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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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No clue on ID - it might be a variation of one of the ficus species, but that's a big guess. Anyways, it's more than big enough to go in a one gallon. It's rather underpotted right now.
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Oct 17, 2013 12:49
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 13:45 |
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They apparently take pruning very well, so don't let mature size dissuade you.
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Oct 18, 2013 20:09
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Lawns are basically a way to show off, and don't offer much in the way of natural weeding (though I do believe grasses have a built in herbicide that inhibits the growth of many plants), nor are they very economical in time investment or money. The best, low maintenance way to care for a yard is by plantings and proper deep mulching. Also, stop wasting your time killing moss - it grows on top of stuff, not in it, and only grows where other stuff isn't growing. But, all that aside, give us some background info: where you're at, how big the yard is, pictures if at all possible, what you like in a yard, what you don't. Do you prefer a woodsy forest, a wildflower meadow, nothing but grass (don't be this dude), formal English garden, etc?
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Oct 25, 2013 19:44
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You've been left with some decent stuff, actually. Which side do you need more privacy on? Notes on pictures: Pic 1 - you've got some decent japanese maples here. Area isn't big enough to bother trying to keep grass. To keep it looking ordered and neat, I'd remove (or smother) all the sod, the sedum and other little plantings, and just keep the trees and a nice deep mulch. You can apply Preen when you mulch. It's a granular pre-emergant, which will help with weed control, as will the mulch. Pic 2 - Pretty random plantings, here. Might be a nice flowering shrub in all of that. What would you like to use this space for? Walking? Or screening? Pic 3 - Good potential for traditional yardage here. Just keep on as you have been - reseed in spring, and it should come in thick. Which plantings don't you like? Pic 4 - You might get rid of that bed - it doesn't have any structure or purpose. Pic 5 - Left-to-right: clumping bamboo, rhododendron, blackberry lily. Hold out judgement on the rhododenron until spring; they put on a really nice show. They like dappled shade, so it might do well closer to your fence, if you want to move it. Pic 6 - Sweet ladders. Clean out, and if you'd like it to be pretty, install some chicken wire or some cattle fencing panels and grow clematis all over it. Otherwise, aim for tidy. Tree might be a catalpa, which will be a very big shade tree. They're a nice tree, but could crowd your space. There might be some more appropriate choices if you want a tree there. Lots of potential for a really nice looking yard. Ask more questions.
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Oct 25, 2013 21:55
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Fall order came in. 45 conifer cultivars. Also recently received 25 Picea breweriana, a most excellent spruce.
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Oct 26, 2013 13:23
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Whoever was there before sure liked plants, but didn't have any vision. You're in a bit of a sweet spot, climate-wise. You can grow a lot of cool plants. A lot of your work is going to be removing plants. Add plants slowly to create the look you want. Check out http://formandfoliage.wordpress.com/ for interesting evergreen ideas. One thing that is deceiving when people first start buying plants/trees is that the size estimates you see on tags are at 10-years, and trees never stop growing, and in fact tend to grow faster as they get bigger/older. You don't want everything to be crowded out after 15 years, unless you don't plan to be there long. ps. Good luck controlling or getting rid of the ivy. It will take over and choke other plants out if you don't.
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Nov 6, 2013 21:43
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I suspect root rot. Your plant is severely underpotted and when you pull it out, it'll probably have circling roots. Good news is hydrangeas are known to do okay in pots (though they really prefer to be planted). Repot into a very well-draining mix (cut a normal potting mix in half with perlite), and make sure you get every little bit of soil that's in the root system right now off. Do corrective surgery on the roots to free circling roots and remove any rot. Don't be afraid to hack away at them. I would cut the flowers off to allow the shrub all the energy possible to put into new root growth. From reading, it sounds like you can go right to a 15 or 25 gallon container. Are you southern hemisphere? If not, somebody forced the plant to bloom way out of season, as macrophyllas generally bloom early summer.
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Nov 13, 2013 13:21
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It will have to branch on its own. Sometimes it takes extremely long periods of time for that to happen. Post pics for better advice. When did you plant the broken pieces? It's good to let them sit on their sides, exposed, so they callous up before potting, to avoid rot.
