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Pleasant spring surprises

17 years ago

Aesclepias tuberosa: WSed last year, I had 4 seedlings. While I was sick my husband planted them in a not-so-great spot and very close together. When my health finally improved, in October, I tried to move a couple of them. I broke the taproot pretty badly and they looked sick, too. The weather got very hot, we went out of town, and when we returned I thought they were dead. Well, they're coming back! I'm shocked because I really thought I killed them. I sowed a couple more this year because I was sure those 2 were goners.

Gaillardia Goblin: One WSed last year survived this winter, a first for me. Some apparently self sown babies popped up near the mother plant, another first for me. At least I thought they were self-sown. I tried to transplant them and found that they were all little off-shoots from a root running directly from they mother plant, (sort of layered), not self sown seedlings at all. More like little clones of the mom. I transplanted them and attempted to allow a little piece of this thin fine root for each 2 or 3 babies. Is this common in gaillardia? Has anyone had babies like this survive?

Karen

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Comments (2)

docmom_gw
17 years ago
Aesclepias are natives and therefore very hardy. They can take just about anything.

I had a very nice surprise this spring, also. Last year I WS about 40 wild lupines for my butterfly garden. Only about 14 survived/sprouted, and only 2 were left at the end of the summer. I was so bummed. Surprise! This spring I have 6-8 new sprouts from seeds that must have been unsprouted in the soil from last years' WSing. I haven't checked again, but I'm betting there will be even more as the season progresses. Not only that, but I had already WSed 6 containers of lupines this year to compensate for my failure last year, and they are sprouting like gangbusters. Ah, life is good.
Martha
plays_in_dirt_dirt
17 years ago
My pleasant surprise this year was Baptisia australis (false blue indigo) that I received in a newbie SASBE from "laine" last year. I was so disappointed that it didn't germinate and just set the container aside in late summer, intending to dump it into a future lasagna bed. Forgot all about it and discovered it a few weeks ago while doing some cleanup in one of the beds.

Well, that milk jug had 9 of the healthiest-looking plants you could hope for, about 6 inches high, with no help from me during our dry summer of 2006 and windy, windy spring this year. I planted them around a stump along with some bachelor buttons, all in my line of vision when I sit on the porch swing.

I read so often on the forum, "Don't be quick to give up on a container." Now that I know why, from experience, I'll probably be giving that same advice somewhere down the line.
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