Garden chat & photos for torts and people ♫ ♫
- Thread starter Prairie Mom
- Start date
I'm pretty sure you have the same type of trees I have. It takes several years for them to produce a flower bud. After they bud out they die. But you get new young plants from that one before they die.
Awesome!!
Not everything I grow blooms yellow, but most do. Here's some. Years ago my wife had a white garden with a few red lillies in it. Over the years all the white dissapeard leaving only the red lillies. 
A couple years ago I had to stop giving them away because I was down to only a couple plants. They are coming back though. 
This cholla I got from Arizona, I like it but they sure are one nasty plant.
These last 2 will not make it past the bud stage.🦨
A couple years ago I had to stop giving them away because I was down to only a couple plants. They are coming back though. This cholla I got from Arizona, I like it but they sure are one nasty plant.These last 2 will not make it past the bud stage.🦨
Cardinal flower is coming into bloom now. Around the yard, we have tons of milkweed (we opened leftover pods in late winter and distributed more seeds), black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, and monarda flowers. Coneflowers are just starting to bloom now too. The cup plant stalks are still growing; I think the tallest have just hit about 6 feet.I'm trying to regrow a pineapple from the green stalk on top of the fruit. It is starting to root, albeit very slowly.
Pictures of my butterfly and hummingbird garden this year, all weeded with new mulch. To fill it in more, I planted obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana), hoary vervain (Verbena stricta), blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica), and more cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis). The cardinal flower I planted last year may stalk and flower this year if it's happy, so that would be fabulous. The golden alexanders (Zizia aurea) are what's in bloom now. It looks like most of last year's plants are back and doing all right. There are lots of little milkweed stalks coming back up, so last year's plants seeded very well, unsurprisingly. Of course, there's always plenty of evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) since its seed gets everywhere. I may have also just planted a hairy beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutus) but I already can't remember now. We've been doing a ton of planting around the yard, as usual for this time of year, so we'll see what blooms!
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I've only seen the hummingbird visit our new feeder once so far, but they don't stick around long! I've already seen a fair number of butterflies, including the red admiral and the tiger swallowtail. Hoping to see more swallowtails as we keep adding more of their larval hosts to the yard.
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EricW
Well-Known Member
Curious if your torts will eat it?
Every once and a while, I pick him a leaf of it and throw it in his salad. I think he finds the aroma too pungent, so I don't think he's ever eaten it. I keep another patch of it in his garden but I may transplant it to make space for more dandelions or something.
EricW
Well-Known Member
Yeah, mine doesn't eat much mint and typically pass up on my 2 different monarda species and the mountain mint I have. Doesn't surprise me, but figured I'd ask to see if anyone had any luck.
More blooms from our butterfly garden: Milkweed and some hoary vervain. I'm pretty sure a monarch landed on them yesterday.
Cardinal flower buds and blooms. Phone cameras just can't capture the brilliant reds they display!
Elsewhere in the yard, some coneflower, which has been racing the cup plants next to them to be the tallest. (The cup plants will ultimately win!!)
Our wild petunias were able to grow to a pretty good size and flower a bunch without getting eaten. The herbivores did enjoy over-pruning them in the spring. Steve enjoys an occasional leaf or flower from them.
A cup plant holding some rain water for birds and bugs:
We've designated an area of our front yard as a restored prairie where we'd put a bunch of seeds down previously. The black-eyed Susans are mostly what's popped up. There are some random coneflowers and coreopsis around too, and maybe other stuff like grasses, and plenty of milkweed nearby. We put down a bunch of plugs this spring to add some variety. I'm excited about the sneezeweed and a few sunflower species I added. I'll probably check the sunflowers today to see if they've bloomed. The area is maybe about 300 or 400 sq. ft.
Cardinal flower buds and blooms. Phone cameras just can't capture the brilliant reds they display!
Elsewhere in the yard, some coneflower, which has been racing the cup plants next to them to be the tallest. (The cup plants will ultimately win!!)
Our wild petunias were able to grow to a pretty good size and flower a bunch without getting eaten. The herbivores did enjoy over-pruning them in the spring. Steve enjoys an occasional leaf or flower from them.
A cup plant holding some rain water for birds and bugs:
We've designated an area of our front yard as a restored prairie where we'd put a bunch of seeds down previously. The black-eyed Susans are mostly what's popped up. There are some random coneflowers and coreopsis around too, and maybe other stuff like grasses, and plenty of milkweed nearby. We put down a bunch of plugs this spring to add some variety. I'm excited about the sneezeweed and a few sunflower species I added. I'll probably check the sunflowers today to see if they've bloomed. The area is maybe about 300 or 400 sq. ft.
I won't give up though! 😀 Steve has gotten the opportunity to try a bunch of plants that he probably never would've been able to if I hadn't taken him in, like aster, geranium, echinacea, plantain, evening primrose, hibiscus ... the list goes on!
I haven't specifically grown any grape plants for Steve yet but we have plenty around the yard. Are there are specific species or cultivars of grape that anyone here grows for their torts?
EricW
Well-Known Member
Aster has been slow for me and I don't have much for geranium. The rest you listed are a hit for me. Plantain and some and the native primrose do not grow in the summer for me though.
The pollinators are plentiful! Monarch caterpillar on some milkweed:
We've had hummingbird moths visiting some Monarda fistulosa lately. I think I observed them mating today, and I also saw a few eastern tiger swallowtails here.
Some sort of skipper.
A black swallowtail.
I think this is an eastern comma basking in the sun. We've also seen red admirals and a bunch of fritillaries. I've really been making use of my butterfly field guide this year!
Passing along a fun gardening idea: My mom had an old stump in her backyard and didn't know what to do with it, so I suggested planting a native wood fern inside it. Looks to be doing quite well.
We've had hummingbird moths visiting some Monarda fistulosa lately. I think I observed them mating today, and I also saw a few eastern tiger swallowtails here.
Some sort of skipper.
A black swallowtail.
I think this is an eastern comma basking in the sun. We've also seen red admirals and a bunch of fritillaries. I've really been making use of my butterfly field guide this year!
Passing along a fun gardening idea: My mom had an old stump in her backyard and didn't know what to do with it, so I suggested planting a native wood fern inside it. Looks to be doing quite well.
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It looks like these banana plants make tiny bananas. Here's a pic from today
they are still small. The second bloom produced bananas then they wilted and rotted away. We've had a very wet summer usually this time of the year it's dry but I still have to cut grass almost weekly. The banana plants have flourished with the moist soil this year 
Bananas and cactus both fantastic!
Please go to the raffle post:
tortoiseforum.org
and take a look at the picture of the raffle prize. If this is something that would look good in your house, on your wall, buy some raffle tickets!
The raffle is only going on for another week, going to close on Aug. 31st. Don't miss out on the chance to own this beautiful work of art.
RAFFLE!!! COME SEE! RAFFLE!!
We're having a raffle to raise a bit of $$ for our Forum. The prize is a beautiful original artwork by one of our members, artist Pamela Bickell. It is titled "Desert Tortoise in Arizona Desert." The artwork is painted papers collage on 14x11 artboard and mounted in an extra-nice frame with a...
tortoiseforum.org
and take a look at the picture of the raffle prize. If this is something that would look good in your house, on your wall, buy some raffle tickets!
The raffle is only going on for another week, going to close on Aug. 31st. Don't miss out on the chance to own this beautiful work of art.
How did the bananas turn out? Did they taste any good?
I found one hidden in my hanging plant.
