Gorgeous photos!!
Miracle Grow add
Thanx, besides working I have no other vices....:)
OK here goes, 3 albums of pix. Some are from last year, and you can see the difference in both plants and quality. (3 down arrows)
http://spaces.msn.com/beckysobsession
When I get back I am going to throw myself into more container gardening, both inside and outside, I have also found a new obsession, cacti & succulents, and I am sure I can container garden with them as well!!
Becky - Those are some nice looking beds you have in your photos. What variety are your morning glories? We have the same ones, but I go them from a neighbor so I don't know the name. I can almost smell their sweet fragrance. And a gardenia too........lucky you :)
Steve
This message was edited May 18, 2006 10:58 PM
Grandpa Ott on the MG's, the Gardenias is a trial thingy, I read about them here and heard how difficult they can be, so I figured why not.....got two at nursery, and have left them on table on deck, under an umbrella so they won't get too much sun.....
Gardenias are difficult, but soooo worth it if you can make them happy. I have one that's very unhappy right now. It's a topiary that I'm trying to get to bloom again....or at least to quit dropping leaves and blooms.
I've never tried a gardenia before. I will eventually though. When I do, I'll have to ask you two for advice :) By then you'll be experts!
Steve
Yeah, maybe I'll be able to tell you what NOT to do. LOL!
There is something to be said about mad passions!!
Don't think I will ever be an expert.....with me it's a lot of trial, trial and trial. When I ventured out into the unknown world of gardening (followed in my mothers footsteps) I did my normal research (I am terrible), bought as many books as I could possibly afford (or not), drew my own conclusions and have barely followed the "normal" way of doing things since. I don't pay much attention to soil conditions, zones (huh, I am a zone what?) distance between plants and all of that stuff. I know I should & I think I have just been plain 'ole lucky, but whatever I have been doing it seems to be working!
As a good example, I never knew I was supposed to change out the soil in the planters on my deck for the annuals....had noooo idea, so I didn't, just keep piling stuff in them for the third year now.....I water when they look like they need it, I plant stuff together that supposedly I ain't 'sposed to, I give them a healthy dose of good old fashioned MG (the blue stuff, man does it stain)(now one thing I do pay attention to is the potting soil I buy, I stick with MG and hence the reason I "found" y'all) when I remember to.....I planted everything way before mothers-day, my friends told me I was nuts, but also told me I have green hands, not thumbs.
Do I contribute this to my mother, oh yes, the woman was insane, she had 100's of little plastic cups with seedlings all over the house in spring, she even had special windowsills installed so she could have rows of them, I knew she had lost her mind when I saw her look longingly at the coffee pot as a potential planter!! She even had a greenhouse built out of our old windows, we must have been the only people in Northern Norway with our own hothouse tomatoes. But, now that I am just as crazy myself I understand the madness.....in a few years I will be known as the crazy lady with all the animals, purple hair and flowers and plants in coffee pots!!
Are you gonna get you a red hat Too..I do like your way of gardening hey it works for me too...But I'm hooked on Messenger and Mighty Plant now and so are my flowers..They scream I need a drink..then I'll grow good for you..!!
Bec - that is such a funny, heartwarming story! I guess your plants sense your enthusiasm so they don't need much else, except the occasional dose of blue MG (I use this too). Early spring, DH and I went around the yard and applied MG "Shake & Feed" before applying new pine straw mulch. Boy - what an explosion of new growth on everything. I have been very impressed since we didn't do much to the soil except add a couple of inches of ammended top soil - to raise the beds up a bit. Anyway, I appreciate your "madness" - On my way now to a local nursery which is having a 20% off everything sale. Liz :)
Heathrjoy,
Girl you are totally hilarious!
Bec_No_Va,
Welcome to the club. Be sure you're wearing Depends or Pampers when you enter this forum, because once you start to laugh, it's all over (literally)..
P.S. Please bring me a snowball back from Norway. Send it to me in Houston, Tx. Thanks!
P.S.S. I broke down and planted the Hosta bulbs. They'd already started sprouting in the bag, So determining which was up was easy. Only thing is, ya'll didn't tell me how FRAGILE those little tender shoots are! I broke several, but prayed the Hostas would not get hostile and decide to commit suicide on me cause I broke an arm or a leg of.
P.S.S.S. Do lobsters really feel pain? One never knows, do one?
She's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
P.S....... I was out yesterday with back pain. Have lost three nights of sleep...
Good to see you GG!
Take care of yourself and take it easy, we don't want our GYMgirl being injured.
I bet your Hosta will be just fine. Even if they end up looking a bit wimpy this year, they'll look great next year...Hosta do that sometimes.
Hugs,
Heather
Everytime I check this thread there's a zillion more comments on it.
My brain seems to be half dead today, so I can't think of anything to reply about.....So it'll just have to be a thanks for everyones posts and for making this such a great thread!
Steve
Steve, that must be going around, I feel the same way. I'm just reading mostly today and not posting much. I seem to be yawning a lot too. I've spent most of the day putzing around trying to get 4 things potted up...and I'm still no where close to being done...maybe a nap would help. It's just been too rainy for too long here. Pretty soon I'm going to sprout feathers & start quacking!
I should enjoy it while I can tho...before I know it it'll be 90* and I'll be saying it's too hot to work outside...and the heat makes me want to take a nap! ROTFL!
I feel somewhat better now(not much though). What plants are you potting up? I've got a bunch I've grown that will need to be planted soon, I attach a photo.
If I sprouted feathers I'd probably fly away somewhere.......
Steve
On the far left is Calendula 'princess mix' then Ammi majus, persian carpet zinnias then on the far right is annual babys breath. Beneath the babys breath you can also see English daisy(bellis), and above the b breath you can see a safflower.
Looks good Steve...guess you really know how to start those plants. I had tons of calendula that reseeded from last year, what exactly is the princess mix? Yellow and orange? I did not know they came in any other colors.
They do look great Steve. I have a serious problem remembering to water my stuff. Year after year I lose it that way. This year I did some winter sowing tho and it worked much better for me! I even ended up spring sowing like 43 containers about a week ago and some are starting to sprout.
Thanks, Heather and GB. Here's a photo of the princess mix. I've never grown it before either, but they look pretty nice. What sort of seeds did you WS and SS Heather?
Steve
GG, Hi there!
Depends or diapers! Yuhuuuu ! Guess we need to decide which one actually has the best absorption characteristics!! Yeah, I can just see the Norwegian Customs officer giving me "the look" when he opens the suitcases!!
Snowball....no way LOL. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that the weather has actually improved, they had snow on the 17th of May, I so do not need that!! We have been lucky here in VA, only rain the last few months, I am so not ready to regress!!
I am attaching a pic of the deck last winter, we had a "blizzard" (not to me it wasn't, I called it "light snow fall") for a few days where the entire state came to a complete stand-still!! :)
Y'all be good!
This message was edited May 20, 2006 4:31 PM
I got a late start w/ all my stuff this year, so my ss stuff is sprouting as we speak! Let's see, the list includes....
Swan River Daisy
Datura
Dianthus - 5 kinds
Delphiniums - 2 kinds
Five O'Clocks - 2 kinds
Hyacinth Bean Vines
Pea Vine - 2 kinds
Daylilies
Hardy Hibiscus - 2 kinds
Petunia - 3 kinds
Scabiosa
Johnny Jump Ups
Clematis - 3 kinds
Ornamental Grasses - 4 kinds
Lantana - 2 kinds
Shasta Daisy
Foxgloves
Veronica (for 2 very special ladies named Veronica!!)
Rose of Sharon - 3 kinds
Malva
Mallow
Columbine - 4 kinds
Hosta
Clarkia
Coral Vine
Hollyhock
Plus more I can't remember right now. I think I have 80 some containers total, and more to start as soon as I get more containers. If you've never started seeds this way you should really try it, it's a lot of fun, and requires very little care...plus you can reuse soil from last year. If you have any questions check out the Winter Sowing forum, the folks there are so super friendly and very helpful.
I've had great germination on everything!! I didn't realize that the Clematis wouldn't germinate till next year, so I'll just keep them somewhere out of the way over the summer and next year I'll have lots of sprouts and end up giving away plants I'm sure.
