Sorry your gettin the creeping crud. I've had a crud for two weeks now and I'm finally left with a dry cough and semi-blocked ears. I hope that yours isn't quite so cruddy.
Thanks for the shade link. About everything on it grows here. I have a Magnolia - just called the vendor. I bought it as a "Galaxy" but I'm thinking not. The smaller cultivars would be beautiful in your corner. I do have a "Butterfly" (yellow) but It was in a really dark corner and didn't bloom. Now it's in the sun and I'm hoping that it will take off - but I don't think this year.
Tuck yourself in and take care.
What grows in the dark, practically?
Hi
I have a fringe tree growing between 2 live oak trees.It was sold to me as a Chinese fringe tree.I don't know the latin name.It is holding it's own and when it is in bloom is just beautiful.It might be much bigger with more light and no oak root competition but it is a beauty nevertheless.My tree (bush) has pink flowers.Not like the ones shown in the plant files.
This message was edited Feb 19, 2005 9:10 AM
I just realized that "Monkey Grass" is lilirope. Mondo grass is a different character. You can actually walk on Mondo and it comes in several heights and colors including black and striated but it doesn't bloom like lilirope. It's great grass for dogs because it's deep rooted and they can't tear it up very easily. And it doesn't need to be mowed. This is a couple of different sizes of mondo under an oak tree.
Yep Doss, I have lilirope because it DOES have those spikey purple flowers and my boxer/pit mix and Great Dane can't tear it up despite their best efforts. But I always thought mondo grass was the same thing. Learn something new everyday!
Me too. I had ordered a Giant Ligularia from the nursery and they called me Wednesday and said that they had it in - and then said, no, it was a Giant Lilirope. I told the nurseryman that it sounded like the plant that ate Pitttsburgh. It's tough stuff and a giant one sounds just a little too overwhelming. On the other hand, if you have a nasty, nothing grows there corner....
Never knew that they came in "Giant" size.
Another good thing about Mondo - it can grow in the dark and in full sunlight (except for the black cultivar) so it's good blending funny areas from light to dark. I find that Ajuga is pretty good for the same thing, although Mondo and Lilirope can take more shade.
And how about Lamium? Did we hit on that one? Nah, Dogzilla's pups would have that out in a second.
There are two types of fringe trees: Chinese and native, which are also called Grancy Graybeards. They are related but I'm going for the native species.
So far so good on the creeping crud fight. Lots of rest and liquids and it was 74 here today. I wanted to get out and putter!
The soil for my test is all boxed up and ready to go to Gainesville.
Hey, dogzilla, you hunted down the test in the attic while you were cruddy? Nothing like a fan club to get you motivated. :-)
Glad that you're feeling better.
Grancy Graybeards are beautiful - just looked them up on Google Images-, and the natives are a LOT smaller than the other fringe tree. Much better size for under a forest canopy. That's how you can think of your totally shady place. A forest canopy.. sounds better already..
It's still raining here. But Californians have to be grateful for every drop. We're a semi-arid climate with a huge food producing function. You have to get your rice, lettuce, garlic, artichokes, broccoli, canned tomatoes, almonds, grapes, and wine........from somewhere. The sierra snowmelt is just about what we have, with a few reservoirs here and there. Haven't had to turn on my sprinklers except once this winter.
And yes, Florida is better at citrus. You never want to drink frozen California Orange Juice. (Donald Duck brand) I don't know why it's a problem. Seems like we could grow decent orange trees. I bought it once because my husband was on an austerity kick. He never asked for it again. All of a sudden Florida OJ was worth it.
I try not to eat any produce from California if it grows here also. Supporting my local economy first, and all. But, you just can't find avocados from anywhere else. Hey, do you know anything about those "slim-cados"? They're huge and supposed to be 30% less fat than regular avocados. They taste a little lighter -- not quite as greasy, but still tasty. I was thinking of rooting one of the pits... How do they grow avocados with less fat? Is it a hybrid, genetically altered, irradiated, or just a different variety?
I sort of had an idea where my soil test kit was and it turned out it was in the box on the end, right near the door. All the stuff was together, so it took about 8 seconds to hunt it down. It was the digging I wasn't so sure about, while I felt bad. At least the soil here is pretty much sand and it's been dry, so it didn't take long to have way too much soil. Turns out, what's underneath the "aquarium gravel" is just dirt. The gravelly stuff is just a bare thin layer on top -- not enough to scrape off and use for a project and not worked into the soil to give any drainage (like I need more drainage). There were no earthworms or any organic material to speak off at all in that soil, so I'm thinking a good 10 inches of compost turned in would probably help considerably. (Which I should have done about 4 months ago!) I paid extra for the full analysis (half price you just get the Ph level) so we'll know about potassium, nitrogen levels -- the whole shooting match. I'll mail it off on my lunch hour today and then I'll be sure to post the results here because I'll probably need help deciding how to treat the soil once I get the official word that there's nothing in it.
