Hey everyone! In this episode, Ken and Lisa dig deep into gardening for Arizona’s amazing mountain landscapes. Whether you’re new to the green thumb game or a seasoned pro, there’ll be something for everyone in this episode of The Mountain Gardener Podcast. So, grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and let’s get growing! 🪴
Included in this week’s episode:
• Best Pond Care for a Healthy Winter
• How to Grow a Better Holiday Poinsettia
• Can Poinsettias Live Outdoors?
• Why are Poinsettias used to Celebrate Holidays like Christmas
• Top 10 Landscape Evergreens for Holiday Decorating
• How to Force a Poinsettia to Flower and Turn Color Again
Ken and Lisa will also answer listener questions about gardening in Arizona’s high country.
Get ready to catch Ken and Lisa’s gardening bug! They’re bursting with knowledge and passion for growing beautiful things and are ready to share it all with you. Don’t miss out on this chance to level up your gardening game!
Subscribe to The Mountain Gardener Podcast today and get your hands dirty with their expert tips and tricks. You’ll find it on all your favorite podcast platforms.
#wattersgardencenter, #wattersgardencenteraz, mountaingardenerpodcast, #top10gardener, #gardeningtips, #Holidaygardening
Welcome to the mountain Gardener with your host Ken Lane gardening can be challenging but with Ken’s tips tricks and local advice you’ll reap huge rewards now welcome your host Ken Lane and welcome to this week’s edition of the mountain Gardener your host Ken Lane here every week talking about the
Landscapes of Northern Arizona and oh well fall is done okay in the in Arizona at least Autumn’s kind of the last of the leaves so I’ve got a couple leaves left on my Maples but it’s not many the Bradford pairs they look the ornamental pairs actually the fruiting pairs they
Look pretty good for another next Windstorm and then it’s going to be officially winter so this is when your Evergreens really take front stage and so you’re really this is when you 20% 20% that’s what designers plan when doing a design in your yard 20% of your landscape should be dedicated to
Evergreens so that when everything else is deciduous that is they lose their leaves you don’t look naked you don’t look bare you don’t look like a lunar landscape like there not what happened did they forget to plant out there all winter long your Evergreens your Spruce
Your Pine your your red tip Banas your native uh mahonias and silver berries uh manzanas your Hol on the North side use these are all the Evergreen plants there’s lots of them in fact the garden center is filled with them because they look good this time of year and folks
Are coming in they want to have something a Hol by the front door that that screams holidays it’s it’s perfect and so we have a bunch of Hol so lots of evergreens are in now but if you get that wrong you be going oh what happened there’s that that this just feels like
There’s not enough here so you come home and it’s like H you got nothing to hang your lights on so we the lane CA has got uh their lights are up and they’re on so kind of excited for Christmas this year I got Lisa the greatest gift I can’t
Wait to share it with you all she’s gonna be so stunned it’s gon to be exciting so the trees are up uh the outside’s decorated we’ve had our three Christmas parties already oh my gosh it’s a busy year postco um note to self everyone’s trying to catchup on all the
Parties so trying to get three years worth crammed into one one season and it’s exciting so one thing you should watch right now so if you’ve got a pond if you’ve got fountains if you’ve got water running out in the yard as a Decor piece you you really don’t want those to
Freeze and so it hasn’t really I haven’t seen ice forming on top of the pond we’ve got an active pond it’s pretty sizable it’s a waterfall kind of com comes up walk goes to the Garden you can hear it throughout the backyard the birds love it and so but but one thing I
Do is keep the leaves out of the skimmer that’s a that’s a number one thing so I did put a skimmer into my pond just because the debris gets so thick and I really don’t want to muck the thing out every other year so the skimmer just
Takes all that debris sucks it up and I just have to dump it out it’s pretty full this time of year the other one that you really have to watch you do not want your pond to freeze solid across the top of that water feature it’s detrimental to fish because what happens
Is any debris that gets down in there underneath that ice let’s say leaves uh just all the mck all the dust that’s happened over the season as that gets trapped underneath that ice layer it can kill your fish there’s some toxic things that happen and they they kind of you’ll
See them get they just will disappear they died over the winter because they were they were underneath that that ice layer being slowly poisoned as things composted in the bottom of the pond and so what I do is I throw a pond heater it’s easy thing I’ve got mine it looks
Like a floating Rock of all things there’s different types there’s there’s cattle types there’s some that very industrial throwing in there in the stock tank and it’ll keep things from from freezing what it does is at about 35 36 degrees it activates and turns on so there’s a thermostat inside this
Floating Pond heater and so it just keeps a hole open it doesn’t keep the water you’re not going to take a hot tub it’s not like 103 degrees in your spa this is just barely enough to keep that section of the Pond from freezing so for me what I’ve learned because I’ve gone
Through a couple Subzero Winters in my in my Gardens this is in presca Arizona about every 10 years we get this crazy cold event that we’re not used to we’re used to to to teens that’s normal single digits we’ll dip there for a day and maybe pop
Back up but to go Subzero that’s really cold now you folks in the White Mountains Flagstaff you Williams you’re used to ah you weaklings you know know what cold is you should be out there in your ski gear and go down the hills and no there’s a reason I don’t live in Flag
Staff I go up there to ski but I don’t want to live there in that cold it gets too cold I like it here where it’s you know like we get cold 20s I’ve seen 22 already in the in the in the backyard and that’s pretty comfortable I enjoy
