my garden today

Under a foot of snow!

I didn't really plant anything but I did mash up the rotted jack-o-lanterns and mixed them in with the dirt. Exciting, huh?

I can't contain myself hardly.

Glad I could brighten your day? Big date with the blond bombshell tonight? What does she do?

She's out of work right now. Used to work in the health food industry and in political lobbying. She was in management. Not tonight. Someone else.

Woo Woo! You go Paul! Hope you two have fun... where are you going? Do the women ever plan these dates, seems like lots of pressure on you usually.

Going for a quiet evening in the country. The planning is split up usually.

And tonight? Big plans?

I have three different invitations to go out. Diplomacy time.

Did you spread out the invites over all three days, or choose the best offer?

I spread 'em out.

Woo Woo!

No, woo woo woo.

Uh oh! Overdose!

Things are still going great.

things are still covered in snow!

Wish I could come up and help ya defrost a couple...

o melons?!?!

Sure, why not? There's enough to share, right?

I tilled the garden yesterday to 'prepare the soil' but it will be a good long time before I get to plant outside. Still snow on the horizon even though the weekend was sunny and in the 50s. All my daisies have sprouted inside and I' going to seed the tomatoes on Sunday. Carrots and pumpkins later in the month of March. I'm really excited about the prospect of living things again. My lillies started poking their heads through on Wednesday and I hope they survive the snow forcast for the rest of the week. My pansies have been blooming all winter during spurts of sunshiny warmth. Gardening is so theraputic for the mind and body (shoveling can be a real workout!) I am so looking forward even to weeding!

I know the feeling, Stacey. I love my plants. The pansies and snapdragons have been blooming all winter (of course not really a winter at all here). My roses have new growth coming out (even though I gave 'em a hard pruning). The daffodils are blooming, the tulips are getting ready to and the irises have been threatening to grow all summer and winter but nothing more than stubs as yet.

A place with no winter, just like here!

think we'll get a late frost, though....

El Nino was supposed to dump 8 - 10 inches on Denver according to Monday nights forecast. On Tuesday they changed the amount to 3 - 5 inches and today it was ammended again to trace flurries in late afternoon. Well... at 4:05pm it's sunny and in the high 40s! I love it when weather people are wrong in my favor!

know whatcha mean, we were supposed to get storms this afternoon and nutin' happened!

nutin', honey?

nutin', *giggle*

k

was given a bag of vermiculite for my garden... so excited!!!

*giggle* (better watch out, wer might show up with a couple of barrels)

LOL! *still giggling* I am visualizing now!

What Stacey in an ocean of wet vermiculite?

oooooh!

LOL!

Like that image, wolf?

Don't mind me, I'm just going to sit here and watch for awhile...

sure you don't wanna get a little dirty too?

Like the pictures?

*smile*

So, you got frogs in your garden, also?

nope. but i want some.

today, i picked up a grandiflora rose, queen elizabeth, think she's gonna be big! and planted a few more tulips!

my lilies are a getting ready to bloom!?!?!? It's like they don't realize it was 6 degrees last week!

It looks like your keeping your bulbs warm, though!

i'll share the details later... *smile* Planted cosmos, columbine, baby's breath, violas, and other assorted flowering plants on Saturday. Colorado has been very warm (high 50s and low 60s) so I couldn't help myself. I might lose a few if we get that 'Big One' everyone is going on about. Personally I think the October blizzard and its accompaning 24 inches of snow was plenty to constitute a full winter!

Despite the alternating warm/snowy days and my premature planting, the garden is looking good. In bloom: Tulips, day lilies, pansies, dandilions Sprouting: sunflowers, tiger lilies, columbine, violas, baby's breath Spreading: Morning glories, crab grass

all my roses are doing great save HT Blue Moon. She was so beautiful the last two years but gave out over the winter. Poor thing. Couldn't find another, so planted a hybrid musk instead. Lots of blooms on that one, so we'll see. The tulips and daffodils are done, irises are still growing, no blooms yet.

Hey, Stacey, would those morning glories be Heavenly Blues or Wedding Bells? If they are, save me some seeds, will ya?

saving you all kinds of things..

Is that so?

maybe

but more probably not. Which is okay, as it keeps you from being as disappointed. *smile*

the roses are bloomin' like mad! the garden smells wonderful, woohoo!!

The wildflowers are still in profusion in my yard.

My 'planted way too early' flowers are coming up nicely. Sunflowers grow FAST! Most is coming in as ground cover right now before it blooms but the tulips (red and orange), daffodils, pansies (purple, yellow, magenta and white), irises (deep purple) and morning glory are adding plenty of color!

my tulips and dafs are done, pansies still going, irises still in progress.

WHAT garden????? My entire lawn is covered in leaves!!! HUGE HUGE sycamore leaves oh, and snow now!

Can't find your garden for the snow?

more for the leaves! HUGE (bigger than your face kinda leaves!)

our one tomato plant has waited until now to produce! so we put a plastic compost bin around it with a plastic tarp over the top. i don't know how it'll do, but we'll see! my roses have kicked in and my iris has produced yet another set of leaves. more bulbs are in the vegee bin in my fridge. i'll plant them later this month or early dec. (more tulips and irises). oh, and i'm growing my first amaryllis and she'll bloom any day now. think i'll put her outside too so she can propogate!

the crocuses are crocusing out o the ground... it's been so warm and sunny, they think it's Spring already (and I'm not telling them any different!) The mums and violas and trees have started their Spring-like buddings... I hope we don't get a hard freeze while I'm away... .ok

Bluebonnets are going like gang busters here.

awwww... Paul you're KILLING me!

"killing me softly with his posts, killing me softly..."

with his posts...

the irises are still growing leaves (funny, cuz they never get very far then they die off and start again). my vegee bin bulbs were planted in feb (early) and are already bringing tulips, mini irises, irises, and daffodils. the first batch of daffs from a couple of years ago only gave me one flower. guess, it's not done yet. the roses all have blooms ready to burst at any second. i didn't cut them back in feb. instead, trimmed them lightly in nov/dec, then let them go. i planted hostas under my backyard elm tree, and the vegee garden is in the middle of being tilled. we'll see if we actually grow anything in it this year. (oh, and the hardy tomato plant gave up a long time ago)

OK I'll be gentle, Stacey.

