Gardening Thread--if you can offer help, tips, or experience

[margaritaville]

So that's why my tomatoes crack? We have stink bugs in my area and my tomatoes also have little black marks from them biting the tomatoes. I'll have to try spraying them with a garlic powder solution.

Other than that I have found I grow poison ivy really well .If anyone wants some I have extra!

[Wylie's Mom]

Originally Posted by Yorkiemom1

Have you hot climate/desert dwellers tried growing a "Desert Rose".....I had planted one at our lake property, Adenium Desert Rose Triple Purple Aloha was the one I planted that was a show stopper!.....then I did another one but I cant remember the name....it was stunning as well....just wondered if you had tried these.....

I think you mean the "desert rose" like the pic I'm posting below, right? If so, YES, love those! I have 2 young ones, but they haven't yet ever bloomed . Hope they will. Does yours bloom? Is it in full sun all year? Or do you keep it in a container and move it around depending on season?

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

I snip them when they get really tall and bring them inside. But I don't wait till end of season, just when I think they are getting too tall. At the end of summer or beginning of fall they just start dying and you can really tell they are done.

Have you seen yellow bird of paradise? The desert one, not the tropicla one. Since you also like the weirder looking flowers, I think you would like these. I love the flowers. Reminds me of the car lashes people put on their smart cars. https://www.google.com/search?q=yell...w=1173&bih=611
We bought two and are doing well but haven't flowered yet. But I see so many around town that are flowering like crazy. We also got the red Mexican one but that one is very slow growing and no flowers yet. And we got that one last year!

Ooooo, you're right - those are really cool! Will keep an eye out for those...

[capt_noonie]

So we noticed something had been nibbling on our Boston ivy the last few days but couldn't find anything. This afternoon when we went out for lunch we saw an entire branch had been eaten and then looked down and saw the FATTEST red caterpillar! OMG I was so mad. I knocked him off the ivy and killed him. He spewed out all this green goo which was most likely my ivy's digested leaves. SOOOO mad.

Here you can see how well the ivy had been growing since no leaves at all from this past winter (they go dormant in the winter). And it was starting to nicely frame the doorway, which I've always wanted a front door with ivy all around. Now it probably won't grow back til next spring.

The 3rd pic is another ivy in the front of the house (behind the silk tree).

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[Wylie's Mom]

Goes without saying, but I *love* seeing the vine! I adore vine covered fences, walls, houses etcetera...can't get enough! This is a pic of our backyard fence vine...it took 10 years for it to get this thick (although, right now it looks kinda scraggy bc it's going a bit dormant from the heat....)...

[capt_noonie]

What kind of vine is that? I see a lot of seed pods on it. It's very full! We have cat claw vines here too that do really well in the heat. Some are so full and others are really thin. They are all throughout the neighborhood too and some of them flower in the late summer but ours hasn't yet.

[Wylie's Mom]

I'm pretty sure it's also Cat's Claw.

[capt_noonie]

Are you sure? Cat claw grows up. If a big chunk falls off then obv it goes downward, but your pic looks like it's a trailing vine. Anyhoo it's awesomely huge. Looks like it's doing great.

Well guess what. Another boston ivy was hit yesterday, and my mint plant which was growing like crazy is half eaten. I'm fuming mad!!!

[chachi]

Im excited I grew blue heavenly morning glories, Mamouth sunflowers, autumn glory sunglowers and zenias from seeds this yr and they all grew and are ready to plant in the ground. I have trellis in my backyard that Im going to plant the morning glory by so they will grow up and and a place in the back yard for the sunflowers dont know what I will do with the zenias yet. My front porch has all kinds of little plants that Ive started as starts from other plants. Ive had alot of fun gardening and water gardening this yr

[Wylie's Mom]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

Are you sure? Cat claw grows up. If a big chunk falls off then obv it goes downward, but your pic looks like it's a trailing vine. Anyhoo it's awesomely huge. Looks like it's doing great.

Well guess what. Another boston ivy was hit yesterday, and my mint plant which was growing like crazy is half eaten. I'm fuming mad!!!

I'm pretty sure...bc I brought some into the nursery to ask what it was...but lol, maybe they were wrong? It grows these bean like pods...if that tells you anything.

Meanwhile, my hibiscus are just sucking big time. Darn it all . Thought they'd be SO much easier than this!

Originally Posted by chachi

Im excited I grew blue heavenly morning glories, Mamouth sunflowers, autumn glory sunglowers and zenias from seeds this yr and they all grew and are ready to plant in the ground. I have trellis in my backyard that Im going to plant the morning glory by so they will grow up and and a place in the back yard for the sunflowers dont know what I will do with the zenias yet. My front porch has all kinds of little plants that Ive started as starts from other plants. Ive had alot of fun gardening and water gardening this yr

Fun! I've been having more fun w/ it this summer too. We need some piccies of your stuff!

[capt_noonie]

Cat claws do get the bean pods, but so do a lot of vines. Usually the pods don't show up until after they start flowering. They are yellow flowers. The tell tale sign is they have claws that look like cat claw (duh LOL) with three "fingers" or claws and they are sharp!

[MarkFromSea]

I haven't got in here often lately... fishing is very good... but I did want to let you know I'm eating mass quantities of zucchini now from my sparse garden of beets, zuchs and tomatoes. Should have our first vine ripened tomato in two days.


The dogs are doing real good, even Gucci. Zip and Rambo are doing this sumo wrestling, Zip is super gentle with the pup even though it sounds like he's sitting down to a viking meal.

[capt_noonie]

Awww sumo wrestling sounds so cute (when it comes to yorkies!).

I only had three tiny tomatoes come in so far but they sure were much tastier than the supermarket ones!

Only thing that is doing well is my sweet basil. Thai basil is hanging in there. Mint WAS doing good. I can't find that bugger that's eating it, but I'm sure he has fresh minty breath.

[MarkFromSea]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

I'm sure he has fresh minty breath.

LOL I bet he does!

left to right: Rambo, Zippy, Gucci

[CouversMom]

I love vines too! You just have to be careful what type so that they don't destroy what you are growing them on. We have trumpet vines, honeysuckle, clematis and a wisteria. Things have taken a hit this year because of the heat wave (10+ days of 105 and up), but it seems like things are cooling down. We just bought 6 more clematis plants to grow on our fence this weekend. Both hubby and myself are obsessed with gardening... It's an expensive hobby!

[capt_noonie]

We have 5 purple wisteria. Our nursery told us that wisteria doesn't so well in Vegas bc it doesn't get cold enough in the winter to flower. It needs to get below freezing, and at the very coldest, it's usually just above freezing in the winter.

We have honeysuckle too but this is the first year. One is doing well, the others are barely hanging in there.