West Tennessee Newbie-to-be...

Hi everyone-

I currently live in Phoenix, although I originally was raised in the Detroit area. My husband's family are all in Ripley, Tennessee, about an hour north of Memphis, and it looks like we're probably going to end up moving there in the coming year.

I expect to be totally lost.

We were there last weekend, when unfortunately nothing was out but the daffodils, so I still don't have the slightest what will grow there (other than cotton, soybeans and corn!). Someone mentioned peonies, I saw roses and heard of tomatoes, so should I expect acidic soil? I've been trying to figure out the zone maps - I think it's 7b? Can I grow lilacs? Tulips? Japanese Maple? Even if you just throw out a bunch of plants that grow well in that area, that would be a help.

TIA!

Sheryl

i have friend well few in tenn. they grow what we do so proably can push the zones most or some of us do..

Hi! Welcome to the MIDSOUTH! It's a great place to be. A couple of years ago i had a friend who moved to Phoenix and she was croaking because all she could imagine was heat and cactus...

I don't think lilacs will do well for you here... but you can grow beautiful crape myrtles, the Japanese magnolia (easily), all kinds of daylillies, iris, and roses, many sedums, all kinds of flowering shrubs, i.e., forsythia, bridal wreath, flowering almond, viburnums... and jillions of kinds of annuals!

Because the zone here is 7, in the middle of 1 and 10, plants can be "stretched" sometimes and grown in microclimates in our yards... You'll have fun here! Good luck!

Pat

Ripley is quite near my parents' hometown of Covington. I still have many relatives there althought my parents and grandmother are now deceased. You can grow a wide range of plants there. Lilacs do well for me here in Nashville so I don't see any reason they won't do well in Ripley. I find that I do have to water the lavendar ones in the summer when it gets terribly dry or they suffer from die-back but never die. My white one never gets any special care at all and is really tough.

Ripley is noted area-wise for growing some wonderful tomatoes. I don't remember the variety but they are really tasty. You should find the soil there to be really good. That is why my ancestors migrated to that area in order to raise good crops of all sorts. The "bottom land" soil is very rich and the area is not prone to having poor soil anywhere. There is NOT a problem with rocky land like we have here in the area of Nashville. My father taught agriculture in Covington for many years in the local high school and was the director of the local State Vocational School until he retired. .

Very interesting - thank you all for the responses!

I am very excited about the change - I am hopeful that we can do it soon enough to plant some white lilac!

I'm sure Memphis has a botanical garden, so take a notebook, camera, & look for stuff you like in different seasons. It would be a great way to spend a day during different seasons to gain some knowledge of what you like & what grows well. Once you are settled in your new home, look around at some of the landscapes in your area that make you go "wow, that's what I want". Most people who have put a lot of time and effort in their landscape and gardens love to show it off, so stop and ask if you can take pictures or ask them questions about what is planted there. Get a good garden book specifically for the south. Southern Living has some good ones and the botanical garden gift shop could make some recommendations specifically for TN gardens). Best of luck to you and welcome to the South!

Ripley is just north of me and lilacs are fine here (purple and white)..Crape Myrtles and magnolias too. There's not much I can't grow.

You should be able to put annuals and tender things out about the 1st of April and frost usually won't happen till the end of Oct.(killing frost about Thanksgiving) The ground is very good in west TN...just amend a bit for the specific plant. Get a soil test at your Extension Office and this will give you an exact idea about what is needed. I mainly put back as the plants need it...no special efforts are necessary.

Daylilies! They love this area! We've got a member who has a daylily farm in Murray...1000's of cultivars.

You can have Pecan trees...for home grown pecan pies..Apples, peaches, pears and plums are all great too.

Strawberries and blackberries do well...blueberries take a bit more effort, but are do-able.

Hostas and ferns for shady areas....violas and pansies are left in the ground all winter and bloom for just about all of it...they only die back at the very coldest point...and are back up as soon as it warms.

All of the spring blooming bulb plants...tulips, daffs... Folks leave cannas in the ground all winter here too.

There's just not much that won't grow...citrus and poppies (both ends of the growing spectrum)

Welcome to the area! We'll only be about an hour apart!

About the cannas.......I have taken a chance on mine for several years and left them in the ground. We mulch them very heavily with straw, however. It has been a long time since we have had a severe enough winter to kill them but I can remember when folks have lost them all because of the teriffic cold. They turn to mush if the ground gets too cold. They are so much trouble to dig up that we have decided to risk losing them but if we were younger we would probably still dig them. Elephant ears and caladiums need to be dug also. They sometimes make it through the winter but not very often.

We do have an wonderful garden - Brooks Gallery and Gardens. I love to go there, but I never leave the woodland garden. I can almost pretend I'm not in the middle of a city. I'll send a link as soon as I can figure out how to do it.

http://www.dixon.org/Dixonindex.html

I haven't had enough coffee this morning. I meant the Dixon Gardens. Their art gallery is terrific too. Brooks is also great.

http://www.brooksmuseum.org/public/museuminfo/?id=10000221

Here's the Brooks link since i mentioned them. I'm gonna go finsih my coffee now and quit trying to post.

Oh good, LulaLu - please pass a mug this way.....

You can grow citrus there???

No...no citrus and poppies don't like it. That's about the two absolute ungrowable things in my garden...some folks will take a stab at poppies...but they don't last.

Oops - reading too fast. Thanks for the correction!

I was a miserable failure at growing poppies and I tried many, many times.

The one thing I remember my aunt telling me is that you can't transplant poppies because they won't live. She told me to plant the seeds where I want the flowers and then don't touch them! She always has --beautiful-- poppies.

The heat and humidity just seem to wither poppies at my house...this is for seeds that were planted right in the ground...not transplants.They'll germinate and start to grow...then it gets hot and they just seem to dissapear. Oriental Poppies seem to do a bit better, but still are not worth the effort for the little show that I get...and believe me...I love the things...they just don't do well for me.

Amen to that Melody. I gave up on them too. Some things just aren't meant to be and my raising poppies seems to be one of them.

Poppies don't do well for me, either... The aunt I was talking about lives about four counties south of here...

Anyone grow any of the Passionflowers?

I made th e mistake of planting the wild kind in my garden. Lesson learned, DON'T DO IT! It will take the place!