(hehe...it's usually Stacey promising to be gentle...)

he he yerself!! *grin*

she says as she posts number 69...

hee hee!

okay... so they're not in my garden, but they're on my desk... lots and lots and lots of daisies! from the sweetest boy!

congrats!

ok. i've got a fuschia. just one, mind you, and i plan to put it out front (where there's more shade) and see how she does. gonna keep her in a pot because i'm not sure how much cold it can stand should i plant it. anyone know?

not me...give me a couple of days and I can find out...

well, i found some fuschia societies but they're mostly for showing plants and stuff. i haven't been able to find out anymore about planting outside (except for folks in parts of california). the tag says it can stand temps as low as 32 but doesn't mention anything about planting outside. also want to pick up a couple of bleeding hearts for the shade. those i know can stand it outside.

you're gonna plant some Democrats in your yard?

haha

Oh, I'm so happy now spring is coming. I feel it in my ole bones, and see it in the garden. These li'l blue-whiite flowers that bloom now for a few weeks, after the Schneegl�ckchen went, and before the Osterglocken come. In the mornings, the birds sing happily, aware that the cats are just off night-shift. Everything in my county turns green, the fields turn from brown to green, and I now, in summer there will be a sea of gold (not as big as in the Midwest, etc., but this was good enough for the Celts, the Romans and whoever passed by, and it shall be good enough for my, until I pass by, too.), with green spots from sugarbeets and colorful patches where the roses grow. The trees get leafes again, and don't stand around naked anymore like they did all winter long. And not too far away, just around Easter or two weeks later, cherry trees will bloom, changing hills from brown and green hues to the purest white. And as I will stand beneath them, and inhale the sweet smell, my gaze will wander across the stretch of land before me, and I will love what I see, for what I will see is good.

As I've mentioned before (always in the wrong conference)... my tulips, hyscinths and violas are blooming! The Peones are growing and the snapdragons and the sweetpeas and the mums... no blooming on them for awhile though. All the trees are budding and the grass is slowly turning green again! And everything smells so good!!!

peonies don't do well in our area for some reason. when i lived in kansas, my mother had several along the front of the house. they were so lovely when they bloomed! the tulips and hyacinth's have since bloomed, the pansies are still going strong and the roses are just going to town. i planted some hostas in front and back and they're doing pretty good too. the salvia is coming back and the hydrangeas are putting forth new leaves. oh, and the fushcia actually has buds, now if they open is another matter entirely!

hydrangeas!!! In your yard!!! Those plants HATE it here... WAY to dry!

she lives on/in a bayou...

that's why cacti don't like living there... (methinks that ring made you all sillyheaded!)

I got the logic... I was just envious!!! (and yes, it kinda has... all that sparkle ya know!)

who got a ring? what? you guys lost me there. yeah, bog type plants like it here. plus the hydrangeas are sitting right under the eaves so they get a good soaking.

wolfie, wolfie, wolfie... While we were in Europe, Brandon proposed... the ring is a big shiny engagement ring! /

=O woohoo!!!!!! congratulations girlfriend!!

Ah, to see the joy of youth! And to have a cherry tree outside my window that just starts to explode in blossoms!

*turning green*

like kelly green? or jade? or flourescent??? (sorry, I'm telnetting)

btw: i love the background in here!

I was starting to wonder... have you checked the one in poetry lately?

no, not yet. will go there next.

and to you, Stace...whichever green you prefer...

the poetry background looks pretty cool, wer!

good I'm glad

but what I really want to know is, is it summoning the muse back?

i have no idea where she went....

who?

really! stacey, my (poetic) muse went on a long vacation and i don't know where she went or when she's coming back....

she probably went to the French Riviera... that's where I'd go if I had a long vacation coming up. How's about you be your own muse, Wolfie?

amazing how quickly six inches of snow melts... it's over half gone (all gone in the sunny parts!) Man, I love Colorado. It's as moody as I am!

now there's a license plate slogan!

not as complimentary as some... but a slogan nonetheless!

"Moody as Stacey" - might even become a proverb. I think I read it somewhere already, guys, drag out the copy of the Good Book y'all nicked in the motel last time and look! I'ma looking into The Poet's works...

Remember all the seed that ended up in a puddle in the corner of the lawn??? Well I threw out more (on top of the snow one of those weekends) and it's going to town. My sunflower seedlings are coming up too and my cosmos!!! The tulips are done but the hyacinths are still popping up hither tither and yon! This'll be the first nice weekend in awhile so I think I'll spend sometime sowing!

I worked a lot - besides finishing the next issue, our #13 - on cleaning up the garden. There was still all the trash and wooden beams and boards from tearing down the old construction, that stuff had to go. NOW. So I told it, and it went.

wish my weeds would listen to me that well.

no kidding! alex, you have a house? i don't know why i thought you lived in an apartment! i've been working on my husband to buy a camp. you know, a delapidated old place on the water. nothing big or fancy nor expensive. i told him about growing up with my opa's weekend house and how nice it was to go there. so, that part of me i inherited from him. I WANT A WEEKEND HOUSE *stomp stomp stomp*

oh, while i'm here, i guess i could update my garden. the hostas in the backyard are being eaten by something. the hostas in the front yard look sickly. the salvia is going to town as well as the cannas and roses. my pansies are still heavily blooming so i'll not dig 'em up yet. the iris still has that one bud and it hasn't opened yet! AND i found a slug on it the other morning. my hydrangeas are blooming nice and pink (was worried they'd be blue and i'd have to put pickle juice down next time i watered- the vinegar provides acid which brings out the pink blooms) the fuschia kept dropping leaves (which actually looked like they were suffering from black spot). the blooms are spent and hopefully i'll have seeds as i deadheaded the flower part only and the seed pods are starting to swell. new growth is spurting and hopefully more blooms in time for the hummingbirds. speaking of which, i have four or five feeders up for them (one of which you suction cup to the window). can't wait to see them arrive! AND, the oxalis came back again and is sprouting leaves. i have two sunflower seeds that have sprouted along with yellow cone flowers (black eyed susans i call them). am waiting for the forget-me-nots to sprout as i killed the last batch. my columbine sprouts all died (have to get more of them). however; i have five rooted african violets working on having babies and 7 pots of gesneriad seeds waiting to sprout. you can say that my garden is doing quite well indoors and out!