Good for you for getting that soil sample done. Can you hear the cheering all the way over here? I'm glad that it's looking better than you hoped. You have good drainage? Can that be a problem. Coming from a clay soil environment, it seems like heaven. Guess even heaven has it's drawbacks.
I agree. Best to buy what's grown locally - at the farmer's market if you can. It tastes better if nothing else. California Avocados are the best - but again, it makes you wonder why florida doesn't just put in the right trees. And oh, that florida wine. It's famous all over the world. (LOL) A lot of our fruit in the winter comes from Chile and Mexico. Especially when you're talking about cherries at Christmas.
But low fat avocados seem really strange to me. Every single gram of fat in an avocado is pure good cholesterol. "Slim-cados" indeed! (LOL) I feel virtuous every time I eat one. And really, unless it's quacamole, how many can you eat without getting tired of them? It's the chips that are the problem. The "delivery system" so to speak.
I can't understand how I miss some of these threads! LOL
Dogzilla, I don't think there is anything that I can offer that hasn't already been posted here. Doss knows her stuff and has incredible gardens.
I'm a fern and hosta lover for the deep shade, plus helleborus, bleeding heart and turtlehead, and for annuals: caladiums and coleus.
If you are looking for woodland type plants, I can highly recommend Munchkin Nursery (it's in the Watch Dog).
And to get my two cents in about hated plants, mine is Japanese Boxwood.
I'm looking forward to seeing your progress so please post pics.!
Terrie
Thanks trunnels. I do have a bleeding heart (I named it Al Franken!) climbing the pergola/deck thingy and have lots and lots of caladiums and I'm sure I can find lots of cheap shade-loving coleus.
And I feel ya on the boxwood.
Dogzilla,
Can we see some more garden pictures? :-)
And do you know how to tell the difference between shade and sun coleus without the obvious labels? The sun lovers have square stems, whereas the shade lovers are round stemmed.
There's a great tip! I did not know that. Thanks!
Here are a couple pix of sunnier spots in the yard, with some of my prided plants.
I'll take some more pics soon, but first all the dead stuff from winter will have to start coming back! (Countdown to Date of Last Frost: T minus 16 days!)
This first is the cardomom plant that's been living in my kitchen all winter. My neighbor dug some up and passed on to me. He said it always dies back here so he's never gotten the berries that make the spice (which goes into Dogzilla's favorite indian foods). So I decided to overwinter it inside with hopes of not letting it go dormant and possibly being able to harvest spice later.
Here's the creeping fig that's taking over my chimney and will soon eat my entire house. I believe it's been mentioned in this thread once already. It is intertangled with two different passionflower vines, planted together. Generally, both are covered in gulf fritillary flutterbys at any given time.
Here's my bitty Chinese Windmill Palm, which was a housewarming gift. Sun lover. Very happy where it is. I lopped down a really ugly cedar tree to make space for this guy. The previous owner was disheartened... (They got over it when they saw the flutterby garden that used to be a Strip O' Weeds Near the Driveway.
That's a cute little palm. Does it stay small?
I have planted some creeping fig at the front of my house but it isn't doing much yet. I would like to pull the boston ivy down and let the creeping fig take its place but don't know if that's gonna happen.
This is my pipevine, which has not bloomed yet, which bums me out. I heard it blooms in its second or third season so we'll see how it goes.
Funny, I just noticed you can see my dog, standing on the back of the couch, looking out the window, watching me take pictures of the plants. Always keeping an eye out for me, that dog.
To the left of the pipevine is Firespike, another flutterby favorite. To the right, and you can't see this clearly, is my hydrangea, rescued from a pot o' sticks in the nursery's compost pile.
This must have been taken in early December, because I can see the poinsettia on the step.
Last year, I had a row of geraniums lining the front walk up to the steps. Don't think I'll plant them again. Suggestions for something different this year? I'm thinking of zinnias!
Ooops.
THIS is my pipevine.
One of my favorite justicias: my beloved Shrimp Plants. The hummers love 'em too.
That was near the end of the season: the shrimps don't look so good in that picture!
And finally, the entire north side of my property is bordered by a row of camellias, as has been mentioned here. Here's just one shot, from the front of the house, of my dog's favorite snacky treat! You can see some of that blasted Asiatic Jasmine on the ground, trying its best to choke out the camellias.
I've just discovered, at lunch today, that there are some azaleas interspersed with these camellias. Had I realized what they were, I probably would have waited until AFTER they bloomed to lop 'em back to kingdom come... :>)
LOVE your porch. When the pipevine blooms, it is going to be gorgeous there.
