(light music) (bright classical music) - Today on "Oklahoma Gardening," we are going wild for milkweed at the Oklahoma City Zoo & Botanical Garden.

The Canadian County Extension intern shares a fun activity for kids.

David Hillock introduces us to another 2024 Oklahoma-proven plant.

I'll share a beautiful ornamental grass.

And Kristy is back with a fresh recipe.

(bright classical music continues) Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma green and growing.

"Oklahoma Gardening" is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Shape Your Future provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

(bright classical music continues) I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

(bright classical music continues) We're back here at the student farm.

(bright classical music continues) I wanna share with you a tropical plant that you might find in some Oklahoma landscapes.

(bright classical music continues) It's important to know which plants we are dealing with so that we can continue to maintain them successfully for years to come.

(bright classical music continues) Today we are here at the Oklahoma City Zoo & Botanical Garden.

And joining me is one of their conservation scientists, Emily Geest.

And Emily, we're here to talk about a project that you have going on.

Of course, you're all about conservation.

Let's talk about the monarchs and the milkweeds that you're protecting.

- Yeah, so here at Oklahoma City Zoo, we have a lot of programs called headstart programs.

This is where you go out into the wild and you take the young, vulnerable stages of an animal, and you bring them back to the zoo and you protect them.

And then once they're past that vulnerable stage, you put them back into the wild.

And we have a successful program at Tinker Air Force Base with Texas horned lizards.

- Okay.

- And I was interested in bringing that same idea to plants.

And since the zoo is also a botanical garden, it seemed fitting to do it here.

And milkweed is the host plant for monarchs.

- Yeah.

- And our zoo is committed to monarch conservation, so it really fit well together.

- And everybody is working on saving and preserving the monarchs right now, and it all starts with the milkweed, which there's several that are native to Oklahoma, right?

- Yes, there's over 25 species of milkweeds in Oklahoma.

Some are more rare and some are more common than others.

We're focused on those rare plants that particularly are occurring along the edges of Oklahoma.

They're kind of on the ends of their ranges, and we really wanna go in, get those seeds, grow seedlings, and put them back to help bolster those population sizes.

- Okay, so these probably aren't ones that we're gonna find just on the market.

So how have you been going about collecting the seed?

And what really, I mean, you've gone from southeastern Oklahoma to northwestern Oklahoma?

- Yes, so we have been working with different organizations, including the scientists and professors at Oklahoma State University, The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Forestry, and Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, to just really narrow down which species we should be focusing on.

And after we decided which species those were gonna be, we went to the different herbaria in the state.

There's one at OSU and one at OU.

And so we got historic records.

And then we took those historic records, put together a team, and then just went out and searched for them.

- Okay.

(laughing) - On multiple trips.

- [Casey] So all those dried cards on herbariums that we've talked about actually came in useful- - Yes, yeah.

- For you guys in this aspect.

- Yep, it was a little bit like a treasure hunt.

- Yeah.

- [Emily] And they were the treasure map.

So we were trying to get back to those exact coordinates, and we had some success down in the southeastern part of the state.

We found four species we were looking for, including a critically imperiled species, purple milkweed, for our state.

- Okay, okay.

And why is it so important that you were able to collect some of that native seed from those areas?

- Yeah, so seeds in plants are really well-adapted regionally and locally.

So if we're gonna put these plants back, we want seeds that are from that area that we know are adapted to that area, that are gonna do well in that climate and in that soil types.

And so we're trying to get them from where they really are and then put them back there.

- Okay, so where are you at in this stage?

How many have you actually been able to germinate and place?

- Yeah, so we've had four species.

Each one we were successfully able to germinate.

We did get more seedlings of a couple of species than others, and we're still working on increasing that success.

But we had purple milkweed and tall green milkweed were pretty successful.

And we were able to bring those seedlings back.

And then just a few days ago, we went down to check on them and they're still alive and they're doing really well.

- Excellent.

- So we're excited to keep seeing this project grow.

- Excellent, now, tell me a little bit about your background.

How did you get into this with milkweed?

- Yeah, so I am an OSU alum.

(Casey laughing) I got my PhD from Integrative Biology.

I worked with Dr. Kristen Baum, who studied monarchs, so my background's in monarchs.

- Yeah.

