Pass Along Plants

"Pass Along Plants"

If you don't know what a pass along plant, well I suppose I can explain it to you real quick! There are a few different examples I will tell you about, but some other folks could probably add to it.

• My personal favorite is "it came from my Granny's garden" plant. This plant is shared through family generations. The child grows up and moves into their own home... the Mother or other family member will give the gift of a plant to plant in their own garden or as a potted plant, that was special somehow in their own garden (or one previously passed down to them from another) Most of these types of plants are cherished as family heirlooms and are cared for as if they are a member of the family. God forbid that something should happen to it! (Wedding plants that are given to the newlyweds for their new home can become this "Granny" plant if chosen wisely!)
• Funeral plants hold special meaning for some and are passed down and/or divided among close friends.
• Then there is the OMG! I love that, where did you find it, and why didn't you tell me about it, plant that miraculously showed up at a friend or relatives house that you don't visit very often but share a love of plants with, and that you managed to get a piece to take home.

 My Great Granny had Bearded Iris' that absolutely filled a very large raised bed in front of her home. She had 5 daughters and of course lots grand kids and great grand kids. I think we have all had a tuber or two of her wonderful Iris' and the offspring of them will continue to get passed along.

 

I had moved to a new home in a town where my Mother lived. Had left everything behind and the only person I knew was my Mom. She had gotten the home ready for me and was there when I arrived. I was so nice to walk in and see a completely ready home including some houseplants. I still have those plants today! Now understand that houseplants tend to come and go! I covet these plants and treat them like they are my children. One of these plants was a Snake plant or mother-in-laws tongue and I am hear to tell you that these will bloom! I was so upset that a weed had somehow grown into it that I got everything ready to re-pot it (I wasn't going to pull it and leave some weed root behind!) and upon closer inspection found that my beloved plant had bloomed! 

I just got my newest OMG! plant from my soon-to be sister-in-law. We all gathered at her house for Christmas Day and as soon as I walked into the foyer I saw it! Beautiful dangling blooms like an umbrella at the top of a long stalk! I tell ya, I was doing the dance! But....... then I realized what the rest of the plant was and felt disappointment wash over me because as neat as the plant is, it is a pain in the you know what! Mother of 1000, Piggyback plant, Devil's back bone, Mexican hat and several other names, but a Kalanchoe all the same.

Oh dread, but then I saw those blooms again and figure that I didn't give it a chance back in the `80's. Me and a few other million people! I had no idea that this plant would bloom so wonderfully and I really got tired of all its millions of little babies falling off of it into everything else and growing.... yes, even in the carpet! Well, redneck that I am, I had to have it and would figure out some sort of contraceptive to keep it in line! Google after all is a world of information, LOL! That is exactly what I did as soon as I got home with my 10, 5-6 inch babies(yep, that's right, I brought t-e-n home) What? Trust me she had enough to start a farm! Anyway, I found the best contraceptive for this flowering beauty..... wipe the babies off and toss them or plant a reasonable number if you want to multiply them. Although they grow from a leaf as well, the will not bloom this way. For blooms they must grow from a plantlet.

Here is a list of common easy to pass along plants:

Iris' or other tuber plants ~ Gladiolas or other bulb plants ~ Cannas

Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter Cactus

Cane Begonia ~ Mother in law tongue

Umbrella plants ~ Shamrocks

Philodendron ~ Pothos

Spider plant ~ Violets

Peonies ~ Lilacs

Succulents

 and many more....

Politically Correct Christmas

Politically Correct Christmas Story

 From You Tube

 All Jokes aside:

I would like to wish all of my fellow Christians a very wonderful Christmas!

Let us all remember the reason for the season;

Luke 2: 1~20

Jesus Christ was born!

May we all be blessed and enjoy time with our loved ones as we celebrate this joyous day!

For everyone that celebrates this day (Dec25th) or this season for other reasons and/or beliefs:

Have a wonderful Holiday!

The Drunken Slug

The Drunken DOG Slug

Those tell-tale little silvery line tracks that show up in the garden beds, across the decks and walks,

up and down the trees and bushes, like some sort of miniature super highway, are a definite sign of slug activity and lots of it.

( The little kids think Mother Nature just made them race tracks for their HotWheels! )  

When I started noticing my beloved plants were being munched on, I didn't know what it was 

except it ain't that dang rabbit or the mice.

I got a little educated about what it was and what to do.

Slimy Little Buggers! 

Well, I'm here to tell ya that I am a cheap lazy gardener and there are lots of remedies out there for this problem. They all seem to work pretty well, But.....they have different degrees of effort as well, at the expense of ... yep, yours truely, the gardener!

