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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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learnincurve posted: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. That's hilarious Speaking of illegally importing, I was down in Italy for a few days and they have this succlenty-looking thing everywhere. I took a few sprigs from one in my fiance's aunt's garden, and would love some advice on propagating (or an ID). I know of 3 possible ways: immediately sitting them in water, like basil; taking individual leaves and letting them dry/callous then mist/spray a bit (leaf cuttings); or doing the same thing to the whole sprig.  For ID purposes: it was fairly compact in decent sun, but got super leggy and draped way over the sides of the pot when in shade/weak light to one side. Sent up sprigs of little yellow flowers (one of those is the middle shoot of my right cutting)
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May 14, 2018 17:22
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learnincurve posted: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. Boris Galerkin posted: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 Cool, I hadn't even thought about that. It makes a lot of sense, thanks for the suggestion. Re: ethics, I kinda meant two separate things - both what Bees is describing, environmentally/ecologically ethical practices especially as pertains to rare or exotic plants and flowers, and ethical in the business sense of "is this a place that takes care of its workers, or some kind of horror show that rips off its employees and doesn't do business with gays". It's not something I'd normally spend too much time thinking about re: plants, but I know it's something she would, and I wanted to put that thought into finding her gift.
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May 14, 2018 18:00
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I bought a house last year that has a lot of tall trees that shade most of the front and back yard. Eventually (as in over the course of the next couple decades) some of these trees will need to be removed due to bugs and birds chipping away at them. For now, I'd like to find something that will serve as good ground cover for the dirt under the shade of the trees. We live in the Atlanta area (climate zone 3 if that means anything to you). Can anyone make some suggestions? I'd love it if I could encourage the little bit of moss that's spread out throughout the back yard to overtake most of the ground but I'm not sure what that would take. There is a little bit of a ground cover plant in the front of the house but I'm not sure if it is transplantable (I can add pictures later). The previous owner's solution to everything was to throw pinestraw on it, so I still have a a lot of that to either mulch up or allow to naturally fade away in many areas of the yard. I don't want to completely uncover the soil until I have at least half a plan.
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May 14, 2018 20:08
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tadashi posted:I bought a house last year that has a lot of tall trees that shade most of the front and back yard. Eventually (as in over the course of the next couple decades) some of these trees will need to be removed due to bugs and birds chipping away at them. So apparently the trick for spreading moss is shredding it in a blender with milk and then pouring it on the areas you want it to grow. I've never tried the the milk part, but shredded moss will definitely take if given the right conditions (moisture is the most important thing I think). Also, zone 3 is according to the department of energy's climate zones, which I think is geared toward home energy efficiency. You're better off using USDA's plant hardiness zones, which would put you in 8a.
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May 14, 2018 20:17
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:A question regarding propagating rose cuttings. Using old wood is better for propagating roses than the young stuff. Typically it has to have at least flowered once and the flower has died of fell off before that branch is ready for propagating. You might have better luck with using rooting hormone.
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May 14, 2018 20:18
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Natural unpasteurised yoghurt works better than milk  A mud snowman was once made in the LC house
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May 14, 2018 20:19
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Fitzy Fitz posted:So apparently the trick for spreading moss is shredding it in a blender with milk and then pouring it on the areas you want it to grow. I've never tried the the milk part, but shredded moss will definitely take if given the right conditions (moisture is the most important thing I think). Hardiness zone was definitely what I meant to search for. Next question: I have conifers that are splitting apart under the weight of their overgrowth. Does anybody have experience pruning them? Will I ruin them completely if I just take a trimmer and run it up the side to reshape them? I promise to correctly prune them in the future, but I don't have time to spend an hour pruning every loving tree and bush in the yard at the moment. Everything is overgrown. The people who used to live here appear to only have ever had things "shaped up" and did't take the time to correctly prune back at the right time of year. tadashi fucked around with this message at 20:25 on May 14, 2018 |
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May 14, 2018 20:22
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tadashi posted:Hardiness zone was definitely what I meant to search for. Not all evergreens will resprout from old wood. What kind of conifer is it?
