I went to Louisiana to visit my nephews and beg one of them to go to Forest Hill with me ..We went to Doug Young Nursery as nephew knew the Manager and I remembered someone here on DG had went there last year seems like it was Big Bubbles and let me apolagize ahead of time if my memory isn't correct ..It was just too wonderful to even try and describe ,,Did not score any Jujube plants but did get a Pineapple Guava and 2 new Hibiscus (pink and Yellow) also found lots of diferent Burgundy Shamrocks so brought 2 home for the DW as that is here fave ..WARNING if you go there make a list before you go as it is akin to eating at the Buffet everything looks good ..
Forest Hill,Louisiana
Oooo I want to go too.....Do they have a website? Hardy hibiscus?
Where , exactly is this place ? And how will you keep the guava alive in the winter ? I lost both of mine this winter , don't have a greenhouse and thought they would get too tall for G H .
Forest hill is 17 miles south of Alexandria La which is about dead center in the state ,,How am I going to keep the Guava alive? Good question and hope I have an answer ,the first move is going to be to plant it on the south side of the house . the secon thing is a plan to get another couple of the plastic rain barrels (white) for it's first winter ..Yes they are tropical Hibiscus and for another week or so all the plants are sharing space in my puter room and are being carried back and forth to the south yard every day
I hope you find a solution, because i planted mine in the ground last spring and it got down to 24°three nights . That was about 150 miles south of Houston , Tex. The only tropical that I saved , uncovered , was loquat. They did fine .
Just going to play it by ear for this year several others near me have tropical hibiscus and they have survived some pretty brutal winters by cutting them back each fall and then a heavy mulch ,..We shall see wish me luck
Hi Grits...I'm glad you got to Doug Young's in Forest Hill! It really is mind boggling, isn't it? I just got an invite to the Forest Hill Nursery Festival this coming weekend. A group goes the Thursday before the festival opens and buys all the good stuff early! I don't think I can talk my DH into going on such short notice, but I might try.
If you really love those hibiscus, leave them in the pots and bury the pots in your garden. Take them in when the weather turns cool. They aren't likely to survive an OK winter...mulch or no mulch.
Hi BB I became impatient and planted them where they will live ,however short that may turn out to be ,the DYN place is fantastic but it is just one of many fine nurseries in Forest Hill what I saw people doing was having a big covered trailer and good strong young men to load their stuff
to Big Bubbles guess i was still asleep when I answered I got it backwards I planted the Pineapple Gauva outside it was just to big to lug in and out everyday the Hibiscus is still indoors,so that is a real good idea you have of leaving them in the pots ,but I think I need to get another couple of the plastic barrels and cut them off for planters as I am sure that one of the hibiscus is already root bound ..The fact that the roots are stringing out the drain holds was kind of a clue don't you think? LOL
Those must be really big hibiscus if you're going to put them in plastic barrels! You might check out the hibiscus forum and ask if you could just trim the roots and sink the pot. The roots are going to grow out the bottom holes anyway. You just cut the roots when you dig them up in the fall.
The barrels will be cut in thirds they may be a little big but I always have lots of low growing stuff to plant with them ..I used to build planters from wood but the barrels are much cheaper and the wooden planters only last about 7 years ..For me and this is just an opinion the movable planters makes much more sense as I have so many Sweet Gum trees and the roots just make digging planter holes a nightmare ,plus they suck the water away from smaller plants ,My wife has finally consented to remaving the Sweet Gums now if I can find someone to do it at a price I can afford...
Well, that makes perfect sense! I can't grow roses because the oaks will find the rose fertilizer and sap it away from the few sunny spots I have in my backyard. I have most things in large pots.
Sweet gums are so invasive with their roots that keep putting out shoots .