That once you go down another 20 degrees you’re getting into low single digits it’s just it’s not fun so the I live here in Prescot Arizona you when it gets really cold like that that ice will just solid right over there it can actually form where where the grandkids can walk
Across it uh that gets that thick but if that ice gets too thick it can actually start to freeze your the pump motor so I’ve got a waterfall so I’ve got a one horse waterfall pump and one year it’s happened once I learned some slow learner I figured it out though uh the
Pond froze I didn’t have my pond heater and that ice affected my my my uh waterfall pump and it cost me a, pump that is not fun so I put the pond heater out there they’re very inexpensive get it from Amazon any eBay any place will have those any
Any CAL Ranch olsson’s grain all your feed stores they’ll have those because there’s a traditional stock tank they you can’t have the ice the cattle don’t want their ice horses don’t want their ice they’re water IED over you keep it open just a hole and it allows all the
Toxic gases that build up underneath that ice for the fish keeps them from being poisoned it keeps your Motors the the pond pump from being frozen and just good health helps let the birds into the water there’s a lot of kind of watch that one make sure you you same thing
Winterize everything and so I’ve taken home some bags of mulch and I’ve thrown it on top of my irrigation valve so in the ground you’ve got a box I just take home a bag there the best insulator ever is dirt and I’m going to use some next year anyway so it’s either manure
Potting soap mulch taking one of my bags I’m going to use next spring and I take those home and I put them now on top of my irrigation box so it keeps those valves in the ground from freezing if we get a harsh winter that can happen and
That’s a very very expensive part so because you’re not just replacing one valve you have to rebuild the entire manifold it’s going to cost you it’s G to be a $500 bill to get that done one bag one $10 bag of exotic potting soil you’re going to need to grow tomatoes
And geraniums next year could could prevent that from happening so just easy insurance that just kind of guarantees you’re not gonna have problems over the winter so already I’m seeing I had a a backf flow preventor go out so your irrigation so it was protected but it
Was old it’s 20 years old it finally gave way started spring a leak so I’m G have to replace a back flip that’s a many times you’ll see a green bag in the yard it’s sitting there over top of a a plumbing piece comes out of the ground
Comes from your irrigation box comes up about about a foot that’s a big old brass piece and then it goes right back in the ground and what that does a back flip preventor if there’s a reduction of pressure from the city from your city or whoever your provider is it’ll prevent
Your water from your irrigation getting sucked back into the city drinky water that’s a great device it it does keep us all healthier uh but they’re also prone to freezing and breaking or getting old and just giving out in this case so kind of watch keep that thing from freezing
Because the part itself that that back that big brass piece it’s like a $200 bill then you need to hire a plumber to go put it in for you so you just don’t want those things freeze that’s where your heat tape the Big Green insulated bags will take the pressure off um
Anyway that’s some things you should watch watch your pond that’s one that’s easy to for Kit because you’re inside now you go it’s been running you’re enjoying sunsets through the Autumn go oh I love the pond out here and now it’s gotten cold you’re inside sipping few
More Cups of Tea Bing cookies already and and U you’ve just forgot that it was out there don’t do that it’s bad for your wallet bad for your fish and bad for your motor pump motors so lots in store for you I’ve got Lisa Waters I coming in with your garden questions
Right after this be right back the holidays are here in Arizona’s Christmas City bringing family closer and those chilly Winter Winds while you’re decorating the outside don’t forget to brighten up the inside with exotic Christmas plants from Waters beautiful Christmas cactus and poincettia are coming to town grown
Exclusively by Waters and colors you won’t find anywhere else unique vibrant and guaranteed to warm even the dreariest winter day for exotic Christmas plants at Waters Garden Center in Prescot you’ve and listening to Ken Lane the mountain Gardener green thumbs learned while working in the Family Garden Center now welcome back to the
Mountain Gardener and we are back with Lisa Waters Lane in the studio she comes each week with your garden questions just what are other what are your neighbors asking what are they thinking about what’s going on in their yards or their homes or their Gardens so we try to
Share that and part those over the airwaves of well the Southwest so actually anymore we’ve got listeners in New Zealand England it’s the it’s it’s Spotify and apple you gotta love those to this they make us famous on the internet that entertaining you know No Business Like Show Business Like no
Business maybe you shouldn’t sing maybe she just impart some garden garden advice so how was your Thanksgiving oh I don’t know I was with I was with my girlfriend and she and I had a great time how was your mine was very quiet kid we went to Texas we went to te
Together just so those that his first time they tuned in we’re married for like ever we’re in a business together forever we’re business partners radio hosts um forever so we went to Texas because three of our four children live there so we thought we’ll go to them um which was
So much fun we ate and we ate and then we ate some more and we swimming and then we ate some more so it was a great time yeah took went to some museums kind of had the kids interact with some stuff played some football did all the traditional swimming Thanksgiving stuff
We had family pictures taken because oh while a long time yeah yes I think the last time we had them were they were Church photos like the kids were tiny the directory I think we were like 30 yeah so it was time so that’ll be fun to
See it will was good yeah great time I would do it again so what we do is we try we like getting together it’s just as the families disperse across the country it’s harder to get together and so we usually buy a very nice rent we
