Lets see...

My "Uncharted Waters" daylilies did a nice showing, considering I just planted them this spring. I look forward to seeing them multiply. I didn't try too many new plants this year as I was more focused on renovations and doing major overhauls to the existing beds.

I did try amaranthus "Velvet Curtains" which I was really looking forward to, after seeing it in Sharon's pics...but they never grew more than a foot high (doesn't help that I started them a bit late, and then they got broken off twice by hail. They're still trying to make a comeback though...so I think I may try transplanting one or two to grow in the sunroom, just because I love the color of the foliage.
I'm still undecided on my Non-Ville DeLyon that I planted last year...definitly not a Ville...and it's bloom are much smaller, and don't last for very long...we'll see how it does next year in year three. My 'President' clematis has done absolutly nothing for the second year...only got two feet tall and never bloomed. Not sure what it's problem is since it's nestled on my south wall, with good root shade, moisture and drainage...I'm not to impressed with it. It's going to get one more year to show some signs of growth, or it'll be getting replaced with something else. Not sure what yet.

That's about it for this year. Next year I'm going to try my hand at WSing, and so I should have more to report on then. :-)

My garden all did surprisingly well overall, considering we had about 2 inches of rain all summer. I was watering but not religiously. The new arid plants did very well, Gaillardias, Alyssum saxatile, Shasta Daisies, Dianthus 'Arctic Fire'. I was also very impressed with Dianthus 'Snowdonia White'. The new roses did more or less ok, one Mme. Plantier was on an especially dry hill and didn't take off, but the other two Mmes. went nuts. I am moving them with me and I hope they survive the winter.

Most annuals were especially rampant this summer, nicotianas, phlox, salvias, tall snaps, and I had to pull out most of the marigolds because they were taking over. Annual Lobelia was awful, it hates hot and dry.

The veg. gardens were ok but I couldn't keep them watered enough so really only corn & potatoes did particularly well.

My garden did pretty well this year. My 'Cuthbert Grant' Explorer rose is doing very well and seems to not have the pest problems the other Explorers I have do. I am somewhat disappointed that my 'Lorraine Sunshine' Heliopsis didn't flower until now, last year it was flowering earlier, and the flowers are scarce. Maybe that's because it seeded all over the place! The anemone 'Robitussimo' is doing well but it changed colour and 'Whirlwind' didn't even come up until mid summer and only has 2 leaves now. Some of my hostas had a hard time making it this winter but they are all doing well now. My newest addition was 'David' phlox. For a plant that is supposed to be mildew resistant, right now it is covered in mildew. The big surprise in my garden was the 3 Sweet Autumn Clematis. They didn't even come up so I thought I had lost them. A week ago I decided to work up the bed and put in morning glories next year. Surprise! I found 3 clumps of healthy clematis roots. I'm hoping they do better next year. Marg

You know this year was a darn good year for gardening, I havenÂt had much failures this year, except for those darn cabbage moths/worms and slugs. Lots of holes chewed out in my shade garden and ornamental cabbages :(

Weather wise, I was very fortunate too this summer, we had sooooo many storms this summer that I missed all that heavy wind and hail. However, we could use more rain thou.
Oh yes, best of all, no late spring frost and so far, no early frost, gotta luv that!

The only letdown I would have to say is that it just seems that this growing season flew by so quickly this year. I donÂt know what it is, IÂm living my life as normal as other years, maybe IÂm just getting older and days are going faster? LOL

Anyways, best wishes for everyone that we have a long Indian Summer and awesome Winter again.;)

Sharon

Definately was an amazing gardening year!

As far as new stuff that did great? Amaranthus "Velvet Curtains", Painted Sage, and Dragonhead have been amazing this year. Lots of other things did good too.... too many to mention really! Gotta love that kind of year! Oh yeah, I am totally LOVING my "Choice Mix Asters" and making a mental note to grow/plant more next year.

On the downside, the Heavenly Blue Morning Glories got eaten down by something in the spring and has spent the entire summer trying to catch up without success. Also the Red Spider Zinnias didn't make the spectacular showing I thought they would make. They are cute though -- just not as showy as I had thought they would be.

Ang

I also would place Amaranthus 'Velvet Curtains' in the success column. Mine grew so tall I had to cut them back, but that just made them branch out more and look even better. I am going to plant them again next year, and will site them better now that I know what to expect from them.

Hostas, geraniums, daylilies and asiatic lilies were great also.

The biggest disappointment was the pansies. I wasn't the only one here who had the same experience, so I guess it was the weather. One big mistake I made was putting ribbon grass in some of my containers. I won't do that again.

I agree, Sharon, that the season just flew by this year.

Shauna, you witch! LOL I've been planning this exact thread for about three weeks now, but when i first thought about it, it was too early to start it. However, everyone will be grateful that they aren't posting to a thread entitled "Studs and Duds, 2006", which would have been what i called it! Hee hee hee!

