Last Fall when the BES had finished blooming, I gathered the seeds from them ; put them in a tupperware container to wintersow this year. Never got around to Wintersowing them, so I decided to use 4 in. nursery pots to sow them in because I didn't have any more gal milk jugs to use. I did those nursery pots the same way I would have done the seeds in a milk jug; found a dry cleaning bag and wrapped the tray in that, taped it up at the bottom so the wind couldn't rip it off, punched air holes in it. That was either 3/15 or 3/18 and I checked them last week, still no germination and I took the plastic off and have been watering them every other day when I saw the first signs of the potting mix drying up..still no germination. It has just dawned on me..what did I do with the actual plants themselves?..Did Idiscard them or did the person that does my mulching pull them up and throw them away or did he cover them up with mulch? Maybe I mulched that bed myself..why can't I remember? If the plants themselves were cut down to the basal plant, they should still be covered with mulch ; would they be popping through that now? Anyway I don't know what happened but want to get some more plants started. I've got seeds, should I just add some potting mix around where I want them to grow and direct sow the seeds I saved? I know I gave a new gardening friend a bunch but don't think I gave her all of them. Maybe I can look over my DG blog notes and maybe find a clue? Maybe I didn't notate anything about cleaning up the beds in the fall.. This is my own mystery to figure out. Do you ever have this to happen to you and you get mad at yourself? I know BES are drought tolerant flowers; is the 50-60 degree temps still too cold for their seeds and that's why they haven't germinated?
Direct sowing black-eye susan seeds
I went back on my previous D-mails and found out that I sowed those BES on 3/19..Would they have had enough time to germinate? We really need rain so bad..it was too windy and cold for me to work out in my flowerbeds today. Maybe another day this week..Will check the moistness of the potting mix that the BES seeds are planted in. I watered them well yesterday. With all the wind, I hope they haven't dried out today.
I have started Rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun' and 'Cherry Brandy' the past 2 years....However, I start them in my greenhouse with nightime heat mats. Germinates in about 10 days. After about a month I transplant it to 4 inch pots and I continue to keep it warm.....So I think direct sowing outside might take longer for germination.....thinking 3 weeks or so? That's my best guess.
Last evening, I bought the tray of 18 (4in. nursery pots)inside the kitchen, and sat them in a plastic tray and bottom watered them for a few hours(it seemed)then I placed Glad Press&Seal on top of each nursery pot, poked some holes for air/rain and put them back outside. I did some more research and find out it takes I should have started them back in Jan. but can't cry over my mistake. Move forward..I have plenty more flowers I can plant in place of BES..
My pink creeping phlox are so pretty, blooming in the front flowerbeds, especially the garage flower bed..it is edged all in pink creeping phlox with a few Emerald Blue in front of the garage bed that I didn't know I even had. Amazing how easy it is to forget what all you have in these flowerbeds from year to year. Have a few mystery plants that I'm waiting for them to mature a bit more and I will go back on last year's WS handwritten spreadsheet and maybe I will find the answer. It looks familiar but I can't think of what it is for the life of me.
Need to add in some more soil in some low lying places..so want to go buy Bumper Crop brand from my favorite garden center. It has the following ingredients in it:
worm castings, lobster and crab shells, kelp meal, dehydrated poultry manure, peat humus, sphagnum peat moss, aged bark, composter cow manure and dolomitic lime.
Need to shovel prune the raspberry wine monarda and try to transplant it elsewhere.
Between that and larkspurs, columbines and shasta daisies, I should have some pretty color in the beds this summer once the tulip and daff foliage dies back. In May, I always buy geraniums, petunias and verbena but don't recall buying petunias and verbena last year but bought flowering vinca instead.
What's blooming in your flowerbeds now besides spring bulbs?
Pippi: I always plant some BES vine. I love the flowers. I plant them in early Spring--usually in March. It takes them a long time to germinate, and the germination is eradicate. I sure wouldn't give up on the seeds yet.