Had the most brilliant editors meeting yesterday! I've invented a "layout-brunch", where production staff would pop in, eat and drink, listen to some nice music, chat all kinds of talks, and then - KAWOOM! - suddenly explode into high-efficiency mode, and hack the mag's structure together, and plan the whole issue #13. In the end, we all were really happy, slightly tipsy fromm all the Sekt we had (slightly after sobering up a bit, that is), and have spent a great day! Today, I've filled up the container with all left-over bits, little boards, old branches, broken bricks. Shoveled away for another 4 hours. Will go to a concert later as due rewards (New Orleans finest: Mr. Quintron and his charming wife, Miss Pussycat). (Wolf, I LIVE in a house. Don't have it, though. But I work in the garden. Don't worry, most people would guess me living in a cheap dingy flat full of trash and old mags, too. Which is actually not far off from my general style and level of income, but THIS place is something different. AND will stay so.)

no one could "work" in a garden...what's the point of having one, then? i putz around in mine (was gonna use piddle, which is closer to truth, but was afraid y'all would think that had something to do with answering nature's call, which, in a way does, but nothing to do with direct fertilzation, if you know what i mean). OK, i don't pee in my garden, but i do piddle! *laugh* alex, cheap dingy flat full of trash and mags, no, not quite what i thought. i figured something retro, a studio apartment with lots of black, glass, and chrome. isn't that the style all music mag editors own? glad your brunch went well. sounded quite productive!

yanked dandelions from the yard yesterday... sunflowers about 3 inches tall now cosmos sprouting everything looks to have survived the winter with the exception of the marigolds... oh well peones are growing well columbine going NUTS in the side yard -- not blooming yet of course but the best part??? the grass seed I kept throwing down is really going to town!

woohoo!! (peonies, i'm so jealous *smile*)

yea... but you've got hydraganeas!!

haha!! went by wal-mart today and they had gallon pots with peonies in them. i was tempted but a local nurseryman told me they don't do well here.

"Grass going to town" - Stacey, WHAT business ARE you in? Is that growing weed on the side, or genetic engineering? Wolf, "something retro, a studio apartment with lots of black, glass, and chrome" is not what I live in. But I have been asserted it's not half shabby, either. "Isn't that the style all music mag editors own?" - perhaps those whose magazines have great circulation or record company bosses. I just rent, and sales of #12 were not what I hoped for. A direct hit into my worst-case-scenario calculations. Just got some info from distributors today.

oh, i'm sorry sweetie! it'll pick up, i'm sure!

Thank you for your kindness. I only wish you were right. But summer is always worse for mags than spring, so what's to expect? Got no funds to advertise, but without promotion, I'll have again several thousand copies of yet another issue lying like lead at the newsstands. Ad-sales will not be too hip, either. Might be some people gotta find a serious job by early fall... It's hard to do quarterly publications, because you can't really afford a single bummer, and the next chance to catch up is always long time away. You only got four tries per year. This *IS* harder than I thought when the others and I volunteered to keep the mag running. But let's enjoy the ride while supplies last. In August, we'll do a night in a club during the biggest music expo in the world, PopKomm! Got six bands booked in a great R'n'R-club, and we'll SHAKE the place! Perhaps this earns a bit, too. (I'd love to webcast that, or our radio shows, but until now, I didn't get anything to work... Part missing hardware, it seems, part complete ignorance of the basic how-to)

is advertising on the web an option? BTW... if I were in the BUSINESS of grass growing I would hope my success rate would be a bit better... I've been trying to grow the same patch by the driveway for nearly a year now!!!

*hahahaha*

"advertising on the web an option?" - difficult. I need to reach the people in my focus areas, Frankfurt and Berlin - where the stuff is at the newsagents and needs to MOVE. Move B I G T I M E !!! Gotta get some very cheap or free advertisement there... The web thing might help to reach people who could get interested in a subscription (which isn't bad, but doesn't solve my core prob; anyhow: growing on subscriptions is great in the long run, too). Only bad we're limited to a readers with german language skills (we also have *some* English content...). Still: Any ideas? (Maybe you should get into grass growing, Stacey, and we'd run a sample in the mag. Bet THAT would do it - everybody would have a nice summer! Your accountant, my accountant (=me), the happy readers...)

always thinking Alexander, you're always thinking!

Huh? Explain, please (and let's use http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/screwed/157 , because that is dedicated to the noble task of explaining stuff to me).

And for the subject that started this, please take a look at http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/business/2 , maybe you or Wolf or any of the other folks have some ideas that might be good to hear about.

and my garden looks good too!

(self-editing the comment I oh so much want to make here!!!) can you do fliers or pamphlets and distribute them at the clubs, universities, coffee houses, street corners, newsstands, bookstores, music stores, et al, Alexander?

hey... yer posting in the wrong section (except the terribly obscene comment you wanted to made about my garden!)

I posted other suggestions there... (it wasn't terribly obscene...)

too bad...

clarification: obscene=yes terrible=not

and that is certainly what I figured...

just so there's no misunderstandings...

there are ALWAYS misunderstandings

forever and ever, amen

hey george!

hey ringo!

did no one get me funny???

I lost the reference somewhere...oops...

Say again, Paul?

alright guys... I'll walk you through it (sad sad sad) "forever and ever amen " is a line from a george strait tune WER said the line, I called him george. Nothing to do with the Beatles and nothing to do with gardens so I'm changin the subject now My garden is grooving! Poppies blooming, irises blooming sunflowers about5 inches tall cosmos coming up snapdragons blooming violas still blooming gras has sprouted in the previously weedy bald spots and is green green green! columbine is going strong, I've even got some early bloomers roses are coming back! lilacs are kicking butt! oh and my vege/fruit garden... tomatos and strawberry plants for now. I'll think about the eggplant and arugula in a coupla weeks.

oh did i forget to mention that the dandelions are thriving in certain sections???

What can I say? You're extremely witty - as you always are -, and we're the dimwits we always are. Good to know one's place, though. Right, John? ;=} Gotta get the lawn-to-be ploughed up. Next month, after the baby's at the printers...

certainly good to know one's place so you know where to direct the taxi after that night of binge drinking

my columbine hasn't sprouted at all. the rock cress is going, the pansies are gone, the roses and african daisies are doing well along with the hydrangea and my gardenia bloomed for the first time and her perfume was almost overwhelming! woohoo!! bought a new rose and she's in the back yard (a climber--red blaze) and the ginger plant is coming back this year. maybe she'll bloom!

anyone got any tips for Brugmansias or Brunfelsias?

