I hear you on the V. caracalla! I tried to start them in Jan. last year, but that dang mouse you're all tired of hearing about got them. I'll start them early again this year and plan to give away several seedlings at the midwinter Mid-Altantic swap. Maybe somebody in the area will get blooms early enough for seeds!
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #19
sempervirens, your heavenly blues must have reseeded because of the war mer area where they are being by the road and concrete. I didn't pull many seeds off of mine at all cause I wanted them to reseed and then that's probably why they didn't lol But then it doesn't look like tcs has any concrete or street to keep her HB's happy.
Wind I've grown the chocolate mg, I really liked it and that but didn't reseed for me either :( It's very pretty and the flower is a nice size! I even grew mine close to the house about 4 or 5' away but they didn't reseed, maybe I just don't have any luck with some M G's. Don't have any trou ble with milkyway though or gramdpa ott, they are everywhere and those ones with the pink and purple stripes in them too.
Lea -- mine are against the foundation. I have found that -- that area is my 'micro climate' where i can push the zone a bit.
I finally found you guys!! whew......now to catch up on all the reading. And I vaguely recall a snippet of conversation with Suzy while we were sorting seeds last year (she would toss out bits of knowledge like Johnny Appleseed) that lavender has a hard time starting in our area, which promptly caused me to put starting those seeds on the second list, which didn't get done. I have some in the back yard that was from a little nursery plant, and it came back this past year all nice and sassy, but I didn't get any seeds from it - I'll try to remember to get some next year to see if they'll sprout.
And yes, Neal, I agree with you on the winter moisture. So many perennials are lost because folks don't mulch them properly to protect them from desiccating in the winter winds. It's hard, though, to know how much protection is enough, and how much may be inviting problems.
Hi Dryad :))) so glad to see you found us oinkers!
OH -- i found the one i was looking for that had my Husker Red and White Yarrow
the color combination was really pretty.
Wind, I grow my rose silk Morning glory right next to house also. I start it early inside to give it a good start. I'm lucky to find 4 or 5 seeds each year. I use those the next year. Whenever I can't find any more seeds, I think I will stop growing it and start something different. I just started a Nelly Moser clematis in the same trellis, Hoping for a nice combination there.
Found a picture of my rose silk, I remember taking this picture the first year I grew it because I was in love with the leaves too. :o)
It's pretty and the variegation on the leaves makes it unusual too. Is rose silk the same as chocolate MG?
Almost the same, I believe the Chocolate is darker, more of a purple maybe?
'Mini Bar Rose' has leaves like that too... but the blooms on my 'Rose Silk' were huge! I'll be growing JMGs again this year (skipped last year). :-)
Does any one have the blue bachelor buttons?
Maxine
I'll be trying JMGs for the first time come spring. I received a couple of varieties as surprises in some trade seed- a most pleasant surprise indeed! Do they have any special requirements? I'm assuming they don't grow as aggressively as regular MGs (variegated stuff typically isn't as vigorous as green leaved), am I right in thinking that?
Can't remember where I saw it, but the Chocolate looked more dusty rose to my eye, while Rose Silk looks more true pink/rose. It's gorgeous!
Maxine, I have blue cornflowers.
Neal -- yanno - as i was going thru the basket last night... i found 2 packages of Blue... so, actually - you can give mine to Maxine if you dont have enough.... guess i was being a piggy.
I guess i was saving seeds early on in the season, and forgot about them.
Neal, we both got the same surprise package of JMGs I think :) I didn't start mine either, as I wanted to be sure not to mess them up. As I understand it they aren't hardy in my neck of the woods, and I wanted to be sure I had a way to either get seeds from them or make sure I could bring the pruned plant indoors for the winter. Our gifter has a JMG thread here on DG with pics and advice, I'll see if I can find it and will send it to you.
I got plenty of blue bachleror buttons for ya Maxine. : )
Are those the puffy bachelor buttons, or the Centaurea bachelor buttons that you want Maxine?
Not fussy! Would like to try both, please.
Thanks, Maxine
Okie dokie - I've got some of the Centaurea - I'll send it in for you :)
That sounds good Terese and Star- since y'all have got Maxine taken care of, I'll hold on to my mondo pack for the mondo leach field, LOL. Although if there ends up being a shortage, I certainly have them to spare :-)
Neal, you are absolutely right that the Rose Silk isn't aggressive. I'm zone 6/5, and that's why I start them inside a few weeks early.
tcs, I lost my beautiful 15 year old Rose of Sharon last year. Here is it's picture. I loved how it bent over the top of the Japanese Maple when it was loaded with blooms. I'm still sad about it. It was one of those combinations we didn't really think about but worked. Hubby planted Burning Bushes behind the Japanese maple now.
Does anyone know how long Rose of Sharon's live?
