Plant propagation part XVII based on my own experience

Ev and Sharon you will have an envelope of seeds coming.

Hi:
JB I would post an explination ad and take your totals to 0. this makes ordering impossible but leaves the ad available to restock in the fall or spring. I do this from time to time. most of the time I do it to catch my breath as I get over whelmed.
Jeanette: nice bags, where do we find them to buy? I found some cotton bags from uline which i may buy for catching seeds. I hope all your seeds germinate
Stay cool
Dave

LOL, Dave, my daughter sent them to me from the "wedding" section at Michaels. Never know what you'll find in different areas huh? One thing I liked about them is that the fabric doesn't cling to the seeds. That might help in their not rotting. I have no idea how long they were in the bags.

My one big question is, "are the seeds pollinated?" I don't know if I put the bags on at the right time or whatever.

How long does it take a helebore seed to germinate? Some of them look like they are beginning to open don't they? In the picture.

I guess I will know if they are pollinated or not by planting them. If I have the patience that is. Altho, some plants I got from Sunshine Farms in the coop a month or more ago are starting to put out new shoots. So, might be a good time to plant them? Guess I will try some and toss the rest.

I used paper bags to catch the seeds of my tree (bush) lupine. I will see about the seeds as they were not quite ripe and I cut the branches, but I suppose the proper way is to get them on the plant where they ripen naturally then want to fling themselves in all directions.

Jeanette ~ I would suggest that you not toss the rest...instead why not put a few in a paper towel and ziplock into the frig for a couple of weeks, then sow a few of those into your pot or seed bed. Then save the others and W/S them when it gets cool...that way you will know for the future which way is best for ripe seeds. I think they germinate naturally in the winter as that is when I discover the hellebore seedlings...they don't all survive in nature. So I suppose I had better pay more attention to those seedhead that develop in the fututre. Thanks again for sharing your experience with these.

This was taken in July when the seeds were forming in the flower...I did nothing to try and capture the seeds as I was thinking..."self-sow"...

Dave, thanks..............I sent my customers an email telling them I suspended shipping for a few more weeks. I got a few replies saying what good PR that was, etc. Guess I did something right for a change. Where can I place an ad in DG explaining the situation?

Were you selling on Marketplace or the Classifieds? I would post it wherever you were advertising them.

evelyn, can you tell when they are ripened naturally and ready to fling the seeds off so you can run out there with your sack? LOL, if you can, I wannna watch.

Actually, very few, compared to the total amount of seeds in each flower, germinate and grow. I have a lot of little ones but compared to the whole amount, not many survive. But then you know, when the seeds heads open up, there aren't many bees etc. as it is so cold still. Bees don't come out of hibernation until it gets to be in the low 50s I think it is.

You guys are funny! I found two more Daturas seeds I germinated, growing in the ground. Do You guys know if they don't transplant well? I would love to pot them up.

Maybe they don't need the bees...? I really do not know the details of hellebore's life cycles....maybe someone here can chime in....

No, I wasn't saying that I would watch for the seeds to be flung out into the soil, but to put bags of some sort, like muslin or organza (or nylon stockings...) to capture the seeds....not sure when and if they get pollinated. That is something I really had not considered or put a lot of thought into it.

Oh dear, if I could just find out where the knee highs are Jen sent to me, i could recover them and send them to you all.
Oh, Hi Jen...............I sell only on the Marketplace and Plant Scout. Do well with it and took everything down to "0" and emailed my customers, but new customers have no clue what is going on except nothing is canceled, just in progress and on hold.
Oh God, this Stromboli is good. I must go finish it. Just planted 20 cuttings, finally the heat gave us a break and I was able to get outside for a few minutes. That is about all. Tomorrow is another day. Love you all. Hugs and stuff. JB

What do you use to shade stuff so it will root in the heat?

Mornin:
I just post another item for sale and use it to pass along info to all who see your stuff. with a zero no one can really buy anything anyway.
Ants are just a likely to pollenate the hellibore's. they are part of moms little helpers in expanding the population of plants.
Dawn: I use the winter sheeting to reduce the light getting in. I am also waiting on delivery of my new shade cloth. its 50% shade. I am planning to hold it up with 1/2" pvc. shade cloth and ground cloth were the 2 items I finally broke down and bought. The ground cloth is similat to the silt fences construction companies put around their job sites to help keep the soil from all blowing away. I am hopeing it will help reduce the mud hole I have where my flats are growing, as well as keep the weeds out. bermuda is the worst weed I get and it will creep into the pots from the drain holes or go over top. Oh yea I also use the trees in the nursery area
Dave

Jnette, Evelyn, JB, Lee and Dave. If I missed someone, I apologize. How low does your temperature go in the winter. Does it go below -4.

