Transcript
Alexis: Well, as we round out October, I feel like it's important for us to say ah favorite pumpkin thing we've had in October.
Brett: That was a hot launch right into ah right into a topic.
Alexis: What what is
Plant People: Wow. i was and
Jessica : Oh.
Plant People: That's a softball. That's a softball topic, Alexis. What?
Brett: What did you say?
Alexis: Listen, it's important.
Brett: ah Sorry, what was the question?
Plant People: What?
Brett: Favorite pumpkin type?
Plant People: Say it again.
Alexis: wait your Your favorite... Pumpkin thing you've had. i've been thinking snacks because as always I am, but I guess it doesn't have to be necessarily snack related.
Alexis: a Pumpkin thing you've had in the month of October.
Plant People: Hmm. Well, I was just eating mine, I guess. ah And our neighbors are wonderful. We've got multiple bakers around us. And our one neighbor, Catty Corner to us to the left, just made some really yummy pumpkin bread and also brought some sourdough bread and other various breads and cookies yesterday.
Alexis: Nice.
Alexis: Yum.
Plant People: was still warm. So I ate ah a quarter of a loaf of pumpkin bread yesterday.
Alexis: yeah I mean, if it's still warm, you have to, right?
Jessica : as
Plant People: mean, it was warm.
Jessica : As one does, right?
Alexis: Like, you have those calories don't count.
Plant People: And Reed said, who?
Alexis: Like...
Plant People: She only brought half a loaf. I'm like, don't judge me, Reed.
Brett: That's right.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: It's weird.
Plant People: But yeah, pumpkin bread.
Brett: It's weird that she did that.
Alexis: Weird. She only brought half a loaf, so strange.
Plant People: It was just like pumpkin bread, you know, just warm pumpkin bread. That's so far that that's nailed it.
Alexis: ah Yum.
Plant People: It was still warm. So shout out to the neighbors. Thank you. Neighbors.
Brett: Wow. Does butternut count as a pumpkin?
Alexis: What about you guys?
Brett: Okay. butternut count as a pumpkin
Plant People: Oh, totally.
Alexis: We're going to count it.
Plant People: It should.
Alexis: Yeah, we're going to count it.
Plant People: The Gord family.
Brett: okay
Plant People: Sort of.
Alexis: Cucurbits. Let's talk about cucurbits.
Plant People: yes gri but ic Yeah.
Jessica : I was like, yeah, that's cucurbit.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: um Well, in that case, some pickles that I had.
Plant People: ah Well, that opens up some possibilities.
Brett: no ah Sorry. ah So but to make butternuts, we like to smoke them. So peel them, quarter them, get the stuff out and smoke it and then add it to things.
Plant People: Oh, yeah.
Jessica : That sounds good.
Brett: And so we added it to did a a chili one day and then I smoked enough.
Alexis: Yum.
Plant People: Oh, that sounds good.
Brett: And then one of my favorite things that Annie makes this time of year is a... butternut mac and cheese. So it's a butternut blended cheese sauce.
Alexis: Yeah, with smoked butternut.
Plant People: Oh, wow.
Alexis: a
Brett: And then you mix it, mix it with the stuff and then, and then bake it.
Plant People: Mm.
Brett: um And so with smoked butternut it is, it is the next level. If you can imagine.
Alexis: I'm into it. um I'm asking for that recipe.
Plant People: Makes a good flavor, makes it better. I love it.
Alexis: Jessica, what about you?
Plant People: That's smoking.
Jessica : I'm trying to think if I've had anything more unique this season.
Brett: Yeah. I haven't had anything in proper pumpkin. Yeah.
Jessica : Yeah.
Alexis: I literally just had my first pumpkin thing yesterday, so no judgment.
Jessica : I...
Plant People: Oh, wow.
Brett: so that So you stacked the deck for yourself there of having something.
Jessica : Oh.
Alexis: Correct.
Plant People: Yeah. It's fresh on your mind.
Alexis: You won't let me go first, so yeah, I'm going to stack the deck for myself.
Jessica : Oh, man.
Brett: Yeah.
Jessica : You did...
Plant People: Yeah. Nailed it.
Jessica : Yeah.
Brett: We did know Ray was going to have good answer, to be fair.
Jessica : Something that I think about that I have not had this season is a pumpkin mac, a macaroon, right?
Plant People: yeah nailed it
Alexis: That counts.
Brett: no Ooh.
Alexis: Mmm,
Jessica : have a coworker who makes those and the filling is perfect.
Alexis: Delicious. Yep.
Jessica : It's delicious.
Plant People: That does sound amazing.
Alexis: Yeah, it's delicious.
Jessica : I still think about those.
Alexis: they are They are something that you remember and think about. Well, i bought these yesterday and sounds weird, but so good as a savory girly.
Alexis: They are pumpkin tortilla chips and sounds strange. I get it. They've got pumpkin seeds in them and pumpkin puree in them. And they have just like cinnamon, nutmeg, but then salt.
Alexis: So it's like not necessarily sweet, um but has like that cinnamony like flavor. Oh my gosh. They are so good.
Brett: Wait, this a TJ acquisition. ah tj acquisition
Alexis: Yeah, it was on an end cap and I was like, these are mine and
Plant People: These are one home.
Brett: Trader Joe's.
Alexis: They lovely.
Brett: Trader Joe's.
Alexis: So delightful. um Not normally something I would buy, but I was like, hey, I'm and i'm in a pumpkin mood. It is October after all. So, but you know what else happens?
Brett: Yeah. I called, I called Alexis. I called up Alexis and she said, and I said, so what's, you know, I think i was just checking about something.
Alexis: Oh, yeah.
Brett: What's going on. She's like, well, I'm at Trader Joe's and I immediately hung up the phone. Cause I was like, this is not the time to interfere, to get in between. I'm just like, I will call it literally anytime other than this one.
Plant People: Don't.
Alexis: Yeah.
Alexis: I have, like, one thing that I can't get anywhere else at Trader Joe's, and so I have to go, like, every two weeks to get it now that I'm addicted and I'm in Lexington often enough.
Brett: What is it?
Alexis: And they are...
Brett: What is it? What's the name?
Alexis: um They're a type of cookie, they're a meringue cookie. So it's like like little dollops of meringue that are like freeze dried.
Jessica : h
Brett: Yeah,
Alexis: And they're just like, they kind of melt in your mouth like those um peppermints, you know, those one peppermints that kind of melt in your mouth really easy.
Brett: yeah. am
Plant People: Little pillows.
Alexis: So they either do that, right.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Or they've got the perfect crunch. And so they're just like the nice this nice little light thing.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right.
Brett: Is there like a flavor profile to them?
Alexis: And I, yes they you know what they taste like?
Brett: Do they like...
Alexis: They taste to me like um Lucky Charms marshmallows.
Plant People: o
Brett: Oh, I was not expecting that.
Alexis: very specifically.
Plant People: That's not bad.
Brett: Wow.
Plant People: they had That took a turn, but I'm not opposed to it.
Alexis: Yeah, like exactly, exactly like them, just in like a ah chunk of a cookie.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: So evocative.
Alexis: And for those of those people who maybe want to indulge in more sugary things, but they're trying not to like overdo their, you know, an intake of stuff, they're also very low in calories.
Plant People: I don't try that. I just go all in. I go all in.
Brett: What's wrong with you?
Alexis: So um that's a nice little, listen, they're like pure sugar with low calorie.
