Funny thing, Jnette, I used the Miracle Grow, moisture control potting soil, on my bougainvillea, which I've never been able to grow, and I also put them in baskets with a coco mat and, by chance, had one in the birdbath, that rain filled with water, and it started blooming it's head off. So I potted up all four of them the same way and put all the baskets into containers that don't have holes in them, like the birdbath, so I really don't know if it's the MG moisture control or the way they are planted, but it is the only good year I've ever had with bougainviellea. I read on some thread, maybe this one that MG is coming out with fertilizers with smaller middle numbers. I just cannot figure out why it's taken them so long, tho I understand that they've had one for lawns that is similar to the numbers that brugs need, only thing is that it's time released, and I want water soluble. One other thing, all in all, I cannot tell one bit of difference in potting soil, but I've never been able to find anything but the standards...
Monika's book regarding soil
Judy, if you find it is hot, a plane ticket will follow. LOL
oohhh... I just remembered that I am going to be in Northern Indiana this weekend.. not far from MIchigan! hmmm..hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Well the farthest south in Michigan I think is Kalamazoo..not familiar with some of those places...If you can get ahold of the company, ask them which city is closest....Judy
Help!!! Could one of you please tell my how to make a hyperlink?? I've tried everything I can think of and nothing works...the best it did was make the link into an email...
LOL Sherry go back to this link...I tried to teach you there....here it is
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/536332/#new
Sherry.. who is your internet provider?
I think you are right..I just spent an hour figuring that out..wouldn't save any money that way
Glad to help :-)
Thanks all!!! With the assistance of many of you guys, I think I can now, successfully, hyperlink!!!
Woooo hoooooooo you go girl! You're welcome, glad to help if I did hon. :-)
(((J)))
So, Sherry, what is hyperlink, and why do you want to do it? Jeanette
Jnette, I was on another thread 'overwintering brugs', I think, or something like that and we were discussing bubblers, and I started a thread earlier this year about overwintering brugs in my zone 8a, and I wanted to link the thread the thread I was on, to a photo of bubbler rooted brugs and - when you do that, called hyperlink, you go to the top of the thread (I'll use this one as an example) and you highlight the www addy in the bar across the top, http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/511393/#new, go to Edit, make a copy, then paste it in your post and we can all click on the hyperlink and read the information, whew...it's like when someone gives us a hyperlink to view products like (((VOLCANIC SAND))), that product I'm totally uninterested in purchasing, lol!!! Hope that made sense...
What was that address for that volcanic sand again? Oh, yours came today Sherry???? LOL
Jeanette
Huh??????????? LOL. I think the V sand addy is in this thread, not positive and I have to get stuff in before it rains. We had lovely rain yesterday, now today, what a blessing!!
Blow east Sherry, Blow east!
sidney
I blow dry Blueray, my Golden, each time he goes in the cement pond, and I blow east every time, lol, but I do!!! I thought you guys got rain almost daily in FL, least it always rains when I'm there...
Actually got some this evening. Thanks, been over in Dats bragging to Trois.
sidney
Re the volcanic clay ...it was 26.00 to ship 20 lbs. It was only around 5 bucks to send the smaller bottle. I work for the Airline, and don't think I haven't considered flying somewhere to pick an item up! Continental.
Oh common Sherry, your not joining me? Actually if my plants grow any faster right now I'll have to call Jack up from the bean stalk to take care of them.
Rj
I don't know what you looked at rj, but it was $5 for handling the 2# and almost $11 for shipping. Unless you work for the airlines I guess. I think we are going to have to go by how you tell us it works. I can't afford it. Maybe if you tell me how wonderful it is I will get some next year. It will be time to put my plants to bed in another month I don't need them to get any bigger. I need them to bloom now.
Anybody have any suggestions how I do that? Jeanette
ROTF, rj!!! I'm so loaded with Space City hibiscus fertilizer that I cannot possible find a place to store the volcanic clay, lol!!! Jnette, if you find something that will make the bloom right now, please let me know - I'm loaded with buds but I want blooms, NOW!!!
I wonder what the longest thread is on DG?
