Notmartha....your garden is stunning!
DawninTx...didn't you used to live in Texas?
Country G...how nice it must be to wake up to all those glads!
Cottage Gardens # 3
fly_girl, I still live in Texas!
Hahahaha....never mind, I've never heard of Nevada, sorry.
Happens all the time when I am trying to pay with a check, "we don't take out of state checks." ; )
For those innerested, we are trying to start a gladiolus forum the same way we're doing this. I hope you "glad" enthusiasts will join in!!
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/668752/
and
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/661541/
Those are perennials or something, not what I am growing. So no interest here.
Does this feel like a chat room to anybody else besides me?
Earlybloomer, I didn't recognise them -- I can't grow poppies . NEXT year I will have success, though. Can you tell me when they bloom? Usually I can tell when things bloom by what's blooming aorond them, but I don't have hot poker plant.
Suzy
CountryGardens:
I used to be a flower person, but that was back in the 60s. ;)
Early Bloomer,
I like the arbor in photo #3. Is that a small stone seat inside the arbor? The top of the seat looks like it has an interesting shape, can't quite make it out.
Park Seeds is having a 35% off sale on their whole site, even on their regular $1 seeds. I usually get my tomato seeds from Park (DH loves their Whopper tomatoes). so I put in a big seed order yesterday. got a bunch of annuals and perennials: snapdragons, hollyhocks, coleus, columbine, yarrow, celosia, begonia, Jupiter's beard, zinnia, sedum, kobold, dill, fennel, an ornamental basil collection, a couple of tomatoes, bush cucumbers, hens 'n chicks and even some mixed cactus seed for house plants. some were from the $1 seeds and most were well under $1 with the sale. I'm going to be wintersowing a lot this year. Don't know how I'll get it all planted if I'm successful with everything, but there's always pots LOL
Our wait is over. Terry announced we have our own Cottage Garden Forum now. :-)
http://davesgarden.com/forums/f/cottage/all/
YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Suzy........That photo was taken in June. Some of the other flowers in the photo are yellow cone flower, a couple different bee balms, a couple clumps of shasta dasies, speedwell, purple coneflowers and others. The daylillys, cannas, cup plant, etc. are not blooming yet . The cup plant was a pleasant surprise. I bought it at a garden club sale. It was not marked so I had no idea what it was. It grew almost 6' tall with lots of yellow flowers thru August and the foilage was dark green and stayed that way til the killing frost. It's not something you would want too many of but it makes a great specimen plant.
early_bloomer
I could see a single or maybe two cup plants in different beds if they were all cottagey, sort of like a trademark to catch the eye, standing above the rest of the bed and causing you to notice the 2nd and 3rd beds etc.
Well, all the pictures of your place have been spectacular, Early; the cup plant is no exception! If you have the space, I agree with hey_jude.
I am glad to finally know when poppies bloom, thanks! :)
Suzy
The cup plant I stole a baby from was about 10 feet tall (Mine is also called compass plant because the coupled leaves allign north-South or East-West, and the leaves hold water-cup)
Are we talking the same plant. Mine has become illegal to sell in CT because it is considered invasive but I never saw one before or since.
I like the idea of getting the government to give us all grants to support ourselves so we can spend more time in the garden. I work as a psych nurse and think my garden which is only 2 blocks from the hospital would make a great therapy garden. I could charge $100 an hour to have people come and weed and water for me. I'm betting with all that sunshine and hard work, they would have shorter hospital stays. Of course I would need a greenhouse built for me too so the therapy could continue all winter. And since I don't have much room, maybe I should just buy the whole block, tear down most of the house and make the rest into a huge garden with wheelchair assessable paths and some raised garden areas so nursing home residents can come and work or just sit and enjoy the gardens. And there would need to be a magical children's garden for th kids to visit and learn to garden in. OK, now you all know what I'd do in my dreamlife. Now just help me figure out how to fund the dream and I'll be glad to let all of you come visit anytime you want.
Susan
I would offer full time staff assistance, but alas I can't take the cold.
