Missing Camp.

Oh, yes. Missing Campanula.

does seem like its a bit early for the winter forum slowdown ... but it is october .... tomorrow anyway ...

ive been getting a lot of rain down my way.. what about you???

otherwise.. it seems like the temps have been very mild a little later than usual .... im dying for that first frost to beat down the biting bugs ... im just so tired of dealing with them this season ...

ken

Haha, mxk3----I have been thinking the exact same thing! in fact if you look at the recent posts, many have been from me and/or commented on by me.....I told my husband, "gee things seemed to have stopped on the forum." Sometimes it gives me a chance to visit some of the other forums that interest me or open the comments of the people I follow.

Yes and please keep posting djacobs! Things really have slowed down. rouge often keeps us going along with some others like mxk3 have been helping keep things happening but generally all the forums are a little sleepy.

things are winding down in our gardens; not so many desperate posts/questions about '"plants gone wrong."

What happened to Campanula, anyone figure that out?

We were forced to neglect the garden this summer for the past two months, so, I'm avoiding looking at the mess out there and waiting for next spring.

things are winding down in our gardens

still looking forward to a couple of stands of Monkshood to begin flowering.; and with the addition of too many Japanese Maples I am considering the anticipated display of Fall colours to be like more "blooming" :).

I think it's just the normal end of summer quiet. Maybe things will perk up as people start their cleanup and get things ready for winter, but right now for me at least things are just drying up and shutting down. Maybe the recent rain will help change my attitude since I usually enjoy working outside when things turn cooler.

The really quiet season will start after Thanksgiving! Everyone gets caught up in their shopping etc and all I want to do is talk about the last bulbs going in the ground and what exciting things you're already thinking about for next year.

Harold, I have a stand of lilies that I divided and replanted last fall and added new varieties from The Lily Garden. That's the first time I've dug them up and replanted and I was disappointed with the display I got this spring. They were single stems and shorter than usual by a couple of feet. I'm assuming next year, they will perform better.

I did get a little too enthusiastic and planted too many of them, too close to roses, so I have to move some of them this fall. I am waiting for the foliage to die back.

Do you dig your lilies every year, to trade with other growers?

Hello PM2. This was the first time I had shipped any of my bulbs as someone on this site wanted some white ones. But I get overzealous in digging mine each year to harvest the bulblets and put them in a separate spot to grow on. I like to replenish the bone meal and cow manure in my soil each year to guarantee great blooms. However I did learn on this site recently that I should just let them be for a few years and wait for the babies to grow almost as large as the parent bulb. Do you put any things like bone meal in your soil for replenishment?

Hi Harold. My lilies were in the same location for a good 8 years, so when I dug them up I had more large bulbs than I could use, so I didn't even use the bulblets.

I don't use manure, no. Or bone meal. I add chopped leaves and grass clippings as mulch every year. I do sometimes add a layer of organic compost. I also have used organic alfalfa meal on some plants, but haven't tried that on the lilies yet. I will try to add a lot more than I usually do of all those ingredients this fall and next spring to get the most bang for my buck with them too.

I forgot to mention that I too grind up some leaves and place them in that replenished soil. It really helps to draw worms to that spot. I saw a professional on TV who would dig up her clumps of bulbs and always throw away the very old parent bulb and keep the babies. I don't have the heart to toss away a bulb like that.

House won't let me post a picture right now but I will show you some of mine later.

Very pretty lilies and a nice assortment! :-)

Red lily beetles arrived here last spring and were terrible this summer, so I guess I won't be purchasing many more lilies from here on in ! :(

Thanks PM2. We are fortunate not to have the lily beetles here in southside Virginia. And I had never even heard of them until I read of them this year on this forum.

Don't count your chickens. We didn't have them in much of the U.K. either. Until we did.

I've had them here for years. I garden organically and just hand pick. Two years ago, suddenly, I couldn't find one in the garden. Have no idea why. This year I had a few that were very manageable.

