GardenArtist Posted September 2015
Gardening as therapy.
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This should be what landscapers are planting instead of high energy required massive lawns that need mowing. Or else supply goats and sheep to keep their energy intensive lawns more compatible with conservation.
What I've wanted to do for years was substitute ground covers for lawn, but the major effort of digging up the lawn and replacing it with ground covers is more than I can manage physically at this time. Even starting little by little is hard work; lawn is not easy to dig up.
I've thought of substituting rapid growing ground covers such as vinca or even Virginia creeper.
OAK FLOWERS
Flowers of the Black Oak, Quercus velutina Oak trees have male flowers on one part of their branch, and female flowers on another part of the same branch. When a plant bears both male and female flowers it's said to monoecious.
At the right you see a flowering branch of a Black Oak, Quercus velutina, from a tree in southern Mississippi. It was scanned in mid March just as the tree's leaves and flowers were appearing. The leaves in the picture are only about one-fifth their summer size.
If you don't know what a calyx or a stamen is, you can review these items on our Standard Blossom Page. The yellow, wormlike items in the picture's lower, left corner are catkins, more technically known as aments. Catkins are clusters, or inflorescences, of male flowers. Each of the "bumps" on the catkins is a male flower consisting of a bract (a highly modified leaf), a lobed calyx and some pollen-producing stamens. Once the stamens have released their pollen into the air, the entire catkin will fall from the tree. Maybe you've seen thousands of such spent catkins littering a sidewalk beneath an oak tree early in the spring. Other trees producing catkins include willows
On a flowering oak twig you have to look close to see the female flowers -- the future acorns. The inset in the picture's lower right corner shows a much-magnified female flower. Actually, mainly you just see the reddish 3-lobed stigma. Below the stigma there's an egg-shaped ovary camouflaged so well that it blends with the fuzzy petiole beneath it, and the fuzzy stem just to its left. Since these female flowers appear where you might expect a bud to be most people overlook them, thinking they are seeing buds. However, a bud would never be topped with a 3-lobed stigma!
There are dozens of species of oaks and they can all be divided into two great groups, depending on how long it takes for its female flowers to develop into acorns. Acorns in the White Oak Group mature the year they appear, and the acorn's kernel is often sweetish and edible. The Chestnut Oaks belong to this group.
Acorns in the Red and Black Oak Group mature in their second year and often their kernel is so bitter that a human would have a hard time eating it.
Sharyn, this one is probably at least fifty years old. The acorns are tiny maybe the size of a quarter around, if that big. I always thought acorns were move like the size of a cutie type orange? Know nothing about them at all.
I have to garden wearing a mask for at least 2 and sometimes 3 weeks every time they drop their messy seed pods. Even then, the masks can't keep out all the cottony fluff. If it's inhaled, it causes a lot of coughing, and who knows what on a long term basis.
i take steves advice , then i go home and do the exact opposite .
theres the right way , the wrong way , and my way . my way is the same as the wrong way only quicker ..
For more info, google "willow branches as sprouting aides". The first hit should be an article with more information.
We also used jars to start roots, especially from rose bushes.
Their arrival was so quick. This morning I thought the green in the garden was a warning sign that the grass was moving outside of its designated space. Two hours later the grass had purple and dark royal blue flowers!
A very noisy line of T-storms passed through last night, bringing winds and apparently enough rain to give the flowers a push from bud into bloom.
So far only the deep violet crocuses and the bright cheery Siberian Squills are in bloom, but that's enough! Just seeing those lovely colors is soooooo cheery.
Who else has blooms, especially in the Midwest?
Yes, it's a great day today, even if the winds are supposed to hit 50 mph!
I'm thinking a lovely bouquet of lilacs, lunarias and roses could include roses in white, ivory, pale pink, .... well, any rose is beautiful!
Have you (or has anyone else) ever grown the Drift Roses? I've been thinking about adding some.
am
and yea cwillie , i have plastic baggies over the cuttings to duplicate the hot house effect , and so far , they are kickin it . they might run out of energy and die but i learned long ago , if you dont try , your guaranteed to fail .
and fk steve . what he dont know would fill a warehouse ..
But this "fk Steve" language suggests you're still thinking in the mode which I found offensive.
Obviously I can't prevent you from posting, but please have the courtesy to avoid the "fk" type language. This is a nice thread and I'd like to see it kept that way.
If you want to use low class language, go elsewhere.
im in fact , pleased to say that ..
I finally weeded the plot the irises are in, quiet a job with thick weeds. I pruned the roses back as they were growing out in the walk way to the front door. I am fond for the day, another day I will get more pruning done.
( no it hasnt )
live and let live , gardenartist ..
edna only had an on / off switch . proportion was for losers ..
I've grown a few hybrid teas but didn't have much luck with them, although later I realized it was the location. Despite being in the back yard garden, the bitter west winds managed to reach them during the winter.
Glad, an ice storm? So many areas are getting an early spring; sounds like your area is still stuck in winter. But we know that spring will be here in April, one way or the other. Hopefully the ice storm won't take out any enthusiastic plants that are rushing spring.
Ruth, how tall does this plant grow? I assume it's blooming now?