- And of course, milkweeds come with the monarchs.

- Absolutely.

- And so when I became a postdoc here at Oklahoma City Zoo, I started the project and then my position was turned into a conservation scientist position.

So I get to keep working on this for years to come.

- Very good.

Well, I imagine it took a lotta coordination between- - Kind of your expertise, and what the zoo could also offer.

Did you work with a horticulture staff in that capacity?

- I did, the horticulture staff at the zoo was instrumental in this.

They were not just helping grow the seeds and germinate the seeds, but they were part of the people who were going out on these trips and walking the forests, and the plains trying to find them with me.

- Yeah.

- And I know Emma, from our horticulture team, will be excited to talk to you more about that.

- Okay, great.

I'll talk with her.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) Hello Emma.

I hear you're the one I need to talk to about the production of the milkweed that's been happening here.

- Yeah, so we were really lucky to participate in this project with Emily.

The horticulture staff was really excited to jump in and grow the milkweed and also help her go out there in the field and look for it.

So in front of me I have some of the tall green milkweed that we had left over.

This was the one that we were able to get the most seeds of and had the most luck germinating.

- Okay, so somebody gives you seeds and you just turn them into plants.

I know it's gonna be a little more complicated than that.

Do they need any treatment?

- Yeah, so typically milkweed species are cold stratified.

So in the past we've grown other species of milkweed, you know, like your butterfly weed, your common milkweed.

We've all grown those on grounds before.

But these guys to give them a little bit more of a head start, no pun intended, in the greenhouse we did seed clipping, which is something none of the team had done before.

But it was really easy.

All we did was take the seeds, we had a little scalpel, we just clipped off the narrow part of the seed and that was where the root came from when we put it in water and put it in the sunny spot after that.

So that just kinda accelerates the process and it means it doesn't have to stay in a fridge for, you know, 30 to 60 days.

- Okay, so it's a little bit of a scarification process.

That you physically damage that seed coat, and then it allows it to imbibe that water then and take off.

Well it looks like you guys have had great success on that.

So tell me a little bit about when did you start that germination process?

Did you kind of do it a little bit different, obviously working with a greenhouse versus the seasons?

- Yeah, so we were able to start the seeds, I believe in March.

And we have some heat mats in the greenhouse and we put the little cups of water with the seeds in them on the heat mats, and then we get some little tweezers.

And when they get that little root tail, we just come in, pick them up, and then we put them in a soil mix.

And this is, I believe, half potting soil and half are zoo poo compost.

And it did really well for the hirtella.

- And are these about ready to go out or are you gonna let them grow a little bit more?

- Yeah, so these are about ready to go out.

This is kind of as big as we've seen them get in the greenhouse.

And this is also kind of as big as we've seen them get in the field after planting them.

- Okay.

Well I think it's so fascinating 'cause I think a lot of times we just come here to, you know, enjoy what the zoo offers here at the place, but it's really nice to know about all the conservation practices that are going on throughout the state as well.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

(upbeat music) - Hey guys, I'm Daviona and I'm a Canadian County OSU extension intern.

I've had the privilege of working with 4-H all over Canadian County and this is just one of the activities that we were able to do.

This is a pollinator hydration station slash pollinator feeder and for materials you're gonna need two four foot long strings.

You'll need a mason jar, a piece of a sponge, and a piece of tape.

You will need a hole in the top of your mason jar.

So you can use a knife or you can use a hammer and a nail, or you can actually, however you would like to put the hole in the top, just you will need this.

So to start, you'll tie your string around the top of your jar and you will double knot it, otherwise your string will slip.

So you'll tie your first piece of string on one side of the jar and then you'll turn it and you'll tie your other piece of string to the other side.

And once again, you are gonna double knot, otherwise your string will slip.

(birds chirping) Okay, and once that's done, you're going to turn your jar over and the goal is to secure the jar with the string as much as you can.

So you can tie it upwards, you can tie the string upwards just like this.

Or you can wrap the string around just to get as much security as you possibly can.

I'm gonna single knot it on this side, but I will double knot it on the other side so that the string can stay.

Then you will do this again on the other side with the other piece of string.

- Once you have that double knotted, you're going to pull your strings upwards because this will be how you will hang your pollinator station.

At this point, you're gonna take your piece of tape and you'll secure both ends of your string onto the jar.

