What's Growing - Part 11 -Fall's Upon Us!

Wow - the last one was getting real long! Here's a link to it if you wish to catch up. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/656173/

I am laughing at the addendum sp. of this thread. I'll conjur something up later.

Alright I'm back home from digging tubers at work. Nice day here =55 and calm.

This 'was' my rudbeckia takao that I loved last year and it either reverted back to triloba or reseeded and never made it through.

Nice day here today,too. Kinda weird. Sorry about your rudbeckia.

The only evidence outside in my yard that there was ever a storm at all is that our lake is a good 2-3' higher (l.r pic is either some ornamental grass that my neighbor planted or some junk that planted itself...either way under water) my roses are fine, still have buds on my clematis. u.r. is a pic from the local paper. there are 5 parks in Buffalo designed by Frederick Law Olmstead - they say there is damage to at least 90% of the maples, oaks and ashes that were part of Olmstead's vision for these parks. so sad. now that the snow is melting it's the outward evidence of the intensity. but the people will recover faster than the trees.

Gram, that is amazing!

Anita, very nice. Your collage and central plant combined as if they all came off the same plant. Very creative!
Al- I missed the spelling referrence.

Gram - wasn't there a ban on snow pics? Nice though anyway.

Dave - did I spell my fancy word right?


this is my fun for the next week

Nice tubors!
I get it now. You were questioning your spelling not Anita's.

That's great,,, Gram I am glad your roses are fine... I had some fun today... some of my plants are inside... I gave some minis a shower (3 had aphids...) sprayed them with garlic fungicide again and used the blow dryer and dried them up... and they are on my window.... next to the turtles... I know, at least I will have a mini garden ....

Al, that's one big one... how old is this plant? which dahlia???

You know I still have mites on my dahlias in the pots - when it's time to harvest those they are going out into the deepest freeze - those suckers were nasty here.

Kas - well......I later found out those were in their small pots for 2 years at the greenhouse, there was a lot of dead stuff in there, the new tubers are the white ones, they clean up to this....


it's Barbarossa - I have about 20 tubers of those now ;)

Al, it's nice that they grow with the name tatooed right on the tuber (yeah, I've heard some people get to be smart-alecky in their old-age, too)

They don't come that way Gram - Al runs a garden prison. I thought you knew that?

I love my pen in a pencil - what an invention. Garden prison - I do like to crack the whip with slacker plants.

Al, I was wondering about the writing... a name tag??? so they don't forget what kind they are...or just in case the worms are smart enough to read!!!

Such jealousy of my handwriting. Actually the ink does stay on there all year. I feed my worms coffee grounds so they are a bit more jumpy I think.

lol... If you ever need REAL coffee grounds you let me know... I will send you some Brazilian coffee...

you would never believe what my next door neighbor told me this morning... he has tons of dahlias (and he doesn't even knew they were called dahlias... well not that I know names of all the plants!!!!!!) ... but he said he has too much and when he diggs them up if I want he will give me some... of course I said yes, sure but Al, the only thing he does is he puts them in sand and leave in his garage... I am going to print your instructions and give it to him... he said that the tubers shrink... is that so??

Hey coffee for tubers I like that deal.

I wouldn't recommend using sand, but it's possible they can overwinter that way - too dry is better than too wet. Will they shrink? Well no not ideally, but yes I have bought some dried up wrinkled tubers that did grow. Didn't know what they were! these kids.

Oh-oh, Al's making deals for "coffee". what's really in those crates coming from Brazil? hmmm?

That is soooo funny I am laughing out loud for real. thank you girl!!!!

you are way too funny Gram!

Geez I go away for a day and Gram is not a software geek anymore, but a comedian. And Al is a prison warden. Anybody else change careers?

That ALcatraz pic is hilarious!

BTW, if any of you remember my pics of my experimental woodland garden, it has been put through its first test... From Friday to Monday, we had 4 nights in a row of frost, and here's a bit of a damage report (so far):

My Ensete's got winged, and will be dug up soon to store in the basement. One of my hardy bananas was also zapped, although the newly emerging leaf wasn't hurt. It has been mulched, and will stay outside until spring, when it starts growing again. NONE of my hardy palms was even fazed (as was expected), although, as one site said would happen, my Sabal minor "Mc Curtain County" dwarf palmettos developed a slightly darker blue tint (according to the site, after a sub-zero spell, the leaves will look almost black, but they will be undamaged).

None of my Cordyline australis, hardy Elephant ears (Colocasias), Longwood cannas or Aspidistras have been affected by the cold either.

I would not have believed it, but my Hardy Spider Plant (Chlorophytum major) has continued blooming through this frosty spell.... I'll have to take some pictures, since this plant has pretty, white 1.5-2" flowers on long, upright spikes. I also planted a hardy, winter-blooming Camellia ("Snow Flurry"), which is loaded with flower buds, as well as a hardy trunking yucca (Y. recurvifolia).

All my hardy "Tropicals" have recieved about 6-8" of crushed oak leaf mulching, as well as all fall-planted proven hardy plants. I'll try to get some pics, but I have been too busy between work and school, for the most part. Hopefully I'll get home tonight while it is still light enough to take pics... If not, you'll have to wait until Thursday.

Thanks, all. I needed a funny this a.m. Spent some quality time with an oral surgeon yesterday, had some of my geekiness removed and had to be sure he didn't yank out my funny bone, too.

Hikaro, I would really appreciate some pics of whatever you have going on with your 'hardy tropicals'. I REALLY want to do my front yard in tropical. I figured I would find as many hardy tropical and tropical-looking plants as I can, and fill in the rest with larged-leaved and bright-flowered (fucshia, orange, yellow) plants, ferns, etc. Just because I live in the snow belt doesn't mean I can't have some fun. I had this idea in my head, then read about the hardy banana, then I saw your posts. I think I can do this! so any more input would be appreciated. besides, i'd just love to see it.

gram ~a grin~

Hey Gram - you made Barb famous - that was funny! Barb's got strength in numbers now with about 25 sisters so they might be able to overtake the tubertaker ;)

wasn't barbarossa actually a famous pirate (Red Beard?) maybe should be in prison LOL so we just call Al the tubertaker from now on? (that's sounds a little german...die Tubertaker)

well, how much further off-topic can you get than this? you can tell the weather's getting cold

I am German - I think most of the topics are done for this year.

I'm 1/2 German. My mother's family spoke German at home (I don't). Very German except for her maiden name which was Real (pronounced ray'ahl), of Spanish origin, which nobody seems to have an explanation for

I'm all German too! Both my grandparents are born there and immigrated here. My mother was also born there and immigrated here when she was 16. She met my father, born here, at a German Dance Hall.

I had always wondered what nationality Bryk2 was.

Grampapa, Here's a pic of a FEW of the plants I'm experimenting on.....

In the collage, starting at the top left corner: One of my 4 Needle palms... This one was a 3-gallon plant that I got in SC, and it has a 6" trunk that is covered by the protective leaf mulch right now. The brown leaf tips happened the same day I bought them... I was visiting my Uncle in Walhalla, SC (who told me that a local nursery had the palms), over the 4th of July weekend, and I left the containers out on his hot, concrete driveway for a few hours, and came out to see the leaf tips had burnt... OOPS! The new growth (two fronds and counting) has all been healthy, and there has been no cold damage, so far.

In the top Right corner is my "Banana Plantation" which consists of 3 Musa basjoo and 1 Musa acuminata 'Rajapuri' Despite the 4 days of frosty weather we had this past weekend, they were virtually untouched, thanks to being on the leeward side of my mature grove of Phyllostachys aureosulcata (Yellow Groove bamboo). My 4th basjoo, which was in a somewhat more exposed area, got zapped pretty good by the frost. Also in this pic are two of my Cordyline australis plants (including one 'Red Star Spike' cultivar). If you look close, you can just make out the culms of my bamboo grove in the background.

In the bottom left is my Colocasia 'Big Dipper' that I got from Brian Williams (our resident Aroid breeder). They were in a somewhat more exposed area, but as you can see, they were untouched by the cold.... Brian says that these are a hardy variety of EE that he has overwintered outside for the past 6 years or so in his Louisville, KY location. 'Big Dipper' is similar in appearance to C. 'Coffee Cups', but it is hardier, has bigger leaves, grows taller, and the leaves aren't as cupped.

In the Bottom right pic is a Camellia 'Snow Flurry' which is supposedly hardy here. I bought it Sunday at the local HD, and planted it in a recently managed section of the woods. I just cleared out about 20 deal elm trees from that section, as well as what had to be the biggest multiflora rose bush and Japanese honeysuckle vine tangle in the state. I'm planning on mowing a small clearing from here on out, and the Camellia is at the edge of the clearing. This cultivar, in addition to being hardy is also winter-blooming, and it is just loaded with buds... It will be nice to have something in the yard that is not only evergreen but also starts blooming in November, and possibly will bloom through Christmas as well!

I hope everyone enjoyed this small sampling.... I'll try to get some more pics on a day that is more photogenic (I had to do som serious post-work on these photos due to it being overcast and rainy today... my choices were either dark and clear, or bright (by lenthening exposure) and fuzzy (due to my lack of a tripod that is necesarry for taking long-exposure low-light pics), so I ended up, for the most part, of going with the bright and fuzzy, since Paint Shop Pro can fix that in a jiffy...

And FTR, I'm also about 60% German myself..... My Mom's family name, and My family name are both German in Origin. The other 40% is made up of Scottish, Irish, Hebrew, Itallian, and French.... So basically, just about all my ancestors came from a proud tradition of berserker warriors, LOL!

thanks for the pics! I just think this is pretty cool. and I really covet my southern neighbors elephant ears LOL why do we always want to grow the things we aren't supposed to?

gram

Gram ~ Those words are so true. Take me for instance, I love daylilies, they come in dormant, semi-evergreen, and evergreen. Dormant and semi-evergreen are what grow best in Maine, but the evergreens are always the ones i'm attracted to. Sometimes I test Mother Nature and buy one anyway and once in a blue moon she lets me win!

YOU guys are hilarious............ my goodness I need you guys... I really need you all!!!!!

Gram, I will send Al the Tubertaker some coffee that will make his Barbarosa grow a Black Beard ( yeap... it is that strong... ) I love it... black and strong...

BTW I had my test today... got a 96! it was easy... and I have a Psych one next monday... this will be harder... so I can't really do much this week besides study a lot... oh well...

Hey, I read that the Farmer's Almanac is predicting that for us winter will bring temperatures above average, Christmas will be cold, but few snow storms... also that from all winter months February will be the snowest and that spring will come early! I hope they are right about that!!!!

some funny turtle pictures for you guys!!!

I enjoyed everyone's Teutonic and/or tatooed tuber tales.

Kassia,
Now I know where you get all your energy--it's that strong Brazilian coffee. Good luck with the rest of your nursing tests. (I used to be a nurse, so I know that it's not easy.) And please keep those turtle pictures coming. So cute!

Loretta

Yesterday I dug up my tulips and divided them, planted 26 lily bulbs, 8 new daffs called "Tahiti" almost looks like a double. I love the orange in the middle.

The center of the Daff's must of gotton me on an orange kick cause I saw these and had to have em. Actually, it's Al's fault, he said to use peat moss (for my dahlia's) and I had to go to Home Depot to get some. These were sitting outisde by the entrance beaming at me with a sign that said:
Icicle Pansy's $2.00 a six-pack. Plant now, guaranteed to come back and bloom in the spring and again next fall! So I bought them. (Sigh) So weak sometimes!!

Kassia, Congratulations on your 96!
Let me know if you're stuck in Psych.

Pixie, Isn't it amazing just how much of what goes wrong is Al's fault? ;^)

I saw the pic of him, he's got big shoulders....he can handle it. LOL

I was thinking of buying some too. It just brightens up the beds - don't you think? Al - we forgive you for this one.

Pixie - you're ruining my 'you can't have everything - where would you put it?' philosophy.

I'm doing real good, I haven't bought any plants since August.

I want icicle pansies! I planted them at my old house and they did really well. Are you sure that was a picture of AL and not a plastic toy?