Gita, rosemary has been pretty hit or miss for me, even the "hardy" varieties. If it starts putting up growth during a warm spell, subsequent cold weather can kill it dead. Some of the more tender cultivars are also tastier than 'Arp' or 'Hill Hardy', which tend to be a bit resin-y.
Seed starting 2008
I don't use much Rosemary in my cooking so the dry rosemary does just fine. I do like the smell when you rub against it. Now bay leaves are really nice fresh in cooking, can't grow that in the house either.
Holly, I like a mystery, can't wait to see them start, better yet bloom. Now where am I going to plant all these large plants??
Gita, I think everything grows in Seattle, when there was a lot of garden shows on TV, a lot were filmed there. I'd just sit and drool watching. LOL
I've had good luck with Rosemary & Bay here in my zone. My rosemary is pretty well protected though. Lavender, on the other hand, has been hit or miss for me. I'm still trying to find the perfect spot for it. Just when I think it's doing well for a couple of years, it gives up the ghost on me ... I'll never give up on it; may just need to treat it as an annual.
Gita.............I live in zone 4 to 4 1/2 take your pick. Our ground freezes solid to about three feet and our water lines and sewer lines are code at five feet. If I do not take a pot to a cold greenhouse it will freeze out. We do in fact grow in that fifty degree greenhouse. We keep fresh new growth on it pretty well. It starts to begin regrowth at twelve to fifteen inches high the begining of Februrary and looks pretty decent by the end of March. Some days in April the plant can be outside but not all April days. Our last average frost day is May 15th. Last year we had frost in the first week in June.
Yes I do believe you could grow it and over winter it where you live. The commercial growers here and points North grow it via hydraphonics in cool greenhouses. I do not know it's food value when fed all chemical growth fertilizers but it still smells and looks like Rose Mary. I guess they don't care to much when four or five small sprigs retails for $5.50. Interesting little water pot bag they ship them in.
I had good luck with the more hardy lavender, sunny spot and really good drainage are the key. It does get very woody over the years but blooms it's heart out every year.
Hiya Ladygardener, I've tried very hard to ensure that my lavender is planted in a well-drained spot (spots, actually) ... I amend the soil for drainage like crazy and I try to put it in a fairly dry area, but so far it's only done well for a few years in this particular yard.
I have a feeling that I lost my "good" lavender this Winter. Strange, as I didn't think that it was a particularly moist area, but it looks as though too much water may have done it in. Fingers crossed that it makes it, but I have started some lav. angustifolia to replace it just in case.
I'm not sure any rosemary variety is hardy to zone 4. Your solution sounds like a good one, Doc!
Wrightie, what varieties of lavender have you tried? I've got 'Fat Spike' (L. grosso) growing very nicely along my sloping driveway. It's pretty tough. I thought I'd lost it last year when I pruned it "on time" for once (I'm usually very late and end up taking off a good bit of new growth or just skipping the pruning that year) and then we had that hard freeze... it spent the week covered with flannel sheets! I was very relieved when it came around and grew and even bloomed like mad last year!
In this house, I think I've only done standard "English" lavender (angustifolia) as I've been very happy with it in the past. Actually ... I take that back. I'll have to consult my notes -- I think I've tried another type or two. I try to pick hardy types.
Thing is, I have virtually No Slope (i.e. drainage) to my property, therefore, I have to ever so carefully raise my beds and amend deeply in order to get decent drainage. Last year was a great year for one of my lav. plants, but it seemed to die off a couple months ago. I'm praying that it Springs to Life anyway.
I made a sort of mini raised bed for a rosemary plant by putting a semi-circle of stones against the back side of a boulder, then filling in with a good 8 inches of potting mix. The stones also help get the plant through the witner by actiing as a heat sink. That plant is heading for its third season, and it's getting pretty darn big!
Sigh ... I think that the one which may-or-may-not-have kicked the bucket had been in the ground for 3 years and was pretty big. The stones are a good idea... I'll have to ponder whether or not I could incorporate something like that in my front beds.
I'm picturing a ring of stones, enclosing a trio of lavender with a couple of creeping thymes planted between to trail over and between the rocks...
It's the incorporating that look into a more formal area (I say formal, but it truly isn't) that's stumping me, but I haven't given up. :) Thanks!
