After tonight- nights somewhere in the 40s for the week. Course, with all the trees still leafy, its a bit warmer where my plants are.
I will let Amaryllis, succulents, and all Christmas cactus types feel the cool, but some of our tropicals don't much like it.
Officially Autumn- fall garden chores
We get 39,35,and 30 degrees for the next three nights Huh?
Brr!
I was just reading palmbob's latest article. Its long like all of his but pretty amusing, about pruning his many dangerous plants
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3907/
It reminds me I need to take a few pads off my pricly pears.
I have prickly pear and stinging nettle ,sharp as a needle and a hair, and stingy too, I was thinking the same when reading his article before a I had just finished cutting back the nettle.(and yes that involved pulling up a few roots that went on forever more ) Ropes got nothing on these guys!!!
sallyg I enjoyed yours also, fattening anyway though, That is only me though. yes I am awake again.I am such an insomniac!
and I am getting OCD too!! lol
MMdid I make ya want pancakes? thanks!
Got a new recipe for glazed salmon fillets and I bet hickory syrup would be awesome with it. I stick with cheap 'maple' tho.
It just made me laugh how many time palmbob admitted to not getting his gloves on, rushing and hurting himself , not preparing for the job,...all the bad habits I have too!
As a matter of fact this morning I had pancakes!lol Only I did not get any hickory syrup to go with those just the usual sugar free brand that is half as good at three times the price!!!
Old fashioned recipes and grandma's kitchen is has been worth the weight in gold!. If I did not know better, I would be walking around thinking if it did not come from the grocery store it is not real.
As to the gloves thing I learned my lesson a long time ago,,,but it still happens every once in a while. My favorite seems to be grass splinters!!!
WOW you guys have sure been busy, while I was lazing on the Beach. So I had better get my @ss in gear. First is getting the houseplants and tropicals inside. Ric needs to get the new GH heater installed and a pad laid for the propane gas tank that is coming next week. Then I can start looking at fall clean up.
Gita my brug is about to bloom it has it's got a good dozen buds on it hope this cooler weather won't inter with the process. Going to move it into the GH soon.
Holly---
It sure got cold fast! NOT fair!!!! I am freezing in my house--but will not turn the heat on....yet....
Last night was about 42* here.
I brought in all my smaller pots of this and that rooting. Also some of the Holiday cactus
that have not been doing so great. Plus all my easter cactus cuttings that have been rooting.
Wrote more about this just now on the "After talk" thread.
I left outside all my Epis and older CC.'s. Also my Ivy and Swedish Ivy HB;s.
Not quite ready yet for the BIG "bring in". It is not near freezing yet.....
I believe this is just a "test" of things to come. I KNOW we will have warmer weather again.
Just heard on radio that the average temp. for this date is around 69*.
Yes, Holly! You will have the prettiest flush of blooms on your Brugs! They really
put out the buds this time of year. I have buds on all mine too.
The Doctor just finished blooming--and there she goes again.
I do not believe how broad this Brug has grown!!! It is like an open umbrella over most of the bed.
Will have to do a lot of cutting back. NOT going to root more than just a few cuttings.
If anyone wants cuttings--speak up. Paul has already asked for a bunch--for his friends.
Holly---Do you plan to keep all your houseplants in the G-H for the winter? Or just some?
Which ones?
I better prep my LR and DR and every space available for my BIG "bring in".....
Jungle City to come-----soon. Gita
Here's a few things still hanging on:
1--Begonia Grandis
2--Black and Blue Salvia--$1 bargains at Lowes. Hope they make it through the winter????
3--The Brazilian Plume
4--My low, pink Zinnias
5--My neighbor's orange cannas. I dug them last year and planted them this spring for her.
A few more things.....
1--Jill's little, sweet peppers--having "second wind"
2--The New England Aster
3--This huge, Mum
4--Some more Zinnias
5--And my favorite--EVERY year! Love, Love this Mandevilla!!!!!
Beds $20 spent--every spring.
Holly, you left in ;summer' and came back in fall...Brr!
I grabbed the more sensitive things but like Gita feel confident that others are fine with the short chill and have time to wait before they HAVE to come in. That helps me arrange them inside the house, not trying to do them all at once. I'm not yet decided on where to put the 5 1/2 foot tall, 4 foot wide, blooming tropical 'Tab' from Chantell..but I will find a place for this treasure! I'm hoping since she came in last night, that tonight she may open some flowers and give us a smell.
