July Blooms

Ironite My friend used a lot of bone meal last year and had great results (better than me GRRR !!!!) and that got me really thinking about low calcium around here (coastal plain, sandy loam ) and I think I read that we tend that way. Since I have not used any mineral supplement for twenty years (I splurged on kelp meal once, if you even want to consider that mineral supp) I really think I should get one bag and give everything a little sprinkle at least.
This spring we decided to lime and found Mir A Cal by Jonathan Green, a high calcium quicker pH fix. One bag does 15,000SF versus a ton of bags of pelleted lime so the cost was reasonable. A few weeks after that went down, my pitiful struggling asparagus sent up a couple big new shoots. So I think we are on the right track.
Areas on the abandoned horse property behind us, that appeared to be stripped of soil or dug into at some time long past, just looked like wasteland, further making me wonder that our native rock is very poor in something essential.

Well we had some big storms yesterday pm and morerain overnight, I should go see how my South african foxgove is

I don't fertilize anything.

I like your style, Jen

Eh, figure if it grows it grows, if not try something else

Those Hydrangeas are just beautiful. Here is a white balloon flower, I got it at last years swap and planted it down in the Veggie Garden bed.

" Eh, figure if it grows it grows, if not try something else" Really not a bad plan! Esp when you get hooked into a group of traders. ^_^
Balloon flower buds are so cute.

LOOK AT YOUR SOIL LIKE COOKIE JAR. If you take something out that amount of biology must be returned to stay in any condition you were when you last planted. At some point you have to stop and do some baking to refill the cookie jar. If you wish to build soil up you need to add at least a little more than you took out. Plants use biological and mineral factors plus water and oxygen to grow. We eat the fruit of out efforts and must return in some manor to not deplete the soils condition.

It only took since about 1930 to the present to almost totally denude our monocultural farm land soils of nearly all the biological content. That is why we are so dependent on chemicals. You and I in our backyard small patches and smaller truck farms can stop where we are and rebuild with serious vigor and organic principles. We can only hope the major food production chemical growers have not depleted their soils to the point of no return.

Roses, I'll make a note to save you some nicotiana seeds for next year =)

Also, we always have plenty of extra red cannas. Storing them in peat moss in a box that is wrapped in a large plastic trash bag stored in a cool place, namely our basement, has worked great for us. Mold has never been a problem. When I didn't use the additional protection of the plastic trash bag our dahlia tubers, which we overwinter also, would shrivel up.

The president of one of the dahlia associations near us gave a talk on storing tubers in plastic and our jaws dropped, thinking they needed to "breath", but we have found it to work the best for us. The oxygen inside the bag and trapped in the peat proves to be enough while they are dormant.

our first dahlia bloomed last week, 'Nenekaci'

We who were talking about germination of our Hens and Chicks seed may have a challenge. I was informed this AM that this seed is very hard to germ. That got my interest even more awakened. Still trying to find the "how to" information somewhere.

My cookie jar will be getting crab shell. They ran out of Ironite. Crab shell has some iron and trace mins and good calcium. here's a site--it looks much like the label on my bag and may be the supplier. I only got 4 lb for 8.99
http://www.dirtworks.net/Organic-Fertilizer/Crabshell-Fertilizer.html

Many areas near our shore lines have oyster shells at nursery centers for other uses.
Some years ago in Ocean City, Maryland a nursery had a pile and sold it by the scoop for trail or walkway surfaces. I got two five gallon buckets full for a dollar a bucket. Once in awhile I still see the remains of what likely were larger pieces.

I definitely will try to remember the plastic bag with the box of cannas stored inside for the next time I decide to buy some cannas. Thanks for the info Wind.

Oyster shell may also be a deterrent to the little digging paws of voles and squirrels...

This is what one of the dahlia stored boxes looked like when I opened it on May 10th! They were sprouting away and probably should have been opened up and planted earlier than when I got to them. They all eventually got planted - many are getting buds now. They are planted around the border of our veggie garden with canna clumps planted in between every 4 dahlias.

Hens and Chicks is blooming

Agastache ‘Tutti Frutti’

What is the temperature in winter where you store your bulbs, Wind?

We put the boxes in our basement. It's cool, but not freezing down there. They go dormant and we forget about them until the spring. My cousin does the same thing; he doesn't use plastic bags around his boxes though and his tubers always look shriveled to me. Even though they are somewhat dehydrated, his tubers with growing buds always grow beautifully.

A master gardening friend up the street from us has successfully dug a hole below the ground in her backyard, and has stored her dahlia tubers underground. I've never been that adventurous!

These were the last of our cannas that started sprouting happily in peat moss before they got given away to friends to be planted.

Somehow I think that my heated basement is too warm and my unheated garage is too cold. I really don't know for sure where to store this stuff. My bulbs were shriveled up in my garage, but this could have been from drying out. Does anyone know the difference in the appearance of bulbs that have been stored at the wrong temperature or just dried out?

