almost forgot-I have azalea seedlings from the swap-can ya believe it!! I think there are Hib ones too-I had given up on them and all of a sudden-voila!!
Wond-got the seeds-thanks!! I did find a little mom & pop place that had $1 perennials (highly revered by the locals) and got me 2 more columbine-one I had never heard of and another one I can't remember-also picked up a couple other things I had WS...for a buck, how can I resist!!
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #11
Hey all! Suzy, Thanks for sharing your Lea visiting. I don't think I will ever stop saying Le-ah in my head when I see a LeBug posting!! I'll try really hard! I promise! I think we should post our pics so we all know what we look like. We have half seen your pic from the piggie swap Suzy. And I know I've seen Robin's at some point. I'll go first although I have almost no pics of myself on this computer, but here's one with my in-laws and my two boys, Nevada, is the tall one (he's even taller now!) He is 16 now, but this was taken last summer. Elijah is my younger boy, he is 12 now. They are bothe really awesome kids!
I have been so flat out I have not germinated anything new, but you have to remember my last frost date is May 30, so I have some wiggle for starting some stuff that does not take long. I would love to see Lea's (saying Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee in my head!) set-up. Too bad we are so far from one another!!
Stacey, My 'pink octopus' are potted up and looking FINE! Boy they had a nice set of roots on that little plug!
Oh yeah-my in-laws are great, too!!
Yeah, and if I were tall, tan and blonde, I would send in a pic, too! LOL! I was wondering where the teenage girl came from -- you didn't mention Nevada's girlfriend. LOL!
Congratulations on the Azalea seedlings, Fairy!!!
Suzy
Aw, shucks! You're the one who made me so curious. I didn't think I could ask people to post if I didn't post one myself. lol. Um...it's still cold here, so I'm not tan now.
Fairy, that’s encouraging to hear your hibiscus seeds are up I’m about to give up on the rest of mine, I have at least one of each but there are a couple I wanted more of I could plant some more but I’m still planting seeds lol Azalea seedlings, now that is something, I wonder how long it takes them to grow?
Ok all soon as I can get this darn camera to working I’ll send pictures I was hoping to this week but the girl that is going to help me has been working more hours I will not miss out on pictures of my plants this year lol Suzy says she doesn’t have a tan but she has more color than me I’m white as a ghost lol It takes me all summer to get what people like Suzy were born with! She has good color, she can probably go out in the sun for one day and get a tan, I hate people like that! lol You should see her mustang, I just loved it, it was a pretty dark orange with gold pin stripes on the side, is that right Suzy and a convertible! Not made for packing plants though! They were really crunched in LOL
I really enjoyed Suzy’s visit just wasn’t long enough and love how she paid as much attention to my dog as my plants even though he did need a bath lol He got out of his bath that day because she was coming had the nerve to call him stinky! lol Suzy brought all kinds of great plants and little extras she’s so sweet to think of me like that! And I only have eight gardens, it’s just that some of them are kind of large :) I can’t imagine why Suzy would have thought I had blonde hair lol It’s white with a nice dark color on it, have the skunk stripe in the middle on the top right now lol Oh and I don’t think Suzy even really saw my nectar garden, as we were passing by that we were looking at my mess in my car garage which has turned into a catch all the pots and planting stuff garage lol I think she is talking about the host garden, I hadn’t even cut the dead branches out of it yet just waiting to see what comes up first, I’d really like to wipe all of the butterfly weeds out of it and start again this year but guess I’m just going to have to add to it cause the little plants will be gone with one bite with those little hungry cats!
I am glad you came yesterday Suzy it was an awful rainy, windy day today! It rained all day practically non stop!
Pamsue, I have a lot of weeds too, it was so wet outside and always raining or cold this year so I didn’t get out any to get a start on my weeds now they are taking over, going to have to invest in some mulch this year for sure! But the only thing is, if I had had mulch this year I think I would have lost more plants as wet as it was.
