Gardening Thread

[AntsyVee]

These look lovely Vee well done!! And in all the years my Mum grew cacti, not one of them flowered. As you say it must be your climate. My own memories from childhood concerning cacti are painful ones, some have such lethal spines don't they.

LOL Yes, out here we often use the phrase "hug a cactus" to mean something painful or uncomfortable. One thing I love about socal is that you can grow tropical plants, cacti and succulents all year long.

[AntsyVee]

Don't you mean get with the high times?

You can buy cacti to but you're still growing it.

I got you pegged for a purist.

I'm not a purist, N. You'd know that if you paid a little more attention :P

An no, I don't smoke pot. It makes me paranoid.

[fishman65]

OK you'll have to either lay down or turn your device sideways as I can't seem to get images upright. I've never had this problem on Gardener's World forum, yet strangely they're fine when posted via PM.
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[AntsyVee]

Wow, your yard is beautiful, fishman! Thanks for sharing! It looks like pictures you'd see in a travel magazine to go to some quaint little English bed and breakfast!

So what happens during your winter there? How much do you have to put inside? Is most everything an annual that has to be replanted every year or are they perennials that have a dormant period?

I couldn't get my pics vertical either. And they were just showing up as blank boxes on PM. I wonder with all the updates if something got messed up.

[fishman65]

Aw thank you Vee, you are too kind but its really not that good. There isn't a lot I have to put in the greenhouse because I tend to grow plants that are fully hardy and able to withstand low temperatures. And the tender plants that I do grow are annuals such a cosmos. Though I think you can get perennial cosmos too which coming from Mexico would need very mild winters.

I like to grow most plants from seed and the greenhouse has some tomato plants, cucumbers and chillies. I have quite a few perennials and a pond that gets frogs breeding in it. I always try to garden with wildlife in mind, so lots of food for pollinators and potential host plants for butterflies and moths to lay their eggs and produce caterpillars. I've got nest boxes for robins and blue tits ( that's a bird before you ask!!) and I made nesting sites for solitary bees.

I've got one succulent on our kitchen windowsill that stays inside all year though people can grow some species here

[Noivous]

I'm not a purist, N. You'd know that if you paid a little more attention :P

An no, I don't smoke pot. It makes me paranoid.

Maybe you're just boring me.😴

[AntsyVee]

Aw thank you Vee, you are too kind but its really not that good. There isn't a lot I have to put in the greenhouse because I tend to grow plants that are fully hardy and able to withstand low temperatures. And the tender plants that I do grow are annuals such a cosmos. Though I think you can get perennial cosmos too which coming from Mexico would need very mild winters.

I like to grow most plants from seed and the greenhouse has some tomato plants, cucumbers and chillies. I have quite a few perennials and a pond that gets frogs breeding in it. I always try to garden with wildlife in mind, so lots of food for pollinators and potential host plants for butterflies and moths to lay their eggs and produce caterpillars. I've got nest boxes for robins and blue tits ( that's a bird before you ask!!) and I made nesting sites for solitary bees.

I've got one succulent on our kitchen windowsill that stays inside all year though people can grow some species here

Wow, you have a greenhouse too? That is so cool. At the local botanical garden I go to their greenhouse in the winter to see all the orchids that they grow and bloom. Hardly anyone has greenhouses here unless they grow orchids.

I'm in the process of redoing the landscaping in the backyard right now (I moved a few months ago). When I get it all done, I will show you pictures. I have a lot of perennials and flowering succulents that the butterflies and bees like, but as for the birds, I can only put the feeders in the front yard as cats go in the backyard.

I have a few tropical plants that live in the kitchen window box all year, like a Persian Carpet Flower (edithcolea) that I've had growing for three years. It's only made one flower though. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It seems very happy and has grown like a weed, but still no other flowers. I also have a hybrid succulent that makes flowers that eats bugs.59608175708__A7A8219C-B042-41DF-A81C-C5B7895355CF.jpg

[AntsyVee]

Maybe you're just boring me.

I didn't know it was my mission in life to entertain you, N You don't like gardening?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Well, remember, I can grow those cacti because the winters are so warm down here. We only get snow and frost up in the mountains.

Do you all bring your succulents and tropical plants indoors for the winters?

yes, post pics!

We keep our succulents inside. They do get sold in outdoor sections at garden centres but our frosts would kill them.

We've got a few in a small glass jar I got as a gift for my mum plus an arrangement put together from a few smaller ones we picked up in reduced to clear sales which grew much bigger. We also have two Christmas cactus which produce lovely long flowers but some years they struggle when it's a mild winter and don't quite produce them. They sprout leaves through the rest of the year though.

[AntsyVee]

Yes, here the Christmas cacti become enormous. My old neighbor has one that runs across two trellises on her patio