End of summer flowers

Coming from here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1267440

Thanks, Jen!

1--My Brazilian Plume flower re-growing....I am NOT going to cut it back this year!!!!
The stems are re-growing and the leaves are getting wonderfully bigger and more spectacular....

Here! Just took these photos! The more stems growing to full potential---the more flowers next year...

Mine is doing great, too.

You're welcome ☺

Garlic Chives put on a nice floral display.
Great Blue Lobelia, a showy native wildflower.
Rough Blazing Star - Liatris aspera, now 5 feet tall and just starting to bloom. Another native.
Agastache 'Summer Love'
CAllicarpa - The clusters of bright, purple berries are as showy as many flowers.

nice!

My Beauty Berry is starting to bloom as well. It is just filled with berries. Such a pretty plant.

L O V E the blue lobelia!!!

Jan23 - Want me to bring you one at the swap?

Oh, really? That would be awesome!!!

I have a couple questions about my tall, red Cardinal Flowers. They are still hanging in
with a few blooms, but the stems were so tall, that they have long bent in in half
and are a mess to look at.

--These are perennial--right?
--How do they multiply? Me thinks from the roots getting bigger and bigger clumps.
Then you dig up and divide the root-ball. Right?
--The tall stems have, what looks like a lot of seed-like round "pods" all along the stems.
I have looked in some of them--but there is nothing (seeds) there. It has been rainy--so it is a mess...
Do Cardinal Flowers make seeds? How big are they?
--If I collect some of these "round thingies"--and dry them--will there be seeds inside???

Also---I want to dig these up and move them to my "YUK" bed. This bed can use some tall plants
in the background--as I already have a pretty massive New England Aster there--which I bought just
3 years ago on clearance. It is assuming quite a "presence" in this bed. It is also starting to bloom.
I have dug up two areas on either side of the .NE.A. and want to move the Cardinal Flowers there.

Questions:
--Can I cut the plants back NOW and then dig them up? It is pretty much done for the season.
--How low can I cut Them back? I am thinkinf to "manageable stumps.

Mind you---even if I do not get the answers to my questions--I will do what has to be done anyway.
I just appreciate some more experienced opinions here....This are my FIRST Cardinal Flowers.
My Pakistani neighbor gave me a pot of it. She separated hers (only 2 years old) and came up with 5 new pots.

Pictures:
1--The cardinal Flowers in July
2--The same today...They have been like this for a while now...
3--The bent over stems. Can you make out the little seed(?) bumps along the stems?

Thank you! Gita

Some more end-of-summer plants----

1--All the Coleus are just beautiful this time of year. This is "Alabama Sunset".
2--My Dr. Seuss is "colonizing" this bed--It is its way of growing.
like an open umbrella. The Endless Summer Hydrangea is on the left--coleus on the right.
3--New flower buds forming on the Brazilian Plume. Dig the size of those leaves!!!
They just get bigger and fatter as the season goes on. The more stems--the more leaves--the more blooms!
Next summer this should be awesome!!! Like I said--NOT cutting it back this year....
4--This is a rather large planter. I planted the Euphorbia with the tiny, snow-like blooms in it
to accent the other plants. You may say: "WHAT other plants??? The Euphorbia has taken over!
I did not even know these were Euphorbias--just some tiny, filler in plant....HA! It has covered everything!
5--AHEM---This is why you should NEVER plant more than ONE Persian Shield in a container...
Again--this plant has smothered off everything else. It is in a 14" pot.

edited to ask if you think this kind of Euphorbia is also perennial? Like the other one I have?
Would save a lot of $$ not having to buy it as an Accent plant--for $3+.

Thanks for any comments you can provide..... Gita

This message was edited Aug 29, 2012 8:48 PM

Gita - In regards to your questions about your Lobelia cardinalis, Cardinal Flower:

1) Yes they are perennials, but tend to be short-lived.

2) They multiply by seed and offsets in the enlarging clump.

3) Best time to divide them is early fall.

4) Yes, they do make seed.

5) The seeds are small and brown.

6) There should be seeds in the pods. Collect mature but unsplit pods and allow to dry, then break open.

7) Go ahead and cut the flower stalks back at your whim, but leave the stems with foliage as these are thought to aid in overwintering.

Alabama sunset looks gorgeous. Everyone is so attentive to their plants! Mine always have insect holes or discolored. I suppose it comes with experience.

lol MD terp! Why do you think some of my pictures are old, fuzzy, or can't be enlarged!!!

Here are recent pics of my 'sunset' oxalis, my 'autumn joy' sedum and a blooming spathe on my 'black stem' taro.

Sunset shamrocks? Hm

Paul---

IF you are willing to try to keep a Coleus plant over the winter as a houseplant,
I will take a couple cuttings of the Alabama Sunset and pot them up for you.
They will grow--like a houseplant--and you can take cuttings again and root those.
If you have a light set-up--they will do best under lights--or on a bright window.

A couple years ago, I did so many Coleus cuttings that I had no room for anything else...
Last year--I took them too late--and many of them died out. This year--I only have about
6 different ones.

Gita

Pics. December--2010

LOL Terp, You should see my Kong Coleus they are riddled with holes. Many of my other coleus look good but those big Kongs are a mess.

