************************************************************* WHAT’S UP? BY Most of my plants are up and growing by now including three plants I found several years ago called “Little Red Birds” (Scraphularia macrantha). They now have grown into slender, 3 foot tall plants with dainty red flowers along those high stems. One of those plants is in bloom now and will be for a number of weeks. I have also found three new seedlings so I have decided it is what we call “a short lived perennial”. They are listed for zone 6 but with a little winter mulch I have been able to keep a number of zone 6 plants through the winter (global warming???).
In the backyard there is Toto, a small 12 to 15 inch Rudbeckia. The Peppers, with the very dark shiny purple leaves and the small shiny peppers can usually be found at the stores this late. They grow to about 2 feet tall. They like hot weather and grow and bloom very fast so by fall when flowers are a little scarce. That deep color, especially if it’s near a chartreuse plant, shows off at their best. My rabbits are very fond of any form of Hollyhock until the leaves get fairly large and tougher, so some years I don’t end up with many plants. My Lilies are in their private little chicken wire fences but too many fences don’t look so hot so to protect the Hollyhocks I use Blood Meal which becomes fertilizer after a rain. This won’t work for long times so I alternate with Liquid Fence about every 2 weeks. When we were kids we made dolls and doll clothes from the big tall Hollyhock blooms. I like to have the smaller pink Mallows and the middle size 3 foot white bloom Zebrina with purple strips to go with the Hollyhocks. Again if I can get all these old and tough enough, they are no longer interesting to rabbits.
Calla Lilies are not hardy so I try to grow them in pots that go
into the garage during the winter. Come
spring I carefully remove the top few inches of soil when I bring them out
the latter part of
The “Desert Candle” also called “Fox Tail Lily” is at its
best in A few weeks ago I told you about the Old Farmers Almanac saying we could raise potatoes in a plastic bag anywhere in the sun so my two bags of leaves are up and growing well. I will let you know about the success of the crop later. Copyright 2009 ************************************************************* BY
The
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I was attracted to the article on “Two-spotted Spider Mites”
because they recommend (as I do) not
to use Carbaryl (Sevin) on spider mites. Sevin is very toxic to bees and
if not used very carefully can kill pollinators and also increase the mite
population by killing their predators such as Lady Beetles. This article
has links to an Go to “http://extensionhorticulture.unl.edu” and sign up today to start getting this valuable resource on a regular basis on your computer. Copyright 2009 |