What Trees live Longest in the Suburbs?
edlincoln
9 years ago
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Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
9 years agoHurtle
9 years agoRelated Discussions
What is the longest-lived perennial
Comments (12)specifically, in my 15 yr old garden that i planted new from a bought or seed grown plant (not bush or shrub), i guess platycodon aka balloon flowers. amsonia would be a close second. there's a red darwin type tulip in my woods that comes up and blooms each year. i didn't plant it, and who knows how long it's been there, but it's like old faithful. there were also some wildish, small flowered daffs in the back that have probably been here forever. i love them- they are quite fragrant. i do have lots of things that live in perpetuity because of reseeding, but i don't think that's what you're asking. as for something with a life before my 15 yr old garden, i have some lily of the valley that i dug from the back of my parent's place that was an old homestead 100 yrs before and is woods now, so that's pretty long lived. and some pheasant's eye narcissi, but those were never really happy down here for some reason- too hot, i guess. that's also where i got the vinca minor that i transplanted here, and that's too happy. there were also old daylilies back there, although i never bothered with them, since there's a whole slew in my backyard already. i also have a lot of old iris and daylily varieties that i got from my mentor that have been passalongs, some for more than 100 yrs. i'd have to agree about peonies, though- my gram had planted some in the 20' or 30's and they were gorgeous when we lived there in the late 80's, before the new owners destroyed them. (argh!) wish i'd gotten some before i moved to have the line continued, but we moved to an apartment. my mom still has the big old fashioned bleeding heart of my gram's (and her mom before her) going, and i'm planning on getting a piece when she lifts it when she moves....See MoreWhat i have observed about my acual zone (all suburb houses)
Comments (32)Hi chitown033, It's hard to find stations with datasets. O'Hare looked close to the lake so I thought it's climate would be influenced more into moderation than further inland station with datasets. Still even if Chicago has quite a heat island I bet it did not count for much back in those terrible winters of 1977 to 1989. Here in OKC the downtown heat island did not count for much in that winter of 1983 and I'm in the sunbelt. I hope we never see weather like that decade of the 1980's ever again. You can stay zone 6, I can be more zone 7b-ish and Dallas can keep their zone 8b-ish winters. Hi spockvr6, I agree don't worry about zone nonsense too much. There are so many variables from the plants to the climate it's hard to make a system of hardiness prediction that covers all the earth with the same rules. I guess plant it and see what happen is the only system that counts for solid facts. That is within reason of what would be sane to try. Hi Steve, All that Home Depot unhardy stock is cool to dream about and even I sometimes start to go delusional thinking I'll buy a butia or date palm to try. When I pull money out of my billfold to pay for junk my head clears and I place the plant back where I found it. Going down to Houston it's hard to keep control of my buying. Man there is nothing better looking than a nice container butia but I must only look and not buy. Cheap trachys are even harder to turn down but I always remember all 20 or so I have killed over the years. The one palm I would buy on a Houston trip is Sabal palmetto but you don't find them anymore. Mexicana is all that's stocked now and Mexicana is the sorriest Sabal for hardiness I have ever tried. Hi Don, I would not bother with trachys unless you willing to wrap the trunk with a plumbers heat tape and fiberglass. Trachys are indeed hardy but not for long durations in the single digits. They are great wrapped and grow like craze even in cool summers with cool soil. You have the hot sunmmer air temps but your deep soil might be cool most of the summer. Trachys like that and thrive. It's just a matter of getting the trunk overwintered and that's easy with a 32* plumbers heat tape and open face fiberglass. Needle Palm in a microclimate is indeed the best bet for a unprotected longterm in ground palm. They really are below zero hardy because I have seen it in person back in the terrible 1980's. Go with Needle and perhaps try a inland ecotype of Sabal minor. The Sabal need's deep soil heat or it will not grow so plan to plant within 1 foot of a hot south wall. When planting close to a wall consider that Sabals are a directional grower in that underground trunk. The trunk growth will always be in a direction away from where the first seedling roots happen. Dig down in your container and find the sharp point where the plants seedling trunk had started and place it toward the wall. It's hard to explain without a pic. I'll try to find a pic of a Sabal minor root/trunk system and draw what to do in planting close to a wall. For the tropical look yuccas are great and some large tree size species might survive even a bad winter in your area. Don't forget bananas are great for giving a tropical look and can easily be overwintered in a garage. Being a nasty day here in OKC with winter weather I could not work so I took some pictures for the board. Most of my plants look trashy after the early December frigid spell. I have found bitter cold in early December will damage marginal plants much worse than the same weather in late January. Two nights of lower single digits so early damaged most all the Sabal minor 'Louisiana'. Regular Sabal minor of all ecotypes were undamaged. Sabal 'Birmingham' were undamaged. Sabal uresana which has been a real surprise in cold hardiness was undamaged. Sabal palmetto varies with some being much hardier than others. Serenoa really got slammed with only a few live leaves left. Here are some pictures of crappy looking zone 7 palms. I have around 200 crappy palms so this is far from the whole collection. If you would like to see a short video showing my row of varoius Sabal species please click the link below. Row Of Sabals Video Click Here...See MoreWhat is the longest you have ever had to live without electricity?
