Guys...I've been soooo busy lately...hope some of you are still here....I'd love to hear from you if so.....
Fill me in....!! :)
I just watched "Path to 9/11"....will watch tomorrow so don't know it I'll be on.....
Texas Coffee & Gardening in the Morning....Sept 11 -17
Hi Connie! I figured you must be very busy!!!
I Tivoed the "Path to 9/11" but have not watched it yet.
I was hoping we'd get rain so I wouldn't have to go out and water everything this morning, but not a drop. We heard thunder around 8:30pm last night but it never did rain.
I had to post this picture of my niece with her blue tongue from cotton candy. It was her bday on the 5th.
Glad you were just busy, Connie!
This is moving week for my sister, so I will be in and out of Austin for the next few days. I'll be at her new home in Round Rock by 8:00 in the morning to meet the gas man and the movers whenever they arrive. She and my 17yo nephew are driving from Lubbock in two vehicles with four cats, separately caged, and two huge dogs. Last I heard there was disagreement about which dog would ride where as one tends to get sick when traveling. I'm glad to be the one waiting at the house!
I'm going to make a few nursery stops too. Any good sales going on in the Austin area?
Last Friday I decided to spend the entire day going from one nursery to another and prowled all over Central Texas, saving Austin for this week. I started in Lampasas, then Marble Falls, and even went to Bob's Hill Country Gardens (used to be Schumacher's) at New Braunfels. Big disappointment! The website made it sound like there were still lots of plants available, but not so. The new owner said they were phasing out the retail nursery. A year ago we prowled through a huge greenhouse and an acre of plants in pots. Now there are just a few plants, mostly ordinary, under one small shed. I found only one salvia to bring home. The greenhouse has been turned into a propagation facility for their wholesale business. It was full of plants I could not even look through!
So I went home through Kerrville and got to Natives of Texas five minutes after the 4:00 closing time. The nursery man was at the gate ready to close it. He was so nice though and spent time helping me pick out a Jeep load of great salvias. He had propagated all of them and gave me detailed instructions on how to care for each one. His English was difficult to understand at times, but his love for the plants was clear.
I hope all of you have a very enjoyable week. Maybe we'll get a bit more rain.
It is really, TRULY, raining. Coming down quite properly. Monday a.m. is my one day of the week to do any watering, so I was out early doing just that, even though the sky was overcast. I've been fooled before, and if you take a chance on a forecast that doesn't pan out, you have to wait a week to provide any relief. Shortly after the 10 a.m. shut-off time, the rain began.Never have gray skies looked more pleasant. Yuska
This message was edited Sep 11, 2006 4:54 PM
Well I finally got back from Houston about an hour ago. Made a new friend and stayed with her on Sat night instead of coming back and then got a migraine yesterday so stayed last night to.
I have a few hundred message to read to get caught up... *giggle
Yuska, so glad that SA is getting rain. We just finally started getting rain here in N. Austin about 30 minutes ago. Praise God!!! I'm with you...gray dark sky never looked so good. It was sunny most of the day then I heard the wind pick up and saw that the cold front was coming down at the same time as the Gulf warm front was coming up. Now they are almost coliding.
ren, you are one popular gal!!! Glad you got home from Houston safely.
patrob, sorry about the disappointing nursery. You will love the nurseries here. I'm not sure what all is in Round Rock, but I know they have a big one called Round Rock nursery. There is a nice one in Pflugerville too...can't remember the name! Merae would know. It is off 1825. So will you be visiting Austin more now that your sis lives here? Does she like to garden?
Well, dinner is getting cold. DH gets home usually around 4:30 but I guess he is stuck in traffic!! Whenever it rains, the entire freeway called Mopac comes to a standstill. oy vey.
Connie, I am about 1-1/2 hours into "Path of 9/11". Pretty dang interesting to say the least.
Michelle
Patrob...is this the time to plant Salvias? I'm watching the second night of Path, Michelle....gotta see it to the end!
