13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
mums root freely.. and quickly..
i put no stock in the suggestion that a mid-summer cutting.. was too immature to winter over outside..
presuming the mum itself was hardy ...
in my z5 MI ... ALL MUMS die to the ground in winter ... coming from what i think is called basal shoots.. right at ground level..
that is where OP should be looking for life ...
and next time.. bring them in BEFORE the first hard freeze.. not AFTER ...
what i would have done.. was take additional cuttings in mid fall.. before frost.. and started those indoors.. and cycled thru few generations of cutting during the cold winter.. shooting for a few young vigorous plants.. come time for them to go back outside ...
and.. as noted above.. MANY of the mums 'forced' for retail.. are not fully hardy in many areas ... and you dont find out.. until they dont came back .. lol.. [in other words.. you never know about that store that ships all its plants from ARKANSAS ... whether they will live in z5 over winter] ...
ken
mistascott hit the nail on the head with the question, "Is there new growth at the base of the plant under this year's growth?"
Keep 'em out of winter rains & protect from slugs come spring. Slugs will nibble any new growth, so you won't be able to see if plants made it through winter. Inspect sides of pots for slug eggs (white or transparent). Use a popsicle stick or tongue depressor to pop the slug eggs against the side of the pot. Every egg hatches you know...
Don't water without poking your finger in the pot. The roots rot if too wet.
We bought up a bunch of display mums in November & put them out of the rain. You can't beat 29 cents for 6" square pots. If the mums don't make it the 18" oval pots as well as 12 inch squares were only $1.29 and will make display pots for herbs or annuals. Hubby laughed at us buying the dead looking things, but there was new growth at the base.
Corrine
I don't want to freak out the neighbors setting clumps on fire, so that's out. I think I'll try tying the stems together and sawing through them with a pocket horticultural saw, as soon as my poison ivy-infested hands heal (I was trimming back multiflora roses that seeded on the edge of the property and apparently didn't notice a woody poison ivy vine mixed in).
I love cordless tools! I have a cordless pole saw and it is quite powerful, although I have never used it on grasses. It's probably too short a blade length. My grasses are not terribly big and my manual hedge shears usually are fine.
But as far as power goes, it is plenty powerful and I see no reason why a similarly powered cordless hedge trimmer wouldn't be powerful enough for grasses.
I can cut 4" branches with the cordless pole saw with no problems. I also have the B&D cordless trimmer and blower. They all share 4 niCad interchangeable batteries. If I run out of juice on a large job, I just reload a fresh battery. The trimmer, for example, can trim all my beds (15 or so? 1 acres worth) with one battery. The blower isn't as effective. Two batteries are needed to clear pine needles or debris off my 75' driveway and it is not effective on the lawn, but is extremely handy to use for frequent light touch-ups on walkways, etc.
I'm a big fan of cordless lawn tools. I hate gas and cords. I also use a Neuton battery mower. At some point I might have to invest in new batteries but so far all is great for the past 3 seasons with all my cordless tools.
Hi Coralred, nice plants! I agree with Kato, most people on Gardenweb would have to consider those house plants in our colder climates. Come on over to the house plant forum if you would like to discuss them further.
I've had Euphorbia polychroma for nearly 20 years and have never done anything to it in any season--just give it full sun, leave it alone and let it do its thing. Picked up some E. 'Bonfire' a couple years ago and so far they've done just fine with the same hands off treatment. It's among my most carefree perennials.
"...iron solubility (and uptake) generally decreases with increasing pH because iron precipitates out of the soil solution at higher pH levels. Phosphorus also precipitates out of solution at higher pH levels. Phosphorus uptake will be further reduced above pH 7.2 because any phosphorus left in solution is converted into a less available form. Nitrogen uptake can be indirectly affected by media pH because low pH decreases nitrification (conversion of ammoniacal nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen) or the conversion of urea to ammoniacal nitrogen."
http://www.greenhousegrower.com/article/21543/understanding-plant-nutrition-an-introduction
So Jacob could be running into nutrient problems depending on whether pH is too high or too low. A device to measure pH sounds like a good idea especially if his goal is to harvest a sizable blueberry crop (one container plant is going to fall short in any case).
