Yardening June #2, 2014

Cat, that's my 'Black Coral' Elephant Ear. Yeah sorry that the leaves on the celosia look so mangled. Bugs! :(

ssg- I have Stylophorum wood poppies also but though mine are not blooming, they don't look too bad either.I just don't remember what the summer life cycle is- if they go dormant in the heat.

Well--if not 4's--then something must have dropped seed there...
to have so many seedlings of one kind in the same spot...

Maybe you could post these on the Plant ID Forum....

G.

Gita, I think Cat was testing us to see if we knew what it is. It's her celosia from last year that dropped seeds everywhere! :) It's also her avatar.

Karen--I think you are right!

need to pop by your house soon.....got a couple things for you....
What time do you, usually, get home from work?

I got something for August too. NO! it isn't bugs...

G.

Thanks to rain and cooler temps I got the 50 plants in the ground, whacked the crazy coreopsis and now I can see the other plants!!! I promptly ordered more plants from Santa Rosa, found a home for the coreopsis' and next week they are going byebye!!

Becky, got pics of the newly-installed babies? We wanna see!

Catmint (et al), Celosia was my first guess of what's growing in those cracks - nice to see I'm correct for a change! ;)

Ric, no more pokeweed for me! I got out there the other day with my little shovel and made sure to do some deep digging/loosening around them, then slipped them out with taproots fully intact. One of them didn't have a long taproot, but a roundish mound of roots - OOPS!! I popped him back in! ;) Dunno what it is, but the root system is NOT that of a pokeweed.

Very shortly I will head out to do some morning watering and things, so I'm gonna get a couple shots of these cute little wispy things growing around the Paeony - a couple of 'em have blooms now, but I don't know what they are. I'm so excited, something new!! (I hope it's not a weed!)
Here's a pic of the little babies about a week ago, before they got buds on 'em.

Typ, I love that 'black coral' elephant ear! Such a pretty color! I was thinking how healthy your celosia looks--not at all mangled! Glad it's doing well for you. :-)

well, I didn't mean it as a 'test' per se--more like tongue in cheek--like, 'remember that huge celosia I had? well, would you believe this??' :-) I am amazed it's popped up like this--but I'm also getting a kick out of it--enjoying it. :-)

wow, Bec, 50 plants! sounds like you've been super busy! :-)

Speedie, doesn't look like a weed to me--maybe threadleaf coreopsis? or NY Ironweed?

Gees, Becky, you planted 50?! That's awesome!

Speedie, that looks like some sort of coreopsis to me, too.

speedie- fennel? larkspur?

A couple mystery plants.
1) i think this was in a wildflower mix of seeds I scattered this spring. Is it bachelor's button? Something else?

2) this is a vine currently growing rapidly on my fence. No sign of any blooms yet. Not sure if I should keep it or if it's a weed I should pull?

Cat, dunno what #1 is. #2 looks like clematis. Do you think it could be sweet autumn clematis? That stuff can become aggressive if left unchecked. http://www.whatgrowsthere.com/grow/2012/09/25/autumn-clematis-be-careful-what-you-ask-for-2/

Thanks Typ. I guess it is either that or some of the clematis 'Roguchi' that I had growing there? It was damaged in one of our torrential downpours and I moved it but I suppose it's possible some of it remained? Or it could be the sweet autumn.

#1 looks like a type of cornflower.

Sally/SSG, both of my wood poppies are still blooming. I got one from you I think and bought one from an online nursery and both look great.

Cornflower! Cool! Thanks Seq!

Catmint, could # 2 be hyacinth bean? I think #1 looks a little like dianthus.

Becky, I am so sorry for your loss. Pictures of my late Westie, Tiffany, still make me cry. There are so many animals in rescue waiting for homes. Maybe one will catch your heart. I had been trying to adopt another Westie or a Cairn when I agreed to foster "Pugly" a sad little pug terrified of the other dogs in his foster home. Well, I changed his name, nursed him back to health and fell in love! I still miss Tiffany, but I love Winston just as much but in a different way.

Speedie, I love the little pineapple in the coleus photo!

IMO, transporting bears isn't the answer. Especially since NJ "transports" them to the national parks in the Poconos. We have too many already. The transported bears eventually find their way back "home". They swim across the river and stroll across the route 80 bridge back to NJ The bear problem in NJ exploded when they changed the hunting regulations. People who are irresponsible with their garbage encourage the bears to move to suburbia. Also, bears LOVE bird feeders. In the sanity gap, we had bears walking up and down the sidewalk raiding bird feeders and peeking in people's windows. The complex manager wouldn't do anything about the garbage dumpsters and people were too stupid/lazy to bring in their feeders. IMO the answer is for EVERYONE to be responsible with their garbage, bring their bird feeders inside EVERY night and vote for politicians who support gun ownership and a responsible hunting policy.