In some cities and localities in Canada, there has been a release of a predatory wasp to combat the dreaded red lily beetle and I imagine the same holds true for other countries. I made the rounds handpicking the buggers, though later could barely keep up with disgusting larva! Next year, I must be better prepared and keep blasting the poopy buggers with the garden hose!

Yes FrozeBudd I used to check mine at various points in the plants growth cycle. Then we had a drought year and the chipmunks ate every flower bud then decided they were tasty and went for the bulbs. They started with the choicest and left a Connecticut King for a couple of days. I found a small bulb of Enchantment that I am coddling and a pot of a really lovely peachy/tan coloured one that the name escapes me right now - grr it is on the tip of my tongue but is eluding me.

Edited to add - possibly Chinook but I had another I think in that colour palette.

I was lucky enough to get some L. philadelphicum and so far so good.

The only ones untouched are L. lancifolium lol!

Haphazard hand picking didn't work for me for a number of years, then I got serious because the population was increasing and I focused on getting started early in the season and keeping at it. Two years of that, were the start of seeing a big reduction in them. I also would just carry a paper cup of soapy water and hold it under where they were sitting and knock them into it.

I had some rabbit damage this season, but only to one lily. They at least waited until it had bloomed already then chopped it off half way up. They only touched one plant, thankfully.

Determined persistence, as per prairiemoon2, also works at Merlin's Hollow perennial garden. The caveats are don't have too many lilies and have them in an accessible location.

Stopped using lilies and toadlilies myself some years ago. Never had fritillaria. Biggest loss to the mixed herbaceous perennial beds has been the toadlilies, due to their helping to provide later season flower colour.

I did use only a limited number of lilies to start. I had just Casa Blanca for years in one location and that made keeping up with LLB easier. Last year, after two years of very low populations of LLB, I ordered more and now I have 5 different varieties, but all in the same bed. Interestingly only a couple had any LLBs last year.

Never had fritillaria, which I would have loved, but didn't want to have another host of LLBs.

Unfortunately, I wonder it's a losing cause no matter what I would possibly do to combat the beetles ... well, because only two mins away lives a lily breeder with a vast collection of tens of thousands of lily stems, also my next door neighbor has a substantial patch and makes no effort to fight the bugs. Oh, as for lilies with the least amount of damage, the gorgeous and stately growing 'Red Velvet' was thankfully hardly touched.

Peren.all, how frustrating to have chickmunks chow down on the lily buds and then go after the bulbs! This spring, a pocket gopfer had come in during the night and commenced tunneling next to the foundation of the house, amazing just how fast and extensive they can dig in a only few hours time! First, I thought to drown the bugger out, though the full blast of the garden hose draining down the tunnels wasn't enough to snuff him out and he even popped his head up and began gnawing at the end of the hose! Sooo, forget that and I grabbed the propane tank in which I installed a short section of hose onto and drained the propane gas down his burrows for several minutes, job soon done and I later excavated his remains, ugh such LARGE teeth and long claws! I hoped he had done no damage to my plants, until buddleia 'Crown Jewels' had soon wilted and died.

It is a pity that the LB do not concentrate their efforts at your lazy neighbours. I imagine the breeders property must be a wonderful sight and that they take measures against them. I was unfamiliar with 'Red Velvet' - what a stunning Lilium that is!

I was unfamiliar too with what a pocket gopher was and did a little research and was shocked to see especially this stat "A single pocket gopher burrow system may include as much as 240 metres of tunnels". I do hope it was an isolated incident. I suppose the only up side is that they are very antisocial. What a nasty critter. It was bad enough losing the Buddleia, I'm just glad you spotted the tunnel before it did any more damage.

My biggest issue is deer, many, many of those beautiful, horrible eating machines. I used to say I had a love/hate relationship with them but I am starting to really despise them. It is a good thing they are tasty!

Harold100, your Lilies are gorgeous!!

Thank you, djacobz. They are my pride and joy among all the things I grow. I just got the bulbs back in the ground yesterday. I refreshed the soil with cow manure, sand, and bone meal. I had to wait for a decent day of 56 degrees. It is hard to believe it was 97 on Friday.