Greatest success/disapointments in plants this year?

This message was edited Thursday, Sep 19th 1:33 AM

5{his year is a rosa dalmatica (de Rescht). Last year it was new and definitely sick. (black spot); I sprayed it with an organic spray it, removed all its dead leaves and surface soil, gave it new soil and compost but thought that was it - not so. This year it has bloomed and not shown any sign of blackspot (so far). It has even grown a bit.

My disaster this year, as last year, were tomatoes. I've learnt my lesson. All my garden tomatoes got blight and had to be destroyed and I'm left with just three plants on my balcony. I shouldn't be trying to grow tomatoes outside here and will only grow balcony tomatoes in future!

Garden Success - I'm always greatly surpised when anything grows here because I don't do much in the way of gardening.

I'm a known rose hater but I have given a grudging space to a couple. This year my Green Rose had an ants nest built up around it in a matter of a couple of nights and all the leaves and flowers dropped off it. I kicked off the pot and sent the ants away. Repotted and pruned it hard, today there is an abundance of leaves on it and yet another small ants nest ... tomorrow I will resort to poisoning them.

Disaster - All but 2 of my foxglove species collection have decided not to flower so far. Little monsters!!!

Digitalis ciliata did have a flower spike and produced no seeds. Then the whole plant died right back, fortunately it has some green leaf buds showing again. They always seem determined to send me to an early grave, I don't know why I bother keeping the collection some days LOL

success: tropicals, 99% of what I got in trade and bought lived and bloomed (or will soon)
failure: tomatoes in containers. They kept wilting in the heat and DH kept watering even though I told him. They drown.

Success - I'm so happy to see the plants I started from seed actually blooming! I'm especially happy with the white hibiscus and the beautiful saphire blue lobelia. Even my dahlias,gerbers and hollyhocks are blooming!
Disappointments - containers, too hot and dry I guess.

Sucess..My New Hibiscus tree..in a pot on the deck..it has bloomed it head off with double orangecoral flowers. It is so beautiful.

Disapointment..Godetia..planted from seed in a pot...got leggy..took ages to bloom and then all the ends of the plants dried up leaving just a few straggly flowers.

Biggest annoyance..RABBITS..eat so many new plants..or just nip them off and leave the stem on the ground....like they know it is new..and can't wait to have taste! I have never had so many rabbits as this year..or so many plants nipped in the bud!

Success - hymenocallis which was planted late, lucifer that didn't come up last year and all that we planted from seed.
Disappointment - Crown Imperials died before they bloomed, mountain laurel is just getting browner all the time, vigna caracalla left in pot and dying down, tamarisk started several but then petered out, contorted pussy willow got roots then died off, lucky bamboo slow death, begonias got heat stroke, three new tall grasses croaked (it's a wonder I am not depressed with all the disappointments vs success LOL) Oh well, that's a good reason to keep trying till I get it right!

Disappointment... callalily bulbs and gladiolus bulbs. I always do well with them, but this year I replanted about 25 large callalily bulbs and 4 came up, no flowers. Replanted several sets of 12-15 large glad bulbs and although most came up, very few blooms. Same treatment, and bone meal, for all the bulbs as in previous years. I dunno.

Success: I finally had some (very) small success with propagation! And, most of the plants from the roundup have survived so far, in spite of the heat and draught.

Success: Pardancanda from seeds are doing great(Thanks Paul),Tomato crop is coming on well, harvested about 12 lbs. of garlic, Japanese irises bloomed beautifully and the "radar love" clematis grown from seed last year is showing it's first blooms.
Disappointment: grapes blighted rather badly (didn't get to them with Bordeaux Mix soon enough), birds ate most of the blueberries and it got too hot too fast for the head lettuce to do well.

Success:
Hydrangea macroph., bought and planted last July, it had 4 blooms, and was a nice wee plant. This year it has over 30 blooms, and a big crown. This plant has just exploded on me. Great stuff!!

Disappointment:
Lavatera 'Barnsley', got to 1.50 metres tall (5 ft), spread all over the place, hiding the sun from its neighbours, then had the barefaced cheek to produce 1 (yes ONE)!!!! flower. He's going into the compost this week so I can plant something useful there like weeds.... at least they bloom!!

So few seeds came up. I got some seeds at our European RR of St. Bruno's Lily, and not one seed showed any sign of life for 8 weeks. I've just put the earth into one of the beds, so next year they'll probably ALL sprout :-)

All the best

Wintermoor

Wintermoor

Throwing your St Bruno's Lily on the beds might work. This chappie does take a long time to show, I wouldn't give up after 8 weeks though, goodness me! they've hardy had time to settle in the soil LOL.

