I got this little cactus back in November via mail order. I quarantined it in the window seed starting tray to be sure there were no mealies or other pests. There isn’t a lot of light there, since I didn’t point the LEDs directly on the cactus, but whatever the conditions, this little cactus seems happy and threw three buds out. One of them opened today!
We had a winter storm, or what I like to call “winter.” Since snow doesn’t fall in significant amounts in Seattle very often, it causes quite a stir and messes up traffic and work schedules–and gardening plans!
It started innocently enough, as an inch or so on one day.
The next day, the snow got a little more serious. We ended up with about eleven inches of snow over the course of a week.
I ended up at the office every day, even when it was closed, so I felt less guilty playing with my plants there and making plans for more of them. The miniature African violet is doing well. It keeps sending up flower spikes, but they don’t open properly. I assume it is too cold, so I cut the spikes all off, but within a week, it is sending up more–you can see one at about 11:00 on the photo below.
The African violet’s flowers have been disappointing, as they don’t open widely–just to a cup shape, but never a saucer. On the other hand, the Sinningia “Freckles” from the Violet Barn, purchased at the same time, has gorgeous flowers that last for weeks at a time. It has three buds coming on it, so I should have flowers on my desk for a month, at least.
I also have a Primulina tamiana, the Vietnamese Violet, on my desk that appears to be growing well. There is also a Parlor Palm, Chamaedorea elegans, that has only three fronds, but seems to be doing well. I have a terrarium with some strongly growing Polka Dot Plants, Hypoestes phyllostachya and a Euphorbia that is struggling with some mildew or something, and a tiny Senecio succulent cutting from a co-worker. The big plant in my office is a hand-me-down sad-looking Pachira aquatica that is about four feet tall. It is braided and needs a good repot and reboot.
My plans for the office are to move the Hypoestes to pots of their own and put something tiny and delicate in the terrarium–maybe a dwarf gensneriad. I have another couple of containers at home to maybe make into terrariums for my desk, as well.
Since this photo, I have taken cuttings from two of the stems, trimmed out the old dead stumps from the middle and removed a zip tie that was holding the braids together, but strangling the plant. I started to regularly water and feed it, too. My biggest concern is that the old wood may not leaf back out, so I’m waiting nervously until some buds start to swell on the trunks from which the cuttings were cut. The stems are interestingly hollow.
On the home front, I was worried about the greenhouse denizens when the temperatures dipped down into the teens one week. The worst feeling hit me when I went out BEFORE the really cold weather to check all the systems and there was frost all over the inside of the greenhouse door and it was frozen shut! But once Leon helped me break inside, I was relieved to find the temperature was fine and the heater and fans were working well. I did bump the thermostat up to 50 degrees to be sure the whole inside stayed above freezing through the cold snap. Luckily, we never lost power and everything appears to have survived, including the newly transplanted Australian seedlings.
And speaking of those, here are some seedling updates.
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!
Here is what the seedlings looked like prior to potting on.
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 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:
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.
My first worry when planting the seeds of the Australian plants was that none of them would grow…that is no longer a worry.
Forgive the strange lighting on the below photos, but I forgot to take them when the sun was up, so this is just the LED lights, and it casts a blue-pink tint on everything.
The seedling setup is shown above. The cups are sitting on a heat mat and some are covered to up the humidity, while others are not. The ones that are not have shown signs of mold, so I’ve dried them out a bit.
Almost all of the Hakea drupacea seeds came up, and they appear to be robust, hardy seedlings. The first true leaves are showing. After they get two, I’ll attempt to pot them on and move them to the greenhouse.
Hardenbergia violacea seeds came up quickly. There are about twenty seedlings with true leaves already. I’ll transplant these to individual pots in early February and move them to the greenhouse–hopefully they will adjust and grow.
Only one of the Acacia baileyana “Purpurea” came up so far. And a Hardenbergia seedling came up in there, too, somehow. I’m hoping for more Acacias–the color is already great and I can only imagine what they look like when they are trees!
