(gentle music) >>You never know when that door opens, what's coming in, and this was a rose sample that came in, and it obviously has something going on.

They wanna know what it is and is it something they need to treat.

Well, this is a really good example of the rose aphid.

>>If you like the shade, overdye it a little bit longer because if you like this shade, once you wash it, will get lighter.

>>I love that shade.

>>So leave it on longer.

>>Okay.

>>Because once you wash it, it's gonna get a little bit more faded, so go a couple of shades darker than whatever it is you're shooting for.

>>Production funding for "Virginia Home Grown" is made possible by Strange's Florists, Greenhouses and Garden Centers, serving Richmond for over 90 years, with two florist shops, two greenhouses and a garden center.

Located throughout the Metro Richmond area.

Strange's, every bloomin' time.

(bird cawing) And by.

(critters chirping) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) >>Welcome to "Virginia Home Grown."

Hard to believe it's been dipping below 55 degrees at night, too chilly for tomato plants, so I've been protecting them with row cover.

I'm looking forward to a garden filled with red ripe tomatoes.

Today, we think and look at the garden a little differently, both up close and with some amazing colors.

While I typically use my magnifying glass to look a little closer, a microscope can really zoom in.

Before we get started, I wanna remind you to send in your questions on our website, vpm.org/vhg.

We'll be answering those a little later.

In the second half of our show, we will visit the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown to step back in time and learn how colonial gardeners used plants to make vibrant dyes for fabric.

But first, I visited the Chesterfield County Extension Lab to meet Mike Likins and take a microscopic look at some pests and plant diseases, so let's get going.

>>Cooperative Extension is a centuries-old process where the federal government, local authorities have come together to take the information from universities and distill it, or as we say, extend it, to the common people.

So this has been a successful program, as I say, for over a hundred years.

>>That's fantastic.

It's a great way to share information to people who don't have it.

>>Yep.

>>And I wanna say, this is kind of a perfect example of the information that's shared, is we have this wilting plant.

It's a zizia aurea.

What could be wrong with it?

People don't know.

And they would bring it here.

>>Exactly.

We provide accurate and timely diagnoses so that if there is a product to be used, we can prescribe the exact one.

Versus just going to a store and buying a bunch of different things.

So we're trying to protect water quality, bee and pollinators.

We're trying to do the best with the least.

>>Exactly, so we can have more sustainable gardens.

>>Exactly, sustainability is the key.

>>Yeah, absolutely.

>>But we do have to take care of the emergencies.

>>We do.

Be they home pests or be they out in the garden.

>>Absolutely.

>>And this service here, this office is a wonderful location to do so because it has a very special place.

>>Yes, the lab, we're happy to have what I would call the gold standard of the state.

Goochland has a nice one and so does Hanover.

>>So if you live anywhere, in any state in the United States, you have a Cooperative Extension office you can contact.

>>Exactly, and that's the key.

They are local authorities on, not just agriculture, but horticulture, arborists come to them, greenhouses.

Anybody that deals with the green industry will come to the Ag and Natural Resource.

But then you have two other components of Extension, which would be 4-H, which is the youth development.

>>Right.

>>And then you have Family & Consumer Services.

Which is the modernization of home ec.

>>Right.

>>Okay.

>>You can learn to can, you can learn to preserve, you can learn to sew.

>>Financial management.

They're doing the modern things too.

>>Well, I'm excited to see this beautiful lab.

>>It's just to your left.

So if you'll move that way, I'll follow you.

>>Absolutely.

Mike, this is awesome.

>>Well, thank you.

Appreciate you coming by and seeing this operational lab.

It's not a lot of glitz, it's really just pure science.

You're at the operational end of our process.

We have a triage area out front where we bring in large samples, then we have a clinical sample area where we can take the saws and whatever.

Behind us is the diagnostic, where we get the sample down small enough that we can bring it over here and have some fun.

>>Really start looking at it.

>>Yeah, we can visit an alien world, and we don't need a passport.

>>Nope.

>>As an example, today someone walked in with a rose sample.

They knew something was going on, but they weren't sure.

So they bring it to us, and we can put it under the microscope and take a look at it.

And as you can see, it's crawling with creatures.

And we can positively ID this based on this sample as the rose aphid.

>>Well, this is fantastic because me, I'm sitting here looking at on the monitor, so I can easily see these move around.

And I can also see that the people in the window at the library can also see this.

This is fascinating, what a great opportunity.

>>Well, it's a teaching tool, and, you know, if you see it, you believe it.

And rather than just trusting me that I'm seeing something in the scope, clients, we can take pictures here, we can take video and share them.

So, again, it's just another tool in our education process.

We do a lot of demonstration.

Specifically we have a demonstration garden outside.

>>Yes.

>>And it's where people can learn what works, what doesn't work.

And so, you know, this, again, that experiential aspect of Cooperative Extension.

>>You know, Mike, and I think of that garden as another portal for people to use to get in here.

And as they're walking through it, it's a great educational opportunity as well.

>>Yeah, a lot of people think about demonstration gardens, just, you know, planting, you know, beans and stuff like that.

But we have a lot of ornamentals, we have pollinator, we have almost a prairie planting in the back.

We try to encompass all these different ecotypes and attract not just the pollinators but also the people.

>>Yes, yes.

>>Because they wanna see, "All right, does this plant work in Chesterfield?"

>>Yeah, you even have companion planting examples out there.

>>Yeah.

>>And then in here, crawling into literally the microscopic world.

What else you got?

>>Well, we also had a homeowner bring in a pantry pest.

This is, let me see if I can get this one here a little bit closer.

This is a very common pantry pest.

It feeds on a lot of cereals and other things.

And it has a thorax that has kind of a saw edge.

So we call this the saw-tooth beetle.

It's not a structural pest, it is a pantry pest.

It's a nuisance.

But it does require that the homeowner go through a rigorous process of finding out where it is, and then vacuum, vacuum, vacuum.

>>Yeah, yeah.

>>This is not one that we want to encourage sprays because it's gonna be around food.

>>Yes.

>>It can be managed with mechanical processes.

>>Yes.

