What were your most successful plants this summer?

[lily51]

The wet year had some definite advantages in my flower gardens. One was that the New Guinea impatiens and double impatiens did wonderful, as did the Baby Tut Papyrus planted as a backdrop. These all did fantastic whether planted directly in the garden or in containers.
Also chocolate drop coleus and creeping jenny grew prolifically.
It rained so much and so consistently that when there was a week with no rain, I had to remember that flowers need watered.

[imafan26]

It rained until June, but it has been hot and dry since. I count it a success that anything has survived.

[purpleinopp]

It's been a mixed bag, with an overabundance of rain from mid-June to late August. Few ground plants have been able to perform to their best. I'm liking the hanging baskets the most at this point.

[mmt]

We got a good favor this year with lots of sun through whole summer in West coast,BC, but as I end up with an abandon garden and lawn, everything is just like restarting and in curing state, hoping next year to have more in a garden feel, can't wait.

Mimi

[applestar]

I had similarly consistent weekly rain -- only a handful of weeks when it didn't rain enough for in-ground plants and maybe a dozen days when it didn't rain enough for the container plants and needed hand watering.

Consequently, the outside vacationing container plants did VERY well with only a few exceptions. Even though I never did bring the orchids and African violets back inside even in the height of the heat in the summer, they are looking fresh and AV's are actually blooming right now, and orchids (all phals), aloe I dividied this spring and zebra plants, ... almost all... are showing excellent summer growths.

IF I MANAGE THEIR RETURN INSIDE this autumn before frost according to their temperature needs correctly and with good timing, they will be returning from their vacation very healthy.

In ground flower garden, on the other hand, I must admit, did poorly -- mostly due to neglect: The consistent rains meant rampant weeds, and only larger plants that could keep ahead/keep their heads above the tide until I could get around to saving them did well -- mostly shrubs like azalea and rhododendrons. The dwarf magnolia didn't get the summer drought syndrome and actually rebloomed.

Moisture loving plants like iris versicolor, cardinal flower, swamp milkweed, summersweet, joe pye weed loved the rains. Ones that survive on water neglect like sedum went nuts this year despite the rains so I guess it would prefer to be watered more than I thought.

On the other hand, the lambs ears in the mailbox area which is intended to be bullet proof drought tolerant are looking a little bit beaten down and bedraggled from all the rain, and bearded iris blooms there didn't last at all this year. I may have actually lost a few other plants from drowning though it's difficult to assess until I see what doesn't come back next year.

ETA: You know what was really successful? The marigolds I started from seeds. Only 5 plants, I think -- gave one seedling away, but they did fantastic. I'm hoping they'll come back on their own next year.

[rainbowgardener]

It's sort of like asking which of your children do you like the best. But in terms of success, I have to say the standout is the moonflower vine. All the rain helped it get really well established and it just went crazy, and continues to do so even after the rain stopped. It wilts easily when it gets hot and dry, but perks right up when watered. It is HUGE and covered in fragrant white blossoms bigger than my hand, 8 - 10 of them per night.

The roselle I started from seed applestar gave me is doing really well. It is now a shrub, probably about 4' x 4' with lots of blooms. It is in the hibiscus family and is really pretty. But I have to say, if you are in to garden efficiency, it is somewhat limited food value per space taken. But that is because, so far all I have used of it is flower calyxes. The rest of it is edible too, so I have to start using more of it.

The angel trumpet tree I started from seed, I think five years ago, had gotten very lanky. Much of the year it looks mostly like a few bare sticks and last summer it didn't bloom at all. So early this year I just chopped the trunk in half, cut the top half of the tree off. It has been beautiful this summer, put out a lot more branches and leaves and got covered in blooms AND it is now covered with a second flush of buds!

tomato plants in the front yard bed did really well as did the two pepper plants in that bed. I've had tons of peppers from them already; right now between the two plants there are 15 peppers on them, mostly full sized waiting to be picked. The purple ruffles basil on the deck has been awesome, deep purple nearly black. I have noticed before, it likes more water and less sun than the green basil. Works out ok - rainy years are good for the purple basil, dry years are good for the green, so I always have some...

and, and, and .... I love all my children

[webmaster]

Squash and Zucchini were the bright spots in my garden. Various ground cover plants, perennials and flowers did well in the front yard and continue to flower. Morning glories on my side deck are blooming, nice to look at those at breakfast. I got six blooms this morning.

I think my tomatoes would have done better had we planted later in the season. First batch didn't make it because of lingering frost. Second batch held on but didn't produce much. I hedged my bets by planting veggies in containers on a sunny back deck and in the ground. Successive downpours and lack of sun through spring and excessive rain in the summer seemed to keep the veggies in a state of siege.

[Ohio Tiller]

Peppers of any kind did the best this year but over all I had a great year. The only thing I lost was broccoli the cabbage worms just filled them! Doubt I will ever plant them again.

