The answer to zone envy?

Did everyone see this article today?

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2332/

This is such a delicious prospect. I get just enough frost each year to kill the tops, but not the roots, of hibiscus, mandevilla, tibouchina, and clerodendrum plants unless I drag them all inside for the winter. If I leave them outside, they have to start growing all over again in spring, and the amount of growth they do from spring to winter isn't that impressive. Sometimes they haven't even reached blooming size before the next year's frost. It would be so wonderful to use this spray on certain tropicals and keep them outside and in the ground for years. They could grow to their full potential.

Wow Zuzu, this sounds really interesting! If it makes a difference for the few things I have to drag in, I'm game to try it.

As usual, I lean toward the flip side of this concept: I wish they would come up with something that did the opposite as well, so I could grow things like Lilacs, Peonies, Meconops, etc.

Yeah, like that's gonna happen !

You can, JD. Pour ice cubes at the base of peonies and lilacs in winter. I do it all the time, and mine always bloom.

What a joy it would be to not have to take in over 100 plants each year! Bringing them back out in April and May would not occupy a few days of my time either.

I'm have pretty much the opposite outlook on this. I grow hardly any houseplants, and I find plenty of plants that I want that are hardy to my zone to occupy my life for the rest of it. So I essentially do not have zone envy.

Now if I couldn't grow lilacs, like JD, I might change my mind. Lilacs are my spring.

None of the lilacs grow for you, JD? Not the southern ones or laciniata?

This message was edited Mar 18, 2009 11:23 PM

No. We don't get cold enough here. I know numerous people who have bought the varieties that they claim will grow here and not one of them has ever seen a blossom.

People will buy anything if it has an official looking lable.
Our Lowes sells Peonies.
Aint gonna happen.

Very sad, but you have so many beautiful sweet smelling plants that are hardy for you. I don't know what I would do without my lilacs. I have about 100 cultivars. But it's a memory of good times thing for me.

I am free of zone envy and would simply enjoy not carting the plants back and forth twice a year, Polly. The main reason I go through it is for the beauty they bring for the winter months. I've had amaryllis in bloom from December and we love looking at them while it was snowing out just 16 days ago.

Each coast has plants that do very well for them so to me it's just fun to see how beautiful plants grow everywhere. I have no lust in my heart (or anywhere else) for banana trees or agapanthus.

ay ay

I don't do well with indoor plants, so that helps. I did manage to keep a hibiscus and mandevilla alive this year, but other than some ivy, that's about it.