Well good for you Pat:) I'm concerned you still need the oxygen though, but glad you're feeling well enough to get out and get a little exercise and take care of some of your plants. I hope this will help, I know that it is good for you to be up and moving around and not just stationary. Your plants all sound pretty good, my sis tried to talk me into Dahlias, I didn't want something that I had to take in every year:) I look forward to pics of those when they bloom.

I still only have about 5 daylillies blooming, but the others are getting ready.

You caught me out:) Grandgirl and I were over at Lowes today. I replaced the one Purple Fountain Grass that didn't make it back after the freeze today, they only had about 5 of them and only in 5 gal containers, ouch on the price too. I was hoping for one gal ones. I had 4 last summer planted, so I was happy to have 3 come back this spring, thought that was rather lucky all told. Also picked up another bright fuschia pinkish purple geranium, grandgirl liked that one and am going to plant it in an urn style pot. I got a whole flat of little verbena plants in all colors to replace all the violas that have just about given up the ghost in the heat. That ought to make it really colorful in front of all the daylillies lining the front of the large garden area.

All the mini roses are finally coming back after I dosed them with Bayer Advance, never again, I just about defoliated most of them in the ground, all their leaves crisped to almost nothing. After 3 weeks I've got new growth and they're starting to look pretty healthy again. That stuff did what it was supposed to do but it just about killed the minis. Didn't bother the large roses and their leaves, just the minis.

It's too hot today by the time I got home to start, so I'll be doing this in the am. Oh BTW, I've got at least 100 little bitty frogs in the yards, at least! No bugs on my plants anymore:) You just have to watch where you step out there, LOL* They're only about an inch big.

You always sound so happy when your GD is with you, enjoy it, they grow up so fast. Wherein the world did you get so many little bitty frogs? This is my third year in growing Dahlias. First year, as instructed, I dug the tubers & stored. Ruined nearly all of them. In our climate they really don't need to be dug up for at least 3 years and only to thin the tubers. The mini roses are blooming their heads off, such a joy to see. I think I was confusing the mini roses with those that you see at grocery stores in the small baskets. I've been given several and they never survive, but the yellow bush type & the red climber I believe are true mini's. Hope so! My niece sent me these bulbs called Watsonia, never heard of them before but finally one is blooming. I'll see about getting a pic posted of it later.Leslie, you sound as though you've really got your gardens looking so good, hope the Dragon is well too! Pat

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Watsonia, foliage looks very much like gladiolas:

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roses, not much scent to this group, but pretty anyhow!

Wow, you ladies have been busy! Pat, I can't believe that one of my large mums has buds on it! This will be going on the 2nd year I've had it (or is it 3...?), so I thought for sure it would be blooming at the normal time (as it did last year). Crazy!

I was able to get up to see my mom for one night last weekend, and guess what we did? Oh, yeah, plant shopping. LOL Like we needed any MORE plants! That nursery on Lassen View is a wonderful treasure, though! I got a little feverfew and something called "cat grass" for a dollar each...and kitty has already sampled, and enjoyed, the grass! Never could get her to eat store-bought stuff in the past. :)

I also got another Coreopsis, a plume cedar, Teucrium x lucidrys, an unknown Veronica (probably spicata, though)...a Liatris! Yes, I went ahead and got one, Pat, despite your generous offer. LOL Mom gave me a rooted cutting from her purple beautyberry shrub, too.

I still have one or 2 plants from our previous plant-o-rama to get potted up. I can't believe that Mom planted nearly all 25 of her prior purchases within TWO days! Yowza! LOL I'm a bit slower, especially when it comes to deciding where to plant things. :)

Ohhh, frogs are so wonderful to have around! I love hearing them singing in the yard, but I've never had as many as you've got, Leslie! Mom had a ton of them before the freezes came, and it was tricky walking in the yard, as you mentioned.

That Watsonia is gorgeous, Pat! Do they have a scent? Something that lovely really should. :)

Brenda

Oh very nice Pat, that's really pretty!! How beautiful your roses are too! I think sometimes you can take those grocery store ones and acclimate them outside and then plant them and they can survive. I've done that with two of them that I've been given. It's not a good pic of the rose, but look at the size of it now:) Makes a good cutting rose to bring in also.
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Once these HT's grow I'll move these plant stands away.

Today I've got to plant all those plants, I probably shouldn't have gotten verbena, in a couple years I'll be crying about the invasiveness of it....

