Growing New in 2008 Pt. 2

Ooops.......I thought you couldn't tell what it was in the photo!! LOL Too funny!!

I got my very first viburnum (koreanspice) in the ground yesterday. Now I'm exhausted. I'll post pics soon. It smells fantastic!

Here it is! It comes up to my armpits. I'm thrilled about it. It took a whole lotta effort to get it in there, though. The dog in the pic is about 14" high at the shoulders.

I'll be adding the mulch to it this afternoon. Here's the rocks that came out of the hole I dug. There's more rocks that I put back in! Many of them chipped while I was digging, I figure that it will leave good mineral nutrients for the plant.

Looks great, Harper! Must have been a large root ball. Did you take a photo of it? Those are some large rocks - I know that feeling!

Very pretty, Harper! I love all the blooms it has. The dog is cute too!

now that pile looks very familiar

Here is a bed of caladiums and my new Brugmansia that is a cutting from Thomas Edison's yellow brug at his winter estate. The caladiums are just beginning to open up. We'll be gone North before they show their stuff.

....and a close up of some of the new caladiums......

very pretty

Nice Louise. Are they the co-op ones?

I hope my forced caladiums look like that.

Thanks Allison, Victor and Jo Anne!

Victor - the big ones are. I already had the little, puny ones from WalMart, but with Bill's fertilizer, they are doing nicely too.

I'm sure they'll be just as nice, Jo Anne! I'm taking half of my order back up to NH with me and I plan to plant them in my barrels on our porches. I'm sure it will take awhile for them to come up with the cooler temps, but they should be pretty once they feel the warmth!

Nice plants, Harper &Louise--sounds like a movie duo to me---the spicebush has such a nice smell. I like the caladiums as well--planted many of them around the outside of an azalea bed in our FL home--don't know if they're still there. Today I planted 2 toad lilies--they are new to me.

You'll like them. Here's one of mine from September.

Thanks, Robin. Caladiums do well in Connecticut too if you dig the bulbs in the fall. When we lived there, I often put them in barrels with impatiens. I'll bet your azaleas and caladiums looked pretty together!

Nice toad, Victor!

Louise:

I can't wait to come down and sit on your front porch! Let me know when the coffee's on!

You betcha, Candyce!!! I can think of no better way to pass the time!! Soon, my friend........soon.!!

Beautiful caladiums Louise! Does anyone water your plants during the summer when you're up here?

Victor, I had this pic. You can see part of the root ball. It weighed soooo much. It took everything for DH and me to lift it into the wheelbarrow. It was dry too! I had thought of taking pics each step of the way, but then, I'd have to take the gloves off, wash my hands, etc. I did get a lot of soil out of that root ball. The roots themselves weren't as big as I had hoped, but they looked healthy, so I'm happy.

That's enough to see how big it was! And dry, luckily. I've planned photos like that too and just settled for before and after. The other day I was watering and sprayed the camera. Luckily, no damage.

I remember when I got my first digital camera, I was outside taking pictures in the city. A taxi came zooming passed and emptied a huge puddle on me, camera and all. It took me hours to dry it off. No damage here either. I'm glad yours is okay.

From all I've ever heard salt water is the worst for a camera. If you do drop it in the ocean rinse with plain tap water, dry and get it to a repair shop ASAP.

Victor - here's my 2007 JM!

Looks great, Pirl! Love the new foliage break on JM's. Yes, salt is very corrosive and will kill electronics very quickly.

Thank you, Victor. Spring color like this will have me getting nearly as addicted as you are to the JM's.

Thanks, Harper! I have a neighbor who turns on my sprinklers (strategically placed to hit most of my plants in the back yard) on our designated watering days. He does it to bridge the dry period from when we leave until the rainy season starts. Then I have some other friends who will water my plants in the front yard when they start to gasp. Our neighbors are just the greatest...everyone here does whatever they can for each other. Several have stopped by today to ask if they can do any watering for me. Very nice! I have put polymers in the ground around most of the plants, so I'm hoping they will make it with a bit of watering. We may get some rain late tonight, so that would be great.

I wish my neighbors were that nice!

ME TOO

Left SCSU after working on light Qs till 1am. They had their sprinklers on by the student center.
Yikes.

Did you get wet, Amy?

Louise ~ I want neighbors like yours in FL. Wait a minute! I a that kind of neighbor up here!!

Not from the sprinklers - just from all the rain we were having. Flood warnings, etc...

Yeah. Isn't the amount of rain we are getting something? I have a small creek running down the center of the front lawn. We don't see that one too often. That's a lot of rain!

A freind has a rain measuring device. He just said almost 2.5 inches.

OK!
That's more than enough. It can stop now. Now. Anytime. Soon. Come on! Stop already!!

Loved the photos---toad lilies look like they will be great for my shade garden--the rain, though plentiful, made everything in the gardens shine--you could almost hear the plants sigh. We had 4 trees removed yesterday--disease & age---there goes the rebate checks!

Nice photos, everyone, and I wish i had neighbors like Louise has in Florida, too. I guess it's time to drag my elephant ears back out. ^_^ Carrie

Carrie, My elephant ears have been in the ground for two weeks, hopefully they will be ok. Todays low will be 37, horrible, i have a lot of babies out already.........Clem

We had two pretty good frosts this past week, yet thankfully, our tulips are still OK. In fact, everything looks OK.

Oh! the gardening gods were very good to us!

There are gardening gods?

At 17:17 kneel to the west and ask for warm west winds and sunny days. It has worked for me at least once in twenty years.

This message was edited May 4, 2008 2:51 PM

I think I'll have to try that!