Starlight1153 - thank you so much! I definitely feel better now - but not letting the blanket touch the vine??? That could be a trick . . . . down to 33 degrees tonight. Well, I will see what I can with a sleeping bag. It might touch the plant, but I doubt that frost will get through the sleeping bag.
The vine climbs up a 6 foot wooden fence, so I just hang the blanket/sleeping bag over the top and drape it over the vine. I am sure the vine gets some radiant heat from the fence and from the blacktop driveway immediately in front of it.
But, I am sure pleased to find out that the seeds might still be viable if the pods are dried inside. ^_^
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #16
Seandor, I hope your corkscrew vine seeds don't take as long as my moon vine seeds do, they take all summer, I just collected a few seeds off of it, this is the first time I've been able to collect seeds from my MV, I couldn't believe it when I saw them! I've grown this vine for years and never have I been able to get the seeds before it was too late, I'm quite proud :)
Critter, that was a nice article I'm sure you have helped a bunch of newbies out, that would have helped me when I was a newbie, I just hope they all read it :)
Wind, I grew that Citris Cocktail when it first came out and now I have quite a few of them from reseeding, they always do better for me from reseeding than planting them, I have the Radio in with them and don't you just love the yellow in those calendulas! Your flower is soo pretty! The Radio for me doesn't look like the pictures though, to me the different blooms look too simular. I bought some of the deeper orange ones last year but I haven't planted them yet, I hope to get them planted this year.
Star, I wouldn't mind having some of those passiflora seeds please :) Just enough to get one vine, I could plant one in my daylilies too that's a good idea, I'm always looking for things to plant in there and if it isn't too invasive that would be even better the height sounds perfect, I had one of the tall ones and wiped it out this year it kept coming up all thru some of my flowers, couldn't handle that lol Did you WS it or under lights?
Ooooh lots of reading, you all have been busy! I am always so very tempted to try MG vines but the invasive factor always scares me too much. It seems like I am forever ripping the wild ones out of my yard and I hate to start another problem on purpose. Neal - Lea, you are both fairly close to me.... do you grow morning glories? And if so how do you keep them in check?
I just received a box in the mail with close to 100(?) coleus cuttings. Looks like I have my afternoon booked now. LOL.
for me.... last year was my first year with them. all the seeds that fell, and germinated - at first i was worried they'd be everywhere.... well, they were, where they fell, but DH just runs them over with the mower. they never got taller than about 2". Some i pulled, but only a handful.
so -- i 'm not worried about them taking over my yard anymore.
Lala, I don't think you'll find morning glories invasive in your zone.. the "invasive" complaints seem to come from the deep Souht. They do reseed where I've planted them along my neighbor's fence (fortunately, neighbor loves them too -- in fact, she wants to try sowing seed all along the back of her fence also, so I collected a whole bunch for her Saturday). They are nothing like those awful wild ones, which are one of my peskiest weeds.
LeBug, I'm glad you liked the article, and I hope it'll be a useful one for newbies -- hopefully people will share it or post a link to help newbies find it and get started... I know it was a pretty simplistic approach to "where do I look for seeds?" but I started writing more specifically about different plants and realized I'd have to write a book to cover even just the "common" ones... LOL.. decided it would be better to stick to some real basics, by encouraging people to just start looking. :-)
Lee got ya down for some. I haven't the foggiest on how to germinate them. I let the pods fall where they will and the seed sscatter and let nature do its thing.
Mg's are very invasive down here. Oh man oh man are they evre, but I did find one cultivar that has the varigated leave s that doesn't climb. It stays very short and very neat and it has pretty fowers to boot. can't think of th ename of that one, but I know either Parks or maybe it was T & m had it. I always look at height before I get Mg's.
The "Ensign" series of MGs are shorter ones, I believe, but variegated leaf MGs... hmm.. maybe JMG "Sunsmile" series aka "Good Morning" series ('Sunsmile Blue', 'Good Morning Blue'). ?
