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UPDATE: mnf July swap: letting freedom ring (part 2)
Here's our 2nd thread since the first one is just about full. I'll go back there and close it out in a few minutes. Meanwhile, use this thread to keep the conversation going...
First, the usual rules:
You must be at least 18, a trader in good standing, and wish to have a fun time.
Secondly, dates to remember:
July 8th: Last Day to Sign-Up
July 9-10: Choosing of Partners by Players
July 18: Send by day, NO EXCEPTIONS
What You'll Be Sending:
At least 5 different types of perennials
1 item that'll make noise in the garden, possibly bells or windchimes. Get creative.
One issue of your local newspaper.
NO cuttings (they tend to not travel well in the heat)
Seeds are optional, but don't count towards your 5 perennials
General stuff: This group is about making new friends, and as an old member I can vouch for the group. I've made some great lifetime friends by participating in these swaps, and want to encourage any and all who'd like to participate to join in!
The idea behind the newspaper is that it would be great to see what is happening locally for the person who sent you your box.
The idea behind the 5 types of perennials is that it's always nice to share our gardens with someone who will appreciate it. (Remember, send multiple plants if possible of each type so they can be established in their new home.)
One of our basic freedoms which we all enjoy is the Freedom of Speech. So, this time around, I'm going to do more than just encourage you all to talk...lol! After all, the more we each talk on these threads, the better everyone gets to know us, right?
When you decide to sign up for this swap, I'd like you to each e-mail me with your address AND a list of the plants you'll be putting in your box. It doesn't have to be a final list, just a few names of some of the plants you'll be sending will do.
Then post, talk on the thread, post some more, and when you've run out of things to say, get creative and talk some more!
On the morning of July 9th, I will post a list of the boxes and their contents, but not who is sending them. Sort of like the old lunchbox social idea. I will also post a list of everyone playing, in the order they get to choose from the boxes which are available. And how will I be deciding that order, you ask? Lol, this is where your posting is going to help you. The more you talk/post on this thread (and any further ones if need be), the sooner you get to choose which box you want sent to you! The gabbiest person gets first choice, the second gabbiest gets to choose second, and so on until all the boxes have been chosen. If there is a tie, say 3 people have 9 posts each, then it'll come down to the order in which they joined this swap.
So, join the swap, take a walk through your garden and decide what you'd like to include in the box you send, send me that e-mail by the night of July 8th, and GET TALKING!!! (if there needs to be any judgement calls about number of postings versus length of postings, Bump and Stella will be called upon as judges. And since I have to live with them, their decisions will be final.)
Well...I'm confused....
should we post here??
I'm going to miss this swap! I wish these dadgum #*$#&@ temps would act their season! Sheesh! We don't usually get the 100's until late July & August. I've lost several of my iris this past week, and those daylilies & iris that I moved are struggling. *sigh* I should've known better!!
I was a little nervous about posting at the right place, especially when Dan started throwing around the threats. Looks like I found the right place.
Bunny, sorry you had to back out. I am a little concerned about the weather and what it might be like when the swap is in full swing. I would hate to deliver or have delivered a box of dried flowers rather than live, healthy ones. If anyone is unsure of how to send plants, please ask for help.
Cryptid, it is wonderful to see how proud of your wife you are. It is nice to be crafty. I love to make jewelry and have a whole secretary desk full of beads and supplies. (Oh wait, it shares with my seed/swap supplies). Nonetheless, I never seem to find time to make the things I would like to. I found myself buying earrings the other day and then kicked myself knowing I could easily make a pair. No wait, dozens of them. I keep telling myself I will make some time just for crafting and then never do it.
Worked 10-6 today and started counting things for our inventory. It is a small shop with no computer so it is done old school. Anyway, the owner called and apparently suffered a detached retina and needed surgery right away. She won't be in tomorrow so inventory will take longer than normal now. The air conditioning it awful so it is too hot as well. Long week for me. :0
Stay cool all, Margo
Hi Everyone! got my weeding done for the day-somehow I'm back on schedule-did the front, it's the easiest.
Found and ordered more Hummingbird Haven seed mix. Got a package of them in a swap, and they turned out to be some of the prettiest flowers I have blooming right now!
The guys who pick up our trash look like NFL linebackers-I, on the other hand, weigh 120 on a good day. If I can drag that trash can out there, don't you think they could lift it to empty it?
It was too heavy. Oh Please.
The Russian Sage really looks like crap, tied back like that. Need to find an answer for that problem.
The asters that some critter nibbled on are coming back. So are the 4 o'clocks that got weedwacked!
Took a day trip back to PA yesterday, to take the heavier stuff for my brother's yard sale. Nice visit with my brothers. My SIL and I spent time in her flower gardens, and she cooked all the things I like that she cooks-did I say that right? I was really tired tho when I got home, it's a 4 hour trip each way.
Alana-good news about the little one. It's always scary when they are sick.
Bunny-Shoot, I'll miss you, check back in often, okay?
Still tired, early bedtime tonight!
Good Morning All! It is really a pretty day here (sorry, Alana!) thought we were going to get some rain last night, but ended up watering.
I have every intention of weeding the kitchen bed today, hopefully it will happen!
Got some seeds from a website in the UK-hardy geraniums, peach colored jacob's ladder, oranges and lemons columbine, penstemon husker red, potentilla (free pack), and an agastache cana, which I am hoping is the same agastache cana I have out front-really pretty rose color, and blooms forever!
Some of these need to be WSed, but would like to try to get rest planted today, so that they have good root systems developed by fall, so I can put them in the ground-nothing like a mile long sentence!
Hey, have a great day!
Hello to the new thread and to everyone here! And hi, Linda!
Sorry to hear that Bunny will be dropping out. Darn weather variation!
Grace: OTOH = On The Other Hand. Also, I'd totally plan to add in the bonus plant if it's ready, if you're not sure about it.
Happy birthday, Kamil!
Mmm. I clearly need more food.
Oh, if anyone here knows hosta, could you check out this for me?
Happy 17th B-Day, Kamil! Hope you had a great day!
Wisp-Loved the hosta pics-looked like a little dog's tooth violet in one of them too! Would love to see more!
Got the "daily" weeding done, and planted the hardy geranium seeds-got what I think was a great deal on these plants-$4 a pack, with 15-18 seeds in each pack. If they all germinate I'm in trouble!
Got Phaeum, Albanum, and Macrorrhyzum Album!
We've had really high winds here today-not sure what that is going to bring-the sky is totally clear.
Food, I need food!
I have had a hard time keeping up here since I was out of town over the weekend and I am up to my eyeballs in last minute details for my daugter's wedding.
Happy birthday Kamil. 17 is a special age, enjoy!
Alana, hope it stops raining soon.
Bunny, hope things cool off for you and that your plants survive. Sorry you have to drop out of the swap. I transplanted some rose bush shrubs a couple of weeks ago when temps were around 90 and I had to water and water them. Then, the leaves turned yellow on about 50% of the shrub and I thought they were gonners, but seem to be rebounding with our cooler temps and rain. Keeping my fingers crossed, you just never know.
Alana, hoping for sunny skies for you.
Linda, hope you are feeling better.
Dan, sorry I missed your delicious looking lasagna. Bet it was yummy! I sent you an email with my address information.
Well off to take care of more wedding details.
Have a good one everybody
Sue N.
Kamil, happy birthday!
Sue, got the address, just don't forget to breath while worrying over the last-minute details. Remember, as long as the bride and groom both show up and say "I do.", it was a good wedding!
Alana, don't forget to put on your galoshes!
Shirley, good luck with the geraniums! You sound excited! Watch out for those weeds!
I bought a office chair yesterday at the thrift shop, and would you believe Bump adopted it as his??? He's only left it to eat and use the litter box, so today I went to k-mart and bought another one. Thankfully, the cats are letting me have this one...lol! And, no, my cats aren't spoiled. Not them...hehehe.
Everyone have a good night! I'm off to keep company with my kindle for a while...
Hi all! Suzanne, I checked out your hosta, it the pics of the 3rd and 4th one looks just like one of mine and it's called "Big Daddy and the leaves get bigger every year, I love it.
Shirley, was that Touchwood Gardens in the UK you got the columbine seeds from? Hot here today, well actually more muggy than hot but shouldn't complain at least its not in the 100's well better go lock the chickens up and run the truck out to the barn and unload the grain. Good night all. Kathie
Seeds-I meant seeds-not plants.
Sometimes I think all I do is watch the weeds-should try pulling them out more often!
I am kind of excited about the hardy geraniums-can't believe I had never heard of these before! And they are supposed to be good butterfly necter or host plants, can't remember which.
I prefer to think that my cats were born spoiled rotten, I had nothing to do with it!
Sinbadsmom-It was Plant World-pretty neat site. And like I said, I think the price was good, considering how many seeds I got. HG plants and seeds are really expensive, and the seeds are hard to find, so I was glad to find these. Plant World also has peach colored Jacob's Ladder! Will grow some of these for my SIL. BTW-thanks for the tip on Touchwood Gardens-I'm off to explore that site! But not to buy, please Lord, no more, I have no room for what I have now!
Good evening all and an exciting one it was here. Our dog Shilo who we have had for a month now, decided to check out a family of skunks who were coming over from the field next to us. She was trying to get close to them all the while I was screaming for her to get back. I just saw visions of them all spraying her (not to mention they were upwind from me so I am sure I would have had fallout). She kept getting close then running away and they kept puffing up. Oh my gosh was I scared. Shilo kept getting closer and at one time was about 4 feet away. I thought she was had. I don't know why but those critters did not spray her and finally she came back. They took cover in the woodpile so I am going to have my husband spread out the wood where they ended up going. It is too close to our bonfire site.
Shirley, I want to check that site out for sure. Sounds like a good one. My dil ordered some seeds for me along with her order from a online company and they are still on back order. Hello, it's almost July. I can't believe they haven't issued the refund. I would prefer to get my 15 dollars back now and use it next year.
Beautiful night here. I kept house closed up and the blinds down so there was no need to turn on the air. I will get the house nice and cool tonight and try that again. Save money to buy plants :)
I have to go find something to soothe my sore throat from yelling at the dog earlier. Good night. Margo
today the first day no rain in how many weeks i think now! well i got to town did some walmart shopping spent 112. on what i don't know i don't buy meat there just got can goods and snacks and some lunch meat and a bag of shrimp. and stopped at the gas station gas went down again to 129 a gallon so i put 20. dollars in had a half it filled my tank on up i get 43-47 miles to the gallon so i do ok but still i go through a tank a week usually. this week only used a half tank no serious traveling, so i saved on gas so i bought me a couple cheap books on ebay one gardening and the other father dom's bread book. i have 2 of his and they are great no tweaking the recipes and they have conversion for the bread machine. so i can bake in the reg. oven or use the bread machine, i like morning cinnamon bread in the bread maker, i make the dough the night before then roll it out and put the butter and cinnamon in it put it in the bread maker pan and tuck it in the frig. for the night and hubby gets up early takes it out and lets it re-rise and then turns on the machine to bake only and bing bang boom in one hour we have bread! talk to you all tomorrow maybe, its going to be a nice day holly
Oh Lord, Touchwood Gardens was a great site-you can get them in the fall, Shirley, in the fall.