Boy was I in a bad mood when I typed that. Battling bambi and yogi make me cranky. I was reading the list a couple of days ago, had a partial reply sitting here and had to run and do something so important that I forgot what it was!

I am still behind, but catching up! Been busy meeting deadlines, working outside on my curb appeal and getting stuff ready for the neighborhood garage sale this weekend.

If you are a garage sale shopper and are in the Poconos this weekend, feel free to dmail me for more info. My neighbor is planning to move south before the winter. He is selling riding mowers, pro lawn equipment, a small open trailer to tow stuff, tools, etc.

I have tried rooting roses from cuttings and haven't had much luck. One of my roses is expert at propagating itself - Baby Blanket - aka octobaby. It is a Kordes "ground cover" rose that covers lots of ground! I am growing it as the climber it yearns to be. It has the cutest pink flowers. The original and its babies survived my winter of displacement, some of them in pots. Wherever the canes touch the ground, they root! I am trying to duplicate nature with my Carefree Celebration rose. I put a couple rocks on a lower cane to hold it against the ground. I'll see what happens.

This method is called layering by people who do it on purpose.

Two years ago, I accidentally cut back healthy clematis thinking they were dead. As a novice clematis grower doing spring cleaning, I didn't realize the brown, dead looking lower stems were alive until I cut them. Anyway, I took cuttings from various parts of the pruned vines and stuck them in peat moss in winter sowing soda bottles, a few cuttings to a bottle. I set them in soda trays in the shade and let them do their thing. Quite a few rooted.

This message was edited Jun 25, 2014 3:14 PM

GQ, responsible hunting laws and supporting gun ownership - I second that!! (and that's all I'm gonna say about that). :)

Catmint, that photo #1 looks like a Centaurea to me; perhaps Splendens Purple? At first I thought it looked rather Dianthus-like, but the "spikiness" of the petals tells me.. maybe not. ;)

Nope, for sure my little threadleaf-looking babies are not Coreopsis of any sort.. got pics of the blooms now, and they are white and medium - to - pale pink... Pics #'s 2 and 3, that's the TOP of the booms, they do not "nod" or droop.

Nigella damascena?

Oh that's it!! Thank you brilliant Sir! =)
Now I'm gonna have to peek through my (now empty) packets to see who the loverly person was who gifted me these wonderful seeds. THANK YOU whoever you are! =)

Hmmm, just had another thought... Catmint, maybe your pretty baby up there in photo #2 is a Centaurea cyanus 'Black Ball'?

Nigella damascena--I think Critter was handing out seeds for this at the seed swap!

thanks, Seq and Speedie--I think we were all right! From wikipedia: "Centaurea cyanus, commonly known as cornflower, bachelor's button, ... is an annual flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe.... In the past it often grew as a weed in crop fields, hence its name (fields growing grains such as wheat, barley, rye, or oats are sometimes known as corn fields in the UK). It is now endangered in its native habitat by agricultural intensification, particularly over-use of herbicides, destroying its habitat; in the United Kingdom it has declined from 264 sites to just 3 sites in the last 50 years.[2] In reaction to this, the conservation charity Plantlife named it as one of 101 species it would actively work to bring 'Back from the Brink'.[3] It is also, however, through introduction as an ornamental plant in gardens and a seed contaminant in crop seeds, now naturalised in many other parts of the world, including North America and parts of Australia." Speedie I think you hit the nail on the head with Centaurea cyanus 'Black Ball'--thanks!! :-)

I'm looking at photos of sweet autumn clematis and hyacinth bean vine online. The leaves on my mystery plant seem smaller than a lot of the hyacinth bean leaves I'm viewing. But it's hard for me to tell...

On your vine, aside from leaf shape, look at opposite versus alternate leaf arrangement on the stem, and vein pattern- I think I see opposite leaves on your picture which may rule out beans.

thanks, Sally. I snipped off a section and took a photo of it.

Any ideas?

Never grown a clematis; I do not think it is a bean

I think it's a Clematis.

thanks, Muddy and Sally! Well, if it is Clematis, I hope it blooms soon so I can enjoy it! :-)

I think you guys are right--it is a clematis. Poked around online for a while. Guess I will find out when it blooms whether it is 'rooguchi' (#1 below) or sweet autumn vine (#2 below)! :-)

Cat, I like the birdhouse gourd growing on a birdhouse. Love the color of the birdhouse also.

