PM2 - I like Julia C's color and nice to know that she doesn't require fussing to keep looking nice. She'll most likely be hardy for me, and best of all, I read that she's scented! I think I need to find a spot for her.

I think that H. paniculata is 'Pink Diamond', though it might be 'Quick Fire'. I'll see if I can find a tag.

My 'Annabelle' is wedged between two other shrubs, a spirea and a huge rhodie, so doesn't have a whole lot of flopping opportunity. She does flop a bit forward. I have read in one of the forums that the hype about the strong stems of 'Incrediball' are just that, hype. The extra size/weight of the flowers more than counteracts any stem strength and it flops at least as much as 'Annabelle'. I think if I were worried about flopping, I'd probably put several bamboo stakes around her and a ring of string, early enough in the season so that the leaves and blossoms would cover the support. Alternatively, if you have a slope or wall, her flopping becomes an asset as she drapes gracefully over the top. However, I don't find that she ever actually lands on the ground, and the long profusion of blooms more than justifies her presence in the garden. I often cut some stems for booth decoration at a craft fair we go to in August, and always get asked about what the plant is. The other thing I like about having her here is that it's a site that's hard on woody plants, between the voles eating the winter bark under the snow and snow load getting raked off the roof onto garden, and so I need plants that don't mind being cut to the ground after a difficult winter. 'Annabelle' takes to that without blinking, so for me it's a perfect plant for the spot.

Babs, yes, I forgot to add, that JC is scented. I would not say it is strongly scented but noticeably so. To me a rose without fragrance is just not worth the real estate, because that is at least 60% of what I love about it.

I have a feeling your Hydrangea is 'Quick Fire' because I have 'Pink Diamond' and it is just starting to develop buds and won't be ready to bloom for awhile, and I am in zone 6. I'm captivated by your combination. I have a trellis growing behind 'Pink Diamond' with Clematis on it but they have already gone by. I may get a new one and train it into the Hydrangea for a later bloom too. The whole area is meant to be a screen and is still filling in, but the more the merrier.

'Annabelle' is definitely on the ground for me three years in a row. I inserted black milk crates under the branches for support, after the fact, but next year I am going to have to use something more. Especially if 'Incrediball' is not going to work out. I have tried pruning it all the way to the ground, twice, but this year I just cut off the dead flower heads and it still did the same thing.

Thanks for that information. I do enjoy the plant and will figure out something.

Babs, your clematis against the hydrangea paniculata (that variety and the lace caps are my favorites) are both striking. I love the way you've let both do their own thing and weave through the hydrangea. Do you ever prune them?

PM2, thanks for the second photo of Julia C. I've only seen that rose in catalogues and was always suspicious of the color shown, but she is truly buttery. I don't mind the smaller size blossom as long as the color shows well, and yours certainly does!

Molie

Prairiemoon, my best trick for keeping Annabelle from flopping is a peony cage for the inner stems, plus stakes/string (actually that garden wire with rubber around it) for the outer stems. Works great and is invisible.

Babs and Prairiemoon, my Annabelle is 3 years old and I've never cut it back. I know keeping it unpruned is supposed to improve stem strength, but what are the benefits to cutting it back? Does that keep it smaller/prevent suckering? Make a nicer, more rounded shape? Create larger blooms?

Thanks!

Lalala, thanks for that suggestion. I would not have thought of putting something for the inner stems and the outer stems. Sounds like a plan. And the reason for pruning it back? I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference. I end up pruning mine all the way back because without support the stems usually bend and break and need to be pruned off the next season to start fresh. It did still sucker. I'll try to find a photo from the years I pruned it to compare and get back to you.

PM2 and Molie, I am envying you your lilies. I had planted several each of about 5 kinds over the last three years, all oriental-trumpet hybrids, and the voles ate every single one last winter. Last year was my worst ever for the voles and they have continued into the summer.

Lalala, I only prune Annabelle back when the stems are damaged by voles or heavy winter snow (usually when we have to rake the roof in the years we get more than 4'); some years she ends up a tangled mess of broken branches. It doesn't stop suckering, but in the years I prune there are fewer flower heads but they tend to be close to volleyball sized. I am just as happy having more smaller ones.

