This plant is growing in the drive through alley. It is the prettist thing, the picture dont do it justice. It has large purple flowers and lanced leaves. Its in absolute shade. I took this picture from the car as I was in a hurry ... cause the day before I got out the car and pulled up a batch by the roots. :) I dint think it would be a good idea if they saw me again. ;)
Are you trying to ID it? The photo is blurry. Can you get some close up of the flowers and leaves/stem?
It looks like Mexican Petunia, Ruellia brittoniana, and that is a very lush clump.
I think the same. Looks like Mexican Petunia for sure!
I believe you guys are right ... as it does look like a petunia. This is a shot of the piece i pulled up.
another angle ... I think there's a bud.
What she pulled up. wait for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't give a positive a chance to go bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope it takes, it should, they easy to transplant.
Yep! That's it!
It is a beautiful plant, blooms for months! But I have to tell you, I planted a little row of it several years ago and it completely took over my yard. I have it coming up everywhere. If I don't get to the plants when they're teeny weeny, they develop this huge root system that is almost entirely impossible to get rid of. I have the dwarf kind but a friend of mine has the one that grows tall. That seems to be even more voracious than mine. Even if you contain it in a pot, it will seed itself all over the place and smother out other roots. It just really likes our climate and soil.
Ok Knowlan I got just the pot for this baby. It seems to like the shade so I am going to put it out on the back of the carport.
Linda next time you come over bring your shovel so you can dig your own. lol
this is a pic of the ones CeeJay gave me at the round up. I think they like shade because they hide under other plants. I had a lot at the old place. I discovered one that was bought over here. It was called Ruella or something like that.
I see more things driving down the alley. There is a cactus standing up ... look like a space ship. it must be about eight feet wide and about six feet high ... not that I want one mind you ... but its awsome.
there is this huge pink French Hollyhock just standing out there alone. Someone has a huge bed of blue Delphiniums ... its nice driving down the alley this time of year ... Orleanders everywhere... sigh... :)
ROFLOL!! Those of you who haven't been to Sylvia's house should know, she has to drive the alley to get to her carport!
To some it may sound like you are in the alley dumpster diving or something Sylvia!! LOL!
I bet the Petunias are planted on the other side of the fence and spread under it. I am sure the neighbor would'nt miss a few.
This message was edited May 15, 2007 8:22 AM
Delightful to live in an area where folks apparently like to garden and enjoy bloomers.
Pod I live in a very ecletic neighborhood and very diverse. There is house down from me that has the entire front yard bordered in the reddist roses I have ever seen. i really wanted to tell here to cut
those rose bushes back so they all would be the same height ... never th less ... are beautiful. I dont do roses but I can admire other people.
I noticed that Spanish people grow beautiful roses, huge ones in all colors ... all up and down the street behind me .... I love coming thru there.
Sylvia, I have some French Hollyhock seeds from last year I can send you!! I have one HUGE plant in my garden and oodles of little ones that have sprouted from it's seeds! LOL I transplanted 3 of them to a different bed and they are getting ready to bloom.
I also planted THREE, count them 3 Tall Mexican Petunias last year and I probably have dug up about 100 little ones this year, including the original 3. That plant is invasive as all get out! They grow from an extensive root system, so if you get just a root cutting, it'll grow like gangbusters! Next time I find a newbie plant growing in my flowerbed, I can drop you a line and you can come dig it up and take it home with you if you'd like.
BTW, I live over in Fort Worth.
Hi Stephanie ... now that you mention it ... how fresh must the holly hock seeds be before you can plant them. I just found a baggie full in my seed canister. They must have been in there a year or two, so I dont need anymore unless you think they are too old.
Stephanie have you met Sheila in Ft Worth? I got to go see about her sometime soon... I will let you know. Thanks
Oooh, that MP plant is an invader! If you disturb it or spray it with the hose, it pops and throws seeds everywhere...you can hear and feel them.
oh Flygirl you are too funny! I am going to put it in a pot and leave it at the back of the carpot... on CEMENT! :)
Sylvia @ Work
Haha....don't forget to put a wall around it!
Sylvia, I have not met her...yet. But, she just lives on the other side of the freeway from me, so we'll get together soon. It would've been today, but I had commitments all day today.
Not sure how long the seeds last. If the ones you have don't come up, I can send you some I have. I'll soon have some fresh ones because my huge FH is flowering now.
i read your emails about alleys and it made me think of the alleys in chicago and all the hollyhocks--i never see them here but am going to plant some and since y'all are from texas i feel i have a good chance--what do you think of sowing some now? and then the rest in spring?
Now would be a good time so they would possibly bloom in the spring. They are so hardy. I have some beautiful ones until the moonsoon rains of this year. All the plants had rust and the blooms were slimey. Recently pitched out a new packet of mixed seeds. Also have French Mallow and some of those are blooming now. I lined my alley with cannas because they make such a great privacy fence besides the beautiful blooms. BTW, Linda, DeSoto is 14 miles south of Downtown Dallas on 35E. We have shallow black clay over caliche. My beds are extensively reworked.
