Re: Emailing: 8-21-09 004

Chris...I'm about 5 miles from the lake and on the west side of I-94 so I  
have no benefit from the lake effect. I can easily be 15 degrees colder or  
warmer than gardens at the lake. The variegated Liriope muscari cultivars  
did not do well for me in the beginning of my love affair with them but I  
found the species did. They're late to leaf out from the crown each spring but 
 move along with gusto when warm weather is sustained. I thought I had lost 
them  in the spring of '08 but they trudged back (we'd had a dry, cold 
winter...tough  on everything). Most vendors quote zone 6 but I'm definitely 
zone 5a. I  do let the leaves cover them each fall and that seems key. I even 
mulch  them with bark chips when I remember to:-) 
 
<<Ours weren't too bad either, surprisingly.  They did a little  damage to 
the paper birch out front, the amelanchiers, and the petals on my  
coneflowers, but after that they seemed to disappear.  Let's  hope
that it's a trend.  :) >>
 
Interestingly, when the Jap. beetles first hit town in this area, they were 
 only keen on roses and a couple of other flowers...never foliage. That's 
all  changed but I wonder why? Did they run short of flowers and buds?
 
<< I hope to tear everything out this fall and fill it all in
with  the remaining nursery stock from my now defunct nursery (time,
the economy,  and a bunch of other factors weren't on my side).  Someday
it will  reopen.  :) >>
 
This is good to hear that you'll re-open as the plants you sent me were of  
the highest quality - large and well-rooted robust plants. Sorry to hear 
the  business collapsed....sometimes a rebirth becomes better than the first! 
Good  luck to you.
 
 
In a message dated 8/26/2009 4:45:21 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
lindsey@mallorn.com writes:

>  Hosta went berserk this summer with 'Gold Standard' leading the way and  
 
> even 'Fire and Ice' doing a respectable job; variegated Liriope  muscari 
is  
> looking its smartest; Brunnera 'Jack Frost' has had  no signs of late 
summer  
> browning or speckling; Epidemiums are  super happy (Gene Bush's babies!); 
 
> Geranium 'Rozanne' is still  going strong (also Gene's); all lilies did 
very  
> well;  variegated Hemerocallis 'Golden Zebra' put on good growth and 
still is  
> in  bloom; newer lilacs suffered mightily (our heavy clay held  onto all 
that 
> rain)  and '08 transplanted Buddleias died but  baby Macleaya held on 
and, 
> oddly, the  Baptisia did not bloom  but have magnificent seed pods.

How close to the lake are you,  Joanie?  I've tried some of the variegated
liriope down here and they  haven't faired too well -- only the green forms
work.

I did have  some Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' for a few years, but
then I had to  dig up the sump pump outlet in the yard and the stuff all
died as a  result.  This year I killed a huge patch of Anemone ranunculoides
in  the same spot for the same reason -- that'll teach me to plant nice  
stuff
there!

> The Japanese beetles were here in smaller numbers  

Ours weren't too bad either, surprisingly.  They did a little  damage to 
the paper birch out front, the amelanchiers, and the petals on  my 
coneflowers, but after that they seemed to disappear.  Let's  hope
that it's a trend.  :)

The garden this year has been a  disaster.  I haven't done much with it
over the past two years, so  weeds have taken over and a lot of plants
have died.  I hope to tear  everything out this fall and fill it all in
with the remaining nursery  stock from my now defunct nursery (time,
the economy, and a bunch of other  factors weren't on my side).  Someday
it will reopen.   :)

Next year I hope to get back into gardening a little more.  In  the 
meantime,
I'm working on some new stuff for hort.net still.  I  need a week straight
off from work to get it done!   :)

Chris

http://www.hort.net/gallery/        4383 online plant photos and   growing!
http://www.hort.net/gallery/date/2009-08-10/      The latest   additions

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