THE craziness is finally letting up now that i have my garden planted. The last day was really crazy as i accidently left my carton of the rest of the seeds I wanted to plant out over night and found them sitting in an inch of water the next afternoon when I was ready to work! So in one fell swoop I planted all the different cosmos (some varmint had eaten into all the cosmos packages excpept the new "double click" so ended up sort of smearing wet packages across the soil to dislodge any seed remining and will have a patch of mixed cosmos! The carton also contained all my seperate colors of zinnias and odds and ends of other annuals I hadn't planted yet, including some of my ornamental grasses and dried flowers.
I got the last space filled as the sun went down and sprinkled the remaining seeds on the soil among the squashes!

We have had wave after wave of rainy days and cloudy warm days. The annuals I planted in march are the nicest I have ever seen. I think this new garden area and the tofu remains added to the soil are making the best soil I have gardened in! I keep thinking the batchelors buttons, agrostemma and clarkia are about to bloom but the plants keep getting taller and the buds fuller without opening. It sure will be exciting when they pop!

Yesteday I helped my hubby get the two big tree stumps that were left in my garden but didn't burn up in the burn pile, dismantled and removed. Well, we got one of them and the other is partly dismantled. But I now have room to plant the rest of my dahlia where these were.

Delivered my first bouquet of English roses to my English rose customer today! She was thrilled when I told her I had put in an English rose garden this winter, just for her and me!

The waves of rainy and humid cloudy weather continue. My window is rain splashed as I speak. The good thing is I haven't had to westles with hoses as much as usual. The other side is, will I get enough sun to bring on my zinnias this fall? I had such great zinnias 2 or 3 years ago andlast year none so I really really want them this year!

The first buds are opening on my bachelors buttons and agrostemma, finally at last! They are way behind most years. Feverfews are starting to open,,the Virgo is too cute! I have sweet williams everywhere! After I have done Sweet williams and roses, s.w. and lilies, what shall I try next week? Open to suggestions here!

FInally wrestled the last peices of stumps out of my new garden and it is almost burned in the burning pile, after 5 days of burning! Those were some monster stumps, and kudos to DH for wrestling with them and getting them out through the gate! I am now clearing the area where they were, to put the last of my fun new dahlias into. I have my corrolitos ones in and now am filling the last space with left overs of some of my favorites and some I got from Vanbourgoundian because they were new to me and I figure if I Can get 2 or 3 out of the packages of 5 established they are worth the money. Especially when I buy them on discount. The dahlias I dug and divided this year are so far behind the ones I bought and potted in April! I dug up all the 22 of them in the new bed that were not showing any growth and found only one rotted, but some were barely making their first roots after being in the ground with growing eyes or sprouts for a month. I am not impressed with this method so far..will see what I think in the fall. Meanwhile, the one that overcame my Othello rose last year (that I thought I had removed and knew half of it had frozen off the top), is up to about 30" and I need to move it post haste! That is the gorgeous "Crazy Love".

Yesterday I started pulling the tulip foliage and suddenly my garden looks so much bigger! I had set in eucalptus every 6' a few weeks ago and they have been growing perfectly happy and are up to about 18" now. How tall do I let them get before cutting? I don't want any to grow into trees! Just want lots of nice juvenile foliage.

I finally have enough peonies that I was able to leave the ones in my house garden to enjoy, and enjoy them I have this year! THe Sword Dance ones I got from B and D lilies 3 years ago are spectacular in this first good bloom year!

Lizalily, what variety of eucalyptus are you planting and did you get them as seedlings? I planted two silver dollar but want to keep those two as trees.

We have been having some mild weather but next week the heat is supposed to start - so I am trying to get everything well watered before then. Also trying to get all my major weeding and any last minute projects done. Got all my perennials planted and they are growing by leaps and bounds. Achillea paprika is blooming and hypericum aubury purple is putting on more buds even though it already bloomed and is putting on some berries. Leucanthemum agalia is really nice and now phlox Eva Cullum is starting to put on blooms. Echinacea has lots of blooms. Rudbeckia triloba is growing very tall and I can't wait for it to bloom - had grown this before and I love them - also Helenium is almost three feet tall and lots of branches. Tritoma is growing more slowly and no blooms yet and neither does the Gallardia.

Put in an old bathtub water garden for my parking lot turnaround and some water plants - never had a water garden before - water lily got one new leaf so I guess they are doing fine.

