Oh gosh critter lol I would like to have some seeds to them but I have so many other seeds to plant too, it's so hard to chose! I do remember you offering those now and was kicking myself for not asking for some LOL But I think I'll wait until the next swap I have so many seeds that I don't even NEED to be in the next one LOL Thanks for your offer though :)
Join Us! Seed Swap Seed Starting & Conversation #10
Geminii & Tuink, On the Butterfly Bush, I have one that is showing NO SIGNS of life. It is a 2" diamter trunk at the base and doesn't branch until about 9" from the ground, where it splits into to big branches about 1 1/2" in diameter. Then it goes up for about 6" and has some actual branches. How far dow would I cut it?
I also should say the whole trunk is at a 45 degree angle where the weight of the top in bloom pulled it over last year. I couldn't tell beause of all the flowers around it.
Star, I don't think things grow as big up here sometimes...shorter season, colder winters and all.
Gram, From what I can tell, you wouldn't plant just one Texas Star hibiscus because it will look like a gigantic, tall garden stake with leaves and flowers in the middle of nowhere in your garden. I have never seen it in person, but I have "heard" a number of conversations about it. Even having 6 plants will look rather large and erect if there isn't something anchoring it.
On the pinching, Critter had the best advice: Look for any sort of leaf growth between leaf axits where the leaf meets the stem, this will be a plant that you can pinch, and also this will be a plant you can root to propagate. Meaning, you can root your pinchings if you make them long enough and get at least one leaf axile in the pinched off part. The little leaves growing from the axils can be on any plant, and it will be good pinching advice for the whole group, so if yo have 12 purple Waves and 12 pink Waves, and one plant of the 12 purples has leaves starting in the axils, you are good to pinch on all 24 plants.
Suzy
Suzy, I love my kong coleus it's looking so pretty! Can't wait to plant it :) Can that one take some sun and do you know anything about the lime light, can they take some sun?
I think I'll go out and pinch the petunias and just leave one of each to see what color the flower is going to be :)
It's just barely sprinkling think I'll put my violets out in it some need watering anyway :)
Suzy, I've found butterfly bushes late to sprout in spring some years (from the trunk). The top probably is dead, as you can usually tell easily on them because of swelling buds. I usually wait till I see some sprouts, then whack the old growth off as short as I can, to 8-12". Seems like I got the idea somewhere to cut them back after I see sprouts from the base. I do know its best to cut them back in spring as opposed to fall, as doing it in fall can compromise their winter hardiness (I learned that the hard way before finding info about it).
Illoquin,
I prune my butterfly bush in the autumn. I cut it back hard, almost to the trunk, and when I find the trunk becomes too high I cut that too!
Buddleia and caryopteris are both better to cut back in spring rather than fall because of potential disease, so you can do it either way, but doing it in the spring gives you extra security.
I had no clue I was supposed to cut back ANY of this stuff-I guess the next nice day we have I better get my butt outside!!
My butterfly bushes act like perennials as well, when this is the case, -which it won't be for all you warm zone growers :)-the only reason to leave any old stalks is for support of the new branches. I agree with gemini's method, if you don't cut most of that old stuff off it's just dead stems until the bush grows enough to hide them. (*this brings to mind hydrangeas) I prefer seeing all new green growth myself, and I cut back to between 6" - 12" in spring, when new growth appears at the base. I heard that was the best way to do it in colder zones as well. :)
*So many people grow hydrangeas around here and I refuse to buy one because they just look like a bunch of dead sticks most of the year. It takes until August for the leaves to reach the top of the old sticks and maybe a couple flowers, with the most not coming until almost sept.! Seems like a lotta work for little reward to me. I guess you can cut the sticks off but they flop over from the weight of the flowers so you can't win! :(
Hey gang! Sorry to disappear - clients and taxes. Thanks for identifying the Scaevola Tuink - that was bothering me that I couldn't remember that - LOL! I treat Butterfly Bushes the same as a rather woody perennial. They can get so big otherwise, unless you have the space for them.