I think they should come up in the bed, Baa. I was probably mollycoddling them too much, so now they can get on with the business of being flowers, and not wee babies ;-)

All the best

Wintermoor

Awww I hope they do well WM if they don't come up let me know and I'll send some more on to you ;)

I'll let you know before the Euro RR Baa, thank you ;-)

All the best

Wintermoor

Successes:

!.'Black Forest' Calla lily bloomed after waiting two years
2. Deer fence is up, though not completed it is secure!
3. From a VERY late planting, I put in 3 tomato plants on June 15th in a raised bed, copious watering,20 green 'maters there now.

Failures:

1. The 2 tropical hibiscus that I wintered over aren't doing too well in my peach-of-a-garden. I know I transplanted them late. They looked fairly good all winter, and now they are just drooping, though I have watered them well. Can't say I did that too much during the winter, tho..
2. Have not yet installed a watering system in yet. I have been dragging the hose around the property, from garden to garden, before and after work.
3.Have not started any seeds that I have in my seed box, except for the beans and zuchinni.
4. I am sure that there are more, but I don't want to REALLY bore you.. :-)

Success: My biggest was that I managed to propagate two female bittersweet vines and three trumpet vines:)

Disappointments: The male bittersweet vine is not cooperating, so far:( But will keep trying.

Second: My wave petunias:( THey started out good but then went the way of the west. I don't know why I keep planting the darn things. I never have good luck with them.

Something is eating my marigolds, one by one. Anyone know what it could be? I thought no self-respecting bug would bother marigolds. Slugs Maybe?? :(

This is a good thread! It definitely makes you look back on one's gardening techniques! Disappointments: some tropical seeds didn't strike..others did! Best in garden, new own root roses took off in containers like no tomorrow! Must plant these guys and gals soon in the garden..some rose cuttings, such as climber Summer Wine didn't take off(twice I tried this), to no avail! yet most others are sailing along beautifully! a little of this and a little of that! Elaine

I had a heck of a summer here in Seward. A wet winter rotted the roots of many of the potted perennials I was wintering over, and I also lost some in my beds. The spring started off too warm and dry, then got cold, then got wet.. the poor plants just didn't know what to do.

It was a bumper crop year for spruce pollen, so it settled on every surface, including all the plants on my sale tables. Shortly after that, the cottonwood pollen started to blow around the yard, leaving fuzzy seeds all over my plants, as well. Add to that an over-abundance of biting insects, and you have a disappointing summer.

However, I had one unexpected success. My blue poppy (meconopsis grandis) decided to bloom after two years of dormancy. I counted the seed pods today and there were 22 blooms! Here's a photo of it: http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/7115/

This message was edited Thursday, Sep 19th 1:34 AM

That HAS to be the most beautiful plant in the world!

(IMHO) :-) Good job!

What a nice reward, with all those disappointments...

I think we just happen to have the right climate here for blue poppies. That's nice, since so many other plants don't like our climate.

Sucess....
That would have to be a cardinal climber that I've tried for the first time, Wow, is it beautiful it has totally covered my arch and is always covered in red blooms, it makes feel happy everytime I look at it.

Dissapointment....
My five year old "Evelyn" rose she has lost all her leaves with blackspot twice this year, hte blooms have been few and very small with the exception of the first bloom. It has done beautifully in the past but not this year. I think it really started its decline last summer, it has been babied like no other plant in my garden and seems to resent it. So now it will ignored until it decides to get it's act together!!!

Sucess, my moonvine I bought from Horseshoe. I sneak water out to it at night :-)
Dissapointment, the drought has killed so much that I'm not sure which is at fault, my planting or the sever dry spell.
My eculyptus died, my japanese maple died, my japanese andromada sp? died, my ginko died. My hope is that I will cut back the branches in the winter and in the spring there will be new growth.

fingers crossed!

d

This message was edited Thursday, Sep 19th 1:34 AM

My gardening success, if you want to call it that, is that blackcapped chickadees nested in an ornamental bird house on my spa deck. Even with the grandchildren here they persevered and hatched out three babies. All are around now feeding on this and that and also the chickadee food that I put out. Even have a picture of them.
My failure is the powdery mildew on my viburnums. They are 15 feet high and have been glorious but not this year. I do not spray them saving all the spray for my 52 roses.

