WHAT is stressing you out as the cold weather approaches?

AGHHH! SO many projects to do--and so little ambition to do them! I need a motivation pill......

I am plugging away and trying to get all the plants i will need to bring inside ready. Also--plugging away at making room for them.

These gorgeous, cool days---wonderful temperatures--and i still sit inside watching Dr. Phil and Oprah chopping onions and celery for some dish I just HAVE to cook that day!!!! HA!
WHAT is wrong with me????? I should be out there making the imminent transition easier!

I go through this every year! Then--THE day arrives when the temps are forecast to be near freezing--and I freak out.....
IF I have to work the late shift that day--and then come home at, say, 9PM---and still have to do something with all the plants outside--That is the worst! I may never get to sleep that night!

Where are YOUR "Cold Weather Preparedness" plans at? Be honest now......
What else have you been procrastinating on? It is confession time HERE!

Gita its starting (though I'm sure you have a little time left yet ;)

Where am I going to put all these plants that need to go inside.? begonias, orchids, cactii did I forget something?

Trying to manage the incoming bulb orders. I ordered from several different companies and they are coming in at different times. Lots of them are to be planted in groupings and so far I don't have any complete groups as their companions haven't arrived yet.

It's raining now so I can't start the debugging plant wash. I'll want them to dry out a bit before I give them a bath, so that now can't be done before Sunday.

I hate to put the plants back 'in jail' so I always delay. But I've mentally started prioritizing who gets saved and who might not. I cleaned off one lighted plant shelf for not so attractive but want to save (cuttings) and bedroom corner, and brought my one beefsteak begonia in (One? only one? LOL) Oh I forgot I also have two of Gitas big cane begonias. I potted up one brug for display cuz its full of buds but the other two have few to no buds and I think I'll just pull the nursery pot and set it inside a five gallon bucket in the basement. So I think I know where most things will go~ sure it will be more crowded than I thought.
I guess I have to dig up my Peruvian daffs after another bloomless summer again. Crud! I thought I really tried!

Gosh, Sally you just reminded me that I have to pull up the Caladiums. I don't want to do it yet. The beds will look so bare without them, especially along that WHITE fence. Maybe they'll be OK for a couple of more weeks.

Oh and those dumb black walnuts. They are everywhere.

Lilypons!!! haven't heard from you in forever!!!! Nice to see you posting....How's the frigid North?
Show us some pictures of your garden--OK?

stormy--you reminded me--I have to also dig up all my Cannas....they are still lush even though the blooming is done.
I wonder if the rhizomes would survive???? They are planted smack against my house wall on the S. side in the long side-bed. Sally knows which one i am talking about.
Any idea? To dig--or NOT to dig????

My gut feeling is to dig....Here's one of them in August.....I have about 4 in the back of this bed....

G.

Gita, I have friends here who don't dig theirs and they survive, but mine did not overwinter even against a sunny wall with good drainage. It may be that some of the varieties are more hardy than others.

My Caladiums have wilted--? They aren't anything special so I might let them go.
Still safest to dig the Canna,; I think some like to let frost hit the tops, I'm sure the roots would be fine after one frost. usually I try to get them before but there's a limit to the night before frost activity like G said. I left all my Cannas in the ground last winter, lost a lot but did have some kind of growth from each clump even if small.
Today would be a lovely sunny day to dig roots and let them dry off. But I can't, boo hoo, other lovely things have to be done instead.

Gita needless to say mine are all inside now but here's a few you may enjoying seeing (below pic was taken early on). Must admit with having a huge veggie patch to take care of at the local community gardens my yard suffers at times.

You may recognize this one....... :D

Another fave (I wish I had taken more in August but it was just such a strange year here.....as I know it was for you folks too).

Loved this one as well

final one veggie patch around the end of July (and I better skedaddle before I take this thread too far off topic).

And your right re frigid north as my yard is frozen solid and covered with snow today (and the leaves on my trees hadn't even changed colour yet.......we were at 95 F only a week and so ago).

lilypon, lovely photos from the far north!! What is the name of that shrub with the lavender flowers?

Stormy its a Golden Dew Drop AKA Duranta erecta http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1320/ ....... a wonderful truck came all the way up here from Florida and dropped off a number of goodies at my fave greenhouse in Regina (I'd kiss that driver if I ever met him).

