I was just thinking of some of the "old time" plants, etc. that were all around whilst I was a youngster. Some of them that I loved:

--Lady Slippers (I think technically these are orchids)

--Rain Trees

--Hens and Chicks

--Honeysuckle Vine

--Black-eyed Susans

--Morning Glory

--Heliotrope

--Four o' Clocks---who could ever forget the Four o' Clocks!

--Hollyhocks

--Fig Trees

--Magnolias

What are some of your favourites? Inquiring minds want to know!

I love Hollyhocks! And Four O' Clocks, Nasturtiums, Snapdragons, Sweet Peas, Bachelor Buttons and Forget Me Nots too!

^^^ All beautiful classics!

From my youth that I don't see much since I left the coast...

Castor Bean - Nice plant of useful size. Some of them put on a beautiful display of fuzzy red and green seed pods. We all were taught early that the seeds were lethal if chewed. Maybe I'll see if I can grow another here. I once had a volunteer, but it didn't come back from a freeze.

Oleander - Another really nice tree/bush of a useful size. Nice flowers. They used to line our street. And many lived to be quite old. Also merited caution. Visitors sometimes came to grief when they cut branches and used than a skewers over a campfire.

My favorite of all is not rare but around here is certainly old-time, the live oak. I have three on the property, all old. The apparent oldest is next to the house and I believe is something like 250 years old. Far from the oldest in the area but worthy of being on the register. This one has always had a bee colony living in it. (And usually a snake in a hole under it. And once a great horned owl raising young in it.) Evergreen, simultaneously drops and replaces leaves periodically. Once upon a time, before wild horses and cattle dropped mesquite and other brush seeds all over, South Texas was a vast expanse of three-foot tall native grass with mottes of live oak scattered throughout.

Hollyhocks, earlist memory of seed planting

Rhododendrons and azaleas

Orange trees, remember driving through the groves at night in Florida when I was younger, incredible fragrance

Hydrangeas- the old fashioned ones with the big leaves and huge mop heads.One of my favorite bushes.

Old time Lilac bush. They have developed all kinds of new ones Boomerange, Little Kim etc, and none have performed and produced the amount of flowers the amount of fragrance as the old timer.

Mock Orange. Not the new double flower that they developed to have double flowers and lost the fragrance.

Historic Iris Plants

OAP said:I was just thinking of some of the "old time" plants, etc. that were all around whilst I was a youngster. Some of them that I loved:

--Lady Slippers (I think technically these are orchids)

--Rain Trees

--Hens and Chicks

--Honeysuckle Vine

--Black-eyed Susans

--Morning Glory

--Heliotrope

--Four o' Clocks

--Hollyhocks

--Fig Trees

--Magnolias

What are some of your favourites? Inquiring minds want to know!

I love morning Glory. Thinking of planting some myself.

i have one bed left that I have done nothing to except eradicate (I hope!) some Saw Greenbriar. It is the longest and widest bed I have, and I am thinking of tackling either this Autumn or next Spring. I want to put in some Hollyhocks, perhaps some Phlox, and a few other classics. First, however, I would have to dig up some Cannas and a bunch of Liriope. The soil is really awful. I worry whether I will be physically strong enough to dig it and amend it. In fact, I was thinking I might have to hire someone to dig it up and work in the amendments, and it occurred to me that it might be best to do that in the Autumn and then add a bit more compost in the Spring and put in the plants then. I am worried it might take a pick ax to break up that soil down to at least 12-14".

All the above trees are all beautiful and old favorites.

Hass California Avocado mature trees are great for the large green fruits, large shinny leaves and huge canopy of shade.

Southern Magnolia trees are magnificent and the most popular tree grown. It's huge white flowers with velvety brown fuzzy leaves on one side with shinny green opposing side are the showiest trees best of both worlds with great foliage ,flowering and magnificent form.

Hemlock, always so clean looking never messy or shed green all year round.

Japanese's maple visually striking with thin curling branches sprawl out in every direction with rich, red-toned leaves that filter in light from sunrise to sunset. With many dwarf maples cut leaf and in many colors of the rainbow.

