PLANT ADDICTS CHAT #6

Wow, Sequoia, that's totally unlike my experience with Santa Rosa in the past... I wonder what was going on with them? You might try re-sending your email and see what happens.

I'm glad you left an account of your experience... That's why Garden Watchdog is good, you can check to see what people's current experiences have been, not just about past performance.

The next 7 days look better, heat-wise.

SSG, let us know if your plants look better today and what they say/do about the Delphinium.

Salvia 'Purple Knockout' is a little cutie! I used to have it wandering around in my front garden... for me, it was short-lived but reseeded easily. Collect the seeds and scatter them around or winter sow in a container... you'll be able to use them like a groundcover.

Edgeworthia! That's the cool little tree my in-laws have... very pretty!

Bluestone has top quality packaging for sure but I don't like their coco shell pots and I can usually get whatever they have at Lazy S&S. Lazy S&S is my go to and I also like Shooting Star Nursery and Gardens in the Wood (www.gardensinthewood.com), which was the BEST customer service experience I've ever had.

Jill, they did respond to my Watchdog feedback but I just don't care to go any further with it. I know a lot of you all like this nursery but they just aren't worth it IMO.

Yeah, I always discard those "biodegradable" coco shell pots from Bluestone.

Yeah it's a cool theory but I just think those pots are way too dense to be useful for breaking down in the soil quickly. Not only that but they are so dense that some of the roots have trouble going through them.

Yeah, I would think it might take two years or more for those pots to break down. Minor inconvenience to remove them but given how healthy their plants are that I get within two days normally, I'll put up with it.

I never tried Lazy S&S, will have to give them a try on my next purchase.

Lazy S&S has an EXTENSIVE selection of uncommon plants. You should definitely look into them. Their website isn't as user friendly as Bluestone's but I enjoy looking through all the pages of plants deciding what to get.

I get it Jeff. I ordered something from bluestone once and it arrived with the rootball completely out of the container. I've heard good things about bluestone since, but that one experience has soured me. I'll be calling SR later today. They've been pretty responsive in the past.

Well good luck!

Several years ago when Lazy S was up for sale, several of us here briefly considered buying it.

That would have been sweet! :-)

Yeah it's still for sale I think. That would be pretty flippin' awesome.

I forgot to mention, since this is the 'addicts' thread, I stopped at a nursery on the way home and made a couple purchases...I bought a Viburnum trilobum 'Bailey Compact' and a Hydrangea quercifolia 'Ruby Slippers'. I got them in 1 gallon pots so they weren't that much. The viburnum will be pollinated by my V. trilboum 'Winter Rubies' and straight species.

Hosta Direct is having a sale and I couldn't resist.

I ordered 6 each of these Mini Hosta
'Baby Booties'
'Hope'
'Little Jay'
'Pandora's Box'
Depending on how they look and do I might have a few to sell off at cost if anyone is interested.

They're adorable! I'd be interested in buying some of them from you.

I thought maybe some of you and some of my other friends might be interested in them. I wasn't sure about doing a quick co-op because of delivery and the fact that they will be very small. I stopped at a local Nursery that sells very nice hosta and checked prices. They had small pots about twice the size as I am expecting these to be for about $16 so I decided to order and these and wait for them to get some size to them. I ordered the 6 ea to get a better discounted price, I would have ordered the 12 each but that wasn't sure I could get rid of that many. I really like the little dwarf plants and am having a great time putting together small containers. of them.
I picked up a dwarf Holly yesterday when I stopped at the nursery and looked at those hosta it will only get 8-10 in high. Such a cute little thing.

I put several dwarf hostas into the "fairy garden" by our front porch. I "mulched" around the with chicken grit and a sprinkle of Sluggo for good measure... so far, so good, but we'll see what happens when the local slugs get big.

The little ones are so sweet in containers! I'm interested, esp in Little Jay but love the others you picked also... either at cost, or I'll swap you for a piece of one of the minis I picked up at Green Springs and divided into thirds (they are named, but I have to look in the pots for labels).

Hostas definitely love containers, especially bigger ones that are easier to keep moist.. not a problem lately, LOL

1--I still have the NOID mini-Hosta my neighbor gave me. Some of you got
some divisions when i divided it. It is getting ready to bloom.

2--So are the two "Mouse-Ear" Hostas....Not sure these are "Mouse Ear--
as thy are pretty big.

My two Brugmansias growing well. At this stage--they scare me--as i can
see how fast they are growing. I give them one more year--and then i will
have to find a home for them--for sure the Dr. Seuss (all green),

3--4 Maya Brug and Dr. Seuss Brug.
Cuttings of these taken in the fall of 2013. Planted out summer of 2-14.
YIKES!
Good old Osmacote mixed into the soil!

5--The "Mockorange" bush I planted in the corner of my YUK bed.
It is growing like crazy. It had a few, sparse blooms that lasted less
than a week. I really do not like it at all!
I did cut it back last fall. maybe that is why there were no blooms.
I will allow it to grow, as is, one more year to see if it blooms more.

Then it is shovel in hand--and "Good Bye". It is just too big for this little corner....
NOT really paying for it's keep!

g.

I like the mockorange in that corner where the fences meet. Hopefully it will bloom sweetly for you next year.

I have your little hosta in the fairy garden and also in a nearby container... increasing well and very cute!

Jill--
I kind of like it too in that corner, as I cannot imagine climbing back there
and digging it up.
BUT--in my mind--a Mockorange should be nice double, fragrant flowers.
The few blooms it had were not double (just single) and were not fragrant.
I feel a bit cheated.....