LouC
Oh, my goodness. Sylvia, I have a "forest" of these that I'm getting ready to dig up. They are very pretty, and I thought I didn't care if they were thugs. But they throw seeds EVERYWHERE and are choking out my other stuff.
Mine are in full sun, by the way. I think they will grow anywhere. Anyway, if you want more, I can give you all you want. I also have pink ones and dwarf blue ones, which I'm also pulling up and throwing away. They aren't as bad as the tall blue ones, but they're still pretty prolific.
lou--i am always adding compost etc to my soil but it's a big yard and so not as much as i would like --that said--do the holly hock need great soil? my canna are not beautiful--and maybe i need to work on their soil--they are easy but they have plain flowers and leaves that get eaten and they droop over--i want to try other varieties--mine are orange--by the way i will get those hollyhock seeds in the ground soon as it stops raining
Hollyhock doesn't need especially *good* soil. I don't even bother to plant mine. Just throw them out like feeding the chickens. This is on ground that has had the top broken with a leaf rake. I have pass-a-long cannas that I have had for at least 20 years. They get 6-7 feet tall with reddish orange bloom. Sorry, I'm the one that doesn't know varieties. There are a few scattered through that have a very large red bloom. Have already cut them down and added to the compost.
another
OMG LouC I see a wonderful places for planting Hostas! I still have you two or three potted up. I just got to get over there before Mitch gets mad at me. This would have been a good time but the weather is bad and all of a sudden Ruby is making terrible noises when I make a left turn. Lord, please hold her together until March! BTW I have some of these French Hollyhocks growing, are they susceptible to the rust too? I said I would never plant another HH unless it was in field somewhere far off so the only thing you can see is the flower. These were given to me at CSRU as I was told they were different. Patti pot up some those tall ones (Petunia) I am going to pot them up out back.. I love the little short Ruella, they grow underneath and between my Hostas. I don't find them a problem ... yet. Sheila the Petunias are coming from the other side of the fence. The neighbor caught me digging some up and she told me to go get a shovel! lol
Linda you can always break off the spent flower and cut the drooping leaves, you might get another flush of flowers. I got so many, about eight or nine varieties. I put them in huge tubs out front, but they were too crowded and only two or three bloomed. I hate putting them in the ground, its too hard to move them. I am going to plant them somewhere so they can grow and I will be able to ID them.... then I will have a lot to share. I will probably plant them on the neighbors side, she loves them. ;)
Sylvia, I live closer than Mitch. He is about 4 miles further south than I am. May just have to set up a visit here. Everything looks pretty bleak today. Looks just like winter.
Thats right LouC you do live closer! If I get Ruby fixed up I will be over there this weekend. Hostas are fine tho just let them stay in the pots until spring.Actually you can let them stay in the pots. All my Hostas were in pots until I moved here.
Yep.....you paid those guys to move pots with dirt in them! LOL!
I sure am glad you got away from that two story flat you had before your hip gave out completely. I did love the courtyard you had though.
I thought the Petunias were coming under the fence.
Yes I can imagine what that lady's yard look like.:)
Hmm. Hey, Sylvia, my Katies (the dwarfs) weren't a problem the first couple of years. By the third year I had enough babies that I started moving them. I lined my whole driveway with them... both sides. Then all back behind the fence through the alley. They filled in and worked like liriope, except for dying back in winter. But this year there were just too many, and I had no space to move them to. I had to start digging them up and composting them.
My tall ones are about 4 feet tall. I do NOT like this weather and haven't poked my head out for a couple of days. But the last time I looked, they were still blooming. They are so pretty, and I just hate to have to pull them up. Sorta like the wisteria. But, they really will take over. A pot won't help much. I thought that too, and even bought a big planter to move them to. But I have them coming up 25-30 feet away.
Okay, you're warned. LOL! So now I'll save you all you want. By the way, you know I have the pink ones too. The plants aren't as full and pretty, but they're shorter than the blue ones and easier to manage. Do you want some of those? That soft pink and deep blue are very pretty together.
By the way, when are we doing your pond? Have you picked a spot and designed it yet?
This message was edited Nov 25, 2007 1:42 AM
POND?Now? LOL! Patti I sit at this back window , and stare out there for hours I dont think I want it under the faucet, Maybe in front of the tree? Then I am thinking of digging up that tree in the middle and putting it there. This spot will not require me to dig up too many Hostas I saw two little benches at the HD that will go on each side. So this spot will call for something round.. Should a pond be in some kind of shade?
Also I was thinking of doing a big ceramic pot with that oriental faucet. I will need to look and see whats available ... soon ... very soon .... before spring. :)
When i was at the old place my katies didnt multiply that fast maybe too much sun? Anyway don't compost anything else! I will take them all.
