Susan!! I need your design services in my garden! Breathtaking.

@susan9santabarbara omgosh that doesn’t even look real! Not doubting you at all, just totally in awe. You’re clearly a talented gardener.

@sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish) We always want what we can’t have, eh? And thank you for the blog recommendation, it’s beautiful and totally relevant for me.

@Elestrial 7a I’m trying my hand at lithianthus for the first time and it is totally a lesson in patience. I’ve started all my flower seedlings and the stock & snapdragons are literally trying to escape their humidity domes while mayyyybe if I squint and use a magnifying glass I can start to see eensy weensy little green specs. Yours are stunning.

judi, thank you for mentioning Brass Band. It's available here and I'm most probably going to get it as it gets so many favourite votes and is rated excellent on HMF.

I was going to comment earlier on Markay’s beautiful True Sincerity! it looks like a watercolor painting!! lovely combinations as well!

Elestrial, I’ve heard so many good things about Rozane but I believe on most websites it is up to zone 8 and I’m 9a :( i do have some plants that are zone 8 because until very recently I was still in zone 8b, but I didn’t want to kill them right out of the gate.

One of my family members had Laura Bush Petunias which shockingly bloomed all summer and up until our first Frost this January!! They ordered me a seed packet. I had purple Supertunias but after spring they fried in the sun. I’m not sure if she had them in a desirable spot where they thrived or if they are really that heat tolerant but I hope to find out. I’d like a low mounding purplish colored flower at the base of my plants like that.

where are the Clematis enthusiasts at? I need large single flowered lavender and a large flowered dark purple.

Susan, what an absolute dream you have right there!! crazy beautiful.

I love everyone’s unique styles and approaches so much

Echo, thank you for mentioning the Laura Bush Petunias. That’s another new one for me and I looked them up right away. There are some high recommendations for them as being able to stand up against both heat and cold better than modern hybrids. I’ve never been a big fan of petunias personally, but these have more of a natural, old fashioned air and the rich purple would look good with anything. I think they’d look good in hanging baskets too. I will be adding them to my list of plants to try!

Judi, we will be trying them together :)

I also went ahead and bought Mysty salvia and Starry eyes at your recommendation so I am very much looking forward to this Spring. It is helpful to bounce these ideas off of people who live in warm climates and have tried them already.

SD Shine, they are so tiny for so long - makes sense why people generally prefer buying them in plugs vs starting from seed. Which ones did you get?

Echo, Laura Bush petunias look pretty! I didn't realize the supertunias don't handle the heat well

I believe the Supertunias are supposed to handle heat well. but this was dry, high heat up to like 109, with almost all day direct sunlight. it was very brutal. I had them in the sunniest hottest spot in my yard. I’ll try them again somewhere else. Spring to Early summer they were fine. Vincas are my best bet for annuals here. All the subdivision landscapers use them. They are tough as nails. I even found a cute little subtype with smaller blooms, seen here in pink. Not sure the name, but I will be on the lookout this year for them.

Echo, here are a couple of pics of my Prince Charles clematis trained along the fence of my front yard corral.

Oops, I forgot about General Sikorski clematis climbing into Shockwave tree

This is indeed a good thread. This is the last year that I intend to struggle with getting floribundas to grow; if they fail to thrive again this summer (getting that creeping- black finger-of -death sindrome in August in spite of my efforts at shading , watering, and this year, spraying),I'm ripping them out and going for perennials! and self-sowing, easy annuals. I found two seed sites that look promising-one for perennials ,another with a lot of annuals. This latter site has a vast selection of snapdragons, which interest me a lot,since I see them growing uncultivated here in Italy in stone walls. That means at least some of them must be pretty tough and drought-tolerant.

I posted on the other thread of this title so I'll duplicate it here and add some comments.

Lovely picture of the Nieremburgia! I am a fan of Victoria Blue Salvia since it makes so many other colors play nicely together, and roses don't come in a true blue. I also plant coral impatiens around the base of the coral/white/burgundy bed in front of my house, and lilac pink impatiens in a relatively shady area of the yard with shade-tolerant roses. I use a lot of Persian Shield (strobilanthes) as an annual in relatively part shade areas that really lightens up the purple/dark green tones and "blooms" when nothing else has much color in August.

