Disappointed Gardener

Well I am quite disappointed with the gardens this year. Not one freesia came up, only had 2 tiny cleome, zinnias were miserable, not one freesia, hymenocallis out of 8 only 1 bloomed, tuberose shot up but never bloomed. Planted about 50 dahlias some of mine and some co-op, they are all at least 3-5' in height, but only 2 got 2 blooms on them, the peppermint giant is 5' tall and full of leaves as are all the rest, but not one bloom. Didn't have one ranunculus come up, and all those beautiful glads I have posted pics of in past years, well not one came back this year. The lucifer came up, but no blooms on it either, my crepe myrtles died completely, didn't have one giant marigold either. Planted a bunch of VanGogh sunflowers, guess what, none!
I'll tell ya this is the first year for me with such a horrible outcome, can't hardly even make a floral arrangement.
Guess there is always next year. At least we are finally getting some corn crop as Steve finally trapped the groundhog that had been eating a lot of it!

I'm sorry you're having such a rough year. We Iowans were blessed with alot of rain in the spring & a bit too much heat this month, but the overall result has beautiful. I tried many plants that didn't survive our Iowa winters/summers. My clay soil doesn't help matters either. I've slowly learned that some things do well for others but not for me--and I'm too lazy to change. Delphiniums, Tea roses,dahlias just don't make it for me. Just keep trying & enjoy what does bloom~!

I sympathize! Between the horrid heat, grasshoppers as big as crows, cloudy days when it should have been sunny and then no rain, followed by gully washers, well, it's been three bad years here. It doesn't help that I can't lug the hose around or spend entire days working in the gardens, or I end up in the hospital. So I'm reconsidering all I've wanted to grow, much of what I was growing and things I never grew. I now refuse to plant anything that requires a lot of water and attention. I miss it, yes, but unless something changes drastically I will have to kiss it goodbye. It's a little depressing. I do hope next year will be better, even if only through my new approach. I hope yours is better, too, Haighr.

I figured I wasn't the only one with a lesser garden this year than in the past. I really don't quite understand it though. We did have a nasty winter in comparison to the past three and of course that incredibly wet spring which is what did in the seedlings, but aside from that it isn't any hotter here than last summer when it was 100 for days and weeks on end and we have gotten sufficient rainfall almost every evening. Even things that did bloom like the monarda, just didn't last more than a week or so which is really odd. I guess the winter was too hard for the glads to make it which is one of the biggest disappointments and will probably have to put in all new bulbs in the fall. The dahlias are another weird one as the plants are huge and healthy looking, just no buds.

Haighr, I usually don't get buds or blooms on dahlias until mid-September, or even later. The big ones, anyway. Even the little ones that are sold as annuals bloom a bit early, then spend months making tubers before more blooms.

So don't give up hope for dahlias yet this year! And, also, (((( haighr )))) I hope your garden next year is beautiful :)

But your spring gardens were magnificent - never seen lilacs, lilies and other spring bloomers so bountiful - and that picture you took for your Mother's Day Card - ahhhhhh!!

I know how you feel! Spring was very late in coming this year and then there was just way too much rain and not enough sunny days. Our yard was submerged under water for months this spring starting in Feb/March with the unusal snow melt and into summer, I even had to let poor Shirley use my rubber boots to tour the yard when she came to visit in JUNE.

At least with the past droughts you can somewhat "control" the amount of water plants get. With all the rain, they were just dronwnin' and couldn't get enough sun. The news said something like we only had 1 full sunny day in each month april and may and not too many in june either. At least july and august have been somewhat nice and more even with sunshine and rain. I think a lot of plants were still stressed and feeling the effects of the 2 year drought we had prior to the "flooding" this spring.

I lost quite a few plants to rot this spring :( including almost all my oriental/asiatic lilies :( not mention all the others. The only part of the yard that looks good this year is the pond, LOL. And the tropicals have just started looking good. My castor bean plants are just now starting to grow, and only about 3' high... last year they were 10' - 12' by this time of year.

Good news lupy, I'll be patient, as I said the plants are very healthy looking. Thanks for the compliments Dea, I forgot the garden did start out looking good, sure miss the cleome this year though.
Sorry to hear about your loss of lilies Jody, hope you also have some better luck and weather next year.
Steve did manage to trap the groundhog that was eating all of the corn - we managed to save about 40 ears that were standing until yesterday along came the wind and storms and knocked all the rest down so we have yet to have an ear of corn from our garden. He is gonna pick what is laying out there tomorrow so we can cook some at the cabin this weekend.

Should I dig up my glads and replant in spring?

shihtzumom - I would give it a try. I just dug up the ones from darius' co-op an hour ago and they're huge - one is almost the size of my fist. Some corms yielded two new ones. I have them outside to separate and tag and dry and I'm going to put in my basement for the winter. Debating about how to store them. There seem to be several recommended methods.

I dug mine yesterday and they are also huge with tons of little bulblets. Do I take those off the lg bulb and plant them in sping too? I thought about putting them in wood shavings, untreated, and in an onion bag to they don't mold. Any other suggestions?

I have never dug mine and they kept coming back here in west MD for years with the exception of this past winter. Would think they would be fine in VA