Up Close in the Greenhouse

Last year's red Pelargonium has buds and this cutting has a bloom as big as the tiny plant.

 After the mist was on for a little while, I noticed tiny droplets of water on a little spiderweb. I think it is spider mites. We'll likely do battle all winter.

 He Who Mows and Notices Things discovered a green tomato that had to be pointed out to me despite it being just above a plant I watered yesterday. I hope this is a trend.

 Tomato cuttings that I put in a jar of water already have roots. Plenty of blooms on the second biggest tomato plant growing in soil; it has yet to set a tomato. Maybe I just can't see it, neither can He Who.... When I think of it, I give tomato limbs a shake to encourage them to set fruit.

I wonder what other gardeners do with their plants that grow? Bromeliads have pups that need taking off and potting. I can't stop putting seeds in soil just to see if they germinate. Everything grew bigger over the summer.

2014

It's almost time to pot up Hyacinth bulbs that are chilling. I can sneak little succulent cuttings into the bulb pots so that when I give them away, there's an extra treat with the bulb while they wait for a bloom. One year I put Sedum acre in the pots. I have Burro Tail cuttings to add to some of this year's pots. There might be a Kalanchoe cutting or two to use.

2014

Little Rosettes of Ghost Plant make great bulb companions.

In the Mule Barn, a handful of pine cones I picked up when I raked. I never can have really neat sheds and greenhouse as seen on Pinterest and other blogs because I am driven to save bits and pieces and clippings and cuttings but I am greatly entertained.

The Great Big Tomato Experience

At the end of January I rooted 4 suckers off my famous winter tomato plant. Sometime later I bumped them up from the little pots to bigger pots that hold maybe 2 quarts of soil. They grew and grew.

Yesterday I bought the biggest bale of potting soil and He-Who-Mows dumped it off the back of the truck per my instructions, so nobody had to lift such a heavy thing. I put the tomato plants on my little green wagon and improvised a potting table right there.

They were getting near pot-bound. Circling roots were easily teased out.

These pots are 4 gallon, I think. The biggest I have, anyway. I clipped off lower leaves and planted plants deeper than they were growing before.

I can't pass up a potential new plant -- sucker -- sucker for a sucker, 3 of them.

I'll show you later how they will be supported in the greenhouse. I think I can grow tomatoes indoors through the summer. Last year purple Alternanthera grew to the top of the walls, why not tomatoes? Alison did it.

I moved the single plant that produced all winter into the greenhouse in August, still about as hot as it gets here. I can shade these from the evening sun from the west if necessary. 

The original single plant has green tomatoes still. We ate one last Friday. Actually it isn't an original plant. It was a sucker off one of last summer's outdoor plants. Wonder how long I could keep clones of this tomato going?

The new plants are blooming and nighttime temperatures are just right for forming fruit. I can hardly wait. 

Lantana montevidensis

Lantana montevidensis is the trailing Lantana, not the bush kind that reseeds everywhere. It is one of my primary butterfly garden plants. It is root hardy here and a great ground cover.

June 11, 2011 Lavender and white Lantana montevidensis with Rudbeckia. The Black eyed Susans soon faded and were replaced by Madagascar Periwinkles.

Every year I have the same plants in the same locations. At the end are Purple Heart plants and Chartreuse Alternanthera.

I took 6 cuttings of white Lantana to put beside the greenhouse. In two weeks, roots are growing out the bottom of the flat and they are blooming. Only one of the Lantanas by the greenhouse returned this spring but they were young, late cuttings. 

Today I prepared another flat that will hold 18 cuttings. I intend to spread white Lantana around like marmalade.  

August 27, 2013 Pentas and Lantana

I didn't root white Pentas last fall. One volunteered in the greenhouse floor. I thought I had three volunteers -- two turned out to be shrimp plant with a similar leaf. I'm deciding whether to put just one Pentas plant in the greenhouse bed or put the seedling out in the Yellow Rose bed with the 4 that returned there from roots.

Everything seems late this year and I'm slower than usual. I did get the herb circle planted before the rain came. Instead of Rosemary, I picked up a clump of garlic chives that were growing on top the ground, divided it and put the two divisions into the ground in the herb circle. Now I have to find a place for 2 Rosemary cuttings, or root more to make a little hedge somewhere. There are more Thyme seedlings, too. 

Calla lilies are outgrowing the 6" clay pots I put them in. One fell during the wind on Sunday and the roots are circling the pots. It's the time of year when things are growing and and little cuttings are needing sticking or planting or bumping up to  bigger pots. I commenced to feel like the old woman who lived in a shoe. I am grateful for the water they received from the heavens today and they're tucked in for another bedtime. 

