Yarden maintenance May into June

The next two pictures are two areas where we have begun putting the plant swap requests together.

The first shot is of the Lysimachia Firecracker that I go from Sally at a swap. This is what is still growing after dividing it earlier in the season and potting up at least ten pots of it to take to market. It will sell nicely once the bright yellow blooms appear. Thank you Sally.....I love the plant.

The second shot is a huge pot of Balsam that I sowed from seed last year and which has put on an especially beautiful show the past few weeks. I happened to catch it looking wilted a bit and maybe on its way out. Should have been snapping photos before now for this particular plant. I didn't realize until last evening how sweet they smelled. Yummy!!!

Third shot is taken outside of my front bay window. To the far right is the Umbrella Tree plant which will be Sally's this time next week. The green colored Coleus is one of the ones I will be sharing with Coleup next week too.

Oops, made mistake....will try it again for the Balsam.

The other photos will be different shots of some of my hens and chicks.

Ruby---

Your Swap Plants--as well as others, are superbly healthy and I can tell that
you take very good care of them.

Tomorrow--I have to start, seriously, grouping all requests by names. I have now all kinds of boxes
and brought more trays home from HD today.
Especially Sally's--coleups---catbird's. Will be heading to Sally's early on Wed. next week to deliver
the plants for the three of these ladies--and to pick up all they have for me and donner.

I still have to get all done and get to work by 1PM. Phew......

Donner is coming to my house Thursday after work--to get all HER stuff from me AND them.
Leaving whatever i asked of her here as well. Not much--as you all have seen how short my "wants" list is.

So--a lot of Pre-Swap--swapping. All to lighten the load in all our cars. I know mine for sure.

Crunch time!!!!!!!!! Getting stressed a bit here......Too many plants that I have been caring for. Some are over 1ft. tall
by now. The brugs are OK--but have stopped growing upward. I bet they are praying for breathing space....

OK! it was a long day in Garden today. My plan was to have children pot a plant up for their Moms.
I made a gorgeous sign and we printed out flyers to pass out.

I brought empty 6"pots (thanks to my hoarding...) and made pretty red hearts glued on to the end of Bamboo skewers.
"Bell" donated a few trays of small cell annuals. I chose Wax begonias. can't go wrong.
48 children of all ages potted up a pot for their Mom's. Overall--it was a great idea and very successful.

Me? I got a bit sunburnt and my feet are killing me! I am royally pooped!!!

I bet Holly and Ric are having a cow by now as well--or are you two above cool?

Gita

LOL Gita, We are working like crazy and I know everything won't get done. I still don't have all the beds weeded or mulched. Let alone the annuals planted. I have that what gets done gets done and rest will get done when we can. I have been potting up plants as I have been cleaning the beds so some of my swap plants are marked and ready. I still have a lot to pot up but things are moving along pretty good.

Oh c mon Holly, you know we don't need every weed pulled and bed mulched. Your yarden will wow us all anyday!

I second that statement--Sally.

BUT--I also know what it feels like to have to put on a big, social get-together.
You want everything to be just so! As if people judged YOU by the way your house looks--
or how clean your kitchen is--and whatever.

I DOOOO understand!!!! My house has that forever, lived in look with dust bunnies everywhere.
If anyone is just coming over, or spending the night---I try to clean and get rid of all the clutter
as if it truly mattered. It ONLY matters to ME!!!......IF I don't mind--It does not matter!!! But--it does...
Sound familiar????? It is my Motto in life!

How is the weather forecast for Saturday??? That may decide how well anything goes.
Half of us may end up sitting in your Green House.....;o) WOW!!!

I DO hope the weather cooperates.....keeping my fingers crossed........Gita

Oh it will be far from every weed pulled. LOL Just doing what I would do anyway and the work will continue long after the swap is over. I have already written off several projects and jobs for after the swap. I was saying to a co-worker the other day that although I want things to look nice that I am hosting a group of gardeners. They won't care if the house is clean, and they won't care if there are weeds.

