WHAT is stressing you out as the cold weather approaches?

Supposed to be nice here tomorrow. today I dug peruvian daff and caladiums. Hope I label them and store them properly!. and got some pansies in the ground. and bought just one more mum LOL why? I dunno. I wanted to help the nice southern states store that still had fifty thousand of tha dang things.

Claypa, Just checked the forecast again. They've changed it since last night. Now it says low of 34F on Thursday. Don't you have any large tubs that you can fill with soil to sink those pots? I sink all of the youngsters every year and they do fine. Gita's Tiger lily babies are going in there too. I repotted my four Amaryllis today to give them better drainage. Maybe they'll bloom this year. One of them looked suspiciously like it's getting ready to.

Yes, it is getting cold and here comes the reminders that time is running out.

It seems every fall and spring I fret over making a timely order for plants and then planting them. I have yet to order the tulips I was planning on doing.....indecision on color choices and which company to order from always tie me up in knots. In a fit of frenzy, I finally ordered my irises end of Sept. and got them planted first week of October. Now the aderline level rises about whether they will survive this winter and bloom next spring. I still have time for the tulips, though. After November, however, it's pointless. What colors? The Black Tie mix or the Orange & Pink blends?

The amaryllis in the pot needs to be pulled out to go back into the refrigerator for 8 weeks to be re-potted again in December. I didn't get a chance to do that this weekend. Next?

I been meaning to mention this to whoever was talking about digging up her Cannas. Was it you, stormy? Ladygardener?
I have always followed the "rule" that one must allow frost to get the tops first. Then you cut back the plants, leaving about 10" above ground.
THEN--leave the roots in the ground for 2 more weeks.
THEN dig them up.

Fox--WHY do you put your Amaryllis bulbs in the fridge? Does that make them bloom at Christmas time?
I take mine to the basement--let all the foliage die off--then let the pots "rest" for another month. Then either re-pot them or just bring them upstairs and start watering. etc....
I think I learned this from Allan Summers.....BTW--I heard he is going out of business......

Gita

I could never get the timing exactly right on forcing the Amaryllis to bloom, no matter when I cut them back. Some years they would bloom at Thanksgiving, some mid December, some New Years and some mid to late January. I varied the cut back dates and the dates that I stopped watering. Then I varied the number of weeks of dormancy.

Finally, I stopped forcing them and let them just bloom naturally, whenever they felt like it. It turned out that they would bloom between January and March depending on the Variety. I never stopped watering them or cut them back after that.

Claypa, Both weather services are now posting frost advisories for tonight.

Now I am stressing about getting the plants Neemed---since several of you are taking bug precautions. of course its become very breezy here; I do not want to Neem myself, or the whole neighborhood instead of my plants.
Pulled up my dwarf banana today- not a single root grown out from the huge 4 ? gal nursery pot. No wonder it hasn't grown much.

I work 7AM-1PM tomorrow.
When i get home--I will tackle all the plants and bring them in as best i can. The JUNGLE will return to my LR/DR!

There are three HUMONGOUS HB's.......Two Swedish Ivies and my Ric-Rac cactus. Man! Did that grow this year!!!!
Then--3 Spiders HB's.....and about 3 in 6" pots.....NOT gonna count all the rooted babies in 4" pots---must be about 12 or more....
I think I will just take those to work and leave them in the break room with a big sign--FREE! They will disappear!
Wasn't too much interest in Spiders at the Plant Swap. I guess we all have these....

Should give a piece of it to doc-----He will have it in an 8" HB in a couple of weeks--no sweat! AND--very shiny! :o)

Sally--I hardly ever have bugs on any of my plants.....I am more worried about what all has crawled inside the pots from the bottom. I still treat all the pots with "Bonide Systemic Granules" before I bring them in.
Can't buy those any more--at least not at HD. They were clearanced out several years ago.
That is when I bought about 4 containers of it.

Gita

Gita, Some of those systemic rose feed & prevent formulations have insecticide in them.

Good grief! What is with these weather forecast people? Now there is no Frost Advisory and they are showing Thursday's low to be 12 degrees warmer than this morning. Now they are not posting any lows under 40 until next Monday which they say will be 35..

Well, I lifted all of the Caladiums. Have to get them all sorted then cut back and stored. I keep them in my heater room. I've got most of the Coleus inside. Half of it is cut and potted. The other half is in the garage along with the Oxalis. All of the Begonias are now inside.

Harvested all of the good tomatoes, both red and green. Took down about a quarter of the plants. Emptied and washed a number of pots and took them to the basement. Planted half a dozen Maidenhair ferns and a few Astilbe & Heuchera. Tomorrow I'll continue with the Coleus and try to plant a few of the roses before work.

