Thanks Donna, by the way I love your garden!
I love Monet too. His garden is open to the public in France, I would love to go! He has painted his garden all his life, even when he went blind!
Just google "Giverny" and you can see tons of pictures of it...and drool!
Just thought I'd let everyone know - the wren who was visiting our gourd when you were here know has a lady wren looking it over. I've read that the male prepares two nesting sites, then she chooses between them. It's great to hear him singing just outside. Oh, and the orioles showed up the day after the RU, too.
Kathleen, can you show me your oriole feeder? We talked about it but I'm not sure how to offer them the sugar water?
I caught a glimpse of "my" oriole this week, too. This is about the 5th year I've had a pair show up.
This is a photo from last year. You can put an orange in the center, then screw the hanging post through it (they like oranges), and it also has little shallow 'dimples' in between the feeding ports for grape jelly (another fav). I
think I got it at Wild Birds Unlimited several years ago. There is one available online called Humzinger - but I don't think it has the extras http://www.hummzinger.biz/humzinger.htm
Gotta get one of those to entice my orioles back to my yard. Thanks Kathleen.
Haven't seen our orioles here yet, they usually hang out in the Palm Trees....the Bluebirds are back though!
Saw mine again this morning---one male, and what appears to be a female & 2 juveniles. Either that, or this guy's got a harem....LOL!
How cute! I saw one just now up the tree. But I find they are much more shy than doves or hummers, who just totally ignore me and go for it! I think if I do something like this they won't resist though, hehe!
So...how do you know which one is a male/female? To me they ALL look colorful...
The male Bullocks, which I'm pretty sure is what I have, are bright yellow and black with orange. But my females are just plain olive green, unlike the ones on this link which have more color. My bird books say the females look like mine, so there's a disagreement with the Cornell website on that.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Bullocks_Oriole.html
In CA, there's also a Hooded Oriole:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Hooded_Oriole.html
and a Scott's Oriole:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Scotts_Oriole.html
LOL, now you got me all confused! I think I have #3 but I will have to look again! They are so beautiful, where do they all go in the winter, Mexico?
By the way what great website! I think I'll spend the next couple of hours there! lol
Okay, saw our first Oriole a few minutes ago and the Swallows are here also......
We have the hooded oriole here, but the color is much more brilliant. The first couple of years they were EXtremely jumpy. They would rarely sit at the feeder, but hang onto the hanger and feed upside down. This year they seem to be sitting more.
I want some Orioles!!! How come we don't have any pretty birdies? All I have are the sparrows, wrens, doves and once in a while some finches. With all the bird food I serve, you would think some others would show up!
Oh, and I do have plenty of hummers too.
Do you have an Oriole feeder?
NOOOO, cause I've never seen any around here.....
Wow, thanks Kathleen. Just might pop over there tomorrow and she what they have to say about the birds in my area. That place is really close to my house too. :-)
The store we have near us is very good. They know the birds in the area and how to attract them. Hopefully, the owners at your store will be as helpful. Close you eyes to everything else, or you'll go broke!
Okay, I don't know who to thank, or what I'm seeing here. Somehow I ended up with a back with the plants in the photo below. Don't know where they came from, but when I was separating the corms? I found this tag (also in the photo) there was chicken wire in there too.
Sending close up next.
WIB,
SW
Okay, I don't know if you can read the tag that came up with the clump, but it says, Bergamot/Bee Balm/Oswego Tea. I am so confused.
Got the yellow iris planted today, along with the cactus KC gave me.
Love the Orioles. Saw the hawk and the heron today. The heron doesn't like the hawk any more than the crows do. LOL!
WIB,
SW
Hmmmm, well, I gave you a bag of chasmanthe floribunda corms and anything pulled up from my garden is likely to have chicken wire...lol.....since I plant everything in wire to foil the gophers. The chasmanthe corms would not have been planted in wire since the gophers don't bother them, but it's possible that the wire may have been from something else in that spot that didn't live. There were a couple of clumps beneath one of the avocado trees and I just pulled them up quickly the morning of the RU, but odd that I wouldn't have noticed wire or an old label.....you never know what's going to turn up while digging in my garden.......
edited to add that when digging one day, I came across a buried radio......laughing, I showed it to my elderly neighbor who knew exactly where it came from...it was his, missing for years and he always thought that the (then) teenaged boys who had lived in our house had taken it...it always catches up with you, you know....lol....
