Yeah I have been seeing piles of shredded husk from where a squirrel tears apart the walnut. Those buggers do leave quite a mess.

The Brug 'Maya' is blooming again. Hope the flowers can outlast the rainy weather.

Donner--my brugs are just sitting there. The Mayas look OK--one even got more buds this week. Not holding my breath to see any blooms.

The Dr. Seuss has had nice. long buds hanging down for over a week.
That's all. Doesn't look like they will open. Stupid weather!!!!!!

On the other hand--the Brazilian Plume has outdone itself.
So has the Persian Shield--This plant has grown to over 3' tall and pretty bushy. Tine to decide if I want to top them and root them (don't ask why?)
But--they do root very easily and, maybe I can pass some around at work.

Too wet and too cool to do any gardening. Need to trim ALL my old shrubs--the 2 big Junipers out front is a day's work.
Then the Yew--and the 2 Hemlocks. They sure have grown big this summer...
Bummer. Gita

Gita, I am sure the Brug buds will open for ya if they are that big already.

Looking ahead, I don't see many warm days , so I don't think the Brugs will bloom again after this flush. That said, I will still keep the plants until right before the first frost because I want the branches to mature more so that they are better for cuttings.

Rhanks, Donner.....
I am a bit lost with this new format.....It was easier when your
Threads were--like--right there. Just another big change...
Hope Dave has played around enough so we can all settle in.

As it is now--I will have to dig out one Dr. S. and 2 Mayas from their
big pots to overwinter them. One of the Mayas is in a separate, big pot. Just carry it inside... The Other one and the Dr. are in those big, deco--pots by my shed. I don't know yet how i am going to overwinter them.
May have to resort to doing cuttings again. Getting a bit tired of all this.
A nice, big annual would look just as stately in a big pot as the brugs do.

This summer has killed a lot of my enthusiasm to garden. HD is to blame
for a lot of it. SO exhausting to water all day sweating like a pig.

How are you? Is your moving coming up soon? Are you still moving?

PS--Have you ever seen Persian Shields growing this big? Mine are all on steroids... Do you think cuttings of these will survive to be new plants next summer??? I know the Beaz. Plume will. They are now 3' tall little trees...

OK--off to an early bedtime. Gita

The Persia Shields are looking very healthy. Your light shelves will get very crowded this winter, Gita.

Chrysanthemums are on display everywhere in China this time of year. A friend of mine sent me this link to chrysanthemum pictures. There's also a short video on the page, but I don't think it's worth bothering.

Enjoy.

http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__bi...

Gita, those Persian Shields are absolutely beautiful!

Robin Munch--Thanks--but now what do i do with them?
I know they root easily--but, winter is a long time to keep a bunch of
rooting plants indoors. Space is at a premium....

Is there a "bunch" of you interested in the Brazilian Plume?
I will need to cut it back--and--as you noticed at the Swap--they also root easily.
Last fall--I did not cut it back--nor did I care--so it grew kind of big all through
the summer. It is a woody plant--so I had a skinny, 3' tall "tree".....

With 3 Brugs to bring in--I really have to plan ahead as to where i will put everything. The ones that can go dormant will live in my dark, cool Shop.
If I have room under my light set-up--I will try to grow as many cuttings as i can for the Spring swap.
Usually, the light set-up "belongs" to Brug cuttings and Coleus cuttings
as well as my CC's. My light shelves are only 3' wide.
That is all I had room for. They sit by my S.facing window in my bedroom.
There is great light on sunny days. Not so great on cloudy days.
UT--it is the est I have to offer.... G.

why are you bringing in 3 big brugs, plus cuttings? No, don't answer that. I know it's because if there's any chance of someone wanting a cutting, you want to provide, it's your nature.
I personally don't want a Brazilian plume. But I think persian shield cuttings would be a big hit in spring swap.

Gita,

What color is your Brazilian Plume? I'm thinking it might do well in the area that Larry has just designated as the 'wild flower' bed. The bed currently has forsythia along the back to keep the prying eyes of the neighbors away. These might look pretty good in front of the green back drop in the shade. We would most likely keep it in pots so they could be brought in for the winter.

Rick--the B. Plume's bloom is pink. Did not know it comes in any other colors...



Sally--The main reason I am bringing the 2 Mayas in is that they just did not
grow tall enough to have woody stems to take cuttings from.
Like--the one my neighbor fell on and broke off all the top growth IS re-growing
nicely--but cuttings from it will not 'take". Too soft..

The other Maya has existed longer--but also has not grown any taller than
2 1/2' or so. These two are now pretty much the same size.

