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You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat

Sunday Morning Garden Chat

by | 53 Comments

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From commentor Gravie:

This pretty thing greeted me yesterday when I walked out the door.

Is that a ‘rose of sharon‘ (hibiscus syriacus)?
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From commentor Linkmeister:

These are agapanthas. There are supposed to be six white and six blue ones in that planter, but the blue ones haven’t bloomed in a coon’s age. In this shot there are five white ones in bloom and two more about to do so. I don’t know if they’d grow outside the tropics, but they’re beautiful flowers when they bloom.

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What’s going on in your gardens this week?

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    Marcellus Shale, Public Dick

    thanks for the post. always good to start the day with the online version of modern maturity.

    this place is so aarp, it doesn’t even know it.

  2. 2.

    Origuy

    Agapanthus do well in the San Jose area. So well, in fact, that our gardeners cut them back regularly and divide them because they get too big.

  3. 3.

    evap

    My garden is 5000 miles away, and I hope my daughter remembered to water it and pick the veggies!

    I love agapanthus, it’s one of my favorite plants. It looks great even when not in bloom. I have grown it successfully in a pot on the front deck in Atlanta, it survived temps in the 20s but was eventually killed by severe cold (for Atlanta) a few years ago. It was in the teens (Fahrenheit) for a couple of days. I should have covered it, or brought it inside.

  4. 4.

    Kathi

    That pretty pink flower in the first pic is a native hibiscus and their flowers are quite a bit bigger than those of the rose of sharon.

  5. 5.

    Jack Canuck

    I’ve got agapanthas in my front yard near Melbourne, and that’s well out of the tropics. They do very well here, even with the occasional below-freezing night.

  9. 9.

    ErinSiobhan

    Drought is going on in my garden this month. A combination of record breaking high temperatures and almost no rainfall this summer have left our garden looking stressed. The drought conditions have affected our well so we can’t properly water the whole garden. Selective watering has kept most of the plants alive but nothing is thriving.

  10. 10.

    passerby

    Well, after a full day of flooding rain on Friday here in old New Orleans, I harvested 3 crack-busted creole tomatoes and some fat cukes.

    Finally the eggplant fruits have started.

    And totally off topic, for those who are awake to read this, at 8:00 am central time, the city is imploding an old hotel. Once upon a time when I was 22 years old, I had an apartment there. Here’s a link to live video:

    nola.com/live/video/index.ssf?sprout

    The land is needed for a new boondoggle medical center expansion. The adjacent I-10 is shut down for the event.

    But anyway, whoohoo–explosion! Enjoy.

  11. 11.

    geg6

    OT, the Paterno statue outside Beaver Stadium is coming down as I type. This is a good thing and made my morning.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    @geg6

    Wait a goldang minute.

    Not a sports person at all (can barely distinguish among them).

    Sandusky and Paterno labored at Beaver Stadium?

    O tempora, O mores! (citation)

  14. 14.

    Raven

    We were in the grip of the drought when we left for Maui and then it rained almost every day while we were gone and since we have been back.

  16. 16.

    gelfling545

    I am amazed that people grow rose of sharon on purpose and that some even PAY for it. I have been trying to rid my garden of it for 35 years where it is a noxious weed seeding in every nook & cranny and even growing up through the pavement. About 20 years ago my neighbor actually poured gasoline on the one she had been trying to kill in her yard for years and set it on fire. It was back the next year.

    My garden is looking a bit better better after we finally got some real rain and the tomatoes have decided that they will set fruit after all. My absolute favorite nursery (which grows plants for many of the other so-called nurseries in the area) has their end of season sale going on so I now own an autumn fern, 2 hydrangeas, an echinacea “Southern Belle” and miscellaneous sedums all of which need to be placed today so I’d better get off the computer and into the yard.

  18. 18.