SALLYG: I am in love with your African foxglove.I got some seeds from you I assume at the deed swap in Frederick. I had so many seeds this year that I have had to go online for the propagation of a lots of things. Foxgloves are one of my favorite flowers. I brought some back from France that I gathered on my brother property they are deep purple I just started them last week and they are already up, at the same time I started some lupines they are all out I am so exited. I have more Foxgloves to plant they are this year seeds and they are white and some lavender. This is another foxglove project altogether I cant wait to start the seeds that I got from you. Regarding to keeping bulbs from one year to the other , last year I tried something new for my eucomis(pineapple lilies) my blood lilies and my caladiums and my callas and elephant ears. In the past I lost all my Caladiums to rot, drying up, name it. Not last year. first I dug up all my bulbs at the end of the season laid them out on newspaper to dry up for couple days, then I laid them out in cardboard boxes with couple inches of shredded paper at the bottom of the box, shook some baby powder all over the bulbs then another layer of paper, closed the boxes, labeled them and put them on the shelf in the basement and waited for spring. This spring I opened the boxes and everything looked great .Everything got planted late but I have more Eucomis than I know what to do I think that every planter that I have has at least one Eucomis or two , same for the callas and I only lost couple caladiums and that is a first.
Here is a picture of one of my blood lilies and pineapple lily.

Orchid,

I did something similar with wrapping in newspaper and putting them in boxes. What is the temperature in your garage?

Orchid---

What does the baby Powder contribute to the well-being of the bulbs? Is it to keep them dry?
One thing about germinating caladiums---they do not really germinate until the temps. reach mid-80's to 90 degrees. IF you have a warm spot (top of the water heater or similar) start them early and plant the tubers all the way down in the bottom of the pot. Light is NOT necessary at this point.....
They take a while to sprout......

Also--You may have gotten the seeds for the "S. African Foxglove Triloba" fromME, unless Sally shared some with you from the ones i gave her?????.
I think Sally just grew them for the first time this past Spring.....Correct me if i am wrong....

The S. A. Foxglove is all different from the regular one.....The leaves have 3 lobes, the blooms are sparser on the stems, and the seed pods are a nightmare to get seeds out of.....All woody and hard.....NOT like the regular Digitalis.

Here's a picture of the leaves.....

Gita

Anywayyyyy...................

I have a few July Blooms to post......been taking pictures, but had not uploaded them yet....

Here is my Kopper King Hibiscus blooming away......When all the buds have bloomedout, I will cut it back and it will re-grow and bloom again.
NO! The KK Hib. does NOT make seeds! Sorry! Must be a serious hybrid.....

Here is a close-up of one of the blooms...

My Cleomies are beautiful! Thanks to all of you that gave me these plants at the swap!
I have white ones and purple ones---and white ones that start out white--and then the top growth is purple....
Hmmmmm......
Sure will try to get seeds from each color.....

Here's the purple one

And here is the all-white one.....

My triple purple/white Datura is just starting to bloom....Has 3 big blooms on it....
The plants are HUGE! it is amazing how fast they grow once they start growing...

The double yellows are not doing so well. The leaves are all yellow-mottled.....the plant is stunted and so are the blooms....May be a virus?????

My one South African Foxglove is growing SOOO tall----and blooming....
Sorry about the yukky background. It is trellis a Clematis should be growing on--but did not this year...
The siding does not add anything either....

My attempt at a close-up of the bloom.
Sally has an awesome picture of hers.....

Gitagal , your foxglove is gorgeous. When do you start the seeds? early spring? As far as the baby powder it keep things dry and and help against rot. I am not questioning it it worked. All my bulbs did very well during the winter that is all that I care about... Roses-r-red I don't have a garage it is my basement. We keep the temperature in the house relatively low in the winter and I think that my basement stays between 65 to 68 degrees and the plants are against an outside wall. We keep the house very cool at night 60 degrees for us and the orchids.During the day most of the time the heat is off because either the fireplace is on or the temperature in the sun room goes to 80 degrees on a sunny day.This heats the whole downstairs. We had to turn off the radiators in two of the bedrooms upstairs because it was too hot.

orchid--

I start the seeds early Spring--just like any others. The seeds are good-sized and, kind of, flat.

edited to add that Sally is working on an article on this plant. Don't know the publication date...ask her....
I sent her a picture of the saeed pods and the 'tubes" the seeds come in. She will post it in the article....

Gita


This message was edited Jul 16, 2010 7:24 AM

this is in bloom now, I don't have the id, any ideas?

Sorry I can't ID it but it sure is pretty. Do you remember where you got it? I'm always looking back through the old Co-op threads to ID some of my plants.
Gita Those Cleomies are beautiful!!

Wind, we are going shopping today for a new laptop because there are so many things wrong with my desktop now (Including the fact that everything looks a little purple) but I think that your lilies might be Starfire Orientals.

Wind, the coloration pattern and spotting sure looks like "Stargazer". Are the blooms extremely fragrant?

Scuze me, I also meant Stargazer.

Caladiums

I'm totally falling in love with these specked caladiums.

I'll have to go take a sniff of the lily's and see if they have a fragrance ...I have purchased Stargazer in the past, it could very well be them...in fact I was also thinking they could be Stargazer, but I wasn't sure. Thanks!

Lily Casa blanca

Wind---

They look like "Stargazers" to me too.....
Commonly sold around Easter and Mother's Day....VERY, VERY fragrant....
Gita