Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

[Deb]

I'm so excited! The garden centers are getting plant shipments in this week and I've literally been hovering around the back door of Ace Hardware this morning because a delivery truck pulled up just as we walked thru the front door.

Even in the depth of the snow a lot of you are getting, the thought of planning for spring planting lifts your spirits so I thought I'd start a thread where we can talk about our gardens and flowers and lawn gnomes and wind chimes. It'll be fun to see what everyone is planting based on their favorite plants and the geographical location---we'll be hearing about all kinds of plants.

Our new house was fully landscaped when we moved in and it's very nicely done. We have 90% gravel with a little kidney shaped patch of grass in the backyard surrounded by a curved concrete fence. In the front yard there are two thorny mesquite trees, four large rosemary bushes, two spanish bayonette yucca plants, three broad leaf yucca gloriosas, and three or four thin leaf yuccas that have tiny purple blooms. I have three copper planters out front.....two will have orange and yellow Celosia and the third huge planter gets the reeeeeeeeally pretty peach Bougainvillea I fell in love with and had to have.

In the backyard there are four small trees (I'm not sure what they are yet until the leaves come out but they're budding now), two huge pink oleander bushes, a bright red Bougainvillea, and a velvet mesquite tree. My plant shopping expedition today yielded spearmint for the wooden bucket by the back door (I love fresh mint in my tea), some shockingly bright yellow, orange, and peach oriental type poppies, two Mona Lavenders, a flat of English Daisies for container fillers, and a couple of orange calendula (desert marigolds) to add a little sparkle. Because I love exotic plants, the next three had me literally dancing in the aisle. I found a really cool dark red/purple Lantana (verbenas family) that looks like it'll just be fun to have because the flowers are so delicate. I'm probably crazy for trying this one, but I couldn't resist a salmon colored Tuberous Begonia. I haven't tried my hand with Begonias yet so this could end up being a love/hate relationship but I'm up to the challenge. But the very best of all............a Night Blooming Jasmine! Oooooooh, be still my heart! I've always wanted one and there it was waiting for me.

Obviously I'll be busy putting the 30 lbs of potting soil to good use this week but it's a very happy thing for me. I've always loved growing plants and while I can't garden on the scale that I used to, I can have planters here and there which are easy to reach, have no weeds, and only need watering/petting/conversation/love to grow.

So, that's my garden so far. The one thing I didn't find that I *MUST* have in every garden is moss rose. I have two black cauldron planters that always have moss rose in them. I used to grow it in a white enamel basin but that got lost in a move years ago and for some reason, the cauldrons took its place. It's early yet so the moss rose will come in before long. In the meantime, I've got plenty of transplanting to keep me happy. Yay!!! I get to play in the mud!!! Call me crazy, but I adore the feel of dirt in my hands.

What is every one else planting or planning to plant? C;mon and share your stories about what you grow and why you love them. Veggie gardens count too!

Does anyone else name their plants? <grinning> Okay, maybe that's too much information but I've always given my plants personal names like Bob and Monroe (he was a rubber tree) and Phil, etc.

Deb

[Stacey6163]

I bought some seeds to start today, tomatoes, peppers, herbs and some flowers, delphiniums and columbine and some birdhouse gourds. I am anxiously waiting for the rose bushes to come in, they are my absolute favorite! I have a couple of online orders in progress that include blue, black, and purple rosebushes and some shrub cherries and perennials to start with. I cannot wait for Spring to finally get here. :-)

[me-barbie]

I have no more room to plant: but I have hostas in the front, and in my back yard I have peonies, lillies, roses and lily of the valley. I plop impatients (sun and shade loving) and swiss chard into containers come May long weekend. I love swiss chard, it looks great and tastes better. Plus my old fountain (sprung a leak) is now a herb garden come summer.

I do admit to paging slowly through my Brecks cateloge when it came....

[rackey]

Thanks for your enthusiasm for this topic and for starting this post.

