Wow, I'm so behind, it just took me a half hour + to get caught up on this thread. Beautiful blooms everyone!
LOL @ Mike...your Helianthus! Your Dahlia is a winner and your Red October was probably named for the red stems (if it has red stems). If Red October doesn't have red stems, I'm completely off my Cracker Barrel rocker and suggest disregarding my 1.5 cents.
Oh, Mike thanks for the Bitsy genealogy, I ASSumed it was the other way around.
Susan, I'm worried for you...thoughts and prayers go out. I can only hope for the best. Good luck getting through this weather event.
September Blooms
As usual Mike, very beautiful flowers
Thank you Mipi!
Looks like the hurricane will go off to the north but still lots of flooding from this stalled out cold front. Our parking lot flooded at work today but was gone down by the time I got off. Thank you for your prayers especially this weekend when the tides will still run around six feet above normal, and it is still raining.... :(
Genna, I agree with Mike about amending your soil but there is an easier and cheaper way. Use your leaves that fall from the trees, you can just add them to the beds like mulch, leaf mulch and let it decompose over the winter, keep adding them to the soil because they retain moisture and they break down into soil. If you add Milorganite they will break down faster. Here is link to give more ideas and information.
http://www.biggranite.com/benefits-of-using-leaf-mulch-for-your-garden/
Thanks Mike, we are finally getting some real fungus free asters, I thought Purple Dome was nice too but I accidentally killed it. PD was more compact and shorter like a mound and the color was wonderful. I am looking for another!
Firetail is nice and I love the Nicotina growing in a crack and the Dahlia, I always had a soft spot for the cactus dahlia (flower having a bad hair day) but they do not do well here. A neighbor gave me a Cleome a few years ago and cleomes were popping up on the opposite side of the yard, the birds love the seeds and drop them everywhere and baby cleomes everywhere. It had to go but oh so pretty!
It is not cold enough for calla lilies here but I did have a pineapple lily one time. It was mostly leaves and the flower only lasted a week or less. I thought it was a waste of dirt. Hopefully yours will be better than mine there are many different kinds.
I believe we were talking about the Poker Lily one time and I told you about 'Lola' and she gets 5-6 feet tall, here is the pic! I will look for better one soon.
Mike, I have tried to amend my beds a LOT as I made them, and then try to amend the holes as I plant as well. It has helped radically, but the soil around it all is still very sandy and the moisture just goes............. but thankfully between amending and mulching I am able to keep a few things alive. The sandy soil is a pain, but over time it can be built up - much better than the hard clay soil I had where I used to live! We have just learned that trees need HUGE holes when we plant with LOTS of amendment in order to survive.
Love all the blooms - partial to that lovely dahlia and I love that gladiola.
Susan, I LOVE that huge poker lily as well. I have never managed to keep one alive..... :(
I don't have any leaves.............no trees to speak of in my yard yet. I do use shredded paper from my paper shredder at work to try to help improve to worm population around the trees that I have planted. My mulch seems to break down really fast though.........so I guess that also helps improve the soil.
Can't believe it is October!
Genna, I would rather deal with sandy soil over clay. Toss in a lot of Peat Moss. I use the potting soil mixed with compost when planting. Worm castings are also good. I have also use garden soil in bags when I find a super, can't pass up deal. I am always looking, LOL!!!!
I got this Hot Poker in a trade with Birder17 this summer. It has multiplied tremendously. Great Lady !!!!!!!
I have some pics to share this weekend. Got to get some stuff in the ground. Near eighty expected today and 57°f tomorrow. How about that for a "Mother Nature's" mood swing. LOL!!!!