My Dr Seuss has two open now but with it so chilly I can't really smell much. I might get Mark to haul that inside for me. Huge pot... My two other Brugs are in ground and I'm trying the let them have their last flush before I dig them. Ditto- the Plumie- pleeease pump those buds open this week so I can see them!! I fear if I dig that sooner, it would make the buds drop.
Raked the first small batch of leaves of MANY. My goal is to keep every leaf that falls here, here, in some way. I set up two new garden vegetable beds and will put some there right away. Later that gets some dirt on top for planting next spring.
Sowed some seeds of cold weather crops and not really sure what to expect- radish, beets (or chard? collected}, spinach, komatsuna.
I have my Brazilian Plume Flowers in a pot on the front porch. The plan to leave them out to finish blooming was scratched because of the low temperatures and frost expected for sure tonight. Maybe I'll bring them in the house to bloom before I try storing them in the garage. Too many plants to keep in the house. So far, most of them have overwintered in the garage. Not sure what to do with my 2 potted up tiny fig trees. The shed is still only half cleaned up. Tomorrow will be chilly and we are scheduled to see our grandsons various sports activities. Sunday and Monday have lovely weather forecasts. Need to get as much as possible done before Wednesday when I'll be leaving for 11 days. Worried about trusting the care of my plants to my DH while I'm gone.
Sally,
If you need more leaves I have plenty....
Haha. Just seems like an impossible task. I just bought some of the leaf compost from college park. I was very impressed! Great program.
I was looking at buying pussy willow sticks, or silex?, can't remember the name. Does anybody have any they want to share? I had one a while ago but it got nailed by a tree. Had my eye on the non typical willows, like the black.
Terp, we have a variety of ( genus Salix) willows. I can bring you cuttings or maybe rooted cuttings of any we have @ the next swap,I think we have: curly, black, French, Korean, & a flat stem, this list may not be inclusive. They are great for soaking up H2O, if you have a wet area. Ric
Love the willows the pics, and watching here, as for me, I am still cleaning the garage,remember that from weeks ago .lol
Willows grow on dry poison earth also, useful plant.!
It appears to be a very forgiving plant. Well thanks ric I'll have to touch base with you in the future. Now back to watching dem O's. Sigh.
Howdy all.....gosh, it took me a bit of time to read the three weeks worth of work that all of you have been involved in. Pretty much the same going on around here.....trying to get the houseplants back inside to spend the winter. What a job that has been. Brought the very last few in yesterday due to mid thirties temps that were called for.
Gita, I have never gotten a Brug from you and would love to have some cuttings. It will be a new plant for me, so may need some care directions. Will reimburse for mailing for sure.
Funny to read about Pau's indecision in regards to his Caladium. I potted the ones I grew this past summer and brought them in and have them under grow lights now and will see how that goes. So far, they are in nice bloom and we will see how long that lasts. It is amazing the things I learned last year about overwintering things. Most of what I do is trial and error. Probably this year using the techniques that worked for me last year deliberately, I will probably not have such luck.
Just have to brag a bit about our Miss Becky who gifted me with any plant lover's most desired thing. Some years ago when visiting her home I saw a great lighted plant stand and last spring when hearing her speak of many of her house plants dieing, I asked about the shelf and she said it was collecting dust in a corner of her home. My hubby made a trip to her home some time later and brought that special shelf home to me and I have a very lovely set up for dozens of my houseplants this year. Just gorgeous if I do say so myself.
My collection of Holiday Cactus which numbered eight last year has at least doubled in size and as of Sally's swap and due to the goodness of Cole, I have two really large pots of the beauties. They were the last things to be brought in yesterday and a special table had to come out of storage in order to house them for the winter. Many table tops are being used as plant space this year which wasn't necessary last year. Oh yeah, Gita.....all fine ideas for re-homing some of the plants. Actually, as of now they are all fitting nicely, though a bit crowded in some spots. Thankfully the plants displayed in the pharmacy window are slowly selling, and need to be replaced as something goes elsewhere. I was able to send five or six good sized pots down there earlier in the week.
I am happy to report that by the next swap I will have some starts of a Tropical Hibiscus that Sally gifted me with last year at some point. I will have at least three or four of them to share which are about a year old now, and as of yesterday, have started two more pots of rootings as I decided to prune back the mother plant. Not sure if this was the best time to do it or not, but from the reading I did, it made it sound as though pruning any time isn't going to hurt it.
