Your All Things Plants weekly news: March 15, 2014

There were 8 new gardening ideas posted last week:

By dave March 15, 2014 The Top 25 Water Garden Plants, Selected by ATP Members Here's a report of the most popular water garden plants from our database! (2,690 words - Read the full article) (3 comments)

By Newyorkrita March 15, 2014 Add Water Hyacinths to Your Pond Water Hyacinths will float on the surface and give your pond fish needed shade and places to hide from overhead predators. Water Hyacinths also give pond frogs safe places to sit when they are not in the water. (62 words - Read the full article) (3 comments)

By dave March 14, 2014 ATP Podcast #49: Let's Talk Tomatoes Last week was Tomatoes (and Peppers) Week at ATP so we're talking about our favorite vegetable. How do you choose from the huge variety of tomatoes? What's a determinate? What's an heirloom? What do I do about cracking, or viruses? Listen to find out! (8 comments)

By greene March 13, 2014 African Horned Melon This fruit has many names. It originated in Africa and has been called Horned Melon, Hedged Melon, Melano, and a few other names, the most amusing one being Jelly Melon and the most inexplicable one being English Tomato. The fruit made its way to New Zealand, where the name 'Kiwano' was added (patented name) because they had such good luck getting the world to eat Kiwi fruit and thought Kiwano would catch on more quickly than African Horned Melon. (967 words - Read the full article) (7 comments)

By Gymgirl March 12, 2014 Protect Your Seedlings With a Portable Mini-Greenhouse! This handy little garden tool is invaluable when it's time to protect your seedlings from the cold, wind, or sun or to harden them off for transplanting into the garden. (463 words - Read the full article) (20 comments)

By SongofJoy March 11, 2014 Landscaping To Attract Cardinals Cardinals are among the most colorful and popular backyard birds. Providing a landscape that will attract them is well worth the effort. (62 words - Read the full article) (11 comments)

By TBGDN March 10, 2014 Growing Irises in Spite of Borers Iris gardeners encounter many natural enemies of iris plants, such as leaf spot, soft rot, mold, and bacterial infections, but how much do we know about iris borers? (785 words - Read the full article) (3 comments)

By frankrichards16 March 9, 2014 Buying Plants Online -- All Things Are Not Equal When browsing and buying from your favorite online plant source, make note that not all 4" pot sizes are the same. (116 words - Read the full article) (4 comments)

The most popular images last week from our plant database: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Smoke Scream') by floota: Photo of Hoya (Hoya mindorensis) by SongofJoy: Photo of Hellebore (Helleborus Gold Collection® Pink Frost) by soilsandup: Photo of Foothill Beardtongue (Penstemon heterophyllus) by Kelli: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Time Stopper') by floota: Photo of Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Dr Jerrold Corbett') by virginiarose:

The most popular Multi-Plant Photos from last week: Multi-plant photo by Kelli: Multi-plant photo by Kelli: Multi-plant photo by eclayne: Multi-plant photo by jmorth: Multi-plant photo by Paul2032: Multi-plant photo by jmorth:

Noteworthy acorn tips given this week:

8 people gave for a post in "Banner for March 13, 2014 by 4susiesjoy" by 4susiesjoy 7 people gave for a post in "Banner for March 15, 2014 by mcash70" by mcash70 6 people gave for the idea "Landscaping To Attract Cardinals" by SongofJoy 6 people gave for the idea "Growing Irises in Spite of Borers" by TBGDN 5 people gave for the idea "Protect Your Seedlings With a Portable Mini-Greenhouse!" by Gymgirl 5 people gave for a post in "Banner for March 12, 2014 by Horntoad" by Horntoad 5 people gave for a post in "Banner for March 14, 2014 by dirtdorphins" by dirtdorphins 4 people gave for the idea "Buying Plants Online -- All Things Are Not Equal" by frankrichards16 3 people gave for a post in "Banner for March 8, 2014 by mcash70" by mcash70 3 people gave for the idea "African Horned Melon" by greene

The most active threads this week:

Subject	OP	Area	Replies
OT - The Porch Swing	daylily	Daylilies forum	57
Some of your favorite Purple or Violet irises	tveguy3	Irises forum	45
Succulent	stilldew	Plant ID forum	33
Guests for the podcast	dave	Site Talk forum	32
Podcast?	Anderwood	Site Talk forum	32
And the winners are........!	dave	The March Tomatoes, Peppers and Water Gardens Not-A-Raffle-Raffle!	31
The interesting thing(s) your plants are doing now?	purpleinopp	Cactus and Tender Succulents forum	31
lawn disease	drdawg	Ask a Question forum	30
Houseplant display - how do you display yours?	SongofJoy	Houseplants forum	28

Some new recommendations from our members:

Lavanda recommended Arid Lands Greenhouses and wrote: I orderded six plants in January, all were unusual plants I had seen searching for with no success. They arrived less than a week later. Well-packed and arrived in great condition. I was very satisfied with this transaction. The foto below is one I had in my files of what I was searching for: it is not a plant from Arid Lands. Rebutia Muscula

Lavanda recommended Willhite Seed Inc. and wrote: This company is a small mom & pop operation. I order from them at least once a year. They give prompt service. Best prices for Jiffy products, and a huge variety of watermelon selections.

Lavanda recommended TomatoFest and wrote: Oodles of choices, detailed descriptions, specials, great prices, excellent quality. It's a mom-and-pop operation, growing mostly their own seeds..

Betja recommended Water Mill Gardens and wrote: Dan and Jane Trimmer are wonderful daylily hybridizers, and some of their newest daylilies are absolute trendsetters! They send huge multi-fanned plants and have excellent communication skills too. Here is a picture of my spring 2014 order from them -- this is only six plants!

4susiesjoy recommended Northern Lights Daylilies and wrote: I really like this vendor. I originally ordered from him on the lily auction but subsequently went directly to his web site. He only offers one fan, so there is a wait for the bloom, but I've gotten some beautiful daylilies at a very good price that I wouldn't have been able to afford elsewhere. Even though they are only one fan, they always have a very good root system and I haven't lost one so far that I've received from him. I've also received some beautiful bonus daylilies from him. I've been ordering from him for 5 years and I am a very satisfied customer.

Some numbers from last week:

• 60 new members.
• 168 new threads.
• 3,710 new posts.
• 1,088 new images to the plant database.
• 56 new comments in the plant database.
• 19 new Multi-Plant photos.