Show us your one plant that you especially enjoy right now, this week.
For sure you have plants coming "on line" each week. But as you walk your garden there is likely that *one* plant that especially catches your eye and then next week it is another. How about telling us what that plant is today, this week; of course a picture would be so good.
Like for you, as it is with us, there is lots that is in bloom in the garden this first week of July but it is this single Spigelia Marilandica that gets our attention right now.
Comments (75)
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years ago
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
3 years agoRelated Discussions
What do you know right now that you will plant next season?
Comments (48)woodyoak wrote: I was washing this year's plant tags this afternoon in preparation for updating my tag binder - I dump all the tags from things I plant into a pot and then clean them up and record them when it's cold and I need a dose of the garden! :-) I didn't think I did much planting this year as there's not much space left, but there are quite a few tags... a lot of them are plants that were recommended here! I did exactly what you did, this past Sunday! Okay to be honest I don't put them in a binder but instead I sloppily throw them all into a large clear ziploc bag or two with the date 2013 very visible on both sides of the bag. I staple the appropriate tag to its receipt, for the more expensive perennials (and this year for the few pricey Japanese Maples I acquired). I decided to count these tags and I am shocked to say that there were almost 100! (I hope my partner does not find this particular post as I will never hear the end of it)...See Morestart planning NOW... how will you protect your garden next week?
Comments (30)"TAKING A LOOK AHEAD TO THE WELL ADVERTISED COLD FRONT ON NEW YEARS DAY - THIS WILL BRING THE COLDEST AIR OF THE SEASON TO THE AREA. IF FCST LOWS VERIFY THU MORNING...IT WILL BE THE COLDEST SINCE FEB 19TH 2007. IT WILL FEEL EVEN COLDER GIVEN THE VERY WARM DECEMBER WE`VE BEEN EXPERIENCING. OF MOST CONCERN WITH THIS FRONT IS THE CONTINUED DISTINCT FREEZE POSSIBILITY FOR NORTHERN INTERIOR AREAS....GLADES/HENDRY/INTERIOR COLLIER/WESTERN PALM BEACH COUNTIES. MOST PRONE IS GLADES/HENDRY. PARAMETERS CONTINUE TO SUGGEST FREEZING TEMPS ARE POSSIBLE THU MORNING. 12Z MEXMOS IS QUITE AN EYE OPENER...DEPICTING 26 AT PUNTA GORDA THU MORNING! UPDATED THE FREEZE OUTLOOK WITH LITTLE CHANGE IN WORDING AS THIS IS STILL OVER 3 DAYS AWAY AND A FEW DEGREES WILL MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD...BUT ODDS AT LEAST AT THIS POINT IN TIME SEEM TO BE FAVORING A FREEZE FOR AT LEAST PARTS OF THE OUTLOOK AREA. STAY TUNED. /GREGORIA " So it looks like Miami will stay above 40? 18z GFS (American weather model) is spitting out a low of 47F for Miami, so we shall see. Its going to feel cold! Last night low in Miami was what, 74F...crazy!...See MoreFebruary 2018, Week 2, Outdoors Planting Begins For Some Now
Comments (91)The soil gets better every year if you're amending it as you should....and the gardener gets better every year too. It all works together. : ) Here in OK the thing that throws the wrench into the works and gums it all up is the weather, because we never know when we are planting exactly what the weather is going to do for the next 6 or 8 months---it could be drought and no rain for 3 months or it could be flooding rains, 12" of rain in one day and 24" in one month. How in the heck can any gardener plan ahead and be prepared for all that? I stay out of feed stores during baby chick time or else I'll bring home chicks we do not need. They are too little, too cute, too fluffy and just too adorable to ignore. The last time we were in Atwood's they didn't have chicks in the stores yet, but I figured that for sanity's sake I need to stay out of Atwoods for the next couple of months, and TSC too. Rebecca, You probably are on track with your succession planting, but with snow peas/pole beans it might be a little tricky. I like to plant pole beans early---before the peas are done---because we get so hot here so early that my pole beans need to flower and set beans in May in case the heat is about to crank up too hot in June, which often happens here. If only the weather were perfectly predictable. My English iris, ornamental alliums, red hot poker and some daylilies (but not all) have been up for quite a while now---maybe a month? The daffodils were really late, and some of the daylilies aren't up yet, but I really think that is because of the lack of moisture. The recent rainfall should help with that. The autumn sages are leafing out, so I need to cut them back soon. Most of the reseeding herbs and flowers are no shows so far, but I saw the first couple of larkspur (sprouting in a pathway, naturally) a couple of days ago. I am thinking everything likely will just explode now that we had some rain. I hope Travis Meyer is right about Spring. I'm never going to be unhappy about an early Spring because I dislike Winter's cold so much. The incredibly, horrifically invasive pink evening primrose plants are popping up all over the front half-acre, and in the garden. I pull them out of the garden the minute I spot them. I am considering hitting the ones in the pasture with a herbicide. Yes I am! One plant gives you a million more and they invade everywhere. I got rid of them in the drought years of 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014...but they staged a remarkable comeback in 2015, 2016 and 2017's wetter weather. I cannot stand them. If you let them grow and reseed as they will, that's all you'll end up with in the end. I might keep them if they'd crowd out Johnson grass and bermuda grass---but they do not---they