I may try growing a tomato plant this year. Last year I got one tomato, but a possum or some such animal ate it before I could pick it. I definitely want to get some pansies to start with. Last year I purposely didn't plant anything because I was finisning up on a BA degree, so this year I promised I would get back to the flowers.

[Selkie]

Oh, we are gardeners too. Last year was not our best year - poor crop yield for some reason. We were in good company cuz others in our same area had slimmer pickin's too.

We do lots of veggies - esp. tomatoes - big and little- yellow, orange, and red, sweet peppers -red and green, cukes, lettuce, cabbage, and I'm big into growing herbs. Love fresh herbs and then I dry my own for winter use.

We also grow lavender, lots of roses, hydrangeas, daffodil, lilacs, peonies, black eye Susan, marigolds by the trillions - use them for pest control too plus the kiddos grow all kinds of potted plants and flowering annuals to cut and take to the fair.

It's way too early for planting - even starting the tomato seeds - they'd be too big and spindly before they could be transplanted outside. Have to wait another month for that.

[havanaholly]

I've been blessed with a brown thumb for gardening, although I had some luck with individual veggie plants. but that was before we moved far enough out that the deer ate everything before it was ready for people consumption. However we have had some small luck with native tree seedlings that we get from the UF extensiion campus, and have a little black gum noting has decided to chew the roots yet.

[Deb]

I love hearing what everyone is planting and planning! I'm looking forward to pictures later on too because the next best thing to growing stuff is sharing the joy in their beauty. Well, except for you zucchini growers who keep sneaking the extra bounty from your garden into everything from gift baskets for friends (early summer) to the back seat of stranger's cars when they leave them unlocked (late summer when you just have so many of the darned things that you don't know what to do with them). hehehehehehe If you're laughing, you've either done it or had it done to you. My dad was a school teacher who was also a minister and pastored small churches that couldn't afford to pay a preacher. During the summer it was a rare occasion when we'd get in the car after church and not find a basket of fresh veggies from someone's garden. It must have spoiled me because store bought veggies are cardboard in comparison.

Does anyone else grow Bougainvillea? The one I got yesterday is in a pot and nicely staked with no signs of the roots coming out the drainage holes. I'm going to put it in front of the house in a planter, not in the ground so I did a little research to decide if I should use clay or plastic for the pot and discovered that they grow better if they're root bound. The info I was reading said that if you grow them in a container to keep it small and tight because the roots are brittle and easily break off at the base of the stem. Now I'm wondering if it would just be best to keep it in the pot it came in and set that down inside the planter instead; monitoring the roots and perhaps transplanting in the fall. The potting soil looks to be good quality and it still has room to grow but I've always transplanted immediately from the store containers so this kind of goes against my usual habits. Any thoughts?

Deb

[Deb]

Hmmm. I've had an idea. If I were to carefully cut away the bottom of the pot that Bougainvillea is in and then cut a slit down the side, I could go ahead and "plant" it that way in a 10" planter (it's in a 6" now and I don't want to jump it too much). Then when it starts looking too root bound, all I'd need to do is loosen the soil and gently slide out the plastic sleeve so it's transplanted without touching the roots. I think I remember doing that with a Sensitive plant eons ago. What do y'all think? Or am I being too overprotective about this plant?

Deb

[Dalesq]

Bougainvillea is pretty tough (except for frost sensitive). I've never done anything special when repotting them.

[Dalesq]

We grow almost all of our own produce now. We have an Excaliber dehydrator and dry the excess. We just finished processing last years pumpkins, which will keep for months when stored properly, but drying the flesh assures longer keeping times. Hubby bakes them first for flavor They make the best pies!

Were started getting the seed beds ready this last weekend. The next couple of months we will start things in batches each week

[havanaholly]

I don't know about AZ but in S FL I never saw bougainvillea in pots.

