2005 Goals and 2004 Right/Wrong

Wrong: My first mistake was to grow so many. I had over 150 and of those, probably 50+ were in pots. It meant a lot of watering of the pots. The plants in the ground did very well since we had regular rainfall last summer. I guess I'm not very bright because I'm doing basically the same thing again this year. LOL! I still have a lot of Monika's seedlings that I haven't seen bloom, so many of mine will be hold overs. The absolute worst thing I did was to mark my seedlings with mini blinds marked with red permanent marker. The blinds are great but the red marker doesn't hack it with rain or sun. Fortunately I caught it before too many of them had to go without the cross on them.

Right: Well, I'm not sure what it was, but I must have done something right because I had lots of blooms, something in bloom all the time once they got started. I guess I grew the right seeds to get two double pinks, too. Another right thing I did was to give a lot of them (plants) away to friends here locally. Sure saved me time and space. LOL! Sorry friends! I also sent out a lot of cuttings and I'm still sending out seeds from my crosses.

2005 Goals: I would like to get through the summer having lots of blooms, good health, and enough tomatoes to eat this year. LOL! Didn't get my fill last year. I would also like to make a couple of really good crosses this year.



PS. I reserve the right to add or subtract from the above. I'm writing on an empty stomach and not thinking like I probably should right now.

This message was edited Jan 16, 2005 6:35 PM

Good golly, what in the world happened to my post? I obviously wrote considerably more, ya think it was censored, I cannot imagine what happened to it, anyone have a clue??

Well, IMO, this is a good wintertime thread, so I do hope it will materialize, even if my post was not the complete post I sent to the forum.

Shirley, your post is great and I hope since you are the guru to so many of us, that others will follow your lead, or confessions, haha. I remember one 'right' I posted: The purchase of Monika's book. One of my 'wrongs' was - I asked on the forum for a cutting of a brug that had not been released!! HooBoy - and lucky me, I figured that one out quickly and you can bet I never asked again, did I, lol!!!

One of my 2005 goals is to grow out a pod(s) and have my very own home grown seeds.
If that happens, I might bronze them rather than planting, whew!!!

hello, everyone! sherrylike, awesome topic.

let's not be too hard on ourselves ;-)

wrong: i never spend time in the yard except play with my golden retrievers. i DO have an excuse: our cottage is going through a phase (remodel/addition) and my darling husband said, "there is a plan for the yard." well, i do believe him, but construction is going to be an ongoing thing.

right: i started collecting plants here and there. i haven't strayed that far...except for ONE BRUG cutting. i've never seen it in a japanese garden...it's a new trend. LOL.

goals: spend more time in the yard. plan a garden. learn...


thanks for reading.

You are cute Moonglow!! Thanks!! I had a horse named Moonglow, who had twin colts in the barn where I now live. They were named: MoonZappa and BumperSticker.

SherryLike, that's awesome! I have to keep pets SMALLER than MoonZappa and BumperSticker.

I hope you had a great weekend. We had some sunshine here in Northern California, so I went out for a drive. Went home with 6 peony roots to pot - - - and they ARE planted!

Good night and have a great week ahead!

Moonglow, the colts were born long ago, when my oldest kids were 15-ish and they are now 41 and 42. It was the most fun birth we've ever had on this property, with exception of my grandson, Charles Sidney Gibson III, now 11, who was born at home, along with his three sisters, two 'whelpings', one singleton, one set of twins...

My wrong of 2004 was planting special crosses in a large tub without drain holes...not one of them came up. They either rotted or fell over the side.

My 2005 goals?
I'd like to take hybridizing a bit more serious, remember to keep logs and remember to mark crosses.
I also think i'll try to be nicer and not so judgemental.
Jen

I started some crosses this morning
Champagne Fizz x Big
M. Star x ??

I thought for a while and couldn't think od anything that I had done really wrong in 2004 except maybe not finding DG until August!
What I did right was moving to a new home in a new location in a province that I love so much, with a husband that love more than anything in the world.