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May 14, 2018 22:02
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Bees on Wheat posted:It sounds pretty weird, but it sort of makes sense to me. Maybe I'm just excessively Californian. Ethics is absolutely an issue in rare plant collecting. There's all sorts of sketchy stuff in carnivorous plants that is either unethical or even wildly illegal, but which it would be difficult for a consumer-level collector to sort through. On the producer/retailer side, my familiarity with the industry and the various global suppliers and their catalogs means I can spot stuff very quickly that's totally opaque to someone without that perspective. I understand from my friends who collect other rare plants (African milkweeds, orchids, bonsai, etc.) that it's a problem in all sorts of collector communities. wizard on a water slide posted:*plant gift* While I agree that giving a pot is safer than giving a plant, if she's a plant industry professional she's probably fairly comfortable with letting a plant die if it's not appropriate to her conditions/growing style. I can't count how many plants I've killed, especially at home. It can be fun to get a new plant and be forced to learn how to grow it though! If she's never tried carnivorous plants before I know a guy
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May 15, 2018 09:28
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Fitzy Fitz posted:So apparently the trick for spreading moss is shredding it in a blender with milk and then pouring it on the areas you want it to grow. I've never tried the the milk part, but shredded moss will definitely take if given the right conditions (moisture is the most important thing I think). Don't do this. It will end up moldy and won't grow. Moss is avascular, meaning it doesn't have veins, so all the nutrients and moisture it gets must be from being directly in contact with the moss. You can propagate it by loosely tearing it apart and laying it where you want it to grow. If that surface isn't level or otherwise difficult to get the moss to stick, you can use pins or wires to hold it down. The important thing is that the surface be absolutely clear of debris or the moss won't be able to grow into it.
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May 15, 2018 17:01
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tadashi posted:The previous owner's solution to everything was to throw pinestraw on it, so I still have a a lot of that to either mulch up or allow to naturally fade away in many areas of the yard. I don't want to completely uncover the soil until I have at least half a plan. That does work as a kind of Ruth Stout method of weed control since it sounds like it's acting as a good mulch. I don't know how easily it'll naturally fade though, since pine needles acidify the soil and have a waxy coating that inhibits decomposition. As for [native] ground covers, maybe something like Partridgeberry, Heartleaf (evergreen), Straggler daisy, or Lanceleaf coreopsis would provide some cover and interest on that site. I'm not familiar with these myself, so you'll want to a little homework on how invasive they can be in your area/soil.
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May 15, 2018 17:51
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Kenning posted:Ethics is absolutely an issue in rare plant collecting. There's all sorts of sketchy stuff in carnivorous plants that is either unethical or even wildly illegal, but which it would be difficult for a consumer-level collector to sort through. On the producer/retailer side, my familiarity with the industry and the various global suppliers and their catalogs means I can spot stuff very quickly that's totally opaque to someone without that perspective. I understand from my friends who collect other rare plants (African milkweeds, orchids, bonsai, etc.) that it's a problem in all sorts of collector communities. same thing as don't buy ladybugs!
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May 15, 2018 18:15
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:same thing as don't buy ladybugs! Curious about this, why?
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May 15, 2018 19:52
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A tour of the different plants in my studio apartment: My Croton, it lost a bunch of its leaves when I first brought it home but now it's doing great with lots of new growth!  Pothos, it's growing like crazy and I'm kind of scared it's gonna take over my apartment like in Little Shop of Horrors  Orange tree, it appears to be dying and I'm not sure why. Best guess is it just grew too fast too quickly (it gained like 6 big leaves in the first month I had it here).  Banana pepper. I just bought this the other day for $3, no clue if it's gonna do well or not, but here's hoping!  Basil, first thing I ever tried growing from seed. It's been going for most of the year, hoping it gets nice and big by mid-summer so I can eat some.  Elephant ear. I planted this as a bulb a few months ago, wasn't really expecting it to grow since I think these are only meant for outdoors. But then earlier this week, this little nubbin popped out! So things are happening apparently.  Bulbasaur succulent
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May 15, 2018 21:45
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The previous owners of my house just had a bunch of planters laying about on the front yard area that they had zoned off with decorative brick, laid down landscape fabric and threw a ton of mulch over it. I want to plut real flowers and stuff in the ground. How does one go about planning something like a front yard flower garden to be in front of a porch? Do I need to get some books? The amount of information and choice is absolutely staggering, I have no idea where to start. All I know is my hardiness zone (Canada 5b/6a), that this area gets full sun from noon to sundown, and that my soil is a heavy clay loam.
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May 16, 2018 03:01
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 A friend of mine bought this flower. She loves it and wants more, but we have NO idea what it is. It closes up at night and the center of the flower isn't like anything else we found trying to look it up.
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May 16, 2018 03:22
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Truck Stop Daddy posted:Huh, never knew there was a plant thread! Looks like nobody else wants to chime in on this one just yet. In my experience, new growth mostly shows up at the end of the vine, but sometimes it will branch out from some mid point. I'm not sure how to induce / prevent that? Or, new shoots will sprout from the roots. You might want to look into some sort of support for the vines you have. They can grow very long, given the chance. And by the looks of it, you might want a bigger pot for the amount of plant you have there.  What I did with mine was train the single vine up the wall for a few years, then when we moved into this place, put it up on the shelf, and run it along the ceiling. It was super pot bound for quite a long while, and once I re-potted it into its current pot, it sent up a second vine, which I'm training along the ceiling in the other direction. It also branched out about halfway along the main vine. This one is coming up on 14 years since starting as a cutting I took from the lobby of our old apartment building. I also prune off any aerial roots once they're about 4 inches long or so. Mostly for aesthetic reasons, and because that's what my grandfather did when I was little. I've just been going by what he used to do.
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May 16, 2018 03:36
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kedo posted:Curious about this, why? almost all ladybugs sold in the us are wild harvested its hosed. just like those plants
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May 16, 2018 03:50
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bitchtard posted:
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May 16, 2018 03:55
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B33rChiller posted:Looks like nobody else wants to chime in on this one just yet. In my experience, new growth mostly shows up at the end of the vine, but sometimes it will branch out from some mid point. I'm not sure how to induce / prevent that? Or, new shoots will sprout from the roots. You might want to look into some sort of support for the vines you have. They can grow very long, given the chance. And by the looks of it, you might want a bigger pot for the amount of plant you have there. Thanks! Is that your monstera in the pic? It looks amazing! Never seen them grow that long indoors before... Mine is 3 years old, but if it keeps up this pace of legginess it'll be several meters long in a couple more years haha It's not that visible in the pic, but the plant has some support. I trained the main stems to bamboo sticks after repotting it. Before repotting, it was sort of laying across my entire windowsill, blocking out all my sunlight + looking ready to topple over. There was a couple of new sprouts a few months back, but they're very thin and leggy with small sadlooking leaves... I guess I'll just keep at it, and hope it survives the repotting. It was 110% rootbound in its last pot and I was a bit rough with the poor plant in the process :/ Truck Stop Daddy fucked around with this message at 12:31 on May 16, 2018 |
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May 16, 2018 12:29
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bitchtard posted:
Looks like some sort of fancy Anemone to me. The leaves and the eye of the flower look right for something in the Anemone genus.
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May 16, 2018 12:34
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VERTiG0 posted:How does one go about planning something like a front yard flower garden to be in front of a porch? Do I need to get some books? The amount of information and choice is absolutely staggering, I have no idea where to start. All I know is my hardiness zone (Canada 5b/6a), that this area gets full sun from noon to sundown, and that my soil is a heavy clay loam. Books would help. Hit up the library and see what they have - it's more likely to be relevant to your location than the internet and curated a bit better as well. Rodale makes great books. As for planning, there's a lot of ways you can go about it, but a basic one is to get some graph paper and do a rough sketch of how large your yard is and what's currently there. Then you can start filling in the gaps with plants. Start by putting in one or two large plants (or even flowering shrubs) in the largest "holes" and then you can fill around them with smaller plants. Most flower gardens look better with "clumps" of a few kinds of flowers as opposed to a huge variety, so it's better to select a few favorites and plant them multiple times. One way to limit your choices is to limit the flower colors to just one or two. An all-white flower garden is a very classic look. So for an all-white flower garden, I would do a couple shrubs with white flowers like dwarf laurel. Then a white variety of peony for my largest flower plant. Then you could fill in with some smaller perennials like daisies, baptisia, and solomon's seal. A two-color garden would be the same but with, say, purple flowers added in. Garden design is a huge field, so it's easy to get overwhelmed. Try walking around your neighborhood and seeing what your neighbors have done that you've liked and disliked. This is the best way to find plants that will work in your local climate.