Holly--

I once "Fell for" buying a Cong. Never again!
They look nice and compact as they are sold--but then they grow large and split apart.
It totally lost its charm for me.

May be similar to Hostas--giving all the slugs a place to hide and then dine on all the leaves.
G.

Gita that'd be great, thanks. I over wintered two noid last year from neighbors house and I keep a Persian shield over winter, starting it over every spring.

I think I'm going to start a thread "my poor plant" and we can talk about how bad they look this year. Lol.

Gorgeous colors, Gita!!!!

Paul----

HOW do you propagate a Persian Shield?????
As you have seen--I have huge plants of it in a couple different pots.
It costs me $3 every year to buy a new one. And that is wholesale!

--Do you take cuttings? How and where? Then what do you do?
--When and how?
--Their stems seem a bit "woody". How do you manage this?

I have several Persians growing in pots and would like to know....
I can even share cuttings if you share here how you propagate them.

Thanks--Gita

Here comes Sweet Autumn Clem and October Skies Aster, Salvia going gangbusters

Gita-

Propagate them as you would coleus. I believe they are actually easier. Somebody jump in here if I'm off. The first time I did it the piece came from virginia at my brothers abode and he knocked the plant over while vacuuming and brought it to me a few days later. I just stripped it down put the nodes in the soil then with a watchful eye kept it damp.

*Mine has grown pretty funny, but I assume that is easy to correct with some attention.



This message was edited Aug 30, 2012 7:35 PM

Thanks, Paul!

Something new to try! Gita

Gita and Paul, We used to do strobilanthes cuttings at the green house growers I worked for a number of years ago now. In my experience strobes are a little more tricky than coleus: they do not take as quickly, they are more sensitive to moisture/drying out, they are harder to pinch back to achieve a bushy well shaped plant. I would suggest that cuttings be taken now while night temps are still warm to increase success. At the nursery we took cuttings in mid Spring and grew them on in a greenhouse that did not get cooler than 60 degrees at night. We did not over winter any stock plants, but started fresh with tissue culture 'plugs' late Feb. The cuttings we took were 6-8+ inches and we used rooting hormone.

Thanks for expanding Coleup!!

I'm pretty green with these things...

And may these things be pretty green for you too! Paul

Jusst passing on what I have seen work or has worked for me

I have been tucking my cuttings into pots with wet sphagnum moss and that seems to work very well.

Hibiscus in rebloom yesterday and a very soggy Gaillardia from today.

Not flowers--but odd things are happening--end of summer--to my big, old Silver Maple.

It has been shedding leaves early. Yellowing leaves--They are all over the lawn.
Usually, my Red Maple goes first--and the S.M. stays all green until wayyyy later.
Now it is shedding leaves.....I am afraid it may be giving up the ghost.....AAAGGGHHHH!!!!
Been wondering if i should top-prune it?? Been thinking about that a long time....

Has anyone else noticed this with their Maples--or other trees?
I realize the hot, dry summer may have cause this. Now we have had plenty of rain--
but it may be too late in the season.
Gita

Coleup- I appreciate it, thanks.

Ash tree had major leaf drop. I think you diagnose correctly. I can't say long term if topping will help at all. I think it's just doing an early fall to save its energy.

Personally- I'd save the money on that and use it towards removal if need be. I've never beleived in tree topping.

I'm with Sally tree topping is last resort and is usually very hard on the tree. Ric did top the Black Walnut behind the house years ago and it has done just fine. He tried topping the Blue Spruce out front but that didn't work and now it is coming down to be replaced.

I agree with both of you! Thanks....

Holly the Hyacinth Bean is LOADED with blooms now!

Ok I was not familiar with the term 'tree topping' - looked it up and yup THAT'S exactly what the folks our HOA hired did to our community trees! GRRRRRRRR!!!! I pulled up the other day after work and my jaw just dropped. I'm not even sure how to explain it - it just about pained me. I just kept shaking my head as I looked around getting out of my car. DD came out and said 'yup, I KNEW you were going to have a fit when you got home and saw what they did!' I'm certainly no expert but seriously - there had to have been alternatives to THAT! I realize the storms cost them a bit each time trees lost limbs and/or landed on someone's car...but seriously?! I'm just so upset over this.

Well you know what happens when nature is in the way of process, nature gets cut down ,run over, and driven to extinction. Small trees to the street and near the house ,large trees away from the house and wherever there is public room. It will be the only way to save some as long as such is as it is..
Only every time I ever saw an old white oak go to process that was hundreds of years old I felt much the same.Everything inside just seems to sink and you wonder who could of decided such a thing. Even makes you wonder who to give a bad time about it or get even with, but how?
They all get the tomatoes and the flowers and you get the mulch for next time.

I know that sick feeling.

Yep, seen it all too often... In fairness, sometimes there's just no alternative than to top or remove a big old tree... sometimes there's damage you may not have noticed that's made the tree unsafe... My in-laws have some huge oaks in their yard & nearby, and while I don't think they've had to take down a big one yet, some neighbors have. On the other hand, there's the neighbor who pulled out a lovely line of 50 year old boxwoods... LOL

Japanese morning glories are popping out surprises for me... I had 2 seeds of this one and 3 of that in my stash, so I started 1 from each packet and stuck the seedlings into various containers on the deck. Fun!