Just South of Dallas.. sure hope so it was given to me by a wonderful person who lives really close to me so need to keep it if I can..
Texans - What is the worst garden thug you have planted?
Debbie - Just cut back your Powis in August when it starts to lay down, and it will perk right back up with new growth. I just LOVE it!!! It's not invasive, and is easy to keep in bounds - I don't think that qualifies for thug. Now, dollar weed - that's a thug.
Chameleon I thought the leaves were so pretty until they were everywhere... The old fashion petunias I bought a flat a couple of years ago now I how them sneaking in everywhere..
My flower beds are like my waist they keep expanding...
Ronda
My first thought when I read the subject of this thread was Limelight Artemesia! Sorry Mitch. I do love my Powis Castle Artemesia, don't find it spreading all over kingdom come, and i love silver/gray foliage.
howdy miss maggiemoo, where have you been hiding? I also have the PC artemisia, planted in a pot, full sun. Just today I gave it a drastic haircut. It was so big, that it had completely covered the entire pot, and it is a 22 gal pot!
I was reading in the PF that it is drought tolerant, but IME, I do have to water with some frequency. how about you?
love its color and being potted, I don't consider it a thug
but speaking of thugs, here is one which right now is so pretty I can't be too annoyed with it, but it is taking over. Tasmanian Violet. Would be wonderful as a ground cover, but that's not what I had planned for this area. I should have potted it and sank the pot inground to contain it. Too late now.
This message was edited May 18, 2006 11:21 PM
I'm so glad y'all are converging on this thread! I'm moving in a week from a townhouse to a house with a yard, which will soon be less yard and more garden. What an education I'm getting here! I think I'll keep more in pots than I'd thought. I'm just glad there are no tallow trees here -- the biggest thug next to kudzu in SE Texas. I love them on the side of the road -- it's the only color we get in autumn.
Hi Nery! I was wondering where you were, too, lol. It's been a very strange and hectic time at work and here lately.
I have my powis castle in the ground, in the front yard. I am ashamed to admit that I completely forgot that bed once I was able to start working on my backyard. Last year I only watered the bed twice, and that was a drought year! What survived, and survived quite well, was my climbing Cecile Brunner, powis castle artemesia, salvia leucantha, and lambs ears. My daylilies and pentas were the only things that didn't appreciate being forgotten (daylillies survived, but not especially happy.) The powis castle has gotten large, but has not spread. I have noticed lots of things that are said to be drought tolerant actually appreciate consistant watering.
Lol, maybe anything with the name "Tasmanian" should be used with caution (I think of the cartoon character, the Tasmanian Devil.) Is that Tasmanian Violet similar to, or the same thing as, the Australian Violet? I have some of that and really like it, though many people say that it spreads too much. I had an area in shade where I wanted it to cover the ground, and it did a good job. Died off over the winter though, so I got some more.
Welcome back Nery & Mary. Good to hear from you again!
I just planted some lemon grass, and I'd like to know what you all think about it. I have no experience with it, but when I got it I was told that I'd only need one plant. That kind of scared me a little. Is it a thug?
I have some lemon grass, in a container. I grew it as an herb, was keeping it cut back to a very small size for a long time. I ended up potting it up in a larger container and let it go as just a grass. It is keeping it's bounds very politely in the container, haven't heard anything about it spreading. Maybe they were referring to it's size and/or capacity for growing back quickly?
Ceejay, howdy. know nothing about lemon grass. On my list to grow one of these days.
Mary, tasmanian v. aka australian v. aka viola hederacea
I had lemon grass out on each side of the driveway by the street. I did fine till the teenagers ran it over...repeatedly. It doesn't reseed and didn't get huge in 6 years...would often freeze to ground level but return in spring. Smells great when "weed-eated" around.
Supposedly lemon grass is good to brew with your tea, has a calming effect.
I've had lemon grass both in TN(not hardy there) and here in TX. It is not invasive as far as I can tell. It makes a big clump. It needs cut back in spring before new growth starts so it won't look shabby.
It can be used to make tea or flavor Asian dishes. It's supposed to keep mosquitoes away(but I haven't noticed a drop in the mosquito population, lol)
supposed to keep the tigers away too.....I can personally attest to the fact that it does not deter teenagers...lol
Well, have you seen any tigers? Must work, eh?
We (myself and neighbors on both sides) have red oak trees.....they are native and relatively free from disease (unless you count oak wilt)....well I have turned most of my 1/3 acre lot into flowerbeds over the last couple of summer seasons. Wonderful, except, all of the acorns must germinate. Everday is an exercise in weeding the little oak trees out of the beds. Of course, the beds have been greatly amended, fertilized and watered so it is an ideal nursery. Also the squirrels plant pecans and the taproot on a seedling is at least a foot long. If there was a profit to be made I could just give up the flower garden and sell oak and pecan seedlings.
You are so right LouC, but don't you love them anyway?
Josephine.
Actually CJ, it was a neighbor from India that told me the story--its kinda a fable there...to keep the kids "inside" the lemon grass yard barrier...or the tigers would get them. Only worked with my kid till she was about 5 and then; when her and her friends started driving and missing the driveway--it was the final 'straw' for the lemon grass. I used to love to go out there right after the yard guys were done mowing around it, made the whole front yard smell so good.
Looks really nice Lou. I have two oaks out front in the best soil on the property. It's gotten to where that's my least favorite bed to visit--always pulling little seedlings...even nut grass you have a better chance of 'conquering' eventually. I'm going to have to get out there in that bed this weekend--I've neglected it all spring...if I don't get out there soon, it will be too late. I'll have a 'grove' of live and red oaks.
