Yes - good stuff from both, though I have not ordered from Avant for some time.
Fall Planting, so what's on your list?
Bill Im in the same spot as far as needing new plants, It will be a short list for next year.
Why dont I believe myself. The" need to have list" is short, but if I recall the "want to have list" is flexable and gets me into trouble. I keep telling myself ,wait until January when the new catalogues come out.
I now have a 'Book of Lists' which is a compilation of my many, many lists, notes on lists and lists of lists. I'm very listy.
OMG
I'm like you. I have lots of 'want-to-haves', but only a few 'can-affords'!
You guys are all as bad as me!
Karen
big day in pepperell today - cleaned up a large bed and ripped up perennials that are spreading into other plants - transplanted 4 hemlocks that have been in the ground for 10 years. and replaced them with 4 new trees - found homes for the 2 little henry's and the gold mound cedar and the orders from Avant gardens and rarefind -- also moved two large bridal wreath bushes and three common forsythia
but wait that is not all - also dropped a large maple - stacked and waiting for the fireplace next year. - and had a large fire in my fire pit and burnt up the branches of the maple and four others that i dropped last night to build space for a compost area.
tomorrow i need to find a home for the stewartia psuedocamellia - i am debating taking down another large maple and just replacing it with the stewartia. decisions - decisions
Bill, I know exactly which trees I need taken down! How much do you charge, lol!
I wanted to add some bulbs to the new bed, and I did participate in the bulb co-op, but I wanted to add more than Alliums and Daffs. I was at the Christmas Tree Store, and stepped in poop again. The CTS was having a 10 Minute sale...all bulbs were 88cents a package...yep 88 cents! So I picked up 10 boxes of species tulips, Tarda and Turke(sp?)something or another, a purple/white tulip blend-6 packages, 4 packages of mixed daffodils, 8 packages of muscari (lactifolia and americana) and 8 packages of crocus mix. All together there were 710 bulbs!!! It came out to about $25 or so. I love the Christmas Tree Store.
Will your back love CTstore after planting?
They were already planted this morning!
I think it's either Colorblends, or Brent and Becky's, one of the better bulb places, recommends an easy way of how to plant a large planting relatively easy...I do my own take on it.
I have the DL's that I planted in rows (kind of) so what I did was take a swath about 8" wide, and about 3-4' long, and just raked up the soil, plopped in the bulbs, and covered. I planted all of the species tulips and muscari together. The daffs were planted in their own swaths, and the tuplips and crocus were planted in their own 8"x3-4' long swaths. I think for all of the bulb planting it took me a little more than an hour. With the nice weather I didn't mind!
I'll have to check that article out.
My bulbs are planted and thats the most I can say for them.
I doubt the depths are consistent and probably are a bit short.
Everyone has been so busy! I think you are all super stars in the gardening department. And, Thom, you made me laugh very hard this morning. I had to read your CTS post to Anna. She laughed, too.
What a great buy you got at CTS, Thom! Your place is gonna look great this spring.
Karen
Great deal, Thom. Wonderful when you can make easy furrows. I have tons of rocks and clay soil to deal with.
Victor the soil where I planted was the new soil in the new raised bed. So the soil was very easy to work with, under other conditions I wouldn't have even tried to plant 1 bulb. The soil under the raised bed is very "cake-like" with a mixture of large amounts of ash (this home used to have a coal furnace) mixed with rocks, and I think at one point there was a lot of brick work somewhere on the property, when digging, it's dig dig dig ***thwanggggg*** brick...repeated over and over. I stopped trying to dig the bricks up, hence the new raised bed. If it wasn't for the raised bed, I wouldn't have spent money on the bulbs at the CTS...
...who am I kidding, I probably still would have...lol.
I went off to visit boojum and she made me go to a couple of nurseries, actually, just kidding. I really asked if she knew where I might find a couple of things on my "Want List" She had a good one in mind. They were out of what I was looking for, but I did find 4 nice plants at 50% off what were already great prices. I now have another Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum 'Butterfly' a River Birch 'Fox Valley', a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick, and a Spiraea 'Sunshine Blue' from Sugar loaf nursery on RT 116 near Amherst Ma. and three more hippeastrum and a house plant called " red moss " that I have to figure out what it is from a place called Annie's also on RT 116. I will be taking my new beauties on the night ferry back to Nantucket. I also picked up some nice pots and some garlic to plant. It was a wonderful day with Boojum and I got to see her ever so tidy, all put to bed gardens and her amazing collection of orchids. I forgot my camera. But my eyes took it all in and it was divine. We are about to head south with the new kids and a 1/2 cord of wood that we loaded in the truck after dark last night as I was having too much fun tooling about the countryside with Boojum while it was light. DH stacked two cords while we were here. We also have to stop for basic supplies in bulk before getting on the boat. Lugging TP and dog food to the Island Paradise.
So a good trip and we got lots done, but nothing like our own DG energizer bunnies, Mr. Wha and Thom DL. Wow.
Victor, is that a good JM? It had a great shape, twisted trunk and is tall (5')and robust. $70.00. Patti
Butterfly is a very nice variegated one. Don't have it, but I like the look. Lots of variation from plant to plant, from the photos I have seen. Sounds like you had a nice shopping spree!