just happily coexist with it. Do you have any idea which parts of Fort Worth they're looking at? Maybe by direction, like North, South, East or West? The DFW metroplex has grown so very huge (7.23 million people) and Tarrant County's population so large (1.8 million I think and I am not sure how much of that is Fort Worth proper and how much is the suburbs that surround it) that it is hard to talk about parts of Fort Worth, as many people now buy homes in developments in the many suburbs that ring the city. Most people who move to the area try to choose a nice neighborhood that will be a decent commute to their work so that they don't spend an hour or two commuting each way each day. So, if you can tell me where their new place or places of employment are located, maybe I can point y'all in the direction of the great places nearby to live. And, I want them to be forewarned, it is a seller's market and homes are selling fast and at inflated rates, so if they want to buy, they need to pre-qualify to know their price limit and find a great real estate agent. Many of our friends who once lived in Fort Worth have fled to the outer, outer, outer suburbs as it all has become too urbanized for them in their former neighborhoods. Some have fled north almost to Denton, to north towards Denton and then west towards Decatur and the like. Others have fled very far south---farther south than Burleson and perhaps as far southeast as Mansfield. My niece tries to keep me up to date on what's what in terms of the neighborhoods and housing developments, and it shocks me when she mentions a neighborhood that was perfectly lovely and highly coveted when we left Fort Worth in 1999, and she tells me it has gone downhill and is now "ghetto". I guess nothing remains the way we remember it once was. If Saginaw and the area northwest of it are near their place of employment, there's tons and tons of new housing developments and new shopping centers going up there---for at least the last 10-15 years, and the growth is never-ending. It used to be Denton was considered a long drive from Fort Worth and too far to move to live, but now people tell me Denton isn't far enough away. I think much depends on whether they want to love in a highly developed neighborhood with lots of homes close together, etc., or if they want to move further out and had a half-acre or acre lot or even more. The weather was gorgeous here today. I trust it was gorgeous where y'all are as well. It was a little wet and muddy, but that won't last long. It actually was nice to see puddles for once. Of course, we had a fire. Remember how I told y'all that when rain falls in a bad fire year, it can make things worst? It sort of did that today. Some vehicle on I-35 had a tire that was coming apart and a piece of flaming hot tire landed in tall grass beside the road and set the grass and trees on fire. This occurred less than 12 hours after our rain stopped falling and it happened maybe a half-mile from our fire station. I was wondering if the ground was muddy enough for the brush fire trucks to get stuck, and suspected it probably was. The answer, apparently, was yes, and I learned that when one firefighter was yelling "stop, stop, back up, back up, you're gonna get stuck" to the fire truck behind him. Sitting at home listening to him holler made me grin---not because I wanted for anyone to get stuck, but because it is just so predictable. So, now that we have had rain, the fires will continue on because dry, dormant vegetation reminds dry and dormant, and the fires will be harder to fight off-road because of the mud. As my son would mutter sarcastically "Great, just great." One thing that was odd(in a good way) today was that it was so warm that the songbirds did not have to spend every minute of every day eating nonstop in order to stay fueled up and warm. I didn't have to refill the bird feeders until almost sunset. The stores near us still have all the typical cool-season transplants on the shelves, but also more herbs that I think of as needing slightly warmer weather...and quite a few tomato plants. This was the first week I saw tomato plants, and I won't remember all the different varieties I saw, but among them were Early Girl, Better Bush, Roma, Better Boy and maybe Beefmaster or Big Beef. Most were the smaller transplants that cost $3.48 or $3.58 in 3" peat pots, but the Early Girls were larger and cost $5.88 in what was probably either a 5" or 6" plastic (not peat) pot. They also had flats of pansies. Last week they only had violas. I bet next week they'll have flats of petunias. It follows a fairly predictable pattern here. We only went to Wal-Mart and didn't go across the road to see what was at HD because their plants come on the very same trucks from BP, I think, and they tend to get the same plants in at the same time. Exactly the same, but sometimes HD does have pepper plants in about two months too early---and earlier than Wal-Mart does. It was ridiculous to stand there and look at those big monster plants, all of which could eat my tiny tomato seedlings in one gulp. It doesn't make me wish I'd started mine earlier---because our soil is still far too cold for tomatoes. I believe I started mine at the right time for my area given my weather and soil temperatures (even with the recent warm-up). I might feel differently if the soil temperatures start hitting and staying in the 50s while my tomato plants are still 2 or 3" tall and wide. Gardening is an imperfect science. I hope people didn't see those tomato plants and automatically assume it is time to buy them, take them home and plant them because we have some freezing nights in our forecast around mid-week. Dawn...See MorePlants arriving in the mail is a Most Exciting Event, especially now!