You have the right attitude Holly.....it can wait. Hey, I am queen of non getting things done. I know the last time the group visited your home, everyone was delighted with your home and grounds. Heck, I loved your home even before visiting, due to loving your room with all the sliding glass doors......my dream.....

I finally watered pots on deck last evening, almost in the dark. I am sure they too sighed a breath of relief. Gita, I noticed two days ago that the Clivia I have is going to bloom again.....how cool is that? I suppose as of Tuesday, I can safely begin putting houseplants outside. Might do a few later today if it fits in to busy schedule. I will be so relieved to begin getting them outside.

I also spent a bit of time piddling in the back garden late yesterday and now have two pots full of pieces of Sedum Sarmentosan and cup full of Yellow Archangel that I need to find time today to pot up. A good bit of the afternoon was spent potting up baby Hawaiin Spider Plants. I noticed some dieing on one of the shoots and upon inspection noticed the shoot was what was dieing. That meant I filled at least eight or ten pots of new spiders. If I attempt to save all the babies, I am going to have them coming out of my ears. While working with the pot of Hawaiin Spider I noticed that it could use some re-potting.....up a size or two. It has done really well this last year in its pot, but is definitely straining. Maybe by the Fall swap I will have enough of this to share with others.

Anyway.......as always......good to hear from you good people and I am really excited about seeing everyone again. Have a great week and Happy Mothers Day to all.

Ruby

I honestly don't think a completely weed free garden is possible unless you hire someone to do it for you everyday. They just pop up overnight!

I'm about to take a photo of that muddy, sloped, shady pathway. I can't amend the area or put cardboard down on it, because it's a main walkway.

It's good to know that ajuga will survive being plopped on top of the poor soil. Is there another hardy plant I could try? I've tried stepables, etc., but vinca, blue star creeper, and yellow archangel have all died, and they're supposed to be good ground covers. But they were dug into the clay, instead of being placed on top.

Ruby---

This is too funny!!!!! You doing your Spider plants--and i did the same thing.
Now I have pots of Spiders coming out my ears....

My plan in my semi-awake state was to work on "pulling" everyone's orders--
especially the ones I need to take to Sally's on Wed. AM.
Ruby--is this correct? Your plants and sally's plants--and Catbird's plants. Right?
Did I miss anyone???? I have this odd feeling that I did....let me know asap. Thanks.

And--then i started with the Spider Plants. Not just potting up in a bigger pot. Nope!
Ripping each one apart in sections and putting them in fresh soil. Had to be done! ....:o)

I was also filling my heavy clay W-Boxes with soil. Some of it from the Spider HB's--some MG Moisture stuff--
and some Organic Choice soil. Kind of like making soup! A little of this and a little of that...
It all comes out good at the end!
Now I have to go and buy some annuals to put in them. Need lots of Imps.
I still have 2 beds totally unattended to. The small round one where my Birch tree was--and the LONG,
S. bed where I need to plant many of the Zinnias and MG-ds that I grew from seed. They are still so small....

I have planted my Tomatoes, some Bush Bean seeds and also some Pickling Cukes.
Lets hope they do better this year than last!!! OH! Also ONE Green pepper.

It is now 4PM and I WILL!!!! go out in a few minutes and start with the boxing up.
I will....I will....I think I can...I think I can........chooooo....chooooooo...

G.

SSG, We used old carpet to make pathways thru our Veggie garden.

I will also have your plants from Greenthumb / David, for Judy and Gita. Liking this pre swapping... You can take these home and gte them bedded down, before the rest of the haul Saturday.

Sally---

Should I bring greenthumb's plants to you as well this wednesday? I have a few he asked for.

How did they hook up with you to leave my plants there?

See you wed. Hope there are no traffic delays..... Gita

No Gita, don't bring his plants to me, I won't see them again before Swap.
Mark and I had a play date with David and Pat, at the Kenilworth Aquatic Garden and National Arboretum on Saturday- Perfect weather!