So, okay, Studs for 2006:
The best by far has been Echinacea "Big Sky Sunrise". It started blooming the first week of July and hasn't quit since. I'd like to get "Big Sky Sunset" now and i sure hope that it performs the same. Other stars in the gardens - blue flax, delphiniums, rudbeckia, hollyhocks, lythrum, those beautiful pink fasciated lilies, the unknown rose i've had for years, morning glories, daylilies - omg, too many to count! It has been a great gardening year, and would have been even better if there was some rain!

Duds:
The astrantia i ordered from Vesey's never grew at all. One filipendula that was in the front garden looked promising but deteriorated into an ugly brown mess before too long. Irises - not one of the bearded irises bloomed this year. :( Monarda had only a few scraggly flowers. The worst thing this year were the wave petunias. The ones i started from seed seemed promising but got so ugly over the summer that they are, thankfully, compost now!

Sharon, how long has your growing season been this summer? We did have a late spring frost and then the killing one last week. Still, i estimate our frost-free period to be 111 days, or thereabouts. Not bad.

Shauna, i like my verbascum, but i don't like how it reseeds! Here a verbascum, there a verbascum, everywehere verbascum.... :D

Hey, I like "Studs and Duds" a whole lot better. I think that's one we should adopt every year.

I haven't had any luck, yet, with astrantia, either. And I have to claim limited success this year with my morning glories. Lots and lots of foliage and I did get a few flowers. I grew "Scarlett O'Hara" and they are really pretty. But, after getting the location right (in my veggie garden), I am suspecting that the soil might be just a bit too rich for them. But, at least they grew this year.

This sounds quite incredible, but so far Edmonton has had 142 days of f**** free days. The last f**** date this year was April 23, according to weather.ca. So far, no F**** here, yet. But I think we are going to get hit this weekend. Sighhhh.

Shauna

Shauna, where abouts at weather.ca do you find out your f**** free days?

My favorite new plant was Alstoemeria. My pots were and still are amazing. Amaranthus- Velvet Curtains was new for me as well. I will be growing this again.
I have to say that it was a great year for my flowers and my veggie garden. After having all the rain this spring, I was sure that everything would be a disaster, but the sun came out with some heat, and the rains came at the right time. We didn't have any frost or hail. It was an amazing summer actually. Too bad it is almost over.
I too am sure the F**** will be here soon. The forecast doesn't sound good. They aren't forecasting frost, but quite low tempatures with rain. The possibility is there.
Shelley

Sharon, there is a button to find historical data on your city/town page. I entered April 15 - May 30 and it showed the highest temp and the lowest temp between that time. It showed April 23 as having the lowest temp. Then I looked to see if there were any more frosts from April 23 to April 26, Apr 26 - 29, etc.

I am sure glad that we have all had so much luck with Amaranthus 'Velvet Curtains'. Except for the da** neighbour's cat that decided it made a really nice bed all the time, I had really good luck with it. My 'Love Lies Bleeding' was also really good, but not as tall as yours gets, Sharon.

Shauna

Well, it was a great gardening year here. The first year with the greenhouse was very sucessful. Lots of ripe tomatoes, peppers, cucs, squash and even some little cantelope...although I would have liked larger cantelope and more of them, I was still happy with what grew. Next year, I think I will arrange the stuff in the greenhouse a bit differently, though.

Out in the veggie garden, I think it was the best year yet. Larger beets than I have ever had before, which meant more beet pickles. :-) This was the first year that I used a lot of fresh herbs in cooking right from the garden. mmmm good. I grew them other years, just didn't use them much. I also would have liked to seen more cucumbers in the outside veggie garden. There some, but certainly not as many as other years.

The containers were full and spilling over....taking over the area in front of the greenhouse and along the fence. :-) I evenually had to move a couple of the containers to the other side of the house.....just so they didn't look so squished. The very large hanging basket, that was out front this year...did the best it ever has. I guess it had more sun on all sides of the basket, so it was huge.

It was the earliest I have ever seen dahlia flowers...so many. :O The begonias have flowered non stop. The new ones I bought this spring...must have been giants, they got sooooo big. LOL.

And even my pitiful annual phlox, decided to take off.....It still didn't look as lovely as Gil's pics but it had nice clumps of pretty flowers by the end of Aug.

The glads all flowered nicely...still a few flowers at the tips of some of them as I write this. There were two varieties, but the funny thing was they all bloomed at different times, within the same variety. I thought that a little strange, but it made the glad season longer, so not complaining. I might even save a hand full of corms from each variety.

I wasn't impressed with the elephants ears...each bulb only put out two leaves and the entire plant wasn't any taller than about a foot and a half tall. The one caster bean plant that I planted in the garden also only got to about a foot and a half tall. NOT VERY IMPRESSIVE.

Oh, I planted a large container with gazania and it didn't start flowering at all till last week. Now I have about 6 to 8 flowers.... Is this one of the plants that I shouldn't have fertilized? I also planted some pink cosmos in the back garden....these plants got 5 to 6 feet with strong stems and just started flowering about a week ago as well....they weren't fertilized at all....so not sure what that was about. LOL. The other varieties that I had stayed shorter and started blooming in July.

Well, thats my "Studs and Duds" for this year. LOL!