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Nov 16, 2013 23:03
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You can let it grow and pup more, and eventually it'll fill up the pot with babies, which makes a good display, or you can just cut off the pup and give it its own pot. You can repot whenever you get roots circling at the bottom and judge pot size when you wash the old media off. By the way, your potting mix looks very wet, and you will more than likely get rot in that sort of mix. You only want 10-20% of your mix to be organics. You can manipulate your creeper by pruning back hard. If you prune all the way back to the edges of the pot, new shoots will be inside that area and if you keep at it, the plant will eventually be very full in the only area you allow it to grow. Another method would be a stake and tie some shoots up; prune off everything else and let that area fill in.
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Nov 18, 2013 16:19
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Your flowers are just aging - they look fine. The best thing you can do is repot into something more porous and larger. Do your best to really clean all the media off all the roots. The sooner you do this, the better chances you have to keep your plant long term. Do you see hydrangeas in the landscape at all, where you are? If other people can do it where you are, you can too.
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Nov 20, 2013 19:17
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The leaves on them can get huge - a foot or so, though it could just be a related species. I spoke with the curator of the nearest public garden, and he said they've talked about tearing everything out of their tropical house, just to basically get rid of the pothos and start fresh. I like your aquascape. Has a good amazonian feel to it. Are those plecos or cats? Get some amano shrimp if you want something that'll keep the plants looking good.
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Nov 25, 2013 13:25
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I've got a few stonecrop, hens and chick and ice plant inside that have aphids (apparently from other plants that were since removed). Should I try to fight them off or maybe just stick them outside? They've been sitting under fluorescent lights at ~65 F for a few months and the weather outside is going to be in the 40s. USDA says I'm zone 8b. They'd be on the south facing side of the house that gets a little warmer.
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Nov 26, 2013 12:53
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Sure that's a pothos? Pothos leaves are usually smooth edged and waxy looking.
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Dec 16, 2013 14:26
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An interesting pine for you all: Pinus virginiana 'Wate's Golden.' It turns bright yellow in the winter. This one's in my grow out bed.
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Dec 17, 2013 16:19
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kedo posted:I have a little bonsai mangrove that I've successfully kept alive for a few years now, but I think I may have nearly killed it. My windows have a slight UV coating on them so it doesn't get enough sun in the winter, thus when it's a nice warm day I put it outside to catch some rays. Except I forgot that I put it outside and left it out there on two ~20°F nights. Sounds pretty dead, but best way to find out is start cutting into it. Start from top (assuming this is where it's most dead), and cut out until you reach nice non-mushy wood. I've killed jades all the way down to ground level and cut out all the dead stuff to have it resprout. There's a chance the whole thing is toast, though. If none of it is mushy, wait and see.
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Dec 25, 2013 22:25
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Looks frost burnt - might not be dead. Let dead leaves fall off; when it starts to push new foliage, trim the whole thing back hard so you don't have a ton of bare branches with foliage on the ends. How long since it's been repotted with fresh media?
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Dec 27, 2013 18:56
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Glad to see this thread getting some more attention. Pardalis, your hens and chicks will need a cold dormancy period, just fyi; there may be some jovibarba hybrids that are happier long-term without cold periods. Also, your weird aloe is a Harwarthia attenuata, an absolutely fantastic genus. I made what might be a significant find a few weeks ago, a dense, good looking witch's broom on an ash. I need to find some understock, but grafted about four or five feet high, I believe this will make a very attractive tree for landscapes cramped for space. 
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Jan 15, 2014 14:30
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All you need is a sharp knife. Start cutting and work your way down. If it's not toast, you'll know as soon as you hit non-rotted material. Get a nice clean cut at whatever level isn't dead (if any), dust the cut in cinnamon (anti-fungal), and leave it alone. You can basically stop watering it - with no leaves, it has little need for water. If it sprouts, hurrah, if not, oh well; don't know any decent gardener that hasn't killed more than their fair share of plants from mistakes. I babied about five different Puya species for five years before my wife ran them (in their f'ing pots) over with the goddamn lawn mower. Lithops talk: easiest way I've ever read of taking care of them and making sure you're not overwatering is to mist them every morning and basically never give them a deep drink. They do shrivel a bit when dehydrated, so it's easy enough to tell if you need to give them a bit more than normal.
