This is the first year I've grown Thai basil for the blooms. I've noticed adding annual herbs through the garden gives me long lasting color either from leaves or flowers.
I still have the Thai basil blooming with swiss chard and tricolor sage.
What does everyone have that's adding color now?
wow, that is a neat type of basil...I'll have to try it!!!
We have alot still blooming and colorful. It is pretty chilly but no frost yet. We still have color now from the salvias...coral nymph salvia, pineapple sage, salvia guarantica and salvia black and blue. Also have color from mums, roses, orange rose hips, canna, and Cuphea :)
Ooooh, wind. Can I ask a salvia question here? What do you do to overwinter them? I've lost some to what I think is crown rot. It's not necessarily so cold here for extended periods, but, as you know, there's lots of rain. The one I'm thinking about in particular is Salvia patens 'Cambridge Blue'. Is it something I'll need to lift and overwinter inside?
Alas, I have no pictures to share - I'm just spreading leaves and compost to create what will become my cottage and cutting garden bed next year. So I'm in the planning stage. I'll use a few evergreen shrubs for backbone and then plan to use lots of bird, bee and butterfly attractors. I have lots of part sun, but very few sections of longer periods of sun, do to the big fir, hemlock, and cedar trees that surround my "meadow". And, wouldn't you know it, there's lots of clay where I want to put my bed. So I'm gathering everything that I can to quick compost and praying that the worms will be busy this winter so I can be busy next summer. LOL
The Thai basil is very neat - I'll have to add that to my wish list for next year.
Hi,
All salvias are different. Our pineapple sage is treated as an annual. I usually buy a new plant every yr but this yr I just picked some seeds and am going to try growing it :). The coral nymph salvia is easy to get seeds from. I always grow and plant new plants in the spring and sometimes a few volunteers pop up too. The salvia guarantica and salvia black and blue like the soil well drained and they have been coming back for me now the past few yrs in a dry southern exposure. I still haven't figured out how to collect seeds from them!!!
Cambridge Blue is really pretty, I love it but never tried it yet. It has tuber type roots. Maybe you could dig them up. check out:
http://canada-gardens.com/2salviapatens.html
Oh. Well that makes sense. I absolutely love salvia, but wish I could get nice big plants for summer without spending a bundle. Then I could get more . . . LOL
Thanks for the link - this is helpful info.
You have d-mail from me.
Kathy
Katie, you saw the link at the bottom for Thompson Morgan seeds? You can't ask for much cheaper - start 'em as soon as you get them, they'll be huge!
Had a killing frost two night ago (my foal had frost on his hind end, poor little guy!). Just about everything is down for the count except my Malva sylvestri (pic below - I know you asked for color, but I love round leaves!) my mounds of sweet alyssum that I used for a green mulch all over the place, some cyclamen leaves (that I like almost more than the blooms - green over laid by silver ...
.... and that's about it. Yup, winter is back again.
So Pagancat, do you winter sow? Or when do you sow the seeds?
I don't have a greenhouse, but I do have one of those shelves with a zippered, heavy plastic sleeve that slides over them.
Shoot, Katie - I moved here a year ago from Phoenix (arid zone 9b) so I have no idea *what* I'm doing!!!!
I'm still kinda scratching my head about the winter sowing thing, admittedly. Some people who I *know* know what they're doing are seemingly very into it, but I'm not sure why you would not just sow in place?
Funny!!! I have to admit that I rented for so long that I'm having trouble getting out of the container gardening state of mind. Sowing in place makes a lot of sense if you know where you want them.
I think some people sow in pots so that have extra to share come plant exchange time. And then you also know what you're getting and where (I'm sure I've been guilty of pulling weeds that were seedlings of something that I want). Otherwise, I just don't know. Maybe to be able to provide some protection if they come out too early? I've wintersown a few little things in pots just to see what happens.
Found some Mexcian Bush Sage at the hardware store today for 50% off - I've really got to figure out what to do with my salvias over winter . . .
>smile< I used to grow that in Phx - it'd croak here, big time! But one of my "pet-able" plants - so soft.
Thanks for the explanation - that makes some sense.
Pagacat: I just had dinner with Katye from Sammamish. She says hello. She thinks all y'all from your region are pretty funny. We were talking about trying to get to one of your regional get-togethers. We'll see . . .
Yes, I'll have to find a way to overwinter this guy, too. Sigh. Think I'll have to expand my plans for that future greenhouse.
