Crit, is the hairy one, purple? My biggest WJ is solid purple, this photo is from 2010, it was out of control then! It's easy to grow from cuttings too. I heard that Wandering Jews of all different kinds are used as ground covers further South.
February 2012- Cold or Warm?
That is the purple flowering wj. I have it planted outside and it comes back every year. I don't have any as a houseplant or in pots. My hairy one is more white and fuzzy.
Read this about save house that they leave the message on wall , etc...
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x638262427/Volunteer-House-moved-to-new-home
That's neat that they saved the house!!
Yes, it is neat. I was trying to see a closeup of the house, they said it took a direct hit, it musta been repaired by the volunteers. They said on the news that all the volunteers saved Joplin millions in cleanup and rebuilding. Maybe that house will be in a museum someday.
I think their hope is to make it a musuem itself in the park.
Wow, the volunteer effort for Joplin was incredible. That is a BUNCH of people that wanted to help. - http://www.joplinglobe.com/tornadomay2011/x1267396629/Volunteers-donations-saved-city-17-7-million . I'd go to see that house, it's only less than 3 hours or so to Joplin, well, if you drive the speed limit.
LOL. It's about 2 and a half hours down there if I remember right from my last trip down there. It just seemed to take forever even when speeding. lol
It's 3 hours drive...
I will go check and take pic which it done stand...
Amazing to see what all happened to Joplin and then to see what all is happening in Joplin.
I found a piece of wj at the farmers market one year and from that one piece just kept cutting and cutting til I had a beautiful plant. Went on a trip at the end of Sept and we had one of those freak frost and I had called DH and he got the plants but I forgot about my wj on the west side of the house so it was toast when I got home.
No rain no snow up here. I have daffs and tulips a good inch above the ground, very strange winter. I am so afraid when it should start turning warm it will turn cold. Hopefully today I can go out and do some clean up. Things are looking pretty dirty and raggy and everything keeps getting blown all over everywhere.
What gets me is my roses are putting on leaves already. That is crazy!! My daffs are poking up too but they are always early. Tulips haven't started yet. A couple more weeks and I should start seeing leaves.
Well, I driving around to find the house and where are so I found it and took pic is near museum place
Still stand and not repair yet...
At least it has arrived!!
I keep meaning to take advantage of this weather and get stuff planted and pruned but I can't find my pruners which are shot anyways, and I keep forgetting to replace them. lol. Bulbs need to be planted but I'm fighting a cold so they will just have to wait.
Yeah, good too see the building there even if it needs work yet. It should make a good museum someday, I'd go see it.
There's a yellow crocus already in bloom! Maybe the yellow ones aren't right! The purple ones aren't up yet!
The Daffodils are dreamers too! I moved the ladder that was on top of them, you can see it in the earlier photo up there.
I need to find a way to keep cats from pulling up and eating on my wandering Jew cuttings.
Get well soon, Pepper!
I have Easter Lily, jonquils and tulips up. Nothing up enough to bloom though. Hope they don't get frozen out. Going to be in the high 50's and 60's this week, except for Friday, it's 49. 72*!!!!! tomorrow. I'm going horseback riding!!! Sure do hope my body cooperates with me. Can't do it today, hands are hurting too bad.
Wow Crit that is some nice weather. I don't want any of it tho, cause things are a growing way too fast at my house right now. Not good, cause I am afraid we will hit the deep freeze but then again we might not.
I am sooo sleepy right now, don't know what is up with that and I have class tonight so I need to wake up NOW!
I'm one of the lucky ones. My bulbs are taking their sweet time coming up. The daffodils that are by the house are up about an inch or two but the ones down by the road haven't come up except for a few that are just barely peeking. I need to go check and see if I planted an easter lily last year. I'm hoping I did so I can dig it up and bring it by the house. lol
Crit, I'm jealous!! I want to go riding soooo bad!! LOL
Going have new 25 sirens in Joplin and it will test every Monday morning:
http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x402364270/Council-OKs-upgrade-for-storm-sirens-change-in-use-policy
I too am afraid we are going to have our 'winter snap' in April. I always get the itch to start setting my plants outside in April because the weather is so pretty ...... but have to hold my self back. I don't put anything out, unless I can bring it back in easily, until after May 1st. Then I feel pretty safe.
I have a swap going for St. Patricks Day if anyone is interested, pop on over! If you have never done a swap, you should try it. It's fun!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1243603/
I hope I get to go riding today. My hands are really hurting and that makes it difficult to saddle up my horse. I've used the prescription cream on them and taken some Arthritis over the counter med, in addition to my usual meds. Hope they feel better this afternoon. Would hate to waste this beautiful day! I can't even work in the gardens when my hands (really it is my thumb joints, but affects the whole hand) are hurting like this.