Rent a nice Airbnb or vbro house and it’s got to have a pool I’ve had that every time requirement and it’s got to be big because there’s multiple families so usually a four or five bedroom house and it’s just a hoot everyone lands and just the food comes out and the games
Start being played and it is fun so they have a d Jenga game now Jenga is where you pull the wood blocks out whoever makes it fall anyways our son was playing with his son and they have this new one that’s actually shocks you it plays this music and you have to
Pick your piece and move it before time there’s a certain time allow and if you don’t move it it will shock you oh like yeah yeah you want to play and I said there’s not a chance in the world I’m gonna play that game thank you very much
Those with the with heart issues or pacemakers not a game for you but it was fun watching them it was fun watching all the kids going shocked so yeah farle all kinds of games all kinds of games so we’re l a game game people okay so that’s enough of our
Thanksgiving because everyone’s going yeah but let me share about mine really it’s about gardening they’re tuned in for teach me something I want to grow better plants um how do I get rid of goph first why okay are you done no once I go in those voices no I know
So Jeff is iness he has a very natural native yard he has yakas and bear grass and just native gr things like that in his yard his landscaper recommends cutting everything back uh and he wants to know do you cut back those native things the bear grass the yakas the what
Do you do with them yeah and um since they are so native his other question is do I really need to worry about watering through the winter time yeah so uh so if it’s truly a native no you probably don’t have to water it’ll keep them
Healthy if you can give them a spot you spit on them every once in a while but but if they’re if they’re planted that is they’re you bought them from the nursery put them in in the ground especially if they’re newer it is beneficial to water them now uh going
Back to his landscaper pruning how to cut him back this is a blunder that a lot of new Landscape Maintenance folks do they they whack them they treat them like grass it’s a Bare Grass but it’s not truly a grass it’s not like pampus grass that you cut back it’s not like
Deer Grass that you come back seber grass you cut that back FES you cut that back but bear grass you don’t it looks like a yucka and the flower in it it’s like a white flower that kind of hovers across gets about hip high and it grows
Wild out in those Valley areas so palden Chino Valley presca Valley Dewey all those that huge Valley areas and lower it goes down the Cottonwood Camp birdie Sedona areas you’ll see This Tall Grass about hip high and has white flowers on it you prune back the flower and that’s
It the grass if you to treat it like grass and cut it back to like ankle high it would take years if it didn’t kill it it would take years to recover don’t let your landscapers do that to you same with yaka yaka is not a grass it has
This grass look to it and the flowers can come up there’s different types of of yakas there’s lots of them lots of native ones um some from banana yakas to Red yucka you prune back the flour and that’s it you don’t prune back the foliage you keep it intact you might
Fertilize it when they’re done so that’ll bring out even more flowers next spring you get bigger stronger brighter flowers if you if you care for it at all it will be be healthier uh but don’t let them prune back it’ll take years to recover from that Agave first of all
They’re going to bite you because they got these thorns on them so you generally don’t want to get too close to Agave or the other name is century plant uh but uh you don’t PR those things back they would probably die if you did that there might be some pups come off the
Side but natives you generally give them a haircut maybe that’s it that’s the beauty of natives it’s the beauty of natives very low M so la Agnes some of your bigger um um your Evergreen kind of kind of native ever silk tassel Manzanita you might just shape them so
That don’t get kind of wild looking if you want to keep them more formal or if you like that wild look let them go that’s their natural form so there you go Jeff you now informed okay next question is from Jan in Prescot Valley
She says where she used to live it was a warmer it had much warmer warmer Winters and she would buy several amarillas bulbs grow them in the house for Christmas and then she would put them outside uh her question is can she do that in our area area yeah and Jan so uh
No yeah emeris is a tropical so if that bulb freezes so the ground is gonna freeze some here in the mountains of Arizona to kind of where was she at she presca belly so your ground is gonna freeze you’re gonna get a frost line probably just a few inches deep it’s not
Very deep out there but some and if that bulb freezes it is vapor it turns to black mush in the ground rots and dies so that’s more of a phoenix I’m guessing you’re from the more tropical you know that’s New Orleans things that places where they don’t freeze there you can grow those
Outdoors here not so much now you can grow outdoors narcissus or defil is the other name paper whites those will grow outdoors pretty well so there’s a couple different varieties but there’s quite a few of them that will grow outdoors tulips uh chrysanthemums not that’s not a bulb we’re talking
Bulbs anyway trying to go through crocus crocus what hent those are all your spring blooming bulbs those are in the ground and they’re fine they don’t freeze but but not so much with emerus right we keep them indoors yep or just go I liked them they were good and throw
Them in the trash they’re not meant to be forever plant they’re meant Point Setters are meant to be a season and they’re meant to be like throw away true all right one more question I think we have time Robert and Chino put in a row of Arizona Cyprus which he was assured
It was still okay to plant oh yeah his question is now because they are young um newly planted how frequent does he need to water those oh that’s good Robert good question so new plants good for you you’ll love that you planted those now next spring when you get all
That flusher growth whereas everyone else that waited they’re going to plant theirs and they’re just GNA sit there all year until the following spring so you’re going to get a season ahead of things now they’re new so their their Roots have not not they’ve started to form but they haven’t elongated
