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Post by bjd on Apr 7, 2022 16:33:08 GMT
Casi, at first I thought we were in 8A or B, but it seems to change depending on where I look. Definitely not humid and subtropical here. We do get below zero temps, including -2C° this past week in early mornings, which burned quite a few new blooms.
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Post by casimira on Apr 7, 2022 16:45:49 GMT
Well, the designated zones are way off these days anyway with climate change.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 7, 2022 16:48:40 GMT
The Gulf south, where Casimira lives, also gets those overnight freezes, i.e. 32F. It wouldn't be radical to get -2C/28F. It's one thing I don't miss about living there -- the frantic scramble after the evening weather news to cover tender plants with sheets, blankets or whatever.
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Post by bjd on Apr 7, 2022 18:53:42 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 7, 2022 19:49:58 GMT
What an incredibly gracious and well-reared cat she is!
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Post by Kimby on Apr 8, 2022 4:46:07 GMT
GMTA, Bixa!
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Post by bjd on Apr 8, 2022 6:18:38 GMT
What an incredibly gracious and well-reared cat she is! I should have read what I wrote before hitting the post button. Actually, the cat is a neutered male and has the most annoying meouw. It's owner is pretty nice though.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 8, 2022 12:07:16 GMT
I treated us (well myself really) to some rooted cuttings from the Sarah Raven online shop. Rooted cuttings (much cheaper than bigger plants) and plug plants. They arrived over the last couple of days. Pelargoniums Lord Bute (a regal pelargonium) and Pink Capitatum (scented leaves), Lobelia erinus 'Waterfall Lavender', Lantana 'tuti frutti' and Nemesia Sunset Orange. I'll be keeping the regal pelargonium in the conservatory hoping to take cuttings next spring....the rest need potting up in the conservatory ready to go into container arrangements after the frost. Last year I had nemesias and salvias from the website and have managed to keep them over winter in the greenhouse so I shall hopefully have plenty of ornamentals to fit my plans.
Ive just pricked out some French marigolds and potted on the lobelia and pelargonium plants.. did a bit of rearranging on the staging and tidied up...now I'm quite worn out.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 8, 2022 15:54:06 GMT
I bet you are! I love my garden but never get further than poking a hole in the flower tub and dropping in a seed. I envy you with your energy and youth.
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Post by casimira on Apr 8, 2022 16:24:23 GMT
Busy Bee cheery!!! I had to go to a plant nursery on Tuesday to purchase a couple of birthday gifts. I had to avert my eyes several times from some very desirable plants I would have loved to purchase for myself. Having to hold off from doing this borders on torture for me. I did pick up a few potted herbs but can't really purchase much more right now.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 8, 2022 16:30:54 GMT
You’ll need a very small gun....
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 8, 2022 17:26:47 GMT
It was a spray canister -- the Gatling gun of the war against bugs.
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Post by bjd on Apr 9, 2022 16:30:11 GMT
I went out to check the garden today. Those mornings with just sub-zero weather really affected a lot of plants, even some that survived the winter with no problem. Lots of new little leaves turned brown, and the wisteria flowers that had started blooming withered. The new leaves on some bushes, like the vitex I planted a few weeks ago, dried up completely.
I am hoping that since it's still early in the season, they will grow again but it sure looks lousy with brown leaves instead of new ones. And some shrubs that had flowers have nothing now except little brown things where the flowers were.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 10, 2022 10:04:39 GMT
That is so disheartening bjd, I can only suggest you get a plant growth booster and dose them up. Could give them the kick they need to get going again.
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Post by mickthecactus on Apr 10, 2022 11:08:32 GMT
We have the same problem. March brought everything on too quickly and the frost has burnt some of the new leaves. They will recover but buds on Camellia for example are probably done for.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 10, 2022 13:45:56 GMT
More pricking out in the greenhouse today. This year I've managed to get cleome violet queen and agastache golden jubilee seeds to germinate (third year of trying!). Cucumbers (passandra) and basil (pluto) seeds sown...goodness knows where I'm going to put the eventual plants..but I'll worry about that later...
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 10, 2022 16:21:03 GMT
Looking forward to pictures of those beauties, Cheery!
re: goodness knows where I'm going to put the eventual plants *sigh*
I compulsively root bits and pieces of pruned or broken plants, along with planting extra seeds for insurance. Just this morning I've been walking around trying to find places for two different vines, as though more space will magically appear.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 10, 2022 16:58:25 GMT
OH has a few projects in the pipeline atm..but I've asked him to make me a stepped plant frame when he has a moment...something like a step-ladder that I can collapse and store in the shed over winter. I need something that I can grow strawberries on off the ground to protect them from slugs and crawly critters. I have 9 much chewed plants in individual pots atm..3 varieties. Bought as bare roots last spring they should be producing lots of fruit this year. Not going to tidy them up and repot until I have somewhere to put them.