Kath, great to see you, just as I pictured blonde and long hair :)
This message was edited May 2, 2008 11:48 PM
Pam, I forgot to say that I'm glad you're getting some sun! Did the snow actually materialize fro the other day? WZ just told me she has THREE FEET on the ground, so all I can say is Thank God for small favors! As lousy as this spring has been, at least I don't have THREE FEET of snow on the ground on May 2nd!
Guess who is coming to my house tomorrow? Gardengus/Cinda from the Fresh seed swap last Nov! We split a Caladium order from the coop, and she's delivering, so I'll be on the other end of the visit for this one. I know it seems like there are a lot of Hoosiers, either on this thread or DG, but we don't really live very close to each other (except Robin./Dryand and me).
Lea, You forgot the rock garden, so that adds one, then I counted the one you're going to have when the Maple tree comes down. Okay, not really, I was just guessing at the number, and it seemed like 10! LOL!
I have been looking for a certain thread somehwere on DG where I talked about those 'persnickety' Big Sky series Coneflowers. I stated somewhere, on one of the many threads in one of the many forums, that they didn't come back this spring for me, and I was mistaken. Totally mistaken! I didn't recognise them because they were so BIG! Just last year they were little bitty, nearly 1/2 dead (some from the garden center, and some from a TNN coop) and I grew them and then I had to move them in the middle of that hot dry summer for some emergency underground electrical work we had to have done. I didn't expect them to grow so much! Now I have to retract my negative statements and I cannot find the thread for the life of me! If anybody sees it, let me know where it is so I can edit out my bad comments. :))
Suzy
This message was edited May 3, 2008 3:07 AM
Flower-I actually pictured you about avg. height & build w/ a stylish shoulder length layered haircut-an auburn color....not long blond!!LOL My pic is on my page-ya'll can look there for my lovely pic w/ DH-it isn't a good one, so no laughing!!
Suzy-can't you just find it from your info page?? Your thread watcher?? or just put your namein the search...
Lea-I am such a goon-I meant HYDRANGEA!! not Hib-I do have 2 of the texas red star on those...I have these little things in all 3 of my hydrangea cups-each has 2 leaves, but they are so itty bitty, I almost missed them-the Azalea ones are like 2" tall and I have 4 of them-I about wet myself w/ excitement-I had given up on them and especially with all the talk about them probably not coming up...
Fairy, were they the seeds from my lacecap hydrangea?
enjoying catching up on all the posts....LeBug your gardens sound so nice!
flowerhead, nice family picture :)
I'll have to go check on what I have coming up now and report back. I think I did see orange Japanese Iris starting
OMG! I am fighting the wind like crazy today but it is better than snow lol My poor tomatoes are whipped to death! 30 mh winds! This has been three days of it now this week, I guess some pots need the air cause they are way too wet, my coneflowers are so wet I'm afraid some won't make it :( Remember how wet those were Suzy, I've had them out in the wind and in the greenhouse when it rains but doesn't seem to be helping them dry out any. I shouldn't have left them out in the sprinkles the other day I guess and this soiless mix sometimes seems to hold the moisture too much!
Suzy just go back in to the posts you have made you'll find your thread :) That'll be soo much fun with the other DG'ers there and you get to show off your place :) There just aren't enough people around that appreciate all of your hard work like the DG'ers do! I still only have one centura? batchlor button, wish the other ones would germinate I'm getting ready to sow some more tonite and just put them under lights! I sowed some jubilie (sp) gem just the other day and they are starting to come up I had some planted year before last but they never reseeded I guess I'm going to have to quit collecting seeds from them lol
Suzy made the comment on how much I traded lol I have plants from everyone coming up :) I need to get my shrubs in the ground but haven't picked an appropriate spot for them yet I want them where everyone can see them! I have three trades to get out this week, really need to work on that last week was so busy!