The most fun ws and ss is the from the seeds that I harvested myself last year. There's just something so satisfying about seeing them come full circle...and it will be more satisfying to see them bloom. I also have to say it does boost my ego a bit as a gardener, I feel selfsufficient in my garden...and shouldn't we? =^) I'll be collecting seeds from everything this year. So far I only have a few Petunias that are hybrids that I won't collect from.
Ok, ok, I'll shut up now!
Thats quite the list Heather :D I have done spring sowing, I did some this year where I sowed a bunch in my coldframe. I sowed most of the stuff early last month and it getting pretty big now.
How are daturas germing? I sowed six and I have 1 thats doing ok and 2 others where the leaves just disappeared overnight.....really! I plan on saving seed this year from my plants too. Something I've never done much before.
Steve
Heres some balsam and painted tounge. about a month and a half old.
Those look great too! I wsed 2 different kinds of Dats and only 1 germinated and it took quite a while. It's doing great now. I have some other Dat seeds that generous folks sent me and I bought some GA3 to try on them. Once I finally get around to doing all that I'm sure they'll germinate. I'd offer to send you some GA3 but sending it to CA makes me a bit nervous....actually, I think mine came from CA. It's not that expensive if you're really into getting Dats to germinate....just make sure to follow their guidelines. Someone told me that they used too much and the seeds sprouted in like 2 days...then they grew way too fast and the heads were too heavy and they all fell over and died. ROTFL!! Poor person.
Here's the Dats in their milk jug....
Delphiniums from my own seed. These guys need transplanted soon. The nice thing is there's no hardening off when you do it this way!
That story's too funny. But what's GA3? I've never heard of it. This is my first time growing my own Daturas.
Your seedlings look really healthy, you delphiniums look like the buttercup seedlings that I find sprouting around the yard, must be because they're in the same family. Here's some Bellis Perenis
Steve
Gibberellic Acid. Read about it here http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/GibberellicAcid.htm
I have personal reasons why I couldn't purchase it from them, I had to buy from another company. I'd like to experiement w/ it on some other stuff too, but I just don't have time to right now. Maybe over the winter. See if I can get some monster size seedlings that live!
Foxgloves exploding from a 2 liter bottle....
Thanks. I checked out the link, it's pretty interesting. Those foxgloves really are exploding from the bottle! Their huge!
Maybe with GA3 you could get some brugs that become full size over the winter. Just put a stick in the pot so they don't crush themselves.
Steve :D
It is some pretty interesting stuff. I ordered the smallest amount from another company and it was a lot more than I expected to get and it was cheap. I can't remember the name of the company right now, LOL! They also gave me a membership to a Yahoo discussion group about GA3 and I just looked it over and there's no links to the company there...I don't think that's allowed. I'll find it and post it here tomorrow.
Gibberellins are naturally occuring plant growth chemicals. All green plants have some in the growth tips of their leaves. GA3 is probably just a concentrated form of these.
If your plants grow really fast, will they be sturdy enough? or leggy and weak? Let me know.
Martha
Yeah Heather, you try it first and if all your plants die from too much growth we'll know to use less :D (joking)
I bought a box of Adult Undergarments this weekend...and I bought a Persian Shield on its last leg for 1/2 price. It has buds, but is quite "leggy." But much better than paying $25 for the gorgeous one on display! I'll nurse this one back to health with consultation and advice from my DG experts. So. What to do with my Shield?
And, finally, I committed a MORTAL, VENIAL, UNDENIABLE SIN. I picked up a half-dead piece of a Kong Coleus and took it home...Mea Maxima Culpa!
ROTFLOLOLOL!!! Ouch, that hurt.
GG, look here for some tips on Persian Sheild. http://mgonline.com/persianshield.html
There's not a ton of info there, but I'm in a bit of a rush right now. When I have more time I'll find some more info, this is just what I had on hand. I'd say prune and be sure to mist, mist, mist.