Sylvia, with your knees, I wouldn't suggest an in-ground pond. You would have to get down and reset a pump or something when nobody was around. I think you would enjoy a raised fountain or a raised pond that you would be able to maintain eaiser, IMHO.
This has been a good thread to read for me. I was driving by a friend's business one day and noticed some tall flowers with bluish - purple blooms on them with burgandy stems. I asked my friend if I could take some home for a vase. She said they had volunteered under her hedge and I could have all I wanted.
I put the flowers in a vase of water and as they would drop flowers another would come on them. I left them for quite a while as they were continuing to get blooms. After a few days with no blooms I went to remove them and all, yes every single one of the stems had roots. I have potted them up and they are growing.
Co-incidentally two weeks ago I was visiting my son in Houston and he had what I thought looked like the same little flower growing on what looked similar to monkey grass growing in bunches. I noticed that there were little bits growing out of the beds and I pulled about a dozen of them and potted them up when I got home.
Interestingly enough, I now find out here that I have both the dwarf and the tall Mexican Petunias.
Now, I love the flowers, but you guys have me a bit scared to put these out in the yard come springtime.
I have cow pastures next to me on both sides and across the road. My own cow pastures are behind me. Hubby would just kill me if they took over. Are they that bad? I really love them, but I don't want to die over them. Hubby and the other ranchers around here really love their pastures (except the lazy guy closest to the flower beds...hmmm).
A new problem for me keep 'em / don't keep 'em...plant near the lazy guy's pasture and hope they don't migrate to anyone else's pasture. What's a girl to do they really are pretty!
Wow. Charlene, I don't know what I'd do if I were you. I don't think I'd plant the tall ones. They come up everywhere, but I don't mind their seedlings so much (everything seeds). The real problem is that they spread very rapidly by stolons. Their roots will just grow right over everything, up to about 6 feet long... and then that one spreads 6 more feet... it's pretty amazing what they can do in just a year. If you pull them up, you also pull up whatever they grew over. If you don't pull them up, they will develop stands. I would think they would be very hard to control if they got in a pasture.
My dwarves and pink ones still spread, but not like that. All of these plants throw seeds. The Katies also spread by stolon, but mine only go a few inches. If you let them, they will take over the bed they're in. But they travel more slowly, and if you know that going in, they're much easier to control.
So far, my pink ones have stayed close by. They're no worse than, say, my coneflowers. That could change! But so far they are manageable.
The red ones--that's another whole story. I have yet to have one return, much less spread. :(
There is a native ruellia that is just as pretty, and I've heard it's not nearly such a thug. Wish I could find it, or even knew more about it. Josephine?
I am thinking about my neighbor and I and how much we hate having to mow the grass out ....... what if ........never mind. lol
Are they equal to or worse than the passiflower incarnata? It has long traveling roots and I just watch for the sprouts and cut on either side of them and I can pretty well keep ahead of them. They do go in the other guys pasture, but they don't seem to be making a stand there. His poor hungry cows may be eating them, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Are the Mexican Petunias poison if eaten? I sure don't want to make any cows ill or worse.
Well there is Ruellia caroliniensis, but I have never seen this one;
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RUCA4
Ruallia nudiflora, I do have this one;
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RUNU
Ruellia humilis I have this one too it is more of a creeper;
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RUHU
all these are native and there are many others that are native as well, but I also have the Ruellia brittoniana, Mexican petunia,and have no trouble with it, I don't know if it is poisonous.
You might check this site, but I don't think it is very complete.
http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/protect_your_pet_from_common_household_dangers/common_poisonous_plants.html
Josephine.
Thanks everyone for all your help. I have decided to grow the tall ones indoors as a houseplant. I saw on one site that it works well if given lots of light.
The dwarfs are going outside and I will see how hard it is to keep them in check.
They weren't listed on the poisonus plant site, so I think they will be safe enough to plant. Heck if my kids didn't die growing up with all the poisonus plants I had in the yard the cows are surly going to be okay.
I didn't know back in the 60's-70's how dangerous my yard was. As far as I know no one ever ate any of the things that could make them sick. Who knows? What I thought was a virus could have been from chewing on a poison leaf. Somehow they all survived. Now, I am not too sure about brain damage as sometimes they do things that leave me wondering.... All in all they do nothing half as crazy as the things I did growing up, so I guess they are okay after all. LOL
When I saw those tall plants with the deep burgandy stems and purple-blue flowers I fell in love with them and then the short ones came along and I love them too. I just have to get to enjoy them one way or the other. I think the stems on the tall ones are what sold me on them. They look so elegant in a vase.
The fact that they keep on blooming for quite a while is a bonus.
I keep thinking that the pasture next door that is neglected would sure look better with those growing than all the weeds there. Then the problem is they would soon migrate elsewhere, so I guess I better quit dreaming of pastures full of blooms. So sad....:(
