Didn't think I'd ever hear you "say" you'd yank out plants Vera!

Make it a stiff one, after all, it is afternoon!

GGG

I'm harvesting larkspur and yanking too. (Lisa, your larkspurs are going out the mail soon). I'm drinking a beer - something unusual for me, but it's a Heiny and quite tasty. Problem is, the drought continues here and it's very windy today - feels more like Oklahoma than Ohio!

My yanking victims are flowers that don't fit my color scheme. Helenium in red/orange is okay, but the yellow ones are outta here! And they're mostly yellow.

Have a drink for me, ladies. I'm 3 months preggo and would love a glass of wine right now. :-)

~~sigh~~ I hate the yanking process also but after a couple of days I start enjoying the fact that I can actually see 'plants' again. I love a rich full look but also like seeing individual plants. I spent the day pulling out alot of rose companion that were going to seed - found a little English daisy that I forgot I had planted this spring - the poor thing has been blooming and I never had a chance to enjoy it. Good thing is it is very healthy and will now have that chance to breath also.

Vera - I will join you in a drink - I think a glass of wine and some time on the back porch is in order....

Lynne

Vera,

I just came in from yanking out sunflowers too, and some corn cockle, larkspur and opie poppies. But I needed room for incoming plants. Hubs gave me a gift certificate to my fave nursery and I spent whole thing...I did get lots of new hens and chicks, some siberian iris, la, and a darling new windchime. So out with the old to make room for the new.

Ladies, keep yanking those plants! I've never been much of a yanker - in fact, not at all - but having come back from visiting gorgeous gardens for 3 weeks, I believe you get a sense of what works and what doesn't. I have several leggy lychnis that are coming out, and WS allows you to fill the holes with something better easily.

HAPPY YANKING!

Well...Just spent the day nextdoor with my neighbor and after about 5 Kokonees I'm home LOL! Now that I look again, I'm soooooooo much more happier that I can see everything. It's still a little crowded but comfortably crowded! Before it was really pretty stupid :D
Enjoy your drinks ladies :D

Vera

I yanked and cut back some sweet peas. It was hard to do but they really went down hill after the last blast of heat we had. I have alyssum with it and now the alyssum can actually get some sun and have a fighting chance. Sweet peas in pots aren't working for me anymore, they are sure pretty in the ground up the fence tho.

Beer sure tastes good after a hard day in the yard huh,

I have to yank more melampodium today. They're taking over one of my beds.

In another bed I took out fried cerinthe and clarkia and have a big empty spot right in the front. I can't transplant (heat and drought) now cause we're leaving town in a few days. Maybe after we return I'll buy something good to fill that spot for fall.

Bakemom: We had wind yesterday, too, and storms. It only lasted about 10 minutes at my house but we got 0.3" of rain. Also wind, hail. I was driving in it- not fun. They think there was another tornado east of me (Adams Co.) but it's not confirmed yet.

Karen

I just yanked out poppies today after collecting enough seeds to last a lifetime. :-) Yanked out spent Columbine too. Need to thin out a lot of stuffs, but after seeing all the butterflies, birds and bees, I'll just leave everything as it is. I have a huge population of these creatures this year. So many varieties of them. Gorgeous.

I WANT to yank out the shirley poppies sooooooooooo badly right now....still some blooms but now they are getting a little sore for the eyes and starting to flop since friday's storm that brought gusts up to 40mph. We were under a Red Flag Warning and the storm was supposed to be just dry lightening. We actually got a little rain when it hit my area, but there were several lightening started fires all around us!

Vera

Is there a yanking virus going around or what? Last week, I yanked out a patch of poppies, trimmed several mexican hats, shasta daisies and a whole bed full of sunflowers. The sunflowers were hitting 8 feet and flopping over, I ran out of stuff to support them and they all came crashing down on a windy day. Oh and I have been hacking away at my tomato plants that want to take over the world.

The only thing I have yanked so far was the red bee balm. There were three of them, they were grasshopper infested and suffering from mildew or something. They were huge and scraggley, but I was willing to tolerate their unsightliness if the blooms were worthwhile. When they began to open up they were lavender. I yanked them that day! I'm with you Motria on things fitting into my color scheme. When I am looking for a punch of red in a bed full of yellows and oranges, lavender is just not going to cut it. So I went to the local garden center and she didn't have anything tall and red, so I purchased a couple of phlox 'Orange Perfection'. Guess what? They started blooming the other day and they are neon pink!!!! The are receiving a "stay of execution" simply because I don't have anything else to fill the holes at the moment, but when the weather cools off and I can start moving stuff around, they are outta here!!

