Awesome sunflower, Holly.
Lovely photos, ge. What kind of lavender is growing there?
July Blooms
Lavandula from Bluestone.I have Munstead in another garden .Had to check which you meant.
Hollyhock - Alcea rosea var. nigra
Crocosmia in the hummer garden
Excited to get a few more blooms on the Lauren's grape poppies =)
Nice pictures Wind
I didnt have much luck with Grape or Giant Whites. I will try again next year.
Here are some pix of the gardens today. I feel its peak for mine as Lilies are going out but for a few Oriantals.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jgentle4/GardenToday?authkey=Gv1sRgCLfB2vqR0uLeuQE
Very pretty
Does the Lauren's Grape poppy self sow?
Nicotiana 'Fragrant Cloud'
ge, Your gardens are truly beautiful.
Wind beautiful Hollyhock and poppy. I have all kinds of Poppy seeds that didn't get started this year I'm hoping that they will be good next year. I wonder if they would be good for WS.
My Cannas have just started to bloom. Hopefully I will get a few good shots of them. I'll post a few pics later.
Caladiums are finally filling out.
Holly your gardens are great too.
I have been meaning to mention how much I have enjoyed the day lillies you all sent me from the swap. Thanks again everyone.
And, to my enjoyment , the common ditch daylillies I have been planting along the ditch that runs to the end of my road turned out to be half common and half the double flowered ones which are still blooming.
Yhey do look dramatic when massed together.
Wind, I just love your Nicotiana. I have only the lime and purple ones this year. They do not grow as tall as the white ones that I had last year and I miss their height. You have such a lovely selection of blooms in your garden. Do you collect the seeds from most of them?
Holly, for the first time last year I tried to store my Canna bulbs. When I opened the boxes they looked all shriveled and dried out that I didn't re plant them. Were yours store indoors over the winter and did they look exactly like when you initially purchased them? Someone told me that I should have planted them anyway, but I would have been disappointed if nothing had bloomed in that spot.
Coleup, those ditch lilies did turn out to be quite impressive!!!
Peaches and Dreams HollyHock. (They are from seed and look to be more pink than they should be).
I take extra care when winterizing my canna bulbs. I yank them out of the ground, knock some of the dirt off them and pile them into a big plastic tote and then put that tote into Josh's basement. Josh's basement is heated but it's not very warm it wouldn't get low enough to freeze but probably not higher than 55 if that. Special note: leave the lid off the tote. Also the other fun part of this special handling is that since I don't mark any of the cannas you never know what color or height of canna you have planted in any location so there is always that element of surprised when they start growing and blooming. LOL Most of them come out looking pretty good I use to plant every one but really the ones that were completely dried up mostly didn't grow for me. So instead of planting them in the gardens I dump them in a corner of the Veggie Garden and cover them with dirt to see if anything will come up I usually get a few shoots come up from that pile of discards. This year I was so busy that I just let the discards in the bottom of the tote and tossed a little dirt over them and watered. I got a few shoots from those. Worked out so good that I may just do that again next year and not bother with planting them in the Veggie Garden. I could use some more cannas didn't buy any new ones this year. The last couple of years I got some from the Horn Canna Farm Co-op and they didn't run one this year.
How about a coconut-lime echie?
Stormy, The first year that I tried to over winter cannas I dug them up, cleaned them and stored them in peat moss. Just like they show you to do think I even misted them a couple of times over the winter. I lost all of them that year so the next year I just tossed them in the totes and had really good results.
How about some hosta blooms
Very small bloom on Hens and Chicks. This bloom may cover a quarter of an inch. Seeds are set on the stems. Think I will play when they are ready. This hen is hardy and has maroon tints on the leaves. Someone gave it to me.
Colors for today
http://picasaweb.google.com/jgentle4/ColorEchoesJuly112
Roses that is just beautiful.
Funny how you change your mind about certain plants. I never particulary liked cannas and now I would fill my yard with them. I am starting to think the same way about Hollyhocks. When I was a child we lived in the city with a small city yard. Most of the houses had purple Hollyhocks growing at the back of the yard to screen the trashcans. So every time I would see Hollyhocks I would think trash cans. LOL Then a few years ago I started to see pic of these beautiful flowers and when I asked what are those I was told Hollyhocks. I think sometime in the future I will have a collection of Hollyhocks gracing my yard.
