I'm trying to go native. I didn't really need these -- they were just going to flank the doors. So I think I'll just do without. What annoys me is that the label definitely didn't say zone 7, at least as far as I recall. I'll have to check to see if my memory deceives me (won't be the first time!).
I've been out pulling my nemesis weed -- aegepodium. For years I have tried to attack is just by pulling it out, but I am losing the battle. I'm going to hit it this weekend with Round-Up. I just can't devote my life to this stuff. I so hate to use any herbicides, but...
PLANT ADDICTS CHAT #3
For the record, for whoever is counting, I do NOT need another Fig Tree cutting... who knows where I can fit a fig tree in here that I already have?
phew thanks Seq, I was sweatin it!
Hey, whoever was talking Clethra/ Summersweet- I saw them at the community college today in landscaping, They had either suckered or seedlinged quite a lot underneath, in the mulch; I'm thinking suckers more likely. Hm, what if I drop my keys in the bush, and then yank some suckers up while I retrieve it...??
That sounds like a good idea! A landscaping crew will probably come along and pull up all the suckers anyway. You'd be saving their little lives. If someone asks what you're doing, you could say that you're a compulsive weeder : - )
More likely (like here at Metro Parks), suckering plants' new stems are sprayed with Roundup as indiscriminately as gone-to-seed crabgrass..
Propagation by division by any other name would smell as Summersweet...
hahaha! After they're done spraying Roundup, they'll dump 5 inches of mulch on the seedlings.
Sally, I think UMD Terp wanted Clethra.
Lol...overkill. If they would just things 'naturalize'.
Yes, I can certainly guess, in that spot they would spray the little stems and then cover with mulch next time around.
Oh c'mon Seq, you know that landscape always needs to be "maintained". If they leave all these sprouts, they will spill over in a few years and clog the sidewalk.
I do give them props for installing several features recently- stormwater infiltration where once was a flat chunk of lawn- there are at least three of those. One is 'landscaped' with river birch, asters and grasses but mostly mulch, that's a serious one that included digging some huge holes. Others are big patches of wildflowers /native plants. And the Clethra area in fact is a semi native garden under shade trees. Tons of crickets are singing in the native areas.
And there's this nice footbridge that goes across a streambed in the woods, to connect to another section of campus. You walk the bridge and are twenty? 30? feet off the ground between trees. A feature mostly lost on most people using it every day, I'm sure.
Anyway, I need a rainy Wednesday or Thursday when I can pull them up easily and slip them in a bag...next spring I can see if they'll be white or pink.
No way Sally, that's what makes shopping centers and the like have boring landscapes. I'm surprised they'd plant such a plant in the first place. It's not the 'cookie cutter' type of plant I'd expect.
I'll have to get some pictures of this next week- Thursday I go again. Last year I showed some gorgeous red winter berries on another planting there.
Hmm...sounds much more interesting than the perennial favorites around here.....boxwood, burning bush, yew, etc...
Oh no Sally, Don't try to be unseen, head out there with a shovel and bucket, a wheel barrow would be even better. People will just think you are doing your job. Although after a nice rain would make it easier. LOL
haha!
I know- a CLIPBOARD. Everybody at school will think I am studying something.
Yes, and a measuring tape. Take a few "sample" sprouts, then move down the row exactly 4 meters and take another sample, tagging them before putting them into your bucket and noting each addition on your clipboard. If somebody asks what you're studying, say "the effects of soil zinc levels on apical bud structure" or something that sounds plausible but boring enough that they'll leave you to it.
LOL
Perfect solution!!!! Hahahaha. LOVE it!!!!!
Well, I have to confess...I was at a garden center today with a visiting sister-in-law who stopped to admire a Digitalis purpurea 'Camelot Rose'. I don't even like Foxgloves, but I saw these mature seed pods and I couldn't help myself...a couple of them found their way into my pockets and are now in a baggie waiting for a forever home!
LOL Muddy, Just think of yourself as a plant saver, those seed pods would have been lost without you.
Hahaha! Too funny! I thought I was the only one who commits this kind of crimes :o)
I once saw some magnificent thistle seed heads in England. They were the size of my 2 fists put together. The only reason why I didn't wrestle a few off was hubby's threat to disown me.
hey! I am a trash-picker from long ago...
A couple years, I stuffer my pockets full at Lowes of seed heads
from the Lavender Chiffon Rose of Sharon which were on the clearance table.
Same from the beginnings of the Wasabi Coleus which many of us now have.
They were jammed on the clearance racks in the back, their fronds broken off.
A couple years ago--those same racks were where I found, and bought,
12 Painted Japanese Ferns--(50 cents ea.) and nursed them back to
splendoriffic-looking plants and shared them with some of you.
Ditto on a lot of broken off sections in their overcrowded rack
of out-of-bloom Holiday Cactus.
To appease my guilt--I yell myself that trash is trash--and i am just
rescuing some broken off pieces which would all go down the chute anyway.
