Plant Dormancy in So California

Dear People,

I planted Echinacea last Spring 2005. With everything growing early this year, I was wondering about these plants. I have never had a plant (other than shade and fruit trees) go dormant in winter before. There are little plants forming next to the stalks from last year. These plants look like baby dandelions. How do I know if they are Echinacea coming up from dormancy or if they are weeds?

Thanks,

Chuck

Sounds like your Echinacea are coming out of dormancy!!! If the new growth you see is coming up next to the old stalks,then they are doing just what they should be doing...perennials do this...so it's a good thing you left the old stalks!
I have never had any luck with Echinacea coming back...everything else does...this has mystified me for years...
Congratulations on your first success with perennials !!!! They get bigger and better with each year. Just make sure you don't remove the old stalks...you can cut them down, just don't dig them up...that's where the new growth comes from...

Hi Chuck,
I am not too far from you, and have also had terrible luck with the Echinacea coming back. Now, the coneflowers (mex hats, etc) do very well here. It could be that the heat is just too much for the regular Echinacea and it need more humidity. We have gotten up to 117 degrees here in the summer and that just bakes even the roots.

A.

Dear A.,

I may have had a couple of the White Swan Coneflowers return from dormancy. Please just keep your fingers crossed (LOL). I have already ordered three of the Mexican Hats from High Country. They are being delivered the second weekend of March.

I didn't know it got that hot here...my Dad just moved from Laughlin, Nevada to Fountain Valley, California to escape the heat.

Thanks a lot for the reply!!

Chuck

I may try to grow a flat of Mex Hats and Indian Blankets from seed. The ones that survived out there are seed sown and come back every year, (crossing my fingers here for this year)..

Some areas here are cooler than where I live.. if you drive one mile down the road, it is cooler than we are, and sometimes it rains like the dickens there, and we get nadda.. or windy as heck here, and there nothing.

A.

Good luck with your seed-growing venture. I have not planted anything but sunflowers from seed since 2004. I decided I wanted to use chives as a border plant around my herb garden. I planted four hundred chive seeds hoping to get around 100 plants that were strong. However, not one seed came up. I decided that the way for me to go is definitely transplants.

Have you ever tried Blanket Flowers, particularly Arizona Sun? I've got a couple of them coming also in March.

It is really nice to talk to a gardener in my area.

Take care,

Thanks,

Chuck

I haven't tried Arizona Sun, but they should do well for you. The ones I have now from last year, they never went dormant and are still blooming is Gallairda Fanfare and the regular one, both are still blooming in the cactus garden, they do need their occasional watering though. Sometimes they wilt.

My problem is that the gophers are currently active and eating some of the Agaves out back, even a tree, it was leaning against the fence and I touched it, it fell right over.. they had eaten the roots. It was only about a 7 or 8 ft sapling that had grown on it's own, but they eat everything they can get. Now I am worried about the bamboo that is out back (it is only a couple of months transplanted back there) and there are several varieties that I am hoping they don't notice..

They have munched on the reed grass too, you can hear the crunch, crunch as you stand there, the strands fall down. They are horrible.

Do you have these guys too?

A.

Dear A.,

Actually we did have a bad problem with one gopher. I bought one of those gas sticks...no more gopher problem. It is cruel but I don't think we killed him. I think we just scared him away. We haven't had any problems since. This was in Summer '04. I had a beautiful sunflower bush with blue salvia accentuating it. One morning I woke up and the plants were just gone...just as if they had never been there. When we were enjoying the fragrance of one my wife's roses, we bent over the rose and then the whole rose plant just keeled over...no roots.

We have been blessed since that time.

Good Luck!!

Chuck

I use the chicken wire and digging the hole then put in hole to protest your plants...

Rusty,

Do you put the chicken wire over all your garden or just over the gopher hole? I tried putting old ceramic tiles over the gopher holes and the gopher just moved to another part of the garden.

Take care,

Chuck

Now they are popping up all over the place with these rains. Just last week my husband built another raised bed and I told him not to bother putting metal mesh on the bottom of the bed because I had not seen any gophers on that side of the house in years. Well, yup, no sooner had he finished the bed, the next week, gopher holes on that side of the house.

They are now popping up in the cactus garden between several feet of concrete slabs.

These are the raised beds. The front two are lined on the bottom with metal mesh. But that last one is one that I don't know when they will show up.

We did make chicken wire baskets and placed them in the holes when we planted out back (criniums) and they have not been bothered in 5 years, so yes it works. But with thousands of plants it's hard to make baskets for each one.

The White Swan Coneflowers may make it through the winter after all. One of them has sprouts next to the woody part of the plant from last year. I am pretty sure that if these sprouts make it, I will have at least one Echinacea to make it.

Sounds like you have a serious gopher problem. Can you bring in an exterminator?

Your raised beds look well planned and laid out. My daughter and her husband in Utah have these in their backyard. She is really the one who got me interested in gardening. They had their wedding in their backyard six years ago. They completely landscaped the back for the wedding (this was before the raised beds). They did such a beautiful job. I am trying to get the same effect as them with a small butterfly and hummingbird garden for family and friends.

Take care,

Chuck

Dear Gourd,

I guess I need to concentrate on more patience. I left last year's stems on two of the White Swan I have and today I saw a little yellow green growth where the stems meet the soil. I hope this is really it. The third plant has nothing but I accidentally broke off the old stems. Maybe it will come up anyway.

How is your gopher problem?

I hope I see you at the Southern California RU this year!!! I was there last year but I don't think I met you.

Thanks,

Chuck

Chuck

Hello!!! When and where is the So CA RU??? Info, please!

Gourd, your weather sounds exactly like mine!

And although I am totally anti-poisons personally, the best remedy I've known of for gophers is to find and plug as many holes as possible, then run an old vacuum cleaner hose from your tailpipe to the gopher hole (While your car's running, of course! *L*). Little stoned gophers go to sleep forever....

desert witch,

I think it is going to be at Drdon's ranch in Temecula on July 8. Double-check the thread on the California Gardening forum. I look forward to meeting you...

Thanks,

Chuck

Thanks, Chuck!
I'll check the forum.
I'll look fwd to meeting you there, too!
Terese

Good to hear about your coneflowers, were those leaves from the plant? and are they up?

Yes, the gophers are back.... but the stray cat caught a couple of the gophers, and our two Goldens try to steal them from the cat, what a show...

I like Desert_witch's idea about the car and hose.. now to figure out how to get the car in those areas..lol.

I hate to even admit this, but we had to use traps with poision in them for the rat squirrels four years ago. They ate every piece of fruit on all the fruit trees here and in the surrounding 5 mile radius, and that doesnt' inlcude them running right to the back doors and into the garage for the dogfood. It worked, but was not a pretty site. We did use have a heart traps for about 6 months and relocated them, but then found out that they were just as bad in those areas. Still have not figured out what to do with those gophers though.

Got tired of digging and placing those metal claw traps.

We are planning to make the RU at Dr.Don's this year and hoping to meet you both there.

Antoinette