Muddy, some of the great blue lobelia seeds you gave me have sprouted into babes!
Always nice when the mystery plants give us a hint by blooming! :-)
Yardening June #2, 2014
I finally finished clean up on the Lamppost Bed this morning. Mostly it needed the foliage from the daffs cleaned up I have been messing around with it for quite some time and was so glad that it is done. When I finished I planted 3 of the Espresso geraniums from the swap and 3 Filependula rubra ‘Venusta’ from the ADR co-op and 10 African Daisies from the GH. One of the clems in that bed didn't return this spring so I picked up a new one this afternoon all I need to do is get that planted and toss a little mulch over it and it will all be finished.
I bet it'll be beautiful, Holly.
Thanks to the great rooting tips, I was inspired to root some Silky Dogwood cuttings. I had to cut off a broken branch anyway so I decided to give it a try!
Cutting the leaf does reduce the area needing support from an unrooted stem, in the case of commercial cuttings it is also done to prevent crowding the cuttings and allowing for air circulation.
Many commercial growers mix a good powdered fungicide with their rooting hormone to reduce damping off. Just as typwc said inserting a stripped leaf node in the medium will often get better results. I have also found some hard to start plants do fine in oasis (the green flower arranging foam). The oasis is designed to help keep cut flowers fresh, so what's to lose?
So glad to hear of the progress on the lamppost bed, Holly! Looking forward to seeing photos of it all in bloom!
A silky dogwood sounds really pretty, Muddy!
I need to collect some more cuttings of the rosebush this weekend; I'll be sure to leave a few leaves and cut them this time.
I'm pleased with how my 'birdfeeder pole' yard change is going. I decided to plant sunflowers and a gourd plant (Lagenaria siceraria) around my new feeder pole. The sunflowers are growing well and the gourd plant has finally taken off, too! It's not wrapping itself around the pole, but it's fun to watch it anyway.
1) The pole with sunflowers growing around it. They are getting the first signs of their seedheads now.
2) I planted the gourd directly beneath the bird feeder. It has now grown around to the other side of the pole where it is growing along the lawn towards my peach tree. Its gourd is supposed to be the kind you can turn into a birdhouse. :-)
Nice Cat, is that a cedar pole?
I don't know, Seq, that's a good question! I got the pieces of lumber at HD! Here's another view of the pole, gourd, and sunflowers
Well I don't know either but hopefully it lasts in the ground awhile. I should really get one of those for my yard too. Perhaps that will be a fall project. I need to let the funds build up a little...LOL
Catmint, if you want it to climb, the gourd that is, might need to provide some skinny things for the tendrils to wrap on. Otherwise you will have a fifteen foot vine plus side shoots, all over the yard. You should get a couple good gourds. Might want to hand pollinate when you see female flowers.
thanks, Sally--I'll look for something at the nursery this afternoon! How do I hand pollinate the flowers?
The first thing you do Cat is to dress in a large bumble bee costume, then.....
LOL
chukkle, Jeff!
Male flowers start, female flowers occur later. Take a male and stick it in a female, basically.....
LOL Seq! oh, Sally, how graphic! ;-) I'll see what I can do once it starts blooming! :-)
Got a nice little trellis for it on sale today at Behke's--thanks to SSG for reminding me I needed it! :-)
Haahahahaahaaaa, oh my GOSH, you guys are too funny!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!! OK Catmint, now you know what you get to dress up as for Halloween!! Heeheeheeee We will want to see PICTURES, too!!! < =D I really like your set-up though, with the bird-feeder pole and the gourd vine; that's gonna be super nice when the gourd starts climbing (or dancing??) up the pole! ;) heehee
Sorta off-topic; Got an email today that included this link to a really nice and informative article about Hydrangea care - some stuff that I never knew!
http://www.provenwinners.com/sites/provenwinners.com/files/images/consumer/landing-pages/hydrangeas_demystified.pdf
Cool link, Speedie! Climbing hydrangea--sounds pretty! :-)
Hooray! I just finished planting out every last potted annual and perennial, including the two epimediums I picked up today. After I plant the Cryptomeria this weekend, I'll be done until the fall swap. :D
Ric and Holly, I don't know how you do it!
The beebalm is so pretty right now but powdery mildew is getting pretty bad. I'm going to have to cut down some of them right after blooming for better air circulation.
