OK, not too cold for containers but too HOT. Gotcha.
Agastache anyone?
Chuckle, well, in Texas they go from being too cold to cooking in the sun, but in a container, a tomato will grow out the bottom and into the ground anyway, and in a container it goes in for cold and under the shade after about 1 pm if possible. I always park mine where a shade tree does the shading after about 1 pm....
I used yo live n garde in tropical texas.
When we moved up here, a client said that until Easter, you cant be sure of no freezes.
Considering the variance of dates for Easter, this has proven to be correct.
So what I do is keep the maters & peppers potted, and trundle them back & forth between inside & outdoors till Easter.
I particularly remember one Easter that was in mid April and at the Saturday night vigil, day before Easter sunday, a cold front blew in as we sat there outside, and it froze overnight.
Thr "official" last frreze date is around March 30 or 31.
I always put out some "sacrificial" tomato plants knowing full well the have a 50 - 50 percent chance o making it or not.
and keep reserves inside just in
case !
Was that about 15 yrs ago? That's the general rule I've always been told too.
LIDA - IT MAY HAVE BEEN THAT LONG-
I WAS A CANTOR AT eASTER VIGIL & THOSE SUDDEN FREEZING WINDS JUST FROZE UP My VOVAL CORDS - lol Sorta like Beyobce at this past inauguration... and it was mid April !!!
so the calendar means NOTHIN to ole Mother Nature
Baja? I always went by Easter too, but it is actually the equinox that decides and the El Ninos and plant zone changes have changed some of the dependability. Many people used St Pats day to plant by the moon, or Easter to do the next plants, etc...but family garden plots just planned on covering til the spring winds settled down anyway by May.
I plant winter crops and spring crops. This year all my winter stuff that tolerates mild freezes got frozen and killed before thanksgiving. I still haven't had any swiss chard or spinach, and my broccoli is 2 inches tall and pathetic.
Tomatoes I try to put out March 15th. I have a 110 gal stock tank I can put over a few plants during a super hard freeze, and the plants will live even if it drops to the single digits (tested that a couple of years ago.)
You guys in FW will freeze just a week before Easter this yr. Keep your mt flower pots ready to place over plants too.
Good to know, y'all.
I forgot this thread was about AGASTACHE! I am about to order some from HCG.
Who is HCG
I have done that two years running and none survived.
looks a lot like blue salvia, which is super easy to start from seed and keep alive. I think I'm sticking with salvia. Bees love it.
Bees love blue
I love bees
Gypsi, HCG is High Country Gardens, who say they specialize in Agastache.
http://www.highcountrygardens.com/New_Plants_for_2012
And Cheryl, I don't care if they stay in the garden, I just want them to last the summer. After that is bonus.
I think that is a nice idea but if you plant them in spring they might not even survive the hottest part of the summer. I want you to have good luck, so you can tell me how!
I ordered about 5 different agastache from HCG, nice variety but sometimes smallish plants. All that I ordered were supposed to be xeric and take the heat. Not a one in two years made it through the summer. Now I did not try the blue type so I can't speak about that one.
I have been asking around DG to see if anyone in this area has good luck with Agastache and so far no one has given me good news regarding this genus. I would like to know what I am doing wrong or if our intense night temps just aren't good for those plants. I grow a lot of other xeric plants including some native to TX.
C
Thank you for the explanation. I'm still at the Burgess and Sand Hill Preservation end of ordering. Food for me, food for bees.
Gypsi- have you had good luck with Burgess?
Oh my goodness, I'm still worried about the cold instead of the heat! Idiotic...I will get accustomed to TX eventually!!!
I haven't had bad luck with Burgess. But it has been a couple of years since I bought from them too.
I had great luck with Sand Hill, but I have a daughter getting married in May so I need a TON of flowers, and Burgess has the bulb deals without Michigan Bulb's headaches of inappropriate plants for zone 8
Burgess is a little high, but my 5 in one apple tree in Arlington is still alive, and I bought it from them in about 1993 or 1994.
Burgess has terrible reviews. Sand Hill's are mixed but they are a truly family owned and operated business so there is only so much one can do in 24 hrs. They also specialize in Preservation. Looking at their catalog is like a text book. I wouldn't want you stuck with no flowers bc Burgess didn't come thru.
Carrie- you have good reason to be concerned about the cold still, after all this is Texas so the next couple of Months could go either way. Lol
We actually have enjoyed this winter very much--especially compared to the one they're having back east.