Not this one, I don't think. Maybe Kell's 'Red' thread last growing season, at least twice as long as this one...but that is a guess...
Sherry, chalk one more up for you. You are right again. When those babies start budding they take a month to open up and bloom. I wonder why that is. That is a quarter of my growing season did you know that?
Why do you want to know Blaine? Blaine, do you start any other plants from seed? What time of the year do you start them? Last winter is the first time I have kept plants going all winter and those were the Brug cuttings and then I started my other flower seeds, depending on what they were, anywhere from February on. I could not believe my light bills. I think I could have bought all of those plants in gallon containers for what it cost me in electricity.
Jeanette
BTW, rj, did you look up the 2# bag of that sand??? What did you find out?
Jnette - nothing really. Since I've started watching the general pursuit for coveted clay with little forrays along the side I've noticed the number of posts. There's only a few pics otherwise the size might be participation from the dialups.
I think you pay alot more for electricity on the west coast. Otherwise, you can have a lot of shop lights without jacking the bill up that much. Or did you have 1000w metal halide or something? Even though I say I won't, I end ordering and starting some kind of tree seeds. Usually in Jan some time. If I harvest any canna lily seeds, I'll start them in Jan as well. Among other things...
Jnette, can you grow your seeds like now, so that you don't have to use expensive artificial light? I don't have to use lights but I do know that if you do, it's cheaper to turn them on and off yourself, instead of a timer. I think I'm going to start my seeds in late fall, so I can get a head start next spring. My goal is to have something blooming starting early spring, so when it gets a little cooler, I'm going to try to pot up a brug every week or two, and see how that works...
how can it be cheaper turning off and on yourself?
A mechanical timer doesn't cost any more and I get the same period of light every day or mutliple times per day. Whether I'm there or not.
Last winter was my first but I found that brugs didn't have a problem blooming under the lights in the basement. I just fed everytime I watered and I also kept potting up everytime they reached the drain holes until I got to 3 gal pots. Kept them growing.
rj, I had this in my "saves" folder. I think this is what Emily found. A Lava Sand Plus. See what it is, 1 to 2 tablespoons per gallon container. And this is for 7#. $12.57 shipping to me. Jeanette
Volcanite
Description and Benefits:
We consider Volcanite to be ‘Lava Sand Plus’ because it contains five different highly paramagnetic crushed volcanic rocks. Volcanite re-mineralizes the soil to make plants hardy and robust. Contains Lava Sand, Greensand, Zeolite, Basalt and Granite.
Suggested Application Rate:
1 to 2 tablespoons per gallon container or 40 pounds per 1,000 square feet.
Available Sizes:
7 Lbs.
40 Lbs.
I am going to try to answer all of these quick. Gotta go pick blackberries. Sherry, that doesn't make sense, timers cost more than turning on and off manually. You have it backwards. Sherry, if I start them now what do I do with them in the winter? You mean they will get big enough to put on bubblers for the winter?
Sherry, what do you mean you are going to pot up a brug every week or two? When?
Blaine, no I used shop lights. A lot of them. Didn't fertilize. I was trying to keep them from getting too big. As it was they were 4 ft high.
Sherry, what did you think of the Volcanite? rj, how is it different than the green sand?
Jeanette
My timer situation was some time ago, I had everything on timers, took everything off and the electric bill decreased. Could be they have better timers now, when ours clicked on or off, it sounded like a breaker was blown, lol! The new ones, like the night light on the microwave, I like - we cannot hear it turn on and off - and, thats a good thing, hahaha!!
The brugs I winter outside, get at least two months rest each year, as Monika recommends. I didn't add fert to my bubbler last year, and all would have been fine, if I hadn't broken my ankle, so the cuttings set in the bubbler for months, but potted up nicely, all lived and several bloomed in the bubbler. This year, Jnette, I intend to pot up a brug or seedling weekly, like I plant my caladium bulbs, weekly or biweekly, so they will come up in waves, all season. My goal is to have at least one brug blooming all the time - realistically, I'd say one brug blooming every two weeks might even be more than I can manage. I will root several Pink Favorites because she is so faithful, has bloomed constantly since June 23 and she is small and an easy keeper.