Hey eric_oh,
I have tested and its given a reading of around pH 6 - 6.2. I gave it a liquid iron dose and am waiting to see if this makes any difference. I do have a small Rabbit eye plant growing in another container with similar soil and it seems to be growing okay so far but it is a young plant so time will tell.
-twrosz, that is one fantastic little plant you have there!
Rare double flowers are also a temptation of mine- particularly little woodland plants! Sigh.... if its not the variegated/colorful foliage plants attempting to lure me in it's the doubles, lol! Thankfully I haven't yet had the best luck with Trilliums, else I might easily be suckered into getting one like in your great pic. ;-)
CMK
Thanks, clematisintegrifolia. I updated my post accordingly. I want to make sure the info is 100% correct so that people don't get misled if they stumble onto this thread.
Terrene, there is an edit feature but it only appears to work for recent posts (after they added it). It should be under the clippings menu to the right of the post. I am also overjoyed that they added it because I tend to want to edit my posts constantly.
This post was edited by mistascott on Thu, Dec 13, 12 at 15:51
Cool! We can edit posts, and I learned about specific epithets from Clematis! Is it still called a specific epithet when there is a subspecies?
I LOVE growing plants, and have worked hard to learn the proper nomenclature for them. If you really want to know what species you're growing, it's a necessity.
river_crossroads, I received some cuttings of a Hummingbird Plant late last spring and they rooted well. They did not get very big, however, probably due to the time it took to root them and get them potted up. I kept them in the pot the rest of the growing season and have them growing indoors now. And they are doing well inside. I hope to keep them going until the warm weather returns here next spring and then plant them out. Thanks for posting that pretty picture. I now know what my plant will look like when it blooms.
Linda
I would personally get rid of the Achillea ptarmica Ballerina. This is an extremely aggressive species and you will have it everywhere. It is also very easily grown from seed. The Salvia New Dimension Blue is from seed and a first year bloomer. The Delphinium Magic Fountains series is seed grown and pretty common in most nurseries. With the exception of the New Giant, all of your Campanulas are from seed, and the Papaver n. Flamenco. All are fairly easy.
Magic Fountain Delphs are great. I have some that a friend grew from seed and 2 of the 3 have returned for 5 years. No staking required unless they are blooming when we have a heavy, heavy rain. Then, I shake off the flower heads and they right themselves. Even if they only lasted a couple of years, I think they are worth the trouble. The blue ones are really blue, too. You should get faster bloom from started plants instead of starting seeds.
Linda
I had to fix a garden last year that was heavily compacted from having a large tree and it's stump removed. This was midsummer, but I found that tiling with a pitchfork did wonders. That, plus the frost heave from winter, loosened up the soil so I could work it and so that the plants were happy. I did have to replant part of it, but it rebounded nicely.
I'm with the "do your best to wait" camp. If you're out there tromping around in a compacted, mostly dormant garden right now, you're bound to do more harm than good. Try to sit on it, watch for signs, and wait, with as much patience as you can muster.
campanula - it is growing in 100% home made compost and is clipped over a couple of times a year. It came from the bargain shelf of moribund plants at a local garden centre. It is a bit leggier at the moment and will get a clipping in the spring.
Jelitto seeds
Hardyplants in the US
Ebay have a few.
I have amassed quite a few thus far and wanting to add to the collection,I have never had scutellaria incana germinate here
in Australia yet had this little gem germinate and flower from
the water hole in a pot a few weeks ago, wasnt too sure what
it was but I am leaning towards it being scutellaria ovata, it is so pretty.After googling a few the foliage matched a few pics.
I have also got another unnamed scutellaria that I have never been able to id, it is labelled as scutellaria formosana on my flickr which is a synonym for scutellari
javanica which it isnt...
Cheers Annette
Here is a link that might be useful: Scutellaria ovata
Hi Corrine,
Yes I have tried many variations of deterrents to keep the deer away but they have miserably failed. My first effort was with smells, this included millorganite and iris spring soap. The millorganite works if you put a fresh pile of it around and area every three weeks. I used to buy 5, 40lb bags of the stuff for a couple of years only to have all the plants eaten anyway.
