Went out yesterday taking pictures of what is still alive & blooming. Believe it or not, the last rose of summer is blooming. So sad. Show us what is still blooming and/or alive in your garden.
What's still blooming end of October?
My Jimsonweed was covered with pretty lavender flowers a couple days ago but the cold temps are taking their toll.
Believe it or not, sweetpeas still blooming but probably the last of them because frost is starting to set in.
Wild Aster still blooming. Very pretty.
Oak Leaf Hydrangea (2 yrs old), leaves are getting pretty and red.
My tiny Korean Violet in a protected place on our property is still green. I tried a plantlet in the greenhouse but lost it. Evidently, the plant prefers to be outside, and so I let the rest of it grow & prosper.
My Basjoo will probably wilt like crazy now.
Is this cheating, with a tropical? The last flush on a Brug. I think there were over fifty blooms. I will need to bring it in very soon and am happy I didn't have to interrupt this. Actually I should probably do it today. Its looking like another not to cool, and beautiful, day.
I bought several end of season mums last year and they all lived which surprised me. The more eye catching by far is the yellow one which has been in seeming full bloom for i'd say three weeks already and a solid mass of bright yellow one inch blooms. It is labeled C. morifolium.
Sally, all I can say is "Wow!"
Sally that is impressive.
I still have some really pretty blooms in my yard This Mum is new for me and I just love it.
"Pretty" back at ya! My only mums are buttons. Bright, long lasting for sure but those frilly petals you have are a nice change. I had some chartreuse, spidery mums in a flower arrangement I totally neglected on the picnic table, that lasted for a month!
Geez! WHY do all the Brugs do their best in October??????
Sally! You are feeling the pain--I am sure.....
I have had three of my Brugs in full bloom also in October--but last week--with all the
close-to-freezing nights I had to "bite the bullet" and cut them all back to a "skeleton"....
It killed me to see all the cut-back branches--with full blooms on them--go into the recycle bin...
Here is my new, little "Maya"....the rooted cutting I got back from Cylburn Arboretum when I went there
for their "Market Day" in early Sumner....It was in an 8" pot and, barely, a foot tall....
What a trooper this one is!
BTW--I have many cuttings of this one--as I had to cut it back to a "skeleton" to bring it in--
as well as my other two Brugs....
More cuttings than I can deal with--SOOOO If any of you want some, for postage only,
please D-mail me.
I have: "Maya"--Dr. Seuss"--and the robust grower/bloomer--a NOID pink Brug.
Here is the Dr. Seuss....
The most fragrant Brug of all....
Cuttings are available.....
And--the pink NOID one.....
This was taken in July of this year...such a great bloomer--and a massive grower too.
All cut back now--need to pot up the cuttings--don't want to keep them in water too long....
If any of you want any of the cuttings from these 3 Brugs--please send me a D-mail asap....
Gita
OK---
Other things still blooming away----My mandevilla on a trellis....
Cold does not seem to affect it--until we have a hard freeze....
My three Mums I bought--on my front steps....
Believe it or not--most of my Impatiens are still blooming....
means we have NOT really had a real frost yet--no matter the warnings....
My Coleus are happily rooting and growing under my seed set-up lights.
Can't use them for anything else right now--so why not for growing cuttings????
I have 2 large trays full of Coleus. One for ME--one for my Store Manager--Donn.
I have spoiled him so......For three years--I have been giving him plants for his garden.
Never any duplicates.....Most of his garden is all my plants. he loves them so! He tells
me all the time how beautiful his garden is--and how it is all "So worth it!"....
Because he is my Store Manager-- and I am an associate--there is NO hope for me to ever
go visit his place to see all the fruits of my labors...Totally unethical! Nor him coming
to see my garden--ONLY 4 miles away from the Store....He just cannot.....
He said his brother is making a Photo-CD of all his garden and flowers and such.
He will give me a copy. I said I will be glad to have it--to remember him by.
And--he can enjoy his garden in years to come--to remember ME by.
He will be leaving our store before the year ends....Sad for many of us--but mostly for me.
He will then be on his own with the gardening and the plants.....IF he has paid any attention
to all the print-outs and the pictures, and the directions and instructions i have given him--
he will be OK. But--he seems to be oblivious to al that....too Type "A" to pay attention.