Oh, here's a very obvious one.

>>No, let's do the boxwood.

>>Oh, let's do the boxwood.

This is a pretty one.

>>Yeah, pretty in a bad way.

And unfortunately in 2015 we see that this disease kind of escapes and gets into the nursery, gets into the landscape, and it's causing a lot of havoc.

The diagnosis is the easy part.

>>Of boxwood blight?

>>Of boxwood blight.

What you do about it is gonna be the hard part.

>>Well, there's the dark spots that we can visually see on the stem.

>>Yeah, you can see.

>>Which is one of the visual diagnosis.

>>Three things are: you get defoliation, you get the blackening of the stem, and then you get a leaf spot.

And there's nothing else that looks like that.

But when you start to incubate these things, and that's one of our technical ways of encouraging fungi to grow, you'll see that they produce these stellate, almost crystalline structures that are exceedingly beautiful.

They contain hundreds of sticky spores.

>>Yes.

>>And that's how this fungus gets around.

That's probably one of our number one diseases that we're dealing with right now.

>>Back to bugs.

>>Other things that come in.

A lot of times people will bring us in materials that have some type of aberration on 'em.

People think that this is mite eggs or something like that, when in fact this is really just a good dose of pollen.

>>Yep.

>>But fortunately they gave us a good sample, and we see, I can bring this around a little bit here, we see that we have an insect egg factory.

And this is the cottony camellia scale.

These are basically just egg factories.

And you can actually see if I zoom in a little bit.

There's one of the crawlers right there.

If you don't have the egg masses, which they're pretty dramatic, you can't see this crawlers, then you probably will miss the identification.

It's easy to control if you have an accurate and timely diagnosis.

>>Right.

>>And then one that we were unfortunate to be one of the first in Virginia... >>Yay.

(Peggy laughs) >>Yeah, we're first in a lot of things, but this one is called the allium leafminer.

There we go.

Almost looks like a little sewing machine pattern.

This is where the female is depositing eggs and, the larva, it'll just mine straight through the leaf.

>>And people aren't realizing that this is such a minute insect that it's between the layers of the leaf.

>>Absolutely.

>>Well, Mike, this is fascinating, and I don't think many people know about this and to know that they have this resource available to them so that it will help them become better gardeners.

>>Well, that circles back to Cooperative Extension.

We are experiential.

You know, they can come in here and experience it.

But we give them the information to make a positive change.

Whatever the community needs, that's what Extension does.

>>Well, this is fantastic, and this lab is just such a wonderful resource.

>>Thank you.

>>Well, thank you for showing it to us.

>>There is far more to our gardens than what we can see.

It's a fascinating world teeming with life both above ground and below.

And now I'm joined by Mike to zoom in on some more plant problems.

And I have to point out that Mike is a longtime friend of the show.

He was first on all the way back to Season One with Richard, and this is now his fifth time joining us to share his knowledge.

So thanks for joining us again to help celebrate "Virginia Home Grown's" 25th Anniversary season.

Mike, >>Happy anniversary.

>>Thank you.

But before we get started, remember to send in your gardening questions on our website at vpm.org/vhg or through Facebook.

So, Mike, you've got a world here that is fascinating from just my visual, I'll say survey of it and I cringe looking at it.

>>Yeah.

>>But also, you've got some beautiful things way down deep under there.

And that's just- >>Well, again, I think this is the beauty of having microscopes.

You can see some of the incredible wonders of the world that most people just walk by.

>>Yes.

>>So I brought a bunch that we can see today, just a smattering.

So, we'll start off with something that's beautiful.

This is, it looks like a globe with all these orange projections on it.

>>Yes.

>>This is what we call rust.

And rust is a fungus that there's a lot of different ones out there, but they have this orange or rusty color to them.

And if you can see on the picture here that the little dust on there, those are spores.

So each one of these horns probably contains tens of thousands, if not, you know, hundreds of thousands of spores.

So now you're looking at amplifying the total numbers.

This is how they're successful.

>>Yes, they just saturate the environment with it.

>>Absolutely.

>>And saturate your garden.

>>Just like pollen.

>>Yes.

(Mike chuckles) But that Serviceberry's so cute and wonderful, but when it gets rust, it's quite dangerous, so.

>>Yeah.

>>To itself, I'll say, >>And this is from my house.

>>Yes.

>>I don't do anything about it.

I just let it go and the plants tolerates it, but- >>That's what I've found.

>>But it is marvelous.

>>But also, you can see even smaller and you've brought in some, ooh, I hate to say it, Asian needle ants, just to show people how small we can go and- >>Yeah, this is another, I will say it's a fairly prolific insect in Chesterfield.

It's not relegated here, it's all over Virginia.

>>Yes.

>>But this is one that's easy to identify if you have a microscope, because it is exceedingly small.

But what it lacks in size, it makes up with its sting.

[Peggy] Oh, my, and I've been stung by this thing, so- >>Yeah, the Japanese call this insect the arai-ari, and we call it the Asian needle ant.

So, but it's painful.

And people who are sensitive to venom should be aware that you need to have your EpiPen near with you 'cause it's a powerful stinger.

>>It certainly is.

And you know, that's so tiny and it's so hard to see.

And we also have some other things that are tiny.

I love showing people this wonderful powdery mildew, which they see on the top and they think, "Oh, there it is."

But to see it under magnification.

>>Yeah, this is, again, powdery mildew, especially on the (indistinct) and some of the notables, you can actually ID that, you know, walking pace or even, you know, slow speed on a car.

But under the microscope, you start to see this incredible beauty of this organism.

And it's just a spore production facility, that's all it's doing.

The fungus is inside, taking some of the nutrients, but on top, it is producing spores that, you know, and just increase this disease.

So, again, numbers.

>>Yeah, numbers do it.

>>Yeah.

>>But something very different, though.

You know, not all diseases and problems behave the same.

So here we have this peony.

>>Yeah, this was new to our lab this year.

This is a virus.

And you can see in the center of the picture here, this yellow ring, we call this a ring spot.

Obviously, we don't stay up late naming things.

>>No.

(laughs) >>But it's a virus.

