Viewing comments posted by sallyg

Very common in the woods around me, which may be why I regularly find seedlings under my trees in natural, leaf litter areas. Some I have transplanted are now about four feet tall and I hope to see flowers soon to know if they are male or female.

I've grown this Salvia for about five years now. It is very happy in my warmest garden which may be zone 8 due to southern exposure and the house wall behind. There it blooms well in full sun and spreads every year. It grows roots along just below the surface and odd, woody tubers. It also lived in average sites here which should be about zone 7, and in some shade, but may not spread or persist long term. I tried storing some tubers dry in the basement but they did not regrow come spring. Tubers do no look like they can be cut apart like potatoes to grow, but rather seem to need to keep the stem they have. Watch bumblebees visit and bite the base of the flower to steal nectar.

Comfrey grows quite well in my zone 7 average garden soil and full sun; it can take some shade. Leaves are large, oval and fuzzy, growing in a mound. Flower stalks grow up but then may lay over, it isn't a stiff plant. The roots are black.

I grew five plants from seed and kept two for my own garden in 2018. The plants were strong growers and yielded fruit with good 'Cherokee Purple like' taste, very tasty.
2019 update, growing 2 plants, both very healthy looking and setting lots of fruit. Some are convoluted and weigh over a pound, others are simple flattened globes, still that great taste.

This is an easy flowering annual with unusual pods. The ripened seed pods turn yellowish and then pop open at a gentle squeeze and fling their seeds. Great fun for kids.

I've tried several times to grow cilantro from seed, different sources, and have mostly failed. They germinate and get a couple leaves, then struggle and turn yellow. It may be easy to overwater the tiny seedlings. I've also read it prefers cool weather. It has not been easy to grow for me.

Certainly one of the most well known and widely planted shrubs in the US Mid Atlantic suburbs, Forsythia is a welcome sight for a week in spring. For the rest of the year, I find it not especially attractive, more so because it is often used along property lines or in foundation beds, where it outgrows its space and is subject to acts of pruning desperation. It is a rangy sprawling thing that could possibly stand to be cut down to a foot every spring after bloom and let regrow, as you would a butterfly bush (but that is cut late winter). If you must have a forsythia, give it about 12 feet of clear width all around. I'll admit I am basing all this on decades of experience with decades old cultivars planted in the 1960s and 1970s. Maybe some new ones are better behaved, but I doubt it.

I've had my single-flowered Kerria for about ten years. I admired a mature one, and was gifted a yanked-up clump to take home. Branches are thin, green and smooth, mostly in an upright spray, a lot of stems from the ground rather than having a lot of side branching. Mine does put out suckers. It is growing nicely in shade under trees, guessing it might sucker more aggressively with no root competition. It is 4-5 feet tall and wide, blooms dependably.

Grows very well in my zone 7 Maryland garden, may self sow a bit ( I have found maybe 3 seedlings in 10-12 years that is has been loaded with berries.) Blooms in February and honeybees will visit during a winter warm spell. The sweet lemony fragrance is delightful. Slow growing for me, with a nice structure that can be managed by pruning a few longer branches now and then to encourage new denser growth. Very prickly leaves, not one to have where people will walk in bare feet.

Bottlebrush buckeye grows well in my zone 7 garden in sandy loam soil. It is a large-scale specimen, needing to spread its branches to show off the big compound leaves and long bloom spikes. It has made several low branches that can be rooted by weighting with a brick. As for the 'showy' fruit, the developing nuts are novel, rather than 'pretty,' the ripe nuts, while not edible for humans, are pretty.

Tropical milkweed grows very well in my zone 7 Maryland garden as an annual, may self sow a bit. Easy to root from fall cuttings and can be kept inside over winter that way, and will grow quickly once planted back out. Monarch caterpillars do love it. Can get aphids some years, watch for aphids if you bring in seedlings or cuttings over winter..

I have had this about ten years, central Maryland, I was sent a small one bare-root in the mail. No trouble rooting and growing, it has begun to sucker a fair amount in my loamy sandy soil, and blooms a bit, in partial shade from trees on the north and east.

I have grown this for several years in central Maryland one of the 7 zones, and it has been hardy in a couple different places in my semi shaded, woodsy gardens. It even makes a few seedlings. The seed heads are unique.

This is a popular plant with a reputation for doing well in low light. I have kept a "petite" version for many years, both at home and in a commercial setting. The dark green leaves are pretty. It needs attention to watering. Good news is it wilts when dry and demands water; bad news is that such events cause some older leaves to turn yellow each time, so it will thin the plant if it happens too often. The dry air of the commercial setting seems to make it more prone to these drying events.

The traditional green and silver cultivars of this plant are one of the easiest to maintain in my workplace, under long days of artificial light, dry air, and temps that can swing due to an old HVAC system. I do fight mealybugs on them at times, but that is the only pest I have found. They never wilt, so they look pretty happy even if they get a little dry. Seems to be a slow grower, especially when you're watching new shoots emerge or rooting cuttings.

Wild descendants of landscape specimens are now completely filling some highway right of ways here in central Maryland. It readily takes hold when areas are left unmowed.

Rating this negative for self sowing and invasive traits. It has taken hold along the shoulders of a local two lane highway, well away from any initial plantings. If you let the seed heads dry, the seeds can sprout and seedlings are very hard to pull. Beware of handling the dry seedheads, as the seeds are very sharp, and become stuck in your socks, fleece, and knit gloves. They poke you painfully, or you spend hours picking them out of the fabric.

I have clumps of it, for about 20 years. It does grow next to a maple tree making a nice flowing grass clump. I manage them by cutting off all seedheads before they dry and shed.
Editing 5 years after initial comment - I've gotten rid of this, who needs the chore of trimming seedheads? and I'm now seeing this thickly established along even more local roads.

I bought a grocery store edo/eddo and grew it into a potted plant. That variety seems smaller in size/stature than some. It grew to about 3 feet tall. First winter, I guess I kept it growing in the basement. Second summer, it grew well but on pulling it, I found no tuber left, only two tiny new tubers offsetting from the two stems. I potted the tiny tubers to keep growing but discarded the tops.

This summer, I was given a bulb of "giant" elephant ear. Also potted, it grew four+ feet tall stems and larger leaves than the edo.

It can be a challenge keeping these watered in a pot. I used large saucers underneath the pots to hold more water.

I grew two from seed. The plants were big, vigorous, had big clusters with up to 20+ fruits. Taste was in the 'Cherokee Purple' style, skin seemed about typical for cherry tomato. I liked the taste, as Cherokee Purple is my favorite. I had to learn how to judge when they were ripe. A lot of rain here all summer meant they started cracking, but I had picked a lot before that and have some frozen. I would grow it again.

I have had this for several years and it seems more prone to yellowing, and just overall less vigorous and has a harder time rebounding from any lack of care that I inflict. I am a decent plant mom but I do take chances, take cuttings, put them outside in summer shade, and other stresses not found if they are kept solely indoors in one spot. Not as carefree as older silver-green Ags. And the wide leaf shape does not appeal to me as much as thinner leafed ones.