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May 16, 2018 18:27
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Truck Stop Daddy posted:Thanks! Is that your monstera in the pic? It looks amazing! Never seen them grow that long indoors before... Mine is 3 years old, but if it keeps up this pace of legginess it'll be several meters long in a couple more years haha Yeah, that's a photo of my plant. I remember reading about Monstera that the first 2 leaves of a shoot will actually move away from light, as in nature they will be seeking a tree to climb up, before reaching for the light. It checks out in my experience that the first couple leaves are always sad looking little things, with the third and subsequent leaves being bigger with splits in them. I remember one time on vacation to Costa Rica, the place we rented had what looked like a Monstera climbing up a tree in the yard. It went waaaaaaay up the trunk, and had huge leaves. So I imagine my plant has a long way to go before it reaches its maximum length.
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May 16, 2018 18:51
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Anyone have any pepper growing experience they would like to share? Every year I tell myself "I'm only growing things that grow well in my climate and produce" and every year its my basil and peppers so this year I'm filling my 5 planters boxes with basil and peppers. Pesto and hotsauce allllll winter. Do you think I really need to keep them 18" apart? B33rChiller posted:Yeah, that's a photo of my plant. I remember reading about Monstera that the first 2 leaves of a shoot will actually move away from light, as in nature they will be seeking a tree to climb up, before reaching for the light. It checks out in my experience that the first couple leaves are always sad looking little things, with the third and subsequent leaves being bigger with splits in them. I remember one time on vacation to Costa Rica, the place we rented had what looked like a Monstera climbing up a tree in the yard. It went waaaaaaay up the trunk, and had huge leaves. So I imagine my plant has a long way to go before it reaches its maximum length. thats really interesting. I need a monstera, badly.
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May 16, 2018 19:14
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I finally found a monstera in a store a few weeks ago and snatched it up. Now I want a variegated one.
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May 16, 2018 19:17
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They root from cuttings super duper easily. Make sure you have a node and a leaf, and stick that in a vase with water. After a while you should notice it starting to develop roots. Boom! You got yourself a new plant.
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May 16, 2018 19:22
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In my experience peppers can be planted closer together but it depends on the pepper. Anaheims and habaneros need more room than jalepenos and cayennes. Last year I planted 2 habaneros and ended up with a billion peppers and it was waaayyy too many. If you like onions you can plant them in between your other plants, they aren’t too picky about space.
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May 16, 2018 19:26
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B33rChiller posted:They root from cuttings super duper easily. Make sure you have a node and a leaf, and stick that in a vase with water. After a while you should notice it starting to develop roots. Boom! You got yourself a new plant. Monstera or peppers? I really hope its peppers that would be awesome Joburg posted:In my experience peppers can be planted closer together but it depends on the pepper. Anaheims and habaneros need more room than jalepenos and cayennes. Interesting, do the peppers themselves need sun to ripen, hence the more space? Or just the leaves? That seems like a dumb question but I'm rolling with it. I planted 2 habaneros as well and had what I thought was quite a decent haul but got decimated by friends and family. I want garbage bags full this year, I'm going to go hard on messing around in the kitchen making hot sauce. I love onions, maybe I'll throw those in between the peppers. Should I add some nitrogen rich fertilizer to the soil around the freshly planted peppers? There is something about watching watching the tiny flowers turn into peppers that is incredibly satisfying for me.
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May 16, 2018 19:36
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Spacing for peppers will also depend on the size of pot you're planting them in. In a standard 5 gallon bucket or equivalent you can get some huuuuuge plants, but if they're in smaller pots they won't grow quite as large.
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May 16, 2018 19:54
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kedo posted:Spacing for peppers will also depend on the size of pot you're planting them in. In a standard 5 gallon bucket or equivalent you can get some huuuuuge plants, but if they're in smaller pots they won't grow quite as large. All of them will be in planters beds or the equivalent in a greenhouse. I'm up for whatever makes em pop
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May 16, 2018 19:57
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I was posting a few vegetable/herb pictures to the other thread, and found some ornamentals I had photographed recently. I'm better at my edible identification, and this house was bought from a big gardener, so we have lots of great surprises. Please enjoy! This one is new! I think it's a baby rhododendron.  This just started flowering.  Azalea, I think. I ripped out tons of invasive English ivy and put in creeping phlox and some shade loving ice plant. They love it, though I apparently only photographed the creeping phlox because it's flowering.  
