Clemson Univesity Extension Service

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. On our visit to film at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, we learned about displays designed to reflect the native areas of a specific animal. We started out at the sealion and seal exhibit. Obviously, there weren’t plants in the water, but curator Melody Scott Leach has planted the surrounding areas to resemble the wind-swept California coasts home to these animals.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. During our filming with horticulturist Melody Scott Leach at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden, we learned about what animal exhibit specialists call furniture. This means plants or other items placed inside the animal enclosure.  For example, the rhinoceroses need shade but these massive animals could easily destroy trees by rubbing against them.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. As part of putting our toes back in the water during these difficult times, Team Making It Grow is looking for outdoor places to film. Recently, we visited Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia. There’s a special branch of horticulture for areas that involve animal exhibits. Melody Scott Leach fills that role there and she gave us a fascinating tour and explanation of that subset of gardening.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. At our recent filming at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, we met several people who help our friend Katie Dickson by volunteering, working year round in summer’s heat and winter’s cold. We talked with some of them who said they get more in sharing friendships and learning than they give with their valuable skills. Many, many public gardens rely on generous hearted volunteers who help with greenhouses, planting and the inevitable and unfun task of weeding.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Team Making It Grow is going back out to film interesting places to share with our viewers. Public gardens seem like just the ticket in these times, especially now that the temperatures are lower. Our first trip was to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens where our friend Katie Dickson is in charge of seasonal displays for lots of WOW.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. If you are plagued by deer, there are two groups of bulbs made to order for your yard. First, any of the Narcissus genus members – daffodils, jonquils, and narcissus and also the Lycoris members. Some accounts say that Lycoris radiata was taken from China to Japan to plant around rice paddies as it contains poisonous compounds thought to keep rodents away.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Another Lycoris species often found in older gardens has a wonderfully amusing common name – Naked Lady Lilly, Lycoris squamigera. The naked part of its name is because just like with spider lilies, the Naked Lady Lily just springs up out of the ground without any foliage associated with the stem supporting the flowers. The pink is very soft but not pale and is large enough to hold its own in a container by itself.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Spider lilies are one of my favorite garden flowers for arrangements. The multiple flowers at the top of a single stem have long slender petals; they’re large but with their airy presence don’t dominate your artistry. If you’re using Oasis, a k a, wet floral foam, you’ll probably need a skinny dowel or pencil to poke a hole into the oasis first so the stem won’t collapse when you try to push it in.

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. I don’t think the person who gave the common name Hurricane Lily to what I’ve always called spider lilies, Lycoris radiata meant to cast aspersions on them -- These spidery looking blossoms often do pop up overnight a big rain – thus the Hurricane Lily moniker. Extremely persistent, the foliage emerges after the flowers.

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. At a  home in Saint Matthews, dating from 1880, the yard is now  naturalized. But in the fall, you can see where the formal beds from probably a century ago were the planted. Almost overnight, usually after a good, drenching rain, twelve to fifteen inch tall brilliant red spider lilies, Lycoris radiata,  pop up and continue blooming for almost a month.

Clemson Extension Agent and the host of Making It Grow, Amanda McNulty, talks with Dr. Juang-Horng (JC) Chong, Clemson Extension Associate Professor and Specialist, about crepe myrtle bark scale.

In this edition of Making It Grow - Extra, Clemson Extension Agent and host of SCETV's Making It Grow, Amanda McNulty talks with Clemson Extension Agribusiness Agent Ben Boyles about the Catawba Farm & Food Coalition.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. In an effort to stop the potential extermination of native birds being used in the millinery trade, Congress passed the Lacey Act in 1900 which made it unlawful to transport illegally procured animals across state lines. Meanwhile, a new threat emerged as Florida’s homesteaders’ act gave them preference to land under control of the General Land Office.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Although we often think of Theodore Roosevelt as a relentless hunter of trophy animals, he combined that a passion for understanding the habit, habitat and lifestyles of not only those but other animals in nature. As he waited for transit to Cuba during the Spanish American War, Roosevelt renewed an earlier interest in pelicans, this time spending endless hours observing them in nature from his posting in Tampa.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow.  Dixon Lanier Merritt, American humorist wrote: A funny old bird is a pelican. His beak can hold more than his belican. Food for a week He can hold in his beak, But I don’t know the helican.