Mutant horticulture

These were my crocuses (crocusi?) last year.

until the last week in May, when a bloody great hailstorm nailed the lot.
Got one good week out of them. :frowning:

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those are lovely. we have the spotted “angel wing” begonia and i love the red begonia rex! the spiky tree in the pot (a Dracaena? Madagascar dragon, i think) grows in the ground in our yard and is over 3m tall. it is a legacy plant that was here when i bought the place. it survived Irma, when not much else did.

crocupodes

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I chuckled, and then I really laughed when I recalled, of course, where you hail from. Nice work.

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Nice Planter.

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Crocofants. According to my dad.

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Haworthia blooming! Well it’s doing something, anyway

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I’m pretty sure the plural is “ribbits.”

Inflate Pbs Nature GIF by Nature on PBS

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Sure looks like a flower spike, but I’ve never seen one in flower. Please update when it opens!

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The great upheaval. Moonflower.

Where to plant them, though? Climbers—12 to 18 feet?!?

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Getting ready for camping and bug season up here in Maine, I finally did something I’ve been wanting to do for years and made a home made bug bite salve. Crushed a bunch of dried plantain leaves, calendula petals, lavender and other goodies I had left over from last year and infused some coconut oil for a couple hours.
I have to do the final step tomorrow of mixing in some bees wax to make it a little more solid, and maybe adding tea tree oil.
But, I had the infused oil on my hands from the first step so rubbed it on my existing bites from the last few days in the garden, and gall dang it if it didn’t stop the itching!

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Is it good at prevention? I’m gourmet mosquito food. Any skin without actual spray on it gets et

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I don’t think so. I’m also prime insect lure. They love me. I can be in a group of people and no one else even notices it’s buggy out while I’m getting eaten alive. :woman_shrugging:t2:
But plantain leaves definitely help with the after effects. Previously I’ve done the rustic, “chew up a leaf and smear the goo on a bite,” thing, which also helps, but gets kind of gross on a multi-day camping trip. Hence, the salve.
For keeping them away in the first place, I’ve had mixed results with home made stuff.
ETA: also, part of my motivation - black flies! Their bites itch for days, almost like chiggers. Not sure if you have them down there.

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I planted about a dozen moonflowers around the base of goddess Izuma

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She is going to look glorious!

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Only in Michigan…

Heat on, air conditioning on, heat back on, air back on, within a couple days.

And now this.

We got almost all the ground flowers in yesterday. The wife planted I dug up and moved 20 bags of top soil where needed.

Outside today doing some more when a hail storm hit.

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The first time I went to Mexico, I was surprised to see all the so-called house plants that were just growing in the ground, everywhere. I mean, they have to come from somewhere, right?

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Succulent city

Wham, bam, thank you ma’am

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Same kind of reaction here, but I grew up in a “houseplant” area. Jade plants as yard bushes, etc etc.

Well, off to trim the overgrown, 5-ft rosemary hedges.

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Bunnies ate my moonflowers. (I assume it was the bunnies. The lawn is at least half clover, but no, I guess they need a treat.)

BUT they’re still growing! (The moonflowers, I mean. I assume the bunnies are growing, too.) Can you see the little bit of fresh green at the center? :arrow_down:

There were seven moonflower seeds in the packet. All sprouted, but only three survived. One I accidentally broke off while transplanting. The other three just didn’t survive. Possibly too much water—it was very dry weather when I transplanted them, so I watered them generously for a few days, and then we got days of big storms and all-day, drenching, pooling rain. Also, I’ve since read that they don’t like to be transplanted.

So I went back to the store and bought another packet of seeds, and nicked and soaked them overnight, and put them directly in the ground. We’ll see how those do. I’m not sure why, but I just really want to grow moonflowers.

Do you like my plant ID stakes? I made them myself by cutting up a quart-sized yogurt container. I thought they might be too flexible to get into the ground, but it worked fine.

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I got a warning from the HOA about weeds in my front lawn so I gave them (the weeds) a spray with weed killer. When the bottle ran out I grabbed another bottle (different brand), then finished the job. Turns out the second bottle was a combo weed/grass killer. But at least the weeds should be dead now.

Think I’ll stick to gardening.

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