This message was edited Wednesday, Aug 14th 2:44 PM

This message was edited Wednesday, Aug 14th 2:47 PM

Garden success, my periwinkle colored Siberian iris and violets; and iris trades that bloomed from trades over the last 2 years. I may have even identified "Semper fi" and (maybe) Edith Wolford.
Disappointments- red larkspur and black poppy seeds from T and M; I may have gotten one small poppy that bloomed while I was away. I will save the seeds anyway--otherwise 100% failure of seeds to germinate and grow!!!

Success: My tropicals. My Elephant ears, cannas, bananas, brugmansias and gingers are doing great. My passifloras are out doing themselves. Ipomoeas are doing great. My callas all had blooms and I've not let any get too dry causing them to go dormant early!! Phlox paniculata and maculata have been gorgeous all summer. I especially love the new geneticaly(sp?) dwarf ones. My Powis Castle Artemesia is growing like crazy and I must remember to cut it back in the spring. I grew abutilons from seed I saved and love the huge variety of colors and I've had several brugs bloom from seed sowed in January.
Failures: my irises were disappointing because of a late frost and then early high temps(in the upper 80's in April/May) and dry weather. My daylilies bloomed early and finished way too early. I'm ripping out three perennial beds and growing tropicals there next year.

Very late discovering this thread so hope to add my 2 cents, enjoyed seeing everybody's lists. Made me feel better about some of my (occasionally expensive) failures:

Disappointments: Euphorbias--other neighborhood folks have 'em, mine falter almost immediately. Santolinas--good compost is too rich for them, they all eventually rotted on me. Daphne--I really wanted its scent, but had to settle for star jasmine instead. Red verbena--so incredibly beautiful, low maintenance, little water, bloomed for 8 months, but I was so violently allergic to it, we had to rip it all out!

Successes: Meyer lemons--my family adores them, one of the few plants I have multiples of (3); I'd plant more if I had room but my neighbor lets me raid his (yay!). Cestrums--anybody can grow these tough shrubs, and they flower all year round in Zone 9 coastal Nor. CA, so the hummers love them. Lantana and Indian hawthorn, two stalwarts of the evergreen garden. Variegated liquidamber tree--introduced my gardener to a smaller-growing variety of sweetgum, it has lovely yellow-red fall color which fills in for maples in our mild-winter climate. Pennisetum Rubrum--lovely purple, vertical accent in the garden, unfortunately I'm allergic to it so my husband has to tend to the clumps.

jkom51: I understand your misfortune! What a cruel trick to be so in love with gardening and allergic to the plants!
I used to absolutely LOVE Zinnia, I grew all kinds... then I finally figured out why my hands had "acid" burns, it was terrible especally around my rings, the skin would blister peel weep and refuse to heal... I'm horribly allergic to Zinnia! Alas, no more Zinnia in my garden... I actually tried to grow some and just wear rubber gloves, but I just couldn't remember to wear the gloves. I'm one of those people who usually has dirt under my fingernails, I'm not happy unless I'm coated in it!

It's now one full year since we planted the first garden beds, and my new success is that the freesias, which were planted late spring last year, finally decided to come up! Mostly yellow ones, but a few purple and a couple of very choice red ones. Love the fragrance and have been able to have a couple of small vases full for the last month with a few more coming. I LIKE flowering bulbs that send up more flowers as you cut the first ones, LOL!

Too much success with an astroemeria I planted that turned out to be the invasive species. I have been cutting them religiously for flower vases and seem to have gotten it somewhat under control. I was afraid it was going to march through the bed it's in and overwhelm everything. That thing grows FAST.

A hardenbergia bloomed beautifully for four months, that was wonderful. I had no idea they were so gorgeous, I hardly ever see them anywhere.

Disappointment with my gardenia, it's the difficult to grow but too easy to find 'Veitchii'. I ripped it out for a fancy-leafed pelargonium instead.

A little disappointed some of our other vines haven't quite taken off yet despite the good weather. Only the akebia has flourished, and it's the one I like least so that's disappointing. The lonicera is healthy but there's only one long shoot, the thunbergia keeps flopping downwards, the plumbago hasn't grown much yet.

One mystery plant has never been identified properly and I finally got tired of nursing it along and threw it in the furthest reaches of the backyard. If it lives, great; if not, too bad. I replaced it with a tecomaria because we look right at that corner when we sit down on the patio and I needed something evergreen with pretty leaves and flowers.

I just bought my first tree heath at the recent SF garden show and am crossing my fingers that I can get it into the perfect spot so it can be a resounding success for 2003. Otherwise I'm going to be bummed, it's just gorgeous and I don't want it to die!!