I wish I could maintain the larkspur or alyssum or snapdragons that other people grow, but mine refuse to establish. I do put some dark red snapdragons in with the burgundy etc. front bed, but they bloom periodically.

Of course every bed has daylilies to fill in when the roses are taking a break, and I love phlox for the same reason. Shadier beds have coral bells and hostas and hydrangeas. Clematis does fabulous in my zone so it tends to get its own support, as most vines could overwhelm most of my roses. Front hot sun beds get filled in with agastache and Gaura for a relatively wild look, and of course I need mums and asters for the fall season.

I have a lot of the purple "Grandma's bonnet" columbine that self seed nicely and politely plus a few white or regular blue ones. I keep several butterfly bushes in various beds and hydrangeas. I have one Annabelle hydrangea that is the size of a minivan and is a gift that keeps on giving. For groundcover I like the Silver Beacon lamium that spreads politely and has a lovely silver sheen with spring pink blooms.

I'm known in my neighborhood more for my bulbs than my roses, though I have 100s of roses. I have 1000s of bulbs and replant tulips every fall. My philosophy is every inch that doesn't have another plant needs a bulb. Planting bulbs in the fall leaves me looking like I wrestled with 20 rabid cats from reaching under roses to plant bulbs.

Realize of course that mixed in all those bulbs are 100s of roses pruned down in the spring...

Cynthia

Truly impressive Cynthia!!!! gorgeous

Susan, love your clematis. They are the perfect colors for me!

I decided on Ramona clematis and also Etoile Violette at the recommendation of another gardener. Ordered from Brushwood where I purchased my other two clematis. Hoping they do well!

Echo, I just bought Etoille Violette last fall! I planted it to climb with Perfume Breeze on an arbor. The other side of the arbor has Lavender Crush. I’m so excited to see how your Etoille Violette grows for you in Texas. We can compare notes as they grow. I can’t remember where I ordered mine from but it was a small plant, so hasn’t done much yet. Hopefully it takes off this spring.

Wow, Judi that sounds absolutely stunning!! i cant wait to see! I hope it takes off well for you. Brushwood is expensive, but the plants are 1 gallon sized and have been really impressed in the past. So many pretty things to look forward to!

Pardon the grass that i need to pull out of this bed (it drives me crazy and I can never get it all out!!!) but my Mystic spires salvia in the background, nepeta at the front and a dwarf salvia also in the front is starting to pop! russian sage is also to the left (not flowering yet) but hopefully when everuthing is blooming ane mature it will be waves of purple 💜

I need to go back and read to catch up on this thread.

Does anyone here grow Agastache?? I know it probably likes drier climates than mine but I ordered two lol. One is Apricot Sprite and the other is Rosie Posie. Does anyone have pictures of their Agastaches? Growing Tips?

I am trying them in the vertical Greenstalk Planter and when/if they reseed, I will throw seeds into my raised veggie beds. I am planting them up high, on the top tiers of the vertical planters, so the cats wont be tempted to get hummingbirds lol. I planted some seeds as well but they havent came up yet.

I also just ordered some African Blue Basil and Pineapple Sage.These I have grown often before. Last year I had a 5ft tall and wide- African Blue Basil and I forgot about taking cuttings before it froze (then snowed lol) The ABB is a huge hit here with our bees. I already have bees this spring looking for it! Honeybees and Carpenter Bees are flocking to the area I had the ABB in last fall. They see me outside go to the area then come buzz me, then go straight back to where the ABB was!! We have had hummingbirds buzz us to refill the feeders but never bees! We did have a hummer that would fly into my hubbys garage if he left the door open and sit on top of the florescent light and watch him. It was the funniest thing.

African Blue Basil

Pineapple Sage (a tall salvia that smells like pineapple) you can put the leaves in tea or some people bake the leaves on muffins or cakes etc.

This turkey liked to snack on a few blossoms.

Sultry, I grow Agastache. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with it. My best one so far is Desert Solstice, but then, I live in a hot, dry climate. I have Blue Boa as well and it gets kinda ratty for me. The stems are really brittle at the base, so my cats and dogs are constantly messing them up. I still love agastache just because they are so tough and come back reliably year after year for me. I would love to try several of the varieties that are highly rated, such as Rosie Posie and Morello. Pink Pearl is a newer one out on the market and really appeals to me.

Thank you Judi! I really debated ordering agastache because I know I dont have the best climate for it. We are having a horrible wet spring so I am hoping that means a hot dry summer! Really just a dry summer but that would be wishing for too much lol. I looked up your Desert Solstice Agastache. It is a really pretty pink! I saw High Country Gardens has a lot of agastache plants. They have sooo many pretty ones! I ordered my two from etsy and it has really been hit or miss, with etsy for me this year. This seller has good reviews so we will see.

I have some Navajo Sunset & Apache Sunset seeds that I havent planted yet from Baker Creek.

Agastache are also pretty easy to grow from seed and they bloom in the first season from seed! Swallowtail seeds has some nice varieties.

Sultry, High Country Gardens is where my Desert Solstice came from. They are a good company.

Markay thanks, I will have a look. I like Swallowtail seeds. I usually buy zinnias and cosmos seeds from them. I actually get better germination from them than a lot of other companies.

Judi, I was confused at first because I was thinking that High Country Gardens was the same company as High Country Roses (that I do like). I guess not haha. I am glad to hear that High Country Gardens is also a good resource. I forgot which agastache seeds that I already planted. I put them in the greenstalk. I will have to look at the tag.

Judi, you could try the Mango Tango or Apricot Sprite to go with your orange flowered rose bed. I am into orange flowers right now!

Another topic: A flower I miss growing is Cleome! I never see anyone posting about them. I used to grow pink, lavender, & white cleomes. They do get fairly tall and need to go towards the back of the border but butterflies etc loved them. The big box stores at my old house (East coast of N FL) had them out every spring. I haven't seen any here. I haven't tried them from seed before.

Judi, thanks for the tip about High Country Gardens! I just ordered some glad bulbs from them. They do have some terrific agastaches, too… but rather pricey. I’ll go look at my local nursery and if I can’t find what I want there, I’ll try High Country Gardens. Next year — from seed!

I ‘m lucky that neither of our present dogs have a hankering for bulbs. Our beloved departed terrier, Desmond, couldn’t leave them alone—dug ‘em up as soon as I planted them. I hope he’s feasting on bulbs in Doggie Heaven.

Sultry, Blue Boa Agastache is my go-to one. I ordered Blue Boa, Heronswood Mist, and Black Adder Agastache from Annies several years ago, but the Blue Boa was the one that seems to love my climate. The other two eventually croaked. Blue Boa is constantly in bloom, plus, it re-seeds like crazy. Which can be a bit of a problem, but I don't think I'll ever need to buy another plant of it! My climate is medium humid (~2 miles from the coast), but not hot. I haven't tried any non-blue/purple ones, since that is the color I crave most. BTW, I also love African Blue basil!

Sylvia, thats so crazy about your little dog, Desmond, loving to eat up your bulbs! I haven't had any dogs that did that but we have plenty of other critters who definitely do (feral pigs, possums, armadillos, etc), or would do it (our own domestic pigs), given a chance lol.

Susan, Blue Boa, Heronswood Mist (What a romantic name!) and Black Adder all look beautiful. I do like the blues too! Its interesting that some of the agastaches say they have anise scented leaves and some have rootbeer scented leaves. I read one has a rose-mint scented foliage. I gather the flowers are also scented but a different scent from the leaves?

I grow lots of different kinds of basil besides the African Blue Basil. I let some flower and go to seed. The pollinators love those basil flowers as well. I just thought I would mention that one could grow any kind of basil for bees if they can't find the ABB for sale. My lemon basil grew into little shrubs kind of like the ABB does. One year I grew a ton of them and they reseeded (or maybe birds dropped the seeds) all over the front yard in random places the next spring. I just let them be and we had so many bees and butterflies on the flowers and birds coming to eat seeds that year. They were pretty drought tolerant in the sandy soil we had then. The lemon basil is also good for tea or flavoring fish or chicken dishes etc.

Sultry, i have grown Blue boa. I really prefer the look of it, but the bloom time for me was much shorter than for the salvia. I have sprinkled salvia everywhere and it just blooms all season for me and always looks lush.

You guys have me rethinking some of my spaces and they really need more flower power. More delphiniums, more Foxglove and more Dahlias, more height.

Sultry, I am considering one of the Orange Agastaches for my orange bed, but haven’t ordered any yet. I can’t figure out why I never see any agastaches in nurseries around here. They love this climate and are so tough and drought resistant and so beautiful, so I would think they would be popular here. I have ordered all of mine so far. Are you saying your African Blue Basil gets 5 ft tall??? I had no idea. I’ve seen several people post how much they love it and wanted to try some, but wasn’t prepared for something that huge.

How long do agastache bloom for y’all? do y’all cut them back to keep them blooming?

Yes they can get quite tall and wide here, due to all the rain and humidity I guess lol. The good news is, you can cut them back and they will still bloom. So you can keep them on the shorter side if you need to. Like most shrubby plants, cutting back makes them branch out more which means more branches which means more flowers for the pollinators.

Also, I always pinch all my basil varieties back when they are little. Once they are about 8 inches high, you can pinch/snip off the top stem back to a few sets of leaves. This will encourage bushiness. Of course, if you are growing basil for pesto you would keep pinching the flower stalks off to keep the leaves going as long as possible.

You can do it to zinnias and other flowers too.

I already trimmed the top leaves off my zinnias to make them wider. I was really crazy and planted mine in late Feb, so some already had over 6 leaves. it was a gamble that appears to have paid off. Yes, I don’t let my basil go to seed to keep the leaves for cooking. but for example, my salvia will get tall but continue flowering even if I dont trim them. My salvia will flower from the time they leaf out in spring until first frost whether I shape them or not. I shape my nepeta, blackfoot daisies, and russian sage, but they too will keep flowering most of the warm season. I deadheaded my black eyed susans and my coneflowers and they will give a second flush of blooms which will usually give them about 8 weeks of blooming. but my agastache was probably only month or so, despite trimming off the spent flowers once. I grew them for two seasons but only got one short flush of blooms both times. maybe it’s some other factor but thank you for helping me

Sultry, the Agastache leaves are definitely fragrant, but I'm not sure how to describe them... I guess a combo of anise and root beer and mint is close... strongly herby? I regularly cut the spent blooms off, and they bloom pretty constantly from spring through fall. If Annie's was still around, I'd probably try another of Heronswood Mist and Black Adder, because they were beautiful too. My African Blue basil rarely gets larger than 12-18", but I grow them in pots. I also deadhead them regularly to encourage new growth so I can make new cuttings (sometimes I forget) and they rebloom like crazy too. I use regular basil for cooking, but honestly I don't use all that much, so the blooms are a top goal for me for the bees and butterflies. Mystic Spires is my favorite salvia. It's so interesting to look at the zones of the folks commenting here and their varying results: hot dry, hot humid, mod. humid cool-ish.

Judi, I never see agastache in the nurseries here. I almost never see salvias either. Sometimes Lowes etc has salvias. I miss the nurseries where we used to live they carried more. If I drive to Tallahassee there are good nurseries there but its quite the drive so I mostly order stuff online. The Apicot Sprite and Pineapple Sage should arrive today. They are starter size plants (small). If they look good, I will reveal the source haha. They were fairly cheap.

Echo, glad the early planting this spring has worked out for you. I should have started everything earlier. My tomatoes this year, are way behind. We had a crazy 5th of never, snowstorm this winter and it was so unusually cold, I just didnt start everything when I knew I should have lol. That's my story and Im sticking to it :) Its sounds like you have a lot of nice flowers for pollinators. I need to plant some coneflowers in my new garden. I still have my Amistad & Ember's Wish salvias. I planted some ither salvia seeds in a greenstalk. We will see if they come up. I did plant one Nepeta seed Mix called Grandview. I have some reg Catnip seed that just came up. Its impossible to keep Catnip for long with our barn kitties. They always find it and destroy it. This time I put in up in the Greenstalk😆. We will see how long it takes till they find it and figure out how to get to it, haha!

Susan, I looked up Mystic Spires. It is beautiful and sound like a good salvia for pollinators. It is fun seeing what all everyone is growing in different climates. It does seem like there is quite a bit that will grow almost everywhere.

I just bought two of the disk-shaped hummingbird feeders with the built in ant moats. They come apart for cleaning very easily. My old one like it got broke so I will be glad to have this style again. I have fancier feeders but they are harder to clean. I like the ant moats because we have fire ants here which are very aggressive trying to get in the bird feeders etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Jiacenird-Hummingbird-Feeders-Leak-Proof-Cleaning/dp/B094R1P1DH/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?adgrpid=163568594830&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.kSgC44wIIVEuSHmr3B6xVUPqy4whrRHiATPQANFKUOjyQUfPrYo1VeMY0G8p0wU6JnIoi8EvH17szMtFLLoCKqrpy8QnrdWsfvKQXVizlLDd5Hib0wKPKsgjcZ1mcP1QL50xJGCaODKgyiVm0_SsdprDM-YxewuIf01aAYup_qVQmVLYxUYGXJuggI1WoPwhcjiuxyuGw7Zbadr1SCLuYQ.zUPbZlbJoWTacHOcRZE89KWg1ulEXEJD4ZRwjUyAlA4&dib_tag=se&hvadid=692996476723&hvdev=m&hvexpln=68&hvlocphy=1015231&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=12849222460205428024--&hvqmt=e&hvrand=12849222460205428024&hvtargid=kwd-356429041145&hydadcr=17219_13422503&keywords=amazon+hummingbird+feeder&mcid=72cfc324af513b609e88b5b9d2180f5b&qid=1743606307&sr=8-12

Update: The Pineapple Sage & Apricot Sprite Agastache just arrived from Etsy. The seller is Gingers Greenhouse. These are starter plants so I expected them to be small. They look really good and have decent roots. Pineapple sage leaves smell divine! I have missed this plant! Agastche smells minty with a hint of Root Beer! These will go into small pots and out on my patio in slanted morning sun for several days. I have empty hanging baskets on the porch eaves that I use to put my mail order plants in, while they get acclimated. Then I plant them in more sun.

prices were: Golden Pineapple Sage $8, Agastache $9 shipping for both =$5.50, tax $1.09 So total was $23.59 If you watch etsy and put things in your cart and wait, sometimes the sellers will send you coupons for 10% off or more. They also have sales. Most of the time I have good luck with etsy and ebay. I am very picky and read reviews lol.

roots

How do you regulate the spacing between a floribunda rose, for example, and a companion?

I think the rule of thumb is to keep 24”” between the roots of roses and companion plants. For myself, I vary that a good bit based on what kind of companion plant I am putting next to a rose. Something more delicate like geranium that crawls and twines through the roses or short and mounding like allysum or Nierembergia, I really don’t worry about spacing much. As long as it looks good, and everything is happy, I’m happy. If it’s a bigger plant, say like Salvia Mystic Spires, give it room or your roses willl be swamped and overwhelmed. Two feet is hardly enough for them in my garden, because they grow big and fast.

Thank you so much, judi, and please excuse me for taking so long to respond. What you say makes sense ,but since I'm just sort of starting out in this companion planting stuff, I really appreciate confirmation. The thing is that I really hope to obtain the effect of plants covering the area completely so that you can't see the ground, but am also worried about swamping the roses. Salvia, for example, is a plant that can get by with little water,so I want to be sure that it doesn't wind up hogging all the water that is intended to be shared by the roses and the companions. Maybe for starters I'll just put some ajugas in with the floribundas, and put the salvias (Caradonna and one Sensation Deep Blue) in with the more established roses.