My goals are to succeed in growing my baby brugs that I am so anxious to get outside in three months from now and see them florish!! And complete the plans of my new pond that I started in the fall.

Hmmmm - scratching her head - This is about gardens/brugs, right?

2004 - Right - I got the brug bug...BAD. I really love them and am so excited to have so much land to plant them on!! My life is so absorbed with Hoyas, it is a wonderful break...

Wrong - I offered some seeds which rotted. Then I lost all the details of the SASE and feel really stupid. I also haven't done the rock wool starts but using soil and not 100% success rate.

2005 Goals? Keep better records of names and crosses if I am brave enough to do any...make my tags really large!!! Not start so many seeds and then feel I have to plant each and every one (OH, but it is so much FUN). Offer seeds or cuttings NOT for SASE...that way I can control it better and not wind up with mustard all over my face. I also want to get to know folks on this forum better...you guys are super. OH...and I want to introduce Brugs into this Hawaiian market thru gifting them to friends...

Brugie...have you tried a really REALLY soft artist pencil...like #6...that's what I write with and it really stays!!! Even the Acrylic felt tip pens will fade....

Aloha,

Carol

Someone mentioned using silver air conditioner tape. Today when i marked mine i took cut up blinds, put a piece of the silver tape to it and then wrote what they were on there. Even if the ink fades, the imprint is still on the tape.

Carol, I do use the soft lead pencil now. Sure works and lasts better than the permanent markers we buy here. I also use a P-Touch labeler and those things stick to the mini blinds very well and never come off. Kind of expensive to use though.

MsJen...haven't heard of that one...have to try it!

Nurserymen here are writing on their pots with crayon like pencils. It NEVER comes off!!! But will come off when scrubbed... easy to read too.

Well here goes
Wrong, spent a lot of time cutting grass, taking care of a pond I hand dug, that took a lot of time, and water, as it had to be changed often even with a pump and filter, had the common flowers to tend, and no house plants.

RIGHT I joined DG. got to know kell, Brugie, and a few others, kell realy got me addicted to Brugs, Brugie answers all my dumb questions,I filled in the pond (by hand) I have Brugs everywhere in the house, and plan to fill my yard with them, also have a couple of different houseplants including Orchids. I keep a journal on all the seeds I get, and send, and I plan to make my front yard like my mother had hers in England, with picket fence and all. a typical english garden.
And I will constantly read the Forums, and ask questions. :)

Carol, do you think you might be able to find out what kinda marker they are using? I'd love to have one. I use mini blinds with a black, permanent Sharpie and I just went outside to make sure that the printing was okay, and it looks just like it did when I put them there, whew! Brugie, I think you told me about the mini blinds - I had tried everything and I'm really happy with it.

I like this topic Sherry & the posts. Maybe I can learn something for this year!

RIGHT-I was introducted to brugs by a daylily friend. Re-signed up for DG and came to the brug area. Met many really nice people here and learned alot. Started many cuttings and some seeds with fairly good success.
Started a Gardening notebook on computer & recorded important events, like seed starting dates & when I fertilized, etc. Also recorded who cutting were from and when I gave one away.
Gave family and friends small rooted plants. Printed up and laminated "tips for growing", so they would know how to keep them growing well.
Traded with some DG'ers locally. This gave me a chance to meet them in person.

WRONG-Had brugs in containers with no real idea of where I would plant them. As a matter of fact the one area I had thought of, I put a little GH up instead. So I had quite afew containers to keep watered.
Another wrong was not re-labeling cuttings when they arrived. The labels looked good to me, but after a month or so they started to fade & then I wasn't really sure which was which. Not good.
I promised seeds to others before my pod was ripe....it later had some seeds, but got no larger than a large marble, not the golf ball size I expected. (datura)
Went into contests where I could win seeds and had no idea what I would do with so many seeds.
Started seeds too late to see blooms & had to carry them over in GH...taking up space that is very limited.
Put all plants in GH and sprayed with alcohol, soap and water for bugs...remembered one I had forgotten, ran it in without checking for insects. As soon as I set it down in the back, I saw white flies....I quickly ran it back out!