The NWS will give a frost advisory if frost is "possible", whatever that might mean. If it's 38F, frost won't happen, so I think they do it just in case, so they don't get a bunch p.o.'d gardeners e-mailing them? I like accuweather for the radar, but they use the same places to measure precipitation as near as I can tell - if the NWS site is down, accuweather doesn't have the data either. I live seven miles from the airport they use, so it doesn't always help.

My neem oil was congealed like peanut butter, had it in the basement and had to warm it up just to pour it out of the jug. Boy that stuff stinks.

What's really stressing me out now is the squirrels' annual seek-and-destroy mission has started - any container or recently worked soil is theirs, to plant acorns and walnuts in. waah!

I'm starting to hate squirrels. Have them in moms roof. But I should take further comments to a varmint thread..

Well, I didn't get any roses planted, but got all of the coleus in. A friend brought me some winter pansies, so I planted some of them. Took down a few more tomatos. Potted up the Oxalis, am going to try them as a house plant. If they start to look bad, I'll store them in the garage.

Some lilies and other bulbs arrived today. Still waiting on 3 more orders and a few trades. Have Echies to get into the ground too. Also, dug up some hostas last week that need to to into a different spot. Will try to get that done this weekend weather permitting. Have lots of pots to go to the basement. Most garden objects should be ok left outside until next month.

Went to Walmart & came home with 2 humidifiers. Hope they will help keep the plants and me healthy.

It's like packing for a trip! I think i'm right on schedule, then realize how many 'that'll be done later' things I have. Today scooted out in the cold rain to deal with a huge clay pot of mixed stuff, ended up with a nice peperomia, a nice 8 inch pot of ---of---begins with a B, Oh bromeliads, and a 4 inch pot of pothos. Just keeping a small part of that alive because when it goes out in summer the leaves get much bigger and prettier.The bottom half the clay pot was maple roots. Yesterday took a few more cuttings. I need to decide where my big pile of fall leaves will be this year. I've been rotating around in the garden and last year made a new area about four by fifteen to put the leaves. Grab a few tomatos each time I go out there.

I've been stressing for at least two weeks :( I was watching the weather closely because of all the plants I had to drag inside and thought I was safe until this week - NOT! We had a our first threat of frost on October 7th, a week before I had planned to bring everything inside :( Spent that entire afternoon getting most things in, covered others and kept my fingers crossed! Fortunately even though the temps dipped to 31 everything left outside made it and two weeks later it's all finally inside, at least I thought it was! Realized this morning when posting a few pictures that I forgot about the gold Duranta I picked up a few weeks ago - guess I'll find out soon if it survived 29 degrees :( I'm way behind this year, last year I was planting right up until the first of November. The miserable weather this past week almost has me convinced that I won't be planting this fall, well... "almost". LOL

what is stressing me out? Too many things to do outside and not enought time. 36 hours days are not around yet LOL. I need that much to get caught up .....and the Holidays are coming GRRRRR

The amount of Algae covering everything is stressing me. The humidity this summer was probably the worst since I've been here. In addition to all of the yard work, I have so many things to scrub before storing. Just hosing them off won't work. Getting soaked while scrubbing is such a delight in the cooler weather. I don't think that we had enough sunny days this summer to burn the organisms off.

There are numerous metal objects that need clear coating too. Trying to get every thing done sometimes is overwhelming.

Now that ALL my plants are inside--I am stressing out about keeping them all watered.....
Some need it more often than others.....Some don't need it at all (like my Clivias and Epis) as they are to be kept dormant for 3 months or so...
Keeping mental track of all this.....impossible! Will have to write little tags and put them on the pots--
eg: " Do NOT water until end of February!"

Little 3" pots with rooting cuttings dry out in a matter of days. Never seem to pay attention to that!
NOTHING gets enough light in my house throughout the Winter. Yet--everything survives...somehow....

One BIG stress that was alleviated was finding a taker for the two huge Brugs......WHEW!

Gita

Gita, I've never let my Clivia go dormant. I water it all year and it always blooms. Is there a reason that you do this?

stormy---

I went to PF on Clivias and read all the comments below the "Facts".....someone suggested I should read there and find out how to over-winter a Clivia.
I think I posted a Q on the Tropicals Forum......and then read through a huge amount of comments on the PF.
There seemed to be a consensus that Clivias should be kept cool and NOT be watered between November and February--so--a dormant period. I do not know whether, the fact that I just divided them, would make any difference in this advice. We shall see.......
Besides--IF I had not done what i am now doing--I would NOT have anywhere to put these 12 pots!!!!

RThere is a big, square table in the Shop--just under a 4' shop light. I do a lot of potting and gardeny stuff down there. This Shop is the 4th, and lowest, level in my house. It has NO heat vents down there--and NO light to speak of.

SO! I thought "PERFECT!".....I will have to chance it and see what happens. There are NO other alternatives!

Here they are--and where they will remain--for the rest of the Winter...

