from
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1337089/#new
Lotta leaves here! Planted garlic, dug out Cassia marilandica which has roots more tough and oversized than you would think.. I moved an Aralia spinosa which is a pretty dumb thing to try, but if it lives it will be a great accent, and nectar/ pollen/ berry plant for wildlife. And I needed to get it out of the previous spot, where it kept putting up spiny suckers in my nice neighbor's yard.
So come one and all, whatcha doin?
SSG, think about using a big container (like 22" diam) with a compact holly, camelia, etc. in your "death spot." If the plant starts looking poorly, you can always drag it to another place. I've got a little dwarf alberta spruce (which I don't recommend, as they seem very pest-prone here) in a container between my 2 garage doors... it's doing pretty well despite being rarely watered in summer (north exposure, so it doesn't get hot afternoon sun, but still).
I finally got back in the dirt this afternoon! Yay! I didn't do any digging, but hope to start catching up on digging/planting next week. I did divide and up-pot a lot of my recent acquisitions. A few little divisions of echinacea came away with few/no roots attached to the crown, so I put those into little pots and will try keeping them in one of those little plastic zip-front "greenhouses" in a sheltered spot. I got a couple of salvia cuttings to root in there last fall.
Any grasses that don't get planted out before Thanksgiving, I think I'm going to try plunging the pots into the veggie garden for winter protection.. easy to get them out and plant them or divide them in spring.
That's a great idea, Critter. It would definitely be a good way to find out whether the issue is the soil there (competition from the tree roots?) or something else. If something in a container thrives in that spot, then you know it must be a soil/ground issue.
Robin
Jill-
What Salvias do you grow from cuttings???
I still have some of the "lady in red" salvias blooming. Will they grow from
cuttings? I have collected a lot of seeds also from them.
I have gotten them from wind the last 2 yeas. She grows them from seed....
These are VERY nice flowering plants--and really bloom right into
frost--as of NOW.
G.
I like that idea of a very large pot for ssg--which will add its own element to the design. Of course, I'd have to look at the area again, but it sounds interesting.
I had seriously considered a container for that spot, but I really want a camellia or rhododendron that gets tall, fills in that blank spot in front of the brick wall, and sprawls all over and blooms for weeks. A container would restrict its growth somewhat and require occasional root pruning and repotting, which I don't want to do. I'm a lazy gardener! I might have no choice but to use a container, but I'm going to give it one more try.
Catmint, it's definitely the soil and roots. The oak tree roots end right there by the house, so all the dense water roots are right where I want to establish new plants. And the soil is shallow here -- this is the spot where we keep coming across boulders as well as smaller rocks buried just a couple of inches below the soil. And this is where I've had all the fungal rot issues related to the poor clay soil, which has since been amended, but the fungus problem still persists. So it's a combination of poor drainage and root competition.
I've seen two different red salvias, one at Critter's, and one at Catmint's. They were so pretty! I think I prefer them over blue ones.
That does sound challenging to grow something large in a poor soil spot. Maybe the autumn sage/red salvia would work for you? Mine is Furman's Red and it grew to its full height (about 36") very quickly. It also seems fairly shallowly rooted. It also bloomed all season. How's your sun there? It does seem to like at least part sun.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/51610/
SS--
There is a blue/purple Rhodo that is an early bloomer, grows
fairly upright, and is commonly available.
It is sold in early spring...easily available.
Can't think of the name....Anyone????
G.
The deed is done!!! Sadly....
Thursday--because the night weather forecast seemed scary--
I decided to start cutting back the Dr. Seuss Brug.
I thought--I'll cut back just the greener tips for now...but once i started--
There was no stopping... It had to be done anyway. Chop...chop...chop...
All thepretty blooms and buds--went down in the trash can.
Scott (from Cylburn) never made the effort to come and get the whole plant-
but said he would gladly accept any cuttings. SO--that is the way it had to be,,,,,
There was NO way this size brug--even all cut back--would fit in my basement.
I took cuttings as far down as I thought was doable. Left quite a skeletal picture...
Plenty of stems to re-grow from. Ended up with 50-60 cuttings.
Put them in moist peat/coir mix, standing up, in a plastic container.
Why stop now? So--I dug the brug up too--leaving as many roots attached as i could.