There were 3, count em, 3 kinds of seeds that I haven't been able to find. In the fall.
Margo-how did the inventory go?
Skunks and dogs are NOT even funny-I would have been crying!
Every once in a while I have problems ordering online-backorders or some other strangness. I just keep calling them, until it is resolved-some companies tend to sit on it, unless you get after them. Haven't had it happen very often tho.
It got a lot colder here, late this afternoon. Just brought the HGs in and put them on the heat mat. Can you tell I am going to fuss and worry over these?
Morning, well Shirley I can see I should never have told you about Touchwood Gardens,did you read the info on the woman that owns it, kind of neat! I ended up with about 20 different columbines, bad, very bad, my driveway is still lined up with the seedling pots. I must say very happy with the germination, only have one pot that nothings coming up yet, but a couple were much later than the rest. I've been slowly trying to move the seedlings into the flower beds, my biggest fear has been getting them out there and then having one of these darn downpours we've been having this summer and just smashing them to smitherines! So I've been keeping the plastic flat containers near by and set it over them with newspaper over that and its been working great to help them get established. My big problem was when I was bored with all the deep snow this winter googling around the sites and getting myself in trouble, even back then some stuff was already out of stock! Kathie.....(what were the 3 seeds you couldn't find?)
Holy Moly, miss a few days and this thread is running faster than a stocking!
Dan- the real lasagna looks better than the internet one, but still tastes like computer dust. must stop licking the screen. lol
Kamil- happy 17th!!
Alana- hope your little one is feeling better
Hazelnutbunny-sorry to hear you can't play, dang weather :(
llamas mama- gas is 1.29 ??? omg it's almost 4.00 last time I checked.
I don't drive much, I'm a slave to my home based business.lol I love what I do,,, it just runs my life.
The chicken cage was amazing!! I would love to go to an old fashion fair like that.
If I missed anyone, please forgive me :) I'm easy to confuse.
My grand baby Aggie was here for a few days and my goodness, I forgot how much work a little one is. She just turned 10 months and can't crawl yet. I swear they never put her down. When she's here..we all hold her too. but that's because we don't see her every day. I think she's gonna walk 1st.
My dh is on vacation so the lawns are getting mowed. yeay! and it's not raining!
I'll post again later this afternoon so I can get my count up. Lol!
:) Laura
We actually got a tiny bit of rain yesterday, YAY! It's so funny to be so happy about rain, when we were just flooded out in April & May. Gosh, the difference a few weeks make!
I'm going to have to send my dog to obedience school. LoL Or at least...a gardening class. She keeps digging up my iris and moving them to different places in the yard! She re-plants them (ok...more like buries!). Call me silly, but I don't want iris growing in my driveway! UGH.
I am telling you...this lab is worse than all 7 of my kids combined! Not sure what I'm thinking, but we're getting another dog soon. But at least this one is a Rott. Maybe she won't dig & chew so much? (wishful thinking!)
Good Morning!
Kathie-They were White Borage, Shoofly (2 kinds actually), and perennial verbascums, which could mean the end of my "verbascum quandry"! She also had a peach and yellow Jacob's Ladder, which I can wait on until I see what color the ones are from Plant World. Great Site, just, please, don't let me order anything more!
Bunny-my brother had a lab that he tried to keep as a house dog-when it chewed up his brand new, never worn, &80 tennis shoes, Zack the lab became an outside dog, whereupon he howled for 3 nights straight, and became a gone dog. I think Labs just chew-period!
Gotta go feed the tomato plants! No weeding today, I'm in too good of a mood!
I missed a day so I missed the mixup in thread. Wow, this RR is really dizzying. And it��s STILL not July yet. LOL
Hi Margo, I know exactly what you mean. I have a ton of yarn & beads & supplies & a great collection of UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) to show for it. Seriously if anyone wants to swap me for yarn (the nice stuff �V cashmere, silk, etc) I am buried in it. And yet, I can��t help myself when I see some really cute scarf or stuff animal. NOT FUN about the skunk incident. I love and adore my Olive, but she would definitely be kicked out of bed if she was sprayed.
Kamil, feel free to stalk. It��s fun just to read some of the threads. & Happy birthday! Ah, if only I was 17. I had so much energy then.
So Shirley, it��s not too late to direct sow now? I got a butterfly mix in the ground about a month ago & thought I was late even with that. It is already scorching here tho, & I know Michigan is definitely a bit cooler than NYC. You know, I used to live in Ann Arbor �V when I was 17, actually. ��
Suzanne, thanks for the tip on OTOH! I can never figure these out! & WOW you have a lot of hostas. I love them but am also a little scared to have too many because the slugs always get to em. I don��t like salting the slugs but I hate picking them out by hand even more ~ick!~
Dan, I acquired a boudoir chair from a friend to put near my door for putting on/taking off shoes. It ended up in my bedroom as Olive��s personal stepstool onto our bed & her ��princess chair�� for our highness when she is inclined to lounge. It��s actually super cute since it gives her full view into the living room via a full length mirror. If I can figure it out, I will post a pic here.
Oh, sorry for the broken text above!
here's my first attempt at posting pics. I can't seem to get it to embed the image into the message, so I'll try the link. Pls forgive if all does not go well.
scj: dog's tooth violet? Not sure what that is, so would you be willing to describe which photo it was? I'd be happy to take more photos. :)
Dan: NSPy frequently steals our chairs and seats. He's sufficiently spoiled that he has a favorite blanket and, if there isn't space on the couch or it's not flat, he'll look at us and we'll generally fix it. Funny cat; funnier humans!
Kathy: Ooh, thank you! Yay for IDs! (I suspect you meant 2nd & 3rd? The huge leaved dark green ones?)
Shirley: we have a whole bunch of hardy geraniums (species name, not common name). They're pretty fun, and one of them seems to bloom approximately constantly. :)
Margo: Oh geeze! At least they didn't spray. I wonder if it's because she was clearly curious and not hostile?
Laura: *laugh* Yes, computer screens never taste - or smell! - as good as the things on it look. I sometimes want smell-o-vision! (and sometimes, am really, really glad I don't have it/it doesn't exist)
Bunny: YAY rain! Yeah, it's kind of weird to be all "hey, where did the rain go? I mean, _some_ would be good. Just not quite as much as before!".
Grace: RR? Couldn't figure out what that meant. And yeah, we have a lot. I didn't even show them all, since many were the same appearance! So far, not much trouble with slugs. No idea why! There were some during the raining for a week time, mind you, but not really since then. Olive is darling!
Alright, it's lunchtime and then off to a doctor's appointment. Tonight, foraging walk with Russ Cohen. Excited, if a little worried because I slept really badly last night.
Later, all!
Afternoon everyone! What a delightful but dirty sweaty morning! Nathan (sara's half brother who I raised) came over from Altoona today to help me catch up in my garden's. Nathan is about 6'5" and weighs about 280...he was always my favorite of her brothers when I was raising them..anyways...
He trimmed all the hedges, swept and cleaned up the patio, wheel barrowed about 12 loads to the dumping site, cleaned off my back table, got some weeds out of the driveway and followed behind me and cleaned up as I was weeding. We did one really large bed, three medium beds, one small bed and he cleaned out my raised flower bed so i can plant in it.
I am now caught up and can continue to keep ahead of it..I am a happy camper! "doing happy dance"
After reading you two going on about Plant World and Touchwood Gardens, of course I had to check them out...lol! I found Plant World easily enough and liked the site, but they didn't have much in the way of coneflowers, which is currently my new passion/project. Do either of you have a website for Touchwood Gardens? I couldn't find one and would like to check out their site. If I can find some new genetic lines for my coneflowers, especially some from "the continent", that would be just too cool!
As I was searching for seeds, my friend Joe decided to give the cats their daily treats. Stella will always run into the kitchen for hers, but sometimes Bump takes the whole "His Majesty" thing a bit far, and practically demands that his treats be brought to him. Of course, the fact that we obey probably doesn't help much...((insert chuckle/giggle here)). Hence this shot, of Bump enjoying his treats in his chair...
And then afterwards, we were told to quit disturbing him...
and then he patiently waited for our reply before going back to sleep...
Nah, he's not spoiled at all. Really, he isn't.
Well, maybe just a little.
Linda! Good for you! It sounds like you two got a LOT done! And all in one day? I'm impressed!
Okay, y'all. Now that I've been looking for coneflowers online a little, I'm gonna have to go do some serious searching. Since I finally figured out how to get the little darlings started, I'm hooked! I'm going to turn my Perennial Mound into a Coneflower Mound! Anyone know of any good, out of the ordinary places to order seeds?
Back soon!
Okay, according to my figures, here's the latest results on the speechifying...
Some people doubled or tripled their number, so it's still anyone's race to win! Remember, you've got until the night of the 8th!
And here's a list of who I've received addresses and plant lists from...
Sjc48/Shirley.....have list, have address
mamasllamas/Holly.....have list, have address
cryptid/Darrin.....have list, have address
poisondartfrog/Alana.....have list, have address
lindaruzicka/Linda.....have list, have address
Smitties/Margo.....have list, have address
suegardens2/Sue N.....have list, have address
Auntyara/Laura.....have list, have address
wispfox/Suzanne H.....have list, have address
Lovesherflowers/Elizabeth.....have list, have address
Sinbadsmom/Kathie.....have list, have address
Xiangirl/Heidi.....have list, have address
Celeegra/Grace�..have list, need your address
Everyone Else.....need definite list of at least 5 plants you'll be sending AND need name and address information.
We're still accepting players, so if anyone else wants to join in on the mayhem, there's still plenty of time!
Have a good night everyone! I'm outta here (for now anyway)!
Shirley, inventory is over and I have the next week off. We have to count every item by price. Then we have to tally it all by manufacturer and put the grand total at the top and circle it. My fingers hurt from the adding machine work. The owner let my daughter help out both days. She is home from college and was going to work at Cedar Point all summer but didn't care for it so now she has no job. The money will help her a bit.
Yeah, I would have been crying if those skunks had let loose.
I can't do much about the seed order because my dil ordered them. I have inquired but don't want to keep bugging her about it.
Dan, I just love to hear the antics of your gorgeous felines.
After that day at work, I am going to go out and water and hit the couch for a good movie. Maybe check in later so I will have less reading tomorrow.
Evening Dan, probably shouldn't be doing this for you but here goes try www.touchwoodplants.co.uk her big thing is columbines she has other plants and seeds but I don't remember a whole lot of coneflower.
So what did you mean now that you've figured out how to get them started, from seed? I got some double decker seed and they've sprouted with no problem but I got a nice coconut lime one last year and have had no luck, none! with the seeds, any ideas? I would love to get a few started to swap at next years plant swaps and the local sales. I also am going to have to check out the othe seed place Shirley mentioned, what the heck might as well get myself in more trouble. Kathie
Hey Everyone!
Dan-I don't think Touchwood Gardens had coneflowers-ten ton of columbines, and some other stuff, I could be wrong tho-touchwoodgardens.com, if you want to check it anyway. Are you growing from seed? Lots of the sites have many different kinds of plants, usually just the common varieties of seeds.
Linda-I save all my heavy gardening work for when the boys come out-nice to have someone to lift and tote!