Babs, this is my second year with the lilies and they are super fragrant too. I do see I still have a few RLLBeetles that I missed and if it weren't for those buggers, I'd plant a whole lot more lilies. It is time consuming to keep after them. Do you get RLLBs? If not, and the voles are the issue, I wonder if you couldn't plant them in hardware cloth boxes that you put together? I think it would really be worth it.

Voles and moles, there must be some predator for them? What about a friend who might have a terrier you could borrow? (g) Isn't that what they were bred for? OH, except I guess they would dig up your garden. Nope, that's not going to work.

You have posted so many beautiful photos of your garden recently, that you must be keeping ahead of them. Glad they are not destroying everything.

I had said I would post a photo when my Gardenia "Frostproof" bloomed, and it did today. I had to take the photo with my phone, so not the best, but I was on my way in from the market and it was starting to rain, so it was that or nothing. I will try to get out and get photos of more of the garden, but it has not been a great time for me the past five or six weeks.

Anyway, I hope you like it. This one has the true Gardenia fragrance!

{{gwi:5901}}

Molie, if your garden is "lush with weeds" I sure can't see them! That is beautiful, as is your cottage garden, NHBabs. I'm loving everyone's lilies, but still have a full day of weeding ahead of me to uncover my own singular lily. If the rain will ever stop...

I have squashed my first two Japanese beetles and I hope they are not the forerunners of a swarm similar to last year's. My vegetable patch looks pitiful enough from lack of sun. I planted a second crop of summer squash and I think those seeds, too, have rotted in the ground and will never show their heads.

The only things loving this rain seem to be daylilies. My old fashioned orange daylilies are blooming, along with this red variety, whose name escapes me. They are a brighter red, but the colors were muted by condensation on the lens.

Two other pictures are my hen and chicks whose central stalk has now also risen and given birth to a cluster of tiny pink flowers. It was impossible to capture in a photo, but these teensy blooms look like a mirror image in miniature of the pink cosmo and pink poppy blooms to the left of where this pot of succulents sits, in the same garden.

The second photo is my bee balm which never ceases to amaze me, considering that it came to me a few years ago as a single stalk, accidentally included in the pot with a phlox plant of the same color. The phlox is doing well, but the monarda has its sights set on world domination (which is fine with me)!

PM2, you must be slightly ahead of me. My Oranias are JUST about to open, maybe tomorrow morning. Molie's lilies brought Orania to mind for me as well, but on second look I thought they were a tad too yellow. But they are gorgeous!

As is your Julia Child, PM2. I've been toying with this one for awhile. Roses don't seem to do all that well in my garden. They start off good, but I think they don't like my neglect. I just noticed yesterday that a small climber I have does not have a single leaf on it! Completely naked!

By the way, asiatic beetles are small and copper-colored. I usually only see them at night and they seem much more stationary. Orientals are bigger, kind of beige with brown markings, are around all day every day, and fly around a lot more, often getting stuck in one's hair. Yuck. Sorry, I know I seem to be harping on these things lately, but I am positively infested with them (half a dozen in each bloom!) and I'm so sick of their damage and can't seem to find a solution. LOL, maybe I should go post this on the complaint thread!

:)
Dee

Hi Bill, Thanks for posting photos of your ‘Frostproof’. Did you just add that this spring or did you have it over the winter? I can only imagine how fragrant it is! I had wondered where you’d been lately, sorry to hear you haven’t had a good month. Hope you have not been sick?

Spedigrees, Pretty Bee Balm. I have mine growing in full sun and I’ve been thinking it might like a little less. Yours looks to be in full sun too and looks like it’s growing great.

Dee, surprising if your Oranias are behind mine, since you are south of me in CT. Mine are in all day sun, are yours?

Julia Child is a performer as far as roses go, but she is still a rose. (g) I think she can handle a little neglect and still do fairly well, but with just a little bit of well timed attention, she does great. I don’t do that much, but I do more than with other plants. I fertilize in the spring, do bug searches before they strip my leaves early on before they bloom and hand pick, or if I forget, then I have a mess of eaten leaves that have to be trimmed off to make room for new clean foliage and I deadhead. That is about all I do. I prune them back to a good framework in the spring too. Oh and I spray fish/seaweed emulsion on them when I think of it.

