Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Gardening...*

Wasn't this item farther down before? In fact, didn't it actually first appear late yesterday?

You're probably confusing this post with fran's other post from Saturday the 29th.

HERE

Nope, it was "below" previously.

It was up for a very brief time with the wrong time stamp. cathar saw it then.

It's good to know that it wasn't the sarsparilla "talking," Liz. Thank you.

Cathar is like a cat. Flash something in front of him for a nanosecond and he won't miss it.

Maybe Cathar is just another way of saying Cat har(hair).

har me laddies!

More proof that cathar spends far too much time here, even on "slow news days".

yes, i am relatively new to the ways of the blog machine and when i posted it, it tucked itself neatly into the time when the post was written. fortunately, the rest of the team is a little more skilled and they explained, and then fixed, the mix-up.
BUT HEY! How about that cool garden fair, eh people? Cool, right? everybody planning to stop by on friday or saturday?

Damn but these gardeners are a bunch of early birds. Who can get anywhere by 2:00 on a Saturday? Not me. Too bad, this might otherwise have been a useful event.

I don't spend "too much" time here, SSP, and anyway, since I saw the post long before it was supposed to be there, that means I spent something like 6 hours LESS than others based on when I saw it since I was long gone when others saw it.

I may stop by the garden fair. Can someone there tell me how to revive my Carolina jessamine (bought to drive off deer)? Also how to insure that my Himalayan primroses bloom again? They took me four years of trying before last spring's success, and in the much farther north climate of Scotland are already in full display, but all I seem to have are leaves and wee buds (if indeed they are that).

those are great questions. i will be there on saturday, but a full complement of very knowledgeable gardeners will be there tomorrow. if they don't know the answers to your questions, they will surely be happy to find the answers for you.

Nice try Fran but I think that both the concepts of remaining on-topic and sarcasm are lost on these bozos :)

I have one - how long does it take before my wysteria blooms?

Really, Amandala, you can't tell the difference between sincere questions and sarcasm? Are you really that limited intellectually? So heart-steeled against the genuine wonders of gardening?

I can only suppose you are.

you may already have all of this information, but just in case, here's something i found on the ubiquitous internets:
>Carolina jessamine grows best when its roots are shaded and cool, but the vine tolerates either full sun or partial shade. Plant it in rich, somewhat acid, well-drained soil with organic matter worked into it. Keep the soil moist and feed monthly with a balanced 10-10-10 liquid fertilizer except when plants are resting in the fall. Although a moist soil is ideal, the vine is able to withstand short periods of drought.
Prune immediately after flowering, removing dead or broken branches and shaping the plant.
Plants may be propagated easily by air layering, from stem cuttings taken in spring from established new growth, or from seeds in spring.
Pests rarely attack Carolina Jessamine.
as far as the primrose--i was able to find information on alaskan primroses, but not himalayan. i'll keep looking!

Stopped by the garden fair today, and it was wonderful! We learned a lot about how to avoid gardening pitfalls of previous years, and signed up for a nifty discounted compost set-up.

Thanks to all!

I found a rabbit's nest in my garden this afternoon. I never saw one up close. How cute. I let them be but I hope they don't get eaten by somebody's dog.

Fran, I looked yesterday in the garden, the Himalayan primrose (primula denticulata or "drumstick" primrose) is in bloom. Not as grandly and colorfully as on the Scottish isle of Iona (they circle the mound where Macbeth and several other Scottish kings are buried there), but definitely coming up in purplish bloom. This one took me four tries via seeds and live plants before I got one going for the 2nd year in a row. Alas, Digging Dog Nurseries no longer in Sonoma, CA no longer sells this one or I'd be stocking up, they are my favorite spring flower. Nobody else seems to carry them, and in local garden centers they've never even heard of them, so this one is my pride and joy.

What, however, are Alaskan primroses? Should I try them too?

I know what Carolina jessamine needs and how basically to plant it. What I wanted was advice on how to keep it going, because last spring's try is dead. It apparently did not prove deer-repellent.