MucknMire
Favourite Gardening Blogs & feeds (40)Country & Rural Garden News (13)Newspapers (6)Other Gardening News (A-J) (29)Other Gardening News (K-Z) (30)
Gardening in NJ, zone 6b. 3 Dec 08 Interesting mushroom, Rounded Earthstar and ramblings about the dearth of acorns I spotted these unique looking mushrooms growing under a Colorado Blue Spruce while on the dog walk. Last year I noticed a dry husk of the same mushroom on the sidewalk where the current crop is growing... 30 Nov 08 Color too nice not to post These are old photos taken earlier this fall. I've been so busy I haven't had the time to post them until now. The colors this fall was exceptional and long lasting.Service berry, Shadblow, Amelanchier laevis?Blueberry, Vaccinium... 24 Nov 08 Christmas cactus blooming and Bhut Jolokia pepper taste test The so called "Christmas cactus" is in full bloom before Thanksgiving. We put it outdoors last summer shaded from the afternoon hot sun by a maple tree and despite the pale looking plant parts it obviously has thrived... 17 Nov 08 Bhut Jolokia (world's hottest pepper) update I got tired bringing in the Bhut Jolokia pepper plants for the cold nights and taking them out on sunny days. My original intention was to see if I could overwinter the peppers indoors but the aphids infested the plants despite three sprayings of neem and insecticidal soap... 8 Nov 08 Fall colors of Japanese maple, Acer palmatum 'Sango kaku' Acer palmatum, 'Sango kaku' 3 weeks ago. Leaves have a slight greenish tint.'Sango kaku' one week ago - peak color.Sango kaku today, Saturday November 08, 2008 - past peak but still nice. .Another of the coral bark Japanese maples - 'Beni kawa', literally, red skin or bark... 31 Oct 08 Camellia sasanqua Returned from my trip to Seattle but unfortunately no pictures because I didn't take my camera - my free time was very limited and I didn't think I would see much to photograph. I did see a couple of interesting plants which I couldn't identify... 17 Oct 08 Spring in Autumn? We bought an end of season flowering cherry in mid-summer to replace a crab apple severely affected by cedar apple rust. Since we have many more cedar trees than crab apples it was easier to eliminate two rather than a dozen trees even if one of them was the cherished tree marking the grave of our much beloved cat, Wily... 13 Oct 08 Anemones and Tricyrtis Two Anemones I bought a couple of years ago are finally blooming. The first photo is Anemone Japonica 'Mont Rose'. Quite a lovely tall flower. It is a mystery that not many nurseries online offer this variety for sale... 8 Oct 08 Wordless Wednesday? Not quite ... Hydrangea paniculata 'Quick Fire'. Quick Fire is quick. It blooms about a month before Hydrangea paniculata floribunda or H. paniculata 'Lime Light'. I am a bit disappointed that the color isn't redder... 5 Oct 08 A Mystery Anemone and Others This mysterious Anemone appeared as a volunteer. It doesn't resemble any of the other Anemones we have and I suspect it may be a cross between A. Tomentosa Robustissima and A. Victor Jones or perhaps a cross between the white Anemone, A... 26 Sep 08 Giant Brunnera leaf (Siberian Bugloss) and other miscellaneous fall photos The Brunnera macrophylla was aptly named - macrophylla = large or big leaves. Some of the leaves are bigger than my hand. The B. 'Jack Frost' variegated leaves were never that big so I was surprised to see how large the plain green ones became... 22 Sep 08 Growing the World's hottest pepper. Bhut Jolokia, update. What a difference a month makes. Time and the right growing conditions created an explosion of growth. See the before and after photos below.Before: August 18, 2008After: September 20, 2008So... what I have learned about Bhut Jolokia culture: 1... 15 Sep 08 Fall Anemones The fall anemones are starting to bloom. We bought about 11 different ones and two which haven't bloomed previously have set buds so I'm anxiously awaiting to see what the flowers look like. I'll post pictures as soon as they bloom... 10 Sep 08 Seven Sons Tree and other late season flowers Seven Sons tree in bloom.Heptacodium miconioides, syn. H. jasminoides Family: Caprifoliaceae.From the Spring Meadow Nursery website: "Native to the Zhejiang Province of China, Heptacodium was first introduced to the west by the famous plant explorer E... 5 Sep 08 Heucheras (coral bells) and kin Our trees and shrubs have grown considerably and consequently we have lots of shade now. Our once barren yard is mostly shaded and many of the struggling, wan, sun loving plants need to be replaced. Luckily we found the wholesale nursery which has a good selection of shade loving plants... 3 Sep 08 Kirengeshoma palmatum, Yellow Wax Bells and other late season flowers I wanted to obtain a plant after seeing an interesting collector's article about Kirengeshoma palmatum in Horitculture. I first tried seeds. The instructions for growing it was daunting, with a long period of cold stratification and up to 4 months for germination... 30 Aug 08 Daphne 'Carol Mackie' and other flowers The Daphne is blooming again. It caught me by surprise - I thought Daphnes bloomed in the spring. The flowers don't have very much perfume and I had to stick my nose up to the flowers to smell anything but the beautifully variegated leaves more than make up for the lack of scent... 24 Aug 08 Late summer flowers Trumpet lily.PenstemonGreat Blue Lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica with crown of buds an interesting feature in its own right.Callirhoe involucrata, Purple poppy mallow, Winecup, a native wildflower.Several types of Helenium... 19 Aug 08 500th blog post & World's Hottest Pepper, Bhut Jolokia update This is my 500th post for this blog. A milestone of some sorts I guess.Last weekend we went back to the wholesale nursery because they were having a dollar sale. Of course the dollar plants were not the ones we wanted so we ended up spending a lot of green again... Wood poppy. Ligularia.Brunnera macrophylla Alkanet, Siberian Bugloss and 'Jack Frost'Silene uniflora 'Robin Whitebreast'.... 8 Aug 08 Another interesting fungus, Tapioca Slime Brefeldia maxima? and Wild Petunia, Ruellia nudiflora I looked through my Audubon Society mushroom book but was unsure about the identification of this fungus. My best guess is the Tapioca Slime, Brefeldia maxima but the color shown in the book was white rather than the yellow in my photos... 4 Aug 08 Midsummer Flowers and Pale, Sad, Cricket The crepe myrtle "Dynamite" continues to bloom well and the crimson red color seems to become more brilliant as it ages.We made another trip to the new wholesale nursery and I discovered they had an extensive collection of geraniums... 28 Jul 08 What's blooming now? 23 Jul 08 California Poppies, Eschscholzia californica and Big Beige Beetle Of all the flowering seeds I planted this year, the California Poppies are my favorite. The colorful and numerous flowers are just what we need during the hot months of summer. I thought I bought "Thai Silk" but surprisingly I was able to dig up my old order and found I actually bought "Mission Bells"... 21 Jul 08 Found new (to me) a wholesale plant nursery - happy as pigs in a wallow After seeing the lily Conca d'Or my wife took to the office, a co-worker told her about a nursery that sold plants (mostly perennials) cheaply and gave her a list of plants available. Of course we had to check it out this weekend even if the nursery was about 25 miles away...
|
