GREETINGS ,cat tails,probably pussy willow,cow slip,and maybe kiss me over the garden gate,,cause the first on i got pulled out of ground with just a few roots put in 5 gal of water and since i did not know where to plant it it sat in water for about a month and grew big roots,kiss kiss me over garden gate self re seeds is an annual but in good soil looks like a small tree if it has good soil and space ..question black jack sedum does it really have black leaves,,a local nursery/garden center had some they called black jack but leaves were green with a hint of dark the sales person seemed to just be a sales person with no knowledge of plants thaught if it was in full sun would get black well this old lady bought it is doing well in sun but did not turn black ..do you have any black jack seduum to trade??? let me know GOD BLESS

I am emailing you. I still have the louisiana irises that I never did get around to digging up. They would be beautiful in your ditch/pond.

Trish

...I see that you already have Turtlehead (Chelone)...that grows well for me in an area that gets flooded...as well as pussywillow.

Hi, I have the common bright yellow water iris, could send cuttings from curly willow-regular and the one they call red..more like yellow until about a century of growing!
Have TALL marsh grass that has been cut back so we can see through it. It floated across the lake in little islands years ago when the folk manning the locks between the lakes made a slight error when the water was high and one of the local parks which is a maintained marsh was flooded. The lake patrol had to come out and lasso the big ones!
There are 2 kinds-one has plumes one just grass tops. Both spread out with culms ( like bamboo) underground spikes. I don't know which is which.The grass leaves are very sharp and give mighty paper cuts..may want to control in bucket if you want it and still want to wander the ditch. The dried stems of one of them looks like skinny bamboo when you carefully strip the dried leaves off of it.
My spiderwort does OK in the damp and I saw that you have it. I also have clumps of medium purple Siberian Iris. I don't know the name. It got about 14" tall in full shade! Stuff either makes it or not here. If interested would be willing to stuff as much as possible in large flat rate box (probably next week as too darn hot this week).
You have wonderful list, but like I said it is too hot and would rather help another animal person take care of a problem than to do a trade at this time.
Can check my list of folk I have traded with and get back to you in private mail. I think everyone had been happy except the one person that ripped me off. What a twit!
Wishing you the best of luck.

Thank you everyone. I just wanted to respond that I am reading all of these and will be answering shortly.
mjtd, Blackjack CAN be near black...like my purple emperor. It does sometimes depend on the amount of sunlight they get, however. I dont' have Blackjack for trade right now.
Marcia..I have tons of the yellow flag iris, I never thought about using that. I have it in my pond, but this ditch sometimes is completely dry. I just need plants that could survive a quick rush of water that sometimes can run very quickly.

Im thinking mint. I also have iris in my ditch, granted its not big enough to swim in, but does go dry in spots in the summer. The mint would spread quickly and its tough to kill.

I hate to be obvious but have you considered the dreaded Ditchlily, frequently maligned, often snubbed, incredibly hardy, adaptable and fast growing! They have no problem with occasional blasts of water, but are also quite able of persisting through prolonged periods of drought. Kwanso is a prettier and much more prolific bloomer if you can't stand the thought of fulva.

Frances

My iris gets water when it rains, otherwise just has to make do. Planting it in old kitty litter pan would make the most of holding the water. Idea of Kwanzo great-also have that. A patch of Kwanzo helps hold the bank in place, but have it in the back yard which could use a Whole lot of thinning.
Hoping that heat wave ends here..scheduled for the next week..argh. Medically can not work in heat or direct summer sun...with humidity and recent rain..weeds having holiday.
The best of luck.

My Turtlehead & pussywillow & Asclepias 'white ballet' are all flooded 'til late May...then it usually dries up in June, July & August...unless there is a lot of rain...then the water 'puddles' everywhere...all of the above plants do fine.
Linda

Hello,
My question is what are you going to do once you find something to plant in your ditch and the kids tear that up next time they go swimming in your yard. Planting is not the answer. Talking to your inconsiderate neighbors is. I don't mean to sound so negative but the kids should not be in your yard if you don't want them there.
jim_6b

Oh I agree Jim, the problem is, I'm a single parent, living in a neighborhood of the most bizarre neighbors. I went over to talk to the parents of this one particular child and do you know what she said ? She said ' Oh well I was watching them and didn't realize they did so much damage...I mean half the neighborhood children were over there.'
I have one neighbor who is having so many difficulties with her life ( without going into major detail), that when she has a problem she takes it out on me..i.e..sending her 6 year old over on the 4th of July to throw fireworks in my flowerbeds. I actually caught the child running back into the mom's driveway saying ' I did it mom I did it, I threw it in her flowers !'
I planted two gorgeous butterfly bushes close to the line in between our yards...and do you know that woman's children love to stand on the edge of the line and watch the butterflies, but the woman, if the bush limbs grow just an inch over her property line will reach over and break all the limbs back to the trunk of the bush ?
Yesterday, even after my long talk with the mother of this one girl ( who is 10), I found her bike in my driveway. Well after some looking around I caught her standing beside the privacy fence that goes around my backyard looking in. Now I have the longest driveway in the neighborhood, so it takes some doing, to get up to my backyard like that. She's so sneaky !
These parents around here drink with their kids, and race cars around our circle against their kids ( so two cars side by side ). Now if you were to drive through my neighborhood at any given time you'd say ' what a nice place', but the things that go on here...So the only way I know to deal with this ongoing problem, is by planting things in their way. There are a hand full of us around here who have tried various ways to deal with these situations, but it's not working. Sorry to go on about it. Another neighbor joked with me the other day ( another single mom ) that we should write a book about this place.

sorry you have those neighbors. I have had some bad ones in the past...

