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Post by horsea on Jun 5, 2018 17:03:57 GMT -5
Some awfully nice gardens here! Moi? I grow just about everything from seed, so you may be sure there's no blossoms yet. I did buy one plant at the nursery a couple of days ago, something called Angelonia AKA "Summer Snapdragon". Anyone familiar with it?
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Post by bestofour on Jun 5, 2018 20:52:51 GMT -5
horsea, do you grow only annuals? I know what snapdragons are but not sure about summer snaps.
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Post by september on Jun 5, 2018 22:03:29 GMT -5
I grow my own snapdragons from seed, but have never grown the Angelonia type. It sure sounds pretty and low maintenance in the web ads. Please let us know how it does for you, and what color you have. The shorter snaps work out better for me, because I grow them along the front edge of my first tomato beds. The deer don't seem to bother them. The one year they got through my deer fence gate, they munched on everything but the snaps. Maybe that was a fluke.
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Post by horsea on Jun 5, 2018 23:10:19 GMT -5
horsea, do you grow only annuals? I know what snapdragons are but not sure about summer snaps. Hi. I grow mostly annuals, but have grown perennials, too. This year it's hollyhocks. They only last a few years, though. I also grow Sweet William, which is a biennial which keeps on like a perennial. I also have native wild plants such as wild iris and downy yellow violet, Canada anemone, obedient plant & others. They just keep coming up and making a bit of a mess in my vegetable garden, but I let them live, most of them, except for Wild Verbena (verbena hastata), which needs lots of discipline (ie, removal). I do have a peony plant, which I bought as a root. Re "summer snaps" (Angelonia). I bought this at a nursery. Seems like the perfect annual, apparently nothing bothers it. september: I grow my own snapdragons from seed, Well, then you are doing better than I. I can seed 50 of those tiny seeds indoors but usually only 2 or 3 make it to maturity in the garden. They tend to keel over while other flowers live. What am I doing wrong??
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Post by september on Jun 6, 2018 0:03:22 GMT -5
horsea , those seeds are awfully tiny and take a long time to size up, but once they do they are mostly trouble free. I do a mass seeding in a container, and then when they are big enough to handle, I transplant them into the smallest size 6 cell packs, one or two per cell to grow to garden size. They can take a little root crowding if you keep them fertilized and don't let them dry out. The ones I have now, really need to get planted out. Once they are in dirt, they are good to go. Sometimes I will get one that gets some kind of root rot, but it's pretty rare. The most trouble I have is when I let the cell trays dry out and then have to soak them to get them hydrated. Most will pop back up, but a few stay limp or wilt later due to too dry and too wet root damage. A few old pictures from a previous year - I tend to like the apple blossom pastel colors.
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Post by carolyn on Jun 6, 2018 7:11:29 GMT -5
I am a vegetable kind of grower too, but if I can sell it I will grow it so... I grow flowers because more people will spend $50 or $60 or a lot more at the drop of a hat on a few hanging baskets but bulk at 10.00 worth of peppers and tomatoes.
I grew 350 hanging baskets this year along with 400 flats of flowers and vegetables. I am down to about 25 flats of flowers and less than that of vegetables. I also grow what I call "pie pans" and a few of my customers call them pot toppers which really is a better term but it is a shallow 8" planter with a mix of annual plants for topping the pots you already have. I grew about 60 of those this year.. they fly out of here. if they had vegetables in them? I would still be watering 45 of them I am sure. My prices are reasonable which is why I can move as much as I do. I actually have had my customers tell me I need to charge more. .
I also grow a 50x50 cut flower bed for my markets. People want flowers more than food they have to do something with. it amazes me. I need to kill off the rest of my front yard and plant flowers there too. My husband was a bit dismayed when I did the first 1/2 of the front yard with flowers but all I said was I can't sell grass. If you want to sell something at your market I need the space for them and this is the only spot I have... he never said another word.
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Post by carolyn on Jun 6, 2018 7:16:10 GMT -5
Flowering quince these are a beautiful color. Do you do anything with your quinces? if you have them there are people who actually use them to make jelly. If you have a steamer juicer pan it is the easiest way ever to get the juice to make it. I wish I had somewhere to get them, but I don't want to grow them. they take up space I don't have to give up.
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Post by ahntjudy on Jun 6, 2018 7:33:48 GMT -5
No carolyn...Never made anything with the quinces... This year is the first year in a while that I noticed a quince on the plant... I have to keep it pruned back to keep it under control...More than likely that's why no fruit... Years ago, before I kept it as trimmed as I do now, I remember there being a few more fruit on the shrub...
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Post by bestofour on Jun 6, 2018 7:56:17 GMT -5
september, your snaps are gorgeous. I used to have some growing but not sure what happened to them. I had a person helping in the yard and he pulled up every flower right along with the weeds so they may have been pulled out by the root. You've made me want to replant. carolyn, that topper thing is a great idea. I mentioned to my husband Saturday after leaving our farmers market that I should get a booth because a woman was selling very small jars with 5 or 6 cut flowers in each for $12.00.
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Post by carolyn on Jun 6, 2018 8:31:56 GMT -5
bestofour... I pop whatever I like or use up the end of a flat with just a few flowers in it or... whatever I see that goes well together.... 5 or 6 plants and sell it for 5.00. it is a great way to use up any extras or hanging basket material. I have customers come just to get them. One took 9 of them. if you do the market... plant flowers you can use for dried flowers too. they hold up very well in bouquets. I go up nad down my rows and make a handheld bouquet and secure it with a large rubber band and place about three bouquets in each bucket... another 5.00 bill. easy and no change. ahntjudy... trim the quince right after it blooms for the season not in the early spring or late Fall...otherwise you are probably cutting off the fruit spurs. (then you should get quinces). if you want them anyway. Like i said... they take up valuable real estate I don't have to give.
