LOL-I hear ya there-I had a lady dmail me asking if I had any milkweed weeds that I could get seeds of for her-I almost fell off my chair laughing-said she used to live in MI and now is on the W coast and I guess they don't have them there-I don't even know what the heck they are!!LOL
Cottage Garden Seed Swap & Chat #14
I had a lady ask me for Spanish moss, last year. Around here you can't keep it out of the trees. I never heard back from her, but I was ready with a truckload if she needed it. lol
I tell ya-to each their own:)
We had storms yesterday and last night, I did manage to get a couple of flats of some red creeping phlox in the ground in the evening after the shade hit in my middle bed but OMG it was still so humid that I was sweating like a hog lol and it took me forever to get it done trying to pull the crabgrass that keeps wanting to come up and the violet bulbs that were hiding down in the ground what should have taken only about an half hour turned into two hours of planting so I didn't get anything else done before it was getting dark :( Today I plan on trying to get the remainder of my tall phlox in the ground they are really ready to get out of those cow pots and blooming and the kittens love the blooms how they bounce up and down when they try and grab them lol I'm giving up on my plants trying to keep them straight up, hoping I can finish that garden this year then next year the kittens will leave them alone? lol My candy lilies are starting to bloom from the swap that were candy liliy seeds instead of rocky mountain penstemon lol I have orange ones so far and I have planted some of them and yarrow on the back border of my middle bed trying to discourage the deer the candy lilies are suppose to be deer resistant, not sure about yarrow. I still have more CL and yarrow to plant, so many plants yet to get into the ground it's hard to decide which ones to do first lol
We have storms coming in again after lunch so I need to boot and scoot today lol I made a deadline of Aug. to quit planting and so want to keep that date but it sure feels like Aug. now so about the only time I'm planting now is just before and after it rains with a bunch of stinky misquito repellant lol
Suzy, I hope you didn't get too bad of storms last night it looked like it was worse in your area and the storms just kind of pooped out before they got here and Veronica too! It was nice of you all to share some of your rain with me this time though :)
I hope for next year my gardens look half as good as your alls this year, I'm really loving your pictures everyone! Well I'm on my way to the garden to get my hands dirty or muddy lol
Hey gang - no pics, no real updates either, it's been too hot to do much in my own yard once I'm done in others' yards. I'm loving the pics!!! A few comments on things that have been posted, sorry I can't remember who asked what:
1. - do you think using panty hose feet would work on salvia, etc., to catch seeds? I'm having a horrid time with a couple plants I really want seeds from.
2. - Husker red seeds - I've got a client with 5 very healthy Huskers, and that's where I have to go weed a veggie garden today. I'll see if those seeds are ready to gather :) She's the one who's growing heirlooms too, and has a couple of German Giant radishes that she let go to seed for me - the pods on those things are HUGE. I also gathered some purple osteosp. seeds from some plants that Lea gave me, so I'll have those for the swap.
3. - though she didn't ask me to, I got an email from Suzy and thought I'd update - her girls were in for the weekend :)
4.- The crystal palace lobelia - I had some that turned out to bloom white, but they didn't last long, and now all that's left are the blue ones.
OK, gotta go weed - hope y'all have a great day!
hi guys, I almost lost you :0 I guess this is my first post on the new thread
dryad, my lady in red salvia's just started blooming and I'm loving them!!!! They remind me of coral nymph, just in a cherry red; I always want to grow it now. I hope I can collect seeds; does it also self sow like the coral nymph does?
TCS, I just saw our huskers red is going to seed, I'll see if I can save some for you :) I've never collected seed from it before. I should, because it hasn't spread at all for me and I was hoping it would have.
lady in red salvia
seed pods on the canna indica "Indian Shot"
They never really grew that tall, is that typical for this canna?
Morning all!
Dryad, quite a good idea: panty hose feet for collecting seeds! Maybe you should wash them first, though, or else them salvia's will start to wilt right away......
BTW, I use panty hoses to secure young trees. And for cleaning the front window of the car. You see, they can be used for many things, which is good because I hate to WEAR them!
"All I did with that bed was get a load of pine mulch and dump it in the yard. I spread it out and it killed most of the grass. Then I just started planting my little plants in it,"
You answered the question I was going to ask......what was the material used in between the plants.....and spreading it out first is a good idea.
Von
Oops, hope you won't get mushrooms because of the pine bark! I got loads of them.....
Panty hose for the car windsheild??? Why is that & with or without fluid??