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May 16, 2018 20:18
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Holy gently caress it's hot today in Finland for may, 27 C outside. Grass got mowed first time today and the birches have sprouted insanely fast, record levels of pollen. Good thing it don't bother me. Taking a look at what's survived the winter, in the past several of our plants and trees have died, but this year it looks good. Rhubarb's pushing up  Blackberry bush survived this year. It's one we've had problems with, despite being very hardy. Looks like the chives made it too.  e: dunno why I had the same image twice... His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 04:11 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 16, 2018 20:33
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Does anyone have experience dealing with coddling moths on fruit trees? I have apple and pear trees in my yard and the fruit has been infested for the last two years (as long as I've been in this house). This year I put out moth traps to determine when flights occurred. Unfortunately I was out of town when the first moths were trapped, but I sprayed the fruit as soon as I returned (with spinosad) so hopefully it was in time. Question: are the moth flights a one time thing or should I be monitoring throughout the spring and summer? I'd rather not keep spraying, but I want edible apples and pears.
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May 16, 2018 21:49
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:Anyone have any pepper growing experience they would like to share? My essential hot peppers are hungarian hot, jalapeno, habanero, and poblano; it's everything I need for salsas, fresh eating, pickling, and rellenos. I've been using a 12" spacing for all my peppers, but I think this year I think I'm going to give my poblanos and habaneros some more elbow room so they can boom shakalaka boom. Normally my habaneros only got to about 12" tall and my poblanos to around 24". I'm not sure what I've been doing differently; but the last couple years I've been getting 18 - 24" tall, super bushy habaneros and poblanos around 48" tall and half as wide. What I really want to do though is successfully overwinter my best plants to get an early start the following spring. I tried this last year and the poblano plants started to take really well to the transplant and were soon budding off the wood. Habaneros are supposedly tougher and didn't bud for me. They're really sensitive to drought until they can re-establish themselves in the soil and unfortunately I didn't water them enough so they died.
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May 16, 2018 22:05
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vonnegutt posted:Books would help. Hit up the library and see what they have - it's more likely to be relevant to your location than the internet and curated a bit better as well. Rodale makes great books. Thank you, this is excellent advice. At least now I've got a jump-off point!
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May 16, 2018 23:04
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Shame Boner posted:My essential hot peppers are hungarian hot, jalapeno, habanero, and poblano; it's everything I need for salsas, fresh eating, pickling, and rellenos. I've been using a 12" spacing for all my peppers, but I think this year I think I'm going to give my poblanos and habaneros some more elbow room so they can boom shakalaka boom. Normally my habaneros only got to about 12" tall and my poblanos to around 24". I'm not sure what I've been doing differently; but the last couple years I've been getting 18 - 24" tall, super bushy habaneros and poblanos around 48" tall and half as wide. Great information, thanks. Last year my hungarian's were the most successful and the most tasty. Jalepenos are kind of boring to me but they probably produce well. This year I just picked up a purple pepper, super excited for that color. I really want to try overwintering as well, mainly to try and bonsai a pepper plant which is pretty much impossible but since they supposedly turn woody I feel like I could have some fun with it (until it died)
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May 16, 2018 23:07
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VERTiG0 posted:Thank you, this is excellent advice. At least now I've got a jump-off point! No problem! Also, if you have Netflix, they just added Big Dreams, Small Spaces which is about doing makeovers on small or difficult yards. It's a great introduction to thinking about landscaping and garden design.
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May 17, 2018 00:51
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:Monstera or peppers? I really hope its peppers that would be awesome Sorry, I meant Monstera. Never tried propagating peppers with cuttings.
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May 17, 2018 00:55
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13Pandora13 posted:So...I've got termites in my front porch. Caught pretty early and I'm on a termite warranty with quarterly visits and pest control so the "call a professional" side is handled. Cross-posting on recommendation. I am in USDA grow zone 7a (central Virginia) 13Pandora13 fucked around with this message at 01:07 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 01:05
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I'm dealing with.
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WrenP-Complete posted:I was posting a few vegetable/herb pictures to the other thread, and found some ornamentals I had photographed recently. I'm better at my edible identification, and this house was bought from a big gardener, so we have lots of great surprises. Please enjoy! Just move in someplace? That was us last October, so this spring has been wonderful for discovering things coming up in the yard as well
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May 17, 2018 11:32
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