Aspenhill mentioned the children playing with acorns at her place. I fondly remember many hours playing "farm" with acorns and sticks when I was a child and was often brought along to amuse myself while my parents were involved in their vegetable gardening or fruit producing pursuits. I get a warm feeling every time I gaze upon an acorn.
Anyway......so glad to hear about everyone's involvement in getting gardening chores done for the year. We can now amuse ourselves this winter with talk of plans for next years gardening.
Hope that everyone is having an enjoyable Saturday. Take good care all.
Ruby
UMD_Terp; I am sure you will get your willows ,only in case I have two natives salix discolor the common white pussy wiillow and salix sercia the common swamp willow (the easiest plant on the earth to grow) swamp willow grow in water on dry dunes ,The only reason I like them is they remind me of bamboo, and I always enjoyed them as a youngster around the ponds where they still are seen all the time.
So many discolors these days ,pink, black, useful plant but not as decorative as they might be , little imagination goes a long way with these, Only now someones going to ask me what is wrong with weeping willow. see ya.
Oh well that is great. Is it true that are ubsurdly easy to root? As in stick in ground and alakazam!
I counted my 1 gallon dine greenhouses, 25. So with some success, I would hope for 50%-75% I'll have lots of baby shrubs for spring. All named.
This message was edited Oct 13, 2012 1:03 PM
I grow them ,well because I like them ! I always have! Best reason of all. some always have a plant that has had that effect.
What is a dine greenhouse?I missed something there .! Name kinda makes me hungry though,. or maybe because it is because it is Saturday ^_^
I had a productive day outside yesterday. I'm still working on planting and general cleanup. The bonfire from last weekend went a long way in the cleanup effort. Two stumps are still smoldering, and we'll be piling more limbs on top of the remaining ash pile today. It always amazes me how huge piles of debris are reduced to almost nothing. I love the smell of a bonfire in autumn, and it is a great way to get warm when you need a break from the chores.
I only had a few tender things to get inside before the low night temperatures. I'm happy to say that Chantell's plumeria and Gita's brazilian plume flower are now in the house after spending the summer outdoors. The plumeria is doing great, but no blooms yet - probably next summer. After Chantell gifted this to me two seasons ago, I did a little bit of research on them. Plumerias seem so low maintenance and are reported to have the most amazing fragrance. I don't remember any discussions on these in our MA forum - just wondering if anyone is growing these or not, especially since they seem so easy.
We had a nice soft rain today spanning a few hours, I was lucky enough to get out before it and treat all my iris with Grubx, that should take care of them till next spring. Speaking of grubs, we have skunks digging all over the turf after grubs. Leaving little divots in their wake. I guess it's time to get some milky spore and treat the lawn. BTW don't both to use both products for the same treatment the spore needs live grubs to work. Ric
We have those divots too, Holly!! We did put Grub x down a last week, but I thought there might be moles or voles. I guess we should have used milky spore instead since the grubs are probably alive. I'll need to find out more about milky spore.
Hi Roses, I was just thinking about you this weekend while wondering what to do with my rose bushes. I only have three, all the same kind - a Polyantha from the Antique Rose Emporium called 'Mrs. R.M. Finch'. I have never spent any time on maintenance, and this rose over the years has been consistently disease free, with heavy bloom in spring, sporatic bloom in summer, and a repeat heavy bloom in fall. Now it is pretty tall with a lot of branching at the top, and I'm thinking I should probably prune it, but have no idea when nor how to do it. Do you have any advice to send my way?
Note that milky spore takes a few years to work -- and then it only lasts 10 or so years (in my experience). But when it is working, it works beautifully. Our yard has been badly dug up this year by (I think) raccoons -- but we haven't had this happen in a decade. So I just laid in a new supply of milky spore....
Hi Terri, I think that one rule of thumb for ALL rose bushes is to prune them when they are dormant so that they don't try to push new growth when it is getting too cold. I'm not sure if each of your roses has different requirements as to pruning (do they bloom on new or old wood?). I haven't really ever got a handle on all the bushes that I grow. I just know that I hate when they're whipping in the winter wind looking that they will break, but I know that the climate here produces at least a foot of die back and I can't prune to low, so I feel that I'm between a rock and a hard place with them. Since yours bloom repeated and freely, I'm thinking that whatever you've done in the previous years seems to be working for them. If there are blooms on all the branches in spring, I would probably try keeping most of them, maybe with some support or a home made arch if need be.