Hello all, I hope you don't mind that I just jump in. unfortunately, I don't know what brugmansias are. is there another name for them? I'm new and my garden is doing pretty good. We have floods of rain one day, then go through 3 weeks of draught. I've seen a couple roses bloom, the others will be late in August/September. I weeded a patch of ground and planted what was labeled 'wild flowers', a brew I got from the home depot. Little marigolds and wild green grass shoots are growing. Anything to replace those weeds with other better looking weeds.

i'm so happy to see you here, roark! wer: i don't know what those things are, but i'll do some looking for you. my garden looks horrid. i mean, the roses are into their third or fourth bloom but are getting rather leggy. i prune them back a bit but nothing severe to encourage more growth. which they're rewarding me with. the irises are still leaves, no blooms yet. my salvia is leggy. the hydrangeas are putting forth new strong growth. the gardenia is taking off like a madman and growing more buds. my fuschia is awful. the hoya has one flower bunch growing. pineapple is actually growing (and i just lopped off t e top of a pineapple fruit and put it in dirt). columbine is sprouted and getting bigger. rock cress died the day after i transplanted them. on a happier note: i made my first batch of hummingbird feeder sans red food coloring and it is a success. in fact, i was weeding the rose garden and i coulda sworn what i thought was a huge bee was going to land on my head. instinct took over and i waved my hands only to look up and see this small hummer looking at me as if saying "why did you do that?" *beams*

Hey roarksmuse! Welcome! I picked the fourth of what will surely be metric tons of tomatos from my garden this morning. the corn is growing, growing, growing but it looks like one of the stalks is not going to produce much. The zucchini's are a bloomin' but no sign of squash yet... All the flowers are looking great except I let my violas go to seed and my peones are just puttering along. They're VERY green and lush but no flowers...

wolf - when to you prune your roses? It seems a bit late in the season to me. You should cut them back very early early spring, or even late late fall just before the cold. my daylilies have bloomed and gone on. they were very early this year for some reason. my peonies bloomed and went on to sleep too. oh how beautiful the were. they were are deep ruby red with yellow middles. so beautiful I have had them for about 5 years, and this is the first year that they bloomed. I had a lot of cutting to take in the house. Stacy, I love corn. send me some. (smile) Question: can word wrapping be put on these postings? later.

I think if you just type there's word wrapping (up to like 200 characters) My peonies are pink... pale pink. My day lilies are red and orange and yellow... they are going to town where are you from roarkmuse?

roarkmuse: i prune my roses every fall and spring but during the summer, i prune as needed (i.e., dead branches, dead head, and crossing branches) i wish i could grow peonies. i've read that they're good in zone 8 but local nurseries don't recommend them. my mom's were pale pink and beautiful! no daylilies, but i think i'll get some bulbs this fall (they're perennial, right?) my corn stalks died. so stacey, send some my way too!

wolf, try looking around for them in somebody's yard. Begin begging now, and in the fall, plant them and see how they do. nothing hurts a try. heh heh who knows, after they are there a few seasons, you may get lucky. mine were given to me by a friend. I have had bad luck with the mail order house - Burpee for roses and bulbs. their roses never did anything and their bulbs only gave me leaves (gladiolas).

my store bought irises are only giving me leaves! why is that? the tulips and daffodils bloomed nicely and they were purchased at the same place. jackon and perkins has a website and you can order catalogs for free. i've purchased a couple of their roses from local stores, but am thinking about ordering some. they also have perennials (bulbs and plants).

Hi Wolf, Honestly, I am not quite sure. Sometimes they can be planted a little to deep. That is what I have heard. I'll look at the Jackson and Perkins site. thanks

you're welcome, sweetie!

I gots a sprinkler system! I gots a sprinkler system!

braggart!!!

We got one too, but ours is called God, and He does not want me to grow roses. He maketh it too wet for them no matter how and where I planteth them. However, He adores ferns..they are growing in cracks in the driveway and in the drain holes of other potted plants...*sigh*

you took my thought, marcia!! roses, nope they can't stand wet feet. have you thought of planting them in raised plots? you know, put the crown a foot above the ground (maybe two) and fill in around it with bricks, retainer wall blocks, or landscaping timbers? this may keep them happier. also, lots of sun. mine love the all day direct sun they get here.

I have thought of lots of things, but the reality is they will go where O'O wants them to go. That means where they look good right now, but the sun will be far from them for 6 months and the ferns will take over. The only real way I can think of to do it is to get rid of lots of the Bouganvillas and put the roses in huge pots which drain well and have a lot of loose planting material in them. He mulched the day lights out of them, and they hat itO.

They hate it, too *scowl from telnet goof*

roses can be grown in pots but i've not tried it. if it looks good to have a rose somewhere will it look good when the leaves fall off and it fails to grow because of the location? perhaps the OO should forget about roses if not willing to give them what they need. bouganvillas are really pretty and bloom profusely. and if you want something exotic, try orchids, they'd love your environment and can stay outside all year with shade during the hottest part of the day.

You're right, of course...I have orchids of various sorts blooming right now in the most unlikely places...like my aloe vera pot into which O'O stuck a rooted cutting just for lack of other places to put it. They are already growing and blooming in my trees and plumerias. They are ridiculously easy to grow in Hilo. They just need a place to hang onto and lots of gentle rain.

Wolf is right Marcia: try to grow roses in pots. They can get really large in them, if the pot is big enough...and it should be deep! Roses on stems look quite beautiful in pots. If you have any questions on roses, just ask me, I grew up with them.

99 was the greatest garden-year around here for decades...and I couldn't plant ANYTHING, because this place is a construction site since three years now! NADA!

Where is "around here?"...it was great for ferns and moss and epiphytes, but not roses. I grew up on the East Coast, and my father grew the most incredible roses which were so fragrant...*sigh* But, in Hawaii, I guess we must be content with bromeliads, orchids and gardenias. Up the mountain, they grow lovely camellias and hydrangeas. But, no one I can think of grows roses which look very good. They do not even sell them here - they import the ones for special occasions at a ridiculous price! Thanks for the suggestions, though. I have had the best luck with miniature roses...think I will stick to them, and they like my pots!

mini's do well in pots, marcia, though mine died. the roses got really ugly in mid-summer and have pruned them back for the fall. they've got new shoots coming up and will have beautiful flowers in october. my gardenia went through it's second bloom after shooting up all over the place. really didn't expect that. the hydrangeas are busy growing leaves and won't bloom again until spring. my peacock orchids are coming up and they always bloom during the fall (oct and nov) and smell heavenly. (not real orchids, named so for the shape of the flowers). i tried a pineapple this year (took the top from a friend). it's actually growing beautifully. unfortunately, it will be several more months before she bears fruit and i'll have to find a space in the house to winter it.

For pineapple, the rule of thumb is 18 months from the rooted crown to harvest of ripe fruit. You may need to prop it up as the fruit matures, which is better than letting it fall over and just ripen on one side. You should have good success. I have never lost one due to neglect or over indulgence with nutrients. You will need to keep it where it can see sunlight and is warm over the winter. How cold does it get in your neck of the woods?!

normally we see the 20's but it doesn't last long. do you think it would respond well to plant lights? oh, and i have good southern exposure and could put her next to my patio doors (inside)

The patio doors is the perfect solution. Enough light and protection from the sub 40� weather. It should do very well, and you can admire your "bromeliad" as it blooms and fruits. They are very pretty potted plants!

Did you know pineapples bloom with royal purple tiny trumpet flowers? There is a hummingbird which likes the nectar of same, but it pollenates the flowers. When this happens you end up with a pineapple full of large seeds. There are no hummingbirds in Hawaii...yet!

