first frost

We had a light frost last night and this morning. I actually had to scrape the windshield of my car. I had seen the frost warning, so I brought in the smallest hydrangea cuttings, the spider plant, the fern and a coleus and also cut a bunch of basil. When I was out in the yard this AM, everything looked pretty good, I'll have to check it tomorrow.

I was out of town for 3 days this weekend and forgot to remind my mom to water on Sunday. Ami wilted again and so did Mini Penny. Mini Penny looks like she mostly recovered, even though she looked like cooked spinich when I saw her last night, but Ami did suffer some damage to her leaves. Overall, I'm sure she is okay, but not all her leaves have come fully back. I know she is supposed to get some fall color, so we shall see if that is affected at all. Only the beautyberries really seem to be thinking about dropping their leaves, besides the catalpa trees, which are already making a mess. I could still stand to have the grass mowed again too, so I may get our co-worker back out soon.

I really need to change out the porch plants and get rid of some of my other annuals that will be toast soon.

The return of the cooler weather also means that we have our heat back on. I had hoped that we would be able to get the house insulated in early November, but that has now been pushed back at least a month. I've got to get my mom trained to turn the heat down at night again or we will have a $300 gas bill. Already they are saying gas will be more expensive this year. YIKES!!

end of the rain

Today was the end of our rain, it was sunny all day and there is no rain in the forecast now. It was pretty windy this evening and is down to 61 right now. I am going to be out of town for the next three days, so I won't get anything done in the yard. I did pot up one of the small Gentian Dome cuttings today. I had to throw out one that rotted instead of rooted. The third one was doing well with little leaves opening at the top and all, but it has not seemed inclined to root yet, though this would be pretty quick. The little piece of Penny Mac that got stuck in the Park Seed box does not seem to be doing well either. I changed the water on the Blushing Bride cuttings and I swear they are starting to root. They are also very thin end stems, so I hoped they would root quickly. Still no really low temps anywhere on the horizon, so that is good!

third straight day of rain

Today is the third straight day of rain we have had. As of this morning, there had not been enough rain to register in the gauge, but it has drizzled off and on all day. Due to the light rain and fighting a cold, I didn't really do anything before work today. I think the zinnias are just about done for. I cut down some of the dead looking stalks. I still have a few flowers, but I think I will be dumping them soon too.

This weekend I will be in GA for three days and next weekend I've found something I want to do in NC on Sunday, but I am "on call" at work on Saturday, so I have to stay in the area. I think next Saturday I will work on the long overdue task of dumping the summer annuals out of their pots and getting my pots ready for winter. I will keep the veggies in as long as they are alive and have developing veggies. Anything that doesn't have a veggie on it needs to get dumped as well. I have a few peppers that are ripening, so I might get a small final pepper harvest and also may get one or two more cherry tomatoes.

I need get an ice cube tray, cut back my basil and make some more pesto, this time storing it in smaller bits so it will be easier to defrost just what can be used in a reasonable amount of time.

The really bad news from the yard today is that my one yew REALLY looks like it is dying down. For a while it was just brown in the middle of each limb, now most of the limbs are brown the entire length. I am totally at a loss for what to do and out of time right now to do anything. I am actually considering going out and digging it up when I get home from work at 9:30 PM then having my mom try to take it to Underwoods tomorrow to see if they can give any insight into the problem. I will be really sad if this plant doesn't make it. Not only is it one of the most expensive plants in my yard, it is also part of a symetrical planting. The yew on the other side of the house looks just fine, even though it does not seem to have grown at all.

playing hydrangea fairy

I have been waiting and watching and waiting for Endless Summers to get marked down. I had been hoping to find some in the $3-4 range, but today at Lowes they were 50%, $6.98. So, I bought three. One for Bobbie, who has had a terrible time with her hydrangea not blooming, one for Norman my neighbor who had to leave all his hydrangeas behind at his old house and one for Jane if she wants one for $6, if not taht one I'll keep.

I delivered Bobbie's to her this evening. I had my mom make up a little sign for the one for Norman and I'll leave it on his porch tomorrow morning. The sign says:

"Hi, I'm "Endless Summer"! The Hydrangea Fairy left me. I like morning sun and afternoon shade. My favorite thing in the whole world is WATER. I LOVE water!"

