Picture of the Day - Part 4

A few blueberries, more than I usually get, but the birds will surely eat them before I get a chance to pick any of them when they are ripe.,

Jeremy

Plumeria pudica - a 5 ft tall shrub before the winter freezes, now a determined single little branch at the root crown at soil level.

Jeremy

Thanks, Kat.

The cactus was almost gone, but for some reason it picked up it's head and now on the trellis, it going great guns. According to the PF, it is suppose to flower, but after checking it almost daily, the flowers never came or were missed. The coleus is all over the yard and just about the favorite plant.

Hap

Here's one..

Jeremy The flower was on the size of the road, in the kill zone. I save a couple, pieces hoping they will root.

AS on the green tomatoes. First dip them in a milk and egg mix and then the flour mix before frying.

Sandy

I wish I had some of that Passiflora 'incense'. I would love a butterfly plant like that. Where did you get it? I have Dutchman's Pipevine, but it is a small young plant. I grow lots of Milkweed.

I got my Passiflora 'incense' when I was working for a friend a few years ago that has a landscaping business. One of the jobs he got was to clear a residence of the overgrowth of P. 'incense' in the backyard (it had engulfed everything) and replant the yard. I brought home one or two of the passion vines and planted them by a fence in my back yard. I should have known better, but I thought I would be able to keep them under control. I now have hundreds of the vines popping up all along the root system which now spreads more than 50 ft from the original parent plants. They are a great source of caterpillar food, but I wouldn't recommend planting them in the ground -- but they can be grown in a pot with a large trellis. Send me a D-mail reminder, Starsplitter, and I will put you on the list to receive some P. 'incense' when I can finally get around to mailing plants. There will always be plenty of it here to gladly share. LOL

Jeremy

getting toooooooooooo long!!!!!!!!

well, do something ....!

Well if y'all will hang in there I will crawl over and fix a new one

Ok join me over here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/988612/

Ok, I know you guys moved but I love these turtle pictures! Very clever Sandy!

Thank you

Hey Dale, You seem to be the coleus king around here, I just planted some around the heighbors oak tree, to cover some root areas where the grass doesn't grow well. P.H. is around 6.75. Is there any special fert. or stuff I need to get them going good? There is shade all day and stays moist most of the time.

Welcome, GoodGreen! Glad you made the post. I will let Dale give the expert advice on coleus, but some caution should be used in adding any soil (or even heavy mulch) around the oak tree exposed roots as it can sometimes lead to disease in the roots that could potentially kill the tree. If the coleus are planted between the roots without adding any extra soil, that should be fine. Coleus have very minimal, shallow roots so they should grow fairly well in whatever soil is already present.

Jeremy

Thanks Jer, I just planted them between the roots,(and that was a job in itself), and didn't put anything on the soil around them. I planted a bunch of them, about 40, in a circle about 3 feet out from the tree. I figured if they are close together they will overlap and cover the ground completely. The ground there has been bare for a long time. Grass grows from about 3 feet out and beyond.

Sounds like a great planting, goodgreen! Photos, please! LOL

Jeremy

Hey Jeremy, I hear your a M.G.!! I'am seriously considering taking the classes this fall at our locale ag. center. I'm also going to buy a small lawn service the end of this year from the old guy down the street. (not that i'm that young), as sort of a semi-retirement job. Is it true that you have to be "elected" by the other M.G's to get in?

Hi, GoodGreen. Yes, I am a "Master Gardener" --- sort of like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, all it takes is a certificate to make you think that you have a brain and some knowledge. LOL The Master Gardener program requirements vary from county to county in Florida. We don't have any requirement in Duval County for other MGs to select future MGs, but there are typically more applicants than the approx. 25 vacant slots in the classroom. You would need to check with your local Extension Office to find out when the courses are offered. In Duval (combined with two other neighboring counties), the classes are only available weekdays during usual business hours (Wednesdays from 9 AM - 1 PM for about 12 weeks), which means that only retired people or those with a job with flexible hours are able to participate. There is a lot of information thrown at you very quickly. The training seems to be mostly aimed at providing some familiarization with most ever aspect of residential landscapes so that the MG will know where to look for answers to questions. From my very cynical, slanted viewpoint, I'm not sure if the MG designation is more of a privilege or a penance. The training certainly does provide a good overview of just about every aspect of gardening, but the requirement for volunteer hours (75 the first year and 35 thereafter, with 10 hours of continuing education each year) can take time away from what I truly want to be doing in any spare time -- taking care of my own garden. So, the two main traits for any MG candidate, I think, would be a desire to have a general knowledge of all aspects of home gardening and a desire to serve the community at large. Depending on your county, there will be specified opportunities within some limited categories to attain volunteer hours. I've found my niche in the system by doing talks on gardening topics to local community groups and garden circles,. as well as a few other activities like being one of the MG volunteers to staff information tables/plant clinics.

You mentioned you are planning to go into the the lawn care business. You will not be allowed to advertise your Master Gardener designation in any of your business activities, other than to place the information on a resume or otherwise use it when applying for a job. The MG designation can only be used when doing volunteer service. Your MG designation is also specific to your county. If you move to another area (especially out of state), you may be required to complete some or all of the training to be a MG in a different county.

I hope I haven't dissuaded you from pursuing the MG certification. It is a very worthwhile program with an opportunity to interface with other avid gardeners in your area and do a lot of good for your community. I just like to provide a tinge of the reality of what the MG designation actually involves.