Doc, I am thinking of really collecting the seeds from my own plants this year. I never really thought about the seeds from the one small hens and chick plant that I have. Tomorrow morning I'll start looking for its seeds.
Holly, some of the canna that went bad for me had such beautiful leaves. The Tropicana was one of them but there were more with copper striped leaves that were as beautiful as their blooms.
Can you tell that I don't plan anything. I always admire the look of planned gardens and then I go and do this.
I didn't know hen and chicks bloom...heh, learn something new on DG everyday
Love the color on those Lauren Grape poppies
Here's Papilio glaucus, Tiger Swallowtail on butterfly bush
Hydrangea very blue....wondering if from lack of rain
Here's comparison from ly year
ly on left this year on the right
Weird huh???
Once they bloom the mother plant dies off.
Jen, That is so cool what did you feed them with? I knew you could change their color a bit but that is a big difference. LOL
Roses your garden looks great. I like the canna leaves as much, if not more than the flowers, I was really surprised to find out that the Hummers just love cannas. I don't think I have any of my more interesting leafed cannas left either. This group is doing a great job of hiding the mechanicals of the pool pump and filter.
Not a whole lot of bloom here, Tiger lilies, black eyed susans.
My hens and chicks are so dry they are all bunched up and curled into themselves!
Fed them with nothing...haven't changed a thing...unless Wall-e is peeing on them lol
Hi Roses, I do usually collect seeds and I'll gladly save you some from the nicotiana fragrant cloud if you would like? I got the original seeds from a DGer =)
Jenn, I love your very 'blue' hydrangea!
I usually store our cannas and dahlia tubers in peat moss inside a plastic trash bag, and I never mist them, that would encourage mold - I would think. Our cannas are just blooming now too!
I bought some ceramic frogs from Frog Nirvana online and added them to Mom's new toad house ^_^ ...I've never seen a toad around here due to lack of natural water sources...but then, you never know! I'll keep looking. We do have Italian wall lizards that were just written about in our local paper! I saw a lizzy around our home last year.
Hydrangea will move from pink to blue dramatically when it can get the acid it needs to do so. I feed them "fertilizer designed for acid loving plants". This is important during the plants time period after bloom when the plant is rebuilding itself for next year. Another important time is in the spring when flower heads are being formed. Both time periods should be fertilizer time for Hydrangea.
Back in the good 'ole days when we had no speciality fertilizers my grandma and my mother too grew them in old tires. Apparently the iron in the tread produced an acid condition. We always had blue Hydrangeas. Every one else had snowballs. :)
This message was edited Jul 11, 2010 8:21 PM
Roses----
I learned from some "gardening Gurus" years ago how to store Cannas.....been, loosely, following it every year....
--***Allow the first frost to kill the top growth***. Cut off the dead tops, leaving about 6" sticking up
for another 2 weeks. This is necessary for the roots to recover some of their energies...
--Then--dig up the clumps of roots, carefully, as any twisting or lurching could break apart the roots.
They are all still so fresh and crisp--breaking comes easily.
--Remove (gently! Do not shake!) the larger clumps of soil but leave most of it attached around the roots.
This will protect the roots from totally drying out during storage.
--Air dry the root clumps somewhere in the open for a few days--inside or out, depending on temperatures.
You do not want to store wet roots of anything! They need to be dry.
--Store clumps--with all the remaining soil attached--in a cardboard box between sawdust, or peat Moss, or
crinkled up newspapers--or, just as is. BUT--I think some kind of covering is good. Plastic is never
recommended. The roots need air....
--As Spring approaches, mist or dribble a bit of water over the roots now and then to keep up a bit of moisture
and "wake them up".
It is over this dormancy period that the cannas grow the new "eyes"....pretty and bright maroon/red and so plump!...
As you start handling the clumps in prep for planting, make sure you do not shake or jar them (IF you want to
keep the whole clump intact, that is) because the newer divisions will break off very easily. You want at least 3 'eyes" on a division to plant..
Remove, or cut off, any of the used up, old root-stock. Their purpose in life is OVER! Done their job!
Be careful here! This is where, inadvertently, you will break off some of the smaller root divisions....
Remember all the 1-"eye" divisions i had at the Plant Swap? They broke off the clumps b/c i was careless...