...When it rains in Germany, you can be sure it must be summer, if it would be winter it would snow...people "around here" make jokes like:"This years summer was on a tuesday". So in normal german summers you don't have much fun in your garden, this years summer was great, lots of harvesting, but unfortunately not for me. The craftsmen, who are painting the house killed my 50 year old vine last week...Nearly everything that was left from my grandparents in the garden was destroyed in three years of constr ction...and I am really sad, they've spoiled my new lawn with cigarette-ends and garbage and I can't do anything but wait till they're gone and see what's left afterwards...

A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is Found some help for us rose-lovers. Look at: http://www.ars.org/experts/experts.html The American Rose Society offers you lots of informations about roses. There is something about roses in pots and they even offer you climate zone informations PLUS maps! (Hawaii included!) http://www.timeless.com offers information about a special rose that is able to live with wet feet- It's called "Swamp Rose" (rosa palustris scandens) and looks quite beautiful!

Oh, that's right...Germany (you bought stuff at a flea market for a few marks...I am remembering...). My sympathies on your old vine. Was there no way to save it? No cuttings to be taken and nutrured? I am heartbroken for you! Thanks for the info on the swamp roses - they sound like the kind we need in Hilo. My dad used to make a dry white wine out of our Dr VanFleet roses which to my childhood palate tasted "sour" but smelled just like the roses. (I got to do the stirring and pushing under of the rose petals as I harvested and washed them.)

I cut it back, so their work wont be disturbed. One morning I came out of the house and the vine was...gone! They sawed it away just above the ground. Do you have the recipe for this rose-wine? I would love to have this! My mum has a secret recipe for a rose-bowl (tastes funny and has much alcohol in it): You need rose petals (from about 10-15 blossoms), soak them in half a bottle cognac over night, then strain them out and add a bottle of champagne and a bottle of white wine to the liquid that has gotten a rose smell and color. Add a rose pedal to every glass you serve. You'll get drunk within minutes, but my mothers guests love it. My brother used to call it "Metasistox-bowl" ( a remedy against rose-diseases)!

It involves yeast and water and loads and loads of rose petals out of which the yeast gets the sugar it needs to grow. I believe we began with a little sugar added to aid the propogation of the yeast. The net must have wine recipes - alas, my Dad is gone to the sacramental wine in the sky, and it has been since I was 10 years old that I have done this. You will end up pressing and decanting and straining and filtering the wine before corking, but it is such lovely stuff. It is worth the effort...and i is slightly pink, just like the roses. I have recipes for cordials and "bowls" in Henley's formulas (1907), but nothing for making the wine in the first place. He even has the recipe for a form of your Mother's intoxicating brew!

i remember roses in germany. i figured the states just didn't have the right climate. *haha* as for your vine, check the bark still poking out of the grown, scrape it with your fingernail. it should be green underneath. if it is, it's still alive and will live to grow again. just put something around it to protect it from further abuse.

Roses were exquisite in suburban New York City (Westchester County, to be precise.) We had a very large 3-storey house and there were Blaze and Dr VanFleet roses climbing all over one side of it. My father always took great pride in his roses, even when he retired to Arizona. Must have been something genetic he inherited from his father, a graduate of The Royal Horticultural College at Kew...!

Kew! Are we talking "Kew Garden"-Kew?

As in London, England?

Indeed, yes!!!

My first trip to London had a pilgrimage to Kew Gardens...I could feel the atmosphere and his presence. Most phenomenal experience...it was a lovely day and I was seated on a bench which well may have been there when he was. I liked the thought that he might have sat on that very bench...so I sat quietly and absorbed the atmosphere and told my son quietly about his great-grandfather. That is one of the reasons one should always travel with one's children - having taught them how to behave beforehand, o course. David was 14 at the time, and he was amazed at everything we experienced, and all the ladies loved him! His lasting impression was hefting the innocent-looking block of lignum vitae and almost dropping it (I was prepared to catch it, knowing that he was unaware of its extremely heavy weight.)

ahh... my garden is beginning to awaken! A bit early I might add. Under the comfort and insulation of fallen leaves, my mums have begun to grow again. I had to water the lawn on Saturday... it's been so warm I'm afraid the grass will come out of its hibernation and die of dehydration!

Wow! This is a little early, for sure, Stace! Even if the green stuff gets frozen again, at least the roots will be happy and healthy!

Spring is arriving in England too! My daffodils have set heads and are looking quite decent now, crocuses are in flower, and there are lots of other small signs. Unfortunately it's also almost continuously raining. However, now I'm reminded of the end of last season tidying that I didn't do, and the rose arch has fallen in the huge winds we had earlier. Oh well ....

In February? Is this not a little early? I though it was March at the earliest and more probably April for daffodils. After all, they do not bloom in Wales till then and it is their national flower! I hope you have full leather outfit to tackle the rose arbor. They can bite back when you tackle them.

Do you need to hear about my garden today? I noted that my one large staghorn fern now has a medium-sized neighbor on the next plumeria tree from the parent one. They are so odd-looking that I am delighted to have a new one. Funny thing about them. I just about killed my original one and it did blow away in a gale we had. Several months later I noted the baby one growing on the plumeria tree. It was so cute and much appreciated. They are doing just fine without my intervention. The grass you can watch grow - anyone want outrageous plants? Plant them in Hawaii on the windward side of any island.

We have plenty of ferns on the bank opposite my house, but not fancy ones! I do see staghorn ones (or something similar) at the garden centre. Yes, I do definitely have buds on my daffodils and they're about 6-8 inches tall already. I know it'll be a while before they actually flower. They're starting to arrive in shops now, although they're still very expensive. the birds think it's spring too by the way. I have blue tits in my nesting box. I pruned one rambling rose back hard last year ready to pull the rose arch down for rebuilding (before the wind actually brought it down) and it hasn't recovered. Pity, it was a lovely red flower. Actually, I'm the garden planner I have a 'handy man' (mine!) to do the hard work.

Do your staghorn ferns have large plate-shaped "leaves" (fronds, actually) as first greenery followed by large antler-shaped fronds which emerge from a notch in the original plates at right angles? They are very pther-worldly looking items and grow to great size in our trees in the wild. Treat that handyman right. He will save you from looking like you were the loser in a cat fight! Mine does that for me, too. Then, he remains outside and continues on with what he thinks would be a good idea and plants things where they will starve, desicate or otherwise look wretched and die. Oh well!

Our birds are nesting, as well. Cardinals, lace-necked doves, barred doves (both of which nest in our huge Poinciana tree (delonix regia) and Chinese thrushes and rice birds, too. The territorial songs of the thrush is magnificent and other-worldly.

