Swap at Harts

Thanks Sally, lots of work went into that journal as soon as I figured out how to use it. Got tired of trying to figure out what came up when and who bloomed when so I thought I would just try to record everything this year. I'll be putting in a Swap category soon.

Miata, we think alike. I hated that journal/diary software, and I still find it very cumbersome to use, but I bit the bullet and spent a weekend going through all of my plant tags, organizing a journal and linking Plant Files entries to the journal. I started a Swap category yesterday, but I still have lots more to add. Sheesh. You people were incredibly generous! Thanks again to everyone; I just cannot thank you enough. I look forward to being able to return your generosity once my young garden gets growin'.

Happy: Not sure about salvias and partial shade. We are south enough that lots of plants like some shade so I suppose it depends on how "partial" your shade is.

Sally: Glad to hear you like the scabiosa. I planted out 5 pots of it yesterday. The containers were quite full of roots (I started them from seed last summer).

- Brent

Brent, where did you over-winter your pots? Do you have a greenhouse (or similar)?

I just sowed a few different types of seeds today (poppies, hollyhock, rhubarb), but I've never done it so late in the season before.

Before I heard of winter sowing, I regularly sowed perennials in July.

did you plant them out in the fall?

Yes, and they did fine.

Oh, Goodie. Maybe I should start some more stuff then.

I was planning to start in July -- maybe we can coordinate.

Bananas didn't come from me.
Brent I was wondering how the Peonies are looking, or did you just dump them? I wasn't sure weather to brother to bring them or not.
I was really good and didn't bring too much home this year but I might be more greedy next year. There were just so many wonderful plants at the swap, but I was trying not to overload Ric with even more things to plant. My DIL sends her thanks too some of what I got was for her. Ric planted almost everything yesterday and today I only have a few more to get in the ground.
Larlienda, I left a couple of the Peonies for you too. They looked fine and then they didn't. We had quite a wind storm and Ric thought in might just be some windburn and the roots might be ok. Let me know if they do make it. I also think I left you Comfrey and there was something else I just can't remember now. If your not sure just let me know and I will check out my notes.

Holly, I've been keeping everything in the shade and watered and the peony looks pretty wilted and awful. But every time I've divided peonies they've done that and then come back up fine the next year, so I'll bet they'll do the same.

I moved a big peony last year and was convinced it was dead and it's fine this year. It didn't bloom this year but I expected that.

Sally my confusion was just sleepiness, not your fault. LOL

Ok....be prepared - dumb question alert. Can Peonies be split...if so when and how...please and thank you.

Yes. It's best to do it in the fall but when I had some that I had to move I did it in the spring and they were fine. Like I said above, the foliage looked awful but they came back the next spring. The ones I moved last spring came back nice and big but didn't bloom. That's normal apparently for them to skip a year of blooms after being moved or divided.

No greenhouse here. I have had very good luck over-wintering perennials in pots sunk in 3-4" of mulch.

I am also optimistic about the peonies. Maybe I will even get a bloom or two next spring.

- Brent

Brent, I forgot to tell you, the giant lambs ears will look terrible for a few days. The existing leaves always die back after they're dug and replanted, but they will send out new leaves almost immediate after being planted.

Hart, I checked the little plantlets in my flat very carefully just now, and I think they are all Mouse Ears... I will have to get some Pussy Toes from you another time! I'm going to tuck the little Mouse Ears between some dwarf bearded iris bordering part of a landscape bed, and I think they'll look great there! It's always a challenge, I think, to find ground covers that do well with iris -- they have to be drought tolerant, and you want them to out-compete some of the weeds without being so dense that they hold moisture around the iris rhizomes (which like to be dry). I'm going to put Brent's Nepeta out in the bed with my TB irises!

Shoot! Are you sure? Are they blooming? Because the leaves look exactly the same. There are other kinds of pussytoes that grow in other areas with leaves that look different but not these.

I know if I wait until next spring when the pussy toes come out I can be sure to get the right stuff.

