Thanks Grannyh!
show your volunteers
Your Welcome!!
Grannyh, now post a picture of your green thumbs! Behind the barn is gorgeous!!!!
I love bouncing bet! it smells like candy!
Thank you, billy...but I can't take all the credit......there use to be horses out there years and years ago and I think they just might have helped it out a little!! It's really kind of a catch all spot for left overs.....seeds, plants, autumn leaves, unused compost (my husband likes to start the compost bins out fresh each year), tiny bulbs, tubers and rhizomes....etc. Anything that doesn't make it on it's own simply recycles itself into the ground, so I leave well enough alone!!
I love how it has evolved. DD has horses and I just started spreading manure on the garden. I hope to do all the flower beds next year. My neighbor swears a long ago barnyard is the reason for her nice roses.
I haven't visited Dave's garden since well before Thanksgiving. Wow, there's a lot to see and read here. It's very uplifting to see the lush and colorful gardens - it's so dreary here Dec - March.
Billyporter, I sure hope you are right about the verbascum. I let it make seeds all summer so I'm hoping for the best.
Can't wait for spring!
You'll have to keep us updated. I keep seeing it in catalogs, now that you've "introduced" it... tempting, berry berry tempting.. . ...
The verbascum is beautiful. I splurged on some the year before last and it made it through the winter. I have a sweet, soft, lemony yellow, a light lavender and a darker purple. The only problem I have with it (as I do with everything, it seems) is getting the right stakes in to keep it up and keep the dogs out without overshelming the plant. LOL
Chris H, I moved all those from another bed. I did it in very early spring because of the tap root, and didn't kill any. I think you will be OK!
Pagancat, I got mine from a local guy years ago. Some of the pink were dull and I didn't move them. The other pinks and purple are vibrant. The whites were pretty too. They take no care at all. Mine is in full sun in fairly sandy dry soil competeing with maple roots.
Katie59, I haven't seen the yellow. That sounds pretty. Do you have a picture. You need to stake yours?
The yellow is dwarf verbascum 'dark eyes' and it doesn't get high enough to topple over.
The pink one I have is 'southern charm' and it's the one that was laying down for me. I think it might be because that spot gets more end of day shade than it would like. But it blooms beautifully.
I think the yellow verbascum sounds very nice.
Volunteer phlox. The one in the lower right is Nicky. The seedling is just a shade different. Hard to tell if they weren't side by side. I'm looking forward to many more seedlings.
Nice!
This hibiscus was a stick volunteer given to me, along with 15 other sticks. I kept 3 and planted the rest across the road. I got a severe case of poison ivy for my trouble too.
Anyway, in the left side of the bloom is a tiny green leaf beetle that devistated all hibiscus, hollyhock, daylily and corn tassels this summer. They've only been here two years now and I hate them. There are millions of them too.
Beautiful blossom. How aggravating about the green leaf beetle. Do they have any natural predators?
I don't know. They are related to the corn borer. That's why no one had late corn after they ate the tassels. It's almost impossible to spray for them I think.
Before that we were bothered with a bean beetle brought in to eat aphids. They were like a ladybug, but not! They bit! Most of them are gone now. I hope this bug goes too.
Man, that's too bad. I wonder if any of these would work? You might contact these guys and see if they can recommend anything. With all the cancer springing up in dogs and cats, there's some thought that the "harmless" chemicals we put on our lawns and plants may be the culprits. This site seems to be a good alternative.
http://www.gardensalive.com/category.asp?c=404&x=18&y=10
I get the Gardens Alive catalogue and have ordered some stuff. I don't like to use poison, but sometimes it comes down to that. I do try to be very careful not to kill bees. I wonder if pyrethrum still works on bugs?
I searched for it and the leaf beetle and it had no thing listed. No corn borer either. I'll just have to do some research.
Now I just hope the dreaded lily beetle doesn't show up.
OH, man, I am hoping on that lily leaf beetle, too. There is a lot of exploratory work being done right now with their natural European predators in Massachusettes, I think. They need to make sure the predator isn't worse than the lily leaf beetle itself. In addition to garden flowers, the Lily Leaf Beetles are decimating native plantings of Lilium superbum, canadense, and others that are indigineous to the northeast. I am not doing any bulb or plant trading with anybody in New York & New England. I believe they are larval pests and the eggs could be anywhere and I do not want them here!
The North American Lily Society www.lilies.org has donated a little bit of money for the research, but I could not find one mention of either the pest or the research anywhere on their website to send the link for you.
Suzy
Gosh. That sounds awful - I had no idea. Thanks for the heads up, though. I'll make sure that people up here are aware. . .
I love oriental lilies as much as my daylilies and don't know what I would do if the lily beetle was a problem. I'd be doing something serious tho.
Thank you!! I bookmarked that link! I have a few of my Mom's asiatics that I just planted last spring, one martagon, Black beauty, and the tiger lilies that are as old as me, if not older. Of course after all these years I don't really have 50 year old bulbs : }
(I had to peek at the oriental page. DROOL!!)
Keeping with the volunteer theme, moss rose from my neighbor.
lily beetles -arrrg- i remember feeling smug when my sister said she pulled up all her lilies (she lives in the boston area) because of this horrible bug-and i thought how lucky i was to live in new hampshire- and now of course i finght them too- just to reassure you, suzy- they lay their eggs on the undersides of lily leaves, and the eggs are quite visible bright orangey red, in neat little rows- as far as i know they don't float around in a sort of vague way on unrelated plants or dirt here and there- though of course it's good to be careful! I saw such a beautiful garden on our garden tour last summer, and the lilies especially were just gorgeous- i asked the gardener what he did to control those beetles- and he said he dropped them into a cup of water every morning on his walk around the garden- well he must have a quick hand and a good eye- but somehow, it made me order more bulbs this fall, and i'm hoping my lily bug catching hand is as good as his! we'll see...billyporter, i hope you find the cure to your green bug- its so discouraging to have a little pest like that.
SJ, Thanks! The problem is there isn't a lot of general information about these without having to look too hard, so I figured I would just avoid plant traders and vendors in the area to be safe. I had no idea the eggs were so visible and on a part of the plant that doesn't actually get traded!
Thanks again,
Suzy
Thanks, sjms - there was some discussion about this in the PNW forum, too. We don't know much except that the problem is out there.
i'm really hoping that a natural predator pops up soon, and a very hungry one. They are a hugely destructive bug- in a certain way, they are kind of handsome- bright red- it's the larvae that are so icky- and it is just heartbreaking to watch your lilies turn to green goop....its gross how they eat them and sort of hide themselves in excreted lily mess- i'm getting ill just thinking about it. The lily bulbs themselves are not attacked- just the leaves and flowers. Also fritillarias, and once in a while solomons seals- people say they can go for other members of the lily family- but i haven't seen that in my garden. Asiatic lilies seem to be preferred over the orientals and species... for instance,i have some huge 7ft black beauty lilies that are hardly bothered... sigh- it's a difficult problem-one that i wish would go away! lilies are so beautiful-
Yes, that would make me sick to watch. Doubly, if I had spent money on my lilies. I will post if I hear anything about possible treatment or eradication.