The Anigozathos manglesii seedlings came up looking like hair–I wasn’t sure the soil didn’t have some nasty mold tentacles or something! But it turns out to be a BUNCH of grass-like seedlings. These have a long way to go to reach their full glory–adults have flowering stems five feet tall!
No photos–but I was in the greenhouse this weekend and saw that some Cyclamen coum seeds that I planted over a year ago finally came up! There are two cute little cyclamen leaves in the tiny seedling pot! I’ll get photos next week.
I stumbled on an almanac that had the planting dates for food crops in Seattle. Surprisingly (or maybe not that surprisingly), all the dates were about a month earlier than I always believed. So, this weekend, I decided to get an early start on my peas. I planted most of them in pots today and then also planted some out in the garden. The pots are in the greenhouse and should give me some early transplants. It will be interesting to see if the direct-seeded ones try to come up soon, or maybe wait until February when it warms up a bit.
The peas are Spring Blush Tendril Peas from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
This cultivar did really well for me last year–well, really well for our dog, Mona. She absolutely loves fresh peas and I picked a few every day as I came in from work and gave them to the dogs.
I am on track with my seed starting so far this year. I soaked and planted five more species this past Saturday. Most of these seeds were purchased from https://australianseed.com/ and I’m borrowing their photos here. They are:
I bought a bunch of the Acacia seeds to share with friends Arliss and Mike go fight some erosion at their home in Parker, Arizona. I’m trying to grow some myself, too, so I can tell them how to start them.
A nasty white mold was forming on the soil of my seed pots after a few days, but I scraped it off and added some lights, and that seems to have done the trick.
The first seeds to come up are the Hardenbergias–about five or six of them are showing so far! I’m hoping to pass some seedlings to brother Tim to try outside in West Seattle.
Last week, a much-needed break from classes began. My first “fun” chore was to inventory all the seeds I have left from years past and set a plan for each kind. I was planning on this being a 15-minute quick task. About three hours later, I was finally on the last packet of seeds, the SIXTY-NINTH PACKET!
I immediately promised myself I wouldn’t buy any new seeds (a promise since broken) and that I would plant each and every kind of seed I already owned and give them each a fair chance at reaching their plant potential. To meet that goal, I pretty much have to plant a packet a day for the rest of my life…
My seed starting window (my seed incubator) had to be reassembled after a summer dismantling. I accomplished that today. I have a plant tray there with a heating mat, all on a table. Three sets of LED lights will get clamped around the edges so I can adjust the light levels.
Well, after the seed incubator was all up and running, I couldn’t help but get excited and want to plant some seeds. So, first I planted the seeds that followed me home from Hawaii, graciously ignored by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture at the airport. A bunch of them were from the Foster Botanical Garden, and some were from the house we rented. They honestly could be almost anything. It will be fun to see if any of them come up.
The incubator still looked pretty empty, so I decided to try some of the Australian seeds that I ordered last year. I picked five different seed packets and while I wait for the various stratification strategies to kick in, I’m typing this blog post. Here’s what I’ll be starting:
Acacias are one of my favorite tree families, and I’ve always wanted one for the greenhouse. Acacia baileyana “Purpurea” is the cultivar I’m going to try. I had to hot water scarify these. If any of them germinate, I expect they will grow pretty fast, so I could end up with a blooming plant in my lifetime.
Another plant I’ve always wanted to try is Hardenbergia. I just hot water scarified a packet of Hardenbergia violacea “Purple” seeds and hope to get one started this way for the greenhouse.
Every once in a while I’ve seen Kangaroo Paw plants for sale at local nurseries. I decided I would try to grow some from seed. These are Anigozanthos manglesii. The seeds supposedly benefit from smoke treatment because wildfires are common where they naturally grow. Luckily, rather than burning the house down trying to meet their needs, I bought some instant smoke treatment that I can just sprinkle on top of the seeds when I plant them, and when I water, the smoke works its magic.
