Our Day 26 plant has an interesting story. I’ve seen Geranium maderense in books and catalogs for years, so about seven years ago, I finally purchased some seeds. I ended up with only one good seedling.

This plant is supposed to be biennial and somewhat tender, so I wintered it in the greenhouse and then promptly neglected to plant it in the garden or pot it on. The plant kept growing but did not bloom in that second year. I potted it up and then kept in the greenhouse again, and then never planted it in the garden. So, now I have what might be the only seven-year-old Geranium maderense around!

You can see in the above photo how the leaf stems turn down after the leaves die and help support the stem. This is a cool, unusual behavior.

My 2020 goals for this plant are to plop it into a nice spot in the garden early in the spring and hopefully have it grow strongly and bloom before frost.

The Day 25 plants are some very old bulbs that I started from seed about 25 years ago. The seeds came from Thompson and Morgan. The bulbs grew well but didn’t do a lot for several years and I probably didn’t take the best care of them, as I had very little knowledge about bulbous plant care or the genus Albuca. But then they bloomed one year, and not only are the flowers intricate and fascinating, but they are slightly, sweetly scented. Irresistible! I’ve taken better care of them in the last ten years or so and they bloom regularly.

Probably the most unusual feature is the fibrous covering all over the bulbs, even above the soil line. You can see it in the photo above and in the following photo I took of the mostly dormant bulbs just a few days ago.

You can also see that the bulbs have grown and stretched the pot out of shape. After they flower this year I will move them into a larger, nicer pot in a nice succulent mix with some organic matter and organic fertilizer and see how they do.

This is another old-timer. I believe the original plant came from City People’s Mercantile on Madison maybe ten years ago. I have lost the tag or it faded, so I am not clear on the species, but recent research makes me think it is Pelargonium laxum.

I don’t have a lot of photos of this plant, but I have some decent flower pictures–it bloomed for me for the first time in 2019.

The worst thing about researching is that I saw about a dozen other succulent Pelargonium species I would love to try.

Here is a photo from several years ago which gives an idea of the habit the plant displays for me:

As succulent as this plant is, and leaning toward geophytic, it probably would prefer much less water than it gets with me. You can tell from the photo that it is growing a bit rampantly and weakly. Not only is the watering a factor, but in the greenhouse, it doesn’t get the burning bright sun that it would expect in its home in South Africa. But it survives and grows every year.

My 2020 plans for this plant are to pot it into a slightly larger (and heavier) pot and include some sort of stake supports to keep the plant upright. I’ll put 2/3 sand in the pot with 1/3 potting soil. I also want to take some cuttings from the tips of the branches and try to grow them with even more drainage and drier, sunnier conditions to see if it will look a little more bonsai-ish.

My Day 23 plant was a splurge I made at a little nursery that used to be down in Fremont. Brother Tim and I went there about four years ago, just before they closed for good. I found this little scented geranium and had to have it. I’m not sure of the species or the scent, but I know I like the foliage and the flowers. I’ll have to research to see if the tag is still around or if I can find it online.

Here are photos through the last few years:

I’ve taken lots of cuttings from this little plant–they don’t root as easily as typical “geraniums,” but a few of them have taken. In spring, above the original plant, a flight of the fancy, lacy flowers appears and can last for six weeks or more.

My 2020 goals for this plant in 2020 are to repot the original plant after flowering into a larger container and make sure it gets watered and fed appropriately. At the same time, I’ll take a few more cuttings from it and see how I do at propagating it in summer, rather than autumn when I’ve tried before.

Leon bought me a couple of water plants about six years ago. This pitcher plant was the stand-out. It has grown well and easily for me in pots in the greenhouse and has forgiven me even when I forget to add water to the tray in which it sits. I was able to divide the original pot into three divisions a couple of years ago. The leaves are fascinating and the flowers are gorgeous.