Dramatically into the surrounding landscape you’ll need to water those probably a couple times a month not probably you will need to Robert you Robert listen to me twice a month give it a deep soak like take a hand water my hand if you need take the hose out
Couple times if we get a serious snowstorm I’m talking like foot of snow or eight8 12 inches of snow you can maybe cut one of those out that is so rare around here you just don’t see that very often but twice twice a month a deep soak will make them keep them very
Healthy very happy and you’ll get better growth next spring with that so with that we are out of time thank you Lisa for being here K Lisa Lane the mountain gardeners be right back after this okay maybe after the same white elephant exchange it’s time to start a new holiday tradition
A living Christmas tree from Waters Garden Center can be decorated and enjoyed for a lifetime not just a season when the holiday festivities end gather family and friends and plant your tree together for years of enjoyment guaranteed as your family tree grows have a tree grow with your family from
Waters Garden Center in presc you’ve been listening to the mountain Gardener with local expert Ken Lane join the conversation every week as he answers timely Garden question questions email Ken a question directly from your phone to his desktop through the web at Waters Garden center.com that’s Waters with 2garden
Center.com now welcome back your host Ken Lane a mistake that new folks especially from the deserts or the Southern California areas make when they first move to a Four Season climate that is they up here in God’s country we’ve got uh we’ve got spring summer fall winter whereas the deserts only have summer followed by summer more summer and then
They kind of have a spring season in January but it never gets cold Southern California it’s just the perfect weather all the time it’s tropical Hawaii it’s just it’s beautiful all the time but you don’t have four seasons and so there they grow poetas Christmas cactus all these
Holiday plants Outdoors year round and so they come here and I’ve had this happen with several customers that are kind of new it’s for you folks in the Midwest and East Coast bear with me I I just don’t want our friends our fellow gardeners to make a mistake that I’ve
Seen before you already know what to do they’re not going to live outdoors uh poas are tropical plants that is they are actually developed they were found by I don’t know the exact story a colonel some famous person whose name was poinsetta Colonel poinsetta or poinset I think that’s what it was
Poinet he was a botanist too so he traveled the world in the new new world went down to Mexico and found this point setting he went this is a great plant and he started taking cuting taking them back and he introduced that several hundred years ago to the planet it’s
From tropical Mexico it’s not from Wisconsin that’s for sure it’s not from Europe it’s from a tropical climate and so those plants are they have zero I mean just like no antifreeze in there if if you look at them cold they get droopy and weary and going oh I just need to
Park up please turn up the heat they’re very tropical that’s another thing to watch you do not want to buy a poinsetta that’s ever been cold because once they get chilled they never warm back up and they always have this weepy droopy look to them so you never want to go to the
Grocery store and buy that big display right by the front door where every time a you know someone comes in for groceries they’re they’re the doors open and there’s Point set is getting blistering cold they never perform well so they start losing leaves they turn yellow they look guilty they just aren’t
So all of ours we don’t even let ours at the Garden Center we’re so sensitive to this we we don’t even let them touch the ground because cold air settles on the ground we keep them up off the ground on purpose to keep them in the in the
Warmer part of the room same at your house don’t let them be by the front door where guests are coming back and forth you’re gonna have the the Christmas party and you need some some red some holiday plants it makes sense you don’t want them by the front door
Unless you’re just willing to write them off go ah it’s 10 bucks it’s all right that’s I want I want red up there it’s fine Christmas cactus are not quite as finicky but still they’re tropical plantss they don’t like the cold and so you want to keep them
Warm the opposite is true so you put them in the house and your furnace is kicking on all the time you got the fireplace the pellet stove whatever your heat source is they’re going and going don’t put them right next to the pellet stove they’re gonna get too hot get
Crispy and dry out too fast don’t put them right over heater registry they’re going to get too high dry out too fast they like to be just like you and I they like if you’re comfortable in that part of the room so will your holiday plants that’s Christmas cactus amarillas uh
Cyclamens all those holiday obviously point setas they are tropical plants they’re just like you and I if you’re Outdoors how how are you going to Fair uh at two o’clock in the morning in December in the mountains of Arizona you’re probably going to freeze to death
If you don’t have a Parker or something else on well so will your POA they’re just like people if they’re if you’re indoors sitting having a cup of tea watching TV in the living room um and you’re comfortable so will your holiday plants they’re going to love that see these are
Tropical plants like house plants and so they don’t have any kind of defense against the cold like a spruce tree or a holly these guys they love they would hate to be indoors they like to be outdoors because they’re used to that cold climate they want to be chilled
They need time to rest and to hibernate and kind of kind of take on the Environ that’s why they’re so pretty out there they’re just gorgeous there’s nothing prettier than a a blue spruce a a Al Alberta spruce a Austrian pine these these holiday Evergreens that are Outdoors put some decorative lights on
Them they just scream I’m ready for the holidays just it’s part of what that’s part of the fun uh we have we we have lots of living Christmas trees you can use them indoors for a bit and then no more than two weeks really and then we
