Jeri, it is truly icing on the cake !
Hap, how long have you had the Raspberry coneflower ? We were talking about them reverting earlier. I have the pow wow and it is such a pretty color, I think this is its 4th season. I also have a pink fluffy one, the name escapes me now that I have had several years.
It is June let's see the daylilies and everything else !
Genna, 86 and climbing now, with 73% humidity. It's like a sauna. No rain in a few days, but it threatens every evening.
OP, the variegated plant is Shell Ginger, (Alpinia zerumbet) It bloomed for me last year, but nothing like the regular ginger bloom. See below. It's a great plant, but can get large here if the winter stays mild. About 7 feet, until the winter knocked it to the ground. It is coming back with no problem, but is only about 2' tall now.
The raspberry coneflower is new this year. And I love the Pow Wow, it is in its 3rd season for me. Spreading around nicely.
Spent an hour and a half this morning, trying to get out the rest of a pallet of mulch. Just 3 bags left, and I will finish that up tomorrow! Yea!
Elaine I would sometimes spend time at my grand parents with my 3 cousins. There would be 5 of us. My brother and I and 2 boy cousins and 1 girl (they were brothers and sisters). But my grandfather knew how to keep to rowdy boys under control! He did not put up with nonsense! Like you those were fun fun times! There was always something to do. I would also spend time at my aunts house in the summer. They lived in the country at that time. Her kids were the same 3 kids that I would spend time with at my grandparents. I have younger cousins that didn't have the same experience we had as my grandparents died when they where very young or before they were born. They don't have those same memories.
Lets hope it holds too, I planted a prairie coneflower at the edge of my steps last year, it didn't do anything but sit there, this year it is 10' tall, I had to tie it up to keep it from falling over the steps. I have to find it a new home for next year !
http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/yl_coneflowerx.htm
This site said it gets 4' I must have sprinkled too much fertilize on it--LOL !
Happytails we did a cross post. Love your shell ginger. I have some in a pot and almost lost it the past winter but it's coming back fine. It's never bloomed for me. I have another variegated ginger I have in the ground and it does bloom. Love gingers!
Sandra all my fancy coneflowers have reverted! I had that fancy fluffy pink one and was really disappointed when it reverted. I had several others too. I'm not buying anymore fancy coneflowers.
I'm hoping mine hold too. I've had them several years and so far so good. I believe they are either Tazzmatazz or Pink Double Delight...maybe some of both. Similar to the Raspberry Truffle you have, Happy. I've finally got a decent showing of some white ones I planted 3-4 years ago. They are just so-so. I also planted a white 'Milk shake' a few years back (pom-poms like the pink ones) but it never did a thing and died. Neither did the limey green ones.
I may have to try that ginger in a pot and see if I can keep it going.
Well, I had Hot Papaya a few years ago and none of them came back. Somewhere I heard that you should not let them bloom the first year, and that helps them put on a deep taproot,but don't know how reliable that info is.
At that auction that I went to on Saturday there were lots of the purple coneflowers, a few of the white ones, and some yellow flower that was on thin stalks that was well over 6' tall.....
There were lots of roses blooming and several trees that were blooming that i don't know what they were either................... the lady had obviously loved flowers.........
I have to share this product. I am amazed. It's called Powersolve. Check out my concrete bench that had turned black from over 18 years in the garden. I'm in the process of painting it and in the prep process, my directions said to clean the cement. I wore rubber gloves but the directions did not say to. It was pretty black so I choice to sprinkle the granular product directly on the cement and then I lightly misted it with the hose and then used a push broom and lightly brushed it. After about 10 minutes I switch the hose nozzle to jet and check out my results.
Of course they are backwards. LOL!!!
I don't think this bench was that clean brand new.
Looks good Jeri !! Glad you found something to make the job easier!
Now to wait for it to dry and then paint it.
Wow! Those are some amazing results and it sounds so easy. Where did you buy this? I looked at the label. Had to laugh at how they mis-spelled 'carpets'. Really? You can use it on carpets?
