Some winter pick-me-up from commentor SkyBluePink:
I love color! And I love flowers!
White Sweet Shrub
Azaleas!
Multi-color spirea (pink, light pink & white)
Old fashioned butterfly bush (from an old homeplace) The spires are formed by little pink puffballs.
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Hopeful Lyme vaccine update!
If it works, it will be a blockbuster in some parts of the USA.
Pfizer's $130M Lyme disease vaccine advances to phase 3 after 3rd shot shown to increase antibodies https://t.co/Df8vfkAOiH
— Eric Weinhandl (@eric_weinhandl) February 4, 2022
… Pfizer’s three-dose regimen gives VLA15 the second dose at two months and the third at six months. The two-dose regimen misses out the shot at two months. As the phase 2 trial found there is value in adding the third dose, the partners plan to test that regimen in the late-phase study.
Phase 3 success could give Pfizer a clear run at a growing opportunity. The number of reported cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. has tripled since the late 1990s, potentially because of changes in land use that have brought more humans into close contact with tick hosts. Whatever the cause, the rise has led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to say new tools for preventing tick-borne diseases are needed urgently.
VLA15 is a rare example of such a tool. SmithKline Beecham won approval for a Lyme vaccine in the late 1990s but pulled it from the market a few years later. Pasteur Mérieux Connaught, now Sanofi, dropped its plans to seek approval for a Lyme vaccine around the same time…
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What’s going on in your garden (planning / memories / indoor), this week?
Baud
We need one vaccine to rule them all.
Eric NNY
But what about the 6G in the Lyme vaccine? I’m sure Bill Gates is behind this.
JPL
Thank you for the pictures.
@Eric NNY: Will I get better reception?
Rusty
Two of the kids had nasty cases of Lyme disease, the one was misdiagnosed for over a year. Keeping fingers crossed the phase 3 is successful.
charluckles
I know a super intelligent caring young person who faces lifelong debilitating neurological issues after contracting Lyme. It would be most excellent to have a vaccine available.
raven
We had blooms two weeks ago because it was so warm. . .it be gone.
Ken
@raven: Blooms are nice, but every spring I’m surprised by how happy I am just to see green grass again.
raven
@Ken: I am too until the kudzu busts out! They were pretty worried here because the peaches require such specific conditions.
Gvg
Last weekend was freezing but this one is back to nice. Yesterday I bought 5 camellias. They have been blooming so pretty all over town that I decided to acquire some more. They bloom all through the dreary cold months. I have stopped to see them at several places on campus and at the local botanical garden. Driving through older neighborhoods is also pretty.
The sudden freeze after a warm winter zapped a lot of plants that don’t normally show much damage, so I have clean up to do once we are past the danger of more frost. Technically mid March used to be the official date of last frost but farmers start planting beans around Valentine’s Day so that probably when I will trim.
Gin & Tonic
Lyme vaccine is necessary with all you people feeding the deer.
Baud
Instead of a Lyme vaccine, shouldn’t Biden be encouraging people to eat healthier and exercise more?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
Aren’t those ticks on mice and other rodents, too?
OzarkHillbilly
Here, immersed in a bi-color world of gray and white, this is a very welcome blast of color. Many thanx, SkyBluePink.
Spanky
@Baud: Eat healthier by eating venison raised in the wild. Win-win.
Baud
@Spanky:
Why do you think Cole is fattening them up?
SkyBluePink
Pic 4 is native pink azalea and regular azalea in background
Pic 5 is the multi color spirea and old butterfly bush.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I don’t need no stinking vaccine; God gave me an immune system.
satby
Yesterday we got another two inches of snow on top of the 13 that was already on the ground, but today is brilliantly sunny and will get to around 31°, so we should get some melting. I want to get out and shovel extra snow on my south facing beds because the daffodils were already starting to peek above the mulch and I need them to slow down. We’re nowhere near done with winter here.
Seeing flowers motivates me! Thanks SkyBluePink!