Comments (98)Super excited to get this new agave I just order today. A little more than I wanted to pay but I never saw one like this. Agave Cubic is an interesting cultivar with bizarre ridges on the back of most of the leaves, resulting in some of them having a three or four angled appearance. Plants need winter protection when temperatures dip down into the high 20’s F. This plant is a mutated monstrose form of Agave potatorum. Marginal spines can grow on up to all four of the leaf sides. The leaves grow as if 2 leaves are fused together forming a square shape. Grow this plant in full sun to partial shade. Picture are from Esty seller Succulent Cabin; All photos are of the same plant and the one I purchased....See Morecercis47
3 years agorouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years agomazerolm_3a
3 years agoThis is the first year that it blooms in my garden, after 3 years in the ground, peony Cora Louise. Love it!
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked mazerolm_3aHeruga (7a Northern NJ)
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoThis is my adnenophora triphylla var. japonica. Stops me every time I walk pass by. Gonna be taking some seeds this year.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked Heruga (7a Northern NJ)rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years agodeanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
3 years agorouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada
3 years agorouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years agoHeruga (7a Northern NJ)
3 years agogreenhearted Z5a IL
3 years agoSo many beauties in this thread! That Spigelia is just lovely, what a neat habit! *adds to wish list*
Loving the lilies and stachys, peony & ladybells!
north53, thank you for sharing the information on the Echium. I had a seed packet in my cart last year but changed my mind because of it's biennial nature. Would be wonderful if it acted as a perennial! Seeds are cheap enough, I might give this a go on the off-chance it is perennial here too.
Dilly, I have the same Rudbeckia - 'Cappucino' and it really is stunning! I grew it from seed last year too and this is the first year flowering. Gosh, I sure hope it is this exuberant next year!
Definitely going to be collecting seeds this fall. Also lasts quite a while in a vase.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked greenhearted Z5a ILrouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years agoSince two of you have that very showy rudbeckia I thought I could post a picture of our "Burning Hearts" Heliopsis which looks like this today.
- rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked Heruga (7a Northern NJ)
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
3 years ago
harold100
3 years agodeanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
3 years agorouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5bcercis47
3 years agoThis is my favorite now: Dianthus “Georgia Peach Pie”. I bought several of these last season and loved them. I bought several more this year.
it has iquite substantial foliage for a Dianthus and gorgeous 2 tone pink/peach coloring. The flowers are longlasting and colorfast even in full sun. The flowers are a nice size, not carnation blowsey but big enough to easily pinch off spent blooms. It blooms for a long period of time with nice staying foliage after bloom. It has done remarkably well in our wet PNW climate.
i love it in this bed with Veronica, Nepeta, annual Lobelia, a Japanese Iris ”Dace”, and Dictamus albus.
All of mine were purchased at Annies Annuals...
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked cercis47deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
3 years agorouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5bcab84
3 years agoI’m enjoying my Stoke’s Aster Honeysong Purple this week. The flowers are a pretty color and I like the bloom shape.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked cab84rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years agocab84
3 years agocercis47
3 years agodeanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
3 years agorouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5brouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years agoUPDATE: The clump of Spigelia shown in the first photo is now starting a late summer rebloom:
djacob Z6a SE WI
3 years agoI don’t have many perennials (I’m into hostas because of my shady yard) but these two really look good right now.
debra
Sedum Autumn Joy
Heuchera, Caramel (I think) this has looked good all summer
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked djacob Z6a SE WIdiggerdee zone 6 CT
3 years ago
FrozeBudd_z3/4
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoLead plant (amorpha canescens), photo taken a few weeks ago, the beauty is now blooming with spikes of veronica like purple blooms.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked FrozeBudd_z3/4floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
3 years agoTwo which always cheer up late summer. Both tough and common but none the less beautiful for that.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UKrouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years ago
north53 Z2b MB
3 years agodeanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
3 years agorouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5bFrozeBudd_z3/4
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoNorth53, I received the lead plant from Lindenberg a few years ago and last spring my local nursery was offering them as well, though not again this year. I had been reading up on amorpha nana and would like to obtain it as well, where had you gottern yours, had you grown it from seed?
Love the anemones, this one I find quite reliable for my short growing season and has wintered rather well for the most part.
Anemone 'Serenade'
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked FrozeBudd_z3/4- rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked Heruga (7a Northern NJ)
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years agorouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a)
3 years agoNot a perennial but I love looking at it these days:
I had this plant in a large container for about 6 weeks and it did nothing. On a whim I took it out of the pot and for the first time planted an Alocasia in the ground. It has thrived in its new locale.
FrozeBudd_z3/4
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago'Azure Rush' geranium ... thanks Rouge for your recommendation of this beauty!!
Have snuggled it up with an excellent and highly fragrant 'Pavement' rugosa and 'Mandarin Tango' potentilla.
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked FrozeBudd_z3/4
PROJay 6a Chicago
13 days ago
Lonicera flava
Amsonia illustris
Trillium luteum, Trillium grandiflorum.
Sedum ternatum
Yellow Pimpernel, Taenidia integerrima, blooming for the 1st time. An Apiaceae species with ornamental, elegant foliage. This pic doesn't do it justice. :(
This isn't blooming yet, but it's it's 1st time blooming and I've waited years. Fragrant False Indigo, Amorpha nana. Has anyone grown the real indigo dye plant?
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) thanked Jay 6a Chicago
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b