I had "Ensign" my first year of WS'ing. The rabbits loved them too, so it took some time for them to grow, and grow they did!! just length-wise instead of height-wise. they were pretty though. I think i still have a few seeds left from the purchased seeds.
Does anybody here besides me eat the heathly chopice steamer bowl dinners? I just realized they have the plastic bowl and the insert with holes and wonderign if these empty dishes would make for some good seed sowing pots.
Ya know ya plants on brain when ya want to turn dishes into planters. LOL
Star I am way ahead of you. LOL. I even know which restaurants have the best take out containers and often plan my meals to make SURE I have left-overs. Bob Evans is the best! Deep, solid bottoms with clear, high-domed, plastic tops. All you need to do is punch a few holes and voila!
Thanks for the MG tips everyone. I have a very ugly cattle fence around the back lot that I would dearly love to hide. I've often thought about MGs but was afraid they'd take over. Maybe I'll try them in a small area next year and see what happens.
Hey gang!!! I'm SO SORRY I've been MIA for so long, but summer just sort of consumed me. I'll admit I've not caught up on the last couple of threads, but wanted to at least let y'all know I hadn't completely dropped off the face of the earth. I've thought of all of you each time I look at either the front yard, or the back. We finally got the grass out of the front yard so I could put in all the seedlings I started from the Piggy Swap (tithonia, zinnia, wheat straw celosia and other celosia, dianthus, globe amaranthus, castor bean, hollyhock, snapdragons, eggplant, tomato - lordy I've lost track...). I've attached a pic from the front yard, and will put up some more pics.
I've not even had the chance to catch up with Her Highness, the Illustrious Illoquin to show her the pics of the dahlias she gave me that are STILL blooming wonderfully with the Mexican Bush Sage (next to which I have some volunteer Coral Nymph Salvia - which has volunteered and just came into bloom a week ago).
I've thought of you all at least once every day - and wallowed in how wonderful both the front and back yard look thanks to all your seeds!!
OK, enough giddy talk, here are some pics!
Rob
(edited as I finally remembered the name of the volunteer Salvia!)
This message was edited Oct 20, 2008 8:41 PM
another front yard pic - formerly all grass :->
You may have noticed the forlorn decapitated sunflowers - I had hoped to get some seeds but the squirrels are little bandits! Furry rats....
I've met one existing neighbor (he traded me some great limestone blocks for some Castor beans!) and some new folks who moved in across the street a day ago, because of the front yard...
Welcome back!!!!!! Good grief. No wonder we haven't seen ya. That really a beautiful job ya did. You ready to tackle my mess of a yard. hint hint. I have coffee and cranberry muffins if that would bring ya here. : )
Imagine my surprise when the Tithonia in the first picture ended up at nearly six feet tall - after I'd planned on a three foot tall plant - ROTFL!! So....we'll just re-think where those babies get planted next year!
Hey Robin .... Welcome back. yard looks fantastic!!
I did hear from "Her Highness" not long ago, and seems she will be taking a pass on the first Piggy Swap, which it looks like will be in December, Huge thanks to Starlight.
OH -- i forgot to add that she said she'd be back to kabbitz with us.
This message was edited Oct 20, 2008 6:57 PM
Oh Star, I must say I've not seen my peonies ONE DAY this year that I've not thought "I gotta get some of those to Star" - LOL! Tea please, I gave up coffee too long ago, the caffeine wrecks havoc on my poor nerves!
Here are some pics from the back yard (the Cleomes are pure volunteers - I've gathered MANY seeds!)...which I rather neglected this year, sorry to say...
Those pineapple sages are yours Lea, by the way :-) I had some Russian Love heirloom tomatoes next to them, but by the time they were ready to harvest either the bugs or the ground squirrels had got them (I don't spray). So, I pulled them out and harvested a fair amount of green tomatoes, which are slowly ripening either in the kitchen windowsill, or in the basement (steadier temps). I'll probably get around to frying up some of the green ones.
