Plant Propagation: The Basics January 2016

wow, have I missed you all. Looks like I missed some good conversation as well..
spent all weekend digging out the west gardens, bog garden and took out all arches and planters and tubs, found MY pandy tuber Joe cut it in two pieces when he was shoveling, so I put one out by the southwest fence and one in a large planter tub.. we will see what happens. I am getting a whole new patio, 10 i beams on the west wall, and cracks filled etc, so what a time getting everything inside and out ready. I am ANXIOUS BECAUSE ALL MY SIDE OF THE BASEMENT WHERE EVERYTHING IS CROWDED INTO WILL BE SUBJECTED TO HEAVY CEMENT DUST WHEN THEY START GRINDING, SO WE PUT UP PLASTIC SHEETS FROM ONE END TO THE OTHER IN FRONT OF THE "GROWING AREA" . *SIGH*
Now I have to re-think my thinking since most of my garden area on the west side is going to be under cement.

Here is that Basil , There are a few points standing under the mulch where outside it may grow ,, I am not real good at keeping indoors ,
This likes making new roots in real loose mulch on top of the earth ETC it roots laying on top of the dirt ,
In a propagation container now ,,
Cheated , it already had roots laying on top of the dirt .. pretty hardy for a Basil

Hi Debra !!!,, Take it in stride and pace through , Sounds hectic But I am sure you know how to handle it , we cross posted ,, Mine did not update until after I added my Basil post

Good luck Debra, just the think of the pipes you're going to have when all is said and done. You'll be able to keep up with Gypsi!

Ju that was some really good advice. That pic sure looks like perennial Basil to me. I'm still cleaning and packaging seeds. For a real good laugh, check out my wintersowing project. I built the cedar bench to hold all of my wintersowing bins...lol.

2014 WS.

Wow Robin you have a lot more winter sowing than I got going. debra I do not envy you the cement dust, hopefully the plastic sheets help, and Ju - perennial basil sounds exciting.

Now for sleep. Off this weekend.

Robin , I was looking at that thinking , That couple needs some Wine and Cheese ..
lol I still have over 500 assorted seeds to look through ,eeek !!!
It is Kilimanjaro Basil Supposedly only to zone 7 here I am edge of 5b -6a ,
2nd posting looks to be bunches ,!!!

Gypsi the sleep sounds good too !!!

I have been Chlorophyll soaking Bamboo seeds , Hoping the green will get them processing light ,, Soaked that way Before they float , after they sink ,, I find that interesting

Yes, they need some wine and cheese, doesn't everyone? The second posting was a WS effort that didn't produce much, I think the brutal cold killed most of the seeds.

I need a cool name for the new female cat in my house, does anyone have any suggestions?

Cleopatra or Nefertiti for the cat

Babbs Babe , Bunny , Honey , Venus , Aphrodite , Cat , Kate , Helen ,
Doll , Dolly ,Mom , Ma , Mama ,,Fee , Tickles , Sunshine Daisy ..

Anything except Fluffy or Boots , lol ,, Yeah I know ,, Best of all , lol

awww a new pet? Hmmm, what color? Did I miss the post? Gosh, Love that winter sow with the tubs, wish I had thought of that, but it'd have been blown away if I had tried. We had wind gusts up to 45 mph yesterday. The back yard looks like a war zone right now.. Trying to stay positive, they haven't even started downstairs yet.
I never heard of perennial basil, how interesting! Where did you get that green stuff?
Robin was so nice to talk to you the other day.. oh yeal, it got up to 79 here and almost 90 in other parts of the state we set records everywhere for highs in February, I just know there is going to be a surprise winter snow before April 15th , tho. This has been the driest, weirdest winter I have ever encountered in Kansas. basement gardens before plastic..

Debra Nice pic's , memory systems ,, sigh ,
and everything is weird these days ,,

Robin's got a Kitty ,,, Robin's got a Kitty ,,
I couldn't resist ,, lol
51 and windy ,, I want to go play ,, Because I am doing that ,,

Those are all great names Gypsy and Ju, THANKS for the input. I wanted to avoid the 'normal' cat names, that's why I came to you for help. The new cat looks like an exact blend of my other two cats. Still waiting for a full personality to emerge, while watching some paper snatching. My Lily really likes her paper and isn't too keen on sharing.