Zinnias would be beautiful along your walkway if they don't get too much water. I don't have much luck with them because they mildew so easily and get brown spots. How about some lavender hidecote? That is what I have ordered to plant along the front walkway at my daughter's house.
Don't you just love those shrimp plants? I have two in the front beds that are like yours, and I have ordered some PURPLE shrimp plant seeds. Mine definitely get leggy towards the end of the growing season but I love them because everyone always stops and asks about them. Here's a pic of mine.
Great pictures. The best thing about lopping off Azaleas is that they will always bloom better next year even if you miss the bloom this year.
A front walk! How long a front walk, how wide a bed, how formal, how much sun? How about lavender, snapdragons, Sea lavender, penstemon, salvia, ecinacea, lilies, shasta daisies, poppies, coreopsis,scabiosa, reblooming daylilies, dahlias - some bloom longer than others. If you want short ones, there are new border cultivars. Asclepsias (butterflys love this), the newer hybrid petunias, iris, roses, verbena - another butterfly favorite. You can get butterfly bush standards and plant under them, or do it with rose standards. I cut back my Butterfly bushes after each blooming and probably get 4-5 blooming periods a season. And they are so fragrant. Coreopsis, Ajuga, or some other ground cover. Some of the newer hydrangea cultivars are small and sun tolerant - and beautiful having a longer bloom time than they used to have. Crocosmia are lovely in the fall.
You could start with a favorite color combination. Have I over-toasted you?
Doss,
I don't know how you do it! You sound like you have the mind of an 18 year old. Mine left me a long time ago. LOL
Yep! Over-toasted!
Front walk : maybe 4 feet.
How wide: depends on if I want to walk into the yard from that point or not. I'll say we have a bout a foot to work with.
How formal: you should be able to guess by now that my gardening philosophy is about cottage-garden-barely-controlled-overgrown-jungle.
How much sun: Blasted with FULL ON FLORIDA sun (the sun shouts down here!) all day long.
Needs heat-tolerant, drought-tolerant, full blasting sun-loving plants. I already have: echinacea, several salvias and pentas, daisies, several cupheas, a bunch of verbena, heliotropes.
Not a fan of daylilies -- another ubiquitous used-by-every-gardener plant that I'm sick of seeing.
Roses -- sorry, I already have a day job! ;>)
I'm thinking of something sort of low growing, so the mailman can step over it without smooshing my plants, should he decide to cut through the yard (Well, the regular mailman wouldn't dare. His sub for when he's on vacation: there's no tellin'.). The zinnias went well last year and I'm all for annuals in this one bitty strip, so I can change out what plant goes there. I'm big on red close to the house for contrast. Dahlias will get too tall, snaps will burn to a crisp by June and coreopsis can be invasive. (Although it is the featured flower on the "Save Florida Wildflowers" tag I have on my car.)
I've actually been thinking about coreopsis. Maybe I'll mix some zinnias in with it for a little flutterby smorgasboard. Look at the pipevine photo again. To the right of the potted plant (parsley in there for the caterpillars), and the hydrangea is the area I'm talking about.
I'm laughing here like crazy. What mind?
Not only have I lost mine, I'm on drugs that make any I have left useless.
But I do have great books, notes, etc. And I'm always dreaming.
You should have seen me thinking about what to call Snapdragons. And I had the name 5 minutes before I forgot it. I used to know the name of everything. Now my garden looks like a plant name tag garden in the winter. I've marked everything. I hate it when people ask the name of a plant that I've always known and my response is "DUH". (LOL)
While we're here. The link below will take you to one beautiful garden. He has very good ideas that are applicable to a smaller garden and beds. It's worth a stroll through his thread if you haven't been there already - even if you don't "need" gardening ideas.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/481355/
Now that thread made me think of planting dahlia bulbs where the sunflowers were last year... Gotta cover that nasty chain link fence.
Oh, and I have a bunch of traveling iris in the back, near the Dark Corner of Death (tm).
Okay, before I can go look at that link I have to say this or I'll forget: red annual verbena for full sun, lots of heat, low growing gorgeous red color!
LOL! Doss, I didn't know you were talking about John's garden. Yes, he has some of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen for an individual gardener.
That's an idea... the other verbena I have at the other end of the driveway are creeping ground covers.
There's also those whatchamacall'ems... THESE thingys.... (Not the hurricane lily.)
Oops. Wrong picture. That was a hurricane lily, surrounded by the firecracker plant and my favorite salvia, salvia gurantica (black and blue). With bits of banana leaf in the frame...
I mean this picture...
Are you calling the red a hurricane lilly? I've never heard it called that before. And you got me on these thingys! LOL
What's that pink thing in the background? It's an annual... they're everywhere... Look, it's right on the tip of my tongue, do you see it? ;>P
Yeah, the red thing is a hurricane lily, aka red spider lily or surprise lily. Lycoris radiata. Coolest plant ever...