I think our staghorns are different - much smaller about two foot high I think, and they're grown as houseplants. I got excited this winter as I've had nuthatches visiting my birdtable. they're quite delicious to look at - grey blue on top and salmon pink underneath with a black band from eye to tail. I never tire seeing them. I have to tell the 'handy man' what is a weed and what is not, other wise the poor dear just keeps on pulling up plants until the soil is bare, and then can't understand me getting upset because my seedlings are all gone! Still he's very good a constuctional gardening.

LOL, Maggie. Handymen start out life as Handy Boys. Mine carefully uprooted a flowering plant from a vacant lot and repotted it for me and presented me with it for Mother's Day when he was very tiny. It was one of those weeds which never seems to run out of generations. I thanked him and hurried it to a corner of the yard where it would not seed the rest of the garden. We are still pulling the things out 30 years later!

got stuff coming up all over the place. the birds are taking over the birdhouses again (started right before our "snow" storm too) roses have new stems coming up, will need to trim the canes back soon. glad to know everyone's garden is doing well!

Wow! Spring is really returning to the rest of the world. Seems a tad early, but that is just fine with you, I would imagine!

that's a great story Marcia!! generations of weeds for you to remember your son's sweetness by!! Ours will get covered in snow many more times but that is actually fine. The snow insulates the little green guys and then, when it bounces between freezing and thawing, they will be safe.

Stacey, that is exactly what it does - especially now that he lives in California and I do not see him very much. I miss him a great deal...it has been almost 2 years since I last hugged him...and I am a need-to-hug person! It took me a few years of weeding to achieve this enlightenment, however!

My winter pansies have finally started flowering. I bought them in as plug plants last autumn and they've slowly been growing. The primulas are looking good and I cut a little yellow bunch today to keep near my computer to cheer me up. I think Spring makes us all feel better. I like the lighter mornings too.

I love pansies and they do not do well at this latitude. Up on the mountains they are stunning, and leis made from them look like velvet!

I've really taken to primulas as they come in such a variety of colous and stem sizes. They also cross breed which also gives excitement because you don't know what will happen. My all time garden favourite is a hypericum hidcote (Hidcote is a very famous English garden in Oxfordshire) - like st John's Wort. I bought it as a garden centre end of season remainder for �1. It was leggy and didn't look much, but I cut it back and put it in. It's now the show piece all Summer. It's grown to avery well rounded four feet bush which I cut back each year. The yellow flowers are huge and last year it kept flowering into November.

pansies dry well too. stick them on wax paper and fold the other side (of the wax paper over it), put into a thick book and let dry for a while. the colors stay too! you got that out of season shopping down pat, maggie! i love to rescue plants people have given up on or just want to get rid of. they sure reward you!

Pansies may dry well everywhere else on earth. They mildew first, here. I have seen some lovely examples of microwave oven drying, though!

and you can use the silica granuals. i've got some of that stuff to dry my roses and try to maintain the color. haven't tried it yet. but you can use the granuals over and over again. i've dried several leaves and lots of pansies. am surprised that the humidity didn't get to them. dry them inside the house though.

Yup! Silica granules do the job, alright. And one MUST dry them indoors here. We have little white innocuous clouds which look around as they drift lazily over the sky. They hjalt abruptly if they see carpets or furniture airing in the sunshine and promptly dump their load.

better to dry them outside here... most people humidify their homes...

Not here! God humidifies everything! A botanist I once met dried his specimens on the pavement or black-top driveway but brought them inside when the sun began to set. That is probably the best way to do it. He used newspapers to absorb excess moistures and changed it daily.

I meant 'here' as in where I am here. In Colorado our humidity in always negligible... cracked lips and cracked, bleeding knuckles are a year-round problem.

Has anyone used a microwave to dry flowers? There was someting on it in one of my basic microwave books.

you can use the microwave, oven, and those expensive dryers. i prefer wax paper and a dictionary. you use the microwave when drying with silica granuals. oh, i hang my roses upside down when drying them. all the rose petals and buds i have in my potpourri vase is from my garden. quite neat, huh? dry knuckles and other parts are a problem for us in the winter but we still have high humidity even then.

I never figured out who was buying all that moisturizer they were selling on TV - until I spent 4 months on the mainland including a week in Denver. This lady was not used to such dessication and itched all over, more than any place else! They had "still rooms" in the old days (Jane Austen features them) where herbs and flowers were all hung upside down from the rafters to dry and to preserve them. I have a recipe for making crystalized violets in your microwave oven. It does very well.

violets? like african violets? or violas?

The little purple ones which grow under the trees in the Northeast in the spring. Not fuzzy like the African variety... Viola odorata are the ones I mean but violas can mean different things in different places. These also can be white but the purple ones are lovely on French Vanilla ice cream!

I still have (dried) the first rose my husband gave me almost 30 years ago - and flowers from my wedding bouquet!

Wow! Mine's only five years old... but I am hoping to keep it for at least another 25 years! (Congratulations by the way!)

The trick is to remember where you put it!!!! Mine are in a 1760s copy of Martin Luthor's table talks, together with a few other bits and pieces I rediscover from time to time.

You are risking an ancient book with dried flowers??? I am sentimental, but love books more!

Well, the flowers were dried before I put them in, and are between layers of tissue, so I'm not going to feel guilty. I haven't noticed any discoloration in more than a quarter of a century!!!! I put the rose in there in the first place because I got the book for my 19th birthday - all from the same person.

Ah! Now you have me. Sentiment of that sort wins every time!

That's me - soft as a chocolate. (I just nicked two of my daughter's Belgian ones - do you get those in Hawaii - Yum!)

after my flowers and leaves dry, i place them in an envelope and leave it unsealed. probably not what i should do, but who's asking? want to use them in some sort of craft project (like glass plates) but haven't had time to do it yet.

I'm not sure about the sealing. Mine seem to have kept OK. But I guess if you use in a craft project like a card, you'd need to seal it with sticky back plastic or something (that's what we call it, I suppose it's got another proper name). what are you going to do with glass plates?

Decoupage glue brushed over them seals them nicely on glass, wood boxes (especially nice) and covers of scrapbooks and such.

Oh, Yes! We get all sorts of decadent things like Belgian Chocolate here, but it does not work for me as well as it does for other women, apparently. Nowhere near as good, actually! But, it does taste delicious - the dark kind, please!

Wolfie, we gotta get the guys to make us that crafts conference since we now have use of our hard drive space...?!

that's what i was thinking..... glass plates with decoupage was what i had in mind......

