Flowers And Bushes And Trees: How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Mondrianyone]

1 hour ago, ginger90 said:

It can take up to 3 years if you cut it all the way back.

I'd hate to go 3 years without any flowers at all. I guess I need to rethink this!

[Kitty Redstone]

Lilacs bloom on old wood so if you cut everything way back this year you may not have blooms next year. (I'm not sure how quickly lilacs set new buds after blooming.) We have a very old lilac that was straggly and struggling and did as @peacheslatour said - cut a third of the old growth back to the ground one year and the rest of the old limbs the following year. There were still thinner limbs/trunks/whatever that weren't cut back, so it continued to bloom in the years following both prune jobs. It still isn't as lush as we'd hoped, though. There is a maple tree nearby as well as a hedge of arbs, so it probably needs even more irrigation than it's been getting.

Good luck with your lilac. They are such pretty shrubs.

[SuprSuprElevated]

3 hours ago, emma675 said:

I've tried to grow tomatoes for the last two years and I seem to be completely incapable. 

I can only seem to grow aphids, and prolifically.  Our local grocer will never need to scale back their produce buying on my account.

[emma675]

10 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

I can only seem to grow aphids, and prolifically.  Our local grocer will never need to scale back their produce buying on my account.

I really good at growing mosquitoes, if that makes you feel any better. 

[peacheslatour]

7 minutes ago, emma675 said:

I really good at growing mosquitoes, if that makes you feel any better. 

Put up a bat house! They're relatively simple to make or you can buy them. Bats eat millions of mosquitoes a day.

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by peacheslatour
forgot pic

[emma675]

6 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Put up a bat house! They're relatively simple to make or you can buy them. Bats eat millions of mosquitoes a day.

I would but we have owls that live in my pecan trees and apparently some owls eat bats. I live near a lake so mosquitoes area constant problem about 8 months a year. 

[peacheslatour]

15 minutes ago, emma675 said:

I would but we have owls that live in my pecan trees and apparently some owls eat bats. I live near a lake so mosquitoes area constant problem about 8 months a year. 

If you live near a lake, you probably already have bats. I grew up on a lake and we were always finding dead bats in the marina. Some day, I will tell y'all my bat story.

[emma675]

9 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

If you live near a lake, you probably already have bats. I grew up on a lake and we were always finding dead bats in the marina. Some day, I will tell y'all my bat story.

We do! My neighbors had a bat house that had a very unfortunate ending (along with their chickens). A story for another day. 

[peacheslatour]

15 minutes ago, emma675 said:

We do! My neighbors had a bat house that had a very unfortunate ending (along with their chickens). A story for another day. 

I love owls but I'm sorry about that. Predators are gonna prey. Cats are just as bad. That's why I never, ever let mine out.

[Anela]

We've reached that time, when we're suddenly zooming towards Spring, and I need to prepare if I want to grow anything this year. I received my Berlin Seeds catalogue, a month ago, and meant to make a list, but then we had freezing weather, and I stopped thinking about being outside. In a couple of weeks, I need to buy things like tomato seeds, and the kind woman at the store will be shocked that I'm buying them so late, as she usually is. She'll say that I need to get them started soon. 

Last year, I started seeds, even though I wasn't feeling up to it, and then they died when I put them outside for air and sunshine, and forgot about them (right around my birthday). But a few things I tried to start again, suddenly started to grow in June, and Bitter Melon (my "fun new thing to try growing" took over part of my garden - it has spines, and I was stung a lot, trying to harvest it, so I never used it). 

[peacheslatour]

3 minutes ago, Anela said:

We've reached that time, when we're suddenly zooming towards Spring, and I need to prepare if I want to grow anything this year. I received my Berlin Seeds catalogue, a month ago, and meant to make a list, but then we had freezing weather, and I stopped thinking about being outside. In a couple of weeks, I need to buy things like tomato seeds, and the kind woman at the store will be shocked that I'm buying them so late, as she usually is. She'll say that I need to get them started soon. 

Last year, I started seeds, even though I wasn't feeling up to it, and then they died when I put them outside for air and sunshine, and forgot about them (right around my birthday). But a few things I tried to start again, suddenly started to grow in June, and Bitter Melon (my "fun new thing to try growing" took over part of my garden - it has spines, and I was stung a lot, trying to harvest it, so I never used it). 

