Your All Things Plants weekly news
August 16, 2014

This Week's Gardening Ideas:

By Dutchlady1 August 16, 2014 The Flamboyant 'Flamboyant' Delonix regia is a tree known as "Flamboyant" in certain parts of the Caribbean, and it is easy to see how it got this name. (380 words - Read the full article)

By CarolineScott August 15, 2014 Apply Herbicide with Brush When Weeds Are Close to Good Plants. We often have a situation in which difficult weeds are growing too close to our good plants, and herbicide spray might drift to the good plants. Herbicide application can be handled by brushing the herbicide solution onto the weeds.

By dave August 14, 2014 ATP Podcast #68: Why Don't We Do What We Don't Do? Here's a fun topic. We often talk about what we do in the garden and why we do it, but today we're going to turn that around and look at a few common gardening things that a lot of people do, but that we don't do, and we'll talk about why we don't do them.

By rocklady August 13, 2014 A Flower Pot for All Seasons It is a chore to keep plants in pots watered and looking nice during the hot summers as well as through the winter. I have found self-watering pots to be useful in helping me without a lot of work on my part. (I'm basically lazy.) (291 words - Read the full article)

By Polymerous August 12, 2014 Save and Re-Use Your Plastic Garden Supply Bags as Soaking Containers The original empty plastic bag containers for garden supplies such as fertilizer, dirt, compost, or mulch can be saved and re-used as plant soaking containers. (475 words - Read the full article)

By Xeramtheum August 11, 2014 Not Your Average Gardening Tools I have a tendency to look at pretty much every sort of tool as a possible garden tool. Over the years I've tried out just about everything, but I have whittled it down to about 9 tools I use consistently. (370 words - Read the full article)

By grannysgarden August 10, 2014 Garden Art! Like Your Garden, Uniquely Your Own Some call it junk and some call it art. Whatever you call it, the art in your garden will be a reflection of your idea of creative repurposing. (753 words - Read the full article)

The most popular images last week from our plant database: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Tango Lessons') by floota: Photo of Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium fistulosum) by TennesseeDave: Photo of Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) by clintbrown: Photo of Rose (Rosa 'Peach Drift') by jon: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Work It Girl') by floota: Photo of Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata 'Twister') by pixie62560:

The most popular Multi-Plant Photos from last week: Multi-plant photo by jon: Multi-plant photo by clintbrown: Multi-plant photo by 4susiesjoy: Multi-plant photo by valleylynn: Multi-plant photo by 4susiesjoy: Multi-plant photo by tropicgirl:

Noteworthy acorn tips given this week:

9 people gave for the idea "Garden Art! Like Your Garden, Uniquely Your Own" by grannysgarden 6 people gave for post #678653 in "Banner for August 12, 2014 by mcash70" by mcash70 5 people gave for post #679152 in "Composting forum" by valleylynn 4 people gave for post #679886 in "Banner for August 14, 2014 by blue23rose" by blue23rose 4 people gave for the idea "Save and Re-Use Your Plastic Garden Supply Bags as Soaking Containers" by Polymerous 3 people gave for the Multi-Plant Photo #1876 by jon 3 people gave for post #679296 in "Banner for August 13, 2014 by eclayne" by eclayne 3 people gave for the Multi-Plant Photo #1894 by 4susiesjoy 3 people gave for post #679421 in "August Seedlings 2014" by mainstreet 3 people gave for post #676755 in "Making All Things Plants more secure and private for everyone" by dave

The most active threads this week:

Subject	OP	Area	Replies
Potting iris over winter	tveguy3	Irises forum	82
Composting Is For Everyone	kylaluaz	Soil and Compost forum	49
A few iris in need of a new home	Lestv	Irises forum	45
Announcing the Mass Databox Proposal tool	dave	Plant Database forum	34
Announcing the winners!	dave	The August 2014 Not-A-Raffle-Raffle!	32
Pictures in Blogs...	Gymgirl	Site Talk forum	31
Making All Things Plants more secure and private for everyone	dave	Site Talk forum	29
Composting forum	kylaluaz	Site Talk forum	23
Fred Manning (Spunky1) wins Region 14 Service Award from AHS	tink3472	Daylilies forum	23

Some new reviews from the ATP Green Pages:

vossner recommended Tropical Plants & More and wrote: Ken's love and knowledge of plumerias, bromeliads, tillandsias, and orchids are evident in the plants he sends, communications, and website. Great person/company with whom to deal.

dyzzypyxxy recommended Caladium Bulbs 4 Less and wrote: I have had nothing but great service and big, healthy bulbs that grow huge, long-lasting leaves from Caladium Bulbs 4 Less. Highly recommended. If you want Caladiums, this is the place to buy them. Selection, service, and quality are absolutely tops. Plus, of course they sponsored our Photo Contest, and also offer prizes for our Not-A-Raffle raffles. I recently won a prize, and today received a huge box of the biggest bulbs I've ever seen! Thanks again, Bill, and I will send everybody to you.

Claudia recommended Tomato Growers Supply and wrote: Ordered tomato seeds from them last winter. Very pleased with their seeds and their prices. Just placed another order for more tomato seeds.

MotherRaphaela recommended North Hills Nursery and wrote: An amazing source for sempervivum and their cousins. I could not believe the number of cultivars they offer when I first found their site. I was new to semps then, and they were the ones who opened my eyes to their possibilities! It was sensory overload, and I can't mind that they keep cultivars posted even when they don't carry them any more: they are doing us all a great identification service. They sent the plants immediately, well-packaged and healthy. One began blooming shortly after it was potted up -- and thankfully, since of course that rosette immediately began to shrivel, they had included another rosette so I will still have the plant. And of course, this included one I hadn't ordered! Here are the plants I received from North Hills, including Cobweb Joy, Lone Star, Clipper and Bronze Ingot: (The small semp at the top of the photo is just a NOID chick that was looking for a home at the time...)

MotherRaphaela recommended Young's Garden and wrote: I have ordered twice from Young's Garden on the recommendation of others. I had ordered from another succulent nursery and received (I thought) excellent service. I was amazed when the order arrived from Young's, everything neatly packaged and well labelled -- with at least two to three times more of the size and/or number of plants in each small paper bag than I had received from the previous nursery. Of course the "mystery" surprise plant they put in is a plus. Perhaps if they can keep up this level of customer service they will grow enough to think they can also accept regular credit card payment in addition to PayPal. That is a leap small companies are sometimes reluctant to take since it definitely adds to their bottom-line operating expenses. But it also means more people can order without joining PayPal. It's a catch 22: People don't want to join PayPal for the same reason small companies don't want to accept regular credit card payments: all of it is giving in to the big business culture around us we'd like to avoid... Whether or not they take that leap, I will definitely use Young's Garden and recommend it to others. Here are my latest Young's acquisitions, newly unpacked and planted:

We keep growing, because ATP is where all the excitement is these days! Check out these numbers from last week:

• 105 members joined.
• 4,522 posts written.
• 1,318 images posted to the plant database.
• 723 plants added to personal inventory lists.