Fully intend you we want you to take them outside again a colorless Spruce fed arbert Spruce organ green pine all these outdoor plants use them for a couple weeks indoors as a Christmas tree holiday tree take them back outdoors and plant them they want to be outdoors they
Like the cold the opposite for your poinsettas had several customers over the Decades of doing this I’ve sold thousands of poinsettas in my lifetime uh they they take them and put them outdoors and they just freeze now down in Phoenix you can get away with that it’s tropical Southern California you’re
Fine they grow outdoors as a landscape plant but not here when it gets really cold they don’t really like to be below 40 degrees anyway that’s Point set as in Holiday plants how to take care of them in your Outdoors not be right back look if your wife mom or dad wants an
Ugly sweater for Christmas get them a sweater not some piece of plastic but if someone you truly care about loves their Garden a gift card to Waters makes perfect sense next spring she can pick exactly what she was hoping we all know it’s not the same as a huge Flower
Basket or fragrant Rose but hey it’s winter gardeners understand Waters online gift cards are found at top 10 plants.com or at Waters Garden Center in presc you’re listening to the mountain Gardener with local expert Ken Lane Mountain gardening is very rewarding with a few of Ken’s tips tricks and
Garden shortcuts sure to turn your thumbs even Greener now welcome back to the mountain Gardener and we are back with Lisa Waters Lane in the studio she comes each week we just give this segment to her so she can impart some Well a different voice a prettier voice brighter voice smarter voice in the garden advice that’s just just not me droning on and on for the
Whole show so plus I like hanging out with you I like hanging out with my gal in a small Studio it’s just like special it is really sure what do you like most about it I knew I like this won’t end here I know that welcome to the studio again this we
Thank you we’re finally getting some Colder Weather we had a beautiful fall I know it’s not winter yet but uh just gorgeous but it’s nice to it’s nice to have the change in Seasons very much I like that yep so I’ve started I I it finally got cold enough I think the bugs
I’ve seen a couple box elder bugs haven’t seen anything else really out there I think they’re kind of trying to survive from the cold so I think it’s safe to go out SE cleaning pruning Chang you know grooming if you feel like you want to go outside and prune go ahead I
Think we’re safe enough at least at the higher elevations actually that’s P black Kenyon City go for it cut go for it sedon go for it pen Skull Valley you’re all good go for it it’s cold enough really we we we wait until the cold takes out all the insect stuff the
Trees the sap will slow down and so when you make a cut they don’t bleed they don’t attract bugs you have less issues so we kind of start in December the New Year somewhere there and then you got you got until March to really clean things up so get started Yeah well yeah
Something I’m talking to people not you I know you already did but with this cooler weather and now it’s like officially December yes uh it’s time to start thinking Christmas and Christmas decorations the music the crew wanted they were anxious they really wanted to put Christmas music on at the store
Let’s let’s wait till after Thanksgiving they couldn’t stand it they they flipped it on like the few days before Thanksgiving because they just they’re they’re ready for it to happen they are and then the week before Christmas they’ll be going tired can’t we have a different station going I programed
Seven of them you’ve got seven different stations and there’s so much Christmas music out there now it’s kind of crazy but with Christmas Comes the plants of Christmas so we mainly think of poinas and Christmas cactus and Emeral paper whites those kind of things for indoors because in our our environment they are
Definitely indoor plants yeah this is not Southern Cal or Phoenix or where you can put those things outside so points it well I’m going to show the Christmas cactus first I was trying to find one in bloom we’ve sold so many as soon as they bloom they’re so I brought this one
Because they had one bloom that was ready to go but that’s great because you’re going to get to be able to enjoy all these blooms at your house instead of here so Christmas cactus bloom for an incredibly long period of time this is truly where it pays to be tuned in
Through Spotify or apple because they’re they’re doing the video version of this everyone else you get the MP3 or the audio piece we’re trying to describe it over the air wave so you can visualize a Christmas cactus is it truly a cactus it is not yeah what is it why do they call
It a Christmas cactus you know that’s a good question I’ll research that for next week there we go love it but it’s not a true Cactus it’s like a slumber I I think of it as a succulent so it doesn’t it doesn’t have thorns it’s soft the the leaves have uh it’s
Just like a succulent so Y and the other one is poinas of course yay boy you brought an exotic one my goodness this one I think is the crystal ice or Ice Crystal one it’s a red has red on the outside white on the inside so it’s a variegated
Blossom um this one’s coming home to our house yay because I just love the colors on it I think it’s very different it’s nice and light but you know the traditional red but they come up with so many colors now variation it’s so fun playing with cameras it’s so
Fun but have you ever wondered why why do we use poinsettias at Christmas you know I would really like to know why we use poetas during the holidays so the legend start it’s it’s a Mexican legend because that’s where these are from Central America yeah yeah so there was a little
Girl named Pita yeah uh they were going to church for the Christmas Eve the nativity scene the festivities that kind of stuff and she didn’t have a gift to bring the baby Jesus so she was very upset that she didn’t have a gift and her cousin said you know baby Jesus
Doesn’t care he just wants you there to enjoy and be happy but she was very sad so on the way to the festival she picked some weeds and she laid them at the Nativity in front of the baby Jesus that is very cool and then the miracle was that they
