Actually rouge, I overwintered over 100 tubers - or attempted to, lol. I gave away a lot in the spring (a dozen to 20) and planted a dozen or so at my daughter's. I probably lost about 20 through the winter, and then another 20 didn't make it in the spring.

My most difficult time with the tubers is in spring. It seems one has to take them out of winter storage a lot sooner than they can be planted out, or even put outside, and that's the hard part for me - keeping them going during that time.

I'm not quite as worried about getting them out of the basement as I used to be since last year. I found a box of tubers in the basement in August! They were, for the most part, fine. Surprisingly not dried out, many with very long, white fingers of growth. I potted them up and they did fine! So now I feel better about keeping them in the basement a few weeks longer. That lessens the time I have to keep them alive in my living room!

:)

Dee

Dee - after they wake up, do you grow them in pots inside until the weather gets warm enough to plant them outside?

What I do is go to walmart and find one that is already sprouted and growing inside the package and grow it in a pot until they can be planted out. That’s the only way I’ve had success lol

I am going to call you Queen D ("D is for dahlia")

WOW great photos
rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) !!! :-)

Thanks FrozeBudd_z3/4 !

Wow is right! To both of you!

I discovered a few years back (during the pandemic when they were all I could find at the garden center) that begonias are amazing. I never liked them much but when I grew them that year and they just kept going and going and going, with hardly any care, well I became a fan.

Mine look nothing like the photos of course lol, but they almost always out-perform my other potted annuals and they make me happy.

:)

Dee

rouge how lovely that your town does something like that!

"heh heh, you didn't screw up, you just changed your mind."

I like how you think! :0)

"...gave up having any confidence in a ten or twenty year plan, I just plant to the best of my ability and keep a saw handy. Life's too short to plant an oak and keep the space around it clear for decades until it finally fills in."

I never heard anyone say that before about trees, and I get it. I am this way with perennials -- I buy them big to begin with if I can, I have no patience or desire to wait for them to beef up, I want something to fill in and look at now, I'll just dig them later when I have to.

I agree, porkchop - I like the way kato thinks!

Although the saw part.... hmm I'm not sure about that. If I could remove or cut down things as easily as you, kato, my life would be so much easier lol. All those potted shrubs and trees would have been in the ground long ago and I wouldn't be such a worry-wart!

I think it's the part about "quick decisions" that has me wavering lol..... I can barely make slow ones!

:)

Dee

Sorry artinnature, this is totally unrelated to your questions - but do you have a water feature?? Ooooh! Ahhhh! I'd love to see it if you want to post about it (maybe another thread). I tried to do a small galvanized tub one a few years back but I didn't have much luck.

Okay sorry, continue with machilus thunbergii....

:)

Dee

I researched Machilus thunbergii in the past, since I was interested in broadleaf evergreen trees that could grow in the Pacific Northwest (climate zone 8 ).

It is actually native to Japan. But in Japan, it is sort of seen as an "inferior" version of camphor tree. However, Machilus thunbergii is more cold tolerant than camphor tree, and can grow in colder parts of Japan; although the majority of the population in Japan (such as in Tokyo) lives in areas where camphor trees can grow.

The foliage of Machilus thunbergii reminds one a little bit of some Chinese evergreen magnolia trees (which are rare in cultivation, but not completely unheard of in the U.S.)

There is also "Japanese cinnamon" tree (Cinnamomum tenuifolium) for anyone who is interested (though it is a smaller tree, and evergreen leaves not as pretty).

I don't know why the Japanese would complain - they have plenty of BLEs and a summer wet climate that supports them. The hardiest Cinnamomums are surely as hardy as any Machilus, but they might not be commonly cultivated in Japan. It's actually a little surprising that Japanese gardeners (vs. forest managers or whatever) like camphor trees, because they get so gigantic! I think of gardens there as being smallish.

Honestly, on showiness alone, the flowering Castanopsis of Japan might be prettier than any Cinnamon or Avocado family member! I ONCE AGAIN failed with the Castanopsis seeds Sheffield was offering...not sure what I'm doing wrong, and feel like an idiot at this point. At least I got some other rarities to germinate, like Pinus gerardiana, and Nomocharis aperta. 3 out of 15 seedlings survived in trays this summer, so hopefully I've selected a 'heat tolerant' clone of that Himalayan beauty! (the lily seed was from Jelitto, not Sheffields)

"we're very lucky to live in a place where anything will grow, whether it likes water or not. For those types that need regular water, just add it and stand back!".

Yeah, now, I'm 'used to' a summer wet (usually) climate, which isn't to say I'm not jealous of what people can grow in the PNW. But the problem with a summer wet climate is you can't turn it off! The reason one saw rhododendrons growing near the bottom of swales at Greer Gardens, (or Sonoma Hort for that matter) where they would never be able to survive around here, isn't JUST the cooler nights in summer...it's that because any summer water is water you're turning on, yourself, there's no way to drown them as can happen around here after a hurricane. As I've said before, around Hurricane Irene in 2011, I got close to 30 inches of rain in 40 days. It did kill a few rhododendrons (including a big gorgeous R. rex I'd driven across the country from RSF) but fortunately, most of mine are planted on a gentle slope and it prevented an absolute carnage. They get just enough drainage help from that. This was really a happy accident, when I bought this lot in 2006, I had no idea I'd get 'smitten' by rhodies by driving to Rarefind in NJ that spring. I never knew you could have an 'english looking' rhodie garden in the eastern US. (FWIW Rarefind was on pine barren sand, and had a very sophisticated irrigation system with a deep well and large pump house, so actually closer in that respect to the PNW, than my garden.)

OH well, sorry to take over the thread, but it's interesting to compare gardening practices PNW vs. East coast. I love the summers I can coast by without having to water a damn thing even once, even newly planted stuff. But we pay the price when the spigot won't shut off! (And of course, have to water in dry summers like 2024 and 2025.)

I love them and have really appreciated them this year especially, when so many of my annuals were kind of duds (along with everything else in the garden lol).

I've never had any reseeding that I noticed, but I may have weeded them out early in the season.

Mine are a bit floppy, but it may be due to my neglect (getting them planted late, leaving them in milk jugs as they stretched for some light lol, etc) but I have them in a bed where I have my red, yellow and orange flowers, and they really add a nice touch to the bed. I even like the spent blooms - kinda cool!

I have tried a few varieties, always by seed. This year it's Neon, and they have indeed been in bloom for most of the season.

:)

Dee

@rouge21_gw (CDN Z5b/6a) they self seeded and overwinter. When they self seed, the seeds sprout in the fall as temps cool off and overwinter. They are very hardy and actively grow and occasionally bloom throughout the winter. When they fry out with summer temps, I yank them out and replace them with zinnias.

I always fall in love with photos on the seed packet of Calendula. They are pretty easy to grow if they get enough sun. I just always feel like they are a little messy for some reason. The foliage? I haven't grown them in awhile but that's my memory of my experience with them.