So what are you growing new in 2008?

Thanks, Pirl!

White gaura comes up for me( in my raised beds) every year, but doesn't reseed--pink always dies, but I've taken to growing it in containers as a taller, delicate focus--looks nice with twinspur & lobelia. How about pink Marguerites, Victor? But they, of course, are annuals. Pink verbascum is nice, too--I like Summer Sorbet, or Plum Smokey.

Pink scabiosa is another possibility but I wish the flowers stood up straighter.

Victor - have you tried the advanced search at Bluestone? You can choose color, height, bloom time, etc. to at least get some ideas.

http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/adv_search_mod.html?id=hrZFe6a2

Thanks Deb - I'll check it out. I don't buy from them but the search feature is useful. I did use a similar one on GC.

I haven't bought from them in a couple years, but do use the search for ideas. GC = Garden Crossing?

Yes.

Even though I haven't bought from them in about ten years, I still get the Spring Hill catalog and, of course, flip through it before throwing it away.

This year, they offer a 'Christa' Barlow Columbine, which is blue-purple edged in white. I have a niece by that name, so ordered it for her. They also have a dark red/white Sweet William. I've been looking for that for a long time, but usually you can only find the mixed ones. They come in pots, so I know they'll have a better chance for survival than bareroots.

Interestingly, they sent me a coupon for $25 free - just pay shipping. You don't have to buy $50 worth to get the $25 free, or anything like that. So I ordered a Variegated Weigela and a Caramel Heuchera.

And, if that wasn't good enough, they e-mailed me with a $20 free coupon (just pay shipping again)! So I ordered the Shasta Viburnum.

They must be desperate for customers. I'm not one to refuse a free offer, though! I won't make a habit of buying from them - I have most everything in their catalog anyway.

Many years ago we ordered from Spring Hill and that's where we bought our variegated Weigila. It arrived in a box at least 4' long, if not 5'. Everything I bought from them has thrived.

Last time I tried to post my list my computer pooped out on me, let's try this again....
I have a whole area that is brand new things I'm still waiting for....hydragea-annabelle, clematis-artic queen, phlox bruce's white http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/PHBWS.html?id=yE2X3bV3&mv_pc=175
honeysuckle-harlequin, potentilla neumanianna- http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/PONES.html?id=yE2X3bV3&mv_pc=287
ajuga-choc chip.
New I planted: hardy cyclamen ,stachys-helen von stein, mother of thyme, fall crocus, hellebores.
I have more but my computer's starting to act funny and I don't want it to crash again while I'm typing my list.

Ok, let's try again...
Daffs, flower drift http://brecks.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_67256
Columbine-ruby port, monarda-jacob cline
I have a mix of widflower seeds that are new also.
I have so much to do in the yard as it's pretty much a blank slate. I need to play around with my digital camera a little more before I try to post any pics.

Victor - how about rose campion? The flower is fuschia and the foliedge (sp) gray and fuzzy. The only problem is that it makes babies like crazy! Mine stayed a gray mound during the winter. It blooms and blooms and blooms!

yeah, I count on rose campion for that color! and hardly mind all the babies- I move them around here and there. Nice cottage garden plant.

foliage- i had to spell check it- I'm a terrible speller...

Sooner Plant Farm order arrived today. Looks even better than I expected. Nicely packed without a lot of fill stuff to deal with, sorry I undid the plastic and cardboard before I thought to get the camera out. You know how the first order is kinda like Christmas and I'm the little kid. lol The middle one is a 2 gallon size Fothergilla 'Blue Shadow' and the other two are 1 gallon Sweetspire 'Henry's Garnet'. Now all I have to do is keep them alive until I can plant them. Not the greatest pic but I hope you can see well enough.

Thanks cat. Yes, I had ordered them already so I might use them there. Congrats, ngam. Two of my faves - Fothergilla and Itea. If you would have added an Enkianthus, you would have my trifecta of great, underused, multi-season small shrubs!

Well looked that third one up Victor. I can see why you like it, but have run out of room already. lol How does that happen so quickly? Btw I like your pic of it too. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/79583/

Thanks - I have two or three. Different varieties. They get Lily of the Valley type flowers in spring.

Great idea for a thread, Celeste! I had so much fun seeing what everyone is getting ready to enjoy! Does anyone have a Pinky Winky hydrangea? It's hardy to zone 4 and I'm in zone 5 in NH. I like the bicolor pink and white.