And you can have a friend help you with this part.

This is the bulk of your pollinator feeder.

Then you will take your piece of sponge and you will push it through your hole, and pull all the way down to the middle so that your sponge is distributed evenly within the top of your pollinator feeder.

Then you add whatever solution you would like.

This is where you can use plain water, distilled water, tap water.

You can put in sugar water.

They have butterfly and bee nectars that you can add to this.

You will add that, and then you will add your lid, flip your pollinator feeder over, and at this point it will drip slowly so that your pollinators will be able to drink or hydrate themselves from the end.

This is just an example of one that one of our kids did, and she decorated it with some pretty stickers and did her own thing.

You can also add beads.

You wanna add as many colors as you can to attract the pollinators to the pollinator feeder.

Okay.

So this is just an important craft.

It's a small, little, cute craft that you can do with your kids at home or you can do just as an activity.

It's a great way to hydrate your pollinators.

It is still very hot here in Oklahoma, so we wanna find a different way to make sure that our pollinators are fed and hydrated so that your garden blooms the best that it can.

(gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues) - Occasionally, we choose a plant that needs a little bit of extra consideration in terms of where it's grown and where it's located in the landscape, and that's called our Collector's Choice.

So, for 2024, we chose the pawpaw.

The pawpaw is actually a native tree to eastern half of the United States and up into Canada, and, of course, into the eastern and central portions of Oklahoma as well.

It is a wonderful, small tree, can get up to about 30 feet.

It will tolerate deep shade, but it also grows well in full sun.

It typically is found growing as an understory tree along the edges of woodland areas, near riparian areas, rivers, et cetera, where there's nice moisture, but has well-drained soils.

It has a nice, yellow fall color, which is really attractive.

But it's a really easy and fun plant to grow and it has edible fruit on it.

So the pawpaw, and this plant here is actually producing some fruit right now, and the interesting thing about this fruit is, well, first it has a sweet custard-like flavor to it, but it also has a very short lifespan.

So when it matures, you need to harvest it and eat it right away, 'cause it doesn't have a very good shelf life.

But the other problem is beating the critters to it too.

So a lot of wildlife love the fruit.

And if you're not paying attention to it, they'll come in and they'll snatch it all up before you can harvest it.

Another thing to remember is if you really want some good fruit on your tree, you need to have two or three other varieties or trees that have just different genetic diversity, because the flowers, which are produced in the spring, they're a reddish brown color, they are self-incompatible, so, in other words, they can't pollinate each other.

So you'll need two or three other varieties to cross-pollinate so that you can ensure that you get good fruit.

Again, this is a wonderful, small, edible plant that you can put in your landscape and it is our Collector's Choice for 2024.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - Today, we're here on OSU's campus to showcase one of the plants that really has been catching my eye as we drive down the main street here through campus.

And this is called Ruby Grass.

It's a great ornamental grass that you can add to your garden.

Now, it is not a native ornamental grass.

It is in fact native to Southern Africa.

So it's slightly drought tolerant, but you wanna make sure that you still give it consistent water, but also well drainage, which makes it appropriate for a container like this.

Now, this particular hybrid is called Pink Crystals, and it actually gets a little bit larger, so it's gonna be about two feet tall.

And what really sets Ruby Grass apart from some of your other grasses is these plumes that you'll get.

So you're gonna get about a four inch to six inch plume that comes on.

They start out more of a pink color, and then as they sort of mature a little bit more, they'll fade to kind of a silvery color later on in the season.

So here we are, it is July, August, and you can see how much of a display you're gonna get.

And this display will continue on through late summer, into fall as well.

It has kind of a grayish-blue foliage to it.

So before it actually puts up these flowers, you're gonna get that foliage.

And it sort of reminds me kind of that narrow foliage of what you might find on Muhly Grass.

And of course, that pink color that you might find on pink Muhly too.

Definitely a different type of inflorescent than you would get with pink Muhly.

But again, you're gonna get this inflorescent sooner than you would with pink Muhly that comes later on in the fall.

So as I mentioned, this particular hybrid is called Pink Crystals.

We have one back at the Botanic Garden called Savannah, and it's slightly smaller.

So if you're looking for something to add into your garden, kinda tuck it in, you might look at the Savannah cultivar instead.

