Well...my day was a wonderful one after having ONE of my
worst migraines AGAIN because I drank the wrong coffee
AGAIN!! Ooooh, it hurt so bad last evening.
So, I lounged around today thinking of what I can do on
Mon and Tue (back to the 60's) I can plant more seeds and
have hubby till up more earth to plant even more things. I
don't mind these highs and lows in the weather as long as
we have enough cold to kill the buggie.
Marian, doesn't it feel good to be so tired after you've
gotten all of that work done in your garden??
I did get my seed starting mixes for my winter sowing and
to pot up some more brug cuttings...perhaps tomorrow I'll
get that started. As you said...always something to do.

Margaret

I really need to get some of my winter sow projects under way. I've just got so many darn irons in the fire it's hard to determine which one should take top billing.

I don't drink coffee so I wouldn't know about it. I would suggest that you THROW the wrong one out and keep only the one you can drink and not get sick. If someone else in the house drinks the other coffee put a red sticker or colored tape or something else on it to remind you not to drink it.

I have to use all kinds of reminders for myself. LOL getting old isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Happy Gardening,
Marian

The weather here is weird too but our weather is always weird. Earlier this week we were in the single digits with the wind chill. By Monday we're supposed to be near 60. DH has been out fiddling with the GH. The other guys are going to be here tomorrow to hopefully finish it (cross your fingers for me). Even if the GH isn't finished I'm dragging plants outside and giving them a good soaking with the hose. They aren't too happy and the aphids are still a problem.

I potted up some more seeds that I had chilling in the fridge and some others that were soaking. Juggled plants around for space on my small seed mats because I still don't have any room to set out my big one. I can't do anything outside even if it's warm. The ground is wet and cold and I won't be able to start tilling until Mar or Apr. If I ran a tiller I'd end up compacting the soil instead of aerating it. I could ride up to the farm and check out what's in the GH but I don't want to see how much damage I ended up with from the freeze. It was depressing enough to see last week and I'm sure it looks even worse now.

Margaret I hope your head feels better and Marian you should soak in a nice hot bubble bath.
Karyn

Fished a white bass tournament today and came in 2nd. It was nice and warm today but really windy. I want to stay home tomorrow and work on my plants but hubby wants to fish again. I told him if we go again tomorrow he has to give me Monday off from work. I'll be glad when it starts getting dark later so I can do more yardwork during the week after work. Its so hard to fit everything in on the weekends.

Well Kristy I can tell you how you can garden in the dark and prolong your time in the garden. lol You get you one of those coal miners hats with the light on top and you can see real good at night.

Congrats on 2nd place fishing today. I wanted to go down to the pond and fish but like you said it was toooooo windy.

Karyn I'm sorry you lost a bunch of stuff in your greenhouse. I thought I was going to lose everything in mine a few days ago when it was so darn cold here. I would be sick and still crying.

Please let us know if there is anything we can send you to replace things. I'm just sick for you I lost most of my irises last summer when we had all those floods and it rained here at my house everyday for over 2 straight months. As a matter of fact I lost alot of my plants due to all the rain. So many that I couldn't even begin to replace them. (frown) So my heart goes out to you.

Hugs, Marian

Congrats on the tournament Kristy. I'd love to be able to fish so often. Marian that's so sweet of you. Honestly I could lose half my collection and still have too many plants! lol I'm going to be doing a lot of cutting back and see what will recover. The only thing that really upset me was the damage to the plumies. I'm sure I lost a number of them but even the ones that I didn't lose won't bloom this year because the tips froze. I think I only have a handful that didn't suffer any damage. I hope they'll bloom this year. Last season wasn't great for my plumies to begin with and I had extremely late blooms. Many didn't even develop inflos until late Aug. If I could just narrow my collection to a few varieties of plants I'd be in much better shape but there's so many beautiful plants. I always see something new that I "just have to get" lol As it is I have a plant order on hold. I'm hoping that they'll be able to ship them next week. I'm getting a Showy Medinilla, a Mason's Congo Sansevieria and a Calotropis gigantea.
Karyn