Cerinthe came out tonight - way too floppy. The flowers are pretty, but they're small and don't show really well. A clump of iris and several spearmint plants just came out and next I'm starting on the oriental poppies, they are beautiful - for a week, then the fadding brown foliage is with you for months. I'm over them.

Just came back from being away for five days. Took one look at my verbena bonariensis, full of aphids and powdery mildew and yanked them. I am very disappointed in the verb. bona. this year. I don't know what went wrong, but all of the leaves were white and just looked terrible. I am finding a good "substitute" next year that won't disappoint me. Any suggestions?

(Great thread, vera)

Carrie

Carrie: My verbena bonariensis has powdery mildew, too. I'm sure it's because they are so dense. I keep cutting and pulling but they just keep coming.

Karen

Karen:

My first year, I loved the Verbena, second year, did okay too - but this year they are not reliable and too much trouble. Instead, I am going to grow coral salvias in their place. I love my coral salvias (new to me this year, thanks to dirtysc) and they are brilliant. That's what is so great about growing from seed, there are so many options when one type flower just doesn't do as well as you expect some years. I don't mind if they reseed, but if they are ugly, they are gone!

Carrie

I've finally gotten brave and started cutting and ripping. Yesterday, I cut back nicotiana, butterfly bushes, maltese cross, lambs ears, salvia. Ripped out forget me nots, nemophila penne black (2nd year disappointment), godetia, hollyhocks (rust got to them). I still have plenty more to do but what a difference. It looks less like a jungle and more like a garden. I have room to plant more ws plants out (I still have more in jugs).

My malvas were beautiful in the spring - no problem, no bugs, gorgeous - I cut them down, the STUPID Jap beetles love them. My second blooms are "so-so", not really good, actually pretty darn awful!! If I cut them back, any chance for a third bloom? Also, now that I think of it, the leaves are looking pretty "sorry" too - I feel like "yanking" those ---- Hey, I need to repost this on the Yanking out thread!!
Carrie

PS Had previously posted the above on a new thread "Malva... rebloom habits"... Carrie

I NEED to yank! I've been gone on vacation and I came back to a veritable jungle in my yard. I hate to complain, but all the rain has made gardening a little difficult this year! I appreciate not having to water, but now I can't keep up with the weeding...half the time I can't even walk in the yard it is so squishy. It's been interesting to see all the plants that thrived (or at least grew) in the drought have not taken well to constant rain.

I noticed my natural gas meter has been swallowed up....I guess I'm going to have to get out there before it can no longer be found :) But other than the meter, the rest will have to wait. I moved out of my house to have my floors refinished and now I have the gigantic task of (re)-picking paint colors (the color I first chose is nasty!), painting, cleaning, and then moving back in!

Funny story...last night as I was covered in sawdust, cleaning my ceiling fan in the bedroom, I hear this little knock-knock on the front door. My porch light is burned out, so I clambered off the little step ladder, went to the front door, of course couldn't see out (although the entire neighborhood can see in at the moment!), opened the door and it was my next door neighbor. Apparently I had been the subject of much discussion. They were almost convinced I had moved, but he was sure I wouldn't have left without my "garden ornaments". I laughed, and agreed, but didn't tell him I would have taken a lot more than the ornaments! There would have had to have been a moving truck for the plants!

Bakemom....thanks!

Lisa

No need to rip out my V. bonariensis yet....just as nice as last year, but their just getting going too. I did alot of thinning out the seedlings this spring so not crowded and I still find myself picking out more babies.
Ripped out some more of the many many Amaranthus 'Intense Purple' this morning and cut the Max sunflower back hard...again. It might now flower this year being cut back so late in the season, but wanted to see some zinnia better, plus I have a False Sunflower to fill in that gap and that will flower yellow. Cut back most of my Swiss Chard to the ground; damn leaf miners are making me insane!! Pulled out Collard Greens finally; should have a long time ago. Maybe now the Ornamental Corn and Okra will enjoy the extra light..ya think LOL?! Maltese Cross were cut back 2 weeks ago...they weren't exactly ugly but want a 2nd bloom. I'd still be out there now looking for other victims, but were having a dry lightening storm...pray for rain!

Vera

Hmmmm...haven't quite gone there yet....

I'm getting really close to pulling the Bach Buttons, but they're in front of the Butterfly Weed and there are at least three Monarch catepillars there, so I'm going to have to hold off. Mostly, I've been just cutting things down or thinning, once they get to big or are done blooming.

I'm not doing much yanking this year...guess you can tell. Maybe it's because some things are growing so slowly. The tallest Zinnias are about a foot high (normally around three feet by this time). Many of them are still only 3" tall. I usually do a lot of yanking out to accomodate the Zins, but the Zins aren't doing much to merit it yet.

But have fun yankin', ya'll! :-)

Linda