I'm trying my luck with taking cuttings of Osteospermum (African Daisy, Cape Daisy). I didn't realize at the time that it's a tender perennial until I'd already went to the trouble of fixing my aquarium for these cuttings. Well, I'm not afraid of being zone challedged but, geesh, I wish I'd not wasted my aquarium on these plants! Oh well, now I'll just have to try other plants using water bottles. Who has had luck with these plants coming back in the spring?
What other tender perennials have y'all had that came back?
Deborah
What is your experience with tender perennials?
I helped clean out some beds at my son's school last year and brought home the leftovers and put in the compost pile. They were covered with tons of leaves and now I have huge begonias and vinca (caranthus) that are blooming. So far, my other vinca have not reappeared :(
Oh Ok, I'll start a list of tender perennials that come back in zone 7 and zone 8. Then, as others add to this thread, I'll update the list.
Begonias zone 7b
Vinca (caranthus) zone 7b
Gerbera Daisy zone 7b
Wandering jew zone 8a
Pentas lanceolata zone 8b
Clerodendrum incisum zone 8b
Brugmansia zone 8b
This message was edited Jul 31, 2007 10:02 PM
I do not grow the african daisy, yet, but it is a colorful addition, like the gerbera, that I do grow, and thus far been able to mulch with pine straw, and they become a prenieal.So I would love to hear from those growing the african / cape daisy.Mike
That's right, the gerbera daisy does come back! Thanks, Mike. I'll add that to the list too.
I have a white varigated wandering jew (that common name is so politically incorrect, even if it is based on folk lore. Is there a better catch all name for these plants?) that has survived three winters in zone 8. It dies back to the roots, then puts out new growth in the spring. I have it running around under and between hostas.
Shrinp plant is another that makes it through the winter here. My MIL had a bed outside the picture window to attract hummers. The plants bloomed until January.
Beth
Heya Beth, look at this varigated wandering jew in plant files and tell me if its the same as your plant. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/101716/ Another name for it, "inch plant', Go figure! LOL
That looks like it. I have not seen blooms on mine but that is about what I would expect from it
beth
beth
my one of my pentas came back this year (I wish I hadn't dug up the other thinking it was dead!), also my brugmansia. My clerodendron 'Musical Notes' came back and I would have sworn it was a goner. I was wise enough to move it into a pot, though, once I found out that it can be a garden hog.
My red shrimp plant is a surviver and I'm hoping it will spread.
Erin
Erin, I wish pentas would came back for me. Glad to know yours did though. You must have mulched yours well. I have to have Pentas in my gardens. Sure don't like dishing out the plant funds on them every year. They just haven't come back and I go out to the nurseries to buy more.
I put my brugs in the ground hoping they'll come back for me too. Although. I will take cuttings for insurance.
You were pushing the zones with your Clerondendrum. Glad it came back for you.
Has anyone in Georgia challedged the zone lords with Osteospermum? Still taking names for your zone quests.
What begonias survive zone 7b? What kind of protection do you give them? I'm interested to find out which ones can make it besides the hardy begonia (grandis).
Brugmansias have been completely hardy and reliable in zone 7b. I took some cuttings of my gold one from our last home and it has been outdoors for the past 3 years. My pink one was in a tub for the first 3 winters here and sat outdoors last winter with a couple of hellebores in the same tub. The previous two years I hauled it indoors. I finally planted it this year and while I thought it was a goner it has sprouted and is growing like a weed.
A friend of mine says he leaves abutilon (flowering maple) out for the past 3 years and it always comes back. Spider plant (chlorophytum) survived several years at my last house in Marietta. Another survivor this past winter was acalypha repens (strawberry kittentails). Colocasia 'Illustris' comes back for me each year but I find it is much bigger if I dig it and take it inside. Florist ivy is like regular ivy - hardy and more colorful (but be careful with it since it can get out of control).