It's called Tobacco Rattle Virus.

And the reason it's called that is because that's the plant it was found on first.

So, the virus naming is really kind of cumbersome.

But again, it's a virus that's vectored by nematodes.

So, if you have a planting of these in your landscape, you need to get 'em out of there quickly.

>>Yes.

>>So, but have it ID'd at your local extension office first.

>>Because the nematodes live in the soil.

Don't make an assumption.

>>Exactly.

>>You know, get it confirmed.

Another oddball one that people always walk by and say, "What is this?"

>>This is one of my favorite.

This is a leaf gall.

And I don't know if we can get, there we go.

And you'll see there's actually a mite running around there.

That's actually a beneficial mite just happened to be here.

I think it's not camera-shy.

>>I was gonna say you didn't pay him to be there.

(laughs) >>No.

But that's also another thing we need to appreciate is that there are other creatures that are working for us on these plants.

So if we come in with pesticides, they also fall victim to it.

So, but anyway, this is an insect gall.

It's very dramatic if you see it on grape.

It almost looks like Christmas elves.

>>Yeah.

>>It's so red, it's as red as your shirt.

But this is, again, just the nature and natural and normal insect world.

So, I really like all these.

>>Yes.

They're so fun.

Let's finish up though, with this one, which has taken the city by storm.

>>Yeah.

This is unfortunate that this is now a common problem.

This is called Crepe Myrtle Bark Scale.

And it's quite characteristic.

You can see there's a lot of pollen still on here but- >>Those are the irregularly shaped little flex.

>>Yeah, but the large cottony mast that is nothing but an egg mass, that's a egg factory.

And, oh, yes, they did come out.

See those little pink things?

>>Yes, I do.

>>Lemme see if I can get 'em.

>>There's one moving.

>>Yep.

>>Yeah.

>>Those are the crawlers.

>>Yeah, those are the crawlers.

And so, right now, in Central Virginia, these are hatching.

And so this is now a good time to come in with even, you know, safer soap or something like that.

>>Low-impact- >>Oil, yeah.

>>Low-impact products.

You kill the crawlers, then you diminish.

You don't cure, you diminish.

>>That's fantastic.

Well, Mike, thank you for giving us a glimpse of that special alien world underneath.

>>Yeah.

>>As you like to say.

>>Yeah, no passport needed.

>>No passport needed, so thank you.

>>(laughs) You're welcome, thank you.

>>And now we're going to get ready to answer your questions.

But first, Dr. Robyn Puffenbarger has a tip to share on seeing your yard differently.

You can provide benefits to native wildlife and save time cutting grass.

(relaxed music) >>It's so much fun to look at our gardens and landscape in new ways, and one of the big parts of the areas around our houses is usually our lawn, and my friends here in Harrisonburg had a real issue with this very sunny spot on a very steep slope because it just wasn't safe to mow.

It felt very dangerous.

One of the other things that's growing here in the front yard is a nice looking oak tree that's beginning to get some size to it, and while you think that might be a problem to give them a lot of shade, the way this lawn sits and looks west, it's gonna be full sun, so very, very hot, sunny all summer long.

So, working with a landscaper, my friends reimagined this piece of lawn into a native sunny plant garden, and they have added a wonderful array of native plants to try to control the slope, keep from mowing, and keep the maintenance to a minimum.

So, one of the plants here is the native lyre-leaf sage.

It's got a nice bloom on it right now and this is a plant that's gonna be very attractive to our native pollinators, like insects, bees, butterflies, and moths.

And then finishing up is the creeping phlox.

This is a native plant to Virginia that is now in cultivation in many colors, giving you a wonderful pop of pink, white, candy stripe, or purple in your early spring garden.

Other plants in the garden include carexes.

These are very soft looking grasses that you don't need to mow and as the garden continues to mature, they will fill in.

There's also monarda, which is another great pollinator plant, low-grow sumac, which is going to be a great ground cover, and while the garden is mulched now, as these plants begin to fill in, there won't be any need for mulch later on, so the planting is going to get lower and lower and lower in maintenance as time goes on, so my friends won't have to mow, which felt very dangerous.

They won't have to use any fertilizers or water because the native plants are used to our Virginia ecosystems.

So, as you look at your lawn, you don't have to have this kind of slope problem to think about adding native plants, but just think about how much you'll enjoy not having to mow as much when you've filled it in with all kinds of plants that will support the native pollinators and birds in your yard.

Happy gardening.

>>And now it's time for our favorite part of this show when we get to hear from you.

Make sure to send us your gardening questions through our website, vpm.org/vhg or on Facebook.

Randy Battle has joined us to help with those questions.

So Randy, welcome.

>>Thank you, I'm so glad to be here.

Happy anniversary, 25 years.

>>25 years.

>>My fifth year, so I am so glad to be here.

Thank you for being here as well.

>>Well, wonderful, we're so glad you're here with us.

>>Thank you.

>>Well, let's get started.

Do you have any questions?

>>Okay.

Well, we have some questions online, but I also have questions for our expert as well.

This time of year, there are different plants growing, like my cabbage and my lettuce, and there are different pests, and I noticed that you have some interesting information on different pests and how can we avoid them or prevent them from eating all of our crops.

>>Well, probably the first and foremost is monitoring.

You have to be aware.

People have to be out in their garden looking and seeing the damage.

>>Yeah.

>>But to control it effectively, environmentally friendly, cover with cloth.

>>Okay.

>>You know, it's a physical barrier.

We don't wanna go out there and spray things that, you know, may or may not be effective because as we saw earlier, there may be something beneficial.

And if you spray, you're gonna kill that.

You know, that's your pest control right there.

>>Okay, thank you, that's great information.

Now we have some questions from our online viewers.

>>So let's- >>Would you like to start?

>>Would love that.

>>All right.

Okay, Megan from Charlottesville, Virginia, asked, "How do I naturally get rid of many aphids that have invaded my sweet mint plant in a pot in my kitchen?"

>>Okay, that's- >>In a kitchen?

>>Is that aphids?

>>In a kitchen.

>>Yeah, actually, you just put it in the sink, get the sprayer hose, and wash 'em off.

