Emily, this stuff just had to be done. And as for yanking, replacing things, if they don't measure up, they're outta here. Wintersowing has shown me that I can so easily replace things that don't perform well, so that's what I do.

I wish I had a few of my wintersown seedlings in the ground. It's getting pretty hot for transplanting them. It was in the 70s today, supposed to be 80 tomorrow. Rain is predicted for the weekend, maybe I can transplant a few things between showers. I love that, always makes them do so well.

Of course, the night before last it was 32° with heavy frost, so go figure.

Do rudbeckia goldsturm transplant well in fall? Mine is spreading fast. I was going to give some to a friend, but it's getting so hot, I thought maybe I should wait until fall? I got mine as a division from a friend in spring.

Karen

Linda, I always have symptoms, symptoms are just worse sometimes. I think the rain last weekend helped some.

Karen

"Do rudbeckia goldsturm transplant well in fall? Mine is spreading fast. I was going to give some to a friend, but it's getting so hot, I thought maybe I should wait until fall? I got mine as a division from a friend in spring."

Karen, I don't know for sure, but they are such tough plants that I don't see why you couldn't divide and transplant in the fall!

Can't believe your high temps! It seems as if we've been chilly here forever. But. . . Mr. Weatherman is promising low 70s next week. .. .oh frabjous day!

It seems I've lost one of my 3 butterfly weeds (A. tuberosa) this winter. I WSed them in 2006 and ended up with 3 beautiful plants. A local nurseryman said a lot of people lost drought-loving plants this year because the weather was so wet for so long with all that snow. The native soil here is clay and it holds water for a long, long, time. I really hate losing that plant.

But I found echinacea hot papaya yesterday locally which should make a pretty replacement. I'm anxious to see this one. They're stashed in my garage now along with other plants in preparation for the weekend of storms. 3" or more rain, hail, 50-60 mph winds, flood warnings, storm warnings... I really need summer! I need to get all these plants out of my house and garage. And I'm sick of trying to water so many yogurt cups and cell packs overflowing with overgrown plants... And I need more big pots.

True to form, we just decided to add a deck to the back of our house. Always last minute decisions. That means moving existing plants and no place to put them for a while... construction going on beside me doesn't make for the optimal garden experience either.

And with this nasty weather all weekend I should have been shopping for groceries instead of plants. I'm always the Monday morning quarterback.

Karen

Karen, Goldsturm is tough, fall is fine for moving them - I've moved them at that time before.

I got about 20 jugs planted out in the last couple of days, and the rain is moving in now- that feels good!

Thanks, Neal.

As far as rain, sounds like they might float away. Our local weather people are predicting doom and gloom for the whole weekend. I have my jugs in plastic bins, 6 to 8 jugs per bin, weighed down with bricks so they don't blow away again, and up against the foundation in back of the house. We're supposed to have 50-60 mph winds and here on our hill we get the worst. My house is full of plants and overflow in the dark garage, one flat of big geraniums is tucked into the corner of the front porch with brick-weighted bin of tomatoes to keep them there... so the porch furniture will probably blow away again. Hopefully our new roof will hold up.

Karen

All I can say, Karen, is that your Cincinnati weather makes our Cape Cod climate here look like . . . like. . . a pussycat! (Can't find quite the right weather- similie )
I can see the violent storm over your part of the world this morning on the weather-radar map. Wow! It's probably on its way here, but today is sunny and 69 F; I moved a few houseplants outside for a bit of air, and I'm going to transplant some of my WS plants today. . . maybe some of the long-suffering ones that can take our still-cool soil temps, which don't warm up here until the end of May. Would that be calendula and violas and coneflowers and coreopsis? How about hollyhocks?
Anyway, hope all your hatches stay battened down!

The weather hasn't been bad at all yet. We had a little thunder and lightening and wind early this morning, then just steady rain. It's not doing anything now. They're saying the worst storms will be tonight and tomorrow. These weather people always make such a big deal that you just don't know when to believe them.

Emily, as long as those are all wintersown plants I think they should be fine to plant now. I think it's ideal for perennials like hollyhocks and coneflowers. Violas like it cool, too. I've never done calendula but I thought they were more cool weather plants, aren't they?

Karen

Emily, your calendula should be fine also. I have a bunch that reseeded from last year and they are up and doing well.

Those storms have arrived here with thunder and lightning, heavy rain, and 2-4" of rain by tomorrow. I'm really glad I didn't plant anything yesterday. I like to plant right before a rain, but not this much rain. And there's a marathon (the "Flying Pig") in Cincinnati today. People from 21 countries are participating, 18,000 people registered. Ugh! Running 26 miles is bad enough, but in this weather!

