FIRST FLOWERS OF SUMMER 2015

I'd love to have an arbor with a Mandevilla planted on each side and meeting at the top. Wow.

Yours is gorgeous, Gita.

Gita, that's pretty...

Seriously though, your red coreopsis is nice, if you wanted to get rid of it, I'd give it a home. I can't remember if you said you didn't want it anymore or not. I like the mandevillas too but I'm not much of a tropicals grower myself.

SSG, I would love to try a Felicia's phlox. It would go well in my Front Yard garden where I have a bunch of other tall things.

I finally got a pic of this little sucker. It's Catananche caerulea aka Cupid's Dart. It has been blooming since the end of May but whenever I'm going around taking pics, it's closed. The blooms are fully open in the morning but then partially close later in the day. Makes it tough for getting pics. I snapped this with my phone on the way out the door.

that Cupids dart is a neat flower, but if it doesn't fit your viewing schedule, it is a downer.

Cam--

Build an Arbor--any kind--buy 2 Mandevillas in the spring ($20+ each)--
make sure it is the rough, leathery leafed one--(see pic. #2 above)
NOT the one with the red flowers. They come in big pots with a short (2'+)
trellis already in there, on which it is already climbing--and plant it in a bigger pot
at the base of your chosen trellis (or arbor) and it will do the rest....
NO bugs! NO diseases! NO care needed...

It is a very fast grower and will twine around anything--(like cucumbers) an just
keep blooming and blooming....
Mine grows on an 8' ladder-like trellis that I built. When it reaches the top, it keeps growing
with all the tendrils now hanging down on itself--still blooming away...

It is an annual--so you have to buy a new one every year. PLUS--you have to
unwind and tear down the previous year's, now dried up, vines. THAT takes a bit of doing...
but it is totally worth the $20 I spend each year on one.

1--Here is a long view of it--I plant it in the same pot every year, after i dig out the old one.

2--This shows the long tendrils searching for something to twine around on.

Jeff--

Re the red Coreopsis--I cannot "get rid" of it in any way--it is an annual.

I can send you seeds of the red Coreopsis...
Scatter them now in a spot where you will see them come up--maybe a pot?
Next spring--dig up the seedlings and plant them wherever you want.

D-mail me your address--or I can bring them to the Swap.

Gita

Google, Help!!!

Thanks for the suggestion, Gita. Does the variety with the red flowers not vine as vigorously as the cultivar with the pink flowers ?

Cam--

I think it is a matter of preference....I just like the strength and the size
of the pink ones. Both the leaves and the flowers. They seem "massive'..

The red ones look OK too--but they just don't "speak" to me like the pinks.

I am a creature of habit. Usually sticking with same old...same old.....
I do not experiment a lot--just stay with what works. (for me)....

I also just found out that the red Mandevilla comes in two varieties.
"Mounding" and "climbing".
I never paid enough attention (when watering all these at work) to see the difference.

We always have lots of them in HB's at the HD---so, I imagine that
those cannot be the climbing ones. Right? Makes sense!

Then we have the climbing ones--already spilling out all over on trellises.
They get hooked on each other and it is almost impossible to separate them.


Live and learn.....G.

Google help indeed. Some cool pictures of a flower clock on there.

My tradescantia blooms in the morning too and I don't see that bloom much as a result. My only hope is that someone gets some joy out of it at some point. I really like the Cupid's Dart though. It's foliage almost looks like grass and it faithfully comes back year after year.

Oh, Gita, I forgot to say that if you wanted to bring those coreopsis seeds to the swap, that'd be great. Thanks!

This message was edited Jul 20, 2015 11:12 AM

I got the red one I have at Lowe's and they had both red mounding and red vining varieties.

Blumenuhrs and Horologium Florae

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/garden/planting-a-clock-that-tracks-hours-by-flowers.html?_r=0

http://www.walterreeves.com/gardening-q-and-a/flowers-for-blooming-clock/

http://stereochron.org/post/82306596171/telling-time-by-the-blooms-like-flowers-humans

Jeff--

I believe that WHEN plants, naturally, drop their seeds is the best time
for "us" to drop/plant those seeds as well. Like all the biennials do.

I know that by now the Coreopsis would be going to seed already.

I would rather send these seeds to you NOW. They are tiny black seeds.
I will just stick them in an envelope and they will go for one stamp.

I have LOTS of seeds~! Anything else you would like to have?
Check my "Trade List" which is, sadly, very not-up-to-date...

Do any of you remember my 6' tall Purple Amaranth last summer? With all those droopy,
feathery "blooms"...It makes zillions of seeds....tiny, miniscule, round black ones.....

One of the seeds germinated and is growing by leaps and bounds--about 2" every day--
in my small, front bed. The lower stem (trunk") is already over 1" in diam.
This is the same bed where it grew last year too...it just moved over 2 feet.

1--Standing tall--August 2014

2--Top/flower part of this Amaranth--2014

3--The progeny of this plant--self-sown from seed. Same bed--2' away from last years.

4--The flower developing at the very top cluster of leaves.

5--Sadly--my Acalypha has not come back this year. It did last summer--
and i was so excited! The stem feels solid when pull on it--but NO plant.
Now it is too late to hope for seeing it again. This is/was in the same small
bed by my front door.
I will let it ride and see what happens next year. In my garden--hope is always eternal...

Gita

Moving on to mid summer:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1401367/

AW--Shucks!
I will have to re-post the above on the new Thread....
Can one c/p a Post to a new Thread? Pictures and all????

HUH? Gita