These are the plants that survived under a tarp under the deck this past winter:
Ferns - maidenhair, bear's paw, rabbit's foot, and button to name a few. Pregnant onion, some Ti plants (not all), mandevilla, variegated shell ginger, ponytail palm, amorphophallus Konjac (actually a lot bigger than the ones I left in the ground), columnea (goldfish plant), epiphyllum, and some others. The ones that didn't make it were ficus benjamina (weeping fig), ficus elastica (rubber tree), musa zebrina (banana), tropical hibiscus, and some ferns. I think the reason I lost some was I didn't water at all for the 5 months they were under the tarp. I wonder if I watered once a month how many might have made it.
Vinca (catharanthus) is probably coming back from seed that was dropped (at least in 7b). I've never seen it come back from the original plant. Reminds me of impatiens and celosia - reliable reseeders.
Wave petunias are semi-hardy: some make it while most don't. It's a lot better to replace these. Replacements just seem to have a lot more vigor than trying to resuscitate the survivors.
An old-timer in Cairo explained the brug thing to me- they are much more root hardy than you would think, all she did for over 20 years was wait until first hard freeze (to shock it), then cut it all the way down, cover the stump with an upside-down pot and pine straw over. That way it won't rot or freeze further.
Firespike is hardy the same way, it turns black at the first hard freeze, I then whack it and put some pine straw over for good measure. Same with mexican petunia (tall one or the new medium grower I bought last year)
My gingers are all root hardy. I have a favorite one that may be a non-variegated shell, I'm not sure because it has never bloomed for me. It's the leaf-hardiest of all- the very, very last to give in to frost. Also can take full, full shade. And the leaves smell absolutely incredible!!!!
Erin
I'm sorry (shame on me) that I don't know more about begonias, but this is a pic of one that was buried under tons of leaves and came back.
The others I have came from HD and were cheap and have come back for 2 summers. They have red blooms and greenish red leaves and one has green leaves with white blooms. I don't remember mulching them though because they are around the mailbox.
Susan
Okay, good to know what begonias we are talking about. More than likely this came back from seed (some varieties of begonias can almost be weedy).
This is an example of some of the begonias I grow. I haul them indoors late October and drag them back outdoors mid April to early May. I wish I could leave them out but they would be toast if I did.
hcmcdole - I am happy to hear that you had success with overwintering pregnant onion. I had one 2 years ago that came from a bulb someone sent me for a lily. It grew in a pot in my office at home for a year until I came to DG to find out what it was. I then put it outside on my deck where it lived until frost and I brought it inside last winter. I then realized I simply had to divide it, and I got over 20 new plants from that one pot. I don't have room to bring all those inside this winter, but I DO have a large deck that I could store them under. Any special advice on these?
If I thought I could overwinter tropical hibiscus I might be more inclined to buy some. You just put a tarp over it?
That's right. I just put a heavy duty tarp over most of my large containers. I laid the tall plants down on top of the stone terrace and placed the tarp over everything. Then I anchored the tarp with stones. My ponytail palm had some leaves that were exposed and they got burned but the plant came out fine.
Again the tropical hibiscus did not make it. The ficus plants did not make it but I had plenty of those inside. A lot of supposedly tropical ferns did make it but some didn't such as tree fern and blechnum.
I think if I had watered at least once a month some might have made it. The other thing to try is using bales of wheat straw on top of the plants under the tarp. That should provide more insulation.
I've read in magazines where people in colder climates than ours have wrapped banana trees in burlap and placed them in their crawl spaces with no ill effects.
Brian Williams has an excellent article in the tropical forum about going above and beyond what most of us are willing to do to save large plants through winter.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/560038/
Another plant that I've had outdoors (covered porch though to keep rain out of the pot) for years is agave parryi. My agave americana is not as hardy (lots of damage) although the huge ones in Myrtle Beach seem too big to move indoors so what is their secret? The rest of my agaves go indoors for winter.
Here is agave parryi.