I was looking out my window at the November garden and the Salvia (Blue bedder) and Ageratum (Blue Horizon) that I started from seed still look so lovely with the roses.

All my agastaches did well this year. They didn't get really big but bloomed alot. Even the ones from seed did well. We had a very unusually dry summer though lol. I think they stayed smaller though due to being in my Greenstalks. It froze the last 2 nights so they are done for the winter. Next year, if they come back, I am going to put them in my raised beds where they will have more root space. I know they dropped plenty of seeds in the greenstalks as well. My favorite was the Aricot Sprite!

This is the "plonk" I just picked because we're due for a real soaker. It features The Dylan Rose, a Moonlight in Paris, a French Lace bud, a Fragrant Lavender Simplicity bud, a bud of Brother Cadfael and some fillers from garden -- a yarrow, a Trachelium caeruleum, and the SO COOL PALE BLUE salvia I bought a couple of years ago. @judijunebugarizonazn8 - I think you expressed interest in this one at some point? I saw it all over the place 2-3 years ago, but seemed scarce this year. Mine does really well. I also have a lot of Salvia Mystic Spires. Tried Salvia Mysty this year, but not as much success with that one. I also have started planting lemon scented thyme and a variegated thyme around the roses. And I love some of the Supertunias -- esp. the Cafe Latte and Priscilla and Silver. I have a lot of Nepeta -- bought a new one just a month or so ago that is in a different category, nepeta subsillius (?) that looked amazing in the pot. I also plant several of the African Blue Basil -- bees love it, and it's pretty and hard to wreck.

In this one you can see the Salvia Mystic Spires

This has euphorbia ascot rainbow (on left - chartreuse color - gophers won't eat), plus some other salvias & snaps mixed in.

Another shot with Salvia Mystic Spires (I use a lot of this!) w Poet's Wife

Lower right you can see Society Garlic, a purply one, some annual wildflowers, Baby Blue Eyes (rose is Quietness)

Here you can see the blooming Huechera, a geranium, salvias, etc.

This is from Otto & Sons Demonstration Garden -- lots of nepeta, salvias, etc.

@Markay MD-Zone 7B - I really like your sundial and all the structures! Gorgeous.

The sundial and arches against the fence really caught my eye as well, Markay.

Looks like blue salvias are a favorite for many of us. Mystic Spires is used heavily in my beds as well, Deborah! But I also managed to get some Mysty this past spring and used it a lot in my English border along the veggie garden. It performs well for me. And, just like Mystic Spires, it’s super easy to make more plants by breaking off pieces and sticking in the ground. So Cool Pale Blue found its way into my garden this year too! Wonder if wonders, it showed up in my local ACE nursery early summer and I promptly snatched it up, recommended it to another gardener shopping beside me and I never saw it again after that! It’s lovely and I’m glad to have it. Deborah, your garden is so beautiful!

Thank you, Judi! I wish I could tour your garden. All of our gardens! We need to set up a progressive tea party across the world...

A progressive garden party would be wonderful. Deborah, I think you should organize this. ;)

Back in 2016, we were going to do that using Jim's pink party bus, which would take us around the counties for garden tours and tea parties. Remember that Trish and Carol? Diane

Geez, I meant countries. I wonder what happened to the magical pink party bus. We saw Jim's photos of it.

I certainly remember it, Diane. I'm still waiting, passionfruit sponge at the ready, and my mouth is watering for your cuke sandwiches.

Deborah, what a treat to see your garden. And that one of Otto and Sons, which I remember - such a delightful path and what a glorious day.

My Mystic Spires isn't nearly as well behaved as yours. It's about 4' tall now and flops all over the place. I'm going to look for Mysty. I absolutely love my So Cools. I've only been able to get violet, but it looks great with the roses.

To get to Europe and Australia, Diane, I think we need a party airplane. Or Airbus!