plasko20 said: Hirts sometimes sells ladybugs for pretty cheap. I have purchased them a few times.
Or for the more adventurous these...
https://hirts.com/carolina-pra...

Pike's sell ladybugs for $10.99 and praying mantis for $11.99. I would think if you had both in the garden, the mantis would eat the ladybugs.

I am sure they would.
And bees, butterflies.....

6 days ago, there was little hope after this seedling was assaulted by critter unknown. After a few days in the ICU a decent chance of recovery

SunriseSide said: 6 days ago, there was little hope after this seedling was assaulted by critter unknown. After a few days in the ICU a decent chance of recovery

Great picture, Donna. Daylilies are amazingly tough. The ones I ran over, including Bahama Butterscotch, which I flattened, look better already. They probably will not bloom, but I can tell they will live.

Worked outside for a couple of hours this afternoon until I could no longer stand the hot sun. Finished cleaning most of the hillside next to the driveway and planted five of the new perennials - three shooting stars and two ferns that like full sun. This area does get some shade once the trees are fully leafed out, however I think there is also enough sun for these ferns. They allegedly spread like mad and that's what I want. The shooting stars went in nearby but in more shade. If it's not raining tomorrow afternoon I plan to move the remaining Prairie Moonlight DLs and mulch. Will prepare the vacated area for Iris coming later in Summer.

I weeded most of my largest daylily bed. Watered daylilies in 2.5 beds. Planted one potted daylily. That took all morning.

Today, I finished the April fan count, weeded in a bunch of places , sprayed desirable plants against rabbits and installed a brick edging on the bed next to the new driveway, so the dirt wouldn't wash into it. I have a bunch of antique bricks from the early 60s that are left over from when we redid the Patio, using bluestone and brick. This project used up 42 of them but there are plenty more.

Today I dug up Black Eyed Stella out of one of the seedling beds & potted her for relocation later as part of reorganization. Of course, there were tree roots entangled. Replaced with a current year potted seedling from inventory.
Did some weeding.

2" of rain here last night and early morning, so no work in beds today. Most blooms were kind of tattered, so no pictures either.

Yesterday, I spent the entire morning in the garden. I planted a butterfly bush (Golden Glow) that has been in a pot for about two years. Weeded in my raised beds and the largest daylily bed. While doing so, I knocked some buds off Substantial Princess, a new plant. Fortunately, she has several more scapes and buds. Planted the last of my caladium bulbs. Started outlining the extension of one of my beds. Finished off by watering the rest of the beds in the back yard and everything in a pot. We did get .5" of rain late yesterday, but the yard was really dry, so that was all needed.

Today I plan to move my seedlings to larger pots. Still haven't devised a good labeling system. I still have a few seeds from last season in the garge fridge--maybe I will plant them to see if any of them sprout. I also want to pot up two daylilies that are in terrible places and are being taken over by shrub roots and Asiatic jasmine. Maybe a little more weeding, too. The front beds are looking a little messy.

Yesterday I went out in the garden and selected the plants to be dug for the region 14 sale table plants, then typed them all up with registration date and what color ribbon to be put on them for pricing. Trying to get ready for the dig.
I did notice that the caladiums I ordered and planted a couple of weeks ago are just starting to peek above the ground.
Went back out around six and deadheaded and pulled weeds.

Today, I dug a unbloomed DL seedling that wasn't doing well and potted it. It seems one of the neighboring seedlings is quite root aggressive & the dug one is not. Anyway, replaced it with another 2023 seedling from potted inventory.
Pulled some weeds, did some watering & noted some new scapes. A few scapes have already terminated from unseen bug infestations
Finally made a couple of crosses...trying to be more selective as there are hundreds if not thousands of dry stored seeds in the fridge.

Floyd and Wendy went to Mountain City, TN to ride early this morning, giving me a great opportunity to get outside very early for a change. Trimmed the daffodils to about half height; did not want to cut them off yet, however they are overwhelming some of the other plants. Finished cleaning that area of the driveway bed. Trimmed two more hydrangeas. Lifted three of the Prairie Moonlight daylilies; for now they are "living" in black plastic garbage bags under the deck until I can clear the area where I want to plant them. Watered, moved two of the Shooting Stars into deeper shade, turned out they were in too much sun and were badly wilted, in spite of watering. Did some weeding.

