Oct. 2012, here is Fall, another mild Winter?

Hi billyp! You've been busy! I hope you get to feeling better! I watched this Yahoo video, it is neat, it's a corn field in Iowa!
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/woman-corn-watch-woman-seems-float-above-corn-172326979.html

I couldn't believe this one pot of Mezoo cuttings from Pepper even has a little red flower (Livingstone Red) already! - That's not bad for cuttings that are only 11 days old! They are going to make great hanging plants next year.

Boy, these 2 plants ('Munstead' Lavender and Georgia Blue Speedwell Veronica) in before and after photos is pretty impressive how they've grown! -

I have more photos to share!
Will

This message was edited Oct 10, 2012 7:51 PM

Here is how your mini-blinds get busted up! - She wears a harness sometimes because that's supposed to calm cats down. She is always stalking this other cat and swinging on him when he's not looking. It's funny, that other cat is much bigger than her! But, we don't walk our cats...lol

I hope this one light is enough for this SpiderPlant! - I put a smoke detector up there because that plant light bulb is barely smaller than the light, but it's gonna be fine. I think that black around the bulb is metal.

How about this Asparagas Fern growing like a good houseplant! - It really blows in the breeze now! -
I saw those 14" diameter metal hanging baskets on sale at Lowes for $4 something, I may get one for this Fern, it has pretty much filled up the green plastic one it's in.

This message was edited Oct 10, 2012 7:50 PM

I wonder if this Coleus is close enuff to the light? -

All of your plants are looking good!! The coleus looks especially happy. lol. Probably wouldn't hurt to cut it back some. It will get bushier that way.

Has anyone been dealing with those nasty little fruit flies this year? My grandma has them all over her house and we have them here too. It's gotten bad enough here that we have a fly strip hanging above the sink so that we can catch them. They are all over the place here!! Used to be they stayed in the kitchen and we would be able to kill them. Not this year!!

No photos to share at the moment, yours look great,sorry to hear billyp is still not feeling well , wishing a get well soon that way.
I am not about it, but it looks like the coleus has plenty of light to me.Freezing here tonight, Your pics warm things up a bit ,they look all warm and cozy.
Not done planning or planting but mostly mulching, plants for winter.

Fruit Flies? Not me. Here, I think the regular house-flies (but larger) hatch out in the rec. room or something every steenking year!

Thanks! That Coleus is still full of sunlight I think, it's way too full all over for a wimpy old shoplite. I was just being sarcastic juhur, your a good sport, that Coleus I believe is touching the fluorescent bulbs! It seems detrimental to a plant to put it that close but I read that the closer the better actually, that 6 inches from a plant bulb is equal to half of regular sunlight. That's a good idea to cut it way back now. Does anybody want some of those Coleus cuttings? I can send easily with one of my many stamps. It's one of the prettiest Coleuses I have ever seen. That hadn't occurred to me yet, thanks pepper, I want to make at least 6 more Coleuses this Winter. It looks like I have about 20 cuttings there at least, anybody?

It gets cold at night here, not quite freezing yet but I'm sure it's not far off.
It's funny, they are still going with highs in the 70's here - http://www.kshb.com/subindex/weather/forecast/7_day_forecast
I spread out about 4 wheelbarrows of mulch today, just trying to make a last minute push to get a few things done that I've been putting off. -

My pics are all warm and fuzzy huh?! I'm only like 500 miles to your West! lol But thanks, I do like to try to be festive and have festive stuff!
I'll try to find a photo of one of my 2 Banana plants for you! There were 4 of them last year when I had them all (I was laying down weedblock, also known as rugs..lol), now there's only 2 'Basjoo' Bananas left! - Those bananas have the mulch on them this Winter, I'd say they each have about 6 inches of mulch on them! The reason that I know is because at first I laid down this black mulch, that turned out to be quite hideous so I then covered that all up with the present cedar mulch. I think this Summer was not the Bananas ideal environment and they languished real good and never got over about a foot tall, I think the heat just stopped any growth, hopefully next year they wake up.
One of them has 3 pups this year though.


