The rain and cold came back today, so I spent much less time outside.  I did manage to plant some tomato seeds inside and to repot all of the Streptocarpus (Cape Primroses) in the greenhouse.  I’m pretty stubborn with those plants.  I refuse to give them bigger pots, so I root pruned them substantially and added some really rich soil to the pots that included about 40% composted steer manure and a healthy dose of organic fertilizer.

Streptocarpus blooming last fall.

One of the plants had rotted, but there were two decent leaves left, so I used them as leaf cuttings.  Another plant had divided so much that it had completely filled the top of the soil with plants.  I cut that one in half and sawed some of the roots away from both halves before potting them in the magic mix.  Another pot had an amaryllis seedling started in it with a decent sized bulb.  I potted that on separately.

I think this was the cultivar that died back but left me with two leaf cuttings.

I have about eight pots of Cape Primroses now, not including the five or six eBay leaf cuttings that I started last fall/winter that I’ll work to pot on next weekend.

Here is one of the eBay cultivars–would love to get this one to bloom!

 

A few more chores were tackled in the garden today.

Tomorrow is Easter and this big pot of bright hyacinths seemed more Eastery than anything in the garden.

More hyacinths on the shelf outside the French doors.

This second-year hyacinth has a more natural look than the fuller first-year bulbs.

Osmanthus x burkwoodii (?) blooming in a pot on the patio.  The fragrance is wonderful.

Another view.  The leaves are gorgeous, too.  This shrub was looking sickly a year ago with yellowy leaves, but I moved it to a shadier site and that appears to have done the trick.

Corydalis in the same pot as the Osmanthus.

Sedum in a pot from sister Cate.

I forget about the purple violets in some of the patio pots until this time of year when they cheerfully surprise me.

A full pot of violets.

Trays of transplants on the greenhouse floor.  You can see all the perlite I’ve put on the cells to slow the fungus.

Masdevallias showing on on a greenhouse shelf.

Peachy-yellow clivia.

Another gorgeous clivia blooming in the greenhouse.

More pictures of my new favorite clivia flower.

Another view.

Another view…

And yet another.

Old faithful Miss Clivia from brother Tim.  These are offsets of a plant that was purchased about 40 years ago.

Oncoming clivia spike.

One of my favorite seedlings, this one has HUGE, long flowers in a more pastel orange/yellow than the species.

Cymbidium just opening.  The flowers haven’t done great this year, but there are a few flowers coming out now.

The full spike from this full-sized Cymbidium.

Another family plant from brother Tim, this is Mom’s Cymbidium, which is at least 30 years old.  It is by far the best clone I have, blooming regularly.  It seems less susceptible to viruses and aphids than the other clones in my greenhouse.

The Pleione ended up having seven flowers this year.

Side view of a Pleione flower.

More Pleione flowers.

Lewisia blooming in the greenhouse.  I’m excited to have this bright flower show–neither of the two Lewisias I have bloomed well last year.

Closer view.

This nasturtium vine is going into its third year and has flowers coming along already.  I swore off nasturtiums many years ago when black fly destroyed a whole border of them, but this vine doesn’t seem prone to aphids at all, maybe because it is enclosed in the GH.

This Restrepia guttulata is another very old plant.  It was purchased from Baker and Chantry orchids over 20 years ago.  I divided it and have two pots now of this miniature, weird orchid.

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The two Restrepias are shown here in a tray on a shelf in the greenhouse.

Another tray of transplants–these are Dianthus and Anagalis.

The tags are for the seeds I planted yesterday of Meconopsis and Digitalis.

The remaining Osteospermum seedlings are in the pots surrounding the Restrepias.  They were growing pretty well, but have slowed.

Center is a pot of Eccremocarpus with several seedlings.  It is always interesting to see how leaf shapes change in seedlings.

Eventually the leaves will look like the below (photo from Hortus Camdenensis)

Here is the Air Plant Tree, recnetly populated by a donaton from our friend, Naomi.

I suspect we have Juncoes nesting around the house somewhere.  This one was keeping an eye on me as I gardened.

Mertensia buds in the Doug fir bed–also called Virginia Bluebells.

There is only one Trillium left in the Doug fir bed, but it is about to bloom.

Fritillaria imperialis blooming in the Doug fir bed.

Another view.

