Come on people, let us keep up the conversations and the friendships going.
They are very valuable and we shouldn't lose them.
Your friend, Josephine.
Hello Everybody!! Are you still here?
I'm still lurking and learning.
Frostweed, if you had to recommend three "can't kill" plants for a beginner what would they be?
Mine would be asparagus fern ( or the similar looking foxtail fern), Katie ruellia and rain lilies.
I'm still here, infrequently, because I found a new passion in jewelry making! Wish I could find a good forum to share in that subject!
I've noticed the quiet too, in the Texas forum. I'm sure it has to do with the lousy takeover & ruination of Dave's. Such a shame. I've learned so much from our great plant masters here. You are one of them, Josephine💜
P.S. I love your teacup, Teacup 754!!
Thank you Bariolio, I will try to continue with the tradition.
I think if we stick around things will get back to normal eventually.
Teacup, if I had to choose for the most durable and drought tolerant plants it would be;
Texas Lantana, Lantana urticoides
Autumn Sage, Salvia greggii
Flame Acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii
Turk's Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii
Those are the indispensables for Texas heat and drought.
This message was edited Jan 31, 2016 4:36 PM
Depends which part of Tx you are planting for....and how many seasons! Tx forum always has people young enough they still have full time jobs- we all pop in occasionally!
I'm here! Just sowed my tomato and pepper seeds. Nursing some plants along from fall cuttings. Most have died due to lack of water.
Lots of Texas people on this forum.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1407044/
[quote="frostweed"]Teacup, if I had to choose for the most durable and drought tolerant plants it would be;
Texas Lantana, Lantana urticoides
Autumn Sage, Salvia greggii
Flame Acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii
Turk's Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii
Those are the indispensables for Texas heat and drought.
I have all these too!
I spent a lot of time outside this weekend pruning back some grasses and I even did some roses. I know they say Valentine's Day but often weather is bad or we are busy.
My purple trailing lantana is blooming so pretty and the leaves have turned a pretty purply color too. Prune now or wait until March?
I would prune when it stops blooming.
I'm here there just isn't much to going on in my gardens. Today it was 80 Thursday AM it was 25*.
Yes Lisa, the weather has been very confusing, but then remember, this is Texas!!
February is usually the hardest month to weather. It's so long since things grew, everything takes forever to pass and the weather is leftovers being cleaned out instead of stable systems. The winds are blowing too soon this season tho. Not good at all.
I actually saw on the weather on one of the DFW stations that February is the month with the most snow accumulation, so snow can't be ruled out this month! I would settle for "normal" February temps.
Hola ya'll !
I am still around, but not often.2015 was a bust. The floods & t storms killed my computer, so eventually got a new one, only to see all the mess with upgrades on DG which I believe, should never have happened.
I was disheartened to have missed the notice about the Round-up.
But I havent given up on DG, Just had a time-out, I guess you would call it.
Anyway, I'm ready to rumble for spring !
wELCOME TEA CUP !
Yea!! that is the spirit Baja, We will have to talk about the roundup, but we will have something good in the spring.
Welcome back, Becky!! Glad to know you're doing okay and are back.
I've been hanging out over on the propagation forum because for a long while there were no posts in the Texas Gardening thread. Going into pond season, won't be online as much, but good that all have weathered the winter. I fear we are going into drought again.
Will probably make my wildflower seed bombs and toss them in hopes that we get enough rain to germinate some of the toughest Texas wildflowers, but after I had 2 inch tall ones on the upper end of my lot where I don't irrigate, I am not expecting much.
Got a bunch of Tidy cat buckets to plant my tomatoes in. My daughter that did buckets and in ground is still harvesting from her buckets. I got a tomato in October last year, from my 20+ plants in ground and on the pond. (spider mites nailed the pond ones)
Anyway, happy post solstice bouncy weather.
Hello Gypsi, Please don't quit posting, we need to keep this forum alive and well.
We will talk about R.U. sometime soon.
will try but when I am on the road I am on the road, spring is my busy time
We will keep this forum a live!
I am glad!
Yes, I need to post more, I just have too many irons in the fire, but I just need to try harder.
I'm still here! Although, I just lurk on the Texas forum cuz my interest is in the veggies, not the flowers.
While navigating the new layout has been a royal pain in the potting soil, I'm not giving up on this site.
