New products from Hibiscus and More

 Hello Bloggers,

My website Hibiscus and More just recently received an upgrade. Hibiscus and More is expanding their product line to include more than plants.

The upgrade will include: Fine Art Prints, Photo Note Cards, Gardening Books, Jigsaw Puzzles, Place Mats, Tote Bags, Stock Photography.

Fine Art Prints. Click here. Fine Art Prints

Photo Note Cards. Click here. Photo Greeting Cards

General Gardening Book. Click here. Gardening Book

Butterfly Gardening Book. Click here. Butterfly Gardening

Table Placemats. Click Here. Dinner Place Mats

Canvas Tote Bags. Click here. Tote Bags

Need Stock Photography? Click here. Stock Photography

Alex can be purchased in prints, cards, tote bags, and more.

Spring has arrived. To get ready for spring be sure to read the March Gardening calendar.

March Gardening Calendar 2023

In March the weather teases gardeners into believing spring is almost around the corner, with lots of continuous sunny and warm days. During this time of year, the weather is very unpredictable for planning and the weather is like a roller coaster, one day it’s nice and sunny, then the next day it’s cold and rainy.  As gardeners we get antsy, we want to get out in our garden and play in the dirt. But we know better, the last average frost date is still a month or two months away, depending on your gardening zone. This is when we can start planning for this year’s spring garden. Spring is a good time to check out new gardening books. There are two gardening books I would like to recommend Southeast Style Gardening and Gardening for the Butterflies and the books are on sale on Amazon. Here are the links: Southeast Style Gardening and Gardening for the Butterflies. The books can help you plan your garden for spring.

March Gardening Chores

As we patiently wait for spring to arrive, we can start preparing by starting seeds. Start spring flowers and vegetables from seeds indoors. It takes about 6 weeks to get strong seedlings. To make starting seeds easier several horticultural companies have designed and marketed seed germination kits. The kits can be bought at local nurseries, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and online. There is a kit that includes 2 grow lights, seedling heat mat, growing tray, base tray for excess water, 2 vents on the cover, garden tools, and plant labels. This kit is just one that was listed on Amazon that I found.

Spring is a good time to prune your shrubs and vines. Just be aware that some plants bloom on new growth whereas other plants bloom on old growth. When in doubt prune after flowering.

March is the last month recommended to prune Roses to half their original size. After pruning rake up last year’s mulch and replace with new mulch. This should be done especially if your roses had black spot because the black spot spores are lying dormant on top of last year’s mulch. Fertilize with Bayer Advanced Rose Fertilizer after pruning and apply once a month. ClickHere For More Information on Roses.

Prune back Holly shrubs that have gotten too large. If needed, you can prune back to 36 inches, but if the holly shrubs are 10 to 15 feet you can do the pruning in stages until you find the height that you like.

Flowering shrubs such as Winter Honeysuckle, Quince, and Forsythia can be pruned after flowering.

Is your Liriope looking at little tattered? The leaves can be cut either with a weed eater or your lawn mower set on its highest setting.

Fertilize winter flowering annuals with a blooming type of fertilizer. Water in all granular type fertilizers.

Lawns should have lime at least yearly. Have you limed your lawn lately? Use 40 pounds per 1000 square feet.

Fertilize Pecan Trees with a fruit tree fertilizer and water in well after.

Fertilize shrubs with a shrub and tree fertilizer and water in well.

Need to divide your perennials? When the leaves start to show you can divide and plant elsewhere in your garden. Use a mixture of SuperThrive and Recharge, professional strength microbial superpack as a root stimulator for best results after planting.

One of the best time to plant fruit and nut trees is in early spring. Nurseries have a good selection of these trees in spring, but hurry the selection usually goes fast.

Peach and Apple trees need to be sprayed with a fungicide recommended for fruit trees and spray the trees while the blossoms are on the tree.

Check for scale insects on Camellias and Euonymus. Spray with a horticultural oil, if you detect the insects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Slam the Scam Day

 

Thursday, March 9, 2023 is National Slam the Scam Day. The Social Security Administration is launching a new campaign to bring awareness to these scams targeted mostly to seniors. For more information and how to report the scammers visit: www.ssa.gov/scam

Unfortunately, this is not the only scam going around internet cyberspace that needs to be addressed and shared with my readers. Anyone who has a social media account can become a potential target to scammers. This has become the new norm for scammers and our blog is spreading the word of warning to our readers.  

There are several ways scammers use to extract money from individuals. One way is to send a friend request on Facebook. The majority of the time when you receive a friend request it is from a friend you know. A lot of people have reconnected with long lost friends through Facebook. What happens when you accept a friend request who you don’t know? Here is one scenario that could happen to you or someone you know.    

The scenario is you accept a friend request from someone you don’t know on Facebook. For whatever your reasoning, you accept the new friend request, then within 24 to 48 hours later you start receiving Facebook messages on your Facebook page.

The messages are very general such as, how are you doing, what are you doing? As time passes the messages become personal questions. The messenger asks questions about whether your married or single, have children, religious believes, what you do, where you live, blah, blah, blah. Some of this information can be viewed on your profile page, especially whether the new Facebook friend to check. During the question answer period you find out your new buddy is working under contract at sea and not in US territorial waters.

After a period of question/answer with your new friend you start to realize your questions are never answered. The new friend keeps responding with a new question directed to you and not ever answering the question you asked. Your new friend is about ready to go to the next step of the friendship.

This step is where it becomes really romantic or more friendly. The new friend expresses total devotion in loving you or waking up each morning with you in their arms, or the new friend cannot wait to get back to the states to meet you in person. After all these confessions of love and blah, blah, blah.  Sounds like something out of a romance novel. Right?

The next step of your new friend is a request to download the WhatsApp or Google Chat. Your new Facebook friend doesn’t trust Facebook messenger. According to your new friend WhatsApp or Goggle Chat are more secure and private, or my company does not like us to use Facebook messenger, or Google Chat is more reliable app than Facebook at sea.

The conversation switches to whatsapp or google chat. The new Facebook friend is laying down the compliments to you non-stop and your head is swimming from all the compliments, but your gut feeling says something’s amiss. You sign off for the day and say you will chat tomorrow.

24 or 48 hours later from your last sign-off you receive a message from your new Facebook friend stating their computer is having issues because their apple laptop is out of date. Please, love could you go purchase an apple gift card? Supposedly, the apple gift card will fix all the issues with your new Facebook friend, or will it?  

The new Facebook friend requested you purchase an apple gift card for $100.00 or $50.00.

You say no and suggest several different ways on how your new friend can get a gift card. After several chats back and forth you decide that there is no way that I am giving a complete stranger money.

Moral of the story. Trust your gut and your instincts. In the scenario your do not have to buy someone’s affection. If you know someone that this has happened to there are resources, you can go to. Report the scammers.  Please share and spread the word against scammers.