I'll dig up the persimmon trees on Friday and I can to the SF. I am going to wait until the last minute to dig them because they'll be traveling bare root. I'll prune them by 50% when digging to lessen the chance of transplant shock. You need to plant at least two, or have other native persimmons in your neighborhood, in order to get pollination and fruit set. The trees normally are either male or female, with different flowers, and you won't know until they bloom which sort they are. Some plants can set fruit anyway, per wiki, but I cannot vouch for that myself. I don't watch them that closely, but I know that some of our trees fruit, but not all of them. I assume the unfruitful ones are the males (sorry guys). They are nice yard trees because their foliage turns beautiful colors in autumn. Even their flowers, though small, are pretty. These are native American Persimmons, so the fruit is very small. They are too astringent for fresh eating but get sweeter after being blackened by frost. These are not big persimmons you can hold in your hand and eat like an apple or something similar. Those are oriental persimmons. They are very tolerant of our wild and wacky weather conditions. We have them everywhere here...in fencelines, woodlands, randomly growing in pastures, etc. On our property they grow both in clay and in sandy/silty soils, but they spread more easily in sand. I left two of them to grow in the back garden a few years ago, and now there must be a dozen or two back there and they are trying to crowd out my fig tree. You can cook the fruit and use it to make jelly, jam, pudding, cakes, etc. It is nice because by the time they mature, it is very late in the garden season and you aren't busy with much of anything else in terms of harvesting and preserving the fruit.

Wiki Diospyros virginiana

Maps? Fling? My head's spinning already....too much this weekend and I really want decent weather for all of it.....arghhhh!!
We'll get there, right?

Sharon

Lovncannin. . . iris. Want dark purple, yellow or white? Or do you want to not know what color?

Nancy I have lots of purples but not the others but I really am not picky.
I have you down for fig and eggplant. Regular or one bite dewako or
both?
jlhart I would like a couple super snow white tomatoes, mine didnt fare so well

Alexis I have you for figs and thats it ?

Moni I have you for variety pack of Iris and will trade for night at the
Moni Inn Saturday night and I will help you plant them.

I also have my hyacinth beans purple or white and Several types of tomatoes

I still have no idea on food...

I still don't know what I'm doing for food, either. . . lots of possibilities.

10/4 re iris.

Fig and eggplant. Kim, I've never even SEEN a fig tree, so YOU decide! Oh my gosh is that going to be a HOOT! I LOVE figs. And eggplants are so pretty, almost doesn't matter I've not so far been able to fix it correctly!

Ahh, and Kim, have you down for iris, sage, thyme, big orange daylily, penstemon, coleus, purple basil (want regular, too?), elephant ear (Yay, looks like I got #2 and #3 elephant ears up right, as neither has even wilted slightly.)

EEEks purple basil!!! something ate mine and I have been so sad, yes and Thank you. This is so much better than Christmas!

Kim, you want Cinnamon basil? Lime basil? I must not have seeded lemon this year. I might have a couple of Sculpit plants.

Yes please my friendship garden will be bursting. I can enlarge :)

Kim--whereas I cannot. LOL (Yeah right, GDW, like a little ole rock wall will stop me.)

Amy, could i get a sculpit too?

Luvncannin, got you down for the super snow white.

What a dunce. I went to print off the map a while ago, and could not find it!! In the trash OR in my inbox! I'm sorry to be extra trouble for you, Paula!!

Nancy if you use google maps on your phone, I can easily send a pin?

Haha, Eric--I don't know how that works--which do you need, my phone or my email?

(I DO use my Google map. . .)

Does anyone happen to have any green chili pepper plants they are willing to part with? Mine didn't turn out so well this year.

Paula--sorry to bother you. . . got the map/address. . . am good to go (come?). Woo-hoo, to my new hero!

Sharon, I think decent weather may be the one thing that eludes us on Saturday. My forecast says heavy rain for both Friday and Saturday, with severe on Friday. I hope Paula's forecast in Norman is better for Saturday than ours is down here, but we'll be there, rain or shine or come hell or high water.....lol....Lord willing, and if the creek don't rise.

