Night Sis, stay warm! Enjoy that hot toddy for me, too wouldya! :)
February,still cold with lots of snow!!!
Nite Sweet Ones! Electric blanket's set....bed's calling!
Nighty night, Jaye!
Yep had ice pellets everywhere this morning,roads were slick,this stuff you couldn't scrape it off the windshield,almost like it was part of it!!!LOL
Would have been on here sooner but had to run to Derby,Ks,to our cpa,and sign papers so they could e-file.
Robyn where does your sis live?
Every bodys welcome to come visit anytime.surely I can find some work while your visiting!!!LOL
You all can always send me a text message at 316-312-0793.
Just heard on the weather chance for snow Valentine day,and into Friday!
They said we have already had over 22inches of snow so far,don't think that counts the 2 or 3 inches of ice we've had too!!!
WORK....that's a four letter word!! Now you all know how I feel about four letter words, being a Christian!!!
Lolol....glad to see you Don...now for sure I am going straight to bed!
Nite nite again!
Late to the party - as usual! Glad to hear everyone is ok, take care of yourselves, spring is just round the corner, and think how wonderful it's going to be!
Warmest aloha
J
Jen,is there a natural burst of spring blooming colors in Hawaii,that actually feel like spring has arrived in Hawaii????
Like here you have the bushes and trees burst into flowers and not counting the tulips and daffys,I guess I'm asking to you feel the transition from winter to spring?
Glad everyone is ok so far. Don't want to rub it in but will be leaving tomorrow for Jenny's for a week. Will miss this blast of winter. YAY! Your storm came in our back door this morning around 4 AM. Dropped the temp about 20 degrees almost all at once, 1/2 inch of rain in about half an hour. Tremendous electrical storm...too early for that...should be much later in the year. We really needed the rain. Last week wild fires were everywhere.
Poor Chrissy. We had the weeks and weeks of rain last Spring/Summer. Lost more than half of our plants because they literally drowned. The rain this morning helped settle the 8 yds of soil we added last week.
Today is pack the suitcase day!!! very lightly.
YIPPEEEEEEE You are headed to Hawaii! The day finally has come! Now don't go off and forget all of us, ya hear! :)
No Don, we really don't have that glorious burst of new life that you have in the Spring, things are pretty much the same year round. There are subtle differences, our evening temps are lower, sometimes into the high 60's - brrr, have to wear a sweater if we go out after sunset! The trees here seem to drop some of their old leaves and the same time new ones are growing which is very weird. Winter is our time for rain if we are going to get any on my side of the island, although it so much depends on where you are in the islands, ask Carol - she has been waterlogged!
Up country at the higher elevations has much more of a Spring and they can grow some of the things that need a chilling factor, although it never gets really cold up there either - for instance I have never seen daffs or things like that that need a good long winter sleep. I am at sea level (well, maybe 100 feet above, hopefully just out of the reach of a tsunami), but even with only a 10 degree difference between summer and winter the plants seem to appreciate the cooler nights. Funnily enough here in Kihei you don't see that many annuals and such, it is mostly vividly colored bush type plants such as bougies, hibiscus, rampant flowering vines, etc. I have yet to see anything like a cottage garden anywhere. I am not sure if that is because of local preference or because it is just so much easier to have plants that don't need any care except constant trimming back to size. Somehow the flower colors are not even pale and delicate...
I envy you that wonderful feeling when you look out of the window every morning to see if the snowdrops are up or if the forsythia has buds starting and everything is waking up from a long winters sleep. It is such an exciting time of year. I shall just have to live vicariously through you guys posting pictures for that!
Forgot to mention that the weeds LOVE the cooler temps!
Have a lovely day everyone!
Jen,you say weeds,you have dandelions?
Give us mainlanders a hint of what weeds you have there,that we might not have here!!!!
You mention annuals,with a temperatures like yours wouldn't annuals be perrinerals?
LOL. For alot of people dandelions aren't weeds since they are edible. My weed is thistle. Hate that nasrty painful stuff.
Hmmm....vincas are treated as annuals here. Back home they're weeds to us.
So, one man's weeds, another's exotics?
Jaye,how hard is not to kill vincas now????LOL
Aloha, the biggest weed I have here is grass. I am not sure of the type of grass it is, but it's a Hawaiian grass that takes advantage of the wet season and sprouts and goes to seed very quickly in order to spread it's seed around before the dry weather sets in again. I'll bet Carol knows the name..
My biggest menace are trees. We have a tough time with African Tulip tree, orchid tree, Kiawe, monkey pod tree, golden shower trees, etc, etc. A lot of our trees have long seed pods on them which contain hundreds of very viable seeds. Palms are also a nuisance. Passion fruit and guava come up everywhere if given half a chance, and I expect this might be just the tip of the iceberg - I rather think I shall have trouble with starfruit and mangos once I have my watering system in (after the hole in the ground).
Vines get out of hand very quickly and go for miles! A neighbor of mine has a blue Thumbergia(sp?) that runs down the whole of his side fence which encompases his 1/2 acre and is now climbing up the trees at the end of the property. It's very pretty but an awful entangled mess which is slowly strangling everything in it's path. I think its a sad sight.
As Jaye said, vinca is a weed, it is everywhere!
Most of the usual annuals such as marigold still stay annuals in that they bloom, seed and die after they have done their job in life. Impatients tend to be a short lived perennial though, in some of the wetter, more shady areas. As we have no cold weather there is no such thing as a half hardy plant.
I think the thing that is the hardest to understand about the tropics is that everything grows to enormous size. We have become very handy with a chain saw - Hibiscus are not cute little bushes here they are TREES, and grow very quickly! Have you ever seen a coleus that is a bush 6 feet high? Sweet little houseplants become rivers of vegetation in short order threatening everything in their path. Some people grow rubber plants in their homes, my neighbor has finally managed to kill her 60 foot monster that was growing beside her cottage and severely damaging her shake roof!
