I don't get the black spot, but I often have to deal with rust and/or white powdery mildew

No Jenn, I think I know which flower youre talking about though...my Angel Trumpet (Brugmansia) looks like this...the flowers are huge and smell SO good at night. Theyre highly toxic though (and I used to have these in my backyard when I had Malukhai and Anuschka ) Its now in my front yard where my fountain is, but it gets riddled with holes just way too much and I hate having to keep systemic on it all the time so it may be something I remove.

The flowers are shaped like the trumpet vine my mom had but hers was orange and it got huge. It used to grow over the well house. Then it tried to grow over everything else and they chopped it down. It wasn't bad about spreading early on in life but once they took the well house down and trimmed it back while they built a new shed it just went nuts. It took on a full blown Kudzu personality. I think they are pretty. I like that yellow.

They are pretty, I just don't like the way they get that caterpillar/worm...and they get it bad. Besides the holes, it makes the leaves and flowers fall off prematurely.

The Brumgasia comes with an orange flower too, it's very pretty! But these aren't vines, it's more a shrub/small tree. I wonder what the vines name is. Sounds like it'd be pretty .

Artic_Wind wrote:

They are pretty, I just don't like the way they get that caterpillar/worm...and they get it bad. Besides the holes, it makes the leaves and flowers fall off prematurely.

The Brumgasia comes with an orange flower too, it's very pretty! But these aren't vines, it's more a shrub/small tree. I wonder what the vines name is. Sounds like it'd be pretty .

Try some bT (bacillus Thurengensis...do NOT quote me on the spelling ) Dog safe, too, I believe.

I'm hoping my asiatic lilies keep their flower buds - they have started to swell and we are getting a frost tonight (was a frost, then a freeze, not back to frost warning.) Now that the rain has stopped for a bit, I have a MOUNTAIN of weeding to do. And after this weekend, I can plant my tomatoes, squashes, cantalopes, cukes....

I love the tropical flowers you have in SoCal...everything looks so lush and exotic. We're starting though - the autumn olive has just started to bloom, it is rampant (now an invasive species - we planted a whole hedge that has given us - and our neighbors - multiple generations of "grandkids") Its scent perfumes the whole region this time of year. Heavenly.

Jenn - how's your watermelon doing? After reading your thread, I bought Wayne some 'Sugar Baby' seeds. We shall see.

Is it a spray Amy?

I don't wanna hijack Jenns thread but planting my veggie garden is what I'm doing this weekend too!

My Asiatic lilies didn't keep their blooms long at all. They were orange and very pretty. I'll post a pic when I start up on my gardening thread again. Can you cover them Amy? Just til your frost passes? Amy, you need to do more in your thread! I wanna see this autumn olive, I've never heard of it here. I want to see your garden

ooops, hijack. my apologies, Jenn. bT is a dust - the bacteria invade the larval stage (caterpillers) and kill them.

Autumn Olive is a lovely, soft silvery gray green with pale, tiny creamy yellow-white flowers, a shrub maturing about 12-15 wide and tall. And prickly as all get out.

Huh - I looked for info to give you a link and apparantly, it has health benefits:

http://www.fruit.cornell.edu/berry/production/pdfs/autumnolive.pdf

Picture in flower:

http://livingafield.com/images/Autumn_Olive_In_Flower_02.jpg

Life cycle pics and info:

http://livingafield.com/Plants_AutumnOlive.htm

Movie time...husband getting cranky...

I apologize too Jenn

Wow, has some really good health benefits too!!! The plant itself reminds me a *little* of my olive tree in my front yard. But totally different of course with everything else about it. Thank you for the info Amy

My watermelons are doing okay. Slow to start but they are coming along. Sugar Babies are what I am growing too. I prefer the sweetness of them and the more manageable size for two people to eat with them. I've been very disappointed in the newer batches of seeds I've gotten the last couple years. Hardly any want to germinate. I have an old packet of seeds that I used to grow when I was at my parents house and they are no-fail to germinate.



If I don't watch it my potatoes are going to make it impossible for the pumpkins in there to grow. This is my first year doing potatoes so I wasn't sure what to expect.