Grace-Olive certainly looks like a princess! I planted the HGs now so that I can get them in the ground come fall. I'm going to plant the Hummingbird Haven mix too, when it gets here,it may bloom late, but that's okay. I think you could still plant some annuals like zinnias, maybe, and still have them bloom. I'm hoping all this works anyway!
I love Ann Arbor's used book stores, there are at least 7, all in walking distance of each other!
Holly! I completely missed your post about the cinnamon bread-wish you could email me some!
Sue-sounds like you're coming down the home stretch!
By "gone dog" I meant that my brother gave him away, (hopefully to someone who didn't spend $80 on tennis shoes)not that he shot him or something, altho after Zack ate the shoes, we all stayed clear for a while.
Margo-that sounds like a whole bunch of work! I just got done watering- takes a couple of hours, but it doesn't bug me like weeding does.
Re-organized the trash into two cans-YUCK-we'll see what happens tomorrow.
Goodnite, All!
The shop I work at just finished selling our plants. We are called Calico, Sage, and Thyme and in the spring, sell herbs and some perennials. We have many regulars who come by to get our herbs every year and after purchasing them, I know why. Very healthy. We had a flat or so left and the owner was ready to get rid of them so we were able to take what we wanted. I brought home two parsley and three basil. I am so excited cause now I am going to make my own pesto. I had already bought four basil so I have plenty. I also enjoy mozzarella cheese and basil sandwiches.
I do have a question. Does anyone have any idea why my iris did not bloom this year. I have three clumps throughout my gardens and all but one bloomed. The one that did not bloom has about 5 different plants, all different. The foliage came up but nothing bloomed. I have had it for three years with beautiful blooms the past two. Do I need to divide it up and put it elsewhere?
Shirley, Ann Arbor (Go BLUE!) is about an hour north of us and your mentioning used bookstores makes me want to take a trip up there. We go there on occasion and haven't made the trek in awhile. I love book stores.
Now, I am going to check out those seed order sites. Margo
OMG!!! I just had to post this! I found seeds for that little unknown flower in the Hummingbird Haven Mix! It is a Clarkia Amoena and I found it at Diane's Seeds! I am so pleased!! I'm not good at describing stuff, so if you get a chance go to the site and check it out-it's an annual, also called farewell to spring, and looks nothing like the clarkia elegans that I WSed this year, which is why I looked at it in the first place, to see if it was different from the elegans, I'm babbling I know, but I am just so damned pleased!!! There are 2000 seeds per pack, 2 packs ought to do it, it's going anywhere I can stick it in! Please don't tell me if it's invasive-don't care!
and, Dan, Diane's also has a really pretty white coneflower, echinacea, seeds tho, called Amado.
Margo-I'm about 45 minutes southeast of Ann Arbor; I like UofM, almost everyone I know likes State-learned to keep my mouth shut real early!
gotta go check out some more sites-at least Diane's took my mind off Touchwood!
Margo, Shirley, Both of my brothers went to UMich which is why I had a brief hiatus there in my senior year of high school. I loved Ann Arbor, really sweetl, & also the surrounding area is beautiful. Got up to Interlaken & Kalamazoo. I do regret never crossing the border to Canada. Still haven't been.
Suzanne, RR is Round Robin. :)
Dan, Bump is indeed very cute in his spoiled-dom. Glad he likes his, I mean your, oh no I really do mean his chair.
Thanks to all complements on our lovely Olivy Olive!
BTW it is now officially my birthday! Yeah June babies!!
Nitey nite! gracie grace
Margo, Iris are heavy feeders. If the clump has been there a while and you have not added nutrients, it may have just exhausted the soil. Just one thought.
Another rain free day, but it looks like we will back in the rain by the weekend. That's okay. I am grateful for this break.
I've been adopted by a cat again. They know I am a dog person but every once in a while a cat comes around looking for a home. Last night she slept on my bed so I think I am in the cat business until I find her a good home.
When I get a chance I will snap a picture. She really is a pretty girl
Have a good day,
Shirley, I am originally from St. Clair Shores so born a Michigander and even though I live in Ohio, my allegiance is to Michigan teams. I will say that the words Lions does not come into conversation anymore. My daughter attends OSU and it drives me crazy to wear a t-shirt from there and I always refer to the words on it as "I have poop on my shirt".
I totally understand the need to get excited when you find something you have wanted for so long. That is the way I am with my unusual coneflowers. I just love coneflowers and think the new ones they keep coming up with are awesome but I can't keep up financially to get them all.
Celeegra, Happy Birthday. Kalamazoo is a great place to visit. My hubby and I lived there for three years while he attended WMU. Loved it there but he got a job here in Bowling Green. I am picking him up from the airport on Tuesday and we are heading to Kazoo to take his brother home and will spend some time exploring the old haunts.
Alana, thanks for the info. I will give everyone a good feeding in the fall and perhaps divide them sometime as well. We have been adopted by 4 cats so far after adopting one ourselves. We did try to find a home for the three tabbies but couldn't find any takers so we did the responsible thing and got them all fixed and now they are our babies. I wish people would do the responsible thing so there wouldn't so many unwanted animals. The shelters around here are full of unwanted kittens and cats. When we found the tabby kittens, we would have had to be on a 7 month waiting list before they would take them.
Looking forward to my next week off and hoping to get a lot accomplished. Heading to Chicago tomorrow with my daughter. She wants to go to the Taste of Chicago festival.
Alana, Thanks for the iris info. Guess it's time to feed mine too. Congrats on your new adoption.
Margo, Thanks for birthday wishes! I haven't been back to MI in a while. I should take a little road time sometime soon too. Good for you for taking those cats in! Our shelters here are overloaded as well. There are a couple no-kill shelters here that really do the best they can, & some of them work with the local communities to go in on site & spay/neuter at low or no cost.
Now I'm gonna go check out some of these websites.
Happy birthday to me -- means I get to pick myself a little present. Hmmmm I don't need no diamonds or furs. Maybe a new daylily. I've been obsessed lately.
xxoo everyone & happy 4th of July weekend! grace
Hey All!
Happy, Happy Birthday, Grace! Hope it was a great day! I keep a whole list of B-day gifts to myself-don't always wait until my B-day to buy them!
Margo-My daughter loves coneflowers also-she lives in an apartment and can't really garden yet, but definitely wants coneflowers when she can. She was a little shocked at the price of some of them-I am trying to convince her to grow her own, but it's hard to find the seeds for the ones she likes-darn kid, always had to be different!
Spent the day planting and potting up all the plants I got from Vina from the June MNF swap. I was totally pleased! Lots of great plants,Painted daisy, cloth of gold Yarrow, gold columbine, among others; also included 15 Iris fans! Had to scramble to figure out a place to put them, but that's done-haven't planted them yet. I know nothing about Iris's, need to do some research-already got a "heavy feeding" tip from this thread. I am going to put them in a bed that gets full sun all day-I hope that's a good idea. Got everything else planted or potted up awaiting space in the beds. And, I really feel bad about this, but I just didn't have time to do any weeding, a real shame!
Alana-I have a friend who is a dog person, and my cats just love her-it's weird the way that happens.
Linda-chocolate chip cookies?
Hi Kathie, Holly, Heidi, Elizabeth, Darrin, Sue, Suzanne and Laura!
Is it dinnertime yet?
Dan, lol, no Bumps not spoiled at all!.. he's just got you and Joe trained. What smart little kitties you have :)
Our Kitty Spaz is pretty much the same way, My dh Rick is on vacation this week and Spaz still wakes him up at 5am. He forgot to tell her.
Our dog, sunshine is the devil! No lie. She only loves mommy and will growl for everyone except me. My customers (home based business) think she's so cute. The deer hate her and that's awesome! Except this stupid, lost, yearling that thinks I'm it's mother. Even Sunshine doesn't know what to do when this thing starts following me. I throw firecrackers at it, and it keeps coming back. :( I hate too hurt it, but If she comes back tomorrow.. I'm gonna have my teenager shoot it with the paint ball gun. I can't have this thing coming around! I hate all deer!
Shirley, score on the seed find! I love it :) I get soo excited when i find a plant I really want!
Alana, I grow lots of Iris' and I think you're right. divide and feed.
Margo, have fun on your get away :)
for a good/crazy dog.. get a Pomeranian! mine thinks she's a pit bull, with smaller poop to clean up lol.
:) Laura
O! Darn you Shirley!!!! why do you keep finding these seed sites and then telling us about them! Now I have to go check it out and more than likely get myself in trouble!!! I definitely understand your excitement! I get a catalog everyspring from some praire seed co. and they have this plant/seed that I just love called tassle flower and its something I've never seen out my way. The seeds were kind of expensive with the shipping when there was really nothing else I wanted so I checked out the seed exchange last year and someone sent them to me. So far so good they did germinate and I was able to get them out in the ground but geesh its taking forever for them to take off! They're still only about 4 inches tall and I think they should get about a foot. So I'm guessing they must need really hot weather which we just haven't had yet. Everyday it does get hot they seem to grow!
Traded for some water lilies 2 years ago and I'm so happy!! I could see the buds coming up out of the water for the last 2 days and today bang! They opened a very pretty light pink, really beautiful! Okay closing for now have to go check out what was it Dianes seeds! Kathie
why is it that, when you absolutely must have a new type of coneflower, everyone that carries that variety is OUT??? all I want are some seeds for the "tomato soup" variety, and maybe some of the "big sky" series. ***sigh*** e-bay, here I come!!!
can we say "ADDICTED"???
Kathie-if you want to stay out of trouble, don't go to Diane's site-great selection,lots of seeds in each pack. Don't go there-hope I'm not too late!
And I'm not even going to mention Easywildflowers or Prairie Moon! See, I can be nice!
What a beautiful little grey cat! Love the neat little white feet!
Last night when I was watering, I "flushed" get it "flushed" the little black cat out from underneath the hostas. These things got huge this year, and he was just laying under there, keeping cool, maybe? These plants have already been given away, hope he didn't do anything other than lay there! He is a very nice little cat, drinks from my solar fountain-Vinnie and Willie haven't noticed him yet. They spaz out at other animals in their backyard.
Can we say QUIT THROWING THOSE PEANUTS OUT YOUR BACK DOOR?
Gotta go out and keep an eye on the HGs.
Hey Shirley!to late, waaayyyyyyyy to late, already put it in my favorites list. She had a lot of salvia and penstomen which I really love. Don't have many of them yet do love them. I see you already gave me a few more to check out and get on that favorites list. Think I will hold off and order in the fall still trying to find the room to get all those columbines in the ground, I had also ordered a bunch of delphinium seed from another seed site in the UK. So tit for tat if your interested in plant nurseries don't think they have seed check out sequim rare plants, I treated myself this spring for my birthday! Nice plants, okay have to go check out the sites you listed, Kathie
Dan, I would be happy to get you seeds from any of the coneflowers I have. I am not sure of what actually gives a viable seed. No sense in wasting money at ebay. In the future, maybe we can do a coneflower plant trade. Mine have done a nice job of coming back except for that darn Tomato Soup. I am going to stay away from that one cause they aren't cheap and I am not going to take a chance at another dying. I can see how the summer does for them and share them in the spring before the plants get too big. I want to weed the garden out and get a pic posted.
