Where did winter go?

Are you having the same things happen at your house?
Iris are blooming, my Magnolia Galaxy is blooming, my roses are blooming, even some of the daylilies... And none of the perennials have taken a rest. I don't want the bloom on the magnolia to be spoiled so lets hope that this weather will last for awhile. It doesn't usually bloom until February!

It's not winter here either, Doss. Got a little rain but not enough, even though I dislike the rain I understand the need for it. Lots of irises blooming.

Here it's raining and raining and raining......................but warm. Lows in the 50's.

At least your iris aren't rotting, huh Weegy?

Doss,

My garden thinks it's fall, except for the trees which have lost their leaves. Everything else is happy, although the chysanthamum pots I set outside (to plant in the spring) have an interesting new look - they have little balls of mold where the blooms were (and some new buds). Even the daffodils I planted this fall are popping up!

I must confess to being an enormous fan, (having admired the pics of your yard & your generous design advice to DG members,) and a neighbor (grew up & moved from PA 18 months ago to Emerald Hills, above Redwood City). Planning, planting & tending my yard (a double lot) will either keep me young or kill me! Now, if I could just retire and tend it full time....

Happy New Year!

Liz

Well, Liz, we should get together. How fun to have a new yard to plan - and what a challenge. Emerald Hills is a lovely place and a double wide yard is quite a luxury. Have you posted photos of your yard somewhere?

I love the little balls of mold. That's what happened to my peony last year so it has been replaced by a rose bush.

My daffodils are about 3" high too.. And the weirdest thing. My magnolia is finally the dark pink that it was supposed to be and this is the first year it's been such a beautiful color. But I think that it's more because of acid tree food it got to tell you the truth. I'll pound some in the end of the week. This rain should at least soften the soil and we should get something good from it, don't you think?

That's right Doss, no rotting irises. Lots of weeds and dead blooms to start working on now. Can't believe that spring is just around the corner and I can't wait.
Yes Liz, Doss is a guru to many including me and also a wonderful friend!
She is an absolute doll.

I'm over here blushing.

Doss, Your magnolia sounds magnificent! You'll fertilize already? Is that because we're having a mild winter? I'm a relative neophyte, when it comes to gardening...

Weegy, Where is Chino?

No, I haven't posted pics... yet.... I need to get over my shyness about asking for input... And I need to take recent pics, since we demolished a couple of hundred linear ft. of deck in our yard - this was our demo year... Next year we'll begin hardscaping & some planting... I did start one bed this fall (just to keep me happy) - removed the lawn (which was primarily yellow moss) & planted 3 peewee hydrangea's, a couple flowering maples, 3 princess flowers & 3 apricot colored nemesia (along w/ daffodils, pansies & forget-me-not seeds around the peewees). I can't wait for it to warm up enough to start planting perennials - the rain is our friend, making the dirt soft... and hopefully, the layers of peat moss, newspaper & compost, I laid down this fall, have brought some earthworms to work my barren & rocky dirt. This bed will be my only ornamental bed - with a view toward deer tolerant plants (although I learned the hard way that the deer like my abutilon almost as much as I do! The rest of the yard will be more drought tolerant and planted over the years, as I whittle away at the ivy covered expanses. I figure the landscaping to be a 5 year plan.... It's exciting & daunting!

Looking forward to getting to know you!

This message was edited Dec 29, 2005 5:36 PM

Lizzapa

Here is a photo of my magnolia Galaxy this spring after I fed it with acid tree stakes. I do that in the fall so the rains can take the nutrients to the plants. It works for me but I don't know if it's 'right'.

This message was edited Dec 29, 2005 6:25 PM

This is a photo of the same tree last year. I don't have a close up of it. I thought that the nursery had probably sent me the wrong tree but it just turned out that it wasn't being taken care of properly. Believe me. The second flower isn't any darker than it is in real life. What a surprise!

It sounds as if you have a fun bed starting. It's always good to get a small place done so at least you have some respite. I'm "into" doing small spaces right now and I'm having a lot of fun.

I do love abutilons. Which ones did you get? I have three and I really enjoy them but i don't know their names - can you believe it? Metal markers everywhere too but not on these. My camellias are too old to have names for and they think that they should bloom now too. Go figure.

