Those are some big Incrediballs!

Last year my mom and I had a little to see who could grow more tomatoes at our shared community garden plot. I don't remember who won. I'm not sure anybody did. Tomatoes were plentiful last year, unlike this year, so really we all won.

Suffice to say, our family is just a wee bit competitive. Anyone who can turn gardening into a competition obviously likes to win.

I sent this photo to my mom to brag about the size of my Incrediball hydrangea blooms. I also shared it on Instagram and Facebook so if you want to follow all my plant touching exploits, you can do that there.

So I guess I shouldn't been surprised when I sent my mom a photo of my feeling up the largest of the Incrediball hydrangea blooms in my year and I got this reply.

Oh, game on, Mom. Game on.

So like any self-respecting overly competitive daughter I decided to take care of this "Mine's bigger" discussion immediately. No need to let this sort of thing fester.

I measured the biggest Incrediball bloom I could find: 11.5 inches in diameter. For reference, a basketball has a diameter of 9.39 inches.

I figured there was no way my mom's bloom could be bigger than that. In order to get photographic proof (I wasn't just going to blindly trust her measuring), I ran out to her house. And there I saw an enormous Incrediball hydrangea with probably 20 larger-than-a-basketball-sized flowers. (This is the part where I point out that she bought her Incrediball hydrangea as a two-gallon plant at about the same time I bought my little pint-sized Incrediballs. So you know, pretty much she's cheating smart.)

My mom's Incrediball hydrangea.

I knew I was in trouble.

Sure enough. The biggest bloom I could find (and trust me it was hard figuring out which one was the biggest) was 12.5 inches in diameter.

I guess it's clear who won. Perhaps this should be lesson to not get competitive about gardening. And certainly not with the person who taught you most of what you know about gardening. And DEFINITELY not when that person is your mom.

And yeah, I felt it up a little before I left. Sorry, Mom.

Please enjoy some plant touching during this delay

Hi everyone.

I'm late with this week's Garden Appreciation Society post because I got home late last night and didn't have time to make a bouquet. Look for that tomorrow and do not miss the links from last week which were fantastic! You all are amazing.

To tide you over, I bring you another installment of the possibly creepy plant touching. It seems that my habit is catchy. This is my sister-in-law fondling the amazing French lilacs she grew (and my mom is reaching in for a little grab too). I don't know the exact cultivar, but whatever it is, I need it. I have never seen flowers on lilacs so big in my life. Definitely fondle-worthy.

OK, that's just gross

Don't read this post while you're eating. Unless you are dieting and want a reason to stop eating.

I have sad news to report on the health of the Family Jewels plant. The aphids love it. I have never actually seen a plant so covered in aphids before in my life. From a distance I thought the stems were turning a pretty golden color. And then I got closer and saw this:

That just skeeves me out, although I'd rather deal with aphids than creepy caterpillar-type bugs. Even though this was clearly a massive infestation, I did try my usual remedies. First I hit it really good with a strong blast of the hose. That probably got 75% of them off, but it was really time consuming and wet because I had to hold each stem individually to get on the underside. I waited a couple days and repeated the big rinse cycle, then went through with a rag and a bowl of water and dish soap and manually removed most of the rest of them.

Three days later it was almost as bad. It's OK, really. The plant probably got stressed, making it more susceptible to an alien aphid attack. After all, it's not used to the kind of climate I have it growing in and it has endured one of the worst summers (if you're a plant, awesome if you're a lover of beautiful weather like me) we've ever had. With the weather turning much colder than it usually is this time of year, it's not long for this world anyway. So I'll pull off the seed pods in hopes of saving some seed and then pull it out of the ground. I would have liked to enjoy it a bit longer, but I've certainly gotten plenty of enjoyment from it already this season.

PG-13 plant touching

The plant feeler-upper strikes again.

Look how big the family jewels are getting!

You might recall my PG-13 plant touching moment from last year:

P.S. I'm not totally sick, I swear. I'm just a toucher. I touch everything. It's a good thing I discovered Internet shopping because store employees would get irritated with me for touching, rubbing, feeling and inspecting every item of clothing on a rack. Plus, I like to think that plants want a little petting every once in a while too.