HettieŽ wrote:
Scott Hildenbrand wrote:
HettieŽ wrote:
Scott Hildenbrand wrote:
From the looks of it and after checking a pile of sites to verify,
it does seem to be an ice plant which more often than not is used as
ground cover.
I *think* I saw some seeds for ice plant in T&M catalog, will have to
check the specifics on that. Here I thought it might be some exotic
strain of trailing portulaca :-)
Reminds me of my star stonecrop which I grow in a pot.. Looks great
trailing down the edge of the pot. 
Star stonecrop? I've never heard of that.
Whoops.. Star Sedum, aka Stringy Stonecrop.. See, this is why it's
best to use proper names.. (goes to find out proper name)
Sedum sarmentosum
Doesn't flower long though and it's tiny. But does look good hanging,
just not much height mass.
Thanks for the explanation. For all I knew, you were growing stones in
your pots like I had to resort to in mine to keep the chipmunks out :-).
Except somehow I thought maybe you got yours to trail and were pulling
my leg. Ridiculous, I know. I'll see if I can find something about
that one. Am kind of on overload with seeds, roses & perennial plants I
want to try, have next year pretty well mapped out, if I only get half
of what I've got going, I'll be doing well. Plus I have to allow for
failures.
Well with a little work I'm sure I can get rocks to trail. In fact if
I'm bored one day I just might do that to see how it looks..
Know the overloaded feeling.. Since we moved and have so much more space
now, all kinds of things are popping into my head that I'd like to try.
One section of roof on the house over an addition is flat, so I'm even
thinking of bordering it with planter boxes all around the edge.. Who
knows.. Maybe later. Sometime..
I was having good luck with iresine trailing, grows very fast and long
to the point you have to cut it back depending, but wasn't as pretty the
second year in a window box with pink geraniums, grew well enough, but
something wasn't as nice about it, texture and color. Roots easily in
water, had pots and pots of it, ended up giving much of it away. Anyway
I fed them some Osmocote and never saw such huge geraniums. I had to
cut the iresine back because it touches the ground, so maybe I'll come
across something I like better, not lobelia, 2 windowboxes are going to
be dedicated to only that, blue and white mixed. I recommend the
iresine for dappled shade, but it doesn't take kindly to too much sun.
Think I've got some of that in a hanging basket that we brought in to
over winter. Could be wrong, forget the name.. Frost ended up nipping
the bulk of the growth but it'll spring back without issue.. Already
putting on new growth inside. Has a lovely burgundy color.
The iresine roots like crazy in water if you want more. The first year,
when the afternoon sun hit it, it was pretty bright red towards autumn.
It starts out green. I'm open to something else, it's only two years
but think I might replant that box before I set it out next spring.
Yup.. Grows like a weed and is easy to make new starts.. I don't even
bother with water and just put it in the dirt.. Same with the sedum I
mentioned. All you need to do with it is put it in the dirt in a nice
sunny area and it will thrive with no attention.
Ever notice how something looks good in a photo or where somebody else
is growing it, you try it, it sometimes doesn't look so good if it grows
at all?
No?
I had noticed that if iresine (if that is what I have) gets a
wasted look if it gets too much sun.. Had it in a bad location for a bit
, when I moved it under the trees it looked much better after a while.
Oh well though.. A little experimentation in plantings is always fun..
So long as it doesn't run rampant and take over.