July 2014 Hotter than a firecracker!

oh wow, I so hope you get those babies to maturity. I love that plant, was going to go get some while they were popping up, never made it out to the country. Will, do you want to try these? I am thinning them out. They come back. for me anyway..

HAPPY 4th July, have lots of fun!

Debra what are those in the last pic? Love that dark center.

Anyone needs purple coneflowers or pink hollyhocks (altho unless I can find some short ones) I have about a million of each. I am thinning them also. The black ones wont come back black, they seem to all come back pink, most of mine are about 4 feet tall or so.

I have got so much to pot up and to plant. I am going to move my hosta beds. Don't know why I didn't think about it before but back in the fence row, if I clean it out, I have some deep rooted trees. Much better for hostas than under the silver maples and birch trees that all the roots are on the surface. After our last bad drought I lost a bunch of hostas plus the fact they are not as big as they should be.

Gosh the daylilies have just been beautiful this year, just blooming up a storm. This one has really been putting on blooms for the longest time.

Glad the tomatoes are doing good for everyone! Mine also have really taken off and are loaded with tomatoes. Seems I am tying them up every couple of days. I have several heirloom tomatoes that have come back from seed, I think they are probably cherry tomatoes.

Love the picture of Mommy and baby, so peaceful and happy.

That button bush is sure unique. Never seen anything quite like that.

Well I hope AuntB will contact me when she moves her to KC. I miss her on DG. I can help her get some of her flowers restarted at her new place. Have lots of spares.

Think I am going to get my flower winter storage ready so I don't get caught off guard since my overwinter pile is growing and growing. LOL

We've lost BillyP, she must be busy with the Grand Kiddos.

Good morning and Happy Fourth of July, I can't believe I woke at day break and decided to go back to bed, it was great.
Joyce those last flowers are gloriosa daisey in the rudbeckia family, I call them cones, too.

I am sure once Bonnie gets settled she will get back into the swing of things. I'll let her know we can get her going again. Funny you mentioned the winter growing area already. I just wander around the basement, and shake my head and come back up ..it all needs deep cleaning and re-arranging. ( the shelves and stuff)
I have never been able to get a big Hista to grow, I think I don't have enough root room since you mentioned that..

Thanks Jw, perhaps if we have a Fall RU you could bring some to it. The postage on that stuff from Wichita would be high. Unless you can get seeds in the Fall then just do a stamp. I'd love to have those flowers.

Happy 4th of July everyone. We've done our part, there is a stray cat in our basement, just in case, there won't be any firecrackers in his business end. I think my friend and me might go watch a public display nearby.

Here is that Hollyhock up there today, it's literally starting from ground zero..lol - pic #1

Who among us can resist a flower photo-op with a bumble-bee on it?! pic #2

Here is that red shed on that side today. pic #3

Next I'm gonna cover that opening rotted at the bottom of that door, after that I'm gonna paint it that red again. - pic #4

I finished putting that frame around the window yesterday. I put that window in a couple of years ago (now I don't have to unlock and open the door to see what's inside).

I planted 4 Hostas at the bases of the 2 Pin Oak trees here. There were roots everywhere but I dug out extra on the sides, maybe the Hosta roots will go some sideways, they weren't extra big Hostas in those spots, I planted a Sum and Substance somewhere else..lol
Will

This message was edited Jul 4, 2014 7:17 PM

I'm just hanging on here waiting for my apple cake to get done. lol. Have a family deal tonight and we were to bring desert.

