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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Monday, March 29, 2004 - 4:10 pm
Vancouver is gorgeous right now -- dogwoods, pink magnolias, cherry blossoms, tulips, daffodils (we're long past the crocuses). Very nice. My Japanese Maple is sprouting its beautiful red leaves, which makes me happy. Does anyone know what type of bedding plant I can plant in the container at the base of the acer maple? Is anything particularly good? I can't wait to get back to the nursery to buy some plants for my container garden... I bought a few miniature boxwoods and will mix them in a few containers with ivy, so I will have year-round foliage on the deck this year.
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Lancecrossfire
Moderator
07-13-2000
| Monday, March 29, 2004 - 8:26 pm
Yankee, did you ever decide what you were going to do (on your deck) so you'd have a little privacy from the neighbors?
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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 9:16 pm
Lance, I'm still working on ideas. Here's a photo I took today:

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Lancecrossfire
Moderator
07-13-2000
| Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 9:17 pm
Very nice purple tulips! The larger variety, if I have it right?
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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 9:18 pm
Here are two more snaps, both are on my patio, which I'm still working on "organizing" and getting ready for the summer. I weather-proofed my new teak three-seater bench today -- when it's dry and in place, I'll post a photo! By the way, the quality of these photos is so poor because I've had to shrink the file sizes down so far. The originals are very crisp and beautiful, I swear! For instance, the tulip shot above has a gorgeous reflection of the tulips & azalea in the water in the original -- but you can't really see it in the shrunken photo. Oh, well.

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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Saturday, April 03, 2004 - 9:19 pm

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Secretsmile
Member
08-19-2002
| Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 9:00 am
I'm officially "white" with envy Yankee! I'd be green but with the recent snow here, just the mention of green makes me sad! LOL!
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Wink
Member
10-06-2000
| Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 9:21 am
Very pretty Yankee. Love the succulents pot. I assume the white flowers in the pot above are bleeding hearts but what is the pink one? That's a lovely combination.
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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 2:16 pm
Wink -- it's actually one plant. I'm blanking on the name right now, but it'll come to me... they're quite common here in Van City. This weekend, I planted the following on my deck: * Climbing hydrangea (white, can't wait to see this one grow) * two young english lavender plants * containers with dwarf boxwood, ivy, white geranium, white trailing snapdragon and blue heliotrope. * also bought some pink/hot pink sweet williams (the wee ones) and will plant those shortly as soon as I figure out where to put them (what to put them with!) * Oh, and I planted one more succulents pot.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 9:40 pm
Yankee, is it euonymous? I should know the name of that plant too.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Saturday, April 10, 2004 - 9:42 pm
Well, this would be a good place to put Bigdog's latest effort, the raised bed in the backyard. I think it is mostly going to be the dahlia bed but could be mixed use. It is still under construction, but here are three stages of progress:

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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Monday, April 12, 2004 - 8:56 pm
Wow, Juju - that's quite the project!!! The plant I posted above is a japonica. It came to me just now...
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 2:40 pm
Thanks, Yankee, for the plant name. I was pointing them out to Bigdog this morning on our walk.
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Wink
Member
10-06-2000
| Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 3:47 pm
Yankee that is one beautiful plant. Don't think I've ever seen one. So are the pink things actually leaves that haven't turned green or are they green leaves that have turned pink? Juju that hillside is going to be spectacular. Can't wait to see it all planted up. BigDog sure has one hekuva lot of energy. Is your home at the top of the hill or the bottom?
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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 3:49 pm
Wink -- the pink/red leaves come out in the spring -- about the same time as the flowers -- and last for a long time ... then by the winter they'll have subsided to a duller color, eventually to turn green.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Tuesday, April 13, 2004 - 7:34 pm
Wink, my guess would be that the japonica plant is not capable of living where hard freezes occur. I don't believe I have ever seen it anywhere but here, not even in San Francisco, which has a lot of the same plants as where Yankee and I live. Dahlia bed is in the back yard. We live below the hill. Yes, Bigdog is quite the worker bee. I just wish he would buzz back into the kitchen which has been torn apart for two years now. And after that, he needs to replace all the windows on the house, and after that, remodel the two 1970's bathrooms, and after that replace all the icky cheap wood interior doors and door frames, and after that redo the steep freaking driveway and after that, build a huge front deck off the living room on the front of the house. On the up side, the house is only appreciating as we sit here, even without remodeling, due to rapidly escalating real estate prices AND the view. There is a tear-down 800 square foot cottage in the neighborhood that just sold for way more than we paid for our perfectly livable big house.
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Carrie92
Member
09-15-2003
| Friday, April 16, 2004 - 3:17 pm
Hoping for some advice here. First, I should say I am NO green thumb. Most every plant I have ever owned has died within days - and I have no idea why. So... the other day some lovely ladies from my coffee break bible study gave me a beautiful pink hydrangea that I just adore. I love flowers! I get it home, read the little tag in the pot, it says keep soil moist but not soggy, and bright light. The soil feels moist so I set it outside on the porch a) because I gotta show off my pretty plant! and b) because it's a nice sunny day in MI. Ok, so the next morning the soil was feeling a little dry, so I watered it, probably put about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of water in it. And when the sun had reached my porch I set it outside (this was about noon-ish). I kept it out there all day but I noticed when I set it out there that it didn't look quite as lovely as it did when I got it. By the end of the day, the blooms had started to fall and wilt. They felt moist and heavy. Did I over water? The soil still felt moist but dryer than earlier so I put maybe 1/2 - 1 cup of water in and kept it inside. DH told me to talk to it, so I talked to it. I said very nice things. This morning, I thought it looked a little perkier. I set it outside again, the weather is great here today - mostly sunny, mid 70's. I took a long nap today (didn't want to, but needed to) and by 6:00 the blooms have really fallen now. They look like a weeping willow. They don't feel dried out, just very heavy. I can't believe I've only had this plant for 48 hours and I've ruined it this much! What have I done wrong and how can I fix it?
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Carrie92
Member
09-15-2003
| Friday, April 16, 2004 - 3:37 pm
I should add to my above post that the green leaves are beginning to dry out.
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Wink
Member
10-06-2000
| Friday, April 16, 2004 - 5:11 pm
Carrie if you set your plant out in the direct sun the leaves are probably scorched. Any plant that you move outside that has been indoor acclimated should be placed out of direct sun for a few days when you start bringing it out. To check whether you need to water stick your finger about 1/2 to 1 inch into the soil. If it feels moist down there you don't need to water, but hydrangeas do like to have a good drink so I think your problem is more due to the direct sun just shocking the plant too much. I have 2 or 3 hydrangeas planted in my garden but they are not in direct sun. They prefer a shadier cooler spot. The bright light instructions on the tag are probably meant for indoor conditions.
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Carrie92
Member
09-15-2003
| Friday, April 16, 2004 - 7:30 pm
Thank you Wink. It has seemed to have lifted after I brought it back inside tonight. I'll try a shadier spot on the porch tomorrow, and not leave it out there so long.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, April 16, 2004 - 8:18 pm
My guess would also be the direct sun, Carrie. Wink, here is a picture I snapped on our walk this morning of a real big japonica in our neighborhood. This one is about eight feet tall.
Oh! And Wink, I saw a blooming bleeding heart at another neighbor's house and thought of you. (uhhhhhhh, because you mentioned it, not because of any personal characteristics of yours)
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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Friday, April 16, 2004 - 8:43 pm
Wow, Juju-- that's a HUGE japonica!!! They're lovely plants, aren't they??
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Wink
Member
10-06-2000
| Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 8:33 am
Holy jumpin japonica Juju that is one great looking specimen.
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Lkunkel
Member
10-29-2003
| Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 3:04 pm
I came home from my week in Michigan to a nice surprise: my Easter cactus, which had purportedly not bloomed in 5 years according to the person who gave it to me, was in full bloom with plenty of buds!
Everything grew SO MUCH while I was gone. It was amazing!
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Spygirl
Member
04-23-2001
| Sunday, April 18, 2004 - 2:44 pm
I'm completely new to this gardening thing, so I'm starting off in the remedial, learn-as-you-go course. Here is my first attempt at making a nice flowerbed in front of my house.
I had some leftover petunias, so I put a couple in some pots.
This is what the other side looks like that I didn't get to yesterday. I'm told that is a lilac, but it is out of control. I have no idea how to trim it.

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