There were so many roots that grew out through the holes I cut in the sides of the pot!
A testament WHY this has to be done.
Put 2 trash bags around the root ball and put it in my car for the night.
Yesterday--I drove across town and took it all to Cylburn.
Unfortunately--Scott was not available--he had gone downtown, but told two
workers there that i was coming--so we unloaded and took it into the GH area.
Here is the pictorial story....
1--Frost got the leaves lat week--blooms still hanging on.
2--After the initial trim--cuttings not taken yet.
3--Close-up of the massive roots that grew out through the holes in the pot
4--Here's a box-full of all the cuttings. The ones to the side--are being mailed
so a man in Texas that asked for some.
5--These are the cuttings i took for myself on Oct. 17th. Growing well.
The "Maya" cuttings I took--are way behind. Different genes--I suppose....
And--so ends the second huge Brug give-away. The first was in 20010.
OOps--Missing one picture--the way the brug looked after I took all the cuttings....
Here it is.
I was getting things ready for Holly again and need to take the mowing deck off of the tractor to put the snow blade on, after seeing how nice all the neighbors yards looked after they mowed, I ended up doing mine also. It was looking a little irregular and I would rather have the leaves mulched than blowing into all the leeward corners. I swear everyone in the neighborhood was out today. Alfie presided over his kingdom from the back deck, if asked if he wanted to come in, just gave a puzzled "You nuts" glare and returned to his task, till sunset. Holly will be home this evening from her trip, I just finished putting a baked sausage pasta in the oven and have a salad chillin' in the fridge.
Sally, what kind of garlic did you plant?
wow G. quite a job w/your Brug! that sure was a beautiful one.
quite chilly here today in Jersey. all our cannas are finally getting brown leaves. we still have to dig them and the dahlias
I've been collecting seeds from some of the heirloom tomatoes using fermentation method. have one last batch fermenting now. Too bad I don't really know what some of the cultivars were. Thought I started out with signs in the garden, but most disappeared!! lol I need to improve how I label things in our garden
Oh, that reminds me, I have to get my glads out. Yes Diane, keeping track of heirlooms can be tricky, my favs, I'm pretty careful about and write them down.
Yipee Skippy! Holly called, They landed 20 mins. early in Philly. I hope their bus is there.
SSG... The pinkish Salvias blooming by my back patio are S. microphylla... 'Wild Watermelon' is one (love the name so remembered it!), not sure of the other, but 'Maraschino' would be another great choice for a more red color... more reliably hardy in z. 7 (which is why mine are by the big rocks), so they should do well for you. You'd also like 'Hot Lips'.
Gita, WOW, they'd better take good care of that baby at Cylburn!
Ric, I'll be thinking of Holly this week, for sure!!
I hope so, Jill--nothing like starting from scratch with a 5" stem cutting...
But--been there-done that....
The Dr. Seuss grows fast. Not sure how old mine was??? maybe--4 years?
G.
Okay, sorry for such a newbie question, but can someone tell me if the hosta below show normal winter decline or if there might be something wrong with them? All of my hosta look like this or worse. :-(
CM--Mine are getting like that too, at various rates.
catmint that is normal for hostas ^_^ some are more beautiful than others with fall color. Our hosta Regals were so nice with yellow tones last weekend. Hostas completely die back and all the leaves and growth above the soil will pretty much disappear
Ditto to Sally and Wind.
Hot sun and lack of adequate water can also hasten the annual Hosta die back, which starts at the leaf tips and eventually drains all the green into the roots to be stored for Spring. I resist the urge to tidy them up by pulling off leaves or cutting back until they are really obviously dead maybe late Dec? Will you be mulching yours?
Editing to add, what I see in your photos is that browning is happening on all leaves and proceeding from tip in. Stems all look good and sturdy so probably no crown rot/petiole rot. I also can detect no color bleeding, a sign of Hosta VX
This message was edited Nov 10, 2013 10:02 AM
David had a chuckle off me last year - when I told him my Campanula Elizabeth all turned yellow and died last fall. and he just said ..Well they DO go dormant over winter...
thanks, all--I feel better now! :-)
Coleup, yes, I was going to do some mulching today and the hosta are on my list! I haven't cut them back at all yet. You cut yours back in late winter?