I will be home by 9 40 am on Wednesday, just from down the road at the gym. I also hope your drive is fine, as it should be at that (mostly) post rush hour time. I hope it is not raining Wednesday so you and Judy can stroll the yard at will. My two bigger kids might be home but probably sleeping or getting ready for work.

Sally--

Would you like one of my newly divided Spider HB's?
I now have wayyyy too many!

Anything else I can bring you? How about some jars of my home-made Cranberry Sauce?
I have so many! made 3 batches last Th-Giv. Every time Mars had clearances on pckg's of cranberries--
I bought some and made more. If you have never had my Cranberry sauce--you are missing something!

They last in the fridge for years! I will grab some along for you and Judy as well.

OK! Drizzly morning, but I will be outside trying to sort out all the "orders".
No other day I can do all that. I want Friday totally free from last minute stresses.
Besides--I have to make my Pasta Salad.....Load up my car, etc.

*****Are we meeting up at the same restaurant off of Padonia Rd? What time? ********
You have not said anything.....
Gita

Yes, to sauce and spider.
Yes to restaurant but I will dmail so you can remind me which one and what time - but off to work right now.

When it rains heavily, 2 of 3 Knockout roses get floppy. One has more of an upright habit and doesn't get as floppy at all.

Does anyone else have this issue? I pruned them to about 2 feet in late winter, but I didn't prune very heavily since they were just planted this past year. Right now they're absolutely loaded down with double blooms.

Is this because the blooms are too heavy for the weak stems? Should I prune now, and if so, how and how much?

I gave it Osmocote in March, but haven't fertilized since, except for a topdressing of Leafgro. Would fertilizing it now help or hurt the flopping?

http://voices.yahoo.com/pruning-knockout-roses-brave-world-11295694.html?cat=32

Hm, coleup, that article doesn't talk about flopping due to rain/heavy blooms...

Also--What zone does that writer of these suggestions live in?????

It may make all the difference.....

My Knock Out Rose is blooming her ead off right now.

I cur it back--slightly--last fall. That means--cutting off all the dead blooms from the tips.
She came up beautiful this spring. Great, reddish foliage and lots and lots of blooms....

Lookie here! Gita

Another shot--just taken yesterday.....

Love this Rose!!!

Wow Gita! That KO looks so healthy! I think the issue with mine is that there are so many blooms and they're all just so huge. This is really a fun probelm to have. :-P I guess there's no harm in cutting it back some more right now?

Interesting topic about knock out roses. We have one. It struggled for at least two summers in its original pot. John finally planted it at some point last summer and it too is seeming to love where it is planted and is blooming quite well too. It is our only Rose. Oh take that back....received a Lenten Rose in the mail yesterday. hahaha As for it needing sun, I have a feeling that where ours is planted, may need moving or pruning of the large Butterfly Bush that is beside it. Most likely, it will be a major cut back of the Butterfly Bush. The Rose seems happy and it is in a spot that is easy for me to see.

Mostly my garden work for some time now has been getting things ready to take to swap on Saturday. A few evenings of weeding here and there but am like Judy and I too was unable to do much outdoors for the past two summers due to the heat. I am taking special advantage of mild temperatures now and by the time it gets dreadfully hot, I will have had my fill of gardening for a while.

My gosh, think of the talk there will be here after the swap when we are writing in telling of the major work we will be doing while trying to do something with our newly acquired goodies. Heck, we still have some things in pots from last years two swaps. Don't tell........

When I awoke this morning, John handed me a sheet of paper with the front totally covered in Iris names and half of the back side filled too. He has spent the wee hours of the morning looking at a nursery website which is trying to sell the business and he wants to order from them before they sell. Thankfully, when they start arriving, it will be he doing the work.

The order I placed on April 15 arrived yesterday. I sure got carried away when ordering and now have a lot of work facing me this week along with all the other things I have to do. Anyway, spent a couple of hours potting some of the houseplants and still have even more to do today. The plants were in transit for a week and some are worse for the wear. I hope they will all live and do well for me.

