Plant Propagation: The Basics Spring 2016

Cant load pics today. In Aberdeen, Md when the winds picked up after the morning rains quit. Rockin my boat really well! Slugs and snails are legion in Houston- I have sandy loam. I am also near Hearne, Tx enough that I feel I know why they aren't the Texas sunflower capital any longer...they left behind far too many shield bugs! I asked my dau to put out Sluggo, I know it rained buckets for 2 weeks, I know she has forgotten... 1 more week if they will survive just long enough...

Well, lost it already. I just started writing and the computer went all over the place, came back here and it was gone. Oh well, like I was saying, so many things I want to add to what you all posted, but when I go up to remind myself, I lose my post I am writing.

Pistil, will say this that the slugs are a natural pruner for that plant. As long as you have it as big as you want it, that is pretty cool to have them do that. LOL, never thought I would say that about slugs after living in Seattle for 30 years.

JU, I can't believe you have all those things blooming.. I guess our weather is like yours only more stable so far. It is just steadily climbing. Suppose to be 65 degrees next Sunday. That will be the warmest.

Debra, for heavens sakes don't stop Joe if he wants to make you a tomato bed. As you know, digging or anything at all working in the garden is good for your mood etc. Makes you feel good. Relaxing. Doesn't matter where he digs. If there is no sun where he digs just put something else in there that takes shade, and tell him it is a new brand of tomatoes. LOL, Just kidding;. I know Joe would know better. It will be fine.

How is the work looking other than that? Are they done with it? So, now what? Do you need to have the work inspected?

Well, I'm going to sign off here before I lose it. ttyl,

well it was a long day, started with one bee swarm in the tree (from MY hive) set a swarm trap hive, and ended with one bee swarm in the tree and one bee swarm in the bait hive. Another bait hive in the morning, another pond to clean so I can't work on bees. The swarm I brought home is taking sugar syrup so I think they are still in their box. This morning's swarm in the pic, about 15 ft up in my elm tree.

The energy of the young swarm!

DG is a learning experience these days, chuckl. All those swarms! They are multiplying! I will start watching as I have seen swarms that attached themselves to 18 wheelers- makes me sad...

my 2nd one moved into the 2nd bait hive. Need to take both a rain hat, a front door and some sugar syrup. swarms gather themselves back up somehow

Gypsi, thanks for the Bee Keeping info...it's very interesting.

Bees are and have always been interesting,

This is mingles teaching ,, ??? Advanced sleep Yoga ,???
never would of thought that myself ,,

Robin the pink poodle is looking much more like an Echinacea
First the Pink Poodle
2 the Borage
3,4,5 the lettuce

I hope it is Ju, it may even bloom this year...I'm looking forward to it! Look at all those beautiful seedlings you have, I'm so happy for you!

Thanks Mingles for the Advanced Sleep Yoga class, he wouldn't be sleeping like that if he wasn't ultra comfortable in his environment.

Here's my only Daffodil, its a dwarf called "Tete a Tete."

Here's Echinacea "Pink Poodle"

Oh wow JU, I don't even have my seeds planted yet. I don't have room in the house for another rack of shelves even tho I have them. So, I have to figure out where I am going to put them. Will have Bob move some of the shelves I have in here so I can get lights on the other one and Bob told me I have a couple more shelves we took offthe one in the house already, but the problem with that is that if I put the plants on the top shelf I can't reach them to water.

I am going to have to take a look at them and see what I have in there.

Was getting some bills ready to pay and opened my bill for my property taxes and was shocked. They raised the value on my house $61,000 and I had only 30 days to appeal it and the date it was sent was last September. Soooooooo, guess that means I have to bite the bullet and pay the taxes on it. Just makes me sick. The taxes went up about $200 for a half a year. Think that was when I was getting out of the hospital. But what was I doing all the time after that? Too bad.

