This creature was on the back door frame today. I left it alone. It was there for several hours. Profile view. Now Im doing the tomato plant choo choo train routine. Inside at night, outside during the day. I set up LED lights in the garage West window, to use instead of the sunroom which gets too hot. I worked too hard yesterday doing rose garden cleanup. It's moving along very well. Still more to do. Today I felt bad as a result, so I didn't do any garden work. Tomorrow - plant sprouting dahlia tubers, sprouting Four O'Clock seeds, and squash seeds. I did make a trip to the massive grocery store, and bought pepper plants Poblano, Serrano, and Jalapeño. I usually start my own, but this year bought them instead.
I planted six cells of these mixed morning glory seeds. I have a Love-Hate relationship with Morning Glories !! I love how vigorous they are, how abundantly they bloom and how they can cover a chain link fence in no time, and how they self seed so I have plenty for next year. I hate them because they self seed too much, are a PITA to remove from the chain link fence, and block air circulation because they totally cover the fence !! All in all, I love them more than I hate them, I guess, or I wouldn't keep on buying them !!
I like those morning glory flowers too. Here, deer or rabbits eat the young shoots but leave the older ones alone. I will plant some seeds too. The dark blue ones with glowing center look like "Grandpa Ott".
These were dahlia tubers that I dug up in late fall. I stored them in moist peat moss. I moistened them thoroughly a month ago, but nothing happened and I thought maybe they were dead. So I planted them in containers with fresh potting soil, to get them started. They are dwarf, almost miniature dahlia varieties that I grew from seeds. The flowers were nice, which is why I tried to save them. Some will be in deck containers, some in the border.
Seedlings sunning on the patio today Lots of four o'clocks from home saved seeds (too easy), basil, California poppies "swirl mix", flame celosia. Miniature sweet peas, germinating Galeux d' Eysine squash The dahlia in the center is a bit obscured by basil and parsley, but it's there. Miniature variety I grew last year from seeds. I dug up the ones I liked and overwintered in the garage for containers, this year. Out walking Rufus. Not a squirrel so he wasn't too interested. And to think they weren't laying any eggs in December / January due to molting. Blooming rosemary.
@Daniel W your seedlings are really coming on well, looking really good !! That horse's color is called "Cremello" a very rare color in horses. It's good that Rufus doesn't find horses interesting !! My mule killed a neighbor's dog that kept harassing her and my other mule. I told the owner what would happen if she kept letting that dog run loose. It dug under the fence and my mule stomped it to death. So, yeah, Good Dog you have !! And, my Rosemary hadn't bloomed yet !! I'm jealous !!
I got My Sweet Summer Love Clematis start from Holland Bulb Farm in the mail today !! I got it 50% off !! I have wanted this clematis since I first laid eyes on it !! The text below comes from The Missouri Botanical Gardens website: "Sweet Summer Love' originated in July 2003 from a cross-pollination conducted by Szczepan Marczyskior in Pruszkow, Poland using 2 unidentified selections of Clematis hybrida. It flowers freely, producing hundreds of 1 to 2 in. across, cranberry red maturing to reddish purple flowers that have a cherry or almond-vanilla fragrance. 'Sweet Summer Love' has an upright and vining habit with relatively small leaves and grows 10' to 15' tall and 6' to 10' wide. It is a Proven Winners®/Color Choice® variety and is an award winning plant, including the 2014 Green Thumb Award from the Direct Gardening Association. Plant patent number PP24044 applies to this cultivar." Here is a pic of the starter plant I recieves today. It's a little blanched from being in a box for four days but a couple hours under the grow lights tonight and again tomorrow should fix that. I think it's too young to put out in the garden just yet. I'm going to pot it on and let it get a lot bigger before planting it out in fall.