A five year plan sounds good. My garden is on the 30 year plan. LOL

Hiya;

I'm in Los Angeles, and it's been just like summer......and I'm not a big fan of Los Angeles summers! This pic was taken around Thanksgiving. It's great that I've still got blooms, but I'm also still out weeding! I finally had to go in and just cut back the russian sages even though they were in full bloom, they never wanted to stop. The nasturtiums are on a rampage and taking over, they think it's spring. And, all my roses are still blooming. Oh well, shouldn't complain I guess. I could be shoveling snow!

Hiya back margu,

I grew up in Los Angeles and I'm not fond of LA summer either. But my Russian Sage seems to be staying up way beyond it's bed time too.

Your garden is very pretty by the way. And I've got lots of Johnny Jump ups having a very good time. You are right though. Shoveling snow is a bunch of work and I'm finally in a place that has really good summer weather.

What is the plant with the red berries draped over your garden structure. It's very pretty.

I made the mistake of trying some winter sowing of seeds this year. The web site said it works even for mild winter areas. As of today, three pots of seeds have decided that it's now springtime. Uh oh.

Oh no! You will probably be all right if you bring them in if we have a cold snap. Don't you think? What kind of seeds?

The ones that have sprouted the most are lavatera and melampodium. The other pots don't show any sprouts yet.

I kind of went hog wild with seeds this year, so I figured the winter sowing method would be the way to go so I don't have so many things started inside.

I've gone sort of seed crazy this year for the first time too but I didn't start any outside. I'm going to be busy with seedlings this year - hopefully I'll just have so many I won't know where to put them. :-)

Here's the iris that's blooming right now.

Doss, I don't know much about iris, but is it supposed to be blooming right now? ;->

The draping red berries are plain old firethorn. I let it grow wild, and at first it looked like Don King! Branches sticking straight up 12 ft high.....then this year they arched down perfectly over the trellis. I like to let the garden go wild, and then I just try to keep it tamed. (that's my reasoning...I'm really just lazy).

I lived in the Bay Area for 15 years, first in SF, then up in Marin. I know what you mean about perfect weather. ** Sigh**
I came back down here for family reasons, now that's done, but it's too darn expensive to move back up!

Draping red berries of Pyracantha? Fire thorn indeed. It was one of the first things I got rid of when I moved here. It sure is lovely in it's situation. It got planted all over here in spaces much too small for it and was a bear to keep pruned. I do miss the red berries. Have to be satisfied with Nandina.

Sorry that you couldn't move back. It's happened to the best of us. My oldest daughter lives in CO for the same reason.

This iris wasn't even listed as a rebloomer - but it sure is happy.

It'll always be ol' firethorn to me. I grew up with these too, in San Fernando, very entertaining when the robins ate the berries and got drunk! I was sick of them, but being lazy has it's advantages, now I have a lovely arching "gate" into my garden!

Doss, The color of your magnolia is gorgeous and your tree is enormous! Do you live in an Eichler? I'm afraid I don't know varieties of plants.... I'm lucky to know the name of the species. I wish I had the time to be more scientific about gardening... My abuliton's are yellow - they're small (probably less than 2"), but the trunks & branches are very thick & strong -I chose them because they're shaped like little trees rather than shrubs. When I refer to a 5 year plan, that's how long I anticipate before it resembles a yard with a plan, instead of a jungle or mountain slope.... I need to retire, so I can play in the garden!!

Sounds like several of you are playing with seed this year. I bought quite a few too (including brugmansia's, which I've never grown - don't ask me the variety, Doss! LOL!) and am looking forward to trying my luck growing seedlings &, hopfully, saving some $.

I don't live in an Eichler - but I live in an Eichler era home. And I noticed that my Brugs were blooming today. Stranger and stranger. There are a lot of Brugs out there blooming right now.

As long as you know where you're going - or have a general direction. That's all that counts.

One of my abutilons has variegated leaves and yellow flowers, one has smalling red and yellow flowers that look like tight bells and one is a coral color.

Do you have enough room to put coldframes up so that you can grow seeds easily? Or perhaps a small greenhouse? We had one when I moved in 35 years ago but it was all glass and I didn't want my toddlers in there so I removed it. But that's OK. I have a gazebo there now and it's much more attractive. I'm growing seeds in the shed with artificial light. Right now they are only iris and daylily seeds but I have ordered quite a number of others - spurred on by DG fanatics and I'm looking forward to doing it.