[rainbowgardener]

That's too bad, broccoli is one of my best things to grow. I see the little white butterflies some, but I haven't had very much trouble with them.

Do you grow your broccoli mixed in with other stuff? Tomatoes, onions, garlic and sage, and rosemary near broccoli, helps ward off the cabbage worms. And the same braconid wasp that preys on my tomato hornworm (or one of its relatives) is a predator for them. Plants that have nectar in tiny florets, like any of the carrot family stuff, wild grape, sedum, chamomile, buckwheat, and others, are attractive to the adult wasps. I grow a lot of that kind of stuff and I never see a hornworm that hasn't already been parasitized by them.

[purpleinopp]

Ohio T, you're over the hump, you've attracted pests. Beneficials will notice. The key is letting them do their thing, not turning to poisons.

The advice about avoiding large monocultures is excellent. Dispersing the veggie plants throughout ornamental beds will keep them much safer, and increase your odds of success with each plant as pests and/or disease can't spread by mere adjacency.

Adding compost to the soil (on the surface is fine) so the most robust possible plants are grown is the key to successful gardening, especially of edibles, growing from the roots-up, not the top-down. Healthy plants are much less susceptible to attack by pests or disease, which requires fertility and tilth.

I think only having problems with one kind of veggie/edibles plant among many is a huge success story! Any failures are just fodder for the compost, not a total loss in that regard, or as mentioned above regarding attracting and supporting the predators whose role it is to keep these things in check.

[rainbowgardener]

I was looking some stuff up relevant to a different question, but I found something that said the trichogamma wasp is a specific and effective predator of cabbage worms. The trichogamma is a different small parasitic wasp, chalcid vs the braconid I mentioned. It is available to be ordered. The adult trichogammas like the same kinds of flowers I mentioned for the braconids.

I really think if you plant some of the nectar flowers they like (some are perennials you could plant now) around the area you grow broccoli and then order yourself some trichogammas (probably next early spring) to get the population started, you could get on top of the cabbage worms.

https://www.planetnatural.com/product/tr ... OgodDAkAnw

[Ohio Tiller]

That's too bad, broccoli is one of my best things to grow. I see the little white butterflies some, but I haven't had very much trouble with them.

Do you grow your broccoli mixed in with other stuff? Tomatoes, onions, garlic and sage, and rosemary near broccoli, helps ward off the cabbage worms. And the same braconid wasp that preys on my tomato hornworm (or one of its relatives) is a predator for them. Plants that have nectar in tiny florets, like any of the carrot family stuff, wild grape, sedum, chamomile, buckwheat, and others, are attractive to the adult wasps. I grow a lot of that kind of stuff and I never see a hornworm that hasn't already been parasitized by them.

Funny you mentioned Rosemary I just removed a OLD BIG Roasemary plant from that box that I grew my Broccoli in! I do have onions and peppers in that same box Garlic is in the next box over. You would not believe the worms in the Broccoli this year! It looked ok on top cut it and break it open and it was nothing but cabbage worms filling the whole underside of the heads!

[rainbowgardener]

wow - I've never seen anything like that. So much for the companion planting theory! But still look in to the trichogamma wasps and nectar flowers.

Once you get the Garden Patrol (as applestar likes to say) established, it really does work.

[Ohio Tiller]

wow - I've never seen anything like that. So much for the companion planting theory! But still look in to the trichogamma wasps and nectar flowers.

Once you get the Garden Patrol (as applestar likes to say) established, it really does work.

Those wasp are going to do 2 things for my garden one keep the worms in check and keep the wife out of it also. I know they are not the stinging kind of wasp but she is not going to know it! And I am not going to tell her. She is as city as they come and keeps pulling stuff thinking she is weeding! and she will pick things way before they are ready! She is scared to death to get stung!
I know the old saying real well

Not all help is good help!

[robotr73]

In California's Central Valley, my sunflowers this year were the clear winner. Amazing that these came from seeds planted in early May! Still figuring out what to do with several pounds of seeds.....

[rainbowgardener]

@ robot: Beautiful! what a gorgeous sunflower!

@OhioTiller: Trichogammas aren't going to keep anyone out of the garden, being as they are like 1/50 th of an inch long, nearly microscopic. But a good thing to have anyway. Even the braconid wasps that parasitize my hornworms, which are relatively huge being more like 1/10th or even 1/4 of an inch long, I never see. But I know they are there, doing their job, because I see the cocoons on the hornworms.

[pow wow]

I would have to say my petunia ladders were a success this year.

[applestar]

Gorgeous! What a great idea!
We're they just sitting on the stepladder rungs or were they secured in some way?

[lily51]

Beautiful petunias and great way to display them.

[pow wow]

Thank you both. I got the idea from my cousin. The pots are secured with about three screws per pot. And the ladders are secured with poles and several bricks. We get some wicked wind here beside the Rocky Mountains but I haven't had a ladder tip over yet.