Yes, bbrookrd, sounds like it was a really fun shopping spree. I can't even consider getting anything more for this year, though I have already ordered DL's for next spring shipment. Here are the ones I got from Tjlily on the LA:
FUCHSIA FOUR
MAD MAX
RASPBERRY STAR
LOIS BURNS
PEACOCK MAIDEN
GOLD ELEPHANT
All total it came to $93.99 with the shipping. Can't wait for spring already. I have been sick all this week with bronchitis and ear infection, so I've had to stay away from doing yard work. That's been hard for me. I started on antibiotics this past Fri., but I still feel the same. Lousy.
Karen
bbrook - you will like the butterfly - i bought one the beginning of April for the same $$ on sale at a local agway. nice shopping spree. Deer like the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick here. I had to move mine to the front yard where they normally don't venture.
Supposedly in the 60s the next couple of days. I hope so--planting is finished but weeding is not. Seeds are in their boxes so they are the last fall planting.
Hi all. Here are pics from the spree. Patti and new friend at Sugarloaf Nursery (formerly Dave's) on 116 towards Amherst MA.
Here's the setup. No display gardens but it's a good landscaping place.
One more.
And here's Patti at Annie's right down the road with the bulbs and pots. Instead of helping her open the door, I took her pic. What a great friend, right?? Well, she didn't mind-look at that happy smile!
Nice! Looks like a fun time. That Sugarloaf Nursery reminds me of a place in Plymouth that looks very similar called Katsura Gardens. They don't have display gardens, either, but lots and lots of trees, shrubs and perennials.
Karen
I'm just catching up with this thread. What a great day you two had ... and I'm so happy that you 'found' some of what you wanted, Patti.
Candyce, Mostly found nothing I wanted, but was sure happy with what I bought. The "wanted' will have to wait until spring. But Boojum and I had a great day. Her garden is gorgeous any time of the year and her company is even better. I got to enjoy her orchids too. Patti
Went to our iris meeting.There were also seeds & bulbs to trade from members' gardens. I picked up some giant snowdrops so will have to plant those. 'Giant' to me means they can be seen more easily than the regular snowdrops. I know that they are a different species.
Just winterplanted poppy somniferum in the lilies under my bedroom window.
Winter sowed a different variety last year and had a dizmal germination .After joining DG. I found tons of info. and outright asked how come.
Too much mulch, seeds dried out.
This time I raked mulch off of where I wanted the poppies and added a thin layer of soil from spent containers,cast the seeds and am waiting for spring.
ge1836 I seed my poppy somniferum just before the ground is frozen ie. December. I mix it with sand so the seed distributes more evenly, scatter the seed and then (sorry this is almost seed abuse blush) do the foot plant on them to keep them from blowing away in the wind. No mulch. I've also sown in the early spring as soon as the ground starts to thaw using the same method.
Yes I also stomp to press the seeds in. Your sand method sounds great I'll give a try.
I am also saving some for March sowing. The garden where I want the other seeds was just Preened. How about that for working against yourself.lol
Dalianut those are sweet poppies above.
dahlianut, I have poppy envy. I only seem to get them to reseed in the compost heap, so your comment about scattering them late and stomping into the ground makes great sense. I am always out in Dec adding things to my compost heap thus that may explain why they sprout there and not in my garden. I will be doing a little dance in Dec after i scatter some seeds. I have had no luck with spring sowing of them in situ. Thanks.
I ordered more bulbs.There is a nice sale going on from eflowergarden in the DG classifieds. I got an email from Bulbmeister about his sale. I found some wonderful species tulips from him. Worth a look if you can still plant bulbs. Also eflowergarden has some nice amaryllis. Ordered one of those too. Patti
More bulbs, Patti? I planted all 25 or so that I got from the van Ebgelen co-op and was proud of myself...
Carrie, it is a true sickness with me. I am glad you got some in. Any number makes me smile. What did you plant?
My rational is that life is very drab here in the spring plus it is later than the mainland. We have few spectacular spring blooms in nature here and they come and go so quickly. Basically, shad, beach plum and broom. So I am just perking up our place with a few thousand more for this spring.
I haven't dared to tally the haul up yet. I am printing out more labels for the ones yet to come and then will do a bulb count. DH will be less than amused. But he loves them too, once they start to pop up. I could have worse addictions or a more expensive hobby like horses or scuba diving. Both of which I love to do, but only as a rare treat.
DH and I spent until dark outside doing more fall chores. We are almost done with the major work. I had hoped to be finished today, but we had more shrubs to prune than I remembered, plus some huge masses of sweet fern to cut back which took me most of the day. It smells so wonderful when I was cutting it that it was a joy. Some years I don't trim it until spring, but thought I would bit the bullet and do it all this fall. It will make inter- planting bulbs in those beds easier. Then we get to plant the bulbs. Patti
Dahlianut, I like your poppies. I would like to grow some, too. I have grown California poppies. Had great success the first year, but not much reseeding afterward, which I was hoping for. I will have to try again on those. I love poppies. I didn't get any close shots of them that year, but here is a shot of the bed where I had them. Can I sow the Cal. poppy seeds in winter, too?
Karen
CA poppies grow here and come back year after year because I always plant them next to stones or a sidewalk in full sun. I grow the "white" ones which are actually pale yellow. I'll hafta see if I cut them all down. I can look for seeds for you, Karen, if they still exist.
Kathy, that would be great if you can find some. I was thinking of planting more this year. I have a few gardens in which they would look great. I'll pay you for the postage.
Karen
I'll look and see if they are still around tomorrow, Karen.