We had a hard frost a couple of weeks ago and I think my hellebores are goners.

[Gramto6]

When I lived in Calaveras County, CA (Home of Mark Twain's Jumping Frog) we had a saying "Nothing in the ground before The Frog Jump (State Fair), which was mid May.

Here in Montana, it is about the same time of year before you can put anything in the ground outdoors. Just no neat saying to go with it! LOL!

Edited February 6 by Gramto6
typo

[chitowngirl]

Our rule of thumb is no planting before Mother’s Day…so mid-May!😆

[isalicat]

Yeah, when I lived in the extreme northern California mountains and wanted to grow my own tomato plants I quickly learned there was no point buying seeds and doing seedlings (unless I wanted to fill my kitchen with seedling plants for months at a time), so I would wait until May, get some thriving plants that were already flowering and then they went into the ground mid- to late-May and the entire garden was done by early September (we had snow nine months out of the year back in the day - now with climate change, its much warmer there so I assume the growing season has expanded by a month or two as well). Nothing like your own grown tomatoes, though!

[peacheslatour]

4 minutes ago, isalicat said:

Yeah, when I lived in the extreme northern California mountains and wanted to grow my own tomato plants I quickly learned there was no point buying seeds and doing seedlings (unless I wanted to fill my kitchen with seedling plants for months at a time), so I would wait until May, get some thriving plants that were already flowering and then they went into the ground mid- to late-May and the entire garden was done by early September (we had snow nine months out of the year back in the day - now with climate change, its much warmer there so I assume the growing season has expanded by a month or two as well). Nothing like your own grown tomatoes, though!

This is the way.

[JTMacc99]

I will put my cherry tomato plants in pots next to the house as early as May 10th if the forecast says we're going to have warm days and no threat of 30's at night in the 10 day forecast. I can protect potted plant from a cold spell, and I kind of want to start harvesting the cherry tomatoes for a good month before I start to ignore them because the big ones are ready.

But I will not put the tomatoes or peppers in my garden until Memorial Day.  Last frost date AVERAGES Mid-May here. I have seen it anywhere from late April to May 28th. 

Which means I start the big ones inside end of March. I found that the garden club people grow the cherry varieties I want so I just buy those two plants from them rather than have staggered starting times.

[Anela]

I still haven’t started my seeds. I need to get moving.  My motivation is playing possum.  

[peacheslatour]

Eureka! I have figured out a way to grow gladiolas so the rabbits don't get them. Apparently, rabbits only eat things at their eye level so I'm going to plant them in large pots and set them on small garden tables on my deck. Yay!

 

[EtheltoTillie]

Good to see you posting, @peacheslatour.  I hope you haven't left us chitchatters and peevers.

Edited July 3 by EtheltoTillie

[peacheslatour]

On 7/3/2024 at 1:46 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

Good to see you posting, @peacheslatour.  I hope you haven't left us chitchatters and peevers.

Oh heck no, just trying to not be online so much. Love to all my Everything Else friends. ❤️

[GHScorpiosRule]

I've discovered that my thumb isn't totally black-that there is some green in there and I am trying to nurture it!

I had success with the shamrock plant I got last year, and was worried I had "killed" it because the stems are so long and not the stout leaves I see online and all the fandangle you tube videos. I found a local nursery and the people are so very helpful. I admit, I'm ignorant and a moron--the only experience I have is when I was wee and we lived in an apartment complex where we had our own garden. I remember my dad just planting roses into the ground-no plant food or soil (back in the 70s) and every spring and summer, we got gorgeous blooms!

But. I live in a high-rise and have a stone balcony. AND. Since late August, got me some African violets, aloe, and a "late summer/fall" planter or two. One has the red hot peppers and some yellow and green leafy things that look like arugula or something. The other was a purple aster, I think? And this weekend I got me a plat of pansies, mums and another late Fall planter (will post pictures from my phone as I am on my work 'puter) and need to know--Do I cover these planters during winter? I got me some window boxes that will hook over the patio railing for my Mums, petunia, and pansies.

I don't want to keep calling the nursery, like I'm some MORON, because all the articles and videos give me conflicting information.

