Hope we get a good orange gojies pheno
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Dug out my worthless pumpkin on a stick plant. It just got ugly black berries on it. Never made little pumpkins. Oh well, I tried. The wall of black-eyed susan vines tore itself and the trellis loose. Dad came and anchored it back onto the garage wall.
Iām still tearing out grass and weeds in the planters. Cut back the dead dahlia stalks and cleared out most of that planter, pruning everything above ground back for fall. It looks pretty bleak out there, but the Camillaās will bloom in the winter and it wonāt look so dead and ugly out there. Tomorrow, I plan to till a few patches I need. One in the veggie patch for my green onions and another spot in my cutting garden for some flower bulbs I need replaced. Bermuda grass is hell. The planter for my sweet pea flowers is gonna get weeded a bit more as well as itās time to plant the seeds. Yāall know how I love my sweet peas! Last year I planted late and only got 3 weeks of flowers. They croak fast once any heat hits.
Does anyone know when I should plant my āspecialā poppy seeds? @Calyxander do you know when I should sow these as we have similar climates? Fall or Spring?
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I grew it year before last. I thought it would outlive me. It didnāt bud until end of September and didnāt finish until December. Seriously, those fkn diesels go looooooooong.
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Ok. Thanks for that infoā¦
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I would think pretty soon. The Poppies in my yard came up in mid to late spring, I think. Sort of the same time as normal weeds.
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Maybe Iāll sow half now and half early spring (meaning February lol)
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Can u get loaded on poppy resin?
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Only the āspecialā kind. 
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I moved here 4 years ago or so and the first place I lived there were these large orange poppy flowers. I heard that those seed pods hold the same opium. I never tried to find out. They looked like invasive weeds to me, but they turned into these large orange flowers about 2 feet tall. Very impressive.
Iād love to have some opium producing flowers, in all honesty. I may go collect seeds from that place this spring. It seems like I harvested beans but Iām not remembering where I put them.
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Hi @Meesh , I have only grown California Poppies ( Eschscholzia californica ) so I am
not sure about your āspecialā variety. But I usually start 'em in the fall, for nice spring flowers. I put them in containers and beds.
Keep us posted please.
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it does seem to have some roots. I am being instructed to give it alkaline water. Our tap water is about a 7.5 what is yours and have you given yours tap water?
The other geranium is fine and I would attempt cuttings if the humidity was decent.
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Last time I tested my tap water, it was crazy acidic. Like 5.3. All of my outside plants still get nothing but the hose. I rely on the soil to buffer everything. Iām no succulent expert, so if it likes the 7.5 water, great! Iāve pretty much stopped watering all of mine for the winter. Iām just letting them get the dew now.
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So, the poppy seeds I have are supposed to be opium poppies. Someone gifted them to me. Iām going to try and grow them out. I would probably never harvest any sap etc from them, but I love the thought of just growing them as another middle finger to the man. Cuz Iāll grow what I want! Lol. If they germ and grow, Iāll harvest you some seeds @GMan
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Papaver somniferum is the opium poppy. You can purchase seeds legally from popular flower/veg seed vendors, sometimes called Papaver paeoniflorum or Breadseed poppy.
The other day I was linked to this article where noted author Michael Pollan discusses his foray into obtaining and growing the flower. Itās a little dated, being from 1997, but he spins a good yarn.
Thanks for the African Violet tips. My new sunroom has HUGE south-facing windows that I plan to eventually fill with non-cannabis plants. Thatās a project for another day, but I can relocate the one I have to make it happier now.
Edit to add: That link is a long read. This might be the info youāre seeking:
Iād prepared a tiny section of my garden, an area where the soil is especially loamy and, somewhat more to the point, several old apple trees block the view from the road. Papaver somniferum is a hardy annual that grows best in cool conditions, so it isnāt necessary to wait for the last frost date to sow; I read that in the South, in fact, gardeners sow their poppies in late fall and winter them over. Sowing is a simple matter of broadcasting, or tossing, the seeds over the surface of the cultivated soil and watering them in; since the seeds are so tiny, thereās no need to cover them, but it is a good idea to mix the seeds with a handful of sand in order to spread them as evenly as possible over the planting area.
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Someone told me the poppies growing in town are the opium variety and they were sold or brought here way back. Anyway, they start out looking like a common yard weed but shoots up about 18 inches and grows a large, beautiful deep orange flower about 6-8 inches diameter. They were really stunning flowers. That place was right above a small creek and they were actually flourishing down along the bank in the wild. I think the original owner planted them in her yard though. I have one very shady corner garden that would do well I bet. I think it would be a hoot to source some opium, lol. Iāll have to read up on the process.
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I didnāt think they were legal to buy, grow or sell here. Interesting
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@Tinytuttle so Iām on my 2nd Gardenia bush that hates me. This one has survived a year at least, but isnt thriving. I know they like a lot of compost. My soil is pretty hard in my side planter where its located. Do you think it would help if I sorta aerated the soil around it and threw some straight bagged EWC on top it would help? Or are EWC too hot straight from the bag?
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Never known EWC to be hot , But Yes Just not to thick though 1/4 inch around drip line and up to the trunk almost with organic matter Such as leaves 4-6 ā deep, water in well does your deciduous trees their drop their leaves in the fall? If not grass clippings , decorative grasses that have died back etc. With your warmer temps you can change the most stubborn of soils even Hard pan clay in short time youāll notice a Hugh difference in just 6 months or less.
You know my thoughts on tillers and such let your worm homies do the work for ya!
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You know, I dont have an actual worm bin, but I dropped that pound of red wigglers 2 1/2 years ago in the backyard. I always think they are gone because they hide out in the hot months and no matter what Iām digging in, I never find them. As soon as Im sure they are gone for good and I need more, the weather cools and they are everywhere. Probably 100ās of thousands of them, no exaggeration. I dont know where in the hell they go when its hot because I thought wigglers werenāt ones to dig real deep, but darn it more come out every cool season than the last.
I wasnt thinking of really tilling the soil by the Gardenia bush per say, just getting out this sorta claw tool and breaking up the soil a tad so the EWC can penetrate. I did amend the soil in that planter for the first time this year, so it will eventually get more loamy with each passing year. I donāt feel too bad about the Gardenias not performing too well though. Everything Ive read on them, tell me it is a Master Gardener status plant and incredibly picky and hard to grow. I would at least like it to grow some instead of just being alive. lol That would be a big victory at this point. I killed the other one.
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Oh almost forgot @Tinytuttle thanks for the heads up about using a 1/4 inch only. I was about to dump the whole bag in there! lol My comfrey is dying back for winter dormancy, maybe Iāll throw a few leaves on top as mulch
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