Me too, I finally got the last little plants off the picnic table and into the ground. Now that planting is done , trimming is needed.
Editing to say Good for you, ssg and Sally. I wish I could say the same thing! I'm getting there, slowly but surely. Fortunately, the plants I haven't yet put in the ground could use some more rooting time anyway.
My bee balm plants are getting covered in mildew as well. I have several types of organic disease-control sprays, so I think I'll spray some on the leaves, avoiding the flowers. They shouldn't hurt any bees that happen to land on the flowers (which doesn't seem likely anyway).
This message was edited Jun 20, 2014 8:47 PM
I'm hoping to get my plants from today's sale planted this weekend, and then I should be done as well. The only problem is I keep finding one here or there that I think would be better off in a different spot, so somehow the planting/transplanting never seems to end... Maybe I'll get better at this as time goes on!
So far, my monarda all looks healthy, but the summer is young yet! :-)
Catmint, powdery mildew is a very serious issue in my garden. Pretty much every susceptible plant gets PM, even with neem. I try to read up on plant trials and buy the most disease resistant cultivars, but if they're too fussy, out they go! I get a lot of phlox volunteers, but most seedlings are PM magnets.
I can't remember where I read about this recently, but apparently baking soda mixed with water helps control PM. I just found this online: http://houseplants.about.com/od/diseases/a/Baking-Soda-Spray-Using-Baking-Soda-On-Plants.htm
Maybe I'll try that on half of each plant and a copper spray on the other half, and see which works best.
To my dismay, I've discovered Japanese Beetles & some other creepy looking beetles on a few of my flowers! :-( I have some Bonide systemic I'll try....not happy!
SSG, I ended up with some powdery mildew problems in one bed last summer. I ended up removing a couple plants last year that were badly infected, and just last week I found huge gobs of fungus under a perennial in that bed-- my dianthus Firewitch. Well, that explained why it wasn't getting a second flush of bloom! I removed the plant and got rid of the fungus and soil beneath it. I've been removing a lot of moldy looking mulch from that bed and trying to replace it with clean, new soil. I also treated my Yankee Doodle lilac with copper a couple weeks ago, since it is in that bed and had a lot of powdery mildew last summer. It can really be a never-ending battle, right?
The baking soda spray sounds like a good solution, Muddy! Might try that!
You guys with the PM might need to step it up to a more serious control solution like Daconil. That's probably what I'm going to hit mine with if I get it this summer. I still have a bunch of things to get planted but it's raining this morning and cutting into my schedule 😤
I just got chased inside by a downpour! It's good, though--I had just moved several plants within one bed and applied some additional promix, compost, and my new plant tone from the Behnke's sale (great deal!!). So, it's perfect timing as I had just finished the bed and the rain will help the plant tone soak in.
I found some dead bugs in the soil as I was working--a large carpenter bee and some other mystery bugs. Also a dead Japanese Beetle. Makes me wonder about that Milky Spore and whether other insects besides the JBs are susceptible to it...
Seq, right now I'm feeling pretty good about my control of the mildew and fungus in the one bed. I think I got rid of a big source of it when I found it under the dianthus, and I'm going to continue to change out any moldy mulch I see. I think that's where I got it -- must have been some mold in a mulch I put down there at one point. :-( Yet another reason to use mulch more sparingly!! Right now, there are no signs of PM on my Yankee Doodle lilac, which was a problem last year. I'll spray more copper if I see any more signs of it.
I have this urge to go back to the Behnke's sale! LOL!
Question-----is this a correct assumption?
Mold in/on mulches is just the wood rotting away. A natural process.
Powdery Mildew on plants ND SHRUBS is a different mold---a disease.
g.
I agree with Gita
Catmint, I think the research has been pretty clear cut that milky spore only infects grubs, and only the JB grub at that.
Also, mulch is not a host for PM. Fungus seen on mulch is just digesting the wood, which is needed for it to break down.
My philosophy on plant diseases is to seek out resistant cultivars. I really like integrated pest management practices where the use of harsh fungicides and pesticides are the last resort. For me, I skip this part and just replace it with something else. :)
I have no problem with using the tough stuff right away. Better to knock it out the first time IMO but to each their own. The PM is stored over winter on dead leaves and then releases next season thus perhaps appearing to come from the soil.