Fairy didn't you send me the turtlehead? It's getting ready to bloom! The wind is trying to knock it down so I'm going out to put a tomato cage over it to help it out that wind is so strong and it's like I am, it's had enough! LOL This is a purple one and I think I got a pink one from someone else maybe Kath? And I'm eyeing some of that raspberry splash for you if I can get in there and find a place to chop on it lol This year I'm putting it on a spreadsheet who sends what it's just to hard to keep up with all of it but it takes a lot of time to keep up with that too lol
My lupines are coming up downstairs and Suzy I STILL haven't found y snaps pretty soon it's going to be too late to plant them :( I'm planting the ones you gave me today out front, they are red COOL :) My neighbor has the daph book we were looking at it this morning and she took guardianship of it and may be a fight to get it back lol
Suzy, my turk's cap is coming up! I have four of them so far :) Just born last night lol
Wind-all 3 of the hydrangeas are germinating I think-they are tiny-and I mean TINY-w/ 2 leaves on ech itty bitty stem...
Hey! I made a post in here and it didn't post! Maybe I forgot to click "send" :))
Congrats on the Turkcaps -- I am excited to see what it is :)
The hops vine germinated yesterday here. Very small. Too small, maybe. LOL
Hydrangeas from seed...wow Fairy, You are a PRO!
Suzy
All thanks to my high tech Serilte GH!!LOL
I have been busy transplanting like mad-with the wacky weather I don't feel comfortable putting them out until Memorial day, so I did another 50 transplants today & have about 30 more to go-ahhh...I have been planting them to the cotywhozits and I have a ton of cones now-Ruby Star, Ruby Giant, White Swan, Sunrise and an unknown one-I only did these ones because these have the best chance of being true from seed....I have 4 of all of them except Sunrise!!:)
hi everyone :)
Suzy, my first year with our hops vine was so so...this year it is going so strong and happy! I can't wait to see the blooms. It didn't bloom the first year either.
wow Fairy, so neat your hydrangea seeds sprouted, keep us posted!
we have so many pretty blooms around here now, today I was admiring the white and pink bleeding hearts, tulips and azaleas
here is a photo I took today of our pinxterbloom azalea (rhododendron periclymenoides)
white bleeding hearts....we so often just admire the pink ones, the white are really pretty too :)
I have this planted by a statue of the blessed mother...but the concrete is sooooooo moldy...I may get struck by lightening!!!!!! as soon as I get more time I have to give her a good cleaning!
Oooh! Save some seeds of that Azalea for me! Now that I know how easy they are, I want loads :)
I am half-dead from pulling ivy out all afternoon. I increased the size of my garden by 6 or 8 feet deep and about 50 feet long. I really needed the room, so it had to be done, plus it was overgrown, and ready to take on another 4 feet this year. The stuff is impossible to erradicate, but if I ever win the lkottery, it's Number One on what I'm spending the money on!
Tomorrow is plant out day. If I can move. Gotta find some Tylenol PM. And Doan's Pills, and maybe some of those icy-hot packs that stick to your back.
Notice there was no LOL or smiley face after that last paragraph!!! :))
I wanted to take some pics of flowers I had, but I forgot. I had something important I wanted to say or ask on this thread, and now I can't remember. There is something wrong with me!!!
Suzy
Oh, I remembered what I wanted to say, just not who I was saying it to. ROTFL!
I had Columbine Red Star germinate in Feb and planted it out in the garden maybe 3 weeks ago. It is large, now, but probably still won't bloom. The pot with the other non germinated seeds had 3 germinate yesterday. That is about 90 days apart! A huge spread for seedlings, esp for somebody like me who mostly does annuals. Do not give up on the Columbine!
The first little batch of Sunflower seeds get planted in the ground tomorrow..
Suzy
This message was edited May 4, 2008 10:38 PM
Okay . . . does anyone know the secret for cleome? I thought these were supposed to be super simple to winter sow - and nada so far . . . Anyone else successful?
Meanwhile, DH and I spent last weekend roughing out the gardens around the fountain on the terrace on our street. Then, during the week, some fellows hired by the city did the of the raking and used a machine to put a nice edge around the gardens.
