Plant propagation... the basics II

Well I now have Vern's cold, so I did nothing today but blow my nose.

Amanda, I got your address. I will get you your California poppy seeds. Sharon

I may check it out too thanks tom, though I really have so many seeds. It is an addiction.

Tom, I saw on facebook you have Jap. Maples. Do you start these by seed yourself? I am trying to propagate these without success, but have not given up yet. Please share with us, your technique.

Peg, I started some from seed a couple years ago with no problem. Don't know how they would have turned out tho 'cause I didn't have them protected enough and they froze last winter. They did look good tho, the leaves were laced, cut good.

I havnt grown them from seed yet,this winter is my 1st attempt, I wintersowed 4 containers of them and some I put in a baggie of wet potting soil and placed in the fridge,I will leave them in there for 90 days then spring sow them in containers.I'm doing a test on them to see which way will work better.:)Are you familiar with Tom Clothiers seed germination database ?I like it alot,when your not sure of a seed's requirements to break dormancy ,It's a good reference,he has pretty much done all the work for us.Here is a link to it http://tomclothier.hort.net/ Tom

Do any of you have a plan that just does not work for you garden wise, and you consider tearing out well established things? I have been but it kills me to do it. I have to convince H to let me cut down some trees too, because I don't have enough light to grow my roses and flowers well, not 6 hours of direct sun in most of the yard. If he squeels much and he will. I may switch to a more formal yard and have a lot of evergreens and ivy and such. I'm too old to keep pushing boundaries, bad water pressure, poor sunlight, soil, gophers, rabbits, blah blah blah.

Thanks Tom and Jenette. I have some I've tried some in a clear container with vermiculite and left it outside. It's been about 3-4 months now without any sprouts. Still waiting.

hellnz, I too have decided to rework one of my beds...a round circle. I am planning on putting some yellow rudebeckia that I want to move in the middle/center and purchase a little more homestead purple verbena on the outter edges. I have a Jap. Maple that I will put in the center. I think it would be great.

But I do want to know how to propagate my own JM's. It's a challenge to me.

Dawn ~ Your answer to your dilemma lies in your alternative plan...LOL!! A lot more practical. You may not want to do high-intensive gardening in the next few years.

Then what? Have your hubby yell at you because the house is so hot during the summer since you made him cut down all those trees?? (I don't think so. Anyway, you may be yelling at him since it is so hot and why won't he let you run the A/C??

Don't know that I agree Evelyn. Sometimes I am of the opinion to do whatever you want now and don't worry about the future (as far as plants etc. go). This is not a huge deal. When it occurs like Evelyn is saying, then figure out what to do to rectify it then.

Sorry, I am tied of "planning" for my old age. LOL If you do that, you will never be happy. Always wish you had done it.

Peg, as I recall, mine didn't take any longer to germinate than other seeds. The only time I have really had trouble with things rooting or germinating, was last year when I was rooting brugs. They would not root for anything. Never had the problem before. Only thing I could think of was that it was not the right time of year.

I did the same thing as I have always done and it took about 3 months to even get one root on one. I am beginning to think that really means a lot.

Jen ~ I guess Dawn will have to weigh her options. I was just trying to air a different viewpoint. You are right about making deciscions tho' - we have to know what we want to do before we make that decision. Not only weigh the options, but also live with no regrets. Can't say that I have no regrets. Better to think things through then decide.

My youth was filled with impulsive moves. Now I am a bit more cautious. It is a fine line to get to the "happy medium" at times....

Well I live in the desert like Dawn and no way would I cut down a tree. I have many trees and intentional shade. But you are also dealing with the tree roots looking for moisture. They are stronger and robbing your other plants of water. But I have raised bed, no gophers and no water problems. I have found in the desert you cannot raise anything at ground level. You MUST have raised beds or pots. But before that, you must have ample water. I would be putting my brain to a solution to store water. Some kind of large reservoir. Just my opinion.

Maybe just raise chickens and rabbits. Eating rabbits. Maybe some sheep or goats. They will keep the weeds down.

We are only going to get hotter so you are fighting a losing battle. I do not mean to be negative but I guess I am.

Marion (Irislover on DG), in Texas lost her total landscape, It was wiped out last summer from the Texas drought and high winds. She has dropped from DG and is regrouping. She had ample water but no delivery system for her acreage.

