Why I Oughta...

I have planted up a number of various sizes and a couple of types of eucalyptus in a couple of settings to try to grow as cut-flower accent plants.  First up is Silver Dollar Eucalyptus.  I bought three pint-sized plants from the nursery on the IL/Wisconsin stateline back on Memorial Day weekend.  I have put them in three different spots to see how they do:  First is in the raised bed on our patio with our tomatoes.  This is in mushroom compost: The other two pint-sized eucalyptus went in the ground.  First up is adjacent to the pizza oven bed.  This gets some good sun and I planted it with municipal biosolids: The last one (of these three) is in the corner patio bed.  This went in with the native soil/loam. I also previously bought six Silver Dollar plugs from Garden Club. Those arrived back in early April and I up-potted them into small pots.  As soon as I could (with the last frost), I moved them outside and put six in one of the Greensta...

Just like the other plugs from Garden Club, I finally got around to planting out the Silver Dollar Eucalyptus plugs back in mid-May.  This post is going up a month later, but these have been planted since mid-May.  These arrived in early April and I up-potted them to slightly larger pots and nursed them along first indoors then moving them outdoors. Seven of the eight original ones made it to planting day.  I put six in one Greenstalk planter and the remaining one in another. Below are a few photos showing that planting process: I recently bought a few more eucalyptus plants from a small nursery along the Illinois/Wisconsin border and I'll post about those in the coming days.   Last year, I grew one of these in a patio container and it performed *fine* - I was able to get some clippings for arrangements.   I included in my 2026 to-do list the idea of using the Greenstalk for accent plants (exactly like this): 9. Accents, too.   Speaking of ...

Yesterday, I continued my "planting out plugs" series with eight Lisianthus Celeb Metallic Blue plugs from Garden Club that went in the front yard Saratoga Ginkgo bed.  That brought my total up to 20 new (to me) accent and cut flower plugs that have been planted out (8 Didiscus + 6 Silver Shield + 8 Lisianthus = 20) Today, I am showing just three more that went into the Island bed in front: 3 Gomphrena Audray White plugs from Garden Club .  I have more of these to plant out, but I'm limited by space and chicken wire.   I put two together and one under a Dollar Tree wire garbage can.  You can see them below: That brings my total to 23.  8 Didiscus + 6 Silver Shield + 8 Lisianthus + 3 Gomphrena Audray White = 23 new (to me) accent and cut flower plugs.  All eight of these didn't survive (I think one died) the two month LIMINAL SPACE they lived in between when they arrived and when I planted them out.  These went out on May 22nd.  And they're ...

Day three of accent plant plug being planted-out in the garden. First day was the eight Didiscus Lacy Blue in the Island bed.  Yesterday, I showed a photo of the six Silver Shields going in the corner bed by the back patio .   That brings my accent plant total to 14 (so far).  Today, we continue with eight more cut flowers that are new (to me).   Lisianthus Celeb Metallic Blue .  Lisianthus has taken on sort-of a mythical state amongst the cut-flower-farming-tok world that I've fallen into.  It is (by reputation) very slow growing, so no idea how these will do out in my garden.  To help them, I planted all eight in the newly expanded Saratoga Ginkgo bed out front .  This gets good sun and because of the annual Vinca in the adjacent bed, I'll water the heck out of them.   Below is a photo showing the eight Lisianthus Celeb Metallic Blue in rabbit protection cages.  I'm hoping that like everything else, as these put on some ...

Yesterday, I started the posting series about planting out my cut flower plugs with the first eight Didiscus Lacy Blue in the front yard Island Bed .  Today, I'm showing the six Plectranthus Silver Shield plugs in the corner bed in our backyard near the patio.  These are going where I planted a mix of Dusty Miller and border Dahlias last year, but in a newly expanded bed.   These plugs also came from Garden Club and because I ordered them for too-early of a delivery , I had to pot them up into something larger.  Of all the varieties that came from Garden Club, these Silver Shields did BY FAR the best.  All eight of them were happy two months later.   Overall, I've been really happy with the Garden Club plug order - from the greenhouses they came in to the vibrancy of the tiny plants.  A positive experience.  I'm trying something different with these:  no rabbit cages.  Instead, I'm applying Liquid Fence.  *Fingers Crossed...

Back earlier this Summer, I planted a small quart-sized plug of Eucalyptus Pulverulenta (Silver Dollar Eucalyptus...or "Florist Eucalyptus" as an accent plant in one of the containers on our back patio.  I found it at the orange Big Box store nursery amongst the other 'accent plants' like Sweet Potato Vine, Spikes and Asparagus Ferns.    Below is a photo from May when I stuck it in the container along with the Crazytunia (purple one) from The Growing Place: Here, below, is the container that it came in - from Vigoro (which...I think is Home Depot's 'house brand', right?). I don't seem to have posted about this when I planted it, but I think that's because I wasn't sure how this would do.  That container chewed through a few things - killing off some spillers/fillers like this Icicles plant .  Perhaps it was a soil or water problem, but whatever it was...this Eucalyptus has overcome them.  So, too, has the green Medusa Sweet Potato vine ...