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What type of plants are you interested in growing? This poll is closed. |
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| Perennials! |
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142 | 20.91% |
| Annuals! |
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30 | 4.42% |
| Woody plants! |
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62 | 9.13% |
| Succulent plants! |
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171 | 25.18% |
| Tropical plants! |
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60 | 8.84% |
| Non-vascular plants are the best! |
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31 | 4.57% |
| Screw you, I'd rather eat them! |
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183 | 26.95% |
| Total: | 679 votes | ||
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Poorly pruned crape myrtles, the fake jewelry of the plant world.
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May 3, 2018 20:30
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I've got a few. Nandina: It spreads like bamboo (because it basically is) and crowds out anything planted next to them unless you are very aggressive with your pruning while not doing anything for the local ecology because the berries are toxic to pretty much anything. They can look nice if pruned well (and can have some attractive color) but they're a total "I don't know what to plant in this shady spot around the house and I don't feel like doing any maintenance". Hostas: I actually love a good hosta, but they are another extremely predictable plant that does *just* well enough without any maintenance that people plant them and forget about it. Ivy ground cover: Bad memories as a kid of having a house with a big ivy section in the yard that was basically useless for playing in  I think I basically hate lazy shade gardens. Plant a fern or something, people! Fitzy Fitz posted:Poorly pruned crape myrtles, the fake jewelry of the plant world. Extra points if there's a mulch volcano at the bottom
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May 3, 2018 21:10
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Hubis posted:I think I basically hate lazy shade gardens. Plant a fern or something, people! Sincerely, Someone who grew up with a yard rendered no fun for playing in thanks to ivy and ferns 
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May 3, 2018 22:18
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Poorly pruned crape myrtles, the fake jewelry of the plant world. Also this. It's the time of year now where everywhere I drive I see butchered crepe myrtles everywhere, looking like a handful of big sticks stuck in the ground.
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May 4, 2018 00:58
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kedo posted:Also this. It's the time of year now where everywhere I drive I see butchered crepe myrtles everywhere, looking like a handful of big sticks stuck in the ground. My grandma calls it Crape Murder, maybe this is a thing. I can't help but say it out loud whenever I see it.
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May 4, 2018 01:10
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I think everyone with a nose hates the bradford pear, or as we call it, 'the cum tree' my mom cut me some lilac off of one of her bushes and oh my god it made our apartment smell amazing for several days  I made a simple lilac syrup, tossed some in with cold-brewing tea, and my rats enjoyed monching the flowers, too. I wish we could have a small yard for nice plants like that.
snoo fucked around with this message at 04:32 on May 4, 2018 |
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May 4, 2018 04:29
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Just noticed that the lawn of my rental is being invaded by mint and some other low flowering plant. Lots of pretty blue/purple flowers.
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May 4, 2018 12:04
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Those are wood violets, and you can actually eat the leaves and flowers of those when they're young and tender. My most hated plant- English Ivy. I've always thought it was boring and unimaginative, but grown into the hate since moving to Virginia, where once planted it becomes incredibly invasive, chokes out trees, and apparently is the favorite nesting site for yellowjackets.
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May 4, 2018 12:48
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Wintercreeper. Introduced to provide evergreen ground cover, it smothers everything in its boring, useless, shiny green leaves. It's super invasive, prevents anything else from sprouting, and impossible to remove without going scorched earth. My neighbors planted it at some point and I get to spend this summer beating it back from my yard where it has grown through the fencing.
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May 4, 2018 19:11
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vonnegutt posted:Wintercreeper. Introduced to provide evergreen ground cover, it smothers everything in its boring, useless, shiny green leaves. It's super invasive, prevents anything else from sprouting, and impossible to remove without going scorched earth. My neighbors planted it at some point and I get to spend this summer beating it back from my yard where it has grown through the fencing. Something with Triclopyr will do it, though you will need to do more than one application https://www.ortho.com/en-us/products/weed-control/ortho-weed-b-gon-chickweed-clover-oxalis-killer-lawns-concentrate Spraying them with a dilute solution of Borax beforehaand letting it dry will break down the protective coating a little.