[Stacey6163]

I got a couple more seed catalogs in the mail today, :-) I'm going to have all sorts of seeds to start when it's time. My motto is one can never have too many plants, and I'm planning on putting in several more raised beds for veggies and a few more flower beds. We are fortunate to have lots of land to beautify. :-)

[grazhina]

My garden is growing snow - more and more snow.

[me-barbie]

Yes. My front is under about 3 feet, and the back about 4 (drifting)

[kat57]

I can't wait to bring home just tons and tons of the gaudiest colored annuals and put them out all over this yard! And I plan to get a couple more roses,as the ones I got last year did a lot better than I expected in my mostly shady yard. My perrenials took a beating,but it looks like most of them will come back as good as new. I lost a 'baby' Hosta I put in last year,but it wasn't doing well anyway. Anyone have firsthand tips for Hostas that you have grown successfully?

[Selkie]

Anyone have firsthand tips for Hostas that you have grown successfully?

I have the weirdest time with hostas. I have several varieties and some do great and others don't.

At the end of my front walk - one side grows like crazy and spreads where it doesn't belong, 2 feet away on the other side it is spindly and pathetic. I keep transplanting from the "good" side to the bad side but it never changes. I think there has got to be something different with the amount of sun or water drainage or dirt composition or something. Weird !!

[grazhina]

Anyone have firsthand tips for Hostas that you have grown successfully?

I have a bunch of hostas, all the same variety, children of the same one or two plants I started with. Some grow pretty full and tall, others stay small.

I was thinking that the small ones in my front yard grow in areas where we don't water very often. On the other hand, their sisters in the back yard don't get watered much either, and they grow fairly large.

I have a couple varieties on the island in my front yard, and they grow quite big, but they get watered a lot because I grow a mix of annuals, shrubs and a crab apple tree there. The soil on the island is also a better quality than the spots where the other hostas grow. It's has a foot and a half of deep loam we got from a local farm. There's maybe 6" to a foot of sand underneath. The thriving ones in the backyard grow in a bout 8" deep sandy loam, with about a foot of sand under that. I read that hostas prefer well draining loam, so that's what they have on the island and to a lesser degree in the back yard, because I mixed more sand with the loam. Our loam up here tends to be mixed on the sandy side anyway. The smaller hostas grow in the unamended soils.

When we moved into our house the soil was all solid sand or solid clay with the original rocky poor soil with chunks of root and granite on the fringes of our yard. I had to replace the existing stuff with loam anywhere I wanted to plant anything. I know pretty much what's under everything.

Gardenweb has a hosta forum, among other things.

[me-barbie]

My mother is sending me a seed cataloge of heritage and antique seeds....no monsanto! When i get it I shall post the link for all of you to enjoy.

[kat57]

Grazhina,thanx for the Hosta info. Yeah,I'll read up some more on them before I try another one-I HATE killing plants as much as others hate accidently killing animals. (Another reason I don't do food gardening!) I bet it's the soil,and I do have lots of roots to contend with-there are about 30 oaks on this small lot. I just take it too personal,because at my old place I had 2 young Hostas die on me years ago,and I just adore them! I also always had bad luck with Hydrangeas,of all things,but last year Mom gave me 2 small transplants and they are still surviving-so at least my bad streak with them seems broken!

[grazhina]

Kat, I've loved hydrangeas since I was a kid. I used to have one back in PA that bloomed pink because it was planted next to some concrete paving. I tried growing one up here, but it never bloomed, we'd get a late frost and the buds wouldn't form. They have a new variety that's supposed to bloom up here, but I have no good spot for it. I like to put my bloomers where I can enjoy them from my windows. Last summer I planted a mock orange in the last good spot so I could see it from my kitchen window. I hope it survives the winter, doesn't get eaten by the deer and then blooms.

My old fashioned all time favorites are hydrangeas, wisterias and mock orange. They used to grow in my old Philadelphia neighborhoods where I grew up.

