Yardening Summer 2013 Part 3

Great discussions. Let's continue our Yardening Sagas with a new continuation thread!

We came from here

Gita, I checked my boxwood today and although my sense of smell is not what it used to be, I would say based on odor that this is Real Boxwood. Is that Buxus sempervirens, or English Boxwood?

Cha-ching, Catmint! Sell those bad boys and get some cash for stuff you really want. Even better, someone else will dig them up for you!

Uh oh. It looks like I have a different set of fungal issues this time.

It started with one little section, but I've now lost a big chunk of my ajuga, and the thyme continues to blacken and die off. It turns out I might have southern blight, or the Sclerotium rolfsii fungus. I'm thinking that's also what killed off the foxgloves earlier this year. They rotted and turned black.

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/sul8.pdf

I'm also seeing twig die off in the newly planted camellias. It looks like phytophthora wasn't fully treated by the anti-fungals.

Sigh. Time to start over.

SSG, oh no, that sounds awful! :-( Are you sure that's what it is?

Well, guess I need to ask around about these boxwoods! ;-)

It's definitely crown rot, and it seems the S rolfsii is what causes it in ajuga. And the same fungus causes crown rot in thyme and foxgloves. The ajuga's planted in areas with pretty poor drainage (not in elevated beds). I probably spread the spores around inadvertently. :(

I need to look for ground covers that don't rot so easily, or use more pavers/wood chips in the pathways.

Catmint, I've seen ads for boxwoods on craigslist. Someone will come by and pay you a little bit of money to dig them up!

May be what also killed all my petunias I have planted in my beds....

It was definitely a Crown Rot---all mushy at the base--roots falling off..

John ( a possible new memeber here..) wrote and told me what
to get to spray.
It is "Ortho Max Garden Disease Control"--$15 for a 16oz bottle...

I bought it but have not used it. The active ingredient--"Chlorothalonil"
is the same as in Daconil.
I have an older bottle of Daconil--but not sure how soon it loses its potency?

All this rain did not help....Gita

yikes, poor petunias! All the rain has been really hard on all the plants. Thanks for the tip about the Ortho Max Garden Disease Control, Gita.

SSG, do you think your ajuga came infected from the nursery? For ground covers -- have you tried Hernaria glabra Green Carpet?

Okay, Craigslist it is for the Boxwood! I'll take some nicer photos in the morning.

SSG, this cool rainy weather is not going to help either. :( It's fungus heaven. On the bright side, you can turn your A/C off and spend the money you save on replacing those plants.

Gita, my acalypha are doing so well! I'm smitten. The cutting has rooted, and the one I cut back to the ground has lots of new growth. The ones that I didn't cut back now have male and female flower things, which are cool too.

Has anyone ever grown those new wave pansies? I have a few that I won from a blog, and they are STILL BLOOMING. pansies, blooming in august? whoever heard of such a thing? I kept waiting for them to die down so I could replant the planter, but... they keep going. I've even had to curl the plant back in on itself b/c it is "waving" so much. I highly recommend them, even at the high price for annuals, they were awesome this Spring (although I am sort of just tired of them now).

The ajuga have come from several people, including my sister, Happy, and the nursery, and they've all been in the ground for at least a year. My plants are just prone to fungal infections in general. :(

Gita, I have some antifungals now but will look to see if I need to get another kind.

Karen--you wrote:

Gita, my acalypha are doing so well! I'm smitten. The cutting has rooted, and the one I cut back to the ground has lots of new growth. The ones that I didn't cut back now have male and female flower things, which are cool too.

Could you post some pictures of your Acalyphas? The cut back ones and
the male and female flowers?

--How can you tell the male and female blooms apart?
--The one you cut back--and that is now sprouting---What do you
plan to do with it--or the others--for the winter???
--Do you plan to take them inside and grow them like houseplants?

Mine are doing fabulously outside--they all get mostly AM sun--and then
filtered sun the rest of the day. Even the extra ones I got the 2nd time--
and planted--one in my raised bed--and the other one in my small front bed
are doing so well...Hate to lose them......:o(

I am guessing the GH I got them from will carry these again next year---
but they will cost $3 each--and a bit less if you buy a full tray (8).
Maybe $20?

