| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| bramble |
Posted - Jun 16 2005 : 06:32:04 AM
Since the flora and fauna vary greatly across this country I was just curious what's coming on in your neck of the woods.
We have just completed 11 days of 90+ weather and we need the break. It's too hot too fast for alot of things that were getting a slow start due to the long cool spring.The heat wave usually comes in August when everything is established and strong.
So here goes:
PICKET FENCE GARDEN (at street):
Rudbeckia, rubrum lilies , coreopsis(low type), salvia(blue/lav),
russian sage, hens n chicks,sunflowers and for annuals variegated hot pink impatiens, lemon yellow marigolds, purple salvia and blue ageratum. Nelly Moser clematis is at one end of the fence and a generic purply blue clematis at the other. There is a hedge of hydrangea (blue of course!) adjacent to this area and it always looks nice with the lilies.
HOUSE and DRIVE:
Weigelia, lace cap hydrangea, hosta, Golden chain tree, peonies, more blue hydrangea and ferns.
BACKYARD (near house):
Peonies, queen anne's lace, perrenial sweet pea, gold flame honeysuckle, pea gee hydrangea, hosta, daylilies, beauty bush,
Summer Stars dogwood , Smoke tree (my neighbor's hate it!), and tons of ferns.
FAR BACK: (Land of tidy whitey man...):
I have let almost everything grow wild and natural back here but the kids have a fort here so we need a little order. There are oaks and maples, flowering quince, ferns, viburnum, daylilies, and phlox that has seeded itself and huge english yews ( they now look somewhat like buffallo from far away!) Anything not to see him mowing in his underwear looks good to me!
So what's blooming at your house?
with a happy heart |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| FloralSaucer |
Posted - Dec 15 2005 : 4:25:19 PM
Some of my sunflowers are a different color and seem to have more flowers than the usual ones. Can't wait to see them, shouldn't be long now! |
| Eileen |
Posted - Nov 19 2005 : 08:50:44 AM
Lori,
When your pears bloom out of season do they get fruit that year at all? Do they bloom again at the right time?
Eileen
Songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| Eileen |
Posted - Nov 18 2005 : 6:18:15 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Eileen
My perrenial sunflowers are just beginning to bloom but my annual ones even the burgandy and brown ones still are not showing any sign of blooming. They are at least 10 feet tall but no buds even? Hmmmmm?
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth
Boy is my face red!!!  The sunflowers I thought were growing must have been eaten by the birds and what was growing in the same place that I mistook for sunflowers were sunchokes!!! Duhh! In fall of 2003 I planted sunchokes to harvest the following fall right about late october. Meanwhile in December of 2003 I had my first total knee surgery. Then in summer those chokes were growing very well and I was waiting until they had died back before I was going to harvest them. Here is where the Duhhh comes in. I went in for my second total knee surgery on October 10 2004 and they were not yet ready to harvest as everything was still growing. WEEEELLLLL...... In the meantime I had forgotten that I had them in the ground there and had not harvested, (my excuse was I was on some pretty strong pain medication and post surgery forgetfulness) Sooooo what has been growing there all summer up to 12 feet tall with narry a bloom were those jerusalem artichoks or sunchokes!!! I discovered this today after I finished moving all the strawberry plants from the broken raised bed and found I did not have enough room for them so wanted to use the space where those non blooming sunflowers were now dead and drying in the wind. I began to pull out those stalks the size of corn stalks and I discovered that attached to the roots and deep stems were all of these wonderful tubers.( LIGHTBULB turns on here )Aaahaa! I just finished digging up a bushel of those tasty tubers and had one with my evening tea! I will have to finish with the strawberries tomorrow as I have run out of daylight and it has gotten cold.
Not one of my most embarrasing moments but close!
Eileen
Songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| FloralSaucer |
Posted - Sep 29 2005 : 5:48:43 PM
Thanks Lorij. I saw tortelini soup with pumpkin recipe a few days ago, I wonder where I put it, sounds great!
It is so hard, our crepe myrtles won't be out for months yet. I am just at the tulip flowering stage.
I think your rose is a carpet rose. I have one the same or similar although mine was here when we came too. We have a lily like that but ours is pale pink. Is tickseed coreopsis? |
| Eileen |
Posted - Sep 29 2005 : 12:22:57 PM
Thankyou LoriJ,
I love your site. I went to your art sight again just for th fun of it. I hope someday to have mastered the art of computer enhancement of my photos. You must have so much fun.
