2023 UPDATE C. 'Autumn Rocket' & 'Pinkaboo' buds but no flowers
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Longest blooming perennial this year?
Comments (53)Up here in the mild PNW we can usually stretch the bloom period quite a bit on both ends...it's not the cold that stops it but the wet springs and late falls that tend to batter the plants into submission. That said, I usually get great results with my sedums...they are the first to re-appear in healthy clumps by the end of Jan, and I usually don't cut the seedheads until Jan when I see the new growth appearing. They look good in an architectural way all winter, and the birds love them. Another great plant for me is the cardoon...I can usually get 11 months of something out of it. The only time it's down and dormant is September, when I cut the huge flowers off and bring them inside so they don't seed all over the place. I cut the 7 foot tall plant down to the ground with a hacksaw, then by October it's sprouting new leaves and by Nov it's about a foot tall again. I've got lot's of herbs interspersed all over the place, and they do very well here, staying evergreen most of the year. Even the more tender ones will keep their leaves longer into the fall/winter as long as they don't get too wet feet. For blooms, my cape fuschias go pretty much for about 10 months of the year. My Bonica rose is the first to bloom in early March, and the last to stop in November, then it sets gorgeous bright red hips for Christmas. And it's completely no-care...I water it once or twice in the dead of summer, never prune it, never fertilize it, except for some compost, and it sits facing dead west getting blasted with full sun. This year I had purple wallflower blooming non-stop from early spring until Thanksgiving. As long as I kept trimming the spent flower shoots, it kept going. I was able to nurse a huge pineapple sage plant for 4 years...it never even showed a leaf until June, then in Oct when everything else quieted down, it took off, becoming a huge 4-5 foot tall/wide shrub. It would bloom in late Nov and all December, and the hummingbirds that stuck around loved it. It became my Christmas plant, with all the tiny red flowers. We then had a really bad wet winter last year, and that pretty much killed it off. I've also had great luck with a type of geranium...can't remember what it was, I think it's from South Africa. Produces huge 3-4 foot wide clumps, loves the hot dry sun, I water it once a month in the summer, and it's still covered with beautiful purple flowers as I write this in December. I filled in a particularly nasty dry spot between us and our neighbors, next to an evergreen hedge that sucks up every drop of water in the ground...not even weeds grow there. But those 3 geranium plants love it. I just cut it back to 6" in Feb when I do the other roses, and it takes off after the haircut. By combining plants, I'm able to have something blooming every month of the year here, even the dead of winter. In Jan, it's the osmanthum, by Feb/Mar the Korean spice dogwood kicks in, in Mar/Apr the Spring bouquet viburnum and the Bonica rose, and by April on the perennials start to bloom. We dug up the lawn, so it's all plants, and the neighbors in our fussy neighborhood love it...I'm weeding only once a week, while they're struggling with their lawns. For me, it's been learning to edit, remove plants, simplify, stick with multiple plants of the same kind rather than a patchwork of sorts. And as I get older, I can see myself replacing the perennials with more evergreen shrubs....See MoreBaby Photos 1/2005
Comments (98)Mantis, I did read that Mac are going with a new common brain or something. Now abut those Russian Reds. I have some nice ones up in the seed tray. Maybe 5/5. I think seeds came from Rosco. Anyway, it sounds like a nice little determinate, right? About a 4-5 footer. Have you gorwn it and if so does it need a stake. Something in the grey matter says tree tybe and sturdy. If that is so I'll plant 5/5 in pots.:)...See MoreAt Last Rose performance.
Comments (211)Hi Jackie and Jim1961. I'm just reading the posts now. Where I live on Vancouver Island we see a bit more summer rain than you do Jackie, but not much and this has been getting drier each year. Last summer we had one day each of low to moderate rain in May, June, July, and August. I don't have an in-ground watering system, plus I garden in very fast draining soil. Watering becomes too much as the season progresses. To answer the question as to why the snow, this has to do with living on an island that is strongly affected by the gulf stream ocean currents and moisture than comes over from the Hawaiian Islands called the 'Pineapple Express'. Heavy moisture laden air comes our way. Unfortunately if that moisture hits a 'Polar Express' air current coming down from the Arctic, up in the atmosphere the water turns into snow and dumps the snow on us in a huge pile all at once. You would be too far south to be affected by Polar Vortex air as a general rule. We have a warm climate here so the snow doesn't hang around more than a week or two. But the damage is done as soon as that extremely heavy snow falls onto the ground. Inadequate snow removal by local municipalities adds to the mass confusion. Roads are blocked for days. Further problems come from trees falling on roads and powerlines. The thing is, some winters we get no snow at all. So local governing bodies rationalize that winters on going will also not have snow, and don't budget properly for snow removal. So when the next snowfall hits and they always do, there is skimpy snow removal, road sanding and salting and so on. The ostrich response....See MoreEdmonton tree questions
Comments (59)Dan, a good many years ago, I grew out some pagoda dogwood seeds and set them out at about 3 ft tall. Now, a few had outright winterkilled, others were scraggly growers and one ended up being rather ideal in all aspects including hardiness, oh I'm just west of Edmonton. That "perfect" plant, nearly I had done in when deciding I desired to move it another location, only saved it by layering a few branches that now are small plants. In 2021 I did see some nice multi branched specimens at my local greenhouse, all were very uniform in growth, so my guess they might have been cutting grown. I was tempted to purchase one, though knowing the issues I had with hardiness, I resisted buying, lovely things though they were! Yes, I agree the globe caragana is a classy little shrubs that should be much more readily available!! Totally different, but if anyone is looking for a very reliable cedar, go with 'Yellow Ribbon', I have five specimens that many now are very large and never once have I seen a dead branch, only a bit of browning the first winter or two. These can be pruned nice and tight or let go tall and wide, would make for an amazing hedge of whatever desired size! These I'd say would do good down to zone 2....See Moreartinnature
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Columbus Design-Build, Kitchen & Bath Remodeling, Historic Renovations
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