This weekend, DH and I finished the work on the gardens. We roughed out the paths (nothing fancy - just 4 foot wide, straight paths from the edge of the garden to the fence of the fountain. There are four paths, so there are four sort of pie-shaped gardens around the fountain (but with the point of the pie "bitten off" where the garden meets the fence)
I have planted the south garden - all annuals this year. This garden is all oranges, yellows and bright blues. There are texas bluebonnets, yellow annual lupins, Naughty Marietta marigolds, yellow and orange crackerbox marigolds, tithonia (sp? Mexican Sunflower - orange), orange and yellow calendula, Klondike cosmos, Stella d'oro daylilies, and blue batchelor buttons. Also have planted some orange and fire profusion zinnias. Still have some tall orange and yellow zinnias to plant as well as Tequila Sunrise snapdragons. Oh . . . and there are irises - but I can't remember which ones they are, so until I see them bloom, I won't know their names (I do have the names recorded, so I can eventually label them).
This fall I hope to start replacing the annuals with some perennials.
This message was edited May 5, 2008 2:17 AM
Michaela-send your DH this way-getting mine outside is like pulling teeth-I keep trying to tell him fresh air IS NOT painful!!LOL
Suzy-as soon as I find the ones that germinated, I will send you some-it took about 60 days in a sterilite container in a sunny window, but by god, they did germinate!!
WIND-I want one now!!LOL Send me some of yours-LOL-JK-it is gorgeous though!! WOWSERS!! They do not look that pretty in catalogs...
I posted some pics in the MI gardening forum on a thread that we are on for my co-op of my tulips-I will be back with a link-then you can see my pics I posted!!
Here is the link-look towards the bottom
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/842708/
Suzy, did you say the pinxterbloom is easy from seed? I tried everywhere to find seeds, even emailed a few people to no avail. I ended up buying two plants, one died and one made it.
I'll look for seeds but have never collected azalea seeds before! I'll try though, because I want another few myself. It is just beautiful and has a lovely fragrance as well. I heard the hummers like it too :)
another pretty azalea
Sorry, Seandor... I though winter sowing (with its inherent cold stratification) was the key to cleomes! Your new garden beds sound wonderful, though, with our without them!
Just ask Pepsidrinker-she has about 5000 seedlings from the self sowing they did last year!!LOL She is soooo mad about that!!LOL
Seandor, I am waiting for some cleome to germinate myself. I did a search and found an old thread with lots of input.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/714237/
I myself am trying cleome serrulata, that I got from a trade. It is one of the things I really wanted this year so I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one. :)
Seandor, That Cleome is a problem getting started! The best way, which is too late now, is to take a whole handful of seed and sow it in a spot about 6" in diameter on top of some raked earth in Feb-Mar. Don't cover, but you can water it. Or do it right before a snowfall.
The seedlings will all come up in that circle (more or less) and then transplant them apart. Once you have Cleome, you will always have it, but there is more consternation on growing this plant from seed than any other that I can think of....well, maybe poppies. :)
I JUST YESTERDAY noticed my baby Cleomes coming up, so maybe they are on their way up at your place. You sort of did exactly as I described, only your 6" circle was inside a milk jug, so really it should work fine. Keep in mind they do not like a lot of moisture, and they are tap rooted. Get them out of the jug as soon as feasible.
Your garden sounds great, and getting that turf edge taken care of from the beginning will make it look great from the very first year. That is HUGE -- they are so time consuiming to do by hand, and the rental machines throw dirt and rocks at your leg -- it is painful!
I wanted to caution you, and I know you already know all this, but I knew it, too, last year, and I still had problems, about the footprint of some of your plants. I know you know that Tithonia and Calendula have large footprints..they get big around and both grow fast and will smother anything in their wake. The yellow annual lupines might do the same thing. Just be on the lokout for things faling over, or overruning their neighbors and transplant anything that looks like it might get swallowed while they are relatively little. Say, before July 1. It is a lot more work, but you really lose something if you lose some of the varieites you've planned. Does that make sense? I had sooo many things get swalled by both the Calendula, and Tithonia last year that even now I get sad about how pretty it could have been. And I left a lot of space! That's what annoys me, I gave them TONS of space, I thought, but I really didn't on a 360 degree visage.