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Post by horsea on Jun 6, 2018 10:07:08 GMT -5
september. Tks for telling me about your snapdragon growing. Your photos are beautiful & the foliage looks so healthy. I especially love the light to medium yellow variety (with rust coloured speckles) that I used to grow 15-20 years ago, then I lost the seeds. A veritable calamity because I have looked high & low for a similar colour and cannot find any such seeds anymore. If you ever spot this in a catalogue, let me know. Tks. P.S: I originally bought the seeds for this gorgeous colour of snap from Abundant Life, a small co. which then burnt down. This was years ago.
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Post by ahntjudy on Jun 8, 2018 7:51:19 GMT -5
carolyn...Unfortunately, I have to keep the quince trimmed all summer long...And they grow fast!... It's positioned too close to a property line to just let it go...And especially because of the thorns, I keep it trimmed away from the neighbor's... When it grows too long, the new growth is floppy, especially after rain... When I do cut it back, I cut back to the height of the old wood where the flowers will bloom the next year...
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Post by september on Jun 8, 2018 11:19:13 GMT -5
september . Tks for telling me about your snapdragon growing. Your photos are beautiful & the foliage looks so healthy. I especially love the light to medium yellow variety (with rust coloured speckles) that I used to grow 15-20 years ago, then I lost the seeds. A veritable calamity because I have looked high & low for a similar colour and cannot find any such seeds anymore. If you ever spot this in a catalogue, let me know. Tks. P.S: I originally bought the seeds for this gorgeous colour of snap from Abundant Life, a small co. which then burnt down. This was years ago. horsea, I will let you know if I come across one, I have a vague memory of seeing something like that years ago, too, but not lately.
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Post by horsea on Jun 8, 2018 15:27:21 GMT -5
Many thanks!
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Post by bestofour on Jul 2, 2018 21:23:53 GMT -5
aqua, isn’t this cleosia? It showed up in my field.
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Post by ahntjudy on Jul 3, 2018 18:53:56 GMT -5
That's a stunningly beautiful photo, bestofour ... It looks 3D... It does look like celosia...
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Post by bestofour on Jul 4, 2018 17:10:52 GMT -5
Thank you. The colors of nature are so pretty.
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Post by bestofour on Jul 4, 2018 17:33:33 GMT -5
Here's another beautiful butterfly on the butterfly bush.
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Post by ahntjudy on Jul 5, 2018 7:32:49 GMT -5
I'm looking forward to the all the Mexican Sunflowers to come to bloom here... They are butterfly and bee magnets...
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Post by Gianna on Jul 17, 2018 2:14:00 GMT -5
When I was a kid, mom grew Scabiosa/pincushion plant. They were all pink. I saw some in Johnny's catalog that were a range of colors from white, pink, lavender, red, 'merlot', and close to black. They germinate easily, are open pollinated, relatively drought tolerant, take abuse, and are just lovely. They do look better dead-headed, but I want to save lots of seed this year. They do set lots of seed and once you grow it, your garden will always have it....
This year I also grew from seed zinnias, snapdragons, sweet William, gomphrena, aster, stock, sweetpeas, bachelor buttons, and rudbeckia. It was pretty, and some still are. It is/was a 'flower year'.
With respect to snap dragons, I have some blooming now, but for my tastes, they are all too pale. I also started some seed of some fancier ones (two new varieties, including 'apple blossom' type - just love the look of those), but they are still tiny. I want to start some more because last winter they did very well in the front. They bloomed for months till a wind took many out.
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Post by bestofour on Jul 19, 2018 21:38:43 GMT -5
carolyn, At the farmers market Saturday a man had herbs, sprigs of rosemary, sprigs of thyme, and others in teeny, tiny, ziplock bags for $8.00 a piece. Unbelievable. I came home and looked at my rosemary plant and thought "a million dollars right here."
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 21, 2018 13:42:49 GMT -5
We have a lotus plant in a big marble planter filled with water. It bloomed this week. Check out these flowers. You can see the lotus pod in the center. After about 3 days all of the petals fall off and only the pod is left. It had 3 this year. 20180719_082825 by Brownrexx, on Flickr 20180718_112056 by Brownrexx, on Flickr 20180719_082850 by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by ahntjudy on Jul 23, 2018 7:08:02 GMT -5
Beautiful intricate flowers...Luv the bees...
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Post by horsea on Jul 23, 2018 15:34:56 GMT -5
Gorgeous.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jul 25, 2018 12:00:41 GMT -5
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 25, 2018 20:01:57 GMT -5
Are you planning to eat the seeds or roots? No, I just enjoy looking at the flowers and will probably save the pods for decorations. Actually even when the plant is not flowering the leaves are pretty. They are dinner plate sized and stand up on stalks. It's a beautiful plant.
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Post by spike on Jul 29, 2018 15:21:35 GMT -5
I so totally suck at growing flowers except sunflowers, marigolds and zinnias. So I really have to brag.
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Post by Gianna on Jul 29, 2018 17:00:33 GMT -5
Those zinnias are beautiful. I grew some from seed this year too, and I love them. They are so cheerful. But mine are not as lovely as your patch.
I did plant some stock seed, and more snapdragons a few days ago. The stock is barely up and I'm seeing the first signs of the tiny snap seedlings too. Goody!
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Post by bestofour on Jul 29, 2018 18:25:42 GMT -5
Maybe the weird weather has made the zinnias so lovely. We’ve had more butterflies than ever.
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 30, 2018 12:03:30 GMT -5
Just yesterday I started noticing lot of butterflies. I was wondering if all of the rain had something to do with it. They are certainly beautiful.
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