Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Sept. 6

From Sharon (willow's apprentice)

Hi

Hope you are feeling better.

When I moved to MD, I had to give up my extensive gardens. Although my condo opens up to a common area, it gave me a small terrace instead of a balcony so I had some room and sunlight but needed to try and make the space more private. The previous owner left me these tall planters. Did veggies last year but decided to forgo for flowers. Still need to get some annuals but pleased so far.

Planted a peony last year which didn't flower and this year only gave me one, but a pretty nice one.

Yes, it is nice! The whole garden is nice!

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

From a cousin:

Best peach tree ever!

2012. Peach trees generally have a productive life of about 15 years max.

Ah, Nature

The workaholics of the animal kingdom. They are always doing. https://t.co/ArDaBpDY5n

— Derek Columbus (@columbus_derek) September 5, 2025

Featured Flowers

Hi Katy -

Happy Fall! Beautiful weather here. The beach roses are still blooming along the mid-Atlantic coast. Thanks, as always, for the Gardening, Puttering, & Nature thread.

Maybe it is not a true beach rose. Maybe it is a knockout rose that's been planted at the beach and thrived. Plants along the shore need to have a high tolerance for wind, salt, sea spray, etc.

The Pilot

I was wondering if they might be rugosa roses. There are wild single types and double cultivars. They usually have wrinkly leaves and large hips.

Yes, I think you are right. From what this article says, it would make sense for rugosa roses to be grown at the beach. It said they can tolerate less than ideal growing conditions and the color matches as well.

Thanks for finding this article and sharing it.

One more thought -- you mentioned the large hips. The yellow rose (which was not as "showy" as the pink one) seemed to have large hips. They looked like berries.

Here's another article with close-ups of some lovely refined Rugosa hybrids.

The hips of Rugosa Roses have been used to prevent scurvy in wartime, and can be used to make jam or jelly.

They have invasive roots. You may be able to find plants grafted to less invasive rose roots, or you can grow in containers. Here's a pdf on their invasive qualities, from Alaska. Alaskan native roses are discussed, too.

There are some attractive miniature and miniature climbing Rugosa hybrids with beautiful long sepals, and their thorns are not such a problem because they are smaller. But this is a Rugosa shrub bred by Ralph Moore, whom I met and talked with a couple of times.

Sunflowers

Courtesy Farmer Rex:

Indiana man's giant sunflower plant approaching world record

Aug. 6 (UPI) -- An Indiana gardener said his sunflower plant is within a foot of breaking a Guinness World Record -- and it's still growing.

Fort Wayne man Alex Babich's sunflower surpassed the U.S. record last week when it reached 26 feet and 8 inches tall.

Thanks, Farmer Rex! See you on the Hobby Thread!

Gardens of The Horde

What's growing in your garden? Got punkins yet?

Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.

Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Home and Nature Thread, Aug. 30

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:15 PM

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