Thanks to the indefatigable commentor / gardener / photog Jeffery, near Philadelphia:
Top pic: 5.8.2021. This bloomed the other day. First for the year. It’s in a pot.
5.8.2021
I have been trying to get columbines to grow from seed in my garden. This one seeded itself in my next door neighbor’s yard behind their privacy fence. They have no idea it is there. I don’t have this color. I will collect the seeds to see what color I get planting them. I didn’t plant pink.
5.18.2021
These will probably be gone by the weekend with the heat arriving today. They sit in a south facing bed. They are going to fry.
5.21.2021
Opened this morning. Will be gone by tomorrow.
5.22.2021
At their height today. I expect they will fall apart in the next day or two.
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What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Lapassionara
Lovely photos. Thanks.
I am fighting some kind of wilt that has attacked my Annabelle hydrangeas. Every few days, I find a stalk on the ground. Any suggestions?
OzarkHillbilly
Mud, mud, and more mud. And weeds.
@Lapassionara:Burn it all down?
Van Buren
My garden is fenced in like the DMZ and some little bastid is still getting in and eating seedlings. I think they know my dogs are too old to chase anymore.
Baud
Colorful.
p.a.
My neighbor is a very serious veggie gardener. He has a rabbit nest in his yard. The nursing mommy is doing a number on his just-planted garden??. He has 2 dogs, an elderly mutt who doesn’t give a frak and an adult female scottie that- so far- just stares at the property squatters. He keeps her on a leash now in the yard, to protect the little shits. The neighborhood woodchucks haven’t made an appearance yet. They used to nest under another neighbor’s shed, but they have a dog now so maybe they’ve moved on. Wonderful female great dane. At the big goober stage. Hate those fucking woodchucks.
SiubhanDuinne
Happy flowers.
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: hmmm.
eclare
Very pretty.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning!
@jeffrey up top: I’m jealous of your poppies, I never had success with those. Nice pics!
satby
Not much is going on in my garden. Weather was way too hot for May and it’s registering in the US Drought Monitor site as “abnormally dry” as of last week, without a drop of rain since then. I think my lawn guys put me on an every two weeks schedule, but the grass is too high when it goes that long ?
Baud
@rikyrah:
@satby:
Good morning.
MagdaInBlack
Oh, I do love the poppies ! ❤️
debbie
Beautiful! Flowers never last long enough, even without this ridiculous heat.
satby
@Lapassionara: I’ve used a number of fungicide-disease control on my plants like daconil*, any of them work pretty much the same. You could try that.
* edited to remove the link.I seem to have lost the ability to add links, they all truncate and if I edit them it never works. Very annoying.
WereBear
Love the pics! I have three hanging baskets this year. Protected a tree branch and hung one there :)
Barbara
@Lapassionara: Hydrangeas have shallow roots and I normally use my wilting hydrangeas as a sign that everything around them needs to be watered. If you have wilt that isn’t water related, but also doesn’t seem to be accompanied by browning or some other kind of discoloration, I am not sure what that would be.
Phylllis
Our firecracker plants are blooming, which means hummingbirds! We saw several yesterday while we were on the back patio eating supper.
TomatoQueen
Property management here at Lost Merlin Acres seems to be by committee, with the Municipal Tough as Nails Gardener favoring better colors of Knockout Roses, with apricot on one end of the planting bed and a medium-pale pink on the other, and the Mulch Whatever Gardener favoring mulch only under balconies where men go out to smoke, so they can toss their dead butts over to the ground under the white hydrangeas, which bloomed last week for ten minutes then went pffft. The Ignorant Lawn Mower Not-Even-a-Gardener seems to want the grass to grow in little mounds of gone-to-seed. There are sweetgums and the little burrs actually the size of a walnut were cleaned up, thanks to the Been Through This Every Spring Gardener, no power/authority to take the goddamned things down.
Whatever is passing for air out there got an early start, at 6:30 was already at 1000 jillion percent humidity, dirty, and full of flies. I hope Merlin is under a bush with cool earth against him.
MomSense
The flowers are gorgeous! Lilacs are finally blooming and the lilies have buds, but that’s about it.