I was excited to go to a local nursery and find a Marmalade coneflower in a gallon size pot for 4.99. When I plant it after our hot spell coming, I will get a complete list of what I have. I know for sure I have White Swan, Pink Poodle, Coconut Lime, Green Envy, the Marmalade, Sunset, pink, purple, Hot Papaya, along with a couple of them whose name ecapes me.
Shirley, our little Miss Kitty loves to lay under the hosta I have out front. I have no idea what it is but the leaves on it are huge!!!! You don't even know she is under there. Too cute.
Gotta go to bed so I get a good nights sleep for our outing tomorrow. Good night. Margo
Okay, some thoughts on Sequim Rare Plants:
1. I am remembering what they say about payback.
2. They sell plants, which takes some of the pressure off-if I can get them, I would rather plant the seeds.
3. Coneflower lovers-there are none on this site.
4. Do people really grow Kniphofia (sp)?
5. Most of the ones I really liked were sold out or not available right now, sad but helpful.
6. Ha Ha, I know where I can get False Solomon's Seal seeds!
7. But I'm not going to say, until fall.
8. Cranesbills, Storkbills, Heronbills-AGGGGGGGGHH!!
9. Oh, I totally forgot about the Martha Washington geraniums- how beautiful!
10. Oh Lord.
It sounds crazy but I cannot get plain old purple coneflowers to grow for me. I planted them all over & at different times. Nothing this year. I'll try again but if I don't get anything again next spring, i'm gonna break down & buy a plant.
On the other hand, my morning glories are really taking off.
Shirley, time & time again, you crack me up!
Alana, that is one beautiful cat. Reminds me a lot of my Mischa, who landed on my doorstep during college (mine, not hers). She was so independent, almost wild, would hunt large game - didn't bother so much with mice but went for large squirrels, opposums, large birds like blackbirds. But she kept coming back to me & demanding food. Turns out she was preggers. I kept her & one of her little - called him Gray Malkin. Too bad my partner's allergic. I'd love to take your new one in.
Miss a day for reasons of excessive busy, and yes, indeed, you are all very chatty!
I'm carefully not looking at the sites you all keep recommending, as I must save my money for grad school in the fall! Also, still learning this garden. Oh, it's July! I should take another round of pictures. :)
Happy slightly late birthday Grace!
Alana: yay for a temporary (and adorable) new kitty, even if you are typically a dog person. :)
Shirley: Hi! I still have a couple of lilies that I got from a recent local swap that I still haven't figured out where to put. I feel a little bad for them, but since one is still flowering, figure I should have time to decide. Really, part of the problem is that I'm trying to mostly keep areas where there is/was Bishop's weed open so I can keep an eye out for more to pull. This reduces my available sunny areas, and I'm fairly sure that they like their sun. :)
Also, you're evil. ;P I don't think 'not going to mention' counts to make you have not mentioned something. ;) *steadfastedly not looking at websites* Maybe I'll bookmark them for later... Hmm...
Also also? I am pretty sure that I have false solomon's seal in my yard. Indeed, I think I have one or two that is not where I want it to be. I could probably send you one (or see if I can figure out where its seeds will be).
Laura: I wonder if there's any local animal rescue people who might like a yearling and also be able to take care of it? Perhaps not, since it's not a baby. Ah, well. Silly creature!
Dan: Alas, the best plants and seeds do tend to sell out first! I hope you found them. :)
Margo: the hosta people - presuming you aren't silly like me and post 19 pictures in a single post - do seem to enjoy IDing hosta. Perhaps you could find out what yours is?
Linda: I think we have one coneflower in our yard, and everyone talking about them is beginning to make me covetous. :) Are these echinacea type coneflowers? (asking because the wiki page on coneflower confused me)
Wee! I caught up! ;)
Margo, I would love to trade coneflower seeds with you once we've both got them. I've been mixing all of mine together, so I don't know what is going to bloom yet...lol! I do love those flower mixes!
Linda, the best place I've found so far to get coneflower seed is right here on the ol' GW! I received a bunch of them in Kym's Christmas Card swap this past winter. Also, I like Jung's, Thompson & Morgan, and Burpee. I've also discovered that the absolute best way to get seeds is to go to your local nursery, buy a plant that's in bloom, and save, save, save those seeds! To get a good crop of seeds it should only take one or two plants, and after you've harvested your seeds, you should get enough to plant a good number of them.
For the past four years I've been trying to get coneflowers to grow, planting them after the last frost and watering the heck out of them. Well, nothing grew. Then I found out last fall that coneflowers need a cold spell of at least 4 weeks before they'll germinate, so I ran my latest experiment. I potted up a bunch of seeds and threw them into my little 5'x5' greenhouse, and the rest I threw out onto my Perennial Mound just before the first snowfall. The seeds in the greenhouse started growing first by about a month or so, but the ones I planted on the P.M. are quickly catching up. I have no idea what's growing out there since I mixed all my coneflower seeds up into one huge mixture before planting any of them. BUT, I'm sure to get a nice display once they start blooming! AND, since they'll all obviously be open-pollinated, I'm sure to get some surprises out of this year's crop of seeds.
I was looking on ebay last night and there are some interesting colors of coneflowers being offered up right now, so I may go ahead and bid on a few of them. After all, it never hurts to introduce new colors and new genetic lines into the garden, right? Lol, I just wish there was one or two online nurseries that only offered coneflowers for a reasonable price.
Okay, off to look at more sites in hopes of finding that "one" site which will fulfill all of my dreams...lol.
You all have a fantastic weekend! Just one more week, and then this swap closes and we'll be choosing what box we each want to receive! Can I get an "amen"?
so I go to the various websites, all with great pix of coneflowers in bloom, even find some new ones I haven't seen before. and then I call the place I prefer to go for my plants, a local nursery called Garden Goods. do they have coneflowers in stock? oh yes, tons of them. are they mostly the purple magnus? no, we've got all the colors of the rainbow almost. hmmm, what time are you open till tonight? we closed at 6:30, tomorrow we're open until 5. really? okay, see you tomorrow then!
want to guess where I'm going after work tomorrow???
there's no cure for this, is there??????????
Evening all! First I have to tell you I finally got my nice new beautiful chicken coop put up today! The old one was about 18 years old very bad shape could not possibly make it through another winter so I bit the bullet and had a friend whose a carpenter and in the bird club make me a new one, he was here about 8 this morning brought a helper and by noon they had the old one torn down and the new one up, YES!!!
Now Shirley, glad to hear you prefer seeds, can't get in quite so much trouble. I got a couple of primulas last summer at a swap and had never had them before, oh my, they were just beautiful. So I saw the sequim nursery add in a gardening magazine and they had some really different primulas that I just don't find at the local nurseries. So they were my downfall. Probably will end up with a few more next spring. Kathie
Beautiful, slow, lazy day here!
I wish I had a hammock.
Dan-echinacea/coneflowers are perennials and don't bloom the first year, from seed; rudbeckia,sometimes called coneflower, are annuals, most of them and they do bloom the first year from seed-sorry if this is something you already know. didn't want ya to dump the echinaceas because they didn't bloom this year!
The first year I grew the echs from seed, they just set there-didn't grow, didn't die, nice, neat little clumps. The next year they took off and took over the bed-some of them were over five foot tall! I dug most of them out and gave them away, because of the "NO ROOM" thing. Boy, they were pretty!
I need to do more seed saving.
Evil? Snide, maybe, sarcastic, maybe, oh all right-Evil!
I KNEW Charlene Wittstock would blow all the other royal brides right out the water, and I haven't even seen the "real" wedding dress yet.
Have a great weekend, All!
Back from my Chicago trip and what great fun we had. On the way there, we got stuck in a slow moving storm with tons of lightening and rain, rain, rain. It rained hard for almost an hour. A lot of us pulled over for a while in a truck stop. At one time, there was so much water under a bridge, I thought I was going to lose control of the car. I have never driven through anything like that. Luckily we made it safe and it wasn't raining when we got to Chicago. It was windy and cool and we heard on the radio that winds hit 60 miles in the city today. I thought the windy city was too windy.
I will be back tomorrow to further my conversation. It's late and I have to meet my daughter at nine am cause we are going to look for wedding dresses for her.
Shirley, I knew about the coneflowers and rudbeckia, but it's never a bad thing to say it all again. Who knows who'll read this thread and learn, eh?
Today is the first day of a local festival called the Cherry Festival. This area grows most of the nations tart cherries, and there's been a festival/celebration of it for the past +75 years. Today there was an air show with all kinds of planes doing their thing, jets, one-engine jobs, you name it. I've been watching them practice for the past couple of days while out on my route, so didn't feel the need to go downtown with the crowds and sit in the sun. You can just imagine the traffic though! What normally takes 10 minutes to get to now takes about 40-45 minutes, and that's avoiding the downtown area where most of the festival happens!
After work, I did go to Garden Goods, and I actually behaved myself and did a pretty good job of not splurging! I bought a pot of crocosmia lucifer, which I've been wanting amongst my perennials, and only two coneflowers, white swan and big sky sunset! Aren't you all proud of me? I'll get seeds from the swan and sunset, scatter them over the Perennial Mound after the first snowfall, and have more next Spring! That should make the bees happy!
Just in case someone's not familiar with what I got today, here are some pictures of them from photobucket...
Normally I'm not a big fan of anything that looks like a white daisy, but I'm thinking that the white swan may crossbreed with the other coneflowers, and who knows what the results will be? Viva la difference!
I bought the same two coneflowers today that you did, Dan! As well as two grasses, a pink lily and something else..I'll have to go and see. Anyone else take advantage of the sales???
(might have to go and grab some more of the pink coneflowers, I really like them!!)
Dan, good score. I bought a Sundown from my store this past spring and it is doing great. I do have the Big Sky Sunrise as well so maybe those seeds are in order for you. I bought a crocrosmia like that last year and was disappointed it did not return. Oh well, with my soil, it is trial and error.
Hot here today and a fierce wind is blowing and my potted basil is not a fan of it.
Just got back from wedding dress shopping with my daughters and we found the perfect dress for the one getting married. I think I might have to increase my hours at work by the time this shindig is over. UGH. We also found the bridesmaids dresses but we won't order those until September.
Talk about happy bees, they are all over my garden this year, especially on the lavender.
I was going to get some gardening done today but after the last two whirlwind days, I am ready to just sit and veg. Too hot anyway,
No plans for the 4th, instead we are doing our celebration tomorrow. We are going to a friends house as we do every July 3rd. Her backyard is just down from the park that puts on a fireworks display. They always do theirs on the 3rd and our city did it on the 4th so we were double treated with fireworks. Our city decided to do theirs on the 3rd as well. :(
Did find some surprises in the garden this year. I found three new rudbeckias that came up from the seeds I planted LAST year and I am excited to find them. One is the cappachino, then there is the cherry brandy, (super exciting), and the last one I forget what it is called but it reminds me of the Teddy Bear sunflower. I also found my white swan coneflower has reproduced itself in another part of my garden.
Anyone else find some special surprises this year. Margo
Spent today trying to get our biofilter up and running for the pond; should be able to finish tomorrow. Also did more trimming on the house-eating wysteria! Also, my youngest sister visited briefly, on her whirlwind trip of the northeast, from Chicago.