I'm sure the Kong Coleus thanks you for rescuing it. What could you do? Just make sure you grow it well and give it the best care and share it with everyone you can. =^)
Martha, I don't consider myself an expert on GA3 by any means. I'm quite the novice. I've yet to experiment w/ it. From what I have read tho, you are correct. If you use too much GA3 your plants will grow too quickly and become leggy weak. That's what happened in the story I told above where they all fell over and died. The stems couldn't support the weight of the first set of leaves (not true leaves) because the stems were too leggy and the leaves were so overly large.
Here is where I ordered mine. I got the GA3 that is water soluable...20% powder. http://www.super-grow.biz/GibberellicAcid.jsp
If you click on the order now button for the one I ordered it takes you to this page http://www.super-grow.biz/GA3Powder20.jsp and it has a chart...mixing instructions.
Somewhere I read, or someone very wise, told me that Dat seeds require a 24 hour soak in a 150-250 ppm GA3 solution. I figured I'd split it down the middle and go for 200 ppm. In the story I told above I think they used 500 ppm. Anyway, I only ordered 5 grams, the smallest amount they offered and I was surprised at how much I got. I'm not sure how long GA3 is viable, or the optimal storage conditions for it, but if it lasts I may have some GA3 for years. It was very inexpensive for what they say it can do. AND I got two little scoops w/ it. (they are tiny little plastic thingies, but fit the purpose well...and they didn't have to include them) I like this company. They also sell all kinds of other stuff that I didn't even check out. I'd bet some of it is weird, but would be fun to play with.
When I finally get around to doing this GA3 thing I'll document it for y'all if you're interested. Yeah, another experiment. Hey, why not?
BTW, Steve, the return addy for my stuff was Quebec if you're interested.
Now, I'm so glad I went and played w/ this GA3 packaged and stuck my hands all over it while I was eating lunch. I wonder if there's any chance it will make me leggy??
BTW GG, I had a plant order delivered the other week and it came in a box from adult undergarments. I never noticed. Dh pointed it out to me, remarking how embarrassing that was and that they should never ship in boxes like that. I laughed so hard I think I was snorting!!!
Hmm...Quebec.....I'll have to check it out. Thanks Heather :D
Just a thought I had while reading the new posts.......What do you think would happen if you watered a grown plant with GA3?
Steve
So Persian Shield is the one I can't kill eh?
It came from a bunch of cuttings I got from a gardening buddy last year and I rooted it indoors, plopped it in the container with the others and it's still hanging in there! :) It's in the planter box I call "don't know quite what you are but you look at home here box"!
And now that you mention it Heather, I think I received a plant delivery a few weeks ago that had regular diapers on top....hmm if I had only known! I would have kept them around in the office for reading some of y'all'ses threads!
And I need some of that leggy stuff!!!!!! I am vertically challenged and need a step stool for everything (can't wait for the batteries in the firealarm to go out, 15 foot ceiling, yuhuuuuuuuu)
Steve, I really have no idea. It would be neat to find out. Right now I'm too tired and have consumed too much alcohol (1 glass of weak wine) to venture a logical guess. If you're trying to...hiccup....get me to....hiccup....do another experiment, forget it. I caught on...hiccup...a long time ago.
That wine was so weak it tasted like Blackberry juice. Hiccup.
Becky, if you've got a variety of Persian Sheild that...hiccup...can't be killed you better patent it!!
Guess what I did tonight gang? Hiccup. While I was having my blackberry juice...hiccup...I got out the straight razor and cut my hair! If these hiccups would go away I could bleach it too, but I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow now. Hiccup. Oh well, there's only so much fun you can have in one day I guess. =^)
When it's time for a change...........
I remember Datura from one of my favorite books, "Clan of the Cave Bear", by Jean Auel. It was used as a hallucinogenic sedative...I hear people steal that stuff and smoke it.....
Yeah, and Brugs too I guess. In the Brug forum they post news reports of kids being hospitalized, or worse, from using Dats & Brugs for such stupid uses. I asked my local police if that's ever happened around here and thankfully the answer was no.
Ok. I might come to PA after all...
Are you looking for some weak wine, a hair cut or just to hide out in the boonies for a while? We can provide all!
Strong wine, my hair's already short, and hiding in the boonies sounds just fine.