How to begin now optimizing next year's flush for a wedding?

last year

My daughter has set her wedding date for the first week of May--usually the height of our first flush--with the reception at our home. I'm I wonder what your strategy would be if you were focused on a specific future date to show your garden at its very best.

Some of it I know is just good standard care, but I do have some specific problems. Namely thrips and blackspot. Spinosad has been somewhat helpful on the thrips, but really wasn't enough this year. Other than Spinosad I normally don't do much of anything in the way of chemical intervention, but I'd be willing to temporarily pull out all the stops if I knew what to do or what would work.

So lay it on me. What are the extra things you might be doing over the next 9 months if you had a big event coming up? I'm in Middle Tn, so serious heat and humity in the next couple of months (think: blackspot haven) followed by wet, cold/warm cycling all through winter.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

stillanntn6b
last year
The thrips can destroy bloom, I found that they are especially attracted to yellow roses (for a wedding, all ten brides maids carried Graham Stuart Thomases (I had 25 plants of him). I was appalled making bouquets when I looked down and say the table, my skirt the floor, my blouse, and even my arms were crawling. I'll never forget that. What saved me was the outer six petals was where the thrips were, so I cleaned up all those roses by taking them down to the undisturbed petals (GST works that way rather well). I don't think a malathion spray would have worked, and the hay fields (this was a fall wedding) are thrip-iferous at that time of year.

I had a huge healthy plant of Eden which I had planned to use for the Bride's bouquet. The thrips had browned every bloom and they were not the sort that could be saved by removing petals. So I cut a lot of noisettes and had some small sized white and pink polyanthas and the Bride probably carried several hundred rose blooms.

Lesson 1: plan for alternative solutions.

Tennessee Lesson 2: the weather has a sense of humor, you will lose yours.

Make sure your irrigation system is working 100% maybe borrow a dosatron for slow fertilizer application. This fall buy enough Remay/ frost-proof very light material that can float over the roses and protect them down to 24F

Find rose friends who can supplement your blooms if need be. (I had two backups)

Lesson 3. Cutting the week before the wedding. Accumulate a couple of spare refrigerators and some max-min thermometers. You will need a place to store the roses that is cold BUT NOT TOO COLD. Work on the refrigerators until you TRUST them not to freeze and not to get over 40. The blooms must be kept vertical and at the same time must NOT touch the freezer above. Test them this fall at the temp range outside that you expect to equal next spring.

In the garden, spray bor black spot with a religious fervor that would put a Pope to shame. That very warm temperature that TN often gets the first week of May will bring out fungal problem (when you think through April you won't have any.)

Learn how to snap deadhead at the abscission layer the week before the wedding, you don't have the time to prune with Felcos and your thumb joint will thank you.

Consider buying fill in roses from Sam's club.

Nandina makes a lovely fern-y look and unlike a lot of ferns, Nandina foliage doesn't wilt.

Will write more as I remember more.
subk3 thanked stillanntn6b
rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ)
last year
An alternative to being at the mercy of Mother Nature: Staging. Like they do (interiors) for real estate sales here. It’s a millennial thing. They’re very big on stainless steel.

It’s also done at, and around, the BJK National Tennis Center for the US Open. Each August, the City of NY and the USTA create a lush outdoor tropical paradise. The place is a beehive of activity 2 weeks before opening day.