That's the easiest.

Now it's not gonna cure it, but you will displace them, so.

>>Okay.

All right, let's move on to our next question.

Vicki from Chesterfield asks, "I have a nice variety of snapdragons that quickly became covered with something that looked like rust.

I was so invasive that I ended up pulling up all my plants, and they were slowly dying.

Is this common for snapdragons?"

>>Yes, okay, next question.

(Peggy laughing) No, you know, snapdragon rust, it's not, you know, we encounter it occasionally, but you have a susceptible plant, and you've got the fungus that's out there, so once they meet, you have rust.

So there are products you can spray.

If you're dead set on snapdragons, then protecting it with a product is probably gonna be your best effort.

Otherwise, switch to another plant.

>>Mm-hmm.

>>Okay, all right.

Vicki, you heard it from the professional.

>>Yep.

>>So do we want any more questions?

>>Keep on going.

>>One more?

>>Yeah.

>>All right.

Let's see what we got.

We have, Betty asks, "Can I have some advice on repotting and caring for African violets?"

>>Well, you wanna wait until after they bloom, first off, Betty, and once they've stopped blooming, then what you can do is very carefully remove it from the pot that it's in.

And normally, I would say break apart the roots, but not with an African violet.

I put it into a slightly bigger pot.

They like to be a little pot bound, so just a slightly bigger pot.

And put some nice potting soil that drains well around it.

Water it well, and a little bit of, I'll say precaution, I put it behind another plant so it gets a little shaded for about a week or two.

And then I bring it back out into a brighter light.

You know, just let it rest a little while and get its roots going.

That's all.

>>Yes.

I've only had one African violet in my entire life, and it didn't do so well.

>>(laughs) Yeah.

>>But, yeah.

Do we have time for more?

>>Absolutely.

>>Okay, let's go on.

All right, Adrian wants to know, "My neighbor said I should prune my tomato plants.

At what point should I prune the tomato plants and how often?"

>>Well, I limb my leaves up so that we get good air circulation.

>>Absolutely.

>>Yeah.

>>I go about a foot above the ground level.

This way, we improve our air circulation.

Some people de-sucker.

I mean, tomatoes are a vine, and there's indeterminate, and there's determinate.

So the indeterminates are just crazy growing everywhere.

And some people pull all those suckers off.

And I'm a person who leaves 'em all on 'cause I want more tomatoes.

I'm being greedy, but I do, I wanna say, thin my plants for air circulation.

If it's a mass of green, I'll go in there and clip away a leaf.

>>Absolutely.

>>Do something to just get that window of air moving through.

>>Yeah, and that's so important.

I always tell my followers that, yeah, get those leaves off the bottom.

Make sure there's nothing- >>On the ground.

>>in the soil- >>Yeah.

>>on the soil.

So just prune it up a little bit.

And I like to keep some of my suckers as well because I get extra tomatoes.

>>Exactly.

>>So, yeah.

(Mike laughing) >>That's the purpose of the operation.

>>Absolutely.

>>But we're not making big gaps.

We're just making it so the air can blow through.

>>Yeah, absolutely.

>>Yes.

>>So do we have time for one more?

>>One more.

>>Okay.

>>Maybe even more.

>>All right, let's go.

All right, "For plants that are attacked by a virus, what methods are available to diminish the effects?"

That's a broad question.

>>Yeah, it's actually pretty easy.

Unfortunately, we don't have any virus products or antiviral products.

So if you have an infected plant, the best way to control it from your other plants is to get rid of it.

The reason we recommend that is because many of the plant viruses are vectored by insects, whether it be thrips, or aphids, or some other, you know, leaf hoppers, et cetera.

>>Okay.

>>So if you have something in jeopardy, for the good of the rest of 'em, take that one out.

Okay?

>>Absolutely.

>>Now, for others, obviously, with tomatoes, you can go with the, you know, virus engineering that they've done in 'em.

So you can have some of the newer varieties that are hybridized.

Unfortunately, the heirlooms are not gonna give you that virus protection, so it's a trade off.

>>Yeah.

>>Okay.

>>I agree with that, totally.

>>And I'm gonna clarify.

When we say get rid of it, put it in a bag and take it off the site.

>>Yeah.

>>Don't put it in your compost pile.

>>Take it to- >>'Cause a lot of viruses will jump from one plant to the, not jump, but you know, if they're close together.

>>Sanitary landfill.

>>Absolutely.

>>Sanitary landfill.

>>Sanitary landfill, that's a good point.

(all laughing) >>We got room for another one.

>>Got room for one more?

Okay.

Let's go with Vicki.

No, we just did Vicki.

>>Well, Mike, I have a question for you.

>>Yep.

>>We're coming off of a rainy period and very cool weather.

What should we be looking for in our gardens as potential problems coming up?

>>Well, the first thing and the most obvious would be leaf spots.

Cercospora is one of our most common.

You see it on hydrangeas.

You see it on- >>little dots with purple edges.

>>Yeah, it's a little purple, it's not gonna do any detriment, you know, in the long run.

But a lot of people don't like the looks.

>>Mm-hmm.

>>But again, we don't really recommend any products for that.

But Cercospora, there's a lot of different species, and they all kinda look the same.

Some of the bacterias, again, things that enjoy water.

You know, fungus, you know, if you think about athlete's foot, it's water.

So, yeah, if it's wet for too long, then you're gonna have trouble.

Back to your point about air circulation, light penetration, these are the fungi and bacterias' foe.

>>Yeah, and going back to our big-leaf hydrangeas, the ones that have the big, beautiful, blue mop heads, we all wanna keep all those, as many shoots up as possible, but it's really important to get in and thin those, too.

So, anyway, well, that's all the time we have right now.

>>Okay.

>>But we look forward to answering more of your questions later in the show, so keep them coming.

And, Mike, thanks for joining us and sharing, I'll say, a new perspective- >>Thank you.

>>on the hidden world of plants and within our gardens.

>>My pleasure, happy anniversary.

>>Thank you.

>>Thank you.

>>And next, Randy met with Gretchen Johnson at the American Revolution Museum in Yorktown to learn about native and imported plant materials that were historically used to make a dye.