This TINY window is ALL the light there is in the Shop. It is about 14'x14".
It is at this end of the shop where I also store my Brugs for the Winter--REALLY dormant!

I should say that this 4th level is 80% underground--so really cool--but NOT freezing.

That droopy thing you see in front is my Rose Souvelons Brug--and a testament that you SHOULD remove all the leaves b/f you take it down for the Winter--as they will drop anyway and make a holy mess.

The plant in front of the window is my "Climbing Onion" which, usually, spends the Winter on the same-sized window ledge in my laundry room--except this Winter--it is taken up by ALl the pots and the 2 clay W-Boxes of my divided Pregnant Onion. This area does get heat.

Here is the laundry Room window ledge--full of pots of my divided Pregnant Onion.
This area is heated......

Gita, What about the mother? Didn't you keep a fairly large one for yourself? Will you cut the leaves off of them? Do the leaves wither without water? Gita, these are the yellow ones, right? Please reserve one for me when you go to sell them. Thanks I also get lots of seeds from the orange one. Do you want some?

Gita, you definitely have a watering nightmare going on there. Lots of spills to wipe up.

stormy--

NO! These are the Orange ones....and they have never made any seeds for me..... I did see ONE pod! Not sure what is inside there.....
I have NOT watered them--and won't until the end of February--so NO mess--No fuss.....

The "Onions"--now--I DO water them a bit--off and on. They are all in clay containers but have saucers and trays under them. They have always survived this way for me.

The "Mother" Clivia is past history--only one of the 12 pots. I did put TWO divisions in the pot I plan to keep--so the "mother" will live on....It is the bigger pot on the right side table--in the back.

I do not plan to cut off the leaves--as all this is a "FIRST" for me. WHY do you ask? Do you?
I expect some of the leaves to turn yellow--but that might be because I so butchered the whole plant when dividing it.
Many of these potted divisions are already putting out new growth and leaves. It will be interesting--to say the least.

As for selling them--I wish! I know they fetch a good$$$ as they are kind of "rare"......The yellow ones, especially!

stormy--do you know you can sell Clivia seeds for some bucks? Just advertise it----like, 3 or 4/$10 +shipping.
Again--this is all "hearsay" at this point--not having done any of it myself--yet......

Don't ever sell any possibility short!!!!!! Just DO IT!!!!
Gita

Here is the bloom it had this Summer--NOT as big as in past years! But you can see the color.

Remember this????

This is how many divisions I got from dividing the whole Mother plant.
As you can see--there are plenty of roots left to carry on. I am NOT worried!

Gita, That is surprising. Maybe it was too crowded and under nourished to produce seed. Do you cut the spent bloomstalks right away? If you leave them on they will create seed pods about the size of a marble. Each stem that held a little blossum will yield a seed. So, one bloom cluster might give you 20 seeds. I've been giving mine to a gal for years who germinates them and sells the plants at her church's christmas bazarre.

These plants reproduce by producing side off shoots and by seed production. Mine is now 2 large plants and three babies. It would be larger if I had not repotted it 4 years ago. I never cut the leaves, but by giving it a dormancy period, you are in effect, forcing the bloom. Usually when you force a bloom like on Amaryllis, you cut off the foliage.

Interestingly, the best bloom that I ever got from mine was the spring after the fall when I left it outside too late in the season. The foliage froze completely and turned to mush. I had to cut it all off. I brought it inside and continued watering it. It put up all new foliage and that summer had an incredible bloom. The only thing that I did to mine this fall was to scrape away most of the soil and add fresh, organically enriched soil.

YES! it was too crowded--but then again--I think this plant does not mind....The pot i was gived had NEVER been divided for over 30 years. How's that grab you? I thought it qwas time i "took the plunge".....

NO--I do not cut the bloom stalks away--I wait for them to yellow a bit--just like on bulbs.

On Amaryllis--I bring them in--let the foliage get all mushy and pull it off. Then I let the plant rest another month--and then either re-pot it in fresh soil--or just look for the tip of the flower bud to start showing. Then i bring it upstairs and start watering it and it shoots up pretty fast----Seldom blooms, though, before beginning of march.
I think WHEN you start their dormancy determines WHEN they will bloom. Allen Summers always suggested end of August. DAH! That is still summer--and i am not bringing anything in!

Much of all I learned and do is from him. He used to have a weekly Radio Q&A show that I always listened to.

Time for bed!!!! Gita

I am sure there are many other methids and ways.......

A BIG OOPS!!! This what I found when I walked out the door yesterday morning to check on the damage from the big freeze :( I was so busy getting everything inside on Sunday and because this guy was so big, I decided to wait until the end of the day to just drag him inside the front door - but I forgot! I've had this Euphorbia for about 4 years and every year we cut it down to about 2' to overwinter it inside. Right now I can only hope that the damage was just to the foliage and with his annual pruning he'll bounce back in the spring :(

What's stressing me out are the constant swings in the weather. It's been so hot, that it's miserable inside of the house. It's been hot for 10 days and the garden is reacting strangely. Winter chores are backed up by this weather and the freeze will come abruptly.

