Coffee break 99

Which lilies are resistant? I was told that the beetles also lay their eggs on fritillaries (not sure which ones) so have kept those out of the garden as well. I prefer not to spray.

Conca D'or and quintessence are two orienpets that I have which seem to shrug them off. Also trumpet lily 'Black Beauty' and Rubrum lily 'Uchido' have gotten high ratings from ag college research. I can say that my Black Beauties were completely untouched even as I was picking them off of casablanca. Any lily with really thick tissue seems to be less vulnerable. I learned a bit just from googling "lilies resistant to red lily beetle."

I ordered a few more lilies from Bleek @ Touch of nature...like I need more. LOL!

Haven't been here in a while so i'm not sure if I told you my youngest daughter is having her 1st child. She went to the doctors on thursday and is 1cm dilated...any day now!! Oh, and it's a boy!!!!

Pixie, praying that your daughter will have an easy delivery.....another grandson...Yay! I have found that the lily beetles don't bother Time Zone much either.....very thick stem & leaves seem to deter them.....

Woohoo!!! Me mere is sooo ready!!! Congrats

Congrats Celeste!!

Celeste, I am so jealous but so happy for you too. The timeline for me to be grandma seems to be running out. Only DS age nearly 33 better get busy and find the love of his life and have a child. He is working on the lady thing now after years of not really trying too much. Fingers crossed. I am tired of knitting sweaters for other peoples grand kids. Patti

It helps that I don't knit. Youngest granddaughter is almost 10.

Thanks everyone!

Patti, I feel your pain (non labor pains). I have six (!) grandchildren who are really step-GKs, and no actual biological grandchildren. I think--hope--I would treat all kids equally, but it's no good checking these kids to see if any of them have my eyes or whatever. My bio-daughters are 23 and 19, so absolutely no pressure.

OK, I have a question. Our rented house in TX has electric heat and AC, and we have it set so it stays between 74-78 degrees, year-round. We even thought about staying in TX forever, but then I realized the heat thing: if I can get my house in MA to stop fluctuating in temperature so much, I will be a lot more comfortable. 55 to 104 is just too much! What do we need? AC, of course, but maybe insulation? Move the thermostat? The furnace is pretty new; we switched to gas a few years ago, but the thermostat is somewhere strange, like by a leaky window or by the hottest radiator.

Very exciting to hear all your planting plans! Someday.....

Louise, DH says CT is very cold because it's all built on rock.

Our son gave us an amazing new thermostat with a brain. It is remarkable so far. Easy to install, took DH a few minutes at most. We are going to get one for Vt too. After a couple of days it learns what temperature you want and then when you are away it can set the temp to save lots of money. Then we can use the iphone to turn it up or down via the phone which we did while on the ferry coming home the other night so that the house would be toasty. Patti

It is called a Nest Thermostat https://nest.com/thermostat/life-with-nest-thermostat/

what a thoughtful son. i think the temp sensor is in the wrong part of my house. but i'l check your link!

Sounds like a thermostat for me! Carrie, CT is granite, but so are the other NE states. Louise is in the CT River Valley....she should be warmer.....and sure enough, the weather maps every night show the CRV at least 5 degrees warmer than our western hills!

Brrrr. I actually don't mind staying inside if I'm warm enough and light enough. What I hate about our house in MA is spending the winter under an electric blanket in the shady side of the house, and trying to keep the indoor temp above 60! I think the thermostat is in the wrong place, or the radiators need to be bled, or something along those lines. We don't have very many doors, although when they replaced the kitchen door, they hung up a piece of canvas (?) and the house was SO warm and less drafty.

I like it a lot as after it "learns" your wants it does it automatically . All that complicated programming is gone and replaced with a sleek simple dial. We can see already that it is going to save us big bucks . Getting one for Vermont will be even better as we can turn heat down even more when we are gone but can over the smart phone turn it up if we see online that the weather is going to get super cold like today. Heard it is -5 at base of Stratton today , so DH isn't heading off Nantucket to go skiing until it warms up . I wasn't 't going as I have final appointment to get a crown replaced on Monday. Boy does that eat into my garden money. But eating is important. Patti

Ugh, I have a whole mouthful of gold teeth. Good luck, Patti.

How cool, I mean warm, that you can turn it up to make it toasty before you enter. Sounds perfect!!!

Neighbors across the street start their cars about 20 min. Before they leave the house to drive the half mile to school. Cracks me up. Of course the boys do NOT wear jackets.

Now is just plain dumb. Do they ever play outside? Patti

Have 2 crowns & don't want any more! Kids today don't play outside very often.....if I'm babysitting my 3 grandkids, we go outside!

Same here Marilyn, unless it's bitter cold we try and be out for at least a little while. I don't think my TV is on at all in the summer!

Leah already loves being outside and in the garden. Loves to smell flowers.

Both my granddaughters love being outside helping not sure whatwi ll happen when they are teens!

Working with the dogs might keep them going. When we had horses it kept them going.

Last summer, my son let all 3 kids plant & care for something in their own small plot.....Grant planted pumpkins, Anni sunflowers, & HayHay had zinnias & cosmos.....they were so proud of what they had grown! And they had wonderful results, much nicer than mine......

They take riding lesson now and love horses, all animals really. Hoping one day they can possibly have one of their own.

Wow....that would be awesome......my grandkids are lucky.....a friend of Anni's lives on a farm with rescued ponies & horses, & they get a chance to ride there.......

Great for the rescues.

True....the family is related to the Commerford's which probably won't mean anything to you, but if a NY play needs an elephant, or Three Kings Day needs some camels, Commerford's provides them.....exotic animals right in Goshen, CT.....my grandkids are a priviledged few who get to go to that farm as well........

NH has the 1st "New Breed" dog going into the Westminister Dog Show.

Yes, the Chinook is accepted this year.....Pixie had a pair of Chinooks......a Portuguese dog is also going in....someone in my area breeds the Podenguas (spelling), because they are sometimes for sale in our paper......

placed my first spring order with songsparrow after receiving their catalog - they had a red harry lauder walking stick grown on its own roots - got it and will replace the red emperor with all its suckers - and fell for a few dwarf conifers

That doesn't sound like you, Bill! I received the Lily Garden catalog today....all the flowers I like are white......oh, well, they do shine in the garden.....

I've been reading about the different red contorted hazels, too, but hadn't decided where to buy one. Red Dragon sounds like a nice 4-6' accent shrub. It would be a plant to clip for winter arrangements.

So jealous Bill! We looked at a house with 18 acres, and I dreamed of what I could do.

Grandson was born last night @ 10. He weighs 6lbs. 11oz and is 21 " long.

Oh Happy day! Congratulations to Celeste and family.

Hooray!

18 acres - I would need to lottery to afford to plant what I wanted!

Celeste - congrats grandma - saw the pictures on the mom you posted on the other site - thought the little guy would be a lot bigger :)

Let them grow afterwards. that's my motto.

Wonderful news, Pixie....another doll to spoil! Hope your daughter is doing well!