Pictures of the day - 12

We came from here.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1040288/

Thanks! Still waiting for Marianne's reply.... ^_^

she probably hasn't come to after fainting,,yet

My DH would have shot me! lol I've done that with fabric but not with plants yet

Darla

What did you make, Darla?

Hap

BTW; Mornin' all.

Marianne is happily unattached so she doesn't have to answer to anyone LOL.
I can't remember when I last spent that kind of money on plants.... I can't wait to hear what all she got.

I posted a series of recent photos in the Orchid Forum, "What's in your garden?" thread, so I won't double post them here as per proper DG netiquette. Here's the link to that thread which some of you are following already: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1045099/ I thought the folks "up north" might need some cheering up as their gardens are already headed toward the winter decline whereas my garden here is reaching a period of peak performance.

Jeremy

Mostly succulants and a couple of sansevierias. I had to have something to fill in that area of my yard. I only had pachypodium lamerai (sp) aka Madagascar palms and blue agave and a couple other things; now that area looks rather nice; to me, anyway! I'll go out and take a photo in a bit. I also got a few tiny begonias and a stingray to replace the one I managed to kill.
Marianne

Ok, so it wasn't quite $400.

Begonias

Sansevieria

succulant

They do have awfully nice plants at that place.
Marianne you could have taken a membership at NBG on Saturday - you would have had a 10% discount at Driftwood, which would have almost paid for your membership!!

The Samsevieria with the flat leaves want more water than the cylindrica, by the way!

succ.

Is that the Pachypodium I see in the background? looking good!!

Hetty, thank you. I got a couple of living stones that take only a drop or so of water every few days! Here's a shot of them (tiny to the right) and another succulant

Yes, instead of posting them all... here's a shot of everything together, new and old. I'm still trying to figure out where to place them in the ground tonight, so I may switch things up a bit.

Just consider how big things will get - like those blue agaves will get huge - very beautiful, but they will take a lot of space, and let me tell you from personal experience, you won't want to move them....

I still have my little rutenbergianas that I don't think are ready to go into the ground just yet. What do you think, Hetty?

I think I'll plant the blue agaves in an arch behind everything else like a frame... what do you think? I appreciate your suggestions!
Marianne

I will put down stones instead of mulch in this area. I know most people use white stones, but I'm thinking black stones... any thoughts?

I would put those two rutenbergianas in a 3 gal pot and then maybe plunge the pots? that way you can bring them in if you think they will get too cold.
I like the idea of the agaves in an arch. And I personally LOVE the black stones! Stones are good with succulents and cacti.

Thanks, Hetty. Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight. By the way, I had a palm stump grinded yesterday morning before I left home. I have about a 10 ft hole that I can plant away in. I'm expecting a new tree any day now. It has yellow and green leaves, so I think I'l be looking for something to plant near it in this space!

Oh, Marianne,

Wish you were closer for there are 2 that are going in the garbage this week. One's a blue agave and the other greenish silver. Just got too big for me.

Hap

The other one.

Hap, if that big orange bromeliad ever gets too large for your garden, please look me up! LOL That is a beauty but it is probably more tropical than I could grow here.

Jeremy

Hap that is a crime - don't put them in the garbage, at least put them on freecycle. A big blue agave like that (as well as the other nice agave) could easily cost $ 40-50 at a nursery.

Jeremy that bromeliad (Aechmeae blanchetiana) will not survive your cold, and the color will be much less intense where you live. Just not worth it!

Good idea, Hetty.

Thanks.

PHEW - my good deed for the day - saved two beautiful plants from the trash! ^_^

Happy_1, My first hobby is quilting. I've been doing that for 18 years now. I picked up gardening about a year ago. I'm having to learn about southern gardening, I grew up in the north, and then spent 30 in the military, 20 for myself and another 10 following DH around.

Darla

Eclectic- I had no idea cacti cost that much !!
Love the palms

You are right, DutchLady, the bromeliad would not do well here. The recent zoo horticulture conference I attended had a bromeliad vendor from south Florida with some bromeliads that were about 3 ft wide and 2 ft tall, but all I could do is drool. I knew most of them wouldn't survive here. But they did have a couple of really colorful cultivars that the vendor said were far more cold tolerant than most bromeliads. i need to pull out their brochure and see if I can spot the names of the cold tolerant ones.

Edited to add: a recent bromeliad experiment has worked out very well for me -- I planted some bromeliads directly on the remains of a large old oak tree that I had taken down in my backyard during the spate of hurricanes we had (2006?). I had the tree surgeons leave all the trunk pieces and branches from the tree (which saved about half the cost for the tree removal if they would have hauled off the wood). The 3 ft wide trunk pieces have now decayed to the point where I can hollow out some cups in the outer bark and stick bromeliads into the crumbling oak wood. These bromeliads have done FAR better than any that I have grown in the ground. They look much more healthy with firm leaves and excellent green coloration. If you can find a large old oak stump or big oak branch, I would recommend it as the best planting medium for most bromeliads.

The smaller oak branches (about 1 ft in diameter) have now just about completely decayed, leaving behind some wonderful rich woodsy humus that the earthworms think is heaven on Earth!

Jeremy

This message was edited Oct 8, 2009 1:33 PM

Jeremy,
I just visited a bromiliad grower down the street from me and bought about 6-8 starter plants. He told me to just plant them in the pot since they don't really require soil and mulch around them. He said that way I could move them around and try different locations and if we got frost warnings, I could just pull the pots up and bring them in if I wanted. He has some absolutely gorgeous plants.

normally I don't care for 'prickly' things, but this one caught my eye.

Jazmom - What a beauty! If I'd seen one like that yesterday, it would have been in my photo also!
Hap - Didn't you have a blue agave some time ago that you were trying to get rid of? Is this the same one? If I did not have to head back up North, I'd take it off your hands.

Marianne, I am pretty sure I have given you a pup of that agave that Maura posted above. If not, remind me next time you come this way; they pup like crazy.
I saw a variegated one of those recently that I urgently need to get a pup from....
The spikes on that one are VICIOUS though...

That's a great idea to leave the bromeliads in the pots, Budgie. A lot of my bromeliads got frozen back in the winter, but most of them seem to have returned from the root system. It would be nice though, to just be able to grab them up and stick them in the garage when the really severe freezes come. To make it even easier, you may want to drop the next size larger pot in the ground then place the bromeliad pot in the outer liner pot. That would also help discourage the bromeliad from sending out roots through the drain hole that could be damaged when you pull the pot out of the ground.

I just found the brochure for the company that was exhibiting bromeliads at the zoo horticulture conference. It was Bullis Bromeliads, Princeton, FL 9near Homestead) www.bullisbrom.com I thought I had finagled my way into getting a free Neoregelia 'fireball' from them, but I wasn't there when they took down their display and I missed the chance to mooch. LOL

I responded to an ad on Craig's List for a free grapefruit tree about 5 ft high and it turned out to belong to a Master Gardener here that worked a booth with me at a neighborhood Earth Day several months ago. I'm headed to her house about 5 miles away tomorrow to dig up the grapefruit tree. My old van is not working so she has even volunteered to bring it to my house on their trailer. I've never moved a citrus tree before. Anyone have any tips to offer (other than bringing along a good shovel and an even better back)? I don't see why it shouldn't survive the transplant if I can get a good-sized root ball.

Jeremy

Marianne, the same ones. I have them dug up and they are laying on their sides as we speak. Freecycyle, here I come.

Hap

You gave me 2 pups and they are doing well!
Marianne

Me?