Nice post, Oursteelers!

I have two in-ground flower beds. Each one is 8'x18". One is the rose garden....roses only in it, nothing else, but a frequently encountered weed, each with a death sentence on it.

My former 20' x 25' car pad (I don't drive anymore), is now used as my pot cultured fig orchard. They, my fig trees, are all in my fruit cellar right now, dormant, sleeping off winter. There is room for 16 fig trees in my car pad. Ask me how many trees I have? 16.

The other in-ground bed is a winter hardy cactus bed. It is a mature bed, started about 30 years ago, periodically redesigned, but always cacti dominate, Opuntia mostly, but other succulents and relevant desert plants are included.

Some years ago I planted winter hardy orange trees, Poncirus trifoliata 'contorta', aka. Flying Dragon Orange Tree, in my cactus bed. They originate from China. This is the first year they have fruited! The fruit is ping pong ball size, mostly inedible being pithy, extremely sour, and seedy, but exceedingly showy. I have made in ground bonsai out of them, about 3' tall. To see an orange tree with fruit on it, growing in ground and surviving zone 5/6 winters to their tips is quite a thrill to me!

Moses

Yes nice post Oursteelers!

Our roses did extremely well except the side bed of 3 roses which got downy mildew...

Our rozanne Geranium's did very well...As did our catmint Walkers Low's...

I planted two new bloomstrucks which did fairly well for there first season...

Our Two new Potentilla shrubs faired well also...

The few Marigolds we grew pooped out early this year...

I planted another new shrub which I forget name of but it died because we got to much rain this year...

Ok off-topic...You being a Steeler fan you may appreciate the tattoo I got last week...lol

My favorite area has Pretty Lady Rose, Memorial day and Earth Angel. Behind the roses, dahlia, hollyhock, lilies, and Elephant ears .

Moses-wow! 16 figs? What do you do with all of the fruit? Regarding the oranges, do they look like regular oranges? Do you get lots of people tempted to try them?

Jim-love your tattoo, hope it brings us luck this week. Which roses mildewed for you? I don’t spray so I try to pay attention to the temperamental ones. Rozanne is one of my favorite perennials for covering the ugly bottom end of hybrid teas.

Kristine- EarthAngel was new to me last year and I am hoping she lives up to the hype! Fingers crossed that winter speeds by quickly.

Well, speaking of Rozanne... that would be my heartbreaker from last summer. I planted three of them in 2017, they came up smaller in spring 2018, and all were dead by the end of the summer. I guess they don't like full sun? They were planted in front of peonies... the bed was watered religiously. They looked like they were just wilting/burning up in the sun (everything else in that bed did really well, including hydrangeas). After two died, I lifted the third that was struggling and moved it to a less sunny location, near some hostas, watered well, babied it, talked nice to it.... dead.

I have other hardy geraniums and I've always thought they were among the easiest of plants. Should I try again with Rozanne?

I should add: they were not over-watered at all. That bed drains very well. Due to the sun, and a slight slope, I have to be sure it gets watered or it dries out.

Mine :)

Mariannese, where are you? I have lost the ability to see most folks’ location information. Your clematis look really healthy and happy! My clematis are always a highlight in the garden and they looked pretty good despite alternating months of drought and rain in excess. We had more than a foot of rain between mid-July and mid-August, and about the same in October, enough so that leaves are still under the snow because it was too wet to rake or mow them back into the lawn. I had clematis rebloom for the first time ever in my short season garden.

Rooguchi bloomed well in August and September.

Little Bas rebloomed in September for the first time ever. It is a third year plant, and my other one hasn’t ever rebloomed. It is a wonderful plant for wandering through others.

Venosa Violacea had a long stretch of bloom in July and August, and you might be able to see a few flowers just starting on the Rooguchi behind the lily stem from this photo in mid-July.

That Venosa Violacea is stunning!

Windy, my vote is for another try with Rozanne. I feel like you just had a bad batch.

Oursteelers,

Fresh figs don't lack a following. During August and September, prime harvest time here, "friends" and relatives show up smiling from ear to ear, praising my figs and me, going on about all the hard work I must go through to grow figs successfully in such a little space, and in such a hostile climate. Well, I get my share of figs, but barely . Early on I decided to put in a key locking gate for the fig trees, best decision I ever made.

The oranges are small and draw little attention, as round as marbles, light orange in color, and the size of ping pong balls. They are as hard as rocks, coloring late, in September into October....barely before the first, light frosts. Right now, heavy, killing frosts have finished, and lows regularly down to 20 F. already are the norm. The oranges have fallen, and softened, showing brown, rot spots. I plan to open them up and plant the seeds next spring, just for my educational/entertainment purposes.

Moses

Windy, if it’s any comfort I haven’t been able to keep Roxanne alive over winter (tried at least twice) whereas my Jolly Bees have been great for many years. Unfortunately, a court deemed them too similar so Jolly Bee is no longer sold.