@peacheslatour, do you or any experienced gardeners here have any advice? My aloe is thriving as is my bromeliad! But I accidentally thought I killed my first african violet, because I thought I had to "break" the root when repotting, but then found out, noooo, I'm supposed to just "plop" it in the pot!

Edited October 8 by GHScorpiosRule

[GHScorpiosRule]

WELLLLL???? No one who can give me pointers or advice?😭😭😭😭

[SoMuchTV]

7 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

WELLLLL???? No one who can give me pointers or advice?😭😭😭😭

You may want to cross post in the chitchat thread. This doesn’t look like the busiest thread. (And sorry, I don’t have any actual advice.)

[Bastet]

I have no answers, because I don't deal with that kind of climate, so don't have to do anything different for my plants in winter.

[Browncoat]

@GHScorpiosRule, I don't remember where you live, so I don't know what to tell you.  It also depends on whether or not you want the plants to survive the winter.  The annuals, of course, won't, regardless of what you do.  Where I live, I will bring my perennials inside to overwinter, as it will get too cold (starting soon!  like tonight!) to leave them out.  When the annuals die back, you can leave their empty pots out as they are -- clean out the dead stems and such, but there's no need to cover the soil.

[GHScorpiosRule]

4 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

@GHScorpiosRule, I don't remember where you live, so I don't know what to tell you.  It also depends on whether or not you want the plants to survive the winter.  The annuals, of course, won't, regardless of what you do.  Where I live, I will bring my perennials inside to overwinter, as it will get too cold (starting soon!  like tonight!) to leave them out.  When the annuals die back, you can leave their empty pots out as they are -- clean out the dead stems and such, but there's no need to cover the soil.

Hey there! I live in Maryland! It's finally getting nippy, and I only have perennials (one petunia and six plats of of pansies, two mums); the others were "late summer/fall planters" that have a mix of the things I described above and the pictures). Guess I'll have to bring in the planters inside then to overwinter? Because I was thinking of repotting the perennials in my window boxes. A colleague suggested getting a plastic to cover them during the winter? They'd be protected by the balcony/patio roof. And since I've been reading we "might" get real snow this winter, I don't want to kill them.

I'll call them again and ask what to do. Sigh...

I did mention I was a moron, right?

[Browncoat]

Hm.  I've always considered pansies, petunias, and mums to be annuals.  Petunias do well in warmer weather, and pansies like it a little cooler (spring and fall, not so much summer), and mums are traditionally fall plants -- the ones I've had in the ground die over winter.  The pansies might survive outside over the winter, but I am skeptical about the others. 

I'm a little further south than you, but at a higher elevation.  We often are below freezing in the winter.  Snow can act as an insulator against very cold air temperatures -- I'd be more concerned about temperature than snow.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Fall hasn't quite hit us yet. It's been in the 70s and even 80s (last week). The temps are dropping to 50s overnight.

I thought pansies and petunias were perennials!!!! Just Googled and they're technically perennials! GAH! Oh well, fingers crossed, because the ones I got are just starting to bloom and it's not like we've had cold winters in like forever! The past four or five have been mild. So I think I'm okay with my petunia, pansies, and mums.

Edited October 9 by GHScorpiosRule

[Absolom]

Pansies and petunias probably won't overwinter outside in Maryland.  I live in SoCal and pansies are more of a winter plant here, but they die in our summer heat.  Mums die back in winter, but usually grow from the roots in spring. This is mainly from memory of living not too far away in Virginia.

Aloe will be happy in the house in winter in a sunny window as will the African violets.  If freezing is predicted, you'll need to cover down to 30 or 28 depending on the plant and the microclimate.  Below that you'll usually get damage if you don't take them inside overnight.  It also depends on how long the freeze lasts.  

The county agriculture extension website is probably a good source of localized information as well as any local gardening clubs.  The agriculture extension usually has master gardeners who are available to answer such questions and some of them have websites with the most common questions.  There may also be some books published with localized gardening info.  You can usually check one out from the local library.  

I hope that helps get you launched into the wonderful world of gardening and congratulations to you on beginning!

[meep.meep]

On 10/8/2024 at 11:25 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

I've discovered that my thumb isn't totally black-that there is some green in there and I am trying to nurture it!