This message was edited Nov 24, 2008 4:36 PM
hmmm....how long do Rose of Sharon's live.....come to think of it, that's a darn good question....I remember my grandmother had one for YEARS...and I've got a client who's got one that's easily beyond 10 years old. Do you know why it died (I don't mean to be snotty or anything)? Perhaps it picked up a disease or something that did it in before it's time. I want to be sure that it's nothing contagious that might hit your JM. That's simply a lovely combination - I can see why you miss the Rose of Sharon! (I've got a light pink/dark pink one in my back yard, and would be happy to trot out and grab some seeds off it for you.)
Robin
My sister lives on my grandparents property and has some of my grandmothers bushes she passed over 35 years ago. so that makes them 35+
It was actually 2 bushes. It must have been a hard winter is all I can say although they are in a very protected place. They were the double flowered one, maybe those are shorter lived? Nothing was different about the bushes that summer/fall. Part of each of the bushes came back, but most of the bush had died so we cut both down at the end of last summer. The Japanese Maple is fine, it is really happier without the Rose of Sharon covering it's backside. The 3 Burning Bushes appear to be fine also.
Robin, thanks for the offer of the seeds, but we are going to give the Burning Bushes a chance. My hubby just loves them.
After I asked the question about how long do they live, I went web searching. I didn't find anything that seemed like the reason, but one horticulturist said she has seen lots of them die after 10 years with no other reason except age ... maybe that was it. :o(
toofew
mine was also a "Double" bloom Rose of Sharon... i maybe last 3-4 yrs.
but i do believe mine was Root Rot.
There was something different last year, remember the mini ice-age we had in April 2007. I lost my butterfly bushes and one of them was 15 years old.
Hmmm...this has me wondering if the double blossomed varieties may be shorter lived. There was a gorgeous hedge of pure white double RofS in my home town that I admired for some years. One by one they started dying until there was just a couple left and they finally removed them.
Hybridisation of plants usually makes them weaker. Double blossoms are certainly a sign of this.....
I have seen the single and the double live for a long long time. Know where there is a gorgeous double pink RS that been there for over 20 years. Usually if they start dying there somethign going on below the surface that you can't see. Could be a million and one things from nutrition, to nemetodes, to othe rtree roots chokign them out, water.
I have several of the singles here and my friend has a yard full of them all mixed colors. The doubles are my favorite though. : )
It does seem that the single sprout a ton of seedlings at the base and I almost never see that on the doubles.
This is my favorite it is a cross from my sisters plants.
That's a pretty one! Mine is a darker double color than that, and yes - throws out seedlings like mad.
It sounds like Tuink may have hit on it - hybridization can give plants some unadvertised tendencies - like roses having virtually no smell. Then again, 2007's weather surely was nasty here, it could be they were previously stressed and just gave up. Ah well - burning bushes are quite lovely - just be sure to keep them pruned! We have a row of them along the north side of the house, which runs along the neighbor's driveway. Small houses, narrow lots - and when we moved in (2006) the burning bushes had grown at least 15 feet and were really denying our neighbors the use of their drive. So I went out and whacked the hooey out of them that fall (I figured if they died they died, if not they would branch out more nicely). Long story short - neighbors are using their drive, and next fall I'll be whacking again. We don't see that side much anyway, so the fall color is really for the neigbors :)
Makes sense about the weakened hybrids. I'm kind of afraid to grow any seed producing single RoS here. They became terribly invasive in my mother's yard. If they can be mowed around, guess its not much of a problem, but I'm going for no lawn, all garden where it could be a nightmare.
gus, that is a beauty!
dry, I was about to say, I'd planted Dwarf Burning Bushes and then ran into this information ...
http://www.tlehcs.com/Question%20of%20the%20Week/Archive%20Questions/Trees%20and%20Shrubs/burningbush.htm
Wow! That is news to me ... what the dwarf means!!!!!
I guess I'll be out there pruning those 'dwarfs'.
toofew
LOL - I remember when I first read the specs about "dwarf" burning bush too! What a surprise that was! And they really can take very severe pruning without even blinking - I whacked those 15' things down to about 3'. Next year I'm going to do some renovation/rejuvenation pruning and take out some of the large limbs from the bottom in addition to bringing them back down a bit - they're back up to about 6' now. Healthy suckers. I seriously thought about taking them out, but they are so sturdy that they kind of provide a good deterrence to anyone who might want to nose around that side of the house when no one is looking. (My sis fenced off her side and front yards this summer and ran her sheep out there - they take pruning from sheep very well too!)
toofew, I think if you whack them every couple of years you should be fine.
we have had ours for 6.5 yrs now... it's still nice and small, with no major pruning .... I've snipped a few branches down only a few inches the past few years.
it's staying nice and manageable.
oooo Terese, I'm jealous! You should take some cuttings and do some propagation - you may actually have a true dwarf!
i have a photo somewhere... maybe the whats blooming thread in UMW... i'll see if i can find it.
Oh that a real beauty. How abotu digging it up and sending it this way. ; )