Mumsy's Romantic Garden Advice

[aoxa]

Osage Orange is also known as Bodock, Hedge Apples, bowwood, fence shrub, hedge, hedge-apple, hedge-orange, horse-apple, mockorange, naranjo chino, and postwood. I know this because when I lived in Indiana we had over a dozen of these trees in my front yard! I loved these trees because of their shade, height, and the way they grew. Settlers used to plant these for a fence line or corral. They would intertwine and would keep the cows in or predators out.

Having said that, I will caution you on these trees. These trees have thorns. They can get up to 1 1/2" long. They hurt like the dickens if you get pricked. The fruit gets up to softball size or bigger. Every fall I was outside throwing them out of the yard into a pile. (Best to wear a hard hat) The squirrels and deer loved them.

The wood is beautiful to carve with. It changes color as it gets older. My dh made me a cane out of it.

Mumsy I didn't mean to take your place--sorry.

Lisa

I very much dislike this tagging system BYC has.. I usually highlight the words, right click and choose: Search with google so I can see what plants you guys are talking about. BYC doesn't let me do that so easily. Anyway, these fruits look like brains on the outside!

Pretty trees

 

[midnightroo]

Thanks Lisa. I knew there were reasons I was hesitant about buying this plants. I have seen the fruit of this plant on some side roads and never knew about they were.

Back to the drawing board for a hedge plant. Perhaps the oleander that has been mentioned.

Mumsy, I would be happy to send you seeds, or anyone interested. Just pm me your address and I will mail them to you.

 

[TexasLisa]

I very much dislike this tagging system BYC has.. I usually highlight the words, right click and choose: Search with google so I can see what plants you guys are talking about. BYC doesn't let me do that so easily. Anyway, these fruits look like brains on the outside!

Pretty trees

Aoxa these trees are like 'old men in the forest'. (You can tell I liked them.) They do look like brains. The sap on the inside is hard to get off your hands. I would wash and wash and it would not come off. I found that if you put your hands in dirt and rub, it would come off. I can still remember we were looking for a house to buy and the realtor had pulled up the driveway. We couldn't see the house yet but I saw the trees. I said, 'STOP, I want the house.' My husband thought I was nuts!

We lived there for 12 years.

Lisa

 

[aoxa]

Thanks Lisa. I knew there were reasons I was hesitant about buying this plants. I have seen the fruit of this plant on some side roads and never knew about they were.

Back to the drawing board for a hedge plant. Perhaps the oleander that has been mentioned.

Mumsy, I would be happy to send you seeds, or anyone interested. Just pm me your address and I will mail them to you.

Isn't Oleander poisonous? Like deadly?

I'd be afraid to have anything that deadly around.

 

[aoxa]

Quote: Scary!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Mumsy..I just read this about the English Ivy. What is your opinion on the "invasive species" designation... maybe there is a different kind of ivy I should use?

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/yamhill/sites/default/files/Ivy_Removal_Fact_Sheet.pdf

 

[MumsyII]

@aoxa: Living on an island in a rural and lightly populated area was by choice to raise our children. No gangs, no malls, very little crime. Not much of anything but miles and miles of beach and forest. We lived very modestly. Island kids can't wait to move off island as soon as they can. All four of my children did. Queenie lived two or three years in the big city after getting married and moved back. They bought a home and she is raising her family on the island. Shadow moved to the big city after getting married. She is working and thriving with no plans to move back but she has a garden. That Boy moved across the state but came back to marry and bought a home. He and his wife moved back to the island for a year but moved closer to her family after that year was up. Puppy Girl moved to the same area after leaving home. She is hoping to have her own yard and garden as soon as possible.
My son wasn't any more trouble to raise than my daughters but I never quite 'got' him. He always came home to see us regularly after leaving but he just never wanted a garden and even took out every single blooming plant on his property and many trees as soon as he bought it. He is just now starting to take interest in his outside spaces. I think becoming a father got him thinking, a nice lawn for children to play on has more benefits than a dirt lot. His wife is a doll. She has been sneaking perennials into a little border in the front yard for years now. Every time I go to visit, I bring her something to plant. Last year I surprised them with a beautiful bird bath. It may be a slow reawakening for That Boy, but there is time. I want to live to see him catch the gardening bug.

@Lisa: I love the sharing of information on this thread. Learning about new plants is fascinating. I may not be able to grow some things you all can in other regions but learning about them just the same is a thrill! Thank you for showing me what an Osage Orange looks like. That is completely new to me.