I've battened down the hatches here - the winds are really whipping around - blown over some daffs and everything. And *my* weather thing says it's supposed to drop to the 30's tonight, not that big of a deal as the plants outside have been outside for a number of days (protected at night), but then it goes on to say it should drop to the 20's and snow on Sunday! yeesh! I'm pretty comfortable with the larger GH being able to retain its heat (I've got nothing out there, not even a water line yet), so I think I'll tote everything that's in the small GH by the house to the larger one for the weekend, and let all the plants complain to each other how I don't visit them as much as I used to :)
I tried really hard to get a good pick of that dark purple petunia, but my camera's just too cheap to do it justice. Gotta get Nora's camera battery recharged and give that a try. I did, however, get a good pic of the nice flower spike one of the Lady in Red salvias is putting out for me, but of course I don't have it with me to post right now - sigh.....
Met with a potential new client today who wants her yard done "tuscany style" - the inside of her house is like walking into an old Italian Villa, and the place is only 10 years old - she's done some wonders with the inside. So, we're looking at possibilities and such - the side of their garage (house is all brick) is next to the walkway to the front door, and would be PERFECT for anything espaliered - but her husband doesn't want anything that will grow tall and hide the brick! It pained me to leave that possibility behind. She even has to keep any shrubs there pruned to no more than about 18" (I told her to move the ligustrum, rather than pretending she could keep it at 12".)
I also pointed out some "Tree of Heaven" in our yard to Nora and told her to dig and destroy any and all she sees. She's a woman on a mission now. You remember the images of girls screaming and fainting over the Beatles?? She gets nearly that excited when she gets a deep tap-root dug out. So far she's got one nasty one out - and that's where one of our tomatoes will go.
Suzy - the garlic I planted sprouted a couple days ago, and is now about 3" tall. As soon as this cold snap is over, in go my shallots!! OK, sounds like the plumber is here (dog's barking).
Thanks for the identification of my fan plant. Now maybe I cna google it and find out what I am growing. Sure is pretty thing though.
I read something today in Organic Gardening magazine that is important for those of you who use mini blinds for plant tags.
"The vinyl deteriorates from exposure to sunlight and heat, forming lead dust on the surface of the blind," according to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.
so you should not use the mini blinds for labels in your veggie gardens or for anything edible.
~ Jan
Wow!! That's scary! Who would have guessed that? Not I!
Thanks for posting that Gram/Jan.
Suzy
Hey Dryad! You never showed me the big greenhouse! W had a really windy day and my plastic one is in one piece (no hail).
I had the strangest seedling, and I tried to take pics, but they are fuzzy as all get out. This first one is a pic of a couple of seedlings that look normal, right?
They are Delphinium nudicaule 'Redcap'
I sowed them on Feb 23, and they duly came up, not all at once, but eventually most came up. And they sat there, and sat there and sat there. I finally asked here on the list, and Tuink said I should transplant them and see if that would stir them into some growth.
When I dug them out, this is what I found: They HAD grown, they had formed a crown down beneath the soil and had sent up more leaves (the leaves just hadn't broken ground yet) If you look atthe picture, the green part of the stem was above ground, the red part of the stem(most of it) was belfow ground. Those 2 little emerging leaves were well below ground. They have since expanded since this photo ws taken, and they are true leaves, but I have another seedling that has 3 cotyledons! They are not true leaves at all.
I have never seen this kind of growth on a seedling before...usually the new leave scome up between the cotyledons and the stem extends up from that point. That point, then, is the crown of the plant.
The question is, how far down do I plant that node? 2" deep as it was growing? or at the surface?
Does this make sense? :)
Suzy
Suzy,
Growpoint at the surface, I would say, so the leaves can grow above ground.
Three cotyledons, or better one normal and one split cotyledon, happens more often. I've seen that quite a few times. One coty happens too.
If there's many deformed seedlings in one batch you should think again on growing them on. There may be something seriously wrong in their genetics which you don't want to spread......
They are ALL deformed, then. They are all like this, but they are commercial seed, so I can only think that's just how they grow., Meredith might jump oi here, I know she got some of the same seed from www.hardyplants.com.
I also have a sister to it called Laurin, and is doing the same thing. Except I didn't transplant it (I got diverted by taking photos to sho yo all) I noticed the true leaves are coming up from way below, just like Redcap.
