If the nights were getting cold, I'd water less Tarev. But we've had really warm weather, and I have great drainage with our sandy soil so I water them generously as soon as they're planted. They love water, fertilizer and warmth.

Maybe if your nights are still cool, you should water them in the mornings once it warms up, then let them dry out through the day.

Our overnights hover in the low 50's, better than the low 40's last week. But daytime rises to mid to high 70's and tomorrow we are going to mid to high 80's. And our humidity is so dismal, between 19 and 50%. Just too dry. I will do as you suggested, Elaine. I feel it needs more moisture now..this waiting game is hard. Oh I hope these bulbs make it!

Our overnight low last night was a bone chilling 72 degrees. We may not see another temp in the 60s until November.

Ken, tell me more about your experience with hiring out the mulch. I'm on the fence.

Jim

Yes Tarev, that's too cold at night for caladiums. They really like to sizzle. Careful with the water, for sure!

I used a guy (and his two-man crew) that did all the heavy work when I nearly doubled the size of my raised garden the previous year. I told him before we agreed on a price that I only wanted to specific things done, use only cypress and have it at least 2-3" thick everywhere. He estimated it would take 6 yds., but from past experience doing it myself, I knew it would take 9 yds. and told him so. I gave me a price based on 9 yds. When the crew finished the job, they had used one trailer-load of mulch, and I asked the guy driving the truck that pulled the trailer what was the capacity of the trailer. He said 6 yds. They never returned with more mulch and I thought to myself: "I have a feeling the depth is less than I stated I wanted". Now, a year later, I know that it was barely 1" in a lot of places, since I placed commercial plastic around the bases of a lot of my large trees, before mulching the landscape for the first time, to eliminate weeds growing there. That plastic was exposed within 6 months.

I never said anything, and I know I should have. My "kind" streak showed up rather than my "do what you said you would do" streak. He will never do another job for me. If he asks why, I will tell him. We have lots of landscape/lawn management folks here. Mississippi State University graduates dozens of landscape architect and golf coarse turf management folks each and every year, and there is always one or two that remain in Starkville.

Though my wife doesn't want me doing the mulch any more, I will more than likely just do it myself, a yd. or two at a time.

Ken, that iris is probably a historic from 1840 that I also have. Can't remember the name at the moment.

Historic iris are terrific, Kathy. Talk about tried and true! I think iris are the most wonderful, easy care plants but that may be just because I can't grow them here. So I plant all sorts of them in my daughter's garden in Utah, where I know they'll get sun and dry heat and no care whatsoever (both daughter and son-in-law work and have a 1yr. old baby). They bloom and increase and are more beautiful every year. How can you beat it?

I have one more to show off today, my Bat plant has put up 3 wacky, whiskery new flowers and is busy making nice big, shiny leaves. I now wonder why I waited so long to try one out. They seem to do well in my garden! It's going to need a new pot pretty soon!

Put your thinking-cap on, Kathy. I would love to put a label on these plants.

Ken, it's doubtful you can 'for sure' pin a label on your irises just because there are literally thousands of cultivars. Unless you can get a name or a hint of a name from wherever you got them, it's like trying to name a NOID Phal.

That purple one you showed the picture of looks a lot like one we planted in Utah called Rosalie Figge. Same color petals, white dusting on the falls and purple beard. But . . . well there are also hundreds of other magnificent purple iris it could be.

Same with the yellow and blue one - it sure could be Edith Wolford But it also could be any one of a dozen other yellow/blue cultivars.

OK, got it, Elaine. All the irises I have are gifts from several people, and I am quite sure not a single one of them would have a name. I guess I will never know. They are still pretty flowers nonetheless.

Not so true of the histories, Elaine. It's Flavescens, Ken.
What do you think? They often bend in funny ways.
http://historiciris.org/photos...

That does look exactly like mine, Kathy. Thanks. No I can label them. The information says they are fragrant, so I'll have to go out and put my nose to them.

Caladiums, blooming Tillies...oh my!

My tillandsia are showing no signs of flowering.

I am quite fond of blooming Tillies. I have a couple growing right next to Orchids in wooden baskets, but no blooms right now.

I have a few small ones tucked in with orchids here and there. They certainly seem to really like the same treatment as the orchids get.

I just put outside my most prized tillandsia mounting. The mount is gnarly driftwood and holds three native varieties found in S. Florida, T. usneoides, "Spanish moss", T. recurvata, "ball moss", and T. simulata, "broad needleleaf". Spanish moss blooms in May/June and the ball moss and broad needleleaf bloom in the summer. The broad needleleaf still has its "seed-head" from last summer and now that it is outside, those seeds will scatter with the wind. These are simple plants and a simple mount, but I like the looks of it.

Really neat looking, Ken. I think I'd be tempted to 'help nature' with the seeds just a bit. Stick a few of them into some orchid medium and see if anything comes along. Otherwise, you might not see them if they start up in your oak tree, and the frost will get to them before they're big enough for you to rescue them into the greenhouse.

These will take a light froze and a light freeze. I left several different (Florida) varieties out last fall, just to see. Everything looked fine until we got some lower 20's. Those outside perished. The ones I moved into the greenhouse are doing fine. They are all outside now. I have a bag of those fluffy seeds but haven't had a chance to try to germinate them.

You need to string some wire over your place! I always loved seeing electrical wires loaded with healthy Tillandsias growing on them in South America.
In the meanwhile - a good part of my Succulents are now moved onto the deck and cleaned up and this Pachypodium baronii is blooming.