NDR - flowers from the garden (more pics added)

Your flowers are beautiful!!!!!!!  The heat has mine slowed down quite a bit but Amanda must have a greeeeeeen thumb hers look great and it's super hot where she lives too. 

I love that pansy, how unusual and pretty. 

Whooo Hoooo!  A willing victim.... ha!

For example.... Lowes usually has,  way in the back of their garden center, a rack or two of discount plants.  Yesterday I bought what they call their "Landscapers pack"  which is approx 18 to 20 plants in a flat normal price is around 14.00 or more.  I got a flat of hot pink impatiens for $1.50 cause they were "Leggy".   I would guess they were a good 8 to 10 in. tall.  blooming at the top with about an inch down of leaves and some leaves at the crown where the dirt was.  I pinched off the whole part of the stem from the last leaf of the crown.  In this case. that left about 4 -5 inches of stem with no leaves and still that inch of leaves and flowers.  I pinched off the flower and just stuck the whole thing in a window box to fill in some space between my jew.   I did this to approx 3 of the 18 plants so far.  I planted the original plant in another pot.  This is how I manage to have lots of flowers for very little money.    I will buy or neighbors and friends will share perenials then I bargain shop for annuals to put in pots around the yard for color.

The mums started as fall plants in pots, I transplant them before winter sets in usually sometimes I dont get around to it.   The next spring and early summer they will come back up, they get leggy in a hurry.   It took me several years to understand when you pinch or cut back plants that bloom later in the summer and fall they will get stronger and bushier.   My problem was, I couldnt stant to just cut them back and throw out the remains.   With the mums, if they start blooming early summer like mine do, I cut the stem back to leaving 2 to 4 leaves on the original plant.  This should leave a pretty long stem full of leaves and possibly flowers.  I take some of them in and put them in vases to finish blooming so I can enjoy them.   The rest I strip off the bottom leaves, about 2-4 inches depending on how tall the cut stem is and just stick it in the ground or a pot.  If it has a flower pinch it off, that allows the mum to put all the energy into rooting not blooming.   I pack them in pots pretty full and pretty tight in the ground too.  Some may not survive most will.  If they look leggy while they are rooting you can pinch back the top few leaves and that will keep them compact..   I have shared many mum cuttings and full pots of mums this way.  Once they take root you can either plant them in the ground or separate them into other pots for your yard or to share with friends.   Tall phlox (a perenial) is another good one to cut for vases cause they get tall and will be stonger and fuller of you cut them back drastically during May/June.  MIne are starting to put blooms on now and its really too early so I will cut them back put them in vases in the house (with some Mum cuttings) then they will be stong and full of blooms by Labor day maybe earlier.   They tend to multiply when they find a place they love so make sure you put them at the back of a bed or somewhere that doesnt obstruct your view.  

Great idea with the .50 pots.... my hubby painted a bunch of clay pots for me years ago that he picked up at a garage sale for dirt cheap.   One thing I like alot is making pots out of things that werent originally pots...lol.   I pick up old metal dish basins, tea pots, stock pots with dents or holes in them (instant drain hole)... my fav way to grow berries, tomatoes and other veggies is 4 of the old metal washing machine tubs my hubby found somewhere. They are very deep and have drain holes.   Depending on the type of gardening you like, mine is what you might call natural and country farm gardens, I have planted in old toilets...lol....tubs....sinks.....cattle troughs....tires....mmmmm I am sure there is more!  Oh yeah, those gas grills or charcoal grills that are on a stand that you see at the side of the road all the time for free.

Oh my!  I am rambling now, lol.  

Why dont you just pack up and come to my house and I'll show you how, lmao!  I can share some plants too!

 lol I might just do that. I'm glad to have found someone as crazy as me about flowers!!

More later, I'm off to the gardening store to buy a new hose (mine leaks) - got any suggestions for that? ha.

Yes spend a little more money and get the Non kink kind  it will save a lot of agrivation.

For roses..........

