End of season report card

i do not think i am ready to give a report card on many of the stuff i planted this year. they will need another year or two in the ground to see how they have done.
- i am very happy with the shirazz jm which should not be a surprise to anyone
- a new beni fugi jm i just saw had a large split in the trunk. the older gentleman that answers the phone at wildwood nurseries was very helpful in providing care instructions and asked for follow up next spring.
- i have a bloodgood jm behind the shirazz that started out great as usual in the spring and since the leaves have been turning brown and dropping. jm forum is predicting certain death with voles or disease as likely causes. i have put down vole repellent and organic fertilizer with crossed fingers
- really like the butterfly jm and interested to see it next spring
- learned a lesson on buying trees on line - pay more for larger specimens - i have a little one footer jm that was moved into the growing area i refer to the stick farm
- still have problems with clematis on occasion that don't come up the first year - two pulled this on me and three others flourished. hope to see better results in the spring.
- will plant less tomatoes, more basil, pray for eggplants which produced only a few small ones
- did not have flowers on any of the white dogwoods last spring and i am not seeing buds for next year right now. 2 celestial and one kousa all in different areas - what gives?
- hardy hibiscus were eaten by j. beetles - will need to either watch closely or nuke them for protection.

that is it for now, have probably missed a lot

Way too funny!

Thom, I'm glad you posted photo of 'Wild Child'. It's just what I need in my garden for next year. I love that it looks so mixed up! I love Trahlyta, too!

Jeepers! I just make lists and lists when I am reading posts from my DG friends!!

Me too, Candyce. I know if I don't write it down, I certainly won't remember it, or what thread to look up. lol. The list is getting quite lengthy.

Jan:

I use the 'copy & paste' method. LOL!
I also am fortunate enough to have OneNote on my computer so that when I do copy & poaste, it also automatically gives me a hyperlink back to where I copied from!
I have a very extensive 'notebook', too!!

Victor,forgive my stupidity but what are JM'S.Jan23 glad to hear you have NOID's like me gardening is for my pleasure and I don't care what the proper name of my plants is the only requisite is that I like it if I don't it is compost.My Elephant Ears were outstanding ,Agashe also a big success,hardy succulents made for great interest,cactus and Agave.The biggest flop was the Canna's from Wal-Mart all had the virus which annoid me until I pulled them up this fall.So many things deo so much better when I put them where they NEED to be instead of where I WANT them.

Japanese maples, Peter. No need to feel silly. No one knows what these abbreviations mean until they know them!

Victor: Sorry to be so tardy in replying, but I have been up to my ears in rehearsals for Gilbert&Sullivan's "Patience" as well as "It's a Wonderful Life".

Here is a picture of the verbena flower, taken while shady, so the color might not stand out as much as it does in sun (you are evidently passionate over purple!). As you can see in the upper right corner, there are some seeds. We just had our first frost last night, so I'm going to collect them today. Incidentally, the frost makes pretty lamium-like patterns on the verbena leaves.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the dinnerplate Dahlia's did fine as well. Here is a pic to one which had a saucer attached to the plate (yes, both on one stem).

I had two great discoveries this year: annual dahlia 'Fireworks', reliably striped from seed; and Brandywine tomatoes, which I bought from a nice Amish lady. The plant itself didn't do really well because of the drenching rains we had all summer, but the few tomatoes that I got off it were wonderful. Mr. Big peas, another first time plant, were indeed big and the pods full, but it couldn't take the heat and humidity. Next year, I'll plant that one earlier.

Thanks Don - and good luck on the shows! I may give Fireworks a try. Thanks, Kathleen.

I got the seed from Territorial. I'm not usually a dahlia fan, but these are lovely little singles and look like a party.

Same for me. I like singles much more. That's why I've never been big on dahlias, though some of the colors are spectacular.

Don ~ it's great to 'see' you again. You have been missed, but I understand about all the rehearsals. Best of luck!

Don, what are you rehearsing for?

Anita:
Last show of Gilbert&Sullivan's "Patience" today in Middletown. "It's a Wonderful Life" (I'm the villain) will run in Ivoryton in December.

ahhh..well then I guess I should say break a leg? 'It's a Wonderful Life' is one of my favorites!

Mine as well.
I just love the ringing of the bells when an angel gets its wings.

Have to see it every year.

Ok Victor, you hooked me. Speaking of cone flowers, my double header that I bought last year and hated (looked like it had warts) was fabulous this year...glad the SO would not let me rip it out...told me to see how it did this season first! It looked completely different then last year, had several rows of petals and bloomed all season and kept compact. The standard cone flower next to it did well but got too leggy and a bit tall. I'll leave it for next year and see if it is containable.