Everyone, should we try to list what food we are going to bring (this will force us to make up our minds), so Paula knows what is coming? Also, has anyone said if someone is bringing paper plates, napkings, cups, ice, drinks, etc.? Most years we have compiled a better list of the food items than we've managed to do this year. Um, I think we all have been excessively focused on the plants....and on the fun of getting to see each other once again (and meet all the new members!) How about if I start a separate Spring Fling food thread so we can put all the food in one place here and not loose it in the plant listsings?

Dawn

I'll second the motion for a separate food thread!

I've been trying to find a few pepperoncini plants, if anyone has extra or knows of a source around central Oklahoma?

I hate to ask this question because I think I know what the answer will be, and it means I will be creating more work for myself (when does that ever stop me?) but....

Does anyone want native milkweed plants? These are seedlings that are coming up in a small drainage channel that Chris dug last year to channel water away from his house. They are only an inch or two tall, so now is the perfect time to transplant them. Since we have several milkweeds here, I'd just be guessing which ones they are and might guess incorrectly, but based on their location in the yard, they likely are Green Milkweed (A. viridis) or Antelope Horns (A. asperula). They are perennial here and we try to mow around them and leave them standing for the monarchs.

I see that some growers are offering pepperoncini online. . . haven't seen any around here. And speaking of, definitely will be on my list for next year. Love 'em. We do have banana peppers, if you'd like one of those, Bruce. . .

Dawn. . . of course would love to have some milkweed. Remember those were some of the stratified seeds I grew in moist paper towels, so ended up with only a few of them.

Nancy, I appreciate the offer, but I've got banana peppers.

Yes yes Dawn, I'd love to have as many milkweed plants as u can bring. I've seen some blooming out in the cow pasture but haven't gone out to look for babies.

Okay, y'all, I'll go out in the pretty weather tomorrow and dig up a bunch of milkweed seedlings. At least the ground is soft and diggable from the rain.

Okay, I'll spend time tomorrow sending energy your way for easy digging, no snakes or brazen coyotes. Bless you!

Would someone please send me a map or directions? I'm on my computer now to print directions, but can't find it. I remember seeing an email while we were in Iowa, but couldn't print it off at the time. I need to thin out my iris bed - does anyone need light blue plants? They are blooming now and I'll try to send a picture from my phone later if anyone is interested.

Thank you. Patti Johnston email: llpajohnston@gmail.com

Done, Patti.

Looking forward to host you again Kim! See you all on Saturday!!!

You guys rock! I didn't read all the way down - just stopped and sent it! Thanks Nancy!!!!!

Well, I went out and looked at the seedlings I thought were milkweed seedlings, and I do not think they are milkweed seedlings because the leaf veins look wrong. So, they probably are seedlings of either Snow-on-the-Mountain or Snow-on-the-Prairie (these seedlings are too small to know which ones they are). So, sorry that there aren't milkweed seedlings, but if anyone wants Snow on the Mountain, or Snow on the Prairie, let me know. This makes more sense to me because we do have both the snow type plants growing in that area, and also I noticed the larger milkweeds already are in bloom so it would seem odd to have seedlings just now sprouting. I'm sorry if I get anyone excited about native milkweeds that are, instead, Snow on the whatever plants.

I also checked in on all the potted up seedlings in the garden, and found some odd little black and red beetles eating on the leaves. I thumped those pests off the plants and hope they don't come back. When I have more time, I'll have to try to find images of the black and red leaf beetles and figure out their proper names.

