A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Gardener's Chat blooming fine 2009~#4

I had asked Lynne on the last bloomingfine thread #3 if her forget me nots were as blue as the picture,,

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here is my daisy aglaya blooming





and confetti Lantana

That daisy looks like it's either having a "bad hair day" or is a friend of my daughter's! I do really like it though - it's so different!!!

And of course I love your lantana - never met one I didn't like!

As for the forget me nots, they grow VERY easily from seeds, but only bloom in the cooler days of spring and then sometimes in fall again if the plant doesn't dry out in the heat of summer. They are not perennial here I don't think, but the babies grow in place of the mother plants from seeds. As I said to Carol - the color is a bit more of a baby blue - a very pretty shade!

okay thanks

where do you find such beautiful flowers?? Do they come up and ask you to take them home???

as a matter of fact they do
If you believe in a gnomes and fairys sometimes plants and flowers just speak to you

alrighty then---

Lynne back to your Ajuga plant,, I did see those at home depot Not flowered yet so I didn't know what the bloom looked like,, AND the leaves were not variegated like yours I LOVE yours! I'll have to look them up and see if they are perennials here and see how the growing condition I'd love to have that blue bloom !
~~~

Well I looked it up on the net,, guess what site came up first
ajuga growing requirement

Stevie asked "Do you leave your bulbs in all the time, and do they multiply?"


In the south, where I live, we do leave them in the ground. My tulips usually only return the next year and yes they multiply. I don't know if a mole or what eats the bulbs but they usually don't return the 3rd year.

Daffodils come back forever and multiply like crazy for me.

I am a little nuts and like the ajuga that has come up in my grass. We mow it down, of course, but it springs right back and seems like it flowers the more we mow it.

Sheri_ I could not keep tulip bulbs out at the farm---I had a lot of moles & they loved my tulips----when I planted 24 tulips out in front of my house NONE of them ever showed up---NONE I planted anywhere ever showed up---however the daffs were never bothered--so I am guessing that moles do not like them---

I can leave some bulbs in the ground----but glads, and elephant ears are some that most around her dig up each fall

Stevie - I do leave my bulbs in the ground year round, and yes they do multiply if conditions are good for them. I've only had them for about 5 years now, but each year I buy more and more on sale at the end of the fall season. One of the store here, Christmas Tree Shops, usually marks their fall bulbs down to 80% off and that is when I buy tons of them!!! I plant half here, and half at my parents' house so they can enjoy some color too.

Diane that is great that TGH came up first in your ajuga search. And I'm glad it said it's good to help control erosion because of the extensive root system - that is EXACTLY what I am hoping to get from them!

Carol - I used to have terrible problems with bulbs gone missing - it was squirrels here - not moles - they would dig them up almost as soon as I planted them. I learned to do 2 things. Firstly... I read somewhere that they squirrels can tell when bulbs have been planted because the soil has been disturbed in that area sooooooooooo... one should tamp down the soil pretty hard so they cannot detect that it was dug up at all. This has been working well for me - I usually stomp on the areas where I plant them.

The second thing that has allowed me to enjoy the flowers is sprinkling Milorganite fertilizer around the area as soon as some green pops up where the bulbs are growing. This helps keep away all sorts of critters such as deer, squirrels, and woodchucks because it smells pretty bad. But I can trade that smell for being able to enjoy the beautiful flowers!

Here are my blooms today.
My largest bleeding heart has grown even larger since I took pictures of it last. It has alot of hearts on it and I'm loving it!

Here is my Eastern Redbud right now. So far, it isn't as vibrant as it was last year...we'll see what happens as the spring continues. I can tell the bees are LOVING it tho. Yesterday I could hear the buzzing from the living room and it was kind of funny to watch the bees in the evening when the wind started kicking up.

Even the branches themselves have blooms on them this year! I'm wondering if these will eventually turn into more branches.

The tulips around the tree finally opened....they are soo pretty. I should take a picture of their insides because the yellow and black in them is gorgeous. These are the only tulips I have this year. The baby bunnies that live under our porch mowed down all the rest of them.

that tree is beautiful. And so is that daisy.

what is this?

I love the bleeding hearts and the eastern Redbud tree is awesome! Jenn,,

Sheri I have something very much like that growing out of the base of my Oak tree it has very fine thorns and is Invasive, I can't get rid of it,, I find runners in the yard leading back to the tree,, Wild tree rose or something like that,

Lovely!

Merme

Even though those white flowers are 'invasive' and 'hard to get rid of', I guess I would pamper them if I had a yard for them to be in because I sure think they are pretty!!

Diane, about how big around is that Lantana? I love them so much !!
I see pictures like that of just the bloom and they look big, but then I saw a picture from a distance of a bunch of them growing and they looked tiny!

about the size of a quarter I guess,, that's a very close up Pic so one could see the Individual blooms that are soooooo tiny,

Looks very much like a rose. Probably a wild one. Prairie rose? Single flower give me the impression that it's some sort of species rose. Leaf count, petal count, buds, calyx all look like some sort of rose

If you have other roses that are grafted, it might be that the root stock (usually a very hardy/strong rose is used) is putting out suckers.

it doesn't have a fragrance. it's out in the field with no other roses around.

Does the bush look like this?




For more information click here

Thanks Sheri, Carol and Lynne for the info about tulip bulbs. I have never grown them before, but will put some in this month. I just asked about that, because my neighbour mentioned to me that the bulbs may only last one year, unless I pull them out and store them. But I am going to leave them in. We don't have any of the animals you mentioned, although I would love to have squirrels here.