Speaking of water, we got about 1/2" of rain today and it sprinkled for most of the day. We are supposed to have a chance of rain for the next three days, hope it comes as promised! I still have not gotten Debutante planted and I won't get to it this weekend with being out of town. So, I will be November before that plant gets in the ground. I did check the upcoming weather forcast for November and currently the lowest temp they are predicting is only 36, so it looks like we could go through November without any frost. WOW, and the initial reports had been calling for an early frost this year.

new watering wand

I watered the yard today with my new watering wand, which is an improvement over the old one was far as leaking is concerned, though I am still getting some leaking where the quick connect screws into the watering wand. I wonder if a washer would help.

My old hose that is attached to the hosemobile in the back yard is beyond leaking. I actually pretty much had a sprinkler set up in my yard. I need to replace that hose, but seem to always manage to forget about it when I am at Lowes or Home Depot.

All my plants are looking pretty good, Fuji was drooping again today, which is no surprise, but perked back up after I watered it. When I was looking at it after watering, I was moving the branches around and there is one small branch, which is partially covered with mulch that seemed stuck to the ground. So, I may have accidentally layed it! I'll check back on it in the spring and if that piece is rooted, I may keep that for myself to start growing another Fuji for the other corner. Part of me says get another big Fuji from Underwoods when it is time to plant that area, as then the plants will be closer to the same size, but on the other hand it would be cheaper and more fun to say that I grew the other plant myself from a cutting off the first plant.

The Generale's new leaves are getting bigger and he is looking good. We have had no incidences of drooping since he was planted. I am also getting new leaves opening on one of the variegatas. While all this growth is nice, it is also at totally the wrong time of the year. Still no temps even in the low 40s predicted, but sooner or later we are going to get a frost. Would be nice if we started to get some rain as well.

We are currently between the top and 2nd level of drought. So far no watering restrictions, but Atlanta wants water from SC as they may or may not only have a 90 day supply left. Yikes! I remember water restrictions from CA as a child, hope we don't get that here, but it is better than running out of water.

I do need to do something about the pots on the front porch. Many of the annuals in the big ceramic pots are just looking tired. I think it is time to get rid of them, plants some pansies in plastic pots and move toward my scaled back fall/winter porch plantings.

The hollies are doing well, especially since I have skipped watering them several times on watering day. The big holly is starting to fill in just a bit, even though it is still a lighter color. When I was watering the abelia today I was thinking that as I work up the border more along the side yard, I may end up moving th abelia. I'm not sure. If I do, I contemplated putting a crepe myrtle in its place, but I think that might be too big for the area. I could always put in a knock out rose or maybe just fill in the hole and plant grass over it.

No major yard work today as we are off to Asheville to go get a shirt that I saw at Dillards last night. The one they had in my size was dirty, so off to Asheville to get it and we will also go to Laughing Seed for lunch. Yum.

planted Masja

More rain never arrived today, so this afternoon I went out and planted the baby Masja hydrangea from Park Seed. I hope it will do well in its location. It is a dwarf, so the idea is that it will grow under the arching branches of the beautyberry. I also planted 5 of the remaining pansies from the landscape pack over by the Generale. Once the frosts hit, everything in that area will either go away or be sticks, and as it is such a nice big cleared area, I thought I'd add the pansies to bring a little winter color.

Border with Norman showing the newly planted Masja hydrangea:

some rain overnight and in the AM

It was raining during the night and also this morning. So far we have had about 1/4", which is better than nothing and is enough to keep me from digging in the yard. I did do a tiny bit of weeding, trying to get bermuda grass out of my flowerbeds basically. I will still need to water on Sunday, though it has started to sprinkle again.

just a little bit of rain

The weather forcast was calling for rain and we did get some today but just a tiny sprinkling, not enough to do any good. We are supposed to get more rain tomorrow, so I hope it will be more than just enough to mess up your windshield.

I didn't get around to posting yesterday, but due to allergies and other things I just haven't been feeling too up to doing much the last few days. Yesterday I did manage to pot up the Romance hydrangea from Park Seed that arrived Tuesday night. I also got the Penny Mac on Tuesday, but it will remain it its pot and probably just get sunk in the ground for the winter. Today when I cam home from work Masja was waiting for me on the porch. The Romance is TINY, so hopefully it will survive the winter. I plan to move its pot along the side of the house next to the water heater once it gets cold.

Part of the shade border, with the potted Romance (in the brown pot), potted Lemon Balm, Endless Summer, So Sweet Hosta and perilla.