You guys are right-- I was talking simultaneously about 2 different things. 1 is the PM on the leaves of plants in one bed last summer particularly the lilac. The other is the fungus in the soil--huge disgusting balls and sprouts of it under the dianthus and also some mold in the mulch. OK maybe that's 3 things LOL.
I haven't seen any PM on my leaves so far this year. However I have seen fungus growing in places in the soil and also patches of moldy mulch.
Cat--
Almost ALL Lilacs get PM on their leaves in this area. Same as Phlox and
sometimes, Zinnias too..
Google using milk in water as a spray for PM. It is supposed to help.
G.
Did not see any PM on the phlox last year. It was exclusively plants near the lilac that ended up with PM. Interesting idea to use milk! I'll have to look into that for the lilac this year.
Here are 3 links from my Googling about using Milk. There are many more.....
G.
http://www.growveg.com/growblogpost.aspx?id=242
http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/controlling-or-eliminating-powdery-mildew/
http://www.appalachianfeet.com/2010/07/02/how-to-spray-milk-to-prevent-powdery-mildew-disease/
thanks, Gita. I found this link especially helpful:
http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/controlling-or-eliminating-powdery-mildew/
It contains all kinds of tips for preventing/controlling PM, including the baking soda that Muddy mentioned.
I just toured the neighbor's woodsy backyard. She was impressed how I could ID all the virginia creeper, poison ivy, mulberry, sumac, locust...mostly was very relieved there was only one poison ivy plant, though that one looked very nasty. It's a very private backyard in summer, trees block all the neighbors. We found a teeny tiny frog on a leaf!. Then we came to my yard and I showed her the red Epiphyllum, the brugs, plumeria, coreopsis, hydrangeas, asparagus, daylilies, milkweed, blueberries.......
She's lucky to have you as a neighbor, Sally! I've been doing the same thing for one of my sisters, except she sends me "what's this?" photos.
CatMint, I think I know the gobs of fungus you're talking about - white, right? I think they're harmless. In my experience, PM and some other diseases don't kill plants, or even harm them very much; they just make them look bad. Sometimes the new growth will be fine, and then I figure the plant will live even if I don't spray. The bottom half of my Black-eyed Susans have rust, for example, and look kind of nasty, but the new growth is fine so I'm not spraying them.
Wow Sally, I wish I had a neighbor like you when I was starting out! My backyard was covered in black locust sprouts and I had no idea what it was. What a horrid tree! I still get an occasional sprout popping up randomly, and the roots are still all over the place, just inches below the surface.
Muddy, a little bit of PM doesn't seem to bother them, but I had one phlox cultivar that got absolutely covered in PM and was struggling so it had to get pulled.
Pretty much all of my hydrangeas seem to get some rust spots, but they're healthy otherwise so I don't spray them.
Catmint, it's remarkable how weed-free your garden is even without mulch. My garden beds would be 100% covered in crab grass without a thick layer of mulch.
The cryptomeria is planted! Nothing else but weeding and deadheading until the fall! Whee!
Sally, you're like a gardening tour guide lol. It's wonderful to discover what is growing in your own backyard
edited typo!!
This message was edited Jun 22, 2014 7:09 AM
Sally, that's wonderful that you were able to help out your neighbor in that way! Wish you were living nearby so you could identify all the nasty sprouts that need to go! :-) Some things I know now are weeds when they sprout, but I do a lot of 'wait and see'.
yes, Muddy, they are like huge round white balls! There is also another kind that is like colored spikes. These mostly occur in the sunny bed where the Yankee Doodle lilac is. I also get the typical mushroom-like ones that sprout up here and there throughout the yard. Usually I just dig them out, but the ones under my dianthus had rotted away the bottom of the dianthus and it looked done for. :-( Or maybe the dianthus was already dying and the fungus took advantage of that? Hard to know.
Oh, SSG, you're very kind! There is actually a thick layer of mulch throughout the yard right now--last time I do that, as I think it affected the pollinators. I also get little 'weedlings' popping up constantly that I need to pull up. Beginning this fall, I'm going to mulch selectively so the pollinators have the breathing room they need. I've also stopped throwing away my trimmings and deadheadings (unless it's diseased looking)--too great a chance of throwing away cocoons etc. Hooray on getting your new cryptomeria planted! You'll have to post photos when you get a chance!