Maybe it's just how this particular plant grows.
Suzy
Suzy, that is truly bizarre - I would have to agree with Tuink though, and plant them at the crown/growpoint. On the other hand, it now has me wanting to go out on my hands and knees where I'm waiting for some Delphinium to come back to see if they're sprouting below ground level! Not today though - much too nasty outside.
I also realized in my earlier weather report I was giving you the wind chill temps, not the surface temps. It's still nasty and overcast and windy here today.
I may take my cell phone out to the big GH to see if it can get a cleaner shot of the darker purple petunia - of course with no sunshine..... And since these babies are blooming with no pollinators around, I'm crossing a purple and white striped petunia from Weez with one of the supercascade lilacs and then keeping a sharp eye on that to get those seeds :)
OK, back to finishing enough of my books and taxes today so I can file an extension (I'm crying UNCLE on this, not enough time) and then I'll start up a couple more trays of seeds.
Star - I promise I've not forgotten the peonies!! (When I lived in FL we called those little lizards/chameleons House Dinosaurs....I can remember as a small kid in California you used to be able to get them from a pet shop with a little halter on them and keep them as pets - really!! You could pin their lead to your collar and it would ride around on your shoulder. I had one for quite a while in a little terrarium, fed him bits of hamburger and lettuce, Mom finally got fed up and turned him loose in the yard...)
Robin, when you get here remind me to tell you the story about my lizard and the drug store ( he was almost 2' long) LOL You can also tie a thick string around their middle back behind their legs so they can’t get away, I’ve had a few lizards 8^)
It’s going to be cold here for about four days esp. at night so I guess I’ll have to bring some plants in, not looking forward to that, this weathr is so rude!
I just ran a little ceramic heater out to the GH. There are 1" cracks all around the door and I wonder why keep hearing my father's voice from the way distant past saying, "Cose the door Lala! Do you think we're trying to heat the whole outside?"
You know La my dad used to say that all of the time even if we opend the front or back door to look outside and now I have the same problem with him, he leaves the doors open all of the time now I go behind him shuting them esp. with these heat bills today, gosh your dad would really have a fit now huh, mine would too if he had any sense lol
I need help folks 8^) Flame Vine, has anyone planted this one I'm sure someone has and I was quite shocked when I saw the seeds expecting them to be like morning glory seeds, how do I plant these do I cover or do they need light, they are just little feathery seeds lol In case you haven't guessed I'm doing morning glories today, soaking them and going to plant them tomorrow, you would not believe how many I have to get started! 17 different kinds, where in the heck am I going to plant all of these LOL Plus I'll have some coming up again from last year, does anyone know around my zone if heavenly blue reseeds? If it doesn't I need to plant that one too :) Even if it is iffy I'll plant some cause I gotta have it I love it!
Lea, I have been staggering all of my planting of MG's and I still have sooo many to plant. I don't know where I will put all of mine, but I did buy mammoth sunflower seeds for some to climb up. I also want to help mask an ugly shed with the string and brick method of growing vines. I have some other vines too! Where will we put them all indeed!
I forgot I can plant some with the sunflowers but I'm afraid they will drag them down but sounds like a lot of people do it so I'm gonna try thanks for reminding me lol I have four spots picked out just need 13 more, and I want to plant them far enough away so they don't cross that should be interesting, I need to go get some more pole things at HD to put them on I fixed some tires with a pole and chicken wire last year so planning on doing more of those this year. I do have a couple of trellises too but still not enough lol I've gotta find something to use for my honeysuckle and raspberry bush too!
hello!
flowerhead your garden bed posted is nice :)
critter, enjoyed the link to the chimney flue garden design. Also, is there really a flower called 'not so chocolate daisy'?
Star I can't believe you have 300 texas star red! do you have a business or something? I can't even imagine it. Our one is pretty large. ...we need more land...we have less than an acre here...I'm getting worried as to where I'm going to squeeze in all these new plants!
I love fanflower and have to buy it every year in both the lavender and white for hanging baskets. I love it because it is drought tolerant and blooms all summer. I noticed there is even a pink fanflower.