Brett: Oh, okay. Yeah,
Plant People: um Oh, okay.
Brett: yeah, yeah.
Alexis: I guess is that's a win in my book.
Brett: Yeah, it's like a physics that's like a math problem.
Plant People: plug local orchards.
Brett: It's like a physics conservation of energy.
Alexis: but i
Plant People: Yeah, it's a, it's a problem.
Alexis: Pretty much, yeah.
Plant People: Brett, I know you went to Evans. You didn't get anything pumpkin-y out there. I mean, know you, the squash, but I mean, I want to know, want to, want to experience that with you.
Brett: I got...
Brett: I got a... ah So I got a um a hot apple cider. not i didn't get any pumpkin.
Alexis: Yes.
Brett: I got a hot hot apple cider.
Plant People: Oh, fall things, yeah.
Brett: And then and Annie got a apple cider mimosa.
Plant People: Awesome.
Plant People: Oh, did not know they had those.
Alexis: Yum.
Jessica : Oh.
Brett: I tried a little bit.
Plant People: Okay.
Brett: It was, it was, yeah, you know, I think I would choose, I personally would have chosen a tangier varietal of apple for my mimosa, you but, but, and I would also have chosen a little bit drier wine for my personal taste, but, ah but it was like a Prosecco and regular apple juice, ah but very good of a nice alternative.
Plant People: Was it pretty seasonal?
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Yeah.
Alexis: isn't
Brett: we had and And then we also split a apple hand pie,
Alexis: yum
Brett: I'm going to go out on a limb and say I think maybe – I haven't been to Stepping Stone for one this year, so I need to revisit. But I think maybe Evans might have the premier apple hand pie in central Kentucky.
Plant People: Oh man.
Jessica : And
Plant People: I did have one of those out there recently and it it was pretty good. It was it when I picked it up, it was heavy and I was like, this is a good sign.
Brett: The filling.
Plant People: This was, this this is a good thing.
Brett: They have a lot of filling.
Alexis: I like my pies heavy.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : I need to get into the ah fall vibes, even though we're at the end month, because we just got back from the beach.
Brett: Yes.
Plant People: Yeah, I like my pies heavy.
Alexis: Another shirt slogan for us.
Plant People: Yes. Perfect.
Jessica : So as you're talking about pie, we had key lime pie several times and lots of shrimp.
Plant People: Oh.
Alexis: Yum. My favorite.
Plant People: Love it. Love it.
Jessica : And so as I'm like trying to think about these fall things, I'm just like, man, I've just been in like next week, right?
Alexis: Jessica's living her summer life. like
Alexis: Next week. Next week with Halloween. Yeah.
Brett: Yeah, I mean, we it it's gonna slip away before you before we know it so um We also got while we were there, we also got a full size regular apple pie that we had intended to serve at a little get together thing we were having. And oops, we forgot.
Plant People: Oh, shucks.
Alexis: Oh my gosh.
Brett: So I just had some pie for the rest of.
Jessica : Oh, no judgment. We did the same thing.
Alexis: So sorry.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: Pie for supper.
Brett: Oops. We did. We did legitimately forget, but it was one of those forgets where i you think like, shoot, and then you look up and you're smiling.
Alexis: not mad about it.
Brett: Mm
Plant People: Oh, darn.
Alexis: Oh, such a bummer.
Plant People: oh
Brett: So what way ah ah Jessica, what are your concrete plans to to engage the fall spirit?
Jessica : i got to start carving some pumpkins.
Plant People: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brett: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: We haven't carved pumpkins yet.
Jessica : Pumpkins, you know, coming back from the beach, you know, down there, everything is still nice and green. But as, you know, made our way back home, some fall color has started appearing.
Brett: Oh, interesting.
Alexis: Queen of transition.
Jessica : um that was a good one, right?
Brett: like
Jessica : um But yeah, the fall color and carbon pumpkins and all the Halloween-y things coming up. So yeah.
Alexis: that
Brett: Do you all do anything with the, do your kid?
Plant People: going to
Alexis: you didn't catch on.
Brett: I feel like your kids have very specific and amazing like food requests. Do they have any that are fall related?
Jessica : That are fall related. Not so much. Like they do like, they do love some apple cider. I mean, they go crazy over the apple cider. It is only in our refrigerator.
Jessica : We have to buy the gallon and it's not, you know, it's gone instantly.
Plant People: Oh, wow. You have to be careful with the fresh stuff.
Jessica : They love that stuff.
Brett: yeah
Plant People: You don't want to go too hard with the fresh stuff. Yeah.
Jessica : Right.
Plant People: You can really mess up your belly.
Alexis: Tummy aches happen.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : Right. they They love the the apple cider.
Plant People: Yeah.
Jessica : And of course, they're never going to turn down the cider donuts either.
Plant People: No, no, no, no.
Alexis: o
Jessica : Right.
Brett: is this Is this, are we officially in cinnamon roll season or is that cinnamon roll season like a year round thing?
Plant People: Oh, we're always in cinnamon roll.
Jessica : Oh, that's twenty four seven at our place.
Plant People: We're just more so in it. Yeah.
Brett: Okay. i didn't I didn't know if there's, you know, I gotcha.
Plant People: Come on, Jessica. Yeah.
Alexis: Cinnamon roll season is every season, Brett?
Jessica : Yes, that's every season.
Alexis: Uh...
Plant People: It's like sorghum season. i'm ah That's always in season with me, Jessica, just in case you forgot.
Jessica : My kids did request sorghum at a restaurant we went to, and I was kind of proud about that. that they And the waitress was like, what?
Plant People: That is pretty amazing.
Brett: well one of my ah One of my favorite...
Plant People: What?
Jessica : From this five-year-old? You want what? Yeah.
Brett: we yeah so we have Just everyone's jealous, we have a ah pod a podcast ah group chat where the funniest things you've ever imagined have been have been said, and we just share a lot of fun stuff.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: so FOMO, please. ah but jet One of my favorites is that Jessica sent this picture, and it goes with other stories of this same thing happening of her her children.
Brett: Just... at there at At Jessica and ah ah Sean's ah stand, just housing bottles of honey.
Brett: just straight to the dome, honey straight to the dome.
Jessica : Yep.
Plant People: drinking the honey.
Brett: And their kids are so adorable and so cute. But the cute face with the crazed honey look in their eyes, I could not.
Plant People: and
Brett: give me as sean My friend Sean would say, give me all of that that you got.
Plant People: Like poo bears, spirit animals.
Jessica : Chugging.
Brett: I love that.
Jessica : Chugging the honeybears down.
Brett: Chugging the honey.
Alexis: Chugging honey bears.
Brett: Like the product.
Jessica : And thankfully...
Brett: This is product that you were theoretically going to sell.
Plant People: get in the bear.
Jessica : Exactly.
Brett: They're taking it and just...
Alexis: They stole off the table.
Brett: housing it.
Jessica : Exactly.
Brett: It feels like Viking children. like theyre This is their pre-mead.
Plant People: By the pound.
Brett: They're just housing honey and then eventually they graduate to mead as they become older Vikings.
Jessica : And thankfully, they've only been stealing off our table at this time.
Brett: Yeah.
Jessica : That I know of.
Brett: That's good.
Jessica : Right?
Plant People: Winning. That's winning.
Alexis: That I know of. They're too cute. They'll never get told on.
Brett: So in fall they switch to sorghum it sounds like.
Jessica : They switched the sorghum.