Another fun Australian shrub is Hakea drupacea, the Sweet Scented Hakea. I thought this would be good for the greenhouse, too. This one likes smoke treatment, too.
Lastly, I want to try something really showy, so I’m planting a packet of Telopea speciosissima. I’m soaking these seeds now and will also smoke treat them, just in case.
Nothing is better in the heart of winter than planting seeds and watching them grow…its like bringing spring a little early.
To get the incubator put together, I had to venture into the greenhouse. It is so stuffed at this point that I have to maneuver like a Cirque du Soleil acrobat just to reach the back. And pretty much every seedling that will come up is destined for the greenhouse. I’m not sure exactly how that’s going to work!
I flew to Oahu on December 4th and spent a week there with my friend Linda. We stayed on the windward side of the island in a beautiful little house.
There were spectacular views and lovely grounds from this little Indonesian cottage.
We found a lot of wildlife at the house, too–lots of birds, including wild chickens, mynas, shamas, egrets, and bulbils. There were lots of frogs around the little pond, and big snails came out at night. I saw bright pink apple snail eggs on foliage in the pond, too. We had geckos in the house and outside. There were guppies in the pond, too, so I dipped some out into a fishbowl and kept them on the table inside for our stay there. One day, I caught a gecko eyeing the guppies with suspicion.
We took an excursion with amazing friend, Dean, to the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu. As many times as I have been to Honolulu, I had never been to this garden. Surprisingly, Dean had never been there, either, and he’s lived on Oahu most of his life!
We saw some amazing plants and trees in this garden. Highlights were the big trees, including the Kapoks and the Baobob, and the Quibo. The palms were great, especially the Talipot Palm, which you will see blooming below. The “baby” Talipot doesn’t have a trunk, but is huge and has hooked thorns. The conservatory had myriad treasures, including my first Amorphophalus titanum sighting (not in bloom, but the leaf was impressive enough!), and a giant anthurium, orchids, bromeliads, and more.
I was working on college coursework the entire trip, but one day had some free time to go to the beach. Of course, that ended up being the rainiest, windiest day! Here are some photos from that excursion. The plant is an interesting beach pea we found, and the cat is a feral cat at a fun restaurant we ate at.
I had brought a book to read about the paintings and travels of Marianne North in the 1800’s. She was an amazing, prolific artist. Dean bought me a book on the William Hillebrand, who founded the Foster Botanical Garden, and who had a major impact on Hawaii’s flora and fauna. It turns out that Hillebrand had met North during their travels. In addition, she had painted a blooming Talipot palm, which is what we also saw at Foster–it was blooming for the first time after 51 years there!
I’ve worked hard the last six weeks to get all of the plants I had grown or purchased for the Armando Garden planted. It was slow, physical work moving all the bark off and then back on the garden, and digging holes in the packed soil. But, it is done for the year.
The newest half of that garden doesn’t look like much–all the plants are smallish or completely dormant. But they hold a lot of promise.
The best gardens are typically built by using multiples of good garden plants and large groupings. I feel an urgency to plant special plants that I’ve always wanted to grow, so I added a bunch of those in the garden.
Here are some of the interesting highlights from Annie’s Annuals:
Euphorbia characias “Dwarf”
Below is Glaucium flavum
This is Knifophia thomsonii, which I had in a pot all summer and it sent up two flower spikes, despite the cramped quarters.
Anthemis sancti-johannis
Aster “Harrington’s Pink” (I did group 3 of these)
Geranium pyrenaicum “Bill Wallis”–I grouped 3 of these, as well.
And this scented pink, Dianthus “Scent First Coconut Surprise”
I also set out what I believe to be a Yucca rostrata that I’ve been nursing along in the greenhouse for about 3 years. I would love for it to look like this one day:
And then there are the bulbs that I planted from John Scheepers.