Everytime I plant Ensign seeds they never do anything I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I've had them everywhere in my yard, this year I did see a few blooms but then they just petered out again but I will keep trying lol What is the secret to those!!! I must not be holding my mouth right when I plant them lol My nasties are doing better since it got cooler and I started to feed them, I've never had those to do good but I didn't know I was suppose to feed them so thanks whoever told me that lol Do the Ensigns need more food too? Once plants are in the ground I usually don't feed a lot of them, I'll try and do better next year lol I did buy the time release this year and used it but I wasn't impressed with it at all and I went by the directions.
My morning glories reseed like crazy, this year I spent the whole summer pulling that little blue ivy leafed one out that I planted about two years ago and they are still coming up, I planted one that was white with purple streaks in it and I have them everywhere too and the milky way reseeded against my latice on the garage like crazy. The black eyed susan vine has never reseeded for me, the cameo elgant did a little and the mini bar doesn't reseed a lot, that's for me anyway. I like it when they reseed like by my garage and the white one with the purple streaks reseeded where they weren't any trouble, there was a white one that came up this year with pink streaks in it, I hadn't seen one like that before, I've seen the purple one it has a name but I forget what it is I think it's in the plantfiles. Those grandpa ott ones that I had in the swap last year a few reseeded but not that many but I did collect a lot of seeds from those last year for people.
The prettiest morning glories that I have ever grown were from bluespiral, they are just beautiful! I am so impressed but I bet they won't reseed because I want them to lol I have gotten so many compliments on them! I haven't collected any seeds because I do want them to reseed but you know how that goes :) If she is in the swap this year and offers them grab them while you can! Maybe I'll have some to offer for next year I want to see what they do first :)
Thanks for the passiflora seeds Star :) I'll WS mine then if you can direct sow them, in the real early spring. That should work.
Robin, so good to hear from you! :) I love your front yard all of the flowers just look great, I had a Tithonia that got four feet, I've got a lot of seeds to clean if you want some lol :
http://www.parkseed.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10101&catalogId=10101&langId=-1&mainPage=prod2working&ItemId=2025&PrevMainPage=gatepage&scChannel=Gate%201DollarSeed&OfferCode=V1H
You have been a busy girl!
Unfortunately our "fountain garden" wasn't as lush this year as last. The impatiens are courtesy of Illustrious Illoquin's seed gathering from a church garden last year. There were orange and pinks in the mix she gathered, but none of the oranges came through in the seeds. Oh well...don't care much as they still look grand!
Hi Lea!! Just today I was cutting down some of those Monster Tithonia's in the front yard, and have a lot of seeds, and will be gathering more - if anyone wants five to six foot tithonias!
One of the plants I do plan on getting some seed from (from the back yard) is a white eggplant (I think it's called Casper), if anyone's interested let me know and I'll try to get them set aside for you. We, and the neighbors (I put in three plants, so had more than we could eat) loved them.
Here's a pic of a dahlia from Suzy (she warned me they would get big) with the Mexican Bush Sage. I swear, those dahlias are well over 5 foot tall! This pic is from yesterday.
For some reason Robin everytime I look at my Pineapple Sages I think of you lol Aren't they wonderful and I had a bunch to reseed for me this year where they were last year :) They did come up late though but not too late to bloom. I just couldn't imagine how much work you have done to the front yard it really looks great!
I had something take a bite out of almost every ripe tomato I had this year, kind of looked like a turtle bite and I know I have turtles from the empty shells on my melons last year lol
I like that Mex. Sage Bush and love those pink impatiens too!
I got some dahlias from Suzy too and just loved them but I've never grown the tall dahlias before and couldn't believe the height either lol The straight winds we had about did a couple of them in but I'll have them again next year :) I've decided I like dahlias lol
Oooo, and i love that Mexican Bush Sage
Hey there - Madame Illinois!!! I do miss living up there, but not the traffic. Have you been hit with frost yet? The lowest it's got here so far (fingers crossed, I don't have time to clean up both yards!) is in the 40's.