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May 4, 2018 19:40
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Ragtime All The Time posted:Just noticed that the lawn of my rental is being invaded by mint and some other low flowering plant. Lots of pretty blue/purple flowers. Those are just wild violets. They bloom now and aren't that noticeable later in the summer. Weed killer will get them though if you just can't have pretty purple flowers. The little purple ones are henbit. The tall one by itself to the right might be a young daffodil, possibly too young to flower.
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May 5, 2018 03:24
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Came here to post a picture from reddit of this lovely plant I've never heard of before: source But I heard about the discussion of most hated plants. I'm stuck between Chinese tallow trees because of how invasive and ecologically destructive those drat things are, and that of... grass. Commercial species of grass. How about we let the outdoors go back to their native environment and plant native species, ugly or not, instead?  Ragtime All The Time posted:Just noticed that the lawn of my rental is being invaded by mint and some other low flowering plant. Lots of pretty blue/purple flowers. This is beautiful, god. Spring time is just a lovely time to realize what sort of plants are just naturally lurking around on the ground that I otherwise wouldn't think of.
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May 5, 2018 22:49
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This is a 1:1 photo of Heuchera flower, to give some sense of real life scale, that’s a spider web strand on the main flower.   Heuchera flower by learnin curve, on Flickr
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May 6, 2018 19:33
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May 7, 2018 08:28
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Am I erring if I put succulent seedlings on a west-facing windowsill? My logic is that a few of my seedlings have gone a bit leggy so they should get more light than they have previously (best light I could do earlier was from a east-facing wall and a kitchen overhead light), and I don't have much in the way of south-facing windowspace.
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May 9, 2018 00:42
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MisterBibs posted:Am I erring if I put succulent seedlings on a west-facing windowsill? My logic is that a few of my seedlings have gone a bit leggy so they should get more light than they have previously (best light I could do earlier was from a east-facing wall and a kitchen overhead light), and I don't have much in the way of south-facing windowspace. To my knowledge the only issue with west-facing windows is that they can get really hot. If the area isn't too hot they should be fine.
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May 9, 2018 01:05
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Making more of our yard into grass area. It's actually easier to regularly mow a lawn than to keep this area in rough shape with a trimmer every month. And I guess we'll add something else like a few berry bushes and fruit trees. 
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May 9, 2018 06:13
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His Divine Shadow posted:Making more of our yard into grass area. It's actually easier to regularly mow a lawn than to keep this area in rough shape with a trimmer every month. And I guess we'll add something else like a few berry bushes and fruit trees. You got it right. Get rid of the rocks, leave the soil. Eventually you will have enough good dirt to grow a proper lawn.
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May 12, 2018 03:07
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Got the soil spread out now. Leaving soon to go rent one of these big rollers to compact the soil, then we'll seed it, fertilize it and roll it over again I think. Then water. We did not put anything in the middle because it's already a high spot. I'll just seed it and keep on mowing it, see what it looks like in a few months. Always an option to spread out some more soil to even it out.
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May 12, 2018 06:41
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Need a sanity check on my planting process. I pot my plants in a soil mix that's basically a bunch of perlite + compost + bone meal, I was doing a little reading online and people tend to caution against potting in compost as it can burn out the roots. I've been doing this with established plants so the roots are in whatever the nursery put them in and surrounded by the compost mix. There anything I should be worried about?
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May 12, 2018 11:29
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That mix is compete gash for pots but fine if they are going in the ground my lovely. The problem is that if your planting hole is too big and you add a lot of delicious nutrients, then the plant won’t feel the need to send roots outside of it’s snugly bed , so you end up with a dead plant with compacted roots in a few years time. Standard method now whatever you are planting is to make the hole as small as possible and then dose the ground on top, the nutrients will soak down into the soil in a wider area and the roots will spread out to find them.