For getting the splashed insects off! Don't use fluids, though......
hmmm-I willl have to try that-I drive 45 miles to work each way every day and in the very early am B4 the sun rises and always heave a ton of Bugs on my windsheild and front of my car:)
Gee, my DH and I were just discussing how few bugs we get on our windshields now compared with 20 years ago. Don't know if it has more to do with car design or declining insect populations. . .
I love your pictures, tcs. Your gardens look beautiful - and very tidy too!
Car design-more box shaped cars get more guts, streamline design make em slide off more....
tidy -- wow... i see it as a hodge podge... but that is the effect i was looking for... i really do love it though.
'lotta hard work finally paying off.
i wont be home until the First, so i'm again, missing many of the blooms.
I'll take more photos when i can.
tcs, I like 'hodge podge' that's the way my gardens are looking, as long as they are full :) I'm trying to fill up my middle bed today we're getting a rain in the morning so I'm a planting fool again today. It's a shame you are missing all of your blooms, that the way I feel with the camera I want pictures so bad and it's just not working out that way at least you can take pictures, maybe your neighbor will take pictures so you can see your blooms lol
I'm planting my iron weed (3) that I got in the swap today and the wild hellium (4), Fairy's campanula (3) that I got from her coop and bergina (2), my red rocks (4) that I got from the swap too and I have two plants of it that are getting ready to show me blooms if the kittens don't knock the blooms off the plants are about 10" tall just their size so they like batting the plant around lol I planted four of the rustic colors rudbeckia and so far only one is like it's suppose to be so per Suzy I guess I will take the other three away :( I have one more seedling in a pot that looks like it's going to be rustic colors so it will go in the other three's place, wish I would have ended up with a couple more of them, darn that Suzy telling us to ditch the ones that don't turn out right lol I keep hearing her in the back of my mind, she needs to stop by and say hi!!
Yay me I took a few pictures today.
For those of you who took part in Suzy's Broken Colors experment I ended up with 2 distintly different colors on my plant. Here is one:
And here is the other. It's a beautiful fuschia rimmed with just a little orange.
And it is planted right beside my hugemongo mystery datura.
Another seed I got in the swap was this castor bean.
The Castor Beans are in my "tropical bed." There's not much else blooming yet, but while I was back there I took a broader picture. I think it will be gorgeous in a few more weeks.
I think I have to dig up my two daturas and move them to more sun. They are a weeny 4" tall.
I like the broken colors :)
I planted the one seed I got ~ it is still pretty small too, but we just got a nice rain and I'm hoping now it will take off. I'll post a photo as soon as I get a bloom :)
Oh, I love the "Broken Colours," Lala_Jane!
My Broken Colors bloomed this year too... in a place i had yellow this year... i have no idea how the "BC" got there.
I have yet to find Lime Light or the Whites .... I have found that most of the seeds i attempted to germinate, did not.
La how tall are the 4 o'clocks in the first picture, Suzy and I went in on some red and yellow marbles like that and they are only about two feet tall, they aren't standing up I need to stake them, not sure why they won't stand up, they went down in a hard rain we had maybe I should have planted them closer together? This was the first time I've tried 4 o'clocks.
I still have some grape 4 o'clocks trying to germinate them lol And those castor bean plants are really pretty aren't they!
Your mystery plant datura looks like Inoxia, is it white? The leaves on those are a soft green and the leaves are different from the regular daturas, not sooth, they are velvety like.
Hi everyone I just wanted to share that my PAw Paw seeds sprouted. I have them in baggies and had forgotten about them, so I am going to get them in pots today. Thank you Starlight!
Ohhhh Tuink? My little corncockle-girl-in-Suzy's-absence? I can't take it, they've got to go. They're just too brown and ugly now. But I'd like to save some seeds and don't know if they're mature enough. The outer part is quite brown but the pod is still green. Can I save a few pods and let them dry off the stem?
Lea I would guess my 4'oclocks to be about the same height as yours. This is my first year with them too so I just figured that was average? They're not standing up like soldiers, but they're upright enough that they don't need staking. The grape really sounds pretty. Get that camara working girl!
That datura on the other hand is snaking around the deck. I think it would be about 5'tall if it was standing erect. (And yes, it's white.)