Cermet
How long is the Lyme vaccine good for – one year, five, ten, lifetime? That is the million dollar question for whether its a hit or just one time wonder.
OzarkHillbilly
I am getting ready to start my 2nd batch of seeds. The only failure in the first batch were the Yeti Nasturtiums. Can’t say I’m surprised. It was my 3rd year from this seed packet and I knew I was pushing it. Oh well, just means I get to try something new: Tall Trailing Mix Nasturtium.
I was a little surprised that Baker Creek only has 2 choices of trailing nasturtiums. I use them in hanging pots and 2 I have high on a wall. The Yeti were very dependable but I wanted a little more color this year.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve read that nasturtion seeds do best when soaked for 12 hours before planting. I do not have the experience to know if this is true. I’ll be planting some in the ground later this spring, so maybe I’ll do a science project: soak some, and put some in dry. Those are fairly expensive seeds, though! I might just soak them all.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: South Bend used that mix in the downtown planters last year and they were fantastic. I saw some seed pods already formed in late spring and liberated a few to bring home to plant; they grew fast, looked beautiful, and made more seeds that I planted into the same pots. By late summer they were the best things growing on the porch. Needless to say I’m replanting them this year, they produced enough seed for all my planters.
oldgold
Why did Joe Rogan and Aaron Rogers decide to party in the woods?
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: They have a very hard outer skin and need to be scarified. I lightly sand paper them. Works every time. Well almost every time. Not when they get 3 years old. I bought some Alaska Red Shades Nasturtium for pots on the ground and they all germinated, already an inch tall.
I’m still waiting for the Trailing Mix to be delivered (ordered them just a few days ago) so I think I’ll just start some more Alaska Reds in the failed Yeti peat cups.
Spartan green
I have a question for the group. Have any of you bought seeds from Gurney’s? They have a couple of things that I’m interested in. Mortgage Lifter tomatoes and some very large red bell peppers. I’ve been disappointed by mail order plants in the past and don’t want to waste my time.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: Ah, sandpaper on nasturtium seeds. I’d heard about scarifying moonflower seeds.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Last year the Yetis only gave me a half dozen or so seeds and of course I misplaced them.
oldgold
To enjoy Corona and Lyme.
Is this joke too politickal for the garden thread?
oatler
@oldgold:
“Why did Joe Rogan and Aaron Rogers decide to party in the woods?”
“They have a very hard outer skin and need to be scarified.”
satby
@Spartan green: I have gotten both seeds, plants, and grafted plants from Gurney’s. Been reasonably happy with all of them, any disappointment had to do with weather some of those years.
satby
@oldgold: good one.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: Yeah, just a light sanding. I had a couple Yeti seeds that all but disintegrated when I tried to sand them. Just threw those out, but I guess that was a clue about all the others too.
eta: meant to note that the water soak method might work well too, but I had not read that.
eta2: just looked, Baker Creek says “Soak seeds overnight in warm water before planting.”
WaterGirl
@charluckles: More than a decade ago I met someone who will be in a wheelchair forever because of Lyme. That was around the time lyme disease first started to be known as a thing by the public. By the time they figured out what it was, it was too late.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I must have at least 30 of the Trailing mix seeds. Plus I know lots probably dropped into the front bed below, so we’ll see if I get volunteers between the shrubs.
OzarkHillbilly
@oldgold: Ouch. NotMax has competition in the bad joke dept.
sab
Does anyone know of an evergreen vine that looks a lot like major vinca, but doesn’t seem to have flowers, and has slightly serrated edges 9n the leaves? Seems very invasive.
Suburban Mom
@Geminid: I’ve never tried soaking nasturtium seeds but scraping or scoring seems to work well.
Eric NNY
@JPL: We can only hope.
wenchacha
My Jesus-loving cousin says they don’t need Lyme vaccines. They pray for Him to heal any illnesses in their bodies.
oldgold
In assessing the quality of humor, I have learned the hard way, as an impulsive wisecracker, that Shakespeare was right: “A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, never in the tongue of him that makes it.“
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid: @OzarkHillbilly: I didn’t know that about nasturtiums. It could explain the spotty results from direct seeding them. I’ll give sanding and/or soaking a try this year.
