Winners:
-Canna 'Cleopatra' - bigger and better this year
-Clematis 'Comtesse de Bouchaud' - Y3 - very beautiful. I am very pleased with her.
-Gladiolus - new to the garden; an explosion of color
-Rosa 'Love' - over 15 years and still going strong.
Rosa 'Bonica' - A delightful rose - it is still flowering!!
Plumeria seeds (new acquisitions): Carmen and India are fast growing. I now have several growing in pots and cannot wait for summer '07.
Losers:
Canna 'Black Knight' - never performed well in the garden
Canna 'Richard Wallace - Multiplies very quickly, but takes a long time to bloom
Black eyed Susans - it's taking over my garden space; killed off my irises
Dahlia (cut flower mix from Vesseys) - the real blooms are always different from the catalogue; was not very impressed.
Colocasia Esculenta - 'Black Magic' - new acquisition - never took off in the garden.
Plumeria seeds (new acquisitions) - very disappointed with Donald Angus, EW#3 - both are growing very slowly and I doubt they will flower next summer.
Charm
Gardening 2006: Winners and Losers!
This will take some thought and I might have to come back and edit.
Winners:
- "Fish" peppers - a heritage variety that I just happened across in a seed store. Variegated green and white foliage and striped peppers. Quite hot.
- 4 o'clocks - also seeded freely and might have them forever.
- Balsam from a seed trade on DG
- Golden cherry tomatoes. Sweeter even than the Sweet millions I also grew.
- Most of my 75 varieties of hosta
- red snapdragons amongst my Hostas looked great
- several Heuchera - especially the Snow Angel
Losers:
- most of my Cannas. Too wet and cool, I think. Not enough sun. Some of them grew impressingly tall but the flowers were minimal.
- my Jackimani Clematis. Usually does really well, but nearly got drowned out from all the rain this year. Am hoping for better luck next year.
- mini glads weren't mini. I had some lovely ones a few years ago but haven't been able to find them since. These will be left in the garden to rot.
What a great idea for a thread!
Winners:
-Jackmani Clematis,( in a 4" pot from a grocery store,) no less, which grew several stems to about 5', and was just smothered in blooms, beautiful.
-Great Expectations Hosta, did well for the first year.
-Climbing Iceberg rose; small, but bloomed steadily all season.
-Omoshiro Clematis, took two years to bloom, was spectacular.
Losers:
-Canna Black Knight, and Stuttgart: the first was much too invasive, and didn't bloom well, and the second never grew at all.
-Two red dahlias bought from a chain store that turned out to be yellow, so along with the two yellow ones I'd purchased, I had four yellow dahlias all indistinguishable from one another - made for a monochrome dahlia patch at one end.
Edited to add my "Fire and Ice" hosta to the losers list - sat and sulked all summer long.
All in all, a pretty good year.
This message was edited Oct 23, 2006 11:40 AM
Yeah, great question! Had to ponder for awhile.
Winners:
Cimicifuga 'Pink Spike'- very pretty
Chocolate Salpiglossis - lovely!
Japanese Maple - just excited to see it in my garden!
Elephant Ears - new for me
streaked hostas - grown from seed
Allium christophii - glad I planted so many last fall
Dicentra 'King of Hearts' - this little sweetie bloomed for 3 months.
Echinacea 'Vintage Wine' - lovely deep colour.
Spirea bumalda 'Crispa'- what a nice little shrub that blooms a long time.
Losers:
Sweet Autumn Clematis - didn't flower as much as previous years
Roses - I can't grow them well. Only ones I have left are The Fairy and Rosa glauca.
Salvia 'Black and Blue' - didn't grow tall enough and were lost in the bed.
Hosta 'Colour Glory' - has never looked good, but I'll give it one more year.
Delphineums - last one croaked. Can't grow these either.
Sandy
Winners:
Roses - Prairie Joy, Champlain, Cuthbert Grant, Macy's Pride, Marie Victorin, Prairie Dawn
Lilies - Melissa Jaime, Feuerzauber, dalhansonii, Rosepoint Lace, Navona
Daylilies - Rosy Returns, Pardon Me, Cherry Cheeks, Secondhand Rose, and lots more
Corydalis 'Raspbery Wine', Aster' Monch', Butterfy bushes, Pansies 'Endless Love', Rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun'
Not such Winners:
Aster 'Purple Dome' - never opened in time
Hostas - Lakeside Ironman (not it's fault)
Cosmos - Yellow Garden - need annuals to be blooming before mid September
Monarda - Blue Stocking - mildew magnet
Caladiums - not impressive this year, even with the heat
.......and so on...
Hello Sannanie
I'm intrigued with your streaked hosta seeds , where did you buy them ? i saw once some hostas that were streaked like a leaf of my variegated peace lilly . it had only a few lines of white and it hadn't the same patern on each leaf . Do you have a photo of it ? Thanks in advance
Arlette
Hi Arlette,
I didn't buy the streaked hosta seed at all, I got it from a generous DG member. You gotta know that I am hosta crazy and this was my first time starting hostas from seed. I was excited because starting with a streaked seed gives your best chance for a streaked or variegated seedling.
So I don't mean to make it sound like I have all these marvy streaked hosta, but I do have some interesting variegated leaves and I'll grow them on and see if they develop into something special. It was a fun experiment.
Sandy
Hi Arlette,
Be careful. Hosta collecting is a disease. It's contagious and addictive. There are a number of hostas with streaks. From the description of yours, I wonder if it might be Spilt Milk. You'll find a pic of mine at http://www.magma.ca/~fredrkng/Ann/Ann_hostas06-3.html
The other streaked hostas which I have are Ice Age Trail, Korean Snow, Lakeside Zinger (I think it qualifies), Peppermint Ice might qualify, and Allegan Fog. So far any hostas which I've grown from seed have all been solid green but I can always hope.
Ann
Neat thread!
Winners:
Honeysuckle, Blanche Sandman. Took off and bloomed after a spring planting.
Kalimeris, Double Japanese Aster. Dainty blooms.
Agastaches, Root Beer and Desert Sunrise. Both very pretty for the first year.
Salvia, Victoria Blue. I wasn't sure if it was an annual or not. It came thru the freezes beautifully and I really like it. I'd name it top winner!
Clara Curtis Daisy. I decided to try it and I love it!
Losers:
Coral Bells. I'm not having any luck with the newer colored ones. The common red do fine.
Potentillas, both dried up and died.
Verbascum, Carribean Crush. Dull colors.
Pincusion Flower, the yellow. Weedy and doesn't show up.