Critter, what about some cypress spurge? I was trying to think about what I have growing around here that would do what you want to do and there's some on the front slope. I see from the plant files page on it that someone is growing it in with their irises. It doesn't get very tall - maybe 8 or 10 inches.

Oh, then I guess I'm not quite sure... I was looking for a subtle difference in the foliage. The few that are blooming are definitely MouseEars (and they're also adorable), and I know they were all pretty tightly together in the same clump... but that doesn't necessarily mean the clump was homogenous, since I did pull out a few (very few) sprigs of grass and what I'm almost completely positive was plantain.

I can be patient about getting some "real" pussytoes... no problem at all! I actually really like the tiny foliage of the MouseEars, so I'm not at all bummed about them... If I'd known you had them, I'd have asked for some on purpose! :-)

Hart, that cypress spruge is a great suggestion... but there are also comments in PF about it giving folks a nasty rash, and given the way I react to poison ivy I probably don't need another possible problem like that... http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/685580/

So far, I've got lamium, serbian bellflower, and nepeta as "groundcover" plants that seem to be working well with my tall bearded iris... and I've discovered that columbine does well interplanted with the iris in that part of my garden... It's been trickier finding something really short that can be used as a groundcover with the dwarf irises... I'm still considering creeping thyme, but I'm concerned that it's not "loose" enough to let the rhizomes dry out well. Actually, that golden moneywort you gave me might work well with the dwarf irises -- how tall does that get? I know I saw it in your bed, but I didn't pay enough attention to its height.

It's not very tall at all. Maybe 4 or 5 inches at the tallest. Most of it is maybe 3 inches.

Creeping thyme would be shorter. Actually, it would probably be less dense at the roots than the moneywort too.

The rash from euphorbia is more like an irritant, not a spreading rash like poison ivy. You only get it if you cut the plant and get the milk on you, and that only if you're sensitive to it. Just touching the plant itself won't do anything.

OK, thanks... I'll check it out, maybe get a bit of the euphorbia from you to try the next time we get together. I'm going to take a look at some of the larger patches of creeping thyme and see which varieties are a little more "open" in their habit... it would also be easy enough to pull it away from the base of the iris and just let it grow between the rhizomes.

I used to have some lemon thyme that was a little bit taller and a little bit more open that some of the shorter ones. Maybe something like that would do. I tried looking it up and came up with something that was a foot tall. This was maybe 4 inches tall with eensy leaves and a heavenly lemon scent.

Let me know if you want to try the spurge. I'd be glad to send it to you. It doesn't weigh much of anything and is tough enough that I could probably just send it in a padded envelope.

Thanks for the offer... I'll keep it in mind, but at the moment I have a fairly overwhelming number of plants clamoring for my attention! :-)

I have a bit of lime thyme from BlueSpiral that seems like a fairly low grower... I guess I was thinking of the really low creepers, but even one of the thymes that gets 4-6" high will still let the iris show up nicely. The foliage is a lot bigger on the little irises this year... last year, when they were first planted, I don't think any of the new leaves got more than 6 inches tall!

Oh, yeah, I reckon you do. LOL Be glad to send them any time if you decide you want some.

This looks like what I grew but it was nowhere near 6-12 inches, not even when blooming.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/6848/

This was one of my many attempts to find something that would grow on that slope behind the lower pond. They actually lived for about three years but then died. It's so extremely rocky and dry there I may have to just paint the rocks green. LOL

Actually, the prickly pear does well there but I want something I can get through to work on the pond on that side without getting stick with prickles.

Gita and I were amazed at the native prickly pear blooms.

...and I had no idea that there was any cactus hardy to these her partz until I laid my eyes on Hart's prickly pears.

Seems that many of us were fascinated with the Prickly Pears. I asked if the Dept. of Transportation had planted it all along the road sides for erosion control and was told it grew native there and the state needed to don nothing.

Sorry that I haven't been in to comment on swap before now. We left on Sunday morning for a week at VA Beach. Wouldn't you know it......my laptop is giving me problems and won't make a connection to Internet. You all will not believe the amount of hours this week that I have spent "challenging" the laptop. I hate it when the machine wins. ha-ha

Anyway, the hotel we are in has a computer room and decided to go ahead this morning and check in with everyone who attended the swap. John and I both had a great time too.

