i don't know where to ask this question. so terri and dave put it where it needs to go.
lots of times these days nurseries are listing temperatures instead of a zone for cold hardiness. what i want to know is are they talking about the actual temperature or do they take wind chill temperature into consideration? because wind chill is generally lower.
and is it possible to have a heat tolerance heading in the plant files? and further on heat tolerance does anyone know a place online that explains that in layman's terms. and is there a place online that lists different plants and tells what the heat tolerance of them are?
temperatures and cold hardiness/heat tolerance
I may be all wrong on this, but I believe they use actual temperatures. Wind chill is generally lower, but it doesn't alway occur. You would have to ask Terry or Dave about adding headings to the Plant Files.
This American Horticultural Society link explains heat tolerance.
http://www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm
Another one:
http://www.ceres-inc.com/techno/traits/agronomic/stress/heat.html
Here's a list of heat tolerant plants although it doesn't say how much heat they tolerate.
http://www.naturalearning.org/Perenniallist.htm
http://webs.lanset.com/pathline/plantratings1.htm
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-556.html
http://www.westongardens.com/page%20content%20articles/article%20english%20borders%20tx%20style.htm
This Port Lavaca newspaper is a list and sells a book you might be able to find elsewhere.
http://www.portlavacawave.com/articles/2007/02/24/garden/garden953.txt
You could also Google for: list of heat tolerant plants for Texas. Most of these lists are small. I couldn't find an all inclusive list.
The heat zone map developed by the American Horticultural was developed over a number of years of research considering many factors in addition to temperature, such as elevation, wind velocity, humidity, proximity to large bodies of water and other items. It was established that the point at which the cellular structure of plant protein can be damaged is 86F/30C, especially if the higher temp is sustained for long periods. Most of Texas is heat zone 9, meaning usual seasons of 120 days above that point. Some catalogs are now showing heat as well as hardiness zones, and Monrovia Nurseries include the heat zones on the plant labels.
This message was edited Mar 7, 2007 6:35 PM
bettydee those are great links. thank you. i am going to use watersorb with my plants this year. also, have you guys heard about this shale they are putting in professional bedding soil. i have been buying some of that dirt when i amend my beds. the shale is supposed to hold water and release it as needed. looks like little rocks but is lighter because it is porous. that's the salesman's pitch. does anyone have experience with this ?
Yes, I saw bags of shale at the nursery too. I wonder how shale compares to lava sand.
is lava sand used to hold moisture too?
Apparently so. At least if what they're saying is true.
http://www.greensense.net/lava.html
i have only seen lava sand in those bags and they seem expensive to me. when i buy dirt i buy it by the pick-up truck load. to fill my bed it costs about 45.00 with tax to mix it with this shale. there is some kind of sand in this mix but i don't think it is lava sand. i never did know what lava sand was for. thanks for the link. i am going to talk to the dirt folks here and see which is better. they are pushing this shale right now. i know there was a write up in the dallas paper last year or the year before on it.
Compost helps the soil retain the moisture and it improves the soil at the same time. Many cities turn all their tree trimmings into compost and give it away at certain times of the year Then adding mulch on top does the trick. It's just that some things come and go and one isn't sure whether they work or not. Whatever the new item is, it's usually very expensive.
Thanks for that link. I saw a suggestion in the newspaper to add lava sand to sod grass for better water retention when needed.. I was wondering if it meant only after it was aerated... i thinks so. wish I didn't have to bother with that!
i can get mulch for free here and if you dig down deep enough there is some that has already composted. but last spring. txu came thru with their chain saws and wood chippers trimming trees away from the power lines. i asked them to dump their trucks in my yard. so i have big mountain of mulch still.
You just can't go wrong with compost and mulch.
I have had success with lava sand with lavender. I put half sand and half other amendments and it thrived for years.(until I trimmed it in the heat of summer...wow that was dumb) I agree that in general, compost and mulch are the best.
Lavender can't stand wet feet and supposedly dies at the drop of a hat here in Texas. There are a few successful farmers of lavender and their recommendation is to use raised beds, hilling, gravel, gravel mulch or sandy soil. They all recommend a specific variety. I have very sandy soil and have been tempted to try lavender, but I've had no success with seed and the one nursery doesn't carry lavender.
Bananna, please share what you did to get it to grow.
I was just out to lunch and a temperature sign we passed said it was 86. SHALL I START TO WORRY NOW?!?!?!?!?!
I'm trying Spanish lavender this year -- I've been told it would do better than the English. I'll let you know.
Yes, I had Spanish lavender too. It wasn't in a raised bed, just amended with alot of lava sand about 11/2 -2 ft diameter hole. Had atleast 9 -10 hrs west sun. Also , I didn't mulch too well near the plant. Heard not to do that to blackfoot daisies too.Goodluck and let me know.
I have provence lavendar here and it's tough as nails. It gets rain water and that's about it. It is planted on a slope and the humidity is very low most of the time. I used lava sand when I dug my rose beds and the vege garden. I am not good at hyperlinks, but you can google Gardenville and find out something about lava sand. It's been a long time since I used it. There's also Texas green sand. Not the same thing at all.
I'll try a hyperlink:
http://www.garden-ville.com/4429490_36600.htm
If it worked this is the link for lava sand, green sand and lots of other stuff
I'm not sure what I'm doing right with my lavender....but lordy...this bush is huge! lol.... Its planted where it gets the most brutal part of the heat and sun in construction sand, clay and hill country rock near my front porch. (We had a house built in a new subdivision) I actually had to cut it back today...although I did lose quite a few flower spikes from the 23° temps a month ago.
Melanie
What kind of lavender do you have. I share an island with my neighbor and we were thinking of lavender in the sloped sunny bed. Spanish will be too small I think.
I have provence lavendar. It's supposed tobe the hardiest variety for this area.
i have spanish and french growing here. i do have them in raised beds with slightly amended clay soil. the only trouble i really have with the lavender is when i move it. it usually dies if i try to do that and i don't really know why unless i water it too much.
silverfluter: how tall is your Provence?
It's about 3 feet without flowers. But I've never cut it back or trimmed out the dead stuff til this year. I really should have done that every year. So now it looks really scraggly for almost a foot and then the leaves start. I don't know what time of year to trim it. I have really neglected this plant.
I've bookmarked several sites on lavender.
http://www.purplehazelavender.com/humidity.html
http://www.hillcountrylavender.com/Aboutus.html
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/lavender.html
Excellent websites.This will really help in the decision making.
That's a ton of info! Thanks Betty.:) I'll be trimming back my lavendar tomorrow.
I'm having very good luck with lavender here in Dallas -- English, French. Raised beds that drain well with a lot of western sun. This thrived even through two fairly hard freezes (for Texas) here in Dallas.
Our lavender does very well in pots, too.
Did you add anything to the beds?
I trimmed my lavendar today. It flopped over long time ago. The pieces that flopped had been there so long they had established roots.
Nothing added to the beds for the lavender in previous years, though I'm about to do another Cleaning of the Beds of Magnolia Leaves and may drop a little cedar mulch around them. But essentially they're just in Dallas dirt -- which here, has a fair amount of red clay in it, as well as black dirt. The trick seems to be drainage and a nice sun balance; morning shade, afternoon sun. Snapdragons, rosemary, and columbine thrive in the same place, as does a Japanese Maple (though the JM will get sun scorch in late summer).
I added a lot of compost to my beds when I made them about 8 years ago. Our dirt is pretty rich loamy clay. I water them to get them established, but not since then. They get sun all day, except for very lite dappled shade til about 10 am.