This year, I have been sooo busy pulling weeds and doing some landscape jobs; I haven't planted the seeds yet. I still plan to do so--maybe tomorrow. I always soak the seeds over night. This year, I soaked the seeds for two days, ran out of time and energy for the first day and left them in the water the second day. Now, I have them in wet paper towels. They're probably a lost cause, but I am still going to plant them. The seeds need quite a bit of warmth.
How very nice of you to share your BES seeds. They aren't cheap when one goes to buy them!
Last year, I put BES vine with Gloriosa Lily in a terrazzo planter. It was striking. The planter was in our unheated garage for the winter. I watered the vine about three times through the winter---just a glass of water. The plant is greening up. I cut it back to about four inches. I have lots of green shoots.
BES vine takes off pretty fast once it germinates. I don't go to all the trouble you do--covering the pots etc. They go in small 3" X 3" pots and that's it. I think yours will still germinate--they probably haven't had enough heat.
Our dogwoods just finished blooming. Azaleas, wild sweet william, sweet william, dianthus, iberis, basket of gold is blooming, and the larkspur is just starting, and several clematis are blooming. Bleeding heart just finished also.
We were offered free brick. My husb. & I have hauled and cleaned over 400 brick and have a hundred more to clean. We are going to edge the gardens with the brick. My hands ache from pounding on the mortar and lifting the brick. I also have a lot of black and blue spots where I missed the mortar and hit my hand! Thus, no black eye susan seeds have been planted. :(
Good luck with yours. I think they will still germinate. Keep us posted.
Pippi: I just looked at my BES vine seed that is in the paper towels. I see some of them have sprouted. I think the key here is the warmth: about 70 degrees.
My daughter had given me the original plants that she dug up from her gardens maybe 3 yrs. ago..I had a lot last year and gave my new gardening friend the plants I dug up, not seeds..things are coming back to me now what happened to them, but I think I see some foliage that might look like BES and I'm going to wait till it gets taller so I can identify weed or BES coming back. Never thought about BES vine..do you let grow up a post or mailbox or gutter or trellis? Are you saying you have to replant the seeds of the BES vine each year? Since it is a perennial, one would think it would come back each year but I thought I read from one source that it was Biannual..maybe I am thinking of some other plant that I was looking up today. Thanks for sharing all your experiences with me. I don't have a warm place where I can keep seeds inside a plastic bag/wet paper towel to see if they are ok except dryer and DH has a fit if I leave anything on the dryer. If I clean the lint tray out and lay the lint on top and forget to discard it in trash can, he will walk by and throw it away and chastize me like I was a kid. Like he is perfect! Men!
Will I be able to find BES vines in a garden center/nursery? I've always wanted to start a clematis and let it grow around my rural mailbox, but always thought I needed something taller. I've seen some pictures where people do that..my cousin who lives in Ga. always refers to them as "mailbox flowers" so they must grow them a lot there but she doesn't live in a rural neighborhood. I've always wondered if people who let them grow on their mailboxes keep wrapping them around that mailbox or does it grow like that itself.
Ooooohhhh so many good questions.
1. We were talking about two different species. The BES you were talking about is a perennial plant and a very pretty one. The BES I was talking about is an annual vine and one of my favorites. I really, really like it. It looks rather delicate, but once you get it germinated, it grows effortlessly.
2. You can let the vine grow up a post, mailbox, trellis or just let it meander through your other flowers. I have it growing up a trellis that was made from green plastic coated fence that has squares (like chicken fence only with bigger squares and is plastic coated). You have to guide it up the trellis to begin with, but once it gets going-it grows on its own. It has tendrils. I also have this pretty vine meandering amongst my Platycodon [Balloon Flower (blue)]. It's not aggressive--just happy amongst the other flowers.
3. I have my BES vine seeds in a wet paper towel wadded up in a ramekin sitting on the kitchen cabinet. So, no special heat necessary.
