Tom

I tried Red Hot Poker my first year of gardening. An utter and complete failure. Not sure if it was due to the plant or "user error" LOL!

Carol

I placed an order with a subsidiary of Park Seed called Wayside Gardens 6/21 for some Kniphofia Echo Rojo, never heard back from them so I supposed they would not send the plants to Florida realizing the climate was not optimal for success. PROBLEM - look what arrived today:

What the heck do I do now? At least we're headed into the cooler, drier season so they'll probably last at least ONE season :-) :-(

Tom

- They are suitable for pot culture, during the height of the rainy season, put them under a covered porch so they don't get rain, and water them only when bone dry.
- They hate hot, wet soil. Causes rot.

This year I tried putting them in a full sun location in well drained soil. That was not good enough. Still too wet. But I solved this problem for my lavender & rosemary who had the same problems by placing those plants in a mostly sunny area that is in an area of serious root competition from a big tree (maple in my case). That way the tree drinks all the water in summer & the soil stays pretty dry.

So I plan to replant my potted plants this fall in an area that gets morning sun & has lots of tree roots. I'm hoping that this will allow me to have a landscape plant that will persist without help for multiple years.

Let us know what approach you take Tom. I'd love to know if yours really do get 5-6' tall!

Angela

I've heard of other gardeners coaxing along plants that do not like hot, humid, wet conditions by planting them in clay pots and limiting the amount of water. (Clay pots dry out more quickly than plastic containers or the ground.) For example, verbena do better when put in clay containers and kept as dry as possible. So yeah, I second that suggestion. And please report back! I'm eager to hear how they do. I think you will at least have a good winter/spring season with them.

Carol in Jacksonville

Thanks, we love it too, looked quite a while before settling on this one.

Tom, with your expertise, I KNOW you can make them grow!!!

Oh, far from it, I've kiled more than fair share of things, barely keeping my Yacon alive right now, it's been a real bug-magnet here :-(

Those look like a gorgeous variety! I hope you can get them to grow. Here's the update on mine....

Thanks for the post; I really need help like yours since you've been able to keep them alive. Mine have already started yellowing; they had what appears to be wood lathe shavings packed at the top that I didn't get off the containers until yesterday so I didn't notice how moist it was keeping the mix :-( I immediately potted them into DRY mix in 6" clay pots since they came in 3" square pots. I sure hope I get them dried out before they rot. If they survive I will keep them in clay pots slightly bigger than the root zone, in a 4:2:1 mix and protect them from rain by keeping them under the soffit, either on the south side of the porch with filtered sun but fairly cool, or on the east side with direct morning sun (hot) and afternoon shade (cool). Thoughts?

...They were under the overhang of her garage and grew in rocky mix--gravel and larger rocks.

Like I said above, I'm going to try them in clay pots, hopefully to keep them dry and out of the rain. I have no experience with the cactus type mixes...only time will tell.

Tom, pray tell, what are those things growing in the glass jars on the counter near the window?

I'm curious about the glass jar project, too!

They are avocados, Brogdon seeds from Silvia. I hope to pot them up today. Here's the first five that I potted up a little over a month ago. The two in the jello cups front-left are not avocados, they are longan, another one that won't grow true....

Tom

Carol in Jacksonville

I hope that you are successful with your new plants.

I agree with Carol, those avocados look so nice and healthy!

About the yacon, I have it under an insect barrier cloth, it works on any new plant or seedlings that I am not sure about it, they are very strong type of plants. Sometimes I look under the leaves for possible bugs and nothing is there, it works great. In that area I also have the yellow sticky traps and catching a lot of bugs.

Silvia

I think I'd put yours on the east side that gets some good heat to get them to dry out right away. Watch them close though, to see how much they dry out. If the soil goes to bone dry all the way through in less than a week, I'd move them to the more dappled light. I'd aim for finding a spot where you only need to give them some water at most every other week, even if they have to get a little less sun. Once the weather cools off and they start growing, they will be less finicky until it gets really hot again next June. I have only one spot that is protected from rain, and it gets morning sun, and full shade most of the day. My saved plants adapted pretty well to that spot, but they would really like more light. They were a bit leggy, at least didn't rot=)

The yacon was decimated with aphids, first I hit them with sevin, barely phased the little critters and I thought the plants were history so with nothing to lose I hit them with Neem and so far they are holding on...fingers crossed.

SW - thanks to you too. The knips were dry today from being on the east side so I gave them just a sip of water. I'll leave them there tomorrow during the day and then move them to the south side, fingers crossed.

Tom

I noticed today that one of the three plants is retaining too much water in it's original soil, yellowing more than the others. If there's one thing I've learned about soil dynamics from hanging out over at the Container Forum it's that frequently potted plants suffer from yuck when they are just potted up in the original soil they are in since it's older, more compact and holds more water than the new potting mix surrounding it.... So, I took a chance and bare-rooted this plant and re-potted it completely in new, fresh slightly damp soil...I love my little 2' concrete mixing tub, I can take dry potting mix, lightly dampen it with water in the tub and use it for ANY new plants without worrying about the mix being so wet it's detrimental!

Now, if only this knip shows improvement over the others....

Tom

SW - Good question, I've read that Knips are finicky and won't bloom the year after divisions, and other than you it seems no one else has been able to keep them alive so I figured I had nothing to lose and wanted to see what would happen if I bare-rooted the one that was considerably wetter than the other two...given our humid unfriendly environment for this plant would it do better in fresh soil?

Since you're the Master and I'm Grasshopper pick out the bare-root and you tell me ;-)

Tom

By they way, I have found them generous to flower, even after moving or dividing. If I can keep them alive until the cool part of the year, they flower easily in spring and repeat into early summer. The finicky bit is keeping them alive after they finish flowering when they seem to want to be dormant and dry.

As an update on mine, the one in ground is doing well. The two I had in pots may have expired. When I started seeing collapse, I bare rooted them and put them in the ground in the same spot as the one that is doing well. They now have zero leaves left, but I'm hoping that the small bits of tuber that were left will put out some roots and show growth in the spring. I do so love them, but they are challenging here!

Yup, the one in the middle is the bare-rooted plant....

I have no idea how dry to keep them in these clay pots. Should I treat them like a cactus? I'm concerned about over watering them but so far I'm not seeing any yellowing blades since I got them out of their original plastic containers and into this mix in the clay pots.

Thanks for you input, I'd really like these things to survive.

Tom

I think you are doing great - all of them look healthy. I don't keep them quite as dry as cactus, but close during the most humid time of year. As the weather starts to cool and you see them starting active growth, then it is much safer to water them, and then they do need water when actively growing. Mine are starting to enter the active growing time again - just breaking dormancy.

Thought I'd share a couple pics. Here is mine blooming in the spring - looked great along with hippeastrums:

I thought that spot was going to work, but around late August it proved too wet. Here is this same plant, just after I moved it to a new spot. As you can see, it died back a lot.

This spot is hot & dry because it is next to the hot concrete driveway and in an area chock full of the roots of a laurel oak. Even asiatic jasmine stuggles to grow in this spot. So far, the kniphofia seems to like it there. This plant is starting to grow again, and the other two that had died to the ground seem to like this spot too, and are starting to form some tiny leaves. Really amazing how there is a plant for every location, just takes some sleuthing to figure out the right pairings.

Here's hoping you get a good spring display!

Angela