Anemone blanda trying hard to stand out in the Doug fir bed.

Gorgeous, delicate Anemone flowers.

Hyacinths and mini narcissi next to the house.  Cheerful and fragrant!

The last order was made through Bluestone Perennials.  I’ve had good luck with their plants before:

Geranium “Rozanne”

Geranium “Patricia”

Geranium “Brookside”

Anemone “Honorine Jobert”

Phlox “Laura”

Salvia “Crystal Blue”

 

For some more unusual plants, I turned to Annie’s Annuals:

Kniphofia thompsonii

Calceolaria “Kentish Hero”

Eriogonum “Red Buckwheat”

Euphorbia characias  “Dwarf”

With any luck, these will eat up a lot of space and add some texture and color interest.

It became pretty obvious as I was planting the seedlings I started myself last year that I wouldn’t have nearly enough plant material to cover all the parking strip, especially since I lost quite a few plants over the winter.  I had planned to add some other perennials, anyway, so I went ahead and ordered some this week.

I ordered from several places–including Gilbert H. Wild:

 Peony “Big Ben”

Peony “Coral Charm”

Peony “General MacMahon”

Peony “Krinkled White”

Peony “Sorbet”

Peony “White Dream”

Grass “Apache Rose Switch Grass”

Daylily “Going Bananas”

Daylily “Primal Scream”

Daylily “Tigereye”

Ice Plant “Fire Spinner”

 

 

 

 

I took an extra day off work this weekend and I’ve got a long list of chores, both garden and non-garden, to finish before Monday.

Seed starting is in full swing.  I’ve transplanted about 36 blue pimpernels (Anagallis monellii).  These are destined for patio pots, garden fill-in, and plant sales.

Note:  Image is on Annie’s Annuals website–they are an amazing nursery with lots of awesome and interesting plants.  They sell individual plants of annuals, but many of them can be grown on their own, which is what I do!

I also have about 50 Dianthus “Super Parfait Raspberry” seedlings that I’ve potted on.  I’ve grown these for patio pots, garden fill-in, and plant sales.

Note:  Image is on HPS website.  The seeds I got from this firm have given me almost 100% germination.

I also transplanted about 8 Eccremocarpus scaber seedlings.  I’m going to grow these in window boxes and up some trellises, with one in the greenhouse to keep permanently.

The photo is from Dobie’s website, a seed house in the UK.

Today, I transplanted about 50 monkeyflowers (Mimulus Magic Blotch Hybrids).  I’ve always loved this plant family, so couldn’t resist this fun cultivar.  Some of them are tiny, but they appear to be strong growers, so I’m hopeful most of them will grow to bloom in patio pots, the garden, and for plant sales (if they grow fast enough).

The photo is from HPS, who sell these pelleted seeds.  There were 250 pellets in the packet, so I’m giving a bunch of seeds away!

I also potted about 50 Salvia Lighthouse Purple seedlings today.  As with the other plants I listed, these will fill gaps in the garden, patio pots, and hopefully, help fundraising efforts at plant sales.

The photo is from Pinetree’s website, where I bought these seeds.  They look to be vigorous seedlings!  

There were about 14 seedlings from Chiltern’s Hardy Geranium mix.  I started these indoors under lights and they germinated and grew very quickly.  I’m hoping there were one or two Geranium psilostemon seeds in there.  These seedlings are destined for the Parking Strip garden.

The photo on Chiltern’s website.

After transplanting into soil that was amended with organic plant food and watered with fish poo water from Leon, I noticed the pots were forming fungus all over the top of the soil.  To combat this, I sprinkled perlite all over the tops of every cell.  I’m hoping this will do the trick.

Previously, I transplanted the Osteospermum, Delphiniums, Chard, Alyssum and Bachelor’s buttons.  I moved them to the cold frame, and tiny slugs decimated many of them, but the Osteospermum “Akila White with Purple Eye” transplants were okay still, so I moved them back to the greenhouse and helped one tiny slug to migrate elsewhere when I saw it crossing the top of one of the pots with an enlarged stomach full of Osteospermum!

Photo from Pinetree, where I ordered these seeds.

I planted sweet pea seeds from brother Tim this week, too, and today planted all the seeds I had been stratifying in the refrigerator, including three packets of Meconopsis betonicifolia and a packet of Digitalis obscura, which I hope to germinate in the greenhouse.  These will get planted out in the parking strip garden this fall if any of them sprout and grow big enough.