I will take light blue iris please. Thank you

Bruce, I don't have any pepperoncini plants but I would be willing to bring you a Peppadew plant. I have one left that got topped by accident, but is bouncing back nicely. These are genuine peppadews smuggled in a missionaries pocket from the actual farm in south Africa! Lol Ok, it probably wasn't that dramatic, but it's basically true (wink). If you don't know what a peppadew is, go to the pickle aisle at the grocery store and find a jar of Peppadews! They are patented and freaking amazing tasting! Can't wait to see how the plants do here. Mine are just now blooming. Let me know! -Alexis

Deb, I'm so glad you're going to be able to attend. A Spring Fling is a wonderful way to meet everyone so we aren't just faceless names on a computer screen, and an incredible way to get plants to help begin filling up your new landscape.

baabaamilker, By green chili pepper, if you mean anaheim type peppers, I have a couple of those that I'm bringing along with a few other leftover pepper plants I could not cram into our garden. Believe me I tried, but when you're out of planting space, you're out of planting space. I think I've got about a dozen peppers of various types that I'm bringing.

Dawn

Anaheim, Big Jim, NM 64. Anything that makes a nice green chili is fine with me. I thought for sure the two big Jim's I have were going to die. They turned yellow and began wilting. Now they've perked up a bit but are growing slow in this cool weather.

Because I planted quite a few vegetables in the perennial garden I've actually got more space than I know what to do with. I'm saving some space for the sweet potatoes. Maybe I'll just fill it up with big red ripper cow peas.

I love Red Ripper. They grow like there's no tomorrow.

I'm nothing if not flexible. Or maybe the word is flaky. Went to town for groceries and my door prize--I've known for 3-4 weeks what I was bringing. Ended up with something TOTALLY different, spur of the moment. Crazy funny.

I can't believe it's in 2 days! I haven't picked up my door prize yet or planned what food item to bring. I guess I need to get on with it.

30 hours and I will be on the road ....must dig more holes.

LOL Kim. How long a drive is it? Let's see. . . and the forecast at the moment says 100% rain until about 9 am, then 100% again at noon. Only 80% at 9 am, so I'm thinking that's about when we'll leave. :)

It's about 4 1/2 hours. I enjoy driving. It's about the same as my Denton run. I will miss my little man asking granny what's the next town, how many more towns till we get there. I usually give him an old map any old map and mark stars at random places so he can keep track of where we are just like his daddy used to.

That's so sweet, and what a good idea, Kim!

I used to do that with my neice and nephew. Four hours of "are we there yet?" taught me.

Hey Dawn, I have tons of the old fashioned red poppies all over. Could I successfully dig those up for tomorrow's springfling?? I'm not sure if they have a long tap root and would transplant. What do you think??

also have a few Vitex. Transplant well???

Patti, Normally poppies only transplant well if they are very small, so your success might depend on how large they are.

Vitexes transplant well.

I must have done something wrong. The car is loaded (and all the plants actually fit inside it, even with the canopy in there too), the food is made, the door prizes are sitting on the counter for us to grab as we walk out the door, etc., so we're all ready. This is not normal. I don't know if I can function tomorrow morning without having to run around frantically doing last minute things. Tim did ask me if I was going to run out to the garden first thing tomorrow to dig up one more thing that I just thought of. I told him nope, I'm done. I had to work all week on getting stuff done in case we got the rain they said was coming today. So far, no rain, but all the pre-Spring Fling preparations are complete.

See y'all tomorrow!

Dawn

Okay. . . maybe it's time to find out if the plants will fit in the boxes. Wait. I can't SEE out there. Maybe it's time to fix the pea salad and wash my hair? LOL You know what? I think tonight's rain storm isn't going to happen! What the! Not complaining, mind you. Oh-I have a question--do you all box up or wrap the door prizes, or are they just out there visible to the world?

Its a mix. Some are wrapped, others aren't. If you want it to be a surprise, wrap it. If you want peole to ooh and aah, leave it unwrapped.

Plants are boxed up (mostly) and tagged (somewhat). Kid's treats are bagged, gotta stop and pick up something foodish on the way. But since I'm so close, I don't have the early morning rush like some of y'all do. See you tomorrow!

Uh, famous last words, Nancy. Hard rain here. Tornado on Ark border.

I've been in denial all day. We will check the weather in the morning and decide if we want to drive through it. I hope it's gone by then.

Of course you want to drive through the rain. DUH! No problem, Amy! Famous last words, probably. Jlhart (Jennifer? Jen?) thanks for the package info.