Zinnia time.....continued

Weeded today. SO many self-sown Zins. 91 degrees too! Sowed lots more tropicals. Thunderstorms coming soon.
The Mirandy rosebush is STUNNING!!! Looks way better than the pic that they used to advertise. The flowers are huge, very fragrant, and some of the blooms are pink! A few have white stripes! Covered in buds!!!
The Southern Magnolia bloomed today. Very fragrant!
Germination on the Ipomoeas is great. 25+ types already up. Intending to sow another 50 tomorrow, lol.
My Red Zinnias are growing like crazy!
I see hummers!
Potatoes are budding. Time for new potatoes soon!

~Daniel

ooooh dont go there with potatoes.. mine fizzled.

My garden sucks this year.

oh. Well, the Magnolia bloom turned brownish. Did make you feel better?
And 2 perfect blooms fell over on the mirandy.

How do the local strawberry farms manage to have a full harvest this week while mine are just blooming?!?!?

The bachys are looking tired. Maybe this year I'll rip them out as soon as they become an eyesore, and not wait for 10 billion seeds to be spread, lol. Except those black ones.


~Daniel

Well if those derned bachs dont like your place....LOL!

Wayward home fore za-billions of bachys here! LOL! I doubt they will grow here, I have tried in the past.

The wabbits got my strawberries...all but a few that are hanging in baskets

The black one bloomed today! Really as black as night!!

The wabbits are in my gardens too. (they live in the hostas), but I never see any damage from them?

Tons of Zins germing!!
A few 4:00s too!

Is anybody else doing Cactus Blend? It's my fav!

~Daniel

I did some cactus blend.. but.. im not seeing germ.. jeez!

I am having problems with spider mites!! Since I don't use pesticides anymore I am going around either removing them by hand or using soap & water. They are determined to stay however!!!!

Cindy,

I have had trouble with Spider Mites on marigolds, but I don't recall them being a problem on my zinnias. I have had problems with aphids from time to time. I plan to purchase a Bug Blaster spray nozzle to wash off aphids, and I suppose it might work on small spider mites as well.

http://www.hiddenvalleynaturearts.com/acatalog/bugblaster.htm

http://www.thebugblaster.com/news.html

http://www.thebugblaster.com/testimonials.html

Removing spider mites (or aphids) by hand seems like a very tedious thing to do. I am hoping the Bug Blaster will be effective in "blasting off" the tiny pests to avoid the use of toxic chemicals.

ZM
(not associated with any product or vendor mentioned)


This message was edited May 31, 2010 11:20 PM

This message was edited May 31, 2010 11:25 PM

I hope that we finally have pasted the freezing temps risk. We have had an unusually cold May.
These need to be planted out asap.

Actually ALL of this needs to be planted ASAP

Well, your lucky! I still have no zin germ!

I would count the germ so far on my zins as "fair", not "excellent", like last year. It rained today, again. The Lady in Red Hydrangea is blooming. First is was lady in Green, then Lady in White, now it's Lady in Pink. I hope that it becomes 'Lady in Red' soon.

The onions are getting bigger. I had 2 day germination on the cukes. The squash is budding, weird.

~Daniel

Well we had supposedly tornados fly through our area in the middle of the nite.. I would not know, I slept through the storms and woke up to nada in damages.

The rain has been great for growinghere. Too bad I do not have all my veggies settled in..

There were Tornadoes in Toledo. I have reletives up there, they were just 2 miles away from the 100 yard wide monster. 7 miles long and killed 7, bad. Trailer park was missed. Is this the season for tornadoes?

Onions are fattening (you know that I like onions by now right?).
BB, it's been raining twice a week, but the heat dries it up quick. The Kiwanos need watering...

I saw buds on my Zins!!!

