Now that we are putting our gardens to bed and getting ready for winter. I thought it would be a good time to share our growing success, what plants were your pride and joy and will plant again.
I had so much fun with http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/60491/ Coleus Great Exhibition mix seeds. They were easy to grow, a verity of colors and put on a show all summer. I had them in combo pots and planted some in the ground too. Next year I plan on planting more!
those speckled leaves are cute. I have some orange coleus that must have come from SWAP. I just figured out how great they are by my mailbox. Next year I'll be making a large pot of a large-leaf coleus for that.
All summer, I have had a big pot with a bunch of baby amaryllis and some golden pothos out there. They grew well. I just can't bring myself to compost those baby amaryllis.
Sally, you might have gotten the coleus from me. It's called Freckles and I'm trying to keep some cuttings going over the winter. You can have some in the spring if I succeed.
I got quite a few speckled leaf ones out of that seed packet. I like the mixed seeds as it is a surprise as to what you will get.
Another plant that I was happy with but had some germination issues was Delphinium Black Knight http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/88819/
I had two plants out of the few that I sowed (12) but it was stunning. Some of the plants died before flowering.
yes miata I think so. It is more orangey right now than looks in Plantfiles Now I hear talk of frost maybe I'll just go cut some myself. So nice of you to offer !
I had success planting chiltepin peppers in a pot rather than directly in the veggie garden or in a raised bed.
They need such a long growing season which we cut it so close here in zone 6b. I have them on the porch now in a pot and they are ripening now. I pick the red ones as they ripen. I plan on bringing the pot in when a frost is predicted if that occurs before they all ripen.
These peppers are great. They are small spheres the size of a tiny pea. They last so long when dried because they are so HOT!!! They hold their heat too. I had some for years stored dried and they were just as hot 3 years later!!!
I'm going to plant the tepin peppers in a pot next yr for the same reason. Both these hot little peppers are great for culinary use.
I've already reported how pleased I was with all the Euphorbias in the gardens this year. But I was really impressed with the border Rick planted last fall. Wish I had taken more pictures throughout the summer, there was something in bloom from spring through fall. It was really hard to capture how nice this looks - there's no "good" angle because it's just too darned long! This the approach to our driveway.
And from the other direction, leaving our driveway.
Love the brilliant yellow of this Helianthus - 'First Light'.
White Beautyberry was a real standout this year. You can barely make out some overturned black pots in the background - marked "spaces" for more plants to be added this fall.
Another shrub I was really pleased with - Caryopteris 'Summer Sorbet'. Nice variegated foliage with pretty blue flowers. Waited too long to get this picture and it was almost done blooming, plus taken with my new camera I had a hard time capturing a clear picture.
wow rcn, beautiful
you have a HUGE lovely entrance drive, we don't see many private drives like that around here thanks to all the builders packing in the township lots. the beautyberry is neat too and looks great where you have it ~ didn't know it came in white
I'm going to try the Helianthus - 'First Light' after seeing your photo :)
forgot to ask you...what are the purple mounds?
That border is just plain breathtaking! But are you really zone 6a? Plantfiles says the Beautyberry is only hardy to 7a, and though I'm supposedly 7a, nothing 7a makes it here.
I love the idea of the overturned pots to mark where to plant in the future -- that is a great idea!
This message was edited Oct 29, 2007 10:07 AM
Happy, I've got purple Beautyberry growing out back... put it in last summer, and it's doing great! I really like the white, so now I've got something else to find space for. :-)
That border is spectacular, and I'm sure it's even more stunning in person as it changes through the season. Wow!
Happy, I've been a skeptic regarding this being zone 7a as well, but I've been planting for 7a anyway. I planted beautyberry before I found out that it is invasive, but I can report that it has done well for me for the past three years. I'd say that you and I have very similar microclimates in spite of our sun/shade differences.
I wonder if your hill / elevation change would make that much difference? Hmmm....
This message was edited Oct 29, 2007 10:31 AM
I think a good part of my problem in not being able to host 7a plants is that my yard gets very wet in the winter, and because it is shady it dries slowly. So I may get more freeze-thaw cycles than is typical.
Wrightie, do you have the purple or the white Beautyberry? According to plantfules, the former is good up to zone 5a (see http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1210/ ) while the latter is only good up to zone 7a (http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/69461/ ). Critter, that may explain why the purple one is doing well for you. But I was really caught by the white one . . . .
I have a couple places right in front of fences I am trying to select plants for -- looking for relatively low shrubs with lots of interest. One is right by our driveway, so I'd look at it a lot. I'd love it to look like RCN's border (we can always dream), but don't have the sun. . . .
since we got on the subject of beautyberry I just wanted to mention that there are ALOT of different kinds. When I bought my purple one I had no idea there were different purples and I ended up with Callicarpa Bodinier which is native of western and central China!! I liked it at first but it is starting to pop up all over. Wrightie, do you know what species you had?