My Dr. Seuss is a good size--but just now is putting our some bloom buds.
Geez! it is October!!!! I will take some cuttings from it.
Will see how the digging up goes.

Yes! I enjoy sharing my plants. Many people appreciate that.

AND--another reason is that I really, really do not want to lose these.
I do not know anyone else in this area that grows Brugs I am hanging in.

G.

yes, Gita, there is 'method to your madness' with those Brugs.
The last couple times I bought a potted one in, the stems dried out and rotted.
I had two Brugz this year. The pink one went in full sun and got big. The Maya has less sun and like yours hasn't even bloomed yet and is about 3 feet tall. The leaves got big but the overall plant growth was slow? I have previously grown Maya in that same spot and had it grow very well.

I have a Yucca guatamalensis (potted yucca ) that I stuck in the front garden for summer. I have no place to keep that for winter except stuck in a basement corner again. I dunno. Someone gave it to me last fall and I wanted to grow it to learn about it.

My Maya came from @sallyg at the swap this year. I planted it in the garden and gave it plenty of water and fertilizer over the summer, so it got huge. At the moment, it has dozens of flowers on it. That said, it is a very young plant. There won't be enough woody branches for me to take more than a few cuttings.

I'm so glad it did very well for you, Donner.

Pentas cuttings seem happy so far- hard to tell. It's been raining almost every day since they were cut, so they can hardly NOT look good.

I already have topped the Inky Fingers that Gita brought, and made a new cutting to root.

Most of my feeble gardening today has been pulling out nasty wet dead leaves and stems. And trying to pick out plants to offer up to others at work, what will be good for the library for winter, and what will be featured plants in my house, and what will go in the basement for winter. COnfusing.

The Pink Muhly Grass I planted this Spring has bloomed ! Here it is with two varieties of Sedum and my dwarf butterfly bushes that are still blooming. Euphorbia Bonfire is in the background.

Very pretty combination.

Nice! We tried it for a couple of years, but it didn't survive the winter. So we moved on to other experiments!

Thanks, Sally and Rick.

Yeah, I hope they survive here. Going to cut them off in November then pack them with about 8 inches of mulch over top of them and hope for the best.

I have a question for Y'All....

Inspired by some of you, I decided, for the 1st time ever, to plany my
Amaryllis bulbs outside for the summer. They are along the front edge
of the Raised bed. They look good! Foliage is tall and strong-looking.

Now--I ak starting to worry a bit about digging them up and potting them.
This will be the 1st time the Red ones have been separated. Usually, as you may remember, the 5 red bulbs have been together in the big, old ceramic
pot and still have bloomed beautifully around beg. of March.
Of course--over the years, I have root-pruned them....re-potted them---cleaned up the roots. etc. And--they always bloomed beautifully.
Not bad for same bulbs from 2006!
Anyway--now they will be separated--as I will not know which were the 5 that
always "lived" in the same pot.
I also worry a bit about the condition of the bulbs having been in just plain old soil since early summer. They did not bloom as well as usually.

Any advice on dealing with this? PLEASE!!! I know Jill does this almost every year--but her bulbs are not as sold as mine. Thanks. G.

Here they are in 2005--May 28.


Same pot--same bulbs---March, 2014.
Pretty amazing--don't you all think? That makes these bulbs 9 yrs. old.

Now I am faced with these bulbs having grown all summer in pretty crappy soil--as it is in my raised bed.
Anyone want to "hold my hand"????? Gita

I have a question for Y'All....

Inspired by some of you, I decided, for the 1st time ever, to plant my
Amaryllis bulbs outside for the summer. They are along the front edge
of the Raised bed. They look good! Foliage is tall and strong-looking.

Now--I am starting to worry a bit about digging them up and potting them.
This will be the 1st time the Red ones have been separated. Usually, as you may remember, the 5 red bulbs have been together in the big, old ceramic
pot and still have bloomed beautifully around beg. of March.
Of course--over the years, I have root-pruned them....re-potted them---cleaned up the roots. etc. And--they always bloomed beautifully.
Not bad for same bulbs from 2006!
Anyway--now they will be separated--as I will not know which were the 5 that
always "lived" in the same pot.
I also worry a bit about the condition of the bulbs having been in just plain old soil since early summer. They did not bloom as well as usually.

Any advice on dealing with this? PLEASE!!! I know Jill does this almost every year--but her bulbs are not as sold as mine. Thanks. G.

Here they are in 2005--May 28.


Same pot--same bulbs---March, 2014.


Pretty amazing--don't you all think? That makes these bulbs 9 yrs. old.

Now I am faced with these bulbs having grown all summer in pretty crappy soil--as it is in my raised bed.
Anyone want to "hold my hand"????? Gita