Plant People: Yeah. All the sweeteners equally.
Alexis: I feel like this is a like and this.
Plant People: and
Alexis: I know this is not on topic and Jessica made such a beautiful transition. But this talk of sorghum reminds me I was recently in Columbus with my best friend and we went to ah ah nice, like a very legit Italian restaurant while we were there.
Alexis: and they actually had digestives, which are like your after dinner drink to help with digestion.
Jessica : you
Alexis: And it's like technically like an alcohol also called like grappa or or there's a lot of names after it. And so, um you know, I just picked one and it came out and it's, ah you know, it was real dark and I took a swig of it. And the guy, the the waiter, because he had suggested this one, said like, oh, what flavors are you getting? And I was like, blackstrap molasses is the first way I would go. And he just looked at me with this like dumb look and he's like,
Alexis: what? was like, you know, blackstrap molasses, they're real dark. And my friend who is not in agriculture was like, what is blackstrap molasses, Alexis?
Brett: we
Plant People: It sounds, what is that?
Alexis: Nobody knows what that is. And I was like, oh, oh, yeah.
Plant People: very provocative. Yeah. It's like, what the heck?
Brett: we would have looked at each other and said if it if it had been and me we looked at each other and said we need to leave this place doesn't know we need to leave oh that's right digestive sorry
Plant People: Yeah. This place is way too lowbrow.
Alexis: This place, we had already eaten. So, you know it was like a perfect time to be like, oh, this isn't a place for me.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: So, but it reminded me of like the sorghum thing because I could have said sorghum and I thought I was going like a good route to say specifically blackstrap molasses. And the guy was like, oh, I get hints of bubble gum.
Alexis: And I was like, oh, okay.
Plant People: Sure. Let's stick with the blackstrap molasses.
Brett: Thank
Alexis: I liked it.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: I prefer. But um anyways, we are talking fall color today, as Jessica alluded to because it is fall and Kentucky peak season and we're getting into it.
Plant People: That's a little bit.
Alexis: And, you know, fall color is pretty great.
Jessica : Feels good outside.
Plant People: Oh, it feels great outside.
Alexis: It feels good outside.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: um You get like you i I never understood people who just like to drive around like I have family members who are like, oh, we just went for a drive on Sunday and like any time of the year. This time of the year. I'm like, okay, that's on point.
Alexis: I get it. It's beautiful outside, but I don't get it in the middle summer. But that's just me.
Plant People: And we probably should you know throw out, we are actually recording this close to the time when it gets posted.
Jessica : Thank you.
Plant People: So we're going to be looking into the future a little bit today. Hopefully the cooler weather that we're getting ah today will translate. This will post on the weekend.
Alexis: cold
Plant People: Hopefully that will translate into some color. ah The cooler weather, and we've had some moisture lately. I don't know if it's too late. It's a fine line. ah But yeah, I'm hoping so.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Knock on wood. And I'm real curious, Jessica, you came from down south. Normally color moves from north to south, color change in the fall in the U.S., right?
Jessica : Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Well, I've been getting reports and I'm kind of jealous of the Carolinas, parts of the Carolina mountains that may be due to elevation, or it could be that they've just had a little bit more moisture in August than we did.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm.
Plant People: But I heard that there's some color showing up there that we're not even getting yet in Kentucky. I don't know. i was curious about that. I've not looked at my map trackers as much.
Brett: Makes me wonder about, um ah because we had that like heat dome that just parked over us this summer the corn sweat
Plant People: Yeah, yeah.
Alexis: The corn sweat.
Plant People: The corn sweat dome.
Alexis: It's a real thing that Brett didn't believe me about.
Plant People: but Which temperature's tricky.
Brett: i sweat.
Plant People: Yeah, we did.
Brett: I still don't believe it.
Jessica : We got an email about it.
Alexis: I'm calling Matt Dixon.
Plant People: and
Alexis: All right. Like.
Brett: I am not saying that it can't be proven.
Alexis: well
Brett: I'm saying I don't believe it. And that's a valid take. That's a valid take in 2025.
Plant People: That's valid enough. That's scientific enough. Valid enough. I don't feel like it's it's a thing.
Brett: a
Plant People: So, yeah.
Brett: Yeah, I don't know. So did you go through? You didn't go. Did you go through parts of Carolina at all to to notice Jess?
Jessica : I did not. I drove the entire length of Alabama, which is a ah ah long drive.
Plant People: Oh, okay.
Plant People: Gotcha. You went to Gulf Shores.
Brett: Oh, other. Yeah. Different beach.
Plant People: That's right.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Yeah.
Jessica : so yeah, it was about like Tennessee-ish.
Plant People: I was going the wrong direction. Okay.
Jessica : So I started to see more of color starting to pop up.
Brett: hmm.
Jessica : Yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Well, I'll say just to endear Ray to our listeners even more than he's already endeared. To me, he is like the most excited about or like at least vocally excited about like seasonal.
Plant People: I'm the most obnoxious by far about it.
Brett: Well, just like seasonal plant changes. You know, he's like it's so excited. He was trying to get us to go out and we ended up not doing to go out to like see the rhododendrons when they were blooming and to see some of the spring ephemerals.
Alexis: He's deeply ingrained.
Plant People: Yes.
Brett: And we we all get excited about them. But Ray is like so excited about them.
Plant People: I get really excited about the seasonal things.
Brett: And it's the same way with the fall color. he when i When we were thinking about a fall color episode, I was like, this will be...
Plant People: Oh yeah.
Brett: I would i would like Ray to kind of share his insights. And of course, he has a tracker. ah He has a preferred... I asked him, like, so do you have a you have like the fall color tracker thing pulled up? And he's like, well, yeah.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: My favorite one is ah is this one. But then my second favorite this one.
Plant People: but you Hmm.
Brett: And my third favorite is this one. And I was like, this is...
Plant People: This is pitiful.
Brett: Gosh, I just love so much.
Plant People: This is pitiful.
Brett: Yes, please.
Alexis: Indeed.
Brett: So, so Ray, what, what do you use to track this stuff? What are you looking at? How you feeling?
Plant People: the There's so many good, as far as foliage maps out there, um you know, whatever state you're in, ah that's a good place to start. I know Kentucky tourism has a really great tracker on their map. And Jessica, you mentioned the mountains, you know, of Tennessee come through parts of Tennessee, the smoky mountains.com has a really good,
Plant People: They have a great tracker as well because that's one of the you know most popular destinations in the country. For people to go to see color change, the cool thing about mountains at elevation is you get that gradient. When you look on the mountain, if you go at just the right time of the year, you can see from green to you know all of the color change and and see the strata going on there. But one that I use a lot is, and a lot of other web websites reference this one, explorefall.com.
Plant People: And it's just their interactive foliage map. And it has a full screen map. When you bring that thing up, it's ah just ah ah fool ah full page of, ah you know, and keyed out in color of what what color is doing in the U.S. So i said that that's some of the ones that I use.
Plant People: Kentucky Tourism and then the map I just mentioned. And then Tennessee for all of our folks in Kentucky that love to go there for fall break or have been there. ah They have a really good foliage map. But this year, i mean, I'm just wondering what where are the color's going. I mean, it's so far it's been very quiet.
Plant People: um You know, the color change, of course, we all know it sparked by, you know, primarily change in day length.
Jessica : you
Plant People: And then, you know, temperature has a big part to do with that when we have not freezing nights, cool nights, warm days.
Alexis: cool Cool nights, warm days.
