<p>I used blood meal to encourage leaves production and bone meal to encourage fruits production.</p>
<p>Can I brag a bit? My hibiscus plants are blooming like crazy. This is my first year of gardening and it’s so exciting to see.</p>
<p>^Good job!</p>
<p>Oh, and it’s the BONE meal that’s good for bulbs.</p>
<p>Kate, congratulations! See, you can do it! You just had to find the right plants. :)</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>First figs are ripe! </p>
<p>Informal poll; Who likes fresh figs? You can only vote after you’ve tried them.</p>
<p>I like the brown figs but not green. Unfortunately I have the green fig tree at home.</p>
<p>I love fresh figs. </p>
<p>I have shasta daisy plants. It thrives without flowers. Does anyone know how I can make them bloom?</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of shasta daisies doing well without blooming. My first guess would be a lack of sun–do they get at least 6 hours/day of sun?</p>
<p>No. it get about 3 hours. But a single bloom because of that? Thriving it is, crowding out other plants nearby. I am about to pull them out.</p>
<p>I think pulling them out and putting them someplace where they gets lots of sun would make the most sense. I have mine in my sidewalk median, they’re very happy there.</p>
<p>"Informal poll; Who likes fresh figs? You can only vote after you’ve tried them. "</p>
<p>My favorites! They have to be eaten fresh off the tree. Eons ago, when I worked at UW, I used to pick figs off the huge fig tree by the Chemistry library. One of my friends was totally shocked - he has never seen a fresh fig (although he was a fan of fig newtons :))</p>
<p>Somehow, I do not think my Desert King will produce anything this year. It is mid-July, and we are in the rainy and mid-sixties pattern for the rest of the month according to the weatherman.</p>
<p>Cut and pasted from “He She Chew Chew” because links to blogs are a no-no. I have too many figs ( I think black jack) AND too many Shasta daisies (“Becky”).</p>
<p>“In a cookbook that I LOVE The Gift of Southern Cooking by Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis I found a recipe for whole preserved figs…for more figs than anyone can realistically eat before they go bad …I thought that this recipe would be a good idea.”</p>
<p>"…not going to give you tried and true amounts for anything in here…not essential to getting this to come out…pieces that are important are: the amount of time between cookings, the type of figs that you use (black missions will not work), and making sure that once they are canned that they sit for at least 6 weeks. </p>
<ol>
<li>Sprinkle figs with a couple tablespoons of baking soda and then pour boiling water over all. Let soak for 5 minutes (this step toughens up the skins a little bit so that the figs stay whole).</li>
<li>Drain off the water and rinse the figs in a bath of cold water 3 times, so that you can get off all of the baking soda that hasn’t combined with the figs.</li>
<li>Pour a bunch of sugar over the figs (for 2 pounds of figs, at least 2 cups of sugar). Back the freak off you diabetics…this is important to cure the little suckers! If you’re really that concerned with the sugar content…tough…just don’t eat so many.</li>
<li>Allow to sit in the sugar for at least 2 days.</li>
<li>Follow this cycle for the next several days: after 2 days put in a nonreactive pot and bring to a simmer over medium low heat. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring to make sure that all of the figs get some time in the sugary mess at the bottom of the pot. transfer back to your holding container and wait 2 more days. do this cycle 3 times.</li>
<li>After the 3rd cooking transfer the figs to canning jars (with out transferring much of the liquid). Bring the liquid to a boil and cook until a candy thermometer reads 220 degrees. Pour the resulting syrup over the figs. Can according to manaufacturer’s instructions.</li>
<li>Store in a cool, dark place for 6 weeks (do not store them in the fridge…it’s not dark in there all the time…and too cold).</li>
<li>Eat the delicious figgy goodness when there are no figs available.</li>
</ol>
<p>Too many shasta daisies! Becky is what I have thriving without blooming. What’s wrong with them?</p>
<p>Did you start them from seed? If so, they won’t flower until the second year. Otherwise, they probably need more sun. I would wait until fall to move them. I have also heard that too much fertilizer will result in more foliage and little or no flowers. I only top dress mine with manure and I don’t do that very often.</p>
<p>No, they were potted plants. This is the third year. Could it be the soil? Clay. I mixed in sand and lime when I palnted them. Maybe not enough?</p>
<p>Mine have spread like crazy from three 3" potted plants at the bottom of a clay slope. I seriously have to pull them like weeds, to keep them from choking out the… underrepresented plants (“urp”). I don’t feed them. Our climate is noted for nine months of sun, six of dry heat, and rare freezes.</p>
<p>Igloo, you can get netting to throw over berry bushes and fruit trees to keep the birds from getting there before you do. Also, some people tie strips of shiny mylar to the branches; it flutters & twists in the sun. I bet the netting will work better.</p>
<p>JRZMom, it does in my yard. The birds here laugh at plastic owls and Mylar strips. Bird netting is the only thing that can keep them from destroying my fruit and berries.</p>
<p>Little bunnies just ate all my daisies down to the nub of stem. My liatris were nibbled down to a thrid of what they were. I’m surprised the bunnies didn’t knock on the back door to demand salad dressing.</p>