Yes it's winter even in California!

Kell, just a couple from Annie's, still in their original 4" pots so nothing fancy.

I loved the turkey manure article, too---shared with a couple of my organic buds. I could so relate----I do love my worm bin, but I struggle with using the results. I know it's wonderful for the garden....but there's that city-girl-yuck-factor in my DNA that rebels every time...LOL!

Kell, Only in California. I can't believe they just didn't sweep it into the gutter. Thanks for the giggle.
Today was bah humbug for me. Sigh. They can't all be hummer days. Sigh.
I needed the giggle.
Now, did I miss a story about Twinkies, Calif_Sue? How? Where did it go?
So far, my succulents are doing great, and the boys carried (?) my plumeria (the one I couldn't remember the name of the other day) into the gh for me. Good boys.
I'm sort of amazed at some of the succulents. The ones in the fountain are tucked into their sheet, nice and warm. See photo.
Hope all of yours are warmer once this last storm front passes through. Isn't there a spray you can apply to your frost sensitive plants?
Ima, weren't we talking about this last year?
WIB!
SW

That's a pretty creative solution to protecting your succulents Jules. Mine are all fine so far. There is a thing called 'Cloud Cover' and I've used it but it didn't save my statice when it frosted. It's supposed to help with the plants losing moisture in the summer too. I think that I'll try it on my hydrangeas this summer as they are the only thing that really wilts.

SW, yes, but I think not until January or February!

SW, the Twinkies comment was in the link article that DP posted, I edited my comment to say I was responding to DP.

How nice to have a Ca. gardening forum. Luckily I didn't lose anything from the cold front. I thought I would lose my
brugs or they would have at least dropped their buds. So far, as of today they are hanging on.
The best thing is it's starting to rain now. YIPPIE!!!!!! We need it. Besides, I love a good storm and we
may have that tomorrow. :)

Sue, I have to make a trip to Annie's this spring. My niece lives on the Richmond Marina and every year
we say we are going together. We never do. We are lucky it's so close.

This message was edited Dec 11, 2009 8:05 PM

Thanks for the heads up Calif_Sue. I was feeling lost there.
My brugs are hanging tough outside. Still have the one flower. Nice to hear that yours are doing okay. Welcome, claudcat, I think I missed saying that to you, but we are always glad when people pop in to chat and share.
I like my fountain, and you all inspired it. I want those pretty babies (succulents) to do well. I was thinking about making it look like a tree, but I kind of like that sheet. : - )
Thanks for the reminder imapigeon. I knew it was coming up, but last year the leaf drop was late, and this year it seems right on time for a change. I haven't tried the spray, doss. I will have to check it out.
We've been having gentle bands of rain showers moving through today, but it's warmer! : - )
WIB!
SW

Welcome, Claudcat!

We had two feet of snow and two days without power, so no running water as we are 20 miles from the nearest town (Placerville), but it even snowed down there as well. Over 18,000 people were without power for 2 days and some even more, as they could not get all the downed power lines fixed fast enough.

It was 18 degrees for two nights in a row, so I am glad that we had a snow cover, as I too, grow a few tender plants. All that were on the porches were mush! Even the hanging geranium. There were some cannas, glads and dahlias that managed to last over last winter, but I do not recall such low temps, so we will see, once the rain melts all the snow away, as some has been worn down and the huge icicles that were hanging from the eaves are gone as well. This all came after we were having such a nice November. The red hot pokers (Knifophia uvaria) looked like limp dish rags as they were in full bloom along with some calendulas, lavender and rosemary, all looking like a nice little garden picture. Even a few cosmos were still blooming as well. I planted those calendulas two summers ago, so they were pretty tough and I moved a few up front to keep those other company, and wham-o!

evelyn: What zone are you in ?

One of the nice things about Fall & Winter. This one popped its first flower on Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the welcomes:) RAIN!!!! YEAH!!!!!


My Paperwhites I forced

Here's a closeup :)

Welcome, claudcat---so happy I can look at your lovely, unscented photos!

Thanks Ima, Sorry we son't have smellointernet. LOL!!!!

No, I'm glad---I'm one of those people who don't like the smell of paperwhites! Every time I walk by mine outside, I think I have an electrical problem somewhere. Then I remember the paperwhites are blooming.....

Hahaha, thats too funny. Garlic can get overwhelming too. When I was little there really was nothing between
San Jose and Gilroy. Every year I could smell the garlic. :)

When we were house-hunting we encountered another couple looking at the same house. The woman said "What is that TERRIBLE odor?" I said "That's garlic, ma'am, and if you don't like it you'd better look for a house somewhere else!"

LOL!!!! Yeah, you got it. :)

Been past Gilroy many times and would much rather have the garlic than the paperwhites!

OK, I'd rather eat the garlic and smell the paperwhites. :)

LOL, I feel the same way about them, cute blooms, but they stay outside!

I guess I'm just a White Flower Fragrance girl. LOL

Randy- I just read your referenced turkey manure article. VERY funny. Had to read it aloud to my daughter after I was laughing so hard. BTW, some of the side advertising was funny too, like the Free Range Turkeys sold from the WesternBeefandSeafood.com website

Our paperwhites are blooming just in time for Christmas.

surfcity, They are beautiful. How do like the fragrance? OK, not to start a fight but, I still think Santa Cruz is Surf City.LOL!!!!! :)

I didn't know they had a scent! I think they have a lovely scent...kind of an old-fashioned perfumey smell like something you'd smell going past a perfume counter at the department store. Since mine are in an awkward spot to get to in the middle of a bed, I had to tip toe and then bend like a pretzel to smell them. Y'all would've had a good laugh watching me do my best impression of an Olympic gymnast!

Yeah, the whole "surf city" thing is kind of a touchy subject, both here and up north. Although HB won the lawsuit to use the moniker, I know northern Californians aren't happy about it. There are some Hawaiian cities, too, that would argue that they are entitled to the name as well. I feel kinda guilty...

I bet you looked funny. LOL!!!!!! I just love the scent and have then next to my bed. I'm a fragrance junkie.

I think there shoudl be a Surf City South and a Surf City North. That would have been a good compromise. N.& S. Ca.
are almost 2 different states anyway. :)

I love just about everything scented, even things that many others don't like, but to me paperwhites have a 'chemical' scent that I really dislike.

I love nicotiana, 4-o-clocks, gingers, brugs, citrus and lots of other fragrant flowers. I just don't like paperwhites, lilies or "yesterday, today and tomorrow" plant. And I was astounded to learn a few years ago from a neighbor that the ton of different-colored freesias I've planted all around my yard are fragrant, 'cuz I can't smell them at all!!

The species freesia are the most fragrant...I've never planted the colored freesias so I can't speak to that. I've had tons of the magenta flowered 4:00 on the property for years and they have no scent whatsoever. I do like lilies. I especially like the tagetes lemmonii that many can't stand, I never pass them without running my hands through the bushes. It was the love of scented and flavored plants that made me a gardener....pretty is okay, but scents really do it for me.....

If I have a choice between something pretty and something that (to me at least) is fragrant, I'll go for the latter every time. The best, of course, it fragrant AND pretty, and I recognize that paperwhites are just that for many folks...just not yours truly!

Pretty AND scented....mmmmm, lilacs, corkscrew vine, non-paperwhite narcissus, so many things...what's wrong with all of those peole who aren't gardeners?

Night blooming Jasmine, unless it's a block away , always makes me gag.
Old fashioned Giant Imperial Stock is still my favorite scent in flowers.

Evening scented stock....I keep getting wafting scents up here that I don't get at home. Perhaps Oak firewood, almost perfumed, really nice. At home I use avocado and eucalyptus and it's not the same.

Stock....arghhh! pfffffttt! LOL
My nose has always been picky, but during the years I worked in hospitals, I came to categorize a lot of flowers as sick room or funeral. Some of them smell ok from a distance, but you won't catch me getting up close and personal with many. Plumeria, freesia, some roses, native CA salvias....yum. :-)

I have a hard time smelling Wychwood (scented geraniums), which people tell me are delicious.

I love the fragrance of scented bearded iris and also scented hostas.

Had no idea they were smelly, Doss - will have to check sometime. I do like to add scents to my 'good' list when I can. :-)

Oh, I love stock as well---spicy! I have a few bearded iris that are just delicious---one I got from my MIL smells just like grape Nehi.....

Have to agree on the NO side with pink jasmine---a block at least! I kinda like star jasmine, though, which isn't a jasmine at all. And I LOVE daphne---I may have the first buds on my potted one right now.

This message was edited Dec 15, 2009 8:56 PM