13,520 Garden Web Discussions | Perennials
Mine have been in part sun all summer and no leaf damage. One year I had them in a large pot under a maple tree but when the afternoon sun hit them the leaves would get crisp around the edges. Think they also needed more water.
I would like to try them in a pot inside a pot of water but the mosquitoes are so bad here that I haven't yet. Perhaps I could add one of those floating mosquitoe thingys (sorely, lost the correct word).
In the fall I cut them back and let them go dormant for the winter, stick them in my cool dark crawl space and don't do anything until I pull them out in the spring. If they are in a pot that's not to big I just leave them in the pot. If they are in the ground I dig them up and let the tuber dry before putting in a paper bag and placing the paper bag in the crawl space.
I live in new york rite on lake ontario, ive had colocasias for years, my pride and joy.. and theres alot of controversy about them, how to grow them, over winter them and so on and through trial and errror this is wut ive learned if it can help any one..1st they love food and not the liquid kind..but horse cow or goat manure..(must be seasoned a year or 2) soil is the most important aspect in growing these badboys...i make my own dirt for all my plants,,try merical grow potting soil (1/3) with manure (1/3) and ne kind of regular dirt or sand (1/3),,and i sift it useing a regular strainer to get the finest loosest n fluffiest dirt n i mix it all together and my plants thrive,, always remember to water weekly depending on climate ect,,the bigger the plant the more food and water they need,,(use rain water or distilled..tap water has to many chemicals and clorine which will damage ne plant over time) i also never put mine in the ground they are all in pots,, they make an awsome house plant,, they go outside in the summer and come indoors in the winter they never go dormant on me..i do not c the point in over wintering them if they r still healthy, and growing fine unless they r in the ground and u dont wanna risk loseing them from winter or u dnt hve the room to bring them indoors.. they will let u no if there going dorment if thats the case i wouldnt cut them back let them die off on threre own as long as they hve foliage they r absorbing nutrients to store for next years growth.. ive also learned (and this may sound nuts) they r like children with thier own personal prefrenses and personalities,,yes i said it..a plant adjusting to a new home..? sometimes and certain plants i no for a fact drecenea is 1..but when u hve a healthy colocasia..a new home dosent matter to them..idk this is wut ive learned over tha past 15yrs of having these n i can take it to the bank..i could rite all day about these plants so i hope this can help ne 1 thats looking for advise.. it is a science and with enough research (weighing out the opinions and answers) ull figure it out be paitient and proactive.. and good luck
So cheery to see these pics. I am so ready for spring!
This Primula is one of the Pacific Giant Mix that has been in my garden for over 15 yrs. It still puts on a really good show in spring and a more modest rebloom in fall. Really fond of them.
No, it's quite well behaved actually. And I prefer having mine grow in light shade--although it can take full sun, it tends to brown out and look bad by the height of summer. But in light shade, it still blooms well, and stays greener and more presentable the rest of the year.
Most photo software programs have tagging functions. I have tags set up for all the key areas of the garden (e.g. front bed, driveway border, south alley, north alley, backyard). It just takes a second to tag each photo when I download them. At the beginning of each year I create a new set of the same tags with the current year added. Then I can do a fast search by tag, or use the somewhat slower calendar search that uses the date that is automatically applied by the camera. The calendar search doesn't sort by garden area, so it's definitely useful to use tags in addition to give you more search options.
My garden resolution this year is to spend more time enjoying what I've got, rather than constantly looking for how to cram in more. I started back at a full time job for the first time in 9 years, and I want to make sure I am getting quality time in my garden, since it will be limited!!
Today I was looking around the Home Depot Garden Center, and there it was! My second pic is a Podocarpus. It was small, in a one gallon container, but the tag says it gets very tall! The first pic I have to believe is a Boxwood. I have ruled out the Firefly and the Barberry because the branches are way different. I don't think it is an Oleander either, because all Oleander around here are burned from the past two winters. I have two in my yard & I think they are both gonners! No leaves on them, the branches are soft, and when cutting them back, there is no green...
$3 isn't so bad, in my opinion. Especially for Klehm's. Their plants are huge!
I've noticed some sellers on ebay will ship unlimited numbers of plants for $7.99 (or similar). More and more I'm checking ebay before I buy from an online nursery site. Usually I end up going with the nursery, but I've found some great deals on great plants and trees on ebay.
I dont know if this is helpful or not....if its applicable to this situation....but whenever i order online, i alway google "company name discount coupon code"or "free shipping coupon code". Several sites will come up. Check out the first 3 to 5 links. I'd say 20 to 30% of the time i find codes for 5 to 20% off or a free S&H code. Not always, but it never hurts to try ;-)
Marie, if you want to change the name displayed you can do that in a few clicks.
