UGH.. the rain strikes again

please send me a few drops, allison. no rain for weeks, and temps in the 90s. everything is wilting

karen

Could you send some of that rain over here, please? With the warm weather we're having and the wind, I'm having trouble keeping the stuff that's still in little pots from drying out.

you can have it.. when I was walking around the yard.. all I kept hearing was squish squish... just terrible

I think it's been feast or famine where rain is concerned this year...

when we were really wet, FLA was dry as a bone... now [in JAX] they are getting tons and we are dry as a bone.

~~ I was away for 6 weeks and just got back to check on my seedlings.... well, guess i never told the kid [my son who waters my seedlings] to remove the lids.... scorching 90degree temps cooked them all. yes he watered the....

the only survivors were an Annual Ageratum, Agastache Raspberry Daiquiri, 7 tomato plants and a Dianthus

I dumbed about 30 containers this morning.... so sad.
There were about 8 Agastache seeds I purchased this spring.... **sniff sniff**
A gal from DH did give me a clump of Scarlet Milkweeds and some Dwarf Ruds ... it was her first attempt at WS'ing and had a bunch of chia's.

If i do this again next year... I will have to make some major adjustments....

Oh, that IS sad.

Yikes, Terese.

That's really tough to come home to. Heck, though, this year it's difficult enough to keep the little guys going even when you're home.

So sorry for your losses.

Sympathy! I guess I'm not the only person who nurses things until the whole tray dies.

That answers my question about how WS could work once the sun came out from behind the clouds. It always seemed to me that they would cook before I got home from work to rescue them.

I guess they do!

My first thought was micro-computer-controlled, motorized vents and sun-shade blinds with thermostats and alarms wired to send me text messages by cell phone.

My second thought was something vague about afternoon shade.

I put some polymer gels in the very bottom of my cells .. helps to keep them moist

Hmmm, I may try those in the GH next year. I'm using them for the first time in some of my hanging baskets and the shallow containers that have tended to dry out. They definitely seem to help!

I have a tray of small six packs with baptista that I WS'ed.. been out in full sun and has not dried out yet.. depending on which ones I will use only a couple of the large ones.. 5 or 6 of the smaller ones .. but always expand them first... I usually put a little coir on the bottom then add them .. so they don't fall through the drain holes ... granted we haven't had many days of dry weather yet.. but we did have some high 80's already.. they always help

I'm sorry Terese!

But on the bright side, at least you'll still have some good home grown tomatoes.

Karen

Karen -- I just hope to get at least 1 crop from them... no flowers yet.... have some on the store bought ones.

Rick -- I should have moved them into full shade... think they would have survived. Shame, i lost a lot of neat Salvias, and it was the end of the seed. I just have to plan differently next season.

My wintersown toms were doing well. They had a few thumb- sized tomatoes on them. Deer ate the tops of the plants a few nights ago.

They're in their giant cages now, draped with bird netting. The deer have never bothered them when the netting was there. I imagine they could chew through it easily. Maybe they don't like the feel of it ?

Pests are attacking big time this year. Weird mites have attacked the coneflowers. Some bugs ate so much of some zinnias they almost disappeared. Something (deer, rabbits?) ate 2/3 of the Phlox David I bought this year.

Very discouraging.

Karen

Oh! Is that why the top few inches of the coneflowers are breaking off and just hanging there to die? I never noticed insects...now I know what to look for.

Sorry about your tomatoes, Karen.

Mine aren't even in the ground yet.

The critters are giving us a bit of a break right now. It's almost strange to not have plants dug out every morning... ...it's throwing the structure of my mornings off. No replanting to do???....what's next???

chelle, I'll bet your culprits are small birds, like finches. They perch on the coneflowers to eat, and the stems break.

When deer strike, they EAT the whole top of the plant.

Karen

Ah, yes. The birds do like to perch on them in their quest for bugs. I'll take a few broken stems, rather than the bugs. Our deer must eat in the corn fields in the summer - they don't damage much in the gardens here, although they did make a skinny topiary out of an Arborvitae one winter.

I WS"ed Merlot last year ... never planted it and this year had a nice bud on it... I was goign to give it to my mom, but she wasn't ready for it... one morning i notice the bud was gone, and the next morning, i found the pot [2 ltr container] by the street with no leaves and only 2" of stem left... Grrrrrrrrr ... think it was those dang red squirrels. I planted what was left. If mom still wants some echinacea -- I'll dig some up for her.

I found some strange mites on my coleus this year.. never saw anything like it.. glad I had rubber gloves on .. when i wiped they all smooshed ... they were not mealy bugs.. not sure what that was.. but I put insecticidal soap on em

My impatiens are trying to croak. Leaves turned yellow, were falling off. I pinched them back, and now they're growing new leaves. My next door neighbor's did the same. Don't know what that is/was. ?

Karen