Saturday, August 8, 2009

Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate

I have a friend who lives about 6 blocks away. We like to visit each others' gardens and sometimes trade plants. She has a double lot, though, and a lot of her plants are spreaders that I don't have room for. She has a reseeding annual I had been admiring, and this spring, she gave me some seedlings. She said they are called kiss me over the garden gate. I looked them up, and read they are heirloom flowers, Polygonum orientale. One of the sites said they were first grown in the states by Thomas Jefferson. They like sun to part sun, and average water, according to what I read. They are good for cutting or drying.

I put 2 together in my front yard bed. They were so small, I wanted to make sure to get one. One of them ended up not doing well, so I took it out. I also planted one across the street. The one at home is a bit wimpy so far, compared to the web images, and the one across the street. I don't know if it's because it had to compete with another for awhile, or what. I haven't had to stake either one so far, but think maybe I should. These photos were taken the 6th of August. This was up to my chin, and I'm 5'7".


Here is a closer look at the flowers.



And now, across the street, this one is about the height of the tip of my hand when I put my arm straight up. It's quite a bit wider, as well. To its left is a Mexican sunflower I transplanted from the main bed when I thinned it. (I still haven't ventured into the tree house.)



It was hard to get a clear photo, because the blooms sway a lot in the breeze.



I hope I have lots of seedlings in the spring. I love this plant and its blooms! If you have experience with it, please tell us about it.


(I want to add that the soil where the shorter one is was amended with compost last year. I just stuck the other one near a tree and did not add anything to the soil. They both get afternoon shade. I think the taller one has gotten less water, too. Oh, I am remembering that the plant across the street was a bit larger than the 2 I planted together at home. I wonder if that's the difference.)

24 comments:

  1. I have never heard of this flower but I absolutely love the name. I'll have to add it to my list of unusual plant names.

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  2. Wow! It is tall, almost as tall as my Joe Pie Weed! I am wondering if it need stalking. Blooms are pretty.

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  3. I don't know the plant at all, but I'm impressed that its height. Do you have any sort of support round it? The climate is increasingly windy here, and something that high would have to be supported. Maybe you don't get the summer gales that we do?

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  4. Hi, I've just wandered into your blog from ....erm,...somewhere, and I've really enjoyed reading it.
    The polygonum is lovely!

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  5. Can't tell you a thing about this plant, but I sure enjoyed seeing the photos. The leaves are huge, the stem sooo tall and the flowers so pretty.

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  6. Good Morning! Thanks for the comments. I haven't yet, but think I should stake them, because one snap, and they could be finished. I need to see if my friend stakes hers. It does get windy here, and the plant sways in it.

    Thanks Nutty Gnome, I love so many blogs that I don't do well at keeping up with, yet I keep discovering others that I enjoy as well.

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  7. I grew it one year and loved it. It stood up with no support.

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  8. I love it. Never have grown it but I will have to add to my list. I like flowers with height.

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  9. Very tall plant.... and the flowers are nice, in such a long bunch and hanging. The color is very sweet. Plants do react according to environment they are in, the taller plant must have very rich soil and a little bit shady, I think.
    ~bangchik

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  10. I'm glad to see how pretty they are. I've heard of them but never have never seen one. Several years ago my friend brought me some over (or what she thought were them) they started getting pretty tall, until she called and told me to pull them out. She found out what she had given me was a weed, oops :)
    I'm going to look for seeds of these next year.

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  11. Hi Sue, I think this is a beautiful flowering plant! I bought seeds but didn't get them in the ground. I sure wish I had! gail

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  12. Hi Sue, what a fabulous if gigantic plant. Persicaria orientalis is the name I found on Dave's Garden, a good resource. It is just the kind of hard working, easy care plant that we are trying to introduce here for the low maintance. It seems it would do best with very large neighbors, like the Joe Pye mentioned above. Great plant.
    Frances

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  13. Hi again! I'm glad to hear they don't need to be staked. The information I read talked about winter sowing, because the seeds need to go through some cold temps. We had to look carefully to figure out that the seedlings I got were the plants, and not weeds. I have a weed that I want to post about that looks similar to KMOTGG. I almost included it in this post, but decided to wait until the blooms open more.

    I noticed several sites, including Dave's Garden, called it both Persicaria and Polygonum. I probably should have mentioned that. It's also called Princess feather, Oriental persicary, and PrinceaC(trademarked)feather. I have rattlesnake master in the other corner of the bed at home, which is currently taller. One of the Mexican sunflowers near them got bent over and broke at the base. I am thinking it was a squirrel, but I'm not sure.

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  14. There's a wild version called Duckweed that grows in damp places.

    You should have plenty of reseeding.

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  15. I have never grown it but Prairie Rose was mentioning it didn't survive or maybe didn't germinate in her garden this year.

    It's pretty and I'd like a few more tall plants in my garden next season.
    Marnie

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  16. I can see how it would come on over has

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  17. I am wondering if this plant would grow in our climate. I do like the flowers.

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  18. I'm glad to see how pretty this is. I've written (briefly) about it in my Valentine's Day newspaper columns. I love the name and would be glad ot plant it just for that, but I still haven't managed to get it in the ground. Maybe next spring.

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  19. I just love the crazy name of this flower! I bought my Senetti at Meijer's in early spring, but I've never seen it anywhere else except florist bouquets. I think the skipper I wondered about is a Peck's Skipper, and they are now constant companions here. Hey, you sound like me with your bargain plants. I just bought three more at Wally World today for a grand total of $6! Love it.

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  20. Thank you so much for posting this, Sue, and telling me about this plant! I had no idea what I was getting with these seeds, and looking at the leaves, I'm pretty sure I hoed them out when weeding. Oh my goodness, if they had all germinated in my new garden, you wouldn't have been able to see anything else--I put them in the very front!:)

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  21. I love your plant and the flowers are so beautiful, the name is great and I wish I had one !! I have to say I have never heard of it though.

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  22. Hope you still read this blog... I live in Michigan. I am renting a house and just found out this morning that the "flowers" that grow along the driveway are called "kiss me over the garden gate... I actually thought they were some sort of bamboo trees!! They grow well over 8 feet tall and spread like wild fire.. I cleared out all the old dead "trees" and there must be a zillion new ones that are already a foot tall...

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  23. Hi Anonymous,
    You'll be getting this in your email if you subscribed to follow up comments. Thanks for leaving a comment. You may want to decide how many new plants you really want, and hoe, pull out or give away the rest. What I do, is decide which ones I want, and then gently pull out the ones that are real close to it, and am less careful with the rest. If you leave them, they can add a little fertilizer to the others. That may make you feel better about not letting them all grow.

    I find blogs when I search for information, too. If you click on the title of the blog, you'll get to the most recent post.

    Enjoy those lovely blooms!

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I welcome comments and questions from anyone, including those who do it anonymously. Some people find my posts by doing searches, and I like hearing from them. I guess spammers won't even read this message, but I will delete spam as soon as I see it.