McCans's Giants get big. This was 2008.



Karen

oh wow.. love them!!!

Just toss them where you want them to grow Allison. They need light to germinate , so the little seeds will grow...

thanks for the advice!!

I have a spot on the side of my home that would serve well for some Columbine. How long does your Columbine bloom?

my short ones.. may - june

It seems it is not near long enough but they sure are pretty when they do bloom.

I didn't realize they were short lived.. deadheaded.. no reseeding.. and it didn't come back the 2nd year.. was so bummed out

Mine lasted several years, until I dug them out and composted them. I still kept a few which are several year old.

What I don't like: Ugly foliage all summer from leaf miners. Never, ever fails. And in 2009 and 2010 sawfly larvae stripped all the foliage. Plants lived, but looked awful. That's when most became compost food.

Karen

is there anything you can do for leaf miners?.. seems I get them every year as well

You might find some pesticide for them if you google it. Since I try to keep my garden mostly organic, I don't use anything. I just hack off the foliage.

Karen

got ya.. do they actually damage the plant.. or just ugly?

I got the leaf miners too. I don't believe they kill the plant???

thanks

I had some leaf miners on my columbine leaves. I cut off the affected leaves and spritzed the plant with diluted neems oil.

My summersowing hasn't gone well. the containers were getting mossy/moldy, so I removed the tops. The birds have been nibbling my seeds and planting sunflowers and birdseed in their place. Arghh. I'll save my seeds for wintersowing! This year, I am filling my wintersowing containers before it gets too cold and planting at my leisure. I have a small place and store my potting mixes and ingredients in rubber maid garbage cans. I had to wheel them inside last winter to defrost before I could start planting.

It is a bit cooler today, only in the nineties with some scattered thunder storms. The past few days have been brutally hot.

I put some direct in the garden.. and kept some for WS'ing.. figured it was worth trying both

I took some cuttings and tried to root them in the bottles I used for wsing. My cutting wilted and died. I kept it in a shaded area away from direct sunlight. Maybe it was too warm, may I should have had vent holes.

It seems I always go wrong with my cuttings. I try to make cuttings that are 2" or less. I snip off all blooms and leaves only leaving top two leaves. I bury the snip leaf nodes and try to keep the medium moist and out of direct sunlight. I don't always cover. Is this where I'm going wrong?

I think covering is very important, at least with coleus cuttings. It helps retain humidity which, in turn, encourages rooting. Outside in summer heat, you might need vents to let heat escape. But here, in summer, our humidity is generally high enough to not need the cover.

I always use a lid in winter in the dry air of the house. And use moist, not wet soil. Too much water can cause rot. With a humidity dome, they rarely need additional water after sticking.

Karen

Hit up your local Starbuck's coffee shops for free gallon milk jugs. I get 'em almost 20 at a time. Make friends with the shift manager...

Also, local day care centers and other coffee shops have gallon milk jugs.

I would leave the top open in this hot weather as well