They've come up here for about 4 years now but this is the first time they've had that plant (I've been drooling over it here for years). I grew a number of other beauties too but this summer was one of the coldest ever (not this September however......it broke all previous record highs) and really didn't think to reach for my camera often (shame too cause the pots in my yard grew wonderfully in spite of it all) .

This message was edited Oct 9, 2009 1:56 PM

LOL, I thought it was some exotic cold weather plant. Well, it is exotic and gorgeous. I love your Dragonfly and birdbath. Several years ago I was up in Jasper and it was about 90F. I couldn't believe it.

Thanks Stormy :)....I really have to find a place for that polar bear bath (my parents both died this past year and left it to me so its going to take some thinking to find a spot for it). I did have a common white flowering plant (minds blank here.......edited to say it was a large white flowering Bacopa) that sat on that piece of wood to give it a snowy look (given my location why would I want to be reminded of that? ;) but must have taken it out for a water just before I took that pic).

This message was edited Oct 9, 2009 2:21 PM

p.s. I'm glad you've been up here to know I'm not exaggerating (I'm sure some here don't believe how hot we can get). ;D

lilypon, Sorry for your loss. I find it very comforting to have some of my mother's things around my home and garden.They are nice reminders of good times spent together. Gosh, I bet you have to act quickly as cold weather approaches. Do you actually have much of a fall?

Thanks Stormy. :)

re fall this year its been a much longer one than normal......first frost was yesterday (killing frost last night). Normally we have first fall frost, on average, around Sept 12 so this years late frost made up for the frost warnings we had until June 14th this year (and some springs I can plant annuals out in the end of April though last frost date averages around May 20th).

Lilypon, I'm surprised. We don't put annuals out any earlier than you do. The only thing that I dislike about fall are the shorter days. It really cuts into my garden chore time. What time is dusk for you now?

LOL and yes we ran like fools here (and now that its really cold I'm going to have to bring in my Black Mondo grass and a weeping Japanese grass thats currently in my porch before it turns a mushy ugly shade of black) :S

Wishing you ladies lots of luck and start hauling now!!!

dusk now is at 6:00 pm......and lately we've had more planting out around the first week of May (but not this year). Climate change is a happening (the past 15 years, minus a year or two, very warm springs have arrived very early here) but now its hard to know which way the pendulums swinging.

We had another type of fall clean up today. Had to chop and clean up the Maple limbs that fell in Wednesday's storm. Had lots of small branches down too. I hate when they fall and break plants and beloved garden objects. No more glass and ceramic items in the beds for me.

Lily--

I LOVE that Polar bear fountain! And that wheel with the small pots.....Are they there just for decoration?

I can't believe you still have the Lady Margaret Passi!!!! YES! It has been a while I sent it to you!
How do you keep it going????

Sorry about your parents passing....Please accept my deepest condolences.

My Garden had a great season! Lots of blooms--especially my 2 larger Brugmansias.

Gita

Lilypon- so sorry for your loss~~~~~~~

I also love those pots hanging in a string. are they small gourds, or pots? I''ve been wondering what I'll do with some gourds- I could cut and get that shape. Lots of pretty flowers you have there!

lilypon, Do you grow any Canadian wildflowers? I love the Indian Paintbrush. And poppies and delphiniums reach colossal proportions up there.

Thanks Gita re the polar bears (I like them too but just not where they are currently sitting and next summer I'll set blue flowers in there ... or get the fountain working ;). BTW I just realized that was another passi I posted(close looking but not your Lady Margaret, not sure what one it is........I purchased it here). I do have yours still (start new cuttings every year). I wish I had looked closer at the pic before posting. I'm pretty sure your Lady Margaret has a lot more white in the middle.

Sally they are small pots from Mexico (though gourds would work equally as well). I purchased them locally for starting winter cuttings inside but thought, until I did that, they'd look good with the wheel).