Wind, Fairy was able to germinate them in her greenhouse box, so I figure I could, too. The Pinxtner Azalea is a species, isn't it?, so comes true from seed. The seeds are inside the brown oval capsules that are at the base of the dead flowers. ALL your azalease will have them, but the seeds inside are small and it might be difficult to discern if the brown things you have in your hand are seeds or part of the dried brown capsule when you break it open, so you just trade a couple of capsules and hope there is seed inside, I guess. For you to sow them there at home, try to open a capsule and sprinkle everything over a milk jug and wintersow half in Sept. and then half in Feb. Just to make sure. :) My guess is that Sept is necessary for a closed capsule you didn't manually open, and that Deb is fine for one you opened yourself. The time between Sept and Feb would be what Mother Nature uses to dissolve the capsule walls, but it's just a guess. You might scope out the neighborhood for pretty azaleas, everybody could do this, and take some cuttings. Azaleas are supposed to be fairly easy, albeit slow, from cuttings. Cut 5 or 6" pieces.
An interesting bit about Azaleas: They are one of the few plants that have growing nodes everywhere on a branch, whether you can see them or not. Most plants have a specific place where you cut or prune and side branches will come out of the closest node. Azaleas will throw leaves, or roots, from anyplace on the branch. The other common plant that does this is the Eastern Hemlock evergreen. Comes in handy if you are worried about when and how to prune.
Fairy, Your Tulip walk is darling!!!
I have a lot of work to do today and the grass is probably dried off now...TTYS!
Suzy, good timing on that reminder. It's sooooo easy to put little seedlings too close, especially with all that bare looking earth just calling to be smothered in blooms. With so many extra wintersown seedlings its especially tempting too.
Hi everyone, I've been busy transplanting and starting seeds - yes still ;) Mostly fast growing annuals and a few things that got missed that should have been started sooner. Better late than never - right? :) I did find time to go to the local butterfly place and take some pictures and a couple short video clips (of the butterflies that wouldn't stop moving long enough, to get a good picture of). If anyone's interested here's the thread with the links http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/843651/
Thanks for the tips, Illoquin! How small can things be planted out . . . I mean, I have a gazillion little tiny things that by rights, I should pot up and move to gardens in the fall - but I have no room - I mean, I have probably 8 baby sea hollies, and easily 40 Golden Jubilee agastave (whatever, you know what I mean) - then there are oodles of annual poppies - last year I very carefully potted each one - but now I must have at least 5 times as many! And snapdragons . . . . oh my god! Can't seem to get marigolds or cleome to germinate so the snaps that they had to make up for the disappointment!
If they only have a pair or so of true leaves, can I go ahead and plant them? I am really up against the clock . . . We leave for two weeks in BC on May 13.
I suppose some of the perennials might be left in their containers and put in a shady area for a couple of weeks (I have a friend who will come and water) . . . but obviously I must get the annuals in the ground . . . help!
For anyone who may have recieved the purple tansy or Ead's poppies from the piggiew swap. The woman who was responsible for the seeds-a friend of Weez's in Alaska, passed this morning. Her name was Carol Eads and she was a long-time member here at DG. She was a wonderful, intelligient, energetic woman who wanted to leave tangible things behind and those seeds are part of that. She was a dear friend, so please think of her kindly when you see your blooms. Thanks_Kath
oh gosh....I'm sad to hear that....blessings to her family and friends
Oh, that is sad about Carol! I'll go hop on the thread and see if there is anything we can do -- something to sign, maybe.
Seandor, Yes, annuals are fast growers and can be set out early at the true leaf stage. Give them a drink right off the bat, and try to plant out on a cloudy day or in the afternoon late, after the sun has passed on. Perennials would probably be out of the quetion to plant out that soon.