Getting to be my bed time---talk to you soon.....Gita

Gita,

"Speak of the devil"...! Check out Sally's article for today on Acalyphas!

I need to get another fluorescent light fixture but yes, I am planning on bringing at least the cutting inside this winter. I hadn't really thought about treating it as a houseplant, I don't think I have room for it unless it will tolerate low light. I guess we'll see. I don't want to lose any of mine either. $3 each is a lot of money for annuals but I think they are probably worth it. They pack a huge punch, and would look magnificent en masse.

I guess if I think about it, for my tiny front bed, I would only need 4-5 to completely fill the bed and then just a few little things in front. Plus I have that Velvet Mocha Coleus that you gave me that would offer a beatiful contrasting texture to the big shiny smooth acalypha leaves..... Oh the wheels are turning! Anyone else planning next year's beds already? :) I'm attaching a picture of this year's bed. It's a little less exuberant in the few weeks since the pic was taken. I think the petunias are sulking/succumbing to fungal diseases and are just generally past their prime anyway.

I will post pics of the acalypha this afternoon. The flowers look like catkins, the male ones are long and skinny and hang down. The female flowers are short and spiky and stand up more. So cool! Here's a picture I found in a google search to tide you over till I can take pics this afternoon. http://www.biologie.uni-regensburg.de/Botanik/Schoenfelder/kanaren/images/Acalypha_wilkesiana.jpg

This message was edited Aug 7, 2013 7:20 AM

Karen--

Sally said she would write an article on the Acalyphas.
Nothing like some fresh material. It must be hard to come up with topics..

Glad yours is doing so well! Can't beat the colors!
If you could rig up a fluorescent light somewhere--you could grow
the cuttings under that. Many of us have a light set-up of some sort for
growing seeds...Before seeding time--I use it for cuttings...(Coleus)
Mine is small--just a 3' shelf set-up in my bedroom. Did i show it to you?

A few years ago--she also wrote an article on the S. African Foxglove
after I grew the plant and gave her seeds...

Just call me an "instigator'.....:o) Gita

I could think of a few things for topics, maybe this winter I will try my hand at writing articles....

Yes I have a light that I adjust over a workbench but it's not that fancy. I need another fixture for this year b/c I have more plants to carry over. I don't have nice setup like you yet but I'm working on it. I think The Hubs is tired of me commandeering his workbench all winter. Plus it would be really nice to have two lights that are adjusted to different heights: for seedlings and for older plants. I even have a "heat source" for germinating. It's SO cheap and ugly though. I put an incandescent light bulb up close under a steel shelf so it warms up the shelf and put my seeds on that warm shelf. Many things germinate w/in 48 hrs. It cost me nothing, while a fancy heat mat costs $30 and up!

Roses: You wrote, on the prior thread:

Our town offered free top soil with free delivery from a project that is in progress. I put down lots of cardboard and as much newspaper as I can get my hands on. I soak this layer and then take small tractor trailor loads from the soil pile and amend with local goat and rabbit manure and maybe some peat moss. I try to get a layer of at least 7 inches high to plant small shrubs and plants in. Each year I beef up the garden with a layer of new amended soil. I use Aggrands fertilizer, bonemeal, and phosphorus intermittently all year as directed by the company. By the way, I do not wait for the grass under to die or decompose. I do everything ASAP

Wow RRR. That sounds great, what a process. Your plants must love you. You can provide the perfect soil for them.

Annually how much soil do you add to your garden?

Roses -- that process sounds great. My problem is that because of the steep hill we live on, it is a major process to get deliveries of soil (or anything) from our driveway to anywhere else -- we can't use a tractor so everything must be carried by wheelbarrow and even that is tough because of the steps. So the newspaper part is easy, but not so much the dirt! And it sounds as if you are really doing it right with all the amendments!

We often don't wait either but mostly wait a year to introduce deeper bulbs etc. Just the added depth is adequate drainage and erosion has never been an issue here.

Annually, we pile up several inches around all the rose bushes in late fall and top all the perennial gardens with at least another 2 inches (all raised beds). I think we use about 7 yards of soil each year.

