Anyone else get spring fever this weekend? The garden center had hellebores in full bloom and I couldn't resist. So, my first new plantings for spring 2009 are seven pine knot select hellebores. I was surprised at how workable the soil was, and it sure felt good to play in the dirt. I hope I don't regret getting them planted this early, but the guy at the nursery convinced me that they would be fine even if winter does return with a vengeance! Terri
Double white
Pinks/Mauves
Lovely! . I bought some H. seed from valuseeds. I better plant it and get going! will be a couple years to bloom.
Have no new acquisitions to show tho, just moving what I have
Pretty.
Really nice! I have zone 7 envy }: < (
Nice! Reminds me that I missed Pine Knot's Hellebore Festival last weekend :(
Gorgeous!
I haven't had good luck with small "starter" hellebore plants... I think the trick might be to get some nice established ones like those. Sometimes I get "cheap" about plants, and it doesn't always work out so well.
I potted up Holly's black pussy willow cuttings on Friday... they struck nice roots last week! One of them will be the centerpiece of a new little garden area that I'm still working on planning. :-)
I've been sowing a lot of seeds for plants I'm sure I want to have.. LOL.. but I have no clear idea yet of where I will put them! I think I'm going to be doing a lot of potting-up rather than planting-out later this spring.
I wonder how soon mail order stuff will start arriving. My guess is probably mid-late April? I've got ever expanding orders with Bluestone and Lazy SS for 1/2 price deals and plants that I know I can't find at the local nurseries. I just keep adding to my "want" list with the things I read in DG posts - shade, fragrance, moon gardens... and so looking forward to being able to putter outside every evening and weekend once the warm weather gets here for good.
rcn - I'd love to visit Pine Knot Farm when all their hellebores are in bloom. I didn't realize that they had a winter festival. I just checked out their website - looks like it is an annual event with festival days in late Feb and early Mar. Clarksville is almost 5 hours from Leesburg, but I bet it would be well worth the trip and a great way to break the winter blues!
I have not planted anything outside yet...but I did have to dig up 2 clumps of Daffodils last Sunday. They were in the way of a planter box I am building, and guess what? About 10" down, where the bulbs were, the soil was still frozen solid.
Anyway--I have half my seeds started. Will do the rest end of this week.
A new flower i seeded was Godetia (Azalea flowered mix). It is suppose to be a perennial. Multi-colored blooms in pinks and not too tall. The seeds sprouted in FOUR days!
Have any of you grown this? What can you tell me about it?
Thanks, Gita
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/search.php?q=Godetia-azalia+flowered&Search=Search+PlantFiles
Terri, They are so pretty. I have planted quite a few Heles in the last couple of years and ordered a few more from one of the Co-ops. Some of them are doing well, but only time will tell. I haven't planted anything yet. Was giving serious thought to putting out my Pansies but decided to wait another week or two.
Critter I was wondering how the Black Pussy willow did, nice to hear that yours rooted.
Holly, I did as Ric suggested... trimmed off all the little branches and put them in a vase to root (and to look cute with their black fuzzies!), then put the 2 big branches in another jar of water. The big branches struck roots first, and the roots got an inch long in just 2 days once they appeared, so I figured I'd better pot them right up. The little branches are getting roots now too, and I'm putting 3 little ones around each of the big ones in its pot. I figure that will give me 2 nice clump-form bushes! Thank you (and your friend) very much for sharing the cuttings!
1/2 price sale??? Someone say sale?? ROTFLOL...so sad...
Haven't grown it but sounds great. Today I'm digging out old seeds and will wintersow or plant them or throw them away- sheesh. Well for some the wintersow is an excuse not to throw them away just yet. LOL
Dahlberg Daisy- very small and delicate, I grew it from seed once before. Jewels of Opar- I grew that from seeds.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/777/
Gita, have never grown Godetia but always thought the flowers were pretty and looks like the Azalea Flowered Mix is no exception. I was curious though, always thought it was an annual. Found it here http://www.fothergills.ca/?crn=211&rn=368&action=show_detail and it says "hardy annual"??? Call me stupid, but what the heck is a hardy annual? LOL
An oxymoron? Just sayin' ^_^
rcn- you're the pro!! We figure you know!
Maybe it's right next to tender perennial. snort
Just made three more wintersow jugs so I can plant some ancient and partially ancietn seeds and get them off my guilt list and out of my box, without just throwing them away. I'll stick them by the steps and if nothing happens by July, then it becomes potting mix.
Calendula Pacific beauty
orange butterfly flower asclepias tuberosa
purple millet-doc or miata
Scarlet star glory Ipomoea coccinea critter
Lavender munstead 2000
armeria bees 2007 valuseeds
carnation giant 2007 vs
aster spider chrysanthemum 2007 vs
alyssum royal carpet 2004
gomphrena strawberry fields 2007 pinetree
jewels of opar 2007 ?
Dahlberg daisy 2000 Park's
Ok...now reading that makes me feel better...I'd made a few jugs last summer...they're still sittin' empty...don't know why I act like WS is a plague of some sort...what's the worse that can happen. Gonna do those tonight!!!
Yes, every time I see that tender perninal, it drives we crazy. LOL
Just getting to my seeds now, I am so far behind and have no real excuse other than I was waiting for my plugs to come in and then see how much room I would have for seeds. I have no idea what I was thinking when I ordered all these. Will need more room, lots more room.
Sally, started WS some of my old seeds, too.
Will say that 50 pansies for $15 is a great bargin and look at the size of these plugs.
Holly, nice pansies, so healthy and what a bargain!
LOL I'm "no pro" when it comes to annuals so I had to look it up. Found it here: http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1996/4-26-1996/annie.html
Basically: "a hardy annual is a plant that completes its lifecycle in one year"
I'm always learning :)
Then it mentions they can take light frost, that's kind of what I thought it referred to. More cold tolerant than some.
and then there are half-hardy annuals...
;-)
ummm WHAT?
no kidding. I think they're a little less hardy than hardy annuals, LOL... they are still 1-year-lifecycle plants though. HHA's are the ones to "winter sow" this month. :-)
shhhhh, you're giving fuel to those people who say gardening is too complicated and tricky~~
LUCKILY none of them hang around here!!!
Maybe "hardy" annuals are the ones you can start the year before (like pansies), and they'll overwinter and then bloom in spring/summer.
Someone somewhere???? posted a link to this called "What is an Annual?"
Since there was a back-and-forth going here on what is a "half-hardy" annual--I c/p this paragraph from this article.....
******************************
Half-hardy perennials, such as dahlia, gazania, gerainium, gerbera, and tuberous begonia are often treated as annuals. Seeds must be sown early (January or February) to obtain blooming plants by summer. Some, like gazania, are treated as half-hardy annuals and are discarded when a hard frost occurs. Others, like geraniums, can be lifted before a frost, repotted or repropagated by cuttings, and grown indoors during the winter. Still others, like dahlias and tuberous begonias, are lifted and their root structures stored in a cool but frost-free location.
Gita
Ah... so a "half hardy annual" is actually a tender perennial (maybe a short lived one in some cases)? Who knew? ;-)
