I found this growing in an area where we set our bring home plants from last years swap. It was growing in the middle of a bunch of Iron Weeds. I like it. Thanks.
ID please
Obedient plant?
I have heard of it but I don't guess I have seen one. Thanks.
If it is obedient plant, beware. I love it too, but it is anything but obedient. A pink variety duked it out with apple mint for domination of my herb garden. The apple mint won, but it was close for a while. I have a couple of starts of the purple from one of last year's RU's just beginning to bloom. I think I will keep them in a pot for now. :>)
I had no idea those were native here. I have grown them but spreading was never a big problem. I would like some of those for next spring but maybe after what was said they should go into a pot in my yard too. I already regret planting tall mexican petunia!
Cheryl
I have some listed on my haves for the Arlington RU, if you are coming. I find them less invasive than the Mex Petunia for sure! They spread by roots but are easy to pull up as they sprout.
I would like one and do plan on attending, unfortunately I do not have much to trade...2 spineless prickly pear cactus and some texas star hibiscus seed.
Cheryl
I have a nice chunk of the purple obedient plant. Its not really invasive but spread under underground runners. I have it in a raised bed and just dig out chunks since they are shallow rooted and share with friends and leave a small clump of it for myself. It would be lovely in a mixed long border.. If you turn the little mouth looking things on the flowers in different directions on the stalk and they stay its obedient plant. If they break when you try to twist it around to a different side it could be turtle head plant.
Turtle heads grow here too! Those are moisture loving and tall, robust plants. Obedient plants are thinner and have narrower leaves.
C
Don't worry about the trade, I have plenty of the Obedients to share. And yes, F4F you are right the blooms can be positioned and stay where you put them.
Its fun to show kids how you can position them. My husband laughs at me then he goes and tries it after I go in the house, lol.
Sheila, I put the baby Obedients you gave me in July in the ground and they survived the heat and trying to bloom. Just one or two very tall stems and too heavy to stand up. If I pinch it back, would it encourage new growth from the bottom? It appears to be putting on some small new growth beside the original. At least I hope that's what it is and not a dandelion coming up. LOL. I have no experience with this plant.
Glenna
This message was edited Sep 24, 2009 6:44 AM
They do have an elongated leaf with slight tooth, so it may be the Obedient. A lot of mine are laying down after the winds we had with this last storm. Triming them back will help with putting out more growth and they do have a long blooming period; so they may bloom this year. I have to pick up a 7 foot tall Desert Willow tree tomorrow and restake it. Forgot until just now, meant to do it before dark.
Sheila, hope your Desert Willow survives. I didn't go into Cleburne today but just in the mile or so around us, there were all kinds of trees blown down or sections broken. One unhealthy tree down in our pasture. Of course, 70-mile-an-hour wind with wet ground has a tendency to do that. LOL. I'll be picking up debris all day tomorrow. DH bought another 8-foot fiberglass compost ring today. I'm going to need it.
Sounded like you had a good system going there with the Lhamas.
What is a compost ring?
re: compost ring - It is a "slice" of one of those underground fiberglass storage tanks that thousands had to be replaced several years ago due to some EPA thing. We have two of them that are about 12 feet in diameter and 24 to 30 inches tall. We originally used them when we had lots of llamas just to have someplace to put llama manure when cleaning the pasture and gardeners would come haul it off. Then I started adding shredded oak leaves, because we have an over abundance of those to get rid of too. Then after the fact realized we were making fantastic compost !! Now I don't give it away except to special gardening friends. LOL. The compost I'm using now is the debris from a bad hail storm about 4 years ago. It has been slower to break down because of all the little tree branches in it.
The ring DH bought yesterday was smaller, about 8 feet in diameter, $25. Can't beat it.
You need to tell them how you go about turning it too Glenna.
When we want to turn the whole thing, DH uses his little Kubota tractor with frontend loader, lifts the ring up and puts in new location and then scoups all the compost up and puts it in the ring. That thoroughly mixes it.
When I'm just adding a new layer or something like kitchen scraps, I use a pitchfork and dig down in and turn and stir. If I add donkey manure, I flip it with the fork frequently because it has more weed seed, especially mesquite beans that sprout. With the heat that builds up and turning it, the weed problem isn't as bad as some say horse manure causes. I think maybe they don't compost theirs long enough.
I had plans on using the new ring to make leaf mold from this fall's oak leaves. Don't know whether I should put the debris from this week's storm in there or not because of the green twigs and branches breaking down so slowly.
Ken,
I have posted links to the two obedient plants. One is the spring one and yours is the fall one. The fall one is much fuller.
I have both of them growing in the same bed.
I just had to find this out myself, so I thought I'd share it with you.
http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/obed_plantx.htm
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=phin8
Charlene
Interesting Charlene. I have Miss Manners obedient plant...no reseeding...wouldn't mind if I had a few babies.
http://www.abnativeplants.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantdetail/plant_ID/68/index.htm
Anna are you offering any on your RU list?
Sorry, as I said it doesn't reseed at all. I haven't tried prohibited "asexual" propagation!
Oops....not paying attention. It's very pretty for sure.
dogsnpetunias, I wouldn't pinch anything back when it's in the mood to bloom;
I've had very good luck using tomato rings on plants that want to flop.
The obedient plants I have produce 2 seeds per flower pod. I might consider collecting some if anyone's interested. I have the purple ones.
I would like to try some seed if you get some. I am starting a new bed next spring and would like to start some plants from seed for it.
Cheryl
I'll see what I can do for you. I may have absolutely no luck or I might be overrun with seeds!