G.M.,

It is just the weather and there is not much you can do but wait for more sun and heat.

I miss the sunshine. I don't miss the heat quite as much because I know that before long the heat will arrive and it will be miserable....and all the more miserable because we have had such a mild/cool April and May.

Only this week has my garden begun to show some growth after just sitting there since the heavy rains began. I was so relieved that the soil had finally dried out enough to allow the roots to breathe and grow and now we have rain again...it is like being on a roller coaster....and this roller coaster ride is not fun!

My morning glories, moonflowers, scarlet runner beans, black-eyed susan vines and purple hyacinth beans have finally begun to grow a little, but the growth is slow and not at all vigorous like it normally is. I suspect these plants will just crawl along at slow speed until our daytime highs start hitting the upper 80s to lower 90s and then they will explode. Your cardinal flower should do the same. I have some cardinal flower volunteers in the corn bed and they are only a couple of inches tall even though they have been there about a month.

My sweet potato vines are slow to grow also, but then again they are heat lovers and they will go crazy once it warms up. I have put their containers on the concrete patio by the garage hoping the extra heat from the concrete will speed them up but I don't think it is working. They are making some new leaves, but they aren't gaining much length yet. They need the heat and sunshine too.

You must feed your plants something they can take up quickly (I'll explain how I arrived at this conclusion in the next paragraph) so they will GROW which means some sort of water soluable food like Miracle Grow or Peters or whatever. If you want to do it organically use Alaska fish fertilizer from Wal-Mart or liquid seaweed. They will not make your plants show as much growth as Miracle Grow will, though. Any sort of slow release fertilizer is being leached out of the soil with all this rain and isn't helping the plants.

Why feed the plants a water-soluable fertilizer? I worried and fretted over my veg garden for the last month as NOTHING was growing. I had put down all kinds of organic fertilizers and soil amendments before the heavy rains of course. After carefully studying my plants, their rate of growth (or non-growth actually), the appearance of their leaves, etc., I concluded that they were starving for nutrition which means either the heavy rains leached all the nutrients out of the soil OR the roots were too wet to take up the nutrients from the soil OR both. It took me a long time to reach this conclusion, because I know the soil has lots of compost, manure, greensand, lava sand and organic plant foods in it. However, the foliage and lack of plant growth was screaming 'nutrient deficiency' at me and I couldn't deny it.

Even though I hate using Miracle Grow in the veggie garden because it often causes too much growth which leads to more disease/pests, I went ahead and fed the plants all-purpose Miracle Grow this week, except for the tomato plants which got Miracle Grow tomato food. I poured some food onto the root zones of each plant using a watering can so I could control how much each plant got. I foliar fed the foliage with a spray feeder. My plants responded by putting out new growth in about 36 to 48 hours.

For me to break my own self-imposed no-Miracle-Grow rule, you know that I was feeling desperate to get the garden growing.

I also gave Miracle Grow to the containerized plants and they needed it even more than those in the ground since they are watered often and that watering leaches out nutrients.

You can put any kind of slow-release pelletized fertilizer on top of the soil in your containers and gently press it down into the soil surface. As you water it will dissolve and feed the plants. However, since containers are watered often, some of it will leach out and you will have to feed them periodically all summer. If really heavy rain falls, the pelletized fertilizers break down more quickly than they are supposed to under 'normal' conditions and you have to replace them more often. I have been applying Espoma plant food to my containers but I am not sure it is helping as much as it should.

In a way I think weather that is too wet, too cool and too cloudy is much more challenging than weather that is too dry, too warm and too sunny.

If your daylilies haven't been thinned in 3 or 4 years they may need to be divided. They don't bloom well if they are too crowded...but it could just be the weather. Does their foliage look a nice, healthy green?

I'm with you on the squash. I have flowers galore and no fruit forming. I haven't even tried to hand-pollinate yet. I keep thinking that 'any day now' it will warm up and the plants will begin to function more normally. Well, any day now....but clearly not today!

I can't remember a year with less sun....except maybe for May and June of 2004 when all we had was rain and clouds.

There are a few plants that seem happy in spite of the weather. In our yard, the cannas and four o-clocks are doing really well and so are the daturas, verbena bonariensis, larkspur, poppies, begonias, and especially all the nasturtiums, which are blooming like mad and keeping the hummers buzzing about quite madly.