I agree. After the last couple of days I'm sure spring is here to stay. Somehow I've already forgotten that it was freezing less then a week ago. If we don't get anymore freezes here after Spring Break it will be a first.
We might get another freeze, but if I don't get stuff in the ground there will be heat regardless. Doing what I can.
If Burgess fails, I'll deal with them. Been a while since I ordered, as in years, but I don't remember having big problems. Loved Sand Hill sweet potato starts last year, ordered a lot more this year., in starts and seeds.
I order seed basically for the following spring because by the time it shows up it is too late to start it for this year, o I buy and refrigerate. Works for me. I'll start what it isn't too late for. This year I'll be planting the seed I got from Annie's last year. I put 5 sweet pepper seeds in the ground last April, I think one stayed moist enough to germinate. Starting all their seeds in the greenhouse tonight and tomorrow. Somewhere I can remember to water, out of reach of cats. I've got 6 chicks under the greenhouse table in the run there right now, I won't forget my seedlings. (6 more chicks in the kitchen I can't forget either, we call that the kitty kat peep show)
Did you get peppers off the pepper plants you direct seeded in April? You sound like me I have to put stuff where I can see it or I'll forget it. I luv the kitty kat peep show, you have me laughing.
My comment about the temps was for Carrie, BUT the reason i notice the temps so much is bc I live very rural at the foot of the Hill Country and the Regional Maps of Texas all show this area as almost being zone 7. We get cooler even tho we are further South. I don't really understand it but I know it's true.
I buy almost all my seeds the year before but I have such a large stash Im sowing seeds that are 5 yrs old.
What seeds are you starting?
no, I got one pepper plant, it got 2 inches tall then I believe it got run over by a watermelon vine and not enough water. The last couple of years have been hard. Most of north Texas has moderate drought, but I have severe in this little corner of Tarrant county. And I don't water too much. Deeply and infrequently, so seeds must be started indoors or somewhere I'll see them.
I was wondering cause that's seems really late in the year to start a pepper plant. We have drought conditions here as well. Yes, the last couple of yrs have been much more difficult then normal.
I'm going to try to start tomatoes and sweet peppers. I work. When there is work I work until I drop. And the garden suffers neglect when there is paid work, but it pays the mortgage.
I normally start my yellow crookneck and zucchini outdoors around March 15th, so them I am right on schedule for. I normally start my cantaloupe and watermelon outdoors around 3/21 to 4/1
Right now I have onions, spinach, swiss chard, and some seriously undersized broccoli plants in the garden. First bunch of broccoli looked good but our november hard freeze got to them before I got them covered. january broccoli may not have heads before it's too hot.
If my tomatoes and sweet peppers don't get big enough for the garden I'll go to the feed store and buy plants. It is what it is...
This message was edited Mar 12, 2013 9:22 PM
I've had a lot of trouble staying on schedule this season also, I never thought of direct sowing the squash seeds now. But if this weather holds I might give it a shot, if it doesn't work I can always try again. I still have a few potatoes to stick in the ground, it seems late but the ones that were already planted got their tops froze. When it was 26* a week or so ago. The onions look fine tho,
I have tomato plants that need to be potted up and stuck outside to acclimate. I grew my peppers in containers last yr and they did great.
I agree just do the best you can....and enjoy it.
Well here it is cold again, and my tomatoes and peppers will be plenty big enough when I put them out. The Burgess order was fine, but never throw away the bag your plants come in, its label is your warranty... Oops. lost 3 strawberries and a clematis.
My Agastache order from High Country Gardens supposedly shipped April 15.
I grow 2 types of Agastache in Dallas. One was left in a pot last year and surprised me by returning. It's kinda leggy but I've given it a good haircut and have high hopes for it. Sorry to be bad with names. (If I find that I still have their name tags, I'll update this post.) This particular one has pale orange and lavender flowers. This year I was at Nicholson Hardie Garden Center in Dallas and kept walking by the most fragrant plant. Turns out it was a rose Agastache and even tho I knew better, I couldn't resist. I immediately planted it in a bed that gets as much sun as I can provide. I know it would like even more sun but I'm not about to cut down my trees. So it's been in the ground for a month now and so far seems to be happy.
Finally. The name of the Agastache with the pale orange and lavender flowers is Apricot Sunrise. If you're in the Dallas area, Northhaven Gardens has some. Or at least they did a few weeks ago. The Rose Agastache is growing like crazy. I love it! Never thought I'd have enough sun, but I guess I do.
Another agastache is tea hyssop. Its doin great in my garden without me, I need to check an see if it blooms...