~Daniel

We know some great people south of Toledo. My heart goes out to those effected by the weather there. I have been in a few tornadoes myself and once had two twisters come through my area in less than a few hours from each other. They ripped the sheetmetal off part of my mobile home but left everything else pretty much alone. When I saw the horizon turn black orange I knew I had about 10 seconds to be where I wanted to be if I was gonna die. The storm was a monstor and you could see the width for miles. I ran to my barn. The dirt hit me on the backside of the door and as I peered through the cracks of the barnboard of the old barn I could not see my mobile home some fifty feet away. Then it came again and that time I could not get the courgage up to watch. I sat on the floor and prayed. When the storm lifted, it was like nothing had ever happened except my van and windows of the home needed a real good wash.

I think I have gone through about 7or eight or so of them nasty storms. When I was about 16 I almost got hit by a tree. I got caught in the storm when I was out horsebackriding and the horse saved my skin by shying just in the knick fo time.

I have been tickled by lightening three times with one time lightly burning my face as it hit the fence fifty feet away from me and the sparks sprinkling as I was going into my chicken coop. That was about 2 years ago.. The one time my hub was with me it just raised my hair that was about 18 years ago and the last time was just a couple weeks ago on May 12th. I was taking my dog for a walk and whaaam the strike hit my lamppole less than 50 feet from me just as I walked out of the door of the house. I used to be afraid of lightening.. the storms would jump me out of my skin...now I have a puculiar infatuation with storms... and I have had over a dozen incidences with lightening nearly smacking me....My hub thinks my "magnetisim" is one reason I can witch water! Ha!
I think hes on to something there!!

The storm I was in that it had just raised my hair we could see the funnel south of our farm and as we watched it started to hail. We got 4 inches of hail and our livestock was out in their paddock and my hub was running around with a huge kitchen pot on his head trying to get them in. They refused. He gave up and came to the house and after the storm ceased the hail had caused a steam vapor like fog and all of a sudden the vapor got sucked up to the sky by the storm. It was really weird. The animals survived and we shovelled the hail off the walk.. That was the day that Oklahoma was also bombed. Same day too I opened our nursery for business. Ha! It was a smashing success. I had 5000 mums that got destroyed by the hail! The one time in my life insurance paid!

I have visited through areas devastated by the Nebraskan storms back in the 60's
and the aftermath there was devastating and awesome. We saw steel eye-beams from buildings literallly twisted into pretzels and one can only imagine the force of a storm that could do damages like that. When you think of the heat it would take a welder to bend that metal, it would be impossible for the welder to duplicate the design after the storm. Incredible awesome force and so horrific.

Yeah, Dano, it is storm season and welcome to tornado alley. Where one minute the sun is shining and the next minute you could be running to save your hide.

I shudder to think what kind of weather we will be getting next now with that disaster in the gulf. What the haddes happened there. Jeez.

Yeah, my onions are getting flat too Not that the storm had anything to do with that. just a lousy year for onions.. They will not be too big this year. Then my chickens smashed my garlic.. so who knows how the bulbs are doing. I just hope them chickens get done weeding soon. I have a ton of maters and vines to get in. Thankfully those are all potted veggies but they need to get to the stage they can climb.

What the heck is a kiwanos?

Dan, we got some weather coming up our way, probably going your way again.. looks very stormy.

I just heard on the radio that 4 counties here were declared disaster areas by the Gov of our state... on the same line of storms that hit Toledo the other day...

My old home town was hit in the storms. I am not sure if my old farm house got it. But it sounded like the place about a half mile from my Dads old house in town was hit and some 25 mobile homes were totalled Amazing, no one hurt that we know but they did not say in todays report.

In five years that I lived out there I saw 3 tornados roar through that area. 2 in one day on a Mothers day.....Im gald I moved! LOL! I lived in a mobile home there. But had a beautiful old barn. I hope the storms missed that!

Yup, welcome to tornado alley... Seems to be the year for T's!

Jeez, Just heard another report on those weekend storms... they said 15 tornadoes touched down on the weekend.. the strongest hitting my old home town... HOLY COW! with winds up to 145 MPH....

BB, that's a lot of Storm Experience. I've only been in a hurricane. That was when half of one of my shade trees was taken away, never to be seen again. Need rain here!!
A Kiwano is a type of melon. Horned Jelly Melon is another name for it. Will try to find the PF.