Some stuff I was real happy with this year:

Roseanne Cranesbill...gorgeous color and leaves and still blooming! Been going since I put them in in June. I planted 9 along the driveway and liked them so much I did 3 more in the back where I can see them from the house. I might even do a couple more in some new lasagna beds I'm planning for next year.

Jethro Tull Coreopis. I bought this from bluestone in April on a whim because it was new and everyone had it. Amazing! Was blooming when I put them in in April and is still going. I do deadhead them every week or two and that seems to keep them humming along.

Compacta oregano...never grew this before...it is amazing...nice to look at and tastes wonderful, I used it in anything savory. Did greek too which is very peppery but a nice little pant

Goldsturm Rudbeckia...planted several of those for uniform color around the garden, they are great...got about two months bloom out of them.

Becky shasta daisy...we love this plant. Did two last year and split one off this year...planted it with Mother of Thyme and some Asclepias tuberosa at the end of my veggie garden that one got as big as the two year old plants in no time!...I'm going to break off more plants in a couple weeks for some new beds.

Neptea Walkers low...this was a great plant...got to full size and bloomed like crazy. Along with munsted lavender and butterfly blue scabiosa and Brookside cranesbill. All under plantings for my wall of roses along the garage...as seen in this pic, that stuff is all bigger than the roses ;-)

tall rudbeckia I got from the organic farm down the street....still blooming, about 4-5' will small flowers...love that.

The yellow daylillies my sister in law gave me last year...they came up tall around the cone flowers and Platycodon so I had a nice mix of yellow, blue and pink that was pretty cool going on.

My stella d'oro daylillies on the side...they went for months.

Autumn Joy Sedum...love that stuff....got it form bluestone as well.

Moonshine coreopsis...kept going and going in my new bed by the rose arbor.

Buddleia...planted two pink davidii and two blue, plus one other blue one, I can't remember the variety off hand...all were fantastic....went from 4" pots to 5' woody shrubs in one season...

I can't even get into the roses (34) and clematis (10) I planted in this thread!


Things that I'm not 100% happy with:
silver brocade artemesia...it is too flat and sprawling....I thought the ones like silver mound would get too leggy, but not crazy about this either. I have to move one or two to keep them from taking up too much space.

Wegeilia...planted it last year in the front...starts out brown at the bottom and thows up leggy canes...and the blooms are the wrong color....I moved them all to an out of the way spot and put in red double knockouts instead...they have only been in a month and are blooming like crazy right though frost, I'll be happier with those for sure.

My Asters that I planted last fall and immediately turned black and wilted. They came back strong and did it again so I ripped them out and put in standard garden mums...they did good for a couple weeks then the slugs got them all in the front and back...must have been the wet weather...I beer trapped a lot of them but did not stay on top of it...

The maggie daylillies on the side did not bloom much....all be it northern exposure. I was spoiled by the stella d'oros!

My Kobold liatris did not bloom in thee spots, got big and bushy, but no flowers...very weird since the soil is rich and my roses and other stuff did great in the same bed. And that is one of the things that is in every perennials for idiots book I read!

Anyway, I planted like a 100 things so I could go on for days...but I need to head to bed at this point!

Miles

I really like the Butterfly JM I put in this spring. And Arctic Fire Dogwood. Looking forward to seeing that through the winter.

Great report, Miles! Thanks. The Goldsturm will spread quite a bit.

It was a terrific report, Miles. I totally agree about Nepeta 'Walker's Low'. What a lovely plant it is. Was that the 'Razzmatazz' coneflower you wrote about? I liked it much better this year, too.

The 'Silver Brocade' artemesia you mentioned is one I didn't care for - it spreads way too much. That was ripped out the year it was planted! I do love 'Silver Mound'.

Asters here like it on the dry side and do better when sheared in June. I hope that helps.

pirl:

Good suggestion, I'll make a note to get Silver Mound for next year.

My coneflower I liked this year was 'double decker'. The leggy one is just regular Echinicia Purprea. Though I planted some big seedlings of 'Magnus' in another part of the garden in the summer.

I just gave up on the asters though the mums that were fine last year did not do well this year. And I have to remember to pinch them back in the spring because the ones that grew back in the garden were way too tall and flopped over.

What I need to do is figure out how to use the journal to make a to-do list for next year that I'll follow. That is my winter project....when I'll have way too much time!

Miles

Miles I pinched my mums back twice this year.... they are really not that large either... and the rain storms made them flop over anyway... it was just a freaky year

the photo is what they looked like in early october... they are all on the ground now

edit - the random cuttings that were planted here.... my color blind friend told me the contrast of tones was fantastic

;)

This message was edited Oct 31, 2008 5:56 AM

Allison ....
I LOVE how that all looks together. So, I guess I agree with your color blind friend.

