Your All Things Plants weekly news: December 14, 2013

There were 7 new gardening ideas posted last week:

By goldfinch4 December 14, 2013 Club Your Way to Savings It pays to belong to garden clubs offered by local or regional nurseries. I belong to two different ones. (154 words - Read the full article) (one comment)

By flaflwrgrl December 13, 2013 Using Your Christmas Tree for the Birds Instead of throwing out that Christmas Tree, lay it down underneath your bird feeder. It will provide cover for those birds that don't migrate and feed at the feeders throughout the winter. They can make a quick dash into the tree for cover when hungry hawks fly overhead. (5 comments)

By Horntoad December 12, 2013 Fun with PVC: Pedestals, Beyond the Basic. PVC is inexpensive and easy to work with, which makes it great for garden projects. In this article I will show some ways of creating new pedestals using the original pattern. (195 words - Read the full article) (4 comments)

By Horntoad December 11, 2013 Fun with PVC: Basic Pedestals PVC is inexpensive and easy to work with, which makes it great for garden projects. This article will look at basic pedestal ideas. (191 words - Read the full article) (5 comments)

By Skiekitty December 10, 2013 Acidify Your Soil If you have naturally alkaline soil, you can combat it naturally by saving the needles off your Christmas tree and tilling them into the soil. (2 comments)

By SongofJoy December 9, 2013 Use Leftover Cooking Water To Water Plants When you boil or steam vegetables, don't pour the water down the drain. Save the cooled water and use it to water potted plants. Many plants will respond well to the added nutrients from the water. Fruit and vegetable peels can also be soaked in water for about eight hours before the water is used to water houseplants. Strain out the peelings and toss them onto the compost pile. (11 comments)

By clintbrown December 8, 2013 The Truth About Butterflies and Buddleja vs. Native Plants I recently learned that some native plant promoters are claiming that gardeners should not grow Buddleja (Butterfly Bush) because it fools butterflies into thinking it is a host plant. They claimed that the butterflies would deposit their eggs on the Buddleja and the offspring would die because Buddleja is not a proper host plant. However, I researched this claim and found it to be 100% FALSE! (162 words - Read the full article) (21 comments)

The most popular images last week from our plant database: Photo of Lily (Lilium 'Extravaganza') by bramedog: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Black Plush') by LilySue: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Bertie') by floota: Photo of Iris (Iris ensata 'Tenmiles High') by pirl: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Louder than Thunder') by Anne: Photo of Iris (Iris 'Out of the Dark') by ARUBA1334:

The most popular Multi-Plant Photos from last week: Multi-plant photo by Natalie: Multi-plant photo by ge1836: Multi-plant photo by ge1836: Multi-plant photo by ge1836: Multi-plant photo by 4susiesjoy: Multi-plant photo by sundina:

Noteworthy acorn tips given this week:

9 people gave for the idea "The Truth About Butterflies and Buddleja vs. Native Plants" by clintbrown 4 people gave for the idea "Fun with PVC: Basic Pedestals" by Horntoad 4 people gave for the idea "Using Your Christmas Tree for the Birds" by flaflwrgrl 4 people gave for a post in "Best performing perennials of 2013" by 4susiesjoy 4 people gave for a post in "Banner for December 11, 2013 by Calif_Sue" by Calif_Sue 4 people gave for a post in "Banner for December 8, 2013 by Natalie" by Natalie 3 people gave for a post in "Banner for December 13, 2013 by mcash70" by mcash70 3 people gave for the Multi-Plant Photo #796 by Natalie 3 people gave for a post in "Badges" by Bonehead 3 people gave for a post in "Banner for December 7, 2013 by rocklady" by rocklady

The most active threads this week:

Subject	OP	Area	Replies
OT - The Porch Swing	daylily	Daylilies forum	192
Lilies and deceiving colors	pirl	Lilies forum	63
Using old leftovers in the garden	pirl	Garden Art forum	38
Daylily people and their pets	bluegrassmom	Sandbox forum	36
Badges	drdawg	Site Talk forum	33
Cannas	ge1836	Tropicals forum	32
Family of 4 needs home in zone 9 or higher	Swayback	All Things Gardening forum	32
My Newest	AR	Cactus and Tender Succulents forum	29
Banner for December 10, 2013 by Natalie	Natalie	Site Banners forum	25

Some new recommendations from our members:

Swayback recommended Brian's Botanicals and wrote: THE ONLY PLACE I ORDER TROPICALS FROM! Period! His prices are good, and the plants are healthy and often larger than advertised! He's super friendly and he's the breeder. You can't beat that! He stocks a number of other unusual plants too, most of them hardy to zone 6 or colder. It's very much worth a trip to his place if you're anywhere near here. You will be blown away!

Some numbers from last week:

• 35 new members.
• 92 new threads.
• 3,024 new posts.
• 1,099 new images to the plant database.
• 86 new comments in the plant database.
• 29 new Multi-Plant photos.