Annuals we befriend
Blue Onion
Posts: 2,995
Last year one of my tomato plants was amazing, far outperforming the rest of the flock in both taste and quantity. So prior to the frost I cut off some suckers and rooted them in some water. This were planted into a DIY Earthbox in my dining room bay window, where they sullenly produced tomatoes all winter. They were rather neglected and sickly looking things a few weeks ago, so I cut off the tops to root up in some water and dumped the rest (soil and all) onto the squash beds. Within a week they started to root, so I've potted them on along with some tomato seedlings. They are all happy together, but I've got a special soft spot for those tomatoes in particular. I feel like we're old friends now, my second generation clones of last summer.
Is there any annuals you've made friends with? Something you take cuttings from each year for the next summer? How long have you kept it going?
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Sunflowers... I've kept the 'same' sunflower going for six years now. It's love. ????
i don't know if this counts, but my hot pink pelargonium? I accidentally killed the parent plant by overwatering it two or three years ago but managed to salvage some cuttings. I now have about six baby plants from it and I just love the colour
I started growing Atriplex in my hot bed about 10 years ago. 1 packet of seeds and now with self seeding it reappears every year.
The same is true of Escholzia, which happily self seed without any help from me.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I agree with you, Mr Punkdoc regarding the eschscholzia, one seeded itself in the cracks by by house wall and were the best I've ever seen. A beautiful pink colour that was in flower for weeks and weeks. Strangely, that same plant is still there and growing again. I just trimmed off the dead bits of stem. I thought they were annuals, but maybe I'm wrong.
Not an annual, but I have lugged around a Pieris which nearly died in a very hard and late frost in the mid 1980s. I potted up the one small piece left and kept it safe for over 30 years. I planted it out the other day in the garden, and it has never looked better. It must be saying thank you.
I have a white flowered argyranthemum with fine cut foliage(foeniculum?) that I was given as a "Paris daisy" I take cuttings every year to overwinter. The person who gave it me died in 1990, so I guess its been going about 25 years.
Wow Wonderboy and Fidget.. 25-30 years! That's amazing. Maybe my tomato will last that long.
Cosmos Purity also serves me well each year. So easy to germinate and grow on. Flowers all summer, if deadheaded, and a great foil for just about every other colour and flower bed.