Dan: hey, at least it's a local nursery that has the coneflowers! Always good to support your local businesses. :) Also, the crocosmia lucifer is beautiful! Thanks for the photo, as I had no idea. And now I kind of want to see your Perennial Mound, if only for the name!
Shirley: thank you for the explanation of the two coneflower types! I was a bit confused. :)
I figure that we'll watch the fireworks - both from our city and one nearby - from our lovely roof deck! We expect that we'll have an excellent view, and it'll be much less crowded and noisy. I'm not sure what we have planned for the day of, although we have local friends that usually have a gathering that day. So, in all probability, that's where we will be.
Getting very tired of the people setting off fireworks early, though! Sigh. (like, y'know, right now)
I definitely need to remember to collect seeds as they ripen! The heather ones did a few weeks ago. Last I checked, nothing else is even close. Not even the snowdrops, which were the first flowers to show up this year!
Have a good night, all!
I love how we get onto such varied topics around here! Since we're talking about coneflowers, and the various types, I thought I'd post what a coneflower is exactly. Here's what wikipedia has to say...
Coneflower is a common name of at least four genera of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae:
Dracopis is a monotypic genus with Dracopis amplexicaulis (Clasping Coneflower; syn. Rudbeckia amplexicaulis) the sole species. It is native to North America.
It is an annual plant growing to 1 m tall, with simple or branched stems. The leaves are oval, 5�10 cm long and 2�4 cm broad. The flowers are produced in daisy-like inflorescences, with yellow to yellowish-purple florets. It is distinguished from the genus Rudbeckia (in which it used to be treated) by the presence of chaff subtending the ray flowers.
Echinacea species are herbaceous, drought-tolerant perennial plants growing up to 140 cm in height. They grow from taproots, except E. purpurea, which grows from a short caudice with fibrous roots. They have erect stems that in most species are unbranched. Both the basal and cauline leaves are arranged alternately. The leaves are normally hairy with a rough texture, having uniseriate trichomes (1-4 rings of cells) but sometimes they lack hairs. The basal leaves and the lower stem leaves have petioles, and as the leaves progress up the stem the petioles often decrease in length. The leaf blades in different species may have one, three or five nerves. Some species have linear to lanceolate shaped leaves, and others have elliptic- to ovate-shaped leaves; often the leaves decrease in size as they progress up the stems. Leaf bases gradually increase in width away from the petioles or the bases are rounded to heart shaped. Most species have leaf margins that are entire, but sometimes they are dentate or serrate. The flowers are collected together into single rounded heads that terminate long peduncles. The inflorescences have crateriform to hemispheric shaped involucres which are 12�40 mm wide. The phyllaries, or bracts below the flower head, are persistent and number 15�50. The phyllaries are produced in a 2�4 series. The receptacles are hemispheric to conic in shape. The paleae have orange to reddish purple ends, and are longer than the disc corollas. The paleae bases partially surrounding the cypselae, and are keeled with the apices abruptly constricted to awn-like tips. The ray florets number 8�21 and the corollas are dark purple to pale pink, white, or yellow. The tubes of the corolla are hairless or sparsely hairy, and the laminae are spreading, reflexed, or drooping in habit and linear to elliptic or obovate in shape. The abaxial faces of the laminae are glabrous or moderately hairy. The flower heads have typically 200-300 fertile, bisexual disc florets but some have more. The corollas are pinkish, greenish, reddish-purple or yellow and have tubes shorter than the throats. The pollen is normally yellow in most species, but usually white in E. pallida. The three or four-angled fruits, called cypselae, are tan or bicolored with a dark brown band distally. The pappi is persistent and variously crown-shaped with 0 to 4 or more prominent teeth. x = 11.[2]
Like all Asteraceae, the flowering structure is a composite inflorescence, with purple (rarely yellow or white) florets arranged in a prominent, somewhat cone-shaped head � "cone-shaped" because the petals of the outer ray florets tend to point downward (are reflexed) once the flower head opens, thus forming a cone. Plants are generally long lived, with distinctive flowers. The common name "cone flower" comes from the characteristic center "cone" at the center of the flower. The generic name Echinacea is rooted in the Greek word ἐ�ῖ��� (echinos), meaning hedgehog,[3] it references the spiky appearance and feel of the flower heads. Echinacea plants also reseed in the fall. New flowers will grow where seeds have fallen from the prior year
Rudbeckia (pronounced /rʌdˈbɛkiə/)[1] is a plant genus of 23 species in the Asteraceae family.[2] The species are commonly called coneflowers and black-eyed-susans; all are native to North America and many species are cultivated in gardens for their showy yellow or gold flower heads.
The species are herbaceous, mostly perennial plants (some annual or biennial) growing to 0.5-3 m tall, with simple or branched stems. The leaves are spirally arranged, entire to deeply lobed, 5-25 cm long. The flowers are produced in daisy-like inflorescences, with yellow or orange florets arranged in a prominent, cone-shaped head; "cone-shaped" because the ray florets tend to point out and down (are decumbent) as the flower head opens.
A large number of species have been proposed within Rudbeckia, but most are now regarded as synonyms of the limited list given below. Several of these currently accepted species have several accepted varieties. Some of them (for example the Black-eyed Susan, R. hirta), are popular garden flowers, distinguished for their long flowering times. There are many cultivars of these species.
Rudbeckia species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera species including Cabbage Moth and Dot Moth.
The name was given by Carolus Linnaeus in honor of his teacher at Uppsala University, Professor Olof Rudbeck the Younger (1660-1740), and his father, Professor Olof Rudbeck the Elder (1630-1702), both of whom were botanists.
Ratibida is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family, Asteraceae.[2] Members of the genus are commonly known as Prairie Coneflowers.
Dan, I have always thought of echinacea as my "coneflowers" but then found out that "coneflowers" covered several varieties and I realize how these all look similar. Echinacea are my absolute favorite followed closely behind by the rudbeckia. I am still trying to figure out the difference between the other two but the clasping coneflower is not my favorite and although I had them at the old house, I opted not to plant them here. Thanks for the information.
Sorry to hear about your early wake up. I finally got a decent nights sleep last night but for some reason, woke up at 7:30 am and would have liked a bit more sleep.
I do have to get outside and water my new bushes. We hit a record high of 98 yesterday and have had no rain in a while. I wouldn't want my hubby to arrive home to dead bushes. I think I will head to Panera first for a cup of energy.
Good Morning! I didn't realize that the "coneflowers" were all in the same family-that was all interesting, Dan.
Hedgehogs!! Love it!
Margo-a surprise for me was the chamomile growing in that large pot; it came back from last year; the package said "dahlberg daisies!"
No real plans for the 4th-might go out to the beach and try, one more time, to get decent pics of the fireworks. I am seriously missing something here.
Have a great day!
Shirley, was your surprise a good one or bad. I would be disappointed to find chamomile and not dahlberg daisies. There is always tomorrow.
I bought a upside down planter for some tomatoes that a produce store was giving away. I picked them up yesterday and this morning they are in bad shape. I am hoping it is just they need water. Thankfully they were free if not. Has anyone ever used an upside down planter for tomatoes. I am excited to give it a try.
I planted my new echinacea today and have to go turn off the sprinkler. The ground was so dry and hard, I hope it makes it.
At least the humidity has broken. Have a fun day. Margo
Margo, last summer I tried the upside-down pots with beefsteak tomatoes. Out of 5 pots, I got 3 tomatoes no bigger than a lemon. That was it.
My father tried two with tomatoes, and two with peppers. He didn't get anything.
I think you might be able to do better if you keep the soil constantly moist, but unless you've got your own well, that might not be possible. I hope you get better results!
Stella has made amends for her early wake-up call, but she hasn't promised to not do it again. Kids, eh? How can we stay mad at them when they think they're helping? I'll bet she joins me for an afternoon nap...lol.
I was surprised by all the information wikipedia had about the 4 types of coneflowers, and that was just the tip of the iceberg! To me, "coneflowers" will always mean echinacea. It was nice to find out though that the clasping coneflowers (ratibidia) aren't going to get into the mix with my echinacea.
All the chores outside have been done now, so now I think I'm going to go make some chicken turn-overs for lunch. I've already baked and fried the chicken, so this should be pretty easy, and delicious...lol!
Y'all have a great Sunday!
Amen, Margo-the humidity HAS broken! Yesterday was a bear-got some T-Storms late afternoon yesterday, I think that's what broke it-don't really care, as long as it's gone!
The chamomile wasn't a bad surprise-I like fresh chamomile tea, it's just that I didn't plant chamomile last year, so those seeds had to be mis-labeled. Come to think of it, why didn't they bloom last year?
I am trying to get some cleaning done-can we say "sporadic, at best?"
Hi Holly-I know of two yellow echinacea-paradoxa and tennesesis, those spellings aren't right; they have the thin, droopy petals, but I'm not sure if they are golden yellow, just a pale yellow, I'm thinking. Have you checked out the newer varieties?
Nobody I know of has ever had luck with the upside down tomato planters. Well, maybe Fred, but he made his from old buckets. Very strange looking, but effective.
When was the last time I dusted? Don't really need an answer for that, I'm just wondering.
Holly, I finally had some echinacea-paradoxa come up from seed this year. It actually was seeds I planted last year but I was excited to see a huge plant of them this spring. I would be happy to send you seeds when the time comes. I do wonder if you want to reference the types of "coneflowers" that Dan listed about because "yellow" coneflower could come from another group besides echinacea.
Dan, as a matter of fact, we do have our own well. :) I am a little disappointed to hear that no one has had any success but I will try and let you all know how it goes. It came with a list of ways to be successful so maybe I can keep up with the list. If I don't get tomatoes, it isn't any big deal because I have more than enough plants planted. I always tell myself to only plant two larger tomato plants and one cherry but with the sale ones I picked up, the seedlings I planted, and the freebies, I am embarrassed to say I now have 14 plants. Good thing hubby retired cause he is going to be making a lot of spaghetti sauce this fall.
Hi Margo, my sister got one of those tomato upside down things last year and was goiog away for a week soon after. She usually has a neighbor come over and water for her I guess there was some info with the bag about it taking up to a gallon of water a day. She didn't want the neighbor to have to make a commitment to come over everyday and so she didn't think it was worth it and took them back. Maybe it was a good thing she did from what everyone else here has said. Kathie
On kind of sort of the same theme-has anyone ever had success growing plants in a strawberry pot? I think that's what they are called. I planted blue and white violas in mine one year, and I had a heck of time keeping them watered. Would like to know the "trick" to that, it was really a pretty look.
Oh Yay! The Amaranth is the kind that droops over and looks like beautifully colored dreds! Had me worried for a bit-they are in hanging baskets-would really look strange, standing straight up!
Hope everyone's day is going well!
I'm _sure_ that I should have more to say, but I'm having so much fun looking at the websites you all pointed to (and bookmarking things for later!). Also, we got further with, but not finished, the biofilter.
But hey, having a date with my boyfriend is a good way to spend part of the day! We find that we need to schedule them, since we both find that living together means that we are less likely to realize that we keep seeing each other, but not necessarily spending time together in any sort of focused way. Then one or the other of us gets unhappy and doesn't know why. Complicated! Thankfully, I figured this out a number of years ago, with a previous boyfriend.