We finally got some rain, and I do mean a frog-strangler, yesterday. We've not had any since we got home last Tuesday I know and I don't think it rained while we were gone, so it's been a while. All the weekend rain missed our little corner. It beat up the DLs a good bit though. Our neighbor is on vacation and has about 12 blueberry bushes he told us to pick. Monday night it looked like rain for a while so we waited until after dinner. It was nice and cool so we went over and picked for about 45 minutes. Got 2 gallons of the most beautiful, big blueberries I've seen in a while. The bushes were loaded and we didn't even pick all of them.
That is amazing results on the concrete bench!! Don't think I would use it on my carpets!
That's a lot of blue berries Elaine! I keep intending to go out and pick blueberries from a self picking blueberry farm but haven't made it yet. I went last year and got some really good ones.
Can't seem to find time to do all I need and all I want to do!
Yeah, I know what you mean about the time...................... and the WANT and NEED are always clashing......... :)
Everything happens in daylily season, all you want to do. Is sit outside and enjoy them, or that is what I want to do anyway !
Elaine I got it from a company called National Coatings Inc. their phone # is 631-991-3760. It's the cleaner I bought to clean my concrete patio with before painting it with their coating. I ended up pressure washing the patio and didn't use it but when I needed to clean the benches I thought why not??
I just went out to the compost pile and the bee balm looked so pretty I had to share with you. I have way too much of it but I am going to wait until the peak blooms are over to pull some up. There is lots of other stuff in this area but the bee balm hides a lot of it. Lots of fern, variegated hydrangea, EE's, etc, etc. In the first picture you can see a big vodoo lilly stalk. I've had it for several years and have yet to see a bloom. The stalk gets bigger and bigger every year so hopefully it will bloom one of these days. It should bloom before the stalk comes up. The stalk dies back to the ground every year.
Beautiful, Charlotte!!! Those monarda are really spreading!!! My pink are coming back but a long way from blooming.
Really lovely pictures..........
Lovely blooms!
My monarda is just now beginning to bloom. My rudbeckia is covered with buds but they haven't opened yet. The Joe Pye Weed is more than 4 feet tall and also covered with buds.
We had a really hard rain that blew over my beautiful big hollyhock. We propped it up 3 times and it kept falling over so Al drove a metal fence post into the ground and we tied a small rope around the holly hock and fastened it to the fence post. It is still standing today. It had so many unopened buds on it that I wanted to be able to enjoy those blooms, too. This hollyhock is probably 6 ft. tall and has been just gorgeous!
I took Zach home on Tuesday and stopped by Kathy Ann's on the way home to get the plants I left there last week. Nola was in labor then but had not had any of her pups. She eventually had 15 puppies but they had to take her to the vet and he did a caesarean section on her. If you are on Facebook, I am sure you are keeping up with Nola and the puppies.
I planted the plants that I brought home from KA's. She gave me a Marshall's Delight monarda and several Solomon's Seal of different types. My shade garden with the painted tire pyramid is really shaping up. I need to get out and get some photos of it but I'm waiting for Al to do the weed-eating. We have had a lot of rain this last week and the weeds are getting ahead of him. :(
It rained here today too and the grass is growing nicely again. Guess I will start mowing on Monday, if not Sat. Tomorrow I have to shovel the house out, what a mess !
I have a really nice patch of red monardo. It's not going to be able to spread like the raspberry wine because it confined by stone. I also have some white in front of the raspberry wine. You can't see it in the picture but it doesn't spread like the others. I have another big patch of the raspberry wine closer to the house. My whole back yard is going to be covered with it soon. Seems to really like my yard.
Jake called me today and he is going to Florence, Italy this weekend. His manager gave him Fri and Mon off. So he's leaving early tomorrow morning. He will ride the train to Budapest then fly from Budapest to Milan and from Milan will ride the train to Florence. So he will get to see the countryside from Milan to Florence. He chose to go to Florence because it's considered a center for art. He has two friends from college that are in Florence for a several weeks taking some art classes. He's been in contact with them and is going to meet them in Florence. So he will have someone to eat with at night. His next big trips will be to Munich and Prague on his way home. He will spend 3 days in each place. He is going to fly to Munich but will ride the train from Munich to Prague so he will get to see the countryside along the way.
