It is the middle of October and I still have Canna's blooming,Elephant ears standing tall, roses, Clems, and Inpatients putting smiling blooms, and much more. But I know I have to get these Canna's and Elephant ears cut and the bulbs brought in to dry. I had a Forsythia blooming and Mock Orange putting out a bloom, I cut off them stems, silly things. It is not spring. But with this strange weather, many are not sure what to do, they keep putting out new growth and pushing those blooms to open. I guess everything is like me it does not want summer to go and they are holding on for as long as they can. But next week they will have to go. I know if I put it off they will get hit with a sudden cold weather and wont get inside in time. House plants need to come in, even though they too are having fun still playing outside. Winter is just around the corner and I know it will hit fast when we are not looking or ready.
Who else is pushing the limit by not having their fall garden chores done and not wanting the summer to end.
I know its time, But I dont want to do it.
I have my hand raised. All houseplants are still outside and my one and only canna is blooming beautifully. The cold will hit eventually and I can only hope I'll have all plants inside before it's too late.
As far as "garden chores done" - no way! I'm digging plants for other people, cleaning up as I go along, removing more of the evil Houttuynia and there are still the many clematises to find homes for and get planted along with more Japanese irises I just ordered and will have to plant.
I'm happy summer and our awful heat is over but I am thoroughly enjoying fall.
I agree pirl. I have more to plant too, that I bought a month ago. I am afraid to go to Lowe's, I know I will find more to rescue...lol
I spent Monday moving Hydrangea's and replanting shrubs. Cleaned up the bed while I was at it. I still have 3 more Hydrangeas to find a home for that was dug up. But my back is still recovering from that day...lol I hope it does not rain next week so I can do it a little at a time.
Me too. I have several cannas still in bloom and I really don't want to chop them down and dig out the rhizomes just yet. Although I need to now. The weather has been lovely, but is now starting to get cooler. Guess winter really is going to show up. Boo.
Usually the "first freeze" is a killing freeze for the leaves, but not for the roots. I wait until that happens then cut down my EE and lift the bulbs, as they are in large pots. Canna's here planted in the ground I do not have to lift. After the foilage is done for, I cut it and put it on top of where they were growing to act as a shield and mulch for the roots still in the ground. The ones in pots I do the same as with the EE's.
Hi!
Can anyone tell me how to overwinter my Tropicanna canna? What do I do with it after I dig up the rhizomes? Can I keep them in the garage over winter or what do I store them in? I tried once digging up dahlias and keeping them. I think I put them in vermiculite??? Anyhow, they were dried out prunes when it was time to plant them, so in the trash they went. ;o(
Thanks,
Sherry
I did the peat moss thing one year and lost all my rhizomes.
Last year I put a row of them in the bottom of a box, then a row of crumbled brown paper bags, on top of that another row of rhizomes and so on. Everything was good for the next spring. I think it kept a nice air flow space between them. Just make sure you separate the EE's from the Canna's. I didn't and I had both growing in the same pot when I planted them...lol
Nice arrangement though...lol
Just make sure you let them dry on their own real good, before you do this.
I am having a hard time switching to "fall mode"! I have so many perennials still to get in the ground. I acquired them throughout the summer but it was too hot to go out & plant them. Now the weather is good and and I'm trying to get those babies in the ground.
I don't have tender bulbs to lift, but I'm still not willing to give up my tomato & pepper plants. We had a couple nights below freezing last week, and even some snow - so I did have to hustle & get the houseplants in. But thank goodness for frost blankets!
Today it looks like fall came here over night. The trees have turned orange and gold and dropping leaves all over. I woke to pine needles all over the yard.
I think I will be getting the house plants in Sunday and the rest done this next week. I might wait till the frost kills the foliage of the Canna's and EE though.
You are all reading my mind. ^_^ I have all the above still outside, I can't bring myself to bring anything in, or dig up the tender bulbs. I wait for the first frost that kills the leaves before I dig anything up.