Dee, are you able to just hand pick the beetles? Put on some headphones and listen to your favorite music and carry around a container with soapy water in it and just knock them into it. If you have that many, maybe a 5 gallon bucket would be right. I use ours for so many things in the garden. Do that every day or a couple of times a day for a week and that will really reduce their numbers.

PM2, I barely have time to just literally walk through the garden once a day (if I'm lucky lately I've gotten out for a quick once-thru three times a week) and it would be a full-time job to get every beetle. I do literally have at least three beetles in almost every bloom in my garden. This is not an exaggeration. They usually seem to go for the daises, echs, and daylilies, but this year they are in the lily blooms, the rudbeckias, and even the hydrangea and hosta blooms. And in my hair and even crawling on my neck while I'm driving in my car! I guess one of them wanted to come for a ride with me, lol.

I've decided this year that I really have no business having a garden. I just don't have time for it. God only knows how I did it the last few years when I has that fourth job, lol!

By the way, I saw my first open Orania bloom today, it struck me as surprisingly small. I seem to remember them being much bigger blooms, and then I also noted that the plants themselves seemed shorter than usual. Hmm, I'd think all the rain would make them grow well, but maybe lack of sun had just the opposite effect...?

Dee

Molie - I prune the clematis to near the ground each winter (one or two buds on each stem) since it's one that blooms on new wood only. I don't prune the hydrangea at all other than to remove the spent flowers some time in early spring if I have a chance.

This post was edited by nhbabs on Thu, Jul 11, 13 at 21:25

Dee, well hopefully at some point, you will have the time. Maybe you will win MegaBucks. :-) With the earwigs, I think if we have a drier year next year, it would help without you doing much about it. I also have a smaller garden then you do.

I just looked up if there are predators for earwigs, and they suggest toads and birds. Also an interesting idea, chickens and ducks. Want to have fresh eggs and less earwigs? lol Now I'm sure you have time to raise chickens too Dee!!

LOL! Actually, I have indeed considered chickens! As a matter of fact, my co-workers and I (at ONE of my jobs, lol - a non-profit that promotes organic ag and gardening) were just discussing the rather new problem of homeless chickens, and the growth of chicken sanctuaries. Seems people don't realize chickens only lay eggs for a few years, and then folks don't have the heart to slaughter the chicken for food, but don't want to keep a bunch of non-laying chickens around, and so they need to find a place for them. Hence the opening of chicken shelters. Keeping chickens certainly is a commitment!

It's not earwigs that are troubling me, PM2, but oriental beetles. Or... are you saying YOU have problems with earwigs? I don't think I would ever handpick earwigs, not if I had all the time in the world, lol! Yuck!

Mega Bucks.... I like that idea......

Dee

Thanks all for the compliments on my path and garden. The path kind of keeps the jungle almost under control.

Tina: What a lovely found daylily! Are you going to move the others into the sun too?

Lovely true lilies, PM2 and Molie. None of mine have flowered yet.

Very pretty hydrangea/clematis combination, nhbabs.

Homeless chickens and chicken sanctuaries, Dee? Oh great, keeping chickens is such a hot new trend and the reality has just sunk in. Farming is not for the faint of heart.

More daylilies here:

Joan Senior with meadow phlox.

American Revolution with meadow phlox.

and hostas:

Paul's Glory in bloom in between variegated Solomon's Seal and good old variegated hosta Undulata.

Blue Angel hosta next to Blue Billow hydrangea with some meadow phlox. The itea are gone by.

and on my deck,

Clivia 'Golden Dragon' is blooming in July as usual, not in the winter.

The clivia is joined by Christmas Fantasy "Christmas cactus". Fourth of July cactus? Another "Christmas cactus" is about to bloom too

I think they're trying to tell me that the winter conditions in my house are not acceptable for blooming houseplants.

Claire

Chicken Shelters?! Now I have heard everything. But completely understandable, because I could never kill a chicken either. I didn’t know they didn’t lay eggs after a few years. On the other hand, isn’t there anyone who wants a few chickens to have for dinner, instead of sheltering them? Such a dilemma, who knew? (g)

I just looked up whether chickens eat oriental beetles and evidently they do and they eat Red Lily Leaf Beetles and Japanese Beetles too. I assume the beetles would have to be on the ground though? Some people catch them then feed them to the chickens and how is that a help?

