Amazing Survivors

Really nice today - did some weeding in my front bed and took a good look at all the plants that didn't make it into the greenhouse .. 2 amazing survivors (in pots) are Pregnant Onion and Abutilon, Chinese Lantern. I really did not expect either of those to survive considering we've had ultra hard freezes here!

Anyone else have any amazing survivor stories?

Crazy that you should mention Abutilon. I was just on Plant Delight's Nursery website and they have three Abutilon that are hardy to zone 8 and one that's hardy to zone 7. I'm trying to be strong and not buy one, but still!!!!!
My Sanseveria 'Moonshine' was covered and has damage. I was impressed! It shouldn't be alive according to all I've learned about it.
Barb

I am always amazed at how durable and everlasting the Lavenders are. I have two different French lavenders and several Santilinas. They are all beautiful.
Another is Rue. Was not phased by the 17 degree temps we had. I have some parsley and cilantro that is in a raised bed and it even looks pretty good.
I am now convinced that nothing will kill Florida betony. It even seems to be thriving. I have pulled a truck load out of our beds, used Round-Up alot and it is right back. I hate this stuff!! Know how to get rid of it ?

The abutilon I'm talking about is Abutilon megapotamicum - it's only suppose to be hardy at zone 9 or better! my other abutilons are in the greenhouse. The Pregnant Onion is another zone 9 plant.

BSD, Your betony sounds like my henbit which took over my backyard every winter. I was finally able to get that under control by dragging out the lawnmower and mowing it over and bagging it just before it started to flower. I know you can't do that to flower beds, but you might try taking a bread knife and run it about 2 inches under the soil to cut the roots, then pull up the green stuff. Keep an eagle eye out and the second you see it starting to regrow, hit it with the weed killer again. You'll have to stay on top of it for a few months. That method has worked for me for some weeds.

X - so are these. The one I was looking at is 'Pink Charm'. Check out their website (PDN) and look at them.
I actually talked myself out of getting one. I remembered I have a red mexican bird of paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) I grew from seed. Now I have money for that new orchid....;)
Betony has tubers, so if that's what it is, it needs Roundup, several sprayings of it.
Barb

Tubers huh, perhaps you could suffocate it .. get a bunch of bags of that lousy so called top soil from lowes and just lay the bags on top of it. That has worked for me with gingers. I dug up a bed that had white butterfly gingers. I thought I got it all but apparently didn't. I just dropped some bags on it and a few month later they were gone.

I'd love to find a sure fire fix for that wild onion stuff in my lawn that appears every winter.

I agree about the wild onions, although they are about the only green in the lawn!

OK, so it was supposed to WARM UP for a while!!! Now it's going to get down to 26 tonight???? What the #$^#$$#@$#$????
Had to go out nad cover up everything again!
Dang!
Barb

Sigh - I know exactly how you feel .. had to go stand in the greenhouse this afternoon which was 96 degrees ... made me feel a little bit better.

I did finish bubble wrapping the ceiling and on side of my greenhouse yesterday. That did help retain heat in there; it was 50 this morning, outside was in the mid-20's.

I tried the bubble wrap one year and found that it had a tendency to trap more moisture in the greenhouse because there is such a profound temperature fluctuation in a 24 hour period and I had a terrible time with algae blooms on the soil surface of my plants. This year, along with the heating system I'm running a box fan 24/7 and so far no algae or white flies which is amazing since by this time of year I'm usually in a pitched battle with white flies.

That's what I'm going to do to help control what you're talking about - a fan.
Here's to happy greenhouses!
Barb

Indeed! Cheers!

I use a small ceramic heater from W/M. They are around $18.00. It has a thermostat and a fan. In the summer, I can run the fan for circulation. When the temps were in the teens a few weeks ago, this small heater would keep the GH above 50. It is only 8"x6" so it is easy to handle and move around.

I use a forced fan milk house heater, portable thermostat as well as a box fan .. I have the thermostat set a 45. I also use passive solar heating via 2 ltr bottles painted black and filled with water. The system really works well for me and I've never lost anything.

Link to the portable thermostat

http://www.kkontrols.com/poth8ftco.html

X

X,
Wonderful! I have been looking for a small heater with a thermostat for years with no luck. This is great!
Now I just need to find a timer to work with my solar powered fan. It's DC and the plug is the kind you'd stick in a cigarette lighter.

You'll love it .. as it says on the page you can move one wire and use it in the summer time to turn a fan on. It took awhile to find one that was heavy duty enough to work with a heater.

As to you DC thing it's easy to find adaptors - i found one at amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Cigarette-Lighter-Socket-Adapter/dp/B001TXWNLQ

you might want to search further cause amazon is usually so over priced.

Cool! I hadn't thought about looking for an adapter.. Hhmmm......
Now I just need Jerry to get that deep cycle battery for the solar panels in the greenhouse. I've been asking for a YEAR!
Barb