4. Yes, you can find the BES vine in garden centers, but it is rather expensive. I saw it last year in a hanging plastic basket for $10.00. The seed is 10 cents each or cheaper depending on which species you choose. My favorite is Thunbergia 'Spanish Eyes'. I will post a picture of it at the bottom of this thread.
5. I start this vine every year from seed as I really like it. One can save the seed but you have to beat the birds and catch it ripe before it falls to the ground. The seeds are rather large and black. I like this vine so well; it is worth it to grow it from seed each year.
6. The BES vine blooms all summer and into the fall until the first hard frost.
7. Now about the clematis. You can grow Clematis around your mailbox, but you do have to attach it somehow to the mailbox or it may meander on the ground and you will not have the affect you want. I have a trellis right next to my mailbox. If you get a trellis, be sure it is stout enough or attached very well to your mailbox or a strong wind could blow the plant down. You could also use the fence as mentioned above and attach it to your mailbox.
8. If you decide to get a clematis, get one that doesn't get over 10 feet. Actually 6 to 8 feet would be better. If you get one that gets 20 feet tall, you would have a mess as it would grow beyond your mailbox.
9. I tie the clematis up to the trellis in the early spring to get it started in the right direction and not get all tangled up at the bottom of the plant. The vine is rather stiff, woody, and fragile. So, tying this plant up can be a challenge in patience. This is what I do, I am sure others do something different. There's a clematis forum on DG that could probably tell both of us a lot more!
10. Most of the clematis wrap around an object or another part of the vine by the leaves wrapping around. Some clematis don't "wrap". Those would have to be tied to a trellis to grow up, or you could let it meander around on the ground amongst you other flowers. The description of the clematis should tell you which kind it is.
11. Lastly, the next time your husband chastises you, say this: "I am your wife, not your child, please talk to me as an adult-- to an adult,-- not a parent to a child."
Pictures of Thunbergia 'Spanish Eyes' (Black Eyed Susan Vine)
Thank You for all your information. Seeing the BES vine in the first picture looks like it might be on one of those wrought iron Shepherd's hooks that most people use for hanging baskets. That gave me an idea. I have several of them that I haven't used in a few years. I could use that for the BES vine to climb if I get the seeds. Will be something different.
I have a Dr. Ruppel clematis that usually does beautifully but I wonder what it's going to do this year..Half of it looks like it all dried up vine..I didn't have my man that usually prunes it and feeds it in mid March this year. March came and went and I wasn't ready for him to mulch the beds yet, so I may end up doing it myself this Spring after the bulb foliage has died back and I am ready for my geraniuams, petunias or flowering vinca. Need to do some other maintenance work in the beds. It has been so windy since Sunday and cold, even thought the temps were in 50-60's yesterday, it was so bitter cold, I couldn't stand it and quick what I was doing. This morning I went out about 9 am and it was a bit breezy again. 15-25 mph winds.. I waited till later and it warmed up and cut back my bee balm and shovel prunned it and dug some of it up as it was spreading into other perennials (my lupine plant)that I wintersowed last year and my Geum that should bloom this year. Yesterday I took cuttings from bee balm and used rootone on them and planted them in 4 in. nursery pots. Will see if they will root that way. If I am successful that way, I'll take them to plant swap in May or donate to our Garden Club plant sale day before Mother's Day.. We usually make about $2500-$3000 off that sale.
Never been to it but may have to go and see what it is all about and volunteer to help a few hours.
Yes, the first pic is a shepherd's hook, however, I have the plastic coated green fence circled around it.
It's cold here today also. Night before last, we had a low of 29 degrees. We had to cover up a bunch of our flowers. The azaleas got bit pretty good. Our last frost date is suppose to be April 10. The 29 degrees came April 11th. We had such warm weather in March similar to June. Everything started growing and blooming.
I was unable to get my clematis fertilized before they started blooming this year. Everything seemed to happen all at once.