Starting to get strawberries finally.



A little longer and my other pot of pumpkins will be ready to start training.



My decorative planters are starting to fill in a little bit. I thought the Coreopsis was going to die but it seems to be doing better now.



Don't know what these are but they are starting to bloom. Hummingbirds love them.





Another peek-a-boo plant. It grows under the black leafed flowers. It dies all the way down each winter though and comes back up unlike the other Dianthus I have. Leaf is a little different so I'm going to assume it's a different species of Dianthus.



This rose has really turned on. This is the best it's done since we moved here. As long as that sunflower doesn't completely block its sun it might continue to do well.

Jenn, you leave your pumpkins in the pot and train them? Like on a trellis?

All your flowers are so pretty! I have some of those yellowish orange Coreopsis and they die back at certain times of the year. I just cut the dead off and the next year they're back up and blooming . My thread leaf Coreopsis just flat out died though, and nothing came back in its place. So now there is a Asiatic Lily there

Around here the Coreopsis is considered an annual and will die come winter. They might make it if I were to bring them inside but those pots are too heavy to do that with so that would mean digging them up. Maybe if they were ground planted in a really protected spot they might make it outside but something that protected probably wouldn't get enough sun for them.

The pumpkins and the watermelon both will go up trellis when they get bigger. I've seen it done but this is my first year trying it myself.

Ha, how they do on a trellis was going to be my next question, lol. I can't even get a proper tomato to grow in pots, they get straggly looking and tomatoes are super small. I'm curious to see how your pumpkins do on a trellis.

My biggest concern right now is not getting enough water to them throughout the growing season with them in the pots. My aunt has done upright growing before and assured me it's possible but is labor intensive once the fruit starts coming on. She lives in an apartment and this has opened her up to still having a garden. She ties hers to her porch railing.

The rain has set in and luckily I got some pictures of some of the stuff before they drown. We will see how much will make it. So far we are over 5 inches in the last 3 days and still have 2 days and today to go.

Day lilies have popped all over the place but these are doing especially well. My red Dianthus are soooo much taller than the little pink and purple ones in the front yard.





Red Hot Poker. I have a yellow one too. I'm still waiting for it to bloom. I thought it had died but it did eventually come up.



The rose that just won't quit. I'm not complaining, just amazed what extreme pruning can do. Don't mind my Polk.



Poor tomatoes got the short end of the stalk. Attacked by aphids at the same time we got 5 inches of rain. They were drowned and eaten at the same time. This was a couple weeks ago. I tarped them and treated them and they are still alive for now. We shall see though after the next 5 inches of rain hits.



Arizona Something-or-other. Still haven't found it's actual version.





Looks like not glossy Basil but smells like mint. Has a flower like a type of Salvia. I am as confused as this plant is.



and....the storm that knocked all my plants over.





The infamous pine and its Yucca friends...or is it fiends?



My current arch nemesis. Brat has a nest in one of the bushes at the end of the driveway. Tried to give the bush a cut the other day and all she did was hiss at me and throw a fit. I'll be happy when her and her spawns move.

Jenn, the monologue and the spacing seems to indicate that there should be pictures there .... are they missing or am I for some reason just unable to see them.

You could always send that water our way. At the moment we're our normal dry after having several days of light showers (0.2 in of rain more or less) but we'd be glad to take all you can send our way.

I can see the pictures in google chrome and in IE. I don't have firefox on this computer anymore to see if it works. Perhaps you are on a different version than I am? There should be pictures.

I would love to send some of this your way. If we would get one nice shower a week all summer we would be perfect, but I fear that once we stop being flooded it will stop altogether and we will wish we had some of this back.

Jenn, I am curious about your flower that you called Arizona something. Jenniferb has a pic of that too. I mentioned to her that the previous owner must have had a flower garden since I have those growing wild. So now I am more curious, since you have them too. Around here on our trips around the country side we have flowers which I thought are these same flowers, they grow wild here, so I assume they are natives and I also thought their names are Indian Blankets, which are one of my favorite flowers. They do look very similar. I love them because they look like a daisy, just the petals are different color(I know I'm strange, lol).

