A friend of mine proposed a question, and thought I would ask here- What are you planting for the fall and winter color/texture? When/if it snows it is pretty, but what do you love to grow.... until spring breaks out in bloom?
Last year I picked up a little "annual" at the nursery... I think they called it a sorrell. I just liked the green leaves with red veins. That little thing grew all winter, and looked great. Summer came along, and it came back bigger. That thing is still there! If I'd known, I would have bought a dozen! Now I don't know where to find more!
So, what else do ya'll plant, that WE need to know more about?
Winter Gardens in Texas
Oh! I have this pix from last year!
We don't get frost, so we plant petunias, snapdragons, herbs......things like that for winter color. YOur snow picture is beautiful, I haven't decided if I miss the snow or not!
Well, if it's snow ya want, Susie..............come on up to my house when it snows this winter!!
"eyes"
I have a lot of evergreeen shrubs and some of my rose bloom almost all year. And a couple of kinds of holly with red berries all through the winter. And my Indian Hawthorn. Pansies and snapdragons for annuals and grow cool weather veggies throughout the winter.
Sorrell is usually called Oxalis in nurseries and it is very common in Texas....in fact some consider it an invasive.
I think she is actually talking about Rumex - the edible herb. http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/311/index.html Another common name for it is Sorrel. :)
Well just don't eat it until you are sure which one you have since the sorrel I was refering to is poinsonous
http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/2043/index.html
And either way, it might be something else altogether since both Oxalis sorrell and sorrell the herb are perenials rather than annuals.
This message was edited Nov 4, 2004 11:43 AM
Eyes, I may have to do that, lol. That picture sure does look pretty(but as cold as my toes got this morning, I don't know if I really want to see snow! It was 50 here this morning, brrrrrrrr)
So far for my winter flowerbed out front I have white, purple and white w/ red centers ruffled petunias, 2 colors of snapdragons and several varieties of flowering kale and cabbage.
I'm trying to get Jolly Joker pansies, Johnny Jump Ups, Asters, Love-in-a-Mist and Stokes' Aster to germinate right now and hope to start some delphinium soon.
I have Yellow and Blue Pansies in my center bed. In one pot I have Orange Johnny Jump ups and Various Kale. In the two pots by my door, I am going to have Cyclamen as soon as I plant them. They are sitting on my porch. That is about all I will do. I know some people do Dianthus and Snapdragons, but I am not going to try this year with the expectation that it will be a cold winter.
Staci,
Talk to me about cyclamen. I haven't tried growing it in ground and they don't seem to like it inside the house. Are they fairly easy to maintain in ground?
Sweezel, that's it! I put it in a pot with pansies and a trailing thyme last winter. It was so pretty. Then I added a sedum in the spring. That little sorrell is still going!
I didn't know that snap dragons were good in the winter. I have just one plant that is 2 years old. I will make a list of some of the good new ones. Thanks so much!
Don't get me wrong.... we don't get snow all that often! I think 3 times in 7 years!
I don't know if the snapdragons will live through prolonged temps below freezing, but they are cool weather plants for us. I just prefer to stick with the standby's for now. :) I will have to remember the Sorrel being good in the winter if I see it. I have always thought it was pretty, and only knew what it was from people in cooler areas saying it's hard to get rid of. I think we get too hot for it to get invasive here though.
This is my first year with the Cyclamen, so I can't tell you any thing from experience. It seems a lot of others have great luck with it as long as it's in morning sun or dappled sun only. It's so darn expensive, but I really wanted something with color for an area where the pansies don't thrive because there is little sun. I was able to get 4 pots for like $15. I had already spent $50 on pansies, kale and mums so what's another $15. LOL
Ya I know...that is why I have been hesitant to get any more cyclamen....but I just love the shape of the flowers and that one that is a fushia color is gorgeous. I might pick up just one to try in the bed with my hydrangeas. I have room there since the hydrangeas are still small and it is fairly shaded. Oh and I potted my amaryllis on Monday and I think it's already grown about 2-3". I think it is going to bloom by Thanksgiving let alone Christmas. So after it is done blooming I think I just go ahead and planted outside and see what happens.
Sounds like it's doing good. Talking to you about them has encouraged me to look at them. I really want to get the Apple Blossom one and I am just waiting till Target has it on Sale. Next I will have to find a place to put it outside though. I really need to build that new bed.
My home depot had them for $4 something and Apple Blossom was one of the colors they had. I said I was only going to do this one til I found if it was gonna rebloom in the ground, but if Target or Walmat has them 1/2 price after Christmas....well....how can I pass that up?
Home Depot had them here for 2.99 last week. They had red and appleblossom. Cyclamen do good all winter here, but the summer heat does them in about June. I grow them in big pots with filtered light.
