just gotta love Husker Red ... and no garden is complete without Early Sunrise Coreopsis -- it's just so bright and cheery.
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #37
not the best image.... but i have TONS of Coneflowers in bloom.
All the Flax is spent. As is most of the Husker Red ... and much is getting ready to bloom.
my lil Rose Mallow is blooming ... but it does not show up well intertwined with the Swamp MW, since they are the same color.
Beatuiful photos, tcs. Things are really starting to pop! Love your 'tossed' seed garden! You have the touch!
LeBug, my purple milkweed didn't make it, so I started a new batch and they are still small. If you find yourself with extra seeds on that one, I'd love a few. I think if I can get the purple going here it would be fabulous! I have loads of all kinds of fresh native seeds from Everwilde that I could trade you for. Or whatever you would like.
I have a number of great spangled fritillaries flying around the monarda and coneflowers and swamp milkweeds today. First sunny day we've had for a while. And I had about a dozen cabbage white bf which were really cute (but I know many gardeners hate those things). But no swallowtails to speak of yet this summer (maybe 5 or 6 altogether~~~ zebra, black, tiger, and giant) Did have a mourning cloak or two. I think it's a touch early for the butterfly onslaught, but it certainly does seem slow to me too. (I feel a little silly having planted tons of flowers specifically for the BFs and they aren't showing up to the party!) Oh, well. I posted on the Ohio Lepidopterist List asking about the dates for butterfly flights in Cincy, so maybe I'll have an update for you.
Did I mention that I lost my mind and ordered 36 Liatris ligulystylus plants from Prairie Moon nursery. They're supposed to be shipped 6/13. They are for the monarchs.
Here's a shot of our butterfly nectar garden:
And the other side of the driveway. A little rangey looking, but I had to get the fennel and dill in for the Black Swallowtails.
Some of those plants I started from seed~~the fennel, zinnias, mexican sunflowers, liatris (corms)and so on.
tabasco, give yourself a pat on the back- you deserve it! You really have added so much personality and charm to your gardens. I see your creative expression coming through so beautifully in them. Beautifully done!
tab -- very nice!! my kinda garden!
I love your garden too tab!
Lea This year the milkweed bugs aren't as bad as last year. I have seen a few though. This year the purple milkweed seedlings are wilting at the top, my orange are doing great and I have the swamp milkweed that I transplanted getting what looks like the same type of thing the rudbeckias are known to get - sephoria leaf spot. They did the same thing last year right before they wilted up and died : ( I am having the darnedest time getting the purple milkweeds to grow into mature plants. I have had great germination on them, but seems like a lot of the seedlings die then the ones I do plant don't grow well, or come back the next year. If I can find the time and money I think I need to go to the new england wildflower society to pick up some plants. I know they have them on their list but the problem with them is they only put a small selection out in the sale area. So it is luck of the draw when you go there. Unless you preorder - you need to spend about 300 to do that though. I have to drive about 2 hours there and two hours back so it stinks if you go for one particular thing and don't get to get it. It looks like I have a lot of the wild milkweeds (A. syriaca) popping up where they please so at least the monarchs will have some of those. The problem with them is they don't grow where I want them. They grow in the spots I don't want them though. I've tried transplanting them and the original plant ends up dieing but new ones pop up in the spots I try moving them from. My dh took me for a ride on his 4 wheeler through the woods behind our house and he made sure to bring me through this one spot that had tons of the wild milkweeds growing. It smelt like heaven! I couldn't believe how wonderful they looked and smelled. They were very tall too! I need to get something like that going in my yard. I wish they would cooperate and grow in the back yard not just out front by the mailbox and along our front path to the door. They just don't look good there. Too wild for those more formal type areas.
Tcs, I wish I had that kind of flowers come up when I pitch them you must have the touch! You should be so proud :) I’m wondering if I tossed some blue flax seeds out by the road I have several seedlings of them about three inches high now I don’t remember doing it if I did but the winter is kind of a blur for me. Your blue buttons looks like Jubilee Gem I have those I had one come up out back in my middle bed guess the birds planted that one for me so I’m hoping to get more for next year no seeds off of that one is being collected lol They didn’t reseed much where I had them I only have two plants there for this year.