La, I just got another space to plant and have been busy with that today lol If I would quit planting I would have time to do my camera now it's seed collecting time and I'm cleaning them at night so no time there either lol That poor camera always gets put on the back burner but plants being put in the ground has to come first I still have vioets that I'm trying to get out of my middle bed too! I'll be working on those this evening if it's half way cool outside the part I have left is such a mess and right in the middle of a bed about 100' long at least :)
My neighbor has 4 O'Clocks and hers are about 5' tall, they are old ones she's had them forever, so I just figured they all got that tall I couldn't believe the package said the marble ones would get 2' tall but I guess it's true :)
My Inoxia gets about 5' and it's perennial for me too, I've had one in my middle garden for quite a few years and one out front that keeps coming back and I keep cutting it down because it shades too much in that bed, but I love that datura it smells wonderful and it's great for a moon garden :)
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/355/
Lea -- high winds and rain will bring down 4-O'Cs. I either cut back those branches, as you will get many more to grow, or stake them up. Mine range from 2-3 feet, and just as wide. If they are more 'protected', as by the foundation, the root will survive the winters and come back every year... then it will be hard to get rid of if you no longer want it there.
Once you get just one established, you will have hundreds of babies the next year, and every year after.
5' high 4'oclocks sound really interesting! I can't even imagine it, ours only get a few feet tall. The spot I put them is a bit dry and they are not too happy about that, but I did notice a bud on Suzy's little red snaps starting :)
TCS, I picked some seeds of the husker red for you this morning. Also, LeBug, your tropical milkweed just started blooming today :)))
I tossed the unsprouted dirt from a few more ws pots this am to try and "clean up" around here. I do still have a lot of pots, I'd like to convince myself it has gotten manageable now.
The amaranth's I got from Ansonfan's seeds (I think) sprouted great, but then I must have waited too long and they didn't take when I finally got them in the ground :( I'll have to see if I have any seeds left and try again next season on those.
Have a nice weekend everyone :)
Hey there - you know, I don't know if Lady in Red salvia will self-seed like Coral Nymph. Having said that, I had a massive Coral Nymph last year and it didn't reseed at all. Silly me, I didn't try to get any seeds from it so I ended up buying more. (I've got a lot of that and the Lady in Red - so don't worry if you don't get seeds from yours, I should have some for the next swap.)
I read yesterday that some entomologists believe that we're seeing fewer bugs in the Midwest U.S. (like Jap Beetles and hornworms and such) because a lot of them drowned in the spring rains. Apparently the timing was perfect to kill them as they were emerging and before they'd morphed to their next phase. They think the drop in population will continue into next year as well!
Anyway - just stopped by to say Hi :) Really nice weather a couple days ago, but back to hot and muggy. And thanks very much Tuink for the other ideas on panty hose - I'm gonna keep a couple footies in the car for the windshield! I'll let you know how it goes with seed collecting - LOL!
I noticed that last year I had a butt load of Jap beetles and this year I have killed 4....that's it-I have been sooooooo happy about that:)
My lady in red started opeingin yest and is fully open today!! She is beautiful and will grace my garden every year from now on!!!
Fairy - LOL - I JUST now noticed you'd changed your location! Did you have trouble getting a zip code assigned?
no-if you look in the exchange it is the correct one and in my preferences screen Temperance is after my "real name"-that is what others are doing....I wanted to be special-like little yellow school bus special;)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Robin! No work in the garden today for you just enjoy what you have done, do you have lots of pretty flowers smiling at you today?
I haven't noticed that we have fewer insects but I have noticed a big drop in the butterfly population, I have all kinds of host plants and nothing is eating them :( I did see a cat on some queen's lace in the field so I went to every plant before I cut grass and checked for eggs on the leaves lol I haven't cut grass for about three weeks my lawn mower has been broken I almost got done yesterday and it broke again! I've only seen three monarch cats this year I wasn't about to cut those down.
Wind my tropical milkweeds are blooming that were suppose to be my orange milkweeds lol Not that anything is going to use them this year lol I miss my butterflies! My Vernonia fasciculata/iron weed is starting to bloom too, thank you very much :) I've had more milkweeds reseeding this year from last year too, that's a first for me. I've transplanted a few of them in the host garden and some I'm just letting them come up where they are in my middle bed right by my host garden.
I got my first ripe tomato yesterday, I have one plant that is so loaded with tomatoes that really I need to take a few off lol My tomatoes have done better this year than ever before for some reason :) I wish I knew which plant it was, I didn't bother keeping the labels on them cause I can never get to them after the plants fill out anyway lol
Fairy, we know you are the bestest Fairy of them all 8)
~HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Dryad~
Enjoy your day. : )
Lucy
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DRYAD :)
Happy Bday Robin:)
I have had a TON of bumbles this year and a few butters...