Eileen
Songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| katie-ell |
Posted - Sep 29 2005 : 10:22:20 AM
Lovely, Lorij! Here in the midwest, the garden blooms right now with catmint, Lovely Fairy shrub roses, Alma Potschke and Purple Dome asters, white boltonia, 'David' phlox (in its second bloom!), several colors of buddleia, verbena bodnariensis, white salvia, nicotiana coming back from seed so in its best bloom right now. . . . also grasses, coleus still going strong, ivy leaf geraniums, artichoke growing new foliage after its crop (will winter that indoors). I'll be doing autumn containers for several clients this week -- using ornamental kale, bright lights chard, Purple Palace heuchera, toad lily, and of course mums and pansies. And some wisps of grasses, too, if I can find the right height & size of pots. A lovely time of year here as the frost is on the pumpkin and I can't wait to make tortellini soup for tonight! |
| Clare |
Posted - Sep 29 2005 : 10:16:42 AM
Wow! Lorij! Beauuuuuuuutiful!!! Thank you for sharing! 
May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being, may you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life. ~~Apache Blessing
|
| asnedecor |
Posted - Sep 10 2005 : 10:42:45 AM
We have two types of squirrels here in Oregon. In the cities - we have the European import, cute, small, carmel brown color. Also a pest, likes to climb into opens spots in houses and they breed like rabbits. It is also against the law here in the Portland City limits to kill a squirrel on purpose. We had to catch a few of them that were pests and relocate them to a park miles away. The other type is the rural squirrel, mostly found in Southern Oregon and on the east side of the mountains. Big, grey and kinda ugly. Also very aggressive and a big pest - but this breed of squirrel, as I have been told, is a native to Oregon - not an import. Both squirrels climb trees, etc. The other thing we have here in Portland is a hugh population of raccoons and in some parts of the city coyotes. I try to just work around our urban wildlife - if I fill the birdfeeders, I buy stuff that is for everyone - including the squirrels. Too hard to keep them out of it. They and the raccoons usually get a small portion from my vegetable garden too - just trying to keep everyone happy.
"Second star to the right, straight on till morning" Peter Pan
|
| Eileen |
Posted - Sep 07 2005 : 09:09:02 AM
The diversity of the animals is so interresting to me. perhaps we should begin a section on the animals in our various regions and how they affect us as farm girls and gardeners. Guess I will.
Eileen
Songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| FloralSaucer |
Posted - Sep 07 2005 : 06:32:50 AM
Our possums are very different to yours, I can't think of anything else like them that are furry and live up trees except koalas.
The Wiggles, the children's group are Australian and our kids get such a kick out of seeing the Wiggles in Central Park singing "Gidday Squirrels".
This is the closest we have to a racoon, I hadn't heard of them before actually.
http://australian-animals.net/
tree kangaroo. |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Sep 07 2005 : 06:24:47 AM
The difference in squirrels is quite large...I grew up on the west coast and like lirene said, they are very small like chickmunks..my picture of a squirrel was always just that and then I heard that folks in the south hunt and eat squirrel and I never understood why since they were so tiny and NO one where I grew up did thta..even though I grew up in a hunting/fishing type family. Then oldest son moved to Kentucky about 5 years ago for almost 2 years and called me to tell me about the giant squirrels and it all made sense. Since then I have done a little research out of curiosity.
It is so amazing how you dont have the same small animals..I never thought about that. No skunks..now that would be nice. But you do have possums..I guess I sort of lump racoons, skunks and possums in the same catagory and would have thought if you didn't have one you wouldn't have any.
But then wombats and skinks are things we don't have here..so interesting!!!
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things |
| FloralSaucer |
Posted - Sep 07 2005 : 12:06:04 AM
Wow, I thought they were all the same. They seemed small and on the ground. I will ask but I think he saw them on the east, although he did go to San Fransisco as well, but I think the photo was from NY and Ontario, will check.
The closest Australians come to chipmunks is to watch Chip and Dale on TV! There are no skunks, racoons, chipmunks, squirrels or anything.
The ones you have at your home remind me of our rabbits, which are an import from England.
We have possums, they eat roses, to tie it to a gardening theme. We don't have any in our yard though. They are cute and make a noise in the roof which is why I am glad they are not here.
The only thing that has been in my yard is wombats in the night in 2003 when we lived near the forest, oh and a skink called a Blue Tongued Lizard, one is quite handy for eating snails. There is a childrens book called Wombats Diary and it suggests that wombats are not garden friendly.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618381368/002-8208793-5286422?v=glance |
| lirene |
Posted - Sep 06 2005 : 9:52:46 PM
[/quote]
In Australia the hanging baskets are left alone. I thought this was very interesting. When my husband went to the States and Canada there were squirrels in the park on the lawn etc. which ones are ground squirrels?
[/quote]
The ground squirrels we have here in the Pacific Northwest of the US are very much like chipmunks. Do you have chipmunks in Australia? They are ground-dwellers, these ones living in a warren of burrows around the roots of a tall fir tree off our back deck. They can climb (obviously!) but aren't usually as arboreal as squirrels.
