- Welcome to Oklahoma Gardening.

This time of year, we're seeing a lot of weeds starting to pop up, and sometimes they can be a little difficult to distinguish.

We're going to help you figure out how to distinguish between weeds and plants in your garden.

We're also headed over to Uchi Butterfly Farm to learn about some tips on what homeowners can do to help butterflies.

And then finally, we stop by the Tulsa Garden Center at Woodward Park to take a look at a new garden that they've installed.

All this and more right here on Oklahoma Gardening.

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Have you ever looked at a garden and though, "Well, it's looking pretty good, only upon closer inspection to realize that some of the weeds have maybe taken over."

Now, plants can be tricky, and whether you identify it a weed or not, that's up to you, but it depends on the intention of what you're wanting with that garden.

So here we have a hardy succulent garden, but we've got some other plants mixed in as well.

And one of the things that we've noticed is there is a weed that's kind of camouflaged itself among some of these other plants.

Now, it wasn't an intentional camouflage.

It might be that our eye just didn't capture it until we realized what it really was and it started growing.

So some weeds can be aggressive and take off really quickly, and that's one way to identify that they are a weed.

But another way is just to kind of recognize what it is at some point.

So I want you to come down here with me for a minute and take a look at what we have.

So we've got some different prickly pairs and succulents in here, but this right here is a burnt candy tuff that has been growing in this garden.

You can see it had an earlier flower on it, and now it puts up these seed heads.

This plant is intentional.

It's hardy from zones four to seven.

It is not a succulent, but it really likes this dry, arid, alpine condition.

So we've got this planted in here to kind of act like a low growing ground cover to kind of fill in some of the spaces.

It has a nice flower early on in the spring, but if you look right next to it here, we've got what is known as pepperweed growing in here.

And you can see that the seeds almost look somewhat similar, but one of the distinguishing features is that it has more of a green color versus the blue color that is of this burnt candy tuff.

Now, this pepperweed, Virginia pepperweed, I will say it is a native that grows around the US, but it can be quite aggressive.

You can see the number of seeds that are going to come on here.

Often you find it in disturbed areas, ditches, along gravel roads, things like that, because it does like that kind of real dry, tough conditions and it needs good drainage.

And so it's found a home here in our rock garden, just like the burnt candy tough.

However, this is the one that we have decided to keep here and not the pepperweed.

So we need to go in here.

And I got to tell you, even though we're going to hand pull some of this, we are still probably going to have this pepper weed returning just because the amount of seeds and being able to find those smaller ones that aren't quite as large is going to be tricky amongst all of this.

So the one thing about this pepperweed is it's fairly easy to pull.

It's got a good tap root on it, so you can pull it up like this.

It's got its name because you can actually forge this and use this as a peppering seasoning, but we're going to go ahead and pull this up.

Again, there's some even smaller ones down in here, so we're just going to have to tease these out.

And that's how a lot of times these weeds will kind of camouflage themselves and eventually sooner than later, you're going to realize like, oh my gosh, I have a lot more weeds than I realized in my garden.

So that's why observation is one of the best tools in weed management.

You want to stay vigilant, you want to know which plants you're looking for and which ones you might observe as weeds.

Today we're going to have another botany lesson and we're talking about how plants move.

We often think about how animals move and how they can migrate, but have you really thought about how plants move?

We put them in the ground, they're rooted and they move.

They move by their seeds.

And so today we're going to talk about some of the different modes of how those seeds are distributed back into the landscape.

And so we're going to first start here with a spiny sow thistle.

This is often seen as a weed.

You might find it growing in your garden in some different places.

You can see it has this kind of daisy aster-like flower here, but once those flowers start to decline, what they're going to turn into is your typical dandelion puff.

And so those puffs, you can see there's some that are down here that are attached to the spines, but what they're going to do is they're going to get caught in the wind and they can travel for long distances.

Now you might be more familiar with the cottonwood tree that is native to Oklahoma, but because the cottonwood is so tall, when those seeds get into the air, they can travel great distances and cause problems in your air conditioner filters and such like that.

But that's a way of the parent plant distributing that seed.

And it's important not only for survival of that plant, but also again, if you think about the seed falling right down at the base of the plant, it's going to be competition for those resources of sunlight, nutrients, water, all the things that that parent plant needs to survive, the babies will then be competition.

So by releasing that seed out further into the landscape, it will allow it a better chance of survival.

Now this is one method of wind distribution is with these kind of cottony, fluffy seeds.

But another one you might be familiar with is what we often find on maples, and these are the samaras, some people call them the helicopter seeds or the whirly birds.

And so these are one wing seeds.