LeBug, I love the heavenly blue MG too. I haven't sown any MG yet.
I transplanted more today and had to buy more cups again, this time I got smaller cups. I'm finding cups are a real pain to poke holes in and the 20 oz. cups are too tall and tip over in the flats. I'm using the take out cake containers to hold them because they are deep and they don't tip over. I think I may buy plastic pots for next year. Tuink, I don't know how you do it :0
PamSue's poppy somniferum coral semi double, frausnow's amsonia, and KD200's shoofly plant seedlings are coming up!
LeBug.. This crazy weather is being more than rude it being downright nasty or maybe the word shoudl be cruel. All kinds of new seeds coming up and spring time flowers starting to bloom again after being bit three times already. Just not sure they can take a 4th time.
Even after sunday and mondya being the coldest nights it gonna take all week to even get temps back to the 50's at night. Weathe rman said today that we about 20 to 25 degrees below our normal temps.
My first batch of sunflower seeds have come up. : (
Wind.. Will the fan flower trail down by itself or does it kinda sit and spread out across the top of hanging basket? All then tRS are for a fund raiser.
I do wish that sunshien that was for sale on the pretend dg auction was for real. Boy I would order me a bunch of it.
Sure hope everybodys plants make it through what I hope to be ourlast cold snap
Good news! There won't be any frost here tonight or tomorrow night.
Starlight, take a look at your forecast and see how low the temps need to go to match your dewpoint. If they (Sat night and Sunday night's dewpoint temperatures) need to go a lot lower than the forecasted temps, then you will be cold and freezing, but it won't frost, and that's what really does a number on plants.
..."Frost is a solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air."
Suzy
Thanks wind-It really has run ragged-it is nicer when the lily and iris are blooming. Here is a nice pic of the around the corner a bit...
Wow!!! That is really pretty! Kinda makes me think twice about perennials....surely you didn't start those gigantic things from seed, did you?
Where was the first picture? (you said Thanks, wind, as if she told you she liked another photo)
Suzy
Wind, I sent out some seed packets labeled "Not-Chocolate-Daisy" or "Too Tall To Be Chocolate Daisy" with a description of the plant and the explanation that I'd grown out mislabeled seeds.
I had a trade packet labeled "Chocolate Daisy" and winter sowed the seeds. Chocolate Daisy (Berlandiera lyrata) is supposed to be about 16" tall, so I figured it would be great at the front of my perennial border. This plant grew to 30 inches its first year and was over 3 feet tall its second... flowers looked very similar to B. lyrata, but they had no chocolate scent that I could detect. I thought it was a Helianthus for a while, but I couldn't quite figure out which one. With help, it was finally identified as Heliopsis helianthoides var scabrus, and that's the name that went on the seed packets this year. It's one of my favorites -- a little more yellow than the gold of a black-eyed susan, and it just blooms nonstop.
Ok, I've got some seeds to the Mexican Flambe Vine 'Senecio Confusus' I think is what it is and the seeds are feathery like has anyone started this one before, I guess because they are feathery I just barely cover?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/90602/
Anybody? :)
Kath your flowers are beautiful is the red flower the macedona red? I have those and I just love them they look like they have sugar sprinkled on top of the red flower lol
I put some jugs of hot water out in my little greenhouses last night it's 30 out right now and it's 50 in my gh. :) It's going to be cold for the next three days after today :(
I don't know anything about those seeds - sorry. I am still catching up on reading but I did read about Suzy's D. nudicale. I got some of the Laurin seeds. Right now all 7 of mine are still colteydons, 3 still have seeds attached and it looks like I started them 3/21. Suzy there is one thing I can recommend from trying these last year. Mine died from being too wet, or so I thought. (it was probably a combination of trying to harden them off too quickly) They were all getting true leaves and doing pretty well until I brought them outside and they were sitting too wet. (the leaves looked starry like another species delphinium I had started) I think they like very well draining and pretty dry soil so maybe if you get them out of anything that holds a lot of moisture, I use pro-mix and I think it stays too wet. Last year I tried the straight species, I got the seeds from J.L. Hudson, they didn't have them this year. I thought a cultivar would be easier and the Laurin was also offered from T&M so I thought they would be more likely to grow well.