Comments (58)About a year and a half. I never remember being without electricity when I was a child in Ontario: I don't know when electricity first came to our home. Grandpa had bought our farm near London, on a major highway about a mile and a quarter from a village, in 1917 and Dad and Mom took over the farm some time after their marriage in 1925. I was born in 1929 and I remember us getting a small table radio about 1940. Dad had bronchial trouble and was concerned that he was on the way to becoming asthmatic, and moved to Saskatchewan just after World War II, in 1946. He sharecropped a farm about 10 miles from the capital, Regina, owned by a man whom Grandpa had helped get an education around 1900, who moved to the prairies with his brother as young men. We arrived in the spring of 1946, we three boys drove four miles to school and I stayed home for a week or so later in the spring to help put in the crops. I was the only student in Grade 11 and I think that the principal (operating Grades 9 - 12) in the one-room high school, spent more than usual time with me to get me up to speed. I should perhaps be embarrassed to report hat my average in that school year was higher than the next, my final year, when I was there for the full year. The power line was a mile and a half from the house where we lived and our landlord hadn't chosen to install a connection to it ... but he did, a few years later, after Dad had bought a farm, when the landlord retired and moved from the city out to that farmhouse. A year and almost a half after our move, I went to university in Saskatchewan's second largest city, Saskatoon ... there's a bush berry beloved of people in that part of the prairies that bears its name. After my first year, I returned to the farm so lived without electricity from May till September of that year, as well. We had an oil-fired cookstove, a battery radio and kerosene-powered lamps and lanterns that pushed kerosene under pressure up a tube by a conical mesh where it was vapourized and then burned as the vapour hit the mesh, to provide light that was quite bright - and warmth, as well (which was appreciated in winter). By the way ... my first encounter with a bathroom, which requires water under pressure, in my place of residence was when I went to university and lived in a dorm, in the fall of 1947, when I was 18. ole joyfuelled...See MoreWhat soil mix have you had a tree planted in the longest?
Comments (41)Laura, you may want to read this. I have made truce many times and even further..) http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4897055/iron-deficiency?n=21 In particular this) Silica Trickyputt, WTF ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Like Bookmark October 5, 2017 at 3:36PM Susanne Michigan Zone 5/6(6) Silica don't feed the troll please :) 1 Like Bookmark October 5, 2017 at 4:22PM trickyputt(8a AL) But Trolls need feeding too. Because you do not care for people learning how to grow on their own I deleted the post that offend you. mikerno_1micha(Zone 6a, Massachusetts) Tricky point, get lost since you have nothing nice to say or I shall have to report you to my friends at Houzz...I have never seen such a crude and rude person here in the ten years or so since I have been helping. There is no place for you here I will make sure of it if you can't be respectful or considerate..I suggest you delete your last one too silica. Just a heads up. Houzz will be coming by as soon as I talk to them. and probably mistake your post for something inappropriate. I don't want him to think anything bad about you since you have been a wonderful help here and I would miss all you have to offer if they banned you by mistake. Waiting on you...See Moreken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years agoedlincoln
9 years agoToronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
9 years agoedlincoln
9 years agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years agocorkball
9 years agoToronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
9 years ago
bengz6westmd
9 years ago
PROGeorge Three LLC
9 years agoToronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
9 years ago- PRO
George Three LLC
9 years ago
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