Love the pics. By the way I am on firefox and they all did come up. I know you had a problem with not seeing Casey's scrapbook of Loki and Banner, I wonder if same problem Al has?

Now that's really odd. Firefox just leaves me with a blank space; IE 11 and Chrome indicate a broken picture. I captured one of the links (page source) and tried to bring it up directly and it times out. Now give me another reason to not like FaceBook!
I thought it was the add blocker so I turned it off and still nothing.

I'm on version 43.0.2357 of chrome. I too have ad blocker and it hasn't bothered anything in the threads so far. Swapping versions is how I eventually saw the pictures of Banner.

At the Farm and garden store in town they have a version of my red flower called Arizona Sun. It is red with the yellow on the edges of the petals. I think mine is just Arizona Red. Blanket flower sounds about right. After a talk with the guy at the garden store he said they can spread and make fairly good sized plants with time.

TwisterII wrote:

I'm on version 43.0.2357 of chrome. I too have ad blocker and it hasn't bothered anything in the threads so far. Swapping versions is how I eventually saw the pictures of Banner.

At the Farm and garden store in town they have a version of my red flower called Arizona Sun. It is red with the yellow on the edges of the petals. I think mine is just Arizona Red. Blanket flower sounds about right. After a talk with the guy at the garden store he said they can spread and make fairly good sized plants with time.

Yup - Arizona Sun is a variety of the species Gaillardia, aka Blanket Flower. Touted as a very sturday, hardy plant. Is on my find a place for one of these days list. A bit afraid we might be too moist here for that (one of my favorite plants of all time is a full size Perovskia - Russian Sage. The damp, humid microclimate I have will not support it )

Right next to the Arizona is planted some Russian sage. I just haven't taken pictures of it because it hasn't done anything yet. lol. I wouldn't think you would be that much more humid than us. We can nearly cut our air in half much of the summer because it's so thick. We will drought hard during July and August.

TwisterII wrote:

Right next to the Arizona is planted some Russian sage. I just haven't taken pictures of it because it hasn't done anything yet. lol. I wouldn't think you would be that much more humid than us. We can nearly cut our air in half much of the summer because it's so thick. We will drought hard during July and August.

It's not the humidity so much as the heavy wet clay soil in winter - rots it. If it makes it through the winter, it just piddles along. Could also by the low pH.

we usually get aphids on are roses and the flower never open all the way. i make my own big spray : using 4 tsp. of baking soda, 1 tsp. of dawn or gain must say non phosphate dish soap to a gallon of water and mix it and put it into a pup sprayer and spay like crazy for bugs and fungi before the suns out or before its to dark. and respray in about 3 days. there usually gone within a week or so.

Jenn, when I was at work, I saw your pics via my iPhone and like Al said, there seemed to be one or two missing...at home now on my iPad i see them all though, weird.

LOVE that pine tree!!!!!!! Your day lilies and Dianthus are kicking butt too!!! Looks so pretty your poor tomatos they look like they're hanging in there though! Everything looks awesome (even your stormy skies ) the one plant I think IS a salvia, I should have a tag around here somewhere for it cuz i bought two of them , you just didn't see them in my pics cuz of you know who, haha, I will look for the tags though.

Amy, that Arizona plant (looks very much like my Arizona Apricot, may do well for you cuz mine seems to need a lot of moisture...if I even skip one day, it will look wilted when the sun is on it.

Sorry, I double posted

Jenn - pretty sure your gaillardia is variety "burgundy"

http://www.abnativeplants.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantdetail/plant_ID/361/index.htm

Arizona Sun is a 2-tone, sort of like a sunflower:
http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/p-1018-gaillardia-arizona-sun.aspx

Your stella d'oro look lovely all in bloom. Funny - mine are in bloom now, too, yet we are so far north. Mine need to be divided, desperately - they are so thick they hold each other up and the leaves are higher than the blossoms

I'm surprised the dianthus does so well with your humidity. I planted 50 of the damn things and the all pooped out on me - too wet I was told.

Your pine tree is beautiful - I like them with their branches intact all the way to the ground - my husband has pruned the brances up on all of ours so he can get the tractor under them to mow. Looks like lollipop land:x