Now, I am going to read today's paper. Sharon

I am in the process of redesigning part of my front landscape. I have had azaleas in one area for 20 + years. a couple of years ago, a landscape company came in to trim them up and literally butchered them. A lot of them are dying back a little at a time. I have decided now to take them out and replace them with different shrubs. I need to work on the bare bones ( evergreen parts of the design) and then fill in with some other perennials and deciduous shrubs.
I don't think I would take out any trees that I absolutely didn't have to. When I bought this lot, I kept as many trees as possible and cried over everyone we had to cut.
Gotta run,
Linda

Linda I'm doing the same thing trying to add a lot of different deciduous shrubs and perrenials,I like my tree's. Tom

I love the trees too, don't know that I would ever survive desert living, but I have soooooo many. I wish these trees weren't too big when they grow up for any of your properties, I have some gorgeous little trees that I am afraid the power company will cut down. But, I have also found that most wild plants don't replant well. Especially to good soil.

Actually, years ago an older lady had a goat tied up in her yard and just moved it around to clean the weeds etc. more for fire hazard than anything. Problem is, they will eat absolutely anything if you get it too close.

Evelyn, I suppose there are a lot of things we all would have done over if we had had hind sight. Our whole lives might have been different.

Billy. My neighbor's landscape planner.

That guy can come help me almost any time. If I can tie him up. I hear goats are very difficult to keep in a fence.

I always say I am getting a goat. Greg would have a cow if we found the goat standing on his Mystic Cobra or kicking dents in it.

I have many trees, but I did not plant most of the offending ones. I have about 6 or 7 elms. Yuck. 5 fruitless Mulberries + ones I planted but they are so big and messy too and in bad spots. So that is the thing.

Elms are self-pruning so there are always branches lying around. Especially after a wind. Don't know about Mulberrys.

I love a mulberry tree - the cedar waxwings always come through when the berries are ripe.

Ours are all fruitless though. Nice shade and really fast growing, but please they over did the wanting quick shade, with too many of both trees. Messy and always broken branches.

I'm doing an experiment this year. I got some large plastic containers and put all my kitchen scraps in them, put some drainage holes and put some news paper in there, coffee etc. Added water since we haven't had much rain for months and sat them in the sun. I'm going to turn the scraps this weekend and then leave it another month and either add top soil to them and plant my seedlings in them from my WS, that I have not started in them or cover them with clear plastic or put old shower doors over them and use them for WS. I got the idea from last year, in my one container that I used for composting, when I put all my cantelope scraps in them, the seeds germinated into a lot of cantelopes. Which never survived the early Fall Freeze.

Howdy:
Tom: wecome we always like new and fresh thought.

Japanese maple's are generally grafted with the specific top variety on a good strong rootstock. I think they use blood good and a few other as rootstock. You might like the grafting thing if you get going into growing a lot of seedlings. In the fall I usually come across some good deals on 5 to 7 year old grafts if anyone is interested ask me around september october.

As many of you know we moved into our house about 5 years ago. we imediately removed 2 huge tree's a silver maple that broke up the back patio and would have given us major foundation issues later on in time. the other tree was a river birch that had been hit hard by our record ice storm. It was down to 2 main stoms and had been chopped off at about 20 ft up. we had the stumps ground also. we had so much mulch it wasn't funny.
Next we took out 5 huge dorthy gish azalea's that must have been 20 years+ in age. We planted 3 gallon red tip photinia along the edge of a previous patio area that was never really finished. we hope to bring in some decomposed granite and level out the ground with it. It packs as hard as concrete but drains like sand. cool stuff. Picture is the before pic of the house that we looked at before we bought it and did so many redesign of the landscape. On the corner of the house is a purple leaf norway maple. planted in the wrong place as its a 60' tree when mature. I am trying 1 more time to get cuttings from it before I totally take it out.
We put in a large bed around the base of our huge oak tree out front. mainly hosta's but it now has a few heuchera's, the daffodills are sprouting and the dianthus is going nuts. I cut the dianthus back hard in late summer to give it a new flush in the winter. I planted some delospernum (ice plant), Homestead purple verbena (I hope to have plugs for sale this summer).
We hope to expand the hosta bed to cover an area by the front walk that refuses to grow any grass. I plan on raising the soil level about 6" to help it out. I have a huge pile of soil from dead or failed plants in my sm backyard nursery that I will use as a soil and add to it with more miricle grow potting mix. I hope to expand the hosta display add in more heuchera's and some other shade lover's. I am shooting for color all year long.
I will try to get a photo layout put together so everyone can see what we started with and where we are now.