I found all my wind chimes and the rest of my spinners and put them up everywhere. They were underneath the Tyrolean Chimes in one of my storage boxes; had put an older chair cover over them for protection so they were not visible when I initially opened the box. Tried to hang the Tyrolean Chimes but they are very large and very heavy and I could only come within about three inches of reaching the hook. Floyd gave me this set (can't remember the name of this one) years ago for Christmas, when we were younger and hale and hearty!! Even then I knew there would be a day eventually when I would not be able to lift them to hang. And in my eternal optimism I put the heavy duty hanger on a post on the second floor of the deck. That will be Floyd's job when he gets home.

Edited to add: The chimes are hung! And I mowed the back yard this morning.

Donna, Dave, and Larry--looks as though you all have been productive!

My plans for the day were not realized. After I puttered around taking pictures and assembling my little pots of seedlings, DH reminded me that we had a lunch date with friends, so I had to get ready for that. Lunch was good, but I felt a headache coming on, so when we got home, I took some pain pills and lay down. I sacked out, and the afternoon is now gone. I didn't realize how tired I had been. On the plus side, the headache is gone.

After reading through an old thread on seedling labeling techniques, I decided to just note the crosses I made last year on a pad, give each cross a two-digit number and then end with the year. So 0123 is all the seeds from the first cross from last season and 1323 is all the seeds from the last. I will also number the seeds from the 4-5 bee pods I decided to grow. Tomorrow morning I will repot the seedlings and plant some of the bagged ones that never were planted.

When the seedlings get big enough, I will start testing them for rust resistance. Any promising ones will get something added to the number, maybe a letter.

Sounds like a good system, Nan.

It was cold and grey here, so I spent the day entering fan counts on my list here…mostly encouraging numbers!

Yesterday a nice leafy fan
Today after finding a bunch of leaves half buried, I got out the fork and dug this [washed off for portrait] out 😡🤬😡🤬. Just like the one earlier with a white leaf fragment left. So, I potted it up & hope it too regrows

This one probably 75' from the previous one and again no other sign of gophers.
Otherwise, too wet to do anything but scape hunt.

I applied three bags of castor oil pellets and only got as far as half way through Bottom Bed. So I ordered four more, I'll have to sprinkle those on Saturday.

Lifted the rest of the Prairie Moonlight clumps. Weeded along the fence, trimmed peonies (last year's growth that I missed cutting down in the Fall). Mowed. Began cutting and digging out the Blue Rug Juniper in the bed where I've been working. Years ago I planted it on part of the slope, hoping it would spread and cover. It has spread, though not covered very well. I've always had to weed in and around it and have decided that if I have to weed I'd rather weed around flowers. So, ripping it out and going to plant perennials and more Iris instead. I have Crocosmia that is being overgrown by shrubbery in another bed to move and want to add more Salvia and Helenium. Deer do eat Crocosmia but not Salvia or Helenium. Hopefully I can disguise the Crocosmia with the deer-resistant plants. Would also like to add some peonies and annuals.

Yesterday I repotted all the seedlings. I put them in small pots, so I will have to repot them again soon. Believe it or not, they were in smaller pots before this with about 5-6 seedlings in each pot, so I had to separate them carefully. I am growing them in pots because I do not have any place to put them in the ground (yet). I have a spot picked out for a raised bed, but DH has too much on his plate right now though he has promised to build it for me.


This task took so long that I wonder how people who have big hybridizing operations can manage it all. I have seedlings from 13 crosses from 2023, which includes 4 bee pods and seeds sent to me by a forum member. The rest were just me trying it out (though I chose only plants that were rust-resistant). I can see me running out of both time and room if I make too many crosses in future. I am trying to plan carefully and just use the very best plants I have...or plants that have outstanding blooms but need to be crossed with something highly rust-resistant. I have 6 or 7 crosses in mind, but I am sure I will end up with more than that.

And guess what? For the first time ever, I have bee pods on two of my amaryllis plants. I have been growing these for years and this is the first time this has happened!