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May 12, 2018 11:44
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Not sure what gash means in this context but I'm only using pots since all I have is a balcony (if this were a garden I'd mix the compost with the top soil as I get awesome results that way). It sounds like it's not a huge issue as they'll just thrive in the mix within the pot. Most of them are annuals but the perennials get repotted when I notice the roots are reaching out the bottom of the pot.
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May 12, 2018 13:42
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Annuals you can plant in anything but that mix is too strong for perennials (will encourage too much root growth). Next time Don’t use the bone meal. Get a bag of topsoil and add it to your mix and use a liquid feed every two months. Every year scrape off the top two inches and mulch.
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May 12, 2018 14:03
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Okay, that's definitely good to know. The majority of the garden centers within reach either have lovely soil or small expensive bags so I opted to go with a huge bag of organic compost and mix it, I'll track down some decent top soil and use it for the next plant (Gotta find a home for my Cytisus scoparius Firefly).
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May 12, 2018 16:38
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Came across a Nepenthes alata today; my first time ever seeing a Nepenthes at a nursery! Who was I to tell it that it couldn't come home with me? The guy I talked to said they need bright indirect light and decent humidity. Any special treatment needed to get it to produce more/bigger pitchers?
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May 12, 2018 19:19
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Very nice weather today, though since I just seeded the new parts of the lawn that means extra watering. At least when it's grown in that nonsense stops. 
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May 12, 2018 19:42
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Ashex posted:Not sure what gash means in this context Terrible.
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May 12, 2018 21:55
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His Divine Shadow posted:Very nice weather today, though since I just seeded the new parts of the lawn that means extra watering. At least when it's grown in that nonsense stops. What kind of grass do you grow up in the land of snow and metric funny-talk anyways?
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May 13, 2018 03:35
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Hubis posted:What kind of grass do you grow up in the land of snow and metric funny-talk anyways? I honestly don't know, bought the stuff in my nearest store (they had one type) and threw away the box.
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May 13, 2018 06:30
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A question regarding propagating rose cuttings. I’ve had luck getting roots growing using just water on a few cuttings, but now that it’s spring my current bushes have a lot of new growth that I’m about to trim off. Is it feasible to propagate from these new growth cuttings? The branches are still soft, green, and flexible, compared to the old growth cuttings I’ve used before. I can’t seem to find anything online regarding this, so I’m suspecting it’s not something that’s really done.
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May 13, 2018 15:02
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His Divine Shadow posted:I honestly don't know, bought the stuff in my nearest store (they had one type) and threw away the box. Too bad. I'm curious if it's the same bluegrass/fescue/ryes we use in the States or some different species/cultivars. Ask a question, get an answer... http://www.sterf.org/sv/library/handbooks/grass-guide Hubis fucked around with this message at 18:02 on May 13, 2018 |
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May 13, 2018 17:54
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Tremors posted:Came across a Nepenthes alata today; my first time ever seeing a Nepenthes at a nursery! Who was I to tell it that it couldn't come home with me? The guy I talked to said they need bright indirect light and decent humidity. Any special treatment needed to get it to produce more/bigger pitchers? It's really just light and a bit of humidity. You don't need it sweltering, something like 30-50% RH should be fine. Light is the big one, as much as possible for best results.
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May 14, 2018 05:23
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Hubis posted:Too bad. I'm curious if it's the same bluegrass/fescue/ryes we use in the States or some different species/cultivars. Doesn't seem there's really any info on the stuff I got, even fished the package out of the trash but just some "mix of seeds" and nonspecific stuff.