The nurseryman at Natives of Texas told me to keep my new salvias in the greenhouse this winter, repot in larger containers, and take cuttings. But I am planting outside and taking cuttings to root in the greenhouse. The salvias his "boss lady" brought him over the years were taken from the wild and probably needed more care right at first, but these are pot grown, very well rooted and should make it fine. I tend to push the zone a bit and lately I've been lucky. He is such a sweet man. He told me that after he left the nursery that night he was going to plant a memorial garden for his boss's girlfriend's very old cat that had just died. Being a total cat lover, I told him I thought he was a very good man. (The boss's wife, who founded the nursery and garden after teaching algebra for thirty years, died several years ago after a very long battle with cancer.) They have built a spectacular hillside memorial garden for her. They have a wonderful selection of Texas native plants and are very congenial people. Good feeling place.
I'm off to Round Rock in the morning to meet the movers and gas man. It will be good to have my sister so close, and I do hope to spend more time in the Austin area. As my DH and I have gotten older, we have stopped doing so many things that require the late night drive home. Now we can include her and stay over. There used to be a dinner theater there -- we really enjoyed that. My younger son sat through 'Porgy and Bess' when he was a junior in high school at UT's theater. Really good hurricane effects, but I too fidgeted throught the third act. I was waiting to hear 'Old Man River' and only learned later that was from an entirely different production. :>)
Y'all take care, and I'll see you in a few days.
This message was edited Sep 11, 2006 10:30 PM
Connie, I watched the first 2 hours of the first show of Path. Haven't gotten to the second part yet. Bryan keeps giving me projects to do which is getting in the way of my show!
Are the salvias annuals? I hope I didn't just waste money digging up some ugly-looking ones!!!
Connie, there are many, many kinds of salvias. Some are annuals, but many are perennials, especially in zones 8 and higher. Do you know what variety you have? I collect the perennial varieties, though some are borderline hardy where I live. I have a deep layer of cypress mulch on the salvia bed, take cuttings to root and overwinter in the greenhouse just in case, and usually have good luck. The heat and bugs have really stressed, perhaps killed, several this summer.
Today was a stressful day. I got on I35 in Georgetown at 7:45 (all those people used to be at work already by then!) and went four miles before traffic came to a stop, crawl, stop, crawl. Mother insisted I exit and use the access road. (I knew better, but we were in her car and she is the mother.) It took fifteen minutes to go the next half mile to an exit. Then I got instuctions on how to change lanes in solid, stopped traffic. Some of the lights changed four times before we got through them. Then I "got lost" because there was a wreck on the access road and we missed Exit 250, and I had to double back. Then Grand Avenue Parkway is not named that at the point we had to turn. I "got lost" again, but I finally went back to A.W. Grimes, which went the right direction and was in the right place, and there was the street we were supposed to turn on. We arrived at the house just before 9 a.m., not 8 as planned. The movers were sitting there and talking on their cell phone to my sister in Lubbock, who had been trying to call me. She had called my husband in Goldthwaite to see if we got off on time. My phone will call out in Round Rock, but it does not receive any calls from right there in Round Rock, Goldthwaite, or Lubbock. Crazy!
patrob, welcome to Austin. Oh yes, we have some lovely traffic snafus. So many people have moved to G'town and RR that the traffic going south on I35 is a nightmare in the mornings and a nightmaring going north in the evenings. Sorry to hear about your frustrating drive. I totally understand. You are right, Grand Ave Pkwy is not marked coming from that direction. Not sure why??? I find that road markings, once you get out of the City of Austin, are just plain poor. I get lost in Pflugerville and RR all the time b/c they don't keep up with marking the street names on the new streets as well as old streets that some brainiac decided to change the name. Hill Country Bible Church in Pville is on a street that has had its name changed. So if you look it up on googlemaps, it has the correct name, but the street marking itself has not been changed so it is very confusing. I'm not sure what the deal is with RR and Pville's lack of street markings and incorrect street markings, but it is extremely irritating. I think those areas are growing so quickly that they just can't keep up.
i have lots of the annual variety of salvias. I also have some mexican sage salvias that are blooming right now and are really pretty. Those are perennial types. I cut them down in the winter and cover them with mulch and they come back in the spring like gangbusters. They are huge. They are blooming that purple bloom that will the shoot out some little white flowers. The bees LOVE them.