I am up late. We were hotter than phoenix today. Our low is 91. My worker showed up on Saturday late and I sent him home. He would have gotten heat stroke. So now I am looking for the weather angel to come this way and reduce the temperature a little. My day lilies love this heat. They just keep blooming.

Evelyn, what was that beautiful blue bulb campanulos (sp) you showed earlier in the week. Jnette knew what it was. I have never heard of it or seen it.

I am getting some things in the mail probably Tuesday. Dawn, got your hollyhock seeds. Thanks. Have things coming your way. I will let you know what when I get it ready to mail.

I thought a flower had to be pollinated to produce seed.

DH is getting better. Still not eating but neither am I. It is to hot to eat. Eating a bunch of fruit.

AND, I have the EZ Cloner box out of the storage room and in the middle of the laundry room so I will have to walk around it every time I go in that direction, which is often. This week is the week. The young man that is helping me with my side of the greenhouse is going to help me.

I have a Queen of Sheba. Am going to try some rooting. If I get some to root does anyone want a start. I have it living in a pot and this is it's second year. Lived through a pretty rough winter the first year. Has a beautiful flower and also loves our heat.

Talk to you all late tomorrow. Going to be busy getting my plants that are going to be mailed, put together in a list. When I get the lists done, then I will work on doing one list at a time. But I do need your minimum temperature. Love you all.

Hi Sharon:
I am not sure if we get that cold but we do get the horrid wind chill that takes the "feels like" temp in to the 30 below zero some times. its rare but can happen.
I agree. I am shutting down at noon also. nap thirty

We get down there once in a great while.

What is a Queen of Sheba, Sharon?

I don't remember a blue bulb. I went back and looked. Those are not bulbs. They are the same things I sent you Sharon. Campanula glomatas or something like that. Got the first part right. Not sure about the second. Dave knows.

Well we get high winds. I always joke that in Florida they call them hurricanes and here they call them high winds.

Good news about that Blue Plant already being in my garden. Lee is sending me some also. I actually talked to myself after I went to bed last night that I needed to get a grip on my plant desires. I only have so much room.

This is one of my Hardy Hibiscus and they are hardy down to -4.

Talked to the owner of the landscape company and he is sending over two laborers Wednesday, early, so all my digging can get done. That will really take a load off my mind.

The Queen of Sheba is a Bush that has pink trumpet like flowers. I will find a photo from Las year because it has not bloomed yet this year. It is a late bloomer.

Did the Campanula I sent you grow Sharon? Kinda early to tell isn't it? If not, maybe the ones Lee is sending you will grow. But, you are right, only so much room.

By the way Jnette, I am sitting on my back patio for about 5 more minutes and fantasizing about your back deck and that wonderful view. Then I will head inside.

Well, I am now inside and checked on Hubby. He had a rough night. He asked me if it was time to get up and I said no way. Stay in bed and I put the two Schnauzers on the bed with him. We have a separate cooling system just for the master bedroom area. So it is very cool in there.

I am not sure if this is Queen of Sheba.

Well they are in my holding garden and still green. I see no reason why they would not make it. The above photo is the Queen of Sheba. This photo is my holding garden. Three roses were rescued from throw away and I have to find a home for them. Probably front entrance of the community when it is cooler.

This is holding garden 1 1/2 years ago.

This is a photo I took the night I received Jnette's plants and they had already been planted.

Sharon, is it a good idea for your husband to stay in bed so long, especially in the cool air of air conditioning? Might get pneumonia.

Had to go back and look for a picture to see what you were talking about Sharon. Yup, that is my yard alright. All 40 acres of it, and National Forest around me.

Best part of it is that they won't be building condos or anything nearby. However, I do have the bears, moose, lotsa deer, turkeys, etc. Animals I don't have to feed or go to a zoo to see.

So if there is as total economic collapse, we drive to your area with our hunting guns and we will not starve. Never had bear or wild turkey. My brothers often joke that if the worse happens we can move into our parents home up in the mountains. We can fish, grow vegetables and hunt deer. We would not starve and could keep warm by burning wood.

We go down to 2 above in some instances. The winter Nor'easters are our biggest problem. Below freezing temps and lots of snow. I would say the near normal winter temp ranges between 28 and 38 with times when it gets down into the teens and below. We are close to the Atlantic Ocean so you really never know what the weather will be until you see which way the wind is blowing. LOL. The wind chill is a big factor here. Hope this is what you want to know. Our summer is usually in the 80s, but this year it has been 90 nearly all month of July so far and June was almost as warm. That seldom happens, but things are changing for sure.
Love the pictures.
Take care, stay well and cool. JB

Sharon, the only problem with that is that the rest of the people in the country will probably beat you and your brothers there and overrun the country, not caring that they are trespassing on other people's area. You see, your brothers do not have a novel idea. Everybody thinks that, so the people in the country have their guns for things other than hunting for food.