Those little 1" frogs, don't sing out there, totally silent, you just have to watch where you walk, otherwise you'd be just about squishing one on almost every step! Really that many!! I have a ponding basin for the subdivision behind my house and can only think that's where they come from originally. Either that or something is out of whack with nature so nature created extra frogs to deal with it. I don't have any white flies now... It's terrible to try to plant something, I have to shoo the frogs away first so I don't cut them in half with the shovel, that bad.

I might try Dahlias then if I don't have to dig them up every year, plant them in the fall then, Pat?

My cats like to eat the Purple Fountain Grass, cost me $150 vet visit on one of them too when he scratched his eye. They won't eat that cat grass, I tried that out.

I have a handful of Lavender I'm trying to root, looks good so far.

Be thinking of you while I'm planting today Brenda:)

My dragon is doing well, the Alyssum is strating to spread a little bit here and there in the large garden area. I'm finding little plants now:) I'll have to catch a current pic of him, he's just about surrounded now by it.

Have a great day everyone and glad you're feeling better Pat:)

Leslie, I know you have a jillion other things to do, but if you have some Dahlia tubers, now is the time to plant! You'll have blooms most of the summer into fall. Then leave them in the ground during the fall/winter and come spring, they start all over again.

No, actually I don't have any Dahlias. My sis gave me a whole catalog of them but I never ordered any for the reason she said I had to dig them up every year and put them back out. She lives up near Portland, OR. Maybe, I'll have to see if I can get a couple really quick, DH may kill me though, I told him I was all done today when I finished. He said he needed to go out of retirment and back to work and get more money, LOL* I did think they were gorgeous plants and flowers though.

Hey, I went out to get a pic of the dragon and got side tracked by a large lizard trying to get into my new Purple Fountain Grass. Then I got diverted again by all the little frogs and trying not to step on them. So, can anyone tell me, are these frogs or toads? I looked them up and I can't tell. Frogs live near water and toads on land. But, the ponding basin is about 100 feet from my back yard. Just curious, I have fire ants out in the garden, they started biting me when I went to plant the fountain grass, I was going to spray for them when I read that toads will eat them.
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Awww, aren't they cute! I'm pretty sure those are toads, Leslie - either western or California toads. It doesn't look like they have bumps all over them yet. Whatever they are, they'll help with critters, which is always a good thing. I'm sorry you have to stumble around in your yard, though!

Don't work too hard at planting stuff! I'm going to start watering today, at least the things that need regular water. So that should take up a good amount of my day, since I water each plant by hand. LOL

So glad you're feeling better, Pat!!

Brenda

Hey good link Brenda! I was looking around and couldn't find any pics to differentiate the two, thanks. They are so close to the soil colors and so little I just can't see them in the garden until they move! Even if I watch real close I can't see them until they move they're colored so well with the dirt and the shadows. I never saw these bigger than a couple of inches last summer though.
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I got the outside done and the inside done today:) I was going to get another load of that black humus for the back, but I want to watch and see how it does in the front flower beds I think for a couple weeks. I want to make sure it doesn't keep everything too wet or not wet enough. We can water 3 times a week, so far we have the sprinklers set for 15 minutes. I'm going to check with a moisture meter in the next couple of days and see if this will last until the next water day or not.

So what are you up to outside then??

Well, I posted your pic over on the Ponds forum, Leslie, because usually they can ID amphibs fairly quickly. All I got this time was, "Hmm, I don't know." LOL Maybe if we can see them when they get bigger, we'll be able to ID them for sure. Until then, they sure are cute!

I can't believe how many frogs are still singing in my yard, even with the warm (hot...) weather we've had. When I walk out to top off the pond, I sometimes see the backside (very pinchable!) of a frog, then hear the familiar *PLOP*. LOL It's so amazing how everything seems to balance out in the yard after I stopped using chemicals to TRY to fight bad critters. Well, except the earwigs. They're very brutal this year, so I've set out cans of veggie oil. :)

More planting to do today, although I've run out of pond baskets (gopher protection for terrestrial plants), so I'll either have to cross my fingers, or dig up some old ones in which plants have since died. I went basket-less on a couple of Salvias last week (darcyi and 'Hot Lips'), since I've never had a gopher destroy one yet. The Teucrium might be safe, but the Veronica looks scrumptious...and so does the Liatris. Wish me luck! :D

Hope cooler temps have you all enjoying garden time!

