Happy accidents
floraluk2
15 days ago
last modified: 15 days ago
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rosaprimula
15 days agoRelated Discussions
happy accidents
Comments (4)Purple, that is very cool! I love the spider plant colony. I think asparagus fern is also perennial in your zone, maybe? Many Hippeastrum are, too. Around here, houseplant survival surprises are fairly infrequent. Some annuals -- dusty miller and the large-leaved vinca (V. major?) -- survive the winter in protected areas. My understanding is that a number of "tender" plants can survive the cold we get, here, but not the wet soil and the stress of repeated freeze-thaw cycles. I know gardeners in colder zones than mine who overwinter far less hardy plants -- successfully -- outside in the ground -- because they have sandy soil and consistent cold (rather than the drastic fluctuations we tend to get around here). Reliable snow cover does wonders, too, as an insulator. (Don't have that around here.) I moved, this summer, and I now have a dry-all-the-time area against the south wall of the building. I planted agapanthus and crinum there, just to see if maybe they'll make it through all the freeze-thaw cycles. After reading your post, I'm inspired to plant a small division of aspidistra in the ground by the north wall of the building, again, just to see. Thanks for the interesting post! Amanda...See MoreHelp identifying this happy accident, please
Comments (3)It might be easier for you to open a free Photobucket.com account, upload to there . You won't have to deal with size restrictions. Copy and paste the HTML line beneath each photo you have uploaded from Photobucket, then paste here in the message part. ( not in a link)...See More2013 Recap & Photos
Comments (13)Even though my list shows a decent variety I only saw one or two of many of them all season. The only thing that was around in good numbers all season is of course the cabbage white! The past few years I had been seeing at least a few "new to me" species each year. Also, there were quite a few days that were just great butterfly days with several monarchs and tiger swallowtails at a time. It was getting a little better every year. I had hoped it was due to me adding more native nectar and host plants every year. 2013 was a bit of a let-down though and made me think the past couple of years were just flukes. You'll notice from the pictures too that most of them are on butterfly bush. While I am trying to gradually switch over to mostly natives, they still prefer the butterfly bushes to most everything else. They are like butterfly crack I think :) I do try to keep them dead-headed though. I thought they would not re-seed here and weren't a problem until I found my first seedling last year! I had been dead-heading all along to increase flowering, but now I will be more diligent about it. I hope numbers will go up this year and everyone will get lots of beauties!...See MoreHappy Accidents
Comments (11)Trying to think of happy accidents, but about all I can come up with are the volunteer datura all over the place and the unexpected survival of a lot of tender salvia. Oh, wait, does this count? I love the tender coreopsis, the tall yellow ones with the red centers, so I don't pull the seedlings, no matter where they come up. Some appeared in the front of a long border, among the low-growing bell flowers. The happy accident was that they *totally* flopped, and seem to be about 6" tall in a drift about 8' long, although if they were staked they'd be about 4' tall, and completely out of place in the front of the bed. It was an accident, and it makes me very happy, so I guess that counts. Katy, will the Phormium survive winter outside? I've been really tempted by that one, too, especially since it gets tall - what a great architectural effect. If you were going to protect a plant like that, how would you do it? Would it be best in a large pot, or just in well-drained soil in a protected spot? Here is a link that might be useful: pink stripe phormium...See Morediggerdee zone 6 CT
14 days agofloraluk2
14 days agorosaprimula
14 days ago
LaLennoxa 6a/b Hamilton ON
11 days agoAbout 6 years ago, when I was having my large trees pruned, one of understory Japanese maples sustained damage to its central trunk. I was bothered, but let it be. Years later it has developed a beautiful multistem - you can’t quite see from the pictures, but there are three branches out. Ironically, this year I’ve started learning a lot more about pruning; whereas before I was of the school of leave the tree to grow as it wants. So that “damage” actually ended up being a kind of pruning I would have never been able to do at that time, if that makes sense…
mazerolm_3a
11 days agoLaLennoxa 6a/b Hamilton ON
9 days ago
lat62
6 days agolast modified: 6 days agoIve enjoyed this combo for years , volunteer columbine joined my trollius -
photo from last year , I’m still in crocus season
this is a very long lived columbine !
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