My favorite this year would be the pair of Honeymoon climbing roses I trained up the trellises by my deck. They languished for a couple of months after planting, but once the weather cooled they shot up canes and were covered in flowers that lasted through the first couple of frosts. They still look good on the trellis now, dusted with snow. I hope the canes do well through winter, but so far they are everything I wanted. The scent was lovely, too.

The downer for me is a lilac I planted two years ago that is still just thinking about blooming rather than actually doing anything. I hope it gets a bit of motivation to grow next year. Shrub space is at a premium and it's heading for the chopping block at this rate.

NHBabs, I'm in Sweden, on the 59th parallel, just north of Stockholm. I usually give USDA zone 5b as my zone but American zones are not really relevant for northern Europe.

Marianne

I was very disappointed in the hosta part of my yard. However, the OTHER hosta part of my yard exceeded expectations! : )

Windy, I would try Rozanne again. It grew in Alaska for me, z3, and here grows in extreme Summer heat and sun with irrigation. It goes on and on and blooms until frost.

Wildhaven,

I thought I commented but must have spaced! Clematis have saved the lives of my lilacs. I figure if they do double duty as a trellis foe my clematis they can stay even if they are a little disappointing.

Try Brookside geranium, mine bloomed 3 times this year.

Rozanne is a stalwart performer for me. It is in constant bloom from early spring until late fall. It would probably still have a few blossoms on it now if the deer hadn't sheared it back recently (I kinda stopped spraying - my bad!!).

I don't have a favorite 'group' but I really enjoy my collection of clematis and hydrangeas. And Japanese maples. They might bring me the greatest pleasure in my garden.

Gardengal,

I have a LOT of expectations this year for my clematis and hydrangea. We’ve been at this house four years now so I’ve been adding more each year, plus moving things (I can’t seem to leave things alone!) but I feel like that for the most of them it’s time they put on a solid show.

I think that’s why the Iris surprised me year this year. They finally all stood tall and were a decent size clump.

For the most part the dogs keep the deer out ouf the yard, my only critter problem was early spring with the bunnies and my hosta....grrrrr

LOL!! The deer just laugh at my dog.....he is pretty ineffectual :-) And my garden backs up to a greenbelt so the deer are omnipresent. So far - only three years at this location - the only serious damage they have done is to remove flowers. And any raspberries that form. They don't seem to bother the rest of the plant at all but have routinely removed buds or entire flowers from oriental poppies, snapdragons, hydrangeas, the hardy geranium, zonal geraniums (pelargoniums) and geums. They did eat my sweet peas almost back to the ground once they started to flower and will eat any heuchera foliage if they can get to it. Hostas I grow in containers on my porch, so they are safe :-)

I just have to remember and make time to to spray the repellents more routinely.

Gardengal,

What deer repellant do you use? Are they White Tails? I have no deer problems, but my niece does. Thanks!

Moses

Moses, I find Plantskydd to be the most effective for a spray-on repellent. It lasts for around 3 months and you do not need to reapply after rain or watering as it has a vegetable oil base and sticks well. 100% organic and can be used on edibles, although it stinks initially :-)

There are 4 different species of deer here although I think most that visit where I am are Columbian black tailed deer (Columbian as in Columbia Rver). And they do interbreed with white tailed and mule deer so hybrids are common.

I was disappointed with my clematis Jackmannii this year. They’re in their third year, so my hopes were high. But they were just ok, nothing like pictures I see here on gardenweb. Also, I ended up shovel-pruning my lady’s mantles. Three years of ugly floppiness caused this.

There were many plants I was happy with, starting with my spireas. I know many folks do not like them, but I really appreciate how early they leaf out in Spring, and how late they lose their leaves in Fall. I prune them twice a year to give them a nice, round shape, and I just love the neutral background it provides other showy plants. I LOVE bearded irises, and I’m always looking for an excuse to plant more! :). My catmint did really well, almost as well as the many varieties of salvias that were planted this Spring.

Every time somebody mentions Jolly bee I wish I could live on the same side of the border as them and maybe maybe just maybe trade a snippet of something of mine for a snippet of that Jolly bee. I just missed buying them and ended up with Rozanne. It's not great here for me at least. My favourite plants since I moved here is every new one that I buy. The latest is the baptisia Australius that I finaly found. So happy that I found somebody who carried them. Hopefully they take to the soil here.

Bearded iris might have been my favorite this year, but all the rain really made the cannas take off. Still for the last few years it's been snowdrops which I obsess the most over.

Windy, yep on Rozanne too, bummer and I tried 2 or 3 times. I have tons of perennial geraniums, many grown from seed but Rozanne is prima donna in my garden. Oh well.

Mariannese, agree on Viticellas, atragenas and non climbers. Few years back good soul on GW sent me seeds for several clems which I grew. Love them. I have alpine? on the North yes on the north side of my house under huge oak. Viticella Minuet reseeded for me with several huge clumps. I just moved them this year hopefully will not loose any... Viornas and pitcheri are delicate and not very showy but among most favorites

I grown from seed orientalis/ tangutica for my neighbor' trellis in full sun. She intentially moved her parties to the time of the year when it will be in full bloom 10 ft wall of yellow bloom... alas my neighbor passed away and clem is no longer there...