In the city, everything is coming up green, but further north and rural, we see mostly purple and gray. No school-box Crayola Spring Green or Fern for us. Native Oklahoma redbuds (Cercis canadensis) dot the countryside with color where they stand against charcoal gray, scrub oaks. The oaks don’t trust our warm [...]
reBlogged
to spring trees
on Apr 1, 2008, 10:46AM
Posted by Dee Reblogged by Old Roses to spring, trees on 2008-04-02, 06:19:10
This one has: light weight row cover to protect my brassicas from the white butterflies this summer, thermal black plastic for my tomatoes and peppers, pins, markers, and roll of nice-looking white plastic netting for my peas. Also a few packets (15) of seeds. (Does 15 count as a few?). . .
reBlogged
to seeds
Posted by kathy Reblogged by Old Roses to seeds on 2008-04-02, 06:18:43
Wow! What can I say… There were over 5,000 entries for the composter giveaway and I think that I had a record number of comments on that post.
The Composter Giveaway is now closed and a winner has been selected. Robert Fantom from New York is the proud winner of the Urban Compost Bin Tumbler. He. . .
reBlogged
to compost tools
on Apr 1, 2008, 8:46AM
Posted by Hanna Reblogged by Old Roses to compost, tools on 2008-04-02, 06:17:18
Colleen at In The Garden Online recently put up a quick post asking if anyone was on Twitter. For those of you who don't know, Twitter is a micro blog where you post short little updates of what your doing or working on. Lots of people also use Twitter as a form of instant messaging. Unfortunately because of this, they have blocked it's use from within the office of my 9-5. But it's a good thing that I have an iPhone. Yes, the man won't be keeping me from my Tweets.
I've added a badge over there on the right that displays my last few Tweets.
Now thanks to Colleen there's an explosion of Garden Bloggers on Twitter. Nice work. I was getting lonely on there by myself.
reBlogged
to blogs
Posted by Anthony Reblogged by Old Roses to blogs on 2008-04-02, 06:17:00
Has anybody ever criticized how your yard looks? If so, perhaps you'd like to keep some funny comeback lines handy, in case it happens again.... Of course, considering that this...
reBlogged
to landscape whimsy
on Apr 1, 2008, 1:55AM
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to landscape, whimsy on 2008-04-02, 06:15:03
My little girl took this photo. I love how the shadow looks like a bird's wing. I also get a lot of new ideas when I see her photos. She considers shooting angles that would never occur to me.
This week was the Natural Sciences Society Orchid Show, I took a few plants, but for complex reasons was unable to take pictures. Since I was away, I had not been checking my plants, so I did not notice the three Cattleya Aclandiae from Brazil were all in flower. Pity people could have compared how different they are:
reBlogged
to orchids
on Apr 1, 2008, 12:34AM
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to orchids on 2008-04-02, 06:12:55
Growing yesterday before I accidently trod on it the first Dandelion of the year.Soon all the grass around Wakefield will be ablaze with the Sunrise yellow of this wildflower/weed.It has sultry good looks and if you admire it at close range it is suprisingly complex.What lets it down is its leaves and taproots. I have two demijohns of Dandelion wine in the cellar from 2006 and 2007.Will 2008 be a good Dandelion wine year? The title is the French version of its name, the Lions teeth.Its yellow flower head looks like a lions mane to me. I'm off to do some more allotment preperation.Its sunny but windy.I will top up my Vitamin D levels today :)
reBlogged
to weeds
Posted by snappy Reblogged by Old Roses to weeds on 2008-04-02, 06:12:47
I couldn't post anything but this as the Plant of the Week. This is one of my own babies grown from seed that I got from Glenhirst Cactus Nursery in the UK in 2003, which was my first real attempt at growing cactus from seed. Many mistakes were made, and of the 145 species that I got seed packets for, only 27 plants have survived.
The Echinofossulocactus ochoterenaus is is one of the surviviors, and at just under five years old it has thrown out its first blooms. I think they are just beautiful!
