What the Short Toothed Mountain Mint is Doing

Short Toothed Mountain Mint, Pycnanthemum muticum, looks good all season.  The butterflies, and a number of other insects frequent the blooms in the summer.  I've managed to keep the clump a decent size over the 4 or 5 years I've grown it.

Last week, when I was finding a path for Larry to put the pots into the egress window, I made a discovery.  

Can you see what's on the ground?

I've shown the runners I've discovered in the spring before, that I pulled to keep the plant from spreading.  I thought the stems had lain down and roots grew from them.  Now, I'm wondering if the new runners were already there in other autumns, and I just didn't find them until spring.  Well, silly me!  I just looked at other posts I've done on this, and confirmed my self diagnosis of being scatterbrained.  I have discovered runners in the fall before, and posted on it.  Oh, well, this post is about finished, so it's going up anyway.

The new growth looks more like mint than the older growth.

Here's what I pulled up.  I will still check the ground in the spring to make sure it hasn't sent more runners out.  I really don't want it to get out of hand, because I love the plant, and don't want to have to give up on growing it.

It's 44 degrees, and raining.  It's supposed to get down to 36 tonight.  The western part of Nebraska is expecting snow.  We watered plants with what was left in the back yard rain barrel, and Larry took it down, but the front one will probably be full again after the rain stops.  I am only managing to get a little outdoor work done at a time.  I still haven't pulled up the spent tomato and pepper plants. I hope the weather holds out so I can get that done, and get more compost spread so we can put the neighbors' leaves in them.

I hope your week is going well. 

The Pity Party is Over, & Yes, Short Toothed Mountain Mint is a Spreader

I had too many photos for one post for Foliage Follow-up, so I saved the grooming of the short toothed mountain mint for another day.  It's a good looking plant in all seasons.

I don't know if the birds eat the seeds, but I like the look of them dried.

This is either the 3rd or 4th spring for this plant.  Each spring, there have been attempts at spreading.  I used to think these were stems that had fallen down and taken root, but, I'm thinking they may be actual roots that sprouted on the surface.  I am hoping to continue my diligence in the spring of pulling them up.  It doesn't seem to do that later in the season.  (Added 4/20/11:  I just did some online research, and found out these are rhizomes, which are stems that grow on or under the ground, that have structures so roots can form to make new plants.  That means they are both of my theories at the same time.)

The plants are growing along the roots or stems, whatever they are.

They have a pretty good root system.

Here's the pile of roots/stems I pulled up.  We need to be taking the plants out of this egress window soon.  Once again, I forgot to water them, but if they get a drink soon, they should be OK. 



This clump was growing along the frame for the egress window.  I sure need to keep on top of that!

This was taken after I cut the whole plant back, getting it ready for a new growing season.

 

Yes, my pity party is over.  It's spring, and the new discoveries have started.

A few of the hellebores are blooming, and the others have new growth.  I think this is an 'Orientalis' one.
 

I love to take photos from under the blooms.

This is the 'Yellow Lady'.  Can you see the two buds at the base of the bloom?

The tag showed red splotches on the blooms.  I hope the other blooms on this plant do.

The crocus plants go from invisible under the leaves to full bloom!  This clump by the curb greeted me when I got home from work yesterday.

The hyacinths have greened up and formed flower buds now that the leaves are off of them, and they are getting some sun.

I can't remember what came out of my mouth when I discovered that my lisianthus plants survived the winter, but I greeted them very excitedly, as I have a few other plants when I came across them.  They are grown as annuals here in my zone 5b area.  Now, I'm trying to remember if there have been other years I didn't pull them up before spring.  Maybe they would have overwintered then, too.  I know the snapdragons do most years.
 

I will have to cut back the parts of some of the plants that did not survive.

The first planting of lettuce and such is coming up.

A radish seedling:

Spinach:

Garlic:

A few bachelor button volunteers have come up.

Larkspur:

I am thankful for the freedom to enjoy my gardening and worship as God leads me.  I am following the things going on in other parts of the world, and praying for those involved.