My roses are putting out new leaves but haven't formed new buds yet. They don't look nearly as good as they did at this time last year....or last month!

I have tomato plants in odd places too. Some volunteers came up near the chicken coop, probably from tomatoes fed to the chickens. I also have 3 or 4 plants in the compost pile. Usually I have pumpkins in the compost pile, but this year it is tomatoes.

Your planters sound lovely. In these conditions I have found that plants in my containers are growing better than plants in the ground. It is probably because they have better drainage.

I've never planted moss but your spike moss sounds lovely. I do have a slimey green moss growing in the gravel driveway, though, thanks to all the rain.

Oh, and I know it seems counter-intuitive to feed a water-soluable fertilier to plants that are too wet, so consider this: your plants aren't taking up nutrients from the soil because (a) the rain has leached away the usable nutrients or (b) the water is saturating the roots and they can't take up anything but water. By giving them a water-soluable food that they can take up into their roots and through the foliage, you are giving them something they can absorb within 24 hours of being fed. Hopefully they can absorb the food before rain washes it out of the soil too. It IS counter-intuitive, but the new growth of my plants this week tells me that I gave them what they needed.

Hang in there.....it won't rain forever, and as soon as the rain stops and the sun reappears, we'll have lots of lush growth which will then struggle to adjust to June's heat and sun.

Dawn

Thank you so much Dawn for your help. I was hoping you would say that...but it seems like I have to keep asking as this goes on and on for so long.
I mean it is almost JUNE! Can't tell it by looking at my flowers and plants...some of them look more like early to mid April.

I will use some water soluable plant food as soon as I can bear to....I can tell they are suffering lack of nutrition...I use fish fertilizer and always keep it but I have plenty of other stuff too. Just bought some Bloom food a few days ago too....which I will use for the flowering things. Yikes I need to feed my roses again too, come to think of it.

I keep hearing about fried squash blossoms...have you ever tried them? I guess that is one way I could get something from my plants but I can't imagine my DH or DS eating flowers....lol.

I know it will be hot soon enough....or will it? lol
I just need more patience so I will try.

My cannas are a real tall old variety a lady gave to me and they get about 7 feet tall....taller than our privacy fence by a good foot or more...I just saw the first bloom this morning. And the oriental lilies are gorgeous. The hydrangea is getting really pretty. And the beds are looking pretty good. Purple coneflower is about to start blooming and the petunias and begonias are doing good. My yarrow is still blooming and the lavendar is blooming and getting much better looking after the winter harshness.
I have those lovely squash blossoms too...hahaha.
My soft needled yucca is blooming like crazy. And other things I can't think of right now.

Oh Dawn if you read this post....remember when I said I bought Gayfeather? Mine is looking sad...the grassy part is. The flower spikes look okay. I couldn't decide if I watered it too much or not enough as I had just planted it and was trying to get the roots established...they have just turned brown and died. Thankfully not all the grassy leaves but over half of them I would say. I trimmed the dead grassy leaves yesterday and I hope it will make it as I know it is going to be so pretty in that spot.

My gosh it is Now POURING DOWN RAIN AS WE SPEAK! I mean POURING DOWN in torrents! This will really put us in a mess!

G.M.

G.M.,

Our native gayfeathers often die back when we have a really rainy year. Eventually they come back, but I am not sure if the are coming back from dormant roots or if new seed sprouts. Our native gayfeather in the pasture hasn't even broken through the soil surface yet. I usually don't notice their foliage until June and then they flower here in August. Maybe yours will make a comeback!

Pouring down here too. We don't need it!!!!!

Dawn

Depends on which liatris you are growing. Spike gayfeath (liatris spicata) can generally take a lot more moisture than some of the other species.

Everything in my garden is growing lush again - I added some chicken manure to the soil. Dawn, it has more PK in it than cow manure. So, it is an all-around fertilizer, and I am trying to build up my soil (constant job), so I used it, and most everything just took off again.

My passion vine has finally broken ground! This is the latest plant in the garden to get going. But, once it does, it will climb everywhere very rapidly.

As far as your Cardinal Vine and Sweet Potato vine, I agree with Dawn. Until it starts really warming up good and consistently here, they will kind of just sit and sulk. Wait until we have a full week of sunshine and close to 90 degree temps, and you will see a difference.