I do the same thing as marie_kap with my canna's ~ a box & paper bags. They go in our crawl space in the basement and do fine. The canna's are the same rhizomes I bought years ago.
I wonder if I should put them under the house in the crawl space or in the garage. Maybe the garage was too warm as it is insulated and sheetrocked and I had them in an upstairs room (unheated) above the garage. And maybe too cold under the house? Do you have to mist them through the winter? Just a box and paper bags??? Really? Nothing else? Wow! I just want to save them this time and have never done much in trying to save things over the winter. But I'm wanting to try and learn how to do this. ;o)
Sherry
Mine just go into the spare room. No misting ,you want them to stay dry.
I don't keep my house all that hot , maybe around 68. The first year I cut my EE back , kept in the pot and brought it in. I was not watering it thinking it would go dormant. Well it kept growing. It was all leafed out again by Feb. The second year it was too big to do that and I had to many. They multiply each year.
ME!!!! LOL! I'm still planting, I have hundreds and hundreds of plants to get into the ground yet....lisabees---Found a great sale on plants at a local nursery. Is Timberline Nursery in Arvada. 4" pots at $4-4.50, they also have a $1 table, I got more than $60 worth off the $1 table. Such great bargains and many unusuals that aren't at the box stores or even reg. nurseries. What a great place, I made 3 trips over there from Kiowa but was worth it. Am still planting, had just dug up my iris (400+) and found this sale. Am planting like crazy---lol. And then I got two trades in the mail. Oh my. Fortunately the weather is still cooperating and I'm thinking I might get done by Christmas, Lol. Hoping sooner tho. (my longies are all ready, lol.) Kathy
Wow Kathy, hundreds & hundreds? I don't envy you that!
It's supposed to be 84 degrees tomorrow, but they say there's a hard freeze coming early next week so my veggies will all need to be picked before that happens - darn it! I got most of my perennials planted today though & I'm hoping for NO more pots to plant before I tackle the veggies. I feel like I'm on track.
Good luck on that planting, I hope you get it all done by Christmas...lol I just have to rearrange some things and plant a few.
At least Kathy's post made me feel better!
Me too!
Okay, so I went outside today. Can someone help me, or steer me to the best place to post my dilemma? We took the attached 'tree' outside this spring. It has grown to the point we can't bring it back inside in one piece.
Do we... chop off the top and try to make a new plant? How would we do that? Or do we... chop it off lower (maybe 2 ft high) and will it grow from the cut part? We're scratching our heads, not knowing what to do with 'the beast'.
Would it survive in the garage for the winter? I don't think it would. We're in zone 6A, WNY outside Buffalo.
This message was edited Oct 15, 2011 2:24 PM
I'll send your post to a friend who will know the answer.
Is that a Corn plant?
It looks like it's a Yucca of some sort. If it is, you can do one of two things or both:
1.) Cut off the top to whatever height you want and place it in a new container for it to root.
2.) Save the old base (you could probably just leave it in the conatiner) and it will send out new shoots where it was cut.
3.) Given your zone, I'd leave it in the house for the winter in a spot where it will get good sunlight. A dark garage will probably kill it.
edited for typos.
This message was edited Oct 15, 2011 5:29 PM
Thanks, JD.
Thanks so much pirl & JD! It was DH's, it's forever old, we didn't want to lose it. As you can see, it was hitting the ceiling before we took it outside, and it grew even taller out there.
Much appreciated!
marie_kap, DH said it was a corn plant. JD said it looked like a yucca, he would probably know better. I don't know too much about indoor plants myself, I take care of the outside ones.
I was wondering because mine is about 7 ft tall now. I take it outside each spring and really grew this summer. I might put it in the room with a high ceiling or cut it back and let the new growth come out. I do have a baby at the bottom growing nice. There is a restaurant here that has one in their front entrance, I do believe is over 12 ft tall.
I really hate to cut it, but we have to. Outside, it's quite impressive with the potted plant groupings.
