Joyce, this is just my non expert opinion, but when you water once or twice a day and really flush the pots like I do, I don't see how you can get a salt build up. In fact I worry more about nutrition with mass watering like we have to do here in the midwest heat in summer. I use no saucers outdoors so the salts and water drains away. I always water until the water pours out of the bottom.
She's about to .... # 11
OK Chatty Hotties.. I had to read alot tonight..LOL
Faye.. wow those are sooo cute.. how'd you do that? Do you have a thread with instructions??
Joyce.. your puppy seems to be saying.. bring me something good to eat cause I am special!..LOL.. he looks like he is sitting there watching his fav TV program... (the pic with him arm resting on the arm of the chair)
Phyllis.. your baby is soo cute too.. I am so thankful that I have only been afraid of one dog.. and she sensed my fear immediately!!I am always amazed how "human" they are!
Girls.. I am getting quite a few plants, that I might need to dig and store.. and I am sooo lazy come the end of the year that I am afraid I won't do it..lol.. somebody remember to give me a quick kick in the butt if I don't!!
I know I missed some of ya'll... but I still say HI!!
Becky do what I do. A few a day and don't think about how many there are lol.
LOL! I've done that all my life!! In coton fields, chopping cotton, when my dishes get piled up, at work, NEVER look at the clock!!
yep Audrey I do the same thing with my housework too.
Becky, digging up things and saving come frost is a real pain for me also.
Almost everything thing that has to be dug up is in pots. Digging, drying, storing, and figureing out in the midwest if it is going to be a light frost or a down right hard freeze isn't easy. Too many nights I would get home too late and be in the dark freezing to death, trying to get a plant dug up. Too lazy for that nonsense. At least with the pots I can stage them around the door early in the fall where I will be storing them.
Exceptions to that are dahlias and cannas. I let the tops freeze, dig them up, leave dirt on them, cut the growth off, let them dry out and throw them in a container big plastic tub uncovered and wait until spring. They don't rot and even ones that looked like they were too dried out have sprouted in spring. I use to fuss over the dahlias and try everything to keep them, then one year I threw them in the plastic container with the cannas and figured they would all be dead by spring. I don't think I watered all winter. Then come spring I started going thru the container to throw dead stuff away and everything had little growth coming out of it. I was shocked.
Louise, I had two ee's last year, but this year I got in a coop and I have a bunch now. Worried about spider mties and the such during the winter, what do you do for those?
You are right about the salt build up. Hadn't thought about it but it is always flushing out. I use plastic or fiberglass pots (not clay) so that is not a problem. Do you have any ginger? If so what do you feed it? First year for me with that also.
Joyce, I have button ginger that was sent to me by a DG er. Took forever to come up but it is doing great now. I read they like acid conditions so I got the miracid for them and the new blueberries. Still working on how much sun for them. Spider mites I had for the first time this spring when I got an order from a greenhouse. By the time everything went outside I had it pretty bad. I bought some Isotox and am going to spray the dickens out of everything twice 10 days apart before they come in. In my sunroom I use ortho home defense, best product ever! I spray once and then again in 10 days getting every part of the sunroom including the ceiling. The product is stabilized to last like 4 months and is a pyrethrum based product. Works great in the house too. In fall here we have spiders making their way into the house so we spray everything. Takes care of any flea hitch hikers too. Of course Rosie starts getting her frontline in the fall here. Our oaks are loaded with acorns every year and we get a squirrel invasion in the yard and they bring lots of fleas. It is squirrel gang wars in our yard every fall.
Donna, Don't throw the brugs away. There are so many of us here that would gladly pay you for postage for some cuttings!!!!!!!
Linda Kay
Linda Kay, I am not sure but I think Donna was talking about ee's not brugs. Surely no one throws out brugs....that would be unthinkable....LOL
Louise, I have a blueberry farm just a little south of me. They came to talk to our MG group. We do not have acid soil so they go to alot of work getting the soil correct to grow them. Did yours put on fruit this year? The farm sells starts to people, but I know I would never stay up on keeping the soil right.
My little bruggies and calla lilies ended up with spider mites last winter to the point right before spring I ripped off every leaf, I just couldn't take it any more...made me crazy. Our sun room is open to the main living room, it is a solar type setup and I didn't feel comfortable spraying in the winter with the house closed up. Don't want to go thru that again! Think I will take your suggestion tho and try to winterize everything ahead of time, garden room, solar room, and the plants and see how that works.
I figure it is worth a shot Joyce. This has been a bad year for spider mites in the yard. My black eyed susan vines are the worst offenders. Spider mite candy. They are also the ones who brought in the spider mites in the first place. I should have just bought seeds.