Jnette, our growing seasons are so far apart that I don't think much of what I do would apply to your zone, but Brugie, Kyle, Scoot, Blaine, ReneeO, and I know lots other super growers, are in your magical zone, and, if I was in your shoes, I'd do pretty much what they do. I sorta picked out LindaSC, Susie, DonnaB, BarbW, MaryinLA, and select stuff that works for them, they are all established and in hotter, more humid (except LindaSC's zone if about the same as mine) zones than I am. I will never be able to grow the show stoppers that all of you zone 5a and zone CA gardeners grow, which is just about everything, whew (I hate all of you, LOL!), so I'm trying to learn to do the best I can do here.
This year, I learned that I can grow seeds like gangbusters in the winter and I don't do worth a flying flip with seeds in the spring/summer and, I can root almost anything in the bubbler. So, I'll concentrate on that, with the brugs I have and the cuttings I might receive this fall and any seeds I might buy or receive. If you read this far, you deserve a medal. I'm having a Malibu over crushed ice, 21% alcohol. Kinda like Near Beer, lol.
Remember that?? I don't drink beer but I do remember it...
Jeanete.
Your right..that was 5.00 handling and 9.30 for shipping. Guess that will be my last order. It would be cheaper for me to fly there! I bet we see more of this kind of thing offered as we savy gardeners begin requesting these things.
Gee, huckleberries..and now black berries? Next your going to tell me your off to pick salmon berries!
You wouldn't believe what a little box of rasberries cost here. My Uncle had a rasberry farm in Lake Stevens (by Snohomish).
Rj
OK Blaine, I now get what you were talking about with such a long thread and dial ups. Well, I started this thread and I am a dial up. I can honestly say that this thread doesn't take any more time than any other thread. Hard to believe but true. For me.
Sherry, I know what you mean about doing the Brugs like othe rpeople in zone 5a. However, please do not include me in the group like Brugie, Blaine, and dthe others because I have not gotten the hang of these things yet and just because the aggie says we are all zone 5a I do not believe we have the same growing climate. I don't know how the zone thing is figured, but I don't think "zone 5" is the all magical thing you seem to think. At least it isn't for me.
You say you can grow the seeds really good in the winter, well then do you have a heated greenhouse to put them in? I can get seeds to sprout easily too but that was what I was saying about keeping them warm and under lights until I can put them outside.
Near Beer, 21%???? Sherry, I don't know about Arky, but Washington State limits beer to 5.something %. Think I'll move there. LOL
rj, bet you miss things like the berries. I've never picked the Salmon berries. We did Strawberry and Raspberry jam some weeks ago. Tell you what though, the things I miss most about the coast are the seafood like clams and oysters. Bet you do too. Guess we don't appreciate those things until we don't have them.
Jeanette
Sherry, I think the difference in the electricy bill with the timer is that it's going to turn on everything attached to it, on schedule everyday (if set like that). Very very few people can do something consistently, day in , day out at the same time for the same length of time. See what I mean?
Magical zone.... I still wonder who sold you that notion. hehhee If anything, I'd think WA the rain and less fluctuation in temps would be better. I'll always remember a placemat at my grandmother's with a picture of a veritable jungle in WA. I wanted to live there for so long.
rj, I'm rather put out with the fertilizer/garden supply vendors, for not paying more attention to the needs of specialized gardeners all across the country. It's not like these products have a shelf life. Every time I go to the nurseries and to Walmart and Lowes, someone tells me a tale about a particular something they want/need and their difficulty finding it. I realize it's most because of my rural location, but I have shopped the bigger cities in my area, with no luck either. I heard that Miracle Grow is going to start making products with smaller middle numbers, they already make some, for lawns, but they are time released and I want water soluble. Also, someone mentioned that MG is owned by Scott or Peters, which might also be the same. I surely hope some of the products show up in this area. If I could just buy 15-5-15 locally, I'd be happy...