Oooh, those sound pretty Karyn. Hey your plumies might be ok. I put mine out this spring and we had a freak snow storm come out of no where and it wasn't even supposed to cold. I woke up to pot fulls of sleet and snow coming down and got a lot of tip rot. I cut them all back to solid parts and they bloomed better this year than ever before. I thought for sure they would be ruined. Just cut them back now and don't leave the black mushy stuff on there. We had a good time fishing today and got to meet a lot of new people from the fishing forum that came all the way from Dallas to fish with us. We have a fishing forum that is a lot like this one. We have made many friends there. Let me know too if there is something that you lose. I keep trying to give you stuff but you already have everything, lol. Marian I dug up some irises from this ladies yard this year after they were done blooming. Hopefully they will bloom this spring and I can see what colors they are. I will share some of those with you if you need more.

Congrats Kristy!

Sounds like you had lots of fun!

Its gonna be 80 degrees today with wind gusts 35 to 40 so I am staying home to tend to my plants. Good day to catch up around the house and if I don't do some laundry I'll have to wear shorts to work next week, lol.

It's 56 - almost 57 - with 20mph gusts.

Whacky weather. The high was supposed to be 54.

I think I'm gonna go out and do some trimming on some stuff.

It had to hit 62-65 today. Silly warm for Illinois in early January. High was only supposed to be 54.

I went out and massacred those trumpet vines. Trimmed them HARD. (Yea - I know people hate trumpet vines - but I love them.)

And pulled down some dead morning glory vines trying to shake the seeds along the fence.

DH yelled that I was "killing" the trumpets. (Like that's possible!)

I said these are the MORNING glories! The trumpets are over THERE - the things that look like they ate TOKYO - and you know they bloom on new growth so they need to be whacked hard!

LOL. . .

When the snow left - I found another garden hose the construction guys threw on the ground with my nice sprayer. And found more pots they threw in that pile! (grin)

But if it stays warm like this for too long, those stupid plants are going to start to wake up again like last year and get burned. Back down to 38 on Wednesday. High 50s until then.

Grrrrrrrrr. . . .

Dweeb, I got a start of trumpet vine and planted it last year and it never flowered. Now the stem looks dead. Should I cut it back to the ground?

Noooooo - let it go. it will give you new growth. And that's what will bloom. But, it's gonna be a "late" comer with the new growth. You'll be staring at them in May wondering "what the he**" They're one of the latest da** things to start in my yard.

You'll probaby see new growth from the base (providing the base is in good shape.)

Those things are NUKE proof. Now - depending on how "new" the start was - may need another 2 years. I took volunteers from Mom's house. They wer pretty big - not huge - but big - only took one year for them to bloom.

They love full sun. That's why they're in the back yard/side yard known as "he**". Is it going to get full sun? You'll get faster results that way. They need full sun to bloom.

Mine are "spooky" now - I've only had them for 3 years - this coming will be year 4. I had blooms in year 2. But they're frightening now. Rather (ahem!) large now. Little skinny jobs are now 2"-3" diameter bases. They'll get even bigger this year.

But good thing F4F? You can't kill these things. Which is why people hate them so much. Just keep a handle on them.

Use a spade shovel all the way around the base - about 2 foot in diameter once a year - at the base. Cut any runners off that might be trying to "spread". And don't let the canes touch the ground. They'll root.

If you want some - let me know. I found some canes that rooted and decided to leave them. I'll send you some nice ones. Or I'll send you some from Mom's house. They're the orange ones.

I want to get the Madam Galens - they're yellow - and not supposed to be so rambunctious. (But if they're Campis Radicans - they are.)

Just yell - I'll send you several.

I should go take some pics for you. I left a couple piles of the canes I just trimmed laying on the ground. You can see what I took OFF those things.

That way - you can see what I've got now versus 1 year of growing and then the following year - I had blooms.

And they bloom on new growth - so don't be afraid to whack 'em. They're not like clematis or a rose. If you make a mistake - SO WHAT?!?! (grin) Not like you'll be able to tell. (grin)

They are something that is a "beware" though. You really need to keep a handle on them.

Don't worry and feel free to whack them HARD back to the spot you want the growth to start. If you let them get too long and woody - you'll have bare spots without green or flowers.