We don't keep beer around as we generally only drink sociably, but it does get left here by friends and relatives. So, I figured it was fair game for killing slugs. Yep, I tried it and really didn't like the results (not in my case anyway) Here's how it went:

I dug a few cup sized holes(2) and put half way filled cups of beer into each hole. I pushed the dirt back around the cups edges (didn't need a dry moate around them) Then I waited until the next afternoon to check them. Well, I sure didn't find any drunk slugs! What I found was dead slugs in the cups and no beer. I figured they drank themselves to death. ~ LOL ~  I already knew that we had alot of slugs and that this remedy worked pretty good, soooo.... I dug about 10 holes all around the house and repeated the process, except that I filled the cups almost full of beer. I figured I would have killed more slugs if there would have been more beer. The beer was free! Again, I waited until the next afternoon to check the results. Low and behold, same as before ... dead slugs in the cups and No Beer!   Whew!  There weren't that many slugs in the cups to have consumed all that beer so maybe just maybe there were some drunk slugs making a slow get away and I could cut 'em off at the pass!  Nope, I didn't find any that were readily visible, but I did find the dogs frisbee. Our dog, Miss Bee, lives for that frisbee. She would drop a fresh steak for a chance to catch that frisbee. I knew she would be so excited to see it.....  Wrong!

When I finally found "B", she sort of crawled to me wagging her tail as she saw the frisbee and she put her head down in a submissive manner like she was in trouble.  Oh, she must have been a bad dog...  She was sorry for whatever it was and that was enough for me... I had finally found the frisbee. I assured her it was okay to play and tossed the frisbee for her.  Now it was clear what the bad dog did!   She drank the beer!   Short end of a long story... No more beer in the garden!

(she is supposed to stay out of the garden beds)

Here are some fairly cheap remedies:

• Coffee grounds and eggshells_ use like a mulch around the base of a plant about 3" wide
• Cornmeal/oatmeal_ dry, they eat it up and it swells killing them
• Yeast_this what makes the beer so attractive. 1c. water,1tsp. sugar and 1/4tsp. yeast. use it like the beer to drown them.
• Banana peels_ leave them inside part down in the garden overnight and in the morning toss the peels with slugs clinging to bottom into a bucket of soapy water or a bag tied afterward to go into the trash. 
• Board or flat rock_ they will hide under this cool damp trap. Check it ever so often and scape of the slugs into soapy water to drown, then replace the board or rock.
• Diatomaceous Earth (DE)_ it is razor sharp skeletal remains of microscopic organisms millions of years old. It cuts the slugs bodies, dehydrating them. It feels like talc powder and is harmless to you, your pets and birds. Bad for insects. DE has many garden pest uses but more on that later. Moisture renders it useless, until it dries out.
• Copper_ it has an electrostatic reaction with the slime and causes them to dry up. Not cheap and seems a hassle. you can probably use the copper out of old wiring and twist it lightly around the base of plant.  Obviously won't work for hosta but you get the idea.
• Ammonia_ this a seek and destroy method for sure! 1 part ammonia to 6 parts water( this mix won't burn the plants) Spritz it on a slug, come back in 5 min. and the slug will be dissolved.

 Obviously some of these remedies will attract ants, etc... DE works on all these insects!

So, you can try to use it along with any of the other suggestions as long as it is dry.

Good Luck!

  

PRIVET

PRIVET

The wild type that's growing everywhere (at least here in my neck of the woods) 

OMG ! 

 If you are an allergy sufferer you probably know exactly what this stuff is, and absolutely despise it's existence as much as Ragweed.

  I live in the country surrounded by woods, so there is a lot of Privet scattered along the woodline of our "yard".  We live in a log home with no AC unit. We like our windows and the nice airflow coming off the hills around us. I have never really had "allergies" but it didn't take long for the Privet to start having a really bad affect on me. What to do..... you cant' hardly kill this stuff and in such a large wild area there are runners and seedlings to no end. My first thought was kill me now! I needed a remedy that was easy, cheap and lasting.

 If you cant' beat it,  join it!

  Privet flowers on new growth and is an evergreen. It also grows fast. It likes sun so it will be leggy and not flower as much in shaded areas. Pulling it all out was impossible because roots would reshoot if left behind and trimming just seemed to speed up the growth (cut 10 branches 30 or more new ones would result)  After much trial and error I have come to embrace our Privet.

  The scraggly Privet takes longer to come back and it is located in the shaded woodline. I cut these down to the ground and the mower takes care of the new growth. For the larger and fuller ones I cut everything off leaving the thicker trunks bare and all at different heights. Yes, a 3 inch diameter trunk will sprout new growth but it is slower. We lost two very large trees in our yard that had Privet growing at their bases. We always mowed it down so we actually "forgot" it was there. The tree stumps were left behind and the Privet shot up like mad (full sun now). "Well, it hides the stumps," I thought, so I let it grow. As it all got 3' tall panic set in.

