WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.380 --> 00:00:12.720 I was just trying to fix up the old place here so I'd have somewhere to keep all my 2 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:13.540 garden tools. 3 00:00:14.200 --> 00:00:17.960 You know, I've always wanted a place where I could keep my tools and know right where 4 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:21.420 they were when I needed them, or at least where they ought to be. 5 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:22.720 Do you have a garden? 6 00:00:23.560 --> 00:00:25.340 You'd be surprised how many people do. 7 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:27.920 Oh, I don't necessarily mean a great big one. 8 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:31.980 Of course they're nice if you've got space, but then there are just a lot of people that 9 00:00:31.980 --> 00:00:36.300 live in apartments or city homes and simply don't have the room. 10 00:00:37.020 --> 00:00:41.140 Still, they can have a lot of pleasure and enjoyment with just a few house plants or 11 00:00:41.140 --> 00:00:42.540 maybe a window box or two. 12 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:48.660 Especially if you've got some flowers with bright colored blossoms on them. 13 00:00:48.860 --> 00:00:53.440 Well, if you don't believe me, just wait till your friends come in and see if they don't 14 00:00:53.440 --> 00:00:54.140 comment on them. 15 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:59.380 You know, there are just a lot of people that will always stop and look at your flowers 16 00:00:59.380 --> 00:01:03.620 and want to know what you did to get such nice ones or maybe try to give you a little 17 00:01:03.620 --> 00:01:05.700 advice on how to make them better. 18 00:01:06.220 --> 00:01:12.960 Well, anyway, it's fun to kind of compare notes just to see, well, how much sun you've 19 00:01:12.960 --> 00:01:17.020 been giving them and how often you water them and whether or not you give them any plant 20 00:01:17.020 --> 00:01:17.340 food. 21 00:01:18.440 --> 00:01:21.240 Well, it's been a hobby of mine for a long time. 22 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:23.740 I've grown quite a few flowers. 23 00:01:23.800 --> 00:01:29.180 I'd like to try to tell you some of my experiences and give you a few tips from time to time, 24 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:30.700 whatever I can that'll be helpful. 25 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:34.540 And then too, I've had another hobby of taking pictures of them. 26 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:36.920 That is, time lapse pictures. 27 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:42.500 Well, time lapse pictures, they're the kind that, they're just the opposite from slow 28 00:01:42.500 --> 00:01:48.000 motion pictures and they speed the action up many times faster than normal so that you 29 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:53.920 can see on the screen in a few seconds what actually may have represented many months 30 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:55.000 in the normal growth. 31 00:01:55.700 --> 00:02:00.800 See the flowers coming right up out of the ground and bursting into full bloom and then 32 00:02:00.800 --> 00:02:01.420 dying away. 33 00:02:02.320 --> 00:02:07.480 I've brought some of the time lapse pictures out here to show you and I hope to bring some 34 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:10.520 out each time we get together here in the old tool shed. 35 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:16.000 That is, some that'll cover the various subjects that I am going to discuss from time to time 36 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:20.200 and I hope you'll drop in just as often as you possibly can. 37 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:25.720 Well, before we start the pictures, first here's a word for you. 38 00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:43.640 Now then, let's take a look at these time lapse pictures that I've been talking so much about. 39 00:02:49.760 --> 00:02:51.900 Here's a time lapse picture of a rose. 40 00:02:52.140 --> 00:02:53.440 Now let's watch it open. 41 00:03:19.220 --> 00:03:22.420 Well, here's a time lapse picture of an ordinary petunia. 