Plant People: It's just like shiitake mushrooms. We've talked a little bit about that on previous episodes. It's that temperature differential temperature. that triggers so much in the plant world, that difference in temperatures and moisture, which moisture is really interesting with fall leaf color.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: um If you have adequate moisture early in the year, but a drier fall as you approach fall actually concentrates the sugars. So that's an ideal setup. If you have those three things coming together, of course, day length, that's pretty constant.
Plant People: And then you have those temperature differentials and adequate moisture in the growing season with a drier fall. That's a good setup, but I'm a little bit worried about that really dry August that we had because that was a little bit early.
Plant People: You don't want it to be that dry that early.
Alexis: Well, yeah.
Plant People: Otherwise you just have tannins showing up, which tannins are brown.
Alexis: right they're just brown i am i am color for good i am uh encouraged versus past years i know um people would call a lot in like september and go my tree has lost all of its leaves or my tree is already brown and it was because we were so dry for so long um where this year you know like the
Plant People: Things get crunchy and they fall off. Yeah. Yeah. They're the color of the grass. Yeah. Yeah.
Alexis: The trees still have their their leaves into late October.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: i just drove through Casey County today and I was really starting to see those yellows pop and the hints of red on the maples.
Plant People: Yeah.
Plant People: I
Alexis: So I'm feeling positive that maybe we got just enough rain at just the right time to kind of push us to.
Plant People: think so.
Alexis: Looking at this map, which I didn't know about, Ray, that you told me about this, explorefall.com. So cool.
Plant People: ah Very cool.
Brett: Yeah.
Alexis: ah And like, so I slid.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: So, you know, we're doing this episode just a few days early, but I slid this to October 26 when this episode will come out. And Kentucky, it's a far eastern southern Kentucky will be in peak color. And then it's still not quite peak color for the rest of the state. And I was like, this is perfect.
Alexis: This is so cool. But you can see the whole U.S. and like where peak is and slide that around. And it's fascinating.
Plant People: yeah if you want to describe the colors i mean ah right now i guess if lexus if you're looking at that the color is of course you know in michigan as you go up to the far you know northern parts and out west there's a lot of color change it's already past peak out west but yeah we're you we're just not there yet
Alexis: Oh yeah, yeah. Even in, yeah. Michigan is peak, like for when this episode airs, um the estimate of course is peak color, which um the the lower peninsula, which fits in my sister-in-law lives in the up most part of the Southern Peninsula.
Alexis: um So right near like Mackinac bridge and she, ah they have a drone. And so they do like, they go out and they live kind of near the, they live really close to a lot of trails and forest.
Jessica : Thank
Plant People: Oh man. Yeah.
Alexis: So they'll launch the drone up to get the color.
Brett: Thank you.
Alexis: And it is, I mean, it looks like the land is just like set on fire. It's so bright and brilliant red.
Plant People: ah
Alexis: It's gorgeous.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: ah So cool.
Plant People: I really wanted to save that for a fall trip, but we, we explored the park there by the bridge last year.
Alexis: I can't.
Plant People: And I really want to get back up there for fall just for the, just leaf looking, you know, all the way up to Canada.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: We were up in that area, but
Alexis: Relief lookers.
Plant People: It was at the wrong time of the year. Yeah, I want to be a leaf looker and go to the New England states. And and I think a lot of ah ah Josh, I mean, has anybody heard from Josh, former podcast host? Has anybody, a shout out to Josh.
Alexis: Yes.
Plant People: This is a test if you're still listening.
Brett: Has anyone heard from Josh?
Jessica : you
Plant People: Has anyone heard from Josh?
Alexis: He is alive still. He sent me some some funny memes about cats.
Plant People: Because ah okay, okay.
Brett: He is.
Plant People: Has he taken, who cares about the, cat has he taken any pictures of leaves? Changing, I want to know this from you.
Brett: he's He's mostly only, he's mostly talked about like the late winter like or the like really prolong prolonged and late cold and snow and everything else last year.
Alexis: No.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Okay.
Brett: I haven't, I haven't talked to him about the fall stuff.
Plant People: Okay. Yeah.
Alexis: A couple, i I've talked to him recently, but I do remember a couple weeks ago, i was saying how, like, was when we got that, finally we got, like, a true break from the heat, you know, when it dropped below, like, 85 in early October.
Alexis: And he was like, oh, yeah, we have a freeze warning tonight. And I was like, me okay.
Jessica : Wow.
Alexis: Okay.
Plant People: Oh, well, brag about it.
Brett: Very impressive maple syrup boy.
Alexis: okay
Plant People: Yeah. He, he also probably drinks maple syrup by the bear, honey bear.
Brett: Yeah, that's right.
Jessica : Probably.
Plant People: It's a maple bear.
Brett: That's the state law to be fair.
Plant People: Yeah. Yeah, it's a requirement.
Alexis: In order to let you into the state, you have to c chug one on the border.
Plant People: It's a prerequisite.
Brett: yeah
Alexis: So if you throw up, you're turned away.
Plant People: yeah Yeah, to prove that you are the right star. Yeah.
Alexis: So.
Plant People: Well, not going to cut it.
Brett: So on that, on that, ah the, the map, I noticed you can, you can toggle between color report and peak timing. And so you can see like when the suggested peak timing and it's kind of interesting.
Brett: So the, the state of Kentucky is sort of carved into two, ah the Eastern part has something in common with like the Midwest and, uh, even parts of like West Virginia.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: And then the, the Western part of the state, more or less west of the Mississippi, I mean, Mississippi, west of the Appalachians is more in that.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: So the, it's in the kind of with Tennessee and and Carolina.
Alexis: Tennessee.
Plant People: ah
Brett: The eastern part is supposed to peak in in late October and the western part is supposed to peak in early November.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: But back on that, back on that, like why we would or wouldn't have a decent fall thing. So the the things that I heard you say, Ray, ah i think were if you have adequate moisture throughout the season and the trees are healthy throughout the season, then they have less of a tendency to produce tannins and drop their leaves early.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Is that
Plant People: Yeah. From, I've heard it explained different ways, but if you have a good growing season, of course you have, you know, lots of sugars going through the plant because it's happy and healthy. And if you have a little bit of a dry fall that concentrates the sugars and that's, you know, all the things that makes ah the colors, the yellows, the reds, ah the reds are a little different, but they don't exist there until the fall, whereas the yellow colors,
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: they exist and then chlorophyll goes away and you know, you see those, but all of those are concentrated because of the sugars, if it turns off a bit dry. So if you were to pick a perfect year from what I understand, it's, you know, uh, it's one of those years where you have a pretty good growing season with a slightly drier fall.
Plant People: with those cool nights, like Alexa said, cool nights and then the warmer days. And that usually leads, and you know, you don't want a hard freeze ah and because sometimes that just causes, if you have a hard freeze early, that just causes the leaves to drop.
Brett: yeah
Plant People: Then you see lots of brown and just, and we've seen a lot of, I've noticed a lot of leaf drop this year happening and during August.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: um
Brett: Yeah, me too.
Plant People: um So a lot of leaf drop early, which, you know, I started to get concerned then for multiple reasons. It was the driest August in history. here across the state as a state here in Kentucky.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: But yeah, lots of crunchy on the ground then. i mean, it's pretty bad when I noticed invasive species in my nearby woods, bush honeysuckle, all lost their leaves because they were so dry. Folks, when you see the invasive species, you know, going into protection mode and dropping leaves in August, you know, it's dry.