I am seeing I need lots more shrubs for greens and will be adding to those as time permits. I also realize I need many more flowers - but will wait to do that till my husband recovers from the shock of all the ones I have already planted. Bee balm is blooming and I have been using it in arrangements - it makes a nice focal point.

I finally opened my gardens to the public two weeks ago and got my website active at www.springvillelavendergardens.com. I sent out press releases and a local newspaper came by with a reporter and a photographer and said they wanted to do an article - I couldn't believe it when I purchased the paper the next day - my farm was on the front page. I have gotten lots of visitors from that article. I also had another web based newspaper come by and do an article and an audio interview - so from a few press releases I have gotten a lot of advertising. I plan on trying new angles for press releases for the future and want to send some direct mail postcards to garden clubs etc.

Cut back my roses from their first flush of bloom and they are putting on more buds now. Wisteria had tons of aphids and I am trying insecticidal soap on it.

My almost two year old lavender is really looking good this year and is blooming its heart out. My alba/white spike planted in the fall is putting on a few blooms for this year and so is grosso.

I am now trying to keep up with cutting and hydrating all the blooms and tring to decide what type of shrubs and greens to put in that grow fast. I also want to plant some flowers with larger blooms to use as focal points in arrangements - I see I should have planted some dahlias - but I can only do so much myself - suggestions for larger flowers are welcome - they must be able to take the heat and drying wind though.

Linda

Cloudy and humid and intermittent rain here also, as usual, since I usually get Lizalily's weather, just a day later. But today is miserably COLD and just pouring rain all day. I put my mother on a plane to return to her home in the San Francisco Bay Area this morning. She was totally disgusted with today's weather here. It's identical to the worst WINTER weather she ever gets at home.

Greenhouse sunflowers are almost finished. Everything else is in a state of suspended growth, waiting for warmer weather. I do have about 20 cut peonies all over the house, looking huge and gorgeous, but the buds still on the plants are in a holding pattern until it gets warmer. That's fine by me, I don't want them to open and fill up with rain and then dive into the mud. Oriental Blue delphiniums are exploding, lupines are finishing their big flush, bearded iris (also all over the house) are almost done, just one stalk of Conjuration left to cut. Several columbines are blooming their fool heads off, but I've realized I really don't use them much and should pull out all but one white and one red/white. Also realize I kept way too many lupines and decided to remove four of them. The more room I can make, the better. I'm in love.....with peonies and bearded iris, so I want to make all the room for them that I can. I don't CARE if I have too many to put in my house, I want them anyway!!! I also finally gave up on six out of seven caryopteris plants. If they haven't sprouted by now, they aren't going to, so that's more room for peonies and iris. As always, the hard part is paring down all the varieties I want to order into the few I have room for.

I'm very annoyed by something Schreiner's did. We went to their farm in Oregon, visited their display garden, and I took zillions of photos of iris I wanted, with name plates, so I could identify them and order them. Now that I've had time to look them all up, come to find out they don't even offer many of the varieties in the display garden for sale! That seems VERY unfair. I've located a few of them from other sellers online, but some just don't seem to exist. And I'm NOT talking about the ones they use for bonus iris or the ones marked "Not for Sale".

Enough ranting for today. The good thing about all this rain is that when I go a-weeding on Friday, the weeds should slip right out!

Jeanne

Hang in there Jeanne! Some of those iris may be in next years catalog....we just got a preview! Found the same thing last year but saw some of them in the catalog this year that weren't last year. Time to figure out my iris order too but waiting for a CD of the iris I liked...(smile).

I feel sorry for your Mom visiting you in this weather! Now I like it fine but my garden wants heat units! My asters are coming up from seed like crazy though. I am wondering if I should plant more "spring" type flowers instead of heat lovers.

The dahlias I prestarted are starting to bloom now so atleast I am getting to see what they look like. I am sure there will be dramatic color changes if the sun ever does its summer thing!

Jeanne, there is an iris farm near me; don't know if they have any you might be looking for but it is worth a try. I visited their display beds last year and they have tons of different varieties. They did have some they were not selling yet in their display beds but they were labeled as such - said they were developing those. Their link is attached.