In the back yard I have a narrow and varry long bed I think I am going to overhaul this year. I am not happy with the spiraea's and a few other plants that don't seem to be playing nice. I am hopefull i will be dumping a lot of failed pots to make room for my transition into a more focused path. perrienial seedlings and 3 to 4" tall perrienial pots.

I am just starting to feel a bit better from all the late fall/winter ailments that have plagued me. we will see if its just a false break or if its all gonna turn back to the good.

I am also planting some trays of lettuce, spinach and seedlings of tomatoe's, squash and some other veggie's. I hope to reclaim my veggie beds and narrow down the nurseries quantiities of plants. i think I have like 3 to 5,000 pots in my tiny back yard.

Jeanette: I wonder are we in a 20 to 30 year old pattern for weather? I dont ever remember a winter where we had no measurable snow fall and they sound like we may not get any this spring.

Have a great evening
Dave

I wouldn't even try to guess on the weather Dave. I just don't know. I do know and am sure that this summer it is going to be so dry it will be fire hazards in the forests. Sure hate to see that. Wait until you hear me crying around the 4 th of July with all the tourists and their fireworks.

Also, that means no berries in the mountains so the bears will be down looking for something to eat. Maybe we are turning into a desert like Las Vegas and some of the folks in California. Dawn, Evelyn, altho Ev doesn't sound too much like a desert. At least she has trees. Our trees would never survive that type of weather. Guess that is where the fire comes in.

Yes it does. fire is a natural part of the evolution. you would be suprised at what will take the long dry spells. Bald cypress for example. a swamp tree is one of 2 tree's that survived the dust bowl way back when. fortunately we have progressed to a point where I believe we won't deal with that again as we farm smarter and try to build up the soils.
do you get brown bear there also? i would not want to be in the way of a bear and his hunger.

We have grizzlies, but not the browns like they have in Alaska. They are both super big. No, not hunger, but babies would be worse I think.

You are correct as they are super protective of the young

Dave your hear, yeah!!!!!! Have they got the pain pump bugs adjusted yet? My gosh, pain is wearing thing. You never commented on us cheering you on if you decided to write some articles for pay on DG instead of killing yourself on the nursery one day.

Our desert is an odd place to garden. One place here has sand, one place rock, one place Caleche clay, one place hard pan several feet deep.

Dawn, that is why I garden in raised beds and containers. I compost. It has taken quite a while but I have rich black soil. Some of my raised beds are made out of boulders placed in the round and then filled with soil. I am sure where you live you can find many boulders. Just need some strong back to pick them up and put them in the back of your truck. Again, your problem is irrigation. And you know you will not get any help from the State of California in that because they are broke and your little area is way down on the list. I am totally emphatic for you. I am so glad we had to sell the acreage we had here during the housing crisis in the mid 70s or I would still be trying to grow landscape on that site.

Sharon.

Yes that is the way it is. I have had a lot more success since potting things up too. My dogs chase vermin around and now have all my chicken wire boundaries all tore up. So I really do have to invest in some sturdy garden barriers this year if we stay here. We have been house hunting a lot, just not sure if we want to rent this out and take a chance that someone will trash it and that we won't be able to pay two mortgages if someone flakes out. Food for thought. I would like to invest in the low prices now though. Not many areas that you can invest and pretty sure to get your money to grow, one day. It is still a risk though. I may email you for some professional advice Sharon.

Maybe just me, but I would not want to rent out a place I still had a mortgage on. You are right in that you might have trouble getting them out if they didn't pay the rent, or ruin the place before moving, etc. One thing if you own it free and clear, but if you have to rely on a rent to pay the mortgage I sure would think twice and three times on that.

Sorry to butt in.

With the community well being under performing and low pressure, any buyer would not be able to get a government insured loan. All government insured loans require inspection on the community well. It would not pass.