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Post by bjd on Apr 29, 2022 9:28:44 GMT
It's getting on in the season and recent rain and warmth have made thing grow quite a bit but I decided to move things around a bit more anyway. The Japanese maple I moved a couple of months ago was doing really well but I thought it needs a bit more space, and also it was completely covering a rose bush that stays close to the ground. Yesterday my husband helped me dig out a huge clump of agapanthus (well, he dug it, I spent my time telling him to watch where he put his feet ),which we moved further into the sun and then put the Japanese maple in its place. It gets a bit more sun now but the roots hadn't started spreading too much since it was moved recently so I thought I should do it now rather than in winter. And a pointy coniferous bush I planted the second year we were here was all brown on the inside -- already last year it was like that. At the plant nursery the clerk told me I could try and treat it chemically, which he didn't recommend, or tear it out before it gets worse. It's a fungus of some kind. The next day the city gardeners came to cut a sick oak tree in front of the house and I asked them too. The guy from the forestry department told me to remove it before it infects anything else and not to replant anything for a while. I just looked it up : canker. Nearly everything else is growing well and I have extended another flower bed. Of course, that means I have to buy plants to fill them up. The hibiscus bush I was given last year us just starting to grow. I had been convinced it was dead but apparently they break dormancy late.I learned that they like water and I'll have to water it a lot. I didn't do it last year because I didn't know those plants at all and nearly killed it.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 29, 2022 11:25:22 GMT
It has been a very disappointing year for pumpkins. We have had too much rain and together with insect stings the pumpkins grew wonderfully but when cut open were riddled with a stinky water slush inside . I suppose the maggots were feeding and trying to get out.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 29, 2022 18:23:01 GMT
Sounds as though all that rain doomed your pumpkins, Tod -- a real shame.
Bjd, for what it's worth, my experience is that hibiscus grow when and how they feel like it. Keep an eye on them so you can prune them when needed. They can throw out some really ungainly growth.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 29, 2022 18:27:52 GMT
I'm still waiting for my hibiscus to wake up. It needs new leaves even if it refuses to bloom.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 1, 2022 20:26:41 GMT
2 years ago I bought an omphalodes cappadocica 'starry eyes'. A lovely little plant promising star like blue and white flowers. Planted it in a prime position (well drained soil, lots of leaf mold, shady position) First year, nothing. Lots of rich, glossy foliage. This spring however I caught sight of a couple of the flowers peeping out from under the plant. On closer inspection it was obvious that the flowers were associated with a completely different foliage...pale green and simple leaf shaped. Not the same as the crinkly, lobed, glossy dark green leaves of what I had assumed was the omphalodes. Turns out I'd nurtured the healthiest looking ragwort (weed) ever seen! I tried digging it out to extricate the omphalodes...but it was embedded within the hearty weed. So I now have a space in the border...a planting opportunity
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Post by bixaorellana on May 1, 2022 20:36:36 GMT
*sigh* Or should I say "Omph!" When I went to look up a picture of it, I found this: ... every tansy ragwort plant that goes to seed on your site has the potential to add 150,000 seeds to the soil. sourceYikes! Get that sucker outa there!
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Post by mickthecactus on May 1, 2022 21:05:31 GMT
Every time I read Omphalodes I start thinking Willie Wonka songs.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 1, 2022 21:25:06 GMT
Rather appropriate.
The internet informs me that ragwort, that which covered up poor Cheery's Omphalodes, is sometimes known as "stinking willie".
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Post by bjd on May 2, 2022 11:53:33 GMT
Follow-up on post #796. I found some more edging and a few things have been planted. The cistus bushes are blooming especially the pale pink one. A few seeds seem to be coming up but are not visible from a distance.
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Post by casimira on May 2, 2022 13:38:37 GMT
Before you know it, those borders will be flush with blooming beauties!!
What is the plant in the middle left border with the sword like leaves?
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Post by bjd on May 2, 2022 15:12:31 GMT
That is a phormium tenax (New Zealand Flax). I planted 4 but that closest one has become so huge that I thought of digging it out this fall and putting a climbing rosebush against the fence.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 2, 2022 15:55:47 GMT
I like phormiums bjd..they do tend to get a bit unruly if they find a nice spot to live in I like your stepping stones too! lovely garden. I've been in the GH for hours. Cut back a ginger lily in it's pot, refreshed tbe compost and dragged it, along with a banana plant in another large pot..out of the GH and put them in a sheltered spot at the side of the GH. Examined some old strawberry plants, chucked most but managed to rescue 3. Trimmed back all the dead foliage and potted them up together in a large terracotta bowl in fresh compost. I have a long gravel tray...cleaned it and supported it at either end on the staging so that it's suspended across the back of the GH. Arranged some of the plants that I've grown from seed on this tray...agastache (2 types), cleome, gazanias, zinnias, French marigolds, calendula, cerinth, borage, tomatoes, ipomoeas and sunflowers. This gave me more room on the staging for the dahlias (5), and tray of dahlia cuttings (each cutting in a pot covered by a plastic bag held in place with an elastic band)...pelargonium cuttings, pelargoniums (4 different types), lobelia, lantana, nemesias, lettuce, cineraria, rudbeckias, cucumbers and goodness knows what else. Then I watered in 'nemaslug' nematodes around the garden and GH. Swept up and put everything away. Very tired
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