You will have very lovely plates, in that case! You'll never guess what I was just doing with fabric paint. Painting aluminum rivets on the car black. The Hairy Chest-beater put protective shiny black molding on the four corners of the bumpers and had to rivet them on to keep them on. The aluminum was ugly, so I painted them. I did it on some cast aluminum enamelled tablets on buildings so the fasteners did not show. 5 years on they still look as good as when I did them and none has peeled! I am more than a little amazed.

oh what you can do with fabric paint!

Tell me about it! I have used it on more "other" things than I ever did on fabric! I have changed the color of shoes and whitened old comfortable ones which looked too shabby to wear. Sprinkle glitter on while wet and you have new evening shoes! I could go on and on, and, from your remark, so could you! *lol*

What a place to collect tips!

We gotta save the good stuff for that new Crafts Conference! Otherwise check for my handy hints in http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/food/55/new

Why in food?

Most of them are kitchen and household hints. When I created it, that is what I had in mind - strictly kitchen stuff.

Oh, so when's the craft thingy coming?

As soon as things settle down from the move to the new ISP and I can talk one of the magicians behind the scenes to create the space for it. Wolf and I can put wallpaper and buttons up and all that sort of thing...We just need them to make create the actual structure onto which we create the thing which will end up as Geo did. I was handed a white blank space and told to go at it. I had no clue then what to do, so I was led through the birthing very patiently and carefully. I learned so much in that first 10-hour tour-de-force of creation. It was an extraordiary experience - at first terrifying and in the end glorious. I have put the conference with the wallpaper and the topics I created there up so I could just sit and admire it. When I sent my son (a geek of sorts) and my PhD ex in to look at it they were amazed that this mere woman could do that. My ex did not know such things were possible, and my son plans to pick my brains for his own we site eventually!

Looking forward to it. I'm off to watch Midsomer murders on TV now. See you tomorrow?

I'll be here, my dear! *Hugs* till then!

I'm back, where are you? BTW the vicar did it and then jumped off the church tower!

Oh No!!! Not the vicar?! The last one you would suspect. It's usually is more proper than the Queen wife who nurses grudges like nobody else...! Did you suspect? I am here!!!

No I didn't suspect until right at the end. He was a famous (British TV) actor too - Richard Briers. I think these are all Ruth Rendall novels, but I don't remember reading that one. You'd have liked the scenery - real olde worlde english village, village fete and all.

Ah, yes. I have been known to watch the British Grand Prix just to look for hillforts and other stuff in the background around Silverstone! Sounds good. Perhaps we will get them for PBS or A&E eventually!

my garden got a little sweeping up on Sunday... I have to keep the dead leaves over the plants, so they don't freeze, but I turned the soil in my veggie garden... preparation for after we return from Alaska.

Oh, dear, I'm still feeling guilty I haven't been out in the garden yet. I did feed the birds this morning though!

My garden is full of errant ferns and begonias which just happen to be growing there. We even have exotic weeds!

Ooo lovely

Mine just has non-exotic weeds and a rockery which I've got to take to pieces and rebuild this summer - oh and a fallen rose arch and trellising which needs replacing. the strawberries are nice in summer though.

I thought your weeds were marvellous. My grandfather (a graduate of Kew) maintained that there was no such thing as a weed. They are just plants out of place. Amen! Maggie, no brambles? My ex convinced me to touch a nettle while we were admiring Old Sarum. It's the last time I did that on purpose! The Romans did that to themselves intentionally! Very odd, indeed! My grandfather would have app;lauded stacey's use of dead leaves for protective blanketing. Lime them and dig them under in the spring and your azaleas will be the best in Colorado!

pickle juice doesn't hurt either.

Pickle juice? Never heard of that! I guess anything you drain off things we eat is good for your plants! hmmm...pickle juice?! *giggle*

Pickle juice?? hmmm... the vinegar is good for plants??

Apparently nettles increase the blood supply to the area hit .......

Oh Maggie! You don't suppose they used them as an aid to stimulate otherwise reluctant protrusions into activity? Sounds too painful to contemplate!

on the pickle juice, it's the acid in the vinegar. azaleas like acidic soil. and i sat in nettles as a kid and boy did those bumps sting. good thing i had on a diaper or training pants or something. i remember oma and mom wiping me with a cold washcloth. i was careful from then on out.

Yup! Once bitten by nettles you tend not try do it again. Pickle juice on your hygrangeas should be great, in that case...depending on whether you want blue or pink flowers when they bloom. Just like litmus paper!

now i can't remember if mine bloomed out pink or blue last year and last year was the first time they had flowers (except when i bought them of course)......

Make every other one a different color?!

I picked up 16 little herbs in plants and they'e in the ground now, I was inspired by my trip to the Zilker botanical garden the other day.

woohoo! i always get inspired when i see a garden show or even make a trip to lowes! in fact, i've got two plants (angel's trumpet and a currant bush) on their way and i don't know where to put them!

Put the currant bush in a bright sunny place and be sure it is well-watered, as well. They love water and sun but mostly they like being in hedgerows, so if you have an edge of the woods place with lots of sun, it would be very happy there! No currants in Hawaii, alas..unless you live up the volcano quite a bit more than I do.

I cultivate a samll nettle patch down the end of the garden (well, cultivate is a euphamism) - for the butterflies.

just don't sit in 'em maggie! *grin*

Is there not a cruetly to butterflies society in Buckinghamshire???!

What one does is "tolerate" the nettle patch designated for the benefit of butterflies, if I recall correctly!

yup. i'm glad we don't have nettles. but poison ivy is known to peak it's ugly head in our manicured lawns *laugh*

Hawaii has no poison ivy/oak. However, when I had a girl scout troop in West Virginia, they chose to make camp in a place to which I had never been. When I arrived, there they were, all rigged and lounging on the ground which was carpeted with the prettiest 3-pointed glossy green leaves. Yup! Right in the poison ivy!!!

oh no! *laugh* what a site you guys must've been!!

Needless to say we had a lively week. Every last one of them became expert in all forms and stages if growth of that pretty vine. Wish I had had the Calamine Lotion concession ...!

I swear by aloe vera these days - and it disappears and doesn't leave you all pink (unlike the nettles). The crocuses are lovely just now, springing up all over the place. There are the beginnings of buds on the shrubs but if we have a hard frost it will damage them.

I have pots of Aloe Vera growing outside my kitchen door. Hawaiians used it in the old days to soothe stomach ulcers. Tastes rather nasty, but it is effective and benign in all ways. Great for sunburn, as well as other skin problems. Makes a great masque if you let it dry stiff then wash it off.

