You bet! It's considered a "woody" plant so it should do just fine in the spring. Prune it back to about 5" and be sure to fertilize it in the early spring.

Well, the seed and bulb catalogues are rolling in and we're still enjoying the tomatoes and peppers we put up from last year's garden.



Hard to believe, but spring will come someday. Are the rest of you thinking about what you're going to do this year? I can't wait till the ground thaws.

Getting ready for my seeds! I bought 3 varieties of small zinnias...going to try them instead of gazanias in my containers.

I bought 3 colors from Park
Fire
orange
white

25 seeds each. I'll start them indoors in late March or early April.

Gotta get my lights ready first. Haven't done indoors in a while

I ordered a bunch of seeds from Burpee this year: tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber, impatiens, purple wave petunia, moonflower... Our youngest son knows the botany professor from NIU. He's going to get some custom hybrid tomato plants just for our area!

I'm planning on doing mostly container gardening this year unless the boys want to remove the sod from my old garden patch and we can put extra tomatoes out there.

I think most of the rabbits are gone due to the growing hawk population in our area. I only saw one rabbit this winter and we normally have at least three of them living under our deck even in the cold weather.

I'd like to add....

I found many more varieties on the WEBSITE of Park's compared to the catalog.

So you all might want to look online too. They have more than
they illustrate in the catalogs because of costs, I think.

There are some seed deals on Ebay. Some are very inexpensive.
But not all of them are. So look there too.
I bought some bulk wildflower Oxeye daisies and black eyed susans for very very little money. I am going to sow these where the city destroyed the little garden I do on their property, fixing our water mains last year.

But some of the Ebay cultivars were actually more than Park seed! So look around before buying!

Ebay was my only source of Lychnis (rose campion) and Silene, which I like to naturalize too. The big seed companies don't carry either.

Mrs D, have you ever sprouted hibiscus seeds? I gathered seed from my Disco Belles Hibiscus (hardy) and I'd love to try growing them. Any tips?

Also, I ordered a set of 5 hardy hibiscus in pinks, reds and a white. These are supposed to go (from smallest) about 4' to (tallest) 5 or 6'! YAY! Gonna plant them in the new bed toward the side of the road where people walk past all the time.



I was thinking of underplanting with either snapdragons or petunias.

I had to look this one up.

It appears that the seed coat on these seeds is thick.
I found some gardeners on the net and they recommend:
1) soak overnight in water then push into your seed starting mix and cover. 2-3 weeks.

OR
2) lightly sandpaper with very fine sandpaper, the outer coat and do the same.

If you do not prepare the seed, it can take 2 to 3 months to
germinate.

Transplant when there are 4 true leaves.

This is what Thompson Morgan says to do:
http://www.tmseeds.com/product/6715.html

I've never done them, but I have done other seeds with tough coats. Daylily is one example. Iris is another.

There is a way to overwinter the seeds outside, but I think that time has passed.

Thanks! I'll let you know how I do. I'm not very good w/ seeds though, so it'll be a major victory if anything happens.



With daylilies, I just dry the seeds on a shelf in the shed and plant them right in the flower bed. I started with 3 dl's, now I have 9. About half are hybreds - which is easy to do - just rub a flower from one plant onto the flower from another, then mark that flower and let it go to seed. (I tie a string loosely around the stem)

BTW, my crocus are blooming!

I see tulip, daff and hyacinth leaves. Johnny jump ups, tick seed, snapdragons and hollyhocks are turning green.

Ohhh, I'm going to love it here!!! Thanks for this thread, this is my passion! So so so excited, like a silly little kid!
I tell my DH, don't buy me jewelry, make-up, kitchen stuff, for my birthday....just buy me pallets of rock, dirt, & plants.

I do have one question on the dang roses....I live in the sandhills of NC. NOTHING but sand. I have planted quite a few roses, none do good. I have tried planting directly into the sand, also amending it with organic matter, all the way to opening up a 40lb bag of compost garden soil & poking holes into it at the bottom, bury the whole bag & plant in that...But the BEST roses I have are the ones I accidently left in their pot, inside a rubber container that is filled with rainwater Most the time?? Those are some "wet feet"

Why? Will this last? It's been 2 years now & plan on leaving it there as a test!

I grow in containers on vacation because the rocks there eat up any soil I put down. So I grow in containers.

Containers or at least a raised bed may help.
Not only water filters away in sand. FOOD/nutrients do too, and roses are heavy feeders! Too much nitrogen (first number) makes for bushiness and fewer flowers. Not enough phosphate slows blooms too(middle number).

I can't grow roses here because I don't have much sun.
So maybe some rose growers will show up here.