Suzy
That’s so funny about those cleomes reseeding for Connie, they are easy to pull out I’m always pulling mine out lol I wonder if she ever got any yellow I’ll have to go check her thread out. I’ll be so glad when everyone gets that yellow to going so I can get some seeds lol I bet those hummers will go nuts for that!
Yep Suzy I lost two plants in my nectar garden from planting too close together because I didn’t realize how big a plant would get and one was a vulgaris (sp) I try to watch but sometimes they just get away from me lol This year I was trying to put down the heights and spacing for each plant on the excel sheet but that is a job! I haven’t even gotten everything that I planted in there yet, not these last ones anyway lol
Aw Kath, I hate to hear that Carol passed, she was such a trooper wasn’t she? I never chimed in on the thread but read it all of the time, I got some purple tansy from her and I will keep it going, it’s an annual for me but I’ll never be without it again and will think of her often!
Seandor, your perennials will be alright in their jugs if that’s what they are in, I wouldn’t worry about those just try and get your most tender annuals in, I bet Suzy can tell you how to cram’em in real fast lol
Lea, is it Spring at your house, yet? I have that pink skullcap, and a Mexican Flame vine all rooted for you. Just say the word and they will be on their way.
~Lucy
Hi Folks,
I'm back again! Last week has been one big frenzy of direct sowing and planting out the green babies I sowed indoors. Millions and millions of them have now been planted out in my gardens, with only tomato's and other veg remaining in the little greenhouse. They'll be planted somewhere this week.
I'm totally covered in dirt, terribly sunburnt and there isn't a muscle in my poor body that doesn't ache but I'm on schedule!
It's almost twice as warm as it should be at this time of year, feels like summer has started already! No rain at all in the last week and no rain is going to fall in the coming ten days or so. That's really bad news. Now I have to water all those newborn seedlings with water I have to draw from the adjacent ditch. Forty watering cans a day, which means forty times kneeling and getting up again. What a wonderful condition I'll have.........
In a couple of weeks I'll be able to make up the balance of which seeds have not germinated, but there aren't very many of those. They're in the fridge now (now DH is REALLY complaining!) in an attempt to get them to do so. Cleome has done wonderfully this year, for the first time. In previous years there were few that germinated and those petty ones were decimated by the slugs in just one night!
Now I finally have time to catch up with this thread again, it's been lovely to read your chit-chat!
"... but I'm on schedule!"
Congratulations, Tuink!!
Any chance you can rig a sort of winch or pulley system to help draw water from that ditch so you don't have to do so much bending and lifting?
wow Tuink, great garden exercise you're getting! I hope it rains though enough is enough :)
I'm leaving most seedlings outside now, but have to drag them up on the porch at night in case it rains. I need more trays with open slats so the rain drains or the cups would end up floating!
this is the geraniums and the Indian shot cannas now
Hi Wind and Critter,
Those are marvelous looking babies, Wind. You have the right to be proud of them!
I'm still pondering on the draining trays issue but it hasn't been a problem during the last years as it hardly rains in spring. Looks like you adopted the coffee cup method. Did it work out right for you? My garden looked like that in the last week, but multiplied by ten!
DH is still trying to find a way to get the water out of the ditch without having to kneel every time but the lack of electricity is a problem here!
Well, finals finally finished up and I can relax now for abit, but dang weather here so crazy havign the dickens of a time getting anythign to really grow.
Does anybody have any tithonia growing yet. I ot about 12 plants but been so long as I have grown them I done forgot what the seedlinsg look like. These seedlings are awful tall and wonde rif they done streched themselves. If anybody has any growing cna ya like measure the stem from pot to the cotoleydons for me. tryign to figur eout if these guys to streched and if they are wil have to start over.
star, I've got WS Tithonia growing. They stretched a bit before I cut the top of the jug off, but look sturdy. Looks to be about 1-1/2" from the soil to the cotyledons. They grow fast, so you've still got plenty of time to start more, even if you direct sow (that's how I've grown them in the past).