for making your outdoor office (or Zoom Room) greener. We talk about the maintenance of daylilies, and answer a listener's question about controlling mosquitos.

:32 Your Outdoor Office: Still working from home? You need greenery. 4:47 Eat/Drink/Grow: A Deep Dive into Daylilies. 16:58 Love Letters and Questions: Paul asks if there is a natural way to help control mosquitos and if some plants really repel them.

Ellen and C.L. give ideas for making your outdoor office (or Zoom Room) greener. We talk about the maintenance of daylilies, and answer a listener's question about controlling mosquitos.

:32 Your Outdoor Office: Still working from home? You need greenery. 4:47 Eat/Drink/Grow: A Deep Dive into Daylilies. 16:58 Love Letters and Questions: Paul asks if there is a natural way to help control mosquitos and if some plants really repel them.

Hear how to use all the summer squash from your garden, learn about the new foraging calendar from Amber Lotus Publishing, and listen to Ellen give her top plants for foraging in the Midwest and Northeast. In our main segment we'll talk about why a plant might change growth habits, or develop different foliage and flower colors.

1:30 What's for dinner: It's zucchini mania!

8:45 Insider Information: Ellen's Backyard Foraging Calendar is out!

11:32 Eat/Drink/Grow: Why some plants "revert" changing growth patterns or color

20:31 Love Letters and Questions: Sara asks if Ellen will name her top 5 plants to forage for in the Northeast or Midwest

Order Ellen's calendar here:

https://www.amberlotus.com/backyard-foraging-2021-wall-calendar

Wondering why your salad, broccoli or radishes are flowering? Thinking that the houseplants you put out for the summer aren't looking fantastic? Learn about attractively arranging houseplants outside, summer orchid care, what "bolting" means in the veggie garden, and a good time to transplant a tree.

:30 Plant Noob: Why some vegetables "bolt" 8:53 Eat/Drink/Grow: Summer orchid care, houseplants at summer camp, and using indoor plants for outdoor décor 22:55 Love Letters and Questions Fred writes that he wants to move a small maple tree that was planted in the wrong place.