42 00:03:22.780 --> 00:03:24.040 Well, I have to take that back. 43 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:25.520 This isn't an ordinary one. 44 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:27.040 It's a double petunia. 45 00:03:27.320 --> 00:03:33.260 But nevertheless, it's a very common flower and one that lots of people grow and a lot 46 00:03:33.260 --> 00:03:38.940 of people like to start them from seed at home and then plant them out in a garden or 47 00:03:38.940 --> 00:03:40.040 in a window box. 48 00:03:40.040 --> 00:03:45.880 They make an excellent border plant and an excellent flower for window boxes. 49 00:03:49.980 --> 00:03:54.420 It's interesting though, I think, to watch the flowers open in these time lapse pictures. 50 00:03:55.420 --> 00:04:01.780 You can see how much motion there is to them that otherwise you just don't realize. 51 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:11.560 Well, this is a plant that's called a cyclamen. 52 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:14.880 This is a very good indoor plant. 53 00:04:15.820 --> 00:04:22.820 Over in Europe, that is parts of Europe, they use them in the garden outdoors, but in the 54 00:04:22.820 --> 00:04:27.800 United States it's used primarily, in fact exclusively, I'd say, as a house plant. 55 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:32.760 But the nice thing about it is that they start to bloom along in the late fall. 56 00:04:33.520 --> 00:04:38.500 If you take the proper care of them, they'll continue to bloom all winter long, keeps ending 57 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:46.160 up with more buds which will burst into bloom and well into the springtime. 58 00:04:47.080 --> 00:04:49.180 But as I say, you've got to take the proper care. 59 00:04:49.260 --> 00:04:53.920 They like to have a cool temperature and lots of sunlight in the wintertime. 60 00:04:55.520 --> 00:05:00.600 I want to try to give you all the pointers I can so that you can get the most out of your 61 00:05:00.600 --> 00:05:01.020 flowers. 62 00:05:01.960 --> 00:05:07.240 Well, you can grow cyclamen from seed or you can get a plant from the florist to take home 63 00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:10.840 with you and it should last a long time. 64 00:05:14.420 --> 00:05:19.040 They just keep sending up more and more flower stems and buds. 65 00:05:20.980 --> 00:05:26.880 As the old ones die away, there are new ones that keep on coming all winter long. 66 00:05:27.380 --> 00:05:28.720 Makes an excellent house plant. 67 00:05:35.140 --> 00:05:43.160 Now watch these additional buds come up and burst into bloom in just a minute. 68 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:54.360 I have seen cyclamen plants with as many as 50 to 60 flowers on them at one time. 69 00:05:57.660 --> 00:06:00.180 Inside of the house where you won't see them. 70 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:04.380 Here's the cypropetium type of orchid. 71 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:10.540 I want to tell you some interesting stories about not only orchids but many flowers like 72 00:06:10.540 --> 00:06:13.440 this that are raised in great quantities commercially. 73 00:06:14.560 --> 00:06:20.320 And then too there are some fascinating stories about men who have devoted many years of their 74 00:06:20.320 --> 00:06:27.800 lives making trips to the remote jungles of the world to bring back new varieties of orchids. 75 00:06:28.520 --> 00:06:35.060 Bring back orchids to cross with other orchids to develop new colors and shapes and forms 76 00:06:35.060 --> 00:06:35.740 of orchids. 77 00:06:44.360 --> 00:06:46.280 Now watch this one open. 78 00:06:46.740 --> 00:06:51.480 It's a much deeper color than the one you just saw. 79 00:06:51.520 --> 00:06:53.600 This is sort of a deep brownish red. 80 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:58.780 The upper part has good yellow white in it. 81 00:06:59.080 --> 00:06:59.980 The yellow center. 82 00:06:59.980 --> 00:07:15.260 You see the commercial growers not only have to try to develop orchids that will go well 83 00:07:15.260 --> 00:07:21.220 with ladies dresses but also varieties that come into bloom during the time of the year 84 00:07:21.220 --> 00:07:22.560 when they're in greatest demand. 85 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:25.100 Now this is the catlea type of orchid. 86 00:07:25.100 --> 00:07:30.300 The big large type and just see those buds burst open. 87 00:07:42.300 --> 00:07:43.960 I hope you like those time lapse pictures. 