I'm really not surprised that the Illustrious Illoquin is taking a pass on the seed swap, at least the first round. In all my years as a corporate person (in charge of e-learning for the U.S. and on a global e-learning team; rolling out an entirely new accounting system to a U.S. property management company; being an A+ certified computer geek, introducing computers to an audience of folks over 55 years - I could go on and on in the field of training and development and Human Resources, and as a political volunteer...) I don't think I've EVER seen such a work of genius as the one performed by Suzy this past winter. Her memory for who had what kind of garden and what kind of plants/colors they preferred, coupled with knowing where she'd put which pack of seeds - was truly astonishing. Mind you, my undergraduate degree is in Library Science, and having created a library from scratch for a research division of a chemical company, I flatter myself in knowing a bit about what it takes to be categorically organized. I remain in awe of what she did, and am still thrilled to have been able to participate in it.
Star, if there's anything I can do to help you from here - just let me know!
OK, one last pic for now :-P these are from my Sis's sheep farm (the guard, Voodoo the llama; and the ram-who-could-care-less-unless-a-gal-is-around, Pepper)
Well Voodoo and Pepper look to be content :) I've gotten three more critters added to my family this summer, three kittens, my hands are full :) One likes to try and type while I'm at the computer LOL
Robin, did your sister have a lot of damage from the winds a while back, I heard it hit out there pretty good!
I love the Mexican Bush Sage too - it's one of the few plants I actually bought. Based on everyone's posts here I didn't have any faith that the seeds I'd gathered would sprout, so I just bought two. One is tussled in with asters, and the other is with the dahlias. I was really surprised at that spot too (the one with the dahlias) as I had a cherry tomato volunteer from a pot that was over 20 feet away last year (I figured it was the squirrels...). Anyway...I think the dahlias are blooming later than usual, and probably because I let the volunteer tomato have it's way - no pruning or pinching of extra stuff...and the result is later blooms on the dahlias, and WAY TOO MANY cherry tomatoes.
And now that I know those salvias may volunteer I'm about to panic - LOL! That spot was a lasagna garden over grass, and watching everything I planted in that section was a bit like watching the Vandals sack Rome....saucy and impressive! I had no idea that I would have volunteer Cleomes, lord help me if I have volunteer salvias next year - I can't hardly bear to pull ANYthing up!!! The Cleome are in a part of the garden that feature (wait for it....) DWARF conifers! The whole irony of it is very amusing for me! I'm not so sure the conifers are as amused, though....
No, they actually got off rather lucky with the storms (I did worry about you and the Carol Eads folks in KY and OH though) - just far north enough to be on the far side of the storm. (We got some winds, nothing big - and a fat 2" of rain total....) They are on top of a rise, so they did get some wind damage as it whipped up the rise to her property. The trees that are on the ground where the old farm house stood (long ago burnt down) dropped some large main limbs and took out her electric fence in that one pasture, and the gorgeous ornamental pear on the north side of her house was ripped in half (you know how trees in full leaf act like sails) - but no damage to her house, nor to any of the out buildings, nor any harm to the animals - so they escaped from any big damage.
I hope you didn't suffer too much damage, from either wind or water??
Those cleomes didn't shade your Dwarf conifers Robin, I have those to reseed every where and I really like them but I have to pull so many reseeders out and I hate pulling all of them up, those would be good to pla nt in my field lol I only kept about three plants this year of cleome and I kept pulling them up before I let one bloom so I ended up with three about 2 1/2' high I liked them better that way lol
I'm hoping my salvias reseed this year I'm not growing any this year, I like the ones that Suzy had too those Vircosa is that what they were, the blue ones, they had such big blooms!
Lala - I'm just starting to catch up in a backwards sort of way - have you thought of the Hyacinth Bean vine for your fence? (Do I have the right name for that puppy??)