Indoors, I planted more seeds, including Salvia viridis “Pink Sundae”, Lettuce “Flashy Trout Back”, cucumber “Diva”, Agastache foeniculum, Petunia “Dreams Mix”, Marigold “Bambino” and Oregano “Kirigami”.

Tomorrow, I’ll plant more seeds in the greenhouse and the veggie beds.  Stay tuned for an update.  I’ll work on getting some good flower photos in the greenhouse and garden, too.

 

I did some gardening this weekend, including planting about 50 more plants in the parking strip garden, transplanting some seedlings, and reorganizing the greenhouse a bit.    And I was so glad that I dove deeper into the greenhouse because I found one of my myriad Clivia seedlings was blooming.

This stunner is a six- or seven-year-old seedling that is blooming for the first time.  The scape was up under the shelves, and I almost didn’t see it in the overstuffed greenhouse.  I’m so glad I did, though.  I’m thrilled to finally be reaping the rewards of patience in growing some Clivia cultivars from seed, as I’m getting some cool, gorgeous flowers.

Another view…this is a “Quail x WL Nakamura” cross.

Slightly different view.

And another view.  Lots of flowers for a first-time bloomer.

Another first-time bloomer, this is a “Salmon x TL Peach” cross.  It is so light, it is almost white, with just a few splotches of pink and yellow petal stripes and throat.

More views–you can see the other buds coming along.

Here is a second-time bloomer, but the first flower is deformed, with only three petals.  The color is great, though, a very light apricot yellow.

The Pleione formosana bulbs are blooming in the greenhouse now.  I love these Himalayan crocus flowers.

Antoher view.

And another.  this pot had six flowers this year.  I have a bunch of baby pseudobulbs starting now that should bloom in a year or two.

The Masdevallias continue to put on a show.

There are three plants here in 4″ pots, each with several flowers open at once.

One of the prettiest things in the greenhouse is this dying geranium leaf.  I’m not sure why it turned such bright colors!

Out in the Doug fir bed, the Anemone blanda has a few more flowers than last week.

This Hellebore hybrid in the Doug fir bed continues to look good, at least from a distance.

Closer up, you can see the dark spots on some of the flowers that showed up this year.

An even closer view.

Here is the Hellebore that brother Tim gave me 20+ years ago.  It has a graceful habit, but you have to get pretty low to see what the flowers look like inside.

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The spots inside are worth kneeling down.

 

I’m decorating the front patio area with potted spring bulbs as they start to flower.  The hyacinths are all blooming this week, so I’ve added a bunch to the show.

Cheerful pansies in a bright blue pot.

The Camellia near the orchard garden is opening flowers in the warm sun this week.  This is about the size of most of the flowers.

But somehow, there is also a giant flower on the plant–this one is like three buds opened as one flower–it is huge!

Another flower in the sunlight.

 

We had a perfect day for planting in Seattle, so I set about getting some of the perennial seedlings I started last year into the parking strip memorial garden on the south side of the house.  It was difficult, slow work, but I’m hopeful in a couple of months it will pay off in a boisterous, bloom-filled garden.

The challenge of planting is that there is an 8″ mulch of wood chips over the entire parking strip, so that has to be scraped away from the landscape cloth.  Then, I cut Xs in the cloth and use a trowel to create planting holes.  Hardpan is only a few inches down, so it is a tough slog trying to get holes big enough even for 4″ pot-sized starter plants.  My strategy was to dig wider holes that needed, put Epic Starter Mix in each hole, along with some half-composted fir needles.  Then, I turn the plants out of their pots and pull their roots out into a flatter disk, then push them into the holes and add some soil on top and pull the landscape cloth back towards the plant.  For the more robust plants, I’m confident this treatment will work out.  But for the more delicate ones, I’m not so sure…I guess we’ll know soon enough.

So far, I’ve planted some of the following:  Columbine, chaenorhinum, sedum, Kenilworth ivy, catmint, geranium, asters and Agastache.  I will keep working on the garden tomorrow to get all of the plants I have so far into the ground.

There isn’t a lot to see yet, but I got about a 6′ length of parking strip planted today.

Below are some other things of note in the garden on St. Patrick’s Day.

