State of the garden - April.

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The garden is coming along nicely, though I am trying not to buy too many flowers right now because I will be gone for ten days in May – and my friend Larry will not be here as he’s in Army Reserve training sigh – so I don’t know how the flowers will fare! But right now the petunias are doing well, you can see them mounding nicely and hopefully will eventually cascade down the balcony! The second picture was taken from the opposite balcony:

I think I need to fertilize the fern, though. I just don’t know with what.
And this is my newest addition, a new scented-leaved geranium, called “Attar of Roses”, the tag says it’s a “pelargonium graveloens.” The leaves are heart-shaped and the flowers are supposed to be light lavender (but it hasn’t flowered yet!):

The roses are suffering from a severe attack of green aphids, I’ve sprayed them with neem and somehow, the white rose and the red rose have managed to flower:

But the yellow rose was completely overrun and I decided to just prune it:

I bought another spray and it works pretty well but nothing gets rid of the ugly little green things – ugh! It annoys me as they eat the most tender and newest shoots that the roses have! =(

My other geraniums are doing well as well – the secret (for me anyway) of having them flower all the time is deadheading. And giving them organic fertilizer! Here is the Americana “White Splash”:

And this is the Americana “Violet.” Sorry the pictures are a little fuzzy!

The shade plants are doing well, two coleus survived and all of the polka dot plants, though the hybrid geranium seems to be dying. =( Oh well, you win some and lose some!

27 Apr, 2009
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Greenthumb

Things are looking lovely. I like your pic from across so we can see the whole arrangement. No tips for the fern feeding, sorry. I'm sure someone knows. I haven't ever fed mine anything. I hope that you can find someone for your vacation to watch things. Seems a little long in the heat for them to stay happy.

27 Apr, 2009

Alandrapal

we love the scented leaved geraniums, and we tell visitors to rub the leaves of the various plants, to enjoy the fragrance on their hands. I like the rose-lemon scented ones too.
Alandra

27 Apr, 2009

Davewebber

hi raq., like green thumb, i have never fed my ferns, indeed even transplanted then during the winter.
intend to apply a compost to the garden soon, my instinct is something natural.
dave.

27 Apr, 2009

Raquel

Thanks Greenthumb. The garden is always a surprise! It is too long not to water them, so I will have to figure something out!

I love them too, Alandra...I have two now...this one is supposed to smell like roses but I think it smells more like rose-lemon, so I'm glad there is one like that!

Thanks Dave, I guess maybe it needs to be transplanted rather than fed...but transplanting seems a bit daunting! We'll see how it goes. =)

Thanks Marguerite - Well, it turns somewhat yellow at times and some of the leaves turn brown, but that could just be the sun as well...I guess I really do need to give it a bigger pot, the roots have grown a lot and I think they're bursting out of it...Transplanting seems kind of scary though.. For the watering, I can't do sprinklers or irrigation because there is no outside water source...also I'm on the third floor, which makes things more complicated...I think I will use my aqua globes and leave the plants soaked and pray. I'll also leave Larry a message - he gets back on the 18th and I leave the 16th for Greece - so IF he has time he might give them a bit of a drink of water...I was talking about the green aphids. I got a new spray and it seems to have done the trick, I noticed today they had much less aphids than usual...I DO need ladybirds! They would be a great help right about now...Thanks for all your comments and suggestions!

30 Apr, 2009

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State of the garden - April.

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