I have seen people who put their blueberries in whiskey barrels with ammended soil and they do well. I am considering this still. Right now I have Northsky only two plants and I have them in pots in the ground with ammended soil. They are doing very well so far. Next year I will move them into larger containers buried. I read that our main concern in winter is lack of snow cover so they have to be burlap wrapped.
Good morning all. Back to the office now so I can check in every now and then.
Joyce I have blueberries. They are young plants but had a few berries this year. Delicious! When I planted them I added all kinds of peat & a little Miracid. They are doing good. You just have to mulch them heavily
Mornin hotties..
Ty Joyce,Audrey and Louise.. for the heads up on digging for overwintering.. but seems like by fall and especially the first frost/freeze I am sooo sick and tired of the outdoor stuff.. I just want to be lazy..lol.. and I was thinking banana trees more than anything, that I will be digging.. but here ya'll are talking haveing to dig sunken pots!! That sound way harder to me.. and here titty baby me doesn't even want to just dig the plant!!..LOL
We have acid soil here... it's a shame all the stuff that grows here with minimal care, and ya'll are amending etc. to have the same things there..course theres lots that won't grow here. We have a bunch of blueberry trees, but this last year they didn't produce much... but mother nature was weird this year, seems nothing did well this year...
Yesterday we got 2 3/4" rain.. and it is raining today... all morning.. naturally I am itching to get outside..but am thankful for the rain!!
Hello everyone!!
Hey Sis's! I'm still around. Just got back to work today :( I did get some brugs and hibs repotted, after we got back. Getting Drews car in and out of the shop took up the last few days of vaca.. so it's back to the "salt mines" for me! lol Loving everyones pics of babies (2 and 4 footed). I bought a blueberry bush on my greenhouse tour this last spring... potted it up a size with monkey flowers... it's had berries and I guess I'll just store it in the basement this winter.. Do need to get some of the miracid, I'm sure my hydrangea's and rhodies would love it, too. I'm with everyone for housework not being on the priority list.. lol Joyce, I've stored EE's unpotted, potted and growing, and potted and dormant. I like potted and watered 5 or 6 times a winter, some grow and some just exist and some go dormant. Once outside in Spring they come back pretty quickly. I've sprayed them with H202 and neem before... The leaves didn't like neem, but it didn't kill the plant.
Donna, THAT was very scary about your fall, young hottie! Be careful out there.... I fell like that in my basement years ago.. I was changing the oil in friends car, I accidently stepped on the wood poker for the wood stove, it rolled and my foot rolled with it... only I woke up in bed with my friend there, and an "attractive" cut on my nose.... What a dedicated brug momma you are, (came to, completed your outdoor tasks.... Donna!) I gots 9 brugs in bud (2 are in bloom). Pink Pendy is flushing and P. Versi is trying to.. Then I have buds on P.Beauty, Charles, G., Joyce's MW will flush, Antique Lace, Amanda's Pink Tree, Maya, and Vixen (I think it's Vixen) Some are just miniature "okra" but they are still so cute... I SO hope the nice weather holds for at least a month or two.. I've waited 3 years for buds on Charles G, ain't that patience???
Sigh..... I'm still waiting for buds!
Just popping in from work. Not to worry I have no intention of pitching the burgs, I’m sure there will be cuttings for sharing though. I’ve got lots of plants to try to overwinter this year so I’ve been taking notes on the posts from today. Just hope my back holds out for the digging up and hauling down. Glad to see you back Cat and AuntB to bad it’s from work. I want a job that has May – Oct off, not asking for much am I
No, Donna, that ISN'T too much to ask for. I've been wintering brugs, hibs, ee's, etc.. in the basement for 8 or 9 years. Audrey, I really think Charles heard me saying "If Charlie G doesn't bloom this year, he's share/trade material"... sometimes, it helps. Fay, glad to see you posting! Hope you're doing fine! Cat, I hope getting back to work gives me more DG time ;) Becky glad you guys are getting some rain. Cloudy and nice temps here today.
Did someone mention Rhodies....OOOOOHHH
On our traveling adventures it seems that was the only thing the DH noticed...
And said Why Don't you have Any of Them....?? Hmmmm do ya think that was a hint??
Thought I made a trade on some...but got burned...Learned fast right from the start..
Just dug up the last of my Peonies that had to be moved....
Now I need to dig up the bed thats gonna be their new home...
Hi Bonnie. I've been working, just traveling around. Normally if I have to go to the Platte City, Richmond & Liberty offices, I schedule an overnighter & do it that way. Hopefully that's all the driving for this week.
Speaking of Rhoddies, I was looking at the in catalogs last weekend. Beautiful! Do any of you have them?