Have a wonderful and blessed day everyone!
I sure got behind.
I have been cleaning house. Especially dusting. I'm having oyster soup and pizza for the family this weekend, so things need to be a little shinier than they were, LOL! Today is also grocery day and I need lot's of vegetables. I am so looking forward to the garden this year and plan on freezing a lot of spinach. I've been drinking my tomato juice and we ate the last jar of green beans.
DD has been blending the canned pears for the babies, who are 8 months now and getting more teeth :o) I was there yesterday all day.
Well, got to keep catching up. Have a wonderful day everyone!
I did the grocery thing today too. UGH! I just hate grocery shopping with a passion!!!!! Then the worst part is the check-out. I hadn't been for several weeks and we were low on everything. It really isn't that high for as long as it has been, but it sure is a chunk when you pay it all at once. I was even being careful! It's only the 2 of us, but DH does like to snack so has to have cookies, Nutty Buddies and turkey and cheese for roll ups.
I'm beat. Got everything put away and supper ready. DH should be home any minute now.
Crit,
Grinning. I at least have DH to help me. Trouble is, he likes snacks too, and I'm filling running around filling the cart with vegetables :o)
33°/35°/19°
Snow showers tapering to some flurries this afternoon. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 40%.
I can't wait to get the plant stand in the house to sow. I have the four foot light that sits on the floor too, that I start with. I need to get the seeds out and start counting back for sowing dates.
We have a wet heavy snow right now. I looked out about 1:00 am and saw we already had a light ground cover. Yesterday, it did rain all day. I sure hope that broke our dry spell. It all soaked in too!
Then, awake at 3:00 am, heard the neighbor's cat meowing around looking for the lady that's also been around. At 3:35 I heard the power go out twice. I got up and flipped on the coffee pot in case it went out for a while. Usually the third time is the killer. No more problems and coffee tastes good :o) (Both of the neighbor's cats are inside enjoying a warm house :o)
I had some snow at my house. Only froze on the cars, lucky me, windy and cold and out scraping...yuck. Looks warm outside the sun is a shining, but think it isn't that warm. Had a long week and I am really tired. Looking forward to this weekend, maybe I will get something accomplished for a change...rofl.
I heard Joplin was getting newer and better warning sirens in hopes people will heed the warning. I am guessing for quite a while the folks in Joplin will run for cover if they go off, I know here everyone is much more aware and we weren't in a tornado.
We weren't in a tornado but we did have that storm system that kept forming them then popping them back up I think it was about a month later. The whole area was huddled in basements and other safe places. I remember that like it was yesterday.
Going to a walk in clinic tomorrow. I still can't get rid of this sore throat and cough so gonna go find out what's going on.
I'm up late doing a little housework myself, no, I didn't just get out of the bar..lol, haha, I rarely drink. Just a note to self, don't let a bottle of Mrs. Butterworths fall on the floor from 5 feet up when the lid is broke! I didn't look right away to see what fell, about 5 minutes afterward I looked and there was about a foot diameter of maple syrup all over the floor! I found a new use for my hands, scooping up syrup! You have to hold them together real tight so as little as possible escapes before you can unload syrup into the trashcan! I spent about 30 minutes cleaning that mess up! Oh, the life of the idle, well, just the idle!
Welcome back billyp! I bought a pack of Sugar-Snap Peas and 2 packs of tomato seeds to start tomorrow or someday soon myself. Ironically, I saw that your twin pineapples were on the way about the same time as the Joplin disaster.
I sure am glad to hear Joplin is getting all the new sirens and the upgrades for the residents there. They are making better sirens now, but they still kinda help more the people outside, unfortunately, if the windows are closed. Some of the new sirens here don't have to rotate like the old ones and they talk real loud and say danger is coming. They need to make a subwoofer-like emergency siren like they are putting in cop cars to clear traffic. They say there's no way you could miss a police car rumbling down the road then, it will rattle your car!
Ack, happ, keep the snow! I used to think we needed snow but now it's just too close to Spring! I'd like the flowers to continue blooming and the buds on stuff to keep coming out to make leaves!
Oh, a walk-in clinic. I haven't been to a minute clinic since my Swine Flu scare when I walked in Walgreens with a dust mask on and announced to everybody "don't be alarmed, I might have h1n1".