This is from the "mystery cutting" someone gave me at a swap. It was the end of
the swap--and someone was trying to give away some remaining plants and
talked me into taking it. It was in a tiny 3" pot and one long stem.
Was it you? I don't remember.....

I was trying hard to find the picture--but could not. I know I had pictures of the
stem looking looking for an ID.
g.

It does not match MY Mockorange, which is single and fragrant. And grown like crazy this year and last.
Common mockorange is single. There are double and nonfragrant kinds.

Hmmmm....Sally!
Do you ever cut it back? like to contain it? does it affect the bloom?
Do you ever fertilize it?
How big (Height x width.) does your mature shrub measure? Ballpark...
Try to, visually, put it in my YUK bed corner. Does it fit?

Analysis.......
--Lets see---spring blooming shrubs bloom on old wood.
--I cut shrub back in late fall==NO old wood next year.
--I will allow it to grow as it wishes this summer and NOT cut it back
--Hopefully, it will have profuse blooms on it next spring.

I am patient. I will wait..

Wonder if my back yard neighbor will mind having half a shrub
hanging over on his side? Not likely--he is a single, youngish Guy
who does not garden. We get along fine...

Mine is similar in age to yours. I suggest you only remove some of the older small branches near the ground, to keep the base open. Let this year's new wood and taller stems grow and bloom.
I don't fertilize. But you could put those ancient coffee grounds around it.

The mature shrub at moms house was about 7-8 feet tall. Didn't seem to want to be as tall as, say, rose of Sharon.

Mockorange wasn't from me!

I'm glad to know mockoranges aren't all fragrant... guess I'll have to get one in bloom, or a cutting from a known fragrant one. I already have a big old not-fragrant witch hazel off the corner of my deck... thinking of cutting it down, as I just don't love it, and it's too big to move (although if anybody wants to try they're welcome to it).

if you cut that witch hazel, I will cut my Santa Rosa plum. Dumb choice.

I have a dwarf mock orange that fills the backyard with a wonderful fragrance, but boy does it have a weird growth pattern. The branches are rather floppy and arching, almost like a short ninebark. I'm thinking about moving it to a less conspicuous spot so it can be smelled but not seen. :)

Sally, my plum was a santa rosa also... that dumb moth (sounds like curly que) got into it pretty much every year no matter what I did, but we got some fruit anyway. Then it got an untreatable disease and was taken down a year and a half ago. Not sure if I'm replacing it with another fruit tree or just using the open space for a cutting garden... probably the latter, although I do have an apricot to plant out there and want to add another cherry...

Cherries turned out to be our best choice for our little "orchard" -- not only do we love them, but also they fruit early enough that they're not bothered by much in the way of pests.

Sally, why is your plum a bad choice? wrong tree, or wrong spot? I did manage to move a wild plum that had rooted through its pot and under the walkway... didn't get much root, but I cut the top back by 3/4 or more... planted it back in the line of trees, and it leafed out this spring!

The plum is a big tree. I can't keep up with proper pruning. It bloomed all over this spring but flowers are short lived and semi hidden in leaves, so it isn't showy. All the fruits have dropped by now it looks like, started dropping at lima bean size, with signs of damage (plum circulio?). If there is fruit, it is up high. On top of that, it has a piece of string grown into a crotch, it grew so fast I didn't realize the stake string had grown in. The trunk bleeds there. And it's in a rare patch of full sun. Wrong everything!

OK, you chop yours and I'll chop mine. Sounds like a deal. Wish I'd thought of it while the tree guys were here! I might wait until we have to have them back, or at least until fall when the dormant trunk will be easier to cut.

Yikes! A string grown into the tree? Oh Sally.

While a string grown into a tree is a gardening gaffe - leaving one open to all kinds of horticultural hyperbole and MidAt mocking - it is hardly fatal, and certainly not the reason to cut down a tree or worry about its health.

Removal is an effective endeavor to eliminate evidence...

Years and years ago--we hung a hammock between my smaller maple
and a metal post of my patio. Never worked out too good, so thew hammock
was seldom used.
Hpowever--the huge hook that was drilled/screwed into the trunk of the tree was
never removed. It is still in there...somewhere...the only sign of where it was
is a small indentation on the bark.

On my BIG maple--years ago--we screwed/nailed in a shelf bracket sticking out
to hang stuff from. As time took it's toll--half of the bracket is now grown into
the tree trunk. No harm to either tree.....G.

So, I bought this oddball little clearance plant at Dutch Plant Farm one of our swaps, couple years ago. It's finally gt blooms but they are very small and not showy like Epiphyllum which I thought it might be (one of). It's just an oddball small hanging plant

http://cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=Pseudorhipsalis&species=ramulosa

Do you have a pic of this oddball? (not calling you an oddball, which you are though ;-P)

((snort)) will try to get one this morning

I've made a large pot of Campanula Elizabeth. Is it hardy enough for a pot this winter? (Not as if I am in danger of eliminating all of it in the ground, nor am I really trying to.) The bees like it, I keep hearing them buzz inside the big flowers.

We have had a pot of the Elizabeth for several years now. You may find seedlings surrounding the pot next year.

thanks, Pat.

I am still undecided whether I want to plant Elizabeth in the bed--or let
the pot sit in that location.

I really should take the plant out of the pot and get rid of some of the
new plants and pot beck a decent number of the better ones.
As it is--the pot is matted full of "Lizzie'....It is a 12" or so square planter.
g.

The blooming stems seem to be the older parts, thicker roots . Then there are some rosettes of large leaves. I'm guessing these rosettes become next year's blooming stems. I would maybe pull out the blooming stems when they are done, and then top dress.