Mitch, surely you meant a Crossvine, and not a Trumpet vine.... one is extremely invasive... AND I know that josephine has a crossvine!
2nd... what is a natural habitat without a water feature? We truly believe that we do not have the bug problems, because of all of the birds that frequent our yard, and the hotter it is, the more birds we have! I wouldn't change a thing!
mel
Gardening with Texas Native plants & Wildflowers. Part 7
I hvae trumpet vine listed on the little chart I have here.. I think she had both cross and trumpet - not sure here but she will stop by and let us know for sure.. I know she covered all the fence lines with vines! I am not 100% sure but I really think I wrote it off the tag she gave me.... better check to be sure...
That is what I said -got to have water! Got to have a Pond! Cannot help it I dug it out and I gotta keep it - besides I love the thing een if it eats a ton of my time! I hope I have water lilies bloom soon she will like those....
I thought the same thing as Mel when I read this earlier. I don't remember seeing a Trumpet Vine at Josephine's, just the Crossvine. Mitch, I would think it over and ask for 2nd opinions before planting that Trumpet Vine. My parents had a big one and will NEVER be able to get rid of it. It comes up all over the bed and the yard. You can't just pull it up either, it's all connected. I would think if you don't have other plants, that one vine that takes over would be ok, but I personally wouldn't want it taking over. I cut down my big Crossvine last year, and it came back this year from a partial root.
If you have room for a pond, and can keep your son out of it (I couldn't) then I'd definitely have one!
Well Guys, I did give Mitch the Trumpet vine, and I do have Trumpet vine, but I keep it to a minimum by prunning, I bought it when I first started doing natives. There is a guy in our neighborhood who has one on his fence and it is beautiful, and so I felt inspired to own one. He does keep it cut down to the woody branches in the winter, and when the new shoots come out in the Spring they bloom with gorgeous abandon and make his fence a show place. Of course that is the only thing on his fence.
But since I have so many plants in a small space, I prefer the Crossvine, because it is not as rampant and is evergreen, which I like verey much.
Nevertheless the trumpet vine is there, and I do keep it trimmed, but I let it develop a branch here and there just for fun.
So be warned Mitch, you will have to trim, if you decide to keep it, it definately is not for small spaces.
Dont worry I have a huge space of fence line for it to cover - well huge... 80 ft long by 4 ft tall - and then the guy behind me can get blessed with it to!
I just knew I had it down right... you have it over behind the compost area right?
I love to trim away at things - so that should be no problem! I help keep a wisteria in check the trumpet should be more or less the same work right?
I just didn't remember seeing it, but it might not have been blooming then either since it was in the Spring.
If you have to just prune, that's usually not a big thing. I'm not talking pruning tho, I'm talking this stuff comes up a LONG way away from the original trunk. My parents cut the vine and left the wood over their arbor for other things to grow on. They got out as much as they could of the base but didn't want to use a chemical to kill the roots, since they didn't want anything like that in their soil. SO...they still have vines coming up all over the place. Just trying to give you another view from another experience.
Thanks - will look into it a little. Mitch
Hello Everyone, how are you and your plants surviving this heat? Those 100 degree temperatures for at least 8 hours a day in full sun are making things tough for those plants on the slope.
The four o'clocks which open as the temperature goes down in the afternoon, don't open untill at least 8 o'clock now, so you could say they are nocturnals, they still smell beautiful though.
I am loking forward to Sept for cooler temperatures and the plant Swap.
It is going to be such fun, to get together. We need to start thinking whether we want to have food and what kind, and soon we will need to start asking who will be able to come.
It will be so neat to get together again. Josephine.
They are all doing ok for now... just got to keep the watering! A few wilt ready bad during the day but perk up right after the watering!
The rain (and accompanying cloud cover) we had down here last week was a welcome break from spending every eve after work toting the garden hose around! Back to old grind now. But I can see better times ahead!
I just gathered seeds from my Sweet Clover (white) not native wildflower full sun annual butterfly and bees love it... I only had the one plant so I only have seeds to share with one person - LMK Mitch
I am now, not this minute because it's raining, starting to gather seed of Brazos Penstemon
Purple Coneflower, and Ironweed, all native. It is available for those who want it.