Go to
1) "Your Houzz" in the upper right corner of your screen
2) On the next page "edit your profile" in the upper right
3a) under "Profile Information" and "First name (publicly displayed)" put in whatever you want to show when you post and while you are there you can add your zone under "About me". Mine (which they filled in after I emailed them about the lack of zone information) reads: "My zone is: z4b-5a NH".
Elsewhere one of the Houzz staff wrote that the zone will appear when you post in the GW section of the forums, but not if you post on Houzz. Since I never go to the Houzz part of the site, I haven't tested that out.
I particularly welcome early bulbs in areas that melt sooner, both the early shoots and the blooms. I have an uninsulated foundation on part of the house, and along the sunny parts of the uninsulated foundation I can see sprouts of reticulated iris and foliage of Colchicum, both of which seem quite frost-proof since it hasn't cleared 25 degrees for several days and is still getting into single digits many nights, not our usual for late March (or even late February.)
Colchicum put out spring foliage, but bloom in early autumn.
Most of the garden is still under at least a foot of snow. I do know that the shrubs under the dump line of the eaves will need to pruned to ground level, but that was planned for and the spireas and Annabelle hydrangeas are fine with severe pruning. I am not sure what the arborvitaes in the large shrub bed will look like, and elsewhere there are a few deciduous azaleas that look somewhat flattened. Our first snow of the year was heavy and wet which then turned to ice, so most things have been entombed since late November even though I did my best to clear off the worst of the snow before it froze on.
I hope that PM2's 'SKy Pencil' and Marie's Japanese Maple recover from this winter!
Finally a border without snow in it and surprise, surprise, daffodil foliage just coming up in spots!
Barb, is that a current photo of Colchicum? It's really up high already.
Marie, glad you are keeping your Maple, I hope that goes well.
Wow, what a lot of clean up to do out there. Boxwoods look horrible. I am going to have to cut them back drastically. Oh well, they'll be small for awhile, but they grow fast and won't need much pruning for a couple of years, if I have to cut them back that far. I'll be surprised if I find one that doesn't need a severe cut back. I can't see them all yet. My two in the front are extremely slow growing, so I hope I don't have to do much pruning on those.
Vegetable beds still frozen.
Marie, and Barb, the Sky Pencil won't be straight as a stick for sure. It looks like they'll have a little curve in them, but that's okay. The potted Sky Pencils I saw at Stonegate had the same kind of shape. They were mature and had a sort of tear drop shape. As long as they remain vertical, so far, I'm okay with them. And they still have some snow at the base, so they may straighten up a little more when all the snow is gone. The dump line of our garage roof, is over the Sky Pencils, that was the problem.
Barb, I gave up on trying to keep the snow off anything. The snow was too deep to get to anything in the back and all the shoveling around the front just piled it all up on everything.
We had to have roofers on the roof this winter and they trampled a Hydrangea in the front, I'll have to cut that one back severely too, but at least it blooms on new wood. I used to have an Annabelle there but I changed it to Madame Emille Mouillere. I see I had Deutzia and Syringa pallibin that is crushed along the back dump line. Not surprised. The couple of Arborvitaes we have look okay.
I had assumed the Delft Blue came from your garden....? I didn't do anything special to it when planting (my usual procedure is to dig a not-too-big hole, loosen up the roots if the plant looks pot-bound, plunk the plant in the hole, put the excavated soil back around it and firm it up....!) I planted the penstemon where it gets decent sun and on the front half of the main front bed where it is on a slight slope. So it made it through the winter on its own! The sedum you gave me, on the other hand, appears to have vanished (or else I forgot where I put it!)
I'm still wondering about the color on the Delft Blue - it sure doesn't match the images for that variety. Does anyone else on here grow that one? If so, what does yours look like? Whatever this one is is very pretty. I like it better than your Red Riding Hood :-) so thank you for this one!
Floral, if I remember correctly the ones I had did, not one for the show bench with it's split caylxs but still a very pretty cottage flower.
Thanks Patty, only trouble is this darn border thing, so plants are out, seeds are OK :)
Annette
I have it but I bought it as a plant. I've done a quick Google and I don't see any sources for seed over here either. I'm wondering if it would come true even if it did set seed? My plants have not produced any seeds that I've noticed but then the dying flowers are a mess. They tend to get sodden rather than dry so I often dead head them. The plants are easy to obtain and cheap here. It's a pity you can't find them. The smell is lovely.
I think every avid gardener does a lot of peering in the dirt. You are way ahead in Texas of us gardeners in Iowa. Yesterday as I searched for green, it was tulips and bleeding hearts. Isn't it great to garden???? Mary
I cut my Sonset lantanas back to the ground last night. Only a couple of the main trunk stems had any green and I think that was because they were buried under 5 inches of leaves. The main stem of the plant isn't too wiggly though, so maybe that's a good sign. Only time will tell.