The plants/gardening thread!

[Sojiita]

So who Gardens/likes houseplants, where do you live..what do you grow etc.
I am here in Central Ohio and have checked ny garden/landscaping and everything came through the winter fine. My Crape Myrtles came through virtually unscathed(they are marginal here). Only thing I lost was a patch of Dianthus(Pinks) that is really looking ratty. I guess the Gardening Bug has rebitten me in the last few days. All of my exotic/marginal landscaping plants look great. All of my fruit trees have set fruit too(even the Apricots!*gasp* ). I can already taste the homemade Apricot jam!

[darksithbunny]

Southern VA. I lost my Dianthus too. Also Pinks. I also lost a beautiful hydrangea. Do you get May apples up there? They grow wild in the woods down here.

I don't know what I want to get into this year. I have bought some geraniums and that new hybrid impatient. One of my flower beds has been taken over by ants.

Went out and did some gardening the other day but was scared off by a wolf spider! It charged at me. I HATE spiders. And gotta be careful because black widows seem to be more this year. My brother said his shed has tons of them.

I don't have an orchard. My Mom does so I will have to see what she has growing this year. She has a beautiful herb garden as well.

[Sojiita]

All of my fruit trees are dwarf..and they all have to look good and be disease resistant since they are part of the landscaping both front and back. Last year I had someone over and they spotted a huge spider..they were like OMG that is a XXX spider..you NEVER see them in the city..they are very rare..and poisonous. And they junp too. I was ready to hit one and it jumped clear into the street and got runover! (the street was about 6 feet away) Of course there are always two of these things..I looked around and found the other one..could not find any pesticide to kill it on hand and i wanted it dead right then..so I sprayed it with sticky hair spray/mousse and oven cleaner till it was encapsulated and died!
about the outdoor bonsai...they are very tricky to keep alive..I would check the internet...they need alot of attention..they drain very well so you must water them ALOT..I have and indoor one that just barely is alive now. Good luck on it! alot depends on where you live and how much overwintering you need.

[Lobelia]

What a great idea for a thread! I am a rabid yet relatively inexperienced gardener. I knew zippo about plants until about 4 years ago.

I'm never happy with my yard, & my neighbors laugh at me for planting things & pulling them up & moving them. A lot of that is because of my inexperience, and I put them in the wrong light, or too close together, or put plants together that don't blend well.

I have become a big begonia fan. Especially dragon wing begonias, red ones, in big planters. Gorgeous.

All my fruit trees are still too immature to bear fruit, but they're growing. I have a robinson crabapple, a plum, and 2 weeping cherries. I don't even know if the cherries actually bear fruit at all.

I have several acres with mostly oak trees, so I've planted lots of dogwoods under them. This is a big azalea area, so I have some of those.....lots of other types of shrubs, too. My favorite tree that I planted is a forest pansy redbud.

It's just an ongoing project. Maybe someday I'll be satisfied with how it all looks, but probably not.

Anybody know how to root jasmine cuttings?

[Sojiita]

^^Forest Pansy is a beautiful choice! There is a large one outside of one of the nursing homes I used to work at and it is incredible! I bet you could grow Crape Myrtles(Lagerstoemia Indica) too. They are great for the south and they have new disease resistant cultivars. I have some small ones and in august they bloom like nothing else! tremendous color when no other trees are blooming! The weeping cherries will probably not produce any fruit. Many apple/crabapple and plum trees are not self-fertile..whether you get any fruit depends on the type of tree and whether there are others nearby. I have a small plot so with my Apricots I planted two different varieties in the same hole(about 8 inches apart) even though they are self fertile to try and get a better yield.

[Zee]

I love gardening and do it in my spare time. Which hasn't happened much in the past few years.

My wisteria was absolutely loaded with buds this year. I am hoping that the frost last night didn't kill the flowers.

My dianthus made it through the winter. Lost a couple hydrangeas and my white peach trees. Rabbits have already started eating the bell flowers.

Last year, I planted strawberries as a ground cover out of desperation. It worked out really well for a shady area. Kids enjoyed eating the fruit as well.

My godfather always grew figs, which I would love to try when things settle down more.

[pacific breeze]

I love gardening but mostly do container gardening now because I don't have a real yard. I have a pomegranate bonsai that is clinging to life. I love tropicals but my track record isn't that good.

