I have a lot of shrubs/trees that are *supposed* to get a nice fall color, but the only fall color I get is from the oakleaf hydrangea. I don't think I've ever gotten nice fall colors from any of the Japanese maples, and the leaves on my MSH just sort of fell off. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
That's why I'm definitely getting a Tiger Eye Sumac this year. And transplanting a dozen perennials to make room for it! :)
Yardening part 5, Mid Atlantic, Nov 19 2014
Here's a pic of my MSH azalea from this past fall.
I do hate when plants don't turn the right color in the fall. Our Sweetgum has yet to give us 'blow you away' color like most Sweetgums. I just chalk it up to youth. Same with our Katsura; the last two years has been yellow.
I've never seen such fall color before, Seq!
I usually get great color from my Japanese Maples. One performed this year, but the other was really affected by the early cold snap. Its leaves normally change color several weeks after the other, but this year they just turned brown. What's more, many of them didn't fall off the tree so they're now blocking my view of some bird feeders.
I love MSH Jeff.
Muddy, what a shame about your JMs. Not getting leaf drop is often a sign the tree hadn't finished senescence cycle, forming the callus at the base of the petiole.
Thanks, Ric. I totally blame the weather! The JM reminds me of my Hamamelis virginiana, except that the latter never loses its dead leaves until the new ones come in.
I noticed a JM at the local post office (PO JM?) yesterday, that also held many of its leaves.
My neighbor's JM has many of its leaves as well this winter.
Our JM has never kept its leaves before, yet this year, despite at least 6 winter precipitation events and 40+ MPH winds they are still hanging on.
It's not necessarily related, but today I saw a woodpecker tearing away at that same JM even though I had 3 suet feeders up. I have never seen woodpecker damage on that tree before. My other JM, which did lose its leaves, has only has a few minor scratches on it.
Wonder what bugs woodpecker was after?
Most of my JMs dropped leaves of the 3 that did not, only one still has most leaves.
I don't know; I haven't taken a really close look. I suspect that there are some tiny insects just under the bark, however.
Bark beetles, larval stage of anything, and eggs of boring insects. I'm tired of subject, Bye.
I'm itching to get in the yard. Need to:
rake wet leaves off emerging foliage
collect more leaves off the ground in general and save for compost
Trim butterfly bushes
Clean out and rearrange vegetable beds to use the space better- shade has invaded what used to be good area. And it looks like a dump
It's way too wet to dig anywhere today. and I NEED to do some inside chores.
X^P
So much to do out there! I got tired of having to stay in bed all day so I went out and did a little bit of yardening yesterday. There's so much raking and pruning left to do, but the ground is still really wet.
I need to prune the hydrangeas, crape myrtle, roses, perennials...
Some of the azaleas are looking just awful right now. I think the last cold spell was too much for them.
SS--
What kind of Hydrangeas do you have that you are pruning them
this time of year??? If they are "Endless Summer"--go ahead.
I trim mine too--all the way down to the best gtrowth buds.
if they are Mopheads--you would be cutting off all their bloom
if you pruned them now...
But--you know that---right?
G.
It's panicle hydrangeas. They like to be cut back in early spring. I have 3 that need a good pruning.
I'm so jealous!!! I had planned to work in the garden. WOW its such a mess!!!!!! Next thing you know they're calling me from work on my day off. I have to go out immediately to see a patient. There's no one else. On and on and on... I get there and between something ridiculosly minor and redundant Medicare paperwork my whole day is shot. Gone. Down the tubes. And the d...deer ate the crocuses. And I have to work all day Sunday. Oh woe is me! Got that out of my system. Hope everyone else had a great time working outside Friday, it was glorious!
I just learned something interesting. I was reading an article about fertilizers. It turns out that basically which ever kind you use you're buying nitrogen by the pound. OK the cheapest is grass clippings which are free and urine. The most expensive is TeraCycle that liquid organic one that comes in recycled soda bottles. That one is $14,000.00 a pound! This is not a typo. Espoma is $75.00. Hubby better plan on not throwing away one ounce of grass clippings.
Another interesting thing is "...just 1/2 inch of fresh clippings each spring- that's about six 5-gallon buckets per 100 square feet-- mixed into the soil, or a 1 to 2 inch layer used as a surface mulch, will provide all the nutrients most crops need for a full season of growth." Now tell me that's not a deal. I know that when I add them to my compost pile and really mix them in good it heats up like its been hit by a blow torch. That cheap chicken poop fertilizer they sell at Home Depot really gets it going too. I use it in the spring to jumpstart the pile after a long cold winter although urine works well but the darn stuff freezes in the cold.
Yesterday was so nice, but I didn't get much done. I used a leaf blower to clear my back yard, which was a huge mess. I blew the peanut shells onto the path in my wooded area and sunflower seed shells under a shrub (free mulch!), and put the rest of the debris on my compost pile. I was so looking forward to doing something fun next, and then I noticed that the goldfish weren't looking good, so I spent the rest of the day cleaning out the pond instead.
yehudith, deer eat my crocuses too. I thought I had moved all of them from the front to the back, but I missed some which are about to bloom. If they're still there tomorrow, I'll move them.