Michelle
Patrob, I'm so sorry to hear about Schumacher's (to me it will always be Schumacher's, no matter what that crazy guy changes the name to)! Chip must be really upset. To see his nursery sink so low, after he spent so many years of his life building it up so he could sell all those great plants. Many of the plants couldn't be bought anywhere else as far as I know. I wish someone could have bankrolled him after his condition deteriorated. Then Schumacher's Hill Country Nursery would still still exist.
just enough time to say GOOOOOOODDD MORNING! to all and to all a Good Day. LOL
calvin
Hello all, just checking in. Haven't been watching for the "coffe thread" lately. I am recooperating at home, not being able to sit in a chair for long periods. I need to walk, but when I walk in the yard, I see so much that I can't do yet. My back is healing though and I will be better later. I can drive now, so that helps. I am meeting a couple of DG friends today to see one of their butterfly gardens. Anxious to take my camera for a few pictures maybe.
Have a great day!
Hi Sheila, it is good to hear from you and to know you are recovering well. What all did they do to your back? Did they put a bunch of hardware in there? My friend Jamie has had her second back surgery and she has so much hardware that she sets off the security alarm at the airport. OH...butterfly garden. Please post pictures for us to enjoy.
It is a lovely cool morning and I just love it! It is my first day for my Beth Moore bible study called "Believing God". I'm pretty excited about it.
Hey Calvin, good to hear from you! HOw is everything? DW? D-children?
Michelle
I had two herniated disc in the small of my back. No pins or fusing thank the Lord! That is why I am healing so fast no doubt. Enjoy your study group. I will try to get some pics loaded this afternoon.
Sheila
Good to hear your surgery went well, Sheila. Keep us up with your progress....Sandi
Good morning everyone. I have been terribly busy at work and not much time to visit DG. I wanted to drop a line to say hi to everyone. I certainly am enjoying this beautiful weather around here. It is very refreshing. We have even had some rain lately. Grass is finally recovering and getting green and growing again. I will have to mow this weekend. I replenished one of my beds with some pentas and petunias. Michelle is going to make me some cuttings of her coleus to replace where I had pulled mine out because of a huge mealy bug infestation. Bubbles...I have a ? for you. Have yall talked about these darned mealy bugs in your meetings? How do you prevent them? They really took over my coleus and I could not get rid of them, I had to pull out the coleus that had them because I was afraid that they would get everything else. Do they live in the soil?
Patrob - Sorry you had such trouble in Austin traffic. It really can be one of the more frustrating things. Austin is so wierd...There are many roads that are named more than one street. For example...Grand Ave Pkwy and AW Grimes. You stay on that road and just depending where you are it is called one thing one place and another name elsewhere. It is like that all over Austin. SO CONFUSING!!! That was one of my biggest trials learning to get around Austin. There are hardly any major roads that do not have at least 4-5 different names. I am glad your daughter and family are closer to you. That is so nice!
I to am missing Schumachers. I bet Chip is not happy with the situation either. I have a cousin that lives close to there and we spent a lot of time visiting with him and buying plants. I wish I could find a place like that in the Waco area. I bet one doesn't exsist.
Have a good day everyone.
Good news about Schumacher's! I'm on Chip's email list and received the word today that he is taking back the nursery as of today! Evidently all those plants I saw in the big greenhouse were plants he was preparing to offer in a special sale starting now. He has cut the hours to 9-1 Tuesday through Saturday and is offering some propagation classes again too. I wish I had waited a week to go, but after helping my sister unpack this week, I'm not ready to jump in the Jeep and make another trip right now. lol I need to finish planting what I did buy last week.
