This message was edited Apr 2, 2012 3:43 PM
CLOSED: Hello Spring! Good-Bye to the Winter That Never Was
Carey, you got some great deals, wowzer! None of our nurserys except the first pics carry anything as tropical, let alone at a great price. I do have that silver begonia and one of the few begonias I haven't killed...rofl. I love begonias but between angel wing and the silver I have managed to kill every other begonia around, numerous times..... ;( Now when begonias see me coming in the garden centers they start screaming please donot take us home......
I have some plumeria that I bought from a coop, excited to get it outside again, but that will be a few weeks off, our last frost date is several weeks off and plumerias do not like cold, altho it is going to be 90 today, as soon as I would drag all this stuff out, Mom nature would surely try to get them.
Out to play....
LOL @ Kathy & Carey!!!!! I can just envision you trying to ''aim right'' to get urine where you wanted it! My thought was maybe a styrofoam cup or something!
happ .... sounds like you had a wonderful day! That mini garden is just adorable!
I have squirrel feeders up in the trees to try to keep them out of my bird feeders. I also put out a feed pan with corn and black sunflower seeds in it for the other critters and a pan of apple flavored deer corn. We have a few deer as a lot of our area is wooded, but there are also a lot of dogs that run loose so I don't see them too often. Have 5 bird feeders up and love all the birds that come to my yard. Also put up several hummingbird feeders.
Off to read more threads...........
You all have a wonderful day!!
This message was edited Apr 2, 2012 9:19 AM
uhhhh...I don't think so crit.....lol.
Congrats....what are you going to do, build a new garden? Oh how exciting!!!!!!
This message was edited Apr 2, 2012 1:26 PM
If I ever build another home I am seriously considering a strawbale home. They are so nice and cozy, and beautiful!!!
Great scores Carey, although I manage to kill orchids, and crotons, and stag ferns, and...
OMG, happ, what a beautiful place and seriously doubt I could have had your restraint. We have one nursery that just reopened today with only 8-10 greenhouses that pales in comparison, but they do have a lot of unusal plants, for a price...lol
You know how tickled I am for you, Elfie!
I have a brand new dragon fruit cutting to add to my pot. Another Guyute :D
In other news, I'm trying to sweet talk my nieces boyfriend into emptying my strawberry pot for me. I need it for beets, carrots and radishes.
Happ - tropicals around here are actually pretty rare for us too. This was because of the Zilker Garden Festival - there were several vendors from far out of town that we usually don't get to see. It's a bummer - there's a Gingers grower that was in town last year but no such luck this year.
Fruity, the terrestrials are a lot different than regular orchids. My cattleyas and phals look miserable. These are more like hostas or cast iron plant. Just need well-training soil and some winter protection. :)
Patti - there is is no way I'm peeing on my plants! LOL!
CONGRATS ELFIE!!! I know you have got to be one excited lady! I'll be Goober is on tenterhooks to help you arrange some new gardens!
congrats Kriss , that is great , Just put up a POLE barn :) or a huge garage :) just waitinng for the rain to clear off so i can play outside :) chat more later.
Hope all are ok in Texas with the tornadoes this afternoon! Be safe!
Update: the little girl who was shot at my son's school was released from the hospital today. I thought you'd all want to know.
Ang, that is a relief to hear. That poor girl will suffer nightmares for years. :(
Well if that's the case, Carey, I may have to try a couple. Are they really that easy?
What wonderful news, Ang! Thanks for the update.
Sandi, I don't know how far you live from Dallas, but please check in so we know you're alright.
Both my sis-in-laws who live there are fine. One called while she was still at work, not knowing what the roads would be like or if she had any damage at home. A little while later, she called back and is home safe. I gripe about her wanting to be waited on when she comes for a visit, but wouldn't ever want anything or anybody to harm her after being friends for 25 years, long before I married her brother.
Hey everyone..please keep my sister, niece and great nieces in your prayers. They live in Ft Worth/Dallas (Arlington, which was hit so badly) and I can't get hold of either one :( I know in my heart that they're all ok, but I still want it to be confirmed, you know?
thanks..
Will do, Chris. I felt the same way, just had to hear her voice and you'll hear theirs soon.
Yah, I knew my weather wouln't last also. 80* on Sunday, 40* monday and last night and today snow and ice. I'm ready for a nice spring thanks!!! (Oh yah, NOW!!!!)
Carolyn22.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!
Kathy
Thank you! Such a pretty arrangement, I can almost smell the flowers.
I saw a huge wisteria in full bloom today. It was gorgeous albeit a little early. Also saw some german irises yesterday. Lots of nights of low temps here in the next 10 days, so I'm hoping we can avoid bringing all the tropicals back in. I know I jumped the gun, but it was almost too hot in the garage for them when it was 90 outside. :0)
OK I knew it was going to be bad this summer with the bugs. But if it is going to be like this all summer I will be in the basement until further notice. The gnats are HORRIBLE. I was trying to get the rest of the leaves up and the lilies planted. I finally had to quit. I couldn't take another minute of it. I realized I was in trouble when I started planting bulbs upside down because I couldn't see. Bugs up my nose, in my ears, behind my glasses. Guess it is time for some cigars. :0)
Fruity, that's what they were telling me when I bought them. Compared to how she described the care versus pretty much any of the others they should be fine outside. They prefer higher humidity but won't die without it... http://growerjim.blogspot.com/2010/05/nun-orchid-phaius-tankervilliae.html
Sandi/Sandy (Bubbles/Ilovejesus) are nowhere near Dallas. Looks like most of the serious storms stayed well to the north except for the Dallas metroplex. Prayers going to those affected - there were some crazy/scary videos playing yesterday.