I have seed of Prairie Parsley and a few of Coral Bean also available.
Josephine.
Can you set a little bunch of Ironweed aside for me Josephine? My MIL would love a little (10 seeds or so)
Thanks Mitch
Sure thing Mitch, I am glad to see your relatives getting into Natives. Pass it on, my friend.
Josephine.
Thanks - she loves natives. She siad she grew up "poor" in OK so her dad used to bring her mom wildflowers not roses so they remind her of childhood. She never thought about adding them to her garden (mostly lilies).
Mitch
Josephine, I would appreciate some seed of each. I will be ordering a Mantis tiller in August which will allow me to start converting my yard into an all Texas native garden and eventually rid myself of Bermuda grass!! :-)
Good for you John, I am so excited about all the good things that are happening.
I will save them for you, my friend, and one of these days, may be I will have the pleasure of coming to see your garden. Josephine.
I look forward to that, sweet lady!
Sweet Clover still up for grabs - any takers?
Mitch, my book says Sweet Clover is a naturalized plant from Europe, sort of like Yarrow, in case that helps any. Josephine
Yep but loves our heat :-) I got it ID in thread 6
Not everyone thinks this is a desirable plant, Mitch. http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/weeds.htm
I do ... Then again I keep a type of Ragweed around here cause I think it looks great in the garden!
Hello Everyone, I counted how many posts we have on the color threads this afternoon. We have a total of 310 isin't that great?
I am very excited, I hope you guys have been checking them out.
Also I put the link to the color thread's Directory at the top of this thread, so we can find it easily. Josephine.
Thanks you are doing a great job with them! got to say I just wish we had a seed bank to so we could add and pull out the seeds we wanted! LOL Mitch
Josephine, Would you save me some Purple Coneflower seed?
John, did you get the Halbertia seed I sent you?
I just got back from Home Depot. I went for some pots, but came home with a number of the pink form of Ruellia. Once they get established, I'll have a small patch of pink Ruellia. Now, I have to find a good source of the purple one.
Mex Petunia right? I have a good plot of it here.. no seeds yet but might sould get a few plants out. Daves Mail me if interested. Mitch
That sounds like a good idea Mitch, may be you and a few other members could get it organized, Think about it, you may come up with something great.
Josephine.
Yes Veronica I will, and if you come to the swap I can have some purple Mexican petunia potted up for you, I will pot them tomorrow.
One thing with mexican petunia, I have never collected the seed, because the pods explode, and it seems I can never catch it in time.
May be Mitch will have better luck capturing the seed.
Yes I did, Veronica. The antelope horns, too! Thank you very much. Thought I had told you but, apparently not. My bad!
Would it not be great? All Natives... you could add all you could to the pot a list could be made and circulate.. you could gain points for the number of seeds you put in and get that amount out over time... it would just cost you postage to get them in and out of the pot.. If there is intrest I would love to help with this... Mitch
Mitch, look into the longevity and viability of the seed under ideal (Cool, dry, some even need to be frozen in nitrogen.) There are some seeds that still have a reasonable germination rate after 3 years, but I believe those are mostly vegetables. You might want to ask someone at Wildseed Farms in Fredricksburg for some information and suggestions.
http://www.wildflowerfarm.com/
Veronica
true we would have to spread the seeds every year keep them maybe 6m or 12 m tops... When newbies came into the fold we could have starter seed to in the mix... I know just off the top of my head here...
Frostweed--any chance I could beg, on bended knee perhaps, for some of those Brazos penstamen seeds?
Debbie
They are yours Debbie, Please send me your address.
Josephine.
Hello Everyone, have we given any more thought to the seed bank idea?
I have been thinking about it and have asked some questions. I was given some good ideas, but I would like to hear yours first, does anyone have suggestions?
Josephine.
A seed bank with noxious weeds? No thanks!!!
I don't know what you mean John, did I miss something?
It's noxious weeds that don't need mowing, John.
Earlier Mitch offered white sweet clover seeds (more than once) for the asking. I want no part of that sort of thing.