Viewing comments posted by chelle

I'll dig these up and plant them again next year, but for all the hoops I jumped through to get some this year, I'm not convinced it was worth it. Until about a week ago our entire summer had been predominantly cloudy and very wet, so I'm sure this had an impact on my plants' growth, but plants flopped even worse than their taller counterparts, and they developed distorted stems. My plants had early morning shade this year, but next year I'll choose a spot in full, all-day sun.

Plants are perhaps a bit more than two-thirds the height of standard glads. They're a bit shorter in stem length, and distance between buds is much less, giving the bloom stalk a rather cramped appearance. In comparison of the two, grown in the same year, I prefer the gracefulness of the the full-sized plants rather than this tightly compacted style of gladiolus.

Plant remains short and somewhat sprawling, and blooms in popup flushes all summer long. Plant does not appear to set seed.

Perhaps this daylily didn't produce the prettiest blooms in its first year here (cooler, wet and cloudy overall), but it's an amazing grower! There's already plenty of increase, and one of those new plants is now sending up a scape with buds. The main section produced maybe a dozen blooms. For a first year plant living in a colder zone, this is quite incredible. Parade of Peacocks could easily be a good choice for a landscape daylily.

A truly dwarf, short and tidy lavender. At 5" total height, this plant makes a lovely rock garden specimen.

Fantastic landscape plant! Loads of blooms over a very long period, vigorous starter and very easy to grow. This one hits the ground running!

Fantastic, very short, full-flowering and free-blooming nicotiana. This plant lacks a highly discernible scent, but it's a colorful filler and an excellent, somewhat mounding groundcover. Plant performs equally well in the ground as it does in containers. These plants love lots of moisture and perform best with plenty of decomposable matter added to the planting area.
Plants are undesirable to rabbits, groundhogs and other furry, four-legged pests. To date, the plant has also proven to be of low desirability to Japanese beetles.

*Cautionary Comment*

This plant can self-sow here in the Midwest, zone 5b. Overwintered seed in last year's growing container sprouted in June. This was a controlled experiment designed to learn more about safety issues regarding this plant. I'm sharing the results here so that other growers may realize the importance of using sound judgement in growing practices, including containment and thorough seed collection.

This clematis was by far one of the best impulse buys I ever made. I planted it almost as an afterthought, thinking a bush-type clematis wouldn't be one of my favorites. I was wrong. It truly is an amazing plant! In just its second year it has produced more blooms than I'd have time to count, and has been my longest blooming clematis to date.

@CarolineScott

Thank you so much for posting your successful germination results! I've been trying to start this one for several years now, to no avail. Room temperature with GA3 will be my next attempt.

Fascinating!

@lovesblooms I had no idea that this one produced fertile seed. Thanks for sharing!

Seeds of Lavender (Lavandula multifida) can be winter sown, and plants will bloom about twelve weeks after germination. Plants are very drought tolerant and thrive in neglected, poor soil conditions.

This chrysanthemum really does seem to need cooler temperatures to color up. In my garden, early blooms during very warm weather were washed-out and unimpressive. The red points were very nearly nonexistent.

Favored fare of groundhogs in my garden. No buds have been allowed to develop.

I was a bit disappointed in the lack of noticeable scent in this plant's blooms. Blooms were pretty, but sparse in comparison to others of its type. Blooms typically didn't open until 9:00 PM; just a bit late for my enjoyment. Buds were decimated by Dryocampa rubicunda larvae, and leaves were munched heavily by what appeared to be hummingbird moth larvae.
In the photo below, the plant on the left was in a sunnier position than the three on the right. There are noticeably fewer roots and much heavier predation on the plants that had less sun.

• Evening Primrose (Oenothera glazioviana 'Tina James' Magic')
• Uploaded by chelle

In year four, here in zone 5b/6, a single Heliopsis helianthoides plant has grown into a small stand of about five plants. The original plant has finished blooming and set seeds, but the self-sown first-year plants have now begun to bloom. In this type of naturalized situation, it's possible to have blooms for many months in a very low maintenance area. The blooms provide nectar for pollinators and the seeds provide food for seed-eating birds. Goldfinch in particular are very fond of the seeds of Oxeye Sunflower. The plant is also attractive to red aphids, but it appears to weather heavy infestations without permanent damage. Cold stratification is helpful for germination, so winter-sowing the seeds would be a good method to employ.

Two large clumps of Giant Rush (Juncus pallidus 'Javelin') did not survive last winter in the boggy area of my yard. I was disappointed until we took our first canoe ride of the year just a few days ago and noticed several healthy and happy clumps growing in about 12" of water along the lakeshore. This plant really seems to enjoy a permanently wet and possibly more thoroughly protected position here in zone 5b/6.

I haven't noticed many self-sown seedlings from last year's plants, but there is one growing in the fork of a tree stump at just about eye level. If it lives to bloom I'll post a picture. I guess this might be a good beginning indication that this plant needs very little sustained moisture and very little in the way of added nutrients.

Painted Tongue (Salpiglossis sinuata 'Kew Blue') appears to prefer cooler soil conditions. Site #1; lightly mulched plants in a full sun, fertile, raised bed are stringy, anemic and plagued with black aphids. Site #2; nearby plants that receive full sun on their upper reaches, but have log shaded root zones are happy, healthy and bug-free. Site #3; three plants in lightly fertile soil, situated within fairly thick iris clumps are doing well, but aren't as stocky as plants in site #2.
General weather conditions during this 10 day observation period: hot and humid, with frequent rainfall.

Grassy Bells (Edraianthus tenuifolius) can be grown successfully in unamended poor and drier soils; no rock garden is required. The planting area for mine is topped with a thin layer of crushed limestone, and its position is under a southwest-facing roof overhang, in an area where generally only fast growing weeds would survive. Nice carefree plant for tough areas that receive little summer rainfall.

A second year seed plant in my garden has surprised me with its 40" H by 28" W, and that's before blooming. The information I'd found before siting it was of a plant that generally grows 12 to 24 inches in height. That information holds true for a first year plant, but a singly planted specimen kept over for seed production may require more space, especially if it's been planted in moist, fertile soil. It doesn't have heavy foliage, so shading out its neighbors isn't really an issue, but in an ornamental setting it can appear too large for its space. Give it plenty of room if you're planning on growing it to maturity in your flower beds.