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Jan 20, 2014 16:19
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Those are looking great. I have one Sarracenia that is slowly recovering from its box store origins. Here are my office plants, at this moment. Nearly every one is a box store clearance find. Ton of small succulents growing out (each selection was only $2!):  Big Gasteria, a Gasteraloe 'Flow,' and some Sansavieria that may or may not make it.  An aloe I've grown semi-hydro for more than two years, now. Needs a nice big pot, now.  Adenium that's finally starting to leaf out again:  Some Crassula and an Odcidium catatante 'Pumpkin Patch' I found for $5: 
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Feb 21, 2014 13:30
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An idea for you is to create a false bottom with a few inches of hydroton/leca, a barrier, then your media. This is used in dart frog terrariums all the time, and should allow your plants to have water reservoir that doesn't evaporate so quickly. Capillary action will bring the moisture up to the root system and you won't lose so much out of the top.
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Feb 23, 2014 13:28
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Mass plantings look good for all of those. Lily of the valley spread like crazy in shady spots - be prepared.
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Feb 24, 2014 13:26
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Kenning posted:
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Mar 2, 2014 14:29
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I believe it's some sort of Haworthia pumila hybrid. They turn red if you make them angry.
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Mar 14, 2014 22:41
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Keep 'em dry and give tons of light and they look awesome. They'll bloom quite often.
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Mar 14, 2014 23:18
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Wasn't happy with how my Adenium was balanced, so I did some work on it. A side branch was too tall, and after the leaf drop that occurred when I repotted it, I didn't like the long bare branches, so I shortened some branches, regrafted the tops, and used some of the lengths of branch to add more branches to the tree. Before:  Cuts:  A graft union:  And, after. From seven branches before, to ten afterward, my middle branch is tallest, and the shape is much more balanced. Will leave the wrap on until I see growth from each scion: 
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Apr 4, 2014 14:30
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Try Abies nordmanniana 'Golden Spreader.' Grows slow and fat and has awesome color. Another cool choice would be Cedrus deodara 'Deep Cove.'
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Apr 15, 2014 18:04
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An alternate choice that would grow higher than you want, but be very narrow (so possibly not blocking windows), would be a row of two or three Picea glauca 'Pendula,' a very stately conifer. It's going to be hard to find anything that gets as wide as you want without getting taller than you want, as trees never stop growing. A better way of managing it is thinking of the growth rates, and what you can live with, as slower growing will be less likely to get out of hand, but take longer to fill in your space, while faster growth rates will outgrow you space quickly, but better create an effective privacy fence. Another possibility you might like is Cedrus deodara 'Snow Sprite': http://www.iselinursery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=183:cedrus-deodara-snow-sprite&catid=40:conifers unprofessional fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Apr 15, 2014 |
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Apr 15, 2014 19:56
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Not sure anybody cares, but every single one of my grafts on my adenium took, meaning a tree with much better branching and form in the future. This presents an opportunity for anybody with a desert rose to much more easily control the look of their plant than was previously considered possible, when the only accepted way to induce more branching was to trim the plant. Here is a healed graft union:  And the tree as a whole:  Over the next year or so, the graft unions should heal up, making them nearly invisible, and the next time the tree goes dormant, I'll have a good pallet for trimming/possibly more grafting.
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Apr 23, 2014 12:25
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Select one of the shoots. Remove the others. Find somebody with an apple variety you actually want, and then you're going to want to chip-bud that variety onto your rootstock. Chip budding is a very small graft, so it'll be okay if you mess it up, but it's pretty easy to do it right if you just take your time. Fruits tend to graft pretty easily. There's half a million videos on youtube of how to chip bud.
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Apr 23, 2014 19:09
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If you want to just buy another apple, use it to get your bud for grafting onto your original! Seriously, fruit grafting is easy - just try it.
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Apr 23, 2014 19:31
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Rhododendron pruning: you can prune it back hard, leaving about a foot on each branch, and in a few years, it'll be a beauty. They get a little leggy sometimes. Now is a fine time to prune. Onion-talk: you're overthinking it, and the torch thing is way more work than you need to do (and most likely won't be effective). If you're not opposed to round-up, you don't need to brush it on, and it will definitely kill them, if they're actively growing. Use a piece of posterboard folded over so no overspray drifts onto the things you want to keep. Round-up (glyphosate) goes inert once in contact with soil particles, so it's not a concern about hurting your desired plants, and the way it works is only through the green, growing parts of a plant. After that, the absolute best way you can keep control of your area is to use a deep bed of mulch (8" or so is fine). Accept that you're probably not going to get rid of all the onions in your first go, but when you see them, pull a few and toss them, and in a year, you'll be good to go. I emptied a pond of cattails this way, and they're way worse - hard to pull, cut your hands & feet, and send runners like crazy.
