Photos of Plants Other Than Dahlias 2025

blown_dry · 2025-01-07T21:27:53+00:00

Some wild columbine from May of 2023 to get the thread started. 🙂

Justafewdahlias

MissyWeitzel At the bottom of the page it has a guide. I think it’s talking about “hardwood” cuttings can be taken in October. I am sure there are other types of rose cuttings to be taken in different months. I just must have seen the Oct page first and assumed it was the only one. I didn’t notice the letter H = key for what type of cutting at first glance. This book also may be PNW specific. Another book I like is “the plant propagators bible”. Here is a page from the plant propagators bible showing all the possible methods for propagating rose. Some I am sure are easier vs other

This book also gives instructions for different methods, so if one has had a low success rate maybe worth trying to test out another one.

Justafewdahlias

BackyardBouquets_17 I think the humidity dome is key. My FIL is really good at propagating plants and grafting plants. (Purchase a plant? He would never 😂) He uses a milk jug cut in half over a pot for rose cuttings. If there is something I realllly want the cutting to take I pass it along to him. I always tried to take the cutting before it bloomed (not knowing any better/thinking it was better that way) but the one that actually rooted I believe could have been from a spent bloom where I cut the flower off of it as a last ditch effort to try to get something to root at the end of its display for the season

Justafewdahlias

calico20hill I can’t say I followed any of the advice in the book…but I can see how it could be useful….I usually “shop” my friends gardens and see what I like the look of growing and what they can grow easily and take a cutting from them. I should visit the rose trial garden at pt defiance and see what is growing well. I think I have to see it and smell it myself before getting the desire to grow it when it comes to roses

calico20hill

The rain arrived this morning! Its pouring down right now! I am excited and this old body needs a good rest after the last few days! I hope we get rain all day :-)

calico20hill

I do miss living so close to Pt Defiance Park. I frequently visited both the dahlia test garden and the rose garden there, as well as having occasional picnics along the beach, or eating at the waterfront restaurant with friends. I wish we could have found a retirement smaller acreage near there...but....cities...and I do like being closer to family and being part of the Portland Dahlia Club. It is much harder making new friends here then it was on the Island where we lived. I had "Credibility" there, LOL. I also had friendlier soil to garden in if you didn't mind arsenic and lead fall out from the old smelter in Tacoma. The air is good down here in our little community, but the soil is wretched clay.

Teddahlia

I seldom see posts bragging about how good is their "native" soil. But having said that Swan Island dahlias has the best soil for dahlias I have ever seen. It is black and contains lots of sand and is "river bottom" soil from the river a few hundred feet away. No rocks and good drainage. One person I know has a " rock "garden dahlia garden and removes rocks every year in an endless process. People who have sandy soil curse the fact that fertilizer washes out quickly and so does the water. Phil Mingus had a rare soil type called sandy clay. Lots of both and it was very heavy but drained well. I should mention that we have soil here . It is just unremarkable typical soil with a bit too much clay but drains well enough. We should be comparing pH in the next post.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia One person I know has a " rock "garden dahlia garden and removes rocks every year in an endless process

The person who live in this house before us put a rock mulch on top of the front yard beds, and then changed their mind and put more soil and tree mulch on top of that. I think I’m going to be digging rocks out of those beds for the rest of my life. One summer I made it a project. My boys were still young and were thrilled to help dig up rocks. We gave away several yards worth. There are still so many! 😫. Why do people mulch with rocks?!? Thank goodness is was only in a few of the garden beds and not all!

MissyWeitzel

Juliarugula I'd like to have a long hard chat with whomever mulched all our beds with lava rock then covered that with landscape fabric and river rock. 😬

blown_dry

Juliarugula The person who live in this house before us put a rock mulch on top of the front yard beds, and then changed their mind and put more soil and tree mulch on top of that.

😱

calico20hill

My sympathies! I would want to hire someone else to deal with cleaning that up!

Juliarugula

This particular bed has been a thorn in my side ever since we bought this house. It’s full shade is the morning, full hot hot sun in the afternoon, low airflow due to a boxwood hedge on one side and the porch on the other, and highly visible as you approach the front door. Everything I’ve ever planted there looks terrible by the end of June. FINALLY I found a plant that works! My scented geranium collection did fabulous all year in this location! In a lot of ways, they aren’t the most picturesque of bedding plants, but I’m ok with that - they bring me a lot of joy every time I go to the front door.

calico20hill

Juliarugula Your scented leaf geraniums look great there...I also have mine along a walkway (in our case a ramp to a raised deck.). Mine are in a raised bed and I was just thinking this morning...how to I preserve my plants over winter? Do you root cuttings and take inside? I have cats that love to destroy plants so I could only keep them in my bedroom and 6 varieties would be real space hogs. I have a greenhouse but don't heat it in the winter and we do get a few very cold nights. Or I have a garage where I store my dahlia tubers but it would not be light enough for them to grow there.

Juliarugula

calico20hill this will only be my second winter with them, but last year what I did was to take cuttings before the first frost and put them in rooting trays. Then eventually moved them to 4” pots. Eventually took a few more cuttings from those cuttings. I’m really really really bad at keeping plants in pots alive, so these things are pretty darn tough. By the spring I had two 1020 trays worth of 4” pots to plant, so they actually didn’t take up that much space - I kept them in my bedroom under lights.

calico20hill

Juliarugula Hmmm, Maybe I could have a bedroom decked out in scented leaf geraniums over the winter...that would be awesome! It does have a bay window and is the only room where the cats are not allowed. OK, I think I will try this.

Justafewdahlias

Cosmos grown from seeds I saved last year

One has white stripes (hard to see photo was in full sun)

One is only curling its petals halfway. It is from the “seashells” cosmos mix. It gives the look of square petals and reminds me of an orchid type dahlia in a way. I keep thinking it will un curl but it doesn’t it stays in this shape. New cosmos form?

MissyWeitzel

Justafewdahlias could the curling in be heat or other stress or are all the flowers on that plant doing it?

SO funny you post this because I posted on my FB and IG the other day wondering if the frilly white cosmos flowers here are a new form. I have been saving and growing my own seed for a few years now but always also buy apricotta cosmos. The frilly white ones look like the shape of apricotta but I don't recall seeing that in a white cosmos and wondered if I should try selecting for it. Does anyone here know?

Justafewdahlias

MissyWeitzel It has been every flower I’ve cut off that plant. Just one plant is looking this way and it’s been like this all season. They joys of saving your own seeds 😂 The stripe one I haven’t paid attention to see if other ones of the plant have the stripe or not…..it’s hairs to wait for flowers to open when I’m in the habit of cutting cosmos before they open.

blown_dry

These nasturtiums caught my eye on the hummingbird fence. These are all volunteers and I think some don't climb and others do, but this was definitely a climber and it was really glowing on the shady side. I've got a few abutilons and oddball fuchsia things to add to this planting. Turns out hummingbirds love abutilons and they really like my climate and I like abutilons.

calico20hill

I have a recipe for a delicious Nasturtium Salad. I took it to a family picnic and it went over very well. I always mean to make it again but I didn't get around to it this year.

blown_dry

My husband took this on a mountain bike ride. So pretty!!

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