If you are interested in pursuing the MG designation, you should contact your local Extension Office as soon as possible to get on the list of interested persons. Our training here begins in September, if I recall correctly, and goes through to mid-December. There are typically about 100 applicants for 25 available slots. Here, we had an entrance interview with the county Extension Office agents prior to being accepted into the program, but that may vary from county to county. The final exam for the course also varies around the different programs in Florida. We had an open book exam here that was the same exam we were given the first day of class to ascertain our general knowledge prior to the coursework, but the test procedures are more stringent in other counties.

I am also a Certified Horticultural Professional as a result of a test I passed that is administered by the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscapers Association (FNGLA). That test is far more difficult than the MG test, but it does provide a certification that can be advertised and is more recognized within the horticultural industry for people that want to pursue gardening or landscaping as a career. It requires one year of work experience with an FNGLA member organization which I attained by working at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens Horticulture Department for about 18 months.

I hope this info helps!

Here is a photo of Sweet Almond Bush, Aloysia virgata http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/59091/ Very fragrant and both heat tolerant and cold hardy in our area. It is a very leggy shrub that requires pruning to keep it within about a 6 - 8 ft high range.

Jeremy

One of my water loving hibiscus

Sandy

Hey Jeremy, I've already talked to the ext. agent in my county, who said about the same thing you did. My only concern is the voluteer hours. I wonder if I could set up a web-site in my own home to answer questions from people who write in? Down here we have to volunteer 100 hrs. a year, but thats only a couple hours a week. I guess I should ask the agent, huh?

Yes, do check what your local county agent will accept as volunteer hours. They may have a list of approved activities like we have in my county. You can get a lot of hours by answering the phone at the Extension Office and taking questions from the public, but I know that our local agent will not accept hours we provide outside of events/activities coordinated through the Extension Office (for instance, I can't count my countless hours on DG which I spend providing far too much advice on topics I generally know nothing about LOL). Our local agent/coordinator for MG volunteer hours is very stringent in what is allowable - she doesn't want the MGs to do any "hands on" work of actually assisting with garden installations or maintenance, etc., even if they are public gardens (with a few exceptions, like doing grunt work at the Extension Office gardens) and doesn't really allow MGs to create their own initiatives for volunteer hours. When I was getting hundreds of distressed plants per week from the Lowe's cull pack deals, then rehabilitating the plants and providing them free to public schools, nursing homes, senior centers, etc., I wasn't allowed to count the hours spent in that activity.

I am comfortable doing public presentations as a result of my former career in acting, so I tend to get my required hours by speaking to local groups. Likewise, you will probably find your own niche in the system where you can amass the required volunteer hours in a task you enjoy.

Here's a photo of one of my Phalenopsis orchids that looks like it is trying to bloom itself to death. About 30 flowers at once! Oddly, it suffered a little bit of low temperatures this winter because it was hanging right at the top of the greenhouse translucent plastic panels and the cold settled down through the roof and blasted a few buds on this orchid. The brush with a near death experience, though, seems to have inspired it to go crazy with flowering.

Jeremy

That plal is beautiful, Jeremy.

BTW.

Today is Jeremy's birthday.

A Happy 1 to you. (Pun intended.)


Nancy

Jeremy is that Sweet Almond one of yours? It was my 3xGr-grandmother's favorite flower. Someone planted it by her grave. Since its hardy here I think I'll have to have one of those.

Darla

Hey Jeremy, Don't want to take up a lot of time on this thread about m.g. stuff, as I'm sure people have a lot of other stuff to show or ask about, but I think you've talked me out of the m.g. thing. My county agent has steered me in the past to web-sites put out by U of F in which there is gobs of things to read about conserning horticulture and its all for free. That plus finding D.G. two weeks ago and talking to people like you who know tons more than I do, leads me to the fact that I can learn as fast as I can sit down and read. Lastly, I value me free time almost as much as I value my wife. I think for now I'll just sit back and learn, and wait till the guy down the street is ready to sell his small lawn service. On another note, I've got gobs of pictures and "what the heck is that??", stuff I'll be sending out as soon as I learn how to down-load them off my camera, as I am digitally challenged.

GG,

You will be better off putting the 'what the hecks' on the ID form than here.

Welcome to our family.

Hap

Thanks Hap, I just learned something else.

Come over to the here. this is where we chit chat we will be glad to have you join us.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/993827/

Well, if I saved one more person from a life of indentured servitude as a Master Gardener, I will take some comfort in that. LOL Other MGs have a much less cynical outlook than I do and you may want to scan through the posts in the DG Master Gardener's Forum http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/mg/all/ before you positively decide not to pursue it, or there have been some excellent DG articles about positive experiences from other Master Gardeners that might sway your opinion.

Here's one of my Brugmansia (Angel Trumpets) that I got from MistressGardener when she gave up the garden at her former home. They responded nicely to the winter protection of twinkle lights and frost cloth, so I had some 3 ft high bushes with leaves still remaining on them when the warm weather returned. I think they will be MASSIVE bushes before the end of this season (time to hit the thrift shops and yard sales for a whole lot more twinkle lights!! LOL)

Jeremy

new thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/988612/#new

Darla - I am very glad to share some of the Aloysia virgata. I think it will root fairly easily (and I may have rooted it before but don't remember). I'll get some started for you.

I have a Philadelphius coronarium (English Dogwood) rooted for you? or was it someone else? I started it a few months ago and recently found it amongst my propagation experiments. Fortunately, I labeled it because I might not have recognized the leaves away from the parent plant. You can come by anytime for it and other plants.

Jeremy

Yes Jeremy I love an Aloysia vergata and the Philadelphius coronarium (say that 10 times real fast)

Sandy have you noticed Jeremy doesn't take direction to a new thread really quickly! lol

Darla

Yes I have!! You think his head is to full of wonderful plant info?

Sandy

Oh I"m sure of that!