And I agree with Jen on renters. I use a management company for my rentals. To many renters know how to work the system. There many good renters but they are hard to find. Sharon

Dave.... I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better.... that's encouraging! I have a question for you.....I purchased a 'summersweet' shrub last year and planted it in a large pot under my greenhouse shade cloth in the summer. The first year it seemed to do well, but I noticed this year that it has dropped all it's leaves and is looking a tad anemic..... I googled the plant online and didn't find anything that indicated it was a deciduous shrub, but perhaps thats the case. I wondered if you had any experience with this shrub.... any tips on how to ensure I don't lose it. I am bringing it out into the direct sun now that our California winter is upon us - my thought being that it may need more sun now than it's getting under the shade cloth. Despite the fact that my garden is 'budding' out everywhere.... I don't see any indication that the summersweet is budding which concerns me......perhaps now would be a good time to fertilize? I'd be curious to know what you think. Nancy

I would wait in your zone for March 1st-ish in case we have a late freeze but you guys have more temperate climate anyways so you may get away with fertilizing now in your zone.

I know what you are saying about renters because I used to be a property manager. Right now there are people who were normally responsible people who got bad loans and made bad choices to live above their means. They may have good jobs etc. but lost their home and have bad credit because of that but are still responsible for other debts. I don't know. We will probably stay here and buy a rental home, with a cheap mortgage or pay cash for one. We'l see. I'd like to pay this one down more and refi when it has much less owed, so that the payment is cheaper, then rent it out. We could buy a house, have a cheaper payment than this one and pay the higher one and let the renter pay the lower one too. I don't know. We need to invest to retire.

I personally do not think rentals are a good retirement investment. Unless you can do all repairs yourself. Otherwise maintenance will eat up any profit. And if it sits empty for any length of time then you will have 2 mtg payments to make unless you pay cash.

Why not go in and talk to a CREDIT UNION now about a refi? Doesn't cost anything to talk to them. I would steer clear of banks, unless you have a small local bank nearby.

JMO. Jen

Our tax guy today said that investment properties is the only way to make money anymore. It comes with risk though. We live in a military base town, so if you advertise for the military people in their paper, you have a better chance of getting a good renter for potentially 3 years. Them money is write offs and potential to sell at a high rate in 10 years hopefully. It is risky though. It is a head ache to deal with it though. My husband can do a lot himself, though he would hate it. I appreciate the opinion and may even share the sentiment. We need to be able to risk something to make something one day though. I don't want to work all my life.

JB, have you gotten to identify your new orchid cactus yet. I am wondering what it is also.

Hellen:
you are correct on military renters. if you get them they are great even ex-military are better than some deadbeats. while in the military they can get into trouble if they are late on payments or default on loans. I know this because my BIL is a retiered master sargent from awac's in the air force. he was the rule enforcer and he was quoting regulations to all the military even the higher ups and they knew he was correct so they gave him the lee way to quote on. he kept some of his people out of trouble.

I am not familiar with summersweet in that I know what it is but not sure ast its habbits. It may be a late riser like a few other plants. I can't remember which one it was but I have a shrub that is sooooo slow in budding out its not funny.
If you do fertilize the plant you will encourage growth and its tender growth that can get nipped back and cause health issues for it later on this year. One thing to keep in mind is that being in a container it might need a bigger home or a perminant place in the landscape. nutrients are limited in the container and when the roots start to overwhelm the soil you may need to feed them a bit more than if in the ground. Also check the soils ph.
I just looked it up in the plant files and if its what i found then its a deciduous plant and the 3 I have are slow growers. now with that being said, I have leaves on my forsythia still from last year. its a wierd year so keep that in mind. a light fertilizing should not be an issue. I would lean more towards a fish emulsion or compost tea and keep it on the light side as you could burn it or push it out of dormancy too quickly. But if it was mine i would do the organic light feed.
Please let me know what you do and how it works out as this is just an educated guess.
Dave

According to CactusGuide.com it is a Disocactus x hybridus
Subfamily - Cactoideae
Tribe - Hylocereeae

I have several links they sent to me and I am unable to get them to open for some reason. I have printed them out earlier and now they will not open.

http://www.cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=Disocactus&species=x+hybridus

Let me know if it opens for you, Please.

Yahoo, I got it to open.

The other two he links he sent are the parents. He said One is common in cultivation, one is almost nonexistent. While the true D. ackermanii is even more rare! Here are the links:

http://www.cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=Disocactus&species=speciosus

http://www.cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=Disocactus&species=phyllanthoides

See if these will open for you. They are the parents as I mentioned above.