Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: What Trees are you Planting this Season???, 0 by tobee43

tobee43 wrote:
see now you KNOW you really have a problem when you look at the words " Epsom salts" and the only thing i think of soaking in it is my stuttgart canna and what other plants i water with it! oh my!

equilibrium...darlink....i think not...you are just as crazy and no denying it! but i think i'm needing to explain myself just a bit.

besides trying to get our property back into pre destruction stage, i do integrated tropical design gardening for a landscaper and a florist , i also design flower beds and container gardens for them. the only reason i have so many annuals to put in is because many times they use my house as an example. i have growers grow them and usually do not purchase at local nurseries because of two reasons: i need certain colors for the yearly design and, secondly, it would be way to costly for me. so i contact growers by jan so they have time to assure they can grow what i need. it's MUCH less costly that buying locally, even with the shipping. i'm using someone new this year...so i'm a bit scared but i have heard good this about them. impatients is the only flower i purchase here because someone grows them locally. and, because i need over 50 flats of them he also grows for me what colors i'm looking for. because you mentioned the "care" of the annuals i'm going to tell you something that's going to curl your toes and is most likely against anything you know.

we live in an area that we can enjoy our annuals for approx 12 weeks. therefore to get the best from them you need to use an extremely rich and moist potting soil...and add fertilizer almost weekly. you unfortunately have to push them to max. being that we are in close zoning conditions i'm going to show you a "patio" garden in mid June, resulting from extreme pushing of the plants. i have shown this pic before on other threads (this is a "textured" garden not so much flowers, but you can get the idea), but i want you to see what naughty pushing does. people go crazy with ph etc. proof is in the pudding...or flowering. we did an experiment where we put a hosta in thick hard clay soil ph off the charts in one way or another then we put one in rich soil perfect ph semi shady conditions...a dream come true for any hosta. the difference was we feed only the one in clay and adverse conditions and the other we left alone the entire season which was supposed to have been in optimum planting conditions...well guess which one grew the best!

4paws...the comradery is so wonderful! a place for all the crazies to hang out!