I am sure for each of my horror stories of monster plants Carol will have ten times as many because she lives in a wetter area than I do, and has much more rampant growth - I hope she chimes in to give you the low down as she knows so much more than I.
It's a tough life, but someone has to do it!
Oh my,I would have never thought of such horrors,but I can see everything going wild,because you have no cold weather to slow anything down.
I bet the vines grow rampant everywhere,for just 6 months here they grow more than I can keep up with,so you would pretty much have to be careful what you do plant.
Well isn't today the day Christi should be living the good life!!!LOL
I do hope she gets lots of pictures for us all to enjoy!!!!
Who would ever thought the trees,I'd die for would or could be a pest anywhere!
Right now,I'm battling scale and mealy bugs,on a lot of plants,it always seems to come,right when the winter is sort of winding down,I use to feel I get to rest a little during the winter months,but this year seems to have been the opposite,wife said well you got 3 times the plants inside than you use to have,and she's right,I just can't give enough away in the fall,and the plants keep getting bigger and taking up more room,getting a lot heavier to lift,
well better get my butt ready for work!!!!LOL
WOW, Jen, I wouldn't have thought you all would have all those "Tropical" problems either! I guess it isn't all glory over there, huh?!!! I couldn't imagine a 6 foot Coleus bush, either!!!
Robin, sounds to me like you and your Sis need to go save Don from his plants, and QUICK! HA HA HA
How about this problem...bananas! I have these in the kitchen ripening fast. Going to take them down to the elderly care center this morning to get rid of them..
WOW, it is amazing how that stalk can hold so much weight! And that is a great idea to take them down to the elderly!!!
Hi everyone. Wow Jen...so interesting to know about your plants there. Ohh....and wanted to tell you...I have those same little angels that you have in your window!!! I put mine out in the garden every summer.
I would love to see a 6ft. coleus!!! Still don't have my puter back :(....so this will be short.
Don...was going to say something about the bugs...but I won't....for fear they will come here!!!! LOL!!
The elderly now have their bags packed and are looking for the map to the parking area of DFW...spend a lot of time looking for lost items.
LouC and Mike
LOL Lou!!! Bon voyage!!!!! Have a wonderful and safe trip!!! And take lots of pictures for us that are deprived!!!!
Have a wonderful trip Christi! What a blessing!! I'll pray for a safe journey for you and Mike too.
YAY Christi, the time has come! Have a safe trip, but I won't say hurry back cause I know you won't want to! :)
I'll say it hurry back!!!LOL
Or better yet take me with you!!!!LOL
I'll fit in your overnite bag!!!!LOL
And I'll sleep all the way there,notice I didn;t say there and back!!!LOL
Ok, I am ready Robin, how bout you? Wait, if we bring you, do we get your plants, too?! HA HA HA Well, we bring Don and he can teach us how to take care of all of them! HE HE HE
Ah! I just got a visual...Don in a grass skirt!! Oh no!!!!
You all go and I'll haul a semi over to Don's green houses.
Oh, forget about Jaye, lets go girl! :)
B.H. Mom-
How are ya?
I know what you mean about vines, even here they can go mad. My favorite is theOrange Clock Vine Thumbergia, the one that's pure day-glo orange without the black throat. Mine grew 20' over the fence and along 2 sides of the neighbors fence. Then the monster of all, the Lilikoi (the fruiting type) vine. They warn you about these in Sunset Western Garden Book.
That thing grew over 5 ' tall and along a FORTY FEET FENCE IN ONE YEAR!
The people across the street and nextstore are from Hawaii and loved the fruit. Then I got a knock at the door, and a older couple from HI wanted to know if they could pick some (there were prob 300 of them). I said sure ( A LOT of people from HI live here). A few days later I opened the door and there was a big jar of Passion fruit Jam they made.
pretty cool. From the internet-
"Vines: Orange Clock Vine Thunbergia gregorii
FAMILY: ACANTHACEAE (Acanthus Family)
Gorilla Tropics at the San Diego Zoo has an especially exuberant example of the orange clock vine Thunbergia gregorii. When you walk past the vigorously cascading twiner, you can easily imagine that you've stepped into the tropics of Africa, where it makes its home.
La,you got any pics of the fruit,guess mine never grew long enough to get any fruit!!!
Might to get it again and make it a greenhouse plant!
Yeah right girls grass skirt and a couple of coconuts half shells!!!LOL
You girls can take his plants....I'll take his greenhouses!!!!
NO Marcy, we gotta take the green houses, too! :) Gotta have a place to put all those lovely plants ya know. :)
Lets get together and get him his Hula Skirt and Coconuts and take a collection for him to take his trip! HA HA HA
But Tammy....YOU have a greenhouse....I don't!!!!!! Don't be stingy!!!! And if I take up a collection to take a trip...I get to go too!!!!!!
HA HA HA Marcy! Ok, I will share, but you know, he does have more than one! TEE HEE
Yep...I know that. And don't you too???? So don't be stingy!! LOL!!
Soooooo that would make you have 8? ;~)
I have one in use, but the other is storage right now, so there! HA HA HA
We will combine them to make one in the Spring, then DH is giving me the wood shop. SOOOOOOOOOO I suppose I will share! LOL
Well..you are just a lucky little girl...hubby giving you the wood shop!!! Yeahhhh.....I can just see MY hubby doing that!!!!
NOT!!! But then...I don't want it anyway....not enough light in it for me. Besides...it's a block bldg....and veryyy cold!!!!
Is that your final answer? Ha Ha Ha!!!
Hello Everyone :*)