Do you buy your plants for Foliage besides the actual flowers too?
myermike_1micha
7 years ago
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Do You Grow Roses Exclusively - Or Other Flowers Too?
Comments (25)I can't imagine roses only as being a garden. I grow mostly old roses and Austins and am trying for a natural effect that will blend into the surrounding hills. I'm all for easy-care plants and not too many, but something that will give color, line and a contrast to the billowy forms of the roses. I have day lilies, irises, sea lavender, several varieties of penstemons, pelargoniums, Mexican evening primroses, Jerusalem sage, lavender, rosemary, butterfly bushes, marjoram (which the bees go crazy over) and some sages. I've kept the color palette to white, pink, lavender pink, lavender and purple with the odd yellow for contrast. I have photographs on a recent thread on the Antique Forum and the Antique Gallery titled something like Roses in the Fog which will give you a good idea of what kind of rose garden I have. Ingrid...See MoreDahlia plants too tall & too much foliage
Comments (7)Dahlias grow taller in part shade. People who grow them under shade cloth report that a variety that may reach 5 feet in full sun will grow to about 8 or 9 feet tall under shade cloth. Many people have dahlias reach to 10 feet under shade cloth. So, I am assuming that you have a bit of shade in your garden and dahlias are reaching for the sun. Fertilizer in so far as what the ratios of N-P-K are used has little to do with plant height. Dahlias need fertilizer that is balanced, meaning that some of each number is present. Since phosphorus, the middle number is being banned in some states, it may be difficult to find a balanced fertilizer. However, most gardens accumulate phosphorus and if you fertilized in past years, there will be enough in the soil. I use fertilizer that is high in both Nitrogen and Potassium. The ratio is 4-1-4 and the actual numbers are 20-5-21. I mix my own fertilizer and buy three fertilizers to achieve that number. This is very concentrated fertilizer and a little goes a long way. Whatever fertilizer you use, apply in small amounts very frequently and the plants will do better. People tend to over fertilize and that is not good for the environment....See MoreWhere do you store your tubers? What percentage actually survive?
Comments (5)Hollyhill Spiderwoman is blessed with lots of eyes that you may not see. The tubers are bit small and a bit ugly but save them all and I bet you will find sprouts on many of them in the Spring. Even a small tuber of it will grow well. Aiming for places where there should be an eye is easy to say to the experienced dahlia grower but is difficult to explain to the beginner. Eyes occur where the tuber attaches to the stalk and if you cut them off of the tuber, the tuber will not sprout no matter how big it is. The eyes are actually in sets of three: a large one in the middle and a small one on each side. Any of the three can sprout but the middle one does so first. If it is lost one of the others takes over. On tree dahlias the tubers can be three feet long and are difficult to divide. Also,on a tree dahlia there are inter nodes on the stem that can be used in place of tubers. They can be planted and will grow into a full sized plant. This can be done with our dahlias once in a while. For example if you grow a dahlia in a very small pot to make a "pot tuber" the plants will make very small tubers. If you happen to cut off the stem a few inches above the pot, you sometimes leave a leaf node on the stem and it may sprout in the Spring before the eyes on the tubers below it sprout....See MoreFlowering and foliage plants for hydroponics?
Comments (2)Well if you are interested in foliage house plants like photos or something, you don't even need to build a bubbler. All my house plants are in bottles of water or water crystals. That is simple hydroponics. Lucky Bamboo is also usually kept this way. If you are wanting to propagate and/or grow more difficult plants (ie the ones you can't simply stick a cutting in a jar of water by the kitchen sink to get it to root) then you might need the bubbler. Anyway, where will the system be? Indoors under lights, outdoors under sun, or just by a window? Some foliage plants would be just fine in a bright location in the house but flowering plants usually want more light. Flowering plants may also like a different nutrient mix than the foliage plants which may need very little nutrient at all. So, you may wish to grow flowing plants in a different system or at a different time than the foliage plants. I started some Malabar Spinach (Basella rubra) in hydro. It is supposedly eddible but so far we think it tastes terrible and have only kept growing it because it is really cool looking. I actually still have seeds of both the green vine variety and red vine variety, let me know if you would like some. It is a tropical perennial vine. It probably wants fairly bright light. What are some plants you like? If you can easily get seeds or cuttings from friends, go ahead and try em. Or get something from the store and wash the dirt off the roots and plant it in your system. Just remember that too strong of nutrient will hurt your plant far faster than no nutrient at all. It might be a good idea to search out information online about the plants you choose so you can know what conditions they like best and go from there. Good luck...See Moremyermike_1micha
7 years ago
R pnwz8a
7 years ago
Patty W. zone 5a Illinois
7 years ago
fragrancenutter
7 years agoMoses, Pittsburgh, W. PA., zone 5/6, USA
7 years ago
altorama Ray
7 years agoKen Wilkinson
7 years agoI love my 2 Rugosa's (Rosa Rugosa, Rosa Rugosa Alba). Mine are bushy, medium green foliage. I feed them with 10-10-10 and fish/seaweed every month. Heavy spring blooms in the spring, scattered blooms during the summer and a good bloom in the fall. Beautiful orange hips and orange foliage in early winter.
Rosa Rugosa so far this spring.
Rosa Rugosa Alba so far this spring
Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
7 years ago
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Moses, Pittsburgh, W. PA., zone 5/6, USA