A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Jacobs ladder....

Anyone have any luck growing them in the sun? zone 4

Is the word "sun" the key word??

I have them..

Most are in shade, or dappled shade..
But I had one in the sun..
and it would still be there, but I let the area
over grow and some aggressive phlox took over..

The plant re~seeds for me...
only in the sun...
*not in the shade..
but both places that are in the shade are tough places to be...
and no dirt... on those two areas I have chopped leaves, the other has a ton of pineneedles that fall..

I had Jacobs Ladder last yr. Though it didn't come back this yr.

The plant it self, can be short lived sometimes..
but should reseed..
If not, collect the seeds and make
sure when planting the seeds yourself
the seeds land on top of soil, and don't cover..

When I was new to gardening... and I had gotten a Jacob's Ladder as one of the slue of new plants to my gardening repertoire...

I was meticulous about weeding and I had composted around that area with some old horse and bunny manure from my old farm on the hill...
and I had suspected weed seeds in it..
so, every year, I pulled up weeds around the Jacob's Ladder faithfully...
Well, I was pregnant and had a C~section and for 2 years after that I didn't feel right, but long story short, my weeding didn't get done as much as I liked.. but... my slow in weeding produced a beautiful supply of new baby seedlings from my Jacob's Ladder...

AND THOSE WERE THE BABIES I'D BEEN WEEDING ALL ALONG.. :rolleyes:
so, moral of the story, sometimes you learn the darnest things by being slow or way~layed!!!

The babies didn't look like the momma plant...
The leaves were totally different, until the second set of leaves or true leaves appeared..
and tha'ts how I knew I'd been weeding babies...

I've always been afraid I'm doing that too.