My Christmas and Thanksgiving cactus are still outside and they are putting out blooms. I guess they like the cool weather too.
Here's my "cut-off" story: (not the same situation, I know - I cut my plant out of desperation and yours is healthy) but just for information's sake:
I have a corn plant that had lost a lot of it's lower leaves and had become leggy and ugly, so I cut it back to try to rejuvenate it. Originally, it was approaching 8 feet tall and had one "trunk" with two leafy shoots. I cut off both shoots a few inches above the trunk, threw one away and stuck other in the soil next to the trunk. The section that I stuck in the soil is doing fine now, growing new leaves, etc., and although it took all summer, both of the old shoots are starting to leaf out again in two places below where I cut them. It's still not very pretty but it's getting there, and I think I will be glad I didn't toss the plant in the trash as I considered doing.
So bottom line: if you want the same look you have now, keep the TOP of the plant and root it like JD said.
I would keep the bottom too, in it's original pot, even though it'll be just a stump for a while - eventually it will put out two new shoots.
This message was edited Oct 16, 2011 3:20 PM
I have the iris I collected this summer in pots and they are all doing well. They are growing and putting up new leaves. I haven't gotten the new iris bed done, and don't know if I will before next spring. I am thinking they will be fine in those pots through the winter. What do you think? I know they probably won't bloom next spring if I don't get the bed ready, but that is something I'll just have to live with.
Last year I had several potted up and planted them in pots. None bloomed this year (I didn't expect blooms) but my reason for doing it was to coordinate colors as they bloom. Do you have a spot where you could just bury the irises in pots?
I don't understand what you mean. "Do you have a spot where you could just bury the irises in pots?" Do you mean dig a hole and put the pots in the holes??? Can you explain the reasoning in this? I'm not comprehending. I have them in pots with dirt below them and the rhizome buried about 1/2 way. Some of them I could do, but have a few big pots.
Thanks!
I had to dig out all my irises, they just kept getting iris borers, which is a northern thing. But I thought the rhizomes had to be near the surface of the soil.
The one year I did get some, I didn't have time to do a proper bed for them either. I put them in a big pot for the winter and left it outside. They survived just fine.
As far as my corn plant goes, we are going to chop of the top of 'The Beast' and also keep the bottom and see what happens.
Crit - yes, either make one hole and bury all pots in one hole or plant the pots individually as I did. You'll see the pots more clearly in the photo on the next post.
The reason is for winter protection from the elements. If your bed isn't ready because you don't have amendments worked in yet then it could be the answer for at least the winter.
Smileymom - borers can be a problem anywhere if the irises aren't in well drained soil. To help the issue always plant them on a rise in the earth (or create it) and the iris roots will help keep the mound intact. Each iris is planted near the surface of each pot and covered with my favorite mulch, long pine needles.
I'm sure your decision to take off the top and pot it up will work fine.
Crit - here you can see the pots a bit more clearly.
Thanks pirl. I have TONS of long pine needles. Now I have a good use for them! Do you remove them in the spring then?
Great. No need to move them at all. They help keep the soil temperature constant and maintain moisture as well.
Time to start raking my pine needles. Does it matter which plants i put them around?
Not at all. Regardless of what people may believe, once pine needles are dead they are not acidic.
I use them on plants that like alkaline soil as well as those that prefer acidic soil.
Well hells bells that was news to me.. Thanks pirl. I was always afraid to even leave them on my lawn thinkng that they would kill it.
Here's an excerpt from a well known Canadian gardener:
There's a lot of advice to the contrary but folks assume that a bit of organic matter once decayed is going to retain it's original acidity. As any organic matter breaks down, it approaches neutrality - neither acid nor alkaline. And the soil pH is like a giant flywheel out there created by it's underlying minaral content and possibly bacterial types. So you have a giant flywheel effect of pH and a teeny bit of organic matter breaking down. Not going to be a problem. You have to change the underlying soil structure to change the pH or chemically alter it.
Holy crap Pirl, you just got me more confused with all that...lol