We joke about this, but someone with a little more ambition toward this sort of goal will surely do it and never say a word to the rest of us. So, (bug in ear) get your grant writing request pencils sharpened.
Susan,
Maybe winning the lottery.
Susan-
Sounds wonderful. I can just picture it...
Why don't you talk to the administration at your hospital, and suggest that you become in charge of "garden therapy". Maybe they'd fund it...
it really does sound like a wonderful idea. I work in a cancer hospital and we always have dogs now for therapy. that's something they never would have done even a few years ago.seeing a dog walking around in a hospital, unless it was a guide dog, was a big 'NO-NO'. I'm sure we all know gardening is therapeutic. for lots of reasons.
Actually, there are studies about gardening being thereputic and patients who garden after and during cancer treatments are more likely to have a better end result, less sickness during chemo and I think higher white blood cell counts. I believe it was breast cancer survivors/patients and you might be able to google search it.
Susan, this is not out of the realm of possiblilty.
Suzy
In my previous life, before pumpkins, I was a psych RN as well and we had several therapeutic gardens for the patients. Those gardens well were loved and well tended by the patients. A few pts would come back to visit the remaining pts just to work and visit in the gardens as well. Can you believe we had a lovely gazebo, benches and picnic area for the pts and their visitors to enjoy as well. I could have learned alot from those gardens, but that was also pre gardening interest as well. Lincolnnitess, you would definitely make an excellent horticulture therapist!! ;0)
We do have a very nice, but small garden by the drug and alcohol tx center of the hospital that the patients take care of. They grew some nice tomatoes this summer. When I used to work in the child psych unit, I would bring some of the kids over to see my garden once and a while. Now rules have changed and the patients don't get to go on outings like they used to. I do think that when I retire, which won't be in too many years, I will talk to the administration about adding a few more gardens.
Lincoln~ don't tell me the policies have changed about taking children home? That was one if not the most favorite parts of my job. Children have a way with words, smiles and love when you spend time with them away from their stressors. I do understand about the potential for inappropriate behaviors from a few staff. However, there are many advantages for the children to enjoy outtings with trusted staff members that are rewarding, promotes healing and increased self- esteem,etc. Gardens are so therapeutic for just about everybody, the pts would benefit tremendously. The magic you would and could weave in their lives would be priceless! ;0)
Dave47...........I'm sure it is the same plant. I think I will end up moving mine. I had no idea what it was or how big it would get when I planted it last spring so I planted it in an empty spot in the front corner of the bed. If it was 5' to 6' in it's first year I can only imagine how tall it will be in the future. Looking at the photo I can see the leaves on mine are pointing north/south and east/west too. I never noticed that before. I cut the flower stems down soon after it finished blooming so I'm not too concerned about it spreading. I really liked the dark green foilage because nothing seemed to bother it. It was nice having something looking so pristine at a time of year when most everything else is looking a bit worse for wear.
Link here: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1068/index.html
early_bloomer
Cup plant and Compass plant are two different plants. The compass plant will follow the sun. Cup plants have large leaves that hold water, and small sunflower heads for their height. Mine were 10' tall and much as I liked them, I got them started down the gravel road and dug mine out. They also clumped pretty fast and reseeded. Aren't compass plant petals finer?
Everyone has such nice pictures. I think cottage gardens give more color and variety than any other garden.
Notmartha, your gardens have the best cottage feel and I just love the rest of your pictures.
This isn't very cottage, but I grew a few glads.
Billy, I did some checking on plantfilesand you are absolutely right. They are in the same family and genus (silphium) but are 2 different plants. Thanks for the clarification.
I have cup plant as does earlybloomer. Early, I do think they will mature around 10 feet.
I planted a lot of glads this year and hoped they would multiply. They multiplied but they are very small and I doubt very much if they will produce next year. Is this typical?
How big are they ? anything over 3/4" across will most likely bloom.
Bernie
When I bought them, I'm guessing they were 1 1/2" to 2". I might have 20 that came back that size out of 300. I have a lot of 3/4" size and a lot of them are smaller.