Stormy I've had Indian paintbrush but it didn't like my treatment of it.......will have to see where I went wrong (prolly overwatering since they do well in our semi-arid prairies. Poppies and delphiniums I have (didn't take pics of them since they aren't uncommon here...........but I really should as they do very well here). Like most folks I live in a state of zone denial and am always eye-balling what isn't meant to florish here. But for people at Dave's I'll try to make a point of taking what survives our loverly winters (very hardy beasts they are ;)

Thank you ladies for your messages of condolences!





This message was edited Oct 10, 2009 12:07 AM

Here's the inside of the greenhouse the hanging containers were purchased from (they have a lot of Mexican pottery there......and come the heat of our summer, usually, it fits in very well here):

It's named after the loverly Mexican Corn Maiden (there is a giant metal one of her that stands outside and guards the crops there)

This place has so many items that tempt me (I truly want to put winter behind me come the warm days). ;D If I can find a picture of the outside (truly colourful for the Canadian prairies) I'll post it.

And a picture I took of my back yard today (don't forget to start hauling those plants ladies!)

As you can see our trees weren't prepared for the cold temps either.......

Love your Corn maiden, Lilypon.

I'm wondering when my bulb orders are going to get here also. I assuming sometime this week. I did take more coleus cuttings today and readied some plants to be brought inside. I don't have that many to be brought inside.

lilypon, I first saw the paintbrush growing on the mountains in Banff. There were so many amazing wild flowers there. You seem to be as big a lover of "Garden Objects" as me. I have a few. If you want to see our "Garden Objects" threads, they start here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/989901/

Well, I got ambitious. The walnuts are all up, except those on the trees. The plants to come in have all had their sudsy bath and are outside drying. All of the pots to go into the living room are washed too. I have to figure out how and where to put coleus cuttings. Those are tomorrow's project along with cleaning out the pots to go down to the basement. I may also pull the Caladiums as it is supposed to go down to 30F on Wednesday night. The tiled tables are washed and ready to go inside.

I still have some things to plant, other than bulbs. I've gotten a few orders of sale plants just come in. Some plugs still are not big enough to go into the ground. I'll sink them into my whisky barrels when I pull out the tomato plants.

Flowerjen you are about at where I am.....I just finished taking cuttings of my coleus before this white stuff came and on Friday I received my lily bulbs (am praying for an Indian Summer or even an Indian Weekend so I can get them into the ground).

Stormy thank you so much for that link (I've got a couple of pics that will go perfectly in that thread of yours). It's funny re native plants that many I've not had luck with (they either need more shade than I can provide ie Ladies slippers, dryer conditions (everything else around them needs water), etc. etc. But I keep trying (and hopefully one of these years I won't be considered a killer anymore). :S

I'd love to grow Walnuts.

WHEWWWW!!!!

I have spent 4 hrs. solid--again--in my Garden preparing for "THE DAY"!!!! when I will hear in the weather forecast----"TONIGHT----the temperature will dip into the low 30's!".....Then all my neighbors will hear me scream! ....

I have been hauling now most of the day--(Saturday)--and now also today (Monday). About 4hrs. straight both days.
I tell you--I am no longer a "marathon woman"....but this comes close. Trying to stay ahead of THAT day!

Today---

--I sprayed all the HB's and potted plants (mostly Spiders and Swedish Ivy) with "Neem" and brought them all under the patio roof to dry off--so I could just "grab and go" when "THE" day comes....besides--being under the patio roof and on the tables, or hanging from my bird-feeder hooks, may just give all these a bit of shelter.

WHY do I have 4-5 Spider plants in pots/HB's????? WHY???????????????
PLUS--I have about 12- 4" pots of them all rooted and growing...WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME????
AHHH-- I know---I belong to DG!!!!

--Dug my 2 potted/buried-in-the-bed Brugs out and sprayed them down too. Put them, kind of, grouped, near the house under the patio roof. Removed most of the lg. leaves from the C.G. Brug. This one JUST "y"'ed---The Y is so tiny, I can hardly see it--but I did see the flower bud and went--"HEY! How come it has a bud? It hasn't "Y"'ed????"
Looking closer and closer--and I saw the "Y"--maybe only an inch big--BUT--the bud was RIGHT THERE!!!

--Brought Baby "Maya" in the kitchen to finish blooming--as it has about 8 unopened flower buds on it.
Then--it will go to the basement for a "Long Winter's Sleep"....

--Already (did this Friday)--staked/tied up all the leaves in my 12 pots of the divided "Clivia" (Haaa!...Men cringe at
this name--WHY??) and took them down the Shop. Here is what I have devised.......

Since they need COOL and NO watering till February--I put 3 of these plastic "end-tables" on my Shop table and
have decided I will leave the 4' shop light on all day--and then turn it off at night. Just have to hang a note re this on
my bathroom mirror--so I can remember it AM and PM.
THAT saved a lot of panic--re WHERE I was going to put them!

--Have taken Dragon Wing Begonia cuttings this year. Before--I used to dig the plants up and save them in 6"-8"pots.
NO more!!! Time to let some of these GO! I am hoping that the cuttings will make it. That will save me $3 a
plant having to buy them next Spring.

--Took my "zillion" pots of the divided "Pregnant Onion" and crowded them all on my small window-sill in my laundry
room. That is where they have always "lived"...Just this year--I have about 12 pots--and 2-12" clay W-Boxes....
My "Climbing Onion" (It finally split!) will have to survive in the tiny W-sill in my shop. UGH! In trying to make room for
this pot. I came across a mummified mouse in a mouse trap I had put there....forgot this one!

--Brought in my huge "Mama A.W. Begonia". Gonna keep her by my LR window this year instead of my guest
bedroom--on the floor. It gets WAYYY too ignored there!

--My X-Mas cacti (about 6 pots) are already setting buds. Will leave them outside a bit longer. They "need" that cold
snap! Then--bring them in and they will just go "poof" in bloom--just in time for Thanksgiving..

--Have already taken my 6 pots of Amaryllis down the basement to go dormant. Hope they bloom this year! Only
two of them did last year. This usually happens around beginning of March. Getting tired of this "game"....I should only keep the one, big, 14" pot that has about five bulbs in it....they are all red. I have some pinks and variegated ones in the others....WOE be me!!!!!

--Gonna try and save my potted Hibiscus this year. Need input on this! It is NOT the larger bloomed ones--the blooms
are smaller--but still red. I KNOW it is already, miserably pot-bound! Too bad! It just has to live with it until 2010!
I have NO sympathy when it comes to plants! Do it--or get out of the game! If not--GONE!!! It is NOT as if they have .
"feelings".....It is MOI that does not have space for "wannabees"....Yeah---some feelings go along with it.....

SO! As of tonight--everything is almost "GO"----as soon as I hear the forecast. Just hope I am NOT working late that night!!! The "digging up" and "getting rid of stuff" has already been started. I am, actually, proud of myself! Doing some of these things way ahead of the time i would normally do them at......:o)

Are you as worn out as I am by now? As "organized"?
Trying to do this sooner than later this year. A few more "Marathon days" to go--and I will be all done! EXCEPT--then the leaf-raking will start.....ARRRGGGHHHH!

NO end to Gardening--is there?

Gita---------:0/

Gita, I'm tired just from reading all of that. Well, we are going down to 30F on Wed, so I'm rushing around like crazy. Got everything in the garage now. Still have a few things to debug and repot. Hope to get that done before work tomorrow. Still have to pull, clean and pot the Oxalis and lift and clean all of the Caladiums.

Have a number of large hosta and a bunch of mini's still to plant as well as about 8 rose bushes. Also have about 12 Echies to plant. Tomatoes are still up, so I need to clean them out to sink the pots of young perennials in the whisky barrels. It is a lot of work!! Haven't even received my bulbs yet.

Stormy, where'd you hear that forecast? I hope not!!! They're calling for a low of 39F on Wednesday from what I can find. I hope that's right or there's a lot to do quickly. Philly's average first frost isn't until the 28th, but we'll be earlier, I guess.
I'll be happy if I can winter over the trailing coleus, some sweet potato vines, and the cannas that didn't bloom in their containers. And bring in the potted amaryllises, etc.

I'd like to save a few daylily proliferations before it's too late, but the closest thing to "stress" I'm having is deciding where to winter over a bunch of daylilies I potted up in August. Plant them? Pile leaves on them against the house?

Gita, I have waaaaay too many spider plants, too. Some have seeded, but I'll resist the urge to plant those. Maybe I can give them away at Christmas.