This message was edited Aug 20, 2008 1:47 PM
Pyllis, don't work too hard up there! Peonies are hard work when it comes to digging out. I put Rhodies (they bloom lavendarish) on north side of the house. Started with 3 and 2 made it. I want to leave one and replant the other one in the yard somewhere else... Louise, sounds like you're getting close to a start date up there... do you do birds? My Sweet Pea parrot needs some grooming before winter...
Nice here today also temps only in the high 70’s, but when I left the house this morning it was only 45 degrees. I don’t ever remember it getting that cold in August.
AuntB, Sometimes that is all it takes, a threat with the loppers.
Phyllis, If the DH likes Rhodies, you should be able to buy a dozen or so. Just use the “I thought you said you wanted SOME” routine.
Donna I agree with you. If you live somewhere you only have a few short months of summer, you deserve to have them off....LOL
Becky, my pots aren't sunken, they are sitting all over the place, to dig a hole and sink them, not in this life time...LOL, sides I would have to fill the hole in or I would end up doing a double back, 1/2 turn moggle....
AuntB, we missed you....I have lots trying to bloom again. I didn't know brugs would flush or is it blush multiple times a summer until this summer, course this is the first summer for me to have brugs! Did you read where I have a brug that is suppose to be a triple and it has a tiny tiny orka on it!! Someone sent it to me in one of my unadulterated begging frenzies. You know you have seen one....LOL Sorry you are back from vacation but glad you are back.
Cat, glad you are back. I didn't know you could grow that stuff down south in Missouri! Are your hydrangeas pink or blue?
Hydrangeas? I have one of them...Annabelle. Put out some blue but they didn't look good this year. Don't know if they will make it or not. I meant I put out some blueberries fall before last.
Do you plant Rhoddies in the spring or fall???
Phyllis (shame on me, I left the "h" out of your name)...I definately think DH has already justified a rhododendron purchase.. lol. Cat, they are the only rhodies I have.. I think the nursery called them PG, I been trying to avoid the fall catalogs... didn't get all my herbs and annuals potted up this summer, so it's my "punishment", I guess. But there are some gorgeous ones to be had.
Well maybe in the spring....Have too much work here to do....
Just got some of my lilies dug up from the bed where the Peonies are going....
Haven't gone thru the bulbs yet..They sure did multiply...
taking a break...
Their suppose to be Montreux Lilies..
But I do believe I got something else....Story of my life...
Their still pretty but I wanted a Raspberry color
It IS pretty, no matter what the name... but yu prolly paid handsomely for Montreux Lilies. I have 3 lilies, make that 4 that need planted, 3 have been in their nursery pots for the 2nd year... I need to just start planting stuff where I can dig, where's there's no clay and rock... usually it's shady in the good spots. That one is sure pretty!
Well I just counted 23 bulbs and numerous bulbils...
And that's just in one bed that their in...Have them in another....
Just 3 years there....
Gonna put some of them out front....
My trumpet had another so that's 2 in that bed and I know at least 2 in the other..
Trumpet was suppose to be Amytheyst Temple but I think it's Royale...
My Black Beauty didn't multiply....
Then there's Orientals one bloomed...Tom Pounce and the rest didn't..
Some are suppose to be Stargazers....
Sisters, being inconsiderate over here and have not read anything you guys posted, will later though, promise, LOOK she is going to open tonight and she blooms only for one NIGHT!
Doing the happy dance here
Post pix!!
Hello Hotties!! Hey AuntB and Cat : ) Clemen you must stay awke and take lots of pics!!! Whoohooo : )
We are all waiting for pictures...............
Linda Kay
Clem...Had one before but never seen one in bloom..So make sure you get a pic...
My brother and his wife got a piece from my MIL and it grewto their ceiling..
after 7-8 years bloomed then died...
Cat, I planted one Rhodie in the fall last year, I got it on clearance and it was none to great. This year it’s looking good and put on a little size.
Phyllis the lily is beautiful even if it isn’t raspberry.
AuntB, I’m not allowed to look at fall catalogues either, no end of the season mark downs for me this year.
Joyce, I’m with you, all pots sit above ground here.
Clemen, that is going to be just gorgeous, I think you should post progress pics by the hour. We all know you are not getting any sleep tonight.
Audrey, I know you’re here but very quiet today.
Not much happening here, same old water water water. It’s going to get cold again tonight. I am not ready for fall yet.
Yes, I'm reading what y'all say!
Still waiting....
^_^
Linda Kay
tick tock......
Ok, here is the stupid question, Clemen, what is it?
That looks like the pod from the old science fiction movie....LOL
I have tried Rhoddies and azelas and they don't work for me. A person in town has a rhoddie that takes up the entire front of the north side of their house and it is beyond beautiful.
Clemen must be enjoying her bloom. lol
Yeah prolly so!!
I suppose I should check my night blooming jasmine. It is getting close too.
Another first for me it smells really good!