CHANGES FOR THIS YEAR: Right my wrongs!!! Number one biggie....decide where I want to permanently plant some of my brugs & have holes ready before spring!
Start seeds early enough to see blooms before winter.
Re-label all cuttings with brothers labeler...
Check all plants for insects before putting in GH...
Actually have seeds in hand, before promising them to others.
I know I should say, not get so many seeds....but I just don't think I will really do this...not this year anyway!

I am sure I will think of other things! Will add as I remember them!
Thanks for the topic Sherry....Margie

Bump...a really good topic...and I would love to see more answers, how ever short!!! Don't be scared off by the long answers in the post! Even posting one thing at a time would help us all...
Margie

Last year I moved to a new house so it was hard to tell what was bad horticultural skills or being moved in the middle of winter. Trying to grow too many tropicals would be the thing I am changing. Don't get me wrong I will still grow lots of tropicals but if they don't show, they got to go. I tried to get rid of quite a few of them in the fall but no takers who wanted to trade for supplies.

My goals are to get the pond situated and the beds planted,. Make sure the Japanese and Louisiana irises get well established. Work on good soil drainage so I can overwinter more of my hedychiums, cannas, and some of the marginal elephant ears in the ground. But my most important goals are to enjoy the garden, make sure I take the time to have fun, and not always have a project going to worry about.

ey got to go.

Of all the things I have used (and I have tried numerous), there is nothing that beats the China Marker for marking pots. I buy the white and black and use according to what color pot I am writing on. It stays on pots for years unless you scrub and wash it off.

Link:

I think most can find these in their area without ordering and paying postage. Office supplies and probably Home Depot, Lowes or Walmart would have them.

I have also saved myself allot of time by not washing my 4-6" pots by hand after each use. I now rinse them out with the water hose and bring them in and put them in the washing machine with bleach and soap along with hot water. They come out spotless and the writing of the china marker is also gone. Sure saves me time. Now if I just had a washer that would handle gallon pots.........lol because I cycle through many of them and have to do them by hand.

i really cannot put it off anymore. i need a garden plan.

=)

" But my most important goals are to enjoy the garden, make sure I take the time to have fun, and not always have a project going to worry about. "....Wow...I really, really like this one! SG
And also the china marker and using the washing machine for cleaning containers!
I bet your gallon size pots would fit in the dishwasher, BN...not sure I would want to put them in there though!

LOL......I bet they would fit, but not enough to make it worthwhile to run a full cycle. I guess the 32 gal trash can filled with soap, water and bleach is the only way. At least, I don't deal with the small ones any more and I can get allot of them in the washing machine. I also need to add that these are not the thin flimsy pots that some places or that some plants come in. They are the sturdy plastic ones.

Right: I became a paying subscriber to Dave's Garden.

Wrong: I used too much fertilizer on my brugs and almost lost them all! OMG how stressful was that!!!

Joseph

Hi everybody my biggest midtake was to grow so many my backyard was a jungle my friend came with a small uhual and carted them away. i will be more selective this year plus i had a bad time with mities i gues i still don,t what is best to use. Bob

BrugNanny, of course none of the stores you mentioned, in my area, have the china markers - which section were they located?? I really want one for black pots.

Moonglow, how are you coming with your garden plan?? Give us an update.

I have a front loader and I'm just not thinking the pots I have would come out alive. I used the dishwasher and added bleach and it worked good but there were stains left on the pots.

Joseph, what kinda fertilizer did you use?? I'd like to know so I can avoid it. Did you hang on to your plants?? Maybe they will come back up.

I don't know if it will help, Bob, but I'm using a product called Safer Insecticidal Soap with Seaweed Extract, specifically for mites, aphids, meely bugs and whitefiles, and it can be used inside as well as outside. I was told on this forum that the soap was made of Neem oil is the primary ingredient, but I cannot verify that. If the person that gave me sees this post, maybe they can give us a location to check it out. Safer does have a spray that definitely has neem, called BioNeem, which I plan to try. I'm also going to use the Safer brand Slug and Snail Bait - I surely hope it works!!!

