This item text has been erased.

102 responses total.

Mostly outdoor gardening. I use a lot of herbs in cooking, so I try to 
grow what I can. A few vegetables, but not much luck. My zinnias were
incredible last year, but never got them in this season. Indoors, just
a few things. Tried forcing paperwhites last year with GREAT success. 
The Xmas cactus is loaded with buds right now. Hey, wonderful idea for
a conference.

I grow nothing. I have an utterly black thumb. I am here because my wife
grows lots of things, but doesn't use Grex. So I'll hang out here
and be a middleman, if I can.

She grows houseplants and outside we have several gardens (well, she has).

Veggies: She grows tomatoes, basil, parsley, onions, garlic, chives, asparagus.

Fruit: We have apple and pear trees. We also have dwarf citrus trees that
live outdoors in summer, indoors in winter. The fruit is useless though,
except for the limes.

Lots of perennial flowers, including a new garden replacing a significant
portion of our front lawn. This new garden has mums, evergreens, and a
dwarf red maple in the center. In fact, I'm going to have to go wrap that
maple for the winter (in burlap) as soon as the last leaves drop off.

We have a few cacti for houseplants.

I just brought home a very large "Thanksgiving" or "crab" cactus, which
is basically a Christmas cactus that blooms in November. It has translucent
pink blooms all over it, and more on the way. I'd never seen a Christmas
cactus so big that it was woody like a tree. It's about 18'' tall. I got
it from a plant sale at church for only $8.00. I hope I don;t kill it!

This response has been erased.

Sorry. As I said I am new to this. I am wondering if any of have had any
experience with the Winged be. I am conducting research on them and would
appreciate any input from those of you who have grown them. thanks!

THat's OK, Shervin. Welcome.
You should hit a return character when you get out to around 75 characters,
because Grex doesn't do line wrap. That'll make your posts a little
easier to read.

What is a "winged be"? I am confused.

This response has been erased.

My reference books show only 2 winged items. One is a chinese
wing nut, a type of tree, and the other is a winged spindle, a type 
of shrub with brilliant red leaves in the fall (kinda like a burning
bush), neither of which I've grown. Anyone else?

i've got a sun garden, and a shade garden...all my own!!  and then i share
a sun one w/ my mom, and my dad has a veggie garden, and a rew other flower
gardens.... lots of cools stuff!!!!  i love wax begonias, but i don't know
anything about winged begonias....

Was that a winged begonia that was mentioned before?  I don't grow anything now
but at work I am in charge of about 30 acres with 18 of that being woods.  I
also worked at a greenhouse for two years while in shool.  I don't know plants
by common names

well, i don't know them by scientific names, so wer are even,  :)

Does anyone know where I can find some bulbs to force indoors?
It would be great to have spring inside soon.  I think they would need to
be stored in the cold all winter.    Maybe it's time to bring in some
forsythia from outside--it'll start blooming within a few days of being 
indoors.  (Hope this makes some sense-it's my first message.)

This response has been erased.

i tend to go for bulk bulbs more, just for the selection.  i haven't had
too many problems...

check around.  maybe colmen's food market (if you are in the ann arbor
area) still has some...also maybe franks.  

This will sound silly, but do any of yo uknow a store that 
consistantly unhealthy plants?  My professor for Bio. and Mangmt. of 
Insects was looking for a sick plant to culture aphids on, and couldnt find
one sick enought to tempt them off the one they were on.  <They were
to feed the ladybugs>  Maybe i can suggest somewhere for her to find a
plant next year  

check any grocery store.  i've seen quite a bit at kroger and meijer.  esp.
target...they are always killing off plants there!

This response has been erased.