Earwigs, was the discussion on the Perennial Forum today, but I did mean the Asian beetles…. and chickens eat both. Sorry about that!

And no, would not handpick an earwig, but a paper cup of soapy water, held under a leaf they are on, and flick them in or shake them off the plant into the cup works great, without touching them.

Claire, I LOVE the color of that American Revolution Day lily! And that area with the Blue Billow is really pretty. I thought Clivia were difficult to get to bloom at any time of the year, so I think you are doing well.

Ooh, Claire, that American Revolution is wonderful! I never cared much for red, except for the stunning red of lobelia cardinalis, but I'm coming round! I bought a Chicago Apache on a total impulse - at the supermarket of all places! Was walking through the lot to go in and they had plants along the front of the store, and I fell in love with the Chicago Apache. And so it begins....

:)
Dee

Everyone's gardens are looking great at this time of year. Claire's in particular. I too am fighting Oriental Beetles which are more active at night and thus are hard to catch. Thus far they have eaten my roses, echinacea, clematis and even the new growth on a young Cercis canadensis Forest Pansy. URI entomology recommends killing grubs, but I won't use imidacloprid which is implicated in honeybee colony collapse. The alternative is "Catch Can" traps. I think I'm going to give these a try. Link below.

Still there are a few photo worthy plants blooming. Here they are:

Hydrangea with H. montana Aureomarginata

Purple Cone flower with a visitor. I'm sure someone will know what variety it is.

Black eyed Susan self seeded

Annabelle

Sea Holly (winter sowed) with Bella Anna (pink version of Annabelle)

Hosta flowers are so underrated. This is the inflorescence of H. Cracker Crumbs

Hemerocallis Ruffled Apricot - the Oriental Beetles were having a team meeting in this bloom about 7:30 p.m. so I removed the bloom and squished about a dozen of them.

Mary Chastain was probably the greatest dabber of pollen in the Hosta world. Her hybrids all bear the prefix Lakeside. If you see a Lakeside Hosta for sale, likely its a good one. This is Lakeside Prophecy.

Echinacea Sunset and Geranium Rosanne

Can't remember the name of this Rudbeckia

Hemerocallis Stephanie Returns

Hydrangea Twist N Shout. This is the first time I have seen honeybees in my garden in many a year. They prefer these flat topped flowers like Lace Cap Hydrangea and Asclepias, but now they are on everything.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: URI - Oriental Beetle control

Ann,

The Gardenia has been in the ground since 2009, but I had to move it in 2011. Other than it's first year it has no protection. It has about 6 flowers now and maybe another 6 buds right now. Fragrance is the real gardenia fragrance that we all know.

Although I do have some health issues, it was my brother, in hospital for about a month and so I was going back and forth and all that one does for a brother. He passed away on June 21st, and I really never expected any of it. But slowly getting back to normal. Now if the heat will let up, I may be able to catch up on some gardening chores.

{{gwi:5901}}

Bill, I'm so sorry about your brother. That sounds like such a shock. I guess many of us are at the age, where things can change so quickly. I'm sure you are glad you were able to spend that last month with him and do what you could for him. He appreciated it, too, I'm sure.

I think this weekend the heat is supposed to let up and maybe getting out in the garden will help. Take care.

My sympathy, Bill.

I always appreciate your postings of zone-pushing plants, though I haven't a hope of growing any of them myself, and I wish the internet could convey scents along with the images.

It looks like this is generally a good month for day lilies, true lilies, and hydrangeas. I am enjoying looking at all the lush looking plants and vibrant colors, and I haven't noticed any weeds, which is amazing considering the weather.

And since there have been several comments on beetles, nematodes can be used to reduce populations while they are still grubs. They are most effective on smaller grubs and they need to have moisture to move, so best success (according to some research I read) is when the area is watered daily for the first two weeks after spreading. Unlike Milky Spore, the nematodes will work on a variety of grubs, not just Japanese beetles.

Bill, so sorry to hear about your brother. My condolences.

PM2, sorry, I was typing while you posted above. Never realized chickens ate such a variety of beetles, lol. Too bad they couldn't be trained to seek and destroy. :)

Steve, great photos. Love, love, love the buds on that Cracker Crumbs! By the way, just last night I happened to read that exact article you linked to. It seemed to be more concerned with lawns and the damage the grubs do than the actual beetles and the damage they do to blooms. And honestly, I don't believe (almost) any article on oriental beetles unless there's a photo, since they seem to confuse or at least use the term loosely to mean orientals, asiatic, and Japanese.