So let's take a look.

>>Make ready.

Take aim.

Fire!

(rifle firing) >>So we have set up three dye pots today to show you.

And the one right behind you is a really popular dye at the time called Madder.

And it's actually the root of the Madder plant that creates everything from peach to kind of a carrot orange to a brick red.

And that's a really popular dye for centuries.

And even though it's not native here, it's growing quite well in Virginia and other parts of the world by the 1770s.

And we've actually got some growing in our garden right here at Yorktown.

>>Amazing.

>>And then behind us is a yellow dye pot, but it comes from the heartwood of a tree called Osage Orange.

>>Oh, beautiful.

>>And a lot of people.

It is, it's such a great yellow.

It's actually the heartwood or the pulp of the tree that creates this beautiful yellow, and that's something that's native to North America.

And so Indigenous people would've been using this and dyeing with it long before any European contact.

That's what's so neat about dye stuff, is that everybody around the world has put color on things, has decorated with color.

And so everybody would be familiar with it before they had that convergence of contact.

But we are standing next to what I think is probably the most special dye, the most magical dye, if you can say that.

So if you were to look at the top, what color would you say this dye pot was?

>>It looks a little purple or lavender-ish.

>>Yeah, it does have like a purple-ish hue to it.

And that's because this is sitting on the outside where the oxygen has already hit it.

But if I blow on this (blowing), can you see how it looks almost like- >>It looks green.

>>It does.

It looks kind like a sickly green, almost like pond scum.

Or if I was using a modern equivalent, I would say something like antifreeze.

>>And this is gonna actually make blue.

>>It's gonna make blue.

>>Wow.

>>So for these dye pots, when we're dying with 'em, you're gonna notice that we are kind of submerging 'em in the dye pot and keeping 'em there for as long as we want.

So the longer in the dye pot, the darker it gets.

>>Okay.

>>For Indigo, it doesn't work like that because it has to oxidize, it has to be brought out and let oxygen hit it before it turns blue.

So if you left it in for 20 minutes or 2 hours, the first time you pull it out, it'll be the same shade of blue.

And you just have to keep over dying it.

>>Okay, let's do it.

>>All right, so I'm gonna slowly put it in because we are trying not to introduce any more oxygen than need be.

And you can kind of see that kind of sickly green color.

And Indigo, you're able to purchase it.

So even though we don't grow it here, you can grow it in Virginia, but it's a cash crop in South Carolina, so it would probably be purchased.

And what's neat about this little farm that we portray here at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is that it's the middling sort.

And so they would be obviously growing a lot of things and foraging for dye stuffs, but they could also purchase them in town if they want to.

>>Okay, I noticed you mentioned that you had to keep it at a certain temperature.

>>Exactly right.

>>And what is that?

>>So the Indigo is just kind of fussy.

So there's a secret ingredient you put in here, in the time it's called Sig, but it's really stale human urine, and which is free and in abundance.

So you can get that pretty easily if you want to, but that is the catalyst that causes it to turn blue when it's oxidized.

>>Got it.

>>This is something that, I think one of the fascinating things about this is that it's ancient.

So people figured this out thousands of years ago.

And all people have a different version of Indigo.

>>Wow.

>>So we're gonna slowly pull it to the edge, and when we pull it out, you might be, you might like the color or you might be slightly horrified by it, but as the oxygen hits it, it's gonna turn blue right before your eyes.

And don't worry about all the little schmutz and all the different colors.

>>Absolutely, it looks amazing.

>>Isn't that neat how that happens?

And you can still see- >>It's kind of a tie dye type.

>>It does look like that now.

But that is not what we're going for.

Although, they do have a version of that in the 18th century too.

>>Wow.

>>How beautiful.

>>Amazing.

>>And it's got those little pieces on there, but we'll over-dye it again.

And those little spots and speckles will come out.

>>That is absolutely isn't amazing.

>>That's just one dip.

And we didn't even leave it in very long.

>>Right.

Now are you able to show us where these plants are grown?

>>Absolutely.

>>And how you actually get the plants and harvest them, and what are you use them for?

>>We sure can, come with me, and I'll show you.

>>All right, let's go.

So this would be considered the farm area of the space?

>>Yes, so at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, we have two outdoor living history areas, and one is the recreated military encampment, and one is our recreated tobacco farm.

And so we're headed over to the kitchen garden.

Inside of the perimeter are all different, some medicinal herbs, some culinary herbs, and as you pointed out, some dye herbs.

And then the center, we have mostly vegetables growing.

>>All of my favorite veggies, cucumbers, beans, lettuce.

Now who takes care of this, and how often do they have to maintain this space?

>>So it's a great question.

All the living history interpreters here, people dress like me that work here on the farm that are stationed here, they are the ones that are taking care of this daily.

They are out here every single day in all seasons tending the gardens and the fields.

>>Wow, and this looks like an outside tool shed.

>>That's exactly right.

So tool shed's obviously for woodworking, but it could be just any messy project you don't wanna do inside your house, so woodworking, but maybe you're prepping your dye stuffs here, maybe you're doing butchering over here.

So just kind of outdoor work.

>>Now, this building is a significant space here on the farm, and it's called the enslaved people's quarters?

>>Absolutely, so it is, you know, a reconstruction of what a building may have looked like that housed people that were enslaved on a farm this size.

And what a lot of people don't maybe realize is that, where the last major battle of the revolution was fought in York County, Virginia, slightly more than half the population was enslaved.

Right.

So even though this is the place where we talk about how people won their freedom and independence, you know, and had liberties, the majority of people living here at the time wouldn't have experienced that.

>>Wow, that is such important information.

Thank you so much for sharing.

>>Thank you.

>>Now what do we have going on in this space?

>>So these are a couple more examples of some of the dye stuffs that we grow here on our farm.

And the one that's closest to us is Coreopsis.

So it might not look much like a dye plant at this stage, the way it's growing now, but soon, we're gonna get really pretty little yellow flowers at the top, some actually have kind of a red center.

And so unlike other dyes or some of the other dyes we talked about today, these are the flowers themselves that make the dye.