He seldom listens to me....his mind is always thinking of 10 different things
he has to attend to....it is always--"OOOps! I have to run!"....I hate that---
especially when i am talking to him....BUT--that is what has made him the greatest manager---
The Store is his life--and so will be the next one--and the next one...OH, Well.....
He is my 8th Store Manager in 12 years. The best we have ever had!
Another one will come....and another--and another--every 2 years....
And--I will see what he/she is like....and another relationship "MAY" form--or NOT!!!!
Thanks for letting me share all this....I just wanted to. I know I digressed.....
I will miss Donn so much--as will most of the Store....
What a legacy for him! What a loss for us all!
Gita
Gorgeous flowers, Gita!
Gita, we are well into our "several" frosts and I finally cut the Basjoo Banana down yesterday. Now gotta get some straw to put over it. It was HUGE and was making pups.
Goodness you are going to mulch your banana outside? Have you done this before? I took mine inside......two in number. The suckers suck up about a quart of water each day. I feed with watering every weekend. I am expecting bananas but am not sure when. I know that the mother dies after blooming and hopefully fruiting. One of the pubs is the begning of another new tree. Mine did not get as large as yours did outside but they went gang busters when I moved them inside for the winter. Presently I am seeing a new leaf about every three to four days.
Doc, we cut them down to about 1 foot after first frost. Then pile 3 bales of straw over it and put a rubber mat over that. Basjoo does not set edible fruit but it will flower and produce teeny nubs. It is from China and cold hardy here in PA as long as you do what I did. This is the third year for it. I have wintered them over inside, too but this one seems to get bigger every year. It was about 8-9 feet tall when that pix was taken. And pups all over. I should have brought one inside the greenhouse. Is yours a Basjoo?
Mine was advertised as Minature Bananna stating that the mother plant would mature and produce a minature clump of minatuer hands that are small but a real bananna treat for the grower. After that the mother would die and we would need to nurture one of the pups by cutting it away from the mother plant and repotting to start the cycle all over again. We were to bring it inside when our night temperatures even thought about fifty degrees. We did that. It is now producing twenty four to thirty inch leaves at the rate of one every four days. They need nearly a quart of water daily and liquid teas once a week. Each new leaf adds about four to six inches in height to the plant.
If someone wanted to be a number one hot dogger pattio freak these leaves are large enough and strong enough to make serving platters. I think I have seen this in tropical zone photographs. I may just grow on one pup for leaf platters to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am half nuts. I do not think I will bother with them again on the inside unless those fruit turn me on. At the worst this has been an interesting grow. I do have the space and natural East light to grow them inside. Still it seems a bit much. LOL
I was told that the Basjoo had to be 5 years old to flower. I believe that cause mine has been in the ground 3 years. I should have brought in a pup but will do that next year.
This is going to be interesting to say the least. If I get bananas and do not die eating them I will have something to brag about anyway. :)
doc, it sounds fun. It must be lovin life to still be putting on leaves like that.
I have terrible indoor light and really can't do much like that. I got a tiny banana pup, unknown kind, about three years ago and kept it in a pot, bring in for winter thru last winter. It looked pretty pitiful by spring. This summer I took the pot off and planted it straight in the dirt and it grew like crazy.
When I went to dig it I tried first to split a pup, but it sort of broke with no roots on it. Then I just loosend the roots and pushed it over. Very top heavy and shallow rooted!. Once out of the dirt the pups came off with roots and would have been happy.
I thought about saving a pup but ended up trashing the pups except one which I cut and wrapped in newspaper (the root ball). The mother trunk got about six inches in diam and it will winter out there, cut and covered
I still have annual Salvia blooming as we have still not had a real frost. The coleus just got scared silly and have croaked. And my fall Pansies are beautiful!
My Alyssum still looks great. I plant this early every spring, and it blooms all summer and is one of the last annuals in my garden still looking good.
I have it planted in several areas.
alyssum is a 'sweet' little plant LOL. I planted it from market packs a few times and then got the benefit of volunteers a few other years. I think my sweet william has a bloom or two still. We finally got frost; thats it for annual Salvia
It appears after several experience posts that our bananna may yet set bloom. We will just have to sit and watch. Both plants are still pushing leaves but a little slower. This is most likely due to the shorter days.
ATTN GITTA
Meanwhile our Red Epi given to us by Gita now has nineteen arms. The tp of each arm a new spikey finger like growth appearing.Inthe center of the spikey like growth a small green growth is appearing. My guess is that this is bud development. We shall again be watchers. If it blooms this will be a first for us. I left it outside right up to about thirty five night temperature degrees to stress the plant and possibly promote bloom.
