Dog Days in and out of the Greenhouse

There's not a lot to peek at in the greenhouse this time of year.

Water from the misting apparatus collecting on the bench below grew some interesting fungi.

A rooting rate of 75% for Lantana cuttings taken a couple weeks ago. I had to remove 3 that never came out of a wilt. I always need a few more chartreuse alternanthera. Two of three Duranta look as if they'll root. Duranta is a good blooming greenhouse plant for winter, so one or two small are good to have.

Outside, Schlumbergera, Rhipsalidopsis, Kalanchoe and Calla Lilies are in light shade on a little patio with a little morning sun. Some are on makeshift benches.  

Cycad seedling

Epiphyllum oxypetalum has buds. There's been some bud

drop but we'll have open buds soon if I can keep the 

watering schedule. 

I potted up a single tomato plant for the greenhouse, grown from a tiny sucker off a Better Boy plant before it was planted in the garden. I didn't take a picture; maybe when it has little tomatoes I will.

We spent much time late yesterday finding tomato worms that were eating my tomatoes outside. I know they grow into a lovely large moth, but they strip the plants in a very short time and have to be removed in a no-spray patch. Some fat larvae were four inches long and very green, easily hidden by arranging themselves along stems. One that had eaten nearly half of a small tomato was a little fellow slightly more than an inch long and still brown. Imagine how many leaves and tomatoes he would eat before he reached 4 inches long.

I'm watering the beds on either side of the greenhouse. I hope by next year they'll be mature enough to show off in the manner of Claus Dalby's greenhouse beds with white flowers, my inspiration.