Thom - I now have 2 new Brugs down here in Fla. - one is a cutting from one of Thomas Edison's plants. (The estate has a sale of Edison cuttings once a year.) It's a yellow one, and then a neighbor just gave me a good-sized cutting of a peach one. You should be able to get some good cuttings from yours from what I can see here. If they do well over the summer, I'll be able to get some cuttings for you next winter. The foliage of the peach one is a lime green, almost chartreuse color....very pretty.

I am really wanting to get into planting some more coleus. I'll probably bring my hot pink ones back up with me. They are a stunning color, almost electric, and the great thing about coleus is how easily they root when you pinch off a stem. I will do more of those down here next year too. My game plan is to plant several colors at the farm and then bring cuttings from them to Fla. I like them mixed with the caladiums here, and I am going to bring back many of my caladiums from the co-op to plant in my porch barrels in NH.

I have a nice new hardy hibiscus (can't wait for the flower to open to see if it is true to the red or white Luna it came from) and it will go into my potting shed garden at the farm. Next year I will collect more seeds to share if this one comes out well. The plant is doing very nicely. As you can tell, the car is going to be full of plants again!! I'm tempted to leave my orchid hanging from a limb of my grapefruit tree over the winter. What do you guys think about that idea? Will it get too much rain?

I have Pinky Winky (and bought another one), but mine were too small last year and did not bloom. Hopefully this year!

Cool, Victor! That does it......I'm getting one!! LOL It will be small too....one gallon pot, so I'll likely have a wait for flowers as well. I hope my delft blue hydrangea made it through the winter. I moved it over to my potting shed garden and I'm hoping it had time to get established. Pinky Winky may go in that garden as well.

Grrrr, I can't believe the soil is still frozen solid. The crocuses at least are blooming, and the daffodils look like they'll be copious, so progress is progress. Seeds are just starting up…Rose Campion that I bought at Mount Vernon, VA; Lady’s Mantle “Thriller”; Alyssum “Basket of Gold Compacta”; Painted Daisy; English Daisy; and Hardy Begonia bulblets that I got off a plant that I bought at CN last year. Has anyone had any luck propagating Hardy Begonia? Can I expect the original root to come back this year, or should I rely on the bulblets, or seeds that might have dropped near the parent plant? I also started a few pits of fruit that I swiped off the ground at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The pits were rather large, like an almond, under some small trees that were planted in the gardens. They’re splitting, so I’m hopeful. I just wonder what they are!

All of our seeds are planted and they include about 100 coleus aside from the many cuttings I've taken in fall and twice in winter. They're loving the northwest window.

I just tried coleus cuttings this year. Do you mist them, or just let them be?

Most cuttings benefit from high humidity, seventy degrees and shade while they form their early roots. That is not to hard to achieve in your home.

I mist my coleus cuttings.... keep them out of direct sunlight until established .... once planted I usually stop misting and they do fine

Donnie-thanks for the early offer! At Logee's last year, at the Fall RU, I purchased 4 plants. Surprisingly all are doing great. Kassia had infomred me, specific to the Brug that I had purchased, to keep turning it in the window that it is growing in, which is what I've been doing. The variegated desert rose that I bought (Adenium-sp?) I thought was a gonner, now it's sending out new leaves, and new growth! I also purchased a Sensitive Plant (Mamosa pundica) which is growing like a weed, and a Begonia. It was a cross that Logee's themselves did...the leaves are dark black, but have fire engine red "hairs" on the leaves...the new growth is the same fire engine red! I will have to incorporate them into my outside tropical theme!

After spending the money that I am on coleus this year, I'm definitely going to be taking some cuttings and overwintering them! I might also invest in one of the 3 tiered sun gardens. I know they aren't cheap, but I have no windows available...lol.

I had Pinky Winky new last year, I liked it a lot. Will have to see how well it comes through winter if we ever get real spring going here.

I have a mess that I am rooting now from ones I brought in for the winter. I have them in a flat filled with half vermiculite and half perlite with a cover on a heat mat in a cool room. They seem to be doing well. I have been misting them, but mostly just keeping the mixture damp. I also just seriously whacked back the mother plants as they were getting leggy. I ordered some new plugs in yummy colors and hope that I will have time to take some cuttings early on to make more. I have only had coleus for the last couple of years and they seem to add so much to my containers come summer. I have become a new fan. Patti

I don't mist the coleus cuttings at all. They're in ProMix and get fed when I remember it.