Brenda

DH is over doing practice air catastrophe today, I have day free:) I leisurely went out back and inspected all the plants and am happy to see all the new growth. Finally have something other than a yellow or peach daylilly today!
I have no idea on this one what it is though, it's only partially open too.
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Here's one of my favorite minis that 4 weeks later is almost all recovered from giving it Bayer Advanced. The roses still are a little cruddy but look at the new buds in the upper right corner:) You can't see the new healthy growth in the pic either, this was one of the roses to almost totally crisp from the Bayer and defoliate. This mini blooms almost non stop and I LOVE the color. It's almost a foot tall again after shrinking down from crisping up, or I should say crisping down.
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Then there's my other project, partial pic anyways. There's my Australian Tree Fern that died back to one frond in the freeze:) I moved the other one that was in the opposite bed and got too much sun to the back. Again the forefront or closest to the house are hybrid teas and once they get big I'll move the planters, but that'll be awhile. These are all young plants, I cant afford to start with large ones, the front part of the bed are my daylillies, ornamental garlic and mini roses. The other half of this bed doesn't show in this pic.
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Then I read up on toads and took all my 6" clay pots that I wasn't using and put them out in the garden to make toad houses temporarily. That'll be my next craft project during the summer when it's too hot to be outside:) Apparently they like nice cool places to be safe from larger predators like birds. I made them 2 swimming pools and watering holes out of small saucers and put rocks in there for them to get in and out... I was trying to count them, They scurry so fast I can't count them, really, there are that many and they all run in opposite directions in waves, LOL* They are pretty funny on the tall fescue grass too, imagine grass 4" tall or more and these little guys trying to hop and they can't get a purchase place to do so, so their legs are swimming on air frantically. Their legs are made for "walking" not hopping and I watch them, they really don't hop very far. They match the dirt so closely, there just isn't a way I can catch a photo of them, hundreds of them or not, they blend in too well. I've been trying too! Good thing my camera is digital, LOL* Can you tell they fascinate me:)

Haven't seen many earwigs yet, hope this is a staple of the frogs too! I hate those and they were bad last year, I've got these itty bitty bugs all over the Iceberg roses, hoping the frogs will decimate them because the animals are bringing them in the house. Found one on me last night. They aren't anything I can find as a pest on the computer either. I'm finding them like on the light colored lineoleum in the bath where they stand out along the wall when they move. I can't even find a measurement that small.

I saw a Salvia I liked at Lowe's the other day, I told DH I was done planting though. Wonder how I could just slip a couple into the garden unnoticed:) Especially since 3/5's of the gerberas I planted faded in the heat and died.

Maybe gophers don't like particular plants, there's always that hope. Besides you have a veritable treasure trove of other plants in your gardens for them to choose from Brenda!!

I'm back. Mac developed some major problems and needed a trip to the "hospital". After some major reconfiguring Mac is back online and so am I.... whew!

Having nothing better to do, I actually got quite a bit of gardening done... mostly cleaning and replanting an area that died-out of old age. I used plants that were babies I started a couple of years ago in 1 gal. cans.

I'm pretty sure the critters are Leopard Tree Frogs. The tree frogs are great bug eaters, but I don't much like froggy footprints on my newly washed windows.... bugs flock around the windows at night from the lights... ergo the froggy footprints.

Pretty rose picture Leslie.

Pat, weren't you just building your garden? and now you're going to cut it back? too bad!

Leslie, your pictures are just great and yes I can even see some of the toads, they do blend in well, don't they! I've learned so much from you about these mini roses, I think you've got me hooked! But I won't be re-arranging till well into winter this year. Welcome back to the land of computers Westelle. When something goes wrong with my pc, I get a very uneasy feeling till it's fixed! And it's due to go into a pro for some tuning up. It's been a really good day weather wise, not to hot today, hope temps stay mild for just a while longer!Should be hearing from Brenda pretty soon. Have a quiet evening! Pat

Hi Westelle! I've yet to see them on the windows but after the spider mites ate the roses up, I'm kind of pleased to have this solution because on the minis what the mites didn't get the chemicals did on the leaves. Just kind of wish their numbers weren't this great and I mean great. My son drove around the corner about 6 houses down and said there was a wave of them trying to cross the street. My grandkids are out there now trying to catch them, which isn't hard, but it keeps them busy for awhile:) I'll make them let them go in a little while, Grandson is up to 25. Grandgirl only has 5:)

What did you get planted then Westelle? Have all your citrus come back ok too?