Debra, which one of those wall will be getting the support? There's an up side to the war zone; you get to amend the soil and rearrange the beds. Those are not tasks that one usually opts to take on so take advantage everywhere you can.

You're going to love your brand new patio too, it'll be a nice place to sit and rest a minute while you work on your garden planning.

Thanks, it is the other side of the garden rooms that is getting fixed.. by the way, do you have a kitty named ROSE to go with your kitty named Lily?

Whatever the name will be, DH has GOT to be on board with it. If not, he's calls them everything but their name. For instance, he calls Lily; Pickle, Pill, Chickle, Chill-pickle-chill-chill, lol. He's so tough to train.

His Cat's name is Bud. Rose would go with either Bud or Lily, right now he's leaning towards Woo (?). I like Cleopatra, Cleo for short, Babs, Kate and Rose.

That's a cute idea Debra. For Robin's new girl. Very sweet and flowery. Guess what, I SAW A TOMATO!! Yes I did. Right on the top of that tomato plant that was posted about 5 posts back. How come you didn't tell anybody it was there Deb? >grin< you didn't want anyone waiting for it to get ripe did you?

Can't believe how healthy your plants are. Just beautiful.

Bet you guys are working so hard. You obviously hired a company to do the work. Are the same ones doing both the inside of the house, and outside, including patios? Sure hope they do a good job. Do you have it inspected when they get thru? There must be inspectors for that 'cause there sure are when you want to sell a house.

Robin is right. You must be looking forward to your new patios. You will enjoy some new landscaping?

BTW Robin, I lost the post I tried to send the other night about your wintersowing in the tubs. How does it work that way? I thought the whole idea of wintersowing was that the snow fell around them for insulation kind of and also water from leaving the tops off of milkjugs etc. If the tub idea works it is a nice neat way of doing it. Well there are a few youtubes I need to watch so ttyl, jen

I agree Jen, Debra's plants always look very healthy. I'm sorry to hear you lost another post. Only the seeds that have germination inhibitors that need flushing can't be sown using this method. I do have to be precise on adding the exact amount of moisture at the onset. There are no drainage holes using the 'bin' method. The other two that were set out this year are cell packs placed in recycled greenhouses. I used up all of my interior growing space with Daylilies but I have baggies of seed in moist perlite refrigerated, just waiting for favorable outdoor temps. 2.5 months to go!

Hi Robin and all Months and Months of days ,, I wanna see growin green ,, music please ,, lol
Planted a few sweet peas , did anyway ,,
Put my shredder back together ,, Might get to the garage and grind things tomorrow
Always nice plant pic's Debra ,,
,

! wanna see an Electric Orange bloom, but I'd settle for grinding stuff up.

Robin ,, Where I am that is

Here is a pic of the orange , from 2014

Where I am too Ju, I want to see something spectacular in my yard. I just looked at a three month forecast...warmer in the North and colder in the South. The North in March is supposed to be way above average. I can start gardening as soon as this wind dies down, lol.

I wish.

Shadow, male nontomcat. Green means the lawnmower with the stuck open throttle needs to get fixed. Fast. I have a BUNCH of lopping to do, liriope, salvias, winter kill, etc, the propagation basils I am setting pinches out, deep. Deep warm cloudy spring morning here, so sprinkled seeds, fertilizers around.

Kitt's got a kitty! Lot's of warmth and green there Kitt. I think I can see Paperwhites, I wish I knew what the other three are. I sure do like those pink blooms in #5.

