All About Pocket Knives

woodwalker wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2026 3:53 am My Tiger Lilies beside my garage/shop.

Nice, Kevin!

Waukonda wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2026 1:39 pm

woodwalker wrote: ↑Wed Jun 10, 2026 3:53 am My Tiger Lilies beside my garage/shop.

Nice, Kevin!

Thanks Ike!!

Looking good, Ike, Ken and ww.


Here's a little cactus I relocated a few years ago, they were growing all over the hillside near a hotel in Cumberland. Last year's top segment broke off over the winter, so I just left it lay in the pot and it took root. The dried up brown part was the original piece. I guess these things grow like weeds.

Some pics around the back porch of my wife's handiwork. Her desert rose is really showing off.

Mike those are beautiful. I need to look into the Desert Rose, interesting plant. The first flowers (6th picture from top, white blooms, and red blooms) are pentas. The picture under it are impatiens. Looks like impatiens also in the bottom picture, right side.

Ken

Third planting season here in NC and I’ve finally cracked the code on growing my cockscombs. These are from Canadian plants that my FIL gathered seeds from in 1955 and grew annually until his passing. I’m carrying the torch and I’ve got my son in Maine giving it a go to keep the tradition going.

These are from seeds gathered in 2020.

I am growing a few different heirloom plants this year, one being some French Charentais cantaloupes. The plants were looking good until a hailstorm shredded the leaves last Tuesday. I expected to lose most, if not all. A few did not survive, but 6 days later the others seem to be coming along and are putting forth blossoms.

bighomer wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2026 6:39 pm 1000012524.jpg

I suppose Wampus helps in keeping all that so nice.

Garlic lovers eat your heart out. It's scape season! A tasty little treat to enjoy before the garlic is harvested. For those that haven't heard of scapes. They are the early flower stems that shoot up from the garlic plant and start to curl up signaling they are ready to be picked, about a month and a half before harvest time. They are usually very tender and mildly garlic flavored. The scapes are picked before the flower can develop so the plant can send all its energy to the bulb to grow those delicious cloves we all love. Enjoy!

-Joe

Have ya tried garlic scape pesto? This is the first year I haven't made any in years,
Just finished up popping tops, start digging about July 4th. Probly my last year to grow so much, about 100 will do me. Cut. Back to 1200 a few years ago about 15 years ago I left 200 plants unpopped, as a teat. There was no measurable size difference. But I kept popping tops when I discovered I could get a dime apiece at market in bunces of a dozen.

Magnercraft wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2026 12:06 pm Garlic lovers eat your heart out. It's scape season! A tasty little treat to enjoy before the garlic is harvested. For those that haven't heard of scapes. They are the early flower stems that shoot up from the garlic plant and start to curl up signaling they are ready to be picked, about a month and a half before harvest time. They are usually very tender and mildly garlic flavored. The scapes are picked before the flower can develop so the plant can send all its energy to the bulb to grow those delicious cloves we all love. Enjoy!

-Joe
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Very interesting post, I don't think that type of garlic is grown in my spot of the midwest, I had no idea that there was such a thing.

Thanks for the interest Ike. I should have mentioned that scapes are produced by hardneck garlic. This type grows well in the north east. I have heard that softneck garlic does not grow scapes.

Rob, scape pesto is amazing! My mom makes some of the the best. Garlic is one of the easiest things to grow. Every year I say that I'll grow less next year (100 sounds nice) and then come planting time in the fall I always seem to have a bag of extra cloves that I just can't resist jamming in the ground.

Magnercraft wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2026 12:06 pm Garlic lovers eat your heart out.

Interesting post. I had never heard of garlic scapes. I grow onions for scallions and garlic chives, never tried growing any real garlic.

I like garlic scapes on the grill with a bit of olive oil on them.

Magnercraft wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 1:03 am Thanks for the interest Ike. I should have mentioned that scapes are produced by hardneck garlic. This type grows well in the north east. I have heard that softneck garlic does not grow scapes.

Thanks, I realized that after a little research on scapes. I have a neighbor who grows a lot of garlic and I knew his looked different than what you were showing.

chickenman62 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2026 1:24 pm I like garlic scapes on the grill with a bit of olive oil on them.

Boy, that sounds good!

I said in a post back on May 8th, that I was guessing that my Tiger Lillies would be blooming in about 3 weeks. Eight weeks later the 1st bloom has appeared. I was thinking that it was around Memorial weekend that they bloomed, I guess I had my holidays mixed up and it is actually July 4th.

I am also posting a picture to show this large wasp, don't normally see one this size and color.

Spectacular tiger lily, Ike. What is the flower that big wasp is visiting?

Here's some from our summer flower gardens.

Ken

Mumbleypeg wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2026 2:33 pm What is the flower that big wasp is visiting?

I can't say, Ken, it is not from our yard. My wife and I were in StL the other day and made a visit to the Museum of History. I was admiring the beautiful landscaping around the building when I saw the wasp and got a pic. I wish I had taken other pictures. They had signage which identified all of the plantings, but I forgot the name of that particular flower and have been unable to come up with it online. I think all of the plants were native to Missouri.

Those are some very nice pictures. I really like that Turk's Cap, I think I will see if I can grow that in Illinois.

Waukonda wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2026 4:02 pm
I really like that Turk's Cap, I think I will see if I can grow that in Illinois.

Turk’s Cap is a deciduous perennial that will grow in sun or shade. It’s native here - loves the heat, not sure it will grow there or not. My research says USDA zones 7 - 10. It gets about two to three feet tall. It’s beautiful and hummingbirds love the bright red flowers. Now the bad news - it spreads by underground runners (and seed, assuming the birds don’t eat it all). Best to plant it somewhere it will be self-contained, somewhere you don’t care if it spreads, or be prepared to manage it (dig it out by hand annually). Mine is in a wooded area (dappled shade with late afternoon sun) so I just let it go.

Shame it won’t grow there, but Texas Mountain Laurel is a beautiful plant year around. It’s a small tree or large shrub, native to the Texas Hill Country. We are on the northern edge of its range, it’s not native here but will grow here. It’s evergreen, very slow growing with panicles of fragrant purple flowers in spring, which smell like grape bubble gum. They make seed pods in summer and each fall the pods split open to reveal strings of bright red seeds. Native Americans made necklaces, bracelets from the seeds but they’re highly toxic to humans if ingested.

Ken

Great post, Ken, I was not familiar with Texas Mountain Laurel.

Tiny pollinators...........cantaloupe plants are not self pollinating, not seeing any bee activity since they started blossoming, I was thinking I would resort to hand pollinating. Then, I looked closer.

There is nearly constant sweat bee activity around the flowers, they are not noticeable unless entering or exiting the flower. The first picture is greatly magnified to show the bee, the 2nd picture is actual of one exiting the flower. Each blossom is roughly the size of a nickel coin, so you can see how small they are.

I'm not telling anyone who reads this thread anything new, but most people probably don't realize that honeybees and bumblebees aren't the only pollinators in God's creation.
In Illinois, where I live, there are 400 to 500 species of bees, probably the same in most other states.

Nice shot! I try to plant a lot of different things to attract a variety of pollinators. As your picture shows, it’s interesting to see what pollinators are more attracted to which plants. Some veggies are wind pollinated too.

Ken

Some garlics and a leek.

Some garlics and a leek.