Gita---re: the Amaryllis in the fridge----

I read to do this cold treatment technique on Amaryllis.com, I think, to force them to bloom in winter. The only reason I like Amaryllis is to have a flower in the house for survival in the dead of winter. Their color and form are awesome. They do better than most other tropicals in my house and don't take up much space. When I waited to do the pulling and cooling in October, then re-planting in early December, the bloom time was late Jan/early Feb. and lasted through March. It was a blessing to me last winter!!

That's interesting news about Summers. Thanks.

Stressors?

I'm worried about getting everything done before it gets too cold:

-things planted that need planting
-lifting drying and storing things that need to come up
-cutting back limbs or dead stalks and mulching beds
-moving plants to new areas i had in mind
-worrying i'll change my mind in the spring and want to move them to yet another spot, LOL!!
-and hoping plants survive that I've mulched extra good that i'm zoning-pushing

yah, i know, sounds OCD, doesn't it? but, I love gardening. what can I say? :)

(Foxnfirefly, I just put my amaryllis bulb in the fridge the other day. Looking forward to that beautiful winter bloom!)

Gita, If you don't get seeds on your Clivia, maybe it's because being so pot bound, they couldn't get enough nutrition. Did you feed it well when repotting? Maybe you'll get some this year.

My Amaryllis leaves never get mushy. Is it because you stop watering them and then they get mushy? I repotted them last week and hope that the fresh soil may help encourage a bloom this year.

Cheer, Don't worry, you sound just like the rest of us. LOL

Yes, Cheer~~I feel your pain! And Isn't it hard to walk around and see things that need to be done sometime, but maybe not NOW, and have to mentally keep rehashing the decision~~ or is that just me? I have some redbud seedlings getting two feet tall. I really need to get them out of where they are and either find a permanent home, or pot them up to hold longer, or something! but for the last two months I have to walk past and say over and over "I need to ...but have to wait till ..."
a stressor for me is rethinking old decisions, like should I try to move my blueberry bushes, or leave them? I could do something more attractive where they currently are, between me and neighbor, kind of a side yard situation, a couple redbuds could go there te hee

Sally, I'm having one of those indecisive moments now relative to digging up a very blah Viburnum. You just gave me a bit of brilliant insight! If I do dig it up, I could plant your Black Pussy Willow in it's spot. Thanks for the idea and the Pussy Willow! LOL

The shorter days are stressing me out. Cuts into prime gardening time. It's bad enough that it gets so dark in the evening, but I hate that it takes so long to get light in the morning. That is always prime weeding time for me.

Sally, that's precisely why I put things in 3 or 5 gallon pots at times, figuring in the spring I should have clarity for the next year where i actually want to plant things.
I make lists regularily, alot of times when i have my morning coffee and walkthrough of the gardens. I just make alot of lists. Doesn't mean I get it all done. It just means I have good intensions :)
I tell myself a little everyday will one day equal alot.

stormy---

I re-potted my Clivia so late in the Season that I, kind of, sent them in a dormancy right after that.
SO--I did not feed it any--but that wonderful potting Mix I used from "Good Stuff Cheap" has a minor bit of fertilizer in it--much like any MG Potting mix.

I am fully prepared to let all the 12 pots be--just as they are---until February. I guess I am a culprit of any information i read that makes sense to me--kind of like a "sieve"---I read and, mentally, maintain all these nuggets of information...
and then i follow it.....IF it works--it becomes integrated in my "Knowledge bank".....IF it does not--I do not repeat it.

It is ALWAYS a learning experience.....

Re the Amaryllis----YES! The leaves get mushy really, really fast after I bring them in my basement.
My one Sister--who lives in AK--has an Amaryllis potted that never, ever goes dormant. She keeps it in a very bright window on her 2nd floor and it just blooms away.
I always thought it was because it was so cold there--and, I believe, Amaryllis likes it cool.....

You know---to make long story shorter---I really DO NOT spend too much time attending to the needs of any of my plants. THERE! I said it! They just have to fend on their own with some watering now and then.....
WHEWWWW! That felt good to admit it!!!!

Gita

APinchofCheer said "a little everyday will one day equal alot." That ia so true to how many of us develop our gardens, isn't it? One new long lasting addition a year, equals a whole bed-worth of new stuff after some years. And, things you plant often do the little everyday on their own, vis the five daffs that become huge divideable clumps in a few years.
I walked in a local park this am with a woman who is interested in prettying up the place. I may have a home for some redbuds out of this, eventually. The park has no money for adding trees etc.