I was watching the other thread also , I like shadow Kitt Cute old fellow . Bet he answers like a dog being that age ,

I forgot to the base screws in my Shredder got a pot full of mulch and it broke loose I will reset the base and put a couple screws there this time .
Got to Beds done in the space and this an E- Bucket Except for being filled I finally finished something in a short amount of time ,,lol

That cat may as well be a human, Ju. He comes when called IF he wants something. Opens doors and will play with your eyeballs during rem sleep if you don't answer his beckons. Weighs enough to hold me down like it or no, chuckl.
Burgundy Lorapetalum, a favorite down here
Paperwhites, but these came from years ago gifts,
African Blue basil was in the windowsill, no seeds for this one, cuttings only to tide you til spring.
This salvia I no longer remember a name to, its blue. But not the hummingbird salvias.
When I pruned the rosemary I sprinkled it around these guys- It woke them up hungry for some reason.

Baggies of wet perlite a n d seeds I n fridge, labelled. Going outside

Kitt I love those plant photo's also ,, You too Debra ,,
The Northern dream Along Party ,,I am ,,

Latest Brainstorm ,, yep ,, that ,,, lol
Wintersow self watering jug , Condensation on the Bottle , through the cap , Wallah ,, watered seedlings every morning
Not this much Bottle . only a good funnel ,, if it frosts hard and cold ,, just plug the opening with Paper towel or similar ,

photos will come, all those little baggies. seeds that I collected. I have some beautiful blooming mesquite seeds, I have 5 left, I collected them from a customer's little tree with yellow red and orange blooms, big blooms, in the mimosa family. I put 2 in a baggy with wet perlite in the refridge, I didn't knick them. I would like to have seeds for the blooming mesquite with the lavender blooms but no clue where to find those. And more. I started geranium seeds from my plant win lose or draw, packaged flax, borage, lavender, stevia, and my brain has just tanked. Basically everything that failed to start last year I am trying in the fridge fake winter for my winter-sowing project.

Then I went out to contemplate draining the pond some and using it to water the lawn, only to notice that the lawn was about 3x as tall as it should be where the winter rye is thick. So I started up the lawn mower for the first time this winter. On Feb 20th! too tired for photography. Off tomorrow too. Except for photo processing and bids.

Those puppies are SO cute Kitt - and Ju's Kitties are so cute. And the only new pets I'm getting are FISH. which I am trying not to get

This message was edited Feb 20, 2016 7:23 PM

well guys, I am loving the kitties and puppy pics .. wish I could tell you how happy I am that I have daffs in bud, but I just know it is going to snow before this heat wave is over.. they have not even poured the patio or put in the ibeams it took them two days to bust up and cart off the old stuff, they ran over my button bush so I have to dig it up
before they come back and I have been staying inside on purpose today because i spent yesterday running around and then undoing all the lants, bulbs and shrubs and roots of my gardens we dug up, out of the holding bags and into a big tub filled with peat and potting soil in the garage.
will take pics of before and after some day, maybe, but right now there is a three ft drop out the back door so I am just not in the mood.
supposedly I will be happy, I just have to re-think my thinking on the tropicals, since the patio is now going to be up against the house instead of out in the shad part of the yard, full sun is going to be on that patio all day until about 5 thirty pm in the summer.. some of the four o clock tubers are as big as coconuts, and I didn't get the colors marked. :P
Keep posting your propagating efforts, it makes me feel better when I see your efforts. My tomato is going crazy down there, as soon as I move it into the sun, tho, it will collapse. I have done wintersowing with tubs, soil, seeds, and a lid, milk jugs lids off, milk jugs lid on, but my most successful is the water bottle method. Easy to transplant those things. Jen, of course we will have an inspection, but I have to get the work done right now, the place is a mess in waiting. We are waiting on the front to be done after we see how the work is done out back and inside first.

Debra propagating efforts ,, hmmm is that like hoping ?
Here are couple of watering funnels on Jugs
3-4 A couple of wintersown seedlings
one is a Delphinium
5 Calico doing a pot and Jug inspection

Well darn, looks like I lost a couple of posts. It strangely feels like I'm talking to myself but I sure hope I'm welcomed into your club Jen. Argh.

ah shoot, Robin. Looks like you have a great set up, Ju.
Here is some Kopper King that has sprouted from seeds in the window water boxes ..
and a bad pic of daffodil buds..
and the now naked back side of the house,, it faces west. and my five dogs..
Carley, she is to the south of me, Oreo, he is to the west of me, and Wesson, Dottie and Scout, they are to the north of me..but not enough room for pics of them on this post..
I had to go out and dig up my button bush they ran over, and the goji berry baby I just got started last spring.. *sigh*
I'm going to go back to watching the binge show of MOD SQUAD now, and sort seeds while I am doing it.