Oh, and your Anna Bella is quite nice. I had considered this hydrangea, but the color in photos never quite appealed to me, and I have yet to see one in bloom at a garden center. I like the color that yours looks to be more than the photos I've seen on-line. And your rudbeckia might be an Irish Eyes - I always get this mixed up with Prairie Sun, which I think has more rounded petals.

Dee

Geez, sorry Steve. I just realized it sounded like I was bashing the link you provided, and by extension your attempt to help, and that was not my intention at all. I apologize if it came off that way.

What I meant and did not express clearly is that my general observation is that in my search for a solution to (specifically) oriental beetles, I've found both an emphasis on lawn damage by grubs, and also the loose references to all three types of beetles under the name "oriental". I was not picking on your particular article.

I hope I've removed my foot from my mouth and not shoved it further in!

:)
Dee

Thank you all for your words of sympathy.

I do like to push the zones, for sure, although for me, that gardenia 'Frostproof' is sold as hardy to zone 6 so technically not really a push. The past several winters have been zone 7, since I've seen no temps below zero for several years right here. I do consider trying my windmill palm as zone 6 as pushing though.........but it was planted out in the ground in spring of 2012, so it spent its first winter outdoors, and it's pushed out 4 new leaves already, and that's more than it ever did in a pot and wintered indoors.

Nice to have all the tried and true garden treasures, but nice to mix in a surprise here and there too! Keeps it interesting.

{{gwi:5901}}

Amazing photos of Lilies, Pixie, PM2, and Molie. And your roses are beautiful Claire and PM2! I don't grow either but appreciate them in others' gardens. Somehow roses just seemed too fussy and the lily leaf beetle has put a damper on them.

Lots of nice hydrangea pictures. The blue hydrangeas are quite beautiful and it's nice to see the bees like them too.

Tina, I think the earwigs are probably eating your Echinacea. They are all over mine! Go out with flashlight about 11 PM and check, my guess would be either earwigs or beetles.

Spedigrees do you know which Monarda that is? It's a nice lavender color.

Steve your butterfly is a great spangled fritillary and I think the Rudbeckia is 'Prairie Sun'.

Bill, I didn't find a 'Frostproof' Gardenia in the spring and bought non hardy varieties for pots instead. They had buds already when I bought them and bloomed once and now another round of blooms are getting ready to open. I'm sure I will never keep them alive over the winter though, so I'll make another try to find 'Frostproof'. I could probably order it from Logee's, I just haven't made a mail order this year, so far.

Steve, that Hosta ‘Cracker Crumbs’ bloom is a delight. Such unusual coloring. and a fat flower bud. That is a mini Hosta, right? Also wonder about Bella Anna, is that pink regardless of your soil PH?

Glad everyone is enjoying the lily photos. Wish there was an ‘ap’ for adding fragrance to the photos. :-) Terrene, you are right, roses and lilies definitely need a little more of your time. You have a lot of natives though, right?

That fritillary butterfly is so pretty. I haven’t seen one of those in the garden. I’ve been seeing a few monarchs on the echinacea this past week. Not as many numbers as other years, but maybe it’s early?

Gee, with all this talk of earwigs, I hate to go out and see if I have a lot of damage from them. I haven’t been checking things out this week. Between that and the beetles, I guess I better get out there.

It's sad to hear that you lost your brother, Bill. Working in your beautiful garden should help you adjust, and maybe you'll add a special plant in his memory.

Steve: I agree that hosta flowers are underrated. The hummingbirds and I always look forward to them and there's a long succession of bloom with pretty colors and sometimes fragrance.

Claire

This post was edited by claire on Fri, Jul 12, 13 at 7:06

Thanks Claire. I have been doing some gardening again, although some cooler weather would help.

Ann, Dave's Garden website lists 8 vendors for "Frostproof". Fry Road nursery in Oregon has a 1 gal. for about $30 including shipping. Almost Eden in Louisiana shows a smaller size for only $9.99, but I didn't check the shipping. Logee's has it, but they are usually pretty high on prices for quite small plants.