Get it? LOL

Got it.

There was a home invasion here about a month ago. I young man kicked in the front door of this elderly man. He was coming out of the bedroom using his walker and told the intruder he had a gun. The intruder told him he was going to take that gun and beat him to death with it. The elderly gentleman shot the intruder 3 times and the intruder was dead when the police arrived. YES

Yes, right now people are doing it for drug money. Wait until people need food.




edited again. My edit JB

Whoops, forgot we are not suppose to discuss current events. Zip my mouth.

This message was edited Jul 19, 2010 10:57 AM

Guess we all have abnormal years JB Sometimes we have gone down to 30 below not counting windchill. But, I don't think we can plant for those few times that it happens. I lost several roses this last winter. It wasn't that it was abnormally cold, it was just that we didn't ever get any snow to insulate the ground, like we normally do, so the cold temps that we did get just held on and on.

I keep a 38 by the bed all the time. When I lived in PA I had a permit to carry a weapon because my job took me into the slums etc. therefore, I had to carry a weapon. I hated the idea becasue if you draw it you shoot it. I had to go to classes, etc. just got into the habit of having a gun and was raised with guns of all kinds so it was no big deal. I remember them putting a notice in the paper one time about there were only two women in the County I lived in who had permits to carry weapons.....no names mentioned, but I was one and the female Judge was the other. LOL
I have only had to use it one time here in NJ and that was when someone was beating on my door at 3:00 A.M. one night and I thought they were breaking in. No car in sight, dog went wild, birds had night fright and so I got my gun and called the cops. Told them if he breaks in I will shoot him............they said go ahead we will stay on the line.
The door was a metal one and it held up under the pounding. He gave up and left and I saw him drive away. He had his car hidden behind some trees. Cops were really nice about it and they knew I would wait until he got inside to shoot. I was afraid he would break in and shoot my dog. That would have really made me mad so I was ready for him. Never did find out who it was or what they wanted, but I always had that gun ready in case her came back and tried again.
There must be a lesson there somewhere, but I do not know what it is.

The lesson is, if they don't know who those two women are in the county, it could be any woman in any house. So, you had better not break in to anybody's house.

Jeanette ~ Thanks for reminding me about the Campanula glomerata. I actually forgot what it was. Every year I plant something that I have never grown before, especially perennials. Sometimes I forget, as I do not journal every single planting. I know that I should, as I did most of the plants I started from seed. I will have to go over that journal and summarize my successes and failures to see if I can get improvement for the next year, as I have not ever grown so many things from seed before. I just bought things and then I now realized that I could have so many more plants if I learn to grow from seed and take cuttings of plants I already have. When I was working I did not really have the time as towards the end, I was so tired I could barely keep up what I had already planted, and surely not grow all those things from seeds or cuttings as I would have let them all die if I was too tired to check them. That even happened this winter with some of the seedlings. Now, I think, I have a better setup as there are now two light shelves in the basement, with fluorescent lights. Still I will have my shelves upstairs as well.

Dawn ~ Thanks so much for the HH seeds. I will be starting them soon as now is the time to start biennials and some perennials as well as cool-weather crops.

Sharon ~ The lowest temp last year was 17° for a couple of days during that one bad storm. That was when we had 2' of snow, so not as bad as the people in the east or in the higher mountains like Colorado. My son lived in Colorado for a time, and he got tired of the snow, and now he lives in Florida. that is really too hot and steamy for me. At least our heat is dry, and usually not so hot...just in the 80's and sometimes in the 90's, but not all summer. I can't imagine in the 100's with all that humidity, unless I was a greenhouse plant...LOL!

Dave ~ Good, you are taking your nap! I don't usually sleep during the day, though I will take breaks, especially when it is so hot outside. This heat has been draining us all.

JB ~ Were you wanting more of those knee highs?? I already have enough and since I don't wear them any more, they are now being put to good use. The tomatoes are growing when I am not looking. They seem to be doing it while I sleep.

Well, everyone...stay cool as you can as it doesn't look like it will be cool anytime soon.


TTYL, Evelyn

Winter here in E Mt gets to -20 frequently, and sometimes lower but usually that is only a day or so, then it warms up to the -20. Summer gets mighty hot sometimes, to triple digets. mostly in the hi 80 and 90s. Has been back to rain with the threat of hail for the last several days. Have almost given up for this year. Later, Lee

Where did everyone go? I think we need to go enmass to Dave's and help him package plants to mail. Bet we would learn something.