OzarkHillbilly
@oldgold: Ever so true, and the more painful it is, the more I like it.
Geminid
@sab: Are there thorns on the vines? Greenbrier has thorns, and serrated edges also.
Skepticat
@charluckles:
Excellent is an understatement. I know (and am) a relatively intelligent, caring old person who had Lyme disease in the early 1980s, before it was commonly identified and understood. It was untreated the first time, and I contracted it several more times; however, it still was early days, so the course of antibiotics for those cases was only 10 days. (Much more recently, my former insignificant other was on heavy antibiotics for a year, but only after after developing polymyalgia rheumatica.) I was lucky to have developed “only” fibromyalgia, which is more debilitating and painful than I’d like but not as bad as it could be. (Interestingly, CBD oil helps.) Doctors believe that my younger sister’s profound Alzheimer’s was triggered by Lyme. It’s a very nasty disease.
MomSense
We are watching oversimplified history on YouTube this morning. It’s very entertaining.
Miss Bianca
@Skepticat: First instance I remember of the anti-vax nuts prevailing – or am I the only one who remembers that we actually *had* a vaccine for Lyme disease that got pulled from the market because anti-vaxxers set up a screeching about it?
TerryC
I have 8 pounds of varieties of wildflower seed mixes from American Meadows ready to deploy when I can. And about 400 bare-root trees and bushes on order from four different sources, including 75 blackberry and raspberry clumps. That puts me over the top this year of now having planted, in eight years, more than 12,000 trees and bushes on my disc golf course at my home.
Spartan green
@satby: Thanks. They also have some grow tubs made from geotextiles that I think I need. I got a new tool yesterday. A hori hori tool. I think I’m going to love it.
satby
@TerryC: holy shit! that’s a lot of planting! Well done you, Mother Earth thanks you I’m sure.
Yarrow
@Skepticat: The Covid vaccine works for some people to help their long Covid symptoms. I wonder if the Lyme vaccine might help those suffering with post-Lyme issues. That would be amazing.
sab
@Geminid: No thorns. And leaves are vinca shaped (sort of a long oval with a point at the end) except slightly serrated.
jnfr
My amaryllis had beautiful blooms and then they faded, of course.
https://twitter.com/jnfr/status/1484921657450024963
But now it’s put up a second flower stalk! I did not expect that but I’ll be happy to have more flowers.
https://twitter.com/jnfr/status/1489322500223873025/photo/1
We are covered in snow in the outdoor garden. I bought myself an Aerogarden, to grow a few greens inside.
oldgold
The butterfly bush photo reminded of this recent news story. Just when you think your outrage capacity has been maxed out, you run across a story like this.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.expressnews.com/news/legislature/amp/National-Butterfly-Center-closing-indefinitely-16826463.php
Skepticat
@Miss Bianca: Am I the only one who remembers that we actually *had* a vaccine for Lyme disease that got pulled from the market because anti-vaxxers set up a screeching about it?
I don’t think I heard about that, and I certainly ought to been alert. What is WRONG with people? So instead of only covidiots we also have Lymorons? Sigh.
Skepticat
@Yarrow:
That never entered what passes for my mind. Although it’s been a very long time, I shall check with my doctor, as amazing would be the least of it. Thanks for the suggestion.
jnfr
@oldgold:
It really is outrageous.
Yarrow
@Skepticat: Someone close to me has post-Lyme neurological issues as well. I’m always on the lookout for things that might work. Have you checked out recent successes with disulfiram?
oatler
@oldgold:
My tongue can beat up your ear any day of the week!
oldgold
Oatler: Are you trying to earatate me?
oatler
@oldgold:
Sorry, when my tongue gets loose it gets really loose. The Royal Jack sativa isn’t helping either.
Skepticat
@Yarrow: No, but I certainly shall. Thanks.