>>Hey there - Madame Illinois!!! I do miss living up there, but not the traffic. Have you been hit with frost yet? The lowest it's got here so far (fingers crossed, I don't have time to clean up both yards!) is in the 40's.
Robin -- I dont think we had frost yet. I was basically gone until the 14th of OCt, and the kids did say they had one or two mornings in early Oct that dipped into the low 30's. We had about 29 in the Dells, but where we are located in the Park, we are more shielded by Pines that I dont frost as soon as others. Many folks lost their impatiens and mine were still sitting pretty.
My stuff here at home is still looking really good, but i dont have impatiens.... but much of everything is still blooming.
What gorgeous creatures!!
thanks for posting all those pics!!
Terese
Well we needed the rain bad, had at least two inches, our yard was fine but arou nd us the trees dropped like flies! Almost all of those old oak trees in the neighbors yards went down. We were without electricity for two days and lost some in the freezer, a couple of the newer neighbors and I cooked out and that was quite enjoyable :) I've got an old maple I was wanting to come down but of course it's still standing lol I'm glad your sister didn't have that much it was a pretty scary thing! I sure hope we don't start having those all of the time! We are almost on top of a hill, our water tower at the top, the siren got turned around lol
We got frost two nights ago and last night, it was 35 when I got this morning!!! It was still a beautiful day though :) I've been sitting my annuals in pots under the tree at night so that's helped them. I covered my cannas and so far they are fine.
Hey Terese - glad to hear you didn't suffer bad damage from the storms. A group BBQ is a great way to recuperate! (The only impatiens I had grow well are the ones in the pics - others in smaller pots, or the ground, were consumed by critters.)
Goodness...I forgot about the cannas!! Suzy hooked me into a "group-buy" on DG, so I got cannas for my Sis and me. Hers were the wonderful yellow with red. We planted those right next to her kitchen window, and close to her hummingbird feeder. It was a hoot watching the hummers battle over that feeder! Sis loves sunflowers, so always has some planted right up by the kitchen windows. One hummer took over her feeder as his personal property this fall, and ended up perching on a bent sunflower - waiting for another hummer to try to eat from "his" feeder. They really can be quite vicious when it comes to defending a food source - lots of wings beating each other and screeching, and they have no fear when it comes to using their beaks as weapons. Funny though, when he finally got tired - there were always two hummers sitting on the feeder at the end of the day (on either side so they didn't have to look at each other) eating like little piggies - and the Resident Hummer always checking out the cannas, as they quite clearly belonged only to him!
The cannas in my front yard (and in the pots on my front deck) are still going strong, and still putting out blooms. I just wish the furry rat/squirrels would leave them alone enough that I could get at least one seed from them....sigh...
Hey Lea - I discovered why I hate to pull Cleomes. Those little beasties have some NASTY spines!
I was really surprised the first time I got stuck by a cleome, just doesn't look like one of those stick plants lol
I love the hummers, haven't seen one for a while now, we must be colder than you, it's about time to bring my cannas in the frost hasn't done them in yet but I look for it to soon, this is my first cannas for the same reason as you lol Good ole Suzy the enabler LOL I had pink and some yellow ones, I don't think my yellows had any other color in them, didn't really pay that much atte ntion to the m though other than I saw they were pretty, I'm planting mine in the ground for next year so I don't have to deal with the pot, the caladium bulbs turned out better in the ground this year. I managed to save some seeds from the pink one if you want me to save you some just let me know how many, never did get any off of the yellow either, they had pods but no seeds??? The squirrels ate your blooms?
I have way too many bulbs this year to save, I've always tried to stay away from them for that reason :)
I was really surprised today when I checked one of the red cannas - the blooms had been eaten right off. Now I'm gonna have to watch the last one that's blooming to see if it gets eaten. I know it's too late for the seeds to set - perhaps that's why they're eating the blooms, because it's so late. (They even tried to go after the castor beans - HA!) Sis had some cannas that were yellow with red streaks (King Humberts??), and I *think* I got some seeds from them - but to tell you the truth I've been gathering seeds from so many things I really don't remember! Sorting through all the seeds and getting them organized is on my list of things to do this week. If you've got any seeds of pink cannas I'd be happy to take one or two off your hands!
