FIRST FLOWERS OF LATE SUMMER 2015

I'm good for either day and/or weekend.
Sally, I have my thumb out too.

I'd prefer a Saturday but technically Sundays work too. My birthday is 1/28 so I'll get some birthday seeds ;-)

I forgot to add that I'm totally jealous of your mahonias Holly and Sally. Mine is lucky to be alive after a bad transplant autumn 2013. Actually the bigger one just about did die but there's a pathetic rosette of leaves jutting out of a stem.

This message was edited Dec 30, 2015 7:44 AM

Any Saturday works for me. Not Sunday!!!
As I wrote before--I need to know very soon which day you choose, Jill.

I would have to put in my schedule change request no later than
Sunday, Jan. 17th.

Thanks, Gita

Jill just curious why the seed swap is at Golden Corral. It was at that really good Asian place last time.

Let's try a Sunday this time and see how that works out.

No, it's not at Golden Corral, sorry for confusion... I'm hoping it will be at Chef Lin as usual. I did say that IF we need to schedule or reschedule for the first weekend in February, I'm not sure about availability at Chef Lin because Feb. 8 is the Chinese New Year...

I will check with Donna at Chef Lin on Monday, but let's assume for now that SUNDAY, Jan 31, will be our day

Gita, you did say that Sunday would work with notice, right? I'll finalize arrangements with Chef Lin and put threads up next week, well before your Jan 17 deadline. :-)

Thanks, Jill--that will help. Gita

Saw a whole front yard with snowdrops in bloom on my way to the grocery store this afternoon.

Hey, Jeff, is Darci planning to join us again, or did we scare her off? Hopefully she can find something on the buffet to appeal to a pregnant tummy... ice cream & pickles? ;-)

Yeah she will be coming as of now. If it was Saturday she wouldn't be. She just doesn't like having to drive all that way so it takes some coaxing. I keep telling her everyone will want to see her pregnant belly..Lol

Well then, I'm glad we're trying a Sunday date! Yes, we all want to see her... and admire her "baby bump." :-)

SOOOO????

The FINAL date is Sunday--Jan. 31st ???? YES???
I will put in a request to switch my days. Gita

duplicate post...



This message was edited Jan 4, 2016 10:38 AM

Woohooo! Seed Swap thread is up on this forum and on the corresponding Mid-Atlantic forum at AllThingsPlants (I don't want to lose anybody!). We're going to use the new Seed Swaps tool at ATP, which I think will work really well.

I think I got everybody added to the party list who responded "yes" on this thread... please remember to post if you're bringing friends, kids, significant others, so I have an approximate headcount.

I saw a bloom on a hellebore yesterday as well as some buds on some Iberis candytuft.

Awesome Jan! Did you get the cold we did? It was down to 12 the other night.

Yes, we did. It was pretty nippy the other morning. Jeff and I both had our third cold this past week. UGH!!!! hard to know how to dress.

Yikes! There is nothing blooming in my yard or in my house, and look what I just found on the laundry room floor?!

I couldn't figure out where it had come from until I saw a chrysalis in the crease of the butterfly tent I had put in the laundry room until I had time to clean it. Even though the tent was collapsed, the butterfly somehow managed to crawl out. I put some sugar water, mashed ripe pear and clementine in the tent to hold it over until I can buy some flowers.

wow Muddy what a surprise! Perfect. But what can you do with it, feed it for a few days?

I'll try to find flowers and fruit it's supposed to like. I found some crocuses and marigolds and will take a walk in search of other flowers. I held it and extended its probiscus into sugar water-soaked cotton balls, as is recommended, but it didn't nectar. I even gave it a mud puddle! I think this is its second day, so it might not be ready to nectar yet.
Apparently it might live for 10 days-2 months. At least I can try to ensure it doesn't starve to death.

Excellent! What a great excuse to have a pet butterfly and buy a lot of flowers! 10 days to 2 months seems like such a short existence.
Here are a few from the end of December. Too bad you weren't closer, Muddy, I'd give you some flowers to try for your new little one. One of my neighbors has a cherry tree or similar in full bloom and I've seen full blooming plants of Christmas rose.

1 First and only snow drop
2. Spirea Ogan, two bushes have been blooming for a while now, even in the cold.
3. Many hellebores in bud but not blooming. The H. hybrids and H. nigers are even ahead of foetidus which is unusual.
4. Winter Jasmine - so unruly but its hard to get rid of something that blooms in the winter.
5. Flowering Quince in bud. I expect to lose these to a hard freeze at some point.

This message was edited Jan 10, 2016 1:46 PM

How nice to have winter flowers, Loretta! I don't know whether the butterfly will like them, but I brought in some forsythia and azalea cuttings which I hope to coax into bloom.

