Caribbean Crush Verbascum

Well I planted 4 of these last fall and the first one just shot up a stalk and started blooming almost overnight! I am thrilled though I must say the colors are much more muted than the pictures on the Park's website (and other sites that used the same shot). It was odd because I was looking at White Flower Farm's catalog this winter and they had this same verbascum. I remember thinking the colors looked much more pale than what I was expecting to see. Turns out that what is blooming looks MUCH more like the WFF version. I really hate when they "doctor" the pictures!!! But I'm not complaining- still love this plant. :)

Jamie

I am trying another shot of it lightened up a bit.

That first picture lightened up some. Still not great though. I need something better than plain old photo editor I guess!

I am stunned that this was it just 11 days ago!

Jamie, are you saying that your Verbascum went from these plants next to the ground to this flowering plant in 11 days??? As to the color, I wonder if Epsom Salts would make a difference? I can't remember what it is that makes the color better.

How tall is that? It looks awfully tall. Darn it!! That is why I don't have Delphiniums is because they break off when the wind blows and it rains. I don't have any place on the East or North sides of my house unless I put them on the deck. Wonder how they would do in a planter?

Jeanette

Yes Jeanette, it went from the plants in the ground in that last picture to the flowering one in the first 3 in 11 days! The only one up and blooming is the one on the far right. In that last picture you can kind of see the stalk emerging. I took pic 4 on 5/6/05 and the other 3 on 5/17/05.

http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=48980&PrevMainPage=textsearchresults&scChannel=Text%20Search&SearchText=verbascum&OfferCode=R1H

That is the link to the Park's website page so you can see what I mean about the color. They are supposed to get 4 feet tall total- 2 foot bloomspikes on a 4 foot stalk- top 2 feet bloom in other words.

This is a shot from this morning. I don't know if anything would help the color- I mean that may BE the real color! It looked just like that in the WFF picture which made me doubt that mine would bloom the color of the other pictures I had seen. Including the one on Park's. I may give them a call today and see what they say.

Edited to say it's about 3 feet tall right now.

This message was edited May 19, 2005 7:32 AM

One more picture- I was surprised also to see several flower stalks on the same stem. I thought it would just be one tall stalk with a big tall flower at the top. But I'm not complaining about that part! :)

I wonder if the color or, lack thereof, LOL, is because it grew so fast???? Really I don't think that is funny. The pictures were beautiful. In all of the seed catalogues.

But then you know the Algoflash fertilizer they all showed the boy on the ladder picking tomatoes was a farse too. It was ok, but not as good as, maybe, or any better than the Peters triple 20.

I will be really interested in what they say. lmk. Jeanette

Jamie, they must have spent the first year setting the roots. I am really sorry I bought one now. It didn't grow at all last year then? Do you think they are any stronger than the delpheniums? I mean I can stalk it but the delpheniums broke right at the twine where I tied it. They are so beautiful too.

Jeanette

Jeanette-

I planted the last fall from pots and they were just the big green leafs which stayed evergreen all winter. Then this spring they started growing like mad and that one started putting up a stalk earlier this month.

Delpheniums don't do well in the south, for the most part. There are some hybrids that are supposed to do well but the only ones I have planted are the little short electric blue ones.

But the stalks of these verbascum are really sturdy and supposedly they don't need staking.

Like I said, I don't "hate" them and I don't regret planting them because I think they are still really pretty, but it just isn't the bright color I was expecting. This area of my garden is full of hot pink, yellows, orange, and purple so I wanted these because that whole color scheme, minus the purple, was represented.

And I did see these represented in another catalog and they looked JUST LIKE mine (as it bloomed now in the muted colors). That's what had me thinking "I hope those other pictures weren't doctored," which is what I think is the case. In other words, I think these bloomed exactly to the color they were supposed to and through some "enhancing" on Photoshop, these companies made it look brighter than it really is. I have even heard that many times the exact same shot is used by a bunch of companies!!!

The only thing making me wonder is that it was featured as editor's choice in my Gardening How-To magazine that I get through National Home Gardening Club. I am pretty sure they used that same brightly colored picture in the magazine. So does that mean they did not actually GROW IT before recommending it? I would hope not.

So anyway, I will let you know what Park's says!

So you'll be saving us seed right????? LOL!!! I drooled over that pic in Parks but it got crossed off the list --- they drive me crazy with thier pictures. LOL!! a freind of mine thought Blue fescue was REALLY blue after looking at Parks....sigh....

Heather

Hey Heather, well if you like it, and if they tell me it will grow true from seed, then sure, I'll save ya some! :)

Boy, Jamie, you are really encouraging. This sounds like a real winner. LOL And they are all so expensive. Guess that is to pay for that brightly colored picture. LOL

Parks was suppose to send me the Orange Echinacae yesterday. I wonder what that is going to look like. That is another expensive one. Someone said it doesn't put out seeds like the rest of them. You have to divide them if you want more.

I also bought a Corscrew vine in that same order. When it got here it had Blackspot. Like on roses. I sent them an email, but then I was worried about getting it near my other plants so I called them. The woman who answered said she had to talk to someone else, and while she had the phone in her hand she asked and came back to me and said "We know about it and treated them before we sent them out." Now isn't that something. Why did they send them out at all. With Blackspot no less. She says "the infected leaves will fall off and the new ones that come on will be ok." Well, I cut them off. That has been a week to 10 days now. They are starting to get new leaves and I can't tell yet if they are ok.

If in fact they do come on ok I sure want to know what they treated them with. Because Blackspot is almost impossible to get rid of. Especially the same year. Normally the rose that gets Blackspot loses all the infected leaves but infects the rest of the leaves and when new leaves open they have it too so the rose is worthless for the whole year.

Guess that's enough complaining for one night. Jeanette

Jeanette-

I think we must have shared our "order" list because we got the same stuff. Ha!

I have always had good luck with Park's. However, the Flambe petunias I ordered didn't germinate very well and the ones that did are still sitting there with only the first set of leaves. Other than that my luck has been pretty good with them.

Most of the fancy hybrid plants will NOT grow true from seed and you have to propagate them by dividing or cuttings. I got the Park's collection of Black-Eyed Susan vines and of the 4 varieties I can only save seeds from one- the original orange/black black-eyed susan. The seeds from the "fancy" ones will worthless. Guess that's how they get your repeat business huh?! :)

I got my Art's Pride orange Echinacea from Flower Scent. So far they are doing well and each have a bud on them but I will have to wait a little bit to see what color it will turn out to be. The owner of the nusery was upfront and said his shipments may have gotten mixed up and if you order the Art's Pride there is a chance you will end up with that other new variety- can't think of the name offhand but it's bright yellow. That would be okay with me since it fits in with my color scheme and for $6.95 as opposed to $19.95 PER PLANT, it was worth the risk. Ha!

I got my corkscrew vine from Monticello. It was bareroot so no blackspot. I have it in a pot and it is shooting gorgeous, healthy leaves up all over my trellis so I hope it's ok! But I agree- you don't send out a plant when you KNOW it has any sort of disease or bugs. Duh! Heck, at least pick off the infected leaves, THEN treat it. Not that it prevents it from infecting other plants or that it's "ok" to ship them like that, but at least they don't insult your intelligence on top of it all. Geez! I hope it turns out okay for ya!

Jamie

Well, it has been so wet and cold here that all of my plants are sitting outside on the deck waiting for a rain-less day to get into some decent pots etc.

That is funny that we got the same plants. Even from some different vendors. Must be great minds like the same things. LOL, take care,

Jeanette