So you can see they have a wing and the seed is right here in the center of it.

So this is two different samaras right here that is actually a seed in each side there.

So that is a maple, again, another wind distribution technique for seeds.

So another form of seed distribution is mechanical.

So a lot of our legumes, you'll see that they have capsules, so whether that's okra or hibiscus or even our native red buds.

So you'll see that they have these pods here and they will dry and eventually release those seeds and kind of scatter those a little bit.

So they don't travel as far because they're kind of just distributing them a little bit closer versus the wind distribution.

Another method for seed distribution is utilizing animals.

So the plants will actually utilize those animals to distribute their seeds.

And they do that in a couple of different ways.

And one is to create a tasty treat for an animal to eat.

So this is our native soap berries here.

You can see it's blooming, but we also have some old fruit from last year.

A lot of times you see soap berries growing along fence lines.

And if you think about what's eating these and birds are eating these and then they fly, they land on either their utility lines or the fence lines, and then that seed comes out with a nice little pile of fertilizer next to it causing your next soap berry to start growing.

So that's one way.

So plants that are distributed by animals might have a longer distance away from the adult parent.

Of course, blackberries, any of our fruiting plants have adapted to have a tasty treat for that animal to be encouraged to take that seed a little bit further.

So these are some weeds that we have and a lot of our plants in the umble family or the APAC family, also known as the carrot family, they have these umble shaped flowers that look like umbrellas, if you will.

You can see how it's kind of got this white flower to it, but as they dry, they get these sort of stick tight seeds on them.

And if you've ever walked or hiked through the woods, you come back, you check your socks and you'll have these all attached to you.

So again, that's a method of transportation of these seeds.

So you think about little furry animals that are walking through and these get caught in that fur, anywhere from smaller stick tight like this to your larger cockabirs that will travel on cattle and different things is a way for this plant to move through the landscape.

Now there's another method which is water.

So one of our most invasive plants, the Tamarisk plant, likes to grow on the edge of water and its seed can not only travel by wind, but is very buoyant as well and can travel through that water.

And so you often find it downstream and that's one way that it spreads and is becoming a problem or is a problem in Oklahoma.

Now, the reason why we wanted to kind of cover all of this is because it's kind of cool that plants can move.

We often think of them as being stationary and stuck in the ground, but they do move.

So when we're thinking about planting our landscape, it's also important to remember how that plant might spread in your garden and to consider the ways the seeds are distributed because you're not just planting that one plant, but you're also planting potential pyrogeny that's going to distribute throughout the landscape.

Today we're back here at the UG Butterfly Farm in Leonard, Oklahoma, just south of Tulsa, and joining me is Jane Breckenridge.

And Jane, we've visited your farm in a few different instances, but today I want to talk about the homeowner that might be rearing butterflies.

As a professional butterfly producer, tell us a little bit of some tips, pros and cons of that.

- It's the same for everybody.

And so it's about clean, healthy food.

It's the same as for people too, right?

- Right.

- And so one of the things that I tell people, one of the easiest things we can all do to get started is create a non-toxic zone in your yard or garden.

- Okay.

- So I've had people tell me they created butterfly gardens and they didn't have any butterflies and ask if they're spraying poison and they're like, "Well, yeah, just to kill the ugly bugs."

So there are no ugly bugs as far as our butterflies are concerned.

So if you can do nothing else, do a non-toxic zone.

But beyond that is you need to think about what are you hoping to attract?

Or do you want adult butterflies?

Then you need nectar plants.

Do you want to actually see the whole life cycle?

Then you got to have host plants for the appropriate butterflies for where you live.

- Right, because butterflies are very specific.

They are good at plant ID, right?

Yeah, - They are.

They are.

And fun fact, they actually taste with their feet and they smell with their antennae.

So when that mama butterfly is looking for where to lay her eggs, 200 to 400 eggs, she's going to taste with her feet and make sure it's the right plant that her offspring can, because they come out, they're only little tiny eggs and they can't crawl long distance.

So she's going to be able to tell by landing on it, she doesn't need an app to ID what is there.

She can tell.

So thinking about having milkweeds for the monarchs, thinking about parsley, dill, fennel for the Eastern Black Swallowtails, you could do some passion vine, some pipevine.

Those are all beautiful, beautiful local species.

- So Jane, what about the sugar water sometimes I see out in the gardens?

- Yeah.

So here at the farm we use Gatorade, actually red Gatorade, and they will nectar on it.

And it's junk food sort of, but you know what?

In a pinch, it will do.

Okay.

So yeah, it's got the salts and the sugars and everything they need.

If there's good nectar sources, they won't come to that, but if there's not, hey, it'll do.

