Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Need good heavy-blooming lavs, purples & whites for z8 AL, 1 by jlp222

jlp222 wrote:
SilkKnoll,

I am by far the least experienced person who will answer your questions, but I do have a few good resources.

http://www.logees.com is an AWESOME site to order plants from. They seem a bit expensive, but are healthy thriving plants.

http://www.georgiavines.com has some nice plants too and is always happy to answer questions. She has a very nice variety and is currently offering free shipping on some items (seeds for sure).

I found that my PFVs from last year really enjoyed all the water I would give them. I never kept the soil soggy, but I never let it dry out either. The bed they were/are in is amended with peat moss, compost and perlite. I find that perlite really helps with drainage and keeping the soil from getting compacted.

I had some nasty orange caterpillars that appeared late in the season and decided to eat most of my leaves, but it wasn't worth fighting them since it was getting cool anyway. Other than that I never had a second of trouble with diseases or insects.

Now if you are really adventurous, you can try to grow some from seed. I understand you are trying to cover a fence rather quickly, so this may not be the most efficient plan for you, but there is nothing like growing one of your "babies" from seed and looking at the beautiful blooms. I am currently growing some of the Banana Passion Flowers (picture below). I may not see blooms this year, but it is fun to see them grow up (kind of like kids I guess : )


This message was edited Mar 22, 2008 6:41 AM