Then plan for tomorrow is to plant the Masja that I got today. It is in a 4" pot, but has growth that is almost a foot tall and multiple shoots at that. It will be planted next to the small beautyberry. I also want to get some more pansies to work in the area adjacent to the annual bed. I still have pretty blue pansies, both a 6 pack and the leftovers of the landscape pack. Not sure what pot I want to put the 6 pack in, but if we ever get some rain I am planning on planting the rest of the landscape pack over near the Generale to add some winter color to that area.

Pretty Fuji Waterfall bloom, still going in October.

rescuing hydrangeas from the post office

I've been waiting for two hydrangeas I bought on ebay and was surprised they weren't delivered either Friday or Saturday. Yesterday I finally checked the tracking number and found they had *tried* to deliver them on Friday and had left a note. I never saw any slip, but this AM when I checked the mailbox again, I found it stuck up against the side.

Off to the post office... when I asked why they had not left the package on my porch as they have done before, they first said they don't do that when it is raining (it wasn't raining on Friday) and then that they had to have prior authorization to leave packages (never stopped them before). So, who knows...

I got both plants out, Parzifal looked just fine but Nightingale was definately worse for the wear, with crunch leaves and roots that felt sort of dry. I soaked Nightingale for about 2 hours then had my mom pot her up before she left for work. She is still all green, even though the existing leaves don't look so hot, I think she'll pull through. Both babies are now outside adjusting to life.

I had hoped my Park Seed order would come today, but no package and no slip, I looked all in my mailbox. Maybe tomorrow. I did have some wilty hydrangeas when I got home this evening, so it was a good thing I went out in the yard. Ami was wilty, which is the first time I've seen her look wilty and Fuji was drooping again. Fuji seems to need a lot of water lately, I think it might in part be due to all the really large leaves and the added wind. I watered all the hydrangeas just to be on the safe side.

Something has been getting into my raised bed and two of my potted hydrangeas. I don't think it is a dog, as whatever it is is also in the potted hydrangeas which are on the small side for a dog. I'm really leaning toward cat, especially as I've seen cats in my front yard and also in my neighbors' yards.

Speaking of pots, I found a nice 16" fiberglass pot at Home Depot today that I think should work well for the Romance hydrangea, if I ever get it from Park Seed.

planting pansies again

Morning glories blooming away on the fence:

Today was once again a watering day. After working hard all day yesterday helping fence at a friend of a friend's house, I was too tired to attempt any major work. I did a bit of cutting back and did dump the cayenne pepper that had stopped producing and had very yellowed leaves.

I pulled the impatiens down by the camellias and reworked the soil in that area. I had seen some pretty blueish pansies at Lowes on Friday and had not purchased them, which I later regretted. I was at the Woodruff Lowes on Saturday night and did not see any there. This morning we went to the Poinsett Lowes and they not only had the blue pansies, but also had 3 gallon Encore azaleas for $10 and had 4 really pretty Autumn Belles. So, of course I got one. I also got several more bags of mulch and a few other pansies to start planting out.

I put some whhite pansies in the pot that has a primrose in it, the primrose is looking healthy and I guess it will bloom again this spring. I also got a pot of pansies that went straight out on the porch. Some butter yellow pansies got planted in one of the pots where bulb foliage is already coming up. I also planted the left over Crown Golden and Delta Fire pansies in the area between the annual bed and the Flying Dragon. I've got to get some more of the Delta Fire pansies and plant those around the Flying Dragon. I've got some dianthus in there now but they are not blooming and I think the frost will get them.

I made some coleus cuttings today on two of the three coleus I am going to try to keep alive over the winter. I need to get to Wal-Mart and get a few self watering pots to plant them in. I pulled all the coleus out of the camellia bed as they were well past their prime. The remaining impatiens and other annuals that are in the ground will probably stay there until the frost comes. I may cut down the dahlias as they aren't looking very good and aren't blooming.

I have been trying to think about what I'm going to do with the yard. I moved the old fencing up near my gate as I thought someone was going to pick it up. But, they might not need it. If they don't, I think I will move it back behind the shack along the side fence where it can't really be seen. The whole area by the pecan tree looks so much more open without those fence rolls sitting there. I was thinking that I would plant the weigela along the side fence between the small beautyberry and the large pieris. But, after finding out they only grow to about 2-3 feet tall, I'm rethinking that plant. I may use it as a front of the border plant between whatever I plant in the center of the space and the small beautyberry. I am also thinking about planting Night Before Christmas hosta between Striptease hosta and Gentian Dome hydrangea.