I think you all have inspired me to dig mine out and replace it with Callicarpa Americana which is what I wanted in the first place. The C.Americana also comes in white http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/117477/ (hardiness is zone 6a) and it is native here in the US and many bird species and various animals eat the berries. The darn Bodinier has 'drupes' not berries; looks real pretty but not even deer will touch it.
Whoops, Happy, I've got regular ol' purple. Sorry, I missed that you were talkinbout white. Wind, I'll double-check to see what I've got.
Okay, I have Purple Beautyberry, Callicarpa dichotoma 'Early Amethyst' http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/78812/
This message was edited Oct 29, 2007 5:05 PM
Yikes, so many questions! I have to admit to everyone, when Rick planted this border last fall, I wasn't sure I was pleased with the placement of the plants, but I take it all back now!
wind, the smaller purple mounds are Aster 'Purple Dome', like them because they come into bloom first with the taller Asters 'October Skies' and 'Raydon's Favorite' blooming a little later.
Happy, we had planned for planting this summer where those black pots are, but the darned heat knocked out those plans :( Maybe this fall? Another thing we've done with the overturned pots - when we planted out a ton of Hostas one year for a propagation bed, we placed the pots over the Hostas so we could easily sling the mulch on these beds - then we just removed the pots - nice and tidy :) And yes, we really ARE Zone 6a and a COLD 6a - we're in the valley on the west side of the Blue Ridge and the cold, cold weather from the Ohio Valley blows through here. The PF is wrong, if they list the White Beautyberry as only hard to Z7. You have to make sure you're comparing "apples to apples", like wind states, different species, different habit, blooming/fruiting, etc. The white we have is Callicarpa japonica 'Leucocarpa' hardy to Zone 5a.
Wrightie, have never heard that Callicarpa is invasive? We've never had a problem with it in our gardens and there are several plants that have been there for years. I read a few of the comments from people in much warmer climates (CA or AL) who had trouble, but shouldn't be a problem in our area.
wind, IMHO, I'm not fond of the native Callicarpa. I've noted that the fruits are a little larger and a bit more impressive, but it has a terrible sprawling habit and doesn't have the refined arching habit that alot of the other Callicarpas have.
We had picked up a Callicarpa acuminata (Mexican Beautyberry) in GA several years ago, not hardy here but couldn't resist "testing" it in the gardens. The deeper color of the berries (almost like black raspberries) was too hard to pass up - alas, it didn't make it :(
How a pink Beautyberry? I could have sworn I added this to PF several years ago, but it's not there! Callicarpa 'Welch's Pink'.
Hmm, now I'm wondering if Beautyberries could be propagated by dormant cuttings... and if Groundhog's Day is too late to take cuttings. ? They'd still be dormant, right? but somehow I suspect the cuttings should be a fall thing... it's something I intend to try this year!
RCN: You are right -- I must have been looking at the wrong plant! Your Callicarpa japonica 'Leucocarpa' is at http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/82358/, and is noted as hardy to 5a.
But phooey if it isn't another one of those "full sun" babies . . . . It is so handsome.
This message was edited Oct 30, 2007 8:49 AM
Allwrightie, I had read about beautyberry's invasive tendencies on the Invasive Forum here a while back and immediately felt guilt-ridden, so I'll look back into that.
Happy, for the record, mine is in part sun and is doing just fine. It's in my backyard with all of those big Oak trees.
rcn- that is an excellent tip about putting pots over the hosta. I might even be able to get 'somebody else' here to dump mulch in beds if I can cover the plants first. there's a severe shortage of skilled labor here( my household)
Sally, haven't you trained that puppy, *yet*???
My household has gone one worse than yours, sallyg. We acquired 2 new cats last year. I am the kind of person who likes to make piles of stuff -- tax documents, billls to pay, magazines to read, etc. The cats apparently spring from one pile to the next in my absence, knocking the contents into what for all the world looks like one big indoor compost pile. So we have both a household shortage of skilled labor, and an excess of skilled demolishers.
This message was edited Oct 30, 2007 5:18 PM
ROFLOL! Eliot Kitten has created that sort of havoc on my desk, despite the fact that "tables" are officially off limits... he has this notion that I can't see him when he's "hiding" behind the monitor.
if only the bills could just rot away like fall leaves,.....
The irises I planted a couple of years ago really put on a show this spring! And so I planted more... a LOT more...
I also got blooms from several columbines I'd wintersowed in 2006. I'm interplanting more columbines with the irises... :-)
A couple of years ago, I grew habaneros in the bed behind the dining room... and a couple of them grew 5 or 6 feet tall, which was impressive... but the habanero plants closest to the dripping hose bib grew 7 feet tall this year!!