88 00:07:44.140 --> 00:07:47.020 I'll have to confess that they certainly fascinate me. 89 00:07:47.080 --> 00:07:51.280 Of course it's been a hobby of mine for a long time but I enjoy seeing them no matter 90 00:07:51.280 --> 00:07:54.460 how many times I've seen the same picture over and over again. 91 00:07:55.340 --> 00:07:59.440 I'd like to take you down sometime to the time lapse studio and show it to you. 92 00:07:59.660 --> 00:08:03.440 It's right over here in the basement of the house and when we have more time and we're 93 00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:08.860 together here I'll do that because I've got old 25 cameras that are so operating automatically 94 00:08:08.860 --> 00:08:09.680 down there. 95 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:12.820 I've got a lot of automatic timing devices. 96 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:18.160 Some cameras are taking pictures that is one picture at a time on a motion picture film 97 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:22.600 about every five minutes some every 10 minutes and then there are others that are operating 98 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:24.920 about every half hour or so. 99 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:30.140 When you run that film off at regular speed then it gives you the effect of the flowers 100 00:08:30.140 --> 00:08:34.020 coming right up out of the ground and bursting into bloom as you saw them. 101 00:08:34.700 --> 00:08:39.020 I also want to show you around the tool shed here and just what I've done to it to fix 102 00:08:39.020 --> 00:08:45.460 it up because well you might have a place well in the garage down the basement or a 103 00:08:45.460 --> 00:08:48.600 shed like this that you could fix up and get a lot of use out of it. 104 00:08:48.880 --> 00:08:50.660 But right now here's the word for you. 105 00:09:03.880 --> 00:09:06.440 Let's take a look around the old tool shed here. 106 00:09:07.500 --> 00:09:12.340 On the wall I've got various garden tools hanging there right where they're readily 107 00:09:12.340 --> 00:09:19.920 accessible and some holes and on the shelves I've got all various spray material and powders 108 00:09:19.920 --> 00:09:21.420 and some plant foods. 109 00:09:21.640 --> 00:09:25.720 Of course I keep the big sacks of that down under the bench here. 110 00:09:26.620 --> 00:09:32.480 Then I've got an assortment of flower pots and incidentally speaking of flower pots it's 111 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:37.700 a good idea if you ever break one accidentally to save all the pieces because well you can 112 00:09:37.700 --> 00:09:43.060 see how they're rounded and that's just about the best thing you can use to put down in 113 00:09:43.060 --> 00:09:46.520 over the little hole to keep the dirt from going through there. 114 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:53.520 You see anything flat is too apt to cover it completely and block up the drainage and 115 00:09:53.520 --> 00:09:58.200 well if you keep the pieces whenever you break one then you don't have to break another every 116 00:09:58.200 --> 00:09:59.760 time you just want one piece. 117 00:10:00.740 --> 00:10:09.020 And down below here I've got a couple of bins that I keep sand in one and peat moss in the 118 00:10:09.020 --> 00:10:09.360 other. 119 00:10:09.900 --> 00:10:15.960 Over on this side I've got my spray tanks, seed and some more garden tools. 120 00:10:16.940 --> 00:10:22.400 And here in the corner of the workbench I always keep some padding soil, the mixture that I 121 00:10:22.400 --> 00:10:25.640 like to use and well that pile's getting kind of low. 122 00:10:25.780 --> 00:10:28.280 I think I'll make up a little right now. 123 00:10:30.940 --> 00:10:38.300 I always keep an ash can, one of these half sized ash cans of soil on hand, just good 124 00:10:38.300 --> 00:10:40.280 garden loam from out in the garden. 125 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:46.760 And whenever you mix some up it's a good idea to put it through a regular soil sieve. 126 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:56.760 And I like to take two parts of good garden soil like this and just put two of these flower 127 00:10:56.760 --> 00:10:59.360 pots full in there, there's a piece of broken pot. 128 00:11:00.660 --> 00:11:02.660 Put it back on the other side. 129 00:11:06.820 --> 00:11:14.560 This is pretty good soil, it's not too lumpy but to get some, get what stones and other 130 00:11:14.560 --> 00:11:20.340 stuff in there out I better put this back down on the floor now. 131 00:11:23.940 --> 00:11:34.500 So I use two parts of soil and two parts of peat moss. 132 00:11:36.700 --> 00:11:39.340 This is certainly dry and powdery. 