Actually, I dont cut mine back at all. I just let them alone til spring and do a little cleanup then if nature hasn't done it for me! I mulch mine with oak leaves (shredded if I'm industrious...most years not). In fact I let the oak leaves that fall on them for the most part stay there to spring as well!
thanks, Coleup--I definitely am concerned about the hosta virus. I'm even thinking that, if all the ones I have currently are healthy in the spring, then maybe I won't bring any new ones in for a while. :-(
Catmint, it is all part of a great garden learning curve! And we are all on it
Many experts/experienced gardeners/growers recommend that new plants serve a quarentine before they are introduced into their greenhouses or gardens or collections. That's a prudent thing to do as in 'one rotten apple'. It takes a lot of restraint and watchfulness. A corollary is to only bring in plants from trusted sources. There are actually Hosta vendors who test for Hosta VX regularly to insure clean stock.
Third is education/infrormation which works best with first hand experience so one can spot the first signs of...whatever when there might be something one can do when a plant fails to thrive.
Some go to extraordinary measures to save every plant no matter what , others pull and toss at the first whisper of a less than showroom quality plant. Folly and denial run deep as we try to arrange the green world to our specs!
Fourth, as this mega billion dollar industry continues to expand and globalize, quality control and disease free product lags behind. And, the state of the market place lends to the spread of organisms,pathogens, fungus, insect etc across ever larger areas of distribution. Much like our food supply the plant supply chain spans the globe with all the pluses and minuses that brings.
Keep asking! We are all learning what it is to garden on spaceship earth.
This message was edited Nov 10, 2013 5:45 PM
Among other things, I treated one of my Japanese Maples for Powdery Mildew today as suggested here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1340947/
Link to protocol
http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2009/08/how-to-beat-powdery-mildew-in-hydroponics/
I'm trying to do better about tossing plants that get pests or other blights, but I have a hard time throwing out a plant that's barely surviving. It's "trying so hard," I want to give it another chance! I just replanted two very scrappy looking dwarf rhodi's. Their first winter, 3/4 of the branches died, but the remaining ones continued blooming away every spring and adding a little color to the front border. I put the two together to look like a single slightly larger plant and moved them into a space between 2 azaleas. We'll see how that works out. At least they won't have to fight tall plants to get some sun.
We're having major work done on the trees in our yard on Tuesday. They'll tidy up the hack job the construction guys did on the back side of the treeline and thin the crowns to help the trees cope with construction stress. They're also taking down the ornamental pear in the front yard (only remaining item that the builder installed, I think)... it got brown rot this summer, and I just don't love it enough to struggle to save it. Same goes for the blighted plum tree in our little orchard, and I'm also removing a couple of other trees back there that just don't produce for us. The only item on the list that hurts my heart is taking down that really pretty little wild cherry volunteer behind the dining room (close to the back patio), but it just can't stay where it is next to the foundation, and it's too big to move.
Settlement with the survey guys is still up in the air, and I haven't yet really started the fight with the developer over Thursday's hacking event, which cost me one of the two cherry trees I'd previously saved. grrrr
good luck w/everything J.
wish we had a cherry tree! do you get orioles?
Oh no, Critter -- there was a SECOND hacking event?? That's appalling.
Yep, and this one is totally on the developer. A month ago, they promised they wouldn't touch branches on any of the trees on our side of the property line. Riiiight. Jim heard the chainsaw when he went upstairs Thursday morning. I tore across the yard, windmilling my arms and screaming like a banshee, while the guy in back of the truck kept cutting. By the time I was in front of him so that they had to pause, they were at the far corner, and the only remaining overhanging limb was a mostly dead one on the big mulberry. They cut way higher than they could possibly have needed to, and in the process chopped that wild cherry in half. With no remaining branches, it's effectively dead.
Appalling is a good word.
Catmint, I totally understand your reluctance! After I got rid of my Gold Standard with Hosta Virus X, I went to several nurseries looking for replacements, but almost every single one had the disease! Apparently, Gold Standard is a cultivar that's extremely susceptible to HVX.
I'm keeping track of these red salvia cultivar names. :) I plan on planting 1 of 2 red salvias in the backyard where they'll get full sun.
ohmigosh Critter--that is horrible. Sounds like these guys need a lot of oversight.
