spring 2012 flowers

Glad you are feeling better...poison ivy can be so miserable and rude to the body. Looks like the MG is gonna make it.

I have a question for you, how often should I water in this extreme heat? Right now at 6 pm it is 100 degrees. I usually wait until the sun goes down and it cools down some, I would water in the mornings but I am not a morning person and it is usually too hot to water in the mornings unless you get up when the sun rises. I was thinking of putting a couple of gallons of water on her this evening, what do you think?

Do the finger test--nobody here can tell you how often to water because it varies so much depending on your soil, how much sun the area gets, etc. But sticking your finger down in the dirt will tell you if it's getting too dry or not.

If you do need to water, I know you're not a morning person but it's definitely better to water then. You live in a humid enough climate that if you water in the evening, the leaves can stay wet a long time which encourages fungal growth. If you must water in the evening, be really careful not to get water on the leaves and then you should be alright, but otherwise it's better to water in the morning.

Got a question,what can I make that is easy and cheap to make to shade rosey in the hottest part of the day? I was thinking of taking a piece of cardboard, put aluminum foil on it and stapling it on the post behind her and take a couple of sticks and put them on the corners and make kind of like a canopy for her. Then when it gets too hot like it has been, I can lower it down and when it gets cooler, attach it to the post. How does that sound?

Can you remind us when the rose was planted originally? If it was in your garden last year it should be well enough established that it doesn't need shade rigged up for it. Only time I would try to rig up shade for plants is if they are things that were just planted this year and didn't have a chance to get their roots going before it got hot.

I planted it in April of this year. It was April 14th.

Is it showing signs of stress when the weather is hot? If it is then the shade can help, otherwise you probably don't need to.

Here is one of the first buds on my Rose of Sharon for this summer, it has another one I tried to take a picture of it but got too close and it was blurry, plus it was around the bees and one of THEM already got me once, I DON"T intend for THAT to happen again!

I am sorry I have not been on here lately, every time I tried to get on here it told me that I could not get on the web page, here are some new pictures and a question. Picture 1 is Rosey, she loves the cooler weather, picture 2 is my first ros bloom, and picture 3 is the one I have a question about, it is a couple of naked lady bulbs and it looks like it is going to grow new leaves, I thought that they only grew leaves in the winter, help, I am confused! My other neighbors have ones that are up and blooming now, is it because I messed around with them too much? I was trying to think of a place where I could transplant them and they will be in the sun, I don't think they like being in the shade with the morning glories and irises. They get too much water, if I move them into the sun I will just forget about them and see what they do, but they will be around the side of the house because that is the only place where the sun shines more than the rest of the house.

Can someone tell me why these are growing leaves instead of blooming?

Sorry, Teddy. I truly do not know what is going on with your lycoris.

Its possible it didn't get the required energy to go through the blooming cycle. Plants will sometimes skip blooming if they don't have the energy.
Under similar circumstances, Titan arum. blooms randomly, but it has to get the energy from its leaf cycle first.

Also, after giving it some thought, those were the bulbs you thought were amaryllis, correct? Having them inside and trying to force blooms may have confused their life cycle.

should I leave them alone and see what happens or should I find a sunnier spot to put them and then forget about them?

I would not move them now...I think I would allow them time to store up some energy and then move them in the spring. it would not hurt to fertilize them now however.

ok themoonhowl thanks. I have another rose of sharon bush that is closer to the house, it has not been big enough to have buds, but went out the other day and there were 2 of them. Don't know what color they are going to be but it will be pretty anyway. There is two more plants by the fence to the backyard, but the one is very small and the other one just never had any buds on it. Here is a picture of the new buds on the ros and also one of rosey, she is alsi doing very well. Especially for something that had such a hard start.

Different cultivars of the ROS bloom at different rates, so hang in there. Glad you are starting to see some buds. Rosie seems to be recovering nicely and hopefully will present you with beautiful blooms next year.

You wil be one of the second ones to see them, I did not think it would, but I have gotten some patience somewhere. Especially since I tried to grow flowers in the house in the winter.

Awww gee, Teddy...it couldn't be from us all repeating that ya had to be patient?...GRIN Good for you. I look forward to lots of pretty blooms from you.