Feb. 12th was the first round of cuttings.
March 21st was the second round (all from the same plants).
Now I could do more and may get to it today. I just put a ruler in with a few of the plants and the newest cuttings, from 3/21, are between 9 and 12" tall.

This is the first time I have taken cuttings of Bloodleaf. Sounds like you take new cuttings from the original cuttings in the Fall?

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/108666/

Yes, I do.

I had bloodleaf two years ago as a ground cover... what a nice annual quick cover that was... I was actually hoping it would reseed itself ..... but it didn't... figures the ones we like don't

I never mist Coleus cuttings. In fact, when I cut them, they go into a glass of water on the East windowsill until they root. Then they get transplanted. No special treatment - just neglect! It's a good thing they are drought tolerant!

Here's a sample of what I'm growing: (left to right)
Wizard Scarlet, Multicolor Rainbow, and Fairway Rose

I used to root them in water but it's so easy for me to just plant them directly into the damp ProMix and be done with it. Whatever works is fine.

I'm glad, Drumlin, that your bulbs are up & blooming--mine are too--crocus, of course, being the only bloomers, but my wood hyacinth looks ready--the daffs on the south side are budded, & the hyacinths are huge this year. I've complained about the weather all winter, but it wasn't that severe--guess it's because I wasn't in FL. The coleus babies look great--I've never tried to winter any over, but I buy coleus every year, so it would be worth trying.

Ngam - thanks for the shot of Pinky Winky. I like that bicolor look!

Kassia - good idea on the Garden Watchdog. I have bought plants on site from White Flower Farms for years, but I can't say I've ever done any mail ordering from them. It was a Mother's Day destination for several years.....a nice lunch in Litchfield and a trip to WFF with my DH and DS to pick out a special plant from each of them. Nice memories. Once we went there in DS's brand new week-old Mustang, and when I filled his new car with wet plants (it was slightly raining), he mumbled something about it being your "worst nightmare"....LOL Thankfully, he's grown up a lot from that time!

tooo funny- when i think of all the plant additions to the car i've made my family endure! i bet we all have stories..

I'll have to show pics of what I was able to fit into my car, in one trip, from the garden center I worked at last year. Also, this particular day, I was picking Paul up from work, to bring to get his car...keep in mind, that he is dirt o phobe.

The plant/shrub/tree order was over $500...that was with my 20% off also. I believe, there were 9 junipers, 8 rudbeckias, 6 salvias, 6 achelliea, 4 ornamental grasses, 1 witch hazel, 6 knock out roses...lol. The rudbeckias were in 4" pots, the other were in 1, 2, and 5 gallon containers. The same car that I drove to the RU last Fall, is the same car that transported this order...lol.

I just got my Naylor Creek order in! If anyone else has ordered the "hot" Hosta of the year, 'Stitch in Time', let me know if the size that you get from wherever you ordered it, is really rinky dinky. I knew it wasn't going to be huge by any standard, but it's sad...lol. The 'Allegan Fog' and 'Tattoo' that I ordered were really nice clumps. I didn't take pics of them, I just potted them up really quick.

just horning in on WFF. I also mail ordered from them for years ,never dissapointed, last five years was very dissapointed and posted so in Garden Watchdog after the six oriental poppy plants arrived, so small I doubted they would live through the winter and sure enough they didn't.
I had heard WFF was owned by Jackson and Perkins now and everybody is under the Smith Hawkin umbrella.
Thanks for letting get it off my chest. Now that there are mail ord. nursries with high marks I'll take a pass when WFF georgeous catalogue comes.
Jo Ann

I live only a few miles away from WFF, and I've also ordered through the mail, but not recently. I was always satisfied, but of course, they didn't have far to ship. I usually stop at the store for sales & for Tomatomania, which they've had for the past 2 years. The tomatoes are mostly heritage, in great shape, & I've been pleased. Last fall I got a cityline hydrangea at the store that was very nice. Anyway, if anyone plans on going to the store this year, let me know, & I'll get up there--of course, it's not in Litchfield, but in Morris--they just like the tony Litchfield address--I guess it lets them add another dollar to the price!