13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials

My 'Ozawa' have come and gone.

UPDATE:

Just yesterday I was able to pick up several small but well rooted "Ozawa".

Thanks Rosie,
I haven't purchased a guara for many years. All that I have grown lately have self seeded and they are very unpredictable. I saved seed found the best plants in the past and they never came up like the mother plant.
I don't fertilize this plant. And the soil in this spot is not really improved.
It has a side spout which is lying near the ground. Don't want to lift it for fear that it might crack off.
I will tell Bobalu that you said he was gorgeous. Actually, I will use the word "handsome". He's a little sensitive about that. :-)

Wow! is right. I love it.

Blue looks like hardy plumbago, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides.

That's it! You guys rock! Thank you!

I know these two really don't go together but it is as it is.

An unnamed aster (nepalenis?) and Oenothera "Lemon Drop".

My combo is Salvia guaranitica âÂÂVan Remsenâ and Tradescantia pallida âÂÂPurple Heart,â the purple foliage planted along the wall in the picture that has a pinkish purple flower.

The salvia is blue in the shade but turns violet blue or purple in the sun, grows to 7 ft tall and has been blooming for 4 months. Hummingbirds love it. Picture taken 9/21/13.

RyseRyse_2004 - prior to the most recent adjustment to USDA hardiness zones I was Z5 and my hellebores were already planted in my garden beds when I took this picture a couple of winters ago where my hellebores were growing:

That's my front lawn. I'm guessing all that snow melted & made my hellebores really happy because they've more than doubled in size since. I'm also guessing they might have been in bloom under the snow but chances are they didn't really bloom until most of that melted. I could be wrong but am guessing it's a preference thing--I love anything that blooms so having these blooms so early in the season is a welcome sight.

amy1717 - thanks for the tip about the free photo site. I'll be sure to check it out.

I sailed aboard the schooner 'Nathaniel Bowditch' every summer for 30 years (check out the link). The ship was built in East Boothbay, Maine in 1922. Also sailed with her for Sail Boston 2000 and again in 2007. Fell in love with sailing after doing a couple Outward Bound sailing challenges in Maine.

Would enjoy a pic of your boat if you have one. Some friends I met aboard the Bowditch have a 50 ft. boat down on the Chesapeake.

Sorry I'm not yet on Facebook.

I could sure give you hosta divisions if we were closer--had to divide quite a few of my designer plants when they were close to a decade growing where I planted them. We've had so much rain this season they're most of them twice their normal size. Ye gods!!!

Would be happy to give you divisions once the weather cools if you're willing to pay the shipping.

Here is a link that might be useful: Schooner Nathaniel Bowditch

gardenweed - First off, WOW, that's a lot of snow! Hard to imagine anything blooming under all that, but who would know? Glad to see some of your photos -- they're beautiful! What lovely color in that bloom.

Too bad you're not on FB yet -- don't want to go off on a sailing tangent here, but will post the link to our online blog from the 2007 trip, which has probably more photos of us & our boat than anyone cares to see. Ours looks like a dinghy compared to the Bowditch!! I'll have to show that one to my other half, good inspiration for our next great adventure :)

Out of curiosity, what part of CT are you in? My aunt & uncle live there, near Willimantic, and Mom did for some years before coming back to TX, so I got to spend a few vacations up there in the '90s. Beautiful area -- I loved discovering Indian Pipes and all the wild ferns in the woodlands behind her house.

Might take you up on those divisions -- do they ship well? Let me know when that's a possibility!

This post was edited by amy1717 on Fri, Oct 4, 13 at 0:31

HAHA I'd pay to see Ken scream like a girl !!

Wouldn't we all?

Definitely agreeing with the above!

Kevin, I would have never even imagined raccoons going after pond fish! Learn something new everyday. What size tank do you keep them in indoors?

Karin, my aunt keeps talking about how we should grow and can some vegetables. I've never done it because I just know I would forget something with so many steps! Glad you were able to retrieve them without hurting themselves!

I think a lot will depend on its flowering condition :-)) Mums sold for fall color tend to be very heavily budded - best to purchase them in bud rather than bloom as the flowers tend to go over rapidly. But the development of the buds into flowers is certainly stimulated by sunlight. Excessive shade may very well stunt or abort the flowering.

So you've got this choice to make - a heavily budded plant that may not fully develop its flowering potential in that much shade or one already into its flowering cycle that may not produce for as long as you like (IME, a ready-to-go mum lasts about 2-3 weeks max in bloom).

yep.. i would pick one.. with one single flower open... to confirm color ...

and enjoy it for a month ...

but i still would not repot it ...

ken

You are so right. Wasps, not bees.
As wrong as it is, I call anything that has a stinger a bee.
If I get lucky enough to get a honey bee which is rare, I brag that I saw a honey bee. Again that is probably the wrong word, but I am too old to care.
Now when one of the many bumble bees that are around here in the spring landed on my wife's pants leg and then she bought it in the house (unknowingly) and then she sat on it and the stinger shot into her leg.... Well, she called that bee by a different name, which I can't print here. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Bee clothing

So many things eat the milkweed in my garden that I am lucky if the Butterflies can have enough leaves to support them. Hasn't happened, yet.

Yes, milkweed does seem to attract a panoply of insects - not to mention the occasional critter that chomps it down. This is why I regularly patrol mine and either squish or banish all insects. The lady bugs and occasional spider get tossed into another garden, but most get squished. I like insects, but since my property is a Monarch waystation, I raise and tag Monarchs (didn't see any this year unfortunately), and I collect seed, I want the foliage and seedpods to be healthy. The Monarchs are welcome, but the other bugs not so welcome.

Edited to add: this doesn't include flowers! all pollinators are welcome on those.

This post was edited by terrene on Wed, Sep 25, 13 at 18:57

According to my notes, where I am B. australis normally blooms sometime in May rather than later in the growing season.

I would love to add plenty more Baptisia in my garden but thanks to winter sowing, my beds are pretty much chock-a-block full of perennials I grew from seed.

The blue baptisia australis I have blooms in April/early May. Maybe I've got some kind of new cross :) Last year when it bloomed so very late, I thought it was just because it was 1st year's bloom, & it had been a crazy hot June. When it behaved the same way this year, I decided it must be the norm for the plant.

I love the dark leaves but my main question is, does it re-seed all over the place? The other perennial hibiscus do and it is starting to get annoying.

I can't really tell about the reseeding as I planted mine this spring. But the bloom color is so rich and the plant as a whole is so striking, that it becomes the focal point and effectively the rest of the flower bed becomes support for the plant. Between that and the palm leaves of the castor bean next door, it's tropical.

I almost hear the tinkle of "Pearly Shells"

Now someone on here mentioned pinching the plant back, to produce more stems, which I'll do next year. Should increase the number of blooms.