Petee

I wait till the seeds are almost ready to drop on their own, then take them inside to dry for a day. I store them in teeny waxed paper envelopes in a sealed jar in the back of the fridge. They are marked with the name, where I got them and what year in case I don't use them all the next year.

The ones I sold had a really good start so I'm guessing that you have some fantastic soil. I'll have them again next year and I think I need to find another place to grow them. Lots of sun, moist rich soil?

The ones I sold had a really good start so I'm guessing that you have some fantastic soil. I'll have them again next year and I think I need to find another place to grow them. Lots of sun, moist rich soil?

Congratulations, you are a rare one to actually get some flowers this year! What did you do that the rest of us didn't? Yes, I can use all the seeds you can provide. Thank you. How do I get them?

If there is no insect or blight damage just toss them into the compost. Otherwise send them to the garbage. Yes, Gypsywannabe is right. They should always be trimmed for the winter down to 3-6 inches above the growth area. Trimming them takes away the main area where Iris borers like to over winter. It does them good to dig them every 2-3 years and look for damage or rotten spots on the roots. Then you can also divide them, amend the soil and replant them in other places.

Better yet. let's go raid her garden. :-)

Channel 10 news has been pushing the frost info but with all the cloud cover for the next few days we may yet escape for a while. I think the latest frost I can remember was Oct 10. Hasn't this been a nice fall so far?

Our area will be getting it's first serious frost in the next day or so, so start getting your tender plants back into the house or a protective garage. I take mine to the picnic table under the deck roof and right outside of the back door. They get treated for insects, cleaned up (check the bottoms for spiders and earwigs), trimmed and washed. Then they come in when the first frost appears. It"s sad but it's fun too to see how much they grew through the summer. I have a Hibiscus tree that never goes out (fewer bugs) and now it flowers through the winter and just grows during the summer. It's so nice to get up in the morning and count how many flowers are budding that day.

Try removing as much as possible with a razor blade scraper like they use to remove excess paint from windows. Then try using a Q Tip to dab it with nail polish remover or some other solvent. Sometimes if you get a spot of glue thin enough a solvent will work better.

You may want to put a little stick beside them so you remember what they are in the spring. They usually have a fan of leaves left from transplanting but sometimes they disappear over winter.

I just got a nice shipment of Irises that I figured had gotten lost or whatever. They should be gorgeous next year.

I picked up three huge Mums at Lowes on Friday for $2 each. They were for the Franklin Street planting bed as everyone I've planted at home dies during the winter. It's just too cold in my location.

How about saving seeds and getting some houseplants prettied up for winter. It's not the death of your garden, it's just a rest so it can produce again next year. How about collecting sawdust and leaves, cow manure, etc and building up a whole mound of rich soil so that next year you will have a composted treasure in your garden. I always like a rest so gardening doesn't get old. Every spring is so exciting.

On the BUDS e-mail list we got two recommendations of Brecks Bulbs and Dutch Bulbs.

Does anyone have a favorite place to buy or order good quality spring bulbs?

I think the seeds might get too cold/dry/wet in a pot above ground but save a few in a waxed paper envelope in a jar in the back of your refrigerator and you'll have them to sow next year in case they don't come back in the pot.

You just have to wait till all of the leaves have dropped off naturally. Just as soon as that happens you can move the plant. Once it gets into the new hole, it will establish some feeder roots into the new soil but not enough to stabilize itself for winter winds. First thing in the spring, even before leaves appear, it will be developing a lot more roots. When the first teeny leaf buds appear, that's when you will want to feed it. Not a lot, but just enough to give it a little kick start for a new location. Once it has leafed out then you can probably remove the ropes.

That is Devil's Trumpet (looks up from Hell!:-) Datura. alias Jimsom Weed, Loco Weed, is extremely hallucinagenic to animals and children and reseeds itself. Yes it is beautiful. Moonflower Vine is an annual that looks pretty much the same except it grows on a vine. Beautiful also and extremely fragrant. This must be seeded in the spring. Brugmansia, alias Angel's Trumpet (looks down from Heaven) is more of a shrubby tree and the flower looks the same, comes in a variety of colors, is wonderfully fragrant and is a tender Perennial which must come in for the winter. Mine smells like Baby Powder, emerges yellow and almost immediately turns pink. Mine got so big that I gave it to a friend who has a huge window in his business and it bloomed all winter and summer.

Just a suggestion: You may want to wait till it goes dormant this fall. Cut the roots off about 2 feet away from the trunk and dig a little ditch around there to make the roots regrow at the cut line. Cut it back by about half. Once the new hole is dug and you're sure it is "asleep" for the winter, then transfer it directly to the new hole with as little additional root damage as possible. Stake it for the winter, water it once and then let nature take care of it. If it's going to come back it will think it never moved and just start growing again in the spring.

http://www.gardenguides.com/plants/plant.asp?symbol=SASE10#details

I planted one about 20 years ago and it died off in a few years. Neither water nor sun were a problem. Either they love a spot or they kick their heels up and die. Don't feel too bad, it may have done you a favor.

If you are bringing one in from outdoors you may have better luck but raising it from a seed to fruiting age indoors would probably be very demanding. Their need for sunlight and heat is pretty high. Bugs would be another problem. They always appear from somewhere and like tender foliage. How about one of the more ornamental peppers? They are even sold as houseplants. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-20238222.html

I've always liked to save any perennials that I buy during the summer to plant in the fall and it's always worked great. It gives me a chance to pot them up for bigger root systems, coddle them and make sure they are as strong and big as possible when they go into the ground. Also I don't have to run around all summer making sure they have enough water. I just keep them on my deck by the hose. The entire planting bed at Franklin Street was done in the late summer and fall so that's proof that it's a good time to plant. On that same note, the B.U.D.S. will be having a fall perennial sale on Saturday, August 6, to start about 1 PM. This time the sale will be held at Charlie's Alternators, location of our huge planting beds on Franklin Street, at the back of the Shankle Drug and Fort Worth parking lot. The composting workshop is that morning at the United Way so this is the earliest we can be ready. Come to it too! These are plants that we have divided from our own home gardens, donations and from the community planting beds where they got too large. I cannot keep all of them for the winter so we need to find them homes. As usual, all proceeds go back to the community through the planting beds just as soon as possible.

Everyone should have tomatoes starting to ripen. Isn't that first fresh tomato sandwich just grand?

Well, the Jack Beans turned out to be Hyacinth Beans....even better than Jack Beans and they grow here well. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/890 Barring some disaster we should have plants for sale next spring.