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Welcome to The Plant Thread, DIY's horticultural haven for plant nerds of all stripes. What is horticulture? In short, horticultural is loving around with plants in all the ways that they can be hosed with, a unique combination of hard science and aesthetic philosophy. Whether you're planning a farm, converting your lawn to home gardens, tending to a windowsill succulent collection, or even planting a single tree, the principles behind what you're doing right (or wrong) are rooted in horticulture.  What's the difference between this thread and the gardening thread? Our counterparts and arch-rivals in the gardening thread mainly post about production-centric home gardening, where they want to get the maximum number of strange Thai chilis that they can yield from the grow light set up in their parents' basement.  This thread is much broader in scope and entertains pretty much any conceivable plant question, but with a heavy focus on the ornamental qualities of plants, both indoors and outside. Did you buy an overpriced succulent off of tittycactus69 on Etsy and it's immediately dying? Did you plant a dogwood in a mud pit in the middle of August and now it's not looking so hot? Are you curious why the agave you left outside during a freeze exploded? Ask away!    Sounds like a lot can go wrong! Taking care of plants sounds hard. I am scare You're absolutely right my cowardly friend, much can go wrong. Plants are living things and each has their own particular needs and wants. If these needs are denied, the plant will politely let you know of your error by rapid death. I think one of the biggest hurdles to overcome in the beginning of the hobby is the immutable fact that plants die and they die a lot. But plants are also replaceable and you can learn from your errors, which makes your successes and triumphs all the sweeter.  Well if they die all the time, why should I grow plants at all? I can't speak for anyone but for me, I enjoy making the world a slightly less lovely place to experience. There are only a couple dozen plants that comprise like 90% of the landscaping that we see on a daily basis; people get burned out on them. I like to see people walk through neighborhoods and stop to admire an apricot (Prunus mume) blooming in the middle of January, stop in awe at the red-as-murder fall color of an American smoketree (Cotinus obovatus), or reach out to touch a tiny, delicate puffball of a fothergilla.     Weird plants make the world more exciting and contribute to restoring our broken ecosystems as well, help migratory birds find food, provide shelter for nesting animals, and restore a habitat for our increasingly plagued bug buddies. I love to watch assassin bugs creep through leaves to pulverize some poor dumbass grasshopper while bees gather their pollen and butterflies drink their nectar just inches away.    Who gives a poo poo about that? I don’t have a yard! Lol well hold on to your butts. Indoor gardening is one of the most popular fads that has arisen from the pandemic. Windowsills around the country are packed to the brim with rare and unusual plants, and grow setups in basements are increasingly filled with plants other than weed. I can go on a brief walk in my neighborhood and see bromeliads, giant monsteras, cacti, succulents, and palms, all safely tucked behind windows. It’s amazing to me to see such a diversity of life, plants from literally every corner of the globe tucked into cute pots in someone’s kitchen. These are some of the most beautiful and subtle plants in the world, sometimes it can even be difficult to describe them     This is a great thread for succulent chat with some very smart posters btw, so please ask away when you overwatered and totally owned that jade plant There's something magical in contributing to this little plant renaissance. It's so fun to have the knowledge to look around you and recognize exactly what you're looking upon, to know all the names of the plants in your yard and just be gobsmacked at the diversity of life that's contained merely on your street. That’s the real beauty of learning about horticulture 
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Dec 15, 2020 12:36
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Legit wish there was a way to legally kill deer inside city limits
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Dec 23, 2020 13:07
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I chased around 15 out of the back yesterday. They’ve bitten the tips of poo poo that they’re not even supposed to eat, like rhododendron and magnolias. They’ve even hosed up one of the beautiful buds of the edgeworthia. So frustrating, I wish they’d decide to snack on the foxglove or lily of the valley, such fuckers
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Dec 23, 2020 13:50
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Even the Cladrastis kentukea got bit on one of the ends and it’s a fuckin foot tall twig lmao
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Dec 23, 2020 14:07
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It’s a town ordinance against firing guns/ hunting in general, also im double hosed bc I live directly beside an elementary school lol And yeah I need to get fencing up around the more precious saplings, that’s a next week plan, I used to use the liquid fence but ran out and haven’t made it back to the tractor supply to restock, but I thought it worked well
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Dec 23, 2020 14:17
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Ok Comboomer posted:A town ordinance against "hunting in general"? That can't be a thing. So like, say you hypothetically walked up to a deer in your yard and just started biting it until it died. No traps, no potential public endangerment, no violation of protected habitat, just the platonic ideal scenario of you and a deer, in your yard, in mortal congress. You could be arrested for that? Pretty much, it’s a functional ban on hunting since you can’t legally trap deer or discharge a projectile within 100 yards of any structure, much less a school. Cities and towns in NC can opt in to allow bow hunting in urban areas during a special season but this isn’t one of those. Also a deer would definitely triumph in hand to horn 1v1 combat against a goon
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Dec 23, 2020 21:36
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serpentcrown posted:Does anyone have any experience with gardenias as indoor plants? I got one for Christmas. It didn't come with any species or variety information, so I assume it is just whatever is commonly used in the nursery trade. It's fairly bushy and in a 12" pot at the moment. It's in a sunny window. I mostly want to keep it alive so that the buds open. I imagine that I'll take it outside in the summer. I'm in coastal BC (Zone 7?) if it matters. It would be way happier if you could plant it outside in the ground, they can hang in zone 7b. If that’s not an option or if it’s colder than that, just give it as much light as you can during winter and get it outside come spring, then take it back in during fall. If you decide to repot be very nice and gentle to it and don’t do it again for like a year Yoruichi posted:Does anyone know what these are and what they want? I was given them by some friends who were moving house and didn't want them. Currently they are just sitting on my lawn. I would like for them to not die. Some wild rear end totally yellow or totally dying Crassula. I kid those look dope. What zone are you in? Oil of Paris fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Dec 29, 2020 |
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Dec 29, 2020 03:49
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Yeah put it in the garage as long as there’s a little bit of light, that will get it cold enough for it to realize it needs to chill out for awhile. Much safer than zone 4 outside @__@ I also had a dream last night I had an actually good set of pruning shears and they were badass, maybe I’ll buy a late Xmas present
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Jan 8, 2021 11:28
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Lol at that dog and its insatiable lust for the forbidden fruit Earth posted:Also good to know. Does that work with some perennial flowers that need overwintering in the lower zones? Like dahlias for example? I don't want to bring them into the house, but I could bring them into the garage. Yes exactly, you just dig up the bulbs after the first frost and store them in a cool, dry area where they won’t mold, plant next spring
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Jan 11, 2021 11:57
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Starting to get real antsy for spring. Winter has been harsh on the garden and there’s been lots of deer and critter pressure this year (American smoke tree probably dead bc something moved a bunch of big rocks just to dig it up and I was out of town for the weekend, so who knows how long the roots were exposed to air). can’t even spray because it rains like every other day. My gardening boner withereth. Thus, I spent a couple hundred on wire fence for next winter >:] Looking forward to going to this in a couple weeks: http://www.pineknotfarms.com/upcoming-events/ If there’s one thing those deer motherfuckers have left alone it’s been the hellebores and the ferns, so I’m about to Load Up for the shade garden, hopefully grab some galanthus too Plant Delights open house is around the corner too and that’ll be fun; they’ve got some cool new poo poo at *somewhat* decent prices for once, like a badass tree dahlia (Dahlia imperialis) that will work out perfectly for the front garden, which doesn’t get owned by wildlife on the reg
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Feb 4, 2021 13:02
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Oh hell yeah, the sikokianum? I wanted two of the regular kind but they’re already sold out smfh The greenhouses are indeed a trip and the gardens are out of this world, just the weirdest plants you can imagine all crammed in with each other. it’s legit pretty amazing Forgot to respond to you about pine knot farm. this will be my first trip to this little event and my first purchase with them, but they’ve come highly recommended by very serious plant people. their prices are incredibly low for hellebores so I say go for it, I can’t imagine that you’d get low quality product  At this point I’m just being mocked Oil of Paris fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Feb 5, 2021 |
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Feb 5, 2021 00:05
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If you're just trying to do a graft, it's pretty simple in practice, here's a very short video but there's much more detailed stuff out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUusOkwM0jM Considering the size of the plant and the fact that it looks like you've got some dormant buds there, so you could also just do some notching and encourage those buds to become new branches, pretty simple: https://www.ediblebackyard.co.nz/branching-out/ You keep this thing outside and in good light during the growing season, right?
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Feb 10, 2021 12:01
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Yeah I figured it was growing somewhere with hosed up light given the direction of the branches. That setup sounds fine, morning full sun and then afternoon shade would be ideal of course but that's not always possible. Probably wouldn't hurt to repot into something bigger as well, would help with thickening up the trunk
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Feb 10, 2021 12:41
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If it was me I’d just stick to one or the other considering how small it is but someone else who does more grafting might have a more expert opinion. I would be worried about doing too many cuts and inadvertently girdling it
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Feb 10, 2021 22:06
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I think I’m going to go insane soon if this endless loving rain doesn’t stop
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Feb 27, 2021 04:32
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I bought 18 hellebores (for cheap!) two cyclamen, an epimedium, and a trillium at the hellebore festival, total only like $100. Smaller than I thought it would be but got to talk to the owner for awhile. BUT bc the weather has been so heinous down here almost nothing in the gardens was blooming so no baller pics unfortunately. Incredible prices though, I’d recommend both Pine Knot and Edgewood; he’s up in PA, big cyclamen and snow drop guy, very friendly, good prices on trillium and cyclamen, also he’ll sell you one of the rarest snow drops on earth for a cool $175 a bulb hahah
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Feb 27, 2021 04:37
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 Better days....
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Feb 27, 2021 04:46
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Wallet posted:poo poo, $100 for 18 hellebores on its own would be a great deal. Plant Delights just sent out their catalogue with some Cypripedium (ladyslippers) in it that make my wallet hurt just looking at them. Hell yeah, those little labels look awesome. I had a greedy dream to build a rock garden in front of property where it gets full sun from dusk until dawn, but of course that plan fell victim to the rain. Now I’m instead fantasizing about turning this lovely little deck we never use into a sunroom >:] I’m not sure I could ever buy one of those lady slippers, talk about high stakes for it to live and also explaining to wife “yes, this single plants was 120 bucks”
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Mar 2, 2021 11:34
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wallet, I think I’m going to risk it and put down a bunch of permatill and pine bark into mounds out front, I think that’s the best way to defray drainage issue: by keeping them as far from the real ground as possible lol. Permatill is insanely expensive so I’m going to try to negotiate with the guy or something first lol I would love to grow some of these hardy succulents and cacti outside. We’re like right on the tip of the margin to do a lot of them well, but it’s allllll about the winter drainage
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Mar 3, 2021 04:42
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Nosre posted:Anyone done big Dahlias in pots? I've had smaller ones that have been pretty successful, but my girl wants to try these: https://www.farmergracy.co.uk/products/dahlia-cafe-au-lait-tubers-uk Bigger the better. I think they’d do fine in pots but they make a beefy root system. Mine are pretty crowded in the garden between some woody shrubs and so can’t expand too much. I think as long as you gave the roots some room to fill out and fertilized you’d be good to go
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Mar 3, 2021 04:44
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Ok Comboomer posted:I really wish the trend of gluing fake flowers on cacti would die out already what in the world, I have not seen this before. Buy a cactus, get a free cat toy lol. Trashy Wallet posted:Do you have clay soil? Hell yeah it's clay for days here: that ubiquitous, ultra-compacted Carolina red. Getting good drainage for anything is a constant issue, much less these temperamental succulents
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Mar 4, 2021 13:10
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I've got sandy loam so I didn't have to go super hard on expensive amendments but it's also quite a bit colder here I think than where you are. I went with pea gravel instead of bark and I didn't do any major mounding but I don't think that would work very well in clay. For the price, especially if you're doing mounds, I'd be tempted to just mix (fine) pine bark and gravel together instead of loving around with permatill.