I cut my gardening teeth here!
Hello Gymgirl, so glad to hear from you too. Even though you don't work with flowers much you might let us know how things are going with you once in a while.
This was my first gardening site too, and I have met many good people here, I am not leaving, too much history with all the good people.
Is it too early to start thinking on a possible date for a RU? It would be great to see everyone again.
give me an RU date and I will try to recruit some new local members. They will be wanting to swap for bee food type flowers - I did a talk on bees today and have to post them some links.
I will check with Sheila and see if she is up to it at this time.
sounds good. I have to round up 20 or 30 images from both my olympus and a couple of cell phones, so I will be posting followups. Might as well toot our horn.
Gypsi, wildflower seeds need to be sow in fall/winter if you want plants/flowers in spring. I think it's getting too late to sow them now. I think timing has more to do with their lack of growth then water. Cool temps also help.
oh they grew last year Lisa, when I sowed them in November. They got 2 inches tall. By the time the rain came in May it was too late, I covered them with landscape fabric and that's the end of that flowerbed. This year I waited for a good rain forecast since November or December, and it never came, so my seed is in the refrigerator waiting for another year.
I am sick of working too hard, I am sick of drought. And I am sick of wasting seeds. My tomatoes are going in buckets this year with a drip irrigation system in to the buckets going to let a lot of the lot die off. Less weeds to pull, Considering just burying my asparagus under rock too.
I am not ordering one seed this year. I planted 16 tomato seeds and 4 sugar snap pea seeds and put the flat in my greenhouse last night. I have enough seed in the refrigerator to plant many many gardens. I don't know why I bother. Beekeepers in north Texas are planting perennials and blooming shrubs, stuff with deep roots that are drought hardy. I will be starting more vitex this year as well, it is good bee food, and maybe we will just have a plant giveaway where I held my talk.
This message was edited Feb 11, 2016 7:50 PM
This message was edited Feb 11, 2016 8:18 PM
I feel your pain Gypsi, it is very difficult to grow annuals and tender perennials..
Hardy perennials ans shrubs is the way to go in our area.
I am going to try to root some Beebrush, Aloysia gratissima cuttings for you, it is great for the bees and smells wonderful.
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ALGR2
Thank you Josephine. I was just super grumpy, I spent about 10 hours sorting out digital images yesterday and missed a beautiful spring day, and then to realize that nope, not going to get wildflowers in, the rain never came, it was almost too much.
I did get some wild poppies and a few other wildflower species I took seed from into the raised bed by my driveway, larkspur, and the little red ones whatever they are, with the ball seed pods whose seeds look like pie (too busy doing to look it up). Last years galliardia are mostly still alive, I think my echinacea will be coming back, and many things reseeded themselves including wild daisies.
I also have the land itch again, and I have it BAD. Fort Worth may be going to regulate bees enough that I will need a place to move my hives. So I am land shopping down by Athens, they are getting more rain than we are.
Well, I guess if you have to move that is the way to go, bur I would hate to lose touch with you.
I can't move, my business is here, so until I have enough work on that end of the world, or can afford to retire, so am I. But the bees must move, or part of them, and my daughter lives about 15 miles from there.
With a daughter there already, it makes a world of difference. Some wildflowers that you sow just wait in the soil til they are ready. No season the same in Texas, Spring in the country is always a surprise what you will see anyway! Seems the cities are warmer and dryer than areas away from them. Snows dancing here in Chicago and they are hoping for a foot since they have had a dry winter as well. I will be heading south today toward San Antonio, my maters are going in buckets as well this season- self watering. I have wild honeybees that come to the hummer feeders during summer and always feel sorry for them. A
Daughter is going to look at the property when she can this weekend or monday, 2.8 acres not in city limits, used to have a trailer on it I think, no structure now. May mean there is already a septic tank. I will eventually move out of Fort Worth as kids are Arlington (where I have no desire to live too civilized) and then the one down by Cedar Creek Reservoir
But it will be awhile.
I am still here, but don't visit the site much during the winter months. The past few killer summers have dampened my enthusiasm for growing things, but I do still tend to the plants that can take our weather (Lantana, hollies, salvias, etc). With the warm winter we're having, the weeds are horrible already. Ugh. I will have to fight them back with a machete before long.
Carla in Rowlett