It was a nice couple of days to do some gardening too wasn't it.

Oh Pat, I think you could teach me more than I could ever know about any kind of plants:) I simply love roses and minis in particular. Even my collectibles are minis:) After living in the mtns for so long and missing color and roses in the hot months I'm a little color nuts, sorry, that's why I keep posting pics:)

I wish it'd stay cooler for awhile longer, don't think it'll last much longer, have a nice breeze this evening though.

Yes, have to see what Brenda did get planted today:)

Oh, Leslie, the color of that daylily is to DIE for! I can see why people can easily become addicted to them. And your rose looks so happy now! New, healthy buds are almost as nice as new, healthy blooms. :) Your tree fern looks fabulous, too! Mine still only has 2 fronds, with others waiting in the wings to come on stage. Mine looks gangly, since it's now starting to grow up, rather than out.

What Salvia did you see at Lowe's, do you remember?

Yes, I'm sure Westelle is right about the frog ID! I think I saw one in my yard yesterday, too! Spotted like...well, a leopard. LOL

Glad you're back, Westelle! Ack, I can't imagine not being able to get online for my GW fix. I'd have to go plant shopping or something. :D Somebody STOP me!

Everything is now planted! Just the usual suspects - the Liatris, Veronica, and Teucrium that I mentioned before. Ok, everything planted except for the 'Bloodgood' maple...which I'm going to try to bonsai...while in the ground. Yeah, right. LOL It's still pretty small, so I think I'll leave it in the gallon pot for a bit. Plus, I'm scared of it. LOL Scared of myself, not wanting to kill it!

Don't ever apologize for posting pics. We love them! DH has the camera while on his long weekend "poke poling" (a.k.a. monkeyface prickleback fishing...think: eels!), or else I would post a pic of my little sweet peas. I'm so proud of the darlings. :)

Brenda

We're saving our money so we can get that continuous border of cement and get rid of the bricks. Can't see it either but that fern has at least 15 feet to grow sideways, the side fence is back that far. It has a small frond curled up. It really likes that spot, it's in the shade until about 9am and then sun until about 4pm, it's the first to get shade in the afternoon. I leave the hose out and give it showers, it likes being misted:)

That daylilly was part of a doz I got of minis from QVC the spring of 2005 that I planted in a planter in prep to bring here when we moved in. I transplanted them here and lost 3 of those and I didn't stake them with names. The other couple dozen in colors should be blooming any day now. My yellows and oranges are almost done, LOL* I'm wondering if they'll send up new scapes or this is it in another week or so. Can't figure out why the other colors are so far behind in blooming. The minis were all planted last summer and the other 2 doz last fall. I'm hoping my roses will take off again at the same time as the daylillies and the garden will really look nice in the back:)

Grandson lied and said he set the toads free, I happened to check 1/2 hour later that the cat food was out there. The cats won't come in to eat when the kids are here, they don't like people or kids:) I found about 9 still in a container with the lid half on, on the table. I had a talking to about his lying, and being cruel to creatures, he's 9.

It was the salvia with the blue flower spikes? The one that really isn't salvia? There was also a red one, but don't think that one will go with all the pink and lavender and orange roses:)

I think Bonsai would be fun, in the ground or in a pot, I like anything that's a miniature of something:) Start with small experimental cuts and make a note of it, or photo what you do and note it to yourself, so you remember what you did right, and what was wrong. I try to do that in the garden with the plants, what I don't do is photo to to remember and by the time the plant grows, can't remember how I cut it to make it do what I wanted it to do, LOL* There's that disease again, CRS:) Can't remember shoot...

Looking forward to your pics of the Sweet Peas, yours and Pat's, that's pretty great you guys did that. I have a tough time getting anything to grow in the house. I have a couple of plants and they like a couple of places in the kitchen but most of the ones I pick up die:) To start something from seed and get it to grow and then plant it, that's fantastic!!

So Brenda, does this mean you're done or are you just getting going??

Thanks for your complements too. My budget is limited and every spring I'll be adding more plants, I'm not really done by all means, just done for right now:) I really want to see how big what I have will get and I think I'm going to take some more grass out, LOL* Until fall, I'm just going to maintain and smell the roses:) Well, maybe pick up a couple of salvias....gardening is so addictive.