My coneflowers look like crap but I'm seeing a ton of butterflies this year so not pulling them yet. And I may leave them and tell them to deal with it. lol

Here is a shot of some of the coneflowers and a woodland phlox. They are actually purple not pink but the camera insisted all my purples were pink. lol

Want some easy-to-dig-up volunteer trees? Just make a pile of dirt! Let's see, I have Mimosas, Pin Oaks, Silver Maples (from the neighbor's tree). I expect to have Sycamores and Cottonwoods in it shortly..lol - pic #1

I like your Coneflowers pepper, you have a bunch of them too. I have a big clump of them, they're in a cut-out in the weed fabric down there so they won't be spreading much. pic #2

A couple of years ago I planted a Canna way down deep (about 10") to see if it would come up the next year. It did last year but I wasn't really expecting it to this year (it got very cold this winter).
Anyway, here it is but I have a problem with it now! It is squeezed between a drainpipe and the foundation! Another one is close to where it should be. it is pic #3 You have to concentrate on the photo, the Canna seedlings are hard to make out a little among the mulch (they're purplish, there's one on each side of the blue hose and I only planted 1 bulb..lol)

Here is the big pot of Cannas that pepper sent me about 3 years ago, it has about doubled since then. pic #1

I finally finished replacing sections of plywood on the red shed, now to paint. - pic #2 There is me in my sombrero! pic #2 The camera puts on 10 lbs you know!

That Butterfly Bush 'Nanho Blue' or is it 'Nanho purple'? Pepper generously sent that to me as well a long time ago. pic #4

Doing that layering of the Hall's Honeysuckle Vine is really going to pay off. Here is one of the five that I already severed 2 weeks ago, today. last pic
Will

Boy, I'm bumming on my Hollyhocks, they're alive but something is trying to strangle the life out of them apparently. Here they are last year, before now even. - pic #1 If they turn the pink, this year would've been the first year for the change, last year they were still dark. This is the third year that I've had them, ironically they've always been dark.

Here the Hollyhock clump is now, quite a big difference, something has a hold on them! pic #2

reading about hollyhock problems and there aren't any to speak of....wonder what is going on. I have WAY too many of them some over 5 feet tall! Can't say I particularly like the plant but it reseeds and I either yank them out or repot for the sale. Same as I am doing with the coneflowers. My gardens are still weed infested!

Today I repotted plants. I received some old fashioned lilac starts and I got them potted up. I have pots of noid daylilies so when they bloom I walk around the yard trying to match them to a daylily that is planted with a name tag, or with a tag I have in a box. I have actually got to name several which I am happy about.

Will I need to layer my raspberry bush, it has a berries on it for the first time. It has a huge long limb which could be layered.

With Hollyhocks , more than a half Dozen butterflies and moths use it for a Host plant ..Pearl Crescent and moth Larvae reduce my to thripe looking webbing ..
One bite on a leaf or two , with the sun blazing away .. and curl , curl , curl , and burn , the leaves do .
My 2cents worth ,,lol

Happ , unless at it real early , with the preen and MGro . It's all about weeds ,, and weeds ,, and more weeds ,, Lets us know who ruled before us , and after us for that matter .. lol

Boy ju isn't that the truth, trees are coming up everywhere and weeds. My little 3 acres would turn into a forest if I didn't try to keep them under control.

Trees that come on there own here , mulberry & yellow poplar , followed by redbuds , followed by apple &pear trees that are followed by Ash that are followed by oaks,
hickory and a rare Walnut ,, POOF There's your forest ,,lol
There is a Black Cherry (prunus Serotina ) growing at the back of the house in the middle of my flower bed , 6 to 7 ft tall and in for a move this winter or spring ,, A keeper ,, I have an oak I have kept at the edge of the garden , it is 12 yrs old and right at 4 ft tall , It ain't going anywhere in a hurry ,, hardwood oak ...

I might eventually replace the Redbud in the front yard ,, To weedy in years it goes to seed ,, nice river edge type tree though ..

Hi everyone! Sorry that I didn't have time to post yesterday or read your posts. I got a busy morning too. I'll try to catch up later. I have to get out early this morning and help my mom deliver the 5 roosters that I helped her give away this past week. Chloe was over until midnight & we were busy b-b-cuing, playing horseshoes, setting off fireworks, & making s'mores. I even got my telescope out. I don't remember ever having such fine weather on Independence Day. Chloe played for hours in the kiddie pool that I setup for her inside the garage. (The fair skinned kid you know!) The best part was that I didn't have to go to work today because I'm worn out. : )

GB, rest up sounds if you had a great day. Your little sweetie is surely fair skinned, good idea about the pool in the garage. I know you can even get burned on cloudy days also.

Oh if I could only have some of your trees popping up, I have a zillion maples, a zillion birch, and 3 redbuds. I don't have any fruit trees trying to reseed. I had a plum and it was full of plums and it just turned yellow and died. It was abt 2 years old ;(

Dark up here looks like I could have rain. Said we might have a shower in the morning.

I have a friend that works at Walmart, she told me that walmart here actually has some pet prescriptions for the 4.00 like they do humans. She works in the pharmacy. Guess you have the vet write the prescription and just take in it like any prescription. I have never done it, just found out about.

Forgot to post this wanted to sbow u what i scored at a garage sale. It wasnt in the sLe just sitting all dirty by the porch. I asked and she said sure 20.00 i am elated.

Dont know what happened try this again

furnace grate and pedal sewing machine base,, genius! What a score!

Back home and still have one rooster in the garage because the lady isn't at home & doesn't answer her cell. Posted his pic for family & friends on fb and if someone else takes him before this other lady calls me, he's gone! I can't keep a rooster in my garage here in town. lol Right now, we're calling him Dallas.

lol on the rooster, in kc you can have a few chickens but they won't allow roosters because of the crowing. I have chickens but not rooster thank goodness. My neighbor which is 1/4 to 1/2 mile away has one rooster and I can hear him all the time. I don't mind cause he is so far away. Dogs probably cause more noise than a rooster but you know.

I like my table I had a hard time finding a furnace grate for my potting bench andtThe furnace grate on the table is huge.

I was watching a neat video on layering an Orange Tree on Youtube recently. I thought it was just ingenius what they used on a branch that was growing off the ground (which is probably normal on most plants). Anyway, it was a regular old empty water bottle (like Dasani or Nestle if your poor like me..lol). It was just cut with tinsnips and put on the least-liked branch and filled with potting soil.

Neat garage sale find, happ. I would love to have a decent table to work on. When you get old like me getting down on the ground isn't your favorite thing! But even if your just setting things on it, it's still neat, it's like a piece of art. Those old furnace grates aren't that common, they come out of old houses. I see, do you plan on sifting dirt thru it?

I made part 2 of my trial at layering my Hall's Honeysuckle. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmH0IPIuAE0 Here is Part 1, where I initially tried it a month ago. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x49bnz9O9yw&list=UUncIC3pLv0W-KhBjmMVkG6Q
I also have a minute or so video of my Pilea 'Aluminum' cuttings. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt3UQk2YENM&list=UUncIC3pLv0W-KhBjmMVkG6Q
Will

This message was edited Jul 5, 2014 7:07 PM

Finally, the lady called me back and Dallas is with his new family who gave me the impression that he's going to be one spoiled rooster. He doesn't know how lucky he is to not end up on someone's dinner table. Now that I'm don't giving away my mom's roosters, I can focus on other things.

I'm so tired that I didn't pick the blackberries. Going to bed early.

Hehe! We take in stray cats, Betty takes in roosters! : )

Here is the old window that I plan to put in the shed sometime soon hopefully. - That's even where I plan to put it in the wall, of course up about a foot off the ground. I might build a flower box below it even.

I can hear the rain, that is nice, no watering for a few days!

These are my Purple Prince Lily Trees from Brecks, they're getting a little more purple, not much.
I was hoping for purple like their pictures not this dark reddish/white. Oh well.

I plan to dig up all my Lily Trees, Satisfactions and Purple Princes, and plant them on the sunny side of that shed, to the right of that window actually. That's something else that refinishing the shed is holding up! I hope I start painting it this coming week.

glad you got the other rooster delivered anyway, Betty. I love this weather, but it is turning hot..
Will the shed is looking good..

I need to move a few things this fall, I have some purple salvias and some other things to get to the full sun. We put our tomatoes up against the west side of the house this year, they are fruiting like crazy.

