Calling all Green Thumbs- -Favorite Flowers

[oz4lines]

Another suggestion that's very easy to grow and practical are the many varieties of herbs available.
Some produce great fragrant blooms like the basil, chives and dill plants while others such as curly parsley, tyme, oregano are great for their beautiful textures and foliages of silvers and burgandy.
I like the creeping varieties of tyme and rosemary to fill in small rock garden type areas.

Don't forget about adding a catnip plant too. They produce soft purple blue blooms on silvery green leaves. It also heps keeping my cat away from the ornamental grasses.

Jill

 

[debbie knowles]

I just love it in the springtime when this area's thousands and thousands of azalea's explode into brilliant blooms. Breathtakinging beautiful. I also love the clemantis and the mandevilla's that climb up my trellis in front of our triple kitchen window. Their big blooms bring the hummingbirds right up to the window and we can sit at the kitchen table and watch them eat, play and yes even fight!!! But I also adore the roses...I have a beautiful red American Beauty, and a lovely pale pink rose that just bloomed last year for the very first time in years and two pots of little tea roses on the deck! Love 'em!!

 

[alygator]

Originally posted by debbie knowles
I also love the clemantis and the mandevilla's that climb up my trellis in front of our triple kitchen window. Their big blooms bring the hummingbirds right up to the window and we can sit at the kitchen table and watch them eat, play and yes even fight!!!

I got a thingy in the mail advertising all sorts of flowering plants etc today and saw my first clemantis, I love it!! I think I would love to plant one somewhere, but don't know where yet. I want or would like a hydrenga outside my kitchen window....seeing as they are my fave- -my kitchen window faces the north and they love to be planted there. where can you plant a clemantis? what do they love? I also saw a peony tree it was so so pretty, I need to research that one a bit more too!!

 

[debbie knowles]

We are very hot and humid here in the summer and nothing but sand, sand and more sand! My clemantis gets the morning sun and is then in the shade in the hot part of the afternoon and does very well...lots of water..it loves a good drink! It's a climber so give it somewhere to climb and it will do fine. Beautiful plant. Good Luck

 

[eksatins]

I love all flowers, but my favorites would be the rose and the tulip!! We have 3 rose bushes now and have planted tulips to come up in the spring! Every year we have a large veg. garden. It is alot of fun!!:cool:

Esther :D

 

[oz4lines]

The clemantis likes to have its root system shaded. Plant something near the plant that would shade the rootball.

I've had no luck with them myself. They don't do very well in container gardening, but i do love the various shades of deep purples they come in. My neighbor has one to die for.

Jill

 

[alygator]

jill steal a pic of it!!:D I have a fence that it could grow on, but hubby wouldn't like that...its a brand new stockade fence. I am reallly getting excited about planting....the previous owners left a lot to be desired when gardening. Do clematis love acidity? I don't think I could keep it acidic enough???

 

[oz4lines]

Sorry, but It'll be a long wait to get a picture of it.
Were buried in snow till about April and I believe his looks at its peak in late summer.
We laughed at him because he built a trellis for it that you could launch a rocket off of, and now you don't even see the trellis.
Not sure about the acidity of it though, sorry

You can get a more acidic soil by fertilizing with Miracid(the makers of Miracle gro). For some reason I'm thinking that Lime lowers it, but I'm brain dead from moving snow around all day and could be wrong.

Its been a million years and I don't remember, but low acidity brings out one color on hydrangeas and high acidity brings out the other. Low high determins pink or blue. If its neutral the colors will fade over time. Another thing you'll have to look up, sorry again.
Jill

 

[Debbie Magon]

With hydrangeas an acid soil will produce the deeper blue blooms.

As for Clematis I grow mine in a neutral soil and they flower extensively and sometimes twice!

Another beautiful climber is the Wisteria, in the deep mauve shade.
It takes a few years to establish but is a handsome specimen.

 

[oz4lines]

Thanks Debbie,
the soil acidity of the hydrangeas has been driving me nuts since this thread started. I knew the acidity determined the color, but for the life of me couldn't remember which did what. Actually, I almost dug out my textbooks because I was so bugged.
I also thought it was neutral for the clematis. Was going to check on that too.
Was really hoping somebody here would know so I wouldn't have to go looking.
Thank you Thank You Thank you.
I hate when I get bugged like that.

Jill

Anybody else here do container gardening?