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Just had to drag everything back inside for this last freeze, hope all the buds on everything outside keep it locked down!! Looking forward to posting a big rear end spring update soon, we’ve got a bunch of poo poo that’s putting out blooms in the garden and I just scored 15 MYSTERY PLANTS for dirt cheap at the NCSU horticulture frat fundraiser, pickup in a couple weeks This winter has been some endless bullshit, it’s so nice to see everything start to pop back to life, especially some plants that I thought had bit the dust (looking at you, trillium) Edit: was inspired by wallets spreadsheet ans started cataloging all of the plants we’ve put in the ground. Lmao, not ready to come to terms with how many that actually turned out to be Oil of Paris fucked around with this message at 04:06 on Mar 20, 2021 |
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Mar 20, 2021 04:02
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Looks like I’m around 190 unique taxa planted, many in multiples and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few lol
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Mar 26, 2021 01:00
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treat posted:Get hyphed My brother saw all of our nodding fritillarias blooming a couple years back and said “why the gently caress you have all these emo flowers?” and I’ve never been able to think of them by another name since
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Mar 26, 2021 01:10
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There’s some nice native wisteria, especially the cultivar amethyst falls, much less vigorous and easy to control
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Mar 26, 2021 02:59
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I think they might play well together on the same trellis. The native one is really pretty and blooms later in summer and not mid-spring like the exotic wisteria. Some friends have the native one and I can’t remember if it is fragrant or not but it does have really pretty flowers. Very fragrant, and yeah it’d be a nice combo, as soon as the Asian wisteria is done blooming the native one would shortly thereafter kick off I’m also with platystemon though; there’s a ton of other vines that would be a beautiful complement, especially in the Bay Area. Always jealous of no freeze climates hah If you want something native, dramatic, and also have room for an aggressive climber, I recommend passionflower (passiflora incarnata) bc it looks like something you’d find on an alien world 
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Mar 26, 2021 11:00
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Platystemon posted:If anyone is getting Apios americana, get an LSU variety. Louisiana State University had a program to breed the things to produce larger tubers. Funding was cut, but not before progress had been made. The fate of many a great plant
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Mar 27, 2021 00:11
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Ahhh poo poo yall, was drunkenly wandering the gardens and came upon two unlikely shoots, definitely thought they were dead from epic neglect but they made it. This is gonna look so cool in a couple years !!! https://www.plantdelights.com/collections/new-plants-added-march-26-2021/products/disporum-smilacinum-aureovariegata
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Mar 27, 2021 03:39
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Idk who cares or who is close by JC Raulston Arboretum is having a big rear end plant sale next month. I big time doubt they ship but I’ll keep you guys informed. These sales are very much in the philosophy of the arboretum: find the prettiest and weirdest poo poo on earth and bring it back for rigorous testing  If you guys really want something from the list I will aid you. Just let me know best way. I’ll try to help but The Best Way is to join, which gets you entry to weird poo poo like this but also the epic plant giveaway And yeah, I’m plugging for my boys hard, idgaf. This channel kept me sane thru Covid and has drat near inspired me to do some side hustle S a garden consultant. These lads have the best plant channel on the web imo. Not even gonna embed a link. Do it yourself your lazy piece of hahah
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Mar 27, 2021 03:54
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Last post but in times like these I really respect the raulston arboretum in their desire to just get plants out there. Sell them for cheap, give them away, gently caress it, let’s do our members right. That’s very cool to me in this increasingly lovely world and I hope you guys keep them on your radar bc they’re always up to some wild poo poo (and I’ve learned the vast amount of my plant knowledge from their YouTube lol)
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Mar 27, 2021 03:59