I just took a walk out to see how my purple milkweed seeds were coming along and so far they are looking good! I had a couple to wilt and die too only have two plants that I can tell with seeds I have soo many weeds out there the next cool day we have I’m going to try and get some of them out, there are like three seed pods on each plant so I’ll share, no seeds for me! Please don’t even tease me lol You know I didn’t get hardly any of my seeds planted from the last swap but I hope to have seeds for you all this year :) I’m just collecting off of my ‘special’ plants to me anyway only because I really don’t have that much time to collect seeds this year and I’m hoping to get a lot of seeds off of the ‘Rustic Colors’ rudbeckia plants those are just beautiful in their second year this year! Trouble is that I had other rudbeckias come up from reseeding on the other side of the bed so I just hope they will be true to this plant!
Meredith, you don’t want that wild milkweed growing in your yard it spreads way too much, that is the one I think I have in my middle bed and it didn’t start spreading until I disturbed the soil and planted my bergenia not far from it that I got from Fairy’s coop and they started coming up right against the plants! Now it’s popping up everywhere I’ve had that milkweed forever just two plants of it and it was mislabeled when I got it now I have a problem going on in my middle bed! I wouldn’t mind having some in my field but I’m afraid more will reseed in my flower beds even though they are like an acre away from each other. Really though I’ve never seen seeds on it do your wild milkweeds get seeds on them? I’ve had these plants for a few years and no seeds.
My butterfly host garden is so full of weeds can I call that naturalizing? lol They sure don’t have as many milkweeds for them this year but the fennel is multiplying nicely. OMG! I just thought about my iron weed! I hope I don’t pull it when I go to doing weeds when it gets cooler I spread the seeds to it thru out the bed lol Meredith was that you I got those seeds from or Wind I may need a picture of it so I don’t pull it :) I c an always start with the ones that I know are weeds I sure have plenty of those lol
t, I put you and Meredith down for purple milkweed seeds :) Meredith if I had room in here I’d try and start some more purple for you I’d like to try some myself but I have papers all over the kitchen table and that’s the only place right now that I have room for my table top lights that the cats will leave alone, no wait I’ll start some in the back bedroom I have it closed off lol I’ll try and start some I need some too! I hate to see you spend all that money on grown plants that will be a fortune! I threw all of my seeds in bags for the fridge so there’s no telling where they are but I’ll look for them and try and get them started tonite :) I have a whole crisper full of seeds! See guys I need NO MORE!
Oh and t, your beds look fabulous!!
Lea that's okay - I don't think plants from you would fare any better. I went out to check on them again and had to remove most of their leaves and now my annual milkweeds near by have some too! I think this is a losing battle. That bed just is infected with something that is killing milkweed. I am so sad! I don't know what to do other than remove the diseased foliage and pray it goes away!
I wish I knew where the wilt comes from too I lost an orange one by the house after dealing with that wilt for two years and one by the garage now I've lost a couple in the host garden that were purple, I really hate to see that wilt in there my bed is kind of big I'm afraid they will all get it now but the orange one by the garage that was next to the one that died is doing fine and the other purple ones in the host garden are fine too go figure!
I'm going to start a thread about it I know I've read in the butterfly forum about it somewhere but I did a search on it and couldn't find it. I'll be gone most of the day but I'll be back this afternoon later and start the thread I didn't worry too much about that wilt until it hit in my host garden and that's just not going to do! I even googled it but I'm not a good googler lol
I have a very hard time finding things on DG with the search feature. I swear I could type something I know we talked about here and it never comes up. I don't think it's you Lea I think it is DG. I've tried googling for info and haven't found a whole lot except that milkweeds are susceptible to certain types of Leaf Spots, cucumber mosaic virus and one other thing that is escaping me at the moment. If you find any good info please share. : ) I did find the info that a copper based fungicide can help prevent the leaf spot from advancing but there is no cure I guess. It said best thing is preventive measures of removing diseased plant material and disposing of it, because the bacteria overwinters in the soil. It also said wet weather makes it worse which would explain my problem. I think we've only had 5 days of warmth and sun in the last month. It's been cool, misty and rainy every other day.
I'll send you the link when I start the thread on here but I've got a few things to do outside first tonite, I hate starting a thread and not being here to answer it. It'll get dark in about an hour and a half here then I'll do it. I've never had spots on my milkweeds just the wilt.
I think that might be a sign that it is the cucumber mosaic virus.
How are Japanese beetles effecting y'all's gardens this year? Its the strangest thing, we're well into July and I've only seen 2 of them this year! I rarely see a rose actually bloom at this time of year, or a Dahlia without holes in the petals, but this year I'm just not seeing them. Come to think of it, I've run into relatively few bug problems in the garden- my main issue this year was slugs and cut worms consuming wintersown seedlings.