There is also going to be an article about him in the Szeged newspaper tomorrow. He took his sketch book with him and has been sketching illustrations for the stories he has been reading to the kids. He said he was just trying to encourage the kids to draw. His manager was so impressed with them she contacted the newspaper and they came out and interviewed him and took a bunch of pictures. I told him I wanted him to be sure to bring me one of the newspapers! He didn't think it was that big of a deal. He didn't see why I would want to see it. He said you want be able to read it! Hopefully I got across to him that I want a newspaper!!!
He had to say his first goodby today and was kinda sad to have to tell the kid goodby. His favorite little kid's family was going on vacation and Jake will be gone before he gets back. He really likes this kid. Both his parents are doctors and he is a very very smart little kid. Jake said he was his buddy and hated to see him go. I am really surprised he has enjoyed the kids so much. I think he got lucky and got assigned to what the parents tell him is the best kindergarten in Szeged. It's a private kindergarten and the tuition is expensive. The kids all come from very educated families. There is also a girl in Szeged in the same program and she was assigned to a public kindergarten and I don't think she is having the same kind of experience as he is. I think he said she is from Greece.
I asked today how he has been washing his clothes. He said his roommate has a small washing machine in the flat. But no dryer. He has a wooden rack they put their clothes on to dry.
Cayla's MIL posted on FB today, that most of the toilets in Europe are downstairs and you have to pay--LOL--she said wine and beer were cheaper than soda or water. She spent two weeks there visiting her daughter, they went to several places. She brought Cayla a Tshirt from Paris and an apron from London, they are so good to her, Eli got two shirts too!
Jake is young traveling on a budget so he is not staying in large fancy American type hotels. He is staying in small European hotels. The one he stayed in in Vienna he mentioned that he had to go downstairs to the bathroom. Was not one in his room. Some rooms he has shared a bath with another person. He has gotten used to not always having air-conditioning so Kristi has started booking him in some hostels that she knows are safe before she had been trying to find hotel's with air conditioning. She finds the room and then runs the room and the rate by him. He
s tight with his money! Someplace she found a room for 55.00 and he thought that was expensive but went ahead and had her book it. Most of his rooms have been around 45.00. The hostels are probably even cheaper. He's young and all he needs is a safe place to spend the night. A young person really can travel Europe fairly inexpensively.
Clara loved Florence............. she said it was one of her favorite places in her country. I am sure he will enjoy it!
I am WAYYYY behind.... I didn't even know that Nola was expecting!!
I didn't know Nola was expecting either. And 15 puppies! K-A is going to be busy, busy these next 6-8 weeks! I'm assuming she's going to sell them....
Charlotte, so glad Jake is getting the opportunities he's getting. He will never forget these experiences. And how great to have such good students and be making such an impact with them! Florence sure is on my bucket list. The lady who kept my DD when she was a baby and up until she was 5 is Italian and from Florence. She is almost 90 now and still like a grandmother to my DD. We love her! She always wanted us to go to Florence and now we're sorry we didn't go with her!
Charlotte that is so exciting for Jake!!! I hope he is taking pictures and he will allow you to share some of them with us!!!
Lord we have been blessed with enough rain but it is still coming down. Looks like I'm not gonna get finished with things before my garden club meeting Tue. I still have 2 small beds up front to de-weed, paint the front porch and paint 2 benches in the garden. Oh, well.
Yes Jeri he's taking pictures. I've just seen a few of them. He's coming to visit me for a week Aug 6th and I'll be able to see all his pictures then if not before. Can't wait for him to tell me all about his experiences. Kristi was trying to get him to go to one of the bath houses in Budapest one night. I haven't heard if he actually went. She told him he could go at night when every thing else was closed and that it was just something that would be neat to experience while he was there.
Kathy Ann's dog got pregnant when a bunch of us went to Memphis on a plant buying trip. She was in heat and Danny didn't do a real good job keeping the two separated. Then somehow they got together again a week or so later. Can't remember the details but she knew when it happened the second time. Fifteen is a lot of puppies!!! She will have her hands full especially when they get big enough to start running around.
