Plants have arrived!

[conuly]

Three different native grasses (decorative, not to become a lawn), two native honeysuckles which... when I bought them I had an idea where to put them but it turns out the vine on the fence already is something we want so now I have no flipping clue, and a thoroughly nonnative boneset, because my mother liked it and I do too.

Also, you'll laugh, but I'm starting to suspect that all this time our pre-existing morning glories have been self-seeding among the weeds. We just couldn't tell because the weeds made an impenetrable 4'6" barrier. I'd recognize those seedlings anywhere.

But seriously, where am I putting these plants? Don't say "in the dirt", I've said it myself several times and it's not getting any funnier.

Comments

[adafrog]

Good luck with the planning.

[conuly]

Planning is an excessively ambitious word for what I actually ended up doing.

[adafrog]

lol

[sabotabby]

Oooh good luck with planting!

[conuly]

Well, I ended up shoving them where I had a spot clear of roots, so alea jacta est, I guess.

[movingfinger]

The vine on the fence, if of a open growth habit, might be compatible with growing a honeysuckle also. Some of the natives are not building-devouring tentacle monsters and can work with other plants.

Honeysuckles get woody stems as they mature and so you need to be sure to give it support and to position and shape your support the way you want it. You will probably lose sight of the support object, so it doesn't matter how ugly it is. However, it will be heavy. I was growing one on a commercial tuteur with four long stakes (part of the thing, not add-ons from me) that drove into the ground, and after it reached maturity it regularly just fell over from its own weight. The vine was fine, the tuteur was bent. The garden cleanup guys pounded 2" stakes in and it still fell over. I believe this was a japonica, not a native, though. Based on this experience, I'd say that a fence with good posts is probably ideal.

If you go for an inexpensive wooden arbor or arch, keep the honeysuckle focused on twining around it and get the shape you want, so that when the arbor falls apart you might keep the arch.

I have another honeysuckle, transplanted, which might be a native? It has never been aggressive and was planted with a climbing hydrangea. It's in shade now, against a fence, with a cheap fan-shaped vine support thingy kind of guiding it upward, and it's easy to keep up with.

You made me curious about the natives, which one doesn't see offered often, and I looked around and saw someone post at Dave's Garden about supporting one on a 4x4 post driven into the ground, with an old bicycle wheel on top. That seems really ideal. The wheel will certainly rust out eventually, but by that time the honeysuckle's woody stems will have assumed the shape and be easy to keep clipped. You have two so you could do a pair framing something, or two different heights. Posthole should have some concrete, I guess.

Don't plant it by a phone pole, they'll dig it out.

[conuly]

It's a native honeysuckle. I wanted it to bring in hummingbirds!

[movingfinger]

It will bring in hummingbirds!

They like salvia and fuchsias too, and the salvia I've had they liked best was an absolutely monstrous 6' tall patch of pineapple sage. But they also like the interesting black salvia and the standard blue ones. So, I would say, all salvia are good.