Maybe your wild cherry volunteer can find a good home?
thanks, SSG. I need to get better at recognizing the disease so I know what to look for. I've seen photos of it online, but that's not the same as seeing it in person and knowing what to look for in person.
Full sun sounds great for the autumn sage. The hummingbirds do like it.
Mine gets only partial sun. It still blooms okay for me, but I know it would do better in a sunnier spot. Maybe once my new lasagna-method full-sun soil beds are ready next spring I can move it. Right now they have bulbs planted in them, but I'm hoping by the spring the underlying cardboard will have rotted away.
Oh, I saw in person some of the tree butchering at Critter's. It really was a truly terrible hack job.
It reminded me of this article by a popular writer and horticulturist whose trees were butchered by the power company:
http://thedailysouth.southernliving.com/2013/09/22/power-company-assassins-murder-my-trees/
Check out what they did to his neighbor's crape myrtles!
http://thedailysouth.southernliving.com/2013/09/26/power-company-pruning-part-ii/
Coleup, fantastic article on powdery mildew!
I have 3 Japanese maples with beautiful fall colors and 2 that got very bad powdery mildew.
so sorry to hear of that upsetting situation Jill
oh ack talk about crepe murder.
We have a fairly new development here that of course plants the required replacement trees and landscaping- right under the power lines. There is so little care or thought put into the proper siting and considerate pruning of trees.
CatMint, my wild cherry volunteer simply got too big to move, or I'd add it to my treeline. It was small enough a few years ago, but I was pretty much not out in the garden for a couple of summers, and it didn't get dug out.
Thanks for the support with the tree situation.
This message was edited Nov 11, 2013 9:27 AM
SS--
I will attach a link below of the "Lady in Red" salvia I got from wind.
Also--there is a house across the street from me that a tall, beautiful Crepe Myrtle.
To be honest--it was too tall for its surroundings. The owner had it cut back to the stems--
exactly like in the picture in the link you posted.
It grew back in no time at all--and is, once again, in beautiful blooming tree.
The only drawback is that now it is much too dense and could use a thinning.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31636/
Interesting about the apple cider vinegar and hydrogen peroxide for powedery mildew! I should give one of those a try...
We finally had the right weather for that bonfire on Saturday. It always amazes me how a huge pile of brush is reduced to a small pile of ashes. I usually enjoy fall and the winding down of the gardening season, but for some reason I'm not mentally ready for it this year and sad that summer is already over. Seems like it went by way too fast.
Jill, I'm sure you have thought of this, but since the development group seems so far to disregard common decency in favor of sowing seeds of resentment willy nilly, document, document, document. While your tree workers are there get a written estimate to repair/replace removed and butchered trees. Also get written estimates from several arborists.
Problem is that such blatant disregard seems to be how this corp operates from beginning to end and this is just the tip of the iceberg of problems and annoyances and damage real and perceived to adjacent neighbors and town and county and state. I have heard that in my county anyone can make an annonomus complaint or get a stop work order while investigation of possible violations take place....like any breeches or failures of sediment control?
lol, now that your view is so unrestricted I'm sure lots of infractions can be seen, recorded and reported!! Seriously, pick your battles.
Here, I just yesterday was able to convince the owners of the most cleared property to plant trees where they will maximize my privacy and view across five yards. They gave me several marked stakes and a mallet to pound in where I want 'replacement trees' to go given to them by their tree guys who will be coming just before Thanksgiving to plant 'evergreens' along the lot line and several 'native' trees on the property, hopefully where two of my stake are!
I had to laugh though because three of the 'native' trees they have trucked in from NCarolina grower are Dawn Redwoods! They will plant them out front (yes, all three) in a 90 x 90 area.
Owner says he'll be dead long before they get that big. They are already15 footers.!
Good point about asking Dan to estimate how much of my total for trimming involves tidying up that hack job. I'll add that $ to my claim for replacement cost of the big cherry. "Blatant disregard" sums it up... in fact, the killing of the cherry seems downright vindictive. I'll be taking photos this afternoon. I think some of my "stump shots" from last month may show the sweep of branches that was once on that side; I'm chagrined to say I accepted their promise that those wouldn't be touched. Grrrrrr
LOL about the Dawn Redwoods. Yes, I'd say a couple of those will have to come down eventually.