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May 6, 2014 12:07
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Suave Fedora posted:I have a crown flower (calotropis gigantean) which is a great nursery for monarch caterpillars. However I don't have any plants that would serve as a food source for the adult butterflies and I want to help fill in THE CIRCLE OF LIFE. kedo posted:Question about light levels. I live in a large apartment building surrounded by other large buildings and my balcony receives at most 3-4 hours of direct sunlight per day in the afternoon. During the rest of the day it's not like it's smothered in darkness or anything, there's lots of light bouncing off the windows of the surrounding buildings. But it's not direct. This would be considered semi-shade. Full sun is generally 6 hours of direct sun. There's no harm in trying things. I've grown some gorgeous clematis in semi-shade, a plant that is nearly always planted in full sun.
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May 6, 2014 14:39
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) and a just-planted guava sapling.
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Yeah, it's called landscape fabric, and it's awful. It doesn't work and it fucks up the natural process of soil production, killing lots of the beneficial parts of nature you don't see actively working.
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May 6, 2014 15:15
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That70sHeidi posted:You would think that this wonderful tidbit would be a HUGE SELLING POINT that they'd put in ads and whatnot. I had no idea, I had heard to protect other plants to not spray on a windy day, but the inert thing is kinda huge. Thank you so so so much! Melon cat, why did the grass give way to mud? Is there no drainage in this area? Are you allowed to add drainage tile? It's not a hard job, and it sounds like you're getting enough sun to seed with grass, if that's your desire.
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May 6, 2014 20:29
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melon cat posted:The drainage is quite poor, to be honest. Water tends to pool during rainfall, and that seems to be part of the problem. I don't think I'd be allowed to add drainage tile since it's condo-owned property and I'm already treading a fine line by adding my own plants (but the condo corp is lazy and really incompetent that I doubt it'll be an issue, just as long as I restrict my additions to plants). Enos Shenk posted:But my yard this year is overrun with dandelions. Yesterday it got a spray of the weed killer stuff you hook up to your hose, today while I was assessing the damage I noticed an odd looking stem. This is called fasciation! In succulents and trees it's often referred to as cristate or cristata, and it highly collectable. Happens for lots of different reasons, but is always cool looking.
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May 6, 2014 21:41
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It's low growing, so other stuff will pop up through it. It does spread pretty quickly, though. You'll have a good mat of it in a few years. Both should be watered through the first year, then they'll be fine on their own. Stick to perennials for low maintenance.
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May 6, 2014 22:27
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In the first year, a deep watering at least once a week (twice in the drought of summer), and then once they make it past their first winter, they'll do fine on their own. Generally, annuals work best for those sorts of planters. Get whatever you think looks good and make your own little arrangements. I like coleus and stuff with interesting colors/structure, but poo poo, it's hard to deny that people really love their impatiens and petunias.
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May 6, 2014 23:45
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stubblyhead posted:More plant IDs needed! The lady that used to live here was a hardcore gardener, but she unfortunately died and can't tell us what all this cool stuff is. It's a surprise every week or so! Pic 2: I believe both are clematis, but the green blossom is fairly rare in clematis. It could be clematis 'Peppermint.' Clematis have trifoliate leaves, so that is an easy way to check. Chop these down to the ground each year to really thicken up the plants and delay blooming until further into the summer. Fairly easy to root and propagate, as well. Pic 3: Bearded iris. No clue on variety.
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May 7, 2014 18:06
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Some people will cut them by about half when they flush and get a good number of blooms in a second flush, but otherwise, when they go dormant in winter, cut them to the ground, clear off the dead vines, and they'll reward you with a lot more sprouts from the ground. A lot of times, people are too scared to cut them back, so the plant puts all its effort into the one vine they purchased it with, and looks sparse and like crap for about five years. Sometimes I will cut them back from three or four years, then leave them for a year; you get "double" flowers (they type you see on yours) when you don't cut them back, but generally not as many blossoms.
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May 7, 2014 18:16
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 13:45 |
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That lady's just spouting old nonsense about planting. You shouldn't add anything to your native soil without a soil test and a very good reason, including compost (compost should only be added as a top dressing, in any case). The most important things you can do when planting is wash all substrate off the roots, fix any circling roots, use your native soil, and then add a wood chip mulch after planting. Article on proper planting technique: http://puyallup.wsu.edu/~Linda%20Chalker-Scott/Horticultural%20Myths_files/Myths/Instant%20landscape.pdf
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May 9, 2014 12:17
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