This message was edited Oct 10, 2012 10:47 PM

yeah!! but being technical about 200 west 300 south lol Love the giant leaved plants Bananas ,Elephant ears. Dinosaur food . Fun^_^

Dinosaur food..lol! Here's some Elephant Ears waiting patiently by the garage door for the cold to nip their ears! -

Haha juhur, man, that's like a one thousand dollar trip when you figure the price of gas! I'm coming to say hi to you guys, I'll be walking, so see you about next May!

Hitch a ride with some of my cousins they live in KC!!lol I have an aunt that lives about 1/3 that far between us ,$16.72 every 142 miles.at approx $4.00 a gallon. Grandma still goes to visit from time to time,lol
To the other question not many flies here , but a few ,fungus knats, I could do without them!!

That is mostly distant family and even you could be for all I know!!!LOL How's that for a scary thought before bedtime!!HA,HA HA !!! Love the pics and plants have a nice night.^_^

Sure, if they pick up hitchhikers!

Yeah, not thinking I could possibly be a baby daddy..lol! Anything is possible I guess!

Hey, anybody want to see my latest Youtube video (3 minutes) I made today of most of my houseplants?! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRq54ocDtXw&list=UUncIC3pLv0W-KhBjmMVkG6Q&index=1&feature=plcp
Sorry it cuts off abruptly, my finger came off the button too soon I think.

Where'd everybody go?! Boy, the weather is just so nice these days. I was out perusing my, okay not my domain..lol, but anyway the weather is nice when a stray cat finds your stuff nice too!
Don't mind the unpainted wall by the cat, that's the only part that I haven't painted. -
This big American Sycamore (Platanus Occidentalis) next door, the big yellow one in the middle with the whitish wood, is a nice yellow already. - That's my Persimmon (Diospyros Virginiana) on the lower left not right, sorry, it has a neat iridescent looking Fall color, but it's just starting out in Fall colors. On the lower right is my Hall's Honeysuckle, it's a climbing Honeysuckle, boy, it grew a lot this year. Here is another neighbor's BIG Cottonwood (Populus deltoides), it's still green, I like how the leaves on it make noise and how they shake around, it drops ALOT of leaves, so do all the big Sycamores around here. -
This is a closer-up shot of my Persimmon. - Here is an even closer shot of the Persimmon, isn't it just grand?! -
Will

edited to fix my left and right, sorry : )

This message was edited Oct 12, 2012 1:11 PM

Even a Flowering Dogwood (Cornus Florida) has nice Fall color in a 2 gallon black plastic pot. -
Missouri's state tree can put on a show mind you, that tree put the "show" in Show-Me-State! Okay, it's just some burned up looking scarlet leaves but you gotta believe hard that it's big and in full burned-up-looking-with-scarlet Fall glory! It's a nice little tree, we are really wanting to find a place to plant it. Unfortunately, with the demise of a couple big plants (2 Dwarf Alberta Spruces), some more room may have been opened up for something. In this photo you can see the brown back to the right in this photo, that's the deceased Dwarf Alberta Spruces. - In my watering defense, I thought those 2 D.A.S.'s were established enuff to withstand the Summer's bad heat and drought, they'd been there for years, but I was sorely proven otherwise! My friend here gives me a hard time about their demise! You can see my little brown Mugo Pine there too, (lower right), I think it's on it's way out. I need to look up the receipt on it, but I'm thinking it was a Fall special and not really worth enuff for a refund, or even store credit.

The TropiCanna's leaves appear to be smarting for the year. - It doesn't know it yet but that bulb(s) is about to get cut up and planted by the foundation for the Winter! I can see it now, I'm all bent over trying to find some TropiCanna growth outside about next April and nothing! Oh well, I intend to have some cut off for reserve soon so it's not all gone in the Spring.

You can see all that cluster of green back there by the brown, that's a big thicket of Blackberry bushes that did just fine this Summer. Happ, maybe I can get some of these bushes started by seeds this coming Spring. In any case, I hope the neighbors now like Blackberries!

I said, "Yeah, not thinking I could possibly be a baby daddy..lol!", afterwards it hit me, I was like "oh boy, what did I just say?!"
I never claimed to be politically correct or even just correct! Oh well, just another lame attempt at humor!
See you guys tomorrow!
Will

I hope everyone is battening down the hatches right now. We are supposed to get some major storms tomorrow with 60+ mph winds and possible tornadoes. I will be in the city for a wedding so I am NOT looking forwards to it!! I don't want to be all dressed up when the storms hit. LOL.

Will, everything is looking good there!! I got all of the pots that I needed to plant planted and I'm in the process of dumping out the annuals. I got some but still have 3 more pots I think to go thru. lol.

Don't you just love those sycamores? I love everything about them. They are gorgeous trees!!!

Thanks! I'm ready! Wow, a 100% chance of rain they say, that'll be nice. - http://www.kshb.com/subindex/weather/forecast/7_day_forecast
Yeah, a wedding dress and strong horizontal rain would stink. That reminds me of a few years ago when I was getting out of my car to go into work about 5 years ago. I had an umbrella but the wind was driving the rain sideways and just soaking my pants. I sat in a cube at that job. I just sat there with soaked pants for the whole 10 hour shift! At least it was just rainwater that soaked my pants I guess!

Yeah, I always did like Sycamores, I used to grow them from seeds alot but I never had a place to plant them. I admired these 2 great big honking ones from near where I used to live about 5 miles from here, back in the day. That one by the window down there was a local record-holder for size or something a while back, but it got hit by lightning and a big ol' branch fell off the top of it. - Actually, in the first 2 photos I believe might show it with the branch still on it way up on the right of that tree. In the third photo, it is gone I think.
Here's one growing out of a Sunny Delight jug! - They grow good on streambanks. One year I put a small handful of Sycamore seeds, (they are tiny) in toilet paper with a big rock and threw them into my friend's muddy streambank going right thru his backyard! I haven't looked to see if they ever grew but he could have a streambank full of Sycamores now! I've sabotaged quite a few places with seeds in my day!

Here is probably the best Fall color of any tree that I've ever seen, a Sugar Maple (Acer Saccharum) in front of a grade school down the street from a house where I used to live, (the first 2 photos). -
This is a couple of Baldcypress (Taxodium Distichum) trees that I thought was nice. I made the pic too light back then, but here it is. -

This is a row of White Oaks (Quercus Alba) in some nice purplish/red Fall color. -

I have a sugar maple in my yard I planted several years ago. Got it from Powell Gardens. Was shorter than me and is now probably 10 feet tall.

They are great trees, the problem is they take up so much space and don't let hardly any light thru, so you can't have grass under it hardly, but very nice shade and Fall colors.
In my opinion, they are the best large Maple there is.

Two of my favorites;^_^

Mine too, if I had a big yard or field to put it in. That tree is one thing that encourages me to someday get a big honking property someday.

$$$ Win the lottery ?^_^ and win Sugar Maple Grove surrounded by White Oaks!! ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Haha! I wish it was that easy! ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ Smilies for all I say!

Short just have a sec be careful over wintering coleus they are magnets for that white fuzzy insect cant think of the name. Airplane plants are hardy and dont require Lot of light. Sorry on my phone riding now the road. I use to work with a guy who lived in indep and over wintered his cannas outside but they were on the south side against foundation and mulched. We have a pear tree and neighbor gave me a huge box of apples and the fruit flies are horrible worse i have ever seen it. But the fruit is amazing

Thanks happ, just today my friend was asking me to ask about flies in the house, she was telling me she thinks they are coming from my plants. I've seen bugs flying around down before but not that many. A little spider keeps building a web down there oddly enuff very close to the Coleus. It had attached it's most recent web to a SpiderPlant that I turned so the light might hit another part of it, anyway, now it has to make the web again, I just realized I did that or I woulda left it alone. I got a photo of it today, it's barely attached to the SpiderPlant now.
I plan on cutting the heck out of the Coleus for cuttings but I don't want to kill the plant. I sent 2 cuttings of it, Wondering Jew and SnakePlant to a friend in North Carolina today.
He's a nice guy, if anybody wants to subscribe to him on Youtube he is Dynamic Gardening, he has good tutorials and info. on many plants and houseplants.

This Rose Tree that I bought at HomeDepot for $19.99 is blooming some Roses. Sorry the photo is so blurry but it's pretty dark out and that usually makes the photos blurry. I always take at least one other photo in case one is blurry, but this time they were both blurry, which is kinda unusual unless it's a gloomy day

Same blurriness with this rainy day photo I took, but why couldn't it rain like this in July?! In that one I took three photos and they ALL turned out blurry! -

How about this Mezoo that pepper sent me, these cuttings appear to have already rooted, it is quite nice. It will make a glorious hanging plant next year. It has this cool variegated look, glad it's so easy to grow from cuttings!

You can hardly see this Wondering Jew from this outside photo, but when I brought the big pot of Wondering Jew in the house this one big branch of it had fallen down below where the pot was. it has rooted! Now, I get to see first-hand how hardy it is, they say it is fine down to between 10 and 20 degrees, we'll see!

Thanks for the advice on the Cannas happ. Odd thing about the South side here tho, is there is nearly no sun due to the large Pin Oak trees. I'm hoping they'll be okay with the West side.
I hate to push it like that but if they don't do good in the shade, I would be upset with myself! The West side gets good afternoon and evening sun. I am also hoping that maybe there is enuff shelter from the North all over to take a chance like that on the West side.

Can I interest anyone in a small Ponytail Palm? To give you an idea what they look like, here is my biggest one, when I was photographing the red flower on the Mezoo cutting, it was photobombing below it. - The extra ones I have are about twice that small but will reach the King Tut size in a year or so. I'd just mail the whole plant in an envelope, I'd hope it wouldn't get flattened out maybe in an automated sorting the mail process, that wouldn't be good, but I don't think that happens. I've seen the big, expensive Ponytail Palms for sale, they are all bulbous at the bottom and really quite striking.
It's not a good plant to have around cats though, they like to pull the little ones all the way out of the pot from chewing/tugging on the leaves, the leaves are nice too. I've repotted at least one that I found out on the floor.

I'll see if I can find an Airplane Plant, I like the name too!
Will

Happ, you trickster! I didn't know an "Airplane Plant" was another name for a SpiderPlant! ^_^ Learn something new every day I guess!

Hehe.. check out the little Spiderweb on the Coleus! This little spider has been taking care of some business! The little flies are white! There is only 2 down there, I believe they are being consumed by spiders.

The little red flowers already on the Mezoo cuttings is incredible! - I can't wait till next year and these Mezoos to fill all out and be hanging.
My new Rose Tree is a little more magenta rather than the actual red but it is still nice. It's a little like getting a teal car when you wanted green but I'll deal with it, I could learn to love it anyway like I usually do with my plants. I just can't bring myself to be more discerning on colors, growth habits, blooming times, potential disease or something, even if it might be beneficial to the look of the plant or the garden as a whole. I can resist buying stuff at the store, that's gotta count for something! lol Anyway, I'm sure it'll be a nice Rose Tree, even if it is magenta rather than red! I kinda doubt it'll ever bloom like the label picture! I'll upload it too, it is something! If it ever really looks like that picture, I won't complain!

The meezo is looking good!!

I've been busy admiring the fall colors and dumping the rest of my annuals out of their pots today. Didn't think I was gonna be able to because of the wind but down here in the holler it isn't so bad so was able to get that done today.

Thanks! Yes, there is a lot of nice Fall colors out and about. Today, I even went by that Sugar Maple up there to see it and it is less spectacular any more. I believe around 2005 they cut it on one side so it didn't interfere with some power lines, and it doesn't look quite right anymore. I forgot my camera so I didn't get a pic of it, I may be out tomorrow in that area though, there is some other trees nearby that I'd like to photograph also. Yeah, rural Missouri is awesome! I'm not really a fan of the neighbors in my business about the yard and my car coming or going.
I'm glad to be alive though!
Will

Enjoying the fall here also ,the thing being about it though, is it being a little too cool except four an hour or two.
I love neighbors in my business though!!! driving through the yard breaking old tile flush pipes ,scaring the pets, making trenches to mow over or around, I just love em !! I surely do!!!.
I have been outside planting and planning,as far as planning and not getting much done, you know! lol
I wish it was spring already,I am never ready for winter,never have been ,never will be! But, there was a time as to go sledding, snowmen named frosty , and there has never been anything as good as an old fashioned snowball fight!!lol
Hey whose hiding the rocks in the snowballs?!!! Ah yes!!! life is a grand wonder!!! Well I think I will go plan some more and see if the grass is going to grow some more this winter!!! Uh,uh , say what?