Well July has surely warmed up today. Will I want your pool in my backyard...LOL Shed is looking good. I want a people door put on mine.
Betty I bet you are going like a tornado today trying to get caught up.
Debra I am like you I need to move several things. I need to move my hostas from under the birch tree to over under the trees in the fence row. Big problem I will have another garden to weed! ugh. But the hostas are not going to survive under the shallow rooted birch tree. It is a losing battle.
We got a 1 1/2 rain yesterday total. amazing.
I got alot done today mostly early.
Mowed
tied tomatoes
Pulled weeds
Planted goji berry bushes
Repotted a brugmansia took huge bag of soil
Tagged 3 daylilies.
Cleaned up more stuff...really I feel like I have been cleaning since early spring, I surely have too much stuff but get rid of it...rofl, I don't think so. Just keep arranging and cleaning.

Hi all, I'm so tired that I'm just not ready to go back to work tomorrow. These holiday weekends can be exhausting! lol We still haven't gotten any rain for sometime. Rain expected by tomorrow though, so I guess that the plants can hold off one more day without dragging out the hose. I heard that one rooster is now living in a chicken coupe with all hens & is one happy rooster! lol A few pics from yesterday morning.
Also, my grand-kitty Felix checking out the roosters & my new swing. Lastly, the lone rooster in the garage waiting to be picked up.

I did nothing today outside. lol. I stayed inside and hibernated. Last night I watered because I didn't think it was gonna rain much. Glad I did!! LOL!!

Thanks Debra and Joyce, I have big plans for that shed since it must be there. I raked some today, well, you have to rake sometime I guess! This Leyland Cypress died about halfway, over the Winter, it got down to around minus 10 this Winter, that's cold for a marginal plant. It certainly wasn't for a lack of leaf cover at it's base! lol pic #1

You did alot today happ. I didn't get much cleaning done but I'm excited because bulky item pickup is this week. The city here of Sugarcreek is picking up everybody's big trash and I have some stuff to get picked up! It'll make the yard look so much better!

I said something wrong up there about my Black Hollyhocks. I had misstated what I thought about their blooming color. I said I've had them for 3 years which is right. I looked at my old photos, they only bloomed one year, last year, the flowers were black last year but they could be different this year.

That cat must've really been entertained, Betty!

Well, we can't all do something every day! I know I don't some days! You didn't get much rain there, pepper, or are you being sarcastic?! I know I just hate it when I spend an hour watering then it rains shortly afterward.

It rained plenty here, it even shook the house at times with the thunder.

Today I got my new layerings of Hall's Honeysuckle all planted on the sparse side of the arbor.
The new layerings have roots alright..lol One thing to be sure of when doing that is get the joints (or nodes) in the soil, that's where the new roots will come out of. - pics 2 to 4
It works so well, I took the empty white trays back over there and I'm gonna get a couple more of them. Why do they call it air layering anyway? Why don't they just call it rooting the stems or branches, maybe just the word "rootling".

This message was edited Jul 7, 2014 12:03 AM

happ - just getting back here, I planted my tomatoes late, at least in the ground - bought a 4 pack and potted them up into larger pots, let them get a little more size before I planted them (good thing, we had late frosts and I ended up moving them in the garage a few times when I'd normally have them planted out) and didn't notice that one had already set a fruit on it.

Had to pull out all my coneflowers last year because of aster yellows, and I think the little buggers spread to my garlic, it just looks so bad this year.

Got up to 100 here on my thermometer today, decided mowing can wait for a day or two. Still have a hydrangea and a daylily to plant somewhere, keeping them sitting in water in the shade but they were still wilting today.

Chloe has gone home, so I'm going to post a few quick pics from the Desert Show & then my head hits the pillow!

Cyper I got my tomatoes in late also but they are making up for lost time. Wow I am surprised you hit a 100 up there. We are suppose to warm up today I know tonight the humidity was thick! Debra ended up with that aster disease, yuck. Knock on wood mine are doing just fine trying to cover everything. I am sticking some in the fence row and try to get them start there. I have a bunch potted up and ready for the sale next year.

