November bouquets & rain barrel & lemon balm
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strawchicago z5
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HAVE: Fall Green Elephant Plant Swap Saturday November 5
Comments (20)Hi...The rains have made the clay even worse than usual to dig in..but...I have the following ready to take now..and hope to have more ready later. Bejoy Allium triquestrum..............(4)..4 in Campanula Persicifolia..blue....4 in Columbine.......................(2)..4 in Coreopsis Zagreb.................(2)..4 in Euphorbia.........................(2)..4 in False Lily of the Valley...........4 in Hydrangea..Lace Cap..cutting....1 gal Iris..bearded.....two tone rose...3 gal....from neighbor Iris..bearded..purple.............1 gal..from neighbor Iris..Siberian..purple..............1 gal Ivy..small leaf......................4 in Jacob's Ladder.......................4 in....1 gal Kaffir Lilies..Oregon Sunset.......(2) 4 ..in Kenilworth ivy.......................4 in Ladies Mantle........................(4)..4 in..and 1 gal Lily of the valley................... (4)..4 in. Penstemon..Husker's Red............4 in Potentilla..yellow blooming.......(4)..4 in Primrose..Dirt Works..red..........1 gal Salvia...Ostfriesland nemorosa...4 in Sedum.............................4 in Shasta Daisy..Alaska...............1 gal Strawberry Begonia..................(2) 2 in Sunflower..perennial Lemon Queen....1 gal Sweet woodruff.......................4 in Sword Fern...........................4 in Wood aster..........................4 in Yellow Eyed Grass.....................1 gal...See Morelemon balm and lifesaver plant questions
Comments (9)Susannah, you just inspired me to reference one of my favorite books on herbs. I just pinch my lemon balm occasionally to smell it, but its so puny I haven't actually done anything with the leaves, though I love the thought of using it as a tea and an alternative to skeeter spray. Quoting from the "Herbal Yearbook" here. "Lemon balm is often known by its botanical name, melissa (the Greek word for bee) as bees are attracted by its scent." "Lemon balm is frequently used freshly chopped in salads or added to soups and egg dishes. It also partners fish well. Fresh lemon balm leaves make a refreshing tea, either served hot with a dash of honey or cold poured over ice cubes, or mixed with sage." "Lemon Balm leaves are excellent added to pot pourris as they keep their scent when dried." Here's the recipe for Sage-leaf tea: Infuse 2 tsp fresh sage, 2 tsp fresh lemon balm, 3 tsp sugar and 2 lemon quarters in 1 pint hot water for 5 minutes. Strain and cool the liquid, then add white wine. Sounds refreshing! Regarding your lifesaver succulent, I'm not proud of my kill rate with succulents. I killed the mother of the one I swapped with you at Ricky's last fall...another one bit the dust!...See MoreRose gardens & bouquets of organic roses
Comments (35)Thank you, Jim and Cottagegarden for reviving this thread. I really appreciate the company of kind, and positive visitors to this forum. Like Cottagegarden, I bought 2 soil-test kits from local stores: Lowe and HomeDepot. They are totally useless and gave false result. Then I paid $20 for EarthCo. (professional soil-testing company) and my soil test came back high pH at 7.7, and deficient in everything, plus barely adequate in calcium ... I was so sure that my soil has plenty of calcium !! I'm next to a limestone quarry. For years I disagree with my neighbor on calcium. He insisted that his tomato in pots are lacking in calcium (blossom end-rot) ... He's right, after seeing how mixing gypsum (calcium sulfate) into the soil made 1st-year band-size La Reine went beserk with buds: due to winter-kill, it's only 8 inch. tall, but with 10 buds !! But the plant is stunt & brown leaves, and the blooms are small. I forgot to give it sulfate of potash (it should be twice more potassium than calcium). Yes to mixing gypsum into planting hole, but no more than 10% (I spent hours researching on the right % to mix in). I broke that rule many times, and end up with stunt plants & leaves showing potassium deficiency. Too much calcium drives down potassium. If you have a large garden, soil can vary: some part can be alkaline if watered frequently with high pH tap water. Most tap water are alkaline, I already tested a few with fish-tank litmus paper, even mineral bottled water has pH over 8. Some part of a garden can be acidic (if get rain water only, pH at 5.6). My soil test recommend mixing sulfur into clay. BAD ADVICE !! That was expensive and killed tons of earthworms. I like gypsum better, less caustic & cheaper ($4 for 25 lb. at Menards). Gypsum is great in breaking up compacted clay, provides calcium, plus de-salt soil. I moved 4 roses this spring: The ones that didn't get gypsum in the planting hole were slower to recuperate. The one that got gypsum in the planting hole, was VERY FAST in pumping out buds. See Duchess de Rohan below, 2 weeks after moving, with lots of buds. I moved that one since it was in too much shade, zero blooms. After moving to more sun, it exploded in buds. A note on moving roses. Roses which are grafted on Dr. Huey is less forgiving in moving. Dr. Huey is a long stick, and it's easy to break the tiny roots at the end. I moved knock-outs grafted on Dr. Huey twice before. Both time they lost all their leaves, and took at least 3 months to get back to normal. With own-root, it's so much easier to move: The roots are cluster: wide & shallow, rather than a long & deep stick like Dr. Huey. I moved at least 10 own-roots for the past 4 years: They recuperate quickly, lose zero leaves, IF THE ORIGINAL SOIL IS LOOSE & FLUFFY, then moving is zero stress. If the original soil is compact, digging them up caused many roots to be broken....See MoreWANTED: Ft Worth Swap Trinity Park November 1
Comments (92)Hi All, I know I've been MIA for a few weeks. Work has been taking over lately. I just posted my trade list on the FTW Garden swap site. I added my pre-trades as I culled them from this page. Please review to see if I'm still on track. I'm going to try to accommodate everyone's rain lily requests. If I don't have enough of the yellow rain lily seeds to go around, I may be able to entice you with some minima seeds. Minimas are the most adorable tiny pale pink rain lilies. The flowers are less than a half inch in diameter. As a bonus, they go from seed to blooming in one year! I have about a dozen minima seed pods in my pots right now. I'll try to harvest some before the swap. Looking forward to meeting you all, JK...See Morestrawchicago z5
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