[quote=hisgal2]Here are my blooms today.
My largest bleeding heart has grown even larger since I took pictures of it last. It has alot of hearts on it and I'm loving it!


I love the shape of the leaves on the bleeding heart too, they are exquisite. The Eastern Redbud is a beautiful tree, isn't it?

Stevie - do you know what growing zone you are in there? You might be too cold during winter for them to stay outside if your neighbor said that. Or... they could be wrong!

Your Lantana is so exquisite, Diane.

I'm with you, Shirley, if I had the space, I would grow that "invasive" plant as well.

To me, it looks like a Wild Irish rose. But I just say that because I've crocheted so many of them and that is what the pattern is always called!


Merme

I was going to say a rose , like Ken did .

It has the leaf......Not sure of the flower..

Nice and reminds me of apple blossoms.

Yes it does remind me of apple blossoms blooms too,

I think Australia is pretty warm. Your dilemma is that you're too warm. Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, etc. need a cool dormant period to bloom. If the cool dormant period not sufficient, they will not bloom, or bloom on really short stems. As you are in a place where you seldom get snow (if ever?) you need to put them through their dormancy to keep them coming year after year.

The way to do this is to wait until summer when the foliage has naturally died back. Carefully dig out the bulbs. You can store them dry for about a month, provided you let them air out so the brown skin on the bulb turn dry/'flaky'. About 20 weeks or so before you want blooms, pot up the bulbs, water to moisten (not soak), and put in a bag in your fridge. Now, you have to remember not to keep apples/bananas, etc in the fridge because they release ethelyne and can make your bulbs go bad. The plastic bag will help to keep your fridge clean. After 17 weeks or so in the fridge, you can gradually being them out to room temperature; say a few hours a day until you see a shoot come out of the pot. Once the shoot comes out, it'll sprout a few leaves before sending out the bloom. Keeping the bulb in a cooler room will help make the bloom last longer :)

The problem I have here is the exact opposite of yours. We're too cold, and I have to dig up my tropicals, whereas you have to dig up your temperates lol

This yellow rose is on the arbor it looks more golden than yellow



Vine cup is blooming,,

That is a beautiful color of rose, Diane!!

Interesting shade of yellow for a rose, Diane. And you have darling Vine Cups, too.



Merme

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh - that rose is gorgeous! Does it have a nice scent?

And I like that shade of pink too!

Hi, Lynne. I think our zone system is different from yours, but our winter would be considered reasonably mild by North American standards. The night time temperatures get down to maybe 30-45F, and day time temperatures get to 55-60F. Occasionally our town gets a small amount of snow, but more so just up the road at Mount Macedon. I'm fairly confident now that the bulbs would be okay to leave in the ground. I bought some more this morning, but they are still quite expensive.

Oh, I just saw your post, kennyso, reccommending I take the bulbs out in summer, because our climate here is too warm. I do have the bulbs in the fridge at the moment before planting. Do I have to pot them to put them in the fridge, or can I just store them in a bag in the fridge? There's not much spare room in there! Interesting that you can grow some tropicals there. I have a few tropicals, but I am just about to put sleeves around them for winter, and I have brought my frangipani in a pot inside.

Thanks for the helpful hints.

Thanks for telling me about your climate Stevie. I am wondering if Kenny is right about them needing to be colder during winter months? But if I were in your situation I certainly would not have room in my fridge to store any - I can barely fit our food in there because it's very old and not very roomy.

When you say expensive - may I ask how expensive? Like I said... I only buy them at the end of fall when this one particular store marks them down about 80% off. I wouldn't have half the bulbs I do if not for that.

I wish you good luck with your bulbs - what kinds and colors did you get?

Thanks, Lynne. I missed kenny's post and then saw it, and edited my post. I bought red ones, and a mixture of white and dark purple. I think the red ones were about $6 for a bag of 3, and the mixture were $10 for a bag of 4. I will keep a look out for discounts at the end of Autumn!

I don't know much about currency in different countries - would that be comparable to American? That sounds like an awful lot for such a small amount of bulbs. Unless they are larger, or of much better quality than the bulbs I get here?

neko, no that's not my bush.


Diane, your flowers are so pretty.

You can keep the bulbs after they're aired in the fridge in a paper bag, but to start the growing it need moisture. Tulips and such put out roots in fall (or when it senses the temperatures are starting to drop steadily).



That's about the price I have to pay for forced bulbs from the flower section at the supermarket (bulb that are pre chilled, and potted, and starting or are already blooming) It is a bit more than what I pay for, for a bag of bulbs to plant in the fall.



1 AUD is about 0.75 USD
The most common grade of tulip bulbs are 12-14cm. They will eventually form little bulbils/offsets as they grow.

Kenny - did you mean mm? 12-14 cm is about 5 inches across - that would be a very large bulb and I've never seen a tulip bulb that large.

My tulip bulbs are more like 2 inches across. If even that big.

I don't think these ones would be better quality- I think someone is just making some money out of us! I'm getting a bit tired of it; recently I had a disagreement with our plumber over a larger-than expected bill, and I still haven't paid the termite control company for their preventative spray, which wasn't up to standard. I'm not paying 'till they do it right. Why is everyone trying to rip me off?

Steve

Getting ripped off is common here also.

We lost $40,000 dollars due to a bankrupt place.
Another $8,000 to a person who didnt deliver a Silo for animal feed.

I can fo on an on .......Rip off is common here, and now the economy isnt helping at all.

We feel your pain. Hope with GOd and Faith you will survive......And gumption, and guts.

GOod luck

dodge