You can pot up the roots way ahead of time for planting them outside to get a head-start. They DO take a while to start growing....Use at least 6"-8" pots, depending on the size of the root clumps.
Anyway--this is what I do! Hope this helps someone! Maybe--especially Step #1.
Gita
And here I thought everyone had blue Hydrangeas all the time, in our acid -tending soil, cuz that was all I saw as a kid. The only pink one I saw (before dg) was on Solomon's Island in southern MD, likely with a ton of oyster shells around it. (Back when we could actually harvest tons of oysters from our beloved, beseiged Bay)
Now, my struggling Azalea might not be liking my well water which is pH adjusted to nearer neutral , than its normal very acid. Aha. Its had lots of well water lately.
Sally--
My Endless Summer Hydrangea was pink when I bought it and for a couple of years after that. This is from 2006...
Last year I tried feeding it all kinds of acid foods....
This picture is from last year---you can see it is turning bluish.
Gita,
Your directions are VERY CLEAR!! I will print them out and consider buying a few cannas just to see how I fare.
Wind, I will probably see you at another seed swap in spring and would definitely like to have some of your nicotiana seeds! Maybe your cannas don't dry out when stored because they are in a plastic bag!!
I will remember to fertilize the hydrangeas with acid type fertilizer to get some blue ones blooming next year.
This year--it is all blue....Gonna keep feeding it acid stuff---I want to see it intensely blue next Spring....
Somewhere in my basement is a pattern for a large cross stitch of Hydrangea, pink or blue, both. I love the pattern just won't commit the time to doing it. and my close vision not being as keen as when I was 24~~ But Hydrangeas are gorgeous. Hey I could more easily grow one than stitch one at this point!!!!
There are various shades of blue depending on the plant variety we are talking about. When your plant shows consistently the same shade of blue that will be your blue per your specific plant. Don't be over fertilizing to push for darker blue. Find out what plant produces the darker blues and locate that plant. Tricky merchandising too....be sure the display blooms have not been tinted with horticultural colors.
PH 7 water will not push your soil PH enough to even be concerned about. The fertilizers for acid loving plants are commonly available in all garden centers where their use is commonly needed. I always use the organic product so I do not have to mess around with lime and sulphur for PH adjustments. The cheap soil testers do pretty well on PH readings. Best to test the soil and not worry to much about anything but PH unless there is an area factor that must be dealt with all the time.
This probably doesn't help with hydrangea color, but with my "acid loving" hollies and other evergreens, I've had good luck just using ironite rather than an acid food.. somebody explained to me once that part of the problem when plants turn yellow in soil that isn't acid enough for them isn't' the pH per sec, but rather that they can't take up the iron in the soil.. supplement the iron, and the foliage turns healthy green again!
Sally, if your well water is "adjusted" with salts or anything, that could be affecting your plants... water softener systems can be bad, but I don't know what your system adds to adjust pH.
Lovely hydrangea, Gita!
Funny, Jill----
I just dumped 2 gallons of Ironite, diluted per instructions, on my Hydrangea yesterday.......also on my now cut back Camellia....
My friend, Joan, who has a small house at the very end of Eastern Ave. (that ends at the Gunpowder River) has several Hydrangea bushes. They are the most intense blue! I would like to see that on mine next year.
Of course, hers are the regular Hydrangeas.......Must be the soil at the river's edge.....The one in the front of the house is unbelievably intense blue.....
This picture is of the ones by their "shed"--shore building (NOT house). NOT the one in front of the house....
Look!
doc/ critter--taking both into acount I am going to get some Ironite. I've been thinking about it for a while anyway. Thanks.
Gita. thats gorgeous, get some cuttings and root them; per doc, its the plant and not just the dirt.
Some catalog listings tell us which will produce blue bloom with proper PH management.
You know, Gita, that we live very close to the Delaware River and just yesterday as we drove along the river, I commented on all the intense blue Hydrangea that were blooming all along River Road!
Ironite contains a good number of trace minerals. That to me may be it's major value although the nitrogen is useful too. We always started our giant pumpkin patches out on Ironite, earth worm casts, Mycorrhizae and kelp meal. One month later we side dressed with other organic fertilizers. Our flowers DO NOT need but a touch of this thinking. Over fertilization with any fertilizer will grow tall unhealthy soft plants.