Well, guess I had better get busy. ttyl,

Pouring down here, many ponds in as many days, I stayed up til almost 2 assembling a filter to deliver in the gap between rain and storms today, got it put on, new waterfall looks pretty good. Need sleep.

today's new waterfall, my harvest of 2 eggs and some asparagus, a flower the wind has since mowed down, a broccoli in bloom and my grapevine leafing out. (I failed to prune in our non winter, it's in trouble I think)

Me Too Wow!!! all the photo shots , taking a few minutes to catch up ,

Jen , like taxes , you can always be sure ,,their looking up , seeing up , and going up , only thing that falls , is our expectations .

Gypsi ... ponds from rain , besides those you build , we get those here ,, nice flowers and pic's
Robin cute little toy daffs ..I have an unknown red setting next to the pink poodle , I am hoping ,
I am a little creative but not much at plant care . Iris , daylily , Sunflowers ,most)
prairie Coneflower , and BES are about all that grow well as far as named flowers for me ,

Beautiful pond Gypsi, that one's going to make Debra want one even more. We should have some Asparagus popping soon. Pic #2 looks like supper, a little butter and a little lemon juice = Asparagus with Hollandaise, mmm...

asparagus, and fried eggs over american fried potatoes with onions (actually not fried, more sauteed and steamed with a little olive oil) It was good

Okay, that's sounds really good too. YUM.

Maryland was greening up. Colder in Chicago, though Wisconsin was rain at 45*, robins were snatching up the worms that were headed aboveground...I am killing a long night and heading for Texas tomoro noon. Will be late for Dr appt since I have to hit San Antonio before I get to go home. Grrrr. Supposedly the weather will hold long enough for me to slide thru Ms/Ok...

Hi Kitt Nice travel pic's ...
Raining here still

A few offs and on with that .
This thread has been making me hungry

My fargesia looks terrible ,
The Moso seedling ,, All right so far , could be better

I had to check the thread title, made me hungry too. I did have sunshine, but these thunderheads just rolled up on the doorstep...pic of daylillies coming up in Joliet, Ill

Sun shining here at sunset after clouds and rain all day . Kitt About the way the Daylily look here that is , The ones in the ground a while anyway ,
I am not thrilled about the freeze moving in , be interesting to see what it does ,

Freeze- better than Okla twisters maybe...

Much ,,, no doubt

Gosh, your asparagus beds are great to have meals from them. Very nice. I started one once in Seattle. But when I went out and looked one day I happened to dig down a bit, and I found Morning Glory roots as big as my little finger moving in and the bed was full of it. That stuff is just awful over there. We don't have it here because so far the winters have been too cold for it. Many more winters with weather like it has been the last couple of years and we may have it here too. Same with the wild blackberries. Gosh, those things are everywhere over there, but if they aren't near the roads where they get sprayed (road crews) and dust from the vehicles, the berries are the best you can find.

But then there are the slugs too. As Kitt would say, chuckl.

Speaking of Kitt, you are going to see big changes when you get home Kitt. While you are there, take a picture of that dark blue Petunia basket you posted when you were there last time. Would love to see it now. Did your daughter fertilize it? Better do it. How long will you have there?

Gosh Gypsi, you better slow down. Too much work. But, I guess better than not having any work. You must have a long list of clientele. All those nice ponds. I had a nice one with 3 pools running into each other in Seattle. They were under a semi-dwarf lace leaf Maple Tree. So I built a fence around them with chicken wire and a roof on it too out of the same wire, then put my 2 Mynah birds out there during the summer. They just loved it. Funny, I would be working out in my front yard and kids would be walking down the road and the one bird would call out "hello". Those kids would turn around and look at me. I hadn't thought anything of it I was so used to the bird talking. The birds were in the back yard, but could hear the kids, and the bird had a loud voice.

Well, I've rattled on enough and put you all to sleep. ttyl, jen

oh wow.... I love that pond! Ju you have a good crop going, too. Love that coneflower, Robin. Jen, I got tired of paying too much and sent in a payment under protest with our month payment, it worked. I took pics of everything and Joe collated them and we showed up for the hearing armed and ready to fight, it was easy, she took a look at all the pics and lowered our taxes almost 70 K right off the Bat.
No way do we or have we ever lived in a house that would sell for 118 k . She agreed it was an under 50 k home. embarrassing, but money gets tight when you retire and I bet half this block is paying too much for their taxes.

