FREE: mature plants. Orange County pick-up only.

Hi all,

Well, I'm tired of the nasty warning letters from the Home Owners' Association, telling me to trim my plants! And, I have to admit, some of my choices turned out bigger than the space they're in...

Up for adoption, several grown pets that need room to play! I know this is the wrong season, but I believe all of the plants I'm going to list here are SO vigorous that they will take the punishment of being dug up mid-season and bounce right back. Most of these have been in the ground at least five years, so digging them up is going to be a challenge. I have a great fiberglass-handled shovel, but am a weakling myself -- I had to give up on a Duranta repens/erecta six weeks ago (well, half its roots WERE under the sidewalk, which made the job more difficult... impossible, with the time I had). Success in obtaining any/all of these may depend on the prospective taker's determination, so if you have a strapping big teenager with lots of energy, bring them along! Along with burlap to wrap root balls, and/or BIG buckets or tubs.

We have:

Two large-ish erect-ish floribunda roses (at least they were before I just chopped them down to 24-30" preparatory to the move!):
A. Neon Lights is HOT pink and low-medium number of petals. Fantastic color, so-so form. This rose may even be approaching 10 years in the ground...
B. Impatient is BRIGHT coral, the hybridizer (J&P) calls it orange-red. Nicer form, like a smaller Tea... looks nice in a bouquet with peach carnations or the gladiolus I got rid of last year!

I got both these roses to match the bright colors of impatiens which I grew for years in the part of the front hankerchief-of-a-yard shaded by the house/garage... but I tired of impatiens and discovered Salvias, and now I'm tired of (pruning, etc) roses.

Two LARGE Salvias:
C. S.x jamensis, "San Antonio" (I think), flower-form a lot like a gregii, on a larger leaved larger bush. This one is usually coral orange as well, but some times (due to weather? don't know) can look coral PINK. The plant was about 5-6' long, 3-4' wide (against the garage) and 4-5' tall, before I just did the initial pre-move whacking.
D. S.calcifolia is a sprawling, mounding monster that drapes itself over a five+ foot fence, higher than that up the wall next to fence, and up to 4' in either direction through the fence... and keeps trying to go at least that wide in the width direction... unfortunately if it was allowed to do this, it would block the sidewalk and bar the gate. True blue flowers, but usually not covered with them; this species said to take more shade than most Salvias...

Assorted other:
E. 3-4 year old Passiflora vitifolia. Red flowered passionflower with 2-3" petals (4-6" flowers) that tend to reflex (retroflex? bend back a lot further than flat). This vine could probably pull down a kids' swingset (ok I'm exaggerating, but it sure has mangled the 'wedding arch' I put up for it. It commonly reaches at least 20' in three directions between hard prunings (several times a year!). Another one that would like to keep anyone from using the sidewalk in the fourth direction! Note: the tropical red passifloras attract butterflies (notably the Gulf Frittilary) but do not nourish the cats, so it might be nice to interplant with one of the plain-jane blue/purple ones, if you want to complete the life-cycle.

Anyone who comes with an extra bucket or tub is also welcome to one or both of my very neglected Powis Castle artemesias.-- these guys would probably explode if given some fresh/amended soil and a little water! They look pretty sad where they are. When they were happy, they liked to get to 24-30" tall and at least twice that wide... and potentially touch-down and root and go from there! I started with only one, in fact!

I could probably also be talked out of the enormous lemon geranium (crinkly variegated leaves, lemony frangrance)... at least 4x4x4'.

If you're coming for any or all of the above, we can also dig you a volunteer Leonotis menthifolia or two!

LMK if interested and what you're interested in! If you're pretty sure you've got room, but aren't familiar with one/some of the plants, give me an e-mail and I'll dig up a pic when plant in question was in good form.

~'spin!~

i'm SO interested... I'd love the passiflora and the geranium if you could stand to let it out of your hands (i know i probably wouldn't) and i'll take a leonotis, too!

naien -- you've got mail!

~'spin!~

Scott, all the plants you took should do well in full sun:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/54857/index.html
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1195/index.html
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/58073/index.html

You might try to shade them (with something?) for the first week or two, in this extreme heat and sun! esp. seeing as none of them have too many roots!

Here is the grape-leafed passionflower "before" (the line-man's pliers are to cut away the trellis the woody part of vine was entangled with, not to prune the P.viti!).

And here it is, riding home on the back seat! The vines were so determined to stay attached to the 'wedding arch', naien had to trim it to almost nothing, but I think it will bounce right back.

I forgot to snap a pic of the lemon geranium -- it went in the trunk! he was able to leave more green on it, so it pretty well FILLED the trunk!


~'spin!~

The garage wall and hall will look barren without the passi to cover it. Did the butterfly that lives there go with him??? ~Blooms

Spin,

I'm glad that you and Scott got to meet each other. Isn't he a nice young man? He has a real passion for plants and I know he will take good care of your babies. We enjoyed meeting him and his mom at the SoCal RU in Temecula.

Hi Scott.

Donna

Blooms, I haven't seen much/anything of the Gulf frits since the heat hit. I told naien about them, though, and he intends to plant this one is some proximity to a few purple ones (that will feed the cats)! It will be interesting to see if that shrimp plant will stand up and be symmetric now that the passi isn't laying all over it (and the Lady Plymouth scented pelargonium without the lemon one).

Scott complimented your soil! Easy digging (although it was still hot enough the sweat was running into his eyes!) -- and he knows what it started as, too, as I offered him that Spanish lavender that came up out in the walkway... but I hadn't watered it down, and the shovel wouldn't even go in past the tip!

Donna, yes, I was impressed with the nice young man, and I learned from him about special new soil-less rooting plugs (although I've forgotten the name already, Scott?).

~'spin!~

rapid rooters: http://www.homegrownhydro.com/content/p/6/pid/422/catid/14/Rapid_Rooter_Plugs_50_Ct.

hey, donna. was it you that gave me the brug at the RU? it's coming along fantastically, already have about 8 new leaves and that's with a sucker with it's own set of 8 growing at the bottom (i like the effect so i haven't cut it off yet. I put a stake in it and am training it straight with some hemp twine. holding my breath for blooms ;)