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What Roots are You Excited About for Next Spring?

9 years ago

Okay, I went just as crazy this ordering season as I did last year. I think I ordered around 20 Itohs and 5 tree peonies as well as a big assortment of herbaceous. I'm currently finishing up a new raised garden bed for all of my fall babies! Think I'm most excited about a couple of Itohs that I've been eyeing for a few years. One, Sonoma Halo, I saw and fell in love with at the APS convention in June. I also broke down and ordered several from Select Plus again. The root pictures from them last fall looked so nice and healthy and I know what I'm looking at a lot better than the first time I ordered from them....I also saw the tree Alice Harding at the UofM peony garden in June and absolutely loved it. The tree is tiny, less than 3' tall, but the one I saw was absolutely laden down with huge beautiful yellow blooms. So what are you excited about?

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Comments (6)

KarenPA_6b
9 years ago
Wow, your garden is going to be so beautiful! Can I ask what tree peonies did you order? I looked up Sonoma Halo and its record is impressive and the flower looks like a full double yellow bloom. I bought some peonies from Fina and some from Gilbert Wild this year. The peony that I am most excited about growing is the double fernleaf peony. I saw your photo of it and I was sold.
lizbest1
Original Author
9 years ago
Hi Kousa! I ordered Age of Gold for Solaris and Alice Harding from Adelman's and Cun Song Ying, Fu Gui Man Tang and Yu Hou Feng Guang from Tree Peony Gardens. After seeing graycrane's pics, had to order from them! I'll possibly order more from them if they have the big end of season sale he talked about last fall.

Sonoma Halo's flowers caught my eye at the APS convention this year. It was truly massive, the size of a dinner plate, and a really pretty bright yellow.
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I'm excited for everything that I've winter sown! Some aren't new to me, but they were ones that I had difficulty germinating last year. Evening Primrose Bleeding Hearts Gaillardia Bells of Ireland 3 Dianthus varieties Delphinium Ladybells Carnations Texas Redbud Clematis Texas Bluebonnet Echinacea Balloonflower Aster varieties Sedge Wild Bergamot Jacob's Ladder Eastern Bluestar Persicaria Garlic chives Breadseed poppies @ docmom: I planted delphinium last year during the spring and they never made it past their second set of leaves. I randomly tossed a seed or two into an urn with petunias in it during the summer, and sure enough it sprouted and eventually bloomed in October. It's doing great now. I recently transplanted it because a mum had taken over. A week later and no issues with it at all. I'm beginning to wonder if their poor record is a bit over exaggerated. We'll see. Good luck with yours!
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Pam, your zoo garden is such a lovely idea. how about Lamb's Ears (stachys)? And, sort-of an animal name, i have a "Rudolph" spurge in a sunny spot in my kids garden, which gets red tips that look like red noses in the winter. And for shadier spots, Bear's Breeches (Acanthus) and Tiarella "Tiger Stripe". Please post some pictures when Evan's zoo garden flowers! Your veggie bed sounds wonderful too. I have several veggies just planted in sunny spots around the garden, but without really preparing the soil well first, I am not sure they'll do that well. Maybe a veggie plot will be on my list of projects next year. This year, we want to finish our ivy removal project, we have just a couple of areas left. We also need to finish laying a patio. I'm excited about the finished products of both, but not the work involved! I'm most excited about my seed starting efforts so far -- most of these have been Wintersown. I have a lot of seedlings now and will try my best not to kill them at the planting out stage (which i did last year). I think my biggest goal for the year is to get my kids (aged 5 and 3) out into the garden more often. We planted peas, carrots and arugula a few weekends ago and they are very excited that all have sprouted!
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When you first posted this I was still in the middle of making my crosses. Today I'm about 3/4 of the way through collecting pods. I have around 500 seeds collected so far and still quite a number of pods out there. 'Brown Witch' x 'Milk Chocolate' turned out to be a bust. I had lots of pods set but both plants aborted all of their pods early. I tried other pollen too and they did the same thing. I did get one to mature on BW x MC that gave me 3 seeds. I guess the plants just need to settle in better. It is a real mystery why they aborted. I asked Margo and she said that BW did not come out of MC so they should not be THAT closely related to cause a self-pollination block and BW is very pod fertile for her. 'Desperado Love' was a great parent both ways. DL x 'Cleopatra's Jewel' gave me 45 seeds in 4 pods. Looking forward to seeing those babies. 'Wild Horses' was another fantastic parent both ways. And I was successful using frozen pollen from this one (yippee, another process I must have done right). I have a pod on 'Sear's Tower' from it that I'm anxious to see ripen before frost. I also have some WH crossed with 'Cleopatra's Jewel' that should be as interesting as DL x CJ. My best diploid pod setter was of course (Murphy's Law) that NOID yellow though I thing Fairy Tale Pink will surpass it next year when FTP is settled & has more flowers. The NOID looks exactly like 'Mary Todd', even has her fragrance, but it only accepted diploid pollen so I'm calling it a dip. I started out just trying to see which ploidy this plant was to help with ID but then look at how it set! It does have some nice branching & bud count so I guess that's fine to have so many babies from it. Some of the pods were really full of seed. NOID 'Yel' x 'Royal Kaleidoscope' 52 seeds in 3 pods. NOID 'Yel' x 'Persian Pattern' 40 seeds in 2 pods NOID 'Yel' x 'Brown Witch' 15 seeds in 1 pod NOID 'Yel' x 'Milk Chocolate' 45 seeds in 2 pods Lots of others but these are what I'm most excited about.
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Hi Emily - I know others will weigh in but in my area I have a "cut off" rule. I stop buying unrooted cutting by mid September. But I will say if it's just too good to pass up, I pot up any new additions as I normally would and bring them inside on a heat mat. I've rooted cuttings all year long. Although I must add I don't like to, it's a bit worrisome. :) I'd say only get more this time of year if it's a "must have". We all know that's subjective. :) Nicole
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portia
9 years ago
ALL of my roots! I have 20 peonies coming, super excited to get them planted this fall.

