Zuzu, I think all these things grow under your walnut tree because they are afraid not to. They have heard about your silver axe charm. LOL
If you plant this, you'll regret it
Oh, that's great, NoH2O. Lizzie Borden's intimidated garden. I love it.
LOL that is funny
Now it all makes sense! One of the things I tried to grow under mine was a Silver Frost Weeping Pear, or Willow-leafed Pear. I tried twice. Both deader than a doornail.
You clearly need to start scaring your plants into staying alive. If I still had my little axe, I would sent it to you. I misplaced it somewhere after I mellowed into a happy old crone.
I put a Weeping Birch in the same spot, and it is growing like crazy. Maybe I'll get the loppers out and give my Japanese Maple a good scare! It's doing quite poorly!
Zuzu: I'm happier being older and more mellow. Sounds like you are, too!
Incredibly happier, Arlene. One of my favorite observations on the passage of time came from Peter O'Toole, who said in a fairly recent interview that he loved getting older, because he had spent most of his life trying to impress other people, but now he's the one everyone else has to impress.
What a nice attitude to have! It's nicer in all possible ways. Even the work is nicer because you're doing what you want to do for yourself, not for the neighbors or because it's the latest plant to have. I've found I can admire many plants in other people's gardens and it's not required that I have it. Even sitting and relaxing, because you want to, is more fun!
Not to mention no longer feeling compelled to nurse sick things along because everyone else is impressed by those plants. I find that I'm more ruthless than before, and my garden has benefited from my new attitude.
When I first moved to Sebastopol (21 years ago last Sunday), I acquired a wonderful mentor, who lived right across the street. Isabel, a retired schoolteacher, was in her 80's but still had her hair done once a week and wore impeccable, scrupulously color-coordinated gardening outfits with little pastel-colored tennis shoes to match. She was a tiny little thing and was highly intellectual, using many words of many syllables in each sentence. I had felt rather intimidated by her as I watched her tending her impeccable garden, filled with perfect roses, but I had inherited a very sick-looking rose with the house and asked her what I should do for it. "Sh*t-can it, Honey," she replied sweetly, winning my undying affection.
Zuzu - we think so much alike. There was a woman, probably gone now, but at 87 or 88 she was still out there gardening her ACRES. She said, of herself, "I prune with an axe". That cracked me up and now I follow that advice. It's great when you're feeling angry - just go out and have "at it" with the butterfly bushes: whack, whack, take that you SOB!
Great story about your neighbor. My neighbor, the real PIRL, wasn't even allowed to say the word "bull" but had to say "male cow". She also couldn't get her car "serviced" (a big no no - that's what the male cow did to the female cow!) but got it tuned up.
I also have Black Walnut trees, and I grow many of the same things everyone else mentioned either under or near the trees, but I also have Jacobs Ladder, Foxgloves, some type of Coral Bells and I even have a Peony bed that is maybe a foot off the drip line of one large tree.
Tammy what is the name of the red lilly in your picture? It's beautiful!
I never use "service" as a verb either, and for the same reason. I use much worse verbs, much more explicit verbs, but that taboo is still stuck in my head. I worked my way through college at a department store, where I occasionally worked in the "foundations department." We weren't even allowed to use the word "lingerie" when we spoke to the customers, much less the more specific terms.
Good Lord! Zuzu - do you remember elevators in department stores with the lady always controlling the gates on the elevator doors and she'd announce what was on each floor?
Floor 3: furniutre, children's toys, foundations!
I should be outside: big job to tackle - AEGOPODIUM had invaded half of a garden where I have a magnolia and three clematis plants. Finally got it out (know it will return and then I'll give it Round Up) and the one spot left is horrid: it's in with a daylily, Becky Lynn. I'll have to remove the whole clump and then pick it out strand by strand and know it's useless and it will return but then I'll have the Round Up all ready for it and just protect the daylily as I spray. What a pest that stuff is!
Had to look up Aegopodium. So glad I don't have it. Something that strangles other perennials and gives you a rash if you try to get rid of it? That's got to be the worst.
No rash with this one, only cursing and swearing along with sweating and digging.
