Some fall scenes and a rebel seedling
celeste/NH
3 years ago
It has been DRY, dry, dry here all summer long, with our drought monitor in the SEVERE category. My poor plants have suffered terribly so there will be no posts about late bloomers. The plants look too pathetic for picture-taking. It has been frustrating to watch the weather reports of all the rain going south of here and how some states were flooding, while we couldn't get a single rain event. I do landscaping part-time and at all my jobs when I dig down 2 feet to plant trees and shrubs the ground is bone dry. Wells have been going dry all summer so I could very rarely water anything. It is not good for plants to be so stressed going into winter. I hope I don't have many losses.
The foliage is not as vibrant as usual due to the drought but there is some. At the request of our friend Kate.....here are some scenes worth posting:
I had a hiking date with my oldest grandson and the views atop the mountain normally would be unobstructed and clear....but there is a haze from the California wildfires. It's hard to believe it would be seen this far across the country but it goes on the jet stream. These are scenes from the mountain summit:
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my seedlings and vegetables keep falling over
Comments (10)From what I understand lights are good but don't replace natural light, so keeping them cool slows growth, and produces stockier plants, it made sense to me, so I followed that advice. this made sense, as in this may sound odd but in 2001 and 2002, I got the opportunity to go to Kew Gardens in London, to do environmental survey's as part of my higher nursing degree, I went again because my dad had a stroke during the term and so I repeated, my tutor said, "oh you don't have to do Kew again, unless you want", and I wanted it was an amazing place, and I got to go behind the scenes, the hot houses work due to the heat pumped from below and the humidity, but! they are natural light, the Luminance, was way higher even in winter than shop light, we did Shops as well, I was exceptionally lucky with My tutor as her Husband is a famous Architect, and she has got lots of Brilliant contacts. with Basil, well er, the thing about growing is that until you plant, as see the growth, you have no idea, last year I did Basil, and realized, my idea of basil was shop brought, loads of plants in a tiny pot and even potting on they would die quickly, last year I grew it and was amazed how big one basil plant got, but then she bolted :-( so lesson learned is succession planting for basil and to be honest, I am rubbish at basil, they keep dieing on me? Digdirt, Loo's you have some insider info :-) even my 5 year old's get confused when I say "do you need the Loo?" as only Mummy and Daddy say that :-) where I am living, I am amazed by the amount of People, who have lived in the UK (okay near a US Navy and Army base) but even the guy who treats my lawn lived for 3 years in the UK, in the late 1970's. yes, interesting times ahead, I feel for Cleggy, the worse he was doing the more powerful he became :-) only in Britain can you do bad and become more powerful? hehe, we like the underdog :-)...See Morefall color observations...
Comments (71)A casual glance outdoors reveals a much more winter-like scene now, as we're 90% defoliated overall. Some color still remains though. A lot of the street trees are Acer rubrum 'October Glory' & various Pyrus calleryana, both of which mostly still have leaves, but past-peak in color. There are also some Scarlet Oaks that still look outstanding - one in particular I'll try to get a picture of tomorrow morning (I go into work at 10:30 so should have good lighting for a pic) - it's a youngish tree, still pyramidal shaped & branched to the ground, but has a very intense, and late developing color every year. From the car I'd guess it's about 10" caliper, so it's no sapling, but not big enough to develop the spreading, mature form yet. Some of the later-coloring Acer rubrum cultivars (some Red Sunset but mostly October Glory) still look great, but the seedling rubrums (wild or planted) are long bare at this point. A few sweetgums are holding on, but mostly drying out and dropping. The white oaks have some leaves, but mostly the browned, dried up ones that hang on most of the winter. Same for the pins. The N. Red oaks are mostly bare or nearly so. Beeches are bare. Liriodendrons are bare. The deciduous conifers are peaking or a bit past now - I'll try to snap some pics of a couple nice Metasequoia tomorrow as well. The Callery pears are average this year. Sugar Maples pretty much defoliated. Some of the Sawtooth Oaks have a nice yellow that is just now developing - these typically stay green until sometime between Nov. 15 & December 1, then normally just turn a weak chartreuse & drop, but this year some actually seem to be turning a good yellow. We'll see what happens -they're my least favorite oak (invasive, not particuarly attractive) but this might redeem them for me temporarily....See Moregot fall yet (pics)? part iii
Comments (66)Mostly bare here now. The leaves remaining are crispy from multiple nights in the teens, although some Scarlet Oaks are still hanging onto some color, including my three seedlings which I gave to a relative this weekend to plant. He says he got them in yesterday, fingers crossed......See MoreMy seedlings, nothing fancy
Comments (15)Wow thanks so much for looking and commenting! And my DH was pleased to here ppl liked his flower ;) Debra, thanks for the suggestions! Turned out I only have 1 bud left on HOH :) LOL, Ed! Good one! :) TY! Nancykbv, thanks! MA x GSTQ is a beautiful one! Thanks, Ellie, that's a good point - no one else has :) How interesting about the deep shade! Thanks, Mantis! I don't think #3 is lilac, I'm bad with colors but it's that dark-pink-light purple :) The last in the main post is the one I like the most. Hehe, Ellen, if you have space why not try? And buy outstanding DLs too :)) Gtk, Debra! I planted 6 seeds from last year's bag (the fastest to germinate and 100%) and only 1 of them germinated this year (then died). This year I had 2 bags. Whoa your fridge is full of seeds! Hope you'll find the time and room for all of them! Btw, I tried the cross you suggested one time - Wild Horses x Intelligent Design and ID x WH and none survived the winter :( Thanks, Jean!...See Moreceleste/NH
3 years ago
Julia WV (6b)
3 years ago
mantis__oh
3 years agoceleste/NH
3 years ago
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celeste/NHOriginal Author