[oil painter]

Well I'm no great photographer but I'm going to attempt to show some pictures of my flowers
They are in order Stella D' Oro lily, Zebrina Malva, 2 of the end of my big plat with a hosta and fernleafed bleeding heart.and one of my boxes in front The picture doesn't do it justice the marigolds are just starting to bloom and so is the coral bells

[oil painter]

More pictures. My center box in front, another zebrina and non-stop begonia with lobelia.

I just noticed a dead spot on my cedar I will have to investigate that

[telecom69]

Hi Myrna, So glad you decided to post some photos great looking garden,you have all sorts in there,your Marigolds are just about the same stage as mine are,but you have outdone me with the non stops they have some flowers buth not as big as yours, maybe next weekend,we shall see, I note that what you call Zebrina,is called Lavendula/Mallow over here,you can either buy the smaller bedding varieties,or they come as shrubs,which have very rapid growth in the summer months,the flowers are identical,and I now know at last what Coral Bells look like Ive seen them before in several gardens but never knew what they were called......

Would you mind going back to post #2685 and taking a look at that ? can you put a name to them ? I know what I have always believed they are,but would like a second opinion ....

Now that you have broken the ice,so to speak with the photos,I hope you are going to keep us updated as growth continues,the Marigolds in particular will look stunning quite soon now Im sure,they look like they might be African Marigolds but I could be wrong, I liked too the Stella Lillies,I thought at first glance they were Daffodils,how wrong can you be

We are preparing for a bit of a heatwave over here as from now onwards,an alert has been issued by the met office here,its really nothing to the temps you have,but can affect the old and very young or people with certain medical conditions .....along with this heatwave are forecast heavy rain showers at times so will be interesting to see what it all does to the plant growth by next weekend....

Take care Myrna and have a good weekend

[oil painter]

Hi Bob:
Glad you like my flowers--I know my photography leaves much to be desired.

I'm not sure what your flower is. The flower looks much like a Campanula pendula or Campanula lactiflora but I'm not sure if they have that leaf.

Well I had to look up Mallow. I grow musk mallow too and Lavateria and they all have similar flowes to the malva. It seems they are all related as well as being related to hollyhocks. My Zebrina Malva only grows about 2 1/2 feet tall. It is just starting to bloom and it will branch out and bloom all the way to it's full height. I use it as an annual but in milder climates it is a perennial.

Yes my marigolds are the African carnation flowered ones including the large flowered Antigua which is behind the small ones and just budding.

Well I wish you a cool place to wait out your heat wave. I was happy to get rid of ours and grateful to be back to normal temps. Now if only we get the rain they promised tomorrow then I'd be a happy camper.

Take care Talk to you later

[katonca]

Nice flowers oil painter.

Hi Yvonne I hope they straighten out too.

I checked two of my pots. Seems like I have alot of roots just under the top of the soil (2" down). The pots are @ 17" across, @ 12" deep but taper to @ 10" across.

Planting them in the ground is not an option I'm afraid (no accessible ground ). I'll keep watering them a couple times a day (I watered the concrete they're on also). The plastic pots sit on bricks about 6" off the ground. They have fruit right now, hope it continues.

I use Schultz 17-19-29 tomato food (hope that's OK). It says to use every time you water but that sounds excessive to me.

Thanks for the advice folks.

[oil painter]

katonca:
Thanks

Your pots sound big enough I guess they look smaller in the pictures. If they are not wilting now I guess it was just lack of water and hot weather and nothing else.

Hot weather just sucks up all the moisture.

Your fertilizer sounds fine but I would only use it about once a week and be sure to water before you fertilize. If you fertilize a dry plant you can burn the roots

[telecom69]

Hi all, about the Tomatos, we must rember they are a vine by nature,and can put on a phenominal amount of growth in a season if grown in the right conditions, I have seen them in commercial greenhouses 15/16 ft long, they grow them vertically then train them horizontally when they reach the top of the greenhouses,the trusses of Tomatos then hang down supported by nets ....so you see, the way we grow them is a bit resrtricting to say the least they need as much root room as we can give them,and if its not enough the plants will suffer and show it,a constant supply of water is essential, without that they will fail...since we cannot mimic commercial conditions we have to compromise a bit,and resrict them to four or five trusses,which in my case is about 5ft high in the greenhouse,they are watered twice daily and fed once a week,every so often I give them a light spray with the hosepipe,to set the fruit,(pollen etc)....when they show 4/5 trusses I pinch out the tops and that stops the plant growing,althogh it may try to put out sideshoots,they are pinched out too ...the plant then can get on with the ripening process ....hope I have not bored you

[katonca]

Good info oil painter and Bob, thanks.

[oil painter]

Hi All:

Well I'm a happy camper. We have had a gentle rain all day. Just what everything needed. It went nice and deep. I stuck my finger all the way in the soil and it's wet clear through.