Today we are in a major rain front. The projection is up to three inches followed by possible snow this afternoon. It appears that we will get the rain and possibly more than three inches. Flood warnings are up for our low areas. This will be a wonderfull winter time snack for our farm fields plants, beds and trees. We could not have ordered it up in any better timing. Our hunters are grumbling. That's just to bad. :) Their prized mountains are getting a good drink too. Our township workers dug a sleeping mother bear out of a storm culvert this AM. The game commission will make her a new den where she will stay untill she needs to get up to relieve herself. She will likely return to her man made den because they only walk a few steps, turn a circle like a dog, do her thing and go immediately back to the den for another month or so.
Its been pouring here this morning and my compost really needs it. I'm slighlty bummed out that I got to my newhorse poo source yesterday just in time to see the full dumpster being hauled away and a new 'clean' one left in its place. But as thye like to say, we make more every day! I could have topped off the compost abd some beds with manure and gotten it well soaked.
Had they been watching or tracking that bear, to know she'd be in danger with the rain?
Keep on with the fun facts on bears!
I am trying to cross-pollenate two Christmas cactuses, one fuschia colored and the other shrimp colored.
The bear had been found by neighborhood kids. The hide out den was not known by many until the forcast of heavy rain led to reporting of the den to the authorities. Females are with two to four babies yet unborn. That is why the authorities really do not like to move them during the winter. In this instance the sleeping mother would maybe be washed out and unable to care for herself. Bears have made this mistake for years on end. After real cold weather and snow arrives there is little danger of running flood stage waters. They wake up in the spring before heavy run off begins.
On cross pollination of Christmas Cactus the use of Q-tips or artist brushes to move pollen would be in order. I have never tried doing this. I have just recently read that they do like acid in the PH range of 5.0 to 6.0. I never addressed this need either. I will as soon as they are done blooming. Without testing facilities I will just use the for acid loving plants fertilizer weekly weakly beginning as soon as they start growing again. This is usually in the month of late February to early March.
doc--
I am SO excited for you on the Epi!
Please post a picture of what you were describing above.....
I want to see it! There!
IF and when it blooms--you will have to sit up half the night to see it....
I gave my big one to Becky last Summer at the Plant Exchange.
She later wrote that it had bloomed--but she missed it....
I still have about 3-4 well established NBC's. need to pot them up to a bigger pot!
4" is just to small....
Gita
Epi.............doing something see picture here and post above to Gita's attention.
Looks promising--Doc--But then, I never saw my big one bloom--so, what do I know?
That IS an odd formation of growths....and that thingie coming out in the middle?
I always thought the bloom-to-be bud came out of one of the "veins" in an older leaf?
If you go to the "Orchid cactus" Forum--you will see loads of Posts about people's
NBC's blooming.
Just to get an idea of what to look for.....
Good luck! Gita
This is bloom buds emerging from my Red Epi--2009.
Another picture......
All open now......
Would the NBC be that different????
I do not understand the NBC question. The image I published is the Red Epi you gave me. You are not suggesting a mix up and this might be NBC?
What I have going on here does not appear to be bloom such as you showed in your Red Epi images.
No, No--doc!
What I gave you WAS the Night Blooming Cereus----for sure! "QWueen of the Night"...etc.
What I posted above is a Red Epiphylum. I got both of these from the same person ("kachinagirl"
from CA in 2005. She sent me 3 "leaves"---2 Red Epis and one NBC.
I also have a Ric-Rac Cactus.....it also blooms beautifully....I will show you below....
WHY I showed the Red Epi blooming to you is that they ALL belong to the Orchid Cactus family
--and, therefore, have many common traits. The leaves--with some differences----
the culture requirements--and the way the blooms develop and where they come from. Most of them last only one day--and open up at their best in the late evening.
Now--I am NOT, in any way, an expert on any of this--but I am sure you could find the answers
on the "Orchid Cactus" Forum. Just post a question--and you will get all the answers....
Here is my Ric Rac Cactus in bud..
And in full bloom---
I am sure there are many other species of the "Orchid cactus" family...
I hope this answers your question????
You have the one with the roundish, flat leaves----that is an NBC.
It is an Epi--but not the same as the red Epi I have...
Gita