Thats what I have now. A single long brown woody stem growing through an obelisk to the top. So I should just whack it back to where I want new growth to start? I have it away from everything else and am going to try to confine it to that spot. I was so dissapointed in it I started to yank it out and plant some other vine there. I got the coolest vine that the seed pods are shaped just like little wooden butterflies. I got a cutting from Xtal when I went to her house. She paints them to look like real butterflies and they look so real! I'll have to take a pic of one she gave me and post it later.

It's impossible to kill a trumpet vine (campsis radicans). I'd been trying for about 10 years and finally gave up. They are beautiful in bloom but they are so invasive. I've had runners travel 30' under a deck and pop up on the other side. I try and rip up rrunners before they really take hold (fat chance!) and remove all the seed pods before they open. I've even resorted to strong chemicals which I never use. I'd cut down a main stem and inject it with a syringe full of various herbicides. No effect. I even used a product that people swore by called VineX. That was a temporary set back for the trumpet vine. Trumpet vines and cockaroaches will be the only things left alive after a nuclear war.
Karyn

Now your scaring me!

4F4 - as I said - it's something that you must keep a handle on.

Are you sure you want it to keep growing? (grin)

Your call. Sure you wouldn't just rather a nice piece of euanymous? (grin)

Oh no - it was in the 50s on Friday - high 50s on Saturday - 62 yesterday - 64 today - 51 tomorrow. . . .40 on Wednesday.

Those dumb Paulownias are gonna start to wake up and then get nailed by a freeze again. (They're so dumb)

I have the lavender trumpet vine all along the fence on one side in my backyard (came with the house), and that one too will grow all over the place. I have to cut some of it back because it climbs all over my lime tree by the pool and starts weighing the tree down. It is beautiful when it blooms though.

Hi everyone! This weekend works included cleaning out the flower beds, cutting back dead cannas & banana trees.5 boxes & 6 trash bags later Im done! Spent sunday on the sofa playing monopoly with the kids, I lost :)
Rigo74

Purple Trumpet Vine.. Those are gorgeous..
I swear I CAN NOT grow that stuff... A trumpet Vine at my house has death coming.. My husband calls them bugle boys and would love to have one.. LOL not happening...
Kylie

Oh, boy I love purple, lol. I am debating whether to keep it or not. I will probably dig it up, then it will come back from the dead and take over the yard after I plant something else, lol.

Ok you guys no one offered but I'm asking...I want some of the trumpet vines and some morning glories as long as they are not pale pink. Anyone want to share some of their bounty with me? (PLEASE). Ok, Pretty Please with sugar on it!

I also need ya'lls help with a difficult area I want to plant SOMETHING. It is in the shade all day, and the soil is lousy and I really can't amend it because of trees and roots. I have flowerbeds around the trees with vinca ground cover, daffs, and irises. I outlined the beds with iron ore rocks that are all over this place. They look real pretty but it's the area between the flowerbeds and the walkway that is nothing but dirt. What can I plant there that will grow good in the shade and look nice. I'm tired of looking at the dirt. Please keep in mind this area has SORRY SOIL and the huge trees will probably suck up most of the water.

Anyone got and ideals for me? I certainly would be thrilled with any of ya'lls thoughts. I'm brain dead when it comes to this area.

Happy Gardening, and please share some of the morning glory and trumpet vines with me. I have plenty of places they can take over....like the back 30 acres LOL.

Marian

What about cast iron plant (aspidistria elatior)? Dark green leaves and they love shade.I have a few of these growing in my back yard.

Rigo - ya BEAT me to it. Aren't those things awsome?

Just boggles the mind. They're not hardy in my zone here but had them at the other place.

Just really amazing how they do.

Marian, when the weather is better, I can send you some lavender trumpet if interested - email me. I will try to get you some with roots. Eloise

I forgot to mention I do have some cast iron plants around the trees. But even they took two years to even start to look decent.

Eloise, I'm out the door to work. If I can remember to email you when I get home about the lavender trumpet vine I will. But you folks know how forgetful I am. LOL

Chena asked me the other day what seeds I was wanting from her. I couldn't think what they were for the life of me. LOL Old age is so wonderful, you wake up in a new world everyday. (grin)

Happy Gardening Marian

Dweeb- I just love cast iron plants, they are great and do well in the shade. Had some in full sun but had to move them.