And remember the way we all dressed? No blue Jeans with big T shirts hanging out. Always the men wore coats and ties and HATS and the ladies dresses even when just going to the super market. The way people dress now should be outlawed...(even my grand daughter)! No offense to anyone here on DG.....you all are just too young. Kind of gotten away from plants so I will say .. my garden is a mess right now..this is the time of year I divide and give or throw away. I wish I had known someone like me when I was starting my garden! I could have saved alot of money.
I still remember people getting dressed to go to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They still do here in Georgia. Dress code is still "Wear you Sunday best."
Weddings and some funerals are the only time they get dressed, except for the nice restaurants. It really puts the people in a very bad light, in my opinion, to get dressed to eat but not for church. Shame on them all!
And what about hats and gloves for job interviews? No one would hire you if you weren't wearing a hat and gloves.
I have to admit that I still wear only dresses and skirts. I tried on a pair of pedal pushers when I was a teenager, decided I looked like a teddy bear in pajamas (I'm short), and never put on a pair of pants again.
Oh, yes. The garden. If you plant Arum Italicum, you will regret it big time!! I've ranted about this so many times in so many forums and in PF that I'm just going to assume you've all run into my Arum rants before. Don't plant it. It's immortal, and in a bad way, like a vampire.
I agree...I planted it "for all the wonderful foliage and winter interest"....geeezz...I never wear skirts or dresses because my legs are "gone". Only slacks now. So is this a fashion thread or what???
Hi Folks! I'm back online. We lost our phone and DSL Wed and they got it
fixed a few minutes ago.
Kizzie56 - That's a red daylily of unknown name. I bought a bunch of pretties
when I moved here (and got some nice ones from friends) and just didn't label
anything.
I love the fashion discussion but I'm the one in the horribly messy t-shirt, shorts
and old shoes out there gardening. My old neighbor would be working in a
beautiful sundress with little dainty gloves when she weeded and she'd have not
a spec of dirt on her & I'd be covered in dirt head to toe. Kinda made me feel like
that peanuts character.
For work, before I moved to my farm, I used to wear nothing but tailored & professional
clothes but since its gotten so relaxed there that I now can wear nice pants & shirts
quite often. It more convenient to doing chores before leaving for work (feeding the
hungry hords - cats & chickens plus watering the thirsty hords - way too many containers).
And it sure was a lot easier when the garage was attached too!
Tam
So what's wrong with a fashion thread, Levilyla? LOL. In my case, my legs are the only things that aren't "gone." I still get whistles when I'm walking down the highway and teenage boys see me from the back. I can only imagine what goes through their minds when they drive past me and see my little prune of a face.
If it's any consolation, Tammy, I wear the beautiful sundresses and the dainty gloves, but I'm covered in dirt head to toe. Striking a happy medium, as it were. My hair is always full of leaves and the occasional bug when I come inside.
Zuzu: I think I got the Arum in a trade: I better check PF and see what it looks like!
I have had the same experience as Tammy with all the suits, etc. and still have at least 100 pair of HIGH heels in the attic. Not waiting for a comeback, just too pretty to give away. When I retired (early) I went right to tee shirts and shorts. Still have two pair of heavy duty shorts from Daytona, circa 1989! My favorite slacks for the garden are a nice soft pair I bought new last year. Then, during the year, when I was cleaning the courtyard in June, with bleach, it got spotted and the navy blue is now navy with pink spots! A real fashion statement!
Off to look up Arum.
Nope! I have a 2" round, dark green shiny leaf, ground cover: really does hug the ground. Is this a potential disaster?
pirl, sounds to me like you have asarum (not arum) europaeum, a lovely groundcover. doubt if you will regret growing it, but if you do, send it to texas. there is also an asarum canadensis, which is matte, not glossy like the european, pretty but I think european is nicer.
Thank you. Of course, you're right! Once I read your words I knew that fear replaced brain cells. Thanks so much.
I'm going to offer the daylily, 'Becky Lynn', for trade on a new thread. It had AEGOPODIUM throughout the plant and I've cleaned them up and removed every tiny piece I saw but I thought I'd warn everyone on this thread first so you'll have double notice. Someone said they'd never be traded because of it but I'm giving it a try anyhow. I really do try my best to live by the Golden Rule so we'll see what happens!
Thanks for your help vossner!
I grow Arum italicum 'Pictum' in very dry shade filled with maple roots and I love it. It has not been invasive; in fact it has not spread beyond it's single nice clump. I actually went out and bought 3 more so I could have it in a few other places. I love the stuff.