Oh, all the pollen that would produce! WHACK! off came the tops and I slid my hand down each little trunk wiping off all the little sideshoots, all the way to the ground! Now, I had bare sticks! LOL It didn't take long for shoots to sprout up on  the top all the way around it. Looked good to me, except the legs needed to be wiped clean again. Imagine topiary or a Crepe Myrle, thats what I did anyway.  Lookin' good, but I wanted them to get bigger  and thicker on those tops, so.... WHACK! straight across that new growth about 2" from its starting point. Even more shoots popped out resulting in much thicker bushier tops.

 As proud as I was about my new "friends", all this trimming was alittle much for this lazy gardener and became work I didn't want to participate in.  I finally figured out when to trim (once I got them to the size that I wanted) so there would be no blooms.  Spring would be a hard trimming to whatever shape I wanted and late summer to mid fall would be a light trim because I want it to look good for the winter. No blooms! As an evergreen this is a wonderful plant for a focal point. It sways in the wind, has nice texture, shape how you want, can be a thick or thin as you want, you decide the height (1' to 15').  For me, all the little leaf shoots that pop up on the legs slow way down or stop completely after regular wiping off. Personally, I like clean legs for visual effect and I get to under plant them with flowers. Also, by letting this plant grow, it slows down and/or stops most of the suckering from the roots. I guess its too busy feeding the larger plant. 

In the end, I now have a plant that I love and it loves me back. My "Soon-to-be" thinks it is funny to act like he is going to mow over a section of suckers that I am letting grow bigger to divide into indivdual plants for using in more desirable areas of our property. 

GO FIGURE!  

For those of you who are not bothered by the pollen.... if you want the flowers and the resulting berries you need to trim once in early spring. If it gets too big, whack it hard, every other year it will come back. It may still bloom that year if you do it early spring. I was getting rid of bloom so can't say exactly how to do that, other than it will come back!

Hopefully, if you have a Privet problem, my experience and remedy will help you to embrace it.

Good Luck!

 

 

Winter Interest Gardening

  Today my garden beds got there first real taste of "snow". Once it hit the ground it was gone in all of two hours. It was so much prettier coming down. Oh well, that's the way it goes here in my neck of the woods. Middle Tennessee, a growers paradise! So they say. The perfect zone for me... I want 'em all !  Unfortunately we can't have it all. I suppose that it's really a blessing in disguise. Could you imagine if you could grow anything and everything you truely admired in the plant world right in your own gardens? Whew, my soon-to-be husband would surely be reconsidering a few things!

 Winter interest in the garden doesn't have to consist of the typical evergreens and cool looking dead foliage. There are lots of plants that are admirable the entire winter and the ones I prefer are actually what I call 360 plants.  They look good all year long and don't require much attention other than to be gazed upon.

  My top choice for such plants are succulents. These little plants are hard to beat. They have bloom times between early spring and late fall. They don't lose all their leaves. Dry or wet (as long as they aren't in a bog type area) Heat waves and blizzards won't even make them flinch. In the winter most of them will go through a leaf color change. Plant them in a pot or in the ground, they don't care either way. Some say they can be invasive, but I say not in my area (zone 7). If they creep out of bounds just nip the ends off and throw them back into the mass or where ever else you DO want them. God forbid you mow them and spray the cuttings into the grass. They will root on top of the ground. Guess that's why some say invasive! But really, do you mow blowing the grass cuttings into the flowerbed? I don't think so. ( I told my soon-to-be that I wouldn't tell on him, ssh! )

  Try 'Angelina' (Sedum rupestre)  and 'Blue Spuce' (Sedum reflexum) for a great color combo all year. They have similar growth and texture as well. 

I mulch my Rose bed with them and some 'Red Carpet' (Sedum spurium) that is semi evergreen. It's trailing stems lose most of their leaves except the  rosette shaped tip ends. New tiny rosettes begin to form on the stems as they push the old leaves off and will completely fill out again in spring. It's nice to have those little maroon red rosettes sticking up under my bare rose bushes all winter. 

  More succulents that are hardy to well below freezing:  Ice Plant Hardy Yellow ( Delosperma nubigenum), Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum tectorum), Jovibarba (like hen and chicks), and the list goes on. Should you decide on these 360 plants look for ones that are cold hardy to -20 or lower and you won't need to get much unless you want big coverage faster. When I do buy some, I will divide the pot into several pieces and plant a hand width apart. Even though they can be fast growers they are very manageable.

 Want non succulents or more height and bright color too? Try a 'Gold Thread' false cypress( Mop Top), it is bright yellow all year with the right amount of green. Not the typical variegated plant by any means.

   If you don't mind sticks but want more impact you should try Red Twig(Cornus sericea) and Yellow Twig (Cornus stolonifera)  Dogwood, talk about impact!   

WOW !

 

 Beautyberry loses its leaves but it's arching branches are covered with lots of bright little berry bundles.

Look around this winter and find plants that look appealing to you and that you think you would like to have in your landscape. Take a picture if you can so you don't forget about this new lovely. Try to identify it so it will be easier to locate this coming Spring.

Happy Hunting!