I have baby black swallowtail cats and today I found pipevine swallowtail eggs. I'm trying to find a home for them because my pipevines are just not big enough to sustain these voracious cats. Sigh..... I'd love to keep em, but you got to know when to fold em.

Some of my plants have died due to too much moisture - my Sasafrass, one Wild Cherry, etc. You're right, too, that the plants in pots are doing much better than those in the ground. I am absolutely positive it is drainage issues. However, the Swamp Hibiscus is lovin' it, as is the Ironweed (can't wait until this blooms), buttonbush, all of the plants that like lots of water.

All in all, it was a good year to start some of my native plants that like good moisture in the early stages of growth, like my Magnolia virginiana, Persea borbonia, viburnum nudum, aesculus parviflora, witch hazel, rhus aromatica, ribes odoratum, illicium 'Henryi'. They much prefer the rain to city water.

Susan

GM

Hi, my daylillies are very slow this year. I am starting to get the buds but have only had three blooms so fair this season. I think it is the weather. Not so much the rain, I am lucky and have a fairly well draining yard, but more the cool evenings.

I also grow sweet potato vines and they are always a little slow when first put in and then when it hits the 80s consistently they take over the beds. Be patience (I am a great one to talk) your plants will grow in no time.

My front yard also faces the west. I have several dwarf youpon hollies, tree roses, salvias, day lillies and shrub roses. In the fall, I usually will put in quite a few mums which seem to love the location. This year I am also trying some dwarf variety of dahlias and glads up against the brick wall to see what happens. Like I have said I will move anything if I can get a shovel under it.

Steffie

One of the reasons I have chickens is so I can put the litter from their cages into my compost pile!

Chicken litter, by the way, is one of the ingredients in some bagged Miracle Grow soils.

My dill and parsley are covered with cats to.

Y'all, it has been pouring down here for almost two hours now. Our ground was already super-saturated from the rain that fell on Thursday and Saturday. The yard had standing water everywhere last night and that was before today's rain. When I walk, the ground squishes. This much rain at one time is very, very bad for the veggie garden, but very good for the trees and shrubs.

Dawn

Susan my Gayfeather is the liatris spicata and I had read about it on the net. According to what I read it can take a lot of water. And it is planted on a berm in some soil I mixed so it is part clay, part compost and part sandy.....didn't know if that was going to be good or bad for it after I had already done it. We shall see I guess.

Steffie thanks for your encouragement. I will try to be patient. I don't recall ever having to have THIS MUCH patience before...lol.
I have tried mums in front of my house but they didn't live. Even with the work we have had done there it is still hard to keep things going. The only flowers I have planted in the ground out front right now are hardy phlox and this year I planted some Blanket Flower. I have planted bulbs around my birch tree several times and they just disappear...this year two finally came up but didn't bloom.
My only hope out there is raised in berms or beds or containers. The soil is horrible and I feel blessed to have a landscape at all with all we have been through planting and losing things.
The backyard is somewhat better and is where I concentrate my efforts anymore. I still do berms and raised beds most all time however.

Thanks everyone for your encouragement that my plants will eventually take off and grow. I have done far more planting this year than in the last several so it has been really hard to wait it out to see results. The last year I got really into planting was in 2004. When we built 8 raised beds in the back yard. Prior to that time all my planting was planting and losing trees, bushes and plants while I learned hard lessons about this horrid soil we live on. Slowly but surely we are making progress.

G.M.

Merryheart,

When my veggie garden finally started showing signs it had dried up and resumed active growth, I was thrilled.

Now it looks like we are back in trouble again.

I think it is going to be a really long (as in tedious) growing season. As much as I hate drought, the truth is that most of our plants are better adapted to drought than to soggy soil.

I think I am starting to sprout little webbed feet. Well, at least I should be.

Oh, and the big old ugly cracks in my horrible clay soil that had not ever closed up since last year's drought.....they are finally closed up. The sad thing is that if we go a month without rain in July or August, those cracks will be back just like that!

I will admit I am enjoying not having to drag soaker hoses around here and there and I am really enjoying not having to water the soil around the foundation of the house.

I desperately need to be able to mow the pasture right now. There is a small window of time when most of the spring blooming wildflowers and cool season grasses are 'done' and I like to mow right then to get rid of the dry seedheads. I have to do it immediately after the cool season stuff is done and before the warm season stuff gets too tall and gets mowed down with it. The right time is right now. Unfortunately, the rain is right now too. (Sigh)

Dawn