 

 

@peacheslatour, do you or any experienced gardeners here have any advice? My aloe is thriving as is my bromeliad! But I accidentally thought I killed my first african violet, because I thought I had to "break" the root when repotting, but then found out, noooo, I'm supposed to just "plop" it in the pot!

Your plants look like they are doing well.  African violets don't really need repotting, they like being pot bound.  They do need a little real light.  I had one in an office where a crack of light got in around the blinds and sticking it in that crack made it bloom magnificently.

You might try some of the easier non-blooming plants.  Stick a clove of garlic into a pot of soil, water it occasionally, and you'll get lots of green garlic and eventually more cloves.

And when you are reading things, pay attention to the agricultural zone information.  Everything is a perennial in California!

Know your zone!

[Absolom]

45 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

Everything is a perennial in California!

At least at the coast a lot are that wouldn't be anywhere else.  I'm trying to figure out how to keep my hibiscus from trying to take over the world.  The gardeners prune it way back every year and the darling shrub grows like a weed for the next 11 months.  I had a bell pepper plant that lived and produced peppers for about seven years.  A neighbor had the same tomato plants for 10 years.  We finally had a colder than average winter and had to start over.  One of my chile plants is about six years old.  I need to repot that one next spring.  It can get tiresome not getting a break though.  There is no time when something doesn't need mowing, trimming, or tending.  I started cuttings a week ago to fill in the flower beds from the plants that died during our record heat wave this year.  Next week when we recover from this heat wave I'll put those in the empty spots.  

[Bastet]

7 minutes ago, Absolom said:

I'm trying to figure out how to keep my hibiscus from trying to take over the world.  The gardeners prune it way back every year and the darling shrub grows like a weed for the next 11 months. 

My hibiscus grows at a more manageable pace, but my lantana is ridiculous.  I let it get away from me, and it was so overgrown when I finally did tackle it I decided to cut it down to what looked like nothing but dead, thick branches down at the base, knowing within a week I'd have a bunch of little green shoots forming.  Just a month later, I already had to trim it again!

[Absolom]

Our lantana and hibiscus are reversed.  My lantana behaves with only trims every four to six months.  I wonder what the difference is.  

I have a neighbor with a succulent that never gets above about 18 inches tall.  I don't know how tall my six plants of it would grow because the gardeners take power tools to it at four feet.  🤣 Why the same type plant grows so differently just a block away always amuses me.  

Edited October 10 by Absolom

[isalicat]

I'm near the beach in central California and my lilac bush does what your lantana and hibiscus does....just grows and grows and grows...the more you cut it back, the more it grows. But the butterflies and hummingbirds love it, so its a keeper!

To be honest, I don't bother to grow edibles here (well, I have a super fecund Meyers Lemon Tree, that's it) - we have so many farmers markets and all the home gardeners I know are constantly giving away tons of tomatoes, avocados and lemons/limes. Tough life, eh?

[meep.meep]

I have a hedge of jade plants - at our old home we had one of geraniums that the dogs would burrow through in the summer.

[Absolom]

I have had both in my time here.  Those jade plants can get huge and tough to remove.  For that matter the scented geraniums were sturdy, too.

[Browncoat]

On 10/9/2024 at 12:29 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:

A colleague suggested getting a plastic to cover them during the winter?

I forgot to add that it's best not to use plastic, and if you do, make sure the plastic does not touch the plants.  A breathable material is better, and they should be uncovered during the day if it's warm enough.

[GHScorpiosRule]

On 10/13/2024 at 8:56 AM, Browncoat said:

I forgot to add that it's best not to use plastic, and if you do, make sure the plastic does not touch the plants.  A breathable material is better, and they should be uncovered during the day if it's warm enough.

Thanks.

Anyhoo, I had forgotten that my nephew-by-marriage is an avid gardner and the herbs and flowers he plants are wonderful.

So as long as we don't have a frost or temps don't fall under 30, my planters should be okay outside. As posted above, we've been experiencing summer-like weather these past two weeks. It was over 80 yesterday!

It's in the 60s today, but I have a MUM event on Saturday, and I'll be sure to ask them what to do. Also, my African Violets don't look like they do in the videos or pictures I've seen and I repotted them "correctly" this time. Maybe it's the pots? But I got soil specific to them along with the "food" to mix in the water (I'm using self watering pots) so fingers crossed.