Ric, I couldn't find what you were talking about when I opened that link.
I've been watering too, in part because it's the active growing season and I want to make up for the month or so that we lost. We've had rain, but not enough to give new trees and shrubs the good soakings they need to establish roots. I also wanted my plants to be visible in time for the swap ; - )
Yardening Midatlantic Late april 2015
SSG... you mean like these ? Took this pic about 5 days ago...
BTW, just bought some Heuchera Paprika to go in front of those Hostas, should look interesting together.
This message was edited May 13, 2015 8:59 PM
Muddy... Oh, your plants were visible alright ! Your yard is stunning. I love the tiered back yard, that is a gardener's dream ! And you've done well with it, too !
CAM, I mean those giant 3-foot-tall hostas that give structure to a garden.
Kind of like these:
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk42/jonda001/2010%20AHS%20Convention%20-%20Minnesota/Optional%20Tour%20-%20Ryan%20and%20Cook/DSCN2423.jpg~original
Or these: http://www.sebrightgardens.com/images/hosta/GentleGiant_2.jpg
Wow, mine aren't done coming up fully yet but I've never seen any get that big ! Wonder what they fed those things. :)
Only certain giant cultivars get that big. I'm pretty sure Donner has a giant Empress Wu, which can get 4 feet tall! I think all they need is lots of water, and an occasional sacrificial dachshund. :)
I have a couple of giants, but since they're in dry shade, it's going to be a few more years before they get that big.
Muddy, all that watering worked! :D
Interesting. I can't even envision a Hosta that gets 4 feet tall. That's crazy.
And LOL... I think those Hostas could manage a mid-size breed of dog.
Thanks, CAM. I certainly appreciate having a hilly backyard now that there's less to mow. The lawn at the top shrinks every year : )
Your hostas look nice; lets see another photo after you've planted the Heuchera!
Cam, here's the most "famous" pic of the Empress Wu Hosta.. she gets ENORMOUS!
oh my gosh!!!!!!!
My free time today will probably be just watering, too.
I didn't get any pictures at my friend's yard, stupid phone dying all the time,and my van with cord was with DS that day, just figures. She has lots of big hostas, not Empress Wu big, but certainly big, blue leafed, and good sized some other.
Muddy... I sure will. I ordered them from Bluestone Perennials so it will be a week or so.
Speedie... thanks, that is INSANE ! Ha... never knew they even created Hostas that got so big.
Sally my daughter has those big blue hosta, I just love them.
I've got so many plants to get in the ground this weekend! I keep thinking that I'll do a little bit each evening when I get home, but this week I've been pooped and just didn't have the energy to tackle it. I'll have most of the afternoon tomorrow and all day Sunday, so hopefully will make some progress. I shouldn't even admit it, but why won't I have much time on Saturday? Saturday is the Green Springs annual spring sale and I have a feeling I will be up early to get there before the parking is an issue and then enjoy several hours of browsing. No acquiring of course, yeah right...
I've been so irritated with the heavy hose, dragging it around to everything that needs watered, and having it kink and get hung up, that I finally broke down and ordered one of those really durable and light weight hoses that SSG recommended. It came sometime on Tuesday, and I saw how wonderfully light it was when I unpacked it. I'll be trying it out tonight and will see how it works.
Nice you got one of those hoses Terri; I sure wish I had one. Maybe someday after I stop spending all my money on plants, I'll get one of those hoses ;-P It sure does suck to have to water so many things. Darned Mother Nature needs to get her act together that's for sure.
Latest weather.com forecast says 80% chance of showers in our area Saturday and Sunday, 60% on Monday and 60% again on Tuesday. Out of all that, sure hope we get a couple of good soakings !
It's NOT allowed to rain on Saturday, that's supposed to be a busy plant-shopping day! I NEED my customers, LOTS of customers, to come play with me!! < =P
Saturday looks like the most likely day for rain. They just downgraded Sunday to 60% chance.
Cam, where do you check your weather info from?
I used to like weather.com, but then it got full of too much garbage, so now I like either NOAA or weather underground.
I look at both weather.com and Accuweather. Between them both, I normally have a pretty good idea. And I see they just downgraded the chance of rain for the weekend. Now just 50% tomorrow and 20% Sunday. Bummer !
Seems that I am always running, pretty much something going on everyday. Just can't seem to get out into the garden. Although I did get to the Nursery yesterday while I was running around so now I have a few more plants to deal with. LOL
Holly, It's one of the less harmful addictions, go with it!
Muddy, what you said is so true about this being the active growing season for most trees and shrubs. They go dormant in the summer and don't seem to need as much water, even when it gets really hot.
