A Botanical Post

[thistlechaser]

While watering my little garden today, I found what I think must be thistle. Picture one, picture two. Jagged leaves, fluffy flower. Glad I didn't pull it up when I thought it was just a weed! Thistle! *chase*chase*

And long-promised pictures of my orange tree! It's a small tree, it's still in the bucket I bought it in. It has three oranges growing on it! You can see two of them in this picture. Close up of orange; they're about the size of golf balls now.

I water my plants deeply daily, but they're still dying off one by one. The sun is too hot, and we've not had a drop of rain in... months? Probably been three or four months since our last rain, unless we had a shower that I'm forgetting about.

Comments

[loup_noir]

If you want thistles, I can easily send you more thistle seeds than you need. I routinely go out with the hoe to attack the things! We have at least three varieties.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Huh, now that's a thought! Are there any that stay pretty small, or do they all grow big and evil? (I don't have a real garden, just a bunch of pots on the patio.) Are they okay-looking plants, or all thorny/prickly? (I did a search after making my post, trying to find out if what I have is really a thistle or not. Every page I checked had nothing but bad things to say about them.)

[loup_noir]

I think you have a milk thistle in the photo. The Scottish thistles have broader leaves.

The thistles we have here range from tall and skinny to the more traditional Scottish variety that grows just about any size. If you chop it down to close to the roots it will grow and flower shorter. There's another variety with huge green and white leaves.

They are really invasive. They like any sort of disturbed earth area and can survive on very little water. They are pretty when their purple flowers are open, but one flower can seed a lot of area.

If you want some seeds, let me know. I'd be happy to collect some and ship them to you.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

While I'm really tempted to ask for seeds, I probably better not. It's probably better not to cultivate an invasive weed... Maybe I'll just take seeds from the one I have growing there now, and stick those into a pot.

Thanks for the offer though!

[jakflak.livejournal.com]

Um, by that do you mean you want the thistles? We always pulled them up as weeds.

If you're too lazy to pull them, buy a donkey. Donkeys love thistle.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Well, I had wanted them before I knew anything about them. (Hey, they go with my name, after all!) But based on the brief net research I've done, they appear to be pretty evil plants...

So I'll probably just stick with the one I have, assuming it's thistle at all.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Depending on what kinds of plants you have, you may need to water them more or less frequently.

Some plants don't like to be deeply watered, because they don't like having wet feet.

Or, they could be pot bound.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty darned sure they want more water... but you know, watering plants more than once a day is just too much work. So what it comes down to is that plants that can survive with being watered once a day live, and the others die. (Except my orange tree, I'll give that whatever it wants -- which included tea bags in the pot! They told me that they're the best fertilizer for citrus trees!)

Part of this was initial poor pot selection. (Too much surface area compared to how deep they are.) When we replant in the fall, we're going to toss out a lot of the current pots and switch to better ones.