I had a friend who bought a house in Seattle and it was everywhere, including sidewalk cracks. So maybe it's the setting?
You're absolutely right that it's not invasive everywhere, NoH2O, but I don't know the reason. It can't be the West Coast thing, because Levilyla had trouble with it too, and she's in Maryland. Maybe it spreads here because our winters are so mild. Levilyla, do you have mild winters?
No we have cold winters...and the Arum is not so much a "runner" as it is something that once it is planted in a certain place and you want to move it you can never get all of the roots and it keeps coming back in the same place. (Like Acanthus)........It IS good for foliage in flower arrangements and it IS green in the winter so it is not quite all that bad. I don't seem to have the problem of it reseeding. I don't feel as strongly against it as Zusu, so I am sure it is more invasive in a warmer climate. Pirl, that European ginger is wonderful and very pricey. I have had a problem with mine this summer wilting away, but it always seems to come back in the spring. P.S. I wear Land's End jeans with my trowel in one back pocket and my clippers in the other (pretty tacky for a 65 year old!)
No such thing as tacky in a garden, levilyla! I want Jack to buy me fatigue tee shirt, jacket, sweatshirt, pants and shorts and cap for Christmas. Maybe my pesty neighbor, next door, won't see me so easily and take chunks of my time with all her woes. She wants to be THE MARTYR but after a few years of it I'm tired of listening to it. That does not stop her, even when I stifle a yawn or tell her we've all heard it a thousand times.
The European ginger grew in another neighbor's garden and though I've given her and her daughter-in-law van loads of plants she never offers a thing so I just said that if she ever had extra I'd like it and she actually remembered and brought it to me. I love it.
Good morning, folks.
Bishop weed should be planted alone in a place that it is OK to spread, because it surely will!
I guess my church is more casual, thank goodness! I do wear dresses and skirts occasionally. My kids wear bluejeans and tshirts. I'm just glad they all go! We rarely miss a Wed or Sunday night service.
I don't go to church...but I do remember going and having to wear a hat and if you did not have a hat you had to put a handkerchief on top of your head. Now we are getting into religion and where on earth did the bad plant list go?
levilyla: the bad plants will always be with us. Pamela Harper of Color Echoes talks about Houttuynia Cordata Chameleon and says it has to be in a pot without a hole, above ground, surrounded by cement. That seems true of Aegopodium also.
Has anyone used a five gallon bucket with the bottom removed?
I have horse tail rush...I like it, but it is invasive too.
I once asked the nursery owner for suggestions for plants that I could plant around
my pond but not keep in pots. He suggested houttuynia! I thought I'd heard it was
invasive so I did not buy it. And I just keep remembering him looking surprised when
I said I thought it was invasive every time I see people complaining about it. I'm
just so glad I didn't listen to him. (And his credibility is ZERO with me).
Tammy: I'll have to go take a picture of a plot of it that will soon be in a POT but it still has invaded more square feet, here, than any other although Aegopodium is closing in or trying to!
Someone actually wrote to me and asked for some and I pulled it out of the ground - about 20 pieces and it looks so sick I just don't have the heart to send it. She wants to send postage but I'd feel too guilty. I don't want to do anything for postage when I'm out there in the awful heat and humidity.
It is a very beautiful plant but I'd put it in a pot, lined with weed barrier and then inside a nice cement urn. It might not grow as well but the darn thing is so colorful! It blends with so much and to have that kind of color at this time of year! Cement only for planting. You're 100% right about losing his credibility.
HELP! I was at my favorite nursery today and saw Perilla growing wild with Tovara Painter's Palette in with it. I just received it in a trade. The lady there said it took over an entire field. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I put the mother plant directly in the soil and the babies she rooted for me in a pot in the soil. It's in dry shade. What do I do??? Thanks.
Arlene, the bishop weed does wilt down terribly. You might email and explain that it will come back fine from the roots. They may still want some.
It is so interesting to read about other peoples' experiences with plants and compare them with your own. I would take all the arum I could get because in my area it is not invasive. I cannot persuade mine to do more than hang in there. After nearly six years, it has not covered a single square foot. If anyone has too much and is trying to get rid of it, I will gladly pay postage to have you send it my way.
Beth