Turned bright red and beautiful oh that’s that’s part of that’s the Mexican part part of why we have poetas but how did they come to America how did they come to America well let me tell you it was in the 1800s our first ambassador to Mexico his name was Joel Robert poinset
There we go and he brought them back to the States but they weren’t very popular especially for Christmas people were you know they they liked it was something different that’s when you know a lot of new introductions were formed because people were traveling more and bringing
Stuff back and it was cool plant to have but it wasn’t really associated with Christmas until you know who Paul eki is oh yeah so eky Point said is Paul eki and that family met Paul before he’s pasted but his family’s now taking it over but I’ve met Paul personally he’s introduced oh
Most of the point set as we know today right so he was big into point saidas right so he came this something you would come up but he came up with the AA how do you make them popular right so he took them to all the TV studio stations
Throughout the country uh donated to them to like the theight show oh yeah Bob Hope Christmas specials so he just kept pushing all these free poinsettias here take the poinsettias they’re free so people started associating them with Christmas because that’s when they would always show up is at the holidays and
That’s how they just kind of started becoming mean part of our Christmas traditions is to have the pleta the eeky family is very famous yes they are in the Plant World if you’re plant botanist at all they’re the ones and their fam’s now taking it over but Paul I could that
Would have been the 70s 80s I would think that’s about the time frame late 60s late 60s that’s when his took a while to build that up where people were like oh yeah Point SAS and of course the first ones were always the red traditional but now they in white
They come in the crystal ice like I showed you they have one called Country quilt which is red with white blotches on it there’s a burgundy one which is a really dark dark red uh there’s pinks you name it but if you see a blue one it’s been painted I know that’s just
Wrong it’s not real drives me nuts when I see that or I saw multicolored I was I was at a box store M in texas yeah I’m like that’s not real they just take paint and they just paint it that’s all they do use Flor paint now how often should you
Water how you going to take this one home how are you g to care for that in your house how do you water every especially if it’s got a sleeve on it decorative sleeve that maybe doesn’t bre what I usually do is poke holes in the
Sleeves because I do want it to breathe but I make sure I put a saucer under it yeah because I don’t want to ruin my my wooden furniture that I’m setting it on I usually water about once a week okay uh it’s going to depend a little bit on
Your home uh it’s they they’re they’re grown in very Peete Mossy kind of soil so it it can dry out quickly especially if your home is warm yeah so but usually once a week and when you water it you want to use warm or tepid water uh don’t
Be go throwing cold water on it they like cold any cold air cold water they don’t like cold not be happy with that I like yeah a bright room but no sun directly on it or you will get some burning on the leaves yeah U but
Actually very easy to take care of and a lot of people I’m not one of those but they actually like keep them from year to year which I think is crazy because there is a time when they start looking ugly yeah and there’s an ugly phase to
At us it’s not like we can grow them outside here so there’s really no point in keeping them uh but I do toss mine soon after Christmas but they stay lovely well past Christmas if you want to keep it going U main thing is don’t overwater them they don’t like that and
Then use that warm water very important that’s where that sleeve can sometimes be a detriment it’s pretty it’s decorative it’s holidayish usually they’ll have a matching foiled sleeve but then it doesn’t breathe then you water it and it sits there in water and it the things pull it out of the sleeve
To water it as well and just kind of do it in the sink and then the other thing is don’t put it by your front door because it won’t be happy there yeah thank you Lisa poinsettas Christmas cactus and other holiday plants and the history behind them thank you for
Sharing that can at leis aain them Mountain gardeners be right back after this the holidays are here in Arizona’s Christmas City bringing family closer and those chilly Winter Winds while you’re decorating the outside don’t forget to brighten up the inside with exotic Christmas plants from Waters beautiful Christmas cactus and
Poincettia are coming to town grown exclusively by Waters and colors you won’t find anywhere else unique vibrant and guaranteed to warm even the dreariest winter day for exotic Christmas plants at Waters Garden Center in presca welcome to the mountain Gardener with Ken Lane gardening in the mountains
Is different listen to Ken’s tips tricks and garden shortcuts guaranteed to make your Gardens more beautiful than ever this year now for better advice that works locally welcome your host Ken Lane so you folks from the Midwest the Eastern parts of the country colder climates so M Minnesota the Ohio the Connecticut the the the marylands you’re used to fall is for planting best the time to plant trees is in the Autumn Now’s the Time it’s the same here so we
Are very much like that so we can get cold we’ve got definit four seasons and so this this is a very good time to plant Autumn with that being said we’re so mild this is this this is the the mildest Forest season climate you’ll find in the country and still have all
The wild flowers all the lilacs spring bloomings these things need for Seasons to really Thrive and shine and and show off and we’ve got it the beauty of having a milder winter is that you can plant year round so the we don’t have eight foot Frost lines like Wisconsin
Which you can’t dig it’s it’s impossible here we can and so the ground never truly freezes solid so you can keep planting what that does for us is now we can buy an Ever Green let’s say you’ve got a new house and I need to add to the
Landscape or man the leaves dropped off my Maples the Aspens and now it just looks terrible I need something out there you can easily it’s a tradition that’s that’s been happening for decades people will buy a evergreen tree let’s say a spruce tree a pine tree I even