Off to check out Select Plus. Is there a trick to ordering well?
lizbest1
Original Author
9 years ago
I don't know about a trick....I ordered 6 Itohs from them several years ago, the price was too good to be true and I regretted it afterward because the roots I received were tiny and delicate, came in something like a 4" pot and I got them in the spring. Didn't know what I was doing and managed to kill half of them, probably would've been fine if I'd put them in larger pots and babied them until fall. Their root sizes are clearly marked on the site now and pictures of roots received from them last fall looked just as good as everywhere else. Their selection can't be beat, they have beautiful Itohs that aren't offered elsewhere. I'll post pictures of the roots this fall, keep your fingers crossed that I'll have better luck with them this time! I ordered Strawberry CrÃÂ¨me Brulee, Haleigh's Hallelujah, Pink Double Dandy, CrÃÂ¨me a laÃ¢ÂÂOrange, Enduring Rainbow, Magical Mystery Tour, Smith Family Yellow and Yellow Doodle Dandy from them.

They do respond to questions via email, sometimes you have to ask twice, though!
KarenPA_6b
9 years ago
Hi Liz and Portia. I also took a look at Select Plus. Wow, they have a huge selection of itohs. The ones on your list,Liz are great. Wish I can get them all but I have to narrow down 3. I am thinking of ordering Strawberry CrÃÂ¨me Brulee, Haleigh's Hallelujah, and have to make a decision between Enduring Rainbow and Dark Knight.
lizbest1
Original Author
9 years ago
They're both beautiful Kousa! Are you planting them together? I think Dark Knight would look amazing beside the other 2 multi-colored ones. But Enduring Rainbow would be great, too! Decisions, decisions....

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