I did inoculate the soil with Milky Spore last spring, and have seen no grubs while digging this spring. So maybe that's what has made the difference with the JBs. Kinda thought they'd still fly in from all around, but maybe they're just lazy and eat whatever is near when they emerge.
I just starting finding them the last few days. Yesterday I squashed about 6 that I found on my hollyhocks. I want to use the milky spore - did you buy it online or somewhere local?
Lucked into it clearanced at Lowes for less than half price.
Here's the link:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1012959/
I ended up with company last nite until late :)
Meredith I'll look up the cucumber mosaic virus and check it out.
Neal does the Milky Spores mess with the worm population? I sprayed the hibiscus for weevils last night already I have thousands of them all over my hibiscus little tiny things for now but remember having them all over my flowers to them last year and a bunch in my seeds hatching out! I know they go back in the ground from what I understand anyway in the fall I just don't want them as bad as I had them last year so I broke down and sprayed and I really hate to do that. Does that spray say anything about weevils in the ground too?
Yep I've got the JP beatles chewing away as we speak lol I'm going back in town today later on maybe I'll stop by the nursery and see about the Milky Spores I find a lot of those large grubs too maybe I can do something about them for next year :) But I really need the worms to work this nasty clay soil :) If I can get rid of these grubs maybe I can get rid of these darn moles too I have one in my mini shade garden again this year just pushing plants out of the ground like crazy! Last year I had a castor bean plant there and one mole was stuck in that corner and couldn't get out lol
If you see your plants have wilt. You shoudl remove them becaus e the disease problems don't just stay in the par tof th eplant you see, it also travels up into the reproductiv eparts and the nectar for those critter s feedign on it and cna be transfere d to them adn possible not onyl kil them , btu they from back-splash saliva transfer it to other plants and infect them.
Oh I so happy, was worth all the sketer bite s I sustaine d last night. Almost misse d gain on collectign them, but finalyl was able to get some seed of Tetragonotheca helianthoides , comonyl called Pineland nerveray or squarehea d plant cuz the blooms do look kind a square. The butterflie s have love d this plant and it has bene really great and i have it in mixe d with daylilie s and just let it go and it actually stays pretty neat not over takign anythign so far.
it as present a coupel of years ago from bird and had to find otu what it was. I haven't google d yet to fidn otu any information on germination or zone s or anythign or for how viabel the seeds are.
her e the old pic from last year when it first cam eto my yard. Thsi year it filel d otu real ncie with blooms all over the place. it in the Asteraceae family
Hi ,
I was in the piggy swap last year, I lurk on this thread sometimes ,but don't usually post just can't keep up.
I offered seeds for a spooky dianthus, the flower below is from the seed. I am disappointed , It doesn't have the qualities I liked in the mother plant (the long fringed petals) It must have crossed.
Anyone else have flowers? I am interested to know if they all turned out this way?
This is the mother plant
Mine's not blooming yet... but I like the bloom on yours, so I won't be disappointed either way!
garden gus. since it a hybrid it not gona make all seed that look liek mom. more tiem s than not ya gonan get the hiden gene s and colors all come out. You might get oen or two seed that would look like mom from a lot of them and then again maybe none would.
Both are pretty though.
Hi gardengus nice to see you on here again lol I didn't get any of the dianthus seeds but they sure are pretty I remember when they were offered because the bloom was so different it's a shame the seedlings didn't turn out like the mother plant. We haven't been chatting as much here lately you should join us :) Everyone is too busy out in their beds lol
Star I went out and dug the butterfly weed up :( I only had two that were wilting of the purple they didn't have any flowers on them this was their first year too :( Maybe next year will be a better one I just couldn't believe that wilt was in my host garden it was never there before but in two other spots that I had the orange butterfly weed in quite a ways away now I'm down to one orange I really need to get some plants going for next year!
Meredith I just saw the MILKWEED BUGS! Not a lot yet but then I don't have as many plants this year the annuals haven't reseeded yet they were on the wild ones at the other end of the bed and I have seed pods on those too never have I had seed pods on those as long as I have had them strange.