My thought was I'd have to buy more for a second season to get the larger size in order to get the large blooms and height I had this year. Plant the small ones from this year and if they produced fine, if they didn't, at least they would be larger for the following year.
Darrell, typically when I've grown glads the corms replace themselves with 1-3 corms of equal or greater size, + several babies. Since the size was reduced in yours I'm wondering if ammending your soil with bone meal (or some other bulb food) would help. Were they in full sun?
gemini sage,
I had them in huge black plastic pots, between 12 and 15 per pot. I had them almost touching each other in the pots.
I used ProMix BX and used liquid fertilizer every once in a while.
I'll bet you're right about the soil since ProMix has nothing in it and since I didn't really fertilize much during the growing season. They were huge though. Some of them grew 5 feet with big blossoms.
I think I'll go ahead and buy new ones for next year for cut flowers and of course grow the ones I dug up this fall. They're some pretty, aren't they?
Plant them in the ground. Those bulbs you dug will bloom & big. Bigger bulbs will give you 2 or 3 blooms per bulb, not bigger blooms. Also the earlier planted ones will grow extra bulbs, whereas later ones will only make one.
There were probably to many in a pot.
Bernie
Edit; These were small bulbs when planted.
This message was edited Dec 18, 2006 10:34 PM
Bernie,
I forgot about the planting time. I mean, the earlier planted bulbs will produce more bulbs than the ones planted later.
I planted them in groups. I planted 40 croms the first planting, in big tubs. (I started them inside) As weather permited, I planted more outside in tubs, and then planted the remaining croms in the garden.
The first ones I planted inside in tubs were the ones that had the larger croms when I dug them up.
I wanted to grow them like you do, that is, a ditch with a drip line, put the croms in, cover them, and as they start to grow, cover them and water them with the barried drip line. But I didn't.
I don't know how long to run the drip line or how often.
This past year was my first year with selling plants. I did ok. People don't know I'm here, but they are beginning to find me. Word of mouth sort of thing.
I don't know if you count when I had a table with vegetables out front a couple years ago as my first year or not. It was more to make a few dollars to cover my seed cost. This was my first year of actually selling things seriously.
It still amazes me that the stores in town are able to sell their product. The plants look sick, dried up, withered, droopy, and just plain not taken care of propperly.
I gave a lot of Glads away to various church's, especially my own church, next door to me.
I must be doing something right though. The Canadian Nursery Landscape Association contacted me last week and wanted me to become a member. I don't think I'm worthy to belong to such a group, but I'll join and probably feel intimidated. That group is for the hotsy totsy growers and I'm anything but hotsy totsy. Ha!
Very exciting Darrell! Congrats! and good luck in progressing with your operation. You've all convinced me to get in on the glad fun this year. They bring back childhood memories of when my mother grew a few and brought them in as cut flowers. I worked as a floral designer for 20 years (I quit in May), and I'm just now able to think of glads again as lovely garden flowers instead of funeral flowers.
Neal
We had around 6 or 8 girls buy them for part of their wedding flowers. Some for showers, some for grooms supper, & some for the ceremony.
That's pretty good with all the professional florists around!
The one I liked best was the old timer who stopped at least each week for some that he took to his wife in a nursing home. Must be love!
Bernie
gemini sage,
I worked with some great people who owned a glad farm and a florist shop. My first experience with ever making an arrangement was with white galds and it was for a funeral. Ha! Needless to say, my form was right but my arrangement wasn't quite the way it was done. :) With a little "professional" help, we managed to put it all together and I'll have to admit, it looked pretty good.
I think glads are "all that and a bag of chips." They have beautiful colours, they're tall and make a statement, and although they aren't fragrant, they make up for it with their "stand alone" ability.
Later on at the glad farm and the flower shop, I learned that the stems of glads can be used as "staws" for other flowers to get their water supply when making tall arrangements. I only wish I knew more. I'd really like to incorporate a bit of design work in with the plants. I have a good eye, but lack in other required area's. :)
You can't go wrong with glads. It's a "people pleaser" to be sure.