When I buy a plant, almost any plant, I know I'm carrying an expectation that I'll be able to grow it for years, propagate and grow lots more. Even with annuals I like the ones where I can collect the seed and grow them on again and again. I just can't seem to buy a plant, enjoy it and allow it to die when the blooms are finished. Am curious - is this the norm with gardeners? Do you start or purchase a plant knowing that it is a throw away once the blooms are gone or do you buy so that whatever you have will continue to grow on year after year?
I always hope I can keep a perennial going, and read up on how to propagate it. Annuals, I collect seeds if it isn't a hybrid (never know what you'll get, if anything). I'm especially bad about collecting vegetable seeds. I have the third year of Coosa squash going, and saved seeds for next year. I think I need to start widening my gene pool for some vegetables . . . .
I'm on my third generation of Opalka tomato's. I save seed from the biggest healthiest tomato on the healthiest plant. This is starting to show some resistance to early and late blight. Was doing the same with Brandywines until a 'helper' ahem.............threw out my seeds. I have some garlic that I've been growing from for longer than I can recall, really! I have some peonies here that came from the house I grew up in. I was told they were there when Mom and Dad moved in around 1957/8. I'm hoping the Cosmos blooms again this year. It was first grown at the 'home place' by my Grandma Bernice, in the 1940's.
Prior to even purchasing a plant I almost always kick into thinking how I can propagate it and keep it going. If I buy, for example, an African Violet, I don't just keep it while it blooms I have to not only keep it but start new plants too. I take cuttings off the Christmas cactus and sprout them. Once I even air layered a dracaena. Not sure why I'm so intent on this but I love it. Just curious is others are doing the same thing
I usually try to save my little troupers Viola seeds. I am trying a rose tree cutting this year. Hopefully an Acer cutting of the main one. K
Along the lines of 'my eyes are bigger than my stomach': my gardening hopes are always bigger than my abilities/time. I have caches of seeds everywhere. My transplant holding tank runneth over. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
I don't propagate anything on purpose anymore. Having a smallish suburban lot there is no room for extras. I don't throw out anything when it finishes blooming since the green will last until cold weather takes it out. And with some annuals I don't pull them up and throw them away even then, our winters are never predictably cold or even cool so I leave them in the pots or in the ground and many of them will return next Spring either from the roots or having reseeded.
I've kept last years amaryllis going all summer long. So far the leaves have not yet died back (it is planted in the garden) but 'hopefully' it will live to flower again. I know these are basically bought to produce a gorgeous flower and then hit the trash bin once the flower is gone but I just can't help try to keep it going to produce again
That's the sad thing, they are bought by non-gardeners who do just that, throw them away after they bloom. But they can be kept in the garden (or a pot and brought inside in winter) for years and will bloom every Spring. I had one for about 4 years, it started out with two blooms the first Spring and the last Spring it bloomed there were 8 blooms on two stems.
That is cool Toni. Is that your warm TX weather &?? long growing season? I once got tired of my gangly old wintered amaryllis & threw it outdoors, just knocked it right out of its pot, it landed lying sideways on top of the soil. Oh the indignity of it! But it showed me! It straightened itself up, bloomed it's head off & put up a sheaf of fresh green leaves. I am niw much kinder to my amaryllis.
Well I am now looking at a very pathetic Polka-dot plant. At least that is what I call it. It has green leaves and pink spots all over them. When I bought it, it was full and beautiful. Over two years I have cut it back and tried to grow it in different locations. But it always grows back leggy and sparse looking. So it next stop is the garbage. I hate to but I can't stand how the poor thing looks. I hate to think I am a bad mom to this little plant. So out it goes. Out of sight out of mind.
I always buy 2 astroemerias for my back steps...this year they didn't do as well, I suppose it was our weather. warm, cold, warm,cold...we just had 86 yesterday and now tomorrow it will be 68. But at the end of the season, I toss them in the plant waste. I don't have the room to keep any plants besides my hibiscus tree from outdoors. I buy a couple others that I like and they get tossed also.
As you will see from my signature, I am not a gardener. On our small patio we have about 10 pots with perennials; Ferns, Hostas, Cordylines and a small Acer. These all give restful green around the place. But each spring we need to add some colour so geraniums and a few colourful trailers are the normal choice. Until a few years ago I used to take cuttings from the geraniums but no longer bother. We have about another 10 pots with annual colour SO......what do I expect when buying plants. All very simple really. They must be healthy, well established and showing first blooms so I know I am getting what the label says. In this picture each blue pot has just one plant producing multiple flower heads. That is what I expect when I buy plants.....which sadly will be allowed to die and be replaced next year. But as I said, I don't have green fingers
Some of my plants are 20 years old and have moved house with me twice,..i never expect a plant to die on me but they do die from old age,..however cuttings and seeds i took keep the species going,..every year i promise myself i will not take any more cuttings as i have several of the same plant or bush,..seeds are in abundance filling two shoe boxes with sealed packets,.. something else i will have to stop,..old habits are hard to stop. I can not remember when i last purchased a plant but i have had presents of the odd plant.
