The garden is nothing too impressive at this time so I will delve in to the other things that grow.
It is lightly snowing in this pic, but my camera doesn't agree. So blah.
I should know what to do with all these plants to save them, but I have never put much thought in to my containers. If they live--Yay! If not, it wasn't meant to be. People often believe I have a green thumb since I have so many containers(even when renting) but I just get rid of the dead ones, and let my impulsiveness to buy new ones free!
Given all my abuse and neglect over the years, I am astounded that so many have done so well.
I brought in the 'fuchsia gartenmeister bonstedt' below a few weeks back
hoping to save it from certain death like last years.. and it started losing blooms but I figured it was part of the change from outdoors to indoors. But it kept on losing blooms so we were going to move it downstairs to keep a better eye on it.
And then I noticed this:
Icky little bugs feasting on it.
So I immediately took it back outdoors.
I have never had any luck spraying down plants with soapy water. Is there another way to save this?
Or will I be forced to buy a new one every year?
I have never cared much about losing a plant(except the gardenia--that was embarrassing!) until I fell in love with this plant in 2009
Onward!
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| Old cinder block patio, compare to current view at top! |
Chester is looking mighty cold on the left. The below is back in April. He is taller than I am now since he got a much larger pot that day. He started in a Starbucks cup back in 2005ish. We are hoping to get him planted in 2011. I have collected 12 horse chestnuts from the surrounding neighborhoods this year and am hoping to sprout him a mate so he can bloom. If I haven't stunted his growth he could grow to be 80 ft tall so he will not be planted in our yard but the community island in our culdesac. I am oddly attached to this silly tree because I have had him since he was just a little nut. (I'm a little nutty myself!)Here are my poor abused Clematis. I should probably get them in the ground next year. They have been travelling from rental to rental with me for 5 years. One flowers each year, and the other finally flowered its first time this year. Being I do not know what kind they are, I can hardly prune them properly. I have previously left them til early spring and the chopped off all the dead stuff. This year, I'm going to cut them completely to 12 inches, and see what happens! Maybe I'll get to buy NEW ones that I know the breed of.
Mint on the right... will it die? Who knows! Will it spread since it went to flower? Who knows! If it doesn't come back, Ill get a new one.
Do slugs freeze? I sure hope so. Some one has been eating my half assed try at early spring greens. We planned on levelling the garden in the fall/spring with several yards of soil, but I was forced in to starting these guys by my gardener. Maybe they can go in pots when we bring in the dirt and I can stick them back in.
Here we have some weeds in pots. The back planter is some random mint that I found hiding in the garden. It isn't from my plant though, I have chocolate mint, and this is peppermint. The tall grassy thing is really a weed. It was the first to spout in the garden, and I thought it could be something... until they started popping up every where in the garden. I haven't gotten around to removing it. Weed, mint, same thing.
The front pot is some hens and chicks. I received them over growing a much smaller pot, so I just threw them in here so they can spread before I decide where to put them.(Oh--I just got an idea! Ill put them by Kermit next to the bonsai tree and heart shaped rocks I have collected! )
This is the sedum ground cover that will not die. 3 years ago, I had a covered patio in a rental and this guy was over flowing in the giant teacup in a splendid way. Winter came and I for some reason decided it no longer needed to be watered. It was outside after all. Early spring and it was almost dead. About a thumb nail of it was still green when I started cleaning up the plants for spring. I got rid of all the dead stuff, and stuck the last living bit back in soil. It grew and grew and then I would rip it in half and stick both ends back in soil, and now I have this! The pot on the bottom right is the escapees that fell out and were trying to root in the ground. The fern on the left is a volunteer weed that I thought looked nice. This too can go to the kermit/bonsai/heart shaped rock garden
This is Cilantro that I know I obviously need to get in a smaller pot and bring in side. But it is cold... and snowing. I have emptied a pot to bring in, but I still need to clean it for indoors.
This WAS a house plant. A spider plant from my fathers house. Until it got bugs and I put it outdoors. It is still alive and kicking though barely. Maybe I'll bring it back inside soon.
These guys don't mind being inside one bit! These are the last of the zinnia blooms. I took the whole bunch and shoved them in a vase with water last Sunday. They are rewarding me daily with new flowers!
Another houseplant I tried to kill years ago. This is a prayer plant I bought for $2 at a garage sale in 2004. It was doing so fantastic back in 2006. So fantastic that I decided to prune off all the older leaves that no longer stood up at night and move it to a different location in the apartment. It did not like that one bit. Not to mention when you touch a leaf it will turn brown. It promptly started dying... so I put it outside.
Bad plant bad!
Spring came and I started cleaning up...and I had 7 new shoots under all the dead stuff!!
I potted it in 3 new pots and gave one to my father. I noticed mine was pathetic and his was amazing and huge and blooming a year or two later.. his was in the bay window! Light? It wants light? I have that! So here we are 6 months later and they are flowering like crazy! So if you have a plant doing well--LEAVE IT BE!
That is all for this edition of a long boring post where April talks about things in pots!
I have more things in planters, so watch out!
Feel free to tell how to easily save anything growing outdoors especially the Fuchsia!
It is still snowing as I write this
It is still snowing as I write this
Well, I don't know what kind of indoor conditions the Fuchsia likes, but I think the bugs are whiteflies. If they rise up like a mist when you disturb them, and then settle back down, they probably are. But some Safer Insecticidal Soap, which you can probably get at Home Depot or Lowe's, and give it a really good spray all over, really drench it. You can bring it in right away, the insecticide is organic and shouldn't do you any harm.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you need to worry too much about the mint or the lemon balm, they will probably both survive a nuclear holocaust.
The sedum and the hens and chicks both like really good drainage and they like lots of sun. So they should be in pots with lots of drainage holes, and might survive the winter in a spot outside where they won't get flooded by too much rain.
Isn't it great how you can so easily root sedums and make more of them? Your prayer plants are gorgeous, I have had them in the past but never had one flower for me.
What do you think of the snow? Like it, hate it, take it or leave it?
Oh, here's a link to the insecticidal soap.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.planetnatural.com/site/insecticidal-soap.html
Sedum would be a great plant to encourage those with black thumbs! So easy to grow.
ReplyDeleteI adore the snow! A great change of scenery. I like it best fresh, not the 4 day old mushy stuff.. This will be my first year as a "gardener" with snow so I will notice all sorts of new things.
I'll definetly look up the soap!
Your containers look like the ones I have outside. All the leaves on my mint fell off, and it went to seed. So I am hoping that it comes back too. It probably will.
ReplyDeleteI often look at my containers and think "I should bring that inside and see if it will survive the winter" and then come spring I see the dead plant and wonder why I never brought it in. Usually it's because of bugs of lack of space that they get left out and like you said a good excuse to buy a new one! I did bring the lemon tree in but that's about it.
ReplyDelete