- Okay.

And one of the important things is the season extension to have those nectar plants throughout the seasons, right?

- Right.

And so we want to make sure because when those butterflies are first coming out, a lot of the spring, summer over wintering as adults and they're coming out and they're so hungry, they've not eaten all winter.

And so if you can plan your bloom times, if you can just be a little mindful when you're doing your garden planning to make sure that you've got blooming plants all the way through the season.

And that's particularly important in the fall because as the monarchs migrate through, they have got to really nectar up because not only do they have to fly up to 3,000 miles, sometimes up to 70 miles a day, they have got to get enough fat resources to live all winter long on that fat.

They won't feed all winter through overing wintering grounds.

So everybody in Oklahoma needs to do their part to make sure that those guys have got enough nutrition as they go through.

- Okay.

We're the last pit stop before they get to Mexico.

- If they fail, it's on us.

Okay.

- All right.

So essentially they're migrating back through in late September, October, is - That - Yeah.

Mid to late September, depending on the year.

- All right.

So what about people that are rearing them and they might have seen them in their garden, they bring them into one of those cages.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

- Well, it's probably not going to help save monarchs.

It's the whole population.

But what it does is I think it gives people a really amazing experience to better understand monarch.

So I personally, I'm fine with doing it.

So less than 5% of monarch eggs in the wild actually make it to adult butterflies.

Most of them go into the food web, that's nature.

But it's sad to watch them get parasitized.

So I enjoy bringing them in.

It's actually how we got started butterfly farming over 30 years ago is bringing them in.

- Okay.

So you're saving one starfish at a time and swelling.

That's exactly - What we're doing and also just having one of the most miraculous experiences.

But if you are going to do that, got to make sure they've got plenty of food and keep them clean.

Take out the frass every day.

Don't handle them with your hands or if you do, use gloves.

- Okay.

And do they need water?

- No.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for this information.

Thank you.

Today we're back out here near our raised bed that we constructed this past winter.

And you might remember that one of the shows I mentioned I was planting this tomato, it's called Bada Bing, and it's an all America selection that just came out.

And so we were anxious to try it.

Now, I think I might have said that it was determinate, but it actually is considered an indeterminate tomato.

However, it really stays around 40 inches.

So that's one of the reasons why I chose it to go into our raised beds here.

Now, you can see we have trellised it.

So that's an important note.

If you have the time, it's really beneficial to go ahead and trellis your tomatoes, even if they are going to stay relatively compact, because you can see what we're starting to get now is the fruit, which is what we're after after all.

So we're getting a lot of fruit coming on here and some of these are very large.

Now, the actual fruit that this botabean tomato produces is actually like a large cherry or cocktail type tomato.

So they're going to get to be about one and a half inches.

But the benefit of this particular type of tomato is it's got some cracking resistance also.

Of course, it also has all of the disease resistance that we're looking for as well.

So we're getting some beautiful tomatoes and you guys know how much rain we've had and how dry it's gotten in between that rain.

We're actually in a drought, but yet we've just got five inches of rain.

So that's what causes some of that cracking is too much excessive water all of a sudden, and then the fruit actually sort of explodes from the inside causing that cracking.

So I'm happy to report we're not seeing any cracking on this fruit considering the recent weather that we've had.

So we've got some beautiful fruit that are coming on.

And like I said, we have been pruning this a little bit and training it.

So we've been trimming those suckers that are sort of the middle branches.

And so that's important to kind of reduce some of that excessive vegetation so that the energy goes back into the fruiting.

However, you do want to make sure you're leaving some fair amount of vegetation, not only because that's how it gets its energy through photosynthesis, but also that provides important cover for those plants so they don't get sunburned.

So we've got some intense sun coming in and that can cause some sun scalding.

So we, like I said, have trellised these.

So we've used a couple of different methods here.

We love our tapinger.

If you don't have one of these and you're doing a lot of trellising, check out one of these.

It's like a staple gun in the fact that it pulls this tape out, then you kind of put it around the vine, staple it again, and it cuts it off just like that.

So that's one great way of actually trellising your tomatoes.

If you're doing a lot, it's an easy way to do it.

However, what we're finding is because these are such large vines, they're getting heavier with the fruit, we're using also this Velcro tape, which is nice.

So it's got this fuzzy side on one side and then the hooks on the other, and you can just cut it to fit your vines and your trellis to get around there.

So that will actually hold a little bit more weight than what our tape and our tape has been doing.

So just some examples to use if you're looking at trellising your tomatoes still.

And again, the reason why we're trellising is because we want to also encourage good airflow.