I'm 5 ft. 6.
Last year, I was delighted to see some lovely blooms from some daylilies I'd started from seed 2 years before (I really didn't know what to expect), so of course I had to get some more seeds to start this year. They did pretty well! I've got mostly 3 seedlings per pot in the photo below. I'm planning to overwinter them in a protected spot and plant them out in spring.
I love daylilies!
Here's one I must plant -- in quantity -- every year.
This Italian Genovese-type basil is from seeds a friend brought back from Italy 5 years ago. It's my very favorite basil for cooking (and pesto!), and if you were at Hart's plant swap this spring, you probably had a seedling pressed upon you. I have a big platter of seed drying now, because I think everybody should grow this basil!
For the last couple of years, I've planted a double row of it at one end of the garden, in front of some tomatoes...
Another love of mine is my oriental lily bed. This white one came in a bag of "mixed oriental lilies" but has been a star performer! The stalks grow to at least 6 feet tall but don't stand quite that high because it tends to escape my staking attempts... my lily bed looked like a jumble of pick-up sticks this year!
critter- you're amazing
wrightie- she's about as well trained as my kids.....
sadly...& ^}
I was really happy with the cleomes and sweet-peas I started from seed.
early_bloomer
I also grew Tithonia (Mexican sunflowers) for the first time and plan on growing more next year.
Photo: Tithonia with reblooming delphiniums.
early_bloomer
Hey Early- I also like cleome, and I also had Tithonia for th first time this year, but not with anything as pretty as that delphinium. Now I have a few baby Tithonias that came up from the deadheads that I tossed around. Too bad they won't live to bloom.
Oh, and since we're reporting on successes... Sally! The Salvia 'Coral Nymph' you gave me put up the prettiest pink (not coral! whew!) blooms, and I got some seeds from them too! :-) And Wrightie's blackberry cutting not only rooted, it actually started getting a big ol berry on it just before frost!
Happy, we have Callicarpa growing in shade as well, under a canopy of trees - still produces the fruit, although not as much and its form isn't as nice as it would be in full sun but still pretty. Dirr says all the Callicarpas root readily from softwood cuttings, maybe I should try some? Although he showed us once how easy it is to start them from seeds, have never done that either!
critter, those peppers are incredible and beautiful Lily! Some of the Oriental and Asiatic Lilies that have been in the gardens for over five years are suffering - the trees have grown so much and providing too much shade :( Too busy, or is it lazy? to move them so for now will have to admire their blooms and ignore their stretching stems.
Early_bloomer, love the combination of Tithonia with the Delphinium. Those Delphinums just don't do well for us here, but always loved the ones I used to be able to grow in Zone 4.
OMG critter what a habanero harvest!!!!!! I would of thought they would rather have dry soil ~ Do they get full sun there? and if you don't mind me asking....what did you do with all those hot peppers???????
I have a few weeny (compared to yours) habanero plants and have several white habanero pepper plants; still producing now. The white habaneros are very small, 1/2" and the plants are dwarf. Look more like ornamental plants. I'm not sure if I like these yet. The first taste I didn't think they were hot, then the next taste they were HOT. They turn white from a yellow color. It may be that the yell stage is not too hot. I just picked a bowl full of ripe white yesterday to try again. They are supposed to have a fruity hot flavor.
A pepper that I did love this yr and would definately plant again was 'Holy Moly'. It was not a hot pepper and could be used in just about everything. Also, Holy Moly didn't seem to give indigestion to those who can't eat green peppers. It was green but it was a really deep dark green. It looks cool the way it grows, the peppers are large danglers.
If those are anything like the 'White Bullet' habs that I grew, they take longer to fully ripen than I thought... and they were tastier when all the way ripe. If the pepper easily snaps off the stem, they're ready to pick. I didn't grow them again because I prefer to seed habaneros to remove some of the extreme heat... and those were just too small! They were more compact plants, though, as were 'Yellow Flying Saucer'.
If you love that fruity hab flavor but can't take the heat, you'll love one of my favorite new-to-me varieties this year. I planted 'Numex Orange Suave' and 'Aji Dulce' peppers. They look just like habaneros, and they have the same flavor and aroma, but they have only a scrap of heat. Next year, they get a place where they can grow bigger (they were crammed into a corner of the veggie garden). I think they're wonderful for adding more habanero flavor to hot sauce etc. without going overboard on heat. I don't think the major flavor of hot sauce should be pain!
As to what I'll do with the bounty... hot sauce, pepper jam... we'll see! Once minced and stored (in fridge) with vinegar, they keep a long time.
