End of season report card

Wow, it's been a month and I'm just getting around to reporting in! I love this thread, it's giving me plenty of ideas for the new sunny border I'm planning for next spring. I already have a few Daylilies planted along the edge so now I'm making notes on some of the beauties you've posted here!

We've just experienced our second summer of serious drought and it's been pretty tough on the gardens. Maybe tougher on us to try to keep everything watered! I finally got all my new Euphorbias planted but it was so late in the season I'll have to wait until next year to report successes and failures. So far they're looking good but I'm anxious to see how they'll pull through the winter. A few of them are questionably hardy here but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will have another mild winter to help them get established. Tasmanian Tiger is probably the most iffy, but I fell in love with the variegation and hope it makes it!

Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy' continues to be one of my favorite variegated plants in the garden. Slow to take off in the spring but makes up for it by the middle of the summer and by September is covered with tiny blooms!

I'm not much of a Rose fan, but this one is making me a believer! 'Elsie May', beautiful in bloom the first of June, falters during the summer heat but recovers by late summer and blooms right through the frosts!

Love the blooms on this one, 'Julia Childs', but yuck, look at the foliage :( That's the other thing I really like about 'Elsie May', its clean and glossy foliage.

I'll have to think about more plants that have done well, or not! But I have to share this one with you, I absolutely LOVE this one! Indigofera amblyantha. This was planted last year as a small plant, maybe a foot tall? By late summer it was over 3' tall but look at it this year! It doesn't get much taller, maybe 4', but has filled out nicely AND it starts blooming around the first of June and blooms ALL summer!!

Close up of the blooms...

One last one for this morning. Begonia 'Bonfire' - what a beauty and it bloomed all summer! We cut our Begonias back every year and take them inside for the winter. It was really tough to cut this one back because it was still in bloom in October but I'm hoping it will make it through the winter and be ready for more blooms next summer!

Holy cow - that's a begonia? Beautiful.

It is beautiful! I love the Indigofera as well.

I'm still busy (too busy) with the garden and still have far too many plants waiting to get planted.

That Begonia is stunning!!!

Looks great, Debbie! I have an indigofera, but a different species. That's a great begonia. The blooms resemble Angel Wing. It's so big!

Re daylilies: those that die down to the ground are dormant as opposed to semi-evergreen which can be tougher than evergreen which I won't try in this climate--zone 6a & it can get colder. I do have a semi-evergreen Carl Milikens which looks terrible in the spring, but does recover. There seem to be fewer dormant ones on the market, probably because so many breeders are further south (my theory).

Iris,
I was under the same assumption about evergreen daylilies until I came to Dave's. You can grow several varieties of evergreens in your zone and so can I, they are "hardy" evergreens. 'Pandora's Box' is a very good example of an evergreen that seems to do well here in z5a and all the way to Texas! 'Night Beacon' and 'Joan Senior' both do very well for me here and are evergreens.

AMERICA'S MOST WANTED, ALTERED STATE, BALLERINA ON ICE, DESTINED TO SEE and CREATE YOUR DREAM, AWESOME ARTIST, CRETACEOUS CRUNCH, and RAPTOR RAP these are all being grown in a z5b

Z5a:
Abbot's Magic, Alvatine Taylor, Attribution, Barracuda Bay, Best of Friends, Black Plush, Chris Salter, David Kirchoff, Ed Brown, Helaman, Jan's Twister, Kate Carpenter, Lady Neva, Mask of Eternity, Mildred Mitchell, Mokan Butterfly, Moonlit Caress, Pastel Classic, Pirate Lord, Poetry in Motion, Prairie Blue Eyes, Red Ribbons, Royal Heiress, So Lovely, Sovereign Queen, Thais, Tune the Harp, Wisest of Wizards, Wind Frills, & When Spirits Unite.

I hope this gives you more of an option....or i'm just a big enabler! LOL

Celeste:

That's OK. We all love that you are our enabler, and, in fact, we encourage you to enable us any time!!!

I truely believe there is interenabling being done year round on the NEGF
lol

Ok, my turn! I am still in love with my new job... and I feel like I am back in school also.. have been reading my old books and reviewing some things... which is fun to me... so I have not had time to put together all my notes about what happened... but here goes what I consider the most memorable things...

Roses (of course I will start with them)
they did well in June when we had that heat wave... the day Pirl and Jack came to visit they were all open... their peak I would say... discovered that I had to water them 2 times a day so they would last at least 2 days.... the climbers did well this year... Westerland is by far the fastest growing climber I have... it covered the arch and it was really pretty....

I lost 5 roses that I got from a place called Greenmantle - no I am not complaining because I think it was my fault. They were own roots and came with real dirt. Not potting soil, but real CA dirt and I did not plant them right away, so it was my fault... so sad because they are supposed to be really gorgeous...

ALL roses that I got from Great Lakes Nurseries (Coop ) all Buck Roses did GREAT... too bad that place closed... gorgeous gorgeous...
All roses from Palatine (Canada) did GREAT... oh I would defintely get more roses if I have the place to plant... I will have to think about it...

Summer was tough for the roses... no chance to spray because of all the rain we had... so tons of black spot... but I did not stressed about it... it is what it is... not so many japanese beetles... so I am not so sad about it... End of May and June are really the best time for the roses... they are new, strong and really showing off... so next year I will try to have parties and friends over when they are really pretty...