Do I feel like i am "stealing" something? Well--maybe just a mini-twinge...
Gita
Lol, Jill that's too funny!
Muddy, you're silly. I can see why you'd do that though. It's much like Gita in her 'findings' at Lowes. They would have been lost to the abyss anyway. You're saving part of the plant. In essence you're doing the plant a favor.
Ah yes, another "Seed Snatcher" is born! Welcome to the club!
from 2007: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/248/
Critter, that's a funny article!
The first seed pod sort of fell off in my hand, and it was lonely so I had to get another : - )
Speaking of collecting seeds...I cut my Conoclinium coelestinum (Mistflowers) plants way back this weekend so thousands of seeds wouldn't float away. I still have Mistflowers blooming, though, all seedlings that sprouted this year. They're great at filling gaps in the garden.
I also collected thousands of New England Aster and Great Blue Lobelia seeds.
I've cut off E serotinum stalks and piled them. E rugosum started blooming earlier and are wafting away already. I plan to take them to a huge field where we walk the dog. It was flattened and left for 'wild' after nearby big box stores were built. Recently it was entirely mowed and all the brush and grass stems removed.
Sorry about that field getting demolished! I wonder if they're planning to build...
Sally, if you think of it, stick a handful of Eupatorium seeds (mixed is fine) in a baggie for me, please... I'm planning to throw a few seeds around the edge of that stormwater area they're constructing behind us, as soon as they're through disturbing the earth (and before grass takes hold! LOL) I figure that's a good place for A. syriaca milkweed, too. I'd put some tall goldenrod there also, but then somebody would scream "allergies!" and chop it all down (yes, I know that's a myth, but it's a persistent one).
Jill, plant asters and folks will think its a garden. :-)
Has anyone tried to plant anything recently?? I was out all day Saturday planting things but only done half of what could have gotten done. The culprit: rock hard soil! It's been so dry here lately that the soil was just like a rock. I had a few 3 gallon shrubs to plant and the soil was blowing away with the wind, even down ten inches it was bone dry. Craziness. That little spit of a shower we got yesterday was completely worthless too.
Muddy--
I have a big N.E. Aster. have never noticed it had seeds....where are the seeds on it?
I do not have any plans to plant more--mine is big enough.
Ahh..I have two Great Lobelias (from David) growing. need to go see where the seeds are..
probably just like Foxgloves and Lobelia Cardinalis--in those little, round seed pods...
and like dust....Will do that today.
I shared newly divided starts of the N.E. Aster at the spring Swap.
Can anyone tell me if they bloomed for you?
This cool weather is making me go outside and start yanking things up. :o
G.
gotcha Jill
yup, dry dry dry Seq.
whups, Sally, guess I hadn't had enough coffee... just remembered I have a big sandwich baggie of Eupatorium seeds from vacation... some E. rugosa seeds for the mix would be welcome, though!
Yes, asters! :-) Greenthumb! I have seeds for a tall white aster that was blooming by our fishing lake, and I'm planning to collect seeds from my bargain table New York asters (those should be short enough for the orchard area). Others would be welcome!
Sally, I'd like a mix of Eupatorium seeds for my forest plot, please.
I have lots of Eurybia macrophylla seeds if anyone is interested. They stopped blooming a few weeks ago and I am trying to collect the seeds as soon as they reach the puffball stage.
Gita, the puffballs that form after New England Aster flowers turn brown contain the seeds.
Seq, our soil is okay, thanks to the water-retaining clay.
Good for you Muddy! Our clay has shed all its moisture :(
Santa Rosa is having their fall clearance sale, plus $10 off with the coupon code fall10, and only $5 shipping if you spend more than $25.
Oooh...good to know! Thanks :)
25% off all perennials at Behnkes!
I just bought another Hosta June from there. One of my favorite hostas.
I'm still waiting for their shrubs to go on sale. I saw a beautiful silver caryopteris and a dwarf deutzia that I wasn't willing to pay full price for.
At HD--
Trees--50% off
Shrubs and Roses--25% off--yes--we still have some goods.
G.
I was just at Lowe's and was surprised at how little of it was discounted.
I thought that Behnke's place closed? Or was that another nursery?
Only the smaller store in Potomac closed. The original location in Beltsville is still open.
I'll check Lowe's again this week when I go out to the Y -- the one near Wegman's seems to have a far larger & better selection than the (closer) one near FSK mall.
Dutch Plant Farm hasn't sent an email yet about their 50% off sale.. I'll post when I see it! They usually have some choice stuff remaining, but it goes pretty quickly... then again, you never know what's going to be left over. At half off, their plants tend to jump into my cart... otherwise, I have better will power when I'm there LOL.
I'm trying to do better with "but where will it go?" and skipping over something that I don't "need." I do tend to have flexible want lists, though... like "need something taller to replace that butterfly bush" or "could use some shoes & socks plants in front of my new lilies."
Oh got ya.