A little pansy in a patio pot recovering from an unpredictable winter.

A tiny dianthus flower braving the March coolness.

Most of the primroses are pretty sad looking, but this blue one is a bit more chipper.

Pots of little narcissus.  These are adding a bit of cheer to the front patio.

Close up.

My plum tree is full of flowers–a much bigger bloom than it has ever had.  I didn’t see any pollinators, but we should get a big crop of plums, anyway.  I just need to figure out how to protect them from the critters!

Close up of the plum bloom bounty.

The honey berry couple that I’ve got growing in the orchard garden has done very little in the three years I’ve owned them.  But this year, even though they are still pretty small, they are blooming.  I’ll be surprised if any berries appear, but you never know.

Weedy Daphne showing off what makes it such a weed:  very prolific blooms and berries!

That late winter blast we had a few weeks ago with snow and temps in the 20s zapped my camellia buds.  They are brown and dead.  A few good ones remain, but none of the flowers are open yet.

Anemone blanda in the Doug fir bed.

Hellebore in the Doug fir bed.

Fritillaria imperialis lutea maxima is somehow happy in the dry mostly shady Doug fir bed.  It is slowly forming a clump.  Three stalks are up this year, and two of them have flowers.

Here is a happy surprise.  The foxgloves I planted in the Doug fir bed last year did almost nothing and I assumed they had composted themselves, but instead, they came back really strong this year.  These are Foxy, which is a really dwarf seed strain.

Masdevallia blooms adding some glamor and interest to the greenhouse.

A slightly different view.  I love the way the flowers look head-on and from the side.  There is so much movement in the shape!

More orchid blooms.

A closer view showing some of the rich designs on each bloom.

Another orchid in the greenhouse…the first Pleione formosana flower has opened.

Another view.

This pot has six flowers coming on.  I need to figure out the proper way to divide/separate out the older pseudobulbs, as there are many that are not blooming that are blooming size.  I will tackle this once blooming is over.

Wow!  Look at all the flowers this Lewisia is attempting to share!  I’ve had no luck with these at all in the greenhouse, so if this one does open all these flowers I will consider it a victory.

Not a great photo, but this is the first honey locust seedling from the seeds I planted probably back in January.  I expected these to be up a long time ago.

Nasturtium already blooming in the greenhouse.

For St. Patrick’s Day, my purple shamrock is rocking the greenhouse shelf.

This Corydalis is blooming in a pot on the back patio.  It is a bit less showy than last year, but still exquisite.

 

 

I took a quick wander around the yard today and took the below photos.  It has been so warm that spring is pretty much here!  We’ve almost hit 60 degrees several times in January/February, and nights are mostly in the 40s now.

The koi are getting active already. I love the reflection of the bare branches in the pond.

More reflections in the pond.

Brilliant Masdevallia orchid in the greenhouse.  The three plants have fewer flowers so far this year, but it is still pretty early.

Wide shot of Masdevallias.

This mushroom popped up in one of the pots of Pleione orchids in the greenhouse.  It seems like a good omen.

The original Pleione pot has about seven big buds starting that will evolve into flowers in a month or so.

The Coelogyne cristata has new buds coming and the pseudobulbs are wonderfully plump.  It is possible we’ll get a great number of flowers this year.  It is also possible we will get none.   This early, I can never tell whether the buds are leaves or flowers!

I really think this one is a flower bud!

A giant garden disappointment.  I had planted out hundreds of perennial seedlings in the raised veggie beds to winter over.  Some of them made it, but as far as I can tell, many of them disappeared.  The yarrow seedlings appear to be all gone, which is shocking, considering how healthy they were and how hardy they are…not sure what went wrong.  I still have a lot of plants to go in the parking strip garden, but will need to grow even more this year!

There are a few crocus clumps around the yard.  This one is on the west side of the Doug fir bed.  The large clump only had one flower.

Another view.

And one more.

My timing was pretty bad.  The sun was out all weekend, but I missed getting the open crocus!  Then I tried again the next day, and still missed them…but they are pretty even when they aren’t open.

This is the Hellebore in the Doug fir bed.

These are the crocus along the brick bed near the front porch.

More crocus.

The plum tree’s buds are really swelling.  I’m hoping they don’t open too soon, before the bees arrive.