If you decide on any daylillies I have a few I can send to you. We can trade or something if you have something you want to share.

they are very hardy, I swear you can't kill them!!

I just did a trade post for them too...

Karen

{{gwi:53733}}

I'm sorry to hear about your neighbors. We have three children and our yard is a magnet to all of the neighborhood kids and most of the time they are ok but sometimes they are not. Many times I've come home from work and had to clear the yard. I will call parents and tell them that their kid is grounded from being in my yard or playing with my kids for several days or longer depending on what they did. I've never had any problems with the parents. I guess I'm lucky there.
jim_6b

Sounds like you have some terribly inconsiderate neighbors who are raising children that will be no better then themselves. I'd plant that ditch full of poison ivy and stinging nettle!

I second the suggestion for poison ivy and stinging nettles!

there ya' go.....DITTO

If any of those kids ever got hurt in the ditch or worse drowned, I'm sure the parents would be ready to go to court.
jim_6b

Cheryl, I'm sorry you're having neighbor problems again! Mine finally moved so now it's quite around here again.

Have you thought about cannas and elephant ears. I can share some violet stemmed taro with you if you want to do that. I'd send you some cannas too but the only one I have that isn't diseased is red stripe. I have plenty of that too if you'd like some. These are what I have planted at the bottom of my hill that runs into the creek when it wet so they sit in water alot when it's been raining. I also have ditch lilies and iris with several other daylilies along the sides. If you need kwanso I have plenty and also of ditch lilies. What about sedum acre too, you can't seem to kill it. It takes over the world. Let me know if I can help with some of these.

If they don't stop, I'd call the cops and make out a complaint. At least if it continues to happen they would have to take action. Make it as uncomfortable for them to live there as you are with them as neighbors.

Nancy

Nancy it is SO good to see you again ! I know you've probably been on here, but I havn't alot, so I havn't been in touch like I should.
Yeah, basically the same neighbors...but their kids have either grown up or they've had more, and boy are they bad. I mean....bad. They are into street racing and the parents race with them, around our streets, and they build these big turbo engines and when they work on them it sounds like a jet airplane right through my walls. There are , like I said, other neighbors who are very ticked off about it, but all they will do is call me and ask me to call the cops, or email me with their complaints. There was a policeman patroling the neighborhood, and do you know that he said there is a bad name for my neighborhood at their office ? It's very very hard for me to come right out and face them about things, because I am still a single mom living here, and the husbands are not nice people. And yet...if you drive through at just the right time you will think...what a nice place.
Last summer I had to stop kids from taking a shovel, and digging a trench on the curb in MY yard, to make it easier on them to skateboard. A shovel ! And their parent's standing right there watching them.
I will be emailing you Nancy about a trade for sure.

I haven't been here much either for the last couple of years. I finally got my knee replaced in March and am up walking around and trying to do a few things in the garden. My husband has been very helpful and was doing all he could. We had a really wet winter and spring so things were going gangbusters. Now it's in the upper 90's and last week the 100's so it's all drying out.

I'll get up a list and see if there is anything you want but it looks like you have most of what I have. There are a few things that aren't listed I'll email you with.

Nancy

just checking to make sure you got my latest reply to your e-mail with my list typed on it. lol
Nancy

Yes I did lol, thank you for doing that. I'm sending you an email right this minute.

I have umbrella plant (papyrus) cuttings that root easy and some yellow canna rhizomes if you need them, both "swim" well. Email me directly if interested

Hi smokeymist: I see you are in TN too! Next time you are out and about, look at what LOTS of Tennesseans use in their ditches: Ditch lilies! That's what they are for.

It's fun to see ditch lilies where there is no house or there is only remnants of a house. This is what the old timers used to keep the ditch looking nice.

These are the orange lilies that look like tiger lilies. People trade them like crazy here. Just ask!

So sorry about the neighbors. Maybe you need to grow more prickly things. I just traded pyracantha with someone for jsut this reason.

Take care and GO VOLS!

Hey there fellow Tennessean. I have a few Kwanso Daylilies ( or ditch lilies). I just don't like them LOL. I probably could literally just divide things that are already in my gardens, which are pretty massive and move them down there, I just wanted to try something different down there.

do you not have a police force in your town? what they are doing is called trespassing and vandalism.the parents should be held accountable for their children's actions.as was said,they will probably destroy your planting efforts,as well.get the other ticked off neighbors to stand with you and get the police involved in taking back your neighborhood!good luck!

It sounds like you and the other nice neighbors should form a neighborhood watch program. Make friends with the patrol officer (the one who told you the bad name for your neighborhood) and get his cell phone number. Then when there's a problem, call and report it. If the nice neighbors keep and eye out for each other, the bad neighbors will have to shape up. Even the most drunken parent gets tired of answering the door and finding a cop on the doorstep.

Also, if anyone in the neighborhood is a lawyer, or if you have a lawyer friend who'll do it for free, have a letter sent to the parents (on the lawyer's letterhead) informing them that they are allowing their children to become a public nuisance and that legal action will follow. Also warning of potential drowning, etc. At the very least, that will help protect you in case something really bad happens.

Ginny

we have tons of elephant ears in ditches here they get so thick and they are hardy. If you could get some tall fast growing plants in your yard for privacy that may help,the kids are probably doing it on purpose now,legality for injury on your property is important but it is also nice not to have to see them bamboo jungle maybe. good luck.

How about giant variegated reed grass (arundo donax variegata)? It will grow very tall and into what can best be compared to a canebrake. It loves the water. See the link for a picture.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:56860}}