Plant People: That's as dry as I'd ever seen it.
Alexis: Okay.
Plant People: ah But yeah, i I think there's still hope for some pretty good color.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Like Alexis, you mentioned some of the plants you were seeing Starting to pick up some color here in the central part of the state.
Brett: Thank you.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: I noticed on my drive to work this morning, I'm starting to see the red maples. I started, what else did notice? Of course you have, you know, bushes and other things in the landscape that's showing color, but winged uranomus, speaking of an invasive species that's in a lot of landscapes, they're starting to pick up a lot of that red color and they turn vibrant, like solid red.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Yeah. Yeah.
Plant People: But I'm starting to see some of those and walnuts are picking up some of the yellow.
Alexis: we have um ah red We have several red maples in our yard, some pretty mature ones. And I did i did get a ah Facebook memory you know from this week last year, and I had a picture of the dogs and they were sitting in the yard and you could see how and the the maple was pretty much completely red.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: Yes.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: I mean, it was bright and shining.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: And this year it's like they're just starting to get that red along the edges, which I thought was really interesting.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Um, it's still like the, the tree looks good. It hasn't dropped a bunch of leaves, which meet, you know leads to that dry, um tells us things are too dry, but I'm like, okay. We're, we're probably two weeks different or at least 10 days difference.
Alexis: But I think we've got a lot of cool, like really cool coming up, um, nights coming up.
Plant People: and
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: So i'm wondering how fast that will trigger everything.
Plant People: And I think we have a, maybe a frost warning for central part of the state and Daniel, uh, talking to someone, uh, else here recently, Daniel, a friend and, um, was telling me that, um, they've had some frost on his windshield in Eastern Kentucky already.
Plant People: And I was kind of surprised by that as of the recording today, because I've not seen that in central Kentucky, but I think we have a frost warning,
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-mm.
Plant People: So I think that'll ramp up.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Can I end maybe to a freeze tomorrow, maybe?
Plant People: Okay. Yeah.
Brett: Thank you.
Alexis: Freeze warning, at least.
Plant People: So yeah.
Alexis: But the ground is so warm still, I think, that, like, I'm not sure all that heat, radiant heat that's going to be coming up out of the ground, I think, will protect stuff a lot a lot through these first couple frost freeze.
Plant People: you
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: The temperature is on the verge.
Alexis: fros-freze
Plant People: It's not a deep freeze, which is good for all of you leaf lookers. You know, once again, you don't want that quick hard freeze because then you have, You know, a little rain usually and just mass leaf drop.
Plant People: So hopefully we get some of the conditions. I still have hope for color. So maybe by this weekend when this airs on a Sunday at 5 p.m. typically, we're going to be picking up even more color because the conditions are kind of right for that.
Alexis: the
Plant People: And I hope it's going to I'm going to really pay attention this year to see what that really super dry August did. Because I guess Brad Alexis, we had a very wet year in Kentucky early on.
Alexis: It was wild.
Plant People: But that August, that August temperature, daca the temperatures we had then and the lack of moisture, I just don't know what it's going to do. So this year i have to pay particular attention to the leaf color.
Plant People: So if anybody out there notices that they have good color or don't have good color, we'd love to hear from you.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: i would love to hear from you, especially just ah because I'm a leaf hunter.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: I love to go find the fall color. And I have plans to, you know, Brett mentioned the gorge, one of my favorite places to hike there going towards eastern. part of the state, I plan on going there and looking for leaves. And even if there's not great color, I will go where there's young stands of maples.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: ah Usually they're pretty, they're pretty dependable. Even when it's not a good leaf color year, if you have young maple trees, you're going to pick up the reds and the yellows and, and sassafras, which is one of my ultimate favorites.
Brett: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: And because I'm greedy, I want all the fall colors and you get all the fall colors on one tree from sassafras. You get the oranges, yellows, and reds on one tree
Alexis: I know.
Plant People: sometimes at the same time. So it's,
Alexis: That and,
Brett: Well, that sumac that I gave you, Ray, isn that you it has some really cool different variations of color.
Alexis: yeah, that.
Plant People: oh yeah, the cut leaf. Yeah.
Brett: What were you going to say?
Plant People: I remember that. And they, that there's some of the prettiest trees, especially like the one you gave me after hearing your description. I'm pretty excited about growing that guy up and seeing what it can do.
Plant People: I'm really excited about that.
Brett: Yeah. And they grow fast, too, so it's really like rewarding.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: They're like, oh, okay, cool. Were you going to say something, Alexis? Yeah.
Alexis: Yeah, was gonna say, Ray, didn't you say one time you like came across like this random patch of aspens in at the gorge?
Plant People: It's so an aspen tree in the gorge.
Alexis: Okay.
Plant People: It's quaking aspen. And it was strange because I saw something moving. And, you know, at the gorge, it was getting dark. And I thought, well, that's not good. Immediately, my mind goes to Sasquatch.
Alexis: If you see something moving in the gorge, no, you didn't.
Plant People: Immediately. And I was coming up on a sunny point. And, yeah, I came up on a quaking aspen tree growing out on a rocky outcropping on a sunny point on the trails I was on.
Plant People: And I was like, how in the world did this get here? And it was just doing what the aspens do. They kind of, the leaves were shivering and that was the movement that I was catching out of my eye.
Alexis: It's
Plant People: And I saw that. So i look for that thing every year and I'm gonna go back and check on it. I have to go back and see on my maps, what trail that was on. It's part of a larger trail system, but yeah, that was a really cool experience to see that guy.
Plant People: And there was no movement in the woods, but even when there's no movement, if you run up on one of those trees, um, you'll see that they're, they're still just always moving. It seems like the, just the way the petioes are situated on the tree.
Alexis: alive.
Plant People: Yeah. They just, they're they're just shivering all the time or quaking or you know, yeah. Doing what they do.
Brett: I was, but so I saw something at some point that the the quaking Aspen part of that is like a functional adaptive s thing um where the movement allows for additional, um like additional,
Plant People: Cool.
Brett: evapotranspiration, which allows for it to move water more, which allows for it to move more nutrients.
Plant People: Oh, oh
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And so that's a large thing of why quaking Aspen populace tremuloides does that. I think um I was not expecting, i was not in my, what did they say?
Plant People: cool.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: It was not in my bingo card for this episode that I would be the one to pull us back to plant physiology, nerd stuff.
Plant People: Bringing us back.
Brett: But I was, I was racking my brain
Plant People: bre
Alexis: you You just right before me.
Brett: I was remembering the like 3% of things that I remember from my education, you know, childhood education. And I remember them saying um that like what, what happens is when when a tree changes from green to yellow or orange, Alexis, we, we, it's, it's not that the, the green is changing to yellow and orange.
Plant People: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: It's that the, Green is fading away and the yellow and orange are revealed. And in my research for this, I was looking and and there's a nice nice couple of nice articles, one from the University of, ah or sorry, Utah State University.
Brett: The yeah orange and yellow things, that like these are referred to as carotenoids and xanthophylls.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Mm hmm.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: and But then the pink and red, it's actually a different story in the sense that it is actually produced in the fall primarily and found, um like they they could give the example of maples, flowering pear, sumac, dogwood.
Plant People: Yeah. Mm hmm.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: um And so that that will vary based on what the you know what the weather conditions are like in the fall. But just back on the on the revealing thing, were is there something you were going to say about that, Alexis, with the green and the yellow?
