Pretty

Oh my! Your Dahlias are gorgeous! That was my mother's favorite. Are they the Dinner Plate variety? All of your flowers are very pretty.

I love the dahlias and the giant pansies! Thanks for sharing your photos with us!

Izhar, you have a green thumb! Gorgeous looking plants! Thanks for showing us.

Silvia

probably you guys were thinking why a person from another end of the world is posting here... firstly its because Karachi's climate is similar to Zone 10b and 11... secondly and most important ...You all are very nice people.. :)

@ above: thanks everyone... :) well the initial 4 pics are Dwarf Dahlia "Garden Pride" from Benary Seeds, Germany.. the next two pics after them are Dinner plates one is HOLLAND FESTIVAL the other burgundy one is an unknown variety... Dahlias bloom excellent in our winters... however in summers they should be dug and planted in a container in semi shade location.... by the end of summers i.e. in September you can take cuttings and enjoy the blooms in winters again...:)

I will be posting more pics of my garden in future..

Cheers

Izhar

Hi,Izhar!
you have a beautiful garden.
The flowers are so vibrant.
I notice the wall behind the flowers,the color of it
is beautiful.I love walls in gardens. Thanks for sharing
and I hope you do post more.
Be well!
Felix

VEry beautiful! I used to grow glads when I lived further north but didn't have luck with them here. Yours are very pretty!

These are great pictures! Thanks for sharing your garden with us.

Kate

Izhar, welcome and we are honored that you chose to share your garden with us. I look forward to seeing more and to having your imput here. Gardeners never think another gardener is crazy even if they are from another country, if we did then we are all crazy. You are most welcome here. Your garden is gorgeous and I wish I could grow dahlias like yours. I will admit to a little dahlia envy. Keep up the good work, Linda

Thank you so much everyone...

This season I have planted the following plants in my garden:

1. Dwarf Dahlia "Garden Pride"
2. Pansy Super Majestic Mix
3. Double Petunia Mix
4. Petunia grandiflora "Falcon Red"
5. Shirley Poppies Mix.
6. Aster "Princess Giant Red"

and following seedlings from local nursery:

1. Salvia splendens "Tall Red"
2. Salvia splendens "Dwarf White"
3. Salvia splendens "Dwarf Burgundy"
4. Impatiens "Salmon F1"
5. Impatiens "Orange star"
6. Dinner plate Dahlia cuttings.... 7 plants
7. Chrysanthemums Yellow and White flower.... 10 plants
8. Nastritium Trailing Giants mix

My Salvia splendens bed:

as on 28th December 2009

the dwarf white ones bloomed profusely, but the street children here continuously picked their flowers... :(

Salvia as on 3rd February 2010:

Now check out the white ones... every single bloom spike is picked up by the street children... :( same happened for the striking red tall ones.... the dwarfs are about 6 inches and tall ones are 3 feet in average height..

They are long trailing variety of mixed colors... very fragrant...

These plant gained height of 6 feet and bloomed in just 45 days...also counting in the seed sowing day...!!!

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Izhar, your flowers are so beautiful! Like Felix, I also love the backdrop of the brick red wall. Really sets off the colors so brightly. I can't help but notice how vigorous and healthy all your plants look. You obvioulsly spend a lot of time with them. Please tell us about your soil. Is it very rich, or do you have to fertilize a lot or amend it? You definitely have the touch with growing things. Please keep posting pics, they bring us much joy.

Anna

Izhar, yes indeed, please continue to post your pictures. We love to see them. I too would like to know about your soil. We sure have to use a lot of amendments here to have plants that look healthy.

Hi everyone,

I was a bit busy, had a final presentation on Strategic Management...

any ways,thank you so much for appreciation... it is quiet easy and not time consuming to have a garden with some flowers...

I will stepwise write what I did with my garden:

1) When we shifted to this house by end of Aug '09, it was a total mess, a junkyard.. lots of trash in it and fruit trees with lots of bugs and spiders.. so me and my father cleaned the whole area and cut down all the diseased vegetation.

2)There were lots of bugs in the soil, so we left it untouched for two days for the birds to have a meal...:)

3) next came tilling, we tilled the whole flower bed by hand (only upper six inches of soil, where most feeder roots of annual flowers grow)

4) along with tilling we applied 1 lb per square foot (approx.) well rotted dairy manure, and tilled the whole bed mixing the whole stuff in the soil.

5) this whole tilling process took us a whole month, cuz I come from job daily at 7:00 pm and from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm i had the time to do these things, of course you need to have the passion.. ;)

6) now it was Oct '09, we started watering our garden daily so the weeds would sprout and we could pluck them up, in the meanwhile i ordered seeds from another city of Pakistan that is Lahore. (they use to sell seeds from Benary Seeds, Germany and Sakata Seeds, Japan)

7) On 28th of Oct '09, I sowed following seeds, directly into the bed :

1. Dwarf Dahlia "Garden Pride"
2. Pansy Super Majestic Mix
3. Double Petunia Mix
4. Petunia grandiflora "Falcon Red"
5. Shirley Poppies Mix.
6. Aster "Princess Giant Red"

Its interesting that my garden receives only 2 hours maximum direct sunlight in morning, rest of the day is shade. I was worried whether the plants would bloom or not.