I was thinking of trying to grow a moonflower inside like I did the morning glories, what do you think of that idea? I have plenty of potting soil and have been reading up on them. Several of my neighbors have them and I think they would be an interesting project to try, I know that I can grow morning glories inside because you all saw the pictures, so I think the moonflower will be my next project inside this winter. I still have the flourescent light and like I said plenty of potting soil. I will try to find a small pot and when they get big enough and it is warm enough outside I will try to get them out of the pot without hurting the roots. Wish me luck!

All of the information written above are very helpful. Thanks

This message was edited Aug 19, 2012 7:33 PM

here is a moonflower from one of the neighbor's yard tonight. I could not help it they are so pretty and so big. I promise, I will have one of them in my yard soon.

Re-bloom on our 'Stella In Red' daylily.

Just opened the dried moonflower pod that my friend gave me and there is a bunch of seeds in it like they said! They are creamy white and hard, am I supposed to try to grow some in the house in wet paper towels? I am going to try to soak some in a small bowl and get them to sprout and put them in pots on my bookcase which is in a warm corner. What do you think I should do? I have another pod that is dried up and I think I will leave it alone until I see what the others do. Is there any advice that you can give me to be able to grow them in the house during the winter?

here are what they look like and also here is the morning glories that are finally blooming. This last pic looks like it has red in with the purple.

I took 2 moonflower seeds and put them in a coffee filter, wrapped it like a pie and put it in a small baggie and put it on the side of the refrigerator. Will that help in germination?

sow the moonflower seeds directly into the garden. you'll have to hurry as it may be too late! they do grow fast so you can try

how fast do they grow?

well, if its hot where you live and you make sure they have good moisture, they grow quite rapidly! when they're sown in spring they can usually take over a space by fall. well im speaking from growing them in New York (city). the seeds can also overwinter there.
you could it blooming before October.

I have a huge planter that my neighbor gave me and I was thinking of taking 2 seeds and nicking them and soaking them tonight and planting them Saturday, I have a 3 day weekend because of Labor Day. Will they grow ok in a planter? I don't want the next door neighbor to mow them down like he did with the rose and by the way she loves the cooler weather! I still have the 2 I put in the baggie with the wet coffee filter, how long before I see something happening with them and can I put them in the same planter with the other ones or would 4 seeds be too much in a planter?

thats a good idea, just plant all the seeds in the planter, crowding is okay in temporary containers/planters. expect to see some seedlings in a week or so. you will definitely have something growing in 2 weeks.

thanks

I just planted 4 moonflower seeds in this pot and watered them real good, the water was coming out of the bottom when I quit. Is this alright? I hope so because I used all my potting soil. I have it in front of the house where I had my flowers from Dad's funeral.

My mums are not doing anything, they look the same as they did when I planted them after cutting them back. Do I just dig them up and throw them away, or do I just water them real good? No greenery at all.

Here are my morning glories this year, they are late but they seems to like this cooler weather. The first one is the one I had in the house over the winter and the second one is the ones from last year. It is very hard to take a picture of a purple flower with a digital camera, it comes out blue, I have some very nice pictures of blue morning glories, they are supposed to be purple. But Irfanview helps me get the right color.

The MG are looking good...how are the moonflower seeds doing?

So far no results, I put the ones on the paper towels in a baggie and there is condensation, so it is like my own little greenhouse, the ones in the big pot have not come up yet, I thought I had sprouts but I guess they are weeds. I have no idea where the seeds are in the pot, I watered them and they got shifted around. So I put them in a very sunny spot in the back yard and hope to get at least a start on them growing. I hope I can get my hubby to let me bring them in this winter, I have some more but I was hoping to have big white flowers this winter when the snow flies(if we have any snow).

Can you tell me what can cause this color morning glory? It is in my neighbor's yard and I am going to get some seeds from it if I can when they start making the seeds. There are a couple that the veins inside are lighter than that, they are really striking. Can you buy that color at the store? Also how wet does the paper towels that have the moonflower seeds on have to be, they are on a paper plate so I can't have it too wet or the water will go right through.

I believe I have told you that the Rose of Sharon by the house had buds on it, well, one of them fell off and the other one is acting really weird. Here are the pictures, it is not acting like any ros I have seen. Maybe you can tell me what is going on.

I am not sure what it is doing that seems out of norm. Looks like the bud is opening....what do you think is the problem with it?