This message was edited Mar 20, 2009 9:32 PM
SW: That tag, which got mixed in, isn't what that bulb/corm is. I think what you got was some of the Chasmanthe that were in that large bag.
Bee Balm, Monarda, etc, (which the tag says), are perennials, not a bulb/corm type of plant. Maybe the tag just got dug up when the bulbs/corms were being dug in a place that Monarda once grew and it went unnoticed.
The chicken wire probably got in there because whoever the bulbs/corms came from probably had planted them in chicken wire baskets to keep gophers away from them.
sorry Sherry...you posted while I was typing !
While digging out a tree today, Jer kept mumbling about all of the wire he kept digging into...ghosts of gardens past...lol...
Jimmy Hoffa was reportedly last seen alive in Fallbrook.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......
:).......sleepin' with the avocados, he is.....
Okay, LOL!
I wasn't sure what those were, and if it is any consolation, I didn't find out about the wire and tag until I had soaked them to remove the dirt/clay to see about separating them. I wasn't sure what to think, but I knew that they weren't what the tag said.
I had to laugh at all the times we've wrapped plants in chicken wire and lowered them into the ground only to find traces years later.
Once, my ES, who was a toddler at the time, fell asleep in the nice soft dirt, while watching Daddy on his tractor. Somehow his shoe came off. I searched all over for it. We didn't find it for like 14 years, and of course by then not only didn't it fit anymore, but we no longer had the matching shoe. Too Funny!
It's an old farm, we find all kinds of stuff.
Here's a photo I took this morning of the Chasmanthes' new home. I think they will like it there. It get's some morning sun, and afternoon shade, sort of SE facing. I had enough to do the whole length of the planter too!
Thanks so much for them.
Have one more photo to share.
WIB,
SW
Oops, should have said that I have a before and after photo. As some of you may remember. When the pool went in the construction workers piled their trash on top of my Iris Garden. This is a before photo. (Yes, I did save some for Weegy if she wants them).
My action plan for the day was to get those Iris planted! It took me all day, but I was able to separate them into manageable sizes, weed, dig and plant. Was so happy when they were finally watered in. Still have room for more too, which is good because I am addicted to Iris. LOL!
This is my before photo. I have some light purple and white iris starting to bloom.
One more after this one! ^_^
WIB,
SW
Here is my after photo. It's coming along. I am really tired, but it is a good tired.
WIB,
SW
Looks great, SW!
KC,
Sure looks a lot better than it did.
WIB,
SW
Stopped by to see what's going on. Now I am completely depressed! It's a little warmer up here, but not enough that I can go out and plant. And today was typical OR, rain!! and lots of it!!
Funny stories about the wire, I'll have to ask my neighbor if she does that. She has gopher problems. They leave my yard alone for some reason. I just get the nutria. yuk!
Sorry I've been MIA, I had to go up to San Francisco and speak at a conference in addition to deliver a huge shipment, so I am just getting back to Southern Cali!
I will gladly post the recipe for the lemon bars for anyone who wants it. It was my great-grandmothers.
Here is a photo of the iris, I do not know what the name of it is though.
As you can see from the photo, there are millions of them, so if anyone want them, I will ship the bulbs to you for postage and nothing more.
This message was edited Mar 26, 2009 6:29 PM
Kanita, I sure am glad that I took one of the iris rhizomes...'cause that's a beauty! And now we know the secret of the Lemon Bars... a layer of cream cheese, I've never done that with lemon bars, really good. Nice to get out of town, wish I could go to S.F....good that you had a big order to deliver, too!
I'm glad you took one Sherry. If you want more, let me know. I am trying to find homes for them all.
SF was awesome! I think I have fallen in love with the Oakland and Berkley areas though. Such a wonderful community. Tons of used bookstores and great thrift shops. I would never be at home if I lived there, too much to do!
Oh, yeah...I miss Oakland and Berkeley. We lived in Contra Costa years ago and I miss the entire Bay Area so much....from there we could so easily get to Tahoe, Mendocino, Eureka, Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Napa Valley, etc......sigh...I want to go back North.
So do I! There was so much to see that I didn't have the time to explore.