Mood swing for sure Mike! That's a nice hot poker as well. It has been so nice here - temps in the low to mid 80s during the day.... but supposed to go up to 94 today and I think similar temp tomorrow. I had considered taking off work to work outside tomorrow, but I don't do 94 very well. I guess I could work until it got hot then call it a day! :) Plus there is always something that needs to be done inside. :(
I do use a potting soil when planting, and I have used some peat moss as well, but probably not as much of it. There is a company nearby that makes a composted manure that I really like but they have recently changed owners and it is getting hard to find in our area. I hope they don't quit manufacturing it. I have tried to add coffee grounds and ground egg shells and other items along the way as well........... anything to try to build up the organic matter in the soil. It is coming along, but not fast enough! LOL.... with unlimited funds and a crew to help me, I am SURE I could get it there much faster! :) I even had to move a bunch of daffodil bulbs that I had out in my yard - unimproved areas - because they would never bloom........... so I dug them up in the spring and moved them to the edge of my foundation bed. They only went a small distance in the bed, but I hope to plant enough this fall to finish out the front edge of the bed.
I think a raised bed is a good solution for both sandy and clay soils because you can put what you want in there. Every body has a different set of problems when it comes to gardening.
Poor Genna, yours sounds like the landscape from hell. lol. I would love an unlimited supply of time, money, and muscle the three things I never seem to have at the same time. :(
Thanks for the compliment on the Poker lily, as far as things are going I am pretty sure there is no killing this thing. I was warned in the beginning so I picked a spot where it would not bother anyone, it has a long tap root and is said to be very hard if not impossible to dig up.
Well, I am sure my problems are not a lot different than anyone elses..... not NEARLY enough time to keep everything whipped into shape and never enough gardening budget!! LOL.... IS there such a thing??? :)
But, I have made a dent in a few of my enemies - such as I am SLOWLY cutting down the population of nut sedge, but I have come to the conclusion that I probably won't live long enough to get rid of it. NOW, I have a new beast that has just shown up about 2 months ago - and rapidly increasing.............. it is Johnson grass (at least I THINK that is what it is called) and it is spread by underground runners and gets over 5' tall. MAYBE I should not have complained about the nutsedge - at least it doesn't get head high!! I am TRYING to eradicate it before it gets a foot hold, but I am not sure I am winning that battle. It is (of course) all up in my plants which makes spraying it pretty dangerous.............. So I am trying to pull all the plants and runners up - which apparently is akin to pulling bamboo! :( Anyone fought this demon before? I don't EVEN know where it came from......
Slowly my DLs are putting a little growth back on - the ones that went dorment from the extreme heat of August and Sept. Hopefully the roots are all still happy and in good shape.
Genna
Where is everyone??
We are FINALLY getting some much needed rain here! Been raining most of the time since Friday about mid day. IT was BONE dry here and desperately needed. ..... thankfully, it is coming in a light steady format so most of it is getting the opportunity to soak in! My plants are rejoicing! :)
Everyone should be in October Blooms but I guess there are no late October bloomers. I'm so glad you got/getting some rain Gen. I also hope you eradicated the Johnson grass, that sounds like a beast. Luckily I have no experience with it...sorry I'm no help.
Harvested the last of my seed pods. They are just chillin now until I feel the need to do something agricultural. lol.It is a lot of fun to see new plants bloom after usually 2-3 years of waiting. So far I have not found any worthy of the compost heap. I should also mention that I have only bloomed about50 seedlings thus far. There may be some dogs out there yet to bloom There is a lot of fallow land around me where some could end up taking their chances.
LOL , you have WAYYYY more patience than I have! I have a hard time waiting for plants to bloom in the summer that I plant the previous fall ....much less waiting 3 yrs! :)
But, I am thankful that some people LOVE to do that, because otherwise we wouldn't have all these beautiful daylilies to enjoy!
I had one cross this year...also chilling. I'm looking forward to the three year bloom mark too. Actually, I have three flats already growing in the basement, hopefully the bloom wait will be shortened. We'll see.
Gary, Gary, Gary, "They are just chillin now until I feel the need to do something agricultural." LOL!!
Read more: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1404902/#ixzz3q3R960LP
Genna I have seen that grass around here. They are easy to pull out before they go to seed.
If seeds are started indoors in late winter you can get some blooms by the following year in the colder zones. In the warmer zone they can bloom that same year.
I am going to plant some this winter indoors also.
I will post some pics in October blooms.