Thanks for the heads up on the Oak problems!
But they are worth every bit of their problems Amy! Definitely the two plants on my property with the greatest value.
This message was edited May 19, 2006 5:45 PM
And Pecans too, I must add.
I haven't posted before to the Texas Gardening forum, but I love reading the posts and learning. I thought I would send this picture of little sprouting acorns (I have a large red oak). My niece and nephew thought it was really cool to see where trees really come from.
A really good pic Sandy.
Look like strange radish.... they are another thug here... let one go to seed and they go everywhere!
Just thought of another plant that can be a real thug (sends out underground runners) if not contained - Rose Glory Bower, Cashmere Bouquet, Mexicali Rose, Mexican Hydrangea (Clerodendrum bungei) can take over a yard.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1253/index.html
Oh but that sure is pretty htop! I haven't decided which is worse, the ones with large runners or the small ones that hide.
My parents have the same problem with trees: oaks, hackberry, mimosa, redbud, ligustrum. Their beds are full of them and they are so hard to pull out. If they don't catch them real early they end up having to just keep cutting them down.
The mexicali rose is a beautiful plant - bith the foliage and the blooms. I keep mine in a large container and also keep the container up off of the ground so that no runners can escape. It is becoming rootbound this year and I am having to water it every day. I am not sure what to do with it. I started another one in another container to replace it if I decide to not repot the mother plant. The mother plant is blooming now and the small one has bloom buds.
Hackberries are rreally bothersome for me too. I go on hackberry hunts periodically so I am able to pull them whilew the roots are not deep. The only way I have been able to kill them after I am unable to pull or dig them up is to dig as far down as I am able to do and then prune it off at the deepest point. Then, I place a large tin can over the stub to keep it from receiving light, Next, I replace the soil. If I am unable to dig around hackberry, I soak the soil around it, prune it off as close to the ground as I can and then place a tin can over it. Next, I push the can into the soil. Not being able to receive light, it eventually dies. My husband told me the first time that he saw me do this that because hackberries grow so fast that we would probably have a 6 foot hackberry with a tin can on its top the next day. Knowing how I hunt them down and destroy them, my neighbor, Richard, pulled a trick on me one day. He had hacked off a young hackberry. When I had gone inside of the house, he snuck over to my yard and stuck it in a flowerbed which I had been working in. After I came back to the flowerbed, I saw it and wondered how I had missed pulling it up before it had grown that tall. I planted my feet firmly to the ground, bent over, grabbed it and pulled as hard as I could. Because it came up so fast, I almost fell over backward. He had been watching me and howled with laughter.
Of course, I could not complain (actually had a good chuckle myself) because the year before I bought some plastic plants that looked almost just like nut grass. My other neighbor, Keith, had spent a few days after he came home from work pulling up nut grass . We call it "trolling for nut grass". Sometimes 3 of us are doing it at the same time. Then, we call it a "nut grass hunt and destroy party". One night, I stuck the plastic nut grass look-alikes into one of his flowerbeds he had already woked on. Two days later, Keith came over and said he knew I had to be the trickster. So, Richard told me the hackberry trick that he pulled on me was payback for what I had done to Keith the year before. So, the thugs can at least by the subject of some entertainment.
what IS this nutgrass??? I bet I have some and have been calling it something else?
LOL, I have so many of the same and just recently planted chamelion! Then read about it, dug it up, repotted and burried the pot. Have planted golden bamboo because I was told it was clumping, what no one said is that the clump will take over the world; now I have black bamboo- IN A POT above ground, I am not taking any chances.
While wanting to fill my empty spots I planted Jewels of Opar; yes it is so easy to make cuttings from, it isn't particular about shade or sun, ok w/ neglect but unfortunately reseeds w/ nearly the same proficiency as dwarf mexican petunia- and oh yes, I have planted that as well! Also actually purchased Pink Evening Primrose and planted it and then dug every bit of it up before it could spread!
I planted Mexican Petunia's too, the Katie version:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/38186/
It is invasive and does not self-sow endlessly as do the larger types.
Of course, you are right about the value of the oak and pecan trees. They are messy in the spring and fall but without them my yard would be nothing. We are having a neighborhood picnic here today and the abundant shade will make all the difference in the 94 degrees. Anything worth having requires a little attention. I have also learned where my grandmother's green thumb came from.......the end of a lot of elbow grease.
This picture was taken May 12, 2006. I am way ahead of the pack.
LouC,
NICE JOB!!! ROFL about your grandmothers green thumb!!! They ought to just call them brown thumbs digging in all that dirt.
Here is Htop's Nutgrass. I have a good crop myself. In a brick pathway, my DH takes RoundUp ever year to the grass, etc. But the Nutgrass just won't die it bounces right back.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/83540/
Yep...that's the stuff! The ever-present thorn in my proverbial garden side.
I am nut grass free for now.. I know it is just a matter of time and I will get some in a trade with something else...
Hazel - that is a great looking plant, if a runner ever needs a home :-)
OK Mitch--what's the secret?
Nothing - maybe it is my little garden saints I have here and there in the garden....
Sheila,
THANKS for posting Htops pics on nutgrass. I had tried to type it in plantfiles but came up with nothing. Doesn't look familiar to me. I guess I don't have it....yet....either. =)
ok Mitch--then this guy is fired because he's definitely not doing his job. But then he was doing a pretty good job of scaring winter (another garden thug) away in this shot from Jan. lol