Haven't tried that use of it *smile*

Admire your croci for me (or is it crocusses?!)...I miss early spring when things first peek through the surface. No wonder our ancient forebears used to pour libations on the ground and stomp around and yell pleas to the buried ancestors to push up the new sprouting crops. Makes sense to me!

i've got an aloe in the house, it's not very pretty but when someone burns themselves, i take a piece and rub it on. and i only use 100% aloe gel on sunburns. bulbs are popping up all over. and the weather is so nice outside i just want to plant everything. but it's a bit too early to do too much as we're due another frost at least.

My Aloes are big enough that I just break off a "leaf" and squeeze it like toothpaste. It's pretty concentrated so a little water added will spread it all over the place, and you will be uncatchable until it dries out *grin* I'd think it'd be hazardous to plant bulbs outdoors until March...!

Does anyone have a good way to get rid of slugs? I can gather as many as 200 of them off my yard at a time during a damp morning. So far I have used alcohol in a spray bottle for one or two, but for 200 of them...that is another problem entirely!

salt.....

be careful with it because it will render the ground unplantable. salt will dry them up. you can also bury a tuna can in your garden with beer in it. they'll be attracted to the taste and drown.

I did salt but it is worse than spraying alcohol on them (denatured, naturally at 2/$1 for a pint bottle. ) They lie around and begin to get really "fragrant" when you are dealing with 200 or more of them. Every 30 days there is a new generation, too (or some such horrible frequency) Snail poison works well, but there is the same problem. Fragrance! Beer sounds best...I don't like it much and they do...I'll sacrifice one in their honor...*grin* Thanks!!!

D'ya think snails and slugs know the difference between real and "near" beer?

it's the smell and then they just drown, so i don't think it matters. suppose soda would do the same thing but would definitely bring on the ants!

Yup! Guess NearBeer would do it. I have a can one of our visitors bought and I would like to get rid of it. That seems to be a good way. Don't think soda works, though...not fragrant enough and too sugary. Not what they usually eat. Least, I have never heard that soda works (and I sure don't need more ants!!!)

Egg shells? or grit/shingle round specific plants - doesn't kill them but helps to keep them off. I guess they don't like crawling over it!

The objectionable substrate would work over night, but the grass and plants grow so rapidly in Hawaii that it would soon be overgrown and absorbed into the soil. I know that during the dark of the moon, if you look under big rocks you will find great balls of mating slugs. They are bisexual so they can do each other...frightening! But, it is a great time to get a whole bunch at one time plus the next generation! Too bad they smell bad and are slimy...Uck!

Another sort of snail we have here is the African Giant land snail. The first time you happen on one of these cabbage-sized creatures it is enough to cause serious coronary events. They can eat your garden in no time flat. Parasitic land snails have been imported to combat this plague. I have only seen one. That was quite enough!

definitely would experience a coronary event. as big as cabbages? i'd be afraid to go out!

...and as green as brownish-green as cabbages, too. I though it was a cabbage until I went closer to wonder why it was on a wooden ladder. I shrank back in horror when it unmantled its shell at looked at me with those eyeballs on stalks! You never saw this lady move so fast in another direction...! The shell is quite impressive. They rarely get that big, the Ag Station guys (who were the recipient of this little gem) told us. Thank heaven for that!

see? I was so traumatized by it I have been rendered mistype-ical whenever I try to write about it...sorry!

Those African land snails were an 'in' pet here not long ago. Can't see the attraction myself. Hmmm I can see you have a problem the magnitude of which I had not envisaged!!!!!

Fortuanately, they are not prevalent on this Island - at least not on this side of the Island. I have not seen another since that one 20 years ago...but I am not looking for them, either. Perhaps there are giants lurking in my banana patch?! Trying to kill them with salt or alcohol might just enrage them. Not a pretty thing to contemplate! I have seen empty shells of both the parasitic one imported for control of the giant one, and little Giant snail shells. Something is getting to them when they are still young and manageable. I bet they could consume your garden in a hurry when adult, though!

Pets??!! Eeeeesh!!!

Well, I think I really would prefer one of them to a big hairy spider - and yes, I am going to bed!

G'night Maggie!

i picked up another fuschia today. last years didn't make it through the summer. guess i didn't water it enough. this one has cool flowers. the outer petals are hot pink but the inner petals are deep bluish/purple. very pretty! i sure hope it makes it through. now the rest of the garden. i've planted four mini roses in the backyard, along with my currant bush, red climbing rose, some tuberoses, and a couple of bleeding hearts. out front, the irises have blooms bursting but not blooming out yet. the roses are blooming and i still have some hyacinths coming up. very pretty and such a lovely smell. the gardenia isn't supposed to do well where it is but she is just going to town. the hydrangeas are making a complete comeback from being dormant as well as the hostas. everything is bursting green and looks great against the cypress mulch we laid out today. i love spring!

Your fuschias sound beautiful..they grow here with the tree ferns at the summit of Kilauea where the rain forest is. Gorgeous and hearty they grow pretty tall and have the loviliest-colored flowers. Your gardenias seem to be right at home in your humidity. They love plenty of water and good drainage. and semi sun which you have discovered if yours are doing that well. Roses still hate it here unless you have a green house.

I've got some mint I want to put in today, I guess it needs some shade and lots of water.

the gardenia thrives in full summer sun. amazing. guess she got used to it while putting her roots deep. funny about how shrubbery takes a couple of years to establish and then all of a sudden, whooosh, the branches take off.

My lilac bushes are budding wildly now. I wonder how many flowers we'll have this year. I love the smell of them. All the spring bulbs are flowering and the primulars are looking bright and cheerful. Spring has definitely arrived!

love lilac and wisteria. did you know that wisteria doesn't bloom until it's at least 10 years old? so when you buy, ensure you get older stock so you won't have to wait too long. better yet, buy them while they're blooming in the nursery so you'll be sure to get one old enough! almost bought one yesterday but the AM wants us to wait.

a neighbour has wisteria growing over his shed. I'm quite envious. There's a village i drive through on my way to Uni which is very old and several of the houses are covered in very old wisteria which runs along them about six or eight feet from the ground. The trunks are huge, maybe 8 inches diameter. It's truly spectacular in season. My lilacs are supposed to be dwarf ones. I had them for mothers day about 7 years ago. But they have never flowered very well. I took them out of the pots a couple of years ago becuase I thought that might have been the problem. Anyway, we'll see how they do this year. One, which i pruned back hard last year is sprouting very well, and I'm hopeful.

do keep us posted. i planted a lilac several years ago and it didn't amount to anything.

Please do keep the mint in the semi shade if not all shade and make sure it keeps damp or gets sprinkled in the morning and evening until it gets established. You'll love it! I love lilacs and my Dad planted one outside my bedroom window when I went to college. I never saw it bloom! They do not grow out here but Chinaberry does and smells quite like them.

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...