Interesting, yehudith! Now I'm curious about TerraCycle; that had better be a very concentrated product!
I just found this article about how Scotts sued Terracycle because of that fertilizer; I wonder whether the $14,000 per pound was a joke someone made after Terracycle had to "fend off a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit". http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200709/terracycle.html
This message was edited Mar 14, 2015 9:30 PM
Muddy
Can you believe its not. Its n-p-k is .02-.002-.02! It costs $7/32 fl oz. There's actually more nitrogen in the snow that's just melted or just plain water. Talk about a waste of money!
sorry yehudith, but don't look at me, I worked yesterday too. and today I got exactly ten minutes to myself in the yard.
that is interesting about the nitrogen.
also 'tapla' strongly advises never buy bloom booster type stuff high in P. He says best ratio is 3-1-2. I think he has said that is the ratio that those elements exist in live plant material. So it makes sense.
I should prune the peaches more (should have a month or two ago) but can't bear to think of all the flowers I would remove. How the bees would love them. I have no high expectations, or even any expectations, about a crop of peaches for us.
wow Yehudith, what a ripoff product. Unless someone REALLY feels good about pretending they are fertilizing naturally.
Cheap chicken manure is great. I may need to head out and pick up a couple of bags.
Too bad I won't have any grass clippings for awhile. Zoysia grass is really slow to wake up.
Yehudith--
What form does the Chicken manure at the HD come in?
How is it labeled? Is it liquid or granular? What is it called?
Among what other products is it located?
I work at a HD--would like to find it and see what it does.
Thabks, Gita
Muddy
This wasn't a joke.
Here in White Oak its down with the Millorganite. Its in a bag with a chicken on it and says something like "chicken poop". I don't have any left in the garage so I can't give you a better answer
I use chicken manure, urine, and grass clippings in our compost, as well as some black strap molasses. When it's hard at work you get steam off of it in the early AM or if disturbed.
Remember not to use clippings from treated lawns, unless it was a pre-emergence treatment, which usually is mostly corn gluten. Lawn herbicides remain in the compost and can affect garden soil for years, literally killing sensitive plants.
yehudith, it took a while, but the nickel finally dropped and I now understand how they got to the $14,000 per pound price ; - )
Just got in from work. I'm going to throw out some more milorganite. It literally saved the crocuses that hadn't come up yet. Man do the deer hate that stuff. It doesn't stop the fall foragers but it stops the spring and summer ones dead. It supposedly has something to do with the smell when the weather is warm and humid. I don't want the creatures to get there chompers on the lilies when they start coming up.
Did anyone's rosemary survive the winter?
I got a hardy cultivar so I was hoping it would do ok in the warm microclimate of my backyard, but it's completely brown. I'm pretty sure mine was 'Arp.'
They don't come back from the roots, do they?
I have a big rosemary plant, came from Chantell originally. it's fine. I don't think that will come back from roots, but if you can trim the top and leave the base in, maybe there will be sprouts.
Hmmm...I have not looked yet. I have a 1yr. old plant--and I stashed it
against the fence under my Lilac bush. Haven't even seen it...
Will check. ,,,,,G.
Clearly I need to be better at using my garden efforts wisely this year, and actually fertilizing, mulching, and watering more thoughtfully. Cuz this full time job is killing my garden time. I am off Friday and the forecast that day is SO NOT GOOD for time in the garden....
I plan to buy some Azomite this year. I think its reasonable that my sandy based soil could be low in some essential minerals.
Sally, have you ever tried a soil test kit. The Extension Office (you do have an Extension Office in your state?) sells them not sure how much $$, been awhile since we did ours but it will tell you all about your soil.
Hm... so it wasn't too cold for rosemary after all...
I feel like I end up buying rosemary every year. I'll be trying it again this year!
Holly, our extension service no longer does soil testing. They refer us out to other states' (like PA) extension services.
SSG - Take some tip cuttings of your rosemary in late fall (Thanksgiving). They root easily and you will have replacements if yours does not survive outside, or plants to swap in the spring. Win either way.
Greenthumb, I've had a hard time keeping rosemary happy indoors, too.
You know, I really should be a rosemary expert by now because I've certainly killed at least 4! LOL
Heehehe, you and me, SSG.
LOL, SSG!!! That would make me an expert in rooting Coleus, haha!
Not sure if mine survived. I lost one last winter and got a new one from Sally. This past winter was even colder than last one :-(.
You and I live in the same county, but I am in the northern tip of it. My neighbor told me that our neighborhood had the highest elevation in the county. It sure feels like I am a full zone north of you. There was no more snow when I left Baltimore last Friday, and this is what I saw when I got home 8-(.
This message was edited Mar 17, 2015 3:31 PM