$2.99 would have been perfect. Target, Lowes, and Walmart had them for $4.99. I will check Home Depot this afternoon. Thanks Calalily. I might even try Paperwhites again because they are so pretty. I got them one year and they ended up outside because of the smell. I was in a smaller house then though, so maybe it will dissipate more. LOL
I love paperwhite flowers but hate the smell too! I guess I could put them on the screened porch(then the dog would eat them, lol)
Wait...I'm confused...are we talking about cyclamen or amaryllis. The amaryllis I bought at Home Depot this past Monday (and the only kind they had) was a boxed kit that included the bulb, a pot, and the planting medium.
Amaryllis. I noticed she said "They had red and appleblossom" so I knew she was talking about the Amaryllis not the Cyclamen, since I want the appleblossom Amaryllis.
well dang...they didn't have any $2.99 ones at my Home Depot. The only ones they had were the kits and they were $4.96.
Actually the reason my DH likes to force the paperwhites in the house is because he likes the smell.
Cyclamen, the small ones are pretty tough, they grow wild in Greece and look amazing sprouting out of the cracks in the white rocks. The rocks are in full sun all day but the corms always tuck themselves into the crevises and underneath if they can - they need shade, If you are planying them in a sunny spoy I'd mulch it with small sones or gravel.
Well Mel, I don'tI even remember what I had last growing winter. I will have to dig out my photo album and see if I even took any pics. I've got bushes that stay green and some loriope. I do remember my Chinese Fringe bushes blooming in the cold tho. I bet I had petunias. I don't like pansies, they just get too scraggly for me.
I don't know why I still do pansies every winter. I agree they do look kind of scraggly and I'm not really into all these pastel and designer colors they come in these days. I guess I just do it out of habit.
Well, I did go buy and plant some snapdragons, transplanted some mums, planted 2 small plots of pansies for a spot of color at the driveway and breakfast window... and am scouting some amaryllis.
I received some new plants at a swap this weekend... one was a Crinum. I was amazed with this plant, as it is a low-water plant, yet is called a swamp lily. I am anxious to get it in the ground and watch it grow.
Never know what else is out there....
That Crinum sure was a hit. I've never heard of it before. I've never had anything that's really low water, especially in our heat. I guess that's the price I pay for having flowers. It's worth it! I do like snapdragons so I might get some too.
Several of you mentioned cyclamen. I plant hardy cyclamen each year for winter and spring color and they are my favorite winter and spring plants. The bulbs will rot if planted too deep into the soil (in the ground as well as in containers. I plant mine with the top of the bulb a little above the soil level. I have read that fine gravel should be placed around the base of the plants, but I have never done this. They have to be in well drained soil. After they go dormant in the summer heat, I dig them up and store them until September when I replant them. This saves having to buy more in the fall. To encourage rebloomimg, be sure to remove the spent flowers with the stems (all the way to the tuber) and feed it regularly with a balanced liquid-feed fertilizer (such as 20-10-20). Prune yellowing leaves all the way to the tuber. They like to be kept moist, but do not over water. I do not over head water, but rather water around the base of the plant. If in a pot or hanging basket, I try to water around the edge of the pot or sometimes bottom water when the plant fully fills the comtainer. If in a pot, do not let the pot sit in standing water (except when bottom watering. New plants come up from seeds if the spent blooms are not pruned, but take a long time to grow into a large blooming plant. I love them because they have thrived through freezing weather and even ice stroms. I hope this info has been helpful.
These things "come alive" in my winter garden:
harry lauder's walking stick(a hazelnut w/ twisted bark & catkins)
hellebores(evergreen, and even bloom in the cold of winter)
carolina jessamine(evergreen & mine have bloom buds all over them right now)
burning bush(the leaves have now fallen, but turned ELECTRIC colors before they fell)
white rain lilies are popping up
& some little bush I grow for the birds that has little red/fushia berries(always forget the name, but has "berry" in the name, lol...)
and lastly, roses(some are still putting out occasional blooms, even in the cold)
-T
Ah TexMel, that poor bunny looks so cold! I want to rescue him from all that snow LOL.
Your garden looks gorgeous with all of that snow! Did you get the same this year yet?
-Julie
Eyes Of Texas
Our State song? Or is it TEXAS OUR TEXAS (graduated in '54) How neat!
So pleased to have Oxalis full of small, pink flowers in 20 deg. temps here in southeast TX, Zone 8b.
Mine are very prolific.
Leaves are similiar to a Shamrock, green, hardy, and full of blooms year round.
Great Gardening
Julie,
No. Bunny (Prince) is just fine. See his lamp next to him? It is a flood lamp bulb that kept him very warm! And kept his water from freezing!
Yes, we did get a light snow just before Christmas. I didn't take pix of it, as it was just a light dusting of "snow" or sleet mostly. Then it was nearly 80 degrees later that week, then down to 22 this week and expecting upper 60's this weekend. This wacky texas weather.... unpredictable.
I have been impressed with my scabiosa that I planted in late summer. I had blooms in the snow... very pretty.