I'm with you on the bulbs - I love caladiums but never got into them for just that reason. (Plus, I have to make sure Sis gets her cannas and elephant ears out of the ground this fall - LOL!) I was very surprised, though, to see a calla lily come back this year! I had put a pot over it last year, thinking "what the heck" and was stunned to see it not only come back, but bloom! So, the pot goes over it again this fall and I'm hoping it comes back again next year.
Hey now that's a plan with the pot trick, I'll have to try that! I may try that with my elephant ears they are in the ground still and I don't want to dig them up! I have a Black Taro, that one will get dug up for sure, I love it. Those varmits haven't bothered my cannas maybe because of the kittens and I being in that garden a lot, they follow me like a dog lol
The lady down the hill grows her cannas by the house and she never digs hers up and there is a lady downtown that has a bunch lined up along a privicy fence facing the highway and she never digs hers up either, I've left them down by my shade garden but nothing to hold the heat for them so they only lasted three years getting smaller and smaller each year.
I'm redoing the side of the house to be able to put some black & blue salvia to keep it I should plant some cannas there to see if they make it I'm sure they would, it's on the same side of the house that Margaret has her cannas growing. I'm glad you said something about them that reminded me :) Mine made some baby cannas too :)
Welcome back, Robin - hard to believe the flowers we planted from last year are now in seed themselves. What a wonderful compliment to have someone move nearby because of your garden - those make the best neighbors - I can testify to that. Ours moved away a few years ago and not a day goes by DH and I don't miss him.
Lea, by now, I've given most of last year's morning glory harvest away, and some folks already have dibs on what's left (I did keep a few seeds to start vines again, though). Plus! grrr! This summer, my vines got a late start, so I can't promise to offer any in the swap. So, save your MG seeds:) I took cuttings from many of them, but if any pods come from this, it won't be until deep into the coming winter. We've a very tiny house, so stuffing all my tender pretties into it - what with 32*F last night - has been quite a trip. Being on a hill, the frost skated over the lower part and only nipped the tops of the morning glory arbors farther up the hill.
Lea, 2 things we've done to safeguard our plants from our cats might perk up your ears - I horsed four ~11" x 22" flats of MGs onto a desktop in the living room against a window and strung plastic all around it like a shower curtain with the top open and a 4' light fixture on top. Now - think about this - a shower-curtain effect in the *parlor*? But it's working, and since many of those MGs were cuttings only a couple of weeks ago, they're fine with the hillbilly decor.
The other *cat-outsmarter*, behind the *parlor*, to the side of the kitchen is a miniature 8'x8' catch-all/utility room. Everything goes in there. There are plant shelves with more MGs etc. against the window wall guarded by a section of wire fence, past which you have to sidle sideways like a crab to get to the washing machine while keeping your feet out of our cats' litter box. Only young, agile folks with good eyesight should attempt such gymnastics while growing next summer's special pretties.
Robin, I just got to the part where you offered your help for the December swap. Star had asked me to help adapt the rules for the December '08 swap, and - YES! - any assistance you'd like to give will be very welcome. I've started adapting the swap rules for our December swap, and will post what I've done so far when I start #17 for this thread - my slow-dial-up can't take too many more posts on this one.
Karen
Karen -- I can get #17 going, if you haven't already done so.
Hi tcs, we missed in cyberspace - hope what I did was all right
Ooooooooooo - and i was getting ready to launch #17. I see you have it up.
Yup - looks great... just add the link, which you are probably doing as i edit this.
Come on over and join us in Thread #17
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/915361/
This message was edited Oct 20, 2008 10:38 PM