Sierra

Sierra, I start my Gazanias early indoors in March and they start to bloom around July, I do fertilize the ones in the container every other week, the ones in the rock garden donÂt get any.
The taller Cosmos do bloom later than the shorter varieties, next year try Cosmos Orange, theyÂre early and a knock your socks off orange.

Same with Castor Beans, in our zone they really benefit with an early indoor sowing, I start mine around April.
I grow them in rich soil and made sure they got a good weekly drink.

Sharon

Hmmmm, If I remember correctly, I started the the gazania indoors in Feb. I think I fertilized to much, as it got fertilizer once or twice a week until beginning of Aug. I ususually mix them in planters and they bloom all summer. Thats why I was surprised.

Same with the Castor Bean, it was started indoors early.... it was started in March....probably not enough water was the problem then. The planters get watered every second day....the gardens don't.

I have some shorter orange cosmos that bloomed well and were really pretty. Maybe the same as the ones you are talking about.

Thanks for the advice.....now to remember that for next year.

Sierra

Hey Sierra, good to hear you got the phlox dance down pat eventually! I saved a big bag of seeds from mine, I hope they are still "twinkly" the next year :0)

Oh, another thing with the looooong hot summer we have had (and are still having, it was +30 yesterday!), I forgot to plant my glads until the middle of June, and yet they actually finished blooming already!! LOL!

Studs and Duds, LOL, great term.

Although I don't normally plant a whole lot of annuals, it seems like every year I'm planting more of them than anything else.

Biggest hip hooray goes to Benary's Giant Zinnias. Even that horrid hail storm the third week of August didn't harm them much, and the couple of cold nights (light frosts) didn't stop them either. I just cut a whole bunch of blooms today (for an elderly lady who arranges them for the church) and I think they might even be nicer now than before. I like the mix of blooms - all nice colours. The plants are about 3.5' to 4' tall and the more you cut, the more they bloom. If you don't cut the blooms, they last a long, long time on the plant. I'll grow them again next year, probably twice as many.

Amaranthus Velvet Curtains - I've grown this for a couple or three years now and it certainly is beautiful. Mine never get big - maybe if I quit cutting them and give them half a chance...

Not happy with Amaranthus Green Thumb, though. Ugly little plants they were and got pulled up and tossed pretty early in the season for fear of more ugly little seedlings.

Dahlia Showpiece Mix from seed was hardly worth the trouble. They grew big and have lots of blooms but I'm still not very impressed. There's a single yellow and a double hot pink that I may try to save the tubers, but the rest aren't very nice colours. The whites are muddy almost immediately, and the corals look washed out. Won't grow them again.

Annual asters - nice enough but I had to do daily patrols to pick off little green worms that chomp their way thru the blooms, and then a few of the plants were affected by aster yellows and others by rust, even though I was careful about not watering from overhead. I can't recall for certain, but I think it was Pommax Mix. Maybe I'll try the Choice Mix next year seeing as Ang is happy with hers this year.

Dianthus Amazon Neon Duo (first year blooming Sweet William) - awesome, vibrant colours. Too bad the seed is so pricey or I'd grow a whole lot more of it.

For perennials, another Dianthus - D. amurensis Amur Pink was started from seed in the spring and started to bloom a few weeks ago. We'll see how it performs but I really like the bigger flowers.

Delosperma congesta (ice plant) - I can't believe how much colour from such diminutive little plants. I started it last year and this is the first year blooming. Hopefully it continues to winter.

Another little rock garden plant, Campanual tridentata, is another stud - a wee little one but great all the same (size doesn't matter, right? LOL)

I too tried the ÂCosmic Orange cosmos for the first time. I was impressed with how easy they were to start from seed (just as easy as marigolds). I think they may come in other colors too. My only mistake was too much orange in my flower bed, marigolds, zinnias, rudbeckia. Oh well, itÂs all nice and if any summer was the perfect one for "hot" colors, this was it.

A dud for me was the Âqueeny purple smaller hollyhocks. At first the blooms seem to be mixed into the foliage. Then, they got some hollyhock type of disease so look half dried up. I read they might be more of an annual, but I will leave them and see if they return next spring.

I donÂt know why I grow allysum, perhaps it was because I was getting tired of lobelia. Anyways, they had their usual mid summer slump then picked up again recently. It was a bad year for pansies here too, just too warm and dry. The cucumbers suffered too. I tried to water regularly but fell short of that.

Oddity: I started a Chinese catalpa (catalpa ovata) from seed in April, transplanted it in July and it started blooming. Gardens North catalogue said they may bloom as early as the second year from seed, but this was the first year!

Maybe it was due to a combination of factors or a delayed reaction from the soggy summer last year, but I noticed my ÂBrabant cedars have really put on a lot of growth over the past year. They had just a bit of thin growth reaching over the six foot fence, now the tallest one is reaching two feet above and getting thicker. This is great because it gives me privacy.

My roses did good this year as well. Wpg Parks, Miss Sunrise, Lambert and Jens all bloomed repeatedly, even though Jens Munk got a major trimming.

Anyways, all in all a great summer.

Glen