We have about three plants right here in this container that's about four feet long.

So you can see, it doesn't take too many plants to create quite an impact here in your garden.

Now, of course, because it's an ornamental grass, it's gonna give you all those same features that we love of ornamental grasses.

It's got a lot of movement and flow to the garden.

So you can actually add multiples and have kind of a mass of these, or you can just add one or two.

One of the recommendations though is because it has this kind of pink color, you might combine it with some coleus or other annuals that sort of offset this pink and kinda highlight that pink a little bit more.

Here they have it next to Crossandra, it is a cultivar called Watermelon that kind of picks up some of that pink in that Crossandra.

But Coleus would be a nice addition as well.

Now, with this, like I mentioned, it is native to Southern Africa, so it is not hardy here.

In fact, it's hardy from zones nine to 10.

And while it is a perennial in Southern Africa, it is treated as an annual here.

But you can go ahead, once these seeds are starting to turn brown, you could collect those seeds.

Or if you wanna preserve this and have it for next year, you could simply dig it up, pot it up and kinda bring it in to over winter.

That way is another option.

So Ruby Grass is a great addition to your annual landscape.

(bright music) (bright music continues) - Today, we're making lemon Parmesan chicken with zucchini and squash.

And for this recipe, I'm using an electric wok.

If you don't have a wok, you could also make this using a skillet.

We're gonna start by adding about one tablespoon of olive oil to our pan, and the pan is already turned on and it's hot.

Then we're gonna add, I've got 1.25 of a pound of chicken, which I've already cut this up into bite-sized pieces.

And then we'll add our seasonings.

And the seasonings we're using are we've got a 1/2 of a teaspoon of onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, two teaspoons of Italian seasoning, and then just a little bit, just a dash of some salt and pepper.

And then we'll just stir that around in the seasoning and let the chicken cook for just about four minutes.

Okay, and now that our chicken is cooked, we're gonna go ahead and transfer that to a plate.

- And then we'll just cover that in foil to keep it warm.

But we need to check the temperature of the chicken.

Chicken, to be fully cooked, it needs to be cooked to 165 degrees, and so we'll just find one of our larger pieces of chicken, and check the temperature.

Okay.

And now that it's at 165, we're gonna go ahead and cover it so that it stays nice and warm while we do the vegetables.

Okay.

And now to our wok, we're gonna add one tablespoon of olive oil.

And the vegetables we're using for this, we're using two zucchini and two yellow squash.

So go ahead and add those to our pan with the olive oil.

And then we've got one teaspoon of Italian seasoning, we're gonna go ahead and add that to the zucchini squash, and a half a teaspoon of garlic powder.

We're gonna go ahead and give this a nice stir to stir in that seasoning.

And then we'll let the vegetables cook for just about four to five minutes.

Okay, now that our zucchini and squash are nice and softened, we're gonna go ahead and add the chicken back to the pan.

And we'll just mix it all together.

And now we're gonna add two tablespoons of lemon juice.

That'll give it that nice lemony flavor.

Okay.

And then we will add one-third of a cup of shredded Parmesan cheese and two tablespoons of fresh parsley.

And we'll just kind of sprinkle that over the top, because that's our last ingredient.

And now we can serve.

So this recipe, you could serve it as is, or I think it would go great over maybe some rice or even some pasta.

But this is the lemon Parmesan chicken with zucchini and squash.

I hope you'll try it (upbeat music) For this recipe and more like it, scan this QR code.

(upbeat music continues) There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

(upbeat music continues) Join us next week on "Oklahoma Gardening" as we see firsthand how gardens are feeding the mind, body, and spirit.

(upbeat music) (speaker coughing) - Hold on.

- Conservation Scientist here and Emily of course at the Botanic Garden.

- Botanic gardens.

- Botanic gardens.

(timestamp clicking) (upbeat music continues) - [Speaker] To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices, be sure to visit our website at oklahomagardening.okstate.edu.

Join in on Facebook and Instagram.

You can find this entire show and other recent shows, as well as individual segments on our Oklahoma Gardening YouTube channel.

Tune in to our OK Gardening Classics YouTube channel to watch segments from previous hosts.

Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

The Botanic Garden at OS is home to our studio gardens and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful, stillwater gem.

We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.

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