Sold one last week I sold a fruit tree to a customer they want a fruit tree they’re going to use it as a as a Christmas tree basically and then they’re gonna go plant it afterwards so it gets interesting what people use but traditionally Pine Spruce fur junipers all your traditional Evergreen plants
They are broad indoors used for the present underneath them or whatever your holiday tradition is and then when it’s all done they bring them back outdoors and they plant them and they will Thrive they’ll do just fine with that you are allowed to plant we plant year round
Because it’s so mild so landscapers are going to be installing Landscapes right through winter and so it’ll be kind of a mix of more evergreeny kind of things because the Landscapes me we’ve we’ve basically filled the garden center up with Evergreen kind of stuff yeah we
Might be able to find a lilac for you but those are coming in January we start to bring the spring Bloomers in after the holidays are are over right now it’s focused on holiday plants so that’s going to be your Colorado Spruce or if it says Spruce many times it’s if it’s
Got a name we’ve got bear ey Spruce baby blue spruce Alberta spruce what they are they’re all cousins but they have different looks to them might be a little shorter squater Fuller thicker more shapely more layered more blue more green but spruce tree do really really well up here of course
We’ve got Spruce Mountain you could walk to right here in Prescot Arizona and then all the ridg lines have Spruce on them so you know they’re going to thrive same with the pine trees we have a lot of we have the the largest Grove of Ponderosa Pines in the world it’s right
Here goes right through here and so you know this is the place for pine trees and so Austrian Pines Bosnian Pines like if it has a pine in it you’re probably good to go go ahead and plant those and it’s fine to plant them when it’s cool
Out it’s fine if you’re gonna use them as a as a holiday tree though you can bring it in celebrate open presents and do your your traditional family thing um we recommend don’t bring them indoors more than two weeks at most these are outdoor plants they like to be cold and
What happens is when you bring them indoors they start to activate they’re go no must be spring I’m going to start push pushing off New Growth now it’s time to wake up so the sap the sap starts flowing and they start to wake up you don’t want them waking up and so you
Want to keep them in their dormant stage if it’s a large spruce tree a large uh pine tree large big Spruce or or a a juniper fruit tree if it’s going to be large they dry out faster they wake up faster so they really shouldn’t be in
The indoors more than seven 10 days something like that so the bigger they are the shorter distance time they should be indoors because they start to wake up also they don’t like the warmth they don’t want to be 68 degrees in your living room they want to be 20 degrees
Outdoors at night that’s what they’re happy with that’s what they’re used to and so when they’re in there they dry out kind of quickly if they’re indoors so keep them away from your Registries from that that that furnace draft keep them away from the from the fireplace
From the pellet stove keep them out where it’s cooler keep the room a little cooler add a humidifier but you can do this you can have a living tree it’s not cut so if a tree’s got no roots it’s dead I don’t care you’ll hear all kinds
Of myths of people going oh you can go dig a hole and it’ll root out for you that’s a lie that’s that’s that’s the internet you can’t believe everything that you read so but if it’s got a root to it it can live especially if it’s for
Our this elevation this climate so you can have those Austrian Pines organ Green Pines you can have baby blue spruce Alberta spruce I I I talked to my daughter she’s got a she lives in an apartment she’s on the fast track for a for a retailer out in Texas and I go
Honey you you don’t need a big Christmas tree you don’t need a uh you don’t need a artificial tree baggage to to sleap around with you from apartment to apartment as you open up new stores uh just just why don’t you get a small living Christmas tree put it on a table
Enjoy it have the F dress it up and then you can donate it to someone or just it’s small enough you can just throw it away think of it like a poinsetta just use it for the season and it’s this these are not puppy dogs these are just
Plants they don’t realize they’re being their their time is done so you can just use it for a season and be done but go with smaller less investment easier and she goes that’s a great idea I’m gonna do that and so that’s for us if you need
More Landscaping out in the yard I need to block my neighbors they are they are in my face the houses are too close here every time I I sit on the back patio and watch a sunset they’re eating dinner right there and we look at each other
Plant a tree that’s perfect place for uh for a pine tree perfect place for fast growing Colorado Spruce perfect place for junipers so put it something out there use it for the holiday and then go plant it we got a handout that’ll show you exactly how to do it
It’s basically dig the whole wide dig it not that deep add a bag of mulch and water it a couple times a month that’s it there’s a transition period if you’re bringing it from Outdoors to indoors you kind of want to keep it next to your
House or under a patio or under bring Outdoors so it gets used to the cold but but let it adjust let it acclimate so we do it so it’s it takes a few days for it to acclimate back to the cold and you keep it there for maybe I know five
Seven days then you go plant it if you just if you don’t want to use it indoors just go plant it decorate it enjoy it put some put a put a santon sleigh out there and just just enjoy the holidays so this is when your Evergreens if you
Don’t have enough of them you know it because those Sous plant it’s a birch tree it’s lost its leaves the the Raywood Ash lost totally looks you hardly see it out there so now is a time to this a good time to spot where do I need more Evergreens that’s a good time
To plant it it’s a good time to re to to design where do I put those in but we do see a definite moving away from Cut Christmas trees and then moving towards living Christmas trees we used to sell a couple thousand cut Christmas trees back