WereBear
@TomatoQueen: I’m so sorry to hear the latest on Merlin.
eclare
@WereBear: What happened?
MagdaInBlack
My balcony garden is a wee bit sparse so far, I’ve not been anywhere to get annuals to put in pots. There’s Ruby, the giant geranium I’ve nursed thru 10 winters. She’ll have a dozen giant blooms come July. There’s a giant aloe that was my mothers, and a rosemary I’m turning into a shrub. I need some pink petunias, I think the ones I want are called “Apple Blossom”.
And Pearl the squirrel having her morning buffet of peanuts and banana chips. She’s joined today by both a male and female cardinal. First time for the female, dad has been nosing around the peanuts for about a week.
artem1s
my poppies are also blooming. I do enjoy them however briefly they make an appearance.
Jeffery
@satby:
Plant the seeds in the September. What I do now is get a wide pot and sow the seeds on the top. Cover lightly. Water daily until they germinate. When the plant are a few inches tall and wide dump the pot out into my hand and carefully start to pull the seedlings apart.
They have a tap root that will be finer than a human hair. If you break it that’s the end of the plant. Plant them where you want them. Water them in and pretty much ignore them. They have to winter over in the ground to do well.
If I pulled one of the plants out of the ground now the tap root would be the size of a medium carrot.
I can plant and move them around until the ground freezes.
TomatoQueen
@eclare: Merlin got out or went missing or as an especially cruel Fbook former friend posted ran away on Sat May 15th. Of the many suggestions (or commands) for lost cat, there are some I can do & so have done them & others I can’t do & so haven’t done them. There was one night when either he or some other animal ate all the food in the dish and had some water, too, but otherwise we’re setting out Ants Picnic. There were two early possible sightings, one of which was an abandonment at a fire station in Old Town, and the other an almost immediate reunion, both I’m glad about as the animals are safe, but that false hope stuff can fire itself into the sun. My chief enemy is time, my complaints are being a recovering surgery patient so nearly immobile, and the monetization of loss: lots of lost-your-pet-we’ll-take-your-money web sites and little to judge among them–and they know how distraught and frustrated the pet guardian is. These people get their very own level of hell.
Gin & Tonic
This is weird. Last year I planted some dahlias in a south-facing bed that’s against the foundation of the house. Fall came, things got in the way, I forgot to remove the roots/tubers/bulbs/whatever. Winter came, the ground froze. Now that it’s warm, I see clear dahlia shoots coming up. I thought they were tender and couldn’t survive a New England winter. What’s up?
eclare
@TomatoQueen: Oh I’m so sorry. I’m hoping for a happy reunion. It’s so hard.
Jeffery
@Lapassionara: That sudden wilt happens in my garden to all kinds of plants. A perfectly health plant in the morning is desiccated in the evening. From what I have read it is leaf hoppers injecting a virus when they feed.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: against the house is probably a tiny microclimate, the mass of the house keeping the soil there from freezing enough to spare the tubers is my guess.
WaterGirl
I especially love your magenta peonies. Double peonies aren’t open here yet. Maybe in a week or two.
I love that columbine wants to grow wherever it feels like it. I have planted a couple of columbine over time when I see a color I really want, like pale, pale yellow. But they always move and the colors always change, so now I just enjoy when they pop up, wherever they are.
I planted 10 poppies this year, so I have high hopes for next year. Or do poppies not bloom until year two? I seem to recall someone saying that at some point.
Tazj
My azaleas are in bloom, and they’re good this year. Too many years they end up damaged by the snow and spend the spring recovering. Lilac season came and went quickly in my yard because they began blooming with the early April warm weather that didn’t last for long. Some animals ate the outsides of most of the canes?or branches of my favorite rose bush so I don’t know if that will come back.
I’m trying container vegetable gardening this year. The soil in my yard is full of clay and rocks, and my yard is also full of critters. My husband asked me this morning if he’s ever going to see a vegetable out of my garden. I said I have no idea, but I’m still trying it.