    Betsy

    I think thatmeans the white agapanthus is more vigorous than the blue and is out-competing it in that space. The blue might bloom if you can locate it where it has a good supply of nutrients and water of its own (less competition). This is what is really happening when people say “I planted a mix of glads and they all turned pink after a few years.”

    Is that hibiscus maybe a marsh mallow?

  19. 19.

    gelfling545

    WereBear: My pansies are usually in the trash by July 1 every year when the summer heat sets in but oddly this year with so much heat so early the enormous bowl of pansies my sister gave me at Easter is still blooming madly on my front step. How to explain? No idea.

  20. 20.

    Poopyman

    @NotMax: FWIW, here’s President Erickson’s entire press release.

    James Beaver was a regiment commander thrice wounded during the Civil War, later serving as PA Governor for multiple terms, then served on the state Supreme Court. In the middle of all that he served on the Board of Trustees. There are LOTS of buildings dedicated to one Beaver or another throughout the system.

  21. 21.

    Poopyman

    @jeffreyw: Did you put the background behind it, or is that a happy accident. (Not likely an accident, knowing your skills.)

    Also too, @gelfling545: This. It’s a fricking weed here in MD.

  23. 23.

    kay

    I’ve been sort of triaging to keep everything alive w/ no rain. I water the veg garden and two decidious (young) trees often and the newer perennials. I plant drought resistant annual flowers anyway, so they’re surviving w/ out additional water.

    I already lost a baby white pine because it just burnt to a crisp when we were away for four days. Pines don’t do well here anyway, they like a more acidic soil but I love how they look so I wanted one. Bad year to try a tree that doesn’t really belong here. I got it from a “Tree City USA” fundraiser and it was only 5 bucks, just a bareroot whip, but it was doing great prior to massive heat wave so I was still sorry to lose it.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    @Raven

    Heh.

    Actually, for about the past month, have been battling with the worst insomnia I’ve ever encountered.

    Grab an hour, maybe 2, of snoozing and then pop awake. If lucky, can get in another hour or two later on during the night. A mid-day siesta (usually an hour) helps, too. Maybe once a week, essentially crash and sleep through for 8 or 10 hours.

    Coming to the conclusion that this may just be the way it is from now on.

    Have never, ever been a morning person, so the late night part of the equation doesn’t bother me at all.

  33. 33.

    muddy

    @Raven: He’s named for the character on Lost, on account of being blond with black whiskers. Also he is from Georgia (pulled from a kill shelter).

  34. 34.

    jnfr

    Harvested my first peppers yesterday, four Anaheims and two Poblanos. Looking good. Have baby tomatoes and eggplants, but no harvest yet. Basil’s trying to bolt. The heat has been hellish here in Colorado.

    I had to pull out the Sun Gold tomato; it was showing signs of blight. Hadn’t spread to any others yet, so I may have dodged a bullet there.

  37. 37.

    muddy

    @jnfr: Thanks, it’s jam packed. Peas, arugula, spinach gone by. Now multi different varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumber/squash/melon/pumpkins. Hard neck garlic, beets, white icicle radishes, celeriac, beans (bush and pole), broccoli, and then potatoes (all-blue, all-red, peruvian purple, rosy fingerlings) in the pots. They have died back so I need to dump them out on a tarp and put the tiny ones back in for a second try. The asparagus, strawberries, black currants and rhubarb are in the old garden patch.

  38. 38.

    Kristine

    Parts of NE Illinois finally received a good, pounding rain last week–I think my area received a couple of inches. It was worth dealing with my big puppy’s fear of thunder at 330am and the subsequent bleary-eyed workday. The cracks in the ground haven’t closed up all the way, and according to the drought index, we are still 9-15 inches behind for the year. But things have greened up and perked up. I may get some decent tomatoes this season after all.

    I bought a rain gauge yesterday. Optimistic, me.

    I have a Rose of Sharon tree, fwiw. I like it. Pretty pink flowers–they attract bees and hummingbirds.

  40. 40.

