rednaz23: We don't plant here until the end of May.I only plant veggies and have lilac bushes.Maybe ajtgirl can help you more on the flowers.I use alot of hanging plants that i buy and put around my yard.

Foxy Lady: I don't think she has planted anything. I am about 100 miles from home... so I don't know! We haven't seen frost like temps for a couple of weeks! So that is a good thing. My brother works at a greenhouse, and he said that flowers usually start selling a lot more in May when the temps become more consistent... Still... I am in need of ideas for her and that plot that is easy to maintain and something she will enjoy! Any ideas would be greatly appreciatted!

rednaz23: Better to be safe than sorry.:)
Is it warm enough their to plant? Our nites are still in the 30's,I'm in Central NY

Foxy Lady: I have talked to my father to do some "detectice work" and find out what her plans are for that plot. I should know maybe later today! :-)

rednaz23: Before you go ahead and plant anything i'd check with her,just to make sure she doesn't have her own ideas.

My Mom is from Minnesota. Twin Cities area. So I think that is zone 4 if I remember right. She loves gardening, but I want to make it easier for her. My father retires in less than a year, and my mother will soon follow (she also has had a bad back the past few years). She has lots of planting areas around the house, and I am thinking specifically in this 4x5 little plot she has... Raised up about 6 inches from the ground around it, just on the south side of a little 12 foot Maple, so it is mostly in the sun. Last year she put red, white, and purple flowers there in the shape of an American flag. Looked quite nice! but I think those were annuals... So, she has an empty plot. I don't think she has put anything in there yet, so I want to get her something that will be easy to maintain for the years (so perennials) to come!

What do you suggest?

I think I might just go to the greenhouse and look around for things that she might like. But I am so unfamiliar with gardening (besides pulling weeds for my Mom! LOL), I wouldn't know where to start!

Thanks for helping me! :-)

rednaz23:
We need to know more about your Mom
Nothing personal: just what zone she lives in. May I assume she is in Minnesota too?
Does she like to garden?
What areas need planting around her home?
How much do you want to spend?
Are you buying annuals or perennials?

There is so much out there it's hard to narrow it down without more information

Hi all... new to this board, any suggestions on what types of flowers a Mom would like that will be easy to maintain? Mother's Day is coming up! And I want to give her a gift that she will have many years to come! Any ideas? (From Minnesota)

Foxy Lady: yes Ma'am.

This is a Gardening Board not a Chat Room.I allowed the chat during the winter,this is Spring
Any post will be deleted.

read the rules

ajtgirl: yes Ma'am. glad i could be of assistance.

so. bet You can't wait to hire *that* "gardener" again!

plaintiger:

That must be the answer!
That knucklehead. Thanks PT...mystery solved.

ajtgirl: maybe if he was little enough a gardener to mow down Your peonies, he was little enough a gardener to put some kind of vegetation killer on them as well? Peony-B-Gon™ or something?

ajtgirl: Maybe because they were just sprouting.I play it safe and put tomato cages around them so they don't get mowed down.

Foxy Lady:
I don't understand it either since the roots are what needs to survive for the plant to keep growing back every spring...but for some reason that gardener of mine, when he mowed them down in the early spring just as they were sprouting, killed 'em for sure. They never came back!

Have a great day...I am going to the Greenhouse!

ajtgirl: Thats odd i cut mine down every year and never had a problem.I put them in the fall and they bloomed every year.I give them a good compost tea every fall and so far so good.

ajtgirl:I agree with it taking a couple of years for perennials to get established. But I've always put it down to the grower raising the plants in the best possible conditions, to have the best plants for sale, and then when you get them home they are shocked into the real world. LOL

Rose:
The peonies I had were ordered from a catalog as roots, and they were very slow growing. I actually didn't have blooms on them for at least 4 years. You can divide peopny roots from existing plants fairly easily and supposedly any pieces of the root will grow into a new plant. Maybe your neighbor could give you a couple of her roots?

They are easy to grow once they are established which can take a couple of years. I always feel that true perennials take 3 growing seasons to become mature.

ajtgirl: Are peonies easy to start? My neighbour has a bunch in her yard. They are sooo pretty when they are in bloom

Foxy Lady:
2 springs ago my gardener cut down my peonies with the lawn mower just as they were popping up out of the ground and they never came back

I was so sad because I had moved them from one house to another and had them almost 10 years.