Roses -- your soil must be astonishing. I'm so jealous!

RRR, So totally telling the truth: my first thought was "I wish I was a plant so I could get in your bed." because your flowerbeds sound so wonderful and luxurious. And then I was like....wait that sounds like a bad pick up line. But it's still funny enough to post.

And so there it is. :)

Rose, you are definitely inspiring me! LOL, Typ--I often think that about my cats, as I see them lounging around in all the comfy spots in the house...

I put some cardboard out by one of my sunny beds, and started putting weeds, flowerheads, and other goodies on it. I think I need to get more mulch and Leafgro, too...

Okay, here is my poor Agastache Purple Haze. So does it look like poor drainage? I tried building him a better mound; we'll see if that helps.

I also measured my two boxwood hedges. Roughly 6'x5'x4' for one, and roughly 5'x4'x4' for the other. I wonder what a fair price would be for Craig's List?


This message was edited Aug 7, 2013 7:05 PM

Gita, Here's my acalypha as you requested. These guys get full sun all day long. Pic #1 is the one I cut back and its new growth. #2, 3 were the plants that were not cut back. #4 shows the male and female flowers. #5 Compare the plant that was cut back to its unshorn neighbors.

My camera battery died right before I could take a pic of my cutting. It has pretty little white roots and little pink nubs where new growth will come. I treated it exactly as a coleus cutting, and this thing rooted just as quickly but it has taken longer to put out new growth than a coleus.

The impression I'm getting is that it's not really possible to capture the true beauty of the leaves on this plant in pictures. You really have to see how they glow in the sun to appreciate them. It's interesting to note that the leaves that are in the shadow of other leaves are greener, so maybe a plant in part shade would be more green.

Roses: I am so jealous of your beds, and of Speedie's marshmallow fluff beds.

CatMint, that's interesting about your Agastache Purple Haze, because mine, which I planted late late last fall (probably December), was the most beautiful surprise on my awful front hill. I'd never grown -- or even heard of -- Agastache before. But I think it was supposed to bloom late -- nonetheless, mine was in glorious full bloom in May, as I recall. Can't explain it. Maybe it won't come back next year.

My drainage on the awful front hill is far from perfect -- though the hill itself does help with drainage. I don't recall if this was one of the places I boosted the drainage because I knew the plant would require it. The Purple Haze does get a fair bit of sun, and it is in a fairly open space with a lot of air movement. It is the plant in the very middle of this photo (it doesn't stand out much in the photo, and it is too dark to take a picture now). (That photo reminds me that I need to do something soon with the awful ditch lily foliage.)

Typ, the acalypha is beautiful. I'll have to look for some next year! I also found Sally's article on them really interesting.

Wow, that's something about your Agastache, Happy! Sometimes it seems so felicitous how a plant takes to a particular spot and then just blooms like crazy. I hope it comes back for you next year!

SSG, what about Rubus pentalobus as a hardy but pretty groundcover?
https://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/spring/productview/index.php?sku=23-0207
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/81725/

interesting plant Catmint..

Catmint, I'd never heard of that. Do you have it? How aggressive is it? Is it native?

No to the last question. This is what LazyS says about it: "Rubus calycinoides 'Emerald Carpet' Rubus pentalobus Oriental Raspberry Groundcover Z: 6-9 Rubus calycinoides 'Emerald Carpet'A creeping, member of the blackberry family. Excellent in rock walls, as a groundcover, under shrubs. Round, crinkled foliage of green & maroon in summer; plum red in winter. This Himalayan species "Hugs" whatever it meets! Great Fall color. A tremendous, fast groundcover. TOUGH, TOUGH, TOUGH! This is absolutely one of our favorite groundcovers. We prefer groundcovers that creep on top of the soil, as opposed to those that move underground because surface root-as-they-grow plants are much easier to keep in bounds. Soil: Well-drained H: 4" W: Indef. B/M: Small white/5-6"

This message was edited Aug 7, 2013 10:35 PM

I've only seen it in hanging baskets but never as a ground cover.

Catmint, do you have it? I love the texture!