It is a sauna outside! It has been kind of raining all day. I wish it would just dump the rain and be done with it, but that doesn't happen here. Twice, I took Winston outside. Twice it started to rain. The sun is peeking out again but the sky is still cloudy. Winston is content in the air conditioned house.

I was out and about yesterday. Of course, I had to stop by Home Depot while picking up scrips at Target. I want another pink hybrid tea to complete my quartet (Tiffany, Chicago Peace and Yves St Laurent are the other 3). I also want a climbing Don Juan for a trellis outside my office window. It is such a common rose. It has been everywhere previous years, not this year. Home depot had TONS of roses. Unfortunately the were all knockouts, mostly the single hot pink and single red ones.

I wandered about hoping the spendy yellow peonies were on clearance. No peonies in sight. Guess I missed that one. Of course, I didn't leave empty handed. Their bulbs were on clearance, so I came home with couple dahlias, cannas and peruvian lilies.

The presoaked nasturtium and hyacynth bean seeds that I put in the strawberry planter hadn't germinated. (I got a tiered planter for my dead/dormant strawberry plants - note to self, get strawberry plants next spring, probably Ozark Beauty since june something and everbearing weren't worth the bother, rip). I picked up a little pack of cute, pink striped portulaca. I was planning to lift some ailing pink petunias and plant them with the portulaca in the planter. It is looking really silly at the moment - a plantless planter. People keep asking me if it is a fountain. I went to plant the portulaca and - you guessed it - guess who germinated while I was out shopping. I popped the ailing petunias, portulaca and some presoaked cherry rose nasturtium seeds in hanging planters instead. I don't have any hooks installed to hang them, yet. The shepards hooks are sporting hummingbird feeders.

I got the lone sweet potato vine in the store. I love the pictures of mixed planters with sweet potato vines, especially the black one and the chartreuse one. I came home with a bronze one. I popped it in a pot with the two white peruvian lilies and two peach cannas. At this point in the year, when the weather is getting hot and the potted roses still aren't planted, dahlias, cannas, callas and other things that need to be lifted for winter are going in big pots. Between the crazy weather and my crazy life, I will be lucky to have any flowers at all. I suppose the weeds would flower if I let them go to seed....

I am a sucker for exotic plants on sale. Why have a normal plant that thrives with little care when you can have an exotic diva. I interrupted my pointless quest for roses and yellow peonies outside and dashed inside when it started to rain. A display rack of Bloomsz hardy water lilies caught my eye. They were on sale - marked down from $9.98 to $5 and ringing up at $3 something. I don't have a pond, but I saw posts and pictures of water lilies in containers. After agonizing over the choices, I selected Nymphaca 'Attraction'. They also had pink Fabiola, dark purple nero, yellow chromatella, white Albida and multicolored coral Sioux.

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Outdoors-Garden-Center-Garden-Plants-Flowers-Water-Plants/N-5yc1vZc8s1

According to the box, you just drop the mesh bag into the water and viola! I know it won't be that simple. Sounds like an interesting blog post, once I decide on a name. I am leaning towards Rocks and Roses.

Oh goodie Cat, so glad I could help. :)

GQ, sounds like you had a lot of fun at HD. That reminds me, it's time DH and I had some HD fun as well.. we haven't had a Home Despot date in far too long! =)

GQ, sounds like you had quite an adventure at HD! Hope you're able to find the pink roses and yellow peonies somewhere! The sweet potato vine and portulaca sound like good choices. And Nymphaca Attraction! So pretty. Makes me feel like I need to go create a pond in my yard like Muddy did, just so I can fill it with water lilies. :-)

Interesting on the cornflower Cat. I think it's gorgeous. I would sprinkle some seeds if I had some.

Thanks Seq. I might get another one of those wildflower mixes next year-- it's kind of fun because they're things I wouldn't otherwise get.

I can also try to save some seed from the cornflower for anyone who's interested!

This message was edited Jun 26, 2014 7:15 AM

Yeah I'd take some of those cornflower seeds for sure. I got a lot of seeds in that pack. I think I might sprinkle them over the large shrub garden in the fall.

Took advantage of the damp soft ground this morning to do a little weeding.

"a little"????!!!!

Is that a miniature sized wheel barrow or is that just a lot of weeds??

Yep that is a lot of weeds, It isn't my biggest wheelbarrow but it is full size. I have this fairly large bed that runs down one side of the Veggie Garden. It's a weed factory and tends to be the last bed I usually get around to dealing with. Several weeks ago I got the top 1/3 of it all cleaned up.This morning I started at the bottom and started working up. I still have a 4ft or so section right in the middle to do. There is a lot of wire grass in that section.

Wow that is a lot of weeding for the day! :-)