I hope that you can retire too and play in the garden. It sounds as if it has such great possibilities.

As far as the pyracantha, I tried replacing it with cotoneaster but it's just not the same, you know?

doss, my brugs are still blooming. and more buds coming.

it felt like spring the last three days. been gardening.

happy new year!

Happy New Year to you to. My two Brugs are blooming too. Right along with the camellias. They don't seem so confused. The azaleas seem to be early though. Let's hope for kind weather the rest of the season.

My Charles Grimaldi brug is beginning another flush of blooms. I don't mind this weather at all, but I'm worried about what's going to happen when it turns cold again. It doesn't seem like this could last, does it?

I have a nagging suspicion that we'll have a very cold snap sometime in the near future, and all of our little blooms are not going to be very happy.....BTW, it's been in the 80's here for the last couple of days.

No cold snaps allowed this year! We had in Feb last year and I lost a red passion flower. I replaced it with a hardier white version but I really did love the red.

Here's the magnolia half way open. It's really extra spectacular with the sun shining through the blossoms. Photos of your brugs anyone?

Doss, I saw two magnolia trees blooming in our neighborhood, today, and thought of you. However, these were purple - never seen a purple magnolia before, but they're magnificent! I'm dreaming of seed, this weekend.... you'd asked if I had a greenhouse - no, I don't, but I do have a "sunroom", a glassed in former porch, which is filled with plants. I re-potted some of them this weekend, and added a shelf to the room to the room to house my seeds. I'm thinking of getting a seed growing system from Burpee - it has a "capillary mat", which wicks moisture up to the seedlings.

I agree with Lilystorm & Margu - I'm worried about a cold snap too... I'm dying to plant some perennials, but know that would guarantee cold weather, so I'll wait! Oh well, I satisfied my urge by transplanting some hydrangeas, out of pots, into a bed next to the house - don't know if they'll get enough sun to flower, but they started as Trader Joe indoor flowers (which I re-potted & kept on my patio) and they seem pretty indestructable, so we'll see...

Were the magnolias smaller trees or the large ones? I have a yellow one but it's never bloomed for me. And it's supposed to be a 20 foot tree but it's only 5 feet tall after 10 years. The flowers come in a lot of colors.

I'm trying Park Seed's system this year. It's working great with my iris but I may have let my daylily seeds stay too warm too long. I didn't know that you were supposed to refrigerate them right away. How nice to have a sun porch. I just bought a bunch of seeds and I'm going to see what I can do. I think that the heat mats have helped with the iris seeds most of all.

isn't Trader Joe's great?

doss, so great i try to stay away.

another gorgeous spring weather. after church we drove to the marin countryside and how beautiful it was there. of course the days are still very short...

finally bought VF-11 "the champagne of plant foods" - - - this is new to me this year and can't wait to try it.

have a great week ahead!

Enjoy the VF11 - hope that it satisfies all of your plant's needs, wants and desires!

It was cold out today - at least that part was January, sort of. But it sure was beautiful.

oh, doss. thanks for the cheers! i couldn't help it...i know it's not officially spring yet, but i had to foliar feed with VF-11 today. i'll have time to check on my roses tomorrow if they indeed perk up, then here comes the rain again.

your magnolia is a show-stopper. here's my yellow brugmansia sanguinea.

That's very beautiful!

Here's mine - and sort of blooming. It's in way too much shade and will outgrow it's spot eventually but I'm enjoying it while I have it.

My roses are in bud - small ones. I'm not feeding anything yet though because I don't want to encourage it. Maybe some rose food for the brug though? It get's spidermites very badly poor babe.

oh, yours is gorgeous! thanks for sharing her photo. i have b. sanguinea seedlings to repot. been distracted.

i use bayer advanced for the mites, etc. so far, so good. but this is still all very new to me.

=) have a great evening. please post more spring-like blooms.

Bayer advanced is the only answer to mites I've found. Park Seed has a sea product that is supposed to reduce them by 75% so I'm going to try that this season.

This is iris "Square Dance Skirt". It's sure feeling like it has to bloom right now. Lots of buds.