In hydrangea news... The Generale seems to be recovering from his near death experience and is putting out lots of new growth (just in time to get whacked by the frost, oh well at least he is alive). Today I potted up the tiny bit of Ami that got knocked off, as it seems to have grown one root in water. The Gentian Dome pieces that were knocked off by the dogs have not yet rooted but they are putting out new leaves at the top of the stems, even though all the exisiting leaves have falled off. All the Penny Mac cuttings except the one that was the very top piece have failed. The top piece seems to have rooted and has been living full time outside in a cup for several days now. Both Fuji cuttings are living full time outside. I think I am going to try to overwinter all these cuttings in my crawlspace. I also got some VERY bad news today when I checked on the status of a package of hydrangeas I bought on ebay. Apparently the post office tried to deliver them on Friday, but just left and note not the package and we didn't get a note. So, we didn't go get them yesterday. I'm going to go early tomorrow and see if I can get them and hopefully have time to do something with them before work. Hope they are not dead...

My plan for the week is currently looking like trying to plant Autumn Belle on Wednesday before work. On Friday, I will probably work on planting daffodil bulbs and on Sunday try to plant Debutante, as I will need help getting her out of the pot. I had planned to try to plant the weigela, but as I am once again rethinking her position, she will have to wait.

planted Daikagura & variegata

Did not get a chance to blog yesterday...

I planted my Daikagura camellia in the morning, with some help from mom to get it out of the pot. I ended up digging a very wide hole, in part because I was over too close to Margaret Davis at first. With all the roots I've encountered in this area, I don't think having a wide hole will be a bad thing at all. Again I had some left over dirt, which I dumped next to the dirt already by the Autumn Amethyst azalea. I think once I plant Debutante and have more left over dirt, I'm going to get an Autumn Belle azalea and really ammend all the left over dirt, then plant in that.

In the afternoon, I decided to finally tackle seeing if I could dig a big enough hole for the variegata hydranga in the area of the shade bed where it had been growing in a pot. I was able to get a hole dug, but there are lots of roots in the area. Hopefully it won't be so much competition that the plant doesn't thrive. I also put down some potting soil and covered the one long branch with dirt, then weighted it down with a little piece of brick and covered the whole thing with a bunch of mulch. I'll check next spring and hopefully it will have rooted.

I used up the last of my second bag of mulch and decided to go out to Lowes for more mulch. I went over to Woodruff Rd to see if they still had any of the really nice Autumn Amethyst azaleas left and the were basically sold out of almost ALL of their Encore Azaleas. I will check back later in the week as I figure they will probably get a new shipment in, since there was obviously a demand! Once there, I realized that I was just too tired to even mess with lugging bags of mulch, so that was it for my yard work yesterday.

Today I got up too late to do anything besides briefly check on a few plants. It may have been as high as the low 90s today so I wanted to make sure that everything was still okay and not getting dried out. Don't want any repeats of the Generale disaster... Still battling with the small Penny Mac cuttings. One has lost all its leaves, the very top piece seems to be doing well and two others had browning leaves so I put them back in bags and they promptly dropped some leaves. ARGHHH... I've left Fuji #2 outside all day yesterday and today. Its leaves look not nearly as thick and shiney as Fuji #1 but they seem okay. I'm hoping that moving outside will persuade its roots to grow and it is still plenty warm out there. I'm waiting to see if Ami will grow and more roots and then will pot her up. The Gentian Dome bits are still hanging out in water to see if they will root. Time will tell. Then I'll just have to panic once it starts to get cold.

Beautiful coleus basket growing away:

planting pansies

I went out to Country Boys today and got a flat of pansies. I got some really pretty pink based pansies that I decided to put at the front of the perennial bed to give it some winter interest. Then I got some yellow pansies and some red and yellow pansies called fire that I used to fill in the annual bed. I also got a bag of slow release pansy fertilizer.

It took a little longer than I expected to dig out the impatiens, dig out any weeds and any roots I had missed, then dig in the fertilizer and finally plant the pansies. I think the end results looked quite nice when I was done.

This afternoon I went to work in the camellia bed. I had planned on digging out the coleus, but it was looking better after the rain, so I left it. I did dig out the dead hydrangea, but that was more difficult than I expected. Somehow some type of roots have grown over top of the newspaper I layed down under the mulch earlier this year. I currently have a layer of mulch with basically surface layer of roots growing right under it. I don't know if they are tree roots or what. I was working on clearing a bit of that out, as this is where I am going to plant Diakagura, while I was digging out the dead hydrangea and I noticed that I was getting bitten by mosquitos. I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and this evening my arms are covered in bites. I guess the Cutter stuff wore off, so I sprayed the back yard again.

