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Re: New Member

On Sun, 17 Aug 97 Naomi  wrote:

>I am a New York City indoor gardener (Zone 6)...

>Less successful 
>are the night flowering stock I sowed as companions in the window boxes; 
>they were slow to get going and have yet to flower.

I'm new to this list also, but I'll throw in a few comments anyway.  Stocks
are reputed to need cool night time temperatures (60's) and sunny days.
For a more heat tolerant night-scented plant you might try the nicotiana
hybrid Domino Picotee.  While most hybrid nicotiana have lost their
fragrance, this selection  hasn't.
  
>The building wall was supposed to be covered with sweet peas climbing and 
>perfuming the air. Ha! The seeds were Shepherd's heirloom and sprouted 
>healthily in 3 more window boxes. After a month on the balcony they 
>started turning white from the ground up; like bleached bones they are 
>still clinging to the trellis.

Sweet peas also like cool temperatures and sunny days.  Last year we had a
cool summer and those heirloom seeds from Shepherd's bloomed all summer and
the pale ones were fragrant.  Other hotter years, the sweet peas look just
like the bleached bones you described.  This year I didn't get them planted
soon enough (they need to be planted very early in the spring) and thought
they were doomed.  Now, however, they are pushing their way through the
jungle in the back of the border and starting to bloom.

>I planted 3 roses -1 miniature, 1 bush, and a climber. They are treasures 
>that I want to keep going through winter...

Generally, roses need temperatures below 40 degrees F to stay dormant.  My
unheated basement room stays about 50 all winter, not cold enough.
Indoors, they will have trouble with spider mites and need as much light as
they can get.  They're not easy to grow indoors, but I've kept minis some
years by letting them go dormant outside, then bringing them indoors under
growlights.  There is a new rose book by Douglas Greene "Tender Roses for
Tough Climates".  While his focus is on cold weather growing, he has some
of the best instructions I've seen for overwintering roses against a patio
door.

Hope this is a little help.

--
Lynn Barton
No. Illinois, Zone 4b
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