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Sutton's Iris Gardens

I have ordered from Sutton's several times over the past few years and have been very happy. The prices are good and so is the selection. They will also start shipping to this area in July and I have had better luck with establishing new iris in July than in August or September when most places start shipping.
Kirk

Hey Jeanne my Tropical Dream Lilies are just about to open. One actually did but I didn't cut it because I wanted to see what it looked like. I'm going to cut a bunch of them tomorrow and sell them. I am in between a ton of things on the verge of exploding. I did cut 300 White Indigo yesterday and figured I could probably sell out of them if I hit 4 of my shops. I sold 85 at the first shop and then my second shop(my biggest customer) took the rest. The buyer was actually only going to take 100 of them, but while I was shooting the breeze with her a desinger named Dan came into her office and told her he wanted "all of that gorgeous white stuff in the blue buckets for my dinner event tonight." She looked at me and said I guess we'll take it all. That was great because I was really behind on weeding my annual beds so I didn't have to drive around any more to sell the rest and got to weed the rest of the day.

I spent 10 hours on my hands and knees weeding between plants(Sunflowers and Zinnias)and tilling between rows today. Now I am caught up, mostly. It looks like I might get to cut some Pee Gee and Pink Diamond Hydrangeas this year, the plants are getting really big. Now all I need is Jeanne and Lizalilly's rain. Send it my way, hold the high winds and hail please. I'll reciprocate with the warm temps we've had if I can.

One more thing. I know I asked before and was answered, but I can't find the e-mail that tells me how much stem I can take on the lillies without killing the plant. So if someone could remind me again I would appreciate it.

Happy growing,

Steve

Steve, to actually kill the plant, you'd probably have to cut to the ground. There aren't any absolutes of how much to cut; it depends on the vigor of the individual cultivar. The more stem you leave, the bigger the plant will be next year. In my experience here, taking half the plant results in the same size or slightly bigger plant next year, if the plants are happy in a spot they like. The rule of thumb I've read in books is that you should take no more than 1/3 of the stem, but that always resulted in bigger plants the next year. So, if I wanted bigger plants, I'd take somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2, but I didn't always want bigger plants, so on those I'd cut more. Does that help, or did I just make it more confusing?

Jeanne

P.S. On Golden Tycoon, cut at least 2/3 off, or you'll be sorry. Those have to be the most vigorous lily in existence, so they grow to unusably-big size quickly.

Howdy, Howdy, Howdy, and oh btw Howdy...

Hehehhehe. Well good to see ya all. Lilac season is over praise God. It is so nice to get strung along all year by florsits only to have them tell you no thanks come flower time.

My cherries are coming in and I'm doing some selling. Of course I have a bumper crop and now I don't have the size this year and HERE COMES THE HEAT.

My lavender is coming in and I have planted to much but so what. I love it. ALways have. The problem is now I have to cut it all. I have done some sells, looking into getting a distiller.

Bottom line I've been busy, busy, busy. Fire season is upon us and work is very busy.

Well it is nice to see you all. I will write when I can. My one regret is not enough time to have a veg. garden.

Take care,

Tim

Hi everyone!
Whew it was 106 here yesterday with no wind! That's very unusual! Glad our irrigation pump motor was reinstalled last week! I'm almost done planting...everything has been behind (including me) due to our late spring. Just have cutting kale and pumpkins and a few plugs and 4" pots left to go! Yeah! I have a little over 2 acres planted this year and even am borrowing my neighbors field (its right along our driveway) for our volunteer sunflower transplants. Somehow, I think I'm never done planting!

My newest favorite plant is Silene - boy does it last - over two weeks if you pick it just as it starts to flower and its tall too! But, it takes a year to bloom, or at least it did last year.

Trish - is it best to pinch "regular" dahlias too? At what stage? My Karmas are ready, so will be doing that soon -- definitely don't grow as fast as they do in your hoophouse!

Steve - getting ready to plant the rattlesnake master and the asclepia...I'll have to take pictures! I had a fellow grower (with a greenhouse) start them for me.

Hope you all have a great long 4th of July weekend.

Wendy

WOW, wendy, 106? I felt sorry for my kids in Portland with 100 degrees and no curtains up yet in their new apartment. It was hot here too but not that hot for which I Am extremely greatful! THe heat did bring on my agrostemma and tritelia...snap dragon spikes are growing longer with the costas the definite winners....

Checked my asters I had started in a grow tunnel. Results were spotty and disappointing so am soaking them over night and then will transplant from the clumps to the empty spaces and give them a dose of fish fertilizer. I am finding that area of my new garden is too shaded by the madrona trees to the west of them or else the trees are sucking the moisture out.

Picked my first stem of pink tiger lilies tonight. I have coveted my friends pastel tiger lilies for years and been afraid of spreading viruses but I have them at the other end of the garden and don't see any aphids on them so hope hope hope they will all be allright.