Aphids only attack stressed plants, they avoid healthy plants  
<i'm sure there is a reason why, but it doesn't want to be recalled right now
but i do know that there is a preference in little aphid ganglion for 
yellow and yellowish plants.  the bulb that they were on when the instructor
got them was one step from dead, and the birdsnest fern she got for 
them to move to was none to healthy>

type
I was really surprised to learn that aphids only go to unhealthy plants.
I have a Hibiscus that had them on it but that didn't appear to be sick, it
was really green and had alot of flowers on it. I used some soap water to 
spray on it to help get rid of them."."
":help".
Respond
Pass
"."

This response has been erased.

Yes it did get rid of the aphids. It seems that I got them went I put my 
plant outdoors. I had them really bad on my dalhias that were in the garden.   
 Being so far north it seems like we don't have very many lady very few up here
that I have noticed. But the soapy-water does seem to do the trick. ." ."

that just goes to shoe you how much book learnign will 
get you.  i had learned that aphid prefer sick plants,  maybe taht is 
the difference, i prefer to eat hot food but left over burritoes 
will do in a pinch  :)

We have several acres mostly in shade gardening.  Ferns & Hostas & about 
1/2 acre of periwinkle.  My wife, Nancy, is getting to be an expert in
shade gardening.  The grass keeps disappearing into landscaped garden beds.

This response has been erased.

lady bugs are GREAT for eating aphids! even for your indoor plants.  i mean
really, who minds finding a ladybug or two wandering around their house?  :)

i planted delphinium and fox glove last year and they did beautifully. i didn't
mulch them for the winter, and am wondering how they will do this year. Do i
need to do anything to thelp them out, or will they just come up?

This response has been erased.

she's in dexter...:)

Re:Foxgloves I've left the leaves that fell on them stay over the winter,
and they've come up for the last four years. Did you do the same, or did
you rake up your leaves? Don't raise delfs, so can't help there!

Well, I deal exclusively in orphan houseplants.  :)  Thet typically need
one or more of the following:
1.      Water
2.      Light
3.      To be cut back viciously
4.      To be repotted with the roots cut back viciously
These weem to bring them right back.  Beyond that I did get some fertilizer
and some bug spray, but that's it.

This response has been erased.

Ok, I made it out to Saguaro this weekend.  They have some pretty impressive
plants, including massive jade trees and cactuses.  I got 3 small plants
(cheaper that way ;) ), including two plants I can't remember the names of,
and one "trumpet" jade tree which featured really strange leaves (Saguaro had
a *bunch* of these in different sizes).  The other two were also succulents.

I also set up a grow light and timer in my office to keep these things alive
without having to put them in somebody else's window.      :)

I have a really neat succulent called a "burrow's tail."  I got it from
someone at work & I have never seen it before.  It has rope-like strands of
light green cylindrical "leaves" and from a distance it resembles a green
braided rope.  We are moving to new offices and I plan to put it in the
window..

This response has been erased.

Ok, Valerie, thanks.  I'll try it.

So, now that we are waiting for spring to be sprung...anyone know anything
about companion planting?  We moved to Galeforce Farm last august and we are
planning on planting a humongous garden this year so that we can freeze and
can stuff for the winter.  I made all kinds of canned pears, pear/raspberry
sauce, applesauce and applebutter last year.  More of the same this year, plus
use of the many berries that grow around here.  The list of plants for my
garden will be long, but I will post is anyone is interested or knows
anything about companion planting.  Help!

I understand the concept of companion planting.  But I cannot give any 
specifics on it right now.  I do know that marigolds planted in a border
around our small garden keep insects away.  There are also certain plants
that you can use as 'trap crops'.  If an insect likes a particular crop
such as parsely, nastursiums planted near them will draw the insects to
the second crop, which you can then spray or remove the insects.  Larger
farms and agrobuisness use this also, but they tend to burn or spray entire
feilds of a certian crop.  
I might be able to help, if you wish to mail me instead of posting, but
most of the stuff I know is on a really small scale basis

Thanks val!  I am looking to do this garden as a source of food and fodder
for the family during the summer and winter months.  Any help would be greatly
appreciated.  See you in email!

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss