Friday night we are supposed to have a frost. If that forecast holds, it’s time to pull in the hibiscus and shamrocks.
The shamrocks look fine, but the leaves on an entire main branch of the hibiscus turned brown a couple weeks ago. It is probably 10 years old. I put fertilizer on it in the spring, and coffee grounds to also fertilize and keep pests away. I’m hoping it is not failing. It is in a very large pot, so big that my husband and I have to carry it outside together, but I suspect it is getting root-bound. Getting a larger pot is not an option. The plant barely fits through the door now. So I think I will just watch it for now. Hopefully it will recover.
Tonight I saw something new. I heard a lot of an unfamiliar chirping out by the smaller pine. It went on and on so I went to look. I saw a male cardinal feeding a female cardinal. The female was the one chirping. They started out on separate branches but soon she sat on the branch right next to him. He would get food out of the feeder, and feed it to her. Very cool. I’ve never seen that before. I looked it up and it sounds like cardinals are monogamous. Maybe it’s the Mom and Dad that we saw going back and forth to feed the hatchlings we heard this summer. Maybe it’s a new “couple”. It seems unlikely they are breeding, as we are at the end of September, but maybe. We’ll see.
Susan's Daily Garden 