Miles, terrific report!! Such detail. Thanks so much.

thank you... mum cuttings are so easy..... can't help myself... any of them that return I take cuttings of ... figured they will be the most hardy.... downside is I never mark what color they are... too lazy... plant them and pray for the best

:)

We had only one return from all that we planted last year. I hadn't thought to take cuttings. What a great idea!

if you pinch.... might as well make more... they are as easy as coleus to root... just dip them in hormone and stick em in.. my neighbor doesn't even cover hers with a baggie just puts them in the shade... just out of habit I always do

Just got a call from a daughter in northern Ohio. IB iris Champagne Encore has just put up its 4th stalk, one each in Aug,Sept Oct & now Nov. Otherwise she just has a miniature rose in bloom. So while our end of the yr is just about different leaves, She has flowers holding on.

Plant hellebores! I have flowers every month of the year. Right now, there are at least 4 rose bushes in bloom, probably more that I haven't had a chance to check, Hellebores niger (the Christmas rose - not a rose at all), calendulas, chrysanthemums, pansies and violas, Malva sylvestris, feverfew, one crazy hollyhock, Osteospermum, some bellis, a echinacea, and we've had some pretty radical frosts and snow. I use the east and south side of the house, raised beds close to the house and plant things late (yeah, I plan it that way, that's right, you believe me, don't you???). Oh, and I'm terrible at deadheading and some flowers will reseed themselves and put up another crop in the same year. And for anyone afraid of roses, look into Rugosas. I have picked roses at Thanksgiving many many times.

I've told this story before, but will do so again. Neighbor down the street was given a rose for mother's day, her son bought it at the grocery store. She has a black thumb, and gave me the rose one day. I was weeding, so I just plunk it in the ground. That was about 4 years ago or so. That rose is one of the first things to bloom after the early spring bulbs, and it never stops. It has one open flower on it now, and looks like it may have 2 or 3 others on it in a week or so! The rose never gets higher than 8" or so, and stays maybe 5-6" around...love it. I might try to take a cutting or two. My rose 'Oregold' has 2 flowers on it right now, and looks like it might bloom again!

It blooms even in the snow, Thom?

Depending on when the snow gets here, or starts up again, it has had a bloom on it with snow on the ground.

It doesn't really do much but grow to about 8" x 5-6", and it's never "covered" in blooms, but it does bloom non stop all season long. I have it planted in front of the 'Moonshine' Coreposis, and blue balloon flowers, which is all in front of the perennial sunflower that I have...it's pretty.

I'm gonna try and take clippings in the Spring and see if they root.

I keep getting the feeling that this year will never end--well I suppose the wheel just does keep on turning to the next season and the next year. But I sort of would like to wrap this one up before I'm planting in the snow. Last week I finally planted my daylily seedlings out, if they only survive the winter. I'm optimistic, the parents were-what do you call'em-totally die down and lose all leaves in the winter- they disappeared so completely one year that I dug down to see if they were alive aand found lumpy artichoke shaped things totally dormant under the ground. No green at all above ground. Then local building supply place closed down their outside garden area for the winter. Shrubs 75% off. Bad. Just bad. I now have at least 17 gallon or two gallon pots to get in the ground. Why did I decide I'd like boxwood and blue hollyy? I have a wild garden, in fact acres of weeds! Then, as I was leaving the gal managing and cleaning out said "If you want any of the perennials, you can have them for a buck. Iris called Temper Tantrum called to me. As did Perovskia. And I'm already back on the heavy duty pain stuff for my back. Doc says my vertabra are a horror, they're going to be worse when or if I get this mess planted. Doc says wait till Spring.! Then I decide to use wet newspaper and compost from county, cover large weedy area and plant wild daylilies with old Hydrangea arborescens behind it and maybe ostrich ferns if I can find some in my own woods. Yesterday said the heck with it, took wife and thermos of coffee out to stony Stirling beach (drove through Hanibal) and went walking near lake. Now watch it snow.What they call lake effect.

You are a glutton for punnishment

herbaceous - die down to the ground

We've had a couple doses of snow here - I quit, drove right by my favorite nursery and only gave a quick glance at the "Perennials 75% OFF" sign. I do have some tulip and anemone bulbs to get in the ground, but they seem to have called off the rain for today, so maybe later after another morning of errands.

I got my bulbs in a week ago.
Planted Anemone Blanda and tulips together,also Coridilis nearby.
The squirrls have been digging up and replanying the smaller bulbe.
I give up, they will just have to natueralize on their own.

lol, sorry about the squirrels - my dogs keep them away from here for the most part. I did have a chipmunk and vole problem, but we managed to get that down to manageable last year. For the time being, at least. I'm thinking one big hole and both bags in. I guess I really have quit.

I'm done with bulbs of any kind.
73 and arthritic.
Bulbs I planted will just have to make it on their own, some went in sideways ,some not planted deep enough. Guess the early spring garden won't make the cover of "Home and Garden" this year.