Really end of summer blooms- September almost here

First flower on tropical hibiscus from dutch plant farm

Sally--

I remember you buying that half-dead Hibiscus at the Dutch Plant farm.

That bloom is gorgeous! Love the ruffled look...G.

nice!

My female Skimma japonica does not look good all of a sudden.

Here's some info for you


Skimmia Care

Skimmia are easy to look after and require very little maintenance, when planting you should soak the roots in a bucket of water

for 20 minutes and then plant to the same depth as the original soil level, basically never plant up the stem of the plant as this can damage the plant and sometimes even kill the plant, as a general rule of thumb this is the base for most plants.

When planting we recommend adding a small amount of bone meal as this will encourage new root growth in the spring when they are actively growing.

Protecting Skimmia In The Winter
Mulch ideal for placing around base of plants

Mulch ideal for placing around base of plants

Skimmia are quite hardy but will benefit from a layer of well rotted organic matter or mulch around the base of the plant to protect the roots from hard frosts.

Skimmia Pests and Diseases

Skimmia are generally disease free which makes them easy to grow and easy maintenance, however they can suffer from Red Spider Mite.

Red Spider mites are actually not a spider all though they do form webs, the are so tiny that at first they are hard to spot and despite there name are normally green in summer. To help prevent them you can spray plants regularly with a fine mist of water as they like dry conditions so this helps prevent them.

Red Spider might cause problems to Skimmia because they suck the sap from the underside of leaves. If you have them they can be treated with sprays of bifenthrin, or malathion have proved successful. A single spray will not solve the problem,

Thanks Jen. I wonder if it's spider mites. Does Neem oil help with that?

Yes Neem works on mites

and mite damage does seem to come on suddenly if one's not being watchful specifically for them.

Yup nicely ruffley, pink heart with a touch of lilac. It will be in bloom for Swap!

If I recall, you need to keep the plant out of the sun for some period of time after spraying with Neem, so you might want to check that before spraying....

Sally, Beautiful. I too remember that half dead plant you bought.
FlowAjen, Thanks for the info on Skimmia. They are on my want list.
Happy, You are right Neem Oil does work very well for mites but the oil will sunburn the plants so you need to protect them from the sun. If your plant is in a sunny spot put up some kind of sun shade for a few days.

pretty tropical hibiscus Sally

some you've seen, just different pic, and some new...
Spanish flag Ipomoea lobata finally starting to bloom

I did not know that about the Neem oil! that's very good to know!

Some new blooms here--or same ones--just better...

1--Planted this Rose this spring--Ho-Hum..Got it at Walmart. It is small.
Should do better next year now that she is settled in.
2--I have ONE white Phlox amid my blue/purple ones.
Hasn't stopped blooming yet
3--Some new Oriental (Asiatic?) Lily decided to come up and bloom...
It is very short--had to put my camera under it ..
4--The Acalypha in my front bed is so spectacular
5--Yellow Datura a few days ago.

Now--the Kings and Queens of the garden---My Brugmansias.

1--Today! The Dr. S. in the old Winter Sweet bed..It is happy there--and so am I.
2--A group of Dr. S. blooms
3--The pink NOID Brug by my shed
4--The NOID Brug's buds are yellow--open white--and turn pink by morning.
Very interesting trait--but Brug's blooms often change colors in the process of opening.
5--The Maya blooms at night--in their "peach colored" state-near the bloom's end.
They also open creamy white.

they are the kings and queens!!

Wind, Love the Ipomoea lobata very interesting.
Gita, Beautiful, Beautiful pictures. Your yard must smell like Heaven. The scent from just my one is just wonderful.
I haven't had time to get out and take many pictures of the garden the last few days. When I was watering tonight I was thinking how pretty many of the plants are right now. They are really putting on a end of season show. I have a few that I really like that are late bloomers and they are just about ready to pop open and will probably be finished when we get home.

My mystery plant is blooming! Any ideas on what it is?

reminds me most of Balsam, although my balsam blooms more on the side of the stem and not on top.

Sally, you're right, the blooms look very similar to balsam, except they're all on top.

Not much else blooming right now, but I'm very excited to see that Caryopteris Sunshine Blue is finally ready to bloom. It was too small to bloom last year.

Rebloom on Immortality
Sedum Lynda Windsor
Sweet Autumn Clem
Caryopteris

wow Jen, your sweet autumn is huge!! I noticed we have an eyeball bloom finally lol

I'm sure we have some other new blooms too. I'll try and post on Friday. Enjoy this gorgeous weather

an unknown ID coleus that we have every year
Critter's Hilary’s Sweet Lemon Mint

My hibiscus was looking stressed in full sun. I moved it to more shade. Look at the difference in flower colr. It is much more pink then the first two blooms.

