Weather Chat - 2024

calico20hill

With the combination of "Critterfence" that has an outside apron on the ground to deter digging in from outside, and the raised beds with wire bottoms I have had NO gopher invasions, but I do realize it is just a a matter of time. We do have plenty of moles that create road hazards in the pathways under the landscape cloth. AND THE VIGILANTE DUCK patrols....

KitCMC

Bessie UGH, I’m sorry! Rabbits are my rodent nemesis. It’s so frustrating to see something totally eliminated in one night. If I ever have the space for extensive raised beds, I will go that route. Seems like a good solution for excessive rain & for rodents.

calico20hill

37 degrees at the house this morning. I have not been down to the garden yet to check it. A friend up the road a bit but about as far from the river got frosted.

Teddahlia

Putting a "like" on a message that it may have frosted there does not seem to be quite appropriate. Saying it did not frost here also is not quite right. 😳

Teddahlia

35F here this morning. Some frost on grass. I checked dahlia seed pods and they were not frosted. No frost again in forecast for over a week.

bloomhjelm

No temps below 38 degrees here but lots of drippy rain. A lot of deadheads I didn't strip turned into mushy messes but no frost and everything is blooming. A florist friend I gift stems to even came by to harvest yesterday.

Teddahlia

No frost here and the the 35F night did nothing to the dahlias. Just a whole bunch of rain in the forecast. We are digging and will be harvesting a very few seeds that are not quite ripe.
Still picking some OK flowers, from yesterday.

calico20hill

Ditto, here. I think our temperature must be about the same. Mostly the rains are going around us...we will see what happens in the next few days. Its been excellent digging weather....Hubby digs and washes and I cut and label and pack away.Our indoor/outdoor thermometer says that is is 50 degrees outside at almost 8 PM.

calico20hill

Just rain again and now we are into that warmer rain thing instead of the frost thing....I'd say we are about half dug...We've gotten the most special seedling varieties out and now its time to go for the Hollyhills and other treasured varieties. Its 53 degrees here this morning. I will be happily working in the greenhouse and grateful that husband is manning the hose for wash up. Oh yes, glad I am not trying to dig with my glasses getting rain spattered too.

calico20hill

This! Rain pouring down! Dripping off the gutters....rattling as it hits the leaves...This is the NW October rain that I know! And it is chilly...not that warm summer rain. OK, all is right with my world but I'm so chilly after being out that I need my dog in my lap to warm me up! And yeh, chilly for dividing tubers in the greenhouse...

Teddahlia

When I was younger, I wanted lots more dry days during the digging season. Now that we are a bit older, very wet days like today are a nice day off.
We dug this one yesterday.

calico20hill

Teddahlia At first I thought it was a lovely lavender rose...then I knew that Ted would not be posting roses...I am so tired...just bone tired...I've been cutting up tubers for several days and now today decided I better pack the ones I have done away before cutting more. In the meantime, Howard had found a crate from last year stuck back in the back under the bottem shelf in the tuber vault....All full of sprouted little seedling tubers! Probably half of them are viable if it weren't the start of winter!I wonder what treasures I missed?

Krista

Teddahlia Wow that color!

KitCMC

Teddahlia 🤩 wow, that color. Was this a hand cross?

Teddahlia

Blue color of the seedling: (1) Flower picture taken about October 20th. Some pigments are more intense later in the season(2) Picture taken at night in the kitchen where there is LED lighting. (3) There must be some blue in the light as when I enlarged a portion of the flower there were light blue blotches on the back of some petals near the top.

This "blue" mystery will have to wait until next year and I will examine flowers carefully.

SteveM

Great color and as close to blue as I've seen in a dahlia. I hope she stores well.

calico20hill

Really interesting look at "blue" dahlias.

Teddahlia

Was this a hand cross? Yes, we crossed two blue dahlias and got this partially blue one. ☺
Actually, this was from a bee crossed mother plant that is 7-8 generations of our breeding. Some Pam Howden genes are in there along with old Hollyhill genes. Mother plant was in an area of waterlily varieties and most likely a waterlily provided the pollen. If you were at our garden tour last year you would have seen this mother plant right in the middle of the waterlilies. It nice to think there is some real blue in this flower but one set of three pictures taken by my Googlepix6 phone is not much in the way of proof. Margaret had remarked she liked this lavender colored flower several times and in the written description she used the word "glorious". At the very least we have a very pretty lavender waterlily flower. I will look for another picture of it taken earlier in the season or last year.

KitCMC

Teddahlia can’t say I disagree with her, it is glorious! Do you think Pam H has some lavender undertones? I tend to see it that way, and love it paired lavender colors. Here it is with Megan Dean & Gitts Attention.

MissyWeitzel

I've had Kari Blue for a few years and it definitely can look bluish. The most notable thing to me about this variety is how the coloring makes the petals appear to be super delicate and thin crepe paper like, but they're actually pretty sturdy petals for a waterlily. Maybe the form isn't what you'd want in your breeding patch, but if it might help you get closer to a blue, PM me and I can trade or sell some to ya. I'm doing fall shipping now so it's a good time to ask me for things. 😊

« Previous Page Next Page »