Then I went with sound, I took motion sensor light fictures and mounted them on post with one flood light and a radio under a 5 gallon bucket. The deer set the thing off repeatedly until they were not afraid of it any longer,
Now I can put a flood light on them and they smile back at me and stand there.
Then I bought two Scare Crow Motion pulsating sprinklers. These were also set off by the deer repeatedly and they protected the areas just adjacent to the sprinkler heads but the plants were eventually eaten anyway. I think I got hit by the sprinkler more then the deer did.
Then I invested in four motion sensors with a base station in my house that would sound off every time a deer passed by. That let me catch a lot of deer in the act but when I was not available they had a field day.
I can't tell you how many times my wife and I have run after deer only to have them run through some plants and cause damage.
We have now learned that it causes much less damage to just let the deer know we are there but don't scare them. They will wander off after a short while.
My last resort was to invest in a 7 foot metal and plastic fence. I have about 1/3 of and acre protected with the fence and all my sensitive plants are in there.
Occasionally a deer will get in the fence and they cause more damage breaking back out, then when they broke in.
Within the fence I have a number of wood cut-outs, a cow and two dogs. These are life size and swing freely on wire. The movement spooks the deer and during the growing season I have gone without one deer breaking into the enclosure.
I have loved growing for years but this deer problem almost makes me want to move.
So now I will only plant absolutely deer resistant plants. The toughest I can find.
There is a great book I have been reading by Ruth Rogers Clausen called "50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants. It is very well done with plant discriptions and cultural information. There are also good suggestions for plant combinations.
This coming year will be the year of the deer resistant plant.
I'm done with wasting money on a plant I will never see mature.
Thanks,
Mike
Mike - great book. I've read that, too. I took notes, so I could remember her growing tips as well. I live in a clearing in the woods at a camp & conference center, so the deer presence is strong & they're used to people also. Besides gardening around our home we work on gardens around the camp where there is no fencing to keep them out. I don't apply deterrents there, but some staff members stick soap in the soil near the rose bushes. In one area another staff family has a dog that deters them so we can plant edibles for our childrens' gardens.
Sounds like you have good experience to deter deer from your newly planted specimens. I hope to scare them before they enter the garden and are just walking on the driveway. Like you I've had them break off stems or sink in rootballs by jumping through in spring when the new growth is out and the wet & soft. Sometimes their feet do tramp through gardens, so I've learned to plant closely & have paths in back of borders that are next to a fence or the house. When the deer can't see over it or can't find a path through it they don't enter, but do attempt to nibble around the front. Barberry prunings from my daughter's place crisscrossed & laying on the path prevented them from getting to seedlings & small plants in the spring. I removed them when the plants were larger.
Some root well from cuttings in spring, so you can multiply what you have to make large groupings or repeat in the border. Sedum, Nepeta, Lamium, golden creeping jenny, & vinca minor can cover quite a bit of ground after awhile like a living mulch. The deer eat the tall sedum at our parents' island home, but haven't eaten them here. I was pleasantly surprised with Nepeta cuttings from new spring growth, stripped lower leaves, poked my finger in soft soil directly in the garden where I wanted the plants, & inserted. I moved a few of them further back as they matured as I put them too close to the edge, but other than that they've been easy.
Another tip besides starting seeds -- find a free plant swap near you. Those plants are going to transplant well since they've already acclimated to your climate. No heartache if they don't make it because they were free! Just be careful to clean up any stray weeds before you plant them. Sometimes I just wash that soil all away before planting out. I've received rootbound seedings that sprouted in bark on top of plastic in someone's garden. A bit of root prep & they've been great plants.
Have you tried some ornamental grasses either stand alone or in groupings? Some can be grown from seed. I've received some of my best ones for part sun at free plant swaps as divisions or seedlings that will mature & reseed again for me. Spring planted starts establish quickly. Some are well behaved clumpers and some are spreaders. Be sure to read up which fit your situation. The spreaders are in sunken pots to keep them as a clump. What ever is new to me becomes my favorite at the time.
Hope that helps,
Corrine