WaterGirl
@satby: Satby, would you mind posting that link again? Even if it won’t work, at least I could see what it’s doing. thanks
Gin & Tonic
OT, sorry, and waiting for confirmation, but it appears that Belarus has diverted a RyanAir commercial flight from Athens to Vilnius and forced it to land so they can arrest one of the passengers, a Belarusian journalist named Roman Protasevich. The route passes over Belarusian airspace, and commercial flights are required to follow the directives of ATC. In this case the Lukashenko dictatorship seems to have ordered ATC to do this.
OzarkHillbilly
While taking a break from weeding yestereve, I welcomed back our Summer Tanagers. Both the male and female were flitting about among the higher branches of the oaks in the front yard. Once they pick a nesting site out in the woods, I shan’t see her for at least a month, but he will up and about early every AM declaring their territory.
ETA: and the eastern phoebes in the car port have triplets.
sab
I never planted tulips, but I have a bunch of bright red ones exactly like the ones our across the street neighbor planted a few years back. Hers never came up. It pays to be friends with the neighborhood squirrels.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Yikes! I hope that doesn’t become a thing.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: I saw a pileated woodpecker pounding away on a tree on the devil’s strip yesterday! Right there on the main street in our housing development, at noon. I normally only see them one day in March and one day in October. You guys say they don’t migrate, they just hide. This was my first proof that they might be around all year.
Geminid
Thanks for the pretty poppy pics. I like watching poppies bloom in the pre-dawn light. Another good poppy feature is that their sea-green seedlings are easy to pick out among green weeds.
I have a packet of California poppies to plant. They are relatively drought resistant, and that may be the ticket this summer if it continues to be as dry as it has started here. I live on a ridge, and the soil dries out fast.
Cheryl Rofer
Since pileated woodpeckers have been mentioned, here’s a great video:
OzarkHillbilly
I hear them far more than I see them during the summer, during the winter tho I can see them almost every time I hear them. Not sure why the disparity between the seasons. ;-)
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
Wow! Love those baby bird noises when the mom’s not there, kind of like less annoying cicadas.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cheryl Rofer: One short of a barber’s quartet.
WaterGirl
@Jeffery: Is there a reason not to plant the poppy seeds in the ground where you want them – in September?
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I hope commercial air traffic decides they can’t transit Belarusian airspace nor service MSQ.
Cheryl Rofer
I’ve put up a current events thread so that this one can stick to gardens and woodpeckers.
Kay
Lovely poppies, Jeffery.
I grew breadseed poppies the last couple of years. I put them in the vegetable garden.
They’re an annual, unlike the poppies at the top of the page. They’re also an opium poppy (there are a lot of different opium poppies). There was a Connecticut state case about ten years where they tried to get into which garden poppies were opium poppies to try to regulate some of them and it became this big (botanical) mess so they basically gave up so they’re all legal for home growing.
Anyway breadseed poppies produce the seeds used on baked goods but they’re also lovely flowers – classic poppy flower shape and size but soft colors- purples and pinks and pinky-whites- and they’re easy to grow. They need cold stratification to germinate which sounds complicated but isn’t- I spread the seed in March and they get a couple of freezes and then come up. I got my first seeds from the Cleveland Botanical Garden store where I had seen them growing but they’re easily available mail order. I save the seed and they produce a lot of seed. You’ll only ever need to buy your first packet :)
I have also grown California poppies, which are not opium poppies, but are great as a kind of ground cover in hot, dry sunny areas with poor soil.
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: Thanks.
Kay
This is from 1992 when the great opium poppy controversy was still raging in the gardening world:
But it’s over so you’re fine. Grow whichever one you want.
Kristine
@Cheryl Rofer: I do like pileateds. That distinctive cry.
Whenever I watch a feeding video, I always look for the one that doesn’t get much or gets skipped altogether. There always seem to be one. Hope the one that got missed in this vid gets fed the second time around.
NeenerNeener
What’s going on in my garden? Weeds. Lots and lots of weeds. And the invasive kind of honeysuckle, too.