Alexis: That was exactly what I was going to say of like, ah if you if you want to sound smart or share something, a cool fact with people, you can say the yellow and the yellow and orange and fall color is always there.
Alexis: It's just hidden by the green.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: And so that green, that plant is kind of sucking back that chlorophyll, putting stuff back into the root system, some energy, some nutrients.
Plant People: It doesn't last once it's not produced.
Alexis: And like you said, yeah, you reveal, it reveals the...
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Hmm.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: um oranges and the yellows that were always there. and and But yeah, the red the reds are different. I always forget you know the way they are, but that I think Ray was saying that's why dry fall is great because those sugars are concentrated and it's it's those anthocyanins that make up the the reds are part of that and they they are more concentrated.
Plant People: o
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: but And i believe that the, I remember that, so, you know, our light spectrum, we we don't actually, aren't able to see light spectra, but um when it, when it's hitting that leaf, the the carotenoids and the xanthophils and the chlorophyll are working together each to absorb energy from different spectra of light.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: So the the green spectrum is hitting the chlorophyll, the et cetera.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And the green chlorophyll, that's like the most efficient mechanism. Like that's the most efficient spectrum, highest energy conversion, whatever.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: that and so that's why the green is dominant. And I mean, i this is me way going out into speculative, but like from like a, for like a ethno botanical perspective, like some sort of a more forensic or, or you know, back looking backward in history,
Plant People: Oh, you're goingnna mess with them now, Brad. Yeah.
Brett: across evolutionary you know ah timelines.
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brett: I could imagine that there there were trees that had yellow leaves and they just didn't do quite so good. And there were trees that had green leaves and they didn't do just quite so good.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And so the ones that actually had all of those were able to adapt to different timelines and who knows, maybe eventually that'll be completely gone or it'll just be green. but um it's pretty cool that they're like, it's it not only is it there the whole time, it's doing work the whole time to absorb light from a different spectrum. That's not available in the green. It's just, I don't know.
Brett: It's, it takes me back to,
Alexis: Well, and like if you think about, I mean, we still have those plants.
Plant People: Very
Alexis: We just call it variegation, right? It's just like a pink variegation, a white variegation, white is like the absence of. But, you know, we've got yellow variegated things. ah And so that is a you know, a lot, most of the time it's a mutation, a natural mutation where that green chlorophyll is being,
Alexis: broken, there's a break there where you're seeing the yellow or the pink and the, the you know, it's not overlapped with the green.
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Alexis: And so, and that's why most variegated plants, whether it's red or green, red or yellow, will revert back to a solid green if given enough time and or ah like the right conditions because it needs to produce more ah more sugars, right? And so it knows that the green leaves are more efficient. So it's like, oh okay. And there is, you know, like an act to...
Alexis: keep going with that. And so it's cool that we still see that. And there's, you know, there's this huge push in the houseplant world with, you know, all the white and yellow variegation. And it was like, you know, these monstera leaves that would come out and they'd be like solid white or pale, pale yellow.
Alexis: And you know that that plant's not going to live because there's not enough nutrients being reproduced because there's no chlorophyll for those silk to live just on the white leaves.
Plant People: Thank you.
Brett: Yeah. On the variegation front too, um that that reversion can happen... can be sped up if you don't, if it's in too shady of a location, because there's just not enough available light to sustain that. And so if you've ever had one, had ah had one revert, it could be that that was just, but as Alexis was saying, it was just kind of a time ah time bomb to go back to green.
Brett: But it could also be that it's just in too shady of a location. And it's like, nah, I need, we have ah a ZZ plant that is, so the most of the stocks are dark purple.
Alexis: Right.
Brett: And the one that just came out is bright green and it's in a fairly shady location.
Alexis: Oh, that's Raven. It's the night Raven.
Brett: Yeah. Raven.
Alexis: That's what it's called. But the no, so it fades.
Brett: We call it Lenore.
Alexis: So it comes out bright like lime green.
Brett: Nevermore.
Plant People: Hmm. Quote the Raven.
Alexis: and then no It comes out lime green, but it'll, as that plant ages, the um that black purple coloring will return.
Brett: Okay. So, okay.
Alexis: Uh-huh. Yeah.
Brett: So that one's good. That that one's okay.
Alexis: Yeah. Yeah.
Brett: I didn't know.
Alexis: that's That is a natural.
Brett: I didn't know if that was a, if that was Natty. We got it from a plant sale for some old, from some old ladies.
Alexis: have that one.
Brett: And so I wasn't sure. So, but the, what the other stuff that we said still does hold.
Alexis: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's funny because I've seen, um so the the shade is you're 100% on that one, right? And that's like when we would get calls about people saying, we usually would say like, oh, it's probably getting too much shade.
Alexis: But I have seen it in the extreme opposite. It's like the extremes of the plant. So if that plant is getting too much light, that the white, the variegated parts will burn.
Alexis: And so that plant is then suffering of from you know this
Brett: Oh, wow.
Alexis: this sunburn, right? Just like the pale person, the all the pale people on this podcast get sunburns.
Brett: Uh-huh.
Alexis: It's the same concept.
Brett: Yeah.
Alexis: And so the plant it wants this kind of natural sunscreen, which is chlorophyll, and it'll throw out solid green leaves. So it's like the two extreme ends of the spectrum will make the plant
Brett: Hmm.
Alexis: goes This isn't correct. Let me write this wrong and throws out the green and like just that. Obviously, it's not like awareness in the way that we think of awareness. um I forget there's a word for when you give people terms to not people things.
Alexis: But yes, and that and like, but that concept.
Brett: anthropomorphizing
Alexis: The fact that these plants can identify this and right that wrong to the best of their ability is just like so cool. And if you're watching this on YouTube, you're seeing how excited I am by talking about that. But anyways, we were talking about fall color and I got into anthropomorphism. So.
Alexis: Hmm.
Brett: Well, real real quick, ah to you know, two maybe non-traditional aspects of fall color. One for me is like pay a little bit of attention to some of the non-traditional fall color things.
Brett: Like if you have junipers around, if you have eastern red cedars included in that.
Plant People: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Brett: you have pine trees around and, you know, as you're expanding your love and awareness of horticulture and plants, you'll start to notice like, okay, because, because junipers, once it, once we get some frost frosts, they will, a lot of them will take on this like almost purple green color.
Alexis: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Alexis: Mm, so good.
Brett: And there's certain cultivars that'll go more of a yellow, ah which is kind of cool, but like they, they change pretty drastically. It's they're still quote unquote evergreen. um The same way with the pine trees, you know, they'll, they'll take on maybe a little bit of a darker tone.
Brett: They may, some of them may go almost a little yellow or a little bit lighter ah shade, but I just think that's, that's a fun aspect of kind of growing as you're observing plants.
Brett: The other thing I was going to ask, ah but since we were talking about houseplants, do you, are there like things that you notice changes in your houseplants during this fall color change or winter color change?
Brett: Or is it, is that my crazy?
Alexis: oh No, I, so, I mean, we all know like ah Thanksgiving cactus, Christmas cactus. So the the blooms are in relation to the light change that we talked about um earlier that Ray talked about.
Brett: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Alexis: But I also have um some other plants that will that will bloom. I have ah a, ah oh crap, I just forgot what it's called.
Alexis: Something cactus, but it's it gets these big white,
Plant People: Is it the Thanksgiving one or?
Alexis: No, it's it gets these big white blooms on it.
Plant People: Okay.