I've been keeping the hose on at a trickle, and giving each shrub and tree a nice long soaking. We're expected to get passing showers this weekend, which isn't going to do much for my parched garden. What we need is a nice inch of rain!
Cam, I think you might get a little more rain than us. The rain clouds often break apart over the mountains.
Yeah, they do, SSG. And I'm on the wrong side of the mountains, so to speak, too. But those are the percent of chances for Frederick so I'm betting you have about the same percent of chance. Good odds some of us will get some rain in the next four days. :)
Thanks for the weather forecast! I was thinking about getting some dreaded indoor chores done today; no chance of that now! I'm off to get more soil and then will be planting until I drop or the sun goes down, whichever comes first.
I meant to ask one of you who has pinched back NE Asters to tell me this at the swap but forgot, so....please see photos. Is it too late? I don't see any buds yet. They're about 2' tall. They reached about 5' last year - too tall for that spot and I had to stake them.
If it's not too late, where do I pinch; how low down, at what point on the stem, etc.?
I need to know about the NE asters too!
Having to clean house and cook for the poker guys tonight; Mark is helping greatly. But once they arrive, I am off duty. Of course, I need occasional mental health breaks from the chores, during the day.
I have loads of vinyl mini blind slats stored. I made a bunch more labels yesterday. I'll be trying valiantly to label/relabel things!
When in doubt, pinch back by 1/3... but in the case of those bushy asters, you could probably pinch back by half and no harm done. I think I see mini leaf pairs at the base of some of the leaves -- if so, those are lateral shoots just waiting to take off when the top is pinched.
That said, my NE Asters died over the winter, so what do I know LOL.
Sally, I should have hit you up for a few slats. My attempt to get some via freecycle was pretty much a bust (got 1 vane), as were repeated attempts at Lowe's and Home Depot, and I think I'm going to have to resort to *buying* a miniblind for the express purpose of cutting it up.
Muddy, I've been pruning all of my fall blooming perennials in early June. The tall sedums and asters are cut back by a third. This year my asters are getting an even shorter haircut. They just get too tall!
Jill, did you want more asters? I potted some up this spring but didn't have any takers. They get 6-7 tall (probably taller without pinching).
DON'T BUY A MINIBLIND
I'm going to be replacing bedroom blinds, I'll have 2 hundred slats
i saw them at teh swap but thought mine would make a comeback... Are you going to the Green Springs sale? Maybe you could put a couple in the car for me... even better, join Terri & me there, lunch after, then a stop at DeBaggio's Herbs. :-)
I got to work out in the garden today. Potted up a few plants, watered, topped off one of the beds with compost, planted a few canna. Generally jumped from job to job having a great time.
I've been doing some gardening every day this week. I call that a great week. Today I planted the Shasta Daisies I got at the swap, put down yet more mulch, watered some plants that might have been thirsty, and listened to a neighbor rave about what I've done so far (she has no idea what's coming). :)
Got David's Persicaria planted. Got some spiderwort labeled and moved. Corydalis Bla kberry plantrd nwar golden leafed Dicentra. Smelled thia azalea got from umdterp three yrs ago. Awesome
Took the day off work and planted 45 perennial plugs, freed the gutters of maple seeds, and sprayed the pyracantha for the 3rd time with Daconil. I hadn't sprayed it in 11 days and I noticed some scab starting on a few leaves...grrrr...this time I mixed in spreader sticker with the Daconil and then put out 4 gallons on the row. Hopefully my flowers won't be infected again this year. Stupid scab....note for everyone, don't plant a hedge of 30 pyracantha! They're beautiful but tons of work.
Pyracantha used to be a favorite but you don't see many these days. I guess that's why.
Maybe they work better in smaller groupings or as specimen plants? 30 as a hedgerow is like WOW.
We had 3 Pyracantha along one side of our deck for 10+ years without any problems. Since winter before last we have 1/2 of one alive. We removed one, but left the remaining array of thorny branches to provide protection and staging areas for birds arriving to feed on our deck in the winter. When the Viburnum we replaced one with gets larger, we will replace the next one, as so on.
Waving to Holly and Ric...on our way to DD graduation in Grantham!
Jill, I forgot to pack the asters so I actually didn't have them at the swap! I can bring them to Yehudith's garden party if you're planning to attend.
I have to sow basil and nasturtium seeds today. And more deep watering. I don't trust these passing showers.
Sally, congrats to your daughter!
Yeah, if we don't get some of these 50-60 percent chance showers the next few days, I'm going to have to start watering the lawn too... getting a little less green in a few spots. Thank Goodness this new house has a well... at my previous home, I could wrack up $300 water bills keeping the lawn healthy in the summer.
What an exciting day, Sally. And a beautiful one for a ride. Congratulations to your DD.