7) After a month i.e. on 30th Nov '09, I replanted all the seedling into their designated areas.

8) In mid of Dec '09, with the help of a big screw-driver, i inserted NPK (17-17-17) 7-8 granules near every seedling.

9) since then its just watering and pruning of dying branches and leaves.

10. now i am planing to apply more well rotted manure by the end of April '10, when i will planting the summer annuals and bulbs.

With such low light duration, the plant become leggy and week, have to compromise on it... cant demolish the infront building...lol

Cheers

Izhar

Izhar, great job! Sounds like alot of work but it sure paid off. Thank you for posting the steps to your beautiful flower garden.
Sharon

Very nice garden . Thanks for sharing.

Petunia "Falcon Red" F1 have started blooming, dated 13-02-10:

Izhar

Very nice flowers, I like the set up to keep them contained. If you get heirloom seed, you can save the seeds and don't have to get seeds again.

Here is borage in my garden, last time that I bought seed was in Phoenix, 10 years ago. It reseeds itself in my garden.

And veggies are pretty and as a bonus you can eat them. :o)

Cabbage

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Silvia

so pretty they are with blue tone..... thanx for sharing... :)

Nasturtiums... very fragrant...

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Large Dahlia flowerbud.. :)

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Nasturtiums fragrant? I am growing them but haven't noticed a fragrance...they did just start blooming so I guess they need to bloom more before I would notice..?

Same question was asked by my friend in Lahore, Pakistan... Nasturtium's aroma is just like tea-rose.. the fragrance increases as the night approaches... I wonder why they don't do this elsewhere... another thing is that these are planted in unamended soil... without a single pinch of fertilizers..

Izhar, are your nasturtiums in full sun? I like how you have them growing on string/wire...? I think I am going to take my potted ones and plant them in the ground and let them grow up string/wire on my fence. Glad to know they can grow in less-than-perfect soil and thanks for the info on scent.
Silvia, I love that blue cabbage!

Izhar, I really like the way you support your flowers to keep them where you want them. You certainly have a green thumb.

Silvia, I've never seen such blue cabbages! LOvely.

Anna

Blooms on Clerodendrum splendens, in September '09, we cut it down to the roots (as it was infested with a number of bugs), but at present it is 20 feet high... it very vigorous.. can become invasive... but pretty flowers... favorite for butterflies...

Chinese Aster "Princess series" from Benary seeds, started to bloom:

another angle of Pansies and petunia, double petunias have lots of flower buds now:

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Dwarf Dahlia "Garden Pride" from Benary seeds:

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A big whopping WOW!!!! Such great color . Extremely beautiful!

All your plants look awesome!...even your grass. My grass looks dead and is full of weeds. I really need to get to work. I have tried digging them up but they just grow back. I realy didn't want to use chemicals, but something must be done. I guess I will try the sugar next time it is going to rain. I've read that it is a natural week killer and will deter nematodes and improve the soil.

me and my father just pluck any visible weed by hand, regularly... no chemicals :)

Dinner-plate Dahlia, starting to open up..!!!

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Izhar,

I find I go to your post every time I come to GW. Your flowers are so colorful and perfect. All our gardens are mostly brown and bare with the recent cold. I find yours cheery and it warms my heart and gives me hope mine will be pretty again. Please keep posting so we can feel cheery and hopeful when we see your successs. I had never heard of chinese aster. It sure is beautiful.

Anna

Thank you so much for the compliments... for Chinese Aster, google it.. you will find plenty of them :)

Greetings everyone...!!

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Izhar, with all the luck you have with flowers, you should try growing some vegies...or are you? You could get some vine type vegies and grow them right along with your flowers.
If I plucked each weed it would take me years!

my garden is in front of my home, on a busy street with cars and continuous flow of pedestrians, they pick my flowers regularly, when they don't even know what to do with them afterward... I love to have tomatoes, beans etc but OTHERS love them more than I do... lol

another view of Dahlia, just a comparison:

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Hi all,

some more pics of my fall planted garden... the scourging heat of 113 degrees will soon be baking them anyways..

most of the Pansies have already gone.. :(

Shirley Poppies:

Double Petunias:

Red and White Dahlia:

By the start of April, i shall be planting Zinnias, Portulacas, Sunflower (Red, Orange & lime), Cosmos, Tuberoses, Callas, Agapanthus, Celosia, Vinca.. etc etc... will share them in a different thread...

Cheers~

Izhar

My Chinese asters (Callistephus chinensis), as I am preparing my garden for Summer season planting, so I picked them up!!!

Cheers~

Izhar

Izhar You have really healthy and colourful plants. Which is this area you live in? I read on fertilizer website about a formula that blooms more flowers. The formula is NPK 12-36-12. From where do you get this type of plant fertilizer in Karachi. Please guide me.

Gorgeous flowers, thanks for sharing!

Hi
Anybody know what happened to him?? hasn't posted in a long time.. gary

Hi Gary, I was thinking the same thing. Neither has ninecrows from England.