Jill: I would think a raised stone bed would get the roots colder than if the rosemary were planted directly into the ground -- what am I missing?
Hiya Happy, did you manage to place the cover sheet on your TPS report *before* it went out?
We worked 'till after 11:30; then I called it a night. Boss continued to work; I got an email that he sent at 11:57 that he hadn't been able to finish. What fun -- that means I get to help more this morning once he wakes up!
I just noticed -- the DG clock didn't switch to DSL time!
I don't think that it did last year either ... I had to go in and fix it myself(?)
We set our own time? I didn't remember that. I don't think I did that in the fall, but maybe I'm forgetting.
I did it this AM under preferences (I think!)
Ok, now I have too.
Happy, actually raised beds tend to warm up faster in the spring. And the stones store up heat during the day and release it slowly at night, evening out temperatures a bit. My rosemary is extremely happy in its spot -- you've seen it!
Wrightie, if that look is too informal, what about using a couple courses of bricks instead, or even "castle rock" cast concrete stackable shapes?
Nah, that's not really my style. In a perfect world, I would have a *sloping* yard with an old fashioned New England stone wall .... *sigh*
Some Dianthus Siberian Blues have germinated. Sowed 3-4-08
Jill you are talking about creating a micro climate. I find I have one on the south side, right up next to the foundation of the house, I can get plants to winter over there that will die out everywhere else in the yard. The sun heats up the cement blocks of the foundation. And at night gives of the stored heat.
Good morning...
Please! Everyone! Go check out the newest addition to the "Mid-Atlantic-Roll Call" Post. Her name is Maryanne. She provided a link to her Web Site! Please look at it! OHHH MY!!!!! Beyond beautiful! All the shade plants that she grows! AND--each colorful page has classical music to boot.
Made MY morning just now! Gita
I'm hopping on over!
Lady, you're right on! And some of you have seen first hand how well tomatoes or peppers like to grow against my SSW foundation wall... habanero pepper plants got over 6 feet tall there last year!
After finishing my stand on Saturday (with "Hunkman's" help Gita and Sally), here's what I planted last Sunday.
Basil - Sweet Genovese
Basil – Sicilian
Basil – Italian
Basil - Thai Siam Queen
Black-Eyed Susan Vine
Catnip
Chives
Cilantro
Coleus, Painted Nettle - Rainbow Blend
Dill - Fernleaf
Dwarf Red Plains Coreopsis, Calliopsis - Mahogany Midget
English Thyme, Common Thyme
Hot Pepper, Jalapeno Pepper
Italian Parsley, Flat-Leaf Parsley
Lovage
Nasturtium - Alaska Mixed
Nasturtium - Tip Top Mahogany
Nasturtium - Tall Climbing Single
Nasturtium - Empress of India
Nasturtium - Papaya Cream
Nasturtium - Dwarf Cherry Rose
Northern Sea Oats
Ornamental Millet, Purple Majesty
Sweet Alyssum - Royal Carpet
Sweet Marjoram
Thai Bird Pepper - Prik Ki Nue Rai
Viola - Helen Mount
Torenia - Wishbone Flower, - Happy Faces
Just got back from Lowes where I picked up a few more seeds to plant, including another variety of Nasturtium. I don't know why I'm so into those right now.
Thanks to Critter for the basil seeds and the tornenia, Docgipe for the Ornamental Millet, and Happy for the Coreopsis.
And Critter, I've already got the new stand packed so there's no room for your overflow :-) Did Jim go out of town this week like you mentioned? If you want some company I can drop by before class Thursday as long as you don't send me home with anything :-)
This message was edited Mar 12, 2008 8:10 AM
This message was edited Mar 13, 2008 7:55 AM
Miata, I'd love some company on Thursday! Yes, Jim is in Amsterdam this week, but he'll be back Friday -- in time for the Duke game, he says. We'll just have to do a little mix & match down the road... maybe you'll swap me a couple of extra 'Mahogany Midget' or nasturtium seedlings for some extras of mine...
You can kick the Northern Sea Oats outside to save some room -- they winter sow beautifully.
OK swapping's fair game (or so I'll explain to Rick).