Sherry,

It was my fault, I used too much of a very soluble in water fertilizer. My plants survived, thankfully.

Joseph

Sherry, I ordered some from www.dickblick.com They were 65 cents each. I ordered several other things or it wouldn't have been worth paying the postage. I would offer you one, but I only got one white one. I bought dark colors for writing on white tags.

to stay on topic in a Brug thread I guess DON'T have much to offer. (there's a lot of good, bad and uglys for the rest of the flora around my house!)

2004 -
good:- after having so many google links point to DG I finally joined to get to the good stuff and see fullsized pics
- wandered into the Brug forum wondering what in the world they were talking about.
- expanded my research after seeing the first pics and a few entries and was Brug Bitten

wrong - relapsed to my impulse driven - new toy - gotta have it NOW! habit and immediately ordered a couple of books and 6 brug cuttings from one of the first places that came in a google search. (later I start to meet the fine denizens of DG Brugworld and am offered cuttings and seeds for the same things I dropped $$ for)
- immediately potted up seeds sent to me by Brugie before checking on brug seedstarting specifics but I at least got one to sprout and am thankful for it!
- blew my 2005 goal of not buying any new plants... before 2005 even started.

2005 goals - throw away any other catalogues that arrive and order NO MORE PLANTS. (I've went from zero new aquisitions for the year to orders from only 6 places and we won't talk about the seeds I ordered as soon as the BrugBug broke my will)
- acquire all building materials before 3/15 for three new raised beds out front that will be dedicated to growing/trialing new plants due to arrive and growing my Brugs in ground each year along with another new fetish - calla lilies and growing 8 new varieties of clematis just for future propagation.
- get away with eliminating 4 more apple trees out back to make room for other stuff... without getting annihilated by the DW
- non-brug category - after last years success at layering clematis and buddleia in pots, see just how many I can start this year ... leading to a possible means of recouping some expenses.

Well there's a little bit without straying off-topic too much.



This message was edited Jan 27, 2005 5:38 PM

I'm surely with you about tossing the seed and plant catalogs - last year I paid $32 for five 'exotic', giant caladiums. Giant, giant, I guess, if you were a Lilliputian, the seeds were the size of bbs and they only grew about 8 inches and I can grow caladiums. I'll stick to the tried and true standards...

I'm here, I'm here, Sherry!

Attached is a picture of our front berm. The area is roughly 300sqft. We are still in the process of renovating the cottage, so I'm not splurging on the garden yet. I already have most of the plants I need. Some work will start THIS WEEKEND.

That fence will be replaced EVENTUALLY. On the top part near the fence, I will plant a GREAT GUNNERA (spring delivery).

The edges will be planted with hostas (big daddy) and Philodendrons (selloum). I'm growing the hostas right now in pots and the philondendrons, too.

A very LEAFY front berm I'd say. Most of the area will be covered with landscape fabric to keep off the weeds and grass. Then will be covered with bark.

There will be a STONE PATH leading to the great gunnera for a little "stop" to VIEW the bay.

Moonglow, that is absolutely beautiful, I love it!!! I've always wanted a hill or a lump, anything to give a break in flat!!!! Don't stop taking photos, I'd really enjoy seeing the whole project, as it develops...I'd love to watch the renovations on the cottage too...

Whew! Glad you're not contemplating planting and growing grass. :)

I think I'd plant that puppy with all of my favorite lavendars and then some. They'd like the sun, heat, and good drainage and walking through them for your beautiful view would be snifferific! (I can say that because tomorrow is Friday )

8ftbed, lavender topped my list to border that berm, but i still have to buy them. we'll see if a garden fairy sprinkles some magic dust...or dollar bills, i mean lavender seeds.

A couple of Cat's Whiskers plants would look cool there too and they like the sun. Please post pictures when it is all planted. Bet it will look great.