Potting On Some Australian Seedlings and garden/greenhouse update

I transplanted three types of seedlings yesterday into 3-1/2″ round pots in trays that I sat in the greenhouse. This is a critical time for them all, so I’m hoping they are resilient and grow on without having any setbacks.

I picked the right weekend day, as this afternoon, just as I started to head outside to do a little gardening, there was snow!

Rhodies getting a blanket of white today–this was early on. They ended up with about 1″ or more frozen to their leaves.

Here is what the seedlings looked like prior to potting on.

  • Hakelia Seedlings
  • Hardenbergia Seedlings

Because so many of the seeds sprouted and survived, I decided to pot multiple seedlings per transplant pot–so I put 3 in most, and five in some. There ended up being about 36 Hakelia seedlings and 24 Hardenbergias.

I didn’t get a photo of them, but since I had some extra time, I decided to pot on the Anigozanthos seedlings, too. They were a lot smaller than I thought, so I hope it wasn’t a bad decision to pot them on so early. There were close to 100 tiny seedlings in that paper cup! I potted 5 to each transplant pot, and when the tray was almost full, I started planting clumps of a bunch of seedlings in the middle of the pots.

I also planted a few new seeds to fill the space vacated by the transplants. I planted Chamaescilla corymbosa. The seeds (and photos) are from australianseeds.com.

The seeds of this plant were like tiny, shiny black beads.

The last of the Australian seeds were Eremophila maculata. They arrived in three seed capsules with instructions on how to use a mechanical vice to break the capsules apart and get at the seeds. I just used pliers and they broke apart easily enough but there were no obvious seeds inside. I decided to just save everything and plant it all to see if maybe there were seeds I just couldn’t see. Seeds and photos from australiaseeds.com.

The last seeds planted this cycle were sold as Uniola latifolia, but has a new name, Chasmanthium latifolia. These seeds are from Chilterns in the U.K. There were only ten seeds, so I’m hoping for a high germination rate for this elegant grass plant, known as sea oats.

The other seedlings that are up, but slow to get going, are Acacia baileyana purpurea (4 seedlings), Daviesia latifolia (2 seedlings), Urodon dasyphyllus (8 seedlings), Acacia redolens prostrata (10 seedlings).

I took a walk around the garden and greenhouse with the camera on January 26th and found the following:

Snowdrop peaking out from a tangle of Clematis stems.
A few brave crocus were blooming…but not open when I took the photo.

The Cymbidium orchid that we received from Karl Huffbauer years ago has three big spikes this year. It often gets aphids or mold and doesn’t put on much of a show, but I’ve got the Vornado fan blowing right on it this year, so I’m hopeful it will have cleaner flowers.

There isn’t a lot of bright color in the greenhouse, even, but this hardy Nasturtium is growing madly and blooming as it grows.
One of the Veltheimia bulbs has a spike coming. I didn’t see spike on the two offsets, though…
I inherited this jungle cactus from neighbors when they moved away about five years ago. I have been trying to get this plant healthy again, as it was chlorotic and weak. It is getting better, but needs a good potting up in better soil.