Since I couldn't do anything outside, today was baking day. My son and his family are coming next weekend--Canada Day weekend, so now I'll have some sweets for all my boys--and of course their mother too.

I too wondered where Penny was Bob. I wonder if this was the time she was going to France with her friends. She mentioned going in an earlier post, but never mentioned when, and I just remembered that.

No gardening news today---Take care

[telecom69]

I don't have any gardening news either,all I did was some weeding and general tidying up ...the weather was very cloudy and overcast and it rained for about 90 minutes in the afternoon ...

Off topic a bit, my car got damaged overnight somehow,not by road traffic,as it was on the pavement side,panel pushed in and paintwork damage,learned later there was a sort of a fight with lots of people involved right where the car was parked,so it has to be something to do with that,I saw and heard nothing myself, not usually any problems like that round here,would have to be my car that was in the way its fully insured so no big problem,just some inconvenience I could do without ....

The heatwave should start today,so we shall see, not looking forward to it at all ...

take care all and happy gardening

[Tuppence2]

Hello, everyone. I enjoyed the photos and recent posts.

I got back from my weekend in Cornwall, visiting The Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan. It was a great trip.

Very hot here - not my cup of tea, at all.

Hope you are all well.

[franca]

Originally Posted by Tuppence2

Hello, everyone. I enjoyed the photos and recent posts.

I got back from my weekend in Cornwall, visiting The Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan. It was a great trip.

Very hot here - not my cup of tea, at all.

Hope you are all well.

Welcome home my Penny Rose..... hope U had a nice time, what did U get me ?..

I saw it was hot .....phew ......

Everything AOK here in paradise,...

ttyl take care, pats for all the gang.did they miss U ?........

[Tuppence2]

Hello, Frank and thanks very much for the welcome back.

......So many nice things I could have bought. You'd have loved the old potting and tool sheds and the gardener's room, like the parlour of a little cottage.

These bee boles were very interesting.



I've started an album at Webshots and have lots more photos to add over time.

Hope it's not as hot with you as it is here. I've just shut the greenhouse door a little as the light is going now and I hope it will be cooler in the morning, when I'll water the vegetables.

I picked my first yellow pepper and peas today.

Tickles for Jaki.

[telecom69]

Hi everyone,Aha, so thats where you have been Penny,was wondering where you were,welcome back, been missing your posts just had a look at what you have already posted,what wonderful collections of tools the old gardeners had,very interested in those and the weird and wonderful shapes of some of them,looking forward to seeing more photos as you add them ....

The heatwave arrived as forecast where I am,and after midday it was impossible to go outside,it was like opening an oven door,the heat just hit you hard,so it was indoors for me with the fans on and some reading to pass away the time ...the Tomatos are growing like mad now,so too the Runner Beans,they have reached the top of the 8 ft poles and I have cut the tops off to stop them growing,lots of flowers appearing,so it wont be long before we are having beans ...tying in the Tomatos is a daily job,as is looking for sideshoots,they can grow 3/4 inches in a day and are not wanted,have 3 trusses of Tomatoes now,another two and they too will be stopped growing,at the current rate that will be the weekend or early next week ....

Two different Roses made their debut today,photos below , and the non stops have started to flower,can't wait to see them in full bloom ...the heatwave came to a temporary end with a thunderstorm around 4.30 pm,the heavens opened and I shant have to do any watering for a few days the local petrol service station was hit by lightening and a house too, a hundred yards away, so we were lucky, have yet to see if its done any damage to any plants etc,it was very heavy rain ....

Blue Moon of course a favourite of mine from the old days ....its a bit blurry,was breezy ...



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-06-29

Whisky Mac,another from my past growing days ....



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-06-29


Quite a few more Roses are about to bloom,so be warned,Ive not finished posting them yet.....take care everyone,and have a good day

[Tuppence2]

Hello, Bob & everyone.

Yes, I had a couple of days in sunny Cornwall. It was sunnier here, yesterday, though. We've just had a heavy downpour of rain, which is very welcome. Not a thunderstorm. Sorry to here about the lightning and pleased it didn't strike you and yours.

I'm glad you like the photos. I found the potting sheds and tools, etc., very interesting. There were very productive vegetable gardens at both places, the one at The Eden Project set up like an allotment, whereas there was a walled vegetable garden at Heligan.

I was pleased that the dogs were good. It's the first time I've left them with a friend and they behaved very well. Hope Buster is well, too.

So nice not to have to water this morning and it's cooler, too. I ate my first yellow pepper from the greenhouse, yesterday, along with yellow mangetout, dwarf peas and Swiss Chard, then raspberries.

Thanks for the photos of the lovely roses. Look forward to more.

Here I am (in the cap) at The Eden Project