{{gwi:5901}}

Thanks Bill, that gives me some choices! :-) I have to remember to check Dave's Garden once in awhile, too.

It's nice and cool here today. Expecting it to be tomorrow too at least, but then back into the heat and humidity. If we would just at least get some sun with all that heat, my tomatoes would grow. It's not going to be a good year for tomatoes and peppers.

I'm very sorry to hear about your brother, Bill. That is sad.

Chicken shelters? I thought seriously about getting a few hens after our old pony died, and converting the little barn into a chicken coop. I wouldn't care so much if they laid eggs, and I can't kill any animal that I've had a relationship with, so meat would also be out. But I would like them around, and they are fantastic predators of all sorts of insects. They will even eat frogs and mice when they can catch them.

The deal breakers are their longevity and never being able to go away. You can board a cat, dog, or horse, but not a chicken! Apparently chickens can live to be 20 and beyond, and I want to be sure not to leave any pets homeless when I go. I already have a 10 yr old pigeon that I expect to be with me for the next ten years. So the chicken fantasy will just remain one of those unrealized dreams.

The Japanese beetles are back this year with a vengeance. They were completely covering the leaves of my stunted sunflowers yesterday. I wish I could unleash a flock of chickens upon them!

I only planted a single cherry tomato plant, some basil and some parsley. Returns from last year are tarragon and chives. Actually I had a large clump of chives but I had to move them and they're getting established again. I have armloads of rosemary though. Third year for R. "Barbecue", which had loads of blossoms earlier this season. The other one is R. "Arp" and it's in its fifth year. They only damage to either of them was from heavy snow loads that flattened them a bit, and broke a couple of the branches. They are both over two feet high and three feet or so across. I grow it as much for decorative reasons as well as for culinary use.

{{gwi:5901}}

The rudbeckia is prairie sun. My favorite :)

Well, for once I have some photos to post! Borrowed my husband's phone to get some shots of my non-blooming monarda for another thread, and decided to take a few pics of other things. No long or wide shots here - my garden is too messy for that!

First off, a daylily that survived the deer! I can't remember the name but I love this unusual color, which is unusual in itself because this isn't a color I would normally like!

Thanks to Marty for my beautiful new Quickfire hydrangea, still living in a pot, with a few balloon flower blooms in the background.

Some volunteer reseeders in a bed I haven't finished redoing yet - ignore the weeds!

My Prezioso hydrangea, from George a few years ago. It has really taken off this year (about 3' x 3') and unfortunately the variegated color of the blooms doesn't really come across.

I'm struck this year how on one hand my hydrangeas have done very well, but the blooms on them seem smaller than usual. Almost like with all the rain they grew too fast and bloomed before they were quite ready!

And lastly, the widest shot I took, showing another surviving daylily with a (I think) rudbeckia. Or it might be echinacea Henry Ellers, but I don't think so....I think he is spikier and perhaps later... I'm having a terrible time with names this season! Also some dying feverfew, and you can see that damn sassafras poking up. That stuff is taking over my yard!

This is my new yellow/orange/red bed, which seems to be rather distressingly yellow so far, lol. I have to work more on coordinating my bloom times!

Molie, the no name lily's color is very nice. The Oenothera 'Siskiyou' smells so good. The one I got from you during the spring swap quadruple in size and smelled wonderful until some critter pulled it under ground. I found part of it sticking out of a hole.

nhbabs, the clematis and the hydrangea do really complement each other.

Dee, thanks on the names of the beetles. The Oriental ones are decimating my plants. I think I'll go complain in the "What can we complain about..." later. As for the chickens, I would give them homes but my dog would chase and eat them all. All my animals, past and present, are rescues. I do volunteer work by training dogs so they will be more adoptable. I'll have to wait until I have an animal friendly dog.

Bill, my condolence. My sisters and I see each other at least once a week. I couldn't imagine them not being there.

Your gardenia is BEAUTIFUL. How does it smell? I went to Logee's a couple of weeks ago to get one. I bought a small one in the 21/2 in pot. I didn't think to ask if they had bigger ones in the 'other' greenhouse. I was too excited. It's going to be years before this one bloom. I'm dying just thinking about it. I'm so envious of your blooms. Truthfully, part of the reason I bought one is because of your earlier posts on the 'Frost proof'.