My 2020 goals for these plants are to pot them up into bigger containers and do a better job of keeping them well watered with rainwater and appropriately fertilized. There are some fussy ways to grow carnivorous plants, but I am not hoping to spoil these too much–I just want to give them what they need to flower and thrive.

Here is another seed-grown pet plant. I think it is about ten years old now. I am very obsessed with the flora of South African and seeds for this plant came with one of my orders from Seeds Africa. I don’t have a lot of photos of it, but you can see the trunk (caudex) on it after all these years.

I think this plant may have bloomed without me noticing…hopefully, I’ll pay more attention in 2020 and get a photo of some blooms.

I probably won’t do much to this plant in 2020 other than try to feed and water it appropriately. It doesn’t ask for much!

Maybe six years ago, I decided I needed to focus my plant collecting somehow. At that time, I discovered the Pacific Bulb Society, an amazing group of very smart people who grow and love bulbous plants, or geophytes. I became a member. The group also has several bulb/seed exchanges each year where members donate seeds and bulbs and the organization sends them off to members for very reasonable prices. I got some seeds of Habranthus robustus, among many others. Having never grown anything like them before, I was skeptical…but they turned out to be pretty easy to germinate and to grow and they live happily in the cool greenhouse.

These bulbs are easy to grow–they just look a little like grass all year. I leave them in the greenhouse in summer and they always surprise me with flowers. Just days after a good watering the flower stems appear followed by the lovely pink lilies blooms. Each flower lasts but a few days. They send stems up multiple times, though.

My 2020 plans for these plants is to repot them early in spring in 2/3 soil and 1/3 sand and lots of organic fertilizer. I will divide them at that time, as well, and as an experiment, I’ll put a few of them out in the garden. They are potentially hardy to 10 degrees.

Originally, I purchased the seeds for these plants for friends Arliss and Mike to throw on a steep cliff next to their home in Parker, Arizona. The hope was for something that would grow easily and stabilize the erosion they were experiencing at the time.

Somehow, I never got around to giving them the seeds and now they have purchased a different home in Arizona that doesn’t require any erosion control. In addition, I’ve learned a lot more about accidentally introducing invasive species. So, I started the seed last January, instead, with the intention of keeping one or two as bonsai starts in the greenhouse.

Here is what the plants look like today:

The interesting thing about these shrubs is that they started out with typical Acacia delicate foliage and now the adult leaves are very different–paddle-like and thick and sturdy.

Here are some photos through the year of these little shrublets:

As with the Acacia baileyana “purpurea” seedlings, my goals with these plants for 2020 are to pot them up in half potting soil/half sand and feed them well to get them growing through spring/summer. I will move them outside to a sunny spot once the weather warms up.

These are young, fun plants–I grew them from seed last year. The seeds came from Australian Seeds. By following the germination suggestions, I had good results and ended up with a few seedlings, which are now more like saplings!

Here are some photos of the progress of these plants from the time they were started a year ago:

Acacia baileyana is a classic cool greenhouse plant. It supposedly blooms when fairly young and can be kept at a reasonable size. Twice before I tried to get seeds to start and failed, so I’m pretty thrilled to have year-old trees that are eighteen inches tall. The foliage is elegant, but the purple tinge that the seedlings showed when young has faded. I suspect that the greenhouse is too shady to bring out the “purpurea” genes.

2020 plans for these plants will be to pot them up in half potting soil, half sand and feed them well in the spring. They will go outside once winter leaves for good, probably in a sunny spot on the driveway, where they may once again find their purple genes.

Here is another old friend of a plant, gifted from brother Tim more than twenty years ago. This plant came to me as a start of a Wisteria and I decided to bonsai it. I have found it challenging as a bonsai but interesting as a potted plant. The plant only flowered one time in all those years. I just remember it had lavender flowers with a slight blue blush and a sweet fragrance. It has been at least ten years since that one flower spike appeared.

Here is how the plant’s trunk looks today. The rest of it is long, thin branches about three feet long.

And here is what the plant looks like when it is leafed out–you can see leaves both at the top and bottom of the photo.