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May 14, 2018 06:45
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Here's a strange question! I hope I'm posting in the right thread. I am not a plant person. Someone very dear to me is, though - she literally works for a nursery - and her birthday is coming up. She's had a rough year, and I'd like to get her a plant. Not cut flowers, but something sustainable that she can keep in her new apartment and care for. The trouble is, while I know her pretty well, I don't precisely know what kind of plants make great houseplants for a modest apartment. This is further compounded by the fact that, because she is a plant person and a political activist, I'd like it to be bought from and delivered by ethical businesses, if possible. She lives in a small city in the south, so it's not quite as easy as Googling "ethical greenhouses in the NYC area" or whatever. I'm willing to consider a range of prices, but anything extravagant - say, much more than $100 - would probably be out of line and make her feel bad. Can anyone offer any advice or direction? Are any/all of the larger national companies unethical? If the whole thing is a little too generalized, or is just annoying. I apologize. And thanks in advance for any help that anyone can provide.
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May 14, 2018 07:36
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Ethics in gardening is a new one to me. If it were me I would buy her an amazing hand made planter/plant pot - you are going to know what her art tastes are better than the plants, and we always cheap out on them so it’s great when someone spends the money for you.
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May 14, 2018 07:50
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Huh, never knew there was a plant thread! Got a monstera related question. Does new growth ever appear on the lower parts of the plant, or do new leaves only appear on top? Does cutting it back promote new growth? One of my monteras have gotten very leggy during the dark winter months. Repotted it a while back, but it has not been thriving at all after I repotted it. Guess I just need to give it some time settle. Lost quite a few of the lower leaves though. The top leaves seem healthy, but the plant is already fairly tall and there's not a whole lot going on at the bottom of the plant anymore :/ If I cut back some of the stems, there won't be any leaves left at all... 
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May 14, 2018 08:27
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learnincurve posted:Ethics in gardening is a new one to me. I agree with this: get her a/some pots for her to put her own plants in. Getting them a plant is like getting someone a pet. It’s not as drastic but that thing is gonna stick around for a while and who knows if they actually want it or another plant to take care of, and it’s really imposing to say “here’s a living thing for you to take care of, hope you wanted it cause it’s stuck with you now.” But one can never have enough pots to put plants in  .
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May 14, 2018 10:01
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learnincurve posted:Ethics in gardening is a new one to me. It sounds pretty weird, but it sort of makes sense to me. Maybe I'm just excessively Californian.  If I was buying something rare or unusual I'd probably be concerned about where it came from, and whether or not it was ethically sourced. Just like animals, plants may be harvested from the wild or raised in a nursery. Harvesting plants from the wild can severely impact the ecosystem if it's done improperly. There's actually a big issue with poachers cutting burls off of old redwood trees in California and Oregon because the wood is valuable for furniture building, but you also sometimes see the burls for sale as living plants. The burls can produce new shoots, which can grow into whole new trees, so it's pretty common to see redwoods growing in a ring where several trees sprouted up from the roots of one dead/dying tree. Removing the burls not only damages the tree, but hinders its ability to reproduce. Some people will even fell the entire tree to get at the burls higher up the trunk. Dawn redwoods are also threatened in their natural habitat in China, due to the demand for the trees. They're a protected species, but so many seeds and seedlings are harvested that hardly any new trees are being naturally propagated. When the old trees die out, that could be it. Sure, they'll still be around in parks and conservatories, but it's a little sad to think they could be wiped out of their natural habitat. ..I kinda like redwoods if you couldn't tell. 
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May 14, 2018 13:34
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I just want nurseries to stop selling plants pre-treated with pesticides. It's so hosed up.
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May 14, 2018 13:49
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| # ? May 15, 2024 14:14 |
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Luxury of being on an island which has never really had a problem with illegal importing, mostly because the weather flat out murders anything tropical. Our plants are all grown from seeds, cuttings and grafting Fun fact. We didn’t know Camellias would survive in the U.K. for 200 years. We had lots of them in green houses and orangeries but not one person thought to see what would happen if they were planted outside. Then a load of glass got smashed by bombs in the war and people went “oh. Well aren’t we idiots then” when the camellias started thriving.
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May 14, 2018 15:29
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