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Extra row of tits posted:
Old but drat at $50 on a single rose @__@
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Apr 3, 2021 13:41
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Red buckeyes are fine but mine at home drops it’s leaves august 1st at latest and has grown incredibly slowly. My bottlebrush buckeye OTOH has grown really fast and makes way more flowers and blooms later in summer (late may/ June) when all the spring flowers are done and it stands out a bit more. It’s 3? years old and already has some little volunteers under it I need to pot up and move. Mine is popping out right now along with the painted buckeye, rather slow growing but has still put on some significant height since last season. I feel like bottlebrushes are just overall a more vigorous plant
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Apr 3, 2021 13:44
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Ok Comboomer posted:I don’t know how Terrain manages to charge rich wine moms like $250 for $9 in plants and $10 in arranging but they’ve built a whole business on it just found what I think is the cultivar, Rosa chinensis 'Viridiflora' , and you can get the actual plant for a cool 6 bucks lol Edit: eh I don’t think that’s the cultivar but probably a parent, that’s what I get for scrolling too quickly on phone search. rose hybrids are too complicated for me hah Oil of Paris fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Apr 3, 2021 |
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Apr 3, 2021 15:18
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Ahhhhshit the freeze last night hosed up some of the new growth on the osmanthus fragrans... this world is so corrupt
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Apr 3, 2021 16:42
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Wallet posted:I spent an hour this morning checking everything out because I was worried I was going to find a bunch of burned plants and dead buds but everything seems.. fine? Not so much here, a great deal of new growth was owned. I don’t feel too badly about any of it though, it was just the new flush and imo they were getting greedy sending it out. Gotta bud that poo poo up, smfh
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Apr 3, 2021 22:20
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Hah I forget how far north you are, our daffodils have already been spent for about a week now and are down to just foliage. Hell yeah on the new bed! Let ‘er rip
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Apr 3, 2021 23:15
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you ate my cat posted:I have a spider plant that is heavily lopsided I don’t really mind the growth habit of that thing but if it’s bugging you I would just divide it into like four separate plants since it’s so drat huge. Keep the best and give the others away/put them in new spots
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Apr 4, 2021 21:02
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Extra row of tits posted:Its $50 in our foolish foreign currency Hell yeah, glad you got a refund!! I won’t dare shame for buying expensive plants, I just tend to like mine alive lol
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Apr 7, 2021 01:26
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Extra row of tits posted:I had been wondering about this, I love mint, the smell is easily one of my favorites. I keep a small one by by bed for the scent. The plant I have in my garden I cut back severely but as you said, and I have literally remarked to my partner, it seems to be attempting world domination! There are some replacements you could get that would capture much of the scent but not quite same the insane invasiveness. Catmint (nepeta) is an excellent plant (WILL STILL GET V BIG), pollinators love it and makes a big rear end beautiful minty bush that will mercifully die to ground every winter. It will still spread nicely via rhizomes so you’ll have plenty to give your friends. “Walkers low” is the go to cultivar but there are plenty of others that don’t get so fuckin big
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Apr 7, 2021 01:31
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Ok Comboomer posted:if you get a monstera they can fight My only beef with your love of monstera is that at least for me it became a painfully big indoor plant. My wife ultimately made me take it outside one year where it got even bigger and then promptly died to the pot when I forgot about it during winter. I ended up giving it away next spring in a “maybe it lives and you like it?” style handoff and well He Is Risen. Will post pics when I get back to an actual computer. Tough, baller plants with great aesthetic appeal but you’ve gotta have the room
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Apr 7, 2021 01:47
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