When you folks talk about things that are self seeders, I think, WOW! I wish! I've planted many dozens of clematis over the years. It is one of my favorite blooming vines. Never once got a seedling. Not never. I wish! I propagate them by burying a vine while it is still attached to the parent plant. I propagate honeysuckle that way on occasion too.

 

[TexasLisa]

Scary!

I had heard it was poisonous but it grows all over the place in my area. Crazy!!

Lisa

 

[armorfirelady]

So question about the Hawthorne tree, I been googling them to get more info on them. It shows some has red *fruit* on it. I don't ever remember seeing it on mine. It has the same blooms ans fruit like things on it though. Is it perhaps like other fruit trees that you need more than one for it to fruit correctly? Back to researching......

Do both trunks produce fruit? Are both trunks blooming and setting fruit is what I mean. It could be the original Hawthorne has reverted to the graft part. I have a named 'Washington' Hawthorne in my garden. A white blooming one that produces heavy clusters of red fruit. The robins go nuts for them and when they are soft on the tree in December, huge flocks of them descend and eat them. Trees that revert back to the graft are like a rose. If the graft outlives the named plant, the surviving plant looks and behaves nothing quite like the named cultiver. Hawthorne's are notorious for suckering. I cut the suckers off at the ground and on the trunk of my tree every year. If I didn't, the suckers would take it over. This could have happened to your Hawthorne if that is the species of your tree. They don't need a different pollinator.

I've never seen fruit on either tree. In fact every year the one with the older looking bark looks dead most of the summer. The front ones keep their leaves after blooming. I have squirrels, deer and bunnies but I don't think they would get the fruit before I saw it on the tree. The pictures I saw had bright red berries.

It's hard to see but I tried to get a picture of the tree showing the *dead* branches. As I was out there taking the picture I noticed very few limbs actually had fruit on them. And I noticed a lot of sucker/ tiny branches. Maybe today I will prune it back and see how it does next spring. I need more wood ash anyways so I can burn it as I trim it.

Ask and ye shall receive these are the after shots from today

Beautiful clematis Kausandra. I have 2 plants myself but the blooms are a pale purple. I love your darker purple ones. One of mine was growing well then died. I have had it for almost 8 years and it was huge! It grew up a lattice I found made of sticks and grew up it almost to the roof line. I cut it all down. I do have a few pieces that were green at ground level so I hope it comes back next year. Does your reseed itself? I've never heard of clematis doing this. Mine certainly don't. I have morning glory that reseeded itself and I am constantly pulling them out. It was pretty the first year but last year it grew up the side of my deck to the roof and never had flowers just a lot of vines

 

[MumsyII]

This is a good place to discuss dangerous plants. There are some I regret bringing onto my property. The Goose-neck Loose-strife was one of those. Dangerous to other plants. I love spreading plants in certain applications. Soil erosion, ground covers in other wise barren areas. Or vast wild areas. Non native plants really irk me. Himalayan black berry was brought by settlers onto Whidbey Island and it has ruined the natural forest and rural areas. I could write a book about invasive species. Plant and animal but I don't want to depress myself.

Then there is a category of dangerous plants to humans or animals. I used to battle noxious things like Tansy and Bracken fern when I raised horses. The state has the right to come onto Private property and eradicate Tansy. It's easy to spot when it's in bloom. They dig it up, put it in a bag, blooms, roots and all and away they go. Bracken fern causes vitamin B deficiency in horses. They browse on it or get it baled up in hay. Then you wonder why you feed and feed your horse and it fails to gain weight and thrive.

I knew English Ivy was dangerous to trees and if it establishes itself in your forested areas, you will battle it till the day you die. It sucks the life out of trees and slowly kills them all the while spreading through the forest from tree to tree. A one inch piece of Ivy will root and grow another plant. All it needs is a little moisture.

I planted ornamental varieties of variegated ivy on the log play house. It grew up and covered the roof and walls and was beautiful for many years. I loved it. My husband warned me it could give us problems but I assured him we could keep it in check. We did for a very long time. What we failed to for see was how the ivy kept the log play house from every thoroughly drying out. Birds made nests in it. Termites got into the logs. The log playhouse began to rapidly deteriorate after the ivy covered it.



The log playhouse the first year we moved here. Before Ivy.


All that remains of the log playhouse today, after Ivy. My husband spent three weekends of hard labor digging up and burning every piece of ivy he could find.

I still think ivy has uses. In bare lots. Chain link fences, Edgings that are regularly mowed. But not English Ivy. There are slower growing named varieties.

I need to have breakfast and feed the flock. I want to discuss dangerous plants to humans. There are some I only handle with thick gloves. And I'm not referring to thorny ones. There are some exceedingly poisonous plants out there.