Babyland

I can't help myself. Every stem with leaves, every seed, every bulb needs sticking in some soil.

The need to plant cuttings is why I have Kalanchoes lined up on a board outside the greenhouse and three old plants with tender foliage crying out to be used in a similar way.  If I can coax them to bloom just before Christmas I can find homes for them.

Schlumbergeras and their kin the Easter Cactus have rooted themselves into dozens.

Bromeliads have a curious way of reproducing by making offsets after they bloom. The ones on the left have tiny insignificant blue blossoms in the centers. New plants are forming around them. The one on the right was in bloom when I bought it. It has all but died off and new plants are surrounding the old one. I didn't make a new photo of the tillandsia in the greenhouse that has new plants forming in the center of the plant instead of around the edges. I think they can all stay in one pot after I repot.

 

Every little bean that fell off my Burro's Tail made a new plant.

I have a plan for these, really. Martha Stewart's greenhouse has a display with Burro's Tail and Mistletoe Cactus which is another plant that I just happen to have divided....

 

I could not resist tucking a couple of seeds from a Gerbera Daisy into a yoghurt cup. These can go to live in the garden when they reach some size. It has been a good year for growing Gerberas, though they've been shy to bloom, the bigger ones.

 

Little Plants are  like kittens. finding homes is not easy. I am to a point that I rarely go into a garden center any more except to buy potting soil and more pots.

 

On the other hand, I am making lists of fall planted bulbs and will order soon.

 

I did not garden today. It rained all day, slow drizzle mostly, an inch and a half.

 

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

In winter when Pine Needles fall, I store them in the stick house. Often to save loading and unloading, I gather them and pile at the ends of existing flower beds, and easy way to discourage grass and extend the bed later.

Pine Straw Mulch

When I'm planting out seedlings and rooted cuttings in spring and summer, I 'borrow' some of the extra pine straw from a bed end to mulch the new plants.

This morning I planted a couple of Iberis cuttings and took more cuttings from existing plants -- at this rate I will never empty the greenhouse.

Eight good sized plants of Salvia leucantha replaced some that died in the long rock bed and added to the beds nearby to give continuity among the beds.

Ike with Pineapple Sage

The remaining Pineapple Sage in a pot got a new home and some pine straw. Its companions are a red gladioli and some Milk and Wine Lilies. I dug up a daffodil siting the Salvia. Sigh.

Yesterday I planted out the remaining Bath's Pinks.

It's That Time of Year

It's the Time of Year when there are so many chores and too little time.

Bromeliads need a summer space. I'm afraid they may be too tender to leave outside year around. This one, a pup last summer, looks as if it may be near ready to bloom.

Bromeliads are good companions. This pot eneds a choice spot outside.

The one in the grapevine sphere looks too dry. I put it under mist today.

 

Some Candytuft cuttings rooted and are ready to go outside.

The begonia is like a cute puppy -- it will find a home.

Alternanthera planted itself in the floor. It is happy to spend the summer inside

despite the great heat. It is a great companion to many of the garden plants.

Sedum acre is blooming just outside the door in a broken pot.

 

I moved jungle Cactuses and Kalanchoes outside. I think the Christmas Cactuses are in too much sun, will have to move them before they burn. Epiphyllums I check daily for buds, too soon.

Begonias are holding well. I bought four new azalea pots and two fluted pots with white trim for use in the fall for forcing bulbs. If I don't plan in advance, it will be fall and there will be no pots.

 

Bits and pieces are holding for planting and I get slower and slower as the weather gets warmer and warmer. I'm starting to urge rooted cuttings and seedlings ready to plant on visitors.

 

I did plant a rose cutting from a gallon pot.

 

He-Who-Mows promised to help me get a space ready for my heirloom Tomato seedlings that are

out-growing their starter pots. 

 

A Haircut and New Shoes Make Happy Plants

You know how potted plants get that sinkhole around the stem and the soil packs down so they're sitting well down in the pot a couple inches?

 

You know too how lanky some plants get?

 

I gave all the Schlumbergera cuttings some pinches now that bloom is over.

I collected the pinched pieces to root, all with at least three leaf segments. If a piece fell off, I saved it too. Sometimes a single will root and grow; I try not to waste a precious bit.

 

Every pot within the cache pots had soil that had packed down an inch or better. I pulled out the whole plant and put new soil in the bottom of the pot, enough to bring the soil level almost to the top. Of course when you lift a plant, it no longer fits at the top because of the slanted sides. I carefully sifted more potting soil into the spaces around the edges.