133 00:11:43.400 --> 00:11:46.040 And two parts of sand. 134 00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:53.420 So that makes about one third of each. 135 00:11:54.860 --> 00:11:58.860 You see the sand makes it porous and helps the drainage. 136 00:11:59.540 --> 00:12:03.220 The peat moss helps hold the moisture and puts humus in it. 137 00:12:03.220 --> 00:12:11.420 And incidentally, if you've got a dustpan like this, it comes in very handy for just 138 00:12:11.420 --> 00:12:12.520 mixing this up. 139 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:15.480 Well that's pretty good now. 140 00:12:15.860 --> 00:12:18.540 I'll just add it over here onto the pile. 141 00:12:24.160 --> 00:12:26.420 That certainly is dry. 142 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:31.140 I like to keep my potting soil moist. 143 00:12:32.280 --> 00:12:37.480 Oh it doesn't have to, it doesn't require too much water but just enough to settle the 144 00:12:37.480 --> 00:12:43.140 dust and kind of keeps it alive because there's a lot of soil bacteria in there and I think 145 00:12:43.140 --> 00:12:46.920 most gardeners like to keep their potting soil just a little on the moist side so it's 146 00:12:46.920 --> 00:12:48.120 not powdery dry. 147 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:50.920 Well we have a little time left. 148 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:54.320 What do you say we plant something just so we can have it growing? 149 00:12:54.320 --> 00:13:02.140 Well I brought in a sweet potato because a sweet potato is one of the easiest things 150 00:13:02.140 --> 00:13:06.100 that you can grow and you don't have to have a big garden outdoors. 151 00:13:06.100 --> 00:13:08.860 You can grow it right in the house. 152 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:15.140 All you need is just a jar like this or an old tin can or something and well if you have 153 00:13:15.140 --> 00:13:21.360 some toothpicks, just put a toothpick in this way. 154 00:13:22.100 --> 00:13:24.500 Get those turned around right. 155 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:31.260 Put three toothpicks in about one third the way around so that I'm putting the big end 156 00:13:31.260 --> 00:13:35.060 of the toothpick in and incidentally these are those little flat toothpicks. 157 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:38.560 If you've got some of the big round type it's better because they're much stronger. 158 00:13:39.400 --> 00:13:44.220 You see a sweet potato will grow indoors very well and even if you just put it in a kitchen 159 00:13:44.220 --> 00:13:50.560 window or you can put it in, well you can put it in any window, even a north window. 160 00:13:50.560 --> 00:13:54.040 But of course if you've got another window in the house where it'll get a little sunlight 161 00:13:54.040 --> 00:13:55.380 it's going to grow better. 162 00:13:57.380 --> 00:14:05.700 You do need some water though so I'll just take the watering can and fill it up. 163 00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:12.820 You want to have about the one third of the potato, the bottom part there, in the water 164 00:14:12.820 --> 00:14:15.800 and just keep adding water as necessary. 165 00:14:17.500 --> 00:14:23.300 Well you'll be surprised how fast the shoots will start coming out of the top and roots 166 00:14:23.300 --> 00:14:24.340 down there at the bottom. 167 00:14:25.640 --> 00:14:29.220 Well incidentally I planted this with the big end down. 168 00:14:29.940 --> 00:14:35.060 Somebody saw me plant a potato that way once and they questioned as to whether I was planting 169 00:14:35.060 --> 00:14:36.080 it the right way. 170 00:14:36.100 --> 00:14:39.960 They said they'd always put it in this way with the little end down. 171 00:14:40.460 --> 00:14:42.840 Well now that brought up quite a problem. 172 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:51.840 So I wrote to a friend of mine, Dr. Julian Miller, who's head of the Horticultural 173 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:54.920 Research Department of Louisiana State University. 