Twice in recent years I just have had a cough that wouldn't go away for like 3 months each time, it was just unexplained. One was the "Swine Flu", the nurse practitioner lady at Walgreens said it was Bronchitis. - http://www.medicinenet.com/bronchitis/article.htm
I remember that storm too, it was only 3 days after the tornado in Joplin. I Googled it, it was May 22nd, the bad storm here was May 25th. I remember standing in the screen-door with my camera looking for a tornado and listening for sirens in case I had to try to get the elderly, bedridden lady to the basement. That's rainwater rushing on my rear tire! Scroll down in May's forum to May 21st - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1177366/
The Daffodils are drooped over and it just rained, I think they're under the eaves. I'm gonna have to hook the hose up and do some watering I guess!
I have only ridden horses a couple times. I remember the last time I was canoeing on the Current River and there was a horseback riding thing there, I remember ignoring the sign that said "guys are not recommended to wear shorts", that should not be done! I don't know which is worse, wearing swimming trunks horseback riding or wearing cowboy boots on the lake's beach like a friend did years ago! We threw him in the lake then we had to find a ride home!
Sure Crit, I'll check out your swap but I doubt anybody would want to swap anything of mine right now. I don't have much of any real desire to anybody, I kinda mostly only have stuff that is small, common and cheap, but mark my words, someday I'll have something!
I'm a better grocery eater than grocery shopper but there is nothing worse than filling up your basket with groceries and then realizing you forgot the grocery bags in the car!
Will
For some reason (I blame this cough thing going on) I made a post for here and posted it in the border thread. Go figure. lol. I'm copying and pasting here.
Well, I have lost the one shade bed I had going thanks to a tree that has been dying. My dad and brother cut it down today so this spring I will have to transplant hostas and hellebores down to the old chicken coop til I get another tree planted to provide shade. The coop is being developed into a flower bed but I want more natives in there if I can do it. I might try to get Empress Wu hosta though and stick her down there!! Just for kicks. lol.
Now I will be shopping tonight online for a small tree that I can use as shade. Maybe if I can get a decent sized Japanese Maple at a good price. Or a weeping tree of some kind. Gotta be small for final size though!! Will take ideas!! I'll take a pic of the spot tomorrow too. That will help.
My 2 sisters, niece and I went to SquawCreek National Wildlife Refuge in NW Missouri today and it was spectacular! Trumpeter Swans are alive too and doing very well in the park.
North America's largest waterfowl is a beautiful bird, they are in the first photo. The Swan Society should be proud! - http://www.swansociety.org/
The rest of the photos are of the Snow Geese, about 99% of them are Snow Geese, the rest are a few thousand Canada Geese and a few thousand SpeckleBelly Geese - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_White-fronted_Goose . An aerial survey done yesterday says there is a total of 1.025 million geese migrating there for a little while before they head North.
All the white is Snow Geese.
The Bald Eagle population (58) here is doing good, in the 2:09 Youtube video you can see them making a lot of the geese launch off the water in staggering numbers, you can faintly tell the eagles from the geese at that distance. The eagles are even larger than the geese, they are darker than the geese. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzFsyp4zEIs&feature=youtu.be I'm sure the geese feel safe in those numbers with the eagles all around, but I bet the geese is a smorgasbord for the eagles. The wildlife you don't see every day was everywhere here too, Muskrats, Mallard Ducks, Water Chickens (aka Griebs), Eagles, Hawks, Gulls, Deer, Herons and Otters. I'm just an amateur wildlife enthusiast, I'm sure there is much more, for example all different kinds of birds are everywhere.
I wanted to get a closeup of a Bald Eagle, but they don't get close, all you see up close of them is BIG juvenile Bald Eagles, they are pretty drab in color, but they do like to eat geese!
You hardly ever see a mature Bald Eagle closer than about a half mile (in flight), at least I didn't. Here is a Youtube video of the Swans, with my 9 y.o. niece in the background saying "quack".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIKe_oc5eEI&feature=youtu.be lol! You can hear the real birds going "quack", but they are fainter.
Pepper, I have a bundle of Dogwoods coming from the state nursery, if you want one, you can have one.
This message was edited Feb 29, 2012 9:54 PM
I might do that. I'm still looking into different trees but that's about the size I want. I'm looking at Bloodgood Jap Maple too.
Here's the spot where the tree came down. It was a maple tree. I loved how it leaned over a bit but now I need a smaller tree. Thinking Japanese Maple, Dogwood or something that doesn't get above 15 feet and has a nice spread for shade.
Great! A notice from them just came here last week, they are getting ready to ship the hardy seedlings soon. If you do end up getting 'Bloodgood' I'd be sure to ask how it's grown, grafted or seed grown. I remember I couldn't believe all the seed grown 'Bloodgoods' at nurseries for sale. It certainly wouldn't be a fake 'Bloodgood' at Walmart or Home Depot, you can see the graft union at those stores and I've asked. A seed grown 'Bloodgood' is only red a small part of the year, the real one is red all year. That Maple tree was a biggun, I bet it shaded a lot of ground.
