after the first light frost kills their vines? They seem to be nice and firm and fine. Will they be bitter? I made low-fat Eggplant Parmesan sandwiches with this variety the night before the frost, and they were delicious! They are not the big fat dark purple variety, but rather, a slender...
My Heavenly Blue Morning Glories were again a disappointment this year. Although I bought 2 plants early in June and they briefly bloomed (maybe 8 blossoms total), after that short burst of flowers, the vines grew and grew, but there were no more blossoms at all. The ones I planted by the hen...
I considered covering my dahlias late last night, but I didn't think it was going to get that cold, and I couldn't find my sheets I cover them with. I had been cleaning and had bagged them up and put them in storage and forgotten where they were. I did find one fleece blanket, but my dahlias...
Last year I harvested a whole bunch of common milkweed and datura white moonflower seeds from plants in the field. I am sure they were ripe when I harvested them. I thought they might rot in our wet cold winter, so I waited to sow them around March and some later, early May-ish. Not a one...
It's still hot here in Utah, 93 degrees today. Recently I dug up some of my prized Blue Pinks which had become leggy as shade had overtaken where I planted them initially. Because they were so weak looking, I planted them in a large pot. I thought they died there, but recently I was excited...
In May or June I bought a white butterfly weed and planted it in a large pot. I think it is Asclepias tuberosa. They told me it was white flowering but it didn't bloom all summer. Recently I got to thinking it should be moved to the ground in order to overwinter properly. I had noticed...
I accidentally uprooted a morning glory plant that was growing up a basket handle in my garden. When I realized what I had done, I stuck the root inside dirt in the basket and kept it well watered. At first the leaves looked good, but then a few of them shriveled up, and the vine now appears...
I have 2 Mountain Ash trees in my yard, planted close together. One looks fine, the other looks sick. Just now I weeded around it. I recall reading that they don't do well competing with weeds, but the healthy one has just as many weeds around it.
The sickly one got hit with a late freeze a...
My Missouri Primrose I transplanted last spring sulked all last summer, but it came back this spring, very puny, just a few leaves. But today when I went to look at it, it was gone! Do you suppose it died in the sun (very hot weather here in Utah). Or do you suppose it got root rot? Very few...
I'm having a lot of trouble setting up misters for the chickens. What makes a hose blow? I had a heavy duty hose attached to one mister yesterday, and it blew out 2 times. Fixed it with a clamp end, only to have it blow out again. Ditto with the lighter-weight hoses. Attached two to a different...
An idiot mowed down my lovely Maximilian sunflowers that were doing so well and that I had been watering every day. He got almost all of them except for a few coming up on the other side of the fence? How should I proceed? Will they come back this year and bloom late? Will this kill out the...
I divided my irises last fall, and I thought they'd do well this Spring, but I have had very few blossoms, compared to past years. Only one set of white irises did well. What do you suppose went wrong? The foliage was puny, and the blossoms (what few I had) were puny (except for the whites...
I planted my first bleeding heart in the shade in late March. It did well and bloomed while I was on a trip. When I got home in mid-May it looked fine, but today I discovered it with both crispy, dried up leaves and some non-dried up yellowing leaves. I assumed it needed water, as nearby...
Has anyone ever heard of pruning roses this time of year? I got home and found all the beautiful rosebushes out front cut back by 2/3? Won't this encourage them to send up new growth at exactly the wrong time of year? Aren't you supposed to wait until they go dormant in the fall before pruning...
About a week or so ago, chickens jumped in my flower pot and badly dug all around a dahlia. One tuber was severed from the plant. For a time the two-sided green growth of this plant, which was minimal anyway, before the chicken episode, looked like it was surviving, but one side got limper and...
Do you like my picture of my black tomcat, "Africlaw," taking time to smell my peonies? This picture is in the Caption Contest. I'd love it if you'd go there and write a caption for it and vote for the captions already there. What is the name of the peony he is smelling? Is it A Karl...
Last year I got lots of free bulbs at Wal-Mart and planted them, and they are blooming this spring. I can't find the bags they came in with their names on them? Does anyone recognize this beautiful Asiatic lily which is the color of nectarines (yellow, deep red and orange) in the picture...
I overwintered some plants in pots and thought they were hostas. I moved the pots into the shade and was about to plant them in a shady spot in the garden when I realized they were cannas. Can I just leave them in the pots all summer? Anyone have any growing tips? I don't have much experience...
I was digging up some yarrow to move it, when I noticed a green tip where I had dug. It looked like a lily leaf, and I said, "Oh, no!" There were lilies in the area, but none seemed disturbed and I found no lily bulb in the area where I'd been digging? It was also near Oriental poppies I...
My Oriental Poppies are done blooming and have formed the big seed pods. When should the seeds be at their best for planting? I'd like to sow them all over, but I know timing is critical. It seems to me they don't just break open on their own-- the pods are quite tough and usually have to be...