This happens to me with living with friends, too, and while that is still an issue, at least then it's a bit easier to figure out the problem and fix it. (the not spending time together in a focused way problem, I mean)
Bed now. Read all your posts and catch up tomorrow, perhaps.
Wisp-the fireworks started here tonight during a T-storm! For Pete's Sake! Storm is done, fireworks are still going strong. I don't mind the "real" fireworks that lots of folks seem to get; it's the little firecracker types every 2 minutes that get to me and the cats. Vinnie is still hiding in the bathroom!
I have some married friends who should do what you and your boyfriend do-schedule time just for them.
And what is a biofilter? Did I miss that?
Hey Bunny, where are you? Happy 4th!
Dan, I did decide to go ahead and give it a try. I did not fill it all the way yet because I need my husband to hang a hook for it. I have it hanging on a shepherd's hook and the darn thing is bending from the weight. I just hope we don't get out usual high winds before Thursday. I am sure he is going to want that job on the top of his priority list after being away for three weeks. :)
Went to a big barbecue at a friends before the fireworks and I ate too much. The amount of people attending has become less and less as the years go by but we forget that when we plan the food. I did make my first cheesecake and it was the only dessert that was over half gone. Guess I did ok.
Goodnight everyone. Margo
Very cute Dan. Happy Independence day to all.
Cheesecake for breakfast today. That's the way I celebrated. The strawberries on top were quite festive with their red coloring. Now I am going to top it off with a homemade iced mocha and head outside to water.
Weather was perfect for the 4th today. Unfortunately, I felt the need to clean. This came after I finally got rid of a headache that I woke up with. Wish I could claim it as a hangover but I didn't drink last night.
Going to go pick up my hubby tomorrow from the airport. He has been gone for three weeks. He clearly won't be doing that again. He said it was too long and I totally agree. I am not one to be a single parent or take care of all this house and property on my own. Too much. More poor gardens have come last.
So, what was the best thing you ate today? Mine was the bundt cake my future sil made with a friend. I topped it off with strawberries and whipped cream. Yum but now I have to diet for days to make up for the things I have eaten. Was worth it though.
Hello fabulously rocking people! Happy 4th!
It's a bit noisy with fireworks from multiple cities going off; ours starts in a few minutes.
Dan: thanks for the coneflower explanation! So confusing. Echinacea is prettiest, I think.
Shirley: you actually dust? I didn't think anyone actually did that unless they had allergies.
T-storm fireworks must be interesting! Also, difficult to tell lighting from fireworks!
I definitely approve of the scheduling time for us thing; things go much more smoothy that way!
A biofilter is a pond filter that helps friendly bacteria to break down the wastes from the fishies in a separate container from the pond. There's constant water flow, so it's not like it gets it all, but it seems to help quite a lot. I have a Skippy Biofilter, which is finally up and running. Now, we wait and see how it goes. Not having to clean out the gunk from the previous filter every 3-4 days will be nice! I have no idea if you missed that; I can't recall if I defined it here!
Margo: I planted 5 tomato plants from seedlings we grew, gave two away on freecycle because they were in need of thinning, obtained 7 because the local garden club didn't manage to sell them all, and gave two to someone at one of the local GW meetups. So I have 8 right now. So I get it! :)
Mmm. Cheesecake for breakfast...
And yay for your husband being back! I bet that's a relief!
We didn't actually have any sort of party for the 4th, since the people who usually throw one were busy, and we're still settling in to this place.
Gotta say, though, being able to see at least 4 different towns' worth of fireworks from our deck, _without_ being deafened by the noise, is wonderful.
Later, all!
good morning all,
what a week! I hate to say it but I'm kinda glad DH's vacation is over. LOL I love having him home, but he's always go go go and I'm more chill.
The best thing I had all weekend was everything I ate at this Graduation party we went too. The food was amazing! These people went all out. Home cooked,Roast beef, roasted turkey, chicken,clams,perogies, lamb, ok the lamb was not good. I hate lamb. The salads were all sooo good! the rolls, the desserts. Ugh. I must have gained 5 pounds.
Then yesterday 4th of July, we BBQed. I ate like a pig again!
I'm gonna work off the pounds weeding.
Good news.. that yearling doesn't like me any more. We never did shoot it with the paint ball gun, but my dog sure figured out to chase her. She still comes back but doesn't feel so comfortable now LOL. She'll figure it out that this is the wrong place to visit. I hope
:) Laura
Laura, that was some kind of spread at that graduation party. I wouldn't have enough guests to eat all that. Maybe I could con them into catering my daughter's wedding next year. The first one I called has not called back. :(
Suzanne, keep us posted on that filter and how it works. I am with you on not wanting to clean out your filter every 3 or 4 days. I have enough issue with mine evaporating under the heat we have right now and having to add water to the pond so often. I have a habit of sticking the running hose in my pond and walking away forgetting it causing it to overflow.
Dan, so far I am having to water that hanging tomato 3 times a day. And that reminds me it is time to go out and water the flower pots. Bye all. Margo
"setting out glasses of homemade lemonade and sugar cookies"...thought it was time to sit down and chat a bit.
I have most of what I bought planted. We had a nice big rain storm yesterday that watered everything very throughly. I'm thinking about stopping at Lowe's today to check out what's in their garden section.
I'm taking my daughter to meet her father for her to go to Altoona. The grandbaby is going along to visit. She doesn't get over there very much. Sara and Alexa will be back on Thursday..guess that gives me some down time.
Jeff bought me a new mouse and keyboard since mine was acting up.it wouldn't let me type..which is why I haven't been on as much. I like this keyboard, hardly have to touch it!
Might go out after bit and poke around the gardens..some need more weeding...what's everyone else up to today? "sipping lemonade and biting cookie"
Good Morning! Got all the weeding done yesterday, it's getting better, because all the plants are getting bigger and crowding out the weeds! YAY!!
I've got all the stuff downstairs, for the yard sale, need to finish pricing, go get the SUV, load it all up and take off!
I had Bundt cake too! A cinnamon struesel type-yummy!
Suzanne- Apparently I don't dust often enough-you should have seen those bookcases! Thanks for the explanation of the biofilter! I wish I had room for a pond.
Watched fireworks from the front porch-one of the neighbors had an awesome display! Somebody two streets over kept shooting until one in the morning-no color, just loud bangs-not really a good thing!
Gotta make a run to Wallyworld!
Linda, I'll gladly help myself to lemonade but eating a piece of bundt cake while I am on this computer so will pass on the cookies for now. I need a good tall drink since I just spent almost an hour outside watering. I have to leave the hose on the bush for a while and then move on to the next. I just took a chair and magazine to read while I did this. Must have looked a little weird but a gardener would understand. Thank goodness hubby is coming home cause this is usually his thing and he actually enjoys it.
Irish eyes are another thing I have on my wishlist and thankfully, this list is getting smaller and smaller due to lack of space. With the discovery of the cherry brandy the other day, I was able to cross that off. Once my husband gets my two new 8x8 gardens in, I will have to start moving things around and start a longer list. Never enough plants and flowers and the lists will never end.
Oh and Linda, haven't been ignoring your email. I will get an answer to you soon. Have to get hubby home so I have more time to myself. Seems my hands are always wet doing dishes since my two teenagers seem to never stop eating.
I am so totally unaware:
Alana-3D? I haven't heard of that since I was a kid. With the glasses? How long has this been going on?
Dan-Cherry Festival?-famous Cherry Festival? Traverse City?
Well, that only took 3-4 days to get thro!
Oh, Dammit, now I remember. Guess that WASN'T a weed.
Gotta go finish pricing.
Shirley & Dan, Thanks for the tips on the coneflowers! So maybe I�ll be careful to mark where I sow in the late fall, not pull anything out of that area that looks remotely coneflower-y & have patience. White Swan is actually one where I still have some leftover seeds from my winter sowing (got them also from the Christmas Card trade this past Dec!!) so maybe that will be my first guinea pig.
Dan, that�s really interesting about the different coneflowers! I always associated coneflowers with Echinacea & didn�t know that they could also refer to other plants. Good to know!
Suzanne, belated THANKS!
Alana, I didn't know the latest Transformers was 3D! Thanks for the tip.
Shirley, the movie Avatar also had a 3D version. I've had mixed feelings about it. Sometimes they give me a headache, although a theater full of people wearing 3D glasses makes me feel strangely nostalgic for the 80s. I guess I'll try the Transformers.
Anyone else excited for the last Harry Potter?
My 4th of July weekend was spent in the wooded hills of northern Pennsylvania. We brewed homemade beer, had some amazing tequila (I never knew there was much of a difference in tequila except worm or no-worm, but the 100%agave version is AMAZING, almost floral in fragrance!), bbq chops & ribs & veggies, and homemade ice cream without the use of an ice cream maker. We called it modestly mango & it involves coconut milk. That's all I'm sayin'. PM me if you want the recipe.
Tequila, did you say tequila? Share please.
My daughter loves Harry Potter and always has. She and her father always go to the movies. I am not a fan. We bought the tickets for the midnight showing last week. It is a surprise for her dad.
Speaking of her dad, I am leaving now to go pick him up at the airport.. Catch you all later. Margo
Margo: Will let you know how it turns out with the biofilter. :) I'm surprised you use hose water directly? We treat ours, so as to not have chloramines in with the fishies.
Linda: Ok, now I want cookies. And lemonade. :)
Shirley: Dusting is... I dunno, seems a lot of work for something that happens so easily! As for ponds, I hear of people doing half-barrel ponds, so you may in fact have room for a very small one!
Different kind of 3-D! Different glasses, although they are still glasses. It's all sorts of strange, in my opinion. But then, my eyes refuse to relax with it. *shrug*
Smitties: what is an iris eyes plant? :)
Alana: I did go see Transformers! I did not see it in 3D, though, as I have difficulty with interpreting it and it gives me a headache. Fun movie!
Sadly, Harry Potter got too much of the making me jump stuff in it a few movies ago, so I stopped watching. Alas!
Just finished putting up curtains in my office - _so_ much cooler without sunlight pouring directly in half the day. Also put up a bunch more decorations, including things which remind me of the various people who love me. Always a fun thing to do. :)
How're everyone?
As of earlier today. I do not know what everything is, BTW.
hey Suzanne- wow! what a beautiful jungle you have! I wish I still had my pond. The liner sprang a leak a few years ago and we filled in the hole :(
DH said... some day...:((( waaaah!
I keep forgetting to go check out the local $ store for a noise maker. Yup. I'm a cheapskate. lol. But I'm sure we all feel the same... It's the plants we're excited about more than the noise maker... Well I hope so... Oh gosh. now nobody will want my box!!!
Don't worry! Stella said the plants I'm sending are??? Purrr-fect? I think that's what she said. I emailed her a sneak peek.
:) Laura
Suzanne, many thanks for the garden walk! You've got a lot of great stuff in that garden of yours, woo-hoo!!!
