Not to Dread the Dreads

Dreads- as I call it.

This is a real beauty for any flower garden.  Funny story, I initially bought the seeds for this in the clearance area on the Park Seed Website.  They looked cool in the pictures and they were cheap so I thought I would give it a try in the greenhouse.  The first seeds only produced 3-4 nice plants, which were really tall, even taller than what they say in the description of 3-5 feet tall, one of the first ones was about 6 feet.  They formed a large dreadlock which was loaded to the gills with seeds. 

In the fall I cut off the dreads and placed them in an area to dry and around January I extracted the seeds- now keep in mind, their seeds are very small and are like beads, so this turned out to be a time consuming task.  However, I thought it was worth it as I liked how gigantic and colorful they were in the summer.

So with my hand picked seeds, I planted them in the green house for a second year, this time they produced like crazy- I was giving away Dreads to anyone who wanted one.

Funny thing, the year before, when the plants were in the flower beds, they had dropped a tremendous amount of seeds as well, so you can guess with the birds help I had these everywhere this year, but they are so pretty I did not mind.

When I trimmed them back this fall, I thought I should just drop the dreads in the flower bed and see if they will reseed again, so will have to see.  I did save some of the larger dreads for seeds this winter, they are so pretty and tall I thought I had to.

Not sure if you can tell, but can you depict the long dreads on these?  Crazy



A little bit about the plant- Their name is the Red Amarathus Caudatus- but like I said I call them Dreads- as they look like dreadlocks.

They will grow from 1- 5 feet is the average.  One plant may range from 12-24 inches wide- depending on the area they have.

They like allot of sun and a moist area to grow, but I will have to say if they do run dry on the water, you will start to see the leaves turn brown before the Dread does, but as I said they like the moisture, but not soggy.

They will start blooming from spring to fall and if you take it indoors will last allot longer.  This is classified as an annual.

I will have to say this is an attention getter in your flower bed, visitors will always ask what is that, or wow that plant is cool, and the birds love it for the color, unfortunately humming birds like it but there is not allot of goodies for them.

Experiment with this one, I think you will love it.

This is one of my runts from this year, but by mid August it was actually doing really well.

Looking Towards Next Spring,

Now that the freezing weather is here and the snow has covered the flower beds, I think it is due time to think about what we can add to our flower collection for next year.  I start by perusing through many websites that sell seeds and or plants.  This is a good time to experiment with seeds to see what works for you and what does not.

As I mentioned in a earlier blog, to save the seeds from your flowers, well now that there is not the outside weeding and general lawn care, it is a great time to organize the saved seeds.  Here are some thoughts on the process:
1.  Check the seeds to ensure they are dry, if they feel or look moist- let them dry a bit longer.  Placing them in a sunny window will help the process out.
2.  I have saved several small containers from food products as well as small medicine bottles.  Remove labels so that you can add labels of the seeds you are putting into the container.  Do not fret, if you don't have bottles, small paper bags, such as we used to use for school lunches will be fine, (not plastic ones).
3.  Remove the seeds from the flower stack, place in your labeled container or bag, and there you go.
4.  I usually place them in a refrigerator, as the cooler temps ensures you will not have any sprouting going on.

Now I had a good friend who actually picked out select seeds and placed them in cute little bottles or envelopes and gave them to people for Christmas presents- just an idea.

I will have to say that one part of this process I don't care for are the little seeds such as ones from the Dreads flower, they are really tiny, so I get the tweezers out and I try to have a white plate to work on, so I can see the tiny things.

This can be time consuming and you may say "Bag This" I am going to buy mine at the store or on line.  I have found a couple of places to order from which I like, Park Seed and High Country Gardens.

Next we will start discussing planting inside.  See you next blog.

Ground Cover- Ice Plant

Ice Plant

I have always thought the name Ice Plant was a strange name for this ground cover, sometimes I wonder who comes up with the names and perhaps what was going on at the time, the name was created.

Well anyway, this is a nice ground cover for those areas where you need some low lying plant to fill in some color.  This plant is a perennial, so bank on even after the most severe winter storms, it will come back.

Ice Plant does like allot of sun but not beating down sun, and moderate amounts of water, not soggy but perhaps an every other day watering. 

The plant will come in array of different colored flowers- now I have not seen any flowers on mine yet as it is rather new to the Eiting collection, but hoping next year we will see some of its flowering beauty.

I did receive a few pieces of this from a neighbor and stuck it in the ground, kept is moist for a couple weeks and it has now made a strong hold.  This little plant was doing great, until the neighborhood kids as well as my kids played "Night Games" in my yard one night.  Now I am not completely sure how this "Night Games" works, but I know the kids say there are many places to hide in my flowerbeds.  I am guess from the increased amount of "Night Games" that have occurred at my house/yard, it must be a great place to play.  Well anyway, the Ice Plant was stepped on several times one night, but you know it came back in full force, so I think it is safe to say it is a hearty plant.  I did make a new rule, do not step on my flowers or the game is off, HAHA  I know it is dark outside when they are playing so they can really see what they are stepping on, what do you do?  I think to myself, I love my flowers and spend countless hours tending to them, but I always said to myself that I would not be the cranky old lady that shoos the kids off with a broom, as I don't want them to come back and T.P. my house.

Even though we have had several frosts so far this fall, the ice plant is looking good, oh yeah we even had snow and it is still looking good.

Give this one a try.

Ground Cover

Ground Cover

There is a plethora of ground cover to choose from, I say try them all.  They add color and fill in especially in hard to grow areas.  Ground cover will also grow in around plants and rocks, making your flower beds look wonderful.

This is one of my favorites- I call it the "carpet" or I have heard others call it snow carpet, or snow in the summer.

This particular ground cover will grow pretty much anywhere, comes back year after year, and very hearty.  Sun or shade it grows.  The plant will produce white little flowers in the summer. 

You can cut pieces of this and stick in moist soil and it will start growing, I love how it grows over the rocks.