You better remove those seed pods! Imagine if they seeded all over? Oh my, that would be bad. I am watching your thread, hopefully someone can help! I really don't wanna dig up all my milkweeds that took 3 years to get to this point from seed! I'd seriously cry. : (
Oh I didn't keep the seed pods on them lol I'm going to dig the plants out too it's suppose to rain this weekend the ground is so hard it's hard to get a shovel in it like to have never gotten the purple ones dug out I have my plants from Fairy's coop last year that those wild ones are growing into so I'll have to replant those so I'm waiting for the ground to get softer first.
I know you have a lot of milkweeds, I only had the purple ones to come back and they were scarce but I always have my annual ones that reseed and I usually plant more the plan this year was to grow more orange, pink, the cinderella and the purple but that plan didn't work out too well this year :) I'm still hoping that the annuals come back but with all of the weeds out there I doubt if they will. I hope yours will be alright maybe someone will come on my thread and tell us what to do it's the weekend now and more people will be on I'll bump it up tomorrow after I get back from town.
My iron weed is blooming it's out there :))) None reseeded though but I still have the two plants that were out there, I took the seeds and spread them around last year instead of trading or holding them to plant so this year I'm saving some to plant. My bed is such a mess :( I can't even tell where some of my plants are :(
Lea, Milky Spore has no effect on earthworm populations, I've got more than ever now -add compost, worms will come :-) I talked to a neighbor-friend last night who isn't seeing many Japanese beetles this year either, but she didn't use MS. Maybe they're just not liking central Kentucky this year.
This message was edited Jul 11, 2009 8:17 AM
Neal most of my beetles are in my middle bed this year where the weeds are lol I hope they stay there! Maybe they prefer weeds :) That might be the answer have a lot of weeds in your beds LOL
LOL, I've got those too (weeds, that is)! I wish they would eat Johnson grass!
LOL
I found they love those weeds that look like a puny Love Lies Bleeding plant. I plan to let them grow in one area just for the beetles. I found another dozen today.. :O
Meedith is that the plant that has the long red tassels on it I'm not sure which one you are talking about I'll have to look that plant up but the plantfiles will probably only show the flowers they hardly ever show the foliage lol
They are answering my thread now :)
I'm following it. I thinkif we really want to know we'll have to send samples to our local extension. I looked up mine and they want $50 to do the test.
I also meant to say I was calling the weed the wrong thing- it is like the ones that are called kiss me over the garden gate. I'll try to find them in PF.
Oh gosh! I'm not sure I can handle that at this time! $50 is a lot of mney but when you stop and think about all the labor we have in our plants I don't know lol
I looked that plant up it's not the one I was thinking of but I was just out in that bed trying to cut down some of the taller weeds I won't cut any down that the beetles are on or ones that look like that lol
I did find some annual butterfly weeds popping up they are about 8" tall and my four o clocks reseeded I finally saw them I don't know how they reseeded I swear I got all of the seeds off of them for the swap lol There's about six of them :)
I've had kiss me over the garden gate and I do have a few weeds that look like those I think I just cut one down out there it was so hot and humid I didn't stay out very long lol Just a little at a time lol Thanks!
I know that's why I haven't sent a sample in! You'd think it would be more like $20 - I could handle that. I found the weeds I was trying to think of the name - http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/146025/
Look at this Meredith I thought purple milkweeds weren't suppose to bloom for three years and I had blooms I hope they didn't mislabel the package! I don't want more of that wild one the blooms are similar.
http://www.eol.org/pages/581263?category_id=251
Oh no that wasn't the one I was thinking of that one reseeds like crazy I have it all over I haven't noticed the June bugs on those I rip those out as soon as I see one but I have plenty in my middle bed if those nasties get hungry lol I hate those weeds I let them go one year and I liked to have never gotten them out lol The ones in my middle bed are almost like shrubs lol
It is so hard to tell the difference in the Purple and the common milkweed while they are still young. The wild ones leaves look small and pointy like the Purple Milkweed until they are blooming size. I have a few plants growing in a bed that I threw some Purple Milkweed seeds in and I can't wait until they bloom so I can see if they are Purple MIlkweeds or the common ones.
I wish I had a camera that I could work! I just went out and pulled a leaf off of the one that I think is wild and it's more round a little pointy at the end but you are right they do look a lot a like the purple ones they are longer and pointer but this is just the first year for them so they may change. I can't believe I've had so much trouble trying to identify this wild one in my bed it has been there for years lol
Oh BTW mine have spots on them too I hadn't noticed that but I bet that was from all the rain we were having did you have a lot of rain? Plus mine can't breath with all these weeds around them!