I went through a phase a few years back of collecting lots of different mints. some have survived several winters, although i think i need to repot. I have apple mint, corsican mint, pinneapple mint, 'ordinary' mint and some others. The pots do dry out quite quickly so I have to water everyday in the Summer (which of course is quite short here!)

Ordinary mint, I think, is called Spearmint here... How do the others compare in flavor? Are they any good for making mint sauce? May we have a recipe for that delightful English vinegary sauce which is so much better than jelly and I forgot to get my Mother's before she died...?!

My dad planted Mentha piperita in a place where nothing else would grow, and it was so happy there is spread into the lawn. It made for some very fragrant lawn-mowing!

moved the fuschia to underneath an eave near my front door (to see the hummingbirds) and it has been catching the rain from our storms the whole weekend. it will also be protected from the noon sun... and seriously considering purchasing some peony and antique roses....my hybrid teas, though beautiful, are so prone to black spot and stuff. am a lazy gardener and don't always remember to spray every week. already had to spray for aphids.

Peonies are sturdy, take all-day sunlight and love sandy soil. My father-in-law raised beautiful ones in sandy soil in Pennsylvania. Just don't try to keep the ants off of them. They need them to live, apparently. Your fuschia should be delighted with the new location. Sounds just like the way they grow at the Kilauea summit under the tree fern fronds. Since I got here, I have been such a lazy gardener that if a plant does not grow as God intended it to grow, it does not belong in my yard. I dislike hauling a heavy rubber hose all over to water whatever during dry spells.

i don't mind watering, it's the constant plucking of diseased leaves from the roses. they don't look so great with bare legs showing! our house in kansas (when i was a kid) had a whole row of peonies across the front of the house. full pink blooms every year. mom loved them. i've spoken with a nursery here who said that peonies don't care for our zone. i think, though, if i keep them well-drained, they'd be happy. perhaps raising a bed and amending the soil....

Good idea on the amending the soil for the peonies. Too bad you have no ready source of cinders. It gives the rootlets something to hang onto while helping drain the bulk of the wet compact soil. How about fireplace cinders? Are such things available there anymore? When people heated their homes with coal there were plenty of cinders around. Perhaps, with your more southerly sun you might consider filtered sun or just morning and noon sun. It is the aftenoon sunlight which wilts and dessicates man, beast and plantlife alike.

I think spearmint is different to what I mean by ordinary mint. I have that too. Ordinary mint to me is peppermint. *cough* *cough* *self-pity!* The way I make mint sauce is to chop up the peppermint finely (or use dried mint), put in cut-glass small jug *smug look*, add I teaspoon sugar, a little boiling water, mix, then add about a cup of malt vinegar. Stir well, and leave for about an hour before using. I've got some other mint recipes in my herb books, I'll lokk them up.

Thanks for your recipe, Maggie *grateful smile* but I cannot imagine why you would not prefer peppermint to spearmint. Perhaps I have never tasted peppermint. Is it good in iced tea? (Or is that an abhorance to Britons?!) And what is horse mint? Edible? Or, when you cook a horse, do you make sauce out of it just for that meat? (Probably not *smirk* just like catnip mint is not for garnishing cooked cats...)

*Keeping up with Maggie elevated nose*...I have an inherited cut leaded crystal deep bowl in which I shall make my mint sauce..*sniff* I also have one with a mtching lid from the Salvation Army thrift store which will do nicely for "ordinary" company...*can't keep a straight face giggle*

yeah, what kind of mint do you use in mint tea? (mint julep comes to mind as a type of mint tea, but is it a species?)

Spearmint...

what's mint julep? (or should this be discussed in food?)

It is, according to what I recall my father telling me, a concoction of rye or bourbon in tall frosted glass in which fresh mint has been mascerated in a "loaf" of sugar and crushed. The glass is packed with ice and whiskey of choice is added and more ice then filled with the whiskey and a spray of fresh mint to garnish it. All of the sugar stays in the bottom and is so sticky-sweet that my Dad maintained it caused a second julep to be ordered and so on.

euw, i hope that's not what they put in the mint julep tea i order at a local italian eatery. don't think so, since i've not lost what sense i have after downing a couple. mint tea is the best too!

I'll bet they just mascerate the mint and the sugar before adding the ice and tea. No whiskey. Mint tea is what I was raised on and I did the picking and cultivating of the mint, too. Absolutely fresh.

well, the irises are blooming and so pretty. (finally) and the roses are coming along nicely too. buds and blooms everywhere!

Not gonna have frost from now on I hope! Get those adeniums out in the sun, too and let them wiggle their toes in bigger pots. Get pots a lot bigger. You will be amazed how grateful they'll be.

I don't have one in my garden, but I noticed that the Primavera trees are blooming. The rest of the year they look pretty much like trash trees, so not many are planted. Come April, however, with nary a leaf, they burst into bright yellow flowers which look like sunshine and can be seen for miles. Beautiful!

the adenium is in a much bigger pot and not in direct sun just yet. am getting it used to being outside (from the office)..

What was yours like under the soil?

it was stuck to the pot! didn't find a bulb underneath but lots of roots.

Ours must get tons more water. Mine looked like it had elephantiasis!

maybe, mine's just a baby and i've only begun to give it some good water. have owned it for 6 months or so. it's in a plastic pot so the clay doesn't absorb all the water before the plant gets any benefit (esp. ones that like lots of water).