Alexis: But...
Plant People: Not a prickly pear.
Alexis: but No, I can't believe I just forgot that I'm so embarrassed.
Plant People: No.
Alexis: But yeah, so sometimes they change and like just like trees do change color, they will bloom based on the temperature difference and or the light.
Plant People: Oh.
Alexis: And so sometimes it's a combo of both um versus, you know, or sometimes it's one or the other and they just tend to coincide with low light is, you know, lower temperature in this part of the world.
Plant People: Hmm.
Alexis: But um so...
Brett: Is it a, is it a epiphylum or a serious or a night, night blooming queen, queen of the night, night blooming cactus.
Alexis: If Jessica was here because I've given her a piece of it. Night blue. It's a night blooming cactus. It's a night blooming cactus.
Brett: We got there.
Alexis: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Brett: We got there.
Alexis: I got there. I was like, blah, blah, blah.
Brett: ah i I feel like we got there.
Alexis: But yeah, you got there.
Brett: i feel I just want to, I feel like we got there.
Alexis: you you yeah Jessica, queen of the night. See, Sheena queen of the night.
Brett: Come on, Jessica.
Alexis: um
Brett: Queen of the night.
Alexis: ah
Brett: Wait, oh, that is a cactus or that's her referring affectionately to you.
Alexis: But anyways. Yeah, it's ah it's a cacti.
Brett: is Is that not her referring affectionately to you, Alexis?
Alexis: No, it's a cacti.
Brett: Is Queen of the...
Alexis: Oh, well, I mean... Maybe.
Brett: Maybe. oh
Alexis: i when i went When I went to prom, I wore a black dress and someone said I look like the angel of death. And so Queen of the Night feels like a
Brett: Wow. and is that And that's an angel, you know? but I'm hearing you think I look like an angel. Yeah.
Alexis: That's what I'm hearing.
Plant People: That's what he took away from that.
Alexis: i
Plant People: That's what he took away from that.
Alexis: What? But yeah. um And also, um on a not so positive. A lot of my houseplants end up starting to lose their leaves. um as the
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: Well, part of it is my I turn my heat on, right? So this dry heat, and we know that's bad for...
Brett: Yeah.
Alexis: tropical plants at least and then low light so they don't need as many leaves in the first place so it's not always you doing something wrong it's just them going why am I taking care of this if I don't have to and so they drop leaves um yeah just be careful don't over water and if you're bringing them in from outside into your home that's a big like fluctuation of humidity and light and just like um it's it's the reason I don't put very many house plants outside these days because the
Brett: yeah
Brett: yeah
Alexis: the crash between those two environments is pretty real.
Brett: Yeah, you're you're riding the line between, oh man, they put on a lot of growth and we're very happy in our hot, humid summer. And now back to reality inside my house
Plant People: I don't know. I've had a curly leaf jade that's just got huge and actually has gotten leggy on the outside a little bit. of What I would describe as leggy, which is still pretty stocky for a curly leaf jade. But I'm wondering what that guy's going to do once I bring it back in because it's just exploded in size this year.
Plant People: It's gotten, I mean, it's doubled, more than doubled.
Alexis: It's going to drop all those leaves. Yeah. Just like little.
Plant People: It's very well made. little succulent.
Alexis: And jade leaves like make a plop sound when they fall.
Plant People: air We're good. Yeah, that's good.
Alexis: Right. Because they're so succulent.
Plant People: They're just going to make babies.
Alexis: Oh,
Plant People: So I'm going to propagate the heck out of it.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: You amaryllis is one of those rare ones.
Brett: I was i was recently i was recently recently made aware that Jade leaves will well like propagate from...
Plant People: Oh, good.
Brett: or Sorry, Jade will propagate from leaves.
Alexis: really?
Brett: I didn't know that.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: if If they fall on the floor, I literally just throw them back in the pot and I'm like, something will grow.
Plant People: Yeah.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: And then you got babies. Yeah. Some of them will, yeah. They'll touch.
Brett: I cut you off though, Ray.
Plant People: but
Brett: You were going to say something else
Plant People: No, no. I was going to say amaryllis is one of those weird things. We've talked about that before. I like, you know, that's a fun one for me.
Brett: else. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: I grow me around, but They actually like being under a grow light better than being outside because they're kind of finicky on how much direct sun they get.
Alexis: Uh-huh.
Brett: Thank you.
Plant People: So it's one of those weird ones where they get, like I use a 12-hour cycle on grow lights on the inside, and they actually like it better. ah When I bring them in, they get really glossy, the leaves thicken up.
Plant People: um and I don't know what it is. I think sometimes some of the ones i have at the back of my house, they get a tiny bit too much direct sun, so it bleaches them a little bit.
Brett: I think it's also freaks plant think so.
Plant People: but I bring it in and they do better. They just love it.
Brett: freak have plant magic you
Plant People: I don't think so.
Brett: i think so
Alexis: I feel like kill a lot of stuff.
Plant People: I feel like only the strong survive with me, Brett.
Brett: Yeah, this is what you call humility.
Plant People: but so I'm the definition of hardy plan.
Brett: This is what you call humility. But these people are, you know, they're legit plant people. And, you know, they let me they let me tag along and pretend and and we make it we make it work.
Plant People: Says the bonsai guy. so So says you.
Alexis: Right?
Brett: But I think i I think I think you've got some I don't know, like because I've heard multiple things now, I think across where people will be like,
Alexis: I know.
Brett: oh, I've really had trouble with this thing. and And you like, sort of be like, yeah, I've had one of those for 15 years and doing pretty good. And, and it was like, and I mean, then that's great, but I do think that's part of it, part of it too, just a a sixth sense perhaps about, about what they need, but.
Alexis: Or six years of a degree program and I paid a lot of money for.
Brett: Yeah. And yeah. And you get one cents per year, many dollars for one cents per year.
Plant People: So, yeah, that's right. Six cents.
Alexis: Yeah, yeah.
Brett: i don't know. Yeah.
Plant People: So...
Alexis: I recently went houseplant shopping with Brett. We were buying a houseplant for someone and he just tagged along and humored me as I went, ooh, and this, and ooh, and this, and ooh, and this, and this, and I could just see him giggling in the background.
Brett: Yeah.
Alexis: was like, did you see that? Oh my God, these. But really, I...
Brett: This one this one here, it's kind of big.
Plant People: Beep, boop, beep, boop.
Brett: Do they have these anywhere else? I don't need, you may be coming home with me though, if I can't find anybody else.
Plant People: You've got this in a different size.
Alexis: Oh, look, it's accidentally in my cart.
Brett: And like, it's interesting.
Plant People: Oh, how that happen?
Brett: Cause like we were there for like, I don't know, maybe 45 minutes and she did not speak to me despite the fact that she was speaking to someone the whole time.
Plant People: Mm-hmm.
Brett: And it was the plants there. and I was, I was very happy to be, I was happy to be we, we gave, uh, gave someone ah a plant as a thank you for some, some help they gave us on a recent, a recent work event, um, which was a fun, it was yeah, that was a fun trip.
Alexis: That is accurate.
Brett: And I managed to pick out the one not labeled juniper that had some bonsai potential and asked the nice lady there, do you know what this is? She's like, I don't have any idea, but I'll go, go find out.
Brett: Um, but it was fun, but.
Alexis: They had an answer. They just had to go ask somebody else in charge.
Brett: That's right. That's right. That's extension.
Alexis: Yeah.
