Well, today the outdoor temp. hit about 57-58F - the warmest day we've had in months. We were supposed to have rain, but only had a partial cloud cover & the sun was evident at times.
I got dirt under my nails for the 1rst time this year! I ran a covert rescue operation at noon. A house in the next block was razed a couple of days ago and the crew is still working on breaking down the basement walls, then will fill in the hole. Beside the foundation, there was a hydrangea that I'd considered "saving", but left it until the crew had actually mangled most of the plant. So, today while they were gone for lunch, I ran down there and dug up what was left of it. Many houses in the area have been bulldozed to make way for a new link to the I-5 Freeway that runs nearby. I've found homes for several "orphans" in my backyard, including peonies, spring-flowering bulbs, a young fruit tree & a pink-flowered dogwood. With the exploding brug population, I wasn't anxious to add yet another plant, but had admired the purple hydrangea & just couldn't see it get wiped out.
And...it was a good shopping day, too! For my potted brugs, I combine 2 different potting mixes with a fair amount of perlite, to ensure good drainage. I buy the perlite in a big, 4-cu. ft. bag, which costs $15. My supply was getting low, so I went after a new bag today. I spotted one that had been torn & taped shut...it probably lost less than half a gallon of perlite, but I decided to ask about a discount. That took a few minutes to work out, but I got the bag for $8 ! Carrie's always telling me that the Big Box stores in her area sell broken bags of garden products quite cheap...my experience here is they usually won't negotiate. But this was an independently owned store & they had no problem with it.
After that, I browsed thru Wally World's garden dept, but they're just starting to get things in. I was checking the price on their 2-cu. ft. bags of MG potting mix. Last year their normal price was $9....this year it's $9.49. I'll keep watching for a sale; I have enough for now.
And the day wasn't over! I returned to a local Dollar Store to pick up some small dome-covered-flats (hold 2 6-packs each) I saw there recently. I also bought 10 plastic flower pots with trays...about 2-gal. size; pretty nice for $1 apiece.
So those were the highlights of my day. Now I need to go water the brug seedlings. I've rounded up a lot of my smallest pots & will be transplanting more seedlings starting tomorrow.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
I had two of those this week, but now it is on hold again until MN can make up her mind about cold or warm - wet or dry !!! Looks like at least another week before I can get outside again. But it was fun while it lasted. Sounds as if your day was very productive, Pat and a good head start --- way to go !!!!
Sounds like a great shopping excursion and rescue mission! I've been busy raking out the winter accumulation of leaves and such and putting down mulch and finding homes for all my new brugs. Angel Island is almost complete, just a few finishing touches. I rearranged the area and added a few shade loving plants to grow under the brugs, asparagus fern, ground orchid (nun's cap), bird nest fern, yellow flag iris, along with an austrailian tree fern, lace cap hydrangea and regular hydrangea.
While I was buying mulch yesterday (got 7 broken bags for only $1), I spotted a beautiful basket of new guninea impatiens, for only $8!! I hung it from the cedar tree that anchors Angel Island.
I have one more area that is a frightful mess, I was going to clear it out today but the weather is chilly so far, so I may have to let it go for awhile.
Michele
Jacksonville, Fl
Zone 9a
Nature, in order to be commanded must be obeyed. Sir Francis Bacon
Patrick, you had quite a productive day, I'd say, and the same with you Michele. Wish I could find those "broken bag bargains". I asked at our Home Depot but they said they accumulate pallets of broken bags before they offer them and I seem to miss that sale. Probably isn't much of a sale if you have to buy a pallet. LOL don't have room in my backkyard for that much anyway.
Carrie, we're like you this morning, drizzly, chilly and overcast but supposed to be 80° tomorrow. MN, please make up your mind!!
It warms my heart to know that some of you, though, are finally able to spend some time playing in the dirt...our prime passion. SPRING is on the way, believe it or not.
Michele, sounds like you scored well with your shopping, too! Your Angel Island sounds very promising. I'll look forward to pics as things shape up. My brug island will undergo changes slowly over time. It's created around the ground-down stump & roots of a maple tree, so there are obstacles to how I might plant it. For now, I have a tall rose bush & a privet bush defining the mid area and a low, sprawling rhododendron along one side. I arrange many of my potted brugs around/amongst these. I have a layer of ground-up maple wood covering the island to deter slugs from treating it as a buffet island!