Oh, you just love them in your business huh?! I bet you wouldn't love them so much after code enforcement had been called 3 times on you! ^_^ Been outside planning eh? Me too, I figure when you watch a stray cat crawl thru a hole in your shed, maybe it's time to fix that wall of the shed! Your neighbors do all that?! They oughta be ashamed of themselves! Yeah, Winter isn't good for much, it just makes you wish it was Spring!

Hiding rocks in snowballs huh?! When I first read that somehow I got "whose hiding rocks in the snowman's eyeballs" lol! Isn't coal briquettes rocks?! lol
Ewww, rocks in snowballs! That's dastardly! That reminds me when I was kid I whizzed a snowball at my cousin and cut above his eye. I haven't see him in about ten years but it was scarred last I did. I felt bad, there was a rock in it or it was too icy or something! But, if you ever got hit by a snowball with a rock in it your not the only one sorry to say!

Around 50° here and a very stiff wind out of the West at 16mph. - http://www.kshb.com/subindex/weather/forecast/7_day_forecast . Wow, it says 80° next week, that'll probably end up to be 60° that day! They pretty regularly forecast decent weather that far in the future, everybody knows not to blame the weatherman, that far in advance especially, they likely do it for a ratings boost that comes temporarily!

In the second photo of the Sugar Maple in Fall color up there, you can see the power line pretty good, that's where they butchered the tree up. They shoulda just planted a tree with a smaller diameter, that one just looks bad now!

No more grass, weeds maybe! Some weeds even seem to persist right thru the Winter!

That wind is cold today!! And it's blowing harder than 16mph over here. Especially at work. lol. Being on the hill like we are it's more like 20-25mph. That's where they need to come and check wind speed. lol

Yeah, I thought for sure it would be stronger than that. It definately feels like more. I was out breaking up some sticks, and fallen branches, and a BIG gust of wind even blew some limbs and sticks out of the trees right by me to work on! The West neighbor even got a limb then about 3 inches in diameter for them to move.

I forgot to say the tree next door had a large branch that came down on the roof. No one is living there presently,so the neighbors that I was talking about aren't there either,that doesn't do the owner much good when the tree trimmers have to haul away large limbs of an old silver maple tree, as they fall on the roof.
Grandma had three or four trees cut down and hauled away about ten years ago,the old half a century or more silver maples get to falling.
I was going to cut limbs on some smaller trees only every time the limbs started whipping back and forth in the wind that idea stayed in the planning stage.I don't need any scars from being hit with limbs.
Some of the limbs that came down to start with were a good foot or so in diameter, Ka, boom ,baby!!!
Well maybe someday another sugar maple where it has room to grow and a small blooming tree where they had to cut the tree.
As for the grass here it is outgrowing the weeds,and the people I use to know wouldn't of cared less about messing ya up with a rock in a snowball,cousin or no.

Fallen branches everywhere is a bummer. Here was all of them that I ended up cleaning up in 2002, there was a bad icestorm here. This was my Grandma's backyard then. -
Here was my backyard. - This is the view at my Grandma's house, my house and my Aunt's house then. - That's my neighbor's house with the downed lines, all those Dwarf Alberta Spruces in his yard were all bent over from ice.
Haha! Kaboom, baby! I remember while that storm was happening, my cousin almost got hit by a big falling branch from a danged ol' Silver Maple in my Grandma's yard, those trees just fell apart! Haha, I wouldn't say Kaboom baby but you said it first! lol

Beautiful plant there Leaf, what are you going to do with thee rose for the winter? Knock outs might be easier to keep alive, people go to great lengths to keep them going. The funniest I saw was on the rose forum where someone had put pipe insulation around the tree, the curved styrofoam kind, I don't remember if it worked. Most people bury them which sounds odd but I did do that one year when I had bought roses at the end of the year and dug them up in march, the roses were beautiful that year. Alot of work tho.