174 00:14:55.300 --> 00:15:01.080 See they grow more sweet potatoes down in Louisiana than any other state and well I figured 175 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:06.380 that he probably would know more about sweet potatoes and maybe he could help on this problem 176 00:15:06.380 --> 00:15:10.260 as to which end of a sweet potato should be up when you plant it. 177 00:15:10.260 --> 00:15:12.740 So let's just see what he says here. 178 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:18.860 It's quite a long letter and well while I'm trying to find this place, here's another 179 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:20.260 word of interest for you. 180 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:36.940 Well I found where he explains about which end of a potato is which. 181 00:15:36.940 --> 00:15:39.200 You see there are two ends of a potato. 182 00:15:39.300 --> 00:15:42.000 There's the distal end and the proximal end. 183 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:47.120 Well with some varieties the distal end is the big end and should be planted down and 184 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:51.820 with some varieties the proximal end is the big end and vice versa. 185 00:15:51.940 --> 00:15:59.420 In fact it's all very confusing and becomes quite involved as to which end of the potato 186 00:15:59.420 --> 00:16:03.940 should be planted down and of course it depends on the variety you have. 187 00:16:03.940 --> 00:16:11.380 So I thought probably the best way to get around that difficulty is if you've got just 188 00:16:11.380 --> 00:16:16.680 a dish like this, sort of a flat dish, then you can take your potato and just take the 189 00:16:16.680 --> 00:16:20.700 toothpicks out of it and plant it on its side. 190 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:24.720 Well then that eliminates the problem of which end is up. 191 00:16:25.160 --> 00:16:30.940 Just pour the water in there and later on you can put dirt or even gravel in there and 192 00:16:31.820 --> 00:16:37.000 your potatoes will, you'll have a vine that will grow up one side of the window and you 193 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:39.760 can put a string there or something for it to grow on. 194 00:16:40.460 --> 00:16:47.020 Well all joking aside, Dr. Miller has done a great deal of work in developing new varieties 195 00:16:47.020 --> 00:16:48.040 of sweet potatoes. 196 00:16:48.460 --> 00:16:54.120 He's developed a variety down there that has four times the amount of vitamin A in it as 197 00:16:54.120 --> 00:16:59.440 an ordinary sweet potato and you can see the work that's being done not only in sweet 198 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:03.800 potatoes but so many of the other foods that we are eating now. 199 00:17:04.080 --> 00:17:08.840 More vitamins, more food value and well it's quite important. 200 00:17:09.600 --> 00:17:14.680 I'm going to try to bring you stories like this and others of the work that's been done 201 00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:20.400 in the development of not only agricultural crops but the flowers that we grow in our own 202 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:25.340 gardens because you know there's so many new varieties that have been developed in just 203 00:17:25.340 --> 00:17:26.440 recent years. 204 00:17:26.820 --> 00:17:28.260 It's just unbelievable. 205 00:17:28.260 --> 00:17:34.260 The work that's being done in developing new colors, flowers for fragrance, flowers that 206 00:17:34.260 --> 00:17:40.360 will last longer and there's some very well there's just a lot of interesting stories 207 00:17:40.360 --> 00:17:41.480 and tales about that. 208 00:17:41.780 --> 00:17:46.780 I hope you're going to stop around just as often as you can because we're going to have 209 00:17:46.780 --> 00:17:52.200 regular get together here from now on and I'm going to tell you these various stories 210 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:59.000 and try to give you some helpful hints of how to grow various flowers not only in your 211 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:01.060 kitchen windowsill but out in the garden. 212 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:06.440 So be sure to come around and I'll be looking forward to seeing you from now on at each 213 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:08.940 one of our get togethers here in the old tool shed. 214 00:18:33.260 --> 00:18:34.660 Thank you.