Ruth Ann & Carrie, I hope we all have good gardening days in the near future...I know I have LOTS of work waiting for me.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
Sounds like you made out well. I often take plants from homes that are being raized, sometimes with permission, sometimes without My friend has an antique business and recovers paneling, cabinetry, paving stones, mantles, all kinds of stuff from old homes that are being demolished. I go along with her and dig up the yard while she dismantles the interior. It's fun except when someone starts shooting at you :0 (only happened once)
Karyn
Patrick,
My Angel Island has been a "natural" area of the yard, that is to say, a mess for quite awhile. Until you mentioned Brug Island, I didn't have any idea what direction I was going for that area. So, I'm sure you'll be hit with inspiration when you least expect it, then it will come together for you.
I worked back there for about 2 or 3 hours today and I'm very happy with the results, put up a glass wind chime I bought in Carmel, years ago and place several accesories and a bench. I'm going to walk down to the stream in the park later and dig up some ferns that grow along the banks, I have some underr my White Bird of Paradise on the south side of the house, so I'm comfortable they'll do well in Angel Island.
Michele
Jacksonville, Fl
Zone 9a
Nature, in order to be commanded must be obeyed. Sir Francis Bacon
Carrie, I guess you WON'T be outdoors today...look at your temp. compared to mine! I should be doing yardwork, but have been transplanting brug babies (indoors) instead. Will be headed for work soon, but would much rather stay at home and "play" in the yard. This warm spell shouldn't be long-lived. We usually get a false Spring for a week or two in Feb...then Winter comes back. I did find a potful of narcissus up & showing buds...yippee.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
Shopping for dirt and pots sounds like fun. Still pretty cold here to be thinking about it, so I'll just listen to you all have fun and pay attention to where you get good deals and on what. It's 19 degrees right now and we are having a one day warm up to near 30 tomorrow, but with snow. 50 degrees sounds wonderful to me. That would be shorts and tee shirt weather for me.
Nice to see some of you are able to start doing a little garden work.
In May when I start cleaning up the gardens from the winter and start planning what is going where you all will be done with the hard work and probably have your gardens all planted.
For us in the colder zones our work will just be beginning.
After this extremely cold winter I think I really need to move south.
I just LOVE a good deal, Patrick. Congratulations!
I did an experiment last year (for a book I was going to write - I'm an author), and I asked all my gardening friends what they did with the empty pots from the plants they buy. It turns out that most of them throw them away -so I asked if they could save them for me. They did - over 200 pots. Also, I have a friend at the local Agway who gave me a dozen flats of 4" pots - with the after-season (perennial and annual)herb plants still in them! It was GREAT! I gave most of the plants away and kept the pots for my brug cuttings and seedlings.
Shirley - you might want to plant your tomato seeds a little earlier this year. With the WoWs and a clear plastic jar over them, they can go in the ground in April. Trust me.
Terry, it's cold here too. And you're right - we'll just be THINKING about getting our beds and plants in order, when everyone else is already sitting back admiring their work. UGH! Think Spring!
Okay, Kathy, I'll give it a try. It just seems so early, especially with the prediction of up to 9 inches of snow in the next couple of days. I'm sure hoping they are WAY off.
I have been out in the garden as well. I just purchased many bulbs, that I have been sticking in the ground. I also have quite a few Abutilons that, if you want them, I will gladly give starts. Some are quite nice. Take it easy.
What kind of luck do you have rooting the abutilon cuttings? I think I've tried in the past & failed. I'd really like to have some for my hummers. Any chance you'll be rooting some?
Last year I got a small starter plant of A. vesuvius, but it wasn't in very good shape and didn't improve much the rest of the year. I really liked the dark red coloring.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
This message has been edited by Celtguy on Feb 12, 2007 11:49 AM
That is a beautiful one, Ruth Ann - may have to look for one of those.
Patrick, the two cuttings you brought me rooted, and one bloomed the tinest little blooms even though it is only six to seven inches high.
That sounds l like my kinda day Patrick. Our weather is showery for the next day or two then I am anticipating a couple fun day's like that. I still have a few brug. seedlings to repot into larger pots, and I won some real special brug. seeds on Ebay that I am looking forward to getting planted. But it is the rest of my yard that truly needs some TLC after our freeze a couple weeks ago. I made a run to the nursery one day last week, but it looked like their plants had been hit as hard as my garden was by the freeze and they hadn't brought many new plants in yet, so I guess I will just have to be patient. My husband gave me a gift certificate to my favorite nursery for Christmas and it is burning a hole in my purse.