    Beth

    Agapanthus is a very drought tolerant and incredibly hardy plant, that stores water in large underground roots. It is planted by nearly every suburbanite in the SF area, and does very well in Mediterranean climates. It is a totally sure thing, and will even do fine in road dividers and other tough spots. Also, it looks neat and attractive year round. I have never seen an agapanthus that looked less than perfect, no matter the weather or growing conditions. Totally bulletproof.

    Its only drawback is that snails love to use it as a hideout.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @jnfr: Uh, oh. What is blight? I have 3 sun golds — in separate pots — and one all of a sudden looked like crap. Leaves turned yellow, branches got spindly, all it was doing was keeping the not quite ripe little tomatoes alive.

    Yesterday I harvested most of the tomatoes and cut off nearly all the unhappy branches. Should I just give it up completely?

    The other two look fine, just a couple of feet from the first one. Do I need to worry about them, too?

    Edit: I googled blight, and I don’t think that’s what it had. But all my other questions still stand, if anybody here knows more than I do about this. (which is not difficult!)

  44. 44.

    mainmati

    For some flowering plants that can come in different colors, the actual color depends upon the soil chemistry, especially pH. I don’t, know if this applies to agapanthus or not but if you’re not getting blue it may be because of that.

  45. 45.

    mainmati

    For some flowering plants that can come in different colors, the actual color depends upon the soil chemistry, especially pH. I don’t, know if this applies to agapanthus or not but if you’re not getting blue it may be because of that.

  46. 46.

    Beth

    @mainmati: @mainmati: Probably not, because I frequently see beds of blue agapanthus with a white flower or two peeking out. It seems to be a reversion or common mutation. The color contrast is stark between one plant and the next, and they are all growing with intertwined (large) roots.

    @tamiedjr: I had no idea that agapanthus could brave such cold–wow! Of course, one great thing about them here is that they stay green during our looooong dry season. You have many more lush green plants to choose from during your growing season.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    Cute! When we were in Oak Park/River Forest (IL) last week, a doe ran across the road into the forest preserve with her two (!) fawns in tow.

    Los Angeles is a fairly odd city to live in because the various hills and mountains mean that wilderness areas are surrounded by urban areas, so you see things like deer coming down from the hills to eat the flower arrangements people leave at Forest Lawn cemetery.

  48. 48.

    Mart

    The deer stomped down our fence and pretty much ate everything but the basil. I would be mad but it has consistently been over 100 degrees and there has been no rain for seven weeks, so suppose they are desperate. Plan on building a serious structure this winter, but not sure how to deal with the petty asses in the neighborhood “architectural” committee. Plan on building it and seeing if they come.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @Mart:

    Plan on building it and seeing if they come.

    If you build it, they will come.

    Oh, wait, that’s supposed to be a good thing. So maybe that doesn’t apply. :-)

  50. 50.

    jnfr

    @WaterGirl:

    I didn’t see any of the classic brown juices form of blight, so I may be using the wrong term. Sungolds are apparently more susceptible than most tomatoes. Mine was yellowing and just not thriving. I tried cutting off the affected leaves and parts, but it kept spreading. So I sacrificed it to keep whatever was happening from spreading. All the rest look good.

    If you cut off the bad parts but it returns then you probably have some kind of disease or virus in it, and might want to sacrifice as well.

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mart:

    If you really think getting approval for a fence would be a pain in the ass, you could try planting some of deer-resistant plants (especially lavender) around your garden as a “fence.”

    But if the deer have been as bad as you say this summer, you might get less resistance that you might have otherwise because I’m sure at least a few people on the committee have lost their gardens to ravening deer.

  52. 52.

    gravie

    I have the weed version of Rose of Sharon in my backyard — it’s more like a big old bush and it spreads like crazy. The one in my front yard is a small, self-contained plant that produces about two weeks’ worth of glorious big flowers and then essentially goes dormant until the next year. I think it’s a thing of beauty.

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