Scratch that about it needing dry soil - I just realized it was D. cardinale I tried to grow last year. That one is the one that likes dry rocky soil. Nudicaule like moist sorry :o
This message was edited Apr 13, 2008 10:35 AM
Lea, someone told me that the Mexican Flame vine rarely comes up from seeds. And, I haven't noticed any little ones under mine. I do have a few that are being rooted right now, and I will send you one, when you say it's safe to send. Then, you will have a head start. : )
You can try the seeds, and see if any come up, but I can't tell you how to sow them. I guess I would just barely cover them, myself. I dunno.
~Lucy
Ok Kath, thank you, I was just surprised to see they weren't like morning glory seeds LOL Really flipped me out! Thank you! Also the plantfiles says full sun and where I have read they can take part sun, what do you think where I want to plant it has part sun but I can put it in another spot.
Flowerhead, I love your photo, I love seeing others combinations, it gives me ideas for my own garden. Where is the other picture that was mentioned?
I have to agree with wind about cups falling over, Tuink doesn't use flats for her cups, I think she uses a lot of different stuff, like those tinfoil turkey roaster pans and other stuff that is deeper. My problem is using the flats. I found some inserts that I like. I am such a clutz, I need the square pots and packs, & such, so it is nearly impossible to knock stuff over. With all the seeds I started and still need to start, the cups have kinda saved me from spending a small fortune on seed starting stuff. I really like the cups in a ziplock sandwich baggy for initially starting the seeds because those dome covers are one of the more expensive things to buy, and you can see how many of the seeds come up before you alot them space in the flats. I think I have 12 dome covers in use right now, so I don't want to buy any more! Now I am on my second tray of baggy and cup sown seeds, so I've gotten a lot more started that way than I would have if I was still waiting for space under the domes. :) I already have 3" pots from last year, so when the transplants in cups get large enough I'll switch em to some, so I can keep my clutz-e - ness from destroying them.
I had a ton of those monkey flower seeds from wz germinate two days ago...yay!
Lea, mine is in full hot FL sun. They probably can take some shade, but not alot, or they probably won't bloom as good. I know on the west side of mine it gets some late afternoon shade, and it wasn't quite as full of blooms as the east side. Not a real Big difference, but I did noticed that.
~Lucy
After reading that post about the mimi blind markers I needed to share. http://myhouseisyourhouse.org/
Everyone please check this link out about the dangers of vinyl and pvc. It doesn't look like the gov. gonna do anything about this problem any time soon but I have wood siding and will never change it to vinyl siding because of the girl that started that website. She had a documentary on the whole subject on HBO and it kinda reminded me of the movie Erin Brokavich which was based on a true story. It bothers me to see how many homes are vinyl sided and changing over to vinyl siding after learning about the helth hazards of any products made with the stuff. There is so many products that contain the stuff it makes it nearly impossible to avoid buying something that contains it!
This message was edited Apr 13, 2008 10:06 AM
I checked where the link brings you and you'll need to click on the pvc facts and info to see what I intended.
OMG Meredith, there is pvc everywhere, I have three plantstands downstairs too that are made of it! There is no way I could afford to change everything but will take note in the future, that really kills me about baby toys! I can't believe this is the first I've heard of this!
star, the fanflower cascades really well from baskets :) I'll attach a photo, this basket is just the fanflower, I wanted to see if it would grow in part shade which it does.
critter both the chocolate daisy and what yours ended up being sound nice. I think I would like a flower with a chocolate scent! I have one that looks similar in the bloom but gets rather tall. I have a tentative id somewhere around here....I'll look it up and show you a photo and what I think it may be. Maybe you would know for sure. I like it because it blooms for quite awhile and is rather drought tolerant.
here are critter's pepper seedlings basking in the sun a few days ago. I tried to get a close up of the leaves but I couldn't get a good shot. The leaves are really pretty, sort of edged with a burgundy air brushed looking spray.
and here are how I had to put out some of the cups so they wouldn't tip over while they were outside....4" high foil roasting pans would work too...that was a good suggestion, I'll keep that in mind too
