Are those little strawberry geraniums? I have heard they are hardy perennials in Oklahoma, true or false?

You have a lovely green thumb, SG! My puny pack of peppers look nothing like yours! Maybe I'll grow from seed next year. I seem to have better luck that way. I grew tomatoes from seed one year and they were fabuloso. I start them early in soda pop bottles (cut in half, like little greenhouses), and they germinate fast and grow fast.

Susan

Susan, according to what I can find on the internet they are called strawberry geraniums, strawberry begonias, or Mother of Thousands.
http://home.att.net/~larvalbugrex/begonias.html

I have always called them begonias because that is what they look like to me. They are certainly perennial in my beds. In fact they are very tough. There were growing on the north side of my house when I moved in and I moved some to the east side, which is the bed in the picture. I had some very young hostas growing there and needed ground cover until the hosta grew a little. We have had to dig up part of that bed several times because of a construction project and once for a water leak, but they just keep coming back.

The name is interesting because they are neither a begonia, geranium, or a strawberry, but their growth habit is much like a strawberry. They send out runners, and make new plants and they grow very shallow. I need to go try and rescue some more of them, I guess, because I mow them down in one area every year. The blooms will last 3 or 4 weeks, then I will deadhead them. They are still a pretty plant because the foliage is so unusual.

My peppers are looking OK, but some are still very small. Since I was carting those green pots back and forth to keep them warm, I just left some in cups so I could bring in a tray of cups rather than many more pots. I counted them yesterday, and I still have 8 more to pot up. That was to be my morning project if it didn't rain. I woke up to the rain this morning, but I think it has passed and our weather is supposed to clear today.

It is a strange gardening year as I only planted my yardlong beans yesterday, but have tomato plants blooming. I think it is obvious that my container plants are going to be better than my garden plants.

I am not the gardener that some of you are. I do fine with my vegtables but my flower beds are not that great. As soon as the construction is completed (if ever) I am going to work on the ornamentals. I have some clematis and a hybiscus waiting to go in the ground and plan to buy some additional scrubs. Just trying to do a few things to make our little old lake house look better. I would like some blooming plants that would attract the butterflies, but I want them to grow 5-10 feet tall. A lady offered me some red cannas yesterday and I am going to go get some of them. She said they were giants with a red bloom, so I am anxious to have a few. They had beautiful maroon foliage. I only have green ones, so I appreciated her offer. This lady has to use a walker to get around, but has a beautiful yard and garden. She was weeding a flower bed when I arrived there, but holding onto a pole. She had big wide rows between her veggies and told me this is because she puts down a mat and crawls so she can weed her garden. I guess gardeners will do most anything to garden.

I'm not even close to being the veggie gardener that you and Dawn are. Mainly because I don't have enough sun for them. Since I butterfly garden, most of the butterfly plants need full sun - some will do well in shade - but I grow a few tomatoes for me and the hornworms (I know how you feel about them!), and thought I'd try the peppers as a host plant, too.

I, too, crawl around a lot when planting and when weeding. I had back surgery in 2004, plus pretty severe osteoarthritis in my knees and feet, as well as back and neck, so I "scoot" around. I also use my kneeling bench, which is a big help in getting up and down. I refuse to give up gardening because of some minor disabilities. But, I do fall a lot. I've fallen 6 times this year (3 in the ice storm). This last fall this week did kinda hurt a bit because I feel on my right side and bruised my ribcage. P-A-I-N!! Yelp! But, I still got out this morning and watered, planted, pulled weeds, checked plants for caterpillars/eggs, moved all my pots around so my lawn guy could mow, etc. I feel like if I don't move it, it could feel worse in the long term.

Yes, we gardeners will do anything to maintain our "hobby"! I saw in the Oklahoma Gazette this week, where more and more people are starting home gardens due to the price of fresh veggies/fruits/herbs in the market place. I sure wish I could grow more. I plan to mix in the Swiss Chard with the ornamentals next year. Too late to start it now.

I just wish I could grow green beans, peas, potatoes, squash, broccoli, asparagus, and several other things. So, I guess I will go to the Farmer's Market down the street instead.

