Autumn Flowers and clearance plants

County Fair Zinnias and Autumn Beauty Sunflowers are beginning to bloom.

 

My rattlesnake pole beans are suffering from spider mites and some sort of chewing insect. I'm planning on making an onion and soap spray to try to deal with them.

In spite of the bugs, they continue to grow and are even putting out little green beans. Maybe I'll have enough for thanksgiving!

These were all on the clearance rack at Lowes for just $3 each! From the left there are two Ischia Green Figs (supposedly a very heat hardy slightly smaller variety with very sweet figs), a Sunshine Blue Blueberry bush (self pollinating, compact 3' bushy plant with excellent blueberries), and two Dwarf Everbearing Black Mulberry bushes.

You can see the difference unrestricted growth in good dirt makes for the mulberries. These are the two I potted up about a month ago. They are fast growers and I'm hoping that the new ones bounce back quickly.

The new mulberries were seriously root bound, so I used a clean sharp knife to cut off about the bottom two inches of thick roots circling the pot. The picture above is after the trim. The photo below is what I removed.

I potted them in larger two gallon pots with mushroom compost and sand from my garden. With the roots trimmed up they now have plenty of room to grow until the new garden bed is ready. I also pruned off any dead or poorly placed branches from all the plants.