Can any of you tell me what this plant might be? I'm kinda thinking a weed of some sort. The guy who owns the house had thrown wildflower seeds in part of the front yard and then just let it go, looks like a real mess now.
I have seen something like that growing around my bird feeders, some kind of millet? or something like that?
Ric and Roses, a little bit about Milky Spore: This is actually a living organism, a spore. The way it works is: You apply the stuff 3 times a year for 2 years. This spreads, and encourages the growth of, a colony of living spores, in your lawn. The grubs come along and eat these spores and they die. The reason Milky Spore works so well, and lasts so long, is that it is a colony of living organisms, and when applied properly, that colony spreads and grows... think of it as people in a small town: when given optimum conditions, they will spread and grow and soon you'll have millions! Same thing with Milky Spore. It should last a really really long time, many upon many years. You don't "need" to have live grubs in your lawn for it to "work", those living spores will still sptead and colonize no matter what, if you do it right (apply according to packaging directions, and water it in). If you have no living grubs in your lawn this year due to Grub-X use, don't worry, you will next year... and by then, the Milky Spore colony have spread and will be ready for action! < =D
Speedie, I just applied milky spore for the first time this fall. I thought it had to be done in the fall, when the beetles are at a specific grub stage. Am I supposed to apply it in the spring and summer as well?
No, you apply it once. Doesn't matter what time of year, though fall is great. Then it won't do much in the first year -- and frankly, may not do too much for you in terms of reducing the number of flying bugs if your neighbors aren't treating their yards. But the grub population in your yard will diminish over time -- I think it takes about 3 years to fully work, then it is supposed to continue to work up to 20 years (though in my case I think 10 years was more like it). You don't need to keep re-applying it (which is a good thing because it isn't cheap).
Nothing like promoting the place I work-----
Home depot has always carried Milky Spore. It comes in a round "tub" about the size of a
coffee canister/can. Not sure on the price--but it is somewhere in the mid-upper $30 range.
OK. My info may be old...need to read up on this product and how it works....
I always thought that the spores, once they enter the body of a grub, multiply to the extent that the grub
explodes....releasing a zillion spores into the ground.
Is this wrong information? Here is a nice web site I just Googled.
http://homeharvest.com/milkyspore.htm
Nothing like promoting the place I work-----
Home Depot has always carried Milky Spore.
OK. My info may be old...need to read up on this product and how it works....
I always thought that the spores, once they enter the body of a grub, multiply to the extent that the grub
"explodes"....releasing a zillion spores into the ground. I may be wrong...
Here is a nice web site I just Googled.
http://homeharvest.com/milkyspore.htm
I also checked the Home Depot.com site. Bring it up and search for the product. Bam! it comes right up.
The Milky Spore at HD comes in a 40oz container and costs $87.96 with free shipping.
Said this container covers 2,500 sq. ft. and ONE application lasts for 10 years, with NO re-application needed.
(I thought it also came in a smaller container....with the cost about $39--not sure. I can check)
http://www.homedepot.com/Milky-Spore/h_d1/N-51wZ5yc1v/R-202103823/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#.UIAN5me769s
Among the many states it cannot be shipped to is also DC.
Hope this helps some.....Gita
According to my bag's "product information" section:
"apply spring, summer, and fall (Memorial day, July 4th, and Labor Day) for 2 consecutive years for best results. This will allow the maximum build up of Milky Spore in your soil. Effective control will then occur and continue on its own for several years and is guaranteed to work for 10 years after 6th application."
Also:
"Once the grub as ingested the spore it begins to multiply, just 1 spore will multiply into 3 billion new spores in each grub. After about a week the grub will die from the spores. As the grub decomposes it will release all of those billions of new spores back into the soil...."
That's what's on my bag. I've got the "old fashioned" one, a bag of powder that is applied with a spreader. There's a newer type out now though, a powder that is applied with a tube, and you make little 1-teaspoon-sized "piles" spread out every 4 feet, in a grid-like fashion. That one, the packaging says, can be effective if applied just once. I guess it just depends on which one you get.
I'm just using moles these days to get rid of the grubs. It is cheap and easy. It gives me a reason to walk around the garden. I've rid the yard of two this fall I think there are at least two more.
This company (this is the brand I bought), says only one application is needed: http://www.stgl.us/gstore/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=44&idproduct=4006.
This Q&A says NOW is the best time to apply it, and again, that only one application is needed. http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=768
You don't need the tube -- that is just to avoid bending down to put your teaspoon full of the stuff every 4 feet. It is really simple to put down.