Like Deb said. :) Even if you are pinching the flowers off the plants still puting energy into producing flowers and seed. May not be as much as if the flowers were left, but it is still changing some.
Things that everybody grows but you manage to kill
I keep taking the flowers off as they appear. In the fall, before the freeze, I harvest what's left of the leaves and make a whole mess of pesto, which I freeze. Great eating until the next year. Since mine are grown in the ground, I am unable to move them from the sun. Maybe yours do better, but mine still do just fine.
Ceejay... Pesto ... what great idea! Is that with the pine nuts? Can I have your receipe? :)
Sylvia -
Certainly. Let me get through this weekend first. Got a big project with a time limit. Remind me if I forget!
WILL DO!
:)
Thanks!
I always kill zinnas. I love the way they look, but they seem to fry in the heat for me. When they do live I have part blooms, part dead looking plant (even when I deadhead). I also don't do very well with Pentas. I thought both of these plants were supposed to be drought tolerant?!
Some of my zinnias have 'rust' on the lower leaves right now. Sweet hubby put the lawn sprinkler too close and bout drowned them. They are blooming nicely right now.
Aggiecorgi zinnias usually start off good but then as the heat gets really intense they can begin to look pretty scraggley. Mine are in a garden bed that gets shade in the hottest part of the day so that helps. I don't water them often. Only when the soil feels really really dry. Mine were started from seeds. I find I have much better luck with zinnia seeds rather than bought plants.
I haven't had luck with pentas. I only tried them twice and they didn't do well either time. I might try seeds next time.
Vinca (periwinkles) seem to do real well in my gardens. They take the heat real well and don't need to be watered often.
Well...I can't say much for TX plants since this is my first summer gardening here....but as for other plants I can't keep begonias going for the like of me. Even indoors! Especially rexes, they just brown and shrivel up. Most of the things I put outside this year are doing ok so far (crossing fingers....). Passiflora vines aren't taking off like I thought they would, and a transplanted clematis died. I'm sure there will be other casualties before the summer's end.
:) Kim
good website for Dallas area:
http://www.maggiesgarden.com/index.html
Thanks Debbie! What a neat website. I can get a lot of good ideas from their beautiful gardens.
This is my first summer gardening here and I'm losing my 3rd batch of impatiens (I know, I know, take a hint, right?), I lost my snapdragons, a lavendar and zinnias and my peach verbena though my red, white and purple are doing great. My salvia was hit or miss there for awhile but have increased by 10x over the last week or so. My plumbago was limping along until I got on here and found out I should be ignoring it so now they're doing better. My pink jasmine has had a really hard time but we got deluged with rain this spring the day after I bought them and they're not supposed to have a lot of water. I tend to overwater so I may be losing some to that. Oh, my red hot pokers totally pooped out on me and some of my daylilies won't bloom.
Here's what is doing really well:
My multi-colored salvia
Rajin cajun ruellia
butterfly gaura in siskyou pink
allamanda (shrub not vine)
lily of the nile
french lingerie day lily
lantana
verbena
oh my gosh, my nicotina are going CRAZY
purple queen
shasta daisies
hibiscus
fuschia
So I guess I'm more ahead than behind which isn't bad for a newbie with her first garden!! =)
snapdragons--I can over winter them and they bloom real good until April. But easy to save seeds from.
I'll have to try that. I've never saved seeds from a plant before. Also, my firecracker cuphea went crazy too. They've tripled in size and the hummers are coming!! I Superbloomed about 2 weeks ago and that's made a really big difference in some of the plants and zero in others.