If you plant a tomato plant near it, it will keep black spot down. You can even make a water solution with tomato leaves and spray it to help.

When you prune the roses always cut just above a 5 leaf spread. And by that I mean a leaf section coming out of the branch that have 5 leaves on it. Usually  a 2,2,1.

Bury banna peels under the plant, they love potassium.

Garlic and onions go great with roses as well, and my mother always threw a handfull of rusty nuts and bolts in with the root ball.....don't ask me why.........she just did it, and I have to say she has beautiful roses.

Thats too funny..... every time I dig a new bed or hole for a tree I find old rusty nails and screws, I just figured cause the house was so old that they were dropped and over the years got buried, LOL!   Maybe they were buried on purpose!!!

I always keep my garlic and onions together but separate from my flowers, looks like next spring I might have to rethink a few things. 

Anyway, I have one flower bed with 3 rose bushes. One is a simplicity rose. It looks like something is eating the leaves from the outside in. Also some of the leaves are turning yellow and falling off. The blooms start but wilt when they are about half open. I have no idea what is wrong with it. I sprayed it with neem (sp) oil stuff made for roses but that has not helped. One of the ground cover roses next to it just powdery mildew going on since we got in to this hot humid weather. I will be so bummed if these plants die!

See that is what usually happens to mine too.....  Yellow leaves then drop off and sometime it will go ahead and bloom so you have bare thorny sticks w/flowers at the end.  Rose experts please help us!

My neighbor has my Jerry Baker home remedy book, as soon as I get it back will check it.

 I think I've saved the rose bush for now. Although I found those little midge things on it today. I'll have to spray it tonight when the dogs are put to bed. Anyway, here are some more pics

 (ok trying this again)

Wave Petunias

The tree rose is so heavy, I have to prop it up with bamboo

Showbiz roses seem to be going strong

This nightmare is my view to the neighbors yard. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but I have to remove that garbage and grow something TALL that will obscure the view. 

The front right side. In the front flower bed, there used to be a huge ash tree. Which of course died. I had it cut down but left the stump in place. I planted a bunch of ground cover roses around it and put the bird feeder there. The roses should grow in and fill in all of the holes so it will look nice - eventually. There's a Henry Fonda (yellow) rose bush on the far right in front of the house. Slowest grower ever. I wouldn't recommend this one to anyone.

Blooms from the tree rose

This was my very first attempt at container planting this year. It filled in great! It was only 5 flowers total (purple in the middle and 4 little merigolds)

Front left of my tiny little house

the impatiens grow so much better in the ground than in pots

Trying to train some rose bushes (and keep the dogs out - poor fence is taking a beating)

 Citrus Splash! Love it (I shouldn't have planted the Vinca's in there. I'm thinking I'll take them out

Americana Climbing Rose. This seems to be pretty hardy and resistant to everything.

I love this thread!!... If only I could smell all those flowers!

Your yard is beautiful!  I love Wave Petunia's...I really like the new commercial about Wave annonymous:)   I am so enjoying this thread too!   

 I was working in the yard this weekend and the nasty Japanese Beatles are back.  I was hoping that with the ice freeze and all the rain they would die....grrrrr!  I learned a long time ago just to let them alone.  When you use the bags its nasty....yuck, and it seems to just attract more of them.  I have tried to use Sevin dust and liquid but it is just too expensive and unless the whole community uses it you have to keep spraying.   I will plant more marigolds next year, I have always planted marigold in the area I plant my veggies but next years I will do more to see if it works.  I dont like using chemicals on my plants anyway so I will stock up on marigold seeds and plant heavy.

 Mix a batch of liquid dish soap and water. That kills them. We had swarms of them - literally millions at one of my old apts. The walls would move there were so many. A good spray with dish soap and water though killed them at least for a few days.

 The marigolds seem to be working for my roses. Darn chipmunks and squirrels are still poking around my flower beds though. My g-ma told me that they don't like the smell of marigolds. Well, mine do apparently!

Do you know of any safe way to get rid of those little green bugs that eat up the roses?