I hope our friends in Arkansas and Tn. are OK. The weather news there looked awful. They said Memphis got a foot of rain yesterday!

Karen

Wow, Karen...we seemed to have just skirted all of the really heavy rain. They kept predicting it for Indy, as well, but except for brief heavy storm that rolled through on early Sat. morning, we really haven't had much of anything. Looks like we got a little rain overnight, but nothing like we were expecting. I hauled all of my flats in last night to avoid getting drowned. Of course, if I hadn't done that we would have had a deluge

Yes, Linda. From the looks of the radar it seems most of our heaviest rainfall must have been through the night. If there was any thunder or lightning, I slept through it as usual. It was stormy when I got up at 5 this morning, but turned into just intermittent rain. Seems most of the bad stuff is south and east of me now.

I had stuffed a lot of plants, which have been living on my front porch for a few weeks, into the garage so they wouldn't blow away. There was no place to walk. I tripped over a box of plants and broke off one of 2 stems on the pretty coleus that I just bought the day before. Oh well, I'll try to root it though I don't know where.

Just light rain now, I pulled some plants out of the garage and moved to the porch for more light. Geez, I hope they don't blow away.

Karen

I planted a few more jugs of seedlings. Didn't get much done again since I'm also weeding out volunteers and things as I go. And I seem to be spending most of my time with the indoor grown seeds and cuttings. Moving them outside to harden off, watering because they dry so fast. And moving them around so this wind doesn't carry them away. Then back in the house. I can't wait to get some of that stuff planted. And it doesn't all fit under my lights any more, either.

Wintersown stuff sure is a lot easier. And the older I get... the longer this stuff takes!

Karen

I did quite a bit of planting yesterday. Anything that was big enough to go in the ground - did.

I've got quite a bit of Monarda this year... i have no idea what possessed me to sow so much of it.

I'm going to stuff those calendula and pansy WS seedlings into the ground this afternoon--it's still sunny, but tomorrow is supposed to bring some rain. Well, "seedlings" is a euphemism; these are big adolescent basketball-players who are READY!

I had good intentions today. I planted two big pots for on our deck. (construction of deck hasn't even started yet, so 2 more big pots taking up space), The plants I used for them were things I propagated inside, and a few store bought. As soon as I chopped up a jug of WSown echs to plant out in the yard, it started raining. I did stick those in the ground while getting soaked. All that junk is still all over the patio and the guys might show up in a couple of days to start the deck. I have no idea where I'm going to put all this junk.

I just can't get it together this year. I think the motivation might not be as great because my WSing results weren't as good as usual. Time is limited, too, by my job and the time spent doing things for my Mom and general cleaning and things inside. I'm definitely not as young as I used to be.

Karen

Karen, some years are just kinda off years for the gardening, but just remember that the garden should be your escape and respite, not a stress. Scaling down a bit this year should help enable that. And you'll have a great new deck to sit back, have a cocktail, and enjoy the flowers.

I did a lot of planting yesterday... i still have to update my spreadsheet to recall what i actually did. I'm finding i had to do a lot of 'pulling' things to find room for new plants.

next year i HAVE to scale back.... I think i will be doing mostly annuals next year.

I know I got both, red and blue Lobelia planted, some Cosmos [Sonata and Bright Lights .. i have Limara Lemon too, but can't recall if we planted them] Some NoID Ruds [also gave a gal jug to my neighbor.. hope she plants them] bunch of Zinns. I brought a container up here [Wisc] of California Giant Mix Zinns... i'll scatter about the Park.

Karen -- I too know how it feels to plant in the rain... i was doing that the other week. This weekend, though i was really busy with the kid moving and graduation.... the weather cooperated for gardening.

Oh, I did scale way back- from my usual 60-80 jugs down to 20. But I wasn't planning on them being blown away and I lost an awful lot when that happened. Then most of my annuals didn't sprout. Then, when we decided to add the deck, a lot of plants had to be moved from there and crammed elsewhere. Now I have some big perennials I can't find a spot for without blocking sun to other sun lovers.

Not the end of the world. And if I really need fillers in spots, I can go buy a few cell packs of annuals when all is said and done.

Karen

OK, I guess I'll give up on waiting for decent weather for planting. It has been raining and cold highs of 60-ish, lows of 50) for the past 2 days. I have to get out there and weed and stick a few things in the ground before the heat hits. 90° by Sunday!

I'm off- going out to work in drizzle and 54°. Ugh!

Karen