In the 90s early 2000s when it was really popular it’s kind of lost its it’s its favor uh there’s some sustainability issues people just don’t want the hassle they don’t want the fire hazard and quite honestly the Chinese Plastic Trees have taken over but if you need more Landscaping try a living tree
It really does work we’ve got families that have had on their 10th or 15th it’s like oh there they are again they’re going to do another tree do you have enough room for all these so you can you can do this so living Christmas trees
There’s a way to to make them Thrive and grow and you’re GNA set the stage for next Spring’s burst of New Growth it’s a great time to plant living evergreen trees now for next Spring’s Fabulous New Growth okay we got more in store for you don’t go anywhere be right back right after
This okay maybe after the same white elephant change it’s time to start a new holiday tradition a living Christmas tree from Waters Garden Center can be decorated and enjoyed for a lifetime not just a season when the holiday festivities end gather family and friends and plant your tree together for
Years of enjoyment guaranteed as your family tree grows have a tree grow with your family from Waters Garden Center in presc You’re listening to local Garden expert Ken Lane the owner of wat’s garden center he can be found throughout the week at Waters Garden Center located in Prescot 1815 Iron Springs Road thanks for tuning in to the mountain Gardener so to be fair so leis had mentioned the history of
Poinsettas where they came from how we got into the holidays the first our our Mexican ancestry of poinsettas uh it’s a deep rich Heritage of of holiday plants how Paul eki the developer of poinsettas introduced them and then she said throw them away she’s kind of brutal it’s like
Anti-g gardening so I thought I would just share with you real quick if you want to keep your point seta for the year how to get it back into Bloom how to get it to come back into color there’s a trick to it so now Point set
Is they’re they’re like house plants so they like to stay in that 65 80 degree weather they like regular moisture they like they like just you fertilize them a good fertilizer is whatever you’re using for your house plants especially African violet Orchid mixes they like that kind
Of of food just fertilize them with feed them with that that I would say if you got African Violets it’s a natural give them that food in the spring and again in summer the secret is starting in September you want to lower the temperature Just a Touch so instead of
65 70 degrees go to six go to go to the lower end 65 degrees in a in a cool bedroom would be perfect turn the vent off out back there starting September or midep somewhere in there so autumn start to lower the temperature and here’s The
Insider tip point set is need 12 hours the magic number 12 hours of uninterrupted Darkness they need that even if it’s in a room that has lights coming on and off that will affect it that will keep it from turning red or burgundy or white whatever your point
Set of color is the secret is the 12 hours so it’s perfect in a back bedroom that’s that no one’s staying in with a bright room bright window not not direct now Point set is don’t like sun directly on them they like indirect bright rooms that’s their that’s their that’s their
Favorite place but when in mid-september lower the temperature and give them uninterrupted like Darkness don’t turn the lights on if you need to put them in the closet for the evening put them to bed out there don’t let the light get to them and then starting about first part
Of December sometime just after Thanksgiving they’ll color up they go into bloom and they just naturally start doing their thing again that’s kind kind of the The Insider tip on how to get that plant to come back so traditionally if you don’t do that it’ll just be a
Pretty green plant they can get tall and leggy if if the plant actually gets too big you can reset it in Spring you just cut it back I mean just brutally back to about six inches then fertilize it and it will come back and’ll be bushy and
Full again so you the points that is need to be reset uh much like other plants they like to be pruned on otherwise they get too big too full too they just get too much they’re really easy to reset cut them back to six inches fertilize them
With African violet food put them in a room that’s now warmer and they’ll start to flush out with new growth starting in September cool that that room temperature down and then give them uninterrupted 12 hours I mean in the greenhouse I I had a heater go down once
A greenhouse full of points at us heater went down I went in with a ladder fixing it in the middle of this Full House of poinsettas and you could see where we had the shop light on to fix this this uh heater in the middle of the night we
Couldn’t let it go cool because they’re tropical I could I had to fix this thing so I should have done something at you could see this halo effect where those points head is they did not color up as well as the ones further out in the
House so any amount of light keeps them from coloring back up and so you can you can you can keep a point seta year round have it come back and trick it into going back if you want more info on that go to Waters garden center.com and the
Learn button at the top there’s a how to grow holiday plants there Christmas cactus the whole things all right that’s it for this show thanks for tuning in look if your wife mom or dad wants an ugly sweater for Christmas get them a sweater not some piece of plastic but if
Someone you truly care about loves her garden a gift card to Waters makes perfect sense next spring she can pick exactly what she was hoping we all know it’s not the same as a huge Flower Basket or fragrant Rose but hey it’s winter gardeners understand water’s
Online gift cards are found at top 10 plants.com or at Waters Garden Center in Presc if you want a more fruitful Garden increase success in your landscape that just feels better then tune in every week to the mountain Gardener years of tips tricks and garden shortcuts are guaranteed to make your Gardens nicer than ever listen to this podcast or read Ken’s weekly Garden column by visiting
Waters Garden center.com that’s Waters with 2tg Garden center.com thanks for tuning in