My problem is always the part that says "requires well drained soil." My soil is so hard that I use the lasagna method to plant on top of the soil -- except for where the ajuga is planted. I can't raise that part of the pathway, so the ajuga was literally placed on top of the soil (Happy's recommendation) without even digging them in. They'd actually thrived in the clay muck until just now. So I'm reluctant to try anything that actually requires well drained soil. I've tried Blue Star Creeper 3 times with no luck.

SSG, one of the comments on the DG page says 'Rubus pentalobus or Syn. R. calycinoides is one of few plants to have won the distinctions of Gold Medal winner for 2005 from the University of GA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. It is a ground cover for full to partial shade. According to the UGA web site description:
"Most landscapes have difficult sites, such as hot, dry, erodible slopes or ditches where soil moisture fluctuates from very wet to very dry. Not many plants tolerate these conditions, but Creeping Raspberry, Rubus pentalobus, is one that will. In fact, it not only survives, it thrives under harsh growing conditions." '

I'm wondering--if it thrives in harsh conditions and works great in 'difficult sites', maybe it would be worth trying in the hard soil you're describing? Since it roots where it lands (as opposed to sending roots underground and then shooting up), maybe it would work with the top-planting you describe with the Ajuga?

I ordered this plant from B&B's early in the summer when I was trying to find something for a difficult patch. I was perusing the B&B catalog for crocus bulbs and happened across it. The order won't arrive till fall, but last night I was going through it to add the plants I ordered to my excel file, and thought of you when I saw it!

Once it arrives and gets going, I'll be happy to share. It may not work, but might be worth a try?

Catmint, thanks for the offer! Maybe you could plant it this fall and let us know how it's doing next year?

Sure, I'll let you know how it goes!

Several years ago I planted this in the parking strip at my son's house in Oregon. It has done well in their clayish soil. Filled in nicely. At the time I didn't know what it was, just that I found a nursery that was selling out a bunch of stuff and it was CHEAP. So, the next year we visited I was pleasantly surprised how great it looked. I did notice this year it could use a trim, but I didn't do it. It didn't seem overly aggressive.

I get the feeling that everything grows amazingly well in Oregon... Sometimes I'm jealous and then I remember that it rains more often than it doesn't, and then I'm not so jealous anymore! :)

I'd happily take a good rain here followed by some sunshine.

Hehe. Surprisingly the summer in the Willamette Valley is pretty dry. I know that cuz my hair didn't frizz whilst there, but as soon as we stepped off the plane in Philly my hair reacted. LOL. From Oct. To Mayish it is damp. Not so much significant rain, but damp and kind of drear. Now, east of Mt. Hood you come out into the high desert. aMAZING!!!

Sorry if this was already mentioned, but for the lasagna method, is corrugated cardboard okay, or should we not use that?

thanks!

cat--

My elderly cousin (now long deceased) used to live in Portland.
Her gardens and flowers were to die for! She just had this knack--
and the weather was always nice. Cooler--a lot of rain...

I was there at least twice--she always went on sight-seeing trips
around Oregon, and I got to tag along..The lakes!!! The Columbia River!!
The waterfalls...MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...................

Anyway--back to old Baltimore.
Felt lazy today--and it was overcast and it rained about 3 times.
Easy for me--as I can always continue working under my patio roof.
So cool there too...like another world....

I did a lot of cuttings and potting them up. Lots of "Inky Fingers" Coleus.
Cut my BIG "bush" back pretty good. Will have lots for the Swap.
Next year--I plan to grow these in a HB. They grow SO big and hang nicely.

Also took about 8 more cuttings from my neighbor Olga's Fig Tree.
She is not home yet--and she would not notice it anyway. It is so huge!
She is coming home on the 12th. Need to do a bit of weeding......

My Brazilian Plume did not bloom well at all. It is very large--and it also
sits, kind of, right by my 24/7 patio light--so it never gets any total darkness.
I wonder if that is it???
I may take some cuttings of this one too. A bit large to bring inside...
Hmmm--I am starting to get a bit crazy with taking cuttings...
Unless you all ask for some of these--I will be stuck with them....:o(
Of course--there are several serious gardeners at my HD as well...

Gita
This was all the blooms I got....puny...

Gita, My BP is blooming again.
Catmint, Yes you can use corrugated cardboard.