Looks like I've got the same blinds on my windows. It also looks like you don't have drainage holes in your water bottles.

I don't even have Daffodils coming up yet, I think I only have one 'Tete a tete'. I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of surprise tulips this year, I planted lots of bulbs given to me so I don't even know what to expect. Now that's fun!

Also fun is making friends with your neighbors, they line up at the fence line to greet you and wish you well with the current project.

We're all at the fence line to do the same.

Debra those dogs are some good looking ones - your 5 or your neighbor's 5? my daffodils have about finished blooming here, they bloom in freezes I think but they are an antique sort and not large. i like the water bottle system but I think my periodic sunny days would cook everything. Hard enough keeping the greenhouse temp moderate.

Robin and Ju good to see you are all well. Today my Bronx helped me clean the backyard pond. Mostly he supervised. And Friday and yesterday he watched the truck while i ran errands. Old dogs are the best.

Bronx didn't get in and agitate the water for you? Such a good boy, he can even wear pink. Nice looking pond Gypsi, that looks like a fair bit of installation work. My hip hurts just thinking of laying all that stone. I sure hope you don't have to clean it often.

Bronx is beautiful. These 5 dogs are all in my neighbors on each border of my yard. It is almost as good as having one myself, but not willing to go thru the pain of losing another friend like I did with Duke, my 13 inch beagle. He was my best gardening buddy, and I lost him in 2011. Since then, I dog sit a lot, make friends with all the dogs that come to visit me at work, and then I have my 5 outside whenever I want. look, the patio didn't have huge cracks in it in 2011!
Robin, those water bottles are not set up with drainage and the caps are still on for moisture, they get cool at night since we have old windows. It works well for me..

Hi guys, just been out of it for a day or so, Not sure what my club is Robin, but you are welcome to my house any time. LOL, You guys with the half decent weather have so many projects going. You are amazing. Debra, think of it as a bit of pruning. Use the cuttings for new plants. Yeah, good try jen. Bob is after Tiger the cat who is trying to get into Candy's crate to sleep with her tonight I guess. She is such a nuisance. I keep telling Bob to take her to Pet Rescue where we got her but he won't and knows I wouldn't let him if he did want to. So, Tiger is still being a nuisance. She loves Candy and constantly rubbing her face all over Candy when Candy is trying to sleep. Well, you all, tomorrow is a new week, so everyone goes back to their projects. Good weekend off.

Kitt take care and drive careful. Wonder where Sharon is. ttyl, jen

Drive safe Kitt, you are not forgotten. Debra, your Duke was beautiful, and looks like he drinks like my younger dogs, 2 paws in the water.
Bronx never was a fan of being IN water Robin, he is somewhat easier to bathe now than 7 year ago, he has always stood for his bath but I have to catch him first. He doesn't put his paws in to drink.
My hips are ok - used to fall out of socket when I was 30, I learned some exercises, and I do them as needed, laying stone is a LOT easier than mowing lawns..

Unfortunately, I too know what it's like to lose a gardening buddy. I'm sorry for your loss Debra, Duke is beautiful and looks to me like he got to lick out the roasting pan. The paws being involved was him doing due diligence trying to clean it for you.

My dogs were never big fans of bathing either Gypsi, they always ended ups smelling too good I guess. My hip is out after working with my DH on an almost impossible plumbing project replacing our water filtration system. Space was so limited we had to sacrifice our body parts to get the job done.

Jen, your 'Lost Post Club' I wanted to join. I hope you and Bob are doing well. I'm loving the Tiger loves Candy saga, that's incredibly cute. My new stray is hissing at my other two cats every time they see each other. I sure hope some friends are made soon, it was pretty stressful the first few days.

Thanks for sharing your brain storming Ju, it's always such a pleasure.