And so they would kind of steeped down in hot water and kind of release that dye.

And then that would be used just like we were using the yellow dye stuffs out there today, the Osage Orange.

>>Wow.

Now I also notice you have a few things going on over there.

Tell us a little bit about that.

>>Sure, so in the front section, that's the Calendula, and that is an import as well.

So that's from kind of Western Europe, but that would've been a yellow dye stuff.

And those have really pretty little yellow flowers.

It's also used medicinally in some cases too.

And then behind it is Woad, W-O-A-D. And that is neat because that is kind of an ancient blue dye, much like the Indigo that we were working with.

And it actually has some of the same properties to it.

And so right now you see all the little seed heads popping up.

At this point, it would be past the point of usefulness for dyeing.

So it's actually the leaves of the plant, just like the Indigo plant.

And so we would ferment them down into kind of like a paste, and it would be in water, and the sediments are kind of pulled up.

So that's how Indigo works.

And Woad is working like that too.

And this is not as high of a concentration, so you're not gonna get as deep of a blue with Woad as you would with Indigo.

>>Well, Gretchen, it has been my pleasure being here.

Thank you so much for having us.

Now tell others how can they get involved and hands-on with the farm?

>>Yeah, we'd love to have folks come out.

We're actually open 362 days a year.

So as long as you don't show up on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's, we are open to the public.

We've got great indoor things to do and activities and great outdoor activities at both the encampment and here on the farm, and it's hands-on history.

So you're welcome to try your hand at any of the things we've got going on out here.

>>This is so exciting.

Thank you again for having us.

>>Thank you.

>>We appreciate you.

>>Thank you for coming.

>>When we think of different ways plants brighten our world, dyeing fabrics isn't usually one of them.

Yet seeing those vibrant colors proves there's more to a plant than the eye can see.

And now Gretchen is here with me now to talk more about dye and show off some items that she's colored.

But before we begin, remember to send in your questions through our website, vpm.org/vhg, or through Facebook.

Gretchen, you've done it.

You've just astounded me with all these colors.

I mean, how or where do you start with all of this?

>>Yeah, it can seem overwhelming.

I think one of the first things that people are surprised to find out is that they had such vibrant colors.

You know- >>Yes.

>>Hundreds of years ago.

But they might be more surprised to find out it's been thousands of years that people have been putting color on textiles.

>>That's cool.

>>So if you wanna try it yourself, probably the things you should consider are the fiber that you're gonna use- >>Mm-hmm.

>>The dye that you're gonna use, and the mordant that you're gonna use.

>>Yes.

So I'm gonna start with the fiber because we are- >>Sure.

>>In the world of polyester and rayon, and everything else >>We are.

>>And those are not dyeable- >>Not very readily available at the time period, yes.

>>No, they were not.

>>So we have a few up here, and you're either gonna choose a protein fiber, which means animal fiber, or cellulose fiber, which means a plant fiber.

And so wool and linen are probably the top two.

>>Yes.

>>And so, yep, you've got some flax there.

And the thing that we would be dyeing is that inner fiber.

It's a bass fiber, so that little hair-like fiber that lives on the inside- >>Yep.

>>Is what gets spun and turned into linen.

>>Yeah.

>>And so linen does not accept dye as well as a protein fiber.

Really just cellulose fibers in general, you have to try a little harder, but it doesn't mean you can't get beautiful color on them.

And so another example of that would be the cotton.

>>Ah.

>>And so- >>So few people have seen a true cotton plant.

>>Yes.

>>Be careful- >>This is cotton- >>Yeah.

>>But you do have to be careful.

They can be a little bit sharp, those little tines that hold it together.

But the cotton is a little bit like linen as far as it doesn't really accept dye as easily as maybe silk or wool would.

>>Right.

>>But if you're an English colonial, you're used to these, you're used to silk, you're used to cotton, you're used to wool and linen.

But probably mostly wool and linen.

>>And here is some wool just to make a point.

>>We do, yep.

Just some little locks from a little lamb.

And those would be carted and then spun, and then turned into a great dye.

>>Sounds great.

So what would be our next step?

>>So our next step is gonna be mordant.

And that's actually a really important step.

And so mordant is like a fixative that's going to help better the vibrant colors come out, but also make it long lasting, or color fast, color permanent- >>And to bind.

>>Which is what you want.

Yeah, exactly so.

And you can actually mordant in any stage of the game.

So you technically could do it ahead of time, which is what we usually do during the process or after the process.

But it helps a lot to do it at the beginning of the process, I think.

>>Kind of set the stage for it.

>>Yeah.

>>Yeah.

>>And so luckily there's certain dyes that might already have the mordant in them.

And so oak gall would be one of those.

Black walnuts would be another.

So they have the dye in them, and they also have the mordant in them.

But you might need a salt metal.

And so we actually typically use alum when we're doing dyeing on the farm.

>>Yes.

>>Because alum is something that you can get pretty easily.

>>Yeah.

>>You can go to the spice island of your grocery store- >>(chuckles) Yes, exactly.

>>And pick up alum.

If you're using it for pickling or if you're using it for setting a dye.

>>Mm-hmm.

>>But there's other ones too.

There's tannic acid, which is like the modern equivalent of tannins that you find naturally in nuts and things like that.

Acorns.

>>Mm-hmm.

Well, that's exciting.

So I sit here and I see, you know, we've got things all over.

But we've got different colors.

And of the same dye batch, you were saying.

>>We do.

So madder is a really fun dye because it's an ancient dye.

It's a pretty old dye.

It's been around a really long time.

And it is the root part of the madder plant that creates those colors.

And if you look at the colors that we have here- >>Those are beautiful.

>>They were all dyed with madder, but they look... You see all these different shades.

>>Yes.

>>And so the lighter one is linen.

>>Uh-huh.

>>This one is peach.

This peachy kind of color is cotton.

This is silk, and that's wool.

And those were all dyed with madder.

And the same mordant, they all used alum, but because they're cellulose and protein fibers, they just took it differently.

>>That's fascinating.

Well, what about the indigo?