I put out 3 S. involucrata "Mulberry Jam" and a stray Iris.... nothing much because the Salvia will get big -- 4x4 each. I only lost the Grapefruit, but the lime still isn't doing real good; I just may pull it and replace with a decent one; and the Kumquat is looking strange -- again. Sometimes I wish I hadn't bothered to try to transplant all these citrus I had in pots... none have done well. Oh well, live and learn.

Westelle, I admire anyone who can grow citrus, whether in the ground or in pots! I have never tried, since I don't have the room (or my own home...LOL), but it seems like a true labor of love.

Leslie, yes, that means I'm done...however, Mom went back to the little nursery near her home (I think that's going to be a dangerous thing, having a great nursery so close to her...LOL), and she picked me up a Stachys and yet another Lamium. Oy vey! I really need to get over to Lowe's in Vacaville and see what Salvias they might be offering this year, but that could prove dangerous for me, as well. LOL Is the one you're thinking of Perovskia (Russian sage)?

Oh, one of my hollyhocks from seed is BLOOMING!!! Today, the camera goes active. I've never felt like I've really accomplished anything in the plant dept. until this year, seeing the things I've started from seed grow and bloom! Life is SO good!

Brenda

Well, I didn't get the salvia, I came home from Lowes with two pots to make toad homes out of:) I also got 4 dahlia plants, not tubers, Pat, I cheated and bought 2 fushia red ones and two peach yellow ones:) DH was with me so I was limited to what I could get....Maybe I could make another trip back in a couple of days:)

The toads are using all the other extra pots I put out, I was watching one trying to hop up the side of a slick red pot and finally he figured out to go under:) All the mismatched ones are in the backyard. I got two terracotta ones to paint and put in the front flower beds. After I plant the dahlias, they'll go where the gerberas bit the dust, too hot for them. The dahlias say they like full sun, but the gerberas did too. If they don't like that spot I'm going to put lavender in there, they don't care for a lot of water or I'm going to put roses there next year.

Good show Brenda, I keep saying I'm done and I'm not. I have to stay away from Lowe's... Where's your pics of your Hollyhocks?? Pretty good, from seed also huh? Only thing I did from seed still are all the CA poppies beside the house:) They grew wild up in the mtns, everywhere but my house, I couldn't get them to grow there, here I can!

Yeah, I think that's the one, it said salvia but it also said sage. I don't understand all those plants when I first heard Westelle talking about it. I want to find something that's on a smaller scale that won't be as tall as the 3 foot minis in the back though. That's my problem with the lavenders now.

Wayne wants an orange tree, only thing is we'd never use up all the oranges and then every few years there are these freezes that come along and ruin the fruit and the trees. Mom and Dad and 3 of them and 3 grapefruit trees, even the dwarf orange trees got big.

Westelle, if you had left them in pots one more year you might not have lost them you think?? That's still and a lot of time and effort involved in growing them. I get kind of attached to what I grow and take it personally when they fail:) Well, not that weird, but you do invest a lot in something growing it.

When I'm out searching through my plethora of pots (stacked, laying around, wind-blown...come back, pots!), I'm always startled by the little tree frogs hanging out in them. I apologize, too. LOL "Sorry, sorry, it's ok, I'm done, little froggies."

When I used to have Gerberas, Leslie, (before the gophers got them all *scowl*), I had them in partial shade, and they were very happy. Those pot tags are notoriously wrong when it comes to Cali info. My mom actually kept some alive in pots for years. She even got to the point where she was ready to let one go, so she dumped it out in one of her flower beds (on top of the soil, mind you). The next day, it retaliated by looking better than ever! LOL She ended up planting it in the ground...where it soon died. LOL

Ack, the wind has been blowing like crazy, and the hollyhock stem is swinging around like a monkey on a branch. It should be calmer later today or tomorrow, when I'll definitely get a pic! It's not fully double, as the seed packet claims, though. I can clearly see the center of the flower...not that I'm complaining!

Savias and sages can be confusing, Leslie. The common name for all Salvias is sage. However, there are other plants without the botanical name of Salvia with the common name of sage, as well, such as Perovskia (Russian sage) and Artemisia (sagebrush, sandhill sage, etc.), among others. With the botanical name, you can't go wrong. :)

Brenda