Anyway.....hope that everyone will enjoy the day. Sun is out today, so that is good to see. Take good care all.

Ruby

Knockouts are the only one I can grow without black spot hassles BUT__ I have one struggling pink tea rose and you have to admit the full petal display is just classically gorgeous.

That's exciting about the iris! Certainly I feel that if one has the room to develop a collection, there is quite the value to that. Iris would be easy to ship should he decide to get into that. I do not though envy him keeping them labeled correctly!

Sally, the only rose I can grow here (besides wild roses) are the Knockouts because certain of them can tolerate more shade than most roses, I have a single pink and a single red in 3 gal containers in my sunniest spot 5-6 hrs of morning sun. They take little care beyond a timed release feed and watering. Their success in my yard has all to do with their breeding and not any skill as a gardener on my part.

I have learned that each of the colors and sinle or double bloomers have variations in their characteristics such as shade tolerance (red,double most tolerant ) or that they all spread informally, but some are more upright in growth habit.

The article I posted above backs up my assumption that I do not have to become a master in pruning to enjoy my Knockouts as they are tolerant of all sorts of prunning or cutting back, planned or inadvertant!

In regards to 'floppy after a heavy rain' concerns I would think that fairly normal on the one hand. On the other hand, one side of my single red tends to elongate and flop more than the other side and I suspect it is reaching for more sun making for weaker canes which I could correct by trimming back so canes on that side are stonger.

Secondly, growers and retailers have gone wild and flooded the markets with these 'performers'! Remember that a major goal of growers/retailers is to make sales (not create beautiful lasting gardens/yards) so they use every trick and chemical cocktail to pump up plant growth/bloom to make that sale. Which means to me that these roses we bought and planted in the last two years or so of their popularity may have been plenty hyped since word was out of their greatness, and it may well be that ssgardeners roses started out with weak canes and it may take cutting back to get more strong foundation going so our KO s can reach their full potential in our yards.

Along those lines, I have a sort of rule of thumb "If it flops/wiggles in its pot, don't buy it."

Just brought 2 double pink KO home from work. 1/2 price as they were clearing the table. Nothing wrong with them just needed dead headed.
Don't feel bad Ruby, The roses I bought last year sat in pots all summer long and we never did get them in the ground until late fall. In fact we didn't even get them "in" the ground Ric built a box around them and we filled it with compost. LOL

Coleup -- you wrote: "shade tolerance (red,double most tolerant )" Did you mean the double red is the most shade tolerant? Or did you mean both the reds (both double and single) and all the doubles are most shade tolerant? It matters a lot to me because of our shady, muggy conditions, so I'm delighted you have a point of view....

coleup---

I Googled the Peach Leaf-curling Weevil--and you are right!
It is a 100% match!!!
Printed out some info.....

Thanks...See Ya! Gita

Happy, not ignoring you on the shade tolerance of various of the Knock out Roses. Beem trying to relocate a link or two that "verifies" my impressions.

All KO roses are more shade tolerant than most other roses. (Less sun = fewer blooms, more sun = more blooms)

The first KO introduced was the single red, the second in the family was the double red and then came pinks and recently yellows. Yellows need more sun than pinks which need more sun than reds.

"The Double Knockout Rose Rosa ‘Radtko’ PP 16202:
Bill Radler produced the double flowering Knockout from the same cross he made to produce his first Knockout Rose. The Conard Pyle Company, the nursery in charge of managing the Knockout Rose cultivars, quickly rolled this new introduction and stated that it represented the next generation of the Family of Knockouts. Just as the name suggest the flowers are double with an extra row of petals that give the bloom a ruffled full appearance. The flower form may have changed put the performance of the plant remained the same. Double Knockout is just as easy to grow, resists disease and pests, is low maintenance and flowers it’s head off. There where two improvements, Double Knockout will tolerate more shade than it’s parent and is more fragrant! "

http://rosesknockout.com/blog/category/knockout-roses/

So, yes, I believe the double red is most shade tolerant of the 6 varieties. How much shade or lack of direct sun light the double red will tolerate in my 7b yard remains to be seen as I have stuck a number of gal pots of same around my yard to see how they will do. One month into it and they all seem to be doing fine!

