PLANT ADDICTS CHAT #7

Hope everything works out getting that fixed, Coleup! Thank heaven for helpful people... but you know part of that is you & Wayne, too. It's a pleasure to help friendly, good-hearted people. :-)

btw, you seriously have no water feature? not even water garden containers? or do those not "count" if there's no moving water?

YOWSA, coleup!!! Glad you found the problem and hopefully able to FIY. Will be thinking of you.

Sequoia, I hope your excess water usage was just due to watering plants and not to a leak.

Critter, good for you for spotting the problem right away; not everyone is so observant! I'm so glad you can fix it yourself.

I have one of these
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/184079
Heartleaf aster 'Avondale'
Nice, shade tolerant, full bloom now, has endured the drought and tree roots with very little extra help

That's a pretty Aster, Sally....save seeds please ; - )

Hm, I wonder what my water bill will be for this quarter. .

Yeah Muddy, it's most certainly due to all the watering. If not, high usage will show up again next quarter. There were spans of time I was watering something every day though and often would have soaker hoses running over night.

I like your aster Sally.

Hey addicts; can you help me figure out the species of a Tradescantia I got from happymacomb several years ago? I didn't find it in Plant files. My google skills are not great with the and and the or and not (sad to say) and she might not have posted it to her haves list from 2011 or 2012 (or earlier?)
it is NOT the typical garden hybrid spiderwort or native spiderwort. So NO virginiana, ohiensis, andersoniana, none of the usual houseplant species.

It is a groundcover or low sprawling thing, many small blue flowers, leaves are spotted and marbled with purple. SO the blue/purple flowers are cute on the darker leaves.

Great little plant- can take sun if kept moist, can take some shade, has grown huge in my front garden where it has a few hours midday sun. Can share!!

Oh for crapssakes... one more try and I saw Tinantia, close relative, This is it
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/175208/#b

oh, that's adorable! I'd love a start of it, please, Sally. Maybe at the spring swap, or are you looking to thin it now? With tough groundcovers, I've had luck sticking starts in pots over the winter, too...

Yeah, I gave two pots to a friend yesterday but as I am gardening, I will make more pots and sink them. It emerges on the late side in spring, but would be easy to share all summer .

That really *is* adorable!! .. Hmmm... if I'm not mistaken (and I just might be), I believe we had that very same plant as 12" hanging baskets at work. Sold all 12 of 'em in one fell swoop, too. =) Those leaves sure do look identical, but I just can't remember the tag reading more than "Wandering Jew"... you know how growers are... sometimes their taggings leave a bit to be desired.

I like that it's apparently hardy here! hopefully it will be for me, as well, although I think Sally's yard is at least half a zone warmer than mine.

Down in Florida, they use the "regular" green & purple wandering jew as a groundcover.

tinantia aka Mexican Wandering Jew

Aspenhill is such a bad influence... in the best way of course! She let me know she was stopping at Potomac Garden Center (Urbana) after work, so I met her there, and we had so much fun browsing and chatting. We each filled a cart, too. They have a really lovely selection -- nothing you're likely to find in a big box store.

I found some nice shrubs... Viburnum 'Blueberry Muffin', and a chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia, cultivar 'Brilliantissima' maybe?) with the most gorgeous cranberry-red berries, both of them with leaves turning flaming red. Also got 2 new-to-me beautyberry bushes (Callicarpa), one with cream-edged foliage and white berries, one with "normal" purple berries and white variegated leaves, apparently emerging nearly entirely white in spring.

I'd better get all my newly acquired "understory" shrubs planted in mt little treeline before I get any more... I haven't been pre-planning back there (unusual for me), I've just been eyeballing it and spacing as I go.

Toward the right, things are less native and a little more formal, with hydrangea, hostas, Hellebores, azaleas, rhodi's, hollies... oh, wait, the hollies are native ones LOL. Toward the left side of the treeline, behind the big perennial bed, I have new space opened up by the removal of 3 big trees this spring (invasive "tree of heaven"), and I'm putting in wildlife-friendly stuff, mostly small trees that will probably sucker to form little clumps and mini groves... wild plum, serviceberry, viburnums, sand cherry (still to be acquired), red twig and yellow twig dogwood, sumac (from my mom's yard), also a few little maple saplings (also from mom's yard).

Is anybody interested in growing sassafrass trees? They're an alternate host for spicebush swallowtail. I have a row of them, with plenty of new ones popping up where the unauthorized clearing/cutting happened... so I'm good... but here and there I am finding little ones, either seedlings or ones popping up from roots, but either way they won't be able to stay where they are. I'm digging and potting them as I go, putting 2-3 to a pot with the hope that at least one will take (they have some roots but not much). If nobody's interested, I probably won't just start throwing them out, but I may not dig as carefully to remove them. LOL

Oh, and we saw a plant whose name rang a bell... who was talking recently about 'Bronze Peacock' Rodgersia? Do I "need" to go back for a pot of it? How tall does it really get -- when it says "FL HT" is 50", does that mean its height in tropical Florica? We did not know!! http://www.terranovanurseries.com/gardeners/rodgersiabronzepeacock-p-550.html

My bronze peacock only got to maybe a foot. I'm pretty sure it didn't like to conditions it was in and that's why I gave it away. I forget who took it home at the swap. Sounds like you got a bunch of goodies today. I was thinking about getting a Sassafrass but VV said JBs love to eat them so it got taken off the list. They are quite pretty though.

I couldn't find a thing at that nursery LOL. What a haul I got, and a nice surprise that the perennials were actually 40% off instead of the sale email I received about buy 2 get one free (free one would be the cheapest of the 3 if they were different priced). Deciduous trees were 50% off and shrubs were 40% off. Worth a trip if you are anywhere near Frederick this weekend.

