It's still snowy up here on the ridge, I'm dying of loneliness, (Squire's
gone, son took off to town with his girl type friend yesterday) and I'm
tired of having to go into the dragon-cave to access my e-mail and wreck
gardens. Don't get me wrong. I'm GRATEFUL that I CAN access my newsgroup and
read my e-mail thru web browser, and there are some who are e-mailing me at
John's address. but I can't send pictures or access some of the sites I take
forgranted. I need to rearrange my priorities..........

GARDEN NOTE: The Jewel orchid is starting to slowly show fuzzy pod like
flowers all folded at the tip of the stalk. The Korean Crinum is finishing
up in the dragon cave under the florescent light Squire rigged up, and I
haven't killed his Angel fish yet g. They've moved me inside to the cash
registers until the season starts back in Outside Lawn and Garden despite
that I am still needed in the greenhouse..........oh well, at least I HAVE a
job GBSEG I am going to bundle up tomorrow and gather up the empty pots
lying around the grounds. Tally will come afterwards.

I hope everyone is well.
madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking a snowy
English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36

Well, right now, out here in the High Mojave Desert it's starting to warm up for
the day, it's 28 right now, heading for a around 60 day. Would go out to the
garden, but have to hike up to the post office today, to mail off the first
order for my World of Dahlias slideshow.

I've slowly started removing the dead fans from the iris, most are showing signs
of starting to grow for spring blooms. And still tring to take the heads off my
trucks engine so I can fix it.


--
"In this universe the night was falling,the shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.
But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning
lingered: and along the path he once had followed, man would one day go
again."

Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars

SIAR
www.starlords.org
Freelance Writers Shop
http://www.freelancewrittersshop.netfirms.com
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Ad World
http://adworld.netfirms.com

"madgardener" wrote in message
...
It's still snowy up here on the ridge, I'm dying of loneliness, (Squire's
gone, son took off to town with his girl type friend yesterday) and I'm
tired of having to go into the dragon-cave to access my e-mail and wreck
gardens. Don't get me wrong. I'm GRATEFUL that I CAN access my newsgroup and
read my e-mail thru web browser, and there are some who are e-mailing me at
John's address. but I can't send pictures or access some of the sites I take
forgranted. I need to rearrange my priorities..........

GARDEN NOTE: The Jewel orchid is starting to slowly show fuzzy pod like
flowers all folded at the tip of the stalk. The Korean Crinum is finishing
up in the dragon cave under the florescent light Squire rigged up, and I
haven't killed his Angel fish yet g. They've moved me inside to the cash
registers until the season starts back in Outside Lawn and Garden despite
that I am still needed in the greenhouse..........oh well, at least I HAVE a
job GBSEG I am going to bundle up tomorrow and gather up the empty pots
lying around the grounds. Tally will come afterwards.

I hope everyone is well.
madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking a snowy
English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36




---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.560 / Virus Database: 352 - Release Date: 1/8/04

thanks Starlord. Everything helps ((hug))
madgardener
"Starlord" wrote in message
...
Well, right now, out here in the High Mojave Desert it's starting to warm
up for
the day, it's 28 right now, heading for a around 60 day. Would go out to
the
garden, but have to hike up to the post office today, to mail off the
first
order for my World of Dahlias slideshow.

I've slowly started removing the dead fans from the iris, most are showing
signs
of starting to grow for spring blooms. And still tring to take the heads
off my
trucks engine so I can fix it.


--
"In this universe the night was falling,the shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.
But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning
lingered: and along the path he once had followed, man would one day go
again."

Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars

SIAR
www.starlords.org
Freelance Writers Shop
http://www.freelancewrittersshop.netfirms.com
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Ad World
http://adworld.netfirms.com

"madgardener" wrote in message
...
It's still snowy up here on the ridge, I'm dying of loneliness,
(Squire's
gone, son took off to town with his girl type friend yesterday) and I'm
tired of having to go into the dragon-cave to access my e-mail and wreck
gardens. Don't get me wrong. I'm GRATEFUL that I CAN access my newsgroup
and
read my e-mail thru web browser, and there are some who are e-mailing me
at
John's address. but I can't send pictures or access some of the sites I
take
forgranted. I need to rearrange my priorities..........

GARDEN NOTE: The Jewel orchid is starting to slowly show fuzzy pod like
flowers all folded at the tip of the stalk. The Korean Crinum is
finishing
up in the dragon cave under the florescent light Squire rigged up, and I
haven't killed his Angel fish yet g. They've moved me inside to the
cash
registers until the season starts back in Outside Lawn and Garden
despite
that I am still needed in the greenhouse..........oh well, at least I
HAVE a
job GBSEG I am going to bundle up tomorrow and gather up the empty
pots
lying around the grounds. Tally will come afterwards.

I hope everyone is well.
madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler, overlooking a snowy
English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36




---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.560 / Virus Database: 352 - Release Date: 1/8/04

In article , "madgardener" wrote:

It's still snowy up here on the ridge, I'm dying of loneliness, (Squire's
gone, son took off to town with his girl type friend yesterday) and I'm
tired of having to go into the dragon-cave to access my e-mail and wreck
gardens. Don't get me wrong. I'm GRATEFUL that I CAN access my newsgroup and
read my e-mail thru web browser, and there are some who are e-mailing me at
John's address. but I can't send pictures or access some of the sites I take
forgranted. I need to rearrange my priorities..........

GARDEN NOTE: The Jewel orchid is starting to slowly show fuzzy pod like
flowers all folded at the tip of the stalk. The Korean Crinum is finishing
up in the dragon cave under the florescent light Squire rigged up, and I
haven't killed his Angel fish yet g. They've moved me inside to the cash
registers until the season starts back in Outside Lawn and Garden despite
that I am still needed in the greenhouse..........oh well, at least I HAVE a
job GBSEG I am going to bundle up tomorrow and gather up the empty pots
lying around the grounds. Tally will come afterwards.

I'm lucky to live in a place where it's really possible to garden almost
year-round outdoors, even though not many people bother to do so. Within
the next week or so I will be stripping up a weed-smothering cloth I put
down eight or nine months ago, then will churn & enrich that newly
weedless ground, then put together a low-maintance garden for which I have
a bunch of pots as yet unplanted: blue rose of sharon, hybrid scotchbroom
cultivars, & a couple of largish rugosa roses, plus will transplant from
other gardens to the new one the succulent ice plant & the lambsears that
were spreading too much & threatening nearby things in another sun-garden,
&amp move a yellow poker plant to the new area as it got so big it blocks
an important path. There's already another (red) poker plant & a couple of
rockroses in the area I'm about to plant in earnest, & three young trees
-- so this will be a very decent start on a newly substantial garden, even
if it starts out looking dead until spring buddings. This is a fairly
major project for this time of year & there's no hurry, & as I was sick
for a couple weeks (flu) I have to catch up my book-business shipments & a
few other things, but soon as I'm caught up, it's back to gardening even
if it's semi-nasty weather.

During the coldest days of December until the recent snowstorm (we had the
ground completely covered for four days), I couldn't really do any
gardening to speak of, so ended up cleaning out all our vivariums, then
putting up some new plant-pages at paghat.com about terrarium & aquarium
plants, & updated some window-succulent pages. But I really don't do much
gardening indoors so it's a poor substitute, & I dunno what I'd do if
winter gardening were REALLY impossible, as could happen if we ever do
move to Idaho where the ground seriously freezes &/or remains under snow
so that all gardening stops. Suppose I'll have to have a greenhouse if we
ever do locate nearer my sweety's family, as is occasionally threatened.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

"madgardener" wrote i
I'm still determined to get that clivia of mine
to bloom for me and am about to sequester it into a cooler room for six
weeks..........
--
Hey Mad!

Good luck with your Clivia! Are they triggered to bloom by a chill period
or is it day length?

I have a huge one now, started from seed ( by moi) 13 years ago. Its in a
dark, cold corner of my house, which keeps it from leaping out of its 5
gallon pot. . It is raring to bloom just about the time the first rays of
late afternoon sun creep around the NW corner of the house. Last February I
had 8 bloom stalks, I have left 2 stalks with seed pods. One of those pods
is now turning deep red, which I've heard is a sign of ripening seed.....how
cool it would be to start another baby clivia from this mature plant????

Mine did not start to bloom until it was about 5 years from the seedling
stage. Now I get at least one, sometimes 2 stalks from each center.

I don't water it much at all ( this summer we were away for about 6 months,
returning home once a month for lawn mowing. It got drenched at that time
but no other watering. It doesn't get much more than that when I am here,
either, until I see the bloom stalks appearing. I have discovered that I
have to water more when in bloom to force the stalks above the leaf centers
or the flowers will attempt to open before the stalk elongates.

Sue in Maine

The message
from "madgardener" contains these words:

I'm still determined to get that clivia of mine
to bloom for me and am about to sequester it into a cooler room for six
weeks......

Mine's put up three flower bud spikes since the two of us dragged its
huge pot indoors the week before Christmas. Before then it had been
outside (since May) in an open-fronted south facing porch, so it had a
baking in summer, then a long cool period with little watering. A couple
of light frosts didn't affect it at all. I know of someone in the SW of
England who grows it in the garden all year round, so I'm wondering if
clivias are much tougher than we give them credit for. I'm going to try
an offset in a sheltered bit of the garden next year and see if it
survives (we don't get an awful lot of frost here).

It's mild here atm but we've had such heavy rain in recent weeks and
the soil is so saturated,there isn't much I can do in the garden.

Janet (Isle of Arran, Scotland)

LOL Janet, I can only imagine. It is 0° C right now here and tonight the
forecast calls for -40° C ( and colder with wind chill) tonight.
Sue n Maine

--

"Janet Baraclough .." wrote in
message ...
The message
from "madgardener" contains these words:

I'm still determined to get that clivia of mine
to bloom for me and am about to sequester it into a cooler room for six
weeks......

Mine's put up three flower bud spikes since the two of us dragged its
huge pot indoors the week before Christmas. Before then it had been
outside (since May) in an open-fronted south facing porch, so it had a
baking in summer, then a long cool period with little watering. A couple
of light frosts didn't affect it at all. I know of someone in the SW of
England who grows it in the garden all year round, so I'm wondering if
clivias are much tougher than we give them credit for. I'm going to try
an offset in a sheltered bit of the garden next year and see if it
survives (we don't get an awful lot of frost here).

It's mild here atm but we've had such heavy rain in recent weeks and
the soil is so saturated,there isn't much I can do in the garden.

Janet (Isle of Arran, Scotland)

well rats butt...........do you think if I put mine in a cold dark spot NOW
it might bloom in 4-5 weeks? I am DETERMINED to get this thing blooming.
And damnit, I just watered it today.............. Pen will kill me!
worse, she sent me four special clivia seeds of one of her hybrids and they
just refused to germinate for me woulda been a trowel in me bucket if
they'd popped open, they were a soft peachy salmony orange
sigh................madgardener ever trying to get that Clivia to bloom
"Sue" wrote in message
...

"madgardener" wrote i
I'm still determined to get that clivia of mine
to bloom for me and am about to sequester it into a cooler room for six
weeks..........
--
Hey Mad!

Good luck with your Clivia! Are they triggered to bloom by a chill
period
or is it day length?

I have a huge one now, started from seed ( by moi) 13 years ago. Its in a
dark, cold corner of my house, which keeps it from leaping out of its 5
gallon pot. . It is raring to bloom just about the time the first rays
of
late afternoon sun creep around the NW corner of the house. Last February
I
had 8 bloom stalks, I have left 2 stalks with seed pods. One of those
pods
is now turning deep red, which I've heard is a sign of ripening
seed.....how
cool it would be to start another baby clivia from this mature plant????

Mine did not start to bloom until it was about 5 years from the seedling
stage. Now I get at least one, sometimes 2 stalks from each center.

I don't water it much at all ( this summer we were away for about 6
months,
returning home once a month for lawn mowing. It got drenched at that time
but no other watering. It doesn't get much more than that when I am here,
either, until I see the bloom stalks appearing. I have discovered that
I
have to water more when in bloom to force the stalks above the leaf
centers
or the flowers will attempt to open before the stalk elongates.

Sue in Maine

"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , "madgardener"
wrote: substantial pathetic stuff snipped
away
with apologies for the blue mood to everyone.............


I'm lucky to live in a place where it's really possible to garden almost
year-round outdoors, even though not many people bother to do so. Within
the next week or so I will be stripping up a weed-smothering cloth I put
down eight or nine months ago, then will churn & enrich that newly
weedless ground, then put together a low-maintance garden for which I have
a bunch of pots as yet unplanted: blue rose of sharon, hybrid scotchbroom
cultivars, & a couple of largish rugosa roses, plus will transplant from
other gardens to the new one the succulent ice plant & the lambsears that
were spreading too much & threatening nearby things in another sun-garden,
&amp move a yellow poker plant to the new area as it got so big it blocks
an important path. There's already another (red) poker plant & a couple of
rockroses in the area I'm about to plant in earnest, & three young trees
-- so this will be a very decent start on a newly substantial garden, even
if it starts out looking dead until spring buddings. This is a fairly
major project for this time of year & there's no hurry, & as I was sick
for a couple weeks (flu) I have to catch up my book-business shipments & a
few other things, but soon as I'm caught up, it's back to gardening even
if it's semi-nasty weather.

wow, that's quite a bit of doings. I'm just looking forward to the
emergence of the Hellebore buds. Since I don't have a front yard where the
southern exposure is, I have planted my yellow ice plant in a rather nice
clay pot. It's sulking in the freezing temperatures and yesterday with the
temps getting up to the 50's the snow finally melted. I see way more clean
up than I thought possible. The one thing I am going to tackle regardless
of anything else is the blackberry canes and small saplings that are spring
up in the mucky boggy mess that the gray water produces that the Bengal
Tiger canna's adore. With this thaw and a good pair of gloves I figure that
will be a good start. g

If I can move my arms after that, I also want to go ahead and prune the
butterfly bushes back to stubbies, but I'm in no hurry to do that. The mess
around the canna's is enough to kill me. I have fairly good soil around
that mess and the honeysuckle is also determined to strangle everything it
comes to, and I see the green of it approaching my beloved Mock Orange that
Mary Emma gave me a baby shoot of that has grown to impressive proportions
in front of the Tulip Poplar tree.

I couldn't begin to tell you at this moment everything that needs my
attentions, but next day off, instead of talking about it, I'm just jumping
out there and doing some much needed things.

I appreciate you keeping me up to date. I know your gardens are beautiful.
Mine are a sad example of disorganization and allowance of fairy meddlings.
Other than plantings and keeping weeds out, you'd never know there was any
order to my raised boxes and beds plopped around the area's capable of
holding them.

During the coldest days of December until the recent snowstorm (we had the
ground completely covered for four days), I couldn't really do any
gardening to speak of, so ended up cleaning out all our vivariums, then
putting up some new plant-pages at paghat.com about terrarium & aquarium
plants, & updated some window-succulent pages. But I really don't do much
gardening indoors so it's a poor substitute, & I dunno what I'd do if
winter gardening were REALLY impossible, as could happen if we ever do
move to Idaho where the ground seriously freezes &/or remains under snow
so that all gardening stops. Suppose I'll have to have a greenhouse if we
ever do locate nearer my sweety's family, as is occasionally threatened.

You'd find a way Paggers. I'm still determined to get that clivia of mine
to bloom for me and am about to sequester it into a cooler room for six
weeks..........And I see with the obscenely dry enviroment of this heated
house, my cacti and succulents are screeching at me to please water them
every other day...........two casualties already........ keep in touch, I
am amazed that I'm able to use my own computer today....
madgardener off to work after I put Sugar in the crate----up on the ridge,
back in Fairy Holler, overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee,
zone 7, Sunset zone 36
-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/