A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Your top performers

Howdy all I thought it would be interesting if we could all share our top performers this summer. May be you tried something for the first time and were impressed with how long it was in bloom, the fragrance it gave off, or the impact the color made in your garden. Which ones will you be sure to plant again next year?

The flower I was most impressed with was my cosmic orange cosmos. It may have had something with it being the first to bloom from seed I planted It's a great orange color, with tons of blooms and the flowers just keep on giving, as long as I keep them deadheaded.

Here's an early picture

That one will definitely be back next year

So, what was yours?

My is looking AWESOME....
The bright pink and lime green has been alot of fun..the kids can't keep thier hands off of it...

Looks awesome. My favorite this year was Touch-Me-Nots. I have had as much fun with watching their seed pods grow as I did watching them bloom up the stem. A definite keeper!

On another note, I have flowers that look a lot like yours and thought they were Single Orange and Yellow marigolds.


Weezie, that is cool. What is it? Lime Green? Okw e need to see that too!

Amaranthus....Love Lies Bleeding..

Ok I get it now. Pink flowers, lime green leaves. I really need some sleep!

Hey Triss, my neigbor gave me touch me nots this year...I'd never even heard of them before....had to look them up in my book...pretty neat plants though--and they were free!!!!

Cool plant Weezie!

And Mary...I love Cosmos....any kind of cosmos...mom has the orange ones...I have the pink and white ones...They are my favorite flower.

Have the pods started popping yet? Once they get to being a bit yellow, touch them CAREFULLY! I have already reseeded my garden without even trying

I haven't checked on them in a while...I'll have to go look tomorrow....does it hurt if they pop? Now I'm scared to touch them....LOL I'll probably have my eye taken out by a seed....My neighbor warned me that they reseed everywhere....I figured that was okay, it's more free plants...LOL

Okay, someone send me a picture of these???
Are they yellow jewel weeds???

These?????
Yellow Jewelweed/Impatiens pallida/Touch-Me-Not family (Balsaminaceae)

Amaranthus - that's going in my book for next year. What an awesome contrast of colors in that one!

Triss! I didn't get to send your lilac seeds today - the talk of touch me nots reminded me...I'll get them out tomorrow though, promise! Wow marigolds do look a lot like cosmos - I can't even find a difference in them - must be something I'm missing - even the leaves are almost identical. Did you plant yours from seed? Is it possible they were mis-id'd?

Loz I got kinda lucky with the cosmos - they were one of the packs I bought before I had any kind of clue about anything So, I guess I should add to the reasons I love em are that they were also reeeeeeeeeeally easy to grow.

FYI
Did you know, Cosmos' root along the stem...
So, if you start them from seed, and plant
them too deep, it won't hurt them, cause they
root all along it *the stem*

*Marigold's do this too and some lilies!!!!*

And the Amaranthus is tall,
can get up ther, mine is only about 3' tall
in those pictures..but can get taller,
I stunted mine by not planting them right away...

now I know what saved me! That's really cool to know. You do mean, once they're seedlings, if you plant too deep, right?

I thought the amaranthus was a chenille at first (hey, at least I was kinda sorta close) - do they get fuzzy flowers all along the stem, or is it just at the top? It's really pretty. Do they get leggy & have to be staked?

Nope, they have a nice sturdy stem,
as long as your dirt can hold them up..
:rolleyes:
I had planted mine in freshly sifted dirt
mixed with compost, cow manure with old sawdust and leaf mould...
and then it rained and rained, soft dirt,
soggy and a tall plant don't mix..
I thru a statue or two of some frogs under the
stem and everybodies standing up fine now,
the roots took hold...

You can see in the above picture,
the closest one is big and long,
and the one in the farther down the fence
is shaped different..
*I had 4 sets of them, they are all tall,
and each one has it's own charactoristic..

The long one's now, are drooping,
*they're kinda supposed to do that,
as the name, love lies bleeding,
and it droops, which cause's the plant
to want to flower more from the stems...

My gardens didn't fair well this year. The weather was at least a 100*C in the day and about 40-50*C at night. Everything is straggly and ugly. Even the hanging basket has given up and died.

Awwwe, sorry tamara!

Ok, I have to say...

YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, RIGHT? All the pics I've taken this year, and you want me to choose a favorite?! Are you



Ok, hmm.. ya know, my friend gave me a can of seeds from walmart, that was my wildflower patch. It did so much better than I could have hoped for. And it should reseed itself & come back next year! Wooo!







All were in the wildflower mix.. and more too.. I had others that bloomed earlier & faded when the other colors came out. It was wonderful!

Meg

Weezie, yes it is the same plant. I did not get yellow this year. Will have to find some. Here are mine.





Mine bloomed in 3 shades of pink plus white and purple.

On the marigold/cosmos, my plant was identified here. My cosmos are on much more ferny tupe of leaves where the marigolds are on leaves that look much like the other marigolds I have planted.

Here are my cosmos. See the difference in the leaves?


So are my orange ones really marigods or are they cosmos?

Definitely the portulaca. Easy care and blooms the longest. Problem being that they are annuals. The cannas although very late to start are still at it and for a perennial are definitely trying to give the portulaca a run for their money. If the marigolds hadn't gotten wiped out by spider mites they probably would have been in the running too. I really liked the maroon ones.

Is anyone detecting a patern here? Yep I like bunches of my flowers and will have them again next year with a little luck.

Meg, you have to ask?

I love your wildflower patch (sounds personal Sorry.) Did you turn the soil, add compost, kill the grass, or just plunk your seeds down in the spring? I have a spot I want to do that to next spring - just don't know how much work I want to put into it

Weezie - (eye fluttering graemlin) if ya get seeds for the love lies bleeding, can ya keep me in mind?

Triss, I'm really confused now. I'm sure mine are cosmos, it was a burpee seed package. I'm going to vote and say it's cosmos - may be pop it on the mystery thread again?

I've have to say the daylillies were more beautiful than usual this year.

WOW!

Meg

Those are absolutely gorgeous Sheri!!!

Are they doubles???

No. Not doubles. Just old time daylillies. They've been here a long time.