Muddy--
Would your butterfly go for hummingbird nectar?
Easily made--and also available in Big Box Stores.
They carry the makings for Hummer nectar all year. It just sits there....

Or--how about Blue Agave sweetener? VERY sweet and Strong--but you
could dilute it.
Would the butterfly nectar on a cut orange? Grape? -- Just wondering.......
Gita

Gita, they're supposed to like oranges, overripe bananas, sugar syrup and mud (really!), so I'm trying all that. Hummingbird nectar might work, and I think I still have some. Thanks for the ideas.

It will be fun to see if it will stay alive for you for weeks, months? not subject to the weather, predators, etc.

The butterfly house at the Bronx Zoo always has dishes of sliced fruit covered with butterflies. They also drink in the wet soil there. The display at the Philadelphia Flower Show used q tips dipped in the sugar syrup.

Beautiful butterfly Catbird!! I like that coloring at the bottom near the tail that looks like a yin yang.

This pic is from Sunday. It's a helle that never bloomed before and it's the first one out of the gate for the year.

Very pretty, Jeff! I like the purple outlining the petals...

Should go to go see if any of mine are in bud. Too cold and too wet though
to go traipsing in mud searching for Helle blooms...
I know last simmer some of them had seedlings coming up. Hope they make it.

Good luck in your job search. It has to be hard on you....demoralizing too.

G.

This message was edited Jan 12, 2016 7:57 AM

That's a special hellebore. I love the picotee!

Jeff, that is gorgeous.

Thanks! Gita, I have tons of helle seedlings and they are all doing pretty well. In fact, there are a bunch of seedlings just sprouting, which has surprised me. I love helles and have a bunch of them. A couple years back, in a NC group buy, I got 6 of the Brandywine hybrids and at least one of those looks like it will bloom for the first time. We have 3 mature bloomers and then a bunch of seedlings. I even have a small patch of seedlings from Holly at the last spring swap and they are doing well too.

Well--I know that last summer there were little tiny things with rough leaves on them.
I knew they must be from the Helles...even though I have never, actually, looked
for them. I would be especially happy if the few seedlings that I think are from the
pink, ruffled-skirt one.
I know my white, common one had a lot of seedlings under it. Do you dig them up
and pot them up or just let them grow "in situ"?
If you pot them up--how long does it take before they are decent, small plants?
Then--if you do plant them in a pot--do they grow fast--for how long?
Holly--you have seedlings too. What do you do with them?

Thanks, Gita

.

I've just let mine be. Survival of the fittest. A couple of my seedlings are getting their first set of adult leaves. I suppose you could pot them up. If it were me though, I might just take the whole clump of soil they're in and transplant that somewhere else. That way the roots don't ever get disturbed.

Dig some of them up and give them away. Some will just stay and grow.

tHIS IS JUST fyi--ESPECIALLY TO YOU Ric ANd hoLLY--- (oops--print....)

HD has all it's spring bulbs in- And--there they all sit in the GH.
Since you like Liatris, Holly, among the bags of bulbs (all $14.98) is a heavy
bag-full of Liatris bulbs. They are all small, round bulbs--about 1 1/2" across
~the size of an egg. All nice and round....
It is a heavy bag. There must be 50 bulbs in there! Like a bag of potatoes.

I think $15 for this many is not a bad deal. Go check them out. LMK.
Gita

This thread's title is old--summer is long gone.
Maybe a new Thread of "First blooms of winter/spring?

Here are three I saw today. it was almost summery out there.

1--Crocus in my YUK bed
2--Crocus in my small, round bed "stump Bed"
3--Pink hellebores with blooms. They have been trying to bloom for a long time.
This is one of the pink helles I got at cam's swap. I think Jill brought them?
There were 2 on the Gift Table...

Today--I cut back my KO Rose as well as my Butterfly Bush which was already putting
out a lot of leaves. The KO Rose had new leaf-nubs showing.

I think I need to cut back the stems of my Gooseberry shrub. They are thin and long.
If I remember correctly--I think this needs to e done.
Of course, not too many people here grow Gooseberries. It is more a cool-zone plant.
It made a few berries last summer--but just a handful.
Need to put a net around it...birds...you know...
I have had this bush for decades. Divided it about 2 or 3 years ago and
gave away one of the bigger divisions. I still have 2 potted smaller ones growing.

Like Currants. Don't see any of them growing around here. Too hot.
Go to Latvia--you will see these in everyone's garden.

Gita

Beautiful, crocus, Gita. Mine look like stubby grass. I noticed some scilla starting to send up flowers though.

Thanks Gita for the heads up. I'll make sure Ric knows about the Liatris bulbs.

Time for a new thread? 2015 is over and the new season has begun.