The squirrels your husband saw in a park were probably Eastern Grey Squirrels, a large and aggressive (for a squirrel) species which has migrated, tree to tree, right the way across the US from their original home in the hardwood forests of the East coast. Here in the woods east of Seattle we have a native squirrel, the Douglas Squirrel, smaller than the Greys and limited in distribution to fir forests. Alas, the Greys displace the Dougs when they move into their territory, but as we live deep in the woods the Greys haven't reached us (yet).
That's probably a whole lot more than you wanted to know about US squirrels! : )
lirene
Trillium Woods
Latitude 46.905, Longitude -122.316 |
| FloralSaucer |
Posted - Sep 06 2005 : 6:35:06 PM
quote:
Originally posted by lirene
And a ground squirrel recently joined the planting crew. He fills up his cheeks with sunflower seeds from the bird feeders and then buries them in all the hanging baskets he can jump into. So now, in addition to petunias and geraniums, the baskets contain clumps of sunflower sprouts!
Trillium Woods
Latitude 46.905, Longitude -122.316
In Australia the hanging baskets are left alone. I thought this was very interesting. When my husband went to the States and Canada there were squirrels in the park on the lawn etc. which ones are ground squirrels? |
| Mari-dahlia |
Posted - Sep 06 2005 : 5:25:44 PM
Here in the Northeast in the mountains things are going fast. The phlox are still hanging in there right next to roses, butterfly bush,heliotrope, and especially beautiful are the dahlias and gladiolas. Something new this year for me is turtleheads. |
| FloralSaucer |
Posted - Sep 06 2005 : 4:16:19 PM
The calendulas here flower all through winter. One of our neighbours have them out on the street and I love visiting them on the way past. |
| Eileen |
Posted - Sep 06 2005 : 09:42:54 AM
If it happens I'll post a photo!
Eileen
Same garden has lots and lots of Kale and calendula right now.
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Sep 06 2005 : 09:39:46 AM
Won't that be pretty though, if you have big old sunflowers when everyone else has nothing but bare leaves..it will be a happy spot in your yard!!!
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things |
| Eileen |
Posted - Sep 06 2005 : 09:37:33 AM
My perrenial sunflowers are just beginning to bloom but my annual ones even the burgandy and brown ones still are not showing any sign of blooming. They are at least 10 feet tall but no buds even? Hmmmmm? Could be that where I planted them does not get the sun at the crucial time of day. It does get sun most of the day off and on but the maple trees in the neighboring lot tend to crreate dappled light at certain times of the day. I am beginning to think that they will not bloom until the maple have lost their leaves. Hope by then it is not too cold.
Eileen
songbird; singing joy to the earth |
| lirene |
Posted - Sep 06 2005 : 12:39:56 AM
Sunflowers are blooming in all the oddest places in my garden: right in the middle of the cabbage patch, at the end of the pea trellis, among the strawberries. That's because the seeds were planted by ... blue jays! Starting in late spring those rascals stop at the feeders and after they've eaten their fill they load up on sunflower seeds and then stash them everywhere for winter snacks!
Now the sunflower heads are full of seeds and the same (I guess) blue jays are picking them out and stashing them, too.
And a ground squirrel recently joined the planting crew. He fills up his cheeks with sunflower seeds from the bird feeders and then buries them in all the hanging baskets he can jump into. So now, in addition to petunias and geraniums, the baskets contain clumps of sunflower sprouts!
Trillium Woods
Latitude 46.905, Longitude -122.316 |
| Alee |
Posted - Sep 05 2005 : 9:47:32 PM
My Daisies that came as Mail Art just started blooming last week! I am really hoping that they will drop seeds before it gets too cold so that I will have even more next year!
Ciao
Alee |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Sep 05 2005 : 8:09:38 PM
Yep... I planted them same time I planted all the rest. They are real easy. I usually plant 3 or 4 seeds on a "hill" so that I get a couple plants together...love that!
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things |
| FloralSaucer |
Posted - Sep 05 2005 : 6:16:18 PM
I hope to get my seeds soon for the brown ones. Do you plant yours at the same time as all the other spring planting things? |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Sep 05 2005 : 5:51:54 PM
All my sunflowers are in full bloom now...the big "skyscraper" and "grey stripe" ones, and the yellow small ones that are wonderful for cut bouquets..and the short fat "music box" and sunsine smiles ones. ..I love those the best! I love to look out my window over the sewing machine and see their happy faces!! I wish I would have planted the ones with the oranges,reds and browns...autumn looking..I will have to do that next year. I get teased about all the sunflowers..I tuck them all over the garden..but it is worth it this time of year!!
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things |
| FloralSaucer |
Posted - Sep 05 2005 : 5:25:33 PM
I saw a camellia like "Prelude" yesterday, if I had the $9 I probably would have bought it. It was more pink, which put me off and had little white flecks. |
|
|