Spring has SPrung here , too I bet you can't wait to get home Kitt.. Be safe.
this moonflower vine is downstairs going crazy at night. Edited to say, bleeding heart, flowering almond, Virginia bluebells, buckeye, spirea, and moonflower downstairs. Here you go Robin.. I hoep I got them in the right order sice I can't see the pics


This message was edited Apr 2, 2016 4:16 PM

oh, glad you got that tax situation taken care of Debra, that can be tough to fight.

I have a lot of customers, won't be on DG much in the next couple of weeks as the schedule is very full. Only one busy time a year, if I don't do it, can't pay the bills for the rest of the year. Ya'll take care and plant plant plant!

Mynah Birds, what fun! Your pond also sounds really nice Jen, did you let your birds fly around inside your chicken wire enclosure?

Yes, it wasn't real big, maybe 10 feet across and the tree banches were thru it so they could roost on it. And they bathed in the bonds. The ponds dropped from one into the other so they really liked that. I loved sitting out there. I had built an arbor across my patio and had hanging fuscias and begonias hanging over all the cross points in it. I just loved it. too. My arbor was 12 x 15 feet. I made it out of 2 x 12s and painted them white. That is the thing I really missed about my place there. I had a half an acre and mowed the whole thing at least once a week in the summer. No riding mower. Good exercise.

Debra, you guys did good. Now you should go to each of the houses in the block,no, the whole area and help them see if they can't lower theirs. Wouldn't be good for the area tho. Guess those people get used to a certain amount of money for the budget and spend every penny. Here, they rob from the road funds to pay their wages. Anything left, they give themselves raises.

Well, you did good anyway. I am really sorry I didn't do something about mine. Don't know if I can next year or not. On what basis? This year they jumped them $60,000 value. Don't know where they think I put that much money in this house. But next year they won't count that same $60K. They would say I accepted it this year. Jen

Yes, it wasn't real big, maybe 10 feet across and the tree banches were thru it so they could roost on it. And they bathed in the bonds. The ponds dropped from one into the other so they really liked that. I loved sitting out there. I had built an arbor across my patio and had hanging fuscias and begonias hanging over all the cross points in it. I just loved it. too. My arbor was 12 x 15 feet. I made it out of 2 x 12s and painted them white. That is the thing I really missed about my place there. I had a half an acre and mowed the whole thing at least once a week in the summer. No riding mower. Good exercise.

Debra, you guys did good. Now you should go to each of the houses in the block,no, the whole area and help them see if they can't lower theirs. Wouldn't be good for the area tho. Guess those people get used to a certain amount of money for the budget and spend every penny. Here, they rob from the road funds to pay their wages. Anything left, they give themselves raises.

Well, you did good anyway. I am really sorry I didn't do something about mine. Don't know if I can next year or not. On what basis? This year they jumped them $60,000 value. Don't know where they think I put that much money in this house. But next year they won't count that same $60K. They would say I accepted it this year. Jen

No, I haven't posted any pictures of my helebores Robin, Not sure, who that was but do remember them too. I only have a couple. A white and green one and a purple one. I really love them both. Maybe Sunday I will get out. Might have been Gypsi that posted them. They were nice. That Gypsi, as busy as she is, she still gets more done than a lot of us do.

Gypsi doesn't have a spouse, or children living at home, and the dogs are patient with me. That is why I get so much done. I picked up energy when I had twins 33 years ago and never really slowed down. Can't sit still through 2 hours of tv

Oh wow, Debra, you got a good start. Looking good. I really need to get started on that this weekend. We have hair appts tomorrow but Sunday for sure. Bob started the shelving today. Got a start anyway. I need to get lights on one shelf, got them on the other one, then I will be ready to plant. OH, have to put the heating pad on. Get the lights on the timer and will be ready. If we get those done, then I can start planting. I don't know. So many things to do. Well, lady, getting late, ready to hit the sack. ttyl,

All my insurance is be paid for by all of you , Thank you all , You can blame it on me ,lol i did it .lol Always into something aren't I .

