- You are here:
-
Home
-
Edible Daylilies
- Articles
Here are about 12 of the annuals that i grew this year, many I've grown before. I'm rating them for how interesting and impactful they were in the garden. All grew well, here in Vermont, even with the 90 degree heat we had in July. I did water regularly and planted in composted cow manure.
Mix of Nicotiana and Dahlia in the back, Verbena bonariensis in the front and Lobelia americana in the mid ground.
This created a nice layered affect, and even though the Verbena was taller than the Lobelia americana, but the sprawling nature of the Lobelia americana helps draw the eye down through the path.
Red Amaranth
Red Amaranth: The leaves and blooms are striking. It definitely has use in bouquets as the color contrasts wonderfully with other colors. Leaves are edible. I was a bit floppy in the garden.
6/10, will grow again.
Borage alba
Borage alba: White Borage, a white version of blue Borage. The blooms were sparse, and it sprawled quite a bit.
4/10 probably won't grow again, but hopefully it will seed in as Borage can do this.
Red Canna Canna indica
These were grown from seed collected in New Orleans. These are second year plants.
I really loved them for the foliage, which got over 5 feet tall, and had a great tropical feel, but the flowers are very small. I'll overwinter dried in the basement
7/10. But I have soft spot for these plants
Double White Cosmos
The double white are probably the most spectacular of the Cosmos. The flowers last longer than the singles.
I'm not crazy about Cosmos, they seem to grow leggy and floppy, but the foliage is quite interesting.
6/10 Will grow again.
Cynnoglossum Chinese Forget-Me-Not
Chinese Forget Me Not: These produce wonderful spray of deep sky blue. These can seed in and so I like that.
But they are floppy at the end of season. I've found that interspersed with other plants is the way to go, as they nicely mix in with other flowers.
7/10. Will grow again, but hoping they continue to see them seed in.
Nicotiana sylvestris and Dahlia hybrids
I absolutley love Nicotiana sylvestris, it get up to 5 feet tall and the frgrance in the evening is amazing.
I use it at the corners of my annual beds as it's foliage is quite striking too.
The Dahlias I grew from seed. They aren't quite up to cut flowers, as the stems are long enough,
but I have them crowded and i believe they need to be pinched early. Easy to over winter as tubers.
10/10 Will grow again.
Golden Lemon Balm: Melissa
. Golden Lemon Balm: This is a perennial herb, allbeit a short lived one. I love the golden foliage. It creates a nice mass of golden foliage. No real blooms, but the foliage is eye catching. It did get weeds growing in the clumps which was a pain to remove.
5/10 Might grow again, as it is an herb.
Lobelia americana
Lobelia americana: These are southern natives. I really like the spotty blue flowers. It blooms
all summer in small groups. Some might not like the somewhat sprawling habit, but I find it not too
bad, and the constant spot of blooms is nice.
8/10 Will grow again
Zinnias
Zinnia: I do have to mention Zinnias. I love them and will continue to grow them. But I found that thw reds are the most striking and so I am growing more of those and less of the other colors. The reds seem to last a bit longer as a cut, as the petals fading are less noticeable
Sunflowers
Sunflowers: This was my first year growing sunflowers. As you can see I tried a variety of types. I planted these late, or at least i thought late, in around June 8.
I wasn't sure how they would perform or how big they got, but I was really surprsed at once they got going how big they grew! These are 9-10 feet in height
10/10 Will grow more, a lot more.
Verbena bonariensis
Verbena bonariensis: The blooms on airy stems are so striking. This Verbena has such a wonderful presence.
The stems are very rigid and so make a great cut flower. As an added bonus, butterflies absolutely love this plant.
Grown from seed, the plants start out tiny, and every year I have my doubts, but they always come through.
10/10 Will grow again
Mounted on a piece of metal conduit pipe, the Whisper waterer is easy to move around.
The "Whisper Waterer" is a modification of a small mini-sprinkler system. Typically these are run in long rows with many sprinklers and are used under fruit trees, in Strawberry patches and such. My setup is for a single sprinkler which cn be used on beds as are needed. They are nice as they are gentle and cover a small area and so can be used in a section of a garden without preventing you access to the rest.
Interested in having one made? email me and if there's enough interest I might make some. Cost around $30 shipped This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The components of the Whisper Water are (from left to right)
Mini Sprinkler head
small hose: 3/16" Black or clear (like common aquarium air hose )
Water hose end (Green) and a piece of 1/2" hose and a metal clamp
1/2 hose coupling with a 1/2" threaded receptacle (Gray)
Threaded reducer (white)
brass nipple for small hose (metal copper)
The black knob just below the mini sprinkler and on the black hose are mini cut off valves, I have stopped using them as it's one more place for things to get clogged up.
I also have a small black plastic "riser" (sprinkler post) attached to the metal stake to achieve greater height. I screwed mine to the stake but zipties would work too.
You should be able to just assemble with the parts shown, a screw driver and knife or fine saw might help with adjusting some of the components.
I bought these parts at a hardware store. I'm sure an online search would get you all the parts you need.
Here are some helpful links
Pleasant Valley Organics: Mini Sprinkler supplies
Sprinkler Warehouse: Yet more sprinklers supplies
Hose Barb Adapters : instead of brass?
Cultivating Blue Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus)
Oyster mushrooms are one of the easiest of mushrooms to grow. They grow on hay, leaves, paper and even coffee grounds. Oyster mushrooms are very aggressive growers which means that they will out compete most other fungi and such. Below is pictures of my procedure.
I'm going to try cultivating Blue Oyster mushrooms on spent daylily scapes, stay tuned!
Hay was used for the mushroom "food" I heated the hay to about 170f, to kill any stray fungi that might compete with the Oyster mushrooms
I poured off the water and allowed the hay to cool. Once cool I packed the hay into large ziplock bags.
In this picture at the top, you can see the prepared bags and the mushroom spawn which is growing in millet seed.
I got the mushroom spawn from North Spore of Maine
After about 3-4 days the mushroom mycelium are starting to spread throughout the hay.
By week 2 the mycelium have completely colonized the hay, and at this point it is ready for fruiting. In order to stimulate fruiting I moved the bags to a well lit location and cut some 2 inch criss cross holes in the bags, to allow lots of air into the bags
Within 4-5 days fruiting has begun. The mushrooms start out small but increase in size in a matter of hours.
Here you can see the Oyster mushrooms popping out of plastic bags.
Here is what the final harvested mushrooms look like.
|