Judy

WoooHooo, we sell Double Knockout roses at work! < =D LOL, sorry, I just had to throw that in there. ;)

It's funny, (and, not "ha ha" funny), but some of the other varieties of roses we have are getting black spot, but NONE of the Knockout Roses have it. Hmmmmm, interesting! (and I know this for a fact, because I was roaming around in the rose beds yesterday for about 45 minutes with a customer, heehee). =)

HD always has a great selection of KO roses in all sizes of pots. Just throwing it in here too...
They always come in these drab green-colored pots. same as Wave Petunias always come in the hot pink pots.
Easy to distinguish.....

The other day I saw a customer with a pink, double in her cart.
I was sooo impressed! it looked like a regular Rose. Cupped and many layers of petals.

coleup -- that was exceedingly helpful -- thank you very much for that research on the Knock-Outs!

Ditto to what Happy said.

Wowee.......for those who attended the swap.....howdy ya'll and hope that everyone is enjoying their new goodies. What a truly fantastic group of gardeners, us Mid Atlanters are. I now officially have enough plants to keep me quite busy for quite a while. I am trying not to freak out over the number of things that need doing after adding all of Saturday's take to all that were already needing our attention. Take a deep breath and know that it will eventually all get done. Phew!!!

Both John and I were very productive earlier today but it is break time for a bit. We will then go back and finish up what we started. Maybe next year we will know to clean and organize before the swap in order to make space for the things that will be coming. What he have now, is all the plants plopped on the screen porch, where my house plants need to go. We are slowing getting the swap things either potted, or moved to the deck, so we can begin the exodus of the houseplants from the plant room.

Got quite few out earlier, but still plenty more to come out. Felt good to finally be able to vacuum some of the spots where plants have set all winter. Folks that visit here are quite amazed at all the garden plants and house plants we have. I am amazed that since moving here about seven years ago that we have amassed as many as we have. I never imagined until getting involved with Dave's Garden that gardening and all related things would come to mean as much to me as they currently mean.

The other great thing about being a member of Dave's is the great people I have had the privilege of meeting and getting to know better. Truly, a finer bunch will not be found elsewhere.

I see the clock is reading after 4 PM and there is still lots to be done outside. I will bid you all adieu and see you soon I hope.

Ruby

I couldn't have said it any better, Ruby. DGers are the salt of the earth in my opinion!!!

The sun just peeked out. Been cloudy all day here. Helpful for planting, etc.

Not much plant wise happened here today. Have had my grand little ones here and haven't even tried to work with plants. Did find out earlier when inspecting the house plants I sat outside yesterday that the ones without drain holes, need to either have holes put their bottoms, or move the pots elsewhere so they won't drown while we are having these lovely afternoon rain showers.

John spent much of the day potting up Campanula Elizabeths that David and Pat so graciously offered us some of their abundance. I first layed eyes on this plant a couple of years ago and thought I was in heaven when David offered the one he had that was in full bloom at the time. I was so happy. I planted it in a shady end of one of my beds and it seems to love it there. In the past couple of years it has spread quite nicely and we now have lots of others to look at and enjoy. They are blooming crazily at the moment, and are so delightful to my senses.

I also had a little beautiful surprise one of my trips to the porch today where most of the swap plants are still sitting. An African Violet from Donnerville has bloomed and brought much delight to me. Donnerville, is you are reading, I heard folks commenting on Saturday about the beautiful plants you grow. I can attest to that myself because of the real beauties you have shared with me in the past. Beauties for sure.

Anyway.....it will probably be Sunday, possibly a bit on Saturday before I am able to do any thing much at all yarden wise. Will report back then.

Happy yardening all.

Ruby