Mine are in plastic or glazed ceramic (neither of them my choice)...but the huge one I have had for several years and the littler one has been a few years. No seeds yet. I'd like to raise one from seed like my two are so they have fat bottoms *grin* since I'm never gonna have one of my own flesh...*sigh*

yup and after you play with them you gotta wash your hands! *grin* get it? mine has the fat bottom and a couple of arms coming directly out of the middle of this and a bunch from the top. i like the leaves and their fuzzy feel.

*laugh* Indeed! You play with yours, too?! They are the neatest plants ever!

after noticing the obvious, the second thing i did was touch the leaves.

So did I...I like it touch things which are mine...or that I may be allowed to touch ( not a touch everything in sight when shopping, though). Praise is also good for plants as well as loved missing others....

. . . about 30 or so shrubs, vines and bushes around the pool so far this month, there's a big privacy fence now and it's becoming a great hangout. Red tipped photinias, wisteria, and many varieties.

please post pictures! (i'm working on a picture diary of my garden)

Will do! Next up are some castor plants, know anything about them?

And another shot of a castor bean plant:

castors are great (and big) but they are poisonous so be sure to wash your hands after handling them!

Whoa? How poisonous?

well, don't eat 'em!

OK wolfie, having some concerns about whether to even plant them!

planting them is fine just if you cut them or whatever, wash your hands before you eat. i have a poisonous plant in my garden too (my adenium-desert rose).

Ah, I have to photo my ademiums and post the pictures. They are full of flowers again. Outrageously gorgeous! Plumeria are also toxic with milky sap. We just don't float them in punch bowls - we make leis out of them then wash our hands.

Oh, and my popcorn orchids are blooming too. Will photo those, also!

Castor beans can kill little kids. Here they grow to tree-sized shrubs and have lovely seeds which used to be strung for leis. Not anymore. Too many kids were gnawing on the leis (like they do on pencils) and getting very sick. Toxic to pets too.

just like pontsettia.....i have lots of pics of my garden and will post them (or a link to them) for you all to enjoy.

Great, can't wait!

Sending house male out ot cut grass today ... its sunny for once ...strawberries seem to have disappeared from last year ..dunno what happened they're usually showing well by now. Loads of rain so far this year .. still have floods locally as unsuspected/forgotten streams reappear. Not much in bloom in my garden yet .. although the bluebells are nice in the woods ...

Are bluebells related to bluebonnets?

No, totally different I think ... I posted some pix here ages ago ... I'll try and find them again for you ....I think they were in Travel ..Britain or something.

didn't find my 'spring' pix but heres a couple of links http://www.offwell.free-online.co.uk/bluebells.htm http://www.gleaden.f9.co.uk/garden/2000/bluebells.htm

Did ya look at the bluebells???? they are finished here now ...but Summer is on the way ..and my Hypericum is HUGE since i cut it right back ..We're going to have a splendid show soon....

I'll take a look later, I'm in text mode only right now.

tip: label the plants in your garden now. then in the fall and winter when you plant your bulbs, ornamental trees, and shrubs, you'll know what you have where and won't accidentally dig them up. also is great if you have to move so the new owners know what's in the beds.

Great idea, I needed another garden project for today, some of them already have those nursery labels still.

nursery labels can fade though. i bought some metal labels that you poke in the ground and used permanent marker on them. i've used white plastic labels too and they've all faded and dry rotted in the sun.

Plastic "depolymerizes" and crumbles. That is, the polymers making up the plastic are not fond of UV rays and it makes them stop making continuous chains (or so my daddy explained to me when I was a whole lot younger) and thus the plastic crumbles. If they don't do that it will be in our landfills forever. Make them out of styrofoam and you are stuck with them for all time. Here I cannot even use metal....our fumes eat them faster than the sun does plastic. Mapping it the only way to keep track of what your garden is doing!

that's true too. and take pictures of them in various stages of bloom and growth, makes for a lot of pictures but you'll be glad you did. and if you make double prints, you can leave a set for future homeowners!

well, we're getting into the dog days of summer and your outdoor gardens know it. mine do, at least, the roses haven't done so well this year and are quite leggy though i've been cutting them down to get new growth from the bottom. they went nuts this spring but are just too hot and tired right now. don't forget to water your flowers. those in beds need a good soaking once a week (better heavy once a week, than light every day-this makes for shallow roots, deep soaking means deep roots) if you keep plants in clay pots, you may want to water them everyday if not twice a day. my plants in plastic pots want water at least three times a week. this includes your window boxes.

the roses are starting to perk back up and getting ready for their fall show! don't forget to give them some food (coffee grounds, egg shells, banana peels, and your basic rose fertilizer).

Boy, those castor plants out by the pool are getting enormous! One of them is about 8' tall and the other dozen or so are getting about 4 to 6' tall. Wonder how much more they'll grow?

hmmm...not sure how big they'll get. have you looked them up anywhere?

Here,(in Hawaii) Castor plants grow wild and they are trying to eradicate them since their beans are so toxic (Beware of small children and dogs, Terry!) They get VERY big sideways and if they get enough water can be 10 feet or more in height!

my new sunny california garden is yucky! i've done my best with what i have so far (which isn't much) and i'm sad to say that even the little bit up sprucing up i did hasn't helped. but, it is winter and plants do go dormant even in So Cal. so watch out spring!! (got some daffodils in pots and in surprise spots in the garden--hope they come up)

Covered in snow and ice...