~Daniel

LOL! well, I life in tornado alley so ergo the problem of experience...

I forgot, I was in a gale storm off Cape Hateris on year back in the 70's when camping with my parents. Dad and I were on a dock of the bay and Dad told me now, kid, I want you to head for the camper and do not look back. Now that was one of those times Dad was giving a direct order....We hit the door of the camper and the rain hit just as the door closed. It poured hard, fortuneatley the winds were minimal and no one was hurt. Him an dI was in a nasty gale like storm too once on Leach Lake up in Minnesota.. that was fun! LOL! Well not really, but we got caught out on a lake in his little fishing boat and I remember riding the waves as we were hitting 3 foor waves and the rain hit. Dad was one heck of a sailor! They told us when we brought the boat there that it was too small for the lake. Course Dad being a Navy guy was not one to worry.

Well anyway, no bloom on the lonely zin.. hope more peak up.

lol.

Here is the PF for Kiwano
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/65040/
This plant is a bit like cukes, I see.

There is a red bud on my Zin!!! It's bending, swelling, arising, not blooming(yet). Check back in soon...

Cactus Zins are germinating great...

~Daniel

No bloom yet.. stil have not seen others... drat!

I planted several zinnias indoors to get an early start. This zinnia was grown from seeds saved from a zinnia that had longish narrow petals, and it shows some of those traits also. Its flower form reminds me somewhat of an aster. I like it that it looks a bit "un-zinnia-like". We've had a lot of rain lately, and some bacterial rot damage has affected a few of my zinnias, including a couple of petals on this one.

ZM

That reminds me of an Echin. I don't know why, Zen. Maybe because they are blooming now? Anyway, it looks great!


~Daniel

Oh, and that new Zinnia is opening, it is red!

~Daniel

One of my first ones that I got from you, Daniel.

Toes tapping impatiently waiting here! I only see ONE ZIN! LOL!

Tggfisk, how wonderful! It is soooo considorate of traders to send pix of what the seeds look like now. I can't wait till I get my pictures CD from Sam's. I've some pix of Digitalis grandifloria to send to a trader from last year.....

BB, same here! What color is yours?

~Daniel

I'm glad you like it Daniel:) They are just starting their show, here's another purdy one.

The new thread is over here, everbody!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1109222/

Tggfisk, That first one, from which mix is it from, or is it a varieity? And the second one? Both are nice! Your sulphers are blooming, while mine just have buds, lol.
It is cerise! My first Zin is a cerise!!

~Daniel

Daniel, to tell the truth I have no idea which mix is which. I believe all that I planted this year were indeed mixes. Here was the situation...Working in an elementary school with little ones, end of the year, driving my son to school 40 min. each way, the plants were getting hot and I was planting like a madwoman any few minutes of sunlight I could get...Man! There might be tags in there, but I'm not swearing to it, lol!! The color is great on it though. Totally plan on collecting seeds. Should I save you some??
Need pics ya know!

lol. That first one is almost definately a Purple Prince. How big is the other one? It could be A Cut and Come Again (one of the one's I am not growing this year).
I need pix too! Of my own plants! Going to Sam's tomorrow...
No thanks, I save WAAAAY to many seeds for myself. Save them for yourself and see what comes out...


~Daniel

Too funny! Get thee to Sam's!!

lol is all I have to say!

Who likes chocolate?

~Daniel

*hand up*

gone!

My first zinnia bloomer is fizzling fast... and zin #2 is really petite...
sorry the color is off... I have them in the shade and they are not happy. Been tempted to pullthem out and move them to some pots, but I suspect I will not have any luck in that soooo.. they are where they are.

I think zin#3 is on the horizon. I put out my cheap seeds yesterday so those will be awhile in coming.

Ok, here she is.. #3 petite but sweet!

I need to put some more seeds in too.

Zinnias do not do well in pots. Good thing you did not pot 'em up! Keep us updated on how #3 does!


~Daniel

Well, I found another seedling starting.. Jeez, I wonder if mine are just gonna be late?