Annuals


Portulaca (Moss Rose)  - About 25 feet worth

Portulaca does particularly well in Northern Nevada.  
They like lots of sun, sandy soils and are drought tolerant.

One thing about them - they don't like to be watered overhead.
If water stays on the flowers too long, they have a tendency to wilt.
Makes them a perfect candidate for a drip system.

Another thing that makes Portulaca unique is that is one of the
very few succulents that also happen to be an annual.


Vinca Major

I don't exactly know what this is.  March 07 - Identified as Vinca Major.

Last year we stayed the night in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
There were hanging baskets outside the motel that had some
nice trailing vines loaded with flowers.

I took a couple cuttings, put them in a jar of water, brought
them home and promptly forgot about them.

In late June I asked what the vine looking things were in the water
behind a few other kitchen plants.

My wife said that she didn't know, I was the one who got them.

So, a year later the roots were still in water and growing all over
the place.  There wasn't much green though.

This is about 10 weeks later hanging outside.  Growth has been
tremendous.  It will be interesting to see if it flowers.



This is a picture of the deck.   Most of the pots have contain either petunias or
geraniums.  If you ever get a chance to get a cascading white Martha Washington,
I would highly recommend it.  Couldn't find one this year.

Floating there over the top of the deck is a sail that cuts UV and provides a little more shade.



This is a hanging red miniature petunia.  We have had very good luck with
petunias in this climate.



This pot contains dianthus and some other stuff.  I am not so good at identifying
annuals.



Geraniums do well too.  We have not had much luck getting them to winter
over inside, because they seem to invariably get infected with White Flies.

I forget if these are tuberous.  If so, we might try the 'store upside down in
a box in the garage' technique.



Looks like we have a visitor today.  




Three smaller pots of dianthus and geranium.  

As an aside, one of the reasons the pots are doing  so well is because
of this triangular sail we installed over the porch.



It is an Australian invention that is supposed to hold up to wind and UV
for at least ten years.

The filtered light as really helped the pots in not getting blasted by the intense
sun in the afternoon.  



This is a pot from one of the local home improvement stores.  
It came furnished with a live tree frog, who feasts on  bugs at night.



Not everything is a success.

Lets talk about rotating crops.  Farmers have been doing that for years.
Different crops use different nutrients so every few years farmers rotate
their crops to give the soil a chance to replenish itself.  

Winter Rye is good for replenishing nitrogen.  So is clover, but it is kind
of a pain to get rid of.

Gardeners, myself included, quite often don't grasp this concept.

If you have  a bed of Vincas  (pictured above) and they perform spectacularly one
year, odds are you will plant the same thing the next year

and the next year

and the next year.

This is  what can happen .............



Phytophthora Blight

One day the Vincas look fine.

The next day some leaves start to curl, sometimes only on one stalk.  

Death usually occurs on the third day.

This year we planted about  forty  plants.  25% are still alive and
probably not for much longer.

Rotate those crops!