repotting, replanting

I believe that I have figured out what is wrong with my camellias and unfortunately, I am entirely to blame. I decided today to dig out the Tom that is doing so poorly, thinking I would pot it up for a while and see if he recovered. When I dug him up, I noticed that the soil around his roots was not at all boggy and his roots looked very good. I also remembered that I had seen some exposed roots around some of my camellias and had added some dirt around some of them, after Bobbie had told me I should replant my one foundation holly that has exposed roots. I dug down around the top of this Tom, and sure enough, I had actually buried part of the stem as well as the exposed roots. I replanted him in the same hole, adding some new dirt to replace some of what I kicked out, the watered well trying to wash more dirt away from the stem. The worst it can do is kill him and he was headed that way fast anyway. There is a small chance it might save him and I've learned a valuable lesson... I also discovered that the branch of Margaret that was dying (I cut it off) was currently attached to the main stem beneath the soil line. I also tried to wash some dirt back from Margaret. I pushed back the mulch and a little dirt from around all my camellias and hopefully they will do better now.

After messing with the camellias, it was time to pot some plants. I repotted my small Endless Summer cutting into an 8" pot so it can grow up. I also moved my Carolina Jessamine into a pot that is really only deeper, but not wider than the pot it was in. I moved the spider plant into my remaining green hanging basket. It had HUGE thick fleshy white roots. No wonder it roots so easily. I also dumped the last of the pansies, added some fresh dirt and sowed my cilantro seeds. They are supposed to sprout in 7-10 days, so we shall see. My rosemary, sage and English thyme pot has needed help for a long time, especially since the sage has basically not grown since it was planted in April... When I went to unpot it, it was COMPLETELY pot bound. I was able to dig out first the sage, then the rosemary. Most of the roots were the English thyme. I then made the radical move of attempting to divide my English thyme. I could see that there were two major areas rooted in, that both had lots of roots. So, I cut through the branches that connected them and tried to tease the roots apart. The smaller part when into a 14" pot with the rosemary and sage and the larger piece went into its own pot. I figure in a week or so I'll either have 2 English thymes or NO English thymes. At the very least, it really needed to be repotted.

After the repotting, I harvested the last of the Tom tomatoes, as they were starting to get soft and didn't seem to be ripening any. I had figured I'd throw Tom away, but he surprised me by having some nice new green growth. So, I pruned off the dead looking parts and hung him back on his hook. Don't know if I will get any new tomatoe, but I'll watch the new growth and see what happens. I also harvested my first Better Bush tomato yesterday. It didn't look all that great around the top, but my mom was taking it to work to have with dinner, so I'll find out if it was edible or not. I have more peppers ripening, but they are still getting the weird light spots on them that someone said was slug damage. I just don't think slugs are getting in my containers and I'm wondering if it some sort of nutrient deficency.