Re: [gardeners] Lurkers Come Out/Autumn Rain

George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 9 Oct 1997 09:32:50 -0500 (CDT) 

At 06:40 AM 10/9/97 -0700, you wrote:
>At 10:36 PM 10/8/97 -0400, you wrote:
>>It will come as no surprise to those who know me that today's yarn was
>>autumn reds, gold and wine. I wanted to be outside but this is our season,
>>so I dye autumn colors based on what I see outside my window instead of
>>gardening. We sell our yarns wholesale nationally and are really fortunate
>>to be able to work out of our home, enabling us to frequently garden during
>>the day and work at night. It's often hard to determine whether the garden
>>has been influencing my work or vice versa, but it is a very colorful and
>>satisfying life.
>>
>>We have ten acres in a very rural part of west central New York State,
>>between the two longest Finger Lakes, 17 miles from Ithaca and Cornell
>>University. Much of what I have growing in the 175 ft ellipse and smaller
>>sun and shade beds came from cuttings and seeds expropriated from Cornell's
>>many gardens, and from members of the Gardens List - some of whom are here,
>>too. Believe me, the garden would be nowhere near as extensive as it is if
>>I had to purchase everything. I never leave home without my seed envelopes
>>and pocket knife.
>>
>>Last year we joined the American Iris Society and have managed to get
>>really involved, attending many meetings, sales and shows, since we are
>>located between several widespread(72-150 miles away) local groups. Our
>>iris collection now numbers over 200 named varieties and more than 600
>>clumps, including 47 reblooming irises, which we hope to offer for sale one
>>day. A few of our 21 raised vegetable beds have been given over to irises
>>already - tall bearded, siberians, dwarfs and the rebloomers - and we hope
>>to add more unusual ones every year.  We even have 5 Louisianas thanks to
>>list members. Our Amish neighbors have offerred us a 3/10 of a mile strip
>>along the road across from our house where we can really go nuts planting
>>irises.
>>
>>We, too, are having an incredible Autumn. A little rain followed by
>>temperatures in the high 70's, low 80's, gorgeous blues skies and
>>magnificent foliage. Can't beat it. (Sorry we can't share the autumn leaves
>>with you deprived southern folk, George, but since you can boast red
>>peppers growing on trees, you hardly need the leaves to change.) :-)
>>
>>BTW, has anyone grown buddleia from seed successfully? If so, I'd
>>appreciate details. TIA.
>>
>>
>>Cheryl Schaefer, Schaefer Yarns
>>Beautiful hand painted fibers
>>schaefer@epix.net
>>Zone 5 in the fabulous Finger Lakes of NY
>>
>I can come close, but not exactly buddleia, Cheryl.  I have a 4 foot tall
>vitex shrub, which attracts butterflies, and was started from seeds
>purchased from Richter's.  I just looked in their catalog and was surprised
>to see they say it's a tender perennial, good to zone 6.  I think it's
>hardier than that, since at best I'm in zone 5, and on average of every ten
>years it drops to zone 4.  The shrub has died back at times, back to the
>ground in my friend's garden, but it came back from the roots.  Nice little
>shrub, but the leaves look like...Cannabis .  Best, Margaret
>
We've tried several times to plant buddleia from seed here in zone 9b with
no luck. Haven't tried to set plants from a nursery yet but plan to next
spring. You're right Cheryl, the only thing I miss about the north is the
fall colors. Down here the sumac, Chinese tallow, and maples are the only
things that actually get a color in the fall, everything else just turns
from green to brown.

George