Someone just walked in who is wanting the computer. Need to scoot along. Hope that everyone will have a great day. I too am really happy now to be able to put faces to names.

Ruby

Ruby: I'm so glad you posted. I was just about to post asking if anyone had heard from you since the swap, since I had started to worry. It was great to finally meet you!

Ruby, I too I was just asking Jill yesterday at lunch if anyone had heard from you. I wondered if maybe you had gotten soo many plants from the swap you were still planting, but I was getting a little worried too. Glad to know you're well and enjoying yourself.

Hi Ruby! I hope you're really liking Va Beach. We went for the first time last fall and thought it was really nice, compared to Ocean City MD which has become huge, overcrowded and trashy, if I may say this about 'my' childhood beach. VA Beach has showers on the boardwalk(concrete) every other block or so to rinse off which is so nice.

I actually had some prickly pear growing in my old garden in Manassas complements of my Aunt Ber the plant rustler. She's also the one who introduced me to clustered bellflowers, red hot pokers, perennial ageratum and gooseneck loosestrife.

After the blooms, they will have red sort of pear shaped fruits on top of the pads that you can eat. I've found recipes but have never tried them myself.

Ruby, thanks for taking time out of your vacation to think of us. I hope you're having a wonderful time.

BTW, beach lovers, the best kept secret in Virginia is the state park at Virginia Beach where you can have the beach but in a beautiful forested setting instead of a boardwalk hotel. I understand you need to make reservations at least a year ahead of time.

Most of the state park cabins cost a fraction of a hotel room. Another hint - try to stay in one of the CCC built log cabins instead of a newer one. Susan, they have camp sites too, with and without water and electric.
http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/state_parks/fir.shtml

OKay Wrightie, I kept doing a search for the name of the Lawn Ornament Place Critter and I stopped at but all I kept coming up with was the Harpers site that Hart posted. So my husband was out on the motocycle yesterday and mentioned going the Winchester direction, so I asked him to note the name if he passed by it. Aparantly it's not displayed outside so he stopped and got the business card. So here it is: Neato Outlet, Hwy 340, Boyce, VA (540-837-2919) Here's the description on the business card "Merchandise of every description / Where shopping is a treasure hunt / From pratical to breathtaking." Here's a little article I found for it http://www.winchesterstar.com/TheWinchesterStar/030707/Area_NEat.asp. You gotta get the Easter Island sculptures!

LOL!! Anything with Neato in the title is a big draw for me! Thanks Miata - and thanks to your hubbie, too!

miatablu- it's funny you mention Easter Island. When hart (?) had that thread showing many of the things at Harper's, the Easter Island head looking things were the ones that cracked me up! now THAT would be a conversation piece.

I wonder if they have a miniature Stonehenge? Think that might be over the top?

By the way, I think I've figured out what I got from whom, except the sensitive fern that I got that was in a plastic grocery bag. Anybody?

I've got one of those too... it was begging for a home at the end of the swap, and I took it gladly for my mom's fern garden... I'd love to know whose name to put on the tag!

I've been trying to sort out who gave me what so I can make labels... I always make a little note at the bottom of the label about where the plant came from, because part of the fun of looking around my garden for me is knowing that (and I can't always trust my memory)... So many of my tags have DG names on them now! :-)

ME ME! sensitive fern! just holler if you need more.

fyi...there's someone on the brugs forum that has been building a stonehenge type garden....several long threads with a lot of progress shots...it's absolutely stunning!

Sally! I should've known... I got sooo many wonderful plants from you that day! I planted your "bubby bush" in a place of honor near the bend of the L-shaped new bed that I put in along the neighbor's fence. There's a low, moist area in that bed, and that's where your lovely Siberian Irises went. They'll look great with the variegated sweet flag and hardy hibiscus that are also planted in that part. Your little hollies are sheltering up against the house... Thank you!