Madagascar periwinkle = Catharanthus roseus.
That's what it is.
Phew. Now I'll be able to sleep tonight! ;>)
Here are some of my periwinkles.
I didn't know spider lily was also called hurricane lily. I wonder why that is? My grandmother had volunteer spider lilies. She died two years ago but my Dad still has the house so I intend to get over there and dig some up when they bloom this summer.
Beautiful!
2 questions: What are the blue thingys in the hanging baskets? (I like that color.) And, what is the vine growing on the fence, at the right top corner?
I don't know why the spider lilies are called spider lilies... Here, we call 'em hurricane lilies because they only shoot up a bloom after a significant rainfall... like you'd get in a hurricane or trop. storm. In fact, they tend to bloom here right after a big storm has gone through, usually during peak hurricane season. Of course, all four major hurricanes passed over Tallahassee last year (and a couple of trop. storms as well) so we had like a bumper crop of them, popping up in people's flowerbeds all over town. That picture was taken at Wakulla Springs State Park, where I got covered in ticks and chiggers trying to learn about medicinal plants in the Florida woods.
What I learned in the woods: the yaupon holly will make you vomit. The natives used it as an intoxicant, and as a ritual purge thing. Eyew. Latin name: Ilex vomitoria. I am not making this up.
That, and Deep Woods Off SUCKS if you want to keep ticks and chiggers off. I highly recommend the 100% DEET stuff they sell in the Army/Navy surplus stores. That'll kill anything with more than two legs, if it comes within 10 feet. (Do not let dogs lick legs!)
There's also a plant called rabbit tobacco, and I can't remember what qualities it does because I zoned out picturing all those mellow meadow bunnies firing up smokes with their little leather bunny jackets on... Like in West Side Story, only with rabbits. And I couldn't figure out how bunnies could light their cigarettes without thumbs, because that would certainly cause me trouble... And that's about the time the guide stopped answering my questions and the other people on the walk started taking a long route around me. LOL
LOL - what a trip in the woods you had!!
Hanging baskets have million bells in them. They will take the heat and not get leggy like petunias. The vine on the right is a clematis.
Did you learn anything helpful on your hike?
LOL. Helpful knowledge I learned in the woods last fall:
• St. John's Wort is being overharvested, so botanists and herbalists are looking at a plant called St. Andrew's Cross for treating the same things (mostly depression).
• Rabbit tobacco is used for sore throats, colds, pneumonia, fevers, coughs, asthma, mouth ulcers... and by juvenile delinquent bunnies to **** off their parents and rebel against society. (They all read Watership Down and get ideas, ya know?)
• Redbud was used as a folk cancer remedy.
• Saw palmetto fruits in late Sept./October and is used for prostate issues as well as for colds, coughs, irrirated mucous membranes, migraines, asthma and a host of other remedies. It is also a favorite habitat of the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, a fact I am fond of pointing out whenever my father in Ohio asks me to plant some and save the berries for him. (I tell him that and then advise him to visit a good urologist 'cause some things, you just don't wanna know about your dad.)
• Witch hazel is like the forest's aloe -- good for lots of things. (And grows in shade and would make a fine medicinal addition to my Dark Corner of Death (tm). I've been keeping it in mind, unbeknownst to all of you.)
• Plants that you didn't think had medicinal properties, but do, as it turns out: Virginia creeper, poison ivy, ragweed, resurrection ferns, mistletoe, dog fennel and the beautyberry, among others (mostly things I thought were weeds because, well, they are weeds).
• And finally, although my tour guide was nearly an hour late, he was probably about 25 and had the finest backside I ever followed through tick-infested woods, though he knew next to nothing about plants. (How do you think they got me out there in the woods with the ticks? An ugly tour guide? Puh-leeze! ;>) ) Oh, and he took us to some un-excavated Seminole indian mounds and let us tromp around on them, imagining what it was like to be a Seminole on the Wakulla River 12,000 years ago. Way cool that trip, despite the ticks. (There was one person there who was sort of a self-taught herbalist and she and I ended up sort of leading the trek -- at least between the two of us we could identify most plants so the other participants started asking us questions and ignored the guide, who seemed fine with all that. I learned a lot, just not necessarily about plants.
I think my chainlink fence needs some clematis... And I bet the millionbells would look great in hangers on my front porch. I had chenille plants up there last year and learned the hard way, that they are not hardy in this zone!
Laughing here! Too funny. Seriously, though, sounds like a really fun outing. I'll have to look up witch hazel now that you mention it.
The million bells would look great on your porch but you might like the apricot or red colored ones better. They would probably show up really well on your porch.
OOo! There's red ones! Red good.