We talked a lot about, working on... And I know even in class we're taught that indigo is basically so rare and difficult.

So it was something royalty or people of means wore, so- >>Yeah, by the 18th century, it's kind of an everybody color.

So you might see enslaved people... You might see poor folks.

The middling sort, wealthy people.

Indigo is kind of your go-to color.

So really indigo is kind of widespread.

And the really neat thing about indigo, or at least the thing I think is neat about indigo is that there's versions of it all over the world.

So it's in the Americas, it's in Asia, it's in Africa, it's in, well, in Europe, in a different form, in the woad form.

But everybody would have kind of an access to a blue.

>>Interesting.

And again, you've got different fabrics.

So the mordant and the dye took to each of the- >>Take a little bit differently.

>>Cellulose, yes.

>>Exactly right.

>>I'm a yellow girl, so tell me about the yellow.

>>Yeah, the yellow is great.

I like yellow as well.

And the yellow that we use often, although there's lots of different yellows that you can use.

But we use the Osage orange tree, and that is gonna be the heartwood or the pulp of the tree that's going to give you those great yellow colors.

So you would take with...

If it was the madder or the Osage orange, you'd kind of render them down, steep them, kind of leach the dye out, strain that out, and then you'd have a nice clear dye pot.

>>Interesting.

Well, you know, we've talked a lot about clothes.

But we also had it in making our, I'll say, every day household items- >>Yeah.

>>Prettier too.

>>Absolutely.

>>So let's finish up with the basket.

>>Sure.

So this basket was woven by a friend of mine and dyed with black walnut.

And as we talked about, the black walnut has both the mordant in it and the dye as well.

And so indigenous people are using things...

In this country, using things like the Osage orange and the black walnut to dye things prior to any kind of European contact.

>>Interesting.

I have my own personal story of black walnut.

I made a basket.

I was told to go home, and I mean, boil the black walnut and to dip the basket into it.

And I didn't even think about gloves.

And I had black walnut-dyed arms- >>Months and months.

>>For months.

>>Yeah, yes you did.

>>And months.

>>Yeah.

>>Kinda matched my basket very nicely.

>>It did.

>>So, wear gloves.

>>Wear gloves, yeah.

I don't often wear gloves, so I'll have blue or brown hands for a really long time too.

But yes, there's nothing stopping you from wearing gloves.

>>Nothing.

>>Well, Gretchen, thank you so much.

We appreciate you coming here and showing us that plants can be beautiful both, I'll say, inside and out.

>>You're welcome.

>>Yes.

And now we're going to answer more of your questions.

But first, Shana Williams has some advice for bringing more bees and birds to your garden.

You have to see like a pollinator.

(mellow music) >>As a veggie gardener, I love having flowers throughout my garden, not just because they're beautiful, but at the same time, I'm trying to get as many pollinators to come to my garden as possible.

So I often look and say, which ones should I put in my garden?

'Cause there's so many different varieties.

But really, which ones will attract the most pollinators?

From the moths flying around to the various types of bees and bumblebees to the birds, to the evening moths that pollinate so many things, even sometimes I look at, hey, my little beetles, those little clumsy things that fall all over the place, they're doing their job too.

So as I look at this blue flax right here, I look at that, how open that is.

That allows that bumblebee to have a landing strip.

This Dianthus right here, it's beautiful colors, and this right here is a wallflower.

It has so much fragrance that it'll attract those various type of pollinators.

So throughout my garden, I have beebalm, I have lavender, I have coneflowers, I have mint.

I have so many different types of flowers, some that are tubular, because not only do the bees and the wasps do a great job of pollinating, but I also wanna see hummingbirds come to my garden and the various types of butterflies.

So you have bumblebees that, as I mentioned, they need a sturdy platform and a good cluster.

But one thing about it, you see this is red?

Bumblebees aren't crazy about red, but they like purples and blues and yellows and whites and oranges.

They see it differently than how we might see it.

So it's almost like an ultraviolet light that's telling them, hey, come here.

I need you to pollinate me.

But then we have the birds who fly around.

They're not crazy about the color white, but they love all these other colors here.

So as you're planting in your garden, put a variety of different types of colors and petals and scents throughout your whole garden because they're going to invite such an array of pollinators to your garden.

Because think about it, one in three bites of food that we consume came to us via a pollinator.

So as you garden, think of it from the perspective of what will invite the various pollinators into your yard, and you'll enjoy so many benefits, from the different fruits that you grow to the seeds that they'll give you the next season.

Try it out.

Happy gardening.

>>Imagine seeing flowers through the eye of a bee with its UV vision, or the garden through the sharp eye of a bird.

I think it's a fascinating thought.

But now we're gonna take more of your questions, so go ahead and send those in to vpm.org/vhg.

So let's see what we have.

We've got a good many questions, but I have one question in particular, and that is, can you use any plant to make dye from, or are there just specific ones?

>>Well, there's ones that you've heard of for a reason.

You know, they're the ones that are the most vibrant and the longest lasting.

But you can use almost anything.

You can experiment with it.

I think that's half of the fun of it, is just taking things out of the garden and trying them and seeing what happens.

And it might be, like, an olive green or it might be more of a brown or a tan, but you can still get pigment from most things.

>>And I don't think people realize bark is used, as well.

I mean, not just the leaf of the plant, but the bark of the plant can be used.

>>Yeah, sometimes I think people always picture the flower or the berry, but a lot of times it's the root or the wood pulp of the tree or, you know, just like you said, bark, and things like that, too.

>>Just absolutely fascinating.

But as a horticulturalist, what do you think is, I'll say, the three easiest dye plants for people to start with?

>>Oh, three easiest.

>>Or you make it five, if three is too hard.

(chuckles) >>Well, you know, not to overly talk about madder, but madder is great because it has been around so long.

But the thing to consider with madder is it works best after at least three years of growing.

Five would be ideal.

And so a lot of people that are really serious madder dyers would have several different sets that they can rotate out.

I think lavender and rosemary do really well.

And they're not, you know, the brightest colors in the world, but they're pretty true.

It's pretty easy to get 'em.

You just strip the leaves off and steep them down, strain 'em out, and you've got a beautiful dye bath.