Here's a link to info on Schumacher's special sale tomorrow and Saturday: http://www.hillcountrygardens.com/index.html
And the newsletter explaining that he is trying to salvage the nursery:
http://www.hillcountrygardens.com/newsletter.html
I can now find my way around pretty well in Round Rock. I just needed a few days to explore. I even found the public library last night and used the wireless hot spot to do a little computer work.
I had been missing Silverfluter's posts lately; now I wonder if she has been busy helping them out? I know she spoke about them often.
Merae...I too had mealy bugs on the coleus. I tried spraying them off at first. Then I used Neem oil spray. That seemed to do it. I think having my plants so crowded contributed to the problem, not to mention the heat. I didn't lose any, but I did trim some back. My brugs really suffered this summer from spider mites. They're just now getting ready to bloom again. And I was given three papayas in June. They are huge now....and have just gotten mites. I pulled the infected leaves off, and was just about to pull the trees out when I noticed little papayas forming. I'll wait and see.....So glad it's cooled off a bit. I'm making a list of plants I won't use next year....and I'm not going to have one single hanging basket! I'm watering them twice a day.
The hibiscus are really blooming now. I have some that are in ground and are at least 8 ft tall. If you see the Texas Gardener magazine this month...there's an article in it about getting your plants ready for winter. It's written by our Ext agent. There's a photo of my in-ground hibiscus, Feb before last, blooming. They're under pvc pipe covered with plastic, warmed by Xmas lights. I'm going to have to really chop them back at the first sign of cold weather this year so we can cover them. The ones in pots are huge...those are the ones I bought at HEB/Round Rock for $3. each. (bought 19 in May)......
You can have some coleus cuttings if you'd like...are you going to be able to winter them over? I always think I will....and then around December...I pull 'em! Too easy to start new ones.
patrob, thanks for the info on Schumachers. Gosh, I wish I could get over to New Braunfels today, but am already booked up the entire day today. :( And tomorrow Bryan and I have plans in the morning and then we are going to an adoption pot luck in the late afternoon.
I have not been to one of the Chinese adoption pot lucks since April so it will be fun to see all the children that have come from China and now have wonderful parents and homes here in the US. It is a little sad to see them too since it is taking so long to get our daughter.
Bubbles, most of the coleus that I'm trimming down and giving cuttings to Merae are from the cuttings you gave me back when we had the Austin Nursery Tour. They are all getting pretty tall, so I told her I had to cut them back and didn't want to toss the cuttings. So Merae is going to make a nice home for them.
So you have had problems with spider mites too hu? I've had major problems with them 2 years in a row now...they come on about mid July and then kill everything by Sept. They attack my tomato plants which really make me mad. Is there anything a person can use to get rid of them? I have sprayed with soapy water, bug b gone, sevin dust....it doesn't seem to do diddly. I have also a new problem with white flies. That is a new one on me. no mealy bugs so far, thank the Lord.
Sheila, I'm so glad you don't have to have all that hardware put in your spine. Makes recovery a lot harder from what I understand from my friend Jamie. Poor thing has more metal in her now than flesh I think.
Merae, working hard, aren't ya? You know we are suppose to get more rain Sun-Tues. Yay. I hope so.
Bubbles -- How cool that your pic got published. Once you posted, I had to get my magazine out and look at your pic. That is a very handy setup you designed. I love the Christmas lights in there. I think I might have to try to do something like this for my tomatoes if cold gets here too soon and I still have fruit on the vine. When I look at the picture I can see your hibiscus in there blooming!! In February!!! Amazing, bubbles, you are truly a clever gardener. To answer your question about the coleus...to be honest, I probably won't overwinter them. They aren't very expensive at the nursery if you get there early in the spring and buy them small. They grow so fast. I am looking to just fill some bare spots where I had to pull up the coleus that were infested. I love coleus and want to enjoy them as long as possible. I think once winter comes around I will plant different colors of cyclomen in this annual bed. It is a pretty large bed in front of my house and the only evergreens that are there is sago palms. I designed it by myself years ago and didn't have a clue what I was doing. If I were to do it again, I would put more evergreens in there for year round and some space for annuals, not the whole bed. lol. DH and I want to sell the house in the spring, so I am not investing much money into the bed, but will make it pretty with annuals.
This weekend I will be looking into bulb purchases to put in the refrigerator now to plant after Christmas. I have never planted any bulbs, so this will be a new thing for me. I think it will add a nice touch to the house appeal when we plan to put the house up for sale. We will put it up for sale in early spring.
Oh! A couple more things..
Bubbles -- I am with you on the hanging baskets...with one exception. I had one hanging basket in full sun in the south side of my yard. It got full sun all day long! In it was a strap leafed variety of caladium which were really short and bushy. They are a sun tolerant variety called Florida Sweetheart and they did wonderful. I had to water them of course, but not any more regularly than everything else. I had never thought of putting caladiums in hanging baskets but the supplier that I bought them from had some pics in hanging baskets and I wanted to try it. I will be doing it again.
Shiela - now that you mention it...I haven't seen silverfluter post in a long, long time. I hope she is ok.
Michelle - I hope you and your DH have a wonderful time at the potluck. Stay strong and enjoy the kids. I will say a prayer for ya'll. Hugs to both of you.
Merae....I can't take credit for the "hoops" over the hibiscus. Bruce did it with some rebar and pipe. You have to see the backyard in late Nov.....the palms behind the pond are covered and the fenceline also. When the nights get frosty, it looks like we're vectoring in UFOs.... The backyard "glows" with all the Xmas lights in those homemade greenhouses. BUT, in late Feb. when I can't stand looking at it anymore, we pull the plastic off and I have instant spring!
If you're looking for some cool bulbs, try Tulips.com. This guy donated hundreds of bulbs last December for us to plant in a bed in front of Zilker. When they bloomed, cars would slow to pass just to see them thru the fence. They were stunning. He imports them from Holland and pre-chills them for you. if you're leaving them behind at the old house anyway...won't matter if some don't return. And you can start caladiums in pots early to have them in the ground by spring (as long as we don't have rainy spring). Another idea for bulbs would be to plant a large pot with dafs, etc. Then you could take them with you after you sell the house!
Tomatoholic...Whiteflies.....I do the same treatment.....soapy water first, then if that doesn't do it...I use Neem oil. Haven't gotten them yet, but I'll bet I do soon enough. I've had more pests this year than ever before. I have a whole colony of assasin bugs too, so I won't spray anything that might harm them
I received some 'brugs for postage' yesterday. First time I've done that. I was so excited to get the pkg. that after opening it in the courtyard, I stuffed my mail into the box with the old pking material to throw away! Took me a minute to realize what I'd done. I've already planted the rooted ones, and have the cuttings in water....hope they root soon.
Last thing....Schmaucher's.....that old saying,...." fool me once......" holds true for my latest experiences with the nursery. I have lots of great native plants from Schumacher's. And I realize the upheavals of a catastrophic illness changes things...but...the last couple of yrs have been spotty as far as customer service goes. I'm on the mailing list and have followed the ups and downs of the nursery and owner. My last trip in May was truly my last....We stood at the fence separating row after row of healthy stock from what we were offered... which was very little. The clerk told us they could only "buy the plants behind the fence from Chip when they had cash." It was frustrating to see the plants you'd like to buy, and being blocked by a fence! Inside the only gh accessible, we wandered to the middle and selected some plants...only to be told that the only ones available for sale were at the very front. Without going into detail...this was my third bad experience in a year.....so no more. I wish him great success, but that's it for me.
Hi all. We just made it back yesterday from our two week trip to Scotland. We had a wonderful time and the temps were in the low 60's most days. Boy, what a shocker to step off the plane and back into Houston's heat and humidity! Everything there was so green and lush. We stayed at one old inn that was built in 1543. It had tons of flower boxes lining the roof edge similar to our window boxes. They were full of fushia, geranium, dasies, sedums, and a few things I didn't recognize. I asked how they watered them and they looked at me like I was nuts. They said they never had to water anything! The heather in the mountains was in full bloom and it was truly breathtaking. I'll post a couple of pics as soon as I can get them scanned.
Bubbles, I will check out tulips.com and I will definitely be planting some other bulbs like daffs in containers with me.
I took some pics for PlantFiles tonight. These didn't make it there, but thought they were pretty anyways, and wanted to share with ya'll
Starting off with Pink Cloud Caladiums.
Please ignore the other stuff in this picture, this is in a corner of the backyard and it is messy and weedy. Are these Meyer Lemon's ever going to ripen? The blossoms on this tree in the springtime are out of this world. They are white with colors of purple and pink blushed in the blossom and smell beautifully. Then I bring it out onto the porch so that I can see it when I look out of my window.
This is one humongous coleus that survived the mealy bugs. I planted this in early March from a 4" pot that I bought at Red Barn for about $2. (To the right is another one marked the same variety, but the coloring is different and obviously the other one said I am king of this space....) ha ha
Bat Faced Cuphea -- I love this plant. Colors are spectacular.
This caladium is Florida Sweetheart.
Great pictures, ms_merae! About the Meyer lemons - mine here don't start turning yellow until mid-November. I let them and the tangerines stay on the trees until at least mid-December to sweeten a bit more. Yuska
Yuska - thanks for sharing that with me. Do you think the yellow that is on there now is from sun scald?
Crowelli - a 2 week trip to Scotland? That sounds fantastic. How neat that they planted along the roof lines. Sounds like true gardeners at heart to me. Please do share pics with us, I would love to see them.
Re yellow - hard to tell - this has been such a weird year.But from the pic I'd guess they still have quite a bit of time yet before fully ripening.
Merae...I love that caladium...FL Sweetheart!!! I'm going to look for it to order for spring. Your other plants look so healthy. Hope you got a little rain where you are. We had one nice downpour an hour ago, and it looks like it may rain again soon. My SIL is with friends at the ACL Festival...probably drenched....but happy to hear all the good music. We offered to keep the baby so DD could go also, but she said once was enough...it was too hot.
My Meyer's Lemon didn't have one lemon this year. It was covered last year. I picked them right before the Dec freeze and froze the juice in ice cube trays. Then popped 'em into plastic bags. We're still using the juice for pies, etc. I'm going to give this tree one more season to perk up.
My Bat Faces are leggy and need to be trimmed. Yours are nice and bushy. I hate to throw cuttings away, but it's too hot to try to propagate anything just yet.
Yesterday, I bought an apple tree to espalier on the wall, and a dwarf peach (so the raccoons won't have to climb so far....aghhhhh) for the backyard. Still haven't planted a pineapple guava and a few salvias. Good thing I have patient husband!
Plumerias have been blooming since late spring. No bugs, no problems. I should just grow them and forget about the mite-ridden brugs.........They're a bit pricey to get a collection going, but they sure are carefree compared to a lot of other plants in my yard this summer. (Now watch them rot from the rain!)
Ms_Merae, I have posted a couple of the pics from the trip on the artisans page since I plan on attempting a watercolor of a couple of them. I didn't want to bore everyone with vacation pics, so I only posted two of my most favorite. Here's the link and I'll maybe add a couple more, if anyone is interested. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/651913/
Merae...I gave you a wrong website address for the tulips. It's TexasTulips.com....
Thanks bubbles, I will check their website out.
I appreciate you letting me know.