Carrie, I'm glad your little cuttings "took". You have such good luck with cuttings. I think Vesuvius is a smaller-flowered cultivar.
Patricia, have fun when the weather improves and one of these days you'll really enjoy that gift certificate. I'm sorta hoarding my Seed Sprout gift certificate...until I finally redeem it, I can "own" a different brug everyday! LOL. Eventually, I'll have a sense of what I most want & go ahead and place my order.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
And you are so good with seeds, Patrick. I think I worry them to death. I look each day to see if any of my seed have sprouted, and today, I decided enough of this - so I put bottom heat on them. We are due to have more freezing weather this week, so whatever seed I put outside will be late.
I will try and root some cutting if I have time later in the year. I have never tried Abutilon cuttings before. I have these that came through the winter with flying colors. Abutilon 'Victor Reiter', Abutilon 'Red Gumdrop', Abutilon striatum 'Pride of Mobile', and Abutilon 'Huntington Red'.
I have a couple more, but I bought them without a label. I planted every one of these in early November, right before the freeze we had. They have surpassed my expectations so far, and with no protection whatsoever. Take care.
I grew some abutilon from seed last year but have no idea what the variety is. I ended up with a few different colors from the same seed pack, peach, pink, yellow and orange. I'd love a red one. I'm wintering them over inside. They dropped their leaves but have continued to bloom. I hope they get some more foliage in the spring. This is one that's blooming now. It's a pretty flower but the plant looks pathetic with no leaves.
Karyn
Brian, Abutilon roots really easily. My mom just sticks them in a pot of dirt during the Spring-Summer season and sits them in a shady place. I usually do the same, but put a plastic bag over mine for additional humidty.
Patrick, I am so envious. I absolutely love Seedsprout nursery, and buy alot of my brugs. from there. I would love a big gift certificate from them. I got two gift certificates from my husband, one for the nursery and one for Daylily nursery here in N. Calif. Unfortunately when I looked at their website, I didn't see hardly any daylily's I wanted from there, and this is a big certificate. You can best believe I will have Seedsprouts and Brugmansia and more or my Christmas want list next Christmas.
Had a great day yesterday making a new bed in tne front yard. I just love the weather in Feb. I need to move the rest of my plants from my in-laws and plant the rest of the tulips Hubby got me last fall. I am thinking about taking the sangs out and putting on the south wall to maybe get them to bloom.
Brian...I went to the NW Flower & Garden Show yesterday...saw several nice abutilons offered by Earl Minter Greenhouses in Renton. I may have to take a look-see there sometime next month...it's been a few years since I went there last.
Allison...beware putting your sangs in a sunny/hot spot - they won't like it. Mine would wilt if exposed to full sun after about 10AM. They liked early morning sun, then filtered sun the rest of the day. Beneath the overhang of fir branches seemed to suit them well.
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
I drove about 32 miles today, to visit my sister. Along the way, I shopped!
I bought a 50# bag of alfalfa pellets at a farm supply store & found out I can order kelp meal and corn gluten meal from them. They said the corn gluten meal is meant for gardening, but I need to read old posts and see if that's what has been recommended....I went looking for whole ground corn meal.
My next stop was at a greenhouse supply warehouse, where I bought large nursery pots...40 of one size and 19 of another. They weren't marked by gallon size, so I'm not certain, but I think the larger size is around 12-15 gal. and the smaller size might be 7-gal. I also bought a mixture of smaller pots in their "bargain corner" for $1.50 per lb.....24 lbs. worth! In my existing stash, I probably have over 100 1-gal. pots & quite a few 3- and 5-gal. pots...I'm thinking I'm pretty well fixed for pots!
Let the brug season begin!
Patrick
Brug Moderator
USDA Zone 8b
Heat Zone 3
Sunset Zone 5
SeaTac, WA...one cool place
My friend has an antique business and recovers paneling, cabinetry, paving stones, mantles, all kinds of stuff from old homes that are being demolished. I go along with her and dig up the yard while she dismantles the interior. It's fun except when someone starts shooting at you :0 (only happened once)