Here is the Hellebore that came from sister Cate’s garden.  It is blooming beautifully and early.

Another view.

And another…

This is the plant habit.

These appear to be baby Hellebore seedlings.  I will pot them up and see if I can get them to maturity.

I am happy to see the Geranium “Summer Snow” plants that I spaced around the orchard garden are growing well.  I should get some impressive flowering from them this year.

This is a shot of the greenhouse in its current, stuffed-to-the-gills state.  I open the door some days to get fresh air in there, as the Cymbidium buds are getting fungus.

More attempts at Crocus photography.

And a  few more.  I might yet catch them in sun, when they open up fully.

Every year, I promise I won’t buy or try to start nearly as many seeds as the prior year.  And every year I fail miserably in this resolution.  I was so sure I could do it this year but have experienced failure on an epic scale.  I started by just ordering a few “necessities,” but then more catalogs came and I had more free time, so I stumbled across more seed possibilities online.

In the end, I ordered seeds from several US sources, seeds from Australia and seeds from the UK.  All combined, I have about 100 different types of seed to start in 2018!

I’m not clear what possesses me.  Every packet of seeds means more work and more time.  However, I just LOVE starting plants from seed.  More than anything.  It is a sickness.  And to my knowledge, there are no rehab clinics for seed starters or plant hoarders.  So, I just have to live with myself.

Despite the wet and windy weather, I completed some tasks today.  I watered the greenhouse plants.  The main Pleione formosana pot in the greenhouse, which is probably six years or so, has been producing little pseudobulblets every year, and this year more than ever.  So, I grabbed a bunch of them and potted them in some moss mixed with perlite and starter mix.  There were sixteen babies in all!  If all of those get to blooming size, that will allow me to pass some on to friends and plant sales in a year or two.   Also, I want to plant some outside to see how they do.  They are hardy in our zone.  A great plantsman that sells Pleiones, Strange Wonderful Things, shows this picture of them planted in the garden:

The rest of my tasks were seed related.  I checked on the coleus and begonia seeds that I planted a few weeks ago.  There are probably 20 coleus seedlings up, but it didn’t look like any of the begonias germinating.  But then, just now, I decided to take a picture for this blog.  And as I brought the seed tray (a repurposed egg carton) into bright light and started taking pictures.  And suddenly, there were the baby begonias.  They are up, for sure, but are they ever tiny!  I think they are the most diminutive seedlings I’ve ever grown.  So, you won’t see them very well in the photos here–my phone couldn’t even focus on them, that’s how tiny they are.  But I would guess there are 15 of them up and growing!  Hurray!

If you look really closely, you can make out some teeny tiny begonia babies.

A different cell with begonia seedlings.

And here are the coleus babies.  Some of them are coloring up, already.

I started these seeds in Espoma seed mix with a top layer of sphagnum moss.  I put the tray in a plastic bag and placed everything on a heat mat under LED plant lights.  It seems to be working.

There are some great YouTube videos on almost any topic.  I happened to be watching one on growing bonsai from seed and I was surprised when the host was scarifying seeds.  He showed how you can clip hard-coated seeds by clipping the seed with nail clippers.  I had tried this before, with mixed success.  He showed that you should clip the “eye” of the seed.  His reasoning is that this is where the baby plant is waiting and the best place for hydration to reach.  I decided to try this technique.  Brother Tim and I had found some seed pods on a honey locust tree (Gleditsia triacanthos) recently,

(see example of pods above) so I thought I’d start with those.  I clipped them as I saw on the video and dropped them in the water. They plumped up well overnight and I planted them in a 4″ square pot this morning and watered it well. While I was at it, I dropped some maple seeds from my favorite neighborhood Japanese maple into the water to soak, and some seeds off my giant Echinops ritro plant.  I potted those up this morning, too.  Lastly,  some of the seeds I got from the UK were Cyclamen coum seeds.  I soaked those overnight, as well, and potted them in a tiny pot.  All of the seed pots got labelled and moved to the greenhouse.  I’m excited to see what comes up!

These arboretum cyclamen inspired me to give these plants a try.

Brother Tim and I wandered about Fremont and Ballard last weekend.  I saw the above Geranium maderense outside The Indoor Sun Shoppe.  I have a seedling in the greenhouse that I will plant outside next spring.  I hope mine gets to be this big and healthy!