Dave, I think you need to give classes on sending plants in the mail. Good subject for you.

Where did everyone go? I think we need to go enmass to Dave's and help him package plants to mail. Bet we would learn something.

Dave, I think you need to give classes on sending plants in the mail. Good subject for you.

However, to do this you need to start a new thread.

Well I went on a salad making spree this afternoon. Made salmon salad. Chicken, apple, walnut salad. Shrimp and Macaroni salad. Made a large pot of brown rise, and then some vegetables and grilled some chicken tenders. Now DH can have a couple of rice bowls, salads or whatever. It is to hot to eat anything hot. He is actually having a martini tonight. Unusual but he thinks it will make him feel better so we shall see.

Workers are coming on Wednesday morning to do some digging, and the young man that is going to help me put the EZ Clone together is also coming Wednesday morning also. I did not get much sleep last night so I am going to bed early tonight.

I have a friend in rehab because she had major hip surgery on Tuesday. So I will be going to see her tomorrow so I will be absent the majority of the day. Have a great morning tomorrow..

Your salads sound wonderful Sharon. I can never think of any to make other than pasta and potato. Sure do get tired of those before the end of the summer. You are right. It is too hot to eat anything other than salads.

How big a cloner is yours? I think you said it was one you bought from someone on DG? It will be interesting to see how you are going to do it. Are you going to put it in the house, or outside? Do you have instructions with it? Or do you think you need them with this guy's knowledge?

Have a good day tomorrow. I hope your friend does well with her hip surgery. In all the hip surgeries I have had, 6, they have never once even suggested physical therapy. Can you believe that? Just what I got in the hospital before leaving.

Glad your husband is feeling good enough to have a martini.

This is her 4th hip surgery and when she is done with this she needs one for repair on the other. She has had both knees also replaced. She is 69. Was 5'10" and is now 4'11". Very very bad osteoporosis. Her DH died two years ago.

I received the cloner as a gift from the mother of the son with the greenhouse. I will take a photo of the box tomorrow and post it. Now I am really going to bed.

Your welcome Ev. They may even be first year blooms. I have some of them, new variety, I think.

Dawn you are still up too!!

My goodness, now we are all going to hear about it tomorrow from JB about the Rowdys in the West.

Bob's sitting her yelling at the politicians on TV. LOL Sure glad we don't have any close neighbors. They would be calling the cops about the domestic violence here. Wouldn't that be great to be in the police report in the local paper. That is about all that is in there. Once they had a report of a wife throwing a piece of huckleberry pie at her husband because it was the last piece and they were fighting over it. Can you believe that? That is what they have to spend their time on.

Well, guess I'll go to bed. nite, ttyt,

I am slowly wilting and withering. I have no energy and when I get up in the morning I am as tired as when I went to bed. I need to drink more water and do some excercise other than housework and playing on the computer.

People are cranky and no one feels good. I think the heat coming so suddenly is taking its toll on all of us. I want to loose weight but instead I am putting it on. So depressing. I need to get up and get out and work but it is just too hot.

No, I do not need any knee highs........I seldom wear them anymore and I have some to wear. Also, I am not collecting seeds. My tomato plants were georgeous yesterday until a straight line wind came along suddenly and put them down flat...........also took the one panel out of the GH door. Rained like crazy for about an hour with lightening and thunder and then it got very warm and humid. This morning my SIL was out trying to stake up the tomato plants before he went to work.
Our Christmas Tree babies are slowly turning brown, one by one. It is so upsetting. They took pictures and took them to the Rutgers Research and hopefully they can tell us what is happening. It is not the lack of water for sure. The tiny ones were filled with ants who were looking for moisture when we were without rain for so long. Never saw that happen before. Oh well, we will survive.

I just ordered some polymer crystals so I can send you guys your Black PW and some other plants I have going West Bareroot. I am hoping that will keep the roots moist enough. We will see.

Must go take a few shelves out of the greenhouse and make room to bring in plants. I have a lot of transplanting to do but again, it is too hot for me on in the GH to do them there, and I hate carrying all the supplies to the deck where it is shady and cooler. I think I will just quit this crap and sit on my rocker and get old. Some days that is how I feel.

Best get moving. Love and Hugs to all the rowdy bunch. JB

Jeanette ~ It sounds as though you might know something that others may not...re: the upcoming economic collapse. Are you stocking up on canned food? Do you have a plan? I have always wondered about how things are going to be in the near future. I have heard a lot of theories and speculations.