Claire, I am definitely moving some more of the dayliles to that sunny spot. And, I'm going to sound light a jealous kindergartner....hey, why is your cacti blooming now? mine aren't. ;-)

Steve, your echinacea looks good. My leaves and petals are gone on most of them. In fact, my echinacea looks like globe thistle....but, not as nice as yours. I second terrene' s naming of the 'Prairie Sun'. You don't know how many nurseries I visited looking for those with the green eyes.

terrene, I went out two nights ago with a flash light and beetles started to dive bomb me. Well, they were attracted to the light and flew toward me. That's all it took for me to do the heebie jeebies dance and run back into the house trying not to scream bloody murder. I have a phobia with certain beetles and bugs that remind me of roaches. I lived on my own in high school and rented an inner city project apartment....need I say anything else?

-Tina

Dee

No worries about your review of the URI article. I was a bit put off by the lawn/imidocloprid thing myself. Usually the URI entomology articles are quite good, but that one wasn't. I did however, find a link through that article to Arbico Organics that sells a variety of different kinds of beneficial nematodes. I've been looking for Steinernema Carpocapse for some time. Not only does this nematode control grubs, it also is the only beneficial nem that will control foliar nematodes. Foliar nems are a real problem in Hostas and are hard to control. The link is below.

Thanks for the Prarie Sun ID. Lost the tag on that one.

H. Cracker Crumbs is a mini. I little bright gold thing.

Bella Anna is always pink, regardess of pH. The only drawback is that it flops like Annabelle does. I need to get some Peony supports for it. I bought that one for $5 at Weston Nurseries in November after the pallet sale broke up. It's grown well.

Enjoy the weekend. It's going to get hot next week. Remember, nothing lasts in the garden.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Arbico Organics

LOL, Tina, that's why I never go in the garden at night! I always see people saying, "oh, go out with a flashlight and look for...." and I think, what, are you crazy?! LOL

:)
Dee

Everyone's pictures are great!

Bill, very sorry to hear about your brother. Was he a gardener like you? I'm glad you have a garden to help you through this very rough time.
Well, I picked up my first camellia this year thanks to your zone-pushing, and now I think I'll have to sign up for that gardenia after seeing your photos of it. I like that you take some risks in your garden because you're the brave guinea pig and then we all benefit!! Thanks for that!

Thanks again to all for the kind words of sympathy.

Many of you have been interested in the gardenia, so I went out and took these today. The fragrance is definitely what we all expect from a gardenia, and G. "Frostproof" doesn't disappoint. Here is a closeup of the flower.

Here is the whole plant. Unfortunately today the open flowers were more plentiful on the backside of the plant. But there are quite a few more buds, and when they are open facing out, I'll try to get another shot. Also, excuse the few yellowed leaves. That was about the only minor setback of winter, but no more than many other traditionally hardy plants might get. I haven't had a chance to snip them. Maybe tomorrow.

{{gwi:5901}}

Gosh we are a chatty bunch lately. I just posted a part II thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: July Part 2

Dee,
That looks like heliopsis with your daylily.

Tina: "Christmas" cacti are induced to bloom by either long nights or cold weather. All winter they stay indoors next to houseplants that need all the light I can give them and can't stand much cold. So they don't bloom; they just sulk.

The clivia and cacti are the first plants to go out on the deck when there's no danger of freezing at night, days are reasonably warm, and light is much better. This makes them happy. Me too.

I've tried keeping the clivia dry all winter but it ignores it and just waits to bloom until it can go outside too.

Claire

Steve, thanks for that link and the info on Bella Anna, and most importantly, your understanding! I didn't read through the article far enough to see the link, so thanks for that.

And capecodder, thanks for the heliopsis ID. I'll have to go back through my very disorganized records (or dig around the dirt at the base of the plant, lol) to confirm.

Dee

Hi All,
Wonderful photos! I can hardly wait until spring bursts along next year!

Steve_mass: That is Rudbeckia, Prairie Sun---
the one with the gorgeous green eye.

Hi All,
Wonderful photos! I can hardly wait until spring bursts along next year!

Steve_mass: That is Rudbeckia, Prairie Sun---
the one with the gorgeous green eye.