@Roses_R_Red, I honestly have no idea! Do you have enough that you can test it out? Also, that statement was part of the text on a website selling sedum. The virtues of the plant may have been overstated. I think that's done quite often. Edit: Also, it was referring to groundcover type sedums, not the taller ones.

I'm just fooling around with it because someone gave me this -- ogod you would laugh~! she gave me a bag of stuff she'd set aside for me, some cookies she didn't want after all, some toe separators in case I paint my toenails again, a book, and this little four inch pot, lying on its side, the sedum scattered in the bottom of the bag. She'd forgotten to give me the bag the last time she saw me so that plant had been sitting in there for days, at least.

If it survives this? we have a real winner on our hands!

@JB, what a sad and awful thing, about those kitties! It's just hard, how rough life is for wild critters, including barn cats that aren't all that wild.

:(

Most of my sedums are low growing. I think I'll wait until spring.

Poor Lucy, @JB! I also wonder about a havahart trap.

Sedum usually roots easily, but I agree with Roses that it's getting kind of late to start things outdoors... Still, the adventurous spirit will not be stopped by the calendar, right? :-D

Well, that particular sedum is mostly in a pot, but there were crumbs that I sprinkled on the ground in Little Rock because why not?

And yeah, except for the garlic yet to be planted, and any bulbs, it's too late, I agree.

Absolutely why not!

I have started to harvest the seed pods from the Sweet Shrubs. I am going to stratify them first then sew them in three months and put them out in the snow in plastic containers until they sprout. Hopefully they will sprout.

JB, I am not familiar with Sweet Shrubs. We have one here that's called a Sweetbush and I wonder if they're the same? (Probably not!)

Might be Kyla, because they are a southern shrub. Here is a picture of two of the plants. They are much larger now.




This is one of the Carolina Sweetshrubs blooms

That's a pretty one, JB!

@JB, I do think it's the same one or a close relative. I was posting pictures of ours in the Photos and Chat thread this morning.

Probably better to grow these in the North where they're less likely to *cough* colonize, like this one we have is! I went out to dig out some of the volunteers and discovered that in several places it's just been cut back, not really dug out, so there are three little baby bushes around the base of the big one.

There they be. They stayin'. Maybe a little grove would be nice.

Maybe put a shade tree nearby to dampen their suckering enthusiasm? ;-)

I just harvested the seed pods yesterday to beat the rain. I did not want them to rot or get soaked, they would be too difficult to dry and save and I was not sure how long it was going to rain and most of them are ready to break open, get ready to stratify. The babies I am selling are both Carolina and Michael Lindsey....here they are:

Michael Lindsey seedlings I started from seed last year.


Regular Carolina Sweetshrub seedlings I started last year.http://garden.org/thread/view/22626/Sweet-Shrub-Experiment-Calycanthus-floridus/?offset=


We did a project on the Seeds forum with these seeds last year. You can read it if you want. It is long and sometimes pretty funny. WE had such a good time but it seems to take forever. It was my first experience with seeds and they were all very helpful.

The thread " Sweet Shrub Experiment (Calycanthus floridus)" in Seeds forum

Sounds like it was quite the project, JB! Those are sure nice healthy seedlings you have now!

I didn't notice any seed pods on mine. I don't know if it's because it's a hybrid or if it needs to grow a little more for that.

Michael Lindsey is a hybrid and it bloomed again this year, but the weather was so cold it was not blooming as much as other years. This is going on my third year of having it so I do not know how old it really is. Maybe yours got too cold. I have one that did not bloom at all because of the weather.

My chore that I have been procrastinating successfully is to organize my seeds. I made some good progress with it today but the next pass is still to happen.

Today I got all the little paper cups off my dresser top and into a tray, and all the cleaned seeds ordered in their packages, in a box. I put the DL seeds in their own plastic box in the refrigerator. Other seeds eventually will go there also.

Next is to list what all I have and make a rough schedule for wintersowing, and arrange the seeds in groups for that purpose.

Catmint, I think some of your orderliness must have rubbed off on me. I've never made an actual list and schedule before!

But this is the first time I have three new garden beds to consider as I go. In the past it's just been one at a time.

Today I broached to my cousin the next design idea for the back yard, which is to spread some topsoil under the big crape myrtle, where the chairs are there. And then to put pavers over that. The soil would be to level the surface. Nothing at all can grow there because of all the tree roots! So this way we'll have a patio sort of, and can plant little groundcovers between the stones, and put big pots of gorgeousness around the edges.

She liked the idea.

This is for next year though.

We're forecast to have first frost on SAturday night Nov. 1. So Saturday day I intend to water everything a lot. Meanwhile it's supposed to get up to 80 tomorrow, so perhaps one rose will open, before that frost.

Not to keep dragging out the same info, Kyla, but the time that the plants need to be hydrated is before the first "HARD" frost......when the ground gets hard and frozen, so that the plant roots are frozen fully expanded.

I'm hoping to do a huge pruning where the Juniper bushes lean over the rock wall. I also have more pots to bring into the garage and some garden decor to store in the shed.

I think that my seed starting will be limited to winter sow this year, so I'm done collecting seeds. Just bought some lisianthus seeds, though, because these are the only ones that I'll put under lights at the end of December. Not sure if I'll be able to handle the lights and shelves in the basement, though, because of the hip surgery that I'm expecting to do in January. My DH will definitely kill seedlings if left on his own. Maybe I can try putting them in cups and lining them up on the windowsill they way I did a few years age. Drove me crazy.

Roses, thanks, I did remember that, but, things are going to need watering anyway by then, so in case it gets colder than they forecast.... I'll be ready. (And I think I do understand how it works, with the roots freezing etc. )

All those teeny cups on window sills would drive me nuts too! One year I grew tomatoes from seed by moving them every day from the east facing window to the west facing window, and then back again to catch the morning sun. It worked! but it was a LOT of fiddling.

I just had a very funny visual of you doing that, Kyla. It reminds me of some of the stuff that I do when seed starting season comes along.

Roses_R_Red said:I just had a very funny visual of you doing that, Kyla. It reminds me of some of the stuff that I do when seed starting season comes along.

Always happy to entertain.

I had them on trays. But, of course, inevitably at one point I dropped one of the trays and had to repot each seedling. And try to remember which was which!

I did have good tomatoes that year in spite of my clumsiness.