Here is the best shots of some eagles that I got, I think they are Bald Eagles, (my eye is pretty untrained). That one of it way up in the sky was just that, real zoomed in, but the white head is pretty apparent. The one of one flying over that peninsula is flying over many carcasses of everything and I suspect eagles, shame on them! LOL! I'm sure that's the cycle of life for them, they ARE at the top of the food chain. Is that a big nest or what, a Bald Eagle nest I believe. And one of an eagle just sitting in a tree, it didn't budge when we went by!
Have you ever seen this many geese in the sky? And they were about to land on the water where we were going as fast as we could.
This is the best pic I can find of it at the moment. Just a part of the trunk and the flowers around it. It hasn't provided much shade from the canopy in recent years but the trunk sure did!!
That was a big tree, Pepper. I can mail you a Dogwood pretty soon, not really sure when yet, hopefully within a month. It's the regular white flowering Dogwood, they call it "flowering dogwood". -
http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/flowering-dogwood
I might just go ahead and take one. I wanted to start out with a bigger tree for more instant but the dogwood will work too. I will have a spot somewhere for sure. Thanks Will!!
Your welcome, I'll try to get one of the bigger ones for you Pepper. I have a bundle of 25 coming, there's not much way I could plant them all. I am going to call them tomorrow, they are real friendly, I've called them before to bother them. It's long distance but we have an internet phone so it's free. I need to find out what the dealio is tho, I dug up the order form thing that came in the mail the other day, it says "due date Feb. 18th", yet it is postmarked Feb. 22nd. Not sure what's going on there but I am on the case! I'm sure it'll get sraightened out, they know I'll put in a call! Just kidding, their nice there. It isn't like their sold out, I looked, Dogwood and Hazelnut are still in stock, I'll just order them again if I have to. My friend here wants a Dogwood to plant. Their seedlings grow fast, here is two Shumard Oak seedlings that I dumpster dove for in back of the then regional Missouri Conservation office in Blue Springs, MO. nearly 8 years ago, they are planted in my grandparents' backyard. In the first photo, you can barely see where the ground is disturbed where I just planted them. In the second photo, you can see where the left one is around 20 feet tall! The other one is taller than it appears, in Fall 2010, now, their even bigger but I can't find the photos. Their Dogwoods should grow as fast or faster.
Will
I called the state nursery this morning, she says "I don't know why they're doing that", but it's all set to go on the seedlings, they are being shipped here in late March.
Ok, that works perfectly. We still have to pull the stump out. lol.
52°/46°/28°
Partly to mostly cloudy and windy. Winds WSW at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.
I'm catching up.
Hi Will,
I catch up and get behind :o) My life is changing with the less time I have for myself in a week now.
We are have the geese too. I haven't seen this many ''swarm'' since the 80's.
Awww Pepper,
I love your leaning tree too.
Will,
Dumpster diving for trees cracks me up, but I'd be headfirst in the dumpster with you, LOL!
They're beautiful trees!
I've finally got the house cleaned up. Incentive was the oyster soup dinner I had here for DD and family, and my Dad. I've been hanging laundry out and it comes in mostly dry. It's hung pretty early :o)
We had rain yesterday, not a lot, but added to the inch we got the other day, gives me hope for a wetter spring. We really had no snow cover all winter. I hope it got cold enough long enough for the peonies and lilacs to bloom.
We took the jeep out on the gravel roads and they were soft and soupy. They need to put down rock, and a lot of it!
Well, spending the day at DD's today so got to keep moving.
Tornadoes in Branson, Buffalo and Lebanon, MO last night. Branson has major damage to the strip or I-76. Harveyville, KS and Hutchison, KS also got hit and I heard about a town in Illinois that got hit too. 16 tornadoes in 5 states. Spring has arrived!!!
That IS a bunch of geese isn't it?! I am or was a dumpster diver, I haven't done the dumpster diving in a while! I remember taking a photo of the dumpster back in the day!
It's pretty goofy but here it is!
Being the victim of a tornado would really stink. Yes, Spring is close, they say nearly 70° tomorrow.
33°/49°/35°
Sun and clouds mixed. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Pepper,
I hate tornadoes more every year! I'm glad you were safe!
Will,
I doubt I could hoist myself up to a dumpster these days, much less balance and dig at the dame time, LOL!!
The wind blew here yesterday and if it wasn't leap year, it would have been March first. So.... Were we in like a lion or a lamb?