Tulip Antoinette–I planted 20 of these in groups of five.
And these somewhat similar “Flaming Purissima” tulips, also 20 planted in groups of 5.
I planted 25 of these Camassia quamash bulbs, in 3 groups of 7-9 bulbs.
I have one of these in a pot that has bloomed beautifully for years, so I thought I’d try planting some in the Memory Garden. There are 25 bulbs in 3 groups of 7-9 bulbs. These are Corydalis solida.
I’ve always loved Hyacinths, but usually in pots. I had a lot of ground to cover, though, and 20 mixed-color Hyacinth bulbs, so I went ahead and planted them in groups of 3-5.
And the big, later blooming lily bulbs, Lilium “Black Beauty”. I planted three bulbs in one group and two of them as individuals.
And these Fritillaria persica bulbs, which I planted in a group of 3 in the Memory Garden and another 2 in the driveway bed.
Last, I planted another Fritillaria in the Douglas Fir bed, this one Fritillaria raddeana.
I am hopeful that we’ll have a good, wet winter that will water these plants in, and enough cold to chill the bulbs appropriately.
I believe the memory bed has over 300 plants/bulbs in it. Half of it is looking pretty full and lush, and the other half is newly planted, but should still provide a lot of blooms and beauty next year.
One thing that I gave up on is trying to perfectly design the garden. There is no perfect design, anyway, and I only have so much time, so I just planted what I had in a way that made the best sense at the time. The great thing about gardens is that no decision needs to be final, so if things don’t work out well, I can shift things around and I intend to add things for years to come to fill in the blank spots.
Here are some quick pics I took around the garden and greenhouse today.
Streptocarpus are blooming generously in the greenhouse after finally getting a little attention from a delinquent gardener. They are very forgiving.
This is such a vigorous cultivar that I’ve ended up with several of them–they root very easily and bloom magnificently over a long season.
Dozens of flowers on these plants!
Another view.
Angelina Jolie is not my favorite actress, but she’s trying hard to be my favorite Streptocarpus!
Not sure which cultivar this is, but it is striking.
Brother Tim gave me a small plant of this Chrysanthemum several years ago, and it was neglected in the greenhouse for several years. I finally took cuttings from that original plant and put one in the garden in front of the greenhouse. It has turned out to be an excellent addition and bloomed at just the right time when everything else was packing it in for the year.
Different view…
This plant has quite a few flowers–not covered the way some of the florist mums are, but definitely showy.
The rose Europeana has one last flower.
Asters are still making some waves in the driveway bed.
Another view.
The witch hazel is bright yellow right now. The leaves will be gone in a few days–this is a short-lived show.
A full view of the witch hazel shrub–you can see that the leaves at the ends of branches are already gone.
Ceratostigma blooming quietly in the orchard bed.
Osteospermum “Akila” have responded well to cutting back and feeding, but they won’t get flowers again before frost. I’ll move them into the greenhouse and hope they make it through the winter.
I bought the Nemesia in this window box early in the spring. It has been much more resilient that I would have believed–this box is tough to water and keep moist. I pruned everything back last month and it is growing back beautifully.
Pelargonium “Petals” really shines in the autumn after getting all those amazing leaves through the summer.
Not in my garden, but worthy of note–these are Boston ivy-clad walls at North Seattle College.
My absolute favorite new greenhouse plant is this Thunbergia from brother Tim. It has grown really well and bloomed endlessly. I will try to get cuttings of it, and figure out a way to grow it and show it off for next year.
Another newer Streptocarpus–lots of netting and frills on this one.
This is the first time this Streptocarpus has bloomed. It is pretty fun–no two flowers are alike!
Another view–this is a true blue, too, which I can never get enough of.
I’m excited that the aster starts that I received from eBay last year have grown and bloomed beautifully. Here are some images of them showing off in the Armando garden.
