Showing posts with label Philadelphus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philadelphus. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Gardening via internet. 1.21.14


Anxiously awaiting the ForestFarms order - 3 new varieties of sterile Buddleia, a Philadelphus lewisii, and 2 varieties of hebes.  All for the pollinating insects.  Some, I hope, for honeybees.

Vancouver, WA, United States01/21/20146:58 A.M.Out For Delivery
01/21/20146:53 A.M.Arrival Scan
Portland, OR, United States01/21/20146:32 A.M.Departure Scan
01/21/20144:54 A.M.Arrival Scan
Roseburg, OR, United States01/21/20141:27 A.M.Departure Scan
Roseburg, OR, United States01/20/201410:44 P.M.Arrival Scan
Grants Pass, OR, United States01/20/20149:28 P.M.Departure Scan
01/20/20147:20 P.M.Origin Scan
United States01/20/20147:24 P.M.Order Processed: Ready for UPS
These days a lot of my garden comes via internet. Probably, most.  That is despite my philosophy that local provenance is so important. And my hope that people can pass good, locally adapted, varieties on to friends and neighbors.

It's frustrating to go to a local nursery, and see that everything appears shipped in, some items inappropriate for the area.  Like tropicals here in the NW, or invasives, and even some illegal invasives.  Or to be given inappropriate or just plain wrong information.  At one local nursery, I was told pawpaws don't need a pollinator - wrong - and there are no paw paw cultivars - wrong, and there are no persimmon cultivars - wrong.

Image source vintageprintable.com
So using the internet, I can research, ponder, explore, sort through reliable info and more just-plain wrong, and obtain what I think will do best.  Ultimately, it will still be up to me to see what does well and what does not grow, or isn't worth the effort.

Some negatives of internet gardening -
You don't get to sort through the plants and pick the best looking one for purchase.
You don't know how big it will be.  I've received some tiny starts at high prices.
Shipping can damage some plants - although I've been lucky, almost everything has arrived in good shape.
Gratification is not instant.  Although, sometimes it's pretty fast.
There is risk it will sit in the sun wilting, or in the cold freezing, if the order comes when I am at work.
Generally, you can't buy it, or see it, in bloom, in person, before buying.
A lot of plant pictures are highly selective, such as just the flower, so you don't know what the plant will look like.
Some bad players on the internet spam mercilessly, once they get your email address

Image source:  vintageprintable.com

Some positives of internet gardening -
It's like christmas coming home to a package of plants or plant starts.
I can mull over a plant or tree or seeds, over and over, for a long time, before actually buying it.
Research likely sorts out some duds that might actually be bought on impulse.
You are not limited to one source.
You can find many varieties that are not available locally, even if they would be well suited.
You can support companies whose philosophy you like, such as seed savers and venders of heritage varieties.
You can really shop around on price.

Image source:  vintageprintable.com
Some learnings about internet gardening.
Go to Daves Garden for info on the vender.  Some are just plain crooked, others have bad products or bad customer service, ship way slowly, send dead, dying, or not thriving material.
Once there is someone I like, and have good experience, I like to use them again.
Once I have a bad experience, think twice, three times, 4 times, before using them again.
Really read to know the size of the plant.  I don't mind it being small, but too small at high price is disappointing.

On that Forest Farms order - last year I liked the Linden I bought from them.  I could not find a similar one locally.  It was nicelyn packaged, and shipped on time.  The tree was in good shape.  This order, the plants will be smaller, but in the case of the Buddleias, are legal, noninvasive, very fast growing, and I couldn't find those varieties locally.

Update.  Here they are.
Forest Farm Shipment
 Very nicely packaged.  No damage at all.  Not a single broken twig.  The shrubs are dormant, but they look healthy and ready to plant.

They are larger than I expected.  This is an A+ shipment.
Opened

Unwrapped

The "tube" plants are interesting.  They are planted in paperboard tubes.  The tubes look like they degrade easily.  Better than plastic - more environmentally friendly.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

January Gardening. Move this here to there. 1.18.14

No photos today.

To get my mind off what is not mentioned here.....

We planted too much in the Vancouver yard.  It's been a jungle.  In 2012 I moved many trees and shrubs and perennials to the new Battleground place.

Today I moved a few more...

One Nandina.

Two small lilac bushes.  Several years ago, we planted a lilac hedge.  They were tiny.  Some are bigger, but some are too shaded and have too much competition, and are still small.  Today I moved those to Battleground.  More room, more sun, less competition.

I bought a Mock Orange, Philadelphus "Natchez" at Portland nursery.  They don't have much yet.  This was left over from last year.  So bigger than what will replace it there in a month or two, but more root bound.  I cut the roots as I usually do, before planting.  Philadelphus has a reputation as a bee forage plant.

I also dug up mini-dwarf Honeycrisp apple.  That tree (bush) broke off 2 years ago when I did not thin apples and they weighed down the tiny tree and broke it off.  I pruned off below the break.  Two new trunks developed, above the graft so stil Honeycrisp.  They grew nicely.  I plan to graft one trunk, maybe Jonagold.  The other will remain Honeycrisp.  Maybe I will graft something else and let it grow below the graft, for a 3-variety tree.   Undecided.

I also dug up volunteer lavenders, and dug out a half-barrel of Chinese chives.  They need regenerating.  I want to plant them tomorrow in a raised bed.

Almost forgot - took some cuttings from Hardy Chicago fig.  Started as usual with scrubbing, incision, dip-and-grow, moist paper towel in plastic bag, and a label.  Assuming they grow - experience says they will  - there will be one for Battleground, and several to give away.

Thursday, January 02, 2014

Shrub Order. Trial for Bee Forage and Deer Resistance. 1.2.14

I placed an order from forestfarms.com.  I want to try some additional shrubs for bee forage and deer resistance.

The sterile Buddleias grew very nicely last year.  By far the fastest growing shrubs in the yard, bloomed later into the summer and fall, and deer didn't touch them.  We want to fill in between them, for a hedge.  I want multicolored flowers.  Currently, the hedge consists of Buddleia X Flutterby Peach Cobbler (3) and Blueberry Cobbler (1); Miss Ruby (1) and a yellow unknown I suspect is Buddleia globosa.

Image Source: wikipedia Buddleia "Honeycomb"
 To fill in the Buddleia hedge, I ordered one sleeve of Flutterby Vanilla (off white), two sleeves of Honeycomb (yellow), and one sleeve of Asian Moon (purple).  Combined with the current varieties, that will make a good color mix.  They grow so fast, the sleeves - small starts - should fill in fine and bloom this year, and next year catch up with the older shrubs.

The down side for the sterile Buddleias, so far, is they can look weedy, and the early flowers on the long flower clusters dry up and turn brown, before the last flowers open.  Which can look shabby, unless they are deadheaded despite the unopened end flowers.

Image source:  Wikipedia Philadelphusn
I also ordered 2 sleeves of Philadelphus lewisii - Mock orange.  Mock oranges are considered excellent bee attractants.  The single-flowered ones are considered more bee friendly than modern double ones.  They are native.  They are reported as variably deer resistant.

And 2 Hebe hybrids.  No photo - not available in public domain.  Hebes are also thought to be good bee forage and deer resistant.  They will go into the bee garden.