Jenny
Angel Diva
That’s the one thing I’ve come up with so far - and a friend of mine has some that I can take from her garden, too.
Hummingbirds and butterflies would be nice.
-
Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.
Gardening
- Thread starter artistinsuburbia
- Start date
Hummingbirds and butterflies would be nice.
newboots
Angel Diva
Both great choices. For really tall, how about liatris? Or some fabulous delphiniums? (See Graceful Gardens online if you want to buy delphiniums. That liatris (gayfeather, blazing star) you can get all over the place.)
Or that blue thistley one - blue sea holly. Striking plant!
Abbi
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
And I thought the prospect of cleaning two stories of condo was more work than I wanted to contemplate! Plants look at me and die so gardens are safe from me!
Jenny
Angel Diva
and now he’s trapped in the house with you, when no one will notice his absence for a while . . .Love this thread.
Update: DH ate all the ripe blueberries from pic I posted last week in dawning chorus.
CarverJill
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I cleaned out my garden a few weeks ago and over the weekend threw some od seeds I had in the garage in the ground. Maybe something will grow. It MAY be cool enough in So Cal.
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I need cheering up. I've been looking through my garden pictures. Here are two more...
This one is of some hostas right now, after I raked, not yet up. Lancifolia hostas form lumps when mature. Note the few remaining oak leaves. This is in the large hosta bed in the back.
Here's an image of what this hosta bed looked like last summer. The curly leafed Lancifolias in the middle are the ones that form those lumps. In summer it's so different. I've got a lot to look forward to!
This one is of some hostas right now, after I raked, not yet up. Lancifolia hostas form lumps when mature. Note the few remaining oak leaves. This is in the large hosta bed in the back.
Here's an image of what this hosta bed looked like last summer. The curly leafed Lancifolias in the middle are the ones that form those lumps. In summer it's so different. I've got a lot to look forward to!
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
All the plants are hostas except for the yellow Japanese forest grass down front, and the irises.
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh, you wanted to know what that big hosta is. Sieboldiana Elegans. This is a species hosta, thus fertile. They flower early, first in my garden among the hostas, on stiff scapes, so I get to look at their scapes with seeds all season long.
Of the fertile hostas I have, these are the last to drop their seeds. Their scapes are still vertical until the very end, in August. The seeds drop very late, as the leaves fade. Don't cut them off. (I cut the scapes off infertile hostas when the blooms are done, but not these.) You can collect the seeds and keep them in the refridge, then pot them up in the winter. I let them drop, and find them later in the garden. There are enough babies to not worry about losing some. Free hostas.
Babies come up true to form. Elegans is a big blue plant that forms a dome, very showy. The blue leaves are huge, bigger than my full hand with fingers extended. They will lose some of their wax late in summer in New England if you plant them in 4-6 hours of direct sun. They don't burn though. You can put them in ambient light with no detrimental results at all. They also do well in full shade. Versatile!
Last edited:
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
More images of this hosta Sieboldiana Elegans. I have a bunch because I've split them frequently. Oh, and the seedlings do grow up eventually. Splitting is much faster to increase the number of plants, though.
Jenny
Angel Diva
I finally split mine (whatever it is) last year. It gets so big that I couldn't bear to do it before, even though I know that's ridiculous!
Is there a way to tell if a hosta is fertile or not? If mine is this same kind then I might play around with the seeds, too, just for fun.
Is there a way to tell if a hosta is fertile or not? If mine is this same kind then I might play around with the seeds, too, just for fun.
liquidfeet
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@Jenny, fertile hostas make seed pods with seeds in them. Here is a hosta with fertile seed pods.
Here are some fertile pods up close. Not every flower produces a big fat seed pod full of seeds on these varieties. But enough do. They make more babies than any other hosta, and I have to pry them out of the grass and the surrounding beds of other plants. I don't know what the parent plant cultivar is for these. I wish I had kept the info. The parent plants have a yellowish-cream colored rim, but the babies are all green. That's the way it goes: two colors on the parent plant's leaves but the seedlings will be green. Unless the seeds have mutated. Which they sometimes do, or we wouldn't have so many different types of hostas.
Here's a photo of another set of hosta blossoms. These have infertile seed pods. Well, actually, there aren't any seed pods at all. Just spent blossoms. Most hostas bloom and don't produce seeds.
Here are the scapes after all the blossoms fall off. No pods there, just little leaflet thingies where the blossoms once were. It's time to cut these scapes off.
Most hostas are infertile. Something about the hybridization process produces nice leaves and OK flowers but no pods and no seeds. Leave the scapes up after the blossoms are done to really see whether there are pods with seeds or not. Many hosta growers cut the scapes with flowers off as soon as they appear and never know whether their hostas are fertile or not. I used to do that when I didn't have many hostas -- the flowers were messy looking. I still do cut away some of the flower scapes, but most of them I leave up now that the garden has matured. One hosta with weak flowers looks sad; it needs to go. A cluster of 30 identical hostas with tons of the same flowers looks great.
Here are some fertile pods up close. Not every flower produces a big fat seed pod full of seeds on these varieties. But enough do. They make more babies than any other hosta, and I have to pry them out of the grass and the surrounding beds of other plants. I don't know what the parent plant cultivar is for these. I wish I had kept the info. The parent plants have a yellowish-cream colored rim, but the babies are all green. That's the way it goes: two colors on the parent plant's leaves but the seedlings will be green. Unless the seeds have mutated. Which they sometimes do, or we wouldn't have so many different types of hostas.
Here's a photo of another set of hosta blossoms. These have infertile seed pods. Well, actually, there aren't any seed pods at all. Just spent blossoms. Most hostas bloom and don't produce seeds.
Here are the scapes after all the blossoms fall off. No pods there, just little leaflet thingies where the blossoms once were. It's time to cut these scapes off.
Most hostas are infertile. Something about the hybridization process produces nice leaves and OK flowers but no pods and no seeds. Leave the scapes up after the blossoms are done to really see whether there are pods with seeds or not. Many hosta growers cut the scapes with flowers off as soon as they appear and never know whether their hostas are fertile or not. I used to do that when I didn't have many hostas -- the flowers were messy looking. I still do cut away some of the flower scapes, but most of them I leave up now that the garden has matured. One hosta with weak flowers looks sad; it needs to go. A cluster of 30 identical hostas with tons of the same flowers looks great.
Last edited:
