Show us your Bloomers #2

Thanks onewish, it took about 10 photos before I got the correct color. I'm still learning the settings on my camera after 2 years! LOL

OK, I am confused about Donniebrook and the bald eagle with the lizard on that river that look suspiciously more like the Caloosahatchee River or somewhere in Fla rather than in NH. But what a nice sight to see anywhere. And I see that bigcityal is sending you snow. Where are you?

And my other big problem which could be huge is that my river seems to be leaking. Oh that could be a nightmare. I am avoiding it at the moment. I want to tackle more of the garden clean up today before it rains again. I have dahlias to dig and more clean up of downed branchs from Noel plus I need to bite the bullet and whack back everything else even if it is still blooming. I can't start bulb planting until it is done.

debilu, I love sleeping in a very cool room, but I like a little more heat when I am sedentary. I just park my myself in front of the wood stove when I need some heat.

Pixie, that is an amazing color on 'Midnight in Marrakesh. I have put that one in my wanted journal list this morning. I see that it is newish one 1996, but your picture is so much more intriguing and luscious than the one posted. You need to post that in the Plantfiles. Off to the garden. Patti

This message was edited Nov 6, 2007 8:30 AM

Great shot Celeste. Wonderful shade.

Pixie, I want one too. Beautiful color. I know what you mean about taking 10 shots to get the right one. I do it all the time.

DonnieBrook, those flowers are so lovely. When we lived in Florida we had a living fence of aralia. If you find someone who has some, just take cuttings and stick them in the ground, close together. They will root all by themselves and get as high as you want them. Ours was over ten feet along the back of our lot to block out the neighbors. Another quickie that works like that is the rubber tree. Just stick the cuttings in the ground. And another we used was acalypha which has beautiful large pastel leaves. This is a trip down memory lane. I'm surprised I can remember that far back. What river is that?

Aw, thanks, Louise, for me? Just be sure to come back when we're snowed in! I love the variegated hibiscus.

Celeste, the color on that daylily was well worth the 10 shots...gorgeous!

Yesterday I planted about 25 cloves of 'Music' hard-neck garlic. they are just fat and beautiful. I hope to get a good harvest. haven't grown any garlic in a while and I miss it. it was always the first thing to come up in the spring. and I got 6 lilies in the ground, too. have a few more to do. I'm trying to add some 'other' interest to my rose garden.

Thanks Patti, Victor, Bebop and Jan! I took your advice Patti and entered it in PF.

Oooooh, Celeste......spectacular pic of "Midnight in Marakesh"!! The color is wonderful! How neat to have it blooming indoors!

Patti - You are precisely correct! I am in Florida on the Caloosahatchee River! We'll be here until May. Sorry about your river leak........The Caloosahatchee has finally recovered its brackish balance from the chemical spill from lake Okeechobee a couple of years ago. The algae bloom that resulted killed a lot of our manatees and kept the big fish from coming in to feed. Finally, it seems to be healthy again, and that explains the close proximity of the eagle. This morning we were treated to a school of dolphins enjoying a feeding frenzy.

Bebop - thanks for the aralia suggestion. I'll check it out! I just answered your question about the name of the River.......grew up on it and it has been in my blood since I was 5. Because it is so close to the Gulf of Mexico, it has an enormous variety of tropical fish and waterfowl in and around it. I'll do my best to remember to take my camera to capture some cool things once in awhile. There's always something to watch!

Donniebrook, that is the only river I have seen in Fla that seemed that wide. I usually go to Sanibel at some point every winter to stay with a dear friend. I love to go birding and to Red Sox spring training. But I hate the traffic. I once went to a wonderful graduation party on your river. It is beautiful spot. Love to Harry. My DH family had a place from the 50's until the 90's in the Keys and for years we had a Heron named "George" who would wait for us to feed him little fish that we caught off the dock. I miss that place.

My river may be OK. Here is the almost done project as of this afternoon. I still need 5 more big flat rocks for the top area and some underwater lights. I will bury all the electrical cords in a PVC tube when I get the underwater lighting. It looks so naked without any plants, but I will plant a zillion bulbs next week and start collection moss to grow on the rocks. I still need to "foam the rock". Donniebrook, that is just a can of this purple expanding foam that you squirt under the rocks that make up the water falls that directs the water over the top of the falls by blocking the water from going under the rocks.

grampapa, I want to know about that 'Music' garlic and is this when you plant garlic? What is a "hard neck" garlic? I have a mess of garlic that a DG sent me. Can I use that to start a bed. Patti

Patti,
I am SO impressed! I can barely imagine what flowers will look like planted together! To be able to envision that project, and make it happen!! I am very nearly dumbstruck -- it's a good thing I can still type. I repeat - WOW. Good work.

humbly, Carrie

First what a gorgeous DL and a great pic. Also that stream bed project is terrific and I agree when the plants are in it will be just wonderful. Can't wait for the spring show pics to be posted.

Patti - Your river is looking great.....you have put so much (!) work into it! That is a very interesting process you use for defining the water's path over the falls.

We also go to Ding Darling Nature Preserve at least once or twice every winter when we wander over to Sanibel. AND we also take in several Red Sox games each season. I hope we can get tickets this year!

You are right about how wide the Caloosahatchee River is. It is 2 miles wide where we live. I think that's why we have so many different types of aquatic life to watch. I also think your George has even visited us. LOL Last year we had a "litle blue" heron that was there every morning in the same area of the seawall.

patti, garlic should be fall planted. after first frost is a good time. just separate the cloves and plant each one pointy end up (like any bulb), about 4" deep. It will come up in early spring. Probably not a bad idea to mulch your garlic bed to prevent that freeze/thaw cycle. I can't really explain the difference between soft-neck and hard-neck. I ordered this 'Music' variety from Italian Seed and Tool online. It's an Italian variety, but grown in NY. You can probably plant the garlic you have.

A few Roses still going strong.

I am going to attempt to cover all I missed last week but please excuse me if I leave someone out. It is not intentional!

Victor, what a beautiful rose!

Louise, those Florida blooms are making me green with envy! Especially that Hibiscus!!! I think those are one of the most beautiful and exotic looking flowers there is. Envy on the 80 degree weather your having too! DD said the nights have been cool in Tampa, she has been opening the windows before going to bed. Are you finding it cool also? (for Florida that is) It's gone past 'Cool' here, way past!

Patti your blooms are goreous and I have stream envy now along with most of the people on this forum.

Amy, your blooms posted at the end of Oct. were just beautiful and I am in love with that red 'Starsister' dahlia!

ngam, I can't believe you had a Clem still blooming in Oct! I haven't seen a clem since July. I think I need to buy a later blooming variety or move a zone or 2 towards the south.

Onewish the color on that blanket flower is absolutely stunning!! I am betting it is an easy flower to spot out in the garden.

I still have some snapdragons in bloom and a few rose buds hanging on for dear life but thats about it. We have woken up to frost on the ground several times now and most all the leaves have blown off the tree's. It's starting to look bare and bleak here already and it's only the first of Nov. I miss my garden already!!!!!

I'm going to sign the 'Pattienvy' list....

I would love to have a greenhouse and a conservatory. I've been saying that for years. I subscribe to Lotto - I paid the buck and I have the dream. Unfortunately, it's not paying off yet.

Anita, I'm with you...I have a Lotto subscription. this was I know I won't miss a drawing. can't hurt. I have BIG dreams. as I'm sure you all do :0)

I'd love to be able to turn our HUGE dining room into a conservatory, but then ... where would the nine of us eat?

McDonalds??

Celeste - glad you are enjoying the southern blooms! And yes, the temps are nice and cool at night now, and warm in the afternoons. I have to do the gardening right after breakfast in order to manage the sun and my fair skin well.

I am afraid to go look out at my back patio. I just returned home from doing some shopping, and when I arrived, my DH was napping from a heavy morning of golf, AND there are four very small men digging up all my hard work and my patio to connect our phones to the new underground lines. There are dirt piles, stones, lava rocks and big long trenches everywhere. I was so stunned I was speechless, and they don't speak any English, so I just smiled with shaky lips and brought them each a water. Gulp! I cannot look. I can only cross my fingers that they'll put it back somewhere close to what I had just finished doing. WHY couldn't they have come when it was still full of WEEDS???? Oh, Big Huge Bummer! DH is still asleep.....I don't think he'll be happy either.......Progress! LOL (gotta keep smiling).......Wait......I just walked out to see it while the men are taking a break out front. They have done a fair job of putting most of it back together. There's still a mess near the house, and my nice level winding walkway is now an up and down see-saw walkway, but at least DH won't have a hissy when he wakes up. He can fix it for me. LOL I guess at least the empty house won't have a phone outage during a hurricane while we are up in NH.

Oh, I got distracted from sending along a shot of a neat burgundy-leafed hibiscus shrub that my kind neighbor rooted for me. Its bloom is very pretty, and the leaves look a bit like maple leaves. It is very different for a hibiscus! Here it is........

Nice shot Louise. Wow - that must have been a shock! No call beforehand??

Pixie.. yes it is easy to spot in the garden.... jumps out big time... if you want one in spring I have tons of volunteers that started this year... going to have to thin them out anyway

Donnie that hibiscus is beautiful!

Onewish, I would love one! Thank you so much for the offer!

Louise that Hibiscus is stunning, you can see the "veins" as DH calls them!

Victor - I wasn't sure whether my DH had given permission or not, and he was sleeping while I was sharing my shock with you. He woke up.....oblivious about it all; ...Interesting development......about a half hour after I wrote that post, my DH walked outside and came in and said that the "little men" were down the street 3 houses away sitting on the ground beside a police cruiser. I suspect they started doing the same thing at that house and the owner called the police. I also suspect there may have been a question of whether they were legal or illegal aliens. I can't believe there was no call or no request for us to sign a permission form, etc.. The amazing thing is that those guys repaired the trenched area in the grass (dug up when I saw it) so well you can almost not tell where they dug. They actually pulled the grass together somehow. We have some "putting back" to do around our patio, but all in all, the guys did a pretty good job, given how horrible it looked out there when I came home. Oh My! Interesting way things are done down here! I don't even know who to call!!! LOL

So, now I am confused. Were the little men SUPPOSED to be digging and laying lines? All in all, I think they might be better at the 'clean-up' portion of their job than some utility workers.

As for things being interesting in that state ... well, that's one of the reasons that Ashleigh and Audri have moved back to NH!! LOL!!

DB, can you SWIM in your river? (Are there any motels around?) x, Carrie

Look at this! Pink and red Meidillands still (but barely) blooming. I picked them 2 days ago. It was 24 degrees this morning.

Good thing you picked them! They're so pretty!

Candyce - yes, the little men were doing what they were supposed to be doing, but the telephone company that contracted with the boss of the little men did not tell anyone on the street that there would be some little men arriving to dig up everyone's yards!! As it turns out, the neighbor 2 doors away - who just moved in and had no clue that the phone lines were being replaced - had a fit and called the phone company, who didn't want to hear it and said they had an easement (not exactly correct in terms of the location of where they were digging). I have no quarrel with the work they were doing - just the lack of notice to anyone. Having said that though, it was good that the little men did such a nice job of putting things back together!

Carrie - I would not swim in our River. There are barnacles all over the bottom, and many critters that you would not want to meet up with in the water!!!

I thought these were leaves for weeks but they never fell off. The bush is about 8-10 feet tall. They are down in a very wet area of the marsh or swamp or whatever it is out there. What are they?

Looks like winter berry. Ilex verticillata which is a kind of swamp holly. It loves it damp. It is wonderful in xmas decorations. Birds love them. Patti

Yes it does look like that.

It's very pretty! How long do the berries stay on??

xx, Carrie

They are redder then the picture. I have been reading and I do think there was flowers out there this spring. I think they are Ilex verticillata - Tall - 'Sparkleberry' Winterberry

http://www.springvalleyroses.com/catalog/ilex-sparkleberry.html

They want 16.95 a plant. That is a female and needs a male to polenate, I wonder where that is? How did it get out there? How come the birds are not eating it?

Birds won't need those berries until much later in the winter unless they have nothing else to eat. Here they get eaten usually after Christmas. There will be a male somewhere near by within an 100 or so feet unless a male was grafted to it by a nursery and planted. In Nantucket you find thickets of them with the males and females all growing together. I need to plant some in my yard as the my wild ones are too hard to reach. Patti

We did not plant it. I don't think anyone planted it as it was more wooded when we moved in. A bird must of did it? I will go out and look for the male in the spring as all the leaves are gone now.

Nice shot of the winterberries, Sherrie. A bird probably dropped one and Nature took over!

The roses and winterberry are beautiful. I should take my camera out and see if anything is still picture worthy. I've been too busy working in the cold to keep my eyes open.

How's this, grampapa?

hi again - it's been a busy week, i haven't been checking in much.
Donnie, i am glad your land was re-assembled well. i'm sure it was quite a shock - similar things have happened here by landlord-employed crews. However, referring to the "little men" digging in your yard makes it sound like you were invaded by the lollipop guild or leprechauns. Did you find out what happened in their police encounter? It doesn't sound like they themselves were doing anything wrong - though perhaps their boss was a bit shady.

ok, off my grumpy high horse and taking more cold medicine.

amy
*

You are exactly right, Amy. Those guys did nothing wrong and I made sure the powers that be knew that they had done an exceptional job with great skill. It is generally the exploitive bosses and employers that I have a problem with. When I say they are little, that is because I am 5' 2" and they were all shorter than I am. A new neighbor who was unaware of the telephone line work being done on the street came home to find them digging up her back yard. She had no idea who they were and what they were doing there. There had been no notice and none of them spoke English, so they couldn't tell her what they were doing. She called her husband and he had not had any notice either, and they don't even use the telephone lines since they have a different solution. So she called the police. The gripe everyone has is with Embarq, not the workers. They were very polite and hard-working.