Wow you guys were busy yesterday.It nothing but rain here.My Peonys are coming up nice,i can't wait too se them in bloom.

amandalove: LOL you tell her Mom.

amandalove: the only reason why nothing else was growing there.. was because of those dang weeds!!

The flower is pretty.. but, the stock is ugly!! Ick!!

ajtgirl: no, wait! i wasn't thinking of "far as i know" - i thought faik was "for all i know." that's why i couldn't figure out what that initial 'a' was doing there. duh.

ScarletRose: ajtgirl please excuse my daughter view on these wonderful flowers. The thing I love about them is every year they come back with different shades of color. they do take over, they are nearly destructable so why fight them ours grew along the back of our motel where nothing grew. all up and down that long stretch of building 6 ft stalks with abundant flowers grew year after year. 2. When I was a child my mom and I and girl friends made lovely flower dolls out of them and also used a shrub rose called Rose of Sharon. This was in Pennsylvania. 3. all the beautiful farm gardens of ole had them in a row at the back of their big flower gardens....a "Kodak" momment for me when I found that 9 years ago I had them growing at our newly bought motel. sniff sniff

ajtgirl: thank You, Lady. whether i'm alone depends on what You mean by "alone," but i've got my kats and my computer and my friends on BK to keep me company.

and Ms. Fox, i'm looking for a way to tie that in with gardening...i really am...

...but i'm not finding it. so that's all we're going to say about that on this board.

plaintiger:

I hope you have a warm body nearby to comfort you, but I am sure you are never alone afaik

Rose...no wonder Hollyhocks don't grow like weeds where you live. Their little bodies would freeze dead in the winters you have. They don't work for me as perennials at all. I wish they grew like weeds here. I love their flowers.

ajtgirl: oh, how funny...it seems i have completely internalized the short form i always use - "far as i know" - to the point where i can't figure out what the acronym for "as far as i know" means.

it does make perfect sense, Lady.

and yes, thank You, i am staying dry...now. i was getting a little moist when i went out grocery shopping before, but that's all behind me now.

yes, we needed it...and it's very cozy here inside with the rain coming down out there...mmmm. :)

ajtgirl: East Coast of Canada, Not all that far from you. 5 hours from Maine.

plaintiger:
Are you staying dry?

We needed it, surely

I guess it's my own acronym for asfarasiknow.
Doesn't that make sense?

What is faik?

ajtgirl: afaik, Lady? i know what "faik" is, but what's that first "a"?

ScarletRose:

I sure wish thery grew like weeds here...they don't do well in New York, afaik.

Where does Rose live?

Rose: hollyhocks grow like weeds here.. not sure about your part of the continent.. they are a tough stalky flower.. and hard to kill off.. so no worries about that.. just make sure you don't mind them spreading over the years where you plant them.

I have only grown poppies in California, where I bought them as seedlings in cell packs. I suggest that you seperate them into cell packs now if they are an inch or two tall so they develop their roots
unhindered by neighbors. As far as the hollyhocks, they grow so tall that it is important that their base get as think as possible early on. Again seperate them into individual cells, iof they are not already, and make sure they are fairly cool...under 60 degrees is best so they grow more in width than in height right now. If they are too crowded and warm they'll stretch too much looking for the light. I hope this helps.
We grown most of our annuals from plugs which we buy wholesale in trays of 512 plants per tray. I really only start tomatoes, basil, parsley, and sunflowers from seed anymore.
GL!

ajtgirl: I planted hollyhock seeds a few weeks ago indoors. They are all sprouting up but are getting spindly. What do you suggest? I cant plant them for another few weeks outside.

Also do you know much about poppys (Or is it poppies??) I started seeds indoors as well. I have never tried to grow poppies before. Right now there are tiny little seedlings. Any advice on how to get them started before planting them outside?

happy day, everyone!

plaintiger: we can use this

Foxy Lady: lol! yes Ma'am!

since i don't see any smileys that look like broccoli, here's our old vegetative friend:

plaintiger: Yes food you grow in a garden.