The Last Harvest of the Season

There was an article in the paper today about November being a bit warmer than October this year. Our fall has been quite mild. Well, colder weather has come, and the weather forecasters say we will most likely have to wait until spring before seeing the 50 and 60 degree days we'd been having. That's OK with me. In about 2 1/2 weeks, the days will start to get longer. That's when I normally start relaxing a bit, knowing that spring is on its way.

I got off of work an hour early yesterday, knowing the cold was coming, so I could harvest greens, kale, and what was left of the lettuce, and take care of some pots and things. I was disappointed at the amount of lettuce rabbits had eaten. I can't complain too much, though, because I don't believe I have ever had lettuce to harvest the first day of December.

There is still lots of kale in the garden. It will take colder temps than the lettuce, but lows in the teens are predicted for later in the week, so I picked lots. It stores well in the refrigerator, too. (I just remembered I forgot to harvest some of my Nero Toscana kale. I'll have to see if it's survived the cold so I can pick some tomorrow.)

I've been enjoying the greens from across the street that I mentioned self sowed themselves from the spring planted ones.

The onions across the street were trampled, clawed, or something, and died back before onions could form. I noticed they were growing again this fall. I thought I better pull them and use them as green onions, and then found that they had formed small bulbs. I also harvested as much plain and curly leafed parsley as I thought would get used before it turned bad. I have been enjoying adding some plain leaf parsley to my salads.

I decided to cut back the Queen Anne's lace so that there wouldn't be too many seedlings coming up in the spring. I didn't get an "after" photo taken.

We put Larry's strawberry bag, the lavenders and a few other pots in the egress window well.

Guess what plant is in front of the egress window well, and appears to be behaving fairly well?

My friend, the Short Toothed mountain mint had thrown a runner down into the window, but after taking photos, it got pulled out.

I didn't measure it, but it's over 2 feet down to the bench from the dirt. I forgot to take photos of the pots in here, but we got the space filled up.

Larry brought most of the bags of leaves from a neighbor's yard to the compost at my garden across the street, and I got them dumped as the cooler temps were making their way into town.

My next project is to get some horse manure from a friend, and either put it on the compost, or right into this bed that I plan to plant asparagus in when spring gets here. Maybe I'll get some bags of composted manure, as well. Seeing that bare dirt really makes my green thumb itch to get dirty.

A Misjudge of Character/I Was Fooled

Gail, from Clay and Limestone did a post on Pycnanthemum muticum, short toothed mountain mint this week, and said it can be a thug. I left a comment, referring to my other posts on mountain mints, saying they do not spread like other mints. This spring, what I thought were fallen stems from the plant I put in last year were taking root and new mint plants were springing up. I pulled them, stating that I hope the plant behaves this summer. In July, I said it was behaving.

Today, while Larry and I were doing some yard clean up, I went over and checked around the ground around the mountain mint to see if it was spreading from the base. Wow, was I surprised at what I saw!

Look how innocent this plant looks! It must think I won't look past those beautiful blooms to see what's going on underneath it.

You can see some of the little new plants springing up, and if you look closer, you can see runners, not stems like I thought they were in the spring.

The new plants look more like other mints than the ones on the parent plant. (Look at all those runners!)

The plants form all along the runners.

The plant just to the right of a younger one, has gotten big enough to look like the parent plant. To the right of it is a baptisia volunteer. (The lattice is the cover to our egress window well, by the way. We'll be putting pots of lavender and such in there soon.)

There's no doubt where the runners were coming from. Some of the runners were over 2 feet long, and the new plants were forming under other plants, where they weren't as noticeable.

There were some healthy looking roots along parts of it.

I pulled all of the runners I could see out, but will be checking to see if more are developing.

It's still looking pretty innocent, but now, I'm on to it, and will not give it so much freedom.

I was relieved to see that the Virginia mountain mint, Pycnanthemum virginianum, is still only spreading from the main clump.

Now, I'm on my way back to Gail's blog to leave a retraction to my previous comment.