Japanese Katsura tree huge canopy shade and it's small heart shaped leaves .

Sequoias beautiful bark color, closely trim needles, the genus Sequoiadendron, and one of three species of coniferous trees. If you have ever been to Yosemite nat'l Park these trees are the dinosaurs of the forest.

My absolute favorite tree is Rebud Forest Pansy, western species, Cercis occidentalis. Heart shaped with bright shinny magenta red leafs in spring a excellent small understory tree and Drought tolerant.

Liriodendron tulipifera . The Tulip tree it's in the magnolia family with large yellow tulip shaped flowers in spring, huge canopy for shade.

Monterey Cyprus here in Oregon has the largest in the world.
https://youtu.be/-vZdqdZqzaY

OAP said: The soil is really awful. I worry whether I will be physically strong enough to dig it and amend it. In fact, I was thinking I might have to hire someone to dig it up and work in the amendments, and it occurred to me that it might be best to do that in the Autumn

I have not done that kind of work in many yrs. I start in the summer with plexiglass over the area all summer to kill any weeds or start with thick cardboard over the area, cover the cardboard with all my fall leaves I have collected. I call my local nursery and have them deliver cow manure, compost, top it off with top soil.

I keep a bottle of vinegar next to the area and if any weed attempt to poke its head up I squirt it with the vinegar, By the following summer I am ready to plant.

I order more top soil and mulch from the nursery and
plant away. Let the worms do the digging and the mixing.

Cinta said:

I have not done that kind of work in many yrs. I start in the summer with plexiglass over the area all summer to kill any weeds or start with thick cardboard over the area, cover the cardboard with all my fall leaves I have collected. I call my local nursery and have them deliver cow manure, compost, top it off with top soil.

I keep a bottle of vinegar next to the area and if any weed attempt to poke its head up I squirt it with the vinegar, By the following summer I am ready to plant.

I order more top soil and mulch from the nursery and
plant away. Let the worms do the digging and the mixing.

Please do a YouTube video of that for me!

OAP said:

Please do a YouTube video of that for me!

You do not need a video. Put that cardboard down and cover it with grass clippings leave broken tree limbs and soil. You are going to be amazed. No weeds and the best garden space ever. I promise you....You will never dig again.

If you do not have a reasonable price nursery just get some bags from HD or Lowes a couple bags at a time.

Okay, Cinta. Thanks. I must do something with that bed. I will post some snaps of it on another thread once I get started. It poses additional problems on one long side of it that gets run-off rain water from the roof, too. It is going to be a challenge me thinks.

I have my favorite plant for those kind moist of areas, I suggested these two in the Iris forum to some one. Added bonus is the fragrant flowers.

https://www.gardenia.net/plant...

https://www.monrovia.com/plant...

Such pretty Irises. I love Irises! Someone just gifted me a few as she was dividing an area in her yard. They are still in a clay pot in the alley, one of a few things I have left to get into the ground and/or pot up.

I think the reason all of that LIriope is out there is because it withstood the rain run-off and hid any rutting in the soil that the run-off caused. I am tempted to just put in more Liriope and be done with it, but it does not make for a pretty or interesting bed and is not very satisfying. I am also seriously considering stepping stones along there. Stepping stones should stop the ruts from forming and also give me a path to the front of the house.

Do you have gutters on that side? If not maybe make some decorative rain chains to hang and break up the water coming off the roof.

I am surprised by how many love heliotrope; it is one of my favourites, too. I am trying to find seeds for the 'Alba' variety some think it more fragrant than the purple or blue, others disagree.
Bachelors buttons, also.
I wouldn't be without the evening scent of Mirabilis (four o:clocks), either.

So far I am just copying everyone else, so I will add something new to the list; Aquilegia. I am particularly fond of the old french variety "Mrs. Scott Elliot".

Lilacs
Peonies
Roses
Four-O-Clocks
Full size apple trees
Morning Glory
Hollyhock
Very large Elm trees
Marigold
Zinnia

All these I grew up with.
I will not plant Morning Glory any more since they became a real weed problem