[kat57]

I don't know if I've seen Mock Orange-will have to look it up. But there is a forgotten Wisteria growing wild on an old remnant of privacy fence between me and my only neighbors-also my landlord's property. This way we both get to enjoy it!

The best treat for me here is a solitary little Dogwood tree among all the oaks in the backyard-my mother was over one day last year and noticed it out an open window before I did. With my lousy eyesight,I had thought the delicate white blooms were just dappled light playing on the oak leaves! What a wonderful surprise,as we moved in too late to see it in bloom my first year here-it only bloomed a short time last year...I will be watching closely for it now!

[Deb]

I don't know about AZ but in S FL I never saw bougainvillea in pots.

That's easy to fix. Hang on a minute. <grabbing camera and running off> Okay, here you go.

LOL! Isn't that a really nice one? It's about two feet tall and the blooms are a gorgeous pink and orange ombre. I'm smitten with almost any peach colored flower so I fell in love with this one right away to the point of being downright silly over it. With the way it's been staked it's already curved in the right directions for me to get it to braid, then if I keep it pinched back I should be able to get a pretty little bush out of it for at least a year before it gets too big to stay in the pot.

Actually, the pot that it's going to go into is the larger part of this copper set. It's supposed to be a hose pot. Those aren't practical in areas where snakes perceive something like that as their version of a Holiday Inn so I'm going to put some clear tape over enough of the hose hole to hold the dirt in and make it a really big planter. I was going to fill it with Celosia but then I found this and it looks soooooooooo good in the space in front of the house where that pot is at that it can't go anywhere else. Unfortunately the pot's way too big for the bougainvillea but it can't go anywhere else either. I pondered over that this afternoon while I potted the rest of the plants and then it hit me. The article I read on about.com said that they can be kept in planters for two or three years and since this one still has room to grow in its store pot, I can put a thick layer of rocks in the bottom of the big pot for drainage and set the whole thing in the middle, then surround it with potting mix and tuck my yellow and orange Celosia in all around it. <grinning> I'm not sure if it's an acceptable horticultural solution or not, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it works. The.color combination will be gorgeous in front of our light tan house with the dark green rosemary bushes on the other side of the walk. If all goes as planned, I'll take pictures when it's done.

One thing I'm confident about and that's the amount of light it can handle during the summer heat. One of the most popular plants for landscaping around here is the red bougainvillea. They're everywhere, including my backyard. It started flowering out like crazy this week and the weight of the blossoms has it sweeping the ground more than usual. I think that it may have come loose from its stake the last time the wind blew so I'll have to look at it a little more closely tomorrow.

I really like these bushes a lot. The contrast of thorns and blossoms is always fascinating to me, but these blooms also have a teeny white flower on top of them which makes it a mini and, well, when did I ever meet anything in mini that didn't get me all excited. LOL!

Deb

[Gayle]

Hostas are shade loving plants. I have some planted on the north side of my house along with several ferns, azaleas and a gardenia bush. My house gets full sun on 3 sides and it was the only place I could find for them.

[havanaholly]

Aw, Deb, what a cute li'l critter! Down in S FL they grow huge and all over and I've seen them as hedges in Key West.. I also dislike oleander because it's so toxic, probably as much or more so than poinsettias, but primarily because of the particular caterpillars that are attracted to them (also toxic, and huge and hairy).

I can actually propagate hydrangeas! I read an article in some waiting room copy of Southern Living on how to root the cuttings that is apparently foolproof, since I have done it. I had a huge gangler by a corner of our side fence at our old house that I took cuttings and rooted them. None of the ones I replanted by the front gate survived, but the one I put at the front corner of the porch/ deck took off. Whilst the blossoms by the fence were usually blue, the ones by the porch were pinkish.

[minime]

I don't have much of a green thumb but a few days ago I made stew for dinner and put the carrot, parsnip and rutabaga tops in a saucer of water on the windowsill. They are putting forth a little green now, keeping the avocado pits and pineapple top company.