 

 

There were enough cuttings to have a half-dozen of each color: pink, peach, yellow, white and scarlet. Six cuttings are perfect for making a Rainforest Sphere in the manner of Steve Asbell's Rainforest Drops. He hangs his, I set mine on an empty pot. 

 

Steve puts unrooted cuttings into purchased  grapevine balls filled with moss, I root first and then tuck rooted pieces into a moss-filled grapevine sphere made from collected wild grapevines.

Do what works, use what you have.

 

I left the Easter Cactuses for later after they bloom. They'll enjoy a haircut and some new soil sometime after Easter. Anybody that's rootbound gets a bigger pot but epi's are not wild about getting big pots, just a bit of a lift.

 

 

 

Persian Shield

Strobilanthes dyerianus is frequently sold as an annual for summer use. It roots easily and maybe grown as a houseplant. Only those who bring it through a winter get to see the cone-shaped blue flowers.

Plays well with others; I've planted it with Purple Heart,

Licorice plant, red Spider Lilies, lavender Pentas, and lilies.

 

Sometime in July or August I remember to take cuttings like these.

 

Cuttings will outgrow their pot and get easily rootbound. 

Today i repotted 6. One has buds forming so we will see

short-day blooms soon.

 

Strobilanthes is sometimes called 'Bermuda Conehead' for

these little blue blossoms.

 

Usually Persian Shield returns here in zone 8b without fail.

I take cuttings every year just in case and to have more

of that gorgeous purple foliage throughout the garden.

 

 

All photos used today are my own; none were taken today.

It seemed like a good day to review previous years' bloom.

Plants are readily available in the spring in garden centers. 

 

I almost forgot to mention that the best deep purples are grown in shade or part shade.

In the sun, the leaves get silvery if silver is something you need in your garden.

 

 

Greenhouse Growing in Subtropical Heat

Can I grow year around in a greenhouse? Triple digit summer temps and occasional freezing winter nights require careful planning. We've made it to July and the Greenhouse still has viable plants.

From lower left: Esperanza that just never got planted out, a

pepper that came back in to experiment with temperatures and

water. Three tomato plants rooted from suckers; a half dozen

amaryllis seedlings, and various others bits.

The difference is the Fogging Nozzles we put in after we installed an exhaust fan.

A closer look at amaryllis seedlings, four in a tray and

two larger in pots toward the back, seeds from my

Christmas amaryllis. I floated them in water until

they formed roots, then potted them.

The purple stuff is alternanthera self seeded, and the chartreuse is

alternanthera seedlings that haven't found a home. There

were a multitude of green cuttings and there are still red, too,

looking for homes as I think of it.

There's a bit of ivy that our Church Youth gave out on

Mother's Day. The bigger, paler ivy leaves are new.

Canna that was accidentally dug up.

Gerbera Daisy seedlings,

seeds from an earlier blossom

Rose cutting that has taken off.

I failed to label it, will wait for bloom.

I paid two dollars for this staghorn back

in late winter. It has grown well.

The jugs hold water for quick grabbing in

the heat of the day for plants outside.

Eventually everything will probably go outside, but they've thrived with abundant watering and mediation of temperatures.

Everything is bunched up on the floor under

where the nozzles spray on hot days.

Sometimes it is 10 degrees cooler on the floor.

Note the 'patch' where the dog tore the blue plastic.

That will have a different skirt when winter comes.

The shelves hold pots that await winter.

I made lists of cuttings to take in late summer and even wrote down things that I will not repeat this year. I can hardly wait to see what difference having the fogger makes on sunny winter days when it heats up inside. Keeping the humidity up in winter can be a problem. I think we've solved it.

Bloom Day in the Greenhouse

I stuck an extra hyacintha bulb in the corner of my broken pot

planting. It is finally blooming.

Duranta with a begonia cutting stuck in the pot.

Extras in the pots add to the fun.

 Lantana cuttings that I potted up in the fall with 

 intent of an early spring start in a different bed.

Begonias have bloomed non-stop since they came in last fall.

Alyssum seedlings

 White kalanchoe, pink Begonia and pink Pentas.

Rooted cuttings of Epiphyllum are putting on new growth.

Purple Heart cuttings are blooming.

If you look closely at the pentas there is

an American Painted Lady butterfly just above the aqua pot

on the Pentas blossom.

I only had one chance at a pic before it escaped.

One last look.

Flowers and text are from the garden of Nell Jean blogged on Dotty Plants Journal in hot, humid Southwest Georgia.