I am going to have to get busy layering. You have done a great job at it. I think I will layer them right into the pot also. I hate doing things twice...lol

GB, what a wonderful show you went to. I love all those crazy plants. Well today maybe you can rest at work...lol

I still have a ton to plant and weed and clean so that is what I will be doing once the sun comes up. Going to get off here in a sec cause the battery is going to die. Maybe I will go to sleep then.

Oh happ, I didn't layer into pots, I layered them into those white trays. I potted them into those pots then right after that, I thought, "well why not just plant them now?". One doesn't really have to pot twice, I just did because I wasn't thinking..lol I was lucky in that what I layered was running along the ground, I was just able to use an old plastic tray.

It gets HOT North of here. I thought it got cold in the Winter and hot in the Summer here.
Some of those upper plains states and even into the Rocky Mountains must really get the extreme ups and downs on weather temps. They're lower zone ratings are deceptive if you ask me!
Not that the zones are wrong or anything but you wouldn't know it was a lower zone in the Summer!

Thanks Green, I too loved looking at all the cactuses, I wonder if they had the climate controlled like it was the desert?

Ok it was just plain HOT today...rofl. Took some cuttings from a curley weeping willow tree. They are in some water hopefully rooting. I named two more daylilies, some of the tags are fading so alot of them are easy to retag.

Repotted a dogwood tree that I want to plant at the old cemetery once the farmer gets the corn out. I have a peony that I also want to take to the cemetery. Repotted an elephant ear and something else but I have forgotten...rofl.

Debra my brugs are doing good. Cant wait until they grow up and bloom...

Everyone stay safe tonight, I hope BillyP is ok, Iowa has had some bad storms up there.

Oh, it got plenty hot today! Sorry Joyce, I missed what you said about the pool, sure it can go in your backyard! Boy, it is sure refreshing, my friend and I got in it for the first time this summer, today.
We were only in it for an hour and a half but was it ever nice, it is incredibly easy to assemble.

I too have willows rooting in water. I have a Corkscrew Willow rooted in a glass of water. I also have a Globe Willow rooted in a coffee cup of water.
Will

I can't wait for the rain to hit. lol. One nice day this week and then the rest of the week will be hot. Fine by me, I'll be plopping myself down in the river this weekend. lol. Hoping to get some fishing done too but don't know that I will have time.

I am done planting here til fall. Everything that is in pots will be planted in fall or when my uncle moves to his new place hopefully in a few weeks. He's stoked to be recieving plants from me. lol

If you guys want to do a fall RU let me know so I can get a thread going so we can start planning.

Still bone dry here. Rain keeps bypassing us going just a few miles south, north, east, or west of us. It's crazy; like we're in a bubble.

More desert show pics accompanied by Nicole, Chloe, and I was able to get my hubby to join us. He seemed to have a good time!

Really sleepy & off to bed. Good nite. : )

Oh you are a cute couple, glad you all had fun. It is fun to see those plants, that one pic looks like a mass of snakes....Ewwww... lol I actually have that pineapple plant, the living stones, and I think one of those plants behind Nichole and Chloe.

Look out you all down south the storm is heading your way and the winds and rain are something else! Lots and lots of lightening also! Betty wish I could send you some rain, my plants are enjoying it tho. We had about 50 mile an hour winds. All be careful. Busby is showing the storm and it is HUGH! wow

I bet the swimming pool felt amazing today.

Oh Pepper I think I will be planting non-stop all summer. I have been putting orange flags by them so if the rain stops I will know what to water.

It's storming right now here, I mean thunder and everything. Maybe it'll come to Stl. That's funny how it's been storming here and the forecast says no chance of rain then they change it after it starts raining. lol

Your hubby looks like a nice man, Betty, you guys make a great couple.

That's a huge clump of Mother-In-Law's-Tongue! I have a plant that looks like that Pineapple Lily but mine doesn't have flowers! I had some living stones a few years ago but they died, neat plants but I can't keep them alive.

Good morning! Thanks for all the nice comments. We got the rain and no drama. So what do you call living stones that died? Our storms came in the wee hours and now I wish that I could sleep a little longer. At least, I have my coffee. : )