I might have been the first to post that zone 5a and zone CA are magical. but the fact is that Monika is zone 5a, as well as Kyle, Brugie, Scoot, ReneeO, and you. This is how I determined the zone is magic, and it's nothing you don't already know - Monika is the queen of brugs on the forum, as well as world known, and has written a book, and is responsible for hybridizing the most beautiful brugs I've ever seen. Kyle is a well known hybridizer, I understand, in Europe, as well as the US and he's published articles - Brugie has grown the first pink double in the US, might be Monika's seeds, but Brugie grew it in zone 5a. ReneeO is known for continually nice brugs. Scoot is relatively new, but took off with leaps and bounds. Now, you have done the same thing. Your talents and love for gardening are the driving force, I suppose, but you do live in a zone where brugs are known to thrive, as evidenced by photos from everyone I included. I'm not positive of all the factors, but I think temperatures have lots to do with it. There is one thing about the magic zone that I do not like and that is the fact that you guys have to drag them in and out in the winter and spring, and your growing season is not long enough. And because of those two obstacles, I consider you guys dedicated and most deserving, for going the extra mile, not once, but twice every year, WOW!! Zone CA is, IMO, one of the wonders of the world and magical but the growers there have few problems with the weather, do not have to bring their brugs in and out, many have no down time with their brugs so, IMO, it's not the same game that the rest of us play. It is just a fact that gardening where there are seasons, and extreme seasons, is more difficult than CA and many coastal areas. I know there are many more hot gardeners in zone 5a, I just mentioned the ones that I 'see' the most often. I'll kick myself after I send this when I think of others, lol!!
Jnette, last year I started some seeds in Jan, but the majority on 2/22/05. This year, I'll start them in Oct or Nov, I think, I'll try some and if they don't germinate quickly, I'll wait until a little later. I had at least a hundred or 150 on my window sills, inside, last winter and they did great, they were in small Styrofoam cups, I took them outside before Easter Sunday, don't remember, and put them in tall cups. If my GH isn't filled to overflowing, I might put some in there but right now, I doubt it. This year, when I pot up seedlings and cuttings, I will not use a pot over 2 gallons, and will try to use 1 gallon pots - because they will be fine and maybe bloom in that size pot and the big ones are just too much trouble, and they WILL go in the ground anyway, so I cut my work...
Wow Sherry, theres a lot of meat on that zone bone. :) Didn't know that and you have sure picked out the details. Have you been into troubleshooting or analysis in your non-gardening life? Dragging stuff in and out... yeah and goofy me has added agave and pampas grass to the frail menagerie I'll have to babysit.
Blaine, what I posted leaves out LOTS of hot hybridizers and growers, that just do not happen to be in those zones, especially SUSIE, she is responsible for some of the most beautiful brugs ever and Tracey, whom I really do not know, has swell crosses out there (I have one seedling Watermelon Ice x ??). Then there are hybridizers/growers (that I know), including Susie, Barb Ward, MaryinLA, Kell, - I do not like making such lists, I know I've left a bunch of people out. Of course Kell, who sent me the most wonderful seeds in the world, is in zone CA - but the others are not, but they do live in near costal, tropical like areas. Unless a hurricane wipes them off the map, their conditions are good, in that they can winter outside.
Yep, in real life, I'm the office manager for my hubby/son, trial lawyers. Trouble shooting is my territory - I determine the merits of lawsuits, interview clients, abstract briefs, prepare legal documents - everything, except I'm not a member of the bar. I am now working from home (networked); I was a full time working girl for 25ish years...
Ah Hah! I know a sleuth when I see one. Recognizing patterns, following signals and attention to details. Electronics, programming and fishing for me. :)
You see Sherry, Blaine just proved my point. He thinks Washington State is all a wonderland of rain. My daughter lives in Western Washington, south of Seattle, and that is zone 8a. I am in Eastern Washington, and we are zone 5a. There is a mountain range right down the middle of the state. My daughter can leave her Brugs out in the winter and I drag mine in and out.
And also Sherry, you left out the earthquakes that the Ca coast gets if they don't behave themselves. Just ask Kell. They are going to church all the time hoping to stave off the BIG one. LOL
Jeanette