Debra real nice seed setup ,,
Here is a Croton Making seeds ? blooming a little , If it makes seeds I am going to try a few ,
High wind and snow here ,, pooper huh folks , I want that 70 degrees back , really ,,
2nd is my gear toy .. I might have it ready to go into place tomorrow ,

Spent better part of the day mixing potting soil up for 6 large tubs, potatoes in 3 of them, the other three for vines and flowers, Joe hasn't dug the tomato patch yet, he is recovering from unloading 20 bags that were sorta wet of top soil, potting soil and Peat and sand, I just carried the perlite in myself it was weightless. Got the cannas in their tub at the end of the north west corner, will have i batatas around them ( I saved them from last year) have lots of rooted starts to use and save the tubers for another tub out front. My fancy lillies are up, can't wait to see the ones Ju sent me. Boy Ju, are you a machine head? LOL just kidding, I really am glad you tinker with things, mechanical I am not. I have to google to see how to change a flapper on three toilets here. :P

Plumbing is the most difficult thing I know , That and freeze refrigeration , mess me all up ,,,yeah I play , I use to build these when I was 8 or 9 ,,
picture below looking messy , everything works though ,
Last time running it a standard garden bucket I made 10 or 15 pds of leaf mix in about a half hour , not bad , but it only mixed poorly and did not cut stems to well , needed some speed to work better , I am hoping I get to try in the next few days to make more ,

Debra .. I am like that about the plants too ,,plant lady Debra ,, least bit of time lag , and the plant room it is ,,lol
I am hoping the plants do well for you ,I have a lillium that to come up but all these freezes here now I don't know about that ,,
Looking messy with graphite paste ,, this has 7 moving parts that all have to stay locked in place while they function , Lot of moving parts ..

lol, i just got done reading an email from my niece. She has her 2 grandkids living with them. They are in the 3rd and 4th grades. In a charter school. Here is what she wrote: They had to do 3 projects a year.

(One they worked on was making a working prosthetic arm. No kidding. It had to pick up a grape without squishing it and carry it across the room. Also the arm had to pick up a 5 gallon bucket with two liters of water in it and they had to carry that across the room also. They also had to figure out and draw measurements on graph paper of the prosthetic, make a presentation board with pictures and all information about the arm, how they made it, what they used, how much it cost etc. Then they had to do a presentation with power point in front of the class. A lot of work!!!! Abby's other project was on cats, the history, where they came from etc. Noah's was on making an App for a cell phone. They had to do power point presentations in front of a different class, not their own. Plus a brochure and something else , I cant remember. It's all a blure!!!! I cant wait to see what is the next one!)

OK JU, now are we ready to make this arm? I will take notes. jen

lol, i just got done reading an email from my niece. She has her 2 grandkids living with them. They are in the 3rd and 4th grades. In a charter school. Here is what she wrote: They had to do 3 projects a year.

(One they worked on was making a working prosthetic arm. No kidding. It had to pick up a grape without squishing it and carry it across the room. Also the arm had to pick up a 5 gallon bucket with two liters of water in it and they had to carry that across the room also. They also had to figure out and draw measurements on graph paper of the prosthetic, make a presentation board with pictures and all information about the arm, how they made it, what they used, how much it cost etc. Then they had to do a presentation with power point in front of the class. A lot of work!!!! Abby's other project was on cats, the history, where they came from etc. Noah's was on making an App for a cell phone. They had to do power point presentations in front of a different class, not their own. Plus a brochure and something else , I cant remember. It's all a blure!!!! I cant wait to see what is the next one!)

OK JU, now are we ready to make this arm? I will take notes. jen