Brett: You know, I don't have an answer immediately, but I will find out for you.
Alexis: Yeah.
Plant People: Go find
Alexis: BRB.
Brett: So Ray, so Ray, you, you have have plans to engage in this fall color?
Plant People: Yeah, I want to get out in there. We've had a lot going on as a family this year, and I just haven't gotten into the woods this fall much at all. But then again, I've been closely watching the leaf change to make sure that I don't miss it. So my son and i he's been he knows that I'm nerd out on this stuff. So he's like, is it time to go hiking yet? I'm like, it's always time to go hiking, first of all, Reed.
Plant People: But, you know, we've we've been watching the color.
Brett: Throwing dad a bone.
Alexis: it
Brett: Dad, I happen to notice there's some fall color.
Alexis: Oh.
Brett: I mean, you know.
Plant People: Yeah, but when when the leaves get, when the trails get crunchy and the leaves start to turn, I will go find them. So I plan on, you know, just getting out in the woods this fall, like I always do, and and go find some of those things.
Plant People: But, you know, even if you're on campus or, you know, you're at your local park, you don't have to get into the the big woods and go find those things, because some of the very best examples of color will be in situations where a tree may be on its own, which may not be
Brett: Mm-hmm.
Plant People: it's natural thing to not be growing in a grove of other trees.
Brett: Yeah.
Plant People: But when trees like ah the maples, especially the improved cultivars, they get sunlight all the way around, they will be so bright orange or so bright red that they practically glow.
Brett: yeah
Plant People: So go find one of those at your local park system and just kind of check it out and and watch those and and don't miss that color. So you can find color anywhere and it doesn't have to be trees. It can you know lots of shrubs like the witch hazel and things.
Plant People: I mean, um there's lots of shrubs that also have lots of good fall color as well.
Brett: Even bal Bald Cypress has like a really cool, it's like, yeah, it looks like ah like a like ah paintbrush that's been dipped in like some kind of an amber paint or something.
Plant People: Oh, yeah. Burnished kind of color. yeah i mean.
Plant People: Yeah. I love the color of those.
Brett: i there's some there's some
Plant People: Yeah. When they drop.
Alexis: The texture adds something special too.
Plant People: Shape and texture of those.
Brett: There's some ah some some maples on the strip along Nicholasville Road there where I kind of walk in, near where I walk in.
Plant People: Oh,
Brett: And so I can mark the seasons by how many first, first it's like, there's geese trying to intimidate me. Canadian geese trying to intimidate me as I walk in.
Alexis: la
Brett: And that lasts for a while until they keep, until they move on. And then the trees start to change color. Unfortunately, I've been cutting down a bunch of trees around campus cause they're constructing a bunch. So there's a lot of, a lot of old friends that weren't there this year that were like previously, but, um,
Plant People: oh yeah.
Plant People: Lexington has some beautiful old trees I mean we're very lucky I was coming down Cooper the other day and and there's some of those older neighborhoods around central Kentucky and Lexington that are just beautiful in the fall absolutely beautiful and it's the trees man
Brett: yeah catalpa catalpa is like uh the street catalpa not the tree uh is known known for having like these ginkgos that are really photogenic and so they it has had some instagram moments over the last few years of a bunch of people coming taking pictures when it's changing yeah magical
Plant People: yeah yeah just yellow
Alexis: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Plant People: god
Alexis: Mm-hmm. Just solid gold.
Plant People: If you get those things just right, it's just absolutely beautiful. And you know, you mentioned catalpa. I noticed a bunch of those trees are starting to yellow. They're a little bit, they don't have that purity of yellow as a ginkgo, but catalpas have that nice yellow and they're big leaves.
Alexis: That's
Alexis: it. Mm-hmm.
Plant People: So they're kind of, they can be kind of showy under the right conditions, but not like a ginkgo.
Brett: yeah
Alexis: And they have catawpa worms, which are really good catfish bait. I'm just saying.
Plant People: Fishing. Yes, absolutely. For fishing.
Alexis: Yeah, there you go.
Plant People: Good stuff.
Brett: wow that's so that feels like ah like a quicksand approved trip ah tip there talpa worms for catfishing and that's the time of year for it
Plant People: Good stuff.
Plant People: Yeah. Oh, definitely.
Plant People: Yeah.
Alexis: yeah there you go
Plant People: And then when I grew up in the Eastern part the you'd see all the fishermen that go find the catawpa trees around and then you're looking for the worms. Yeah. Great fishing bait.
Alexis: Yep. That was the only tree my husband asked me to plant on the farm, and they're actually a little more hard to find because most people don't have to plant them.
Plant People: and
Brett: Yeah.
Alexis: They just exist.
Plant People: No, not here.
Alexis: So one one of these days I'll find find us one.
Plant People: Yeah. They're much more common in the central part of the state. I call Oakland or one of those local native tree places. Yeah. So I don't know, fall leaf color, I look forward to it. It's going to be interesting this year to see what we get.
Plant People: wi And I think all that goes back to the interesting weather patterns that we've been having that historically wet and now historically dry August and and how that's going to add up to leaf color change. So I look forward to seeing what's going to happen.
Plant People: Should be good.
Alexis: Well, we hope you get out and enjoy some fall color and check out some maps and put on your sweater for sweater weather or flannel season, as I like to say.
Plant People: Better weather. Flannell season.
Alexis: Flannel season.
Plant People: Flannell season.
Alexis: And yeah your' your fluffy socks. Gosh, I love getting out a pair of like good, warm, fluffy socks.
Plant People: obnoxiously fluffy, like super thick fluffy.
Alexis: um
Alexis: Yeah, I just love a good, thick,
Plant People: Like you can't fit them in a shoe fluffy.
Alexis: Yeah, my boots do get so kind of tight sometimes during the year.
Plant People: Fluffy socks. Extremely overly fluffy socks. Absolutely.
Alexis: Extremely overly, but well, I hope you put on your flannel and your fuzzy socks and then you go outside and enjoy the fall color. And now you have all kinds of things that you can brag to people.
Alexis: And those are my dogs. So of course they're going to bark and.
Brett: They are ready to go they're ready to put on their flannel socks and go outside and enjoy the fall color.
Plant People: yeah like
Alexis: They're so excited for fall.
Plant People: Like, mom, we are so excited.
Alexis: Listen, corgis on a hike, what gets better than that? I apologize, please forgive me.
Plant People: They are wonderful.
Alexis: um but
Brett: Remy and Finn, shout out.
Alexis: i
Brett: Shout out Remy and Finn. Don't up but ever apologize for my friends. they're might they They have a voice too.
Plant People: No.
Alexis: Maybe I need to post a picture of them with some fall color and maybe that'll look up for it, so.
Plant People: You do. That would be awesome.
Brett: Yes, that's correct. That's correct.
Alexis: Believe it or not, you can hear them through the door. So that's great. ah
Brett: I can feel them.
Alexis: So anyways, I hope you feel that fall energy through these Remy barks.
Brett: i can feel them through the door. yeah
Alexis: But thank you guys for being with us. We hope you enjoyed this episode. We hope you come back. We hope you give us lots of stars and that you follow us on Instagram at Hort Culture Podcast and send us, send us your pictures.
Alexis: Tag us on Instagram if you take some photos with some cool plants and say, I learned that yellow and orange was always in the plant. We would love that.
Brett: if
Alexis: ah We appreciate you guys for being here and we hope you'll join us next time. Have a great one.