If I put the Northern Sea Oats outside, I won't get the thrill of seeing something sprout. I've only planted it all last Sunday and I go downstairs like I'll see Christmas presents under the tree :-)
But if you put them outside, you'll have room for a couple extra pepper seedlings... you know I sowed a couple extra seeds... and I've got some sweet ones that are nice in containers... I sowed them last night, so I don't know if we'll have sprouts to oooohhh over by Thursday... basil sprouts, maybe, LOL.
URICA! Some of every seed I planted has emerged except my peppers. It's all you folks fault. I haven't messed with seeds for years. I just got lazy in my later years.
The whole flat was planted with a mixed variety of seed. Big Zac Tomato showed first. Parsley, Sweet Marjoram and Rosemary were the last three to emerge. The flat seeding date was March 1st. Hope the peppers show soon, I forget how long they usually take to emerge.
I will be re-potting Big Zac surely by this time next week. The first true leaves are just peeking at me. I should have them in milk shake cups....official Mickey D.... used dumster picked at the best price, by our last frost date of May 15th.
Geese..........I may need some wall of waters to get a real early planting. :)
Early it is but today I planted some mixed leaf lettuce on the gamble theory. It took the junkos exactly an hour to find the planting. I think the soft disturbed soil got their attention. They usually just pick over the surface and do little scratching or they are both so small they do not scratch deep.
Anyone with poppy seed should mark a spot and just let the dust sized seed fall to the surface. Right now would not be to early. Nothing bothers them. We will all have lots of seedlings to cull for space to grow the remaining seedlings.
Hey, Congratulations, docgipe! Speaking of poppies, I spread two or three varieties in my garden over the weekend. Fingers crossed that the winds did not spread them too far.
Congrat, Doc! Your peppers should be along soon... they germinate faster with bottom heat, but without it I think they've taken 14 days or more for me.
If I managed to miss anybody with my basil seed handouts, I just posted an offer in the herb forum. I've been putting seed offers in nontraditional places (eg, not in the seed trading forum) this year. I posted threads after a couple of my articles, and I've posted basil offers on the herb forum for the past couple of years. :-)
Metro DC is a whole month or more ahead of where I live. In no time you will be seeing the cherry blossom show. My peaches have not budged at all as of this day. We will trim and oil spray within two weeks. Then we still wait with baited breath and premature slobbers thinking of the half bushel or so dandies we will get. Last year we had three sides good on all peaches because I missed the all important first oil spray. What's a little protein in an otherwise great peach?
OK on the pepper emergence. With a mixed flat planting I pulled the heating pad out of the picture when the first two varieties showed.
Oh you guys are all doing so good. I went up yesterday to the room where my seed starting table is sitting and started to clean it off. It was covered with tons of stuff. I had just gone up to the back room and tossed in. The Pansies have germinated well and I moved them to the table. Now that I can find the shelves. LOL I am probably too late with those but at least they are growing. Today I'm going to pot up my OSP that have been rooting in jars and my water lotus that has been patiently waiting in their plastic bags. The Lotus will go out to the pond once they are potted. Ric picked up some starting mix yesterday so I have every thing I need to get started.
Some Pam's choice Foxgloves have germinated along with Dianthus Siberian Blues.
Yesterday was almost a lost seed starting day, had to get my bone scan which is a 3 hour wait between the injection and the scan, so we had lunch and did a bit of shopping. Then had to drive the other way from home to pick up my new glasses. (now I can read the small print on the seed packets) lol.
But I did get to sow :
Petunia Avalanche Cherry
Impatiens African Blondie
Impatiens Peach butterfly
Poached Egg Plant
and more Coleus Giant Exhibition
Holly thanks for reminding me about the OSP I had to change the water on them One was starting to get mushy, most all have some roots starting and one is showing roots and some green eyes.
Hope to get more seeds started this weekend. But need to get a batch of Irish Soda bread made and go to a party at my boss' house. So much to do and so little time, Sigh!
LG, I hope that your scan brings wonderful news. You are very much in many of our thoughts - even those of us that you have never met! :)
I like your list. I am especially interested to see that you are growing "poached egg plant" (Limnanthes douglasii) as I've only ever seen it grown in the UK, not here. Maybe I've just been blind???
Poached Egg Plant-did you get that for $.09 from Valuseeds?
Buttoneer- my drimopsis, one has a whole new leaf sprout!
no action on air potato yet.
what the heck is valuseeds???
oooOOOOHHhhh....
I'm not telling.
;-)