Chris, I hope you've heard from your family by now!
Neener, I feel your pain! We had basically NO winter, so there are 10 times the bugs that we normally have, and the bats haven't come north from Mexico yet so it is TERRIBLE out there. Crane flies, June bugs...and not to mention the mosquitos and gnats...YUCK.
Thanks Fruitness.. and yes Carey, my sis called about 9:30 last night- she works in the surgery dept of a hospital and was there when the storms hit. She said she didn't even realize what had happened till her hubby called to say that the neighbors told him that they watched the tornado go over their house! Luckily, it never came down and they only lost some branches off their trees.
Glad to hear Chris! ^__^
Ang, glad that lil girl is doing okay home now, that is a relief.
Neener, you need a hat net, we have white flies already outside.
Kathy, wish it would have snowed more here.
Fruity,glad you know your loved ones are safe, I heard from some of my friends and they are all okay..
Happy Birthday to you! Carolyn!
we just finished with an inch of rain here, needed it.
now, I found this in a pot downstairs I emptied out.. any ideas what it is?
I planted it with almost all the tuber showing, looks like a butt now, LOL in a pot.. the last one is a dahlia I am sure..
I planted all the cannas along all the fences..there is a lot of fence..
a big wind knocked a large limb down ( neighbors old dying cotton wood that houses the squirrel family) anyway, it ended up taking down our cable line and broke my windmill and tore a huge hole in the garden bed there..
guess I will have Joe try to put the windmill back together, it came from Pauline.. So much to do.. all the tropicals are on the front porch, well almost, there is a lot downstairs yet..
Looks like your gonna be busy for a bit?
Debra, those are definately Dahlias, top of bulb is opposite side from long thin roots, should see some growing points. If not sure how to plant a bulb (tuber, corm), lay it on its side and plant, ( a great tip for anemone bulbs espcially, lol). Hope they are beauties.
Elfie...nope, not any bugs because they are enclosed in plaster or cement outside and a plaster inside. They opened a house that was over 100 years old to replace a few bales and the cows in the field ate some of that hay, lol). And actually they are more fire resistant than stick frame homes. Warmer in winter and cooler in summer, (14"-18" thick walls).
Yup got about 8" of that white stuff, most melted but the ground is good and saturated, (course I watered the day before it snowed too, wasn't sure if we were really going to get that moisture), probably got about an inch of moisture out of it, YEAHH!!!
only got jj's blooming so far, things should really get going now after the new moisture.
I finished the bed that I enlarged in the back yard. Got the lily/daylily bed all cleaned out. Planted some seed and some daylily I received in swap. Hope I did the seed OK and they grow!
I'm now working on my iris bed. Re-arranging and re-doing the beds. Also am making a 6' x 15' bed along the road where we took out the pine trees that died. I am going after a load of sandy loam tomorrow. Then I have to get the area along the deck where I want to put another bed, but it is going to be my last priority. I would love to find some shade loving perennials so that I could put a bed along the privacy fence, to help with water runoff.
I had a nice surprise when working on the iris bed. I was looking over my big garden in the front yard that is still covered in leaves. It is the last bed to clean out after frost/freeze free date, and there was a purple/white columbine blooming. It is so pretty!!!! I'm wondering what else just went dormant last summer and will come up and bloom this summer!
I was thinking today...
I may have the amount of weeds and the plethora of cutworms making a mess of my plants...but the butterfly population in my yard has surpassed every other year combined and makes me smile extra big. :D
See Carey there is always a silver lining. Sometimes though it is really a stretch to find it. :))
LOL Neener! I think part of the population boom of just about everything is the fact that the Mexican Free-tail bats that call Austin home 7 months of the year haven't made their presence known quite yet. We love it in summer when we see them swooping and diving around the yard. :)
http://austin.about.com/od/austinattractions/p/Bats_in_Austin.htm
I love watching the bats from the congress street bridge! it is amazing to see! We are going to be there in 2 weeks, for the Texas round up, Hot rod show, hope they are out by then?
My son's Easter gifts. :)
Meant to post it here but accidentally posted it in another forum.
Ang, those are beautiful! What is the second one? I love the little wands!
Linday Kay you'll have to let me know when you get in to town! :) The bats are probably out, except the bugs are so thick this year they most likely haven't made their way out to the suburbs yet . lol
We will be in Austin, Friday the 13th, and leaving Sunday morning.
Linda Kay, you'll be in town for the Wildflower Center's plant sale that weekend too! http://www.wildflower.org/plantsale/
The first is a Pinguicula gigantea and the other is a Drosera scorpiodes. Both are carnivorous plants ^_^ He loves them. The Drosera has already caught several gnats.
I've been going through the houseplants and it looks grim. It's been a rough two months for me and I've been focusing on them a bit too much. Killed them with love. These two plants will kill off some of the gnats. Works better than sticky tape to be honest. I might order a couple more.