I like begonias and impatiens for a blaze of colour -- they're also good shade plants, along with -- hehe-- lobelia, because we get a lot of rain and cloudy days in these parts.

[Sojiita]

^^Lobelia




^^Forest Pansy Redbud





^^Crape Myrtle



^^Harcot Apricot..one of the two varieties I have

[A*O]

It's autumn here so things are shutting down for winter. I love the fact that even when all the leaves have fallen off you can already see the tiny new buds formed for the spring.

I'm trying to 'convert' my garden to all-Australian native species. There are SO many fabulous and diverse things to choose from and of course they are much better suited to the climate than trying to nurture things like azaleas which just about survive here but need a LOT of TLC. Water conservation is also a major issue; we have fairly strict water restrictions so drought tolerant plants are important too. Another reason to choose Aussie natives. In the spring (Sept!) the eucalyptus trees (a HUGE variety) are flowering with every shade of red or yellow/cream you can imagine, also the calistemon (bottle brush) and grevilleas.

Re bonsai. They do need to be well-watered and protected from too much sun and wind. It depends on what species of 'grown up' tree your bonsai is. Remember that maples, firs, oaks, etc are grow naturally outdoors so there's no reason why the bonsai version shouldn't. Most bonsais die because people treat them like houseplants and overheat them.

In the UK I used to plant hostas in shadey/damp spots but the slugs LOVE them unfortunately.

[UndercoverGator]

Gardening is a big, big hobby of mine, good for the body and soul.

I've got a large garden in my yard here in Northern Va. Small orchard of mini fruit trees that produce every year, several grape vines, blackberry bushes, blueberry bushes, strawberry patch etc. And a couple of large flower beds. Everything came through the weather fine except my mints and soem of the other herbs have decided to morph on over into the veggie area and the strawberries want to go live in the rose garden.

The back 1/4 of the yard is in square food gardening squares. If you've never tried raising veggies that way it's a whole lot less work than the traditional way of gardening by rows. Check it out at http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ It allows you to plant and interplant so that you use less space, do less backbreaking work but get the maximum produce you can.

The thing with bonsai also is that you have to carefully trim back roots and branches occasionally to ensure that they stay minature and growing in exactly the right shape.

One of my flower beds is planted in Virginia native plants. I obtained all of the seeds and seedlings from Monticello, Thomas JEfferson's house has a big garden shop and you can order all sorts of odd things to grow. http://store.yahoo.com/monticellostore/index.html

My favorite is an antique rose bush that puts out the tinest pink blossums, the entire house smells heavenly when the windows are open because the roses are scent roses.

[A*O]

I plant my herbs in large pots and it works very well provided they get plenty of sunshine and water. I have a particularly pungent mint that goes into most of my cooking. Ditto fresh rosemary (great to chuck a few sprigs on the barbie too).

We've only lived in this house for a couple of years so I am still hacking the garden into submission but I am VERY lucky to have a huge daphne (can be very temperamental) bush next to the bedroom window which gives the most wonderful fragrance.

I don't grow much fresh produce - the markets here have it in cheap abundance - but I do grow tomatoes because there is nothing like a vine-ripened fresh tomato. I've also 'inherited' some fruit trees and the apples this year have been sensational. Not sure about the variety, I think it's Pink Lady, but they taste like my sadly-missed English Cox's Orange Pippin so I'm happy.

[UndercoverGator]

I've been in my house for 16 years now and it was slow gradual process to get the grounds the way I wanted them. Every year I'd expanded on what I've done and then some. And I try to do it organically. Does anyone else here try to avoid chemicals while gardening?

[Sojiita]

^^I can go without chemicals except for one-Round UP..I LOVE it and I use it alot !! the only way I can keep weeds in control.

[UndercoverGator]

^^I can go without chemicals except for one-Round UP..I LOVE it and I use it alot !! the only way I can keep weeds in control.

Round Up is the one I use too. But just on the poison ivy. Too bad I didn't use it harder last week before weed eating. LOL

[Glasgow53]

Darksithbunny, we have May apples in CT, one of my friends has a nice big patch of them in his yard that we are going to try and keep the squirrels out of so we can harvest the apples and try to make may apple jelly out of them. He also knows a patch down the street on public property that we can maybe get some from, too. We probably won't get much, but it is supposed to produce an amber jelly that tastes kind of tropical. We'll see.