Anyone growing conradina (false rosemary)?
squirrelspur
14 years ago
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Lynda Waldrep
14 years agosquirrelspur
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Biophilia (Carol) Question
Comments (2)What a coincidence! Just today I was giving a tour and I pointed out some Conradina canescens and told how it was sometimes called "Cowboy's Cologne":-) (I doubt that's a common name.) It looks like a miniature, powdery, bluish, grayish Rosemary, with beautiful lavendar spotted flowers which have nectar for butterflies. The flowers bloom for long periods and at odd times here, sometimes in January, and it's evergreen! It's blooming like crazy right now. Conradina isn't listed as a host plant for any caterpillars, as far as I know. I looked in Caterpillars of Eastern North America. It can grow anywhere from partial shade to full sun, regular soil to pure beach sand. Biophilia! Carol of Mystery Splash Pond...See MoreNative Rosemary blooming
Comments (13)Sorry, I'm just now responding to this post, it's been a very busy weekend for me! I love my false rosemary and it is one of the toughest plants I've ever grown. It thrives in both drought and rainy conditions as long as it has well drained soil, blooms beautifully, has wonderfully fragrant foliage, and really attracts bees. Once it was fully mature it also became thick enough to smoother any potential weeds and since it's evergreen I never have to weed under it. I really need to trim mine back but I love how it looks so much that I haven't been able to do so yet. To propagate it just pin some of the longer braches to the ground and partially cover them with dirt. The branches will root themselves fairly quickly. My main plant is surrounded with smaller plants where it's branches have layed on the ground and rooted themselves. My original plant I bought at a native plant sale up in Gainsville and it was in a 3" pot. This is a florida native that is also known as a scrub mint in the Conradina genus. This particular variety gets between 2 and 3 feet tall and as wide as you will let it. I've had this plant for about three years now and have never had any problems with it as long as you don't count the fact that when it is in bloom it is constantly covered in bees. Even though I walk past this plant and brush against it while it's in bloom none of the bees have paid me a bit of attention. The link I've attached is to a similar plant but probably not the exact same species as it is threatened in florida. I believe that there are 4 different varieties of Conradina native to florida, two of which are endemic and endangered and a third is endemic and threatened. My plant is probably the fourth variety, Conradina canescens, but I'm not positive. As the first picture shows the plant is slowly trying to swallow up both my plumbago and my bleeding hear vine. The trash can in the background gives you an idea of the plants size. This is a plant that loves full sun but will tolerate some light shade (mines under a moderately large multi-trunked crape myrtle) and needs plenty of room to grow! Here is a link that might be useful: false rosemary...See MoreDoes anyone on here grow Heliconias?
Comments (12)Hi Steve, Yes, the two pictures above are of my plant. I took those with my digital. In fact, I have taken many pictues of it. So beautiful! So ancient looking. I want to learn more about them. I am sure that each variety has it's particular likes and dislikes for soil, moisture, temps, light, & etc., as they are such unique plants. How do you propagate them? Haven't examined their roots, so don't know if they have tubers or rhisomes or just spread in clumps. Are their seeds viable? Should I leave it in the pot it is in now? Waiting to hear back from you. I am posting this for others, but I will also send this to your private e-mail, so that you may respond in private, if you wish. Thank you very much for contacting me about this gorgeous plant. ~ Annie...See MoreAnyone trying to xeriscape in TN?
Comments (13)The problem with drainage issues in container gardening is due to the physics of water and gravity interplaying with the dynamics of plant growth. I'm no physicist, needless to say, but the situation has been simplistically explained to me thusly: Gravity, as we all know because we don't fly off into space, pulls everything toward the center of the planet. The bigger the mass, the more the gravitational pull. The water residing in the moist soil of a container (referred to as the water column) drains out faster in a big container than a smaller one, particularly if the plant isn't particularly well rooted out or growing vigorously, because there's a bigger mass of soil. Shallow containers are offer more potential drainage issues than deeper ones, because of the shortess of the water column. That's why commercial plug trays consist of deep, narrow cells. It may seem counterintuitive, but, believe me, in the nursery industry it's a known issue. That's why such incredible amounts of money have been spent on finding the perfect potting mix which will drain adequately while supporting plant growth. Notice that all those plants you buy in 4", quart and gallon containers are potted in bark mix, or peat/vermiculite/perlite, etc and not garden dirt or topsoil. Have no doubt, growers would use regular dirt if it worked -- it would be an incredible cost savings. But the structure of garden dirt in a small mass simply doesn't drain well enough to insure good results in a pot, although it's fine, of course, in the hugeness of the garden. Hope all that makes sense! I'm paraphrasing a presentation I attended at the Chicago Botanic Garden that was held by the Perennial Plant Society of America, so I'm not making it up. :) Here are some cedar glade plants. Some of these grow outside glades, too. First, perennials, in the order that they happen to occur to me: Dodecatheon meadia - Shooting Star; wants part shade Phlox bifida - Glade Phlox; a moss phlox/thrift relative Hypoxis hirsuta - Yellow-eyed Grass Sisyrinchium albidum - Blue-eyed Grass; despite the specific epithet, our local type blooms a delightful light blue Echinacea simulata - Prairie Coneflower Echinacea tennesseensis - Tennessee Coneflower; a wonderful garden plant for something so rare in the wild Oenothera macrocarpa - Missouri Evening Primrose Liatris microcephala - Dwarf Blazingstar Other Liatris also - L. aspera (tall), L. spicata (medium), L squarrosa (short to medium) Amsonia tabernaemontana v. gattingeri - Glade Bluestar Baptisia australis v. aberrans - Glade Blue False Indigo Helianthus divaricatus - Woodland Sunflower, although it's quite happy in 1/2 to 2/3 sun Opuntia humifusa - Hardy Prickly Pear Cactus; yup, perfectly hardy here, really pretty orange-centered yellow flowers in late spring; a good way to keep someone from cutting across a corner lot :) Verbena canadensis - Rose Verbena; grows wild in Wilson and Rutherford Counties in some incredibly inhospitable spots Ratibida pinnata - Gray-headed Coneflower; tall, very showy in mid to late summer Penstemon calycosus - Smooth Beardtongue; this is a plant about to be discovered by the gardening public, IMO; takes sun to part shade; showy rosy violet florets in big heads Shrubs, in case anyone's interested: Rhus aromatica - Fragrant Sumac, also the cv. 'Gro-Low', which stays about 3 ft high) Hypericum frondosum - St John's Wort, incl. the cv. 'Sunburst', more compact and longer blooming than the sp. Rosa carolina - Carolina Rose, pink single blooms in late spring, stays low, spreads gradually. Foresteria ligustrina - Glade Privet; not a true privet and not a thug, but can be sheared into a hedge like privet. There are more, but some cedar glade plants just aren't being grown on a commercial scale and so aren't available. But a whole lot of what I listed above is findable, and some is quite common. Two non-natives that I see naturalized in the glades, BTW, are bearded iris and the related blackberry lily (Belamcamda chinensis). Both tough plants! HTH, Marty...See MoreLynda Waldrep
14 years agoacmuse2
7 years agoLynda Waldrep
7 years ago
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