Why does my posting appear so wide? Has it to do with how I put my pics on. The other postings are normal. This is probably another big pretty mistake.

Rita, your photo is just fine as it is :) Good that you now know how to post photos, we'll be expecting to be seeing lots more :)

Ginny and any others, how about also attempting to post some pics? It took me a bit to catch on, so if you experience any problems, just ask and there will be assistance from others here :)

Terry

Oh, I see Ginny has also gotten the knack and posted pics on the "Spring" thread :)

Glad to see you posting photos Rita, it looks fine with me too. Photobucket has an option to resize if you find its too big.

Yeah, Oxeye Daisy & Shasta Daisy can get really invasive. I just shear back the dead heads before they can set seed.

One mistake I'll never do again is that I wanted Fireweed so bad to grow in my garden, well I got the seed to germinate by wintersowing, however in two years it was taking over one of the beds. It's pretty and all, but RoundUp was the rescue. I'll let it grow naturally in the fields and ditches ;)

{{gwi:541239}}
EPILOBIUM angustifolium Fireweed

Sharon

Sharon - Please forgive my ignorance. Is the fireweed the purple stuff? If so, you have just ID'd a very noxious weed for me. It has taken over the the north bed in my yard from the neighbours! I really rank it up there with my favorite thistle!!!!YECH
Ginny

Ginny, that would be it.
I should of known better not to plant that in a garden setting. Doh!

Sharon

Yep! That's it. I think I killed it or most of it. Now it is trying to grow on the north side of the house in the spruce needles! Tough little plant! I told Painter to pee on it!
Painter @ 9 months September 2005

Ginny

Yep! That's it. I think I killed it or most of it. Now it is trying to grow on the north side of the house in the spruce needles! Tough little plant! I told Painter to pee on it!
Painter @ 9 months September 2005

Ginny

I've tried for years to get fireweed to grow. We moved a year ago and I have a couple of plants that grow in the shade.

If it is so hard to start, what makes it invasive.

I don't want to talk about using ox-eye daisies to edge my gardens. :( I was pulling daisy roots out of my lawn for years. (I try to avoid herbicides.)

Love your Fire weed, Sharon!
Fire weed is a good bee plant, ...it makes excellent honey!
I have several patches growing.

Also pollen is collected, here you see a honey bee with pollen [pollen sack on hind leg]

Fortunately, the fireweed i planted didn't grow. But this did, all over the place:

Oh that Verbascum is gorgeous, does it go by a common name as well? It looks pretty tall as well, gauging by the allium growing in front of it.

Rita, i think the common name is mullein. It's gorgeous, yes, and that yellow one is particularly tall and stunning, especially with the pink lythrum next to it. I have to deadhead like crazy, though. Funny - i've taken seed stalks and shaken them up and down the sides of our road and nothing grows. I've tried it with poppies too - same thing.

Marcia-Verbascum is biennial.Are you mowing along there and possibly cutting down the seedlings? I've also had them spring up everywhere. Thank goodness they are easy to transplant when small or hoe them up. I've also had the white/with mauve centers V. chaixii "album"- z5- I think this one is more delicate in form but still spreads like h...I'm still working on how to post pic but do so love to see all the beauties you share.You inspire me more and more on photo taking and ideas of what to growing.

Take care Lois

Marcia, I believe that is VERBASCUM nigrum, sorry if I gave you seed a few years ago ;), I just shear back too once they are finished flowering, they are really beautiful in my eyes. Some books will list V. nigrum as a biennial, in fact its a short-lived perennial, blooms in its first year from seed.

ljpother, Fireweed does produce fluffy seed that seed all over the place, however if you grow them in rich compost garden beds, they will spread by their aggressive rhizomes.

Sharon

Ginny love the pics of your dogs-saw them on the spring thread also. Whenever I see any of the pics with dogs I get a little fuzzy. We had to put down our Irish Setter(13yrs.) late 07 thus the name Celtic-07. Hope to find another one after the move-- Not easy to find ! Anyway kudos to all that take the time to share pics of things around you.
Take care Lois

Sharon - The Fireweed that was growing from under the fence seemed to have spread through rhizomes as it took me a couple of years to dig it out. The other growing by the house must have self seeded and now has started it's own little patch which is fine with me. I wonder if the birds like it?

Lois - I am so sorry for your loss! You will love another puppy again and there are many really good Irish Setter breeders in Canada. My kennel name is Gairden's Shelties which is gaelic for Garden, my last name, which is Scottish. Originally Irish.

As for pics, I just started my real gardening so basically all I have are pics of the dogs IN the dirt gardens that I can grow so wonderfully! I'm glad you can enjoy the ones I can post.

Ginny

Sharon, i'm pretty sure the seeds didn't come from you. I guess i can say these are one of my big WS successes! LOL

Lois, i do have the chaixii album as well, and it's not as vigourous as the nigrum. I did have all the names down pat the year i sowed them. I dig a bunch up every year and last year some got sold at the hort. club's plant sale. I always post warnings! It's a real weed, coming up all over the place. About as bad as the adenophora - no pictures of that, though. I'm hoping to get rid of that once and for all this summer!

My little clump of fireweed is spreading. I have plants over ten feet away. I love pulling weeds. :)

Some might think my entire garden is a pretty mistake altho in this zone I like some semi-invasive plants. Growing in zone 3 is completely different than in warmer zones. Even lily of the valley is not invasive here. In fact it's not spreading as quickly as I'd like it to.

My most invasive plant is a ribbon grass - every spring and fall DH digs it back to a small size and burns the extra. It was a free plant, a gift that keeps on giving... and spreading,,, and spreading some more. I don't know anyone I dislike enough to give it to altho it's a pretty grass. I have it in a very dry area with poor soil and it still grows rampantly.

Another I fondly call a thug is a variegated artemesia (Oriental Limelight Artemesia). Very pretty but spreads easily. I yard it out periodically.

These are a few of the plants that self-seed or grow a bit rampantly in my garden - I don't consider any of these thugs:
Shasta Daisies
Lamb's-ears
Feverfew
Perennial sunflower
Annual sunflower (planted randomly by the birds)
Jacob's Ladder
Campanula glomerata
Wild strawberries - I use these as edging plants

Unfortunately I'm losing my Johnny-Jump-Ups - must be deadheading and weeding too carefully or something. I'm thinking about seeding to get more.

Most of these "good growers" were inexpensive yard sale plants or freebies but are great reliable filler plants in a large cold-climate garden.

I appreciate the warning on fireweed and mullein altho I might try mullein in my garden.