Solification of tree/ itoh peony stems

Towards the end of July, tree peonies usually start to develop brown stems as they start becoming woody and showing their true nature. Here are a few closeups just to show how it looks.  Once tree peonies darken up, they are usually set to survive as long as they are planted deeply enough to develop their own roots.

This one appears to be solid already. Like trees, their stems and branches tend to harden off completely before they ever expand in diameter.

Moso Bicolor growth diary starting from 18 March 2011

This is one of my favorite bamboos, not because of its rarity in the US, but it produces the most beautiful looking culms which are usually yellow with alternating green stripes, as well as some random green striping. It is still very expensive as nurseries are generally very stingy about making it available, but that should change over the next few years as I prefer to share.

18 March 2011; Here's how it looked with 2 tiny, but bushy culms when I got it, and planted it into a 15 gallon container.

How to get rid of flies around the house

I know that most of my posts are on plants, but one thing I found that was very useful in nearly eliminating the flies that got into the house were reusable fly traps. I bought them off eBay. They come with their own fly attractant, but there are many home-made recipes that should be able to work just as well. So far I am experimenting with pieces of meat, sugar, and vinegar to try and get the best mix.If you ever plan on buying these, it is important to get the reusable ones because the disposable one that I tried at the beginning filled up to maximum capacity of perhaps over 1000 flies within 3 days.

As the flies go into these traps, they don't seem to be smart enough to find their way out so they are bound to drown in the water below. Near the end of this 48 second video, a total of 2 flies enter this trap.

Sedum

Rise and fall of the yucca plant time lapse

This is the first time one of my yucca plants has ever flowered and here's a 40 day time lapse of the flower stalk from May 21st until June 30th. I hope the main plant survives the flowering to keep growing, but I'm not too worried since there are 2 little offsets coming off on either side.

21 May

Can tree peony seedlings grow more leaves in the summer?

One thing I have always wondered is if tree peony seedlings could gather up enough energy to produce even more leaves, or if what appears in the spring is everything that will appear for the year. Now that it has been nearly 4 months after the tree peony seedlings started to come up, some of them have started to grow more leaves. I think it depends on how good the soil is, the species, and perhaps if there is enough moisture.

Here are some of the ones putting on more leaves. The new summer leaves appear to be slightly larger than the ones appearing in the spring which means the plants have  already gathered some energy.