Again, we've had a lot of rain, so getting those plants up off the ground, allowing for that air circulation, it's just going to allow them to dry out a little bit faster and further reduce any disease or pathogens that might be splashing on that plant.

So we're pretty happy with how our bottoming tomatoes have turned out.

And so if you're looking for a new tomato to try next season, you might check this one out.

Today we're here at the teaching garden at Woodward Park, and joining me is Lee Taylor, and we're in a new garden that just recently was redesigned.

Can you tell me a little bit about what it is now?

- So this is our fountain garden.

We also sometimes call it the study garden.

It's meant to be a space to come and sit quietly, meditate or study, read a book.

It's also meant to be a cooler garden.

Obviously here, we've lost a lot of our shade.

There used to be several mature trees in this garden that unfortunately due to storms and fungus infections we lost over the last decade or so.

- So with diseases and problems, you have to adapt the garden, right?

Yes.

So did you kind of, because it used to have a little bit of a Japanese feel.

- Yeah, we had some Japanese maples in here and kind of some of the design principles that were used to choose our plantings influenced that look for - Sure.

Okay.

Okay.

So what is kind of this space meant to be now?

I know you were wanting to go a little more color all seasons.

- Yes, definitely.

And we still want to hold onto that meditative and study.

So obviously the fountain is here.

That really contributes to the feeling of the garden.

But this is also a display garden and an opportunity to showcase some wonderful small garden trees.

It is a narrow bed, almost none of these are larger than about eight feet deep.

And so we need to stick with smaller tree species in this space.

- If nobody's been here before, it's a jewel of a garden and it's a little bit of a pocket garden squeezed into the urban environment of Tulsa here.

And so you are kind of limited on space and also height even with the power lines and stuff.

- Right.

So we've selected 10 species of trees, all of which show off a huge variety of shapes.

We have weeping and columnar and pyramidal and small ovals that will really make a beautiful canopy, a diverse canopy, and showcase what you can do in a small space.

- Okay.

And often when we think of color, we tend to think of flowers, right?

Right.

And we know there's a lot of spring flowering trees.

Can you tell us about that?

And also other ways you've incorporated color.

- Yeah.

So we have several spring blooming species.

We have a weeping cherry, a weeping red bud.

We have two deciduous magnolias.

One is a pink flowering and one is Judy Zuk Magnolia, which is a yellow flowering magnolia.

That one's actually going to get pretty tall at about 35 to 40 feet, but stays very, very narrow.

So it's perfect for a small space like this.

- Oh, excellent.

And also fall color as well.

- Right.

Some wonderful fall color on all of these trees and some winter interest as well.

We have a crab apple that actually holds onto its fruit for a really long time into the winter.

- Okay.

And do the wildlife like this crab apple?

Oh - Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

And that's part of the benefit as well.

- Very nice.

And of course, you will get more shade as they grow and it'll be a more reflective area to kind of cool off in.

- Absolutely.

- But you have one special tree that's blooming back there.

Can you tell us a little bit about it?

Yeah, - So we have a Franklin tree hybrid.

The Franklin tree is from Southeast US.

It's actually extinct in the wild now, so it's only found in cultivation.

Ours is a hybrid.

This garden stays a little bit wetter.

Our microclimate, the soils stay wetter, and the Franklin strait species doesn't tolerate that that so well.

And so ours is a cross with Gordonia, which is a close relative from Asia.

It's also a small tree, perfect again for this space.

It gets only to about 20 feet tall and a spread of about 15 to 25 feet.

So we're going to keep it trimmed up a little bit to make sure it fits in this space.

- Excellent.

Well, all of these are about topping out at eight feet right now, it seems like.

Right.

So there's plenty of time to come and enjoy them as they continue maturing.

But I think this is a great example of how when something in gardening or the environment maybe kind of messes with your garden, it's an opportunity, right?

- Absolutely.

And so often we come into spaces that we don't know what the microclimate's going to be like, and it takes us a few years to learn what's going to do best there.

- Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for sharing this garden with us.

- Thank you so much.

- And as always, if you have questions about today's show, feel free to reach out to your local county OSU Extension office or leave us a comment on social media.

There are many great horticulture activities this time of year.

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

Join us next week as we visit a beautiful English garden full of charm right here on Oklahoma Gardening.

Thanks.

Okay.

Butterfly.

Don't hit it, don't hit it.

And ready and rolling.

It sounded loud to me, so.

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.

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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 OSU is home to our studio garden, and we encourage you to come visit this beautiful Stillwater gym.

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 the Tulsa Garden Club, Greenleaf Nursery and the garden debut plants, the Tulsa Garden Center, the Oklahoma Horticultural Society, and the Tulsa Herb Society.