Pretty, you guys!
Here's a NOID coleus that my mom is growing. You can see where I get my green thumb from! I wish I knew what the name of this guy is. It was purchased at Cylburn Arboretum's Market Day. It is glorious! And it has overtaken the other plants in the pot. The new growth is coming out green, to my mom's chagrin. I noticed that it is starting to flower now and wonder if there is a correlation BTW color change and flowering?

So pretty!
That could be- I notice that purple Perilla (related) gets dull and muddy as it blooms.

Karen, that looks like 'Dipt in Wine'. a strong tall grower. Nice.
http://www.bakersacresgreenhouse.com/Wholesaleliners.htm

Here is my 'Zesty Zucchini' and 4 varieties of oxalis

3,4 coleus 'Careless Love'' with two 'sports' on same plant!

This message was edited Sep 6, 2013 4:40 PM

Judy--

Your multi-colored Coleus looks like "Careless Love". I got a couple of them
at the Spring swap.

--Is this not the same? G.

--Would you know what this one is called? I may have heard this called "Carnival"???

--Inky Fingers--This is from TWO cuttings I got in Spring. It has also been cut back
a bit for cuttings to root.
Right now--it is sitting in its usual place--and the stems are crawling on my grass...
at the bottom of the pot.
Bizarre!!!

--Dr. Seuss--day 3 of this bloom flush. Sept. 2nd. it is still covered in blooms....

Yes, I meant to write 'Careless Love' Edited above

Gita- WHAT do you feed Dr Seuss??Steroids??

Finally got back in my garden after 3 weeks and back to reading posts here. Beautiful pics everyone!

Gita, those Brugs are AWESOME as usual!!

Love all the tropical hibiscus. I think mine is about to bloom. Everything has been very late to bloom this year.

Nothing...now and then some MG--if I have it mixed up--very seldom.

Really! it is just the way it grows....How, and in what it is potted helps a lot.
I DID add the slow-release fertilizer to the soil in the pot.
I am sure that has helped. When i root-prune these--and pot them back
with a fresh layer of amended soil all around--that helps hugely. Every 2-3 yrs.

Once it is growing--it is, pretty much, on its own. LOTS of watering needed!!!
A gallon a day--easily.

Brugs are pretty indestructible. Do look out for mites, though.
And--White Fly--as i discovered this year. Dr. S. has not had any issues.
It is far away from the others...

Don't know what else to tell up.
This coming year--i will be starting from scratch--again--from a rooted cutting.
Giving the big one away to Cylburn. It has gotten pretty massive...

Gita

Looking from the bottom up.....Nice....

Now that's a cool shot!

I am appreciating the subtle color association of my Cotinus and 'Autumn Fire' Sedum right now.

This message was edited Sep 13, 2013 9:39 AM

speedie---

You are too funny!!!! Love your ongoing humor...

Karen--I see some cuttings of Acalypha growing by the sedum. Right?
My Sedums are also starting to show color.

I planted 2 small divisions of the neon pink one--it is in the far corner of my
YUK bed--so i don't notice it much.
G.

Gita, no it's one of the plants you gave me. The soil there is compacted and it gets very dry there. Plus there's competition from a few other plants which are all young and hungry. I think I put it there on a whim because I liked the contrast offered by the green of the redbud leaves and the purple from the Cotinus. I probably should have thought about it a little better.

So now I know that acalyphas need loose, fertile soil to grow big. The others that I have are 3x times as big as this poor little one. The cutting that I took in Spring is growing but SOOOOO slowly.

Usually I only tolerate this shade of pink on these sedums because I know it will turn to a rust color. I surprised myself by how much I liked it with the Cotinus.

Karen,

The second picture over top of the Cotinus is great. I agree with you that I enjoy how gentle it is, especially this time of the year.

MYSTERY SOLVED!

It turns out my volunteer is in fact impatiens balsamina. Initially all the blooms were on top of the stems but now the blooms are also appearing on the sides.

More blooms:

Angel Wing begonia that I got from Gita last fall.

Blue shrub clematis that I got from greenthumb this spring. Unfortunately the label has rubbed off.

Sunshine Blue caryopteris.

Homestead verbena is finally blooming!

Hardy begonia from happy.

very nice

If any of you are growing the red canna that "wind" had buckets of roots of
at Holly's Swap--do you know that the spent blooms will have huge, round, black seeds
in them? Just wait until the "pods" look completely dry. Then--pop the seeds out.

Anyone know how long it would take to get a "real" canna from seed???

Here are some of the ones I have collected. More to come--as the pots shrivel up.

Gita