Susan

I think strawberry geraniums are lovely and you don't see them in stores as often any more. When I was a kid, they were one of those old-timey passalong plants that the neighbors shared with one another. It seems like (of course, we had that black gumbo clay in our part of Fort Worth) they did best there in slightly dry but well drained soil. There's a variety (it used to be called 'Tricolor' but I don't know if it is still available commercially) that has a slight pink edging on the leaves too.

Carol, That one pepper does look like it has a different leaf shape, doesn't it? I wonder what kind it it.

Susan, I have started Swiss Chard from seed in June or July (sprouting it inside in paper cups) and transplanted it into the garden in the dead of summer with no problem. If you keep it well-watered the first couple of days, it may wilt but it recovers. I like to use it as an ornamental in a mixed tropical bed, and often plant it in front of cannas. I have grown "Bright Lights" for several years, and this year I have "Neon Lights" which is supposed to be brighter, but I can't really tell that it is.

Of course, I like to continue planting as much as possible in the summer....I get bored. Usually in June or July, I till up a spot and plant something "new"....often something like castor beans and striped Japanese maize to give me a bit of a tropical look, and sunflowers and zinnias as well.

In 2004, (a cooler, wetter summer here.....we had 12" of rain in June), our barn/garage was finished in very late June or early July and it was surrounded by all that bare soil. So, you know me.....I scattered seeds of zinnias, sunflowers and amaranths in the soil around the barn around the 4th of July, and everyone laughed at me. By mid-August to late-August, we had blooms all around the barn/garage, and those same plants reseeded themselves and came back in 2005, although native grasses and weeds eventually outcompeted them.

I don't do as much outside in the heat of the summer as I used to because the heat bothers me more than it used to. I got heat exhaustion at a major grassfire along I-35 during that bad wildfire year of 2005-06, and it seems like ever since then, the heat bothers me a lot more.

Dawn

I have never been able to tolerate the heat very well, Dawn. So I can relate. I was glad to see you say that you planted sunflowers late. I'm gonna get some seeds to replace the ones that were mowed down. They usually germinate very easily. The Bordered Patch butterflies use them as caterpillar food. But, the finches adore the sunflower seeds (I get the ones that have the smaller seeds than the black oil). It was really odd, though. The first year I planted them, I planted both red and yellow sunflowers. The following year, the only ones that reseeded were the yellow, or else the red reverts to yellow, not sure which. I know the finches are gonna wonder what the heck is going on if I don't plant some sunflowers, though.

A lot of the time, the strawberry begonias are sold in the houseplant sections of stores. I guess a lot of the nursery folks don't realize it can be a perennial planted in the ground outside in OK.

I'm growling tonight because the milkweed bugs and beetles showed up today! GRRRRRRR! I've been pureeing them all day (between finger and thumb! LOL!)

Susan

Susan,

For you, are the milkweed bugs and beetles cyclical or a one-time infestation that you can halt in its' tracks by hand-picking?

We don't have them here....I have never seen a one. That tells me that either my guineas or some other predator eats them. Perhaps it might be because there are so many hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of milkweed plants per acre in some of the pastures here (the pasture near the fire station has more milkweed than grass), that they don't bother coming into our pasture for the relatively few milkweeds we have.

In the years that the Bordered Patch butterflies don't completely destroy the sunflowers, I save the seedheads for the finches, but I have to put them in a place where the deer can't reach them. I usually lay the dried seedheads on the roof of the chicken coop where the finches can eat to their heart's content, but the deer can't.

So far, the only sunflowers I have planted are Italian White and Vanilla Ice. I color-code my sunflowers to the season, so in late spring I have ones with more pale whitish-pale yellow color like the two I mentioned. I plant golden-flowered ones around June first for summer blooms, and in mid- to late-July, I plant orangey to red ones for fall color. And, of course, the birds plant a few in different places every year, and I usually leave those wherever they come up. I also have some dwarf ones blooming in the cottage border around the veggie garden right now, but I think the birds planted them.

Dawn