>>Interesting, so simple, so fun.

>>I had so much fun visiting the Yorktown plantation garden.

Thank you so much for showing me how to dye using natural roots and leaves and veggies.

How does it happen?

>>For us, for how does it happen there?

>>Yeah, this is amazing.

People can see it, but how does it actually happen?

>>Well, it is a lot of work.

A lot of work is involved into setting everything up.

So I think the most important thing is to know your dyestuffs.

And then once you have them, steeping them down, you know, simmering them down and leaching that dye out and making sure you're using a mordant properly.

And a lot of times, people are doing a lot of math calculations to see, like, how much fiber they have versus how much water and how much mordant and how much dye.

But you don't have to do that.

I think that might seem overwhelming to people.

We usually just kind of throw stuff in there and see what happens.

>>Wing it, huh?

>>Yeah, wing it.

That's a lot of the fun of it, I think.

>>That was, it was so much fun, so amazing.

Thank you so much for having me.

>>Thank you for coming.

>>I really enjoyed it.

>>Well, that's exciting.

It was very good.

>>It was very fun.

>>So let's get to our questions.

Hold on a minute.

We have columbine.

We have, Lauren from Henrico's asked, "How can I treat leaf miner on my columbine?

"The internet told me to use soapy water "on the affected leaves that are shriveled up, "but not much is left.

"How can I protect what's left of my small columbine?"

Well, Lauren, actually leaf miner is between the layers of the leaf.

That's why it's called the leaf miner.

And so putting soapy water on the outside of the leaf isn't really gonna make a difference.

I'm sorry to say you did that.

I would've just pinched off the infected little leaflets and thrown them away, and problem solved.

What I would suggest you to do is just let it ride it out for this season.

Our columbines usually, as the weather gets hot, they start to decline.

Its a natural phase of their life.

And then next year, when it comes back, if you see those leaf miners, immediately just pinch off those top few, the first few, and you'll have solved the problem.

Nice and easy without having to spray anything.

So it's okay.

It'll be all right.

The other one we have is a Goochland.

This is about oak trees, and it's a large oak that appears to have all the newer growths chewed off and laying around at the base of the tree.

And the tree seems healthy otherwise.

Has anybody ran into this problem before?

>>I have not.

>>Yeah, well, typically, it's from squirrels going around and chewing off pieces.

And usually it's done earlier in the season.

And they're trying to make nests and just a place for them to live.

And so, many times, as they chew, it falls.

I mean, statistically, they can't grab it, you know, and so it does make a mess.

But again, the tree, the self-pruning or the pruning by the squirrel's not gonna affect the tree.

It's a big tree.

It's perfectly fine.

And then we had a question about microscopes.

And I just went right outta my head the name of that microscope.

(chuckles) >>I think it was called the... >>We had so much fun-- >>It's $39.95, I know that.

That's what I remember it probably said.

>>I'll tell you what, Chuck, we'll get back to you.

>>The (mumbles).

(group laughs) Help us out here.

>>And then we have Jason from Franklin County asks, "The best way to manage squash or cucumber borer beetles?"

Ah.

>>Do you get those?

Do you grow vegetables?

>>I grow vegetables, yep.

>>And how do you handle the squash of the borer beetles?

>>We usually try to get them when they're in the egg stage, so they're pretty easy to spot.

They look kinda like little BBs, almost, on the leaves.

And so usually, especially, like, with visitors, they'll love to help us find 'em and pull 'em off of there.

So we try to catch 'em before they're even a problem, but.

>>Yeah, and with my squash plants, I noticed, you know, how you have several different vines.

I'll literally take a pair of scissors and cut off those borers that I see and get rid of that vine altogether, because it will spread and they will hatch in other parts of the plant.

So I just get rid of it and discard it.

>>Eliminate the problem.

>>Yeah.

>>Eliminate the problem.

>>Eliminate the problem, absolutely.

>>Now, squash-wise, you can grow tatume.

Tatume, T-A-T-U-M-E, squash.

And it's a squash that, when you harvest it small, about the size of a, I'll say softball, it's tender enough, you can use it as zucchini, but you can grow it through the season and it'll get larger and very tough, and then you can use it as a winter squash.

But this squash, the squash borer and the squash bug are not, I'll say, attracted to it at all.

So just picking a different type of squash will sometimes do your problem, you know, take care of the problem.

But you have to be flexible with your cooking, okay?

You can't be stuck on, "Well, this is the way I've always done it," so.

>>Very interesting.

>>Yeah, there's new things out there, I'm telling ya.

It's fun.

And we've got one about dyeing, I mean plant dye.

(chuckles) >>Putting color on things.

>>Thank you.

(chuckles) "How dark of a blue color can you get with indigo, "and how many times would that have to be dipped?"

>>It's a good question.

So you can get, you can achieve, like, a navy blue.

Or if you were looking, you know, at the Mid-Atlantic, you know, Continental soldiers, their blue in their coats, it would just kind of depend.

So you could use a lot more of the indigo.

But if you're trying to be sparing with it, you would maybe overdye it, like, five or six times before you could get a really dark color like that.

>>Okay, well one super question, 'cause it's curious, "Did the colonists bring any new dye colors "that the Native Americans would not have already had?"

>>Yes, but a lot of the dyestuffs come from South America, too.

So a lot of the really good dyestuffs come from South America.

But really, people all over the world, were putting color on things.

>>Okay, thank you, thank you.

Well, Gretchen, I hate to cut you off, but we're out of time.

I just wanted get that answer in, 'cause I thought it was cool.

And I wanna thank you for being with us.

And Randy, thank you, as always.

>>Thank you.

>>You're welcome.

>>And thanks to all of our guests today, and thank you for watching.

We'll hope you'll consider the unseen life in your garden and the colors within.

And we also hope you remember to sign up for our monthly newsletter at vpm.org/vhg for gardening information and advice from me and the team.

Also, our Facebook page is full of gardening tips, so be sure to visit us there, too.

I look forward to being with you again soon.

And until then, remember, gardening is for everyone, and we are all growing and learning together.

Happy gardening.

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