I put a trail cam on my deck to try to get pictures of the hummers that come to my feeder. Haven’t gotten a good picture of a bird yet but did get some nice candid snaps of a raccoon trying to drink the sugar water in the feeder after dark.
MagdaInBlack
@Kristine: I was watching that too. There’ always the pushy one and always the one who gets left out.
Kristine
Gorgeous flowers, Jeffery.
We’re officially in Severe Drought here in far NE Illinois, 7+ inches down for the year so far. The lake level is down a foot and a half, though that means it’s still a foot and a half higher than the average. I watered the flower beds and shade garden yesterday, which is a first for May. The previous three Mays were the wettest on record, so this drought is a bit of a shakeup. We did have a sprinkle this morning, but not enough to make a dent.
That said, everything is still growing and in that lovely spring green stage. Astilbes look amazing, bushel-basket mounds of glossy leaves and the first hints of plumes. Monarda are forming flowers. Hardy hibiscus are leafing out…except for a portion of one shrub, which has been giving me a lesson is Rose of Sharon dieback for the last few years. Small branches are shooting up from the ground, though, which means the roots are fine. So I will just keep cutting back the dead branches and hope it settles down.
The planter-based chipmunk, or a relative, has returned. It scavenges nuts and seeds that fall out of the nearby bird feeder and stashes them in the planter where I stick begonias every year. A couple of years ago, the squirrels found the stash and dug up everything, including that year’s begonias. So the next year, I cut a piece of chicken wire to suit and buried it under an inch or so of topsoil, then cut out pieces so I could plant the begonias. That stopped the destruction–the chipmunk sticks to the edge and the squirrels can’t dig anywhere because they hit wire.
I also have a baby rabbit that I’m keeping an eye on. So far, I found it eating white clover, some grass, and the wild violet flowers, but I think it snacked on one of the smaller monarda at some point, so out came the repellant. I don’t mind the little sucker, though I fear that with the local feral cat, coyotes, and foxes, it has the life expectancy of a glass hammer.
Geminid
@Cheryl Rofer: Thanks for the woodpecker video. I passed them on to my birdloving friends. One lives in Atlanta, and he and his wife do daycare for some of their grandkids. Those kids really like animal videos and they will love this one.
satby
@WaterGirl: can’t. it just goes to a main site (i.e.like amazon.com). and honestly, not worth chasing down unless scores of people have the same problem. There’s bigger fish to fry.
TomatoQueen
@eclare: Thank you
japa21
@Kristine:
I was going to make a similar comment about the rain situation here in NE Illinois. It has also been a much cooler than normal spring (until the last week).
We have mostly done container gardening and just got those all planted. However, the perennials we do have, along with flowering bushes, are doing remarkably well this year. Both our lilacs have been amazing, with our dwarf lilac the best we have seen for several years. Our roses are flourishing, the false indigo is remarkable. I am somewhat surprised considering the weather conditions.
Geminid
@japa21: Above average winter and spring rains have carried perennials and shrubs so far in central Virginia. Farmers got a good hay crop too. It’s all baled now, which I think may be a week or so early. But there has been one good rain in five weeks now, and soil that was moist from the surface down ten days ago is now dry the first six inches. New plantings need extra water because the dry ground sucks it away. Mulch helps some.
I’m advising some people who intend to have hollies, etc, planted to wait until September. These will grow until the soil gets cold, which around here is not until December, and need less watering. Even plants that lose their leaves at the frost keep growing below ground. Grass seed here is also best put down in September.
Another Scott
@satby: If you’re bored and have free time (I know, right?), there are ways to install Google’s Play Store and get access to all the Google apps like the Chrome browser on your Amazon tablet.
E.g. HowTo Geek.
Just a thought.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kristine
@japa21:
I hear you. Everything is growing gangbusters, and the lawn still needs once a week mowing. We did have a lot of snow, so that helped. But I walk through the state park and see dry as a bone wetlands and the low levels of the inlets and wonder what’s coming next.
satby
@Another Scott: Thanks! I may check it out, normally if I want Chrome I just switch to my Android tablet. I stick to my Fire because if I get tired of online hijinks I just swipe over to whatever book I’m reading. Appreciate you!