When our kids were little we would dig the and young plants and make Sassafrass tea. They just loved it and the idea that we made it from trees we dug up from the hedgerow. We still have plenty around but the section of hedgerow next to our house has been cleaned up and there are very little if any left in that area.

I think FL HT means Flower Height. That's actually a useful fact for them to provide (if that is in fact what it is).

It sounds like you found some nice shrubs, Critter!

Aspen, what did you get?

The Urbana Potomac Garden Center may be on a smaller scale than places like Merrifield, Betty's Azalea Ranch, American Plant, etc..., but they sure do have a great selection. Some of the things that they carry I hadn't even heard of before. I got two things that fit that category. One of them is a tree called Mountain Gordlinia (Gordlinia grandiflora) - it reaches a height of about 20' and gets small white flower bud clusters. The leaves kind of remind me of a magnolia. Another one is a shrub called Pearlbush (Exochordia racemosa 'Snow Mountain') - it reaches a height of about 8' and is one of the first shrubs to bloom in the spring.

I also got the same Beautyberry that Jill was describing (Callicarpa 'Snow Storm'), a dwarf Mock Orange (Philadelphius x 'Snowbelle'), a dwarf Butterfly Bush (Buddleia 'Tutti Frutti Pink'), and a False Hydrangea Vine (Schizophragma hydrangeoides 'Minsens' Rose Sensation). The Butterfly Bush was strategically staged near a Beautyberry fully covered in purple berries, and it really caught my eye as a vignette to replicate with my own Beautyberry that is in the Shed Garden. The False Hydrangea Vine is a pretty spectacular plant once it gets established - can reach 50' and does great in the shade. I have a white one already, but this is the first time I had ever seen a pink one.

I also picked up a Clematis 'Krakowiak' Pink Mink, and Perennials Alaskan Fern (Polystichum setiferum 'Divisilobum'), Thalictrum aquilegiifolium 'Black Stockings', Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum 'Apricot Delight'), Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus 'Hakone Double Blue'), Lungwort (Pulmonaria 'Raspberry Splash'), and last but not least Siberian Iris 'Strawberry Fair'.

As you can see, I couldn't find anything at all LOL.

This message was edited Oct 10, 2015 8:17 AM

poor Terri really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel. ROFL. All sound wonderful.

I think
you might
like pink.

I know poor, poor, pitiful me. And pink??? No say it isn't so. I just LOVE oranges and reds and yellows in my garden HA HA HA.

Think Potomac Garden Ctr is calling my name. As soon as we finish pressing 600 lbs of grapes, that is.

Lisa your feet must get really tired with all that stomping!

That Aspenhill just has so much land that she "has" to try and fill it up with plants. LOL
So I mentioned on another thread a new Pampas Grass that I found today. Hardy to Zone 6 Jet Stream Dwarf Pampas Grass 3-5ft. Just loved it. Didn't pick one up today but will be looking for it next spring.

What a great selection of plants! I'm wondering how a Mountain Gordlinia would do in my front yard : - ) How tall where the ones they're selling?

I think the one Terri picked up was 3 1/2 - 4 ft. tall. Terri, do you remember if it was the last one or not?

Wow Terri, you got a bunch of cool stuff there. The Gordinia and Exchordia are both very nice. I also thought the Jake's Ladder sounded interesting. I've never heard of that variety before. Now you've got lots of planting to do.

The Gordlinia was by itself on display near the doors, and I didn't notice any others in the tree section. Yes, lots of planting to do. I'm wide awake right now wishing it was light enough outside so I can get started LOL.

It is light enough now, but only 42 degrees out.

You and Jill did yourselves proud at that sale. Shop on!

Good thing temps are supposed to stay in the 40's this week... I can gradually get things prepped to bring inside.

Terri's list is tempting me to a return trip! LOL

Dutch Pant Farm should be doing their fall sale pretty soon, too. They usually have some interesting perennials left.

I've been keeping my eye out for a COLUMNAR Norway Pine. I didn't know they existed until I found one at Lowe's last fall, but it went shocky after transplanting and didn't come back... I don't think it was soil or location, so I want to try again, because I think it's just so perfect for the spot (outer corner of front foundation bed). Hmm, this might make a great excuse to cruise nurseries this fall. :-)

I've been at it since early this morning and finally came in to take a break. The consequence of being a severe plant addict? The aches and pains and effort to get all those plants in the ground LOL. So far, I have watered and placed all the perennials, and have 15 of them planted. Have about 15 more to get in the ground. Then it will be on to the tree, shrubs, and bulbs. Glad tomorrow is a holiday!

Just FYI----

ALL trees and shrubs at HD are now 50% off.....

Tinantia between Liroope and Sedum

That's a nice combination Sally!

Wow, you have a lot still in bloom there, Sally! What is that yellow-flowering plant in the back?

That's Melampodium, back left.
The flower colors look a little pale here compared to real life.

Nice full border there, Sally -- very pretty!

yep, that part turned out really nice.
I may look for blueberries at HD, thanks Gita. Blueberries are lately a really good crop for me- but one bush looks like it died suddenly. I didn't water them much during the dry spell.

I was sore from two days of digging, but just 'had to' move my Tiarella 'Dark Star' to a better place this morning. Some of us got those from Deb/RCN years ago. Mine was getting swallowed up by the bottlebrush buckeye. It's threatening to make me the East Coast supplier of suckers... Jeff, did yours survive?

looks like aspenhill is out there again...