Winds were horrible last night goodness and I hear they are going to be worse today.

Ok the white fuzzy bug I couldn't think of the name wasn't white flies but mealy bugs. Knock on wood I have never had a problem with white flies but I bet that little spider could do a number on them.
rofl airplane plant just sounds nicer than spider plant especially if you are afraid of spiders...rofl. Course they look more like a spider. I think I call them both, just depends on what pops out of my brain, course sometimes nothing pops out...rofl.

I think except for 2 huge brugmansia, 1 big elephant ear, 1 small elephant ear, everything else is indoors already. Course part of them on sitting on the garage floor which will not go over with DH for very long. I just don't seem to get anything done anymore, I get off a work, drive home which now is about an hour since the broadway bridge is closed and I just turn into a big lump on the couch......bad really bad.

Thanks happ. Hmmm.. I don't know what I'm going to do with the Rose Tree. Pipe insulation huh? There's some of that here, I'm going to do that, I'd hate for the "Tree" part of the Rose Tree to not come back! It says zone 5 on the label. - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=9306971&extraimg=2
It IS in a pot though. I definitely don't want it to die, that would bum me right out. 2 or 3 years ago, my housemate bought some Rose bushes from Springhill called MagicRoses and they all died. She was not happy, I was little man out on that!
I think what happened was it never got cold enuff in the garage and some plants didn't go dormant, I didn't think about that at the time and they just dried up I think, all the MagicRoses perished. I don't want to do that again, I'd rather just leave Roses outside like I shoulda done that year. If worse comes to worse, I can take it back dead with a receipt ($19.99). Here it is today, still in bloom! - I went to East Independence, MO. today and photographed that Sugar Maple tree (same one as in that post a few days ago) in Fall color, it isn't nearly as brilliant in Fall color as it was about ten years ago and before the butchering. - I think Fall colors on trees happened about 2 weeks early here because of the exceptionally hot and dry Summer we had.
Here is a big hedge of Burning Bush, even though it's a foreign thug bush, it's kinda pretty in the Fall. - This Flowering Dogwood is a red Fall stunner! - Do you see the squirrel? This tree does the state tree status proud! If anybody wants a Fall photo to start off the Nov. thread you can have that one if you want!
Here is my wannabe Dogwood in a black pot! -

I didn't see any white bugs or any bugs flying around down there today by the Coleus or anywhere. I saw about 5 Wolf Spiders of varying sizes, the largest one was about 3 inches in diameter and walked like it owned the garage! I coulda easily stepped on it, but Wolf Spiders don't bother me, it's Brown Recluse Spiders that freak me out.

Hehe.. your a lump on the couch! Me too I guess, well, also a lump in the computer chair!
Will

Will, take the pot with the tree rose in it and bury it in the ground. That way it's still in the pot but it gets the insulating effect it needs from the ground. I did that with all but my Happy Child rose and my Armesia that are in pots. I need to get Happy Child buried soon though. I just stuck them all in my veggie garden. It worked great last year and it's pretty easy to dig them up.

Ok thanks, I will do that.

That is what I did when I purchased several at the end of the season one year. I turned mine sideways and buried it about 2 feet and piled mulch up about another foot. Then in March before it warmed too much I dug them up and planted them in the bed I had made the winter before. Worked like a champ. The rose guy in the kansas city gardener told me to do that.

Thanks happ, I'm gonna bury it like a squirrel! Boy, it has warmed up for a few days here. We turned the air conditioner back on, it is just too warm still! I'm still waiting for the cold to nip tyhe Elephant Ear's ears! I got a photo of them just sitting there waiting like good Elephant Ears! - Don't mind the stray cat or all the leaves! I get that Kansas City Gardener too, it's at the Kansas City Libraries, interesting free magazine. We finally got the driveway mostly cleared off of clutter. -