Echinofossulocactus ochoterenaus
reBlogged
to cacti flowers
Posted by Jade Reblogged by Old Roses to cacti, flowers on 2008-04-02, 06:12:38
It exists in Slow Time, that place where there are no deadlines, no telephones vibrate, and there is no season of new television comedy. It is spring. Coming at its own pace. Once in twelve, or thirteen, moons or so. Nothing is definite. No weather, no memory, no seed reliably germinate. Rain, sun, wind, planetary spinning. Spiders appear, and the migrant birds. Today I saw a swallowtail swerve and cling to flowerless stem. Hopeful, perhaps. That is the metaphor. Hope....
reBlogged
to birds
on Apr 1, 2008, 2:45AM
Posted by briggs Reblogged by Old Roses to birds on 2008-04-02, 06:12:00
Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick, or the Contorted Filbert or Hazelnut, (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') has never been hard to find in better garden centers, but is it by no means a common landscape shrub. Prized for its corkscrew-like stems it’s at its best in the winter and in early spring before the leaves emerge to hide its interesting stems. During the rest of the year it is a plant that simply fades into the background, unnoticed until the next winter. . ..
reBlogged
to shrubs
Posted by Tim Wood Reblogged by Old Roses to shrubs on 2008-04-02, 06:11:16
Homeowners Fluke and Ramona Fluker (yes, that is their real name) along with daughter Brooke-Lynn were busted by the Garden Police for the deplorable condition...
reBlogged
to design
on Sep 24, 2005, 2:28AM
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to design on 2008-04-02, 06:09:57
One advantage to blogging is that I can look back and see what was going on in my garden a year ago at this time. That was actually one of the biggest reasons I started blogging in the first place. This year, it seems that spring is taking its sweet time in getting here for real, especially when I looked back on 2007and we were just returning from a week in Florida. . . .
reBlogged
to spring
Posted by Kylee Reblogged by Old Roses to spring on 2008-04-02, 06:07:05
It is interesting to note that many of the first wildflowers to appear in Spring are Yellow....such as the Buttercups and Dog Tooth Violets mentioned in earlier posts, and the currently blooming wild yellow Violets. I think God knew how much we would need that warm, sunny color this time of year, to cheer our winter weary souls!
reBlogged
to violets
Posted by Connie Reblogged by Old Roses to violets on 2008-04-02, 06:03:33
With a streak of cloudy weather, I have resorted to a plant light. I set up a make shift arrangement using my fish tank lighting. I didn't want to burn the little seedlings, so I looked up how much light is OK. . .
reBlogged
to tools seedlings
Posted by kathy Reblogged by Old Roses to seedlings, tools on 2008-04-02, 05:52:44
Texan cattle farmer, Teg Whisson, got more than he bargained for after winning a recent produce competition in Fort Worth. His 1485lb history making giant pumpkin began to grow legs - quite literally - as they unloaded the prize on his ranch return. Two hours later, Whisson was delivering a calf. Not as one would expect from its labouring mother but actually from within Whisson's prize pumpkin. . . .
reBlogged
to pumpkin whimsy
on Mar 31, 2008, 6:00PM
Dutch Hyacinth Hyacinthus orientalis (hy-uh-SIN-thus) (or-ee-en-TAY-liss)
Almost everyone knows this sweet smelling flower. They aren’t blooming here yet but I did see some of the foliage popped out of the ground the other day. I bought these for Easter and have kept them outside on the front step. It is amazing to me that they really took some cold nights (guessing the mid-teens F) with just a little tinge of damage on the top of one of the stalks, which is hardly noticeable. Hyacinths are very hardy in the ground surviving into USDA Zone 3, but this the first time I could see how hardy the flower was. Gardeners south of Zone 7 should treat them as annuals. . . .
reBlogged
to hyacinth bulbs
on Mar 31, 2008, 7:12AM
When I read that former Troy, MI resident Lance Carrothers -- also known as Mr. Tomato -- will be speaking to the Troy Garden Club at noon on April 9, I immediately put the date on my calendar.
It's been almost a decade since the tomato crazy Carrothers pulled up plant stakes and moved to Florida, leaving Michigan's Great Tomato Race minus one of its top boosters and contenders. Carrothers won the race several times when he harvested the first tomato of the season by using a novel growing system. . . .
via Skippy's Vegetable Garden on 1969-12-31, 19:00:00
