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This sucks

  • #21
Don't worry Laura. Everything will be fine. George the Second has determined that Global Warming and its' possible effects are not a problem.
 
  • #22
You're right Bob. Forgive me for being foolish. No need for me to worry at all.  We silly whacked environmentalists who over react and start jumping to conclusions… belief in global warming is nothing but a by product of mass hysteria perpetuated by people who do not have two neural cells to rub together.

Oh my gosh Bob, you better sit down for this one- Humans’ use of chemicals has NOT contributed to the ripping apart of our protective ozone layer.

I won't be commenting further lest I blow a gasket so in an attempt to resume regular programming...

To mist my Sarrs at high noon or not? That is the question. Seriously, I'd like to know what you think. I really think they would be best served by being misted somewhere in the afternoon. I have begun to mist them after nightfall so I go out there in my bathrobe and walk around spritzing here there and everywhere armed with a flashlight and my spray bottle.  I feel like an absolute idiot.

My concerns about watering during mid day are that the majority of the water would evaporate but not before being magnified by the sun leaving scorch spots on the pitchers.  Maybe I could spritz early morning and after nightfall?  I don't know. All I know is that I have some pitchers that are nice and crispy brown on plants that were otherwise healthy.
 
  • #23
Hey LauraZ5 I would mist during the day to help cool the plants, but remember that your misting not watering. If you get buildup of water droplets on the plants your doing more than misting. Thats what I was told by orchid folks anyways. You want the evaporation thats what aids in cooling, but you dont want to mist so much you get water spots thats called watering, or so I'm told.

Just to touch onthis subject. I don't know one way or another if what we are doing to the environment is causing "Global warming". I'm not going to comment either way, but I will say this. We as humans have not been recording history long enough to know if this is a natural cycle or not either. I have noticed it has been colder for longer down here in GA too. And at the moment I don't think its as hot as it normaly is for this time of year. I haven't checked, but we havn't hit over a hundred yet and personaly I think thats strange. Is it our cars and things? I duno. Personaly I think its less about the chems and more about less trees and more people, but thsta my opinion. Although I have read someplace that most of our oxygen comes from the great seaweed beds and not trees. Hey I'm not a scientist.
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  • #24
I have a fogger.  I wonder if I could use that? At this point, I am seriously considering removing them from full sun on days where the temps are 90F in the shade. The other thought is to stake up a 40% reduction screen over the entire patio.  Won't my husband love that!

Does anyone put rainwater in their pitchers to help keep their plants hydrated? Does this help or does it just make one feel as if they are "helping".
 
  • #25
I have taken to moving the pots around throughout the summer thus far. It seems where ever I put the pots the next week it is too hot or too cool or whatever. The heat and direct sun aren't a terrible concern while at work all day when I know that the guys have been moved to a good spot for the day. I'm not brave enough to actually plant them out yet. My wife is starting to get suspicious when she walks from the back porch to the front porch or down in the basement and she see's plants everywhere...
 
  • #26
Welcome to the forums droseraguy. I see you are a homestate person. I am about 90 miles north of you by the border to Wisconsin. So your wife is suspicious, eh? My husband is no longer suspect... he's tripping over my plants and last week he actually called the excavator himself to remind him that we still needed to get him out here to dig so that we could reclaim the patio.  I have no qualms about planting my Sarrs out at all and plan on doing just that as soon as I get that bog excavated which I hope happens this year and not next year. If you do put your Sarrs out, mulch well and just make sure they get enough moisture over winter if there is little or no accumulation and they should be perfectly fine. VFTs even make it outside year round.

About moving pots around... I dunno about that, seems awfully labor intensive now that I actually think about it. Maybe I better start checking out reduction screening.
 
  • #27
My nemesis squirrels have all been taken care of by the nearby road so I don't have to worry about them anymore. I've only got a dozen or so this far so it's not too hard to shuffle them around. I may try overwintering this year outside though as they did not flower this spring and I sure would like some seed.
 
  • #28
Ummm, you weren't planning on overwintering them "out" in pots were you?
 
  • #29
I had thought about it, last year I burried (planted in the pot rim deep) a pot of roses and one of some hostas, both of which I was going to move in the spring. They survived even without mulch ! I thought I might try that again with some pitchers only using a good layer of pine needles too. Bad idea ?
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  • #30
You'd definitely be pushing the limits if you tried that one. I'd tell you to consider experimenting but I couldn't even do that in good conscience because we're both zone 5.  I'm sure there is somebody out there who has successfully done it, but that's more risk than I woudl be comfortable with. If you have a children's sand box you could recess the pots in there and then cover it with a layer of pine needles. I've done that with a few and they've been fine. It's the freeze thaw cycles that will do them in. Also too, I firmly believe a winter drought is worse than a summer drought. If it doesn't snow for a while, you really should consider getting out there to make sure they haven't dried out. I didn't have to water my little outdoor bog this year but I did the year before. If your garage is attached to your home, that's the best place for any plant that isn't in an outdoor bog in my humble opinion. Then you can check the plants every month or so and if they feel really dry to the touch, give them enough water for it to slowly wick up for say 5 minutes and then call it a day until the next month or so. If you are growing in pots smaller than 8-10", you may want to check them a little more frequently. The only plants I lost in my garage were plants that were in 4" or maybe it was 5" pots and those darn plants didn't belong to me which was a real bite. I replaced them for the school but I still felt really bad. The small pots dry out considerably faster.
 
  • #31
Thanks for the tip, the garage thing is how I killed the whole lot 2 years ago, not enough attention.
 
  • #32
So sorry for recommending it.  I've truly been quite successful overwintering them that way other than one D. intermedia and one D. rotundifolia. The Sarrs all made it.
 
  • #33
Laura...can some of my "rara avis" spend the winter in your garage? The rest of them will spend the winter in my window wells with at least 6 inches of maple leaf mulch over and around them. The window wells are also covered. I sucessfully overwintered a zone 8 plant this way last winter, so I'm hoping it will work for Sarrs.

Is a pine-needle mulch in winter required? Since, at that point, they aren't growing and aren't aware of what kind of mulch they have?

I have heard that misting plants is a big waste of time. This is for houseplants. Unless you can mist for 15 seconds every half hour or less. It seems to me that misting outdoor plants might be even more in-effectual? Since there's usually a breeze that will dry up mist almost immediately. Though, I think it would work in a green-house.

When I was working at Franks, we just told people to keep their plants grouped together, in big trays, with water, with the plants sitting on the rocks so the bottoms of the pots weren't sitting in water. Unless they were water loving plants like Spaths.

My sarrs are burning up, too, and I have them either sitting on grass, or elevated at least 9 inches above the pavement, per Bug's advice. It's supposed to be 100 degrees this weekend.
 
  • #34
During Sacramentos HOT summers, Jim Miller, when he lived in Sacto, used a cold water ionizer placed by his plants. Not one crispy critter! He said his s. flava var. atropurpurea never looked better, and the color was intense. So there you are. A cold water ionizer. Put it out, move it around, and see what works!
 
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