Succulents: I feel that I have found another favorite ! they did really well... moved some inside the house and so far they are doing great... totally worth getting more!

Daylilies : ah many came from Long Island... yep they have grown a lot even if they were planted this past summer... I am encouraged about next year!
Irises ... I planted about 60... still have tons to plant... so I am going to plant next year... I don't think I can still plant them this year rigth?

Black eye susans, purple cone flowers, shasta daysies, were awsome... really grew a lot... cosmos all reseeded and I had great plants by fall... totally happy about it...

New addictions: heucheras, hostas, astilbes, joseph ladder... yeah, I can see my money going away....

Yes Jo Ann your right!! Thank you, now I don't feel so bad. lol

If I had only known back in March when I joined.
Come to think of it I doubt it would have made a difference,I have no dicipline left,nor will power either.

We have so many addictions, don't we? Mine have changed over the few years that Anna and I have been gardening. I think that my current addiction is day lilies. The year before it was tulips. Who knows what it will be next year? LOL

I have poppy seeds comming from DGers and what did I just do?
Bought more poppy seeds from Territorial Seed co.
Simply because I have resisted opening a Pay-pal account.
I will have definatly hit skiddrow (thats a gardening term)
when that happens.

Been on skidrow for several years now lol

When you're scraping the seeds off your poppy seed bagel, then you're beyond help...

HA HA HA

I don't usually post here but this caught my attention. Hello to everyone : )
I love that Indigofera amblyantha that's a new one to me.
I have to agree about Itea virginica - I have henry's garnet and it turns the most beautiful color in fall that I need more. I like them much better than all the burning bushes partly due to the fact that they are invasive here but also because the burning bushes are only bright red in full sun while the Itea are great even with a good deal of shade.
I think my most pleasant experience was trying million bells in a couple containers. They grew from single plants of only 4 stems to full cascading constantly full flowering plants through the season and they still are green even now after lots of cold weather. The person with the petunia problem reminded me that I had tried petunias in the same containers last year and had a similar experience - they looked good for a month or so then got straggly and lots of brown. So I will definitely plant the Million Bells instead, again next year. I probably have a lot more bad grades to report, but these are what I thought of right away.

Welcome Meredith. I agree about Million Bells and have been using them for a few years now. They thrive in the hottest temps too. I'm not a burning bush fan for a reasons. Aside from being invasive in some areas, they are just boring outside of the couple of weeks in fall that they turn. Itea (and others) have nice flowers in spring and the fall color lasts forever. Fothergilla and Enkianthus are two more on my five star small shrub list.

Right on about the burning bushes - I would never plant one and if there were one growing in my yard I would most likely chop it down lol. I am always trying to talk friends out of them when they say they 'need' to plant some. I always tell them the good qualities of Sweetspires exactly like what you said. : ) The Burning Bushes are all over the place here and you can see in some yards where there are wooded areas near them they are taking over even in the shaded wooded areas. I think most people only think of burning bushes first, because that is what they notice mostly in fall because they are so abundant here.

i have dug up and burnt about a dozen BB so far this fall. my wife likes them so i have to get them up and burnt before she notices. I have at least a dozen more to go. i'll have a big big fire tomorrow afternoon!

Oh man when you are done can you come over and help me dig out and burn a bush honeysuckle? LOL

Let's see - "honey i am going over to help meredith with her bush honeysuckle" not sure my wife would give me a pass LOL

Lol - ya that might not fly! ; )

glad you laughed thought twice about sending it.

i'm giggling!

Burning a burning bush seems redundant.

very nice - victor i expected you to JUMP all over the honeysuckle.

I have to behave with new people!

Hey weedyseedy,

I didn't see yiou wave when you drove by my house.

Anytime you want some ferns, just come on out, I have a whole woods full of them.

Beautiful colors on those million bells, Meredith. I love that combination!!

Meredith, I love those million bells too, some of my yellow ones are still showing from this combo, of course the purple is long gone.

I have four burning bushes that came with the house....they kind of annoy me, but the SO likes them. I did hard prune them so they were very open at the bottom and bigger at the top...they kinda look like huge broccoli now...so I planted a buch of stuff around them...guess I will have to keep them pretty pruned for next year.

Thanks Jan23! : )
flowerjen that color combo is a winner - very pretty. : )

wha - actually it is good you didn't say 'okay I'll be over' I don't know if my dh would understand either lol. : )
I've been asking him to help me with it but he's just so busy with work and other stuff it isn't on his priority list. I cut it back as much as I could with the hand pruners but I really need help trying to get it's roots up. This thing must have been planted when the house was first built in the 80's and it is not going to be easy getting it out. I don't know about other areas but these things are growing wild all over the place here and they are on the invasives list. They get bright red berries that robins seem to love. I've allowed it to stay for 3 years only because I knew it would be tough to eradicate, but I don't find them attractive in the least. They get a lot of old stem die back and they grow about 2 to 3 feet of new growth every year. I beleive it is a Lonicera maackii.

A couple more notes to report on in my garden. Sadly the several hard frosts have taken down most all my plants. With strange notable exception the dusty miller I had planted in all my pots seems to be pretty frost proof even though it is an annual. Also, my roses don't seem very affected. They still have all their leaves and a bunch are still blooming! guess they need the hard-hard frost to stop going...any of you other guys in my zone finding this to be the case (Kass?). I was going to post some pics, but forgot my cable...oh well....