I noticed that I have bulb foliage coming up through my cilantro! I knew that some of the pots had bulbs and some didn't, so I had no idea when I planted the cilantro. I don't know how long it will last. I still need to get some more pansies to plant in my containers. I saw some nice things at the Farmer's Market this afternoon so I may send my mom there on her day off.

In hydrangea news, the Generale is putting out new growth at his tips, after losing a lot of his leaves after his run in with drying out. He seems to be staying moist in his in ground location. I think I might be in the process of losing some of the Penny Mac cuttings I made, as the leaves are starting to dry up. But, the one cutting that was the actual tip of the branch seems to be doing really well, so hopefully at least that one will make it. I took the 2nd Fuji baby outside for most of the day today. I don't know if its roots have grown at all or if it is starting to really anchor itself, but it seemed to do okay. I also have a tiny top of a branch that I found next to my Ami. I stuck it in water and I swear that it already has a root. It is just a very thin little growing tip, so I am wondering if the thin tips root faster in water (makes sense) since I am pretty sure this is quite similar to what I rooted off the Endless Summer. The Gentian Dome stems are still in water and we will see what if anything they do. I am worried that I won't be able to get any of these grown to any size or even with much root development before it is time for them to go dormant. Right now I am thinking I might put them in a box and stick it in the crawl space and hope that is cool enough but not too cool for them. I am planning on trying to winter the Fuji cutting by digging into the ground and sinking the pots.

rain!

I woke up at 2 AM to the sound of rain on the roof. While it was damp this AM no rain registered in my rain gauge. It rained off and on all day and we were up to almost 1/2" by the time I got home from work. It has continued to rain this evening and is raining as I type this, so we'll see how much more we got as of tomorrow AM. They are even calling for rain tomorrow and maybe even Saturday.

planted butterfly bush, mulched

I had planned to try to plant one camellia today, but woke up feeling horrible and not up to it at all. I watered everything in the front and back, then ended up doing some work in the back yard.

I cut back the petunias again, it is getting close to time to dump them for pansies and violas. I also dumped one of the two yellow bell peppers. It did not have any baby peppers or flowers, its leaves were very pale and starting to curl. Now I have one big plastic pot ready to clean and put away for the winter. I was going to dump the cayenne pepper as it is not looking good and its leaves are pretty much yellow, but I saw a few flowers so I left it for now. I harvested a bunch of jalapeno peppers today. I didn't even realize how many there were until I noticed them while watering. I did not get around to digging out the coleus down by the camellias, but they really need to go.

Since I wasn't going to plant any of the camellias, I decided to try to get a few smaller things in the ground. I planted the Blue Hills salvia near the variegated irises in the second half of the perennial bed. I don't know if I will get that area totally dug in until next spring or what. Then I decided to plant the variegated butterfly bush behind the yew on the full sun side. Although I didn't need a big hole, it was slow going due to all the rocks and also what looks like the remains of a terra cotta step or something. Once I got that all cleared out I was able to get the butterfly bush planted. I then mulched in that whole corner of the bed and tried to clean up the coral bells a little bit.

watering issues with Fuji

This morning I went out and checked on all my plants in the back yard and everyone seemed to be doing well. I had two porch plants I wanted my mom to water. When I got home from work today, I noticed that the pennyroyal on the front porch looks awful. I did water it yesterday (I think) and I'm not sure if it is dry or what. I'm going to water it well tomorrow and move it into the back yard in more shade. I am having similar issues in the back with Mint Julip. It looks about dead right now. We have had several days of overnight lows in the low 50s, I don't know if some of these plants are trying to go dormant already? My other mints look bad too, very leggy with almost no leaves. I will have to try to do a better job of cutting them back as they grow next year. They are currently very unattractive and as they have so few leaves, not really useful either.

I checked on the Generale this evening and he is still moist and does not look any worse than yesterday. He did lose a few leaves when I touched some of the branches. I'm guessing some of the leaves are beyond help at this point, but some of the others have pretty much opened back out. I then checked everyone else. Fuji was again droopy despite being watered and mulched yesterday. When I checked, the root ball felt a bit dry even though the surrounding soil was moist. I really tried to get the water in to the root ball tonight, which is a bit hard with all sprawling branches and leaves. I will check on it tomorrow. I just don't know what to do about the watering on this plant. Maybe back to daily watering??