Linda, did you say sugar cookies? Oh boy! Those are, and always have been, my favoritest cookie! When I was a kid, many moons ago, Mom would let me and my younger sister get out the cookie cutters and make all kinds of stuff happen those cutters and the sprinkles! I once went over to my sister Sue's house, and she'd been experimenting... hehehe! I got there just in time for the last batch of cookies to come out of the oven, and she'd been making sugar cookies with fudge chunks in them. Not chips, CHUNKS! She'd bought a couple of pounds of fudge from one of the local makers, taken them home and cut them up, and started baking. After I sat down with some milk, I don't think I said a thing for the first half-hour. My mouth was too full to speak, and I was in heaven! Hmmm, maybe after Joe gets his blood sugar numbers down (they're now in the 1-200s, a definite improvement after the +600s a week ago) I just might have to make some of those!
Alana, so the show was good? I've heard that this one is the best of the 3, what did you think? I'm going to wait until it comes out on dvd to see it, my eyes don't handle the 3D very well.
I'm hoping Harry and the Hallows is put out in regular 2D. I've got the rest of the movies, AND the books, so I've been waiting on this one. A few years ago we had a HP-themed Friday Night Live in the downtown area which was pretty cool. During the summer there are Friday Night Lives which is kind of a combination street sale/ festival, kind of thingy. There are street performers, music, food stalls, and all sorts of things going on. For the Harry Potter one, there were tons of people dressed up as witches and wizards, the businesses were decorated, and it really made you feel like were in Diagon Alley. Very cool!
Elizabeth, as I explained in my e-mail, I'm not including you in this swap because I haven't heard that anyone you've recently traded with has actually received their ends of those swaps from you. Sorry, but that's the way it goes. I absolutely refuse to allow the chance of anyone getting stiffed in this swap. You can chat if you wish, but that's it.
Linda, congrats on the new keyboard and mouse! Doesn't it make everything feel so much better when your toys are working? Lol, and I'm glad to see you've joined me in the Empires & Allies game! Be careful though, you're going to get hooked on blowing up things! GRRRRR, go for it! LOL!
Okay, I just looked up Irish Eyes, and they're too cool! Here's a photo I copied from photobucket...
The irish eyes are the huge yellow flower. They're a type of rudbeckia (black-eyed susans) and you can't tell it in this picture too well, but they are green in the middle, hence the "irish", ya think?
Margo, I looked online for them, and could only find seeds at kingsseeds.com, and ebay. I'd get them on ebay if it were me. Good luck in your search!
Okay, I think that's about enough for me tonight. I'm almost done reading a book called "Swan" by Robert McCammon, and want to get back into it for awhile before bedtime.
G'nite all!
Love the garden photos wispfox. Do you happen to know the name of the daylily in frame 11 (tagged no. 19). I am just curious. It looks like one I used to have and have decided I miss.
Dan, I liked 2 better than this one, but it was still pretty good. As a Starship Enterprise fan I enjoyed all of the Star Trek references particularly.
I read Swan a few years ago...one of McCammon's best in my humble opinion.
Good evening, everyone.
There was a first Harry Potter? When?
Just kidding! I loved the movies. But I honestly didn't know there was a new movie coming out.
Half barrel-that could work!
Suzanne-Beautiful gardens!
I forgot about the noisemaker too! Maybe I'll find something at the yard sale.
Speaking of which, everything is priced and dragged downstairs and there is room to walk around the bed without climbing!
I loved the movie Avatar!
Suzanne, love the garden! It's always fun to see what other people have done in their space.
Dan, in the picture with the Irish eyes, what are the pink multicolored ones in the foreground? I love the colors on them.
Margo, passing the bottle of Tres Generationes along with a pinch of salt, lime wedge & shot glass your way. I went & looked for a bottle today & discovered that it was a whopping $50!!! Guess my friend really did pull out the good stuff for us. No wonder it tasted different from any tequila I'd ever tasted!
I started reading Harry Potter when I was tutoring an elementary school boy many years ago. It was the only thing I could get him to read. Course, then I got hooked.
You know, with all these remakes of old movies & tv shows, makes you wonder how much original programing there is these days. I just saw today they're coming out with a Smurfs remake now too. What's next? He-man & She-ra? Thundercats?
Funny that you should mention Thundercats... the first episode is on the 29th I think... hehehe! And yes, I'll be watching, especially since it's going to be a 2-hour premier! Thunder... thunder... THUNDERCATS... HOOOOOOO!!
The multi-colored flowers in the foreground are blanket flowers, and yes, they're a cousin to coneflowers! Ain't it cool?
Laura, keep posting! It's not really meant to be a competition (although I think it evolved into one), just a different way to determine the order in which we choose our boxes. I've been working on a list of them, and let me tell you, there's a lot of different plants that're going to be in the air next week, flying to their new forever homes! It's hard to keep up with unless I can completely focus all my attention on it! But I'll make it!
(Linda, do I smell fresh sugar cookies needing to come out of the oven?)
"pulling more sugar cookies out of the oven and icing up the lemonade" I love to see pics of everyone's gardens! I think I'll pin my daughter down next time she's over and post some of mine.
Suz, as for not knowing what things are..I have the same problem. My famous saying is "I don't remember planting this!" My mother actually bought me a fake rock that has that saying on it!
What is the last movie everyone watched..TV or otherwise? I watched a movie last night on Fear.net. It was called "She--Freak". It was made in 1967 and one of those terrible movies that you KNOW how it's going to end but you just had to finish watching it to see if you were right...it was sooo BAD!!!...LOLOL!!!
Water For Elephants! Christopher Waltz (sp?) should win an Oscar, a Golden Globe and whatever else they can hand him-He was SUPERB! Even if they did change his character, somewhat, from the book. I thought Reese Witherspoon would be a perfect fit, but somehow, she was a little off. Great Movie!
Thanks, all! Yeah, I love our garden. I'd like fewer of the orange daylilies, though! So many!
Elizabeth: no cats in the mail. ;) Also, they might eat the plants!
Laura: Oh, right! I also need to find a noisemaker, still. You're definitely not alone!
Dan: Ah, irish eyes photo, yay! Wasn't sure even what kind of plant they were, so I didn't check google. Perhaps I should have!
poisondartfrog: sadly, I have no idea what anything in the garden is called unless someone else IDs it for me. THe previous owners have not ided anything for us.
Shirley: Excellent, you got everything priced and downstairs!
Grace: actually, the garden was already established! I'm slowly figuring out what we do and don't want to keep, since we moved in here in February. I do love the house and garden, mind you. :)
Thundercats! Wee! *glee* Of course, I kind of hope that Snarf is less irritating...
Linda: I need that saying. Mostly because I'm kind of new to this whole thing, although I've had interest for a long time! ;)
Last movie I watched was actually Transformers last weekend, amusingly. It was decent, really mostly lots of explosions!
Ok, need snack and to go help my housemate organize her study!
Later, all!
Wow I threw out the Thundercats as a joke. I used to love coming home from school & catching all of those afternoon cartoons. Didn't think so many would relate. (SZ, I'm with you on the Snarf snarf snarf comment.) And DEFINITELY did not think there was actually a movie being made. wow. I might just have to haul my butt to the theater for that one.
I only go once a year for the Harry Potter with my HP friend. With old age comes annoyance at people yapping over dialogue & kicking seats & cellphones ringing. I'm turning into that cranky old lady & I'm not even 40 yet. But I do love the big screen for Harry Potter.
Last movie was at home on netflix - Brazil. My 2nd time seeing it.
keep cool, folks. It's a scorcher out there today. My loquat is singed. grace
Grace, Thundercats isn't coming back as a movie, they've rebooted the television series. Now my neighbors will get to hear me yelling "THUNDERCATS, HOOOO!!!" every week! They are sure to feel blessed, don't you think???
Want to hear something funny though? The character I'm looking forward to seeing the most is Mum-Ra...lol!
Hmmm, last movie I watched was Battle:Los Angeles. I love alien invasion movies! Best one so far I think was District 9.
I'm off a little early today, so I think I'm going to do some relaxing, and then do some sewing. I've still got to get my project done for this month's Seeds-and-Stitches group.
No! A whole series?!! I must look this up. Dammit, I got rid of cable because it was so frinkin expensive & switched to streaming only. Can I wait or get it somewhere on the Internet, or am I destined to be back in cable enslavement?
deep breath, deep breath, grace. playing in dirt will help me work this out.
Oh this heat! I know some of you have the heat worse and then drought on top of that, I just can't help whining!
I potted up over 200 plants yesterday and only 40 or 50 today. Uggh! I'm exhausted!
The "5", I'm sending are looking nice and healthy for the trip to...? I like to pot them up before the trip so I know they will be less stressed out. They have been potted for a while and are looking pretty darn good :) I know I have to rinse off most the soil and wrap in wet paper towels or shredded news paper, then bag the roots, not the tops.
Hey, what size box are you all gonna use? med right? I have NOT been in many swaps (this is my second) and now that the hour is getting near, I'm getting a tad NERVOUS!!!!
I need to go to the PO and see what the boxes look like. lol
:) Laura
GO THUNDERCATS!! I had a crush on Lionel.
Evening all! I'm whining also, the humidity is just terrible and yet I know I shouldn't there are others out there where its much worse, still...........whining.
Shirley, I had hoped to put a nice pond in on one section of the property, hasn't happened yet for one reason or another and so I ended up with one of the pre made plastic ponds. It's I think just shy of 4 feet deep in the middle so I put one of those electic donut things in it to keep the water from freezing in the winter and so far so good. I made an all natural filter that was on a gardening program on tv and its worked great the water is crystal clear. I traded last year and got some water lilies and they just bloomed this week a real pretty pink! I was checking things out today and looking for the big tadpoles that I had bought and was suprised to see a bunch of tiny little baby fish, yes!!!
Now as for movies, I love the older sci fi ones. Only have one sci fi horror channel but I have one channel thats old movies and for some reason they've been showing one night a week some of the old black and white ones from the 50's and I hate to admit it but I watched one that I remember from my childhood that I always loved "Them!" The only thing I really like about the cable is if I start a movie one night and want to go to bed its usually on again the next day or so. Okay better run for now have to run down and help a neighbor whose just healing from a tough surgery to get her animals in for the night while her husband is away on business. Kathie
Thank goodness this day is done! Went and got the SUV this morning, took the sweeper to the repair shop, stopped at a friends to pick up a card table, brought a load of laundry home-her dryer went belly up, finished my own laundry, did a last minute run to Meijer, packed the car-my neighbor Patty is the best-a little picky about packing a car, but still the best! Also talked with my daughter for about an hour-both babies are sick-bummer-I wish she lived closer, all I can do is listen. Got all the watering done but the front-have to wait for the sun to set. Busy, Busy day! And I kept finding things I wanted to take back for the sale. I'm going to look like the ragpicker's child!
And I think I have been adopted by two dogs-one is a female lab type, looks like she just had pups and the other is a scruffy little male. He made himself right at home on the back porch-the cats freaked! Neither one of them have collars-I gave them some water-not sure what to do here.
Grace-maybe someone can tape them for you.
Cable enslavement-could there be anything worse?
Laura-I checked the top of this thread-doesn't say what size, but I think on the first thread, Dan said a medium flat rate box, I think.
BTW-I'll have internet access at my brother's, so I'll be able keep in touch with this swap as it comes down to the wire!
I need food.
Okay, here's the "horse race" standing so far...
and with that, I bid you all a good night...