Oh, I thought Nola got pregnant when Kathy Ann and Danny were down at their deer camp in the spring. Whatever the case, having 15 puppies around means KA will be busy, busy, busy just helping Nola feed them all. She is bottle feeding them. (as if she didn't have enough to do already!)
Jake is certainly having the experience of a lifetime, Charlotte. He will remember this trip as long as he lives!
Charlotte, the Raspberry Wine monarda you gave me is blooming and so is the the Jacob Cline monarda that Kathy Ann gave me. They have been later blooming than yours but my zone is behind yours by 2 or 3 weeks. I don't think I have ever seen a white monarda, though. I was surprised when you said you had a white one.
I will go out a little later and take some photos. It is too bright outside right now for pictures to come out good--they would all be washed out looking.
I have a light pink that is almost white,
Just running through to tell you to check your tomatoes, and angel trumpets, Genna found a hornworm the other day and I found a baby one this afternoon, those things usually show up after rains and will strip the plants overnight !!
My tomatoes couldn't look much worse!!! I've gotten lots of tomatoes off them but none of the omatoes have been very large. I'm not sure it they are going to get going again. The leaves have been getting spots on them and then turning yellow then just dying. I think it has to do with all this rain we've gotten. Most of the other tomatoes at the garden look the same way.
My monardo is pure white. I don't remember where I got it. I prefer to call it bee balm because it is certainly just that! I have bumble bees all over mine.
Fifteen puppies is a lot more than I would want to deal with! I believe she got Nola fixed after the Csection if I understood right.
My tomato bushes were the prettiest this year but my tomatoes are burning up before they ripen. I've never had this happen before. I was watering AM & PM also!!!
I killed two of those rascals - and they were both very large - about 4" each! :( But, so far, I haven't found any more....... went to try to get some sevin dust and they were out. I hope to pick up some from one of the farm supply stores in the morning - although I think it is supposed to rain again tomorrow.
Some of my larger tomatoes are spliting - I think from all the rain all at once, but not sure......... we have some that have gotten ripe that are fairly large and some that are very small - but most of them have a good flavor at least.
I have several jalepenos but my bell peppers don't seem to be doing anything.... :(
My plants are beautiful, but I only have very small tomatoes right now, I am behind this year. I have 2 bell peppers that have a couple of tiny peppers, and have harvested 2 zuchinni from 3 plants. I did notice one of my grape tomatoes is turning, that plant is huge and looks like it is going to have to be watered every day as it is in a big pot. I have 4 tomato stakes in the pot with it and have 3 "props" on the outside to tie up the huge limbs on-- might get a picture sometime today, it is hard to believe it is one plant!
The giant grape tomato
Pay no attention to all the grass in the concrete blocks, I cleaned them out this afternoon!
This message was edited Jun 28, 2014 7:30 PM
Sandra that's one big tomato!!!! Looks very healthy. I have two tomato plants I need to get planted. I'm afraid some of mine aren't going to make it so I'm adding 2.
I'm shocked Sandra!!! Grass in the blocks! Oh my!! LOL I think all of us have grass and weeds. I know I do!!! I did pull up some of the mulberry weed today. I'm sure I'll twice as much tomorrow! Rained again this afternoon.
My veg garden is doing great! Will have to take some pics tomorrow. I am beginning to get ripe tomatoes now. Picked about a dozen Cherokee Purples today. About half were cracked from all the rain the past few days but they are huge. The plants are coming out of the cages already and way over 5' tall. Squash, peppers, and cukes are also going strong. I didn't plant okra this year. Just had to cut back as no time to take care of it. I did try some poblano peppers. Have picked 3 so I am going to try some stuffed in a couple of days. Been looking for some good recipes. I also have one jalapeņo plant that is now producing.
I want a ripe mater------maybe one of these days!
The blocks are on the outside of my asparagus bed, i have to clean them out trying to keep it from going into there, that zoysia grass has roots to south of China ! I have already cleaned them out twice, today makes 3 and I sprayed it too!!!
I mowed until the thunder got close and put up the mower and worked on that for about an hour