Safe lifting and storage of your permanent plantings may be the biggest problem.
Related Discussions
Just beginning, will it be ready next spring?
Q
Comments (11)
I don't take any grief from my compost pile. I use it when I'm ready---not when it's ready. And I have never seen any evidence of nitrogen tie-up. Of course I use only briefly composted manure*, too, so... In a reasonably well-built pile, you should easily be able to have compost in six months in N.H. I go into winter with at least 6 fresh bins, and when I need compost in the spring, I start with the oldest. Anything too unbroken down, I toss back into the wire bin that I've set in its new position next to its old position. I use my chunkiest compost as a mulch, and I fork my most finished compost into my vegetable beds. The latest I have ever gotten steam from a compost pile in Maine was late-Dec, but I don't try very hard. Different story in my chicken house where I use a deep litter method, much of which is leaves. I flipped it once during a long spell of negative teen temps and it poured steam. I cooled it off, though, by flipping and it never recovered heat. * I used manures from 1974-2007 and only once had a problem (from overapplication) when I married a man with a dumptruck. kimmsr's got me scared now, though, so I'm composting this year's manure until fall.
...See More
Low-flush toilets and 60+-year old houses?
Q
Comments (4)
I am a recently retired master plumber and in all of my 35 years in the trade I don't recall reading or hearing so much mis-information at one sitting. First of all, DO NOT equate the price tag of a toilet with its efficiency. I have two American Standard "All in One" kits in my house, which come as a complete set, tank, bowl, seat, wax ring and new mount bolts, all for the outrageous sum of $99 and I can assure you, if you flush my toilets while your seated you better hang on or you may go down the drain too. The problem with retrofitting low flow toilets in vintage homes IS NOT the toilet. To understand the problem we must first understand a basic premis on how the drain pipes function. In all cases drain lines are sized so that when they are handling the full discharge load from the fixture a horizontal pipe will be 1/2 full. In this manner the depth of the liquid is sufficient to suspend and carry any solid particulates in the waste while still allowing the upper half of the pipe for the free movement of vent air. Originally toilets discharged 5gal per flush and they determined that they needed a 4" line. In the late 70's or early 80's the code standards were changed and toilets were reduced to 3.5gal/flush and the old 4" lines continued to work fine, but in the late 80's they reduced the water to 1.6gal/flush. While the toilets all worked fine they began having serious complaints from customers about lines continually clogging. Most ppl automatically assumed the problem was in the fixture but such is not the case. When a 1.6gpf toilet discharges into a 4" line, the level of liquid in the line is no longer sufficient to effectively convey heavy solid particulates, thus the solids rub against the bottom of the pipe slowing their velocity, while the liquids continue to flow around them. In the course of time, and in this case generally rather frequently those solids collect are not adequately transferred so once the liquid has passed the solids dry in place, which then further retards the next solids to pass through the line and before you know it, you have a clogged line. The solution was to reduce the diameter of the water closet fixture arm from 4" to 3". That reduction in line diameter effectively raised the level of the liquid enough to convey the solids effectively. Now we see all forms of power flush, vaccuum and a number of other so called improvements in the fixtures all promising to eliminate the problems of clogged lines, but that is nonesense. Those improvements do improve how the solids are conveyed up and over the trapway in the fixture, but once the discharge enters the house DWV (Drain, Waste & Vent) system it is faced with the same problem as before. When retrofitting older homes, the correct solution is to remove the 4" fixture arm and replace it with a 3" fixture arm.
...See More
The Full Monty...now the decisions begin
Q
Comments (48)
I think its important how you said cost is a priority and you just want to make good choices without going overboard. Given that as a guide, I'd recommend - Floors - It appears all your floors can and should be restored. You need to clean the wood (hot water and scraping) splice in staggered replacement boards (salvaged old boards of the correct wood and age are best) where the patches and damage areas are (find tutorials), remove all staples and popped nails, and then go through the process of sanding different grits, vacuming every bit and then the process of several coats of finish. I would do this in every room except the bathroom. It will look terrible before its refinished, and then it will look really nice. I'd hire a professional floor guy with good equipment and a stash of old boards to use for splicing. Bath - For cost savings, I would leave the bath window maybe etch-treat the top glass and tile it in with a quarter round or bullnose pieces, but if you leave it there I highly recommend using a tension rod and clear shower curtain on that wall to avoid water damage (it depends how sealed up you can make that window from water seeping into the walls)...or use a white curtain to address the privacy issue and you don't need to etch the top glass. Use light grey grout with the subway tile. Take off the lath on the back wall if its needed to make your new wall will be more flush with the window. Diningroom - I'd consider removing that wood wall in the dining room but I'm not clear as to what is on the other side...though I remember seeing a window which would really add to the room. If you have to leave the wall, maybe remove the scallop trim and replace it with something straight and paint it all to blend it more with the room. Kitchen - Kitchen cabinets either rebuild or use salvaged old cabinets. Wood or soapstone counters are diy...frankly I'd look at Ikea's cabinet selection...there are ways to make them blend into an old house with the backsplash, lighting, flooring etc. And its affordable and diy. Didn't catch if you are selling the house, but a fresh and functional kitchen is really appreciated by most people. Also - Some doorways have been moved in this old house, so you can either put in a threshold or replace the patch with couple of boards going in the same direction of the wall so that its flush with the adjacent floorboards but obviously not blended in. This post was edited by lauren674 on Fri, Apr 5, 13 at 14:58
...See More
Words from the (now) wise--think to the next update in 20 years
Q
Comments (11)
donaleen--Looks very nice. Perhaps I should have prefaced this entire discussion by indicating that this is more true for people who have older houses rather than the new, need-to-be-trendy type houses. If your goal is to have the latest trend and style, then, yes, your kitchen probably will look outdated in ten years. Perhaps another example of our American planned obsolence, consumerist society. If, OTOH, you want something that always appears mostly ageless, then you need to take into account how to do those minor upgrades without ripping out and starting from square one again. We went to our local remodelers showcase this past fall and came home and took a good long look at our kitchen in comparison to those we had just seen in our pretty upscale, urban neighborhood of houses that are now nearly 100 years old. We came to the conclusion that a few new appliances, new counters and re-sanding the hardwood floors would make our kitchen basically the same as these just finished kitchens. Here is an interesting article (aimed at owners of older houses) I just read that addresses this issue--trendy or timeless. http://artsandcraftshomes.com/kitchens-sinks-countertops-go-trendy-or-timeless/
...See More
bart bart
last year
@stillanntn6b Actually, a bouquet made up of "several hundred" little blooms sounds to me incredibly charming!!! maybe more so than the more conventional type of bouquet that Eden's flowers might have made...
jacqueline9CA
last year
subk3 - it looks to me that stillanntn has given you the best advice - plan for the worst, and then you can relax and not worry, which is a good idea when planning weddings. Reality is likely NOT to be as bad as the worst weather, so you will be delighted, instead of crushed if the weather does not cooperate.

Jackie

How to begin now optimizing next year's flush for a wedding?

Comments (4)

stillanntn6b

rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ)

Related Discussions

bart bart

jacqueline9CA

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US