No way my plants will fit in a flat rate box, but I can usually ship for about the same money in a larger box.
Next movie on my 'to see list': Cowboys and Aliens with Harrison Ford.
I am going to refrain from posting for a bit, back in a day or two.
YES! I'm in the top 10! lol
Hey did you all know that balsam impatiences reseed in different colors? I started with just 2 colors last year. light pink and dark pink, and now have those plus red and purple! soo cool! and they reseed like crazy!
:) Laura
So. Warm. It's supposed to storm soon. I really, really, really hope it does.
Today was my first day working with my advisor for grad school. Did a bit of intro to what I was doing, and got myself oriented in the lab. Figured out what classes to sign up for in the fall, too.
Feeling pretty good so far; found out that I need to be in tomorrow morning unexpectedly so that I can be educated in the web software and fill in the info on the lab's website. Glad I asked today, since the next one is next month!
Think I will not walk there tomorrow; just too warm! Too humid, really.
Added some weeds I pulled (roots up!) to the top of some of my recently planted and starting to grow seedlings (cukes and peas) so as to better help them cope with the lack of rain.
The fish are far too warm (apparently they prefer 75 or below, and when I checked the water temp earlier it was 85. 80 more recently). Poor things. They should be ok, since they have lots of oxygenation!
Now, on to replies!
Grace: Thundercats rocked! I kind of worry that if I watch it now, as an adult, it won't be that interesting. But! the new series is in wiki, and there's a couple preview videos, and you can watch ten old episodes online. It does not appear that it will be watchable online, at least not legally. You may be able to rent/buy DVDs later, though?
Mum-ra _scared_ me as a kid!
Laura: I have _no_ idea what size box to use. I was kind of wondering that myself... I know that the medium flat rate isn't tall enough. Not sure if there is a tall version of the large. I may just see about finding a fairly skinny, tall box, since most of the plants I'm thinking of sending are rather tall.
Mmm, impatiens. I don't actually know much about them yet, so that's really neat to know! And red and purple are really neat to have had appear out of nowhere!
Kathie: electric... donut things? We're trying to figure out what we should do about the freezing problem this coming year. We know we lost some to the freeze last year (4 died, 7 lived). This looked interesting, though!
Shirley: busy, busy! Randomly being adopted by dogs has to be interesting. Do they seem like they were starving? Or not well groomed? If they don't look starved or like they haven't been groomed recently, they might be mooching off you. ;)
Ok, gotta go start getting ready for bed.
Later, all!
Hey Everyone-just checked the first thread, there is nothing about the size of the box. Which is good, because I'm sending some tall plants too, wouldn't fit in a medium box. Sorry if I caused any confusion!
Kathie-we must of been posting at the same time, didn't mean to ignore ya! I don't have room for even a plastic pond, unless I take out one of the side beds-and that could happen!
Laura-a friend had impatiens reseed, she was thrilled, didn't have to buy any for that bed! Your colors sound beautiful.
Wisp-Glad it's raining for you-sure hope it rains here over the weekend. The dogs look really neglected. You can see the mom dog's ribs. Patty, my neighbor, said she would keep an eye on them and arrange for someone to come and get them-that could be tricky tho.
Grace-I keep meaning to ask you-where in Northern PA were you? Anywhere near the Elk? I was born and raised in W. PA, went up several times to see the elk herd-never found them.
I should get to bed early, would like to get an early start and miss all the traffic out on 75-I really don't like travelling on that road.
Talk to ya all later!
Oh, I'm #1! Can't see that holding up, once the sale gets going!
Just finished a post and it disappeared. Anyway, just got my husband home from our trip. I picked him up at the airport last night and we had to take my bil home to Kalamazoo so stayed at a hotel for the night. Found out there are many, many greenhouses both wholesale and retail that supply plants all over the country. Woo hoo. Couldn't pass those up. I stopped at one to see what their famous "cart sale" was. You could load up one of their two shelved carts with as much as you could for 45.00. Of course they had some rules but man were the people getting quite a bit for their money. One lady had 5 flats on the bottom shelf and many large plants on the top. Everything was still so healthy looking too. We had already filled up the car (along with the luggage my hubby had) with 8 bags of peat moss that was on sale at Walmart for 2.50 a bag. I settled on 4 for 10.00 perennials including a Pow Wow echinacea which was exciting. I then went to another place and got three quart perennials for 1.79 each. It is a sickness I tell ya, a sickness.
Anyway, my hubby is out watering the bushes. Thank goodness cause that is a job I am over. Too overwhelming for me. I am going to have to start regular watering my flower gardens because it is too dry and hot and no rain in sight.
Alana, I agree on the flat rate box. I can usually get more in a bigger box for less or equal to the flat rate.
Suzanne, send me some of that rain please. Oh and to let you know, we get our water from our pond. We have a system that super purifies it and the outside water spigots don't go through the whole system. The water we drink here is so much better than the city water we use to have at our old house. It comes from a local river and has so many chemicals and purifiers done to it, our bathroom would smell like a pool when we ran a tub. Tasted terrible too.
Oops forgot. Thanks for the drink Celeegra, I could use it. By the way, those blanketflowers come in many different varieties of which I am determined to collect all. I have several of them and they are very hardy and bloom all summer and are drought tolerant. Love em.
margo and shirley was spot on the coneflower search
echinacea-paradoxa is the one i've been looking for , theres no stores around here that carry it, i'll keep looking! maybe i'll get a trade partner that has a plant :) ok thats just wishful thinking, now i know it's name so i can track it down on the internet. thanks again great detective work, and i didn't give you much to go on just an upside down thin petal yellow flower! holly
oh forgot to tell everyone that I've been over worked the past few days I'm getting back on gardening tomorrow rained here today so i can dig up a bunch. it's been terribly dry here i was afraid to dig anything up for another swap i had going, should have had mailed out. now i can really get some good roots with this rain today. I'm sleeping in and then digging and then off to the mail box with a box ...........talk to everyone again on friday, holly
Good Morning Everyone!
I see that some of you are wondering about what box to use when shipping your plants. I'm leaving that up to you to decide. Some of us will have tall plants to ship, some of us will have bulky ones, and there's just no way we can all ship in the same sized boxes. All I ask is that you ship your plants with their roots wrapped in enough damp paper towels to survive their trip via priority mail with a delivery confirmation number.
Don't forget to send a local newspaper and noise-maker for the garden along with your plants!
Mamasllamas, I'm glad to hear you figured out which echinacea it was that you're wanting! Lol, I don't have that problem luckily, I just want them all...lol!
Well, it's "off to the races" for me, so I'll chat more tonight! Everyone have a good day!
Morning, Suzanne, the donut thing for the fish pond looks like a donut with a cord attached. I think its thermostatically controlled and around thirty dollars. My little pond is above ground and I've read needs to be 4 feet deep to not freeze at the deepest part. Little nervous about this so I plug in the donut and drop it into the deepest area. I found it at the local agi store doesn't really warm the water it still freezes over the top neat to see the fish moving under the ice. I had 2 running last year and very happy to say also didn't see any change in my electric bill! Need some breakfast, Kathie
wow the coneflower rage is still on!
I have to tell you I'm loving the blanket flowers & think I need to do a little hunting. I know I got some seeds in trades last year.
Margo, sounds like you got some really sweet deals!
I'm neck & neck with mamasllamas! I'm not really competitive. I just wanted an excuse to say mamasllamas. tee hee. Love that name! :)
Shirley, I was in Milford PA / Lake Wallenpaupack area. Nice because it is always a few degrees cooler there, higher elevation, more dense forest & waterfalls than NYC. There's also a raptor rescue center that always has some amazing events. There was one including a golden eagle, peregrin falcon & snowy owl, with a surprise cameo from a wild bald eagle that happened to be around. Crazy. Also the most amazing sugar baby watermelons & local raspberries. Yum. I love summer fruit.
Suzanne, I had a black goldfish that used to play with me. I would stick my hand in the water & she would swim into my open hand until I lightly pulled on her tail & she would swim away & then swim back into my hand for more! It started with an especially hot summer where I kept sticking my hand in the water to check the temp in there. She also loved it when I added "air conditioning" (aka ice cubes). I know it's not supposed to be good for their scales, but she *loved* it & would swim around in the cold meltoff.
Holly, Suzanne, send some of that rain my way, because my garden is suffering. Unless Margo wants to pawn her hubby off to me in this trade to water my plants (will he fit in a large flat rate? I'm assuming he's considered a perenial)
:0 stay cool, folks. grace
I wonder if flat rate boxes are only good for really heavy things like paper?
Margo: sadly, the rain didn't last long, and it's back to hot and humid. I'm sure that the plants appreciated what we got, though! And it was at night, so the sun didn't immediately evaporate it.
You have a pond big enough to get water from? Wow!
Kathie: very good to know about the donut! Thank you!
Grace: we keep considering adding in ice, since it's far too warm in their water! I wish some would go into my hand; that'd be really neat. :) So maybe I will!
Alright, dinner and then off to therapy. :)
Suzanne, hungry
Suzanne, our pond is a third of an acre in a kidney shape. We have a dock out in the middle but we haven't done much swimming this year. Not sure why, it just seems we have been busy doing other things.
Holly, my paradoxa coneflower is doing pretty good and I might be able to work something out with you but would prefer to wait til things cool down. I can give it a good look when I weed next week and let you know if I feel I can separate some for you.
Dan, do you agree that the roots not only should be in wet paper towel but with a plastic bag around it as well. 1. The paper towel won't dry out which is how I lost all the plants that were sent to me last year from the west coast 2. there won't be any leakage for you guys at the post office to wonder about.
Is anyone else having tick problems this year. With the warm, dry weather, they seem to be a bigger problem. It is usually in the back acres that we find them but I just had one crawling on me here in my chair. Chances are the dog or cats brought it in. I hate them, they creep me out.
Choosing is getting close. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up. I'm getting excited. Margo
I don't know how the rest of you are doing with your weather but the heat has hit hard here. I had a plant I was going to include in my mix but the plant is not doing so well so I switched. I had to email Dan to change it. You all may want to do a walk through and make sure the plant list you sent to Dan is still a good mix. Margo
Evening all, well at least I got to have the windows open today and a nice breeze flowing through still muggy but not quite so bad.
I keep reading about the echinacaes, I know its not quite the same but I had gotten a cherokee sunset I think rudbeckia plant a couple years ago very pretty shades of chocolate. I also have black eyed susans that drive me nuts, they're pretty but boy do they reseed and I don't want that many. Yesterday one of the black eyed susans opened and wow!! It must have crossed with one of the chocoate cherokees and is it pretty, the outer edge of each petal is yellow and half way to the center is chocolate brown and a couple of the buds are doubled this is a keeper, I will definitely save the seeds!
Isn't tomorrow the day! Can't wait! Kathie
Margo, you're right, plastic bags around the roots would be a good idea.
Suzanne, flat rate boxes are a great idea if your plants will fit in them. We have a lot of different sizes and shapes of them and the priority boxes. I'm going to do my digging on Sunday, then decide what size/shape box to use.
We're getting close to the end of this thread, so I'm going to go post part 3. I'll be back!
Okay kids, you can go to part 3 now and continue the great conversation!
Here is a link that might be useful: Part 3 of Letting Freedom Ring